Keren and her Ramblings

Catch up for a few days

keren — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Hello!

It has been a few days...I was trying to keep up the writing by hand and then type it up but it just hasn't happened so today we are going by memory. Think of it as a clean summary, miss out the boring information just give me the highlights or in fact the the brilliant low-lights when things go wrong (don't think I really have any of these yet.).

So I went to Banos in Ecuador after the jungle and it was beautiful. Its a small town set right in the mountains and has a volcano for company. When I was on the bus winding up the mountain roads it just got more and more impressive so you can imagine the smile on my face when I realised this was where I was staying for the next couple of nights. It appeared pretty rapidly to me as I was walking through the town that Banos was kind of a mecca for outdoors activities. So the next day I got right to it and rented a bike. I always forget how riding a bike can make me feel so young and free (not that im really old but you know). There is a route that you can take which takes you to see about 5 different waterfalls and ends up at the big one called Machoy. The ride tallies up 24km but half of that is cruising down hill, thats what I call lovely. The waterfall in itself was bloomin impressive, massive and falling with such impact. I got wet just with the spray so decided 'hmm already half wet why not go for a swim?'...the swim was great.

Anyway I didn't have as much time in Banos as I would have liked as I had to get to Quito to get a flight to Lima (this is the rich version of travel, everyone else takes a 30hour bus but I was on tight time so splashed out). So I had one night in Quito, didn't really see much, so didn't really love the place. I did however by an Alpaca scarf/blanket for $8 and I love it, great purchase.

Im now in Lima, Peru. Very happy with my hostel (HQ Villa) it feels so homely and relaxed, the only issue is trying to get a taxi to find it!! I was driving around in the taxi for about 40mins and I swear he was just circling and so we had a little confusion with the amount to pay at the end but we met half way and both went away quite disgruntled. All that behind now, Lima was explored today and its alright. It's a city. A big city, kind of chaotic but someone how managed to get on the right bus to the centre and back so all is dandy here. Saw tons of churches, not really my way to see a place but I was playing tag along with a group of 3 so I just went with it.

Not sure I have anything else to say right now so i'm going to sign out and enjoy my evening!

Bye xx

The Itch makes me smile.

keren — Sat, 8 Sep 2012 23:04:00 GMT

It's Saturday today which is market day. Therefore we went to market. It was in this little town/community called Agua Santa and it was brilliant. Very small but it seemed to function really well and I just loved being there and experiencing it. There were a few huts which represented the supermarkets and a couple of food and all sorts stalls. I had my first empanade which is kind of like a pastry but more deep fried. You are 'meant' to put sugar on it but I decided that maybe sugar and cheese wasn't a good mix. Perhaps next time I will try it just to see what the fuss is about.
Yesterday I want to the watering hole with Frank, Bronte and Kelly. This is where you can go for a swim and it was much needed as it was so hot. I have to say I was a little nervous at first as the water was completely brown and I knew that I wouldn't be able to see my feet or what was swimming around me (wanting to get me). My main concern was snakes, Cayman and electric eels. But once I was in it was amazing, it felt so good to be in dunked in the water, however there was a strange layering system in the water. In fact not that strange, quite the opposite as in logical...it was hot on the top surface (sun heating) and really cold at the bottom (lack of sun heating). Then what happened was a gust of wind (I promise this story is to get better) and just after the wind Frank (the jungle man) said a storm is coming and 20seconds later it started to rain loads and thunder and lightning. Nothing better than swimming outdoors in the rain. On hind sight maybe the story didn't get better, just a little bit of information for you.Last night I had my first expereince of Bat net misting, this is where wer=nt went out to this known bat tunnel and wait pateintly for a bat to fly out into a net, its amazing the amount who can see the net in pitch darkness, their eyesight is brillaint. But after we had caught about 6 we had to ID them all which entailed weighing them and measuring them, this was really interesting to do. After this is done we had to find them in the book of Bats which was hilarious because there are so so many rather odd looking bats. Their wings are incredible and feel amazing, along with their fur...another brilliant experience.

