TravelStream™ news feed for member iceice17 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/iceice17 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:36:21 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1216502940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1216502940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1216502940/tpod.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:36:21 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Antigua Guatemala, Western Highlands, Guatemala

My Central American adventure continued with a 6 hour bus ride through Belize and into Guatemala via an official border crossing in Belize where I had to pay 7 quid to leave Belize and got a receipt and a rather dodgy crossing in Guatemala where i had to pay a quid thirty to enter Guatemala but they refused to issue receipts for their border tax - hmnn, v.dodgy.  We arrived in the city of Flores mid afternoon and checked into our hostel called Los Amigoes which ended up being a really cool place, even though their menu was 100% vegetarian.  There isn't a great deal to Flores and didn't take long to walk round the entire place.  The main reason for going to Flores though was its easy access to Tikal (which we would pronounce wrongly as Tickle at every stage) and it's national park and Mayan ruins.  So the following morning I was up at 3 a.m. for the early morning sun rise tour.  The national park is in a jungle (not the official definition but it was jungle enough for me) and it was really eerie walking through the dark to the first temple as the howler monkeys were all out in force and shouting their heads of, which really did make it sound like dinosaurs were roaming the place.  We reached and climbed up the first temple to the view of dense fog, but we were assured by our tour guide Louis that the view was magnificent.  After 2 hours of hiking around the park and looking at a few other temples we arrived back at the first temple and climbed it again, and Louis was right the view was great with various other temples in the distance.  For the next few hours we walked around the rest of the park and its various other temples, spotting more wildlife including spider monkeys, coaties, ant-eaters and all sorts of bugs.  The Tikal temples were my last and final temples I'd see on this trip and these were different again from all the other temples I had seen previously due to its surroundings.  I now feel I don't need to see another ancient temple until the year 2017.The next day we'd take another 5 hour shuttle bus journey to get to the city of Coban, which was only livened up by a young girl who suffered from motion sickness and was sick out of the window while the bus was moving, and unfortunately for the guys behind her, their windows were open too and they got covered.  The driver was great and hammered the route even though their were what seemed like hundreds of speed bumps on the way.  This was something I'd noticed about Mexico and now Central America that their answer to speeding traffic was to put speed bumps literally everywhere - think the government missed a trick here, they could have made a fortune from speeding cameras like every other developed country.  Coban is a medium sized town and I define it as that because it has a McDonalds and a Dominoes Pizza.  The most popular pastime for blokes in Coban appears to be wazzing in the street, public toilets obviously isn't high on the local councils priorities.  Other than wazzing in public there isn't a great deal to do in Coban but once again it is a base city for if you want to go to other nearby places.  The main destination is some waterfalls and caves at Semuc Champey but I didn't fancy seeing more waterfalls so I opted for a tour of an organic coffee plantation instead.  And so I took an absolutely rammed collectivo (mini van packed with people) to the very small village of Chicoj where the plantation was.   The two main forms of public transport in Central America are the colectivo or the massive range of US school buses, I'm guessing at some stage the US has had a bit of a school bus garage sale and the Central Americans were first in attendence.  The van dropped me off at a place that was as dead as a doornail and I had a horrible feeling that after a 40 minute journey that the place was closed and I was stranded until the next unscheduled bus.  After about 5 minutes some bloke turned up on a motor bike just to inform me that the place opened up at 2pm and someone would be with me shortly, and then he disappeared again - very nice of someone to come up and tell me though.  In fact all the staff at the place were great when they eventually turned up and were really friendly.  The tour was really good for several reasons, one, I like my coffee so it was really interesting to see how it's made, even better to see how it's produced organically.  Two, midway through the tour there was a canopy ride, which consisted of 4 zip lines across the plantations and 2 lagoons.  I've always wanted to do a zip line ever since I watched the zip line at the end of the assault course on the Krypton Factor so this was like a mini dream come true (I'm easily pleased!).  And three, the whole tour was in Spanish, forcing me to understand and ask questions in Spanish which was great for my language skills which had started to wain a little since the English speaking Belize and American speaking Mexico.I ended the tour with some freshly fresh (like just picked fresh) brewed coffee and I gave a little marketing consultancy to the guy who owned the place.  On the colectivo on the way back my Spanish lessons continued as several of the people on board took a keen interest in who I was and where I came from - I made a mental note that I should do this kinda thing more often.  Next day we took another shuttle south, through Guatemala and onto the city of Antigua.  Antigua is another one of those colonial feel cities that I'd now got very familiar with.  The first night we spent getting very drunk with an Aussie girl who was a good laugh and insisted she could hold her beer better than us, even after obscure rushes to the toilet during the night.  Fair play to her though as she was up at 6am the next day to do the sunrise volcano tour, but we were cleverer and opted for the sunset version which didn't leave till 2pm and offering us sufficient hangover recovery time.  The Pacaya volcano tour was really good and consisted of us hiking for over an hour up the vegetative area at the bottom of the still active volcano, before actually reaching the volcano proper and climbing part of this.  The further we hiked up the volcano the hotter it got and eventually we hit the lava flowing down the volcano where the heat was pretty unbearable after a bit.  Rich had wore shorts and the heat was even burning the hair off his legs.  Some people were even toasting marshmallows next to the lava.  It was a really great experience and knocked the socks of hiking up other non-active volcanoes.  Back in Antigua we did some more drinking and chatting with a couple of English girls who were in our dorm.  In fact that had been another thing that I'd noticed in Mexico and Central America, lots and lots of 18-24 English girls (usually from the south) spending their summers traveling around this area - a good thing I thought.   The next day we'd leave for other parts of Central America.  I'd heard lots of stories along the way of thefts and robberies and hold-ups in Guatemala but we didn't experience anything like that, so maybe we got lucky or we look like a pair of double hard muthers.  Guatemala though is a good to place to visit, so good I bought the T-shirt.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1216502820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1216502820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1216502820/tpod.html Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:22:39 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Belize, Belize

