Viaje grande de Lesa y Gianni

Monkeys or cakes

2010-10-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

Due to start my cake course on 1st October I had a few weeks to spare. And all I could think about was the monkeys. And so when Vicky at La Senda Verde emailed me and said they were desperately in need of volunteers I booked my flights within an hour!

The journey was long. Three flights and about 24 hours long. In fact longer than that, as I managed to miss my connection in Miami due to rain and a five hour delay. But this meant a day in Miami with Gio's brother and family so it turned out pretty nicely.

Next day I landed in La Paz and started my return journey to La Senda Verde in the 'Las Yungas' valleys. The landscape on the journey was more beautiful than I remembered, and when I finally crossed the bridge to the refuge the beauty, and the excitement of being back were both overwhelming.

The view from the minivan out of La Paz.

The next day a group of school children arrived for a two night camping trip. All of their luggage proved to be just too tempting for Wara who was in heaven searching their luggage.

Then a couple of days later I was enlisted to babysit. Not the kids, a monkey! I had to babysit the new red howler monkey, Lokoto (3 months old) for the night. He spent the majority of it asleep in my tshirt! Not your everday task!

Oh the adorable Lokoto. Although try getting a monkeys tail in to a nappy when he doesn't want it!

Baby Chocolate - one of the newest spider monkeys. A very shy little monkey who every new and then would love to hang from the trees and pull your hair!

Me, Sambo, and Camelo - everyone seems to want my water container!

Nina (the spider monkey) says hello to the new Lion monkey - yes very small for a lion...

One of the many lovely cuddles from Nina - and one of the many reasons I will be back!

Marcelo - as always covered in monkeys. A true inspiration.

Vicky - even more of an inspiration, running the refuge, the hotel, charity work and teaching. Every animal from the monkeys and her beloved bear to the tortoises are treated like her children.

Lunch for the baby capuchin monkeys - on my lap, in my hair - over my face...

Mmmmmm pineapple, I got a little jealous of the monkey's diet after a while!

Wara found her way in to my bed at 5am - apparently I had a warm foot. I couldn't complain - it's not often you get a monkey stealing your covers. Unless you count Gio...

The usual suspects waiting outside of my room, Limon and Jimmy (the squirrel monkey)

Elvis - looking cute but actually nibbling my hand!

Oh the cuddles with Trufa (baby spider monkey)

The adorable Limon and Borris in their usual spot on my bedroom floor.

Mr Biggles - my first encounter with a hiccuping bird. He liked to crawl up the back of your chair at breakfast and then sit on your shoulder waiting for his breakfast. Every time that first hiccup would make me jump!

Kantuta the Coati, making herself comfy. In fact at one point she was so heavily asleep she dribbled!

Frijole, posing.

New addition, Sam the Toucan, giving me the eye

Wara - just double checking the doors, as always. She wants to be inside and causing trouble at all times!

The birds still preferred walking to flying! Lots of time is spent trying to look after the birds, especially the ones still in cages - any ideas for entertainment will be appreciated. My next plan is to send them mirrors! Vicky is hoping to buy them a radio too!

The view out of the window of the taxi on my way back to La Paz - typical beautiful Bolivian countryside. I am sure I will be back. I don't know how or when. In the mean time I plan to help from afar be it trying to raise funds to help this amazing cause or sending anything out that might help. But for now it's cakes and not monkeys until I find a way of combining the two for a job!!

And all of a sudden...

2010-08-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

...it was all over.

Gio and I booked our trip around South America July 30th 2009 and as you can only book tickets a year in advance our return flights were booked for a year later. The plan was to move them. But we never did for one reason or another. Indecision of course being a large one!
And so, all of a sudden, we had just two days left before it was home time.

We used our time to take in some more of the fantastics sights in BA, including the MALBA (museum of Latin American modern art) which was great. We also enjoyed meandering around the Palermo neighbourhood shopping till we dropped. Oh and, of course, we went out for a couple of last minute absolutely delicious steaks.

With the clock ticking we started to reminisce about our 10.something months away. Things we had achieved and favourite moments.

We have slept in 76 different beds. Only 2 of those would make you question our sanity!

Two of the worst offenders:

Volunteering in Ecuador

Deepest, coldest Bolivia

We have been on 53 bus journeys. Having completed almost all of our travel by bus (plus one best forgotten boat to Colombia, flights to Galapagos and the sail boat whilst there)

We travelled approx. 11249 Kms through central and south america.

We enjoyed the sights of 8 different countries (okay Brazil was just one big watery sight), and of course enjoyed many many many cakes in each one.
Best cakes:

Gio's triple layer dulce de leche cake

And then there are the favourite moments:

A breathtaking walk in Galapagos

Amazing animal moments - too many to list but here are a few:

The sealions on Galapagos

Feeding the calves in Ecuador - and them crazily sucking my wellies for milk!!

The ubiquitous llama (or Alpaca)

Oh and those monkey moments!!

...and the whales of course, oh the amazing whales.

In Colombia our time with the kids, especially Vanessa showing us her tiny home with a great big smile:

The amazing beaches along the way

Panama - Bocas del Toro, Wizard beach

Galapagos

Some amazing food:

Yummy piggy in the market in Cuenca, Ecuador

the delicioius Tamales in an amazing setting in Bolivia

of course the steak.....

There were some less appealing meals of course - our first arepa in Colombia:

Coffee in Colombia

And finally, the mind blowing South Bolivia landscapes

What next? Watch this space......

Water, water all around....

2010-08-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Our final sightseeing excursion for Argentina was up to Puerto Iguazu and the very famous water falls. Apparently when Eleanor Roosevelt saw Iguazu she exclaimed oh "Poor Nigara"! Although we had not seen Niagra falls we had certainly heard of them and yet somehow before embarking on this trip we hadn't had heard anything of the phenomenon that is the Iguazu Falls. However throughout the whole of south america fellow travellers had all said the same - amazing - and so we headed off on a nice little 17 hour bus journey to see for ourselves.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get seats on super duper first class for this mega journey, but we went for the next best thing. Which apparently in this bus companies eyes meant booze! Whisky before dinner, wine and beer during dinner and 'champagne' afterwards! The journey went by surprisingly quickly! But we decided perhaps we needed a day or two with a little less drink, especially when we arrived bright and not very sparkly Sunday morning.

After a quick freshen up we headed out for the first view of the falls. Iguazu falls border Brazil and Argentina and so you can 'pop' across to Brazil for the afternoon to see the falls from their side. We felt like fish out of water in Brazil, suddenly we couldn't understand the language!

Our first view of the falls in Brazil

Getting a bit soggy when you get closer

The falls are epic - 2.7 kilometers across!
The falls were indeed amazing, absolutley huge and very loud. But it wasn't until we visited them the next day from Argentina that we really were blown away.

Definitely worth the long, long journey. We had never seen anything like them before in our lives.

The amazing birdlife around the falls

On the journey to the falls the changing colours of the landscape were amazing. Lush greens to bright reds:

We managed to get a last minute monkey fix at a local refuge!

From wine to water

2010-08-12T02:37:00.000-07:00

The beautiful old town in BA

Back in BA with mum we ate, drank, ate, drank.....mmm what else?! We wandered around the city (for typical BA sights see photos at bottom), visited a museum, shops and the cemetery. Sounds a little dark and random? This cemetery was amazing. Unlike the UK where we bury our dead out of sight and generally with modest headstones this was a city of tombs. We had never seen anything like it. You could have wondered around for days. It was pretty sombering to see people's coffins but a fascinating insight in to how death is dealt with in another country.

The beloved Eva Peron is buried here, (for those of you not up on Argentine history, or Madonna's film biography, Eva Peron was the wife of the Argentine president in the late 40s early 50s, and very much a heroine here in BA). There was a constant queue of people to see where she is buried, well not buried I guess - laid to rest.

Mum and I joining the Evita fans
For our last night in BA with mum we ventured around the corner to an amazing little music venue and watched a young and very cool jazz band and then a Tango singer, oh and there was some eating and drinking of course!

We said farewells to mum and then had to roll out of the airport - let the diet begin!! Next stop after all that wine was Iguazu and a whole lot of water.

The amazing mix of old and new buildings throughout BA - here literally on top of each other

Tango in the street - actually Tango everywhere in BA

Ah the dog walkers. The record number of dogs we saw with one walker was 17! Sadly they don't clear up after themselves so it can be hazardous following one of these guys, and they are everywhere! Amazing.

Mmmm Mendoza

2010-08-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

Ruca Malen vineyard and the Andes
Next stop with mum was Mendoza and the start of a wine soaked few days. Starting well on the bus which provided wine and champagne to make the journey pass easier - that, a steward, hot meals, and fully reclining seats seemed very far from backpacking! Mendoza was beautiful. We spent one day travelling around local vineyards, olive oil and liquor factories sampling, of course, plenty of the local fair. Argentine wine seems to be overshadowed by Chilean wine everywhere else in the world which is strange as it is SO delicious here, we are starting to worry we wont be able to find it anywhere else!

Watching the bottling process

The tasting process...
A delicious day which merged in to a delicious meal and much more wine in the evening. Mmmm backpacking what was that again?!

Wine selection at lunch, a serious business!
Our second full day was spent at lunch! The Ruca Malen vineyard for a tour and then a five course lunch with amazing wine pairings, oh and a magnificent view of the Andes in the background. Wow.

Mmmm not ALL my glasses...honest

Wine glorious wine
Just in case we weren't quite full to busting we headed back in to town and had a little wine ice cream. Okay that was a little strange (and it was my turn to try the strange stuff) Gio and mum went for the 'super-dulce-de-leche' a very delicious option.

Wine again or the real Argentine favourite - Dulce de leche

Mum and I starting the week as we meant to go on

A 'submarino' breakfast seemed a little early for wine..

Another tough evening backpacking....

The big BA

2010-08-06T01:19:00.001-07:00

BA steak in style

Well Buenos Aires has had quite a build up. Not only has it been on the travel wish list for a long long time, all the way through our journey we were told how amazing it was.
Our bus journey from Puerto Madryn was one of the longest and the worst so far - so we were all the more glad to arrive in BA and to find, on first sight, it looked worth the wait!
Our first night was a hive of activity, whilst avoiding Gio seeing the England footie scores we ran round trying to sort out an apartment, and got back to the hostel for the replays. We somehow got very lucky and found an amazing apartment in the San Telmo area of the city.

Living in style in BA
Once settled in, I signed up for a couple of weeks of Spanish school once more and we pretended for a few weeks that we too were citizens of this very cool city.

Beautiful old buildings, San Telmo

Week three bought some very very cold weather and my mum! It was wonderful to see a familiar face after such a long time. We had to feel sorry for mum joining our slightly bonkers twosome - ten months in each others pockets does something funny to the brain! But she seemed to survive and better still enjoy her week playing backpacker with us. Well I say backpacker to be fair there really wasn't any roughing it!

We took in the sights of BA (as much as is possible in minus temperatures). Gio at the best steak of his life, (twice in fact, we had to go back as he loved it so much).

Gio happy with his favourite steak

We took the train out to Tigre, a lovely suburb of BA that is mostly water based. The houses are spread across the Delta and you take boat 'buses' or your own boat to get around. The houses were gorgeous. We were jealous.

bus journeys in Tigre

The little 'streets' along the delta in Tigre

Waiting at the bus stop

Birthday celebrations in the big BA:

Mmmmm cake

Whale size dreams

2010-07-28T16:52:00.001-07:00

When we finally dragged ourselves away from Bariloche's comfort - and gave up on the wait for enough snow for Gio to ski - and headed for the Atlantic coast. Puerto Pirimides was our next destination and for a very specific reason. Whale watching.

Gio and I managed to fulfill a long time dream and see Southern Right Whales close up. In fact they were such curious creatures that one even came up to the boat and repeatedly lifted himself out to look at us!! A M A Z I N G.

