TravelStream™ news feed for member jon-daniella on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jon-daniella en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:39:35 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246379983/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246379983/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246379983/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:39:35 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Taganga, Colombia

We arrived in Taganga via an indirect route stop in the city of Baranquilla but eventually got here, We headed straight for the beach and found a place to stay on the beach front for quite cheap!

Taganga is a small town with a small beach which has no sand but more like little uncomfortable rocks to sit on but the heat here is so intense you spend most of the day in the water anyway. We arrived on a Wednesday and Wednesdays are the big nights in Taganga for the one and only club called El Garage, very nice little place full of tourists as is the rest of Taganga, not to forget the hoards of Israelis too. We enjoyed a good night out there listening and dancing to salsa and typical Colombian music before head to the beach for the after party until the sun rose! Unfortunately our room is more like a tin and morning sun made it unbearable to sleep in, even though we had a fan it felt like we where in an oven.

Taganga is the jumping of point to visiting the Tayrona park and with our provision of food and water set off to reach the paradise beaches they boast!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246382729/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246382729/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246382729/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:35:23 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Santa Marta, Colombia

We headed to La brisa loca a hostel newly opened by a group of American guys and not really finished yet but in good enough condition to stay,the hostel itself was beautiful, decorated well and finished to a high level of standard for a backpackers joint, they also had a pool and was almost finished which was a great idea because the beach was filthy,

About 15 south of Santa Marta is another town easily accessed by colectivo called Rodereo which is a little more expensive to stay as it only has resorts and is full of Colombian holiday maker but the beach is much nicer and most days we headed down there to spend the day whilst the pool was not ready and when the pool was finally ready we tried to soak up our last minute sun before heading to cold Bogota before England.

Santa Marta wasn`t the most interesting of towns and by the time it came to leave we where somewhat bored.

Bogata here we come!

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Bogota, Colombia

Boarding the flight from Santa Martas tiny sea side airport, we soon had to change into warmer clothes arriving at Bogotas El Dorado airport, located high in the Andes mountains at 2600 metres above sea level, it was on with the jeans and jumpers packing our shorts away. We decided to takke the bus to our hostel in the Candeleria district of the city, we had to ask the bus driver to let us know when to get off the bus, unfortunately he forgot (twat!), and we ended up going way past our destination and had to get a taxi to the hostel!!
Bogota is a very big city, one of the biggest in South America, around where we stayed in the Candeleria area, is very beautiful with all the old style colonial buildings, the first place we found to eat was an Israeli restuarant, specialising in oriental-hebrew cuisine, Daniella had a falafel and I had a kebab, both were very good, we wanted to go back and try the chinese, however whenever we went back for more it was always closed. We did a lot of sightseeing in Bogota, a bit of a change of chilling by the beach, it made a welcome change. We were very lucky to coincide our visit, with an Andy Warhol exhibition that is visiting South America, we saw all his famous paintings, Mao, Marilyn Monroe and the Campbells soup tins. All very interesting and good to see, afterwards we went to to the Botero and saw lots more paintings, Picassos, Monets, Renoirs, and the best thing was both these museums were free! Afterwards I felt a bit arted out, as you can understand! In the evening, we decided to head up the Colpatria tower, Colombias highest building at 190 metres. There were great views over the city at night, all the lights as far as you could see.

We continued our cultural vein the following day, we visited the Modern Art museum, and then discovered there was a Japanese film festival playing next door, so we saw a film called flowers of fire, it was a bit weird but very good. As soon as we came out there were loarge crowds of people standing along the roadside, it turned out to be Colombias gay pride parade, and there was 1 float , and lots of extravagantly dressed transvestites leading the parade, we both looked at each other in confusion, as we both had thought Colombia too conservative for this type of thing, but the crowds were loving it and everybody seemed to be having a good time!!

