with a short time trial, the tour de france gets under way tonight, and from what i've heard, there is a record seven cyclists this year, competing clean, haha. cynicism aside, this should be a really good tour with lance armstrong back, and team astana (i hate this team and bruyneel so much) having three or four tour contenders, it should be very exciting, unless it turns into a cake walk early. hopefully it comes down to the mont ventoux stage (19 i think) to decide who the overall winner will be, that would be awesome, especially because it should be on a weekend on watchable. i don't think i'll be staying up for every stage again this year, just the mountain stages which are always the most interesting. let's all put our support behind cadel evans and michael rogers for the overall, although i'm pretty sure neither has a realistic chance, considering the strength of the other teams (columbia is strong, but i don't think rogers has the climbing legs), but cadel should be able to fight for a podium spot again.

pic taken from smh.coml.au, it's the 2007 tour podium.

ok, been back for a week and a half now, so i guess it's time to post about how i'm doing back in the real world. i guess it hasn't been that difficult, had a week off before going back to work (which was good), good to have work to go back to, and also good to be able to re-acclimatise back in familiar surroundings. pretty much only had vietnamese food my first week back, oh boy, did i miss that, not sure if i've mentioned it before, but vietnamese food is the best cuisine in the world. came back, and for whatever reason (i guess i was still on holiday), just seemed to keep spending money on stuff, i had stuff that i needed to replace i guess, but nothing particularly urgent, just thought i'd get it out of the way.


everything seems to be pretty much how i left it, nothing ever seems to change at home, and i didn't expect it to, and in some ways probably didn't want anything to (not yet anyway). so, next week is a pay week, looking forward to that, was a bit depressed to be coming home (not in a mental way), but there is always more fun to be had. went to the soccer last week, and saw tim cahill pot two past the japanese.


went to a concert on thursday, deer hunter, no idea who they are, but they were ok, good fun, the music wasn't to my taste especially, but i wasn't repulsed by it, it was fun music. no pictures, didn't really seem like a great atmosphere for taking photos.

anyway, i've played basketball a couple times since being back, and i guess all that altitude training didn't do a lot, cos my conditioning is terrible (probably didn't help that i was drinking at altitude too) as well as being extremely rusty. but, i'm starting to get back into the swing of things, though i have hands like kwame brown right now. riding my bike should also help get me back into shape asap.

so without further ado, the stuff that means something after coming home:

• paying $20 dollars for a steak sandwich and a beer (omg, so expensive!!), but paying for it with a $50 dollar bill, no questions asked
• having too much change
• vietnamese food
• waking up consistently before 10am
• no siesta at 3pm (not obviously anyway)
• eating dinner before bed time
• coca tea!! and mate/terere
• being/getting in shape
• not getting strip searched by every hot latin girl that sees me (well, that didn't actually happen that often)
• not being mugged by 14 year olds
• changing clothes more than once a week
• being tall (in bolivia anyway)
• not being the only chinese person on the continent
• not smelling like smoke 100% of the time

also, from the day i left melbourne to the day i got back, google analytics tells me that i had visitors from 85 countries, pretty nice.


yes, that is a picture of a bowl of pho that my mum prepared for my homecoming.

another week, another judd apatow film, this week, it was year one, starring jack black and michael cera, but this week, i managed to stay awake for the whole thing. based sometime in biblical times i guess, it follows jack black ( saw kung fu panda while i was away btw, cute film i guess, but has some awesome 3d graphics) and michael cera as they screw up and leave their caveman dwellings in search of new lives. first, they run into cain (played by tobias fmor arrested development) and abel, then into abraham (hank azaria, this is apu people) and isaac. after hearing stories of sodom and gamorrah, they decide to journey there, and along the way, they see that "their" ladies have been taken prisoner and promise to rescue them.

that's enough of the plot, it's a comedy of course, and both actors play their (almost) typecast roles, jack black as this big mouth bullshit artist, and michael cera as a nerdy underling. of course they do it well, that's why they keep getting these roles. a bunch of other cameos from other actors that have been in a bunch of apatow films before as well. on a scale of dtra's comedy rankings, i'd put it somewhere along the lines of maybe "starsky and hutch", maybe a bit lower. but it was a good film, and worth watching, and as my friend ozzy said, we can probably expect a year two, and year three, if they garner enough success. oh, and there are some funny bloopers in the credits.

