Zo On The Go

Ciudad Perdida

2007-07-27T00:52:43Z

I don´t think there has ever been a time that I have ever been so dirty, sweaty and tired in my life as after my fourth day trekking the Ciudad Perdida in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. A particularly gruelling day on the 6 day trek, we walked (in torrential rain) down mossy, tiny, slippery steps, struggled up muddy steep paths and crossed through waist deep white water rivers. The day finished crossing one of the rivers that had risen too high, in a ramshackle, sketchily built cable car.
Ciudad Perdida (the Lost City) is a city of the Tayrona people, pre-colombian, and was only discovered in 1975. It has a turbulant history, with one of it´s three founders mudering another over gold they had found, and a kidnapping of a group of tourists in 2003 by ELN guerillas. What remains of the city is a network of terraces overgrown with the jungle (very Indiana Jones), and it´s one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. It has a mysterious air about it and with only small groups visiting (the gruelling 6 day trek to get there and back and the kidnapping tends to put people off!), I have to say I was somewhat more impressed by the place than Machu Picchu - big call, I know, but it´s far less touristy and the jungle surroundings just lend to the feel of it all. However, with more and more tourists visiting Colombia than ever, groups are growing in size (ours was 34), so I advise people to get in quick before this place becomes South Americas next Inca Trail!
I set off for the tour with my mate Gil, who I had caught up with in the national park. I was a little worried about doing a 6 day trek, especially after finding my last trek so hard - and it was only 2 days! I had heard from various people who had done it how hard it was, but also how also totally worth it. Being in the jungle and cloud forests, the place gets rain almost year round, so I was expecting mud, humidity, torrential down pours and viscous mosquitos! I got them all.
Our first day we headed out to beginning of the track by 4w4. I was a little disappointed to find our group was so big, I have a hard enough time with names as it is - and I still didn´t know everyones by the end of the six days! We had a pretty good mix of people though. Lots of Brits, Aussies, a few Americans and five Colombians. We had two guides, Omar and Robinson and four porters. After lunch, we set off for 3 hours of walking, pretty much all up hill in the sweltering heat. I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, taking in the views everynow and then and drinking lots of water. I was rather suprised when we arrived at our first nights camp to find I was the 6th to arrive - first girl! Ok, so I know it´s not the Sydney Marathon, but it may be the only time I will be able to say this in my life, so let me have it!
Our accomodation for the 5 nights would be hammocks with mosquito nets and with 34 of us, it was a little squashy! Lots of rolling over and bumping into your neighbour in the night! All the camps were in specatcular settings, most of them by rivers so we could have a well deserved swim after our walking. The porters led mules with all our food and supplies for the six days and cooked us our meals - which were suprisingly good, we even had handmade empanadas one morning!
Second day started with more uphill followed by a long stretch of downhill, which would be great if you didn´t know you would have to climb back up them on the way out! After a couple of hours walking we stopped in a river for a swim and some fresh pineapple. Gil took a bit of a stumble this day and arrived at the river with a pretty messed up hand and bump and scratch to the head. There would be many more falls, incidents and injuries on the trip, including Lara, a Colombian girl, being swept down the river, our guide frantically chasing her down the shore! She came back with some pretty nasty brusing from where she had held on to a rock!
Third day, was the day to the city itself. It was also the day of the river crossings. I didn´t have any walking sandles and thongs would have been washed away, so I did most of the crossing bare foot. Not an easy task and luckily there was always a porter or two on hand to help (these guys were amazing, they couldn´t take the mules on this part of the walk, so they were carrying everything on their back plus helping us cross the river!). The white water was pretty strong and stepping on little stones was agony! I gave up in the end and walked in my hiking shoes! By this time it was coming down hard and fast with rain, so it didn´t seem to matter. After crossing the river some 8 or so times, we arrived at the steps to the city. Apparently there are around 2000 steps all up. I didn´t bother counting, I was too occupied in making it up alive! The steps were narrow, wet and covered in moss and I climbed most of them like a ladder! Suprisingly it didn´t take as long as I thought it would. When I arrived at the first terraces, I was greeted by some very bored looking military (one of whom looked all of 12!). They are posted here for a month at a time, basically just to look after us tourists after the kidnapping. They are so bored, they even agreed to pose in photos for the boys and let them hold their guns - not sure how ethical that was, but they seemed to enjoy it! We spent the afternoon drying out in the cabin (this was the only night we slept on mattresses) and eating popcorn and drinking hot tea. This was also the night that Gil and I discovered that our guides and god knows how many other people on the trip, thought we were lesbians. We had to share a mattress and the guides were making crude jokes...later on the trip, one of the Colombians asked me where my "partner" was from! Hmmm, not sure where they got this idea from, could have been us joking about the mud wrestling we planned to do in Cartegena or discussing our lesbian islands - yep, that would just about do it!
Our fourth day (the before mentioned particulary gruelling one) we started off the morning discovering the city with lots of information from our guides. All that is left of the city is the terraces. The houses were built from wood and straw and were moved a lot due to their custom of burying their dead under their houses so that the next child that was born would be reincarnated as the dead person. For this reason also, men and women lived in seperate houses. The guides also told us about the kidnapping, Omar was recruited to help find the hostages in the jungle so he had a lot of inside info. Fascinating stuff. After our tour around the city, we had some lunch and headed back to our camp. Because of all the rain, the rivers had risen so the crossings were even harder than before. The path was also extremely muddy and it rained on us the entire walk. We arrived at the camp, wet, tired and covered in dirt. Gil and I had a few well deserved beers before collapsing in our hammocks.
Fifth day was spent trudging through ankle deep mud tracks. Gil fell down five times and was absolutely covered in mud by the end of the day! Nothing a quick dip in the river wouldn´t fix though. That night, the wear and tear was starting to show on everyone. We were all exhausted and lamented over the fact we still had a day to go.
The last day, we awoke to some sun at last! Nothing much had dried overnight and I put on my wet clothes and shoes like I had been doing for the last four days. We were keen to get away early to try and avoid the rain which seemed to mostly come in the afternoons. As we headed off, I tried to remember this part of the track, and I swear there had not been that much down hill on the way in, but it felt like I walked up and up for a long time before the track gave some well needed relief in the form of flats! And then it was down hill for pretty much the rest of the trip. I don´t know where I got my energy from, but I managed to walk pretty much non-stop, think I was just keen to get out of there! I felt really proud and happy with myself as I walked towards the cafe where we had our first lunch those long 6 days ago. I got myself a beer, sat down, and couldn´t keep the smile off my face. Oh, and I finished 8th, second girl, not bad, ay?!

Gil and I take a dip after a hard days walk

Omar

River crossing

Nope, haven´t wet myself, just crossed a river!

Steps leading to the city

Terraces of the lost city

most of the group on the terraces

another river crossing

Gil on the cable car

Gil and I after the fourth day

the track

cute indiginous kids

our "accomodation"

Ciudad Perdida remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Colombia

2007-07-27T00:32:00Z

So, after my rather short time in Ecuador, I decided to hot leg it to the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. This meant some serious bus time. I crossed the border at Ipiales with the help of a lovely young man named Joseph. He was a bit worried about me travelling on my own and insisted on not only helping me with immigration, but also getting me to the bus stop and getting a ticket to Bogota! He and everyone else I met that afternoon, seemed suprised that I would be in Colombia travelling on my own and not going to see someone I knew...compared to many other countries in South America, Colombia doesn´t get nearly as many tourists and the people seem really happy to see you travelling in their beautiful country and always ask what you had heard of Colombia before and what you think of it now you are here. Anyway, back to the buses. Joseph stayed with me the couple of hours I needed to wait for my bus, he practicing his english, me my spanish (badly!) Then it was time for my 20 hour overnight bus journey. I was a little worried at getting this bus as the Lonely Planet warns not to do this journey at night, but I figured, if the locals were doing it, it must be ok! In fact, I was the only gringo on the bus. There was a strong military presence on the road, lots of men with machine guns casually strung over their shoulders. After a long trip I arrived in Bogota bus station, the biggest bus station I had come across so far on my trip, more like an airport! The original plan was to stay there a night before heading off on another overnight bus to Santa Marta on the Caribbean Coast. But, it was raining and I really couldn´t be bothered with another big South American city, so I decided to hop straight back on another overnighter - glutton for punishement! The next day I arrived in Santa Marta and headed straight to a little fishing village called Taganga for a couple of days by the beach. Taganga was ok, a little too full of gringos for my liking and although the water was lovely, the actual beach was more like concrete mix than sand! So after two days, I went to Tayrona National Park. Ahhh, this was more like it. Beautiful beaches that you have to walk through the jungle to get to. Heaven. I met an Ecudorian guy, Jorge, on the bus there who had been staying in a campground a little bit back from the beach. Only locals seemed to know of this place and it was practically deserted compared to other campsites on the beach. It was very basic, with no electricity and cold showesrs (perfect after a hot day at the beach) It was run by a couple and their 3 adorable kids, Steven, Andrea and Greg. So I spent 6 days sleeping in hammocks, walking to one of the nearby beaches, swimming, staring at the stars in the clear night sky and eating hot chocolate buns (these were amazing, served straight out of the oven!) My mate Gil, who I had met in the Pantanal, met me in the Park. We spent a few days there together before heading back to Santa Marta to do a six day trek to the Lost City...but that´s another story.

Joseph

La Piscina beach

El Cabo beach

Greg

Steven and Andrea

Gil and I at La Piscina beach

Me at La Piscina beach

Colombia remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ecuador

2007-07-11T17:33:54Z

Ahh, Ecuador. I feel a little sorry for poor little Ecuador as I didn´t really give it my full attention. Desperate to get to the beaches in Colombia, and a little bit over the Andes, altitude and the cold, I whipped through Ecuador in 10 days. And it´s a shame really, because the scenery, the towns and the people are really beautiful. I went straight up the middle through lush countrysides and little villages.
First stop was Cuenca and lovely as it was, it was another colonial city, and I´m a wee bit sick of them by now! I stayed only one night.
Then off to Banos, a little place known for it´s hot springs and waterfalls (also for the comedy value of a town effectively named "toilet"!) Getting in and out turned out to be a bit of an adventure as they had a landslide that took out a part of the only road in. Wasn´t so bad getting in, just had to wait an hour in the rain till they opened up a part of the road they were working on, and then a 10 minute walk to some awaiting trucks that took people into town. Getting out wasn´t so easy. I didn´t want to wait till 6pm till they opened the road that I´d walked in on. Instead had to do a 45 minute, gruelling, zig zag walk up a mountain to get to the buses. I paid some guy $5 to carry my backpack! I actually think the locals were rather happy about the landslide, they were making a nice little profit out of it...selling water and food along the way, trucks to take people to the buses, boys to carry backpacks and taxi´s charging extortinist amounts! Anyway, back to Banos. Lovely place. Spent 3 days here, taking in some time in the hot baths, of course, some walks to lovely nearby waterfalls and a day white water rafting! I´ve met many people who´ve been white water rafting who seemed aghast at the fact they went overboard! Personally, I think it´s not a good rafting trip without a good spill!! So I was happy when we hadn´t been on the river even 20 mintues before we went surfing and then finally flipped and we all went in the river! Aah, took me back to my days on the Zambesi!!
After Banos, was Quito. A really nice city. I stayed in the New Town and it was nice to be back in a modern city with some good food. I spent a day checking out the Old Town as well, which was all lovely and white and colonial. Also went to Mitad del Mundo for some Equator fun. You know, putting a foot on each side, watching water spin different ways on each side, that sort of thing. Oh, also saw a real shrunken head in a museum there too, fascinating stuff!
After Quito was Otavalo and surrounds. Ok, so I admit it, I went to Otavalo for the sole purpose of shopping at their famous markets. And boy did I shop. My back pack is overloaded and I had to buy another bag to fit in all the goodies! Also visited a nearby town, Cotacachi, known for it´s cheap leather goods. I bought a jacket...I have a problem...
Also near Otavalo is Ibarra, where I tried the. best. ice. cream. EVER! This is a big call for me. I love my ice cream and have more than my fair share in South America (they´re obsessed with it over here!). Anyway, Heladaria Rosalia Suarez is an ice cream shop that was opened by Rosalia herself some 90 years ago. She perfected the method known as paila, which is ice cream hand turned in copper bowels. It was amazing, I had a big bowel and a cone to take away! Dare I say it, it was even better than Italian ice cream!

