Our bus to Indio left 40 minutes late (I think that is one of the longest delayed departures we've had in the entire trip!), and so we arrived a bit late in Indio where both my Mum and aunt Una were waiting for us. It was great to see my dear 'auld Ma after so long, and so after all the hugs and kisses it was back to Una's gorgeous house in Indian Wells.
I'd been in this house on holiday when I was about 10 years old, but it was uncanny how much I remembered and in how much detail. Anyway my Ma had asked that I cook a Thai dinner for all the girls, so after relaxing for a bit I got stuck into it. It was a bit of a disaster though, as I had to use slightly unfamiliar vegetables and the curry paste was new to me (and I was way too overcautious in using it 'cos the ladies don't like overly spicy food) - ah well, it was all eaten anyway.
After dinner and catching up a bit Una dropped us back to the fabulous Indian Wells Resort Hotel, as there wasn't really room for us in Una's house. The hotel is literally only around the corner (amazing really, given the spread-out nature of American developments), and it was all very plush, comfortable and 5-starry.
The next day, Christmas Eve, we popped around to Una's for lunch and dinner with my Ma (Una and Eithne were out for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner with an old friend). We had a great big Irish fry for dinner, which was great for me and Sarah after so long.
So on Christmas Day, again after our daily hotel breakfast followed by a swim in the huge hotel pool and roasting hot jacuzzi, we again strolled around to Una's. After all the opening of Christmas presents (where both myself and Sarah were spoilt rotten), we relaxed as the girls prepared the dinner. About 5pm Una's great friend Virginia arrived to join us all for the meal.
Virginia is a fantastic character, with another fantastic accent to rival Jimmy's neighbour Hank in Rosarito, this time from Georgia. She used to be Una's next-door neighbour, but recently moved into a nearby care home, but is totally independent and very vivacious - a great example to us all at a sprightly 85 years old. So we had a great time chatting over a huge, perfectly prepared Christmas dinner, and somehow I even had space for some trifle and Eithne's specialty chrimbo-pud!
The next day myself and Sarah just relaxed in the hotel for the morning and afternoon, and headed around to Una's again for dinner, this time having my Ma's gorgeous traditional (for me anyway) turkey soup for starters. After dinner I had a bit of an ordeal getting our photos transferred to DVD's for my Ma to take home (the battery on the camera is dead and I couldn't find a power adapter to recharge it anywhere - nor would any of the hotels in Las Vegas give us one, until eventually I found one on the very new and snazzy Virgin America Airbus flight to San Francisco!).
Next morning, again after the usual leisurely breakfast, swim and jacuzzi, we strolled around to Una's for the last time for a spot of lunch before Una dropped us back to the Greyhound station for our bus to Las Vegas. We both had a fantastic time in Indian Wells - the luxury of the hotel was a really huge treat, the genuinely cosy homeliness of Una's house wonderfully decked out with decorations, and having my Ma and aunts prepare such fantastic meals from home really made this Christmas very memorable.
It was a bit strange to be packing up our rucksacks and hitting the road again after being taken care of for so long, firstly by Jimmy and his family, and then my Mother and aunts. All the usual little niggly fears and anxieties about heading out into the big unknown reappeared but the big consolation this time (along with the ever-present consolation of 'adventure' of course), was that we were headed for Vegas baby!
Friday, December 26, 2008
In the USA at last
The drive to the US border was very quick and easy, and in fact Jimmy, being a long-term US resident, managed to get through in about 15 minutes, since he has a Sentri pass that allows pretty much automatic passage. We, on the other hand, had to queue up with the Mexicans to go through proper immigration. This turned out to involve waiting in line for about 2.5 hours. Luckily the weather was great (there had been a lot of heavy rain recently), and eventually we managed to get through, where poor Jimmy was patiently waiting for us on the other side.
Once through the border we flew up the American highways back to Jimmy's home in Huntington beach, where his family very kindly put up with us for the next 3 days. Jimmy works in construction, specialising in remodelling, the new buzzword in Southern California at the moment it seems, and he'd finished adding a whole new story to their house about a year ago. He did an amazing job, and the house really is a great example of the 'American Dream'. So it was here we met the whole family, Jimmy's wife Pat, and the three kids, Colin, Sean and Brenna.
Jimmy and Pat seem to be something of a focal point for much of the local community, and on our very first evening we were taken along to two Christmas parties at the neighbours. The following evening we were taken to a third, and all three houses had been recently remodeled and all were fabulous (including one house with an amazing 'data room' that controlled all the CAT-5 wiring). Of course we got to meet lots and lots of people, and naturally we had we relate our 19-month travel odyssey repeatedly, but it was all great fun and gave me a great insight into local American culture (interestingly America has been the only place where people asked if I was 'independently wealthy' to be able to travel so long - answer, 'No, it just a lot cheaper than everyone imagines').
One of the days Jimmy took us up to Newport Beach, a district famous for it's concentration of celebrities over the years, and we did a 45-minute harbour cruise seeing all the amazing houses and moored yachts, many decked out in extravagant Christmas lighting. Another day we accompanied Jimmy and Pat for a bit of Christmas shopping - all of which seemed ridiculously easy and hassle-free, with no crowds or queues of people, not even any traffic to talk about - literally an entire world away from Grafton Street in Dublin!
We even got to go to Church with the whole Parker family, which was interesting. Although it was a Catholic mass, it differed from home in a few small ways, with both myself and Sarah just a tad uncomfortable with all the hand-holding and clapping along to the songs...
On our last night Jimmy and Pat took us out to one of their favorite restaurants, Thai Dishes. Brenna, Sean and a friend of Sean's came out with us, so we got to order and share lots of different dishes. I reckoned this was probably the best Thai meal I've had outside Thailand, and luckily it gave me a chance to repay some of Pat and Jimmy's great kindness to us over our stay in Mexico and California (although of course given Jimmy's nature and generosity I had to be a tad sneaky about it!).
Next morning Jimmy drove us up to the Greyhound station in Long Beach, and next thing we know we're on a bus up to Indio to catch up with my Mum who is over with her sister Eithne to visit my other Aunt, Una, who lives in Indian Wells.
Once through the border we flew up the American highways back to Jimmy's home in Huntington beach, where his family very kindly put up with us for the next 3 days. Jimmy works in construction, specialising in remodelling, the new buzzword in Southern California at the moment it seems, and he'd finished adding a whole new story to their house about a year ago. He did an amazing job, and the house really is a great example of the 'American Dream'. So it was here we met the whole family, Jimmy's wife Pat, and the three kids, Colin, Sean and Brenna.
Jimmy and Pat seem to be something of a focal point for much of the local community, and on our very first evening we were taken along to two Christmas parties at the neighbours. The following evening we were taken to a third, and all three houses had been recently remodeled and all were fabulous (including one house with an amazing 'data room' that controlled all the CAT-5 wiring). Of course we got to meet lots and lots of people, and naturally we had we relate our 19-month travel odyssey repeatedly, but it was all great fun and gave me a great insight into local American culture (interestingly America has been the only place where people asked if I was 'independently wealthy' to be able to travel so long - answer, 'No, it just a lot cheaper than everyone imagines').
One of the days Jimmy took us up to Newport Beach, a district famous for it's concentration of celebrities over the years, and we did a 45-minute harbour cruise seeing all the amazing houses and moored yachts, many decked out in extravagant Christmas lighting. Another day we accompanied Jimmy and Pat for a bit of Christmas shopping - all of which seemed ridiculously easy and hassle-free, with no crowds or queues of people, not even any traffic to talk about - literally an entire world away from Grafton Street in Dublin!
We even got to go to Church with the whole Parker family, which was interesting. Although it was a Catholic mass, it differed from home in a few small ways, with both myself and Sarah just a tad uncomfortable with all the hand-holding and clapping along to the songs...
On our last night Jimmy and Pat took us out to one of their favorite restaurants, Thai Dishes. Brenna, Sean and a friend of Sean's came out with us, so we got to order and share lots of different dishes. I reckoned this was probably the best Thai meal I've had outside Thailand, and luckily it gave me a chance to repay some of Pat and Jimmy's great kindness to us over our stay in Mexico and California (although of course given Jimmy's nature and generosity I had to be a tad sneaky about it!).
Next morning Jimmy drove us up to the Greyhound station in Long Beach, and next thing we know we're on a bus up to Indio to catch up with my Mum who is over with her sister Eithne to visit my other Aunt, Una, who lives in Indian Wells.
Last days in Mexico
Our flight to Tijuana arrived at about 10:30pm, but thankfully Sarah's cousin Jimmy had driven down from California to pick us up. Sarah was a tad nervous she might not recognise him, since they haven't seen each other for about 25 years or so. But seeing as how we were the only even vaguely Gringo-looking backpackers, and Jimmy looks like an uncanny mix of Sarah's brother and father, we didn't have any problems finding each other.
So Jimmy took us out for a quick bite to eat in a local Mexican place (just about everywhere was closed at this time of night), before dropping us back to his holiday home in Rosarito, a town about 30 minutes South from Tijuana airport. We spent two nights there with Jimmy, meeting his resident neighbours Hank and Nancy (both retired and fabulously friendly and welcoming, especially with Hank's infectious Boston accent). We also had the honour of meeting the crazy, zany Brandy.
Our only full day in Rosarito Jimmy drove us into the small town where he had a small bit of business to attend to while I got my hair cut, and then after a quick stroll through the depressingly quite local market (Mexican drug-wars are generating a lot of very bad press in the States at the moment, so tourists are few and far between), we drove down along the dramatic coastline and into Mexican wine country. We had two wine tastings, both in vineyards that were every bit as plush and modern as the vineyards we've visited in South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Later that night was our last authentic Mexican dinner with all Jimmy's Rosarito mates before Hank drove us all home.
The following day was a lazy start, and after a very quick dip in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean just outside Jimmy's beach house we headed up towards the US border (after Jimmy had to pay a wee bribe to a Mexican motorcycle cop who'd caught him driving up a closed-off road to try and skip the huge queue of cars heading for the border post - d'oh!).
So Jimmy took us out for a quick bite to eat in a local Mexican place (just about everywhere was closed at this time of night), before dropping us back to his holiday home in Rosarito, a town about 30 minutes South from Tijuana airport. We spent two nights there with Jimmy, meeting his resident neighbours Hank and Nancy (both retired and fabulously friendly and welcoming, especially with Hank's infectious Boston accent). We also had the honour of meeting the crazy, zany Brandy.
Our only full day in Rosarito Jimmy drove us into the small town where he had a small bit of business to attend to while I got my hair cut, and then after a quick stroll through the depressingly quite local market (Mexican drug-wars are generating a lot of very bad press in the States at the moment, so tourists are few and far between), we drove down along the dramatic coastline and into Mexican wine country. We had two wine tastings, both in vineyards that were every bit as plush and modern as the vineyards we've visited in South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Later that night was our last authentic Mexican dinner with all Jimmy's Rosarito mates before Hank drove us all home.
The following day was a lazy start, and after a very quick dip in the freezing cold Pacific Ocean just outside Jimmy's beach house we headed up towards the US border (after Jimmy had to pay a wee bribe to a Mexican motorcycle cop who'd caught him driving up a closed-off road to try and skip the huge queue of cars heading for the border post - d'oh!).
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Mexico City
I remember studying Mexico City in geography class in school, and my memories of it from then are all pretty negative - a massive, sprawling city choked by thick pollution, with maddening crowds and dangerous muggers everywhere. By now of course, with all my traveling, I know to pay little or no heed to such generalisations, and I'm delighted I did.
Our one day sojourn to Mexico City was probably one of my favorite 'days out' of the whole trip so far. We did have to walk a far bit in the morning to catch a bus to the main terminal (because buses aren't allowed in the city centre), but once there we caught a bus direct to Mexico City straight away. It arrived on time too, passing very impressive volcanoes on the way.
At the Mexico City bus terminal it was really easy to hop on the metro and go straight to the main plaza, one of the biggest in the world apparently. From there we strolled about the centre, checking out various free or cheap museums (seeing as how we only had one day there was no point paying for the big, expensive museums). We also checked out some really great cafes, restaurants and bars of course, the best certainly being Sanborns headquarters (the tile house), La Opera Bar, and where we had a great dinner Cafe Tacuba (although the waitress got quite snotty with Sarah 'cos she felt her tip wasn't enough, but she'd been snooty all along, so good luck to her...!).
Towards the end of the day we got another metro up to the most famous religious shrine in Mexico, the Basilica of Guadalupe. This is famous for a shroud that apparently had an image of the virgin Mary (or a local version) just miraculously appear one day. It was all pretty miraculous alright, although the most miraculous thing is that literally millions of Catholics come here every year to see, and take photos, of this shroud.
I was expected something vaguely authentic looking, something a bit like the Shroud of Turin (which most people with a working brain now accept as a fake), but in fact the image is a nice colourful affair looking exactly as if some local artist had painted in on a cloak.
But the new basilica itself (the old one is being restored), is mighty impressive architecturally - especially the Star Trek teleporter system hanging from the ceiling!
So hopping back on the metro and back to the centre, we relaxed in a couple of the cool bars again (including the 4th story terrace of the Gran Hotel, which has a really fantastic foyer and nice views of the plaza). Then it was back to the bus terminal, and after a bit of a frenzy finding our way around we hopped on a bus back to Puebla (waiting time about 1 minute).
We got back to Puebla just after 23:00, so there were no local buses. Luckily though they have the fixed-price taxi system here, so we just got our taxi ticket in the terminal and hopped in a taxi straight back to the hostel.
Next day was a leisurely start with a quick delicious taco from Taco Tony's down the road, before using the free internet service in the tourist office for a few hours sorting out various California travel issues. Then yet another gorgeous dinner in the small, cosy La Gardenia restaurant (trying the local speciality of Chile en Noganda) before more internet (writing this), and then busing it to the airport for our flight to Tijuana.
Puebla
Long distance bus prices in Mexico are high, so I was expecting a top-notch bus for our overnight trip from Palenque to Puebla. It turned out to be just a fairly ordinary affair without the service of Argentinian buses (dinner, sparkling wine and bingo!), or the only-three-seats-across-each-row buses of Brazil, but I'm well used to long bus journeys now, so it was a grand journey in the end and I managed a fair bit of sleep.
We arrived at Puebla in the early morning, at the huge, very clean and modern bus terminal. We hopped on a local bus towards the centre, and luckily had a couple of friendly locals telling us where to get off. Apparently the city has major traffic problems, so buses don't go into the very centre of the city, meaning I had to stroll a bit to get my bearings. Then it was a bit more strolling to the recommended hostels, with Sarah doing her usual door-to-door price checking.
The Hotel Cathedral was the best option, again not mentioned in the guidebook, but right beside places that are. We got a room with very high ceilings and fantastic cornicing but only partition walls, and after a couple of hours sleep (any more would just screw up our mental 24-hour clocks), it was time to explore a bit.
The city really is beautiful, with the usual main plaza surrounded by porticoed cafes and shops, and of course the obligatory huge cathedral. The following day was proper exploration, taking in a few of the museums and churches (one having a cool, undecomposed body of a monk that was pretty stunning really), although Sarah had a dicky tummy and went back to the hostel early.
Seeing as how we'd managed to travel all the way up through Central America so easily and quickly we had a full day spare in Puebla before flying up to Tijuana, so early the next morning we decided to hop on a bus for the 2 hour bus trip to Mexico City.
We arrived at Puebla in the early morning, at the huge, very clean and modern bus terminal. We hopped on a local bus towards the centre, and luckily had a couple of friendly locals telling us where to get off. Apparently the city has major traffic problems, so buses don't go into the very centre of the city, meaning I had to stroll a bit to get my bearings. Then it was a bit more strolling to the recommended hostels, with Sarah doing her usual door-to-door price checking.
The Hotel Cathedral was the best option, again not mentioned in the guidebook, but right beside places that are. We got a room with very high ceilings and fantastic cornicing but only partition walls, and after a couple of hours sleep (any more would just screw up our mental 24-hour clocks), it was time to explore a bit.
The city really is beautiful, with the usual main plaza surrounded by porticoed cafes and shops, and of course the obligatory huge cathedral. The following day was proper exploration, taking in a few of the museums and churches (one having a cool, undecomposed body of a monk that was pretty stunning really), although Sarah had a dicky tummy and went back to the hostel early.
Seeing as how we'd managed to travel all the way up through Central America so easily and quickly we had a full day spare in Puebla before flying up to Tijuana, so early the next morning we decided to hop on a bus for the 2 hour bus trip to Mexico City.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Palenque, Mayan ruins number three
Our first night in Palenque we arranged to meet Sarah for dinner in a local restaurant called Las Tinajas, and spent the late afternoon sorting out money and having a drink on the main plaza (which at dusk was invaded by thousands of squawking birds).
The meal in Las Tinajas was probably the best Mexican meal I've ever tasted, and the salsa sauce was one of the tastiest and hottest I've ever tried too. We all ordered local Mexican stuff, and it was all gorgeous.
