.. flashpackers ..

Road Trip SA!

2011-07-15T01:34:00.002+12:00

So.....
The Mozambique thing never happened - thanks to me being a mortgage slave - but now the IWM are discussing a reunion in South Africa.

Road Trip!!!

I've been back in SA for almost four years and I haven't done much traveling. It's time to change that.
This is such a diverse and beautiful country - if I remember from family trips oh so many years ago - and I want Tara to see as much of it as possible.

We're in discussions, but it looks like mid-november is the date.
Now I just have to convince Tara, and my boss, to make it a three week trip.

we're back!!!

2009-11-02T19:42:00.004+13:00

its been nearly two years since the hijinx of south america, therefore a International Women of Mayhem trip is long overdue.
with nell being back in South Africa and me sitting here in Auckland - any trip is going to be international and what better than planning a dive trip!?!

so over chat tonight - when i mentioned i really really really wanted a tropical island holiday and some sunshine, warm water and diving - we are starting to look at a trip to Mozambique next year.

YEA!

i love planning trips (its like list making but SOOOO much cooler) so while nell talks to her people about places and times and stuff, here i am already updating the IWM blog and checking out diving websites and photographs. whale sharks, manta rays and reef diving - here we come!!

New arrival

2008-11-17T22:17:00.003+13:00

Tara's got a new baby...

and it's pretty cool...

poker faces

2008-11-15T16:39:00.000+13:00

nell insisted on a round of the CPT even before she arrived home, so nick offered to host it at his place.
he cooked up a very kiwi curry (read extremely bloody mild) and we all bought beer and our very best poker faces.

seems some of us read the rules and some didnt - and some of us played a style of gin rummy that was effective.
in the end, nell won her own poker night - much to rhys and cossies disgust.

Fashion alert!!!

2008-11-13T00:51:00.003+13:00

The Internatonal Women of mayhem, or otherwise known as: The International Bitches of Maybe, have decided on a new tattoo - in various sizes.

Soon to be seen on wrists everywhere.

diving and a little bit of drinking

2008-11-10T10:20:00.003+13:00

i'm in the process our escapades at the Poor Knights on board the Pacific Hideaway on air supply .... here

DUDE!

2008-11-07T14:55:00.007+13:00

dude! i mean ... look out!

nell arrived back in new zealand last night (i was in the pool so she was collected by a friend of ours) and she arrived at mine this morning. we mucked around, organised our gear, duded each other more than once, went to the dive shop - oh yea - we're off to the poor knights this weekend diving!

and by lunch, we were drinking.

HOO RAA bitches!

international women of mayhem are back in the house!

nell looks so damn guilty .....

One of the IWM gets some culture

2008-09-03T06:31:00.012+12:00

Egypt by land

2008-09-03T06:02:00.019+12:00

We did some stuff out of the water too.

A camel ride up the hills overlooking Dahab.

The Pyramids in Giza, and the Egyptian Museum.

A Nile dinner cruise, with entertainment.

A belly dancer that had the boys eyes popping out.

A Whirling Dervish.

A Not-so-whirling Dervish.

Red Sea Diving

2008-08-22T07:14:00.029+12:00

On the 27th of July I flew to Egypt with a group of people from the FBUC dive club and Pisces Divers.

Let's get all the bad news out of the way, shall we:
Mine, and one of the other guys', bags were "misplaced" on the way there, and we didn't get them back until the day before we left. This meant that we had to rent the majority of the dive gear we used, and we had to buy and borrow clothes enough to get us through. When our bags finally arrived, there were a few things stolen from mine. Not a train smash, lets just hope either the airline or my insurance pays me out for the rentals gear and the stolen items.

That's it. There's no more bad news. The rest of the trip was great!

I don't have any underwater photo's, but Andrew Taylor is going to post his soon - check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrews_underwater_images/

Update:

Andrew has finally finished his photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrews_underwater_images/sets/72157607008835804/

There were nine of us in the group, seven from the club (Ivan, Brian, Mike, Adriaan, Jenny, Andrew and myself) and two newbies (Cyriaan and Deborah) who were in for an interesting trip with us. We flew to Sharm el Sheikh, and immediately got on the live aboard boat - The Tempest. It was a fantastic little boat and, because there were only nine of us, myself, Andrew and Mike ended up having cabins to ourselves.

The food on board was delicious, and there was plenty of it. We would wake up between 06:00 and 06:30, have a briefing and dive. Then breakfast would be served - eggs any style! There was a dive before and after lunch, and then one after dinner. We ended up changing this for the last few nights, due to several cases of indigestion.

The diving was just incredible, we did quite a few reefs, and a lot of wrecks. The water was never below 27C, and the vis was generally very good. Our two dive guides, Sergio and Sameh, were friendly and very good divers. Sergio's briefings were always detailed and acurate, and often entertaining.

The places we moored were breathtaking, and every evening at sunset we rediscovered why they call it the red sea. The water was always so blue, and calm, and inviting, and the weather was just this side of perfect - I have started building my tan.

Here's an overview of the dive and mooring sites - courtesy of Andrew "GPS" Taylor

The following is a list of the wrecks we dove:
The Dunraven - a steam ship that sank in the 1870's
The Chrisoula K - a cargo ship that sank in the 1980's
The Carnatic - a steam and sail ship that sank in 1860's
The Giannis D - a cargo ship that sank in the 1980's - we had a large pod of dolphins swimming with us at the end of this dive
The Ulysses - a cargo steam ship that sank in the 1880's
The Rosalie Moller - a steam ship carrying coal that was bombed in 1941
The Kingston - a steam ship that sank in the 1880's

And then the mother of them all: The Thistlegorm - a british cargo steam ship that was sank in 1941, only a few days before the Rosalie Moller.
We did three dives on the Thistlegorm, including one night dive, each one was better than the last, but there was still so much of this wreck that we wanted to see.
Words can't really describe what it's like to dive the Thistlegorm, there is so much history to see down there, it is a living underwater museum.
There are trucks, motorbikes, ammunition, boots, and even locomotives.
It is the best wreck dive, and the best night dive I have ever done, and the only reason I need to go back to the red sea.

We brought a few beers on board the boat, but never managed to drink more than two each, we were knackered after a day's diving, even with some naps in between. On one night, though, the crew decided to give us a show, which mainly consisted of making fools of us with practical jokes and party tricks.

We spent one night in Sharm - gaudy and touristy - and then took a bus to Dahab for two more excellent dives, including the Blue Hole.

All in all, I did 23 dives on the trip. I didn't miss one.
I also managed to do my 200th dive without anyone knowing and making me do something stupid.
Suckers!

And just for the record, here are the dive names of everyone after the trip:

Jenny "SMB and coke" Jay
Adriaan "Dad" Johnson
Deborah "Bobbera" Dragone
Cyriaan "Goldmember" Theunessen
Mike "Goosebuddy" Nortje
Andrew "GPS/Grumpy Smurf/Grand Pappy Smurf" Taylor
Ivan "The Egyptian" Napoleon
Brian "Kakhuis" Murray
Ronelle "Broad Shorts" van Niekerk - I think it's better than "Fat Ass"

less mayhem, more international ... please

2008-08-18T07:39:00.004+12:00

righto. so i have been stuck at home. and its winter. and we have had massive storms (the last one was the size of australia and it stuck itself over new zealand over the weekend - which is quite typical). so i am blue and not just from the cold.
alright, yes i went to adelaide. and it was okay. looked really nice - at least the 25 steps between my hotel and the office did.

and now for the point of this post.
SARDINIA!
MOLTO BUON!
mom and i, and a few hangers on, are going to get our pre-wedding tans on the beaches of sardinia, italy for a couple of weeks in august next year whilst we dodge my brother ewis preparations and leave him to deal with the stress. (well actually mom tells me now that it could be spain - menorca even)

so whilst we wait for nell to tell us of her exploits on/in the red sea, i'm going to tell you my initial plans for this 3 weeks in food and beach heaven.
arriving about the 12-13 august 2009, there will be about 2 weeks of this ....

which is perfect! as mom wants this .... for modelling her new (fashionable??) tankini on the white sand beaches

and i want this ... for diving and swimming and diving

oh! they look the same? just as well.
otherwise me amd mom on holiday together for 2 weeks. someones going to be consuming a lot of cocktails. rather someone plural!

Even the IWM get older

2008-06-22T07:09:00.003+12:00

So I had another birthday at the end of May - no, I will not tell you how old I am.

I took the day off work and went to watch a movie and have lunch with my dad. That night, my friend Pia, her husband and two friends of ours, Bernie and Deon, went out to dinner, and a merry time was had by all.
I thought that was it.

On the Saturday night I wend to Pia and Nic's house re-warming braai.

Surprise!

And boy was it.
I have never had a surprise party before, it made me extremely happy.

Pia even spent the entire night before making me a birthday diving cake.

so kevin costner right now

2008-06-11T09:54:00.004+12:00

i'm not sure if i have mentioned this before but back when nell and i were in fiji in october 2006 - we had movie night around the pool and the movie was "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".
we were drinking and laughing and being complete munters - and the saying started "youre so/thats so kevin costner right now" basically meaning ... how gay!!
so nell are i are walking through cordoba in argentina and we spied this in the window .......

maYhem 2.0

2008-05-08T21:08:00.005+12:00

i got another tattoo today. i will upload a good photo when i can have one taken.

but i also took the opportunity to update my mayhem tattoo (nell and i have the same on our left wrists) and to plan the sun of may we might add when we go back to argentina in january.

edit : i have just realised that we didnt blog when wr first got our mayhem tattoos. it was our last dive in new zealand, about a week before we went away. nella - photo yours and post it up!!

just a little mayhem

2008-04-21T16:49:00.010+12:00

nells been blogging what shes been doing since she has been back in south africa, and since she is the international part of the International Women of Mayhem, i guess i am the mayhem.
its been quite nuts since i got home!

.... from losing a wheel off my car on the way down to moms new place

.... cossie and maresas wedding (werent they gorgeous)
.... to driving down to new plymouth to pick up napoleon dynamite and settling into the new house
.... a eurosport club drive to kaiaua and the lighthouse at manukau heads

.... and a few more things such as visits from sarah, spanish classes, dinner parties and random acts of fun. now that southern cross has paid out on the items i lost whilst i bussed to mendoza (always on the bus to mendoza), the number of photographs will increase.
keep checking out this blog and our personal blogs for more updates. i know i need another holiday soon!

Easter on the east coast

2008-03-28T09:02:00.018+13:00

Like anywhere in the world, when Easter weekend comes around in South Africa everyone gets in their cars and goes somewhere other than home.
I was no exception.

On Friday morning Pia, Nic and I took the three monsters to Noordhoek beach for a stroll.

Then I left for Struisbaai, on the east coast of the Western Cape, about 3 hours drive away. It took me four becasue I had to keep stopping for photo's. It was a beautiful night, the sun was setting behind me and the full moon was rising in front.

The site my family managed to get at the Struisbaai "caravan park" was right on the beach. I went to sleep with the sound of the sea in my ears every night - the little green tent at the back was mine.

Johannes did some fishing.

There was a lot of excitement on the beach during the day.

And I visited the southern most tip of Africa.

Braai anyone?

2008-02-17T07:05:00.003+13:00

The international women of mayhem are no longer together. I have moved back to South Africa for a while, and Tara is still in New Zealand. But we are still the IWM, and since we're being so very international right now, we thought we would keep blogging.

I got to Cape Town on the evening of the 4th of February, and by the 13th, I was already moved into a place and had started a new job. How's that for organised? So here's a little something on my stay here so far.

I am living with a friend in one of the better areas of cape town, in a house with quite a large, if shallow, pool, and I am staying rent free. They have 3 great big german shepherds, which I still have to get used to, but I am not going to get killed between the gate and the front door.

I have bought a car that - shock horror! - cost me more than $1500. But then you need a good car here, so you don't break down and get killed while waiting on the side of the road for the AA.

And I have a job. In IT. Yes, I am one of you losers now.
It's a good job though, challenging and with loads of freedom to do what I like.
There is free and secure parking, so my car is safe...ish. Only problem is that the shuttle bus that takes you the 500m to the office is a bit slow, but I have been warned not to walk, in case I get mugged, or fall in the river and drown, or something.

Not sure if you noticed, but there is a theme developing here.
Don't get me wrong, it's nice to be back here, seeing everyone, experiencing SA, and the weather is devine, but...things are pretty bad here:

1. You can't walk anywhere without someone telling you it is unsafe. I've not felt unsafe, seen anything unsafe or been stabbed yet, but it's easier to drive everywhere so that you don't have to hear people tell you the many ways in which you could have died.

2. Yes, people are getting killed everyday. In their cars. Because they drive like crazy people! Fast and reckless. Not to mention all the bloody pedestrians walking across the highways.

