south american travels

Hello from sunny Montevideo!

The weather i´ve enjoyed here has been a marked change from most of the month of January, which I spent in the "fin del mundo" (end of the earth), way way down south in Patagonia in Chile and Argentina. At the start of January I left Valparaiso to head south on another overnight bus to Puerto Montt, a slightly depressing port town which seemed to have permanent drizzle and grey clouds hovering above it. Luckily, I was only there briefly to meet up with Danni, a Canadian girl I met in Bolivia, to hire a car and drive the Carretera Austral, a gravel road that heads south from the town through the forests, mountains and turquoise rivers of Chilean Patagonia. It´s not a very popular tourist route as buses are very infrequent, so the only possibility is to hire a car or hitchhike, as we saw quite a few brave people doing- a bit unpredictable as with the low volume of traffic you can be waiting for hours at the side of the road for a lift!

Being travellers on a budget, our enquiries in the car hire offices mainly centred on which was the cheapest car we could take for 10 days- but we soon found that due to the nature of the terrain, most companies wouldn´t let us take a small city car, and would only allow us a pick-up truck or something similar, which would have been prohibitively expensive. Luckily we found a company which didn´t seem to care too much, and we collected our Suzuki Altoid, a tiny city car with an 800cc engine that we compared to a golf cart with doors. However the fact that it felt about as sturdy as a tin can meant we limited our speed to a sensible level, about 40/50km per hour, which meant we weren´t rushing and could enjoy the scenery along the way.

The first destination was the island of Chiloe, a place with a pace of life best described as sluggish- most of the population is employed in agriculture, and it has a reputation in Chile as being a place filled with lots of country bumpkins. We found the people to be very friendly though, and fortunate to live in such a picturesque place- the typical scenery is rolling green fields, littered with a few colourful tin-roofed farmhouses with smoke coming out of the chimneys- very cosy. It reminded me of the mental picture I have of a place like rural Sweden, even though i´ve never been! We only had a couple of days on the island but found time to visit a penguin colony on a mini boat trip, do some walking in one of the many national parks and visit the capital, Castro, and see the pastel-coloured houses on stilts that it´s known for, as well as trying some local salmon. From there, we crossed by ferry back to mainland, and began to traverse the Carretera Austral proper. First we had to pass through the town of Chaiten, which was devastated by a volcano last year and is quite a spooky town, resembling a ghost town as most people have moved to the "New Chaiten" they are building a few kilometres up the road- lots of empty properties overgrown with long grass and huge piles of ash in the streets. The scenery soon became less depressing and we were treated to stunning views of mountains covered with thick forest, as we enjoyed the last few km of tarmacced road before we reached the gravel part, which would be giving us a bumpy ride for the following 1000km!

The following 7 or so days had a familiar rhythm, as we aimed to cover a decent amount of ground every day while also finding time to do some walking and exploring in some of the national parks we encountered on the way. The car held out fine, and unsurprisingly was the only one of it´s type that we saw on the road in the whole trip, with the others being large family cars or pick up trucks! It was a very healthy time, lots of walking and due to only encountering small, infrequent grocery type shops on the way, the food we ate was very basic- the staple was tomato and avocado sandwiches with a cup a soup, so we were in no danger of putting on weight! The accomodation was also very simple and normally free, as we pitched a tent when we found a spare patch of grass with a nice view, and enjoyed the simple life for a while, with the evening´s entertainment normally revolving around a campfire and a box of Chilean wine of surprisingly decent quality. One of the definite highlights was a 2 hour walk to a viewpoint, which gave us an incredible view of a hanging glacier that occasionally sent some ice tumbling down into the valley beneath, which made an incredible thundering sound even though we were over a kilometre away. The further south we got, the landscape become more wild and rugged, with towering snow capped peaks, and powerful rivers full of turquoise water that looked like it belonged in the Carribbean. Unfortunately, time prevented us from driving down the whole road and we had to turn off a few hundred km before the end and begin the epic drive back north to Puerto Montt, only this time via the tarmacced roads of Argentina- it was a strange feeling to be driving on a smooth surface again after growing accustomed to the pothole littered Carretera Austral, and had almost forgotten what it was like- a bit like when you start walking again in trainers after you´ve been ice skating. On the way back we stopped off for a day in Bariloche, known as Argentina´s lake district- unfortunately we couldn´t stay for longer to enjoy some of the many walks around some of the many lakes, but we tried some of the famous locally made chocolate and ice cream while sitting on the shore, a pretty decent substitute all in all.

