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!

Otavalo´s famous market

Yey! I finally left Quito. I arrive in the town of Otavalo, about 2 hours north of Quito today to check out one of South America's most famous and biggest outdoor market.

It is certainly big alright! Stretching out from the main plaza (town square) out to adjacent roads all around town. The stores were full of handicrafts, artworks, clothing's and jewelry. But you know what? It wasn't as mind blowing as I thought it would be. I dunno whether it is coz I have seen that many outdoor markets or that I was sore from bouldering yesterday or... That I wasn't planning on buying "nada" (nothing) since I still have so much time to travel. However I enjoy people watching, and seeing locals from the villages in their traditional costume and jewelry, gave me countless Kodak moments.

In the evening I had plans to see the cock fight in a local ring, but the rain put an end to that idea. I was soaked, not from above, but from below. The problem was the road, it's puddles and the passing traffic. My pants are right now being dried at the fireplace.

Speaking of which, anyone who visits Otavalo should check out the hostel I stayed at. It is call Hotel Riviera Sucre and features big rooms, tv, comfy beds, fireplace and hammocks. Tomorrow I will be crossing the border into Colombia. I am looking forward to seeing this country as I have met countless travelers whom have raved about this country to me.

Where I have been! :)

This is a pretty cool site, you tick the box of all the countries you have visited and it will generate a map of the countries you have visited!

Quito Climbing

I finally baptise my zapatos de roca (climbing shoes) on Tuesday. After buying those beautiful babies (La Sportivas) from LA I have been wanting to use them.

So I found this bouldering place call MonoDedo (One Finger) near La Coruna Calle (road), about 20 minutes walk from home. Inside there were all these monkeys climbing everywhere.... I felt like a bloody pig compare to them. I SUCK and am sad to think that I have lost all my form (what form LOL) after 4 months of absence.

But Al / Steve / Anna / Nick and the rest, I am still gonna KICK your asses when I return! :b

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!

The Galápagos Islands

I spent an incredible 6 days out in the Galapagos last week and I want to rave about it!

I spent most of it on board this sail boat name "Merak". It is a smallish, carrying 4 crews and 8 passengers. Wel actualy it is pretty tiny, as upon arrival at the dock the Merak was the smallest ship of the lot by far! The crew included one naturalist guide name Cesar, the captain Teto, first mate Lenin and the cook Jamie.

We had a good group of people on board which was nice as the boat was too small for any sort of difficulties. However we did not have an auspicious start as the American Pete (on the left of the photo) left his backpack on board the bus and we were all delayed from starting out on the cruise. He apparently saw the basking sea lions at the dock and got so excited with taking photos that he forgot all about his backpack - what a dumb arse! But we soon forgave him and forgot about the incident. :)

Cesar our guide is the best guide I have had so far in this trip. This old man who turns 70 next year, is one exceptional guide. Seriously! Cesar is a joker and can take as much himself as he dishes out. He tells us his favorite position is '69 LOL! This was after we saw this big male bull sea lion gave it to his lover (in the only style they can master - guess). Cesar must have a pretty long love life as he has 5 ex-wives along with 12 kids from past marriages. But he told us when the tax man came they told him he had 6 ex-wives so he is still looking for the last one! hahaha

Cesar is also strong for his age, always being the first on our inflatable, standing up to help with the navigation. As for his guiding style he would just walk off when he wants to, so if you do not want to hear his explanation you don't have to. He has been guiding for 30 years (including 2 as a cook!) so he can tell us anything and everything we wanted to know without a book. I love this old man and will rave about him to other travelers. So it is only a pity that Cesar plans to retire at the end of the year. Salud!

The Galapagos archipelago is actually a group consisting of 13 main Islands. And in our tour we only visited 5 Islands. They are:

Baltra - which everybody visits upon arrival as that is where the airport lives. We visited a beautiful beach near by on our first day, and saw ruins of a pier left by the American GIs station here during WWII.

Santa Cruz - the mainland hub which has the largest human population (20,000 and counting) and home of the famous Charles Darwin Research Station where massive land turtles can be observed.

Santa Fe - A small-ish Island full of cactus trees along with a whole host of lizards including the Land Iguana and Lava Lizard.

Espanola - My favorite Island for it's terrain and animals! It is full of bird species such as the wave Albatross, Hood Mockingbirds, Blue footed Boobies, Swallow-Tailed Gulls and Finches. There are also spectacular blow holes and loads and loads of Marine Iguanas (and we observe them swimming in the ocean!).

