TravelStream™ news feed for member theblakes on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/theblakes en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:43:32 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1257346139/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1257346139/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1257346139/tpod.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:43:32 -0500 South America 09: Ang and Ian leave the credit crunch behind and hit the road!

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London, England, United Kingdom

The day we hoped would never come, the day we refused to talk about the whole trip, the day we tried to avoid, the day called 1 November reared its ugly head and just like that it was all over...

I cried all the way to New York where we made the connection for London...heaven alone knows what we were thinking booking a flight to land at 7am on a MONDAY morning in Doomsville but anyway that is what we did.

The grey mood didn't last too long though when we were met by surprise at the airport by the whole Hughes family (after only expecting Alan), including precious 6 week old Jemima - love at first sight does not even begin to describe the feeling. Dylan had other plans than greeting his aunty Ang who was now crawling around the airport after him and only had eyes and vocal cords for uncle Ian!

Arriving back at Shaz's house we were reunited with some creature comforts which we left behind such as our beautiful wedding rings which I missed so much, a hairdryer, perfume, fresh clean clothes (a variety of), trainers (takkies), and my all time favourite salmon and cream cheese bagels which I have been hankering after for a while now. A special mention goes to ROOIBOS TEA which I have craved since Venezuela! Have had about 40 cups in 1 week.

As amazing as the trip was, the comfort of familiarity was good feeling, damn good! We had quite a week planned and managed to accomplish a lot: We have secured a lovely flat to move into on 21st November, met up with all our awesome friends who we missed so much, updated CV's and begun a job hunt (for me), drycleaned Ian's suits and work stuff all ready to start on Monday and more importantly, got Ian a haircut and a shave so people don't throw change at him at tube stations! Also it took some time to open 6 months worth of mail sort out the banking mess after the cards were stolen back in August!

All the admin aside now we have so much to look forward to. Starting afresh in London is going to be awesome! We going to MAKE it awesome - with clear minds and positive outlooks this shouldn't be too hard :) (a holiday home for Christmas, weddings and christenings in a few weeks also helps, hehe)

This trip has really and truly changed the way we think. Amongst other things never again will we complain about a 12 hour flight being long, never complain about having nothing to wear (after living out of a backpack for 6 months) and more seriously that life and time are so very precious, use both to the full so that you have no regrets one day. Always be actively planning the next adventure - have something big to work towards together.

You learn so much about yourself and each other when you step out of your comfort zone and into a whirlwind of adventure. You learn your limits and then you exceed them; experiencing 'ups' is wonderful, 'downs' treated with humour and positivity can sometimes turn into the greatest memories ever. You learn more about teamwork and group dynamics than any sport or open office can teach you when you are working/living/eating/travelling with people of all nationalities, ages, cultures and creeds. You learn by experience and not just by a saying, that you can do anything you want to do if you put your mind to it and want it badly enough; but above all else you learn that you are incredibly priviledged and blessed to be experiencing so many awesome things.

Highlight: Flip...far too many but if you held a gun to my head and said pick ONE or you die...it would have to be The Inca Trail and Macchu Pichu (oops thats 2, so i guess I die!). I will never forget the feeling of 100% pure inner peace and happiness while traipsing above the clouds barely being able to breath!

Lowlight: lowlights are now politically correctly called 'learning experiences' so our best learning experience is to not leave your bag in an unlocked car - it will ge stolen and cause you a few days of PITA admin on your holiday!

Funniest moment: We laughed ourselves silly on a daily basis so its hard to pick just one...we had a very funny holiday overall! Although I would say the people (tourist) watching defo got the sides splitting the most.

Most useful item: My hairbrush for us both!

Most useless item: Ians razor!

Most useful Spanish phrase: Nosotros encanta Sud America (we love South America)

Tan Status (0-10): Well, it will have to be 10 because although we are not that brown by normal peoples standards, we are probably the brownest we will ever be in our lives!

What we miss: Already we miss the freedom of being a traveller and all the beautiful and different things we got to see and experience everyday

What we don't miss: OVERNIGHT BUSES!!!

