Postcards

No pain, no gain

2008-2009 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:31:00 GMT

After a few hours on the bus from Cuenca we reach Cajas National Park, and set out on a 5 hour hike. 2 hours into the hike it starts to hail and pour down with rain. There were plenty of gorgeous lakes and cacti but there was very little in the way of shelter. We are not really prepared for this so we arrive back at the rangers station a few hours later dripping wet. The sun is going down and we have organised to sleep over at the rangers station that night in below 0 degree temperatures. I am also already sick with a cold. Still, as you will see from the photos, no pain no gain, the national park was gorgeous! The ranger managed to get together some wood and we made a fire to dry out our clothes enough before bed. I managed to set my hiking boots on fire in the process and burn big holes in one of them, oops. After dark it was just Dave, Myself and the Ranger out in the middle of nowhere playing a game of cards. We taught him to play Cheat (mentiroso) and he was definitely the worst liar I have ever come across in my life. Bless his heart. He gave us a few blankets and we survived until the morning but being sick I was happy to head back to Cuenca whilst Dave went on another 7 hour trek.

The next day we left Cuenca for Banos. We departed at midday and were supposed to arrive in Banos at approximately 7pm that night. At about 5pm the bus stopped on the side of a road up the top of a mountain. They locked all the passangers in the back and drew the curtains and refused to let us out despite the fact that i was banging on the door yelling "Necessito ir afuera, hace calor!". At this point no one was informed of what was going on. I was really worried about our luggage as they had opened the luggage compartment. Dave jumped out the window of the bus and started arguing with the 3 staff members about it and then the bus started up again. 10 minutes later the bus stopped again. This time it was clear that we had broken down. This became especially clear when the drivers, still not informing anyone of what is going on, go to sleep at the back of the bus. It is dark, they have not turned the hazard lights on, there are no street lights and we are sitting half way on the road whilst massive trucks fly around the corner and quickly veer around us last minute. We decide waiting away from the bus is a safer option so we all pile out and stand up the road. Two little boys keep us entertained through process of interrogation for a few hours but eventually it gets so cold everyone has to go back into the bus which is not quite as freezing. At midnight help arrives and at 1am we finally arrive in a town called Riobamba and find a hostel with a hot shower. I am still sick at this point and this shower is the greatest shower of my life. Ahhhh.

The next day we head to Banos which is where I am now. After a few days in bed I am feeling much better so today we hit the thermal baths and we have a kitchen at the hostel so I have been cooking healthy food, yes mum with plenty of fresh garlic, you can imagine i smell amazing. We have breakfast on the terrace surrounded by views of mountains with cascading waterfalls and low lying clouds. Fresh bread, muffins, home made jams, cheeses, eggs, freshly blended rasberry juice and tea, all for 3 dollars.

Tomorrow a friend from my Galapagos trip is coming to visit and I will stay here just over a week to do some Spanish lessons before heading back to Quito and then onwards to Argentina (where my mum will be meeting me as she spontaneously decided to do today, very random). I am getting really lazy with these journal entries and uploading photos. What a lot of effort! I will just have to show most of you when I get home if you care to see. Hasta Luego xo

Gallery: cajas national park

2008-2009 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:27:00 GMT

Lazy Days

2008-2009 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:11:00 GMT

Not much to write about as these are lazy days now. After ambling along the coast of Ecuador, Puerta Lopez and Montañita, soaking up the sun and surf, drinking too much 1.50 a bottle rum (aye aye aye, never again) and eating too many set almuerzos of rice and chicken, soup and cordial, I now find myself in Cuenca. Cuenca is the friendliest of towns, picture perfect, pretty safe, muy tranquillo and close to Caja national park and the thermal baños suburb in which I have only moments ago returned from, ahhh. Its a good place to practice spanish as people are happy to chat away to you, give you a lift, with much pride in their town and rightfully so. Dave is teaching me a little spanish as we have a session each day reading Condorita, a quirky comic about a sleazy condor (the symbol of ecuador) who is always falling for beautiful cartoon babes and almost always inevitably ends in someone falling off their chair and a ¨PLOP¨. I am staying in a cheap hostel with a kitchen and have obligingly been to dinner with a peruvian drug dealer and his friend/girlfriend? and cooked dinner last night for the first time since I can remember... fresh healthy vegetarian food - bliss! Tomorrow I am heading off to Cajas national park and then will probably move onto another town further north, also called ¨Banos¨ where there are more thermal baths, mountains to hike, cheap spanish lessons and more. Hasta Luego, Adios!

