So the appartment is amazing... just perfect. Flo and I made ourselves at home very quickly and spent most of the day just chilling out. We had a lovely supper with Alice's ex boyfriend Alejo. I just need to explain that Al lived here in BA 5years ago for a year, so knows the city and its people well. It was a very pleasent evening and I learnt a bit about Eva Peron and Argentine politics - I am afraid to say I havent been all that good at getting much history/politics in any of the countries we have been to, so I went to bed feeling satisfied that I had learnt something new. Unfortunately - as per usual - I can't remember what exactly I had learnt other than Eva Peron was a radio actress who married the president. But thats enough!
The next day we made our way to the graveyard where my new BFF Eva was buried, along with many other rich Argentine families. This has got to be the coolest (in a rather sadistic sort of way) graveyard I have been to. They have the most ridiculous tombs built for the various families and one of them looked like a mini Canterbury Cathedral. Crazy. The only thing is, its too bloody hot to do anything and just hanging out in the cemetry made us all feel lethargic and in need of a lie down. Instead of lying down we made our way to Al's friend Carisa's house so I could meet her and her husband and cute little boy and for Flo to see them again after a few years. They were just lovely.
Then we realised that we had invited people over for supper tomorrow night for Christmas - as here they celebrate it on Christmas Eve - and hastily made our way to the too-busy-for-my-liking jumbo supermarket. Here we manically ran around picking out the bits and bobs that I needed to make for the lasagne. Finally got home to find that the cooking equipment in the appartment wasn't exactly sufficient and I started to panic! The pan wasnt even the size of my head but I managed to make two lasagnes (one of which I burnt... bugger).
The boys that we had met in Colombia: Dean, Geoff and George came about 8ish with two of their friends Cazz and Nick. We all had a fun dinner with games and then made our way to their hostel at 2am, where the bus was picking us up to take us to Pacha - where we would be dancing the night away. It was an amazing club and we had a great time. The best Christmas morning ever - dancing on the roof watching the sunrise - awesome. We didnt get to bed till 11am.
We then spent the day recovering and then up at 6am on Boxing Day morning to make out way to Punta Del Este in Uruguay for some beach time... yehaa!
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
San Pedro
Apologies for the delay...
So at the end of the salt flats tour we got the SLOWEST bus in the history of bus rides to San Pedro. A really dinky little town, that in my opinion had been seriously tourist-erised, but a really nice break from intense Bolivia!! We had booked ourselves into a sweet little hostel where we spent most of the time just chilling out together and recovering from Bolivia. We ate some lovely food (lots of scrummy restaurants) but expensive! In fact Chile has been a bit of a shock to the old bank balance in general.
I had been told that there were lots of things to do in SP so we went to discover what was avaliable... we decided on a FIVE HOUR (why?!) Horseride to the Valle de Luna (Valley of the Sun). It was amazing, and although I couldnt walk the next day, it was a great adventure. Here we were galloping through the desert with yet more scenery and not one more person in sight. Perfect.
Then when we arrived we made our way on the metro to the house we were staying. I might add I was rather impressed with the using of metro thing, how native!
We were staying with the same family flo stayed with on her gap year. I was slighty nervous about it as there seemed to be millions of them: Miguel and Carolina the parents Monica the maid and her granddaughter martina then the children... Lucas, juan Pablo, Fran, sole, camila and ignacio - I had to draw a spider diagram!!
They were such a lovely welcoming family and by day 3 it felt like a second home, I can see why flo wanted to go back... We ended up staying there longer than planed and 5 days later we finally made our way out of there. I am afraid to say we didn't do all that much apart from drink! Apparently that is all they do (dad- you'd love it). I met so many great people, they were extremely friendly.
The best day for me was going to the vineyard Caliterra. Juan Pablo drove us there, a 2.5 hour journey south of Santiago. It was stunning, with the vineyard stretching all the way into the mountains. When we arrived they had lunch ready for us, which was delicious. Then we went for a ride around the vineyard and then onto the wine tasting. Apparently I'm not so good at the whole spitting out thing and found myself a little tipsy - but all good fun. We also spent a day at viña - which is THE beach to go to I hear. As I say other than that it was piscolas (pisco and coke) and dancing for us.
We got ourselves a flight with THE WORST airline ever and eventually made it to Buenos Aries where Alice was waiting for us in a rented appartment.... oh yes an appartment - ooooog the excitement!
So at the end of the salt flats tour we got the SLOWEST bus in the history of bus rides to San Pedro. A really dinky little town, that in my opinion had been seriously tourist-erised, but a really nice break from intense Bolivia!! We had booked ourselves into a sweet little hostel where we spent most of the time just chilling out together and recovering from Bolivia. We ate some lovely food (lots of scrummy restaurants) but expensive! In fact Chile has been a bit of a shock to the old bank balance in general.
I had been told that there were lots of things to do in SP so we went to discover what was avaliable... we decided on a FIVE HOUR (why?!) Horseride to the Valle de Luna (Valley of the Sun). It was amazing, and although I couldnt walk the next day, it was a great adventure. Here we were galloping through the desert with yet more scenery and not one more person in sight. Perfect.
After a few days we decided to take the 24hr bus to Santiago - which turned out to better than anticipated. Naturally we befriended the bus drivers who occassionally checked up on us, came for chats and put English dvds on... Sweet!
Then when we arrived we made our way on the metro to the house we were staying. I might add I was rather impressed with the using of metro thing, how native!
We were staying with the same family flo stayed with on her gap year. I was slighty nervous about it as there seemed to be millions of them: Miguel and Carolina the parents Monica the maid and her granddaughter martina then the children... Lucas, juan Pablo, Fran, sole, camila and ignacio - I had to draw a spider diagram!!
They were such a lovely welcoming family and by day 3 it felt like a second home, I can see why flo wanted to go back... We ended up staying there longer than planed and 5 days later we finally made our way out of there. I am afraid to say we didn't do all that much apart from drink! Apparently that is all they do (dad- you'd love it). I met so many great people, they were extremely friendly.
The best day for me was going to the vineyard Caliterra. Juan Pablo drove us there, a 2.5 hour journey south of Santiago. It was stunning, with the vineyard stretching all the way into the mountains. When we arrived they had lunch ready for us, which was delicious. Then we went for a ride around the vineyard and then onto the wine tasting. Apparently I'm not so good at the whole spitting out thing and found myself a little tipsy - but all good fun. We also spent a day at viña - which is THE beach to go to I hear. As I say other than that it was piscolas (pisco and coke) and dancing for us.
We got ourselves a flight with THE WORST airline ever and eventually made it to Buenos Aries where Alice was waiting for us in a rented appartment.... oh yes an appartment - ooooog the excitement!
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Salt Flats
So after a night in Wild Rover (again! That place became a second home) we spent our last afternoon in La Paz (relief) and then onto our 12hr bus to Uyuni. On the bus we met two guys Matt and Larry, who it turns out, shared a Hostel with Alice in Cuzco! Small travelling world.
Anyway half the journey was ok, but the rest on the bumpiest desert dust track ever. We certainly have had our fare share of bumpy rides. Arrive at 7am and wait until 10.30 for our tour to begin. Knackered, but what a day!
Get into our 4x4 which would be our home for the next 3 days and take one look at goup, heart sinks. 2 Bolivianas and 2 German girls that didnt appear to be all that exciting. First impressions turned out to be right bar the old boliviana, Blanca (63, ok not THAT old, haha) who turned out to be a hoot! Anyway, straight onto the salt flats. First stop the entrance, where there was a memorial for 13 people who had died in an accident in 2008. Wouldn´t say it was the most inspiring of starts, but upon seeing the flats, all scared thoughts were dismissed and taken over with WOW. One of the craziest things I have ever seen. A humungus expanse of salt, probably doesnt sound that great but its pretty cool to see. Bolivia never ceases to amaze with its variety of scenery.
So today we did the whole of the flats, stopping for lunch at this crazy island filled with tonnes of cactus. They seem like random lumps of rock that have come from nowhere, but when you remember it was a lake it doesnt seem so random. The coolest part is when you are driving along they look like they are floating in the distance.
After lunch we continued through the flats stopping off to take some crazy photos...
Its the BEST place to take photos!! It was such a surreal experience, it had rained the night before and there was a layer of water on the salt, but it looked like the water was really deep and we were driving through a lake...
A lake with mountains, floating islands and a volcanoe on the horizon. Madness. Then suddenly the salt flats end and the scenery turns to that of Arizona, dry mountains with cactus. But it really just ends out of nowhere, the back of the 4x4 is on the flats and the front in Arizona?! Odd. Ok not really arizona, although that would have been amazing- Hi Rob!
Then to camp 1 (A Salt Hotel) for the night. Here I realise I havent been to the loo loo since I finished my antibiotics in Isla Del Sol! F***. So I tell our new Boliviana friend Blanca about my loo loo trials and tribulations, and she trots off to the kitchen and comes back with the rankest smelling tea EVER. It turns out they have this plant that they put in hot water to make tea and it helps you poo... 2 days later I could do nothing but!!! A relief, but not the most convenient time to be needing the loo every half an hour.
I wont give you a blow by blow account of the trip but all I will say is that it involved a lot of amazing views and scenery (out comes the white baseball cap and bumbag!) which I wouldnt want to try to explain... But I saw flamingos, lagoons, volcanoes, rocks, rocks and more rocks all in different shapes and sizes, hot springs, deserts, gaysiers (whatever they are) and the highest we got was 5000ft above sea level (yuck).
It really was beautiful and amazing, and that means something coming from someone whos not all that into views and stuff. It is def a must-see-before-dying kind of thang, im sure fellow salt flatters would agree.
We ended on the border between Chile and Bolivia and waited for a bus to take us to San Pedro de Atacama...
Anyway half the journey was ok, but the rest on the bumpiest desert dust track ever. We certainly have had our fare share of bumpy rides. Arrive at 7am and wait until 10.30 for our tour to begin. Knackered, but what a day!
Get into our 4x4 which would be our home for the next 3 days and take one look at goup, heart sinks. 2 Bolivianas and 2 German girls that didnt appear to be all that exciting. First impressions turned out to be right bar the old boliviana, Blanca (63, ok not THAT old, haha) who turned out to be a hoot! Anyway, straight onto the salt flats. First stop the entrance, where there was a memorial for 13 people who had died in an accident in 2008. Wouldn´t say it was the most inspiring of starts, but upon seeing the flats, all scared thoughts were dismissed and taken over with WOW. One of the craziest things I have ever seen. A humungus expanse of salt, probably doesnt sound that great but its pretty cool to see. Bolivia never ceases to amaze with its variety of scenery.
So today we did the whole of the flats, stopping for lunch at this crazy island filled with tonnes of cactus. They seem like random lumps of rock that have come from nowhere, but when you remember it was a lake it doesnt seem so random. The coolest part is when you are driving along they look like they are floating in the distance.
After lunch we continued through the flats stopping off to take some crazy photos...
Its the BEST place to take photos!! It was such a surreal experience, it had rained the night before and there was a layer of water on the salt, but it looked like the water was really deep and we were driving through a lake...
A lake with mountains, floating islands and a volcanoe on the horizon. Madness. Then suddenly the salt flats end and the scenery turns to that of Arizona, dry mountains with cactus. But it really just ends out of nowhere, the back of the 4x4 is on the flats and the front in Arizona?! Odd. Ok not really arizona, although that would have been amazing- Hi Rob!
Then to camp 1 (A Salt Hotel) for the night. Here I realise I havent been to the loo loo since I finished my antibiotics in Isla Del Sol! F***. So I tell our new Boliviana friend Blanca about my loo loo trials and tribulations, and she trots off to the kitchen and comes back with the rankest smelling tea EVER. It turns out they have this plant that they put in hot water to make tea and it helps you poo... 2 days later I could do nothing but!!! A relief, but not the most convenient time to be needing the loo every half an hour.
I wont give you a blow by blow account of the trip but all I will say is that it involved a lot of amazing views and scenery (out comes the white baseball cap and bumbag!) which I wouldnt want to try to explain... But I saw flamingos, lagoons, volcanoes, rocks, rocks and more rocks all in different shapes and sizes, hot springs, deserts, gaysiers (whatever they are) and the highest we got was 5000ft above sea level (yuck).
It really was beautiful and amazing, and that means something coming from someone whos not all that into views and stuff. It is def a must-see-before-dying kind of thang, im sure fellow salt flatters would agree.
We ended on the border between Chile and Bolivia and waited for a bus to take us to San Pedro de Atacama...
Isla Del Sol
As you can all probably gather, I am somewhat behind now, this can be told by the fact that I have had regular bowel movement for about a week now, so I really must catch up...
