Quito 2/8/06

So, last one then.

After a huge good bye party in Atacames with the other volunteers I rolled back to Quito ready to get prepared for the madness of Colombia. Everything I had heard had led me to believe I was going to a land of ridiculously beautiful women and was going to get kiddnapped. Had to be done then.

From Cali airport the minibuses wind their way through sugar plantations in ridiculous (40 degree) heat towards Colombia's third largest city. As you enter city limits a sign welcomes you to "Cali, the home of South Americas most beautiful women". No seriously they have the sign!

I rolled up to the plush hostal Iguana and quickly went hunting for some food at a local supermarket where the disadvantages of stupidly hot women everywhere became evident. Firstly, the beauty section was about a third of the shop! Secondly and probably more importantly the staff kept trying to help me and I kept knocking things over! Apparently I am still scared of girls. Escaping with some basic provisions (aguadiente, juice, coffee and bread). I rolled back into the dorm to discover my new roomates in the middle of a flowing hebrew argument. After introducing myself and breaking up the near conflict between Tal, Shai and stoned Israeli kid (never did learn his name) we decided to hit the nightlife for which Cali is famous. It was pretty damn good for a Wednesday, though I really can't salsa and we only seemed to be able to attract the attentions of guys from Cali, who bought us copious amounts of alcohol, and girls from Mexico (I was told one of them had beautiful eyes, I mean who says that?).

A next day and feeling a little the worse for wear we woke early and headed for the nearby village of San Cipreano in the jungle. Colombian bus stations are really nice, Colombian buses are horrific. As we weaved along bumpy roads, through stunning jungles and past tanks, soldiers and seemingly limitless road blocks, assorted Colombians decided to amuse us with the contents of their stomachs. Me and Shai appeared to be the only people not getting sick and so traded stories from when we were 18, him blowing holes in people/houses in the West Bank during 2 compulsory years in the Israeli army while I blew up 3000 balloons in my school at 3am. Different world. On arrival in Cordoba we rocked onto the craziest train I had ever seen. It was a motor bike attached to the rails with wooden planks where the sidecar would be. We then rocketed through stunning jungle all holding on for dear life while the driver just laughed and went faster. On arrival in San Cipreano we headed straight for the River where we swam, tubed skimmed stones and generally wasted an afternoon. The way back on the train it was rainingand I was pretty sure we were close to derailing on every curve!

On arrival in Cali we where informed that it was the 472nd birthday of Cali and that there was a gigantic beer and salsa festival to celebrate. We hit the beer festival hard for $5 all you can drink! Then we headed to "Blues Brothers" for live Salsa and weren't disappointed either by the Caleñas or the band. Following this epic night we grabbed savory churros (absolutely gorgeous) and staggered to bed.

Friday I realised signalled 5 months away and as a result I felt spontaneous so headed to Medellin for the flower festival. So Medellin has a bit of a bad reputation on account of previously having the worlds highest murder rate in the early nineties while some guy called Pablo Escobar ran the infamous Medellin cartel exporting the white stuff. If you can find it watch Rosario Tijeras, which is probably the greatest film I've ever seen, but I fear you cannot get in English subtitles.

The drive was stunning as we saw huge coffee plantations, jungle and the mighty andes all in one fail swoop. Arriving in Medellin I was disturbed to discover Casa Kiwi - the place to be - was filled with English people and that I would be sleeping in the TV room, allbeit at knockdown rates.

Having chatted to some lads from London and Sheffield it appeared Friday was gonna be pretty big so we headed out into El Poblado, Medellin's zona rosa. So basically this is the first time I say this, but it wont be the last and I probably will be going on about it all summer; the girls in Medellin are the hottest in South America (maybe the world), nothing else even comes close, I have honestly never seen anything like it. This said unlike Buenos Aires they are really really friendly and almost everyone goes out of their way to make you feel welcome.

OK back to the night fastforward a couple of hours of reggaeton (thank god) and we got thrown out, not sure what for, I think for drinking someone elses drink but I don't know and walk out into a massive fight. The scrap was very brief as we quickly find ourselves staring down the wrong end of 2 soldiers Kaleshnikovs. We were informed that in order to avoid arrest we would have to pay them 20,000 pesos (US$8) and that they wanted one of the other guys green hat ("it looks military"). Following a lot of swearing and threats (in english) we paid and wandered back to the hostel. Someone wanted to watch City of God which was fine by me but I got almost no sleep.

The next morning I was up bright and breezy to do Medellin's sights. Having jumped on the metro I began to work out a plan. As the birthplace of Santiago Botero, Medellin has the largest collection of his works anywhere in the (free!) modern art museum and also has loads of statues in the Plaza de Botero. I started with the museum of modern art and was again distracted by the ridiculous amount of beautiful assistants all of whom wanted to show me around. The museum is really cool and the Botero section is amazing, though you can't take any pictures. Having wandered around the square checking out the crazy statues I headed for the, again free, cable car which gives stunning views over Medellin. I then grabbed an awesome strawberry batido at the botanical gardens before heading back to the hostel to meet the guys and do the flower festival. The flower festival was kinda crazy, basically a massive advertising parade with a few horses (no flowers) and I'm not really sad I forgot my camera.

