TravelStream™ news feed for member joandcharlie on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/joandcharlie en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:27:07 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1229018700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1229018700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1229018700/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:27:07 -0500 Amazonia

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Manaus, Brazil

Full blown stomach cramps now - can´t decide whats caused it, probably a bit of everything!!! Wehad arrangedwith Bastian & Fernando which Hostel to go to. We daftly walked aheadas they went to check out the boats for Belem. We arrived at thesametimeas they pulled up in a taxi....
Ill, with back ache and roasting we arrived in BAD moods!!!

Cheered up slighly we all went out for tea to a Pizza restaurant and a guided walk around Manaus by Veronique, afrench woman we´d got talking to who worked in Manaus for months at a time networking with amazonian tribes for a natural products company in France. Great conversations. We walked to the Grande Theatre, thiswas in the central square, all very posh built up during the rubber boom. There was a huge christmas tree in the middle of the square with candy sticks & decorations hanging off it. All the trees were decorated with lights - it all looked really festive, except of course for the intense heat...

The first proper day in Manaus wasspent in bed - ILL.
Second day, feeling a lot better we headed to the market to see all the fruits, we´d woken up to rain, fantastic it was loads cooler. There were huge trucks with pryamids of bananas, watermelons & other more local fruit we didn´t know the name of but tried in a range of juices. We´d decided to get a flight from Manaus to the coast having felt so ill we couldn´t face another boat trip. We were to be disappointed! The only available flight out of Manaus was on the 24th December at 11.50pm to Salvador!!!

Back to the port & booked 2 tickets from Manaus to Belem on the Slow boat, in a cabin reluctantly... for the following day. Cheered ourselves up with Japanese for tea, better eat something proper before we go as the excuse!!!
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Belem, Brazil

So, as it turns out we travelled the whole legnth of the Amazon River. This jouney on Cisne Branco took 4 nights. Didn´t really have the same feeling of adventure as the last boat and we´d didn´t get to know many people. It was more people travelling for Christmas than on the last trip.

However because we where in a cabin this time we got better food, which means cheese at breakfast & salad with lunch. We had been more prepared for thistrip though and bought pot noodles!! ´we´d spotted an electric point in ourcabin when having a look round before getting the tickets..

Thecabin wouldhave provided much morecomfort had it not been so damp, the walls dripped with water continously all over our beds. We´d wake up in wet!it was good for getting out the way for a bit though! As therewasn´treally anyoneto talk to we probably relaxed even more on this journey..

The scenery was a lot different, with the river getting narrower &wider in different parts, children tied thier canoes to the side of the boat and sold fruits and shrimp. This was amazing as we were going at some speed and they balanced on thier canoes scoping fruit into bags and climbing up theside of the boat. Othercanoeswith women and children in would wave and scream at the boat sailing upto it, people would thrown packets of buscuits, crisps, drinks and plastic toys in the river.There were many small villages along the banks of the river, with washing hanging outside, children swimming and fishing on little peirs & men travelling down the river in thier dug outcanoes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/7/1196013180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/7/1196013180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/7/1196013180/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 13:20:53 -0500 The intrepid explorers go to the Galapagos Islands

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Quito, Ecuador

We arrived back in Quito from the Galapagos Islands. Got ripped off by another taxi driver who took us back to the hostel where we had left all of our belongings!!!!

The following day we visited Mittel del Mundo (The Middle of the World). It is about an hours bus jouney from Quito and well worth a visit! It is set out in a small complex of shops, restaurants and museums and in the middle is a large monument that marks where the equator is. The reason that this place was given the title of the middle of the world is because it is on the equator (latitude) and it is at 270 degrees longitude (0, 90 and 180 degrees are in the sea where the line meets the equator).

We had our photo taken while one of us was stood in the Northern hemisphere and the other was stood in the Southern hemisphere! Had a bit of a laugh jumping between the 2 different halves of the world and visited the ethnographical museum that is inside the monument!!!

