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2007-11-13T17:12:00.000+11:00

Well after many hours in planes and airports (Santiago, Aukland, Sydney), I'm glad to be back home in Melbourne.

I've had a fantastic trip, and hope anyone who's dropped in to read this blog has enjoyed seeing a bit of the wonderful places I've visited.

Hasta luego amigos!

Rapa Nui... (Easter Island in English!)

2007-11-13T11:00:00.000+11:00

After a 4hr or 5hr flight over sea, our plane turned beautifully so I got a glimpse of the entire green island with its old volcanoes before coming in to land. And with the endless view of sea, you really do get the sense of isolation that allowed this island to develop its unique culture.

I quickly found a hostel from the airport info desk, and we were picked up and given a quick tour of town by the owner before being dropped back at the hostel. I spent most of my time on the island with Carla, an English girl, who arrived on the same flight and had similar plans on visiting ruins. So we wandered back round town, down to the port area, and along the foreshore to see our first moai (statues) before enjoying a lovely fish dinner.

Next day, after visiting the tourist office, picking up some maps and written guides (and booking our tour for the next day), we headed along the coast in the opposite direction, and up to the volcano and the ceremonial town of Orongo. This route took us past more toppled moai, a small port, a garden of native plants, and some ocean caves that were used in "birdman" religious ceremonies. And we reached the crater of the volcano (spectacular) and the archeolical ruins of the town of Orongo known for its birdman ceremonies.

OK some history/myths before I go further.... the island was first inhabited by people (probably polynesian) of a "sunken land" who came in double canoes. There was thought to be a second wave of immigration or possibly slaves brought from somewhere later. Over time clans and a society developed with some different classes. Somewhere along the way the carving of Moais (statues) and ahus (platforms) developed, with each clan having its own ceremonial centres. The Moais are thought to represent sucessive rulers of the clan, and were thought to have been built up over time. These moais where nearly all carved out of rock from one central quarry and mysteriously transported... It seems production of these maoi went mad... in total theres about 1000 on the island with about a third found near platforms, others in transport or in the process of carving.

Its thought that this moai manufacture and transport led to dramatic deforestation and erosion on the island. And in turn to interclan and class rivalry, where diminishing resources led to clan wars, and eventually all the moai were toppled and several ahus destroyed. (So those we see standing on ahus have all been restored and are not original, just as the grassy and largely treeless land that we see today is quite different from the palm groves that researchers say were there.)

Another religion sprang up (or may have coexisted with the earlier statue building) known as the birdman cult. This centred around a man from each tribe competing in a yearly competion to climb up and down the cliffs, and swim out and get the first egg from a small island of the coast. The winning tribe then had the right to be the dominant tribe for the year, with the winner given a special title and power over others. There are many petroglyphs (rock carvings) and some rock paintings related to this religion. It was still practices until the 1800s when missionaries wiped it out.

Ok... next day we went on a tour round the island with Patricio (our excellent guide) in his old cream combi, visiting various sites along the coast. He did a great job of explaining things, pointing out carvings, unique moai and other things we would otherwise have missed.

The highlight for me would have to be the quarry area... amazing volcanic crater area where the half buried maoi (waiting for transport?) stand around like guards, and the other areas of stone carving where half finished moai dot the landscape. Wow.

Onto the bay where a tsunami swept the statues inland in the 60s, but which now has a line of moai re-erected by the Japanese in return for rights for a crane ad! And onto the only real white sand beach of the island, which was home of the "royal" tribe (most direct decendents of the origin immigrants). All in all a great day. And to top it off, fish empanada and a movie on Easter Island

Before leaving I also visited the museum which was quite informative, wandered thru souvenir shops and visited a local school festival. Saw turtles down in the harbour, watched surfers, and watched a fisherman fillet his two 25 kg yellowfin tunas. Lovely place to relax at the end of a long holiday.

Valparaiso and the coast

2007-11-06T12:05:00.000+11:00

Valparaiso

Valparaiso is on the coast, about an hour and a half away from Santiago along a wildflower lined road that takes you thru some of Chile's wine country.

It is a twin city with Vina del Mar, meaning that their suburbs merge at some point along the coast, but to me Vina is a rich person's playground but soulless, whereas Valparaiso shines through its working class grit with its naval /port history and decorated tin houses.

Yeah, its the upper suburbs in the hills reached by stairs or "ascensors" (think of a trolley car system thats rails head up cliffs at maybe 60 degree angle or more) that are the real charmers... with stunning views across the bay and surrounding suburbs. And all the colourfully painted houses and street art that dots the lanscape and make it a real pleasure to explore.

Theres definitely dirtier pockets, and the lower town becomes a bit threatening at night when all the shops roller shutters come down, leaving sections deserted. But its a working port town, so you'd expect it to be a bit rough. Oddly theres a lot of punks (seem heaps in Chile) and apparently according to one of their signs punk is now 30.... Chile is definitely quite retro... breakdancing kids and mohawks on the other hand!

Anyway I really enjoyed wandering around, looking at the street art and painted houses, and checking out the various museums (cartooner's and naval history actually).

Up the coast

Christian from the youth hostel had a hire car (long story) and was looking for takers to go on a day trip up the coast, which I thought sounded great. So four of us headed off... to check out the coast, have a fresh seafood lunch, and wander along some beaches.

As it turned out, close to Vina is all very developed with large skyrise apartment buildings hugging the rocky coast. As you get further away its a little less developed, and we stopped for lunch in a town with a nice bay and little fishing fleet... so fresh fried fish for lunch. yum.

After admiring the pelicans and the beach, we headed further up the coast, eventually reaching lovely white sand beach and chilled out beach resort area about an hour further north. Saved the best for last.

My time was up, so back to Santiago to fly out to easter island, (which is also part of Chile.)

Santiago

2007-11-06T11:45:00.000+11:00

Well I was sad to say goodbye to Bolivia, but was looking forward to my flight from La Paz... apparently the airports altitude mean planes need a longer runway and more speed to take off and land... but it seemed pretty normal, and clouds obscured any view of the city. Still on aeroplanes - they didnt feed us first flight, then herded us all off the plane thru customs, and back while they refuelled in Iqueque (Chile) then fed us only peanuts and a biscuit... starving Karen!

Arriving in Chile was a bit of a shock to the system... their roads are all immaculate, cars follow the lanes, there is order, lots of greenery, no traditional dress or people with roadside stalls... you could almost be in Australia or the US or Europe. They have supermarkets... (sad I know but having not seen one for months I was excited!) Santiago is in fact a big, international feeling city with skyscrapers, shopping malls and pedestrian streets, buses, a subway system and suburbs which spread along the valley.

I found my hostel, and headed out to one of the suburbs which is meant to be a bit bohemian, and filled with students, bars and places to eat. I found an area which reminded me of St Kilda a bit... palm trees and practicing jugglers and all! (no beach though). Had fish at a lovely restaurant, but unfortunately succumbed once more to a dreaded stomach bug.... got home and was sick. I spent the next half a day in denial, wandering round being a tourist hoping it was just a once off.... except I was really tired and found myself falling asleep in the sun on park benches or even a great museum.... back to the hostel. After about 16hrs sleep, I felt less sleepy but had diareahea, and it was another few days until I was back to solid food and wandering anywhere.... Still for what its worth, I like Santiago, and picked a comfy hostel to get stuck in!

Cycling Bolivias ¨Death¨ road

2007-10-31T00:28:00.000+11:00

Well first thing first... don`t panic....although it has the name ¨death rd¨, its really not that dangerous anymore as there is no traffic at all on the dirt part since the new road has been built. So its now more a spectacular dirt/stone road with some big drops down the side into the valley, which is used for foreigners to hurtle down on mountain bikes... fun! Mind you, you definitely want your breaks and bike to work properly!

I went with a fairly new Bolivian company called b-side, who had great full suspension bikes and friendly and professional guides. You start up in the mountains above 4000m and ride down to Coroico which is about 1000m... I think... thru snow to start then rain, a few waterfalls along the way, and finally end up at the bottom where its warm and sunny and shorts and t´shirt weather.

Anyway great fun, pity about the weather obscuring the views. Actually I`m a bit sad about leaving Bolivia... I`ve really grown to like it and its chaos. Only a week in Chile, Easter Island and then home now.

Another thing to winge about... dropped the camera and busted the LCD screen, so although I can take photos framing them is rather hit and miss now.

So I´m not a mountaineer...

2007-10-28T05:58:00.000+11:00

One of the things which you cant help but notice here is some of the lovely snow topped mountains. I got the idea that after having spent almost a month in Bolivia and most of that being about 3500m, with my highest point til then at 5000m, that perhaps I was acclimatised enough to try climbing one. Well Huani Potosi is just out of La Paz, climbable for novices with a guide and at 6088m its not to be sneezed at, so I signed up.

After collecting all the ice climbing gear at the agency, it was about a 2hr drive to the hydro-electric lake (that along with the others below it supplies most of La Paz`s power), that was the start of the walk. And then a 3hr hike up the mountain to the refuge at 5130m. Well I was puffing a bit but felt ok going up. Unfortunately things got worse not better, with sleeping at this altitude rather difficult. The hike to the top is supposed to take about 6 hrs and you start at 1am to summit at sunrise. I ended up walking for about an hour or so before being completely stuffed... puffing of course, but also feeling nauseous, dizzy and then starting to faint with everything going black... altitude sickness - I think about 5500m. So I went back down with my guide and climbed into my sleeping bag, leaving the others to slog their way up and down. Judging by their exhaustion it was bloody hard work (but beautiful), and from my experience I think I´ll stick to walking around the bottom of any mountains from now on! Great view when the clouds clear though.

Oh well, I can now say I´ve hiked up snow and ice with crampons and an icepick, and know enough to definitely say that those who climb Everest are NUTS!

Lowlands

2007-10-25T11:59:00.000+10:00

Santa Cruz

I flew into to Santa Cruz and found myself sweating profusely in the bus into town... from pleasant mid twenties weather in Sucre to 38 and humid. Thats lowlands for you.

Santa Cruz is Bolivias biggest city, and also probably the most affluent one, and hasnt much in the way of tourist attractions other than a pleasant town square. So I passed straight thru on my first day, and came back for half a day later to explore before catching a bus on. Nice and tropical to wander around, too much traffic would be my summary!

Samaipata

Straight from the airport I went to a shared taxi service to visit Samiapata, a nice town with some impressive hilltop rock inca ruins about 3 hours out of Santa Cruz. While I was waiting for enough people for a shared taxi, my big backpack dissappeared from where I left it. Stress. I found out from a taxi driver that it had been loaded into a taxi along with the bags from a large family group... better than being stolen, but with no way to contact them, I was left hoping to 1) catch up with the taxi onway to Samaipata or 2) hope that they´d realise and leave my bag at the taxi centre. Luckily I shared the next taxi with a lovely Bolivian couple who chatted to me and kept my mind off my bag. Amazingly we did catch up with the taxi and bag just at the town entrance... So how freaky is that- chasing your bag across the country.

Samaipata is a lovely laid back colonial town, with friendly locals, good food and of course those mysterious ruins. I met these 3 girls, and shared dinner, a taxi and tour which was nice. The site is definitely atmospheric, but odd with all the carved grooves, seats and recesses presumeably for mummies or offerings. Also ran into Miles after last seeing him in Peru!

There was also a small zoo which I walked out to, and found myself becoming the climbing frame for friendly monkeys and other animals... stop licking my knee wild pig!

When it came to getting back to Santa Cruz, I was planning on catching a passing microbus, but got invited by two merry Bolivian truck drivers to share the ride along with three Swiss girls. Service with a smile, roadside peaches and unfortunately for me too many bends which made me a bit carsick.

Villa Tunari

Theres this wildlife refuge run staffed mainly by volunteers that has rescued large cats, monkeys, a bear and more, that I saw on the internet. To be a volunteer you need to stay a minimum of 2 weeks so with that out I decided to drop in and have a look for an afternoon instead. What I found was a small town on the side of the highway and a lovely refuge overrun by friendly volunteers. Two looking after a Bolivian bear (endangered), and many more looking after cats, monkeys and birds. I spent a few hours watching and playing with their monkeys, and chatting to volunteers.

Cochabamba

On to another major Bolivian city on my way back to La Paz, and this one known for its large sprawling market, and its palace built for a tin barron. I checked out the markets succumbing to another woven blanket-rug, lots of fruit juices, and nibbles too. The palace was stunning with a gorgeous interior and lovely gardens, and rather out of place in Bolivia as it wasnt colonial style... supposedly based on Versaille. But it really showed just how much money was made from mining here... all imported marble, furniture and statues, silk wallpaper etc.

A few more photos when I get a chance

Sucre

2007-10-25T11:58:00.000+10:00

Sucre is a beautiful white colonial city, with heaps of churches, convents, a thriving market, parades and a lovely green town square.

Since I was staying across from the market, I adopted the habit of getting myself a delicious fresh fruit salad and smoothy to start the day. And couldnt help but be impressed by the hum of this busy area... open first thing in the morning, and a popular pedestrian strip come 9 or 10pm.

I loved Sucre´s weaving museum, had to go back after lunch, and went back a few days later to buy myself some amazing hand woven pieces. I also checked various other museums, most of which were housed in lovely buildings.

And for a change of pace I went to see some dinosaur footprints... yeah, the local cement factory were quarrying when they uncovered a whole slab of footprints going up a almost vertical wall. It used to be a muddy swampy area near a lake apparently, but a volcanic eruption covered it with protective ash, and the plates tilted rather a lot. Odd.

And just before I was leaving, I ran into a wierd parade around the town square... dancing teenagers followed by decorated cars..

And I decided to fly between Sucre and my next destination as I couldnt face another overnight bus, and a half hour flight sounded oh so much better!

Potosi - silver mines

2007-10-19T11:20:00.000+10:00

Potosi is the worlds highest city according to my guidebook, and it also has an amazing history due to its silver mining. Yes, once the worlds most prolofic and lucrative silver mine starting in the 1500s, it grew by the end of the 1700s to be the largest and wealthiest city in Latin America. Yes, the spaniards loved their silver. And they ordered locals to work for months at a time in the mines, and then went on to import african slaves as well. Of course conditions were appalling (and still are) and with shifts of 12 -18 hrs a day and months at a time underground it was hardly surprising millions died. The church even went as far as to revoke its previous order that all coca leaves were prohibited due to pressure from the mine owners... workers needed coca leaves to work those hours.

Since its glory days, Potosi is now in trouble after 500yrs of mining the quality of ore is not great and hardly economic... it relies on tin and lead at the moment, and the forecast reserve is for these is only another 10 to 20 years.

Anyway I wandered round town, checking out the beautiful colonial buildings, churches, convents etc. (Nuns also led an odd life I discovered, being shut away behind wooden doors and only allowed to speak to family once a month and only hear them not see them then either) And the next day I went on a mine tour.

Well, first of all we got all suited up cos its dusty and dirty down the mines (quite probably poisonous too with the lead and arsenic...). Then we went to learn basic bomb making in the miners market... where anyone (yes kids, foreigners, anyone) can buy supplies of dynamite, ignition fuses and other materials that help make bigger bangs! Of course you can also get face masks, lamps and safety gear (although I cant say I saw that much in use). From there we went to get more presents for the miners... coca leaves and soft drinks. (Check out the lump in the vendors cheek... a lump of coca leaves) Then a visit to a ingenio where they grind and refine the ore a little. (Oddly they export the dried sludge, and don`t smelt any here)

Then down the mine for 2-3 hours, through the maze of tunnels that have been carved in the mountain. No real planning here... groups of miners follow mineral veins and prop where they think necessary... no big picture, no overall company controlling mine, no OH&S, minimal machinery with the majority being shovelled out of the mountain and put into rail carts. Groups of miners get paid according to the ore quality and quantity. Did I say it was hot and dusty down the mines...and at times only crawlable. It was a real experience to visit the place and see the conditions they work in, but let me tell you its hot, hard to breath and uncomfortable, a few hours and one shovel load was more than enough for me. But very interesting.

At the end our guide demonstrated how the dynamite works... so casually lighting it and then handing it round with a burning fuse for photos (see left... thats lit) before running down the hill to explode it somewhere safe! Yeah it went bang.

On a different note I caught a micro out to a wierd hot springs up a mountain in this beautiful valley. It was a little freaky cos I was the only one there, and the guidebooks warned about the dangers of swimming there. Its this round green pool, volcanic with really steep sides that just dropoff, and no ones quite sure how deep it is but it gets hotter the deeper you go. And bubble come up in the centre of the laguna. Now if thats not a setting for some wierd nasty creature from a horror movie I dont know what is... needless to say I swam but warily!

Tupiza...wild west?

2007-10-16T12:16:00.000+10:00

From Uyuni I finally got to go on a Bolivian train - to Tupiza and to arrive at the very inconvenient time of 4am. So I had planned on sleeping in, and then a bit of a lazy day looking round the city and surrounding canyon.

What I discovered when I ventured out was that it was market day, so I spent a few hours wandering along looking, and sampling some of the saltenas (like pasties - mainly potato with a bit of chicken and spice), tamales (corn balls with llama meat inside), and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Then up to the lookout to see how the town is nestled between red and greenish grey spectacular rocky mountain ranges. And I couldnt help but notice how much warmer it is than La Paz or Uyuni... spose the lower elevation helps. I then decided to explore one of the canyons nearby, so I headed up this valley which narrowed with stunning red rock formations on both sides. It was fun following the canyon, discovering wierd formations round every bend. And further up the canyon got quite narrow, requiring a little scrambling over rocks to continue. And did I mention the cactuses... I guess its them which makes me think of the wild west ... plus the fact that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid died a few town along after robbing a payroll. One of the tourist attractions is to ride horses and visit the cave they hid in, the hotel they stayed in... wierd but it is lovely countryside. I would have spent another day exploring on horse and bike except there wasn`t any other tourists interested so no tour... so goodbye to cheap and friendly Tupiza and onwards to Potosi for me.

Salt flats, volcanoes, deserts, lakes and flamingos

2007-10-15T10:16:00.000+10:00

I headed for the southern corner of Bolivia to Uyuni and its salt flats, and the amazing Eduardo Avaroa Reserve. Wow... the scenery is stunning!

After a bumpy overnight bus ride down to Uyuni (I had wanted to go by train in the day, but it was cancelled due to a blockage due to a political protest), I wandered round town, and bumped into Matt Fishbeck at the market!

I´d already signed up for a 3 day tour in a 4wd in La Paz, and I found myself in a very ¨international¨ car with 2 Canadians, 2 italians, a Columbian, and our Bolivian driver and cook. We headed out to the train graveyard, and then out to the salt flat and this small town that used to be a railway town but now barely survives refining salt. No shortage of salt of course, just its hardly worth enough to bother transporting it! So now carved salt souvenirs bring in a bit of money.

On to the salt flats and hardly surprising but its very white! Stunning and bizarre, with 4WD stopping here and there to let people out to take photos of salt piles, salt crystals, bubbling water pools etc. And onto the cactus island which I adored, with its juge cactii and stunning 360 degree view of salt and mountains in the distance. We left the salt lake, headed across the train track (that connects Oruru with Chile) Then onto a windswept small town (San Juan) surrounded by llamas for the night.

