Erupting volcanoes, cyrstal clear lagunas and a peeing mud man.

A wee lady to start todays rambling.









Hola, Que tal?? (See ive got this lingo sussed, so long as no-one replies anyhow)

So how are we all today? I don´t know about where you are, but here the weather is a little bizarre. There seems to be frequent gusts of incredibly strong winds, which are causing small amounts of chaos, bins all over the place, young children falling to the ground, that sort of a nuisance. A phenomenon that wouldn´t normally be of much concer, however just now we are in a small town called Banos, which is situated in a small crater surrounded by a huge active volcano. When i say active, i mean actually physically erupting. Its the first time in roughly six years, (i think) and the locals assure me it isn´t dangerous just now, although they are on permanent red alert and always have a ready suitcase prepared for the moment when the spillage gets a little too close. We went to a nearby viewpoint and managed to see it spilling lava last night. A truly remarkable sight to witness first hand. It sounds cheesy to say, but was incredible to see the power of nature at work. It was an unexpected experience, and one that will definitely remain one of my highlights long after the trip is nothing but memories.

In reality the most dangerous part of viewing the volcano was actually the journey up to the viewpoint. Our vehicle was a converted truck which basically had a roof and a wooden bench nailed to it. The locals told us o get up top for the best view, we duly obliged and headed on our way. Everything was fine until we realised that power cables were sufficiently low to behead us if we didn´t react quicken enough and hit the deck and the right times. I`m not exaggertating in any way when i say some of those cables were merely inches from my crouching torso. And the stupidest thing about it all? After we made to the top alive and had spent some time viewing Tungahua in action, we all headed back up on top for a second ride. Just crazy!









I´m gonna backtrack a few days just now and tell you about our wee adventure to the Quilotoa Loop. As mentioned in the previous post, we set off from Latacunga headed towards the small town of Quilotoa, which is situated on the banks of an amazing volcanic crater, known as Laguna Quilatoa. It was a spectacular sight, it really was. We arrived and at about 3pm to the pishing rain and quickly headed to the nearest accommodation which was a wee hut which charged ten dollars for the night, complete with a free evening meal (advertised as guinea pig, or chicken although they only offered chicken. We were relieved) and breakfast. It was here that we met our new travelling companions, Aaron and Liz, the most un-american americans i have ever met, Which is funny becuase in the past couple of days we also met The most american americans, a couple of rednecks from Tennessee (sp), complete with southern drawl. A unique accent that was pretty damn bizarre to hear first hand.






Maya crouching for some unknown reason by the laguna.








Anyhow, after our first night we headed off on the second day with a new friends for 13km walk, starting around the laguna, then heading down into a canyon, and back up the other side to arrive at a wee town called Chugchillan. The walk was pleasant, made difficult by the terrain, all in all we started at 4200m, dropped down to a low of 28oom then headed back up to roughly 3800m. The altitude played its usual draining part, but all in all in was very spectacular with yet more inspiring scenery to help us on our way. We weren´t helped either by the fact that all the markers that were supposed to direct us had been removed by local guides who would prefer you to get lost so that you have to pay them to find your way back again. Bloody nuisance.

We went for a second walk the following day, with the intention of heading to a cloud forest. I think we found it, we certainly found clouds, but it was difficult to make out eactly what we were supposed to be looking at when you can only see 5metres in front of you. Still it was nice to be out the house and walking about.

To get away from Chugchillan was always going to be the most awakward part of the journey. There are only buses running on certain days of the week at strange times of the night. There was also the option of flagging down the local milk cart, which will apparently take you to the next biggest town, where there are more buses for a dollar. We were waying up our options when a kind german offered a lift with his tour group, so ultimately we made it back to Latacunga (or near enough), with a bus load of inquisitive Germans, all being very nice and offering us food and drink all the way. The eveidently though of us as impoverished travellers and were determined to fatten us up, which was a nic ething for them to do.