Then we read in our guide book that the monument is in fact about 150 meters away from the equator. This only came to light with the invention of GPS because the monument had been built where it is by manually calculating the whereabouts of the equator!! So we walked to the museum that is situated where the ACTUAL equator is and had a laugh completing some of the experiments that prove that you are on the REAL equator!!!

The first was watching water go straight downa plug hole!! No spiral one way or the other and it made no sound as the water just disappeared!!
The second was the resistance test. Our guide tried to open our hands that we pressed together when we were stood just a small distance away from the equator and she could´t do it, but as soon as we stood over the equator, she could seperate our hands easilly! (Apparently you also weigh less when you´re stood on the equator!!!! Hehehe We wanted to stay there!!!)
The third test was balance. It was relativley easy to walk with your eyes closed in a straight line when walking along the equator and also Jo managed to balance an egg, length ways on the end of a nail!!!! Impressive eh? We have the photos to prove it too!!!
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Galpagos Islands, Ecuador

For once, we arrived at the airport with plently of time to spare and without any stress :) We boarded the plane and spent the few hours travelling there, reading the couple of books that we had about the Galapagos Islands, trying to decide which of the many islands that we would like to visit.

We landed at the airport on Isla Baltra and got on a boat/ferry onto the main island for tourist activity, Santa Cruz. As the coach drove towards Puerto Ayora, which is the main town on Santa Cruz, the environment and weather changed from being dry, hot and barren to humid, moist, green and tropical looking. The change was almost instant, from one extreme to the other!

We got a taste of the wildlife on the volcanic island as soon as we arrived, we saw several different types of birds and the rather large and bright red Sally Light Foot crabs.

On arrival in Puerto Ayora we started a rather long a difficult search for a hostel.. Don´t think that many of the services on the Galapagos Islands are intended for a bagpackers budget!!! We found one eventually that was basic and right near the centre of the town, but above all - CHEAP! Hurrah!!!

Next we went and got information about the various trips and activities that were on offer to us. There are many places in the Galapagos Islands that you are not allowed to visit without a trained guide so as to not disturb the wildlife and the carefully balanced ecosystems. With trips to Islands Isabella and Bartolome booked, we went for a beer, food and got an early night.

Next morning got up very early, maybe a bit too early because nothing was open!! After a while we found a place for breakfast and then walked down the main sea road to where the Charles Darwin Research Centre is situated. Even on the walk to the entrance we saw land iguanas (rather large) and various varieties of Darwins finches.

The visitor centre explained how the conservation of the islands is managed and how the authorities are currently working to ensure that the endemic species (only found on the Galapagos Islands) can continue to thrive in these habitats. There are several scemes underway to eradicate introduced species because they are threatening and overtaking the environments that the endemic species need to survive.
Giant tortoises are currently being bred in captivity to boost their numbers back up again and this sceme is proving to be successful when they are released at 5 years old. We saw lonesome George who is the last remaining tortoise of his species, when he dies, his species will become extinct.

We saw fully grown male and female giant tortoises and the were GIANT!!!!! They can weigh up to 200 kg!!!! We saw many different finches and they are all so tame that they fly right up to you,land next to you and give you a look up and down before carrying on with what they were doing before - amazing!!!!
In the afternoon we set off on the trip to Isla Isabella. This is one of the older islands in the area that was created by lava coming up to the surface of the Pacific Ocean where two tectonic plates meet and it is also the largest with the biggest range of different habitats.

On our first day on the island, we got up really early so we could go for a walk on the beach before breakfast. It was windy and raining but the beach was still beautiful; white sand, palm trees and bright blue water!