After dropping the car off (and nervously waiting while they examined it for any damage- luckily there was none)- we crossed the border into Argentina again to begin heading back south, with the aim of arriving at El Chalten, a tiny and very recently built town which offers some nice day walks into the surrounding Fitzroy mountain range. After finding out the bus ticket was an expensive 70 quid, we decided to experiment with a new mode of transport and hitchhike the 1500km, or at least see how far we could get, down the Ruta 40, which is supposedly the equivalent of the USA´s route 66, a ribbon of tarmac that cuts through a part of Patagonia with not much of anything. We got quite lucky, and after numerous lifts later we reached El Chalten after 3 days, only 2 more than the bus would have taken and without spending anything on transport. It was a really fun way to travel and meet some local characters, and we didn´t have to spend much time on the side of the road looking cold and miserable to attract sympathy with our thumbs out. The longest wait was about 3 hours, but the most difficult was the 45 minutes we spent near the end, in what felt like gale force winds- the conditions were so bad that everyone who passed us stopped to check we were ok and apologize for not being able to take us, and the first person that had space offered us a lift, probably out of pity! We spent 2 days in El Chalten, unfortunately in cloudy conditions, before going to the Perito Moreno glacier, one of Patagonia´s top sights, a huge glacier 70m in height that continually advances (albeit only tiny distances) and sends huges sheets of ice cascading down into the water every half an hour or so. After there, me and Danni split up- she went to sunbathe on the beaches near Buenos Aires for a bit, while I bravely headed south and back to Chile for 3 more days of walking, camping and eating biscuits while I walked the "W circuit" of the Torres del Paine national park.

Thoroughly in need of sun and a night´s sleep in an actual bed, I made my way north to Buenos Aires, stopping off for a day in the Welsh community of Gaiman, an essential stop for someone from Wales in South America! I felt the Welsh aspect was a bit played on for tourism, with lots of Welsh tea shops but nothing else to differentiate it from a normal small Argentinian town, as the original distinctively Welsh buildings has been swallowed up by the other more modern buildings, constructed as the town expanded. It was definitely a strange feeling to see Welsh flags when walking around and to cross streets named "Juan C Evans", and I even had the chance to practise my appalling Welsh with the owner of the hostel I stayed in, who definitely knew more than me! I spent about 5 days in Buenos Aires, a enormous, sprawling city that´s home to more than one third of the entire Argentinian population. It´s definitely the most European feeling city i´ve encountered so far, in the architecture and the people you see on the streets, and there´s definitely a European cafe-culture here too. I felt obliged to try some of the famous Argentinian steak for the first time, and wasn´t let down- it´s very cheap for what you get and tastes incredible. Not a good place to be a vegetarian! I spent a lot of time walking around, taking photos and people watching, but also visited the Latin American modern art museum, the Boca area with it´s multicoloured metal houses, decorated with spare paint left over after painting the boats in the nearby port, and the San Telmo Sunday antiques fair. I then took the boat to Uruguay across the choppy Rio de la Plata, where I spent a day in Colonia del Sacramento, an ancient haven for smugglers that was contested by the Spanish and Portugese for centuries, now a favourite short break for Argentinians and Brazilians keen to enjoy the cafes and bars that line the streets of the cobbled old town. All the following brings me up to Montevideo, my current location, where i´ve been lucky to have Victoria, a friend from Barcelona as a guide for the last week or so, a small city that feels much more relaxing than Buenos Aires, but one that also has lots of culture to enjoy, with plenty of art galleries, museums and nightlife. I´ve also been practising my mate skills- a tea-like drink which is very popular here and also in Argentina, best enjoyed in no kind of hurry in a park with friends on a sunny day. It´s more like a social ritual than just a normal drink, there is a lot of associated etiquette and a knack to pouring a good mate too (see image)- i´m now capable if not an expert! I´ve also visited a small, non touristy estancia of a friend of Victorias, one of the many cattle ranches that dominate the countryside of Uruguay, and enjoyed lots of asados, although i´m not sure my digestive system is so grateful for all the meat! I also spent a few days on the beaches of the area of Rocha, in the small fishing villages that grow many times in size during the summer due to the volume of visitors. It was nice to relax on some quiet, sandy beaches and attempt to get some resemblance of a sun tan, though as usual I ended up more red than golden brown!

From here, I have about 3 weeks left- i´m going to Paraguay later this week and from there will head back to Bogota, where i´ll begin looking for teaching work, which hopefully shouldn´t be too difficult!

