TravelStream™ news feed for member dagstar on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dagstar en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:40:59 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1206726660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1206726660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1206726660/tpod.html Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:40:59 -0500 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Sevenoaks, United Kingdom

Dave walked out of work today, feeling good. Looking forward to Wednesday 2nd when we fly out.

Keep an eye on this over the next 4 months for regular updates and photos.

Take care peeps...

Dave and Lou
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216404720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216404720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216404720/tpod.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:31:27 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Quito, Ecuador

As our travels finally draw to an end, I am writing the final part of the Little Things Series. Below are some things we have particularly noticed about Ecuador:

1) Hats. You may recall in Bolivia the women wear super-small bowler hats. Well, in Ecuador the men and the women wear more of a trilby-style hat with the added embelishment of a peacock feather. Very dashing.

2) Sports. Amongst other sports, the Ecuadorians are particularly keen on volley ball, and apparently have their very own version which includes being able to touch the ball as many times as they wish. We have even seen it being played by a very competitive group of locals in a cloud (see photo)!

3) Agriculture. Out of all the South American countries we have visited, there appears to be more agriculture in the refreshingly green Ecuador, with all the hills filled with hand-sown patchwork fields. Most families in the countryside also seem to have chickens, pigs and some livestock. The cows seem particularly nimble and we have seen evidence of them at the very top of moutains along tiny ridgeways.

4) Children Rule. In the Ecuadorian countryside, the children appear very very independent, and almost seem to run the show. For example, in shops we are often serviced by children who look no older than 14 years, children as young as 4 or 5 years can be found herding livestock, and young children are also seen hopping on and off the public buses.

5) Bus schedule, what bus schedule? There appears to be no rhyme or reason to the bus schedules in Ecuador. While in Quilotoa we asked about the bus to the next town and had 5 different responses (bearing in mind there was only meant to be a single bus going there): 12pm, 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm, 3pm, and no bus! In fact they have an amazing bus system, with buses leaving all the time in the city. We often turn up, have our bags grabbed by staff and plonked on the already moving bus, so we have to sprint and jump on. They also accept any type of cargo, including a dog tied to the top of the bus, and a goat tied in the cargo area!

6) Happy Women. The current president in Ecuador is Rafael Correa who is proving somewhat contraversal. Amongst other things he has disbanded Congress (although he is due to re-employ new members) and is making changes to the constitution. Ms Vela, a member of the ruling party, subsequently put forward the constitutional right for women to enjoy sex. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the male members have opposed this suggesting that she is trying to enact orgasms by law. Personally, I reckon they are just intimidated!

So thats about it folks. Our wonderful travels have finally come to an end, which is very sad, although we will also be seeing you all soon in the flesh which helps cheer us up. See you all soon. All our love Louise and Dave.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1217000160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1217000160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1217000160/tpod.html Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:28:01 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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The Galapagos, Ecuador

Below is a summary of our Galapagos trip, more for us as a reminder. We had such a great time, all the nature both above land and below sea was amazing. The boat is also great although the food and the snorkel gear both leave something to be desired, but this hasn´t marred a wonderful trip. Got some great photos, but unfortunately you will all have to await our return to see them, which isn´t long now. So below is a brief rundown:

Day 1. San Cristobal. Went to see El Junco, the largest fresh water lagoon in the Galapagos and saw sea lions lounging around the habour.

Day 2. Espanola. Went to Gardner Bay which is the perfect white beach with beautiful blue sea. It also had the added bonus of being frequented by many many sea lions who enjoyed sunbathing and rolling around in the breaking waves. We then had the opportunity to go snorkeling where we had the amazing highlight of playing with the sea lions who loved swimming within a couple of inches of our faces, nibbling on our flippers and doing underwater acrobatics with us.We also got to swim inside a cave, and saw a large school of hundreds of sardines, I then saw a sea lion swimming through the middle of the sardines after a puffer fish who puffed himself out in defense, amazing. In the afternoon, we went to Punta Suarez where we had to step over sleeping sea lions, navigate ourselves around hundreds of marine iguanas bathing in the sun, watch colourful crabs jumping around the rocks, saw Albatross's´ doing their funny courtship dance and take flight off the cliff, and we also go to see the Blue Footed Boobies and the sea shooting many meters into the air from a blow-hole. Not bad for an afternoons walk!

