Sunday, 17 April 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Canal Trip
Arriving in Panama we immediately noticed the American influence, before we'd even reached customs we past all the usual fastfood suspects...Subway, Dunkin Donuts, KFC etc.
Coming out into arrivals we had the standard 'you wan taxi' thrown at us from all angles but we needed to sort some cash out first so we said 'no thanks' to all of them. After sorting out some dollars (Panama uses US Dollars as its currency) we headed out to get transport, at this point we were thinking we might try and get a bus into the city to save the money but when the taxi guys came over again and said 20 bucks we took them up. One of the original taxi guys from inside had come out by that point and on hearing the name of the hotel we were staying in started going off at us with 'that's a first class hotel...how come you can't afford 20 bucks for a taxi' and 'this is why the rich man stay rich and poor stay poor....'. Yeh? DO ONE! We had booked into a decent hotel for the two nights in Panama City because it was Neens birthday. Not a great first impression of the people of Panama!! Luckily we realised over the next week that many of them were all very nice people and this was just a bad start..
We had one full day in the city and knew a few things we wanted to see but rather than book a tour, which were pretty toppy, we decided to do it ourselves using taxi's. First stop was the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks which has a visitor centre. The taxi driver asked if we wanted him to stay and and we agreed an extra 5 bucks, in fact he came in with us and knew everything about the canal so we actualy had a guide as well. The locks are huge as you would imagine and there was a tanker going through from the pacific to the carribean side when we arrived. Apparently the French were the first to try and build the canal but had to give up eventually due to the difficulties and number of workers that died. Bizzarely the majority of workers that built the successful canal came from Barbados. Ships are built using the dimensions of the canal specifically and they are building a new set of locks that will be able to cater for bigger boats. We were both impressed by the canal, the shire size of it and process for crossing between the two oceans.. Sad I know!!
We decided to hold onto our taxi/guide for the rest of the day and he took us into the rain forest to a hotel with an amazing view, where we had a nice drink on the balcony to toast Neens for her birthday. We then carried onto a small national park, with a 1 dollar entrance fee to check out the jaguar, monkeys, tapir and crocs. That night we found a nice little restaurant for Neens birthday and just had a chilled out evening with some nice food and wine.
The following day we left for a small island in the north east of Panama called 'Bocas Del Toro'. We got on a bus around 8.30am and arrived in a place called 'Almirante' around 6pm, when we got off the bus we had the locals shouting at us about the last boat leaving at 6pm for Bocas so we piled into this van, with some annoying American guy moaning about being squashed in the front with another person.. We got down to the water side and went to get in the boat but it was full! So we ended up being left with the couple of Americans and had to arrange another boat but as you can imagine they wanted more cash as this was not a scheduled boat ride. Eventually we managed to drum up another few passengers and got across to the island and checked into our hostel.
Bocas was a great little place with a really chilled out feel to it, we spent a couple of days chilling out, taking in the relaxed atmosphere, having a few drinks and eating some lovely food - especially the fish tacos! We decided to check out the 'starfish' beach on one of the days, which mean't another bus ride out to the area. Once we arrived we walked for around 45mins to the starfish beach, which I think is the best beach we have ever been to. The water was cristal clear, with starfish everywhere.. We met a really nice local guy who made us rum coconut cocktails in the coconut, did some snorkelling and just took in the amazing scenery around us. Rather than head back on the bus we found a few people who were going back on a boat so to finish the afternoon off we took a beautiful boat journey back to the main town of Bocas to spend the evening.
The following day we had booked a transfer from Bocas to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, which was a boat ride and van to the boarder, then a walk across a bridge from Panama and into Costa Rica - very weird expecially as the bridge was a bit on the dodgy side! Then finally a taxi to our hotel in Puerto Viejo.
Coming out into arrivals we had the standard 'you wan taxi' thrown at us from all angles but we needed to sort some cash out first so we said 'no thanks' to all of them. After sorting out some dollars (Panama uses US Dollars as its currency) we headed out to get transport, at this point we were thinking we might try and get a bus into the city to save the money but when the taxi guys came over again and said 20 bucks we took them up. One of the original taxi guys from inside had come out by that point and on hearing the name of the hotel we were staying in started going off at us with 'that's a first class hotel...how come you can't afford 20 bucks for a taxi' and 'this is why the rich man stay rich and poor stay poor....'. Yeh? DO ONE! We had booked into a decent hotel for the two nights in Panama City because it was Neens birthday. Not a great first impression of the people of Panama!! Luckily we realised over the next week that many of them were all very nice people and this was just a bad start..
We had one full day in the city and knew a few things we wanted to see but rather than book a tour, which were pretty toppy, we decided to do it ourselves using taxi's. First stop was the Panama Canal and the Miraflores Locks which has a visitor centre. The taxi driver asked if we wanted him to stay and and we agreed an extra 5 bucks, in fact he came in with us and knew everything about the canal so we actualy had a guide as well. The locks are huge as you would imagine and there was a tanker going through from the pacific to the carribean side when we arrived. Apparently the French were the first to try and build the canal but had to give up eventually due to the difficulties and number of workers that died. Bizzarely the majority of workers that built the successful canal came from Barbados. Ships are built using the dimensions of the canal specifically and they are building a new set of locks that will be able to cater for bigger boats. We were both impressed by the canal, the shire size of it and process for crossing between the two oceans.. Sad I know!!
We decided to hold onto our taxi/guide for the rest of the day and he took us into the rain forest to a hotel with an amazing view, where we had a nice drink on the balcony to toast Neens for her birthday. We then carried onto a small national park, with a 1 dollar entrance fee to check out the jaguar, monkeys, tapir and crocs. That night we found a nice little restaurant for Neens birthday and just had a chilled out evening with some nice food and wine.
The following day we left for a small island in the north east of Panama called 'Bocas Del Toro'. We got on a bus around 8.30am and arrived in a place called 'Almirante' around 6pm, when we got off the bus we had the locals shouting at us about the last boat leaving at 6pm for Bocas so we piled into this van, with some annoying American guy moaning about being squashed in the front with another person.. We got down to the water side and went to get in the boat but it was full! So we ended up being left with the couple of Americans and had to arrange another boat but as you can imagine they wanted more cash as this was not a scheduled boat ride. Eventually we managed to drum up another few passengers and got across to the island and checked into our hostel.
Bocas was a great little place with a really chilled out feel to it, we spent a couple of days chilling out, taking in the relaxed atmosphere, having a few drinks and eating some lovely food - especially the fish tacos! We decided to check out the 'starfish' beach on one of the days, which mean't another bus ride out to the area. Once we arrived we walked for around 45mins to the starfish beach, which I think is the best beach we have ever been to. The water was cristal clear, with starfish everywhere.. We met a really nice local guy who made us rum coconut cocktails in the coconut, did some snorkelling and just took in the amazing scenery around us. Rather than head back on the bus we found a few people who were going back on a boat so to finish the afternoon off we took a beautiful boat journey back to the main town of Bocas to spend the evening.
The following day we had booked a transfer from Bocas to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, which was a boat ride and van to the boarder, then a walk across a bridge from Panama and into Costa Rica - very weird expecially as the bridge was a bit on the dodgy side! Then finally a taxi to our hotel in Puerto Viejo.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Say Hello To My Lil Friend
Hi all. Columbia was an interesting few weeks, it has some amazing scenery and some very bad roads......
We arrived in Leticia after our boat down the amazon and had a night here before a flight up to Bogota. Leticia is a bit like Iquitos, a frontier town that is always buzzing (India style moto-rickshaws instead of mototaxis) and is a bit grubby. One thing that was immediately apparent were the number of police and military on the streets - this was a feature of the entire country and not just because we were in a border town. The hotel we'd booked turned out to be good, had a great bed and a/c, which was well received after a few days of relative roughing it in the amazon. It was here that i first noticed another feature of Columbia - bad pavements - when i bust open my big toe on one.....
Leticia is in the far south east of Columbia but the flight to Bogota (which is central) only took an hour and a half. Bogota!! It's one of those places that you have to do a double take for it to sink in that you are there. Before we'd read any of the guides on Columbia we had the stereotypical picture of it as a dangerous, no-go place so it was interesting to actually get there and confirm it didn't feel like we were in the movie 'Clear and Present Danger'!! The people seemed genuinely friendly and keen to show off their country in a good way.
Bogota is a massive city, and has lots of different areas to it, we stayed in the Zona Rosa area, which was really nice and had some great restaurants and bars. The traffic there is crazy, with cars and buses everywhere, making journeys around long and drawn out. As with everywhere else in South America, Bogota has a Place De Bolivar which is the main square so after a 50 minute taxi ride, we started out here, then carried on to the Police and Gold Museum's. The Police Museum had a big gun room and a Pablo Escobar exhibition with a few dodgy dummies of him in various states which were so bad it was funny. The gold museum had some impressive stuff dating back to very early civilisations and focused on the culture that existed prior to Columbus and the Europeans arriving.
Lunch was at a little restaurant in La Candeleria which is a historic area near the main square, i had a Bandje Paisa (Beans, Chorizo, Plantain, Rice, Avocado, Pork) and Nina had the 'Ajiaco', which is a local soup dish with chicken and corn/capers.
After the museum's, another long taxi ride and some shopping we treated ourselves to a couple of beers at the 'Bogota Beer Company', then found a nice Asian fusion restaurant which served up some great sushi for dinner.
