On the road again!

Belem & the Amazon Booze Cruise

stiena_booton — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:37:00 GMT

So having decided against spending too much time on the river by doing the slow boats up to Santareum, Nadia and I instead went on a 6 hour cruise. It took us along the river and had a place to stop for lunch where we could swim in the Amazon which was a highlight for us. The water was very warm though so not really what you would call refreshing, especially as it was so humid already.

Given that there was not much else to do on the boat and that we figured we deserved a bit of a relaxing time after our epic few days of bus journeys Nadia and I turned our day into a booze cruise which made it a very enjoyable and amusing. I was particularly impressed that we were downing the local beer of choice which is called Skol :-)

Once we returned to Belem we jumped on a night bus to a place called Sao Luis. We arrived at 8am and had every intention of staying there for a night to break up our trip towards Fortaleza but honestly, the place is a dive. It has a couple of nice buildings in the historic centre but otherwise it is just old, dirty and falling down...kind of like a lot of the people we encountered in the side streets. That said we decided to head off immediately and got a ticket for another night bus leaving at 5:30pm to Forteleza (18 hours - why do we keep doing this to ourselves!?)

Highlights of Sao Luis - Lovely woman at the HI hostel let us come in and shower and re-pack all our stuff and store our bags all for free!

Roll on the beaches! We are definitely ready for them now :-)

Brazil and the bus rides from hell...

stiena_booton — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:41:00 GMT

Leaving Buenos Aires was sad for us both as we had had such a great time there, but onwards to Brazil! We got on a hellishly long bus from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro after discovering that we really did not want to pay for the exorbitantly pricy flights. After arriving in one piece we navigated our way from the bus terminal to our hostel which was called Stone of a Beach and was two streets back from Copacobana Beach! That is where my excitement ended. The dorm rooms are unbelievably hot and stuffy and FILTHY. We may just have just been unlucky and arrived when bad room mates were around but it was gross. Anyway, we dumped our gear and headed to Copacobana Beach to at least get some sun time on our first day in Rio. It was exactly what I had expected, people everywhere and a long curved bay of water with the city as a backdrop for it all. I think that Nadia and I are both glad now that we made ourselves go on that first afternoon as the next 3 days were grey and rainy :-( For me, Rio was not the place to be unless the sun was out but we made the most of it and went up to the statue of Christ the Redeemer on the second day. We also did a Favela tour and went to a huge street party in Lapa one night with people from our hostel and then went back again the next night for dinner and some more street drinking. Nadia went hang gliding over the city too. It was Independence Day on the Monday so the city was packed with people for the long weekend. So we managed to fill our days easily enough but to be truthful all I really wanted out of Rio was a couple of hot, sunny days to lie on the beach at Copacabana and Ipanema. Luckily on our last day in Rio we got the sun back! So having had a day spent lying on the beach at Ipanema I was able to leave Rio as a happy camper instead of the slightly grumpy one that the rain had brought out in me. Now to live up to the title I will tell you how we then got to Belem which is where I am writing this from. Nadia and I are nearing the end of our trip as we have to fly from Salvador to Cancun on the 26th of this month (eeeek!) So, we decided that in order to get up to Belem fast and then have some time to cruise back down the coast and stop at some little beachy towns we should bus the whole way up with out stopping if it was possible. End result is that on the 8th Sept at 10:30am we got on a bus from Rio to Salvador. No less than 27 hours later we arrived in Salvador. Once there we had two options. Get over to the beachy side of town (bus station is 7km from the centre) and stay for one night and leave the next day at 4pm OR hang out at the bus terminal for another 4 hours and get straight onto the 6pm bus to Belem. Naturally, being insane as we are, we got on the 6pm bus. A mere 37 hours later we arrived in Belem! Finito, we made it :-) and we didn´t even kill each other, ourselves or any random passengers on the way. So now that we are in Belem we are going to do a cruise on the Amazon tomorrow which will also take us over to some of the islands and to a beach for lunch and swimming. I think we truly deserve it!

Lazy, Lazy Update on Bolivia, Chile and Argentina

stiena_booton — Mon, 7 Sep 2009 00:09:00 GMT

So as per usual my best of intentions have gone awry and I have failed to write in this journal for far too long. So here is the condensed (lazy) version of the last few places we´ve visited.

After returning on an early morning flight to La Paz from our trip to the Bolivian Pampas near Rurrenbaque we immediately headed to Indigena Tours to book ourselves onto a 3 day Salt Flat tour near Uyuni. The end result being that we left La Paz again at 9pm that night. No rest for the wicked I tell you! The 3 day your looked like the perfect choice for us as it would enable us to be dropped at the Chilean border on the last day and from there we could catch a bus over to San Pedro. Having said that I would not recommend the 3 day Salt Flats tour to others. Go for a day and see them and then get yourself back into Uyuni for sleeping. It was freezing cold and the concrete bunker style buildings that you sleep in are pretty bad. I have stayed in some fairly crappy accommodation over the years but these places, combined with the -20 degree temps overnight rate as some of the worst. Admittedly we did see some cool stuff on the 2nd day (like pink flamingos in algea lakes) but nothing so amazing that it made it truly worthwhile. However for us it was a means to an end to get to Chile and as you know, Nadia and I are pretty good at making the best out of any situation so it had it´s fun moments.

Our border crossing into Chile was hilarious, we had a bus driver on a dodgy little bus that must have counted the number of passengers about 10 times and kept coming up with different numbers. He was however very helpful when it came to filling out immigration cards and pointing out the main streets in San Pedro. San Pedro by the way is a tiny little town with only about 10 streets anyway - all unpaved and the biggest dogs I have ever seen in my life all just lazing around in the dust. After being out in the desert for 3 days with no bathing facilities we were very excited to be able to finally have a shower once we booked into our hostel. Sadly, no water for 2 hours! So we went and wandered the town for a while, put in some much needed laundry and organized our bus ticket to Salta which would enable us to get over to Puerto Iguazu from there to see the Igauzu Falls.

Things of note for San Pedro: Do not use the ATMs unless you really have no other choice. The power cuts quite frequently and like me your card will be swallowed! It´s OK though as the lovely if slightly crazy little man in the shop next door has keys to the machine! Only in Chile hey...? Can you imagine shopkeepers in Perth being given keys to the ATM next door!?! Also if your laundry is supposed to be back at a certain time...count on it being at least 2 hours longer than that :-)

Salta (Argentina) - Not much to say about it really, seemed like a nice place with a pretty main plaza and lots of little shops and cafes but we were just there overnight before getting on another bus to reach Puerto Iguazu.

Iguazu Falls when we finally got there to see them were amazing. They are huge and thunderously loud with spray and mist rising up from them to drench everyone who comes close. Nadia and I took lots of pictures and then spent time just gazing at the enourmous volume of water just pouring over the edge. Very hypnotic I have to say. We also walked around the trails and explored the park a bit, enjoying all the butterflies and coming across coatis all over the place (see pics on facebook). Then we headed down to the base area of the falls to jump on one of the speedboats that darts in, around and almost under the waterfall. It was fantastic fun but we came out absolutely drenched from head to toe.