pic taken from wikipedia.

managed to find a replacement for my old swiss army knife (the standard tinker in fluoro yellow, kinda funny story how i lost it) just before i left south america, on ebay of course. it arrived at my work a few days before i came back, and finally managed to pick it up yesterday. it's pretty sweet, paid a bit more for it, than the old tinker, but it's a proper red one, and it has scissors as well (that and a little hook are the only additions). anyway, it's good to have the old knife back, i don't have to worry about how to open bottles anymore, though with my new found ability to open beer bottles with just about any object, i always have some kind of backup. anyway, this one is basically the same as the climber but it comes with a philips head screwdriver instead of a bottle (wine) opener.

also, as i may have mentioned to some people before, don't mess with me, i know kung fu, and now, i have a knife, so you'd only be asking for trouble. pic taken from the ebay store i bought the knife from.

back by popular demand, haha, movie reviews, i seen quite a few films while i was away (only a couple at the cinema, xmen, and redemption road, i think that's all), plenty on dvd, etc, which was cool, cos there were lots of films i'd wanted to see, but never got round to. anyway, just got back and seen the hangover, one of these comedies that seem to pop up all the time. it's about a guy that is having his bachelors do in las vegas, and the mates he brings along for the ride. it's one of those comedies that is pretty low brow, that accommodates to the lowest common denominator, and that's what makes it so good, haha, also, the director is the guy that did old school, so that's another good thing. apart from the guy from the office, i don't think i'd ever heard of any of the other people in the film (and heather graham).

although i've been told i was falling asleep during the film (which i don't think had anything to do with the film itself), more a case of comfy chairs, and not getting much sleep over the past week or so. it was funny, and there were some really good parts, the brother-in-law especially was a very good character, and hilarious. the part at the end during the credits, or just before is awesome, make sure to stay for that. yeah, i know this is a short review but what do you want, it looks like i'm gonna have something between 500-800 photos to process just for my site, let alone flickr and panoramio, so please be patient with me, i promise the next one will be better. oh, and the re-adjustment blog will be coming up a couple days after starting work, next week probably.

picture taken from wikipedia.

it is with great sadness that i make my last post from south america, i have a bus to buenos aires tonight, and one night in which to destroy my liver before heading home on thursday. i was meant to post all about san pedro de atacama, but since it is my last post, i will have to be very brief about that (apologies if the post randomly changes it's flow). made it there last week, and spent five days there, the driest desert in the world. getting there from la paz is awesome, the views going to the border are great, volcanoes and lakes, and then going from there to salta is great as well, if you get on the right side of the bus (not me unfortunately). not good for the skin, do not recommend it to the ladies, it just dries everything so incredibly fast. had great fun there doing some half day tours, and some cycling around the area. all the tour companies sort of work together so there is no point worrying about who is the best company, just who is the cheapest, i think. and without further ado, i present the pictures of the last week there (and getting there).


after that, came back to salta, which was my last stop in argentina last time round, i didn't really have any plans for here, just that i wanted to do the hostel bbq again, and go to jack's grill again (did both), though jack's wasn't quite how i remembered it (still great). managed to get some shopping in, and also, hopefully go to the museum today. we've been having so much fun here, it's been ridiculous, caught up with elaine (from ireland) again, and just been going out and getting smashed every night, except last night, i think i was drunk all day, and possibly had a hangover in the night. just a note, i may update this with some pictures taken in salta a bit later today.

and now, to the emotional stuff, i've been here almost seven months now, and have to head home in a couple days, which, while in arequipa, and la paz, was sort of looking forward to, but now after being in san pedro de atacama, and salta, i actually wish i could stay longer, though i know that i should go back (my backpack is full of shit that needs to go back home, and also, the greatest photos of south america ever, will never see the light of day if i don't leave). blah, blah, blah, i don't know what to say, it's gonna be really strange going home i think, i have a week off before going back to work to re-acclimatise, so hopefully that will help, and doing the photos may provide some nostalgia, or at least make me wish i was still in south america. greatest experience ever, all that type of stuff, met so many great friends, and did so much stuff that i you just wouldn't be able to do on a shorter trip, and hopefully learnt a new language (but that will require me to continue studying, which i plan to do). now the lists, best places:

• buenos aires, enough said
• salta (i swear it's not you phil, though it's all about the people, and i've had the best combo here, both, the first time here, and now)
• sucre, studying spanish made it so easy to meet other people that were in the same boat
• la paz, just a crazy, crazy, fun city
• arequipa, something about it was so cool
• huaraz, so beautiful
• banos, has to get a mention for ecuador
• taganga, we had such a great group there
• san pedro de atacama, got me revved up again at the end of a long trip

and best places i visited, which you'll see in the photo gallery anyway, but thought i should mention it here:

• iguazu
• the salar de uyuni
• macchu pichu (obviously)
• colca canyon
• the santa cruz trek (but hiking around huaraz in general)
• san pedro de atacama (you'll see the photos)

and with that, i end this post, and will see you again sometime in the next week with a post from home, hopefully having re-adjusted, and getting on with life as appropriate (processing photos, and perhaps pondering the next destination(s)), and getting back into shape, i think that might take a while . the plan is to have all the photos processed in a few months, but that depends on how busy those months are in all walks of life. so chau, and nos vemos.

transport and accommodation
semi cama bus from la paz to arica, was fine, and then again from arica to san pedro de atacama, and from san pedro to salta, again, so never saw a full cama bus in chile, i slept ok, so it wasn't a big deal. got a cama bus to ba, so that will be good.
stayed at a place called hostal nuevo almanacer in san pedro, it was a really chill place, ten minutes walk out of town, with hot water, and a great bonfire where everyone would sit and chat at night. and at inti huasi again, which i must say, is quite possibly my favourite hostel that i've stayed at in all of south america.

picture of laguna cejar, perfect reflections as you can see, more to come for sure.

well i've been going over old ground since the last post, flew back to arequipa (where i saw silhouettes of the three volcanoes, chachani, misti, and pichu pichu rom the airport, too bad i couldn't take any pictures, it was one of the most amazing sights i've seen) from santa marta. spent a couple days re-acclimatising before attempting the ascent of chachani (about 6080m), obviously i didn't make it, but i'm not going to completely blame acclimatisation on that, neither will i blame partying for three weeks in colombia, and not exercising, though they all played their parts i'm guessing. i put it down to not being a great hiker (i've never been a big fan of walking, i am usually, a pretty slow walker, i like to stroll), i much prefer cycling, and also, as most people know, i'm, a sprinter not a marathonner (if that's a word, which i'm pretty sure it's not). anyway, out of a group of eight, i was the only one that didn't make it, i got to about 5700m, and my legs were shot, couldn't move anymore, my chocolate bars were to frozen to eat, and my water was drinkable but very cold and frosty. so i gave up, and waited for my guide to come back with a few others, and we headed back down to base camp (5400m).


after that failure, the next step was to go back to la paz, where i am at the moment. instead of watching angels and demons (which i'm not sure i want to pay for), i decide to head to the contemporary arts museum, and check out some culture. it's a nice museum, didn't take me an hour to go through, and so didn't tire me out. there are works from around the world, but mostly by bolivians, which is a good thing.


then, on saturday, i had a flight ($75 usd one way) to rurrenabaque for some wildlife safari, finally a chance to see some amazon. i decide to fly because i didn't want to ride any more long haul buses in bolivia, well, my return flight got rescheduled, spoiling my plans to be in chile last night, so i decided to get a refund, and take the bus back, fortunately, i got a hold of some diazepam, and managed to sleep in a somewhat awkward and uncomfortable position. anyway, went on a three day/two night tour of the pampas looking for wildlife, took over two hundred photos, of which you'll see plenty here, and plenty more later. went with flecha tours, some israeli run outfit, and surprisingly our group only had four israelis with four non-israelis, there other group was all-israeli. it was $450 bolivianos plus $150 bolivianos entry fee. of course, on the way to the pampas from rurre, our 4wd broke down (bolivia is the only country in which i've had break downs so far), but it was sorted out in reasonably quick fashion. the guy selling the tour told me there were buffet meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, obviously we have differing concepts of buffet. myself, i think of a buffet as something that you cannot finish, and the food does not run out, his idea of the buffet, is that the plates are laid out, and basically, it's first in, best dressed, the food was fine nonetheless.