The next morning we headed off to Solenta which is in the Zona Cafateria (Coffee growing region) via a nine hour bus ride. The bus ride was almost all mountain roads so was pretty hard going, especially after lunch (Which took some concentration to keep down!). We also had a little stop for the military to get on and check every ones papers (this is apparently not uncommon in Columbia).
Solenta is a great little place in the hills where there are dudes walking around in hats and ponchos. We booked into a little B&B which took some finding and once we were settled in we popped out for some food. Nina tried the local trout, which is the speciality of the area, and said it was easily one of the nicest fish she's had, They butterflied it, filleted it and grilled it, plain but so fresh.
On our first morning we took the advice of our B&B and headed for a local organic coffee plantation, which was apparently 45 mins out of town. After walking for more than this amount of time down a track we started to wonder if we were actually going in the right direction. Then a couple of 4x4 jeeps went past and one of them stopped and said for us to 'hop on', so we sat on the grill at the back and got a ride down to the bottom of the hill!! classic. We then bumped into a local guy, and with a little bit of Spanish managed to understand that we were heading in the right direction.
After the hiddious bus journey from Bogota to Solenta, we decided to fly back on a small plane and then get a bus to our next destination, Valle De Levya. The plane journey was not too bad, but when we arrived at the bus terminal in Bogota we were told that due to a strike most of the buses were not running. After a bit of running around and some very bad Spanish we managed to find one bus leaving in an hour or so, so we booked onto it.
Valle De Leyva is a completely untouched historic town with dudes in ponchos walking about. It has the weirdest square in the middle of the town, which is massive but has nothing in the middle of it. There was some miltary action/training going on cos there were loads of armed comandoes running around everywhere. We were not that impressed with the place and it was peeing down with rain, so we had a quick whistle stop tour for one night and left the following day for San Gill.....
After the ranger let us go, we just looked around us and realised we had landed on one of the most amazing beaches either of us had ever seen. It really was absolutely stunning and the rest of the park was amazing, and in hignsight had we known this we would have probably camped here for a couple of days rather than staying in santa marta. We had a great walk through the park and out the other end back to Santa Marta and onto our next destination - Cartegena.
Out of everywhere we'd been in Columbia this was by far the most touristy (mostly Americans) which probably explains why we were approached by Johnny 'Walker Blue' Kay when sitting outside a bar at lunch. We weren't sure what he wanted at first but it soon became clear that when he said he organised 'the best quality parties' and 'did we underdestand him?' that he was actually trying to sell us some of Columbia's finest, cocaine!! We declined but not before buying some dodgy cohiba cigars off what turned out to be his mate.
After spending a couple of nights in Cartagena we flew to a Columbian island that is actually off the coast of Nicaragua (the dispute over sovereignty still goes on apprently) for a few days of beach action. We stayed for four days and just relaxed on the beach, drove around the island in a golf buggy we hired and ate some great fresh fish. The best meal we had by far was at a restaurant called Regatta in the marina where I had three lobster tails each cooked differently and Neen had Langoustines. The only bad thing about the night, pretty much our last day in Columbia, was that i busted open the same toe as i had done on our first day when we arrived in Leticia.....fricking Columbian pavements...
We arrived in Leticia after our boat down the amazon and had a night here before a flight up to Bogota. Leticia is a bit like Iquitos, a frontier town that is always buzzing (India style moto-rickshaws instead of mototaxis) and is a bit grubby. One thing that was immediately apparent were the number of police and military on the streets - this was a feature of the entire country and not just because we were in a border town. The hotel we'd booked turned out to be good, had a great bed and a/c, which was well received after a few days of relative roughing it in the amazon. It was here that i first noticed another feature of Columbia - bad pavements - when i bust open my big toe on one.....
Leticia is in the far south east of Columbia but the flight to Bogota (which is central) only took an hour and a half. Bogota!! It's one of those places that you have to do a double take for it to sink in that you are there. Before we'd read any of the guides on Columbia we had the stereotypical picture of it as a dangerous, no-go place so it was interesting to actually get there and confirm it didn't feel like we were in the movie 'Clear and Present Danger'!! The people seemed genuinely friendly and keen to show off their country in a good way.
Bogota is a massive city, and has lots of different areas to it, we stayed in the Zona Rosa area, which was really nice and had some great restaurants and bars. The traffic there is crazy, with cars and buses everywhere, making journeys around long and drawn out. As with everywhere else in South America, Bogota has a Place De Bolivar which is the main square so after a 50 minute taxi ride, we started out here, then carried on to the Police and Gold Museum's. The Police Museum had a big gun room and a Pablo Escobar exhibition with a few dodgy dummies of him in various states which were so bad it was funny. The gold museum had some impressive stuff dating back to very early civilisations and focused on the culture that existed prior to Columbus and the Europeans arriving.
Lunch was at a little restaurant in La Candeleria which is a historic area near the main square, i had a Bandje Paisa (Beans, Chorizo, Plantain, Rice, Avocado, Pork) and Nina had the 'Ajiaco', which is a local soup dish with chicken and corn/capers.
After the museum's, another long taxi ride and some shopping we treated ourselves to a couple of beers at the 'Bogota Beer Company', then found a nice Asian fusion restaurant which served up some great sushi for dinner.
The next morning we headed off to Solenta which is in the Zona Cafateria (Coffee growing region) via a nine hour bus ride. The bus ride was almost all mountain roads so was pretty hard going, especially after lunch (Which took some concentration to keep down!). We also had a little stop for the military to get on and check every ones papers (this is apparently not uncommon in Columbia).
Solenta is a great little place in the hills where there are dudes walking around in hats and ponchos. We booked into a little B&B which took some finding and once we were settled in we popped out for some food. Nina tried the local trout, which is the speciality of the area, and said it was easily one of the nicest fish she's had, They butterflied it, filleted it and grilled it, plain but so fresh.
On our first morning we took the advice of our B&B and headed for a local organic coffee plantation, which was apparently 45 mins out of town. After walking for more than this amount of time down a track we started to wonder if we were actually going in the right direction. Then a couple of 4x4 jeeps went past and one of them stopped and said for us to 'hop on', so we sat on the grill at the back and got a ride down to the bottom of the hill!! classic. We then bumped into a local guy, and with a little bit of Spanish managed to understand that we were heading in the right direction. So we carried on this walk and eventually found the place, more like 1 & half hours!! The coffee plantation was very small but a local lad walked us round and explained the whole process, picking beans off the bushes along the way. He then explained the process from shelling to washing to drying out to roasting and then grinding. He freshly ground some roasted beans and then made us some coffee with it .....mmmmmmmmm. After this we then had the nice walk back UP the hill!! It was also a very interesting walk as we almost stepped on a coral snake which was slithering across the track... That made Nina walk even faster to get up the hill after another encounter with a snake for her!
For our last full day we did a hike in the Valle De Cocora, which started with a jeep ride with 11 people on our jeep - apparently the record is 14! We started the walk through a valley up into the mountains, then into some deeper cloud forest to a lovely little hummingbird reserve, where we got a nice cup of coffee and watched lots of hummingbirds flitting around us. We then continued to climb to the top, which was 2500m through the cloud forest. After a short rest we had the spectacular walk down through the valley of the wax palms, which are the tallest in the world and also the national tree of Columbia! Once we reached the bottom we had another interesting jeep ride to the town for a well earned beer and bite to eat.
After the hiddious bus journey from Bogota to Solenta, we decided to fly back on a small plane and then get a bus to our next destination, Valle De Levya. The plane journey was not too bad, but when we arrived at the bus terminal in Bogota we were told that due to a strike most of the buses were not running. After a bit of running around and some very bad Spanish we managed to find one bus leaving in an hour or so, so we booked onto it. Valle De Leyva is a completely untouched historic town with dudes in ponchos walking about. It has the weirdest square in the middle of the town, which is massive but has nothing in the middle of it. There was some miltary action/training going on cos there were loads of armed comandoes running around everywhere. We were not that impressed with the place and it was peeing down with rain, so we had a quick whistle stop tour for one night and left the following day for San Gill.....
We thought getting to San Gil would be easy, one stop in Tunja and then a direct bus all the way to San Gil. However, we stupidly took the advice of the minibus company and went to another small village (for a more direct route!) where we were told lots of buses pass through and we just hop on any of them to San Gill. When we arrived it was tiny and we were told by many of the locals there were no buses to San Gill!! Standing in the middle of this place, we did not really know what to do, as you can imagine we were both really calm and not arguing at all!! Not, we went to have a quick juice and got chatting to the lady who kindly flagged us down a local minibus and eventually after four minibuses later and a taxi ride we got to our destination.
San Gil is supposed to be the 'adventure capital', but I guess after having been to New Zealand we were a bit spoilt and so none of the activities really grabbed us, so after a long journey to get to this place, we left the next day!! That kinda says it all for us for San Gill, and both of us were now looking forward to some much needed down time on the caribbean coast.
We knew that the bus journey to Santa Marta was going to be a long one, around 12 hours, but it left around 7pm and was supposed to arrive 7am, so after a few beers at the bus terminal and a sandwich all packed in for our dinner, we thought a sleep and we would be there. How wrong we could be!! The journey was pretty horrific, it started with the driver overtaking everything on the small mountain roads in bad weather. Then we stopped around midnight and no one really knew why, there where massive mud slides and at times the bus seemed to be slipping but it was too dark to see, then we thought it might have broken down, but afterwards someone said it was due to some of the other buses striking and blocking the roads..In the end the bus was at a standstill for around 6hrs, so eventually when we got moving again, we stopped at a local restaurant around 11am and still had another 6hrs or so to go, then we got transferred to another bus about 45 mins out of Santa Marta and then dropped at a taxi rank to finish the journey, we eventually arrived at our accommodation at around 7pm!! So all in all around 24hrs!! Columbian buses - not so great!