Once we arrived back at Latacunga we hopped straight on a bus to Ecuadors capital, Quito, although only spent one night there as the sole purpose of the unplanned detour was to buy a new camera as our one got busted with sand and the likes. Quito seemed ok, but we will get a better look when we return after our jungle tour, which we begin tonight. In total we will have five days in the jungle, staying with a wee group of indiginous folk and venturing out on walks in the day and night to see the wildlife. Should be good fun.

Just to fill in the blanks, we left Quito on Monday to arrive here in Banos. While here we passed the days with our american chums seeing the volcano, going on yet another walk to a high point, and yesterday was passed with mountain bikes and a huge waterfall, 30km away. All the exercise is really satisfying me just now. I haven´t been so keen to walk, and run and bike since i was about twelve. Which by coincidence was about the first time i got drunk (sorry Mum), bit of a coincidence don´t you think.






The view from the viewpoint over Banos. Check out the mud man peeing in the background.















Maya looking super sexy in her special helmet for the bike ride.









So thats about everything to say just now. Tonight we have a 11 hour bus journey, followed by a jeep ride and then a canoe to get to our jungle home for the next four nights. Should be good fun, i´m sure.

This is a lovely and im sure perfectly safe bridge we had to cross to see the waterfall on our bike ride. No more than five people are allowed at once. As if that makes a difference.




These are our new companions. Liz is sat with Maya on our transport back to Banos, which was a lovely open top type pick up truck. Nothing like the VIP treatment. And at the bottom is a lovely action shot of myself and Aaron trying to fix the 1960´s bike pump that was provided for us on our journey. It was a catostrophic piece of equipment which was unfrtunate as Aaron picked up a puncture. Ultimately through frustration at the piece of junk, we headed to a nearby house to ask if they had a bike pump we could borrow only for them to produce a defunct tubu with a spindle rattling inside that was surely a throughback, from Victoria`s reign. It was hilarious, but very kind of them to try and help. Its just a shame they offered us something akin to a straw.



Thats all for now.

Hope all is well

Rob

Discovering what lurks beneath

Hola Amigos,

Being over a week since my last update, i guess it is long overdue for the latest installment what with this supposedly being a weekly blog and all.

Today we are tired, (altogether now, ahhhhh) its a shame for us, i know. The reason for our flagging bodies is that yesterday we spent from 8am until 11.30pm on three different buses, as we weaved, or more precisely zig zagged our way, from the coastal haven of Puerto Lopez, back centrally into the mountains to our current destination, Latacunga. We expected the journey to be a little awkward as its not really a common route, but i´m not sure i was expecting quite such a long time staring at the back of somebodies head. Thankfully all the buses were reliable and motored along without problem, the only annoyance for us was the young girl in the seat behind, who couldn´t keep her hands off our hair, for roughly 6hours. At first you smile and giggle, then you try to ignore, then you plead with the mother, and finally you just block out all existence or sense of being on a bus at that particular point. Personally i chose to fully immerse mind and body in the calming waters of Carribean waters, with a cool beer in my hand and only the worries of Derby County and Steve McLaren to occupy my mind. It was bliss. I imagine Maya picked a similar spot, although maybe without the tactical conundrums.

Anyhow, moving on, our time on the coast was incredible. All in all i managed to fit in three or four days surfing, which is like a totally far out scene man. Its such an addictive sport, similar i suppose in satisfaction to ski ing or more directly snowboarding. Its sufficiently hard to be challenging, but still achievable. I could quite easily have spent a few weeks, with the days consisting of a relaxing morning, surfing in the evening, then a few socialable drinks to while away the evening. Quite pleasant i can assure you. And in a seemless link, that was exactly how my birthday was spent. Tackled the surf and then got drunk with a group of Irish. Was a good giggle.

