Travelling Light

Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-12T01:24:00.000-07:00

Couldn't quite resist sneaking back to England and surprising everyone with my uber-tan (which turned out to be mainly dirt) at Sandy's 30th birthday party.

In retrospect, perhaps it is better to announce these things in advance, especially as most of my friends are now around the 30 mark, and perhaps will soon get to a stage where their tickers will not take the level of shock I inflicted on them this week!

After everyone regained the power of speech, we had a nice time :) ....now what?!?!? Argh! How much are flights to Buenos Aires again....? To be continued...............................................

Cordillera Blanca

2009-06-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

I'd wanted to go to Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca ever since I the last time I was in Peru and didn't quite make it far enough north. In fact, I wanted to go sooo much, that i subjected myself to the embarrassment of advertising myself on various hostel and cafe notice boards. Something along the lines of "loner without friends requires travel partners"....yes, my phone was ringing off the hook.

Luckily I bumped into Dave, who i'd met before in Ecuador, and was able to convince him that the Santa Cruz trek would be the most fun he'd have on his whole trip, and that he should immediately abandon all other plans and make me look less like a person who has to advertise for friends.

The hike was a lot of fun...snowy mountains, pretty flowers, high-altitude passes and glacial valleys carved out of the rock. It was a relatively easy trek (especially with mules to help!), but beautiful. Though give me a tent and a large enough supply of oreo cookies and i'll be happy almost anywhere :)

Yay, hiking with a friend!!

2009-05-28T13:54:00.001-07:00

Ah, i have a hiking buddy. We walked up to Laguna Churup near Huaraz in Peru, it was such a brilliant hike! Look how lovely it is!

We had to pretty much rock climb for the last 15 minutes to get there...high up, on slippy rocks, over a waterfall. We had very shaky legs afterwards...

At the bottom of the mountain a nice old couple made us coca mate in their garden....perfect.

Loner hiking

2009-05-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, adventures with auto-photos. It took me about 20 minutes to get a shot that was not mainly grass, so it gets published to the blog regardless of photo quality/interest :)

Quilatoa

2009-05-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

A bit of hiking to Quilatoa lake...very nice. It's a volcano crater filled by a freshwater spring, and rain over the years.

I stayed at a place called The Black Sheep Inn in Chugchilan. It's operated with the idea of making only a positive impact on it's environment and the surrunding community. EVERYTHING is reused, recycled or repurposed and most of the food they provide is grown in the gardens around the hostel. Interesting. At the very least, it was nice to eat some healthy food for a while. I am DONE with fried chicken!

How to make a shrunken head...

2009-05-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Instructions below in case anyone needs them...

El Mitad del Mundo

2009-05-28T13:01:00.001-07:00

Yes, I am officially the centre of the world, everything revolves around me :)

I did some amusing experiments balancing eggs on nails and watching water going down the plug hole in various directions (don't worry Sandy, have taken extensive video footage so that you can explain to me at length why it's all a hoax!)

Confusingly, there is some disagreement about the exact location of the centre of the world. A few hundred years ago, a French dude did some experiments to confirm where the equator line was. In 1979 a massive monument and museum was erected to signify the spot. Unfortunately, more recently, GPS has determined that the real equator is actually 200 metres down the road....oops. In general, it is still maintained that the monument marks the equator line, but probably it's quite expensive to move a massive stone structure.

How do you know when you've finally reached the Andes?

2009-05-26T14:24:00.001-07:00

Answer: The sound of Pan Pipes everywhere you go.

Dezza, you'd be in musical heaven!!! ...probably on your own ;)

Me and Anita in the countryside with some funny old statues

2009-05-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

These statues are OLD. And kind of unusual too. I think the ancient Colombians were a fun bunch to hang out with. Their statues are nothing like the dour old statues the Mayans and Incans built. They have penguins, and orangutans and funny little men holding two fish....

Safety

2009-05-18T20:31:00.001-07:00

In general, Colombia has felt like a pretty safe place to travel. Could be something to do with an almost constant military presence in anywhere that could be remotely dodgy (Ecuador take note!!!).

This photo was taken when our bus stopped for a rest break on the way to San Augustin. Would have been a better photo if I'd taken it when he was walking towards me, but I was scared of the man with the gun!

Market day

2009-05-18T19:48:00.001-07:00

Anita and I went to the market in Silvia for a morning. It's a really colourful place, with lots of people from surrounding villages coming to buy fruit and veg...and just about anything else they'd like too. We just bought some cheesy bread:

Nights out in Medellin and Cali

2009-05-18T19:47:00.001-07:00

I'm not really sure if i regret not taking my camera or not.... perhaps what happens in Cali should stay in Cali!!

Zona Cafetera

2009-05-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

So the four amigos went off to have a look around one of the main coffee producing areas of Colombia. Our main investigation of coffee as Colombia´s primary legal export was tasting the end-product to ensure that you guys all have nice tasting coffee shipped over to you courtesy of Starbucks. I can confirm that it generally tasted nice.

We also did some walking and relaxing and eating of ice-creams.

Quatro amigos

2009-05-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Good travel buddies are hard to find, but obviously a bit like buses too... Either that, or me and Anita are quickly multiplying to found our own band of happy-travellers. If that really were the case though, you might expect Euan and Kenny to look a little more like me and Anita....hmmm.

We had a week of many fun events together...to the extent that i made the unprecedented step of heading North rather than South so we could hang out longer and play drinking games for Kenny's birthday.

The boy versus girl lines were definitely drawn though. It started with cards, and spread to cookery, swinging, drinking....it became quite competitive anyway.

Some photos

Good travel buddies, not struggling at all to reach summit of small hill:

Day One of the cook-off, the boys are confident, I am keen just to get on and eat:

Hard-core swingers:

Pre-Colombian/Pre-Hispanic(?) Gold

2009-05-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

Look at this gold flying fish, made 'quite a while ago' (oops, didn't remember when...) and found in the tombs near San Augustin in the south-west of Colombia.