Tonight I will be going out with Frank for a night walk to the Laguna   Apparently it's a really gorgeous spot and you can see loads of frogs.   I can't wait for this next adventure!   He said we will probably be out for about 6 hours as it's a long walk in and back.   I actually feel slightly nervous, I think its a nervous feeling due to the worry of my body failing (ie. not fit enough).   I got it a few times in Wales before climbing and walking up mountains.   I think its a worry of not being able to complete something and being stranded, a burden on someone else.    I think its most probably just adrenaline...
I'm chilling in the hammock again, I find it so comfy and relaxing my lounge should be just hammocks.   Perhaps the option of a cushion on the floor?   The food for dinner is currently being cooked and I am feeling pretty lazy but I have offered my hands and they said not to worry so I shall do so.    No worries, just laying back, relaxing reading my 10years old sisters book 'I, Coriander' (very much enjoying the magic of it.
Ok I'm going to be off now to relax and read.   The jungle is so noisily peaceful.    I think it's the life of living outdoors.So many itchy mosquito bites, it makes me really feel like a jungle explorer ha.

Jungle times.

keren — Fri, 7 Sep 2012 09:45:00 GMT

I am sat/lounged in a red and blue stripey hammock (not entirely sure how you spell that?) hanging from the hut and over looking this gorgeous jungle.   I woke up at %:15 to go for some breakfast with the birds.   We went on a short walk to find the perfect bird watching ledge and gazed (in a quick alert fashion) at the trees.   I saw loads of birds and I am struggling with all the names but we saw two white fronted Toucans and two different types of Parrots.   I saw lots of (now this is where I spell it wrong!) Keseets and something beginning with O. Ha. The bird calls were amazing and it feels really good when you can start to recognize them.   One of the calls sounds just like a water droplet falling.
So I have had a really nice start to the day, granola and bird watching.   Oh and the attempt of knocking a lemon off the lemon tree.
Not sure what lies ahead for today but I am feeling very relaxed.   The noise here has that persistent 'jungle' sound.   The accumulation of all the animal sounds is very comforting.
Yesterday was my first day here and it was incredible, I never even dreamed of being able to do something like this.   I arrived at 10:30am ish and Frank met me off the bus and it was so nice to see him.   He's great company.   I then joined the rest the rest of the group for their morning snack (popcorn that particular day-having plantation chips today.)   Everyone is so nice and really really friendly and down to earth.   I jumped in straight away and joined Rosies presentation on Dung Beatles   We went for a walk and had to do this experiment to catch and examine some Dung Beatles.   We will go back to see what we caught at 10:30 today.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the inhumane catching but it's not something that they really do here.
Anyway after that Frank gave me a tour and I had to read some stuff.   Then we went on Franks butterfly survey which was brilliant!   We went for a walk and had to check all the nets and note down what we found and at what distance from the road.   The butterflies are absolutely stunning.   The variations you can get are just unbeleivable.   The walk in and out was great I just kept looking around in sheer shock to where I was.
Later in the evening we went on a night stream walk and it was incredible.   You just got completely soaked and walk all the way upstream.   Saw loads of frogs and I caught one 'something somthing buckeyed' or something like that. I also had a tail-less whip Scorpio crawling around my face because its apparently something that you are meant to do if you find one...put in on your face (this was a photo importunity).   I saw a few birds, a king fisher was one of them.   We saw two of the most dangerous snake in South America and it goes by the name of Ferdalance.   AND we saw a Jaguar, it was staring at us 15metres away with its bright reflecting green eyes.   It moved its head in a circle which is a known cat like movement for them.    I just can't actually believe what I am experiencing, I feel so privileged.

On a bus on some bendy roads,

keren — Thu, 6 Sep 2012 10:47:00 GMT

Hola!

Im on another bus and this one is going from Tena to Agua Santa and my gosh are the roads bendy.   I don't think the bus has steered straight for more than 2 metres.

I am actually so happily satisfied and full of acheivement right now.   This morning I had a slight movie scene and it all came about by my having to catch this bus 'Jumandy' at 5:30am.   I was out of my room ready to check out at 4:50am and ws told someone would be on reception to call me a taxi...obviously this was not that simple...

