La Fortuna:
Right we took many canoes buses and coaches to get to La Fortuna in CR´s mid north west. This was a nice place dominated by a large active volcano called Arenal. WE went to a local swimming hole on one day and fudged about on the rope swing then went on a night tour of tyhe volcano. this started off with us minivaning it to some hot springs/river and sitting in 40 degree water as the stars came out and glow bugs flew above us, it was very relaxing. Then we hiked up the side of the volcano through forest and old lava flows (all the time hearing but not being able to see boudlers ejected fromt he volcano tumbling down the sides – it was pretty eerie!). When we got to some clear ground we could see the volcano and its peak partly obscurred by cloud, every now and then there would be molten lava and rocks tumbling down the side, against the black night it looked just like fierworks and the stillness in the air really carried the sounds. an amazing experience.
Monteverde – Santa Elena
Next was the cloud forest cofee producing region called Monteverde, first set up by quakers many years ago it was a very green place up in the hills. consiquently it was a lot cooler than the rest of CR and was a welcome break. We went for a 6.30am walk int he Santa Elena cloud forest (basically a forest that is so high the clouds hang amongst it). We saw many birds and lovely lush vegetationa nd clouds and the rare Qestral bird (bright blue plumage and long tails feathres).
From here we went to Nicaragua
So we flew into San Jose from Lima Peru and stayed in San Jose but a night as it is crap and very american.
We bussed it to the Caribean coast to a nice little relaxed town called Cahuita. this place was great, everything is relaxed here, it is right on the beach and the national park trundles along the coast fringed with sandy beached and crystal claer water. We ate a lot of RICE N Beans as is the stapple here, I was loving it but I feel Claire found it all a liuttle bland. the fish was tasty and REd Snapper is the norm.
We wandered through the national park here seeing crabs, jesus christ lizards, lizards, frogs, birds, spiders and monkies, one stole claire`s bun and they are really cheeky and come at the slightest chance, they will ransack your bags when u leave them ont he beach!
Tortuguero – This is a national park on the North Caribbean coast, it is the breeding ground of the giant leather back turtle (although we wandered the beaches one night looking for them and only came across their tracks – huge as they were!) We took a boat for5 hours up the canal that runs from Moin to Totrtuguero the scenery was amazing forest right up to the river (they call it the Little Amazon). When we go there the village has no cars and consists of a narrow strip with the ocean on one side and the river system behind. We went on a canoe tour of the narrow canal waterways and national park saw lots of Camian (little alligators), Toucans, Otters, butterflies, lizards, herons and heard and saw Howler monkeys. It was a great place.
Right so once we finshed the Inca Trail we stayed in Cusco for another day just to chill out (we needed it). Our next stop was Nazca to see the Nazca lines, I had a bit of a bad bus journey and was throwing up all night. Got to Nazca and booked our flight to see the Nazca lines, they are huge drawings in the sand (desert) from the Inca times. Unforuntaely 10 minutes in and you guessed it I was puking for the rest of the 40 minutes flight! I saw the first 3 lines so all good and Will managed to take pics of the remaining 8. We then went to Ica, crappy place but they had a winery there and we brought a few bottles only to get food poisioning from no other then chicken and god dam chips that night so we were ill for a few days. Then went to Huachina which is a mini oasis in the desert. Very small place but it was really nice and Will got to go sand boarding although he came back with lots of grazes from the sand. The next stop was Pisco, luckily we only had to stay one night in our flea invested room. In the morning we caught a boat to Isla Ballestas (the main reason we went to Pisco), the island is full of penquins, sea lions and lots and lots of birds. It was amazing the whole beach was full of sea lions and their pups, it was so so noisy. We also saw the sea lions swimming by us and dolphins swimming near our boat which was very cool.
Our final destination in Peru was Lima. Will managed to find this awesome apartment that we shared with a few other people. It was great, we were on the 15th floor and had an awesome view of the city and the mountains surrounding it. Lima was relaxing, the second day we travelled a good hour to the museum for it to be closed, eeek!! The next day we went to Miraflores which is along the coast, after alot of walking it was worth it to see the sea (after 2 months of being away from it).
All in all Peru was great, especially the Inca Trail, one of the highlights of the trip so far. The only bad thing about it was my dollars being stolen out of my huge bag, my bag getting ripped from me and me being me and losing my camera other than that it was great. Central America here we come 
Right, we did the Inca trail 4 days and 3 nights of hiking through the forest, jungle and along hi passes it was one of the best things that i have ever done. We went with a company called Lama Path that really care about the porters that we used ; there were 20 porters for the 16 people in our group and they carry everything from the chairs you sit on for meals to the tents and food for 3 meals a day – then laden like donkeys they RUN along the trail they carry 25Kgs each – madness.
First day saw us climbing from a nice level ground up and along a few passes taking in a couple of Inca ruins that mrked the old Inca trail ; buildings of checkpoints and storage sheds and what not. Then we climbed higher and could sea snow caps on distant mountsin. Breath taking. We camped half way up the highest mountain on the trek at some 3200m and had some awesome food. I loved the fact that even on the Inca trail our chef could nock up hi quality nosh and loads of it, i quickly became known to all others int he group as a fat bastard after eating everything in site.
