TravelStream™ news feed for member nikgill on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nikgill en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:26:07 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178888400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178888400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178888400/tpod.html Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:26:07 -0400 Costa Rica and Peru

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Iquitos, Peru

Today we woke up a bit later because of the nite trek and took a walk through a part of the jungle where we could learn about all the natural medicnes that existed here. 80% of the worlds oxygen and cures apparently both come from the jungle so we were stopping every coule of minutes to learn something new. We put on natural mosquito repellent from one plant and then natural anaesthetic from another. After a few of the guys got their faces painted, we all drank fresh water straight from a log... crazy or what?!

After the walk we did some shopping from the local sit down market where Nial kept on attacking me with a blow gun lol. THen we packed our stuff and headed back to our hostel. There were no major incidents on the way back although when it came to giving our names and passport numbers on the bus on the way home we put stuff like "your mum" and "the rest of the family" - no one could read english so we didn't get found out lol. Once we got back into town grahan decided to buy every kid in the street an ice cream. It was a really nice gesture and before we knew it we were swamped with kids (the word had got around!). I had enough to buy the rest some and we made sre that they were all going to school and saying no to drugs before we left. lol

We all hit the showers straight away and then went out top a really nice pizza place to fatten up again. Really glad to be clean (I took two showers in a row today!). N x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178802000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178802000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178802000/tpod.html Wed, 13 Jun 2007 07:42:04 -0400 Costa Rica and Peru

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Iquitos, Peru

Today, I woke up really early. I couldn't wait for the sun to come up after a night of mayhem! An hour after I fell asleep there was a huge scream. Was it a snake? A tarantula maybe? No... it was just a cockroach in the girl's tent! The tent was bouncing all over the place and flashlights were going off UFO style. Chuckling to myself once they had sorted things out, I went to bed. It was sooo uncomfortable tho! After bottling the idea of a hammock due to mosquitoes being able sting us from the bottom, I was stuck in my own private tent. It was safe but at the same time I was sleeping directly on a hard wooden floor with no sleeping bag... just the sleep lining that I had packed... and then... just as I was semi-comfortable, Niall unzipped the door to my tent and asked "how's the tent? Any good?" - that was Niall's way of saying "I'm sick of mosquitoes biting me, can I sleep in your tent." - without trying to make himself sound stupid! Chuckling again, I let Niall in and we all fell asleep. Finally! Anyways, moving onto today...

Our boat trip today started so good. We rowed for about an hour before reaching the 'black water'. This is where all the piranha hang out. We fished piranha for a further hour using basic rods. It took me 15mins but then I eventually caught one. Then the floodgates opened so to speak and I must have caught six in total. A really funny thing that happened was that upon passing Niall a fishing rod about 30 mins in a piranha jumped up onto the hook and was caught straight away. The piranha must be so damn hungry to be leaping out of the water to catch lunch!

After fishing Pablo told me and Tove that we were going to take a 'short cut' home and yet see some extra wildlife. We went through several openings and eventually entered what looked like one of the main rivers. We asked Pablo generally where we were and he didn't reply. Me and Tove thought nothing of it but after ten minutes he hadn't said a word to us? Some guide eh... Tove asked him for the tenth time where we were and then I began filming our last memoirs on my video camera. This was mean't to be a joke in case we were lost but then out of nowhere Pablo uttered the words "possibly" in Spanish. "What du mean...possibly?", I said. He just said possibly again though. After losing faith in Pablo's direction skills I had stopped rowing we floating for another five minutes before he began to slash trees to remember the way. That was the final straw. If a man hasn't admitted that he's lost to you and he's slashing trees then he's definitely lying! We told him we wanted to go back and after arguing for several minutes he put his oar down and said "fine". This was his way of saying - row yourselves! Smacking him with my oar would have felt good but wouldn't have been productive. Tove said she had remembered most of the way and between us we had a more the 50 - 50 chance of getting back before it got dark. We needed to get back before it got dark as that is when all the crocs and tarantulas come out to play! Tove had lost her oar when we crashed into an earlier bush and with Pablo on protest (or something along those lines?) - I rowed 15 km against the stream by myself. It was really tough but Tove kept me motivated by teaching me Swedish and telling me some really bad jokes. Then Tove rowed a couple of kilometres before passing me back the oar for the final few km. When we made it bacj there were big hugs all round. I didn't talk to Pablo though, I don't think anyone did!