Gallery: Cotopaxi

2008-2009 — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 02:04:00 GMT

Volcan Cotopaxi

2008-2009 — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 00:59:00 GMT

On the 23rd Feb I arrived back in Quito from the Galapagos and within 20 minutes was in in a pick up truck taxi 4WDing through the darkness on my way to Cotopaxi Reserve, 2 hrs south of Quito. I arrived at 8pm and was met by 2 dalmations, 2 sausage dogs and a warm fireplace surrounded by friendly guests. In the morning I was blown away by the view of Cotopaxi Volcano * see picture to be uploaded, at 5897m, Ruminahui to the right and fields of grazing cows and horses and interweaving streams set below. Dave showed me around the reserve where I met some pigs, chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits (all for eating). A group of us climbed to the Cotopaxi refuge at 4800m and then further to where the snow commences, to throw snow balls and slide down the volcano on our bums. Perhaps not the greatest idea when your clothes are wet, you are standing amongst the clouds and you still have to treck back downhill again.

I started to voluteer a little at the hostel which meant free food, accomodation and tours whilst I was there. On day 2 I joined some guys on a mountain biking venture up and then down Ruminahui. Only my back breaks worked a bit so I skidded most of the way back down to the gate and then watched the guys stack it all hte way back to the hostel from the safety of the 4WD. The next day a guy went on the same bike tour and ended up in hospital having plastic surgery on his nose and stitches in 4 different areas of his face. Poor sausage. It was quite the drama for the day at the hostel as we all fussed over him.

The hostel had no electricity so the past few days have been spent eating, serving food, building the fire, lighting candles, playing cards/drinking games with other travellers and amusing the dogs. Pretty simple living for a while. Muy tranquillo.

Back in Quito again now, obviously. Am going to head to the coast for a while, as of tomorrow. xo Besos

Gallery: The Galapagos Islands

2008-2009 — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 00:41:00 GMT

Soy Capitana

2008-2009 — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 06:32:00 GMT

Hola,

So much activity to squeeze into this entry, where to start? Okay! Mel and I caught 4 local buses to the Otavalo Markets on the 17th and then she flew to Brazil that evening. The next day Dave and I missioned out to Papallacta to stay in the mountains and bathe in the steamy hot springs and breathe in some fresh icy mountain air. After arriving back to Quito in the evening I managed to snag an inexpensive last minute deal to the Galapagos Islands, leaving at 6.30am the next morning on a first class boat 'The Estrella Del Mar'. On two hours sleep I boarded a plane, bus, ferry, another bus and then finally 'The Estrella', Ahhhh.

The past 4 days in the Galapagos have been intoxicating as we went from Island to Island exploring the exotic wildlife and eating delicious food on the boat in between outings. To write about everything would take too long so I will leave you to gush over the highlights. On day 2 I snorkelled with playful penguins, darting through the water only a few centimetres away from my face. I swam in between 3 of them for 10 minutes.... Wait gotta go see some photo exhibition will finish later...

Okay I'm back. I went to the World Photo exhibition in Quito and then on my way back into the hostel I was told I was going to a live football match between Quito and Liga. We supported Liga and all bought shirts and they won 4 to 0. The atmosphere was insane. There was an army tank parked out the front and armed blockade police everywhere. It was like a mosh pit in the stadium and there were people lighting fires and letting off fireworks amongst the crowd... total madness and crazy fun.... wait... gotta go, apparently we are all heading out... will finish this tomorrow... i promise this time!!!

Tomorrow is here, and for some reason after very little sleep I am awake bright and early so I will finish this now... okay where was I, oh yeah, the penguins... We slowly paddled away from the beach together. After dinner, and a few vodkas, with some new friends on board I was invited by the third captain to navigate the boat. I drove the boat onwards in the darkness under a milky way of stars whilst the sea lions slapped around in the water surrounding making gurgling noises. It was for the best that all the other guests on board were sleeping as I think they would have had a heart attack if they had known there were 3 drunk girls in the drivers cabin dancing salsa whilst navigating our way to tomorrows island. After about 15 minutes of zig zagging I really got the hang of it and later was on the captains case when he slacked off and we wandered off course. ' A la derecha' (to the right) I yelled. 'Soy Capitana'.

On day 3 we head to South Plaza Island. At the nose of the boat 5 dolphins led the way. We also stopped a while to interact with a pod of whales before arriving at a seal colony where frisky cubs posed for the cameras. Snorkelling by far was my favourite activity. The fish were out of this world. The sharks meandered along below our legs, stingrays scuttled away from the commotion, curious sealions slunk past whilst their cubs challenged one another playfully amongst the rocks. A tortoise gradually floated past. Amazing, amazing! Well, at risk of sounding too much like David Attenborough I will leave it there. xo

Gallery: Ecuador

2008-2009 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:51:00 GMT

Vive Ecuador!