Next morning, not too early, we got a minibus from just outside our hostel to the ruins of Palenque, only 8kms away. We paid the cheap entrance fee (the cheapest by far of all the Mayan ruins we've visited), and strolled about the site. Again all extremely impressive, and quite different from both Copan and Tikal. The setting here is fantastic, set in dense jungle, and this time we got great views of the resident howler monkeys. The sound these monkeys make really is incredible - I reckon it sounds exactly like nasty zombies in a horror movie or something, all very eerie and not a little disconcerting, and all extremely loud! (In fact, according to Wikipedia '...they are considered the loudest land animal. According to Guinness Book of World Records, it can be heard clearly for 3 miles.')
The weather was back to being spectacular again, and luckily this site isn't so large or spread out. So we took long leisurely rest stops atop temples and palaces, and just took our time ambling about (and eating our packed sandwiches from the top of the Temple of the Cross, the highest structure there, looking out over the ruins and the dense jungle all around us). One small criticism I would have about Palenque though is the number of hawkers allowed to push their wares inside the site itself (at the other Mayan sites the hawkers are all kept outside the gates). They were all over the place, all selling the same stuff, and it seemed a bit of a desecration of the ancient sacred site.
Anyway, on our way out of the ruins we visited the museum. Everything here was impressive, some of it extremely so, but the highlight by far for me was the amazingly huge and intricately carved stone sarcophagus of one of the greatest Maya rulers. It was beautifully presented I must say and certainly the single most impressive artifact of all the sites we visited.
Later that night we meet up with Sarah again, and a Turkish guy who was also on our trip from Tikal, and went for dinner in another guidebook recommended restaurant, La Selva. This time though the food was disappointingly mediocre, so of course the books don't always get it right.
That night we booked our last major bus ride up to the town of Puebla, from where we fly up to Tijuana. The bus was at 7pm though, so the next day we had a nice long lie-in and I spent most of the day using the Internet trying to organise our next major leg of this trip to Asia.
The meal in Las Tinajas was probably the best Mexican meal I've ever tasted, and the salsa sauce was one of the tastiest and hottest I've ever tried too. We all ordered local Mexican stuff, and it was all gorgeous.
Next morning, not too early, we got a minibus from just outside our hostel to the ruins of Palenque, only 8kms away. We paid the cheap entrance fee (the cheapest by far of all the Mayan ruins we've visited), and strolled about the site. Again all extremely impressive, and quite different from both Copan and Tikal. The setting here is fantastic, set in dense jungle, and this time we got great views of the resident howler monkeys. The sound these monkeys make really is incredible - I reckon it sounds exactly like nasty zombies in a horror movie or something, all very eerie and not a little disconcerting, and all extremely loud! (In fact, according to Wikipedia '...they are considered the loudest land animal. According to Guinness Book of World Records, it can be heard clearly for 3 miles.')
The weather was back to being spectacular again, and luckily this site isn't so large or spread out. So we took long leisurely rest stops atop temples and palaces, and just took our time ambling about (and eating our packed sandwiches from the top of the Temple of the Cross, the highest structure there, looking out over the ruins and the dense jungle all around us). One small criticism I would have about Palenque though is the number of hawkers allowed to push their wares inside the site itself (at the other Mayan sites the hawkers are all kept outside the gates). They were all over the place, all selling the same stuff, and it seemed a bit of a desecration of the ancient sacred site.
Anyway, on our way out of the ruins we visited the museum. Everything here was impressive, some of it extremely so, but the highlight by far for me was the amazingly huge and intricately carved stone sarcophagus of one of the greatest Maya rulers. It was beautifully presented I must say and certainly the single most impressive artifact of all the sites we visited.
Later that night we meet up with Sarah again, and a Turkish guy who was also on our trip from Tikal, and went for dinner in another guidebook recommended restaurant, La Selva. This time though the food was disappointingly mediocre, so of course the books don't always get it right.
That night we booked our last major bus ride up to the town of Puebla, from where we fly up to Tijuana. The bus was at 7pm though, so the next day we had a nice long lie-in and I spent most of the day using the Internet trying to organise our next major leg of this trip to Asia.
Getting to Mexico
So the trip into Mexico turned out to be yet another doodle. Our comfortable minibus picked us up on time, and after just a bit of messing about at the tour agency office we heading straight to the border. Booking through an agency does have it's advantages alright, in this case having a direct, non-stop bus journey and a waiting bus on the far side of the border, but I still much prefer getting the local transport in general. It's invariably much less expensive, but also has a lot more character and just feels so much more 'real' when you're the only Westerner on the whole big crowded bus, as opposed to being in a minibus surrounded by German and French backpackers.
Anyway, our bus brought us as far as a river and after about 10 minutes we all boarded a longboat for the very nice 45 minute river trip to the border post itself. It was here that we met Sarah, an Irish teacher on a six month trip around Central and South America.
At the Guatemalan immigration desk the official asked for what I thought was a sizeable fee (in fact it was only a small fee, but I still hadn't gotten used to the currency). I knew this was just them being cheeky, as a few officials at other borders had also asked for fees that other tourists had told me they just refused to pay. The other times though, the fee was very small (only a couple of US dollars each or whatever), so although I knew that they were being cheeky I just paid, as not having proper Spanish makes any discussion pretty much impossible.
This time though I thought the fee was high, and I had no local currency left anyway, and no small denomination US dollars either (and if I paid using a high denomination note they'd screw me by giving me change in local currency at a ridiculous exchange rate). But luckily the other Sarah had very good Spanish. She'd also been in and out of Mexico 3 times already, and so she knew that officially you don't need to pay any fee. Strangely though she seemed prepared to pay this fee, asking the rest of us in the group (6 of us in total) what we thought. I told her pretty clearly that I had no intention of paying a cent, and asked her to simply use her good Spanish to explain that to the official. Without any fuss at all the guy just simply nodded, stamped our passports, gave them back to us and said 'gracias'. It still seems strange to me now that these guys could so casually try to rip people off, but that's travel I guess...
Mexican immigration was quick and painless, and involved no direct fee (we do have to pay an immigration fee at a bank, but we can do that at any time before we leave Mexico). Then it was on another bus direct to the town of Palenque, only about 3 hours away. This minibus did take on local people along the route though, and so was practically the same as the usual public transport, as opposed to a dedicated tour agency bus.
So all-in-all the trip was quick and painless, and we arrived in Palenque nice and early in the afternoon. Sarah traipsed off to find a hostel and again found a great deal in a place not mentioned in the guidebooks (all the other 5 backpackers on our bus paid at least twice what we paid because all of them choose guidebook places - strange...).
Anyway, our bus brought us as far as a river and after about 10 minutes we all boarded a longboat for the very nice 45 minute river trip to the border post itself. It was here that we met Sarah, an Irish teacher on a six month trip around Central and South America.
At the Guatemalan immigration desk the official asked for what I thought was a sizeable fee (in fact it was only a small fee, but I still hadn't gotten used to the currency). I knew this was just them being cheeky, as a few officials at other borders had also asked for fees that other tourists had told me they just refused to pay. The other times though, the fee was very small (only a couple of US dollars each or whatever), so although I knew that they were being cheeky I just paid, as not having proper Spanish makes any discussion pretty much impossible.
This time though I thought the fee was high, and I had no local currency left anyway, and no small denomination US dollars either (and if I paid using a high denomination note they'd screw me by giving me change in local currency at a ridiculous exchange rate). But luckily the other Sarah had very good Spanish. She'd also been in and out of Mexico 3 times already, and so she knew that officially you don't need to pay any fee. Strangely though she seemed prepared to pay this fee, asking the rest of us in the group (6 of us in total) what we thought. I told her pretty clearly that I had no intention of paying a cent, and asked her to simply use her good Spanish to explain that to the official. Without any fuss at all the guy just simply nodded, stamped our passports, gave them back to us and said 'gracias'. It still seems strange to me now that these guys could so casually try to rip people off, but that's travel I guess...
Mexican immigration was quick and painless, and involved no direct fee (we do have to pay an immigration fee at a bank, but we can do that at any time before we leave Mexico). Then it was on another bus direct to the town of Palenque, only about 3 hours away. This minibus did take on local people along the route though, and so was practically the same as the usual public transport, as opposed to a dedicated tour agency bus.
So all-in-all the trip was quick and painless, and we arrived in Palenque nice and early in the afternoon. Sarah traipsed off to find a hostel and again found a great deal in a place not mentioned in the guidebooks (all the other 5 backpackers on our bus paid at least twice what we paid because all of them choose guidebook places - strange...).
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tikal, Mayan ruins number two
I'd noticed tour agencies in Copan offering bus tickets direct to Tikal in Guatemala for $40US each, which would certainly have been convenient, but I reckoned just getting local public transport would work out much cheaper. Indeed it did, only costing us about $16US each, and the whole thing was yet again really easy (anyone reading this back home has to realise of course that saving $24US so easily is a fairly big deal when your daily budget is only about $25US).
6am in the morning we caught the local bus to the border, and had no queues or bother at immigration. Sarah had to change money with a moneychanger guy though as there was no bank or ATM, but it wasn't too painful and soon we were on our way up towards the town of Santa Elena, the main staging post for getting to the Maya site of Tikal.
We knew we had to change buses at Chiquimala, but luckily the minibus conductor guy was really friendly and led us through the streets and local markets to the connecting bus company (he even insisted on carrying my rucksack for me). It turned out he was really after his small commission from the other bus company, but at least he didn't try to hit us for a tip, and without his help we would have had a real problem finding the right place.
Our connecting bus was leaving in 30 minutes, so I had plenty of time to get to an ATM and get some Guatemalan money. On the way I saw the sickest looking dog I've ever seen - incredible to realise it was still alive. I've seen some sorry looking dogs before in Asia, but this poor guy really was heart-wrenching (and I'm sure I'll see a lot more, even worse cases once I get to India). Anyway, our bus left spot on time and arrived in Santa Elena on time too. The bus actually left us a wee bit outside the town, but a cheap minibus was waiting to ferry passengers (only us as it happened) into the town.
After a bit of debating as to where to go, we got the minibus to leave us at a cheap place outside the main tourist area of Flores (as it was closer to the bus terminals). The cheap place recommended in the book wasn't so cheap - it's a very common problem with the guidebooks, but you just use them as a guide, and nearly always find a much cheaper place very nearby. That's exactly what we did again here, and so settled into the Hotel Alonso.
The hotel booked our bus transfer to the ruins for the next morning. After having so few other tourists at Copan, I reckoned there was a good chance Tikal would be kinda quite too, and so I didn't book a mad early bus (they start at 4am!), booking the 6am bus instead (it's over an hour bus ride to the ruins).
Again the ruins here at Tikal are incredible - really something only personal experience can do justice. The weather this time was very overcast, but in fact it kept the temperature at a nice comfortable level, which was convenient given the large amount of walking we had to do to see the entire site, as it's all very spread out.
Again we did our usual of eating breakfast and lunch atop a mad temple, and again the ruins were amazingly quiet, although there were a few more people milling about than at Copan.
Back in Santa Elena we sorted out a bus to Mexico, and this time I did decide to get a tour agency bus. In this case the price didn't seem so exorbitant and according to our guidebooks the border crossing into Mexico is much more awkward, as it involves a river crossing. It also meant not having to worry about moneychangers and negotiating prices in an unfamiliar currency with bus drivers and boatmen. So with that bus ticket sorted out I could relax, and we strolled across the causeway from Santa Elena to the lovely island of Flores.
Here we strolled about along the waterfronts, had a drink in a nice waterfront bar at sunset before trying a Japanese restaurant for a change. It turned out to be a great choice as the food was delicious and the view over the full-moon illuminated lake was top-notch. It was then a nice leisurely stroll back to our hotel and yet another crazy early start the next morning for the bus journey across into Mexico.
6am in the morning we caught the local bus to the border, and had no queues or bother at immigration. Sarah had to change money with a moneychanger guy though as there was no bank or ATM, but it wasn't too painful and soon we were on our way up towards the town of Santa Elena, the main staging post for getting to the Maya site of Tikal.
We knew we had to change buses at Chiquimala, but luckily the minibus conductor guy was really friendly and led us through the streets and local markets to the connecting bus company (he even insisted on carrying my rucksack for me). It turned out he was really after his small commission from the other bus company, but at least he didn't try to hit us for a tip, and without his help we would have had a real problem finding the right place.
Our connecting bus was leaving in 30 minutes, so I had plenty of time to get to an ATM and get some Guatemalan money. On the way I saw the sickest looking dog I've ever seen - incredible to realise it was still alive. I've seen some sorry looking dogs before in Asia, but this poor guy really was heart-wrenching (and I'm sure I'll see a lot more, even worse cases once I get to India). Anyway, our bus left spot on time and arrived in Santa Elena on time too. The bus actually left us a wee bit outside the town, but a cheap minibus was waiting to ferry passengers (only us as it happened) into the town.
After a bit of debating as to where to go, we got the minibus to leave us at a cheap place outside the main tourist area of Flores (as it was closer to the bus terminals). The cheap place recommended in the book wasn't so cheap - it's a very common problem with the guidebooks, but you just use them as a guide, and nearly always find a much cheaper place very nearby. That's exactly what we did again here, and so settled into the Hotel Alonso.
The hotel booked our bus transfer to the ruins for the next morning. After having so few other tourists at Copan, I reckoned there was a good chance Tikal would be kinda quite too, and so I didn't book a mad early bus (they start at 4am!), booking the 6am bus instead (it's over an hour bus ride to the ruins).
Again the ruins here at Tikal are incredible - really something only personal experience can do justice. The weather this time was very overcast, but in fact it kept the temperature at a nice comfortable level, which was convenient given the large amount of walking we had to do to see the entire site, as it's all very spread out.
Again we did our usual of eating breakfast and lunch atop a mad temple, and again the ruins were amazingly quiet, although there were a few more people milling about than at Copan.
Back in Santa Elena we sorted out a bus to Mexico, and this time I did decide to get a tour agency bus. In this case the price didn't seem so exorbitant and according to our guidebooks the border crossing into Mexico is much more awkward, as it involves a river crossing. It also meant not having to worry about moneychangers and negotiating prices in an unfamiliar currency with bus drivers and boatmen. So with that bus ticket sorted out I could relax, and we strolled across the causeway from Santa Elena to the lovely island of Flores.
Here we strolled about along the waterfronts, had a drink in a nice waterfront bar at sunset before trying a Japanese restaurant for a change. It turned out to be a great choice as the food was delicious and the view over the full-moon illuminated lake was top-notch. It was then a nice leisurely stroll back to our hotel and yet another crazy early start the next morning for the bus journey across into Mexico.
Copan, our first Mayan ruins
The ferry left Utila spot on time (06:20), and after another super-smooth crossing we arrived back on the mainland. Two local bus rides later and we arrived at the bus terminal literally as a bus to San Pedro was pulling out.
At San Pedro we were met by a bus company representative to escort us across and through the massive new bus terminal to where our connecting bus to Copan would be leaving. It was here that we met up with Erin, an Ozzie girl travelling the same way as us for a bit, and so we had some lunch and a chat with her while waiting for the bus to depart.
The journey to Copan was again very comfy and straightforward and we arrived just before dark. We got a fantastic price for a couple of nights in a nice posada and then headed out for dinner. The small town is really lovely I think, and we had a fantastic meal in the lovely Carnitas Nia Lola restaurant (with waitresses balancing wine bottles and food on their heads). It was so good we went back the next night too with Erin, but of course it didn't seem as great then.
So the next morning it was another early start to stroll the nice 1km walk from the town to the famous Maya ruins of Copan. It seemed we were the first tourists to arrive and I was anxious to get through the ticket desk and into the site before the hordes arrived. But in fact we only saw maybe 20 or 30 people on the entire site for the entire day we were there - and half of those were gardeners or guides!
The site really is amazing and well deserves the hype it gets. There's no point in me trying to describe it really, it's all here.
I had deliberately waited to have breakfast at the ruins themselves, and as soon as we arrived at the Grand Plaza, the focal centre of the ruins, we scaled up the really cool temple that's smack-bang in the centre (after checking first if it was OK with a guard). So there we are in the middle of the Maya Grand Plaza of Copan, sitting on the top of the cool pyramidal temple without a single other tourist in sight just casually having our breakfast, when a flock of 4 gorgeous scarlet macaws fly straight past us in close formation - a truly spectacular sight to see anywhere, but all the better for the setting we were in of course.
We spent the entire day just strolling about and climbing the various ruins, many of which are in fantastic condition. Having the place almost completely to ourselves was a real treat, and of course the weather was just perfect too. The huge museum at the site was very impressive too, especially the reconstruction of one of the ancient temples that is actually buried inside a more recent temple.
Later in the day I strolled up to a neighbouring ruin site, and literally had the entire place to myself. Back in the town it was dinner with Erin and another early night, as it was another very early start to get across the border into Guatemala and try to make it up to the even more famous Maya ruins of Tikal.
