galapagos photo links & journal

Photos and a bit more of a detailed journal on these links

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=103950&id=543366004&l=a4762036b1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107754&id=543366004&l=eea7cbf791

Galapagos!

So now I find myself in the Galapagos islands.Galapagos is AMAZING i´m so happy to be here and so happy to be doing the conservation project I signed up for in San Cristobal. I´ve landed myself a really interested personal project that i´m heading up with a couple of other younger volunteers fighting our way through dense vegetation with machetes to unexplored areas with a GPS and find petrel nests (endangered bird only present in Galapagos and Hawaii) and identifying threats such as wild pig, cat, rat (which predate on eggs) or dense brambles which block the nests so habitat management can be implemented later. Actually reminds me a lot of water vole surveys I do back home, looking for burrows in water courses and keeping an eye out for habitat management and invasive species which threaten their survival. We had to camp out too under the stars to listen out for petrels, although was a bit windy so they weren´t active, but got my fix of cooking dinner on the fire and making shelters out of guava trees. A group of the staff came along to make sure we didn´t get lost and aggressive wild pigs didn´t attack us(!). I´ve also started off this self guided nature tour identifying invasive, native and endemic species, and had a go at some invasive species management (macheting) and reforestation work. I´ve had weekends off and scived a bit of work to go on a 4day tour around some of the other islands, all in all been getting my fair share of amazing snorkeling with sea lions, turtles and manta rays, white tipped reef sharks, moray eels, big schools of colourful fish in a little beach round the corner, not to mention all the parrot fish box fish and ususal stuff you only normally get to see diving. Also went diving yesterday but managed to miss the two hammerheads and massive Galapagos shark that a few others saw a few metres away. Apart from that the guitars been out almost every night, there´s been lots of camp fires and singing and i´ve been dishing out my percussion instruments to everyone to join in. I´ve met some lovely people on the project and its been so much fun. The sea lions are my favourite animal and so playful, they swim right up to me when i´m snorkeling (like face to face) and lounge around on street corners sleeping. Havn´t managed to upload any Galapagos pictures yet, but will do soon! Only got a few more days left here so gonna love you and leave you all, and head to the beach for a few hours to try find some sharks to swim with.

Montanitas, surf, sun and reggaeton

So montanitas, crazy place. we soon discovered that the only thing you can really do here is surf and drink cocktails. We happend to stumble in on Saturday night of the international surf competition total frenzy everywhere. Hot tropical climate again, strangly the wet season in the rest of the country doesn´t seem to affect the coast. Lots of chileans and argentinias in Montanitas, and lots of hair does (didn´t realise how popular mullets were in chile). Anyway it turns out that chileans and argenitinas are lots of fun. We ended up spending about ten days, alternating with big night of salsa, meregue, reggaeton and cocktails, followed by a day of recovering on the beach, playing the guitar, sitting off in hammocks, followed by early night, followed by healthy day of yoga and salads, surfing, followed by another large night. It wasn´t planned in that way but within the ten days we had the first weekend surf competition, a night out to meet and gather crew for beths birthday, beths birthday (the pinnicle of it all), farewell parties for crew gathered for beths birthday, and of course the national carnival which lasted 5 days.

havn´t managed to upload any of my photos yet,but a few of our chilean friends have beat us to it..

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2021654&id=699236560&op=1&view=album&subj=543366004&aid=83852&auser=699236560

Also beth´s birthday dinner...

Guayaquil

Three weeks of being fit and healthy was about to be ruined by ten days in Montanitas, the surfer village on the pacific coast. Bit of a crazy place to say the least. Unfortunatly on the overnight bus ride to guayaquil one of our three bags we put in the luggage hold mysterously disappeared. Typical for beth – 15months of travelling latin america and her bag gets stolen in the last two weeks. We got the security gards in the bus station to radio in for some police who asked us to write down our names and date of birth (!) on a bit of paper and personally escorted us to the police station where they waited around 2 hours for us to give a reference, then drove us around the city to change some money, asked if we wanted to have breakfast or buy new bikinis for montanita when we passed a shop window (commenting on which ones we´d look best in) and also putting on the siren at every opportune moment to get through traffic, striking up a conversation about why we weren´t married with children at our ´mature age´ and finished by giving us their number in case we had any more problems in guayquil or wanted to salsa dance. Reallly this kind of behaviour would be sexual harrassment in Europe, but totally acceptable in Ecuador. Wasn´t long before we had another bag stolen from beneith beth´s feet (the legendary food bag full of yogurt and granola). Two bags in 5 hours, pretty good going. Oh yes, forgot to say our incident at the police station made it to ecuadorian news. And i thought the guy shoving his mic in my face was part of the police wanting film evidence of our statments, turns out he was putting together a programme of ´bad things that happen in ecuador – our seciton was ´they rob the tourists´, a guy in montanitas recognised us from television.