We crossed the border into Belize, or as it was formerly known British Honduras (I preferred this name), via the  Mexican border town of Chetumal where we got stung on a departure tax of $10 - we only found out afterwards that we only needed to pay this if we were returning to Mexico.   Our bus dropped us of in Belize City at the water taxi terminal and we didn't stay too long in Belize City after hearing it was one of the most dangerous cities in the world.  So dangerous in fact that we heard from one girl we met later on a boat, that Ross Kemp was in the city filming 'Ross Kemp On Gangs'.  It must be a bad place for the king of all bad muthers to be here in the city.  The girl we talked to actually went eating, drinking and karaokeing with him and said he was a top bloke, gutted I missed out on that though as would have been good to go drinking with Grant Mitchell and I could have perhaps have got to the route of his aggression problems and see if he really liked his brother Phil or not. From the water taxi station it took 45 minutes on a boat to reach our destination which was the island of Caye Caulker.  This was a really cool little island with hardly any cars and like Isla Mujures, the golf cart was the favored method of transport.  And for the first time in 3 months I was in a country whose main language was English, a throwback to British Honduras and the colonialism days.  When I say English it was more Caribbean English and sometimes took more deciphering than the Spanish did.  And the notes and coins carried the face our beloved queen which was also weird to see after so long. The official motto of the island is "Go Slow" and its a perfect phrase that encapsulates the laid back feel of the place - I think it would be impossible to be rushed or stressed here.  The place has its fair share of characters too including the guy who shouted at us "What are you looking for a hotel or a yellow submarine?" when we were looking for our hostel - think that guy had had a smoke too many.  I didn't do too much while I was there apart from chill and read and drink but it was blissful.  The food was great too, especially the seafood and most places did lobster dishes for less than a fiver.  The only major recreational activity I did there was some snorkeling.  We had intended on going on an all day snorkeling tour which included seeing sting rays, turtles and best of all sharks,  unfortunately the weather put paid to that as a huge storm from the night before had not settled so the boats weren't going out until the afternoon at the earliest.  Bit disappointing as it was our last day here, but we managed to get the afternoon session in and saw the sting rays in ray alley but no sharks unfortunately.  We saw about 15-20 of them all hovering around our feet and our guide even picked one up and looked to be feeding them or playing with their mouths, one or the other.  It was pretty cool and I was very attentive not to join Steve Irwin in the "Killed By A Sting Ray" list. After 3 nights on the island we headed back to Belize city where I noticed signs and banners up advertising this week as being 'National Police Week'.  I hadn't seen Sting and his motley crew of musicians anywhere, maybe he'd been spending his time drinking and karaokeing with Ross Kemp.  From the water taxi terminal we took a bus through the lush green countryside of Belize through to our destination of Guatemala.  With its tropical trees and small communities it reminded me a lot of Laos and with more time I might have stopped of at a few of these places but Guatemala was calling. Now remember next time you're in a rush to get to work or stressed with a traffic jam - breathe deeply and Go Slow!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1215111180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1215111180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1215111180/tpod.html Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:15:08 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Cancun, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Tacos, Buritos, Fajitas, Enchiladas, Quesadillas, Mole, Tortas, Guacamole,  I absolutely love Mexican food. Oops got sidetracked by the passing waitress there.  Where was I .. oh yes, from Mexico City we took an overnight bus to the town of San Cristobal de Casas in the state of Chiapas.  I read an article about this place in National Geographic when I was waiting in a reception area, so thought it would be a good stop off on the way to the east coast.  The place is a lovely little town and has that colonial feel about it just like Colonia in Uruguay and Parity in Brazil, but unlike them places I had more time here and stayed three nights.  The place is dotted with churches in lots of different bright colours, a  real trait of the latin american churches and surely an influence from the Spanish.  It makes for a great look when combined with the surrounding equally colorful buildings.While in San Cristobal we took a day trip to the Canyon Del Sumidero where we took a boat ride through the massive canyon and saw loads of birdlife including pelicans but also some crocs too (for some reason wasn't expecting these in Mexico).  There was also a big waterfall that looked like a Christmas tree.  On the way back we stopped of in a small town called Chiapa de Corzo for lunch where I had ham and cheese quesadilas (oh oh, I'm onto food again).  The rest of my time in San Cristobal I spent just chilling and enjoying the varying weather patterns from hot sunshine to tropical downpour, great place to stay for a few days though.From San Cristobal we traveled to Palenque which is famous for its Mayan ruins.  En route we stopped of at the Aqua Azul and Misol Ha waterfalls which were both impressive and nice to see, but joins the ranks of all the other waterfalls I'd seen over the last 10 months.  The Mayan ruins in Palenque were impressive too, huge stone pyramids and structures which you could walk up, surrounded by dense forest filled with monkeys.  The place wasn´t too crowded with tourists either which made it better as you could wander round the ruins in near complete silence adding to the eeriness of the place.  From Palenque we did another overnighter bus to get to Cancun on the East coast.  Not quite sure what I was expecting from Cancun but what I found was a hugely commercialised beach resort with masses and masses and masses of resort hotels.  If you're a major hotel chain then you are here in Cancun.  And the main patrons of the place are by far and away Americans.  The beaches, where we could get to a part not owned by a hotel, we're quite average although the turquoise blue Caribbean waters were great to see.  We stayed in the downtown area which I thought was better but to get to the beaches you needed to get a 20 minute bus to the hotel zone.  The one really good thing about Cancun though ... a nightclub called Coco Bongos.  I read about this place before we got here and HBO rated it as the best nightclub in the world and well it was really really good.It cost $40 to get in ($50 if you couldn't bear waiting 5 minutes in the queue) which is pretty expensive for a backpackers budget but this included a free bar (I was already calculating in the queue how much I had to drink to get my money back).  Coco Bongos is not just you're ordinary nightclub though, as it´s kind of a show as well.  At regular intervals there were shows on the big stage with musical portrayals on Beetlejuice and Spiderman (difficult to explain, you'd have to see it, involved lots of people hanging from the ceiling) and lookalike tribute acts to Kiss, Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury and more.  