TravelStream™ news feed for member steveanderson on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/steveanderson en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 19 May 2005 18:20:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1115227680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1115227680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1115227680/tpod.html Thu, 19 May 2005 18:20:53 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Folkestone, United Kingdom

So, back home again now- unfortunately my plan to return home and avoid the winter weather has not quite worked out and its freezing cold here as I write this!!I hope that my blog has perhaps inspired those of you who have not yet taken the plunge to go travelling to consider the options- S.America is an amazing Continent to travel around full of spectacular scenery, amazing contrasts and on the whole friendly warm people and I would thoroughly recommend it.I've enjoyed writing this (though at times it was the last thing I wanted to find time to do!) and I hope that you've had fun following my adventures...Now...where to next??!!Adios amigos, Hasta Luego..... :-)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1114879920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1114879920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1114879920/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 13:27:59 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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New York, New York, United States

Arrived in New York to find that not only had my hotel booking not been reserved but that there were NO rooms in Manhatten as there was a massive bike race in NY the following day!! Not a good start but after threatening to sleep in the reception I eventually got a room in a sister hotel 5 hours later!!New York was awesome, amazing, spectacular....everything I'd imagined it would be and more!! As I only had a few days here I had to work hard to see as much as I could.... fortunately, the underground served me well and with my MetroCard I was able to pack in most of the sights- Statue of liberty, Ellis Island, Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, City Hall, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Times Square and Central Park to name but a few! You can see why New Yorkers wouldn't want to live anywhere else, even after the events of 9/11.Most of the New Yorkers I met were really great people, very proud of their Country and their State unlike most of us here in the UK!! As well as all of the sights I managed to squeeze in a Broadway play- "Shockheaded Peter" which although wasnt a traditional all singing all dancing show it was very dark and off the wall....Security was very tight to enter any of the major sights as you'd expect (even more so than the airports!)which made for some long queues but is unfortunately necessary in todays climate. And so four days in NY passed in the blink of an eye and before I knew it I was back in JFK airport waiting for my flight back to the UK :-(
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1113837420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1113837420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1113837420/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 12:50:35 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Merida, Venezuela

Arrived back in Caracas just in time to hop onto the night bus to Merida which is THE adventure-sports capital in South America and also boasts the Worlds highest and longest cable car system. so it had to be amazing....and it was!!Spent the first day orienting ourselves but not to let the grass grow under our feet, we booked a four day trip to Los Llanos departing at 6.30am the next morning!Los Llanos is a huge plain savannah south of the Andes...our guide for the trip, Alan, was one of the most knowledgeable guides we had on our entire trip! He was also a VERY keen butterfly collector and would suddenly stop the mini bus without warning to point out a rare breed!! The trip itself was awesome- we stayed in accommodation ranging from a home stay on the river to the tour companys own riverside accommodation which was almost 4 star! There were many memorable events such as getting up at 5am and tracking down a giant ant eater....going out in a canoe late in the night and Alan wrestling a giant Anaconda from the river bank into the boat...tubing down the river in a giant tyre over grade 4 rapids! On our return to Merida it was time to check out the teleferico! Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side and we lost sight of the ground before we got to the top of the first stage (there are four stages to get to the top!)By the time we made it to the top (Pico Espejo 4765M!)it was freezing cold and drizzling but we were rewarded with glimpses of the valleys below. Fortunately we didn't find out till later that last year the cable snapped on the last stage snapping the car in two and all the tourists plummeting to their deaths!Our plan was then to go back down one stage to Loma Redonda and hike 6 hours to Los Nevados, a lovely mountain village at 2700M stay there overnight and get a jeep back into Merida the next day. Fortunately the weather improved for a while on the way to Los Nevados and and we were treated to some magnificent scenery....Unfortunately, this wasn't to last and by the time we reached the village it was chucking it down and we were very tired and wet!! We did find a very rustic B&B overlooking the tiny village square for £2.50 including dinner! The village suffered a power cut soon after we arrived so it was an early night after dinner... The next morning we tracked down a jeep to take us on a breathtaking cliff side hugging 4 hour trip back to Merida!During the following days we went paragliding from Las Gonzales a breathtaking 850 mtre 40 minutes flight down from the top, and canyoning- climbing, rappelling and hiking down a river canyon (including a 35 mtre waterfall!!)All too soon it was time to head back to Caracas on the night bus for a few days rest and last minute shopping before I was off to my final destination before my return home- New York!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1113133980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1113133980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1113133980/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 08:49:14 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Los Roques, Venezuela

