Sexy new blog & market madness

Howdy everyone, what do you think of the new look & feel for my blog?

Today I am back in Quito, leaving this evening for an overnight bus to Lago Agrio where I begin a 5 day tour of the Amazon.  Here we stay in the jungle in huts, look for anacondas, caimans and pink dolphins, take canoe rides and fish for piranhas.

Yesterday I did a day tour out to Otavalo to check out the largest markets in South America.  They were pretty big and there was some fantastic stuff there.  I could easily have gone nuts if I didn't have to lug everything around for another 3 months.  However, there wasn't quite as much variety as I was expecting, as with markets in most places there were alot of stalls with the same stuff.  You were also expected to haggle for things, but that was fun as the people running the stalls were all lovely, although admittedly I didn't really haggle to hard everything was already pretty cheap.  The other thing was I had heard about the animal markets there were supposed to be good to have a look around, but those markets are actually in a different place and our tour didn't go there which was a bit disappointing, it would have been great for a little photo taking.

The other place we did go to was a little town that specialises in leather goods.  There was this long streets just chockers with stores selling cheap leather bags, jackets, gloves, etc.  So yes, the amazingly soft and fantastically red leather jacket was a necessary purchase.

The markets themselves were also a great place for photos taking.  When we arrived our guide told us 'make sure you use your zoom to take photos because sometimes people don't like their photo being taken or will ask you for a dollar'.  But I found the people to be nice and not mind.  I asked some people if I could take photos of their stalls and they didn't care or ask for money.  But the photos look great, there are all the people in their traditional dress and the stalls are just bursting with colours.

Penguins amongst the mangroves.

Funny.  There are a lot of amazing things to see in the Galapagos, but one thing that really seemed bizarre to me was watching penguins swimming around amongst the mangroves on one of the islands.  Penguinis and mangroves doesn't seem quite right.

The Galapagos has a fantastic history as well.  The Galapagos have been a haven for pirates, the source of Charles Darwin's 'Origin of Species', home to numerous of unique animals, a US army base in WWII, an Ecudorian prison up until the 60's (or 80's? can't remember) and the location for a bizarre real-life murder mystery surrounding a wealthy German and her two lovers.

Today was my last day so I decided to go diving again.  To tell the truth the morning was a little bit of a let down compared to my other dives.  There were only two others on the dive and they were both inexperienced and a but useless; taking ages to get down, kicking silt up everywhere and banging into things, swimming on top of you, etc.  I guess everyone has to start somewhere, but it's still frustrating.  However, we did get to see a lot of sea lions and swim about with them and swim through a small cave which was pretty cool.  Now, fingers crossed my blocked ear clears up before I have to fly out tomorrow.

Food glorious food

Food-wise some of the local soups here have been my favourite things.  As well as the posole which I think I've mentioned previously,  the Mexican 'Sopa Azteca' is awesome and the Ecudorian 'Locro de Papas' I've just ordered now.  Yummo!  The avocados here are amazing and have some much flavour, maybe that's why these soups are so goo.  Anyway,  I've had a google and found a couple of recipes for these soups and I'll definately be trying these out when I get home.



Locro de Papas



Sopa Azteca

This delicious soup has fried tortillas in a tomato broth.

Ingredients:

6 Tomatoes

2 Garlic cloves

1/4 Onion

8 Cups stock

2 Tbsp oil

2 Avocado leaves

2 Pasilla chiles

12 Day-old corn tortillas

1/2 Cup oil for frying

1 Avocado

1 Cup Cheese (preferably Oaxacan cheese)

Preparation:

1. Cut the tortillas into strips and fry in high heat until the tortillas are golden brown. Remove the tortilla strips from the oil with a slotted spoon. Place on paper towels.
2. Roast the tomatoes until the skin blackens, peel off skin.
3. Roast the garlic, onion, chiles and avocado leaves in a pan for about 3 minutes. Puree these ingredients with the tomatoes and half a cup of water in the blender. Strain.
4. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan and add pureed mixture. Boil until the puree thickens and turns dark red (about 5 minutes).
5. Add the stock and salt to taste. Cook for 15 minutes over medium heat stirring occasionally.
6. To serve place tortilla strips in each bowl and pour the broth on top. Garnish with cubed avocado and cheese.

Locro de Papas

Locro de papa is a classic Ecuadorian potato and cheese soup.