once at the river in yacuma, we got on a boat, and headed for the lodge, a three hour boat ride to see some wildlife. we saw squirrel monkeys, lots of birds, herons, storks, egrets, a bunch of other birds, alligators, insects galore, i was pleasantly surprised with the number of bites i received while in the pampas and rurre, far fewer than i expected, i guess vigilance pays off. before we went back for dinner, we went to see the sunset at the sunset bar, where they sell expensive beer ($20 bolivianos for a biggie), it was a nice sunset, and hopefully some good shots. afterwards, we went looking for crocs and alligators at night, while we did see some, it was never going to be much of a photo session. a few of the israelis went afterwards to catch baby crocs for photos, i think they got one.


the next day, we would go anaconda hunting, this was a bit of a farce, we looked around for an hour or so in this swampy area, and nothing, the guides told us to sit down by a tree, and rest, while they went looking themselves. finally one of them came back (after about an hour, i was trying to take pictures of bugs while waiting) with a baby anaconda, maybe 50cm, it was pretty depressing really, especially when everyone else started taking these retarded photos with the anaconda. after that, we headed back for lunch, and then some piranha fishing in the afternoon. i didn't catch a single one, though had lots of bites, the fish were too small to get hooked, our guide caught plenty, and a couple others in the group managed to get a few as well. we had them for dinner (as a side dish), there isn't much meat on them, just like normal white fish i think.


the third day, was to be swimming with the pink dolphins, of which, we'd seen plenty, and then, lunch, and back to rurre. we started off with an early wake up for the sunrise, with plenty of mozzies around, some nice pics again, i hope. then off to swim in the river, there was actually a caiman where we were swimming, but as i always say, they're so small, a bite won't kill you. there were dolphins around, but they didn't play with us, more like playing with us if you catch my drift. they wouldn't come and swim right up to us, but would swim all around. anyway, it was good to have a swim in the river, after a few days of sweating without having a shower.


then our boat ran out of fuel on the way back to where the 4wd was waiting to pick us up, fortunately it was only a couple hundred metres away, so we could row (well, our guide rowed). a three hour car ride back to rurre, and that was that.

i was looking forward to my flight back to la paz, but i was annoyed to be told that the flights from the previous day had been rescheduled, and not wanting to hang around another day, i just got the bus, small, cramped, and bumpy. i don't want to sound mean-hearted or anything, though i know i will, but one thing you don't want to do, is sit on one of these buses next to a bolivian woman. for whatever reason, generally, they are quite large, and like air, or water, they seem to fill any space that is available, i had two seats to myself for about an hour, which made the ride a little more comfortable, then a large woman sat next to me, i knew what was coming, so i took up as much space as i could before she sat down, but it was just so uncomfortable, i had to turn over a bit, next thing i knew, the space that i had vacated, had been usurped by this bolivian. lucky she got out shortly after (as in a couple hours of an 18 hour bus ride), and a skinnier local man sat down. so that is it, now i am waiting for tomorrow, to get me a bus to arica in chile, and hopefully, no more cramped buses from here on out, only two weeks to go before i leave south america, and i've pretty much done everything i set out to do (except for the aforementioned volcano climbing disaster). i'll post again in buenos aires, just before leaving, i can't see any need to keep you updated on the nothings that will happen before then, see you in buenos aires.

picture of the landscape around chachani from base camp, i did manage to climb about 600m in total, from about 5100m to 5700m, so not a total failure.