And with that this blog draws to a close...thank you all for reading, commenting, sending messages and being inerested in our travels, we hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

As a parting shot, here is a summary of our trip in numbers :-)

Uncountable brilliant memories
51719 km traveled
4425 photos taken
172 bottles of water consumed
52 blogs written
33 kg's carried
23 overnight buses
9 countries
6 months
3 rounds of stomach bugs
1 experience of a lifetime!

Adios...until the next adventure!

Ang and Ian
x
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Tampa, Florida, United States

Arriving in balmy Florida to familiar faces was fantastic! After a long long time of not knowing anyone or anything, the comfort of a beautiful South African accent face to face was music to our ears (never thought I'd say that)

Being met at the airport by my family and being driven in an actual car with actual airconditioning was the next marvelosity! To be driven to a clean house with clean bathrooms and hot showers and SPACE was almost too much to bare...only copious amounts of beer and wine could calm us down :-)

So, Palm Harbor is the beautiful suburb in (or just outside?) Tampa where some of my family have settled. The life that Americans seem to live is a good one (speaking from a Floridian point of view of course cos thats all we have seen of the states so far). People are friendly, happy, relaxed and helpful and most want to know where in the South of Africa we are from as they know some one in the North of Africa (!) HAHA Shame that was only one lady actually, we'll give them a break.

The main event of the week was the buildup to halloween - a huge affair state side - like almost on a par with christmas in terms of decorating houses with lights and all the adverts in shops for candy and pumpkins etc! Amazing to see and there is definitely excitement in the air leading up to the big trick or treat night. We certainly added to the excitement as this was our first real halloween experience ever and rejoiced that we still have a cousin old enough to trick or treat so that we could share in the takings!

We were almost so busy visiting the various malls and spending the last of our travel budget on the amazing deals USA has to offer on really good clothing, to remember to buy the pumpkins! Luckily some shops still had at the 11th hour and we had a fun (and quite hard work) evening carving them out into cool patterns and faces!

Another day leading up to halloween was spent chasing dolphins around the Gulf of Mexico on my uncles new toy (a cool boat!) the water is pretty clear (and frighteningly shallow at times without warning!). We were lucky to see a stingray flapping around and also not only to see but hear squeaking and just about touch some dolphins! They were so beautiful, coming right up to the boat and splashing around.

On halloween eve it was time to exercise the vocal cords and we were whisked off by the older cuz's visiting from their Uni town for a surprise pressie of a trip to the theme park called 'Busch Gardens' for their special evening opening times and 'Howl-o-scream' additional extras in the form of 'scare zones' and 'horror houses'. The effort the park goes to in the form of costumes and decor is unbelievable! We screached and squealed our way through about 5 different themed scare zones (zombies, wear wolves, scary clowns, ghosts etc) where staff dressed up jump out the bushes or follow you and freak you out, and also through the 8 horror houses which we emerged from sweating in fear with blood pressure through the roof and adrenaline pumping (anyone whos been through the chamber live at Madame Tussauds, its like that only 10 times longer and 8 of them, all different!). All the main rollercoasters were in operation too, so we took rides inbetween the horror houses to calm ourselves down! The park closed at 2am and we got massive icecreams to soothe our sore throats on the way out!

Halloween night itself is so festive with all the neighbors (American spelling for effect) are out and about and all the neighborhood kidds meet as a house and go around trick or treating together...again, going all out with outfits they look great!

We had such a wonderful week of quality time with the fan-dam but all too soon 1 November rolled around and our amazing trip was over! We sadly made the trip back to the airport for the real final trip home...

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1256143474/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1256143474/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1256143474/tpod.html Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:37:06 -0400 South America 09: Ang and Ian leave the credit crunch behind and hit the road!

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Montego Bay, Jamaica

And so, the backpacking part of our trip has ended and as we had no time to travel Central America, we decided it would be a good enough substitute to spend a week in Montego Bay, Jamaica. When we first planned our trip we vowed that we would spend the last 10 days or so just chilling and taking it all in on the beach somewhere, so when my brother, Craig, mentioned we should meet him in Jamaica we jumped at it! What a tough week it turned out to be!! Not!

Our flight from Quito was delayed which meant we missed our connection and spent a night in Miami to catch an early flight the next day. In our already relaxed state of mind we just rolled with the punches and got to Montego Bay a day later than planned, no biggie.