Ingredients:

10 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into small and large pieces

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 white onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp achiote powder

7 cups of water

1 cup of milk or more

1 cup grated or crumbled cheese (mozzarella or monterey jack)

1 bunch of cilantro, leaves only, minced

Salt to taste

1 cup of feta cheese

Chopped scallions

Avocados, sliced or diced

Aji or hot sauce

Preparation:

1. Prepare a refrito or base for the soup by heating the canola oil over medium heat in a large soup pot; add the diced onions, minced garlic cloves, cumin, and achiote powder. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the potatoes to the pot and mix until they are coated with the refrito. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes, stirring a every couple of minutes.
3. Add the water and bring to boil, cook until the potatoes are very tender. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes in the pot, don’t mash all of them, the consistency of the soup should be creamy with small tender chunks of potatoes.
4. Turn the heat down to low, stir in the milk and let cook for about 5 more minutes. You can add more milk if the soup is too thick.
5. Add salt to taste
6. Add the grated cheese and cilantro, mix well, and remove from the heat.
7. Serve warm with the avocados, scallions, feta cheese and aji or hot sauce.

Pirate post office

Another place we went to on the cruise was  Post Office Bay.  It's one of those postcard perfect beaches, but the interesting thing about it is just off the beach is an old barrel which is a relic from back in the days when the Galapagos islands were used as a port for whalers and other sea faring folk, as well as a refuge for pirates.

The barrel was used as a post box.  People would leave messages in the barrel and other people coming through would go through the box and take anything that they could deliver.  Now the tradition lives on through numerous travellers who come through the Galapagos.  We wrote our postcards and put them in the barrel.  Then looked through the 100's of other letters and postcards for ones that were close to home.  Written on the cards were lots of promises of homemade treats or meal for a message hand delivered. 

I could only find three cards that were from Australians, and only one of these was in Victoria.  I think Beechworth is up north somewhere; but I figure it can't be anymore than a weekend roadtrip and I love the thought of turning up on someones doorstep, in this case Bev & Mick from Beechworth, and delivering a postcard written in the Galapagos six months ago.  Someone suggested they could take a postcard from their country and post it when they get home; but that just didn't seem in the spirit of things to me.

Putting my postcards in the barrel.

Shake it baby.

One of the places we stopped on the cruise was Cerro Dragun which means dragon hill - named after the land iguanas which live there.  They are pretty damn big for a lizard, but not quite dragon sized.  They grow to about a metre long (tail included).  On our walk around the island we saw about a dozen big males, a couple of the females disappearing into the bush (they're a bit shy) and one baby.  The babies are blue and for some reason he was just sitting in the top of a bush waiting for me to spot him. 

Towards the end we came across two large males having a face-off in the middle of the track.  It was amazing.  They were nose to nose starring at each other and shaking their heads.  Apparently, best head shaker is the winner and the other has to get off his turf.  And they don't shake side to side it's more of a head fit -  up-up-up up-up-up down up-up-up up-up-up down - sorry not enough internet to upload the video, but you get the idea.

Shakey shakey

Just cruisin'

The weeklong cruise seemed to go awfully quick, but we did get to see and do a lot.  We visited various islands, went snorkelling most days and got up close and personal with giant tortoises, sea lions, marine iguanas, land iguanas, turtles, penguins, lava lizards and blue-footed boobies.

On one of our first snorkels I was about to dive down to take a look at something when I heard someone call out 'Shark!'.   I turned and two feet behind me a metre and a half long reef shark was swimming by.  I started swimming as fast as I could.  My little chicken legs pumping and my arms splashing about as fast as they could, but damn, there was no way I could keep up with him and he swam off into the distance.

The turtles were a little easier to keep up with.  They can swim fast when they want to, but they've kind of got this blase, 'yeah whatever' kind of attitude.  You swim up close and they don't care, they don't leave, they don't pay any attention to you either; they just keep on being a turtle and just doing what turtles do.

Penguins are like the reef sharks, you don't have a hope in hell of keeping up with one.  Sea lions would be the same except they are curious creatures and like to play.  So they'll come up and check you out.
Penguins mini torpedoes and sea lions a little curious.

Admittedly we didn't see a lot of reef sharks while snorkelling and we would have loved to see more penguins and sea lions, but in all the snorkelling was pretty good.  The mix of warm and cool currents made it a bit of a mystery everyday as to what the water would be like.  Would it be warm or cool?  What would the visibility be like?  How tough would the current be?

Out of the water the number of tortoises, marine iguanas, land iguanas, birds of all sorts and sea lions we saw was fantastic.  I was averaging about 300-500 photos a day.  So you're probably lucky that it takes too long to upload them and I can't put lots up!

Land iguana

Blue-footed boobie

Our boat, the 'Angelito'

Hammerhead hijinx

Finally the big guniea pig thing...

Agouti - the big guinea pig thing.