3. People are not as laid back as I remember, or maybe I've just been living in NZ too long. They seem to think they are living in a world of instant gratification - they can't get to places fast enough and expect things to happen NOW (there's no now now or just now anymore) - yet they don't realise that they are, essentially, in Africa. Africa time is worse than Island time.

4. You have that wonderful South African accent, in all its many variations, in 3D. All the time.

But enough complaining, or moaning, or whatever it is we South Africans do, let me go lock up the house so that we don't die tonight.

Happy Birthday Pappy!!

2008-02-06T05:35:00.000+13:00

As you guys know, Mammy and Pappy joined us in Argentina for a while. You might not know that they joined us because Nico and I paid for my dad's ticket, as his 70th birthday present.

Here's a map of the route we took-ish:

And here's a video that Nico made for Pappy's birthday. Be warned, it is a big file, 73MB I think.

you start a car with a key

2008-01-31T15:48:00.000+13:00

when we were in Iguazu, Nell took another of her bets (this became a theme with Nell).

in Spanish, there are two words that can be used for the english word here :
aqui (pronounced as in a key) - which means right here
aca (pronounced as in a car) - which means here as well but a little bit futher away

Nell had bet Nico that the second word for here and the second word for there were not used much.
The signs in the information centre proved her wrong.

But .. it gave us a name for the Citroen Picasso that we would be driving around in for the next 2 weeks or so.
Given that our last two cars had names derived from their licenses plates, and the Citroens license plate started with FGK (*!&# I know!) and we had the parental units in the car with us .. the Citroen was christened "ACA"

... and we all know that you start aca with aqui !

Pappy and Mammy

2008-01-30T13:36:00.000+13:00

i'd just like to make a little dedication to pappy and mammy.
pappy is nell and nicos dad - otherwise known as rendo, spine, anything and usted !
mammy is pappys wife maretha.

we met them in buenos aires just before our iguazu trip.
after iguazu, we went back to BsAs for a couple of days and then picked up .. A CAR.
.. but thats a whole 'nother blog

no water shortage here

2008-01-28T00:56:00.000+13:00

"Poor Niagara!"

2008-01-18T08:48:00.000+13:00

After meeting pappy (nells dad) and maretha in BsAs, we hopped on a plane and flew up to Puerto Iguazu to meet nico.

Nico had demanded that we stay at the Hostel Inn and it was well worth it ! not only was there a huge swimming pool but the night we arrived, they had an asado (BBQ) planned and a tango show.

iguazu falls was definitely one of the places we had planned to see that i was very very excited about.
i had done loads of reading before leaving home and had even watched james bond moonraker again as the falls appear in the film.
i also read that there is a legend that a god planned to marry an aboriginal girl and that when she took off with her mortal lover in a canoe, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls and condemned the lovers to eternal falls.

We got up early the next morning and caught a bus from just outside of the hotel to the National Park.
I was so excited !!!
as you can see, pappy was really excited too.
the park entry fee was pretty reasonable - but we also paid an extra $100 pesos for a ride in an inflatable boat down the river to the falls.

we pulled up in an inlet and the driver rotated the boat so we could all take photos, then he sped us up the river a little further - and we got wet. i mean really really wet.
not only did we get soaked by the falls but there is a lot of water in the boat as well. its just like a shower and a bath in one !!!

they dropped us off at the entrance to one of the walkways and we walked up to meet nico.
at this time of the day, the weather was quite warm but it was starting to cloud over a little.

just as well we were already wet, as for the rest of the day there was a lot of drizzle.
you just dont notice it when you are standing around watching this amount of water spill over the side of a huge drop.

at the end of the day as we were leaving the park, we asked one of the guys who works there whether the falls were at 100% of their capacity or near to it.
he told us that earlier in the morning, when we would have been on the boat, the falls were only about 20% capacity. at the end of the day there would have been close to 1,500,000 litres per second passing through the falls.
christ almighty thats a shitload of water !

i uploaded this video to facebook - and i have put it on youtube .. but check out the sound !

see what i mean !
i have another video to load - of the water rushing over devils throat. that was the highlight of the day - butterflies in the tummy kind of highlight. anyway, i will wait for it to upload to youtube and then chuck it in another post.

the next day, mammy and pappy went over to the brazilian side of the falls and the kids (me, nell and nico) spent the day by the pool.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside

2008-01-11T07:46:00.001+13:00

With a few days to spare while waiting for my folks to come back to BA, Tara and I decided to go to the seaside. A search came up with Mar del Plata, so we booked a hostel there - with a pool and friendly, English speaking staff.

We took a very comfortable 5 hour bus ride there, and were feeling quite happy when we got off, except for the fact that our sleepy little seaside town had turned into a large seaside city.

We headed for our hotel, and were sorely disappointed when we found out there was no pool. The woman there was friendly, but she spoke no english, so there was no chance of finding anything out about the city. We made our apologies and left, to and internet cafe to find something better. With a pool.

We came up the ... The Sheraton.
All searches for a hostel or cheap hotel with a pool rendered nothing. So we thought "stuff it" we can splash out for one night.
Seems to us, when people piss us off it ends up costing us money.

Unfortunately there were several conferences in town and the Sheraton was full, but the lady was kind enough to find us a room in the other 5 star hotel in the area and we walked over there.

The only room available there was the honeymoon suite, but the bed was a super king, and I couldn't even see Tara on the other side of it, the bathroom was really two, and we got fluffy white bathrobes to wear. They only had the one pool, but what's a girl to do?

We spent the night in the room - after finding a much cheaper hotel for the next two nights and some bubbly wine to drink - ordering room service and feeling very decadent.

The next day we were rather hungover from all our wine, so after booking into our new hotel, we went in search of a movie theater. We came up with nothing, no English movies in town. So we got in a cab and went all the way to the other side of town to the Aquarium. This ended up being a brilliant decision.

We spent the day walking around the Aquarium, I think it cost us about US$15 to get in.

We watched them feed the Penguins.

We went to the dolphin show, twice, it was so good that I didn't pick up my camera once it started.

The seal and sea lion show was almost as good. It would have been a lot funnier and more interesting if we could understand more spanish though.

Then there was the pirate/ski show. Great ski stunts, but once again our spanish let us down.

There was also a 3D movie, it was about 20 years old and quite funny for it.

When we got back to the hotel I had my Big D experience, which we are still not talking about.

The guy at the hotel recommended a great steak restaurant around the corner and we had a great meal.

the next day was spent lazing next to the public pool at the beach. the beach would have been good, but the pool area had a bar...

The hotel recommended another restaurant for our last night. We decided to go, even though it was on the other side of town.
We don't regret it at all.

We sat at one of their unconventional tables, and had a fantastic meal.

Tara's lamb pasta was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted, and we had chocolate fondue for desert.

Unfortunately I can't remember the name of our hotel or the restaurant.

All in all, Mar del Plata was a good experience and a great way to waste a few days.

And on a lighter note

2008-01-03T06:31:00.001+13:00

OK, I know you've heard so much about it already, but I thought I would add my two cents about mendoza.
Tara has covered the fact that we drank pretty much the whole time we were there, with a few activities thrown in so that we didn't feel like total bums.
So I am going to dedicate this blog to the people we met there.

First there was Matt and Shaun Smith - no relation, just coincidence.
These two were slightly crazy Australians, but they could eat and drink with the best of us.

Then we met Charlie, "Do you have change for a hundred", Charles, Playa! - take your pick.
A very posh englishman, with wads of cash.

Or maybe not so posh...

Rory and Lana were our drinking companions through most of our stay at the Break Point hostel.

Rory is a scotsman through and through, and is always bringing sexy back.

Lana is his very patient wife, who speaks iguana.

We hung out with some locals too. Pablo "Asado king" and Cottie from the hostel and Enrique "Hot horse guy."

There were several extras who hung around with the cool kids. That would be us.

Jan, Laura, Scott.

Jan, Kieran "I put it in a safe place", Charlie, Lana

Kip

Patsy

And her 10 year old son Brel

And many, many more.

Thanks to Break Point hostel, and all the people we met there, we had a fantastic time in Mendoza. So much so that we went back, but that's for another blog.

Big D and me

2008-01-03T06:10:00.000+13:00

Some of you know the start of this story, but I'll tell the whole thing for those that don't.

While in the Bolivian Pampas, all the girls were bitten several hundred times each, some even through their mosqito repellant pants.

One of my bites stayed with me for a long, long time. At first I thought it was a bite that I had scratched open and infected. Two courses of antibiotics, and a large number of non-drinking days, later, we scrapped that theory because the bite didn't get any better.

Then I moved on to the spider bite theory, which was semi-confirmed by a doctor visit in Mendoza - which included a hypodermic needle, I will spare you the details of that. This was 4 weeks after the day I figured I got the bite.

By this time, the bite was pretty much stable. It wasn't getting any worse, but no better either. It was a swelling on my back that just wouldn't heal.

The bite would also hurt every now and then, maybe twice or three times a day. The pain was so intense and sudden that sometimes I would actually jump. It felt as if someone was sticking a small knife into me, and twisting it around and around.

There were many discussions, and jokes, about it. There were even some cruel people that nicknamed it my "back herpes", I won't name any names, Tara and Charlie. Of course there were those people, pretty much everyone actually, that insisted I had a maggot, or something, growing in me. I poo-poo'd those thoughts, and the idiots who had them. That kind of thing only happens in the movies. Seriously.

Then Tara and I went to Mar del Plata, and had a lovely day at the aquarium. That night all the action happened.

This is where any sensitive viewers should switch the TV to another channel. I'm going to be very graphic here, in the hopes that you will experience even a fraction of the horror that I did that night.

I was in the bathroom, doing my usual inspection of the bite, prodding and poking it to see if it was any better. I noticed something coming out of it, and thought that it was pus, but it went back in. So I squeezed a little more, and then sqealed. It still looked like pus, but a lot of it. I called for Tara to come and help, well, actually to share in the grossness of it all.

The more I squeezed the more came out, until eventually it popped out and onto the floor.
"where did it go?" I squealed again.
I looked around on the floor and found it, ten picked it up with a piece of toilet paper. That was when we realised it was a larva of some kind.

It took pretty much all the self control I have to not freak out, or throw up, and that feeling did not pass for several hours.

Tara mentioned throwing it away, but I had to keep it. There was no way I was going to see a doctor without being able to show them wat it ws that popped out of me. I was definately going to see a doctor, I had to know if there was just one. Where to find a doctor was the next drama.

We took photos, as you do, for prosperity, and rushed off to the pharmacy up the road. I asked them where we could find a doctor that spoke English. Unfortunately for me, the pharmacy happened to be full of doctors from an Orthopeadic and Trauma conference who thought they could speak English. Eventually I had 3 doctors around me, with one civilian woman helping to translate. These guys were fascinated, I don't think they get out much. Awed by the pictures, and a slightly dodgy translation, they prodded at the hole in my back. They couldn't really help though, and we decided to go to the hospital.

Here we found a fantastically friendly woman doctor who spoke very good English. She took my money and we went off into the back rooms to show her what the fuss was all about.

I showed her the hole, and she immediately said that it was an infection.
"Ah, but wait," I said, "there's more.
When I unwrapped the offending bug, she agreed that it was rather disgusting when prompted by Tara. She went upstairs to find someone who knew about these things, leaving us alone in the room with Big D, which is what we have come to call him.

At this point Big D had actually started wriggling around. It was one of the most horrifyingly fascinating things I have ever seen in my entire life, not least because this thing had just come out of me. I was, once again, called upon to summon all my strength to not scream and vomit all over the nice clean hospital floor.

Still, we couldn't look away, and yet more photo's were taken - from all angles. We were actually a little disappointed when the doctor came back to take Big D upstairs to show to the Biochemist. It was the last I would ever see of the only living thing to grow inside me. I was not exactly sad.

When the doctor came back down again, she said she had good news. There was only one of these little buggers inside me, and there would be no side effects, or ripping open of my ribcage to the screaming horror of my shipmates. I was relieved.

Big D turned out to be the larva of the Human Bot Fly, we called him Big D because his scientific name is Dermatobia Hominis. The Bot fly captures a mosquito and lays eggs all over it before releasing it on unsuspecting tourists. These tourists then unknowingly incubate the egg, and provide a wonderfully warm, wet and bountiful environment for the larva.
You can check out more, assuming you want to, at: Human bot fly

I happened to be lucky, believe it or not. Usually the larva takes 9 weeks to reach maturity, at about twice the size mine was, and then leaves the host. I had unknowingly managed to starve it of oxygen using cream and plasters and it came out for air a few weeks early.

WARNING!!!
These are not for the faint hearted...