There are no more words (nor any more photos!) to describe the experience.

A is for Argentina

2010-07-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

Bariloche is Chocolate!

...B is for Bariloche and C is for chocolate!

The border crossing between Chile and Argentina was both straightforward and very beautiful. Having completed formalities in Chile the bus took us through the Andes which were snow covered and glorious. Everyone had their noses pressed against the windows looking at all the snow and lovely mountains.

Bariloche, and Argentina lived up to our expectations immediately! We found a lovely hostel and our room was like a cosy log cabin which was lucky as it was absolutely freezing outside. We were quick to indulge in our first 'parilla' - Argentine grill and it was amazing. Lots and lots of meat, fresh off of the grill. Lots of it! Bariloche also provided us with a big choice of chocolate shops. We quickly picked a favourite, which also had a beautiful patisserie section and made sure we took full advantage of it - you never know when you will come across something so delicious again!

Our favourite chocolate & patisserie shop

After a couple of days of indulgence we realised we should perhaps do something more than hide out in the warm hostel so we hired a couple of bikes. Not put off by being told we had picked the coldest day of the year, we tucked our woolly hats under our bike helmets and off we went. Despite the fact it started snowing part way through we had a fun afternoon, cold, very cold but fun!

Sausage sandwich and a stunning view....thank you very much!

One of the bike pit stops

Pucon and Chiloe

2010-07-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Villarrica volcano, Pucon

Next stop south was Pucon, again a long old ride with many miles covered – such is the way with Chile as it is so darn long! As we arrived at night it was only the next morning when Gio draw back the curtains that we fully appreciated why people come to Pucon. The Villarica volcano was a glorious sight. The volcano is active enough and close enough to the town that they have a daily alarm test and a traffic light system to warn residents of the level of activity. Thankful of some sunshine we hired bikes and enjoyed the absolutely glorious scenery around Pucon.

The flat before the big crazy hills (where I may have to admit to getting off and pushing a little bit)

On the way home we stopped off at the supermarket for treats and some more Underraga wine to quickly reload any calories burnt by our afternoon’s activity!

Crossing the bridge on our bikes

After much indecision due to the weather we decided to chance a visit to Chiloe next. Chiloe is a lovely island off of the Chilean coast, the rain managed to hold off but the grey clouds and rolling hills definitely reminded us of the UK and made us crave a hot destination! The ferry ride over was fun, we saw penguins, pelicans and sealions swimming alongside us. And on the island we had fun exploring, two aborted attempts to reach the pacific coast as our little Corsa didn’t seem to like our off road driving routes!

We managed to make it across once and even then had an aborted attempt to walk to the ocean when we found ourselves in water up to the ankles! We did finally make it to the beach and the dramatic waves rolling in – but not for very long as by then it was early evening and blooming freezing.

Our last meal in Chiloe had to be a local speciality - curanto. Acutally I made Gio order it in case it didn´t work out! My mistake! Sadly we do not have a photo to show but it was amazing. He had the biggest mountain of shellfish, mussels that were the size of my palm - never seen them so big before. And on top of the lovely pile of steaming shellfish a giant sausage!

Chiloe, as with a lot of Chile will go on the list of places to come back to in their summer as the scenery is so beautiful but just not accessible at this time of year. And so we decided it was time for Argentina. Bring on the steaks!

Stilted houses, Chiloe

One of the many many wooden churches, Chiloe

The lilac and yellow wooden church of the capital of Chiloe

The wonderful and moody Pacific

Vino

2010-06-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

A drop of the good stuff

From Valparaiso next stop was Santiago. Not the most exciting capital city we have ever visited, but pretty nice for a mooch around, shopping, parks and eating of course. I had some really great Sushi – first Japanese restaurant of the trip and it was very welcomed. And we ventured out of town a couple of times. Once to a giant shopping centre - with a Top Shop, happy days! Second outing was via a local bus to the Maipu Valley and the Undurraga vineyard for our first wine tour of the trip. No, one is not enough! Especially when a fellow wine lover (my mum) is due to visit! We drank some truly delicious wine and learnt a lot about the process, the history of the vineyard and the amount of damage this year’s 8.8 earthquake caused. Three containers holding over 100,000 litres of wine each broke and flooded the vineyard – an almost incomprehensible amount of wine.

Mmm what else? We also managed to meet up for dinner with Carlos one of the lovely Chilean’s we had met on our way to Chile from Bolivia. It was very interesting hearing about what Santiago was like to live under Pinochet’s dictatorship and how Chile is now. And we drank more wine, of course. Delicious.

Santiago's skyline

Where is the sun?

2010-06-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Valparaiso Graffiti

After a couple of days in San Pedro it was time to head south and we took a fancy Chilean (i.e. not 100 year old Bolivian) bus for 12 hours to a little town called Caldera. The scenery was desert, desert, desert and not much else! But the movies were entertaining and as I had a stinking cold a comfy bus wasn’t the worse place to be dozing for the day.

The Atacama desert...boring after about a minute.

Having read in the Lonely Planet that the sun shone all year round in Bahia de Inglesa and the sand was white and water turquoise we quickly decided this was where we needed to be. We asked the driver to drop us off at the nearest town, Caldera. He checked we were sure about this about five times. And as we were left by the side of a large dusty road in the dark we started to wonder if we should have taken the hint! We trundled down the road and found a motel with some big lorries outside and tentatively asked for accommodation. Luxurious it was not, but it was relatively cheap and with pretty nice food (and the only option).

Next morning the weather didn’t look promising but we persevered and headed to Bahia. Mmmm, this weather necessitated gloves and a hat – not quite the beach wear we had imagined. Still we had a nice, quiet time there. Hired a little apartment and walked along the beach, cooked pasta and, of course, drank some good wine.

Our deserted beach at Bahia Inglesa

We gave up on any chance of getting the swim suits out and moved a little further south to a town called La Serena. Again, where is the sun?! Especially upsetting as news of scorching sun in the UK started filtering through! We layered up – something we have been getting skilled at - and headed in to the Elqui Valley for an evening. Why? To visit the famous Mamalluca Observatory. Apparently Chile is one of the few places in the world, alongside Namibia that are dry enough to give amazing views of the night sky. For this reason a lot of other countries invest heavily in the observatories there. Lucky for us.

The drive itself out to the observatory at sun set was beautiful. The valley is full of orchards and vineyards and the colours were amazing. As soon as the sun was down we realised why we had been told to wear layers. It was absolutely freezing! But the two hours we spent learning about the stars, planets and ideas for the survival of mankind were incredible. We saw Saturn – so clearly it looked like someone had just stuck a picture on a sticker over the lense of the telescope! You could see the rings around it and its moon. Apparently it is a viable option alongside Mars for humans to move to in a few million years! Mars has a couple of atmospheric issues that apparently we could solve by polluting the atmosphere to trap oxygen! All fascinating stuff from a really lovely guy who clearly new his stuff and was passionate about it.

Mamalluca Observatory

Next stop, and still hoping for a little sun, was Valparaiso. We had heard lots about the beauty of Valparaiso and it’s similarity to Venice. Having never been to Venice we couldn’t vouch for that, we doubted it was quite in the same league but it certainly had charm. First meal we headed off in search of the famous seafood, we thought we had found the place a bustling restaurant next to the local fish market. But I think we ordered badly! The local speciality is paila – turns out this is like seafood porridge. Stodge is the only word for it!

Valparaiso's cool trolley buses

Us about to enjoy one of the better meals in Valparaiso

"Once" our favorite Chilean afternoon tradition, a bit like afternoon tea with ice cream, pancakes, tea and sarnies....mm wonder why we liked it so much!

We also visited Pablo Neruda’s house (eccentric and very famous Chilean poet) which was great – fully furnished with a wonderful collection of furniture and art. We visited the outdoor art museum, we were a bit slow on the uptake to start with looking for the ‘Museo a Cielo Abierto’, which translates to ‘museum under the open sky’ and finally figuring out it was right in front of us on all of the walls that we had been walking past. You take a short walking route and the art is painted on the sides of houses, shops etc with plaques to explain it. Very cool.

Art work on the walls

More cool art work

Every wall was decorated..

Amazing graffiti again..

Our favorite Valpo Graffiti

The very colourful houses in Valparaiso

From one extreme to another...

2010-06-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

San Pedro De Atacama's inglesia

Our journey to Chile was almost as scenic and adventurous as our tour of southern Bolivia! In order to avoid a several day long bus journey we opted for another jeep ride. This jeep left Uyuni at 6pm and was due to arrive in San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile lunch time the next day. The journey didn’t get off to a flying start due to a flat tyre in the middle of the desert, at night! We stopped at a very very basic ‘hostal’ and had fried egg and rice for dinner – one of the least imaginative meals we’ve had in Bolivia, maybe not the least nutritious though. We shared our meal with several Chilieans and that proved to be a real pleasure. They were all absolutely lovely and keen to give us lots of information about their country and their contact details should we need anything else.

After filling our guidebooks with notes we all hit the sack, for about four hours – alarms went at 3.30am! Not the earliest start of the trip but certainly one of the coldest. We were straight back on the ‘road’ (read rough track in the pitch black). Then the snow started, then the insides of the windows froze. It was actually quite fun but fairly long – four or so hours later we arrived at a little pit stop next to a lake, lit a fire and phoned ahead to the frontera (border) to check the weather. Whereupon we were informed that they weren’t sure if they could open the border due to the weather and there was a real danger of us staying in the middle of nowhere with no food for the rest of the day/night! Oh dear. We started wondering which pieces of furniture we could burn. Turns out it was a false alarm, the sun came out and off we went. The border crossing was fairly informal at the Bolivia side, a quick passport stamp and then a bus to a tarmac road – wooohooo – off to Chile.

The frozen window of our jeep

The x-ray machines at the customs office were the first indication that we were now in a far more advanced country! San Pedro de Atacama turned out to be a lovely, if somewhat expensive, town in the Atacama desert (driest place in the world). With dusty streets and a remote location it was a surprise to discover this is a major tourist destination in Chile and there were plenty of restaurants and bars to show for it. A lovely surprise when compared to our fried egg dinner for our last night in Chile, but our budget was going to need to be revised!

Although still very cold at night, San Pedro was lovely and sunny during the day and that combined with the food, and great wine (right at the top of our list of course) meant Chile immediately felt like an extremely different destination to Bolivia. We had inadvertently chosen to travel from the poorest to the richest country in South America. Monkeys it may not have, but Chile promised to deliver a whole new adventure.

San Pedro's impressive backdrop

Mind blowing!

2010-06-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Lonely Planet guide book's favourite superlative is 'mind blowing' which makes us chuckle. But when it came to the very south of Bolivia we just couldn't stop the words 'mind blowing' from popping out of our mouths! Literally every five minutes!

That and "it's sodding freezing!"

To travel across the south of Bolivia you hire a jeep (or buy seats in a jeep) that comes with a driver and a cook. We shared our jeep with the lovely Simone from Derby, and Andrea from Bergamo (northern Italy). They made for the perfect travel companions, not least because of Andrea's entertaining English, our entertaining Spanish, and Simone's supply of chocolate, biscuits, rum and enthusiasm!

Scenery on the first stop

Lots of huge open spaces with Llamas before we got too high for anything living

The journey was bumpy. I am not sure that covers it actually! No roads - and some very skilled driving across constantly changing and challenging landscape.

Around geysers at 5000 meters

We went from 3000 to 5000 meters and down again, across rivers, ice, dried up lakes and over small mountains.

Each lake we visited was a different colour due to the different mineral contents, the scenery constantly changed and amazed us.

