Home Free

So it has almost been a week since I arrive home.

I tell ya, it was good to catch up on 7 1/2 months of lousy sleep! There was no need for ear plugs or eye mask, as there are no lights being turn on or plastic bags being shuffle round as I slept!

It was also such a liberating feeling, to chuck my iPod, camera, passport and moneybelt out, leaving it lying around without the fear of having it stolen.

After my recovery. :) I spent it catching up with my girlfriend and mates. It was a mission trying to talk to everybody at once as I was so excited to see them all!

Advice on people returning home though, is to tidy up your photos before attempting to show them! As otherwise nothing is in a chronological order, and nothing is censored! haha

So, back in the job hunt now. Back to normality, back to a routine, something which I did miss whilst being on the road. But I am not so sure about it now. It is always that way isn't it? That the grass is always, ALWAYS, greener on the other side. :)

So folks, that's it! Hope those of you whom are still on the road continue to have an excellent adventure! Just remember it is all about the experience! And that it is something you will look back in later on in life with lots of fond memories.

As for those who are still thinking about heading out, well... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LIFE'S AN ADVENTURE, LIVE IT!

Suerte!

Made it to Uruguay!

Yey, I am finally in Uruguay.

Just for a few days... In order to see the historical city of Colonia and later the capital Montevideo.

There were no dramas entering. Other then a 20 hours bus ride from Bariloche to Buenos Aires, followed by a 1 hour ferry ride across the harbour to Colonia.

So am pretty tired, but happy to have well... finally made it across all of South America. CHOICE BRO!!! :)

Chiwi Chiwi Chiwi oi oi oi!

I can't believe this... After backpacking for 7 months, I finally meet not 1, but 2 other Chiwis!!! And all in the same bloody hostel (Marco Polo) here in Bariloche. And all 3 of us are travelling alone. Unbelivable!

I met Andrew from Papakura, and then I met this guy, Martin from Kingsland.

It certainly is cool to see other chiwis out there. Keep it up! :)

The perfect day!

I had the best time with Marty and Odette on Saturday. Marty's from Aus and Odette's from the States. We decided to hire bikes and cycle around the lake district area of Bariloche.

This is Marty and mua in our supercool bike whilst Odette shows off her little pinky bike with training wheelz. Did we look GOOD!

The course we took contain lots of stops along the way. From doll houses (Marty loves dolls), lake side beaches (which we swam in the freezing cold water!), coffee stop at golf houses, lots of photo opportunities and finally to a home brew pub for dinner and drinks. There were also pebble skipping competition along the way (which I won I won I won!!!)

All in all a perfect day!!!

Torres del Paine National Park

I spent 4 days hiking at Torres del Paine National Park. An amazing park in the Chilean side of Patagonia. It certainly is my favorite hike in South America, as everyday I got to see something different. Me and Jens (my German partner) followed the classic "W" shape route hiking from the West to East side.

This is our camp site on day 1, situated at a beautiful camping spot called Paines Grande. As you can see I have beautiful mountains for backdrop. There are also a lot of tents around us as it is peak hiking season right now. And no wonder too as we had an absolute jewel of a weather throughout!

The trek on day 1 is along a very expose ridge, with a huge river full of ice bergs floating down the side. It also explains for the state of these trees. Unfortunately the wind took it's toll on a German girl I met. She got pushed over by the whilst attempting to take a photo. She ended up rolling down the hill and breaking her leg. Yicks!

This mountain range in the French valley is what I saw on day 2. Basically you trek high up to this valley, and at the view point you are surrounded almost all the way (260 degrees) by mountains.

Unfortunately I lost Jens on day 3 of the trek. He had to turn around because of a stuff knee. It was a bit daunting for me being such a green camper as it meant that I had to carry everything whilst climbing more hills. Nevermind coz I did it! :)

This is the legendary Torres del Paine at sun rise on my last day of trekking. Seeing the golden rays of the sun touching the tip of these 3 granite rocks. Shaped by centuries of the retreating force of glacier ice, was mesmerizing. The rocks perturbs into the sky sharply and stand out against the surrounding landscape. The highest point is the middle - Cerro Paines Grande at around 2750 metres. The South Tower is at 2500 metres whilst the North Tower is at 2460 metres.

I can now go home happy. I have came to South America, and have seen everything I wanted to.

The Patagonia region was the last must-do thing on my list. And it has not disappointed. In fact, I may go as far as to say... It may have been the highlight of my trip in this region!

Me and my new spikes

Still alive, and lots to share. I just got back north from the incredible Patagonia region of Southern Argentina and Chile.

The days were spent hiking, camping, climbing and meeting many local Argentinians and foreign travellers. The weather has been perfect, no clouds, and the view.... senfuckinsational... Just look behind me, check out that magnificient peak. And guess what... There are many, many, many more.