It's so unusual, and weird....and well made. I like it.

Old Travel Friends, New Travel Friends

2009-05-03T13:55:00.001-07:00

Yay! Rachel & James are in Bogota too! This is Me, new travel friend Anita, old travel friends Rachel and James, and random additional bloke Alex.

Salt Cathedral

2009-05-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Just outside of Bogota there's a huge cathedral made entirely of SALT! It's in part of an old salt mine near a town called Zipaquira. They built the cathedral mainly cos a lot of people got injured or killed in the mines, so they wanted to say a quick prayer before heading down into the thing.

We were very impressed. So impressed in fact, that we couldn't quite believe it to be true! This is Anita checking it is definitely salty:

Bogota Coolness

2009-05-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

Bogota is definitely much cooler than Cartegena. It's not as pretty, but it has EDGE*!

There are a lot of buses too, see....and this is a Sunday!!!

*No definitions currently available.

Very cute kid alert...

2009-05-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Naughty factory

2009-05-03T12:09:00.001-07:00

On the way to Ciudad Perdida, we paid a guy (ethical?) to take us to a cocaine 'factory'...which is actually much more like a cocaine workshop, being only a table, a tarp, a few buckets and some chemicals.

The process is pretty disgusting....basically involving soaking the coca leaves in petrol, with a bit of sulphuric acid, caustic soda and potassium permanganate for good measure. More info: http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/coc08.htm

It's quite off-putting, none of the guys that make cocaine ever take it....can see why. They do drink beer though, so that must be ok :)

Fairly obvious note to remember

2009-05-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

Do not drink water from rivers in Colombia. It will not end well.

Oh, just the one and then home for bed....

2009-04-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

One for you Dadsy...

2009-04-27T14:13:00.001-07:00

A nice leaf:

Oh yes, and Ciudad Perdida was nice too...

2009-04-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

(just not as much fun as the walk to get there)

FARK didn't get me...

2009-04-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

Despite wearing a military print baseball hat for most of the week walking to and from the Ciudad Perdida, i managed to come out of the jungle in one piece....almost.

A tick took a big bite from my bottom (removed by very cheerful guide), and i got a massive bruise on the sole of my foot....this seems to me an unusual place to bruise, so i took a picture of it. I didn't take a picture of the tick on my bum....

Matching outfits....felt VERY uncomfortable with this photo...teenagers playing with guns scare me!

Cartagena 2

2009-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

There were also nicer things to look at in Cartagena other than drunken Me:

For some reason it seems that a disproportionate number of my photos are of elderly men....hmmmm.

Cartagena

2009-04-27T13:18:00.000-07:00

Yay! Cartagena is fun! Didn't really drink much alcohol on the boat for fear of reawakening the Evil Seasick Steph. So...Cartagena means Beer! Yes. Thought it was appropriate to celebrate arriving in Colombia by going to a German brewery for the night.

Hmmm...look slightly seasick there actually.

On a boat in the San Blas islands

2009-04-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

The San Blas islands are the type you imagine when you read Robinson Crusoe, but don't really believe still exist without a mega-bucks 5 star resort messing it all up.

The islands range from ones that are big enough to house several thousand Kuna Yala (local indigenous group), through to tiny islets that are little more than a few palm trees on a pile of white sand.

We spent 6 days sailing down the coast of Panama (the only way it is possible to travel to Colombia, unless you fly), swimming and snorkelling and fishing our way around hundreds of perfect islands.

Day one was a bit messy, bleurgh....big waves. After that my stomach got it's act together a little and stopped behaving like a big wuss. By Day 6 I was loving it! Sat myself on the very front of the boat to get the biggest possible wave action! There were quite often dolphins swimming along with us to play in the water disturbed by the boat, and flying-fish zooming about all over the place. It was pretty darn cool.

The Captain turned out to be nice too. The fine officers of Scotland Yard have stood down and directed their activities towards the gangs of field-mice currently causing havoc in the badlands of Norfolk.

The Captain and our dinner:

The fish I caught.... :( poor fishy fish:

A star fish having a breather:

Me, having a well-earned break from a long, hard day:

The Pirate Francis Drake

2009-04-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

The town where I was supposed to meet 'the Captain' is about as far as you can go in a Northeasterly direction in Panama. After that, it's on foot, possibly with a few guerrilla-shaped obstacles in your path!!

I stopped in Portobelo on the way, which is where our honourable Sir Francis Drake lies, somewhere at the sandy bottom of the sea. Funny that here he is never mentioned without a whisper of piracy....interestingly different history lessons depending on where you are in the world I guess.

It's a strange area of Panama, lots of old Spanish fortresses, tiny forgotten towns and a distinct feeling of maritime trickery. Lots of (slightly dodgy) boat people hanging around who've been at sea for years and have become slightly loco from all the salty air.

After waiting by the side of the road for several hours for a bus that was rumoured to travel to Miramar, decided it was actually safer to hitchhike than to sit by the road all night (sorry mum!)...I did manage to find the oldest man in Panama to give me a lift, I could definitely have taken him on in an arm wrestle :)

Helping Scotland Yard

2009-03-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

The journey from Panama to Colombia is notoriously dangerous by land, through the Darien gap. So, being a safety-first kind of girl, i´m gonna avoid the guerillas and go by sea instead :)

The Captains that sail the boats from Panama to Colombia, however, are generally a bit dodgy. This guy has been recommended by a few people and has connections with the hostel where i´m staying in Panama City.....but just in case i get tipped overboard halfway down, i thought i´d make the investigation a little bit easier ;)

Loner

2009-03-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

Both Sally and Derek are back in sunny London now....i wish i could come back, hang out a while, and then come back here.... I miss you guys!!!

