Where's Squeezle?

2006-12-24T16:14:00.000+10:00

New Zealand
Ah! The land of the long white cloud. It was my first time visitng NZ in the summer and it was nice to see New Zealand in the sun and the trees with leaves on them. It's still pretty cold though - after Samoa especially. The main purpose of my visit was to surprise Angie for her 21st birthday and as you know from my last entry I succeeded :-).

I didn't do any sightseeing in NZ because I didn't want to and because I've explored the south Island a little bit before. After 6 months of constantly seeing things I just wanted to relax and catch up on things I'd missed. So that's what I did - slept in alot in a big comfy bed, watched bad telly, ate Pinky bars, drank fresh milk and spent time with my NZ family :-) I even got to cook again! In short I had a really great time and I'm sorry I missed seeing Christian, Natalie and the puppy.

Big congratulations to Angie for getting into Otago med school too - we're all ecstatic for you!

That's all I'm going to write about NZ because I'm at home and very lazy... I've been home for 2 weeks now and am only now doing this.

Home... And I have a bed!!!!
I got to Brisbane from Auckland (after a 2 and a half hour delay - damn Qantas!) and met Oscar - Karen's new kitten. He promptly attacked me so I took an instant liking to him :-) He's black (my fave) and a little hyperactive so it'll be interesting to see how we get along when I'm living there full time again. It was great seeing Karen and having to overnight in Brisbane kind of worked in my favour as I got to unload quite a bit of stuff before heading up to Mackay.

I arrived in Mackay the next morning and Mum picked me up and dropped me home. After New Zealand's slight chill it was nice to be sweating standing still again. I know that's a bit weird but it's how I grew up and hence how I like my weather. Big surprise when I got home was that I have a bed now!!!! It's pretty comfy and I'm glad I don't have to sleep on the floor anymore. I've been taking it easy at home and enjoying Christmas only doing things I really needed to like looking for a job, putting in my uni forms and going to the dentist. I'm going back to Brisbane this Saturday (Jan 6) and will continue the job search there.

As much as I enjoyed my time away I'm glad to be getting back to normal as my body hasn't responded too well to the dramatic changes in lifestyle and food again (South Africa had the same effect on me in 2001). I'm totally broke too so the stress levels will be on the rise soon as I have to pay rent and buy food (finding a job is priority one).
It was totally worth it though and I think everyone should quit their jobs and going galavanting around the world at least once in their life.

This is the end of the travel blog now... bye!

2006-12-08T07:10:00.000+10:00

Samoa
I arrived in Samoa on Nov 21 having left Quito on Nov 17 - lots of airport and plane time. I did get to overnight in Auckland on the way though so had one good sleep in that time. I had organised with my B&B in Samoa for a transfer from the airport since the airport is 45mins from Apia and my flight was due to arrive at 2am (typical South Pacific). It wasn't there though. I managed to get to where I was staying alright though and crashed straight into bed.
I didn't actually do much in Samoa. There's heaps to see and do but I just wanted to relax and dive. I did make a day trip over to Samoa's other main island, Savaii. It's not the easiest place to get around if you don't have a car so a group of us hired a taxi to drive us round for 5 hours. It's pretty cheap to do that - worked out at 20 aussie dollars each. The sights of Savaii are fairly spread out so we only managed to get to the blowholes and the lava fields. Didn't make it to the best part of the lava fields though. This lava flow wiped out a village destroying everything except the 2 churches - weird. At the blowholes you can pay the guy that lives there 10Tala and he'll put coconuts in the blowhole. We did. The coconuts died - blow apart, the pieces scattered over quite a large area.

The blowhole on Savaii.

Back on Upolu (the island with Apia on) I decided to head down to the south east to a place called Lalomanu which has a great beach and more importantly, a dive shop. I did take the time to visit the sliding rocks just outside Apia first though. It's basically a few cascades two of which are smooth and form natural slides - good fun. I also went to Aggie Grey's (a famous hotel) for the Fia Fia night. It was a good show with dancing by both men and women and then fire dancing by a few men. Some super hot men too I have to say...

The firedancing at the Fia Fia. Notice they do it next to the pool just in case...

Interestingly, one of the dancing girls was actually a man! Transvestites or Fafas as they call them here are really common. What happens is a family has lots of sons but raises the youngest as a girl because there's womens work that needs doing but not enough women to do it. At a certain age this boy gets to choose whether or not they want to live as a boy or a girl from now on. Most chose to stay as a girl! Is totally acepted here and everyone's quite open about it.

Part of the womens dance at the Fia Fia.

My beach stay at Lalomanu was great. I stayed in a beach fale and went diving nearly everyday. When I wasn't diving I was swimming or lazing on the beach. Tough life aye? The only drawback at Lalomanu was that they were having problems with water so no showers. I was just constantly salty or sunscrenny which didn't do much for my skin or hair I must say. It was all good though.

The dog relaxes on the beach at Lalomanu

I ended up doing 10 dives and saw heaps of turtles, eagle rays, blck fan coral, moorish idols, parrot fish, regal angels longnose butterflies etc etc. Murphys law applied though, we saw WAY more stuff when I didn't take my camera under, even the divemaster commented on that! We didn't even see a turtle when I had my camera in my hand. Not very good underwater pictures from these dives I'm afraid. I was a bit disappointed with my pics to be honest and generally did a terrible job photographing stuff. Still not used to using the camera underwater I guess. The main thing is that I saw lots of cool stuff though.

Clown fish in Samoa

Diving, diving, diving pretty much sums up my time in Samoa. I left feeling very relaxed and have now arrived at my final destination - Christchurch, New Zealand. Many of you would know that I had planned to surprise my host sister Angie for her 21st birthday here. I'm pleased to report that she was indeed very surprised. I got to wake her up and everything!

2006-11-18T02:36:00.000+10:00

South America (Part IV)
My time in South America ends today and finally something bad has happened on my trip... the dog has lost an eye!!! I don´t know how but I´m hoping he can have corrective surgery upon my return to Oz. Seriously, that is the worst thing that´s happened - no problems with sickness or safety.

Huaraz
Unfortunately for us the weather was absolutely miserable while in Huaraz so no ice-climbing or glacier walks for us. Two of the boys did a mountain bike ride and got soaked in the freezing rain (it had been bright sunshine when they left). So we pretty much all just relaxed in our warm beds - catching up on sleep and reading books. We did have Halloween while in Huaraz though and some of the group got into the spirit and wore masks for a good minute or two (not very comfortable apparently). Other than that Huaraz wasn´t anything exciting.

Halloween in Huaraz

Huanchaco
Next stop was the beach town of Huanchaco where you can watch locals ride the surf into the beach on reed surf skis. We didn´t see any though :-( We did have a very cool campsite though - we pitched our tents on the roof of a hostel! Huanchaco is on the itinerary because of Chan Chan - the mud city. It´s a pre-Inca ruin and the whole city is built from mud. It was far more interesting than expected (I mean how interesting can mud be right?). The civilisation that built it did lots of decorating - carving fish and cormorants into the walls as well as building the walls in a fishnet pattern.

The dog (now one-eyed) at Chan Chan

We also visited the Temple of the Moon which only started being excavated in 1991. It´s special because of the decorations all of which are in colour, the colour having survived all this time buried underground.

Punta Sal
Really long drive day to Punta Sal on the north coast of Peru. Finally into warm weather and a bit of sun. There was a total vegetation change along the way too with cane fields and palm trees and general greenness replacing the barreness we´ve mostly had. Punta Sal is just a beach place where we get to relax and defrost. We were all so busy relaxing in fact that no one even took a photo! It´s a really nice place and we camp on the beach. It´s a nice idea but the wind was a bit strong and sand doesn´t offer much purchase to tent pegs - my tent kept moving but not too far so it was ok. We even found a place that did gluten free biscuits and bread so I had food!!

Cuenca (Ecuador)
After a few days lazing on a beach we crossed the border into Ecuador for the final part of the trip. The border crossing was smooth if slow and we had a smooth drive into Cuenca. Cuenca is a colonial city and has a huge cathedral on the main square. They actually never built the spires of the cathedral because they realised while building it that the building couldn´t actually support them. It does have blue domes though and you have to be happy with that. I really liked Cuenca not because of the Spanish colonial influence but because of the fantastic ice-cream parlour, awesome one pound steaks and of course the panama hat factory.

Weaving a Panama Hat

Panama hats are in fact Ecuadorian hats (not as catchy sounding though) and are all woven by hand from a particular palm frond. For those that aren´t familiar with the Panama hat it´s the kind of hat that dodgy drug barons wear in movies and ladies wear to the races. It´s pretty cool to see it done but the best part is trying on all the hats in the show room at the end. The ladies races type hats don´t suit me at all but I look way cool in the cowboy hats. The dog looked good too.

The dog at the Panama hat factory

Baños/Rio Verde

We were lucky to get to go to Baños as there´s been a volcano erupting here this year. Fortunately for us it stopped. We actually stay in Rio Verde not Baños which is safer in terms of a possible eruption and it´s closer to outdoor activities. I was psyched to do the bridge swing but it´s not safe here so had to content myself with jumping off a waterfall instead. Yes, I went canyoning. It´s great fun and our guides were brilliant and very safety conscious. We only got to do one waterfall jump as there was not enough flow in one spot and too much on the big 8 metre jump. No jumping meant more abseiling which is fun too.

Me jumping off the 3m waterfall

Me catching the flying fox down

It rained heaps while we were in Rio Verde so it was a biot damp in our tents but it didn´t rain so much as to ruin our days. Me and some of the others did a big walk from Rio Verde to some waterfalls and the cable car (tarabita). The cable car takes you across the valley then you walk through bush on the other side of the river before catching another cable car back. The cable car is more of a basket on string than an actual cable car. It was a long walk that unexpectedly turned hot but we made it into Baños then back home again easily enough.

The cable car near Rio Verde. Safety plus!

Jungle Trip

dusk on the Napa river

We left Rio Verde in the rain and mist and headed into the jungle. Unfortunately the premier jungle spot in Ecuador has a government warning on it so Kumuka aren´t allowed to take us there. Where we went was very good too. Very little wildlife though. I´m sure the louder members of our group contributed to that too. We stayed at a place called Anaconda Lodge on the Napa river which is a major tributary of the Amazon. We did lots of walks in the jungle (only one snake) and the highlights for me were chocolate in it´s natural habitat and the leaf cutter ants. We also visited a local village, animal sanctuary and had a visit from a shaman. I didn´t get cleansed of evil spirits by the shaman though - there wasn´t enough time (hehehe).

Squirrel monkey

I really enjoyed the jungle and seemed to be clicking away with my camera the most. Unfortunately the light in the jungle isn´t conducive to photography so not many came out. Loads of pictures of local kids though. They were fascinated to see themselves instantly.

a local boy in the village we visited

Otavalo

We were supposed to leave the jungle, overnight in Tena nearby then drive to Otavalo but our driver noticed a broken spring on the back wheels near Quito so we changed plans to be safe. All it meant was that we had to catch local transport to Otavalo the next mornign to go to the markets. The markets were pretty good but no where near the size of Chichicastenango in Guatemala. Most of the really cool stuff is wooden which kind of sucks for us Aussies with our stringent customs.

On the way back I stopped off at the equator. There´s a huge monument and a tourist "city" at the site of the equator. Only problem is it´s actually in the wrong place. Whoops!!! They have a second smaller plaque 300m or so further north where you can see the water go straight down the sink and stuff like that. I only took the dog to the fake equator though because you lose a kilo standing on it and he´s only little and might cease to exist! (hehehe) Didn´t get heaps of time here and I left my other memory card at the hostal so can´t put photos up.

Leaving Quito tonight. Next stop Samoa!!! Hello lazing on the beach.

2006-10-31T02:21:00.000+10:00

South America (Part III)
Arequipa
While in Arequipa the thing to do is to try guinea pig. That is, eat it. It´s pretty well known that I am highly carnivorous and will eat just about any meat but I decided to give the old guinea pig a miss for 2 reasons: 1. It was ridiculously expensive, and 2. They just deep-fry the thing and I´m not keen on deep-fried anything (with the exception of potatoes). Others did try it though and from their reaction I think I made a good decision in sticking with the tried and true llama steak.

I didn´t do that much in Arequipa but I did take time out to visit Juanita the ice princess. Juanita is the name they gave to a perfectly preserved teenage girl from Inca times they found on a volcano near Arequipa in 1994 (or thereabouts - I forget when exactly). She had been sacrificed to the mountain god right at the top of the volcano and because it hadn´t erupted she´d been encased in ice since then until a volcano nearby starting erupting and melted the ice. It just happened that about 4 days after being loosed from the ice she was found by some mountain climbers so she didn´t get the opportunity to decompose. They have a little museum in Arequipa devoted to the story of Juanita and it´s pretty cool to go see. You even get to see the ice princess herself - she´s kept in a special display chamber there but is "rested" during low season.