After that 'adventure', me and the guys played soccer with the local villagers in the marsh! With bogs everywhere this was quite a challenge. We all did surprisingly well to dodge the fierce two footed challenges and we left feeling we had earned the respect of the locals (some a lot more than others).

A few hours after dark Pablo came across to us with some make believe story about how if we had carried on his way we would have been back quicker. There was no point in arguing with him as we had another day of Pablo after this so we just pretended to believe him!

We also had a night trek today but my flashlight had stopped working. It mean't that I trapsed round the jungle without one and I was so freaking out inside my head! Everyone else remained pretty cool though...looking for tarantulas at every corner! I think I was the only one glad that we didn't come across one! One cool thing to note was that mushrooms glow in the dark. We all turned our flashlights off and the jungle just seemed to light up with them! We came across a number of creepy crawlies but nothing too major.

Tonight I've placed my mattress on top of a bed in order to make it much more comfy and boy is it comfy! God this entry has been long, I'll do my best to keep my next few as brief as possible lol. Take care guys. N xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1177333200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1177333200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1177333200/tpod.html Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:52:02 -0400 Costa Rica and Peru

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The Car Crash in Turrialba, Costa Rica

hi guys, today was the most scariest day of my life. I was involved in a major car crash involving 8 ppl. I was on a mini bus with 6 others and halfway to the river our driver fell asleep and we crashed head on into a huge truck/ lorry. We had no seatbelts so everyone flew all over the place. As we crashed I decided to keep down and cross my fingers, hoping that i'd be ok. The next thing I knew a woman was wailing really loud and a guy had his blood all over me and the opposite window.

Our driver broke both his legs and the local police had to cut him out of our vehicle. Another woman broke her collar bone and three others sustained serious physical injuries. Somehow I managed to get away with just a few scratches so I was able to help a guy out of the car and move him to safety. It took a gd few hours to get x-rayed and I was relieved to get an all clear. Have them with me now just in case they missed something and I can get them checked out in England (June).

The local police say that if we clipped the truck then we would all have gone over the cliff edge so I have to thank Jesus that i'm alive talking to you guys now.

I only arrived less than 24 hours ago so this has shook me up quite a bit. I had booked into a hostel and was on one my to go white water rafting.

Am treating everyday as a blessing and i'd like to pass on my best wishes to all the guys who were on the mini bus.

After this crash and having to check back to the hostel not really knowing any1 yet I'm missing my family and close friends quite a bit.

I hope everyone is doin' well and keeping safe out there. If any1 is making a trip to Costa Rica then make sure the transport has SEATBELTS before you go. I would be distraught if anyone got hurt in this way.

I'm gonna spend a while working out whether i'm gonna carry on with all the excursions I have planned as not sure if I can trust the drivers that much. Will have to call home and think things thru.

Anyways, love you all and just wanted to let you guys know that i'm doin' ok. Hope to hear everyone's news soon. miss you all and take care guys, Nik xxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178708400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178708400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1178708400/tpod.html Sat, 09 Jun 2007 10:50:55 -0400 Costa Rica and Peru

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Iquitos, Peru

We arrived in Iquitos a couple of days back and today we start our jungle trip.  We were up and ready by 7 and waiting for our guide to turn up.  The previous day he had introduced himself as Gregory.. but being a native from the jungle we all assumed this was a blatant lie!  After a couple of mins we managed to get his real name out of his, which was Estaba. 

Some people maybe familiar with the south american soccer player Pablo Escobar - who scored an own goal for colubia during the world cup and was shot byu a fan on his return home.  We proceded to call Estaba, "Pablo" for the rest of the journey and I actually think he liked it!  

Anyways, it got to half seven and then eight - and then pablo finally arrived at our hostel (the hobo hideout).  He explained how it was raining and that he woke up to find his home flooded.  We did not know whether he was just a seriously unlucky guy or a proper scam artist but i'm sure u'll reach our own conclusions when experiencing the next couple of days!

There was another girl who was coming with us that we did not know.  Her name was Tove and she was from Sweden.  The reason why she had come was that she was told that there were three swedish guys signed up for this trip.  With me english, Graham Scottish and Niall Irish... Pablo was blatantly upto his lying again!  Some ppl have no shame.