Beautiful lakes

Stunning flamingos

And the ubiquitous llamas

The accommodation for each night was basic. Basic was fine, but it was also absolutely freezing! No heating, no insulation, one night no window and minus temperatures! We slept fully dressed, including thermals and hats, under as many layers as we could find. The warmest night was the last night where the entire hotel was made of salt - the floor, bed, walls, tables, chairs - everything!

Three days later we arrived at the Salar de Uyuni, the famous salt flats. Twelve thousand square kilometers of salt, at an altitude of 3600 meters. Once upon a time the entire area was ocean, but a volcanic eruption (and the subsequent lava flow) trapped a section of the ocean between the Andes and the lava. The heat eventually caused the ocean to evaporate and just leave salt behind. The sight is phenomenal. You have to constantly remind yourself that you aren't looking at snow! We got up at five am (pretty much the norm on this trip) and were on the salt flats in time to watch the sunrise - the change in colours was amazing.

Taking a million photos before sunrise

Me flying

After breakfast at an 'island' in the salt flats - a beautiful place covered in Cacti that were 500 to 1000 years old, we headed to the middle of the flats for the traditional silly photo taking session.

On the way to our final stop Uyuni we stopped at the train cemetery. Train lovers (i.e. Dad and Richard) may want to avert their eyes now! Lots of dead trains.

And so, having started our almost 1000 kilometer journey four days before, we arrived at Uyuni. Totally exhausted, rather dirty, and pretty much in the same clothes (it had been too cold to ever take anything off)!

Our lovely tour companions

A small community in the middle of nowhere, snowy, windy and dependent on Llamas

A Tamale, delicious hot snack. Well it wouldn't be the same without at least one food mention!

Some of my favourite scenery, just a bit inhospitable

Yet another beautiful lake

The rock formations created by volcanic eruptions

Our one opportunity to get clean!

From bikes to horses

2010-06-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Whilst I was in monkey heaven Gio decided to finally get some mountain biking done. we have been trying to organise biking throughout three different countries and up until Bolivia it hadn't panned out. It was a little more hard core than Gio anticipated... he fell of three times (from his downhill Kona), once in to a stream! Twice over the handlebars - but luckily not down the giant drop on the side of the tracks...

Mountain biking with actual mountains!

He survived...

The impressive scenery along the way.

The kamikaze guide

Sadly we finally left La Senda Verde. We enjoyed a night at the nearest town, home of the best restaurant in Bolivia (not a very hard title to win) - a very unassuming outdoor place that served great French food.

Next stop was La Paz once more, for some last minute shopping and then it was time to really get moving through Bolivia. The next journey was a 12 hour night bus to Sucre. A lovely city which made you forget you were in Bolivia - simply because it was so affluent. Sucre was once the capital of Bolivia and has held on to the judicial system and the cash!

We liked Sucre a lot, lovely to wonder around, a great central market and a couple of great chocolate shops...yes a bit of a theme there! We were, however, very lazy whilst there and spent a lot of time not doing much. We blame the 20 year old from Belgium who took us out on our first night in Sucre. We ended up at a local gig, sound good? Well it was entertaining but the band only did Metallica covers - so not quite the local music we had in mind, still, it was a night to recover from.

Next stop was Potosi, just for an overnight stay - which turned out to be a shame as it was a lovely town. We had a delicious meal in a local pub with an open fire, it's pretty blooming cold at night as Potosi is at 4070 meters.

Next day we were back at the bus station bright and early to continue our journey through Bolivia to a little cowboy town called Tupiza. Tupiza is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid reportedly ended their days. The route between Potosi and Tupiza took about 7 hours, about 6 of those were off roading! Quite an impressive feat for a double decker coach! Sitting right at the front we couldn't believe our eyes as the driver went through small rivers and across the countryside. Needless to say it was a long and bumpy ride - during which we were holding our breath most of the time!

When we arrived in Tupiza it was like a ghost town with dust blowing through the streets. Eventually we found a little hostal, with lovely cactus wood furniture, and slept, a lot (must have been coming down from the adrenalin fuelled bus journey).

The scenery around Tupiza

It wouldn't have been right to visit somewhere like Tupiza without getting on the back of a horse. So for a few hours, one windy afternoon, we did just that. Not the most comfortable afternoon but he scenery was amazing and my horse was lovely!

I even had my own cowboy hat for the afternoon

For some reason Gio couldn't find one to fit!

From Tupiza we organised our visit to the Salt Flats - one of the big sights to see in Bolivia. What we hadn't realised was that the scenery before you even get close to the salt flats, on the journey from Tupiza, would be the most amazing scenery we had ever seen (next issue!).

La Senda Verde

2010-05-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Nina

Oh where to start?

My third volunteering stint was at an amazing animal refuge called La Senda Verde ('the green path') in Las Yungas - the subtropical valleys a couple of hours north east of La Paz. I spent just over two weeks here and fulfilled a long time dream - to meet the monkeys! The work involved food preparation, cleaning and socialising with all the birds and animals! Plus giving speeches to, and supervising tourists – this task was usually made more interesting by monkeys jumping on you, tourists or their beers part way through.

The refuge housed over 200 birds and animals, from an Andean Spectacled bear to an Amazonian black Cayman!

Aruma the Andean Spectacled Bear

To feed Aruma, and clear out his eating area, one volunteer had to distract him with peanuts whilst the other ran around like a mad thing. On the one occasion something spooked him and he came back down to the feeding area early we all panicked but he ignored Vicky and just went on sniffing his food and organising it. He licked to sort it in to favourite food last!

The Bolivian owners, Marcelo and Vicky, had originally wanted to set up an Eco-hotel and the refuge side of it only started when locals told Marcelo of a monkey that a truck driver had and was taking in to La Paz to sell. Marcelo is such an animal lover he intercepted and rescued the monkey from the driver, since then his reputation as an animal lover grew and more local people came forward to get his help. Now a large organisation (animal SOS), based in La Paz rescue animals and send them out to Marcelo. The government do the same – hence 85 baby turtles arrived on his doorstep, but with no funding – so until their new enclosure is built they are in his bathroom!

Marcelo and his children..

2 of the 85 new arrivals

There were two Koatis (animals from the racoon family)

Gio and Kantuka.

Koatis are generally not a'friendly' species but Kantuka seemed to think she was a cat.

On the subject of cats, there was also the beautiful Sasha - a tree Ocelot.

Dinner time for Sasha

There are a lot of very beautiful birds, some missing a lot of feathers due to stress, but all with great characters.

Pygmy owls

A once stressed bird

..and 5 species of monkey. All of whom had been rescued from the black market, abusive homes, or were unwanted pets.

The 5 species of monkey were as follows:

1. Two squirrel monkeys - Jimmy and Elvis.

Elvis was the pesky one who loved to nibble, especially on fingers or chins! A bit of a surprise if you didn't know him:

Aaron and Elvis

Jimmy seemed to think he was a golden retriever, luckily the two retrievers he hung out with were very patient!

2. Canelo ('cinnamon') the only howler monkey - always with such a sad face! He had been unwell for a few weeks and so was being spoiled both by Marcelo and Vicky (the owners of the refuge) and by Nina (the adorable spider monkey).

3. Two Owl monkeys. Despite appearances these were not the friendliest of monkeys. Owl monkeys are very territorial and I now have a small scar on my neck to prove it!

Actually come to think of it he isn't looking too friendly in this photo!

4. About 15 Capuchin monkeys.

These are smartest of all monkeys and you very quickly saw that in action.

Kimbo, the big baby of the family. He liked to such his thumb, especially if he was cosy down your top! Not as enjoyable when he was wet!

Nikita who seemed to genuinely try to have a conversation with you - despite the fact you clearly had no idea what she was saying. Although Gio did have a good go at answering back.

Nikita, ready to tell you all about it...

Both Kimbo and Nikita liked to share their food, mostly when they were snacking on leaves - they would chew a little bit and then offer them to you. Like you might do when a child does this, I would smile and pretend to chew a bit. Not impressed they simply separated my lips with their hands and stuffed the leaf in my mouth and held my lips shut!! Once satisfied I had chewed then the leaf would be rescued from my mouth to be finished off properly....yummmmm!

Go on! It's delicious....

Kimbo had a knack for getting so buried in your clothing you couldn't ever put him down.

Whilst I was at La Senda Verde Lenteja ('Lentil') arrived - the youngest of the capuchins at 4 months old. Very cute, liked to jump from head to head just when you least expected it.

5. And then there were the spider monkeys.....

Sambo - the alpha male, very much the boss, despite being relatively young and

occasionally throwing tantrums!

Cacao - very much the teenage boy! Lots of noise and fuss, especially around males. Except for with Gio, who he went to to be held. Always making Gio a bit nervous as it was often just after he'd poo'd on someone with all the excitement!

Maruka - at 16 years old, the matriarch of the family. But she had been very badly abused before arriving at the centre. With a broken jaw and a lot of internal damage Maruka was understandably very weary of humans and stayed clear.

Maruka enjoying her porridge

Except for one early morning when Wara woke me trying to get in my room, I sat outside and held Wara, Sambo decided to join us (a bit tricky when 10kg of monkey sit's on your knees) and then Maruka appeared and wrapped herself around my feet. A very unique and heart-swelling start to my day.

Me in my pyjamas overloaded with monkeys

Wara (Aymara for 'Star'). Not sure how to describe Wara. She has to be one of my favourites. Full of character.

Loved to pose by the river or pool - not one for the traditional curled up monkey pose:

Wara by the river

Wara by the pool

She loves to get in to anywhere she shouldn't, and once in had to have a souvenir or a drink. She was would watch in the mornings for people going to the toilet (outside buildings) and know their door would be unlocked and in she'd go! Or the bar, much time was spent chasing Wara around the bar whilst she jumped from table to table - or the rather tricky time when she landed herself on a tray of beers! She was in heaven drinking as much as possible whilst we tried not to drop the tray! But best of all was early morning, when she would bang on the door and the moment it was open, jump on you for a cuddle. My pyjamas would be covered in muddy monkey prints but it was always a blissful start to the day.

Let me in please!

Go on!!

Nina (Aymara for 'fire'). Another real favourite of mine. Oh the cuddles from Nina! Plus spider monkeys have a very unique smell, they have a gland on their chest that releases a type of oil they rub on themselves. I loved this smell. Gio thought I had lost my marbles completely when I first told him about it. But then we talked to Marcelo and discovered this unique gland. I spent many hours sitting holding Nina and marveling at my luck.

Nina showing off her amazing tail

Nina and I hanging out by the river

Pimienta and Trufa were the babies of the spider troop. Generally not interested in us humans, but occasionally joining the others for a cuddle.

Trufa

As you can imagine choosing photos for this blog was hard to do – so be warned there are quite a few here...

One of our jobs was to clean up after the monkeys had eaten, but a few of them - like Naranja above, felt they could do a better job and would steal the brush and keep it for hours!

Canelo feeling a little more content with life

What else can we fit in there?

Is there something in there for me?

I knew there was!

A fella with attitude that preferred walking to flying..

Chewing the fat (well fruit)

My 5am start with Wara

I want fanta!!

Aaron playing catch with Nico

Please let us in!

The lake and La Paz

2010-05-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

big skies in Bolivia

Despite the rocky start once Gio was back with the land of the living we ventured on to a boat across Lake Titicaca to Isla del Sol for an afternoon. The island and the surrounding views were so amazing we were really sad that we felt we didn't have time to stay on the island itself for a few days.

The Lake is beautiful with views of snow capped mountains and big open skies.

Unfortunately following our afternoon on Isla del Sol it was time to leave the lake the next morning. The drive to La Paz turned out to be fun and filled with amazing views. The fun bit was crossing the lake by boat - we were convinced the bus wasn't going to make it.

