Los Becarios

Los Becarios, The Fellows. Laura & Sam explore further from home than ever before. What wonders will a six month South America adventure hold?

[losbecarios]

Chilling and swimming in Minca

The heat and humidity of the Caribbean coast was starting to get tedious so we decided our next stop should be Minca, a small village just inland from Santa Marta and up into the Sierra Nevada mountains. Because of the altitude the climate is a little cooler there and a few of our fellow respected travellers had bigged it up. 

Andrew (remember him from Baños, Ecuador) was one of the people who had told us about Minca and he had recommended us to stay Casa Loma, so we did!

We arrived in the middle of the day with the sun blazing down and were faced with a footpath that switched back ten times and climbed 100m straight up a hill to where Casa Loma was situated. The climb was tough going with our packs on our backs but when we got to the top we were presented with this wonderful view. The town you can see is Santa Marta which is the next town along from Taganga.

We also were rather pleased with Andrew's recommendation as Casa Loma had an amazing central chilling area complete with hammocks and rocking chairs and with a vibe to match.

It also was home to this unbelievably cute kitten who's name was Tico but really should have been called Tica as it had turned out to be a girl not a boy. We both spent many happy hours playing with Tico during our stay honing our kitty playing skills in preperation for returning home to Mimi!

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the hammocks and reading as soon after our arrival the weather broke and the rain and thunderstorms set in. Our evening (and every evening of our stay) was spent sipping beers and playing huge amounts of backgammon and cards with Sam, Molly and Marta (volunteers at the hostel) and the other guests.

Before bed I decided to try a long exposure shot to capture Santa Marta's lights after the rain had cleared but I was lucky enough to also capture some fork lightning!

The next day we walked for an hour out of the village to visit a waterfall with a pool you could swim in. It was also rumoured to have a rope swing over the pool which we were pretty excited about but when we arrived the swing was hanging out of reach with no way to get hold of it.

None the less we had a great time swimming in the the pretty cold water that was extremely refreshing after the long and hot walk.

The next day Lau wasn't feeling very well so spent most of the day resting and sleeping in the hammocks - Tico kindly kept her company.

In the mean time I went on a solo mission to another swimming hole. This one promised rocks to jump in off and luckily when I turned up there were some local lads who were kind enough to show me the spots that were safe to jump into through my broken Spanish and some sign language. They also showed me some rapids that you could body surf through which was awesome!

Minca was everything we hoped it would be - a little cooler, more relaxing and arguably more beautiful than the coast only a few miles away. 

And so we left Minca with heavy hearts, knowing that our next stop would be the last of our trip: Bogota. And also because we were facing an 18 hour bus ride to get there, eurgh! Can't win them all...

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Getting our snorkel on in Taganga

The Caribbean coast of Colombia has some of the most accessible coral reefs in the world and is therefore a hotspot of scuba diving and snorkelling. Being at the end of our trip and starting to dip into our cash buffer we opted for the second option and headed to Taganga to get our snorkel on.

The morning we arrived we booked ourselves on a boat headed for the reefs and hired some equipment for later that day. After a quick lunch we headed down to the boat and found everyone else (other than a 50 year old man in inappropriate, super tight and very small speedos... spew!) was going scuba diving. We felt a little like we were on a ski lift with our sledges when everyone else was going skiing!

Anyway, after 15 minutes in the boat we arrived at our first spot. Whilst everyone else was farting around with their scuba equipment, ourselves and speedo man masked and flippered up and jumped in the sea.

The water was incredibly clear and I had packed my GoPro so we could get some underwater photos and video. Exhibit 1.

There was a huge variety of fish, ranging from tiny green ones that swam around in huge schools to a big flesh coloured puffer fish which we were later told was very poisonous.

It turns out taking photos of fish is incredibly hard but we came back with a few decent ones including this small school of yellowies.

If you look very carefully at the middle of this photo, just below the surface you can make out a trumpet fish. It was much cleared at the time and we chased him round for a couple of minutes.

I was doing my best Jack Cousteau impression and driving down to take photos, film and get closer to the underwater beasties. 

We also saw some amazing brain coral and these ones that look like underwater rhubarb!

After 45 mins in the water the boat returned from looking after the scuba people, picked us up and took us to our second spot. When we arrived it was looking a little grey in the sky and obviously raining in the distance as there was a rainbow coming down over the sea.

The second spot had even clearer waters and allowed me to get the best diving down photo of the day whilst chasing this school of blue fish through the rocks along the bottom.

We were about to finish our second session when Laura suddenly turned into a mermaid. Luckily she turned back into a normal woman once we arrived back on dry land!

Safely back on the boat having seen so many wonderful fish and corals we cruised back to Taganga as the sun was going down. Not bad for an afternoon's work!

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Sun, sea and storms in Cartagena

After a 1 hour flight (which replaced a 16 hour bus ride - God bless the Wright brothers) we landed in Cartagena and strolled out the airport into the Caribbean humid heat. We caught a taxi into town with a very chatty taxi driver and checked into a hostel in the Old Town. The Old Town of Cartagena has changed very little from the days of Spanish Imperialism and swash- buckling pirates and being there felt a little like being in a Monkey Island game/Pirates of the Caribean movie.

As the afternoon was drawing to a close we took a stroll along the old city walls (built by the Spanish to keep the swash-buckling pirates out!) to catch the sunset over the sea. The defensive walls still have some old cannons on them so I took full advantage for a "pretend the cannon is your willy pose"!

The sunset was very picturesque and at this moment we decided we were going to really like Cartagena. We also noticed the rather swanky Cafe Del Mar situated on the corner of the city walls and vowed to return for a sunset cocktail the next day...

The next day we hit the city beach for some chilling, sunshine and a couple of dips in the warmest sea either of us had ever encountered - we left the camera at home as we didn´t want the hassle of valuable stuff on the beach. In the evening we headed back to the Cafe Del Mar to splurge some cash on a cocktail... but we were stopped in our tracks by a huge thunderstorm and some of the heaviest rain we´ve ever seen. This photo was taken just before the rain really came down and turned the streets into rivers. We were caught out in it long enough to become completely soaked and decided to just keep walking back to the hostel rather than take cover. This was a decision we would come to regret as it meant the camera in my pocket (that had died and been ressurected once already) got soaked and packed up working again!

By the morning the camera had dried and then once more rose from the dead. We hit the beach again and then this time sucessfully made it to Cafe Del Mar for cocktails and a rather cloudy sunset.