It was a really good night and they dont try and rip you of on the free bar either, there were even waiters on the dance-floor asking if people wanted more drinks.  Very cool place all in all.From Cancun we took the 70 pesos (3 and a half quid) ferry across to Isla Mujures, which was supposed to be a more secluded island but I found that to be quite touristy too (not that big a surprise though).  The Island is long and thin and you can walk from one side to the other in just 5 minutes.  The main transport on the island is golf carts which is funny to see everyone racing around on them, but other than that there wasn't a great deal of character to the place.  The beach wasn't too great and there was one big street of restaurants and souvenir shops.  The hostel we stayed on had a good beach bar though and we also ate in a very good Cuban restaurant, which was the closest I was going to get to Cuba.  On our original itinerary we'd planned to go to Cuba for 10 days but the flights from Cancun were extortionate when we checked a few weeks earlier, so I've put it on my 'to do at a later date' list.  There wasn´t really a great deal to do in Isla Mujures so we only stayed one night, but on the way out of the hostel I noticed a scuba diving deal of 3 dives for $78 which is great value, I was left ruing that I hadn´t spotted it on the way in.Next stop on the East coast was Playa Del Carmen, where we met up with Cameron and Zara from our Peru and Bolivia tour.  We spent the Friday, and American Independence day, drinking and catching up on the beach.  Surprisingly it was quite quiet for a 4th July.  The next day was spent in similar fashion with a cooler box full of tinnies on the beach, an excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  I quite liked Playa and although it had one big tourist street like the other places, it had a more laid back feel to it which I liked.  I also had Mole Chicken in a restaurant here (onto food yet again) which is a Mexican specialty and made in different ways.  The one particular one I'd heard about was chicken in a cocoa, peanut and chilli sauce and although the waiter told me that wasn't the type I was eating, I'm sure I could taste the chocolate in it.The final stop in Mexico was Tullum, south of Playa.  Tullum was another beach resort but much quieter than the other two and with the added bonus of more Mayan ruins (hurrah?).  We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the evening here was spent mainly playing poker at the hostel and taking part in their 'burn your own barbecue' offer which wasn't likely to happen as it took me 2 hours to cook a burger on their not very hot, hot plate.  The following day we went to look at the ruins and these were actually quite good as they were completely in a different setting and right down by the beach.  This was obviously where the Mayan well to do went to spend their summer holidays, a kind of Mayan Ibiza maybe.  The rest of the afternoon I spent on the beach chilling and lazing.And that was it for Mexico and I loved it, great place, great food (in case I hadn't mentioned that), great people and lots of diversity.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1214493900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1214493900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1214493900/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:52:44 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Mexico City, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico

For those who read my last entry you´ll know I was starting to get a little travel fatigued, well just like a glass of red bull with them fizzy cola bottle things in it, Mexico completely revived me.  I arrived in Mexico City with not many expectations, in fact the only thoughts I had on the place was that it was a very populated city and very polluted and probably just like many other run of the mill cities I´d been to - I was wrong,  the place is brilliant.  As the plane came in to land I noticed the area to be very green and not as concrete as I was expecting, I also realised that I´d missed the colour green being in a landscape over the last 5 weeks of seeing the beige of the Peruvian and Bolivian desert landscapes.  The skies were slightly overcast too and looked like it could pee it down at any minute - reminded me of home, I liked it.  But overall the vibe of the place felt good straight away, can´t really explain that one though, it just felt good.I arrived late in the evening so didn´t do much that first evening except eat from a 7-Eleven (hadn´t seen one of these since Oz).  The next morning I went exploring this great city taking in the Independence Square and Chapultepec park, before moving in to the historic centre with its many cathedrals, churches and museums.  The historic centre was nice with a bizarre mix of old buildings with great architecture, nestled in with shops in alleyways selling everything form bargain clothes to shampoo to umbrellas.  With over a hundred museums in the centre I had to visit a couple and took in the cultural museum and the Jose Luis Cuevas museum, I hadn´t heard of Cuevas before but from his work he looks like a Picasso wannabe.  I also headed up the latinoamericana tower for the views of Mexico City and the huge park in the middle of the city which was very central park-esque but smaller. The following day I went to somewhere I was particularly excited about seeing, the Estadio Azteca, home of two of the greatest world cup finals ever, 1970 and 1986.  It was great seeing the stadium that brought back so many memories from when I was a nipper watching the 86´ finals and the place is still in really good condition too.  There is a guided tour of the stadium which costs 20 pesos (just a quid) which was great value and we got right down to pitch side and into the changing rooms.  We did a circuit of the stadium too and it has some great graffiti and murals, a lot of them depicting Argentinian and Brazilian footballers which I thought was a bit strange, but also Michael Jackson and Bono popped up a lot (I think they´ve both played gigs here).  There´s also a plaque to Diego Maradonas goal against England in 86 (the good one not the cheating hand of god one) along with some yellow paint splatters where it looks like someones tried to vandalise the plaque (perhaps the trio of Terry Fenwick, Peter Reid and Peter Shilton).The rest of that afternoon I spent first of all at ´Ripleys believe it or not´ museum which was a museum of weird stuff from around the world including a reproduction of the Mona Lisa constructed entirely of toast, the biggest tea pot in the world, wax models of the thinnest, fattest and tallest men, the man with biggest nose ever who was from Yorkshire apparently (see for yourself but I can´t believe thats real) and a bloke who could put a tennis ball, golf ball and pool ball in his mouth all at the same time.  Next door to this museum was a wax works so I went in there on a double ticket and had my pic taken with all sorts of stars, so heres a quick ´Guess Who The Celebrity Is?´ quiz for you with a prize for anyone who can get all twelve correct.  Tip - I´m not the celebrity in each case.In the evening we went out for beers in a district of the city where there was good nightlife and to catch the copa libertadores final, first leg, which we´d been following all the way through South America.  I didn´t do too much on my last day in Mexico city apart from go back to the area we were the night before to catch the Euro semi finals, and drank in a bar where there was a big Old Spice promotion going on.  Old Spice is back apparently, or so the pretty ladies handing out free anti-perspirant were telling us, and I won a free old spice football for correctly predicting some stuff in the footy match.  Bit too big for me to carry around unfortunately so I donated it to the hostel.  A few hours later and we were on the bus east to the state of Chiapas.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1214259240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1214259240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1214259240/tpod.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:41:31 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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La Paz, Bolivia