From there we went further south, into stunning volcanic high plains and deserts, with wierd rock formations, sand and stones. And wierd animals like rabbits but with bushy tails. And Vicunas eating god knows what in the desert... There are these spectacular coloured lakes, teeming with flamingos. Which contradicts all my instincts that flamingos live in tropics! We´re talking lakes of about 4000m altitude with temperatures dropping below freezing overnight (down to -30 apparently at times), but they don´t freeze due to their wierd mineral mix.

And a geyser and field of boiling mud at 5000m altitude, and a wonderfully warm hotspring for a quick soak before breakfast! Onto more lakes (and the most spectacular greenish blue one which may look pretty but is a poisonous mix of chemicals including lead and arsenic), and more wierd rocks before a long drive back to Uyuni. Unfortunately we had 2 flats on the way back and only one spare tyre... so we waited for another 4wd to help us out. They´re all quite friendly from the different companies, with drivers helping out on various engine/tyre problems.

So what a trip! Spectacular scenery, lovely people, good food... all i´d say is it would be nice to be able to spend a bit longer at some of the places! Next time hey... But I`m not as crazy as some who were riding bicycles across some of those barren deserts...

La Paz

2007-10-13T08:57:00.000+10:00

I arrived in La Paz with a slightly dodgy tummy, had one good day exploring and then needed the next few days to work on keeping my food in. Oh well, its the first time i´ve been sick during these travels so i cant really complain. And i´m fine now, back to sampling local market food!

La Paz is certainly a sight as you approach from the highway and look down on the city, snuggled in this huge valley. Its got a rather higledy pigledy older part, and further down the valley in the newer suburbs it sprouts highrise. I started by exploring its markets (they are huge and sprawl through streets) and main tourist precincts (main squares and shopping streets), but soon found most things shut for the peaceful demonstration that was happening. Yes, the people of La Paz don´t want the capital to move to sucre, and there was a huge march which shut down the city. And everyone marching from pan pipe playing school kids, to bolivian women dressed in their traditional skirt, shawl and hat.

I also managed to take a tour of Tiwanaku, Bolivias most well known ruins. These are in a valley about 2 hours away, and now consist of a few large pyramids, square enclosures and huge stella, some with some intricate carving. While the Tiwanaku human shaped stella and decorations where a welcome change from the pure stonework of the incas, the site needs some imagination to see what may have been there... lots of stones were taken for colonial buildings.

I also checked out some great museums (loved the weaving and masks), walked up to a lovely look out, sampled their saltenas (yum)... so La Paz wasn´t a complete wipeout!

Lake Titicaca

2007-10-05T00:45:00.000+10:00

From Cusco I headed to Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, taking a bus tour of a few archeological sites along the way for good measure (More inca work, and a few churhes). Stumbled upon a town festival with great costumes as you can see.

Puno

Lake Titicaca is huge... yeah I knew that before, but when you find yourself only looking at a portion of it and still struggling to see the other side it starts to sink in. Puno itself isn´t really anything to write home about, but its a base - a functional city perched on the side of the lake with little charm.

From Puno I took a trip out to the famous floating reed islands of Uros where whole communities of people live... very strange and touristy, and I suspect that it will dissappear after this generation (what would attract a young person back after being educated on the mainland?). They tie floating reed rafts together to make islands, harvest reeds to plonk ontop to make a more stable platform, and live in reed houses, fish, and sell trinklets/handcraft to the tourists. All very odd.

I also took a tour to check out some nearby rock towers that are pre-inca and inca burial monuments... They are perched on the edge of the lake overlooking a smaller lake and are quite distinctive and impressive. Curious considering there´s no known ruins of a settlement for miles... whats hiding under the surface of the lake?

Copacabana and Isla del Sol

From Puno, I crossed into Bolivia without any hassle, and chilled out in Copacabana - a quite little town, with a nice lake frontage and tourism being the main business. (Mind you getting money out is difficult with no atm!) Its got a nice main square, and a outwardly impressive cathedral, and a priest who blesses cars and trucks twice daily! I watched one car being decorated with flowers, and then the priest came out to bless it and sprinkle holy water on. Once he´d gone an old lady (shaman?) came out to repeat the process with smoke from a little brazier being wafted in and around the car.

Copacabana also has an awesome lookout from hill... once you´ve puffed your way to the top (altitude makes climbing hard work, with the lake being at 3800m), you get rewarded with a great view back over the town and bay, and out along the coast to isla del sol.

I decided to walk out the peninsula to get to isla del sol, rather than just catch the ferry. It was a lovely 4 walk along the main road (although with only a handful of cars passing its not really main!), past small villages with locals ploughing fields with cows, planting crops of potatoes and oca by hand, and working on trout hatcheries. And when I got to the end of the peninsula, I was rowed out to the island about 30min away, by a very healthy 72 y old local! (yeah I felt like I should be doing the rowing not vice versa!)

Isla del sol is according to Inca legend the birthplace of the sun, and accordingly it has a few remains of inca houses, terraces, temples and holy places. So I went poking round ruins, climbing in and out of maze like rooms. It looks almost mediterrean in many respects. Theres also a spectacular walk to get from the south to the north which goes along the ridges of the island and has awesome views of the islands hills, terraces, bays and the lake of course. And another route back which meanders along the coast through the various settlements. Anyway I really enjoyed my days walk, even if the sun did take its toll... little on the pink side now. And to finish off a relaxing ferry ride back to Copacabana.

Salkantay trek and Machu Pichu

2007-10-01T10:02:00.000+10:00

Salkantay trek

I decided to go on a 4 day trek to reach Machu Picchu. Not the famous Inca Trail, as thats booked out months in advance, but the Salkantay trek. This trek takes you close to Mt Salkantay (peak of over 6000m), over a pass of 4600m before decending into the jungle and river valleys, and of course ending up in Aguas Caliente for a morning hike up to Peru`s most famous ruins.

It was a great walk, covering very different terrain... from snow capped peaks strewn with large boulders (presumeably from previous glaciers), to lush river valleys. We had horses to carry some of our stuff and the camping gear, two guides and a cook to look after our food (not bad), but facilities were basic - a distinct lack of toilets along the way, and tents that weren`t all that waterproof... luckily it didnt rain for long! Luckily too, it was a great group of people from all around the world - enthusiastic and friendly. Our guide told us the trek is about twice the length of the inca trail, and passes a higher peak... I`d still love to do the inca trail sometime, but can heartily recommend this one as an alternative. Did I mention we visited beatiful hotsprings, the bus almost backed off the side of the road/cliff trying to make room for traffic coming the other way, we rode in a basket suspended by wire across a river, and we all thoroughly enjoyed a hot shower at the end of the trek!

Machu Picchu

Since we`d walked almost everywhere else, we got up at the crazy hour of 4 to start to hike up to the ruins, which opened with the first busloads at 6am. At that hour it was a bit mysterious, with low clouds drifting across, obscuring the ruins in parts. We had a guided tour taking in the main temples, and were then let loose. Its pretty amazing the extent of the ruins and their condition... and there`s surely more hiding under some of the tree cover. Pity most of the things found here are in a Yale University museum in the US. But gotta love the llamas roaming round and apparently admiring the view!

Having climbed several steps and mountains over the last few days we figured whats one more, and headed up Waynu Picchu, the mountain overlooking Machu Picchu that only 400 people a day are allowed to climb. The view was great - the clouds cleared so that they just drifted across, and we could see down to the valley where we had walked around the previous day. From here I took a mysterious path with steps hugging the rockface and ladders in parts down to some caves and temples, which was nice and peaceful with only a few visitors... mind you the hike back up all the steps was a real killer!

Back to the main ruins, I wandered round exploring, tuning into tour guides to pick up more info along the way. Theres still a lot of theories about the place and its use, so its hardly surprising that to the untrained eye you just see house after house or more accurately walls, doorways and windows! Still, get to the top area, sit down and you cant help but admire the picture postcard view of the city and surrounding mountains.

Back down the mountain, and we caught my first Peruvian train to Ollyantambo and then bus back to Cusco.

Cusco and the Sacred Valley

2007-10-01T09:35:00.000+10:00

I arrived in Cusco to find it full of Gringos, and also full of markets, restaurants, travel agents and photo/internet shops... yes tourism is big here. Yet its actually quite a pleasant place, with a lovely central square, cathedral, some streets lined with incan stone work and heaps of good cafes (with book exchanges - yay!). Its also a perfect base for exploring the nearby ruins, and taking a trek to Machu Pichu.

The city was originally the Incan Capital, and its main temple was reported to have gold plated walls and gardens of Golden plants and animals. But the spanish arrived, and set about wiping out traces of the locals... cathedrals built over palaces, churches built over temples, stone walls converted to bases for colonial houses. Still theres no mistaking the superior stonework that has withstood earthquakes while colonial buildings have collapsed and had to be rebuilt.

I went on a days tour of the sacred valley to check out some of the incan ruins. There are some quite impressive complexes with stone terraces for growing crops, storehouses, houses and temples. Quite often they are perched on mountain sides, with the lower towns being converted into spanish towns. I found the terraces quite intriquing, and the temples rather bare... there is only stonework remaining and no intricate carved decorations (unlike central american ruins) or painting evident. Its thought they were well decorated with textiles but none remain of course. So its really admiring the stonework that fits together snuggly like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

I also took a local bus out to see some ruins within walking distance of Cusco, and spent a day leisurely walking and visiting the 5 or so ruins on the way back. Of these, one was for a water spring, another thought to be a guardhouse on the road, another a sacred cave in a hillside dedicated to the moon, a temple of unusual shaped rocks, and finally a fort with a very impressive zig zagging wall. The incans had the sense to bury/hide some of these to protect them from the spanish!

Cusco

2007-09-23T11:47:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note to let people know I`m in Cusco, and will be heading off tomorrow on the Salkantay trek to Machu Pichu. So I´ll tell you about Cusco, Sacred valley, nearby ruins and about my trek when I get back (5 days)

Iquitos

2007-09-22T12:46:00.000+10:00

Iquitos is apparently the largest city in the world not accessible by road, as its surrounded by rivers, and most notably the Amazon. Its was set up by the Spanish so it has some grand river front buildings, and it enjoyed the rubber boom, and even has a metal building by Eiffel of Eiffel tower fame! Nowdays its a hot, noisy city with mototaxis everywhere, and its own relaxed vibe.

Leila, who I met in Lagunas and on our jungle tour is from Iquitos, and kindly offered to let me stay with her, her husband Hans, and their Swiss neighbours (Claudia and Freddy), at her family home. So I was treated to an insiders view of the city, and a welcoming and friendly place to stay. While Leila was busy catching up with Family, Hans was excellent tour guide, renting a boat for us to go and visit Belen, a poor ¨floating¨suburb of Iquitos. The river was low so most of the houses were grounded, with some boats left on disturbing angles... But it was still certainly an eyeopener to see how the poeple live on the river... river used for washing, transport, rubbish, toilet...

Check out the bbq grubs along with the sausages and nuts... I wasnt game to try. There were also turtle eggs for sale.

From Iquitos I was sad to say goodbye to my Swiss friends, as I flew to Lima and then Cusco.

Amazonias

2007-09-20T01:34:00.000+10:00

Yurimaguas

My river adventure began in Yurimaguas where I was met on arrival at the collectivo stand at 10pm by a tour guide, suggesting I join a group of 4 Swiss people and visit the national parkSamira Pakaya for 3 days.... as that was where I was wanting to go, I said I´d think about it.

The next morning I went for a wander thru the town and market to get myself some breakfast, and found it to be a friendly buzzingly place, with even more moto taxis than Tarapoto! And wander just off the main square and you can see the river... big and brown and a hive of activity at the various port areas. My friendly moto-taxi driver from the night before picked me up, ferried me to the two port areas to check what time the boats leave, helped me buy a hammock and fruit for the journey and took me to be introduced to the swiss group and guide, and then to the Eduardo 1, the boat we were to go on.

Eduardo 1

There are 7 Eduardo river boats, and we got Eduardo 1, the original... A three storey riverboat with the bottom for cargo and the motor, the second level 2nd class hammock space (crowded)and the kitchen, and the top level tourist class with hammock area and also cabins. With my hammock hung, I wandered round chatting with my fellow travellers and watching the loading of cargo, and the hive of activity onshore. Men loading very heavy looking bags (corn?), bananas fruit and the odd chicken. Others dragging then lifting huge wooden logs from the river out and into trucks... manual labour here no machines to help out. Boats coming and going, loading and unloading, refueling. Ladies and kids trying to sell fruit, icecream, hammocks, food and everything else.

We left at about 1pm, and headed peacefully downstream, watching the scenery as it passed. Tourist class dinner was good, and served in our own dining room. As it got darker it got cooler, and the lights attracted large beetles and bugs. Slept for a while, but as our stop was about 2pm, we packed up our stuff ready to unload and waited. Checked out the night navigation (occasional spotlighting of sides to check alls ok), before getting off and mototaxi to hotel. All was pitch black as the towns power cuts out at midnight.

Lagunas and the Jungle trip

Next morning I woke up to find myself in a village of wooden huts with thatched roofs. We (Hans, Leila, Claudia and Freddy) had breakfast, got our intro to the National Park and tour, prepared our stuff and headed off. That was the start of 3 days of being paddled down rivers in wooden canoes, relaxing and watching out for wildlife. And a few hours of very hot humid and unfortable conditions with mozzies, as we followed our guide who macheted a path thru the jungle. And boy do the mozzies come out at dark... ended up going to bed at about 7pm as I couldnt stand being bitten alive any longer! (The buggers may be put off by repellent but find thoses patches you´ve missed, or just plain bite thru your clothes!)

We saw monkeys, a sloth, birds and a croc, and also many types of trees and flowers. We camped in mosquito nets in pretty basic conditions, and our guides paddled for us, cooked, set up camp and of course explained. We ate well with quite a bit of freshly caught fish... yum. And went for a swim braving the pirahnas and crocs - no worries!

Back to Lagunas where we hung out with the guides family in their house, waiting for news of Eduardo and when it left and hence when it would arrive. It was really an eyeopener to see the family house with multiple families living together, a well in the backgarden for water, chickens dogs ducks and parrots all wandering around... Had lunch in town and was pleased to be undercover when it bucketed down. Sampled jungle fruit, observed local life and went on shopping expedition to find coconuts for the boat trip.

Eduardo

Back on the boat at about 4.30am, and had the top deck to ourselves since all the peruvians had fled from the cold and earlier rain. Woke up a few hours later and found we were sharing the boat with a group of Swedes with impressively large cameras. We pulled into various towns and loaded more bananas, fruit and people... all quite interesting to watch with people and goods lined up waiting. More people joined us on the top deck making it quite crowded, we sampled kitchen food (not bad - spaghetti and chicken), had some chats with our neighbours and shared some watermelon, and floated further downstream. Its really quite an interesting mix of people you get on board, and certainly theres no shortage of people watching! And of course you have to duck under everyones hammocks to get past to the toilet or kitchen. Went to bed in my hammock and woke at about 5am to find half the people preparing to get off at Nauta - either a 1 hr bus ride or 8 hours more by boat. We stayed on though, passing the point where the river officially starts being called the Amazon, and arriving in Iquitos at about 2pm.

Tarapoto

2007-09-20T01:04:00.000+10:00

The trip further inland from Chachapoyas required a bit of patience... First of all it required a collectivo (shared car) ride to Pedro Ruiz - about 1 and a half hours away over mainly dirt roads. Mind you it was nice valleys and mountain scenery if you can ignore the dust, and arent too squished to see out by the entire family squished in around you. Then a 5 hour wait for the first bus going in the right direction, spent mainly sitting overlooking the main street, watching the world go by literally while eating wierd but nice fruit (kind of like dragon fruit), and bread. And then a ¨5 hour¨bus ride that took 7... so I arrived in tropical tarapoto at about 10 pm, and was zoomed into town by a moto-taxi (tuk tuk).

Tarapoto turned out to be a pleasant if somewhat sleepy place on the surface (and especially in the heat of the day when most shops are all shut), so I took the chance to chill a bit, catch up on washing and adjust to the heat... definitely back to shorts and t-shirts and always sweating! Other than that my main impressions of the chaotic streets filled with moto-taxis, a nice quite central plaza, the total lack of other tourists, and friendly locals and good cheap fresh food.

The highway between Tarapoto and Yurmiaguas was being worked on, so it was shut completely during the day, forcing all buses and collectivos (how I went) to travel in the dark after 6:30pm. Ended up having a rally like ride (felt a bit ill!) up the mountains as our driver appeared hell bent on being first...followed by a torrential downpour, and being stuck next to a born again Christian!

Kuelap... mountain fort.

2007-09-09T10:17:00.001+10:00

After a ¨lovely¨overnight bus that arrived in Chachapoyas at the ungodly hour of 5am, I grabbed a few hours sleep and signed up for a tour to the ruins of Kuelap. (about 3hrs away)

On the way we passed through the town of Tingo, which was having a celebration. Their main square was decorated with sand and flower carpets (being judged in the photo), there was a band and noisy fireworks, and also a parade and soccer game we missed.

The Kuelap ruins really are on a mountain top, on a naturally rocky outcrop with great views of all the surrounding valleys. But the Chachas built up further huge walls to create a fortress town with only 3 well protected entrances. (Theres apparently more stones used in walls here than the largest pyramid in Eqypt if you believe the guide book)

Anyway history wise, they were a group with a few sites in the mountain area, and were later conquered by the inca, and the site was apparently abandoned by the inca following the spanish invasion and left until it was re-discovered in 1843.

The Chachas built these round houses with thatched roofs (unlike the incan square ones) and had some distinctive diamond stone decorations. They also used some of the walls as burial places... our guide pulled out a few stones to display a skeleton.

Over all I`d have to say I was impressed, but left a little mystified... where did they get their water from?(the valleys a long way down) how come the houses were so close? I also found out back at the hostel that the whole area has some kind of unique archeological remains - giant stone heads which mark tombs or are sarcophagi, mummies... and more. But I`ve headed off inland again... heading towards the Iquitos and the Amazon which is at least a few days bus ride then boat ride away.

Chiclayo... ruins and gold.

2007-09-09T10:15:00.000+10:00

Three hours further up the coast and another group of eroded mud pyramids to see... ho hum you say? Well you wouldn´t if you saw the treasure they´ve pulled out of some of these... absolutely astounding. And the size of the mud complexes such as Tucume with over 22 pyramids is also quite a sight, although rather arid, eroded and unfortunately a lot of it is closed from public access while they are working on it.

At Sipan they discovered 12 royal moche tombs in 1987 filled with offerings... archeologically its been compared with the discovery of Tutenkamen (however you spell that!), and it definitely hit world headlines. There is an awesome museum housing all the treasure, and showing photos step by step as they uncovered layers of ceremonial jewellery, garments and decorations that covered the bodies. Stunning goldwork earings, necklaces and other items, huge beaded collars covering their chest and shoulders and even remains of some cloth and feathers. Unfortuneately no photos allowed so you`ll just have to go visit for yourself! We (me, Grant and Deb) also visited the site itself (about an hour from town) which they`re still working on as can be seen... scraping and gently pulling pottery from the wall when we were there.

We made it to one other museum housing more gold and pottery from the ruins from nearby cultures... This gold mask is from Chimu ruins if I remember rightly.

And Chiclayo was where I said goodbye to the other Aussies and caught a night bus inland.