Things of note for Puerto Iguazu - We got our Brazilian visas there and it only took 24hrs as opposed to waiting a week in Buenos Aires. Also the HI hostel across from the bus terminal is a great place to stay.

Next stop was Buenos Aires and we loved every minute of it. On the first day we went on a bike tour to get ourselves orientated to the city and then we spent the remaining days wandering back to all the places we wanted to see more of. The underground and the buses are really wide reaching and easy to navigate so it made our exploring so much easier. The city itself reminded both of us a lot of Paris purely by the type of architecture and the style of the street layouts. It was clean and friendly and the sun was shining for us so we couldn´t have asked for more. Daytime fun included going to the area of La Boca where we ate lunch while we watched a tango show, wandered up and down rows of painting and photography stalls and just generally soaked up the vibe. Nights we ate steaks, steaks and more steaks. I highly recommend La Cabrera - it was the nicest meal I have had in a long time, and not just while backpacking! We also went out drinking, dancing and spectating when the tango dancers were too intimidating :-) All up our time in Buenos Aires was brilliant. *We stayed at a hostel called Milhouse and it was huge, new, clean, great staff and good breakfasts.

Bolivia - La Paz and the Pampas

stiena_booton — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:10:00 GMT

The bus to La Paz was half the fun in my mind. We skirted around Lake Titicaca, crossed the border with no problems and then got on a boat while our bus was loaded onto a pontoon type of ferry to cross the lake at its narrowest point. From there it was a bit further along the Bolivian side of the lake and then along the edges of the gorgeous Bolivian mountains which were fantastic to see coming up out of the reddish desert type landscape around them. Driving down into La Paz was an eyeopener too. It is set in a bowl shaped depression and is enormous. We got dropped in the central area near what the travellers call the witches market. There are heaps of stalls selling all sorts of strange talismans and herbs as well as dried up llama foetuses for people to bury under their homes for good luck! The ideal way apparently, for maximum effect, is to bury the foetus under the first stone laid for your new house. Slightly creepy and I tried to get a photo but failed as I felt rude. The stall owners clearly did not approve of my camera being out so I gave up. It was a fascinating sight though.

Nadia and I decided that it was time to go out and celebrate our new nephews arrival so we grabbed a bite to eat (the street stands sell these great roast pork rolls with hot sauce, pink pickled onions, lettuce and tomato!) and then cabbed it down to a place that was recommended as one of the happening spots in La Paz. As with all things read in the Lonely Planet, a year since publishing can make a big difference. Still the place had good drinks even if they were served by staff in surgical gloves and paper masks. Swine flu or just hygiene gone mad? Who knows? We had a few celebratory drinks then tried to call home to congratulate Leith and Jodie but couldn´t get through so we headed back to our part of town and tried once more. Still no response so we decided to find another bar to see if it was more lively and have another drink! On the way home later we tried one more time to call and then gave up and went and got a terrible hamburger from a street stand that was still open near the roundabout on our street. Once back at the Hostal Copacobana we devoured said hamburger despite its bad taste and then got onto the free internet for a bit of drunken emailing...

After a sleep in we decided that we should really get a move on and arrange our tour to the Pampas near Rurrenbaque. We had decided that even though the Jungle trips looked cool, we would prefer the Pampas one as you see more animals.

This in mind we went and checked out a few tourist places and ended up in Indigena Tours. Given that we wanted to get on a tour as soon as possible we did our organizing amazing race style. At 3.00pm we booked ourselves on a flight to Rurrenbaque that was departing at 4.50pm! This would ensure that we could join a Pampas tour the next morning at 9.00am and spend 3 days in the wilds of Bolivia checking out all the critters it had to offer. We ran out of the office to get withdraw money so we could pay and confirm ASAP and then took our tickets from the agent and rushed back to our hotel to pack a small bag with 3 days of gear for the trip. Very proud of ourselves we packed in record time, arranged to store our bags at the hotel and made it to the airport in a taxi with 20mins to spare.

The flight was fantastic. It was a little 20 seater plane and it flew from La Paz over the mountains in such a way that we flew between two huge snow covered peaks that were level with the wings when you looked out of the window! Once over the mountains the view was of green jungle below. Check out the pics on facebook and tell me that the landing strip in Rurrenbaque does not remind you of Phantom comics!

Rurrenbaque itself was a pleasant surprise. We arrived to about 30 degrees and what felt like 90% humidity which for us was awesome. Finally, some heat and sun! The town is really small and reminded me a lot of Vietnam. Hazy horizons, humidity, slow pace and good vibe. We spent the night in a simple hostel and had a few more celebratory drinks on our nephews behalf before finding an icecream shop and devouring a lovely but sickening (you know what I mean) icecream sundae.

Up and excited the next morning Nadia and I had breakfast and were at the tour office as instructed by 8.30am. By 9.30am our jeep was finally ready adn we started out on our 3hour journey along bumpy and extremely dusty red dirt roads. By the time we arrived for lunch we were filthy! There was about another hours travel after the lunch break to get us to the river where our boat was waiting to take us into the depths of the wilderness. Our guide was called Negro (I was sure I had mis-heard him at first) and he was a friendly enough guy. He spoke only basic english but we explained that we were fine as long as he didn´t talk too fast. The other four people on our boat were two french couples who really were not allthat chatty but oh well, Nadia and I were content to soak up the sun and spot animals. Spotting them was definitely no problem at all! From the minute we arrived there had been something to look at. Before we even got in our boat there were pink river dolphins cruising around in the water nearby and as soon as we got underway we saw alligators, more birds than you can imagine, monkeys and these cool creatures that I am not sure how to spell. I am going to run with Capibarra - they are a wierd cross between a guinea pig and a wombat and you will have to get on facebook to see my pics of them, it is worth it!

We spent our time in the Pampas (3 days 2 nights) cruising in the boat, walking through the wetlands in search of an anaconda which our lunatic guide picked up, pirhana fishing, night spotting the red eyes of the alligators, enjoying the sunsets and just generally relaxing in the warm, humid sun. On the last day we were offered the opportunity to get in and swim near the pink dolphins. Given that they were not the friendly, playful type like many ocean going dolphins, we declined. It also had a lot to do with the fact that we had spotted more alligators than I could count and some of them were 4 or 5 metres long! I was also not encouraged to get too close to Pedro the friendly neighbourhood alligator that we were taken to see when Nadia noticed that our guide (who was feeding it chicken) was missing a few fingers! We asked him about that and he said - No, no, not Pedro, he is my friend. It was another alligator years ago that I used to catch and bind it´s jaw shut so tourists could take photos. One day it was too fast and got my fingers. Do you think he is a slow learner or what!

After another rough jeep ride back to Rurrenbaque we were filthy dirty again but without the joy of being able to put on clean clothes. We tidied up as best we could and went in search of dinner and beer before having an early night in preparation for our 7am flight back to La Paz.