At San Pedro we were met by a bus company representative to escort us across and through the massive new bus terminal to where our connecting bus to Copan would be leaving. It was here that we met up with Erin, an Ozzie girl travelling the same way as us for a bit, and so we had some lunch and a chat with her while waiting for the bus to depart.
The journey to Copan was again very comfy and straightforward and we arrived just before dark. We got a fantastic price for a couple of nights in a nice posada and then headed out for dinner. The small town is really lovely I think, and we had a fantastic meal in the lovely Carnitas Nia Lola restaurant (with waitresses balancing wine bottles and food on their heads). It was so good we went back the next night too with Erin, but of course it didn't seem as great then.
So the next morning it was another early start to stroll the nice 1km walk from the town to the famous Maya ruins of Copan. It seemed we were the first tourists to arrive and I was anxious to get through the ticket desk and into the site before the hordes arrived. But in fact we only saw maybe 20 or 30 people on the entire site for the entire day we were there - and half of those were gardeners or guides!
The site really is amazing and well deserves the hype it gets. There's no point in me trying to describe it really, it's all here.
I had deliberately waited to have breakfast at the ruins themselves, and as soon as we arrived at the Grand Plaza, the focal centre of the ruins, we scaled up the really cool temple that's smack-bang in the centre (after checking first if it was OK with a guard). So there we are in the middle of the Maya Grand Plaza of Copan, sitting on the top of the cool pyramidal temple without a single other tourist in sight just casually having our breakfast, when a flock of 4 gorgeous scarlet macaws fly straight past us in close formation - a truly spectacular sight to see anywhere, but all the better for the setting we were in of course.
We spent the entire day just strolling about and climbing the various ruins, many of which are in fantastic condition. Having the place almost completely to ourselves was a real treat, and of course the weather was just perfect too. The huge museum at the site was very impressive too, especially the reconstruction of one of the ancient temples that is actually buried inside a more recent temple.
Later in the day I strolled up to a neighbouring ruin site, and literally had the entire place to myself. Back in the town it was dinner with Erin and another early night, as it was another very early start to get across the border into Guatemala and try to make it up to the even more famous Maya ruins of Tikal.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Utila and scuba diving
We arrived on the island of Utila just before dark, and Sarah had her usual task of running around the place scoping out sleeping options. When she got back I then ran around scoping out scuba diving options. The whole point of coming all this way was to take advantage of the world famous diving opportunities here. I knew it was low-season, and that the conditions wouldn't be great, but the Bay Islands are also famous for being one of the cheapest places in the world to get certified as a diver.
So Sarah's christmas present this year is to get qualified as a PADI scuba diver. The tiny town (more a village really) has got 11 diving operations, so I ran about checking out as many as I could as quickly as I could. It quickly became apparent that the various operators here have a price fixing thing going on, as every single place quoted identical prices for scuba courses and for individual dives - every place except one that is. Paradise divers was the only place offering cheaper options, and for some reason they were much cheaper ($229 instead of $271 for a course and $40 for 2 fun dives instead of $59). They also throw in free accommodation and 2 fun dives for doing a training course (most operators offered those freebies too, or slight variations).
So the choice of place to stay, and which scuba operator, was pretty self-evident. Of course I checked out the gear first, and although it certainly wasn't brand new or anything, it all looked in good enough condition and I got a good feeling from chatting to the guys running the place. So Sarah started her 3-day course the very next morning, as we are pretty much restricted in time now having booked a flight to Tijuana for December 18th. I spent the day exploring the town, buying and preparing lunch, strolling to the beaches either end of the town and checking out dive options for me in a bit more detail. It turned out Paradise Divers were the best option for my dives too, and the following morning I went diving with them.
Both my dives were pretty good, although being the rainy low-season the visibility wasn't great (about 10 meters or so). But it was immediately clear that this place must be amazing in good conditions. Both my dives were through fabulously varied coral gardens, and even in the overcast and chilly conditions (they didn't have a full wetsuit in my size, so I had to use a shortie - you get what you pay for I guess!), I could easily appreciate what it must be like in clear conditions. I did add a new entry on my ever growing list of crazy critters though, a mad looking toadfish.
These islands are also famous for spotting whale sharks, but again being off-season there is practically no chance of seeing them now (and I forgot about the free lecture on whale sharks the night before we left - d'oh!). So Sarah finished her course with flying colours, and the following day it was back on the road and catching the 6:20am ferry back to the mainland to make a mad dash for the famous Mayan archaeological site of Copan.
So Sarah's christmas present this year is to get qualified as a PADI scuba diver. The tiny town (more a village really) has got 11 diving operations, so I ran about checking out as many as I could as quickly as I could. It quickly became apparent that the various operators here have a price fixing thing going on, as every single place quoted identical prices for scuba courses and for individual dives - every place except one that is. Paradise divers was the only place offering cheaper options, and for some reason they were much cheaper ($229 instead of $271 for a course and $40 for 2 fun dives instead of $59). They also throw in free accommodation and 2 fun dives for doing a training course (most operators offered those freebies too, or slight variations).
So the choice of place to stay, and which scuba operator, was pretty self-evident. Of course I checked out the gear first, and although it certainly wasn't brand new or anything, it all looked in good enough condition and I got a good feeling from chatting to the guys running the place. So Sarah started her 3-day course the very next morning, as we are pretty much restricted in time now having booked a flight to Tijuana for December 18th. I spent the day exploring the town, buying and preparing lunch, strolling to the beaches either end of the town and checking out dive options for me in a bit more detail. It turned out Paradise Divers were the best option for my dives too, and the following morning I went diving with them.
Both my dives were pretty good, although being the rainy low-season the visibility wasn't great (about 10 meters or so). But it was immediately clear that this place must be amazing in good conditions. Both my dives were through fabulously varied coral gardens, and even in the overcast and chilly conditions (they didn't have a full wetsuit in my size, so I had to use a shortie - you get what you pay for I guess!), I could easily appreciate what it must be like in clear conditions. I did add a new entry on my ever growing list of crazy critters though, a mad looking toadfish.
These islands are also famous for spotting whale sharks, but again being off-season there is practically no chance of seeing them now (and I forgot about the free lecture on whale sharks the night before we left - d'oh!). So Sarah finished her course with flying colours, and the following day it was back on the road and catching the 6:20am ferry back to the mainland to make a mad dash for the famous Mayan archaeological site of Copan.
Honduras
It was an ambitious target to set, but I reckoned if all went well we could just about make it from Granada in Nicaragua to the caribbean coast of Honduras in one long day. Everything started well with an early bus from Granada to the Nicaraguan capital, Managua and then an easy connection to Ocotal near the border, and another connection on a local bus to the border itself.
Immigration was grand as there was only a tiny queue (luckily enough, as each person took ages to be processed, with more exit and entrance fees being charged ($2US and $3US respectively), and handwritten receipts being issued). But it all fell apart once we started travelling through Honduras!
Luckily enough we found a really helpful immigration official who spoke great English, and he explained that the only direct bus from the border that travelled any large distance wasn't due until 2pm that afternoon. Instead we'd have to get a series of 3 local buses to make it to the Honduran capital, from where we could get connections to the north coast.
We had to wait about 45 minutes for the first bus to depart the border (only travelling 12 kms), then we got an immediate connection on another bus the next 20 kms, before having to wait about an hour for the third connection to the capital (which gave us plenty of time for lunch). Once there though the trouble really began - fustratingly the various bus companys all have their own terminals, they tend to be scattered all over the place and they also appear to move location (as our guidebooks got their locations consistently wrong). It also means when you arrive at one company's terminal and want to get a connection with another company you have to get a taxi to the second terminal.
As always the taxi drivers are guaranteed to try and rip you off, and since the bus terminals had moved from the locations mentioned in our books, we had no idea how far the taxi ride would be and therefore no idea what a fair taxi price should be. Anyway, the first taxi brought us out to a connecting company´s terminal, but due to the earlier delays we had missed the onward bus by about 30 minutes. That would have meant another taxi to a different company to try a bus to a different place along our intended route, but they were all quoting crazy prices (probably knowing we had no idea where we were), but luckily Sarah managed to find out that a local bus would take us there more or less directly to where we wanted to go.
So getting the local bus (literally one-twentieth the cheapest price quoted by the taxi drivers!) we arranged to get a bus to San Pedro Sula, as close to the coast as we could get that night. It gave us time to order a Chinese for dinner, but we had to take it away as they took so long to prepare it. We only ordered one meal between us (portion sizes this whole trip have been huge, and so we now routinely just order one main course between us, except in the mad fancy places of course!), but this one turned out to be hugest one yet - it literally fed us that night, the next morning and we only finished it for lunch the next day.
Arriving in San Pedro Sula we discovered that the bus company terminal had moved miles outside the city. It was mad late now, and so we were forced to get yet another rip-off taxi. Luckily the hostel recommended in the guidebook turned out to be really nice and the guy there was very helpful the next morning negotiating with taxi drivers on our behalf to get us to yet another bus terminal. We had started very early again in the morning hoping to make it to the coast to catch a 9am ferry to the Bay Islands, our ultimate destination.
As it turned out, even locals and taxi drivers can get totally confused by the whole multiple-bus-company-terminal thing, as the terminal our taxi driver dropped us at was the wrong place. Luckily a guy was just leaving though to go to the correct location, and so he took us with him. Basically we had to walk about 10 minutes, catch a local minibus and get off in the middle of nowhere were in fact the correct bus was waiting for us (without that friendly local guy bringing us with him we would never have made that bus).
As it turned out we arrived in La Ceiba (which is close to the ferry point) a little before 9am but I needed to organise money and use internet banking, and the only ATM in the area didn't work. So resigned to missing the 9am ferry we just got a bus into the city centre (one less taxi thank god), and relaxed for most of the day waiting for the 4pm ferry instead (after being falsely informed by some local guy that there was an 11am ferry, and being told by the official tourist office that no ferries run on the weekend - they actually run every day!).
So we finally arrived on the Bay Island of Utila in the caribbean at 5pm, only half-a-day after our ambitious target. Even though travelling through Honduras was extremely fustrating, looking back even now just a couple of days later it wasn't so bad really.
Immigration was grand as there was only a tiny queue (luckily enough, as each person took ages to be processed, with more exit and entrance fees being charged ($2US and $3US respectively), and handwritten receipts being issued). But it all fell apart once we started travelling through Honduras!
Luckily enough we found a really helpful immigration official who spoke great English, and he explained that the only direct bus from the border that travelled any large distance wasn't due until 2pm that afternoon. Instead we'd have to get a series of 3 local buses to make it to the Honduran capital, from where we could get connections to the north coast.
We had to wait about 45 minutes for the first bus to depart the border (only travelling 12 kms), then we got an immediate connection on another bus the next 20 kms, before having to wait about an hour for the third connection to the capital (which gave us plenty of time for lunch). Once there though the trouble really began - fustratingly the various bus companys all have their own terminals, they tend to be scattered all over the place and they also appear to move location (as our guidebooks got their locations consistently wrong). It also means when you arrive at one company's terminal and want to get a connection with another company you have to get a taxi to the second terminal.
As always the taxi drivers are guaranteed to try and rip you off, and since the bus terminals had moved from the locations mentioned in our books, we had no idea how far the taxi ride would be and therefore no idea what a fair taxi price should be. Anyway, the first taxi brought us out to a connecting company´s terminal, but due to the earlier delays we had missed the onward bus by about 30 minutes. That would have meant another taxi to a different company to try a bus to a different place along our intended route, but they were all quoting crazy prices (probably knowing we had no idea where we were), but luckily Sarah managed to find out that a local bus would take us there more or less directly to where we wanted to go.
So getting the local bus (literally one-twentieth the cheapest price quoted by the taxi drivers!) we arranged to get a bus to San Pedro Sula, as close to the coast as we could get that night. It gave us time to order a Chinese for dinner, but we had to take it away as they took so long to prepare it. We only ordered one meal between us (portion sizes this whole trip have been huge, and so we now routinely just order one main course between us, except in the mad fancy places of course!), but this one turned out to be hugest one yet - it literally fed us that night, the next morning and we only finished it for lunch the next day.
Arriving in San Pedro Sula we discovered that the bus company terminal had moved miles outside the city. It was mad late now, and so we were forced to get yet another rip-off taxi. Luckily the hostel recommended in the guidebook turned out to be really nice and the guy there was very helpful the next morning negotiating with taxi drivers on our behalf to get us to yet another bus terminal. We had started very early again in the morning hoping to make it to the coast to catch a 9am ferry to the Bay Islands, our ultimate destination.
As it turned out, even locals and taxi drivers can get totally confused by the whole multiple-bus-company-terminal thing, as the terminal our taxi driver dropped us at was the wrong place. Luckily a guy was just leaving though to go to the correct location, and so he took us with him. Basically we had to walk about 10 minutes, catch a local minibus and get off in the middle of nowhere were in fact the correct bus was waiting for us (without that friendly local guy bringing us with him we would never have made that bus).
As it turned out we arrived in La Ceiba (which is close to the ferry point) a little before 9am but I needed to organise money and use internet banking, and the only ATM in the area didn't work. So resigned to missing the 9am ferry we just got a bus into the city centre (one less taxi thank god), and relaxed for most of the day waiting for the 4pm ferry instead (after being falsely informed by some local guy that there was an 11am ferry, and being told by the official tourist office that no ferries run on the weekend - they actually run every day!).
So we finally arrived on the Bay Island of Utila in the caribbean at 5pm, only half-a-day after our ambitious target. Even though travelling through Honduras was extremely fustrating, looking back even now just a couple of days later it wasn't so bad really.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Granada
The town of Granada is another one of Nicaragua's highlights apparently, and indeed it was a lovely town. We only stayed two nights (Hostal Esfinge), but since we arrived early the first day we had time to stroll about and pretty much check out all the local attractions. These are mainly lovely old churches and impressive colonials buildings, with some nice cafes and restaurants too.
The following day we got a local bus out to the National Parque Volcano Masaya, another cluster of volcanoes. The main volcano here is the most active one in all of Central America, and constantly belches out sulphuric clouds (apparently it can emit between 300 and 3000 tonnes of toxic gases every day, making it one of the world's largest naural polluters). It was certainly in a very toxic mood when we arrived, with the entire wide crater emitting a steady stream of burning cloud. We hiked around the neighbouring crater rim too. It doesn't emit any stream and appears a lot smaller. It makes for fantasic views though, all very Jurassic Park-looking.
Back in the town we strolled about some more and splashed out on dinner in the very fancy El Zaguan, having a gorgeous steak and the local vigoron (the vigoron we'd had the night before on the central square was both cheaper and nicer though!).
Next morning another very early start to try and get through the border and into Honduras...
The following day we got a local bus out to the National Parque Volcano Masaya, another cluster of volcanoes. The main volcano here is the most active one in all of Central America, and constantly belches out sulphuric clouds (apparently it can emit between 300 and 3000 tonnes of toxic gases every day, making it one of the world's largest naural polluters). It was certainly in a very toxic mood when we arrived, with the entire wide crater emitting a steady stream of burning cloud. We hiked around the neighbouring crater rim too. It doesn't emit any stream and appears a lot smaller. It makes for fantasic views though, all very Jurassic Park-looking.
Back in the town we strolled about some more and splashed out on dinner in the very fancy El Zaguan, having a gorgeous steak and the local vigoron (the vigoron we'd had the night before on the central square was both cheaper and nicer though!).
Next morning another very early start to try and get through the border and into Honduras...
Nicaragua and the volcanic islands
Having gotten through immigration so quickly we hopped on a local bus to the town of Rivas (again our lack of Spanish again causing some fustration, but in fact it has never resulted in anything bad happening, things always work out quite quickly). The bus station here was all a bit mad, dirty and hectic but we were on our way again within 20 minutes.
As Nicaragua is one of the cheapest countries in Central America I decided to check out a couple of the countries highlights - first up was the
Isla de Ometepe. This island is formed from two conjoined volcanoes sticking straight up from the fresh lake of Lake Nicaragua (it`s the biggest fresh water island in the world). So once at Rivas we needed to get a taxi to the ferry port in San Jorge in order to get the boat across to the island. We had a bit of time to kill waiting for the ferry, so we relaxed on the shores of the lake and some lunch looked out at the incredibly perfect cone of the bigger of the two volcanoes.
The one hour boat ride gave us fantastic views of the volcanoes as there wasn't much cloud, and the main volcano really is an impressive sight, being prefectly conical. The boat brought us directly to the main town on the island, and I decided to stay here rather than move to another part of the island (the guidebooks recommend other places as being nicer, but we were only staying for a couple of nights so I didn´t fancy the hassle of moving about). I thought the little town was quite nice anyway, and our hostel was friendly and cheery, being basically just a family home with just thin curtains for some of the main walls!
The next day we rented bikes and waited for the bus to take us and our bikes to the far side of the island and just cycle back (the bus was later than we´d been told, another example of locals not having much of a clue about their own buses or boats - it´s just another fustrating trait that has emerges while travelling, but more so it seems in Central America (while I´m on the topic, another annoyance is the total lack of street signs in some places, even major cities. Apparently lots of these places have no postal service, and so no need for addresses. So locals give directions in relation to well-known local landmarks, which is useless to tourists of course, and they have often never seen a map of their own town so they can´t even tell you where you are currently standing!).