La Paz, the highest capital in the world, was much more gentle on us than we expected, especially considering it is 4058 meters (13313 feet) above sea level.

amazing La Paz skyline

Of course we reverted to being the two old grannies clambering up the hills (of which there were a lot), but the hotel we stayed in was pretty nice and the city itself was busy busy but nothing we hadn't seen before. Oh, that is except for the traffic zebras.

La Paz's traffic zebras are young people, who dressed as zebras control La Paz's crazy traffic. The program started in 2001 to control traffic in a friendly manner rather than with tickets etc. The zebras are 'high-risk youths' - 15 to 22 year olds - who earn 400 Bolivianos monthly, $60 ish (for a 20 hr week), plus health insurance. (Minimum wage for full time work in Bovlivia is 650 Bolivianos, $90). They even do little dances to entertain the traffic!

Apart from watching zebras we occupied ourselves in the usual ways - with ice cream and shopping.

There is a lovely chocolate shop in La Paz - I would have never guessed Bolivia would produce lovely chocolate! The witches market also entertained us, although it was a little gruesome - Llama foetuses are sold as good luck 'charms' and are surprisingly big. Euuggh.

witches stall....

Amazing dresses in a street dance - local festival

local women wear bowler hats once they are married

Quinoa plant - beautiful and a super food!

Bolivia Bound

2010-04-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

And today's alpaca is.....

Due to the sore legs, and continuing to hobble like a granny we stayed in Cusco to recover; mostly as we couldn’t move from our bottoms. After a few days we were back at yoga, Topitop, and in the pub and therefore diagnosed we were probably better. So, we decided to venture out and see some of the countryside under our own steam. We hired a motorbike (Suzuki, DR 650 for those interested) and off we went. Well, we got a bit lost in the one way system of Cusco first, but eventually off we went.

We had a great day, avoiding llamas (or Alpacas still not quite sure the difference) and seeing people going about their day to day lives. Including a massive celebration of the opening of a temporary bridge, and as always some amazing hats. We will never cease to be amazed by the hats and outfits that local people wear day to day – be it in town or working the fields in big skirts and heels!

We replaced our sore legs for rather sore bottoms, we managed to get lost again on our way back in to town, and stopped by the police twice! After all that we headed out for a Friday night curry. We made the fatal error of curry feast first and so the pub after was a short affair – needing to get home and nurse very full bellies!

We had planned to leave Saturday for Bolivia but didn’t quite pull our fingers out. We, instead, managed to eat burgers – Gio opting for a rather strange tasting Alpaca and Quinoa burger, and go to the pub to watch Chelsea – another mistake considering the result! We at least managed to buy our bus tickets and psyched ourselves up for a 12 hour ride to Bolivia the coming Monday.

We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4.30 (this was getting to be a habit!) and headed to the bus station. We then spent the next hour or so looking for our bus. Had anyone seen it – yes just over there, will be here soon, what a morning bus to Bolivia there is no such thing! Eventually, at about 8am the guy who sold us the ticket turned up. Apparently a problem with our bus. Mmmm. So, seeing as we were there and packed we hopped on a bus to Puno – still the Peru side of the border but close enough for now.

Turns out this wasn’t the greatest of plans, the journey was fine, long, but okay but the meal we had on arrival at Puno was bad. We thought it was bad before Gio started being sick, poor thing, after a full night of it we realised quite how bad. So it was a very fragile Gio who was led across the border to Bolivia and to the lovely little town of Copacabana on the glittering lake Titicaca.

City Life In Cusco

2010-04-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Cusco felt like a milestone. Somewhere that has been on the agenda from the start but always seemed far far away. But here we were and we really liked it. It’s a gorgeous mix of Spanish colonial style and of course original Inca walls. The only thing missing seemed to be good cake shops. Ah well you can’t have it all. We ended up staying in the city for ten days give or take, getting back in to city living as it were. With yoga classes (sadly only me, apparently Gio is stretchy enough), shopping – the delights of ‘Topitop’, and pubs, bars and restaurants.

La Compania in Cusco's main plaza, Plaza de Armas

Of course from Cusco the big trip is Macchu Picchu. The journey to Macchu Picchu was long. Two hours in a mini van and 2 hours in a train got us as far as Agua Calientes the nearest town. Where we realised we needed to be up at 4am in order to get on the first buses up to the site. Now, we have done a fair amount of research about visiting Macchu Picchu, about the tickets you can get to climb to the view point above it and about when to get there and what to see. Never, in all of our reading, had we heard of anyone getting lost.

The train to Macchu Picchu

In our defense it was very very foggy when the gates opened at 6am and we trundled in! We took a left, thinking we were following everyone else. And then started an ascent, thinking ‘everyone else’ was simply ahead of us in the fog. About an hour of up we suspected something wasn’t quite right but couldn’t be sure what. Two hours ‘up’ and we arrived at a battered flag and a very very long drop (from what we could make out through the clouds), now we were fairly certain something wasn’t quite right. About five people seemed to make this error. And after an hour the clouds began to clear and we could see where we had gone wrong. Down, far, far below us was Macchu Picchu, we’d accidentally climbed a mountain.

Our first view of Macchu Picchu (when the clouds eventually cleared) from Macchu Picchu mountain.

What was even better was that by the time we’d waited for the clouds to clear to show the magnificent climb, we saw Winnau Picchu – the smaller peak that we’d queued for tickets to climb – the other side of the site. And our slot was in less than an hour. So we clambered as quickly as we could down the mountain, across Macchu Picchu with barely time for a sideward glance at it’s beauty to burst through the gates ready to climb again. Well, I say ‘ready’... This climb was indeed shorter, but much much steeper. The views at the top were amazing, as were the ruins perched up there. But fatigue was starting to kick in, and it was only 12pm!!

Looking down from Winnau Picchu.

The Kodak moment.

After refuelling we eventually saw Macchu Picchu itself, at ‘ground’ level at about 2.30, having entered through the gates a mere 8.5 hours earlier! Still it was amazing and we managed to survive till it closed its gates at 5pm.

A Viscacha (rabbit type thing) on Macchu Picchu

However I don’t think my legs were quite prepared for all that, i walked like a 90 year old shuffling along for almost a full week afterwards!

Llamas and Condors

2010-04-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Our next stop from Lima was Arequipa but as the journey was a reported 16 hours (which normally means 20) we decided to stop on route in a little dusty town called Nasca. Nasca is famous for the mysterious lines drawn in to the surrounding desert, the landscape in Peru has been a stark contrast to that of Ecuador with miles and miles of desert:

The Nazca Lines (we didn't go, but this apparently what they look like)

As we had a full day before our night bus to Arequipa we splashed out US$7 to spend it in the local luxury hotel, with its lovely big swimming pool. Then it was time for the next night bus. Not quite the luxury we were looking for, this bus seemed to be showing its age and the seats didn’t quite perform the 180 degree magic we’d come to expect.

Arequipa

Arequipa's main plaza, Plaza de Armas

Church facade in Arequpa's main plaza

Arequipa is the 3^rd largest city in Peru and has a beautiful setting next to three volcanoes. Thankfully only one of them is active so you always knew which direction to run in should you hear rumblings! The buildings are made of a white volcanic stone called sillar and are all the more beautiful for it.

Principle market in Arequipa

Fruit Juice stall in the market. Juices without sugar can be quite tart!

One other thing that we liked very much about this city was the abundance of ice cream, cake and chocolate shops! Surprised?

Cakes called "Lengua de Suegra"; translate as "Tongue of my mother in law".

Easter weekend saw big processions of people carrying various huge statues of Mary and many many candles which looked beautiful. For us of course easter weekend was more about chocolate:

Lesa modelling the latest line in Peruvian Easter chocolate.

Bunny's gonna get it!

Bunny got it!

Whilst in Arequipa we visited a huge convent, almost a town within the city, which was filled with beautiful maze like alleys and tiny living quarters with huge ovens (looked remarkably like pizza ovens to Gio and I):

Santa Catalina Convent in Arequipa and one of it's...ahemm...pizza ovens.

Another reason that Arequipa is on traveller’s itineraries is that you can access the Colca Canyon from there. The canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon and famous for both the amazing landscape and the giant condors that fly through. As we discovered when we were picked up at 2AM for our ‘day trip’, the canyon isn’t quite as close to the city as we thought! Not normally ones for signing up for group tours and day trips we decided we would just on this occasion – mainly as we were feeling too lazy to try and get there ourselves! Despite the horrible early start it turned out to be a great decision. We learnt a lot more than we might have from our guide books and saw a lot of the amazing Peruvian countryside and it’s inhabitants. Oh, and an awful lot of Llamas, Alpacas and various relations of theirs....

A condor over Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon

We also went to a all you can eat Peruvian buffet and finally tasted Cuy (guinea pig). Well I say tasted, Gio spent a great deal of time picking through the pile of meat to find something that didn’t have claws or anything that resembled it’s owner and I must have eaten a square mm of it! Strange tasting was the only conclusion. We also ate alpaca kebabs but couldn’t finish them due to this guy outside:

A baby Alpaca...only 2 or 3 weeks old

The churches were beautiful and interesting –with a mix of catholic and Inca religions. If you look closely here you will see mermaids in the carving on the front of the church. Apparently when the Catholics arrived with their crosses the local people thought they represented the southern cross (star constellation) and hence the two religions seemed to be combined easily.

Colca's churches

We were also taken to the highest point in the valley – where I realised I really was under dressed for the trip:

To prepare us for the altitude we were given Coca leaves to chew, the process involved putting ten leaves and an ‘enabler’ (white stuff here) in our mouths, chewing for a bit but only on one side of our mouths and then sitting with it in our mouths for 20 minutes. After about ten my mouth was numb and I was ready to spit – it was gross!

Coco leaves

Here people make piles with stones and make wishes – Gio’s pile was rather small due to his keenness to get back on the bus:

Gio and his unimpressive pile.

Eventually we got back to the city at about 6pm, the longest day trip ever but worth it. The bed in our rather cheap and uncomfortable hostal had never looked so good.

A Hawk maybe....? Someone?......someone?.......anyone.....?

A Condor..... definitely a Condor.

Lunch! (sorry veggies!)

Cactus fruit juice....a bit like kiwi fruit.

Lovely Lima

2010-04-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Our journey to Lima involved our first night bus and so we decided to splash out on SUPER VIP - about US$20 for the nine hour trip. We were like kids at the fair - the seats fully reclined, there was movies, food and a hostess! Perhaps it takes months of very long, uncomfortable bus journeys before you can reach the level of excitement we had!

Anyway, Lima. We weren't sure what to expect from Lima, it has a reputation for being particularly dangerous, with very poor districts and for being covered by fog for 8 months of the year! But, like Bogota, we were so pleasantly surprised that we could have stayed!

We stayed in the Miraflores area and enjoyed it's lovely parks, great shopping and ocean views. Oh and great super markets - another seemingly strange thing to be excited about! But they had huge deli sections and encouraged you to try everything which included yummy cheese, sausages, cured meats.....one night we just bought half the deli counter and some red wine for dinner as we just couldn't resist any longer!

Whilst in Lima we visited the historic centre. We decided to brave the local bus in to town - it always makes the journey more interesting. The first ten minutes were fairly torturous as the worlds worst busker got on and started singing some sort of RnB - strangled cat comes to mind (and this is coming from the tone deaf). But the rest of the journey was much better, helped by the chocolate sales man who claimed his delicious chocolates could cure all from cellulite to climate change - yes we did start to question our translation skills! The chocolate was delicious, that's all that is important! The other great thing about bus journeys here are that you ask one person for directions and within five minutes half the bus is trying to help you. Everyone is so lovely, almost competing to give us directions!

We visited a restored convent and saw the remains of 200,000 people in their crypt - very spooky stacks of bones,

The covent looked pretty from the outside...but bones inside

....ate in a crazy chinese restaurant and wondered the streets taking in the hustle of down town Lima before retreating to our hostal in the lovely Miraflores.