The area around the Candeleria is pretty dead, bogotans tend to head to the Zona Rosa (pink zone) where there are lots of restaurants and bars. It is quite posh, and they are not cheap , but we chose this as the place for our final dinner splurge, we chose WOK, an Asian restaurant, with some great sushi and tempura prawns, it was a really good way to bring our trip to its end.
Today we fly home from Bogota Airport to London Stansted Airport (via Madrid Airport and with a five hour stopover there), so our 18 month trip is nearly over.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246380763/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246380763/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1246380763/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:25:25 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Parque Tayrona, Magdalena, Colombia

We packed some days packs and shared a cab with a lovely couple from Holland to Tayrona which is roughly and hour away, on arrival we paid the 31,000 pesos (9 pounds) each entrance fee which we all thought was extortion but being in a taxi the driver was able to take us a further 6 KM into the park until the road was no longer and people with horses wait to take you if you want to your destination, we all decided to walk having had the luxury of driving up to this spot and to be honest it was a lovey walk, not at all strenuous just a little hot being the middle of the day, we arrived at Arrecifes which is the first and beautiful spot with hammocks and tents but the beach there is to dangerous to swim, we decided to push on to Cabo another bay roughly and hour along which is the highlight of the park, along the way we passed La piscina another beach bay where you can swim but cant stay as there is no space really and the next bay is Cabo. Beautiful, but on arrival being later in the day the hammocks where gone and we were forced to take an over priced tent at 40,000 pesos (12 pounds) This hammock unfortunately was not water proof and yes it rained a little whilst eating dinner, the beds were wet and nothing we could do. We decided to indulge in some overpriced beers and drunkenly fall into bed hoping it would be a little better, by the morning the tents where boiling and at 6.00am we took our beach towel and sat and swam in the cool waters of the Caribbean. The surrounding is very beautiful, large big boulders and rocks with palm trees and clear waters, it was a small paradise but over priced, over populated and in our opinion not the second most beautiful beach in the world as it has been named.

We decided another night in the tent was a no no and negotiated a boat back for a small sum and on our return journey nearly had a heart attack with us flying over waves and pounding back down on the water.

We made it alive and jumped in a cab to Santa Marta where we are to spend our last days on the coast before heading home.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245613247/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245613247/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245613247/tpod.html Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:59:14 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Cartagena, Colombia

Well needless to say flying in two hours to Cartagena which would have taken otherwise two days on the bus was a wise and more comfortable was a wise decision, landing by plane gave us an oversight of the city and what stood out (we realise later) was called La Boca, a long stretch of thin land which lots of high rise buildings along it, then we landed the first thing we noticed arriving mid day was the HEAT.... wow intensive, strong and lovely!

We headed to the hostel Casa Viena which the taxi driver knew with ¨mucho gusto¨ (with pleasure) but they were full, thankfully the area was rammed pack full off hostels in the area called Getsemeni which is located outside the historical city walls meaning accommodation is considerably cheaper!

Within the walls of the historical center we were blown away with the beautiful thin cobbled streets with the original (or original style) architecture, bright colours of the buildings and rich plants and flowers draping over balcony's with dark skinned locals some even wearing traditional outfits which seem to be colouful fabrics and patterns! Wow are we in Africa or Colombia?

Cartagena is not so big and certainly walkable, and to be honest it is the nicest way to see the city or you could opt to take the many horse and carriages they offer, very romantic. Everything inside the city is quite expensive, accommodation, (there are many five star hotels and plentiful of boutique hotels) fancy restaurants and shops.

There are other areas to the city such as La boca which is where the resorts are based and generally more expensive accommodation but surprisingly cheaper restaurants and where we are based in Getsemani which is a little bit dodgy, full of characters and smelly.

There are beaches which are walking distance but they are left to be desired and in La boca there are a better selection but you need a cab to get there or a mini bus. Jon and I had decided that after a few days relaxing in hot Cartagena we would jump on a boat trip to see the Isla del Rosario ( an array of island south of Cartagenta) and on the way back it stops at a beautiful beach called Playa Planca ( white beach) where we would jump off and stay for a few nights.

Isla del Rosario unfortunately had torrential rain and meant all was not worth it and to be honest like everywhere else in the world whilst on the boat they try to rape you of money for services you dont really want.

When we finally arrived at playa blanca we were over the moon, the sand was white as ever and thin grains with a beautiful ocean of blue and green water which was warm, unfortunately there were a hundreds of touts who headed straight for us offering services such as massages for 7 pounds, crap jewelry for rip off prices and prawns and anything else you could imagine. crazy! But with the good comes the bad! after a day or so they soon left us a alone thank goodness and let us enjoy our time on what was paradise to us. This truly has to be one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen in our lives, infact the second best, the first being in Vietnam on the island of Phu Cok. We spent four nights here and opted for a Cabana which had a mossy net over two single beds in a little huts with sand floors and a window but no toilet and the only other place being a hut a few establishments down which charged a mill per use(3 mill is a pound). We couldn`t complain too much though, we were in paradise with good company, delicious fish lunch's and dinner which happened to always be accompanied by rice, patacones (fried Plantan) and a small salad and to be frank became a little tiresome but constantly delicious. There was a little area north of the beach which had snorkeling so 5mill to rent a snorkel for an hour which leaked we saw some amazing tropical fish of many vivid colours, shapes and forms. The beach is rustic with only a generator at night for a few hours in our place not all the places had generators, no showers and not a great selection of food.