Following another crazy night out, I headed back to Cali for my flight the next day. I was sorry to leave Colombia and definately want to go back to do the whole country properly. Though I did nearly miss the flight on account of being searched 4 times and xrayed twice before questioning about my colombian family(!?) and job description.

Anyway, Dad I'll see you tomorrow, everyone else see you Saturday!

LOL Jx

Ecuador and Colombia Pics

Medellin. 5 Months and I can sure time a photo. (they were 17 seconds apart)

Colombians write meaningful stuff. Me I jus graff the place up.

Botero; Legend or Nutter?

Cali - Is that someone playing the jazz flute? He dabbled.

Wacky Colombian transport system.

Atacames, last night of work.

Cacao harvesting. That is my Mancora 'beater by the way! Never go to a Quito Laundry.

Congal biomarine station. Artsy

Ecuador Pics

Spring Break!!

Cuenca. Night. Nothing amusing.

Wheeeeeeee!

The Devil's nose.

Baños Baby!

Cuenca 3am. God i'm such a 'baller.

So you walk down these stairs....

... and come out looking like this.

(Waterproof clothes!?! How do the people at Rohan sleep at night?)

Howler monkeys in there somewhere - God I miss Bosley!

Working hard.

They jumped me.

Quito to the Carribean (photos)

Beauties and the Beast.


The `Heroes`.

Supper.

Humpback Whale.

Parrot Love.

Papallacta..... sublime!

!

Playa el Agua, Carribean Paradise.

We do apologise for the quotes.

Muisne, 15/7/06

Holas,

After leaving the boys looking somewhat tearful in Puerto Lopez I bused down to the chilled out surf resort of Montañita. Here I checked into the cheapest dorm accomodation ever - $2 per night but bats may land on you - and quickly established I was indeed the only person in the place! The owner was a legend however and after a few beers promised to take me out surfing in the morning. It was great fun 3 metre waves are a little large for me at the momment.

On a whim I decided to go to Guyaquil that night and arrived at the absurd (small international airport) sized bus terminal at 11pm. The rough guide describes Guyaquil terrestre as very dangerous with petty theft a common occurance and suggests that on no account should you go there at night! I have to agree although it was pretty fun making myself look as angry as possible and then swaggering arond the underground walkways surrounded by shady characters. Feeling slightly threatened I decided the best move was to jump on the next bus to Cuenca. Sadly it arrived there at 3am.

Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city. The bus station is terrible. Having tried to snatch a few hours of sleep cruelly disturbed by geese carrying peasants (too stingy to fork out for a hostel I know) I took the only course of action, drank 7 cups of coffee and played hacky sack until dawn finally broke. Feeling pretty wired I hit the old town and wandered around the deserted streets looking at the beautiful Spanish architecture and checking out the small saturday market. I then discovered my first choice hostel had shut down but (thanks to the help of my lovely mother) I quickly found another and crashed out for some well deserved rest. Awakened by the guys next door aka the "cronwell rd massive" (bloody Bristol uni students) we hit the bar for breakfast and to watch England lose. More sleep. We then watched Brazil lose. More sleep. Crap day.

In the evening following a quickly grabbed snack overlooking the beautifully lit up skyline we hit "Roca" one of Cuencas biggest salsatecas to celebrate Canada day big time! A good time was had by all and I was sorry to leave at 4am to catch the bus to Alausi. A little innebriated me and the friendly conductor quickly established (in flowing spanish no less) that I had indeed lost my ticket. He let me stay and I am eternally greatfull. I was on the 4am bus on account of the hostel owner telling me the train leaves at 8.30 sharp. It leaves at 11. Luckily 4 other gringas had heard the same and we hung out on the freezing platform.

The devil's nose is awesome! You sit on top of a train zooming down the Andes at ridiculous speeds with dizzying drops and then every so often you have to take the switchbacks and the train de-rails! It was great fun! Having fallen asleep on the Canadian member of the group on the way back (she had obviously been celebrating heavily) I was quickly persuaded that going back to volunteer work was a stupid idea and that I really needed to see Baños.

Baños is awesome! Having found a four person room, meaning I would be sleeping on the floor (I suggested rock, paper, scissors to the girls, but they where having none of it), we went for a meal at Casa Hood, a backpacker institution, for an awesome thai curry followed by "Soy Cuba" some Russian propaganda movie which is aparently a "classic" but is really too intellectual and too artsy for the likes of me. The next day the girls went for massages followed by facials while I grabbed a mountain bike and headed down 22km through the cloud forest. On the way I saw loads of stunning waterfalls, took a cable car and even a $10 dollar bungy jump which looked really good but I was puished for time. The highlight however was going down into the Panillo del diablo, a 50 foot waterfall with a stairway through the jungle into the falls and got soaked. On arrival back in Baños we hit one of the thermal baths from which the town gets its name for a refreshing soak before going up the active volcano Tungurahua. The cloud was so thick that you couldn't see the top from our vantage point but the noises where amazing and it was a great experience.

