an update ... the leg

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.

To Lima or not to Lima

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

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.

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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

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.