We sipped our cocktails as the sun went down until it was dark and then took in the lights of the new town.

The next morning our plan was to head to Playa Blanca, a paradise beach only 45 minutes boat ride from Cartagena. Rather than taking the expensive and slow tourist boat, we had read about being able to take the cheaper and quicker local’s boat from the market. We headed down to the market at 8am as we had been instructed to do and quickly found a captain who was willing to take us for a reasonable price. He asked us to sit on the boat out of the way as they would also be loading peoples’ purchases onto the boat. We took our places and waited for the local people who were currently at the market to come back from their shopping trip for their return journey...

Two hours later we backed out of the smelly ramshackle harbour! The boat was now so loaded with cargo and people we feared we might sink but this didn't stop "The Pirates" (as we later dubbed the boat’s crew) from absolutely gunning it in the dual engined speedboat we were all crammed into. At one point a piece of cargo went flying off the back of the boat and we had to circle round to pick it up out of the sea. The journey was indeed fast, taking only 30 minutes, and we felt the whole time like we were in a drug dealers’ speed boat on Miami Vice!

Playa Blanca was as paradisical as predicted but unfortunately when we landed on the beach our tempermental camera decided to stop working AGAIN! So here is a stock photo we stole off the Internet. We did a lot of sunbathing, ate some incredible fish and swam around in the turquoise sea.

We had opted to stay in two hammocks at the El Paradiso beach huts. As there is no electricity we climbed into them around 9pm and attempted to get comfortable even though the mosquito nets over the hammocks were flapping in the breeze, but we soon drifted off to sleep. At around 11pm we both woke up as it had began to blow a gale; we were swaying from side to side and the mosquito nets were now flapping around wildly and whipping us in the face - there was no chance of sleep. After a short discussion about what we were going to do we decided to abandon the hammocks and head for a beach hut we had seen with its door unlocked. Arriving at the beach hut we found the door had been locked... but there was a window that was open so we climbed in that and saw the rest of the night out on the bed inside. About an hour later a huge thunderstorm rolled in and there was another torrential downpour - sneaking into the beach hut was a genius call!

In the morning, after climbing out of bed, out of the window and walking straight into the sea for a swim we owned up to El Paradiso's owner that we had sneaked into the unused hut in the night. He was kind enough to not charge us more but suggested we could "leave him some love" when we settled our bill which we duely did.

We caught a more civilised boat back to Cartagena that afternoon and checked back into the same hostel for the night before catching a bus to Santa Marta the following day. At some point in the evening, as we had almost given up hope on the Jesus camera, it sprang back to life. Here is my suprised face we used to test that it was fully working again...

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Science equals fun in Medellin

After a relatively short (but not entirely painless) bus ride we arrived in Medellin, possibly Colombia’s most notorious city. Medellin used to be the murder capital of the world run by Pablo Escobar, a ruthless drug lord. He was rumoured to be so rich that he would pay his men $1000 for every policeman they shot dead! Unforunately for Escobar he got his comeuppance when he was gunned down by the Colombian Police on a rooftop in the middle of the city in 1993. But these days you would never know of the city’s troubled past and Medellin is a thriving place full of new plazas, green spaces and modern architecture. Medellin is also said to be the home of the world’s most beautiful women, and whilst this can’t be proven we can testify that women here are definitely better looking on average than in most countries!

As we are approaching the end of our trip and our bank cards are being increasingly squeezed we decided to center our time in Medellin around free activities. So first up was the Botanical Gardens where we found this massive tree, and Sam decided to pretend he was a monkey.

There was also a cool water feature which consisted of a number of fountains on the floor which went off in a random order, thus soaking many a tourist and making us laugh for about 15 minutes. Next to that was a steamy water walkway, which was super refreshing in the Medellin heat.

Then the budget went out the window as we spotted the Explorer Park, which is essentially a massive museum combining Colombian versions of the Sealife Centre, Granada Studios, and Eureka (for anyone further South than Sheffield, that’s a science museum in Halifax!). Upon entering the Park we were greeted by some magic mirrors, one of which made us look truly like hobbits. Hahahaha!

On the ground floor of the Park there were loads of cool water and physics experiments, that we spent ages messing around with. We are 27, honest!

We went on a ride experiment that span around quite fast and made Lau feel sick for the next hour like a drunk teenager at a fairground.

The next three floors were packed with things to see and do. Sam got slightly overcompetitive in the body section and made many small children wait whilst he tried to get his vertical jump PB.

The Park also had loads of interesting displays, one of which involved wearing a vision distorting helmet and trying to kick a fotball. Hilarious. There was also this freaky sculpture which shows which areas of the human body are the most sensitive.

We must have wasted a good four hours in this place. Got our money’s worth though! The next day it was time to go so we headed to the airport to catch our first flight in South America to Cartagena! Exciting!

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Mega Coffee in Manizales

After a couple of rough days on sat on various buses winding their way through the Andes of South Colombia we finally arrived in Manizales, our first stop of significance in the final country of our trip. Manizales boasts six (!) universities but what its really famous for is being in the heart of the coffee region of Colombia and we were here to visit a plantation. Our hostel offered a trip to the local Venecia plantation so we went for it!

Our tour started with an in depth explaination of the coffee industry in Colombia, how it is structured and how the country ensures that only the best quality coffee is exported around the world, thus giving Colombian coffee a great reputation. It was very interesting and fairly complicated but basically if you look for the little-bloke-with-a-donkey logo you're onto a winner!

After our first espresso of the day we set off to look around the plantation. Our first stop was in the coffee bushes where we were asked to all pick some coffee beans. In Colombia they are ripe once they have turned from green to red or yellow. Because of the climate, it's one of the few countries in the world that produces coffee all year around. However it also means that the beans must always be picked by hand because they are all at different stages of ripening!

From the fields we headed up to the processing machines. Here the first step is to de-skin the beans. We used this hand operated machine but obviously this done by huge machines on a massive scale in industry. The skins are then used as compost to grow more plants - smart eh?!

The beans are then dried in these massive hair-drier/cake-mixer machines before dropping out the bottom...

Where this guy shovels them into a pile that is then sucked down a pipe and fired up into a storage area. Lau and my business minds were tingling and we discussed that there could definitely be some efficency savings made at this point in the process. Then again, this bloke wouldn't have a job!