Just Drink It

2007-12-31T10:43:00.000+13:00

we know, we know !

the rate of blogging on international women of mayhem has dropped considerably !

in fact, looking at the side bar, its almost non existant since we got to argentina.

i have to say .. its not our fault .. its argentinas.
now that we are hanging with nico and pappy and maretha and driving around, we should be able to catch up a little as nico has his laptop with him.

its so much fun here. thats about all i have to say.

stop . Tango time

2007-12-14T10:17:00.000+13:00

amazing .. we made it out of mendoza alive !
we left mendoza on a saturday morning (after having been very very good the night before) and it was sad.
we arrived in buenos aires and as we flew in i saw huge buildings that seemed to spread for miles away from the chocolate brown sea.
people from BsAs call that sea part of the river - its the sedoment from the Rio del la Plata that makes it brown.

we checked into our hostel - Punta del Sur - and then went out for lunch.
not 3 hours in BsAs and we saw someone we knew - keiran who we had met in mendoza.

we were also arranging to meet charlie that night for dinner. oh no. this would normally spell trouble.
after a siesta and a couple of beers, charlie took us to the equivaent of Facundos in mendoza - a restaurant called Don Erneston in San Telmo.
the steaks were cheaper and the wine was good !
we got a little silly after drinking 5 bottles of the San Felippe Malbec (from mendoza of course !).

sunday rolled around - ugh - and we took of into san telmo to check out the markets and what was going on in the street.
charlie also told us about the hostel that he was staying in. as nell and i had to change hostels and we didnt know which one we were going to go to next.
so a little plug for Brisas del Mar in San Telmo - 35 pesos for a double bed, private room and cable TV. nell and i got a room each !!

we then walked into La Boca for a look at the colourful buildings - and after a dodgey stroll through the ass end of la boca, we were rewarded with Caminito.

full of artisans, musicians and tango - as welll as the buildings that charlie and i had wanted to see. and some crazy assed gringos.

well charlie was soon to leave us again. thats twice now Charles !!!

nell and i decided it was time to get out of the city again as we still had a few more days before her dad and his wife Maretha arrived. so before the next trip - which is to be to Iguazu Falls - we decided to take a side line trip to Mar del Plata on the coast.

Mendoza - Week Two

2007-12-13T07:11:00.000+13:00

we didnt just spent one week in mendoza .. we actually ended up staying for two.
once we moved hostels into break point, we pretty much were stuck there and couldnt tear ourselves away.
after the pain of charlie and rory and lana leaving, nell and i decided that the best way to handle it was to carry on the way we had started.

so heres another summary.

we went white water rafting on the mendoza river. well the river is rather brown so it was like chocolate milk rafting. we dont have any photos from that as i had sent my camera housing home after the galapagos .. but suffice to say it was loads and loads of fun and i want to do it again !
we went with a company called rios andinos and i would totally recommend them !

we met patsy and brel from canada. brel is 10 and he speaks 3 languages - english, french and spanish. he was telling us that his dad is a chilean cowboy and that he hasnt riden in ages. so we organised a little treat.

they celebrate saint nicholas day .. and on saint nicholas day you get oranges or chocolate in your shoes (not my shoes .. eewwwww !!)

so we organised with his mom and with enrique to take him out riding and then to have an asado.
the night before, we took them for dinner at facundos and brel ate 1/2 a bife de chorizo which is about 500 grams of steak. nell made a bet with him that if he finished it he could push her in the pool in her clothes so ....

we went out to enriques on a beautiful day and went for a ride.
brel wasnt quite the horseman that he made out and we cut the ride short as he was tired, hot, thirsty, hungry and sore ..

but nell kept her end of the deal ..

and enrique was great, getting out his bow and arrow and showing brel how to use it.

we had another asado prepared by break point (go Break Point Hostel !). this time it was dario at the grill as pablo has buggered off to Punta del Este in Uruguay.
we all ate so much meat. even more than at my birthday i think.
and there was much singing.
and much drinking.
and i had such a great time.
this is harry from scotland.
i blame it all on him. and nell. and the fact we have been without parental supervision for so long.

the following day i did nada. thats nothing. zero.
i had a 4 hour siesta. i ate a little pizza for dinner. i think i had one beer.
and then next morning we got up at 5am and got ready to fly to buenos aires.

MENDOZA .. WE WILL BE BACK !!!!

Birthday Mayhem in Mendoza

2007-12-05T16:22:00.000+13:00

we had always planned to take a little break in mendoza - lay low for a little, do some wine tasting and some horse riding.

i dont think that either of us were really expecting the last week or so that we have had here in mendoza.

firstly - the weather is wonderful ! it is hot, it hardly ever rains and our new hostel (Break Point) has a swimming pool.

when we arrived we were staying in a hostel over the other side of the Plaza and San Martin. we only spent a couple of nights there but it was enough time to meet Matt and Shaun from Australia and enjoy a few steaks and a wine tour with them. we also met Charlie and Kimi on the wine tour and had a great night out again eating steak and drinking wine and we all went along to a Tango Show.

the first wine tasting tour we went on was only a half day tour. but aside from tasting wine ...

... we also went to an olive oil factory and learnt how extra virgin olive oil is made. and i thought that was really interesting.
the day that kimi went back tosantiago, we went for a walk in the park first and then Charlie and Nell and I walked to the zoo (which was MILES away)

when Nell and I moved to Break Point we met Pablo (photo below on the left). Pablo worked at the hostel and was really really great to us. he organised for us to go riding with Enrique (on the right) who shall forever be known as Hot Horse Guy.

Nell has some more photos of that day which hopefully she will post too - not only did we have a great ride but Enrique followed it up with an awesome BBQ and loads of wine.

Enriques ranch is just outside of Mendoza city. Not only does he have great horses but also a pool !

My birthday was on the 28th of Nov, and so the night before we all got rather pissed and decided to go and play pool. At midnight, I had Happy Birthday sung in Afrikaans, Swedish, English and goodness only knows what else !

and then the tradition of the 4am swim was born !

thats Rory and Nell in the pool. Rorys wife Lana is Australian and Rory is Scottish. They were staying at Break Point with us and Charlie and it just turned into debauchery.

Rory was either the first to suggest a beer (maybe at lunch depending what time we got out of bed from the night before) or the first to agree that yes a beer was a good idea.

On the actual night of my birthday, Pablo organised an amazing BBQ. Basically all the food and wine we could consume ... so consume we did !

and as Charlie had a reputation as the Tango King, Pablo proceeded to give lessons by the pool and Rory bought sexy back.

The day after wasnt pretty. Thank god for the pool (we didnt seem to get out of our bikinis and boardies for very long) but the day after my birthday was Lanas birthday.

Nell had been told about a lovely bar on the 10th floor of a building in Mendoza where we could have a quiet drink and watch the sun go down. So we went there and it was lovely.

and then it was Lanas Birthday !

we had a pretty chilled out day, we went to the Aquarium and to the Serpentaria (or the Snake Pit) but we started the day with a glass of bubbles just to make sure we didnt break tradition !

i guess you are thinking that we have really been rather lazy. and you would be right. but aside from the drinking and the swimming and the eating - there was table football to conquer ...

and crazy conversations had that would lead on to silly photos and a group of people just cracking up laughing in the streets of Mendoza ...

and then there were the bicycles.

Charlie and Rory and Lana left on Sunday so before their bus we took taxis out to Maipu and rented bicycles to ride around the wineries.

a lot of the wineries were closed but we found a couple that were open and just enjoyed some nice tastings (and some not so nice) and a lovely day in the tree lined lanes.

but thats not Mendoza over for us.

tomorrow we are going rafting and then on Wednesday, Nell and I are going riding again.

can you guess who with ???? ...

oh yes ! Hot Horse Guy

Would you like some ice with that?

2007-12-05T12:01:00.001+13:00

We stayed at El Calafate for one night after driving there from El Chalten.
I didn´t think much of El Calafate, it was expensive and situated in the middle of nowhere. We still had to drive 80km to get to the Perito Moreno Glacier.

The drive there was just amazing though. Why could they not have put the town closer?

We got to the glacier, and luckily, since it was only a day since the killer El Chalten hike, we could park right by the viewing platforms.

I have to say that I was just expecting more ice, something like the Glacier Torre, big, but nothing too special.

I was wrong.
We spent more than an hour just staring and watching this massive, huge, enormous hunk of moving ice.

I don´t know what is so thrilling about seeing chunks of ice falling into the water, but I can tell you without a doubt that it is very, very exciting. People would squeal and cheer. I think I even did once or twice.
It was hard to turn away and walk up, or down, the stairs for fear of missing something. The glacier would groan and crack and everyone would look to see if there was going to be another bit falling.

It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Not only the glacier, but people´s reaction to it. It is heart warming to know that, in this day and age, people can still get excited about something like that.

It was impossible to undertand how large it was. It didn´t look that big until one of two things happened:
1. a bit of ice would break off and fall into the water. It took so long for the sound to reach us after the ice hit the water, you couldn´t help but know how large it is.
2. A boat would get close to view it. Here´s a picture with a boat near it. That is not a small little dingy...

Here are some facts for you:

Once we dragged ourselves away, we headed back to the main road, but stopped at this restaurant for lunch. What a view, and what food.

What a life!

Indi-Nella Jones and the trail of hell

2007-12-05T10:35:00.000+13:00

We arrived in El Chalten at about 9 in the morning, to the sight of our first glacier.

We found a hostel, a trek and snacks all in record time. Then set off for one of the most beautiful walks I have ever been on.

The sceneray was just fantastic.

We headed for Lago Torre, which is a glacial lake with Glacier Torre streaming into it. The walk there is estimated to be 3hrs, which is pretty much exactly the time it took us. With a few breaks and photo stops.

We couldn´t make it to the glacier because you need a guide, a permit and the right equipment...

We refilled our water bottles with fresh glacier river water. (All the water in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is drinkable.)

Then we walked back. Aftter an hour, the trail headed off to the west and I decided, in my ?????? induced hystaria, that I would take this extra 2 hour trail. I said goodbye to Tara, who still had two hours of her own to finish, and headed off jauntily.

There are no pictures of the first hour of my detour because it was all, yes ALL, uphill.

Most of the second hour back to the main trail was stunning.

Then I was back on the main trail and I was still 2 hours away from town.

I nearly died.

My left hip was really sore and my feet were killing me (I don´t have the right shoes for this kind of walk.) I only managed to get back to town by jogging - yes you heard me jogging - the last half hour downhill. It was the only thing my hip could take.
Then I realised I still had a 15 minute walk through town to our hostel.

I limped into the hostel 20 minutes later feeling like I could lie down for a century.
So I did.
For an hour.

I have to say that I did not get much sympathy from Tara. She was, according to her, in almost as much pain as I was.
She was not, according to me in the same city, let alone ballpark.
But we were both limping slightly for a few days.

It was a kind of hell at the end, but everything before the pain was so worth it.
And funny enough, I now have a taste for trekking.

Ruta 40

2007-12-04T05:14:00.000+13:00

when nell and i got to Bariloche, we looked at different options for getting down into Patagonia and exploring the glaciers. the plan was also to try and get to Ushuaia.

we ended up hiring a car. us girls are rather independent and we like to go our own places in our own time. we got 4500 kms included and took off for 9 days in our Volkswagen Gol (no thats not a typo) who we called Goody. his license plate was GDB - and in memory of our car in England called Bob .. Goody stood for Gooder den Bob.

The Patagonian countryside was both awesome and boring at the same time.

Large flat expanses that were almost desert - large red hills - flamingos ... I could imagine a herd of dinasours running across the long straight (and gravel) roads at any time.

we came across armadillos and horses as well as flamingos .. and sometimes whomever was driving just stopped for some amazing photo opportunities.

we crossed over into Chile just for a night as we knew we were not going to make it to Ushuaia. So Puerto Natales hosted us for just one evening. The next day we drove into the Torres del Paine National Park to have a look at the scenery. There was a lot of mist covering the mountains but we got to see the Milodon Cave. 200 metres deep !!

.. thats Nell in the photo on the right at the enterance to the cave.

in our 9 days away, we got to see alot of places and although we didnt make it the entire way south, we still did nearly 4500 km and this is what Goody looked like at the end of that trip ...

shop, drop and roll

2007-11-12T01:15:00.000+13:00

when we got to santiago .. there was one rule.
absolutely no tourist behaviour at all.

so we went shopping.

santiago is VERY western.
and we rode the metro there, went to the movies, sat in a coffee shop, bought stuff ...........

including a new camera for nell.