After breakfast we set off for the Sierra Negra volcano! The first part of the journey was by car and then we got onto horses that would take us even further. After a few minutes on horseback, the rain stopped suddenly and the blazing sun came out again! The crater of the volcano was 6 miles wide!!!! It stretched for as far as we could see, aparently it is the second largest in the world! Evidence of the last erruption was still visible because the dried lava flows were different colours and there were blocks of sulphur on the ground.
The last part of the journey was on foot, we were surrounded by set lava and it was like being on Mars!!! No plants or animals were visable, only black and brown crunchy rock underfoot. We walked to the craters of several parasitic volcanos and looked into where they had been sealed back up after their last erruptions. The views from the top were amazing, we could see the Ocean and several of the other islands in the distance. On the way back our horses were racing with us, so it didn´t feel like long before we were back in the car and heading back to the hotel.

After a 5 minutes break, we headed out for the snorkelling activity. The water was still and clear and we saw 100´s of different types of fish. So may different shapes, colours and sizes, it was like watching "Finding Nemo" in real life!

The following day, when we were back on Isla Sant Cruz we decided to go snorkelling again and we walked to Tortega Bay, which is about 3 km away from Puerto Ayora. As we found out, it wasn´t good for snorkelling because the water was murky, but the 2 beaches were amazing. Bright blue sea, white sands and lots of wildlife literally at our fingertips!!!

On the Friday, we had to get up really early to meet our group for the day trip to Bartolome. On the boat on the way there, we saw manta rays jumping out of the ocean, glinting in the sunlight. On our arrival at the island, there was a sealion on the rocks where we got off the boat and it posed for photographs!!!!!!!!! We laughed a lot, it was even posing, or so it looked like to us!!

We walked to the top of a small volcano on the island and from there we could see and underwater volcanic crater and pinnicle rock, the view was fantastic!!!! The pace was quite slow because we were in a group with a German photography club who kept stopping to take photos, but this meant that we had lots of time to look at things and ask lots of questions. Then we walked down to the bay and saw white-tipped reef and Galapagos sharks swimming in the water. They were both a lot smaller than we had expected and we weren´t allowed in the water where they were because we would have scared them away!

After this we walked over a sanddune and went snorkelling again! This time was even better than the first!!! We swam with Galapagos Penguins and sealions!!!! These 2 animals looked awkward on the land, but underwater, they look like they are dancing and they are certainly more gymnastic than we are!!! At one point, a penguin was taking a really close look at us, it was only a few centimeters away from our masks!!!! We were both really pleased that we´d managed to do this while we were there and we returned to Santa Cruz both happy! A bit disappointed to be leaving the following day but happy that we had done so much!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1197134640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1197134640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1197134640/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:45:07 -0500 Amazonia

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Manaus, Brazil

Voyager 3 left late! We didn´t know until the last day of the journey that were travelling on Manaus time, and we´d spent several hours wondering why breakfast, dinner & tea had been an hour early. This explains why we got joked about by the friends we met about getting up late!

Sleeping in the hammocks proved to be a bit of a nightmare, I virtually had a huge man sharing mine& Charlie had someone sleep more or less on top of her!! The hammocks were so packed together& your bags/ luggage underneath. It got better the further on in the journey as more people got off the boat, but by this point our backs were knackered anyway! We also learnt why people tie their hammocks in special knots, so peoplecan´t move them along the poles (as they did with ours, allowing themselves more space). It was good though for lying in the shade during the day watching theAmazon float by.

We spent lots of time on the top deck where thesnack bar & chairs were, reading, doing suduko, writing our journals and people watching, and watching theworld go by; Very relaxing.

We also met some great people, Hans, who had lived in Brazil for 30 years originally from Switzerland had established an exotic fruit business. Fernando from Paraguay who had travelled through Peru & was making hisway homefor christmas, Bastian, also from Switzerland who had been working for 3 months with children who are disabled, Walter from Argentina who´d been travelling for the last 10 years selling Jewellery & a couple from Chille who´d done the same. They all set up shop opposite our hammocks and sat making bags, necklaces, belts for the majority of the journey.