Floreana - Another beautiful Island with beautiful beaches where you can observe (and feel!) stingrays swimming at your feet on the beach, see pink flamingos in the lake and leave mail for someone to post at "Post Office Bay". The "Post Office Bay" is name after barrels of mail left by whalers back in the 18th century as a means for ships destined for the USA and Europe to deliver their mail home. Floreana had the best snorkeling around it's offshore Island called the "Devils Crown". It is actually a submerged volcanic cone full of coral and fishes.

On the left this is a Land Iguana, chewing on it's favorite food from the cactus tree. This big lizard was lazing around beforehand but move fast when Cesar cut and drop this cactus at it's feet. I am guessing it hasn't eaten in a while! The photo was taken at Santa Fae Island.

Sea lions abound in every Island we visited.
From the moment we arrived at the dock in Baltra we found these lazy creatures on land. However in water they are a different story. Garret, Dave, Bos and I had the most exhilarating experience underwater at Espanol Island, because the teenagers came underwater to play with us! They would swim right up to us, blow bubble in our face and swim off, one swam so close to me I got to touch it´s rubbery skin! They were so playful that they disturbed a white tip shark whom was basking beneath the rocks!

The Galapagos visit was an incredible experience for me because these animals weren't afraid of human presence. I guess they have no fear for us because they were never hunted by human beings like elsewhere. So we could get very close to these wild creatures. And some of them like the finches and baby sea lions would hop up to investigate or to play with us.

Blow Holes at Espanol Island

The landscape was also very beautiful, from big cliffs with blow holes, dried out windswept terrain, humid and wet forest, perfect sandy beaches to rising volcanic cones all devoid of human habitation. 97% of the Galapagos is protected and this is the largest marine reserve in the world.

I only hope that with the increasing human presence (both locals and tourist) that the Galapagos can maintain it's uniqueness, and that one day my kids will be able to see this landscape and animals in the same way that I saw it.

I am back in Quito!

http://generator.click2map.com/maps/chiwi/South America Adventure

Just testing a new mapping tool to show people where I am currently. Tell me what you think of it or if there is a better alternative to this. What I really want is a mapping tool which shows people where I have been with some kind'a travel line.


Sweet!

24 hours madness in Vegas

I spent a mad 24 hours in Vegas when I was in LA. I started by catching a 6 hours Greyhound bus out at 8am. And realise immediately why people from the States do not use the Greyhound. The bus was full of bums and low income earners hoping to make it big in Vegas. One bum was so smelly that nobody sat next to him! Upon arriving in Vegas, I immediate set out for that famous boulevard.

First impression - I WAS BLOWN AWAY. Ok so people from the States wonder what the facination is. Well when you see and watch it on TV, hear about it on the news and then finally see it with your own eyes. It is just simply fantastic! I felt I was in La La land!!! Though the La La land would have been even better if I was loaded! ;)

Even the first sighting of Vegas was incredible. One moment it is all desert and dry plains, and then you start seeing big billboards on the side of the road (with one gun shop selling M-16´s wtf?), before the tall white buildings of Vegas rose out like a mirage in the distance. And everything in Vegas is HUGE. Then again, everything in the States are massive! From their billboards, food portions to big cars and 10 lanes wide boulevards.

Walking around the main strip neon signs, TV screen, and big billboards all jump out at you. I thought there were some hilarious contradiction though. Such as passing by wedding chapels (whom broadcast your wedding for free over the Internet) and seeing a big poster of Dalai Lama´s upcoming preaching. And of seeing nuns in their garb strolling by those big evil casinos.

I really enjoy watching the different people out here too. From fat mama´s to men in cowboy suit. But I saw a lot of families too, like this is some kind of healthy outing or something. :)

This fountain is pretty impressive too, found outside Paris Vagas. I went up the Eiffel Tower for a great view over the city.

Afterwards I caught a few free shows. The most impressive being Ballagio´s massive fountains. I was hugely impress by it´s size, and the height of the fountain. I just wish the show was longer! LOL

I caught the pirate show at Treasure Island next, that wasn´t as impressive though the audience were huge. I also caught the volcano show outside of the Mirage and the Roman show inside Caesar´s Palace, all pretty average but fun to watch neverless.

Vegas is all about gambling, shows and shopping. I didn´t have time to gamble, but I caught shows and shopped. They had some pretty cool shops too! Such as the M&M bar on the right. I LOOOOVE M&M´s and they had all kind´s of M&M. Such as M&M´s with peanut butter inside! It was yummy!!!! And at some casinos such as the Venetian they built a canal inside the mall, and had paddlers take passengers out on boat. The ceiling were pretty impressive, with the sky painted on.