Salar de Uyuni

2007-11-10T08:23:00.000+13:00

from wikipedia :

Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles).
It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high.
Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake.
When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.
Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually.
All miners working in the Salar belong to Colchani's cooperative. They work from dawn to dusk and most of them do not take a lunch break in order to take advantage of time, getting energy by chewing coca leaves.
Every November, Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding grounds for three species of South American flamingos: the Chilean, James's and Andean flamingos.

to get to the Salar de Uyuni, i had to go south.
i took an overnight bus from la paz to potosi and spent a day there and then the next morning got on another bus to uyuni.
theres not a lot to do in uyuni - and my tour left the next day. so i played a little poker online (and there began my addiction).

the day of the tour - i woke up in my big queen bed ($3NZD) and it was sunny !
i used a tour company called Andean Salt Expeditions - who i would not recommend. but as i was the only one doing a one day tour, i was put in with another group.

the salt mountains. the salt is left to dry for 3 months before being processed.

fish island. its FULL of cactus.

my tour group - 3 crazy funny as shit irish chicks and 3 american girls who did all the translating from our non-english speaking guide.

salt blocks drying at the salt hotel.

the flamingoes.

the train cemetery - eerie and i am unsure why this is such a tourist attraction. but it is strangely beautiful.

uyuni town. full of markets and not a lot else.

Tarzan!

2007-11-09T07:29:00.001+13:00

So Amy, Jason and I stayed in Coroico for the night after the ¨Death Ride¨ at a place called Esmeralda Hotel. Nice place. Nice view. Nice price. $7 each.

The next afternoon we headed off to Rurrenabaque on a bus that was not quite what I was used to. It was comfortable enough, until the aisles started filling up with people and sleeping children. So much for using the aisle as leg room.
The road was also just the other half of Death Road. Winding, high and narrow.

We arrived in Rurrenabaque 17.5 hours after we left Coroico. Tired, stiff and, most of us, bitten by nasty little buggers.

We managed to get a tour leaving that morning with Fletcha tours. 2 nights, 1 day in the jungle followed by 3 nights, 2 days in the Pampas - all for $20 a day, $100 in total. In between we would have to stay a night in Rurrenabaque.
Claire, an American girl from Texas that we met on the bus, would be joining us.

Four Polish people, two couples, a columbian and a Venezuelan joined us with their own guide. We took the tour company´s boat out to their camp in the Jungle, 3 hours of scenic river.

The accomodation was basic, but the beds had mosquito nets and I managed to score and extra super thin matress to go under my existing super thin mattress.

Our guide, Jory, took us for a walk through the jungle immediately. We didn´t see any big animals, though we did see Capybara, giant guinea pig - poos on the way.

We did see leaf cutter ants though. Very cool. Massively long lines of them all streaming to the same place. Looked exactly like it does on TV. Only better.

We walked all the way to the top of a hill and when we got up thyere, Jory told us to look down. We were on a cliff face inhabited by thousands of Parakeets and a few Macaws. When we made a loud noise at the top, the birds would fly in a huge circle making a hell of a racket.

We then walked back down, in the slippery mud - it really does rain in the rainforest - and headed for the bottom of the cliff we were standing on to view it from a different angle.

The following morning it was raining. We were told we had to wait for it to stop before we could walk to the community - who we were to pay 50 Boliviana´s to for their conservation efforts, or so we were told.
It didn´t stop raining between breakfast and lunch, so we played shithead.

After lunch the guides decided we could take the boat around the the community instead. It stopped raining just as we were walking toward the boat.
The other walk to the community revealed a little more then they would have liked. We came across a huge area of burned forest. Recent, some of it was still smoking.
The four of us refused to pay for what we saw. Conservation efforts? They were burning the forest to grow crops that they could sell in the town.
We ended up having to pay the money, but refused to visit the comminuty. Our little protest.

After our night off in Rurrenabaque, we headed by 4x4, a bumpy and long 3 hour ride, to the edge of the Pampas region. There we got on a boat to take a 3 hour slow cruise to the lodgings. The four Polish people were on this tour with us as well.

On this very first ride we saw almost everything we were told we were going to see, and more.

A giant Guinea Pig. Giant. Huge. The size of a small bear, I would say.

Birds of Paradise

Alligators and Turtles. Lots of them.

Squirrel Monkeys and Howler monkeys.

Pink Dolphins!
I wasn´t sure if everyone was pulling my leg, because I had never heard about them, but there they were. Plain as day. Sort of. This picture is of one that is a juvenile, which are purple/grey, but they are pink. I´ve seen them with me own eyes.

And plenty of birds, including Herons and Kingfishers.

The only things left to see, on our list, were Anacondas and Tucans.

That evening, before dinner, we went to the sunset bar, around the corner, and had an ice cold beer while we watched the sunset over the Pampas from their viewing balcony.

The next moring we came out of breakfast to find one of the guides feeding bread to the biggest Caiman I can imagine. It was at least 4m long. And eating bread.

Theat afternoon we went for our trek through the Pampas. At times the water would be over the Gumboots they gave us. Very hard work slogging over all that, especially since it was the hottest day yet.

Halfway across the long section, we came across a Caiman that had died of dehydration while trying to get to better waters. It was HUGE. Bigger than the one we had seen that morning. Scary stuff. No picture of it though, sorry.

The slog through the pampas/swamp/marsh was worth it though. We came across two Cobras - no one told us there were Cobras! - and two largish Anacondas.

After a well deserved power nap back as base, we all went for a swim witht he pink dolphins. Well, Claire,, Jory and I did, everyone else chickened out. It was great fun, mainly because of the adrenaline pumping.
There are Alligators in these waters you know!

A different sunset bar was the setting for our second Pampas sunset, and Amy took this spectacular shot.

The next day we went Piraña fishing, and caught quite a few. Then we headed back to town after lunch. On the way we saw more of the same spectacular animals, but the highlight was this family of Giant Guinea Pigs.

Two more things:
1. If you go to the Jungle or Pampas, take deet. The highest percentage you can find.
The mossies in the Pampas bit us on our thighs and asses right through our mossie-proof pants.

2. Since I still didn´t have a camera, all these pictures are curtesy of Amy and Jason. Thanks guys.

another bruise for the collection

2007-11-08T07:33:00.000+13:00

its kinda hard to take a photo of your own underarm ... but this is my other souvenier from the Worlds Most Dangerous Road ...

The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

2007-11-03T05:59:00.001+13:00

Mountain Biking Day came around fast.
I was excited !!
Our guide was rather late to meet us but we set off with a hiss and a roar.

We got up to the top of the mountain pass and after getting into our gear and playing around with our bikes, we splashed something on our bikes, the ground and down our throats and oh my god it was foul. But apparently it was the done thing.

22km of downhill on the tarmac and that was so much fun. Being a "fat bastard" as Lynn our guide put it, I got to go really really fast.

I didnt do the 7km of uphill (only about 500m) - why pay $75.00 for a bus if you arent going to use it ??

And then we were on "The Road".
Big saefty talk from Lynn and lots of checking of bikes by Cristian.

Of course I was the one that had the spill. But its not on video - thank God !
and yup I landed on the leg and now have a bruised and grazed elbow to match.

Before you knew it, we were at the bottom.
Free beer, tons of food and time to watch what we had just achieved.

Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking rocked !!
Most fun had going down ....

worlds most dangerous road - november 2007

I have posted all the photos on webshots as I can add the videos too - and I am sure Nell will have her side to tell as well.

After we finished, Nell headed off to the jungle with Jason and Amy and I am chilling in Potosi waiting for my bus to the Uyuni Salt Lakes.

El Castillo - the Princesses in the Castle

2007-11-03T05:58:00.002+13:00

Once upon a time just a few days ago, the two International Princesses reknown for trouble went exploring in the Bolivian Yungas. A subtropical area known for its beauty and serenity and therefore attractive to the two who were no longer happy being amongst the masses.
The journey had been long and arduous - as the high mountain pass was cold and they had feared somewhat for the sanity of their driver Henry (Ensie in his native tongue)

Once through the mountain pass, the road had turned to rocks of varying sizes and stability. The road had also appeared to shrink whilst on one side dropping instantly to the treacherously fast and deep river.

They happened upon El Castillo del Loro in the Southern Yungas. A castle built by a previous President of the Bolivian nation nearly 80 years ago.

The Princesses were greeted by men with large umbrellas for as is common in the subtropical regions of the world, twas precipitating madly.
The Princesses were shown to their suite - a suite befitting their station - the suite of the President himself. Built high aloft the tower with a near 360 degree view of the area they shalt inhabit for the next few days.

The keepers of the castle immediately sprang to attend to the Princesses and food and drink was served. As the Princesses are of the most intelligent kind, card and word games appeared and entertainment occured throughout the evening time.

The Princesses were served of the finest local quality and they dined until they were satisfied.

Other guests of the Castillo were playing a dice game.

The dark haired Princess was aware of a similar game so they joined in and learnt the native twist.
Exhausted the Princesses retired to their tower suite.

The following morning, the Mistress of the House regaled the Princesses with stories of the construction of the Castillo and the Presidents use of prison labour. It is said that the ghost of the President may appear in the suite and the rooms below built for his sons.

The Mistress then proferred to take the Princesses on a tour around the grounds and the surrounding valley and spiritual areas in the nether regions of the Castillo. They crossed a raging river via a wire based bridge, stepped over snake pits and discussed the regions flora and fauna.

They then made their way through vines and landslides to the sacred grotto were they may be granted three wishes.

In order to reach the final sacred place, the Bath, a test of bravery was required.
The mighty river must be crossed - however this time the bridge was of far less stable construction and had the river not been so high, surely trolls would be waiting for ladies as fine.
The river reached up its fingers to pluck whomever may place a step incorrectly.

Born from hardy stock - both Princesses crossed the mighty river without harm.

The golden haired Princess had been feeling poorly for several days and knew she required rest - so the far more energetic and adventurous dark haired Princess set off again on another adventure whilst a siesta was had.

That evening the Castillo was quiet, save for the Princesses enjoying cinema and but a local family to ensure their needs were met.

The third day dawned bright and warm.
After breakfast, both Princesses sunned themselves for a time and then again the energetic and athletic Princess set off in search of more adventure and sights unseen - vowing to return safely before the midday meal.

Happily the buxom Princesses continued to rest and read preparing for their next travels and praying silently that her body would be healed.

In the evening time, the Princesses proceeded to play the native version of the dice game (Yahtzee) whenst they were joined - albeit timidly at first - by the children from the village of El Charo.
The children entertained the Princesses for a while showing their ability to count and their acrobatics.

It was amusing for some moments but as is well known, children can only be tolerated in short phases. The children were banished to the parlour whilst the Princesses had their evening meal and enjoyed their local wine.

The evening ended on a challenging note - a new form of card game based on Rummikup was played with much concentration.
An early night was had as there was more exploration (and some rest to be had the following day)

On an unexpected note, the transportation described to the Princesses was not forthcoming.
Therefore to bring the two back down to earth, they were driven back to La Paz in the back of a truck rather like they were on their way to a concentration camp.

Well .. it was destined for La Paz.

isla del sol

2007-11-03T05:57:00.001+13:00

so we are not too sure what hit nell, but the day i went out to isla del sol (The Island of the Sun) on lake titicaca, i went by myself.

it was a beautiful day, and riding the front of the boat for the 2 or so hour trip gave me a chance to really take in the scenery.

when we got to the island, the small town ....... doesnt have a lot to offer.

the museum has a few dusty old pieces in it, with photos of divers above. so i think they are mainly things that have been found in the lake. and a few bones and skulls.

i walked up behind the village to where "the really good ruins are" only to be a wee bit disappointed.

had a look at the sacred stone as this is where the incas believe the sun god was born.

but then again we had just come from the sacred valley in peru - and had been spoilt for ruins.

still ... the lake was beautiful and amazing colours at every different turn.

i caught the boat to the southern end of the island and walked up the stairs and had a look around.
then i had a nap.

glad i went but very very disappointed in the bolivians for leaving so much rubbish lying around.
i'm not blaming them - but they could show some respect for their natural wonders.

Not so city slickers...

2007-10-28T06:41:00.000+13:00

Turns out there will be no photo´s posted on the previous post because they are all on the memory card of the camera that is now in the hands of a La Pazian pickpocket.
MotherF*****!!!

Tara and I arrived in La Paz last night, and hated it before we even descended fully into it.
South American cities are the pits.

We had a shocker of a night at the HI hostel we stayed at - family brawls and loud mouths till 4am - but luckily we had already decided to get the hell out of dodge.
And dodge it was...
Not an hour after sorting out our next few days in the Yungas, my camera was nicked right out of my bag.
I´m more pissed off with myself than anything else. Why did I not listen to people and wear my daypack like a dork on my front?

Two things on the plus side.
1:
The woman at the tourist police office was an absolute sweetheart, and filled out my report in no time flat - leaving me enough time to print a claim form, and have this bitch before catching our bus out of here.
2:
Thank the dear Lord above, I had copied my memory card onto DVD just a few days ago.