Day 2 – We tackled dead womens pass some 4200m high – it was hard going the altitude really gets to you and the shortness of breath really pisses you off. but still the porters run on : ) At the top of dead womens pass (so called as they found a dead Inca girls body there) we were in the clouds and it was great to see where we had come from. We lunched int he valley beyond that tackled the last moutain of the day at 400m whihc marks the edge of the Amazon Basin and can be seen by an emergence of ferns and moisture loving plants. We passed A round Inca Fort and more gaurd posts all cunningly appointed so as to throw and would be trackers off the trail and away fromthe ultimate destination of Macch Picchu. As we camped for the night we were on the edge of a plateau overlooking the dense veg of the Amazon basin below, the temp was noticably warmer.
In summary, on day 2 we climbed 2 mountains and climbed over 1200m which is just 100m less than the height of Ben Nevis in Scotland. We were hard core
Day 3 – saw us wander through Inca tunnel and descend to the old Inca astronomical site nestled in the cloud forest ‘Phuyupatamarca’ (meaning ‘Town in the Clouds’), from here we could see the mountains around Macha Picchu and the path down looked short – this was however a lie and it took ages for us to reach camp. After a little nap we wandered to see the 2nd most impressive sight on the Inca trail ‘Wiñay Wayna’ (‘Forever Young’) – this is a huge place with picture perfect concave terraces, it was an agricultural lab where the clever little Incas investigated micro climates to grow there 400 species of spuds – there is a 6 degree temp difference between top and bottom terrace. The place is stunning and ruin id the wrong word if they just added the thatched roofs then the place would be complete again, the water still flows int he ceremonial channels and it looks as if the Incas just upped and left….. actually this is what they did, and those pesky Spanish never found it to bugger it up.
Day 4 – Up at 4am to have caker for brekkie – then walked to Macch Picchu took about 1 hour and it was har dgoing but as we arrived at the sun gate for the first glimpse it was worth it, the city spawls ont he moutain side blow and looks impressive and exstenvie, there are numerous sectors to it and temples of Sun Earth Water and Sir, it is a great place and every step yields another pic. I scaled the moutain behind MP (called Huayna Picchu (2720m/8923ft)!!! ) for another great view then needed a shit so had to come down again and fast! GREat tour around the city by our guides Freddy and the sense of achievemnt was amazing. Claire did especially well as the altitude really messed with here and made her feel poo. We both loved it though.
Right we bussed it from Copacabana Bolivia into Peru and first stop was Arequipa – a lovely place with a nice colonial Palaz and arched buildings. Claire saw a doc here as she was feeling grog but he decided that she had a tummy bug and didn´t do well at altitude she had low O2 levels. So we got some pills and took it easy. It was a nice place to relax in and the weather was fine and sunny. We went to sea Santa Catalina Convent where hedonistic nuns lived uncontrolled for a long time it was like a walled city with roads and cells! It was a nice place and seemed very peacful in amongst the hustle and bustle of Peru´s 2nd city. We also saw El Misti the 6000m mountain that acts as the cities backdrop.
We took a night bus to cusco and stayed there for 4 days or so until we kicked off our Inca Trail. Cusco is the capitial of the old Inca Empire and was apparently designed int eh shape of a Puma – however with the rapid growth i think this urban plan has been lost , today the buildings are still nice with many colonial buildings and cathedral set around a lovely lush plaza. Many of the buildings and streets still have a base of the old Inca stonework but
Right after some time in the capital La Paz we bussed it North to the edge of Lake titicaca, the town was called Copacabana and the weather was sweet nice and warm and sunny. We decided to rest up a day or so then went to an Island on the lake called Isla del sol, this is where the Inca creation story began and the first Inca people are descendants from lake Titiacaca and it´s islands. We caught the worlds slowest boat there and spent a night at the northern part of the island – i went wandering along the ridge line to see an Inca settlement and the sacred lama sacrifical rock and Inca sun stone, Claire was feeling rough and didn´t come along.
After Isla del sol we stayed another day in Copacabana and then wandered over the border into PERU…
Uyuni – This started with a very amusing bus ride we had a protest in a random village that blocked the road then got stuck int he river bed as we tried to cross a dry river (they were fixing the bridge). And Uyuni (pronounced Uni) is another souless place it is basically there to produce salt as it is right ont he edge of a large salt pan called Salar de Uyuni – it looks like a deserted town as you approach ont he bus. We arranged a3 day jeep tour around the area taking in the sites of the salar – old hotels made from salt – cactus island – volcanoes – thousands of flamingoes – sunrise – lagoons of various colours – stone trees – Lama – Alpaca, this was a great trip really recommended. It is a relly surreal place where the white salt looks like water and the mountains and volcanoes appear to be floating…. odd…food was ace (lama) to and our travelling companions were great with the traslation.
La Paz – Bolivia capital – bustling and full of the normal travellers tat – i´ve had the shits for 2 days now and hopefully they are now under control – we ahve been to a museum or 4 and are just relaxing before pushing north to lake titicaca.