transport and accommodation
when travelling from arequipa to la paz, don't believe anything anyone says about direct transport to la paz, they told me it was direct, no need to change at the border (apart from getting the stamps and shit), and it cost a bundle ($195 soles instead of $90 soles). got out at the border, and noticed they'd packed my bag on top of a minivan, asked why, and he told, we're going to la paz, oh shit, i left a back pack in the bus across the border thinking it was coming with us. just go the cheap option, it won't be any worse. the flight from la paz to rurre was fine, cost $75 usd more or less, and the bus back cost me $50 bolivianos, though i probably could've got it for less (they went from $60 to $50 pretty quickly).
in arequipa, stayed at bothy again, so need to elaborate, it was nice, though a bit quiet. in la paz, i've been staying in the adventure brew too again, so again, no need to go any further. in rurre, i stayed at the maldidi hostal, which wasn't far from the travel agency, and cost $25 bolivianos for shared accom (four beds), and $50 bolivianos for a private room with bathroom, it was pretty comfortable, and clean enough, though they didn't have any toilet paper or hot water.
another review
a note about 100 books of solitude (book exchange at olivers travels) in la paz, total rip off, don't trade your books there, they take your book, and give you half of the credit, ie. my book was worth 150bs, and they let me trade it for something worth 75bs, i had to give them my lonely planet and we need to talk about kevin just for american psycho (decent read, but the constant descriptions of what people are wearing and reviews of shit are pretty annoying).

since my last post, i spent a day in medellin (pablo escobar's old haunt), wasn't the weekend so not really worth staying too long, and since then, i've been partying and chilling out in the caribbean for the past two weeks, i won't deny that. which isn't to say that i have neglected photo taking duties, it just means i haven't done a lot, other than spend time at the beach, in hammocks, swimming pools, bean bags, and eating good food. as i said, i think we arrived in medellin on a monday or something, and weren't willing to wait for the weekend, so spent one night there, and headed for the caribbean coast for some sun. went to cartagena first, the most romantic city in south america, on the colombian caribbean coast.

spent a day there not doing too much, checked out the old town at night, it really is quite pretty, too bad i didn't get a chance to see it in broad daylight, nor anything else in cartagena really. the beaches in cartagena really aren't all that, so we headed to playa blanca for a night, very nice, cheap too, slept in hammocks, and swam in waters reminiscent of tulum (though not as good, bit stony), nice. spent one more night in cartagena, before heading to covenas further down the caribbean coast to the west of cartagena. i don't think anyone ever planned to go there, but we were travelling with a few kiwis with connections, and they got a week of accommodation in some condo apartment style thing, and so we just hung out there drinking every night for a few days, nice place. they had a low basketball ring (about nine feet), that i could dunk, a swimming pool, and also a tennis court, we also played a lot of cards. oh, what fun we had. didn't even go to the beach there, it was really shallow, but the swimming pool was nice.


then moved onto taganga, a fishing village near santa marta further east of cartagena, and i've been here since, so a bit more than a week, it's a very nice little town, with some really nice food, though i don't normally do food reviews, the filet mignon at casa de felipe is so nice, and the mango curry fish at madame taganga's is delicious (and filling). che luis also does great juices, and food at low prices. anyway, i've done a few things while i've been here, not completely slacking off. went and did a scuba diving course, officially it's called padi open water diver, basically, it means that i can dive to depths of up to 18m without supervision now (though i won't take it that seriously, cos i don't really want to buy all the equipment). did it with aquantis and they were great, and though i have nothing to compare it to, the diving was awesome. saw lots of fish, coral, plant life, some squid, a sea horse, now i have to work out other places to do it. one of the best experiences i've had for sure, just need a camera case so i can get some pictures down there.

went to tayrona national park after finishing my dives, and did a hike through the jungle and stayed in hammocks there as well (much less comfortable than playa blanca, very windy at night). that was nice though, and now here we are, i've got a flight back to arequipa tomorrow, so the plan is to acclimatise for a couple days, then climb el misti, then make my way to bolivia, and further south back to buenos aires for my last four weeks. i can almost say good bye to the ridiculous mosquitoes here, i must have a hundred bites or something.


transport and accommodation
transport was mostly by the company bolivariano or something like that, absolutely freezing on the bus, they pump the ac full blast. the shorter bus rides up on the caribbean coast have just been on local buses, so nothing of note there.
stayed at the pit stop in medellin, nice set up, and they have a regulation height basketball ring, that was the first time i shot a ball since november, i still got it, haha. stayed at the north star hostel in cartagena, pretty cramped and warm (some dorms have ac), but beds were pretty uncomfortable, very thin mattresses. some hammock place in playa blanca for $7 000 colombian pesos a night. covenas was an condo obviously, worked out pretty well for us, eight of us on seven mattresses, nice, of course it was free. taganga, first stayed at hostel moramar ($15 000 a night, but rooms at the front have cockroaches), i thought it was ok, had some nice hammocks, it's right next door to the bayview hostel, where i've been since. it's a bit more happening, and has a really good swimming pool, though doesn't have so many hammocks, but does have massive bean bags (my bed had bed bugs though, i think).