Driving to Nazca

El Misti - volcano near Arequipa

The drive to Nazca is split over two days to give our driver a bit of a break. We stopped just outside of Arequipa to allow us to get some nice shots of El Misti - the volcano that looms over Arequipa. I was also pretty happy this day because I had bought myself another jar of nutella for the 2 drive days AND we´d managed to get some corn tortillas in Arequipa so I got a proper lunch instead of just having to eat the filling from the sandwich. Finding corn products in South America has been surprisingly difficult.

We stopped overnight in Puerta Inca which is a small beach place with nothing but a camp ground and hotel. We camped there overnight and enjoyed a raging bonfire thanks to one of the boys aquiring what we think may have been a piece of furniture. All evidence of it was gone by morning though. We drove from Puerta Inca to Nazca (home of the Nazca lines) via Chauchilla.

One of the Chauchilla skeletons

Chauchilla is an excavated cemetery and perhaps the most boring and pointless stop we´ve made. Basically they have dug up some tombs from the Nazca period and charge people stupid enough to stop S/. 5 to see the skeletons. They know absolutely nothing about them so the guided tour is pretty much "Here is tomb one. It has skeltons in it. You can still see hair. Here is tomb two. More skeletons. The bones are bleached by the sun. White is not the natural colour." Then they tell you that actually the skeletons weren´t found in the tombs and they put them there assuming that´s how they´d been buried but they might not have been. No one tipped the guide.

We arrived at Nazca to a really nice campground with a pool and everything. Did bugger all in that afternoon as we didn´t have our flights over the Nazca lines until the next morning.

Nazca
Our tour guide had been warning everyone how much the little planes moved around and told everyone not to eat brekky until after the flight. I was pretty excited about going on the flight since I love small planes and turbulence is what makes flying fun in my opinion. I don´t get motion sick so ate quite a big brekky before the 8am flight. Glad I did since we didn´t get to go until 10:30! No reason other than typical South American service. The flight was pretty good though overpriced and not nearly as turbulent as I would have liked (I had pictured rollercoaster style dips and banks but alas! it wasn´t to be). No one can really explain the existence of the lines and they are only visible from the air so the pan-american highway has been built directly through a couple of them. They have been so driven over that half the time you don´t see them until the pilot points it out and circles a few times. It is cool to see though and the lines are perfectly straight.

Huacachina

Huacachina from the dunes

We left Nazca after the flights and lunch and moved on to the oasis town of Huacachina. It´s a nice relaxing place. The only real attraction is a dune buggying and sandboarding trip. Dune buggying was a bit disappointing - not nearly as fun as expected. But sandboarding was really cool. One of the boys had a massive stack which I luckily caught on camera.

Adam stacking it sandboarding

He was a bit sore but not too badly hurt. Had a free afternoon which I elected to use to laze about by the pool rather than go to another bloody Inca museum in nearby Ica. It was a good day all in all.

Ballastas Islands and Lima

Ballastas Islands - lots of birds

Left early the next morning to drive to Lima and the end of the tour for 10 of the crew. We stopped on the way for a boat cruise out to the Ballastas Islands sometimes called the poor man´s Galapagos or the Peruvian Galapagos - wishful thinking I say. It had loads of sealions, Peruvian boobies, Peruvian pelicans, 4 types of cormorants, Humboldt penguins, Inca terns and of course seagulls. Hardly as awe inspiring as the Galapagos. With so many birds the smell of guano was pretty strong and some people got quite nauseous. It was an ok trip but could have been shorter - I mean, how many boobies do you need to see before you realise that the Peruvian variety look quite similar to seagulls (as orthonologists everywhere call for my head)?

From the Ballastas Islands stop it was 5 more hours to Lima the Peruvian capital. It´s a sprawling city of 8 million and not really my scene. I went for a wander up the pedestrian mall near our hotel anyway as the search for good chocolate is never ending and got so much verbal abuse and lewd remarks from the local men that I decided I wouldn´t walk around by myself here. I figured that if I walked with one of the boys I wouldn´t get as much attention. I was right. The next day I checked out a couple of churches and the Spanish Inquisition museum. The inquisition museum was pretty cool and a mural there shows that the fountain in the Plaza de Armas is the original from that time. Day 2 saw me visit the other side of town and the new tourist area of Miraflores. It wasn´t that exciting and I spent the afternoon sleeping in the hotel.

Riot police in Lima

Lima has loads of nice buildings but isn´t really a very nice place - the riot police have a really visible presence (especially near government buildings), I copped loads of vile comments, was even followed for a bit so had to go into a cafe to rid myself of the annoying man and one of our boys experienced an attempted mugging. Having said that, a few of the people on tour really liked it and had no problems whatsoever so it´s important to remember my extremely anti-city attitude to begin with.

Having left Lima we are now back at altitude in Huaraz; nestled between the Cordillera Blanco and the Cordillera Negro (the white and black mountains respectively). Hoping to do a glacier walk and ice-climbing here but it all depends on the weather which isn´t looking favourable.

2006-10-22T04:09:00.000+10:00

South America (Part II)
I´m on a tour now and I have to say that travelling independently is WAY better. I will never do group tour type travel again. So far we´ve gone from La Paz, Bolivia to Arequipa, Peru and seen some pretty cool stuff with the highlight being the Inca Trail.

La Paz, Bolivia
I would have liked an extra day in La Paz as I didn´t get to do the famous bike ride here (70km going downhill on what is statistically the world´s most dangerous road). The bike ride would have taken up from 7am to 9pm and I needed to withdraw money and wanted to see the witch´s markets so had to miss it. I was surprised not to have any ill effects from altitude at all - no insomnia, shortness of breath or rapid heart beat - lucky me. Met the rest of the Kumuka group - there will be 16 of us from La Paz to Lima then only 6 continuing on afterwards.

Dried llama foetuses at the witch´s market

Puno, Peru
Crossed the border into Peru the next day (Sun 8 Oct) with no hassle and got our first views of Lake Titikaka. It´s pretty damn big and sticks out in what is otherwise a fairly harsh/barren landscape. Puno is at an even higher altitude than La Paz and walking uphill here did take it out of me - I went up to a statue that stands at 4100m. No sickness still though. I tried a llama steak here and it was really good. The main reason for the stop in Puno is to go out to the islands of Lake Titikaka.

Lake Titikaka from lookout at Puno

Lake Titikaka, Peru
We took the world´s slowest boat out onto Lake Titikaka. First stop was the Uros Islands. These are more commonly known as the floating or reed islands of Lake Titikaka. The people here are pretty amazing. They seem to be goos at everything - weaving, painting, building, cooking, boating etc. What makes someone go ¨I know! Let´s build our own islands out of reeds and they´ll float on the surface.¨? Ingenious though and EVERYTHING here is built with the reeds. I went out on one of the reed boats too and the sail (which is made of reeds of course) broke so the people had to row us the whole time.

Me and a local outside a reed house on the reed islands

After the Uros Islands we went to Amantani island where we had a homestay with a family. There was also the opportunity to climb to the top of the tallest peak on the island which is 4200m high to watch the sunset. I wasn´t feeling too great (very sluggish) so gave it a miss unfortunately. It was damn cold on the island and after a hearty dinner with our families we went to an Inca disco! Essentially your family dresses you up in traditional costume and takes you out dancing with all the other tourists on the island. The boys sure have it easy - all they have to do is chuck a poncho over their normal clothes. The female costume by contrast consists of 3 skirts, a blouse, a headress and a waist band that gets pulled ridiculously tiht unless you puff out your belly when they tie it like horses do with saddles. Overall the female costume is less than flattering and dancing at altitude very strenuous. It was good fun though.

Me in the very unflattering traditional costume on Lake Titikaka

The next morning we took off to our last island stop - Taquile. I suddenly found it easy to breathe again upon leaving Amantani even though I was at the same altitude so figured I must have pissed off the spirits at Amantani or something. Taquile was a bit of a pointless stop I think but the walk to get to the village (an hour) was quite pleasant. Finally we took the slow boat back to Puno.

Cusco, Peru

We had an interesting drive day to Cusco as pretty much everyone except myself and a yank named Chris had diarrhoea following our stay on Amantani - strange. The drive was long but there was some really beautiful scenery along the way so no one really minded. Cusco itself is very like Antigua in Guatemala. That is, it´s beautiful, full of ruins, churches and tourists and has stacks of geat places to eat. I didn´t do much with my free day not being a museum or church person. I just sorted out the things I needed for Inca Trail and other mundane tasks I needed to do.

Cusco Plaza de Armas

Sacred Valley

The day before heading out on Inca Trail we did a tour of the Sacred Valley taking in a few Inca ruins (Saqsaywaman, Pisac and Ollantaytambo), markets and - my favourite - llamas! First stop was Saqsaywaman a ruin just outside Cusco. It is still being unearthed and offers excellent views of Cusco. The Spanish covered it in earth apparently and then built a huge cross and jesus above it to assert the dominance of Catholicism. The stone work here is impressive (as is most Inca stone masonary) and shows a tremenduous understanding of earthquake proofing. The largest single stone weighs 128 tonnes - glad I didn´t have to move it.

Example of Inca stone masonry at Saqsaywaman

After Saqsaywaman we went to the llama farm. I hadn´t realised that there were so many different types of camelids. There are 6 in total - Vicuna, Guanaco, 2 types of llama and 2 types of alpaca. They were cool and I got to feed a little Alpaca with big fat cheeks. I also fed some llamas that towered above me. The shop at the farm had wicked alpaca soft toys but you´ll be shocked to learn that I didn´t buy one as they were hideously expensive - one was made from baby alpaca fibre and was US$300! It was very soft but not worth that much money.

Me feeding my fat cheeked alpaca

Pisac with it´s ruins and markets was next. The ruins were pretty interesting and showed the same quality of stone work as all Inca sites. The markets weren´t especially interesting for me. Maybe because all the weavings and knitwear is so similiar to Central America I´m a bit desensitised - everyone else thought it was great. The one difference between the handicrafts here and CA is the amount of silver here. There is just silver jewellery everwhere. Some of it´s pretty nice but nothing has grabbed my attention yet.

After Pisac we hit the ruins at Ollantaytambo which was the most interesting of the 3 ruins I thought. You could distinctly see the different sectors of the city - agricultural, urban and religious - and you could see the quarry and the ramps for bringing the huge stone blocks to the site. We overnighted in Ollantaytambo before the Inca Trail next morning.

Inca Trail

One of the group couldn´t come in the end due to illness so there was only 12 of us on the hike. It took 3 days and was really good. You could easily do it quicker as you never spend that much time actually walking but this way you get to take in the scenery and don´t arrive at Macchu Picchu completely exhausted. Day 1 is seriously easy going with only a slight kick at the end. Day 2 is discouraging just because it´s constant climbing but determination is all you need to make it. Great views of llama farmers int he valley below too. Day 3 is steep descent which is tough on the knees and was a bit dangerous simply because you´re tired and we had rain and fog all day. The porters are absolutely phenomenal. They carry 20kgs of gear (it used to be they could carry as much as they were capable of - 50 to 70kg - but now the max is 20 for their protection) and literally run past you on the track. You´re huffing and puffing going slowly with a daypack and they sprint past talking all the while and looking like it´s the easiest thing in the world.

Day 1: Inca site in the valley below

Day 2: Top of Dead Woman´s Pass 4215m

Day 3: foggy and raining

Macchu Picchu

This is what you walk the Inca Trail to see. On the last day we got up at 4am to hike to the sun gate and walk into the Macchu Picchu (MP) complex. This part of the trail is clogged with tourists as we all get up at the same time to see the same thing. The path is really narrow here too so it´s frustrating when you get stuck behind slow pèople as it´s a lñong time before an opportunity to overtake comes along. We reached the sungate at 6:30am and were greeted by a view of thick white fog. It rolled in and out never really giving a good view of MP.

Macchu Picchu from the sun gate - shrouded in fog

From the sungate it´s a 45 minute walk down into the complex proper. We stopped at a good viewpoint for group photos and ¨mystical¨ panoramic shots of MP as the fog hadn´t cleared yet. The fog did clear though and we had a great guided tour of the complex before free time. I used my free time to climb back up to the viewpoint (don´t know how my legs did it after 3 and a half days of constant hiking plus all the walking in the sacred valley tour) and get a clear MP shot.

The classic Macchu Picchu shot

I also walked to the Inca bridge which is just a bridge over a break in an old stone path - actually not that exciting. We ended our Inca journey with a buffet lunch in Aguas Calientes - the village nearby. Train and bus back to Cusco for th 24 hour challenge!

Cusco (again)

It´s customary to try to stay up for the full 24 hours on the day of the MP visit. I honestly wasn´t fussed but also wasn´t at all tired so did it easily. Less than half the group made it. We just went out dancing and ended up getting in at 4:30am. I got up again at 9 as I had to do laundry and thought I might make the effort to visit the Cathedral and Inca museum as most people had raved about it. I made it to the Cathedral but not the museum as sleep claimed me in the afternoon.