Me and Sally on Sally´s last day of holiday:

Panama Canal

2009-03-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

Pretty flipping awesome sight to see. After several hours of Canal history museums, i can tell anyone anything they want to know....almost. Will leave it for future dinner parties though.

Here are some pictures of a Chinese ship passing through the Miraflores lock to whet your appetite ;) : And a picture of my Canal Buddies:

Contrast

2009-03-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

I love the contrasts we´ve found so far in Panama. There´s the Garifuna Carribbean culture on the Bocas del Toro, quiet highland towns like Boquete, hot and dusty transport towns like David, Cowboy country on the Peninsula de Azuero and the modernity of Panama City.

Even in Panama City itself, each district throws up a completely different perspective. From the highest point in Panama City, Cerro Ancon, you can see as many sky scrapers (it seems!) as Hong Kong, the ruins of Panama Viejo - the original city that was destroyed by Henry Morgan, the wonky charm of Casco Viejo - where the city was rebuilt in the 1600s - and a queue of immense cargo ships waiting out in the Pacific to enter the Panama Canal and the Miraflores lock.

It´s a crossing point for people too....there are ex-pats from everywhere here, though predominantly from the US. There´s a whiff of scandal from the slick looking guys in their fancy E-type jags and a story of money and intrigue to imagine for the immaculately groomed lady sipping coffee in the square.

There´s poverty too though. The hostel we are staying in (Luna´s Castle) has a view on one side of the business district and the bay, while on the other there are people PACKED into houses that look like they´re about to collapse. These are the people that the city government is trying to move on, and out of their homes. They´ve realised the value of the old part of town, but it´s just a little too close to the poor part of town for comfort.

A Man, a plan, a canal Panama

2009-03-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

It reads the same forward and backward! Favourite thing learnt about Panama so far....

National Geographic submission

2009-03-28T14:53:00.001-07:00

Yes, you can be assured that Sally and Derek enjoyed hanging around for 5 hours while i waited for a nice picture of seagulls.

More beach shenanigans

2009-03-28T14:50:00.001-07:00

Rodeo

2009-03-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

The music was good in cowboy country, but as you can probably imagine, Sally and I were less than impressed by the bullfighting. Fighting small bulls, with no horns, pitted against 6 or 7 teenage boys with sticks and excess testosterone, does not a happy lady make.

They have very cool hats in the Panamanian countryside, though not so impressive on presidential candidates....really should pick something more statesman-like.

Pretty Colours

2009-03-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm....Coffee!

2009-03-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Eco-lodge

2009-03-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

We stayed a night in an eco-lodge in the Chiriqui highlands, getting to which involves a long walk up and down a mountain.

This is Sally having just made it to the bottom on the way down. On the way up, she managed to persuade an elderly gentleman to carry her bag....am getting concerned for the welfare of old people in the countries that Sally visits. There's an old lady in Vietnam that is still recovering from Sally's last trip....

Snorkelling and Sunbathing in Bocas del Toro

2009-03-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Conscious that I will risk Sally's wrath for too many early-holiday bikini shots....

Yay! Sally has come to visit!

2009-03-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Trying to get to Sally

2009-03-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

Argh! Soooooo much panic!!!! I am in Costa Rica, Sally is due to arrive in Panama...the border between Costa Rica and Panama is flooded and closed....ARGH!

Luckily, the day before I was supposed to meet with Lovely Sally Apple, the border reopened....though the road isn't quite rebuilt yet:

And there is a fairly long walk between countries (see weary, tired face for more information):

Tent City

2009-03-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

Good idea for camping I thought....why has no one thought of putting campsites indoors before?!

I Love Dominical!

2009-03-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

Dominical is just a little beach town on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. There's not a whole lot going on but beach, surf.....and a whole lot of relaxing. The hostel i stayed in was pretty flipping disgusting and dirty, but the people there were brilliant.

This is the disgusting hostel....doesn't look too bad from the outside does it!!?

These are (some of) the brilliant people (Me, Derek, Glen, Ryan & Andy):

And this is my favourite cafe (Soda Narayoa)....ate there 5 nights out of 7!

Forgotten Entry...

2009-03-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add this from Nicaragua...thought some people might find it interesting from a design perspective?

The building in the pictures is called an 'Earthship'. It's built from recycled materials like old tyres packed with earth and held together by Adobe, with recycled plastic bottles to let light in (and decorate!)

It's apparently quick to build (16 days - albeit with a fairly large team) and looks pretty impressive. Renewable sources of energy are used where possible and the houses are planned to minimise energy usage.

Interesting project and ideas. I have some questions over the degree to which the communities where these houses are built will continue using the construction principles. They've been using plain old Adobe for thousands of years with pretty consistent success. Collecting thousands of tyres and packing them with earth may lose it's appeal once the western volunteers have gone home.

Nice waterfalls

2009-02-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

Apparently created when a volcanic explosion caused a big hole to blow out in the side of the mountain, allowing part of the La Fortuna river to drain down the hillside. It´s about 70m high, so struggled to get the whole thing in frame.

It is very humid here, am having hair problems.

Game: Spot the elusive national bird

2009-02-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

The main aim of a cloud forest trip is to try to spot a Quetzal. The Quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, where the currency is also called the quetzal and there are various myths and legends where the bird has a starring role.

It´s a very pretty green bird with yellow and red belly. The males have really long tails and really elaborate feathers, the females are smarter and tell better jokes....

We saw 2 females, but this is the best photo I could get I´m afraid. When they fly they´re really lovely....but also quite fast.

Santa Elena Cloud Forest

2009-02-27T09:13:00.000-08:00

"A cloud forest is a tropical evergreen forest characterized by a high incidence of low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level".

Indeed. Luckily for me, it was one of about 8 sunny days of the year in Monteverde on the day i went, so got to see the foresty results of the clouds, without cloudy obstructions!

