Cuba!

Just a taste of my flight into Havana 

Miguel

 My flight into Havana would end up typifying a lot of Cuba, in what I can only guess was a ex-Soviet plane, with its seats decaying and dents everywhere with painted over rust starting to creep back to the surface. It took a matter of minutes to witness how many Cubans, not all but many, hold much hatred for their northern neighbours. After a large man slammed the seat in front of him forward in order to squeeze into the tiny space allotted to him, a Cuban spun around screaming “What wrong with you, such rude!”...“Sorry sir, you said the seat didn't go forward, it clearly does, see?” demonstrating by pushing the seat with the man in it again. “AHH! So rude! You must be America, yes?!” The hate in his eyes quickly sat the other man down and shut his mouth for good. “you very lucky I have my wife and child with me for now”. Little did I know then the whole flight was a good sign of things to come. Everything in Cuba is falling apart (apart from the sickening '5-star' hotels), a lot of things are left over from the Soviet support received during the cold war. I was constantly amazed at how some cars still worked at I sat inside and watched the road fly by under my feet. However this tells a lot about the mentality of the Cuban people, for many years they were forced to live with next to nothing, they learnt to be smart with what they have and get everything out of what ever, or who ever, they can. Something that endeared me to most people I met there. I was by a stroke of luck that I was able to spend my ten days in Cuba living the life of the locals.

Miguel and Grandmother

Upon arrival at the airport I quickly ordered a local beer, somewhat of a custom for me now, before realising I didn't have any local money, 'No worries, I'll just go to the ATM and grab some'...nope, not quite that easy. Mastercards don't work in Cuba, leaving me to navigate the airport to find a teller that would accept my card and let me withdraw some Cuban convertibles. After much pleading with the teller I had some CUC's and caught a taxi to the cheapest hotel in Centro Havana. After settling into the room I went out to explore and get some Cuban cigars, a must obviously. After trying to understand the Spanish advice of one of the hotel employees, I left with no idea of where to go but did understand one thing: don't get ripped off! Advice I intended to follow, but failed to. After sharing a drink with a coupe of locals and teaching some English in return for some Spanish he offered to go and get me some cigars, 'good quality, he my friend in factory, so very cheap for you'. After saying my goodbyes I walked back to the hotel and showing the employee my purchase, he immediately was angry at me for unknowingly ignoring his advice. After spending all the money I'd gotten from the airport I asked him where I could get some more, after showing him my card he responded with 'no functional aqui, nessasita la hotel grande' while I understood exactly what he was saying he palmed me off onto his friend standing outside. This is where I met Miguel, my best friend and saviour for my time in Cuba. “You speak English, yes?, Me speak English good” an obvious lie, but one I let pass as he led me around town from one hotel to another none of them accepting my card. After my recent experience with the locals I didn't trust Miguel all that much, but didn't take to gain some trust and respect as he dragged me onto a bus and paid for it out of his own pocket to get to the only hotel that would apparently accept my card. After being denied their I was tired and stressed by Miguel wouldn't let me go back to the hotel before introducing me to his best friend and showing me to his place for straight rum and music. Miguel was very poor, like most locals in Havana, he woke me up every morning at 9am (at the latest) never took no for an answer and always instead on dragging me everywhere to meet his horde of friends and family. He would always get very angry at me when I spent too much for something always half yelling “John (he couldn't pronounce Sean) this is no good! Tell me something, tell me something!” then refuse to speak to me for the next couple of minutes, a long time for him! But he had a good heart and only wanted to make sure my time in Cuba was safe and enjoyable, I ended up spending every day with him and his friends/family.

My street in Havana

Before our expedition to find money, Miguel asked me how much I was paying for the hotel, after telling him he replied, “no, too much, you stay at Mami's casa now, this is Mami” he said introducing me to a small woman standing next to him “She give you good room and good food very cheap, come, see, come”. True to his word Mami's house was very nice and a lot cheaper than my hotel so I took it and immediately became part of Mami's family with her two sons and boyfriend constantly reminding me that nothing was a problem, “this is your house, your family, you my brother now”. This is how I was to spend my time in Cuba with locals, seeing how hard life is for them made me eternally grateful how easy we have it back home. I've often complained about how hard my job is but after my Cuban brother explaining that he worked in construction about $8 a week, I can never complain again.

After about 4 days in Havana with Miguel showing me around and insisting that we drink and party every night. We decided it would be best to hire a car that way we could see a lot more that if I were to travel by bus, and Miguel had a friend that could hire me a car, he had a 'friend' for everything, I later realised that the word friend to him meant someone he had met at least once. So we hired a car and headed off east along Cuba. It was my first time driving for an extended period on the other side of the road and in a left hand drive car, but was a lot easier that I thought it would be. After passing a sign indicating Australia was only 18km down the road I insisted we take a detour to visit, not much to the small farming town but still cool. After about 2 hours of driving the usual nightly storm hit, only this one was more of hurricane than a storm and after being smashed by flying branches and not being able to see out the windscreen we were forced to take refuge in a service station with about 30 other drenched Cubans. With Lighting crashing mere meters away, quite a scary experience, we sat there for about an hour before driving a further 10 mins into Santa Marta, the adopted home of Enesto 'Che' Gueurra. The next day we visited the grave and museum of Che, where I learnt a lot more about the Cuban revolution. Afterwards we continued on to Cienfuegos a beautiful old town with amazing architecture left over from when the French occupied Cuba. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty sick after too much Cuban rum the night before and couldn't enjoy the town to the fullest. So we jumped into the car and drove on to Trinidad for the night. Trinidad was very different to bustling Havana, while all the building were still falling apart at least they were painted a variety of cool colours, a eclectic mix of yellows, blues, purples, orange as well as well as many others. The following day the car needed to be returned so it was a long tiring drive back to Havana, broken up with stops at some cool beaches to go swimming.