It seems like a long time since I added a new blog entry, and in the 30 or so that have passed since the last i´ve added 3 new stamps to my passport, stopping off for 3 weeks in Bolivia and flying visits to Argentina and Chile, which is where I write this from. I´ve also experienced my first Christmas period away from home, and a strange one it was as I tucked into a typical Argentinian barbecue in 30 degree heat instead of stuffing myself with turkey in a bad Christmas jumper.

I´m now in Valparaiso, the cultural capital of Chile and a very colourful place, it feels like every wall is covered with murals and street art and it´s interesting enough to take to the streets and wander around to see what you come across. There seems to be more art, music and culture in Argentina and Chile, which I suppose is typical of more affluent countries, and definitely a more European feel. Here i´ve been couchsurfing again with a girl called Valeska and have had a great time, arriving in time for a big dinner with her friends and family on the 31st (I contributed an Indian dish which went down well, although South Americans definitely don´t like their food too spicy!), then we filled a couple of rucksacks with rum and took to the streets for the famous party. Before I didn´t know Valpo was known for it´s NYE celebrations but it´s extremely lively and chaotic, the idea is find yourself a space with a good bay view at about 10pm for the fireworks which start and midnight. Definitely a party to remember, or not as is often the case when you finish at 8am! Tomorrow i´m heading to Patagonia on another 16 hour bus ride, after a visit to one of the houses of Chile´s famous poet, Pablo Neruda.

My only other destination in Chile has been Santiago, the capital and a place that often has a bad reputation for being a bit polluted, dull and overly modern, although I enjoyed my time there. It feels very big, I travelled around quite a lot and it didn´t feel like I left the centre! It´s one of the few cities in South America with a metro system, also very crowded- I certainly spent a lot of time wedged between Chileans and looking at people´s armpits. I´ve still not decided where i´ll return to work yet and the list of potential places gets longer the more places I visit, although Santiago felt a bit too much like home and therefore a lot less interesting and challenging than others would be, so I won´t be adding it. I didn´t do much- there are lots of nice parks to relax and not a whole lot else- but I did visit the Villa Grimaldi, where the Pinochet government took political prisoners for interrogation, torture and ´disappearings´ and now a park and memorial- a bit heavy going to visit at 10am as I did but very interesting.

Before Santiago was Mendoza in Argentina, in the heart of the wine country, so the perfect excuse to do as most other travellers do and hire a bike for a day to tour the vineyards, obviously with the sole intention of improving my knowledge of wine-making processes - unavoidably some wine had to be drunk to refine my palate, but these things happen. I had thought they were all located in the countryside, instead they are all based around a suburb of the city and some quite busy roads, so navigation in the latter stages of the tour was a bit interesting as we wobbled along! Mendoza is an attractive place with lots of tree-lined avenues and plazas, but not much else to visit, so my 4 day stay there was more bar based than cultural. I did manage to find myself slap bang in the middle of a political rally for the current president, a lot more colourful and lively than the sedate affairs we have in the UK- lots of people involved, young and old, along with eually large numbers of drums, flags and passionate orations- definitely an interesting experience. My longest bus ride yet (18 hours!) brought me to Mendoza from Salta in the very north of Argentina, where the best thing to do is hire a car so you have a bit more freedom to explore the surrounding area (more wineries, but also lots of ´wild west´ rock formations, cacti and impressive mountain ranges. I went with an Australian girl and 2 Dutch people I met in the city, fortunately I didn´t have any dodgy moments for my first time driving on the right, although were a bit concerned when the petrol warning light came on in the middle of a fog-filled mountain pass, 80km from the next town (I must have a heavy right foot)- although fortunately we had reached the top of the mountain and could coast the next 50km downhill in neutral and reach our destination without any pushing required! Ashamedly again my knowledge of Salta was mainly limited to the insides of it´s bars, although it´s a nice city with quite a European feel at night, lots of people sitting at outside cafes, with bits of live music here and there. The difference between here and Bolivia is marked, as you go from the continent´s poorest country to one of the richest. I definitely enjoyed my time there and as it´s also the cheapest country it´s nice to be able to live frugally for a while!

