Where in the world is Sue???

Turija

sue_hood — Sat, 5 Dec 2009 08:48:00 GMT

Tarija

Tarija is the wine region of Boliva. I arrived yesterday at 5am, woke up a hostel but couldn´t really sleep much. I dedicated the day to catching up in my diary at a restaurant opposite the main plaza. I likeTarija, there seems to be a lot of money around and everyone knows everyone. The afternoon was spent getting some admin done and I decided that I would watch a movie in the evening.

I followed the Lonely Planet directions to the Cinema. I arrived, was ushered in, without paying. FIRST CLUE. So it was dark inside, lots of singing. SECOND CLUE. I was at a church service but it was on screen. I was the only gringo there and I made quite the entrance. I found it hard to leave without being notices and finally after about 40 minutes of plotting my escape, I snuck out when the ushers were occupied. But they saw me and came running after me, shaking my hand and giving me pamphlets on anti-Christ propaganda, I think, it is all in Spanish.

Today is the Bolivian election. There is nothing open except for a few Internet cafes and some street food and no transport. Tomorrow I would like to tour the wine region and then head back to Tupiza to make it to Uyini to the salt flats.

Tupiza

sue_hood — Wed, 2 Dec 2009 08:52:00 GMT

Tupiza

I had met two girls in Potosi who also wanted to do the two day horse trek some friends had recommended to me. They had left for Tupiza the night before and I arranged to meet them the next day. With my bus arriving late, I had now missed them and there was no Internet on the side of the road or at the hostel. I woke up early and rushed to an Internet cafe. The trip was only leaving at ten, which gave me time to pay and pack. All sorted with cowboy hats, bandannas and chaps, we headed out to our horses. Mine was huge.

Tupiza is famous for being Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid territory. The actual Butch trail is 8 days long so this was just to explore the countryside. Roisin (Irish) called her horse Sundance, mine was Butch and Jamie´s (Canadian) was Cass. So the Blue Eyed Bandits were off, walking along the railway tracks and into the country side. The scenery was beautiful. Red rock formations, dry river beds, different coloured rocky mountains, really lovely. We stopped for lunch at a stream, a very popular spot and were over run by goats that then climbed into the local´s picnic.

After lunch, we crossed the stream a couple of times, passed through a couple of villages before reaching our accommodation for the night. By this time we were sore from riding and had decided that one day would have been good. We crashed on our beds for a while before I headed out to watch the sunset, the walk doing me good.

There wasn´t much to do in the village, so we played cards while watching a shortened version of Braveheart in Spanish.

We woke quite stiff, and after a breakfast of bread and jam (the standard Bolivian breakfast), we were back onto our horses. It was easy at the start but for some reason our horses were a little more spritely than they had been the day before and kept running. My horses name now became apt as for some reason, he decided that he was now the alpha male for the day and would not let Sundance near the lead. If he nosed forward, then we would run to be first, even if it meant pushing the other horses out of the way.

The second day was by far my favourite. We walked along the stream for most of the way. It was so green and the horses kept stopping to eat. We crossed the stream many times until we hit the railway tracks again. It was real cowboy scenery, the wind was howling, we walked along the tracks, through tunnels in the mountains. We just needed pistols and a train and we could have been bandits. The last hour on the horse was tough. We were all feeling it and we were very pleased to finally get off the horse. I had enjoyed my two days horse riding.

Back in town we tried to find the hotel with the jacuzzi that the Lonely Planet said was there. It wasn´t, so we settled for a cold swim before heading to the hostel to shower.

We had decided to take a jeep to San Vincente, the town where Butch and Sundance met their end. It was a beautiful drive but long. It took three hours to get there, and security was tight as the land is mined by an American company. Once we were in, we headed to the house where they died but it is a private home so we couldn´t go in. There is very little there. Our next stop was the cemetery. It wasn´t open so we climbed over the wall to get our picture of their grave. After being yelled at by the cemetery worker, our guide got the key and we were able to leave in a civilised manner. Next stop was the museum. We had to wait twenty minutes for the mine to open it and it was very small and very new. We were visitors number 3, 4, 5 and 6. We created quite a stir being there and had representatives from the mining company come and take pictures of us inside and outside the museum. Needless to say, we will all land up in the Pan American Company newsletter. I am sure that I would have found it more interesting if I could speak and understand all the Spanish. Three hours back to Tupiza and I raced to get things sorted before catching my bus to Tarija.

Potosi

sue_hood — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:43:00 GMT

Potosi

We arrived and headed for dinner, hoping to find something that was open at 11:30pm. We walked around and the only places open were the funeral parlours and one Chinese restaurant that only sold rotisserie chicken. So, another meal of chicken and fries for dinner.

We tried to get into the museum in the morning, but it had more erratic opening hours than I had seen in Sucre. We waked around and I was pleasantly surprised. The movie had given me a very bad impression of a drab and dreary town, which it wasn´t. We stopped at the San Franciso church, paid our 15B and were escorted to the roof of the church by a policeman, then into the catacombs and the church. It had turned out to be a very pleasant visit.

The afternoon was dedicated to the mine visit. Our first stop was warehouse where we put on gumboots, trousers and jackets to cover our clothes and a hat. Next stop was the miners market to buy coca leaves (altitude is 4000m above sea level) and dynamite as gifts for the miners. A quick visit to the smelting plant and then to the mine, Cerro Rico. Health and safety standards would never allow a visit like this in Europe. It was very hot in the mine, the passages were low and it was horribly dusty. To get to the second level we were crawling though a tunnel, barely able to see through the dust. The dust was now burning our throats and we were struggling to breathe. I did have a moment of wanting to leave, but I stuck it out and made it to the third level where we saw a miner hammering holes in the wall for the dynamite. On the way back, we jumped out of the way of a wagon being pulled and pushed along tracks at quite a speed. We finally crawled our way back to the second and first level and were all very pleased to be in the fresh air. Our guide then decided to show us a dynamite explosion, so he lit some, we had 2 minutes and 40 seconds to pose for photos before it exploded. I was waiting for it but still got a fright when it happened.

Dinner was a quick sandwich on the street before Ryan and Kate headed to Argentina.

Gio and I had decided to take a day bus for a change as it would mean getting to Tupiza at a decent hour and not the 4am arrival like the night bus. So we left Potosi at 8:30am the next day. We got 10 minutes out of Potiso when we were stopped by the police. The road was closed. We had no idea why as we couldn´t understand the Spanish. All we got was that the road would be closed until 2:30pm. So we had to wait. We were able to buy some food from street vendors and it was only about 12:30 that we established there was a car rally on and that was why the road was closed.... on a TUESDAY. The traffic backed up all day. Finally, the cars and motor bikes came screeching around the corner, at 10 minute intervals. The first three cars were exciting, but we watched the rally until 4:30pm and it was boring. Finally, after 8 hours at the side of a road we were off to Tupiza.

It wasn´t long on the bus when it started to rain and like all over the world, drivers go mad in the rain. We narrowly missed a head-on collision with a jeep overtaking on the other side of the road. Our driver was flying down the road while chewing coca leaves. We finally made it to Tupiza and woke up a hostel at midnight to let us in.