I got to recpetion (a hut) and I was greeted a flickering television and that alone.   So my ears were filled with some Spanish soap conversation and tons of exotic animal noises (and a cockeral).   I thought I will just leave my money and key behind the desk and walk to the bus station.    Only to realise that all the gates were locked!!   I was locked in and getting a wave of the panic sweats.   Not really sure what to do?   Eventually, after what felt forever trying to think of a new smart plan, a boy came into reception looking very very tired.   He tried to sort me out a taxi and failed a few times but finally got one for 15minutes time which left me the grand total of 1 minute to catch my bus.   I agreed in absolute faith and hope it would work out.    In what I am sure was terrible Spanish ( im sure it was bad because I got the non-commital, distant and mumbled 'si' response)if the bus would wait and that if i missed it would he wait a few minutes incase I needed to return.   He agreed, I think...
I then started to think if I missed this bus what would I do?   Would I get the later one and hope that Frank would guess the new plan and still wait for me in the middle of the dirt track road to stop the bus?    This is about the time when I realised just how optimistic this plan was.   So I decided to stay with theoptimistic theme and try out a friends tactics.   Visucalisation.
Originally he told me to imagine and visualise completing a climbing route had I figured I could do the same for getting on the bus.   SO there I was standing in the middle of the road waiting for this taxi seeing myself getting on the bus.
The taxi turned up and the driver was very friendly.   Now this is where his friendliness was tested as when we arrived at the bus station he called out to a lady to ask about the 'Jumandy' bus to Agua Santa and she said it had just left!
The taxi driver without thought swung his car around and went straight after it.    It was a mad exciting chase with a lot of car hoosting and lights flashing and eventually the taxi overtook and pulled striaght in front of the bus.   The bus stopped in the middle of the road and the assistant driver ran across, picked up my luggage and hearded me onto the bus.   However during my hearding I dropped my passport so had to run back to grab it before sitting down on the bus feeling so happy.
Anyway so now I am on the bus and have been for the last two and a half hours.   Only another two to go.   It's amazing how regularly people jump on and off the bus.   Quite literally, the bus doesn't seem to stop.   People have to just jump on although aledgedly they do stop for woman and children.
I've had a few different people all sat next to me.   The first man liked to talk, alot, in Spanish so I could pracitice my pretending to be Spanish.   He said a nice good-bye and shook my hand which made me smile.   Second man was a little weird and a bit starry but he didn't ride the bus for that long and now I have a shy lady with a very cute little girl who keeps wanting to play with my pen.
So far the journey has been great.   I love looking out the window and seeing the amazon interspersed with little villages made out of makeshift materials.Thui

The first 3 days...

keren — Wed, 5 Sep 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Day 1/2ish

So it has started and I can certainly title this travelling.   I am on my second day of planes and flights and man do I feel strange.    Airports can have so many different energies depending on time but also massively on country.    I had my first experience of the American Immigration and that procedure felt long however I have to say I did get quite swept up with all the loud instructions and the authorities.   I actually got called Ma'am twice!
Im now in Peru, Lima Airport, waiting and hoping that my bag is being put on my next plane and I am actually booked onto it...these things can go wrong.    My body clock is all over the place, its currently 5:20am here but my body is still in English time 11:20am does that mean I can have lunch soon?   Or maybe I will just have lunch in a breakfasty fashion so I can say i'm acclimatizing and converting my body clock.
I don't really have to much to report now, I haven't stepped outside for awhile and am just getting really excited to get seeing and exploring.    One bad note, my phones not working!    I will get this fixed, I just need to contact o2 and ask 'whats going on?'.   But on a good note during my 9hour flight from London Heathrow to Miami I had a row of three seats to myself :)

Over and out for now xx

Day 2

I have just spent 2hours with a group of people waiting for the Taca Airline information desk to open, I thought I was being really clever and had fooled everyone that I was South American and I understood everything they were saying. I laughed in all the right places and matched the facial expressions with the flow of the conversation but then I got caught out with a question being thrown at me. I freaked out somewhat and any Spanish that I do know just frittered away and I was left with the awful phrase "Sorry I'm English". You see everyone kind of sigh and give each other an 'of course nod'. Talking of the words 'of course' it was one of the phrases that I could say I have got down like a pro in Spanish 'Claro'.
I'm now just waiting to hear the very welcome information that my luggage has followed me this far and that it is in-line to be put on my next couple of flights.
P.S I made my first mistake...went into the toilets and decided that I really wanted to brush my teeth (you know the feeling). So I did, I went ahead with the task in hand only to realise after that I was using tap water, maybe dodgy tap water? How on the ball are you meant to be with these things? Im sure a bit of water on the tongue isn't to lethal, we shall see.
Ok I'm going to go and do more airport exploring, adios!