picture of the beach area at cabo san juan del guia in tayrona national park.

well, it's been a while since my last post, haven't done too much, last time i think it was easter saturday i posted. basically, we went to the basilica in quito, which was a magnificent church, definitely right up there with the best i've seen, if not the best. climbed out onto the ledge right near the top, that was a pretty scary feeling, but i managed to get some nice photos up there. followed that up by going to the equator in the afternoon, we persevered despite the terrible weather, every day we were in quito, it pretty much rained cats and dogs by 2pm, and didn't stop till the sun went down. anyway, went to cotopaxi for a couple days after that, it's right near a really big volcano, which none of us deemed worth climbing, the weather was shitty there as well, 1.30pm, bang!! rain and lightning, still, it was a nice area, but you had to be an early bird to do anything. we did manage to climb a fair part of ruminahui, an extinct volcano that peaks about 4700m, we got up to about 4500m, but the clouds rolled in, and there wasn't much to see.


moved on to banos from there, spent a good three days there, the weather was nicer, and it was a nice little town. we didn't end up doing a lot there, but did manage to go quad biking, with some shitty quad bikes, and a couple of buggies. we didn't do much off road stuff, as we were going to look for waterfalls, but we missed the sign or something, and ended up going way too far (probably about 30 minutes), and got rained on bad. two of the quad bikes broke down, and one of the buggies could not go up hill at all. they did however, have very good thermal baths there, so warm, and relaxing.


from there, we decided to go straight to colombia, and cali, as it no one wanted to spend another night in quito. it took about 24 hours, but we managed it without much of a hitch (though one in our group almost lost her passport). once again, spent a good few days in cali, back in some nice warm weather, but didn't do too much. went to san cipriano, and rode the moped train, but that was about it, we tried going to some salsa clubs, but they were all empty on a wednesday night. then came up to bogota, that's where i post this from, ready to go to medellin tonight, and then up to the caribbean.



arrived in bogota on friday, and did shit all that day, then went to the gold museum yesterday, that was pretty interesting, lots of artifacts from around colombia, and lots of gold. today, we went up to the colpatria tower lookout and took some nice photos of colombia from the 48th floor, you can see it in the back of the ciclovia photo. it is cultural month in bogota this month or something, and there is something going on in the plaza everyday, and lots of other happenings around the city. but alas, i'm not particularly interested, museums here are free on sundays, and there's also this big cycling thing (ciclovia, 7am-2pm) where they close a bunch of city roads to motor traffic, and everyone can walk or bike down the streets (every sunday as well), that's really cool. so off to medellin tonight, home of the infamous pablo escobar, hopefully, the drug wars are kept under wraps while i'm there. see you all again, in a couple weeks i guess.


picture of the angel statue in quito at night, taken from the secret garden terrace, the view is not quite as nice as the one from the basilica.

travel and accommodation
stayed at the secret garden in quito, then a big group of us also went to their place in cotopaxi, it was nice, but they did usher us to sleep at 11.30pm, both were a bit pricey for what they were, i thought, and seemed a bit like they were just trying to milk money out of you (food was expensive), they were comfortable though, and the terrace had a great view. in banos, we stayed at plantas y blanco, recommended by the lonely planet, pretty good place, everyone was nice, and it had a pretty good atmosphere. in cali, i was recommended pelican larry's by my mate phil, it was a cool place, very chilled out, and gunther's bbq was very good, certainly took the bad taste out of my mouth from the last hostel bbq i had (the point mancora thank you very much, not). in bogota, i've been staying at alegria's hostel, a nice, quaint little hostel in the la candelaria district (old town), very comfortable, and chilled out.