My final stop in Bolivia before coming to Argentina was the Salar de Uyuni, which you visit by doing a 2 or 3 day jeep tour around the area, covering a huge distance in the process- I don´t want to see the inside of a jeep for a good while now, and I can advise you all that if you have to go down bumpy tracks for miles and miles in a jeep, don´t choose the back seat as it can get a bit stomach-churning! The first stop you make is on the salt flat, a huge expanse of blinding white and a breathtaking sight, with small cacti-covered rocky outcrops in the distance the only interruption. You also have a blank canvas to mess around with some perspective photos, i´ll upload one to demonstrate!
The next day we went to what was supposedly a ´red lagoon´, after hearing the name I was expecting a vibrant red lake in the middle of the desert but what awaited us was a normal lake with a red hint, the same occurred with the ´green lagoon´ the next day! Apparently you need good conditions for them to be at their best so we were a bit unlucky. The trip also included a visit to some hot springs to warm up on the 3rd morning (it´s a desert located at 4500m above sea level so it gets very cold at night- only minus 5 when we visited but up to minus 25 at it´s worst! The final stop was at some rather pungent geysers where we enjoyed the smell of rotten eggs and getting splashed by hot mud from the bubbling geysers.

Before Uyuni I was in Potosi, in colonial times a city of riches due to the huge silver mine located there, and similar in size and wealth to London and Paris at the time. It´s now a lot different and looks like a standard Bolivian city, but the mine still operates with the miners working in cooperatives, and tours are offered. It basically functions nearly the same as it did hundreds of years ago, with rudimentary tools and hard-working miners of any age from 16 and upwards pushing out heavy carts of rubble, with huge balls of coca leaves stuffed in their cheeks to fight off hunger and fatigue. It´s hard to believe jobs like this still exist! As our tour took place on a Friday, in addition to the typical gifts that you have to buy (coca leaves, juice and dynamite) we had to buy the miners tipple, which is essentially a 96% proof whiskey that is mixed with juice or water, it probably also doubles as floor or engine cleaner as well. Armed with our supplies we headed into the narrow and low passages, and after about 10 minutes reached the group of miners we´d pass the tour with, with them showing us how they worked and answering any questions we had (as well as share a few "whiskeys"). Finally we had chance to explode some dynamite, after retreating to a safe distance, although the sound was still ringing in your ears!

Bolivia is one of the cheapest places in South America to visit the jungle, so I took advantage and did a 3 day " pampas" tour, not in deep jungle but in grasslands just outside, with abundant wildlife from anacondas, monkeys and capybaras to the obligatory mosquitoes. We got up close and personal with a few caimans and also had chance to ´swim´with river dolphins, not sure if this really counts as we caught a glimpse of some and then jumped in the river for a swim where they were, they´re not as friendly as the ones you get in the sea and you couldn´t see any so it was more a case of swimming where dolphins had recently been, i don´t think i can cross it off my ´things to do before i die´list yet. The journey back was interesting as it had been blocked by local protesters, who weren´t happy with the location of a new road to be built. They would let us through on foot but not in a vehicle, so the journey had many different legs to it, a few kms on foot, 3 taxi rides (including one with about 12 other people), a ride on the back of a huge construction vehicle and finally a bumpy 12 hour bus journey back to La Paz on one of Bolivia´s many rough unpaved roads! La Paz itself is a city I stayed a few days in, mainly relaxing, and a nice change to the usual capital cities of South America which can be overwhelmingly big- instead it feels quite small and familiar, despite having all the usual commotion and traffic. My one excursion was the cycle ride down the "world´s most dangerous road"- formerly used frequently by cars, buses and lorries but now not so much as a replacement has been built. It basically consists of a single track, unpaved road, cut into a sheer cliff with a drop of a few hundred feet off the the left- in the past an average of 100 people a year died on it so it merited it´s title. There are few passing places and the vehicles (often large buses or tracks) had to manouevre carefully to pass each other with very little margin for error. On a bike though it felt a lot safer, you concentrate so much on the road that you don´t really notice the steep drop to the left. Some cyclists have died on the route but it´s very uncommon, however I feel i deserve my "i survived the world´s most dangerous road" t shirt!

Anyway that´s all for now, no photos at the moment but hopefully in a week or so!

Hello everyone (and sorry for the boring heading, i can't think of a clever one!
I'm currently in Puno in Peru, high up in the Andes and on the shore of the world's highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca! I´ve just come down from my hostel into town to write this, at the moment there is some kind of political rally going on in support of one of the candidates for the presidential and local elections next year, so lots of flag-waving and megaphone action! The propaganda for the election seems to be everywhere, even though it's still 4 months away- it seems like every spare house or wall has the name of owner's preferred candidate scrawled all over it, so it's hard to avoid it all! Tonight I was very (un)cultured and had a Chinese dinner (after having an Indian buffet in Cusco 2 nights ago, I was craving one though!), although the food in Peru has been the best so far, and tomorrow i'm going to try an alpaca steak, apparently similar to beef- although i've avoided the guinea pig as I said I would!