Finally the beans are dropped down another tube from the storage room and into sacks to be sold and shipped. The coffee plantations only sell dried coffee beans (with their second skins still on) to the coffee co-operatives of Columbia. They then organise the de-skinning and exporting of the beans around the world.

So this is how the beans look when they arrive in the US, Europe etc. They are transported unroasted so that the flavour and aroma aren't lost during transit.

Then roasters add the final touch to make coffee look, smell and feel like the coffee we know. We did some roasting on site as part of our tour and then enjoyed some more amazing coffee with our scrummy lunch.

After lunch we had time to relax in the beautiful grounds of the coffee plantation. Despite it threatening to have a thunderstorm it was still very warm so we both had a quick swim in the pool. There was also this chihuahua (hello Enriqua!) which Laura spent a lot of time snuggling!

All too soon it was time to head back to the hostel and crash and burn after our caffiene high!

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Storm Dodging and Some Futbol in Quito

After the previous day's eggcitement (that never gets old), we decided to go for a gentle stroll in the hills surrounding Quito. The weather was looking a little bit changeable, but nothing us Brits couldn't cope with! So we picked up a new international crew; two Americans this time, and headed for the Telepherico which whisked us up to 4,000m. This was the view from the top looking over the city...

....and towards where we were walking. Looks like Saddleworth Moor!

We walked along for a good couple of hours. The weather was really in and out and couldn't make up its mind so we had to keep on stopping to let the rain subside as Adam didn't have a jacket! Some of the clouds behind us were starting to turn an evil shade of dark grey and then we heard the crack of thunder. At this point we were pretty high up so here we are assuming the "lightning defence" position commonly known as squatting!

After umming and ahhing for a while about whether to carry on the decision was made for us when the thunderstorm came directly overhead and it started to hail! Naturally we all legged it back towards the Telepherico, which was all downhill so our knees paid the price the next day!

Last on our Quito hitlist was to go to a futbol game. We (mainly Sam) had been wanted to go to a game whilst in South America but not managed to get organised or be in the right city at the right time through our whole trip.

We managed to get tickets to a La Liga Quito game by asking the owner of the shop (a lady in her sixties) that was located under our hostel. She, in turn, called her regular taxi driver Omar who hooked up the tickets and offered to drive us to and from the game as well. Adam and Nicky (our American Quito buddies) also jumped in on the deal so we had a nice little crew to go to the stadium.

La Liga's stadium is called Casa Blanca (White House) and is seen a bit of a fortress with the team rarely being beaten at home. The game we went to see was vs Emelec, a team from Guayaquil currently sitting 3rd in the league, whilst La Liga were in 2nd position. It was set to be a great game. In the stadium the ultras were stood behind the goal at one end and created an awesome atmosphere with constant singing, chanting and bouncing. Disappointing there were no flares though!

The game played out at a quick pace with plenty of flair on show, much as you might expect Ecuadorian football to be, but it lacked a little polish compared to the European game.

Despite chances at both ends 85 minutes were played out at 0-0 and the crowd around us started to voice discontent. Then after a few quick passes through midfield the ball was played into a La Liga striker who took it down and smashed it into the net. The crowd went mental followed by some celebratory chanting!

After the final whistle there was just chance to pose with the crew for a quick photo before heading out the stadium to meet Omar and driving back into the Old Town to our hostel.

The next morning we had a bus booked to take us to the Columbian border where we would cross into the final country of our trip.

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El Presidente and the Equator in Quito

After leaving the jungle and jumping on another night bus we arrived in Quito "bright" and early on a Monday morning. We grabbed a taxi to Community Hostel (big up to these guys as they run one of the friendliest hostels we have stayed in and make amazing breakfasts!), dropped our bags and headed to the Presidential Palace to catch the changing of the guard which happens every Monday morning.

The guards looked pretty sharp in their uniforms and soon got stuck into the process of getting changed over but we were in for a suprise... much to the crowds delight El Presidente of Ecuador made an appearance on the balcony of the palace and gave everyone a nice wave. Queue the Ecuadorian national athem that a fat man stood behind us sang with such vigourr that both of us felt proud to be Ecuadorian by the end of it! The president is the man stood in the middle on the right if you were wondering...

The rest of the day we wandered around the old town and got a banging vegetarian set menu lunch for $2 thanks to the local hare krishnas.

The next day we jumped on the Trolé (Quito´s metro system) with an international crew of Brits, two Aussies and a German and headed out to the Carolina area of the city where we hit up the reptile house. We hadn´t come across any snakes in the jungle so figured this might make up for it. The reptile house was really interesting mainly due to the excellent staff who held a Q&A session with us at the end of the tour, answering all of our stupid questions about snakes and even letting us touch a Common Boa!

We strolled across the La Carolina park and found an amazing snake-run/bowl skatepark that was being put to good use by some locals.

Our next stop was the Museo Guayasamín. It contains the works of Oswaldo Guayasamín - one of Quito´s most celebrated artists. If I´m honest all the art seems kind of samey to me with little or no explaination about each piece and I was more impressed by the building it was housed in. Here is Laura looking confused by the whole experiance.

After the dissapointment of the art gallery, Mother Nature and the Quito skyline made up for it by providing us with a pretty sweet sunset that evening.

The following day we added a Canadian to our international crew and set our compasses for the Mitad de Mundo on the Equator (you see what I did there)!

There is a huge monument to mark the equator which was built before the invention of GPS and has since been proved to be 600m south of the actual middle of the equator. There is a line painted on the floor and a sign so everyone poses for photos despite knowing it is in the wrong place!

After strolling around the gardens surrounding the momument for an hour or so and getting a slightly wierd traditional lunch consiting of corn on the cob, big green beans and a big slice of cheese we headed to the Museo Solar Inti Nan where the real GPS certified line of 0˚00'00" is located. We had a little kiss whilst standing in different hemispheres to celebrate...

One of the cool things out this Solar Inti Nan is that you get to try out various experiments on the line. These included letting water out of a sink in each hemisphere to observe it spiralling in different directions and then draining straight down on the line itself (The Coriolis Effect) - I had heard this didn't acutally work because too many other forces affected the water but when we performed the experiment it seemed to work perfectly!

Another "eggsperiment" we tried out was to balance an egg on a nail in the middle of the 0˚00'00" line. Having never tried to do this in either hemisphere I wasn´t sure how hard it would be normally but it was pretty hard on the line. We both managed it after some frustrating moments and got a certificate of egg balancing (that will be framed alongside our degrees) for our efforts.