So finally, we took a three wheeler to the bus station where we grabbed a local bus to the dock.  I tried to grab some sleep but the roof was leaking on my face!  After half hour I got used to it and had a good snooze.  The bus journey was supposed to be two hours yet we stopped after what seemed like just one (not sure cos I was dozing).  We were leaking oil and had broken down?!

We grabbed all our stuff and stood on the side of the road to hitchhike the rest of the way.  I didn't mind the wait as when you decide to travel cheap you realise these sorts of things just happen all the time!  after 20 mins a small open top van stopped and agreed to take us to the dock.  I was happy for the lift but wasn't filled with confidence from the large dent in the front and a suspected crack on the windscreen.  The other sad thing is that he had to offload all his stuff offa the back and make his wife sit on the side of the road to protect it till he got back?!God knows how much money Pablo gave him to leave his wife helpless on an empty stretch of road for four hours but I doubt it was much! lol.

From there you would assume it would be a safe trip to the dock? No way pedro!  The van proceded to break down both up and down the hills that were to follow.  Me, Niall and another random hitch hiker had to push start the van and then jump into the back in bobsled formation (think back to cool runnings!).  It was dodgy but after a few hours we were at the dock. 

We saw all these great boats lined up and not suprisingly ours was the least impressive of the entire lot! ha ha.  Another two hours pursued and we were in the jungle; settling into our lodging (a large shack!).  I couldn't believe we were going to live here for a short while and I was laughing histerically at our livving conditions (I laugh when i'm scared!).

We went for an hour trek through the jungle with rain pouring down.  It was designed to 'break us in' and it did just that.  Graham and Nial went mad with the mischetti's, slaying anything that grew!  Graham actually dropped his knife while slashing away, which scared the hell out of us when it was in mid-flight!  No-one was hurt tho... beside the trunk of the tree it became wedged in!  We walked through a cemetery, which I like the creepy vibe of and then through some quicksand which claimed one of my boots.  With so many leaches apparently dwelling in the mud, marsh and quicksand I was freeking out trying to whack it back on!

The guides made us costumes out of the plants such as hats and neckware and I actually felt 'part of the jungle'.  I'm not looking forward to sleeping here as it gets dark at 6pm and the mosquito's come out to play around 9pm! we stand no chance at all!  Will let you know how many hours exactly I sleep tonight... one would be nice! N x
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Lima, Peru

Hi guys, I arrived in Lima a few days ago and now there are a group of us that want to do the jungle in Iquitos. Our flights are booked but the actual jungle trip isn't (we all want to find the cheapest deal possible and stay away from the commercial tours). Should be mixing it up with the crocs in the next few days so will update you soon. N x
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Playa Tan Marindo, Costa Rica

After the stressful yet exhilarating past week I thought it was time to relax and hit the beach. I've spent the entire week waking up early and going for jogs in the sand... then going back to the beach in the afternoon for surf lessons and hitting a few bars in the evening. The locals have been really cool in getting to know. It has been nice and relaxing, which is exactly what the doctor ordered. Hopefully have something more exciting to report from Peru.

Love Nik xx
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Just outside the city, Costa Rica

So today I woke up very scared! It got to lunch time and my lift hadn't arrived for the jump... I thought I wouldn't have to do it today... but no such luck ;(. Then, finally my lift arrived with the other four English guys so no one was getting out of this one!

Watching the other guys go before brought forth a few chuckles. The first girl completely buckled! They gave her the count... 5,4,3,2,1 GO! Then she froze and grabbed hold of the railings again lol. She finally jumped on the third count and then the second girl needed to be pushed off the bridge! The next couple of guys from what I remember seemed to pause after the count and then jump a few seconds later. This gave me more confidence for when I was jumping lol.

My tactic was to jump during the count so as not to freeze. After all, the last thing you want is for everyone to gasp (which would put you off even more!). The feeling was totally surreal; god knows what can describe free falling from 80 metres? Plunging towards the rocks I was relieved when the bungee cord kicked in. I was going to scream with joy and then I realised that if I remained quiet I could hear the humming birds sing and the river flow peacefully. When you're suspended upside down it's the most tranquil feeling ever!