Che Guevara & Camilo Cienfuegos

I quickly settled back into Mami's house and life in Havana. Miguel was still interested in making sure the last few days in Cuba were enjoyable and memorable. He took me to couple of museums, the museo de revolucion and an art gallery. The revolution museum was very interesting and I learnt a lot about Fidel's revolution. Even the art gallery was entertaining. Before leaving the museum Miguel warned me that when we leave he should walk at a distance from me, I was puzzled and asked why, he explained that he could get arrested for hanging out with tourists. I couldn't believe this to be true, we'd just spent 3 days travelling the country together, we must have both forgotten his waning by the time we walked out because we walked next to each other and true to his warning a cop came up and asked him for his id and Miguel sent me to run and get Mami to try and get him out of trouble. After trying to explain to Mami in Spanish what was happening she followed me back to Miguel and the three of them spoke with each other in Spanish for a while before Mami told me to come with her, we had to leave Miguel there. I was confused as to what exactly happened and Miguel tried to explain once released a couple of hours later that for the safety of tourists they weren't allowed to interact too much with locals, what a load of crap, Miguel was the one keeping me safe! I suspect this 'official' reasoning is to disguise the governments fear of the influence tourists may have on locals.

Last night party

 My last night (or so I thought) quickly came around and Miguel insisted on a 'fiesta grande' to say farewell. After a few drinks in Mami's house Miguel said he knew of a Rasta party going on nearby so, with my new brothers and Mami's boyfriend in tow, we headed off. After mentioning to Miguel earlier in the trip that I wanted to get dreadlocks he'd been on a mission to find someone to do it. Although I'd changed my mind and told him not to worry, there was no stopping him and at the rasta party he found some old rasta man to do it and with enough Cuban rum in me I was more than willing. A painful experience as the man just used one needle to pull, twist and rip my hair into dreads, my whole hair, which was well past my shoulders by this stage, took around 1 hour, super fast considering it would normally take the better part or 9-10hrs to do this.

My Cuban Mami

I woke up the next day to a killer headache and some hideous looking dreadlocks. After packing and saying goodbye to everyone, Miguel and I went to Havana Airport. Without the usual boards displaying flight times/gates etc. I asked the information desk where to check in and the woman said I'd have to wait a couple of hours and pointed me in the direction of a gate to check in when the time came. After about an hour of waiting I got a bad feeling and sent Miguel to check that everything was ok with my flight. He returned 15 min later shaking his head and my heart sank. He explained that my flight wasn't today and no one could tell him when I was, “maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday?”. After going to investigate myself I was told the same thing, “Not sure when sir, maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday, there is no one here today from your airline to help you.” Infuriated, I grabbed my bags and went to get some more pesos, as I'd spent all the ones I had, only to be informed my card had stopped working for an unknown reason. With stress levels ever increasing I managed to find out that my flight was due to leave tomorrow at the same time. Only problem is that I couldn't afford a taxi home, another night accommodation and a taxi back with what I had. Once I got to Mami's house, she was shocked and could see the worry on my face and offered to feed me and give me my bed for nothing for the night, a very generous offer, I paid her never the less expecting to get to the bank the next day.

One of the real ones!

 I did however accept her offer of a free breakfast the next morning before Miguel and I headed off to find a bank that would take my card. Miguel once again got arrested for being with me, this time I wasn't in the mood and started arguing with the cops, Miguel quickly shut me up, probably a smart move. However, 'for my safety', I was left somewhere where I had no idea where to go or how to get home. By sheer luck I managed to find a bank that accepted my card. Only to find out that my card still wasn't working. In a slight panic by this stage I somehow found my way home and asked Mami if I could use the phone to call the Canadian or British Embassy (no Australian Embassy in Cuba) but she hadn't paid the phone bill so the phone didn't work, nothing was going right. My Brother offered to take me to the embassy, but being Sunday there was a good chance it was closed. After finally finding the Canadian embassy, I was indeed closed but seeing the panic in my eyes, the security guard called a representative for me to speak to, after explaining I had a flight today but needed money in order to get to the airport he offered to come into the embassy. A few hours later I had the money I needed and will be forever in debt to Canada for helping me out. My stress levels began to subside, however all the stuffing around of the day meant I was running out of time to get to the airport. In a rush I made it back, stuffed the rest of the things into my bag and said a fond goodbye to everyone including Miguel. Upon arrival at the airport I had very little time to check in and make it through security, immigration and run to my gate, boarding with only minutes to spare.

My Pet Turtle

I learnt a lot, had heaps of fun and although I may never see them again made friends (and family) for life. However despite all this I never been more relieved to be on a plane leaving a country, at times I thought I would never make it onto the plane. As the plane took off it marked the end of my time in the Americas (for now). Bring on Europe!