So most of these casinos had a theme, from Paris Vegas´s French furnishing, Excalibur´s old England theme, Caesar´s Palace´s Roman theme to Luxor´s Egyptian theme.

Obviously if you wanted to catch a decent show you had to pay for it. So I fork up nearly 150USD for the latest Cirque du Soleil show. It was call "Love" and is based on the Beatles. The show was at the Mirage, and I booked it prior to arriving here thanks to Andreanne in Melbourne. She worked for Cirque du Soleil and manage to get me a pretty decent seat inside.

Technically this is the most advance show I have seen. Every seat in the purpose built theater had 4 speakers built in. The lighting and sound effects was also impressive! And the show, it was fantastic! I enjoy hearing all the Beatles song, and watching the actors dance to the songs. They used 3 VW Beatles in the show, and one actually comes apart during the show. But in terms of the actors skill I was more impress with the other Cirque du Soleil show I saw - Varekei.

So in the end, I caught the 1.30am bus (which was delayed till 3am thanks Greyhound!) back to LA. It has been one tiring but fantastic 24 hours for me. :)

Every dog has it´s day...

I finally get to watch an All Blacks game, at the only pub in town showing it. To me we were definitely the better team on the day. We dominated at line out, scrum, possession and our backs were on fire. But the fluky French side came back and wins by 2 points.

20-18 enuf said! <cries>

I´ll be back!

I love LA, there was so much to see and do in my time there that I did not get to see everything.

I spent the first day visiting Universal Studio Hollywood, one of the biggest movie studios in the States. Universal Studio Hollywood is one part fun ride and the other part a proper production studio. With on going series productions such as "Desperate Housewife" and "Jericho", and recent famous films such as "Shrek 3" and "The Kingdom". It was interesting to look through the production studios and the fake city setups. I was pretty impress with the setup for "War of the World´s" though as they cut up a real Boeing 747 and scattered the pieces throughout the stage. I also love the movie rides and movies such as Jurassic Park, Shrek 4D and the Mummy. The best bit about this was I waited for no rides as it wasn´t pack on a Monday!

Another day was spent walking through Hollywood Boulevard. It was fun looking out for my favorite actors but I thought there were way too many, and they even included cartoons such as the Simpsons and Donald Duck in the Hollywood star walk! It was cool to see the legendary Grauman´s Chinese Man theater, and to see the writing by famous actors outside. In this photo you can see the writing by the current governor (some call him the governator!) of California. :) I still think it is hilarious but appropriate to have an A class (well I think he is A class) actor ending up being the governor of that very State. I hope he goes all the way to become to Prez one day (when they decide to change the rule about American-born to become President).

This last star has got to be mine. LOL!

But I went ga ga over the actors found. Including Bruce Lee, Wyona Ryder, Marilyn Monroe, Arnie, Jonny Cash... Though as mention before, it was weird to see cartoon characters being featured here. Perhaps I am missing something but according to my guide it cost 15,000 USD to place the tile and to maintain it. Are the fan base of the Donald Duck club big enough to have fund raise for this?

The only disappointment I had here was that I couldn´t find the star of Scarlett Johansson. :)

I love California!

This is where I have been for the past 11 days. I spent it with my mate Derek and his girlfriend Cynthia in LA. I went there as it has been a long 4 years since we last partied together, and it was also his 40th birthday so we wanted to celebrate it in style. Don´t he look good for an old man? :)

Derek and Cynthia lives in Brentwood, a suburb in Santa Monica in West LA. LA by the way is one massive city, home to 13 million (encompassing Long Beach and Santa Ana). It is also a massive car-friendly and people-unfriendly city, as getting anywhere requires wheels.

Anyway, Derek and Cynthia´s neighbourhood can be considered as the Parnel/Remurea of Auckland. Big mansions, beautiful apartments, palm tree lined boulevards and lots of nice cars on the streets. Seeing SUV´s, Porsche, Mercs and BMWs driving past are like seeing Fords and Nissans back home.

They also own a cute little Beagle name Holly. She is only 6 months old. She spots these big fluffy ears (which I would very much like to pin back) and a beautiful fur coat. I love watching her run around the apartments as the marble floor makes her slip and slide everywhere.

This photo I took of her will probably be her last time sitting in the back seat! Coz she threw up both on Cynthia and me afterwards. They blame it on her eating prior to coming out and of sitting out back. Poor little Holly!