I was truely blown away by Patagonia. And I will be uploading photos and sharing them with you.

Ushuaia

Today is my last day in Ushuaia. Despite the weather which has been wet and windy, I still had a blast here. I mean, being so far South (1,188 km from Antarctica), what else can you expect but shitty weather?

My only grip with the town is that trying to sell the "Fin del Mundo" or "End of the world" title may get a little dry. Calling itself the Southern most city in the world is more to the point... But I am guessing the "Fin del Mundo" title is an idea from the past (pre 1600's), when this was considered to be the end of the world. It was remote and inhospitable.

Nowadays, I am told the population of Ushuaia is at a healthy 64,000. There is a bit of a construction boom in town, with houses and roads stretching out as far as the flat land allows. I guess it can be a bit of a worry in terms of environmental concern. But hey who am I to judge? The city is still bless with beautiful snow capped mountains, pristine lakes and a beautiful bay.

I would love to return in 25 years time like my Argentinian dorm mate, to see how much this city will change!

Argentina Border Crossing

Sweet sweet sweet!

No issues at all... Left Encarnacion this morning for Posada in Argentina. The first thing that I chat about with my immigration officer was... Nuava Zelanda rugby suxxx porque Argentina Puma es Numero Uno!

I am sure you can guess what it meant! ;)

Drinking "mate"

It is nothing quite like seeing a hot chick walking on the streets in the middle of the night carrying a mug with it's metal straw similar to the one I am holding and a flask of "mate" on the streets of Paraguay.

How could one not laugh when they are not used to the culture? :D

For those who are wondering... Mate is basically a tea brewed in hot water filled with other goodness like herbs and roots, before serving in a social setting with mates refilling and passing that mug around. It is also the national drink of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.

I must say, after getting my first taste of "mate" from friendly locals, I found it to taste similar to Chinese tea! They fill the flask up with cold or hot water depending on the climate. In my case I drank it cold and it was very refreshing in the 38 degree heat.

So I guess this culture and custom is not dissimilar to Chinese in China, carrying a bottle of thermal flask and a glass to ferry their precious tea back and forth from social to business gatherings!

For more info on mate check wiki.

Brazil is $$$

I have made it into Brazil, after leaving Venezuela a day ago.

Coming into Brazil has been a bit of a shock, on the $$$ side of things. As this is the most expensive country in South America. And don't you know it!

I mean... my 13 hours night bus cost USD48! This compare to me paying around 1USD an hour on bus rides in Venezuela and 2USD an hour on bus rides in Colombia! Also, accommodation at my hostel cost 11USD a night. And that is in a 8 person dorm!

But I did expect this, so am prepare to bite the cost and carry on with me travels. :)

I am now in the city of Manaus, in the middle of the Amazon region. This city was once known as the Paris of the South America. Thanks to it's massive rubber boom in the late 1800's and early 1900's. So many massive and rich looking buildings were built. The highlight includes the Theater, the floating platform out on the docks and the market. However most of the other buildings are now in a sorry looking state. Something which can definitely be done about once more money pours in.

It is pretty surreal though, as at the river mouth there is a HUGE German ocean going cruise ship, which has entered the Amazon river and is now dock at Manaus's floating platform.

Tomorrow, I will be on a smaller cruise... a tiny boat, compare to the German cruise ship. And I will be making my way out of the Amazon river, out to the sea, to the big city of Belem. I am sleeping in "reed" class, meaning... I will be packing a hammock for the 4-5 days cruise.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas folks!

This is that mad Aussie which I mention earlier under Puppetry of the Penis.

Yup I met Richard again, this time without his mates, on the climb up Mt Roraima. And yup, Rich needed a partner and that guy was yours truely for this scenic view!!! :b

Trekking up Roraima Tepui

I just spent 6 days trekking in National Park Canaima. My trek took me up to the top of Mount Roraima. A big fat and flat table top mountain otherwise known as Tepuis. Mount Roraima is the highest of the Tepuis in Venezuela, at 2810 metres.

This is my favorite trek in South America so far. The first 2 days took us through grassy plains, towards Roraima's base camp.

On the left you have Mount Kukenan, and on the right is Mount Roraima.

Mount Kukenan, as taken at sunrise on the right, is known as the evil twin. It has been told that back in the days, the native people here, known as Pemon, would rather climb up Kukenan and throw themselves off rather then falling to enemy hands. Nowadays there are no tours that heads up there as no native people would ever lead tourist up. I suspect the real reason is that it is much harder to climb then Mount Roraima!

And on day 3 we climb up the mountain. It was a slippery afair, but less scary then I thought. We cross the famous Tears Crossing, basically a series of waterfall which falls over us. And then, we reach the top after 4 hours of effort.