Upon arrival in Montego Bay (or Mobay) we were immediately introduced to the relaxed island vibes! A reggae band in the baggage hall at the airport is not a bad start! The guest house we found was great - a little far from the beach though but that allowed us to drive through the whole town every day and chat to some of the coolest taxi drivers on earth! A trip to the supermarket to stock up on Red Stripes (beers), local rum and some food and we were all set for the week.

Our time there was largely spent on the beaches and wandering up and down the 'Hip Strip' which is basically the main tourist street with all the beaches, gift shops, bars, restaurants and taxis. One of the bars there is the Bobsled Bar which is famous as it contains the first original Jamaican Bobsled from the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Montego Bay has some incredible beaches, the best of them being Doctors Cave. A short strip of white sand with trees and palm trees and the perfect clear Caribbean sea lapping on the sand... They have some floating trampolines out on the water and its great for snorkeling too! We also visited Walter Fletcher beach which is a little bigger and a couple of the other local beaches.

For the whole week the weather played its part except for the daily thunderstorms at around 3pm. One badly timed walk saw us getting soaked but other than that it was hot hot hot beach weather every day.

Another great bar was Margaritaville which had their own waterslide into the sea! It was great for sundowners although the beer-index there was a little steep, so as soon as the DJ arrived with his police siren sound effects and ruined the atmosphere we generally wandered elsewhere...

Jamaicans are without doubt the friendliest people we have met on this trip. So many times people just came up and shook your hands and just wanted to chat. There were never any hassles, we never felt threatened, and most conversations ended with them asking if we wanted a taxi, bangles, hair braids and finally an offer of some weed!

One such conversation we will never forget though. Craig and I were swimming at Doctors Cave and were about neck deep in water when suddenly a local guy popped up with goggles on his head. The conversation went something like this:

Diver: Yah mon, I'm a diver. Welcome to Jamaica.
Us: Thanks!
Diver: So you wanna buy some shells? These are special shells that never age mon.
Us: No thanks, we are ok. We don't want any shells.
Diver: (digging into his pocket underwater pulls out a bunch of soaking wet bangles) Ok, den. How 'bout a bangle?
Us: No thanks, we already got one.
Diver: Ok, den. You wanna ride a jetski?
Us: No thanks, maybe another time.
Diver: Yah mon, ok den. how 'bout a smoke?
Craig: Haha, surely that will be a bit wet now?
Diver (grinning madly): Naaah mon. I got that sh** wrapped up nice and dry mon!


It was Ang's birthday as well which entailed sneaking around a little to organise some presents and treat her to some awesome parasailing! It also gave us a chance to hit the Mobay nightlife, which sadly was a bit dismal in the tourist off season! After warming up with far too many drinks for not much of a party, the night ended with us banging on the door and begging to be let in to Burger King before finally giving up and hitting KFC...

On our last day we got a local taxi driver to take us down the road to Negril, another town on the west of the country. There is a great beach there (7-mile beach) and some cliffs with the most amazing turquoise water crashing beneath.

To sum it up, Mobay served its purpose perfectly: gave us a chance to catch up with Craig, do some swimming, catch a tan, drink some beers but most of all just take it easy and relax and have a holiday form our holiday!
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Cotopaxi, Ecuador

In two minds about whether to head up into altitude again after the bad experiences before, we are so glad we listened to the mind that said "GO!"

The hostel in Quito has a branch near Cotopaxi volcano, or rather, an intimate little lodge ideal for relaxing in a hammock with a view of the highest active volcano in the world. So this is how we heard about it. For any travellers reading this, dont even think about it - GO: Secret Garden Cotopaxi, you will not regret it.

We wanted to do something special for our last few days in South America and this was just the perfect place, the lure of a sunken bath tub in front of a log fire was too much to resist. The intention was to sit in the hammocks for 3 days and chill.

In typical Blake style its needless to say we didn't relax in the hammocks very much when we got there and discovered a range of activities in fresh air to do!

Within minutes of arriving and meeting the awesome volunteer staff and being introduced to all the animals including a hero sausage dog called Mash, we were off on a short hike to a nearby waterfall. Through a tree covered valley with some nice rocks to climb and mud to trample with gum boots we were as happy as larry.