So when I was ready to brave a 4hr bus ride sin toilet, F and I made our way from La Paz to Copacabana (by Lake Titicaca). Here we stayed in the "Splurge" section of the Bible (aka The Lonely Planet) which was lovely, I got the exchange rate\price wrong, turned out it was a bit more of a splurge than I had anticipated, but sod it I just come out of hospital innit?
Had a wonderful time, a nice night and onto Isla Del Sol the next day. Just super. Lovely views, slow boat ride over, made it. Great. Looked up... er.... what now? There were like 3 buildings and the bloody bible said it was a great place to go and stay the night?! So there we were looking pretty stupid with our overnight bags...
SO taking one for the team, I made my way to the gigantic map of the Island and made some friends: Phil, Gavin and Jhoan and followed them up some rather similar looking lost-city-style-steps. 4hrs or so later, (please note: these steps were at 4,000 ft of bloody altitude) we had made it to the first town and all decided pretty rapido we were going NO further! So we found a nice little hostel owned by a not so little boliviana. WOWZA our bedroom had the most fantastic view of the lake, you would pay hundereds for a view like that at home and it cost us a fiver, bargain! Bloody love Bolivia.
With what little breath we had recovered, that evening we somehow managed to walk to the top of the Isla and watch the sun set. So... being a young smith, views dont fascinate me much, infact not at all. I am not a huge fan of those ¨types¨ you know with the bizzarely flat baseball caps, binoculars and hiking boots that get ¨blown away¨ by scenery and wont bloody shut up about it (you meet many of these as a traveller)
"Oh look Julie, just look at that, look at that view"... bla bla, its just hills love?!
But something changed in me that day and I turned against my better judgement. The views were truly blowee awayee, with the HUGE lake infront of you and snow capped mountains that looked like they were floating behind in the distance. Poor florence thought I had turned into a grandmother, and I am sure was rather fed up with me saying "just look at that, florence, just look at that!" -SHUT UP BECKY... but really honestly, if youd seen them....
Id just like to add, there is something about the altitude. Cant really put my finger on it, but what with all the lack of oxygen to the brain im surprised I didnt buy a bumbag, white baseball cap and hiking boots up the top of that hill?! Thankfully I soon got over my tourist moment and back to the semi-normal human being that I am...
Dinner. Bed. Wake up. Get back on boat back to Copacabana. Back to splurge... why not? Lazing around. Dinner with Phil and Gavin. Who we thought they were about 35ish turns out Phil was 51?! and Gav 47?! Nice company, funny evening. Back to La Paz tomorrow to get oursleves on The Salt Flats tour to San Pedro...
So when I was ready to brave a 4hr bus ride sin toilet, F and I made our way from La Paz to Copacabana (by Lake Titicaca). Here we stayed in the "Splurge" section of the Bible (aka The Lonely Planet) which was lovely, I got the exchange rate\price wrong, turned out it was a bit more of a splurge than I had anticipated, but sod it I just come out of hospital innit?
Had a wonderful time, a nice night and onto Isla Del Sol the next day. Just super. Lovely views, slow boat ride over, made it. Great. Looked up... er.... what now? There were like 3 buildings and the bloody bible said it was a great place to go and stay the night?! So there we were looking pretty stupid with our overnight bags...
SO taking one for the team, I made my way to the gigantic map of the Island and made some friends: Phil, Gavin and Jhoan and followed them up some rather similar looking lost-city-style-steps. 4hrs or so later, (please note: these steps were at 4,000 ft of bloody altitude) we had made it to the first town and all decided pretty rapido we were going NO further! So we found a nice little hostel owned by a not so little boliviana. WOWZA our bedroom had the most fantastic view of the lake, you would pay hundereds for a view like that at home and it cost us a fiver, bargain! Bloody love Bolivia.
With what little breath we had recovered, that evening we somehow managed to walk to the top of the Isla and watch the sun set. So... being a young smith, views dont fascinate me much, infact not at all. I am not a huge fan of those ¨types¨ you know with the bizzarely flat baseball caps, binoculars and hiking boots that get ¨blown away¨ by scenery and wont bloody shut up about it (you meet many of these as a traveller)
"Oh look Julie, just look at that, look at that view"... bla bla, its just hills love?!
But something changed in me that day and I turned against my better judgement. The views were truly blowee awayee, with the HUGE lake infront of you and snow capped mountains that looked like they were floating behind in the distance. Poor florence thought I had turned into a grandmother, and I am sure was rather fed up with me saying "just look at that, florence, just look at that!" -SHUT UP BECKY... but really honestly, if youd seen them....
Id just like to add, there is something about the altitude. Cant really put my finger on it, but what with all the lack of oxygen to the brain im surprised I didnt buy a bumbag, white baseball cap and hiking boots up the top of that hill?! Thankfully I soon got over my tourist moment and back to the semi-normal human being that I am...
Dinner. Bed. Wake up. Get back on boat back to Copacabana. Back to splurge... why not? Lazing around. Dinner with Phil and Gavin. Who we thought they were about 35ish turns out Phil was 51?! and Gav 47?! Nice company, funny evening. Back to La Paz tomorrow to get oursleves on The Salt Flats tour to San Pedro...
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Hospital
This blog contains scenes of graphic imagery, not for the faint hearted. If you read on, you may not be able to look at me in the same way again so read on at your own peril!
So we got back to Rurre after our intrepid pampas tour and had our first shower in a week! Euk. Had a nice afternoon/evening. We met up with crazy Sue and her group for some drinks and dinner and off to bed. Woke up and realised it had now been a week since loo loo!
After breakfast in a delicious French patisserie (random) and a laxative later, all was not well with my stomach. Thank goodness we had opted for the 45min plane journey rather than the 18hr plus bus journey. Having said that, the 18 seater plane did little for my nerves, nor stomach as we flew THROUGH the moutains rather than over them.
Finally we landed in La Paz, F & I, Sue and Cato (from Sues group) made our way to a hotel as a treat, seeing as I wasnt in a good state and they were pretty knackered from the tour. A nice bedroom for 4 with a TV! F and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV and then F,S and C went out for dinner. This was when I realised all was not well (clue being I rang mum and dad). Dad told me to pop another laxative and mum, to call the doctor. I did both. The doctor told me I had an intestine infection (looking pretty preggers at this point) and it was necessary to go to hospital. WHAT? OK don´t freak out Becky, all part of the experience. Please bear in mind the only times I have been in hospital for myself was 1. When I was born and 2. When I twisted my ankle (mentioned in previous blog). Instead of freaking out I packed myself an over night bag and in that time, thankfully, F returned - so she came to hospital with me. By this point I was in so much pain that I couldnt even sit down in the car!
15mins later we arrived. Straight into one of those bum-showing-hospital-garments (yuck), in a wheel chair, down to be x-rayed and first blood test. No hanging around, back upstairs and the first of many many drips shoved into my left wrist (2 weeks on, its still bruised). By this point I feel like I am in ER! A flippin´drip, I only need a poo...? The Doc comes in and shows me the xray. Oh dear. My intestine is really quite swollen and there was a lot of trapped gas. On the upside I have a pretty hot spine and hip bone! Other than that I realise that I really am not well.
A nurse comes in, thinking she has come to change my drip, which I am really nervous about as the first one bloody hurt, I was quite surprised as to why she wanted me to turn on my side. Without any warning, she shoves a tube up my bottom right up into my intestine?! F***. (Please note that this is a) The most tragic thing b) The most excruciating c)The most embarrasing thing to have ever happened to me, all whitnessed by Flo - poor sod). The nurse then proceeds to quirt 1.5lr of water up the tube. OUCH!!!
So yes, as my wonderful friend Dev put it... i`ve been "bum pumped!" AND WITHOUT SEDATION! I thought my life was over, but then I went to the loo (for an hour) and thank goodness most of it was out! Ill tell ya, that thing could have made it into the guiness world records. (Sorry family, disgusting). 3am finally to sleep, cannot WAIT to get out of here tomorrow. How wrong could I be?
3 days later, soaring temperature and several hundered drips later (3 at once), the work out that something must be up. No Dur! After various tests and more injections I now have Salmonella. Great!
I cant tell you how many drips or injections or embarrasing moments I had in those 5 days, but I was certainly put in enough pain to last a few centuries. The hospital itself was amazing, my room great and Flo looked after me SO well, but it was seriously depressing. All I wanted was my mummy and daddy.
Anyway, I made it out alive. The day I did finally make it out, I made my way to our hostel, straight to the bar and ordered 20 mal lights, a lighter, a coca tea and bit bottle of water and all was right with the world. F had gone on the worlds most dangerous rd, which I was really miffed I didnt get to go on, but I really couldnt have in my state. She had a great time and it was great to be together outside my hospital room. Its taken a while to get fully better, and im not so sure I am there yet...
ps. Dad thanks for passing on your weak stomach!
pps. Jen, I would just like to point out I wasnt sitting on my arse all day, rather lying on my side!
So we got back to Rurre after our intrepid pampas tour and had our first shower in a week! Euk. Had a nice afternoon/evening. We met up with crazy Sue and her group for some drinks and dinner and off to bed. Woke up and realised it had now been a week since loo loo!
After breakfast in a delicious French patisserie (random) and a laxative later, all was not well with my stomach. Thank goodness we had opted for the 45min plane journey rather than the 18hr plus bus journey. Having said that, the 18 seater plane did little for my nerves, nor stomach as we flew THROUGH the moutains rather than over them.
Finally we landed in La Paz, F & I, Sue and Cato (from Sues group) made our way to a hotel as a treat, seeing as I wasnt in a good state and they were pretty knackered from the tour. A nice bedroom for 4 with a TV! F and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV and then F,S and C went out for dinner. This was when I realised all was not well (clue being I rang mum and dad). Dad told me to pop another laxative and mum, to call the doctor. I did both. The doctor told me I had an intestine infection (looking pretty preggers at this point) and it was necessary to go to hospital. WHAT? OK don´t freak out Becky, all part of the experience. Please bear in mind the only times I have been in hospital for myself was 1. When I was born and 2. When I twisted my ankle (mentioned in previous blog). Instead of freaking out I packed myself an over night bag and in that time, thankfully, F returned - so she came to hospital with me. By this point I was in so much pain that I couldnt even sit down in the car!
15mins later we arrived. Straight into one of those bum-showing-hospital-garments (yuck), in a wheel chair, down to be x-rayed and first blood test. No hanging around, back upstairs and the first of many many drips shoved into my left wrist (2 weeks on, its still bruised). By this point I feel like I am in ER! A flippin´drip, I only need a poo...? The Doc comes in and shows me the xray. Oh dear. My intestine is really quite swollen and there was a lot of trapped gas. On the upside I have a pretty hot spine and hip bone! Other than that I realise that I really am not well.
A nurse comes in, thinking she has come to change my drip, which I am really nervous about as the first one bloody hurt, I was quite surprised as to why she wanted me to turn on my side. Without any warning, she shoves a tube up my bottom right up into my intestine?! F***. (Please note that this is a) The most tragic thing b) The most excruciating c)The most embarrasing thing to have ever happened to me, all whitnessed by Flo - poor sod). The nurse then proceeds to quirt 1.5lr of water up the tube. OUCH!!!
So yes, as my wonderful friend Dev put it... i`ve been "bum pumped!" AND WITHOUT SEDATION! I thought my life was over, but then I went to the loo (for an hour) and thank goodness most of it was out! Ill tell ya, that thing could have made it into the guiness world records. (Sorry family, disgusting). 3am finally to sleep, cannot WAIT to get out of here tomorrow. How wrong could I be?
3 days later, soaring temperature and several hundered drips later (3 at once), the work out that something must be up. No Dur! After various tests and more injections I now have Salmonella. Great!
I cant tell you how many drips or injections or embarrasing moments I had in those 5 days, but I was certainly put in enough pain to last a few centuries. The hospital itself was amazing, my room great and Flo looked after me SO well, but it was seriously depressing. All I wanted was my mummy and daddy.
Anyway, I made it out alive. The day I did finally make it out, I made my way to our hostel, straight to the bar and ordered 20 mal lights, a lighter, a coca tea and bit bottle of water and all was right with the world. F had gone on the worlds most dangerous rd, which I was really miffed I didnt get to go on, but I really couldnt have in my state. She had a great time and it was great to be together outside my hospital room. Its taken a while to get fully better, and im not so sure I am there yet...
ps. Dad thanks for passing on your weak stomach!
pps. Jen, I would just like to point out I wasnt sitting on my arse all day, rather lying on my side!
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Bolivia The Pampas
A few days recovering in Taganga it was onwards and downwards to La Paz. Sad to say goodbye to Al who was off to Peru, but all good as we will be seeing her for Christmas in Buenos Airies.