Mexico

My first experience in Mexico for a 2am landing in Mexico City airport. I stumbled off the plane, still half asleep, and barely recall getting through immigration/customs, collecting my now bulging backpack and getting a prepaid taxi to my hostel. However I must have managed to check in and crash into bed. I woke a few hours later to what would become my unwelcome alarm for my entire time in the city, noisy workers, laughing and shouting at each other, as they started their 5am shift. Seeing as I was up I decided to get about exploring a new country and a new city. I was quickly apparent that Mexico was different in many ways to the South American countries of the last four months. While some things were similar, such as the food cooking outside, dirty streets and plenty of obvious tourism. I quickly realised the tourism was more geared to its nearest neighbours in the USA. I saw a 7-11 for the first time since Australia, much more was written in English and plenty of ultra-fancy restaurants/bars, much different to the backpacker type tourism I was used to. I quickly got about finding my first, compulsory, shot of Mexico's fine tequila, which dissolved my 7 year loathing of it's cheap Australian cousin. After some much needed sleep I joined a group from the hostel and went to a Lucho Libre show (Mexican wrestling). After a hilarious and entertaining show, we hit the bars for much of of the fore mentioned tequila (this time straight for the bottle). Everyone in the group of 7 vowed to make it to the Teoihuacan pyramids the next day...only 2 of us were awake at 8am the next morning.

Our tour started inside the city at the partial remains of what was once an important aztec site. Behind the site was the church built by the Spaniards, with the rocks the got from demolishing the pyramids. Then onto the strangest church I'd ever seen, so modern it had the same moving walkways as in airports. Here we learnt that in the past hundred years the city has sunk an astonishing 15m in some parts. This is clearly visible today with nearly all buildings having a noticeable learn in any direction. After lunch and a explanation of the importance of the cactus to Mexicans, it was onto the pyramids, about an hour out of town. The teoihuacan site is pre-aztec and a truly magnificent sight. Consisting of two massive pyramids, the sun and moon temples, and a grand avenue lined with many smaller pyramids, the whole city was built with out the aid of any animals, and before the wheel, it was impossible for me to imagine how this was possible as I climbed the 266 steps to the top of the moon temple (yeah, we counted).

Short of time, and with a lot a ground to cover, I left the next morning and headed to the Pacific coast town of Puerto Vallarta, 2 buses and 14 hours later I was there. Puerto Vallarta was stinking hot I spent the majority of the first two days sitting by the pool or on the beach, cursing a new tattoo that prevented me from swimming. I witnessed my ever first sunset over the ocean, which didn't happen till 9.30 at night. I sat mesmerised as the giant red ball, which you could easily stare directly at, quickly dropped into the ocean. I was so new that I was confused for a second whether it was the moon or the sun I was looking at. Puerto Vallarta has clearly been built with US tourist dollars and as a result almost everyone spoke English it was so common I often saw tourists getting angry at the few locals that didn't speak good English. This would have been a god sent 3 or 4 months earlier, but after learning some basic Spanish, I was starting to enjoy the challenge of trying to communicate. Despite for one very stressful day when all my money disappeared from my account, I well and truly slipped in to holiday mode in Puerto Vallarta, doing little more than reading, drinking beer and sitting near the beach.

It seemed I'd saved the longest bus haul, of my whole trip, for the final one. Heading from the Pacific coast to Cancun on the Caribbean coast was a 3 bus journey and a total of about 40 hours on the road. With no book left and all on board movies in Spanish I had to spend a day in Cancun sleeping off the sleeping tablets necessary to stop death by boredom. But once feeling better I headed by ferry to Isla Mujeres and found absolute paradise. The water was not only crystal clear it was a breathtaking mix of aqua, turquoise, light and dark blue, exactly how I'd imagined the Caribbean to be. Isla Mujeres was to make up for all the Caribbean Islands I'd been forced to skip, and it did a damn good job. As for the beauty of the Island I'll let the photos do the talking, not that they do it justice. I cancelled all plans for Cancun, leaving only one day to see Chitzen Itza, and stayed for 5 nights on Isla Mujeres, not nearly enough, but all I had left. It was impossible not to be in Holiday mode here but managed to mix lazing about with some cool stuff life snorkelling, 'moped-ing' around the island and best of all, swimming with about 100 whale sharks. Swimming with the sharks was an amazing experience, especially how such an enormous animal can be invisible until it so close (coming front on it could swallow you whole before you'd have time to move) although they're a lot quicker than I was in the water and would always close its mouth and move out of the way just in time. Although, understandably, no one is allowed to touch the sharks, I found a way around this by letting one slap me in the face with its tail as it swam by.

Unfortunately I had to head back to Cancun on the 21^st of June in order to see the world wonder site of Chitzen Izta on the last day before my flight to Cuba. 

Chitzen Izta was an amazing site but overcrowded with tourists and hawkers selling any crap imaginable I probably said more “No Gracias's” in one day that ever before, which trust me, is a lot! Among some of the cooler parts of Chitzen Itza was the awesome acoustics and unbelievable alignment of the whole site as well as a field for the sport of the day (I'd seen it in a movie somewhere before but not sure where) it was like soccer including the arms and elbows (no hands) and its goal was the near impossible task of getting a rubber ball though a vertical hoop mounted on a wall about 5 meters above the playing field. From what I could make out after one team did this, which could take days, the winning captain had the honour of having his head cut off. But at least he was considered a God, not metaphorically but literally and I'm not being sarcastic when I say honour, it was a great privilege to be selected as captain.  