Food left a lot (or loads)to be desired! Bread & hot milk for breakfast, Rice, beans& meat for lunch & the same for tea- luckily for our little bit of shopping we weren´t hungery! However it was at some point on this journey thedodgy tummies started!

The river for this part of the journey was very similar, stopping only at very small towns, we kept fllowing the river on the map at the frount of the deck & asking a lovely old man who kept bringing us sweets& checking if we were alright, where we were!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1196960220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1196960220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1196960220/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:21:53 -0500 Amazonia

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Tabatinga, Brazil

Tabatinga - our first insight to Brasil!!!!

The 10hr speedboat trip was tons better than we´d anticipated, it went really quickly after the mass of sniffer dogs & police checking everyones bags before getting on. We got lunch, free drinks & leather reclining seats. There was about 20 people altogether.

We arrived at Santa Rosa, border control on the Peru side got out exit stamps & said goodbyeto Peru for the last time.

A man (Tourist Guide? ) helped us with our bags onto a small boat to cross the river to Tabatinga & showed us to a cheap hotel. We booked in for 2 nights! It was boiling and complete mayhem!!! Is this Brazil!!! We changed what little money we had and headed for a bar / many beers.

Tabatinga is mainly a stop over point for Border crossing, the small port is really busy & full of market stalls & millions of people, Who knows where they live. We sorted out our tickets for Voyager 3, slow boat (4 days to Manaus) on a hammock, then went to Colombia for the afternoon!! There is no bank in Tabatinga & you therefore have to walk 20mins down the road into Colombia! We had lunch, and went shopping for food to take on the boat; 2 peppers, 1 tomatoe, tin of sweetcorn, olives, crackers & peanuts!!

Oh nearly forgot, nearly died on the first night!! Went to bed exhausted from boat trip (& beer) to wake up at 2am coughing & spluttering. Putting covers over ourfaces not working, searched for the touch to see what the awful smell was only to find our room full with smoke, so much so you couldn´t see!! We thought there was a fire outside but when I opened thedoor found nothing & no smoke! The air conditioning unit was only 30 seconds away from blowing up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We told the hostel security man who said ¨sorry, no problem¨and walked off. We sat outside and waited for the smoke to clear, still coughing!

Voyager 3 was set to sail (haha) at 2pm, we arrived with luggage at 10am. Wanting to put up our hammocks in a good space - as time went on this meant people arrived & just put there hammocks on top of ours, underneath ours, right next to ours & on either side. Note to selves, probably best to arrive late! We watched ships of logs load & unload at the port - deforestation of rainforest?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1194969360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1194969360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/6/1194969360/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:00:37 -0500 Amazonia

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Iquitos, Peru

We arrived at Iquitos airport, Peru 10 minutes before the most amazing thunder storm we´ve ever seen.... The sky continuosly flashing purple. The thunder so loud it sounded like the airport roof was falling in, everyone jumping out of their skins. The rain was so heavy the luggage couldn´t be unloaded off the plane & so we sat & watched for an hour - Welcome to the rainforest..
On the plane we had flown over miles & miles of forest & eventually could see the rivers winding though, very wide & very brown against the green of the trees. Just like you see on the T.V.
Iquitos is a small town 1 kilometer on a tributory river off the Amazon, there is a main square & waterfront promenade which in the dark looks like you´ve reached the end of the world & there is nothing beyond.

The plan for the Amazon was to do day trips in Iquitos, saving the Jungle Trip for further down, breaking up the Journey - never happened!
As soon as we were acosted by tour agencies(literally), we got a tad excited and booked a 3 day trip....

We got kitted out at Mad Maxs, hiring long sleeved shirts, safari / jungle hats, wellies... we looked a sight & as it turned out still got eaten alive by mosquitos!!!

Our itinery included, Jungle treck, Dolphin watching, birdwatching, Pirhana fishing, canoeing, visiting villages on the banks of theAmazon & meeting a shamen & 2 nights in a jungle lodge. Our Guide Tito was from a small tribal village at the start on the Amazon river, carried a Machete like he was born with it in his hand. He was really great & taught us loads about the animals, jungle & people.