***Highlights:

1. Seeing Nadia fall on her bum in the mud while anaconda hunting.

2. Getting to hold one of the pirhanas that our guide caught and eating them for dinner.

3. Not having caught malaria...so far, I think!

Puno - Lake Titicaca

stiena_booton — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:00:00 GMT

This part of our trip was pretty chaotic to be honest. We arrived at 5am in Puno from Cuzco and arranged a hotel room straight off the bus so we could go and have a much needed sleep. We had however decided that we did not want to waste too much time in Puno so we arranged a tour to some of the islands for the day and it started at 7am!

After a very brief nap we were up again and off to the ferry to Euros. The traditional reed islands that the people of Euros make and live on were pretty cool but with a combination of lack of sleep, bad guide and a very commercial/staged feel to it all I did not really enjoy the traditional re-enactments that were put on for us of island life. I did however enjoy the little island off to the side of the one we were on that housed guinea pigs and rabbits to be cooked up for dinners. They were on their own tiny little island tied to the big one so that short of learning to swim or becoming tightrope walkers there was no possible escape!

We also visited Taquila which was more of the same local people trying to sell you their handicrafts that customs would never allow back into Australia or Canada. There was a great view across the lake of the snowy Bolivian mountains though and the island gave a great view of just how vast the lake really is.

After staying one night in Puno Nadia and I jumped on a bus to cross over into Bolivia and get to La Paz.

The high point of these few days was that we received an email from home telling us that our brother Leith and his girlfriend Jodie had had our little nephew Jack Thomas Booton. Very exciting!

Cuzco and the Lares Valley Trek to Machu Picchu!

stiena_booton — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:08:00 GMT

Hmmmmm, well, where to begin. Cuzco is a fantastic town. Not at all the kind of place I expected. I thought that as it was the gateway to Machu Picchu it would be a tourist hell hole and very expensive. It is nothing like that at all. The old architecture still reigns supreme and the pace is laid back like the people. Cheap food, cheap accommodation, what more could the budget traveller ask for?

Nadia and I found a great place to stay for 15 Soles a night (about US$5) and discovered breakfast heaven at Victor Victorias just down the road. We spent most of our time wandering the streets, checking our the alpaca knitwear and just soaking the place in. I found a new favourite sandwich filling just off the Plaza de Armas in the form of avocado, cheese, spring onions and salt. Delish and cheap! We also discovered that Cuzco is the home of cheap massages so we did indulge in one of those each before and after the 4 day Lares Trek. It was only aboutUS$8 for an hours full body massage!

On one of our days while we were killing time and getting ourselves acclimated to the altitude we decided it would be fun to go and check out some of the close by ruins on horseback. Now Nadia and I are both big fans of horse riding but this trip was a disaster. Nadias horse simply refused to be reined in and do as it was told while my horse had such a bad case of flatulence that it pretty much propelled itself up the hills. Unfortunately for Nadia she was behind my horse the whole way! At least we can laugh in hindsight but it really wasn´t much fun at the time as our guide was a 9 year old kid with a surly attitude and no english so we got no info out of him about our surroundings either.

Finally the big day arrived and we were ready to leave for our hike through the Lares Valley. The company that we booked with was called Llama Path http://www.llamapath.com/lares.htm and they were fantastic. We were doing a 4 day 3 night trek and they arranged an informal meeting for the night before we departed so that everyone could meet the guides and ask any questions that they may have still had about the trip. When we got on the bus at the crack of dawn to drive out to the start point of our trek everyone pretty much slept all the way there but once we arrived and breakfast was served everyone started to chat and liven up. We had a group of 2 english (who were on their honeymoon!), 1 Canadian, 6 Americans, Nadia and I, plus our two guides, a chef, various horsemen and porters. It was way more than I had expected and when the breakfast of porridge, pancakes, scrambled eggs, fruit, bread and jam, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, Coca tea and juice came out I was stunned. We had met people along the way on our trip so far and they had told us that the food they ate on their treks was the best they had eaten on their entire holiday...well Nadia and I had thought - Jesus, what kind of rubbish food have you guys been eating then. It is however true. Every meal that we ate on the trek was fantastic. Big breakfasts, 3 courses for lunch and dinner and plenty of hot drinks to go with it all. I am surprised that we made it up the bloody mountain at all! One night we even got treated to banannas soaked in rum and lit up for us with much ceremony at the table. It was a surreal way to camp that is for sure.

Our 2 guides, Santiago and Joshin (pronounced Yoshi - and he always wore green!) were wonderful. They made sure there was always one guide at the front and one at the back of the group and they never hurried anyone along. We had a few people who had only flown in the day before the trek and the guides made sure that they were coping with the altitude and offered natural remedies for altitude sickness and breathing difficulties as well as showing us all how to chew the coca leaves. I have to say that even thought the coca leaves did help me, I would rather not have them ever again. They taste like crap and they cut up my mouth something awful but we had to give it a go. When in Rome and all that right?

You will have to look on facebook for all the photos but I can tell you now that the scenery was amazing. Every so often you would just have to stop and look around and soak it all in. We were really lucky with the weather too as it only rained for a little bit on one of our lunch stops and even that was cool as it turned into hail about the size of the styrofoam out of a bean bag. Our group was reasonably fast and as a result we were able to reach the thermal pools at Lares a day early and camp there overnight. Getting into those hot pools after days of trekking and no showers was heavenly. We soaked for a while then had another fabulous dinner and a couple of hot toddies a la Santiago and then crashed out happily.

One our last day we got on a bus to Ollantaytambo after lunch and another quick hot pool soak. In Ollantaytambo we had dinner and played cards and generally just chilled out before boarding our train to Aguas Calientes. Given that we arrived there at our accommodation around 10.45pm we decided not to head out to the local Discotech depite the urgings of our guides. I think the general consensus was that we had done all of this with the prize of Machu Picchu in mind and to ruin it by being too tired or hungover would be something you would never forgive yourself.

At about 5am the next morning we were woken by the ever cheerful Joshin knocking on doors and proclaiming - wake up tea, wake up tea, hahaha, no tea! This is because on the whole trek you would get woken each morning and a cup of hot coca tea would be left at the door of your tent! We all hustled downstairs for breakfast as we knew that to be among the first people at Machu Picchu we would have to be on the first few buses leaving Aguas Calientes and they started at 6am so you had to queue earlier to beat the crowds.

We were lucky and got up to Machu Picchu in time to get tickets to climb the Huayna Picchu which is the mountain beside Machu Picchu and they only let 400 people a day climb it. I do not really know how to describe it but it was awesome. There were still a few clouds drifting around when we started climbing at just after 7am and it gave a eerie feel to it all. Climbing up these huge ancient stone steps and peering over the edges at Machu Picchu or further below to Aguas Calientes was amazing. Once we reached the top the view back over Machu Picchu was breathtaking. The climb back down was great fun too as it is just so ridiculously steep. We wandered around the site for a while with Santiago giving us all the history and background info that makes the place so awe inspiring and then it was back on a bus to Aguas Calientes for a bite to eat before our train to Ollantaytambo and our bus back to Cuzco.

I have to say that after looking forward to it for so long and then having such a great time doing it, it was a bit of a let down for it all to be over. Our group had all gotten along really well though so we arranged to meet up for dinner after we had all had a little bit of chill out time and we even persuaded Santiago to come along even though her had another trek starting the very next mortning. It was great fun and we went on to an Irish pub for a few drinks before all saying goodbye and wishing each other happy travels.