Anyways, that was today. Trust everyone is keeping safe either back at home or on their travels. Speak to you soon, Nik x

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San Jose, Costa Rica

hey everyone, think it's about time I wrote in the diary. Well, I spent a couple of days mulling over what had happened and possible options and the way I look at hongs now is that i'm lucky pretty lucky and should use this new lease of life to the full. I decided to turn down the refund for te White Water Rafting trip and go again. Sadly, the rest of the team could not make it and I'd like to say once again tha I hope they are all doing well in their respecive lives/ challeneges.

Today started out exactly the same as the crash apart from this time the journey was fine and we had arrived by 11am. I rowed with a new team of five - two americans, two germans and Luigi our instructor. One of the girls was nervous about the water (so why come?!) and told luigi to look after her. He proceeded to poke her with his oar and knock her in the water! ha ha, was hilarious. The best way to induct I reckon. The rafting was excellent and we rowed 20 miles in total; beginning at the pacific side of the Island and finishing on the Carribean side (in Puerta Vejo). The Pacure river is known as the third best river to raft outside of South Africa and boy was it fun! One of the guys had to stop rowing after ten minutes due to back problems but with Luigi guiding uis we managed to power thru it no problems.

Three hours into the rowing we hio a quiet spot so a couple of us got out for a swim before jumping back on for the rest of the adventure. After getting home today I feel glad that I buried my demons and feel tha a bungee jump is imminent. After all, I could gave gone in a crash the other day so why not leave this world jumping off a bridge?!

Much love, Nik xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1177754400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1177754400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/central-america/1177754400/tpod.html Sun, 03 Jun 2007 14:24:21 -0400 Costa Rica and Peru

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Turrialba, Costa Rica

Having just booked a bungee for tomo, I decided last night to do a volcano trek today. Volcano Turrialba was active last week so it seemed like now was the time to go and check it out! Me and my canadian friend Chris drove up to about 3.3 km above sea level and wlked to the giant craters from there. Having never been that high before was a complete shock to the system... I was completely oput of breath after 30 seconds of trekking!

It took twenty mintues before we were both aclimatised to where we were and then the views we saw from the top of the craters were brilliant. We went inside all but the active one as it was naturally banned from the public until things die down. We through rocks from the edge of the crater to see how deep they were but were then told by our guide that we had to go get them back?! Something to do with it not being their natural habitat? Well, It wasn't hard to spot the rocks as they were orange and the crater was largely grey;).

Usually this is where the story would end but there is one extra thing you guys will probrably want to laugh at me about so here goes...

... on the way down back to the van our guide says, "does anyone want an extra adventure". Chris replies yes and I said what the hey? Our guide then proceded the lift the barbed wire fence marking are opath and said we would run staright down the volcano instead. Before I could say... "whoa whoa whoa, let's think about this properly ppl"... chris and the guide were a quarter of the way down! So, I began to run and soon had built up alot of momentum from my sprinting background... this was not good! I was about 30 seconds from runniong into another barb wire fence so had to do something quickly. I thought that if I ran sideways then I would slow my down and not crash into the fence. Five seconds later I landed in a thrny bush! ... so to a small extent my plan had worked... I did after all avoid the barb wire! lol

I look at the scratches on my back but after the car accident I really couldn't care less about a couple of scratches. Needless to say the rest of the journey down I paced myself alot slower. About thirty minutes later... and several wise cracks about me walking down the volcano like an old woman... we all made it down and back into the car. YES, THANK GOD!

I'm doing the bungee tomo so know doubt they'll be another funny story to follow. Hope you all well, Nik x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/north-america/1177390800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/north-america/1177390800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nikgill/north-america/1177390800/tpod.html Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:14:38 -0400 San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and LA

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San Jose, California, United States

Hey guys, today was the day left the states and travelled to Costa Rica. It was very difficult to leave, especially after bonding so close to my cousin Jasmine. She wouldn't let go of me and I wouldn't let go of her too;(.

I won't see them again for another year but that's something I guess. The plane for Costa Rica is overnight so I'll let everyone know what's happening when I get to my hostel in the city centre. I have lots of cool stuff lined up so I'll be in touch soon with how things are going for me,

lots of love, Nik xx
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