travel, as was to be expected was shitty throughout ecuador, but has been slightly better in colombia, but a lot more expensive too. can't remember the company from the border to cali, but from cali to bogota it was bolivariano, semi cama, got some sleep, and all that, and arrived in good time.

it's been almost two weeks since the last post, what can i say, not too much has been done, and also i haven't been particularly interested in posting. anyway, after leaving huaraz the first time, you should all know about what happened, four straight nights on the bus between huaraz, trujillo, and mancora. i spent a day in huanchaco, the beach town near trujillo, before going back to huaraz to pick up my camera, spending that day in huaraz, getting the night bus back to trujillo, spending the day there, then getting the night bus to mancora, the place i actually wanted to go to, finally, back to the beach properly, it was a pretty nice beach, sunny, warm, and with pretty clean water, and at a very refreshing temperature. i spent a few days there doing not much (got sick from the hostel bbq on the last night, so spent the last day really doing nothing), before heading over the border in ecuador.


the first place i went to in ecuador was montanita, a beach town, spent my only day there recovering from the stomach bug that i had contracted in mancora, it was a nice town though, cheap drinks and nice, big breakfasts. some really good juice smoothies, that's for sure. missed the big drink session that night though, as i pretty much could only drinks smoothies to keep myself sustained. i headed for puerto lopez the next day, basically, it's ecuador's poor man's galapagos. they have blue footed boobies, frigates, masked boobies, vultures, red footed boobies (which we saw, but not their feet), and a bunch of other animals that no one knows of (mostly lizards and snakes i guess). it was pretty good, but for $50 usd, it wasn't the greatest thing, i think i'll probably wait a few years before giving the real galapagos a go (and make sure i research what there actually is to see there). we definitely saw lots of blue footed boobies from very close range, as well as other types of boobies, and magnificent frigates, some vultures, and other assorted animals, which i'll be posting in the gallery naturally. i actually thought their feet were going to be more of a blue blue than the aqua-ry blue they are, but anyway, very funny birds nonetheless. oh, and i left my passport (with bank cards), and hard drive at the hostel in montanita, lucky i had some friends going to quito that could bring it with them (hence the title of the post).


i've spent easter in quito, and will do so for the rest of the easter weekend, good friday was pretty boring, the easter parade wasn't anything special, well nothing like carnaval as i thought it might have been.

went to the otavalo market yesterday, bought some alpaca scarves, but nothing else, they have really good pork dishes there, but the masses of photo opportunities never really presented themselves. the weather was also quite miserable, so that was a bit of a downer, and we left to go the two hours back to quito about three in the afternoon. went out last night, and danced the night away, though it was quite weird, with the lights coming on frequently, and the music stopping a lot, it was fun, if a little weird. anyway, the plan is to climb the basilica (very nice looking church) tomorrow, and then hit the equator for the obligatory equator photos. that's about it for quito, there are some nice looking places, but it hasn't quite been as cool as i had hoped before. i'm heading for cotopaxi, banos, and cuenca next, before coming back to quito, and then colombia. so probably another post before i get to colombia i think.

picture of a mancora sunset, i'm not sure if i've ever seen the sun set over the sea before, very picturesque, even if it is pretty much the same as any other you've ever seen.

transport and accommodation
linea was the bus company i used between huaraz and trujillo, pretty good service, though i had to watch yes man (the jim carrey film) for four straight nights as i headed between huaraz and trujillo and mancora. from trujillo, i got el dorado to mancora, the only company that has direct services to there, it was ok, though people seemed to lounge everywhere. the ecuadorian buses have been pretty ordinary so far, stopping at every turn for bizaaro world reasons, and to pick and drop people off in the middle of nowhere.
in mancora, i stayed at the point hostel ($24 soles), it was a bit far away from town, but from what i saw, not as hard core as loki, so i was pleased about that. stayed in papaya hostel in montanita, it was pretty nice for $6usd a night. in puerto lopez, stayed at the sol inn, it was nice enough, for $5 usd, it was very basic, but the other people that stayed there were pretty cool. i've been staying at the secret garden here in the old town of quito so far, it's pretty pricey, at $8usd a night, plus tax, but it seems like a really cool place so far, the dorm has reading lights and lockers, so that's good.