Nadia and I spent the following day sleeping in, getting much needed laundry done, having a massage and booking our bus to Puno so we could visit Lake Titicaca.

Lima, Arequipa & Nazca

stiena_booton — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:04:00 GMT

In Guayaquil Nadia and I booked our bus to Lima. We knew it was going to be epic. At least 24hours, possibly 26hours. You can imagine our joy when our bus broke down twice, stopping each time to wait for mechanics to come out to fix it and then eventually giving up all together in Trujillo where we changed onto a replacement bus. In the end it took us 34 hours to get to Lima. Add to that the journey we had already made at 5am from Montanita to Guayaquil to get on the bus in the first place and that makes it a crazy amount of travel time. Needless to say we were tired and a bit crazy(hysterical?) by the time we got off. We did meet a nice Canadian guy on the bus and obviously we all bonded as a result of the trauma so when we arrived we shared a cab and booked into the same hostel where we promptly got ourselves beers to blur the memory of the ride from hell. I actually was lucky enough to sleep for most of it after having caught Nadia´s cold but she assured me that the quality of films that she saw to pass the time were something I should be glad to have missed!

Lima itself was a lot nicer than I expected, we wandered around a bit to get our bearings and strolled down to the beach (average) and treated ourselves to icecream sundaes in an old fashioned icecream parlour - you have to see the pics on facebook as they were some of the most creative deserts I have ever seen.

We did not spend long in Lima, just long enough to research and book our Lares Valley trek to Machu Picchu. We headed from Lima to Arequipa on a night bus to check out the Colca Canyon and do a 3 day hike. Arequipa is beautiful, you drive in out of the desert to this lovely little city set against the backdrop of massive (6000m) snow capped mountains. It has a fantastic vibe to it and is a wonderful place to just walk around exploring. Wasting no time we booked ourselves onto a tour for the next day and then went to take photos and visit the old convent which has a prime location covering a whole block and great views of the mountains. That evening we treated ourselves to dinner on a rooftop around the main square and both had Alpaca steaks in different styles. It was delicious and we watched the sunset across the square with a beer in hand, couldn´t have been more perfect.

Up at 3.30am in the morning we headed out by bus to the start point of our trek and stopped on the way to try and spot some condors at a viewing platform over the canyon. The landscape itself was amazing enough with snowy peaks on one side of the canyon and cactus plants and red dirt on the other. The canyon is supposedly twice as deep as the grand canyon but it is much more narrow so very different in appearance. We had the fortune of seeing about 7 or 8 condors that day with 2 of them flying quite low directly overhead so we got a really good look at them. I have to say that up in the air they look awesome, huge and graceful. Up close however, they look quite strange, they have very small heads for their size and just do not look very aerodynamic at all. From the viewing area we continued on to our breakfast stop before starting our hike.

Having said that we were going down into the Colca Canyon may be a little misleading as it is still at a ridiculous altitude (around 3000m) so hiking even downhill as we did for the first day was still quite tough work. On the way down our guide Alex quizzed Nadia as to why at her age (she is only 25!) she was not married with many children! I kept as far away from that conversation as I could. If she is leaving it too late at 25 then he would have been appalled by me :-) We spent the first night in a little village where we stayed in cute huts made of river stones and straw thatched roof which was a nice experience and the stars at night were ridiculously bright as there is no electricity in the canyon. Up early and away the next morning we hiked up for about 20mins and then much to our enjoyment flat for the rest of the day! We visited another little village where they gave us chicha to drink. It is made from ground fermented corn and I can´t say I was a fan but Nadia enjoyed it. Highlights from the second village would have to be the guinea pig farm out the back. Mmmmmmmm tasty! And the ladle made from a bulls testicle that I got to hold! Again, sorry but you will have to check facebook for these pictures. In the afternoon we walked down to the deepest part of the canyon and arrived at the oasis. It was brilliant. Very surreal with palm trees and clear blue swimming pools everywhere. We had a swim, rested in the sun, explored the riverbed and made jokes about some of the more dilapidated huts being our room for the night. Needless to say, karma is a bitch and we did in fact end up in something similar to what we were joking about. It had weaved bamboo walls with about an inch and a half between each piece, a flimsy roof and mules outside the door for company. We were able to see our neighbours in the next room having an afternoon nap too. Despite this we had plenty of blankets and it was actually quite a good nights sleep.

The final day was definitely the hardest as they have you up and away by 5am to start the trudge up and out of the canyon on the dark. At the bottom in the oasis it is about 2000m and at the top about 3400m I think. Nadia and I were pretty pleased with ourselves for making it up and out in 2 and a half hours (even if one guy on our group did manage it in 1 hour 40 mins!) and we did not succumb to all the offers and suggestions of hiring a mule either!

I kind of viewed the Colca Canyon as a warm up for our trek to Machu Picchu and it was good for our confidence to know that we were fit enough to make it down and back up. It also taught us the value of coca tea in easing altitude sickness and the necessity to take it at your own pace and not allow others to rush you at all. After all, we are all on the same path to the same destination on these treks.

Next stop was Nazca as Nadia really wanted to check out the Nazca Lines and had worked out that it was fairly affordable to fly over them. I was not too fussed about going on the flight so instead I enjoyed being on the rooftop terrace of our hostel in the sun for a day after the cold temps in the Colca Canyon. We also arrived in Nazca on the Peruvian Independence Day so there were celebrations afoot in the evening which involved me drinking a few too many of the beverages on offer on the rooftop of a nearby hostel. Having not flown over the Nazca Lines for me the highlight of Nazca was the Nazca Hotel where we paid a small amount to use the swimming pool for a day and to lay on the sun lounges soaking up the desert heat.

Next up - Cuzco!

Montanita

stiena_booton — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:38:00 GMT

Well, what can I say about Montanita. We loved it! Set by the beach with streets of sand, roving packs of neighbourhood dogs and plenty of restaurants (Serving salads!!! Finally!)it is also home to the infamous cocktail alley where we did spend a few nights... (but more on that later)

Our main reason for heading to Montanita was to get a bit of sun and warm weather and to check out the poor mans Galapagos, otherwise known as Isla de la Plata. Alas, the weather was quite overcast on arrival and stayed that was for a few days. We entertained ourselves by organizing our tour out to the island, eating fantastic chicken salads and roasted corn on the cob smeared with garlic butter, mayo and rolled in parmesan cheese (sounds gross, tastes amazing!) and drinking in cocktail alley. The end result of time spent sampling strong, cheap cocktails was that on the appointed day of our tour we were waaaay to hungover to make it and I had to stumble still half drunk down the street at 8.30am to cancel and see if we could re-schedule. Lucky for us the lovely and very amused lady at the office said ¨no problem¨ and I stumbled back to our hostel to die. Nadia had barely even made it out of bed so when I bumped into her on the way back she was very glad to hear that we did not have to drag ourselves onto a boat for the day.

