I`ll be home tommorow so this will proably be my last entry, though I will try and remember to let you know I got home safely. It has been a busy couple of weeks since I last wrote and there have been lots of goings on. We haven`t had a lot of diving becasue there has been bad weather but I have added to our monitoring effort, had a few more fun dives and taken a few more pictures, I have completed my caverner course and visited three cenotes, one of our boats capsized, and we had our exciting final party.
With regards to the monitoring I really haven`t contributed nearly as much as I hoped to in my time here and if I did something like this again (wehich I would very much like to do) I think I would have to do it for longer than 5 weeks as it is just not enought time, what with all the potential problems (e.g. engines and compressors breaking). I have managed to do 5 or 6 transit monitors (the ones I explained before) and one rover (where we swim in an expanding square and note down everythign we see). The staff did however say I was the quickest person there to start monitoring which is pretty cool, and many of the other five weekers either did one monitor or none at all.
The fun dives have been plentiful recently, when the waves are too rough to allow us to do the shallow monitoring sites (we have sites at 5m, 10m and 20m and we only have the 5m ones left now). There are some really nice places to go diving around our base, and the places we go monitoring are not always the nicests ones (becasue they are the ones that need monitoring!!) so the fun dives are a real treat. In total I have seen about 5 sting ray, and a Barracuda (which was chasing its potential dinner at the time). Haven`t actually managed to have my camera on any of those occasions though as we are only allowed cameras on fun dives and we are usually monitoring or planning to monitor.
The caverner course was amazing, it was done in the Two Eye Cenote (Dos Ojos, it sounds better in spanish) we did 3 dives as part of the Caverner Course and learnt to tie of lines - which was pretty cool, and to floow lines really fast with our eyes shut (in case our torches don`t work). We are now cirtified to dive in caverns with just a Buddy and no instructor though I think it would be pretty scary and I wouldn`t try it before having more experience!! But it was amazing down there, it looked like something out of a film, it was creapy and wonderful at the same time and it was like nothing I have ever seen before, it was soooo beautiful. I will definitly be going cavern diving again, thought they say that there is no where else in the world where you can go cenote diving - only Mexico, only in the Ycatan Peninsula. That is why 4 of us decided to pay for an etra cenote dive at the weekend, with one of the local dive shops in Tulum. We actually went on these dives before the caverner course (and I am glad we did as Dos Ojos was more impressive and it was nice to do them in that order). Car Wash Cenote and Grand Cenote were the two we went to on a weekend and they were both very different, Car Wash was a deeper dive and Grand Cenote was beautiful and perhaps more like Dos Ojos. All three were awesome and in amazing settings.
With everything I have done here I will be coming home a fairly quailified diver!! My dive cards with include PDAI Open Water, PADI Advanced Open Water, PADI Cavern Diver and PADI Coral Reef Specialist. Pretty impressive collection for 6 weeks!!
So, last in the excitment, the boat. Nothing to be worried about, I wasn`t on the boat at the time it sank and none of the people who were were hurt but, it was kinda scary not hearing from them and waiting to see what our rescue effort came to. Basically a huge wave came into the boat and the boat sank due to taking on too much water. The captain and passengers (bar one) were thrown out of the boat when the wave struck, the one guy (Luke), who managed to stay in the boat whilst it was sinking, saved the radio and most of the dive gear. The radio did not work as they were out of range and therefore it was two hours before the rescue boat arrived (we waited an hour for them to potentially be driving back and then it took the rescue boat an hour to travel the 14km to where they were). The guys who were on the boat were still swimming to shore when the rescue boat arrived, as with the kit and with the waves and the current it was a long swim. The guys were exhausted, some (those who salvaged their flippers) made it to land just as the rescuers were arriving and they were taken back in the car, the others were picked up by the rescue boat. But everyone was fine and GVI is now going to reevaluate the idea of allowing boats out of radio contact!!
So, an exciting couple of weeks, the final party was on Saturday (lots of alcohol all round) and since then we have been sad becasue we know we are leaving :( - and becasue we have been clearing up!! I have had an amazing time here and met a lot of really cool people and am actually really sad to be leaving. This is the first time in my travells that I do not feel ready to go home, I really wish I had more time to spend in this place with these people doing the work we are doing.
But hey, that is not to say I am not looking forward to seeing all you lovely people at home!! And will hopefully be seeing you sooner rather than later. Am flighing home tommorow and will be back early Friday morning.
Hope to see you guys soon,
Be in touch.
xx
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Pez Maya, Mexico
So, it is now the middle of week three of my time with GVI. (No I am not mad, I know it is Sunday but GVI weeks run Wednesday to Thursday, I do not know why).
It has been an exciting week this week, both in good and in bad ways. During the week I did more fish spots and did my first practise transit, I also got to go to Tulum and visit the GVI Teaching Project officially. Sadly, whilst I was in Tulum, Kate - one of my freinds from the project - swam up too fast during a dive and then had to be taken to a decompression chamber (she is ok now!!). Lastly, to end the week on a good note, we spent the weekend in Playa del Carmen partying and doing fun dives (Kate even managed to party with us for a bit!!).
So, to start at the beging of my narrative, we all know what fish spots are becasue I have told you about them before (this week I saw sting ray on two separate dives - they were amazing to see!!). A transit, however, is something new, it is a type of monitoring technique where we lay out a thirty meter tape and note down all the fish we see whilst swimming along that line. You have to swim really slowly and note down fish in a cirtain vecinity. You do it will two people, person one notes down the adult fish and person two lays down the tape, then you wait 5 minutes (for the fish to settle down again) and then you swim back and person two notes down the baby fish and person one reals in the tape. It is actually quite hard to swim slowly, in a straight line and at a good distance from the bottom and write down fish all at the same time. We are still only getting one dive everyday at the moment becasue of all the problems around base (the compressor and the engin on one of the boats being broken) but hopefully by next week things should speed up if we manage to get two dives a day. Meaning I will be out monitoring (doing what I came here to do) soon!!
On Wednesday (mine and Jons two year anniversary) I got to go into Tulum (the near by town) and experience a day in the life of the GVI teaching project. We went to a TEFL session in then morning, which was really cool, we joined their EMs for a lesson in how to teach English. We then had a load of free time so we went to the internet and got nice food (I ate far too much). In the afternoon we went to a spanish lesson (which was way to advanced and went right over my head), helped with a little of their lesson planning and then went and watched them teach a lesson, which was pretty cool.
We arrived back at base really late on Wednesday night but one of our instructors picked us up in the car and told us on the way home about Kate. Whist out on a dive earlier in the day she surfaced too fast and had a pain in her chest whilst she was comeing up. Ohand, the staff member who picked us up, was also the staff member who was on the boat when Kate surfaced and he said he had never driven the boat so fast in his life. Kate was given oxygen as soon as she was on the boat and was driven straight to Playa del Carmen and taken to a decompression chamber, she is fine now but she cannot do anyhting strenuous for the next two weeks and she can never dive again, which is very sad becasue like all the people at Pez she loves it. Just incase you are worried I would like to assure everyone that my dive computer beeps furiously when I go up too fast, I keep a close eye on it and I tend to be one of the last people to surface. Everyone is different and there are never any garentees though, diving is a dangerous sport and insidents like this make you undersatdn that more and understand why we have the rules that we do.
So, to cheer us up after a week with half the number of dives than usual and the insident with Kate we all went to Playa Del Carmen for the weekend. A group of us went for the dive on Saturday with a dive center in Playa, which was really cool and then we went out drinking Saturday night. Sunday was spent with a loing lie-in womething impossible in Pez even on a Sunday becasue the huts get so hot, it was lovely having a fan in the room.
The dives we went on on Saturday were amazing. We went on two dives, both very different to anything I have done with GVI. We did a drift dive, meaning we just drift along in the current, which was awesome. It was so cool to not have to do any work but at the same time it was kind scary to not really be able to go where you wanted - if you tried to swim into the current you would get no-where fast. We saw loads of fish, but more impressively we saw loads of turtles, something we generally don`t see in Pez. It really was amazing. And then at the end of the 40min dive, when we surfaced, the sun was setting overhead and making the horizon a beautiful orange whilst we were floating in the water, it was so pretty. We then got back into the boat and froze our arses of going to the next site, the site for our night dive. The night dive was also pretty cool. We saw laods of fish, though it was difficult to tell what they were becasue of the light, we also saw a sting ray and an octopus. The Octopus was brilliant and facinated us for ages, it was constantly moving and changing colour (it really looked like it was the inspiration for alien, Ed even said he felt like it was going to just on someones mask at any second). It was really strange not being able to see very far, and only being able to see the others on your dive from where there tourches are shinning, but it was very very cool.
After the dives we went back to the dive center and had a BBQ which was very very yummy, loads of chicken wings and some really good fish and some really good veggies and bread too, I was starving (as I am sure you can imagine). I shared a bottle of white wine with one of the guys, Tim, which was quite a luxury. At about 9pm we headed back to the hotle where I had my first shower in 3 weeks (don`t worry i had been washing with a bucket, well once a week anyways). But the shower was heaven, warm powerful and relaxing. When we had all showered and changed we had a drink in the hotel bar (another glass of wine for me) and then moved onto a sports bar down the rd where we drank some more and chattered away (I drank 2 Capirinha`s, not as good as the ones in Brazil by a long way but they were passable). I decided that was probably a little too much alcohol for me as we made our way to a place we could dance so I didn`t drink anymore, and a good thing two coz I have a cracking hangover this morning (or I should say this afternoon now!!) I was meant to be getting up early and doing christmas shopping today, thought I would say that was lready out of the window after the wine!! But it was a good night and a very good day yesterday.
It has been an exciting week this week, both in good and in bad ways. During the week I did more fish spots and did my first practise transit, I also got to go to Tulum and visit the GVI Teaching Project officially. Sadly, whilst I was in Tulum, Kate - one of my freinds from the project - swam up too fast during a dive and then had to be taken to a decompression chamber (she is ok now!!). Lastly, to end the week on a good note, we spent the weekend in Playa del Carmen partying and doing fun dives (Kate even managed to party with us for a bit!!).
So, to start at the beging of my narrative, we all know what fish spots are becasue I have told you about them before (this week I saw sting ray on two separate dives - they were amazing to see!!). A transit, however, is something new, it is a type of monitoring technique where we lay out a thirty meter tape and note down all the fish we see whilst swimming along that line. You have to swim really slowly and note down fish in a cirtain vecinity. You do it will two people, person one notes down the adult fish and person two lays down the tape, then you wait 5 minutes (for the fish to settle down again) and then you swim back and person two notes down the baby fish and person one reals in the tape. It is actually quite hard to swim slowly, in a straight line and at a good distance from the bottom and write down fish all at the same time. We are still only getting one dive everyday at the moment becasue of all the problems around base (the compressor and the engin on one of the boats being broken) but hopefully by next week things should speed up if we manage to get two dives a day. Meaning I will be out monitoring (doing what I came here to do) soon!!
On Wednesday (mine and Jons two year anniversary) I got to go into Tulum (the near by town) and experience a day in the life of the GVI teaching project. We went to a TEFL session in then morning, which was really cool, we joined their EMs for a lesson in how to teach English. We then had a load of free time so we went to the internet and got nice food (I ate far too much). In the afternoon we went to a spanish lesson (which was way to advanced and went right over my head), helped with a little of their lesson planning and then went and watched them teach a lesson, which was pretty cool.