Trujillo- impressive mud ruins

2007-09-09T09:23:00.000+10:00

After the Mountains I caught a slightly hair-raising bus through the Canon del Pato down to the coast and the town of Trujillo. (Don´t like the bus rocking from side to side thru potholes when you have a 100m drop down to the river...) But the canyon was spectacular... a bumpy dirt road carved into the mountainside following a river down, with quite a few tunnels cut thru as well. The photo taken out of the window doesn´t do it justice at all, but hopefully gives some idea of the rockiness of countyside.

Trujillo is on the coast, and actually has a quite pleasant colonial centre. But I came to see the ruins nearby... the giant adobe pyramids of the sun and moon, and a whole city/ royal complex known as Chan Chan. The whole area is really sandy and desolate, but with the irrigation pioneered by these ancient people its made fertile to grow sugar cane, asparagus and other crops. I took a tour of the main ruins with Michael, an Englishman running the hostel I stayed at. And I met up with Grant and Deb - an Aussie couple from Cairns who I travelled with for the next few days.

The pyramids are rather big, but still dwarfed by the rocky and apparanently sacred mountain nearby. They´re quite eroded, and at first glance disappointing with the rest of the buildings between the pyramids covered mainly by sand. But get closer to where they´ve excavated in the 90s and you find huge walls decorated with mud shaped and colourful painted people, creatures and symbols... absolutely incredible considering their age.. first 6 centuries AD. The Moche people who built it didn´t leave writing, and whats know is know thru their pottery and now these friezes... it appears the pyramid was a large religious and sacraficial centre. And don´t you just wonder whats under the rest of that sand and adobe brick!

We also visited another Huaca (Arco Iris) which was puzzling... wierd pyrimidal structure with perhaps store rooms only accessable from the top?? Anyway impresive mud decorated walls even if you can´t quite fathom the purpose.

And then on to Chan Chan... the huge city and royal palace of its day, which is now mile of desert with mounds showing where walls and buildings stood and the main highway heading straight through the middle of it. Only one royal complex is open and restored/excavated, but its really different again and interesting with large courtyards, wells and ¨cross¨decorations all over the place, not to forget the squirrel/bird creature either... This site is from another group again.. the Chimu (known for their fine gold work), they were later than the Moche, and surrendered to the Incas in 1471 apparently after years of seige and threats to cut water supplies.

And lastly nearby Trujillo is the coastal town of Haunaco which is known for its reed fishing boats/surfing boats!

Cordilleras Blancas... Big Peruvian Mountains!

2007-09-02T09:32:00.000+10:00

I caught a bus from Lima to Huaraz, which wound along the coast thru huge sandunes and then up through the mountains...and discovered off putting sensations associated with high altitudes... headaches, and slight disorientation kind of like your drunk. Here I met up with Miles from London, and for the last few days we´ve been travelling together.

We visited Chavin, ruins from about 1000BC, so definitely pre-inca. They were in another valley so we caught a local chicken bus (it had chickens loaded on top along with fuzbol tables, little chicks inside), which took forever winding up thru the mountains to this tunnel pass at 4500m inducing altitude sickness in many of the passengers, before dropping back down into the valley. The ruins kind of reminded me of Mexican ruins... stones, sunken central square plazas, carved rock heads... but these are really old. What was unique was the labrinth of rooms and passages inside/underground which you could explore... no one quite knows what these were for but they were huge...and had these cool airvents to let air flow around.

We moved to Karaz, as Huaraz is a bit hectic and Karaz is a more laidback sleepy place, but with good access to walks. So we took a tour up to visit the mountains opposite the main range - so fantastic views of the snowcapped mountain ranges. And they are high... most of the big peaks are 6000m or more. And today we headed up to some lakes and did a fairly exhausting walk up to another lake and glacier... going up hill at any altitude really gets you puffing. And at the top (about 4300m) we felt so odd we pretty much had a quick look, took photos and legged it down to a more reasonable height to have some lunch. It was an absolutely spectacular walk up the valley between all these snow topped mountains... photos don´t do it any justice.

Lima

2007-08-27T10:42:00.001+10:00

I was a little worried about Lima after reading the guide books and warnings of pickpockets, muggings and dodgy taxis... especially as I was arriving at 11pm. But I`ve been pleasantly surprised, and are quite enjoying my stay here, and would definitely say I think its more interesting than Buenos Aires. There are dodgy areas for sure (which I`ve seen from mini buses) but I`m staying in Miraflores which is a upmarket seaside suburb, and the colonial centre also feels safe enough. And the locals are really friendly and helpful - keen to have a chat if you look at all lost or puzzled.

The centre really is stunning with its colonial buildings, and what sets it apart from anywhere else I`ve seen is the covered wooden balconies that stick out... kind of odd but very distinctive. The central plaza de armas is a beautiful pigeon filled square, with a fountain and gardens surrounded by the cathedral, the palace and grand yellow buildings.

I`ve visited the cathedral which houses the remains of Pizarro, the Spanish conqueror. And I`ve also toured some of the other churches and convents which have beautiful cloisters, impressive old libraries, and kind of creepy catacombs with bones of thousands all directly beneath the cathedral... (imagine the smell?!)

To get around I`ve been using the network of mini-buseswhich is pretty extensive but chaotic... with next to no information on what goes where its a matter of asking, and being pointed in the right direction. (And not forgetting to remind someone to tell you when to get off - I missed hopping off at my stop completely coming home on the first day and went for a mystery tour of some not so nice suburb, but some of my helpful co-passengers told me where to hop off and which bus to catch back!)

There`s some pretty good museums here too, so I`ve been studying up on Peruvian cultures (and there`s definitely more than just the incas), peering at beautiful metalwork, bizarre pottery, models of ruins, stonework and more.

And today I decided to venture to Pachacamac, about 30k south of Lima, to visit some ruins. My minivan trip took me thru some dodgier market parts of town, out along the freeway past depressing little houses huddled on hillsides (definitely more like mexico or central america than anything I saw in argentina), and to the ruins which are by the seaside. They are the most desolate ruins I´ve seen... being partly covered by dirty sanddunes, with not a tree, shrub or any grass in site. They`re stone and adobe, with the most impressive being pyramids with temples. Anyway the site predates the incas by 1000 years, and was a ceremonial centre. But during the spanish conquest Pizarros brother visited and stayed there looking for gold...

Bye bye to Argentina

2007-08-23T09:17:00.001+10:00

I'm back in Buenos Aires, and about to leave for Peru so I thought before I go I'll make a few comments some of the distinctly Argentinian customs or things Ive seen but which I mightn`t have mentioned.

Mate - Argentinian "tea" made strong and bitter, and sipped thru a silver straw... cup refilled with hot water and passed on to the next person.

Buses - you have to wonder why its so un-economical to fly with the distances here, but bus rides of 20hrs arent uncommon. And as long as you get yourself a cama coche with larger seats, which recline more, pillow and blankets its actually ok, and you can sleep! You get hot meals on board too...

Food - gotta love the parillas (meat grills), the facturas (pastries), empanadas (pasties) to name a few.

Accent - still struggling to get used to the sh sound instead of y!

Countryside - the pampas can look remarkably australian... with miles and miles of slightly yellowy brown fields dotted with sheep and gum trees not uncommon around houses.

Bariloche - Lakes area

2007-08-23T06:24:00.000+10:00

I´ve been in snow country for the last few days, in Bariloche which is Argentina´s premier skiing city. Its a buzzing city perched right on the side of a lovely lake which is surrounded by mountains. And the centre is lined with ski hire shops, souvenir shops, restaurants and chocolate shops (yum!). The view of the lake and surrounding mountains really is spectacular.

I decided not to go skiing, but instead I wanted to check out the surrounding lakes and national park. So I ended up walking through snow around a smaller lake (with a mirror like surface and great reflections of the mountains) and to a small waterfall and nice lookout. Awesome little walk and lots of fun being in the snow.

The second day I went for another walk around some different lakes, and while the scenery was definitely stunning, and ducking thru snow laden bamboo ¨caves¨ that covered some of the path was interesting, the weather was bad with a constant snow\drizzle most of the day. Still a beautiful area to visit, and apparently good skiing too from all accounts.

WHALES ! Puerto Madryn

2007-08-19T09:05:00.000+10:00

WHALES.... more whales... and so incredibly close. Yes I came to see them, but I´ve still been absolutely blown away by this place. There are just so many whales, that if you look out from town you will see at least 5 spurts, tails or flippers without trying too hard. Walk out on the pier and theres likely to be 2 or 3 hanging around. Go for a walk along certain beaches and they swim along the shore only 5-10m out. Ok they´re not the prettiest whales with barnacles growning on their heads, but they´re quite big (up to about 15m) and they´re curious... eg they will come check out a boat. I took a whale watching boat cruise and was lucky enough to watch whales copulating within 5 metres of the boat (for those who are curious - there is one female who is surrounded by a group of males, she floats upside down while they circle and jostle, then when she turns over the lucky male underneath her gets his chance... she will normally mate with 5 or so in turn.) Other whales slowly cruise under the boat, surfacing within half a metre to check things out.... and futher away they slap tails, jump out of the water or just cruise by. So amazing!

There´s more to the Valdez Peninsula than just whales though... there are sea lions and elephant seal too... the first of which are noisy and active on land at this time of year, while the second are just big bags of fat, sleeping on the beach trying to conserve their energy. And although its the wrong time of year this is also the place for penguins and killer whales (yes you remember those documentaries of killer whales eating seal pups... well thats probably here). And on land their are rhea (like emu) mara (odd kind of rabbit/deer/kangaroo/rodent like!), and guanaco (like llamas). If you haven´t gathered the wild life here is amazing, and I´d love to come back and see it at other times of the year too.

The town itself is bigger than I thought with the aluminium industry arriving in the 70´s, but its got a nice seaside hum to it, and a few excellent museums explaining the wildlife. And I went to Trewlew, originally a welsh town, but now known more for its excellent Palentology museum... Yep, also impressive with the amount of dinosaur bones they´ve pulled from the semi-desert nearby or a few hundred km inland from here. And apparently giant spiders 1m big...yuck! Unfortunately the walk thru fossil beds in nearby Gaiman was shut, but who´s complaining after my luck seeing wildlife over the last few days!

I´ll say it once more... Whales... so incedible. Such a shame to think that they´re called southern right whales because they where thought to be the ¨right¨ whales to hunt... they were curious and came up to boats, were of an ok size, and importantly when killed they floated. Luckily now days they only have to put up with tourists taking photos!

Cordoba and its Sierras

2007-08-16T08:21:00.000+10:00

Cordoba is Argentina´s second largest city, and is a university town buzzing with students during the week but eerily quite with shops shut and deserted on Sunday which is when I arrived. So I wasn´t overly impressed. The Jesuits set up the first university here, which is considered one of the 4 most important in latin america. So there are some nice old colonial buildings, and shopping malls, but not really that much for tourists... So after taking a tour of the old uni building I headed out to Alta Gracia, a town set in the mountains.

Alta Gracia has a was nice with a Jesuit Estancia (farm- but see photo left) and was also home to Che Guevara when he was growing up. Interesting little museum there with lots of photos of him, and tales of childhood exploits. And a whole room devoted to the visit of Chavez and Castro last year! It also happened to be childrens day, so there was this concert put on for the kids, jumping castles, clowns on stilts etc.

I also visited Villa General Belgrano, a German town about 2 hours away. With wooden carved signs, artesenal beer, chocolate, and restuarants serving bratwurst, sourcrout, spatzle, liverwust etc its kind of odd. Walked up to a lookout on the top of the hill and got a nice view over town.

Wetlands, grasslands and Gauchos (cowboys)

2007-08-14T00:46:00.000+10:00

I headed to Carlos Pelegrini in the middle of the marshy National Park Esteros de Ibera to check out the wildlife. I met Lien from Belgium in the bus station, which was great as I then had a buddy to explore with for the next few days.

Pelegrini really is the middle of no-where - we drove for 3 hours in a wierd 4wd bus over dirt roads past grasslands... with the occasional glimpse of beret wearing cowboys on horses, cows, crocodiles, rhea (like ostriches) and other bird life. The town itself is nothing much, no main street just a few guesthouses, restaurants and a tiny store dotted amongst spread out houses. Mind you we were well looked after with delicious home cooked meals... some of the cheapest and best food I´ve had here. We walked to check out the laguna and park trails, and found capybara everywhere and just glimpsed an armadillo. (For capybara think giant semi-aquatic rodents the size of wombats but with semi webbed feet to help them swim... Apparently they´re now protected but previously were eaten and also kept as pets/lawnmowers!) We also took a guided boat tour on the lake which was freezing, and even the wildlife looked pretty cold and miserable - deer huddled together, capybara huddled near reeds, caiman (crocs) floating in the water cos its apparently warmer for them. Still, saw a nest of baby caiman, a turkey like bird guarding its nest and lots of other birdlife. And got walk on one of the ¨islands¨ - they are actually floating plant material of up to 2 metres thick which all wobbles like jelly or a giant floating raft if you jump on it!

We caught a local bus to Mercedes, also along muddy dirt roads, and had a bit of a scare when the electrical connections and lights failed and the driver being unable to see the road in the dark slowly sliped off the side. The bus ended up on a alarming tilt, and we all calmly piled out into the cold and darkness and waited to see what would happen. They got the problem fixed and the bus going again after a few tries, and even managed to drive it back onto the road, so we got to Mercedes ok. Enough night bus rides for one day though, so we stayed in Mercedes overnight. Its a small relaxed colonial town with quite nice buildings, and with cowboys (often dressed in distinctive leather boots and beret or black hat) and kids wandering around.

Posadas... Jesuit and Guarani ruins

2007-08-13T23:57:00.000+10:00

I headed to Posadas, the capital of the region of Missiones, which is about 5 hours bus ride south of Iguazu falls, as I wanted to check out the ruins of Jesuit Missions which are in the area.

I checked out the local museum in posadas and found a section on local cookery! There was also a very friendly guide who explained everything. So I learnt about traditional stews made from manioca/yuka, corn, beans and meat. And about the little cheese breads I´d been snacking on - also made from manioca flour. Interestingly a lot of the fruit and veg goes by different names here... fresa (strawberry) is flottilla, maracuya (passionfruit) is mburucuyu or something like that.

A bit of history about the Jesuit missions... The Jesuits came here around 1690, and set up over 30 missions around the area for the Guarani indian in areas that are now part paraguay, part argentina and part brazil. Whats odd is that the Guarani prior to that were nomads living in tribes in the jungle, worhiping water trees and animal spirits, were apparently being harassed by spaniards and outlaws who would steal from them, and take them as slaves if it suited. So apparently the offer of a house, protection and being taught farming and trades was appealling... Anyway it worked, and missions housing around 7000 people were built and functioned with only 2 missionary priests at times! The Priests learnt and taught in local language, and the missions became known for their unique music (mixture of Guarani singing and european string instruments) and amazing craftsmanship and wood carving in particular. The missions worked for about 150 years, then the spanish crown felt threatened by their status as a almost autonomous state, and ordered thier expulsion. Although Spanish took over the missions, they didn´t treat the Guarani well or protect them, and within 30 years all had fled, buidlings looted, and left to be overrun by the jungle for 150 years.

Anyway I went to visit San Ignacio Mini, which has been partially restored (1940s I think), and is quite impressive with large standing walls, parts of the facade of the church and bigger buidlings, and quite clearly recognisable rows of housing. Its got quite a lot of tourists, unlike the second lot of ruins I visited in Loreto which I had to myself with a personal guide! They in comparison are more mounds within the forest with occasional brickwork suggesting the church that was. They´ve just started work on excavating certain parts of interest (like the latrines which had running water) but the rest is still waiting to be discovered...

Iguazu Falls

2007-08-09T12:22:00.000+10:00

After a 18 hour overnight bus trip you´d think I´d be a bit tired and not overly enthusiastic about what I did that day... but no... Iguazu falls was amazing! Got to love the fact that its about 10 degrees warmer, but the falls themselves are just so spectacular, and there are so many birds and animals around that you can´t help but be astounded. Monkeys, little guinea pigs, other larger rodents, stipey creatures which I can´t remember the name of... (see photo) Birds including toucans... wow.

And did I mention just how big the falls are? There are heaps, you turn a corner to reveal more, viewing platform after viewing platform and different views of different falls. Its all boardwalked which makes things very easy, but the downside being there are so many tourists you never really have any view to yourself. And so many feel inclined to hop in boats, dress in raincoats and get driven under the falls... who wants a heavy shower?

Up the top was the devils throat, which had an unbelievable amount of water going over the edge... at the bottom it caused so much spray that you couldn´t see where it hit. There were these swallows which dived down and dissappeared into the spray. The sound too was a definite roar which you could hear for miles.

I liked the national park so much I even went back a second day to do a walk thru the forest, away from most tourists. After a day of sharing the boardwalks with others it was lovely to be on a track all by yourself... even if it was a little disconcerting to have instructions on what to do if you encounter a jaguar! (dont play dead, back away don´t run, act larger and hit it if its agressive!)

Anyway its certainly an amazing place, well worth the discomfort of a long bus ride!

Weekend Buenos Aires

2007-08-09T11:16:00.000+10:00

I´d been told Buenos Aires changes on the weekend with people emptying out of the city centre and lots of life and markets in the nearby suburbs.

So I decided to go to Recolletta where there is a market (touristy but not bad), but its much more famous for its cemetery... and Evitas burial place. Sounds creepy, but it is amazing with these impressive mini buildings sandwiched together... so you walk along admiring the statues, the intricate doors, the marble facades and almost forget each little buidling is actually a mauseleum. Except when you get a huge fright when you peer inside a slightly ajar door and see and old man cleaning a coffin! Anyway on to a museum about Evita, and then to the suburb of Palmero to visit a clothing market. This was kind of fun... bought a badge, a beanie and fingerless mittens to keep me warm. And admired the young designer clothes/shoes/jewellery spread out in makeshift markets in cafes and nightclubs... pool table?- perfect for displaying clothes!

Sunday it was on to the area of San Telmo which has an antique market overflowing with nicknacks. And the street back into town is also covered with markets, Tango bands, buskers and more.... had to rush back to catch an bus to get myself to Iguazu falls next.

Buenos Aires

2007-08-05T00:03:00.000+10:00

First impressions of the place weren´t that favourable... cold (6 degrees) and wet.. and I spent my first afternoon walking around in the town centre in a little bit of a daze feeling somewhat like I was still in Europe (building and people wise its very European feeling) but that someone had turned down the temperature... sure my jetlag wasn´t helping, and the usual adjusting to language and currency were also taking their toll... Felt so much better after a good nights sleep!
I went to visit La Boca, the old port area known for its colourful buildings and soccer team. Its one of the poorer parts of town, and there´s a few streets which are touristville with fresh paint, tango dancers in the streets, souvenir shops, and patrolling police. If you walk a few more blocks you are suddenly transported into a rougher delapidated neighbourhood, and are quickly advised to leave before you get mugged...

I came back to catch up with Matt, my old Richmond housemate, who´s here for a few months learning spanish. It was really nice to have a chat and find out about what he´s been up to, and more about Buenos Aires. Little things like being told that Argentinians pronounce y or ll as sh - things suddenly seem to make a bit more sense. (Earlier I´d asked for an empanada de pollo (chicken pastie) and the waiter kept confirming ¨posho?¨and I´d repeat a little puzzled ¨poyo¨ to which he´d repeat ¨posho¨... you get the picture!) We went out with a couple of Matt´s friends to a ¨afterwork party¨(as distinct to a nightclub because they don´t even open until 1am) which turned out to be in a palace... stunning building with wooden parquetry floor, marble fireplaces, intricately carved wooden seats and doors... surely drunk people dropping cigarette butts cant be doing it any good.