Upon arriving in La Paz, we got our usual "we dont like this place" (which happens to every new country) and made a rather hasty decision to make our way to Rurrenabaque, to do a tour of The Pampas. Later we discovered that this was actually in the Amazon Basin (proof of the amount of research that went into this decision). All we knew was that Rurre was an 18hr "local" (whatever that meant) bus ride away and the tour involved swimming with PINK dolphins. The bus turned out to be 20hrs, horrendous, and swimming involved the ugliest dolphins you have ever seen along with some pirhanas and crocs. Erm... no thanks. I was under some illusion that we would be swimming with dolphins in the sea... apparently not in a landlocked country Becky!
Upon arriving in Rurre after THE bus journey, which had driven 10miles an hour the whole way and involved the most disgusting toilet stop you have ever come across in your life (the cleaner, who wasnt really cleaning, was wretching as she mopped the floor... need I say more?) we arrived and had a couple of hours before the tour started. Hardcore. It took ages to get to the river (being the amazon) and finally to camp...
The first evening we arrived at camp and saw our bedroom, toilet and shower, Flo and I looked at each other and said "too soon after The Lost City!". It felt like we had never left. Obviously a completely diffferent experience and alot easier, but all the things we had hated about the trek reared and slapped us in the face, whilst Al was busy sand duning in Peru, here we were slapping on the bloody mozzi soap every 20 mins. Great!
In fairness, the trip was amazing and we saw all kinds of animals. Pink minging dolphins, endless crocodiles, monkeys, turtles and birds. It did get a bit boring after a while "oh look, another bloody crocodile!". But it was a great experience. Our group was somewhat dull, but we had met Crazy Sue on the bus ride down and she had a brilliant group. One guy, Yoshi Marley from Japan, is cycling around the world in 5 years! So during the evenings we would hang out with them, and make our own fun during the day on our boat.
The highlight was on the first night where we went crocodile eye spotting. In the pitch black of night we went out under the stars with our little torches to see the glimmering, somewhat scary eyes of hundreds of crocodiles. Cool, but the best part was when Ronnie our guide, turned off the engine, and us all our lights, and we just gazed up at the stars and watched all the fireflies light up the sky. That was pretty cool. Lowlight: Every mozzie in the world decided to come and play in the pampas those three days and it was a bloody nightmare...
Oh hang on... no what was worse than that was realising that I was constipated and had not been to the "loo loo" as F and I call it in 6 days. Oh Dear...
Upon arriving in La Paz, we got our usual "we dont like this place" (which happens to every new country) and made a rather hasty decision to make our way to Rurrenabaque, to do a tour of The Pampas. Later we discovered that this was actually in the Amazon Basin (proof of the amount of research that went into this decision). All we knew was that Rurre was an 18hr "local" (whatever that meant) bus ride away and the tour involved swimming with PINK dolphins. The bus turned out to be 20hrs, horrendous, and swimming involved the ugliest dolphins you have ever seen along with some pirhanas and crocs. Erm... no thanks. I was under some illusion that we would be swimming with dolphins in the sea... apparently not in a landlocked country Becky!
Upon arriving in Rurre after THE bus journey, which had driven 10miles an hour the whole way and involved the most disgusting toilet stop you have ever come across in your life (the cleaner, who wasnt really cleaning, was wretching as she mopped the floor... need I say more?) we arrived and had a couple of hours before the tour started. Hardcore. It took ages to get to the river (being the amazon) and finally to camp...
The first evening we arrived at camp and saw our bedroom, toilet and shower, Flo and I looked at each other and said "too soon after The Lost City!". It felt like we had never left. Obviously a completely diffferent experience and alot easier, but all the things we had hated about the trek reared and slapped us in the face, whilst Al was busy sand duning in Peru, here we were slapping on the bloody mozzi soap every 20 mins. Great!
In fairness, the trip was amazing and we saw all kinds of animals. Pink minging dolphins, endless crocodiles, monkeys, turtles and birds. It did get a bit boring after a while "oh look, another bloody crocodile!". But it was a great experience. Our group was somewhat dull, but we had met Crazy Sue on the bus ride down and she had a brilliant group. One guy, Yoshi Marley from Japan, is cycling around the world in 5 years! So during the evenings we would hang out with them, and make our own fun during the day on our boat.
The highlight was on the first night where we went crocodile eye spotting. In the pitch black of night we went out under the stars with our little torches to see the glimmering, somewhat scary eyes of hundreds of crocodiles. Cool, but the best part was when Ronnie our guide, turned off the engine, and us all our lights, and we just gazed up at the stars and watched all the fireflies light up the sky. That was pretty cool. Lowlight: Every mozzie in the world decided to come and play in the pampas those three days and it was a bloody nightmare...
Oh hang on... no what was worse than that was realising that I was constipated and had not been to the "loo loo" as F and I call it in 6 days. Oh Dear...
Saturday, 4 December 2010
The Lost City 3
So I wrote part 3 and it only went and deleted so excuse me if ethusiasm is lacking!!
So as I say up at 5am, Frank wet, all wet, set off on day three. Within 30mins or so we found ourselves at a river. Well, I don´t think you could call it that, more like a force to be reckoned with! There had been torentual rain all day and all night which meant the river was very high and extremely powerful. Our guide took one look and told us to carry on. A few hundered yards later we find ourselves looking up and seeing what can only be described as a wooden frame hanging from a piece of rope over this DANGEROUS river. Ok, apparently this would be how we would cross the damn monster. I am thankful that there were no parents there to witness our "river crossing". One by one we made our way into the frame, backpacks and all, whilst our guide pulled us from the other side, on the piece of rope. There was a moment where I was suspended over this river and I thought if I loose my footing, concentration or that the extra chocolate bar I ate last night had made me that bit too heavy, within seconds I would be dead. The adrenaline side of me thought "WOW here I am suspended over this emense river/waterfall - amazing". Luckily we all made it over alive, however no hanging around to thank our lucky stars, it was onward march.
Today was the best day so far, I think it was because we had aclimatised to the endless walking. We marched through waterfalls, waded through rivers, jumped over rocks, slid down hills and finally made it to our orange break. Orange breaks were the best! However I was knackered from all my Indiana Jones intrepidness and went for a lie down. Apparently every mozzie in the jungle decided it would be a good idea to have a nibble on my back. Covered in bites. B***ards! Nothing a little bit of Orange and afterbite couldn´t sort out.
We powered on through, singing, slipping, laughing, walking and what seemed like days later we arrived at camp 3. Infact we had made such good time that there was a possibility that we could get to the Not- So- Lost- Lost -City after lunch. In the excitement we ate our lunch in our WET clothes, only to discover that the rain was coming earlier today and that we couldn´t find the city! Damn, quick, freezing shower and into DRY clothes. You´ve never seen me move so fast. After all the excitement I needed to have a lie down before supper. Usual evening antics, rummy, gin rummy, crazy eights! wow crazy fun. Unfortunately Vincent one of our group wasn´t feeling too well... little did we know this would hit us later...
Day 4: Up and early to get to the City. An hour of walking which included 1,200 never ending teeny tiny slippery steps that werent even the size of your foot up to the City. Round the corner of a mossy wall and there we were......................... eh? Where was Starbucks? No way! Had we really walked 4 days for this?
I think we all felt a bit let down and as Frank put it on our return " Put it this way, if the Lost City was half an hour from here (our hostel) then I wouldn´t bother going". Let down would be putting it nicely. Having said this, after realising that we weren´t going to be able to stock up at Topshop and continued up even more teeny tiny steps, it got better and better. Finally when we reached the top, if you like, and the views were incredible! We could even see the camp where those people got kidnapped by guerillas 8 years ago. Yes, that made me shudder to.
After a 2 hour or so tour around the city, we made it back down the flippin´steps which by numero 20 I really started to loathe. Back to camp 3 for some lunch and onward march to camp 2. The whole way Frank, Flo and I flew over rocks, waterfalls, rivers and the rest as we were so desperate to get into DRY clothes. After a while I started to feel delirious and I wasn´t sure if the lost city had affected me spiritually or that I was actually a bit unwell. I hadn´t eaten all day and started to feel it was the latter. Upon arriving at camp Frank went to lie down as he felt unwell. Within 10 mins I saw him jump out his bed and projectile all over the place. Uh-Oh. Bed for me and a little prayer to God that I was going to make the night alive. Apparently not. Within a few hours both Flo, Kristie and I were chundering everywhar. Food Poisioning. Disgusting. I missed home. Little did I know that actually that wasn´t going to be the worst night ever, however up until that point it certainly was.
The next day we all get up really early, feeling AWFUL and decide sod doing it in 6 days, we´ll do it in 5 and just pace our way back to the pueblo where we started. It is amazing what your body can do. Flo, Frank and I were more than worse for wear, but you have never seen people move so fast. Al, Flo and I, although feeling like we could die at any minuite found the whole experiencia very entertaning. We laughed the whole way back to the pueblo (6hrs of walking). WHAT A FEELING! We only gone and done it. Three of us who had never trekked in our lives, had completed (FIRST may I add) one of the hardest treks you can do, all with a smile and the occasional vomit. Wow how could I feel so good and bloody awful at the same time?
Stopped for lunch, which of course no-one could eat, and then into the bus back to Taganaga. As it had been five days we had totally forgotten all about the bloody off roading and the 4 hour journey ahead of us. Oh dear. 5/10 sick people in an off roading dodgy mini van was not the best idea. Luckily again, we all made it alive. Just. It took me 3 days to fully get over the food poisioning only to go and get constipated... but thats not for now...
THE END
So as I say up at 5am, Frank wet, all wet, set off on day three. Within 30mins or so we found ourselves at a river. Well, I don´t think you could call it that, more like a force to be reckoned with! There had been torentual rain all day and all night which meant the river was very high and extremely powerful. Our guide took one look and told us to carry on. A few hundered yards later we find ourselves looking up and seeing what can only be described as a wooden frame hanging from a piece of rope over this DANGEROUS river. Ok, apparently this would be how we would cross the damn monster. I am thankful that there were no parents there to witness our "river crossing". One by one we made our way into the frame, backpacks and all, whilst our guide pulled us from the other side, on the piece of rope. There was a moment where I was suspended over this river and I thought if I loose my footing, concentration or that the extra chocolate bar I ate last night had made me that bit too heavy, within seconds I would be dead. The adrenaline side of me thought "WOW here I am suspended over this emense river/waterfall - amazing". Luckily we all made it over alive, however no hanging around to thank our lucky stars, it was onward march.
Today was the best day so far, I think it was because we had aclimatised to the endless walking. We marched through waterfalls, waded through rivers, jumped over rocks, slid down hills and finally made it to our orange break. Orange breaks were the best! However I was knackered from all my Indiana Jones intrepidness and went for a lie down. Apparently every mozzie in the jungle decided it would be a good idea to have a nibble on my back. Covered in bites. B***ards! Nothing a little bit of Orange and afterbite couldn´t sort out.
We powered on through, singing, slipping, laughing, walking and what seemed like days later we arrived at camp 3. Infact we had made such good time that there was a possibility that we could get to the Not- So- Lost- Lost -City after lunch. In the excitement we ate our lunch in our WET clothes, only to discover that the rain was coming earlier today and that we couldn´t find the city! Damn, quick, freezing shower and into DRY clothes. You´ve never seen me move so fast. After all the excitement I needed to have a lie down before supper. Usual evening antics, rummy, gin rummy, crazy eights! wow crazy fun. Unfortunately Vincent one of our group wasn´t feeling too well... little did we know this would hit us later...
Day 4: Up and early to get to the City. An hour of walking which included 1,200 never ending teeny tiny slippery steps that werent even the size of your foot up to the City. Round the corner of a mossy wall and there we were......................... eh? Where was Starbucks? No way! Had we really walked 4 days for this?
I think we all felt a bit let down and as Frank put it on our return " Put it this way, if the Lost City was half an hour from here (our hostel) then I wouldn´t bother going". Let down would be putting it nicely. Having said this, after realising that we weren´t going to be able to stock up at Topshop and continued up even more teeny tiny steps, it got better and better. Finally when we reached the top, if you like, and the views were incredible! We could even see the camp where those people got kidnapped by guerillas 8 years ago. Yes, that made me shudder to.
After a 2 hour or so tour around the city, we made it back down the flippin´steps which by numero 20 I really started to loathe. Back to camp 3 for some lunch and onward march to camp 2. The whole way Frank, Flo and I flew over rocks, waterfalls, rivers and the rest as we were so desperate to get into DRY clothes. After a while I started to feel delirious and I wasn´t sure if the lost city had affected me spiritually or that I was actually a bit unwell. I hadn´t eaten all day and started to feel it was the latter. Upon arriving at camp Frank went to lie down as he felt unwell. Within 10 mins I saw him jump out his bed and projectile all over the place. Uh-Oh. Bed for me and a little prayer to God that I was going to make the night alive. Apparently not. Within a few hours both Flo, Kristie and I were chundering everywhar. Food Poisioning. Disgusting. I missed home. Little did I know that actually that wasn´t going to be the worst night ever, however up until that point it certainly was.