We booked into a cool little guest house called Casa Verde in the historic quarter of Santa Marta. It had a juice bar attached to it and this is where we learned about the number of different fruits which Columbia has that you do not come across elsewhere (at least not without looking for them specifically), like Guanabana and Lulo. Santa Marta itself isn't much to look at but the surrounding area has some stunning spots - Taganga & Tyrona National Park (AMAZING!).
San Gil is supposed to be the 'adventure capital', but I guess after having been to New Zealand we were a bit spoilt and so none of the activities really grabbed us, so after a long journey to get to this place, we left the next day!! That kinda says it all for us for San Gill, and both of us were now looking forward to some much needed down time on the caribbean coast.
We knew that the bus journey to Santa Marta was going to be a long one, around 12 hours, but it left around 7pm and was supposed to arrive 7am, so after a few beers at the bus terminal and a sandwich all packed in for our dinner, we thought a sleep and we would be there. How wrong we could be!! The journey was pretty horrific, it started with the driver overtaking everything on the small mountain roads in bad weather. Then we stopped around midnight and no one really knew why, there where massive mud slides and at times the bus seemed to be slipping but it was too dark to see, then we thought it might have broken down, but afterwards someone said it was due to some of the other buses striking and blocking the roads..In the end the bus was at a standstill for around 6hrs, so eventually when we got moving again, we stopped at a local restaurant around 11am and still had another 6hrs or so to go, then we got transferred to another bus about 45 mins out of Santa Marta and then dropped at a taxi rank to finish the journey, we eventually arrived at our accommodation at around 7pm!! So all in all around 24hrs!! Columbian buses - not so great!
We booked into a cool little guest house called Casa Verde in the historic quarter of Santa Marta. It had a juice bar attached to it and this is where we learned about the number of different fruits which Columbia has that you do not come across elsewhere (at least not without looking for them specifically), like Guanabana and Lulo. Santa Marta itself isn't much to look at but the surrounding area has some stunning spots - Taganga & Tyrona National Park (AMAZING!).
The following day we went to Taganga and hopped in a little boat round to a smaller beach where we spent the day chilling and eating some of the delicious local fish with coconut rice.
After chatting with the guest house owners we decided to take a boat the following day round to Tyrona National Park, specifically the beach of Cabo San Juan and then take a walk through the national park and the bus back to Santa Marta. The boat journey was interesting to say the least, the ocean is extremely dangerous around the national park and people are advised not to swim, we even saw signs explaining how people die here each year due to the conditions. This should have sent alarm bells ringing but no we still opted for the boat, and it was a very bumpy and unpleasant journey, with the boat at times feeling like it was going to tip over. Luckily the guy driving was very good and so we did make it to the beach, only to be greeted by the park rangers (and accompianing soldier who was going through everyone's bags and confiscating any alcohol etc he found) requesting us to pay the entrance fee...Oops thats where the problem arose, we only took a bit of cash with us for the day and completely forgot about having to pay the entrance fee, so we were way short of the cash we needed!! After a bit of pleading ignorance, certainly not wanting to get back on that boat and head home, the nice ranger agreed for us to just pay one fee and let us into the park. He even left us with the exact money we needed to get the bus back to Santa Marta, although not the shuttle bus to the main road, so that did add another 4kms onto our walk, with no money for food or anything more to drink!!
After the ranger let us go, we just looked around us and realised we had landed on one of the most amazing beaches either of us had ever seen. It really was absolutely stunning and the rest of the park was amazing, and in hignsight had we known this we would have probably camped here for a couple of days rather than staying in santa marta. We had a great walk through the park and out the other end back to Santa Marta and onto our next destination - Cartegena.
We had to encounter another rather strange experience for our transport to Cartegena as there were no more direct buses, so we took a taxi to some random place on the side of the main road in order to wait for a bus to Barrenquilla. We first of all jump in this beefed up SUV thing with mega tyres and then realised very quickly it was very dodgy so got out as quick as we got in!! Then we waited for one of the other more mainstream minivans and that took us to Barrenquilla, where we then changed onto another bus direct to Cartegena and then a taxi to our hostel.
Our hostel was in the old quarter of the city, which was supposed to be a little dodgy at night, but not too bad (it is the old red light district and there are still a fair few 'workers' out at night when you walk around). It was fairly near the walled city and so on the first day we headed to there to have a look around. We passed a park on the way and noticed lots of rather large iguanas wandering around, and a couple of which were having a fight. A pretty strange sight in the middle of a city.. The walled city was nice to stroll through and take in the atmosphere, but there was not loads to see, so that afternoon we jumped in a taxi and headed to the fort where we looked around and walked through the tunnels.
Our hostel was in the old quarter of the city, which was supposed to be a little dodgy at night, but not too bad (it is the old red light district and there are still a fair few 'workers' out at night when you walk around). It was fairly near the walled city and so on the first day we headed to there to have a look around. We passed a park on the way and noticed lots of rather large iguanas wandering around, and a couple of which were having a fight. A pretty strange sight in the middle of a city.. The walled city was nice to stroll through and take in the atmosphere, but there was not loads to see, so that afternoon we jumped in a taxi and headed to the fort where we looked around and walked through the tunnels.
Out of everywhere we'd been in Columbia this was by far the most touristy (mostly Americans) which probably explains why we were approached by Johnny 'Walker Blue' Kay when sitting outside a bar at lunch. We weren't sure what he wanted at first but it soon became clear that when he said he organised 'the best quality parties' and 'did we underdestand him?' that he was actually trying to sell us some of Columbia's finest, cocaine!! We declined but not before buying some dodgy cohiba cigars off what turned out to be his mate.
After spending a couple of nights in Cartagena we flew to a Columbian island that is actually off the coast of Nicaragua (the dispute over sovereignty still goes on apprently) for a few days of beach action. We stayed for four days and just relaxed on the beach, drove around the island in a golf buggy we hired and ate some great fresh fish. The best meal we had by far was at a restaurant called Regatta in the marina where I had three lobster tails each cooked differently and Neen had Langoustines. The only bad thing about the night, pretty much our last day in Columbia, was that i busted open the same toe as i had done on our first day when we arrived in Leticia.....fricking Columbian pavements...
Leaving San Andres we flew to Panama City and in doing so said goodbye to South America and hello to Central America. South America had been bloody excellent and we will definately be going back. Our lasting impression of Columbia was of friendly people, great scenery and dodgy bus rides!!
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Friday, 11 February 2011
Desert Meets Jungle
We left Rio and took a flight back to Santiago as its one of the main hubs in SA and decided to head north as unfortunately Patagonia was too difficult and expensive to get too! We stayed in a really nice hostel, its was a very old building in the centre with lots of character and charm, for one night and the following day headed to the bus station to catch a bus to La Serena.
La Serena is Chile's second oldest city and had a nice vibe to it, small but it had character, with lots of churches and museums. Funny enough X Factor Chile was going on whilst we were there, very weird.
The next evening we took a night bus to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama desert - the driest desert in the world!! But yep it rained 3 afternoons out of the 4 we were there, just typical. However, it did not spoil it and was actually quite refreshing. We spent most of our time in the desert walking and taking in the sights.
We saw the cactus valley, flamingoes, Valle de Luna. One of the highlights of the day for me, was spending a couple of hours walking through the cactus valley, over the rocks and through the water falls. After this we went to a great spot to wait for the sun to set. It was one of the greatest sun sets I have seen. Another morning we were up at 4am to drive up to 4300m and see the El Tatio geysers.
We were hoping to get to Bolivia next and take a tour over the salt flats from San Pedro to Uyuni but the weather was too bad and tours had stopped or were missing loads of good stuff out. So we changed our plans and decided to head into Peru instead and take a trip down the Amazon - what a great choice!
The Rio Amazonas was just amazing - but first we had to get there from San Pedro. We had a fair bit of travelling to do, a 10hr night bus followed by a 2hr taxi ride across the boarder, one flight to Lima then another flight to Iquitos. Iquitos is a crazy place with nothing but motorbike taxis and motorbikes the noise is immense.
After a well needed sleep we were met by our tour guide, Walter, at 9 am for a tour around the local market 'Belem'. Belem Market is interesting to say the least! We saw everything from plants, fruits, natural medicines, chickens, turtles, socks, clothes and even a giant catfish with it's head cut off but heart still beating (gross) pretty much anything you could ever want!!
Our tour guide Walter is from a small village in the Amazon but now lives in Iquitos and loves the jungle as it's his home. He spent most of the time with us trekking through the jungle chopping everything out of our way with his machete whilst keeping his eyes peeled for snakes (of which we encountered an extremely dangerous one!! Not good) iguanas, frogs, monkeys, spiders, birds, dolphins, sloths, lizards etc.
The jungle lodge we stayed in was really good with a great hammock room to chill in after a morning in the jungle. It also had a few resident guests - two macaws Ara & Azur, Te-Wan the Toucan, two eagles, a cayman and a deadly snake amongst all the wild frogs, cayman, snakes, spiders etc which just live in the jungle.