Saw lots of nice plants, insects and birds with a brilliant guide called Marvin, who was also the ecology teacher at the local high school. He was the most enthusiastic man in the world, like David Bellamy, but with more wildlife-hunting dedication and less facial hair.

Here are some pictures:

General forestyness....
A nice leaf
A baby hummingbird in a nest

Interesting note on getting lost in Nicaragua

2009-02-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

It happens a lot, because none of the roads are named....if you ask directions, it´ll be something like "take the third road south of the Crowne Plaza, and then head east until you reach the 4th street north of the cathedral".

All very well if you are carrying a compass and have a clue where the Crowne Plaza and the cathedral might be!

Festival!

2009-02-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

It´s always weird being the first to arrive at a party, but I can confirm that it is much more awkward being the first to arrive at a festival. Derek and I were the unfortunate vanguard, and whereas at a party, the host is pretty glad you turned up to help eat all the crisps, at a festival you're kind of in the way for a while.

Luckily, a random hippy was on hand to occupy us with a yoga ´workshop´. It was a full moon festival, and the kind of event where everything is a ´workshop´. You HAVE to improve yourself!

By the time we had done some hippy yoga stretching, other people had started to arrive....enough to hold a horseshoe throwing competition!!! Unfortunately, other people seemed to have some experience in this field, and we were knocked out in the first round, with a score of 15-9 :( ....here is a picture of me throwing a horseshoe (note determined expression).

Somewhat at odds with the general vibe of the festival, there was also a cock-fighting tournament. It was pretty horrible. Razor blades are attached to the cock´s legs to maximise the blood and gore on show for the punters. I watched for a little while, but really couldn´t bear to watch the death throes of the poor things. Once the game is over, the loser is thrown onto a pile of other losers, while the winner practically has a heart attack from the stress of the situation.

This is a picture of one of the cocks being riled up by a pretty hen being waved about:

The rest of the festival was straight-up music and dancing. Yay! No fighting, violence and death, just peace, love and happiness!

Wind stops play

2009-02-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

There is currently some kind of freak wind blowing in Nicaragua. It's been force 6 for DAYS now, and being outside is not much fun....unless you like sandstorms.

Surf practice has been put off in favour of intensive reading and coffee drinking (usually by torch light as the electricity keeps failing). The winds have brought in very cold water, big waves and lots of scary sea animals (jelly fish, stingy sting rays), so not really for beginners without wetsuits.

The first day the wind picked up we took a very scary boat trip from Isla Ometepe to the mainland...10 foot waves on a flimsy boat. Disembarking involved a single plank of wood; one end on the dock, and one end rising and falling by several feet along with the boat deck. A handrail was thoughtfully provided by one man on land holding the end of a bamboo pole, the other end held by a man on the boat (obviously also rising and falling fairly dramatically too!). Process complicted by immense waves rolling towards us, whilst carrying two rucksacks and a large bottle of water. The picture below is of a slightly nervous Steph & Derek just as we got on board....little did we know the worst of it!

We heard yesterday that a boat sailing from Isla Ometepe to San Jorge sank....! Apparently all passengers were ok....can't find news about this though. Maybe would frighten away the tourists?

Outdoor is best

2009-02-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

If there's no warm water, there is just no point in a bathroom....

The down-side of travel

2009-02-02T19:38:00.000-08:00

I have 66 mosquito bites on my arms alone, and have not had a warm shower for a month.

Am quite pleased it's not snowing though ;)

Augusto Cesar Sandino

2009-01-24T12:55:00.001-08:00

One of the first images that strikes you in Nicaragua, is that of Augusto Sandino. On murals, on posters, and as in the photo above, silhoutted against the sky on the highest point in the city of Managua. This silhouette actually marks the spot where Sandino was assassinated by Somoza's national guard, allowing Somoza to establish himself (and later his sons) as corrupt dictator extraordinaire for the next 40 years.

Sandino was a revolutionary in the mold of Che Guevara or Fidel Castro...and like them, had a certain flair for oration. I found this (fairly emotive!) quote addressed to US troops in Nicaragua:

"Come on you pack of drug fiends, come on and murder us on our own land. I am waiting for you on my feet at the head of my patriotic soldiers, and I don't care how many of you there are. You should know that when this happens, the destruction of your mighty power will make the Capitol shake in Washington, and your blood will redden the white dome that crowns the famous White House where you plot your crimes."

No guns please

2009-01-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

This is a respectable establishment, please leave all weapons at home...

Interesting rock formation and a police escort

2009-01-24T12:34:00.001-08:00

Near Suchitoto is a waterfall called Los Tercios. Unfortunately at the moment, there is no waterfall, but it does mean you can see the rocks underneath more clearly.

Due to 'volcanic activity' - we couldn't get a better explanation than this - the waterfall is formed by hundreds of hexagonal stone spires. From the top they look like man-made paving stones forming the river bed, from the side they look like this:

The waterfalls are only about a mile outside of town, but there have been several robberies on the way out there lately. Some nice policemen offered to walk out there with use to make sure we were ok (and avoid the paperwork that is necessary if a tourist is a victim of crime!).

Despite stern appearances, they were very friendly and interesting (in Spanish only, so good for learning geological vocab!) Though when i asked if they were glad that the FMLN had won the local elections, received a stern lecture about the impartiality of the police force in El Salvador.....

Local elections

2009-01-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

The Salvadorean local elections took place last weekend. For the week prior, you couldn't walk down the street without a jeep full of either Arena or FMLN supporters haring past shouting unintelligible slogans through a megaphone.

The main consequence for Derek and I was that no alcohol is served for 2 days before and 2 days after any local or national elections. Apparently this is to ensure rash voting decisions are not made whilst drunk.

If this happened in the UK, a) national rioting would take place and b) plastic bottles would be stockpiled and cunningly filled with straight vodka/gin. We didn't see any riots in El Salvador, but we did see a surprising number of locals touting bottles of mineral water....