Crazy tapioca 'bubble drink'

Phew.....Peru

2010-04-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

We arrived in a dusty, hot and bustling town called Piura - first stop in Peru, after a very long and sticky bus journey. It was lovely being back somewhere hot but we were missing the sea! We had to make do with ice creams in the town square, where the whole town seem to spend their Sunday evenings.

Next stop from the craziness of Piura was another dusty town called Chiclayo. Due to a poorly tummy we didn't explore as much of the area as we could have but we did make it to the local market. An absolutely huge sprawling place with a specialised witches section! Nothing to gruesome but some very interesting claims to find your true love, make you handsome or thin!

The main street in Chiclayo was divided by what you could buy on each section - there was the dollar section where every other person waved wodges of cash at you or the puppy section. Oh the heartbreak! I held a couple of three week old puppies...gave Gio my best puppy dog eyes but apparently not the most practical of souvenirs.

Contrary to our rather slow approach to Ecuador, day three bought the third stop in Peru; Huanchaco. First stop was a big town called Trujillo, where fresh off of the bus we inquired how to get to Huanchaco and were marched across the road by a very friendly gentleman and squeezed on to the local bus. Rickety, very crowded, but much more entertaining than an overpriced taxi. However 40 minutes later we could no longer feel our bottoms!

Due to feeling out of sorts my job on arrival was to guard the bags whilst Gio went hotel hunting. I managed to feel well enough to consume cake (it's a separate compartment):

..and Gio had great success after half an hour of walking up and down the sea front. Out of budget, but still coming in at a mere £30 a night - he found this place:

Huanchaco was gorgeous. Gorgeous beach, amazing sunsets...

Stretched out along the seafront with cute places to eat and plenty of sunshine, we managed to stumble in to a seafood restaurant (mainly drawn in by the BBQ outside) and have one of the best meals of the whole trip. Gio had BBQ'd seabass and I had something called 'Chupe de Cangrejo' which was like a crab stew/soup - with no less than three whole crabs in it! God it was soooooooooooo good! Needless to say with the combination of the ocean, food and Gio's hotel find we immediately decided we would extend our time in Huanchaco! If it hadn't been approaching easter weekend (and worries of overbooked buses and hotels) we would most likely still be there!

Local fishing boats in Huanchaco

Ten minutes bus ride down the road are the ruins of Chan Chan, the largest pre-columbian city in south america built in AD850 and home to about 30,000 people until it's conquest by the Inca Empire in AD1470. It made for a very interesting, but blooming boiling, visit:

Lesa playing tour guide trying to translate the Spanish leaflet...

After 5 short nights in Huanchaco we were booked on a night bus to Lima Sunday night. Sunday morning came and we realised we hadn't taken advantage of the waves on our doorstep! In our usual last minute style we packed in a great hurry and dashed out to hire body boards! We spent a couple of exhausting but fun hours trying to master the waves with limited success. Then quickly refueled on all of our favourite food before it was bus time (ice cream, cake and of course a final Chupe de Cangrejo).

Local surfers at sunset, Huanchaco beach - outside our hotel!

2010-03-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Cuenca

So next stop from the loop was the relaxing spa town of Baños (below).

Known for it's natural hot water spas. So what do Lesa and Gio do? Go for a three hour long bike ride in the rain! It seemed like a good idea at the time.....

amazing views helped make the bike ride worthwhile

Needless to say we got the bus back in to town.

After Banos we headed further south, finally making some progress across Ecuador, to Cuenca where we had signed up for some spanish lessons. The problem with all this travelling and action packed stops is that we don't speak any Spanish. Truth be told I am usually too out of breath hiking, biking etc to speak at all. So time to get back to school.

Cuenca turned out to be a gorgeous town. And to add to the luxury of sitting on our backsides for a week it also turned out to be the home of very very many cake and ice cream shops. Mmmm maybe we'll stay a little longer....

Main cathedral in Cuenca

Lesa's favourite shop in Cuenca, we couldn't decide between the cakes on the counter so bought a slice of all of them!

The market and the 'pork lunch' section. Second favourite discovery.

After over a week in Cuenca, yes I blame the ice cream shops, we headed for our final stop in Ecuador. A town a few hours from the border called Loja. And then that was it, having arrived January 6th for supposedly 3/4 weeks - about 9 weeks later we said good bye to Ecuador! And it was a beautiful good bye - the scenery from the bus was absolutely amazing.

More of Cuenca:

Cuenca from a viewpoint out of town:

Cuenca market:

A trip to the local museum discovered some delightful shruken heads.....

....and amazing wildlife outside:

Loop the loop

2010-03-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

Quilatoa Crater

Next on the itinerary, now we were back in Ecuador, was the Quilotoa loop.

First stop was Latacunga, a cute town with beautiful town squares and a very enthusiastic brass band. We lucked out finding a little Italian that did the absolute best pasta.....yummm I can still remember it now! So, stocked up on carbs we set out early the next morning for the first section of the loop.

Quilotoa (pronounced 'kilo toa') is a water filled caldera 2 miles wide that was formed by the collapse of a volcano following a catastrophic eruption about 800 years ago. The Quilotoa loop is the journey between a series of villages around it -about 200km. You can do this journey by bus, bike, horse, milk truck or by foot. We did a bit of a combo.

First stop was a dusty little town, with chickens everywhere you looked, called Isinlivi, by bus. The bus ride itself was an experience. Amazing scenery and everyone from the very old to toddlers wearing amazing fedora hats. We stayed in a gorgeous little hostel called Llulu Llama.

Greenhouse toilet at Hostal Llulu Llama

View from said toilet

The next day was a walking day - which was lovely and a little bit like a treasure hunt. We had a page of instructions including things like ' turn right at the green bushes'! About five hours later, we arrived at Chugchilán another very small and dusty town. We found a lovely hostal - hostal Mama Hilda and sat down - for a long time! Food was very welcomed and plentiful - four courses with pizza as a starter! As all good meals should start!

Lesa standing on a log

Not to be out-done, Gio standing on a log

Evening entertainment at Chugchilan

Next day, next stage of the loop. Back of a truck to the crater rim (having been told it was 7 hours straight up to walk it). The scenery continued to amaze us but nothing prepared us for how glorious the crater would be.

Lesa on the back of a truck

The Quilatoa trail

We finally finished the loop about 5.5 hours later. Found a little shop for drinks, where the lady there told us that the locals do the walk in 3 hours! She arranged a ride for us to get to Zumbagua and the bus home. Poor old Gio had to stand for the next 2 hours on the bus home, whilst I got a front seat and the driver slowing the bus to show me the best views of the volcanoes we passed!

Quilotoa Loop local record holder (3 hours, 2 mins, 14 seconds)

And so, a few days later, loop looped, we sat with pizzas back in Latacunga discussing the absolute beauty of Ecuador, how amazing it was to see how the local indigenous people existed in pretty tough conditions - harvesting almost vertical slopes, oh and how happy we were to be going to lie down!!

Not wanting to be out-done, Gio on the back of a truck.

Cotopaxi Volcano

Miami (my mammy)

2010-03-05T14:02:00.001-08:00

Having spoken to and seen Gio’s mum on Skype we decided to surprise her with a visit. She is currently visiting Gio’s brother, Ronnie, at his home in Fort Lauderdale. So we booked some last minute flights to Miami and off we went. I wish we had had a video camera for when Gio’s mum answered the door – it was a perfect reaction with plenty of tears, and it felt good to back with family.

Not only did we very much enjoy spending time with family and being able to share the stories of the trip so far, it was bliss to wash our clothes properly and sleep in a big wonderful bed. We spent every evening being fed to the brim by Ari’s (Ronnie’s wife) absolutely amazing cooking and with Ronnie very generously plying us with plenty of delicious red wine. We hadn’t realised how much we had missed creature comforts and the easy life!

Ronnie's garden

Sunday Ari had a party for a few friends, and it was a great opportunity to practise our Spanish with friends from Colombia, Peurto Rico, Dominican Republic and Ecuador – lots of Spanish and a real boost of confidence to be able to understand what everyone was talking and joking about. And to actually be able to say something!

As a surprise, as Gio’s mum loves them, Ari organised a Mariachi band to come to the party. We were ALL completely shocked when they came in to the garden singing – it was brilliant. Once more Nina was shocked to tears!

So, food, food, food, and a little shopping. The week zoomed by and I am not quite sure what we have to show for it. Ari helped me practise my Spanish which was great, but apart from that it was just spent relaxing. A holiday from a holiday – lucky, lucky us.

And so we returned to Quito, not sure what the next few days/weeks/months would hold but knowing that we were going to very much miss the amazing hospitality and Gio’s lovely family. And the bed, oh the lovely, lovely bed!!

The sunset view in Ronnie's garden:

Week three – Bread, Chocolate and Coffee

2010-03-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

La Hesperia

Our third week at the reserve was a bit more relaxed. Gio seemed to get donkey duty each morning, and ‘El Donkey’ and he came to some sort of understanding which made it quite a nice job I think. I spent a lot of my week with Maria, from east London, a very cool and fun person to hang out with. Between us we put the world to rights whilst picking coffee, fruit, planting trees in the nursery, making bread with great success (one occasion so much so the dog could not resist stealing it, and another with a chocolate bread plait!), making coffee from scratch and making chocolate from scratch.

Coffee making.

I found the chocolate making so exciting I was skipping around in my wellington boots! It didn’t taste quite the same as the chocolate that Lindt produces but made the most amazing hot chocolate ever.

Our last weekend was spent at the reserve. The cloud forest wasn’t a super comfortable place to spend a weekend but it was peaceful, beautiful and true escapism.

It was really interesting getting to know Alexandra, the lady who (with her husband) owned and ran the farm and learning about their aims and the difficulties that they face. As owners of many many acres of cloud forest filled with endangered trees, plants, animals and birds they really feel the responsibility of protecting it. But having this much land and not utilizing it all for crops or cattle is something that many local people can not understand. And slowly people have started cutting down trees on the edges of their land and starting their own little farms. In addition to this they have a constant struggle with staff. Working on the land does not seem to have much kudos, where as wearing a uniform and working for a big corporation (such as the hydro-electric project down the road) seems to hold much more of a draw.

Alexandra and Juan Puablo are trying to build a model of sustainable living that can be replicated across Ecuador – something that allows people to live off of their land whilst still protecting the rain forest and it’s inhabitants. Both are very eloquent and very interesting to talk to and we would have loved to get to know them better. But three weeks came to a close and the bug free city of Quito was calling us – so we hitched a lift with Juan (giving El Donkey escape from carrying our bags!) down the hill and waited for a bus to stop.

The volunteer house (Charlotte and I)

The view from where we brushed our teeth:

My bus ride was entertaining as I practised my Spanish with the lovely lady I sat next to, she had just spent the last 9 years living in Stockwell of all places. But now was back enjoying the beauty of Ecuador.

We had two nights back in Quito, and spent our time enjoying a new coffee discovery – a cafe recommended by Dale and Karen, which was run by a guy straight from the Sopranos – he had the best throaty New York accent and also served the most amazing coffee. His advice to us – open a coffee shop!

We also wandered around the local market and discovered hidden bargaining talents. Our indecision, mmming and arghhing and wandering off solely due to said indecision lead to the indigenious ladies virtually throwing their produce at us!! We picked up some souvenirs and packed up for a surprise visit to Miami.

Walter sharpening the machetes ready for a day's work:

Our favourite comedy duo at the farm:

The lovely, very noisy, pigs:

A totally amazing butterfly - this was the outside pattern on it's wings:

And the number 98 appeared on the inside of it's wings!

Gio and the gang on a big Friday hike:

Amazing trees, high in the cloud forest:

DON'T SCROLL DOWN IF YOU ARE SCARED OF SPIDERS!!!!!!