Unfortunately we then had to wait 2 more days to get onto another trip out to Isla de la Plata. This did work in our favour as the sun came out and we had a day on the beach which was much needed after time in the mountains. The island itself was really unique and walking around and over it we saw lots of the hilarious blue footed boobies as well as sea turtles, seals, many other kinds of birds and some distant whales off shore. We were a little disappointed that our only close encounter whale sighting from the boat involved a whale that was stuck in a fishing net. Our boat and 3 others put men into the water to try and cut it free but by the time our boat had to move on it was still tangled up. Another whale had come along to try and comfort the trapped one and it was becoming dangerous for the men to stay close enough in the water to continue cutting the net.

Funny things to note while in Montanita: I got so drunk one night with some other backpackers that when I eventually went to bed I woke Nadia up and apparently spoke gibberish to her, but better yet I slept and snored through a small earthquake! Priceless.

From Montanita we got a bus to Guayaquil and then boarded our worst bus trip to date to get to Lima.

Adventures in Ecuador - including a visit to the Equator

stiena_booton — Thu, 6 Aug 2009 09:59:00 GMT

Quito was our first stop in Ecuador after a little confusion at the border where we had somehow failed to obtain Columbian exit stamps. Oops. All sorted easily enough though with the help of a friendly Spanish speaking guy from San Fransico. We are still a little concerned about two Chekoslovakian guys that where in the collectivo with us from the Columbian side of the border though as they appeared to jump straight out of the mini-van and into a taxi to go wherever they were off to in Ecuador without visiting ANY of the immigration offices at all. Nadia was curious as to who in the world thinks that they can just cross borders and change countries without any sort of entry/exit stamps....well, that would be people from the EU I guess. Every so often when we are wandering around whatever town we are in we wonder how they are doing and if they got slammed with a massive fine when they tried to leave Ecuador.

Anyway, Quito. Quite a nice place actually, I am not sure what I was expecting but it was not as hostile as some other travellers had led us to believe. We had fun wandering around and checking out all the beautiful old architecture, plentiful supply of piñata stores and most of all climbing up to the towers of a huge old gothic style cathedral. It was awesome - for pics see facebook. Possibly not the best day for me to have worn a skirt though. We also did a day trip out to Mita del Mundo which is where you can stand on the Equator. It is pretty cool actually and being the nerds that we are we took all the pics of ourselves with one foot in the northern and one foot in the southern hemisphere - story of my life recently. Had a great time messing around and pretending we could not get our balance standing on one leg and all that kind of nonsense.

Most memorable points about Quito are:

1. Seeing a Nanna peeing in the street right outside a family get together on the church steps.

2. Goat stew. Delish.

3. Piñata stores EVERYWHERE

After Quito we headed down to the town of Baños where visions of wonderful soothing thermal pool awaited us. They actually turned out to be pretty mediocre but they were lovely and hot and that was really all that we cared about as the weather had gotten significantly cooler on the way down there. A sweet little old man named Cecil befriended Nadia in one of the pools and they had a lengthy Spanglish conversation about Australia, kangaroos, Baños being modelled on the ancient Roman baths and tourists being murdered while climbing a volcano called Cotopaxi. Much to our relief after further Spanglish interpretations we discovered that they had died, yes, but from an avalanche or exposure, not by being murdered. Just for your own future reference, if you are planning to visit Baños then please be prepared for the severe shortage of elastic in the locals swimwear. Particularly the men. Believe me, it does not leave much to the imagination when speedos have no elastic in the leg area. Not much else to say about Baños except that every other shop on the main streets had people out the front doing old fashioned taffy pulling. That was pretty cool to see.

From there our next stop was back slightly north again to check out the Quilotoa Loop. The first town we stayed in was called Saquisilli and we arrived there just in time for the spectacle of the weekly markets. It was great fun to explore all the local produce and crafts. We saw fruits and vegetables that I have never seen before and still do not know what they are. I brought some gorgeous blankets and Nadia purchased some stylish knitted socks and gloves. I think the highlight for us was the variety of food available and the gross but also hilarious novelty of seeing roasted pigs heads, guinea pigs on spits, raw cows legs/hooves, boxes full of little live chickens and chicks for a buck apiece and all manner of other wierd and wonderful stuff. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Nadia had a bargain of a haircut. US$1! May not have been exactly what she asked for but oh well, at least it is short again ;-)

Next stop was Chugchulan where we stayed at a nice enough hostel with a great view of the valley and had a few beers in the evening with some fellow backpackers. The next morning we all piled onto a local truck to get dropped out at the Quilotoa Crater which is one of the most beautiful places I have seen on this trip so far (again, pics on facebook). The more hardcore of the group hiked down into the crater but Nadia and I decided that the view from the top was not going to be beat so we chilled out on the crater rim and enjoyed the sunshine. When it was time to go catch our bus back to Ambato we went into a little hostel/family home to collect our packs and Nadia was horrified to see Nanna sitting by the fireplace in the family room skinning a guinea pig!

Ambato was nothing more than a place to transfer buses but from there we headed via Guyaquil to the beach town of Montanita. More on that in the next update!

Hiking in Columbia

stiena_booton — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:11:00 GMT

Next stop in Columbia was a place called Villa De Leiva which was a really quaint little old town with a huge cobble stoned central plaza that was set against the backdrop of these amazing mountains. It was really beautiful and very chilled out which was a nice change after Bogota. dad - we tried to find the bar where Elvis´s old drummer plays but had no luck. We read up in our guide books and decided that it would be a great idea to go and do this hike up to a spot called Lake Iguaque. From our reading we learned that it was a leisurely 6 to 6.5 hour return hike. I state again that it said LEISURELY! Well to be truthful it was anything but. You catch a bus out of town towards the national park and get off at the park entrance where you are then supposed to walk 3.5kms to the Rangers Station to start the hike. Well we walked that and then some to find the right place but eventually got there. The lovely lady in the office took our entrance fee and pointed us in the right direction for the trail. I won´t bore you with all the details but it was a hard hike. We peaked at about 3800m and both nearly gave up towards the end. The problem was that after the first half of the hike the signs stopped giving you any indication of how far you had come or how much further you had to go! Every time that we thought we were close we would come across yet another bloody wooden arrow pointing us up yet another rise. The path was all rocks and tree roots so if you were not looking carefully it was easy to end up off track and unsure if you were still going the right way. We did make it in the end though and I have to say that the sense of achievement made it all worthwhile. A good thing for that too as if we had been waiting for the spectacular lake to make up for the hike we would have been sorely disappointed! It was pretty but nothing special worth hiking up a vertical hell for ;-) The view back across the valley was another story all together though. It was breathtaking. I do not think our photos do it justice but it was amazing. On our walk back down we came across a few trekkers who were waving around bits of plant roots and hugging trees and giggling away, I think they were probably on a mushroom trek or something, all I could think was man, you people have no idea what is in store for you!