I arrived on the the Galapagos Islands Monday and it's been great.  It's either the start or end of the wet season as it's still hot, but it seems to rain most evenings.  But it's ok in the day so that's good.

In my first day or so I met a small but good crew of people to hang out with.  A few people from the US, Israel & Switzerland.  We checked out some beaches, have been diving, seen the giant tortoises, marine iguanas and lava tubes.  All this and I've only seen part of 1 island!

The first night, myself and Richard - a New Yorker I met getting off the plane, went hunting for a cheap hotel and managed to talk a lady down from $45 to $30 a night each for rooms.  We thought we had done well until we met a girl, Sasha, who was staying the same place as us and paying $15 a night.  Ripped!  The next day we asked the guys we were diving with how much they were paying and they were paying $15 and $12 a night!  Obviously we must look like suckers.  That was it, we got off the boat and followed our new friend, Gilard (can you believe I kept forgetting his name), an Isreali dude, to his hotel.  We had a look at the rooms and the standard was the same as our $30 a night rooms, so we switched hotels, never to return, except when I've gone back to the restaurant next door so I can steal their wi-fi ;)

The diving, although somewhat expensive has been amazing.  Turtles, reef sharks, muebla rays, blue-spotted eagle rays, sea lions and hammerheads as well as all the usual small reef fish.

So our second dive on Wednesday was not only one of the best dives I've ever done, but my 50th dive ever!  Towards the end of the dive we saw this big school of hammerheads, then as we were watching them a school of muebla rays swam past, then a huge turtle came swimming through the rays right past us. 

There was so much going on I didn't know where to look.  I probably should have been looking at my air gauge :(  When I finished the dive it was on 0 and my dive buddy, Richard, he had to share the guides air for the last couple of minutes.

We went through air quick in that dive because we went quite deep and there were a lot of strong currents which we had to swim against.  At the end our guide was a bit far away so he banged on his tank to get our attention and for us to follow and then took off.  He was almost out of sight when Richard and I went to go after him, then I realised that the other girl was still watching the sharks and going the opposite direction.  I wasn't sure whether to go after her or get richards attention first, but turned around and saw her and I was low on air so left him to chase her.  So I was left danglling in the middle, trying to wait where they could see me and I could see where the guide was disappearing to.

So we all got back together in a group and did our 3 minute safety stop.  But Richards dive computer said we had to do extra time because we'd gone too deep.  So the guide took the other 2 to the surface then came back to Richard and I who were just hovering in the water waiting to see how long his air would last.  The guide came back just as Richards air ran out, so they shared and I got to keep my diminishing resources to myself.  Longest 9 minutes ever.  Perhaps a little excessive for a safety stop, but better safe than sorry. So yeah, exciting 50th dive.

Turtle

School of blue-spotted eagle rays

School of hammerheads

A quaint town called Quito.

Oh yeah, found out the big guinea pig thing is called an Agouti.  Poo, tried to upload a pic for you, but the internet is too slow.

So after Monteverde I spent a couple of days looking around Quito and thought it was a cool little city.
Except for the repeated warnings from the hotel guy about catching taxi's everywhere after dark.
So during the day I wandered about, but my evenings were pretty quiet as I was staying in a hotel, not a hostel so didn't really meet anyone.  Although a room to myself was nice for a change - and $7 a night, who can argue with that.

One day I went on the Teleferiqo which is a big ski-lift thing that goes to the top of a mountain called Cruz Loma which overlooks Quito.  Amazing views and from the top of the Teleferiqo you can hike to the peak of Cruz Loma.  Hiking to the peak had been my original intention, but I should have given myself a couple of days in Quito first to get used to the altitude.  The top of the Teleferiqo is 4100m and when I got to the top and had a bit of a walk around I found myself getting a splitting headache and out of breath all the time.

So no hike to the peak for me.  Instead I had a walk round for a couple of hours then went back down into the city and went to check out the 'Jardin de botanico'.

The Quito markets are also amazing.  A lot of fantastic knitted ponchos and jumpers, all made with soft snuggly wool, not itchy wool and seriously cheap.  I thought I would have my bucks until I got out of Quito to Otavalo which is a couple of hours away and apparently has the coolest markets.  As well as hand craft there are food and animal markets and all the locals dress in traditional dress.  It sounded good for a look, but was not to be as when I got out to the bus terminal there were no buses.

So instead I went to the National Museum and had a wander about the Old Town of Quito.  The Museum had a great history of the area and the development of the various cultures and how they made things ie. gold, silver, copper, ceramics.