Chivay and the Colca Canyon

The next day was a super long drive day to Chivay and we went over a pass of 4525m. We reached Chivay without too much trouble although the roads were a bit bumpy and we only had 3 toilet stops (side of the road not an actual bathroom). Pretty much ate and went to bed as the next day was another early start top go to the Colca Canyon to see the condors. The Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon but it´s the condors that draw the crowds. The Andean condors have a wingspan of 2.5 metres and weigh 13kgs. They are really graceful and surprising fast. We were lucky enough to see 6 at once. I hadn´t thought to change my camera to shutterspeed priority though so didn´t get very good photos. Seeing them was unforgettable though. Twice we had one come really close by and I just wasn´t quick enough to capture it on film.

Condor in the Colca Canyon

The condors took up the morning then we drove to Arequipa where I am now. On the drive our highest point was 4910m and it was snowing for us. I thought that was pretty excellent.

2006-10-08T00:43:00.000+10:00

South America (Part I) - Iguassu Falls

The postcard shot of Iguassu - taken from the Brazilian side

Getting There
Getting to Iguassu wasn´t the easiest thing in the world but I got there and it was totally worth it! I caught the 8:30am boat from Caye Caulker. The boat happened to be the only one in the fleet that was uncovered so I started out thinking I´d get sunburned then as the trip progressed worried about me and my luggage getting drenched. The captain broke a few rules in the harbour though so we docked just as it started raining instead of us all getting wet. At the airport I caused a problem because they decided to check me all the way through to Rio (which I didn´t realise they were trying to do) but I´d given them my Australian passport which had no visa for Brazil in it so the check-in process wouldn´t work. When I realised what they were doing (no one had spoken to me to ask) I fixed it in 2 seconds by changing passports. Miami airport was super boring but I found nice ice-cream and other foods. Also got myself a book for the wait. There was a security scare on our flight so we ended up leaving an hour late and hence arriving in Rio an hour late too. The bags took forever to come through so I came close to missing my Iguassu connection. Made it though - TAM are pretty relaxed about how close to take off you can check in - the plane was boarding when I checked my luggage in. Arrived safely at Foz du Iguacu and caught the bus downtown. The bus didn´t stop at my stop even though I pressed the button so I had to trek back 5 or so blocks with all my luggage. Then the streets weren´t actually labelled as per the hostel´s directions. The staff at Maccas helped me though and I eventually found where I needed to be.

Argentinian side
Took a day trip over to the Argentinian side of the falls. It´s a very easy border crossing and the trip is worth it. There are lots of walking tracks on this side and all sorts of different places to view the falls so you get loads of different perspectives. I ended up walking about 7 or more kilometres. It was brilliant - leave it to the photos...

Brazilian side
I had half a day here before my flight to Rio. I loved everything about this side - the painted buses, the panoramic views, the souvenirs, the ease of getting here etc. This side offers you the postcard type views of the falls. Very nice. Lots of pictures again and I´ll let them do the talking...

Also went to the bird park next to the Iguassu national park. It was really impressive - loads of toucans, macaws, hummingbirds and amazons etc. They even had emus, rainbow lorikeets and cassowaries! Really good place to visit. There was one toucan there that got a bit violent if you didn´t pay him enough attention though - the bugger bit me!

A toco toucan - not the one that bit me.

I´m in La Paz, Bolivia now and about to start my 6 week Kumuka tour to Quito so am not sure how often I´ll be able to update this page so be patient!

2006-09-30T03:10:00.000+10:00

Central America (Part IV)
My time in Central America is now over. South America and more adventure beckons but first I need to tell you about my last 2 weeks....

Copan, Honduras
The shuttle to Copan arrived to pick me up at exactly 4am which was a good start I thought. There were only 2 other people catching it so we picked them up and headed out of Antigua for the open road. The driving was a hair-raising experience in some parts and the music left alot to be desired (ever heard the best of Billy Ray Cyrus in Spanish? I have now) but we got there. There's a one hour time difference between Guatemala and Honduras so it was only 9am when I arrived. Found a place to stay, - En la Mandana Verde - grabbed food then napped since I'd only been able to sleep half the night. When I got up it was only noon so decided to go see what I could see.

Butterfly Farm
I ended up at a butterfly farm which was brilliant. The woman was so friendly and knowledgable. They breed the butterflies there too so you get to see them in each stage of life. Really interesting and I learned quite a bit. I was grumpy at myself for forgetting to get my camera out of my locker though as it would have been great to have there. They had swallowtails, zebras, clearwings, morphos and my favourites the common and giant owlwing butterflies. These have huge wings (about the size of my hand) that are patterned to look like an owls eyes. Very cool.

Ruins

One of the stellae at Copan

The main reason for visiting Copan is of course the Mayan ruins here. They aren't nearly as big as Tikal in Guatemala but I liked them better. Certainly they're more accessible and there's a lot more carvings. Three of us went for our hostel and joined with two others at the entrance so we coulkd split the cost of hiring a guide. Hiring a guide is definitely worth it as otherwise it just looks like more carved rocks. the guide tells you the whole story behind everything. It took us 3 and a half hours to go around the ruins themselves and the sculpture museum (a lot of carvings are stored here now to protect them from the elements). The two most famous parts of the ruins complex are the ballcourt and the heiroglyphic stairway. Both very impressive.

Bird Park

Me and my favourite yellow-crowned Amazons

After the ruins and lunch I headed to the Macaw Mountain Bird Park. You have to catch a taxi to get there but it's worth it. A guide shows you round all the avairies telling you about the birds, how they came to get them and where they're native to. As the name implies there are lots of macaws of different varieties but also toucans, amazons, eagles, aracaris, toucanets and owls. They let you hold some of the tamer birds too. I was a perch for 2 yellow-crowned amazons (one of whom wanted to nip my ear) and a scarlet macaw. It was very cool.

To Rio Dulce, Guatemala...
I nick-named this day the day of rip-offs and lies. Getting from Copan, Honduras to Rio Dulce in Guatemala turned out to be a bit of a mission. First, the only option is to pay the full fare back to Antigua even though you have to get out to change buses less than half way there (rip-off 1). There is no other choice but to do this so I swallowed it. All the bus operators had assured me that there are buses from Rio Hondo (where you change) to Rio Dulce every hour at least (lie 1), it takes about 2 hours (lie 2) and cost US$6 for a pullman bus (lie 3). I arrive in Rio Hondo at 2pm to discover there wouldn't even be a local minibus until 4pm which takes 4hours to get to Rio Hondo and costs Q50 (US$6-7 roughly). The pullman would come at 4:30pm, takes 2 hours and costs Q150! I elected for the pullman because I didn't want to get in when it was dark since i still had to find a place to stay. Turns out it's so expensive because the bus runs from Guatemala City to Santa Elena and no matter what part of the trip you do you have to pay full fare!!!! I though I was being charged gringo-rates until I chatted with a local man who had been waiting since noon! The pullman was really nice though. More like a plane than a bus - they fed you, had films and had the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in. Worth the extra money after the waiting for 3hrs (it was late) by the side of the road.

Casa Perico

The dog at Casa Perico

Arrived safely in Rio Dulce at 7pm and was instantly approached by a lancha (boat) driver wanting to know where I was going to stay. I'd been told by heaps of people how nice Casa Perico was and really didn't have time to check out a number of places so said there. He took me straight there. Rio Dulce sits on Lago Izabal and all the accommodation there has to be reached by boat. Casa Perico sits tucked away about a 20min boat ride from the town in a jungle setting. The whole thing is built on stilts. It is very cool. They have great food and it's good for relaxing. No good for doing anything though. I wanted a rest day anyway so that suited me fine. The most energetic I got that day was to book the boat trip to Livingston for the next day (Wed 20 Sep) and to chat to other travellers.

Livingston, Guatemala

Lilies on the Rio Dulce river trip

I'd like to say that the boat ride went off without a hitch but I can't. The boat came 45mins late (no big deal) and our captains were 2 12 year old boys (no joke). One took my pack to put on board and promptly slipped and fell in the water with my entire pack! Thank goodness it wasn't my daypack with my camera etc in. Needless to say he didn't get tipped though. I helped him back onto the boat, tried to forget about the fact that most my stuff would be wet now (hoping the Moutain Designs raincover had helped a bit at least) and enjoy the boat ride. The trip really was nice once the boys stopped messing around running personal errands and got us underway. We went past the old fort on the lake - Castillo de San Felipe, through a lilypad area and finally throguh some really nice gorges. It took 2 and a half hours to get to Livingston in the end.
Opportunists hover at the Livingston dock hoping you'll let them show you round (which they then demand payment for). Me and the 3 others from Casa Perico said we were fine and could walk up the one street looking at the hotels/hostels by ourselves. They followed us nonetheless and sure enough asked for money for "guiding" us to the hotel. I refused and ended up staying elsewhere anyway. You get hassled alot there especially if you're a smoker - say goodbye to your cigarettes as the locals will take them. Livingston is a Garifuna place. The Garifunas are politely referred to as being laid back and mellow. In reality they are drugged up free loaders. I didn't like Livingston much but I had to stay a day to catch the boat to Punta Gorda, Belize. Even the beach here is grotty with syringes and rubbish everywhere. I didn't take any photos even because I didn't want to take my camera out. Livingston rates as the worst place I went in Guatemala but at least I found a great place to eat!

Back in Belize!!!
I was so happy to catch the boat back to Belize. We had great weather for the crossing with the water totally flat. We even got to see flying fish on the crossing. I hadn't realised how stressed and wary I'd become travelling in Guatemala until I arrived back in Punta Gorda and felt myself completely relax. I caught the bus straight up to Placencia (only a 2 hour ride) and set about doing some serious relaxing.

Placencia

Laughing Bird Caye

I stayed at a place called Omar's Guest House here. It was the best - right on the beach, private room with shared bathroom only $16BZE. And Omar himself was really friendly and laid back. He gave me half my breakfast free one day just because he wanted me to try the local specialty. Placencia is REALLY laid back and quiet. The beach is beautiful, the water is clear and the main road is a footpath. I liked it instantly. I had planned to just relax on the beach but decided I'd see about diving too. As it's low season here only one dive shop was still open and they weren't sure when they'd be heading out. No worries I said, I'm in no rush. So I had a few days relaxing on the beach and walking round "town" getting a few keepsakes before I went diving on my last day there. One of the locals I met on my shopping expedition was a Kiwi who'd come to Placencia for 2 weeks holiday and ended up staying 12 years! It's that kind of place. Also met a really nice American girl called Anna who was there doing her dive masters. She reminded me a bit of my good friend Talia so then I started missing her! Consoled myself with a dive trip though :-)
The diving was reasonable but a bit of a disappointment. We'd had high winds the last few days thougha nd that silted up the water and made the fish move to more protected areas. The snorkel during out surface interval was brilliant thoguh. I think we should have just done a shallow little dive at the snorkel spot as we would have seen more - better visibility and way more fish. Our divemaster spent most of the dive apparently tryign to catch dinner - he was constantly pointing out and picking up lobster! Too funny. Laughingbird Caye itself was very beautiful. It's a protected area because it's a hatchery/nursery for a lot of fish. Hence you see more juveniles here than full grown fish. All in all, a great stay in Placencia. Would return again

Caye Caulker
Caught the bus from Placencia to Belize City and had the most bone-jarring ride ever! 23miles from Placencia to the main road is unpaved and is really very rutted. We all got airborne several times. Arrived safely and without hassle in Belize City. No one at the bus station would tell me where the marine terminal was though. I think they're a bit scared of the taxi drivers. The taxis hang around and harrass you to catch a taxi. I knew the terminal was close though so I just walked out and asked in a shop a block away. It took about 10mins to walk there if that. Certainly no need for a taxi. Caught the next boat out to Caye Caulker then searched for a place to sleep. The accommodation here is really dingy. I settled on a place called Tina's for $15BZE a night but will stay somewhere with a private bathroom for the last night as I won't get an opportunity to shower for 2 days after that and I would have been in the salt water alot. I went in search of dive options but being low season not much is going out and it's pretty damn expensive. Decided to just snorkel the Hol Chan Marine reserve and dive the Blue Hole. Might do another half day of snorkelling too depending on the weather and my level of boredom.

Hol Chan snorkelling

Manatees in Belize

This was a really fantastic trip. We ended up having 5 snorkelling stops instead of just the 3 and saw some much stuff. 2 manatees, a manta ray, eagle ray, southern stingrays, nurse sharks, loggerhead turtle, black groper, horse-eye jacks, yellow-tail snapper, barracuda, yellow tail damsels, rainbow parrots etc etc. Really excellent trip. We had a stop at Ambergris Caye also which is the expensive island here. Nice to see how the other half live :-) Again there were heaps of juvenile fish here rather than fully grown fish. I loved the juvenile yellowtail damsels - they are black with electric blue spots. Very cool. Got a tiny bit burned but avoided the worst - there's only so much sunscreen will do in the water.