We arrived back at base really late on Wednesday night but one of our instructors picked us up in the car and told us on the way home about Kate. Whist out on a dive earlier in the day she surfaced too fast and had a pain in her chest whilst she was comeing up. Ohand, the staff member who picked us up, was also the staff member who was on the boat when Kate surfaced and he said he had never driven the boat so fast in his life. Kate was given oxygen as soon as she was on the boat and was driven straight to Playa del Carmen and taken to a decompression chamber, she is fine now but she cannot do anyhting strenuous for the next two weeks and she can never dive again, which is very sad becasue like all the people at Pez she loves it. Just incase you are worried I would like to assure everyone that my dive computer beeps furiously when I go up too fast, I keep a close eye on it and I tend to be one of the last people to surface. Everyone is different and there are never any garentees though, diving is a dangerous sport and insidents like this make you undersatdn that more and understand why we have the rules that we do.
So, to cheer us up after a week with half the number of dives than usual and the insident with Kate we all went to Playa Del Carmen for the weekend. A group of us went for the dive on Saturday with a dive center in Playa, which was really cool and then we went out drinking Saturday night. Sunday was spent with a loing lie-in womething impossible in Pez even on a Sunday becasue the huts get so hot, it was lovely having a fan in the room.
The dives we went on on Saturday were amazing. We went on two dives, both very different to anything I have done with GVI. We did a drift dive, meaning we just drift along in the current, which was awesome. It was so cool to not have to do any work but at the same time it was kind scary to not really be able to go where you wanted - if you tried to swim into the current you would get no-where fast. We saw loads of fish, but more impressively we saw loads of turtles, something we generally don`t see in Pez. It really was amazing. And then at the end of the 40min dive, when we surfaced, the sun was setting overhead and making the horizon a beautiful orange whilst we were floating in the water, it was so pretty. We then got back into the boat and froze our arses of going to the next site, the site for our night dive. The night dive was also pretty cool. We saw laods of fish, though it was difficult to tell what they were becasue of the light, we also saw a sting ray and an octopus. The Octopus was brilliant and facinated us for ages, it was constantly moving and changing colour (it really looked like it was the inspiration for alien, Ed even said he felt like it was going to just on someones mask at any second). It was really strange not being able to see very far, and only being able to see the others on your dive from where there tourches are shinning, but it was very very cool.
After the dives we went back to the dive center and had a BBQ which was very very yummy, loads of chicken wings and some really good fish and some really good veggies and bread too, I was starving (as I am sure you can imagine). I shared a bottle of white wine with one of the guys, Tim, which was quite a luxury. At about 9pm we headed back to the hotle where I had my first shower in 3 weeks (don`t worry i had been washing with a bucket, well once a week anyways). But the shower was heaven, warm powerful and relaxing. When we had all showered and changed we had a drink in the hotel bar (another glass of wine for me) and then moved onto a sports bar down the rd where we drank some more and chattered away (I drank 2 Capirinha`s, not as good as the ones in Brazil by a long way but they were passable). I decided that was probably a little too much alcohol for me as we made our way to a place we could dance so I didn`t drink anymore, and a good thing two coz I have a cracking hangover this morning (or I should say this afternoon now!!) I was meant to be getting up early and doing christmas shopping today, thought I would say that was lready out of the window after the wine!! But it was a good night and a very good day yesterday.
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Pez Maya, Mexico
Thought I`d do the update a bit different this time seeing as I can`t really update you on where I have been and what I have been doing is pretty similar each day. I thought I would start by giving you an update on my diving status (I am getting good!!), then giving you an idea of my average day out here in Pez.
So I am just finishing my PADI Advanced Open Water Course. I have been on 5 adventure dives for that. They were Underwater Naturalist where we looked at fish and coral and underwater animals, Underwater Navigation where we were shown how to use an underwater cumpas, then we did The Deep Dive which was really really cool, where we went down to 30m to see if we got nitrogen narcosis (which is like being drunk) but i didn`t get it :(, we also did a boat dive (but every dive is a boat dive), and we then did Peak Performance Boyancy (which is about floating underwater) whwere we swum through hoops and did an egg and spoon race typy thing and floated with our heads down. The whole course was really really cool and good fun (appart from when i was sea sick), I still ahve to do the exam but appart from that am all set to start doing reef serveying (which is what i am here to do after all).
As for a day in the life of, well Monday to Friday we get up at about 6:00am and do chores, we do chores per hut and they are on a four day rotation so we have kitchen (which is all the cooking), grounds (racking and tolet cleaning), boat (getting the boat stuff togetehr and checking it and filling the gear wash bins with clean water) and comunual (cleaning the comunual area, sweeping, wiping tables etc.). At 6:30 we have breakfast (obviously the breakfast people usually get up before 6:00), at 7:00 we have boat push where we push the baots into the water and then at 7:30 the first two dives go out, the next two go out at 9:00 and then lunch is at 11:30 after lunch we have four more dives, two at 12:30 and two at 14:00. Usually this doesn`t all go to schedule but most people will be on one or two dives every day. We then have dinner at 18:30 and go to bed when ever we please, which is usually early. Saturday we have a fun dive in the morning and then have the afternoon off, staff cook dinner and we have a Pez Party Night, Sunday is a day off - suposedly this is to recover from diving (to get rid of the nitrogen in the boady) but for most people this ends up being to get over the drinking form the night before!!
Not everything is going to plan currently, the compresser is boken again (the thing we fill the scub tanks with) and one of our boats is also broken meaning we can only put one dive out at once so we are not all getting as many dives as usual. There is also a lot of bad weather as it is winter here and all in all I have only done 12 dives in the 3 weeks I have been here. Hopefully it will get better though, 12 dives is still a reasonible amount and i am still having fun, and learning new stuff. Have passed my fish test as I might have meantion before and now need to do underwater tests and do the fish juviniles. But have also been doing a lot of relaxing and reading, so I have been enjoying myself - it is not all work. I also had my first thanksgiving last Thursday!! We cooked (or i should say got cooked) a full thanksgiving meal, not completly authentic but it was still great and we got meat middweak which never happends as we dont have refrigeration (due to the lack of electricity) we normally only have meat on a saturday so this was a real treat!!
So I am just finishing my PADI Advanced Open Water Course. I have been on 5 adventure dives for that. They were Underwater Naturalist where we looked at fish and coral and underwater animals, Underwater Navigation where we were shown how to use an underwater cumpas, then we did The Deep Dive which was really really cool, where we went down to 30m to see if we got nitrogen narcosis (which is like being drunk) but i didn`t get it :(, we also did a boat dive (but every dive is a boat dive), and we then did Peak Performance Boyancy (which is about floating underwater) whwere we swum through hoops and did an egg and spoon race typy thing and floated with our heads down. The whole course was really really cool and good fun (appart from when i was sea sick), I still ahve to do the exam but appart from that am all set to start doing reef serveying (which is what i am here to do after all).
As for a day in the life of, well Monday to Friday we get up at about 6:00am and do chores, we do chores per hut and they are on a four day rotation so we have kitchen (which is all the cooking), grounds (racking and tolet cleaning), boat (getting the boat stuff togetehr and checking it and filling the gear wash bins with clean water) and comunual (cleaning the comunual area, sweeping, wiping tables etc.). At 6:30 we have breakfast (obviously the breakfast people usually get up before 6:00), at 7:00 we have boat push where we push the baots into the water and then at 7:30 the first two dives go out, the next two go out at 9:00 and then lunch is at 11:30 after lunch we have four more dives, two at 12:30 and two at 14:00. Usually this doesn`t all go to schedule but most people will be on one or two dives every day. We then have dinner at 18:30 and go to bed when ever we please, which is usually early. Saturday we have a fun dive in the morning and then have the afternoon off, staff cook dinner and we have a Pez Party Night, Sunday is a day off - suposedly this is to recover from diving (to get rid of the nitrogen in the boady) but for most people this ends up being to get over the drinking form the night before!!
Not everything is going to plan currently, the compresser is boken again (the thing we fill the scub tanks with) and one of our boats is also broken meaning we can only put one dive out at once so we are not all getting as many dives as usual. There is also a lot of bad weather as it is winter here and all in all I have only done 12 dives in the 3 weeks I have been here. Hopefully it will get better though, 12 dives is still a reasonible amount and i am still having fun, and learning new stuff. Have passed my fish test as I might have meantion before and now need to do underwater tests and do the fish juviniles. But have also been doing a lot of relaxing and reading, so I have been enjoying myself - it is not all work. I also had my first thanksgiving last Thursday!! We cooked (or i should say got cooked) a full thanksgiving meal, not completly authentic but it was still great and we got meat middweak which never happends as we dont have refrigeration (due to the lack of electricity) we normally only have meat on a saturday so this was a real treat!!
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Pez Maya, Mexico
So have now been in Mexico for two weeks and I have been in Tulum and in Pez Mia (or Pez as we tend to call it).
I started in Tulum, where I did my Open Water diving course in Casa Cenote. It was beautiful and I didn`t have to deal with any sea sickness becasue it was fresh water, as calm as anything and we didn`t have to go anywhere on a boat, and on top of that the location was amazing. There were a few fish down there, and there were also some cave systems which we explored a little as well - which was really cool. I was the only one on my course, so I finished all the skills and everything pretty speadily and was able to spend quite a lot of time exploring the underwater area which was a lot of fun. Having stayed in Tulum for 4 days at the GVI base there (the GVI teaching base) I then moved down to Pez (the GVI diving base), which was about an hours drive away in a collectivo.
Pez is litterally just the GVI base on the beach, it is pretty much in the middle of no where, and has no real electricity and no running water, we make do with a generator that is usually on for two hours a day and a well with a bucket! The place we are staying in, is actually a converted set of luxury villas from the 70`s. The place was abandonded becasue of hurrican damage, and trust me - it is far from what I would call "luxury" now, it is however a v. beautiful place!! As I said it is right on the beach, the sand is lovely underfoot and we dont need to wear shoes at all. We say in bunk beds in little huts of six people, getting up at 6am to do chores everyday. Breakfast is at 6:30, boat push is at seven (pushing the boats down to the waters edge), there are then two dives, lunch is at 11:30, followed my another two dives (you normally go out on one or two or the four dives mentioned), dinner is at 6:30 and lights out is usually between 8:30 and 9:00, or whenever the Generator (or Jenny as she is called) goes out, at which point we all head to bed feeling utterly shattered. It is a very hecktic schedual, and in between diving chores and eating we have to study and obviously socialize a little!!
I started in Tulum, where I did my Open Water diving course in Casa Cenote. It was beautiful and I didn`t have to deal with any sea sickness becasue it was fresh water, as calm as anything and we didn`t have to go anywhere on a boat, and on top of that the location was amazing. There were a few fish down there, and there were also some cave systems which we explored a little as well - which was really cool. I was the only one on my course, so I finished all the skills and everything pretty speadily and was able to spend quite a lot of time exploring the underwater area which was a lot of fun. Having stayed in Tulum for 4 days at the GVI base there (the GVI teaching base) I then moved down to Pez (the GVI diving base), which was about an hours drive away in a collectivo.
Pez is litterally just the GVI base on the beach, it is pretty much in the middle of no where, and has no real electricity and no running water, we make do with a generator that is usually on for two hours a day and a well with a bucket! The place we are staying in, is actually a converted set of luxury villas from the 70`s. The place was abandonded becasue of hurrican damage, and trust me - it is far from what I would call "luxury" now, it is however a v. beautiful place!! As I said it is right on the beach, the sand is lovely underfoot and we dont need to wear shoes at all. We say in bunk beds in little huts of six people, getting up at 6am to do chores everyday. Breakfast is at 6:30, boat push is at seven (pushing the boats down to the waters edge), there are then two dives, lunch is at 11:30, followed my another two dives (you normally go out on one or two or the four dives mentioned), dinner is at 6:30 and lights out is usually between 8:30 and 9:00, or whenever the Generator (or Jenny as she is called) goes out, at which point we all head to bed feeling utterly shattered. It is a very hecktic schedual, and in between diving chores and eating we have to study and obviously socialize a little!!