Sucre

sue_hood — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:54:00 GMT

Sucre

I left Cochabamba and after a 10 hour bus ride arrived in Sucre. It was easy to see straight away why this is where the government sits. It is a beautiful town, a little more modern and still looks quite colonial.

The bus trip had been slightly bumpy but uneventful, though we did have two bathroom stops along the way. None of the buses in Bolivia have any toilets on board. So communal bathroom stops on the side of the ride are normal.

After a quick nap, I headed out to the market opposite the hostel. I was delighted to find the same fruit juice stands as we had in La Paz. The market also had the standard meat, fruit and vegetables as well as a cake section where you could sit and eat cake.

After walking though one of the prettier plazas I had seen, I stopped for lunch at the Joyride Cafe which had been recommended by many. Joyride has a good reputation for tours so I joined a biking, walking and swimming tour for the next day. The lagoon where we were to swim was a beautiful green colour.

My afternoon excursion was to the dinosaur park to see the dinosaur tracks. I paid the equivalent of 2 dollars to head there in a dinosaur truck. We had an English guide, YAY, and the talk was very interesting, particularly the impact of the Nasca fault on South America. Bolivia used to be flat and it is very hard to imagine after what I have seen. The dinosaur tracks may have been impressive but we were too far away to see them properly. The tracks are on a wall which is starting to collapse so too dangerous to be close to. Still no T-Rex tracks either.

I was delighted to find that the Joyride has movie screenings in the evening and with my tour the next day, I received a free voucher so decided that "Imagining Argentina" would be a good film choice with my impending travel there. A good movie but it was not the light hearted entertainment I had been expecting and was all about politics and the disappearances that happened in the past.

The tour the next day was at 9am, which meant I had time for my fruit salad, which was probably not sufficient a breakfast before a 14km ride, 3km hike and swim. The riding was mostly downhill. It was a very hot day and the uphill was tough to say the least. Fortunately, we had a trainee guide from the UK with us and he finally pointed out the art of changing the gears and I found it all so much easier and just as I was really getting the hang of the gears, the biking ended. The scenery was beautiful though, I really did pay more attention to the road which I felt was more dangerous than the Death Road in La Paz.

The hiking to the lagoon was easy but we were walking along a river which was the colour of chocolate after the recent rains and I had my doubts on how we were going to find our green lagoon. And I was right, there was no green lagoon but a chocolate mud river. It did not stop us from getting into the very cold and dirty water. The fish nibbled at our toes and legs while we fought the current. It was so strong that the guides hadn´t wanted to use the raft. So, fighting our way and holding onto rocks for support, we made it towards the waterfall through the canyon. It was hard work but good fun and the rest in the sun later was worth it. Getting back was easy, we let the current take us back and it took much less time. We were so dirty after our swim and I had half of the river´s sand in my costume. We did stop to rinse off in a clear stream before getting back onto the truck to La Paz. Back at Joyride, a stop for some drinks, and then a much needed shower before meeting Uri (met him on the bike tour) for a walk to the fountains of light and dinner. It had been South America´s version of the Commonwealth Games and although I was too late to attend the sporting events (I did see some of the running), there was a free street concert in the evening to celebrate the end, so we watched for a while.

Friday morning started off slowly. I was trying to send a package back to England. Now, in England, you walk into a Post Office, buy an envelope and you are sorted. Not quite the same here. You need to find a Liberio to buy an envelope. However, if you are sending back a guitar case and tablecloth, this won´t fit an envelope, in which case, you need paper and cello tape to make your own. This endeavour took about an hour with walking backwards and forwards and cost me, with postage, about four times the cost of what I was sending. The afternoon was dedicated to admin and a walk to the Mirador to watch the sunset. I almost missed the film, "The Devil´s Miner" regarding the Potosi mines I was heading to next. It was very sad, about a 14 year old boy working in the mines. It still happens now. The rest of the evening was spent in the Plaza, enjoying the free Aids concert. The music was really good and I enjoyed the diversity of Sucre.

Saturday, I tried to play tourist but was hampered by erratic opening hours. I did see a copy of the Belgian Declaration of Independence, a confirmation in a church and then headed to a Spanish Castle made of red rock and 7km´s out of town.

I had waited for the Tarabuco market on Sunday, so getting up early, I caught a bus to the market and managed to restrain myself from bulky purchases. I did buy some jewellery. I was heading to Potosi later that afternoon, and as usual, I didn´t buy my ticket in advance. So at crunch time, we struggled to get tickets at a reasonable time. We did eventually get our tickets, loaded our luggage onto the bus, got onto the bus only to realise we were on the wrong bus. So the four of us fought our way off the bus, past the now irate locals, grabbed our luggage back and ran to catch our bus which was about to leave

Cochabamba

sue_hood — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:56:00 GMT

We caught the bus to Cochabamba arriving at 2am in the morning. After some much needed sleep, we headed out to explore the town. We started at the large statue of Jesus at the top of the hill. Taking a cable car to the top, we walked to the top of the statue. Pictures done, we headed towards town, which was quiet, more like dead. Most places close at 1pm and we had slept late. There was no chance of me finding a tour to Toro Toro National Park so I was going to have to go on my own. Even finding a restaurant for lunch was interesting. After lunch, we walked through the market, where you can buy just about anything that you need. I was offered fan belts, TV´s and much more. Fascinating place but all we bought were mangoes.

After dinner of chicken and fries.... again. Rose headed to the station to catch her bus to Sucre. I was heading to Toro Toro next morning.

Finding the bus turned out to be quite exciting. The locals don´t really know their city. I walked the same road twice and got many different directions before stopping a taxi. I wasn´t loving walking around on my own at 5¨30am in the morning with my back pack He gave me directions but in my bitty Spanish, I explained he needed to drive me there. He got three different directions from locals but eventually got me to the bus stop and I bought the last seat on the bus. We left on South American time, half an hour late and first made a stop at a local market. I wandered a little and was fascinated with the sales of animals. 4 hours later, we were in Toro Toro. By this time, I had met the only other gringo on the bus, an Israeli. We had the same ideas of what we wanted to do, so after finding accommodation and llunch, we headed to the park office. It would have been incredibly expensive doing the trip on my own as you need to pay 100 Bolivianos each time you go on a trek. We found a French guy and he was to join us for our afternoon trek to the cascades. We were then approached by some Brazilians who wanted a bigger group to bring down the cost so our group of three was then six. The locals then sold us a trip on a kamino ride, picture a large dump truck to the park entrance. By this time we were joined by a German family who were travelling with some Bolivian family.

The park is really beautiful, even if very dry. We saw plenty of dinosaur footprints. The park used to be a beach before a meteor struck earth and turned the sand to rock. It was amazing knowing that we were walking in the same place the dinosaurs had once before. The canyon was beautiful and they had a mirador similar to the one in the Grand Canyon except, it was much cheaper and better placed than the american´s. It is a beautiful canyon.

Down to the cascades, after clambouring over some more rocks and it really was lovely. I declined the swim as I didn´t have enough clean clothes with me. The walk back up was tough, not as bad as the Colca Canyon in Peru and we made good time.

Choices for dinner were limited so dinner was early and I spent some time writing in my diary while Lucio took a walk with his guitar and found our Brazilian friends.