Rest Day
There really isn't anything to do here unless you're in the water. The gift shops and walking all the way around the island keeps you going for about an hour at most. Some good stuff here and I managed to get another bag so I can relieve the pressure on the zips in my pack. It fits my sleeping bag inside easily also so it's not like I have any additional bags which is good.

Caye Caulker snorkelling
Since I was going stir crazy on my rest day and had to wait another day to go to the blue hole (the frustration of low-season travel) I did a half day snorkel in the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve. Just to be confusing all the sites at the Caye Caulker reserve have the same names as the ones at the Hol Chan reserve. This snorkel trip was just as good as the one to Hol Chan only the weather was a bit chillier and there were no manatees or turtles to see. Shark-ray alley was better here though. The water is only 4 foot deep so no fins allowed and you have to be super careful not to kick the stingrays. There are heaps!!! If the light had been better I would have got some wicked photos but being so overcast and rainy I hadn't even brought my camera on board the boat. The third snorkel was really cool too because it was self-guided. I waited til the others had swum away a bit then jumped in and came face to face with a stingray and barracuda - very cool.

Blue Hole

Red-footed Booby on Half Moon Caye

Finally got to go to the blue hole on Saturday! Initially I had ruled out today as a dive day because of flying on Sunday (recommended 18-24 hours between diving and flying). Waiting at the pier for the dive boat to come I had a really cool sighting - a stingray breaching! I heard the splash and thought it must be a fish then this stingray comes flying out the water! Awesome. Wasn't impressed with the dive company really but I won't dwell on that as the diving itself was really great. The blue hole is a former land cave and is a perfect circle fringed by coral. We did a deep dive here going down to 39 metres and swam between stalictites and stalicmites. It was very surreal. There are the hugest fish there too. Gropers I think. They hung around us and then on the ascent to the surface we were circled by about 15 Grey Carribbean Reef Sharks. They were pretty big and I got a bit nervous when one got curious toward the end and started swimming toward me. All good though. Our second dive was ok but nothing really noteworthy. After that one we went to Half Moon Caye for lunch. Half Moon Caye is also a red-footed booby sanctury so i went for a walk to go see those and also spotted an iguana hanging out on a tree branch. Moved to Long Caye for the third dive. It was the best in my opinion. So much life!! And because of the shallowness all the colours showed properly. I had judged it too overcast to take the camera and was wrong I think. Nevermind! There'll be more dives in Samoa. On the trip back there was a stowawy on board! A tiny little wren i think. He hopped around landing on everyone and sat with me whgile I filled out my log book. He was so sweet and little, came all the way back to Caye Caulker with us.

Next stop, Iguassu Falls.

2006-09-16T04:26:00.000+10:00

Central America (Part III)
Lago de Atitlan

Toliman and Atitlan. Two of Lago de Atitlan's volcanoes

I managed to drag myself away from Antigua and all it's good food to go visit Lago de Atitlan. More specifically, I went to Panajachel lovingly called Pana by locals. Some more jaded locals also call it Gringotenango (Place of the gringos) because it's a bit of a tourist magnet. Most tourists go to San Pedro or San Marcos when they visit the lake now because it's "less touristy". Little do these people know that "less touristy" is actually code for no infrastructure or interesting activities. Personally I loved Pana. I found a nice, relatively quiet place to stay and you get spectacular views of all 3 volcanoes from this side of the lake. Lago de Atitlan is, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, a lake ringed by 3 volcanoes - Toliman, San Pedro, and Atitlan.

I can't say that I did a great deal in Pana. I did find a good bookstore though (I keep buying books for reading on the beaches of Belize then finishing them in a few days. I really need to learn some discipline) and great ice-cream. A quick note on the ice-cream (since ice-cream plays a central role in my life): there are 2 ice-cream parlours in Guatemala - Sarita and Marco Polo. There is only one brand of ice-cream though - Helados. Both parlours sell this ice-cream and have exactly the same menu, same flavours, same serving sizes etc but Marco Polo is significantly more expensive. I don't understand why and just thought I'd share that with you.

One of the reasons I went to Pana on the Saturday was so I could attend the famous Chichicastenango markets ont he Sunday. These markets are absolutely huge and run twice a week - Thursdays and Sundays with Sunday being the bigger occasion. It's actually a bit overwhelming. The noise is incredible and there is no respite from people shoving blankets, scarfs, worry dolls, and ugly shirts in your face demanding money for them. I even tried going into a cafe for a drink just to have a break from it but no they come in there too and go round all the tables. Some are very persistant completely ignoring your repeated no thank-yous. As I've said before, firecrackers are the first love of all Guatemalans and what better place to set them off than in a crowded marketplace!! Seriously, you'd be walking down an aisle and suddenly someone would be pushing you back. Being pushed around in the markets isn't unusual so you don't pay much attention until you see a small clearing, a pipe and a grinning idiot nearby then BANG! the firecracker goes off. The other thing to note about the markets other than the incredible, ceaseless noise is how tiny the Mayan people are. I tower above them for goodness sake! Imagine if a westerner of normal height came here - they'd be giants I tell you! Oh yeah and they like to rip off gringoes. Well, everyone actually but gringoes in particular. Half price to two-thirds is the real price. And beware of machine made stuff. The markets used to be all hand-made things but they couldn't keep up so out came the sewing and embroidering machines. It is pretty easy to tell the difference though.

The dog enjoys our boat trip on the lake

Back at the Lake the next day, I decided to take a boat trip out on the lake itself. The trip includes stops at 3 lakeside towns - San Pedro, Santiago and San Antonio. San Pedro (where most tourists choose to stay now if you recall) is just about the most boring place I've ever been to. There was NOTHING to see. Only 2 shops, no historic buildings and no nice views. I really can't understand why some many of my fellow travels flock here. Maybe the beer is good? I did get some chocolate here though. Turned out the be pure chocolate (no kidding, the ingredients list had 2 things on it) that I'm pretty sure you should use to make eating chocolate. I ate it as is anyway. It took me 4 days to get through that 40 grams it was that strong. Next stop on the lake was Santiago. It was kind of like Pana but without the friendliness. The market people here were even more determined than the Chichi people! I was lucky enough to see the famed red xocop of the native women though. It's basically a ridiculously long (10m) red strap that they wind around their heads. Even the little girls wear it. It must way a ton! I didn't get a photo of it though because I was afraid they'd try to charge me for the privilege (seriously). We headed off to San Antonio next but never made it there as a huge storm kicked up earlier than usual and drenched everyone so thoroughly (open-sided boat) that no one could be bothered anymore. Got back to Pana and trudged home in the pelting rain to a warm shower and change of clothes.

Stayed in Pana for another 2 days during which I kept getting caught in parades (Didn't have my camera on me unfortunately as I hadn't expected this would happen). Today (Fri September 15) is Guatemalan independence day. Why they started celebrating it on Tuesday I don't know but they did. I've decided Guatemalans aren't very musical. Basically drums, whistles and explosions are all you need for a raging good time here. The spin-off of these premature celebrations was that when I went to catch the one and only direct bus back to Antigua on Thursday it wasn't running. So I had to endure the longer and more uncomfortable chicken bus ride and even change buses at Chimaltenango. There was one very helpful lady on the bus though who made sure I knew I had to change and where to change and how much I should be paying (they charge gringos more on local buses). I am constantly amazed that it doesn't matter where in Guatemala you want to go or what day it is or even what time of day it is; the bus WILL be full to overflowing. People will be standing in the narrow crevice that passes for an aisle and no one, I mean no one, except gringoes will have a bag. Amazes me everytime. Oh and our bus broke down. But the driver and conductor fixed it after stopping in the middle of a single lane road. This is typical Guatemala. I still haven't worked out what the road rules are if in fact there are any. Made it safely (and cheaply) back to Antigua though.

Antigua

Volcano de Agua looms over Antigua. Don't worry it's dormant. Fuego and Pacaya on the other hand...

Decided to try staying at the Jungle Party this time instead of the Black Cat. Mostly this is because my last night at the Black Cat had been rather like trying to sleep in a nightclub. The Jungle Party is much more agreable I have to say and get this, I have a double bed! In a dorm! How lucky am I? The independence day celebrations were kicking along here too - lots of whistles, drums and explosions and also some sort of running thing. Everywhere you turned there were people running in groups carrying a torch. I don't know why and due to my lack of Spanish wasn't able to ask anyone. It was bizzarely entertaining in any case. I ran my pressing errands that day - laundry, booking my shuttle to Copan, Honduras and buying a few groceries. I decided that instead of buying the handmade chocolates that are gone in a single bite I'd treat myself to a jar of nutella (yes, you can get nutella here in Antigua). I'm hoping it will last until I hit Belize in a week. WHy i hope this I honestly don't know. No jar of nutella has ever lasted that long in my presence before so there's no reason it should now but there you go.

ruined roof of the Cathedral. All the domes collapsed in the earthquakes

Today is Independence Day as I've said and I am surprised that it's quiet - no whistles, no drums and no explosions (what kind of celebrations don't include explosions I ask you!?). It seems they've got everything out of their system during the week. Today it just feels festive without being loud. I went around a few ruins again and thought about going to the jade factory and museum (turns out I couldn't find it though). One ruin near the bus station (really just a patch of dirt where the buses park) was really nice. You have to pay to go in in most ruins, usually it's about Q5 so when this one was Q30 but had 4 ruins pictured on the ticket I had assumed it meant I got entry to all 4 of the ruins for my 30 quetzales. Turns out I was wrong it's 30 at each one so I only went to that first one but it was really good. The dog enjoyed it too.

Leaving at 4am tomorrow to go to Copan, Honduras. Copan is home to some special Mayan ruins and it takes about 6 to 8 hours to get there I believe. Looking forward to it.

2006-09-09T06:41:00.000+10:00

Central America (Part II)
Lanquin
So the tourist shuttle turned into a collectivo (chicken bus) so me and the 3 other blokes who'd paid for a tourist shuttle were ultra-pissed off. It's collectivo status also meant we arrived in Cobán at 7ish instead of 5ish so weren't able to go straight to Lanquin. Headed off first thing the next morning though and arrived safely at El Retiro. This place is the place to stay in Lanquin. They are full or overflowing every night and it's easy to see why when you walk in - it sits right on the river and each room is a separate little house. Very pretty. It's eco-friendly which I'm sure is code for worst showers in the known universe. It was a cool place to stay and I met and chatted with some interesting people. There was also some really annoying foul-mouthed, smoking vegans that I couldn't stand but hey, I just avoided those people :-)

Semuc Champey from above

Backpackers go to Lanquin to visit Semuc Champey (above). It's a limestone bridge with gently cascading pools of water on top and a raging river running beneath it. El Retiro run a tour here that includes a caving part that involves swimming in the dark holding a candle (no headlamps or helmets provided) as well as a visit to the pools themselves. I wasn't up for anymore caving particularly when the safety standards appear to be non-existent (at least we had helmets in Belize!) so just caught the transport up to Semuc and went into the park. I hadn't realised how much hiking would be required to get to the pools and the Mirador (viewpoint) and was covered in mud and sweat soon enough. Ended the day nicely with a swim in those crystal clear pools though. The water was icy and I didn't spend much time in it but it was just the thing after the hiking up to the mirador.

The dog enjoys the pools at Semuc Champey

Antigua

Johnny, Andy and I caught local transport from Lanquin to Antigua in the western highlands. It takes 8 hours in all. About an hour into the trip I realised with horror that I'd left my awesome Gore-Tex jacket sitting on the bed having taken it out to wear as it gets cold on the buses. I'd gone to settle my bill then heard the bus coming on the way back so grabbed my bags and raced up the hill leaving my beautiful jacket sitting forlornly on the bed. Once I realised I knew I'd have to turn around and go back which was irritating. And changing buses twice (and hence bus stations twice) on my own with no Spanish was a bit daunting. But then Johnny came up with the bright idea of ringing them and seeing if someone could bring it with them when they came up. Genius plan as I knew that 2 girls were headed to Antigua the very next day and that The Black Cat (our intended hostel in Antigua) had El Retiro's number because of something I'd seen on their whiteboard. Anyway, I decided to go with that plan and stayed on the bus. We had very smooth transitions with no waiting at all and arrived at the Black Cat in time for dinner.

Antigua's porno fountain in the central park

The next day I oriented myself and explored Antigua. It's an old colonial city complete with cobblestone streets (pretty but impractical - such bumpy, noisy rides!) and it doesn't take long to see why many travellers arrive in Antigua with good intentions of visiting elsewhere but then never leave. It is full of Spanish schools for foreigners, salsa classes (of which I'm not availing myself) and great food. The parque central is leafy and beautiful and where everybody hangs out during the day. It even has a pornographic fountain! Well, water comes out of nipples anyway. I wandered round comparing tour and shuttle prices around town and found a few English language bookstores much to my joy (I found Devil's Teeth! for only $8AUD equivalent). Booked myself on the Pacaya volcano tour for 6am the next day. I had heard about a wicked handmade chocolate place here in Antigua so went to the Tourist Info Centre to ask about it. They knew exactly what I was talking about and sent me directly there. It's to die for. And cheap for handmade chocolates. So tasty - only lasted me a few days - I'll visit it again when I return to Antigua on my way to Copán.