Entry into Bolivia was easy, couple of stamps in the passport and a random 1 boliviano crossing fee (not too bad as this amounted to less than 7 pence).  Then 30 minutes inside of Bolivia we reached our first of two stops, Copacabana.  Seriously not to be confused with the more famous Brazilian Copacabana because if you arrived here on honeymoon or vacation I´m guessing you´d be slightly disappointed.  Its a small little town, right on the edge of Lake Titicaca with one main touristy street of restaurants, bars, souvenir shops and internet places.  There´s also a main square, a bit of a scraggy beach area and a hill you can climb up for nice views, but apart from that not a great deal to do or see.  Because there wasn´t much to do I took it upon myself to get ill, just briefly though - a fevery cold thing that I managed to sweat out overnight and was right as rain in the morning. I´d heard from lots of other travelers that Bolivia was really really cheap, but I wasn´t getting that from Copacobana, paid a quid for a drink and a kit kat from a shop, so not too different from back home - I was beginning to think Copacabana was a tourist trap.  Anyway the following morning we were out of there and on a bus to a dodgy boat that crossed Lake Titicaca and then back onto a bus again before arriving in La Paz, officially the highest city in the world and more altitude to acclimatise to.  La Paz translates to ´The Peace´ but that title doesn´t apply to the roads, the traffic is completely mental and it took us over an hour to navigate through the city centre to our hotel.  And the other funny thing that I saw while going through the centre was that the zebra crossings are manned by .... well zebras (dressed up ones not real ones, all chaos would break loose if animals controlled such things and besides animals aren´t due too control the earth until 2030).  And the shoe shiners aren´t the friendly looking shoe shiners I´ve seen in other South American cities.  The shoe shiners of La Paz wear full face balaclavas and look like terrorists, maybe for pollution reasons or maybe just for intimidation, who knows?My first afternoon there consisted of a burger king lunch (first one in ages), a quick look around the centre and then watching the Euro championship games before heading for dinner at a restaurant called Mongos which did the best Enchiladas made with real bits of steak, fantastic place for food if you´re ever in La Paz.  The following day I did a bit more sightseeing including visiting the black market and the witches market and trying unsuccessfully to get into San Pedro prison.  We had a big final night out in La Paz before our tour group started splitting up, and had a nice meal in a very posh restaurant with a piano player, some beers in an Irish bar although not too many as the service was crap, before ending up in a bar/nightclub that was pretty good.  On the subject of service I noticed the service in nearly everywhere we ate or drank in Southern Peru and Bolivia was pretty awful.  Food and drinks would take forever to arrive and even the bill took half an hour to arrive in one place as the staff joked and laughed behind the counter.  Maybe thats the culture here but needless to say the tips I left in these places weren´t too great.On my last day there I went wandering up to one of the cities main viewpoints which ended up being a kiddies park - I was tempted to go on the crocodile slide but resisted.  I also had a walk around the Bolivian national stadium as it was next to the park (I think I must now have a Guinness record for most national stadiums walked around) and then went to the Sunday markets to see what that was all about.  I also went to a very interesting coca museum which gave a lot of history on the coca leaf and how it was used by the natives and how the cocaine industry has been developed.  Interesting fact, according to one of the boards in there, 50% of the worlds cocaine is consumed by the US which represents 5% of the worlds population. And that was it for Bolivia, from what I´ve seen of it, it´s a nice enough place I suppose, but the Bolivian people left me feeling slightly sour about the place.  A number of incidents left me that way, I wont go into the major one here but the final one was when checking out of our hotel when the receptionist added 3 phantom whiskeys to my bar bill which only consisted of 5 drinks in the first place.  It wasn´t so much this but when I refused to pay she asked me ´How much do you earn?´ as part of an insinuation that I should just pay for the whiskeys anyway because I was richer than she was.  My reply to this question was ´Well I´m unemployed luv actually so don't earn a penny´ to which she didn´t have much reply.  Granted the place is a very poor country in comparison but I think its a real shame that people feel the need to rip off tourists in such a way when the tourism industry is playing such a big role in sustaining their economy.  I don't mind at all the practice of tourist pricing as tourists pay cheaper than they pay back home, locals make a little bit more money on the back of the tourists, and everyones a winner, but other attempted rip-offs like the ones I witnessed really aren´t on.  Plus I´ve been to poorer countries than Bolivia where they haven´t acted in such a manner.  Okay rant over, but I´ll just clarify I only saw 2 cities within the country and maybe I just got unlucky with the people I met.Monday morning and I was of to the airport to fly back to Lima and then on to Mexico and technically a new continent.  After 300 days on the road I think I might finally be getting slightly travel fatigued.  I think I may be all churched-out, monasteried-out, templed-out, ruined-out, squared-out, statued-out, mountained-out and even beached-out.  I hope I don´t come across arrogantly when I say this but I´ve seen so much over the last 10 months that it´s now taking a lot to make me to go ´wow!!´.  The Inca trail managed to do it for me and I just hope there´ll be more of that kind of thing in my last 2 months.Over and out!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213739100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213739100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213739100/tpod.html Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:12:02 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Puno, Peru