Anyway the bus brought us to the other town and after checking out the local church and it´s pretty cool ancient stone statues in the grounds we rode off back towards the main town. We took a 8km detour to check out some local petroglyphs (more ancient stone carvings, these ones mostly weird shapes and symbols), and what is supposed to be the best beach on the whole island, Playa Santo Domingo.
There was no beach, or at least nothing I'd call a beach (the guidebook calls it amazing!), just a very narrow stretch of black volcanic sand at the base of a lovely hotel (maybe the lake is tidal and the tide was in or something). We had a small lunch and a drink at the fancy hotel and then I changed into my swimming shorts for a lovely swim in the very shallow lake (Sarah wasn't tempted - the weather was overcast all day, and we had drizzly rain most of the time. It was very warm though, so the rain was actually quite nice and refreshing). The lake was perfectly flat and calm, and it was weird lying back and watching tiny fish jump from the water all around me.
Then back on our bikes for the long ride back to the town. Luckily this was on a good road, as the 16km roundtrip detour to the beach and petroglyphs had been on a rough dirt road, and so we getting tired. It was a pity the weather was so overcast, as we never really got good views of the volcanoes, but the landscapes were lovely and the little villages we passed were cool.
Next morning we got the ferry back to the mainland (again being told the wrong time by the family we stayed with), and it was a quick enough jaunt to the colonial town of Granada.
As Nicaragua is one of the cheapest countries in Central America I decided to check out a couple of the countries highlights - first up was the
Isla de Ometepe. This island is formed from two conjoined volcanoes sticking straight up from the fresh lake of Lake Nicaragua (it`s the biggest fresh water island in the world). So once at Rivas we needed to get a taxi to the ferry port in San Jorge in order to get the boat across to the island. We had a bit of time to kill waiting for the ferry, so we relaxed on the shores of the lake and some lunch looked out at the incredibly perfect cone of the bigger of the two volcanoes.The one hour boat ride gave us fantastic views of the volcanoes as there wasn't much cloud, and the main volcano really is an impressive sight, being prefectly conical. The boat brought us directly to the main town on the island, and I decided to stay here rather than move to another part of the island (the guidebooks recommend other places as being nicer, but we were only staying for a couple of nights so I didn´t fancy the hassle of moving about). I thought the little town was quite nice anyway, and our hostel was friendly and cheery, being basically just a family home with just thin curtains for some of the main walls!
The next day we rented bikes and waited for the bus to take us and our bikes to the far side of the island and just cycle back (the bus was later than we´d been told, another example of locals not having much of a clue about their own buses or boats - it´s just another fustrating trait that has emerges while travelling, but more so it seems in Central America (while I´m on the topic, another annoyance is the total lack of street signs in some places, even major cities. Apparently lots of these places have no postal service, and so no need for addresses. So locals give directions in relation to well-known local landmarks, which is useless to tourists of course, and they have often never seen a map of their own town so they can´t even tell you where you are currently standing!).
Anyway the bus brought us to the other town and after checking out the local church and it´s pretty cool ancient stone statues in the grounds we rode off back towards the main town. We took a 8km detour to check out some local petroglyphs (more ancient stone carvings, these ones mostly weird shapes and symbols), and what is supposed to be the best beach on the whole island, Playa Santo Domingo.
There was no beach, or at least nothing I'd call a beach (the guidebook calls it amazing!), just a very narrow stretch of black volcanic sand at the base of a lovely hotel (maybe the lake is tidal and the tide was in or something). We had a small lunch and a drink at the fancy hotel and then I changed into my swimming shorts for a lovely swim in the very shallow lake (Sarah wasn't tempted - the weather was overcast all day, and we had drizzly rain most of the time. It was very warm though, so the rain was actually quite nice and refreshing). The lake was perfectly flat and calm, and it was weird lying back and watching tiny fish jump from the water all around me.
Then back on our bikes for the long ride back to the town. Luckily this was on a good road, as the 16km roundtrip detour to the beach and petroglyphs had been on a rough dirt road, and so we getting tired. It was a pity the weather was so overcast, as we never really got good views of the volcanoes, but the landscapes were lovely and the little villages we passed were cool.
Next morning we got the ferry back to the mainland (again being told the wrong time by the family we stayed with), and it was a quick enough jaunt to the colonial town of Granada.
Costa Rica in a blur
The plan had been to fly through Costa Rica without really stopping, as the guidebooks indicated that it is one of the most expensive Central American countries, and so it just made more sense to spend our time in the cheaper countries.
The first bus trip was easy, although we were lucky not to miss the bus completely. It arrived just as we got to the pick-up point and left immediately, even though we were about 5 minutes early. So getting to David we got an immediate connection straight to the border. Luckily there wasn't much of a queue for Panamian immigration, as the processing for each person seemed to take ages.
On the Costa Rican side there was no queue at all, and we just hopped on a bus to the capital, San Jose, pretty much straight away (after the usual bit of confusion caused by our embarrassing lack of Spanish though).
Once in San Jose it was a fairly straightforward walk to the required bus terminal. We had time for a bite to eat and I used the Internet for a bit, and then we were straight off up to Liberia. This was the first indication though of what became an extremely annoying feature of independent bus travel in this part of the world. Basically there are many different bus companies travelling to various places, and they all have their own bus terminals scattered around the place. In this first case we could easily walk between the terminals, but that certainly didn`t hold later on!
Anyway, we arrived in Liberia fairly late, but it was small enough that we could easily walk from the bus terminal into the town. After the usual checking around, we found a good, clean place to bed down for the night (not in the guidebooks). Liberia looked like a nice, clean modern little city, but the next morning it was another early start to try and get up through the border and into Nicaragua.
The first bus terminal we walked to didn`t have buses to the border (this being the first indication of how fustratingly confusing this whole multiple-bus-terminals thing really is), but the proper terminal was only a few minutes further walk. Once there is was a short enough wait for the bus to the border at Penas Blancas.
Again we were lucky with immigration as the queue moved along very quickly, and after paying our 7 dollar entry fee we were in Nicaragua, having `done` Costa Rica in just a day and a half (it did look very nice and jungley though).
The first bus trip was easy, although we were lucky not to miss the bus completely. It arrived just as we got to the pick-up point and left immediately, even though we were about 5 minutes early. So getting to David we got an immediate connection straight to the border. Luckily there wasn't much of a queue for Panamian immigration, as the processing for each person seemed to take ages.
On the Costa Rican side there was no queue at all, and we just hopped on a bus to the capital, San Jose, pretty much straight away (after the usual bit of confusion caused by our embarrassing lack of Spanish though).
Once in San Jose it was a fairly straightforward walk to the required bus terminal. We had time for a bite to eat and I used the Internet for a bit, and then we were straight off up to Liberia. This was the first indication though of what became an extremely annoying feature of independent bus travel in this part of the world. Basically there are many different bus companies travelling to various places, and they all have their own bus terminals scattered around the place. In this first case we could easily walk between the terminals, but that certainly didn`t hold later on!
Anyway, we arrived in Liberia fairly late, but it was small enough that we could easily walk from the bus terminal into the town. After the usual checking around, we found a good, clean place to bed down for the night (not in the guidebooks). Liberia looked like a nice, clean modern little city, but the next morning it was another early start to try and get up through the border and into Nicaragua.
The first bus terminal we walked to didn`t have buses to the border (this being the first indication of how fustratingly confusing this whole multiple-bus-terminals thing really is), but the proper terminal was only a few minutes further walk. Once there is was a short enough wait for the bus to the border at Penas Blancas.
Again we were lucky with immigration as the queue moved along very quickly, and after paying our 7 dollar entry fee we were in Nicaragua, having `done` Costa Rica in just a day and a half (it did look very nice and jungley though).
Boquete
It turned out to be painless again to get all the way to Boquete, simply involving a stroll back to the mad junction we'd been to the day we went to the canal, a locl bus to the main bus termainl and then another bus to the city of David. From there we just hopped on a connecting bus to Boquete, just 1 hour away.
As usual Sarah ran around checking out the hostel options, and we settled on the cheapest and nicest place of them all. In fact it was such a nice place (Hotel Marilos, only $10 a night), and such a nice town, that I was seriously tempted to stay for a third night, but in the end the weather wasn't great, time was tight and I was anxious to make a fair bit of progress up towards Mexico (as we were hoping to get to California to visit my aunt and see my Ma for Christmas).
So the next day we had the luxury of sleeping in quite late and then strolled the few km's to the animal refuge of Paradise Gardens (Mullin's had stayed in Boquete a few months back and volunteered here for a few weeks). It was a fantastic place, only started 3 or 4 years ago by an English couple who retired here, and they have done an amazing job of landscaping the grounds and erecting enclosures for the various animals. We spent a few hours just being guided around by a lovely chatty, friendly American retiree and then just strolled around on our own amongst the amazing toucans, the baby sloth, the margay, some mad rare cat thing I can't remember the name of, the crazy gang of 7 macaws, the hummingbirds, etc.
After the refuge, Sarah went back to the hostel to relax while I strolled to the other side of town to check out a coffee factory and a neighbouring private garden that's open to the public. The gardens were again really impressively maintained - lots of ponds with carp and more impressive landscaping (and not a single other soul anywhere to be seen, which was nice).
The coffee factory, though, was a bit disappointing. I had wanted to do tour of the coffee planation itself, but that was way too expensive (and much more so than the guidebooks suggested, so I suppose business must be good), but they had a factory tour option that was cheap. When I got there though, the factory was really small, and you could see into the whole operation from big windows in the walls of the adjoining cafe. So I just had a coffee (not even that great to be honest!), and just watched the couple of guys working in the factory.
Like I said, I could have stayed another day or two just relaxing in Boquete (and given the way this trip has moved along at a snails pace so far, if it wasn't for the time constraints I almost certainly would have), but the next morning was an early start to try and blitz up through as much of Costa Rica as possible.
As usual Sarah ran around checking out the hostel options, and we settled on the cheapest and nicest place of them all. In fact it was such a nice place (Hotel Marilos, only $10 a night), and such a nice town, that I was seriously tempted to stay for a third night, but in the end the weather wasn't great, time was tight and I was anxious to make a fair bit of progress up towards Mexico (as we were hoping to get to California to visit my aunt and see my Ma for Christmas).
So the next day we had the luxury of sleeping in quite late and then strolled the few km's to the animal refuge of Paradise Gardens (Mullin's had stayed in Boquete a few months back and volunteered here for a few weeks). It was a fantastic place, only started 3 or 4 years ago by an English couple who retired here, and they have done an amazing job of landscaping the grounds and erecting enclosures for the various animals. We spent a few hours just being guided around by a lovely chatty, friendly American retiree and then just strolled around on our own amongst the amazing toucans, the baby sloth, the margay, some mad rare cat thing I can't remember the name of, the crazy gang of 7 macaws, the hummingbirds, etc.
After the refuge, Sarah went back to the hostel to relax while I strolled to the other side of town to check out a coffee factory and a neighbouring private garden that's open to the public. The gardens were again really impressively maintained - lots of ponds with carp and more impressive landscaping (and not a single other soul anywhere to be seen, which was nice).
The coffee factory, though, was a bit disappointing. I had wanted to do tour of the coffee planation itself, but that was way too expensive (and much more so than the guidebooks suggested, so I suppose business must be good), but they had a factory tour option that was cheap. When I got there though, the factory was really small, and you could see into the whole operation from big windows in the walls of the adjoining cafe. So I just had a coffee (not even that great to be honest!), and just watched the couple of guys working in the factory.
Like I said, I could have stayed another day or two just relaxing in Boquete (and given the way this trip has moved along at a snails pace so far, if it wasn't for the time constraints I almost certainly would have), but the next morning was an early start to try and blitz up through as much of Costa Rica as possible.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Panama
So the flight to Panama City was quick and painless (we even got a small lunch, which was handy as we'd used up all our Colombian money buying the cheapest snacks we could find from a street seller outside the airport in Cartagena).
But there were huge queues for getting through immigration once we arrived, which is always annoying (although amazingly on this trip, after 17 countries, it was the first time we had major queues). In fairness they had a lot of immigation staff, and the passport check itself was very quick, so I think it must have been a case of a lot of aircraft arriving at the same time.
But after that and getting our bags, there was another queue to get through security. When we asked at information for how to get a bus to the centre I really started to get annoyed. The girl there basically refused to tell us, instead telling us, repeatedly, that we must get a taxi as it was now dark and far too dangerous to get the bus. We asked again at another information desk, and were told the same thing, and so I got really annoyed! We had a quick look outside the terminal for the bus stop anyway, but it wasn't obvious, and so in total fustration I finally relented and just got a taxi.
Most taxis here are collectivos, where 4 or more people share a single taxi. So we agreed our price with the driver and got into the people carrier with 3 other people. They were all business men, and 2 of them were clearly confused by the 'collectivo' situation, as one of them thought he was getting a personal taxi, but he stayed put anyway. He paid significantly more than he should have too, so he really got ripped off.
Anyway, we got dropped off at a hostel recommended in the guidebooks, and it turned out to be fine (Hostel Colon). It was in the old part of town, and in it's hayday must have been a beautiful large old building with nice Spanish tiling, but now it's all quite run down really. The whole old town is undergoing extensive renovations as Panama's economy booms (the new town is chock-a-block with massive sktscrapers).
So the next day we got up early to get to the Panama Canal. We strolled to where the guidebook said we could get a bus, a major junction, but it was all mad confusing. Asking a local guy (always a dodgey thing to do), we ended up going to the main bus terminal and having to get a connecting bus. It menat we got delayed, but at least we could checkoutbusoptions for our onward destinationin Panama.
When we arrived at the canal we were just in time to see the last of the morning ships passing through the locks (they pass in the morning from 9am-11am, and then again from 3pm-5pm). So to see the ships passing properly we needed to hang around for the whole afternoon. I didn't mind as the museum and video were both quite good, explaining the history and how the whole system works, and the massive $5billion expansion plans.
When the ships started passing through again we got to see a tanker, a cruise ship (the Rotterdam) and a huge container ship - 3 of the 4 main types of ships (the 4th type being grain ships). For me the most impressive thing was the scale of the ships themselves - the cruise ship was paying $140,000US, $120US for each passenger, just to pass through the canal. But the whole setup is all very impressive too, although strangely quite and relaxed looking. It all seems to operate like any canal lock system (such as those on the Shannon), and seems equally slow but just on a much larger scale. There seemed to be very few people needed to operate the whole thing.
The next day we explored the old town properly. It was all much nicer during the day of course, not as intimidating as when we'd arriving at night. When all the renovation is complete it should be a really nice place (right now it reminded me of Havana with all the lovely old buildings crumbling to pieces). There are already quite a few nice restaurants about, and we had a lovely lunch before heading up to the new town to have a wander. The traffic was terrible though, so we didn't have much time before heading back to the hostel.
As we approached the restaurant we'd been to the night before (the Coca-Cola Cafe, a famous cafeteria place full of colourful locals and good cheap grub), we noticed the main door was closed and a group of people had gathered around looking at something. It turned out that someone had been shot about an hour earlier in a robbery. We could see the body on the ground and the police and ambulance people milling about. It turned out the cafe was open, so we went in another door and just had our dinner, occasionally looking out the window at the scene of the shooting like most of the locals, who seemed to be fairly used to this kind of thing. Then it was around the corner back to our hostel for the night - apparently our neighbourhood is quite dangerous!
Next morning it was time to move on and hopefully get to a place called Boquete towards Costa Rica.
But there were huge queues for getting through immigration once we arrived, which is always annoying (although amazingly on this trip, after 17 countries, it was the first time we had major queues). In fairness they had a lot of immigation staff, and the passport check itself was very quick, so I think it must have been a case of a lot of aircraft arriving at the same time.
But after that and getting our bags, there was another queue to get through security. When we asked at information for how to get a bus to the centre I really started to get annoyed. The girl there basically refused to tell us, instead telling us, repeatedly, that we must get a taxi as it was now dark and far too dangerous to get the bus. We asked again at another information desk, and were told the same thing, and so I got really annoyed! We had a quick look outside the terminal for the bus stop anyway, but it wasn't obvious, and so in total fustration I finally relented and just got a taxi.
Most taxis here are collectivos, where 4 or more people share a single taxi. So we agreed our price with the driver and got into the people carrier with 3 other people. They were all business men, and 2 of them were clearly confused by the 'collectivo' situation, as one of them thought he was getting a personal taxi, but he stayed put anyway. He paid significantly more than he should have too, so he really got ripped off.
Anyway, we got dropped off at a hostel recommended in the guidebooks, and it turned out to be fine (Hostel Colon). It was in the old part of town, and in it's hayday must have been a beautiful large old building with nice Spanish tiling, but now it's all quite run down really. The whole old town is undergoing extensive renovations as Panama's economy booms (the new town is chock-a-block with massive sktscrapers).