I spend my last night in Mexico enjoying lime tainted beer, tequila and tacos and watching Mexico demolish Honduras in the soccer and flew out of Cancun airport on the 23^rd of June, bound for Cuba.  

Columbia - Last stop in South America

 Since coming to Columbia, I've had to make the hard choice to miss out on the Caribbean this time round and head up to Cuba through Central America. I desperately wanted to see a lot of the Caribbean Islands, and still do. However it would take a long time to navigate all the way up to Cuba. Plus the whole trip would be quite pricey. Money and Time are two things I don't have right now. So I made the decision early on, that if I can't see all the beaches in the Caribbean that I'd hoped for, I was going to find next best thing and spend a lot of time on the Caribbean coast in Columbia. However I couldn't come to Columbia without checking out Medellin.

My Columbian experience started in Ipiales, a small town just over the border. From here I booked my 18 hour bus to Medellin. The Bus somehow turned into a 21 hour trip, but nevertheless I arrived in Medellin on the 17^th of May. After an overpriced taxi and a lot of walking I finally found my hostel, The Pit Stop Hostel. After exploring the nearby neighbourhood for a place to get some dreads done, and failing. I went back to the hostel and of course ran into a group I knew, seems impossible to go to a city in the past 3 months and not find someone. It was nice to have some friends to go to the water park with and party at night. But after a few days I was over it and boarded a night bus to Santa Marta, my first stop on the Caribbean coast line.

After a 16 hour bus, I arrived in Santa Marta on the 21^st and checked out a few places to sleep before deciding on a decent, if overpriced, hotel. Santa Marta seemed very dirty, and much more of a port/fishing town than a beach town, with many funky smells all over. There seemed to be a fair amount of crime with a heavy police presence. After just one night I decided to keep moving and grabbed a cab to nearby Taganga, which was meant to be a nice little beach town just 15 min away.

Unfortunately once I got to Taganga I was fast obvious that what once would have been a nice little beach town was now quite touristy and busy. The beach was kinda dirty and didn't feel entirely safe leaving anything on the beach while swimming. However Taganga was very chilled so I spend two nights relaxing there and researching some better beach spots to hit up. On the 24^th I decided on Palomino, a beach town about an hour north of Taganga. This time, I wouldn't be disappointed.

As I arrived in the 'town' of Palomino (a few small shops on the main road) I started walking with only a small idea of where I was going. The only taxis to speak of were motorbikes so I somehow managed to jump on the back of one with my two massive bags and got a lift to La Sirena a small lodge right by the beach. As we drove through rainforest tracks I new I was gonna like this place. When we arrived I was in paradise, It was only a small place with hammocks and rooms to rent but had coconut trees scattered everywhere and was literally on the beach so I loved it. Spend the first night with an Aussie couple on their honeymoon. But when I woke up in the morning they were heading off so I had the entire place to myself. Spent a lot of time chilling in the hammocks, reading (and writing this), and drinking from my bag of water (that's all you could get in town). All was well and I could imagine spending many days there. Then on a walk back from town on my second day I decided it was time to get a coconut from the many trees along the beach. I found a very small tree with heaps of low hanging coconuts, I thought I could grab one just from jumping, and although I got hold of it, it stayed attached and when my feet hit the ground I felt the most excruciating pain shoot up my foot, as I lifted it up I found I'd impaled it on something stuck in the sand, still not sure what it was, I'm pretty sure it was a branch or something like that. Feeling some of the worst pain I can remember, I somehow hobbled the 200m back to the lodge and collapsed into my hammock. Had a horrible night that night trying to sleep, foot was throbbing all night long. Considering I was completely incapacitated I thought it would be smarter to recover in Santa Marta where I could find a cheaper bed for a few days. So I called my motorbike taxi and headed back to Santa Marta.

My Virtual Prison for 8 days.

Despite Santa Marta not being my favourite town, I was forced to spend 8 very boring days holed up in my hotel room, only limping out a couple of times a day to get something to eat and drink. After 5 days my foot was still killing me, I could kinda walk with my boots on, but not for too long at a time, I thought 5 days was a long time so I started thinking about a doctor when the hotel's cleaner noticed me limping and I managed to explain to her in Spanish what had happened. The next day she told me she'd take me to the Chemist when she finished work, needless to say, I was very grateful. After just 1 day on some tablets she got for me, I think one was non-inflammatory, not sure about the other one. My foot was heaps better and could walk in thongs again. So it was time to get out of Santa Marta finally, until I realised my bank transfer didn't work and I was completely broke. With my hotel manager getting the shits every time I'd come back from the ATM empty handed I was starting to worry about what to do. The manager said I could have one more night, but that was it. The next day I walked to the ATM praying that the money was there and started laughing in delight when I head the machine start to count the money, the sound I'd been waiting 3, very poor, days for. After enjoying a long awaited expresso and cake I went back to my hotel and with great enthusiasm slammed the money on the bench, packed my bag and grabbed a bus to Cartegena at 2.30pm on the 3^rd of June. I was moving again, finally!