Gluttons for punishment that we are we next bused our way over to Manizales as I had read that you could go up into the national park there and hike/climb up to the top of Mount Ruiz which is a volcano of about 5200m and has snow on the top of it. You would think that for my break from the ski hill the last thing I would want to see was snow but hey I actually have to admit to missing it a bit. Anyway, this one was not looking like too hard a mission as the bus actually takes you up to 4800m and then you just hike up the last part which is about an hour. It was great fun even if the altitude head spins did hit us a couple of times. Nadia really got a kick out of playing in the little bit of snow up there and we built a snowman for our neice Taleah too. I was glad to be back down at the end of the day though as it was really cold for us after so much warm weather!

Sailing to Cartegena and travel in Columbia

stiena_booton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:30:00 GMT

Having looked into our options for getting to Colombia, Nadia and I decided that it would be way more fun to sail than to fly and pricewise it was roughly the same anyway. With this in mind we checked out some boats through our hostel in Panama City (Lunas Castle - wonderful staff) and booked ourselves onto a boat. Luckily for us we then met some people that had just arrived from Cartegena who gave us some up to the minute advice about the boat we had booked and the Captain. It was not encouraging as they had been on another boat that had to rescue the one we were booked on from a reef breach! Apparently the Captain had been drunk and one of the guests was steering the boat when they hit the reef and got stuck for 6 hours! Suffice to say we immediately cancelled our booking and changed boats.

This may have turned out to be one of our best decisions ever as we ended up on a boat called Kanowa with a fantastic Captain (Jose from Columbia) and a very helpful and entertaining First Mate (Isrrael from Spain). We spent the first few days island hopping around the San Blas Islands snorkelling and just chilling out. It was beautiful. Gorgeous clear waters, heaps of fish, coral, starfish and the occassional barracuda and stingray. We worked out a barter system with Jose and Isrrael whereby they taught us Spanish and we helped them with their English. It turned out to be very useful and quite entertaining with our days being divided up into hours of solo Espanol, only English and then in the evenings Spanglish so we could all be understood a little better!

We spent 5 days on the boat and to be honest 2 and a half of them were amazing. The food was simple but very tasty and there was plenty of it. We had been advised to take snacks as some of the boats do not provide much in the way of meals but we never even opened our snack bag and Isrrael offered plenty of drinks and cookies or saltenas between meals to ensure no one was the slightest bit hungry. The last part of the trip on the open water heading to Cartegena was a bit of a challenge for us though. The swell was not even that big but having never really spent that much time on a boat out at sea, Nadia and I both suffered a bit from seasicknes. Again though, Jose and Isrrael were great. Very understanding of our delicate state they offered plenty of drinks and light snacks and even gave Nadia some seasickness tablets to get her through. Once we arrived in Cartegena we were amazed at the lack of immigration regulations. It was a Sunday so the port office was closed which meant that Jose took our passports and jumped in a cab to the airport to get our stamps/visas. This was a bit unorthodox to us so despite the fact that he had promised to drop them at our hostel straight after, we were pleasantly surprised when they turned up all stamped with a 90 day visa.

The one thing that stands out from the advice that our Captain gave us about Columbia was this - Columbia is very, very beautiful. But you should go to Ecuador. It is not safe. We tried not to let this colour our opinion of the place too much before we had even set foot on Columbian soil!

Once we got our landlegs back and the pavement stopped swaying we set out to explore Cartegena. The old town area where we stayed is such a beautiful place with all the old city walls still surrounding it. The buildings are lovely old Spanish style villas with flowering vines draped all over the old wooden balconies and brightly coloured walls. In the squares there are nice gardens and shaded seating areas near big stone fountains or statues and everywhere you look there is something else in one of the cobble stone streets that makes you love the place. They sell heaps of homemade sweets in stands under the archways of the larger buildings and there is fruit everywhere. Nadia and I brought a plate each off some ladies decked out in Carribean-style skirts and blouses. You just choose which fruits you wants and they peel, slice and dice right in front of you and fill the plate which is then covered with condensed milk just to make it a bit healthier ;-) It is delicious.

Our hostel wasn´t much to write home about but it did have two rather large turtles wandering around the tiled courtyard that I nearly stood on a few times and a whole buch of smaller ones living in the pot plants too. On the upside we met a girl in our room called Steffi who told me all about the volcano nearby that you can visit and take a mud bath in. This sounded like to wierd and experience to pass up so the next day Nadia, Steffi and I headed out on a bus to take a dip in the mud. I cannot really describe how strange it felt but it was kind of like jumping into a tub of custard or cream I guess. The texture was really thick and creamy but the most bizzare thing was that you could not sink in it. No matter how hard you tried you couldn´t push yourself down into it, very odd. The funniest part of the whole experience for me was that when you get out they tell you to walk down to the lagoon to wash off but the lagoon is basically a grotty, green, algae covered pond which looks less than appealing even if it is the only way to get the mud off. Once you get in there these local ladies come out with containers so they can pour the water over your head but they also whip your bathers off before you can even blink and rinse them out for you too. Took me by surprise I can tell you that much!

From Cartegena we made our way down to Bogota where we wandered around and checked out the Gold Museum and the Botero Gallery. We visited an old bar that plays exclusively tango music from back in the 40´s and 50´s which was pretty cool. We also decided it was time for another night out but we were a bit cautious about it as they main advice that you get from other travellers is that it is not the safest city to go out at night in. So we got ourselves on a party bus type thing that left from the hostel around the corner from ours which took us up to one of the hilltop lookout areas to take in the view of the city at night (absolutely massive!) and then on to some clubs. The only problem was that we had drunk quite a bit of rum before leaving for the bus and then on the bus they were handing out loads of free tequila shots. By the time we got to the first club after also drinking at the lookout I was quite tipsy and Nadia who had not called it quits on the tequila shots when I did was definitely drunk. She ordered us a drink at the bar and was then horrified to realise that they were charging the equivalent of $7 bucks a drink! This may not sound bad to you but it is extortionate for this part of South America. The funny part is that despite paying so much for it Nadia was already too drunk and could not finish it. By the time the bus took us to the 2nd place which was closer to our hostel we had to call it a night. My favourite part of it all is that we decided that food was definitely a neccessity before bed so we stopped at a snack style food place and they had very little left so I ordered us 2 chicken empanada each while Nadia kept asking again and again - Hamburgesa? Possible Hamburgesa? I guess you had to be there but it was really funny! (I don´t think that the pot plant outside our room thought so later though when Nad´s paid it a visit!)

The next day we took an old fashioned steam train ride out to Zipaquira from Bogota to see the Salt Cathedral. The best thing I can say about that day was that the train ride was fun. The cathedral was a bit of a let down as I thought it was going to be all white and cavelike given that it is made in an old salt mine 180feet below ground but it was actually all dark grey and not at all as speccy as I had expected. The train had a Marriachi band that wandered up and down the carriages playing songs though and of course I was in hysterics when the drummer chose to stand right beside Nadia´s poor hungover head!

Panama

stiena_booton — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:12:00 GMT

Panama started for us with the gorgeous islands of Bocas del Toro where we stayed at a hostel called Mondo Taitu which has a happy hour every night with 50c beers and $1 tequilas. Dangerous. We also discovered that at least 2 or 3 bars every night have ladies night where we could drink free all night! Nadia had a close encounter with a waste basket as an end result. Lucky for us the hostel also offers free all you can eat pancake breakfasts to save you from the hangover.