Cows, cows, cows, oh and some monkeys!

2010-03-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

By week two Gio and I almost considered ourselves cow experts, one morning we even got up extra early (5.15am!!!) and went and collected the cows from the fields, just to add cow herders to our growing CVs. We were feeling very pleased with our efforts and my newly acquired cow herding language (better not to ask) as the cows trundled off in the right direction. Then I fell down a hole! Luckily just one leg but there didn’t seem to be a bottom to said hole and so I had to ask Gio to drag me, rather unelegantly, out. How he didn’t fall over laughing I will never know. That boy has restraint – I would have just laughed!

Our cow work wasn’t all as glamorous as herding and milking!! Most mornings at least one of us seemed to be volunteered to clean the stables. Oh the delightful smells and sights! But we managed to attack the job with a very strange amount of enthusiasm – one day a little too much enthusiasm with some unfortunate splash back on my face – again how Gio didn’t fall over laughing I do not know. And so we now also consider ourselves to be expert cow pat clearers, that one may not go on the CVs.

The messy young cows:

Machete work continued without event or injury (except the blister of course) and we cleared the veggie garden and the medicinal garden. Less fun once the novelty had warn off!

Week two also bought with it a new calf, teetering on it’s little legs like Bambi. I, of course, was in heaven – it was SO gorgeous. And a new foal which was even more beautiful.

To top off the animal experiences for the week we also saw a group of Capuchin monkeys in the trees above us which were amazing.

Scott, the volunteer intern, is a very very avid bird spotter. We, well I, have now decided bird spotting is like some infectious disease – Maria (another volunteer) and I could not stop. She took it a step further with a giant camera and a gazillion or so photos but I don’t blame her – the birds were absolutely amazing.

This little bird seemeds to be obsessed with tapping on our window (at it's own reflection):

About half way through the week someone thought to mention there was a hot shower up by the dining room! Oh how we rejoiced. It was often full of bugs and involved precarious balancing to get in and out of your wellies but was worth it.

After two weeks of 5.30am starts and very physical days we headed off to a little town called Mindo for a long weekend of R&R.

Not quite sure how but our R&R started with this:

Fortunately it was quickly followed with much cake eating, discovery of an amazing Italian with the best pizza and pasta and all things yummy and Italian.

One of the new calfs:

Quito to Cows

2010-03-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

The journey from Isabela to our hotel in Quito was a long one starting at 5.30am and finishing at 7pm after a taxi, jet boat (2hrs), another taxi, ferry, bus, plane, and another taxi! And so we stayed at the Secret Garden hotel for a couple of nights just recovering and planning our next move. We saw Avatar 3-D at the movies and from distant memory ate a lot – but that is no different to usual. Then moved to a quieter area of Quito called La Floresta – we now feel like we really know the city having stayed in various areas and having returned to it so many times. Every time that we come back the altitude hits us and we turn in to a pair of old grannies staggering up hills and moaning!

So after a few days in Quito we headed off to our next volunteering project – La Hesperia. Our instructions were to get a bus headed for Santo Domingo but to give the driver instructions to drop us on the side of the road in the tiny village of La Esperie. Here we had to hide our bags in an empty house and then embark on a ’20 minute walk’ up a hill to the reserve. Hmmm, 40 very hot and sweaty minutes later we staggered in to a clearing and found the volunteer house. The moment we arrived the mosquitos started – probably enticed by how delightful we smelt.

Scott, a volunteer intern, gave us a brief tour and introduced us to everyone. Our room had an absolutely amazing view, two very small hard beds (the planks kept dropping out of Gio’s bed base – not funny after the tenth time, apparently!), and a clothes rail. Not luxury by any stretch but the view and the amazing wildlife made up for that. Although I will say thank goodness for mosquito nets.

Our first morning was an early one. We had volunteered to ‘help’ milking the cows. Not something Gio or I had ever done or actually considered doing but were both excited about (for some strange reason). Turns out it is far far harder than it looks. I was SO frustrated.

Especially when Gio seemed to uncover some hidden talent for it.

Something to do with strong hands from weight lifting...mmmmm.....It took me about 4 days to really get any milk out and even then it took me 30 minutes per cow – painfully slow compared to the experts, like the lovely Juan:

The highlight of that first morning, and of every subsequent morning was feeding the baby cows. Cows are super timid – one look and they seem to panic. But if you have a bucket of milk in your hands they go nuts. The first few times the calves were in little pens and so the task of feeding them wasn’t too tricky. Later on as they got stronger they broke the door of the pen! And then they would suck on anything they could get near – the edge of the bucket, your arms, your boots, trousers, t shirt....it was a fenzy but absolutely hilarious.

From the first day onwards a disturbing amount of our time was spent discussing teet size and shape and what we thought the cows were thinking (we decided it was mostly ‘what an earth are you doing back there’).

We had signed up for the ‘sustainable living’ programme at the reserve and in our first week our time was spent doing the following:

Fruit picking – very entertaining trying to use a very long stick with a cage at the end to get oranges from the tops of the trees, and then ducking as they came flying down on our heads.

Peanut planting – and trying not to eat the peanuts rather than plant them.

Donkey riding – yes donkey riding. Every day the milk was taken down the hill to be collected by the milk truck and then some lucky devil got to ride the donkey back up the hill. My experience was slightly frustrating as the donkey was a) old, b) always hungry and c) just plain stubborn. It would stop for a rest, a snack or just for fun. Gio’s experiences were far more frustrating and he would come back up the hill calling the donkey all sorts of names including lazy ass amongst other less refrained ones. Apparently on the first trip down the donkey decided it needed to lie down, just when Gio thought perhaps it had died it decided to roll around and have a good scratch with it’s legs in the air and the milk containers crashing around!

Banana plant maintenance – using very large machetes (yes we were supposed to be avoiding knives but hey ho) to clear around banana plants and strip off the outer layers – an amazing amount of water came out as you did this. Have decided I am an expert with a machete. Gio got a blister from it.

At the end of the week we took a walk to some waterfalls and natural water slides. It was a little more adventurous than I had anticipated and there was a lot of very sticky mud and slipping, sliding, screaming and grabbing anything in reach for dear life. But it was fun.

After a week of cold showers and too many bugs we retreated to Quito to get our clothes washed and recover!

Galapagos Part Two

2010-02-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

And then there were six. After saying farewell to the others at the airport we took the bus, ferry (well little tug boat), and then 4x4 taxi across the island to Puerto Ayora where we all ended up staying in the same hotel. Across the road from our hotel was the local fish ‘market’ a very small affair with far more pelicans and sealions than customers. And that entertained us every day as the sea lions begged at the feet of the fish mongers not dissimilar to Labrador dogs! The pelicans and one brave heron weren’t much better...

Lades and Duke returned to the US after a couple of days leaving us and Dale and Karen. A fantastic couple from deepest darkest Canada (Labrador) who have sold every one of their belongings and started a new life travelling. What was embarrassing was that their bags were about a quarter the size of ours!

We spent a great deal of time eating in the local street market, or sharing ice creams from the very conveniently placed new gelataria next door to the hotel. And discovered the local beach.

As you can see absolutely stunning, but blimey it was hot. Hence I am trying to cover every bit of my body in this photo:

Even the local beach was fascinating with a cactus forest,

marine iguanas,

baby sharks and very curious little birds.

We were due to leave the Galapagos islands on the Monday morning, having finished the cruise the previous Wednesday. But, about two hours before our flight we were at the airline office changing it! And so the four of us headed by speed boat to Isla Isabela. Here we found sand streets and a beautiful little family hotel on the most gorgeous beach. We could have spent the next week just standing in the door way to our room looking at the view!

Isabela is a quiet but very large island in the Galapagos archipelago. There are 6 volcanoes all of which are considered to be various degrees of active! But only a very small part of it is inhabited. Small but with two very nice bakeries – of course we discovered these quickly!

We hired bikes and cycled to the Wall of Tears – a giant wall of rocks built by prisoners for no purpose but to torture them it would seem. As if that wasn’t harsh enough all but two escaped and tried to sail to Panama but were killed en route. The two that stayed however were pardoned and still live on Isabela.

The cycle back was fun, avoiding lots of wild tortoises of various sizes in the ‘road’...

...and stopping at ‘lover’s beach’ to discover that it was an iguana mating ground. Not quite what the romantic in me had imagined! The last bit of the cycle was along the beach and was glorious.

We also had a great time snorkelling in a nearby lagoon and saw a mobilous ray feeding and lots of very curious fish.

The walk to the lagoon was fun:

The lazy sea lion who seemed to have a bit of a cold just stayed with our bags!

Finally we admitted that we couldn’t stay on the islands forever, despite the fact we could have happily done so! So we had our last cocktails on the beach with Dale and Karen followed by a giant pizza and left them to stretch out their time on the islands for a couple more weeks! Lucky devils.

A pelican joined us for drinks..

Interesting lunch

Gio and iguana outside our hotel

Galapagos Special

2010-02-06T11:49:00.001-08:00

After the build up to this trip we couldn’t quite believe we were actually going to the Galapagos. Even sitting at the airport we were convinced something would go wrong, and it was only after being collected by the boat’s reps and waiting for the panga/dinghy to the yacht that it really sank in. The smell of these guys helped:

We boarded the Mary-Anne and were very happy with our last minute cruise choice! An amazing long sail boat, beautiful.

Here is our Galapagos diary, we want to remember it all – and there is a lot!!

Isla North Seymour – day one

Our first landing was tricky trying to clamber out of the panga and not land on a sleeping sealion! The sealions were in no hurry to move out of the way and an excellent indication of things to come! Our naturalist reminded us that we were on the equator and the moment we stepped on to the first island the strength of the sun was phenomenal. Birds the size of dogs almost skimmed our heads as they flew over us, and we were introduced to our first blue footed boobies!

The frigate birds and their giant red inflatable bills
It really was amazing, everything you imagine of the Galapagos and more.

Isla Santa Cruz – day two

Day two we headed to Puerto Auyora which is Galapagos’ busiest town. The town was lovely, very cute shops and one main street that ran along the coast. We all headed to the Charles Darwin centre where we were introduced to lonesome George the last tortoise of his species. Although there’s Tony, a distant relation but apparently he’s a secret!

Lunch time:

Next stop was the El Chato farm, and visiting the giant tortoise in the wild. As it was raining we borrowed wellies and stomped off in the muddy puddles giant tortoise spotting. Due to their size it wasn’t too tough!
Almost as messy as Gio at dinner:

When we got back to the farm we entertained ourselves with a couple of tortoise shells – giving a real idea of how big these creatures are:

Giant Tortoise facts we can remember from day two – they live to 150 years or more, each year they take three months to trundle to the coast, in the Galapagos they are totally protected by law. If nervous or threatened they let all the air out of their lungs to make space to withdraw in to their shell, it sounds a little like Darth Vadar. Tortoises used to be eaten by the first visitors to the islands and so now the population needs to be replenished it is currently back to 30 000.

On the journey back to Puerto Ayora we stopped by one of the many lava tubes that run under the Island of Santa Cruz. Calling them tubes is a modest description; the one visited was basically a 20 metre high tunnel that apparently ran for miles.
We headed back to the boat to get changed and then headed on land for a lovely candle lit dinner by the sea.

Isla Espanola – day three

Day three was Gardner bay, a lovely beach, with lots and lots of sealions lolling about on the shore and some very curious mocking birds. We could have spent all day watching both as they were hilarious.
a curious mocking bird:

a curious sea lion:

a curious Lesa:

a curious duo:

Gorgeous sea lion:

Next was probably one of our favourite walks - Punta suarez : Totally amazing scenery walking along cliff tops spotting albatross chicks that were huge, masked boobies, sea lions, marine iguanas...
Albatross chick:
So many lovely sea lions - we couldn't stop taking photos!!