Now just to see if the DVD actually contains anything...

Copaca-crappa

2007-10-27T03:13:00.000+13:00

I had all sorts of hopes for Copacabana, and wasn´t really disappointed on our first day there. The main drag is a little touristy, but colourful and friendly, and we were so happy about the cheap prices after Peru.

Then I went on the tourist trail the next day.
I had a map, which was a little vague to start off with, but I think managed to find the place where the ¨Baño del Inca¨/ ¨Garden of the Inca¨(my map mentioned it as both) should have been. I couldn´t find the ruins. There were no signs. Nothing.
Not to mention the fact that the entire road there was strewn with litter. So I walked the 5km´s back into town a little disappointed, but pleased with the views.

When I got back, I decided to walk up to the ¨Calvario¨, a church at the top of the hill next to town. I was feeling very light headed, but made it up. It was ... dirty. The whole way up, and the other way down, was full of litter and rubbish.
The only thing that made it worthwhile was the views. I managed to get myself alone on a rock to watch the sun set over Lake Titicaca.

Then I got sick that evening. Heavily and violently ill. I guess that is clouding my views of the place, but I am trying to be objective.

I have to say that I don´t like Copacabana. The minute you leave the tourist centre, you enter a real dirty shithole of a town. I´m not sure what the big fuss is about this place. The hostels and restaurants are all more than a little run down. The people are friendly enough, but don´t seem overly keen on pleasing tourists. It seems the town has had it´s heyday and is running purely on that old reputation.

Then again, it is incredibly cheap.
I guess you get what you pay for.

I will let Tara post about her experience the next day at the Isla del Sol - I was in bed all day trying to keep anything down.
I will also post some pictures of the spectacular views over the lake, later.

an update ... the leg

2007-10-24T09:53:00.000+13:00

so about three weeks ago, i took a tumble in ecuador.
not even on cotopaxi, nope, i didnt even get that far.

i hobbled around for a little while. talked to a chiropractor in huacachina and took some ibuprofen but it didnt seem to get any better - just the bruising went down.

these shots are about 5-6 day intervals.

finally when we got to puno, i went to a doctor, and then to the hospital (as there was supposed to be a doctor who speaks english there.
he prescribed more ibuprofen, but also antibiotics as he thinks the huge bump is an infection .... and more rest.

so we bailed to copacabana and i sat in the sun for a while and now on my ass in an internet cafe telling you all about it.

Poo - no ? ...... Si !

2007-10-24T08:38:00.000+13:00

firstly a little inside joke in the title there. we have noticed that our guides in peru speak pretty good english but have developed a really really annoying habit of finishing each sentence with no? as in - the Inca split the stones with wood and water no ?

the plan for Puno was terrific.

The Puno Plan turned out to be pants.
we booked a hostel online. it looked gorgeous. on the shores of Lake Titicaca and supposedly 20 minutes walk from Puno.
turns out ... Hotel La Glorieta not so gorgeous and actually 25km from Puno.

so we turned it into an adventure.
we jumped in a minivan and headed back to town for 2.60 soles (instead of the 25.00 soles we paid for the taxi to get out there) and we decided that if we couldnt get the bus to Copacabana that night, then we were going to find the best damn hotel in Puno and live it up.

The Puno Plan strikes again ... the best hotel we could find was the same price as the hostel.
this was the view .......

but .. we had more adventures to come.

we had about 200 soles between us to spend - so we decided to try and find the best restaurant in Puno and blow the god damn lot.

Well .... the best restaurant in Puno is the same price as any restaurant in Cusco.
But Nell finally got her cuy (guinea pig)

and we had some wonderful Chilean red .. and dessert .. and tea.

and then we got the hell out the very next morning and now we are maxing and relaxing (doctors orders but more on that in a later post) in Copacabana, Bolivia.

Rugby, what rugby?

2007-10-22T09:54:00.000+13:00

Just a small little nya-nya-nya-nya-nya-nya to all those non South Africans out there

Oh what the hell...

Sacred stuff

2007-10-18T10:57:00.000+13:00

Where have the IWM been for the last week?

So we´re in Cusco and we have to do the Inca sites in the Sacred Valley. There are a lot of sites to chooses from, not least of which is Machu Picchu.
Research in town taught us that it is cheapest, though not cheap by any means, to go it alone. Tours are too expensive and limiting.

So we bought a return train ticket from Ollantaytambo, the first of the sites we would do, to Aguas Caliente, Machu Picchu town.

We also bought the ¨Boleto Touristico del Cusco¨, a ticket that allowed us entry into sites in and around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. A good deal at 70 Soles and it is valid for 10 days.

__________________________________

Ollantaytambo

This was the first of the Inca sites we did and we were suitably impressed. We didn´t get a guide, mainly because we were to cheap to, but it was interesting and amazing none the less.

__________________________________

Machu Picchu

We caught the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes that night and pretty much went straight to bed.

The next morning we were up at 04h45 and managed to catch the second bus up to Machu Picchu.Our first site of Machu Picchu took our breath away and we didn´t get it back until 12 hours later when we left.It was amazing, astounding and absolutely picture perfect.

There were a lot of stairs to climb...

I walked up to Inti-Punku (Sun Gate) in the hopes of getting a wider view of the site, and was not disappointed.

I also walked to the Inca Bridge.

I personally think that Machu Picchu would not be nearly as great if it were set in any other place.

__________________________________

Pisaq

We went to Pisaq, by bus, the day after our recovery day from Machu Picchu. It is a large site, and we diceided that this time we wuld get ourselves a guide to tell us more about what these ruins were all about. Our guide, Ciro, was well educated about the Inca´s and quite a spiritual man. His english was great and he was very interesting.

Our guide seemed to prefer the not-so-travelled route.

And made us do silly things like chanting into the ¨niches¨. Tara wasn´t quite tall enough for the High Priest one´s though...

Ciro, the guide, followed us all the way back to Cusco and almost to our hostel before telling us that he would be happy to guide us around the ruins near Cusco for free. I think the 20 Soles we gave him may have been too much. We agreed to meet him on the Cathdral steps at the same time that we were meeting Amy and Jason.

__________________________________

Around Cusco

What we thought was going to be a leisurely 2 to 4 hour downhill stroll around the ruins near Cusco, turned out to be a 7 hour hike, uphill and downhill. This was not so great for Amy and Jason, who had just finished the Inco Trail the day before...

But we had a great time. Ciro was, once again, a great guide and took us to a lot of places that were not on the map, or included in our ¨Boleto touristico del Cusco¨tickets.

We visited all the sites on the ticket and more: Saqsayhuaman, Qenqo, Puca Pucara, Tambomachay, the temple of the moon, the temple of the monkey and some interesting and fun tunnels, some of which lead all the way to the Santo Domingo church in Cusco.

Ciro was also prone to taking the more interesting routes, rather than the beaten track.

We saw some pretty strange things on the way...

And there were lots of stairs, again.

Saqsayhuaman was the last site we did and we were all pretty tired and hungry by then, but it was worth it, for the site and the view of Cusco.

This one is an in-joke for the four of us. It could be labled: The Llama Sp....its.

hi ho hi ho - its off to Cusco we go

2007-10-18T09:57:00.001+13:00

Cusco (also spelled Cuzco, and in the native Quechua language as Qusqu IPA: ['qos.qo]) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley (Sacred Valley) of the Andes mountain range.

It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cusco Province. The city has a population of about 300,000, triple the population it contained just 20 years ago.

The altitude of the city, located on the eastern end of the Knot of Cusco, is around 3,500 m (11,500 feet). The historic capital of the sun-worshiping Inca empire, it was found in 2006 to be the spot on Earth with the highest ultraviolet light level.

cusco was a very very long bus ride from nazca.

we left about 8.45pm and arrived in cusco around 11.30am the next day.

the buses arent too bad really - they serve you not quite airline food and you can kind of lie down (plus you can buy 10 valium for 7 soles and they help too).

we showered and changed and went out for a bit of a wander.

we came across charlie and staurt (who we met in huacachina) and made a date for the rugby semi final the next day. we also tour shopped around to see the best and cheapest way for us to get to macchu picchu and back. HINT : take buses and trains and go it alone - it was about half the tour price.

our first night we seemed to have a craving for fast food but the man from the hostel pointed us across the street for pollo and papas fritas (broasted chicken and chips) and combined with the warm cerveza, we sat in our room watching cable tv.

saturday was the first rugby semi final between england and france.

nell and i arrived at paddys early and scored a table and not long after, jason and amy arrived from their 15 hour bus ride and then charlie and stuart showed up. the result (apart from england kicking france) was 6 slightly tiddly turisticos and one very very loud one - stuart.

nell led us on a search for curry. but we didnt find it. so we tried alpaca instead.

sunday was the second semi final between south africa and argentina.we got up early for a stroll around and came across a religious procession. what we understand is that a slave in lima painted a perfect christ on a wall. the building was then destroyed but the wall remained. so a celebration of this happens each year.

we walked into the plaza de armas and came across a procession of another kind.

hundreds of sick children, well children, doctors and nurses and the military were all lined up and parading past some officials.

we watched for ages and then found an upstairs cafe where we got an even better view of what was happening.

after the parade, it was rugby time. we tried a different pub this time - and nell offered to pay if south africa won.
so after a jug of cuba libres, nell paid up and then ran off to call her dad.
me thinks we should have paid but free is free !

we met up with jeremy warne that night and went to dinner with jason and amy before they took off on their inca trail.
monday saw us ready to catch the bus to ollaytaytambo and then the train to aguas calientes

the Nazca Lines

2007-10-18T09:47:00.000+13:00

we took a bus from Ica to Nazca.

funnily enough when we arrived at Ica bus station, Jason and Amy were also there - running a bit late on their trip due to Jason having an attack of Ecuadorian parasitic infection (the girls all missed out on that one).

Nazca is only about 2 hours away - down the Pan-American highway.

in the air, we found out that the highway runs straight through the Nazca lines.

now i´m not the best person to put in an aeroplane but nell and i were separated for the flight and we both got to be co-pilot.
i flew with aeroparacas and anthony our pilot was fabulous.

about 2 minutes after take-off you see the first line which is the whale.
i managed to take just a couple of photos but spent most of the flight holding on tight but staring out the window with my mouth wide open.

oh .. and i have decided to get over my fear of flying (well crashing and dying) by learning to fly myself.

wikipedia info on the Nazca Lines :
The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches 53 miles or more than 80 kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and AD 700.
There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys and lizards.
The Nazca lines cannot be recognized as coherent figures except from the air. Since it is presumed the Nazca people could never have seen their work from this vantage point, there has been much speculation on the builders' abilities and motivations.

the astral world - ancient mysteries : The Nazca Lines

huacachina - where IWM go to play (and recuperate)

2007-10-11T15:41:00.000+13:00

so after we got the hell out of lima as quickly as possible, we hopped a bus to huacachina.

huacachina is a natural desert oasis about 5km west of ica.

ica had a huge earthquake just a couple of months ago, so we werent too sure about coming here but we had heard good things from travellers that we had met along the way.

we got into ica and taxied out straight out to huacachina.
we had been recommended el huacachinero as a place to stay and it doesnt disappoint.
i´ve spent the last few days lazing around the pool working on my tan (and my bruise which dr eric assures me means my leg wont fall off any time soon and my ribs arent cracked).

we booked a desert buggy trip - with sandboarding.

now i have to add here that we have met some young israeli travellers along the way and my god they are arrogant.
still i guess you can be full of yourself and really crap at sandboarding.

after we got back that night, i did a little begging (only a little mind) and we decided to stay an extra day so i could sandboard too.
so last night, nell and i and stuart and charlie from england, went on a vineyard tour and got hammered on 45% pisco and some very very sweet peruvian wine.

then we went desert buggy riding and sandboarding again today.

and got to watch a spectacular sunset.

after sitting around the pool all day.
CHOICE !
so ... recommedations for huacachina ....
stay more than a couple of days.
stay at el huacachinero.
eat at farolitos - make sure you take an empty tummy !!

To Lima or not to Lima

2007-10-11T14:53:00.000+13:00

So there we were in Lima, the second time around, not very happy about it. But instead of leaving the minute we woke up on the first day, we watched the South Africa vs. Fiji rugby game, and then decided to stay around for the Argentina vs. Scotland game.

In between rugby games, we visited Huaca Pucllana. What initially looks like a mound of sand is, in fact, an anciant temple of the Lima culture. People had been building houses on, and around, the site without knowing what it was, apparently they used to race dirt bikes on the "sandy hill". They only had it protected in 1987 and started the digging then, so far they have covered a whole 3% of it. It was very interesting and made the one day stay in Lima worthwhile.