Really there is a lot to do in Ecudor and I would have liked to go to the Amazon, Otavalo, Cotopaxii, Banos, etc.  But I was just getting a little impatient about the Galapagos as it's somewhere I've ALWAYS wanted to go. I will fly back to Ecudor to go overland to Lima so should be able to check out a bit more of the country then.

I ain't no Jane.

Monteverde is a beautiful place.  High up amongst the clouds, serene forests and an abundance of wacky birds and animals, it's the kind of place where 2 weeks isn't long enough, let alone 2 days.  But 2 days was all I had.

The first day I got up early (still on sloth time I guess) and watched the day break over the mountains from the kitchen of the hostel where I was having a lazy breakfast.  I followed this up with a wander about town and in the afternoon I did a canopy zipline tour. 

It was pretty fun.  I don't think I've ever done big ziplines like that before.  Some of them were pretty quick and some went out over the valley which was pretty high and the wind had you rocking all around too.  The last thing on the tour was a tarzan swing.  I don't think I actually knew what it was.  I just though big swing, cool.  I was wrong.  Fuck-off sized swing is more like it.  It was like 40m!  But there was another girl on the tour who was all gung-ho and her boyfriend wouldn't do it with her, so she was like are you going?  And I was all 'yeah, I'm tough.'  And I was until I got to the edge.  And at the edge I was pretty nervous.  Then I jumped.  Then when it was just that little bit too late I was like 'oh shit I don't want to do this!'  But it was too late.  And it was awesome.  Except for that bit where I nearly crapped myself.  After that I was like 'oh my god' but it was fun.  Although I did have the shakes up when I got to the ground, the other girl was all 'Wow you didn't even scream.  I screamed the jungle down' and was like 'I think maybe I was too scared to scream.'

The second day I got up early for the 6.30 tour at the Santa Elena Nature Reserve which is a beautiful bit of cloud forest.  The tour went for about 3 hours and the guide showed us lots of plants, bugs and birds, including a Quetzal - a bright blue and red bird, which apparently is pretty rare.  After the tour I did one of the hiking tracks.  I heard a hummingbird and went to take a photo only to find out it was not a hummingbird, but a big beetle the size of a humming bird.  Later down the track I heard the big beetle and turned around to find it was actually a hummingbird.  I also almost stood on two snakes.  Stupid things what are they doing in the middle of the path anyway?  It's a walking track - they don't even have legs.

The next day I had the morning to explore before heading back to San Jose.  I went to the Sanctuario Ecologica and did a couple of the tracks there.  I was pretty excited when I saw one of the big guinea pig things.  I tried to get some photos but he was hiding in amongst the trees.  However, later I came out into a clearing and there were about half a dozen of them all wandering about and chasing eachother.  I still gotta find out what those things were called.

WTF? Week 9 already?

I've now left the sanctuary and sloth-filled days and am heading off to the other side of Costa Rica to Monteverde for a few days.  Monteverde is cloud forests, canopy tours, lots of wildlife and supposed to be a beautiful place, so can't wait.

My last day at the sloth sanctuary was good.  I did get to play with Roly-bear, and he tried as usual to bite me but succeeded in only scratching the hell out of my boobs.  He's so cute though so he's forgiven.

I'm also going to miss the little old ice-cream lady.  Today I had 2 ice-creams after lunch because I know I'm not going to get any more.  The little old ice-cream lady is tiny and about 100.  She lives in a house as old and as tiny as her and it is surrounded by lots of flowers and at footpath entrance is a little blue sign that says 'Se vende helados c200'.  You go in and ask her for her homemade ice-cream which comes in 3 flavours - coconut, peanut or this strawberry condensed milk thing.  They cost the equivalent of 40c and ice-cream is in little plastic bags that kinda smell a bit fishy from being in the freezer, but that doesn't matter, you just bite off the corner and get into it.  It's so good, we've been dropping in on her pretty much daily, so the sloth volunteers must be a fantastic source of income for her.

After work we went into Cahuita for a couple of beverages at the Reggae bar which was fun, and then were home about 8pm.  Another big night out partying for the volunteers.

It's a bit sad leaving the sanctuary as I would have liked to have spent another couple of weeks there.

But this week Beth arrived who has recently come from Ecudor and the Galapagos Islands.  She gave me heaps of info and tips and told me how fantastic it is, so now I'm getting pretty excited about that.  I fly out Thursday to Quito, Ecudor and have about six weeks to see Ecudor, the Galapagos and then get to Lima.