Yesterday I visited La Tigre, its 1 hour away by train, and is an area of river deltas - so I think more than 100 islands all separated by rivers which interlink as part of a larger delta. Unfortunetely the weather wasn´t great, but I walked around visiting museums and took an interesting boat cruise to see some of the more spectacular buildings of its heyday (casino, rowing and sailing clubs) and also see some of the current island/river lifestyle.

Leaving London

2007-08-04T23:43:00.000+10:00

Back to London for a few days, staying with Wendy again. (Thanks!) We spent Sunday doing a walking tour with Debbie and one of Wendy´s friends, through some of the market and more ethnic parts of London - nibbling on indian food, brousing in markets, taking a breather in various parks then having Japanese for dinner - yum. It makes you realise how there are so many little pockets of London, all with a different feel, waiting to be explored. I´ll admit to having a nagging urge to pull out a monopoly board and try visiting each of the areas!

Then Wendy was off to work for her first day, looking swish as you´d expect, and starting at a very civilised 9.45! I walked around the banking district, visiting museums and admiring the architecture (love the Gerkin building and the distinctinve Lloyds of London ¨metal and services on the outside´ building). And on my last half a day I set off to see the Thames river, and some of the tourist landmarks... Buckingham Palace, the eye, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben (and a giant Dali elephant!) and I even squeezed in a brief visit to the Natural History musem which was overrun with school kids on their holidays. Then off to Luton to catch my flights to Spain then South America, leaving Wendy to adjust to her new London corporate life.

Northampton and more Leighton Buzzard

2007-07-27T01:57:00.000+10:00

Nat's working in Northampton, which is about 40 mins drive away I think, so I went with her yesterday to check out the place. It hasn't got the best reputation, but I thought it had quite nice buildings (a few prominent churches including a circular one from 1100s, a guild hall, a decent town square etc), and an interesting museum. The Museum's main focus is on shoes as this is the home of Doc Martens, and has been a shoe making town since 1100s. Surprisingly really interesting - with shoes from around the world of all different eras... and quite some interesting fashion statements! Its even got the ones Naomi Campbell fell off on the catwalk...

We also visited Milton Keynes which is a purpose built satellite town for London with quite an odd feel to it... huge shopping mall, indoor ski slope, movie theatres, grid layout roads...

And other than that I've been wandering round Leighton Buzzard a bit more... hunting out computer shops to burn a DVD of photos, posting things home etc. Rains kept me from bigger excursions.. it just keeps coming!

England - London and Leighton Buzzard

2007-07-24T21:41:00.000+10:00

London

After backpacking around for a while, the novelty of being picked up at the airport and chaffeured to a serviced appartment was rather nice! (Thanks Wendy and company) And realising that we understand all the radio, all the signs etc because everything is in English is good, while doing mental conversions from pounds to AUD$ is definitely not a good idea!

We admired the view from Wendy's 9th floor apartment in Chelsea (St Pauls Cathedral, The Eye, and the Gerkin) We dined out in a Thai restaurant which was the first Asian food we've had for months. And went for a wander round the area, visiting Harrods and Hyde park.

Then it was time to say goodbye - leaving Wendy to go househunting, while I caught a train out to visit Tim and Nat in Leighton Buzzard.

Leighton Buzzard

Whats with the wierd name huh? Well I had to look it up on the Web...

There are a number of theories about its curious name but the most likely is that "Leighton" is an Old English language term meaning a clearing in the woods. The "Buzzard" was added by the Dean of Lincoln in whose diocese the town was in the 12th century. He had two communities called "Leighton" and in order to differentiate them he added the name of his local Prebendary or representative to that of the town. At that time it was a Theobald de Busar and so over the years the town became known as Leighton Buzzard. The other Leighton became Leighton Bromswold.

One other snippet of info... its quarry was apparently used for filming of The Mummy, and more recently The Da Vinci Code!

Now on to the important stuff... Tim and Nat are fine, busy with work of course, but enjoying the town and the convenience of having everything you need nearby (and a very handy mini tesco and chinese takeaway just down the road) while also being able to go for a short walk through fields or paddocks.

Tims a proud gardener - check out the sweetpeas! And over the weekend I've been taken out for Thai dinner with Tim's workmates in Bedford, and also taken on some lovely drives through the countryside... up to hills where they fly remote control gliders, past many thatched roofed cottages, to a national trust country estate, along canals with boats and locks and even to an english pub. Its all very english with small towns, hedge lined fields, and rain... yeah flooding in England if you haven't heard, but we're ok here. Its lovely being able to relax, cook again, and even watch crappy day time TV too!

Dubrovnik and nearby islands

2007-07-18T20:26:00.000+10:00

The old town of Dubrovnik is a beautiful walled city, with a lovely harbour full of boats - very picturesque, and hard not to fall in love with. We wandered the white stone paved pedestrian streets, full of pizzerias, churches, palaces, souvenir and icecream shops. And of course we did a lap of the city walls, which had to be a highlight - admiring the views, descovering hidden cafes and swiming spots perched on rocks outside the city walls, and contemplating how over 2/3 of the tiled roofs we saw had to be replaced after the war and bombings of the 90s. Still, the city walls have got to be the most impressive I've seen.

Being a holiday, we decided to spend our last full day making the most of the hot weather and island and beach hopping... So we headed out to the Elafiti islands by water ferry, and spent a couple of hours on each lolling in the beautiful clean clear water, before heading on to the next island to find more beaches... and even a few sand ones! Feeling a bit sunburnt we headed out for our last croatian dinner, in the area of Lapad, a bay suburb known for its hotels and restaurants and relaxed vibe.

Split, Trogir and Brač island

2007-07-18T20:08:00.000+10:00

From cold and wet lakes, we headed for the coast and found the coast hot and sunny... back to shorts and t-shirts.

Split is a thriving city with a beautiful old town right on the waterfront. Its a walled city, built and paved with beautiful white stones, and the Diocletians Palace dates back to Roman times. The old buildings are now mainly full of shops, cafes and restaurants, and with the narrow roads and no cars, its kind of maze like but in a good way. And being on the waterfront, with boats and ferries heading everywhere, its got a real pleasant buzz of people doing their stuff. Certainly helped that we had a room right in the heart of the old town... look out the windo and you find a cafe.

Trogir was just an hours bus ride away, and its another beautiful medieval town (Unesco listed) made of white stone, with narrow alleys winding between buildings. We climbed to the top of the cathedral and admired the rooftop view of the island town, and ate icecreams.

Brač Island is the biggest island, an hours ferry ride out from Split. We followed this old man from the ferry to rent a room, and found ourselves proud owners of a kitchen too... so home cooked pasta meals for a few days, as its nice not to eat out all the time. We spent a few days relaxing exploring the various beaches on the island. The one on the other side of the island was probably our favourite... a pebble beach that sticks out like a sand spit, with a shady pine promenade leading to and from it.

Plitvice Lakes - Wendy's view

2007-07-16T03:23:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone! Karen has let me loose on her blog (watch out Kaz...ha ha!). Well, after we checked out Varazdin, Karen - in her usual style - wanted to check out everything else within a 10km radius of where we were, so we tried to get to this castle (apparently the most impressive one in Croatia so definitely well worth the effort...hmmm) but the bus timetable didn't work out so we headed straight for Plitvice national park instead. Woo hoo! This was high on my 'to do' list having seen some impressive photos taken by a colleague (which actually compelled me to visit Croatia in the first place!)

Anyway, we arrived in Plitvice at around 3:30pm, just in time to do our first walk around the national park. The park is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains 16 lakes. They are an amazing blue and green colour and contain numerous waterfalls - seriously, you cannot imagine the colour and photos cannot do it justice. Apparently the colour is due to lots of scientific things which I cannot explain but have something to do with limestone, calcium, algae, minerals and organisms...

The park is fantastically well set out - there are board walks and trails snaking all around and connecting all the lakes for tourists to walk on. These are well set out - they do not impact on the environment, but allow you to still closely inspect the water, waterfalls and fish! There are a number of different routes you can do throughout the park. The main ones are amongst the 'upper lakes' (which we did when we first arrived), and the 'lower lakes' (which we did the next day).

Anyway, our first impression of these lakes was that they were spectacular and definitely a highlight. This remained so despite the fact the next day the weather suddenly turned from a balmy 30 degrees to a freezing cold and wet 10 degrees. Karen was happy as she suddenly had a reason to use her cosy Kathmandu raincoat which kept her nice and dry...while Wendy had to do with her 3 ringgit (ie, A$1.50) shower coat thing which resulted in her being drenched within the first 15 minutes...nice going Wendy.

Despite this lacklustre weather, Karen and Wendy, the ever-intrepid, ended up walking for 7 hours in the cold and rain. This is because the views were so fantastic, and the walks were well planned (even giving you access to bus and boat services where necessary). We both agreed it was the best walk we had done since Cappadoccia...(well, yes, it has been the only one but that's besides the point Karen).

Croatia - Zagreb and Varazdin

2007-07-16T03:01:00.000+10:00

We were a little sad to say goodbye to Turkey... nice place and well worth a visit. We will miss the food, friendly locals and turkish vibe. Wendy stayed an extra night in Istanbul and made the most of it checking out the nightlife, while I had an overnight stopover in Budapest... so found myself breifely exploring yet another fantastic city. Stumbled upon a orchestral concert happening infront of a cathedral... see photo left.

Zagreb

Well after Turkey, Zagreb felt very European and uncrowded. Lovely buildings, beautiful parks and gardens, and well dressed locals. None of the real hussle and bussle and street life that we've been accustomed to, but a much more refined and elegant place. We stayed in a noisy YHA (when do those teenager students shut up?! (*WW - stroppy karen...! I slept really well as I went to bed 5am the night before...ha ha!*) wandered the streets visiting cathedrals, churches, town squares and well known shopping and eating streets. It's definitely a street cafe society with cafes with umbrellas set up in the middle of some pedestrian mall areas, and we sampled local food (pastries, noodle/pasta thingies).

Varazdin

The lonely planet hails this place as a stunning baroque city and as the "mini prague with out the crowds or the prices". Well it certainly is pretty, but thats a lot to live up to! We arrived mid day to find the streets deserted with the locals hiding out where its cooler, inside or at the river apparently. Anyway we strolled around, visited the castle, ate icecreams and admired the pretty buildings. The locals emerged in the evening, giving the place more of a hum. And we each enjoyed a huge meal of Veal Zagreb (even though that wasnt what I ordered!)

Cappadocia

2007-07-05T18:32:00.001+10:00

Cappadocia is the land of "fairy chimneys" - those wierd mushroom, eroded rock formations that feature on nearly all Turkey tourist brochures. And with houses, churches etc all carved into the rocks it can be a bit flintstonish too... We stayed in Goreme, a small town built amongst these formations, and stazed in a hotel decorated extensively with turkish carpets and with a lovely roof top terrace with views of the surrounding town and formations. Of course we visited the open air museum - an old religous complex carved into the rocks by hand (you can see the pick marks)... nunnery, multiple painted churches, and a refractory where food was eaten and wine made. We climbed up on the hill overlooking the museum and valley on the other side where the view was awesome, and this is where we met Mustafa, a 70y old Turkish man who loves to show tourists round and practice english. So we ended up visiting another church and discovering the rock stairs and passageways firsthand that have been cut like honecomb into the rock to link up different levels... dusty but really interesting climbing and exploring. We visited another monastery and hospital complex, then Mustafa took us to his farm plot (grapes and apricots) and small hut and cooked us dinner, chatted, and gave us massages! Wierd!

We decided to visit the underground city of Derinkuyu, an underground complex with 8 levels carved into the rocks as a protective refuge for the villagers. Its really harrd to understand the fear these people must have felt which compelled them to go to this effort to carve out rocks and have supplies to live hidden away underground, with rolling stone doors to seal off access from above. Its all lit with electricity now, so its a pleasure to explore, but living with lamps and candles and no visible facilities for showering or toilets... tipping it wasnt so pleasant then. I guess the rooms / houses carved into the cliff faces in the valleys with no easy acess are similar in that respect... built in a very different time when security was a real concern.

We also went for a few walks along 2 of the nearby valleys. I would have to say that they are some of the most interesting short hiking trails Ive done because of the amazing rock formations from erosion, and various carved rock windows high above in the cliffside (inviting you to explore if you can find a way up and in!), and scenery which kind of unfolds as you walk around bends in the valleys. Our last walk along Rose Valley brought us out into the town of Cavusin, with its old town cut into/ built onto the side of the hill but abandoned after earthquakes. More climbing through ruins and cave houses, but the standout here was the 360 view from the top - breathtaking.

So if you havent gathered by now we really enjoyed our stay in Cappadocia, and think its definitely a highlight of our time in Turkey.

More beach and Whirling Dervishes

2007-07-05T18:04:00.000+10:00

Chirali

We thought we´d vısıt Chirali brıefly, a beach town know for the Chimera (burnıng gas seepıng out of the mountain ın spots), and the nearby Olympus Ruins. It was a stunnıng beach, even if it is a pebble beach, and we stayed right on the beachfront in whats known as a treehouse. They are actually raised wooden huts not houses in trees as you might think. We were befriended by two guys who gave us a lıft to the Chımera - nıce enough guys but a lıttle odd. The Chimera were odd but with tourists crowdıng round takıng photos and roasting marshmellows it felt more like campfires all be ıt wıth no wood!

The Olympus ruins were overgrown wıth trees whıch was a nıce change from other ruins we have seen - you felt more lıke an explorer clımbıng over stones and thru the undergrowth... not seeing what was comıng next untıl you are close. But the clımb up to the Acropolıs and the vıew out over the beach were what really stood out- picture postcard vıews.

Antalya and Konya

We skıpped thru Antalya, just spendıng a nıght and wıth just enough tıme for Wendy to enjoy a Haman (Turkısh Bath), whıle Karen couldnt face steamıng ın the already 35+ temperature! Then on to Konya, home of the Whirlıng Dervishes and supposedly the Turkısh equıvalent of the 'bıble belt'. We were lucky to catch a free Dervısh 'demonstratıon', and while its certaınly worth seeing and hearing the accompanyıng music an hour was enough. We spent the next day vısıtıng the Dervısh museum and varıous mosques and sıppıng tea wıth everyone else ın the park or maın shoppıng street whıle watchıng the world go by.

Beach - hit the Med!

2007-06-30T03:41:00.000+10:00

Fethıye

Having been suffering the heat inland for a while, we were defınıtely lookıng forward to the beach and some relıef. We pıcked Fethıye as our destınatıon, as ıts a port town know for ıts cruıses, nearby beaches and was nearby to where we were consıderıng a walk along the Lycıan Way. We opted out of that last ıdea quıte quıckly fındıng the weather just as hot ıf not hotter than ınland... 45 we thınk so severe dehydratıon weather ıf you wanted to walk.

Instead we took a day cruıse to Butterfly valley (has a lovely gorge and lıttle waterfall) and a few other beaches, islands and swimmıng spots. The water was beautifully cool, the scenery spectacular, lunch was good and all in all the boat ride was very relaxing. We even managed not to bake ourselves completely unlıke some other rather pınk/red folk. Back on land we sweltered and retreated to aırcondıtıoned comfort. We weren't all that ımpressed wıth the town ıtself - needed a bus to get to a beach, very tourısty ın the centre and dırty and dusty elsewhere.

Kaş

On to Kaş. Apart from a bizzare incident at the bus station where we were bombarded by stroppy pension touts, we soon fell ın love wıth the place... it beats Fetiye hands down. We found ourselves a nıce hostel, just a small walk away from a small 'beach' (rocky area wıth platforms and ladders to get down to the water) with a cafe, free deck chairs and umbrellas and gorgeously clean and cold water. There are fresh water sprıngs leadıng ınto the bay so theres thıs wıerd layer of cold water ontop... you dıve down and get warmer! We met some frıendly locals, and got taken to vıew the moonlıght from a dıfferent beach by the hostel owner.. how could you not lıke ıt! The town has got a more tourısty part, but ıt somehow retaıns ıts charmıng laıd back attıtude, and we'd defınıtely return.

We took a sea kayakıng trıp out to some of the ıslands and over a sunken cıty. Whıle the sunken cıty name ıs a bıt more suggestıve than realıty (we saw some underwater walls but not much really), it was a really enjoyable day trıp. The next mornıng we vısıted bıg pebble beach, put our stuff ın a waterproof bag and swum around to the next beach enjoyıng the swım all to ourselves!

Aphrodisias, Pammukale... Ruined out?!

2007-06-30T03:20:00.000+10:00

Although we have been ruin hoppıng lately, we couldn't resıst the call of Aprodisias - one of Turkey's fınest archeological sites... whıch ıs less overrun by tourısts... sounded lıke our kınd of place. So we headed off from Pammukale ın a small mını bus wıth no aır condıtıonıng on a 45 degree day wıth a brıtısh couple and a 76 year old drıver who had a tendency to beep ımpatıently and overtake all on the road! The ruıns were beautıfully empty of people... we sat under a tree overlookıng the stadıum for our pıcnıc lunch and had the place to ourselves for 20 mınutes... magıc! It was nıce to see ruıns wıth beautıfully watered and green gardens round them too. You can actually start to ımagıne how ıt would have been way back when.

Back to Pammukale for a swım ın the hotel pool before we could face anymore explorıng ın the heat. Then off to explore the travertınes (whıch are calcıfıed rock pools or waterfalls) whıch make the town famous along wıth the Heıropolıs - more ruıns at the top! We strangely got ınvıted to a Turkısh weddıng on the way... but declıned as ıt was too odd. Anyway the travertınes were pretty, and we enjoyed walkıng up barefoot through the pools and a waterfall shower. We explored the ruıns at the top, parched ourselves ın the process, and caught an lovely sunset.

Bergama, Selçuk... Ruıns and more...

2007-06-26T17:10:00.000+10:00

On to Bergama, thıs tucked away cıty wıth ımpressıve ruıns on the mountaıntop, and home of some early doctor/hospıtal complex. Strangely ıt also supposedly had an ınternatıonal musıc and dance festıval on but although we enjoyed watchıng tradıtıonal dancıng we were a lıttle puzzled at the tıtle 'ınternatıonal'!

The ruıns themselves were ımpressıve even though probably the most ımpressıve and famous altar now lıves ın a Berlın Museum. What we enjoyed even more than the upper more tourısted area were the mıddle cıty area whıch most the tourısts mıss... wander down the hıll followıng the blue dots and you fınd ımpressıve remaıns of gymnasıums and houses... and feel lıke you have the place to yourself. Hostel was great too... had a basement apartment to ourselves, and met Geoff and wandered round searchıng for elusıve restaurants.

Selçuk was our base for vısıtıng Ephesus ruıns... the most famous and ımpressıve ın Turkey apparently, but also unfortuneately swamped wıth tourısts from cruıse shıps... yes we reckon about 50 busses waıtıng at the bottom to pıck people up. Stıll the ruıns were ımpressıve ıf you could concentrate and not be dıstracted by all the people. And the Terrace houses whıch have ıntact mosaıcs and wall frescos are facınatıng... you get a sense of the luxury ın whıch some romans lıved.