We headed back to our hostel proud to be egg balancers and to drink a couple of southern hemisphere beers.

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The jungle is massive: Part 2

We were woken on our second day in the jungle to the noise of heavy rain on the metal roof of our jungle hut. We thought it might be the roof making it sound worse than it was but when we looked outside this was the sight that confronted us.

Our guide informed us that we wouldn´t start our second walk into the forest until the rain stopped so we killed some time reading and Laura considered renaming the jungle...

After a couple of hours the rain eased off so we set off into the jungle to learn more about the plants, animals and birds and hopefully see some monkeys! The guide seemed to have taken a shine to Laura so she was picked to get her make up done and wear this lovely jungle crown.

We also found a tree that roots grew down from above the soil and looked like dicks! Hahaha!

As our quest continued into the depths of the forest we had to cross a small river using this sketchy bridge. Suprisingly, no-one fell in despite our guide throwing pieces of plant stem at me whilst I was wobbling across!

Our desination was this HUGE tree that was too big at its base to fit in a photograph. It is estimated that it is 500 to 600 years old and is consided to be sacred by local people. The tree is used by shaman in traditional rituals and spirits are believed to live in the cavernous spaces between the tops of the huge roots. The tree is thought to be so big because Pachamama rained on this spot more than others. It was an amazing sight!

On the walk back Pachamama blessed us for visiting the special tree by gifting us some bananas to eat. Mmmmm nature´s candy...

We arrived back at the huts, had another great lunch and then relaxed before our evening activities. The family who live in this area have an almost tame Toucan who hangs around the clearing most of the day. Lau and I played with and petted the toucan whilst enjoying the sunshine... not something you do every day! We named him Terry (standard).

Next up was some chocolate making. The Ecuadorian jungle is a big producer of cocoa beans, so it would be rude not to do something productive with them. First step in chocolate making is to roast your beans: A frying pan over a hot flame will do the trick. Let ´em get nice and charred... Then erase your fingerprints by crushing the beans out of their shells fresh out of the pan (ouch!). This is Lau´s pain face!

Then you need to mash the beans into a cocoa paste. You can use a traditional grinder, or you can use a blender. We went for the second option, but the blender did almost explode - not recommended! Once blended you cook the mix out with some milk and sugar.

Oh yea, homemade chocolate fondue!

As if that wasn´t enough excitement for one day, we headed out onto the lake for a bit of cayman spotting. We were just cruising along in the canoe when Juan, our guide, got a bit overexcited. He instructed the driver to go further towards the mangroves and next thing we knew he fell/dived into the lagoon. Pretty sure it was in the exact same spot where we were piranha fishing the previous day!! He then clambered aboard clutching this baby cayman. Gotta admire the man´s determination to please the punters!

Here´s Sam having a cuddle with the cayman. (Please note that no cayman were hurt during the course of this canoe ride.)

We were lucky enough to spot quite a few more caymans, including this bad boy who was about 4 metres long. Shhhiiiiiiiiiiit!

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The jungle is massive: Part 1

Our Jungle Tour had a bit of a shaky start. We had originally planned to book a tour in Misahualli; a small village on the edge of the jungle close to Tena. But when we arrived we couldn't find anywhere to stay that wasn't a)listed in the guide book but now shut down or b)crazy expensive. So... we turned around and headed straight back to Tena! 

Luckily our hostel was running a tour to the Limoncocha Reserve in the Amazon Bain leaving the next day, which is how we found ourselves on a very bumpy night bus into the jungle with our crazy white-water rafting guide (remember him?) and three French tourists.

Our guide woke us up at 4:30am to tell us that the bus had arrived so we stumbled off into pitch-blackness feeling rather drowsy and disorientated. Next thing we were getting into a wooden canoe to make our way across the lagoon to our jungle huts! The canoe ride was magical - all you could hear was frogs croaking and insects humming and the edge of the lagoon was lit up my millions of tiny fireflies. Unfortunately we couldn't get any pictures that did it justice :-(

When the sun came up we found ourselves in this rustic jungle hut. It was rough and ready but did the job perfectly for our three day stay. Falling asleep to the noises of the jungle every night was awesome!

After a decent breakfast we headed out on our first walk into the jungle. By ten in the morning it was already starting to feel really hot in the clearing of the camp so it was really nice to delve into the relative cool (alas more humid and with more mozzys) of the thick jungle.

The theme of the walk was to learn about the plants, animals and insects of the forest and how the local people used them for to produce medicines, dyes and building materials. One of out first finds was this little guy...

We learnt how to build a small hunting hideout out of the branches of one of the most common plants of the area. There is no way your prey would see you lurking in one of these bad boys.

We also saw some crazy plants like this liana that attaches itself high in host tree so it can get a share of the light and then grows it roots down to the ground in order to get water.

Lau also got to have a little go a being Jane whilst swinging on this vine which hanging from the canopy 40 meters over head.

In the afternoon, after a three course lunch, we headed back out onto the lagoon to spot some wildlife and try and catch some piranhas for dinner. We managed to spot loads of birds, including this eagle.

We also saw some really cute squirrel monkeys playing in the trees but they were moving too quickly to catch on camera. Lau managed to fall in a swamp and get her trousers wet, haha!

Then it was piranha fishing time! Juan, our guide, told us what we had to do - load up the hook with meat, wait til it bites, then yank it out.

This actually proved to be much harder than it sounds, and it turns out that we cannot tell the difference between a bite and a nibble! After an hour we had caught no piranhas, the French had caught no piranhas and Juan had caught five! At least we didn't lose to the French...

There's not much meat on a piranha, but they still make a tasty dinner...

Look at the jaws on that!

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Rafting with added hijinx in Tena

From Banos we travelled further east into the Amazon basin and towards the jungle. Our next stop was the town of Tena which as well as being a good jumping off point for heading into the jungle is also a really good white water rafting spot.

Before we went rafting we decided to have a look around the town. We'd heard about the Parque Amazonico on an island in the middle of the river running through the town centre so we went to check it out. Turned out that the bridge connecting the two banks of the river had been destroyed and replaced by this fella and his boat (note how the boat is nearly as wide as the river!).

We'd just reached the other side when this wild pig showed up, followed by a lady who worked at the park. She started yelling at the boatman to take us back to the other side because the pig was super dangerous (?! slight overreaction me thinks...).