Random slothy facts

- Sloths have four stomachs, but they don't regurgatate like cows, it just goes straight through
- It takes about 25 days for sloth food to digest
- Sloths supposedly poo/wee just once a week and always go down to the ground to do it  - except for two in my section who decided to poo & wee 3 times this week.  And do it in their container for me to clean up.
- A sloths sense of smell is their best sense.
- Surprisingly, sloths aren't very smelly at all.  It's a part of their camoflage, they
take on the scent of their environment. 
- The sloths at the sanctuary do not have fungusy-stuff growing on them as they do in the wild.  This is something they pick up from their environment. Another of their devious ways to blend in with the environment.

Yay. Play date with Roly-bear.

Today is my last day here and I'm just waiting down on the dock for baby time.  There is a caiman crocodile laying in the water just below the deck.  But the waters a bit deep so it's hard to get a pic.  Today at baby time, as it's my last day, I'm going to play with my favourite Rolo, who I like to call Roly-bear.  He's so cute, and a little fiesty.

Baby-time

Roly-bear playing on the jungle gym

I've been here for two weeks but I guess I haven't told you a lot about sloths themselves.  There are two types, three-toed and two-toed.  However, both have three toes on their back legs, it's just hte front that changes.  The two types are quite distinguishable.  The three-toed are smaller and look like ewoks, they are also very friendly and like to crawl all over you when you get in their cage.  The two-toed are larger and look more like little pig-nose bears. 

3-toed sloth

2-toed sloth

Sloths are not at all related to bears though.  They are more closely related to armadillos or something like that.  They live to about 20-30 years.  The two-toed eat leaves and fruits, the three-toed only eat leaves.  Big leaves covered with bitey ants.

If you want some more reading material and little more sloth fact you can check out the sanctuaries web site http://www.slothrescue.org/ or the blog of Becky who is a researcher here at the sanctuary http://beckycliffe.blogspot.com/

If you have any more slothy questions ask away!

:( sad face, my sloth days are numbered.

Time here has gone so fast.  My two weeks are almost up.  This is such a great place for taking photos.  As well as the fact you can never take enough pictures of sloths because they are so cute the sanctuary is just abundant with photo opportunities.  The flowers, trees and the lagoon.  The birds, crabs, lizards, bugs, iguanas, nests of baby humming birds and howler monkeys.  The place is just fantastic.

Sloths, like a lot of animals, have their own personality.  Some are love-junkies and always looking to climb all over you.  Some love a bit of attention and being hand-fed.  Some come running (or the sloth-climbing version) when they see food.  Some just give you a dirty look and pull the towel up over their head.  So pretty quickly you get your favourites.

I like Jasper and Tuffy.  Jasper is a hungry boy who is always hanging off the door before you even get there with his food.  Tuffy is in the last cage in the row and just looks at you with big sad eyes because he's had to wait til last again.  Sometimes I take him his first and he just looks at you all confused like 'what the hell?' 

Piphany and Zoe are cute, they're really light, almost white in colour and all smiley.  And the little brady's (the 3-toed sloths) are cute.  They come and try and crawl all over you as soon as you open the door of the cage.

Of the baby's I love Poco and Rolo.  Poco looks like a little fluffy possum.  Roly-bear looks like a tiny bear and is so feisty.  He loves running around on the jungle gym and eating dirt.  He also doesn't like sharing so will bite anyone who gets put on the jungle gym with him.  The first time I had him at baby time he got shitty because I took him off the jungle gym, so he bit me on the arm.  It was pretty funny. He hasn't bit me again yet, but not through lack of trying!

I've just got back from being taken to the incubator room.  Those babies are so so tiny.  Like the size of your hand.  Baby sloths are born fully formed with hair, claws everything.  Just damn tiny.

More sloth goodness and Easter Crime

So my first week at the Sanctuary is almost over already!  The sloths are so cute and I've taken about a billion photos and videos.

The girls, the other volunteers, are great fun.  :( - sad faces for Nicole and Sophia who left this morning.  Sophia has been telling us about the fantastic Norwegian tradition of Easter Crime where over Easter they watch and read a lot of crime shows and novels.

So Easter morning we get up and go feed the sloths, Mia, Erin & Sophia were having a sleep in as it was their day off.  When we came back to the house for breakfast there was a big bloody sign at the door saying 'Easter Crime'.  It was all very exciting, especially when we heard screaming and went inside to find a bloody knife on the floor.  We followed the conviently place paper arrows upstairs to find a body on the floor of a room with lots of Easter chocolates everywhere.  Easter Crime and Easter bunny rolled into one.  It made the morning feel much more Eastery.

We also followed up that night with some fantastic vegan french toast made with mashed banana & coconut milk covered with cooked mangos and a chocolate and almond sauce.  Tast-tee!!  Then a jug of iced rum & chocolate and a couple of rounds of 'telephone pictionary' (will teach you how to play when I get home) and it was an all-round successful easter.