Tomorrow i'm getting up early to take a boat trip out on the lake, to the famous floating islands of Uros (made completely from reeds by indigenous people who escaped to the lake to avoid the Incas hundreds of years ago!), then onto the Island of Amantani, which is very small and populated by only a few people, i'm staying with a local family there and tonight i've brought some rice and sugar to take for them as supplies are often scarce! The day after i'm travelling to another island called Taquile, before returning to Puno in time to catch an afternoon bus to La Paz, and the beginning of my adventure in Bolivia!

Before Puno i'd been in Cusco, which I decided would be the most cultural part of my trip, with plenty of time reserved for looking at old buildings and falling down walls, etc. The highlight, and what is normally the highlight of most trips to South America, was Machu Picchu, which I walked to last weekend. There are many ways to get there, from the very long and hard (Salkantay trek, 5 days) to the very easy (train trip- 2 hours). I went for one somewhere in between called the Inka Jungle Trek, which I did with a Vikash from the USA, Maria from Brazil and Ema and Margo from Holland. It started with 3 hours of downhill mountain biking on the first day through some beautiful mountains, then 5 hours walking the next day through a mountain valley, with a perfect ending in some hot springs where we could rest our feet and drink a cold beer. We also got a taste of what it might be like to be a celebrity, as a group of Peruvian students who were on a trip there all wanted a photo (each!) taken with the gringos, so who knows I may unwittinglly be on a Peruvian mantlepiece by now. On the 3rd day we walking for a gentle 3 hours after doing some ziplining in the morning (see photo), before waking up early at 4 to get to Machu Picchu before the crowds the next morning. We managed to escape the people but not the weather, and fog, drizzly rain and freezing temperatures greeted us as we took our first tour around the site- we could barely see anything! Luckily we kept our faith and by 10am the clouds had cleared, giving us incredible views- the setting among cloud-fringed mountains is incredible, and it's a very peaceful place if you can find a place above the site to sit on your own. We spent the rest of the day exploring before a 2 hour train ride to Cusco, most of which was spent fast asleep with my head on the window owing to our early get up!

For the rest of my time in Cusco I explored the city, which is a really beautiful mix of incredible Inca and colonial architecture, although the Inca stuff is way more impressive. The Inca walls are constructed to withstand earthquakes, with small stones at the base to absorb the shockwaves, while the Spanish walls came tumbling down whenever there was a quake. In contrast to the walls of the Incas, the Spanish walls were named by locals as the walls of the Incapaces (Incapables), by the locals, easy to understand why! I also went on two day trips to Pisac and Ollyantaytambo (impossible to pronounce), two other Inca ruins.

Arequipa was my home for a few days before Cusco, Peru's second biggest city and famous for it's arrogant residents, who apparently believe they're the best of Peru, although everyone was nice when I was there. In the 60s the residents blockaded the city and proclaimed it a republic, this lasted for a few weeks before the government managed to cut off supplies and everything returned to normal, although you can still buy a souvenir 'Republic of Arequipa' passports from street sellers. My reason for going to Arequipa was to visit the Colca Canyon, which is the World's deepest and home to lots of condors, lucikily we managed to see a couple of the huge birds but as we were at a crowded viewpoint not many came out to visit us. They are incredible though and it's hard to believe they have 3m wingspans when they look so small in the distance, until they come up close that is! We then went for a 2 nights trek to the base of the canyon, an incredibly dry and desolate place which is very hot in the day and cold at night, but the views are impressive when you reach the bottom and have the craggy cliffs towering over you. We also had a stray dog following us for the duration of the trip, he was named Dusty after the state of him after the first day, he loyally followed us for the 28km total hike and then tried to get on the bus with us on the way home. Apparently a lot of the local dogs do this as it's a good way to get food and a bit of care!

The Nazca lines are world famous, and unfortunately for the past few years so have been the companies offering light aeroplane flights over them- a few more than you would normally have crashed due to dodgy maintenance, which lead to the government shutting down a few and imposing stricter safety standards. This has the positive effect of lessening your chance of dying but makes it quite a bit more expensive....worth it in on balance i suppose. I decided to take a flight anyway as there's no real other way of seeing them, and it was definitely worth it, you have to wonder how a relatively primitive civilization managed to form these huge, complex shapes so perfectly in the desert hundreds of years ago. The flight lasted about 30 minutes and I went with Johanne, a girl from Denmark i´d been travelling with for a few days (and continued to the Colca Canyon with)...it was definitely the most stomach-churning ride i´d ever been on, the plane always encountered turbulence and would suddenly drop a few metres, and it had to bank sharply so the passengers could get a good view of the lines. A 10 minute lie down outside the airport after the flight was called for!