View of Antigua from the Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross)

I spend a day exploring the sights of Antigua a bit more thoroughly. That is, I climbed the Cerro de la Cruz escorted by the tourist police to see the view of Antigua and wandered round the hundreds of ruins here. Cerro de la Cruz is famous (or infamous) for rapes, robberies and murders so an escort is an absolute must to go up there. Not sure why a cross was built on this hill (my escorts didn't speak English and I sure don't speak Spanish) but it provides a wicked view of the city below. After climbing back down I walked round some ruins. It didn't take me long to get bored of that as ruins are just buildings that have fallen over after all. All the ruins here were made thanks to earthquakes. There was one seriously impressive ruin though. It was a church and convent and has now been built over to form a hotel and convention centre. They have done it really well though keeping the crumbling walls complete with vines growing up them. It's like walking into another world as you walk in from the street front. Really amazing.

Volcan Pacaya Tour

me next to a 3 week old lava flow at Volcan Pacaya

Had to wake up 2 people for the Pacaya tour - honestly don't understand why they can't just set their alarms but nevermind. One of these people was still very drunk from the night before and completely unprepared for a hike up a volcano - wearing thongs!!! It took an hour and a half to drive to the volcano then about an hour to hike to the top. We couldn't actually summit though because the lava has recently been coming out of the side. We still reached 2300m elevation so even though the walk was done at a fairly slow pace and there are only a few seriously steep parts, I and many others were quite breathless. At the lava flow we got to walk over this newly formed volcanic rock and look for molten lava. Found some! It just got hotter and hotter as we were walking and then there it was - glowing red and angry and oozing ever so slowly out in front of us. The rocks we were standing on were so hot you felt your shoes were melting (for some people - not me - this turned out to be the reality!). We were also lucky with the weather as it opened up to show us all the views while we were there then closed in again as we descended. Got home at 1pm for a late breakfast (brekky is included in hostel price so you make sure you get it) and send off my laundry before not doing too much the rest of the day.

a sneak-peek at lava at Volcan Pacaya

2006-09-03T01:39:00.000+10:00

Central America (Part I)

Leaving Miami

On the advice of American Airlines, I left for the airport quite early (7:30am) to allow 3 hours for check-in. As it turned out I somehow managed to arrive when there was no queue for check-in so it only took about 15 mins. Flying out of Miami south toward Belize, you get the most amazing views of the coast, the Keys and eventually the Caribbean. I think I´d like to go back to Miami but with money and probably with someone too. I´d love to see the Keys and also head up to Orlando and visit the theme parks there.

Belize

I admit to being a bit terrified landing at Belize City airport. I only had a vague plan of action, no local currency and wasn´t sure how much English was used (it´s the official language but then it is in Miami too and there was mostly Spanish spoken there). It all turned out alright though (of course). There´s a small tourist information desk at the airport which is really helpful and an ATM that accepts foreign cards (rare) next to the door so I was all set. Originally I planned to go straight to Caye Caulker and do some diving and soak up the sun. A combination of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and a lingering cold made me change my plans and head inland to San Ignacio. It was a simple matter of a taxi to the bus station (aka dirty parking lot) and then a bus to San Ignacio. The buses are crowded, unairconditioned and slow but they sure are cheap! It takes about 2 and a half to 3 hours to reach San Ignacio. It´s a small town but there´s heaps of places to go nearby. It also boasts the only suspension bridge in all of Belize. The bridge used to have one of only 5 sets of traffic lights in Belize but the bridge is now one way and hence the lights are gone. I wandered round with an American couple checking out the accommodation and settled on a place called Tropicool Hotel. Single room for BZ$23 per night (US$11.50). It´s slightly more expensive than a couple of other places but the rooms are nice and they give you a towel (real towels are a luxury). Turns out the shower is brilliant too.

Tours in San Ignacio

San Ignacio is surrounded by 3 Maya ruin sites, heaps of caves, a nice river, and a few nature reserves. I really wanted to go to a place called Mountain Pine Ridge (hiking, swimming, waterfalls, butterflies, iguanas etc) but no one else did and it´s a minimum of 4 people to go (It´s low season right now). The other option to get there is to visit Caracol (Maya ruins) as you stop at MPR on the way back. That option is ridiculously expensive though so I gave it a miss. I ended up going to Actun Tunichil Muknal. This is where everyone wants to go and the tour runs daily. The cave was used as a religious site by the Mayans and there are still clay pots, blood letting bowls and human remains here. It´s some pretty decent caving to get into as well. No lights other than your headlamp and most of the way is swimming or wading through water. Why I went on this is beyond me as I don´t like caves but I did and I actually enjoyed it too. It´s a 45 min hike through the jungle to get to the cave entrance (pictured below) then a swim and crawling over and through broken rocks for an hour and a half to reach the dry chamber. Along the way you see pretty spectacular flowstone and drip stone formations though. Also see tiny little bats. In the dry chamber it´s socks only (remove shoes to protect the cave) to climb on the rocks and what not to reach the human remains. They are pretty cool to see. Worth the effort. You get out the sameway you got in basically so plunge into the cold water again... On the hike out we saw a number of butterflies and a long trail of fire ants which was pretty cool. No luck on the jaguar or tapir front though.

Actun Tunichil Muknal entrance

Into Guatemala

Caught a morning bus to Benque and a taxi to the border with Guatemala. The border crossing was pretty smooth except there is seriously no English spoken on the Guat side. The Guatemalan immigration officer also tried to charge us (I was travelling with an English bloke) Q20 to enter. There´s actually no entry fee and I just asked for a receipt and he gave us our passports back. Q20 isn´t much (under $4 Australian) but it´s the principle of it! Plus I need every last dime! Caught a chicken bus (local minibus - like the minibus taxis in South Africa but in a bit better state) to Flores from the border. We had to harass the conductor to actually tie our packs on the roof racks - he had just thrown them up there - something I was warned about as they are notorius in Guat for leaving it untied and hence it falls off or is easily stolen. The chicken bus terminated in Santa Elena instead of Flores but it´s just across the causeway so no problem. Found a hostel with dorms for Q25 per night and set off to find a tour to Tikal

Tikal

The dog enjoys the view of Temple I from Temple II

Tikal is a huge Mayan ruin site that is the only reason to come to Flores. There isn´t any competition in terms of price for the tours (you can bargain a bit though) and the only guided tour is the pricey sunrise tour. I looked into going to Tikal and hiring a guide there or buying a guide book and taking that round with me but in the end it costs just as much as the sunrise. So I booked on the sunrise tour after reducing the price to Q200. It has a departure time of 3:30am.

Got up very early and drove to Tikal arriving at about 5am. Hiked to Temple IV arriving there at 6am then had a very steep climb up to perch at the top (64m high) to watch the sunrise. It was a bit foggy so the sunrise wasn´t breathtaking but the sounds of the jungle waking up are worth it. Howler monkeys and toucans make the most noise by far and you can hear the spider monkeys playing but can´t see them. Climbed down again at 7am to start the tour of the ruins themselves. Much of the area is still being excavated and a lot of the pyramids and temples have only been excavated at the front because of the time and money involved. The Grand Plaza is the only area that has been excavated, restored and the jungle cleared as it would have been in Mayan times. It has Temples I and II or the Temple of the Gran Jaguar and the Temple of Masks. You can climb Temple II to get a good view and photo of Temple I (as above).

The whole place has a really nice ambience and we got to see Toucans, spider monkeys, woodpeckers and butterflies. The jungle also lessens the heat as well. Petén (this province) is extremely hot and humid and the only real malaria risk in Guatemala and Belize.

Sunrise in the jungle at Tikal

Flores

Flores is an island in the middle of Lake Petén Itzá. It´s very peaceful and relaxing but there is very little to do here. There isn´t even an ATM here, for that you must cross the causeway to Santa Elena. The island is quite small - you can walk around the edge of the whole thing in about 10 minutes. All the streets are cobblestone which is pretty cool. Being tropical, there´s a bit storm every night. It´s really spectacular but usually causes the power to go out. It caters to tourists quite well with internet cafés and heaps of hostels and souvenir shops. Very few people speak English though which makes it hard to bargain with the shop keepers. I have a couple of spanish phrases now - I can order a meal, say how many nights I want at a hostel, ask for another night at the hostel, ask the price of things and of course say ¨That´s too expensive!¨. I still need the phrasebook to ask them to lower the price though. I tend to only get them to drop the price a little bit unfortunately because of my lack of spanish so it´s lucky it´s cheap here anyway! Guatemalans are obssessed with firecrackers too! They go off all the time. I had been warned about that particular fetish so wasn´t surprised but it´s still quite loud at 5am! The most annoying thing so far has been the fact that shops often can´t break notes even as little as Q10 can be a problem for them. Pretty irritating when the ATM dispenses 100s. I find I have to break it at the hostel. Pretty irritating though - twice I haven´t been able to buy what I want because they couldn´t break the note.

I´m heading to Cobán and Lanquin this afternoon. Catching a tourist shuttle rather than the chicken bus because my spanish is too useless at the moment. It´s more expensive this way but way less confusing and more comfortable.

2006-08-26T07:49:00.000+10:00

Miami

South Beach - so Baywatchy

Getting there
The flight from England was better than expected since Uncle Ben had talked American Airlines down. Security was still really strict flying trans-atlantic so check-in was pretty slow. It took me about an hour and 3 quarters to make it into the secured departure lounge. Heathrow have also started not announcing gates for your departure until absolutely necessary. Also, quite bizzarely all electronic equipment is allowed in hand luggage but I was informed no books, pens, cosmetics and especially no liquids or gels. No lip balm was seriously annoying on a long haul flight. American Airlines also didn't have a gluten free meal for me. Fortunately some other Coeliac didn't pitch so I got their meal. Still don't know what the hell I ate but it was filling and tasted alright so I don't much care.

Landed on time at 2:20pm and finally got to my hostel at 5:15pm. It just took forever to get through immigration then for the bags to come out and then an hour waiting for the damn shuttle service. Miami really didn't make a good first impression on me. It was only made worse when I entered my dorm room and saw the state of it - you could barely walk because of people's stuff all over the floor and the bath was all gritty with sand (South Beach is less then a block away so it is understandable).

South Beach
Upon arrival at the hostel I pretty much just paused to wash my face then went in search of food and water (no water bottle with me because of the plane security...). Had myself a great salad which I thought would cost $8.50 but of course the yanks don't include tax or tip in the price so it was actually $11 in the end. I find it so rude that they automatically put in a 15% tip! I understand the the wages for bar and waiting work are crap but I should be able to decide how much to tip and then I should be allowed to not tip if the service is rubbish. Anyway I've had my rant. Went to bed early (I was pretty damn tired) and decided to give Miami a second chance the next day.

Glad I did that because Miami grew on me. It's super hot and humid here (even for me). I would describe Miami as like Cairns but high-strung and posh instead of laid-back and countryish. I so don't fit in in my clothes here. The girls all wear teeny-tiny shorts or just a bikini - some should seriously reconsider that look by the way. Also everyone is super tanned. Even the British tourists! I don't get how Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer when I see these people practically burnt to a crisp. You know when Axel Foley first drives into Beverley Hills in Beverley Hills cop, and he sees all these plastics wearing weird clothes - I swear it's just like that. Honestly that's the first thing I thought of when we drove into South Beach coming in from the airport.

Anyway, I discovered on the first morning when I went in search of breakfast that this place is late starting - most shops list 10 or 11 as their opening times. It really only comes alive at about 6pm. So while I waited for things to open up I went to check out the famous South Beach. It didn't really do it for me I'm afraid. Probably because it was full of people and umbrellas and those towers like in Baywatch whereas I like my beaches to be just sand and preferably devoid of people.

the dog enjoys south beach

After confirming a whole bunch of things on the phone and checking my finances on the net (not really very healthy when converted to US dollars I'm afraid) I wandered up Lincoln Road which is a huge pedestrian mall a couple of blocks away. By that time it was after 10 so stuff was open. The shops are very boutiquey. I did manage to find an awesome choclate shop though (typical me). Normal chocolate in the US is disgusting but this stuff was actually very good. They gave me a free sample of the orange peel dark chocolate and it took all my strength to resist buying a block of it. I did have a mixed berry mini icecream sundae though - it's important to have fruit everyday after all! It too was delicious. The shop/brand is Ghirardelli Chocolates by the way. I had planned to visit the Seaquarium but decided against it because of the cost, difficulty of transport and the fact it sounded exactly like Sea World. Basically I spent the day people watching and wandering along the beach and mall.