Beach Life

2009-01-24T12:16:00.000-08:00

Sharj & Derek going for a stroll on the beach in El Zonte. Did some more surf practice....it's just so difficult though!!!

A little souvenir...

2009-01-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

So far i've managed to withstand the lure of tacky souvenirs and the immense range of branded fakery on offer. However, since hearing about Salvadorean 'sopresas', I have been determined....

A Sopresa, 'surprise' in English, is a small ornament (traditionally an egg) that contains a heartwarming minature scene of traditional life in El Salvador. However, some scally decided that such innocent looking treasures would be a nice way to conceal something a little less errr....heartwarming.

If you request a 'special surprise', some rummaging under the counter ensues, and an ornament is furtively opened to reveal a couple enjoying themselves in one of several creative positions.

I've put a picture of my contraband below, but as my 10 year old sister reads this blog, photos of the interior will be made available only on request ;)

Cool Church

2009-01-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

It was nice to come across a church with a modern, rather than colonial design in San Salvador.

From the outside, it's a concrete dome (Southbankalike), with windows that look almost blacked out.

From the inside, it is cool! The glass of the dome changes colour gradually, and casts everything inside with a rainbow effect.

Copan Ruinas

2009-01-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

The building style at Copan was a little different to other Mayan ruins i've sen in the region.

Apparently King 18 Rabbit was quite the artist and "pioneered" (not sure if this is strictly true) a style of sculpture on the various stelae that was much more lifelike than previously. The figures are carved to stand out from the background stone, while the back of the stelae is covered with Mayan hieroglyphics to describe the purpose of the monument.

Here are a couple of photos of one of the stale, and a completely unposed picture of Sandy strolling around the ruins.

PS. The kingdom was called 'Xukpi' from the 5th to the 9th century, which means 'Corner Bundle'. I thought that was nice :)

New Year snorkelling (return of the blue glove)

2009-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

Following a close brush with blue-glove loss, Sandy refused to take it off. Had to go snorkelling to avoid drawing attention to ourselves....

Clock strikes 12....

2009-01-08T17:41:00.001-08:00

New Year Karaoke

2009-01-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

As it was the start of a new year, and we were spending it on an exotic beach island off the coast of Honduras, we decided that only a very sophisticated evening would be appropriate under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, as my mum would say, you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear.....and you can't talk people out of Sweet Child O Mine if they're really determined...

Or Elton John classics for that matter...here is video evidence of Sharj and I murdering Your Song (me more so than Sharj - luckily Sandy didn't catch the full horror of my contribution, by this point in the song i was going for low volume, and increasing distance from the microphone :)...

Ps. Please watch this video, it just took me about 2 million years to upload! Argh!

Livingston Sucks

2009-01-08T16:37:00.000-08:00

I hated Livingston. I thought it was a dirty, nasty place with a bad atmosphere and unfriendly people. We were also poisoned by dodgy fish soup.

We had to drink beer to make ourselves feel better.

Sandy in Hot Water...

2009-01-08T16:29:00.001-08:00

No, not with me. He was in some waterfalls that had been very kindly warmed up by some uber-hot thermal power.

The extra nice bit is that the waterfall is hot, and the river it flows into is cold, so you get lots of different pools ranging from Burnyourarse Hot, to Reallyquite Cold.

It also gave Sandy a chance to try out his rather fetching waterproof blue glove. Ah, the many happy hours spent vacuum packing a broken wrist....

Ooooh Magma!

2009-01-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

We saw real, live lava flowing out of the ground!!! But we decided to call it Magma, cos it sounds cooler.

Here are some pictures, but Sandy has some ace video footage of the lava ooze that i'll put up soon...

Highlight of the trip was being narrowly missed by a big chunk of semi-molten rock that broke off and fell about 200m down the volcano....i was quite keen to leave after that!

Yay! Sandy visits for Christmas!

2009-01-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

Despite a broken arm, an operation to attach a metal plate to the joint, 20 metal staples and a 300 hour flight, Sandy still came to visit!!

Little did he know that Christmas Eve would be spent watching a drunken Santa fight with a Cowboy, while being attacked from all angles by under-5's playing with fireworks! Heehee :)

Volcano Climbing = Hard 2

2009-01-08T15:29:00.001-08:00

Getting up at 5am for sunrise (have about 42 other shots of this if you're interested...!):

Clothing worn: long thermals, 2 pairs socks, vest, t-shirt, fleece, hoodie, jacket, 2 scarves, hat, 2 sleeping bags and headtorch. It was quite cold.

Eruption next door:

Breakfast (oats and water):

Putting off the inevitable walk back down:

Volcano Climbing = Hard

2009-01-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

It seems that wherever there are mountains, there are people unable to fight the urge to stagger up them.

It's funny, when you look at a big mountain from a distance, it looks IMPOSSIBLE to climb. You even wonder what kind of crazy fool might attempt to do such a thing. Then before you know it, you're gazing misty-eyed at your hiking boots and selection of torches, dreaming of all the pretty pictures you might take from the top.

That is kind of how me and Derek ended up climbing one of the highest volcanos in Central America. One minute it was a silly idea, and then suddenly...

The view from the top was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. I do like clouds a lot (possibly not as much as Sian!), so it was bound to wow me, but take a look at the photos, bear in mind the limitations of StephPhotographyInc, and say it wasn't worth the effort...

View when we arrived at the top:

Nice place to camp:

Sunset:

Me toasting marshmallows on the fire (not a very good idea to stray too far from the fire - very cold!):

Summary

2009-01-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, in the name of moving along quickly, here are some summaries:

Lanquin & Semuc Champey in Guatemala
Very pretty, waterfalls, natural bridge, caves, pools to swim in (see pictures)

San Pedro de la Laguna in Guatemala
Three volcanos by a big crater lake (nice reflections), lots of hippies (shampoo shortage, dreadlock excess), walking up hills, canoeing, playing cards in bars, eating nice food, sitting in hammocks & enrolling in Spanish School.