Day 3. Floreana. We went to Post Office Bay to see the oldest post office in the world. It is where the pirates and whalers used to leave post in the hope that other seafarers would hand deliver any post if they were going past the area. We also left a postcard there to see how long it would take to be hand-delivered by someone back to Sevenoaks. Louise then went snorkeling and swam with a couple of turtles, some eagle rays and even saw a shark, whilst Dave and the boys played football. We then returned to the boat, and happened to come across a group of humpback whales, and got some wonderful views really close up to these amazing animals. We then went snorkeling further out at Devils Crown which is a collection of volcanic pinnacles and saw some more tortoises and some white tip sharks down below us. We then finished the day by visiting Puna Cormorant which involved another bay where stingrays bath and a salt lagoon with bright pink flamingos.

Day 4. Isabela. We then visited a Turtle Centre, where we got so see some of the amazing giant tortoises. We also saw a little one (only about 7 years old, which is really young bearing in mind they can live up to 150 years) in the wild. We then went for another snorkel and got to swim with 3 amazing sea lions who just loved playing with each other and with us, they also rested by floating upside down past our faces. We also saw the tiny penguins who inhabit the area and who shot past us in the water like bullets.

Day 5. Santa Cruz. We started the day by visiting the Charles Darwin centre where we had another opportunity to get up close to the giant tortoises. We also got the privilege of seeing the famous Lonesome George, who is the last of his particular tortoise species from the Island of Pinta (all the others were killed by humans for meat and/or oil, as well as being killed by introduced animal species). For nearly 40 years they have unsuccessfully tried to get him to breed with some females and only 3 weeks ago one of the females produced some fertilized eggs. So Lonesome George may still have it in him! That afternoon most of our tourist group left (they were only on the 4 day tour), and we got a new batch, including two missionaries and a Maori internet ´reality star´ who was being filmed travelling around the world for 6 months. That afternoon we all visited the Highlands, which is the wetter fertile ground higher up on Santa Cruz, and saw some more of the the massive tortoises roaming around in the wild.

Day 6. North Seymour and Bartolome. On North Seymour island the main highlight for us was the Frigate birds which are large seabirds, and the male bird has a great big red chest pouch which he puffs out to attract a female. As well as puffing out his pouch he will also flap his wings to demonstrate their size and will make a drumming sound by bouncing his beak on his pouch. We also got to see more Blue-Footed Boobies (most of which were sitting on eggs or with chicks) and a few more marine iguanas. After that we then went to Bartolome. This is one of the younger GalapaGalapagosds and consequently does not have any real vegetation or animal life on, but it does provide amazing views of a volcanic landscape. We then sent snorkeling around a pinnacle in the bay and saw lots of sea life including more penguins, an octopus (spotted by Dave), a massive Sting Ray (which looked at least 6 ft in width), and a spotted Snake Eel.

Day 7. South Plaza and Santa Fe. There are two small islands called North Plaza and South Plaza which have been created by the pushing together of two ´plates´ in the Earths crust. South Plaza looked very different from any of the other islands we visited, and was covered in low level vegetation called Sesuvium which is yellow, green and orange in colour, there were also big cactus plants dotted around. This island holds a population of yellow Land Iguanas which were transferred there from another island when an airport was built. These iguanas just love the cactus fruits. We also saw another colony of sesea lionsand some Red Billed Tropic Birds which have very long white tails, and the Swallow Tailed Gull which have a distinctive red ring around its eye. We then visited Santa Fe, which hadidyllicc white beaches and crystal blue water. Once again this was enjoyed by another colony of sea lions, and we saw some more iguanas, although these ones were unique to this island alone and can grow up to 1metere in length. These particular iguanas loved to eat the yellow flowers which grew in the area. We then wentsnorkelingg again in the wonderful bay area, this time seeing a turtle and some more Eagle Rays. We once again got to play with a large group of enthusiasticsea lionn youngsters, although we also had to keep our eyes open for the massive malesea lionn who was keeping patrol. We then finished the morning by both jumping off the top of the boat.

Day 8. San Crisobal. This is the last day and we returned to San Cristobal which was where we started. This time we went to the Ínterpretation Centre´ which gave us some information about the Galagapos. We then went to town, brought ice creams and watched the sealions vying for position on a little sailboat moored up nearby. Then, very sadly, we went to the airport to leave. What a wonderful trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216502580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216502580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216502580/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:54:22 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Quito, Ecuador

A couple of hours outside Quito is an ecological reserve called Mindo. First we visited a butterfly farm. Needless to say it was full of butterflies some of which were massive. There was also an odd frog or two. We then went for a walk through some cloud forest, which we accessed by way of a rickerty metal ´box´ which whizzed along a wire hundreds of metres above the forest.