Climbing Shoes

Yey! I finally got myself a pair of climbing shoes. I have been holding off until I got to LA to look for them. These babies that I bought are La Sportiva Cliff (http://www.sportiva.com/products/prod/996). Not the hottest looking thing out there but since when did climbers ever care about fashion ;) and they were cheap! At 60USD it is a bargin!

For the outdoor enthusaistics out there I purchased my babies from REI Sport (http://www.rei.com/). One of the biggest outdoor store in the States. They have everything here! All, except for my beloved NZ brands like Macpac, Fairydown and Ice Breakers.

U S A

Guess what, I am in LA now. Yes LA! The city of Angels. Home of Hollywood, plastic surgery, Venus Beach, In And Out Burgers, Bay Watch and the OC. I am having a great time so far. The weather is beautiful, sunny and a constant light sea breeze to stay cool, and at night it is warm enough to go out without a jacket.

I came here to see a good mate, Derek and his gf Cynthia. I came to celebrate his birthday and to take a break from travelling through South America. But what a big contrast it has been compare to the third world countries that I have been travelling through in the last 3 months. From driving through Hollywood Boulevard last night, setting sail on a boat in Orange County during the day and to see all those beautiful mansions with their meticulously kept garden, big name brand shops, fancy cars and boats, well maintain boulevards with palm trees lining both sides of the street. This is LA alright!

It was great to see Derek and Cynthia. They live in a pretty nice pad in Brentwood. According to Derek this is the Chelsea of London, or Parnell of Auckland. Everybody here looks good, drives nice car and owns a dog. Derek and Cynthia owns a cute little puddle name Holly. She is only 6 months old, has big floppy ears and is very adorable. She seems a little spoilt though and shares their bed at night. Awwweee!

First impression of USA is that they are a patriotic bunch! American flags abound and many houses have a flag pole out front, factories would have a big American flag painted on their walls, and even car yards have mascot cars painted with the stars and stripes.

Quito in one day...

I arrive in Quito from Cuenca this morning. I survive another night bus thanks to my trusty pill - Diazepam. :)

 

Anyway, I check myself into a lovely hostel call "The Secret Garden". It is beautifully decorated and has a beautiful terrace which overlooks Quito´s old town. After dumping my backpack and having a quick shower I took off eagerly to explore the UNESCO old town. But upon walking out the hostel and turning round the first corner, I came across a dead body! It was a shock, but seemed more surreal then scary. This man, who can´t be over 35, was lying face up on the steps of a building, eyes and mouth wide open, and arms and legs splay out. Surrounding him at a fair distance were some locals and 3 policemen. I ask one of them "Esta muerte?" (Is he dead?) and she confirm it. As to why she couldn´t say... It felt so weird as no one bother to cover his body or even his face up.

 

So five minutes later, after walking past more drunks and druggie looking guys, I saw two policemen walking their big black brute of a dog, so I approach them to take a photo. And what do you know, they both got their dogs to stand on their hind legs to pose for me. It was hilarious, these big black brutes, looking so very ugly and mean, and whom could probably eat me up at the slightest provocation, doing circus tricks. LOL!

 

I feel Quito is an edgy city, with it´s "nice" side and it´s "dark" side. Like the druggies and drunks just around the corner. And being warn of the "bad" Colombians and Peruvians whom came here to steal and rob. But you know what? I kinda like it, as it feels like a real city. That it is dodgy and all, I mean which city hasn´t got it´s dodgy areas?

 

But walking around the old city was a wonderful feeling. It felt like walking through certain European city, with streets after streets of beautiful colonial architecture, all pretty much in a good state. There are big plazas with beautiful statues. And I tell you what, Cuenca (the other UNESCO city in Ecuador) cannot compare to Quito´s old city.

 

Later I came across the most beautiful church I have seen so far in South America: The Church of the Society of Jesus of Quito (La Compania), built in 1765 (after 160 years!) the entire interior is covered in gold leaf. Rumours has it that 2 tons of gold were used but my guide reckon it is more like 50 kgs. Still, it did not fail to impress. Everything was shinny and in true Baroque style everything was symmetrical. Right down to the fake stair well which was painted in, to match the real thing beside it! I also love the religious paintings, from the Quito school of art, as they seem more realistic then the Cuzco school of art (where there is a real competition) in Peru. I sat in the church for ages gazing in wonder.