We had decided to head to the cave the next day. What we had heard about it was that it was slippery in places but that wasn´t the half of it. It was hard work getting through the cave. In parts, we slid down rocks on our butts, we were hauled up by ropes or by hands, we were on our hands and knees at some points were the roof was low but my favourite parts were the narrow opening where we literally had to be like worms and work our way through the holes lying flat on the sand. You can only imagine how dirty I was by this stage. It was hard work but great fun and I managed to remain bruise free and pretty impressed with my arm strength which has improved over the last few months.

We were walking back to town but it was the hottest time of the day. It made it a tough three hour walk as we were unprepared for it. There were six of us in total and we didn´t have enough water. Still, we made it, though at one point the guide was diligently pointing out more dinosaur footprints and he must have missed the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd. We just wanted to head back to town.

Another early start today, the bus was at 6am, dilapidated, I don´t think it is a good sign when you can see the ground near the steering column of the bus, however, it was fine and we made it back to town. It took longer than normal as there is a strike on (no idea why) but all the entrances into town were blockaded. A two hour detour around Cochabamba got us back onto the main road. Tonight, I have a 12 hour bus ride to Sucre

La Paz

sue_hood — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:03:00 GMT

It was quick through Bolivia and we went to find a collectivo to La Paz. Easily done and an hour and a half later, we were in La Paz, dropped off near the black market. This was nowhere near we wanted to be so it was another 20 minute walk towards the centre to find some accommodation. We had met a Peruvian and an Argentinian by this stage and we set off to find some cheap accommodation. It took us an hour and a half of walking (bad directions from locals) but we managed to add two more people we had met in Copacabana to our group.. We did find the cheap accommodation at 2 dollars a night, really nothing.

Our first day was spent wandering through the streets. It is now rainy season in Bolivia so afternoons showers happen everyday. We got soaked while looking for the witches market, again bad directions from the locals so we stopped for some lunch before trying again. I don´t think that there is anything cultish about the witches market, they sell herbs and other things such as dried baby llamas and mules as offerings or remedies. It pretty much rained all day so we headed to the coca museum to learn about the leaves we had been chewing on at altitude. The history of the coca leaf is fascinating, and we were taken through its use as a recreational and pharmaceutical drug. You will all be pleased to know that coca cola does not use the coca leaf in its soft drink anymore. It is drug free.

Next day was our bike ride down the Death Road. This road became famous when the US declared it the most dangerous road in the world due to the number of bus and car accidents. It was an amazing ride. The road was easily identifiable as horrendous for driving but the biking was awesome but fast. There was no chance to stop for photos but our guides for the day took care of that and we were stopping every five minutes for pictures.

My brakes broke on the bike, twice. Pretty scary when you are hurtling downhill at a speed. The guides fixed them and kept telling me "tranquile", who needs breaks anyway. I slowed down after break failure, I had gotten a fright and wasn´t sure that they were completely fixed. ´The last part of the ride was fantastic, it was off the Death Road and down towards the village where we were having lunch. It was proper off road biking experience. Lots of rocks, dips in the roads, sharp bends and by then I had decided that my brakes were okay. It was great, fast and I managed to stay on the bike at all times. Our biked back on the bike, we headed to the hotel for a swim and shower before a buffet lunch which gave me a very bad stomach.

Next day, Jossie and I headed towards the Vallei De Luna. It started raining just as we got out of the collectivo. Anyway, ponchos on, we slipped and slid our way through the mud. This is a hillside maze of canyons and pinnacles and was fascinating. We headed back to town but this time taking one of the local buses. I held on for dear life as I was near the open door and the driving here can be interesting at times.

Adriana (Mexican) and I decided we were going to the Tiwanaka ruins the next day, so into a collectivo back towards the Peru border before we were dropped on the side of the road again. A twenty minute walk later, we were at the ruins which pre-dates the Inca period. Although they had been pretty much destroyed by the Spanish, there were still some monuments left and we thoroughly enjoyed our day. Getting back to La Paz took some time, not only did we have to wait for our driver to fill the collective in a tiny town, but he then dropped us at the border of La Paz and we needed to find another collectivo to the centre. He did give us some money back after some good arguing by Adriana.

I decided that my next stop was Cochabamba so I joined Rose in moving there. We spent the morning shopping in La Paz, my backpack is bulging from a beautiful guitar case that I bought. Not heavy but very bulky.

Copacabana

sue_hood — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:05:00 GMT

So I finally left Peru from Puno and crossed over the Bolivian border. It was an easy crossing, though, carrying our backpacks up hill to the Bolivian border at an altitude of 4000m had everyone huffing and puffing.

I met a Brit and French girl on the bus and we decided to find a hostel together in Copacabana. What they didn´t tell us when we bought our tickets was that there are no cash machines in Copacabana and there was a ferry strike on so getting to La Paz, the Bolivian capital, was going to mean backtracking into Peru and then back into Bolivia at another Bolivian border crossing. Fortunately, we had an Australian who was living in Bolivia on the bus and she was able to tell us all these important details.

In Copacabana, our first stop was some lunch on the beach at one of the local restaurants. We had some delicious trout before heading off to explore Copacabana. It didn´t take too long and we took some admin time before walking up Cerro Calvario, a nearby mountain to watch the sunset. Another walk at altitude but we soon joined the masses who were waiting for the same thing. It wasn´t a spectacular sunset in the end but we got some really lovely views of Lake Titicaca. We decided on the adventurous route down and took a path straight down the mountain, however, we had left it too late and we were walking mostly in the dark.

The nightlife in Copacabana is pretty much non existent. We had one beer each and then tried to find somewhere to eat. Bear in mind, it was only about 9;30pm so it should have been an easy task, however, most places were closed and the one we finally found open took an hour and a half to serve a soup, a bowl of spaghetti and some vegetables.

Next morning, after buying some lunch in the nearby market, we headed off to the docks for a boat ride to Isla del Sol, an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. We had to wait half an hour while they found some oil for the boat but finally we were away, at a snails pace though as the boat had very small engines for its size.. After the three hour trip, we arrived at the North Port. We had already decided that we were going to walk the three hours back to South Port. Again, the altitude was over 4000m but it was a very pleasant walk and took us past some Inca ruins. The views of the lake were spectacular.

We thought we were making good time when we reached the entrance to the South Island, and after paying our fee to enter the south island, the man at the entrance said we were 20 minutes away from the docks. It was perfect, we found a restaurant with colourful umbrellas outside and sat down for and hour for a drink in the shade. We thought that taking 30 minutes to get to the docks would be enough time, however, we forgot South American time and had to leg it back to the boat. It took more like 40 minutes back but we weren´t the last ones back.

Jossie and I had decided that it would be easier to make our own way over the border than wait for the expensive busses with their schedules. So at 9am the next morning we started on our adventure for the day.

Breakfast was a saltena. A very sweet pastry filled with chicken in a gravy, egg, olives and sultanas. It was a weird taste and a sensory overload. Less is more sometimes.

