3rd Gap Year.

La Paz 12/10/11

Capital of Bolivia.

The bus trip from Puno to La Paz was probably the worst and weirdest so far. We arrived early to the bus station and waited where we were told to by the bus company’s office. When the entire platform emptied on to another bus that obviously wasn’t ours, 10 minutes after our bus was supposed to leave, we knew something was wrong. We asked the bus driver that had just left the bus that we were supposed to be leaving on, showed him the ticket and he immediately ran inside. Next the women from the office came running out of the bus terminal and started to make phone calls on 2 different phones. Eventually another bus that was supposed to leave 40minuets before came around the corner and we boarded that one instead, a completely different bus company from the one that we were supposed to be going with. We guessed that they didn’t have enough people to fill our bus so, lumped us with another companies instead. It would have been nice if they had told us.

It was a 4 hour ride to the border and the border crossing was the easiest that we have done so far. From the border it was another 15minuets to the lake side town of Copacabana. Its’ an odd place to have a lake side beach resort, as the lake is a 4000m and freezing. We had to wait an hour to transfer buses, so managed to get some lunch. The next bus took around 40minuets to reach the headland where we had to cross the lake for mainland Bolivia. The bus had to go on a wooden barge that barley floated and all the passengers had to board a tiny speed boat to cross the very choppy waters. We weren’t expecting to have to pay anything extra, but in less we wanted to swim we had to pay. After that it was another 4 hours to La Paz, so the 7hour trip stretched to 9.

Once we got to La Paz we booked into a hostel. We managed to get the price for an en-suite room down 20 Bolivianos, about US$3, and got an apartment, that was 4 times bigger than our flat in Malvern. It contained 3 bedrooms, for 7 people to sleep, 2 bathrooms, a huge kitchen, front room, dining room and hall way, all that for US$17 a night. So it more than made up for the bad trip during the day.

We spent a couple of days walking around the capital, buying a few souvenirs and trying to avoid the smell of preserved alpaca foetuses and stuffed baby alpaca, none of which added to the smells of the city in a nice way, and trying to decide if we could fit a mountain bike trip on the World’s Most Dangerous Road, but the Bolivians seem to have decided to have an election in the middle of our travels, which would mean being stuck in La Paz for four days, and we are starting to run short of time, that will have to be on another trip. We decided to book some bus tickets for Uyuni and the salt flats before we got stuck.

Uyuni 15/10/11

Salt flats.

Overnight bus took 12hrs from La Paz to Uyuni. It was so cold in the bus in the middle of the night that ice was forming on the inside of the windows. We didn’t get much sleep. The first part of the trip was on paved roadways, but the second half of the trip was on gravel roads. It was very bumpy and your teeth rattled in your mouth as the bus rumbled down the road, whilst we tried to sleep.

We arrived in Uyuni before most of the town had awoken, and after some searching managed to book on to a tour across the salt flats to Chile, that some of our Inka trail trekkers had booked on to and had heard that they were fairly reliable. It was due to leave at 10.30am so we found breakfast and stocked up on water for the trip.

Day 1

The first stop on our trip was to a train grave yard. Tracks had been laid next to each other in the desert, next to the main line and 30 or so trains had been left to rust in the desert. Due to the lack of rain, the rusting wasn’t very quick; some had been there over 100 years and still looked the same. There would be a lot of money in scrap if they all got weighed in.

After a short drive we came to the salt harvesting fields. The salt in mounded up in piles to dry out, as there’s a very thin layer of water over the salt flats, more in the rainy season. From here its loaded by hand before being taken away for processing, only 12000 tons a year are removed, and as there are billions of tons here, up to 10m deep in places it should last them a few years.

Next it was a few hours drive across the flats to Cactus Island. Here the cactuses grew to around 9-15m all over the island. Just before lunch we headed out onto the flats to take some perspective photos, giant chocolate bars, and people standing on others hands.

That night we spent in a dust bowl of a town, nothing much there but a concrete football pitch and tumbled down houses. It was cold that night as soon as the sun went down.

Day 2

Next morning we headed out into the mountains, leaving behind the flats and going up in altitude around the volcanoes, and mountain peaks, in the distance we could see Vicunas. It was very dry up here so it must have been difficult to find enough to eat. We kept rising in altitude till we were at around 4900m.

Just before lunch we came across a lake surrounded by huge snow-capped peaks, and in the lake were hundreds of Flamingos. I wasn’t expecting to see flamingos in the mountains at altitude, as you usually see them in Africa at low altitudes. Here there were 3 species of flamingo. We got to walk along the edge and get pretty close to a few getting some good pictures on the way. That night we spent next to the red lagoon, again with flamingos, but they were further out and a bit more difficult to see.

The lake gets it colour from a tiny creature which reflect only the red in the sun light, but it also has to be windy at the same time. The creature’s in the water are what give the flamingos their red colour.

The room that we were to be given that night only had room enough for 5 people, three singles and 1 double, there were 6 of us. Thankfully 4 of us were couples, but you would have thought they could have arranged for the beds to equal the number of guests. Apparently all of the tour companies are this dis-organised, it’s just a question of getting the least dis-organised company. Our driver was particularly unhelpful, only replying to questions asked and not offering any explanations to the things we were seeing. Most of the other people we spoke to had the same experience, and all of their driver/guides asked for tips at the end. Not many got them. The cook in our group was good, and prepared some good meals, so we tipped her but ignored our driver.

Day 3

We left early in the morning of day 3, 5.30am, and headed for the geysers and steaming mud holes. The first geyser that we got to was man made, with a piece of pipe in the hole to make the jet of steam fiercer. The next one was natural, a lot bigger and a lot noisier. After a short visit there we headed for the hot springs. It was a hot spring on the edge of a lake and some concrete put up to create a pool; it was difficult to see the pool from the steam and all of the bodies. It was cold to get changed before getting into the hot spring as there was still ice on the ground, and the nearby lake was still partly frozen. After 20mins in the spring it was time for a quick breakfast and from there it was another long drive over rough ground to the border where we swapped to a bus for the border crossing. You immediately know that you are in Chile, we came across a tarmac road, with signs warning about sharp bends and escape lanes for Lorries on the steep downhill sections. We haven’t seen anything like that for almost 4 months.