Argh!

2009-01-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

I'm getting very, very behind in my blog....and i started so well!! I am very disappointed in myself and will reprimand myself severly for this display of tardiness.

In order to rectify the situation, am going to have to:

a) Summarise interesting and lovely places into entries of 10 words or less
b) Have a blogging frenzy this afternoon in order to catch up the last month of fun activities
c) Make a New Year's resolution (belated, ironically) to behave better in future.

Ok....let the blogging frenzy commence!

More Ruins (Tikal this time)

2008-12-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

Yep, couldn't resist my weekly dose of ancient Mayan ruins. Tikal though, is completely amazing. It might have helped that we finally gave up on guide book interpretation, and hired a professional guide...but it definitely made more of an impression on me than any of the other ruins I visited.

I've found it quite difficult to picture what life might have actually been like when these places were really at the peak of their power. Having a guide really made a difference. He was so passionate about the history of the place that it really started to come alive for us.

Again, the pictures don't really do it justice (especially as it was pouring with rain for most of the day), but here are a couple of snaps:

Mennonites

2008-12-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

As it turns out, there is a large population of German-speaking Mennonites in Belize....As I was a bit hazy on the exactitudes of the Mennonite culture, I had to look them up on good ole Wikipedia:

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496–1561), though his writings articulated, and thereby, formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders. The teachings of the Mennonites were founded on both the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, which they held to with great conviction despite generational persecution by the Catholic church state. Rather than fight, the majority survived by fleeing to neighboring "states" where ruling families were tolerant of their radical belief in adult baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches given their commitment to nonviolenc e, nonviolent resistance/reconciliation, and pacifism.

There are about 1.5 million Mennonites worldwide as of 2006.^[1] Mennonite congregations worldwide embody the full scope of Mennonite practice from old fashioned 'plain' people to those who are indistinguishable in dress and appearance from the general population. The largest populations of Mennonites are in the United States and Democratic Republic of Congo, but Mennonites can also be found in tight-knit communities in at least 51 countries on six continents or scattered amongst the populace of those countries. There are also a significant number of Mennonites scattered throughout China. There are German Mennonite colonies in Mexico, Paraguay,^[2] Bolivia,^[3] Belize, Brazil and Argentina.

We ended up staying on one of the largest Mennonite communities at a place called Barton's Creek Outpost, owned by an American family. It's pretty back to basics: leaky tents (you sleep on the verandah if it rains), no showers (wash in the river) and a massive trek to get there (more than an hour on bumpy roads, only passable by 4x4, or apparently, Mennonite wooden wagons).

It was really lovely though, rope swings into the water, long walks, gorgeous scenery. It was also interesting to meet some of the Mennonites. On first appearance, they are a cross between extras from The Village, and scary characters from Children of the Corn. But they are uber-friendly, and one of the most industrious (and wealthy) communities in Belize. If you want nice bread, a decently built house, or amazing fruits and vegetables in Belize, it's likely that Your Man is a Mennonite.

I've attached some photos below to illustrate (think this blog post could go on for some time otherwise, we really did have a very good time!)

Jimmy & Derek taking a shower:

The Mennonites don't really like pictures being taken in their communities...but if you look really closely at this one, you can just about see a distant wagon:

Relegated to the verandah after a rainstorm:

The journey back to town (as you can see, washing my hair in a river and then sitting in the back of a pick-up truck does not agree with my hair!)

Caye Caulker Christmas....weird

2008-12-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

It's just strange having Christmas decorations up when it's sunny. It's also very confusing to hear Christmas Carols when everything else around you says Summer!

Island Life

2008-12-17T10:19:00.001-08:00

Spent a few days on Caye Caulker, where life goes on at a pace much slower than the rest of the world (there are some herbal reasons for this). Within 24 hours, it's possible to have met, and become friends with, most people on the island.

On the first night, Derek & I bumped into a couple (Rachel & James) who had also shared the delights of the Seaside Guesthouse....as good a basis as any for the formation of unbreakable bonds!!

The main activities on Caye Caulker are snorkelling, hanging out in hammocks, eating Lobster (the cheapest thing to eat in Belize!) and drinking happy-hour cocktails containing negligable amounts of Rum.

Apres snorkelling:

We swam with manta rays, eels, sharks(!), and trillions of fish. Apparently the sharks are not man-eating, but I've seen Jaws, I don't trust them an inch!!

More, land-based apres snorkelling:

The generally chilled lifestyle on Caye Caulker:

Belize City - A bit like Marmite

2008-12-17T09:50:00.000-08:00

I really liked Belize City. I was pretty nervous on the way there as i'd been told (by just about everyone i'd met) that I would likely be attacked and killed within 5 minutes of getting off the bus. The main piece of advice i'd been given was to NOT under ANY circumstances arrive at night.

Unfortunately, due to a lengthy and confusing border crossing, we were heading into the city in the pitch black, listening to a (really loud) CD where the majority of the song lyrics seemed to be 'Be-atch' or 'Ho'.

Belize City does look dodgy too. It reminded me a bit of Shaun of the Dead, with lots of people staggering around aimlessly, sometimes dragging one foot. The buildings are mostly falling down or derelict, and the roads are just dust.

But as it turned out, the Belizean people are the friendliest, most helpful you're likely to come across. They even have a public service announcement on the radio reminding locals to 'be kind to tourists'!

One of the best things about Belize City for me was the guesthouse we stayed in. The other people i was with HATED it. Derek was so disgusted by the pillow, he refused to sleep on it before wrapping it with 2 sheets and a towel, and the bathroom was definitely a hover situation. But any place that insists on reading the tarot cards and aura of prospective guests before check in, gets the thumbs up from me!!