Finally we finished the day with a visit to the humming bird cafe, which for me was the highlight of the day. As we sat there we saw hummingbird after hummingbird jet-dive in to use the nector feeders. They are such amazing birds, they flap their wings between 15-80 times a second and can hover, fly vertically and laterally. Their metabolism is so high, at any given time they are only hours away from starving. I know how that feels, to survive I need regular cake and chocolate input. Lol.

The next day we visited Otavalo market which, according to the guide books, is an Ecuadorian highlight. Really it was just a big market for the tourists, so although we werent that impressed, we did manage to get some goodies for you lot. So remember to be especially nice to us when we return.

Off to Galapagos next.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216414440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216414440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1216414440/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:53:41 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Quito, Ecuador

Just half an hour or so outside Quito is Mital del Mundo, which means Middle of the Earth in Spanish. Here is the equator line. When you arrive it appears that the equator is marked by a big monument, however, this is a lie. This monument marks the equator as identified by Charles Marie de La Condamine in the early 1700s. In fact, the real equator lies a 200 m away, and is celebrated by the Museum Inta Nan (the indeginous word for the equator). At this museum you can do all these crazy experiments.

For example, did you know that at the equator line:
= you weigh less. You weight about 3.4 percent less at the equator than at either the North or the South Poles
= it is easier to balance an egg on the head of a nail (which Dave actually managed to do)
= it is harder to walk a straight line if you put your arms out horizontally to balance
= water drains out of a plug hole completely straight
= if you put your thumb and finger together in a circle, it is much easier for someone to prise them apart on the equator line.

After visiting the equator, we also got to see a shrunken head (find out the size of your shrunken head by looking at your fist), and then visited a crater called Pululahua Crater.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215967620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215967620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215967620/tpod.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:36:38 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Quilotoa, Ecuador

Continuing around the Quilotoa circuit, we arrived at the Quilotoa Crater. Quilotoa is a water-filled volcanic crater in the westernmost volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. The diameter of the crater 3 kilometres (2 miles) wide and was formed after the collapse of the volcano following a catastrophic eruption about 800 years ago. The last eruption was in 1785, and since then the crater has accumulated a 250m (820ft) deep lake which is greenish color as a result of dissolved minerals.

The Quilotoa Crater was so unexpectedly beautiful (it is barely mentioned in the guide book) that it took our breath away when we frist saw it, there was also hardly any tourists there which was an added bonus. Around the rim of the crater there were an amazing amount of flowers in blue, yellow, violet, white, orange and red, we also came across various locals grazing their llamas, horses and sheep. I managed to make it down to the bottom of the crater, although it was hell to climb back up. Unfortuantely, Dave feel ill with a horrible cold, and stayed in bed most of the time.

After Quilotoa we took a rather scary bus ride around the moutains to the next village called Chugchilan. Once again, Dave stayed in bed most of the time, although I managed a trek around the local ´grand canyon´.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215879720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215879720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215879720/tpod.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:11:53 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Zumbahua, Ecuador

Zumbahua is part of the so-called Quilotoa Circuit which is a loop of nine villages with beautiful scenery and the Quilotoa Crater. It us a total of nine days to complete.

The first village we stopped at was Zumbahua with an estimated population of a few hundred. On Saturday morning it has a well attended market just for the locals with no tourist souvenirs in sight. It was so colourful. There was a section for clothes, bread, meat, fruit, tailors and general nick knacks. Behind each of the meat stalls were some sheep tired up, and I joked that these were the fresh supplies. A little later another tourist then witnessed them killing a sheep as they had run out of meat. Now that is what you called fresh!

Having agreed a price we jumped on a pick-up truck to our next stop along with another 12 people and all their baggage. We felt like we were in a World Record attempt of how many people you could fit in a pick-up. Unfortunately it ended badly as the driver stopped half way round (after everyone else had left) and demanded more money off us. Talk about taking the mickey, Dave nearly hit him! But we got out, and eventually got another pick-up, although it did leave a bit of a sour taste in our mouths.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215705780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215705780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215705780/tpod.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:18:33 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Tena, Ecuador

Tena is north east of Banos and further towards the jungle, as evidenced by the beautiful scenary during our bus ride there. Our main aim of going to Tena was to go rafting again, and possible have another foray into the jungle. A guy from New Zealand who worked in the area as a translator gave us some recommendations and hooked us up with an agency who organised a taylor made tour for us to go rafting for one day, before spending a night in the jungle, and then having a second day on the river. Perfect... or so we thought!