Mancora, Peru 18/09/11

Surfers mecca.

We had booked a bus to Piura in Peru, but as another group of guided tourists seem to be getting off in a place called Mancora, a surfers paradise, and I wasn’t feeling great, we decided to get off early by a few hours. Out of the middle of the desert you arrive in this tourist centre with hostel, bars, surf shops and tourist tat. For the entire trip from Ecuador all there was, was endless desert followed by fish farms and sugar cane fields, and then back to more desert. The surf looked good here but the water not that warm, we were out of season for surfing and kite surfing, but there were still a few to watch as the sun went down.

Trujillo 20/09/11

Miles upon piles of desert, then rice paddies and cities in the middle of now where.

On the trip from Mancora we passed yet more endless miles of desert, oil pumps scattered across the hills and every so often towns, rice paddies, sugar cane plantations and chicken sheds by the sea.

We arrived in the middle of the colonial city. The old town houses weren’t as noticeable as in Antigua, but the churches were pretty spectacular. It had a nice feel to town and safe, but not a great deal to do. The only interesting thing was an old city and temple called Chan Chan built entirely out of mud and clay bricks. It had suffered at the hands of the Spanish, the rains and El Niño’s and quite a few earthquakes. Some of it had been restored, many times, but the new stuff wasn’t as tough as the original (although some of it was a plastic replica) and it was staring to Osee from the tops of the walls. It was on an impressive scale, some 60,000 lived in the Temple and 600,000 in the local area, but we think the guide must have meant 6,000 and 60,000. On the way back to town we dropped into a fishing and surf village to see the reed fishing boats. Some of them had polystyrene in the middle to aid flotation, not a traditional building material I guess.

Huacachina 22/09/11

More miles of nothing, sugar cane, asparagus

From Trujillo it was a 10 hour bus ride to Lima. We had an hour and a half wait at Cruz Del Sur’s bus terminal. It’s a bit like an airport terminal with gates for departure and arrival, baggage check inn and a café. If there were more bus companies like this in Europe I think that more people would use them. On the trip south from Trujillo we passed fields upon fields of asparagus. Apparently Peru is the number one producer in the world.

Once we arrived at Ica we caught a taxi to Huacachina, it was late at night and a welcome stop after a very long trip. First thing the next morning we stepped out of the front door of the hostel, and the first thing we saw was a very tall yellow wall, which actually turned out to be a sand dune. Huacachina is set in the middle of sand dunes. To one side there is the dry desert and on the other side are the dunes stretching for miles into the distance. It was built as a resort for rich Peruvians to come and stay, but know it is a backpacker resort where people forget to go home. The main activity of the area is playing in the in dunes, either trekking to the top or taking a dune buggy ride at sunset and sliding down the dunes. The first day that we were there, we walked up one of the dunes and it took 25mins to climb 400m, it was a serious work out for the thighs. It took 4 big steps to go half a meter. We watched the sun set over the dunes and then rolled, jumped and fell all the way back to the hostel. It took a long time to try and remove the sand from pockets and underwear once at the bottom.

The next day we booked on to a sunset dune tour, all of the buggies left about the same time and the sound of all of the V8’s firing up was defining. The tour consisted of charging about the dunes in big dune buggies that could sit 12 people with roll cages, driving up and down really steep slopes and then sliding down the slopes on snowboard looking boards, it was better to lie down on the board than to stand, as you went a lot faster. We watched the sun set and then headed back to town.

Nascar 25/09/11

Lines in the desert.

We got a private tour from Huacachina to Nazca, which visited the museum of the German lady that rediscovered the Nazca and Inca Lines. She used to sweep the lines all day and night with a broom, and the locals used to call her a witch. She was very poor, lived in a one room house with all of her measuring equipment and used to be funded by her sister who was still living in Germany. Next we got to visit the Mirador, a tower that over looked a few of the figures and a few of the Inca Lines. The Inca Lines are the most recent, they are only 500 years old, and consist of geometric straight lines that stretch many km into the desert. The Nazca Lines are older at 1500years old, and consist of figures such as a tree and a lizard. The lines are kept clear nowadays by petrol powered leaf blowers.

After that it was onto Nazca town to see a potter that was making pottery in the old way, without a potter’s wheel, just turning the clay by hand. Next we went to see the water source of the Nazca, they were spiral wells that went down into the ground to an underground river that flows no matter what season it is.

Arequipa 26/09/11

Back at altitude, surrounded by volcanoes.

We spent the rest of the evening in Nazca waiting for the night bus to Arequipa. Arequipa is set around the Plaza Del Armas with many cobbled streets leading from the Plaza and tourist shops. We visited an Alpaca museum which told you about the different types of animals found in the high Andean Plato, and the different uses of their fleeces, the grading and finally the weaving.

We booked on to a Colca Canyon tour to visit the Condors and see the canyon. The tour started at 3am. The bus arrived to collect us at the hostel and then it was a 3hr drive before we stopped for breakfast, we managed to get some sleep on the bus as we didn’t get much in the hostel. After breakfast it was another hour and a half’s drive to the condor viewing platform. We had about 40 minutes to watch these huge birds, the biggest in the world circling over the tourists only 20m above our heads, so of them landed only 10m away.

Next it was a 2hr walk descending over a kilometre into the canyon, crossing a river at the bottom and then another 30mins till we found lunch. The sun was at its highest and hottest so the next 3.5 hours was hard work, and we arrived to our hostel after dark. Even though it was pitch black everybody from the group went in the pool for a soak after along days walk.

It was an early start the next morning, up at 5am and started walking at 5.15am, before breakfast. It was another kilometre back to the top of the canyon and after a hard 2.5 hours walk to the top, we finally made it. We waited for the group to get together again and then headed for breakfast.

There were hot springs that we visited on the way back to Arequipa which was good to relax the aching muscles after some tough climbing. We also stopped at a high pass which was around 4500m and stopped by the side of a field full of Alpacas, Llamas and saw some wild Vicuna, very rare.

We made it back to Arequipa by 6pm and then had to be at the bus station for 7pm to catch a 7.30pm night bus to Cuzco.

Cuzco 30/09/11

The Inca trek.