The meeting of the waters is the phrase used to refer to where the tributary rivers meet the Amazon. The waters are very different in colour Amazon - Brown (quite similar to Manchester Ship Canal), due to sediment and Tributory rivers - black, due to nutrients from plants. The waters never mix & so create a marbled effect!

The jungle lodge was fantastic, we had our own wooden hut with a hammock hanging outside. It was based in a small clearing in the jungle only reachable by canoe. There were Macaws & Pendulum birds all around - well noisy. The food was fantastic and we tried some weird & wonderful fruits....

The jungle trek was brilliant, just like you´d imagine under the canopy of the trees we saw all the animals / insects we´d seen watching Andes to Amazon DVD at home! Sloths, Squirrel monkeys, bull & fire ants, Lizards & Iquanas.

The birdwatching was good fun to as we went down the river at 6am in a dug out canoe and saw Vermillion Flycatchers, Amazonian Flycatchers, Pendulum Birds, Herons, Parakees, Hawks, Eagles & loads more.
We never got to see the Pink Dolphins as they only come up for seconds at a time, they aren´t as friendly as sea dolphins and only jump when they are angry. I did swim in the Amazon though, Charlie not too keen on the idea passed it up (it looks pretty filthy, in parts). I however figured we´d already showered in it, drank it (filtered)& ate food cooked in it I may as well swim in it, off the back of the canoe I dived in!!!!!!
I think we are the only people who have made Pirhana fishing VEGETARIAN, we tried really hard to NOT catch the pirhanas, letting them eat the bate & catching water lettuce instead. Tito caught about 6 and once out of the water showed us their razor sharp teeth beforewe made him throw them back in. We ended the fishing session as charlie accidently caught one, Tito found it all quite amusing...
On our last night we watched a shamanic ceremony, 2 australian men we made friends with had decided to drink the Ayawaska plant (hallucinagenic). In the dark they had to imagine them selves as an animal to go on their spiritual journey, the shamon smoked leaves off the angel trumpet plant and blew smoke at us all then started whistling for what seemed like hours until he started talking about dogs????? Vomiting is compulsary during the ceremony for the people drinking to cleanse thier bodies (nice).

Other than the jungle trip we watched a World Aids Day Parade through Iquitos centre, Suprised that even in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest they still raise awareness - Cool!

Having packed & left the Hostel for the slow boat that was due to travel down the Amazon to our next destination we where told ¨no cargo, no boat¨, ahh... going to miss all the other connecting boats. Revisited plans and booked a 10hr speedboat trip to Tabatinga for the next day.

So, after finding another hostel, we took ourselves off to visit a butterfly farm / Conservation park set up & owned by a Austrian / Peruvian couple. There were tame but wild monkeys all over being really cheeky, trying to pinch our drinks. One had been trained as a pickpocket before coming to the sanctuary & so on entering you were warned. There was a Jaguar called Pedro and a Anteater called Rosa!!! I fed a Tapiur pumpkin!! After we finished here we walked to a little village where the Bora Tibe lived & they gave us a presentation of dancing (of which i have filmed Charlie joining in(hehe)). On the way meeting Jamie & Anderson who live in a commune called the ´Creek of Love´, Wierd place?????
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1227974940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1227974940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1227974940/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 11:38:22 -0500 Ecuador, from Guayaquil to Quito!!

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Quito, Ecuador

Quito is split into 2 different areas, the New Town and the Old Town. We had decided to stay in the New Town because that´s where most of the shops and services are.

Within 2 hours of arriving in Quito for the first time, we have found the correct airline office AND managed to book our tickets for the Galapagos Islands!!!! How exciting! (This also proved to us that we weren´t just being incompetent in Guayaquil when we tried and failed to book our tickets from there - it was just a lot easier to do this in Quito...)