All sun kissed and others a little red we headed back on the same boat with a new gang off people from all over, a few from England a guy who was a perfect Italian stereotype called Gweedy and just hilarious, a German, an American and a Dutch. We had pizza for dinner unfortunately not at our favorite restaurant as the price bracket was a little over for everyone which made us realise that we have kind of stopped fully traveling like backpackers and on the verge of flash packers! Being the last month of our trip we have let go a little, a year and a half of living out of a backpack and carrying the bloody thing constantly have lead us to start taking cabs and eating in nicer establishments other wises it truly is fried chicken and fresh juices as the only real option. We are looking forward to heading home now too being that its so close we find that all we do is talk about it and think about it. Unfortunately. Anyway Pizza was still OK although not our favorite place and the following day planned to visit a town north of Cartagena which has a volcano which is live and only 15 meters above of the ground although its 200 meters deep and in the volcano is a mud bath! So you need your bikini or swimming clothes which happened to be in the laundry having come back from Playa Blanca where we hadn`t showered for four days, well luckily we were able to change it to the following day and chill out instead.

When we finally did go to the volcano mud bath, we were surprised by the size which we can never show you as we forgot our camera but i`ll have a search for one on the Internet. We climbs in which was a very strange sensation because you float and its very difficult to move around, actually quite funny! Would definitely recommend the mud volcano to all but be prepared for the not so nice lagoon you clean yourself in after. yuck.

We finally are leaving Cartagena which is a place that feels as though we have spent forever in and heading to Taganga to visit the Tayrona national park another beautiful beach!



]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245614170/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245614170/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245614170/tpod.html Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:52:38 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Cali, Colombia

The bus journey was long and tiring, especially as we were both feeling under the weather, though the scenery was extremly picturesque. When we arrived in Cali, at around 6pm, I stupidly left my jacket on the bus, so had to chase the bus into the depot to try and track it down, unfortunately there were loads of buses from the same company, and I could not find the one we had used, so in vain, headed to the office, the man there helped me out and called the depot, tracking down the jacket for me, which we picked up on the way to our hostel. The hostel was difficult to find, a taxi driver turned out not to know the way around his own city, and also the hostel had moved from the address we had in the lonely planet, the new location was located in the posh part of Cali, looking something like California, really smart , lots of white washed modern buildings, not what we had expected at all. We had a really nice meal at a gourmet pizza restaurant, not far from the hostel, and went to bed. Both of us were feeling ill, I was feeling better than I had done in Pasto, though Daniella had started to feel ill too, getting a rash and having headaches. So we decided to go to the doctor and find out what was wrong with us. We found out there was a clinic not far from the hostel, so made our way there. It cist about 20000 pesos, or 7 pounds for the appointment, which is not bad as this is a private clinic, although unfortunately there was still a long wait to see the doctor. SO we were checked over speaking in Spanish to the docotr, as they did not speak much English, the doctor said we should have a blood test, then after the test, it was another 2 hours of waiting before the results were ready. On being called in, the doctor told us the results looked like dengue fever, so the second time for Daniella and the first time for me, unfortunately the doctor also informed us that there is no cure, only keep taking paracetemol, drink lots of fluids and rest, which we had been doing anyway. So we did not have the oppurtunity to enjoy the best of Cali during our stay, as this is a city famous for its nightlife, the pair of us not really feeling up for nights of barcrawling. We did book our flight out of Cali, we are flying to Cartagena via Bogota, then flying back to Bogota from Santa Marta. We are fed up with long bus journeys, so its plane the rest of the way for us! One Cali attraction we did not miss was the city zoo, billed as Colombias best zoo. There was a good variety of animals on display, I particularly liked the ostrichs, they are very tall up close, but have such a small head they must be pretty stupid, it was interesting watching them interact with each other. Cali is extremly hot, especially around lunchtime, it gets to around 34 degrees, best to keep in the shade and the air conditioning, It was a big shame that we could not enjoy the best of Cali nightlife, but we are both looking forward to spenidng the bulk of our time in Colombia, on the Caribbean coast.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245612161/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245612161/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1245612161/tpod.html Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:56:05 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Pasto, Colombia