So the next day we got up early to get to the Panama Canal. We strolled to where the guidebook said we could get a bus, a major junction, but it was all mad confusing. Asking a local guy (always a dodgey thing to do), we ended up going to the main bus terminal and having to get a connecting bus. It menat we got delayed, but at least we could checkoutbusoptions for our onward destinationin Panama.
When we arrived at the canal we were just in time to see the last of the morning ships passing through the locks (they pass in the morning from 9am-11am, and then again from 3pm-5pm). So to see the ships passing properly we needed to hang around for the whole afternoon. I didn't mind as the museum and video were both quite good, explaining the history and how the whole system works, and the massive $5billion expansion plans.
When the ships started passing through again we got to see a tanker, a cruise ship (the Rotterdam) and a huge container ship - 3 of the 4 main types of ships (the 4th type being grain ships). For me the most impressive thing was the scale of the ships themselves - the cruise ship was paying $140,000US, $120US for each passenger, just to pass through the canal. But the whole setup is all very impressive too, although strangely quite and relaxed looking. It all seems to operate like any canal lock system (such as those on the Shannon), and seems equally slow but just on a much larger scale. There seemed to be very few people needed to operate the whole thing.
The next day we explored the old town properly. It was all much nicer during the day of course, not as intimidating as when we'd arriving at night. When all the renovation is complete it should be a really nice place (right now it reminded me of Havana with all the lovely old buildings crumbling to pieces). There are already quite a few nice restaurants about, and we had a lovely lunch before heading up to the new town to have a wander. The traffic was terrible though, so we didn't have much time before heading back to the hostel.
As we approached the restaurant we'd been to the night before (the Coca-Cola Cafe, a famous cafeteria place full of colourful locals and good cheap grub), we noticed the main door was closed and a group of people had gathered around looking at something. It turned out that someone had been shot about an hour earlier in a robbery. We could see the body on the ground and the police and ambulance people milling about. It turned out the cafe was open, so we went in another door and just had our dinner, occasionally looking out the window at the scene of the shooting like most of the locals, who seemed to be fairly used to this kind of thing. Then it was around the corner back to our hostel for the night - apparently our neighbourhood is quite dangerous!
Next morning it was time to move on and hopefully get to a place called Boquete towards Costa Rica.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Cartagena
A not-so-early start the next day, firstly getting a local bus to the main bus terminal (a tiny little minivan from the beachfront, which was a tad awkward with our big rucksacks). Then a cheap mainline bus direct to Cartagena. Although the bus was an hour late in arriving, it was super comfy and made up a good bit of the time on the way, getting us to Cartagena in the late-afternoon nicely before dark.
Sarah did a great job of checking out a good number of central hostels. We'd been warned that Cartagena was an expensive place, so we wanted to try and get the best deal we could as we expected to be staying a few days. Luckily we found a really cheap place that was clean, had a fan, was central and was quite (Hotel Santander). OK, so it was also extremely basic, in fact our room felt at times like sleeping in a hay barn due to the really high ceiling and corrugated iron roof!
So once we'd settled in there we checked out the town a wee bit before meeting up with our Ozzie mate Glen, who we first met in Cusco and then again in Lima. Glen regularly meets some local ex-pats in a bar near our hotel, so we joined them all there.
The next couple of days we just strolled about the town. We managed to swap both our South America guidebooks for Central America ones, which was a great relief as guidebooks are mad expensive to buy. I also booked flights to Panama (I liked the idea of sailing there, but it takes too long and costs too much - there seems to be a fixed price for the trip, with no competition amongst the various boats for some reason). The flights were frighteningly expensive too (all relative of course), but there is no easy, quick overland route into Central America due to the vast wildness of the Darien Gap.
Anyway, Cartagena is a famously beautiful place alright, and I grew to like it more and more. I think that Cusco in Peru has a nicer central district though, probably as it's been exposed to tourism for a lot longer. Cartagena's old town has gorgeous streets with lots of flowering balconies, but every street will also have at least one or two houses that could use a fresh lick of paint. But I'm sure in years to come it will continue to improve, as there are lots of big cruise ships arriving there now, and their mostly elderly passengers roam about the city in big packs (leading to lots of hawkers hassling every gringo in sight, which is the inevitable consequence I suppose).
Unfortunately a few of the supposedly good museums were quite pricey, so we've skipped them (as we've seen lots of museums in South America already) - but at least the gold museum was free, and that was quite good.
Our last full day was spent meeting Glen for lunch (in the excellent Swiss restaurant, after he'd already introduced us to the lovely German-run Bistro), a good bit more strolling around with Glen as our guide, and then meeting the ex-pats again in what had become our regular evening haunt of Donde Pacho's.
The next morning was nice and relaxed, and we got a bus to the airport quite early in the afternoon. It's only a 10 minute journey as the airport seems to be right in the city. We weren't sure about exit taxes and the like, but luckily we didn't have to pay any, and after a bit of a worry when the check-in girl asked about onward flights from Panama (you can be stopped entering the country if you don't have onward tickets), we boarded without problems and were off to Central America.
So six months in South America, and definitely some great trip highlights. Iguasu Falls, morcillo sausages in Argentina, the cakes of Brazil (I'm thinking of Fellini's restaurant in particular), the incredible ruins all around Cusco (especially Machu Picchu but also Cusco town itself), the bluest skies I've ever seen in Bolivia, the mine in Potosi, the Galapagos islands...
Sarah did a great job of checking out a good number of central hostels. We'd been warned that Cartagena was an expensive place, so we wanted to try and get the best deal we could as we expected to be staying a few days. Luckily we found a really cheap place that was clean, had a fan, was central and was quite (Hotel Santander). OK, so it was also extremely basic, in fact our room felt at times like sleeping in a hay barn due to the really high ceiling and corrugated iron roof!
So once we'd settled in there we checked out the town a wee bit before meeting up with our Ozzie mate Glen, who we first met in Cusco and then again in Lima. Glen regularly meets some local ex-pats in a bar near our hotel, so we joined them all there.
The next couple of days we just strolled about the town. We managed to swap both our South America guidebooks for Central America ones, which was a great relief as guidebooks are mad expensive to buy. I also booked flights to Panama (I liked the idea of sailing there, but it takes too long and costs too much - there seems to be a fixed price for the trip, with no competition amongst the various boats for some reason). The flights were frighteningly expensive too (all relative of course), but there is no easy, quick overland route into Central America due to the vast wildness of the Darien Gap.
Anyway, Cartagena is a famously beautiful place alright, and I grew to like it more and more. I think that Cusco in Peru has a nicer central district though, probably as it's been exposed to tourism for a lot longer. Cartagena's old town has gorgeous streets with lots of flowering balconies, but every street will also have at least one or two houses that could use a fresh lick of paint. But I'm sure in years to come it will continue to improve, as there are lots of big cruise ships arriving there now, and their mostly elderly passengers roam about the city in big packs (leading to lots of hawkers hassling every gringo in sight, which is the inevitable consequence I suppose).
Unfortunately a few of the supposedly good museums were quite pricey, so we've skipped them (as we've seen lots of museums in South America already) - but at least the gold museum was free, and that was quite good.
Our last full day was spent meeting Glen for lunch (in the excellent Swiss restaurant, after he'd already introduced us to the lovely German-run Bistro), a good bit more strolling around with Glen as our guide, and then meeting the ex-pats again in what had become our regular evening haunt of Donde Pacho's.
The next morning was nice and relaxed, and we got a bus to the airport quite early in the afternoon. It's only a 10 minute journey as the airport seems to be right in the city. We weren't sure about exit taxes and the like, but luckily we didn't have to pay any, and after a bit of a worry when the check-in girl asked about onward flights from Panama (you can be stopped entering the country if you don't have onward tickets), we boarded without problems and were off to Central America.
So six months in South America, and definitely some great trip highlights. Iguasu Falls, morcillo sausages in Argentina, the cakes of Brazil (I'm thinking of Fellini's restaurant in particular), the incredible ruins all around Cusco (especially Machu Picchu but also Cusco town itself), the bluest skies I've ever seen in Bolivia, the mine in Potosi, the Galapagos islands...
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tayrona National Park
We got up early to grab breakfast and a basic lunch before hopping on the local bus (yet again, the bus was pulling away as we arrived and we literally hopped onboard). As the guidebook pointed out, we got off the bus early and then started walking the entire hike from Calabazo towards the normal entry point of El Zaino (as opposed to starting at El Zaino, hiking to the beach, and then back-tracking to the start again - I hate backtracking!).
This way we managed to avoid any crowds, and in fact we only passed a handful of other people all day (mostly locals leading donkeys leaden with sacks of coconuts). The highlight of the whole hike for me was the leaf-cutting ant colonies we passed almost constantly along the whole route. These guys really are amazing, and I stopped repeatedly to try and get good photos, and to just sit and stare at them. I remember seeing documentaries back home on these critters, and so I knew a fair bit about their amazing live cycle. So it was great to be able to just stop and watch them go about their work - we passed entrances to nests, their waste disposal systems and of course millions of the wee workers themselves carrying their leaf bits.
The hike is noted for the beaches it passes along, and the first one we arrived at was the best one, La Cabo. By this stage we'd hiked up to the pre-hispanic town of La Pueblito (which didn't have much stuff to see unfortunately, or people milling about fortunately), and the day was beautifully sunny and therefore fiercely hot. Arriving at the beach I was straight into the water to try and cool off, but I think this must have been the warmest sea water I've ever swam in. Strangely it was a bit disappointing really, as what I really wanted was an icy, refreshing dip. But of course, it was still gorgeouos to swim in the Carribean sea and the setting was really cool, with two crescent beaches together and big boulders strewn along the coastline.
We got back to the main road at about 5:30, just as dusk was setting, so we'd timed it perfectly really. It had been a long hot day, but the forest, the beaches and the ants all made for a cracking day out, and of course a local bus came along to take us back to Santa Marta after one of our longest waits yet, all of about 5 minutes!
This way we managed to avoid any crowds, and in fact we only passed a handful of other people all day (mostly locals leading donkeys leaden with sacks of coconuts). The highlight of the whole hike for me was the leaf-cutting ant colonies we passed almost constantly along the whole route. These guys really are amazing, and I stopped repeatedly to try and get good photos, and to just sit and stare at them. I remember seeing documentaries back home on these critters, and so I knew a fair bit about their amazing live cycle. So it was great to be able to just stop and watch them go about their work - we passed entrances to nests, their waste disposal systems and of course millions of the wee workers themselves carrying their leaf bits.
The hike is noted for the beaches it passes along, and the first one we arrived at was the best one, La Cabo. By this stage we'd hiked up to the pre-hispanic town of La Pueblito (which didn't have much stuff to see unfortunately, or people milling about fortunately), and the day was beautifully sunny and therefore fiercely hot. Arriving at the beach I was straight into the water to try and cool off, but I think this must have been the warmest sea water I've ever swam in. Strangely it was a bit disappointing really, as what I really wanted was an icy, refreshing dip. But of course, it was still gorgeouos to swim in the Carribean sea and the setting was really cool, with two crescent beaches together and big boulders strewn along the coastline.
We got back to the main road at about 5:30, just as dusk was setting, so we'd timed it perfectly really. It had been a long hot day, but the forest, the beaches and the ants all made for a cracking day out, and of course a local bus came along to take us back to Santa Marta after one of our longest waits yet, all of about 5 minutes!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Santa Marta and diving from Taganga
So we arrived at midday in Santa Marta, a nice convenient time, and just hopped on a local bus into the town centre (the driver of which was a tad cheeky and tried to overcharge, but we saw two girls hop onto the bus and pay half what we were told, so Sarah impressively told him we'd only pay the same - he kinda agreed just laughing it off, kinda!).
Anyway, after the usual checking of a few places we settled into the wonderfully cheap Hostel Meda, with our own bathroom and powerful fan. That fan was certainly necessary as the temperature here was a perfect 30C, and so once we dumped the bags and had a shower it was time to check out the town.
It's actually quite a grubby town I reckon, but has a fairly decent beach and a good bit of life to it (on a Saturday anyway).
After the long bus journey from Bogota, we both slept late that night, and so the next day was a fairly lazy affair. I wanted to use the internet for a good bit to try and plan some our Central American options, but the place closed at 2pm. So instead I decided to get the bus to the nearby fishing village of Taganga to check out scuba diving.
Taganga was also a bit grubby in my opinion, and the beach here was dirty (with lots of broken glass even!), narrow and very noisy with bars along it pumping our extraordinarily loud 'music' (although the beach is quite long and the setting with the surrounding hills is nice). There are loads of scuba operators here, but the nicest place also happened to be the cheapest (a Belgian guy and his Colombian wife, who operate from their house, with their 2-year old son wandering around the place in his nappy as I'm filling in PADI waiver forms and the like).
So the following morning we arrive back in Taganga at 8am and head off for my two dives. It was just me and the divemaster for the dives (Sarah snorkelling), and the weather was spot-on, so the visibility was fairly OK at about 12m-14m. Lots of nice coral and colouredy fishys, big morays, tiny spider crabs, lobsters, etc., but the best part was having such a calm, lovely smooth drift current - all my previous dives on this trip in Africa, Brazil, the Galapagos I had swells or nasty currents, so this was a real pleasure I must say. Although I did lose my divemaster half-way into the first dive when I swam off to check out a huge puffer fish. When I turned back I couldn't see the divemaster at all as he'd turned around a rock face and I'd been carried along by the current, and so after looking around for a bit I had to surface, be rescued by another boat and eventually re-united with the divemaster again before going back down again with him!
The little village of Taganga is nicer than Santa Marta, but the beach still has loads of rubbish and lots of broken glass and is very pebbley, all very grubby really. But the beach of Playa Grande, only about 20 minutes walk over a small headland is a lot cleaner and therefore a lot better, so we had lunch there. It was a public hoilday too, so lots of people with kiddies, but actually I liked the lively atmosphere.
Tomorrow is hiking in the nearby Tayrona National Park, so looking forward to that, as the heat should make it a nice challenging day out...
Anyway, after the usual checking of a few places we settled into the wonderfully cheap Hostel Meda, with our own bathroom and powerful fan. That fan was certainly necessary as the temperature here was a perfect 30C, and so once we dumped the bags and had a shower it was time to check out the town.
It's actually quite a grubby town I reckon, but has a fairly decent beach and a good bit of life to it (on a Saturday anyway).
After the long bus journey from Bogota, we both slept late that night, and so the next day was a fairly lazy affair. I wanted to use the internet for a good bit to try and plan some our Central American options, but the place closed at 2pm. So instead I decided to get the bus to the nearby fishing village of Taganga to check out scuba diving.
Taganga was also a bit grubby in my opinion, and the beach here was dirty (with lots of broken glass even!), narrow and very noisy with bars along it pumping our extraordinarily loud 'music' (although the beach is quite long and the setting with the surrounding hills is nice). There are loads of scuba operators here, but the nicest place also happened to be the cheapest (a Belgian guy and his Colombian wife, who operate from their house, with their 2-year old son wandering around the place in his nappy as I'm filling in PADI waiver forms and the like).
So the following morning we arrive back in Taganga at 8am and head off for my two dives. It was just me and the divemaster for the dives (Sarah snorkelling), and the weather was spot-on, so the visibility was fairly OK at about 12m-14m. Lots of nice coral and colouredy fishys, big morays, tiny spider crabs, lobsters, etc., but the best part was having such a calm, lovely smooth drift current - all my previous dives on this trip in Africa, Brazil, the Galapagos I had swells or nasty currents, so this was a real pleasure I must say. Although I did lose my divemaster half-way into the first dive when I swam off to check out a huge puffer fish. When I turned back I couldn't see the divemaster at all as he'd turned around a rock face and I'd been carried along by the current, and so after looking around for a bit I had to surface, be rescued by another boat and eventually re-united with the divemaster again before going back down again with him!
The little village of Taganga is nicer than Santa Marta, but the beach still has loads of rubbish and lots of broken glass and is very pebbley, all very grubby really. But the beach of Playa Grande, only about 20 minutes walk over a small headland is a lot cleaner and therefore a lot better, so we had lunch there. It was a public hoilday too, so lots of people with kiddies, but actually I liked the lively atmosphere.
Tomorrow is hiking in the nearby Tayrona National Park, so looking forward to that, as the heat should make it a nice challenging day out...
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Bogota
Well, our journey to Bogota turned out to be one of the very, very few major delays on the whole trip so far. The landslide we'd been told about at the bus terminal managed to hold up our bus for a good 3.5 hours, and then when we did start moving we crawled along due to the tailbacks. In the end the supposedly 7 hour journey took about 12 hours.
But it wasn't so bad at all - the bus left the terminal pretty much on time, but only got 15 minutes down the road before hitting the police roadblock where we had to wait for the blockages to be cleared. Luckily we'd stopped at a group of small restaurants, so we just got out of the bus and had a snack and a drink.