We shared a taxi to the Bolivian border with some locals to bring the cost down. It was only a 10 minute ride before we were at the border and had been stamped out of Bolivia. Huffing and puffing with our packs, we walked back into Peru, completed the customs documentation before taking a tuk tuk to the collectivo´s to take us to Desaguredo, the town where we could leave Peru. It took an hour an a half in the collectivo or combi. Most exciting about the trip was watching our backpacks being loaded up onto the top of the combi along with two live sheep who had been stowed there earlier. Their legs tied together so that they couldn´t move.

The queues at the Peruvian border were horrendous and it took us two hours in the queue to spend a minute in front of the customs officer to get our stamp. Once done, we crossed over no mans land towards Bolivia, but we were stopped by Bolivian customs who wanted to search our bags for food and drugs. Honestly, do I look the type. However, they seemed more interested in my money pouch and wallet and were looking for dollars and nothing more.

Gallery: Huaraz

sue_hood — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:44:00 GMT

Huaraz

sue_hood — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:20:00 GMT

I am very behind with my blog, for many reasons. We have been in some remote places where electricity and internet have not been forthcoming. It took my two days to catch up on my diary, so I am sure that the blog will take longer but I will perservere. I may just blog my favourites but we will see. Photos will have to wait. DVD´s can´t be read from the computers here and there are no USB ports.

I am starting backwards as it will be fresher in my mind and I am killing time waiting for photos to be made onto a DVD.

I am in Huaraz at the moment. An andean town in Peru. We arrived from Trujillo four days ago. Another overnight bus, but the Peruvian busses are very comfortable. The only problem I had was a large peruvian man snoring on the seat next to me. I keep forgetting my earplugs. The bus journey was about 8 hours and I slept a little.

We had arranged for a hostel pick up in Huaraz to Albergue Chirrup which is now my favourite hostel on this trip so far. It is like a hotel and the terrace is great in the mornings. Something must have gotten lost in translation and we eventually took a taxi to the hostel. We were back at higher altitude so walking up stairs had Rose and I gasping. Ants is like a mountain lion and barely felt the altitude. Rose headed to bed for a few hours, Ants and I opted for food. We booked two treks for that afternoon and the next day. We woke up Sleeping Beauty, showered and headed off in a taxi to Lake Lllaca. Ants bonded with the driver again, I am going to miss the entertaining taxi conversations now that he has gone home. The scenery was beautiful, the stream was a light shade of turquoise and surrounded by the snow capped mountains, it was good for a few pics.

The walk was easy but was at an elevation of 4600m. I haven´t quite figured out how altitude affects me, I was fine on this day, springing along, though Ants will say it was because there wasn´t much uphill. He is probably right.....again. I did manage to slip my way down towards the lake at one point and saved myself but smashed my knee into a rock. I added to the list of bruises.

We walked passed beautiful pastel coloured lakes to Lake Llaca to where there was a glacier. It has to be my favourite spot in Peru so far. The sky was blue, the glacier a light shade of blue, ice in the water, really lovely. Rosie struggled with the walk at the altitude and to be fair, her lips were a little blue. We lost her at one point, I went back to find her and pretty much walked three quarters of the way back. She had gone off the trail and was sleeping, I would have been angry, but for the blue lips, she was not loving it.

Ants and I celebrated his last night with a couple of beers in front of the fireplace at the hostel with the other backpackers.

Next morning, another early start as we were walking to Lake 69. This was again at altitude and Rose decided to have a quiet day at the hostel. It took three hours to get there by taxi and we had a guide for this walk as Ants was leaving that night for Lima and we couldn´t take the chance of getting lost with the different unmarked trails.

The walk started off quite pleasantly. A slight manageable climb, but all things that are worth it require hard work and the uphills came later. I went slow and steady while Ants and the guide bolted up the mountains. They had to wait for me, but at altitude, you can only go as fast as you can. As per our usual luck, it started to rain while we walked and eventually the ponchos came out. AS we climbed higher, the rain became ice and even this didn´t inspire faster walking like it had at Cotopaxi. It stopped when we were near the Lake and what a beautiful sight as we came around the corner. We tried to decide which we preferred, the day before or this lake but they were both so different that you cannot compare. The mountain was a grey, snow capped, the sky was blue and the lake was a blue contrast againt the rocks. I need to load the photos.

We made it down the mountain in rapid time of 2 hours against the 4 hrs up. No experience complete without me injuring myself, I was contemplating the pretty stream I was walking in and wondering where to get the best photo, not multi-tasking well at all and fell. True to form, out came the camera and that is as much concern as I got from my travel buddy. I have given him plenty of opportunities. The walk was lovely though, through valleys, past waterfalls and I was very pleased that we had done it.

Ants left that night for Lima to fly back to London. I was heartsore to see him go. I really enjoyed travelling with him and we have some wonderful memories.

The last couple of days have been easier. We have spent some time acclimatising, I caught up on my diary and now starting on the blog. We did catch a collectivo taxi into a town called Carhauz yesterday. It has a large Sunday market and you can buy just about anything you want from the stalls on the side of the road. Fishing nets, ropes, TV´s, food, shoes.... it was the biggest market I have seen in Peru to date. More fascinating was the array of colours that the locals wear. For those who know me well, I have been in seventh heaven with the colours and have bought some of the brightest souvineurs I could find.

Today has been quiet again. I am looking at a small town in the Andes for an overnight stop but need to find the bus times with my bitty spanish. Every day an adventure. This afternoon will hopefully include a trip to the nearby hot springs.

Trujillo

sue_hood — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:02:00 GMT

had enjoyed Mancora but it was time to move on. Our next stop was a town called Trujillo and involved another overnight bus. I slept pretty much all of the way, waking up just as we arrived.

It was about 6am and we were leaving for Huaraz that night so we weren't going to stay in a hostel. We took a bus to the main square, all are called Plaza de Armes and sat on a park bench waiting for tour agencies and restaurants to open. We didn't wait long before we were approached by a tour agent who said we would be able to leave our bags at the hostel and we signed up for a day tour to the different temples.

We had some time to kill before the tour at 11 so wandered to the different churches (there are plenty here), had breakfast and walked through the local market.

The first stop on our tour were the Columbian Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun. What they don't tell you is that the Temple of the Sun is closed. However, we did get some photos and the Temple of the Moon more than made up for it. In fact, I could have spent hours walking around. Picture an upside down pyramid. Each king/generation would fill in the old temple and build a new on top. It was amazing inside and we could see the various levels. As the levels were filled in, the paintings were pretty well preserved and beautiful.

After lunch at a tourist restaurant where Ants and Rose had the local delicacy goat stew, we headed to the Temple of Dragons. It was mostly restored but I still like the more geometric design. After a museum stop, we headed to Chan Chan, along with many many other tourists. The temple was not as impressive as the Temple of the Moon and I think that we were expecting more. Still a beautiful temple.

After the temple, we headed to Huanchaco beach. The Lonely Planet really raves about this beach but it was horribly dirty. The main thing to see here are the reed fishing boats. Fortunately we were only there for an hour before heading back to Trujillo.

A quick dinner, mad panic by Rose who didn't trust my time and thought reception time was 15 minutes faster meant we rushed to the bus station but as the hostel was wrong, we were in plenty of time for our bus to Huaraz. Sleep on the bus wasn't forth coming with a large Peruvian man who sat opposite me and snored like a lumberjack.