We checked into the first hostel in the bible and crashed for a few hours after the night bus trip. Again Cuzco is set around a Plaza with many ornate buildings and cobbled streets leading from the Plaza. We walked around many of the souvenir shops and bought way too many things, but were starting to acclimatise for our Inca Trek. We posted them all back home so hopefully at some point they should arrive in DK.

Day 1

We had moved into our hotel that was included for the Inca Trek and had our pre trek briefing and found out that the porters would be carrying 6kg of our kit, which was a lot more than we were expecting them to be carrying. There were scales downstairs and we had to be exact as the porters are only allowed to carry a maximum of 20kg by law.

It was another early start and we were on the way by 7.30am heading for the Sacred Valley where we stopped at various Inca settlements and learned a bit about how they developed as a civilisation. The terraces that seem to dominate the towns that they built on hill tops were for slope stabilisation primarily as the area is prone to landslides, and managing the slopes in this way, they helped to reduce the problem. Secondary was to grow some food. The other amazing building technique was to build without the use of mortar. All of the blocks were polished with harder river stones with concave and convex face’s so that they fitted together. These were reserved for the temple, astronomical observatories and palaces, the lower class people had to make do with small stones bonded together with mud mortar. We spent the night in Ollantayambo which was a short drive to the start of the trek. There were 12 other people on our trip, 3 Irish, 3 English, 2 Danish, an American, New Zealander, South Africa and a Swedish guy. We also had 1 lead guide, two assistant guides, 2 cooks and 20 porters.

Day 2

Day two was a short walk of a few hours to get us used to the altitude; we got to the campsite and had lunch. After that it was time for a football game, between tourists, porters and local. The skill level of the games went up significantly when the tourists were on the side lines, mainly because we couldn’t breathe that well after running around, and mainly because they were much better than us. I did manage to score, but it bounced off me as I was trying to get out the way of a shot from a porter.

Day 3

Day three contained the dreaded Dead Woman’s Pass. It was an early start and a long walk up to the 4000m pass. It was good weather for the most part of the walk up, but once most of us had made it to the top, it started to poor down with rain. We all posed for a quick photo at the top and then made a quick descent to the campsite towards the bottom of the valley. We had to leave the explanation of why it was called Dead Woman’s Pass till we got to the bottom. One reason for the name is the silhouette of the Pass looks like a woman lying down, the other reason is explores had found the remains of women from centuries ago that had been sacrificed and the name Dead Woman’s Pass stuck.

Day 4

Day four was to be the longest day, we were told 8hours walking, but it turned out to be 10. The day started off wet and didn’t dry up till after we had finished lunch. Lunch was very good, half way along the trail and during lunch the sun came out and everybody from porters to trekkers hung out all of their wet gear to dry. The afternoons walk was along the top of the mountain ridges through cloud forest, the views were amazing and the sun was still shinning. The mountains here are just like the casts in Halong Bay, Vietnam or Guillin, China. Normal mountains have some gentle slopes before the go sky wards, but in this area they seem to rise vertically straight up. We got to the last camp site where we were to sleep that night, and then headed off to see a nearby ruin, called For Ever Young, it was only 10minuets around the corner, and had a great view over the valley. I headed down the 200 plus steps, to take some pictures and then with Juan, one of the other trekkers, decided to run back up the steps. Not a good idea at altitude and it left us gasping for breath for 15minuets after.

It was a good last meal from the porters and they managed to produce a cake for Sarah as it was to be her birthday the next day when we made it to Machu Picchu.

Day 5

Day Five started at 3am. The porters and guides woke us up and whilst we were still trying to put our boots on they were already taking the tents down around us. I think they wanted to get home and dry out, as it had been raining almost none stop for the whole trek. They were heading down the mountain to the train station and back to their families whilst the rest of us queued at the entrance gate waiting for it to open at 5.30am. We were the second group in the queue and managed to be under shelter as it was still raining.

It was a 40min walk to the Sun Gate, which felt more like a route march. I think the idea was to be one of the first to the Sun Gate to see Macha Picchu before any other tourists got there. Only trouble was, it was covered in cloud and mist. We waited for 20minuets, but there was still no sign of the city. We headed down the path through Macha Picchu, out the exit, past queues of tourists that had taken the train and then had to queue up and get our pass ports checked, even though we had already walked through the city, strange way of going about it.
It was packed on all of the trails around the city. They only let 2500 people a day into the site, but it seemed like they were all there at once. I think that they should make a rule that if you haven’t walked there, you aren’t allowed in till 2pm, at least.

The cloud eventually cleared around the valleys and the surrounding mountains were amazing. Vertical cliffs surround the cliff top that the city was balanced on and following the river that protects the city on three sides. The site is pretty big, and was designed to house around 600people. Nobody knows exactly what it was built for, it was either a university, religious centre or a place for the royalty.

After a few hours of walking and forcing our way past the other tourist in the rain, up and down precarious steps, it was time to get the bus to the valley floor at Aguas Calientes for lunch and then the Train back to Ollantaymbo and finally the bus back to Cuzco.

It was a very good trek, but boy was it wet.

Puno 09/10/11

Lake Titicaca.

Early the next morning we took the bus to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In the front seat of the bus was a very impatient man, every time the bus came to a stop, even before a micro second was up, he would stamp on the floor to try and get the bus moving again. He was right above the drivers head and after a while the bus driver came up stairs to have ago at the stamping bloke. He stopped stamping after his reprimand.

We booked a tour to visit Lake Titicaca. First on the agenda were the floating islands of the Uros people. They would cut sections of reed roots from another part of the lake, drag them to their islands and rope and anchor them together, next they would lay layers of reeds on top to make up the floor of the island. If they had a family argument, they could take a large saw and cut the island in half and move, also if they fell out with their neighbouring island they could pull up the anchors and move. Everything was made of reeds, from the houses to the boats. It was a bit of a tourist trap, and the islanders seemed pretty fed up with singing the same song to the tourists every day. Somebody told us that 20% of the islanders lived in Puno and left at 5am every day to get to the islands to put on a show for the tourists, but still is was amazing to see how they, lived, or could have lived, and what they could make out of reeds.