havn´t managed to upload any banos photos yet on facebook, but here´s one of the village and the crazy dog gringa who came on the walk up the mountain to protect us

Banos

Having spent almost 2 weeks on a detox with yoga and trekking we were feeling fit and healthy and decided to check out Banos, the town with natural thermal springs due to its location adjacent to a huge active volcanoe, and famous for its outdoor activities. Being located in the cloud forest it rained a fair bit, but on the first sunny day we decided to tackle the 60km bike ride down to the amazon basin, aptly named ´routa de las cascadas´ due to about sixteen waterfalls passed on route. The most exciting thing is seeing the change in ecology and habitats as the route drops from cloud forest to amazon. Also hearing the change in sounds and insect buzz, hotter climate and general more tropical lazy chilled out vibe (old men sat on street corners too chilling in the heat).

More amazing quilatoa loop photos on here. Heres the dodgy 1-log bridge we had to cross twice

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106293&id=543366004&l=424c1

Quilatoa Loop

Next stop Quito, to stock up on hiking gear after learning our lesson at cotapaxi. Also i bought a new lumex after my old casio camera suddenly died on me  Also managed to sneek in a night in a salsateca to get my salsa fix, followed by the usual consequences of having to get up to catch a bus having had 3 hours sleep. Quilatoa is a beautiful crater lake up in the andes. We stayed with an indegenous family then spent the next 3 days hiking between villages around the loop – first day down to the lake and on to Chugchilan, Next day onto ilinizi, then final day to sigchos. 3 days of 7-8hours trekking through the andes with no guide other than lonley planet inaccurate descriptions of the paths, and inevitabley losing the route and having to whistle over to some farmers and indigenous folk every now and again (good job beth can do that whistle thing or we´d still be lost) and fight off aggressive farm dogs with stones, cross dodgy 1-log bridges over fast flowing rivers (then having to cross back realising we´d gone wrong) and having to tackel tiny footpaths which carve their way around steep mountains over sheer drops down to certain doom. Occassionally stumbling accross and 80 year old Quetchua farmer lady with no teeth who giggles a lot and manages to mumble a few spanish words saying she´s minding the cows. No retirement out here.

for more cotopaxi photos check out
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106284&id=543366004&l=49319

This one was taken around about the time we started to panic (note beth´s not too happy about me taking the picture)...

After a couple of days of taking it easy we thought we should check out the national park itself. A swiss couple were having a go at the summit, so we decided to hitch a ride with them to the lagoon, the idea being to hike around the lagoon, see the beautiful snow capped volcanoe from the bottom, and then get a lift back to the main road to cathc a bus back to the farm. Their guide persuaded us it would be much more exiting to get to the refuge where hikers spend the night before attempting the summit at 1am the next morning, and perhaps see some glaciers. Also more chance of finding a lift back he said. For some inexlicable reason (perhaps the glorious weather down near the lagoon) we let ourselves get talked into this idea, only to suddenly find ourselves completely underdressed (beth in sandles and socks, neither of us in waterproof trousers) in a blizzard at some 4000km altitude. One of those moments of slow panic / dread as everyone around us put on their full on cramp ons, snow gear and basically look like their about to tackel everest. We decided to sack off the stupid idea of going higher and seeing glaciers get to lower altitudes as fast as possible. Within a few minutes we were both freezing, cheeks burning, and to make it worse a couple of vehicles passed by and didn´t stop. One of those feelings of slow panic-dread and visions of it getting dark and us being lost, with little but a pack of peanuts in our bag, no map, no compass, having to camp overnight with no shelter, getting attacked by wild horses roaming the landscape or dying on route. Luckily within half an hour a car of sympathetic americans stopped who said we reminded them of their daughters and gave us a lift back to civilisation.

Couple of days in Otavalo and we decided we wanted to find a chilled out farm somehwere to spend a few days, get a routine, catch up on sleep and detox alter Colombia, do some yoga and drink herbal teas. We found a gorgeous little farm near Cotapaxi national park with a perfect barn to get the carpets out on for daily yoga practice. Friendly dogs and llamas, lots of clover and dandelions to pick and put in tea and open fire and guitar friendly vibes at night. Even had a jacuzzi in the back yard.