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Blogg entries will become more scarce after this, as I start my diving project tommorw, but before we get to that I have more to tell you about Venezuala. I have the fishy wonders of Santa Fe to relate, followed by my impressions of Caracus and my sad farewell to the rest of my tour group before I hopped on the plane to Mexico!!
Santa Fe was another lovely little beach town, with not a lot to show for it appart form a few restaurants and hotels lining a very beautiful bay. The one day we spent there was spent snorkelling, along some of the local reefs. It was amazing, I saw loads of fish AND I knew what most of them were, which was prety cool!! I took my fish book along for the ride and looked the fish up afterwards to show my friends and to confirm my findings. During the day everyone kept popping their heads up out of the water and going "Amy come over here!! What is that one", "Amy, I saw a big yellow one, what is it", "Amy look at this, I think its another...", etc. was fun to be in the know!! We stopped at five different locations during the day. The first was just for dolphine spotting and we saw the largest pod of dolphines we have seen so far and it was super close as well. The second spot was for swimming over a small reef and for fish watching. The third and the fourth were small bays, with reefs along the edges - here, some of us continued to snorkel and fish spot and some relaxed in the sand. The fith and last location was a ship wreck and it was huge - it was really amazing and so close to the surface, I sooo wished I had had my underwater camera then (I bought one today, 5 days too late for that one)!! Some of us dove down for a coser look (I knew my snorkelling lessons would come in handy one day!!) It was majorly cool, coral had started growing on the wreckage and it was home to loads more fish and the structure and appearance of the sucken ship was both erry and awesome at the same time, it felt like something from a film.
Caracus was the next and also the final destination of our tour. And we did mainly erands in the day and a half we were there, rather than sight seeing. Caracus doesn`t have a brilliant reputation, so we spent most of the time in shopping malls (apparently an important part of the culture) and in internet cafes (an inportant part of my sanity whilst travelling). On our last evening we went out to a salsa club, but it was nothing like at home and not in a good way. It was very couply (so I danced only with our tour guide and not with any locals) and there also wasn`t even any impressive salsa to watch (as there always is at home), as most people slow danced the whole time.
Leaving Caracus was hard, whilst I didn`t like the city overly much, I was leaving the people rather than the place. I met some really good people on that trip and a few tears were shed before I got on the plane. The tears were short lived however, when I got bumped up to business class!! Apparently something to do with weight distribution (as if I cared about the reason!!) it was soooo cool!!!
As previously stated I am now in Mexico, in Playa del Carmen. And it is the most touristy place I have been in this trip so far! I thought some of the places we stayed at in Brazil were tourity, but on the main street in Playa del Carmen I have spotted 2 Starbucks, 2 Hargenda`s Ice Cream, 2 Burger King, 2 Subways Sandwich Shops and 1 MacDonalds!! It is a little excessive!!
Yesterday and today I have seen a lot of the city, but only really form inside the shopping malls. I have been on a spending frenzy, trying to get everything I need for diving before I start tommorow. It has been crazy. I finished at about 8pm this evening and finally I feel a little more relaxed!! I wasn`t compleatly sure I was going to find everything in time!! But all is set now and I start diving tommorow - I am so excited I have wanted to do this for so long!!!
Wish me luck!!
xxxx
Santa Fe was another lovely little beach town, with not a lot to show for it appart form a few restaurants and hotels lining a very beautiful bay. The one day we spent there was spent snorkelling, along some of the local reefs. It was amazing, I saw loads of fish AND I knew what most of them were, which was prety cool!! I took my fish book along for the ride and looked the fish up afterwards to show my friends and to confirm my findings. During the day everyone kept popping their heads up out of the water and going "Amy come over here!! What is that one", "Amy, I saw a big yellow one, what is it", "Amy look at this, I think its another...", etc. was fun to be in the know!! We stopped at five different locations during the day. The first was just for dolphine spotting and we saw the largest pod of dolphines we have seen so far and it was super close as well. The second spot was for swimming over a small reef and for fish watching. The third and the fourth were small bays, with reefs along the edges - here, some of us continued to snorkel and fish spot and some relaxed in the sand. The fith and last location was a ship wreck and it was huge - it was really amazing and so close to the surface, I sooo wished I had had my underwater camera then (I bought one today, 5 days too late for that one)!! Some of us dove down for a coser look (I knew my snorkelling lessons would come in handy one day!!) It was majorly cool, coral had started growing on the wreckage and it was home to loads more fish and the structure and appearance of the sucken ship was both erry and awesome at the same time, it felt like something from a film.
Caracus was the next and also the final destination of our tour. And we did mainly erands in the day and a half we were there, rather than sight seeing. Caracus doesn`t have a brilliant reputation, so we spent most of the time in shopping malls (apparently an important part of the culture) and in internet cafes (an inportant part of my sanity whilst travelling). On our last evening we went out to a salsa club, but it was nothing like at home and not in a good way. It was very couply (so I danced only with our tour guide and not with any locals) and there also wasn`t even any impressive salsa to watch (as there always is at home), as most people slow danced the whole time.
Leaving Caracus was hard, whilst I didn`t like the city overly much, I was leaving the people rather than the place. I met some really good people on that trip and a few tears were shed before I got on the plane. The tears were short lived however, when I got bumped up to business class!! Apparently something to do with weight distribution (as if I cared about the reason!!) it was soooo cool!!!
As previously stated I am now in Mexico, in Playa del Carmen. And it is the most touristy place I have been in this trip so far! I thought some of the places we stayed at in Brazil were tourity, but on the main street in Playa del Carmen I have spotted 2 Starbucks, 2 Hargenda`s Ice Cream, 2 Burger King, 2 Subways Sandwich Shops and 1 MacDonalds!! It is a little excessive!!
Yesterday and today I have seen a lot of the city, but only really form inside the shopping malls. I have been on a spending frenzy, trying to get everything I need for diving before I start tommorow. It has been crazy. I finished at about 8pm this evening and finally I feel a little more relaxed!! I wasn`t compleatly sure I was going to find everything in time!! But all is set now and I start diving tommorow - I am so excited I have wanted to do this for so long!!!
Wish me luck!!
xxxx
Thursday, 1 November 2007
The Gran Sabana and Angle Falls, Venezuala
Our departure from Brazil was sad and heart felt but we entered Venezuala hopeful and / becasue we went without our tour guide (he was pretty useless anyway so we were so sad he couldn`t get his visa).
We arrived in Venezuala late afternoon and people cahnged some money. Reals (Brazillian money) and dollars brought twice the offical rate when changed on the street, and Venezuala is meant to be one of the only places where it is both safe and common practise to change money on the street. Unfortunatly, curtacy of our previous tour guide unwillingness to part with information, I took only 10 real / 2.50 pounds in cash into the country). It also turns out that in Venezuala it is a pain to get money out of an ATM with a foriegn Visa, even worse than Brazil (and trust me that is saying something, Brazil wasn`t a piece of cake). So yeah even less happy with Jose (our previous tour guide) - his tip just went down again if he ever comes back.
Anyways, the following day our new tour leader (Terry) arrived bright and early, before the start of our tour of the Gran Sabana. He introduced himself, made us vote on night-bus / day-bus and then when we chose night-bus made us do a mad packing sess (to vacate our hotel rooms) before leaving for the 9am tour (needless to say we didn`t quite manage to leave at 9am).
The tour was pretty awesome though. We saw three different water falls which were all gorgeous, no. one were a set of pretty falls that were floored with a red semi precious stone, no. two we almost walked behind (but then another tour agency told us off half way there), and no. three was where we went swimming and went and sat under the spray of the falls (it was so cool). We saw a small local village at one of the falls, and at another village where we ate a late lunch and bough handicrafts. We walked and drove through some gorgeous scenery through out the day, both between water falls and between villages, there were around 25 table top mountains making the surounding area unique and facinatingly beautiful. We found out about the trees of life, so called becasue the people use them to make the roofs for thier houses, the hammoks they sleep in, the juice they drink, the handi crafts they sell, and even the bread they eat.
Our driver had his foot to the floor trying to get back form the tour in time for us to jump on the night bus to Bolivar. The day following the night bus was spent rushing round all the banks in Bolivar (trying to get money together in order to go to Angle Falls), and reading my new Marrian Keyes book (it is pretty good).
Before I before beginning the narration of the Angel Fall epic let me vent my fustration at my lack of American dollars in the corrupt-ness of Venezuala. In Venezuala they cannot get dollars easily so, unfortunatly for the rest of the world, they LOVE them. My tour of Angel Falls cost me 200 pounds, it cost my freind 250 dollars. In case you are unfamiliar with the current exchange rate and do not understand how shit this is (I apologise for my laguage but it is) let me explain: currently, 1 pound is worth 2.05 dollars - i.e. my friend paid in dollars and thus spend on 125 pounds, whilst I spent 200 pounds. CORRUPTION & ANOYMENT.
Anyways back to more interesting and fun stuff - Angel Falls was pretty amazing. It was a three day trip and the National Park is in the middle of nowhere and is only accessible by plane, so we flew in on a cute little six seater plane. The plane ride in itself was pretty amazing, flying over acers and acers of national park and the national park in Venezuala (also including the Gran Sabana) is apparently bigger than Belgum. On arrival we almost imediatly set off on our Angle Falls excursion. This included a five hour boat ride on a tiny boat, sitting on hard, wooden, sore-bum-inducing seats with no backs. Needless to say it was an uncomfortable ride, fortunatly for us we had a lot of distractions including: more amazing scenery, a lot of splash and some scary rapids that our guides expertly navigated. On arrival at the falls we had a good view from the boat but we also hiked a trail to take us closed to the base of the falls and it was pretty impressive from close up. On the way back down this little trail the heavans opened on us and we got drenched, by the time we got back to our camp at the base of the falls it was pitch black and still tipping it down. We ate a gorgeous BBQ chicken dinner and settled down to sleep in our hammoks at a frightfully early hour (9:30pm) but we were all straight to sleep as we were pretty shattered. On the second day I awoke to the sight of the falls from my hammok, it was amazing. Having arrived in the dark the night before, I had no idea what I was going to see when I woke up the next day, but I had by no means expected that view from my bed!! We had an early breakfast and took the boat back arriving in time for lunch and our second tour. The second tour wasn`t quite as hard core and only involved 20 mins boat (thank the lord for saving our sore bums) and a couple of hours walking, but we got to see five or six more water falls and got to walk behind one of them, which was super cool. We slep the second night at the logde in Canimer, the village we landed in when we flew in. On the third morning we wandered the village looking at local handi crafts, and got the plane back in the early afternoon, arriving back in Bolivar at about 3pm. It was an amazing three days.
We arrived in Venezuala late afternoon and people cahnged some money. Reals (Brazillian money) and dollars brought twice the offical rate when changed on the street, and Venezuala is meant to be one of the only places where it is both safe and common practise to change money on the street. Unfortunatly, curtacy of our previous tour guide unwillingness to part with information, I took only 10 real / 2.50 pounds in cash into the country). It also turns out that in Venezuala it is a pain to get money out of an ATM with a foriegn Visa, even worse than Brazil (and trust me that is saying something, Brazil wasn`t a piece of cake). So yeah even less happy with Jose (our previous tour guide) - his tip just went down again if he ever comes back.
Anyways, the following day our new tour leader (Terry) arrived bright and early, before the start of our tour of the Gran Sabana. He introduced himself, made us vote on night-bus / day-bus and then when we chose night-bus made us do a mad packing sess (to vacate our hotel rooms) before leaving for the 9am tour (needless to say we didn`t quite manage to leave at 9am).