Cuenca

Banos

Me at the Equator

Quito old town

Rosalia´s ice cream

Otavalo markets

Ecuador remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Pisco to Ecuador.

2007-07-11T15:50:23Z

As I had decided not to do the Galapagos (sad, I know) because they were just too damn expensive, I decided to take a trip to see the "poor mans Galapagos", the Isles Ballseta, near Pisco. Hmmm, so named the "poor mans Galapagos" because they are supposed to have a lot of the same birds and penquins and you can see them in a day and it cost next to nothing, but really I think it should be named "poor sucker who has to endure this tour". Unless you are interested in seeing a whole heap of bird crap on some rocks, my suggestion, is not to go. Oh, and the bird crap really is half the attraction. It´s used as a fertiliser and apparently fetches more money than oil! Who would have known. Maybe the islands are nicer in Summer when the skies are blue and it´s warm, but the day I went it was cold, windy and sprinkling, not ideal. And there seems to be a thick layer of smog covering Pisco. Like the rest of Peru´s coast that I saw, Pisco is literally a rubbish dump, plastic bags and bottles strewn everywhere. There was also a thick layer of scum around the islands which I can only assume is caused by all the boat trips there.
The following is an incident that happened to me in Pisco which just about sums up a lot of my experiences with South American men. I have many more such stories, but I´ll just tell the one and you´ll get the picture. Pepe was one of those agency touts that meets you at the bus. He met me as I got off my bus and as he was the only one there, I had no idea where I was going to stay and had a cheap hostal on offer, I decided to stay at the hostel and also booked my tour through him. Pepe seemed really nice. He was old enough to be my father and told me stories of how he used to work for the bank but the government had shut many of them down and now he was touting, I felt a little bad for him. I had lunch with him on my first day there, with two other girls that he had sold tours to that day. Later that afternoon as I walking to find the bus station to book my tickets to Lima, he actually came with me to book them, which I thought was really nice of him since the station was outsided of town. He was restoring my faith in Peruvians who I hadn´t the best experience with so far - mostly because I had only been to a lot of touristy places and they all want to rip you off! Later that night as I sat in my room, Pepe knocked on my door and invited me upstairs for Pisco Sour on the roof top. I was beginning think this was a bit weird, but was glad to see the other two girls up there also. It was about this time he started making comments about how beautiful I was, beautiful eyes etc... So, I had one drink then went to bed. Next day, went on the tour and then rushed back to my hostal to pack for my afternoon bus. I was in my room for all of two minutes before Pepe knocked on my door again. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and then grabbed me around the waist and started telling me how beautiful I was, how he hoped I´d come back to Pisco one day and then kept trying to kiss me, I kept moving my head, literally screwed up my face in disgust and eventually got out of his grip. The whole time I kept thinking, where on earth did he get the idea that I would want an old man to try and kiss me and that I would think about coming back to Pisco for him?! Had I said one too many "muchas grazias"?? Did he assume because I am blonde and western that I was easy game? I don´t know, I am at a loss. I left Pisco with a very sour taste in my mouth indeed!
Then started my long trip up to Ecuador. I was catching a bus straight from Pisco to Lima and then from Lima up to Cuenca, my first stop in Ecuador. The ride up the coast was dissapointing as I mentioned before...one awful polluted coastal town after another. I had decided not to stay in Lima as I really was over big South American cities, and just wanted to get to Ecuador. My overnight bus from Lima was supposed to make it into Piura (the closest town in Peru to the border I would cross) in time for a morning bus to Loja in Ecuador where I could get a bus to Cuenca. But of course the bus was 3 hours late so I was stuck in Piura (possibley an even bigger hole than Pisco) for the day waiting for the next bus out that night. As I bordered the bus, I was pretty happy to be leaving Peru. I am sure if you get off the beaten track in Peru, the people are lovely etc etc, but the gringo trail, despite all it´s wonders (Machu Picchi, Colca Canyon) doesn´t seem to bring out the best in the Peruvians.

Nazca-esque type drawing on the sand dunes - how does it stay there??

Pisco to Ecuador. remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Arequipa and Colca Canyon

2007-06-28T20:08:35Z

Well, can´t say I was as enamoured with Arequipa as eveyone else seems to be. Mabye it´s because I´ve seen far too many beautiful colonial cities in South America, many of which I think are nicer than Arequipa. Or it could have been the stike - there´s nothing like barred up shops, empty streets, smashed bottles on the roads and protesters in the plaza to ruin the beauty of a city! Still, I managed to spend a few days there, mostly because I was staying in a really nice hostel with a huge library of pirated dvds! And of course the strike put me back a day or two. It was my first strike so far in South America, and I consider that to be pretty good going for 5 months! Oh, and there was also the most interesting musuem I have ever been to. It was for these 500 year old ice mummies they had found on a mountain. One in particular, know as Juanita, has been nearly perfectly reserved, she still as skin and all her internal organs. Fascinating stuff.
My main reason for going to Arequipa was to visit the Colca Canyon and the condors (the before mentioned Inca cartoon has a lot to answer for!!). Not being at my fittest (too much sitting around drinking beer and eating ice cream), it probably wasn´t the best idea to book a 3 day trek into the world´s deepest canyon, but what the heck, I´m on holiday!
First day, we were picked up nice and early at 6am to take the public bus to Cabanaconde where we would start our trek. In the taxi transfer to the bus stop, I was suprised to see that I booked the same tour as Serena, the girl I had met in Cusco (I was making a habit of meeting people accidently I already knew on tours!). After a typical lunch consisting of soup, a main meal which always is served with plain rice and coca tea, we were off. First part of the trek was the descent into the canyon. There are tracks all over the canyon linking the occupants of the tiny villages that are perched into it´s edges. It´s crazy to think of these people living their lives in this canyon, their only way in and out via these tracks, their only transport, their own legs and their trusty mules.
It as a 3 hour walk down some pretty narrow and hairy paths. I took it pretty slowely, because of the afore mentioned unfittness and also because I am clutsy enough on level ground, let alone on narrow and slippery paths! I nearly slipped over about 40 times (no exaggeration, I counted!) One does not feel good when you are overtaken by a couple of 10 year old peruvian boys...running down the path...in sandles made from old tyres...with a mule in tow! And no, the fact that they probably do it everyday, did not make me feel better! After the descent, and a little rest, we crossed a bridge and started our way to our first nights accomodation, on a narrow path that ended in a steep 20 minute scramble in the dark. I was pretty sure that it was never mentioned that I would be walking on paths with sheer drops in the dark when I booked the trip, but no matter, I made it up alive and there was beer at the top, so it was all good! Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted and with a long day of trekking ahead of us, we had an early night.
Next day, after breakfast, we headed to our next stop, an oasis in the middle of the canyon. Along the way we visited a musuem that the villages had set up that explained about their dress and food and some of the animals that lived in the canyon. Our guide explained to us that tourism within the canyon was helping the villages survive. Many people leave these villages when they finish school, but because of the money and jobs that tourism was bringing into the canyon, more people were staying. At the same time, they´re aren´t too many tourists there, so the small village atmosphere has been maintained.
The next couple of hours we continued our descent downward. All this walking down was killing my knees and I found myself looking foward to walking up at some point! We reached the oasis around midday and it as a really beautiful and welcoming sight! Not really an oasis as such, but there were palm trees and lovely pools to swim in. We stopped here for a few hours to swim, lie around in the sun and eat lunch before we had to make the journey back up the canyon.
It was 3 hours walking up zig zagged paths. We had the option of hiring a mule if we wanted, and my pride was a little hurt when the guide asked me if I wanted one! Apparently he had noticed how unfit I was! I politely declined the offer and decided to try and walk. I was actually petrified at the idea of getting on a mule to take me up the steep and narrow paths, sounded about as much fun as having teeth pulled to me! So I started the walk and pretty quickly became the last one at the back. My guide, Pepe, stayed with me and looked at me hopefully whenever someone came past with a mule and offered me a ride. I kept politely refusing. Meanwhile, my breathing was getting harder and harder (as well as being unfit, my breathing had not been the best at these high altitudes) and my legs were turning to jelly. About three quarters the way up, another man and mule came by and I took pity on Pepe and decided to give it a go! Terrifying. My mule was at the back of three and kept trying to overtake the other two, on the outside, where sheer drops awaited me! And no, again, the fact that this mule probably did this everyday, did not make me feel better! I was torn between being absolutely petrified and the knowledge that this was so much easier than walking. I decided to hold on, close my eyes at the scary bits and hope for the best! Of course, I have lived to tell the story, but I won´t be doing that one again in a hurry!
We arrived back at Cabanaconde at dusk, checked into our hostel, had much deserved showers and then headed out for dinner and some salsa. We were all too tired for a big one and we had an early start the next day for some condor watching.
We awoke to cloudy skies which was not good for condor viewing. And in fact, we almost missed them. After waiting around for 40 mintues, about 5 minutes before our bus was due, the sun came out and so did the condors. They were magnificent, soaring through the canyon. Absolutely huge and they come pretty close too. I was happy. I had now seen Macchu Picchu and condors, two of the main reasons I had come to Peru.
After the condors, came the hot springs in Chivay. Aahh, just what we needed after all that walking! As lovely as they were, the experince was slightly ruined by a weird man video taping an old man and two young peruvian woman frollicking in the pool. Hmm, pretty sure you can get arrested for that sort of thing in Australia!! And that was the end of the tour. A bus took us back to Arequipa where we all went our seperate ways, a few of us got on overnight buses onto our next destinations (me to Pisco) and the others I can only imagine were either talked into more salsa with the guides, or collapsed into their hostel beds - I´m going with the latter!