The other place I visited in the South of Peru was Huacachina, a (a bit litter covered) oasis in the desert, where the rich and famous used to go on holiday and now more popular with budget travellers looking to relax and partake in the local sport, sandboarding...which is basically throwing yourself down a steep sandune on a wooden board similar to a snowboard, then getting in a dune buggy with an overenthusiastic driver to drive to the top of another dune to do it again! Great fun and I escaped with no broken bones. The rest of the time there was spent relaxing and getting mildly burnt by the hotel pool, as well as a morning trip to the nearby Ballestas Islands for a boat trip, a haven for what looked like about a million seabirds, penguins and seals lazing around on the rocks.

Sandwiched between Huacachina and Iquitos (my last entry) was Lima, the place where i´m thinking of returning to work in February and a city I really enjoyed. It´s famously grey, with little rain or sun (apart from the 3 months of Summer when all the limeños flock to the beaches), but i think it´s one of those places you´d really love when you got to know it. It´s really busy and bustling, and there´s definitely lots to do. I didn´t have much time to explore neighbourhoods where i might live, or visit schools for potential jobs, but did get chance to walk around Barranco, a nice area near the sea that looks very typically South American, lots of previously-faded colourful buildings and old people sitting outside houses watching the world go by. I could definitely live there!

That´s all for now, keep braving the cold weather everyone!

Hello again, and apologies for the delay in writing the second update of my travels so far...my itinerary is a bit tight so sometimes a week can pass where I don´t have a couple of hours spare to fill you in on my movements, but i definitely shouldn´t be complaining.
Well, 3 weeks or so have passed anyway, and with them my trip through Colombia- today I crossed the border into Peru and am writing this entry from a 24 hour internet cafe in the bustling jungle city of Iquitos, population 500,000. It´s apparently the biggest city in the world with no road access, and can only be reached by air or boat (I came on a limb-deadening 12 hour fast boat down the Amazon from Leticia)- there are very few cars and the streets are dominated by motor trikes and motorbikes, it´s quite noisy and hectic and feels like how I imagine somewhere like an Asian city such as Bangkok would, albeit a smaller version.

I spent 4 days in Leticia, arriving from Bogota, and there´s a huge difference in climate- Bogota is at quite a high altitude so can get fairly nippy, and it rains most days there (the closest to home i´ve felt on this trip i think), whereas Leticia is deep in the Amazon, with the accompanying humidity, heat and mosquitos. It´s also where three countries meet- Brazil, Colombia and Peru, so I took the chance to head over to Brazil for an afternoon clinging on the back of a mototaxi (like a taxi, except it´s a motorbike). My original plan was to do a mini tour in the jungle, but this often proves difficult when you travel alone as you need numbers to form groups- in the end i found a man who ran an ecotours company with contacts in a local indigenous village, who said he would put me in contact with them and allow me to visit without charging me, all i had to do was pay the locals directly for food, accomodation and tours etc. So I made the 2 hour trip downriver in a small boat and and met Jose Gregorio, a local Tikuna indian from the community of San Martin (population 500). On organized tours to indigenous villages you normally stay for a short time, see the locals dressed up to perform a dance, eat some food, then go- i was lucky enough to see them going about their normal business in jeans and football shirts. Jose took me on a tour of the ´Chagra´, which is a kind of garden in the jungle- a small part of which is slashed and burned, then all sorts of fruits and vegetables, from pineapples to yucca- are planted. The area produces food within less than 3 months and is completely sustainable...i´ve never seen a pineapple growing in the wild before (they grow in a small low bush, from the ground up) and had the chance to taste one- definitely the most flavoursome i´ve ever tried! We continued further into deeper jungle to explore and try to spot animals, something i repeated at night, when the sounds are at their loudest and wildest. Later in the afternoon i took part in the daily community football game, keenly contested and watched by most of the people that live there. Due to wearing boots a size too small and my lack of match practice (and the uneven surface and puddles, well that´s my excuse anyway) i wasn´t at my best but our side won which was a bonus. The whole experience was fantastic and definitely one of my highlights so far, the people live simple, stress-free lives and are very warm and welcoming- i´d definitely like to go back in the future.