After a short 5 hour trip I found myself in Cartegena, and quickly discovered it was vastly different from what I'd gotten used to over the past week or two, a real city and quite big. After sharing a taxi with a English girl I arrived in the centre of town and a friendly local started helping me find a hostel. I was a little worried at first, as to why he was helping me so much, but it was something I was getting used to in Columbia, and this time was no different. After settling into my room I went for a quick exploration around the hostel and found a little casino, after not gambling for ages I thought I'd be worth a try. I ran into my local friend at the casino and he told me to be careful speaking to anyone on the street, I soon found out why. It took 4 months and 1 day, but I finally got robbed in South America! Well kind of anyway, they were pretty crappy at the thieving business. After walking out of the casino I had someone offering me cocaine, I took Steve's ,rather obvious, advice and kept walking. But they are relentless (another thing I've gotten used to all over South America) and they are good at stopping you in a non violent way, which he did, while explaining that I had to keep going he called a couple of friends over, I still wasn't worried, seemed like just another pushy drug dealer which are everywhere. Long story short he explained I needed to give him 150 000 Pesos (about $75) after lying and saying I didn't have that much, that I'd lost it in the casino finally he dropped his price to 50000 again I said I didn't have it and after some discussion with his friends he told me to show him how much I had on me, I reached into my pocket hoping there was enough to make him happy but not too much, I pulled out 25000 pesos (about $12.50) and he seemed happy with that and let me on my way. So I was robbed, but at least I bargained with my thief! Obviously I wasn't a massive fan of this part of town so I moved to another part the next day, which was much nicer. Cartegena is actually a beautiful city, with 2 sections, old town and new town. New town looks like what I expect Miami looks like. While the majority of old town is within a massive stone wall, built long ago to protect the port from the many pirate attacks it used to receive, awesome! After a couple of days exploring Old Town, it dawned on me that I had less than one month before I was due to fly out of Cuba. I knew that wasn't enough time to properly see Central America, Mexico and Cuba, so I shelled out nearly $1000 for a flight to Mexico city.

After 4 months and 4 days, I'd covered 7 countries, made awesome new friends and got to an existing one in Juliano, seen 2 world wonders plus many other stunning sights, Took part in the biggest party in the world with Carnival and learnt a great deal about many things, but on the 6^th of June at 5pm my plane took off and I bid farewell to South America, I certainly hope, not for the last time.

Ecuador

When I started this trip I had no intention of coming to Ecuador, however I'm eternally grateful I did. I had another chance to hang out with an awesome bunch of people, tasted the ocean for the first time since Brazil and fulfilled a lifelong ambition of discovering the Amazon and some of its wonders.

My experience in Ecuador started in Quayaquil, after about a 5 or 6 hour bus ride from Mancora, Peru, with many police and military checks along the way. Upon arrival in Quayaquil I found out it was too late to get my next bus ticket so I was forced to shack up in a cheap hostel for the night and return to the bus terminal the following morning where I bought a ticket to Montañita on the Pacific Coast for a long awaited reunion with a big group of friends made along the way.

I arrived at the 'bus terminal' (a small patch of road) in Montañita on a Beautiful, sunny day and immediately found Kelly, waiting for her bus then Jack and Sam walking down the street and finally found the rest of the group, Sam and Syd, Alieshia, Sally and the Great Danes. After almost a week of solo travelling it was a great feeling to have a group of friends to chill with. Made even better by the fact we were chilling on a beautiful beach on a perfect beach day, I could have stayed there for weeks, perfectly content. However I soon found out the group was splitting up the next day, some staying in Montañita and others making their way to Quito to start an Amazon tour. I was left with a hard decision, but decided to leave the next day with our jungle crew, based on the fact that as beautiful as the beach was I had many amazing beaches awaiting me in the Caribbean and of course back home in Oz. It was election weekend in Ecuador and by law drinking alcohol was banned 48 hours prior to election day, but as always, seek and you shall find, and find we did. We had a 'fiesta grande' that night as I knew it would be my last night in South America with a lot of good new friends. The following morning at breakfast we had a strange man with a driver and bodyguard, and money to burn, offer to drive us all the way to Quito, almost 24 hour drive. However he gave everyone the creeps so we decided to board the bus we'd already booked to Quayaquil. At midday I said 'hasta luego to Jack, Aliesha and Sally, and Sam, Syd the Great Danes (Matthias, Matthias and Daniel) jumped on the bus to Quayaquil.

We were completely unprepared for our arrival in Quayaquil, we expected to easily book our next bus to Quito and leave the same night. Instead we were confronted with absolute chaos in the bus terminal. As I said, it was election weekend and every Ecuadorian has to be in their home town to vote. As the doors to the terminal open we stood there gobsmacked with the sight before us, hundreds upon thousands of locals queuing to find a bus to their home town. You could feel the body heat in the air and to walk through the crowd meant being ruthless everyone pushing to get though to were they needed to go, lost children crying everywhere and when finally at the other side of the crowd I was covered in at least 50 different peoples sweat...awesome! After a fruitless search for a private vehicle to drive us to Quito we decided to bunker down in a hostel in Quito for the night and try again the next morning. The next day Sam and Syd managed to find another smaller terminal and got our tickets to Quito, due to a crappy taxi system we missed our bus and had to pay again to catch the next one, however finally we were getting closer to the Jungle!

We arrived early in the morning, we learnt quickly that taxi drivers in Quito have no idea about where they're going as we couldn't find the hostel I booked anywhere, after trying a few hostels that were full we had to go to a hotel in the centre of town. The next day we started looking for a place to book our Amazon adventure. This didn't quite go to plan as it was Sunday and every tour place was closed, we found out that we'd have to wait for the morning and then leave the next day, however the Danes were flying home in a week and so it meant we'd have a very short jungle experience. We all gave up looking for places when and started walking home when we stumbled on the only jungle tour place open in town. After booking a better tour than we'd hoped for and for $100 less than we expected to pay we thought we should celebrate, so celebrate we did! After a hilarious night we woke up all a little groggy but got to work organising everything we'd need for the jungle and boarded a bus north-east at 11 o'clock that night.