We spent a morning fishing for Pirahna, which was great, and whilst I don't want to bragg I did catch the biggest one of the day! That evening we got to taste our delicious catch. I had never eaten Piranha but it was actually quite nice. J was not too happy as he only managed to catch a small Piranha on the day..
On our last day in the Amazon we were taken to Oran, the next village along, to get our boat down river to the tri-boarder of Brazil, Peru and Columbia. After 8hrs we arrived in Santa Rosa to get our passports stamped and a quick boat ride to the Colombian boarder town of Leticia. We have one night here and then onto Bogota tomorrow the capital city- Columbia here we come!!
La Serena is Chile's second oldest city and had a nice vibe to it, small but it had character, with lots of churches and museums. Funny enough X Factor Chile was going on whilst we were there, very weird.
The next evening we took a night bus to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama desert - the driest desert in the world!! But yep it rained 3 afternoons out of the 4 we were there, just typical. However, it did not spoil it and was actually quite refreshing. We spent most of our time in the desert walking and taking in the sights.
We saw the cactus valley, flamingoes, Valle de Luna. One of the highlights of the day for me, was spending a couple of hours walking through the cactus valley, over the rocks and through the water falls. After this we went to a great spot to wait for the sun to set. It was one of the greatest sun sets I have seen. Another morning we were up at 4am to drive up to 4300m and see the El Tatio geysers.
The Rio Amazonas was just amazing - but first we had to get there from San Pedro. We had a fair bit of travelling to do, a 10hr night bus followed by a 2hr taxi ride across the boarder, one flight to Lima then another flight to Iquitos. Iquitos is a crazy place with nothing but motorbike taxis and motorbikes the noise is immense. After a well needed sleep we were met by our tour guide, Walter, at 9 am for a tour around the local market 'Belem'. Belem Market is interesting to say the least! We saw everything from plants, fruits, natural medicines, chickens, turtles, socks, clothes and even a giant catfish with it's head cut off but heart still beating (gross) pretty much anything you could ever want!!
Our tour guide Walter is from a small village in the Amazon but now lives in Iquitos and loves the jungle as it's his home. He spent most of the time with us trekking through the jungle chopping everything out of our way with his machete whilst keeping his eyes peeled for snakes (of which we encountered an extremely dangerous one!! Not good) iguanas, frogs, monkeys, spiders, birds, dolphins, sloths, lizards etc.
We spent 4 nights and 5 days in the jungle and got to see a couple of neighbouring villages where the locals live - a real eye opener to these people & there way of living. Most of the food they eat is grown locally by them or taken to Belem market & sold for them to buy other food, as well as fish they catch.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Parrilla Gorilla
It's been a while! You may have already seen the vid but here's a bit of a monster update of what we've been up to in the last month.
We spent our last night in NZ in a small surf town called Raglan, before the next part of our adventure started in Chile, South America.
We had the longest Wednesday 5th Jan ever, after leaving Auckland at 4pm and arriving in Chile at 11am the same day, after an 11hr flight! Very Weird..
We stayed in a nice area of Santiago called Providencia, just outside the centre. The hotel was small but had friendly staff who spoke some english, which was handy seeing as our spanish was pretty crap.
The first night we went to a local restaurant which had been recommended to us called Liguiria, it had loads of atmosphere and was very loud and very smokey.. Again not knowing much spanish we had to guess at the menu and ended up with meat spagetti and tomato gnochi - so not too bad considering.
We spent the next day taking in the city centre, wandering around, going to the cathedral and taking the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal, along with eating seafood at the fish market in Mercado Central. A nice relaxed day and start to South America, although to be honest there was not a huge amount going on in Santiago.
Our next destination was Buenos Aires where we had booked into a hostel for the night in the San Telmo region. First night in Argentina and well you guessed it we had to eat steak and drink red wine of course! The Argentinian steak/meat houses are called Parrillas, Jay was in his element, pretty much steak steak and more steak.. washed down with lots of nice Malbec. We take in the atmosphere and stop at a local street bar for a couple of drinks on our way back to the hostel.
The next day we moved over to the hotel where we were meeting our tour group that evening. We decided to book onto an afternoon city tour as we had the whole day to ourselves. We wait for the company to collect us and they were late, eventually when they arrive we walk a couple of blocks to another hotel, then stop a number of times to pick up other people and for the driver to smoke, eventually we get to another destination and all get off this bus and are told we need to move to another bus for the tour, by this time we had been going for 1.5hrs and as you can imagine not best pleased so we bail. Have an argument with one of the employees of the tour company who says we still have to pay, eventually we just walk away with no idea where we are!
We find out pretty quickly we are in Recoleta, which is a really nice area and where the famous cemetary is, so we spend the afternoon walking around here through the local markets and around the cemetary, which is an amazing place if not a little weird as well. The main 'attraction' here ( and certainly where all the Argentinian's head to) is the grave of Eva 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' Peron.
That evening we meet up with the rest of the tour group and our tour leader, who is an English chap called Leon. The group was really mixed, both in nationalities and ages, so we were not the old biddies of the group we thought we might be. Leon is really keen to take us all to a steak house, everyone seems happy enough with that and it turned out to be the same one we went to the night before, oh well Jay was happy!
Unfortunately, a couple of the girls had been mugged that day in La Boca after they found themselves outside of the main tourist area and a couple of teenagers pulled a machete on them and grabbed their bags. Not a very nice experience and they had to miss the first night to go to the police station to report it.
We spend the first night getting to know most of the other people on the tour, who we will be spending the following 17 days with. After dinner we head to a bar and the drinking begins with some very large shots, local red bull equivalent and some silly truth or dare games... Nothing really gets going until midnight in Argentina so it turns into a pretty late one.
Next day - Ouch! Get up around midday and head out for some food, then a walk to the Obelisco, Presendential Palace (Evita's bacony) and around Florida ave. That night we head to a tango class and show. The class is packed and it is pretty difficult to start with but we get the hang of it in the end. The instructor tells up to keep swapping partners and J gets picked on to dance with a random women in front of the whole class, which he manages to pull off just!!
Then to the show, which is where you see how it is really done - amazing! J gets picked on again and has to dance with the girls in the show and then they take him off stage and put a hat on him and walk him back in the room dancing - funny to watch!
The following day we were supposed to catch the ferry to Colonia (Uruguay) in the morning but it was cancelled, so we had another day in BA, before leaving that evening for the ferry. We decided to go to La Boca, which is a really cool place (just don't go outside the main area!) Its colourfull, with lots of restuarants and tango being danced and has a really good vibe to it. We spent the afternoon there just wandering around and having some lunch whilst watching the tango dancers.
Next - off to Colonia - when we arrive at the ferry terminal the captain mentions it is quite windy and a bit rough, but we are on the fast boat, which is supposed to take 1 hour. The boat is really small and everyone is crammed in downstairs, no upstairs deck to sit on. To start with its not that bad then pretty quickly gets very rough, but we think oh well its only an hour so we can probably handle it. Oh how wrong we could be! It gets much much worse and then as you would expect the vomitting begins, people are throwing up everywhere, the whole boat stinks and everyone is pale as you like. This goes on for 3hrs until we finally arrive at the destination when everyone breaths a sigh of relief - what a shit journey! Even Leon our tour leader said he had never experienced such a crossing since he has been doing these tours! (he was also pukeing!)
Colonia was a really quick stop with just enough time for a meal that evening and a very quick stoll around the streets in the morning before our bus departed at 9am to Montevideo. That afternoon a few of us hiredbikes and ride along the costal path. We started with the Swedes and then ended up seeing the Kiwi's and Aussie's, so we all have a couple of beers before heading back into town.
The next day we had all agreed on Leon's idea of a beach day in a place called Punta Del Este, which was a couple of hours away, so we got up early and off we went. Its a massive beach resort, a bit like Spain, and is where alot of the wealthy Uruguayan's go for holiday. We stayed on the beach into the evening and got some drinks to play drinking games with cards etc. It ends up being a massive night. On the video you might have noticed an attempt at a human pyramid...that was about 1am in the morning on the beach.
The following morning we are off to Salto via a six hour bus ride. The buses are super comfortable though and the seats are like business class seats on an airplane. The taxi drivers in Uruguay are definately the craziest we've encountered so far! Salto is famous for its hot springs but seeing as the temperature was about 35 degrees no-one took that on and instead plumped for the nearby waterpark, much more appropriate.
A quick dash in taxis to run us across the border back into Argentina and we get a 16 hour nightbus up to the Iguazu falls. The Iguasu falls lie on the border between Argentina and Brazil and you can visit them on both sides. Our bus stopped in Argentina but we then changed to go over the border as we stayed in Foz de Iguazu on the Brazillian side.
That afternoon we go to the Brazil side of the falls and on the way stop at a helicopter tour. Within about 2 minutes of getting out of the van we are airboune and flying towards the falls! The views and ride were fantastic, you get a real sense of the vast flat landscape with nothing but jungle and then this gigantic gauge which looks like it shouldn't be there.
Then into the national park to get a little closer to the falls. We walked along the path to the end of the falls and it was quite simply the most amazing thing we had ever seen. The finale is a catwalk which takes you right out onto the edge of the falls, where you get absolutely soaked - but well needed in 37 degree heat and the humidity. Overall it was sunning, we were both blown away!