After waiting around in the cafe for a couple of hours it was kinda lunchtime, so we moved to a nicer restaurant just up the road to have lunch and relax a bit more before reboarding the bus and heading off. The traffic tailbacks made our progress rather stuttered, as we'd move well for 15 minutes, then be held up for 20 minutes, then move for a good bit again before the next holdup. Anyway, the lush green mountainous scenery really did help pass the time, and in fact it was a pity the we were so badly delayed as the scenery was still very impressive when darkness fell about 5:30pm.
It meant we arrived at Bogota bus terminal at 10:15pm (which at least meant there was no city traffic to hold us up even further at this time on a Sunday night), but we were both too tired to bother with our usual local buses into the city centre, so we opted for a dreaded taxi. Luckily here in Bogota though the taxis are very well regulated and so you first tell a girl at a counter the address you want to go to and she gives you a slip of paper for the driver with the price firmly fixed - so no chance of us getting ripped off. Every major city's bus terminals and airports should have this system!
Again due to the total lack of traffic we zipped into the centre (9km away) and found our hostel easily. It was a relatively expensive place compared to everywhere else we've stayed in Colombia, but luckily Sarah had had the foresight to ring a few hostels earlier that morning (knowing we'd be arriving late at night), and we knew this was the cheapest option of those mentioned in the guidebooks.
Anyway, I immediately had a very welcome hot shower - Sarah had told the receptionist in our hostel in Armenia that one of the electric wires for our shower was broken, even though I told her not to mention it as you just had to manually fix the wires together (dangerous of course, but not if you were careful). Naturally, as I had feared, they then removed the electric shower head completely when we were out, and so we had no hot water at all that night or the following morning (they told us it would be replaced later that day, but we were leaving early).
So the next morning, after a fantastic sleep we did our usual city exploration. I really liked Bogota immediately, as our hostel was right in the middle of the old town and was surrounded by nice cafes and restaurants, and a lot of students milling about, which of course gave the cafes a vibrant bustling liveliness.
Most days we visited the excellent museums, with the gold museum being the best (apparently it's one of, if not the, most important gold museums in the world). Also interesting was the police museum, with it's ground floor section dedicated to the hunt and killing of the famous drug overlord Pablo Escobar (a dedicated unit of 500 police officiers hunted him for 2 years). We had a lovely young police officier guy as our free guide - in Colombia everyone has to do compulsory service, either 2 years in the miliary or 1 year in the police, and our guide was nearly finished his year of service and was about to head to Belfast to study medicine (so he was keen to practice his English, asking us things like what does 'posh nosh' and 'namby pamby' mean!).
We took a day-trip out to see a famous cathedral carved out of a salt mine about 50km outside the city in Zipaquira (there is a bigger salt mine and cathedral outside Krakow in Poland that I should have visited when I was there with Mullins, but someone at the time told us not to bother or something, d'oh!). It was easy-peasy to get the excellent, but crowded, Transmelio bus to it's terminus (although we had to kill time on the Internet waiting for the first bus at 9am), and then an instant connection on a local bus to the town of Zipaquira. A bit of aimless wandering through the nice small town finally got us to the site of the cathedral in the outskirts of the town.
We had a great English-speaking guide, and the tour lasted about an hour, passing the 14 stations of the cross, each carved directly from the salt of the mountain, before arriving at the vast cavern of the cathedral 180 metres below the surface. All very impressive indeed, although the 3D video show at the end was a bit naff.
On the way back to Bogota I wanted to stop off at a place called Chia to check out a famous restaurant that both our guidebooks highly recommended. It was all a bit of an ordeal in the end though, as it took us a while to find the small bus terminal in Zipaquira, and then the local bus only dropped us on the outskirts of Chia. I walked around for a good bit trying to make sense of the street numbering system, but that turned out to be a fruitless exercise in utter fustration. I was pretty annoyed that the guy on the bus had mislead us (we were obviously tourists but the bus didn't go anywhere near the centre of Chia, which was obviously where we wanted to go - instead they'd dropped on the main highway on the outskirts of the town). Anyway, after another local bus to the centre, and then more aimless wandering trying to get our bearings again and asking various clueless locals for directions (always a dodgey thing to do as you can never trust the answers, even if we could understand the language), we finally found the restaurant.
Luckily both the guidebooks were right - it really is a fun place. It's all a bit mental really, although the website does a good job of capturing a sense of it. It's a huge, sprawling, darkly lit cavern of a place, with every inch of it covering in nonsensical tat and junk that makes it feel a tiny bit like an old Irish pub down the country, but on a much bigger and madder scale.
It's also a very expensive place, although it doesn't seem to cater much for tourists (menu was only in Spanish, and none of the many waiters or waitresses spoke English - they had to get the manager to explain some of the local deserts to us). But it's famous for it's meat, and our fillet mignon was superb (I also ordered another morcillo, the Argentinian black pudding, but it still wasn't as good as the real Argy ones I've had - definitely one of the foods I'll miss big time from this whole trip). After getting lost again on the way back to the local bus terminal (!), we managed quite easily to get back to our hostel.
Once back in familiar territory we had a much needed drink in the very cool Cafe Pasaje again (another top spot mentioned in the Footprints guidebook, but not the Lonely Planet, with a very good description here (that guy tried to sell us his musty books both times we were there, and we also had 2 sets of emerald dealers sitting either side of us the first time)), and then a bit of a stroll while Sarah went home to bed.
Next morning was lazy enough as the buses to Santa Marta in the north all left in the afternoon, so we strolled around to another hostel that we knew had a book exchange (I got the excellent SuperCapitalism, which I'd recommend to anyone). Then we had time for a leisurely smoothie before trying to get a local bus to the bus terminal. After waiting on the supposedly correct street for about half-an-hour we gave up and just got a taxi - I think the normal traffic was diverted or something and so buses to the terminal were also diverted, but we couldn't understand the taxi drivers explanation, so god knows...
We hadn't booked onward travel, as usual, but we only had a couple of hours to wait for a bus (and the fare was half-price, as they are always negotiable when you just show up). So after killing more time on the Internet and a nice tripe soup for lunch (which, of course, Sarah wouldn't touch!), we boarded the bus, which left right on time. 21 hours later we arrived in hot and clammy Santa Marta on the North Colombian carribean coast. I felt surprisingly fresh after the overnight journey, we both seem to be well used to the long bus journeys now.
We hadn't booked onward travel, as usual, but we only had a couple of hours to wait for a bus (and the fare was half-price, as they are always negotiable when you just show up). So after killing more time on the Internet and a nice tripe soup for lunch (which, of course, Sarah wouldn't touch!), we boarded the bus, which left right on time. 21 hours later we arrived in hot and clammy Santa Marta on the North Colombian carribean coast. I felt surprisingly fresh after the overnight journey, we both seem to be well used to the long bus journeys now.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Armenia
We arrived in Armenia in the late afternoon and after checking a taxi (who of course tried to rip us off), we strolled into the town instead and got settled in Hotel Los Viajeros.
Next day we visited the Parque National del Cafe, which is supposed to be all about coffee but is really just a big amusement park. It's very well laid out though, being impressively manicured and set discreetly within a forest on a hillside. We got a short tour from a lovely guide who explained the basics of coffee production, which was all very interesting. The park also has a couple of lovely walks, one through mad huge bamboo groves and another through various varieties of coffee plants.
We rode the rollercoaster too, which was brilliant, if a little short (we probably should have taken it for a second spin really). And of course I had to try a couple of coffee's, both lovely and the second one from a fantastic view over the valley of coffee and banana plantations, with Armenia in the distance.
I also got to see my first ever sloth here - although I'm pretty sure it was being kept as a pet. It was just hanging by 3 of it's feet from a chain-link fence eating a tropical fruit from it's other hand. After asking the girl standing beside him I was allowed pet him and he seemed completely unperturbed. He did that sloth-thing of actually falling alseep a couple of times whilst he was eating, each time just for about 20 seconds or so, then waking up and eating a bit more, all gorgeously cute of course.
The next day we got a short bus ride to the town of Salento, a lovely little market town set in the mountains. We climbed the 260 steps up to a lookout (the books say one of the best viewpoints in all of Colombia), but the weather was dark and overcast, and so the view didn't seem like much.
After a lovely trout lunch (there is a trout farm nearby), we took a jeep to Cocora and hiked 5km through wax palm forest (one of the tallest trees in the world), to a reserve set deep in the forest. It has a cover charge, but you get a hot chocolate and a lump of cheese (weird really), and just relax watching all the hummingbirds coming to drink and feed - apparently there are 6 species here, but we only saw 4, one of which had an amazingly long, iridescent blue tail.
Next morning we got up early and took the bus to the terminal for a bus to Bogota. But when we arrived we were told that there was a landslide on the main road, and so most of the buses were taking a longer, more roundabout route (Sarah actually felt an earthquake at 4am, but I slept right through it). Anyway, the cheapest bus company is hoping the road will be clear by the time it gets there, and I wanted to travel the main road anyway as it passes through a stunning valley, so hopefully it'll all work out...
Next day we visited the Parque National del Cafe, which is supposed to be all about coffee but is really just a big amusement park. It's very well laid out though, being impressively manicured and set discreetly within a forest on a hillside. We got a short tour from a lovely guide who explained the basics of coffee production, which was all very interesting. The park also has a couple of lovely walks, one through mad huge bamboo groves and another through various varieties of coffee plants.
We rode the rollercoaster too, which was brilliant, if a little short (we probably should have taken it for a second spin really). And of course I had to try a couple of coffee's, both lovely and the second one from a fantastic view over the valley of coffee and banana plantations, with Armenia in the distance.
I also got to see my first ever sloth here - although I'm pretty sure it was being kept as a pet. It was just hanging by 3 of it's feet from a chain-link fence eating a tropical fruit from it's other hand. After asking the girl standing beside him I was allowed pet him and he seemed completely unperturbed. He did that sloth-thing of actually falling alseep a couple of times whilst he was eating, each time just for about 20 seconds or so, then waking up and eating a bit more, all gorgeously cute of course.
The next day we got a short bus ride to the town of Salento, a lovely little market town set in the mountains. We climbed the 260 steps up to a lookout (the books say one of the best viewpoints in all of Colombia), but the weather was dark and overcast, and so the view didn't seem like much.
After a lovely trout lunch (there is a trout farm nearby), we took a jeep to Cocora and hiked 5km through wax palm forest (one of the tallest trees in the world), to a reserve set deep in the forest. It has a cover charge, but you get a hot chocolate and a lump of cheese (weird really), and just relax watching all the hummingbirds coming to drink and feed - apparently there are 6 species here, but we only saw 4, one of which had an amazingly long, iridescent blue tail.
Next morning we got up early and took the bus to the terminal for a bus to Bogota. But when we arrived we were told that there was a landslide on the main road, and so most of the buses were taking a longer, more roundabout route (Sarah actually felt an earthquake at 4am, but I slept right through it). Anyway, the cheapest bus company is hoping the road will be clear by the time it gets there, and I wanted to travel the main road anyway as it passes through a stunning valley, so hopefully it'll all work out...
Cali
Cali is quite a big city really, but we got a cheap place to stay (Residencial Chalet) in the livelier part of town (very near Avenue 6), but really there wasn't much to see in the city itself. The main art museum was closed for renovations, but the gold museum was impressive (the northern countries of South America all seem to have very impressive gold museums, or sections of museums, and to think I used to be impressed with the gold torcs and stuff in the National Irish Museum!).
We also visited the Cali zoo, apparently the best in Colombia, and it was very good (I do have the usual problems with zoos of course, but I still loving visiting the good ones). It was undergoing renovations too, but was still impressive, especially the big cats - the bengal tiger was quite active and would rest leaning against the huge thick plate glass viewing window, so you could be literally millimetres from his face. Also got to see a snake swallow a mouse, which was interesting (another, much bigger snake had a live rat in it's cage, but the snake didn't budge an inch so can't have been too hungry). Also got to see my first giant anteater (with a juvenile on her back), and they really are as mad looking as they appear on the telly.
As I was coming back to the end of the zoo trail it started to really rain hard. We waited for a break in the rain, along with a group of locals, but it didn't seem like letting up any time soon, so we just hopped in a taxi and got dropped off at the Intercontinental Hotel where I was hoping they'd have a bar showing the US presedential election. The hotel didn't have a bar really, just an open cafe space, but the waiter kindly put on CNN for us. After watching a bit of the election coverage we went and had dinner in the hotel's recommended restaurant, as I was keen to try their steak tartare. It was pretty cool, as the head waiter prepared it all beside our table, and so I got a cooking lesson into the bargain (and I was very surprised to see the amount of work and ingredients involved, I had thought it was just raw meat and an egg!). Anyway, it was very nice but still not as good as the first steak tartare I ever had, which was with Mr. Mullins in Slovakia somewhere.
The next day we got the bus to the village of Cordoba and then did what seemed like the most dangerous thing I've done on the trip so far - we rode the old railway line to San Cipriano. The tracks aren't used anymore by trains or anything, instead the locals have rigged up small motorbikes to ramshackle crates and boot it down the line - good 1 minute video on YouTube here. The poorer locals don't have motorbikes, they just push themselves along on flat crates, and when you meet someone coming the other way, one of you has to lift your crate off the tracks to let the other person pass, something we had to do a few times. The ride only lasts about 15 minutes, but the location is really beautiful, set in lush jungley forest.
The tiny town of San Cipriano itself is very rural and poor, but all the more charming for it. It's set on a nice river (but it was too overcast, dull and cool to have a swim unfortunately), and after a short stroll we hid from the short, but tropically fierce rain burst having a beer before getting our crate back down the line (it's the only access route to the village). The tracks cross over a few rickety bridges, and given the rickety state of the crates, the decrepit motorbikes, and the wobbly tracks sometimes, it really is a wonder people aren't injured every day. It's great fun though, and by the time we were heading back I was already far more relaxed - as usual it doesn't take much to overcome the usual paranoia.
I must say I loved the experience of the whole day, even though the bus took over 3 hours each way from Cali (there were major roadworks). For some reason the whole area is populated completely with black people, and I immediately felt like we were back in Africa (even the landscape was all very Ugandan). It was weird just how familiar the people seemed, with all the kids just as smiley, friendly, approachable and interactive as in Africa - I think I must be some kind of upside-down or reverse racist or something!
Anyway, after a final stroll around Cali to the nicely set San Antonio church we left in the afternoon for the 3 hour bus ride up to Colombia's main coffee zone and the town of Armenia.
We also visited the Cali zoo, apparently the best in Colombia, and it was very good (I do have the usual problems with zoos of course, but I still loving visiting the good ones). It was undergoing renovations too, but was still impressive, especially the big cats - the bengal tiger was quite active and would rest leaning against the huge thick plate glass viewing window, so you could be literally millimetres from his face. Also got to see a snake swallow a mouse, which was interesting (another, much bigger snake had a live rat in it's cage, but the snake didn't budge an inch so can't have been too hungry). Also got to see my first giant anteater (with a juvenile on her back), and they really are as mad looking as they appear on the telly.
As I was coming back to the end of the zoo trail it started to really rain hard. We waited for a break in the rain, along with a group of locals, but it didn't seem like letting up any time soon, so we just hopped in a taxi and got dropped off at the Intercontinental Hotel where I was hoping they'd have a bar showing the US presedential election. The hotel didn't have a bar really, just an open cafe space, but the waiter kindly put on CNN for us. After watching a bit of the election coverage we went and had dinner in the hotel's recommended restaurant, as I was keen to try their steak tartare. It was pretty cool, as the head waiter prepared it all beside our table, and so I got a cooking lesson into the bargain (and I was very surprised to see the amount of work and ingredients involved, I had thought it was just raw meat and an egg!). Anyway, it was very nice but still not as good as the first steak tartare I ever had, which was with Mr. Mullins in Slovakia somewhere.
The next day we got the bus to the village of Cordoba and then did what seemed like the most dangerous thing I've done on the trip so far - we rode the old railway line to San Cipriano. The tracks aren't used anymore by trains or anything, instead the locals have rigged up small motorbikes to ramshackle crates and boot it down the line - good 1 minute video on YouTube here. The poorer locals don't have motorbikes, they just push themselves along on flat crates, and when you meet someone coming the other way, one of you has to lift your crate off the tracks to let the other person pass, something we had to do a few times. The ride only lasts about 15 minutes, but the location is really beautiful, set in lush jungley forest.
The tiny town of San Cipriano itself is very rural and poor, but all the more charming for it. It's set on a nice river (but it was too overcast, dull and cool to have a swim unfortunately), and after a short stroll we hid from the short, but tropically fierce rain burst having a beer before getting our crate back down the line (it's the only access route to the village). The tracks cross over a few rickety bridges, and given the rickety state of the crates, the decrepit motorbikes, and the wobbly tracks sometimes, it really is a wonder people aren't injured every day. It's great fun though, and by the time we were heading back I was already far more relaxed - as usual it doesn't take much to overcome the usual paranoia.
I must say I loved the experience of the whole day, even though the bus took over 3 hours each way from Cali (there were major roadworks). For some reason the whole area is populated completely with black people, and I immediately felt like we were back in Africa (even the landscape was all very Ugandan). It was weird just how familiar the people seemed, with all the kids just as smiley, friendly, approachable and interactive as in Africa - I think I must be some kind of upside-down or reverse racist or something!