 

Upon arrival in a small town (unsure of the name, opps) we had a 3 hour trip by car and arrived at the Amazon River! We met our guide 'Beaver' and jumped into a motor canoe. Our adventure started with a two hour boat ride to our lodge in the middle of the Amazon jungle. We had 4 days in the jungle and loved every second of it. I hadn't anticipated seeing so many animals but we saw everything from tarantulas, ridiculously huge insects and heaps of birds through to monkeys, river dolphins and a sloth (kind of) just to name a few. Spend a lot of time swimming in the river, even woke up to a swim everyday, nothing like a dip in the Amazon to wake up! We also went fishing for piranha and visited a local village. Proving its a small world, we ran into our friend Kelly in the middle of the Amazon and got to spent a fun night in the Jungle. The Amazon is defiantly a place I need to visit again.

After arriving back in Quito, we only had one night together as a group, so we made the most of it. We finally made it to a Karaoke bar after saying we should go way back in La Paz, over 1 month and 2 countries later we made it. The next day was full of sad goodbyes, I knew I see them all again somewhere in the world which made it a bit easier. From here I'd be travelling alone, something that made me excited and anxious at the same time. After finally finding the right bus terminal and waiting 4 hours I jumped on a bus to the Columbian Border. After being forced to spend a night in Tulcán, I took a cab across the Border and said goodbye to Ecuador.

Peru

So I entered Peru by myself on a short bus ride to Puno, a town on the edge of Lake Titicaca.We stocked to see that Peru has Gum Trees (heaps of them!) I chewed on a leaf, just cause i could. After getting in late at night, I booked a tour of Uros (the floating reed islands, for the first thing then next morning. We headed out to the islands around 9 o'clock. I was really impressed with the way the communities were run on the island. There was many separate islands, with there own leader. And they barter what ever goods, they can harvest from the water or the islands, with the markets on the mainland. We learnt how the islands where made and anchored to the lake. However it became quickly obviously that the whole environment have become very touristy and the people of Uros had lost a lot of their true tradition. After arriving back on shore at 12:45, I still had enough time to drive back to the hostel, then to the bus station in time to catch my 12:40 bus to Cusco! Thank god for Peru time...

Arrived in Cusco around 7pm that night, keen to meet up with all my mates I'd had to leave in La Paz. Un fortunately most of them where doing their Machupicchu tour, so after a qucik tour of Cusco I called it a night and anticipated their arrival the next day. After a fun night with Sydney and Sammy the following night, we we're finally all back together and ready to party in Cusco. After a reunion celebration we all took a day or two off and chilled at our hostel, The Point, watching some movies until we got bored and hired a 4WD to explore the Sacred Valley around Cusco. A lot ofit was just some old Incan ruins, nothing too exiting, but two sites, one used to practice and perfect farming methods, and the man made salt mines were awesome sites. We were all very grateful to Scotti who did a good job of driving us round all day and getting us safely back to Cusco. The four of us who were brave enough went out that night to sample the local meat, koui (guinea pig), was quite nice, but doesn't compare to a good roast lamb or scotch steak. Afterwhat felt like no time at all I had to say goodbye to everyone as I set out on my own Machupicchu adventure.
I left for my 4 day jungle trek on the 20th of April with a new Irish friend Mary and a Melbournite Isaac. First day consisted of downhill biking where we started and around 4500m above sea level and finished under 1000m high, heaps of fun. We spend the after noon during some rafting, my first time ever. (small tip: never sit at the front, its hard work!) despite the effort it was well worth it, and managed to negotiate 3+ rapids without losing anyone. It was dark by the time we loaded the boats onto the van and our drive through the jungle didn't last long after the van's fan belt blew and we were left standing at the mercy of the millions of thirsty mosquitoes. After about ten minutes we managed to hitch a ride in the back of a ute, 13 tourists crammed in made for a fun trip back to Santa Maria. I surprised myself the next day with my fitness as we trekked 9 hours, mainly uphill though some stunning jungle, including walking part of the original Inca trail. The following morning we decided to skip 3 hours of walking by doing a Zip Line just outside of Santa Teresa, some of the best fun of the trip. After 3 more hours of walking we ended up in Aguas Calientes, the town just outside of Machupicchu. We awoke at 3.30am the next morning in order to win the challenge of getting to the gates of Machupicchu as early as possible, we managed to make it 11th in the line, no top ten, but still no mean feat. After a tour of the forgotten city, we climbed Wanyu picchu, and got and amazing view of Machupicchu and the amazing surroundings. Machupichhu was absolutely breathtaking, well deserving of its world wonder status. The net day we boarded our train back to Cusco.

Met Scotti back in Cusco. He only had three days till he had to fly out so we spent the next three days parting and celebrating our trip. We were lucky to meet up with a big group of friends, we'd met along the way, to celebrate our last night. Scotti left early the next morning, meaning I was flying solo from now on, I was excited and scared at the same time, I knew the rest of my trip would be very different from now on. I absolutely loved Cusco, could very much imagine living there, a nice laid back, chilled vibe. I also left Cusco on Thursday the 28th of April with Mary,on a 15 hour bus ride bound for Ica.