2008-2009 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:06:00 GMT

'Vive Ecuador, Vive vive vive', shouted a plane full of people as we hit the tarmac in Quito. Unfortunately that was as much life as I saw over the next four days, bed ridden with a stomach bug, fainting, vomiting etc. A doctor came to see me and in all seriousness told me 'no tea, no coffee, no chocolate, y no alcohol'!!!! 'No divertido', I said sadly. Fortunately on Day 5 I was out of bed and exploring Quito. Since, I have gone Ecuador loco and cannot seem to tear myself away from this beautiful country. I am looking at booking extra time here and maybe heading off to the Galapagos islands for a few days. I arrived back from the amazonian jungle late last night. Mel, an aussie girl, and I spent four days in the Cuyabeno reserve in the Oriente fending off tarantulas, enormous flying everythings and Ecuadorian men who brought us flowers in the morning. Mel even received a poem at the doorway of our cabin one morning after breakfast. I want to upload some photos because i have some fantastic ones of our sleazy guide aka 'Rambo' in his blue speedos holding a snake that he yanked down from one of the trees along the river. Also on our way back to the bus I met one of the village people and I had my photo taken with him. Sorry, my battery is dead and charging so you will have to wait for those. I am heading out tonight, possibly dancing, so i will have to hit Mel up for some lessons. I'm not sure what my plans are for the next few days/weeks but will keep you posted. xo Besos.

Gallery: Spain

2008-2009 — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 22:51:00 GMT

Flying Solo

2008-2009 — Sun, 1 Feb 2009 22:13:00 GMT

Hola,

After clunking away on a robot computer in a games bar for half an hour the attendant came along and unplugged my prepaid computer from the wall, so this is actually the second time I am writing this story. I apologise if it lacks enthusiasm as a result. We are in Nerja, a seaside town in the south of Spain. We spent a few days in Madrid and then Granada (to see the incredible Alhambra) before heading east to Rhonda for a scenic train journey past olive fields and small villages nestled amongst the rugged mountains with the sierra nevada as a backdrop. We hobbled through the streets of Nerja with our packs, mum with a broken toe which she kicked on the side of the bed the night before. We hit a tapas bar attempting to numb her pain a little. It worked for a while, she managed to pace to the restaurant afterwards at an almost normal speed. It´s a rainy day in Nerja so we are dissapointed that we haven´t been able to walk along its beaches, but we have spent the morning gazing out at the meditteranian ocean through the window of a cafe, so it´s not all bad.

Matt has decided to go to Italy and then New York, and I am leaving in a few days for Ecuador on my own. A bit of a last minute suprise. So all blogging from now on will be an uncombined effort. Matt might upload some photos from where he is and I am going to see if I can buy a camera so I can do the same. If any of you know anyone in Ecuador, Peru, Chile or Argentina (where I will be for the next 8 weeks) then please put me in contact with them so I don´t go too cuckoo travelling on my own again.

Love Anouska

Pitstop

2008-2009 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:30:00 GMT

We spent 24 hours in Madrid shopping, eating tapas, drinking red wine and walking around the city parks before heading to the UK for a pitstop, to recharge the batteries before our next busy South America leg. Matt flew to Scotland and I to England. My first day in London I wandered along the river, read in cafes, visited the Tate Modern gallery and caught a film 'Alfred Hitchcocks - Notorious' at the British Cinema for their Ingrid Bergman week. Then I met up with Luke and we head out with some of his mates for the night/morning. So much for recharging the batteries, after a few days of catching up with friends and irresponsibly intoxicating myself every night whilst suffocating my chest infection with cough medicine I had a moment of clarity and decided enough is enough, it's time to relax, sleep and recouperate. So I head out to my Auntys in Sussex with mum and have spent the last two days eating, sleeping and watching television. Come to think of it I don't think I have left the house in 48 hours. Still, we had a really fun time in London. Mum and I rented a hotel room for a few nights and we lived it up by dining at The Fortnum and Masons Gallery restaurant where Luke works. We were lavished with free champagne and extras and I fullfilled my craving for oysters once more. Now, completely and utterly relaxed I am really looking forward to heading off again to Spain in a few days - Madrid and down to Granada for a week and a half.