Mancora

sue_hood — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:02:00 GMT

I was sad to leave Ecuador, I had far preferred it to Peru to date. The scenery was something else, the country just seems a little more advanced and the people happier. We had heard horror stories about the border crossing from Ecuador into Peru and were nervous about crossing at Huaquilles. We spent some time researching it and eventually went with the one that we had heard was dodgy just because it suited our next destination and saved about 5 hours of bus riding.

Travelling with alot of faith, we boarded the bus in Cuenca at 10pm and headed for Mancora. It was one of the smoothest border crossings I have ever been on. Just outside of Cuenca, we were stopped at a road block. Bizarre, the army jumped on board, pulled the men off to go outside to be searched and demanded to see our passports. Ants played the foreigner card and stayed on the bus. It was over painlessly and we were back on the road after 5 minutes. I slept all the way to the border, and apparently there had been more army men aboard but I was oblivious to it all, only waking up at the border.

We were stamped out of Ecuador in about 5 minutes and onto a different bus for the rest of the journey. There is a 2km stretch between border posts and immigration is actually in the Peruvian town. This is where the crossing gets dangerous and complicated if doing it on your own. Customs opened the luggage compartment, had a quick look and we were off again to immigration. There were less forms to fill out than when landing by plane into Peru, again, it was painless and we were off towards the coastal town of Mancora for a two day rest.

I slept all the way to the town and was quite sleepy when we were dumped with our bags at 5:30am at the side of the Pan American highway. Ants had researched accommodation and we headed off to Las Posida.... without a reservation. After a little confusion between Ants and myself, we headed to the hostel to wake up the manager and find a room. Rose showered and then we grabbed some much needed sleep.

The hostel had run out of bread so we walked the 5 minutes into town to have a yummy pancake breakfast at a place called Green Eggs and Ham. We were back on the tourist trail. After organising our bus tickets to Huaraz via Trujillo, we headed back to the hostel to swim as the beach was too windy.

I got pulled into the pool by the bully of the trio and Rose didn´t exactly come to my rescue. Nevertheless, it was refreshing and we sat at the pool. I would like to say lazed but Ants taught us to play chess as we have all bought chess sets (Incas against the Spanish). My attempts were poor but I put it down to the beer we consumed.

Dinner was at a beef house along the Pan American highway. Fascinating eating and watching all the traffic pass. Mancora isn´t all that big and all the shops and restaurants are either on the beach or the Pan American. Dinner was good and while we were there, we overheard a group of Canadians who had gone ziplining over the dessert. It was added onto the to do list.

Next day started early with an early morning swim in the sea or a dunking as mine mostly was. My playground buddy made sure I was wet and I never did anything to antagonise him at all. I am safe from any comments from him, I am sure he won´t be reading this. Breakfast was on the beach at a tiny restaurant and Rose and I proudly showed them how to make capuchinos. The kitchen was pretty basic but we managed to froth the milk with a blender. My mother will be proud. I even poured the froth onto the coffee against the back of a spoon, we made it look professional.

After organising ziplining and paying for bus tickets, we were off to the hot springs. Now coming from Banos, our expections were high, far too high. It took 45 minutes to get to the hot spring, through dessert, across a dry river bed, in a small motor taxi or tuk tuk. We laughed when we arrived. The pool was maybe 3m by 5m max. There was another group of packpackers there at the same time and they said that they had the same reaction. We were expecting bigger and Lonely Planet said there were mud baths too. Anyway, we jumped into the bubbling hot water and found the mud. You can just imagine the mud fights that ensued. I think I did quite well against Rose and Ants but didn´t come away unscathed. Rose put handfuls of the mud down my costume and I was laughing so much that Ants gave me a mouthful of mud. The sulphurous water really didn´t taste very good. Our driver told us to put some on our face and let it dry. We tried for a while but it took too long and the games commenced. Our skin did feel softer afterwards.

Next was ziplining. I was quite nervous, the first line was 880m long and I can´t even begin to guess how high we were, but what an amazing experience. We made sure that Ants went first as he was the least nervous of the three of us. Rose was next and then me. Wow, it was beautiful,we were flying over dessert canyons. We alternated going first over the next three lines to get some photos and the last two were incredibly quick. The experience was over quicker than the 20 minutes it took to walk to the top. This was one of the best things we have done in Peru and very professional. The ziplines are on a farm owned by a Swiss artist, all the equipment is new and the staff well experienced. Some boys never grow up.

Back to the hostel, we showered with the tiny trickle of cold water that had been our showers for the last few days and packed. Dinner was at the same restaurant as it was that good. We thought we were in good time for the bus but the lady who sold us the tickets was waiting for us at her office, frantically gesticulating that we were late and we sped on to the bus. I do not understand Peruvian time, I gave up in the jungle. All was well in the end and we made our way to Trujillo.

Gallery: Texas

sue_hood — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:20:00 GMT

Gallery: New Orleans

sue_hood — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:55:00 GMT

Texas

sue_hood — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:44:00 GMT

We felw into Texas and again, the airports are huge. We had to catch a shuttle to the car rental building. It is surreal with all the highways in the States, at one point in the airport area, we went under a bridge as a plane was crossing it. We picked up a tip to visit the Stockyard in Fort Worth so headed there. We didn´t have any decent maps so had to ask directions a couple of times.

We were disappointed that there wasn´t a rodeo but the town was cute, western style. It was incredibly hot and humid so we tried not to spend too much time outdoors. Lunch was one of the best steaks I have ever had at a restaurant called Cattleman's. If we had ordered larger meals. we would have been able to choose the piece of meat from the counter.

We stopped at the pub that is used in Texas Ranger. We started chatting to the barman and an elderly gentleman from the bar. The latter asked where we were from and we said, South Africa. His response, but you aren´t black. We had a laugh and even more so when he pulled out an earpiece which said "bullshit filter" and placed it on his ear. After this pub, the Hotel across the road had a bar where the stools were saddles. Although there wasn´t a rodeo, they walk the bulls down the street at 4pm everyday, so were fortunate to watch that. We saw real cowboys. on horses, herding the bulls. Rose and I also climbed onto one for some photos..... tourist trap.

We were heading down South towards Austin and San Antonio. It took about 4-5 hours to drive there, traffic was horrendous in Dallas but again, the most impressive highway network. We spent the night in San Antonio and almost had our car towed from the parking lot. The manager gave us a token to hang in our car, but we wanted dinner first. When we got back to the car, there was a parking attendant waiting for the tow truck. I don´t understand as the hotel had our car registration number. Anyway, it all ended well.

The morning started with a trip to the Alamo which was interesting for its contribution to American history. The song David Crockett is based on what happened at the Alamo. I hadn´t realised that Texas had once been part of Mexico and thus the influence on the food. It was spicy. We souvenir shopped before heading to the riverside and I bought a magnet with a tiny pistol on it, and the magnet says, in Texas, we don´t call 911. This was an important purchase and leaves for a funny story. But next blog.