Aww widdle swoths

Monday I arrived at the Aviarios del Caribe, the Sloth Sanctuary.   It's in a beautiful part of Costa Rica, although from what I have seen all of Costa Rica is beautiful, with the amazing rainforests, giant trees and bizarre animals looking like something out of Avatar or Star Wars.

The life of a volunteer is a hard one.  You get woken at 5 by screaming howler monkeys, then get up and got feed the sloths their breakfast.  After their breakfast you go home for yours.  Then you go back and play with the baby sloths, take them for walks and let them crawl around on the jungle gym.  Then you peel about a thousand carrots and camotes (kinda like a potato).  Then go home where there is a nice hot lunch waiting.  In the early afternoon you go back and feed the thousand carrots to the sloths.  After that, the day is done and it's time to relax.  Catch a bus to the nearby towns or go to the beach.  Very hard life.

The sloths are so much fun and so cute, especially the babies.  The brady's I think look like ewoks and the other babies look like little bears.

Volcan Concepcion and the uber-fit germans.

I only had 2 days in Nicaragua, so I went to the Isle de Ometepe which is a large island which has two volcanos on it.  One is a live volcano, the other is extinct and has a lagoon and cloud forest at the top.  I only had time to climb one, so I picked the live volcano, Volcan Concepcion.  According to the guides, tt is one of the toughest climbs in Nicaragua. The slopes are very steep and the volcano is one of the highest in Nicaragua.  

The hike up Volcan Concepcion was pretty hard, and up and back took about 8hrs, but it was not the hardest hike I've ever done.  However, I did feel a bit second rate doing the climb seeming the only others on the tour were to uber-fit germans who just raced off up the mountain leaving me for dead.

But I kept on going.  And going.  This volcano is the second steepest in the whole of central america.   And it is a mix of slippery shoal and steep rock so hard to climb.  So I was using my hands as well as my feet to climb up.  After a while the guide came back for me, and he took my bag which made things a little easier.  And finally I made it to the top.  The view is pretty spectactular, you can see the whole island and the other volcano, as well as down into the crater of concepcion.  The crater was smoking and but you couldn't see right down into it without probably falling in.

The hike down was just as hard as the hike up because of the slippery rocks and shoal.  The german girl struggled and a one stage fell and rolled about 3 times before stopping.  When I asked if she was alright, she said it was about the 10th time she'd fallen, then she sat down and started crying.  Which was good, made me feel a bit tougher.  I may be slow but at least I didn't cry!
 !
On the hike back my guide was telling me how in the morning he didn't think I would make it to the top.  I sure showed him.  I just took my time doing it!  However, I think he took a bit of a shine to me as I was down at the bar of the hostel looking through the menu when he appeared.  He'd come to the hostel looking for me.  Then he told me the hostel kitchen wasn't even open tonight and asked if I wanted to go have dinner with him.  I couldn't really be bothered, but he'd already caught me going through the menu so I couldn't tell him I wasn't hungry.  It felt a little like an awkward first date, as he was asking all these questions about whether I think I'll get married and have babies and telling me his life plans.  But he was nice and helped me practise my Spanish, so I just mentioned 'mi novio' a few times to make sure he wasn't getting the wrong idea. 
Anyway, Sloth Sanctuary next! Yippee!

Lanquin tubing

The hostel I was staying at in Lanquin was a good place, especially once they gave me a bed.  It's called the Zephyr and had a great vibe as well as cheap beer, good food and a fantastic view.

My second day in Lanquin I went tubing down the river.  It was pretty much the same crew who went on the cave tour the day before, but with hangovers.  It was an easy 3 beer trip though, so a relaxing way to spend an afternoon recovering from the beers, shots, limbo and twister from the night before.

I would love to have had time to spend another day or two in Lanquin hanging out at the pools and such, but los peresozos need to have their poo cleaned up by me soon, so I was back on the road again. 

Another 9hrs back to Guatemala, a missed bus and overnight stay in a hotel that looked like something out of a horror flick (nearly as bad as the Rosedale hotel).  Then a 24hr bus trip in the second class bus, including 3 border crossings throughout the night, being stopped for another 1/2 hour for a random bus search, and at the last border an El Salvador passport nazi who didn't want to let me through because some doodle 3 borders ago had stamped my passport incorrectly.