Colourful marine iguana:

Masked/Nazca Boobie:

Amazing scenery:

Cute babies:

fun rolling in the sand:

Albatross facts: they mate for life, once they take off at six months old they don’t touch land again for six years!

Nazca masked boobies facts: they always lay two eggs, and then leave the 2 chicks to fight it out – the strongest one is the only one to survive!

Isla floreana – day four

We had a 5am start to go off and see the turtles heading back to the water having laid their eggs. When we arrived at the beach, the sunrise and the sight of these amazing creatures making their slow journey back to the water was breathtaking.

The turtles take their time to travel back down to the ocean as they are exhausted and know that once they get there there are a lot of males (that we could see) waiting to pounce! Often the males are so keen that they will just keep climbing on top of each other with the poor female at the bottom of the stack – virtually drowning.

The babies, once hatched take a month just to crawl to surface of the sand!

On the walk back to the other side of the island we stopped and saw gorgeous flamingos very close up.

The day kept getting better as we headed back to the boat on the panga we spotted a massive school of dolphins. So our guide asked if we could change in two seconds and we didn’t need asking twice and were straight in the water snorkelling with them, amazing.

After breakfast we were back in the water Snorkelling devil’s crown, where we saw little reef sharks and lots of fish, then just I was about to get out of the water I had a face to face encounter with a lovely big sea lion very curious as to what we were up to!

We visited post office point where you can leave mail in a barrel and collect any mail that is addressed to your next destination:

The day came to an amazing close with the sails up and us all whale watching on deck. We had a very brief exciting spotting as two Byrde’s whales surfaced next to the boat and blew out air.

Isla Isabela – day five

Isabela is one of the youngest islands in the Galapagos and still growing and changing, we visited Punta Moreno and walked along a huge lava field. It was amazing seeing how ‘life’ starts on the islands from the black lava and the first plants that can live there.

Next was Tagus cove where the cold Cromwell current comes up full of nutrients and subsequently the home of penguins! The only place where you can find penguins on the equator – and is due to the cold current of water there. The girls all needed wetsuits for snorkelling here!

Elizabeth Bay: mangrove boat ride – one rock had a sea lion and iguana asleep together, boobies, flightless cormorants, penguins and crabs!! Once in the mangroves we spotted turtles, rays and sea lions somehow sleeping up in the trees!
tree lions:

Isla Isabela – day six AM

A very hot walk, where we saw giant land iguanas and giant tortoises.
Land iguana:
Next was a very welcome snorkel, Gio and I watched two turtles swimming together and then one came straight up to Gio and looked him in the eye – decided he wasn’t interesting very quickly!!

Isla Fernandina – day six PM

Of course, more of our favourite sea lions and lots and lots and lots of marine iguanas.

Marine iguana facts: only iguanas that have evolved to swim and feed in the sea. But as a result they need to blow the salt out of their noses once on land – spitting basically! Then they need to warm up quickly so at night they all lay on each other for heat.
Fernandina was gorgeous and rugged and we loved the colours of the lava rocks and the water and the amazing creatures living there.

another gorgeous baby:

Flightless Cormorants:

Marine iguana and Sally Lightfoot crab:

another stunning Sally Lightfoot:

Beautiful golden Pacific Green turtle:

Whilst sailing that evening we crossed the equator and had champagne with the captain in the bridge. It’s a tough life!

Isla Santiago – day 7 AM

The trip raced to an end. Our last day was visiting fur seals, climbing more lava rocks, watching sea lions, iguanas....

Oyster Catcher:

...snorkelling and seeing sharks asleep in a cave, a massive sting ray, turtles, lots of fish that let you swim with them as if part of shoal. It was all over too quickly. Especially for Gio who had a very close encounter with a curious little sea lion eyeballing him as he dived down snorkelling.

Isla Bartolome – day 7 PM

We snorkelled a second time on our last full day and probably one of the best times. We saw big sharks again sleeping in a cave, penguins, and lots of amazing fish.

We changed quickly and walked across moonlike scenery to a great view and group photos.

the usual hurdles:

The fab 16:

amazing view:

Santa Cruz black turtle cove – day 8 AM

Even though we were due off of the boat that morning we managed to squeeze in a mangrove boat ride, to see black turtles, rays, pelicans and boobies of course.
We loved the huge pelicans:

When we finally left the boat and the 14 people we had shared our Galapagos experience with it was with great sadness. Luckily we had decided not to race off from there and so headed back to Puerto Auyora to squeeze everything we could from our time on the islands.

Quito

2010-01-24T18:04:00.001-08:00

Along the beautiful road to Quito we had our first views of the wonderful Ecuadorean countryside, local people, and cuy BBQs. Cuy is a popular local cuisine. Cuy is guinea pig!!

After a long, uncomfortable bus ride we finally reached ‘The Secret Garden’ hostel in Quito. A lovely hostel with an amazing roof terrace looking over Quito.

After starting to read and investigate what Ecuador has to offer we quickly learn we are in trouble! There is TOOOOOO much to do and see. Not sure where to start we booked ourselves a week of Spanish lessons with the hilarious Santiago. Our lessons were solely conversation based on the tenses we have learnt to date and very good for us. We found ourselves able to chat about all sorts, although Gio broke it to me after one lesson that we had been slipping in to English to fill the gaps without even realising it! But still, it’s all progress.

Saturday we headed on the bus back out of town to a town called Otavalo and a great local market:

We were so tired from the journey a lot of our time was spent sitting, eating and people watching rather than shopping. My lunch in Otavalo looked like this:

But it was great to see lots of Indigenous people in their traditional outfits.

A week in Quito meant plenty of time to explore and we visited the amazing churches, ate local cuisine – amazing seabass in the local market (and a tiny bit of the cerviche – raw clams!!), home made ice cream, tapioca pudding in a glass and empanados, crazy hot drinks like boiled wine or cinnamon liquer. Some great Chinese food, local pizzas, set menus (soup, rice/chicken/plaintain, pudding) for US$3. But not cuy!

A lot of the week was spent looking for a last minute Galapagos cruise! A boat is the best way to see the islands but choosing one and getting a last minute deal proved a little bit stressful. We had heard a sufficient amount about the crime in Quito to be cautious about what we took out with us and to take the normal precautions of not carrying much money. However, the travel agents with whom you book Galapagos don’t take credit cards, only cash. So Gio and I had some interesting trips to cash points, hiding money in all sorts of places and dashing around to withdraw sufficient funds for our trip. In the end we didn’t deposit the cash, and therefore book our trip until about 3.50pm the day before we flew to Galapagos! And ten minutes before the bank closed! The whole bank experience was a new one as they don’t have counter clerks you can talk to, only tv screens and shoots to send your money up! With assistance from a lovely security guard we sent our precious cash in to the never never and looked at each other nervously. Then the screen came to life and there was someone counting our cash. And with that we were going to the Galapagos! We celebrated with ‘Pan de yucca’ and yoghurt drinks. Slightly strange cheesy, yucca bread filled with chocolate!

The Basilica in Quito - with great opportunities for climbing and exploring every inch of it!

Great people watching in Quito:

Beautiful churches:

Christmas, New Years and new country

2010-01-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas lights, Medellin

Christmas is rapidly feeling like a million years ago, and we have already managed to cram a lot in to 2010.

From the coffee finca in the middle of Colombia we moved back up the country to a city called Medellin. We had been told that the people of Medellin enthusiastically celebrate Christmas and there were an abundance of apartments to let, and so we hired ourselves a very, very lovely apartment for 11 days over Christmas and new years.

First stop, after a complicated cab ride was the supermarket. The supermarkets in Medellin were vast and fun to wonder round. They start with food courts and mix your own salads where people love to mix fruit, yoghurt, cereal, cheese...yes cheese altogether in giant containers for their lunches. We also happened across the clothing section and a lovely pair of pants with added bum padding for those who favour a more curvaceous look – not something Gio or I needed to invest in!

Christmas ended up being a quiet affair, but filled with great food – especially as mum had amazingly organised about 5 or 6 deliveries for Christmas eve including chocolate, wine, cheese, bread, cakes and flowers! Christmas eve Gianni and I hit the local shopping centre and gave each other a small budget and an hour to buy gifts for each other. The gifts had to fit the criteria of light weight or consumable, that plus the budget made it somewhat challenging, but it was great fun running around with everyone else doing their last minute shopping. So our Christmas was spent chatting to family, eating, napping and watching the wonderful movie ‘Cinema Paradiso’. Lovely.

Between Christmas and new year we explored more of Medellin including their amazing Christmas lights – yes just when we thought that we had seen the best, there was Medellin.

Their lights are centred along the river and everyone goes down for the evening and there is live music, food stalls and entertainers.

I enjoyed trying the local sweet – still not sure what it was called but I was sold by the guy making it’s claim ‘mi amore it took 3 hours to make and only cost 50c’, and it was delicious!

Gio, having let his hair grow for a record number of weeks finally chose a hairdressers in Medellin, I was promptly sat between two hair dressers (and their giant hairdryers) whilst waiting and the whole experience for both of us was very hot! But, as always, very entertaining.

Despite expectations for Medellin as a party town, New Year also turned out to be a quiet time as Colombian’s spend it with their family. So we found a nice little restaurant called ‘Barcelona’ and counted in the new year over pasta and cocktails.

We also organised a few days of Spanish lessons with the lovely Dora, whom I considered to be extra lovely as she bought chocolate prizes for the winner of her Spanish quiz (me). And so the challenge continued with our struggling Spanish.

With the arrival of new years day we started thinking about what next and realised we had somehow spent 7 weeks in Colombia and could easily spend 7 more but then we wouldn’t ever make it to Argentina! And so we packed up and headed 10 hours south to Cali. Another great city, we stayed in a gorgeous district and ate under the stars – but much to the owner of the hostel’s distress at our missing Cali we moved on the next day and headed to Popayan. A significant step closer to the border.

Popayan was a gorgeous town,

unfortunately with another hard Colombian bed so not the most restful time but we found Juan Valdez (Colombia’s excellent answer to Starbucks) and spent our day filling up on various coffee concoctions and catching up. Obviously not on the blog!

The food was also great in Popayan and we found some great steak restaurants, the first waiter questioned that I, as a girl, would manage the steak I had ordered, of course I surprised him with my eating abilities!

Popayan art:

As we moved to our final destination in Colombia, a border town called Ipiales, we also encountered local celebrations of the festival de blanco y negro – a day where historically owners of slaves allowed them to paint their faces white for a day and then the next day the owners painted their faces black. Now this means a lot of people with cans of white spray foam or black spray paint! So our bus was witness to lots of street side spray ‘attacks’ which was hilarious (from the protection of glass windows!).

Ipiales is not a very beautiful city to end your time in Colombia, it was hectic due to the festival and lively – and had a very beautiful monastery just out of town.

But also had the worst hotel we have stayed in to date (a bank breaking US $8) and we were glad to step out in to the sunshine and a taxi for the border.

The border crossing to Ecuador was very uneventful, and easy – and straight away we realised how cheap Ecuador was going to be for transport, about US$1 per hour of travel! Next stop Quito.

Medellin, the birth place of Botero

Coffee

2010-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

19 - 23rd December 09

When we left Ibague there were more tears as we said farewell to Berenice, William and Carolina, and hopped in a taxi to the bus station to get the 12 o’clock bus to Pereira. Being the weekend before Christmas we should probably have anticipated it might be busy and we found the bus was full and the next one not for another hour at least. But several families making similar journeys adopted us and advised we get a bus to Armenia and change buses there with their assistance. So with that we found ourselves travelling in a merry group and exchanging broken Spanish for much of the journey to Armenia. We fielded several amusing questions including ‘if you are both from the UK why does one of you have dark eyes and one light eyes?’ and ‘don’t you think bull fighting is beautiful’ and ‘why don’t you have children, I have 7’!