Arequipa

Colca Canyon

the "oasis"

Arequipa and Colca Canyon remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

2007-06-21T19:53:49Z

Cuzco - by far the most touristy place I have ever visited! From the moment you arrive you are bombarded by finger puppet, postcard, sweater, massage, doll selling Peruvians on every plaza and street corner! It is a lovely city in all its cobbled street cuteness, but the constant harrassing can be a bit much!
Still, I was of course very excited to be there, as this was the jumping point to Machu Picchu, the BIG one for most people coming to South America.
I met some new amigos on the bus from Puno, Serena (English) and Guy (Israeli). We spent the next few days hanging out together in Cuzco. Serena was doing the Inca Trail and it was nice to be able to get caught up in her excitement as I wouldn't be doing it myself. The trail now gets booked up months in advance, and not knowing when I would be in Peru (after all, I was orignally supposed to be ending my trip around about now!), I didn't get a chance to book a trip, so was missing out.
We spent days wandering the colonial streets, checking out the nearby ruins on horseback, and eating good food, including the delicious alpaca (I couldn't be tempted to try Guinea Pig though!). Then Serena went off to do the trail and Guy and I headed off to the Sacred Valley on our way to Machu Picchu. This was the cheapest way to get there by the train and it was actually a really nice way to do it.
We first went to Pisac, which has some impressive ruins of it's own as well as large markets filled with every type of typical Peruvian souvenir imaginable (more finger puppets!!) Here we ate amazing empanadas cooked in a wood fire oven and still warm flat bread typical of the area. After Pisaq was Urubamba. Not a lot to do here, no ruins to speak of, but we had to come here to get a taxi to Ollantaytambo, where we would catch our train from. Ollantaytambo is a lovely little village - still touristy, but felt more genuine. They have some ruins of their own, but we arrived too late so we saw them on our way back. We ate dinner here and caught our train at 8pm to Aguas Calientes. This is the last village you can stay at before heading to Machu Picchu. As you can imagine, it is completely set up for tourists going to the site. There are so many restaurants, hostals and souvenir shops here, I can't imagine they all can be making a good living, despite the number of tourists that flood into this village.

Cuzco

Serena and I

Sacsayhuaman - ruins close to Cusco

Photos for our mums!

Pisac ruins

Flute player at the ruins in Pisac

Rio Urubamba

Urubamba

Ruins at Ollantaytambo

Machu Picchu
There have been many pinch myself moments on this trip. But my biggest pinch myself moment so far was when I was lying on my hostal bed after just coming back from seeing Machu Picchu. I couldn't believe that I had actually seen the lost city of the Incas. I have wanted to see them for as long as I can remember (something to do with a cartoon I used to watch as a child about the Incas, I think!) and they didn't disappoint.
We got up early to catch the bus to the site and arrived just before 6am. The ruins were covered in misty clouds when we first arrived so we waited, seated on one of the terraces, for them to lift. It was quite a magical moment. There weren't too many people, (the day trippers wouldn't arrive by train for a couple of hours yet) it was relatively quiet and the sun was just rising over the mountains as the clouds began to lift, revealing the ruins in all their glory. It was one of those catch your breath, jaw dropping moments.
We spent the next couple of hours exploring the ruins and then climbed the mountain of Huayna Picchu, a one hour scramble up steep paths and even steeper steps (coming down was worse) for an unforgettable and spectacular view of Machu Picchu. The ruins of Waynapicchu are on top of the mountain and how on earth they managed to get the stones up there to build them, let alone create the steps that lead to it, is beyond me!
I was totally in awe of Machu Picchu. Seeing all the ruins leading up to this and then actual Machu Picchu itself, I couldn't help but be in wonder at how and why they built these cities. Built on top of seemingly impossible moutains, it must have taken years and huge amount of manpower. And to think, after all of this, the Inca empire only lasted around 100 years.

see that mountain in the back, well I climbed it to get these...

proof!!

the path up the mountain

Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Lake Titicaca

2007-06-20T21:40:10Z

Lake Titicaca is one of the world's highest navigable lakes and is over 9000 sq meters in size, on the border of Bolivia and Peru. This was my last stop in beautiful Bolivia and where I would cross over into Peru.
Jumping off point on the Bolivian side, is the lovely town of Copacabana. Although it's a little touristy, it still manages to keep its small town charm. From here I took a day trip to the Isle Del Sol. This island is the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. The island has some little villages and inca ruins that can be visited by taking a boat from Copa and then doing a 3 hour walk from one end of the island to the other. The island is beautiful, with white sandy beached coves and blue waters, reminiscent of somewhere hot and tropical, rather than a lake some 3820m high!
The next day, I was off to Puno, Peru. The border crossing was very uneventful and Puno turned out to be no where near as nice as Copacabana. The main reason to stop on this side of the lake is to visit the famous Islas Flotants (floating islands) of the Uros People. Puno has built an entire industry out of visiting these islands as well as a couple of the other ones. I did a one day tour to the floating islands and another island, Taquile, famous for its Quecha-speaking islanders with a rich traditon of weaving. I was disappointed to discover the lake covered in a thick layer of green algae that according to our guide is a consequence of pollution. There was none of this on the Bolivian side. The algae cleared after a while, as we headed to the floating islands. These islands have that feeling of being there totally for tourism. The islanders are dressed in brightly coloured costumes, which seemed rather fake after the guide told us that tradionally the islanders used to be almost totally naked but started dressing this way after they became a tourist attraction! Still, it was an interesting and unique way of life! The islands are made out of the buoyeant reeds that grow in the lake, placed horizontal and then vertically on top of each other till they about two metres deep. After a quick boat ride on one of the reed boats, we headed of to the Isle Taquile. This island is also very touristy, but felt a little less set up than the Islas Flotantes. Here, they still dress in traditional costume (although I did wonder if they get back into adidas tracksuits after the day trippers depart!! ) and the men wear tightly woven hats that they take great pride in knitting themselves. Depending on which hat they wear and which way they wear it, you can tell if a man is single, married, looking or not looking! Similarily with the womens shawls. We had a lovely lunch here overlooking the lake and it felt more like I was somewhere in the Mediterrenean than Peru!
Puno was my first introduction to Peru and I have to say, after Bolivia, it was a bit of a shock. I was met by countless "agents" at the bus stop wanting to take me to hotels and book me a tour. I found out on the day of the tour that I payed much more than others! I had to get used to being ripped off again! In Bolivia, the tourism industry is such that sometimes you feel like they couldn't care less if you were there or not - kinda resfreshing! You barely feel like you are ever being ripped off and if you are, it's such a small amount that you really don't care. Boliva is by far my favourite country that I have travelled through in South America. I spent 8 amazing weeks there, through such varied and beautiful country, encountering many different experiences, not to mention the quirky Bolivians themselves, and loved every minute of it!

View from my hotel in Copa, which was about all of $2!!

Isle Del Sol

Floating Islands

Kids on Taquile Island

Lake Titicaca remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Salar De Uyuni

2007-06-17T20:30:31Z

Most of the time, I love travelling on my own. Purely for selfish reasons, I don´t like to compromise on what I want to do. There are, however, a few times when having some buddies along would be handy. Booking a trip in the Salar De Uyuni would be one of those times. (I´ve also occasionally thought that travelling with a boyfriend/porter could be handy, mostly when my backpack is getting really heavy due to overzealous shopping in markets) By all accounts, it´s pot luck if you get on a good tour with a reasonable guide and a 4x4 that doesn´t break down, run out of fuel, or worse case scenario, end up on it´s side because of a crazy/drunk/asleep driver! The best you can hope for is to get a good bunch of travellers on your tour. I had hoped to meet some amigos either on the way to Uyuni or once there, but I was the only gringo on my bus and I arrived in Uyuni in the middle of the night, which is not conducive to meeting people! I ended up booking with one of the bigger agencies, Colque Tours, because I´d heard they were pretty consistant, not amazing, but no horror stories either.
So, you can imagine my delight when I opened the door to the 4x4 and saw a familiar face. It took me a couple of seconds to work out where I knew the face from. It was a Alice,a girl from the Parque I had been volunteering at! She left the day after I had arrived, so obvisouly we didn´t know each other well, but it instantly put me at ease. We of course spent most of the trip talking about the Parque (probably to the annoyance of everyone else on the tour) and catching up on the gossip!
As for the tour itself. It was pretty good. I had a great group, we were all from different countries - English, Italian, Brazilian, Canadian, Dutch and Australian (me). Our guide, Pedro, was a nice, older Bolivian. He wasn´t what you would call terribly informative, but he only spoke Spanish so this wasn´t a big deal for me!
As for the scenery, it was amazing and incredibly diverse. Out of this world blinding salt flats as far as they eye can see, a cactus island in the middle. Lakes of different colours, some that looked like tiny oceans, the wind causing small waves to crash upon their shores. Beautiful mountains and volcanoes that look to have been painted against the blue skies. Geyser basins, where mud gurgles and sulpherous steam rise up from the ground. Desert terrain with tiny little villages that makes you wonder why anyone would live there! Llamas, flamingoes and vizcachas (long tailed rodents) pepper the stark surroundings.
Being at some 3653m above sea level, the air is out of breath thin and crisp. I have never been so cold in my life. Our second night we slept in pretty basic accomodations, the beds were made of stone! I had on every piece of clothing I had with me (including my thermals), three blankets, my sleeping bag and liner and I was still freezing. I had bought a handful of alpaca goodies in the markets in Uyuni before the tour, but even they were of no help against that bitter cold night.

Salar de Uyuni

Isla de Los Pescadores

It had to be done!

Stone tree

Dali-esque mountains

The group, second night at dinner, very cold!

The geysers. Our third morning. Still very cold!

Lago Blanco

Salar De Uyuni remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Parque Ambue Ari

2007-05-30T01:32:01Z

Here is something I wrote whilst sitting on the jungle floor, the sun trickling through the canopy above, hanging with a jaguar called Sama...