Everglades and City Tour

The dog enjoys the Everglades

Saturday I had booked to do a tour of the Everglades and Miami itself. The Everglades is a huge, shallow, fresh water area often called a river of grass because stacks of sawgrass grows there. It's famous for it's fan or airboats and for having lots of Alligators. It was good to visit and we saw 4 alligators on the airboat ride - a good number as it's nesting time at teh moment. Super hot and humid there - I was shocked that so few people had hats or water - morons. As well as the airboat ride we had a show that was semi-educational about alligators. At the end we had the opportunity to hold a 4 year old alligator - it was pretty heavy.

me holding the alligator

The city tour was less than good though. The tour bus was packed and I was stuck in the middle of the back seat as I was the last to be picked up for this part (weren't even allowed to take a different seat after we stopped - weird). Couldn't see a great deal from that possy and certainly couldn't take photos. Actually, no one could take photos really as the driver didn't even slow at points of interest. We had one hop-off point which was a shopping centre (not very interesting). The whole city tour lasted about an hour I guess and sped through Coconut grove, Coral Gables, Little Havanna and downtown. It didn't even go to any of the beaches or the Art Deco district - strange I thought. Such a shame really since Miami seemed really pretty from what I saw just in transit from the airport and to the Everglades.

Overall I was less than impressed with the tour and certainly don't think it was value for money. That was with Infinity Tours and I booked with Miami411 online in case anyone wants to avoid that company in the future.

Flying out to Belize tomorrow to soak up the sun and hopefully get in some diving - have the tag end of a cold but hopefully I'll shake it by the time I want to do some diving.

2006-08-24T00:45:00.000+10:00

England (Part II - The nagging continues!)
St Neots is a little town just near Cambridge. Visiting Anne and Jeff was more relax time (although I was harassed into updating this page!) and they have the best shower in the universe - conducive to relaxing. I was going to steal it but thought they might notice the hole in the wall. Apart from plotting the shower heist, most of my time was spent making fun of Anne watching McLeod's Daughters. It's on every single weekday here. Sad.

I also got back into the kitchen and made sure I could still make my signature dishes - caramel slice and spinach and ricotta lasagne. It was a bit of a mission getting gluten free stuff though. Apparently alot of it is done through prescription - how weird is that?! And they have to order it in so you have to decide what you're going to have before the day you want it. Seems ridiculous to me. And really inconvenient. Managed to get what we needed though.

Rugby

Kevin, Granny-Anne, Mum and Me

We visited rugby on the Wednesday (16th August) not because it's the birthplace of a fantastic game, but because it's the home of Granny-Anne. Granny-Anne is my mother's grandmother, my great-grandmother. She turns 99 this year and keeps reminding us that she doesn't want to live to 100. She is pretty frail and forgets short-term things but I think she's doing pretty damn well for her age. Surprisingly she didn't try to give me anything this visit (on previous visits I've complimented something and she's tried to give it to me). She did think Kevin was fat though and that I have what it takes to go far so she's obviously still on the ball *grin*. It was great to be able to see her again as it probably will be the last time. My Mum's Aunt and Uncle (Pat and Mike) live up the road from her so Pat put on lunch for us. Pat is a fabulous cook so I was stoked. I kept nipping into the kitchen to nick strawberries while we were waiting for lunch - I really haven't grown up much since I was last here 9 years ago have I?

Cambridge

Mathematical bridge, Cambridge

Thursday saw us on an excursion to Cambridge, home of an awesome chocolate shop, great fudge and a pretty good university (Better than Oxford anyway - hehehe. Just to needle Dan). Cambridge really is a nice place and we went punting along the river Cam. We did a chaperoned punt (aka guided tour) so learned loads about the various university colleges and bridges that we see on the Cam. Most impressive is of course the Mathematical bridge. It's called such because theoretically the bridge should be self supporting if all the pins are removed. Being theoretically true makes it mathematical, if they actually tried it, the bridge would have to be renamed the Applied Mathematical Bridge (hehehe - lame joke).
The awesome chocolate shop I mentioned before is called Hotel Chocolat. Apparently it's misnamed though because I wasn't allowed to stay. They have some seriously tempting stuff in there. I could have spent hundreds there - they even had chocolate labradors!
It started pelting down with rain after lunch so we headed home after a little bit more shopping (including the fudge store).

Family gathering take 2
I spent Friday in seclusion writing the previous two blog posts (do you see what I go through for you people!!!), then Saturday it was back to Newent. We went there via Joanne's place in Halesowen. Not only did we want to have a sticky-beak at her apartment but we also had to drop off birthday paraphernalia as she was turning 20 the coming Monday. Arrived in Newent just in time for another anniversary celebration for my grandparents (they really milked it didn't they?). All their brothers and sisters (my mother's uncles and aunts) were there. It was good even though there were some I only vaguely remembered and others I definitely hadn't met before. All were nice though - especially Great Aunty Tricia (who hates being called that) because she gave my presents (I'm open to bribery). It was certainly good for my Mum to see all her extended family again.

Things returned to normal again the following day. I was enslaved in the garden for a time as Grandma had acquired more plants while I'd been gone. My final English excursion was to see some of Mum and Dad's old friends, Mick and Ann O'Connor, in Gloucester. They live in Leicester but were in the vicinity so we caught up with them.

Now I'm at Uncle Ben's again ready to head off to Miami.

2006-08-19T06:56:00.000+10:00

Paris, France

Arc de Triomphe

For my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary they decided that the whole of the family should go to Paris for the weekend. It was a lovely thought and certainly one I wouldn't have had. If it was me I probably would have paid for them all to go so I had peace at home.

Meeting the family...

The family. There's alot isn't there?

We all met at London Waterloo station to catch the Eurostar across to the continent. All the drama at Heathrow with the plot to blow up planes and hence the numerous flight cancellations had been the previous day so the Eurostar was fully booked (don't worry, we already had tickets). Kevin and I decided that today would be a perfect day to scalp our tickets as we'd make a fortune as well as avoiding spending the weekend with our 12 other family members (a cunning plan I'm sure you'd agree). We resisted the urge however and dutifully met all the family as planned. It was the first time I'd seen them in 9 years and the first time I'd met Jacob and Ryan (Uncle Ben's progeny). My Mum and her older sister Anne look scarily similar and it turns out nag in exactly the same way - Joanne, Daniel (Anne's kids) Kevin, and I were a little freaked out by it. Sitting between them was horrible - nagging came at you from both directions! And if Grandma joined in too there was no escape! After all where do you think they learned it all? My Aunty Liz is by far my smartest relative (she knows why) and the luckiest of us all (being deaf, she can ignore the nagging by looking away!) Anyway, we all climbed aboard the Eurostar and travelled to France

Paris

Our hotel was in the Opera district of Paris which is very convenient for sightseeing and generally getting around. After settling in the first afternoon it was all systems go on the next morning. Paris is full of cultural sights and sounds but I am ruled by my stomach so elected to go for a chocolate tour rather than a tour of the Louvre. My argument is that chocolate and pastries are part of the French culture too so I'm still having a cultural experience. The French are renowned for their pastries and I didn't want to miss out so decided I'd just ignore my wheat intolerance for the weekend (I had drugs with me that helped alot) - after all how can I not have a crossiant for breakfast in Paris?! See, I'm very dedicated to cultural pursuits! August is very much a holiday time for the French so unfortunately only one of the chocolate shops on our chocolate tour was actually open. It was still good though. It also pelted down with rain (It continued all weekend in fact and I strongly considered buying a pair of umbrella earrings to remember my time in Paris).

The dog (my new travelling companion) and I enjoy the sun at Montmartre

It didn't stop Mum and I from going to Montmartre though. It's a hill which has great views of the city. Forgive me, but that day it looked really ugly and not at all romantic. Montmartre is also home to Sacre Coeur - a big famous church. I also have to mention that I ate raw beef for lunch. The French don't seem to like cooking their meat very much and asking for well done gets you a medium cooked steak - lucky I like it bloody.

That night we ate dinner on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. This was the official anniversary dinner. Getting there proved to be pretty tricky due to a combination of us running a tad late, a circuitous train route, a long queue for the lifts and lots of rain. It was worth it though.

Sunday saw me taking a sightseeing tour of Paris. I decided to catch the metro to the Eiffel tower, climb that and then start my tour as the queues are shorter earlier in the morning. Turns out everyone's lazy and there was no queue to walk up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. I stopped off at the first floor to ask the restaurant if they'd found a camera as my Grandma accidently left hers there the night before. I got a pretty quick no. Shame, but at least everyone else was snapping away too so there's still photos of it all. Admired the views here then climbed to the second level. Turns out there are 700 steps up to the second level (My bum reminded me of every single one the next day). Again I admired the views before taking the lift all the way to the top. Level three is pretty impressive and not as busy as you'd expect because lots of people are too scared to go to the top. I was lucky I did the tower first as the weather closed in and the top floor was closed soon after I climbed down. After the tower I crossed to the Trocadero to have a sticky beak and take the obligatory tower photo.

The dog at the Trocadero admiring the Eiffel Tower

Also found a crepe place that was cheaper than all the others :-) From there I crossed back to the tower and walked through the to the Champ de Mars and all the way along that to what I presume is a peace gate (it has the word peace written on it alot at least).

The dog enjoys the Hotel des Invalides

Then it was on to the Hotel des Invalides before joing the hop-on hop-off city tour. The tour takes in all the major sights (Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame etc) and is an open topped double-decker bus. It was really good but unfortunately it soon started pelting down with rain again I was forced to go inside. I did complete the tour though and saw everything I wanted to though maybe not in as much detail as I would have had the weather been nice.

The dog and I enjoy a cocktail at the Hard Rock Cafe

That night, Kevin and I treated Mum and Liz to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (traditional French cuisine! hehehe). You should see the size of the brownie sundaes! You'll be shocked to hear that I didn't have one.

The next day we did last minute wandering before catching the Eurostar back to London. Mum, Kevin and I went home with Anne and Jeff to St Neots in Cambridgeshire. I'll fill you in on that in the next entry.

2006-08-19T02:33:00.000+10:00

England (Part I)

Castle - very English

I arrived safely in England on August 3 (yes, I've been slack in updating this) and have mostly stayed with my Grandparents in a little town called Newent. I like Newent because there's good food and my grandparents spoil me. Newent, or at least the butcher, deli and milkman, likes me because I eat alot and my grandparents happily replace it! My brother Kevin and my mother are also here. The reason for such a rare congregation of family members is my grandparent's golden wedding anniversary. You'll read more about the quality family time we spend together in the next posting...

I have a lot of time to cover so I'm going to keep this pretty brief mentioning only a few selected highlights.

Puzzle Wood

me in Puzzlewood

Newent is near the Forest of Dean which has some lovely walking trails. One is Puzzle Wood. Called such because it's pretty easy to get lost in. It's a pre-Roman open-cast iron mine. The weird rock formations are now covered by bright green moss (which is really springy - I liked it). The paths are really windy and very up and down too. They also have farm animals there but alas no highland cows as promised by their brochure. Grandma and I went round without getting lost. It took us under an hour to get round too which is pretty good time.

Sculpture Trail

Cathedral - part of the Sculpture Trail

Also in the Forest of Dean is the Sculpture Trail. I walked round this after Puzzle Wood (and lunch). It's a trail through the woods with sculptures along the way. The sculptures are all really good and have foresty type themes. The giant chair and hanging window are my favourites. The total trail is 7km long and I managed it in an hour and a half rather than the recommened 2 to 3 hours because my time was limited. It's well worth the walk.

Hampton Court Gardens

Hampton Court maze

This is a castle that is owned by someone with far too much money but who has been good enough to leave the grounds open to the public (although you do have to pay for that privlege). The highlight is the maze in my opinion. You have to work your way to the open door of a tower in the middle of the maze. Climbing up the tower gives you a nice view of the maze itself and the grounds. Climbing down leads you to a tunnel that leads to a sunken garden complete with waterfall. You can even walk behind the waterfall. Kevin and I had a lot of fun there and the grounds were really nice. Mum and Grandma took the cheat's option of getting to the sunken garden rather than going through the hedge maze. There was also a carved wooden bear that we obviously had to be photographed with.

London

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Grandma doesn't like early mornings so we travelled to London a day prior to actually having to be there to travel to Paris. We caught the train from Gloucester to London and all sat together except Kevin who'd bought a first class ticket. He has delusions above his station in life (whatever his station is, it's obviously beneath mine). Mum and I wandered around London and she did well, completely resisting the urge to mother me. We went to my favourite London destination - Hamleys! Hamleys is a toy store that has a whole FLOOR of soft toys. I fell in love with 3 (2 dogs and an anteater) and bought none as they were all too pricey. We also walked down Carnaby street, Fleet street, past St Pauls cathedral and Australia House. Big Ben, the houses of parliament and the london eye were also sighted. I didn't go on the London eye but I'm sure it could be improved by increasing the speed and perhaps shooting the pods across the river to be caught on a second identical eye. Yeah, that'd be good...
Kevin also treated us to a London show. We went to see the Lion King at the Lyceum theatre. It was brilliant. Rafiki absolutely steals the show. Zazu and Scar were also excellent.