The next day we all get up really early, feeling AWFUL and decide sod doing it in 6 days, we´ll do it in 5 and just pace our way back to the pueblo where we started. It is amazing what your body can do. Flo, Frank and I were more than worse for wear, but you have never seen people move so fast. Al, Flo and I, although feeling like we could die at any minuite found the whole experiencia very entertaning. We laughed the whole way back to the pueblo (6hrs of walking). WHAT A FEELING! We only gone and done it. Three of us who had never trekked in our lives, had completed (FIRST may I add) one of the hardest treks you can do, all with a smile and the occasional vomit. Wow how could I feel so good and bloody awful at the same time?
Stopped for lunch, which of course no-one could eat, and then into the bus back to Taganaga. As it had been five days we had totally forgotten all about the bloody off roading and the 4 hour journey ahead of us. Oh dear. 5/10 sick people in an off roading dodgy mini van was not the best idea. Luckily again, we all made it alive. Just. It took me 3 days to fully get over the food poisioning only to go and get constipated... but thats not for now...
THE END
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
The Lost City 2
I soon realised that turning back wasn't the best option and to just accept that jungle pong, mud, sore feet, mozzi bites and WET clothes were things I'd have to cherish over the next 5 days. So I searched deep inside my soul for my positive attitude and prayed it would last for the days trek ahead of me...
We had woken up really early, not only because we had the worst night sleep imaginable, but because we were due to go on a tour of a cocaine factory, which most people do on the trek. (Mums and dads dont freak out... Read on). After discovering it was going to cost 30.000 pesos each and that we were clearly being ripped off (as those we'd met that had gone hadn't mentioned having to pay) our group made the decision to pass, and to start on our trekking. Since - I have seen pictures of the "factory" which is infact a little hut with some coca leaves in so im pleased we didn't waste the money.
Anyway after a rank hot chocolate and some breaky, off we marched into the jungle...
Hills, hills and hills oooh a few more hills, big rocks, small rocks, slippy rocks, some the size of your head, red ground, white ground, brown ground, river, more mud, more rocks, red ground, white ground... you know the story. Occasionally I would look up and realise there is more to life than looking at rocks. Here I was in the middle of the jungle with the most amazing views... And then my leg would slip down the side of the track - my life would flash before me and all id see was mud and rocks.
After a couple of hours all was going well: Flo, Frank and I were pounding our way through the jungle singing "she'll be coming round the mountain" when I slipped and fell on my weak ankle (which I had twisted badly playing horses in primary school playground- gangster). Not great news: day 2 hurt ankle...
Eventually we came to a river where we had a pineapple break and Ian very kindly strapped my ankle for me (with blister tape!) which actually helped a bit. What seemed like days later but was actually lunch time, we arrived at camp - what a relief - wet and ready to eat. We had a lovely healthy soup for lunch and then I realised we actually had the rest of the day/night there. So in all the excitement, I suddenly felt tired and went for a lie down... In a... BED! Arguably a little smelly- but a smelly bed is better than a pongy hammock!
I forgot to mention how lucky we've been so far. It's rainy season and we were yet to be caught in the rain. As soon as we arrived at camp it would pour it down all the way into the night. I mean we were wet anyway with sweat and wading through the river, but it meant that our bags were kept dry, therefore our DRY clothes stayed DRY - the most important thing ever! Its funny how your perspective on things change, and the emphasis on DRY really couldnt be enough.
The reason I mention this is night 2: weak ankle needs the loo - surprise surprise (which is in a hut thing you had to walk into the rain in order to get to) and what happens... Oh she only goes and slips in the WET MUD. As i fall I think of that woman who made me pay £1 million for my gringo pants which has lasted me TWO days!! Bitch.
You know what this means... DRY clothes are now WET! I nearly cried, my heart tore in two and I wondered how I could fake an injury to get helicoptered home. That may sound dramatic but really it's not! Luckily I had a pair of DRY leggings - otherwise suicide would have been necessary.
After a few quite mins to myself I realised that worse things could happen and sucked it up begrudgingly.
Next morning, into wet clothes at 5am with about 3hrs sleep. Frank however decides to keep his dry clothes on for as long as possible and eats breaky in them. ERROR. First rule of Lost City Trek: dont, whatever you do, wear dry clothes in the early morning. He learnt that lesson. He stupidly went to wash his toothbrush in the shower (please note: on trek you loose all sense of logic and normality, especially when wearing dry clothes) and for some reason the shower vomits water out it's head like it hadn't been turned on in 100 years. There was Frank. Soaked. DRY clothes NOW.
We had a mutual understanding of the situation and connected on a level the others couldn't. Poor me. Poor Frank. Boy did I laugh my ass off though - I was the only one who could...
To be continued...
We had woken up really early, not only because we had the worst night sleep imaginable, but because we were due to go on a tour of a cocaine factory, which most people do on the trek. (Mums and dads dont freak out... Read on). After discovering it was going to cost 30.000 pesos each and that we were clearly being ripped off (as those we'd met that had gone hadn't mentioned having to pay) our group made the decision to pass, and to start on our trekking. Since - I have seen pictures of the "factory" which is infact a little hut with some coca leaves in so im pleased we didn't waste the money.
Anyway after a rank hot chocolate and some breaky, off we marched into the jungle...
Hills, hills and hills oooh a few more hills, big rocks, small rocks, slippy rocks, some the size of your head, red ground, white ground, brown ground, river, more mud, more rocks, red ground, white ground... you know the story. Occasionally I would look up and realise there is more to life than looking at rocks. Here I was in the middle of the jungle with the most amazing views... And then my leg would slip down the side of the track - my life would flash before me and all id see was mud and rocks.
After a couple of hours all was going well: Flo, Frank and I were pounding our way through the jungle singing "she'll be coming round the mountain" when I slipped and fell on my weak ankle (which I had twisted badly playing horses in primary school playground- gangster). Not great news: day 2 hurt ankle...
Eventually we came to a river where we had a pineapple break and Ian very kindly strapped my ankle for me (with blister tape!) which actually helped a bit. What seemed like days later but was actually lunch time, we arrived at camp - what a relief - wet and ready to eat. We had a lovely healthy soup for lunch and then I realised we actually had the rest of the day/night there. So in all the excitement, I suddenly felt tired and went for a lie down... In a... BED! Arguably a little smelly- but a smelly bed is better than a pongy hammock!
I forgot to mention how lucky we've been so far. It's rainy season and we were yet to be caught in the rain. As soon as we arrived at camp it would pour it down all the way into the night. I mean we were wet anyway with sweat and wading through the river, but it meant that our bags were kept dry, therefore our DRY clothes stayed DRY - the most important thing ever! Its funny how your perspective on things change, and the emphasis on DRY really couldnt be enough.
The reason I mention this is night 2: weak ankle needs the loo - surprise surprise (which is in a hut thing you had to walk into the rain in order to get to) and what happens... Oh she only goes and slips in the WET MUD. As i fall I think of that woman who made me pay £1 million for my gringo pants which has lasted me TWO days!! Bitch.
You know what this means... DRY clothes are now WET! I nearly cried, my heart tore in two and I wondered how I could fake an injury to get helicoptered home. That may sound dramatic but really it's not! Luckily I had a pair of DRY leggings - otherwise suicide would have been necessary.
After a few quite mins to myself I realised that worse things could happen and sucked it up begrudgingly.
Next morning, into wet clothes at 5am with about 3hrs sleep. Frank however decides to keep his dry clothes on for as long as possible and eats breaky in them. ERROR. First rule of Lost City Trek: dont, whatever you do, wear dry clothes in the early morning. He learnt that lesson. He stupidly went to wash his toothbrush in the shower (please note: on trek you loose all sense of logic and normality, especially when wearing dry clothes) and for some reason the shower vomits water out it's head like it hadn't been turned on in 100 years. There was Frank. Soaked. DRY clothes NOW.
We had a mutual understanding of the situation and connected on a level the others couldn't. Poor me. Poor Frank. Boy did I laugh my ass off though - I was the only one who could...
To be continued...
Thursday, 18 November 2010
The Lost City - Part I (including synopsis)
A quick synopsis captured well by another explorer and adapted by my personal experience: "Uphill, downhill, mud, more mud, lots of mud, slipping in the mud, falling in the mud, getting stuck in the mud, sweating, sweating profusely, getting bitten by mosquitoes, getting bitten by ticks, getting bitten by bedbugs, wading through the river, wading through the river again, slipping on rocks while wading through the river for the 10th time, climbing up and down a twelve hundred teeny tiny steep steps, sleeping in hammocks, sleeping on old mattresses reeking of jungle pong, feeling sick, being sick, chundering everywhar."
Exhausted we made it back to a meal cooked for us by out new English friends, who we had travelled all of Colombia with, our farewell meal. It was sad to say good-bye but we are sure to bump into them again soon.
And off to bed for an early night.
I had nightmares of the trip mum sent me on (without consent - a favourite of hers) when I was 13. A trip to Snowdonia which had involved some walking, which I thoroughly hated. I had an epiphony - 6 days of trekking probably wasn't really my thang! Luckily thinking of Father Christmas soon sent me off into dreams... Plus there was nothing I could do now - deposit and gringo pants paid for - I was trekking whether I liked it or not.
An early start of 7am. Big bags packed to be locked away and just our little packs with our set of dry clothes, underwear, mozzie spray and toilet roll. Little did we know how important DRY clothes would be...
Our guide John picked us up from the hostel and we met Frank from Ireland who was also in our group. Then we made our way to Tahona Park in which the Lost City is located. A couple hours drive on normal roads and then a whole hour of what I can only describe as level 5 off-roading, where Alice would keep getting INSIDE the car. We did have to remind her we weren't actually rafting, but we may as well have been. There was a time when the car nearly tipped on it's side and I simply thought that wouldn't be a good start! Luckily we made it alive to the village where we were stopping to have lunch. Here we met the other group we would be trekking with. Alarmingly they were ALL wearing tshirts that were bragging about various other hardcore treks they had done - oh shit! This was a thought that rarely left my head the whole 5 days).
As we eat our lunch we wave our driver off and the three of us dwell on what we think is to come. Lunch over and time to go. From the corner of my eye I see flo having what can only be described as a mild panic attack... She had left her trekking shoes in the car -- by which point was half way back down the rapid. GOOD START! Our fellow Trekkers didn't seem to find the funny side so we had to start whilst John, our guide, stole someones moped to rapid it back down to the car to pick them up.
So off we went flo in her DRY shoes which were dry for all of five mins!
Apparently crossing rivers a million times a day is all part of jungle trekking?!
Five mins in we had lost all possible friendships with our honesty about lack of fitness, this being out first trek and us all hating walking. All said with a smile on our face and through our rather loud panting, which had started a bit too early or my liking. In fact id just like to say we were a lot more positive than I thought we would be - I was certainly putting a brave face on it, as on the outside I may have been laughing - but on the inside there were definate tears. Half an hour in, still panting but laughing - shit got serious. This was no walk in the park, even though it may have looked like one. All I could see ahead of me was a red rocky never ending vertical slope - and I was right about it being never ending. WHAT AM I DOING went through my mind constantly for the next hour.
I honestly feel it would be rude to fellow lost city trekkers all over the globe to try and recapture in words how hard the beginning of this trek was. No-one wanted to admit out loud that they were seriously regretting the decision to do this, but believe me we were all thinking it (It all came out at the end!)
Anyway after what I could call level 5 trekking for an hour or two we had a break with watermelon, how thoughtful. I would have rathered a lift home, but hey watermelon was great too. Then another hour and a half trek and we would arrive at base camp 1. It was a tough old slog and it reassurred me that our fellow hardcore trekkers were as red and panty as I was by the end of it. What a relief to arrive at camp and to discover we were sleeping in hammocks, which I was rather excited about.
SIDENOTE: Since I've been travelling I've fallen in love with hammocks, and Krissie and I decided if either of us ever became PM everyone will be given one for free.
Anyway our guide told us that we could go for a swim to cool off. He took us to a rocky cliff next to a waterfall which we jumped off into a natural pool. Bit nerve racking and reminded me of my near death experience in Spain, but jumped in all the same and it was extremely refreshing. Then dried off, sprayed a can of mozzi spray on my body and into my DRY clothes and hung up the wet ones to dry...
6am the next morning having learnt that I hate hammocks, the blanket theyd given us smelt like a gorrilas armpit, 3hrs sleep and intense jungle pong didn't make me a happy bunny- you can imagine my relief when I discovered that wet clothes don't dry in humidity!!!!! You what?? No. I am not getting into wet clothes at 6am!! Oh, apparently I am and I'm meant to do it smiling? I hate the jungle already - and to be honest I don't want to find the lost city now anyway...
To be Continued....