The next day wasn´t too bad considering. Which was a good job really as firstly i had to endure the bumpiest bus journey imaginable. It was similar to spending an hour and a half on a bouncy castle with Andy Fordham and Jo Brand for company. Holy moly. But the reward for making it to Pueto Lopez with last nights frivolities still firmly rooted in my stomach was the first day of our scuba diving course. I´m not sure if i´ve explained this fully, but basically myself and Maya decided to tackle a diving course as a wee treat for my birthday and with Ecuador being a known hot spot for the activity, it seemed like a good time to see what lurks beneath. It was a three day intensive PADI course (normally it is usually spread into at least 6 or 7 days), and ultimately it was pretty knackering. On completion you become a fully qualified scuba diver, which in practice simply means that we are now able to arrive anywhere in the world, hire some equipment and toddle off on our tod in the great unknown. In reality i think both myself and the Maz would like to have at least a couple more supervised dives before we venture off on our own.

Over the three days, we completed a practice session in a hotel swimming pool and four dives of between 30 and 40 mins at roughly 10-15 metres in the Pacific Ocean. The dives were so amazing, you left the water feeling so privilidged as well as with bundles of excitement and exuberance. The tiring part of the course was just trying to learn all the theory, as we had daily tests and a final exam to pass on the sunday night. The final days dives were spent at the island de la plata, which is known as the ´poor man´s galapagos´. It was absolutely incredible. I think the highlight for both of us was diving with a group of turtles. The were quite inquisitive and not in the least bit afraid of us, meaning we could get a great view of these perculiar creatures in their natural habitat. We were diving around coral which was just packed full of life. There were moray eels hiding in the rocks, sea snakes and stingrays on the sea bed, and countless different types of fish, in all shapes and sizes and packed with all the colours of the rainbow. Puffer fish were fantastic to see, as the inflated and just floated about. Shoals (sp?) of fish would come wizzing by as your just floating about trying to take it all in. It was just a fantastic experience, and since we both passed with flying colours, its something we would both love to tackle again sometime, with Columbia being our next posible dive site. I can´t wait.

That was passed on the sunday, and we basically spent monday just chilling and catching our breath back before we headed on. From here in Latacunga, tomorrow we are going to head to the Quilatoa Loop, which is basically a scenic road that circles around some supposedly beautiful lagunas and volcanoes. We are probably going to try and stop off at a wee town along the way somewhere and spend a couple of days doing some walking to see if it lives up to its reputation. That should take us to the weekend when we are going to head back south a short way to explore more volcanoes and slowly work our way east to wards the jungle. I´m really excited about that actually. Also pretty soon we will be in Quito, hopefully at a time when it is the cities annual festival, much like the one in Cuenca only on a much bigger scale. It would be nice if we can be there for that to see some more crazy antics, there also a big bullfighting festival apparently, so there might be a chance for me to satisfy my curiosity.

All in all, we should probably have another two or three weeks in Ecuador, especially if we take another spanish course in Quito, which i would like to do. Another three weeks in this particular country suits me just fine. In the words of Ronald McDonald, `im loving it!`

Hope all is well back home. I´m off now, hopefully to watch the England game so long as ESPN stick with their planned schdule and don´t just decide to throw out whatever they fancy as they have done before.
All the best
Rob

Time to tackle the Pacific Ocean

HI HOOOOOOOO!!

Hello all, i hope all is well. Clearly this is a difficult time for the Derby County readers out there. I share your pain. Thankfully, there aren´t many forest/ leicester or leeds fans out here, so if you need a break from the inevitable taunting then Ecuador is a good hideout. Just a wee hint for you there.

We are currently inspecting the surfers retreat of Montanita, which so far seems pretty damn cool. This afternoon we are set to join the long haired, chilled out dudes that reside here and become surfers ourselves with our first lesson planned, and the Pacific ocean readying itself to be our classroom.

We arrived yesterday from a coastal city of Salinas. The bus journey from there to here should only have been an hour or so, it is only 50km after all, but once again we found ourselves aboard a perpetually collapsing bus and despite the frantic efforts of the driver and passengers alike, no amount of tenderloving care was able to return the old work horse to life. So for us, it was a matter of flagging down the next bus to come along and continue our journey without further hitch.