Anyway, after a final stroll around Cali to the nicely set San Antonio church we left in the afternoon for the 3 hour bus ride up to Colombia's main coffee zone and the town of Armenia.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
San Agustin
Up at 5am, and at the bus station for 5:45 to buy our ticket (the discount we had been offered 2 days ago suddenly disappearing now!), and the bus actually left at 6:10am. The journey from start to finish was along very bumpy and narrow roads. But the seats were very comfy (although I had to change seats after mine reclined uncomfortably far, and I couldn't get it to go back), so I didn't mind the 6 hour journey at all really. Luckily there was very little traffic on the road and so we arrived pretty much on time, and the rain that had been persistent throughout the whole day had stopped by the time we arrived.
I must say that the Colombian scenery we've driven through from the Ecuadorian border has probably been the best so far in all of South America. At times it reminds of parts of New Zealand, but really it's been a good bit more spectacular (as New Zealand doesn't have peaks to rival the Andes), and at other times the lush green-ness reminds me of Uganda, but again it's been more spectacular that that too. It's just been a bit of a pity that the skies have more often than not been overcast, otherwise I'm sure the vistas would certainly rank as the best of the whole trip.
Anyway, the town of San Agustin was actually in the middle of a busy local horse-related festival, but we got a lovely room in a lovely house owned by a lovely old couple, who just happen to have about 20 exotic birds in various cages just outside our room (I've no idea if these birds are legal or not, as they all looked very exotic, but at least they don't make a racket early in the morning, and they sure are pretty!).
So after lunch (at Brahmas), we checked out the local festival that seemed to be much like any small rural village festival back home, mostly argicultural stuff relating to cattle and horses - and very, very load music from a group of tents with drunk lads just sitting around. I reckon most of the action must have happened in the early morning, as by late afternoon it was fairly deserted.
But wow what a day we had the next day! We got up early to catch a gorgeous quick breakfast (a spherical fried doughnut thing and a yogurt) and then hike the 3km to the main archaeological site here. Basically it's made up of a series of stone statues carved by some mysterious culture maybe 1500 years ago, and then buried and covered up. The archaeologists have dug up a good number of them now (but by no means all of them), and have placed them standing upright beside the 'graves' they were buried in.
So it was a lovely stroll around the 4 main sites (although at first I was a bit perturbed by the sight of 3 big tour groups of about 30 people each, but we lost them easily enough and had most of the sites all to ourselves).
Then it was back towards the town to a highly recommended restaurant for lunch, where I had probably the best roast pork I've ever tasted. The place is famous for this dish, as they use a 'secret ' marinade or something, but it sure was the tenderest, and tastiest pork I've ever tried (mad to think that in years to come I would probably make the same bone-shattering journey back to this small town just for this restaurant, as opposed to the world-famous archaeological site just up the road!).
After our huge lunch (we just shared a set lunch, and I was still stuffed after it), it was another big hike, this time to 4 more remote sites of more statues scattered around the town. This was the highlight of the day for me really, as the hike was through great scenery once we got off the main road - basically the trail is used mostly by guided horse-riding groups, but I much preferred to hike it (but only because I'd need a good few more proper lessons to feel really comfortable on a horse). We passed by small coffee plantations and at one stage as we crossed a small stream we were surrounded by little swarms of beautifully diverse butterflies, and later we had a couple of gorgeous small parrots or parakeets follow us along the trail.
We were blessed with the weather too. The previous day it had been lashing rain for almost our entire bus journey to San Agustin, but for our hike it was dry and nicely hot. It started lightly raining as we approached the town, but by then it was a nicely refreshing.
So the following morning it was another 6am bus, this time passing back past through Popayan and up North to the salsa capital of the world (apparently), Cali.
I must say that the Colombian scenery we've driven through from the Ecuadorian border has probably been the best so far in all of South America. At times it reminds of parts of New Zealand, but really it's been a good bit more spectacular (as New Zealand doesn't have peaks to rival the Andes), and at other times the lush green-ness reminds me of Uganda, but again it's been more spectacular that that too. It's just been a bit of a pity that the skies have more often than not been overcast, otherwise I'm sure the vistas would certainly rank as the best of the whole trip.
Anyway, the town of San Agustin was actually in the middle of a busy local horse-related festival, but we got a lovely room in a lovely house owned by a lovely old couple, who just happen to have about 20 exotic birds in various cages just outside our room (I've no idea if these birds are legal or not, as they all looked very exotic, but at least they don't make a racket early in the morning, and they sure are pretty!).
So after lunch (at Brahmas), we checked out the local festival that seemed to be much like any small rural village festival back home, mostly argicultural stuff relating to cattle and horses - and very, very load music from a group of tents with drunk lads just sitting around. I reckon most of the action must have happened in the early morning, as by late afternoon it was fairly deserted.
But wow what a day we had the next day! We got up early to catch a gorgeous quick breakfast (a spherical fried doughnut thing and a yogurt) and then hike the 3km to the main archaeological site here. Basically it's made up of a series of stone statues carved by some mysterious culture maybe 1500 years ago, and then buried and covered up. The archaeologists have dug up a good number of them now (but by no means all of them), and have placed them standing upright beside the 'graves' they were buried in.
So it was a lovely stroll around the 4 main sites (although at first I was a bit perturbed by the sight of 3 big tour groups of about 30 people each, but we lost them easily enough and had most of the sites all to ourselves).
Then it was back towards the town to a highly recommended restaurant for lunch, where I had probably the best roast pork I've ever tasted. The place is famous for this dish, as they use a 'secret ' marinade or something, but it sure was the tenderest, and tastiest pork I've ever tried (mad to think that in years to come I would probably make the same bone-shattering journey back to this small town just for this restaurant, as opposed to the world-famous archaeological site just up the road!).
After our huge lunch (we just shared a set lunch, and I was still stuffed after it), it was another big hike, this time to 4 more remote sites of more statues scattered around the town. This was the highlight of the day for me really, as the hike was through great scenery once we got off the main road - basically the trail is used mostly by guided horse-riding groups, but I much preferred to hike it (but only because I'd need a good few more proper lessons to feel really comfortable on a horse). We passed by small coffee plantations and at one stage as we crossed a small stream we were surrounded by little swarms of beautifully diverse butterflies, and later we had a couple of gorgeous small parrots or parakeets follow us along the trail.
We were blessed with the weather too. The previous day it had been lashing rain for almost our entire bus journey to San Agustin, but for our hike it was dry and nicely hot. It started lightly raining as we approached the town, but by then it was a nicely refreshing.
So the following morning it was another 6am bus, this time passing back past through Popayan and up North to the salsa capital of the world (apparently), Cali.
Popayan
We ended up staying two nights in Popayan, as it's a nice town and it gave us a chance to relax a bit, and also to catch up on the Internet and get my hair cut.
It has a couple of museums, my favorite definitely being the Natural History Museum that had amazing insect and tropical bird displays - the tropical insects really are totally mental, and as for the sword-billed hummingbird, well lets just say that I don't think I'll ever run out of things to add to my list of 'things to see and do in my life'.
Our second day in Popayan happened to be Halloween, and these guys really get into it here, far more than at home anyway. Even at breakfast (in a great little cafe serving local corn patties with melted cheese called arepas) all the staff were dressed up, and by late afternoon the whole town was literally swarming with dressed-up and made-up kids. They have the cool tradition here that all the kids go not from house-to-house, but from shop-to-shop looking for 'treats'. This way they end up with tons of sweats of course, but even still we saw lots of cheeky wee scallywags repeatedly coming into the same cafe. It was also a bit cheeky I thought of parents bringing their new-born infants around looking for lollipops and sweets that the infants could no sooner eat than do a handstand - a good example of basic human nature though I suppose, a free handout being seized apon by one and all.
So after another great, but too huge(!), dinner of local food (a thick maize soup and gorgeous fried pork), we were too wrecked to check out the Halloween festivities in the town, and besides we had to get up at 5am for our bus to the famous site of San Agustin.
It has a couple of museums, my favorite definitely being the Natural History Museum that had amazing insect and tropical bird displays - the tropical insects really are totally mental, and as for the sword-billed hummingbird, well lets just say that I don't think I'll ever run out of things to add to my list of 'things to see and do in my life'.
Our second day in Popayan happened to be Halloween, and these guys really get into it here, far more than at home anyway. Even at breakfast (in a great little cafe serving local corn patties with melted cheese called arepas) all the staff were dressed up, and by late afternoon the whole town was literally swarming with dressed-up and made-up kids. They have the cool tradition here that all the kids go not from house-to-house, but from shop-to-shop looking for 'treats'. This way they end up with tons of sweats of course, but even still we saw lots of cheeky wee scallywags repeatedly coming into the same cafe. It was also a bit cheeky I thought of parents bringing their new-born infants around looking for lollipops and sweets that the infants could no sooner eat than do a handstand - a good example of basic human nature though I suppose, a free handout being seized apon by one and all.
So after another great, but too huge(!), dinner of local food (a thick maize soup and gorgeous fried pork), we were too wrecked to check out the Halloween festivities in the town, and besides we had to get up at 5am for our bus to the famous site of San Agustin.
Pasto, first stop in Colombia
About the only interesting thing on our journey to the Colombian border was what I think was an attempted robbery.
It's a scam we'd been warned about and it's mentioned in the guidebooks too. Basically it's simply a guy getting onto your bus, and telling you where to put your hand luggage - either on the floor under your seat, or on the luggage rack above your head. The scam of course is a mate of that guy sitting behind you either taking your bag, or cutting it open and taking what's in there (one of the bus companies in Peru even hand out a little flyer to every passenger telling them to always hold onto their hand luggage).
So just minutes after we leave the bus terminal in Quito a few people get on the bus and one of them tells Sarah to do just that, i.e. put her bag on the floor. At the same time I noticed another guy sit in the seat directly behind her (the guys were both fairly young, but well dressed and not suspicious looking at all). We both tell the guy the bag is fine where it is, on Sarah's lap, and I turn around in my seat and glare at the guy behind. Within about 3 minutes both guys (and a girl who got on the bus with them) all get off the bus again. All very strange really, and it makes you a little shaky to be honest, although we can't be 100% sure we were going to be robbed (just like we can never be sure we were going to be robbed back in Durban in South Africa), but reassuring to know we still have some wits about us I suppose.
We arrived at the border by early afternoon, so after the very quick passport stamp we get a cheap lunch on the Ecuador side, and use up the last of our Ecuadorian change (they use US dollars for notes, but local coins which are useless outside the country). Then it's a stroll across the bridge and very quick Colombian stamps before having to get a taxi (ggggrrrr!), who of course ripped us off as I hadn't any local currency yet. We get to the bus station (we'd asked the taxi driver if the station had an ATM and he said 'Yes', but of course there wasn't one (although our Spanish is terrible, so maybe...)). So still having to pay in US dollars I got ripped off again getting a bus from the border to a town nearer our intended destination. But we still got to Pasto before dark, and this bus station did have an ATM.
We just stayed in Pasto for one night (Hostel Manhatten, huge nice room, but the shared shower and toilet were a bit dodgey!), having a great dinner in a cool lively local restaurant (La Merced). Afterwards I strolled about the town while Sarah had an early night, and it seemed to have a good bit of life to it (many towns seem deathly quite during the week). The next morning we explored the town a bit and whilst in a cafe trying to decide what to buy for our takeaway breakfast and lunch through very bad Spanish, the waitress turns to a local guy who just came in and who spoke English. It turned out the guy was the owner of the cafe and the owner of the best bar in town, and he'd studied English in Ireland over 20 years ago. Anyway, he was really friendly and kept us chatting for a while, but both our breakfast and lunch on the bus were really delicious (empanadas and a huge tamales).
A few hours later and just before dark we arrived in the town of Popayan, which is the turning off point for one of Colombia's main archeological sites (San Agustin), but also a lovely colonial town in it's own right.
It's a scam we'd been warned about and it's mentioned in the guidebooks too. Basically it's simply a guy getting onto your bus, and telling you where to put your hand luggage - either on the floor under your seat, or on the luggage rack above your head. The scam of course is a mate of that guy sitting behind you either taking your bag, or cutting it open and taking what's in there (one of the bus companies in Peru even hand out a little flyer to every passenger telling them to always hold onto their hand luggage).
So just minutes after we leave the bus terminal in Quito a few people get on the bus and one of them tells Sarah to do just that, i.e. put her bag on the floor. At the same time I noticed another guy sit in the seat directly behind her (the guys were both fairly young, but well dressed and not suspicious looking at all). We both tell the guy the bag is fine where it is, on Sarah's lap, and I turn around in my seat and glare at the guy behind. Within about 3 minutes both guys (and a girl who got on the bus with them) all get off the bus again. All very strange really, and it makes you a little shaky to be honest, although we can't be 100% sure we were going to be robbed (just like we can never be sure we were going to be robbed back in Durban in South Africa), but reassuring to know we still have some wits about us I suppose.
We arrived at the border by early afternoon, so after the very quick passport stamp we get a cheap lunch on the Ecuador side, and use up the last of our Ecuadorian change (they use US dollars for notes, but local coins which are useless outside the country). Then it's a stroll across the bridge and very quick Colombian stamps before having to get a taxi (ggggrrrr!), who of course ripped us off as I hadn't any local currency yet. We get to the bus station (we'd asked the taxi driver if the station had an ATM and he said 'Yes', but of course there wasn't one (although our Spanish is terrible, so maybe...)). So still having to pay in US dollars I got ripped off again getting a bus from the border to a town nearer our intended destination. But we still got to Pasto before dark, and this bus station did have an ATM.
We just stayed in Pasto for one night (Hostel Manhatten, huge nice room, but the shared shower and toilet were a bit dodgey!), having a great dinner in a cool lively local restaurant (La Merced). Afterwards I strolled about the town while Sarah had an early night, and it seemed to have a good bit of life to it (many towns seem deathly quite during the week). The next morning we explored the town a bit and whilst in a cafe trying to decide what to buy for our takeaway breakfast and lunch through very bad Spanish, the waitress turns to a local guy who just came in and who spoke English. It turned out the guy was the owner of the cafe and the owner of the best bar in town, and he'd studied English in Ireland over 20 years ago. Anyway, he was really friendly and kept us chatting for a while, but both our breakfast and lunch on the bus were really delicious (empanadas and a huge tamales).
A few hours later and just before dark we arrived in the town of Popayan, which is the turning off point for one of Colombia's main archeological sites (San Agustin), but also a lovely colonial town in it's own right.
Quito
After a very fustration search for a guidebook recommended hostel (the city has changed it's street numbering system since our guidebook was printed!), there turned out to be nobody answering the door, and so we strolled to the Grand Hotel around the corner. This was a lovely spot, although not very Grand it was clean, central and cheap.
That night we had a great dinner in another nearby, much fancier hotel with rooftop views. The next day was Sunday, and so I decided to head straight up to the town of Otovalo, which is famous for it's Sunday market.
I'm not really into markets, but this one is famous for being one of the biggest in South America, and it really was impressive in scale. The whole town had a nice lively feel to it, and we got to try some lovely roast pork in the market (they roast the entire pig and serve it up from a huge platter, leaving the head facing out to entice customers).
The next couple of days we checked out Quito itself (wasting a good bit of time getting to the Colombian embassy to check out if Irish people need a visa - they don't, but again our guidebooks were out of date, referring to Irish visa requirements after the IRA guys training FARC separatists), strolling around the Old Town and it's museums, and also checking out the bars and restaurants of the New Town.
Our fourth day we did one of the 'must do's' of Quito, a visit to the site of the Equator. After a bit more local-bus-confusion we finally got to the site which is a fair bit outside the city. It was a weekday and so very quite really. The whole place is Government run, and looks to be more setup for a day out for the kiddies, although I thought their Insectarium was very impressive (it has nothing to do with the Equator of course, but it's good for us kiddies). The official site is actually a couple of hundred metres away from the real Equator - apparently the original French scientists got it wrong.
So as we strolled to check out the 'real' Equator site up the road we came across a different museum. We popped in to check it out and it turned out to be a very interesting new project run by a group of guys trying to promote archeological preservation of some recently discovered sights - the main one being an ancient 1500 year-old wall on a very nearby hill that is sited exactly on the real Equator. The spooky bit being, of course, how the ancients knew exactly where the Equator was, and the French scientists less than a hundred years ago getting it wrong.
The guy there was really passionate about the whole subject (they have no Government support, as the official site makes plenty of money right where it is thank you very much!). But it was great to hear him explain their theories and their mission, but then passionate people are always great to listen and talk to, regardless of what they are passionate about. I remember a short video presentation in the Wellington museum in New Zealand that really struck me (I dragged Podge along to watch it too). It was only later that I realised what it was about the video that had struck me so strongly - basically it was just a collage of short video interviews with New Zealanders that did different but interesting things, like sheep farming in a really remote location, or recording sea erosion, or whatever. The common thread was that they were all immensely passionate about what they did, and it was that passion that I found so appealing. It's my favorite question of the moment now - so just what are YOU passionate about???