Next it was a 4 hour boat ride to Amantani Island, where we were to spend the night with a local family. After lunch we headed for the football pitch to meet with the rest of the people on our boat and all of the other tourists. A game started and it wasn’t long before we were beating the locals hands down.

Their oldest player was 12.

Most were 8.

But we were at altitude and out of breath just from walking; I even scored, twice, but did fall over and remove some skin.
The guide took us to the top of the island to one of the two peaks, Pacha Mama (Mother Earth), and Pacha Tata (Father Earth), the one that we headed too; from the top you could really see why the lake is the highest, largest navigable lake in the world. It stretched off into the distance beyond the horizon towards Bolivia.

It was time to head back to the football pitch where we were met by one of the daughters of the family to guide us, in the dark, back to the house for dinner. That evening we were supposed to head to the village hall for a welcome party and dance, but as it was pouring down with rain again, we decided for an early night instead, most other people did the same, and our host family was glad that they didn’t have to go out in the rain.

Next morning we headed to the island of Taquile, not to be confused with Tequila, famous for the men weaving and knitting here, not only the women. It was a short walk from the jetty around the island to the main town centre and we looked over the lake from a café. It looks similar to the Greek islands. Soon it was time for dinner, trout, fresh from the lake and some explanations on the significance of the various weavings and clothes that the locals wore. The trip back to the jetty where our boat was waiting was down 500 steps, and soon we were on our way back to Puno.

Lake Titicaca is split in two, half owned by Peru and half owned by Bolivia, The Peruvians think they are the Titi and Bolivia is the Caca, Bolivians think that they are the Titi and Peru is the Caca.

Titi is short of Puma. Caca is short for…….

Quito, Ecuador, 30/08/11

First time in the Andes, and it feels cool.

We jumped on the shuttle from the hostel to the airport in Panama City that was about 36km east of the city. It was a fairly short flight into Quito and as we were coming into land we were flying beneath the highest of some of the mountain tops. It was a fairly steep entry to the runway, and the landing was very bumpy. All around the airport the houses came right up to the boundary of the runway. We got a taxi to the hostel that was a 40min drive away. Quito is 15km wide and 55km long, nestled into a valley with 3500m plus peaks surrounding it. Quito itself is at 2800m and has the feeling of Kathmandu but a lot wealthier, with that high altitude capital city feeling. It already feels a lot safer than Most of Central America did.

The next day we were going to find an ATM and explore the old part of the city, but ended up on a last minute tour to the equator. The tour included visiting the rim of a volcano where there was a community that lived in the crater. The soil here was very fertile but they could hear the volcano rumbling daily. Next we headed to the true equator museum. Here they had experiments such as balancing an egg on the head of a nail, (Line managed and got a certificate to prove she could, I failed) and watching the water go clockwise, anticlockwise and vertically down the plug hole depending on which side of the equator the bowl was sat. They also had exhibits of different people that lived on the equator from Ecuador from the amazon region to the highlands.

After that we went to the original equator site where the French had worked it out to be a few hundred years ago. They were only 250m off which was quite good without the aid of GPS. They only realised it was in the wrong place when tourists came with GPS and started complaining that it wasn’t actually exactly on the equator line.

There was free tour around the old part of the city the next day which included a tour of the Basilica Cathedral. We didn’t have our passports with us so the next day we came back to the Presidents Palace for a tour of the banqueting hall and meeting rooms. After that it was time to head to the top of the Basilica. It cost 3$ to go up to the top of the Cathedral. We could get to both ends of the church and most of the ladders and barriers to stop you falling off the top were very wobbly, if you were having a clumsy day, it would be very easy to fall off the top, and as it was 90m to the top, it would have been a long fall, but the views of Quito were amazing so it was worth the constant adrenaline rush. It wouldn’t have passed any HSE requirements in Europe.

The Otavalo market was about a two hour drive from Quito, first on the outskirts there was the live animal market, here there were chickens with their legs tied up, crates of guinea pigs (Cuy, kwee in Latin American after the sound they make), sheep, pigs and cows. Some of the younger animals that were to be sold on and grown on were in a lot better condition and treated better than the chickens that were dumped in bags or boxes and looked very miserable, that were meant for the pot.

Next it was a short drive to the craft market. It happens every Saturday and the entire square and a lot of the side streets were filled with stalls. After some hard bargaining and some fake walk always, and some real, 10wks ago. It was an early start, breakfast at 5.30am, and then a transfer to the airport at 6.15am. At the airport our bags were checked for things that weren’t allowed such as seeds and live animals we came away with some good bargains, except that now we have to carry more stuff.

Galapagos 04/09/11

Everywhere you walk there is a good chance of standing on something. Some people did!!

Day 1/2

Our tour to the Galapagos started with a night in a posh hotel, The Hotel Rio Amazonas. The poshest hotel since Mexico City. It was a short flight to Guayaquil where we dropped off some passengers and picked up some more, then we left for the Galapagos and Baltra island, on the flight they opened all of the over headed lockers and sprayed insecticide everywhere, it smelt nice, but I dread to think our toxic the stuff was to breath in. They are certainly doing all they can to reduce the impact of humans on the Galapagos Islands.

We landed on an old WW2 air field built by the Americans to protect the Panama Canal after Hawaii was hit. It’s a very sparse landscape with only a few shrubs and bushes in the vast desert like island. The runway didn’t have any fences around it and the airport building was only a small shed. On walking to the airport building there was a mat that we had to walk over with more disinfectant and once inside the building there were more baggage checks. We all jumped on a bus along with other people from different tours and headed to the jetty. On the jetty were sea lions and orange crabs walking along the cliffs. Lunch was served on the boat and then we sailed to the first island.

Island landings were made with small ribs and most of them were wet landings. On the way to the first island we were joined by frigate birds that kept up with the boat without having to flap their wings at all. On the island we walked along the beach and saw Turtle nesting sites, lizards and orange crabs. Once we had seen all there was to see most of us entered the water for some snorkelling. The visibility wasn’t that great but there were plenty of fish to be seen. On the way back to the shore at least 500 birds flew over us heading back their island for the night, some of them only a meter above the surface of the water. That evening we met the rest of the crew that were dressed in all their best sailing gear, it looked as if it was kept in bags for most of the time and only brought out on special occasions. We had a welcome cocktail and every on introduced themselves and where they were from. From the crew there was a naturalists, captain, cook, engineer and 2 people that drove the ribs. Of the people on the tour there was an Austrian, American, 6 Australians, 3 other English people, a Canadian and 2 Swedish sisters.