The tour was pretty awesome though. We saw three different water falls which were all gorgeous, no. one were a set of pretty falls that were floored with a red semi precious stone, no. two we almost walked behind (but then another tour agency told us off half way there), and no. three was where we went swimming and went and sat under the spray of the falls (it was so cool). We saw a small local village at one of the falls, and at another village where we ate a late lunch and bough handicrafts. We walked and drove through some gorgeous scenery through out the day, both between water falls and between villages, there were around 25 table top mountains making the surounding area unique and facinatingly beautiful. We found out about the trees of life, so called becasue the people use them to make the roofs for thier houses, the hammoks they sleep in, the juice they drink, the handi crafts they sell, and even the bread they eat.
Our driver had his foot to the floor trying to get back form the tour in time for us to jump on the night bus to Bolivar. The day following the night bus was spent rushing round all the banks in Bolivar (trying to get money together in order to go to Angle Falls), and reading my new Marrian Keyes book (it is pretty good).
Before I before beginning the narration of the Angel Fall epic let me vent my fustration at my lack of American dollars in the corrupt-ness of Venezuala. In Venezuala they cannot get dollars easily so, unfortunatly for the rest of the world, they LOVE them. My tour of Angel Falls cost me 200 pounds, it cost my freind 250 dollars. In case you are unfamiliar with the current exchange rate and do not understand how shit this is (I apologise for my laguage but it is) let me explain: currently, 1 pound is worth 2.05 dollars - i.e. my friend paid in dollars and thus spend on 125 pounds, whilst I spent 200 pounds. CORRUPTION & ANOYMENT.
Anyways back to more interesting and fun stuff - Angel Falls was pretty amazing. It was a three day trip and the National Park is in the middle of nowhere and is only accessible by plane, so we flew in on a cute little six seater plane. The plane ride in itself was pretty amazing, flying over acers and acers of national park and the national park in Venezuala (also including the Gran Sabana) is apparently bigger than Belgum. On arrival we almost imediatly set off on our Angle Falls excursion. This included a five hour boat ride on a tiny boat, sitting on hard, wooden, sore-bum-inducing seats with no backs. Needless to say it was an uncomfortable ride, fortunatly for us we had a lot of distractions including: more amazing scenery, a lot of splash and some scary rapids that our guides expertly navigated. On arrival at the falls we had a good view from the boat but we also hiked a trail to take us closed to the base of the falls and it was pretty impressive from close up. On the way back down this little trail the heavans opened on us and we got drenched, by the time we got back to our camp at the base of the falls it was pitch black and still tipping it down. We ate a gorgeous BBQ chicken dinner and settled down to sleep in our hammoks at a frightfully early hour (9:30pm) but we were all straight to sleep as we were pretty shattered. On the second day I awoke to the sight of the falls from my hammok, it was amazing. Having arrived in the dark the night before, I had no idea what I was going to see when I woke up the next day, but I had by no means expected that view from my bed!! We had an early breakfast and took the boat back arriving in time for lunch and our second tour. The second tour wasn`t quite as hard core and only involved 20 mins boat (thank the lord for saving our sore bums) and a couple of hours walking, but we got to see five or six more water falls and got to walk behind one of them, which was super cool. We slep the second night at the logde in Canimer, the village we landed in when we flew in. On the third morning we wandered the village looking at local handi crafts, and got the plane back in the early afternoon, arriving back in Bolivar at about 3pm. It was an amazing three days.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Manauas, Brazil
Manauas is where I am now and is the last stop in Brazil and this entry should be a short one as there have only been two real events since last I wrote. We have yet to discuss the rest of the amazon river tour and then our jungle trip.
The remainder of the boat trip was mostly uneventful. The end of the third day (after the stop in Santarem) was spent reading, eating studying and the like. We stopped at another small town for half an hour on the fourth day and in the afternoon we saw a lot of dolphins and a lot closer than before. On the evening of the fourth day myself and Shelia had a few words with the captain of the boat, who was actual an America guy who was glad to practise his dormant mother tongue and told us aboiut his life and his family and also, lastly informed us that the boat would in fact arrive at middnight the following day and not early afternoon as we origionally thought. Apparently the way we had originally planned to go was too shallow and we had to take a longer route to get to Manauas. So we went to bed knowing we had a fith full day of boat, everyone else in our group however woke up happy, knowing we were getting off soon. They were soon made miserable agaain though, with the new information that arrival would likely in fact be at 2am (if not later) meaning we would be spending another night on the boat. People were not happy that our last night in civilization before the jungle trip was going to be another night of boat! As far as I am conserned it is a bed! I am only going to sleep in it after all!!
The next morning we dropped our bags at the hotel, and then set out into the jungle. The three day jungle trip was amazing, as was our jungle guide Ruban and our floating lodge accomodation. The best thing about the jungle trip however was the complete absence of mosquitoes, thats right - we were in the middle of the amazone jungle and there were no mossi´s. On top of that, we saw so much and did so much whilst we were there. We went Pirhan fishing and I caught my first fish (it does still count if I catch it but am then to scared to pull it out of the water right..), we went aligator spoting and not only saw the red eyes of the alligators from a distance but also saw a baby alligator up close when Ruban caught one!!
After a night floting in our lodge beds we spend a morning on a jungle trekk. Here Ruban taught us how to climb tall skinny tress with no branches with a special foot clamp type thing (the boys then had a go), he showed us how to make the local woven handy crafts, he caught a huge tarantual for us, he showed us a fluffy, feathered bug that looked more like a bird, he showed us a rubber making tree (and make us some rubber) and he showed us a tree you could cut a branch from and drink water out of. We found ants you can rub into your skin for mossi repellant, a plant you chew for malaria prevention and little white bug lave that are meant to be good to eat (I didn`t try one). The experience was amazing, I never expected to see so much on a two hour trek!! In the afternoon we then went canoeing (which we got bored of speedily) but Ruban, forever the entertainer, had more planned. He found a sloth, high up in one of the trees and we had a walk bare foot through the jungle and then wait at the bottem whilst he climbed an impossibly high tree and brought the sloth back down to us (wrapped in his t-shirt, clutched in his teeth!!). The sloth was AMAZING!! It was so slow and so interested in us it was just so cool. We then had to rush back becasue a storm was coming, but becasue we are lazy we didn´t manage it and we got caught out it in, but it was pretty cool being out in the canoe in the pouring amazonian rain.
On the final day we we went to see a local village before going home and on the way through the village we saw a church (which only opens once a year), a school, a few homes, a bar (in which we drank our first Capirinhas in quite a while) and another sloth!! On the way back it was in the heat of the day and after the rain the day before it was baking hot and we all jumped in the river fully clothed, it was so cool, we got too hot again five minutes later, but it was fun for the time we were in the water. On our return to the lodge we spent more time swimming and eating lunch before returning to Manauas and to reality!!
The remainder of the boat trip was mostly uneventful. The end of the third day (after the stop in Santarem) was spent reading, eating studying and the like. We stopped at another small town for half an hour on the fourth day and in the afternoon we saw a lot of dolphins and a lot closer than before. On the evening of the fourth day myself and Shelia had a few words with the captain of the boat, who was actual an America guy who was glad to practise his dormant mother tongue and told us aboiut his life and his family and also, lastly informed us that the boat would in fact arrive at middnight the following day and not early afternoon as we origionally thought. Apparently the way we had originally planned to go was too shallow and we had to take a longer route to get to Manauas. So we went to bed knowing we had a fith full day of boat, everyone else in our group however woke up happy, knowing we were getting off soon. They were soon made miserable agaain though, with the new information that arrival would likely in fact be at 2am (if not later) meaning we would be spending another night on the boat. People were not happy that our last night in civilization before the jungle trip was going to be another night of boat! As far as I am conserned it is a bed! I am only going to sleep in it after all!!
The next morning we dropped our bags at the hotel, and then set out into the jungle. The three day jungle trip was amazing, as was our jungle guide Ruban and our floating lodge accomodation. The best thing about the jungle trip however was the complete absence of mosquitoes, thats right - we were in the middle of the amazone jungle and there were no mossi´s. On top of that, we saw so much and did so much whilst we were there. We went Pirhan fishing and I caught my first fish (it does still count if I catch it but am then to scared to pull it out of the water right..), we went aligator spoting and not only saw the red eyes of the alligators from a distance but also saw a baby alligator up close when Ruban caught one!!
After a night floting in our lodge beds we spend a morning on a jungle trekk. Here Ruban taught us how to climb tall skinny tress with no branches with a special foot clamp type thing (the boys then had a go), he showed us how to make the local woven handy crafts, he caught a huge tarantual for us, he showed us a fluffy, feathered bug that looked more like a bird, he showed us a rubber making tree (and make us some rubber) and he showed us a tree you could cut a branch from and drink water out of. We found ants you can rub into your skin for mossi repellant, a plant you chew for malaria prevention and little white bug lave that are meant to be good to eat (I didn`t try one). The experience was amazing, I never expected to see so much on a two hour trek!! In the afternoon we then went canoeing (which we got bored of speedily) but Ruban, forever the entertainer, had more planned. He found a sloth, high up in one of the trees and we had a walk bare foot through the jungle and then wait at the bottem whilst he climbed an impossibly high tree and brought the sloth back down to us (wrapped in his t-shirt, clutched in his teeth!!). The sloth was AMAZING!! It was so slow and so interested in us it was just so cool. We then had to rush back becasue a storm was coming, but becasue we are lazy we didn´t manage it and we got caught out it in, but it was pretty cool being out in the canoe in the pouring amazonian rain.
On the final day we we went to see a local village before going home and on the way through the village we saw a church (which only opens once a year), a school, a few homes, a bar (in which we drank our first Capirinhas in quite a while) and another sloth!! On the way back it was in the heat of the day and after the rain the day before it was baking hot and we all jumped in the river fully clothed, it was so cool, we got too hot again five minutes later, but it was fun for the time we were in the water. On our return to the lodge we spent more time swimming and eating lunch before returning to Manauas and to reality!!
Friday, 19 October 2007
The Amazon River, Brazil
Again I have quite a little adventure to relate, first was the veiwing of the Paraniba delta which was as the lonely planet promised; ´good but not fantastic´, following that was our stop in Barranihas which was awesome, even if it was another desert. Sao Luis, another city stop, did provide something a little different: mini carnival, from there we moved into the polluted Belem (where I was scammed becasue I am too nice) and then onto the boat on which we traversed the Amazon.
In Paraniba we stayed in a very plush hotel with a nice pool and a T.V., which was good becasue the town was pretty dead. The one day we spent there we took a boat to see the delta, the place where the river and the ocean meet. The ride was pretty and we saw the huge mangrooves (trees apparently) and the boat driver also went for a swim to catch a crab and a prawn for us to see (prawns can really jump). The delta was not much to look at though the beach was fun, it was deserted and it had little pockets of really warm water and vibrating sand (which convinced me it was quick sand by hungrily eating my feet). Lunch on the river on the way back was also amazing, the prawns were delish.
Again we had a 4x4 adventure to get to Barranihas and it was bloddy bumping. Barranihas was another town with streets of sand, and although it lacked the charater (and the touristy air) of Jeri, I loved it. With our one day there we managed to do everything there was to do - a beautiful floating experience down the lazy river and a trip to the sand dunes and lagoons of the local national park (in fact much prettier than the lagoons in Jeri).
Sao Luis was just another city really but there were shops and there was C&A (I thought it died, I never realised they just pulled out of England!!), I bought a new dress and also a cute little top, v. cheap and I feel kinda left out when other people get dressed up to go out. I got to wear my new dress that evening when we went to Sao Luis mini carnival. It was a really cool evening, thought not quick what I expected. The parade was more like a move disco / bar and the dancers were dancing what ever the pleased and were not really in costume just in a sort of uniform. But in was really cool, we met a lovely brazillian lady called Lilly and she and her husband were trying to teach me and Helen how to Samba but she kept looking at me and shaking her head at my efforts!!! It was a really cool evening.