The evenings consisted of idle banter with red wine around the log fire and amazing food. The lodge is the product of a couples dream to own an Eco-farm. So this means no electricity, composting toilet (use your imagination) - although regular flushing ones are available too, vegetable garden and animals roaming around one day that will be on your plate the next day!

Day 2 of our relaxing agenda included a 16km walk up to an amazing view point on the summit of Mount Pasochoa. Breathtaking describes the walk and the view aptly enough. Accomanied the whole way by 2 dalmations and 2 sausage dogs (whom we had to safegurad when the eagles were soaring above looking for prey!)

A day of mountain biking just about killed me (CANNOT breathe in this ruddy thin air!) and I had to get off and push up most of the hills. A picnic lunch in a beautiful pine forest, slowly breathing fresh pine air for while seemed to sort me out and the second half of the ride was a lot better (mostly downhill...which I still got off and pushed as I am still petrified after my experience on the death road i think!). Again the views were just spectacular, especially looking from a distance to the mountain peak with we climbed the day before.

The main attraction in the area is of course the Cotopaxi mountain. Some people chose to summit it (5800m) which takes 2 days, but for us, just going to the base camp (5000m) is higher than any mountain in Europe, ie: Mont Blanc and higher than we had ever been before and therefore, high enough! Having suffered badly the day before with breathing I nearly opted out and sent Ian to get the pics but was SO glad that I didnt. It was really not a bad walk, very steep but at least only a few hundred meters and the end was always in sight so that helped too. We always wondered what we would end up doing on our last day in South America and I think that sucking icicles in the crevasse of a glacier was the most fitting send off for us after having spent so much time in and on and over the Andes, I am glad we went up to get one last unbelieveable view over what felt like the whole of South America we could see so far (when the clouds cleared!)

After that high (pun intended) we headed back to Quito to pack our bags and bid farewell to Quito, Ecuador and South America.

Highlight: Climbing Cotopaxi and spending 3 days in the most beautiful surroundings.

Lowlight: Our safeth briefing upoin arrival in Quito - kind of took the enjoyment out of exploring a new city.

Funniest moment: A woman unblocking our toilet in Banos happily chatting away on her cellphone and plunging away merrily with the other hand!

New food tried: Cuy!! At last we had a chance to taste Guinea Pig - yum!

Most useful item: Warm clothes made a reappearance in Cotopaxi - one last cold snap before the beaches!

Most useless item: Sleeping bags. All the hostels had the best beds and awesome duvets!

Most useful Spanish phrase: 'Quisiera esta cuy para cena, por favor' (I would like that guinea pig for dinner, please) Used when selecting our guinea pig from the childrens pet collection!

Tan Status (0-10): 3.5 The colour we got from Peru is hanging in there, plus topped it up a little in Banos.

What we miss: Jemima

What we don't miss: Turning our clocks back to instant darkness.

Ecuador was a fun place to visit bearing some similarities to Peru but maybe a little better off. The places generally were clean and organised, great transport systems and the traffic was a lot more relaxed. People are also really helpful and friendly which made it such a great country to visit. We only really touched on Ecuador as time was short but we hope to come back in the future to see the coast and the famous Galapagos Islands!

And with that our time in South America has come to a close. 161 days of adventure, adrenaline and tons of memories! You will get the whole soppy summary of how much we loved it and will miss it in our last post in a few weeks. For now its off to Jamaica and then Florida for the last 2 weeks of our trip...
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Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

And so, our final city on this continent... Quito, capital of Ecuador.

It was also our final experience of intercity buses although this one was just a 3-hour hop, almost like a 'victory lap'. One where we could reminisce, thank our lucky stars that we made it through so many alive, remember all those fabulous experiences on South American public transport and listen, for the final time, to the blaring plethora of 70's and 80's music that is the scourge of the continent. Aptly, 'I will survive' blasting forth at full volume on a 7am bus was our send off tune as we paraded our way to Quito.