There were some very ugly hairless dogs that are endangered. I can see why.

We left very early the next morning for Huacachina.

Cotopaxi

2007-10-07T07:51:00.000+13:00

Cotopaxi was all we expected, and more!

We arrived there in a rather large group, the hostel can only accomodate 8 people at the moment because the Cabañas aren´t finished yet.There were Tara and myself, Arian (English) and Sarah (French), as well as a group of seven travelling together for a short while, Stephen and Dave and Tommy (Irish), Meg and Matt (Scottish), Dave and Toby (Aussie). Aline (American) was the Volunteer that came with us.

The "tour" consisted of 4 nights and 5 days at the hostel for only $99, all meals included, and a free trip up Cotopaxi itself. Tara and I had organised that they would put up a tent for us, because the tour was actually full by the time we arrived and tried to get in on it. The tent was warm eough, with our flash sleeping bags, but one person had to sleep a little hard on a camping mat because they only had one mattress. No worries, we drank enough to make it comfortable and the view was amazing!

We did several activities that did not involve playing cards or drinking.First we climbed the mountain behind the hostel, Pasa-somethingorother (I really must take more note of names.) Trekking through the river bed, up towards two waterfalls.

Several times ropes had to be employed in order to get around obstacles, and up waterfalls.

We had lunch above the second waterfall and enjoyed a view that could only have been better if the clouds were not covering the top of Cotopaxi.

Tara and I turned back then, not wanting to climb all the way to the summit for another 2 hours, in grass that would trip you up every second step. Most of the others made it there, but they came back just before dark and were totally shattered. Being the brave, and stupid, girls that we are, we declined the use of the rope at one stage when Carlos, the guide, offered it to us. Unfortunately just before the bottom of the obstacle, Tara grabbed onto a branch that broke and fell about 2m. She landed on her leg, but luckily didn´t break it. She did make it back to the hostel on her own steam, with the help of Carlos, but was in a serious amount of pain. This is what her leg looked like a few hours later.

The next day all but Tara, due to her leg, went via Landrover to the carpark on Cotopaxi. The car park is at 4500m and we had to scramble up loose sand to the Refuge 300m straight up. After the refuge, and a rest with some hot chocolate, we scrambled the rest pf the way to the bottom of the glacier.

The big group of 7 went horse riding on the Thursday and enjoyed it immensely. The rest of us stayed at the hostel and did nothing. And enjoyed it immensely.
It was our turn for horseriding on the Friday and we went out for about 3 hours before lunch. I was sceptical about it because I had such a hard time in the Galapagos, but this was so much better. Firstly the horse was big enough, and then the stirrups were long enough for me to rise.

____________

More about the place and the people...

The food was absolutely amazing. Tarquin (Aussie) and Katherine (Equadorian) own the two hostels, and are currently living and working in the Cotopaxi one. Katherine is a chef and everything she touches turns to delicious. I don´t have a picture of Katherine, but here´s one of Tarquin at the BBQ on our first night, and their oldest son, Thomas, with Tara.

They have built a compost toilet that also has a view...

The guests were great too. We played a lot of shithead (stupid head when the kids were around) and poker, I even managed to win a round one night, the rummikub came out eventually, and a lot of nonsense was spoken.

Obviously the sunsets were just amazing, but I have narrowed the many photographs to just two.

IWM get back to nature - The Galapagos Islands

2007-10-07T05:40:00.000+13:00

we headed out to the galapagos islands very excited.and we had met two really cool travellers - jason and amy - who happened to be on our flight.

as soon as we arrived on baltra at the airport, the words "i want to stay here longer" were uttered.

nell and i had booked 2 days diving with Nauti Diving.
The price included 2 nights at the Grand Lobo Del Mar Hotel in Puerto Ayora.
The hotel was ok - hot water and free breakfast seems to be the only thing we really really need.

Puerto Ayora was a lot more commercial than i expected but the general impression we got was that Santa Cruz (the island) has been allowed to pretty much evolve as it is too far gone for the National Park to have any major affect.

so the diving ..... well WOW !on the first day we drove back over to the ferry spot and took a boat out to North Seymour.

we did 2 dives that day. both drift dives of the fast type !
first dive was around mosquera and we saw chocolate chip starfish, endemic blue and black nudibranchs, barracuda, schools of sardines and turtles.

then during the surface interval, nell swam with sea lions.

the second dive was an even faster drift dive - we saw sardines, white tip reef sharks and a very large black tip.

the second day we were going to gordon rocks. it is about an hour boat ride from the same ferry port on santa cruz around the eastern side of the island. at this time of year, the seas are fairly rough but IWM are hardy girls and we dont get sea sick.

we geared up for our first dive and i was nearly ready.

i have to add quickly that after an incident on the first day, i wasnt so confident with our divemaster.
he, nell and another dive went over the side of the boat before i was ready, the boat lurched and i fell over the side without my mask on right and without my regulator in.
after some coughing and spluttering, and righting myself, he then dragged me down by my fins before i was ready. once i collected myself at about 10m, we were off.
the highlight of this dive for me, aside from the 2 turtles, were the 20 (yes 20) or so hammerheads we saw.

after diving the first day, jason, amy, nell and i headed down to the Charles Darwin Research Centre. we checked out the tortoises and the land iguanas and took soo many photos !!

nell and i spent a couple of nights staying with paulie and her husband jan. paulie is a friend of nells brother nico and they opened their house to us - literally ! we now refer to casa de paulie as our six star accomodation. we had a fantastic bbq with them the night before we headed off to isabela.

the day we were due to go to isabela, we first took a walk to las grietas.

las greitas is filled with sea water and with water seeping down from the mountains. longer than an olympic sized swimming pool and deep enough for open water dive courses, its an amazing place.

for me, isabela was the highlight of our galapagos trip.

from the moment we arrived, the world seemed to slow down to a real holiday pace.

amy and jason came to isabela as well as their boat cruise had not worked out the way they planned.

isabela, and its main city puerto villamil, is a lot more sedate than santa cruz. the main street or puerto villamil is sand with palm trees waving in the breeze.

when we got off the boat, we were greeted by a naturalist guide known as sealion.
he not only offered us a ride to our accomodation, but also a free tortoise and flamingo tour (as the other people he was collecting had paid for it).

the next day, we met a local called pablo who took us to a place called las titoreras.

here we climbed over the lava to see marine iguanas, white tip sharks sleeping in an alley and then we all braved the cold water, slipped into our wetsuits and went snorkelling to see the sleeping sharks close up.day three and we had arranged with sealion to go to sierra negro - the second largest volcanic crater in the world. after a 45 minute drive, we mounted our very small horses and rode up to the volcano. after the crate, we could take a 45 minute walk to volcano chico and see the huge holes made by the eruptions, the lava flows across isabela and whilst sitting on a hill of lava, we could see the whole of isabela stretched out before us.

i really enjoyed this day - but nell and jason were basically riding ponies and both ended up with very sore butts (in one way or another).

once we got back to the hostel, sitting on the deck, the main topic of discussion and much hilarity, was how we all looked with our dust tans.

the following day - after meeting joseph in bar de beto the night before - we went snorkelling at another spot just across the harbour. it was freezing cold and none of us wanted to get in, but we did and we were rewarded with eagle rays, white coral and the most beautiful sea turtles.

we spent 4 nights on isabela in the end.

the first night we discovered that cocktails - especially mohitos - were not only classed as an endemic drink (there are a lot of endemic things on galapagos) but they are very very good for the digestive system. heres winking at you amy !

the hostel - bar de beto with its bar on the beach - as well as the people that we met and the things that we saw, isabela would be my first choice for my return trip to the galapagos.

once we got back to santa cruz, we met up with paulie again, who invited us to stay again.

amy, jason, nell and i took a walk over to tortuga bay for the afternoon. it is a 2.5km walk to the bay and then along the beach first. the entire way is paved and once you get past the beach, you are rewarded with marine iguanas, blue footed boobies and herons - as well as possibly sleeping sharks and yes - tortugas !! (sea turtles)

that night, amy and jason came over for a bbq and we all had a ball of a time and drank far more wine than we had intended.

the following day - our second to last day, we took a taxi through the highlands to another beach - but we picked the tides wrong. oh well ... we had lunch at a beautiful spot.

i have so much more to say but i cant decide whats least important to write about. i guess the only thing left to say is that if you are thinking of going to the galapagos islands - DO IT.

Quito

2007-10-07T05:39:00.000+13:00

On the 16th of September we arrived in Quito after a horrendous night in Lima. It´s a long story, maybe we´ll tell it some time. We had to fly via Lima to Quito, we´ll have a word with Susie, our travel agent, at some stage about this.

It was a pleasure to arrive in a city so friendly and accomodating to tourists.We caught a taxi to our hostel, Posada del Maple, and checked in. Tara realised a few minutes later that she had left her wallet in the taxi. A bit of drama unfolded over the following few days, but I will cut a long story short. Tara eventually got her wallet back, a nice man found it in a park and e-mailed her. Her cash was gone, but all her cards were still there. Unfortunately she had already cancelled her credit cards, but some phone calls and e-mails had new ones arriving in Quito about two weeks later.

Posada del Maple, is a nice enough hostel. Not the cheapest, but breakfast is included and it is clean and close to everything you need in the new town. The new town, La Mariscal, is very much geared towards tourists, you don´t really need much spanish to get by there. We headed for a bar sraight away, to drwon Tara´s wallet sorrows, and ended up drinking a lot of beer, sangria and mojitos.
The next day we took a taxi to the old town and did some sightseeing. We started at the Plaza del la Independencia, where the changing of the guards, or something to that effect, was taking place.

We walked around for most of the rest of the day, going into one of the cathedral museums, can´t for the life of me remember which one, and generally just absorbing the atmosphere of the city. Not once did we feel unsafe, even when we walked all the way back to La Mariscal.

The next day, we went up the Teleferiquo (cable car) with Neil, a Kiwi we met at the hostel.

Neil and I walked for another hour and a half towards the summit of the mountain, another name I don´t know, but turned around before we got there because everyone we met said that the view didn´t change and you couldn´t actually see the crater.

)

We met Amy (English) and Jason (Aussie), a married couple, in the cable car on the way back down. Turned out they were heading for Galapagos on the same plane as us the next day and we arranged to catch a taxi together. We also arranged to meet at 5 that evening to have a few drinks and go out for dinner. Dinner ended up being a cheap, but delicious and filling, curry for only $5 each. Including a beer! God bless South America.

________________________________________________________________

Back in Quito after the galapagos, on 29 September, we stayed at the Secret Garden hostel. Nico had recommended it to us, as he had volunteered here last year. The minute we got there, we went up to the roof terrace to have a beer and enjoy the view.

We had dinner there too, it was BBQ night so we couldn´t resist. After dinner they lit the fire in the wheelbarrow and we had a few more beers with the other guests.

The following day we went to the Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world. It is a museum centre on the Equator, about 25 miles out of Quito. We took photos of the monument that was built in 1979 where they thought the Equator was.

We then went to the "other museum", Inti-nan, 240m north where the Equator was measured using GPS, so the frenchies didn´t get it too wrong. Here they have different huts made up to show how different cultures in Equador lived and live. We even got a go at trying to skewer a cactus leaf with a blow dart.

The museum also lets you perform several experiments on the Equator line. Tara managed to balance an egg on a nail, and received a certificate for her trouble. They show you how a basin of water goes down the drain in two different directions on either side of the Equator and straight down in the middle. As well as some muscle resistance tests on the line and off it. Very interesting.

We then went back into the main museum to have lunch and watch some local dancing.

That night we ate at the hostel again, and then drank a little too much around the fire.
The next morning we packed and headed off to the Secret Garden in Cotopaxi with 9 other guests and one volunteer. We´d heard great things about it from Nico, James (in Bogota) and all the Volunteers and guests at the Secret Garden in Quito.

Platypus Hostel, Bogota

2007-09-18T11:43:00.000+12:00

we had a great time at platypus hostel.
its located near downtown bogota in the old la candelaria district.

the hostel is clean and there is really really good free coffee.
run by german (whos not actually a german but colombian) - there are about 3 or 4 hostels on the street.
every evening at 5pm, hermann dons his best window licker grin and hands out a free beer !!

we spent a few hours sitting in the courtyard drinking beers and getting to know other tourists.
its where we met ;
> stuey from australia (who is a freaken classic laugh for a sydney boy)
> andy and chris from atlanta (andy introduced us to beer, rum and grenadine)
> john from edinburgh (who had asymtomatic and atypical pneumonia - hopefully he will be over it by the time we all meet in bolivia)
> james from australia (who really needs to go up the coast to taganga - if he remembers the name of it)
> ... and john from gizzy to name just a few.

exploring the maze at the salt cathedral

viewing bogota from the top of cerro de montseratte

the international women of mayhem say ..