 

Oh and finally, I got to check out Andy Warhol´s exhibition! It was great to see this great artist´s work, even if the explanation and guides were all in Spanish! :)

Cuy

Looks good innit? This is a "Cuy" slow roasting under charcoal fire. It´s skin popping and crackling with a layer of hot oil brushed upon.

I tell you what, the "cuy", or guinea pig is one dish I have been looking forward to tasting, as I have seen it all over Peru, and have heard about it from other traveller´s experience.

Though most of my fellow travellers whom have tried it found it disgusting. But I was willing to give it a go to find out for myself what it taste like.

To be fair, most travellers found it disgusting because of the way the cuy was served. Everything is intact, including the head, it´s little feet with bits of hair stuck to it (as you can see on this photo - how cute!!!!), and all it´s intestine.

It was fascinating to watch the cooking process. I could smell the suckling crackling aroma (which reminded me very much of Chinese style roast pork), and choke on the smoke which fires out when the cook applied more oil.

The cuy was served after 30 minutes of slow roasting. The cook cut mine into half as I could only afford to eat half a cuy. Plus, the whole thing looks too big to consume for lunch! It was served on a plate of roast potatoes and half an egg. The sides were salsa sauce and boiled corn.

And what about the taste? Well the skin was beautiful! It tasted almost like roast pork, but less fatty, thinner and crispier. The meat was interesting. I can´t say I have tasted anything quite like it. It is white meat, taste sort of sweet and doesn´t taste fatty at all. A lady in Huaraz once boast to me that cuy has zero cholesterol so maybe that´s the reason. I must say though there were less meat in my cuy then I expected. I wanted to try it´s little feet but there was hair on it. Yuck! I also tried a little bit of the black stuff inside - either the kidney or the heart, I wasn´t sure, but that was very GROSS! Did manage to mouth it down with a bit of Fanta though!

Now that I have tried cuy I don´t know if I want to experience it again. I mean, it wasn´t disgusting, but the meat really is an aquired taste. I also think seeing those cute guinee pig throughout my trip so far has effected my taste bud. And today, having seen it prepared and served with everything intake has made it slightly harder to eat, like I had to turn the head over before starting to eat.

Maybe they should start looking at packaging cuy fillet? ;)

Hello Ecuador

I have arrived in Ecuador! Cross the border yesterday (Sunday), after a gruelling 3 days bus journey.

I left Huaraz on Friday, caught a night bus to Trujillo, followed by another night bus to Piulla. Then on Sunday morning I caught an 8 hours bus across the border to Ecuador and onwards to Loja. And today, I caught another bus north to Cuenca, a pretty little colonial city, recognize by UNESCO for it´s beautiful buildings.

What a journey! I am shagged, and need a good bed to sleep. The reason I travel so rapidly north is due to the fact that I have a flight to catch from Quito on Friday. I do regret not seeing more of Northern Peru though, as there are some pretty chill out places and interesting ruins to see. Oh well...

Butt ugly Peruvian dog

This, everybody is the hairless Peruvian dog. Butt ugly at first sight, butt ugly always.... Especially this one, found in Trujillo, northern Peru. I don´t know why it´s got some hair on it´s head, other then to speculate that it is an old bastard.

I´ve been told that because these dogs are hairless, they absorb heat well. And that Peruvians use them as a hugging toy, believing that it would help with relieving stomach pain and in keeping warm!

But I just wiki this and apparently it is a myth.

The one and only - Inca Kola!

This is Inca Kola, the biggest selling soft drink in Peru. Bigger then, believe it or not - Coca-Cola! Yes it´s true, every local you speak to will tell you so.

The colour is yellow (nice urine colour), and the taste is very bubble gummy. A bit of an acquired taste I say, but it does go down well with a meal. And it is a nice refreshing alternative to the Coke monster. To find out more visit their website (in Spanish)!

Incidentally, did you know Coca-Cola still purchase 115 tons of coca leaf from Peru and 105 tons of coca leaf from Bolivia yearly. However it is only used for the flavouring ingredient as part of the Coke formula. I found this interesting information out from the Coca Museum back in La Paz, Bolivia. :)

Preparing San Pedro Cactus!

Here you have stage one of preparing the San Pedro cactus. We had to cut them up to pieces, remove the sharp thorns on the bark, before separating the bark from the flesh. You can see James and Laird hard at work here, and you can see there are a lot more to do in the big pot below.