What ensued could have been straight out of a comedy sketch. As we reached the other side and disembarked the boat, the pig swam acoss the river to reach us! What would have made sense would have been to get back in the boat and go back across, but we were blocked by the dangerous pig! After terrorising us all for about 5 minutes, he decided that he'd had enough and promptly headed off into town to go and eat some children or something....

Once we reached the Parque Amazonico we stumbled upon some animal enclosures. Laura got excited when she found one with some cute bunnies in it, until we spotted the boa constrictor lurking in the pond *sad face*.

We wandered around for a while looking at the other cool animals and plant life, including this huge and impressive tree.

Back across the river there was no sign of danger pig. Safe in the knowledge that we had avoided a pig attack we booked our white water rafting trip for the next day.

It turned out it was just the two of us for rafting so we saddled up in a pickup truck with a boat on the roof and headed for the river not really knowing how it would work. We've only ever seen pictures of white water rafting with six people in the boat!

Ignoring our concerns we kitted up and headed for the river. Apparently you can raft with only three in the boat (Sam, Lau and the guide) so after a quick saftey briefing (including the totally unnecessary information on what to do if the boat flips) we set off on the relativly mild class 3 river. Sam had his GoPro strapped to his helmet and set on photo mode as without the iPad we had no way to edit videos...

The top part of the river was quite easy going and we soon settled into the paddling rhythm under the instruction of our guide. We quickly realised that he was steering us into all biggest rapids as opposed to avoiding them which is what we thought he would be doing.

After about an hour we paddled to the side of the river and stopped at a lunch spot. Here our guide introduced us to some insects and plants and their various uses.

After lunch we jumped back in the boat and this is when the real fun began! Crossing many larger rapids we soon paddled down to a small whirl pool where with our "powerful paddling" for assistence our guide span us round so each side of the boat got wedged under the lip of the rapid completely soaking the person on that side of the boat and on a number of occasions filling it to the top with water!

Next, in a quieter part of the river, we were instructed to jump off the raft and into the river. We quickly floated along crossing under a road bridge before jumping back in before the next rapids.

Our guide was obviously having fun with us and now decided we should take turns to sit on the very front of the boat whilst navigating through a set of rapids. Laura soon fell back into the boat whilst Sam hung on a little longer before falling out the boat in the middle of some rapids and being saved by the saftey kayak.

With all our dicking about we had now been caught up by another raft full of French people. Cue splash fest!

On the next set of rapids it all went wrong! We headed into an especially big wave and the corner of the boat Sam was in dug in causing the boat to flip! Sam was tossed into the water coming up under the boat whilst Laura was flung through the air out of the high side of the boat! After the intital shock we remembered the safety advice and floated through the remaining rapids hanging onto the boat for dear life.

This is the last photo the Go Pro took as we crashed! I'm not sure what's going on but there is a lot of water involved.

We sailed along briefly on the bottom of the boat before flipping it back over to continue.

Flipping the boat didn't seem to discourage our guy and after hitting a few rapids normally he challenged us to do the next set standing up.

We passed this test with flying colours and after a few more minor sets of rapids and a lengthy calm section of the river we made it to the final landing point safely and glad to be alive.

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Stressing and destressing in Baños

Getting from Peru to Ecuador proved to be a bit of a hassle! As we were about to leave our hostel in Huanchaco we were warned of a fishermen´s strike at the border which was stopped people crossing, but we already had our bus ticket booked for the border town so we decided to go anyway. We jumped on the bus overnight and by 9am the next morning we had an onward ticket to take us across the border (apparently this was "no problemo" that day) and on to Baños, Ecuador.

After a lazy breakfast and lunch we returned to the ticket office at 3pm to catch our bus, where we bumped into Andrew who we last saw in Lima! Turns out he was attempting to do the same journey as us. We were soon joined by around 12 other passangers and much to our dismay no bus turned up but a people carrier designed for ten people did! We all had to cram in with four people in each row and Laura sitting on my knee! Sadly the camera had run out of battery at this point so there is no photo. The journey to the border took 1 hour and 40 minutes and soon we were strolling hobbling into the immigration office. There was absolutley no sign of the strike or any blockades after all!

Next it was off to the Ecuadorian border town of Huaquillas to get on a real bus to Baños. This bus was another overnight bus so that made two nights in a row sleeping on buses for us! At some point during the night someone managed to reach under my seat, unzip my bag and steal our iPad and camera out of it. When we discovered the theft we were understandable gutted and angry but now we have had a few days to calm down we are just thankful we have insurance and that the theft was stealthy rather than scary or violent. However, this does mean that our primary blogging tool is gone so we are now relying on hostel computers to write our posts.

Anyway, on to Baños. Baños was great and we stayed in a a fantastic hostel there that had its own health spa, including steam baths. In order to destress from our ordeal we decided to give it a go and when it was only $4 for an hour there was really no excuse. When we entered the steam bath room we were rather surprised to see some wooden chambers that resembled some kind of medieval punishment, wasn´t this supposed to be a relaxing experience?! Turns out that the wooden box is fitted with a seat and packed with ecalyptus leaves. Steam is pumped into the box and you are "locked" in so that only your head is visible and you can gain maximum benefit from the steam. Andrew seems happy but Laura doesn´t look so convinced....

Once we were nice and hot from all the steam, our man from the hostel unlocked us one by one and instructed us to rub ourselves all over with a freezing cold wet towel! Cue much squealing from the boys. Then after another steaming session we had to repeat the towel torture and then pour the whole bowl of water over our heads. I was starting to think that the guy from the hostel was a bit twisted....

Back in the box we were trying to relax but couldn´t help thinking "what next?". Then we noticed the small bath-tub filled up with freezing cold water. Our fears were confirmed when he made us sit in it and splash ourselves! In a weird way the cold water treatment was starting to feel really good.

The finale involved being sprayed down with a pressure hose of cold water all over, including armpits and soles of feet. It was the strangest sensation - pain, pleasure and tickliness all in one (Ooh-er, it´s all got a bit 50 shades..... better move on!). But afterwards we all agreed that we felt epic!

Whilst in Baños we found an amazing cafe specialising in vegetarian food offering a set lunch consisting of soup, main, dessert and fresh juice for $3.25. That is not a typo. The only problem was that we couldn´t understand the set menu, but we decided to go for it anyway. When the food came we were so glad we did. Starter was this beetroot and cumin soup *drools*!