A lovely taxi driver took us to our hostel across town, so lovely in fact that he took the liberty of setting the meter onto the premium fare just for us (premium fare is about double the rate reserved for late night transport etc). I suppose that was appropriate as we got to the hostel and were given the 'safety briefing' which went something like this: "Don't walk there, you will be mugged. Don't go to that monument, you will get mugged and probably shot. Don't draw money, if you do take a taxi back here immediately. Don't take leaflets from anyone as they are probably laced with drugs and you will be mugged. Take a taxi everywhere or you will be robbed on the bus" Awesome. Give me Hillbrow, Johannesburg at midnight any day of the week.

Anyway, we still had stuff to see see and do and can't afford to pay every lovely taxi driver a crooked fare so bus and walking it was. Which in fact turned out to be fine.

First thing to see was Mitad del Mundo, i.e. the Equator. A lengthy bus ride out of town took us to the site of the special monument that sits on the exact spot of the equator. Or does it? You see, there is some discrepancy here as there is ANOTHER site about 50 meters away that also claims to be the equator, calculated by GPS. This just means that Mr and Mrs Sucker Tourist has to visit both sites, pay 2 entrance fees and wonder how dumb you have to be to get something that important so spectacularly wrong.

Anyway... we visited the sites and had a good time. Took the necessary shots at the main monument and then moved on to the 'other' equator and wandered around there. That was quite
fun though as there were some tribal exhibits including an authentic shrunken head. It was fascinating to see it and hear about how they got them that size. They also did some water displays showing how the water spins in different directions in the two hemispheres.

We also strolled around Quito's old town which is packed with awesome colonial buildings, massive churches and convents. The city is really pretty and fun to walk around. We stopped in at one of the monasteries to do some shopping with a difference... The nuns that live there make lotions and potions and elixirs that they sell. Problem is that you can't see them! They stay inside behind a revolving door and you speak through the door, asking for what you need and then the door spins around and your goods appear! Quite strange but definitely something different!

Finally we got a little shopping done before packing our bags and heading to the mountains one last time to stay in a great little hostel near the Cotopaxi volcano for a few days of hiking, biking and chilling...

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Banos, Ecuador

After doing a backpack sort out and clothing cull in Cuenca (throwing out all the winter things we no longer need and the summer stuff that we wore to pieces up until now) it was time to head north again.

With inter-city bus ride times now in the single digits there is far less time for toilet humor and other interesting things to happen...the only thing worth photographing on our trip into Baños was the fact that they oversold the tickets so we had to sit on plastic garden chairs in the isle!

Baños is our kinda town...big enough to have all the conveniences you need and small enough to be able to walk everywhere. Having decided to stay a good few days we unpack the bags and settle into a very very nice hostel with wood fires in the social area every night.

The name of the game for 5 days was to try and out sleep each other every morning. Nearing the end of our time here in South America we have opted to take it really easy for the last few weeks and have a holiday from the holiday so to speak! We do still have some things we want to see but its mostly chilling from here on out.

Alas, the sleeping game was destroyed by the bike hire shop opening up next door in the mornings. Not bicycles. Quad bikes, motor bikes and buggys...you know the kind: the NOISY kind! Oh well, most days we lazed around the hostel until about 10 or 11 and then headed out, either to wander around the markets, hire bikes or go walking in the hills surrounding the valley in which Baños lies.

Another marvellous thing about Baños is that you can do everything on your own (ie: without a guide and not on an over priced tour!). First on our hit list was quad biking! Our efforts were short lived though as it started bucketing with rain about 15 minutes into our journey to some waterfalls. Not just rain, but 'coming-from-every-direction-including-from-the-ground-up-forest-gump-type-of-rain'! Drenched, we returned for a hot shower and to find fellow gringos at the hostel a bit shaken: amidst the rain there had been an earth tremor while we were gone! Scary stuff considering the town is in the shadow of an active volcano which last errupted in 2006!

On a sunnier day we took another attempt at the waterfall trip this time in a buggy for 2 which was awesome fun! Various stops along the route let you see many waterfalls, bungy jumps and little cable car rides across the valley. The final water fall was a steamy and humid walk through the forest and a climb/crawl through some caves to get to and had a pretty impressive volume of water pumping down!

Map in hand and powered by a sugar high from taffy, another awesome day out was wandering around the mountain side to various view points over Baños.