Belem was a little different. Much hotter, much bigger and much more polluted it was more your tipical big city, where Sao Luis was a pretty little town, Belem was a mad, rushed and people packed place. I bought lots of pretty earings, we had sushi and we generally just waited arround to get on the boat. We also found a huge, modern shopping mall which we wandered, but we didn´t really buy anyhting appart from boat supplies. Whilst out walking a German guy approached us in a panic saying he had been held at gun point in a taxi and all his belongings and money had been stolen, could we lend him some money for the airport tax (obviously the storey was longer and more heart felt). I gave him about twenty pounds, I just thought - what would I do if I was in the same position? I would very much hope someone would help me and it is not realistically that much money... Unfortunatly this guy is in the loney planet, under the section titled ´danger and avoidance´ (which I will be reading in detail about every city I enter from now on). So I feel stupid, but like ´boy who cried wolf´ or what? How unfair is that on those people who that does happen to? I definitly wont be as trusting next time.
So as for now, I am in Santarem, a stop over on our amazon river boat trip. The first tow days have actually been pretty cool. That being after the teathing problems. The guy our tour guide booked through messed up our booking for the boat and we got on the boat with the knowledge that we would be spending 2 nights in hammocks in a room with about 40 people. So, a little adventure, a little discomfort but we were still going (I was happy but there was a lot of complaining in the group). Went we arrived and moved to the hammock room we found the room brimming with around 150 people, this being in a room about 18 paces by 10 paces (I paced it so I could inform). As expected there was a lot more complaining, but we got our stuff together, set up our hammocks and went up top to sit in white plastic chairs, drink wine and eat cold pizza (our second suprise on the ´all meals included´ river boat trip being the lack of dinner). So we were mostly a misserable sorry lot, Helen was ill and convinced she was going to also be sea sick sleeping in a hammock, Sheila was parranoid about her stuff, and everyone was on an all time low. Then in comes Jose (the tour leader) and announces he has some news: it turns out our rooms have been ready all along and the guy we booked though just booked under the wrong name. There are gazes of wonderment, there are hugs and excited smiles and then everyone rushes below to grab all our stuff and move our bags. The rest of the evening was so nice, everyone was on a high from the change in atmoshphere. The first day on the boat was really cool, we saw cute little houses on the river side, we saw little post boxes sitting randomly seeming on the river edge with no house in sight, we saw tiny praw selling boats attach to the side of our boat and start selling or just hop on for a ride, and we saw pink and grey river dophins. All the time relaxing, reading, learning about fish (well that was just me), chatting and in the evening playing cards and drinking wine. The second day was not quite as fun as the breeze died and the boat was unbarably hot, we spent more time in the airconditioned rooms, but the houses and the scenery were not as good and we didn´t miss much.
More news soon,
Love you all,
Aims
xxxx
In Paraniba we stayed in a very plush hotel with a nice pool and a T.V., which was good becasue the town was pretty dead. The one day we spent there we took a boat to see the delta, the place where the river and the ocean meet. The ride was pretty and we saw the huge mangrooves (trees apparently) and the boat driver also went for a swim to catch a crab and a prawn for us to see (prawns can really jump). The delta was not much to look at though the beach was fun, it was deserted and it had little pockets of really warm water and vibrating sand (which convinced me it was quick sand by hungrily eating my feet). Lunch on the river on the way back was also amazing, the prawns were delish.
Again we had a 4x4 adventure to get to Barranihas and it was bloddy bumping. Barranihas was another town with streets of sand, and although it lacked the charater (and the touristy air) of Jeri, I loved it. With our one day there we managed to do everything there was to do - a beautiful floating experience down the lazy river and a trip to the sand dunes and lagoons of the local national park (in fact much prettier than the lagoons in Jeri).
Sao Luis was just another city really but there were shops and there was C&A (I thought it died, I never realised they just pulled out of England!!), I bought a new dress and also a cute little top, v. cheap and I feel kinda left out when other people get dressed up to go out. I got to wear my new dress that evening when we went to Sao Luis mini carnival. It was a really cool evening, thought not quick what I expected. The parade was more like a move disco / bar and the dancers were dancing what ever the pleased and were not really in costume just in a sort of uniform. But in was really cool, we met a lovely brazillian lady called Lilly and she and her husband were trying to teach me and Helen how to Samba but she kept looking at me and shaking her head at my efforts!!! It was a really cool evening.
Belem was a little different. Much hotter, much bigger and much more polluted it was more your tipical big city, where Sao Luis was a pretty little town, Belem was a mad, rushed and people packed place. I bought lots of pretty earings, we had sushi and we generally just waited arround to get on the boat. We also found a huge, modern shopping mall which we wandered, but we didn´t really buy anyhting appart from boat supplies. Whilst out walking a German guy approached us in a panic saying he had been held at gun point in a taxi and all his belongings and money had been stolen, could we lend him some money for the airport tax (obviously the storey was longer and more heart felt). I gave him about twenty pounds, I just thought - what would I do if I was in the same position? I would very much hope someone would help me and it is not realistically that much money... Unfortunatly this guy is in the loney planet, under the section titled ´danger and avoidance´ (which I will be reading in detail about every city I enter from now on). So I feel stupid, but like ´boy who cried wolf´ or what? How unfair is that on those people who that does happen to? I definitly wont be as trusting next time.
So as for now, I am in Santarem, a stop over on our amazon river boat trip. The first tow days have actually been pretty cool. That being after the teathing problems. The guy our tour guide booked through messed up our booking for the boat and we got on the boat with the knowledge that we would be spending 2 nights in hammocks in a room with about 40 people. So, a little adventure, a little discomfort but we were still going (I was happy but there was a lot of complaining in the group). Went we arrived and moved to the hammock room we found the room brimming with around 150 people, this being in a room about 18 paces by 10 paces (I paced it so I could inform). As expected there was a lot more complaining, but we got our stuff together, set up our hammocks and went up top to sit in white plastic chairs, drink wine and eat cold pizza (our second suprise on the ´all meals included´ river boat trip being the lack of dinner). So we were mostly a misserable sorry lot, Helen was ill and convinced she was going to also be sea sick sleeping in a hammock, Sheila was parranoid about her stuff, and everyone was on an all time low. Then in comes Jose (the tour leader) and announces he has some news: it turns out our rooms have been ready all along and the guy we booked though just booked under the wrong name. There are gazes of wonderment, there are hugs and excited smiles and then everyone rushes below to grab all our stuff and move our bags. The rest of the evening was so nice, everyone was on a high from the change in atmoshphere. The first day on the boat was really cool, we saw cute little houses on the river side, we saw little post boxes sitting randomly seeming on the river edge with no house in sight, we saw tiny praw selling boats attach to the side of our boat and start selling or just hop on for a ride, and we saw pink and grey river dophins. All the time relaxing, reading, learning about fish (well that was just me), chatting and in the evening playing cards and drinking wine. The second day was not quite as fun as the breeze died and the boat was unbarably hot, we spent more time in the airconditioned rooms, but the houses and the scenery were not as good and we didn´t miss much.
More news soon,
Love you all,
Aims
xxxx
Monday, 8 October 2007
Jeri, Brazil
I have come quite far since I last wrote so in this entry we will be descussing the cultural town of Olinda (I wouldn´t reccommend going there), the beach town of Paria de Pipa (it was amazing) and the sandy, out-or-the-way town of Jeri (where we are now).
Our discussions of Olinda will be breif, as previously stated it wasn´t that great. Our first day was spent sleeping off the night bus and wandering the town, the second day was improved by the purchase of sangria ingrediends and a bottle of vodka and partaking in some interesting drinking games.
Paria de Pipa was awesome. A really cute little beach town, lovely cobbled streets, lovely restaurants and pretty little shops. I bought two bikinis there, and had the best meal so far (chicken and sultanas and pinapple - it was devine), we also spent some quality time on the beach (where I descovered a new found love of sunbathing whilst in the sea) and some more quailty time in (and by) the hotel pool. In the afternoon of the second day we saw dolphines on the beach - that really was amasing, I have never seen dolphines before and they were so cool. We were realy close, but it wasn´t like in the movies, you never saw any heads, just a lot of fins!! Was still pretty awesome though.
Jericocora, or Jeri as the locals call it, is our current destination. What makes Jeri cute is the sand corvered streets and the little shops and restaurants set in the sand. Yesterday was one of my favourite days of our trip so far. Eight of us spent the morning in sandbuggies seeing the dunes and the lagoons which was so much fun and me and Helen spent the afternoon going to the "big rock". We got terrably lost to start with and it was horrid as it was really windy and we got to an open bit and the sand was really stinging as it hit us, so we decided to turn back. When we got back to the beach we saw some locals and descided to ask them for directions and they were very encouraging pointing us up this hill, half way up however they started shouting at us again and we had no idea what was going on, untill one of the guys ran up the hill after us and proceeded to show us there!! He spent the rest of the afternoon with us, showing us the way to the rock, taking photos of us and have photos with us whilst we were there, walking us back again and then walking us a sand dune with us to watch the sun set before belting it down the steep side of the sand dune with me. It was a really awesome afternoon, and to top it off he was VERY cute. Unfortunatly he was only 17, which Helen says is too young for her, but he was so lovely. Then to top off this perfect day we went to a lovely restaurant for dinner and had a truely gorgeous meal. Perfect end to a perfect day!
Chao,
xxxx
Our discussions of Olinda will be breif, as previously stated it wasn´t that great. Our first day was spent sleeping off the night bus and wandering the town, the second day was improved by the purchase of sangria ingrediends and a bottle of vodka and partaking in some interesting drinking games.
Paria de Pipa was awesome. A really cute little beach town, lovely cobbled streets, lovely restaurants and pretty little shops. I bought two bikinis there, and had the best meal so far (chicken and sultanas and pinapple - it was devine), we also spent some quality time on the beach (where I descovered a new found love of sunbathing whilst in the sea) and some more quailty time in (and by) the hotel pool. In the afternoon of the second day we saw dolphines on the beach - that really was amasing, I have never seen dolphines before and they were so cool. We were realy close, but it wasn´t like in the movies, you never saw any heads, just a lot of fins!! Was still pretty awesome though.
Jericocora, or Jeri as the locals call it, is our current destination. What makes Jeri cute is the sand corvered streets and the little shops and restaurants set in the sand. Yesterday was one of my favourite days of our trip so far. Eight of us spent the morning in sandbuggies seeing the dunes and the lagoons which was so much fun and me and Helen spent the afternoon going to the "big rock". We got terrably lost to start with and it was horrid as it was really windy and we got to an open bit and the sand was really stinging as it hit us, so we decided to turn back. When we got back to the beach we saw some locals and descided to ask them for directions and they were very encouraging pointing us up this hill, half way up however they started shouting at us again and we had no idea what was going on, untill one of the guys ran up the hill after us and proceeded to show us there!! He spent the rest of the afternoon with us, showing us the way to the rock, taking photos of us and have photos with us whilst we were there, walking us back again and then walking us a sand dune with us to watch the sun set before belting it down the steep side of the sand dune with me. It was a really awesome afternoon, and to top it off he was VERY cute. Unfortunatly he was only 17, which Helen says is too young for her, but he was so lovely. Then to top off this perfect day we went to a lovely restaurant for dinner and had a truely gorgeous meal. Perfect end to a perfect day!
Chao,
xxxx
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Salvador, Brazil
So I finally left Rio, after a good 12 days!! It is longest I have stayed anywhere by a multiple of 4. Whilst it was nice to chill out and have no where to go / no where to be in any hurry etc, it was also nice to leave and I am enjoying being on the road again!!
I met up with my tour group last Monday, there are 12 of us including the group leader and they seem like a really cool group of people, so I am looking forward to the next 6 weeks with them, it should be awesome.