A 6 hour bus ride from Cuzco took us to the town of Puno, lying at an altitude of 3860m on the edge of Lake Titicaca.  Lake Titicaca was our main reason for heading to Puno.  At 3815 metres it is the highest navigable lake in the world and covers 8400 sq. kilometres making it the second largest lake in South America.  It is believed by the Inca's that Maco Capac the first Inca rose from the waters of Lake Titicaca so the lake is held with great regard by the local population.  But enough of the stats and history.  On the Monday morning we took what I can only describe as bicycle tuk tuks through the Puno city streets to the port, from where we boarded our boat that would take us onto Lake Titicaca.After half an hour on the lake we reached our first stop which was the floating islands.  These islands were completely made of reed and inhabited by Uros Indians.  It was really fascinating to see their ingenuity and how they´d built up these communities floating on the lakes with everything made from reeds, from houses, communal kitchens, tables, chairs to even boats.  And apparently once the islands get unstable after years of decay on the reeds, they simply abandon the island and set up a new island elsewhere.  In the last 2 years the island we visited had managed to buy solar panels so have just started to enjoy the delights of television (not necessarily a good thing).  We also learn´t that although the lake is full of fish, the islanders only fish for what they need and don't fish on a commercial basis.  What they don't have, they barter for on the mainland with what they have caught or produced.  Apparently there is also oil in the lake and mining potential in the mountains that surround the lake and in other areas of Peru, and the government understandably wants to take advantage of this to boost their economy but the people wont let them because they regard the lakes and mountains as sacred places under Inca philosophies.  All very interesting stuff indeed.After our floating island stop we cruised for another two and a half hours before we reached the Island of Amanti where we would be staying the night in a home-stay.  On the island we met our new momma for the night called Bonita - this was another Inca thing, our guide explained to us, that Inca's would call everyone their momma´s or poppa´s or brothers or sisters even though they are not directly related.  When the Spanish invaded areas of Peru they would ask the natives questions like "where is your wife", to which they would reply, "my sister is my wife", which sounded rather incestuous but in fact it was not and the Spanish did not understand this culture.  Anyway we eventually made our way to our accommodation for the night, very very basic but it was what I was expecting.  While waiting for lunch we played some sort of volleyball game with Bonitas young children, Yanet and Ronaldo, and also some sort of hand slapping game which worked a bit like snap. After lunch ( a delicious soup and then native potatoes and yams with fried cheese) we had a wander about before heading to the traditional 4pm game of soccer on the local footy pitch.  This happens everyday apparently and I was looking forward to flexing my football muscles against some tricky locals but it disappointingly just turned out be just a bunch of gringo tourists playing against each other.  I had a game nonetheless and at 4000m the game is very hard indeed and I was completely out of breath after just a couple of quick 10 metere dashes.  Luckily the game only lasted 10 minutes as we conceded a goal (not my fault) and it was winner stays on so our team got chucked of the pitch.We sat down for dinner later that evening with more of the family this time and had another delicious soup with pasta, rice and potatoes as a main meal - really really simple but good nutritious food.  We also managed to have a 20 minute conversation in Spanish with the granddaddy of the family, which was the most Spanish we´d spoken for a while.  When we arrived we were armed with some Quechuan phrases by our tour guide but we hardly had to use them as everyone spoke very good Spanish.  After dinner we were all provided with ponchos and hats and escorted to the village hall for traditional dancing and stuff.  The dancing was good for me as it consisted of two types, 1) holding your partners hands and swinging them back and forth, which my momma led me very well in doing, and 2) hold the hands of the people to the left and right of you and semi-run round in a circle or figure eight.  If only all dancing was like this.The following morning we had a pancake breakfast made for us by our mamma and then we said our goodbyes to the family and was back on our boat for the 3 hour return trip to Puno.  Back in Puno we didn´t do to much except kill time till the next days transfer to Bolivia, but we did have a meal at the restaurant near our hotel where we were treated to yet another traditional Peruvian music and dance show (I was getting a little tired of these by this stage) which was only livened up by the pan pipe band interrupting the usual traditional music for a trio of Beatles songs and the obvious fact that the dancing girls skirts were getting shorter and shorter with each song.  I was gutted when we had to leave when they reached belt width.  And that was the end of Peru, nice country, very interesting history, generally nice people but the highlight was by far and away the Inca trail - do it if you can!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213484520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213484520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213484520/tpod.html Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:57:04 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Cusco, Peru

And so we arrived in Cuzco, possibly the most famous city in Peru after its capital Lima and lying at an altitude of over 3000 metres.  Day one in Cuzco was all about acclimatising although we also went to the local contraband market and had some more guinea pig at lunch time.  The following day I was on a tour of the areas famous Inca ruins including Saqsaywaman (pronounced sexy-woman) where there were some natural rock slides and what looked like an ancient Inca cricket pitch, Tambomachay, Pukapukara and QÉnqo.  We then headed for the Sacred Valley where there was more spectacular scenery and more Inca ruins to marvel at.  We then stopped at Pisaq for lunch and a look around the market (where I picked up a hand made Incas versus the Spanish chess set for just 20 soles) and then headed for Ollantaytambo for more Inca temples and this was from where we´d start the Inca trail the following day.So on the Tuesday morning I was up early and in good preparation (no booze the night before and plenty of carbs).  The Inca trail would last for 4 days, cover 42 kilometers, 14,000 steps (heard this of another guide), reaching a maximum altitude of 4,201 metres and from talking to people before hand day 2 was going to be a killer - nothing like something to build up the intrepidation.We met our guide for the trek, a guy called Lobo whose name translated to wolf, and he´d done the trek some 400 times so we were in good hands.  With him were 11 porters and Julio our chef, all of whom were amazing.  The porters would all carry 25kg each, stuff like bags, tents, tables, chairs and cooking equipment.  This was regulated that the porters carry a maximum of 25kg as previously they were carrying much more, up to 50kg in some cases I heard which obviously wasn´t good for their backs.On the first day we had a reasonably easy stretch of some 10km mainly on the flat but with a few hundred metres on an incline.  Mid-way through it had started raining and I was left pretty drenched when we got to our first overnight stop.  We didn´t do much other than play cards and eat here as we were all pretty tired, but the food was really amazing though with fantastic soup and lamb chops and potatoes being served - was particularly amazing given the limited equipment that chef had to work with.Next morning we were up early for day 2, 13km of supposed hell.  Well the first section of the walk wasn´t too bad at all.  Yes there was lots of steps, yes I was struggling to breathe at times and yes I was feeling the physical exertion but overall I felt up for it.  After two and a half hours we reached a large clearing area where there were toilets and time to stop and take a breather for 20 minutes or so, but this was probably a bad thing for me as getting going again for the next stage was really tough.    Lobo told us that we had completed the hardest section but the next hour and a half was a killer, particularly as you could see ahead of you how far you needed to go, where before the path ahead was shrouded by woods.  This section took us up to the 4,201m point and I have never been so happy as I was to have arrived up there.  