Stage two, after boiling the San Pedro cactus for 1 1/2 days, we remove the bark and seperate the soft flesh beneath. Afterwards we had to chop it all up to ensure that it is nice and gooey. Here you see Laird not having the patience for the next stage and wanting his mouthfull NOW. :b

And here you have Peter pouring the final product into our mugs for consumption. This final stage took about 2 days to prepare, as boiling up the bark to soften and release it´s chemical was one long process. I can tell you drinking the juice of the cactus is a mission. I have never tasted anything worst... except deep fried cockroach! :b

I took this picture of Alex, the owner at "The Away Inn Lodge" as he was about to drink his San Pedro. He seem like he was in a trance, or saying a silent prayer before drinking. It was hilarious watching his reaction afterwards, as like I said before, this green goo is the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted!

And this is me, lying down outside of the lodge. I must have been in the same position for 2 hours, waiting for the San Pedro effects to kick in, recording the feelings on my journal, and to prevent myself from throwing up. I had my shades on, my Sigor Ros playing on the iPod, and my tiger balm handy to sniff on whenever I felt like chugging!

"The Way Inn" Lodge

Evening at The Way Inn Lodge.

I spent the last 4 days staying at the best guesthouse so far in my trip. The place was call "The Way Inn Lodge", and it is located 3,700 metres high, nearest town is Huaraz to the East. The lodge is set in a magnificent location. It is owned by an Englishman name Alex, whom hires a bunch of locals and foreigners to work for him.

When I was there, the manager was a 25 year old kiwi name Peter. And there was also a German, an Aussie and an American working. Up on the lodge you pay 28 sols (approx $8.50USD) for a dorm bed in a "cave", basically a room built into a rock with a very comfy bed, and breakfast.

I spent my days reading in the hammock, hiking up the mountains, bouldering on the many big rocks around the guesthouse, climbing on the artificial wall and on our last day. We tried something very cool call the San Pedro cactus. San Pedro cactus is an interesting hallucinogenic drug. It comes from the bark of this particular cactus, and is sold legally around town. Apparently the shamans in Peru uses it to induce their patients into a trance. But the group of us did it yesterday for fun and to discover it´s potent effect. Prior to consuming this we spent 2 nights preparing the plant, starting off with chopping up the bark, peeling the flesh from the bark, then boiling the bark for 24 hours, before separating more flesh from the bark, and re-boiling the lot for another 12 hours.

It was finally prepared yesterday afternoon, the substances remain from it is a nasty looking smelly sticky greenish goo. And man can I say this is the most disgusting thing I have ever tried in my life! Just sipping the goo made me want to throw up. And after drinking the content I had to lie down for 2 hours, listening to music and sniffing my tiger balm to stop me from wanting to throw up. Some other guest did threw up, but we were told the effects would be weaker. Within an hour the hallucination started. It came on pretty strong and I was seeing all kind´s of pictures with my eyes.

The colours were vivid, everything was rich with texture and swivelling in my head, kind of like looking at a magic eye. Other effects were talking nonsense and laughing at the tinniest thing. So as expected, everybody had a grand time! :) Peter and Alex were out on the field throwing javelins at each other and doing all sort of kong fu moves. An Alaskan couple checked out the hot sauna, whilst Laird and I went hiking around the bush for the beautiful scenery. I also tried noting down the experience into my journal, on an hourly basis. But I only manage to get up to the third hour before needing to stop, as by then I was having trouble trying to write in a straight line, the letters and the page were all jumping out at me! Heheheh it was all very funny indeed.

The trip lasted till night time, and I must say the sun set yesterday was one of the most impressive I have seen. The colours on the skies kept changing colours, the snow cap peaks grew pink, and the city lights in the valley below lit up like a dancing with lights seen from shore. We started a fire and basically chatted until the effects went off. In the end he trip lasted almost 10 hours. What an amazing experience it all was!

10 "Most Polluted Places" named

This interesting article from the BBC list the "10 most polluted places in the world". For me they are places to avoid whilst travelling! :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6995621.stm

Earthquake in Colombia

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit the South West region of Colombia, causing some damage but no reported lost of lives. Lets hope that is the last of the earthquakes in this region.

I am in Huaraz now, another region known for it´s deadly earthquakes. The last one in the 1970´s killed half of this town´s residents and caused massive damage to both the city and the landscape.

The newspaper article from The Age sent to me from my sister.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/strong-earthquake-rocks-colombia/2007/09/10/1189276612881.html

Lima´s China Town

I am in Lima now, the capital of Peru. I spent yesterday walking the central, and covered only a little bit of it. Lima is one big spread out city. You need a bus or taxi just to get anywhere.

