Gap year 09

jungle

tennantbella — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 04:04:00 GMT

so i spent the last week in huascila lodge near tena in the amazon basin. the jungle is amazing, we´ve done a fair bit of hiking through it already, seen some brilliant waterfalls, soooo many ants!! they are everywhere! seen some other bits of wild life too, monkeys, parrots :).

the lodge is really nice, with great food, a bit remote though, but i guess thats no bad thing. still struggling to come to terms with the heat though! its so so so hot, trying to work in it is just impossible sometimes! and then 5 mintues later you´ll be caught in the middle of the most amazing thunderstorm!!

last wednesday we all went caving....proper caving. following a river through the mountainsid, crawling and swimming our way through, got plastered in ´theraputic´ mud, and saw the most absurd and creepy looking creature ever, a scorpion spider, as big as a plate, no eyes, it lives in the caves....horrible thing.

yesterday i went white water rafting :). it was awesome fun, and only made better by the awesome surroundings, right through the middle of the jungle, some amazing views, especially as the sun was setting. we rafted our way to tener, the biggest town near us, were we stayed this weekend, had a bit of a night out for my birthday :) and then we´re off back to the jungle tody for three more weeks of hard work.

got a good couple more things planned for my time here, will keep you posted as and when i can.

the link for where im staying

http://huasquila.com/

the coast

tennantbella — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:45:00 GMT

have been at the coast for this last week. staying in an amazing ecolodge. all made out of bamboo, hammocks everywhere :). we´re living in these awesome little huts on the beach. we´ve been working on the eco lodge every day, reaaally hard work, but its really good to get busy doing what we really came out here to do. have been making the most of the sea in the afternoons and this weekend, been out surfing pretty much each day after work...i could get used to that!

we spent this weekend in montañita, an chilled little surf town a bit further up the coast, i love it here, dont want to leave!!! good night life and loads of friendly people.

im heading back to the ecolodge for this next week before popping back to quito for a small bit and then its off to the jungle for a month!!

hope your all well.

p.s. this is were im staying

http://www.alandaluzhosteria.com/codigo/ingles/index.html

Quito II

tennantbella — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:10:00 GMT

starting to get used to madness of quito now! though its still a pretty intense city.

have been pretty busy this last week. went to the equator to see the whole experiments thing, was pretty gimicky but it has to be done! on friday we took a bus out to mindo, a small town about 2 hours from quito. the views along the way were just phenomenal, all through the jungle and mountains. we spent the night in mindo, and then spent the day zipwiring through the junge canopy, was awesome, flying along at a good 100m up over some 500m long zipwiresa, then spent the afternoon, at a waterfall in the jungle, jumping 12m into the water!! got a video of it :). we then got the bus back to quito yesterday, in time to watch the ecuador football match, they take it sooo seriously here! they all love it!

also found the time last week to go up the teleferiqo, its a cable car that takes you up to 4000m above sea level for so me awesome views of quito.

ive another week here in quito before im off to the coast for 2 weeks, really looking forward to that.

hope your all well at home

Quito!

tennantbella — Wed, 7 Oct 2009 02:20:00 GMT

ahh so, I arrived the day before yesterday, settled in, the hostal is really good, nice big beds, hammocks, the works. Met all the people I'm gonna be with for the next 10 weeks, all seem really nice so thats all good.

i spent yesterday walking around old town, its amazing. such amazing architecture and full of street vendors and craftsmen and what not. we climbed up to the top of the belfry in the bassilica (huge church!): health and safety is nowhere near as imporant here as at home! but got some great views of quito (check the pics).

the food out here is amazing! and so so cheap. loads of pork, vegetables fish and fruit, you can easily get a nice big meal for $2!!

im spending the next two weeks in quito, having spanish lessons in the hostal. 4 hours at a time, every day, 1 on 1, seriously intense stuff! should pick it up pretty fast though I hope.

Got a couple of excersions planed for my time in quito, zipwireing through the jungle, mountain biking, its all good fun :)

hope your all well at home and I'll be in touch as often as I can.

dummy run

tennantbella — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:20:00 GMT

this is just a dummy run so you can see where the stories will appear and what not.

ignore the banner along the top of my home page saying features etc etc.

if you want to see my pictures or anything like that then its the bit on the right, under my 'profile picture' that you want to click on. :)