After dinner that evening there was a 1m shark swimming almost out of sight of the boats lights. Later there was a 3m shark off the back of the boat, thankfully we weren’t snorkelling then. After that a Pelican landed on the back of the boat and then landed on one of the ribs that had been winched out of the water for the previous sailing. I crawled around the side of the boat to our cabin and knocked on the door. Line came to see what the noise was and got a shock when she saw me on the floor, but an even bigger shock when she saw the Pelican only a meter from her on the front of the rib. It wasn’t afraid of us at all, and we could stand next to it and talk quietly whilst it fished, it was soon joined by a sea lion that was also fishing by the lights of the boat.

Day 3

It was time for another beach landing and here there were sea lions on the beach waiting for us to land. We headed around the shore line passing lava tubes and more sea lions, orange crabs and marine iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. Further around the coast the waves were crashing into the rocks and in the distance I saw 2 dolphins jumping together out of the sea, but that was all there was to see of them, as they seemed to disappear after that short glimpse of them.

We headed back to the boat and put on snorkelling gear, this time with wet suits as the previous day was just about bearable, but it was a shallow snorkel, this was to be a deep water snorkel. The visibility was amazing and so was the marine life. In the hour that we were in the water we saw 2 white tip reef sharks and 4 rays from a small eagle ray to some at least a meter and a half across.

In the afternoon we headed for another snorkelling spot. On the way to the beach we saw some Galapagos Penguins in the water, but didn’t manage to get close enough to snorkel with as they disappeared. Most of the group headed out around a rock called the pinnacle, one of the most famous views of the Galapagos. The ribs followed wherever the group went which was reassuring for some of the people that hadn’t been before. From the water we could see Blue Footed Boobies diving for fish, only a few meters away. There was plenty of other fish to see, but when I tried to head through one gap in the rocks, I came face to face with a White Tip Reef Shark. Usually they swim away from you, but this one kept coming and circled past me and the others behind a bit too close for comfort. It was a big shock. On the way back to the beach we came across a tiny sea snake on the bottom which took some searching for other people to see it as it buried its head in the sand soon after I found it.

Once back on the boat, it was a quick change and back on the ribs. This time a dry landing and a board walk with 372 steps to the lookout at the top, passing on the way more volcanic features. Once at the top at the viewing platform there were amazing views over the other islands around.

Day 4

The next morning we landed on a small beach which was the sight of a failed salt mining operation. Further along the shore line we came across more sea lions, hundreds of marine iguanas in huge groups and fur seals that were sat in small pools accessed via channels with naturals rock bridges over the entrances. After returning to the beach it was time to head into the sea for some more snorkelling. After a few minutes in the water we came across the first of 2 turtles feeding on the bottom. After a while we were joined by 2 sea lions which had come to play, a mother and pup, with the lumps in neoprene in their back yard. They got very close to you, swimming only 6” underneath you. One of them opened its mouth only inches from my mask and made a lunge towards me. Hopefully it was only playing but the sea lions seem to be getting a little too curious with all us snorkelers so we made a retreat to the safety of the beach.

After lunch it was time to head to another beach where there were lots of sea lions lying about on the beach sleeping. We saw lots of Blue Footed Boobies diving for fish and a few Pelicans crashing in the sea for their fish. They have air bags behind their brains which help to protect them when crashing into the sea, because it certainly can’t be called landing or diving. But sometimes these air bags can cause serious internal damage, and so many die of internal injuries.

Once back to where we hand landed and left the snorkelling gear it was time to head back to the sea again and along the cliffs. Here we saw plenty more fish and a ray. A few sea lions accompanied us for the trip but these seemed to be a lot friendlier. I was swimming along the bottom a few meters down when Line pointed to my right where a sea lion had been following my every move, when I finally looked to where she was pointing I had another huge shock as I saw the sea lion only a few meters away, when I lurched sideways at the shock of it being so close, the sea lion got a shock as well and swam off. We made it back to shore without further incident and headed back to the main ship.
From here it was a few hours’ sail to a bay where we pulled up for dinner. It was a rough crossing but worse was to come after dinner, most people took sea sickness tablets, including me and we headed off to our last port of call of the trip. It was a rough crossing and most people went to bed. The boat arrived in port at 11pm, so most people managed to get a few hours’ sleep after that.
Day 5

Another early start, breakfast at 5.30am and off the boat at 6am, and we were off to see the Charles Darwin Research station. This was to be our only meeting with the Giant Galapagos Tortoises. They were in concrete corals and not in the wild that we had hoped to see. From here it was a 40min bus journey to a port, a very short ferry to the other side and on to another bus to the airport. There seems to be a lot of cattle and dogs for an area that’s trying to keep its self as natural and undamaged by humans as possible.

Day 6

Day 6 was spent back in Quito, I think it a bit cheeky to call it a 6 day trip, when you only actually spend 3 and a half days in the Galapagos, but all the tour companies seem to do this. A week in the Galapagos would have been better.

Cotapaxi 08/09/11

Amazing views, amazing hostel.

We left the hotel and headed back to the Secret Garden to get the shuttle out to their hostel near the Volcano Cotapaxi. The family that set up the Secret Garden in Quito moved out to the countryside to start an eco-hostel. The hostel is set in rolling grassland with views to Cotapaxi across the valley as well as a few other volcanoes and peaks in the distance.

The accommodation was made up of a few dorms, tents on platforms with a shelter over the top and a storage box for your packs, a play house, that you could only just fit 2 people in the upstairs if you were short and the posh rooms that had a double up stairs, wood burner, en suite and kitchenette down stairs. We stayed in the tents.

There was a compost toilet with an amazing view of the volcano out of the roof; the Jacuzzi had a great few out of the roof as well. The main house was an open plan affair with a long dining room table where all the meals were held and a warm open fire to sit around at night.
The afternoon that we got there we were taken up the hills at the back of the hostel to see a waterfall and to start getting used to the altitude, the hostel was at 3500m.