Main was chickpea and spinach curry!!!

Dessert was fruit salad. Ate it too quick to grab a photo, oops! And we still didn´t figure out what the juice was but it tasted goooood. The place was called Cafe Hood, so hit it up if you´re ever in Baños!

The next day we decided to go for a stroll to make up for eating too much good food and drinking too much beer (I blame Andrew because he´s not here to defend himself). We´d heard about a short, fairly easy trek to a viewpoint overlooking the whole town which fit the bill nicely. However once we got onto the trail we realised that somone´s definition of "fairly easy" is just plain wrong: The path was relentlessly steep for 90% of the way up and with the heat and tropical climate the Lares Trek seems like a piece of piss.

It was worth it once we arrived at the top and were rewarded with this view of the town. Looks kind of like Morzine, no?

On the way back to the hostel we passed a dude twisting some weird stuff from a hook in a shop. Turns out it´s taffy, a local speciality made from sugar cane. Of course we purchased some. It may be quite possibly the sweetest, most chewy substance on the planet, but it tastes pretty good!

Next stop: Da jungle!!

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Surf's Up in Huanchaco

We went to Huanchaco with the plan of staying three or four days but it was so nice we ended up staying for a week! It is a fairly sleepy surf town that stakes a claim to being where surfing was invented and turned out to be right up our street. Another pull to stay was that we found a really nice hostel, McCallums, that was run by a lovely couple and was really good value for money. Our main reason for coming to Huanchaco was to try to learn to surf so that is what we set about doing. We found a great surf school (again, really cheap) and had three lessons in five days with Diego, a young local surfer who also fancied himself as a bit of a ladies man. This meant that Laura got a lot of the attention which was ok as she struggled to paddle out, lacking the famous guns that Sam is packing! Haha! There aren't any photos of us in the water during our lessons (for obvious reasons) but you'll have to believe us that we both did pretty well, managing to stand up and ride some waves in towards shore. After each two hour lesson we had to go for a lie down (and maybe a nap) to recover... Surfing is no joke! Whilst not surfing we generally lazed around on the beach, working on mission tanno and watching the good surfers on the bigger breaks on the other side of the pier to where we were learning. The sunsets on that beach were pretty special too! On one day we also made the relatively short walk out of town to what is effectively a slum village just inland from Huanchaco. Some of the other guests in our hostel were volunteers for a charity that is working there to improve kids' lives. They recently built a skate ramp and some other facilities so naturally Sam was interested to see it. Most of the families in this village don't have running water, a proper toilet, electricity or enough money to feed themselves properly and it seemed a huge contrast to the lives people were living by the coast only 2.5km away! Before leaving Huanchaco Sam decided he wanted a to have another surf session which Laura decided to skip. This meant she could play photographer on the beach which provided this evidence of a slightly blurry photograph of a man (that may or may not be Sam) looking sketchy on a wave! Proof of surfing progress! Laura also managed to sneak in a Lemon Meringue Pie with the most inflated meringue you've ever seen!  The week flew by and before we knew it it was time to head to Ecuador. Peru you've been fantastico!

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Liking Lima...

To be honest, we weren't looking forward to Lima. Every person we met who'd been there was keen to share stories of "how grim it is" and how "there's nothing to do". We prepared ourselves for the worst and planned to spend no more than one or two nights there. Turns out there's no accounting for taste: Lima is lovely. And if the haters think Lima is grim, they need to see Grand Central in Stockport on a Saturday night!  We stayed at the Pariwana Hostel in the Miraflores area, since we'd stayed at the Pariwana in Cusco and rated it. It didn't disappoint and right outside the hostel was a super nice park which, to Laura's delight, was home to hundreds of friendly kitties!! Cue much time spent cuddling cats.... When we finally managed to drag ourselves away (ok yes, we did go back several times!), we headed down to the seafront. There was a rather nice shopping and restaurant complex that was way out of our budget, but we wandered around for a while pretending that we could afford it! Afterwards we wandered along the cliff top checking out the beach and the surfers below.   Shortly we came across the Lovers' Park, a really nice spot with loads of cool mosaic creations perfect for goofing around. There were also loads of guys paragliding off the cliffs. Oh, and we saw someone who had fallen off a cliff being rescued. Drama drama drama! The next day (after cuddling more cats!) we decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch. We'd been dying to try some more authentic Peruvian cuisine so we headed to the famous Punto Azul restaurant to try some ceviche. For those in the dark ceviche is raw fish or seafood which has been marinated in lime juice and spices thus slightly cooking the fish. And it's effin' AMAZING!  Lau didn't want to order the same thing, so went for a Jalea which is a massive heap of fresh fried seafood. Nyom!  Peruvian food has without a doubt been the best of the South American countries we've visited so far. Ecuador and Colombia , step up! A day of chillaxing and soaking up the atmosphere ensued. All in all, we had a great time in this city and were once again reminded that we need to take opinions with a pinch of salt.... The next, and last, stop in Peru is Huanchaco where we will attempt to surf. Wish us luck! 

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Fun in the dunes in Huacachina

After our adventures in the Lares and Sacred Valley we needed a bit of R&R and what better place to have it than Huacachina - a desert oasis 16 hours towards the coast from Lima. Upon arriving we checked into a hostel with a pool only to be told the it was out of order but we could use one in the hostel next door which we duly did, soaking up the sun and chilling out all day. At sunset we climbed up to the top of the huge sand dunes that surround the town and oasis lake and took in the sun set. That evening, whilst out getting dinner we found a hostel that a girl in Cusco had recommended to us and it turned out to be under half the price of ours, but sadly with no pool. A plan was quickly made to switch hostels but continue to use the pool at the neighbouring hostel as no one had questioned who we were or why we were there! The plan worked wonderfully and we chilled at the same pool everyday we were in town, loving our shady gypsy style but being sure to buy some drinks and lunch at the pool bar to ward off the creeping guilt! The other thing we did whilst in Huacachina was go dune buggying and sandboarding (which turned mainly into sandsledging) and it was amazing! The dune buggies have a touch of Mad Max to them and kick out some incredibly load engine noise. They hammered round the sand dunes at a rate of knots skidding round the corners and bumping over the tops of dunes, kind of like a freestyle rollercoster. We stopped shortly on top of a dune to take in the landscape for some photographs before heading off to try some sandboarding. In reality sandboarding quickly turned into sandsledging as standing up on the rigid wooden boards with velcro straps was almost impossible and a quick way to end up with a face/mouth/eyes/ears/lungs full of sand! Also lying down meant we were allowed to go from the top of much bigger dunes so we spent the next hour with our buggy driver razzing to the top of increasingly huge dunes and letting us slide down to the bottom.  There are no photos of the sandsledging but it features at the end of the video below. The Go Pro ran out of battery half way through our fun (I had forgotten to to charge it after WMDR) and we hadn't taken the normal camera for fear of getting sand in it. The whole experience was awesome and we even considered doing it again the next day... 