And now we must cross the channel to Paris...

2006-07-29T03:49:00.001+10:00

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

me at Victoria Falls

Boy am I glad I ignored everyone who suggested staying on the Zambian side! Zimbabwe was so beautiful and the people were really friendly. You really don't get hassled much at all and a polite "no thanks" is all that's needed. I really felt very safe there, about as safe as I do in Brisbane to be honest. The Backpackers I stayed at (Victoria Falls Backpackers) was outstanding too. The staff will do just about anything to help you and are full of information. I'll definitely stay there again when I go back - oh yes, I'll be going back.

Falls Tour
The falls themselves are obviously stunning. I'll just leave it to the pictures here...

Victoria Falls, taken from Danger Point - Zimbabwe side

Devil's Cataract, Vic Falls

Looking along the falls from Livingstone's statue

Parasailing

my view of the boat in control of me. It looks awfully small...

I was quite nervous about parasailing on the zambezi, after all the river has heaps on hippos and crocs so I REALLY didn't want anything to go wrong. It turned out to be great though. Extremely smooth and peaceful. I only spotted hipposbut when the water gets low I imagine you'd see an awful lot as the animals all come top the river to drink. I could also see the spray from the falls themselves - a big misty line about 2km ahead of us. Apparently no one takes their camera up with them in case they drop it, but I really wanted to so did. It's perfectly safe to - hang it round your neck and clip the strap to your lifejacket as well. The backpackers were stoked since they own the zambezi parasailing and had no photos from the air. My photos may well be used in promotional material. I traded them for a small discount :-)

Sunset cruise

sunset on the zambezi river

The cruise along the zambezi at sunset is stunning. There are some cruises that are notorious as "booze cruises" but ours wasn't at all rowdy so we actually got to see some game. We saw 6 hippos, 2 crocodiles, a leguaan, and an elephant. There was also the beautiful sunset. I was stoked to get a picture of a hippo yawning - always wanted one.

Lion walk

A lion licking it's lips while you're standing right next to it is a bit unnerving really...

There's a breeding program going on in Zim to restock the lion population and diversify the bloodlines. It's become necessary as the population has declined and is under constant pressure from human factors as well as feline AIDS and tuberculocis. They cash in on the flow of tourists by letting tourists walk with the young lions they are raising. The lions are between 6 months and 18 months old usually. They are released once they can hunt for themselves. We walked with 3 18 month old lions - 2 males and one female. They spent most of the time fighting each other. One of the handlers took great pleasure in teasing them playfully - exactly as you would a house cat. I took a ridiculous amount of photos (seriously, how many photos of lions do you really need?) because they are just so beautiful. After walking with the 3 big cats for an hour we moved on to the 2 8 month old cubs they currently have. We only got a couple of minutes with them as they smelt the elephants come back and ran away frightened - too cute!

Two of the lions in a tree

Microlight flight
I did a half hour microlight flight over the falls and the game reserve next to it. It was expensive but definitely worth it. The falls and canyon look even more amazing from the air than the ground - and they look pretty damn amazing from the ground I have to say! No photos of this though. The safety rules they have insist on no cameras. A bit annoying really. They do have cameras fixed to the end of the wing but it points at you instead of the scenery below so every photo has a giant bloody microlight in the foreground. Needless to say I didn't pay the USD20 they ask for the CD of photos - instead I paid USD1 for a postcard that shows an aerial view of the falls. Despite not being able to capture the views on film (well, in digital actually) it really was worth it. We saw loads of hippos - way more than you see from a boat, a massive crocodile, rhino, impala, waterbuck and elephants. One elephant was trying to knock over a palm tree which was too funny. No giraffes in sight though :-( 'Raffies are my favourite.

Elephant back safari

me on Dumbo (he's a bit excited about being photographed - hehehe)

I rode an elephant and I liked it alot more than riding the damn horse! It's actually pretty comfortable. I'm a bit scared of elephants because they are so big and quite intelligent so asked to ride a small one. The guide smiled kindly and said "Ok. No problem. We give you the biggest one." And he wasn't joking. They put me on the biggest damn elephant they had - a 3.5m tall male savannah elephant called Dumbo. The handler I was with was brilliant though and I learnt heaps. We didn't see any other game in our walk but did see a boomslang (tree snake) and vultures - pretty cool. Elephants have a nice rhythm when they walk and they don't walk too fast so the only scary thing is how high you are off the ground! You get quite sore legs too because they are spread wide to get over the elephant.

Croc farm
After the elephant ride we got a qucik tour of the croc farm. I held a baby crocodile once again. This time 7 months old. They're so soft. I praised it telling it what a nice handbag he'd make one day :-) The tour was really informative - learnt about when they harvest the crocs and about albino and dwarf crocodiles

General notes...
I meant what I said about feeling very safe in Zim but opbviously it does have it's problems. We had no electricity for 2 and a half days and no water at times also. The zim dollar is virtually worthless (USD1 = Z$101000 officially but Z$400000 on the black market) and inflation is so bad that the notes have expiration dates. But the people are really very friendly and the curios (carvings etc) are amazing. I traded a ballpoint pen and USD1 for 4 necklaces! I didn't even bother haggling since a pen and a dollar are really nothing to me. There was also an amazing wooden giraffe at the markets that was 2m tall (not kidding) that I thought would look exceptionally good in my garden if only I could get it home. They guy saw me staring at it and told me it was only USD5 which means it was about USD2 or 3. I was very tempted but carrying it home would be a bit of a problem...
I was also surprised at how unprepared most other travellers were for coming to Zim. FYI take your US dollars with you and don't use your credit card. An ATM card is useless since you can't get enough out of an ATM to even buy a loaf of bread and you get stung by having to use the official exchange rate. Only change small amounts of money (like 5 to 10 dollars) into zim dollars at the unofficial rate as you can't change zim dollars back.

I really did love it though. A must see destination

2006-07-27T20:36:00.000+10:00

South Africa (Part III)

Greytown

Shumba

Penny picked me up from the bus in Pietermaritzburg and we made our way back to Greytown via the Midlands Mall (a new addition since I was last here). The road between 'Maritzburg and Greytown is so familiar and it soon felt as though I'd never been away. Greytown certainly hasn't changed noticably. I only spent a few days here but managed to catch up with everyone including my host families and the Rotarians. It was brilliant to see everyone again and catch up on all the news. I even got to go up to Bruce's pine farm again! I love it up there - so peaceful. We were dead lucky and saw 4 hartebeest with a baby running around the farm. They got spooked by the bakkie though so we couldn't get close or get photos.

Drakensberg

Cathedral Peak area, Drakensberg

We drove up to Champagne Castle and Cathedral Peak. The Drakensberg is just as beautiful as I remember it (pictures are definitely needed here). Penny took me to Kwa Zulu candles as well and I spent more money (oh the pain!) We stayed overnight in a great B&B called Swallows Nest in Winterton before Penny drove me to the airport in Durban to fly to Vic Falls on the Friday (21 July)

Johannesburg
I just overnighted here. Stayed at a backpackers called the Purple Palms which was brilliant. There was a R35 (approx. $7) all you can eat carvery! All different kinds of meats, roast potatoes, veges, gravy, salads and soups. Sooo good! Purple Palms also had a really cool black cat called Felix. He's still a kitten really and is very playful - makes himself perfectly at home on your pack and lap and basically anywhere.

2006-07-17T02:19:00.000+10:00

South Africa (Part II)

I traveled from Cape Town up the coast to Durban. The trip was an organized tour booked through Kumuka and I have to say I wasn’t overly impressed. It was good but could be vastly improved and it certainly wasn’t value for money. For anyone coming to South Africa: book things once you get here – it’s much cheaper!

Day 1: Cape Town to De Hoop

penguin at Betty's Bay

It pelted down rain on the Thursday (6 July) we left Cape Town. I was decidedly unimpressed getting on the truck to discover it had a leak so water was streaming in the front windows. I was happier once on the road and enjoying the scenery though – even when it’s cold and raining you have to love it. It was a small tour: an Irish family of 3, another Aussie and our guide.
Our first stop was at Betty’s Bay to see the penguin colony. We lucky enough to have a 10 minute break in the weather so didn’t get rained on the whole time. The penguins were too cute and there were masses of them.
From there we traveled to Hermanus which is considered the best land based whale watching site. Now if only there had been some whales…
Next stop was Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa. It was SOOO windy – I felt like I was being blown away. It was lovely none the less – bright sunshine by this stage.
Finally we made our way to De Hoop Nature Reserve, our accommodation for the evening. Here we made our way the beach for some more whale watching – this time with actual whales to be seen! On the relatively short drive in to our cabin we saw some Eland (the biggest of the antelope), Bontebok (another kind of antelope), ostriches and baboons.

Day 2: De Hoop to Knysna via Oudtshoorn

me riding an ostrich at Oudtshoorn

Ah! Oudtshoorn, home of the ostrich and the Cango Caves. I had visited here before but had previously been too chicken to ride the ostrich so this time I screwed up my courage and gave it a shot. We were even lucky enough (?!) to see them mating. The males’ shins and beak turn bright red when they are on heat. They also get a bit more aggressive. We also went to the Cango caves which are beautiful – no adventure tour for me this time (last time we crawled through these tiny passages and, as some of you would know, I don’t do well in dark confined spaces so was hoping we just did the standard tour this time).
From Oudtshoorn it was the long drive back over the mountains to Knysna. The pass we drove through, the Outeniqua Pass, was just breathtaking. It really was. Anyway, we arrived safely to the Drifters Inn in Knysna. The Inn here isn’t in Knysna itself but is tucked away in the forest about 20km out of town. It is the bumpiest road ever and the place was extremely cold but in such a nice setting you didn’t mind so much.

Day 3: Knysna
Our visit to Knysna happened to coincide with the Oyster festival here. I’m not a fan of oysters so didn’t indulge but they were cheap if you wanted to. We had the day in town – an opportunity to shop, do laundry and generally walk around like a tourist. We also did a boat cruise that took us around the lagoon and out the heads to see what we could see. Two seals visited us but one was totally preoccupied by the fish he had caught. I didn’t know they thrashed about throwing the fish to break off pieces. We had dinner in a restaurant at the waterfront where I tried Ostrich steak. It was so tender and tastes so similar to beef steak it’s hard to tell the difference.

Day 4: Knysna to Addo via Tsitsikamma

Tsitsikamma coastline

Today we did a hike called the Otter trail. The whole thing is 43km long and takes 3 days so obviously we only did a small part of it. Before we started out on it though, we sat and watched this massive pod of dolphins just playing in the waves. I’ve never seen so many all together before. The hike was OK but the other Aussie was having trouble keeping up so I stayed with her as you should never leave anyone to walk alone. As it turned out there were so many rocks to scamper over that Effie probably wouldn’t have got far without me showing her the way and giving her a hand up when needed. The walk ended in a waterfall then you turn around and come back. Nice but I think I would have preferred Storms River Mouth.
Drove to our accommodation just outside Addo elephant park.

Day 5: Addo

elephant

kudu

In the morning we did a game drive in Addo. As you’d expect in something called an elephant park we saw masses and masses of elephants. I always want to stop for every one though. Also saw plenty of kudu, red hartebeest (two of them fighting), zebra, a lonely buffalo (well spotted by me if I do say so myself), duiker, warthog, and two carcases – one elephant, one kudu. No luck with the black rhino or lions though. The afternoon was just time to kick back and relax. The place we stayed, Avoca, was great for just that. We stayed in mud huts on the river in a citrus farm – very nice.

Day 6: Addo to Haga Haga
An eventful and slow drive to East London today. We kept being stopped by roadworks and every policeman under the sun. The police had stops everywhere for some reason and they pulled us over everytime. Eventually made it to East London for a township tour with a local guide. We basically drove around the township and he told us about life there including the 3Ts of moneymaking: taxis, telephones and taverns. We also stopped at a B&B for lunch and at a shebeen to see some sangomas (aka witch doctors. Wait… sorry, no, it’s traditional healers now isn’t it). It was all very staged and not believable but they have to make a buck somehow I guess. After the tour we drove to Haga Haga where we stayed the night. We stayed in a brilliant B&B (best food all tour. Snails! Yum!) and looked like the coast would be extremely pretty during the day. We only stayed there because the Drifters Inn in East London is still under construction – bonus for us.

Day 7: Driving to Mbotyi
Basically spent the day on the truck driving through the Transkei to Mbotyi on the Wild Coast. Stopped in Mthatha (sometimes spelt Umtata) to visit the Nelson Mandela museum which is interesting enough. Arrived in Mbotyi about an hour before sunset so went for a walk to the beach.