The next day we headed up to the car park just below the climbers refuge on Cotapaxi. On the way up to Cotapaxi we were passed by 200 Ecuadorian soldiers, they were all in their 20’s and were on a training come outing after their 1st year of military college. At the refuge at 4800m one of the young soldiers dropped their riffle and had to do push ups as punishment, with a rucksack on. They were looking very tired as they passed us, but seemed to be in good spirits. Once we had stopped for some very sweet tea and banana cake it was time to make it up to the glacier at 5000m. The army recruits were further up the glacier, some on the glacier; we heard some shouts from higher up and saw one of the packs rolling down the ice with bits falling off all the way down. Lots of press-ups to be done there I guess. After we made it back to the pickup it was time to mount up on our old and battered bikes for the 27km back to the hostel. The breaks weren’t that great and it was very bumpy and steep to get down to the valley floor. No major crashes happened, and eventually we made it back to the hostel.

The next morning 5 other people from the hostel headed out with me and Line for a horse trek through the valley, some of the horses were very lively and were at the front and galloped all of the way back, some of them were very lazy and walked very slowly at the back of the group. We had a very lazy afternoon and got ready to leave the next morning for Banos.

Banos 11/09/11

Nestled in the crook of a river.

We spent the rest of the morning packing for the trip to Banos and didn’t achieve much else. After lunch we got a mini bus down the very bumpy cobbled road to the town of Macharchi. We were dropped off at the side of the motorway and said that a bus would be along soon for Banos. There were lots of buses, but none said Banos. They were also flying past and the signs on the front of the buses were so small that it was almost impossible to see them. Eventually one stopped and said that he could take us there. We headed to a place called Ombato and the next bus was waiting for us at the side of the road for Banos. It was another hour’s drive to the town through some amazing scenery, crops clinging to the side of the steep valleys and always enough room for a football pitch here and there.

We spent the rest of the day looking for a river trip for the next day, but with no luck. The next morning the hostel owners managed to ring some local people and a trip was arrange last minute. It was to be 12km of Grade III/IV, on the Pastasi River. It was a bit of a disorganised company and by the time we got to the river they had forgotten the wing nuts to hold the footrests in place, so spent a lot of time slopping around in the bottom. It was a good river with some amazing views; the only really difficult bits were a few large holes to avoid.
When I got back to the hostel I met up with Line for lunch and then headed for the hot springs in the evening. There were varying temperatures from really hot to really cold and a kid’s warm pool. It was very relaxing, but by 7 o’clock it was crowded with locals arriving after work, and with barley enough room to move it was time to leave.

Tena 13/09/11

Paddling Mecca of Ecuador.

We left early the next morning for the trip to Tena, the kayaking capital of Ecuador. We finally made it to Tena after 4hours instead of the 3 that it should have taken, but did get to see some amazing jungle views. By the time we got to Tena we were back in the heat of the jungle, but the humidity didn’t seem to be too bad. Just beyond the city limits the Amazon started, at night you couldn’t see any lights.
I managed to arrange a trip on a Grade III river, the Jatuyaca River (Jatun meaning Big and Yaca meaning river in the local tongue.) We loaded up with kit and they had managed to find an RPM for me from another company. It was a 40min drive out of town heading further into the jungle down dirt roads. Eventually we pulled up to a small shack on the side of the road. Whilst the rafters were getting there safety talk, the safety kayaker, driver and me unloaded the kit, tied a long rope to the kit, and through the rear bumper of the truck lowered the kit of the side of the road, 60m down the river bank to the bottom. Any trip that starts with lowering your kit 60m to the river is going to be a good trip.
Once the safety talk was complete we scrambled down the bank to the kit and got under way. It was an easy river with plenty of waves to play on and amazing jungle all around with colourful butterflies on the banks. Lunch was huge and the local dog and a great time trying to heat a huge piece of chocolate cake, pasta and Doritos. All along the banks of the river there were gold miners diving to the river bed sucking up the sand and silt. They were making some good money but for very long hours in the cold river. A Columbian company had arrived with large diggers and mercury to extract the gold further upstream, making vast sums of money whilst only paying a few hundred dollars to the land owners for renting the land for a few months, not telling them what they were going to be doing and without licences. The president went on a rafting trip and asked the raft guides what all of the chaos a destruction was around the river and when he found about the illegal mining he sent in the army to close down the operation.

Cuenca 15/09/11

No track on the sleepers = no train trip.

From Tena we headed to Riobamba where we wanted to get the train further south and then on to Cuenca. But on the way to Riobamba there were large sections of the rail that were still being developed and we had heard reports that the trains weren’t running, so on arrival to Riobamba we decided to take the next bus on to Cuenca. Making for a 13hr day on the buses.

Cuenca was a colonial town with cobbled streets everywhere and old buildings and churches. There wasn’t that much to see and the air was very polluted, we walked around the city for a few days visiting a few markets and booking our bus trip over the boarder to Peru.

David 24/08/2011

Descent pavements and lots of taxis.

From San Jose we took a long distance bus to the first major town in Panama, the town of David, which is Panamas second city. There wasn’t anything special about David, but it was only 9 hours from San Jose, instead of the 15 hours all the way to Panama City. It was a good place to break up the trip for a few nights.

There seems to be just as many taxis here as there are private cars. Hundreds of them, all yellow like the New York taxis. Some of them in various states of disrepair and some of them done up with lights and huge sound systems.

The next morning we went out to find breakfast and sat outside a bakery with croissants and tea and coffee. After a while a pick up drove past with a load speaker, and something in Spanish being broadcast. We thought nothing of it, but after a while row upon row of children and adults holding banners, playing drums very loud with some good rhythms, dancing, and sometimes marching in order (then stopping, chaos continued as water was handed out and when the water was finished they resumed their orderly lines and continued marching.) We managed to make out some of the signs which said something about ’children are our future’ and ‘stop violence against children’. At the end of the march there was a long line of cars. They respected the marchers and didn’t beep their horns, but as soon as the side streets of cars that hand been held back, met the line of cars that were following the march, the horns started and crazy driving continued again.