Before Iquitos I spent 4 days in Bogota, the sprawling and crowded capital of Colombia. I had met 3 people from Mexico in my previous destination who lived in the city, and kindly they let me stay with them, giving me free accomodation and tour guides in the process! Bogota is also the cultural capital of the country, with lots of museums, music and art galleries- it has the world´s largest gold museum (3 bloody floors of the stuff, which was a bit overwhelming), a huge national museum and one dedicated to the countries´most famous painter, Fernando Botero, who mainly paints disproportiately fat people. I also went up the cable car to the Montserrate to get some fantastic fews of the city, ate a lot and drank a lot...all in all a fairly unhealthy but enjoyable few days. The city itself is massive and difficult to navigate, there is no metro so the best you can do is flag down one of the many buses that pass by, get on a wait patiently- it can take well over an hour to get from the outskirts to the centre.

I made my way to Bogota from the Coffee region of Colombia, and the towns of Salento and Pereira. I only spent a couple of days in the latter, as it´s a fairly standard medium-sized town with few attractions, although I did enjoy getting off the tourist trail and being one of the very few gringos in town. My one activity was a trip to a thermal spring to ease a hangover with a Kiwi girl I met in the hostel, we chose a bad day though as it was a Sunday, meaning we were sandwiched between Colombians like sardines most of the time. The next day i went to Salento, a small town in the Valle de Cocora, where you can take a stunning 4 hour walk through vibrant green mountains covered in 80m tall wax palms fringed with clouds, which is a strange, almost other-worldly sight. I just managed to miss the rain and took and crowded jeep ride back from the valley to the town (14 in total, including me hanging off the back), where I played a few games of billiards with the locals before taking the bus to Bogota (it´s played with 3 balls on a pool table but without pockets, the object being to hit both balls with your ball- it was my first time playing so i got thrashed by a local 16 year old- good fun though! Time issues meant that I didn´t manage to do a tour of a coffee plantation, but as I don´t even drink the stuff i wasn´t too bothered.

Medellin was where I split from the group of Brits I´d been travelling with, we were lucky that our itineraries coincided that far- from there Fraser and Sam went to Ecuador, Andy to San Gil in Colombia and Vicky to Bogota. Medellin is famous as the city that was controlled by Pablo Escobar and was the capital of the world in terms of cocaine distribution, now it´s a busy modern city and certainly a lot safer, no bombs exploding left right and centre and they did 20 years ago. Here I had my first couchsurfing experience- for those who don´t know what it is, it´s a website where you create an account and offer your couch (or spare bed if you have one) for people travelling to sleep in- it´s a great opportunity to meet local people, get local knowledge on the best places in a city (and save a few quid too). I stayed with a student called Santiago who lived about 30 mins outside the city with 3 crazy dalmation dogs, in countryside very reminiscent of Wales, his only transport was a motorbike so i bunked a lift to and from his with him every day on his way to work. I spent the days exploring and in the evening we met up with his friends for a few beers, it was nice to meet and get to know locals instead of the usual Australians, Brits and Americans you meet in hostels.

I arrived in Colombia in Taganga, a small beach town on the coast, where I did a days scuba diving- I´d asked for a refresher course owing to my rustiness after 3 years without doing it, however this consisted getting all the equipment on, jumping in and performing a few checks right in the sea- luckily it came back to me pretty quickly and i sank rather than swam. Despite warnings to the contrary, the visibilty was really good and i was lucky enough to see many colourful and exotic fish, and a few more weird ones as well, including some type of puffer fish and an ugly, giant cigar-shaped creation. Just along the coast is the Parque National de Tayrona, which is advertised in guidebooks as some kind of miniature beach paradise, it turned out to be a lot more commercial than i´d imagined- you´re collared for the $12 entrance fee as soon as you step off the boat and have to pay $10 to sleep in a hammock about a foot from someone else´s feet. Luckily it was the low season and relatively quiet, apparently in busy periods the camping area resembles a ´British music festival´(quote), so definitely one to avoid! As standard I managed to get burned, this time in the shape of an attractively peeling forehead. Definitely need to take more care in the sun!

Well, it´s 11.20pm here and i´m feeling tired after getting up at 3am for the boat trip here so i´m logging off- hasta la proxima vez (until the next time....hopefully not so delayed as well!)

Hello everyone!
I'm writing this entry from a nice roof terrace in Merida, Venezuela, where we're whiling away a quiet afternoon before moving on to Colombia on the night bus tonight. Travelling by night has definitely been a feature of my trip so far, this'll be the fourth time that I spend more than 12 hours sleeping next to strangers on overly-air conditioned coaches! They're really comfortable though and I always manage to get a good nights sleep, so it saves money on accomodation and means you waste less sightseeing time during the days. The Venezuelan "Guardia Nacional" (the military) also love to stop the buses as often as possible for ID or sometimes luggage checks, waking up and being greeted by a soldier with a machine gun can be unnerving!