Up on top of Roraima it is all about rocks. Re-incarnated in various formations. All in very interesting shapes and sizes. There are also amazing crystal to be found at many areas on Roraima. These rocks you see are vary old, older then the Himalayas, the Alps and the Andes combined! The top is also pretty wet, therefore there are more plant life then I thought. Plus some insect and small animals.

The Roraima frogs are the most interesting. They are very tiny, about the size of my finger nail. They have a black body and a yellow belly underneath. These frogs do not hop like their cousins, instead they walk on all fours! Very trippy!

The group at Roraima
Originally uploaded by benwoo

We did not have the best weather during the trek over the 6 days trek. At times our tents were flooded and we saw plenty of rain and fog.

So at times there was no view on top of the mountain at all! But I didn't mind, as running around and examining the rocks themselves was interesting enough.

We finally made our decent on day 5, and spent the next 2 days walking back out to civilization!

I had a pretty cool group too. From the left they are: Penny (Aus), Richard (Aus), Sarah (Eng), Barna (Hun), Fran (Eng), Camilla (Swe), Ryo (Jap) and yours truely!

We made our tour with Mystic tour, run by Roberto. And paid 770 Bolivars for the fantastic trek.

Angel Falls

I spent 3 days out in Canaima, in South Eastern Venezuela. I flew to Canaima to view Salto Angel, otherwise known as Angel Falls. Name after Jimmy Angel, the discoverer of the famous fall. He discovered it on 16 November 1933.

Angel Fall is the highest waterfall in the world, at 979 metres there are no other waterfall that comes even close!

The day before we got there we receive a dose of heavy rain. Exactly what was needed for the big water experience. And so on the day we got there, it was mysty and cloudy. I love it though as seeing Angel Falls for the first time through the fog seem quite surreal!

But we ended up getting the best of both world as after noon the fog lift and the weather clear up brilliantly. However the fall was still too strong from the overnight rain so we weren't able to swim in the pool below the fall. The force of the water below created a wind draft that was strong enough to blow a baby off!

The trip out to Angel Falls is an adventure in itself too. We paid 850 Bolivars (170USD Black Market rate) for a "cheaper" tour. This meant that our group had to take a 2 hours car ride from Ciudad Bolivar to La Paragua. From there it was a 30 minutes plane ride on a 6 seater Cessna to Canaima.

And then in Canaima, it was a walk, followed by a 4 hours boat ride, and then another 1 hour trek to get close to the falls.

Along the way we got to view other water falls too, like this amazing El Sapo falls. The coolest thing about this big fall is that you can walk behind the fall, and see it fall in front of you like a curtain. The spray from these falls was awesome and the whole group was very wet when we eventually headed off.

The area around Angel Fall is also full of Tepuis. Otherwise known as the Table Mountains. These flat top mountains rises magnificiently over the surrounding countryside. They all seem to top off at about 2500 metres. The Tepuy that Angel Falls is on is the known as Auyan-tepui. It is also the biggest Tepuy in the world, measuring 700 square km.

For more information on this amazing fall check out Wiki!

The only poo poo from the trip out to the falls were that 5 out of 6 in the group had money stolen. We suspect it may have been the boat driver and his helper but we have no prove. However I only had 20,000 Bolivars stolen (about 4USD worth) but my friends had about 20-40USD stolen from them (all Black market rate of course!).

Still, it will not stop me from recommending the tour company that we went with or the tour guide that we had. The company was call Adrenaline and our guide was Gabriella.

The People

And here are photos of the people including the group at the Lost City trek.

Here is a Koguis mum, at 15 year old with her son.

Here is a Koguis girl showing off her colourful necklace.

To tell the difference between the girls and the boys is that the boys all carry a knapsack, whilst the girls all wear pretty necklaces.

Here are two Koguis boys, no older then 12 and 14, having a fag during a break up on the trek. They told me they started smoking at a tender age of 11.

Wh00p Wh00p! Yeah mate, I would have look so much better possing if it wasn't for them German style socks and sandles. But I did the whole bloody trek in sandles! They were PERFECT for the numerous muddy and wet trails. That is, until the last day when we had to slug through avalanches. My poor Tevas just couldn't handle them.

Anyway.... RAH RAH!!!

From the left is Missile our cook, Eduardo our English speaking guide and the younger Eduardo Spanish speaking guide possing with their Galil rifles...

RAH RAH!!!

Here is my group on the trek having breakfast. From the right we have Matt (Walsh), Olga (Polish), Karen (Walsh), Christine (Canadian), Jordan (Canadian), yours truely and Sef (Denish).