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Cartagena
So after our rather scary white water rafting experience in San Gil, we took it easy the next two days we were there. The night of the rafting we went to play this Colombian game with everyone in the Hostel called Tahona or something. Crazy game! The idea is you have a very heavy rounded rock thing that you throw at a clay pit that has gunpowder in? The idea being you have to hit the gunpowder which makes a very loud explosion. Not sure that English Health and Safety would allow us to bring that game home.
We then bought some rum and all sat in the square - a serious tourist takeover. Over our time in Bogota and San Gil we made quite a large group. Two doctors, Jared and Phillipa - 4 Canadians: Ryan, Marcus, Eric and Evan, us six English girls, Bram and a few others - remembering names is a difficult one. But it was great, felt like a huge family me being the youngest and the eldest 34. It was sad to say goodbye to (most of) them at Santa Marta. But the English girls we´d met at Bogota are here with us in Cartagena. We say goodbye to them tomorrow.
Anyway so we just hung out in the hostel the next day and I made it to the local market and cooked us English girls a scrummy dinner and afterwards we all played the celebrity game - which Marcus took very seriously! The next day Al, Flo, Krissie and I made it out to a colonial town which was very pretty with some outstanding views of lush green mountains going all the way into the clouds.
That evening we had our 17 hour bus ride to Cartagena. Yes... 17 HOURS! Would rather not experience that again, they make the night buses over here artic cold and I was in my sleeping bag so as to not get frost bite.
The old city of Cartagena is beautiful, hard to describe but mum I would say its quite like Cadiz. I love it!
This is our third night here, but we havent done much. We had a good night out in the hostel last night and everyone is feeling a bit ropey today. Other than that a lot of wandering the pretty streets and drinking scrummy coffee. Tomorrow we are off to a mud volcanoe full of minerals, which sounds exciting and then tomorrow night onto Santa Marta, our stop-off before we embark on the epic adventure that is The Lost City Trek.
WOW am I scared. Its the rainy season here and when it rains it is mental - ive never seen\heard anything like it. And we are sure to experience it out in the jungle. Apparently the water we have to wade through can go as high as your chin! Il say no more... xxx
We then bought some rum and all sat in the square - a serious tourist takeover. Over our time in Bogota and San Gil we made quite a large group. Two doctors, Jared and Phillipa - 4 Canadians: Ryan, Marcus, Eric and Evan, us six English girls, Bram and a few others - remembering names is a difficult one. But it was great, felt like a huge family me being the youngest and the eldest 34. It was sad to say goodbye to (most of) them at Santa Marta. But the English girls we´d met at Bogota are here with us in Cartagena. We say goodbye to them tomorrow.
Anyway so we just hung out in the hostel the next day and I made it to the local market and cooked us English girls a scrummy dinner and afterwards we all played the celebrity game - which Marcus took very seriously! The next day Al, Flo, Krissie and I made it out to a colonial town which was very pretty with some outstanding views of lush green mountains going all the way into the clouds.
That evening we had our 17 hour bus ride to Cartagena. Yes... 17 HOURS! Would rather not experience that again, they make the night buses over here artic cold and I was in my sleeping bag so as to not get frost bite.
The old city of Cartagena is beautiful, hard to describe but mum I would say its quite like Cadiz. I love it!
This is our third night here, but we havent done much. We had a good night out in the hostel last night and everyone is feeling a bit ropey today. Other than that a lot of wandering the pretty streets and drinking scrummy coffee. Tomorrow we are off to a mud volcanoe full of minerals, which sounds exciting and then tomorrow night onto Santa Marta, our stop-off before we embark on the epic adventure that is The Lost City Trek.
WOW am I scared. Its the rainy season here and when it rains it is mental - ive never seen\heard anything like it. And we are sure to experience it out in the jungle. Apparently the water we have to wade through can go as high as your chin! Il say no more... xxx
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
White Water Rafting
So, as I said the three of us decided that we were going to do the white water rafting tour, never having done anything like this before none of us quite knew what was in store for us. We made our way out of San Gil in a rickety bus on rickety roads for about an hour and into our sexy blue helmets and life jackets. Our guide started off the safety briefing by tell us that there are five levels of rafting and the rapids we would be attacking were between 3-5!! OMG... noone had told us this before we set off?! But no turning back now.
He then proceeded to tell us all the various scenarios that could happen, ie raft flipping upside down, if you fall out and don't manage to grab onto the rope on the boat etc etc. Fear probably doesn't even come close to what we were feeling. But no hanging around, after a quick pep talk and a swift rescue practice, we were on our way pretty rapido (excuse the pun)!
I was in a boat with Kristie, one of the English girls we had met in Bogota, the guide, and a guy called Bram, who was staying in our hostel. Al and Flo were in a bigger boat with four other people not including the guide. So our boat went first and right into the first rapid which was only small (PAH small, it was level 3) and all was well... it wasn't until rapid two (level 5) that shit hit the fan. All I heard was our guide shout "PRACTICE RESCUE". One of the things the guide had told us was that when it came to rescuing - only one person was to do it and the rest to listen to the guide. Upon realising that I was not the rescuer I followed my strict FORWARD instructions (paddle forward). Thinking that boat 2 was just having a practice rescuse I was slighlt confused to turn around, whilst paddling my arse off, to see 4 people from the other boat shaking in mine?! Why had they all done a pactise rescue? Turns out... it wasn't a practice rescue at all, it was a full on wipe out. Jesus. I had missed everything, from our epic rescuse mission to the wipe out itself, I was too concerned about going FORWARD! But everyone survived, although I am not sure that many of those that capsized were that enthusiastic about continuing, but there was no choice. So back into our respective boats, and on our way...
So I forgot to mention "INSIDE" which was def the word of the day. This meant "GET IN THE BOAT NOW!!!" And when you heard the word inside you just clung onto the outside rope and prayed you would make it out the wave alive. I can safely say that there were a few occasions we just did not wait to be told to get inside, we just did out of sheer fright, assuming the guide had forgotten to shout it, naturally. I'm not sure that Alice made it outside much, but enjoyed herself all the same.
After the first few rapids, things started to get easier and perhaps our team started to get a bit ahead of ourselves, I am not sure attacking rapids without our feet strapped in was the best idea, but you know being hardcore is unavoidable! After many 3 and 4 rapids and the odd 5 dropped in, we had a break and were allowed to jump out of the boat and bobbed along with the current. It was an amazing feeling just being swept along whilst lying back, looking at the amazing scenery. It wasn't until Kristie, Bran and I (the other boat opted out of jumping in the second time) that I started to get nervous. Was that a rapid I could see in the near distance and FORWARD I could hear coming from boat 2? AAAAAHHHH rescue please.... hello... anyone? Our guide casually steers the boat towards me, notices how close I am to the rapid and shouts RESCUE... er what am I meant to do again...oh nothing, just get my ass in the boat asap, he had 2 other people to rescue. Luckily it was olnly a rapid 3, and by this time that was easy of course, but all the same I am glad my ass was in that boat and not still in the water. Anyway fast FORWARDing got us through the rapid pretty fast and we moored up to a tree for our final pep talk of the day. Apparently we were about to hit rapid "sorpresa" (suprise) and a surprise it was! Our guide went over all the capsising drills and made it pretty clear that this was no rapid to be bargaining with. All I can remember is seeing a wave that must have been the size of the niagra falls and hearing INSIDE, INSIDE, INSI... blub blub blub. There was so much water in the boat I had no idea if I was still in it, all I knew was that I was clinging onto a bit of rope for dear life. Turns out I was still in the boat... phew.
It's difficult to explain the adrenaline rush or the experience full stop. Imense, Scary,Thrilling to name a few, but I don't really want to try. All I can say is that if I could afford it I certainly would have done it again today.
One of the most amazing days of my life - one never to forget. Luckily we have a video of the last 5 rapid (which I really don't think captures the scariness of it) and photos for proof, which I hope to get onto facebook when I can.
That night - still on a high, a few bottles of rum later and a silent disco in the hostel (created by myself and flo) off we all went to the land of nod and to relive the day. AMAZING!
He then proceeded to tell us all the various scenarios that could happen, ie raft flipping upside down, if you fall out and don't manage to grab onto the rope on the boat etc etc. Fear probably doesn't even come close to what we were feeling. But no hanging around, after a quick pep talk and a swift rescue practice, we were on our way pretty rapido (excuse the pun)!
I was in a boat with Kristie, one of the English girls we had met in Bogota, the guide, and a guy called Bram, who was staying in our hostel. Al and Flo were in a bigger boat with four other people not including the guide. So our boat went first and right into the first rapid which was only small (PAH small, it was level 3) and all was well... it wasn't until rapid two (level 5) that shit hit the fan. All I heard was our guide shout "PRACTICE RESCUE". One of the things the guide had told us was that when it came to rescuing - only one person was to do it and the rest to listen to the guide. Upon realising that I was not the rescuer I followed my strict FORWARD instructions (paddle forward). Thinking that boat 2 was just having a practice rescuse I was slighlt confused to turn around, whilst paddling my arse off, to see 4 people from the other boat shaking in mine?! Why had they all done a pactise rescue? Turns out... it wasn't a practice rescue at all, it was a full on wipe out. Jesus. I had missed everything, from our epic rescuse mission to the wipe out itself, I was too concerned about going FORWARD! But everyone survived, although I am not sure that many of those that capsized were that enthusiastic about continuing, but there was no choice. So back into our respective boats, and on our way...
So I forgot to mention "INSIDE" which was def the word of the day. This meant "GET IN THE BOAT NOW!!!" And when you heard the word inside you just clung onto the outside rope and prayed you would make it out the wave alive. I can safely say that there were a few occasions we just did not wait to be told to get inside, we just did out of sheer fright, assuming the guide had forgotten to shout it, naturally. I'm not sure that Alice made it outside much, but enjoyed herself all the same.
After the first few rapids, things started to get easier and perhaps our team started to get a bit ahead of ourselves, I am not sure attacking rapids without our feet strapped in was the best idea, but you know being hardcore is unavoidable! After many 3 and 4 rapids and the odd 5 dropped in, we had a break and were allowed to jump out of the boat and bobbed along with the current. It was an amazing feeling just being swept along whilst lying back, looking at the amazing scenery. It wasn't until Kristie, Bran and I (the other boat opted out of jumping in the second time) that I started to get nervous. Was that a rapid I could see in the near distance and FORWARD I could hear coming from boat 2? AAAAAHHHH rescue please.... hello... anyone? Our guide casually steers the boat towards me, notices how close I am to the rapid and shouts RESCUE... er what am I meant to do again...oh nothing, just get my ass in the boat asap, he had 2 other people to rescue. Luckily it was olnly a rapid 3, and by this time that was easy of course, but all the same I am glad my ass was in that boat and not still in the water. Anyway fast FORWARDing got us through the rapid pretty fast and we moored up to a tree for our final pep talk of the day. Apparently we were about to hit rapid "sorpresa" (suprise) and a surprise it was! Our guide went over all the capsising drills and made it pretty clear that this was no rapid to be bargaining with. All I can remember is seeing a wave that must have been the size of the niagra falls and hearing INSIDE, INSIDE, INSI... blub blub blub. There was so much water in the boat I had no idea if I was still in it, all I knew was that I was clinging onto a bit of rope for dear life. Turns out I was still in the boat... phew.
It's difficult to explain the adrenaline rush or the experience full stop. Imense, Scary,Thrilling to name a few, but I don't really want to try. All I can say is that if I could afford it I certainly would have done it again today.
One of the most amazing days of my life - one never to forget. Luckily we have a video of the last 5 rapid (which I really don't think captures the scariness of it) and photos for proof, which I hope to get onto facebook when I can.
That night - still on a high, a few bottles of rum later and a silent disco in the hostel (created by myself and flo) off we all went to the land of nod and to relive the day. AMAZING!
Monday, 1 November 2010
San Gil
So after a VERY cold bus ride we made it to San Gil alive and relieved to find that the weather wasnt minus degrees.
The girls we met in Bogota reserved us a room in the same hostel which was a relief at 1am!
As this is the "Sporting Capital" of Colombia there are loads of activities to do so we have decided that when Al arrives (Flos sister) tomorrow we are going to go rafting and decided to take it easy today - or so we thought! The English Girls we met (Ro, Gemma and Chrissie), 2 Canadians, Flo and I made our way to a natural pool not far from the Hostel. It was amazing and everyone made their way into the pool whilst Ro and I watched the bags (cautious!). Then when the guys came out Ro and I decided we would jump in... after a while of travelling you become rather slow at things and before I knew it Ro (only been away 3 days and a lot more rapid) had her clothes off and had jumped into the pool - SHIT! We hadnt realised how shallow it was and she hit her knee REALLY badly on a rock. Blood spurting everywhere we made a hasty exit to the Hospital. Wow time for my Spanish to shine or what? Suddenly I was in the emergency room trying to explain what had happened whilst the doctor wiped clean this huge gash on Ros kneecap (AH MY GAWD, anyone who knows me well enough knows that me and kneecaps do not go together!). But I stayed strong holding her hand through the two injecions right in the middle of the gash (you could see bone!). Once the 5 stitches started happening I thought if ever I was going to faint (to date I never have) the time would be now, and had to get myself out into the fresh air. How pathetic am I? Embarrasing. Anyway I managed to learn "puntos" which means stitches and how to take care of a wound that has been stitched up! So as they say, you learn something new everyday!