Matt sounds like he is having fun in Scotland. I think they saw some snow at Becki's place where he is staying. I will find out more on Monday when we meet up again in Madrid. Entonces, hasta luego! xo

Budapest

2008-2009 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:49:00 GMT

I think the title says it all. We are no longer in Dublin. We are no longer in a relationship (still friends though). I was offered a few nannying jobs in Ireland but nothing had come through for Matt yet. Needless to say we decided to cut our losses and travel onwards. The plan at this point in time is to fly to Spain tonight, London on the 16th for me, Scotland for Matt, and then meet back up again in Spain on the 26th, departing early February some time for South America together. Confused? Me too. What a chaotic last few weeks. Too chaotic to recount and too distressing to want to recount them, so lets move onto the good stuff already. BUDAPEST!

We arrived in Pest on Sunday after a night out in Dublin drinking Guinness and sucking down Galway oysters with my friend Nat. After 3 hours sleep we dragged ourselves to the airport. After catching up on a little sleep we rugged up and head out to explore the city. The temperature outside was about negative 8 degrees, the air was thick with a cold fog, and thats been about the state of the weather since we have been here. (Since I have been in Europe I feel the compulsion to do a weather report before divulging any further details about our expeditions. Its such a european thing to do. 'How are you today Mr. O'Malley.' 'Well, its a broad bright moonlit night tonight' or 'Another dreary, bleak day out'- Sorry ill get back to the blog). So we have established that it's cold. Huge flakes of ice float down the river, the pavements are icy and slippery. A light snow falls over the city, and everything is beautiful. We walk through Gellert Park and the Castle District to view the city from above through the fortress windows. I have not seen Budapest in the Summer but I think winter suits this city with its fairytale architecture and terrain. I half expected a troll to emerge from underneath the bridge as we crossed from one side of the city to the next, or to find hansel wandering aimlessly through the woods/park...

Okay, we have to go catch a bus back to the hotel now or we will miss our flight to Madrid. We just needed to get out of the cold for a bit and the house of terror was closed for renovation. So, ill leave it there and upload some photos at another time to better illustrate our experiences. The good ones anyway. xo Love nousk and matt

Europe: London, Paris, Dublin

2008-2009 — Wed, 7 Jan 2009 23:26:00 GMT

England saw us through a very Merry Christmas where we were able to meet up with some of my family and our friends, drink wine, eat roast turkey and open Christmas presents at my Aunty and Uncle's manor home in the English countryside. 4 days later we took a flight to Paris, and spent the week eating baguettes, drinking red wine and sightseeing in the bitterly cold weather, gazing out at the snow from our studio apartment in the latin quarter. We spent new years at a friends apartment, playing guitar and singing and sliding around on the ice rink outside city hall until security kicked everyone off.

Utterly sick of flying by now on Jan 2 we board a delayed ryan air flight to Dublin arriving at midnight. Someone forgot to unlock the entrance doors so we all stood in line outside for 10 minutes. This is after we have been left out in the freezing cold for 3 hours at the shuttle bus station, despite my best attempts to plead with one of the staff members "but monsieur, its so cold out here". Less than sympathetic he refrained from placing us in any of the spare seats on the 15 other buses going to the same airport. It seems french men aren't so easy to charm. Needless to say, I spent the next 2 days in bed sick and feverish.

Fortunately we had a friendly Irish taxi driver who called the apartment managers on his mobile for us at 1am to get them to come and let us in to the building once we finally made it there. Not a bad apartment to veg out in... though totally unaffordable for longer than a week. Of course despite being a little under the weather I have still managed to hit a few irish bars and Luke took a spontaneous flight from London which we followed up with an afternoon at the guiness factory and a night at the bar.

So now we are madly applying for jobs from the comfort of our apartment. It's tough times in Ireland on the work front, so watch this space, who knows where we'll be next week.