Unfortunately we arrived in Pereira about two hours later than we had hoped and the owner of the finca due to collect us had been waiting around for us. To make it worse we later found out it was his birthday and so we felt really bad about messing him about – we should have known better with Colombian buses! However, we were warmly welcomed on arrival to Finca Villa Martha; both buy Martha and buy their three giant Alsations.

Gio and Mateau:

One of the amazing birds on the bird table outside the finca:

The first thing we were given, as you might expect at a coffee hacienda, was a cup of coffee. We can’t even begin to describe how good it was. The best coffee we have ever had. This was followed by a giant dinner and we crawled in to bed and fell asleep quickly. Sadly the sleep didn’t last long as a house just down the track was having a party, and when Colombians party they do so loudly and for days. This one lasted until Sunday evening and favoured techno music!

Still it couldn’t detract from the beauty of our surroundings, the land in the coffee zone is gorgeous,

Raphael gave us a tour of the coffee process from picking to grinding beans (and drinking of course) ..

My excellent bean picking:

Raphael and the drying/sorting machine (not it's official name):

The roasting machine:

He only makes enough to sell at the finca, but that needs to be a fair amount – for example the French couple with us bought 13 x 500gram packets!

We spent a blissful few days at the Finca, longer than originally planned, walking and swimming and studying Spanish. And of course drinking A LOT of coffee.

It’s probably just as well it was time to leave when it was as we rapidly started to reach the point where we couldn’t fit our clothes! Breakfast alone was made up of at least three carbohydrates (rice, arepas, bread), lunch the same and dinner even more plus soup and dessert!

Having a little rest after a walk around the gorgeous countryside:

Ibague Week two (yes sometime last year!)

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The neighbourhood's christmas lights.

For our last weekend in Ibague we happily enjoyed chilling out and catching up on emails and Spanish. We did manage to venture out on Saturday with Berenice, William and Carolina (Berenice who runs the centre and her two kids). Having failed to find a bowling alley, and having spent some time watching all the locals play a game that involved clay and gun powder, and then we settled for a slap up meal in a fried chicken joint! Seemingly the place where a lot of families spend their Saturday night as it was buzzing. Possibly not the healthiest meal we have ever consumed but surprisingly good.

A very attractive mannequin in an Ibague shop window!

We made our first proper Spanish mistakes, well turns out I have been making the same mistake for some time. In order to avoid asking for coke in a bar I have been trying to order a ‘ron y cola’ for my entire time in latin America and without success. This weekend we finally figured out why. I have been asking for a ‘rum and bum’. Oh dear. That explains a lot.

So, to make me feel better I am sure, Gio followed suit and said to Berenice ‘Necesitamos pegarte para la cena anoche’ – feeling quite pleased with ourselves we were confused by the look on her face. Until she asked why we need to punch her for the dinner last night!

Towards the end of the week Berenice and Lina (the teacher at the centre) took us for a walk down the river to see where most of the kids lived. Although we had an idea about their homes it didn’t make it any easier to see. We visited the home of the gorgeous Vanessa – she and her two sisters and brother live with their mum (who is 8 months pregnant) in one room which serves as kitchen/bedroom/everything. Corregated iron roof, tarpaulin walls, dirt floor, five people in a bunk bed and a single bed with a baby to come. Yet the kids are always smiling, proud to show you their rooms and the toys they have. As was the case for every family whose homes we saw.

The adorable Vanessa:

The second visit we made was to a set of homes further up the river that were balanced precariously a bit higher up. The house/room we visited had bamboo floors and nothing else underneath and we walked very gingerly thinking they weren’t made for our weight! This time six people and one double bed with some sort of fold out mattress, a gas stove top and a fridge that wasn’t actually plugged in. We felt rubbish that we had been moaning about the cold showers and bunk beds back at the house. The visits also made it clearer why the kids love coming to the centre each day.

The week was filled with the usual eating far too much, Nury seemed to pick up on our enthusiasm for food and gave us more and more tasters throughout the week. Friday we ate the most, including a new favourite food discovery. Chop up plantain, deep fry it, smash it flat with a stone, fry again – and serve with a freshly made omelette on the top. We had 4 each...

Some one else enjoying the omlette:

Friday crept up on us, as did the time to start saying farewells. We were both taken aback by how lovely our final afternoon with the kids was. There was a farewell presentation and kids stood up and sang a couple of little songs that meant they will miss us – apparently! They had all made us cards, and we were given t shirts and had a giant group photo. After only two weeks at the centre it was really lovely to feel like we had made any kind of impact on everyone and there were a fair amount of tears with the goodbyes (mostly mine admittedly).

Xiomara and Marina:

And so we finish our first volunteering experience, it’s with a giant dose of perspective, some marked improvement in our Spanish (maybe not with any style but we can communicate at last), and two very round bellies!

Playing with knives....and kids

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Gio and the adorable Xiomara

Ibague

So, we finally arrive at our first volunteering opportunity. A children’s centre in a very poor area of the city of Ibague. The centre provides lunch to about a hundred kids and is a day centre, during term time it helps share the load with the local school – kids spend half the day there and half at the centre, and during holidays it provides somewhere for the kids to hang out and do stuff they can’t do at home. The centre also provides some structure for the kids and is strict on manners and respect for adults/each other. So on arrival all kids must come and say hello, ‘chao profe (hola profesor!)’ and kiss you on the cheek – or for the boys and Gio a handshake. Well, the hand ‘shake’ is more of a hand slide, knuckle bashing affair – bit tricky to describe but Gio got there in the end! I am just glad I am a girl – kisses are much nicer.

Anyway, our role is to help Nury in the kitchen preparing lunch, help serve lunch, then in the afternoon play with the kids. Gio and Lesa helping in a kitchen – with a lot of knives...mmmmm!

So, week one with knives: three minor cuts but all digits still intact. One minor accident where I went to stand up, hit my head, fell backwards and burnt myself on the giant soup pot – painful but mostly pretty funny. And now I have a very interesting triangular shape pattern on my back to show for it and have learnt a couple of new words from trying to explain to the kids why I was walking around with an ice pack on my hip - ‘quemarse’ to burn yourself and ‘que asco’ how disgusting!

The first day in the kitchen I spent very worried. When we were in Cartagena we met a South African who had eaten turtle in a restaurant there. So day one in the kitchen we are chopping lots of veggies and telling Nury that we eat everything not to worry about feeding us and then she gets out a tortoise and puts it in a bowl of water. Oh no. Is this going to be the next thing I have to chop up? I spend the morning figuring out how to say ‘please spare him’! Turns out having finally figured out how to say ‘is that for lunch’ – it was/is the centre’s pet. There was much hilarity at my expense.

All in all we are really enjoying our time, never in our lives have we chopped so many vegetables, fruit etc – especially challenging with such blunt knives (although that is probably why we still have ten fingers each). The kids are lovely and very entertaining, cute, grubby, some clearly very poor – with trousers done up with string.

Lunches at the centre are delicious, interesting and very filling. The menu is different every day and involves a soup, main course and dessert – each weekly menu and it’s ingredients are written up on a board which is great for our Spanish learning. However we might need to learn some portion control as by the end of serving lunch to 100 kids we are knackered and hoover giant portions! At this rate we are going to be gorda by the end of two weeks!!

Our first day involved everyone asking us questions – good Spanish practise. What is our favourite colour, sport, food, fruit, football team, song. Most embarrassing moment, and why aren’t we married. Gio was instructed he only has these two weeks to sort it out else one of the kids would step in and do the honourable thing! And then they all chanted ‘beso, beso, beso’ until we kissed at which point they all screamed!!

We will no doubt be ready to leave for a rest and some creature comforts (have had to adapt to bunk beds and cold showers) but being here feels good. Ibague is a lovely city, with amazing Christmas lights...

...the family who run the centre are great and keen to help us with our Spanish – as are the kids at the centre who are keen to chat. They are almost all missing father figures and love hanging off of Gio and asking him questions. All are very curious about just how hairy his legs are (and where the hair on mine has gone), and love hugs and kisses and any attention you can give. We have had some interesting afternoons – the teacher giving the kids glitter to make Christmas cards – and their delight at covering Gio and I head to toe in it – Gio still looks like he belongs in a carnival sporting rather a lot of green glitter. I can just say I am being festive! Wednesday was dance lessons, and the teacher taught everyone a zombie dance, at the end of the dance they all had to put a little bit of an alka seltzer in their mouths and create a vast amount of foam spit!!

Outside of the centre we’ve spent a day at the local swimming park which had a couple of huge water slides, we were impressed by the 70 something lady ahead of us in the queue! Unfortunately I managed to lose my bikini top on the way down – slightly embarrassing...but apparently not the first person.

There is a local Carrefour supermarket! Really it’s all you could ever need – they even had six motorbikes for sale in the shop!

Monday was ‘la noche de las velitas‘ ‘night of the candles’ or ‘la noche de la virgen ’night of the virgin’ (the candles represent a virgin for each house) which involved everyone lighting rows of candles outside their houses – and was beautiful.

Also involved lighting all the Christmas lights and crazy Christmas creations made from plastic cups. It was a fun night – a little bit random with fireworks and cows wondering up the road

This weekend we are resting, and trying to study so we have more to say to the kids next week!

Bogota

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It was impossible to avoid and would have been wrong not to visit the capital of Colombia but we did so with some aprehension as the city has had a reputation for being very dangerous. But things have changed and Bogota was nothing like we expected. We loved it, and even started to wonder if we could live there! We stayed in the north of the city which is relatively affluent with lots of shopping malls, restaurants, bars, little ‘villages’ within the city, in a really lovely B&B.

Christmas tree in the center of the old town

The first night we went to a local restaurant to try some typical Medellin cuisine – ajiaco de pollo and a patacone both were delicioius. Gio’s was a chicken soup that comes with a plate of capers and sour cream to add to taste. My patacone was a plate size taco with half an avocado, shredded pork, salad etc. The meal was enhanced by some phenomenal singing by two traditionally dressed musicians, unfortunately their voices were so powerful we couldn’t actually hear each other talk, but hey ho!

The traffic in Bogota is constant and crazy, at each intersection jugglers and various entertainers walk in to the road and entertain everyone while you wait for a green light! Luckily there is a great bus system called the TransMilenio with it’s own lane and ‘stations’ that make it easy to get anywhere. Well I say easy, it took Gio and I about twenty minutes of staring at the map and walking up and down the platform jostled around by commuters before we figured it out – but turns out that wasn’t due to the complexity of the system so much....

Our first day in the city we took the TransMilenio down town and did the mini walking tour in the Lonely Planet.

One of many beautiful churches

One of the first stops of course was food orientated – a traditional Santafereno which is hot chocolate served with cheese and bread that you dunk in it! Denise is the only person I know who I thought might actually like that (something about chocolate digestives and cheese)!

Chocolate Santafereno

Next stop was the Botero museum – the artist who makes everything fat! Which we really liked.

Generously proportioned Mona Lisa

There was a slightly embarrassing moment when I got a bit too close with my enthusiasm and set the alarms off.

How Gio and I are starting to look:

At the exhibition we bumped in to the Ozzy girls that were on the catamaran with us from panama which was a bit of a coincidence – doing the same walking tour as us! Next stop was the gold museum which was also really interesting but vast and so we were ready for more cheese and chocolate afterwards!

Crazy gold tribal figures

Day two in the city was going to be sightseeing but we ended up in an amazing shopping mall, the food court was phenomenal – every food you could imagine and amazing quality. Then we headed in to ‘Zona T’ for the evening and ate lovely food and ended up in a little Salsa bar with a live band, not quite brave enough to join in but we both loved watching and wondering.... “why can everyone in Colombia dance so well? Why do we have two left feet?!”