We did a snorkelling tour for a day which was unreal. I have not seen such a variety and colour range of coral since the Red Sea in Dahab. It was beautiful. We also saw heaps of big brightly coloured fish, barracuda and dolphins. The next day we took a boat ride out to Playa del Draco where there is a beach that is nearly overrun by starfish. Nadia and I couldn´t resist that as we haven´t seen starfish like that since we were little kids and Mum and Dad took us to Bali. Red Frog beach was another place that we visited but alas no red frogs to be seen.

After an amazing few days in Bocas we got on another bus and headed for Panama City which was way nicer than we were expecting it to be. The old architecture is lovely and the streets keep you on your toes as there are definite no go areas for tourists that you learn about when people stop you on the street (like sweet little old Grandma´s who warn you off) or yell out of cars and buses that you are in danger, theives, turn around! Nice of them to do that I think even if it does frighten the shit out of you at first. We checked out the Panama Canal which was really interesting to see in a nerdy kind of way. We watched 2 or 3 big ships go through and then called it a day.

We have made plans through our hostel to get out to Carti on the coast so that we can join up with a sailboat to sail from Panama to Cartegena! Very exciting :-)

Costa Rica

stiena_booton — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:40:00 GMT

The next stop on our Central America adventure was another long bus ride down to San Jose in Costa Rica. So far this was my least favourite border crossing. They let me out of Guatemala with no worries at all but when I tried to enter Honduras they pointed out that somehow when Nadia and I had paid and got our stamps/visas for the four countries (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicarauga and El Salvador) she had been given 90 days and I had been given only 4! This caused quite the drama as I was already 2 days over that time limit. I tried to explain that we had been screwed over as we had stood at the counter together and paid the same amount and there was no reason why I should have received only 4 days. My own fault really for not checking it at the time but hey, live and learn. The crappy part of it was that the immigration guys hauled our gear off the bus and the bus was leaving without us. No refund. No guarentee of the next one accepting our current ticket. Mean man! Immigration told me that I would have to go back to the Guatemalan side of the border to get a new visa with more days on it. I told the guy that I only needed like 2 more days as we were busing straight through and only having an overnight stop in San Salvador before getting to Costa Rica. As expected he basically said tough luck. I was told that it would be US$115 for the extension which is a joke. Anyway I will not bore you with all the back and forth that went on but in the end I paid $20 and got an extra 5 days from the guy there and then and did not have to cross back into Guatemala. As a stroke of bloody great fortune (and karma on the mean bus driver) our bus was still there! On leaving the immigration car park it has been involved in a crash with another bus and had broken a window. The drivers were still sorting out insurance details so Nadia and I quickly chucked our stuff back on and jumped in while we had the chance. The funniest part was that there was a nun on the bus and as we went past her chair she grabbed Nadia´s arm and told her - God loves you girls. Ha! If anyone it was my Nan and Pop watching over us.

San Jose itself was a dirty big city and not all that special for us but our hostel was great fun adn we met a few Aussie girls that we had drinks with one night (we only stayed 2). We again had a few laughs at the fashion sense of some of the really big ladies who again like in Tulum persisted with wearing very tight and stretchy fabrics. In the parks I saw old men playing some wierd kind of game that involved balancing steel ball bearings on top of what looked like giant wooden salt and pepper shakers. They then rolled a small rubber ball at them and I am guessing it was somehow scored by how many ball bearings fell into each quarter of the chalk circle. I have no idea really but they were taking it very seriously.

From San Jose we went to a place on the Carribean coast called Cahuita. It was brilliant. They made fantastic carribean style seafood dishes (cheap!) and good cocktails. Best of all there was an 8km trail through the forest/jungle at the edge of the bay that lead all the way out and around the point. Walking this trail we saw heaps of cool stuff. vegetation just going mad. I truly think that anything that stood dtill there for more than a few hours would sprout leaves and flowers. There were mud crabs scurrying into their holes on the side of the path as we walked by, tiny hermit crabs everywhere and the ever present sound of howler monkeys. Sadly we did not see any of them but there was a whole troop of smaller monkeys that came down out of the trees right in fromt of us to eat the fruit that had fallen on the path. It was amazing as they paid us no mind at all and we were able to get really close to take photos. We went further along the coast to Puerto Viejo which is supposed to be a great party place and surfer town but it rained the whole time we were there so not much to say about it really except that I had the most interesting meal of the trip so far. We sat down at this little place to have nachos (cheap and easy) and the waiter leaned over and asked in a very conspiritorial way...would you like to have the soup to start. It is free! So of course being the cheapskates that we are we asked what kind of soup and he said something along the lines of it being a creamy type of soup. Of course we said yes, we´ll have it. When it came out it was khaki green and had a whole bunch of tiny little crab legs sticking out of it! It was vile and we still are not sure that he wasn´t having a lend of the idiot gringo girls ;-) Considering that we had seen crabs scurrying around all over the place including in bathrooms and kitchens I am not sure it was all that hygenic either but it´s a good story if nothing else.

Busing through Belize to Guatemala

stiena_booton — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:05:00 GMT

So after finishing up in Mexico we got on an epic bus ride down to Belize City. Information leads you to believe that this will take 6 hour....11 hours finally saw us arriing in Belize City! It is a very colourful place with heavy Jamaican influence and everyone there speaks english so that put a stop to our halting attempts at Spanish for a few days. We stayed the first night in a place where the little Vietnamese woman was like a hotel Nazi. She boot camped us up and down stairs and all over the place before we checked in and I kept asking what time we had to check out and she kept ignoring me and eventually said anytime is fine, don´t worry about it. With that in mind Nadia and I took our time the next day exploring around the city and finding a more central hostel to stay in. When we went back to get our bags the crazy woman was trying to demand that we pay for a half a day as it was midday. As you can probably imagine I told her in no uncertain terms that she was getting jack out of us. We moved to the Seaside Hostel which was a pretty run down old place but it had a lovely purple and green paint job and a big balcony with hammocks etc upstairs so we were more than happy. It had character and we enjoyed a few drinks on the balcony watching the sunset.

From Belize City after a couple of days break from the bus we headed to Flores in Guatemala. It was a lovely little town on an island with narrow stone streets and colourful buildings. Our hostel was great and served all vegetarian meals and fantastic pina coladas or juice smoothies. We swam each day as it was stiflingly hot and no breeze to relieve it at any time of day. Got a big laugh out of this 12 year old boy who kept trying to be sneaky and take our picture on his camera phone but was anything but sneaky. In the end I got my camera out and made a big show of taking his photo and he left pretty quick after that! Mwahahahaha. The highlight of our trip to Flores would have to be that we finally found a shoestring guide to Central America. If you have ever changed your travel plans and ended up on a path that you have no information about whatsoever then you will understand why we were so excited to find this. And it was only $7 BARGAIN!