From Ica bus terminal we jumped into a taxi straight away and headed to a little oasis town called Huacachina, an awesome little town surrounded by massive sand dunes. We spend two hours driving the buggy around the dunes, stopping every now and then to do some sand boarding, Awesome fun. After watching the sunset from the dunes, we headed back to town and spend one night checking out the Huacachina nightlife. The following morning I boarded my 4 hour bus to Lima.

I arrived in Lima around 5pm on Saturday excited about seeing some friendly face from back home, Morrow and Mauve were due to meet us there. We had a good three days of parting and catching up, telling stories of our separate trips. I needed to get to Ecuador to meet us with Jack, Sydney and Sammy, but was unable to get a bus straight there, so too the first bus to Mancora, on the Peruvian coast.

Mancora was a beautiful little beach town. Unfortunately because I was in a hurry to get to Ecuador I had to book the first bus out of there, which only gave me about 3 hours in Mancora. I made the most of it by chilling by the pool and the beach drinking beer. Laying on the sand and listening to the waves reminded  me a lot of home, a good feeling. I soaked up every second of it, knowing I'd soon be leaving Peru bound for Ecuador. At 12:30 I boarded my, rather dodgy looking, bus to Guayaquil, Ecuador, an 8 hour bus trip. Had someone try to steal my computer along the way, however they did a pretty poor job of it as I'm writing on it now!

As I said goodbye to Peru, I knew it wouldn't for the last time. I truly loved Peru, my favourite country so far, and that's saying a lot cause I've love a lot of the countries I've been to. I thought the people in Bolivia were friendly despite being poor, but almost every single Peruvian I met was so willing to help, loved the tourists and just wanted everyone to have a good time. Defiantly have to visit Peru again at some point!

Bolivia

 So we arrived in Santa Cruz, our first stop in Bolivia, in the early hours of the 24^th of March. It was absolutely sweltering in Santa Cruz so we were very pleased to have a nice pool to chill next to in our hostel. Bolivia was nothing like I expected, although we later found out there is Santa Cruz and then there is Bolivia, it's not a typical Bolivian city. After meeting a couple of English lads, Jack and Rich, we had an awesome night out with the help of a local girl, Daniella. Jack decided to join us when we headed to Sucre. We were all pleasantly surprised to pay only 50 bolivianos (AU$7.50) for our 16 hour bus ride to Sucre. Although we quickly found out why it was so cheap. A very crappy bus, no suspension or air conditioning. The driver was driving very erratically, but we'd gotten used to that throughout South America. But when the locals started getting angry at him we knew there was a problem. Turned out he was drunk, after stopping the bus, and the locals nearly lynching the driver for putting so many families at risk, we got a new driver and arrived in Sucre safely on the morning of the 27^th.

Arter arriving in Sucre we spent one day catching up on some much needed sleep before booking an adventure tour. After dragging our selves out of bed at 5am (because Scotti's phone was one hour fast!) we waited to 7.30 to find out that our tour needed to be postponed till the next day due to bad weather. So the following day we woke up at the correct time of 6.30 and set off with our tour guide Ahdamr. After a 2 hour drive we arrived in a quaint little town called Icla we were preceded to blow up our rubber tubes and jump into the grade 2 rapids for about 40 min, it was heaps of fun. After a local lunch we walked over to the edge of a cliff and abseiled down 20 meters to the bottom of a canyon. I can't lie, I almost needed a change of underpants as I lent over the edge of the cliff, especially as our anchor was a flimsy looking tree. But we all made it down safely, heart thumping in our chest. From there we walked and swam the canyon, acting like 8 year old children the whole way, our guides laughing at our childishness the whole way. After all of the days activities we all agreed it was one of best days of our trip. After a rough night on some awesome Nicaraguan rum we all boarded a bus to Potosi, we were told it was a 2 hour trip but after 4 and a half hours we arrived in Potosi 4090 meters above sea level, the highest city in the world.

Potosi has been a mining town ever since the Spanish discovered it mountain contained many valuable minerals including Silver and Tin. We managed to get a tour outside the normal time, our guide was very good and an ex-miner himself which gave me more confidence. We first stopped at the miners market to buy some presents for the miners, including some special cigarettes with cinnamon and other herbs to help with hunger and altitude, coca leaves and dynamite. We all tried coca leaves for the first time, the leaves themselves where not that bad but the catalyst, made from potato and ash was truly gag worthy, horrible. After donning our mining gear we headed into the mountain through a small opening, after our mine tour I can never complain about working hard again, these guys have it tough, working in dangerous conditions, ridiculous hours and all for a pittance, Jack and I helped push a mining cart for about 1 or 2 minutes, and we're absolutely stuffed, they do it all day! After finding a safe place we got to blow up one of our sticks of dynamite, a real highlight. All in all the tour was a real blast. We headed back to town and after a few quick drinks, boarded our bus to Uyuni to see the salt flats.

We arrived early in the morning on the 31^st and crashed straight into bed. The following morning we set off on our three day tour of Uyuni and the surrounding areas. Starting with the train cemetery, then onto the salt flats, a truly breathtaking sight, especially at that time of year because of the layer of reflective water that stretched across the seemingly never ending white desert and the floating mountains in the background. After some time for funny photos we headed off for our accommodation for the night in a small local village. After a night of cards and drinking with new friends we head off for our second day which was all about beautiful Bolivian countryside, including the green lake, amazing mountains and the red lagoon with pink flamingos. After another night of cards and a few drinks we hit the hay early in our very danky and simple accommodation because we had to get up at 4.30am to watch the sunrise from the hot springs, well worth the early morning, it was stunning. After a long drive back to Uyuni I had some sort of gastro problem and boarded our bus to La Paz feeling extremely sick.