We also vısıted a nıce lıttle mountaın town surrounded by aprıcot and peach orchards, wıth old tradıtıonal houses and cobblestoned streets. We got kıdnapped by a granny, fed aprıcots and cherry juıce, and shown her house... for a small charge of course sınce we dıdn't buy her lace! Nıce place to wander though!

Gallipoli / Cammakale and Troy

2007-06-23T05:35:00.000+10:00

We caught our first local buses and felt quite happy with our progress... thinkıng we could get used to bowtie wearıng attendants offering us water, tea or coffee, and cakes. Then we had one of those oops moments... get of the bus at the statıon to go to the loo and come back to fınd our bus 50m away, leavıng the depot... run gırls run! Caught it, found the bus had a proper 30 min toilet stop just 10 min down the road.

Cammakale is the city opposite the Gellibou peninsula (Gallipoli as Austalians know it). Its a pleasant seaside city with a much more laid back attıtude than Istanbul. We watched the Gallipoli DVD ın the hostel (gee Mel Gıbson was young then) as preparation... We took a tour of the Gellibou peninsula as the various memorials and cemetaries, and our guide Elif was excellent wıth her historıcal explanations. Hard to comprehend how such a peaceful place was the site of so much death, yet with trenches only 8m apart in places its hard to comprehend fightıng lıke that full stop.

After seeıng the gıant wooden horse left over from the movıe Troy ın Cammakale, we thought we'd check out our fırst ruin... They famous Troy. Unfortuneately the ruins themselves are quıte confusing (there were at least 6 city perıods wıth buildings built ontop of each other), but it was lovely and peaceful. And amazıngly we managed to get pretty seamless bus connectıons on to our next place after flagging down a bus on the highway.

Istanbul

2007-06-18T18:04:00.000+10:00

I made my way to Turkey to meet up wıth Wendy after brıef stops ın Helsınkı and London. We were stayıng ın a hostel ın the 'new' part of town just down the road from a major shoppıng street and eatıng area, and across the brıdge from the old part of town, Sultanamet, which has most of the tourist attractıons.

One of the fırst thıngs I notıced was the heat... you defınıtely want to keep out of the sun ın the mıddle of the day here. And wıth a population of about 16 million, theres lots of people on the streets, and ıts kınd of maze like wıth narrow winding streets.

We saw 4 mosques and 2 bazaars on our first day... the Blue Mosque (impressıve but smelt of tourists socks), Aya Sofıa whıch ıs now a museum, and some smaller more peaceful mosques. The markets had stalls wıth goods danglıng everywhere... lanterns, carpets, turkish delight, spıces etc. We visısted the palace too, whıch had some lovely courtyards, buildings and very impresıve jewels and thrones.

And the food.... well, we accıdently tried lambs intestines (looked like kebab from a distance and wasnt that bad!), sampled turkish delights, a wierd desert whıch may or may not have contained chicken (the waiter told us it did), as well as various mezze or nibbles.

St Petersberg

2007-06-13T02:21:00.000+10:00

Wow, there are a lot of tourists here in St Petersberg, and a lot of them Russian. Its definitely a city with lots of tourist drawcards - famous museums (Hermitage), cathedrals, canals, and palaces and huge historic centre which has been largely restored and maintained. After world war 2, and the German seige where over a third of the population were killed, and many of the buildings damaged its really quite amazing things have been rebuild and the historic 1800s style maintained.

Too much to see and with only two full days I've barely scratched the surface taking a tour and walking round and visiting a few places. Fancy a city where different sides of the streets have separate names and numbers (cos they were intended to be canals with two sides, but were later filled in to make streets)

Top of my list has to be the mosiac filled church (Church of the Saviour on spilt blood), and Peterhof's Palace Garden and fountains. The Gardens fountains are the real drawcard, while the over the top guilded decoration of the palace inside is definitely worth checking out. I was befriended there by an interesting American (yes they do exist believe it or not), and enjoyed the luxury of listening to his personal guide and being chaffeured back to town!

And St Petersberg has some cool cafes, with great food. Had to have beef stroganoff in a city where there is a Stroganoff palace! And talking about food and famous names, I've had the building where Anna Pavlova lived pointed out. Also tried the dumplings, and pickled herring and potatoe salad - yum. Mind you I think leaving Russia it might be nice not to have food garnished with dill for a change! Nearly everything comes with sourcream and dill.

Hey and did you know Putin is a St Petersberg boy, and ex-KGB?

Moscow

2007-06-11T01:14:00.000+10:00

Mention Moscow and images of St Basils Cathedral, Red Square and the Kremlin probably pop into your head. And yes they are spectacular but there's so much more to this thriving metropolis... than just the postcard views.

With about 12 million people, Moscow is definitely a big city, although it is just getting its first real glass sky scrapers in a new business area. The traffic has to be seen to be believed with traffic jams in roads 6 lanes wide each way, and complete disregard for lanes if they don't suit. (Mind you they stop traffic and clear roads and let diplomats zip though at probably 100km/h). Luckily they have underpasses for pedestrians and what must be one of the most spectacularly decorated and spotless metro I've seen.

And as for the people, well they're pretty fashionable at least in the swankier suburbs/city centre, with international clothing shops thriving. Theres kids wearing punk or goth clothes, and rollerblades are really popular especially in their larger parks. Speaking of parks, I was staying near Victory Park (celebrating WW2 or the Patriotic war as they call it), in a well off suburb in a 7th floor apartment.

As well as doing the usual tourist things I accidently visited a TV stations 10th birthday celebrations, in a large sports park - think concerts, fairground attractions. And also this great kitsch expo/show area... spectacular patriotic soviet pavilions and fountains with many selling crappy knicknacks, clothing, plant or furnishings inside... wierd.

Fairytale Suzdal

2007-06-09T03:46:00.000+10:00

I hopped off the train before Vladimir, and was picked up and taken through a grimy highrise part of town then out through the fields for half an hour and to the gorgeous village of Suzdal. Its got a river winding through it, but whats so captivating is the spires, belltowers, turrets and protective walls of monastries and churches that poke up at everyturn. Think multiple onion domed cathedrals, pairs of churches (summer churhes are big decorative and winter churches are smaller and heatable, and bell towers often separate), walled monastries, and about 200 photos trying to do it some justice! And I had a beautiful room in a B&B looking out over the river and towards the monastry.

The village of Suzdal dates back to the 11 and 12th century, and was the first capital before it moved to Vladimir and then Moscow. And luckily it has remained fairly isolated and survived invasions and wars with minimal damage. And its population has also remained stable and not grown.

Being off the train diet of 2 minute noodles I was keen to try some more Russian food... so heres my summary...

Borscht - thought I wouldn't like it cos of the beetroot but couldn't really taste that - YUM
Honey mead - tasted like a cross between honey, beer and mouthwash... strangely ok, but one glass will do me!
Blinis - russian pancakes - yum of course
Russian salads - everything comes covered in sour cream no matter what the ingredients are. Still tastes good.

Vladimir also had an impressive cathedral with beautiful murals inside, and another with lovely stone carving decorations on the outside. I was kind of surprised by the layout of their churches and cathedrals- no seats like ours... all standing.

Long train ride

2007-06-05T23:54:00.000+10:00

I've been on the train for the last 3 nights/4 days, so I'm kind of glad to be off! I started in Irkutsk, Siberia (near lake Baikal), and are now in Suzdal (a few hours from Moscow.) I've seen my fair share of birch and pine forests, and crossed a few large rivers too.

The train was certainly comfortable and spotless, with the provodnista (or cabin attendant) vacuuming, and cleaning a couple of times a day. I shared a cabin with a lovely retired Russian couple, who looked after me and tried to talk to me - looking up things in the phrase book all the time, pointing out out landmarks etc. In the cabin next to me there were 2 American students (one of whom can speak some Russian), and in the one on the other side 2 Canadians, so we also enjoyed chatting when we'd had enough of reading and staring out the windows. The only thing that was really a bit disappointing was that there weren't the promised trackside food vendors... only at one station where homecooked food was being sold from baskets, otherwise it was just small kiosks of packaged food. So the 15 to 20 minute stops while certainly welcome, ended up being more of a stroll than anything else. The other thing thats got to be mentioned is that it snowed yesterday... but today I'm walking around in a T-shirt... go figure!

Slow border crossing and Lake Baikal

2007-06-01T17:50:00.000+10:00

Border crossing - Mongolia to Russia

Despite what the lonely planet warned I couldn't see how the border crossing into Russia could take longer than coming into Mongolia from China... they don't need to change the wheels so surely it can't take that long.... But no, we started at the mongolian border at about 8:30, and finally finished and pulled out of the Russian station at 2.30! Lots of sitting round, a few walks along deserted stations. Yeah, unlike central american boarders where there are money changers, and people selling food etc, both stations were lifeless. Oh well, no more borders from now on. Other thing is I've definitely gone from Asia to Europe in terms of race... without the backpack I can now pass as a local until I open my mouth. (There is some english spoken but not that much.)

Lake Baikal and Irkutsk

I got picked up from Irkutsk station and taken to Lake Baikal, and the town of Listvyanka, which is small but spreads along the lake shore and up valleys for about 4 km. The lake was spectacular, and with such a beautiful clear sunny day the snow capped mountains on the other side where clearly visable. Its huge... I was only looking across a skinny bit if that makes sense. It is the deepest lake in the world (1.6km), has really clear and cold water, and holds 1/5 of the worlds fresh water. HUGE. Phil could have gone for a very chilly dive (they use dry suits I'm told), but I struggled to leave my feet or hands in for more than 30 seconds...so cold it hurts! The lake completely freezes over during winter and they do dogsledding apparently.

Anyway I spent a few days wandering along the shoreline, checking out the museum, the local wooden houses and relaxing. And eating Omul, the local fish which they smoke and dry or cook anyway you like it. Yum, kind of like trout.

I'm in Irkutsk for a day, before hopping on the train for 3 or 4 nights... hope my cabin mates are nice! Irkutsk is also know for its wooden houses with intricate decoration. A number of them are rather dilapidated though with some interesting slants. And today has been Childrens day, so there are lots of kids and families out and about, facepaint, balloons etc.

Mongolia

2007-05-27T16:17:00.000+10:00

When most people think of Mongolia its normally Genghis Khan, and perhaps nomad herders in Ger "tents", so Mongolias been a bit of a surprise for me. (They are justifiably proud of their history)

Ulaan Bataar is a capital city with very fashionable women, beautifully made up, and wearing leather coats and boots in the cold. (One of the sisters from the train was a fashion designer of leather coats!) Yet there are also elderly people wearing the traditional del, sash and boots too. There's cyrilic (Russian letters) all over the place, yet internet and texting is done using english letters, and a lot of people speak passable or really good english. Instead of MacDonalds (which they have none of) they have 24 hour Buiz or steamed dumpling fast food restaurants. These taste surprisingly like Aussie meat pies! And they have traffic jams all over the place. UB is also a city with apartment blocks in its centre yet gers around the edges. It was the second country to take up communism, and has a fair share of ugly russian buildings, yet its proudly democratic now, and the city looks prosperous. (Country towns are definitly bleaker) Its weather has also been surprising - today is warm sunny day of 20, but I arrived to a day of dust storms, wind and rain and top of 10.

I'm staying at a homestay in an apartment with a little old lady and her husband, and I've spent my days in town wandering round visiting temples and museums. (Thats the main budhist temple pictured with a 23m buddha inside)

I also spent a a day and a half out in the country side in Terelj National park, staying in a ger (felt hut) and walking, horseriding and visiting local herdsmen. My guide was great, and I really enjoyed chatting and learning more about local life. It was sooo windy and cold though... I had about 4 layers on. A group camping across the river turned out to be shamans... so we went and watched some of their ceremony, and making of alcohol from yoghurt.

Transmongolian train ride

2007-05-27T15:50:00.000+10:00

My first train ride of the trip, and I find myself with half a trainload of Aussies! Yeah there were two tour groups, and both mainly full of Australians. I shared a compartment with two lovely Mongolian sisters (who spoke english quite well, and had been in china for the elder sister to have a heart operation), and Rachel (a new intrepid guide), all of who you'll see in the photos. You'll also see the train being loaded in Beijing... there were a couple of compartments just stacked full with boxes, and a chinese trader guading the stuff and mysteriously deboxing it during the trip.

We travelled through some lovely mountainous countryside in China, before we hit the wide open dry flat land of inner mongolia. We got both lunch and dinner in the dinning car included which was a pleasant surprise, and other than that passed the time chatting, reading and staring out the window.

The Border crossing was quite a drawn out process.. forms and passports to hand over on both sides at different stations. And interestingly the bogie changing... think jack the entire train up carraige by carriage and swap the base wheel section to cope for the change in rail gauge.

The countryside started getting hilly, it started snowing lightly outside (yeah from shorts and t-shit in Beijing to snow!), and Ulaan Bataar came into veiw...

Beijing

2007-05-21T00:24:00.000+10:00

I'm in Beijing! I've been here now for a couple of days, taking in the tourist sites... and I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for Mongolia.

What would a trip to Beijing be without a visit to Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the experience of being almost run over by traffic be?! China is developing so quickly... there is so much work going on in preparation for the olympics... new subway lines, widening roads, not to mention stadiums and housing etc, retouching famous temples... It feels more first world than I thought it would be, and greener with more gardens and wide streets than I thought, and a fair bit of english too. And its definitely more capatalist than communist, even though Mao looks down over Tianamen Square.

The Forbidden City was packed with tourists groups all wearing matching caps and following tour leaders with flags... should have been huge and impressive yet somehow managed to be squishy! I liked the relaxed atmosphere of the Summer palace, and the Temple of Heaven and its surrounding park where people practiced everything from singing, to waving ribbons, tai chi and a chinese version of happy sack with feathers.

I also got the chance to try street food from a back alley (yum), visit a silk shop, a pearl shop (23 pearls in one oyster!!) and go see an acrobatic troupe... impressive.

Today I visited the Great Wall of China out at Simitai. Unfortuneately weather wasn't great (rain all the time) but it was memorable nevertheless... wall disappearing off into the mist.

Karen's Travel plans...

2007-05-16T15:18:00.000+10:00

For all those who don't know... Karen is off travelling again for 6 months, but this time Phil is staying behind as he's about to start a new job.

Karen's rough itinerary:

May/June....Transmongolian rail trip from Beijing to St Petersberg
June............Exploring Turkey with Wendy
July.............2 week Croatian holiday, on to England to see Tim and Nat
Aug.............South America here I come - 3 weeks in Argentina
Sept/Oct.....Peru and Bolivia
Nov.............Chile, Easter Island and home

So stay tuned... more blogs to come shortly.

Cook Island Time

2007-05-16T14:36:00.000+10:00

2006-12-15T13:26:00.000+11:00

HOME !

LA

2006-12-15T13:04:00.000+11:00

Starting with the plane which couldn't take off cos someone forgot to sign the flight log, changing planes to a completely different company, and loosing our luggage in the process... didn't bode well, not to mention Phil suffering from some bad food poisoning. But we rented a car and headed to my cousins place to recuperate... Culture shock... everything costs too much, and where have all the street vendors gone? And where else but Hollywood could you go to try and find medical help for Phil and find the medical centre is being used as a TV set instead... Scrubs!

Universal Studios

Wow, very artificial but somehow still heaps of fun with rides, shows, special effects, giant characters and all.

San Diego Zoo

We took a drive down to San Diego to visit the zoo, and ended up experiencing LA's famous freeways, traffic, and bad driving. We counted 8 lanes in our direction at one point with 6-8 going the other way. Karen felt very nervous with cars zipping by ignoring speed limits, not using indicators and generally driving very agressively...

The zoo was nice, and highlights were the hippos, pandas, polar bears, gorillas, chimps... and some of their impressive enclosures. Think we have to visit the Melbourne zoo again when we get home.

Mexico wrap-up

2006-12-15T12:48:00.000+11:00

Back to Mexico City, and time for a visit to the world renowned Anthropological Museum. So we wandered round, absorbing as much as we could, and admiring the numerous large carved stones, pottery, and big olmec heads. Not to mention watching some dudes dangle upside down in a recreation of an ancient ritual.

MEXICO SUMMARY
Food: Chapulines (grasshoppers) and Mole (pronounced Molay, and its a chocolate chilli sauce) are highlights
Ruins: We saw heaps, our favourites are Calakmul and Uxmal, and we couldn't stand Tulum which was overloaded with tourists.
Places: Hard to go past our time and experiences in Oaxaca with the street kids centre, spanish classes, and the ongoing civil unrest. Another favourite was San Cristobal, nice colonial town, good handicrafts and nearby local mayan villages.

3&4 Dec - Taxco, Grutas (caves), and Teotihuacan

2006-12-15T12:13:00.000+11:00

Taxco

Taxco is an oh so cute old silver mining town perched amongst the mountains. Now, there's no more mining, but its main drawcard is selling silver to tourists from one of the 400-500 silver shops there! We happened to visit during its annual silver show, so things were a bit busier than usual with concerts etc, yet the place still has a real charm as we discovered when we wandered up cobblestoned alleys, and winding stairways to the large Christ on the hill with the help of a few ragged streetkids and their small kitten.

Grutas de Cacahuamilpa

These are BIG, VERY BIG! Photos really just don't do them justice... they are huge... think of a large cavern up to 80m high, and 120m wide at points, going 2km into the mountain. Lots of huge stalagtites and mites too.

Teotihuacan

No one is quite sure who built this, but they certainly thought big... 2 huge pyramids, and a very impressive avenue of the dead leading through the city. And still heaps left covered, waiting for money to excavate and preserve. It was my second visit, but I appreciated the extra time to explore the museum and some of the excavated ruins I missed last time. They've just recently excavated further under one of the main pyramids and continue to find more bones, offerings, and clues as to the life and death of these people.

02 Dec 06 - Ciudad de Mexico

2006-12-03T14:31:00.000+11:00

We finally escaped the Yucatan Peninsula, and arrived in Mexico City (D.F. - Distrito Federal) and were greeted by the smog and the overwhelming mass of humanity that tries to sell you everything ... we mean EVERYTHING. The beggars will even go so far as to bring crushed glass into the train and lie down on their stomachs and backs on half-broken bottles for a couple of pesos!

Xochimilco

Cruising down the canals of Xochimilco in colourful trajineras while Mariachi bands croon from another boat, and corona sellers or photographers vie for your business.... a relaxing day, but still with that Mexico City seething humanity edge to it.

LUCHA LIBRE!!!!!

Mexican Wrestling at its finest... unfortunately no cameras allowed inside... Karen is still not a fan, but Phil recommends it HIGHLY!!! Loads of fun, drop-kicks, flying piledrivers, off-the-top-turnbuckle-fun.... if you´ve seen American Professional Wrestling, and you like mask-wearing lycra-clad men.... you´ll love this!!! We were treated to five tag-team bouts... the first a two-on-two bout, the remainder, 3-on-3 including the infamous Dr. Wagner (that´s his mask I´m wearing!)

02 Dec 06 - Riviera Maya

2006-12-03T13:45:00.000+11:00

Cozumel
This is a diving haven. Pure and simple. Every third or fourth shop is a dive store, Phil was in Heaven, Karen was getting whiplash from shaking her head every time Phil walked into a dive shop. We did a couple of drift dives, including Karen´s deepest at 30m. We saw a couple of hawksbill turtles at an arms length feeding on some of the soft corals... oh, to have the underwater camera working again!!