I´d hired some walking sticks at the beginning of the trek and I was really thankful now as they carried my weight during this really tough section.From there it was down hill to our overnight camp sight and a bit of relaxing for the rest of the day.  The porters during all this had near enough run the route and didn´t look anywhere near as shattered as I did, I´ll say it again they were absolutely amazing.  The following day was the longest trekking day as we did 16km, tough terrain again but nothing as tough as the previous day.  There were more Inca ruins to explore on this day and the wildlife and views were fantastic too, especially when we had lunch on a hill top in the clouds.  At the final campsite there were hot showers and a bar serving beer, along with the usual excellent food served up my Julio.  This is where we said goodbye to our chef and the porters, we´d learn´t from Lobo that our particular guide group, called Highland Peru, particularly looked after their staff and all the porters ate the same food as us, which was good to hear as I had heard about some groups where the porters get served second rate food compared to the rest of the group. On the final day we were up at 4am and on the final leg to Machu Picchu.  Only 500 people in total are allowed permits to trek the trail each day, including all porters, but everyone seemed to leave at once as we hiked in single file to the sun gate overlooking Machu Picchu.  The first sight of the place is amazing, but once you get closer it really wows you to see this great ancient Inca city that you´ve seen on so many photos.  And that was it, the very rewarding sight at the end of the 3 and half day trek.  It was really tough at times but completely rewarding, I even passed people in their 60´s and 70´s doing the trek and it was great to see them at the end of it.  Lobo gave us a guided tour of the city before we finally got the bus down to Aqua Callientes and then the train to Ollaytantambo and then bus again back to Cuzco.  It was a totally unforgettable 4 days.Back in Cuzco on the Saturday morning I was strangely feeling energetic and not achey at all from all the trekking, so felt fit enough to do some final sightseeing including taking in Qoricancha which is the cities sun temple and a few of the museums before heading back to the hotel for food and drinks and then a good night out in Cuzco - despite a 6am start the next morning.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213456260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213456260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1213456260/tpod.html Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:27:30 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Arequipa, Peru

And so after leaving Lima at lunchtime our group headed south on a bus for 6 hours towards our first of a few destinations en route to Cusco;PARACAS -  Nothing much to this coastal town but it was to be our base for a tour of the Ballestas Islands.  We were up mega early to catch our boat around the islands and I was told I was guaranteed to see Peruvian boobies which I was particularly excited about - except my guaranteed Peruvian boobies turned out to be just a type of bird.  There were lots of birds and sea lions on the Ballestas Islands and it was a nice little trip.PISCO - Famous above all for the Pisco sour, the Peruvian national drink, although we learn´t that this is hotly contested with Chile who claim it to be their national drink causing much debate and rivalry between the two countries.  We had lunch here and then went on a tour of a Pisco vineyard and saw the brewing process before having a pisco tasting session.  The large earthquake from August 2007 hit this area of Peru and there is still evidence of the quake with buildings still under construction.  However I also heard that houses aren´t taxed if they´re incomplete so there are a lot of incomplete houses around for this reason also. ICA - Stop off town on the way to Nazca, where there are some huge sand dunes and we took some dune buggies around the place.  This really surprised me at how exhilarating this was, like a roller coaster on sand with more chance of falling off.  This was really cool and after this I did some sand surfing too.NAZCA - Town within the northern section of the Atacama desert famous for the Nazca lines.  These are thought to have been created by the ancient Nazcans around 900 BC, but were only found in modern times when commercial airlines started crossing Nazca in the 1920´s.  Quite fascinating history behind the lines, especially with their alignment with the sun and stars, but just like the English crop circles phenomenon their is lots of intrigue about how they built these massive shapes including an astronaut, a humming bird, a condor, a monkey, a parrot and a spider.  We went up in a 4 seater Cessna, smallest plane I´d ever been in and the flight alone was fantastic as I sat in the front seat next to the pilot, but viewing the lines from the air was really awesome too.AREQUIPA - Second largest city in Peru and also known as the white city because of the many buildings made of white stone.  Nice little city with the most taxis I´d ever seen and some nice restaurants and cafes, but other than the main square and the monastery there wasn´t a great deal to see in the city (although I had a good night out here too and Belge our guide taught me how to salsa here - wont be repeating that performance again anytime soon).  Also of note was that in Arequipa, and most of Peru for that matter, I had been having 3 course dinners for just 20 soles (about 4 quid) - absolute bargain. COLCA CANYON - The real reason for heading to Arequipa was to use it as a base to go to the Colca Canyon.  It took 4 hours to reach the canyon with various stops, first of all at a cafe where we had coca tea.  Earlier on the bus I´d had my first taste (or should I say chew) of the coca leaves that the Peruvians who live at high altitude swear by.  The coca leaf, which you couldn´t legally take out of the country, is rolled into a ball with some brittle stone and then placed in the corner of your mouth or chewed until the leafs properties come out.  It was supposed to help with altitude adjustment and digestion but didn´t do much for me - the tea was better.  As I said the Peruvians swear by it though and it has been proven to enhance work rate, and at a time was worth more than gold due to the reliance on coca leaves by workers in the mining industry.On arriving at our overnight accommodation we had a buffet lunch of various local foods including banana fritters and alpaca stronganoff (alpaca being a kind of lama - very cute animal but also very tasty).  In the afternoon after digesting the very nice lunch we headed on a 40 minute walk up to the thermal pools where we all relaxed in the hot pools watching the sunset.  In the evening we went to a restaurant that put on a traditional Peruvian music and dance show for us and I tucked into more alpaca, this time an alpaca steak.We were all up at 6am the following morning to head to the canyon proper to see the condors gliding on the early morning thermals.  It´s amazing to see these majestic birds gliding through the canyon with very little movement from their wings and we were told by our guide Jamie that they do this everyday between 8 and 10 am (... and then they presumably head of for tea and biscuits).  The canyon itself was amazing to see too as it´s the second deepest canyon in the world reaching a depth of 3140 metres which is twice as deep as the grand canyon.  We were told that part of the canyon forms where the amazon river starts too.   After lunch we headed back towards Arequipa traveling past the canyons highest altitude point of 4,900 metres and also a section where ice has formed making for a strange visual image of ice and dessert.Next stop would be Cusco and the Inca trail which was a short flight away ......