...I´m entering my third day without showering and I haven´t changed my clothes in that time either. It´s been at least a week since I´ve washed my hair and god knows how long since I shaved. My clothes are covered in dirt, the same dirt that seems to have set up permanently under my fingernails. It´s been raining, and the following days are always cool and with only cold water available it seems easier to just not shower. Besides I feel somewhat cleaner after these three days than I do 15 minutes after showering in the heat, that´s about how long it takes for the sweat to begin trickling down my body again. One has a funny relationship with the rain when living in the jungle. When it´s raining, you wish it would stop, for even though you know it will only last a couple of days, it´s a couple of days where you and everything around you will be damp. After the rains, it´s the cool relief you´ve been waiting for and following are lovely, sunny, warm days without the humidity and the mosquitos washed away. After this, the heat, the humidity and the mosquitos grow everyday. You can feel the heat sitting upon your skin, showing itself in the droplets of sweat that cover your body. The build up is excruitiating. Every second thought is, "god, i wish it would rain"!!
My hands and ankles are covered in mosquito bites (although not nearly as bad as most) and I´m always on the look out for ticks and have stopped four in their attemt to burrow into my skin (I had three pulled from me in the end). My stomach is not handling the overload of carbohydrates and root vegetables - everyday it is rice, pasta, potatoes of some description, bread, supplemented with jam, dulce de leche, and oreos! Occasionally we get some sort of fried goodness and you wouldn´t believe how happy it makes us! I´ve been sleeping in a tent for the whole time after an unfortunate incident of a rat in my bed.
I am 16 days into my month long stay at Parque Ambue Ari. And I don´t think I can remember a time where I have felt so relaxed, useful, or happy. I spend my days amongst some of the most awesome people I have ever met, I get regular cuddles from a red howler monkey called Co-Co who also likes to lick my armpits and pull down my top to lick my chest (sounds gross, but you get used to it, he likes the salt!), I have overcome my fear of birds and fallen in love with parrot called Lorenzo and best of all I spend the majority of my day with Sama, a 9 year old jaguar who is in my care for the time I am here.
Parque Ambue Ari is run and owned by Communidad Inti Wara Yassi, a Bolivian non governmental organisation that runs animal refuges, two in Bolivia, the only of their kind in this country. I first heard about the organsiations other park, Parque Machia, from a girl I met in Chile. I had definitly wanted to fit some volunteering work in whilst I was in South America and the Parque sounded amazing. After looking at their website (www.intiwarayassi.org) I discovered they had another park, a newer one that needed more help with not only looking after the animals but in construction for building up the park.
Three months into my trip I found myself on a bus on the road from Santa Cruz to Trinidad, my destination Parque Ambue Ari, Km 348. I was petrified. I didn´t really know what to expect, I had learned from the website that the parque had only basic facilities and I was worried that my very limited spanish was going to be a problem. Frankly I was just suprised I had managed to get the right bus and even more suprised when I actually made it to the parque. As the bus pulled away, I was given my first view of the parque. It looked like some sort of headqaurters for Green Peace, at least, who ever did the signs for Green Peace seems to have done them for the parque also! I was greeted with a "hello", instantly putting me at ease, from an english lad called Andy. He looked like he had seen better days, dirty and wearing ripped clothing, long hair and beard. He lead me to the camp, a ramshackle collection of buildings, lovingly (if not a little sloppily) built, covered in paintings and slogans like "we put down roots here so goodness can grown". Hmm, I was more than a little worried that this place was going to be full of peace loving, group hugging hippies!
Andy handed me over to Frank, a 21yr old American guy in charge of newcomers, who took me into the comedor (dining room) to explain things to me and then showed me around. First stop was Co-Co, who immediately jumped onto me, arms around neck and mouth straight to the armpits! I didn´t think this was such a great move on his part after my 6 hour bus journey in the jungle heat with no air-conditioning! I had noticed a smell when I first entered the camp and as we moved around, the smell seemed to be everywhere, and I was hoping it was not coming from all the volunteers themselves! I later discovered the smell was coming from Panchita, the resident pig, lovingly called "Panchi" as she was chased away from anything she could possibly eat (I saw her wolf down concrete!), roll in (mostly sewrage) or destroy (her favourite was peoples tents - luckily not the one I was staying in, the only one still surviving).
Originally planning on only staying two weeks, I was talked out of this pretty quickly by any volunteer that I came across in those first moments in the camp. You had to stay at least a month to work with a cat and apparently this was something I should definitly want to do! I spent the next three days agonising over whether I had made the right decision. Would I be able to handle living in the jungle for this long - mosquitos, heat, bad food, only cold water, no electricity, and the big one, no alcohol allowed in the camp! I´d also seen plenty of "war wounds" - bites and scratches on the volunteers from their cats that had be more than a little worried. I was being passed around construction projects (not one my strongest skills) whilst waiting for Noemi, the resident cat matching Bolivian volunteer, to assign me a cat. Noemi apparently had a knack for matching up the volunteers with the animals. I wasn´t so sure when she assigned me Lorenzo, a blue and gold macaw, on my second day. I hate birds. Petrified of them. Lorenzo had his flight wings cut so short they would never grow back and Zhandro, the parque vet, had glued on another parrots wings. He needed to be fed away from the other birds who bullied him and also given daily flight practice. Luckily I was assigned him with another volunteer, Hannah, who was equally as petrified, we could give each other moral support when we were sure he was about to peck our eyes out!
Whilst waiting for a cat to be assigned to me, there were rumours that I would be working with a Puma, then an Oceleot and also with Sama, the jaguar. The third turned out to be the correct one. My fourth day in, Noemi assigned him to me and I started working with him the following day with his current carer, Liora. Sama is one of four jaguars at the parque, the only one that can be cared for by a girl because he isn´t walked (and he also prefers girls!). So I felt pretty lucky to have been assigned him.
It didn´t take long to settle into the routine of the parque. Each morning we are woken at 6:30 by the sound of the generator (the generator is used for the sole purpose of pumping water up to the park, there is no other power on the parque). By 7 we are hard at work preparing and feeding the animals that live around the camp. My morning job is always Lorenzo, whereas the other volunteers rotate on a weekly basis. After the feeding we do other morning jobs, like cleaning toilets (you always got this your first day in the camp) or preparing the comedor for breakfast. At 8, it´s breakfast time which is always bread, usually some fruit (I wasn´t much of a fan of papaya before, but can safely say I will never eat it again) and whatever else we have bought to brighten up the meal. By 9, we are on our way to our cats, water bottles in hand. We are back at camp around midday for a two hour lunch break. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and usually the best. At two, we head back to our cats, this time meat bucket in hand. Working day finishes at 5, cold showers and then an early dinner around 6. Dinner is usually some sort of soup, not always the best, I´ve had a few nights of crackers and jam, it´s been so bad! After dinner, it´s tea or hot chocolate time, lots of cookies and usually a game or two of cards. Or we might be preparing for the mercado that we have been invited to attend, where we plan to have a stall to educate the locals about the parque. We´re lucky if we make it up to 9, then it´s time for bed, a long nights sleep needed for the early morning and long working day ahead. Some nights we head to Santa Maria, the closest town, a term I use loosly, more a collection of shacks, some which serve beer and pass for a pub. After a few beers we will be up on the dance floor, dancing to the only two 80´s music dvd´s they ever seem to play, whilst a group of Bolivian children stand on the outside and stare at us. Great nights but usually ending in frustration as we wait on the road all hours for the 11pm micro (bus) that never seems to arrive...

...That´s where I finished writing on that day 16. Of course there was much more to follow, like finally making it back into a bed only to have another rat keep me company another night, Panchi ransacking our room two nights in a row, Herbie the baby tapir who also liked to lick my chest, walking a puma called Wara, the mercado and the Bolvian children we hope we made an influence on, having fun machetting bamboo and banana trees in the jungle, Lorenzo proving he can actually fly by taking off and then crash landing after waiting for an enternity for him to come back after his little taste of freedom, two new cats arriving the park, Katie the jaguar and Tupac the blind puma, searching for a missing ocelot in the dark in the jungle, narrowily escaping drunken Bolivian mens attempts at kissing me, seeing a dead jaguar paraded around the nearest big town, Guarayos, meeting the very strange Menonites (Armish types) who have taken to slashing and burning the jungle for farming, playing football with the locals (ok, so more watching than playing on my part!) Mimi the pregnant coete and her lover Tromberto, setting off Faustino and Co-Co the house red howler monkeys...
Oh, and there were a few group hugs, but funnily, I didn´t seem to mind in the end.
There´s a seperate blog for Sama, cause he deserves it!
Photos can tell the rest...

All the volunteers on my last day in the parque.