Gallery: Europe thus far

2008-2009 — Sun, 4 Jan 2009 09:32:00 GMT

Poon Hill/Gorepani

2008-2009 — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:16:00 GMT

We arrived back from our Poon Hill trek yesterday. It was a walk in the park after our last trek. The tea houses provided showers (although cold), extra blankets and fresh buffalo milk at breakfast. The towns along the way were quaint and quiet, aside from the crow of roosters, the milking of buffalos and the occasional clip clopping of hooves and ringing of bells accompanying a procession of decorated mules crossing through town on their way to a festival. On our first night we stayed in Ulleri and by the afternoon of day 2 we had ascended to Poon Hill to watch the sun set behind the mountains. Even our photos don't look realistic. The mountains were so close and majestic, propped before the coloured sky, it was like watching a Ghibli animation in slow motion. All the beauty must have sent me crazy because i asked my guide to accompany me back up the 1 1/2 hr ascent from Gorepani again at 5am the next morning to do it all over again for sunrise. I left Matt sleeping soundly in bed and commenced the freezing cold, dark climb with many other freaks of nature and my guide Bijay. Bijay brought me coffee and chocolate while I filmed and sniffled. He says sunrise and sunset at Poon Hill is (like your children) impossible to choose which one you like more. I would have to agree with him. On day 3 we trecked to Tadepani (long water). It was my dads birthday so we drank whiskey and ate daal bhat and momos to celebrate. Bijay and Prem carved Matt a good stick for descending and on day 4 we reached Gandruk. We spent the afternoon lazing around the garden in the sun, and walking through old Ghandruk, visiting a Garung monastry along the way. Today we are back in Pokhara, ready to leave for Kathmandu tomorrow. We will sped a few days visiting Nagarkot, Changu Narayan and Bhaktapur then are flying back to Delhi on the 20 Dec (yikes), then London on the 21st. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Or as Bijay would say 'Merry Kissmas'. Love and Peace. xo

Gallery: Poon Hill Trek

2008-2009 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:21:00 GMT

Bhairav Kund

2008-2009 — Thu, 4 Dec 2008 22:09:00 GMT

Hey!

I am jotting this story into my notebook as we descend the mountains North East of Kathmandu, by bus. I want to write about our last few weeks a bit before I become swept up in the next few and forget the details. Half an hour ago we were rafting down the Bhote Koshi river through class 4 rapids. Imagine an overcast winter in Nepal and f*ck#ng freeeeeezing water and you will understand our intense motivation to paddle hard and fast thus not to capsize the raft, as we had done so on our first day on the river. Today, we lost one of our crew overboard as the raft hit a rock and landed against another at a 180 degree angle and 8 helpless Aussies dangled from its ropes in the cold air whilst our guide untrenched us, and a canoe set out downstream to collect our friend Maddy. So much fun! With the icy water slapping my skin, all that adrenaline pumping through my veins and having just recovered from Giardia I felt a new zest for life. We had lunch on the river bank and cuddled baby goats to keep warm.

We completed the Bhairav Kund treck to 4400m 3 days ago (6 days of camping and trecking). The treck was set near the tibetan border in a remote area. We only saw a few sherpas and villagers in our first few days and then after that no one outside of our group. On Day 1 we visited a school and I almost caused a riot because everyone wanted to see their picture in my video camera. Not too much school work was done done whilst we were there, I think we may have even interrupted an exam, but no one seemed to care. We crossed through villages and farm land where millet and mustard flowers grew. The first night we camped at a village and taught the local children how to play cricket, using a log for a bat and some twigs poked into the dirt as a wicket. That night Matt said he felt really sick. Within half an hour I was vomiting and he was rocking back and forth. We were both up all night, me being sick and him feeling sick, pretty awful. Fortunately in the morning we were greeted by a concerned team of guides and our fellow treckers, who just happened to consist of 3 med students a nurse and 2 doctors. We were given magical anti nausea pills and it was decided we would continue onwards... though I think I can say that, that day of walking 9 hours uphill after no sleep and still feeling pretty rotten, would have to have been one of the hardest days of my life. Every day after that one felt quite easy comparatively.

On day 2/3??? we visited a Tibetan nunnery and met many women who had fled Tibet and are living in exile. They were really keen to spend time with us and loved to have their photo taken. The 3rd night was ccccold. Our camp was surrounded by snow capped Nepalese and Tibetan mountains. I grabbed for my water bottle during the night only to find it was frozen. On Day 4 we reached the much anticipated Bhairav Kund sacred lake. It was amazing! The lake sat above the cloud band and the sun set behind the mountains. The boys spent most of their time cracking the ice with rocks and sticks. Unfortunately one of us was sent down hill in the night with altitude sickness but she recovered fine the next day.

On day 6 we reached stairs-civillization as we now knew it. We crossed though some hindi and sherpa villages where we witnessed the massacre of a buffalo and ate chilli grapefruit offered by the women. Computer is about to die again due to power cuts so i'll close off now. There ended our treck anyway and we took our first showers in 6 days at the Borderland Resort, mmmmmm.

We are unable to post many photos at this time. It took me 2 hours to get the ones up there so far and will have to wait until we get to England to do the rest as we are now in Pokhara and the power is out most of the day.

Oh, and Matt had a good birthday with beer and friends and chocolate cake and we are both healthy again and ready for our next treck in 4 days time.

Gallery: Bhairav Kund Trek - Borderlands

2008-2009 — Thu, 4 Dec 2008 17:33:00 GMT

Gallery: Kathmandu

2008-2009 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:51:00 GMT