The following day we had some Christmas shopping to do so we got on a bus to the market in Otalavo. It is about 2 1/2 hours North of Quito on a bus - it is advertised as the biggest and best market in Ecuador.. We weren´t disappointed! It wasn´t as busy with shoppers as we were expecting but there were so many stalls and different crafts to look at that we were kept very busy!! Once we started buying things we got onto a bit of a roll!!

Nobody in Northern Ecuador HAS EVER GOT ANY CHANGE!!!!
Even in Quito, people had frowned at us for giving them $20 bills to pay for things and in Otalavo it was even more difficult... On a few occasions we couldn´t buy what we wanted because the stall holders didn´t have enough change - it did work to our advantage on a couple of occasions though because the people would look at how much money we had in our hands, dropped their prices accordingly and then sell the items for that amount!!

So feeling pretty pleased with ourselves (all Christmas shopping completed) we got back on the bus to Quito. All going well until 2 minutes away from the bus station in Quito when we realised that a group of women who had just got off the bus had stolen the bag with all of the shopping in it...... GUTTED!!! We were just remarking that it was the easiest and cheapest Christmas shopping that we had ever done, so it wasn´t that it had cost a lot but it was because we had waited to do it in this market and we´d spent time choosing the presents for people.

The following day, we headed towards the Old Town in Quito to go and explore. We noticed a market had been set up in one of the central parks round the corner from where we were staying and within an hour or so, we had managed to relace all the presents that had been stolen the day before....

Then went to explore the Old Town. Lots more colonial architecture to look at, although we have rather over done this since being in South America. Anway, the architecture here wasn´t as impressive as some of the other places that we have visited. It said in the guide book that you could sepnd a few days exploring the area, but we were done in a few hours.

We had dinner in a Mongolian BBQ restaurant, lots of veg and absolutely delicious!!! Ready for our flight to the Galapagos Islands the following day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1196120940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1196120940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1196120940/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 11:37:49 -0500 Ecuador, from Guayaquil to Quito!!

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Porta Lopez, Ecuador

PORTA LOPEZ
Our final stop on the Rute del Sol (Route of the Sun) in Ecuador was Porta Lopez.

Described as "a pretty fishing village in a horse shoe bay" - instead we found it to be a scruffy, 50´s styled fishing village in a dirty horseshoe bay with not very much happening. We stayed in a hostel called "Villa Columbia" which was run and owned by a really nice woman called Gladys. We proved to ourselves how much our Spanish was coming along, because we could understand every word that she said to us!!! HURRAH!!!!!

Porta Lopez tunred out to be a great place to watch the pelicans and finding coral on the beach. We also surprisingly found an open-air hump backed whale museum, which included the skeleton of a whale that was nearly 20 metres long (that had died of cancer) and 101 facts about whales, that lined the street on the way to the beach.
Here in Ecuador, the tail of a whale symbolises peace.

We also went to a place called Agua Blanca village in the National Park. 10km from Porta Lopez, which we travelled by autorickshaw and literally bounced our way in to the village!!! The tribe that lived there had been there for over 500 years. After visiting the small museum we walked through the dry forest until we got to a sulphur lake - although we could smell it before we could see it!!!

After spending a week travelling up the coast, we got the evening bus to Quito that was 8 hours away.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1195861320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1195861320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joandcharlie/5/1195861320/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 11:37:17 -0500 Ecuador, from Guayaquil to Quito!!

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Montanita, Ecuador

Small relaxing, hippy, surfing village resort - loads more tropical and the land by the beach was full of plants and trees. The beach was split into 2 bays, with Montanita in the middle.

We spent lots of time combing the beach for goodies, running away from these funny little crabs that buried themselves in the sand and then appeared from nowhere, writing in our journals, making jewlery and drinking and eating fantastic food in the restaurants and cafes, of which there were many!!

A great couple of days had by us both and a definate recommendation!!!
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