Me and Co-Co

Me and Herbie

Bambi

Faustina and Co-Co howling

Me and Pana Pana

Mimi and Tromberto

Me and demon monkey

Me and Wara

Vanesso the ocelot

Me and Lorenzo

Lorenzo and his one hand trick

Santa Maria Nights

Tina, Hannah, Frank and Me

The boys after playing the locals in a game of football

In our stall at the mercado

Painting animal tattoos

With the kids at the mercado

Me and Sama

Parque Ambue Ari remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sama

2007-05-30T01:31:49Z

I´d been to Chile, Argentina and Brazil before I fell in love for the first time on my South Amercian journey (not counting my fling with Buenos Aires, of course!) And who would have thought it would be with a Bolivian. His name is Sama and we had a one month, passionate affair. Sama is very complex. He´s a little smaller than average which seems to have given him a good dose of small man syndrome. Despite his size, he is very handsome, proud and has an amazing prescence. He can be moody, indifferent and sometimes downright agressive. But he can also be playful, sweet and incredibly cute. Although rarely affectionate, you live for the moments when he is.
Sama is a 9 year old, 80kg jaguar and he was all mine for one whole month whilst I was volunteering at Parque Ambue Ari in the Bolivian Amazon basin. Like all the animals at Ambue Ari, Samas story is incredibly sad. Sama´s mother was shot when he was just one month old (poachers often kill the mother of cubs they are trying to steal) and sold to a family in La Paz. It was whilst the family were trying to sell Sama to a circus that he was rescued by police and handed over to Communidad Inti Wara Yassi. He was only 6 months old and the original plan had been to release him. Because of this, Sama had little contact with humans in his first few years, suffered underfeeding and was kept for months on end in a transfer cage of only 1mtr x 1.5 mtrs. Sama waited for 3 years in these conditions for governement officials to decide whether he would be released. It was decided that Sama would not be released due to a lack of suitable land to release him on and he had also developed arthritis. This explains a lot of his behavioural problems that he has today - like how he is possesive of his food, isn´t comfortable around lots of people, particuarly men, and paces back and forth in small places. Sama can not be walked like the other jaguars in the park or played with in his cage (although he has had both in the past from previous long term volunteers), his nature is too unpredictable and he has attacked 3 volunteers in the past. His life is constricted to living in an enclosure and if he lives to the average age of a jaguar, he has another 10 years or so to live in this ´prison´.
My first few days with Sama were a little unsettling. Whilst getting used to a new person, Sama can be aggressive, stalking and pouncing at you. I had to stand my ground, make him see that I wasn´t scared of him and although he is behind a cage, this is not an easy thing to do! Liora (his previous carer who was passing Sama over to me) told me to wipe my scent on a banana leaf and give it to Sama over my first few days. First he just smelt the leaf, with his nose and with his mouth (jaguars have smelling glands in the back of their mouths and open their jaws up wide to smell, it´s a little scary to see at first) It was a little discencerning to then watch him rip the leaf to shreds...pretty sure this is what he would have done to me if I had been inside his cage! Liora told me after a few days he would stop doing this and ignore the leaf. In fact, when he started ignoring me altogether it was to be taken as a compliment as it meant that he was used to me and had accepted me.
My first few days with Sama were a little traumatic for the poor fellow. He needed a new door in his cage. His enclosure consisted of two cages, one big and one small. Sama was currently being locked into his smaller cage at night because the current door was not in the best shape and we were worried he might be able to escape. To do this he had to be put on a runner whilst the guys came to install it. To put him on a runner, Liora used an egg, whilst he is eating it she put his lead on - he is so engrossed in his egg you could practically perform surgery on him! All the noise and the men upset Sama terribly and he hissed and jumped on his runner and I was able to see the full force of his aggressivness. It was pretty scary and it upset me to see him so upset. The next few days he had to be kept in his small cage whilst waiting for the concrete to dry. He paced up and down and looked so eager to be out in his bigger cage that I was suprised that when I finally let him in, he just calmly sauntered out and plonked himself down in the middle! I had been expecting leaps of joy! He spent the rest of day spraying and marking his territory, especially where the boys had been. I spent the day running out of it´s way!
Over the coming weeks, Sama and I developed a routine. In the mornings I would usually find him lying on top of his bed box in the sun. I would sit by him and play him music from my i-pod, Snow Patrol are his favourite! Luckily for me Sama seems to like to take his mornings easy, just like me. He likes to sit in the sun, clean himself and roll around a bit, being very cute!
After lunch, I would head back to Sama and collect treats for him along the way - long grass. Sama would always be waiting for me in the corner of the cage, ok, so probably more for than the grass than me, but I liked to think a little of it was for me! Feeding him the grass was probably the favourite part of my day with Sama. It was just him and me time and towards the end I was giving it to him in the mornings also, he seems to really enjoy it and so did I!
If at all playful, it was usually in the afternoons. We liked to race each other at the end of his cage, both of us trying to trick the other one. That was my favourite game to play with him. Sama becomes very bored very easily though, probably from being locked up all the time, so the games usually didn´t last too long before he would go off to find a shady spot to lay in for a while. He would usually sit somewhere near me and I would read him my book or practice my spanish on him or sing to him.
Being in the jungle alone all day with a moody jaguar can be a little scary at first. Although it only took a couple of days to get used to Sama, it took more time to get used to being in the jungle all by myself. Lizards can be suprisingly loud when they want to! I only had the occasional visit from the snake that lived in Samas cage and the monkeys that came through to keep me company. But I really came to like that time by myself and to appreciate the jungle, it´s a really beautiful environment.
My feelings for Sama were growing every day but I think I first realised I was in love with him was when I realised he was in love with me too! It was when Roberto, a volunteer who had been at the park previously, came to spend the morning with me and Sama that it first became apparent. Sama was not happy that Roberto was there at all. Whenever Roberto came anywhere near me, Sama would pounce and snarl at him. Sama was possessive of me, he though of me as his. You have no idea how good this made me feel. After weeks of thinking he didn´t give a toss whether I was there or not, it was now apparent that he had developed feelings for me too. Over the next couple of weeks together, our relationship grew and I even became comfortable enough to let Sama lick me though the cage and to give him a bit of a pet under his chin. It nearly broke my heart when it came time to train up the new volunteer, Maire, to take my place. I have to admit I was secretly delighted when at first he acted the same way with Marie as he had with Roberto. It took a few days to get used to having someone else there with me but it was nice to have the company and it meant that Marie and I could start up some projects that I couldn´t do on my own, like building Sama platforms and giving him a new plank for his pool. It didn´t take long for him to get used to Maire though and I found myself getting a little jealous! It was time to go. So after nearly five wonderful weeks together it was time for Sama and I to say our goodbyes. Even though I felt that I was leaving him in good hands with Marie, I was incredibly sad to be leaving him.
I remember seeing a girl on my first day at the parque coming back from saying goodbye to her cat in tears and thinking it was a little silly of her. How wrong I was. It broke my heart to leave Sama, he really is a very special cat. Some people at the park claim they couldn´t work with a caged cat, that they need the physical contact. They are so wrong, working with a caged cat can be very rewarding on more of an emotional level. Sama doesn´t give his affection to just anyone, so when you finally receive it, it´s the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Feeding Sama grass

Sama waiting for me in the afternoons

Sama remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Pantanal

2007-04-24T00:16:09Z

The Pantanal is not for the faint hearted. It´s damn hot, there are mosquitos everywhere (not to mention the other numerous bugs), you walk through muddy swamps, ride horses in thigh high waters (yes, sounds fine, until you see the horse in front of you do his business in the water!) swim in pirahana and alligator infested waters and have uncomfortable nights sleep in hammocks! The Pantanal is the biggest wetland in the world, situated on the Brazilian, Bolivia and Paraguayan borders. I was lured here by the promise of seeing many of the different animals and birds that call the Pantanal home - anteaters, piranaha, alligators, tucans, monkeys, anaconda, deer, armadillos and capybara. The most popular setting out point for the trips is a town called Campo Grande. I arrived there late in the evening which would have been fine if I had been picked up from the airport as promised by the tour company, Ecological Expeditions, I had booked. But alas, this is Brazil and of course no one was waiting for me when I landed so I took a cab to the hostel that the company operated from. No easy feat when you don´t speak Portuguese and your cab driver can´t distinguish the difference between, Hotel International and Hostel International!
The next day, I was supposed to head out to the park, but as there was only one Spanish speaking couple booked onto that trip, I decided to hang around a day to join a group going the following day. I met Gil and Andrew (both English, had met on a bus a couple of days before) that day and they decided to join the same tour as I had booked. They were really nice, so things were looking up! The next day, with more of our group members in tow, we headed out on a 5 hour journey to get to the park. On the way to the park we were stopped by some tourist police and it turned out that our tour company didn´t have a licence or it expired, something like that, and it is becoming apparent that I had booked the Dodgy Brothers for my trip! Although, from all accounts of other tour companies in the area, they were the best of a really bad bunch! Things didn´t improve when we got there. It appeared that the head office had overbooked, there was no guide for us and they seemed intent on sqauashing as many possible hammocks as they could into one room! Still, as I went to sleep that night, knocking into my neigbours, I was excited by the coming days activities.
We were awoken at 5:30am by the sound of the kitchen dong. We still didn´t have a guide, so we joined another group for our first activity, horse riding. I´ve never actually been horseriding before. Sure, I had been on a horse before, but riding? No. I was pleasantly suprised by how much fun it was. Although I could have done with a better horse. She was either, really old or really lazy, or both, cause she didn´t like to move that fast. She had her moments, mostly when our guide, Gabriel came to hurry up the slow coaches in the back and I really enjoyed it when she did have her occasional bursts of energy!
In the afternoon, we finally got our guide, Sandro and headed off in a boat down the river for some wildlife viewing and a swim. It was a lovely way to end the day, sunsetting on the river as we made our way back to camp. It was early to bed for most of us that night, it had been a big day and another 5:30am start awaited us.
Day two, first activity was a walk in the jungle to try and see some more animals. Hmmm, three hours of walking later and we had just seen a lot of birds, a few monkeys and some killer beatles that had attacked Gil (think of the beatles in The Mummy, on a much smaller scale and you get the picture). Afternoon activity was fishing. I think I broke some kind of record. I had put my line in for less that 5 seconds (I am not exaggerating!) and caught my very first fish! Not a piranah, but still, a fish. I was pretty proud of myself...until we got back to camp and heard of the other group catching an absured amount of fish including something like 8 piranahs! Our group did not have such luck. After my fish, there were just two others caught, both so small they ended up being used for bait!
So early to bed again and early to rise the next day for another early morning walk. Our guide said he couldn´t promise us what animals we would see, but that we would definitly see lots of cayman (alligators). This one did not disappoint. Within minutes of entering the jungle, we caught sight of a deer. And then an anteater! And then an armidillo. And then another anteater. And then black howler monkeys! Success!! I was happy, finally we had seen what we had come to see. But no cayman, the one animal Sandro had promised we would see! We had seen plenty of them before, mostly on the side of the road, so this was ok! And that was our last activity, a big group of us was heading to Corumba on the border to cross into Bolivia so we headed out in a truck for the long journey. We saw loads of cayman and capybara (worlds largest rodent) on the trip and had to cross the river Paraguay where we were treated to a beautiful sunset. A lovely way to end the trip.
So, all in all, despite the Dodgy Brothers tour group, the mosquitos, the heat, the hammocks, I had a great time. I got to see lots of animals although I think we may have been the only group to ever go through the Pantanal and not see a piranah, except served up in a soup, which doesn´t count!

Gil and I on the truck

hammocks room

Horseriding

Tucan

Sunset

Anteater

Black Howler Monkey

My Fish

River Paraguay

Flooded footbal pitch!

Cayman

Pantanal remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Salvador

2007-04-23T21:43:45Z

Salvador seems to be having some sort of carnaval hangover. Which is a shame, because I had gone there for the afro brazil music and the dancing it is so famous for. But there wasn`t a lot of either going on! Sure, I saw glimpses of it. You can not walk down a street without the sound of drums floating from the windows above, bus drivers play their stearing wheels whilst stopped at lights, the school children joining in on the windows on the back seat, and Tuesday nights are home to street parties with free live music and dancing. (Salvador had a lot of slaves brought there, so there is a great afro-brazilian culture, resulting in a really cool fusion of arts, music and dance.) It just wasn`t what was I expecting and I was a little disappointed. I have been assured though that it`s only like this for the 3 months after carnaval when everyone takes a well deserved break from partying before heading back to their samba schools in anticipation of next years reveleries. Just wish someone had told me that before I went!! And I had of course chosen to stay there over Easter so it was near impossible to get out there until afterwards as the cheap flights were all booked up! But it did give me the oppourtunity to witness Easter celebrations in a highly Catholic country. A procession of people followed `Jesus`and `Mary` through the cobblestone streets, ending in front of a church in the main square. Speaking of churches, it is said that Salvador has a church for every day of the year. I`m not sure of that, but there are a staggering amounts of them, including one built by the slaves, who retalliated by carving pregnant angels and others with oversized sex organs!!
I was hanging out with this American guy, Andrew, one night who had been here late last year (he was obvisouly even more disappointed then me as he has seen what Salvador actually could be like.) As we went to walk down an alley we were ushered out of there by a woman because it was a dangerous spot to be walking in at night (there were some very dodgy guys hanging out in that alley). Andrew claimed he was so bored he wouldn`t mind being mugged because at least it would have added some excitement to his evening!! I wasn`t quiet that bored! Some claim that Salvador is even more dangerous than Rio. I was beginning to think it would be a miracle to get out of Brazil unscathed!
And I was not prepared for how touristy the place is! You can barely walk a metre without being harrassed to buy something (I`m talking Thailand standards here!), some one trying to give you a `gift` and don`t even glimpse (let alone take a picture) at the caipoera guys in the main square or they will come running after you, shouting for your money. Luckily I had been warned of this so I gave them a wide berth!
Of course I still had a nice time there. Met lots of great people staying in the hostel, Nega Maluca, and spent most of the days heading to the beaches nearby. And there are some great beaches nearby. Across the port there are some islands with beautiful, crystal clear, warm waters that overlook the city - kinda like swimming in one of Sydneys inner harbour beaches, only with palm trees and bars on the sand!
A little up the coast from Salvador there is this great little town called Arembepe that we took a day trip too. This place is paradise and I wish I had discovered it earlier as I would have stayed there for a few days. There is this tiny little hippy village on the beach which is famous for having Janis Joplin and Mick Jagger stay there in the 60`s, still there are barely any tourists there, we were the only people on a deserted beach. The sea was a little rough for swimming but behind the beach is a little river, with fresh, warm waters, perfect for a dip. The locals hang around the bank of the river playing their guitars and singing, (and smoking pot, as all good hippies do!), not a care in the world.