So anyway, after that presentation we strolled a bit further up the road to the 'real' Equator site, but after the talk we'd just had about exploitation of the Equator, and the ignorance of the genuine ancient history relating to it, and all the silly tricks they do (like balancing an egg on a nail, and watching water 'not' spin round going down a plug hole), we just strolled about the site until someone approached us looking for our entry tickets that we had no intention of buying, and so we just left (but we did get to see a small tour group of people get all excited when they managed to balance an egg on a nail, and of course they had to get photos of each other standing beside their 'achievement' - deary me...).
So back to Quito and a fantastic dinner at one of the cities best restaurants, Theatrum. It was a great setting and a great meal, and a great way to finish off Quito. It was a nice city I have to say, but the next day it was time to get up early and head towards the Colombian border.
That night we had a great dinner in another nearby, much fancier hotel with rooftop views. The next day was Sunday, and so I decided to head straight up to the town of Otovalo, which is famous for it's Sunday market.
I'm not really into markets, but this one is famous for being one of the biggest in South America, and it really was impressive in scale. The whole town had a nice lively feel to it, and we got to try some lovely roast pork in the market (they roast the entire pig and serve it up from a huge platter, leaving the head facing out to entice customers).
The next couple of days we checked out Quito itself (wasting a good bit of time getting to the Colombian embassy to check out if Irish people need a visa - they don't, but again our guidebooks were out of date, referring to Irish visa requirements after the IRA guys training FARC separatists), strolling around the Old Town and it's museums, and also checking out the bars and restaurants of the New Town.
Our fourth day we did one of the 'must do's' of Quito, a visit to the site of the Equator. After a bit more local-bus-confusion we finally got to the site which is a fair bit outside the city. It was a weekday and so very quite really. The whole place is Government run, and looks to be more setup for a day out for the kiddies, although I thought their Insectarium was very impressive (it has nothing to do with the Equator of course, but it's good for us kiddies). The official site is actually a couple of hundred metres away from the real Equator - apparently the original French scientists got it wrong.
So as we strolled to check out the 'real' Equator site up the road we came across a different museum. We popped in to check it out and it turned out to be a very interesting new project run by a group of guys trying to promote archeological preservation of some recently discovered sights - the main one being an ancient 1500 year-old wall on a very nearby hill that is sited exactly on the real Equator. The spooky bit being, of course, how the ancients knew exactly where the Equator was, and the French scientists less than a hundred years ago getting it wrong.
The guy there was really passionate about the whole subject (they have no Government support, as the official site makes plenty of money right where it is thank you very much!). But it was great to hear him explain their theories and their mission, but then passionate people are always great to listen and talk to, regardless of what they are passionate about. I remember a short video presentation in the Wellington museum in New Zealand that really struck me (I dragged Podge along to watch it too). It was only later that I realised what it was about the video that had struck me so strongly - basically it was just a collage of short video interviews with New Zealanders that did different but interesting things, like sheep farming in a really remote location, or recording sea erosion, or whatever. The common thread was that they were all immensely passionate about what they did, and it was that passion that I found so appealing. It's my favorite question of the moment now - so just what are YOU passionate about???
So anyway, after that presentation we strolled a bit further up the road to the 'real' Equator site, but after the talk we'd just had about exploitation of the Equator, and the ignorance of the genuine ancient history relating to it, and all the silly tricks they do (like balancing an egg on a nail, and watching water 'not' spin round going down a plug hole), we just strolled about the site until someone approached us looking for our entry tickets that we had no intention of buying, and so we just left (but we did get to see a small tour group of people get all excited when they managed to balance an egg on a nail, and of course they had to get photos of each other standing beside their 'achievement' - deary me...).
So back to Quito and a fantastic dinner at one of the cities best restaurants, Theatrum. It was a great setting and a great meal, and a great way to finish off Quito. It was a nice city I have to say, but the next day it was time to get up early and head towards the Colombian border.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Quilotoa
The starting point for the Quilotoa Loop is a town called Latacunga, and when we got dropped off there from Banos we had to walk a short distance to the main bus station. I wasn't sure what our next destination would be, as there are lots of options, but just as we came up to the bus station an approaching bus had a sticker for Quilotoa village itself. So we flagged it down and just hopped aboard and settled in for the 2 hour trip to the main attraction of the whole loop (options included staying the night in a different town before Quilotoa and then hiking for a bit, or overnighting in Quilotoa itself, etc.).
The full loop is 200km, and apparently can be down by hiking, bike or local buses, but the local bus option entails a number of awkward connections - no bus goes all the way around the loop.
So after the lovely journey through the mountains, Quilotoa was an impressive looking volcanic crater lake with strangely green water (nice photos here). We strolled down into the crater of the volcano and around the lake side for a bit before climbing back out and then trying to get transport to the next place (there isn't much to do, or much else to see, in Quilotoa). An option was to spend the night in Quilotoa and then do a full-day hike to another town, but with our rucksacks that wouldn't be too comfortable, and we couldn't get reliable information about any buses back to Quilotoa from that town. In fact, we couldn't get any reliable information about buses to anywhere, Sarah's Spanish just wasn't up to understanding the locals.
Luckily though Sarah got chatting to an Ecuadorian guy who had just come back up from the lake, and it turned out he and his mates had hired a pick-up trick, and there was room in the back for us if we wanted to go back to Latacunga with them. So we took the offer, and rode in the back of the pick-up, something I don't think we've done since Africa. Although it wasn't very comfy, we at least got great unobstructed views on the way, and luckily the rain held off. We even got to see Cotopaxi in the distance, one of the most beautifully famous volcanoes in Ecuador (unfortunately it was the only view we got of it, as later it was shrouded in cloud).
So back in Latacunga bus terminal we got a ticket for the next bus straight to Quito, which naturally enough was leaving in about 4 minutes. So all-in-all it was another hectic but great day travelling, and we managed to get all the way from Banos to Quito in one go, and got in the best bits of the Quilotoa Loop too (well, apart from the hike part).
The full loop is 200km, and apparently can be down by hiking, bike or local buses, but the local bus option entails a number of awkward connections - no bus goes all the way around the loop.
So after the lovely journey through the mountains, Quilotoa was an impressive looking volcanic crater lake with strangely green water (nice photos here). We strolled down into the crater of the volcano and around the lake side for a bit before climbing back out and then trying to get transport to the next place (there isn't much to do, or much else to see, in Quilotoa). An option was to spend the night in Quilotoa and then do a full-day hike to another town, but with our rucksacks that wouldn't be too comfortable, and we couldn't get reliable information about any buses back to Quilotoa from that town. In fact, we couldn't get any reliable information about buses to anywhere, Sarah's Spanish just wasn't up to understanding the locals.
Luckily though Sarah got chatting to an Ecuadorian guy who had just come back up from the lake, and it turned out he and his mates had hired a pick-up trick, and there was room in the back for us if we wanted to go back to Latacunga with them. So we took the offer, and rode in the back of the pick-up, something I don't think we've done since Africa. Although it wasn't very comfy, we at least got great unobstructed views on the way, and luckily the rain held off. We even got to see Cotopaxi in the distance, one of the most beautifully famous volcanoes in Ecuador (unfortunately it was the only view we got of it, as later it was shrouded in cloud).
So back in Latacunga bus terminal we got a ticket for the next bus straight to Quito, which naturally enough was leaving in about 4 minutes. So all-in-all it was another hectic but great day travelling, and we managed to get all the way from Banos to Quito in one go, and got in the best bits of the Quilotoa Loop too (well, apart from the hike part).
Banos
So it was only a short hop to the touristy town of Banos. It's generally an adventure-sport kind of place and also famous for being a jumping off point for jungle trips.
Once we'd gotten settled in we just relaxed for the rest of the first day just strolling around the nice town. The following day we did a hike up to Las Antenas, basically the top of one of the hills that completely surround the town - at the top it has a couple of radio antennas, hence the name. The views along the way were fantastic, and although the main attraction, the volcano Tungurahua, was mostly shrouded in cloud we did get fleeting glimpses of the snowcapped peak (there are some really stunning posters of the volcano towering over the town), but just looking down along the whole valley and the town itself way below us was brilliant too.
We checked out jungle tours later that day, but I really didn't get a good feeling about the tours being offered. They all seemed rather contrived really with a lot of travel to and from the jungle, and then typical touristy 'meet the locals' type setups. Instead I decided that the next day we'd hire bikes do another one of Banos' other big attractions - a 60km cycle to Puyo passing a number of impressive waterfalls along the way. Since a lot of the Banos jungle tours pass through Puyo anyway, I might get a better idea of options from there.
So the following morning we got the bikes sorted and headed off towards Puyo. We stopped at quite a few waterfalls, with the most famous and impressive being the El Pailon del Diablo. You can crawl through a very small natural cave to stand literally right under the powerful flow of water, and the setting was gorgeously jungley too.
So on we went, but after about 30km or so it started raining more and more heavily, until soon we were both completely soaked. So when we arrived at the small town of Rio Negro we just decided to wait under a restaurant roof for a bus to take us back to Banos. Pretty soon a bus came along and the conductor guy clambers up onto the roof and I hand him our bikes, and off home we go. It was a pity not to make it to Puyo, as the route down the valley really was lovely, and it meant I didn't get to check out jungle tour options from there. After the soaking I got I wasn't too keen on the idea of spending a number of days trekking through the jungle and since we don't have proper all-weather hiking gear, it could well have been a bit of a soggy nightmare. So I decided to give the jungle tour thing a miss, it's just something I'll have to try next time, hopefully when I have proper gear.
So the following day we just relaxed again, having a long lie-in and then doing the short hike up the 660 steps to a statue at a lookout point over the town. The views weren't as good as our first proper hike, but this viewpoint is far more accessible. Back in the town we checked out the numerous book exchanges in the nice cafes around the town, and after a great meal at the lovely French restaurant Mariane we decided to leave the next day.
From Banos I wanted to check out the Quilotoa Loop, which is a 200km loop road that passes through some great scenery and a few volcanos and stuff. But according to the guidebook public transport around the loop is very disjointed and therefore very confusing, so it was an early start to just head that direction and see how we got on.
Once we'd gotten settled in we just relaxed for the rest of the first day just strolling around the nice town. The following day we did a hike up to Las Antenas, basically the top of one of the hills that completely surround the town - at the top it has a couple of radio antennas, hence the name. The views along the way were fantastic, and although the main attraction, the volcano Tungurahua, was mostly shrouded in cloud we did get fleeting glimpses of the snowcapped peak (there are some really stunning posters of the volcano towering over the town), but just looking down along the whole valley and the town itself way below us was brilliant too.
We checked out jungle tours later that day, but I really didn't get a good feeling about the tours being offered. They all seemed rather contrived really with a lot of travel to and from the jungle, and then typical touristy 'meet the locals' type setups. Instead I decided that the next day we'd hire bikes do another one of Banos' other big attractions - a 60km cycle to Puyo passing a number of impressive waterfalls along the way. Since a lot of the Banos jungle tours pass through Puyo anyway, I might get a better idea of options from there.
So the following morning we got the bikes sorted and headed off towards Puyo. We stopped at quite a few waterfalls, with the most famous and impressive being the El Pailon del Diablo. You can crawl through a very small natural cave to stand literally right under the powerful flow of water, and the setting was gorgeously jungley too.
So on we went, but after about 30km or so it started raining more and more heavily, until soon we were both completely soaked. So when we arrived at the small town of Rio Negro we just decided to wait under a restaurant roof for a bus to take us back to Banos. Pretty soon a bus came along and the conductor guy clambers up onto the roof and I hand him our bikes, and off home we go. It was a pity not to make it to Puyo, as the route down the valley really was lovely, and it meant I didn't get to check out jungle tour options from there. After the soaking I got I wasn't too keen on the idea of spending a number of days trekking through the jungle and since we don't have proper all-weather hiking gear, it could well have been a bit of a soggy nightmare. So I decided to give the jungle tour thing a miss, it's just something I'll have to try next time, hopefully when I have proper gear.
So the following day we just relaxed again, having a long lie-in and then doing the short hike up the 660 steps to a statue at a lookout point over the town. The views weren't as good as our first proper hike, but this viewpoint is far more accessible. Back in the town we checked out the numerous book exchanges in the nice cafes around the town, and after a great meal at the lovely French restaurant Mariane we decided to leave the next day.
From Banos I wanted to check out the Quilotoa Loop, which is a 200km loop road that passes through some great scenery and a few volcanos and stuff. But according to the guidebook public transport around the loop is very disjointed and therefore very confusing, so it was an early start to just head that direction and see how we got on.
Riobamba and the Devil's Nose
We arrived in Riobamba in the early evening and after sorting out accommodation (Hotel Los Shyris), and getting train tickets for the following morning we had a great dinner at a cosy little restaurant (can't remember the name), and an early night as the train departs at 7am.
Next morning I'm about to try and find an ATM before boarding the train, but as I pass the train station I can see the roof of the train looking pretty packed already (it was a Sunday, so there were lots of Ecuadorian tourists). So I skip the ATM and just head straight for the train, making sure to rent a comfy seat cushion on the way. I clamber up the ladder on the side of the first carriage, but it's immediately clear that there isn't any space to plonk our cushions. I stroll along the carriages and luckily find a perfect 2-cushion gap in the middle of a packed carriage roof, and so we settle down for the trip.
The train leaves pretty much on time and really crawls along at quite a leisurely pace. It's all very nice and pretty, although the weather was quite overcast (luckily it didn't rain at all). So the scenery was all very nice, but nothing amazing, although maybe I'm just getting complacent. The highlight of the trip though is a descent down a mountain side called the Devil's Nose, which due to the gradient requires the train to switch backwards and forwards a number of times - an amazing feat of railway engineering apparently. But I'm no railway buff or enthusiast and so I wasn't very blown away by it all, although it certainly was a nice day out, and it was cute watching all the local kids run towards the train and waving and shouting as it past - well, actually tourists often throw them sweets, so in fact I suppose it's really just a form of begging, still cute though!
After turning around and ascending back up the Devil's Nose we disembark in a small town and get a bus back to Riobamba. We'd been sitting on the roof of the train for nearly 7 hours, which sounds like an awfully long time, but in fact I didn't really notice it much, and found the whole time quite relaxing (and there enough stops along the way to stretch your legs). We derailed only a couple of times (apparently it can happen a lot more, and although it sounds terribly exciting, I didn't even notice until the train stopped), and each delay was quite short. I should have gotten off the train to watch how the guys sorted out a derailment, lots of people did, but I thought I'd have loads of opportunities, ah well.
So back in Riobamba for dinner, and then the next morning I strolled about the town to check it out a bit as Sarah stayed in bed (I think it's quite a nice town really). I wanted to wait around so that we could have lunch again at my favorite Riobamba restaurant, and because the bus to our next destination, Banos, only took a couple of hours so leaving in the afternoon was no problem.
Next morning I'm about to try and find an ATM before boarding the train, but as I pass the train station I can see the roof of the train looking pretty packed already (it was a Sunday, so there were lots of Ecuadorian tourists). So I skip the ATM and just head straight for the train, making sure to rent a comfy seat cushion on the way. I clamber up the ladder on the side of the first carriage, but it's immediately clear that there isn't any space to plonk our cushions. I stroll along the carriages and luckily find a perfect 2-cushion gap in the middle of a packed carriage roof, and so we settle down for the trip.
The train leaves pretty much on time and really crawls along at quite a leisurely pace. It's all very nice and pretty, although the weather was quite overcast (luckily it didn't rain at all). So the scenery was all very nice, but nothing amazing, although maybe I'm just getting complacent. The highlight of the trip though is a descent down a mountain side called the Devil's Nose, which due to the gradient requires the train to switch backwards and forwards a number of times - an amazing feat of railway engineering apparently. But I'm no railway buff or enthusiast and so I wasn't very blown away by it all, although it certainly was a nice day out, and it was cute watching all the local kids run towards the train and waving and shouting as it past - well, actually tourists often throw them sweets, so in fact I suppose it's really just a form of begging, still cute though!
After turning around and ascending back up the Devil's Nose we disembark in a small town and get a bus back to Riobamba. We'd been sitting on the roof of the train for nearly 7 hours, which sounds like an awfully long time, but in fact I didn't really notice it much, and found the whole time quite relaxing (and there enough stops along the way to stretch your legs). We derailed only a couple of times (apparently it can happen a lot more, and although it sounds terribly exciting, I didn't even notice until the train stopped), and each delay was quite short. I should have gotten off the train to watch how the guys sorted out a derailment, lots of people did, but I thought I'd have loads of opportunities, ah well.
So back in Riobamba for dinner, and then the next morning I strolled about the town to check it out a bit as Sarah stayed in bed (I think it's quite a nice town really). I wanted to wait around so that we could have lunch again at my favorite Riobamba restaurant, and because the bus to our next destination, Banos, only took a couple of hours so leaving in the afternoon was no problem.
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