It was difficult to find places to eat. They seemed to close very early or ran out of food. For the second city in Panama, there wasn’t much of a night life, especially of the eating kind. During the day was ok, but by 6pm most places had closed and we had to search for something to eat by time 8pm came around.

Panama City 26/08/2011

Dodgy part of the city and the canal.

It was a long bus ride from David to Panama City. We arrived in the Albrook bus terminal, a huge connection centre for buses and the domestic airport and also containing a shopping mall. It was chaos when we left the bus, it was rush hour and everybody in the city it seemed was trying to catch a taxi. After 15mins we eventually got a taxi. We headed out of the bus terminal, straight into a traffic jam. The taxi driver checked his fuel gauge and spoke to another taxi driver. They both pulled over to the side of the motorway and we were swapped into another taxi. Our first driver said that it was because he didn’t have enough fuel, but it was probably because he didn’t want to be stuck in the traffic. The new driver did some interesting driving around other cars and taking lots of short cuts. Eventually we ended up in the dodgiest part of any city that I have ever been in. The taxi driver told us to lock the doors and wind up the windows just as somebody approached the car with their hand reaching for the open window. There were armed police on most street corners and riot vans that the London riot police would have been more than happy to have had. We were both relived when we reached the hostel.

The next day we headed for the old part of Panama City, Casa Viajeo, the original part of the City that the Spanish rebuilt after the British Privateers (Pirates) raised it to the ground. There were a lot of buildings that were falling into disrepair, but the few that had been restored looked just like what you would find in Italy or Spain. After spending the morning there we headed back to the new part of the city towards the skyscrapers along the sea front. They have spent a lot of money here, with landscaped gardens and a running and roller blading route that stretched for a few kms. We headed through the skyscrapers eventually heading for a shopping mall and Ice creams. The difference between the elite, the modern tower blocks and Ferraris and the run down ghetto on the out skirts of the city are huge.

For the last day of our stay in Panama we headed for Miraflores Locks. This is the last group of 3 locks that let the boats out in to the Pacific after their 8hr voyage from the Caribbean through 2 locks and Gatun Lake. Here they enter the locks whilst being secured to trains that run along the length of the locks making sure that the boats stay in position. At the moment the boats can only be 4500 full size container capacity. They are building more lock gates, dredging the channel and digging new channels to accommodate boats of up to 12500 containers. There are some of the biggest machines in the world working here at the moment. The Museum that has been built alongside the lock has a film and the history of the beginnings of the canal, the problems that had to be overcome and the techniques that were developed especially to cope with a new building challenge, one that had never been attempted on this scale before.

Playa Del Coco, Costa Rica, 13/08/11

Quiet town, by a quiet bay.

Another early start saw us heading for the Costa Rican border. The first bus dropped us at a road junction, and then the next bus was only 10mins away which took us to the border. It was organised chaos trying to get over the border to get stamped out of Nicaragua, with one narrow gap for people to exit and enter Nicaragua. Once at the border, touts were trying to sell us border forms for US$1, that we could get for free at the border desk. After that was over we walked over no-man’s land to the Costa Rican border. Here there was one building that had lots of queues of people wrapped around, none of which seemed to be going very fast. Eventually we found the right queue and after 1 and a half hours of queuing we made it to the front. Four quick stamps and we were officially in Costa Rica. You could have just walked between the two countries and nobody would have been any the wiser. Instead of having a line to cross, denoting one country from another, and an entry and exit door to a building, which would have kept things flowing better, it was a mess.

We got on the next bus to Liberia and off that bus straight on to another bus for Playa Del Coco. That was the easy bit of the day. There’s obviously more money here. That’s immediately obvious by the better condition of the busses. They don’t look like hand me downs from further up north, but like busses built for the job, some even have disabled access lifts.

We found a hostel and then something to eat, just as a massive thunderstorm moved in. Two bolts of thunder struck nearby, and the noise and vibration felt as if a bomb hand gone off. The loudest thunder I have ever heard.

All four of us booked on to a snorkelling tour for the next day. They had promised to drop us off at a beach for our first snorkel whilst the divers were out diving, but we got chucked off in the middle of the ocean near to an island with huge waves crashing onto shore. It was Randi and Mette’s first time snorkelling, so not the best of introductions. The second snorkelling site was even worse. The current going through the gaps in the reef was so strong you could only just about manage to stay still in one spot. Moving forwards was a real effort. The visibility was bad, the reef a long way down, and the guide kept swimming off. Not a good trip and we soon gave up fighting the current and drifted back to the boat.

Mette still wanted to do the Discover Scuba course, so the next day she was in the pool practising some of the skills and learning a few of the basics. The next day it was time for the real thing. Line and Randi went snorkelling again whilst me and Mette headed out to the reefs again. On the two dives we sore quite a lot, a sunken boat, 7 white tip reef shark, rays and an octopus, a first for me. Soon the dives were over and it was time to head and pick up Line and Randi and then head back to the shore.

Monteverda and Santa Elena, 17/08/11

A bit like the Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia, but less Land Rovers and strawberries & Cream Teas.

The bus from Playa Del Coco took us back to Liberia, from there we caught another bus south where we were dropped off at a road junction that was to take us up to Monteverda. A taxi driver told us that the next bus was 5 hours away, but he could take us up the mountain for US$50. That sounded a lot and so we asked around at the petrol station but didn’t get much luck there. In the end we gave up and took the taxi ride to the top. It was a nice taxi, a Toyota Land Cruiser, and it was a good hours drive to the top. Once there we were dropped at a hostel of the taxi driver’s suggestion, and it seemed to be ok so we stayed.

The locals up here don’t want the road to be paved all the way to the top as the development and extra tourists would ruin the area. The areas up her were started by local Costa Ricans in one area and next door, Quakers started the other area. The Quakers moved up here from the US after refusing to go to war in Korea. 4 of them were jailed, and when released moved here with 50 others to start dairy farms, a cheese factories and bakeries. After that somebody from National Geographic arrived, reported that it was the place to go in Costa Rica, because of the bird life and cloud forests, and then the tourists came. Its high up the temperature is a lot more welcoming than that of the valley floor. It never falls below 9c.