So leaving Quito early in the morning, we took a bus towards the border with Colombia. It took about 5 hours and was a little boring, around lunchtime we arrived at the border town, where we had to change into a taxi for the onward 5 km joruney to the Ecuadorian- Colombian (our last land border crossing off our journey) as we passed into our final country, Colombia. Formalities at the border were simple, and we made our way to the border town on the Colombian side of the border, both towns were windswept and cold, the scenery around here is mountainous and rugged. We had time to have a quick lunch before taking a collectibvo the nearest big city Pasto. On the way, we practiced our Spanish speaking to a really friendly Colombian woman, apparently Colombians like to talk, so far we can see this is true.

Arriving in Pasto, we stayed at the towns only hostel, nice enough without any frills. Pasto is quite a large city, but is not the most interesting of places. The town does not have many nice restaurants, lots of places selling fried chicken, a dish Colombians seem to be obsessed by, a particular nasty variation on this dish that we saw advertised around town, is a gigantic plate of fried rice containing the shittiest and cheapest bits of meat in, topped with an entire roast chicken. Foul. ANyway unfortunately, I (Jon) started to feel ill whilst in Pasto, and we were forced to stay here longer than we had expected. I had really bad fever, lots of bad headaches, so was mostly confined to our room in the hostel watching Fox news and other other American cable programmes. SO we did not really see that much of the city of Pasto, not that there really was much to see. After about 3 days of being here, Daniella had got so fed up with the place, that she demanded that we continue our journey to the next destination, Cali, a long 10 hour bus journey away. I would not recommend visiting Pasto, as it is quite crap.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1243396800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1243396800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1243396800/tpod.html Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:07:25 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Quito, Ecuador

wThe long journey to the capital city of Ecuador ended in the evening when we pulled into Quito´s shabby bus terminal ( when compared to other Latin American capitals). It was late and we had been warned that Quito can sometimes be not the worlds safest capital, so we stayed in a place very close by, on Plaza San Francisco, in the almost deserted city centre district of Quito. This area is , according to the Lonely Planet, the safer area to stay in Quito, but when we walked around, it felt quite dangerous as it was so deserted. Eventually we found somewhere to eat , but there were very few places open at night . The following day, we set out to explore the city, walking around the Mariscal Sucre (this area is supposed to be the dangerous one) , it seemed fine to us, around here there were plenty of eating places, bars etc.
Quito is famous for being very close to the line of the Equator, and we set off to visit 2 of the museums that honour it in the afternoon. The first is called Mitad del Mundo ( half of the world) its a cheesy , commercial craphole, that doesnt really contain any attraction worthy of interest or that could possibly justify its 2 dollar entry fee , a real disappointment, the only highlight of our trip was getting our photo taken with 1 foot in the northen hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere. Or so we thought.....So the next stop was a smaller museum round the back of the mitad del mundo. Here we learnt that the modern wonders of GPS had behond doubt proved that this museum was the actual sight of the line of the equator , oh well, who would quibble over 100 metres or so. This smaller museum had some very interesting displays highlighting the geographical properties of being on the equator, these include:
- You cant walk in a straight line with your eyes crossed on the equator
- Water doesnt drain anticlockwise or clockwise on the equator, it just goes down
- its easier to balance an egg on a nail here than in other parts of the world. .
So we have now stood on both equator lines, the second museum was really worthwhile, i would recommend it if I knew its name, I think it has an Indian sounding name. That evening we went out for a Thai meal in the Mariscal, there were so many restaurants to choose from, we were spoiled for choice. Thai food , in Ecuador, is not bad, its not amazing, just OK. We had lots of different things, my Pad thai was OK. Daniella's spring rolls and her satay chicken were better. All in all, Quito was not one of my favourite South American capitals, there was not so much there that really grabbed me , its not bad if your just passing through but I would not say that its worth making a specific trip to see it. That evening we took a trip down to the bus station to book our tickets to the Colombian border, it went off without a hitch, apart from some crazy bus ticket touts screaming their destinations at us....chill the fuck out guys. Ecuador...done.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1243137600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1243137600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jon-daniella/globetrotting08/1243137600/tpod.html Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:57:13 -0400 You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right right round round ......the globe!!!

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Puerto Lopez, Ecuador

Well we arrived and found the Colombia villa reccomended by Gaby and headed out for some food before arranging the following day visit to the national parque 10k north of the town which a beautiful beach. Being a national parque we were reccomended to take food an in the morning found a local takeaway of rice and meat with gravy that come in little tubs and are often delicious snacks when traveling on bus.