Salvador is cool, there is music everywhere and the streets are really pretty, paved in cobble stone, with loads of artsy little shops selling all sorts of useless things. We have been to the markets by the peir, where I bought earrings (I think I will come home with earings from every town we go to coz they are lovely and sooo cheap!!). We also went to a folk show which, despite my misgivings becasue of previous ones (which were crapp!!), was really really awesome. It included some folk dancing, some stick fight dancing which was really impressive, some Capoeira fighting / dancing which was amazing (includiung really high kicking / summersaults and the like) and some Candoble ceremoney which was also cool. Also the men in the show were very fit and very hot, dark skinned and toned chests and stomachs and they were obviously very good at what they were doing. Unfortunatly we weren´t allowed to take pictures though, which is a shame but I will make do with the memories!!
Yesterday I went out with Helen, a girl from our tour group, and we visited Praia do Forte, a villiage a couple of hours bus ride out of Salvador. It is a small, very pretty, touristy town where the is a turtle reserve and a small beach (where the water was super warm). The reserve was fasinating, we got to see some adult turtles (which were huge) and some babes (which were tiny and oh so cute). We also learnt alot about turtles and about the TAMAR project, a project in Brazil to protect the turtles as they are now an endangered species and it was a very fun and interesting day.
The bus ride back to Salvador from Praia do Forte, however, was not as fun - our mistake was getting on the mini bus and not the public bus. But the mini bus was going now, it was the same price and it was a mini bus so it was blatently going ot be faster and to top it off we had no idea when the public bus would arrive as they only go once an hour and the one this morning had been really late. So, with that in mind we got on and paid our seven reals. But, when we arrived at our destination, we had apsolutly no idea where we were, and I think we felt lucky we were actually in Salvador. It turns out we were right on the edge of Salvador, near the airport, which had taken us a good 45 minutes in a minibus on arrival, two days before, and now we were there which no clue what bus to get on and a load of portugese speakers on there way home from work (yes thats right it was also rush hour). So it was exceptionally lucky that there was a freindly english speaking guy on the mini bus, keen to both practise his english and to advertise his new tour agency to us! He was a great help - I hate to think what we´d have done if he hadn´t quizzed both the surrounding people and three bus drivers (after chacing the first bus down the road) in order to find the right bus for us and get the bus driver to tell us when to get off. It was a little bit of an adventure to say the least.
Today is our last day in Salvador, next on the list is Olinda, further north up the coast. Remember, if you want to see the route I am travelling with the tour go to: http://www.gapadventures.com/tour/JAR
Hope you guys at home are doing good, thanks for all your messages etc. it is good to know people are still reading despite my tendancy to babble on.
Loads of Love to you all,
xxxxxxxxx
I met up with my tour group last Monday, there are 12 of us including the group leader and they seem like a really cool group of people, so I am looking forward to the next 6 weeks with them, it should be awesome.
Salvador is cool, there is music everywhere and the streets are really pretty, paved in cobble stone, with loads of artsy little shops selling all sorts of useless things. We have been to the markets by the peir, where I bought earrings (I think I will come home with earings from every town we go to coz they are lovely and sooo cheap!!). We also went to a folk show which, despite my misgivings becasue of previous ones (which were crapp!!), was really really awesome. It included some folk dancing, some stick fight dancing which was really impressive, some Capoeira fighting / dancing which was amazing (includiung really high kicking / summersaults and the like) and some Candoble ceremoney which was also cool. Also the men in the show were very fit and very hot, dark skinned and toned chests and stomachs and they were obviously very good at what they were doing. Unfortunatly we weren´t allowed to take pictures though, which is a shame but I will make do with the memories!!
Yesterday I went out with Helen, a girl from our tour group, and we visited Praia do Forte, a villiage a couple of hours bus ride out of Salvador. It is a small, very pretty, touristy town where the is a turtle reserve and a small beach (where the water was super warm). The reserve was fasinating, we got to see some adult turtles (which were huge) and some babes (which were tiny and oh so cute). We also learnt alot about turtles and about the TAMAR project, a project in Brazil to protect the turtles as they are now an endangered species and it was a very fun and interesting day.
The bus ride back to Salvador from Praia do Forte, however, was not as fun - our mistake was getting on the mini bus and not the public bus. But the mini bus was going now, it was the same price and it was a mini bus so it was blatently going ot be faster and to top it off we had no idea when the public bus would arrive as they only go once an hour and the one this morning had been really late. So, with that in mind we got on and paid our seven reals. But, when we arrived at our destination, we had apsolutly no idea where we were, and I think we felt lucky we were actually in Salvador. It turns out we were right on the edge of Salvador, near the airport, which had taken us a good 45 minutes in a minibus on arrival, two days before, and now we were there which no clue what bus to get on and a load of portugese speakers on there way home from work (yes thats right it was also rush hour). So it was exceptionally lucky that there was a freindly english speaking guy on the mini bus, keen to both practise his english and to advertise his new tour agency to us! He was a great help - I hate to think what we´d have done if he hadn´t quizzed both the surrounding people and three bus drivers (after chacing the first bus down the road) in order to find the right bus for us and get the bus driver to tell us when to get off. It was a little bit of an adventure to say the least.
Today is our last day in Salvador, next on the list is Olinda, further north up the coast. Remember, if you want to see the route I am travelling with the tour go to: http://www.gapadventures.com/tour/JAR
Hope you guys at home are doing good, thanks for all your messages etc. it is good to know people are still reading despite my tendancy to babble on.
Loads of Love to you all,
xxxxxxxxx
Friday, 21 September 2007
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Hey all,
I have posted some new pictures of some of the other places I have been, so scroll to the bottom of the page to have a look.
I am now in Rio de Janeiro and I am allone.
Jon left the day before yesterday :-(.
Even before Jon left we were attacking Rio pretty sedatly, as unlike our previous stops we have a long time here. Jon was here for 4 days and I am here for 9 days, so there really is no need for rush.
We visited Christ, the 30 meter high statue on Rios highest hill \ mountain. We have been to Copacobana and we have hung out at the hotel, drank and eaten good food. We also went to the hippy market where Jon spent his last pennys and he bough an awesome leather bean bag and we bough together a really cool map made of leather and burnt in, for our new house for when I come home.
Since Jon left I have been to the Sugar Loaf Moiuntain with some girls I met at the hostel and I enjoyed the hostel BBQ last night where we ate a LOT of steak. I am going to relax and try and do some revision about fish in the next few days, in preparation for Mexico and I am going on a Favela tour tommorow, which sounds really interesting.
Hope you guys at home are all doing ok, let me know whats happening with you etc. Am going to be more loney now Jon has left and will have more craving for news from home.
All my love,
Aims
xxxxxx
I have posted some new pictures of some of the other places I have been, so scroll to the bottom of the page to have a look.
I am now in Rio de Janeiro and I am allone.
Jon left the day before yesterday :-(.
Even before Jon left we were attacking Rio pretty sedatly, as unlike our previous stops we have a long time here. Jon was here for 4 days and I am here for 9 days, so there really is no need for rush.
We visited Christ, the 30 meter high statue on Rios highest hill \ mountain. We have been to Copacobana and we have hung out at the hotel, drank and eaten good food. We also went to the hippy market where Jon spent his last pennys and he bough an awesome leather bean bag and we bough together a really cool map made of leather and burnt in, for our new house for when I come home.
Since Jon left I have been to the Sugar Loaf Moiuntain with some girls I met at the hostel and I enjoyed the hostel BBQ last night where we ate a LOT of steak. I am going to relax and try and do some revision about fish in the next few days, in preparation for Mexico and I am going on a Favela tour tommorow, which sounds really interesting.
Hope you guys at home are all doing ok, let me know whats happening with you etc. Am going to be more loney now Jon has left and will have more craving for news from home.
All my love,
Aims
xxxxxx
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
Sucre, Bolivia
We staying in La Paz for four days, to allow me to recover from my heart burn type eating problem. We wondered around the shops close to the hotel, we went on a bus tour of the city (my first one as I usually walk around, however that was impossible whilst i wasn{t well) and Jon cycled down "The Death Road" (I rode in the Bus - i both didn{t want to cycle and was too ill still).
The Death Rd was by far the most exciting part of La Paz even for me in the mini Bus. The Driver was awesome and kept stopping for and pointing out good photos. The scenery was amazing, it went from snow covered mountains to jungle type scenery. The driver, less helpfully, also kept pointing out the crosses at the side of the raod, with a "that one is a bus" etc. Jon decided to scare the life out of me half way down by falling off, and not just falling off the bike, but falling off the orad. Luckily it was sheer cliff at the point he fell off but he could have killed himself!! At this point i was very glad I didnt cycle.
After La Paz we continued on to Potosi, to see the silver mines. It wasn{t what you would call a good time but it was very interesting. We saw where they refine the rock and take out the minerals. We learnt about a lot about the mining community and the miners are pretty rich people!! They can earn 2000-3000 US a month, which is an awefull lot for out here. But the conditions were terrible, it was so dusty and hot, we were only down there for tow hours and I was so glad to leave. I cant imagine spending all day every day down there, it makes any other job I could possibly have seem good.
We only stayed in Potosi a day, enough time to see the mines, to watch a film, to make some new freinds in the hostel, and to sleep in some VERY comfy beds before we left again to go to Sucre, where we are now. At the moment I am not very impressed but will let you know more when I have seen more.
xxxx
The Death Rd was by far the most exciting part of La Paz even for me in the mini Bus. The Driver was awesome and kept stopping for and pointing out good photos. The scenery was amazing, it went from snow covered mountains to jungle type scenery. The driver, less helpfully, also kept pointing out the crosses at the side of the raod, with a "that one is a bus" etc. Jon decided to scare the life out of me half way down by falling off, and not just falling off the bike, but falling off the orad. Luckily it was sheer cliff at the point he fell off but he could have killed himself!! At this point i was very glad I didnt cycle.
After La Paz we continued on to Potosi, to see the silver mines. It wasn{t what you would call a good time but it was very interesting. We saw where they refine the rock and take out the minerals. We learnt about a lot about the mining community and the miners are pretty rich people!! They can earn 2000-3000 US a month, which is an awefull lot for out here. But the conditions were terrible, it was so dusty and hot, we were only down there for tow hours and I was so glad to leave. I cant imagine spending all day every day down there, it makes any other job I could possibly have seem good.
We only stayed in Potosi a day, enough time to see the mines, to watch a film, to make some new freinds in the hostel, and to sleep in some VERY comfy beds before we left again to go to Sucre, where we are now. At the moment I am not very impressed but will let you know more when I have seen more.
xxxx
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Puno, Peru
Our last stint in Peru before crossing tyhe Bolivian border was Puno, a lake side port town. Not a very interesting town in itself tourists visit here to take tours of the islands on Lake Titcaca. This lake, at 3800m is the highest navigatable lake in the world.
We went on a tow day tour and visited three islands.
The floating islands were first and these were facinating. The islands themselfs, including baots, house and even th4e floor we stood on was all made out of reeds and the islands are continually remade all the time, becasue the lower reeds in the water rot away. The islands were however very touristy, there main income is from charging tourist entrance fees, boat rides and gifts, but dispite this they were very interesting to see, they were not initially made for the tourit, they have just become like that, and the history was very intreging.
The other two islands we went to I didn´t find quite as interesting. They were both very tourity and very traditional at the same time. We stayed with a family at one of the islands and had lunch dinner and breakfast cooked for us. It would have been infinitly better if we spoke spanish I am sure but the food was amazing (pity I had trouble eating it becasue of my doxy induced heartburt).
Despite difficults with food it was an enjoyable two days. We also met an insralie guy, Ido, who was in Ica when the earth quake hit and it was quite interesting talking to him about that.