That night the Pool Party - Leon organises a party at a friend of his house with a pool and restaurant quality bbq set-up. A couple of other GAP tours are in Iguasu that night and they also come along. It turns into a very messy night with lots of Caiprinha's, we are in Brazil after all!!!, and everyone in the pool! Great night but we pay for it the next day! Jay is a write off and doesn't even make it out for lunch but a few of the others carry on getting through the day with some food and a few beers.
Leon had been promising us that the Argentine side of the falls were even better than the Brazilian side but everyone found this hard to believe, considering what we had seen so far. The day started with a boat ride up the rapids to the base of the falls and actually under a couple of them, the power is immense and needless to say we came away soaked through. The next part was a walk along the falls, which just seemed to get better and better, the falls were just phenomenial. By far Leon had kept the best till last, which was a 1.8km catwalk out to the top of the main falls 'Devils Throat' and it is like nothing we have ever seen before, A....MAZ....ING! Most of the tour group were stunned and none of us could really believe our eyes, you just get mesmorised whilst standing there and I could have stayed there for hours!!
Another hop over the border back into Brazil and we get on the longest journey of the tour - 22hrs to Paraty. The first 16hrs were by night bus followed by a 6 hour minibus ride. All in all it went pretty smoothly, although the bus drivers are mental! By the time we arrive and sort ourselves out a few of us head to the beach bar for a couple of well needed drinks. The food in Brazil is pretty much 'pay by the weight' buffets where ever you go, so we sampled lots of this throughout Brazil, but after a while you get pretty fed up with it and just want to order your own meal and have it served to you.
Paraty is a small town with cobbled streets (so cobbled infact it makes them hard to walk on) and there are still guys trotting round with horse and carts. Leon had another suggestion for a day in Paraty, which was to hire a private boat to take us out to the islands for the day snorkelling, drinking and eating and man did he come up trumps! He sorted out the boat, food and drink, we just had to turn up on the dock at 10am. The day was spent snokelling, diving off the top deck, swimming, eating (great steak and sausages cooked on the onboard bbq) and drinking caiprinha's in the water. By the time we headed back towards the port we were pretty much a floating nightclub! All in all a cracking day, we carried it on into the night on land at the beach bar - Another great day in Paradise!!
Staying on the Brazilian coast we travelled from Paraty to Ilha Grande via a short bus ride and one hour boat ride. Ilha Grande is a popular holiday destination for Brazilans and when we arrived it was a local national day on the island, so lots of people and lots going on. That night we had a great seafood meal on the beach, albeit a bit shakey with the service but nice location, nice food and nice people. There are no cars on the island so the only way to get around is by boat or on foot.
For our first full day we go to a beach called Lopez Mendes on the other side of the island, which is one of the nicest beaches on the Island. Some of us do the 2 1/2 hour hike through rain forest and across beaches to get there which is pretty hard going in the heat but very rewarding. The east side of the island gets a fair bit of swell so there are lots of people surfing and body surfing. One old dude in the sea wouldn't stop shouting everytime he beat everyone bodysurfing, getting furher in every time. Callum and Jay tried but no-one could get near him.
After a full day on the beach and in the sea, we take the boat back rather than do the same hike! Dinner is a pay-by-weight buffet - no surprise, but at least it is a good one with lots of choice and fresh food. Most of us stay out for a quick drink after dinner and soon get caught up in a street party with a band and lots of people dancing the samba, which we all try and after a few Caprinhas it turns into a fun night. The next day was our last full day on the island and we all did different things, a few of us get a local taxi to take us to a beach close by to chill and get some more sun and sea action. That night we manage to change the menu and find a wok stir fry place, where they cook up some mean noodles or as the board said outside 'Nudles'!!
The next day is crazy! We leave Ilha Grande on the 9am boat, catch some of the secnery on top deck and enjoy the trip back, sweat it out waiting for the bus to arrive, get into Rio 3 hours later, straight off the bus and onto the city tour bus which was waiting for us at the hotel (no food!), take in all the main sites then go out for the favela party as our last night on the tour!
The tour was amazing and Rio is a fantastic city, we started with Christ The Redeemer which although was really busy (high season) it is still super cool and another place you have to pinch yourself for being at. We take a short stop in San Telmo for a walk through the old fashioned streets with nice bars and cool art.
Then onto the famous staircase 'Escadaria de Selaron', since 1990 a chilian artist has been covering the 215 steps from Santa Teresa to Lapa with over 2000 tiles from 120 countries in mosaic like fashion. We also get to meet him in his studio and check out his latest art work.
Next the Metropolitan Cathederal which takes 10 or 20 thousand people (depending on which guide you speak to!). A Modern building, which looks quite ugly at first glance but is stunning inside with a geometric shape and huge stain glass windows from top to bottom. Last stop is Sugar Loaf mountain, the classic Rio De Janerio sight. Felt like Roger Moore in Moonraker. It is named after the huge bread made by the European colonists which it resembled - i had wondered where the name came from.
Still to go that day was the favela party, to get down with some moves on the brazilian dance floor. This is in a club in a favela that is controlled by the police. There is another (Or more) that are controlled by the drug gangs which are more dangerous but you can be taken by a local. We start the evening by popping out for a Churascurria meat buffet. There is buffet plus lots of waiters walking round with various meats on skewers and carving them off onto your plate. You get full very quickly! They don't scrimp on the spirit measures either! Quick feed up and then back to the hotel for a drink before we head-off. Then onto the minibus for a crazy ride to the club, with the bus overloaded, the vodka keeps coming and the music blarring!!! A quick petrol station stop to get wristbands for entry into the club, well oiled by this point. At the club we get to jump the queue and then straight in with a body search on the way. We walk through the main dance floor to get to an upstairs area which had been reserved for us. We have a few drinks and watch the crowd for a while, some amazing dancing and guys in the middle having a backflip competition with each other - awesome! We decide to take to the dance floor, so Jay, Hayley, Callum and I all head down through the crowds (get a few funny looks!) and head for the middle area to shake our booties - This seems the Brazilian way as long as you can shake your booty to the music and get as low as you can go you will fit in. After sweating to the max it was more drinking and dancing upstairs. There was one dodgy moment when Jay managed to swing his arm breaking some shapes upstairs and knock a bottle of vodka off the balcony which fell and smashed millimetres away from two bouncers. We both looked over in horror to see these two huge bouncers going mental at us, the next thing they were upstairs in our area going crazy, so both Leon and his colleague Zema had to speak to them in Portugese and calm them down! It looked pretty ugly for a while but we live to tell the tale!! Very drunk and not much memory of the crazy bus ride home!
The next morning was all a bit hazy and we have a tour of one of the favela's. As we have now finished the tour we all say our goodbye's to our fantastic tour leader Leon, who is heading back to Paraty for a couple of well earned days off!!
On the way to the Favela the guide tells us that the first part will be getting dropped off at the bottom of the favela and then taken by a motorbike taxi to the top, where the tour begins as we walk down through the favela back to where we started. This is a great ride, round hairpins & near cares/buses as close as the driver could get - legs in and fingers crossed you arrive in one piece. We walk through little alleys, into artists shops, see a drum show by three local teenagers with a couple of plastic tubs and a metal tin!, and generally get to see how people live in favelas. We then get taken to a local school for young kids, which is all voluntary and some foriegners work here when in Rio. The parents only have to pay, even then it is a really small amount, if they both work, otherwise it does not cost at all. The average number of kids per family is between 6-10, so the favela population is growing very rapidly. The guide tells us about the war between the Police and Drug gangs (The one controlling ours is the ADA, Amigos De Amigos or 'Friends of Friends'). One issue with recent fire-fights is stray bullets, an M16 bullet will travel through several houses before it stops and therefore innocent people are being hurt. There is very little crime inside the favela because the drug gangs do not want it so infact they are relatively safe which is contrary to the stereotypical understanding. If a local invites you into theres, apparently you would have no problem at all. Very interesting tour, changed some preconceptions of what the situation is, very good guide (who all the girls fell for).
After the tour we drop some people off to do the hanggliding and say our goodbyes to some of the tour group. We decide to change our hangliding to another day when we are less hungover! Final goodbyes to some of the others on our tour, the tour is over but what a fantastic trip - Thanks to all who made it such a great tour!!
Our next stop wasn't far, just a short walk to our new hotel on Copacabana Beach - Awesome! We had a great view of the beach and were in a good location, with Hayley/Callum in the same hotel, Nat & Mikala next door, Steph, Julia & Robin and Tess all in Copacabana.
That night we all decide we would like to treat ourselves to something special for dinner, so we head to the Marriot for some amazing Sushi. It is a Sushi Festival, where you just keep ordering more and more fresh Sushi, Sashimi, Rolls - Hot & Cold, Robata meat etc and just pay around 40 US including beer and soft drinks. We all went back to our hotels very full...
The next day we check out the area, and then hit Copacabana beach for some sun and sea action. The beach is great but the waves are crazy, really strong and have to keep your eyes out for them, Nat already got slammed by one. There are loads of hawkers pounding the beach. One of them is selling Caiprinhas so Callum orders one. The dude gets out a rug and starts making it from scratch with fresh limes etc, only 5 reais also and they taste excellent. A few more go down!
That night out to Lapa for the evening, have a nice meal and soak up the atmosphere of the place, with lots of music being played and a general nice feel to the place. Everyone feeling the affects of the last 17 days so no samba club action, just head back to our hotels for some well earned rest.
Next day spend some time sorting out our travel plans for the next week or so and then head to Ipanema beach to meet the others and check out the Havaianas shop. After a couple of purchases, its back to the hotel to get our pick up for the footy match.