The next day I attempted to return to work in Muisne at the far end of Ecuador from Baños but after sleeping a little too late I found myself stuck in Esmeraldas City at 11pm. Small children attempted to steal the shoes tied to my bag. Feeling a little sketched out I found a hotel room and hid for the evening. The next day I finally got back to work 12 days later than had been promised and was quickly filled in with the latest gossip. It's better than a soap opera round here!

Work is still pretty fun. We do a lot of the routine stuff on our own now - monitoring shrimp, clearing trails, replanting mangroves but at the same time we also do some cool stuff on the reserve with the definate highlight this week of watching a fisherman reel in a 5foot hammerhead shark with a day working with the local school kids cleaning the village a close second. We also have spent more than a few hours on some great beaches and had a couple of fun nights out in Atacames.

LOL Jx

As we got off the bus from Puerto Lopez we were only a little bit less tired than our previous eleven hour journey of hell along the same road, we had nowhere to stay this time. We grabbed a taxi and headed for the centre of Quito and the Mariscal. We wandered around the tourist centre at 5 in the morning for hours but there was no room at the inn. Desperate for a place to stay we finally set eyes upon the 1950´s edifice infront of us. We pressed the buzzer and checked into the sterile but beautiful HI hostal and crashed out til the afternoon. That day we slept and ate and prepared ourselves for the night to come.

That evening we grabbed a mexican (´dunno what came over us we just grabbed the bugger´token), and set off for Level night club. It turned out to be exactly like it´s Bristol counterpart, however we just partied in ignorant bliss as we had little idea as to what was being hollared at us. With both Teo and Tom enjoying the forwardness of the local chicas Laurie took it upon himself to drink some beers with a particularly large and intimidating gangster. After a few hours a scene change was needed and we went to No Bar for the remainder. That is all we shall say but the night was quality and we resided to our NHS wipe clean hostal beds to get some kip.
The next day was the England vs Portugal game. Nothing more to say on that apart from, if C. Ronaldo happened to get hit by a First bus whilst walking down Gloucester road and we were a meter away we might just be forced a blink. Our anger and hurt was so great we forgot to pay at the bar we watched the game, after this moment of madness and illegality we decided to run away to the jungle.

Having heard bad things from James about the bus journey to Tena, we were expecting the worst. However our driver who was no doubt a legend threw the bus around the corners with an elegance similar to that of an Ecuadorian figure skater, we arrived in Tena that evening with not so much as a scratch on our hardened skin. We checked into the Travellers lodge, and got a good room with a fan thanks to Tom´s visit two years previous. This was not before asking ´did you see three lads here about 3 months ago´. This became quite a frequent question and came with the remarkable answer of ´yeh, good kids´amongst other less patronising answers. We adjusted to the humidity over an Italian and resided to our beds for our first jungle night.
The next morning we were fitted for the black rubber boots (wellies) that this part of the jungle is famous for and jumped in the back of a pickup. We were taken to Shangri-la. We checked into the cliff side jungle hotel and after about an hour of indecision decided to the take the less tiring option of floating down the river on a tractor innertube. With our guide who also knew KJT we ´went extacurricular´ and trekked up the river napo on foot to indulge in a spot of uninsured mental rapid tubing, this was so good it left a taste for more white water in our insect filled mouths. Our first day was awesome and it was a great introduction to the jungle. After chilling that evening in the hammock garden, playing hammock ball, talking with an over exubarent american lady and destroying the double bed in our room we got down for a night of sleep. The next day we got an early morning transfer to the Amorangachi huts.
Here we played with the very same parrot as Tommy before donning our boots and heading for the Cascades. We were surprised to meet a group of Christian Missionaries in the gorge and even more surprised by there lack of adventure. Our crazy guide was eager to get wet so without further a do we passed them and threw ourselves up and around the huge cascades without ropes (mothers) and generally soaked and bruised ouselves . After the last cascade we truged back to the huts and consumed a whole meal of food. That afternoon we took the medicinal plants walk where we learnt about the ways of the jungle and became one with the plants and fruit. The entire time we were keeping an eye on the now record flood that was lapping against the shores of the river Napo. We were told that we could not go rafting tommorow. In dismay we had no choice but to reside to our hammocks for the night, here we smoked jungle pipes, ate parrots and amazed our new missionary Deciples with tales of old and tales of our spitual journey.

Some New York and Toronto pics

Look at these gayboys we snapped by the water.

Had to swim out a while to get this one.

www.proannie.com

Time square.

It was gift from the french to signify friendship. They accepted it before making it their own symbol for freedom. Uhhh... what?

Manhattan syline from Liberty island.

Sorry.

Kieran held the camera whilst Jesus gave Tommy a piggyback... /several gruelling hours and 17 attempts with the timer.

The thee-enn tower wath MATHIFF!!

Dickie put us up in a quaint little outhouse tucked behind the main palace.

Here we learnt to appreciate the finer things in life...

... like getting sh**faced.