'Taffy' by the way is a little treat for which Baños is apparently famous. Its toffee sticks made and mixed by hand by slinging it over a hook on the door frame and stretching it out and folding it over again and again. Very cool to watch the process and walk up and down the taffy street taste the different flavours being made by different shop owners :)

All in all a very cool stop and highly recommended for some time out and/fun activities. Its a festive little place and everyone seems so calm and relaxed, even the garbage removal truck plays a merry little tune as it drives around town doing its thing!

We also had some time to look into what there was to see in Quito and in doing so stumbled across a really great bargain deal for a little luxury lodge at the foot of Cotapaxi Mountain (volcano!) the second highest peak in Ecuador. We will spend 1 day in Quito first but our next official stop will be Cotapaxi...


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Cuenca, Ecuador

How to drive a bus in Ecuador:

Lesson 1: Getting started
1) Find a dated bus, preferably with hardly any shock absorbers and hasn't had a service, MOT, roadworthy test or the like... ever.
2) Insert a bunch of travel weary gringos and a large handful of locals
3) Locate a disastrous road
4) Hit the accelerator as hard as humanly possible, braking as late as possible and generally scare the living daylights out of the white-knuckled passengers.
5) Swerve incessantly aiming for potholes so that the LCD tv (that you are not using to show movies) violently BREAKS OFF its mounting and almost kills several passengers in seats 15 and 16.

Lesson 2: Overtaking
1) Wait until you notice a line of oncoming trucks (the bigger the better, nothing under a 10-tonner)
2) When oncoming trucks have been located, wait a few seconds more until you are at a blind rise/blind corner or both.
3) At the right moment (i.e. exactly when the gringos are thinking "he'll never try overtaking now") flash your lights like crazy at the truck you have been tailgating at 140km/h, grate into 2nd gear, swerve out into the stream of oncoming oil-tankers and log carriers, and then hoot at then because its their fault of course.
4) Repeat for 7 hours.

Thats about it. Lessons over, here's your licence.

And that was our intro to Ecuador! As you can see we did actually arrive and are alive. Our time in Ecuador is sadly a short time so we have only allowed a day for exploring Cuenca.

Cuenca is located in the Andes (2500m above sea level) and is a really pretty little city with countless cobbled streets, colonial buildings and a small Inca ruin. There is also a beautiful cathedral and a large souvenir market. All of the above occupied our time and we managed to see them all in one day which was great!

It was also remarkably calm compared to our recent stops in Peru. Its a big place but people seem so calm and relaxed and there almost seems like there is nothing going on! Traffic goes smoothly, cars stop and go at intersections (clearly no big buses in town) and don't hoot every 5 seconds just for the sake of it!

Not much else to say really except that it was a nice little stop on the way to Baños where we head tomorrow. Incidentally, that will be our last lengthy bus ride - 7 hours which is quite a thing for us! Lets hope tomorrow's driver went to a different driving school...

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Mancora, Peru

Our various ailments (sore muscles, aching backs, stomach bugs and colds) had got a bit much now so we were really looking forward to lazing a few days away in Mancora. Basically we planned a hectic schedule which involved hanging around the beach, lying in hammocks, sleeping late, ice cold beers, massages and other related high-octane activities.

Our bus dragged us in to town around 6am and we were picked up by our hostel owner who unknowingly gave us an insight into Mancora life... We apologised for getting him up so early but he wasn't bothered and told us he was about to head out for a surf! He arrived back about 3 hours later, had a sleep and emerged around 2pm, ready for a tough friday at the office!! Some people have the right idea... So, we set about following his example and promptly had a 3 hour nap ourselves!!

Our hostel was fantastic - perched on top of a cliff overlooking the town and the beautiful Pacific ocean. We had an awesome thatched bungalow to ourselves complete with deck chairs, a hammock and a little patch of grass outside, ideal for whiling away the hours in the sun with a book!

With such a low emphasis on activity here, there isn't really a lot to report... Days entailed waking up to the sound of crashing waves, going back to sleep, waking again to the sound of rumbling tummies and heading for breakfast. Then it was a tough decision to either go back to sleep, wander down to town to the markets, go to the beach, lie in the sun and watch the surfers, get an ice-cold beer or recline in the hammock! Happy days...