This is a picture of the Seaside Guesthouse in Belize City:

Tulum Beach & Brits Abroad

2008-12-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

When the weather is bad at the beach, you can pretty much guarantee that every person still toughing it out in their swimming togs is British. It can be raining cats & dogs, and there can be gale force winds, but ´Us Brits´ will still be flat out on the sand trying to top up our tans.

This is what the beach looked like when me and Derek were still determined to lie there shivering...

Obviously, there's only so much a girl can take before a beer is necessary....though this picture is mainly about the bar swings. All good fun Before Cocktails, not so good After Drinking.

Welcome to the Jungle

2008-12-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

After our visit to the ruins, Derek, Julie & I decided to stay overnight in El Panchan, a camp just outside the Palenque site. It's basically a few straggly groups of cabins that have been grown over slightly by jungle.

It's a really nice place to hang out, but evidently we are still in Uptight Londoner mode, as after about 12 hours of lazing around we were keen to find some kind of leisure facilities or activities to undertake.

Having heard a rumour that there was a pool somewhere in the jungle, we set off on a mission to locate swimming opportunities. We spent a good couple of hours wandering around in circles before coming across a small, slightly derelict, bowl filled with leaves.

At least after that, we could concentrate on discussing beading techniques with stoned hippies and drinking warm beer in the caff.

Palenque

2008-12-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

I´m constantly in awe of archeologists and historians who spend years and YEARS investigating a particular ruin. Not only a particular ruin, there are people dedicating there entire careers to analysing one building within a complex. I feel a little disappointed that i seem to find it difficult to focus my attention on Mayan ruins for more than about 3 hours.

The information at the sites isn't great, so i'm constantly rummaging through my guide book, or struggling to interpret the site ´map´to work out what the hell i'm looking at. We spent about 20 minutes at Palenque unsuccessfully trying to find a carving of a skull that was supposed to be on the side of one of the temples.

Palenque is really beautiful though. Only 5% of the ruins have been excavated, which is amazing given how much has been uncovered. I actually prefer the ruins that are still ´lost´in jungle. Many of the buildings were designed to reflect features of the landscape, and when they're covered in weeds, trees and flowers, it really does feel like they simply grew out of the ground.

I'll put up a picture, but it's pretty rubbish in comparison to the real thing.

Julie & Derek perusing the guide book:

The ruins:

Waterfalls

2008-12-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so not much to say other than 'I went to see some waterfalls'. But the water was so pretty and blue, i thought I'd put a picture up. There was one of me going for a swim, but the internet seems to object to pictures of me in a bikini and is refusing to upload anything else....obviously my tan still needs work.

Bad Camper

2008-12-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

It was sooo cold in San Cristobal. I had to go to bed wearing all my clothes, a silk liner, a 3 season sleeping bag and a blanket. The upside of this was an excuse for Adentures with Fire!

An initial burst of enthusiasm from me led to a pretty pathetic fire, using the front cover of OK magazine and some toilet paper to light some large logs. After a respectable period of time, Dominic stepped into make the 'fire' into an actual fire.

Ah....going to bed with a log fire burning....very cosy!!

See! The market here is really nice!

2008-11-26T16:24:00.001-08:00

They have flags...

And the fruit is very nicely arranged...

San Cristobal de las Casas

2008-11-26T16:04:00.001-08:00

Ah, it's pretty here. Lots of brightly coloured buildings, markets and fun places to go out at night.

Have been hanging out with a pretty international crowd - Three of us from London and one from Leeds! Am making the most of my exotic location to investigate various other cultures....

Everybody go surfing...

2008-11-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

Or don't...cos it hurts a lot. I had 3 days of lessons in Puerto Escondido with a random bloke who had been banned from the local surf association for fighting. It mainly resulted in severe exhaustion, cut feet, bruised knees and elbows, burned legs, and drowned rat demeanor....and that was just after meeting the surf teacher (heehee!)

I think the main problem is choosing to learn in a place where pro-surfers from around the world gather for the massive, fast-breaking waves. Next time, Brighton beach!

It was fun though, lots of water wildlife...Manta Rays surfing on the waves alongside me & leaping (HIGH!) into the air. And hopefully i can practice my new found surfer skills further down the coast in El Salvador and then amaze my friends with my new talents next time we visit the Gower!

Jim thanking Christy for driving...

2008-11-23T14:36:00.000-08:00

Hey You!

2008-11-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Get your shell suit out of my photo! Don't you know this is one of ME and The Pyramid ONLY...?!

This is Monte Alban near Oaxaca. Some nice Peace Corps volunteers I met kindly took me out here for the day in their car, so was a very nice easy day of wandering around the ruins, trying to capture pictures of shell-suit wearing guides in front of the temples.

I learnt two main things about the temple:

The inhabitants played squash!
The priests made holes in the ceilings so that they could track different constellations that would help them predict when the rains were coming / when they should harvest their crops etc.

This is not very much for a whole day i know...but it is tricky in Spanish :)

And another thing about Oaxaca....

2008-11-20T17:39:00.001-08:00

People there like nuts. A lot.

Oaxaca

2008-11-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

From what i'd read, Oaxaca sounded quite dangerous. Strikes, political protests, imprisonment of anyone who opposed the government, whole villages wiped out by local government 'armies'.... Ok, so I did arrive in the middle of Mexican independence celebrations, so a generally more upbeat affair, but other than that, as a tourist you see NO sign of any of this stuff going on.

Apparently a female American activist was killed near Oaxaca last year. She was acting as a kind of human shield to local activists trying to improve the lives and rights of the indigenous populations nearby. The theory is that government-backed groups are less likely to knock off a foreigner because it creates an excess of paperwork in Mexico City and a little too much noise.

Not all of the strikes are what they seem either. A few years ago there was a strike of newspaper workers from Las Noticias. The rumour was that the people 'on strike' in the town square were not strikers at all, but people hired by the local government as a cover for the attempted close-down of the publication, which had been constantly critical of government policy.