Platypus rocks !!

Bogota

2007-09-18T11:12:00.001+12:00

The day after we got back to Bogota from Cartagena, we had a museum day.

First we went to the Museo del Oro, the Gold museum. Entry is only about US$1.00. There are about 40 000 pieces in the museum and some of them are on show as you walk around.

The rest are kept in room that opens to allow a certain number of people in for four minutes at a time. The pieces are displayed in a diorama dipicting the movement of the sun through the day. Tara and I were so impressed with this display that we had to go back in for a second look.

Next was the Military museum, which was free. There were a lot of model airplanes and boats on display, as well as uniforms through the ages. There were rooms of racks filled with guns from every country since the beggining of ... gunness... outside, the only place we could take photos, there were cannons and real tanks, planes and helicopters. A boy´s dream museum.

The next stop was the Gallery of Colonial Art. Rather boring with walls and walls of portraits of fat priests and ugly women. Not to mention the religious ones. But there were some very interesting pieces, and it only cost us about US$1.50.

The next day Tara and I went with Young Rob, Andy and John to the Salt Catherdral in ZipaQuira. We managed to walk all the way up a hill, which was nowhere near the catherdral, and had to go all the way back down again to get to it.

We found it eventually and walked to the entrance, only to find we had to walk all the way back to where the shops were to buy our tickets. We were certainly getting a lot of exercise.

It was all well worth it though. The catherdral was carved into the existing arms of the salt mine and you can taste the salt on the walls.

Along the way to the main knave of the cathedral, you walk past the many arms, each one representing one of the stations of the cross.

Eventually, just when you are all crossed-out, you come to the cathedral proper, and it takes your breath away. You view it first from above, and then you walk down into it.

In the cathedral is a carved slab, a copy of Michelangelo´s ´Creation of Adam´.

The next day we had a few hours to kill before we had to catch our plane, so we went by cable car to the top of the hill where the church of Monteratte stands, with Stew, John and James.

In between all this sightseeing, we did manage to meet some great people, drinks cheap Colombian beers and eat some fantastic, and cheap, food.

getting out of the unbearable heat

2007-09-18T11:11:00.000+12:00

the easiest way for us to get out of the sun is to get under the water (well actually its to head into an air conditioned bar) .....
on our way around cartagena, nell found a dive shop right around the corner from our hotel.
we went on a day dive trip with La Tortuga Dive Shop.

we went out of the harbour via Bocachica and did two dives off Baru Island.

the water was a balmy 29 degrees but the visibility wasnt all that great. probably about 12m or so.

i´m blaming the crap photos on the visibility.

we met jim from chicago (if youre reading this jim, i lost your email address!)

the first dive, we got to do 2 wrecks in the one dive. we understand that the dive shop might have had a hand in getting one of the wrecks sunk.

there is a massive jewelfish living on the wreck (like a grouper). its called nacho and its about as big as my torso!

it was a bit dodgey of them to take us through the wreck without checking certs or anything but the swim through wasnt that far and you could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

we did our surface interval on Banau Island but they didnt tell us anything about the island or what was on it.

the second dive, we went off in search of barracuda and two undersea mountains - which we found one of.
the divemasters seemed a little bored by that stage but nell found a huge crab (and then got a whole lot of stings on her arm) and then when she surfaced i found a MASSIVE green moray eel.

a pretty cheap days diving (165,000 pesos for all gear and lunch).
all in all - it was pretty good ! and we got out of the hot sun for a while.

.... oh and the stings .... the only thing that seemed to help was cerveza ...

Cartagena

2007-09-18T10:17:00.000+12:00

We started exploring Cartagena on Sunday the 9th of September, after deciding that we would not have enough time to go to Tairona National Park or Taganga- bad planning on our part, but so you learn.

It turned out that it was the Colombian National Heritage Day, which meant all the museums were free! It was also quite warm, but not stiflingly hot - the best day we had in Cartagena for walking around.

We started at the Inquisition museum (Palacia de la Inquisition), where we got a guide who spoke english, Tony. Tony was very animated while talking about the torture techniques, we think he might have been gay, what with all the make-up he was wearing. He taught us a lot of the history of Cartagena, invasions and pirates, plenty reasons to build the great big fortifications around the city.

Tony then took us to an Emerald ´factory´, which turned out to be an emerald shop, one of many in the city, and they proceeded to try to sell Tara and I some emerald jewellery. We used the excuse that we needec our money for a roof over our heads and food in our tummíes and made our way out of there.

We walked around the city going in and out of churches and walking along the outer wall. It is an incredibly beautiful city that throngs with history. There are also very few tourists walking around, which makes it seem all the more authentic and real.

We managed to find a room in a hostel that day, and would move into it the following morning. Back at our hotel, we went to the 18th floor swimming pool and took in the view of the old and the new city, Boca Grande.

The next day, after moving into out hostel room, we went exploring again, but it was so hot. So very, very hot. There was a sign on the beach saying that it was 37 Celcius at 10 in the morning!

We managed to walk around to some parts of the city that we didn´t see the previous day, and then walked all the way to the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas. We were dripping by that stage, so instead of going up the long slope to the Castle, we looked at it from the comfort of two chairs at an outside bar.

That evening we met up with Christina, a 19 year old Colombian who was working at the last hotel we stayed in. She took us to the Cafe del Mar, on the wall of the city overlooking the sea, and then to a friend of her late father who owns a restaurant in the old city. We had a great time, but ended up paying for her. She agreed to meet us the next day and said she would pay us back.

We met Christina the next day near the hotel where she works. She didn´t end up paying us back, but that´s a lesson learned for us. We decided it was, once again, too damn hot to do any exploring, so we spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach.

That evening we had a lovely dinner on a balcony above the Plaza de Santo Domingo, safely watching the locals entertain, and try to sell things to, the tourists.

Cartagena is great, but you have to learn quickly how to just ignore all the street, and beach, hawkers.
Oh, and ... go in winter!

WE WIN ! the people claim game is done

2007-09-12T05:43:00.000+12:00

this is a post especially for karate man ...

a while ago we came up with the people claim game.
well ... we have decided and validated that we have won.

we claim all of Las Vegas and Miami as trainwrecks.
we claim all of New Orleans for the gay and lesbian couples.

we claim the entire country of Colombia for daddys little girl.

thats it, we're done, IWM are the champions !!!

what an invitation

2007-09-11T05:33:00.000+12:00

this post should also be known as ...

"the worst pick up line we have ever heard"

so on our first night in miami, nell and i were sitting by the pool at the hostel drinking our beers and talking to people - as you do.
we met casey - an investment strategy guy from new york.
a little later after he went off to get changed to go out, he came back down to the pool and knelt down beside us. he said that he was just going to be straight up ... did us ladies want to get laid by him tonight ?!

how to say no ! and still be polite ....

the answer to your question is no - neither of us accepted (although something tells us he was actually going for a two-for)

hot ... wet ... and naked

2007-09-11T04:29:00.000+12:00

the women dont wear a lot of clothes in miami - in fact i think their scarves have just slipped over their hips.
we had an awesome hostel - the tropics on collins avenue - complete with swimming pool and really good kitchen.
as soon as we got to miami and got checked in - we went for food and beer and bought a towel each and then ran into the ocean. only to find it was about soup temperature!

we spent the first full day lazing around - well hooning around different ends of the beach on a 50cc scooter.

we went diving on the second day with South Beach Divers. they took us to Key Largo and we did 2 8m dives in 31 degree water (thats no wetsuits!).

after we got back to south beach we headed down to the playwright pub for some beers with an australian we met (clinton - who scored the dive name mr floppy) and one of the instructors anthony.

the next day, we sat by the pool. and read. and swam. and drank.

miami is a cool place but it can be expensive. its fun to watch some of the trashy people go by.

Dahn in the bayou

2007-09-11T04:06:00.000+12:00

New Orleans was pretty much exactly as I expected it to be - having heard so much about it from Tara and seeing clips on TV and in the movies.

We checked into our hotel, Maison St Charles, and I was very impressed. Not the fanciest place we´ve stayed in so far, but it was the cheapest, we got two beds and air conditioning, a laundry, a pool and free internet. Not to mention the bar that was only a few steps away from our door. While Tara internetted, I did some laundry and sat in the bar chatting to Liz, the bartender.
When it cooled down a little - which it doesn´t do a lot of in New Orleans, we headed into the French quarter. Our hotel was too far to walk in the heat, so we ended up taking a taxi.
We started with dinner - at a place I have forgotten the name of - on Bourbon street, we had some delicious local dishes, mostly seafood, and started on the cocktails. Then we walked up and down Bourbon street, which is exactly like in the movies. It is crowded and rowdy and you walk in and out of bars with your drinks, filling them up when needed. We stopped in a few places that had live bands, not jazz, rock. American rock. Which is nice for the first few songs and then they all just start sounding the same. More soft ballad type rock than real rock though you wouldn´t think it the way the bands and the audiences carry on (I think the heaviest song we heard was Ýou give love a bad name´by Bon Jovi.)

As it turned out, we had arrived in New Orleans on the weekend of ´Southern Decadence´, the third largest gay and lesbian festival in the country. We came across the celebrations when we crossed paths with a bunch of God botherers with banners proclaiming that sodomy was a sin and that Jesus hates sinners. This didn´t seem to bother the gay guys who were having a ... gay old time right next to them. Good on them.

We did eventually find a place with a band playing more jazzy music, with four guys playing brass instruments.
In between being bothered by Steve and his boss Roy - hicks from Miami - I managed to have a conversation with Duane, the trombone player. He is a school teacher by day and plays in the band because he loves it. The conversation inevitably turned to "The Storm" and he told me that he was in Texas with his daughter for a long time and couldn´t get work there. He had only just returned home and was rebuilding his life. All the locals we spoke to about "The Storm" seemed to just be getting on with their lives as best they could, and positively at that.

I woke up still feeling drunk, I think we went home at about 3am, and was just waiting for the hangover to hit me. It never did, thank god. I called and booked an air-boat ride for 12.30 and then we chilled out at the hotel.

They picked us up at 1.00 and we drove about 30 minutes to the edge of the marshes. Here we waited around for a while and then got on a six person air-boat which is faster and more fun - score! because we only paid for the 16 person one. The boat itself was loads of fun. An air-boat is the flat, shallow, boat with the big fan at the back. It was loud, and wet at times, but you just skid around corner and hop over grass and logs and anything else in the water.

After about 30 minutes of trying to scare the shit out of us Felix, our driver, stopped and took out a pack of marshmallows. He proceeded to throw them in the water, luring and feeding the alligators. I don´t know how they figured out about marshmallows, but it works a charm.

Then Felix started talking. He was incredibly funny. He unapologetically made fun of us, himself, people from Louisiana and his own people, coon-asses. He told us how he sleeps with his sister because she is better looking than the other girls. He told us how they go hunting for marsh rats at night with a light and a golf club - they get paid $5 a rat by the government in an effort to get rid of them - and that a coon-ass bachelor party is all about drinking and rat clubbing. He told us how the potholes in town are not caused by trucks, but rather by fat Louisiana people getting tired and sitting down.

After he had entertained us for a while, we went for more of a ride. We came upon a shallow, muddy area, and Felix stopped. He said he always gave his customers a choice - turn right and we stay clean, go straight and we get dirty. We opted for dirty, to the horror of the couple from Atlanta, but the joy of the Aussie guys. So Felix jumped through the mud and splattered us so badly that even he was shocked, but very proud of himself.

Tara and I were both thinking that Felix was quite a good looking chap, but when he took his sunglasses off we both changed our minds, and giggled about it later. His eyes were weird, too close together and just funny looking. He would have fit right in with the locals from ´Deliverance´.

It started raining on our way back into town and by the time we got to the city the streets were all flooded. It was amazing, there was water everywhere, high over the pavements. We asked the bus driver why it looked that way and he said that ever since ´The Storm´, the cities drainage was blocked up and slow. Every time it rains there, the streets flood. A sore reminder of what happened.

Back in town, we got cleaned up and went back to the French Quarter for a ´ghost tour´, which was more of a historical tour around the haunted places in the area. Our tour guide was very good, when she wasn´t trying to sell us her Garden District tour or boasting about her daughter´s film achievements. There is a lot of history and violence - decadent white people and their slaves - that went down in New Orleans, and there were a number of important battles fought there in the war for independence.
Our guide also explained how the ´Southern Decadence´celebration came about. Several gay people were killed in a hate crime, a fire was started in a building from which there was no exit. Their friends pushed the government for stronger penalties against hate crimes and they got what they wanted. A year after the death of their friends, they gathered in New Orleans to commemorate and celebrate. Each year they came back and each year it got bigger.