After another 4 hour drive and horrible traffic in Dallas, we made it to Southfork. Not in enough time to make the tour but we have our photos. We had seen in a tourist information booklet that there was a state fair on, so we headed towards Denton. It was just like any fair in South Africa, different rides, a carousel but they had a bull riding competition. There was a heart stopping moment when a bull ran into a man and it took him a few minutes to stand up. Those bulls are massive. I was also intrigued by the jam making, photography and art competition. We jumped into the culture by having a hot dog for dinner, followed by funnel cake (doughnut) dusted with icing sugar. You can just imagine the state of me afterwards. It was getting late, so after walking past all the tractors and farm equipment on display, we headed towards a cheap hotel near the airport.

Gallery: Music Tour

sue_hood — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:26:00 GMT

Gallery: Peru National Day

sue_hood — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:11:00 GMT

Music Tour - United States

sue_hood — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:12:00 GMT

Music tour

I arrived in Nashville after a 12 hour journey from London. Minus my sleeping bag, which had gotten lost in transit, I believe in London. I mention this now as it will be significant later on. The Americans do love their air travel and the airlines accommodate all routes. My flight to Memphis was on one of the smallest, oldest planes that I have ever been on. There was a row of one seats and a row of two seats and was incredibly noisy.

I took a taxi to meet up with Rose who was already at the youth hostel. She was flustered, her bag was too heavy, so was mine, so we both set upon sorting out what we did and didn’t need for the trip. The plan was to send it to her friend in San Diego.

After a much needed shower, we jumped in a cab towards downtown Nashville, looking for one of the best restaurants in town Demo’s. The food was delicious. We gave up looking for a bar called Tootsies – famous for the people that have been discovered there – as it poured with rain, not helping the already humid weather. We did encounter the “red light district” of Nashville, advertising “Nude Kareoke”. Although we were beckoned to come and join, we headed back for a good nights sleep. We did try to find it the next night, but alas, Nude karioke wasn’t on.

Next morning, after we discovered that time had gone back an hour, we headed towards the bus stop when a fellow South African living in the States and the hostel at the time, drove past and offered us a lift into town. Our first stop was tourist information and then Fedex to sort out our excess baggage.

We booked ourselves on a complete package tour. This included a walking tour, trolley tour and entrance into the Music Museum. Our walking tour guide was lovely. She was one of 43 cousins in Nashville, married to the local policeman and has about 300 plus family members in Nashville. This makes it sound like a hillbilly town but it wasn’t really. She regaled us of her stories of the stars, I think that there are so many who live there that locals get quite blase about it. Our first stop was the hatch poster shop, now these are the older type posters that were printed before a performers concert. Only 200 per show are ever printed so you can imagine the prices. Elvis, Johnny Cash – all had hatch posters made.

The next stop was the Ryman, probably made more famous after the movie Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line”. I stood on the stage where Elvis played, interestingly enough, the Ryman management at the time told him that he wasn’t very good. Other majors to play there, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Minnie Pearl, Jim Reeves, Glen Campbell, Everly Brothers and Dolly Parton. There are plenty and newer groups want to play here because the greats did and there is good karma. A few years ago, this building steeped with history, was going to be pulled down until Dolly Parton had a few words with the owners. The Ryman have very strict performing rules, the first being, that under no circumstances can you be a minute late for your performance. If you are late twice, you never get to play there again. Madonna would struggle. Johnny Cash had his temper tantrum here and was forbidden to play after smashing up his dressing room. He bought the glass windows in the Ryman and was then only allowed to play there again.

The torrential downpour outside, almost put an end to our tour but we soldiered on. A quick walk through Tootsies (famous for the artists discovered there). The walls were covered with pictures of artists. A quick stop at a CD shop turned into a longer one while we waited for the rain to stop and Rose extended her CD collection to now include some country and western. Also handy having your tour guide married to a local policeman, meant that running across roads madly in the rain was okay.

Onto the trolley tour ride which wasn’t much to talk about. Our driver had about as many teeth as fingers as I have on my left hand. Still he was entertaining and the only place we were allowed to stop was at America’s version of the Parthenon. I don’t understand but it is a complete replica. By this time we had made friends with the other travellers in the hostel and the five of us headed off for a barbeque lunch of pork shoulder, corn and green beans…. And of course as much fizzy drink as you want.

Rose and I headed back to the Ryman to record a CD. We tried for “Islands in a Stream# but settled on “Crazy” by Patsy Cline. We are selling copies to recoup travel expenses, it sounds pretty good. Let me know. The Museum and Hall of Fame were interesting but we raced through it to make it to the Wild Horse Saloon for some free line dancing. I think that we got the basics and it looked quite good. A bar crawl followed, my energy had waned by now and I headed home with another of the permanent hostel dwellers. The music scene is fantastic though. Some real talent playing in every bar in the street, hoping to be discovered.

Next day was a greyhound bus trip to Memphis. I have plenty of things to say about public transport outside of big towns in the US, and not much of it is good. Definitely not first world when it comes to transport. But then scenes at Victoria Coach Station are just as chaotic. The locals are a lot more interesting, one lady travelling in her curlers, another weirdo wanting to preach religion and religious values to me. The bus was dirty, the stations didn’t really sell freshly prepared food, microwaveable vending machine burgers and pizza didn’t appeal. We held out for Memphis.

Julie recommended our accommodation in Memphis. It was at an RV park behind the Heartbreak Hotel in the cutest little cabins. First though, we needed to get there and Rose and I have bad luck with shuttle services. We waited about an hour before we were picked up. Lunch was at the hotel in the Jungle Room (Elvis’ home has a jungle room) and there are Elvis movies playing 24 hours.

We headed downtown to meet up with Jo, Christene and Jaylee who also moved to Memphis on the same bus. Dinner was at a place called Rendevouz, famous for it’s ribs. They were coated in crumbs, not like the barbeque sauce ribs we are used to. Rose and I shared a meal, we did this quite often as the meals were too large for each of us and we were wasting food. Beale Street was next, again famous for the music scene. Jo and Jaylee tried the bucking bronco and both did well. We bar hopped again until they started charging us when we decided to stay in BB Kings. The music was fantastic and we stayed until it closed at 2am. I had a bad nights sleep. The ma tresses were plastic and all I had was my inner sheet lining and the temperatures dropped. I was cold.

An early morning start, a 5dollar breakfast of bagels at the Jungle Room before we walked the 5 minutes to the Graceland travel centre. We opted for the platinum tour which gave us an additional couple of Elvis exhibitions, access to his car collection and the planes that he used. I didn’t think that we would be there as long as we were. We spent about 5 hours there. The tour starts with a 5 minute drive across the road and up the drive way before we disembark and follow an audio tour through the house. Some of the rooms are eccentric to say the least. A yellow bar, a pool room covered in material and a sitting room decorated african style complete with waterfall. Elvis had an extensive singing and movie career memorabilia collection. Elvis and his family are laid to rest at Graceland. Looking at the gravestones was sad, his grandmother outlived her famous grandson and his parents.

We looked for the tackiest souvenir and we could have hunted for days. There are so many, however, worth mentioning was the yellow see through plastic guitar, about as long as my arm, and filled with popcorn. An Elvis candy dispenser and Elvis lamp shades also made it near the top of the list. I am sure that Elvis is turning in his grave. There are some Elvis eccentrics out there, our limo driver (I’ll explain below) moved to be near Graceland, has a season pass and has been to Graceland 342 times, every spare chance he gets. He assures us that he notices something different each time he goes and that they do change the exhibits. Freak.