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1212267540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1212267540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1212267540/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:14:19 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Lima, Peru

Peru only has 4 letters making it one of the shortest countries in the world.  We arrived in Lima after 2 flights, Rio to Santiago (via rest break in Sao Paulo) and then Santiago to Lima.  I'm sure this could have been done easier but such are the air routes.  We arrived at 1.00am so didn't do a great deal other than get a cab to our hostel in Milaflores.  The following morning I awoke to my first observations of Lima - there are 8 million taxi's in Lima (unofficial Anton stat) and they all honk like crazy.  At first I thought it was to attract potential punters attention or to warn other cars of their presence, but no I think they honk for the hell of it.  I spent the day wandering around Milaflores which is a nice enough place, but nowt too special.  My highlight was lunch in Hooters, and yes I know its full of scantily clad waitresses but seriously the foods excellent value; starter, main course and drink for 21 soles (just over 4 quid).  The next day we went into downtown Lima, first of all to get a bus ticket out of the city for that night, and the bus station was handily next to the national stadium so I did a walk around that.  Next we went to a few of the more touristic sights including the Plaza de Armas (very nice central square), La Iglesia de San Francisco (church with great architecture and you can go into the underground the catacombs) and the presidential palace and cathedral. That night we took the 8 hour bus north to Huaraz on the comfiest bus I'd been on in the whole of South America, and that was saying something as South American buses are generally superb.  Unfortunately I now know that it doesn't matter how comfy your reclining seat is if the roads are as bumpy as a roller-coaster.  Huarez lies at an altitude of 3000 metres and I'd never been to altitude like that before, so wasn't ready for the difference in air that affected my breathing and left me light headed.  It took a while to get rid of that but it soon went as I acclimatised.  Didn't do a great deal that first day there apart from walk around and get acclimatised to the altitude.  In the evening I made my own meal of fanny tuna and pasta.  Indeed fanny is quite a big thing out here as you can get fanny jam, fanny marmalade, fanny fruit salad and even fanny con carne.  My other favourite brands in the Peruvian supermarkets are Mounds (a dark chocolate version of a bounty) and Batti Mix (a cereal and yoghurt mix). The following day we were up at 7am for our first bit of trekking at altitude.  We drove for an hour and half up to Lago LLaca which was a big lake standing at an altitude of 4474m.  This was part of the Peruvian Andes and was very scenic and cold.  From here we hiked for 3 and a half hours around the lake and up to the foot of the tremendous looking glazier.  I've done a few hikes before this and consider my general fitness to be reasonably good but this completely took it out of me.  Breathlessness, headaches and a sore stomach from the previous nights fanny tuna hadn't helped.  Got round it all okay though even though the marked trail disappeared into big clumps of rocks at certain points.  All good practice for the further trekking at altitude I'd be doing in Cusco. My last day in Huaraz was spent just chilling and looking around the town.  There isn't a great deal to do here other than hike, but its interesting to see the people here and how they live.  This is a relatively poor country and this becomes more evident away from the towns and cities and it's something you particularly see when you head further into the mountains.  Housing is small and fragile looking, made from simple materials yet their churches are beautiful buildings, a clear view of their religious passions. Our last night in Huaraz was spent eating a Peruvian specialty, guinea pig, in a French/Peruvian restaurant and then drinking in a Swiss/Peruvian pub with a French bloke, the Swiss owner and a rather intoxicated Peruvian guy who shouted 'Yee-Haa' a lot and insisted that his uncle was Harrison Ford.  Our bus back to Lima the next day was mainly uneventful, despite the highest security checks on getting onto the bus including security scans and a guy videoing everyone getting onto the bus and then while sat down on the bus.  Back in Lima we didn´t do a great deal on the Saturday night other than get something to eat and find a bar masquerading as an English pub.  For the next 3 weeks we were going to be joining an organised tour of Peru and Bolivia, as it was the only way we could get permits for the Inca trail, so on the Sunday we checked into our new hotel.  It was the plushest place I´d stayed in for months and reveled in the little bits of luxury like a TV set, towels and complimentary soap.  In the evening we met the rest of our tour group, 5 Aussies, 3 Kiwis, an English girl and a South African girl.  The South African and English girls were on their last day, as their tours finished in Lima, leaving me and Rich to pick up our new collective name of ´The Poms´. That evening our tour leader, a Peruvian lady called Belgie, took us to a water fountain park that was about 10 metres away from the national stadium we visited days earlier, but completely missed this huge park.  This place didn´t seem like Lima at all and had a vast array of different water fountains, spouting in time to the classical music being played around the park.  Quite a cool place that I´d have missed completely if it wasn´t for joining the tour group, so one plus already for the tour.  After an evening meal with our new group that was it for Lima, next stop would be Ica the following day. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1211489820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1211489820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iceice17/anton_2007/1211489820/tpod.html Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:18:18 -0400 AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE! Who said i was too small to be a globetrotter!