At the moment i'm travelling with a couple from Scotland (Fraser and Sam) and Vicky, a girl from England. I met the couple when I did the 6 day trek up Mount Roraima and Vicky when I visited Angel Falls, we've got a similar itinerary at the moment so for now we're sticking together. It's a pretty big coincidence that i've bumped into a few Brits, there are hardly any tourists in Venezuela at the moment, for the first 4-5 days mine was the only pasty gringo face where I was staying! We've relaxed a bit in Merida after about 12 days of organized tour stuff, it's nice to be able to choose when you wake up and eat, and have lazy days if you want. We went out for a 'few' beers last night and Thursday, the first time i've properly experienced the South American nightlife...you definitely feel like a bit of a novelty and lots of people want to talk to you which is good fun. The people are all pretty friendly, i'm surviving well with my Spanish (I must have a Spanish accent as lots of people think i'm from there), the accent here is a bit difficult to understand at times and lots of words are different (I got a good blank look when asking for a 'billete' in the bus station, here they say 'boleto'!). Venezuelans have a strange obsession with light beer though so you may end up being given some watery 3% stuff (which may not entirely be a bad thing). Yesterday our hangovers were washed away when we got up at 8am to do canyoning (gorge walking),which involves walking/wading/stumbling down river rapids, jumping off small cliffs and abseiling down waterfalls,good fun, quite scary but an excellent hangover cure...although not something i'd fancy doing every day after a night out. The food here is incredibly unhealthy, everyone seems to eat crisps and anything deep fried, 'arepas' are a type of fried corn pitta bread stuffed with some kind of meat or cheese, very bland but cheap and filling. They also have empanadas, like every other South American country, although where those of other countries are normally similar to our pasties, the ones here are deep fried (obviously).

Before Merida I spent 3 days at Angel Falls which was incredible, we took a small Cessna plane from Ciudad Bolivar which takes you into the Canaima National Park, a wild and very sparsely populated area with lots of jungle, rivers and waterfalls. From there, you take a 3 hour boat trip up the river on a slightly uncomfortable wooden boat, I was already hobbling after destroying my feet walking up Roraima so moving around wasn't easy after the journey! The Falls themselves are in a beautiful setting and are very striking, although not much water falls and it turns into a fine mist after falling such a huge distance (1km). We spent the night at the foot of it, and I had my first experience of sleeping in a hammock- which is actually very comfortable, i'm definitely a converted fan!

We went to Canaima directly from Santa Elena de Uairen, which is a town on the border with Brazil where you do Roraima treks from. You take 3 days to reach the summit, and get meals cooked for you by the porters who also carry a lot of your things. I don't normally like being waited on but after a hard day walking with a big rucksack I could definitely make an exception! The top of the mountain is incredibly strange, a very alien landscape of weird rock formations and vegetations, with beautiful views over the jungle to Guyana with other Tepuis (table mountains) in the background. If it was used as the setting for a science fiction film based on another planet i'd definitely believe it was another world! We got up very early at 5am to walk around the top and enjoy the views before the afternoon rain arrived, you are above the clouds at 2800m and it's definitely worth the early start. On the trek we regressed to the bedtime of an 8 year old, it gets dark at 6pm and it's quite cold, so normally we dived into our sleeping bags at 8pm, but that meant we felt fresh enough to get up early at least. The last day we had to walk all the way from the top to the starting point, a total of 28km which wasn't much fun but we all managed ok (although I was hoping to return to the starting point walking a bit more like a fresh mountain conqueror than walking slowly and hobbling like i actually did!

My first few days in the country were spent relaxing on the beach, after the music festival I went to just before I flew out it was very welcome! I stayed in Choroni, a small fishing town on the coast. I managed to get burnt on the first day like a typical Brit abroad, but I enjoyed the palm fringed beaches and also took a boat trip to a nearby cocoa plantation (Venezuelans claim their chocolate is the best in the world and I can say it's definitely up there!

Anyway, I have to go now as i'm hogging someone else's laptop- In 3 or 4 hours we're taking the bus to Maracaibo, from there we're crossing the border then going to Santa Marta to spend some time on the beach, in the second country of my journey so far.
Pictures later, they're not working on this computer for some reason!
Bye!