Day 3

Hello and welcome to my Wednesday.

So what happened today?   Well I had my first morning of waking up in a hostel in Ecuador and I have to day it went rather well.   Had an interesting shower which involved being covered by a square piece of wood (the door) which covered the essentials.    But have you ever seen this, its actually rather entertaining just watching someones head and feet as the wash (not in a pervy way).
I then had the typical hostel breakfast...toast and jam with a couple of mugs of coffee to get you going.   Oh and the random conversations you can strike up with your fellow travellers to add a sprinkle to breakfast.
On a side note not sure if these blogs are really making much sense I'm going to blame it on my amateur writing skills and lack of normal activity so far ha.
I have to say I have been feeling rather extravagant with all the taxis I have already taken.   I reckon back home in England I could count the amount of times I took a taxi on one finger.   Here tho is a different story, basically if you have a massive back pack ('a massive object saying i'm travelling and don't know this place')then its just not really the safest bet to get on a bus or walk for hours with dodgy map skills.
Ironically my 45minute taxi ride cost double the amount of my 5hour bus ride.    The bus ride was so cheap it only cost $6, can't really go wrong with that.    The people at the bus station today were perhaps the most friendly and helpful strangers I have met in a long time.   I have to admit I did keep getting pointed in completely opposite directions, back and forth from the ticket office but they all seemed to reach the final decision unanimously as my bus pulled up they all shouted and called and pointed and helped me get on the bus.   A very helpful bunch of people!
The bus ride was interesting.   We seemed to vary from snail pace to dang right crazy speed.   Although it was only crazy as we were going around constant hair pin corners.    The route was absolutely stunning, all the way through the mountains and up into the clouds and then to drop down into the out skirts of the amazon.   Gorgeous.
I'm now in Tena which is a place in the Napo Province.   This is my stop before I jump on a bus to meet a friend who will take me into the jungle for a few days.   I never thought I would say that sentence.   Tena seems nice, I had a little wonder to soak some of it up.   Although primarily I needed to buy a phone that would work, I found a really nice old lady who helped me get one sorted.   I had to flex some of my Spanish skills as she no hable inglese (that's spelt in phonetic Spanish because I don't have any writing skills).   We even managed to converse so I could ask her to translate the phone so it was in English.   However I know realise that this may be a bit of a pain for her...she didn't take card payment so I went on a little whole in the wall mission but it promptly started to rain and it rained amazingly.    Got absolutely drenched, didn't find the ATM and then had to try and explain that I was going into the jungle so I didn't need a phone now but I will pick it up next week on my way through.   She answered yes thank you.   I hope she understood, the thing is with being a novice Spanish speaking you can be as sure as you like about what your saying but that doesn't mean you right.
Lets hope my Spanish improves.

I'm going to be off now and wont be writing anything whilst i'm in the jungle but will update when i'm out.

Two weeks to tick by...

keren — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:39:00 GMT

Here we are with two weeks to go...infact this time in two weeks I shall be soaring through the sky to Miami to soak up its airport offerings. This shall be followed up with the second leg of the flight to Peru!

I am currently sat in my English bedroom with Spanish post it notes (post it notes with Spanish on) surronding me and a half packed rucksack. I think this is what they call being prepared. I'm playing by the book. I've had all the correct vaccinations, wandered around to many 'outdoorsie' shops, had an absolute mission buying walking boots (I am the proud owner of size 2.5/3 feet), I've read tons of books and blogs and reviews its endless. But I have to say the whole thing has been a beautifully productive guest for my mind.

Just got a few things left on my 'TO DO...' list. The main thing being an address and destination after touch down in Peru. I'm playing around with a few options but will hopefully have the final decision in the next few days. See I'm already struggling with to much choice, this is going to be a challenging trip, and can't wait to live it.

Thats all for now,

First entry,

Keren xx