Ever since Jacques Cousteau did a doco in the ´60s, tourism has grown massively...and when the cruise ships discovered it.... the week before we arrived, there was an 18,000 people in a day onslaught purely due to these ¨cruzeros¨. Not only that, we saw the QEII as it was coming in to the island for a day or two. Get off the main strip, literally a couple of streets back, and you´ll find the usual undercurrent of mexican life keeping this island humming under the veneer of the american facade.

Cancun
There are hotels here. Lots of hotels. Think of a Mexican Surfers Paradise, and you´ll be about 20% of the way there to the corniness, utter soullessness and depravity that surrounds this place. (Hence, we visited Isla Mujeres, see below). There is a nice beach, if you can get to it through the hotels. The only public access to the beach is a couple of kilometres apart, otherwise you have to act like you are a guest at the hotel, hide your non-existent ID bracelets, and walk purposefully through the lobby.

One piece of advice when dealing with souvenir sellers (tiburones) or officious hoteleros in Cancun was provided to us by a local restauranteur... say to them ¨Chinga su Madre!¨ (this is what you think it is... maybe the guy wanted to see us get beaten up?)

Isla Mujeres
About 15min off Cancun, is this little island which has a little of the american facade of Cancun, but no resorts and a life all it´s own... predominantly mexican. This is a backpackers hangout... primarily cause it´s cheaper than Cancun. We saw a local turtle farm which breeds and releases turtles back to the wild (good), this makes up for all the turtle shell souvenirs you find in Cancun. We also saw a water cage with about 3-4 nurse sharks which are periodically manhandled by tourists out of the water for photo opps (bad).

22 November - The Yucatan

2006-11-23T14:02:00.000+11:00

Howdy,

We´re now in Cancun, and are counting down to our flight over to Mexico City on 30 Nov... then from Mexico to LA on the 06 Dec, then HOME!!! (That´s on the 10th, arriving on the 12th Dec).

Things we´ve done in the Yucatan Peninsula...

Tulum

Diving/Snorkelling in the Cenotes. For those of you who don´t know, ¨snotties¨ as we´ve taken to calling them, are waterfilled caves or sinkholes in the limestone of the Yucatan. The diving is cavern diving so there is natural light filtering into the water giving it a real (as Rob called it) an ¨Alice in Wonderland¨ feel to them. Swimming through stalagmites and stalagtites...

Lazing on the beach...Tulums beach has nice white sand but resorts line the beachfront. The ruins overlooked the sea and may have been nice if they weren´t sooooo covered with tourists.

Chichen Itza
Famous ruins but oh... the crowds!! We also stumbled on a Mexican Independence day parade (20 Nov), with all the kids in fancy dress of historical significance.

Celestun

Played a game of ¨Spot the Flamingo¨and found a few thousand! The waters run almost red with the krill which the flamingos feed on, giving them their pink colour. Phil went a bit mental with the telephoto lens, trying to capture flamingos with their heads above water.

Uxmal

Enjoyed some rather unique ruins. The pyramid in the background is rounded and a lot of people think its just been reconstructed wrongly. Quadrangles and palaces were impressive with their detailed facades.

16 Nov - Barmy (and Balmy) Belize

2006-11-18T10:53:00.000+11:00

We crossed the border to find ourselves back in a mainly english speaking world...but no, wait... was that chinese we just heard? Or some German from the Memonites?(A religious group-more later) Or a bit of creole, which is basically warped english.

Orange Walk (weird name hey!)

We stayed here for a few days so that we could take a boat tour down the river and have a look at the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. We`re a bit ruined out, but our guide was quite good and there was a quite impressive stone relief of a ruler. There was more... but things have been re-buried for preservation.

The first impression of the town was a local woman throwing up in the middle of the central park, followed by a hell of a lot of chinese restaurants, this was quickly proceeded by the mennonites... a bible based community who are a more integrated form of Amish... so they´re big in Pennsylvania, USA, Bolivia and in a town called Shipyard, a boat ride away from Orange Walk in an isolated village...check the photo for the clothing!

Caye Caulker
Expensive is a good summarizing word for Caye Caulker, so is hot. This place grows on you, we had a good dive guide one day who showed us all the local species and taught us some Creole as well... e.g. Tek Kyer (take care), Anda da wata (under the water)... you get the picture, try saying it with a Jamaican accent, and you can speak Creole! This day we also went snorkelling the famed SharkRay Alley... yes, there were both Sharks and Rays!

On Day 2 here, Phil went diving the famed Blue Hole, a 125m deep, 318m wide perfectly circular hole in the reef a couple of hours out of the Caye. Karen, for fear of seasickness, chose instead to go snorkelling more locally, and was treated to a guided tour inclusive of fighting moray eels!

Crossed the border back to Old Me´ico...
We´re now back in Mexico, Tulum and in the midst of loads of gringos... off to go cavern diving tomorrow in the Cenotes (caves in the area formed mysteriously).... let you know more soon!

10th Nov - On the Mayan Road Again

2006-11-11T12:37:00.000+11:00

We caught an overnight bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, which is a nice colonial town in the highlands of Mexico. We´ve seen heaps of colonial towns by now though, so we were more impressed by the nearby Mayan village of San Juan Chamula... With its pagan church with pineneedles spread across the floor, people lighting candles, chanting and waving eggs around in the hope of curing sickness. We met kids who couldn`t speak a word of Spanish, only the local mayan dialect of Tzotzil.... and yet we met a Mayan guy who knew the Cazador de Cocodrillos (Crocodile Hunter) because he watches him every Saturday at 6:30. We also went a bit mad at the markets... our bags are pretty full again!

Palenque.
The single most touristed Mayan ruins we`ve visited yet. Oh, my god. There were more orange-hat wearing dutch, bad spanish-speaking Americans and Germans... it was the biggest population this side of some big German city somewhere in Germany.

The ruins however, were in pretty good nick, and highly impressive. The number of carvings was impressive, and our guide managed to furnish us with explanations of the inherent egyptian, greek and chinese influences all readily seen within the artwork, apparently. He was a guide with 40 years experience, so we`d hoped he had some tales to tell, turns out they were tall tales.

Xpujil and Ruins

In the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula. We visited four sites in the middle of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. This is one hard to get to region.... required hiring a taxi for the day and have him wait for us while we walked around.

1. Calakmul

Incredible views. One of the tallest pyramids in Mexico. Quite a big complex overall and a historic rival of the Society in Tikal, Guatemala across the border.

2. Balamku

We were surprised when we were invited to enter one of the pyramids and saw an amazing stone/stucco frieze still with some of its original colour that was buried under an outer layer of pyramid, when remodelled by a later dynasty... this frieze was discovered only in 1993. And with the 3 pyramids next to it, we`re betting that once the Mexican govt finds more money, they`ll find more inside the adjacent pyramids.

3. Chicanna

Called the ¨Mouth of the Serpent¨, this site was dominated by the huge monster mouth doorway.

4. Xpujil

Dominant aspect was a huge 3-towered structure with a hidden staircase. This is an after-and-before photo.

We`re now in Chetumal, and just visited the Mayan museum and learnt how to add and subtract with Mayan numbers. On to Belize tomorrow.

1 Nov 06 - Day of the Dead

2006-11-02T10:23:00.000+11:00

Hi all,
Oaxaca is changing daily. Now the federal police (about 4,500) have moved in and helped to start cleaning up the town following the riots. The town is looking cleaner but there are still sporadic protests to their occupation and the teachers have moved camp from the centre plaza to elsewhere in town.
The town now is getting geared up for tomorrow - The Day of the Dead.

There are skeletons in the windows and more plastic vampire, werewolf and scary masks on every other corner for sale. Last night we went to the Xoxo cemetery where locals were elaborately decorating graves of their dear departed with marigolds and gladiolas and many with coloured sands in the image of Jesus and Mary, and candles everywhere. Of course the obligatory trick-or-treaters were out in force as well last night.

Last weekend we managed to be out of town, down on the coastal town of Puerto Escondido... a good place to be while there was trouble in town. A surfing paradise, built for tourists, and yep, we went diving.

Oaxaca - A town in trouble

2006-10-29T15:44:00.000+11:00

Hi all,
An interesting entry. At time of writing my last entry (5pm Friday), the streets were eerily empty, no traffic and fewer people. We`ve since found out that at the time I was typing, 4 people were killed including an american photographer ... see BBC World. For those with Spanish, BBC Mundo has a Spanish language version with some more detail.

We are actually now in Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast, and both well. We have found out that during our trip down, six plane loads of federal agents have been sent in to Oaxaca to keep the peace and hopefully dismantle a few of the blockades still in force around the city. We will be heading back to Oaxaca on Tuesday morning, to enjoy the Day of the Dead festival (which is definitely going ahead) and then on Thursday likely to head to the Yucatan Peninsula for the downhill leg of our journey.

Talk to you soon
P & K

Images of Oaxaca

2006-10-28T08:27:00.000+10:00

One of the many torched utes that serves as a roadblock... on the side you can make out ¨Fuera URO¨ meaning... ¨Get Out Ulises R.O. (I forget his surname)¨ Right now there are loads of domestic buses parked all over the roads and other car tyres etc doing a similar job... (note the heat melted the traffic lights too)

Bryan and Jennifer - been hanging out with these two heaps... a comment for Nick... Bryan is a fan of your ¨Money Train¨ system of evaluating movies... see more at Nicks Film and Book Reviews

A couple of photos from the ruins of Yagul...Mayan´s can certainly choose great locations for building cities.... good views, close to the main highway and utilities, drainage and power close at hand... those Mayans and Zapotecs were way ahead of their time!

These are a mineral rock formation known as Hierve El Agua. They´ve formed a petrified waterfall effect, and nearby natural springs have created pools for swimming at the top of a cliff made of the same white mineral. Nice place... a long hike on a small road with a VW though!

Our teachers from the Becari Spanish School... (L-to-R) Javier, Carina, Isis and Manuel.

Oaxaca - Coming to a Close (Literally)

2006-10-28T06:37:00.000+10:00

Hi All (Phil here)... Karen´s in Spanish class.

Well, it´s been a while since our last entry... sorry about the interval. We´ve been keeping ourselves pretty busy. With Spanish classes 3 hours a day and the remainder of the day in the Kids Centre, we´ve been seeing lots and finding out HEAPS about some very interesting politics happening as I type.

We´ve now finished volunteering... we´ve hopefully got things going for a new library at the kids centre (books are on shelves, and the database of books is in development... time for a new volunteer). Karen learnt heaps in the kitchen, and also taught English to the little ones 3 days a week, Phil took some rather chaotic computer classes in the afternoon. We´ve been a bit apalled by the lack of literacy... if they can read or write, then none of them can tell the time by looking at a watch/clock. But we hope we´ve made some small difference.

In Oaxaca, there has been a teachers strike in progress since May - we mentioned this in a previous entry, they´ve striked (struck) every year for at least a week for the last 5-10 years. Well, the teachers are the main power base of a group called APPO who are not only helping the teachers gain more salary amongst other demands, but are also a group bent on removing from power Ulises, the governor of Oaxaca State. This has been a bloody strike... numerous killed.

Well, in the last two weekends, a teacher each weekend was killed, and just yesterday the teachers have now voted in the majority to return to work. Too late for the students, the majority of primary and secondary students will be repeating the entire year because they´ve lost too much time. With the teachers leaving the equation, APPO is making one big hit TODAY, attempting to bring the city to a standstill in the hopes of making it´s presence felt and having an effect on Ulises.

As of 2 hours ago, roadblocks went up EVERYWHERE on every 3rd city block, around the outskirts of the city and in smaller towns surrounding Oaxaca city. There is no traffic in or out of the city, and in the space of 20 minutes all traffic ceased and the city went deathly quiet....very eerie. We just bought tickets to Puerto Escondido on the Mexican Pacific coast... but have had to change them to tomorrow morning, in the hope that the barricades have lifted. We have no idea how long this´ll last. Photo soon, Promise.

One other topic of hot debate here at the moment, is the Mexico/US Fence, which is being built right now... people are outraged, and damn it, I´m with Mexico. US govt, led by the head idiot himself, are fucking up everything they touch. (Yes, it´s strong language, but I´m bloody pissed off!)

Last weekend we headed out to a place called Hierve El Agua, also to another couple of smaller ruins known as Yagul and Dainzú. We rented a VW Beetle, which I had great fun driving, good to be behind the wheel again! Photo soon, promise.

We´ve been spending quite a bit of time with Bryan and Jennifer, a great couple from Santa Barbara, California... Bryan is Chief Radio Engineer at KCSB (91.9) FM in Santa Barbara, Jennifer is doing PostGrad research for her PhD in social movements, and so is interested in the events in Oaxaca at the moment. Photo soon, promise.

14 Oct - Monte Alban & Mitla

2006-10-15T04:38:00.000+10:00

Monte Alban

One of the great seats of Mayan Power....I`ll grab the tour guide and be back with more details!

Mitla

A series of columned tombs, derived from the post-columbian era, Mitla is known as a gateway to the Underworld. With a very different form of ´crenellated´ brickwork, not present in other Mayan ruins, Mitla is unique and was apparently a home to priests and other keepers of the tombs... once again.... I`ll grab the guide book and be back!

14 Oct - Oaxaca, Mexico

2006-10-15T03:52:00.000+10:00

Hi all... we`ve now been in Oaxaca for a couple of weeks. We`re staying with the Giron Family who have about 4 or 5 extra rooms which they rent out to Spanish students and volunteers. Nice people, and good to talk with to help improve your Spanish.

We`ve been volunteering with the Centre for Street Children. Although, they`re not actually street children, they`re part of a minority in Oaxaca State called the Triqui... indigenous to the area and often ridiculed, they retain their own language and culture still alive today.

Oaxaca is a town gripped by strikes. Los Maestros (Public Teachers) have been on strike since May, and have a pretty strong political influence... calling for the governor`s sacking amongst other demands... They`ve burnt upturned cars and blockaded public streets and graffiti is everywhere, shops, town square and even the churches and central cathedral. Karen has more detail about the teachers, as she`s been discussing some of this stuff in spanish in her classes.

30 Sep - Guatemala Wrap Up (We`re in Mexico!)

2006-10-01T08:25:00.000+10:00

Guatemala: It`s very ... guatemalan.

Karen`s new favourite country, as it has volcanoes, lakes, traditional costumes actively worn. With really friendly helpful people, it`s a bit cooler in the mountain regions, less touristy than Costa Rica, more on offer than Nicaragua (the last favourite) and a hell of a lot of Mayan Ruins and living culture.

Phil liked the Mayan Ruins, and haggling with marketwomen in Solola (Karen can`t bargain, just too soft - especially when it`s cheap to start with). And I`ll be looking to return in October to Lago Atitlan for the Altitude Diving Course. (Will keep you posted).

24-29 Sep - Xela and Lake Atitlan

2006-09-30T10:38:00.000+10:00

Xela; Guatemala´s 2nd largest city and a good-looking one at that. We took a chicken-bus to Zunil, a nearby town then a pickup truck for 10 quetzal each (about $1.20) to a hot spring called Fuentes Georginas... the driver then informed us it was 20 quetzal each to get back down... the thermal spring was gorgeous but smelt and tasted pretty heavily of sulphur. We then decided to the walk down-hill (about 8km) and noticed lots of steaming vents in the side of the mountain right by the roadside. Loads of fields of local farmers growing cabbages (repollos), radishes (not sure), onions (cebollas), corn (maíz), flowers (flores) and more.

Lago Atitlan; a huge crater lake at 1560m altitude. Surrounded by 3 volcanoes and numerous villages perched on steep cliff sides it´s an amazing vista. Phil´s going to do an Altitude Diving course sometime during October, since the instructor wasn´t available the few days we were there. We had the fortunate experience of coming face-to-face with a Mayan god - named Maximon, or San Simon, or something... a 3ft wooden statue dressed in traditional clothes with plenty of candles and ´incense´ (if you know what I mean)... Mayans in the area still speak there native language (Spanish a distant second)... the god though... it´s a sad state of affairs when you´re taller than your own deity.

23 Sep - Semuc Champey

2006-09-30T10:11:00.000+10:00

We had an interesting, and very scenic 5 hour bus ride from Flores down to Coban, which is pretty much in the centre of Guatemala. Phil spent a recovery day in Coban (still coughing and spluttering from a cold from El Salvador), while I took a package trip to Semuc Champey... beautiful river rock pools, and a cave to explore. The rock pools were vibrantly blue, and interestingly the main river flowed underneath them - through a cavern beneath.

Just down the river, there´s a cave system that you get to climb, wade and swim through with candles providing the only light. I took the waterproof bag (and camera) with me, and used it to float... saving my candle from the soggy deaths several others suffered. It was definitely something that OH&S wouldnt allow at home!

21-22 September - Tikal and Mayan Ruins

2006-09-24T03:03:00.000+10:00

We headed back to Antigua where Karen did the Volcan Pacaya climb, enjoyed it also. We seem to be taking it in turns to be sick.

We then caught an overnight bus to see the Mayan ruins of Tikal. Staying in a hostal completely cut from stone in El Remate, overlooking the glorious Lago de Peten Itza.

Yeah, a really impressive place, our guide even explained the Mayan calendar - the solar one with 19 months - and the ritualistic one with only 260 days - and that the mayan End of the World comes about in Dec 2012!

The most impressive part of Tikal wasn`t the temples etc, but that the view from Temple IV was the view used by George Lucas in 5 seconds of footage from the original 1977 Star Wars... the bit where a guard is looking through binoculars across the moon on which the rebels have made a base, and are about to launch their attack on the death star.

I´ll let Karen tell you more about the actual ruins themselves... she`s off going through the cave system near Coban today.

18-19 September - El Impossible

2006-09-24T02:26:00.000+10:00

Hey all, Phil here.... we´re back in Guatemala after finishing our week in El Salvador with a walk through the Parque Nacional El Impossible. (I got a cold... still got a blocked nose a week later, ah well).

We´re all finished in El Salvador now, so we´ll be moving back into Guatemala to see what we can before catching the bus up to Oaxaca for volunteer work in October.

El Salvador Round-Up
Our time in El Salvador... a really well-developed place, with lots of modern facilities, western fast food chains and the best roads we´ve come across in Central America. A real gem, but will need to up it´s tourist intake to keep economically competitive with other CA nations.

11-13th Sep - San Salvador and surrounds

2006-09-16T11:33:00.000+10:00

San Salvador (city)

San Salvador city has two very distinct sides... the flashy american fast food chains, malls and wide roads... and the inner city gritty, central district with its market area and streetside prostitutes (that took a liking to phil!) We went for a dose of english at the local cinema only to end up watching a russian vampire movie with spanish subtitles and not a hint of english despite being reassured it was in English. (Naomi where are you when we need you!?!) For those that know Phil, you´ll know that he chose the movie, (it´s called Nightwatch back home).

The highlight of the city was Iglesia del Rosario... the lighting was unlike anything we´ve seen to date.

Joya de Ceren
An hour NW out of the city, these are ruins of a Mayan society preserved by the volcanic ash from the eruption of Laguna Caldera Volcano in AD600. Intact are local houses, kitchens, a Mayan sauna. It wasn´t made from the same stone of other Mayan temples, but a variety of building materials available in the local environment.

It provided a really great insight into how local Mayans lived instead of the huge temples around which ceremonial life has been uncovered.