Last night in Rio and its Robin's birthday and we luck in with a match between a local club Botafogo and Madureira, unfortunately it is not at the Maracana cos that's being refurbed for the World Cup. It was a really good night, even though the crowd was relatively small in comparison to the weekends, but still a good atmosphere and you get to see how passionate the Brazilians are about fusbal...
The following day we say our goodbye's to Hayley and Callum, who are really looking forward to getting back and seeing Amelia (their daughter), hope to see them in England some day. Then we meet Nat, Mikala, Julia and Robin for a quick lunch and drink before we head off to the airport. Again say our goodbye's and hope to see them all again one day.
Our next destination is Santiago then we are heading up through Chile into the Atacama desert (we have just arrived here today) then into Bolivia and Peru. All I can say is that this desert is very dry and very warm, but a cool place to be right now!
We spent our last night in NZ in a small surf town called Raglan, before the next part of our adventure started in Chile, South America.
We had the longest Wednesday 5th Jan ever, after leaving Auckland at 4pm and arriving in Chile at 11am the same day, after an 11hr flight! Very Weird..
We stayed in a nice area of Santiago called Providencia, just outside the centre. The hotel was small but had friendly staff who spoke some english, which was handy seeing as our spanish was pretty crap.
The first night we went to a local restaurant which had been recommended to us called Liguiria, it had loads of atmosphere and was very loud and very smokey.. Again not knowing much spanish we had to guess at the menu and ended up with meat spagetti and tomato gnochi - so not too bad considering.
We spent the next day taking in the city centre, wandering around, going to the cathedral and taking the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal, along with eating seafood at the fish market in Mercado Central. A nice relaxed day and start to South America, although to be honest there was not a huge amount going on in Santiago.
Our next destination was Buenos Aires where we had booked into a hostel for the night in the San Telmo region. First night in Argentina and well you guessed it we had to eat steak and drink red wine of course! The Argentinian steak/meat houses are called Parrillas, Jay was in his element, pretty much steak steak and more steak.. washed down with lots of nice Malbec. We take in the atmosphere and stop at a local street bar for a couple of drinks on our way back to the hostel.
The next day we moved over to the hotel where we were meeting our tour group that evening. We decided to book onto an afternoon city tour as we had the whole day to ourselves. We wait for the company to collect us and they were late, eventually when they arrive we walk a couple of blocks to another hotel, then stop a number of times to pick up other people and for the driver to smoke, eventually we get to another destination and all get off this bus and are told we need to move to another bus for the tour, by this time we had been going for 1.5hrs and as you can imagine not best pleased so we bail. Have an argument with one of the employees of the tour company who says we still have to pay, eventually we just walk away with no idea where we are!
We find out pretty quickly we are in Recoleta, which is a really nice area and where the famous cemetary is, so we spend the afternoon walking around here through the local markets and around the cemetary, which is an amazing place if not a little weird as well. The main 'attraction' here ( and certainly where all the Argentinian's head to) is the grave of Eva 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' Peron.
That evening we meet up with the rest of the tour group and our tour leader, who is an English chap called Leon. The group was really mixed, both in nationalities and ages, so we were not the old biddies of the group we thought we might be. Leon is really keen to take us all to a steak house, everyone seems happy enough with that and it turned out to be the same one we went to the night before, oh well Jay was happy!
Unfortunately, a couple of the girls had been mugged that day in La Boca after they found themselves outside of the main tourist area and a couple of teenagers pulled a machete on them and grabbed their bags. Not a very nice experience and they had to miss the first night to go to the police station to report it.
We spend the first night getting to know most of the other people on the tour, who we will be spending the following 17 days with. After dinner we head to a bar and the drinking begins with some very large shots, local red bull equivalent and some silly truth or dare games... Nothing really gets going until midnight in Argentina so it turns into a pretty late one.
Next day - Ouch! Get up around midday and head out for some food, then a walk to the Obelisco, Presendential Palace (Evita's bacony) and around Florida ave. That night we head to a tango class and show. The class is packed and it is pretty difficult to start with but we get the hang of it in the end. The instructor tells up to keep swapping partners and J gets picked on to dance with a random women in front of the whole class, which he manages to pull off just!!
Then to the show, which is where you see how it is really done - amazing! J gets picked on again and has to dance with the girls in the show and then they take him off stage and put a hat on him and walk him back in the room dancing - funny to watch!
The following day we were supposed to catch the ferry to Colonia (Uruguay) in the morning but it was cancelled, so we had another day in BA, before leaving that evening for the ferry. We decided to go to La Boca, which is a really cool place (just don't go outside the main area!) Its colourfull, with lots of restuarants and tango being danced and has a really good vibe to it. We spent the afternoon there just wandering around and having some lunch whilst watching the tango dancers.
Next - off to Colonia - when we arrive at the ferry terminal the captain mentions it is quite windy and a bit rough, but we are on the fast boat, which is supposed to take 1 hour. The boat is really small and everyone is crammed in downstairs, no upstairs deck to sit on. To start with its not that bad then pretty quickly gets very rough, but we think oh well its only an hour so we can probably handle it. Oh how wrong we could be! It gets much much worse and then as you would expect the vomitting begins, people are throwing up everywhere, the whole boat stinks and everyone is pale as you like. This goes on for 3hrs until we finally arrive at the destination when everyone breaths a sigh of relief - what a shit journey! Even Leon our tour leader said he had never experienced such a crossing since he has been doing these tours! (he was also pukeing!)
Colonia was a really quick stop with just enough time for a meal that evening and a very quick stoll around the streets in the morning before our bus departed at 9am to Montevideo. That afternoon a few of us hiredbikes and ride along the costal path. We started with the Swedes and then ended up seeing the Kiwi's and Aussie's, so we all have a couple of beers before heading back into town.
The next day we had all agreed on Leon's idea of a beach day in a place called Punta Del Este, which was a couple of hours away, so we got up early and off we went. Its a massive beach resort, a bit like Spain, and is where alot of the wealthy Uruguayan's go for holiday. We stayed on the beach into the evening and got some drinks to play drinking games with cards etc. It ends up being a massive night. On the video you might have noticed an attempt at a human pyramid...that was about 1am in the morning on the beach.
The following morning we are off to Salto via a six hour bus ride. The buses are super comfortable though and the seats are like business class seats on an airplane. The taxi drivers in Uruguay are definately the craziest we've encountered so far! Salto is famous for its hot springs but seeing as the temperature was about 35 degrees no-one took that on and instead plumped for the nearby waterpark, much more appropriate.
A quick dash in taxis to run us across the border back into Argentina and we get a 16 hour nightbus up to the Iguazu falls. The Iguasu falls lie on the border between Argentina and Brazil and you can visit them on both sides. Our bus stopped in Argentina but we then changed to go over the border as we stayed in Foz de Iguazu on the Brazillian side.
That afternoon we go to the Brazil side of the falls and on the way stop at a helicopter tour. Within about 2 minutes of getting out of the van we are airboune and flying towards the falls! The views and ride were fantastic, you get a real sense of the vast flat landscape with nothing but jungle and then this gigantic gauge which looks like it shouldn't be there.
Then into the national park to get a little closer to the falls. We walked along the path to the end of the falls and it was quite simply the most amazing thing we had ever seen. The finale is a catwalk which takes you right out onto the edge of the falls, where you get absolutely soaked - but well needed in 37 degree heat and the humidity. Overall it was sunning, we were both blown away!
That night the Pool Party - Leon organises a party at a friend of his house with a pool and restaurant quality bbq set-up. A couple of other GAP tours are in Iguasu that night and they also come along. It turns into a very messy night with lots of Caiprinha's, we are in Brazil after all!!!, and everyone in the pool! Great night but we pay for it the next day! Jay is a write off and doesn't even make it out for lunch but a few of the others carry on getting through the day with some food and a few beers.
Leon had been promising us that the Argentine side of the falls were even better than the Brazilian side but everyone found this hard to believe, considering what we had seen so far. The day started with a boat ride up the rapids to the base of the falls and actually under a couple of them, the power is immense and needless to say we came away soaked through. The next part was a walk along the falls, which just seemed to get better and better, the falls were just phenomenial. By far Leon had kept the best till last, which was a 1.8km catwalk out to the top of the main falls 'Devils Throat' and it is like nothing we have ever seen before, A....MAZ....ING! Most of the tour group were stunned and none of us could really believe our eyes, you just get mesmorised whilst standing there and I could have stayed there for hours!!
Another hop over the border back into Brazil and we get on the longest journey of the tour - 22hrs to Paraty. The first 16hrs were by night bus followed by a 6 hour minibus ride. All in all it went pretty smoothly, although the bus drivers are mental! By the time we arrive and sort ourselves out a few of us head to the beach bar for a couple of well needed drinks. The food in Brazil is pretty much 'pay by the weight' buffets where ever you go, so we sampled lots of this throughout Brazil, but after a while you get pretty fed up with it and just want to order your own meal and have it served to you.
Paraty is a small town with cobbled streets (so cobbled infact it makes them hard to walk on) and there are still guys trotting round with horse and carts. Leon had another suggestion for a day in Paraty, which was to hire a private boat to take us out to the islands for the day snorkelling, drinking and eating and man did he come up trumps! He sorted out the boat, food and drink, we just had to turn up on the dock at 10am. The day was spent snokelling, diving off the top deck, swimming, eating (great steak and sausages cooked on the onboard bbq) and drinking caiprinha's in the water. By the time we headed back towards the port we were pretty much a floating nightclub! All in all a cracking day, we carried it on into the night on land at the beach bar - Another great day in Paradise!!