From Caripe we headed along the coast to stay at a remote beach town called playa Colorada for a few days... made the mistake of going out for dinner at 9pm on the day we arrived only to find that everything was already closed!! It was good to relax here for a couple of days but it was just too quiet! Next stop was Caracas- the bustling capital of Venezuela. We stayed in a hotel in Sabana Grande area of the city- not a safe place to go out after dark but it was cheap- only £3.50 per night with en-suite air con & TV! This was to be our base for my remaining time in Venezuela to explore the beautiful archipelago of Los Roques and the adventure sports capital of the Continent Merida.Los Roques consists of around 40 main islands plus about another 250 islets and it didn't disappoint- though the costs of staying on the island was a bit of a shock after Caracas however after shopping around we found a posada with bed, breakfast and evening meal which didn't blow the budget! We feasted on freshly caught Barracuda every night!! On our first afternoon on Gran Roque- the main island we got our bearings and booked a 4 day dive with a local diving centre. The diving here was superb, the only downside being that it was the windy season and we had to go out into rough sea for the best dives! We minimized this painful experience by kitting up before leaving the relative calm of the headland but it was fairly gruelling getting in & out of the water- especially on day 2 when our dive master announced that his regulator wasn't working just as we were all kitted up and ready to go so we had to head back to base to get another....!! The fish and coral were amazing- saw moray eels, trumpet fish, stingrays, barracudas etc and the visibility was fantastic for the most part!The other highlight of Gran Roque were the pelicans- hundreds of them! From dawn till dusk they were fishing spotting their prey from above, then dive bombing them in the crystal clear waters scooping them up in their huge beaks while other less able birds tried to steal their catch from their mouths!! It was a magnificent sight, especially at sunset....After 5 days here we headed back to Caracas...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1111612080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1111612080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1111612080/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 07:43:20 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Manaus, Brazil

Back on dry land- but not for long.... decided it was a good idea to spend a couple of days in the Amazon jungle while we were here! By the time we were only an hour out of Manaus, the heavens opened and we were treated to one of the most spectacular storms I´ve ever seen! Our captain decided that it was unsafe to continue at this point so we had to shelter on the shore for an hour or so until the storm subsided (we were later told that a few months ago 20 boats were sunk on the Amazon in similar conditions and many lost their lives as these pleasure boats have very low decks and are flooded easily!)The jungle trek was amazing- the first day we spent the night in hammocks on deck having spent the day piranha fishing amongst other things and in the evening we were out catching alligators! (this was achieved by hypnotizing them by torchlight then pulling them out of the water!) On the second night we spent a memorable night sleeping in the jungle...we slung our hammocks between trees before nightfall then a local bushman lit a camp fire on which he cooked chickens in the traditional way on sticks in the fire- delicious if somewhat undercooked!The following morning we were up at 5.30 as we had to get back to Manaus for the 6pm night bus to our next destination... stopping on the way to visit an indigenous village and paddling a longboat along some of the backwaters to spot some of the wildlife!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1112217060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1112217060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1112217060/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 07:23:46 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Orinocho, Venezuela

This morning we arrived at Tabule and eventually got off on our Delta tour by around 2 pm....although we were on a small boat, we were stocked up with food, beer and cuba libras!! Within 30 mins of being on board, the drinks were flowing and lunch was served- it doesn't get much better than cruising down the Orinicho in style!The Orinocho was very narrow compared to the Amazon so afforded us great views of the jungle and wildlife along the riverbank....we stopped at a couple of villages along the way where we met many of the indigenous peoples living there in much the same way as they did 100 years ago! Some of the families were having a special treat for dinner- turtle! It looked pretty disgusting- a grey liquid soup with yams and bits of turtle floating in it including scraggy neck and head!! Later that afternoon, we stopped at our camp for the night- a primitive structure built by the local Indians and soon local kids were visiting us by boat to check us out with kids as young as 5 rowing boats on their own!! We had a great evening chatting with the families- they have no idea of their age or where they live in relation to S.America or the rest of the world!! A few of us ended the evening with a canoe trip along a small tributary in the smallest canoe in the world! The water was at the very top edge of the boat and threatened to sink us with just one false move....when the torches were out it was an amazing experience with just the sounds of the jungle and the moonlight poking through the canopy!! After a comfortable nights sleep in hammocks, we were awoken by the sound of howler monkeys which sound like a huge dinosaur rampaging through the jungle- you would never guess they only small monkeys! Next was a trek through the jungle...saw many different trees and plants and sampled jungle coconuts which were like tiny coconuts with a single serving of coconut juice inside! We made camp at a site further down the river the following night and managed to catch a baby alligator! The following day, we had to head straight back to Tabule as we were hoping to get to Caripe by nightfall to catch the birds flying out of their cave there to go hunting. However, after a mammoth 4X4 drive we didn't make it to Caripe till around 9pm so after collapsing into bed we didn't make it to the cave till the next morning....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1111884660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1111884660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1111884660/tpod.html Fri, 13 May 2005 07:08:08 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Santa Elena, Venezuela