Now back at the Hostel recovering from a rather hectic day in preparation for our 2.5hr rafting manana - aaaah! Lets hope there are no more hospital stories! xxx
The girls we met in Bogota reserved us a room in the same hostel which was a relief at 1am!
As this is the "Sporting Capital" of Colombia there are loads of activities to do so we have decided that when Al arrives (Flos sister) tomorrow we are going to go rafting and decided to take it easy today - or so we thought! The English Girls we met (Ro, Gemma and Chrissie), 2 Canadians, Flo and I made our way to a natural pool not far from the Hostel. It was amazing and everyone made their way into the pool whilst Ro and I watched the bags (cautious!). Then when the guys came out Ro and I decided we would jump in... after a while of travelling you become rather slow at things and before I knew it Ro (only been away 3 days and a lot more rapid) had her clothes off and had jumped into the pool - SHIT! We hadnt realised how shallow it was and she hit her knee REALLY badly on a rock. Blood spurting everywhere we made a hasty exit to the Hospital. Wow time for my Spanish to shine or what? Suddenly I was in the emergency room trying to explain what had happened whilst the doctor wiped clean this huge gash on Ros kneecap (AH MY GAWD, anyone who knows me well enough knows that me and kneecaps do not go together!). But I stayed strong holding her hand through the two injecions right in the middle of the gash (you could see bone!). Once the 5 stitches started happening I thought if ever I was going to faint (to date I never have) the time would be now, and had to get myself out into the fresh air. How pathetic am I? Embarrasing. Anyway I managed to learn "puntos" which means stitches and how to take care of a wound that has been stitched up! So as they say, you learn something new everyday!
Now back at the Hostel recovering from a rather hectic day in preparation for our 2.5hr rafting manana - aaaah! Lets hope there are no more hospital stories! xxx
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Bocas Del Toro to Bogota
So delicious spag bol (naturally) but dodgy rice (thanks Nick!) and onto Mondo Taitu - The place to hang in Bocas apparrently! Had a few bebidas there and then found ourselves in this amazing club that had some sort of shipwreck in it. So the done thing is to jump into the shipwreck for fun- Nick also thought that catching the starfish at the bottom was all part of the game -which he successfully did. Me on the sideline very excited about the fact he had done it - was clearly shouting so loudly I didnt hear everyone else shouting "YOUR KILLING IT". The starfish died. Accident.
The next day - bit stuck to know what to do. All you do in Bocas is go to the beach...but which? There are so many! We decided that we would make our way to Wizard beach which was supposed to have the best surf and rent a "foamie" (totes down with the surf lingo now) and Nick was going to teach us how to surf. Foamie in tow, we made our way to where the boats are to take you to the various Islands. This is what I imagine walking through an Indian market may be like. EVERYONE approaches you, haggling prices bla bla bla. But apparently I have got my haggling down to a pretty fine art after looking at Robertos ID and threatening to call the police if he didnt pick us up, we were on our way!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I have never seen a beach like it. There was no-one else there (possibly due to the lack of waves...) long sandy beach, behind us green jungle and infront crystal blue water. It felt like we were on shipwrecked. Totally amazing! The whole day I think we saw three people in total.
So we just chilled on the beach, a surf lesson without waves was interesting but from what little I did, I think I can safely say I am not going to be the next surfpro to come out of England - damn it!
Infact it was that good-a-beach we went back the next day...!
We just chilled out that evening and said goodbye to Nick at 6am as he was on a flight to San Jose... It was emotional. We spent the whole day crying so were too tired to do anything! OK not really we were just lazy and wanted to save money so hung out in the hostel with some kiwis. One of which had farted in my face the morning before and another that had been playing musical sex beds that night and app landed on mine everytime! (EUGH) But as we keep saying... all part of the experencia.
Next day F and I rented bikes and cycled our way to playa bluff.. buff...blufft? Who knew. After eventually finding the breaks off we went... The beach was nice but not as nice as Wizard but the waves were intense! Something about rip tides..? Cycled back in our bikins and felt like wed been transported back to the 60s or something on our vintage bikes with baskets on the front "totally rad man!".
Then to the bus station... 10hr ride to Panama City...Taxi to Airport.... 6hr wait and a very dodgy burger... On plane...2hrs later arrive in BOGOTA!
Hummmm...Bogota - not quite as cosmopolitan as the old lonely planet suggests but another experencia. Staying in a hostel and met three english girls who are a laff and other than that its too cold to move! Spent the evening drinking rum to keep us warm (of course) and yesterday we found some CULTURE...can you believe it? It is a church ontop of a huge mountain that looks over the whole of bogota (which by the way is mahoosive) and is meant to be the highlight. Not as much of a let down as the old canal but still not that great. The hilarity of it all was F and I have started doing a documentary and the theme up in this chuch was "gap yah" - of course, and within minuites of finishing fliming one of the girls we were with chundered EVERYWHAR! Haha...
(Apologies to those of slightly more maturity that I who wont know what I am talking about)
So that made the trip slightly more entertaining oh and meeting a Lama on our way down.
Today we are waiting to catch a bus to San Gil which is meant to be the sporting part of Colombia... sounds fab! Its a stopgap between us and Cartagena (which is a 20hr bus ride from here).
Hope all is well with everyone...keep commenting. Miss you all xxxxxxxx
The next day - bit stuck to know what to do. All you do in Bocas is go to the beach...but which? There are so many! We decided that we would make our way to Wizard beach which was supposed to have the best surf and rent a "foamie" (totes down with the surf lingo now) and Nick was going to teach us how to surf. Foamie in tow, we made our way to where the boats are to take you to the various Islands. This is what I imagine walking through an Indian market may be like. EVERYONE approaches you, haggling prices bla bla bla. But apparently I have got my haggling down to a pretty fine art after looking at Robertos ID and threatening to call the police if he didnt pick us up, we were on our way!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I have never seen a beach like it. There was no-one else there (possibly due to the lack of waves...) long sandy beach, behind us green jungle and infront crystal blue water. It felt like we were on shipwrecked. Totally amazing! The whole day I think we saw three people in total.
So we just chilled on the beach, a surf lesson without waves was interesting but from what little I did, I think I can safely say I am not going to be the next surfpro to come out of England - damn it!
Infact it was that good-a-beach we went back the next day...!
We just chilled out that evening and said goodbye to Nick at 6am as he was on a flight to San Jose... It was emotional. We spent the whole day crying so were too tired to do anything! OK not really we were just lazy and wanted to save money so hung out in the hostel with some kiwis. One of which had farted in my face the morning before and another that had been playing musical sex beds that night and app landed on mine everytime! (EUGH) But as we keep saying... all part of the experencia.
Next day F and I rented bikes and cycled our way to playa bluff.. buff...blufft? Who knew. After eventually finding the breaks off we went... The beach was nice but not as nice as Wizard but the waves were intense! Something about rip tides..? Cycled back in our bikins and felt like wed been transported back to the 60s or something on our vintage bikes with baskets on the front "totally rad man!".
Then to the bus station... 10hr ride to Panama City...Taxi to Airport.... 6hr wait and a very dodgy burger... On plane...2hrs later arrive in BOGOTA!
Hummmm...Bogota - not quite as cosmopolitan as the old lonely planet suggests but another experencia. Staying in a hostel and met three english girls who are a laff and other than that its too cold to move! Spent the evening drinking rum to keep us warm (of course) and yesterday we found some CULTURE...can you believe it? It is a church ontop of a huge mountain that looks over the whole of bogota (which by the way is mahoosive) and is meant to be the highlight. Not as much of a let down as the old canal but still not that great. The hilarity of it all was F and I have started doing a documentary and the theme up in this chuch was "gap yah" - of course, and within minuites of finishing fliming one of the girls we were with chundered EVERYWHAR! Haha...
(Apologies to those of slightly more maturity that I who wont know what I am talking about)
So that made the trip slightly more entertaining oh and meeting a Lama on our way down.
Today we are waiting to catch a bus to San Gil which is meant to be the sporting part of Colombia... sounds fab! Its a stopgap between us and Cartagena (which is a 20hr bus ride from here).
Hope all is well with everyone...keep commenting. Miss you all xxxxxxxx
Monday, 25 October 2010
Panama
So after a shaky start in Panama and it's terrible canal - things started to improve(ish)... we got back to our 10 bed dorm (we were the only 2 girls) and met two English guys who had met each other on boat over from Cartagena (Colombia) to Panama... only problem was their boat got a bit shipwrecked and they were stranded on an island for a week - CRAZY! It was happy hour in the bar downstairs so we all met up there for "a drink" 3am came around and we were in a 24 hr fried chicken place with a crazy fat american lady who picked a fight with a one-legged panamanian?! Ooop... how did we end up there? Who knew... perhaps Havana Club did! All I can say was it was an experience to tell the grandkids. So all four english amigos made the hasty decision to get out of the city asap so the first thing the next morning we hit the bus station full throtle to buy tickets to anywhere but there. Costa Rica was the first bet but too far and everyone in the Hostel had been banging on about a place called Boca Del Toro... Boca Del Toro it was and I tell you it was worth the 10hour bus ride!
We are staying in the sister hostel of the one in the city - which has a great laid back vibe full of other travellers. So the three of us (Flo, Me and Nick - one of the english guys) settled in nicely to our air conditioned room and planned to hit the beach. This was yet another experience - apparently the number one panamanian rule is to screw over english people?! We'd already had a rip-off incident getting here and then we paid for the bus to Boca Del Drago (a beach) and somehow missed it?! So the same guy who'd screwed us over before told us we could get a taxi for a $1 each to catch up with the bus. 10 mins into the journey I was having a spanglish row with the driver who wanted us to pay what we paid for the bus each... apparently they dont understand spaniglish so we gave in! The only bonus was we beat the bus by about 10mins WAHOOO!
Anyway the beach was great and we just chilled out on hammocks played in the sea - the usual beach score. That was until we passed out - me forgetting that my malaria tabs make me prone to sunburn and the 2hr sleep I had frazzelled my back - oops. Anyhow back to the hostel and out for dinner back to the hostel to find we were the only 3 people in our dorm that night and proceeded to tell ghost stories - apparently not the best idea and managed to scare ourselves shitless.
Right i'm off.... got to check on my spag bol am cooking! Over and out xxxx
We are staying in the sister hostel of the one in the city - which has a great laid back vibe full of other travellers. So the three of us (Flo, Me and Nick - one of the english guys) settled in nicely to our air conditioned room and planned to hit the beach. This was yet another experience - apparently the number one panamanian rule is to screw over english people?! We'd already had a rip-off incident getting here and then we paid for the bus to Boca Del Drago (a beach) and somehow missed it?! So the same guy who'd screwed us over before told us we could get a taxi for a $1 each to catch up with the bus. 10 mins into the journey I was having a spanglish row with the driver who wanted us to pay what we paid for the bus each... apparently they dont understand spaniglish so we gave in! The only bonus was we beat the bus by about 10mins WAHOOO!
Anyway the beach was great and we just chilled out on hammocks played in the sea - the usual beach score. That was until we passed out - me forgetting that my malaria tabs make me prone to sunburn and the 2hr sleep I had frazzelled my back - oops. Anyhow back to the hostel and out for dinner back to the hostel to find we were the only 3 people in our dorm that night and proceeded to tell ghost stories - apparently not the best idea and managed to scare ourselves shitless.
Right i'm off.... got to check on my spag bol am cooking! Over and out xxxx
Friday, 22 October 2010
El final de Cuba y la empieza de Panama
Hey!
I am not sure if anyone has read my last post but I am just going to launch into the end of the Cuba chapter!
So we had our day in the Valley with yoan which was great as I said, and then that night we went to "The Club" - the only club in Vinales. It was a bit of a culture shock to what we had seen in Habana... it was outside and there was a random show going down with crazy ladies dressed in what looked like granny's knitted toilet rollholder stuff (you know the stuff!). I figured it was probably their attempt at their version of a night in Tropicana, which we couldn't afford so we couldn't complain about a cheap taster. Afterwards a little more salsa and then onto the regeton (which is more like what we would listen to at home) with a few very old english songs chucked in along the way...