I did try my hand at surfing though... Dropping Ang off at the spa for a massage I located a chap on the beach for a quick lesson. You might recall us doing this in Jericoacoara when we were in Brazil, but this time it was a little more successful. Two reasons mainly: a) there were waves, and b) I had a teacher. Two rather important parts of learning to surf I guess. Anyway, I'm happy to say that there were no catastrophic wipeouts and I got the hang of it pretty quickly! Really looking forward to giving it another go when we get to Jamaica in a few weeks time!

As is our custom, we 'splashed out' for a nice meal for our last night in Peru. It was incredible - surf and turf like you've never seen! The most succulent steak (almost as good as Argentina) covered not with prawns but with a huge crayfish! Ang also helped herself to a superb swordfish fillet with prawns. Not to mention the ice cold beers and awesome dessert (chocolate brownies) all for under $40...

Sadly though, our time in Peru is at an end. 5 weeks of another awe-inspiring country seeing places, meeting people and doing things that we could not forget in several lifetimes.

Highlight: Hands down - The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Special mention to the unbelievable time we had volunteering and all the special people it was so hard to leave behind.

Lowlight: Getting stuff stolen from our hotel room in Pisco. Most importantly was the USB drive with all our photos. Luckily though we got it back after some other mates had stuff stolen too and they raised it with the owner who fired the cleaning guy and somehow got most of our stuff back.

Funniest moment: One Polish guy in the volunteer group helped himself to some potato one night at dinner before it was ready and the queue of 55-odd volunteers were in uproar! To which he replied in a high-pitched Polish accent, "who are you to judge me!?". Classic! (Although you probably had to be there...)

New food tried: Ceviche - raw fish cured with lemon and lime. Chicha - a juice made of purple corn, also comes in a fermented beer version.

Most useful item: Buffs - Great for the dust in Pisco and the sweaty nature of the Inca Trail!

Most useless item: Condiments. All the sauces, herbs, spices etc that we are lugging with us to cook in the hostels. Its cheaper to eat out here!

Most useful Spanish phrase: 'Vamos a casa de los voluntarios, por favor' (We are going to the volunteers house please), said to tuc-tuc drivers after a hard days work in Pisco!

Tan Status (0-10):
3!! We are moving up! Got some brown-ness on our arms and legs now after Pisco and Mancora gave us a chance to show the rest of our unearthly whiteness to the sun for a change!

What we miss: Our own car. Much more pleasant than night buses!

What we don't miss: Having a schedule.

Similar to their neighbours in Bolivia, Peruvians seem to live a pretty tough life but are able to see the bright side a bit more. They are very family oriented as well and tend to live with or very near the rest of their family. Traditions are strong here and people are friendly, smiling and generally accepting of the gringos wandering around taking pics and huffing and puffing up to Machu Picchu.

Peru really is a gem of a country with so many adventures to be had, so much history to learn and endless things to enjoy. To say we will miss it here is an understatement... We LOVED Peru.



]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1254267672/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1254267672/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1254267672/tpod.html Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:36:38 -0400 South America 09: Ang and Ian leave the credit crunch behind and hit the road!

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Trujillo, Peru

Well we are happy to report that we survived the bus with no toilet incidents! Whew. The only thing really worth writing about on the bus trip is breakfast. A hotdog. NOT what our tender guts required but we scoffed it anyway as we were starving.

The recomendation is to stay in a small beach town just outside Trujillo, called Huanchaco. We got a cab over that way and proceeded to analyze the comfortableness of the hammocks available for the remainder of the day and also spent some time with the pet tortoises!

Trujillo is an important stop for us to explore one last bit of Peruvian history and culture before we leave. Even though we know nothing can be more impressive (to us) than the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, we want to see anyway.

The main attraction is the Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon) which are PRE-Inca ruins, dating back to 100-800AD. We have heard them described as pyramids of dust. Whoever said that obviously never went inside...

You are greeted by a few Peruvian hairless dogs, each one uglier than the next. Shame, I wonder if they know what they look like. They actually seem like a really friendly breed, hairless twig of a tail wagging, coming up to you for a pat. All they ever get are shrieks of how hideous they are and photos taken as proof! I'm thinking a couple of those in your front garden in South Africa and you will never even have to build a wall let alone pay an alarm company. Your childrens friends will also never come over to play.