Bienvenidos Venezuela! Crossed the border into Venezuela via Santa Elena after the night bus to Boa Vista.First thing to see was the Gran Sabana (a vast rolling grassy highland dominated by Tepuis) so we booked a two day trip which would allow us to travel further into the park. It was a spectacular trip where we saw some amazing water falls and scenery...the first day we walked behind a huge waterfall in our socks (not a fashion statement but a necessity to stop us slipping on the rocks!!)which was a really amazing experience...to reach the other side we had to climb under a part of the rock face- the power of the waterfall in your face was awesome! The second day of the trip was even more fantastic with more wonderful falls to marvel at and swim in!That night we caught the nightbus to CD Bolivar which was eventful as usual- this time my mate Sean got robbed of all his cash while he slept! Unfortunately the boat trip to the Angel Falls wasn't going to happen as the dry season is upon us and we would be carrying our boat around more than we would be sitting in it, so we had to make do with booking a flight to visit the national park in Canaima then flying over the falls.... the Canaima National Park was worth visiting with its spectacular falls and the flight over the Angel Falls was truly spectacular although the falls were trickling rather than gushing....the weather was closing in and flying through the clouds in a tiny Cessner over the thick jungle was awesome!The next morning we were up early to get into some amazing old cabs to our next destination- the Orinocho Delta!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1116531480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1116531480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1116531480/tpod.html Thu, 07 Apr 2005 17:59:16 -0400 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Belem, Brazil

We departed Belem at around 6pm for our 5 day cruise down the Amazon which was just what we needed after all the rushing around for the past few months! Our cabins were tiny with no en suite but at least they just about fitted a sink inside! Looking at life along the Amazon, it was easy to imagine that we had been transported back in time... families living in wooden or adobe houses completely self reliant and unaware of the modern world (although there were one or two with generators and satellite TV!!)On the upper deck, there was a bar where local music blared out from what must be the worst sound system in S.America! A local millionaire was on board with some of his chums- he wanted to experience travelling along the Amazon "slumming it" with the locals to experience the way they travelled (though they did have cabins on the top deck complete with en suite bathrooms while the locals were on deck for the whole trip sleeping in hammocks!). He even brought his own TV onboard which he took with him when he got off half way to Manaus to catch a flight back to Belem!All in all it was a fantastic 5 days though dont ask me where the time went!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1110743220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1110743220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1110743220/tpod.html Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:32:33 -0500 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Cabure, Brazil

A picturesque 5 hour 4X4 drive from Jerry took us to Parnaiba from where we took a fantastic day trip on the Delta- unfortunately no animals (just a few monkeys!) but a great day chilling on the boat and good practice for our upcoming Amazon cruise! After a 2 hour cab ride from Parnaiba on some of the worst roads in Brazil (we managed to miss our bus so the cabs were the only alternative unless we wanted to wait till midday for the next one which was not a popular choice as we were up at 5.30am!!)we picked up another 4X4 for a fabulous trip through the jungle and remote villages to Cabure...the only way to get to this place was by boat or 4X4 so it was the perfect place to relax! We stayed in fantastic bungalows with hammocks outside- perfect!! You would expect a place like this to be expensive but no- fab fish dinner for only around $3 each! Had a long walk along the remote beach with Belinda seeing nobody else along the shore for miles...The next morning we were up early to depart this paradise by boat to our next destination- Barreirinhas!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1110323340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1110323340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/steveanderson/s.america_2004/1110323340/tpod.html Thu, 24 Mar 2005 18:45:02 -0500 South America Here I Come!! :-) "The more you know the world, the more you know yourself..."

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Jericoaracoara, Brazil

After another night bus via Fortaleza (it has to be said that this was the worst one yet as almost all of the journey was across unmade roads which made sleeping or reading or anything impossible!) we arrived at the most remote of our stops so far! The final part of our journey was by a special overland bus as the regular bus would be unable to negotiate the sand dunes!This was a beautiful fishing village which although has been commercialised still retains its charm as there are no roads and no hotels, just small pousadas run by the locals! Booked another buggy trip here to explore some of the lagoons.....
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