On arrival we did what we usually do and will continue to do as it is a good idea; find accommodation. Our home for this particular weekend is a lovely beach side hostal called Las Palmeras. The only issue is that it hasn´t actually been fully built yet. When we arrived to have a look at the rooms, two guys were putting the final touches to our window and bathroom. But as it is still a work in progress, the benefit for us is that its nice, new and cheap. And it seems they are in the final stages so it isn´t as though there´s too much noise from the guys painting the walls and finishing off the finer points to what will be a lovely place to stay.

I think i last left you a message from the party town of Cuenca, where the people love nothing more than a good old game of ¨dodge the Kathryn Wheel¨. The festivities continued throughout the weekend with the highlight, from a spectators view, possible being the soapbox derby, which was utterly hilarious solely due to the complete calamity of it all, from organisation to the carts themselves. Great fun to watch but íll be damned if you ever got me in one of those races without a suit of armour and Richard and Hyascinth Bouquet as my co drivers.

After the weekend we headed to the nearby national park ´Cajas´, pronouned CA-ghhhghghgjjgg-AS, which was just Scotlands long lost twin brother and should have been called Mackay & Macdonald´s Highland Park, complete with ginger bushes and marroading haggis. It was identical, complete with heather and pishing rain. Was nice, but nobody wants to travel thousands of miles for a different view of what feels like their own back garden.

We left Cuenca on the Tuesday as we decided to delay more spanish classes until we reach Quito in a couple of weeks, with the intention of using the time to really brush up on some vocab and the basics that we learnt three months ago. We originally planned to stop in Ecuador´s biggest city, Guayaquil, but it was manky and had a comedy bus station, (You arrive to a strip of tarmac akin to a runway, then have to walk for 5 minutes to a metro bus, which takes you from one side of the road to the other, i kid you not. As the crow flies, the bus probably moved us 10 meters closer to the where we wanted to be) so we headed on to the coastal city of Salinas, which was ok, but we wanted to head north after a couple of nights to here where its is much cooler and we can transform ourselves into ´surfers dudes´. Maya has even treated herself to some baggy shorts to aid the morphing process.

That is about all there is to tell you just now. We will be here for the weekend and then will maybe head north or south, we´re not sure where yet as we want to take a scuba diving course somewhere around here and we´re not sure if we´re best headed 3km south to Manglaralto or about 40km north to Puerto Lopez. Its not a bad choice to have either way.

Anyhow, i hope all is well. For those of you who are unaware that there is an important date approaching in your calender, ´shame on you´, as wednesday 14th Nov is to be my 24th birthday and i expect love and goodwishes from all.

Bye bye for now.
Rob

Some photos

Ay up


Just a few photos to interrupt the manic typing!!

Skulls in a fish tank in a monestery in Lima. Not sure why but it makes for an interesting tourist attraction

Check out the wee one hanging from his mothers back, second from the front.

More bones from the monestery. This time in a big pit that was apparently 20ft deep.

Me!! In the main square in Lima

The Colca Canyon in Arequipa where we did our trek.

"Come ere luv, and giz us a smacker"

Maya can never resist my gentlemanly charm

Our friends for the Machu Picchu trek and the Colca Canyon trek. The hairy one is Shaun, the other is Maria. They are from Leeds but were still good fun.

parties, fireworks, freak shows and fiestas

Ay up,

Well peeps, how are we all coping as the cold dark nights draw in?? Here in Ecuador, there is no such thing as a cold dark night. Just thought i´d let you all know that.


Its a while since i have wrote anything substantial, and i seem to remember that the last post was a lot about nothing. So in todays presentation i shall do my damdest to entertain you with witty anecdotes, detail daring adventures and accurately describe the past two weeks for myself and my dearest chucka.


I´ll pick up the story where i last left off. Lima, and i believe it was on the eve of Englands gubbing in the final on the Rugby world cup. Despite our fears it turned out that alcohol was indeed permitted on the saturday of the game, it was on the sunday it was banned, so we gleefully and excitedly hopped our way to the English pub prompt and early ready to enjoy the afternoons events. Unfortunately, as you are all very much aware, England were a bit pish, and rather than celebrate victory i found myself sat drinking in the company of the only South African in the pub and my scottish girlfriend who began the game cheering on her neighbours from down south, but then some posh, Eton type insulted Scotland, so she understandably realigned her allegiance to her traditional scottish viewpoint of "f**k the english." For me, the day wasn´t quite as i had hoped, but at least i was able to drown my sorrows sufficiently.