Anyways, we are now in Bolivia, in La Paz. Will tell you more whern there is more to tell.
Loves,
Aims
xxxx
We went on a tow day tour and visited three islands.
The floating islands were first and these were facinating. The islands themselfs, including baots, house and even th4e floor we stood on was all made out of reeds and the islands are continually remade all the time, becasue the lower reeds in the water rot away. The islands were however very touristy, there main income is from charging tourist entrance fees, boat rides and gifts, but dispite this they were very interesting to see, they were not initially made for the tourit, they have just become like that, and the history was very intreging.
The other two islands we went to I didn´t find quite as interesting. They were both very tourity and very traditional at the same time. We stayed with a family at one of the islands and had lunch dinner and breakfast cooked for us. It would have been infinitly better if we spoke spanish I am sure but the food was amazing (pity I had trouble eating it becasue of my doxy induced heartburt).
Despite difficults with food it was an enjoyable two days. We also met an insralie guy, Ido, who was in Ica when the earth quake hit and it was quite interesting talking to him about that.
Anyways, we are now in Bolivia, in La Paz. Will tell you more whern there is more to tell.
Loves,
Aims
xxxx
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Cusco, Peru
We just left Cusco last night after being in the region for just over a week. I will try to keep my explainations short!
The first 5 days we spent exploring Cusco and its sights and re-adjusting to the altitude. I was really feeling it the first day - I wasn´t hungrey and went to bed at like 8pm (Amy wasn´t hungrey!?!?!). We saw all the sights in town, I got a massage and a manicure, we saw a couple of near by arcilogical sights, including a site close to Cusco coimonly known as "sexy woman" as this is how it sounds to the ears of the English, it is actually spelt very differently and means "sacred falcon" but they tour guides take advantage of what we hear when they say it!! We also visited the inka citadel and the tourist markets of nearby Pisca and during a four hour walk saw some spectacular veiws - due to the clear skys (this was I think our first hike without rain, yay!)
Following this we went on an "adventure tour" with four others, to Machu Picchu. The involved 1 days biking, 55km downhill on dirt tracks, jon loved it, I hated it!! I was so slow becasue I was scared of falling off and it hurt my arms like hell, so yeah we decovered that off road biking isn´t really my thing... We then had two days of walking which was fun, but nackering. The first day we walked 19km, off road and lots of up hill, it was so tiring but the veiws and the gorgeous hot spings to finish the day off made it worth it. We did however get bitten to death by mossi´s, a different type to English mossi´s I think they call them sandflies. You don´t feel a think when they bite you and all you see for 24 hrs after is a little red spot, then after that the swell up horribly :(, it was not nice!! The third day was more walking again, after a late breakfast (9am was late after the 5:30 breakfast the day before) we walked 10km along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town under Machu Picchu where we spent the last night. In the afternoon of the third day we walked up a pretty treacherous moutain (with many wooden ladders) to gain our first views of the inka citadel. The fourth day was Machu Piccu day and I felt terrible!! I couldn´t sleep all night becasue of noise and becasue of my swollen arm (covered in sand fly bites) and then we got up at 4:00am and walked for 1.5hrs uphill to machu picchu. When we got inside we had a guided tour of the citadel for two hours, during which I kept falling asleep and was constantly shivering. It was not really that great and I was bloddy annoyed considering how much I had been looking forward to it!! The day got better thop. The sencond half of the tour involved more walking sao it woke me up and stopped me being quite as cold, jon gave me his jumper (so I was then wearing 3 jumpers), and as I paid more attention to the tour, I became more interested in listening and less interested in my own discomfort! The afternoon was a lot better, I felt more alive and we walked up another mountain overlooking the ruins, this gave up an amasing view and wasn´t too difficult a climb and I felt a lot better for it. The ruins of Machu Picchu are amasing, for up high they look superb and walking through them you are amazed by the size, by the condition they are in, and by the scpoe of the building that took place so long ago. It really was awsome to see, no matter how much I compalain about everything else!!!
We walked back down to Aguas Calientes for about 3pm and got pizza (we thought we well deserved it after all that walking) before getting the train and then a Bus back to Cusco, me and Jon made freinds with some Peruvian Journalists on th train which was quite amusing.
Back in Cusco me and Jon got our bags and headed to the Bus station for an over night bus to Puno. Upon arrival we met a man offering us accomodation, without much fuss we followed him, it wasn´t to bad a price and at 5:30am with no sleep we decided it was best to go to a place that was definitly open rather than using the book and possibly being disappointed. It is now 13:15 and Jon is still asleep as he is not feeling great, getting up at 4:00am and not sleeping well on the bus, along with painfully swollen legs covered in bites is not agreeing with him.
The last four days have been painful, what with lack of sleep, the walking and the biting flys, but it was worth it. Maccu Picchu was amasing, as was a sceenery along our 2 day hike, we met some really cool people and we had a good laugh. The rest you just have to put up with!!
Until next time
Aims
xxx
The first 5 days we spent exploring Cusco and its sights and re-adjusting to the altitude. I was really feeling it the first day - I wasn´t hungrey and went to bed at like 8pm (Amy wasn´t hungrey!?!?!). We saw all the sights in town, I got a massage and a manicure, we saw a couple of near by arcilogical sights, including a site close to Cusco coimonly known as "sexy woman" as this is how it sounds to the ears of the English, it is actually spelt very differently and means "sacred falcon" but they tour guides take advantage of what we hear when they say it!! We also visited the inka citadel and the tourist markets of nearby Pisca and during a four hour walk saw some spectacular veiws - due to the clear skys (this was I think our first hike without rain, yay!)
Following this we went on an "adventure tour" with four others, to Machu Picchu. The involved 1 days biking, 55km downhill on dirt tracks, jon loved it, I hated it!! I was so slow becasue I was scared of falling off and it hurt my arms like hell, so yeah we decovered that off road biking isn´t really my thing... We then had two days of walking which was fun, but nackering. The first day we walked 19km, off road and lots of up hill, it was so tiring but the veiws and the gorgeous hot spings to finish the day off made it worth it. We did however get bitten to death by mossi´s, a different type to English mossi´s I think they call them sandflies. You don´t feel a think when they bite you and all you see for 24 hrs after is a little red spot, then after that the swell up horribly :(, it was not nice!! The third day was more walking again, after a late breakfast (9am was late after the 5:30 breakfast the day before) we walked 10km along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town under Machu Picchu where we spent the last night. In the afternoon of the third day we walked up a pretty treacherous moutain (with many wooden ladders) to gain our first views of the inka citadel. The fourth day was Machu Piccu day and I felt terrible!! I couldn´t sleep all night becasue of noise and becasue of my swollen arm (covered in sand fly bites) and then we got up at 4:00am and walked for 1.5hrs uphill to machu picchu. When we got inside we had a guided tour of the citadel for two hours, during which I kept falling asleep and was constantly shivering. It was not really that great and I was bloddy annoyed considering how much I had been looking forward to it!! The day got better thop. The sencond half of the tour involved more walking sao it woke me up and stopped me being quite as cold, jon gave me his jumper (so I was then wearing 3 jumpers), and as I paid more attention to the tour, I became more interested in listening and less interested in my own discomfort! The afternoon was a lot better, I felt more alive and we walked up another mountain overlooking the ruins, this gave up an amasing view and wasn´t too difficult a climb and I felt a lot better for it. The ruins of Machu Picchu are amasing, for up high they look superb and walking through them you are amazed by the size, by the condition they are in, and by the scpoe of the building that took place so long ago. It really was awsome to see, no matter how much I compalain about everything else!!!
We walked back down to Aguas Calientes for about 3pm and got pizza (we thought we well deserved it after all that walking) before getting the train and then a Bus back to Cusco, me and Jon made freinds with some Peruvian Journalists on th train which was quite amusing.
Back in Cusco me and Jon got our bags and headed to the Bus station for an over night bus to Puno. Upon arrival we met a man offering us accomodation, without much fuss we followed him, it wasn´t to bad a price and at 5:30am with no sleep we decided it was best to go to a place that was definitly open rather than using the book and possibly being disappointed. It is now 13:15 and Jon is still asleep as he is not feeling great, getting up at 4:00am and not sleeping well on the bus, along with painfully swollen legs covered in bites is not agreeing with him.
The last four days have been painful, what with lack of sleep, the walking and the biting flys, but it was worth it. Maccu Picchu was amasing, as was a sceenery along our 2 day hike, we met some really cool people and we had a good laugh. The rest you just have to put up with!!
Until next time
Aims
xxx
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
Huanchaco, Peru
The last few days have been a little uncirtain and we have headed through Peru at a slower pace than we initially wanted. Both because we needed the time to decided what to do next considering the earthquake in Peru, and becasue we wanted to put a little more time between us and the date of the earthquake before arriving in Lima. Our original plan was to go south after Lima, but due to road blockages and more importantly, continuous after shokes, that is no longer possible, and we have decided instead to fly to Cuzco straight from Lima.
Anyways... back to the story of my life.
Leaving Cuenca we headed down to Loja, our last stop in Equador. We stayed there only one day, with the aim of going to see the near by national park. We met an American couple on the first evening with the same plan in mind, and the four of us set off together the next morning in a taxi, undaunted by the continuous (and increasing) drissle. The taxi however, after arriving at the national park enterance refused to take us up the road to the main tracks, and we had to then walk the 8.5km (and then back down later) before we actually got to the park!! And on top of that we had to pay five quid for the privillage - apparently not eveyrhting is cheap out here!! So yeah, after the 2.5 hr hike up the hill we were all pretty drenched and tired so we decied to do two hikes - a 700m one and a 400m one, yes we were a bit wussy, but you have to understand it was bloddy miserable up there!! We then trudged back down the hill only for the rain to stop half wa y- grrr. At the bottom we then hitched a ride in the back of a pick up truck back into town. An eventful day, thought not quite as nature filled as we had planne,d we got some good excersize walking 18km (a grand total of 1.1 of which was in the national park).
Yeah so that was an interesting story, not. We continued from there to Piura in Peru, a town the lonely planet promised to be nothing more than a transport hub. We arrived at 3pm, by 3:30pm we had seen Piura. We met two couples on the bus who ended up in our hostal and drank beer with them until 10pm (this is similar to 2am when you got up at 5:30am the previous morning).
The next day we headed out to Trujillio and from there to the coastal town of Huanchaco, where we are now. After all that bussing and not much stopping we decided to stop here for a few days. Yesterday we saw the ruins of Chan Chan, and today we saw two ancient temples, which were quite cool, and thankfully nothing like the buddist temples I saw too many of in Thailand and China... It was all really interesting - they had a weird way of building stuff and then when they wanted to rebuild instead of knowcking it down, they filled everything in with bricks and then biult more on top, so loads of the art was really well preserved under the bricks. They have only be excavating th sitessince 1990, so loads of stuff was still under sand, but it was very impressive never the less. The king of chan chan apparently had 90 wives, all of whome were burried with him when he died, at the ripe old age of 30, including his head wife (who was in fact his sister). There were some lovely stories.
Whilst I did say this was a coastal town, we are actually in coastal winter at the moment, so there isn´t really much scope for swimming in the sea. Thought one Engish guy we were with did decided to go for a dip this morning, maddness! Thought as Jon commented, only the English would do that in this weather - having said that, I didn´t see Jon swimming.
Tommorrow we are off again. This time down to Lima. Lima is only on the very edge of the earthquake zone (for those who are worried) and there should be no issues there. And we are then flying to Cuzco, not getting the bus - so we will only be in the earthquake zone for about a day, before we are safely on the other side of Peru. Next time I write, you will be hearing about Machu Pichu.
xxxxx
Anyways... back to the story of my life.