It is also constantly covered under a thick sea fog between May and November, therefore giving it a real grey and drab look. However Lima is also one happening place, with a population of 7 million there are people everywhere, young and old, shouting their warez, shopping, hanging out, enjoying their weekend...

The highlight for me (as in most cities) was the central market. I love wondering through looking at the shoppers and seeing the warez for sale, especially fresh produce like fruits, veges, meat and seafood. And the lovely seafood!!! Lima is a coastal city like Auckland, so the seafood are very fresh and very cheap. My mouth was watering as I walked outta there...

And guess what was next to the central market? Lima´s massive China town! Yes they call it Bario China here. And the entrance comes complete with a big arch. Donated by the Chinese government back in 1997. According to my guide book back in the 1800´s around 200,000 Chinese from Canton and Fujian province migrated to Lima, and currently there are around 1 million Chinese decedents living in Lima. Incredible aye? So walking through China town I can hear Cantonese being spoken everywhere, and see yummy Chinese food on the windows of the restaurants, such as roast duck, BBQ pork, pastries of every kind and dim sums!

Yes hot yummy dim sum! Within minutes I found myself seated inside "Salon Capon", the biggest and fanciest looking Chinese restaurant in town. Inside they had more waiters then lunchers. And I sat down to order my dim sum. I ate Siew Mai, Har Kao and Chechong-fun. The Har Kao was a real delight, the prawn inside was both huge and super fresh!

Wow! I haven´t had yum char since... KK in Elleslie over 10 weeks ago! So this was pure bliss... I ended up in the restaurant for 2 hours, reading my book, drinking endless cups of tea and eating my 3 dishes. hahahahahah!

Pisco after the earthquake...

I visited Ica the other day, one of the places effected by the massive earthquake 2 weeks ago. Ica seem normal to me, with only slight visible damage such as a crack wall here and there.

But the following day I went through Pisco, on my way north to Lima. And the first thing that I encounter were a bunch of kids sticking up a big long wooden stick with half a plastic bottle cut out to collect donations from the passengers. The scene in the city was devastating. Big 4 stories houses crumbled to the floor, debris everywhere, bridge damaged, cracks on road surface and power pylons fallen.

However I can see that people are trying to get their lives back in order. The electricity is up, water is running, public transport are moving about, people have been organize into work groups, collecting debris into one pile, lots of building being repaired and lots more colourful tents sitting outside their properties.

On my bus I was seated beside a man from Pisco, who left with his family to Ica after the earthquake. He show me photos of Pisco on his PDA of the destruction, and as we flick through them a photo of his dead mum was shown. I was pretty shock, as this guy who seem quite relax and happy to talk to me and show me the photos seem to have not just got over the destruction of his house, but also the death of his mother. I guess people here just want to move on and rebuild their lives.

Israelis

Who likes them? Was woken up by loud music this morning coming next door, and guess who? Bloody Israelis who had no concern for others...

Seriously, I try and avoid staying at backpackers full of Israelis, but sometimes it just turn out that way. Like at this current place in Lima, "The Lex Luthor´s House", it´s a wicked hostel except I am the only non-Israeli here. I am not bagging all of them but sometimes, when I wake up in morning like this to their noise it drives me insane!

More rant to come...

Cost... for the first 7 weeks...

Oh goodie, how much have I been spending so far? I had to dig deep into my journal to check the last time I did a calculation, and that was till Week 7.

So here goes:

Week 1 = 225.05 USD = 32.15 USD / day
Week 2 = 204.89 USD = 29.27 USD / day
Week 3 = 208.46 USD = 29.78 USD / day
Week 4 = 87.57 USD = 12.51 USD / day
Week 5 = 163.73 USD = 23.39 USD / day
Week 6 = 83.93 USD = 11.99 USD / day
Week 7 = 186.83 USD = 26.69 USD / day

So, the grand total after 7 weeks came to 1160.46 USD, or 23.68 USD per day! :)

I was stoke to find that out to be honest, coz trying to follow a budget has been ****** hard!

Still, those 7 weeks didn´t include the last 3 weeks, as since arriving in Peru I have been spending shit loads, not deliberately either. It´s just that tourist attraction in Peru are a rip off for foreigners, as you shall see once I tally up the remaining time. :(

Chauchilla Cemetery

I visited the Chauchilla Cemetery whilst in Nazca. This cemetery was looted by grave robbers of it's treasures, leaving the mummies to hang about. As you can see in the photo the mummies are all place in a fetal position in a shallow grave. There are also fragments of bones, human hair and broken pieces of pottery to around. The mummies have been dated back to 1000 AD!