Apparently you canny get away from the old Salsa! Yoan and a friend of his - Ishbel took it upon themselves to teach us the latin american way - apparently it's all about the rythmo hips y los ojos! I prefer the english way - all about the beer and farting but hey when in Cuba do as the cubans do...
The next day we had the BEST day of our trip so far. We got a guide to take us on horses into a different part of the valley. The horses were hilarious and wanted to trot the whole time which was rather bouncy and uncomfortable for the old derrier! Anyway we made our way into the valley to a tobacco farm where we met a rather dashing tobacco farmer. He told us all about making cigars and gave us drinks in coconuts (yet more rum!). Apparently the government give every farmer the same amount of seeds and after 9 whole months of long hard work they take 90% away and leave the rest for the farmer to sell. Justice? I don't think so. But when you ask questions about why there are certain rules and ways everyone just answers with a simple "this is cuba" - so we stopped asking why!
Whilst in this farm (basically a wooden hut) drinking our ron and smoking our cigars another guide turned up with two honeymooners from Israel. The four of us our rum, cigars and our two guides made our way from the farm to the caves.
Who would have thought not even a year ago I was scared of horses and here I was drinking rum and smoking a cigar on one?! How cuban!
Anyway the caves - they were huge and we trekked (slight over exageration) inside them with two torches for 14km where inside the cave were two natural pools. And yes we swam in them... totally crazy it was pitch black and the water freezing but what an experience!!
When we had finished rubbing "mud with minerals" all over our body and chilling out in the pitch black pool off we went back to our caballos (horses). Flo and I asked our guide if we could gallop... little did we know the two of us would be galloping off into the sunset with no guide and just the wind beneath our feet. It was amazing I felt like I was in some sort of film - the sun set and within what felt like seconds we were galloping around in the moonlight - luckily the horses knew where we were going! If I was ever going to "find myself" as one does on their gap yah - this would have been it - but afraid to say I didnt find much! But totally amazing and when sitting on the porch that night in a rocking chair with my mojito and cigarette I thought if time could stop right now....
Our final day was more relaxing and we made our way to a hotel in vinales to use their pool. That night we partied the night away and during the random show they held that night (an african themed something) I got dragged up on stage... slightly embarrasing but all part of the experencia. Met some crazy travellers and it was a nice break from the strenuous salsa as they didnt have one rythmic bone in their bodies!
So bye bye cuba... what a GREAT time we had. It was really sad to have to go and we could only hope that the fun would continue. That was until we hit the outskirts of Panama. Oh dear... what a shithole?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Not much to say really - ate in the skankiest food place (one could not call it a restaurant!) for $5 and decided to make our way to the Panama Canal as that was supposed to be amazing. Hum.... the "highlight" of Panama. Well i'll tell ya if thats the highlight all I can say is adios Panama hello Costa Rica. We are going to make our way out of here asap... tomorrow morning and lets just pray that "things can only get better".
Hope all is well with everyone at home!
Lots of Love xxxx
ps. am going to try and get photos going on facebook xxx
I am not sure if anyone has read my last post but I am just going to launch into the end of the Cuba chapter!
So we had our day in the Valley with yoan which was great as I said, and then that night we went to "The Club" - the only club in Vinales. It was a bit of a culture shock to what we had seen in Habana... it was outside and there was a random show going down with crazy ladies dressed in what looked like granny's knitted toilet rollholder stuff (you know the stuff!). I figured it was probably their attempt at their version of a night in Tropicana, which we couldn't afford so we couldn't complain about a cheap taster. Afterwards a little more salsa and then onto the regeton (which is more like what we would listen to at home) with a few very old english songs chucked in along the way...
Apparently you canny get away from the old Salsa! Yoan and a friend of his - Ishbel took it upon themselves to teach us the latin american way - apparently it's all about the rythmo hips y los ojos! I prefer the english way - all about the beer and farting but hey when in Cuba do as the cubans do...
The next day we had the BEST day of our trip so far. We got a guide to take us on horses into a different part of the valley. The horses were hilarious and wanted to trot the whole time which was rather bouncy and uncomfortable for the old derrier! Anyway we made our way into the valley to a tobacco farm where we met a rather dashing tobacco farmer. He told us all about making cigars and gave us drinks in coconuts (yet more rum!). Apparently the government give every farmer the same amount of seeds and after 9 whole months of long hard work they take 90% away and leave the rest for the farmer to sell. Justice? I don't think so. But when you ask questions about why there are certain rules and ways everyone just answers with a simple "this is cuba" - so we stopped asking why!
Whilst in this farm (basically a wooden hut) drinking our ron and smoking our cigars another guide turned up with two honeymooners from Israel. The four of us our rum, cigars and our two guides made our way from the farm to the caves.
Who would have thought not even a year ago I was scared of horses and here I was drinking rum and smoking a cigar on one?! How cuban!
Anyway the caves - they were huge and we trekked (slight over exageration) inside them with two torches for 14km where inside the cave were two natural pools. And yes we swam in them... totally crazy it was pitch black and the water freezing but what an experience!!
When we had finished rubbing "mud with minerals" all over our body and chilling out in the pitch black pool off we went back to our caballos (horses). Flo and I asked our guide if we could gallop... little did we know the two of us would be galloping off into the sunset with no guide and just the wind beneath our feet. It was amazing I felt like I was in some sort of film - the sun set and within what felt like seconds we were galloping around in the moonlight - luckily the horses knew where we were going! If I was ever going to "find myself" as one does on their gap yah - this would have been it - but afraid to say I didnt find much! But totally amazing and when sitting on the porch that night in a rocking chair with my mojito and cigarette I thought if time could stop right now....
Our final day was more relaxing and we made our way to a hotel in vinales to use their pool. That night we partied the night away and during the random show they held that night (an african themed something) I got dragged up on stage... slightly embarrasing but all part of the experencia. Met some crazy travellers and it was a nice break from the strenuous salsa as they didnt have one rythmic bone in their bodies!
So bye bye cuba... what a GREAT time we had. It was really sad to have to go and we could only hope that the fun would continue. That was until we hit the outskirts of Panama. Oh dear... what a shithole?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Not much to say really - ate in the skankiest food place (one could not call it a restaurant!) for $5 and decided to make our way to the Panama Canal as that was supposed to be amazing. Hum.... the "highlight" of Panama. Well i'll tell ya if thats the highlight all I can say is adios Panama hello Costa Rica. We are going to make our way out of here asap... tomorrow morning and lets just pray that "things can only get better".
Hope all is well with everyone at home!
Lots of Love xxxx
ps. am going to try and get photos going on facebook xxx
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Mas de Cuba!
Well after a rather eventful start and a lot of travelling lessons learnt after eventually finding the internet we did some more cultural stuff... we walked around habana vieja and saw lots of crumbly buildings and la plaza vieja and la plaza de catedral. I feel a bit guilty that maybe we havent done as much cultural stuff as we should be but I feel we are living the cuban lifestyle! Mojitos, Musica y Cigars!
Its really annoying this internet is SO slow I cant remember where I got to so sorry if I repeat myself.
Another night in habana vieja and we eventually managed to find a bar with music and salsa as we hadnt seen any salsa yet. Here we met a salsa teacher who TRIED to teach both flo and I un poco de salsa it was rather hilarious as as much as I like to dance apparently I cant do it when people tell me what to do! Afterwards Ray the teacher took us to a club... yes we were the only foreigners but it was a hoot. I am starting to feel rather guilty about telling the truth about my time here I cannot emphasise enough how careful we are being but mum keep taking that valium because im not holding back! We had a great time there and we left when we felt it was time to go [sensible]. The next day we went to Santa Maria beach with Ray and we met a sweedish guy on the way. He was the nerdest person we have met so far but it was highly entertaining and good to have another person to talk to. We are just trying to talk to as many people as we can he was on his own so we felt we should look after him, and later a friend of Ray joined us. As Rob said to me safety in numbers.
That night we went back to our casa particular and met two german girls and two americans a man and his son who have been travelling cuba together. The dad was really interesting and was explaining a bit out Che as he is everywhere here but I know nada about him. Then Jacob his son who is 25 and works for the peace corps joined us and ray for some salsa in the same bar. He told us that his was gay but hadn´t told his dad yet which was all rather exciting for us, a bit of gossip! He was really interesting and as much as I am enjoying pracitsing my spanish it was nice to communicate with someone in english for a bit.
Anyway early the next morning flo and I and the two german girls we met made our way on the bus to vinales where we are now. We are staying with a guy called Joan who my friend Amy stayed with when she came to Cuba which is all rather exciting. Vinales is a valley and it turns out he is a guide of the valley. So yesterday afternoon we took his tour which was AMAZING the valley is huge with all kinds of different plants and a cave and we met a farmer who gave us some of his home grown wine and hand made cigars. I tell you what you cant get away from the alcohol and smoking!!!
Today we are going to go horseriding in the valley which is very exciting and then making our way back to havana tomorrow as our flight is on friday morning.
Al if you are reading this, I cant wait to see you and your beautiful face get in touch about the lost city trek we want you to come do it with us!
Well guys, thanks for reading, I am sorry its a bit of a blow by blow account of what we are doing but as I say the internet here is rare and expensive and I dont have enough time but hopefully when we are in other places it will be a lot easier.
Jacqui please send my love to Georgia its all sooooooo exciting! And keep me updated on her progress.
Got to dash.... love to all and please continue to post comments I love reading them more than writing the blog! Love love love xxxxxx
Its really annoying this internet is SO slow I cant remember where I got to so sorry if I repeat myself.
Another night in habana vieja and we eventually managed to find a bar with music and salsa as we hadnt seen any salsa yet. Here we met a salsa teacher who TRIED to teach both flo and I un poco de salsa it was rather hilarious as as much as I like to dance apparently I cant do it when people tell me what to do! Afterwards Ray the teacher took us to a club... yes we were the only foreigners but it was a hoot. I am starting to feel rather guilty about telling the truth about my time here I cannot emphasise enough how careful we are being but mum keep taking that valium because im not holding back! We had a great time there and we left when we felt it was time to go [sensible]. The next day we went to Santa Maria beach with Ray and we met a sweedish guy on the way. He was the nerdest person we have met so far but it was highly entertaining and good to have another person to talk to. We are just trying to talk to as many people as we can he was on his own so we felt we should look after him, and later a friend of Ray joined us. As Rob said to me safety in numbers.
That night we went back to our casa particular and met two german girls and two americans a man and his son who have been travelling cuba together. The dad was really interesting and was explaining a bit out Che as he is everywhere here but I know nada about him. Then Jacob his son who is 25 and works for the peace corps joined us and ray for some salsa in the same bar. He told us that his was gay but hadn´t told his dad yet which was all rather exciting for us, a bit of gossip! He was really interesting and as much as I am enjoying pracitsing my spanish it was nice to communicate with someone in english for a bit.
Anyway early the next morning flo and I and the two german girls we met made our way on the bus to vinales where we are now. We are staying with a guy called Joan who my friend Amy stayed with when she came to Cuba which is all rather exciting. Vinales is a valley and it turns out he is a guide of the valley. So yesterday afternoon we took his tour which was AMAZING the valley is huge with all kinds of different plants and a cave and we met a farmer who gave us some of his home grown wine and hand made cigars. I tell you what you cant get away from the alcohol and smoking!!!
Today we are going to go horseriding in the valley which is very exciting and then making our way back to havana tomorrow as our flight is on friday morning.
Al if you are reading this, I cant wait to see you and your beautiful face get in touch about the lost city trek we want you to come do it with us!
Well guys, thanks for reading, I am sorry its a bit of a blow by blow account of what we are doing but as I say the internet here is rare and expensive and I dont have enough time but hopefully when we are in other places it will be a lot easier.
Jacqui please send my love to Georgia its all sooooooo exciting! And keep me updated on her progress.
Got to dash.... love to all and please continue to post comments I love reading them more than writing the blog! Love love love xxxxxx
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Cuba
well well well.... here I am a traveller AHHHHHHHHHH! The shit has already hit the fan - I shrink wrapped AND padlocked my bag in mexico before checking it in and it arrives in cuba with NO shrink wrap NO padlock and a little slash in the front... later to discover that some little foreign bastard has nicked my ipod/i-phone charger the old phone I was meant to use here and my USB where I was going to save all my photos. Great start - all I keep telling myself is that it is all part of the experience.Perhaps is things like this that people "find themselves" I am sure those of you that "found yourselves" on your gap yah's would say that I am materialistic but remember you can't "find yourslef" in 4 days WITHOUT A PHONE!!
Apologies for the swearing but I am afraid this is the blog of truth and they are my true feelings!