Staying on the Brazilian coast we travelled from Paraty to Ilha Grande via a short bus ride and one hour boat ride. Ilha Grande is a popular holiday destination for Brazilans and when we arrived it was a local national day on the island, so lots of people and lots going on. That night we had a great seafood meal on the beach, albeit a bit shakey with the service but nice location, nice food and nice people. There are no cars on the island so the only way to get around is by boat or on foot.
For our first full day we go to a beach called Lopez Mendes on the other side of the island, which is one of the nicest beaches on the Island. Some of us do the 2 1/2 hour hike through rain forest and across beaches to get there which is pretty hard going in the heat but very rewarding. The east side of the island gets a fair bit of swell so there are lots of people surfing and body surfing. One old dude in the sea wouldn't stop shouting everytime he beat everyone bodysurfing, getting furher in every time. Callum and Jay tried but no-one could get near him.
After a full day on the beach and in the sea, we take the boat back rather than do the same hike! Dinner is a pay-by-weight buffet - no surprise, but at least it is a good one with lots of choice and fresh food. Most of us stay out for a quick drink after dinner and soon get caught up in a street party with a band and lots of people dancing the samba, which we all try and after a few Caprinhas it turns into a fun night. The next day was our last full day on the island and we all did different things, a few of us get a local taxi to take us to a beach close by to chill and get some more sun and sea action. That night we manage to change the menu and find a wok stir fry place, where they cook up some mean noodles or as the board said outside 'Nudles'!!
The next day is crazy! We leave Ilha Grande on the 9am boat, catch some of the secnery on top deck and enjoy the trip back, sweat it out waiting for the bus to arrive, get into Rio 3 hours later, straight off the bus and onto the city tour bus which was waiting for us at the hotel (no food!), take in all the main sites then go out for the favela party as our last night on the tour!
The tour was amazing and Rio is a fantastic city, we started with Christ The Redeemer which although was really busy (high season) it is still super cool and another place you have to pinch yourself for being at. We take a short stop in San Telmo for a walk through the old fashioned streets with nice bars and cool art.
Then onto the famous staircase 'Escadaria de Selaron', since 1990 a chilian artist has been covering the 215 steps from Santa Teresa to Lapa with over 2000 tiles from 120 countries in mosaic like fashion. We also get to meet him in his studio and check out his latest art work.
Next the Metropolitan Cathederal which takes 10 or 20 thousand people (depending on which guide you speak to!). A Modern building, which looks quite ugly at first glance but is stunning inside with a geometric shape and huge stain glass windows from top to bottom. Last stop is Sugar Loaf mountain, the classic Rio De Janerio sight. Felt like Roger Moore in Moonraker. It is named after the huge bread made by the European colonists which it resembled - i had wondered where the name came from.
Still to go that day was the favela party, to get down with some moves on the brazilian dance floor. This is in a club in a favela that is controlled by the police. There is another (Or more) that are controlled by the drug gangs which are more dangerous but you can be taken by a local. We start the evening by popping out for a Churascurria meat buffet. There is buffet plus lots of waiters walking round with various meats on skewers and carving them off onto your plate. You get full very quickly! They don't scrimp on the spirit measures either! Quick feed up and then back to the hotel for a drink before we head-off. Then onto the minibus for a crazy ride to the club, with the bus overloaded, the vodka keeps coming and the music blarring!!! A quick petrol station stop to get wristbands for entry into the club, well oiled by this point. At the club we get to jump the queue and then straight in with a body search on the way. We walk through the main dance floor to get to an upstairs area which had been reserved for us. We have a few drinks and watch the crowd for a while, some amazing dancing and guys in the middle having a backflip competition with each other - awesome! We decide to take to the dance floor, so Jay, Hayley, Callum and I all head down through the crowds (get a few funny looks!) and head for the middle area to shake our booties - This seems the Brazilian way as long as you can shake your booty to the music and get as low as you can go you will fit in. After sweating to the max it was more drinking and dancing upstairs. There was one dodgy moment when Jay managed to swing his arm breaking some shapes upstairs and knock a bottle of vodka off the balcony which fell and smashed millimetres away from two bouncers. We both looked over in horror to see these two huge bouncers going mental at us, the next thing they were upstairs in our area going crazy, so both Leon and his colleague Zema had to speak to them in Portugese and calm them down! It looked pretty ugly for a while but we live to tell the tale!! Very drunk and not much memory of the crazy bus ride home!
The next morning was all a bit hazy and we have a tour of one of the favela's. As we have now finished the tour we all say our goodbye's to our fantastic tour leader Leon, who is heading back to Paraty for a couple of well earned days off!!
On the way to the Favela the guide tells us that the first part will be getting dropped off at the bottom of the favela and then taken by a motorbike taxi to the top, where the tour begins as we walk down through the favela back to where we started. This is a great ride, round hairpins & near cares/buses as close as the driver could get - legs in and fingers crossed you arrive in one piece. We walk through little alleys, into artists shops, see a drum show by three local teenagers with a couple of plastic tubs and a metal tin!, and generally get to see how people live in favelas. We then get taken to a local school for young kids, which is all voluntary and some foriegners work here when in Rio. The parents only have to pay, even then it is a really small amount, if they both work, otherwise it does not cost at all. The average number of kids per family is between 6-10, so the favela population is growing very rapidly. The guide tells us about the war between the Police and Drug gangs (The one controlling ours is the ADA, Amigos De Amigos or 'Friends of Friends'). One issue with recent fire-fights is stray bullets, an M16 bullet will travel through several houses before it stops and therefore innocent people are being hurt. There is very little crime inside the favela because the drug gangs do not want it so infact they are relatively safe which is contrary to the stereotypical understanding. If a local invites you into theres, apparently you would have no problem at all. Very interesting tour, changed some preconceptions of what the situation is, very good guide (who all the girls fell for).
After the tour we drop some people off to do the hanggliding and say our goodbyes to some of the tour group. We decide to change our hangliding to another day when we are less hungover! Final goodbyes to some of the others on our tour, the tour is over but what a fantastic trip - Thanks to all who made it such a great tour!!
Our next stop wasn't far, just a short walk to our new hotel on Copacabana Beach - Awesome! We had a great view of the beach and were in a good location, with Hayley/Callum in the same hotel, Nat & Mikala next door, Steph, Julia & Robin and Tess all in Copacabana.
That night we all decide we would like to treat ourselves to something special for dinner, so we head to the Marriot for some amazing Sushi. It is a Sushi Festival, where you just keep ordering more and more fresh Sushi, Sashimi, Rolls - Hot & Cold, Robata meat etc and just pay around 40 US including beer and soft drinks. We all went back to our hotels very full...
The next day we check out the area, and then hit Copacabana beach for some sun and sea action. The beach is great but the waves are crazy, really strong and have to keep your eyes out for them, Nat already got slammed by one. There are loads of hawkers pounding the beach. One of them is selling Caiprinhas so Callum orders one. The dude gets out a rug and starts making it from scratch with fresh limes etc, only 5 reais also and they taste excellent. A few more go down!
That night out to Lapa for the evening, have a nice meal and soak up the atmosphere of the place, with lots of music being played and a general nice feel to the place. Everyone feeling the affects of the last 17 days so no samba club action, just head back to our hotels for some well earned rest.
Next day spend some time sorting out our travel plans for the next week or so and then head to Ipanema beach to meet the others and check out the Havaianas shop. After a couple of purchases, its back to the hotel to get our pick up for the footy match.
Last night in Rio and its Robin's birthday and we luck in with a match between a local club Botafogo and Madureira, unfortunately it is not at the Maracana cos that's being refurbed for the World Cup. It was a really good night, even though the crowd was relatively small in comparison to the weekends, but still a good atmosphere and you get to see how passionate the Brazilians are about fusbal...
The following day we say our goodbye's to Hayley and Callum, who are really looking forward to getting back and seeing Amelia (their daughter), hope to see them in England some day. Then we meet Nat, Mikala, Julia and Robin for a quick lunch and drink before we head off to the airport. Again say our goodbye's and hope to see them all again one day.
Our next destination is Santiago then we are heading up through Chile into the Atacama desert (we have just arrived here today) then into Bolivia and Peru. All I can say is that this desert is very dry and very warm, but a cool place to be right now!
Saturday, 29 January 2011
In Search of Iguazu
The video below covers our whole tour and group from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro, music a little different to go with the group and party theme of the tour!
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Pedigree Bumblebees
The West Coast wasn't all it was cracked up to be, people had said good things about it but for us the weather let it down, the scenery was hidden and the towns looked dull. We made it down to Jackson Bay first, after crossing over the Haast Pass, only to find the recommended crayfish shack (Pretty much the only building there) closed for the day due to power supply repairs in the area. The bay itself was typically picturesque so a few photos later we were on our way up to Fox Glacier where we stayed for the night.
In the backpackers at Fox we chatted to a few of the other people, one chap was there for a park ranger job and also to train for the 'Coast to Coast' race in which he's participating. This race is from Greymouth on the west coast to Christchurch on the east......a little matter of 240 kilometers with mountain running, kayaking and biking sections. Apparently the top guys do it in a bit over 11 hours and he was aiming for between 12-13 hours - bit of a show-off if you ask me :)
The next day we walked up to the terminal face of Fox Glacier in freezing rain, stopped to take a single picture and then headed back because it was so bad! Walking up to the face takes you through the melt water basin, past streams strewn with big chunks of ice and the whole thing is only 30 mins walk from dense coastal rain forest.....! That's something we have noticed in NZ, the landscape and vegetation changes dramatically in very short distances.