First stop, Otovalo market to stock up on al paca goods- jumper, poncho, socks, gloves, hats, jackets. So much colder in the andes than i´d realised, or maybe i was just thinking about the first carrebbean leg of the journey. Anyhow the al paca ponchos and pan pipes in otovalo really made us feel like we´d arrived in Ecuador. Even the night life was live pan pipe andes bands in indegenous gear and long hair. Very different feel from colombian hot Cali salsa. We decided to make a little trip to the animal market where all indegenous folk from surrounding villages decend every week with cows, pigs, gotas, sheep, chickens, guinea pigs, cats, dogs (BTW guinea pig is the nacional ecuadorian dish) i´ve stuck to my salad, crackers, sea food rice and lentils.

more photos on http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106284&id=543366004&l=49319

Ecuador

So, we manager to cross the colombian ecuador border at night without any problems, lots of police presence and road blocas and convoys but i slept my way through it all luckily. More of a concerní was that beth had forgotten her yellow fever certificate and we weren´t sure she´d get through, but a bit of a flutter of those blue sparkly eyes at a the officials and we were through

So now here we are in popoyan, another charming colonial city in thesouth of Colombia. Things have changed loads here recently -5 years agopeople barley visited this area. the lonley planet i have which is5years out of date warns against travelling at night on buses due toguerillas (FARC) stopping and robbing buses, burning them, particularlydown at the borders but the relatively new president ruibe has ploughedcopious amounts of cash into public security (apparently his dad waskilled by FARC) and has a vendetta against them. This has madetravelling around colombia much safer, although the flip side is publicspending in other areas has dropped and rise in unemployment hasresulted in a rise in city crime. Obviously there are still areas ofthe country completely out of bounds, in fact most of the country interms of area including the vast amazon. we were also warned also aboutthe pacific coast by our dutch friend Ron in Tyrona national park who´dhad a good Colombian friend from Bogota kidnapped on a boat with 20other Colombians last year and had been held captive for 6monthssomewhere in the amazon. The friend had been released after 6 monthsfollowing some payment which people don´t talk about (its illegal to paymoney to the guerillas), but kidnapping and drug trade is what funds theguerillas and that evidently still goes on. So anyway we´ve checked thesituation with the local police who have assured us the situation issafe now and escort all buses down to the border. In actual fact theystop all traffic flow for 3-4hours at night and then escort vehicles inconvoy.

The chiva bus (see photo) is the typical bus from colombia, all the indigenous use it, but the buses over night are a bit more westernised

So after our dose of salsa we´ve been working our way down to theborder. We stopped of in an indigenousvillage weekly vegetable market of Silva (guiyambo tribe) who are themost established indigenous tribe in Colombia (see photo above). We made friends with a lady who was stitching a typical bag, her husband, and their mum whoboasted a full set of gold teeth who giggled a lot and invited us totheir house for sweet herbal tea and cheesy bread. Randomly the husbandand been to finland due to his godmother being a finnish woman who hadvisited the village so we spent the afternoon talking about culturaldifferences between Europe and Colombia, Was amazing as they were allsat there with their bright purple and pink skirts and big black bowlerhats. Also we discovered we were all the same age (except for the mum).

See the facebook link for more cali and medellin photos

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2421133&l=92a36&id=543366004

Cali the Salsa Capital of Colombia

Also a few days in Cali, the salsa capital of Colombia (thats my gay salsa teacher BTW, so much fun except his advice on which clubs to spend our friday night out in! we thought his advice would be a safe bet (less pushy colombian men, if their interests were to lie with other men) but, we underestmated how pushy and forward colombian women would be!). Anyway Sat night we went to the infamous oldest running Chango club in swanky´juanchito´ area of Cali where the idea of two English girls who cansalsa dance went down a storm and we were pulled up on stage given sometacky prizes and asked to pick out winning names from a box and madefriends with the owner. Lots of fun. Lucky for me my Colombian friendLina from work put me in touch with her family who overwhelmed us withtheir hospitality and generosity, giving us their swanky ´art studio´ inthe centre of the old town to live in for a few days which was totallyamazing. Old wooden beams, art work all over, mezzanine floor and greatspace to do a bit of morning yoga. Also got invited to their amazingcountry mansion for Sunday dinner.

Medellin the city of eternal spring (and pablo escobar)

So the last week or so has been a trip around Medellin (formerPablo Escobar home) and local villages characterized by lots of men inponchos and hats sat around drinking rum in saloon type bars or playingbilliards blasting out ranchero tunes. We accidently walked into oneand realized the unsaid rule of no women allowed. Shame though as lookedfantastic, all sorts of crazy artefacts on the walls and ceilings.

Bogota

Bogota was a fun meeting up place for various folk we´d met along the
way and another few nights of rum and salsa. I was shocked at how cold
and rainy it was though, and think the altitude, lowered immune system
and high levels of air pollution (its shocking how polluted all the
cities are here) meant I got a bit of a cold and spent a couple of days
wrapped up in bed. Still managed to see some of the tourist sites
including the cable car ride to monserrate, unfortunately the dense
cloud and pollution meant no spectacular view.