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Trekking the Lares Valley to Machu Picchu (part 2)

Having broken the back of our trek in the first two days our final day was an easy stroll downhill, well it would have been if the surface hadn't been a blanket of small loose rocks perfectly sized, shaped and positioned to shift under your foot and twist your ankle at any second! We made it through unscathed but not without a couple of stumbles especially from Sam with his ankles of dust. After another early but delicious breakfast we quickly descended out of the relatively barren landscape of 3000m+ and into the start of the jungle.  The plant life was thick and varied but we particularly liked this tree and it's twisting branches. Before we had realised it we had covered our hiking distance for the day and arrived at our final lunch stop where the magician/chef presented us with some more amazing food including these beautiful and pretty spicy stuffed chilli peppers. Our afternoon was spent exploring the town of Ollantaytambo and it's remaining Inca walls. We had decided we would get a beer as a reward for finishing our trek but whilst looking for an open bar we walked past an ice cream shop and that became our treat instead!  Soon we met back up with the rest of our trekking group and headed to the train station to catch our Peru Rail train to Aguas Calientes which sits in the valley below Machu Picchu. The train ride through The Sacred Valley was incredible but it was very hard to get any decent photographs through the train windows so we'll have to leave that to your imagination (or visit). Think the excitement of Alton Towers monorail including theme music but through jungle environment set in a hugely steep and deep valley. We passed many Inca ruins and cruised past the famous section of the Inca trail that leads to Machu Picchu. In the early evening we arrived in Aguas Calientes and checked into our hostel for a well earned hot shower (heavenly!) followed by some dinner and an early night. We had to be up at 4.30 in the morning to catch one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu.... By 6am we were on a full bus up to Machu Picchu and the sun was just starting to come up. After a short drive up into the stunning mist filled valley we arrived at Machu Picchu, along with a good few hundred other tourists. It was really surreal to be waiting in line with so many other people, when we had hardly seen a soul other than our trekking group and porters for the past three days!  Luckily the line moved quickly and we were soon through the ticket gates and into the ruins. Once in the crowds dispersed pretty quickly and we were greeted with this classic sight straight off the front of a postcard. Having seen so many photos of this place and heard so many stories, actually being at Machu Picchu is a really surreal experience because it almost feels like you've been there before! Yet in other ways MP is quite different to what I expected: For a start the site is much bigger than I thought it would be; the part you see in the photo above is just a small part of the whole place.  There are agricultural sections, religious sections, living quarters, a quarry, guardhouse and much more.... Also, the Incas are so friggin' clever and put so much thought into building every aspect of Machu Picchu. From designing the temple windows to coincide with the rising of the sun on the summer and winter solecists... ...to carving a polishing a stone that acts as a compass - we even had the iPhone app to prove it! They also created shallow pools for viewing the night sky and the constellations. And there are so many more aspects of Machu Picchu that demonstrate the Incas' painstaking care and attention to detail. For example, each stone for the walls of the ceremonial buildings took 3 months to cut and carve so that it would fit exactly into the wall with no cement.  All too soon our guided tour by Rojo was over and we were free to explore the rest of the site on our own, but not before one last group pic. We had bought tickets to climb up Machu Picchu Mountain which sits opposite Huayna Picchu; the big mountain that looks over the site in all the classic shots. It's supposed to take a good couple of hours to climb but you are rewarded with amazing views over the site - we were feeling quite ambitious when we booked the tickets. Unfortunately on the day the mist was quite reluctant to clear and we didn't even get to see Machu Picchu Mountain, let alone climb it! We didn't mind too much though as we were pretty tired after three days solid trekking.  Instead we opted for a leisurely stroll to the Inca Bridge, which proved to be quite challenging for Lau as the path had a sheer drop into the valley below for 90 percent of the way! It was worth it when we got there though and were greeted with this. Somehow those clever buggers had managed to carve the bridge into this serious cliff, but had also had the sense to leave the middle section unbuilt and use wood when required, so that any unwanted visitors would not be able to reach the site. Pretty smart.  On our way back towards the main site we came across this not so little fella to remind us that we were well and truly in the jungle. Creepy!  Some American tourist also claimed that he heard/saw a Spectacled Bear. Hmmm....... Before heading back to the bus we also walked 40 minutes up to the Sun Gate. This area of the Machu Picchu site is positioned on one of the surrounding ridge lines so that the sun rises and shines through it ever winter solstice. As we walked up the path the clouds rolled in and out numerous times but as we arrived at the gate we were lucky enough to have a window to look down and see the main city site in all it's glory. We caught a bus, train, bus combo that afternoon and as evening drew in we arrived back in Cusco to relax and digest the past few days. Machu Picchu had been impressive but it was the Lares trek that blown both of us away - it was definitely a highlight of our trip!