Salvador rooftops

Easter celebrations

Salvador at night

Barra da grande beach on Ilha Itaparica - one of the islands just off Salvador

Beers and lunch on the beach with Nega Maluca gang, Itaparica

Arembepe - deserted beach

Janis Joplin Rancha, Arembepe

Salvador remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ilha Grande

2007-04-08T22:50:18Z

I had to visit at least one tropical island whilst I was in Brazil. So I decided to make a side trip from Rio to an island called Ilha Grande (big island) just a little south from the city. With Quinton in tow, I headed there for a few days of sunshine, white sand and clear warm waters.
After a couple of hours on a bus and then a couple of more on a boat, we finally arrived on the island. We were of course accosted by touts trying to get us to stay in various pousadas and after looking at a couple we decided to stay in one called Pousada Ilha Grande - very original name! It was pretty nice though, we had our own little room with a tv and dvd player and the guys who ran the place had a huge dvd collection so we were excited about days on the beach followed by nights in watching movies! We didn`t have many hours of sunlight left after arriving so we just walked around the very cute little town and had some dinner at a por kilo place (they have these buffets here that you pay by the kilo, they`re great!) before heading back to the pousada to watch our first movie choice, Blood Diamond. However we were foiled by a black out that lasted till the morning!
Our first day we decided to do a little boat trip around the island with some snorkelling. Pity this side of the island seemed to be used as a tip! We noticed a lot of rubbish in the water and it wasn`t the clean, clear water I had been promised in brochures! No one else seemed to notice or care that they were swimming amonst yoghurt tubs and plastic bags, but Quinton and I were pretty disappointed. We did visit a lovely little beach that had beautiful waters and soaked up lots of sun, so it was still a really nice day. That night we were pretty tired, we just had some dinner at a really cheap buffet place we had found followed by some cake - they have vendors down by the water front selling every cake imaginable! Back at the pousada we finally watched Blood Diamond - great movie by the way!
Day two, we had decided to head to the beach of Lopes Mendes, which some say is the most beautiful beach in Brazil. A few years ago, you had to walk two or so hours through the rainforest to get to this beach, but the island had grown pretty rapidly in tourism so luckily for me there are now boats that take you most of the way...there is just a half an hour walk to get to the beach from where you get dropped off. I have to say the beach was pretty damn nice. Beautiful white sand, palm trees, crystal clear warm water and gentle waves - just the typical tropical island beach I had been looking for. We spent the day there, lazing in the sun and swimming - perfect! We had buffet again for dinner followed by per kilo ice cream - self service ice cream buffets with chocolate sauces and lollies! This island was great for my sweet tooth, not so great on the waistline!
And that was the end of our little island jaunt. The next day we left for Rio. It takes nearly the whole day to get back and Quinton had a flight to Bolivia that night. We met some lovely ladies from Rio who helped us get our bus back - think I`ve already mentioned how nice the people from Rio are. Really, they are the nicest people from a big city I have ever met, and definatly the nicest so far on this trip.
Quinton and I said our goodbyes at the bustop, he was off to the airport, me back to the hostel for an early night before my flight to Salvador the next day.

Ilha Grande remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Rio De Janeiro

2007-04-08T11:53:22Z

Rio is such an iconic city, I was very excited to be going there. But I only had a short time planned to spend there. I figured the less time I spent there, the less chance I had of being mugged! It`s also extremely expensive and Brazil was already killing my savings!. So, as I headed off to Rio with my new amigo Quinton (the english lad i met in florianopolis) for a quick 3 night jaunt, we decided we`d do a whirlwind tour of Rio and tick off the appropriate boxes...

Tick 1. Arriving.
Flying into Rio itself was quite an acheivement for Quinton and I. After having resigned ourselves to another overnight killer bus ride, I had discovered a one day sale with one of the airlines on the internet. In theory that sounds great, but let me tell you, it was a nail biting, stressfull couple of hours trying to book the tickets on a portuguese only website! Most of the airlines here don`t except overseas credit cards on the net so usually you have to go to a agent to book them (after having done all the research yourself anyway, because they can never seem to find the cheap flights!), but this being a sunday night and it being a one day sale and all, we were on our own. After rallying the help of several people in the internet cafe we managed to book ourselves two seats on a flight using fake national id numbers and brazilan post codes (seems they don`t actually want foreigners on their planes over here!)...only to turn up at the airport two days later to find we`d accidently booked the wrong day (right date, wrong month!!) We were scooted over to the airline desk and told it was cost some extortionist amount to be changed! However, luckily the credit card had not been charged yet, so the very helpful lady behind the desk was able to re-book our flights free of charge. Saved. We were so excited about getting away with this we didn`t notice that when we were checked in, the lady only checked us in half way (we needed two flights to get to Rio) so when we arrived at Sao Paulo late (our first flight had departed late, patience is definitly a much needed virtue when travelling in South America!) we missed our connecting flight! This was turning into one very frustrating day! The ever helpful staff managed to get us on another flight that arrived in the city airport closer to town (our other flight would have arrived in the international terminal further out of town) Saved again! Cathching the bus to our hostel, The Mango Tree, in Ipanema we passed many of those iconic sights that Rio was famous for and I was more than a little excited. We arrived late afternoon, only an hour or so of daylight left to take a walk along Ipanema beach, before heading back to the safety of our hostel.
The next day we had a jam packed day of sightseeing planned.
Tick 2. Corcovado and Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer)
When we arrived at the base of Cordovaba, we were told there would be a 40 minute wait to get the cog up to see the big man. Damn day trippers had beaten us to it! Luckily there is always someone on hand in Brazil to offer you their services, so we took a guided tour with Zenildo, a very good english speaking cab driver. It was cheaper than the train and we got to stop more places and Zenildo was a wonderful guide, so it all worked out well in the end! I have to say it was pretty impressive seeing Christ in all his 38 metre, 710 ton splendour! I`ve been seeing him in movies, on tv, in print my whole life, it was pretty cool to see him in the flesh (or should I say concrete?!) The views of the city were also amazing. Cordabova stands at 710metres high and was a popular look out point well before Christ arrived upon it`s top, some 75 years ago. The views confirm that Rio really is a beautiful city, full of colonial architecture, surrounded by green forested mountains and beaches.

Quinton and I on the way up

The big man himself

me and Christ

Tick 3. Historic tram to Santa Theresa
After our tour, Zenildo dropped us off at the bondinho (tram) stop where we wanted to catch the last surviving streetcar in Rio, to the pretty little bohemien bario of Santa Theresa. After waiting at the stop a while it became apparant that we were pretty much smack bang in front of a favella (a slum or `community`). Oddly enough it didn`t feel dangerous sitting there, maybe because we had made chums with a lovely local girl called Jewell. She was learning english and enjoyed practicing with us. Apparently the trams have no timetables, you only know they are coming by the shaking of the lines above. We waited over an hour for one, all the time talking to Jewell. Meanwhile many buses went by taking the same route downtown. We waited because we wanted to take the historic tram. I wondered why Jewell was waiting so long when buses were going all the time. It wasn`t till we go on the tram it became apparent. If you rode on the outside of the tram, it was free. The ride itself was only 60 centavos (about 20c) and the buses that she had let pass by were 2 reils (less than a buck). Even though Brazil has the 9th biggest economy there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor and you can see it on every street corner. I had already been blown away by how friendly the people in Rio were, for such a big city, they seemed to make the time to talk to each other, locals and foreigners alike and went out of their way to help you. On the other hand, within minutes of arriving in Rio, you will be bombarded of stories and warnings of muggings, some of them at knife and gun point.

Jewell hanging off the tram

Santa Theresa

Tick 4. Sunrise at Pao de Acucar (aka as Sugerloaf Mountain)Two cable cars take you up the 396m to the summit of this mountain for spectacular views over Rio, the opposite view from Corcovado, taking in the big dude himself. We had a Skol (local beer) whilst watching the sun fall behind him. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Halfway up Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf cable

Tick 5. Ipanema and Copacabana beachesThe next morning we arose in anticipation of a much cruiser day than the one before. We had three objectives. One was to book our onward flights from Rio and the other two involved lazing on the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. As Ipanema was only a block from our hostel, we headed there first. Forever immortalised by the famous bossa nova song, `Girl from Ipanema`, Ipanema is a long stretch of white sand in one the richer, nicer neighbourhoods of Rio. It has postos along it, each one is a hang out for a different type of group of people. Nine for example is where the bohemium people hang out, eight is where all the gay guys hang and ten is where the beautiful people reside. We of course headed for ten! And you don`t need to worry if you forget to take something to Ipanema beach. There is someone selling just about everything you could ever need from bikinis to sunscreen to beach balls! After Ipanema, we booked our flights (pain free this time, through an agent) and then headed to Copacabana. Not nearly as nice as Ipanema, quite polluted and a little seedy, still, you can`t go to Rio and not have some time sunbathing on Copa!

Ipanema beach

Tick 6. Samba club in Lapa.Lapa is an area famous for it`s music and samba clubs. On the recommendation of our hostel host (Lance, incidently an Aussie guy from Melbourne who had just opened up this hostel in Rio) a group of us caught a cab to a club called Rio Scenarium. Ok, so this bar is the coolest place I have ever been to. In fact it is rated in the Guardians top 10 bars in the world (http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2006/nov/28/bars). It was an old converted warehouse, three stories high with lots of different rooms that I imagine host all sorts of different music when full on the weekend (we were there on a wednesday night). Every wall was filled with different curios. One wall was old clocks, another art deco mirrors, there were cabinets with old medicine bottles and old bycicles hanging from the ceilings, piano bars hidden in side rooms and great big old couches. I loved it. And then there was the music. A live samba band with a big mama on vocals and guys wearing brightly coloured jeans and shirts. Everyone was dancing and just generally having a good ole time. Samba is one these dances you can get by having a go at and not really knowing what you are doing! You just have to move your feel real fast and you at least look like you know what you are doing! A few capirinhas (typical brazilian drink) and lots of dancing later, we stumbled out of the club and headed back to the hostel, another perfect ending to a another perfect day in Rio.
Wish I had some photos of this place, but unfortunatly you don't really feel like you can take your camera out in Rio at night.
So it was a short but very sweet time for me in Rio.

Rio De Janeiro remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Brazil

2007-04-02T16:13:42Z

On the bus from Iguazu to Florianpolis (a 15 hour overnighter on a crap Brazilian bus, I had been spoilt by the Argentinian bus companies where you get a bed, hot food and champagne, first class stuff!) I met an english guy, Quinton who had been living in Surry Hills for the last 7 years and an english lass, Lucy from Newcastle. We seemed to be the only english speaking people on the bus so obvisouly we became instant chums and decided to spend the next four days together!
After getting off the bus in the morning we headed for a little fishing town called Barra da Lagao as we wanted to stay in a hostel we had all heard about there. When we got there, the hostel was full, luckily Quinton and Lucy are as unorganised as I am and hadn´t booked a bed either, so we were all homeless together! This ended up being the best thing that could have happened as we found a huge pousada (apartment) for not much more than one bed costs at the hostel, between us! It was nice to stay somewhere besides a hostel for a few days, spread my things around and cook some nice meals.
The island was really nice, pretty beaches, a big lagoon and a very relaxed vibe. Had a very chilled out time here, just hanging on the beach, swimming and working on the tan! Lucy and Quinton were great house mates, the three of us got on famously! Quinton and I decided to head to Rio after four nights on the island, it was a little sad breaking up the threesome. Lucy had decided to hang out there for a while longer so we found her some new housemates - three buff, aussie surfer guys! The poor guys had been staying in another pousada and it was broken into and they had all their gear stolen! Welcome to Brazil!