Leaving Fox we drove up the west coast highway, bypassing Franz Joseph glacier because for that one you really need to be going on a tour to get up on top of the glacier and we didn't want to shell out for that with the weather being the way it was. We got up to Greymouth, which is an industrial town very close to the recent NZ mine disaster, and headed back inland on the Lewis Pass across to Hanmer Springs.
When we arrived in Hanmer Springs we inadvertently drove onto the front of their Christmas parade through town.......it was the first time we had seen any real evidence that it was the Xmas period and, in the hot and dry hills, it looked totally out of place to us. Hanmer is famous for its natural springs (surprise!) but we spent the next day mountain biking in the surrounding hills - there is a large forestry and logging industry in NZ and the mountain bike clubs take advantage of this by utilising the logging access tracks and the cleared areas to create trails. This time round was much better than the biking in QT, the trails were in better knick and it was easy to find our way round. I filmed Nina on a great run; she flew down the drops and swooped round the berms.....only to find out later that i hadn't pressed 'record'......nice work eh...
The actual hot springs centre was pretty crap to be honest, all the pools were man made and even the 'rocks' were plastic. We were expecting a slightly more natural set-up but it was still good for a relax in the different temp pools, they range from 36 - 41 degrees.
Kaikoura was our next stop and here we walked the coastal track to see the resident seal colonies. The sky at sunset on our night there was bizarre and lit the whole town in a red glow. In a bar that night we got chatting to some other travellers and somehow got on to the subject of bumblebees. They are very prevalent in NZ and apparently were introduced by the British years ago who are now collecting them again to take back as the ones here are the 'purest breed' anywhere....
Kaikoura was our next stop and here we walked the coastal track to see the resident seal colonies. The sky at sunset on our night there was bizarre and lit the whole town in a red glow. In a bar that night we got chatting to some other travellers and somehow got on to the subject of bumblebees. They are very prevalent in NZ and apparently were introduced by the British years ago who are now collecting them again to take back as the ones here are the 'purest breed' anywhere....
The next day when we went to pick up our car from the car park a chap approached us to ask if it was ours and 'did we know what had happened that morning?'. We didn't, but it turns out that earlier that day a rubbish truck had burst a tyre coming round the bend, done a 360 degree spin, slammed into the two cars next to ours, smashed through a few huge wooden flowerbeds and then come to rest about 3mm from the front of our car!!! By the time we got to the car it had all been cleared away so the only evidence was the missing flowerbeds and a very thin film of soil covering our car….lucky for us!. The hostel we stayed in had some very odd staff, one girl was English and stared at you with a look that said 'I'm a little bit mental and i might kill you in your sleep tonight...', we nick-named her 'Single-White-Female'. The other live in help was a tiny Japanese girl who was basically a living Pokémon character.
From Kaikoura we drove up to the Marlborough wine region, home to all the NZ Sauvignon Blanc everyone drinks these days. Our backpacker was a lot better than the last one and was run by an old couple who gave us the low down on all the local vineyards. The weather wasn't great so rather than hire a couple of bikes to get round the cellar doors (as is the way to do it apparently) we took the car. While we were there we picked up a few bottles and a bit of bubbly for Christmas day and had a spot of lunch - all very civilized. The next day we headed on to Able Tasman National Park on the north coast of the south island.
Abel Tasman was established in 1942 is 22,530 hectares and is renowned for its golden beaches, sculptured granite cliffs and coastal track. As there are no roads in the park apart from walking tracks one of the other ways to see the national park is via a kayak. We decided to give this a go and booked a day trip which included three hours of kayaking and the rest we spent on our own walk through the park. Then at the end of the day to get you back they take you on a water taxi, which run up and down the bay's for most of the day. The place is stunning and although there were a fair few people visiting it you can still find your own secluded spot on a nice sandy bay. It felt very strange but at times like you could have been on an island in Thailand 15 years ago...
By now it was the 24th December and we had decided to spend Christmas in a place called Nelson, mainly because it fit with our plans, no other reason in particular, but we had heard it was a nice place a bit arty and a nice feel to it, so we headed over from Abel Tasman. We had booked in to a backackers and they said they were going to do a bbq and everyone chips in with a salad or desert so we thought it might be fun. We woke up on Xmas day to sun and heat, which felt strange in itself, and took a walk to the 'Centre Point of New Zealand' which has great views over Nelson and the harbor. It was odd being here for
Xmas because, whilst it is predominantly Christian country (at least the south island) and they do celebrate it, it is not anywhere near as in your face. We popped our bubbly and spent most of the day playing backgammon and having a few drinks in the sun, with some bbq food - all very strange but a nice day.
We were going to drive out to Marlborough Sound for our last couple of days on the south island but we couldn't sort out any accommodation so we checked into a different place in Nelson and chilled for a couple of extra days, gave us (me) a chance to watch some of the cricket and see the Aussies get a complete pounding - get in! The new place was really nice, very clean and even had its own bar downstairs. The only downside was a big mental Aussie guy staying there....we first encountered him when he came into the lounge when i was watching the cricket and started ranting about how 'the Muslims had threatened to bomb the MCG' and how they should 'all be strung up', he left the room ranting how soon they will have 'darkies walking the streets' and that 'we don't wann'em'.....we nicknamed him Son of Chopper.
We spent our time in Nelson booking up some stuff in advance and generally relaxing. Bumping into SoC the next morning he tells us without prompting that he had a really bad night and had been ill, hallucinating and vomiting, and that he was a nurse of all things! Mental. Nelson was our last stop on the south island before we took the ferry across the Cook Straight to the north island. The south island had been awesome; we both massively enjoyed our time there and were genuinely stunned by some of natural scenery as well as doing some excellent activities.
The ferry leaves from Picton on the south island but the road to it from Nelson was closed due to flooding and mud slides so we had to do a huge detour in order to get there via the only other road. Even on this road we came across some stopped vehicles in front of a long stretch of flooded road, the water was running off the hill and across the road with some force, whilst Nina was a bit apprehensive driving through she managed it and we made the ferry in time.
The ferry takes you to Wellington on the north island (strangely though, you are no further north when you get off than when you got on). We'd only left ourselves seven days in the north island so we didn't hang around here for too long, just one night and enough time to go out for drinks/dinner and then visit the Te Papa museum and send some post home the next day.
Our main activity for the north island was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and we'd been looking forward to it ever since we didn't do the Routeburn Track near Queenstown. Our base for the hike was Ohakune, just south of the national park, which is actually a ski resort in the winter and is pretty quiet in the summer. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is touted as one of the best day hikes in the world (big claim eh!) and certainly in NZ. We booked onto a 6am shuttle bus which took us up to the start of the track to try and get ahead of the crowds as it is a popular track. The hike is amazing and the views stunning. It takes you up and over dormant volcanic craters and passed still active ones. Visually the main volcano is Mt Ngauruhoe which has the stereotypical conical shape (used for Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings apparently), it is possible to climb to the summit but we didn't have the time.
There are a few lakes on the way, the most impressive of which are the Emerald Lakes. These lakes are super green and are found at the base of the still active 'Red Crater'. It took us 7 hours in total to complete the crossing, at the end we were picked up again by the shuttle bus which dropped us at the local pub for a well-earned pint.
We spent New Year’s in Lake Taupo which is just north of the Tongariro region. It's a real holiday destination for Kiwi's and it shows but it's got a good atmosphere and some nice places to eat. We decided to splash out a bit and checked into a nice hotel for a couple of nights. We somehow bagged the best room in the hotel and spent the afternoon relaxing round the pool, popped some bubbly, had dinner on our balcony with a great view over the lake and mountains, and watched some of the fireworks to see the New Year in.
From Lake Taupo we drove up to Rotarua. On the way out we stopped at Huka Falls and also the Aratiatia Rapids. The water flow to the Aratiatia Rapids has been blocked by a hydro dam so they are dry except for certain times each day when the dam’s floodgates are opened. We knew they were due to open at a certain time but we were running late, so as we rounded the corner in the car and saw them we also noticed a countdown timer which had reached just less than a minute to go. In front of the crowds already there to watch, Nina slammed the car onto the hard shoulder just over the bridge (Ignoring the proper car park) and we jumped out and legged it to the bridge view point just in time to the see the gates open!!
Rotarua is famous for the natural thermal activity and the associated smell of sulphur, it certainly smells pretty bad in a lot of places but not everywhere. It is also known for its mountain biking in an area called the Redwood Forest, so we spent a day there on apparently some of the best trails in NZ, great fun. We skipped the thermal areas, as they felt a little commercialised and after having been to Iceland decided against spending the cash. As with a lot of things on the north island we'll have to go when we come back.
It's the 4th Jan now and we are in Raglan, a small surf town on the west coast. We left Rotarua and were driving to Auckland when we decided it would be nicer to spend our last night here instead. Whenever we have mentioned Auckland to anyone since arriving in NZ, there has not been a good word said about it. It kind of sealed it when we phoned ahead to book a hostel only to be told not to park anywhere near it as our windows would get smashed in! Tomorrow we head off to catch our flight to Chile........
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