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Trekking the Lares Valley to Machu Picchu (part 1)

Restrictions only allow 500 per day to walk along the official Inca trail to Machu Picchu and it gets booked up months in advance. As we didn't know when we would be arriving in Peru, let alone Cusco we decided not to try and book that route for a specific date and instead book one of the alternative treks to 'The Lost City of the Incas' once we arrived. We opted for the Lares Trek; a four day, three night hike through the Lares valley taking in 5000m mountain peaks, lakes and the remote lifestyle of the farming communities who populate that area. We booked our tour with a company called SAS who seemed pretty organised and good value for money. They turned out to be excellent in every aspect and we would defo recommend them to others. After a 5am start we drove for three hours and after a short stop at a market for last minute provisions we arrived at the starting point of our trek. As we drove away from Cusco the weather gradually closed in and by the time we arrived in the hamlet of Quishuarani it was looking pretty misty and raining - similar to a Britsh summer day! After a quick breakfast we headed out into the mist and climbed up a small valley away from Quishuarani and into the wilderness. As we started to ascend our guide Rojo administered our whole group (consisting of a couple from New York, two ladies originally from Korea who also now lived in New York and a Swiss-man) some agua de florida (aka condor wee!) which opens your lungs and makes it easier to breathe. He also showed us how to correctly consume coca leaves which proved to be massively more effective than just chewing them which we had previous done in Bolivia! We soon passed our first lake which is apparently a beautiful blue colour when the sun is shining but it looked pretty grey that day! The going was pretty tough due to combination of the altitude, weather and thin, rough and steep paths but we slowly made our way up to our first pass at 4200m. Sadly the view was obscured by the mist but we still felt a nice sense of achievement at the top despite it was blowing a gale and pissing down. We moved on fairly quickly! From there it was down hill for a couple of hours to our lunch stop. We passed some amazing scenery, some abodes of local farmers and their herds of llamas, alpacas and sheep but the highlight was this brilliant waterfall. Lunch was our first taste of what turned out to consistently fantastic catering on the trip. It is amazing what the porters and chef turn out considering that it is all done in a tiny tent and every ingredient and piece of equipment must be lugged along the whole route... but more on that later.  After lunch the rain stopped, going was much easier and within a couple of hours we were closing in on our first night's camp site by a bubbling river and out of the wind: Not a bad spot to camp. After a brilliant dinner we spent a few minutes taking in the night sky before turning in for a well deserved nights sleep. The next morning we were awoken at 5:30am by one of the porters bringing us a cup of fresh coca tea and a bowl of hot water to wash our faces. This really is 'glamping'! We were relieved to see that the skies had cleared and it looked like we were in for a fine day's hiking.  With no need to pack up our tent or sleeping bags (the porters take care of that too), we felt completely redundant so we resigned ourselves to getting some breakfast. I nearly fell off my camping stool when the chef brought out a cake. How the hell did he make a cake with no oven?! Let alone in such remote conditions.... The support team are magicians. By 6:30am we had set off. Day two is the longest day of the hike with 17km to cover and an ascent (and descent) of 1200m to tackle. Good job we had cake for breakfast!  Shortly after setting off we came along a section of Inca Trail. There are many original trails built by the Incas that run through the valleys surrounding Cusco, all connecting different parts of the Inca Empire. This one ran between the Lares Valley and the jungle.  A couple of hours hiking brought us to the village of Wakawasi, which is home to a couple of thousand inhabitants all living a lifestyle that unbelievably is relatively unchanged since the Inca times;  growing potatoes and keeping livestock, trading excess produce at the market where possible. We were fortunate enough to arrive on Market Day and so got to see some trading going down.  We all brought school materials for the children as they don't have easy access to these things. As we exited the village we heard giggling and chattering 300m vertically above us, where we caught sight of two little girls running down the mountainside to come and greet us. They were rewarded with coloured pencils and seemed pretty pleased. We continued to climb steadily out of the village towards what looked like Mordor, but Rojo assured us this was actually the Aurora Pass that we would be crossing at 4700m. Quite a feat for Hobbits! After about 5 hours hiking uphill, including a much needed lunch stop, we finally made it to the top and we rewarded with a clear view of this beauty!  It was so stunning and peaceful that the view almost looked photoshopped. Rojo suggested that we all make an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth in Quechua) so we offered up some coca leaves - apparently she's quite a fan! So led by Rojo we held a little ceremony and then built a tower to house our offering.  Then the main man busted out some panpipes and treated us to a private concert, only slightly enhanced by the valley's incredible natural acoustics!  The Aurora Pass also marked our last ascent of the trek which was an awesome feeling. So we were more than happy to start our descent towards camp knowing that it was all downhill from there, literally!  After a couple of hours we took a break by some beautiful trees, and tucked into this disgusting looking fruit that is actually a relative of passion fruit and tastes beautiful!  The final part of our descent crossed more lush lakes and gorgeous waterfalls before stumbling upon this incredible sight: Our campsite with tents all set up for us!! Lau said she'll go camping with Sam more often if it's like this...  Hhmm. After "happy hour" (seemingly unlimited tea, coffee, hot chocolate, popcorn and biscuits!) and another satisfying dinner we hit the hay for a solid, if a little chilly at 3900m, nights sleep but not before warming ourselves by the roaring camp fire we had built. Continued in part 2...

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Recovering from evil empanadas in Cusco

Empanadas are evil. Fact.  Before jumping on the night bus to Cusco, we decided to grab a quick cheese empanada in Arequipa. I also decided to go for a safety wee in the staff toilet at the cafe where I discovered that there was no sink. That was when I knew that there may be trouble ahead. Cue a 10 hour bus journey involving me trying my best not to spew and Sam trying his best not to shit himself.  By the time we arrived in Cusco we were traumatised and in desperate need of a private bathroom. We checked into the Pariwana Hostel where we spent the next 24 hours recovering. Who says travelling ain't all fun? ;-) The next day we felt well enough to have a little look around the city. Cusco  is definitely one of the most touristy cities we have visited on our travels, however it is also one of the prettiest. It was the old Inca capital and is also full of beautiful colonial buildings, cute plazas and women in traditional dress holding baby goats who charge you to take a photo. We snuck one from behind, if you look carefully you can see the goat's ear (we're on a tight budget....)! We stumbled across this old Inca wall, which was built without any kind of cement or glue; instead the stones are carved and polished to fit together perfectly. Impressive. Much less impressive was the massively overhyped 12 sided stone. It's a stone with 12 sides. That's it. We also found ourselves in a cute ice cream shop where we consumed one of the best ice creams ever - chocolate and peanut butter flavour. NYOM! For our weekly dose of culture we visited an old Inca temple; Koricancha. At the height of the Inca empire this place was apparently paved with gold, but when the Spanish discovered it they looted all its treasures.  It was pretty interesting but we were distracted by the amount of tourists taking ridiculously posed photographs. Here are our recreations. There was also an "art exhibition" where some dude had stacked up bottles of Inca Cola (a favourite soft drink of the Peruivans which is the most sickly substance ever created) on the walls, claiming it represented the gold that used to be within the temple. Seriously?! Whilst in Cusco we also booked our trek to Machu Picchu. As we hadn't got our arses in gear and booked the official Inca Trail we opted for the Lares Trek; a 4 day/3 night hike that looked promising....