Anyway rant over... we are having a wonderful time and Cuba has lived up to my expectations. It all started with a bang - after locating a map (with difficulty) and a cafe (with difficulty) some stranger approaches us to look at the map - at 4am we are in the police station trying to free this stranger! (Crazy I know... but would we do it any other way?) Let me fill in the blanks... so this stranger has a name - Alex and a friend Raul. We chatted with them over our newly acquired map and delicious coffee about things to do in Cuba. Within 20mins were in a famous Museum - El Museo De Las Bellas Artes - huge building, lots of art - what more can I say? Cultural! I do remember saying to flo " I hope we can shift these guys when we want too" turned out it wasn't all that easy. Moving on... some lovely food in a street vendor and onto a park in an old fashioned american car. We explored the park for ages- it was beautiful but deserted it was really strange but had a great time. Afterwards we made our way to the famous Coppellia where you have ice cream. Then onto our first mojitos where we learnt very quickly from the crazy toilet lady that YOU CANNOT PUT PAPER IN THE TOILET (oops) crazy cuban women arent fun!!
After this we found ourselves in the malecon - where all the young cubans hang out at night and onto a rap club. It all happened so fast but it really was fun. In hindsight we have learnt that we feel much safer with cuban men than solo. Anyway after getting the bus back to our hotel Alex and I were talking whilst Flo and Raul where too -further ahead when a Police man popped out of nowhere and within seconds alex was in a handcuffs shouting to me where the Police Station was. Turns out Cubans arent allowed to converse with tourists and they apparently get put in prison for this - doh!! SO in the police st I had to claim he was my boyfriend and they let him go - no questions asked not even my name or his surname (thank god because I had no idea what it was - I was struggling to remember his first name!!). Anyway at 5 am we managed to shrug them off and off to the land of nod. I do hope we aren't sounding too reckless but we were careful and I am glad we trusted them as we had a super duper day.
Awoken to a hurricane... hurricane Paula. Another crazy experience. Noone seemed to care that there was water coming in everywhere!! The cubans just continued to gulp their rum and smoke their cigars whilst florence and I were slightly nervous.
The next day we ended up in a bar where the Buena Vista Social Club were playing and some random restaurant which was actually someones living room (dont ask)! We have learnt that cubans are friendly but nothing comes for free with them. They help you and want to take you places and then order themselves lots of drinks, smoke all your cigarettes and then make you pay!! We have learnt....!!
Now we have moved from Centro Habana to Habana Viejo where we have had a bit more of a relaxing time. Lots of mojitos, music and chatting to various cubans. We were staying in a very cheap hotel but apparently it is cheaper to stay in Casas Particulares which are peoples homes and they rent the rooms (turns out they arent really that much cheaper than our cheapy hotel but good to practise Spainsh). So in our CP there are a few crazy cubans who want to speak to us all the time I think one lady is off her rocker I just smile say "si" and hope that she thinks I understand.
But last night we didnt have the best night... we had some drinks in a bar called Floridita which was amazing - but we could have been in London. It was a nice break to not have to worry about your phone/money or anyone stealing anything. BUT afterwards we were looking for somewhere to eat where we were approached by a man with security written on his shirt. He said he would take us somewhere cheap to eat and then afterwards we would go to his cabaret bar. But the place we ended up eating was a bit scary and the area of town scary too. Not remember where we were staying we managed to get a taxi and eventually found it PHEW - glad we live to tell the tale if somewhat boring.
We are certainly learning a lot of lessons!!
Only a couple mins left on the internet clock - I have no idea what I have written but no time to check so Jennie sorry if there are lots of spelling mistakes I know you hate that!
I miss everyone and home a lot but having a wonderful experience!!
LOTS OF LOVE xxxx
Apologies for the swearing but I am afraid this is the blog of truth and they are my true feelings!
Anyway rant over... we are having a wonderful time and Cuba has lived up to my expectations. It all started with a bang - after locating a map (with difficulty) and a cafe (with difficulty) some stranger approaches us to look at the map - at 4am we are in the police station trying to free this stranger! (Crazy I know... but would we do it any other way?) Let me fill in the blanks... so this stranger has a name - Alex and a friend Raul. We chatted with them over our newly acquired map and delicious coffee about things to do in Cuba. Within 20mins were in a famous Museum - El Museo De Las Bellas Artes - huge building, lots of art - what more can I say? Cultural! I do remember saying to flo " I hope we can shift these guys when we want too" turned out it wasn't all that easy. Moving on... some lovely food in a street vendor and onto a park in an old fashioned american car. We explored the park for ages- it was beautiful but deserted it was really strange but had a great time. Afterwards we made our way to the famous Coppellia where you have ice cream. Then onto our first mojitos where we learnt very quickly from the crazy toilet lady that YOU CANNOT PUT PAPER IN THE TOILET (oops) crazy cuban women arent fun!!
After this we found ourselves in the malecon - where all the young cubans hang out at night and onto a rap club. It all happened so fast but it really was fun. In hindsight we have learnt that we feel much safer with cuban men than solo. Anyway after getting the bus back to our hotel Alex and I were talking whilst Flo and Raul where too -further ahead when a Police man popped out of nowhere and within seconds alex was in a handcuffs shouting to me where the Police Station was. Turns out Cubans arent allowed to converse with tourists and they apparently get put in prison for this - doh!! SO in the police st I had to claim he was my boyfriend and they let him go - no questions asked not even my name or his surname (thank god because I had no idea what it was - I was struggling to remember his first name!!). Anyway at 5 am we managed to shrug them off and off to the land of nod. I do hope we aren't sounding too reckless but we were careful and I am glad we trusted them as we had a super duper day.
Awoken to a hurricane... hurricane Paula. Another crazy experience. Noone seemed to care that there was water coming in everywhere!! The cubans just continued to gulp their rum and smoke their cigars whilst florence and I were slightly nervous.
The next day we ended up in a bar where the Buena Vista Social Club were playing and some random restaurant which was actually someones living room (dont ask)! We have learnt that cubans are friendly but nothing comes for free with them. They help you and want to take you places and then order themselves lots of drinks, smoke all your cigarettes and then make you pay!! We have learnt....!!
Now we have moved from Centro Habana to Habana Viejo where we have had a bit more of a relaxing time. Lots of mojitos, music and chatting to various cubans. We were staying in a very cheap hotel but apparently it is cheaper to stay in Casas Particulares which are peoples homes and they rent the rooms (turns out they arent really that much cheaper than our cheapy hotel but good to practise Spainsh). So in our CP there are a few crazy cubans who want to speak to us all the time I think one lady is off her rocker I just smile say "si" and hope that she thinks I understand.
But last night we didnt have the best night... we had some drinks in a bar called Floridita which was amazing - but we could have been in London. It was a nice break to not have to worry about your phone/money or anyone stealing anything. BUT afterwards we were looking for somewhere to eat where we were approached by a man with security written on his shirt. He said he would take us somewhere cheap to eat and then afterwards we would go to his cabaret bar. But the place we ended up eating was a bit scary and the area of town scary too. Not remember where we were staying we managed to get a taxi and eventually found it PHEW - glad we live to tell the tale if somewhat boring.
We are certainly learning a lot of lessons!!
Only a couple mins left on the internet clock - I have no idea what I have written but no time to check so Jennie sorry if there are lots of spelling mistakes I know you hate that!
I miss everyone and home a lot but having a wonderful experience!!
LOTS OF LOVE xxxx
Monday, 4 October 2010
Phoenix
So I made it to Phoenix... after missing my connecting flight - not the best start!
But finally made it back to Rob's appartment where his cousin Andy and friend Rory were staying - they have been road tripping around America.
On Saturday I spent most of the day asleep (successfully avoiding the Ryder Cup!) only to be woken up to a monsoon - which was amazing. I have never seen a drop of rain here and this was possibly the biggest storm I have ever seen - the lightening was unreal! And it was actually COLD afterwards within five mins it had dropped from 93 degrees to 83!
Once the storm had cleared the four of us set off to City Hall -where you get " THE BEST STEAKS EVER" (aldridge, 2010) for Rory and Andy's last night... only to discover that we couldn't get served as we didn't have our passports!?! AH MY GAWD... luckily the manager offered a free ride home to get them ( I hopped in the free ride quicker than you could say flamin' cosmo*). An hour later... and what would have been a $100 ride we were ready to get the night started!
I think I can safely say that dinner was enjoyed all round - despite Andy finding a large chunk of glass in the bottom of his drink (which he only discovered wasn't ice until he had finished it and noticed it hadn't melted!)
Afterwards we headed out to see what Scottsdale could offer us... and ended up in a bar called The Lodge. Here we were invited to join in a game of garden sized Jenga. It turned out we were quite popular at this bar and not because of our banter - because of our accents!! Once the bar closed we went back to one couples appartment where I managed to find myself in some deep Islam and Pink Flyod discussion with a guy called Nick - whilst everyone else played drinking games (doh!) The only thing I can take from that night is that I don't know who Pink Flyod are, I clearly know nothing about Islam and we should have ordered a taxi earlier than 5!
A great night all the same... Andy and Rory are now in Flagstaff and Rob in class so I am off to the pool...
I'll be in touch soon xxx
* They put dry ice in their cosmo's so they bubble an steam whilst you drink them - Heston Blumenthal's wet dream!
But finally made it back to Rob's appartment where his cousin Andy and friend Rory were staying - they have been road tripping around America.
On Saturday I spent most of the day asleep (successfully avoiding the Ryder Cup!) only to be woken up to a monsoon - which was amazing. I have never seen a drop of rain here and this was possibly the biggest storm I have ever seen - the lightening was unreal! And it was actually COLD afterwards within five mins it had dropped from 93 degrees to 83!
Once the storm had cleared the four of us set off to City Hall -where you get " THE BEST STEAKS EVER" (aldridge, 2010) for Rory and Andy's last night... only to discover that we couldn't get served as we didn't have our passports!?! AH MY GAWD... luckily the manager offered a free ride home to get them ( I hopped in the free ride quicker than you could say flamin' cosmo*). An hour later... and what would have been a $100 ride we were ready to get the night started!
I think I can safely say that dinner was enjoyed all round - despite Andy finding a large chunk of glass in the bottom of his drink (which he only discovered wasn't ice until he had finished it and noticed it hadn't melted!)
Afterwards we headed out to see what Scottsdale could offer us... and ended up in a bar called The Lodge. Here we were invited to join in a game of garden sized Jenga. It turned out we were quite popular at this bar and not because of our banter - because of our accents!! Once the bar closed we went back to one couples appartment where I managed to find myself in some deep Islam and Pink Flyod discussion with a guy called Nick - whilst everyone else played drinking games (doh!) The only thing I can take from that night is that I don't know who Pink Flyod are, I clearly know nothing about Islam and we should have ordered a taxi earlier than 5!
A great night all the same... Andy and Rory are now in Flagstaff and Rob in class so I am off to the pool...
I'll be in touch soon xxx
* They put dry ice in their cosmo's so they bubble an steam whilst you drink them - Heston Blumenthal's wet dream!
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Testing Testing... 123
So is it wrong that I leave in two days and instead of sorting out travellers cheques I am trying to decide whether or not to have my blog font a burnt orange or a lilac purple?! Is it too much...? Probably!
I am only spending so long on the colour scheme so that there is no reason why people won't read my blog - as there is nothing more depressing than spending too much money and time in an internet cafe spilling all your "emotional, enlightening travel thoughts" with no-one reading them because they didn't like the burnt orange font - or as my mum is probably thinking "a much too busy background".
So I suggest instead of rushing around finding umbrellas the size of my toe nail and clothes that fold up so small I can't find them again or walking shoes that actually look good!!- I spend the next 48hrs making my blog look presentable enough to the three people that will read it (mum, dad and granny).
Naturally comments would be lovely but I won't hold my breath... if I get one follower I will be impressed.
Anyway... I am slightly premature in writing this because sure I leave the country in a scarily short amount of time - but my "travelling and finding myself" doesn't start until the 11th but hey - couldn't help myself. Plus this is a bit of a tester...
I hope that those of you who read this enjoy it and please leave comments if you wish. I will miss you!
xxx
I am only spending so long on the colour scheme so that there is no reason why people won't read my blog - as there is nothing more depressing than spending too much money and time in an internet cafe spilling all your "emotional, enlightening travel thoughts" with no-one reading them because they didn't like the burnt orange font - or as my mum is probably thinking "a much too busy background".
So I suggest instead of rushing around finding umbrellas the size of my toe nail and clothes that fold up so small I can't find them again or walking shoes that actually look good!!- I spend the next 48hrs making my blog look presentable enough to the three people that will read it (mum, dad and granny).
Naturally comments would be lovely but I won't hold my breath... if I get one follower I will be impressed.
Anyway... I am slightly premature in writing this because sure I leave the country in a scarily short amount of time - but my "travelling and finding myself" doesn't start until the 11th but hey - couldn't help myself. Plus this is a bit of a tester...
I hope that those of you who read this enjoy it and please leave comments if you wish. I will miss you!
xxx
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