We started to have doubts the next morning when the raft turned up, the worst raft we have EVER seen, covered in plasters and gaffer tape. But still the NZ guy reassured them this company was fine. We then had more doubts when we realised the guide spoke no English and did not cover all the commands we used before, but we thought this was because the river was only Grade 3, and not Grade 4 or 5 like in Peru. So we started and almost immediatly a leak sprung in the raft, and past of it disconnected, but now it was too late to go back. It soon became apparent that the guide had no idea about the river, and the safety kayak had a leak!! Then within 5 mins we lost a person overboard who was scarily stuck in a swell underwater for about 20 secs - we seriously thought we may lose him. Then 5 mins later, the whole raft flipped.

At this point, Dave got stuck in a swell under the rock and nearly lost consciousness from being underwater for so long. Luckily someone saw his hand sticking out of the water and pulled him out, possibly saving his life. As for me, I was swept off down the river and into the rapids. The raft passed me by, and I managed to clamber onto a rock in the middle of the rapids, to await the safety kayak, only to find out that the kayaker had given up, ditched the kayak and walked off. So there I stayed on the rock for the next 20 mins, with this poor fisherman trying to save me, although the guide eventually came back for me, after Dave insisted they stop (otherwise he wanted to continue?!). Needless to say we were rather traumatised and flatly refused to continue. We than cancelled the whole trip and demanded our money back (which took about 1/2 hour and a fair bit of shouting from yours truly).

So moral of the story, don´t necessarly go by the recommendation of others and make a rushed decision after an exhausting day on a bus. After nearly drowning we decided we didn´t really like Tena (it also rained all the time), and moved on the next day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215531000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215531000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215531000/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:21:33 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Banos, Ecuador

14 hours after leaving Vilcabamba, 2 taxi rides and a bus ride later, we arrived at Banos (meaning Baths), so called for all the hot springs around the area. It is also right at the base of the Tungurahua volcano. Tunguahua is an active volcano with its most recent eruption in 2006. Apparently you can see lava glowing and bubbling every night. So on our second night we got a lift with the local ´rave bus´, an old coverted cargo lorry complete with fairy lights, grafitti, and a stereo blasting out trance pop. However, all we saw that night were dense clouds obscuring our view and an Ecuadorian guitar player. We don´t seem to have much luck with volcanos! We also did not visit the baths as the weather was wet and they are chlorinated, which somehow takes away from the romance of it all.

But what we did manage to do was to hire a big ole quad bike for the two of us to visit all the local waterfall (including: Virgen de Agua Santa, Inés María, Agoyán, El Manto de la Novia, and Pailón del Diablo), as well as visiting Rio Verde (The Greeen River). The most impressive of all the waterfalls was the Pailon del Diablo (which mean Devils Cauldron). Unfortunatly the photos just don´t do it justice. The waterfall had a number of stages or steps where it cascaded into a secluded cave like area, before once again casading out again down a thin gully with overwhelming power.

But time is now short, so after just 2 night we now move on to Tena.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215281160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215281160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dagstar/1/1215281160/tpod.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:55:32 -0400 Dave and Louise South American trip.....

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Vilcabamba, Ecuador

Vilcabamba, a small village amoungst the moutains of Equador is like a little paradise. Having originally planned to only spend 2 or 3 days there, we stayed for a whole week. Surrounded by mountains and cloud forest, Vilcabamba is also famed for its fabled fountain of youth (although we knew at least one tourist who drank from it and got very ill!). We got our own private cabin with the most fantastic wide screen view of the moutains, from which we saw some lovely sunsets and the creation and death of a rainbow. During our time there we had an opportunity to do a number of walks, a horse ride (for L), a trek through the cloud forest of Podocarpus national park, a massage and a facial (also for L), and lots of partying, poole, and ping pong (mostly D). One of our best walks was up Mandango (the sleeping woman) moutain during which we had to walk along the very very narrow and very very high ridge, a bit scary but amazing 360 degree views. The cloud forest trek was also a bit crazy as we had an almost vertical climb for two hours under fallen tree trunks, across steams and past sheer drops to the top where there were lots of smalls bushes and flowers. I am also happy to report that Dave won the poole tournament )receving a bottle of rum for his efforts) and holds the record for potting 7 balls in four shots.

At Vilcabamba we also met some really interesting people, the most interesting of which was Thierry Posty, a 51-year-old French man who has been riding across the world by horse for the last 33 years. He has some crazy stories to tell (check him out on google if you want) and is completely unstoppable. He is also a psychologist working with children for the UN, so that when he returns home to ´rest´ and make some more money he is sent out to disaster zones and crises to sort things out.

So tomorrow (6th July) we leaves, and will be very sad, although we will endeavour to cheer ourselves up by finding more adventures up north.
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