This is our brilliant guide Eduardo, with his mum and dad. We stayed at his house on the first night of the trek. Eduardo is strong as an ox and nimble as a deer during our trek. He helped carried Christine's backpack when she was too tired, and knows the trail, the animals, the plant life like a native. During the trek he picked out sugarcane, mandarin, oranges, choclate growing along the path and cut it up for us. Eduardo is only 19 years old, but has been guiding for 3 years and was a cook for 5 years before that. His dad is 52 and his mum is only 49. He also has 5 brothers and 2 sisters.

Mud Volcano of Totumo

Eeek! Covered from head to toes in muddy slimy goo. It was great fun!

Today, I headed out to the mud volcano of Totumo. About 40km from Cartegena. It was an interesting day trip as the photo shows. Once there, the group I was in don on our togs, climb the steps up the 20 metre cone, and step into this slimy gooey mud. The sensation is wonderful! I felt like a kid again, playing with mud, rubbing it all over myself, making it burp and fart around me.

The coolest thing about this stuff is that it is simply un-sinkable! I was litrally lying down on the mud, dozing off in the mid afternoon heat. Other folks around me were getting a nice full body mud massage by the locals.

After the experience, we climb back down the ladder and were lead to a pond, to be wash down by the local ladies. They did a very good job with cleaning me and my togs (off!).

But now as I type this, I am picking at my ears to find more black goo stuck to my finger nails!

Botero statue

This is a piss take on Botero, the most famous artist in Colombia. Found at Cartegena's Independence festival this weekend.

And this here is the real Botero statue!

Frenando Botero as you may have notice is famous for his work with regards to fat-ness. This is seen in his museum in Medellin and Bogota. His art work includes sculptures and paintings. It is very interesting to see how he potray all his subjects, from dogs, fruit plates to people, in a "fat" form.

For more information on Botero and hiswork, check out Wikipedia and Museum Syndicate.

I LOVE CRACK!

Crack climbing that is!

This is what I did today!!! :) :) :)

I finally got to do some real climbing after a long break. Today, Laird (my Canadian mate) and I went rock climbing at El Peñol, a massive piece of granite rock, judding out of the countryside, 2 hours East of Medellin.

We started off with a long 30m climb, graded at 5.8 and called the Kurakata. The climb was a good warm up, and it was also Laird's first outdoor climbing experience and kodus to him as he top it!

This photo is taken for a climb called Alcatraz, rated at 5.10B and is 25m high. It is my first proper crack climb, as you can see from the photo, the jagged age goes all the way up. In fact, the whole route is 80 metres, requiring 3 multipitch climb. It would have been so cool to do the whole thing!

Just Check out the view!

El Peñol is situated in a very pretty area, surrounded by lakes and beautiful countryside. Many rich folks from the big city of Medellin have bought holiday houses out here. As you can see their houses, and the occasional speed boats out on the water. I certainly cannot complain about the view, nor the beautiful climb.

And finally, here is our guide: Yon Monsalve. He is a 31 year old Colombian from Medellin and has been climbing for 12 years. He is a great climber, and have set 3 of the 4 routes we climbed today.

He has had first hand experience with Colombian's war with the rebels. He got shot on the back of his shoulder, with the bullet piercing his left shoulder, and busting his jaw. So now he has a slightly crooked jaw. The shot put him in a coma for 2 days. This happened to him at the age of 17, whilst he was in the Colombian army.

Welcome to Colombia!

Welcome to Colombia! I made it, and the border crossing between Ecuador and Colombia (between Tulcan and Ipiales) is one of the easiest that I have encountered. There was no hassle at all and there were no bribes involved. :)

But I was nervous about the Colombian pesos as I have never ever seen one before. So I manage to convince my Ecuadorian custom officer to follow me out to flag down a road side money changer. I wanted him to verify the fact that those pesos I get are authentic!

This photo was taken by the Colombian border guard. Smile! :)

After the crossing I spent another 8 hours by taxi and bus, to get me up to the town of Popayan. But thank God I didn't take this old bus (known as "Colectivos") on the right.

Instead I caught one of these super fast taxi minivans, which sped through the Pan American highway along some spectacular landscape, where the cliff drops steeply down deep valleys, with a roaring river below. Oh also, if you are heading North like me, sit on the right side for the best view!

One week in Quito

This is me studying Spanish with Floro. And as you can see I am so good at Spanish that she didn't need to write anything on the board. :b

My week in Quito has been awesome. The school has arranged for a home stay for me. So I have my own room, a big bed, bathroom and 2 meals a day. It has bought some sort of normality back to my life and I love it. Today I even went to Quito's big shopping mall call Centro Commercial Jardin (Park Central) and sat at Mr.Book (Border's Like bookstore) reading English materials. It felt great!

And as for cost? My one-to-one Spanish lessons is 4.50usd an hour and the home stay is 12usd per day. A bargain!

I shag Turtles...

I see Turtles too... Ooooooo La La!