Barra at sunrise - yes, I do get up early sometimes!

the pretty fishing village, Barra Da Lagoa.

Brazil remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Uruguay

2007-04-02T16:10:59Z

This is just going to be a small post, because Urguay is, umm, small! Tiny, the size of a 5 cent peice.
I just popped over for a quick visit of four days, taking in Montevedio, the capital, and Colonia, a really sweet little port town.
I caught the ferry from Buenos Airies with my new friend, Anya, a German girl I met in the hostel. After landing in Colonia we caught a bus to Montivideo to spend a couple of nights there. Montivideo is like Buenos Aire´s poor cousin. It´s ok, quite picturesque in parts with a couple of beaches that the locals like to hang out on, but really, they weren´t very nice. On our second night we did stumble upon a free concert in a square in the old city which was kinda fun. They seemed to be quite well known, some old dudes with some funny choreography and typical South American sounding tunes. We listened to them whilst we shared a huge plate of postre (dessert). There was some pretty good sweets going on in Uruguay, I have to admit!
Colonia was a much prettier place. Very cute, cobblestones streets and colourful houses, everything was tiny. You could walk the entire town in about an hour if you really wanted to, but we took a couple of hours exploring little alleyways and trying to take postcard worthy photos!

George Bush was in Uruguay when I was there. He is not a very popular man in South America. These types of signs were everywhere - it basically means Get Out Bush!

The old city at night, Montivideo

Alley of Sighs in Colonia

Colonia at night

Uruguay remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Iguazu Falls

2007-04-02T16:08:01Z

I can only imagine that the first people to lay eyes on this place must have thought they had wandered into some sort never never land. Massive waterfalls surrounded by lush rain forest, mists of water rising creating huge rainbows and thousands of beautiful, colourful butterflies.
Iguazu falls is a pretty jaw dropping experience. They are absolutely huge, thundering spectactularily over the rocks into the river below. These are some seriously noisy (and tall, 80 metres in fact!) waterfalls!
There are two sides, one in Argentina and one in Brazil. I visited both sides and this was the place that I crossed over into Brazil for the next chapter of my South American journey.
The Argentinian side is where you can get up close and personal with the falls (all 275 of ´em!!), and the Brazilian side is where you get the grand overview. Most people enjoy the Argentinian side more, but I have to say that I am a bigger fan of the Brazilian side - far less people and I think seeing the falls on the larger scale was much more impressive. Oh, and there are some creatures running around that looked eerily similiar to R.O.U.S´s (Rodents of Unsusual Size, for those not familiar with The Princess Bride!!)
Although, there are far more butterflies on the Argentinian side. I have to say it was quite an experience to have 20 or so butterflies drinking water off me after I had been sprayed by the falls. I felt extremely popular!

]
Me and the Falls on the Argentinian side

Me and the Falls on the Brazilian side

R.O.U.S´s

Iguazu Falls remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Villa Gessel

2007-03-07T19:17:03Z

I went to the beach at the weekend. To a little place called Villa Gessel on the atlantic coast. I headed out with my amigos Meg and Edwin. Meg is a writer/master storyteller from Oregan, USA and all round cool chic. Edwin is from Holland, studying Spanish in Beunos Aires and all round cool bloke. Meg was heading south, Edwin wanted a weekend at the beach and I just wanted to see something of Argentina besides BA!
We had a five hour bus journey down there Friday afternoon, which seems rather short in comparison to some of the epic bus trips I have taken so far! We arrived early evening, checked into our hotel and headed straight out for an early dinner, and by early I mean 9pm! We found a little restaurant called Zutra for dinner. After noticing some rather interesting art work on the walls we realised there was a distinct Karma Sutra theme going on! After some good wine, good conversation and a whole lotta food we headed back to the hotel for some sleep in anticipation of our big day at the beach.
We awoke to a beautiful day and headed straight to the beach. The beach was not fantastic, at least not compared to the beaches at home, but still, it was nice to be on the sand and in the sun! Edwin and Meg denied my offers of sunscreen and both were sunburnt at the end off the day. I was a little smug with my non sunburned skin!
After a little siesta (at 9!) we ventured out for food, vino and more great conversation (think I already mentioned that Meg is a master storyteller!!) We called an early night at around 1pm and headed back to the hotel to sleep. We had planned on going out to see the Villa Gessel nightlife, but we weren't up for it after all that sun!
Here's where the story gets interesting. And as Meg would say "let me break it down for ya..."

1am we go to sleep
4:45am I am woken by the sound of something being dragged on the floor. In my just woken state I think it is Meg dragging her backpack outside. Then I hear Edwin call out "hello, hello". I look over and he is sitting up in bed. Next thing he has shot out of bed towards the door. I quickly get up and find Edwin standing at the door (in his underwear!), Meg's backpack at his feet. I'm starting to realise that someone had come into our room to try and steal Megs backpack!
4:46am Meg has awoken at this point and we are just looking at each other in shock. Edwin drags Meg's backpack back in to the room and we sit on our beds, heads in our hands, in disbelief at what had just happened!
4:47am Edwin starts to explain what happened. He woke from the light coming from the open door and saw someone standing in the middle of the room. At first he thinks it is Meg, but when the guy starts dragging the backpack out he gets a view of Megs bed and sees that she's still in it. He calls out, chases the guy, the guy drops the bag and bolts off. This is the point that I woke up. Meg, who had previously been lamenting the weight of her backpack, is now very glad that she overpacked! Personally, I pity the poor sucker who tries to run off with mine in the middle of the night!
4:49am We sit around going over the event. Meg asks questions, ''what did he look like?'' Edwin answers ''like a normal guy, wearing a grey top, grey pants, got a really good look at him, actually he was kinda cute!''
4:50am We discover the robbers shoes at the door along with Edwins. It appears he had intended to swap his for Edwins. Edwin is not suprised, they are pretty cool shoes after all!
4:52am We discuss whether we should wake up the owners of the hotel and call the police but we're thinking that since nothing was taken and he was long gone that there wouldn't really be any point. Then we start thinking we should take a really good look to make sure nothing actually was taken. That's when Edwin realises his two mobile phones are gone, taken straight from the bedside table not even a metre from his head! He didn't take his watch though which was right next to the phones. We'd already decided the robber was not that bright so we're not suprised by this.
4:55am We go downstairs to wake the owners to tell them what has gone down. This is quite a task. The story has to be gone over and over, they come upstairs to check out the room, then we go back downstairs, go over the story some more and then some more, and then some more...luckily Meg speaks pretty good spanish. Otherwise it would have been some game of charades. Five words, first word, two syllables, sounds like...
5:45am We go to the police station. Which turns out to be about 100 metres away! We have to wait for the police officer in charge to wake up (he´s having a snooze out the back!) before a report can be done. The report takes all of five mintures whilst he fills in his template. He really doesn't seem to give a toss that a guy had broken into our room whilst we were in it and it's obvious no further action will be taken. We're very sorry to have woken him.
6:50 am Back in our room we go over the events again. I think we're still all in a bit of shock, completely stunned that someone would would be so brazen. "How rude!'' I think is the exact term that Edwin used! The room that we were staying in was tiny, not enough room to swing a cat in, which means that when the man was in our room he was never more than a couple of metres away from anyone of us. This thought makes Meg and I feel sick.
7am We go to sleep finally....
When we finally get out of bed having caught up on our interrupted sleep, it was raining and it becomes apparent that our romantic idea of a weekend at the beach has not turned out so great! Whilst waiting for the bus back to Buenos Aires Edwin starts singing, " We gotta get out of this place" I couldn't have agreed more...

Edwin and Meg

The three of us, our last day together as Meg is going south and Edwin and I back to BA.

Villa Gessel remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Buenos Aires

2007-03-07T19:10:20Z

...these are a few of my favourite things about Buenos Aires. And that's just skimming the surface. I am totally in love with this city. I've never felt this way before. I might even go as far as saying that I think Buenos Aires is THE ONE! I've seriously been thinking about chucking in the rest of my trip and staying here for the rest of my time...life!
I have had so much fun in this awesome city. It's like being in Europe but with that distinct Latin American flavour. In fact, they say that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America. Paris, Schmaris, give me BA anytime!
The first week here I stayed in hostel in the city called Portal Del Sur. It was a really cool place with a roof top bar and there was a great bunch of people staying there. Every night we would head up to the bar, have a few beers and then head out for dinner at around 11. Then head to a nightclub for some dancin' (we went to a club one night called Opera Bay, it looks like the Opera House!!)and roll on back to the hostel at around 6am. We were like the united nations, everyone was from different countires and got on really well. I can't help but think that backpackers should rule the world...ok, so probably nothing would get done, but I think the world would still be a better place!
After five really fun days together our little group started to break up as one after another moved on to other place. I decided to move on the another hostel then, a quiter one called Sandanzas in San Telmo, one of the older parts of the city, so that I could concentrate on learning Spanish. Which is not going as well I would like. My dreams of being able to speak spanish are slowly starting to fade as I realise that I am seriouldy crapola at learning languages, something I suspected before and have now confirmed! Thinking about just adding an o or a to the end of words and just hoping for the best! No, I am getting a little better, can at least understand mostly what is being said to me, although they speak so damn fast here I am constantly saying "despacio, por favor" (slowly, please). Just can't actually say anything back to them yet! My poor little brain is not coping with the fact that a table is feminine (a table is table!!), not to mention that fact that not only do I have to learn a whole new vocabularly, but also, most of the words change depending on who you are talking about! It's all very confusing! And if one more person says to me "by the time you leave South America, you will speak really good spanish" I am going to hit them!
As for the afore mentioned favourite things...
Let me start with the football. I went to see a Boca Jnrs (one of the most popular teams in Argentina) game at Boca stadium. It was their first home game of the season so the fans were pretty pumped. I have never seen anything like it. The fans sang, chanted and danced the entire way through the game. I had no idea what they were singing, but I made up my own words and sang right along with them! The atmosphere was just amazing, out of this world, they are so passionate about this game and their team!

Tango. Is huge in Buenos Aires. Everyone is doing it. The tango festival was on last week and there was lots of dancing all of the city. I've taken a few classes and it's a really, really cool dance. I even bought some tango shoes. (Couldn't help myself, lets face it, it was going to happen at some point along the trip!)

Tango at Plaza Derrego, San Telmo

Steak. Bife de lomo. Amazing. I don't know what they are feeding their cows over here, but the meat here is unreal! And so cheap! You can get a really good steak for around 12-16 pesos ($5-8 aus) Am definitly getting my daily dose of iron! Oh, and the vino tinto (red wine) is just as good and just as cheap.