We decided to go for a walk by ourselves and got some advice from a local tour guide that was going to take us for a night tour that evening. It was a short walk but the track to the TV masts at the top was steep, in 3km it went up 300m, but the view from the top was amazing, looking over unbroken jungle for as far as the eye could see. After a while enjoying the view it was time to head back down again and to get ready for the night tour.

The guide met us at the hostel and took us a little way out of town to a nature reserve where he had seen some interesting animals the night before, unfortunately what he was looking for wasn’t there that night, but there was a sloth. It was difficult to see, we shone torches up in the trees and a laser, and looking through binoculars, the only way you could tell that it was a sloth, as the guide had told us it was, was that the area of something was too big to be tree trunk that high up, it looked fairly furry-ish, but it was dusk, and some off the party, no matter how much they looked couldn’t see, or imagine that it was a sloth. After that the guide took us further out of town towards some dairy farms, we walked along the track and it wasn’t long before we came across tarantulas hiding in there holes in the banks of the road, of simply sat there in the middle of the road, we almost stepped on them. In the hollow of a tree there was a sleeping bird and in the far off trees, fireflies were darting about. We headed back to the tree with the sloth in it, hoping it had changed position so we could see it a little clearer, but it hadn’t. A little further down the path there was a greenhouse and in there were more tarantulas sitting on the plant pots. On the way back to the truck, Line spotted an ‘eye lash pit viper’, which the guide was very excited about. He told us we would be dead within minuets if it bit us, we were only a meter or so from it. It probably wasn’t the best trip to be on for people who didn’t like spiders or snakes, of which we had two. On the way back into town and the end of the trip we sore an armadillo crossing the road in front of us.

Mette, Line and me had booked on to a Canopy tour, whilst Randi had booked on to a coffee plantation tour. The coach picked us up the next morning to head out to the forest where the zip lines were. This is the place that started the craze off, now they are everywhere in Central America. Basically there are platforms in the trees with wires connecting them. You hook on to the lines and fly down them, the only way to stop yourself is to use a heavy thick glove which you pull down on the wire to slow yourself. It’s a bit of a bodge job, but so far they haven’t lost any body. The highlights of the trip, apart from the 14 platforms and 11 zip lines, was a rappel, an 800m zip line.

(This was the only thing that had a braking system of any kind, a complicated series of pulleys. It needed to have, because as you came out of the valley and sun light the wire followed a narrowing dark tunnel. When your eyes had adjusted to the lack of light all you could see was a group of people and a large tree in the way. As you were strung up like superman, there was no way of slowing yourself down, and a few meters from the end you were really starting to wonder what was going to stop you or at least slow you down.)

The last thing was a giant swing; it was about 90m up, free fall to begin with followed by a huge swing. We all did it which I was very impressed with.

Alajuela 20/08/11

A Costa Rican town that feels like you are in Europe.

Alajuela is a modern city with modern shops on every street corner. It’s very easy to think that you are in some European city. The Cathedral was rebuilt 20years ago after an earthquake damaged the old one. On the ceiling were amazing murals depicting scenes of Christ.

We caught a taxi the next morning to the top of Volcan Poas, an active volcano that had sulphur steam coming from the crater below. It had been fairly explosive in recent years but on that day was just bubbling. After a few hours walking around a second crater and cloud forest watching humming birds and friendly squirrels, we headed back to the information centre and had lunch before the bus back to Town. The guide book said not to take a tour to the top which was good advice. Tours were US$50pp, but we got a taxi to the top for 30 and the entry fee was only 10 pp. The crater was only 200m from the visitor centre, so it was a good saving.

The hostel on Alajuela was owned by an artist, with an interesting interpretive idea of art, some of his pictures were ok, but most were, different. The painting on the wall of the hostel kitchen of the last supper was very….. contemporary.

San Jose & Turrialba 22/08/2011

Capital of Costa Rica and Paddling Hub.

From Alajuela we took one of the many buses that go to San Jose. The two cities seem to have grown together, so at the bus station there is a queue of people, the bus pulls up to the front of the queue and the next fifty people get on, no overcrowding, and very efficient, every 10mins they did the trip. We got to the bus station in San Jose and started the walk to the hostel, where Mette and Randi were first booked in when they got to Costa Rica. It was a long walk through the city, but it’s the most modern city that we have seen in 8weeks. We eventually got the hostel and from the outside, if you didn’t notice the hostel sign, it looked like an abandoned house; there were big security gates around the entrance, with a guard to let you in. On the other side was a traveller’s paradise, tour centre, TV room, café, internet, sports bar, and roof top pool. That night was Line’s pre-birthday birthday, where we had the hostels world famous burgers, presents and a cake with candles.

Early the next morning it was time for Mette and Randi to leave us heading back home for Europe and DK. Their shuttle was at 4.40am, and I left at the same time to walk across the city to find a bus to take me to Turrialba, paddling capital of Costa Rica, to paddle the Pacuare River, leaving Line to find coffee and books for the day.

It was a long 2hour ride to the paddling and rafting town. Once there I contacted the raft company who came to pick me up, then it took a bit of convincing that I was up to the challenge of paddling the river, they were worried about taking people who said they could paddle and then having to abandon expensive boats half way down a river and get the paddler on the raft. Finally they gave in.

Once we had picked up the other rafters on the trip, it was a 45min drive to the put in, down a very steep track through dense rainforest to the start of the river. We unloaded the kit and the rafting groups started their safety talks. Once they were finished it was time to start. I stayed with the safety kayaker, who was also the camera man. It was an 18mile section with grade II and III rapids, with 5 grade IV. There was only 1 grade IV that was close to being grade IV, the rest were high grade III, but an amazing river all the same. We headed through deep impenetrable rainforest, where you really wouldn’t want to have to walk out of, if that was even possible.

Lunch was a huge buffet of rice, beans, tortillas and fresh fruit. But soon it was time to head back to the river and finish our trip. The tour bus left me at a bus station and after an hour and half of waiting finally caught a bus back to San Jose. It was a 2hr ride back to the city, and I was sat next to a young Costa Rican who was studying English so I gave him a hand with his homework, and chatted a while.
Eventually we made it back to San Jose after a long day, but well worth the early start.