As I said, none of this has any impact on general tourists to the area. It's a nice colonial town, pretty churches and buildings, lots of little markets....very lovely (see pictures below).

(sorry, am liking the car shots at the moment, this is less wobbly too!)

Name that Cloud!

2008-11-18T16:25:00.000-08:00

Sianie....I'm lookin' at you kid...!

Pretty Picture of Mexico City at Night

2008-11-18T16:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it's a bit blurry.

Pants on fire!!

2008-11-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Well, not quite but almost. Went to do my laundry in La Lavanderia yesterday and couldn´t help but notice that the dryer was on fire. I'd already handed over my clothes, so was understandably quite concerned - "Argh! Su Maquina esta en fuego!" (argh, your machine is on fire)....the laundry lady didn´t seem worried so i thought maybe i was having a bad spanish day and tried "¿pero, la maquina es muy caliente, no?" (but the machine is very hot isn´t it?).

After trying twice, i figured she must know what she was doing...but literally, there were FLAMES coming out of the top of the machine!!!!

I went back later, fully expecting at least to receive a bag of ashes instead of my clothes, if not find the whole laundry place burned to a crisp. Miraculously, i was instead presented with the cleanest, nicest smelling, best folded laundry i´ve ever seen!!!

How is this possible?!

Morelia

2008-11-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

It`s a very nice city, but there are a lot of pigeons - Nat, i don`t think you`d like it!

Lucha Libre 2!

2008-11-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

Before you start to think I`m obsessed by wrestling, please be assured, it`s not me....it`s the Mexicans!!! (honestly)

A night of too many of these:

Led to the creation of two new wrestling sensations.....Introducing Bob & Barbara!!!! Yay!!!!

As vicious in the ring, as they are relaxed at home...

Heehee!!

Los Pyramides in a silly hat

2008-11-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

Made a trip out of town to Teotihuacan to see some pyramids built by the guys in charge before the Aztecs. The name `Teotihuacan`, rather dramatically, translates as ´the place where men become gods`. Though there are some pretty nasty deities in Mexico, so you might want to pick and choose...!

It was really hot, so was forced to pay an extortionate amount of money for a hat I looked stupid in. Here is the evidence:

On the up-side, there were many other unsuspecting tourists who found themselves in the same, unstylish boat...

Lucha Libre!!!!

2008-11-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Went to see Mexican wrestling (Lucha Libre) last night - it was SO MUCH FUN!! Large men in skin-tight lycra and sparkly masks might not be everyone's idea of fun, but it certainly entertained me! For large men, they are amazingly agile.

Was slightly concerned by the etiquette of using midgets as mascots, but Sal & Nat will be pleased to know that one of the wrestlers went one better by using a primordial dwarf!

I got my camera confiscated on the way in, so i don't have any photos of the actual event i'm afraid...you'll have to make do with the following reconstructions of events....

Eco-Mexico

2008-11-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

This is a bin I saw today encouraging Mexicans to recycle their plastic bottles. Bert...i thought Sprout could take on board some of the interesting design elements presented here...?

Day One in Mexico City - Don't worry, I won't subject you all to a new post every day :)

2008-11-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

So, here I am in lovely Mexico City. Just ate my first proper Mexican meal in a small cafe with men playing dominos and old, frazzled cinema posters on the walls. Am slightly concerned about the effect the food might have on me....it tasted nice, but looked like green and red splodge with small, white worms sprinkled on top (actually cheese).

Have had a lovely first day, I REALLY like it here. Walked down the Paseo de Reforma, all the way to Chapultepec Park. There are loads of impressive monuments along the way, commemorating independence from Spain, the last Aztec leader,and, more ambiguously, a naked female hunter named Diana.

The park was nice too, though i got told off for sitting too close to the lake. Didn't mind though, cos they told me off in Spanish and I actually understood what they were saying!!! :)

In fact,my Spanish was so impressive today that i made friends with an archeological man in the anthropological museum, who insisted showing me around the ENTIRE place for FIVE HOURS!!!

I learnt many interesting facts though like:

The emblem on the Mexican flag is an eagle eating a snake. This is because in 'ancient times' nomadic tribes would pick a spot to settle where they saw an eagle eating a snake. Unfortunately, this led to the Aztecs having to build a city (and connecting roads) to a small, muddy islet in the middle of a lake.
The equivalent of yin & yang in Central America is the winged, or feathered, serpent. The wings represent birds, which are close to the gods...and the snake represents the underworld (der der deeeer!!!). Apparently this symbol is used to describe the balance between good and evil, love and hate, or the balance between a man and a woman (personally i think the lady is the one chatting away to the gods :)
High-born Mayan babies got their skulls squished between two wooden plates everyday so that they would grow conical heads
Duty Free shops in Mexico are called DuFry shops...heehee!

So. Tomorrow I am heading into the centre of town. This may, or may not still exist as a plane crashed into the downtown area 2 days ago....killing all people on board (which interestingly included a minister who had recently been trying to clean up some of the drug gangs in Mexico...), 8 people on the ground and injuring 40 people.

Well done if you got right to the end....i got a bit carried away i think!

Speak soon x

Welcome to the new, improved Steph Travel Communication System!

2008-11-05T01:37:00.001-08:00

Given my previous attempts at diary-keeping, i'm crossing my fingers that where blogging is concerned a more diligent Steph will magically emerge! At least a blog will give my parents more regular confirmation that I'm still surviving the wilds of Central America ok :)

So here's my first photo, about to jet off on the 10.40 from Chesterfield Train Station, carrying little more than several varieties of torch (maglite, head & wind-up) and my trusty penknife....well actually quite a bit more than that...

Well, off I go!!

See you on the other side of the sea!
xxxxxxxxxxxx