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Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our journey from Ilha Grande to Rio was pretty cool, first of all a 15 minute speed boat to the mainland and then a 2 hour drive in a Volkswagen camper-van.&nbsp; When we got to our hostel there was just about enough time to get something to eat and then to do a reccie to a find a pub for tomorrows game..... Wednesday 21st May 2008 - Champions League Final Day Oh yes I was very excited bordering on anxious at the prospect of Manchester Uniteds 3rd ever European Cup/Champions League final.&nbsp; The build up to the game was good though. Got up, had breakfast and then sat on Ipanema beach for 3 hours.&nbsp; Ipanema beach is fantastic, partly for the aesthetics, beautiful sands with huge mountains at either end of the beaches, but mainly for the women.&nbsp; Damn my lack of Portuguese language skills as these are&nbsp;officially the&nbsp;hottest women in the world* (apart from British girls of course).&nbsp; And the thing I love about these Brazilian beaches is that no matter what size, shape, colour, age or&nbsp;level of attractiveness you are, everyone hits the beaches in a celebration of all things sun. After the beach it was time for a quick lunch before making our way to the traditional Brazilian bar we had chosen to watch the match at; 'Shenanigans'.&nbsp; There was a good atmosphere in there and the pub was rammed, not just with tourists but locals too all keen to see who'd win.&nbsp; For the next 2 and a half hours I was completely focused and extremely anxious in extra time, and nearly had nose bleeds during the penalty shoot out, but it went our way and I celebrated wildly at the victory with the other Manchester fans in the pub. There wasn't too much time to celebrate though as I was of to the Maracana to watch another game, the Copa Libertadores quarter final between Fluminese and Sao Paulo.&nbsp; The Maracana is a legendary stadium and just seeing that on its own was great for me, but to be lucky enough to see such a big game was even better.&nbsp; The atmosphere matched the occasion and was electric just like the games I'd seen in Argentina.&nbsp; The game was good too with Fluminese getting a first half goal to level the tie all square at 1-1 on aggregate.&nbsp; In the second half Sao Paulo piled on the pressure and eventually scored, meaning that Fluminese needed to 2 to win and qualify for the next round.&nbsp; They responded quickly with one goal, but for all their pressure they couldn't break down the Paulista defence.&nbsp; Then in the final few minutes they nicked a winner, Fluminese went&nbsp;through and the crowd went mental.&nbsp; We didn't get back until after 1am but what a great day the 21st May was. The following day consisted mainly of beach, wandering around Ipanema, beach, organising the following day and beach.&nbsp; On the Friday we did a big sightseeing tour so we could get in as much as possible in a day as we were only in Rio for 5 days.&nbsp; It started with a trip to the Tujica Forrest and then a hike up a mountain called Pedra Bonita.&nbsp; Our tour guide, whose voice and accent was a dead ringer for Al Pacino, had his work cut out as&nbsp;one of the girls fainted about&nbsp;30 metres into the hike and had to be carried back to the start.&nbsp; Three others from our group had already declined the hike because of health/age reasons.&nbsp; After 1250m we reached the summit where there were great views of Rios beaches and forrests and a big rock with a gorillas face in it.&nbsp; On the way back down from the hike a French guy I was walking beside decided about 10 metres in that he couldn't carry on and just sat down.&nbsp; After seeing the other girl faint earlier I was a bit worried and ended up&nbsp;legging it down the rest of the trail to find his brother.&nbsp; His &nbsp;brother kicked his ass and he came down the rest of the trail. Next stop was the Corcovado mountain, but on the way our tour guide pointed out a few of the favellas and gave us some insight into them.&nbsp; The favellas for me just seem to be big council estates and just like back home you get good ones and bad ones with the bad ones getting all the press because of how dangerous they are.&nbsp; Our tour guide said you could quite easily walk around some of them as the inhabitants weren't really interested in tourists, it was just the police they didn't like.&nbsp; Anyway back to Corcovado which is more famously known for the statue of Christ The Redeemer on the top of it.&nbsp; The statue was major huge&nbsp;and it was great to see&nbsp;as this again was one of those iconic sights that tells you you're in Rio.&nbsp; The views of central Rio and Sugar Loaf Mountain from there were amazing too.&nbsp; We then headed towards the Santa Theresa district passing by the Sambodromo which is the huge but strange stadium where the Rio Carnival starts.&nbsp; It just looks like one big street with massive stands at either side of it.&nbsp; In Santa Theresa itself, there are a set of steps that have been artistically set upon by a Chilean artist called Selaron.&nbsp; The steps and the surrounding walls are made up of wall tiles from around the world, either tiles he's picked up himself or tiles that have been sent to him.&nbsp; There are all sorts of tiles here including one of Lady Diana (she gets everywhere doesn't she) and videos and album artwork has been shot here for artists such as Snoop Dog and U2.&nbsp; Really cool steps and worth sending him a tile if you've got an interesting one spare (and no that doesn't mean one thats fallen of the bathroom wall).&nbsp; The other good thing is that he is actually there on the steps most days and you can buy some of his original work directly from him at a reasonable price. In the evening we went out around Lapa which is one of the main party districts and the place is pretty mental.&nbsp; Unusual to see was that&nbsp;there were vendors on the streets selling alcohol and most of the people were buying from them and drinking on the street.&nbsp; Because of this the bars were reasonably priced too or else they'd get priced out.&nbsp; I liked the street drinking thing, it had a nice vibe about it, not so sure it would work in England though.&nbsp;&nbsp;My last and final day in Rio&nbsp;consisted of more beach and generally chilling out before the next days mammoth journey to Peru.&nbsp; I loved Rio, it's got a great vibe and is right up there in the coolest of cities ever.&nbsp; It's also very beautiful with beaches, mountains and forests all in close proximity.&nbsp; Another city to add to my 'I'll Be Back' list. <i> * Official Anton Stat.&nbsp; For the purposes of definition the term 'The World' consists of all countries Anton has visited.
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