Learning the history really changes the way you see the city, and the way you feel in it, I would like to go back and do more sightseeing than drinking. Or maybe more of both.

what goes on in vegas ...

2007-09-04T16:09:00.000+12:00

well nothing dodgey happened in vegas .. that i remember ! we had a great 2 nights and really only one full day. its a land of bright lights, big tits and really really small skirts !

we watched the light and fountain show at the bellagio, played a few machines, swam in the river pool all day while drinking dacquiris and then went to air supply at the orleans hotel and casino.
afterwards we played roulette for a couple of hours with "exotic entertainers" and the air supply road crew.

tons of fun !!
(and not much money lost either)

Whatayou, retahdid?

2007-09-04T14:50:00.000+12:00

No we're not, but they speak funny over here.

We arrived in Boston, at about five in the afternoon, by train. It was a pleasant enough jouney, preceeded by two beers, and including two beers.

Boston was as hot and sticky as New York had been and we made out way into a beautifully airconditioned room very quickly. We checked out some places to eat in the guide the hotel had given us, and then took the subway to the station we thought was close to our restaurant. After walking around for about half an hour we took a cab there, and we were quite happy we did because it seemed far. After a lovely steak dinner outside in the Boston heat, and a few drinks back inside leaning over the stone bar, we headed back to the hotel. We asked where the subway station was and were told it was quite close, so we walked only a few minutes to the station we had arrived at earlier that night. Lesson learned.

Back at the hotel, there was a message waiting for us from Junior, Andy, our friend we had come to visit in Boston. He had told us he was working that night, so we had written him off until the next day. The message said he was working in a bar not too far from the hotel. We decided what the hell, and went to meet him there.

Now let me just say that we were expecting to meet a lot of hot, single, paramedics in uniforms, because that's what Junior used to be - a paramedic, not hot and single. We were, rightly enough, very surprised to meet him at the door of the bar in a different kind of uniform, one of a bouncer. Turns out he is going back to school to get his Masters in Marine Bilology or some such nonsense. There are no hot single Reefolologists...

But it was great to catch up with him. We had met him in Fiji, our first trip to Octopus, and he hadn't changed much at all, except that his legs were even more chicken looking.

We spent several hours catching up over several drinks - and getting lost in Boston on the way to a house party - I don't really remember getting home that night.

I was rather hungover the next day and only got out of bed at 12:30. We were also very hungry and were driven outside by our stomachs. At least it wasn't as humid as it had been the previous day. It was a little overcast, so we were glad that Junior hadn't called to finalise plans for a trip to the beach that we had spoken about the previous night. We walked around the park - which turned out to be Boston Common - and found ourselves in front of "Cheers".

The entrance looked exactly the same as in the TV program - and so it should because that is the entrance that was filmed for it - but the inside was different. Turns out it was just the inspiration for the show and not the real bar. No matter, the food was real enough and the place was airconditioned.

After eating, we made our way to the Washington Street shopping area so that I could get more clothes and Tara could get other jandals. We spent a few hours there, then went to the Union Oyster House, the oldest continuously running restaurant in the US, for dinner - lobster and clam chowder, they sure know how to do seafood here. I was drinking my beer with lemonade and we made it an early night.

Junior had left another message at the hotel, he was in a bar somewhere. We called him back and declined, I was too hungover still and Tara was tired.

The next day was the best weather we had seen. We made our way to the Government Centre and bought tickets for the tourist trolley bus. After having breakfast at the Quincy Market, we made our way the the trolley. It was as informative as any other tourist bus we had been on and just as funny. Every city has it's heroes and anti-heroes, and they seem to be equally proud of both. Our first hop off was near the Esplanade on the Charles River where we decided to soak in some of the day and read our books.

After that we got off in Chinatown and had lunch. We ordered only appetisers, but ended up with a meal that would feed an Ethiopian family of seven for a week.

We made plans to meet Junior back at Fanuil Hall after our tour, and the drinking started again. We started at the oldest continuosly running bar in the US - I forget the name - and made it all the way through town back to the bar where Junior works. On the way, we taught Junior the People Claim Game and he tried to teach us the rules of American Football, I still don't get it. I left the bar at one and didn't hear Tara come in at about three.

The following day I was seriously bummed out about my luggage and rather stressed about what was going to happen when we left the next day. We had breakfast down the road and then came back to the hotel to call the BA baggage people at 12:30 when they supposedly opened. I had not luck, but we decided to hell with them and went off to Long Warf where we visited the Aquarium - it has a wicked deep water tank in the middle that you walk around and up in a spiral - and the IMAX theatre for the Sharks movie.

Back at the hotel we made plans to meet Junior and his girlfriend, Megan, at Long Warf for dinner. We made a little detour to the airport to fetch my bag - YAY!!!!!! - but you can read more about that in the BA still sucks post.

Dinner was great, and it was nice to get to talk to Megan a bit more - she's hilarious, she says "butt sex" instead of "anal sex", but that's a whole other story...

We made it an early night, and went back to the hotel sober for a good rest before out flight to Vegas the next morning.

Boston is great, kind of like San Franciso, laid back and relaxed, but without the gay stigma and slightly better dressed, though harder to understand.

I do have to say that the Bostonians have taken the jandal to a whole new level. Pretty much everyone was wearing them, including the ladies in full work dress. It's fantastic!

photos from new york

2007-09-04T14:26:00.000+12:00

so i wrote the blog but didnt have time to add any photos.
here are a few choice ones from our 5 days in the big apple.

our neighbourhood - times square

a hard night on the mohitos and the food it took to wash them down

the museum of natural history

walking through central park in the rain

nells japanese treatment (yes mom - her hair is now straighter than mine!)

lady liberty

the new york we see in the movies - steam and yellow cabs !

the bronx zoo - red pandas and gorillas

British Airways still sucks

2007-09-02T04:36:00.000+12:00

Just thought I would post a quick one to let you all know that I did finally get my luggage back from British Airways.
On the 28th of August we got so fed up with them - two or three phone calls a day with the same script being read to us each time - that we went to the Boston airport and fetched the damn bag ourselves.
I even had the phone put down on me by a supervisor. I said the word "bullshit" and was told to keep it professional.
"Ok, so what is a professional word for bullshit?"
CLICK.
Besides the fact that I am not a professional luggage loser, where is their sense of humour?
And the lies they tell you. Don't even get me started on that.

Nine days without luggage is no fun. While it didn't exactly ruin the time I was without it, it put a bit of a cloud over everything. Tara was great though, very understanding during the stressful times - usually on the phone to British Airways - she always had a drink ready for me.

And a quick note on Southern Cross travel insurance. We called the collect number and got through to them straight away. They were super helpful and said that we could claim up to $1000 per policy. Think I will go with them to claim things back instead of British Airways, with the trouble I had just getting my bag back, I don't think I will get any money out of them in this lifetime.

I ❤ NY

2007-08-25T10:14:00.000+12:00

so yes .. we arrived in new york.
braved the 45 minute bus ride from JFK into the heart of manhattan.

we had 5 days to cram in as much as possible (including a bit of shopping for things that nell might need on a day to day basis).

day one
first order of business was a drink - even before we showered after our flight across the Atlantic! our first night we mucked around our neighbourhood - pretty much Times Square. went to the Havana Club for mohitos and then back later for dinner.

day two
found the olympic cafe for cheap breakfasts.
as it was threatening to rain, we went to the Museum of Natural History. loved it! kept hoping something would come to life like in ben stillers film. i really wanted to see the egyptian exhibits but was content with stuffed animals, the american indian hall and the dinosaurs. and TRex is not in the grand lobby either!
even though it was raining, we had our umbrellas so we took a stroll through central park - found some lunch and ended up near the salon where nell was going to have her hair permanently straightened. we went in to enquire and ended up with both of us having colours done. i hated mine by the way - it was far too dark.
that night we went to a $9 comedy show at Ha!

day three
back to the olympic for breakfast. had pancakes and syrup. and discovered i have a thing for grape jelly.
went into the gray line office and bought 48 hours of tour tickets and entry into some of the sights. jumped on the downtown bus and went past things like madison square gardens, empire state, flatiron building, through greenwich village on the way to battery park where the ferry to Liberty island and the statue of Liberty leaves from. i expected her to be larger!
had hotdogs and pretzels on the island.
on the way back, a lovely man called Alfred from Santa Lucia told us all about Ellis Island and his experiences of 9/11. we completed our loop and went home to the Belvedere.
got a message from the salon - they could fix my hair that night - so i took off for a couple of hours to become me again.
went to Lindys on 53rd for steak and cheesecake. YUM!
a real american food day but i couldnt do it every day.

day four
a lovely day.
the weather channel has become a bit of a fixture for us. did you know that you can have many forms of drought. extreme and then 1% higher is exceptional?!
back to the olympic for breakfast.
went and watched the first hour of nells japanese treatment for her hair. then i jumped on the subway and went to south street station to catch the bus to brooklyn. going over the manhattan bridge on the top of a double decker open topped bus freaked me out!
we tried to go to chinatown for dinner but ended up in little italy.

day five
best looking day in new york so far.
back to the olympic for breakfast.
we went off to the Bronx zoo for the day. getting outside and walking around was lovely. warm and sunny - not unbearable at all. the zoo was awesome - especially the polar beer and the gorillas. you can even choose which animal charity to donate your entry fee to.
after the zoo, we caught the subway back to Times Square to try once more for cheap show tickets - and we got them! Monty Python Spamalot for about $60 each (the hotel quoted us $170 each).
we bought a 6 pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager and went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then hit the show. it was very very good. quote true to the film the Holy Grail as well.

day six
last minute shopping for souvenirs and then back to the hotel for a pre train beer.
okay it was rather early but we had to finish the sam adams and we had a 4 hour train ride ahead so we couldnt get in much trouble.

so we're off to boston.
we have photos and will post them soon in another blog.

British Airways SUCKS!!!

2007-08-23T01:09:00.000+12:00

Just thought we would let you all know that we are in New York.
I am Luggage-less.
After all the stories about Heathrow and lost luggage, here I sit in Tara's clothes, and shoes....

British Airways is being particularly retarded about my luggage and it's whereabouts, they keep threatening to send it back to New Zealand. I think I will be lucky to ever get it back.

Oh well, off to buy some deoderant and underwear.

our BOB

2007-08-19T01:42:00.000+12:00

our rental car was a Vauxhall Corsa.

we called him BOB. he was a Bit of a Bubble.

bob wasnt the speediest - 0 -70 mph in about 4 minutes - but he didnt break down.

bob took us around the United Kingdom - 1085.4 miles to be exact.

And back again

2007-08-18T23:30:00.000+12:00

Having had more than our fair share of alcohol in good old Edinburgh, we decided to leave what was left to the Scots, and headed for the Lake District. Getting out of Edinburgh was a lot easier than getting in, Tara was navigating this time, so maybe that was it.

Tara was happy to let me decide where in The Lakes we would spend that night and I immediately said Lake Buttermere. I had spent a night there many years ago and remember it being the quintessential Lake District lake. We found the guesthouse I had previously camped in front of and booked a room there, at £30 per person per night - not bad for that area. We unloaded our gear and then headed to Buttermere town for some food...

and beer.

An early night for us, and me finally starting Harry Potter, had me up at 6am to take a walk around Lake Buttermere, it is about 5 miles all the way around and took me 1.5 hours. It was as beautiful as I remembered it.

The Lake district is, so far, my favourite place in the whole world, scenery wise. It literally take my breath away every time, and I have been there about 5 times now. I don't think any trip to England will be complete for me without a visit to The Lakes.

After breakfast we went to Lake Windermere, booked into a guest house there - at £26 per person - and then went exploring. We ate at a restaurant called Sutherlands, because it would be rude not to.

We took the ferry boat to Riverside to go to the fresh water Aquarium. This is the only good photo I have from the boat, perhaps Tara could post one with some scenery in it.

Once we got back to Windermere it was beer and food,

before buying some refreshments to drink while we watched TV,

and after a few drinks... PARTY IN ROOM FOUR!!!

The next day, our mission was to get as close to London as possible, via Wales. It was a long drive, about 8 hours, and we felt as if we just dipped into Wales for lunch, even though we were driving through it for about 4 hours.

Our final destination was decided as Oxford, and we got there at about 7pm. We unloaded, freshened up a bit and then went to find a quiet supper somewhere.

We ended up in a latin american restaurant called Las Iguanas. We did eat, but we also had a bit to drink.

A pitcher of beerand 3 pitchers of cocktails.

Luckily neither one of us suffered a hangover this morning and our drive back to London was quick and rather uneventful. We said goodbye to Bob, more about him later, and made our way back to Acton. The UK leg of the trip is pretty much over now, just a few more catchups with friends here in London and then we're off the the US.