The whole area is pretty desolated, as the landscape is desert like, with high sand dunes and very little vegetation. How the grave robbers found this site is a mystery to me. It all look a bit morbid to our little group (2 English, 2 Dutch and me) of backpackers.

Barf bag!

That´s me and my pilot straight after my fourth barf. Yup, that brown stuff in the plastic bag was all me! And I am proud to say that I am the only one out of six to have done this. I felt sorry for my co-passengers but I can explain!

I just got out of a 9 hours overnight bus ride this morning with little sleep, and ate breakfast just before boarding the flight at 8am. It was one of those things, I plan to do the flight tomorrow morning but got a great deal at the hostel (40USD instead of 55USD) so I jumped and suffered the consequences! :o)

Nazca Lines

Look closely at this picture and you will see the drawing of a monkey with a long curling tail. The second drawing shows a humming bird facing upwards.

This is the famous Nazca lines which I flew over this morning on a little Cessna 6 seater plane. We saw a number of drawings including a whale, triangles, trapezoid, astronaut, a pair of hands, dog, monkey, condor, tree, spider, humming bird, Alcatraz and parrot.

All these patterns can only be seen from above, and yet they were made by Pre Inca Nazca culture between 300 BC and 700 AD. Amazing huh?

Apparently scientist are still studying the drawings and coming to their own conclusion. We saw a video which portrays the lines as a way in appeasing the Gods to rain on the region, as Nazca is an arid, dry and desolated area full of sand dunes. In fact, the highest sand dune in the world is here, sitting at 2078 metres!

I thought it would never happen to me!

You won´t believe this, but last night I was trying to get some sleep in my dorm. When a couple came into the room, and shagged. It was horrid! I mean, I have heard these stories from fellow travellers, but I never thought it would bloody happen to me! Here I was, trying to get some sleep for this morning´s rock climbing, and these 2 drunken couple wants it hard. How can they even concentrate with others around? GRRRRRRR and they could so easily have done it elsewhere... Like in the bathroom or something! :b

Rock Climbing!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I finally got to climb, after a massive 2 months absence I am back!!!! And today, me and my guide German (pronounced "Herman"), checked out a local canyon at a district name Calambucos, about 20 minutes away from Arequipa.

At first sight the canyon looks amazing, it is high and steep, at up to 80 metres from the ground up. But we approach it from above, so we found a lower spot and had to abseil (aka rappelling) 60 metres to touch the bottom. We did this over three stages which was pretty thrilling.

But disaster struck as soon as I made my first abseil (and waving to the camera for the above photo!). My bloody daisy chain broke!!!!!!! It was hook to my bina and to the belay rope, and I still had 15 metres to go so it was a very tense moment. I manage to get down ok after literally lowering myself down the rope! On the second photo you can see German abseiling down the steep face.

But we recovered, and carry on with our climb once we reach the valley below. I only did 2 climbs today, the first climb was called "Cho Cho Loco" which literally mean "Crazy Cho", somebody´s name I guess! It is a 6A climb and is 25 metres. There were enough holds for me so it wasn´t too bad, but the granite wall was slippery as hell so I had to be very careful with my feet. The second climb was a goodie! It is call "La Calavera", and German mumble something about it name after a human skull. Yicks! It is a 6 climb and is 50 metres high, therefore it is a multi pitch climb. THIS IS MY VERY FIRST MULTI PITCH CLIMB AND I WAS EXCITED AS HELL!!!! For those who don´t know what that is, it means you climb up halfway, gather your ropes and continue with the rest of the climb whilst your partner belays you from the halfway point.

I didn´t fall off once, but then again German did the lead since I need to learn how to belay from above. But man oh man, the second disaster struck after we got to the top. We could not get back down!!!! German only had a 50 metres rope and it wasn´t touching the ground like we wanted. So we had to climb up the canyon and find an alternative route down. It was one of the shittiest walk I had to do as I was wearing my climbing shoes, by the time we got back down (it took just as long to go down as to go up!) my toes were all blistered and bloodied from the shoes.

Never mind, it was a good day for me. I really enjoy getting outside and practising my hobby! And as we were so high up, the view from above was fantastic! The last photo shows the perfect cone shape volcano Mount Misti (5822 metres) in the background. Followed by our canyon in the middle and yours truly posing with way too much sun block and Snickers chocolate stain in my teeth, along with German.

On a side note, German is only the second person I know who was born on the same day, month and year as me!!! The difference is he is married with 10 kids... :p