Leaving Cuenca we headed down to Loja, our last stop in Equador. We stayed there only one day, with the aim of going to see the near by national park. We met an American couple on the first evening with the same plan in mind, and the four of us set off together the next morning in a taxi, undaunted by the continuous (and increasing) drissle. The taxi however, after arriving at the national park enterance refused to take us up the road to the main tracks, and we had to then walk the 8.5km (and then back down later) before we actually got to the park!! And on top of that we had to pay five quid for the privillage - apparently not eveyrhting is cheap out here!! So yeah, after the 2.5 hr hike up the hill we were all pretty drenched and tired so we decied to do two hikes - a 700m one and a 400m one, yes we were a bit wussy, but you have to understand it was bloddy miserable up there!! We then trudged back down the hill only for the rain to stop half wa y- grrr. At the bottom we then hitched a ride in the back of a pick up truck back into town. An eventful day, thought not quite as nature filled as we had planne,d we got some good excersize walking 18km (a grand total of 1.1 of which was in the national park).
Yeah so that was an interesting story, not. We continued from there to Piura in Peru, a town the lonely planet promised to be nothing more than a transport hub. We arrived at 3pm, by 3:30pm we had seen Piura. We met two couples on the bus who ended up in our hostal and drank beer with them until 10pm (this is similar to 2am when you got up at 5:30am the previous morning).
The next day we headed out to Trujillio and from there to the coastal town of Huanchaco, where we are now. After all that bussing and not much stopping we decided to stop here for a few days. Yesterday we saw the ruins of Chan Chan, and today we saw two ancient temples, which were quite cool, and thankfully nothing like the buddist temples I saw too many of in Thailand and China... It was all really interesting - they had a weird way of building stuff and then when they wanted to rebuild instead of knowcking it down, they filled everything in with bricks and then biult more on top, so loads of the art was really well preserved under the bricks. They have only be excavating th sitessince 1990, so loads of stuff was still under sand, but it was very impressive never the less. The king of chan chan apparently had 90 wives, all of whome were burried with him when he died, at the ripe old age of 30, including his head wife (who was in fact his sister). There were some lovely stories.
Whilst I did say this was a coastal town, we are actually in coastal winter at the moment, so there isn´t really much scope for swimming in the sea. Thought one Engish guy we were with did decided to go for a dip this morning, maddness! Thought as Jon commented, only the English would do that in this weather - having said that, I didn´t see Jon swimming.
Tommorrow we are off again. This time down to Lima. Lima is only on the very edge of the earthquake zone (for those who are worried) and there should be no issues there. And we are then flying to Cuzco, not getting the bus - so we will only be in the earthquake zone for about a day, before we are safely on the other side of Peru. Next time I write, you will be hearing about Machu Pichu.
xxxxx
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Cucenca, Equador
After leaving Quito we headed south to Riobamba where we stayed for only two days, in fact spending very little "awake time" in the place. The first day was a Sunday and we arrived late in the afternoon so noting much was open. Instead of faffing arround we decided to take a taxi up to the first climbers lodge at the bottom of the near by volcanoe Chimborazo. The taxi ride up there gave some amazing scenery and once up there we could see the snow caped mountain, though there was a lot of cloud, it being very late in the day, we still had an awesome view. We spent about an hour up there, we had two cups of tea at the climbers lodge and we spent about 40mins walking a little way up the mountain in the snow. It was freezing!! Even with my ski jacket and it took ages to warm up when we got back but it was well worth it.
The following bay we did a day trip to Banos, a pretty (but very touristy) little town. Where we swam in some hot baths with a gorgeous view of a little water fall just above our heads and we generally wandered the town. We had an amasing chocolate cake and coffee in a little european bar, i bought another jumper and a wooly hat (I fear the cold!!) and i look quite cute in the hat if i do say so myself :-)
Anyways, so as the title says we are in Cuenca now and unfortunatly I spent the majority of the day in bed yesterday watching TV. I have manged to get myself a stinking cold and i had a stomach upset yesterday as well. Fortunatly I felt fine when i was lying down, it was just getting up and waling around which was not on. Jon was happy tho!! He enjoyed wandering round by himself for once and he also loved that he got to watch TV for the majority of the evening as well!! That was yesterday, today has been better (stomach wise) but not weather wise. We went up to the national park near cuenca and walked round a massive lake. The veiws were lovely however it was cold and raining and we didn´t spend much more than two hours there before returning home for a much needed hot shower (and an episode of CSI - damn jon!! It was a close thing that I convinced him to go out again after CIS, as we nearly had to watch ALIAS as well!!).
Oh, and we have found this amasing restaurant here. We have been there twice so far and I think we will be going there again tonight... We have the like best mixed grill the first night. Mmmmmmmm...... I stuck to something plainer the second night after my funny tummy... I should probably be good again tonight but steak is calling. They cook it infront of you and it smells so good.
Thats all for now,
Love you all,
Aims
xxxxxxx
The following bay we did a day trip to Banos, a pretty (but very touristy) little town. Where we swam in some hot baths with a gorgeous view of a little water fall just above our heads and we generally wandered the town. We had an amasing chocolate cake and coffee in a little european bar, i bought another jumper and a wooly hat (I fear the cold!!) and i look quite cute in the hat if i do say so myself :-)
Anyways, so as the title says we are in Cuenca now and unfortunatly I spent the majority of the day in bed yesterday watching TV. I have manged to get myself a stinking cold and i had a stomach upset yesterday as well. Fortunatly I felt fine when i was lying down, it was just getting up and waling around which was not on. Jon was happy tho!! He enjoyed wandering round by himself for once and he also loved that he got to watch TV for the majority of the evening as well!! That was yesterday, today has been better (stomach wise) but not weather wise. We went up to the national park near cuenca and walked round a massive lake. The veiws were lovely however it was cold and raining and we didn´t spend much more than two hours there before returning home for a much needed hot shower (and an episode of CSI - damn jon!! It was a close thing that I convinced him to go out again after CIS, as we nearly had to watch ALIAS as well!!).
Oh, and we have found this amasing restaurant here. We have been there twice so far and I think we will be going there again tonight... We have the like best mixed grill the first night. Mmmmmmmm...... I stuck to something plainer the second night after my funny tummy... I should probably be good again tonight but steak is calling. They cook it infront of you and it smells so good.
Thats all for now,
Love you all,
Aims
xxxxxxx
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Quito, Equador
Unfortunatly (for fortnuatly if you are getting bored of me already) the last post was unnaturally short as we only had a 15min stop at the internet cafe. Normally, I write quite a lot - this is mainly becasue I crave news from home and from freinds whilst I am away, as (believe it or not) I miss England and I miss you guys. And becasue I crave news from others, I assume (maybe mistakenly) that you guys crave news from me as well!! If you don´t, well you can pick and choose what you read!!!
To be honest I wasn´t all that impressed with Miami. It was ok as far as beaches adn restaurants go but after 2 days and then a 50min wait in a sweltering heat for the airport bus I was pretty glad to leave!!
Next on the long list of destinations: Quito, capital of Ecador. We flew in from Miami and got here on Thursday night. It is a very pretty captal city and as it is at an elevation of 2800m, we planned a couple of days here to aclimatise to the hight. The city is (naturally) surrounded by mountains and nice high points from which to admire it, including, as I called it - the telephone ride, a cable car up to 4100m, giving an awesome view of the whole city which we went up this morning. Amusingly there was also a fun fair at the bottom and Jon went go-karting!
In the few days we have been here we have investigated both the new town and the old town, the old town is prettier (and safer at night) so we have spent quite a while here. Having coffee in pretty squares or over looking nice views, viewing (and in some cases doing dangerous climbs up) churchs - it really was dangerous, I will add pictures later!! And just walking down the streets. Oh, and naturally eating food!! Set lunches are like $2 for three courses and a fruit juice, it is awesome!!
Hope that wasn´t too boring... send me messages, I love it!! If you send me messages in the comments I may reply too if you are lucky!! Thanks for the comments so far!!
Love Aims
xxx
To be honest I wasn´t all that impressed with Miami. It was ok as far as beaches adn restaurants go but after 2 days and then a 50min wait in a sweltering heat for the airport bus I was pretty glad to leave!!
Next on the long list of destinations: Quito, capital of Ecador. We flew in from Miami and got here on Thursday night. It is a very pretty captal city and as it is at an elevation of 2800m, we planned a couple of days here to aclimatise to the hight. The city is (naturally) surrounded by mountains and nice high points from which to admire it, including, as I called it - the telephone ride, a cable car up to 4100m, giving an awesome view of the whole city which we went up this morning. Amusingly there was also a fun fair at the bottom and Jon went go-karting!
In the few days we have been here we have investigated both the new town and the old town, the old town is prettier (and safer at night) so we have spent quite a while here. Having coffee in pretty squares or over looking nice views, viewing (and in some cases doing dangerous climbs up) churchs - it really was dangerous, I will add pictures later!! And just walking down the streets. Oh, and naturally eating food!! Set lunches are like $2 for three courses and a fruit juice, it is awesome!!
Hope that wasn´t too boring... send me messages, I love it!! If you send me messages in the comments I may reply too if you are lucky!! Thanks for the comments so far!!
Love Aims
xxx
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Miami, USA
And the adventure begins!!
We are currently in Miami enjoying the sun and the beach, it is like mega hot here!! We have explored both South Beach and Downtown Miami and have just spent a relaxing morning by the sea.
Anyways, this really can't be a long post as Jon is waiting to use his half of our internet time. Just wanted to let you all know we arrived safely and with all our luggage. Will talk again from Quito where we are flying to this afternoon!!
Thanks for comments, it is nice to know people were able to find the place and are reading.
Loads of Love, Aims. xxx
We are currently in Miami enjoying the sun and the beach, it is like mega hot here!! We have explored both South Beach and Downtown Miami and have just spent a relaxing morning by the sea.
Anyways, this really can't be a long post as Jon is waiting to use his half of our internet time. Just wanted to let you all know we arrived safely and with all our luggage. Will talk again from Quito where we are flying to this afternoon!!
Thanks for comments, it is nice to know people were able to find the place and are reading.
Loads of Love, Aims. xxx
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
South Hanningfield, England
Very soon I am going to be going travelling (yet again) and if you haven't guessed from the title I am going to be visiting Latin America.
This time I am going to be gone for about four and a half months. I am leaving on the 6th of August and I am due to return just before Christmas.
My itineray for this trip includes three main attractions:
1. I will be travelling with Jon for six weeks (Jon is my boyfreind of nearly 2 years now, for those of you who may not know). We will travel from Quito in Equador through to Rio in Brazil, the exact itinery is still being discussed.
2. I will then continue with the tour group Gap Adventures; taking 6 weeks to travel from Rio up to Caracas, in Venezuela
3. Lastly I will be doing a marine conservation charity project with Global Vision International in Mexico, where I will be spending 6 weeks learning to scuba dive whilst taking surveys, and teaching english - amoung other things
So there was your brief description (you should thank me for actually managing to keep it breif!), expect your next update to be after I have arrived!!
xxx
This time I am going to be gone for about four and a half months. I am leaving on the 6th of August and I am due to return just before Christmas.
My itineray for this trip includes three main attractions:
1. I will be travelling with Jon for six weeks (Jon is my boyfreind of nearly 2 years now, for those of you who may not know). We will travel from Quito in Equador through to Rio in Brazil, the exact itinery is still being discussed.
2. I will then continue with the tour group Gap Adventures; taking 6 weeks to travel from Rio up to Caracas, in Venezuela
3. Lastly I will be doing a marine conservation charity project with Global Vision International in Mexico, where I will be spending 6 weeks learning to scuba dive whilst taking surveys, and teaching english - amoung other things
So there was your brief description (you should thank me for actually managing to keep it breif!), expect your next update to be after I have arrived!!
xxx
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