Unfortunalty in the morning Jon and I had an arguement and meant that we didn't spend the day together but I headed to the beach anyway while he sulked and thought about his wrong doings and actually he missed a beautiful beach that was so serene and perfect. Nobody there and nothing to spoil the beauty, the tuk tuk drivers waiting fortunatly because the beach is a little difficuly to reach took me back for a small price but rather annoyingly wanted to take me out for a drink and then I started to wish Jon was there. Well there were other travlers in the tukk tukk and we all met later with jon (who apologiesed ) on the beach for some drinks.

Short and sweet our time in Lopez and Quito it is tomorrow!
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Mancora, Peru

So here starts the story of our stay in Mancora, a beach resort in the far north of Peru, but before that, here is the eventful story of howwe got there. As usual in Peru, we were travelling by Cruz del Sur bus, we had booked in Arequipa, a bus from Arequipa to Lima, then a few hours later, we would take a another bus from Lima to Mancora. The bus left Arequipa as normal at around 7pm and the journey was uneventful until the early hours of the morning when the bus stopped on a random road and had not gone any further by the time every one had awoken at 7am, obviously there must have some reason for the non movement of the bus, well, on stepping out of the bus, you could see a long line of buses parked up infront of us, behind us and in the opposite direction. After a few hours, information eventually filtered back to us that there was a artesanal miners strike who had blocked the road as part of their nationwide strike, and would be doing so for the next 72 hours. Shit. So we waited, and waited, and waited, morning turned into afternoon, and we were still waiting by the roadside. It was almost carnival atmosphere around the buses, everybody was sitting around outside chatting, sharing the limited amount of available information, " Oh, Í have just heard we will be going in five minutes "etc etc. We took a walk down to the actual strike , it was only about 400 metres from our bus, there appeared to be a group of around 150 miners sitting in the around in the middle of the road, having placed large boulders in the middle of the road to ensure no vehicles could pass. Meanwhile reinforcements of riot police were arriving, so we hoped that a solution would soon be found, whether it meant moving the demonstrators forcefully or not. We spoke to a Peruvian guy who explained a bit more about the artesanal miners situation, basically the Peruvian government wants to ban illegal miners who dont work in proper mines, obviously these guys are upset at the prospect of the lost of their livelihood. Eventually at around 4.30pm , we were told to go back to our vehicles, and after only another 1 hour and a half, we were on our way back on the road. Thankfully we had not folowed the wishes of some of our fellow coach passengers who wanted to turn back and return to Arequipa. So we reached Lima at the shitty hour of 5am, about 18 hours after we should have . We had missed our bus to Mancora , and to wait until 3pm that afternoon to catch the next bus. This meant we had a few more hours to kill Lima than we had expected , we had another great lunch of jarea (battered seafood) in the same restaurant that we had gone to before, then went back to the bus station for the more uneventful journey to Mancora, which we reached the next morning.

Mancora, well, the first thing you notice arriving from the south and centre of Peru, is the heat, its hot. Really hot. So it was off with jumpers and knitted wool garments , so necessary in the peruvian Andes, and on with the t-shirts and shorts. Nice. We found a place to stay a little bit back from the beach but at a pretty good price, and very comofrtable. So what is there to do in Mancora, a lot of the activity revolves around the towns beach, which is very pretty, but not spectacular. The water here is quite cold, and the wind often made it seem even colder, but there was a good selection of food available. There are lots of restaurants around the town, our particular favourite was this place in a white and green painted wood building on the beach. The lady there prepared a good range of salads and tuna dishes, including great tuna sashimi. Tuna here is readily available at a very cheap price, which we took advanatage of. It was nice to spend a few days chilling beachside and to enjoy a bit of hot weather after the cooler climates in the Andes. I would definetly recommend Mancora as a place to visit, it is very affordable in terms of eating out and hostels, as Peru generally is quite cheap, though unfortunately for foreign holidaymakers prices are rising. Our next stop , after Mancora , will be Montanita in Ecuador so we have purchased tickets for the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. The beach is quite wild and undeveloped here, there are very few big buildings along the coast, which makes a nice change from usual overdevelopement. We were lucky enough to see a couple of pelicans just resting on the beach. We got quite close (about 3m) and they were not frightened at all, then we saw them fly off, they are very beautiful birds.
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