Ronan and I decided to order two huge steaks and share them...so believe it or not, but I had a plate full of steak just as big!

Ice cream. Otherwise known as Helado. Yum. They sell it by the kilo and I've taken to buying 1/4 kilo cups. It´s more economical.
Dulce de Leche. A really yummy caramel spread. Have it every morning for breakfast on my bread rolls and pastries. And is also one of my favourite ice cream flavours. Hmmm, between the ice cream, the dulce de leche, the pastries, and not to mention all the beer, I may come back twice the girl I was!

This is just a glimpse of what I have I been seeing and doing in BA...I coud go on and on, but I dont want to bore you!
Some piccies:

They had a mini carnaval in BA...nothing like the Rio one I´m sure but fun all the same. Everyone runs around with cans of shaving foam type stuff spraying each other. I got totally attacked, not sure why, but every little evil child there was spraying me...I had my own can though so I got the little creatures back! It was lots of fun.

The gang at Portal Del Sur on the roof top bar.

Recoleta Cemetary. Basically a mini city of dead people! This is where you will find the remains of Argentina´s rich and famous. All of the mausoleums are three stories underground. Two of them belonging to very wealthy families are even big enough for the families to hold mass in. Crazy! Oh and kinda freaky is there are lots of cats hanging around...

The colourful houses in La Boca. This is a very poor and supposedly dangerous area of BA, it´s made very clear that you should not go here at night.

They are mad about Che in Argentina!

Buenos Aires remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Puerto Varas

2007-02-16T18:57:49Z

What a cool little town. We only had three nights here unfortunately, as we both fell in love with this little place and could have easily spent a couple of weeks here just hanging out with all our new amigos! We stayed in a really cool hostel called Casa Margouya run by a french guy, Nicolas. So there was lots of french guys staying there, a couple of Chileans and us. There was a really cool bar called the Garage that plays live music. We had two very large nights there. We also managed to get some white water rafting in - yep, have spent half the holiday in a helmet so far! I´ll let the photos tell the rest of the story...

This band is called "Tommorrow, I will stop" as in, tomorrow, I will give up...smoking, drinking etc. They were really good, a bit like the cat empire, so naturally, I loved them!

Our white water trip. It was quite mellow, but beautiful surroundings. The rafts flipped before we even made it to the water! On the way to the river, the trailer flipped over, it was almost a disaster as there was a car right behind.

Alfonzo (an argentinian we met at the hostel who used to live in Sydney) me and Zac at the Garage.

Attempting to salsa with Alfonzo, he was very good, me not so good!

Puerto Varas remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Torres Del Paine

2007-02-16T18:56:51Z

The name of this national park in southern Chile is aptly named! After a long journey to get down there, Zac and I were off on a five day trek. We hired all our camping gear from the hostel we were staying at and were all prepared with our water proof gear and I had my new ugly but very comfy hiking shoes (I resent having to fork out so much money for shoes that aren´t pretty!) We walked for five days through some pretty rough terrain in some of the most stunning scenery I have ever seen - mountains, rivers, lakes, glaciers - really beautiful. We had about 20 season changes every day. It would be hot one minute, raining the next, hailing and then hot again! Crazy.
There´s a reason I haven´t been camping in 8 years - that´s because it sucks! Well at least it does when it´s freezing cold and raining. And you´ve been walking for hours on end to get to the campground with all your camping gear. (Although, I have to admit, Zac did carry pretty much everything - nice brother!)
We managed to walk all the distances well under the time they suggest you need, so we were pretty happy with ourselves. Zac has some sort of super fitness thing going on, he was always way ahead of me!
The hardest part of the walk was our last night at the "three towers". You literally have to climb over big boulders, sometimes scrambling on your hand and knees. But it was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen. I was speechless, it was so beautiful. Zac managed to get up early the next morning to see it at sunrise...I stayed in bed!
It was pretty interesting sharing a tent with my brother for four nights. Yes, apparently 30 year old men still find it funny to fart in confined spaces. I think it was all the dried fruit we had brought along...

The spectacular setting for our first night camping. We managed to pack a "box" of wine, so we would settle in each night with a mug or two and some lovely pistachio nuts!!

Zac and his "wide load"!!
A Chilean cowboy - they all wear berets and scarfs!

the three towers

The sight I missed, the three towers at sunrise

We were pretty damn happy to finish, I´m suprised we even had the energy to do this photo!

Torres Del Paine remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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El Calafate

2007-02-16T18:52:26Z

After three weeks in Chile, it was time to head into Argentina. First port of call is a little place called El Calafate, famous for it´s very active glacier. The glacier is 5kms wide, 60 meters about water and moves 2 meters every day causing large peices of ice to come crashing down into the lake. Pretty awesome sight.
We were only here for a couple nights, there´s not much else to do in this little town besides the glacier. We had our first Argentinian steak - it was huge and very, very good.
Zac and I parted ways here. He left to see more mountains, lakes and glacier before heading south for his Antarctic trip. I headed north for the big smoke, Buenos Aires.

El Calafate remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Pucon and Valdivia

2007-01-31T22:15:11Z

Pucon:
Pucon is a lovely little touristy town and adventure mecca. Reminded me a lot of New Zealand. The scenery is similar, lots of mountains! And also had the same sort of feeling. You can do it all here - rafting, hydro speed, canyoning, canopying, kayak, hike, climb volcanos and relax after it all in the hot springs! We spent 6 days here in all. Most of our time revolved around climbing the volcano - finding a company to take us up, resting up for the volcano, actually climbing the volcano and resting after climbing the volcano. In between all this we did manage to see a few sights around the areas (lots of waterfalls!), visit some hot springs and do hydro speed down the rapids. This was really cool. I don´t really know how to describe it - it´s kind of like a kayak that´s been cut in half, or like a big, hollow plastic boogie board. You basically just hold onto it and ride it down the rapids - serious fun! At one point I was vertical on a wave. Zac was behind me, wishes it was him that caught the wave! Pretty cool stuff.

Valdivia:
Valdivia is a cute little university city. It´s very European with a strong German influence. Their pride and joy was South America´s largest brewery, Antstwerp, until it was destroyed (like most of the city) in an earthquake in 1960. They are still very much into their beer though and there was even a small beirfest on when we were there...we had to go along of course!
The university here is amazing. It´s pretty much is built in the botanical gardens, which are really beautiful. Nice for your breaks in between classes!
Another attraction of Valdivia is the fish markets and the sea lions. There is small colony of sea lions that live in the river that backs onto the fish markets and they pretty much just laze around taking handouts - nice life. Apparently a few years ago they were coming up to the side walks at night and scaring the shit out of tourists,so they had to build a fence to keep them at bay! They are pretty big, so I can imagine it would be a bit intimidating to come face to face to one of them in the middle of the night!
There are also a handful of spanish forts to go and see. We only stayed two nights here, which was ample time to see it all.

Pucon and Valdivia remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Pucon

2007-01-27T01:16:35Z

Why is it, that when we go travelling we do things that we would never usually do? Usually, on a hot summers day, I can be found lying in the sun by the pool or in a beer garden. Climbing a 2840 metre high active volcano covered in snow and ice is generally not on the top of my list of things to do. But that´s exactly what I found myself doing in Pucon, on Volcano Villarica.
Zac and I headed out early in the morning to join our group and get kitted out with all our gear. The group was fairly large and there appeared to be only two other english speaking climbers, a couple from London, Simon and Carly, so naturally, we became instant buddies! After the drive to the volcano we caught a ski lift a short distance up the mountain (not nearly far enough up, in my opinion!) and from then on it was 4 or so hours of climbing to get to the top.
Not being that fit and more than a little afraid of heights, I found the climb pretty challenging to say the least. I developed a technique of putting one foot in front of the other, followed by the ice pick, and keeping my eyes firmly peeled down. Looking up was far too depressing (really, i have that far to go?) and looking down was down right scary (holy shit, if I fell, I´d have that far to fall?) Luckily one of the guides, Jose Carlos, took a shining to me (at least he was making fun of me the entire way, but I prefer to think of it as one of those primary school crushes where boys make fun of the girls they like!) so he was always close at hand to help me whenever I needed it!
When we eventually made it to the top, I have to say I felt pretty happy with myself and extremely proud/stunned/amazed that I had made it! For those of you, like me, have no concept of how high 2840 metre is, put it this way, we were literally in the clouds about 3/4 of the way up. It was pretty cold and windy up there (glad i was wearing my thermals!) and because of the cloud, we didn´t have the best view, but it really didn´t matter that much by the time I reached the top, I was just damn happy to get there!
The way down was a whole different story. You slide down. This was more my style. I had one scary moment where I had to do an emergency ice pick stop, but other than that, it was a total blast. Because a lot of people climb, by the end of the day, there are a whole heap of ¨slippery slides¨going down the volcano, you just get on one and slide on down. So much fun!
Have to say, I have always thought of people climbing mountains as total nutbars/crazy bastards, but I have to give them extra kudos now - i still think they are loco, but I can see how someone can become addicted to that sort of achievment.
Have been in pain ever since, but reckon it´s worth it, not many people can say they´ve climbed an active volcano!!

Pucon remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Santiago

2007-01-27T01:17:52Z

After some pretty gruelling air travel (using frequent flyer points seemed like such a good idea at the time!) I arrived in Santiago. Headed straight to the hostel, La Casa Roja, to meet up with Zac. The hostel was pretty nice, in an old mansion, very big and noisy! But with nice common areas and a pool out the back, it made for a good stay. I walked into our room to be greeted by four naked English lads asleep in our room - I´m sure there must be some sort of "don´t sleep/walk around naked in a mixed hostel dorm room" etiquette that someone had forgotten to tell these guys about!!
Not that many people speak English so it´s been fun and games trying to get things done! It will be good when I get to Buenos Aires and do a course, my aim is to speak fluent Spanish by the time I get back home - well at least as good as someone with my total lack of talent in the area can be!
Everything is incredibly cheap here - it´s appealing to Zac´s tightarse ways and to my spendrift nature quite well!
Can´t say that I thought that much of Santiago, it´s a big city, dirty and not that nice to look at. A few good places to check out, but didn´t need more than a day to do it, which turned out to be just as well, because i spent most my days here asleep and all the nights out - they sure know how to party in this part of the world! I seem to have lost all concept of time here. It gets dark quite late and you wouldn´t even bother going out for dinner till at least 9! So after a few beers at the hostel, we headed out with our new found friends - Darren and Rod from Australia and Matt and Louise from England. After a bite to eat it was off to do more drinking and we didn´t roll into the hostel till about 6am. No one arose that day, except for Zac who doesn´t seem to need as much sleep as a normal person! The next night we did pretty much the same, except Zac stayed behind for a good nights sleep in anticipation for our long bus journey to Pucon the next day. We went to a restaurant that Rod had been recommended in a pretty groovy part of town and then onto a nice bar after that. I was supposed to go out for just dinner but it didn´t quite work out that way - ended up getting on our bus at 08:45 without having gone to bed!
To sum it up: Santiago - not that pretty, but sure was fun!

Santiago remains copyright of the author zedgee, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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