And then I was only in Managua, 3 hours away from my destination.  So then I got a taxi with a mad old lady who kept yelling at the taxi driver, me and random people on the street.  I got out at the bus port to be absolutely mobbed by guys trying to take my bag and lead me to their bus.  So I blew up, left them fighting - literally, over my bag and just went back to the taxi.  So the nice taxi man sorted it out for me and I got on another shitty bus for a couple of hours.  Then I met an american couple and we decided to split a cab, except I went to the wrong place and then had to catch a cab back.  The cabby was playing this crap rap, mixing songs like 'do ah diddee diddee dum diddee dee' - you know the one, with new words about getting pussy, sucking cock and shit like that.  It was so bad and he played it so loud, and I just agreed when he said it was good, so he tried to give me the cd!

So finally I got on a ferry over to the Isle of Ometepe.  It's a nice looking island.  It has 2 volcanos, one live and puffing up smoke and the other is extinct and has a lagoon in the top and cloud forest.  Tomorrow I climb to the top of the live one.  Should be cool.

Sensational Semuc Champey

Friday 2pm I left Antigua for the 5hr trip to Lanquin.  I arrived 9hrs later at the hostel only to find out they hadn't received my email, had no booking for me & no beds left.  However they did have a spare hammock out the back and that's where I ended up for the night.

The next day I joined a day tour of Semuc Champey.  Amazing.  And the tour guide was excellent and there was a good group of single-serving friends on the tour.

It was seriously one of those days where you are just 'wow, this is the best day ever'.
We started the morning with a cave tour.  The caves had underground streams in them so all we had was bathers, shoes and candles to light the way.

We had to scramble over rocks, climb rickety ladders and climb a rope up a waterfall.  You had to swim along holding your candle above your head.  At the end it opened up into a fairly deep pool.  Up on one side you could climb up and jump off.  It was about 3m high, but if you jumped too high you would hit your head on the ceiling and if you jumped too far out you'd hit the rocks on the other side.

So I climbed on up.  It wasn't til I got to the top that I remembered I don't really like heights or jumping off things like this much.  I must have looked like I was shitting myself because everyone was cheering me on.  So I jumped, it was way easier than trying to climb down again, and I didn't want to look like a pussy in front of everyone.  Peer pressure such a great thing.  It was so much fun.

Outside the caves there was a river and a swimming spot with a great rope swing from this huge tree.  In the water were a couple of old guys having a bath, soaping themselves up while they watched us on the swing and nodding their approval and giving you a 'muy bien' if you landed well.  It was a great swing, about a 4m drop when you let go above the water.  One of the girls did the hugest belly-wacker I have ever seen.  She just dropped straight on her gut from about 4m.  And yeah it took her a long time to get out of the water, the next day it was all red and bruised looking. Ouch!  And the old fellas were all 'ohhh muy malo'.

So after the caves we went to Semuc Champey.  First we climbed to the lookout where the view was just sensational.  The pools of Semuc Champey lay in the bottom of a steep, narrow valley. The series of pools run along the bottom and the water is a bright aquamarine and crystal clear.

So we went down for a swim and went from pool to pool sliding down the rocks like slides and jumping off others.  A perfect day.

Volcan Pacaya - My first volcano

So I've spent 3 days in Antigua, exploring the town and an overnight trip to Volcan Pacaya.  I wanted to go to Volcan Fuego as it is more active, but they weren't running any trips there til the weekend.

Antigua is a pretty little town.  Cobble stone streets, lots of cool little galleries, markets, antique and used book stores.  Kinda like Hobart if it had decent weather.  That and there's a fuck-off size volcano overlooking the town.

Actually there are about half a dozen volcanos, but I only had time to climb one.  So I did an overnight camping trip to Volcan Pacaya.  It was so good.  On the trip there was myself and two american girls.  Really nice chicks.  With us was our guide, two other guides who hadn't hiked that route on that mountain yet, a local guide and some old guy who looked about 70 - who was there for security. Overkill anyone?

Anyway, we did the drive up to the start point where we were bombarded by about a thousand
kids trying to sell us walking sticks for about 80 cents.  So after wading through needy children we set off.

The climb was pretty easy, all through dusty shoal which can be a pain with a pack as it's slippery, but we reached the camp area in about an hour.  Not a hard hike but enought for my sexy new hiking boots to give me some killer blisters.
 
From the camp we could see straight out over the volcano.  Pretty cool.  The volcano is live, with the last eruption being May last year, but you can't see any explosions or lava flowing, just smoke coming out the top.
 
After the guides set up our tent for us - see that's why you need 3 guides,
we went walking out on the old lava flows.  We took our marshmallows and found an open
crack that was warm and toasty and began to eat.  On the way up we ran into a couple coming down who had the best marshmallow stick I'd ever seen.  It was pretty much a tree of marshmallows, and the guy gave it to us as he went past.  Bless his cotton socks.