Part 3 Villa de Leyva

Check out more photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2417220&l=0e73a&id=543366004

That was the last of our coast experience, we´d met some folk from
bogota and had decided we wanted to get down there for the weekend. We
stopped off in Villa de Leyva, a beautiful colonial town in the andes a
few hours north of bogota (sudden shock at how cold it was away from the
coast), spent a couple of days chilling, playing guitars in the square,
exploring the beautiful countryside, waterfalls (bizarrely I started
recognizing loads of the grasses and plants, which meant yummy healing
red clover herbal teas), think the conquistadores must have brought lots
of European pasture plants to plant up the fields for farming. Also
visited a bizarre historic archaeological fertility site which had loads
of massive 5meter tall stone penises (just to explain the photos).

Part 2: random day in la Guajira

In fact it was the same Colombian family who told us about this other amazing beach – cabo de la vela in the state of la guiajira that was only ´2 hours away´. I´ve come to realize the Colombian concept of time and hours is vastly different to the European, so really shouldn´t have trusted them. When we got to riohacha which was 2 hours away we were told it was another 6hours through the desert, advisable only by personal guide at a cost of $200 dollars. Various sources of information had warned us against travelling through the desert in la guijira, so the alternative option of taking 3 public buses through indigenous villages seemed a bit scary. Also we´d been told to watch out for the indigenous boys of la guijira who, if they like the look of ladies have been known to be quite persistent in keeping them for marriage, in exchange for a few goats (we were told it wasn´t strictly kidnapping as it was to do with traditional custom). Either way we decided we´d cut our losses, spend the afternoon in a flamingo reserve before heading back to taganga which in itself turned out to be a random affair (again the 1hour trip lasted 3hours and we were stuck on a boat with our Colombian guide, his nephew and the boat man who spent hours singing passionate ranchero tunes – see the facebook link).

Part 1: The Colombian Coast

Sooooo I´m in the town of popayan south Colombia about to get an overnight bus to the Ecuadorian border. Its been an amazing month and i´ve barley had time to put my thoughts to paper, other than a few photos and comments on facebook. Thought facebook comments would be enough of a travel log but decided to give this blog stuff a go.

So where to start?

So it all started in the Caribbean,

Check out for some more photos
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94048&l=32b64&id=543366004
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95498&l=8345b&id=543366004

I arrived in bogota on 27th December and promptly got an internal flight to Cartagena to meet beth in good time for NYE. Was welcomed with a night of rum and salsa, which come to think of it pretty much sums up most of my memories from our week in Cartagena. Beth had been living in Cartagena for a month with a lovely family (lucky for me there was a spare bed for me to move in for a week), she´d been teaching English in ´da hood´, and had got to know a nice little crew of folk. Actually it wasn´t just rum and salsa, Come to think of it we managed to squeeze in a random trip to a mud volcanoe which was one of the strangest xperiences ever, floating in thick mud, not being able to touch any kind of bottom with my feet, not being able to swim but also being strangly buoyant and being pulled around the volcanoe mud by local folk offering massages for a small fee. The kids hated it, (check out the link on facebook for screaming kids). Skin felt amazing after though. Also got a great dive in islas rosaries which are a beautiful set of carribbean islands, first time in ages i´ve dived with a proper buddy :)

Then Taganga - a small fishing village which has turned into a bit of a traveler hang out, great for a few days chilling, snorkeling, a sneaky salsa night and eating amazing fresh fish for dinner which we saw the fishermen catch the same afternoon.

Also the stunning Tyrona nationa park, probably the highlight of my time in Colombia, beautiful coast accessible only by a 2hour walk through thick rainforest and ccommodation comprising pure hammocks and tents, morning wake up call a selection of tropical birds. We left loads of our stuff in Taganga to make the treck more do-able but couldn´t resist bringing a guitar and selection of percussion which was brilliant as spent most of the time playing the guitar on the beach in the sun, and under the full moon, guaranteed way to meet lots of fun crazy people (check out some of the photos and videos on facebook link). Also we´d planned ahead and bought a cool box and enough muslie, tinned tuna, salad and crackers to last us 3 days, even made it stretch for 4 days, unfortunately no cash points meant we ran out of money and had to leave after 4 days although could have stayed a week.

Although it was quite busy (Colombian holidays seem to last most of January), most other visitors were Colombians which was good fun, and we were camped next to a friendly family who hacked off the coconut husk for us when they saw me struggling with my finnish hunting knife.

Flying over central colombia on my first day wondering how many guerrillas are hiding in those mountains. Was feeling a bit too fresh faced to consider the 16hour bus journey and associated dangers...