The following day was just a little bit bizarre. As i mentioned previously, alcohol was banned due to a census. That was fine by me i was in no state for more beer, but what was weird was that Peruvians weren´t allowed to leave their homes between the hours of 8am and 6pm, leaving us turista´s bewidered by the sight of deserted streets in a city of 8 million people. It was a bit creepy.

Eventually the day came when Maya and myself were finally ready to leave Lima. The city is a bit shite really, but we decided to hang on to watch the rugby, something of a mistake but nevermind. Lima is just too big, with very little to actually do there. But hey, its all an experience.

Our next destination was to be the mountain gateway of Huaraz. From this average town great exciting adventures can be organised into huge glaciers and snow capped mountains, which were the setting for "Touching the Void". Unfortunately it was just abit too expensive for myself and the Maz to readily justify another trek to more mountains in Peru. It was a shame because the scenery was quite spectacular from the ground, so i can only imagine how beautiful it would have been from up high and in amongst them. Ultimately the best thing about Huaraz for us was a restaurant there called ´Chilli Heaven¨. Maya was indeed in the proverbial palace in the sky when she received her best Indian meal in months. In fact it was so good we went back the second night. Another bonus for me was the fact the restaurant was joint owned by a man from Blackburn, that in itself didn´t exactly get me leaping for joy, but what it did mean was that he had a varied selection of traditional english ales, so i treated myself to a lovely pint of Abbot Ale. A nice blast from the past from my working days at the Dead Poets Inn in Derby.

By the time we left Huaraz we were both getting a wee bit fed up of not actually doing anyhting. In totoal we had spent about 8 days in Lima and now another three in Huaraz doing nothing but passing the time. We were both desperate for some excitement, so we headed for the beach and a lovely coastal town of Huanchaco, where we spent another three days. In the end, once again we did very little, but it was a least a change to be doing nothing in coastal surroundings with a nice beach and cold beers for entertainment. In fact our final night there was something of an event. We somehow ended up getting adopted by some locals who were determined to show us a good time and we were more than eager participants. I´m pretty sure we saw every bar the small town had to offer and had a fair few drinks in each one, but the night just doesn´t end like it does back home, it just goes on and on and on. So much so that we ultimately found ourselves in a wee bar at 5am, where Maya was being taught the salsa by two guys that were both just a bit shorter than her. Very amusing for myself, who by this time was casually slumped in a chair in the corner wondering when it is a might actually be allowed to see my bed once again.

The night was a hoot, but the next couple of days were most definitely not. The following day was without doubt our worst hangover so far in South America.

We said goodbye to Huanchaco with stinking hangovers and had the pleasure of crappy buses to look forward to. First it was a taxi ride back to the city of Trujillo then a bus north to a town called Piura, which i can´t really comment on as we only saw the bus station there. If i was to judge the town on its bus station then a would not reccommend it unless you like pish stinking rooms, with plastic chairs and stray dogs for company. Anyhow we only had to spend roughly an hour there before we where able to catch a nightbus that would carry us over the border, terminating at a small city in Ecuador called Loja. In total the journey was roughly 15 hours and wasn´t a great deal of fun, but it was nice to finally arrive at a new country with much to explore.

We spent a couple of nights in Loja, still doing very little other than recovering from the journey to get there. Loja itself is a fairly average town with not a great deal to offer other than the surrounding mountains and national parks. Rather than explore them from there we decided to head south on a local bus for roughly an hour to a one horse town known as Vilcabamba. This was a great idea as it is a beautiful place, that is perfectly setup to provide nice walks during the day, prior to nice food and relaxing beers in the evening. We found a lovely hostel, which i think Maya would gladly have made her home, mainly because each room came complete with a hammock on its outside terrace. Also the hostel had some pretty cool gardens, which isn´t really something that gets me drooling but i have to admit the plants were pretty i guess and it was cool to see huge banana and avocado trees.