After having our fill of marshmallows we went back to camp for dinner, some wine and a few more marshmallows around the campfire. I love a good campfire.  And it was perfect campfire weather, cool not cold and no wind.  And the american girls and the guides were all pretty fun people.  I went to sleep with my jaw aching from laughing.  One of the girls farted in the tent our tent conversation turned into something that so made me feel like I was back home camping with Krichelle, Casey, etc. LOL for real.

Living la vida Oaxaca

So Oaxaca did get better with a little sleep.  I spent two more days there, getting out to see some of the ruins, the main zocalo and the markets.

I hired a bike and rode to Monte Alban.  For future reference, and I may be stating the obvious for some, but Monte means mountain.  I kinda realised that when I set out.  But two hours later when I had been riding uphill - not just up hill after hill - but continually uphill for the entire time and I had rounded three mountains and was thinking surely I'd taken a wrong turn I saw what I thought could be a ruined temple in the distance.  Another k and there was a sign, finally I was going  the right way, and 3 k after that I got there.  I was pooped, but I knew the whole way home was downhill so I managed to trek about the ruins for a couple of hours.  They were in pretty good nick and similiar to those in Mexico in style.
 
The ride home was sweet, except for when I found the bike didn't really have breaks and the couple of times I realised I was riding on the wrong side of the road. Der!  You'd think I'd have it figured out after a month.

The other ruins I went to see were the Mitla ones.  This town is a little further out of the city than Monte Alban so I caught buses.  The first bus I caught was the right bus, but going in the wrong direction.  By the time I'd figured this out, I was like 'ah well I'll get a bit of a city tour', which was fine except this guys driving was shocking and I was feeling pretty queasy by the time I got off.  The Mitla ruins were good too.  Quite a different style to the Monte Alban ones.  Mitla also had quite a large market area.  There are a lot of cool handcrafty things and traditional dress clothes and stuff in the markets, but markets are markets.  The cool shit in Mitla is the same as the cool shit in Oaxaca.  And the cool shit in the first half a dozen stalls is repeated through the rest.  I do like all the Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) decorations and trinkets though.  That stuff is cool.

Antigua; nice people, good music

I've just spent the last 24hrs travelling from Oaxaca, Mexico to Antigua, Guatemala.  The bus I caught took me to Guatemala City, getting in just as the sun was going down.  I had been tossing up whether to stay in Guatemala City and then Antigua or go straight down to Antigua.  But the drive in Guatemala didn't look too impressive and from what I'd read/heard there wasn't much to see and I didn't have a good vibe about the place, so I decided to go to Antigua straight away.  However, to get there it was a cab and a second class crowded chicken bus with all my gear after dark then another cab.  Or a A$50 cab straight there. So I took the cab. 

But the cabbie didn't understand the directions to the hostel as I had them written in English.  So I explained as best I could, but to no avail.  However, I think he was dumb as opposed to my bad Spanish being the problem.  He stopped and asked directions from this nice policeman.  We showed him the directions and I translated the bits I knew again.  He got it straight away.  He explained it to the cabbie, who still looked baffled.  He explained it to me, I got what he was saying.  He cabbie still looked baffled.  He explained it again.  The cabbie decided the best thing to do was give up and find an Antiguan cabbie to take me there.  So the nice policeman came and explained it to the new cabbie who knew exactly where it was and got me there in 2min. It's nice when people are helpful.

So I checked in.  The hostel here is really nice and in one of those cute cobble-stoned streets with the cool old buildings.  I had a nice hot shower and went across the road for dinner.  It was a real lovely little restaurant, with these fantastic photos everywhere, a big outdoor garden and they were playing old music like Ella Fitzgerald.  The nachos and fish crocettes were so damn tasty.  A lady, on her way out the door, told me it was her last day here otherwise she'd be back for the homemade ravioli which she said was fantastic. 

While I was eating I looked at the table across from me to see a lady down a shot of something.  I thought 'woah, she downed that pretty easy', my thought must have been written on my face (reminder as to why I don't play poker) because she started laughing at me.  So I asked her what she was drinking and it was some kind of liquer thing made from a flower.  Hibiscus maybe.  Anyway, she poured me one as she had the bottle sitting on the table.  It was pretty tasty but went straight to my head.

After dinner I thought about going to the bar next door as I could hear a band and a girl in my hostel room said she would be there with friends, but I couldn't be bothered.  However, from my hostel room I can still hear the music from the bar.  It's been really good.  First there was a blues band.  Now it's just a guy and a guitar and he is good.  So I'm just vegging out in bed listening to the music.

Antigua after only a few hours is nice people and good music.