Another bus ride through amazingly lush mountains and valleys saw us arriving in Antigua. It is a beautiful town, exactly like a postcard picture. We had a great time wandering up and down the cobbled streets and around the markets. The dusty lot out behind the markets is filled with chicken buses so we enjoyed having a closer look at them and checking out all the decals and paintjobs that make them unique. With only a few days to spend we decided to do something pretty amazing and hiked up to the Pacaya Volcano. It was the coolest thing I have done in ages. They let you get right up close to the lava while it is flowing. Never in a first world country would they let you get anywhere near as close. It was super hot and the pumice type rock that you climb on is pretty freaky as it is constantly breaking and shifting under your feet! Amazing. Nad´s and I were very impressed by all the dogs that were up there wandering around on it like it was nothing. How they had any skin left on their feet is beyond me.

Mexico and my birthday

stiena_booton — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:28:00 GMT

Okay so I know I told you all that I would write a travel blog on this trip but as per usual I have not really found the time to sit down and start it yet! But I figure better late than never right?
I have to begin with saying goodbye to Marc at Calgary airport, it was hard to do and really sad but I could not help but be excited to be starting out on another new adventure...

I flew from Calgary to Cancun via Salt Lake City at 6.30am on May 22nd and arrived to the bright colours, blue skies and humid heat of Mexico at around 3pm the same day. Thanks to the very helpful staff at the tourist info area in the airport I found my way to downtown Cancun on the ADO bus without any dramas and then made the short walk to my hostel (no cockroaches or bugs to be seen, hurrah!) where I promptly jumped into a nice cold shower and stood in front of the fan for a few minutes to cool off. It is so easy to forget how draining the humidity can be after a winter in the cold, snow-covered mountains of Lake Louise!

I went out walking around and exploring the downtown area for the afternoon and found a lovely little place to have dinner and a few Coronas while I watched the world go by.The next day was an early start when I caught a bus out to the hotel zone of Cancun where I wandered through the posh lobbies of some of the nicer hotels before finding one that did not mind if I went through their pool area to reach the beach. Unfortunately the beach is all built right up to the edge with hotels and restaraunts which slightly detracts from the beautiful white sands and clear turquoise waters. I spent a few hours soaking up the rays and enjoying the sound of the surf for the first time in ages before carrying on with my footpath exploration of Cancun. As expected it is very touristy in the hotel zone which is like mini-America and everything is nearly double the price of what it is downtown.

Sadly when I awoke the next day to check out and catch my ferry to Isla Mujeres I discovered that my lily white winter skin had turned a wicked shade of tourist red! Despite liberal amounts of sunscreen I had managed to burn my legs pretty badly and much to my horror looked like the stereotypical English tourist. So, very ashamed, I put on some longer pants to hide my legs a bit and set off to Puerto Juarez. The ferry was super cheap and only takes 15 minutes to get to the island. I checked into Poc Na hostel which is only a short walk from the ferry dock and it is as nice as I hoped it would be. Located on the beach with big dorm rooms and great common areas as well as a bar on the beach with live music from the locals, staff and other random people most of the day and a band every night it is close to everything and very friendly. Wishing that I had not got such bad sunburn I relegated myself to a hammock in the shade for my first day and lazed away the afternoon by enjoying the cool breeze off the water and the sounds of some of the staff playing african drums and guitar.The rest of my days on Isla Mujeres while waiting for Nadia to arrive were filled with sunshine and beaches, a few bike rides and walks around the island and in the evening cheap drinks and dancing with some girls that I met at the hostel. Once Nadia arrived on the 29th May we had a great time catching up and talked non-stop for a couple of days while we lay on the beach or lounged around the hostel. We found a dive shop that was offering really cheap rates for 2 reef dives that was able to give Nadia a quick beginner Scuba course so that she and I could go diving together. The course was only 1 hour to teach her the basics but it was ok as the instructor accompanied her the whole time on both dives. His name was Eduardo and we have decided that he was like the Mexican version of Cletis from the Simpsons (mean girls that we are!)He had abouth three teeth in total! See Facebook for photos. and I am sure that the majority of you will agree with me. Anyway, despite Nadia being a little wary of a shark encounter we really enjoyed the dives and saw stingrays, a sea turtle, a massive sea crab under the coral as well as heaps of beautiful coloured fish.

On June 1st we caught the ferry back across to Cancun and then jumped on a bus to Tulum after deciding that we needed to do something a little more taxing than lie on the beach until my birthday. Tulum town itself was not that fantastic but the first place we stayed at had a bar upstairs and after we got back from dinner we had the hilarious experience of bumping into the guy that DJ'd for it. He was decked out in a yellow sweatband, tight white t-shirt and some very sexy tight yellow nylon pants. He was mucho enthusiastic at the thought that there were actually people staying in the rooms and that we might venture upstairs to help him get the party started. After swallowing our laughter Nadia and I lied through our smiles and said sure, maybe we will pop upstairs later in the evening and then scurried off to our room. A fantastic decision on our part as we later heard the thumping beats of remixed Michael Jackson songs and a variety of other badly pieced together snippets that had Nadia conjuring up visions of a bare dancefloor but for a couple of tubby Mexican girls in spandex outfits barely visible through a haze of dry ice and our DJ friend concentrating intently on his work in the booth! In fairness to her spandex comments I have to say that it seemed to be the fabric of choice regardless of size/shape for girls in Tulum. The next day we moved to a different hostel down the road where our host Fernando (who reminded me of "I am very very sneaky sir") was endlessly helpful and kitted us out with bikes so that we could go and explore the Cenotes, the beach and the ruins. The ride to the first Cenote was really hot and by the time we arrived we truly appreciated the fresh, clear, cold water in the caves. The ruins were pretty spectacular too, set right on the beach and over-run by Iguana's it was a good spot to wander around before yet another swim. That night we got back to the hostel and Fernando had rented Apocalypto for the guests to watch which I think was pretty thoughtful of him even if it is a fairly brutal movie about the Mayan people.

June 4th saw us returning to Cancun to check into the hotel that Nadia had booked for my birthday which was a nice little place just off the main street of the hotel zone. The next morning for my birthday I treated myself to a trip out to Chichen Itza to check out the ruins and to stop along the way for a swim in a huge cenote. When I got back to Cancun I was spoiled with a cake and a card from Nadia and we had brought a 2 litre bottle of Bacardi for 21 Pesos! Marc, Mum, Dad and my brother Leith all called to say happy birthday and then Nadia and I headed out on the town. My present from her was a ticket to the Coco Bongo Club. Basically the way it works is that you pay US$35 to get in and then they literally pour booze down your throat all night. Even in the line up outside while you are waiting they are walking up and down giving out shots of tequila. Once you get inside it is like a giant stage show with singers, dancers and acrobats on balconies and hanging from the ceiling etc. They encourage everyone to get up and dance on the bar and the bartenders get you to lean backwards so that they can pour tequila directly from the bottle into your mouth. It was crazy. One of the bartenders that Nadia and I were served by alot made me a flower for my birthday out of a straw and a serviette so I felt pretty special. Our walk home was highly amusing in the way that only late night drunken strolls can be. Nadia convinced me that we should buy hamburgers from a street stand along the way and then had me in hysterics when she tried 3 or 4 times to take my picture in fromt of a VW but couldn´t hold the camera still. As you can imagine the next day was a write off and we basically laid on the beach all day.