We headed off to Sun King studios after Graceland, not only to make use of their free shuttle but there was some good music recorded there. Elvis initially, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Roy Orbison. The studio makes its money by recording during the night and giving tours during the day. After a posed photo with the microphone that Elvis potentially may have used, we headed towards the Civil Rights museum. I opted to watch the ducks at The Peabody instead. I didn’t feel that I had enough time to do the museum justice if I went. (This museum is infamous as the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr was shot).

The Peabody ducks swim around a fountain in the lobby of this 5 star hotel all day. At 5pm in the afternoon, music is played and the ducks march through the lobby, into an elevator and into their “palace” on the roof. It really isn’t a palace but a fenced in pond. The views from the top of the hotel were worth the effort of elbowing my way through hordes of pushy children to see the ducks. It was my first view of the Mississippi River.

Rose and I raced back to our little cabin and waited for the courtesy pink limo to fetch us to take us for dinner at a restaurant down the road. All I am going to say about dinner is that it was fried, as is most stuff in the south and both Rose and I were craving some normal food. The limo ride was fun, a dated limo but we have some awesome pictures.

We tried Beale Street for the music again but the group was exhausted and the cover charges put us off so we headed back for an earliesh night. I borrowed a blanket from the campsite and had a much better nights sleep.

Another early start, a shuttle to the catch the 8 hour train to New Orleans. It was a very pleasant journey. I sat in the lounge car, trying to write my diary but landed up talking to a variety of Americans. A lovely lady who was on her way home to her family after a disastrous girlie weekend in Chicago, complete with a cooler box of pizza from Chicago – the best I believe. She had interesting tales to tell about Hurricane Katrina. An eccentric ballroom dancing truck driver in cowboy boots and cowboy hat. He hated America, wanted to live in Australia, took a liking to me so I escaped. A young man on his way to complete 4 months air force training, looking at taking on an assignment to Guam. He probably thought I was a bimbo by the time we had struggled to find the bathrooms in the train station and he thought I was trying to draw cash from the Amtrak train ticket machine and pointed out the ATM next to it – I wasn’t. Lastly, two tourist representatives who were promoting New Orleans and National Parks. Jonathon was great and we had our own personal tour as we headed into New Orleans. Handy to have the locals and he was able to point out some of the destruction caused by Katrina that hasn’t been fixed yet.

We didn’t have accommodation booked so we jumped in a taxi to Jackson Square – the main square in the French Quarter. I headed towards Tourist Information who had cheap deals on accommodation. We were able to get a really good 3 star hotel for a good price.

My first impressions of New Orleans were very positive. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and there were market stalls around the square, lots of big colourful umbrellas. My impression didn’t change too much. There is much to do and it is a very interesting city.

Our first exploration was of Point Algiers over the river. It was an incredibly hot day. We had to stop for refreshments along the way at a local pub, again with the live music that we had become spoilt with in Nashville and Memphis. Lots of beautiful houses, some of them quite old and when it got dark, victorian gas lamps lit up the verandas. An early night was called for and we felt better for it the next day.

Rose headed off for a city tour while I caught up with some admin and wandered through the French Quarter, which is and looks more spanish. The afternoon heralded a trip on a steamboat down the Mississippi. I could lie and tell you the views were amazing but I won’t. I have plenty of pictures of tankers, docks and a sugar factory. The captain did however point out where the levee broke in District 9, along the canal, which caused all the damage during hurricane Katrina and an old plantation house. It is quite easy to see how much New Orleans is below sea level from the River. Still it was a lovely trip, on a steamboat just like you see on TV.

A dinner of gumbo and jambalaya later and we were off to hit the music scene on Bourbon Street. We weren’t disappointed and found a cute bar with live music, after paying an extortionate amount of money for 2 bottles of water, we listened until closing.

Next morning was a self guided tram tour of the Garden District, beautiful large old homes…. Think plantation houses. I imagine the upkeep is quite expensive. The afternoon was set aside for a cemetery and voodoo tour. The cemeteries in New Orleans are quite interesting. People aren’t buried underground because of the water (remember New Orleans below sea level). Large vaults are built above ground, a body in a wooden coffin is placed in the vault. Temperatures inside the vault reach 300 Farenheit, pretty much cremating the body and coffin. After a year and a day, the ash is scooped into a bag and placed in a box at the bottom of the vault. Can’t afford your own fault – there were communal vaults. If you are unfortunate to die and there isn’t space for you in your fault, you timeshare in another until the obligatory one year and one day frees up some space in the family vault. Unfortunately, the vaults are mostly is a sad state of repair, much is being done to preserve them but there is still a long way to go. We stopped at the voodoo queen Miriam Lequeffes grave, vandalised by the 3 XXX’s made to the marble. Supposed to be good fortune if you do, but our guide almost got into a fight with another group of tourists who did.

We then headed off to the voodoo centre and to meet a voodoo priestess. Rose and I were both a little unnerved by the voodoo shops that we had been in. Movies have portrayed voodooism in a bad light, but it involves more counselling, listening and positive thinking. Still we were freaked out by some of the grotesque voodoo dolls we saw, which incidentally probably have more to do with the Day of the Dead than anything else. We spoke to the priestess but mostly about travel.

Before dinner we had a quick horse and carriage ride around New Orleans. I had seen most of the French Quarter on my own, but the driver pointed out Brangelina’s New Orleans home and the house that inspired “House of the Rising Sun” … there was a house in New Orleans, they called it the Rising Sun …. It was a brothel.

Our evening entertainment was at Pat O Brians. The tourist representative had mentioned this was good and it was. We sat in the piano lounge until it closed. Three pianists alternated playing any song requested, if they didn’t have the music, they googled it. It was a fantastic evening and so ended our stay in New Orleans.

Sydney

sue_hood — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 07:22:00 GMT

I left Phuket very early in the morning and had a few hours to wander around the airport in Bangkok. I am going to admit that I was fairly impressed with the airport. It was very clean and there were plenty of shops. I had my last Green curry at the airport and spent my last Baht. I was very sad to leave. It meant that my trip was heading towards an end.

The flight to Sydney was uneventful. There were some amazing views of the sunrise over Sydney in the morning and my first views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge were from the air. Yes, as you can imagine, I took photos.

We landed very early and upon the advice of my Roman, my Slovakian friend, took the train towards Central station. My hostel was about a 5 minute walk from the station. I was very early so my room wasn't quite ready. After a wait and some juggling of dorm rooms, I headed to catch up on some sleep, though I did manage to lock myself out of the room in the first half an hour. The manageress didn't seem too fussed so I assume that it happened quite regularly.

After a few hours sleep, I headed out to explore Sydney. I had arranged to meet Roman a few hours later so my sightseeing plans changed and I headed back to the station to meet him. We headed in the direction of Chinatown, which was great as I had felt sad to leave South East Asia. The fresh fruit and vegetable market made me laugh, everything was one dollar - even though it was one Australian Dollar. I was feeling a little sentimental so I had a coconut milkshake.

After getting some washing done, I headed towards the Opera House, I had been in Sydney a day and hadn't done too much exploring. It was a beautiful sight, the Opera House all lit up in the evening.