Ugly as they are, they date back over 2000 years and this is proved in the paintings etc found inside the Temple. In danger of being extinct they are now protected by the government and a breeding pair apparently has to be at every national monument...so there they are!

So, once we had successfully navigated a wide circumference around the welcome comittee to avoid skin on skin contact we enter the temples and are pleasantly surprised, Amazed actually! The original artwork and carvings still exists in some places and everything has been well preserved by the sand. Although its partially less spectacular because of the masses of scafolding etc in place, this is there to keep wind and sun off the old bricks to prevent it eroding away and also because archiologists are still working at it, uncovering more and more every day, so scafolding and tarps is totally acceptable.

The temple we are inside is the Moon Temple. the Sun temple you cannot enter as it is solid brick. The Moon temple was once filled with bricks too. The reason they are/were bricked in is that every 60-70 years the El Niño rains would damage the Temple so badly that it wasn't worth fixing, so they simply filled it in with bricks and built a new one on top of it! Bear in mind that it NEVER rains here, as in not at all, ever. Except for when the El Niño phenomenon is passing over which is why things built here are not really geared up to withstand rain. Seems strange that they can withstand earthquakes, but not rain! Anyway...the Archiologists have been hard at work and have uncovered FIVE levels of complete temples at the Moon temple and ELEVEN at the Sun Temple. The other important thing to note about the Moche people is that they were the only ones known to carve 'emotion' into the faces of their statues and rock carvings. Everything is huge and intricate and totally impressive.

The next stop is the Chan Chan city which was the ancient Chimu city. This was the Pre-Inca, Post-Moche civilisation. We explored 1 temple (of which there are many) which was 11 hectares big! Again, loads of impressive carvings in the wall all telling a story - mostly about fishing and the sea.

After that it was back to Huanchaco for a beautiful sunset before bundling back onto a night bus and heading further up the coast to Mancora for a few days of R&R (we are still stiff and sore from the manual labour!)





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1254153671/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1254153671/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/theblakes/1/1254153671/tpod.html Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:09:08 -0400 South America 09: Ang and Ian leave the credit crunch behind and hit the road!

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Lima, Lima, Peru

So attached were we to volunteering in Pisco we involuntarily decided to take a little memento with us when we left...

"So, once upon a time in Peru, Ang, Ian and a stomach bug set off on their merry way to Lima, planning to take a bus that night to Trujillo and continue their splendid journey through South America. But alas.

About an hour along the dusty highway towards Peru's capital, Ang started looking markedly flushed. Although pushing 29 its still rather young for that symptom to be rearing its head now and after watching her shiver and shake with cold while Ian was sweating on the 30 degree+ bus, they decided that the follow on bus to Trujillo would be delayed... The only thing that was on their mind was getting to some accommodations and uttering the words, "Quisiera un habitacion matrimonial CON baño privado, por favor. Pronto." (I would like 1 room WITH private bathroom, please. Fast.)

On the taxi ride there it was Ian's turn to begin feeling somewhat disturbing rumblings coming from parts of his gut you would generally prefer not to feel disturbing rumblings from. Eventually they arrived in a hostel in a really nice room with the required baño where they were to spend the rest of their time in Lima.

In between visits to the bathroom, Ian managed to divert the attention of the bug for a short while to run out (very carefully) and visit the chemist for some pills and a thermometer. (Oral. Not rectal.) Ang's temperature was a toasty 39.8 degrees!

A long night ensued of 2 person baño relays and very nervous farting. Ang and Ian will always remember their time in Lima with their little friend from Pisco...

And so they lived crappily ever after."

After a sleepless night we dragged our empty stomachs out for some bland breakfast and strolled slowly around (with emergency toilet paper on hand, constantly scanning for public toilets and necessary entry and exit routes). We were in the Miraflores area which is very beautiful and packed full of restaurants, shopping centres, coffee shops and parks. Like other capital cities in this continent it has a very European look and feel to it.

Not much more to tell though, except for the remarkable resilience of the Lima sewerage system. Its in your own best interests that there are no accompanying photos for this post.

Tonight we have committed our tender tushes to a 10 hour night bus. Oh, the next post should be fun...
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