Right,
sorry for the delay, all i can say is that internet in bolivia is crap and i thought we had it bad in the uk.
Right so we got the old Death Train into bolivia from Corumbab ont he bordert with Brazil – the reason it is called the death train is becase back in the 80´s it was so full of contraband that it would frequently derail and kill people but we found it to be boring beyond beliefe – it takes 18 hours at best and the carriages are poor to say the least – but it was a good thing to do – as it pull sinto stations kids- women – men all jump on to try and flog you their wares. The scenery is very samey and is basically swamp and wetlands right up to the track 8i.e the bolivia Pantanal). The train arrives into santa Cruz whihc is a oretty crummy place – a sprawling urban jungle that we soon left.
Samaipata – we took a shared taxi for 3 hours to a hill top town called samaipata – it was a very chilled oput place – very un touristy and comprised of one central plaza and about 10 streets. We came here to go and see the pre Ince forte (El Fuerte) some 10km from the village. claire and I walked up there in the sun and marrzeled at the archilogical find. We only saw ahandful of poeple all day and it was like you had the place to yourselves – we were about 3km up and we saw a condor fly below us. Pretty cool – the ruins are interesting with a mix of inca walls and pre inca civilizations (they are still digging at the site ) and as of yet they are still piondering its significance but they think that due to it´s location int he foothills of the andes it was a meeting/trade spot for lowland and upland peoples. very interesting.
Sucre – we traveled next to Bolivias old capital – a lovely colonial looking city (large town) with terrecota roofs reminiscent of Florence in Rome. We relaxed here for a few days and saw some dino footprints that are now in a cement quarry (basically they were found as the workers were blowing up the walls and they are dino prints) bit of a con mind u as you can´t get closer than 50m so they could be anything – the dino prints come from when some of bolivia was underwater covered by see and the dino prints were part of the shore line (or so they say). Other than that we relaxed in the sun.
Potosi – next we wnet to the worlds highest city, Potosi (some 4km+ ) and what a crap whole that was – the only reason for the cities existance is the dominating mountain they call Cerro Rico (Beautiful mountain) whihc is a silver mine and funded the spanish empire for 200 years in its hey day. Event eh guides say that if there was no mine there would be no one here. basically I signed up for a min tour whihc involves getting dressed in protective gear and climbing down a mine that is from 45 degrees c to -15 and then coping with altitude and dust. the areveage life expectancy of a miner is still 28 years and they die of silicous posoining or lung cancer – it is the worst place u can imagine (and being tall is a no go). 40 people die each year int eh mine from cave ins alone and there are over 15,000 that work in on around the mine. health and saftey…….. whats that? ; )
You can buy dynamite from age 9 and it costs 17 Bolivians (just over 1 pound ) for a 5 min fuse, dynamite and something extyra to go bang…. fucking madness – i must sya that i bought some for a presnet for the mineres and didn´t feel safe as we drove up to the mine with the stick of bang band in between my balls….
Filed under: Brazil
Right part two of the wonderful Brazil. As it was pissing down we had to get out of there so we headed South where there were no clouds or rain to the little island, Ilha Do Mel, it was amazing, there were no cars on the island so we walked everywhere. We walked from one end of the island to the other end in two hours, walking over rocks and trying not to kill ourselves! We also took an island tour and saw lots of dolphins near a little island above us, it was very relaxing and we had the best paella on the island. We went to a party that we had to walk to in the pitch black and there was a tropical rainstorm on our last night.
Next was the Igaczu falls. They were spectacular….. the Brazilian side was awesome, as was the Argentina side I don´t know if I could choose what was best. We also went on a boat to see the falls closer and boy did we, there was no one part of us that was dry, we also couldn´t see from the amount of water falling over us. Oh and we went to the Itaipu dam (apparently it´s the largest hydroelectric dam in the world), the little presentation video was good otherwise the rest of the time you´re in the coach so a little boring.
After a lot of buses and waiting for buses we finally got to Bonito. We went to their public lake and there were 100s of fish in the lake, kinda freaky as they were huge ugly looking fish although as you can imagine Will loved it. There was also a scarlet macaw in the tree, I was disappointed that it didn´t talk. The nest day we went snorkeling down the river it was awesome although I didn´t like the little fish biting me, the fockers!! It was a brill day, there was one time when I though I would be lost to the river as I couldn´t touch the bottom to stop and Will had to swim after me to stop me from crashing into rocks, my hero! But overall it was a great day.
Our final stop in Brazil was the Pantanal. Apart from the 6am starts and the bloody mosquitoes it was great. Piranha fishing on our first day, I was the first to catch one and was freaking out a bit when the line with the fish attached to it kept swinging towards my head. I managed to catch two although both were thrown back in the water, the first one for being too small and the other I thought I would slap someone in the face with the fish and it feel back into the water (good for the piranha I thought). We also went horse riding and walked along the pantanal and saw monkeys. We finally did an evening safari, saw lots of cayman, toucans, parrots, giant otters, lots of big birds and a tarantula.