In total we stayed for three nights and during the two full days we spent there, we undertook two different walks that were both equally satisfying for various reasons. The first was a sufficiently taxing four hour hike to a waterfall. The second was to the highest point in the area and was supposed to be abit shorter although we got abit lost and wound up walking along mountain peaks for a hour or two longer than anticipated. What was most memorable about the second days adventure was the vast amount of humungous spiders. I discovered how huge they were in quite an unfortunate fashion; i.e. i was walking along quite happily when all of sudden i had a spiders web smeared all of my face and arm. That in itself was uncomforting but nothing too alarming. My heart started to beat a little faster however when i looked down to see a huge black and yellow spider crawling back up its web to my arm. Now, i´m not especially frightened of spiders in any way, in fact i quite like the wee buggers. However, i don´t particularly like big ones crawling all over me. After that point we had to continue walking through various bushes and trees and soon discovered that there were loads of creepy crawlies to keep an eye out for. A fact that certainly did not please Maya. I´ve never seen her sprint down a mountain at such a break neck speed.

After three nights we said goodbye to Vilcabamba, known as the valley of longevity as it has an dis-proportionate number of people who live over 100 years of age, and we left with good memories. It was a great place to be active during the days and be able to enjoy the satisfaction of a well earned beer in the evening. The bus journey away was also memorable for slightly different reasosn. We hopped on a bus no problem, a bus that was intended for roughly 20 or so people judging by the number of seats. How wrong we were. After about 15minutes of tootling along and picking people up, the seats were taken and the isle was full of standing passengers, myself being one. By that point i counted at least 35 people on the bus and assumed due to how tight and compact it was that that would be the limit. How wrong i was. It seems their is no such thing as a full bus and at least another ten people bordered after i thought there was no more room. People were hanging out the windows and doors and everything. Quite amusing.

Anyhow, it was only for an hour or so, after which we were back at a familiar place; Loja´s bus terminal. We booked a bus to Cuenca and had roughly two hours to wait at the station until it left. It was to be two hours spent living the life of a goldfish as so many kids just walked up to us and stared at us for minutes at a time. It was quiet a bizarre sensation to be the reason for such attention. We couldn´t move without some children just observing our every move. I think the goldfish lifestyle started to grate on Maya pretty quickly, which was understandable, but i found quite intriguing to watch the kids as much as they watched us and wonder why we were quite so interesting to them.

Anyhow, eventually our time acting as a circus freak show was at an end as it was time to board our rickety bus, which in six hours was to take us to the city of Cuenca. We arrived here on the Friday night of a celebratory weekend which encomposses a whole host of feista´s, parades, parties and fireworks in aid of the annual celebration of the cities independence, from what i do not know.

Soon after we arrived we headed for the main square, which is understandably where most of the festivities take place. We were greeted by a host of bands and performers strutting their stuff for a packed square of spectators. What became obvious is the lack of any sense of safety concern when it comes to fireworks. In the middle of the packed square, rockets were being set off with no specific direction intended. If they went skyward, then grand, but it didn´t seem to matter too much if they went into the crowd. One even was set off straight into the bandstand! And what was even more bizarre was that nobody seemed to mind too much. And i´ll admit this, firework displays are normally abit tedious to me, but when there´s a danger of getting hit they´re a hell of a lot more exciting!!

We made through the celebrations safe and sound. Today there were huge parades, much like the cavel cade in Edinburgh, only alot more Ecuadorian. One thing that really amused me is that all day there has been low fly overs by fighter jet planes, which entertains no one and simply scares the living bejeesus out of every man, woman and child.

Currently i have no idea what tonight has install, but i would say its a fair bet that it will involve more extreme fireworks and drinking and dancing until the early hours of the morning. Activities that i´m quite happy to enjoy.

And that is about all there is to say just now. Congratulations to anybody who stuck through all of that. It seems i´m not quite succeeding in my promise to keep these babblings short and succinct. I guess i just get a bit carried away.

Hope all is well
Rob