Next day was earmarked for some serious sightseeing as it was my last day in Sydney. I headed in the direction of the Opera House, stopping in the numerous Chinese owned shops along the way. They all sold the same sort of stuff I had seen in China, just at three times the price. After travelling so cheaply for the last three months, it was a shock to be back in a first world country with first world prices.

At the Harbour, I stopped to listen to a didgeridoo being played. I was sorely tempted to buy some aboriginal music but was holding out for a boomerang and my cork hat. I jumped onto a 2 hour coffee cruise of the Harbour. It was a lovely day and no surprise, I got sun burnt. Sydney Harbour really is beautiful. After the cruise I headed towards the Opera House. It really is quite something to see. It was such a lovely day, I pulled out a book and sat on the steps and read in the sunshine for a while.

Next stop was the Botanical Gardens. Very pretty but I was more fascinated with the flying foxes - very large fruit bats. It was heading towards dusk and they were just waking up for the night,

I walked through Hyde Park - yes, Hyde Park. I was still feeling a little sentimental about SE Asia so dinner on the way was a Vietnamese beef rice noodle soup. It was an early start the next morning to the airport for Brisbane so I headed back to the hostel to pack.

Chang Mai

sue_hood — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:49:00 GMT

The train to Chang Mai was the most interesting I have been on. There were no sleeping compartments and all the beds are along the sides of the compartments so in fact you are sharing a compartment with everyone. You have your own curtain to close once you are ready for bed.

I met a german and slovakian on the train who were also travelling on their own. It turned out to be a fun night. The train conductor was very funny and enticed us to buy beers for ourselves and for him. We did so but only on the proviso that he came back to drink it with us. 15 minutes later, he arrived with 5 very large bottles of beer and so began a fun night. We were the last people to go too bed and possibly the most unpopular people as we made so much noise.

The express train wasn't quite an express train and we stopped at many stations along the way, arriving at Chang Mai at about 1pm in the afternoon. After a quick shower at the hostel, I headed back into the city centre to meed my new friends for lunch and a wander around Wat Phra Singh, picking up another lone german traveller along the way. I must admit that I am feeling watted out so my enthusiasm is a little low, but we did find a really pretty wat on the walk towards the river. It was a very old wat and at one time had many elephant heads around the outside of the building. We also had the chance to chat to monks and ask them about their daily lives. We were a little unlucky though as our monk was writing an exam the next day and was more interested in his english book than us. To be fair, he probably gets so sick and tired of the same questions.

Both Franke (german) and Roman (slovakian) were going on a jungle trek for two days so I decided that it sounded like a good idea and signed up for a trek at the hostel. The trek was for two days, one night in the jungle and included an elephant ride, a swim at a waterfall, white river rafting and bamboo rafting.

No tour is complete without a stop along the way at the market.... where I bought a very colourful and pretty hat. Our next stop was the elephant ride. I had been quite excited about it but Iost my enthusiasm when I saw how the elephants were pulled along by chains and managed with a hammer and a long nail. I tried it, it wasn't comfortable and I was pleased to get off after and hour. I much prefer to see elephant in the wild, free to roam as they please. I did feed my elephant some banana's to say thank you.

We then headed to the start of our jungle trek at about 2:30pm. It was hot and it was a very hard walk. We didn't have enough water and my pack was far too heavy. We walked for about four hours and it was very hard going. We all took strain on the walk and our guides kept making us walk faster so that we weren't going to walk in the dark. The sunset at the top of the mountain was worth it though.

We all slept in one large bamboo dormitory with mats on the floor and mosquito nets. Each time one of us moved or rolled over, it created a ripple effect on the bamboo and we all felt it. Once again, I was very grateful for my ear plugs.

Next morning, we headed off at about 10am, again it was hot but the walking was a lot easier and mostly down hill. We stopped at the waterfall where we all jumped in to cool off. After another hour walk we were in a village for lunch and gratefully, a minibus took us to the white river rafting.

White river rafting was fun. The group was split into two, which I called team Britian and team international. I will proudly say that team international were far better than team Britian both at the rafting and the water fights. I was surprised by the rapids, I didn't think that there would be that many and really enjoyed my hour. We got stuck many times and there was one moment where the driver yanked me back into the boat when we hit a particularly large rapid. The moment was captured on camera.... you can't actually see me in the photo for the wall of water covering me.

After white river rafting, we jumped onto bamboo rafts. Not quite the same experience as Guilin. We were pretty much sitting in the water most of the time but it was very peaceful floating down the river.

That ended the two day trek and I was happy to get back to the hostel to have a warm shower. I tried to go shopping in the evening at the Night Bazaar, but gave in to tiredness.

I tried again this morning but I think I am too early for all the stalls at the markets. Not sure when I am going to get any shopping done.

Anwyay, off to meet my slovakian friend for lunch. I head back to Bangkok later this afternoon.

Bangkok

sue_hood — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:19:00 GMT

Again.... from Nick.

"The border between Cambodia and Thailand was a long steady stream of westerners, and took hours. As we waited in line, I watched a truck load of polystyrene enter Cambodia the other way, and I mused at the endless supplies of the stuff Cambodia eats up, and what exactly they do with it. On the other side of the border, we were shuttled onto a large A/C bus, and cruised on tarmac roads to Thailand's capital city".

What Nick didn't mention was how hot it was at the border and inside the border buildings. The two fans that were on, were pointing at the customs officials and did nothing to help the hundreds of people waiting to complete border formalities.

We arrived in Bangkok and I was surprised. All the way along my travels, people have said how they didn't like Bangkok. Yet from the bus, it was pretty with trees and streets illuminated with fairly lights. Our first tuk tuk in Bangkok and we had to laugh at the disco lights that shone in the tuk tuk and when the driver braked. Lauren and I upgraded to a fancy hotel with proper showers for a change. The hotel was huge, had shops and about 6 different restaurants. My first meal in Thailand was a brazillian grill at 10pm at night.

Next morning I headed off to the presidential palace and Wat Phra Kaeo. Lauren and Nick had opted for a day of shopping and movies. The buildings were beautiful and I spent a good three hours wandering around in the heat. I loved the wat, it was decorated with gold mosiacs and shone in the sunshine. I took plenty of pictures.

I then headed towards Wat Po to see Thailands second largest reclining Buddha. It was an impressive sight, though I did have to push my way through the bus loads of buddhist monks on tour.

I then headed back to the hotel for a quick swim before meeting Nick and Lauren for dinner. Dinner was at a thai restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. The restaurant was decorated by lights, a father christmas and superman - all designed with different colour condoms. It was good for a laugh and the food was pretty good. No mints after the meal... instead we were all given free condoms.

After dinner we headed back to the main backpacker area to meet our Dutch friend Floor. It was good to catch up with him again and I arranged to meet up with him for lunch the next day. Once again, I had a really fun night with Floor, though, could have done without the tequila.

After lunch. Floor and I jumped onto a river ferry and then stopped at Wat Arun. After the Wat, Floor negotiated a longboat canal ride for us, enticing two other couples to join us and reduce the costs. It was very interesting and very pretty but after a while - I got bored with all the Wats.

Anyway, I headed back to the hotel and then to the train station, saying good bye to Nick and Lauren who were staying a little longer in Bangkok and then heading up North.