Still feeling horrible when we arrived in La Paz on the 4^th of April, we quickly found a hostel, with our new Canadian friends, Sydney and Sammy, and got some rest to feel better. The bug must have passed because we managed to go out for a big night that night. After a day of rest and recovery it was the 6^th, my birthday and Scotti, Jack and I decided to tempt fate a little and do downhill biking on Death Road on my birthday. Needless to say we survived, had a few crashes but still had heaps of fun. After playing drinking games on the bus back to town we passed out and missed going out for my birthday. Needless to say we made up for this the next night and partied well into the morning. On the 8^th everyone left for Cusco but because I'd lost my bankcard I had to stay in La Paz and wait for a transfer to come through. After 3 very boring days the tranfer did come through and I boarded a bus to Copacobana.

Copa was a town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. I did a tour of Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun) and very important island in Inca history. With a couple of new friends we trekked the whole length of the beautiful Island, got heaps of photos and some sunburn too. I just got back in time to board my bus to Puno, Peru.

I waved goodbye to Bolivia at 6pm on the 11^th of April. Bolivia is an amazing county despite extreme poverty the people were extremely friendly and helpful and all in all seemed quite happy, proving money isn't the key to happiness. I made new friends for life some of which I'm still travelling with now. Had some awesome times partying and saw some truly breathtaking sights on our many tours. Survived the deadliest road in the world and a mine well overdue for collapse. All in all I loved Bolivia, one of my favourite countries so far.           

(sorry for the lack of photos, but it takes about 20 min to upload 1 photo here in Peru, will add some later)

Brazl Pt 2

Of course we booked the cheapest flight possible so it included 2 stop overs, one in Sao Paulo, which is way past Rio. This turned a 2 or 3 flight into an 8 hour trip. When we got to the airport it quickly became clear that Scotti's bag must have been left at one of those stops, wasn't a big problem as it got delivered to our hostel the following day, although it was a good reminder how easy it can happen. We were staying in a hostel in botafogo, the same hostel as Emma and Haley, nice to have a few days in a group of friends. We got to see some awesome sights in Rio when we did a cheap tour, including Christ Redeemer and Santa Teresa than down onto the Lapa steps. Our view of Christ Redeemer was Marred by heavy fog but was still amazing. We were also happy to catch up with a new friend from carnival and to spend a few nights with new friends from Melbourne, Kat and Abby. We finished our time in Rio like any good gringo does, drinking caparina's on Copacabana beach. Followed by a night celebrating St Patrick's day, with the help of a local friend we were even able to find a British pub to drink a Guinness in. After less than one hour's sleep we Managed to get to the airport at 6am and jump on a plane to Curtiba.

Crazy Bastard Juliano & Carol

Curtiba was amazing, worlds apart from any other town or city in Brazil. It was clean, organised and quite rich, an example of what the rest of Brazil is aiming to be in a few decades. We were invited down by my mate from Skyworks days Juliano. After a day of rest in a local park/zoo we got completely lost on the buses and ended up on the other side of town and made poor Juliano drive almost 1 hour to pick us up. We went back to Julianos house about 20 mins out of town to Campo Grande, a nice quiet place, used to be all plantations but as Curitiba has grown more houses have started to be built. Our first night involved meeting up with some of Juliano's University friends and hitting a local 'underground' pub/club a great night of learning the Samba. Juliano refused to let us pay for anything, an amazing host to have. I finished off by sharing the good part of a bottle of Jack Daniels with Juliano. Slept right through to the next night then after a bit of dinner we headed off to a BBQ at Redman's house, turned out to be a 'diaper & beer' party (basically a Brazilian version of a baby shower, but much more fun!) all his friends were very exited to meet us as it was a good excuse to practise their English, some had great English, others were a little bit harder to understand. On our last night with Juliano we went to a nice Thai style bar where we were given heaps of free drinks, just for being Australian and finished with Tequila and Tacos and a Mexican pub. Also drove Juliano's car through Curtiba, got the hang of driving on the other side of the road on the highway, much harder once we were in the city but. Our plans to Visit the Pantanal on our way to Bolivia were literally washed away as the area was badly flooded, just another part of the world getting hit with ever increasing natural disasters. So we booked a flight to Santa Cruz, Boliva from Sao Paulo and spend 2 days of rest and relaxation in Juliano's house while he was working. We boarded our plane at 10.30pm on the 23^rd of March and said goodbye to Brazil (for now).

The Sleep Mexican

All in all I absolutely loved Brazil, my favourite country in South America so far. We saw some amazing things, from Igauçu falls to a former world wonder in the Jesus statue in Rio and many more. We made friends for life all over Brazil and as a result have a bed to sleep in in every state for the World Cup in 2014. Portuguese was a lot harder to understand and learn than Spanish, but I think a much nicer language to listen to. Brazil was probably the most expensive country so far, probably due to their strong economy. We defiantly didn't have enough time (or money) to do and see everything I'd like to in Brazil but will defiantly be back there before my trip is over.

Till next time...Peace