Lago Ilopango
This was a great day. Karen and I went diving in this freshwater active volcanic crater lake. We saw underwater thermal vents, with albino algae growing nearby the white hot rocks... much like the black smokers you´ve seen on documentaries that exist kilometres underwater in the oceanic trenches... quite amazing... plus it was crab season, and hundreds of them all over the bottom. (Karen´s first really low visibility dive - about 2m).

The weird part of the day was the presence of Manuel and Ozvaldo... the star and cameraman of ¨Mas Deportes en 90 Minutes¨... an El Salvador Extreme Sports tv show. It´s on this Sunday, Cable 7 or Local Channel 33, if you get a chance (and happen to be in El Salvador). We were interviewed on camera, and filmed doing backrolls off the boat, and doing tricks and playing with crabs underwater... EXTREEEEMMMEE!!
We´ll try to record it if we can...that is if we´re not on the cutting room floor! I think he tried to sell the two of us as Steve Irwin style aussies doing Extreme Sports around the world.

La Libertad
Flying visit through this Surf Hot Spot, and Fishing Port. There was a great break off the point, but the chocolatey colour water and rocks were a bit off-putting. The pier held a fish-market, with every stage of gutted fish imaginable (you´d have loved it Chuka). There were the odd contraband, including turtle eggs and baby hammerheads. You´ll see the pictures.

10 Sep - Volcan Pacaya

2006-09-16T11:28:00.000+10:00

Today, I stared into the face of hell.

(Melodrama aside).... Karen was stuffed today (stomach still a bit dodgy), so I headed to the top of Volcan Pacaya, standing on the edge of magma/lava flows down the side of the volcano, and climbed the volcanic ash slopes to get my lungs burned out by sulphur vents, so I and a couple of english-scottish adventurers could stare straight down to see the fiery pit at the caldera, right at the summit of the beast.

I have video I´ll email around... the flow had moved about 3 meters in the 1.5 hrs I was there... great footage...if you like volcanoes.

7-9 September - Antigua

2006-09-10T04:24:00.000+10:00

Well, we're now in Antigua, and the cooking class I mentioned below is where Karen is right now.... I think she's cooking enchiladas, lomalitos, or something.... I'll find out when she brings home lunch!!

Antigua
This is an AWESOME colonial town about an hour from Guatemala city. Very cosmopolitan, full of travellers, but still has successfully blended the best of modern westernism, with the look and feel of something distinctively mayan/guatemalan. , there are also a couple of artesan markets and things, but nothing that's terribly over the top with "kitch".

The view from our window.... the Volcan de Agua.... tomorrow we'll be climbing Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano with a river of "steaming hot magma".

Okay, so Antigua has some corny things... this was the corniest I've seen so far... no it's not a re-enactment... they're advertising a restaurant across the road.

This is the Convento y Iglesia La Merced... the fountain in the centre is a whopping 27m diameter... the largest in Central America (don't ask why, I really can't answer that one)

We visited a convent with a series of concentric cells for nuns to live, pray and work in... see photo below

September - GUATEMALA

2006-09-10T04:02:00.000+10:00

Heya....
Just Phil on today, Karen is doing a Guatemalan cooking class...
We've now crossed over into Guatemala. Following Copan we had probably the worlds easiest border crossing before heading to Quirigua... another well-known home of Mayan Ruins. Quirigua is home to the tallest stelae (carved likeness of Mayan rulers) in the Mayan world. Some of these are as tall as 8m above ground (with another 3m below) and weigh about 60 tonnes. The place was hot and humid as hell and has more mosquitoes than Mayans these days.

Livingston
Following Quirigua, we headed to Rio Dulce for a boat ride (which turned out to be in 2 hours of stinging monsoonal rain) on our way to Livingston. We were having deja vu thinking back to Tortuguero in Costa Rica (3hours of Kayak trip in similar conditions). Livingston is another Garifuna dominant town only reachable by boat. We met a Garifuna guy there called Philip also, who introduced us to some local musicians and burnt a CD of local music for Phil. After dinner we had to duck out of the continuing rain, and found ourselves in a Garifuna club, where I got into a heated game of dominoes (for money) with a few of the locals. I came back a few Quetzales short.

Honduras wrap-up

2006-09-08T13:35:00.000+10:00

We spent all of August in Honduras...wow. So here´s our thoughts:

Best place - Karen liked the chilled beachtown of Trujillo. Phil only saw the 300m between the pool and the dive boats in Utila.

Best food - Fresh strawberries in La Esperanza or fish and coconut soup in Trujillo. Phil had a hamburger once in Utila.

Worst trip - Close tie between cockroach-infested bus between San Pedro Sula and Trujillo or the ferry out to Utila (Karen was seasick!). Phil was pretty hungover a couple of times walking down to Utila Dive Centre.

People - Out of the big cities people were curious and up for a friendly chat. Big cities felt edgy, especially with the police out in force following some high profile murders, kidnappings and gang drugwars. The numerous she-males in Utila freaked Phil out.

Study - Karen enjoyed learning further Spanish and reading the newspaper and understanding current affairs. Phil, well, you get the picture. Karen loved her Open Water course too!

Copan and Utila were pretty touristy, the rest of the country is pretty much off the main gringo trail.

Overall: Thumbs Up.

02-03 Sep - Copan, Mayan Ruins

2006-09-08T12:06:00.000+10:00

Hi all,
Having reunited we made our way down to Copan, on the Honduran/Guatemalan border to see the famed Mayan ruins.

The Town - Copan Ruinas
Small colonial town with a good feel to it and enough tourists passing through to ensure that there is good food, but not too many to ruin the place.
We posted home all Phil`s books, which cost as much as it was to buy them! We are sure we also provided some amusement to the post office staff who were intent on breaking down the boxes we had into about 6 miniature parcels to get them under the limit... honestly, who can fit a backpack into a 10cm by 5cm box? The boxes were that tiny we COVERED them with about 37-40 stamps per parcel.. no franking stamps available.

The Ruins
Impressive. Definitely impressive. A large open plaza filled with stelae - 8 ft intricately stone-carved reliefs showing impressions of the rulers of the time. Multiple stairways, temples, a ballcourt and random statues and carvings in the individual brickwork throughout the site. We took over a hundred photos to give you some idea.... we can see you salivating now, waiting for the slide show when we get back!

Like much of Central America, there was unfortunately a lack of information on the rituals, ceremonies and general daily life... they really rely on you hiring a guide to show you around at exorbitant prices. We heard one English-speaking guide try to relate a hieroglyphic stairway to Led Zeppelins `Stairway to Heaven`. But that said, we did eavesdrop on some interesting information from another guide about the ballgames.

The ballgames the Mayans played was in an I-shaped court with sloping walls in the middle section... the idea was to keep the ball in the air... a little like old-time volleyball. The winners were killed to celebrate the glory. Good motivation to stay in the B-team.

We lastly ventured into the local Museum which houses a lot of the original statues, as many of these are being protected from the elements. Interestingly, archaeologists are fairly definite this site was abandoned because the population outstripped the local resources and agriculture couldn`t sustain them. Evidence of malnutrition was found in skeletons nearby.

31 Aug - I´m now an Instructor!

2006-09-02T02:27:00.000+10:00

Hi all,
Sorry for the silence over the last couple of weeks... it´s been pretty busy in the classroom, the pool and out on the dive sites around Utila.

But it´s all been worth it. On Wednesday we finished two days worth of our IE, Instructor Examination, and I´m now a CPR Primary/Secondary Care Instructor and a PADI OPEN WATER SCUBA INSTRUCTOR!

The Instructor Development Course - IDC

I´d like to give a big plug for Utila Dive Centre and the Mango Inn. A comfortable, clean place to stay and a professional outfit to dive with. The Instructors at UDC are fun to work with, and there´s a palpable pride and outward enthusiasm in those working at UDC.

My hat´s off to Andy Phillips and Neil Ross who are the Course Directors. They provided the professionalism you expect, the content and quality you need, and the diving and fun that you want!

They took us through everything from PADI Business to making sure your students have fun at the weekly BBQ - actually the BBQ and PADI Business are not that far apart!

The course itself covered a variety of topics, from teaching the Open Water, Advanced, Rescue and Divemaster courses to Specialties which we can now teach, and also the other legal, quality and risk management aspects of the diving industry. The confined water (pool/dock) and open water sessions were always interesting, always more to learn about giving briefings and making sure student divers concentrate on the positives as well as solving the problems that might crop up.

I also have to say thanks to Andy for the try-dive with a Closed Circuit Rebreather, many thanks, it´s confirmed for me the direction I want my diving to go. I´ll see you back in Utila with a CCR of my own.

The Instructor Examination - IE
Two guys from PADI Americas came down and on Tuesday we did the written exams, covering Standards, Physics, Physiology, Equipment, Environment and Decompression Theory. Then on Wednesday we had a VERY full day.

In the morning
- Out for the Open Water and teach two skills, and
- Conduct a Rescue on an unresponsive diver, providing rescue breaths every 5 seconds while removing tank and equipment then towing them to the boat.

Then in the afternoon
- Teach a confined water skill
- Demonstrate 5 out of the 20 skills needed for Open Water students
- In the classroom and do a presentation on an aspect of one of the dive courses.

That was the whole thing!!! We´d all qualified, and were about to be set loose on the diving industry!

That night Neil and Andy treated us to dinner at a local Italian restaurant, La Piccola, where one of the Staff Instructors, Angel, introduced us to providing teaching-quality demonstrations of how to drink Tequila Slammers by licking the salt from the neck of the girl sitting next to you... (No, Karen, I didn´t!)

The People
I´ve had a brilliant time in Utila. The sole reason is the people I had the good fortune to work with. My IDC Crew included (in no particular order):

Manuel - a funny, smart ex-pat Spaniard, who is a qualified pilot, was an engineer on the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and is now a Scuba Instructor also! With an open-door policy at his place, you always know you´re welcome to visit, just hang out or do whatever.
Lionel (Jacques Mayol) - A bloody good guy who I´ve been having breath-holding competitions with.... I got up to 3 mins 30 secs, but Lionel reached 3 mins 54 secs. Email me when you break 4 mins! I´ll be training too... the competition continues!
Roberto - ¨El Presidente¨. A Honduran business dynamo. Either he or one of his brothers will be President of Honduras one day. His pride and joy were his new fins, which we managed to steal off him during a dive at about 35m deep the other day!!
Annie - The incredibly motivated one of our team! An intelligent, funny person who´ll be going home to be a lawyer, but I reckon will find some reason to get back to Utila before long.... oh, and don´t let her get anywhere near Piña Coladas!
Damien - The only other Aussie on our team, a piss-funny world traveller from Sydney who has had the luck to get to Antarctica... I´m bloody jealous. He´s staying in Utila to work for a while... stay in touch mate!
Brandy and Morgan - The hilarious Colorado couple who began travelling Central America, landed in Utila, and 3-4 months later had investing everything in becoming Rescue divers, Divemasters, then Assistant Instructors, and now Instructors.
Cyril and Pauline - the Swiss couple, most of us were blinded by being forced to see Cyril walk around in Speedos the whole time!
Maurizio, Felipe, Pablo, Pepe - The bloody funny Spanish Speaking crew who did their IDC with Angel, the Spanish Instructor... they had us all in fits of laughter, if not tears most of the time.

A quick note to everyone above, stay in touch, and if you ever find yourself heading to Australia, you´ll always have a home.

21-31 Aug - Spanish classes

2006-08-30T12:06:00.000+10:00

I thought while Phil is busy studying to be a scuba instructor, I´d take some spanish classes, and here`s where I ended up!

La Esperanza

This place appealed because it was described as a cool (temperature wise), country mountain town with a good fresh fruit and vegie market... so I thought it would be a nice place to study at their language school for a week. Only problem was, they`re not taking students at the moment! However the friendly hotel owner organised for one of his friends to tutor me, so all worked out quite well in the end, and I´ve been brushing up on verbs and reading articles in the newspaper.

The town itself while certainly functionaly isn´t really much to look at, apart from this one grotto church on the hill, from where you get quite a good view. The people are quite interesting though, with many are farmers from the surrounding countryside coming in to sell their produce in the markets. Think potatoes, beans, cucumbers, peppers, chiles, apples, bananas, lychee, strawberries... yum. And there are many Lencas - the name given to the local hondurenos decended presumeably from the maya some time back. The Lenca women wear quite distinctive headscarfs, and they are apparently quite good potters too! Tourist info in the town was scarce, the lonely planet somewhat out of date and the map when I did eventually find one was cryptic! So I didn´t end up finding the mysterious holes in the ground (thought possibly to be mayan mines for obsidian), even though I did wander a fair bit in my spare time.

Trujillo

It was a bit of a hike across the country (10 hours, 6 of which were in a cockroach infested bus) to get to Trujillo. Trujillo is on the carribean coast, and is a town with some history... founded in 1500s by the spanish, its been relocated, fought over and raided several times, deserted for about 150years, then re-occupied and re-built with fortification, and then in more recent times its been influenced by americans and their fruit trading in the area (bananas, coconut, pineapple and others). Anyway its a gorgeous town on a hill, overlooking a lovely huge sand bay, with a mountain range behind. Lovely. Hot, but there generally is some breeze.

Life is pretty laid back here, there aren´t many tourists, and people are friendly and want to talk to you. Food is good with lots of seafood, pan de coco (coconut bread)and fresh fruit and veg, and I´m enjoying the beach - swimming, and sipping on limonadas while trying to read the newspaper! I´ve tee-ed up some spanish classes with a local school teacher (Chavely) through the tourist information centre here. So I´m practicing my verbs and grammar, and also learning more about local issues and customs. And I´m finding myself using spanish pretty much all the time (as there is no one to speak to in English, and the TV is all spanish too)

Yesterday I went out to visit a nearby palm oil factory (yes, I know I´m a worry, but I can´t help but be curious!), and the engineer there was very helpful explaining the process and showing me about. Honduras is now using palm oil to produce bio-diesel (amongst other products) and this is in the news a fair bit as the government is currently subsidising petrol (costly) to keep it accessible to the public, and it is pushing for the use of more bio-diesel as a more affordable fuel. Currently its being trialled in increasing proportions in community buses.

Whats next?

Heading back to meet Phil in La Ceiba this Friday... and by then he`ll be a fully qualified dive instructor... WOW! (And yes he should put something on this blog to let you know what fun he´s got up to over the last few weeks)

16-20 Aug - Karens visit to country honduras

2006-08-21T10:18:00.000+10:00

While Phils busy studying in Utila, I´ve gone exploring the countryside... so heres a little about some of the places I´ve been...

Santa Rosa de Copan

A nice colonial town set up on the hillside, with some nicely restored buildings and cobblestoned roads. I visited the Flor de Copan Cigar factory and got a guided tour to myself which was quite amazing - over 1000 employees and nothing automated in sight. The smell was overpowering, and the amount of handling required to air, wash, dry, classify into sizes, pull out veins, roll and compress into cigars, label, package and even make the boxes from scratch. Halls of people doing each task.

Gracias

Another quiet colonial town nestled in the mountains with a definite cowboy feel to it... cowboy hats and horses all over the place. There´s an old castle on the hill with nice views over the valley, and they also have some very nice hot springs about an hours walk out of town.

San Juan
Wow smaller still. A one street town in the mountains, with nothing much to do, but really friendly locals who are trying to encourage tourism with guided tours in the surrounding area, as an alternative source of income for the locals (this is one of the poorest parts of honduras, and there are several foreign aide organisations in this mountain area). My host was a lovely old lady, only too happy to chat and tell me about the area. I also wandered along the road to some more hot springs and visited a family who make roof tiles.

8-16 August - La Ceiba/Utila

2006-08-17T02:29:00.000+10:00

La Ceiba
Spent a day here, while Karen recovered, and Phil went on a rampage trying to find a bank that would provide US dollars.... none of them do. (We didn't fancy carrying around '000's of Lempiras - the local currency, which would be a wad a couple of centimetres thick.) We needed this volume of cash for Phil's Dive Course, oh, well, let's hope they let Phil through on good will.

Although, they will give you the local Lempira, then let you exchange.... so you can lose out twice on the fees and then the exchange rate. And the banks will also direct you around town to all the other banks which also don't provide US dollars!

Then the ferry crossing to Utila.... it wasn't a comfortable ride for an already ailing Karen. Naturally seasick, she got a bit green (think Kermit).

Utila
We're staying here at the Mango Inn... Phil's classroom is just on the left. Our room is upstairs in the far left corner.
After taking a day to recover, Karen started, and has now finished her Open Water course!! She's now officially a diver! (I'm starting to influence her).

Karen went on a couple of fun dives too, saw a sea turtle, squids, moray eels, fish, coral, fish and coral, oh, and more fish. It's also quite amazing how much dead coral makes up the beaches around the island.

My (Phil's) course starts today, and I'll unfortunately have to hang around this tropical paradise for another couple of weeks. Karen's leaving today for numerous Spanish schools and still has no idea what direction she's headed.

5-7 August - Tela and Garifuna Villages

2006-08-08T03:27:00.000+10:00

Hey all, still Phil here... Karen and I had a dodgy pizza last night, (we´re feeling okay) but we´re staying an extra day in Tela than we planned... best to be close to ¨facilities¨, if you know what I mean..... Enough said.

We´re now in Tela, which is on the Caribbean coast (North coast) of Honduras... it´s a seaside town, pretty nice, I´ve now bought another (actually, our third) hammock... the other two are on their way home in the mail... all different styles of course.

Yesterday, we went to Tornabe, a Garifuna village west of Tela. The Garifuna are black carribeans who settled here about 200 years ago, and retain their own language, their own customs, and still hold Garifuna style traditional dances. We visited through the day, so no dances were on but the town´s, particularly the town Miami, is predominantly constructed of traditional materials... banana leaf thatched roofs and the like... and Miami has no power or running water. Definitely back to basics. Karen loved this particular beach, shady groves of coconut palms, and a beautiful clean beach with a sandbreak all the way along.

It´s official... I´m doing my Scuba Instructor Course in Utila with Utila Dive Centre. I´m going to be there for 3 weeks, the first doing some DiveMaster work, then the next two in classes... culminating with the Instructor Examination (IE) on 29/30 Aug. Karen´s doing her Open Water with me...I´ll be the DM on her course, and then while I´m studying, Karen is looking at doing another week´s Spanish Course, this time in La Esperanza... things are a bit fluid, we´ll let you know any changes.

2-4 August - HONDURAS (and NICA wrap-up)

2006-08-08T03:12:00.000+10:00

Tegucigalpa

Hi all, Phil here.
Seems the photos are working.... and of course, I´m unprepared... so I nicked this photo from Wikipedia of Tegucigalpa... we´ll get some originals soon.

We took a Tica Bus (coach) from Estelí in Nicaragua, had a pretty uneventful Border crossing, and made our way to Tegucigalpa.
It´s a gorgeous city, really steep, everyone must have massive calves walking up and down the streets, and comes complete with obligatory noisy buses, tooting horns, and elderly women approaching us, calling us ¨her children¨ and asking for a ´regalo´(gift).

We spent a couple of days here and found ourselves stuck! There has been an ongoing teachers strike (huelga) during which 8,000 of them blocked off the only major highway north. We had to keep up-to-date reading the El Heraldo newspaper, which was one of the continuing sources for the Fidel Castro revelations.... talk about the end of an era. It took about 3 days after the abdication of power to his brother for the papers to announce he has cancer also. One of the interesting side notes is that his brother (forget his name now, anyone know?) has been in charge of the military in Cuba since 1959.