Day 8: Mbotyi
Here I had my horse-riding experience from hell. I have never ridden a horse. Don’t even think I’ve sat on one before but the guide assured me it would be “fine, no problem missus” so I decide to give it a whirl. We were all supposed to go together but then the guide tells us there aren’t enough horses (after we’ve specifically asked and he’s said “yes we have hundreds of horses!”). So the Irish go first as they want to do a canoe and hike in the afternoon and I really didn’t want to spend extra money on that. The horses were so skinny and sickly looking we were all a bit dubious but away they went anyway. They come back and say the views were lovely so off Effie and I go. I get on and remind the guide I’ve never even sat on a horse before and what must I do. He shows me left, right and stop then away we go – me on my one-eared horse. We walk slowly down the road all fine then turn a corner and my horse decides this is all too slow for him and decides to run! I let out a terrified scream, yank him to a stop and tell the guide he must help me more as he’s sitting there watching, couldn’t care less. Meanwhile Effie’s horse has wandered off and is cropping the grass and completely ignoring her commands and the guides. So we get them back moving up the hill again but mine keeps wanting to go faster and now I’m scared and I don’t want to fight with it the whole 2 hours. So at the top of the hill I stop and say I don’t want to go on if the horse if I’m going to battle with the stupid horse and the guide isn’t going to help. So I dismount and walk the horse back and Effie doesn’t want to go by herself so she also turns back. Her horse has other ideas though and wanders off the eat some more. Anyway, we couldn’t have gone more than a 100 metres from the gate so it was a short walk back! Stupid horses – no brains, no brakes. I think that will be my one and only horse riding experience – I preferred the ostrich and the camel I’ve ridden in the past!

Day 9: Drive to Durban
Should have only been a half day of driving with 3 hours for us to explore Durban beachfront before driving to Umdloti and our accommodation but we got stuck in a traffic jam and lost nearly all our time to explore. We stopped at the new uShaka Marine World right up the far end of the beachfront. It’s a Sea World and Wet ‘n Wild (even called that) plus a mini shopping mall. We had time for lunch and a quick wander before driving to Umdloti. The Drifters Inn in Umdloti is really nice and right on the beachfront. Our tour ended there after breakfast day 10

Durban
Dan Smith (my old Rotary district coordinator here) picked me up from Umdloti and I went to stay with Dan and Pam in Westville. It’s great to see them again and they spoil me. We watched the rugby although Dan kept flicking channels or walking away in disgust. I enjoyed it though! What a nice scoreline ay? Spent the day just chatting and catching up really (Pam was also working) then went out to dinner at Wilson’s Wharf. It was nice sitting by the marina having a nice steak. Today (Sunday 16) they drove me to the valley of 1000 hills in my swazi candle quest. That was quite successful but the search for a silver Africa pendant hasn’t been so successful – fingers crossed for Greytown or Vic Falls!
Tomorrow I catch the bus up to Greytown and am looking forward to seeing everyone again!

2006-07-05T23:57:00.000+10:00

South Africa (Part I)

Plane Trip
Had to get up at 3am to make my Cairns flight! Dad drove me to Cairns from Port Douglas then had to drive home and go to work - craziness. All the flights were uneventful and I slept nearly the entire way as usual. I will say this though, my dislike of Qantas still stands. There was one friendly flight attendant though, who went and stole me some cashews from business class after I complained I couldn't eat any of the economy class snacks because they were all made from wheat. So the problem with Qantas? They almost completely filled that Sydney to Jo'burg flight and there was only 2 meals in the whole 14 hours!!! I was initially seated next to a couple with a small child in a 3 seat row. Dunno what Qantas were thinking there - you can hardly expect them to keep the child on their laps the whole time. So I got moved to another seat. It was an emergency exit seat with loads of leg room. I always feel a bit guilty in those seats as I have short little legs and really don't need the room - I can just feel the tall, long-legged people glaring at me! Arrived safely in Cape Town starving (tight change overs at airports meant no time for a snack!) and pretty sleepy. You'd think after sleeping on planes for a cumulative period of about 15 hours I wouldn't need anymore sleep.

Cape Town
I'm staying at Aardvark Backpackers in Sea Point. It's on the corner of the main road and a little one way street. No one seems to pay attention to the fact it's one way though. I have a dorm room but no dorm mates so it's just like having my own flat as the dorm has a kitchen and bathroom. How lucky am I?

I had two full days to explore around here so decided to take in the V&A Waterfront the first day and a city sightseeing tour the next.

V&A Waterfront

Table Mountain

Since the weather was so nice (unusual for Cape Town in winter, right Talia?) I decided to walk to the Waterfront. It's 4 or 5 kilometres along the beachfront. A nice walk really - lots of giant kelp washed up on the beach. I was almost there when the noon gun sounded. In Cape Town a cannon is fired from Signal Hill at noon everyday except Sunday. The blast is really quite loud! I arrived at the Waterfront to discover that it's chocolate week at the waterfront this week (they must have known I was coming!) but alas, I had missed the day's event already. I wandered round fairly aimlessly for a while then decided to do a habour cruise. It's cheap and pretty fun. Our guide was very funny. There was a jellyfish in the water next to our boat and I swear it looked just like a box jellyfish. We also saw lots of seals. They get fed by the fisherman so are extremely lazy - why move if you don't have to I say. The whole time I was at the Waterfront my eyes kept being drawn to Table Mountain. It totally dominates the landscape and it's hard not to keep looking at it.

City Tour

Camps Bay

The city tour is a hop-on, hop-off bus cruising round the city sights. Again it's quite cheap. It's an open air double-decker bus. The weather was more wintery today so I didn't hop-off as much as I would have done yesterday I think. I got off in the city centre and explored Green Market square (a curio market) then the company gardens. The company gardens are a bit like a botanical gardens I suppose and were made by the Dutch East India Company (I forget when. It's all in the brochure...). I sat there for ages watching the crazy squirrels and a goose that I thought was going to attack me at first but it was just looking for food. One of the guards there, Stephen, came up and had quite a long chat with me too. I hopped back on the bus and meant to get off at the castle but missed the stop. I think I must have been too pre-occupied getting my jacket and gloves out as the weather had turned foul. Nevermind. Continued on the tour which took us round District Six, the colourful Bo Kaap and then winds up to the Table Mountain cableway. We were driving in cloud as the whole mountain was enclosed in it! Not the best day to go up. I didn't bother since I went up the last time I was here anyway. The tour continued down to Camps Bay (a very pricey area) then Clifton and back to Sea Point. On the road just before Clifton I spotted a whale off the shore. Dunno what kind it was - it was very far away and I only saw it spurt then it's dorsal fin as it went back under. Pretty cool though.

Off on my Coastal Explorer tour tomorrow which takes me along the Garden Route and Wild Coast up to Durban. Not sure when I'll have the chance to update again - Durban at the latest though :-)

2006-07-02T09:54:00.000+10:00

diving at Castle Rock, Agincourt Reef 1 - Linnea and fish

Port Douglas (Part II)

My time in Port Douglas comes to an end tonight as I fly out to Cape Town early tomorrow morning (eek!) I've had a great time with Dad and Linnea - went to the reef and did some diving, took a trip out to Low Isles, and went for a really long walk along the beach into town. We were supposed to go flying again today but Dad got called into work - shame because the weather is beautiful today. So for now he's stuck with the record of having to make an emergency landing 50% of the time when flying with me! :-p

Reef Trip

overly friendly flowery cod

Dad, Linnea and I all went out on Silversonic (Quicksilver's dive boat) to go diving at the Agincourt ribbon reef system. We did 2 dives, skipping the middle dive so we could get a good lunch - have to make the most of the prawns! Tested my underwater camera housing on the first dive putting 2 napkins and a tub of rice in it to make sure it was water tight. All was well (ie the napkins were still dry) so we put the camera in for the second dive and I took some happy snaps. It works well enough. Not worth taking deeper than probably 10 metres since I don't have an external flash. The diving was great as usual up here. We only saw one shark - resting peacefully below us. Lots of fish of course including one flowery cod (pictured above) that kept following us around. Apparently it's name is Daisy. There was also a nice triggerfish that kept swimming out of shot when I tried to photograph it - got him eventually! On the trip back to the marina we sighted a pod of dwarf minke whales as well. Could only see their dorsal fins though.

Walk to town

four mile beach - looking south

There is actually a bus into town but I like to walk because I'm a little bit mad. I walked all the way along four mile beach to get there. Does anyone remember the gay couple from the first series of The Block? Well they were running along the beach and I kept seeing them in town too - took me a while to figure out why they looked familiar. At the town end of the beach there's beach chairs with umbrellas - it looks so resorty I had to laugh. The far end of the beach (near the unit) gets used alot by kite surfers. There were heaps of them because the wind was good. Some of them were really good doing aerial tricks and all.

Low Isles

Low Isles

Went out on Wavedancer to Low Isles for the day. That's the boat that Dad skippers. Wavedancer is Quicksilver's sail boat. She cruises out to Low Isles and anchors off the beach for the day. Passengers can snorkel, dive, laze on the beach or on the boat. It's a very cruisey day. Plenty of prawns for lunch again :-) I went snorkelling a couple of times with my camera. Snorkelling with the camera isn't as good as diving with it - can't really see what's on the screen so you don't know what you're pointing the camera at. Plus visibility around the island isn't as good as out at the reef. I lounged around on the beach for a bit and managed to get a sunburned ear - oops! Off one side of the island there were a few sharks enjoying a large school of fish. Don't think the fish were enjoying the sharks very much though :-( At the end of the day we headed back to the marina under sail which was nice.

That's it for Port Douglas, the next instalment should be from Cape Town!

2006-06-27T19:10:00.000+10:00

Port Douglas (Part I)

Dad nearly killed me today! And I've only been here 2 days!

Yesterday and today we went microlighting over Port Douglas. It's wicked fun with brilliant views.

the best ocean view

Yesterday we mostly flew over Port Douglas and down to the south a bit. We landed on a sandbar for a rest then circled over a reef close to shore. There were loads of turtles! We looked on the sandbanks in the mangroves for crocodiles too but they weren't as cooperative as the turtles. Took some photos of kite surfers off the beach as well. There was a quite a bit of cloud around. Flying over them you get to see a circular rainbow.

Me and the microlight after landing on the sandbar

Today wasn't as good weather wise being very windy but it was full of excitement! We looked for crocodiles around Port Douglas again but they were still being uncooperative. So we flew up to the Daintree river (picture below) to continue the search - no crocs there either. So we headed for home again and had reached Wonga beach when the engine started coughing and spluttering! We were only at 500 feet and we were over the ocean at the time so it was a bit nerve racking (this is the bit where Dad nearly killed me by the way). But my Dad, being the good pilot he is, had spotted a spit of sand sticking out from the main beach that we could make an emergency landing on. So the landing was made smoothly and then Dad had to try to fix the engine (which he did). The engine was all ready to go again but the weather had closed in so we had to wait for the rain to clear. In the meantime Dad and I played an improvised game of bolles to pass the time (I won) since we were in a deserted area with no food! Flew the rest of the way home safely. Got back to the airstrip to discover that Linnea had broken the lawnmower (apparently this was somewhat expected)

the mighty Daintree river

Tomorrow we'll most likely go diving. Hopefully there'll be no more dramas but some of those clown fish can be pretty nasty! Looking forward to testing the underwater housing for my camera :-)

2006-06-26T08:37:00.000+10:00

Mackay

I'm in Port Douglas now (arrived last night) having spent 5 days at home in Mackay. I was stoked to see that the natives I planted in the garden are attracting birds in a big way! No photos though - the birds are all too flighty and fast for me to capture them on film.

My Mum drove me slowly insane as always but she's my Mum so she's allowed to. I had my usual bed on the floor - for those of you that don't know, Mum sold Kevin and my beds a couple of years ago in a blatant attempt to get us to stop coming home. It hasn't worked :-) I still come home and eat all her food and spend all her money - I'm her daughter so I'm allowed.

I got my final dental and health checks while home too. My dentist gave me a travel toothbrush and toothpaste for my trip! In other good news: I have immunity to rabies! Background: I never finished the course of injections after having a suspected allergic reaction to the first two shots. Since reactions generally get worse with each shot they wouldn't give me the last one. So I had a blood test to check to make sure I had the antibodies instead.

The big reason I went home though was to pick up my tickets!!!! It's a pretty fat ticket and I'm a bit scared of losing it. It was very exciting to pick it all up though. I leave for Cape Town a week today!

Will report about Port Douglas next weekend probably.

2006-06-20T13:43:00.000+10:00

Goodbye Brisbane!

I'm flying out to Mackay tonight to finalise things at home and pick up all the tickets for my trip. I'll be back in Brisbane in January sometime to conquer the rest of the theme parks and to annoy Karen and Isla some more. I'll also be going back to uni, but that's of secondary importance :-) Bye for now...

2006-06-15T12:01:00.000+10:00

Welcome!

The idea behind this blog is for me to keep you all posted on my travels - photos and all. There are a few reasons I decided to make this page rather than send group emails...

photos will clog up your inbox if I send them
you can view and read things at your leisure
I'll probably leave people off my email list accidentally so by not emailing anyone I avoid offending people!