(P.S. Just checked the El Heraldo website, the teachers are still front page - always good articles to read in Spanish)

Oh yeah, Karen and I went walking through La Tigra National Park too.... a good walk, great views of the city, and got offered a lift (about an hours drive) in the back of a pickup by a Syrian, Mohammed, and his Honduran family... so, Thanks Mohammed!

NICARAGUA WRAP-UP

Highlights:
1. The view of Volcán Momotombo and Lake Managua from Leon Viejo
2. Travelling with Rachel and Kuhtahya
3. Granada and Leon - definitely worth a visit

Funnies:
1. Running out of money on Isla de Omotepe
2. Karen´s Spanish teacher - Blás, a very astute guy
3. Phil´s Dive Guide - Lorenzo, VERY loud.

National Beer: Victoria or Toña

30-31 July - Leon and its Surrounds

2006-08-01T07:23:00.000+10:00

Leon

Leon is another colonial town, the sister town of Granada. It seems to have more life of its own, and is definitely grittier than Granada. It has it´s fair share of churches and the largest cathedral in Central America, but is also known as the home of student resistance, the Sandinista movement and has a number of galleries, murals and photo walls documenting it´s political history. We recommend picking up a book and reading about the Iran-Contra affair, and the Sandinista movement, our curiosity is piqued!

Last night was a festival for the Saint of the local cathedral, so they had effigies of christ on the cross walked through town, with a band, church bells ringing, and LOTS of pyrotechnics - most of which were let off from home-made mortars in public areas, close to everyone! There was also a pyrotechnic bull (a guy in a make-shift costume) with pyros randomly flying off as wicks burnt, scaring children and harming others!

Leon Viejo

At the foot of Volcan Momotombo lies the ruins of Old Leon, it was rediscovered in 1967. With a variety of ruins showing brick structures of churches, merchant houses and more, the highlight was the view from what was the fort overlooking the town. This vista is AMAZING. You see Lake Managua, surrounding and highlighting a chain of volcanoes, perfectly conical, some islands within the lake ... just wait for photos. It was spectacular.

Oddly enough, Old Leon is a fair distance away from it´s present location, it was apparently moved due to a volcanic eruption of Momotombo in 1610.

San Jacinto Boiling Mud Pools

About half an hour out of Leon is a bizarre creek floodplain with bubbling mud pools and steam vents dotting the landscape. Local kids wander around with thongs, poking and prodding the mud, hoping to make a buck out of molding little candlestick holders from freshly warm mud. The water sits in the pools at about 100°C, and the steam, smoke and sulphur are palpable. Our guide told us that locals have had pools of boiling mud rise up under their beds overnight, and that running underground services within the area is, shall we say, problematic!

29 July - Volcan Masaya

2006-08-01T07:04:00.000+10:00

Today we walked up to Diria, a town overlooking Laguna de Apoyo, along with our teachers, as the last activity with our school... Diria originates in the preColombian era and it´s name (like that of Ometepe and others) comes from the native language (not Spanish). It has a nice big church, older than white settlement in Australia.

we then proceeded on a BIG transport day... many phases (they aren´t modes for all those people concerned with the apostrophe ¨´s¨ debacle - which remains unresolved) of transport

1. From Laguna by LandRover to base of the crater.
2. Foot to Diria
3. Bus to Masaya
4. Taxi to Laguna then to Masaya
5. Bus to Volcan Masaya
6. Bus with Puerta Rican Missionaries to the top of Volcan Masaya
7. Foot around the bat caves and Santiago Crater
8. Someone´s jeep when we hitched down the Volcano
9. Mini-Bus to Managua
10. Mini-Bus to Leon (balancing packs on laps)
11. Taxi to Hostal (to find it was full)
12. By Foot in drenching rain to a second hostal.
13. Sleep

Volcan Masaya

A really impressive active volcano with the active smoking Santiago crater. We were first impressed by the lava-strewn landscape solidifed into a bizarre rocky world...
There are two active volcanoes with 5 craters between them. We were impressed by the signs asking people to park their cars facing downhill, ¨for a quick getaway¨ in case of eruption, or requesting that people ¨hide under their cars¨if the crater starts spitting out rocks... this is one ACTIVE volcano.

We then went with a guide down a lava tunnel (or Bat Cave). Interesting formations, loads of stalagmites and -tites and hardhats with headlamps which barely lit the way.

24-29 Laguna de Apoyo Spanish School

2006-08-01T06:46:00.000+10:00

Apologies for the delay of a week or so... and the lack of photos...
We´ve been off the beaten path for a week, and blogger has been stubborn with posting photos... just means more reason for a slide night when we get home!

This week we were at the Proyecto Ecologico Escuela de Espanol. We had a week staying at a guest house, where we both had one-on-one tutoring for 4.5 hrs per day. Karen´s professor was Blas and Phil´s was Madeline (Photos to follow). One other student in attendance was Bruno, a nice swiss guy with boofy blond hair who was studying there for 3 weeks.

SPANISH SECTION
-------------------
Karen y yo fuimos a aprender español por una semana. La escuela se llama ¨Proyecto Ecológico¨, que ofrece bucear en la Laguna de Apoyo. Karen recibió más conversacion mientras yo aprendí mas sobre de gramatica. Yo buceé dos veces, cada uno fué asombroso. Mi primera buceo de agua fresca fué muy único. La laguna tiene solo una especie de planta y un par de especies de peces que son nativos porque la laguna esta aislada.
-- Escrito por Phil
-------------------

Karen learnt much about Nicaraguan history, festivals and national symbols; along with grammar, verbs, verbs and more tenses of verbs.
Phil learnt verbs. Phil got frustrated learning verbs and not being able to say what he wanted, particularly when your teacher is trying to conduct a conversation on political history! (I would´ve been more content reading ¨Run Spot Run¨)

But that said Phil can now read and write a little better and Karen can engage locals in political debates on street corners (yeah, like Karen´s the sort to incite political uprisings!)

The Laguna was Phil´s FIRST FRESHWATER DIVE!! It´s a crater lake that has been isolated for all history, and so has only eight species of fish (one of which is introduced) and only one species of plant (Charcha). How did the other 7 species get there?

The lake is about 5km wide and 200m deep, and is a lovely clear blue, visibility extends to about 10m max, and the bottom is mainly mud and rock, with occasional volcanic outcroppings which is where the fish hide-out. The water temp is 28°C - no thermoclines.

20-22 July - Masaya and San Juan del Sur

2006-07-23T12:42:00.000+10:00

Masaya

Otherwise known as Hammockland. Although best known for its artesans and the local handicraft stores (Phil thought it was extensive stores selling the same souvenirs rather than real artesans).

The handicraft pedalled by these artesans included lovely woodwork, hammocks and stuffed cane toads in suggestive positions, and stuffed crocodiles smoking pipes.

We ventured into the hammock district and found ourselves by the lake where we were bombarded by local children asking for photos, and generally up for a chat. Some spoke a couple of words of english, but as one of them had a birthday coming up, we bought them all ice-cream, particularly cause one of them gave us a lolly each. Good kids, a good indicator of a safe neighbourhood.

Although knowing we were travelling light, and promised ourselves not to buy anything excessive, we ended up purchasing two of the heavier, bulkier and yet very comfy models of hammock and hammock chair available and spent an interesting morning trying to wrap, pack, address and send some weirdly shaped packages home.

San Juan del Sur

We headed south for the weekend, to catch some sun and beachtime. It´s a bit of a gringo-town, but does have a strong fishing fleet and a curious japanese interest in it´s port area.... Karen´s japanese has come into it´s own, reading ¨No Entry¨ signs around the place. The place itself is a nice curved beach with cliffs on either end.

We finally found a hostal after four attempts, one of which is notable. We were invited to come in and see a room, we followed the woman in who then proceeded to take us into another guests room and start fixing the shower!! She´d apparently forgotten about us (in half a second) and both us and the guests we were left staring at weren´t sure what the hell was going on!

We took a boat out for a dive/snorkel to a place called Los Pacomas (I think), where visibility was about 4-5m and there were plenty of small spotted rays, a couple of morays and stone-fish and plenty to see, despite losing my guide on the second dive.... he was off chasing lobster (langosta). Karen enjoyed snorkelling, but was a little wary with large fish circling at one stage, and locals with spearguns.

One more thing, we´ve found a great little italian restaurante overlooking the beach and gorged ourselves on pizza and pasta. If you can get here, we recommend it, they even cook with power failures!

18-19 July - Granada

2006-07-23T12:33:00.000+10:00

Granada is an old spanish colonial city, founded in 1524 and it rocks! It has beautifully restored buildings, paved/tiled footpaths, good food, its safe and people are friendly. We got a couple of locals talking politics, and they love to express their attitudes and ideas about american investment, Sandinistas (political regime that has gripped the country for decades - see Wikipedia), and President Ortega.

July 19 was Sandinista Day - celebrated with large political rallies in Managua (the capital), it was not a good day to be a Gringo in Managua - as many a friendly Granadan told us!

We walked around heaps, admired the internal courtyards of the old colonial buildings (including our hostel) and we also said Goodbye to Kutuhya and Rachel... we celebrated in style with a good tapas evening and singing karaoke (Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Grease) with lesbians in a local bar! Don´t ask (but we do have photos).

Granada can really suck you in... a lovely place to stay for a long while (there´s lots of expats).... thumbs up from both of us!

14-18 July - Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua

2006-07-19T12:25:00.000+10:00

We headed over the border with our english friends, and straight to Ometepe Island. It is a large island with two conical volcanoes (Concepcion and Maderas) in the middle of lake Nicaragua, and is quite spectacular. The lake is huge (cant see to the other side) and very brown with its fresh water, and it is apparenly home to the only fresh water sharks in the world (which we didn't see).

Check out (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometepe)

Anyway the ferry was like an indonesian boatpeoples boat - probably quite functional but lacking in several safety and other features... lifejackets, gangway or side rails anyone? (gangway was a plank of wood resting on the dock on one side, and sliding about on an tyre on the boat) And we thought the boxes of beer and other stuff being loaded by being slid down planks of wood while the boat rocked was definitely worth watching. But our bags and us made the hour long crossing safely, and we found ourselves a room, and yum fish dinner, and were happy to note that things are about half the price of costa rica. Its definitely poorer too- there are dirt floors, and things are not nearly as polished or slick as costa rica.

We slept in, had a huge breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit, and then visited Charco Verde, a lagoon and beach area. We went on a pleasant walk and spotted lots of monkeys including some very cute babies, and a group of little bats clinging to a tree pretending to be bark. Then back to town, to see their rodeo/festival. Lots of cowboys and girls riding horses down the streets in a parade accompanied by a band and noisy firecrackers. The rodeo itself was a little disturbing - one bull being harassed by about 10 guys (pulled, kicked, hit, cattle prodded) to get it all strapped up and ready for a rider and then once the guy is on, it was taunted futher with red flags. Rum and coke was flowing freely, so we ended up not watching the rodeo, but instead trying to convince a guy who befriended Kutaya that phil actually had 3 wives (me, Kutaya, and Rachel)

We made it to the other side of the island (an hour and half bumpy taxi ride) and to Finca Magdelena (a working coffee farm) which is at the bottom of Volcan Maderas, an old volcano with a crater lake. We climbed this volcano (a somewhat muddy 8 hour hike up and down), and felt the satisfaction of seeing a lake within a volcano within a lake! Pity about the cloud cover blocking our view out, but they don't call them cloud forests for nothing!

We also found out (check out Wikipedia) that the Concepcion volcano is ACTIVE! With a 6.2 richter scale eruption last September 05, spraying ash on climbers and local villages.

We came to leave this morning and found ourselves embarassingly short of cash in the right currency...had some US dollars, some cordobas but mainly colones from costa rica (we all thought everyone was carrying a bit more)... and we were either a 1 1/2 hour taxi ride or 3 hour bus trip from the nearest bank... oops. We had visions of us hocking our stuff, working for months or at least making the return trip to get the money and pay up. Negotiated getting the Finca taxi to take us to the bank and paying the driver, only to get to the bank and find it cant give cash advances with cards anyway, and wouldnt change colones either...oops again. But luckily they suggested a mini-supermarket could probably help, and yeah, after digging their card machine out of a box out of the back of the shop and charging a 10 percent fee, we were finally ok to leave the island! Moral of the stoy - need to re-instate the emergency US dollar fund tucked away in our bags somewhere!

Costa Rica review

2006-07-19T12:15:00.000+10:00

Well thats it for Costa rica, we headed up the highway and had a fairly uneventful crossing into Nicaragua. We thought we'd summarise our thoughts of the country...

1. Not as safe as its made out to be - we heard so many stories of stolen stuff
2. Way too many tourists and hence excessive americanisation, organised tours and english speaking
3. Beautiful forests and reserves
4. Was good to spend a week at the Monkey Park and work with locals and animals in a place that didn't feature on any tourist trail at all...

Overall score from Phil - 6 out of 10
From Karen - 7 but too much hype!

12, 13 July - Playa de Coco - break in and diving

2006-07-19T11:42:00.000+10:00

After a full day of 4 bus trips we arrived at Coco beach, all keen to go diving/snorkelling the next day. We had met a nice american couple on the bus who were also keen, and we even managed to meet up with Kutaya and Rachel (the english girls we met in La Fortuna, who picked up their replacement passports from San Jose). All didn't turn out quite as expected though.... We headed out for a fantastic fresh fish dinner (probably the best we've had so far) but went back to the hotel to find the girls room had been broken into...kind of ironic since they'd actually decided to pay a little more for a more secure looking hotel room (with bars on window, safe and double bolted door) after they met a couple on the bus who were collecting replacement passports after having their room in playa de coco broken into. Anyway their door was kicked in, and all their stuff strewn over the room. Luckily they had put their passports in the safe - being a little paranoid after having their stuff stolen, and had hardly anything further taken since they had little left of value. Still quite a shock, visit by the police, and a drunken hotel owner producing a gun and promising to shoot the bastard didn't exactly help everyones nerves. Needless to say we decided there was safety in numbers and invited them to share our undisturbed room.

Diving/snorkelling the next day was a hell of a lot better, but we were all understandibly paranoid and took all our valuables on the boat! Both diving spots were just off an island a couple of hundred metres in front of the main beach. First spot was called Tortuga and was home to several sleepy white tipped reef sharks who apparently just wanted to sleep undisturbed in these rock caves. Lots of fish too. Next was called Punta Argentina, and I saw some spotted rays (very beautiful and graceful), large schools of fish, a few eels and an octopus. Unfortuneately Kutaya had problems with her ears and needed to abort the second dive, and sat looking miserable and in pain. Those guys have had sooo much bad luck.

Phil waited patiently for 2 hours in the bank for money, as their atm didnt take foreign cards... how frustrating. So playa coco, while not completely lacking charm and having good diving, did live up to the warning of being less than safe...and we were quite happy to be leaving costa rica and heading on to nicaragua...

10-11 July - La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal

2006-07-12T11:14:00.000+10:00

Last night we went Volcano and wildlife hunting.... we missed on both counts. The highlight of the animal life was a Cane Toad (we rolled our eyes).

As for the volcano...... Clouds, clouds, wait, was that a mountain top...... no, more clouds. It was a cloudy day, filled with clouds, and the occasional cloud that rained on us. We´ve been told there´s a volcano spitting lava and molten rocks.... but the girls from England thought Lake Arenal looked more like Scotland.... murky and dark. Nice lake (loch) though.

Interesting history, it exploded in 1968 killing about 88 people and has since doubled in both height and diameter (at the base) now reaching about 1700m high and about 7000m wide. Phil doesn´t agree, it´s a tourism conspiracy, aided by numerous postcards which we´re sure are photos of Mount Etna or St Helens elsewhere in the world.
Ref: http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/EN/

We then went to Baldi Hot Springs which were strangely enough, quite impressive. Pools ranged from 39°C to 67°C, scaldingly hot!!! With 3 or 4 swim-up bars and inter-connecting hot and cold pools the place was quite nice.

On the Tuesday (11th), it was off to Catarata (Falls) with Rachel and Kataya, two English girls who SCUBA DIVE!!! So we´re hoping to meet up with them tomorrow evening in Playa del Coco for a couple of Costa Rican dives.

8-9 July - Monteverde

2006-07-12T11:05:00.000+10:00

After finishing our time at the Monkey Park, we moved back to Liberia so we could get new glasses for Karen, since our bag was stolen. We´ve since bumped into a handful of other people who´ve also been through the same and found out that of all the American Passports in the world (not that there´s many) - the most are stolen in Costa Rica.

Monteverde - tourist trap to the multitudes, but somehow still pleasant. It has a mountain lodge feel with extreme heat instead of snow. We took a guided tour through Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve - fun and informative searching for the elusive Quetzal (the national bird). We also saw a very good exhibit called ¨The Bat Jungle¨ so now we know a little bit more about what we missed out on in Panama.

Then on to a Serpentarium - who´d like to kiss this ugly mother?

Next day we took a zip-line canopy tour (www.skytrek.com) - think of Giant Flying Foxes like when you were a kid, except up to 80 km/h and up to 800m long through the jungle. Met up with Nina and Mike (Chicagoans who enjoy watching AFL on cable TV and think it´s all a bunch of pretty-boys who are very popular in the gay community in Chicago). We also watched the shitty World Cup final - damn Italians didn´t even deserve to be there let alone win that way!!! Ah, well.

7 July - Monkey Park

2006-07-03T08:00:00.000+10:00

Sofia the Racoon and the ground team at Monkey Park. Nasira, Roberto, Carlos, Elmer, Gustavo (and son!).

Phil with Nasira, Carlos and Laura (the hard-working vet).

We thought that it was about time we practiced our spanish again... so for those of you who can't read its about the monkey park, the animals and what we're up to... SPANISH ONLY from now on for this entry....

Bienvenidos a la parque de monos...

Estamos en Portegolpe, Guanacaste, en un pueble pequeno en el norte-este de Costa Rica. Comos voluntarios por una semana en el parque que cuida los animales, y les vuelve a las bosques si es possible. Pero mucho de los animales eran mascotas y entonces no pueden regressar a la bosque.

El parque tiene Pizotes (en ingles se llama coatis), Mawcaws, muchos variedades de monos, coyotes, toucans y una goat que se llama Josephina. Nosotros trabajo es limpiando los jaulas y preparando la comida por los animales. Los monos y muchos otros animales comen 2 veces por dia, pero los crocodillos solamente comen 3 veces por semana (y entonces hemos visto ayer). Los coyotes comen muy rapido y comen el pollo y los hueso tambien. Muchos de los monos pueden tocar el alimiento de nuestros manos, pero hay dos que son un poco peligroso y loco (capuchin monkeys). Mucho de los parrajos pueden hablar un poco - ellos dicen "hola" "muy bonita" y "que rico" a los turistas. Cada dia veiamos 20 turistas mas o menos, y la mayoria de ellos son de los Estados unidos.

Estamos viviendo en el parque (pero no en una jaula!) Montamos bicicletas por 1 km para comer en una Soda local. En costa rica restaurantes pequenos se llaman "sodas". La comida es muy buena. Hay mucho comida, y todo con arroz y frijoles! No, no es la verdad... Flori puede preparar qualquier nos gustan... Hemos comido Pasta anoche!

Hasta luego amigos!!