Otavalo to Quito to Latacunga to The Quilotoa Loop to Banos to Riobamba

So our high hopes for Ecuador were diminished when we arrived in Quito. The bus station was on one side of the city so to reach our hostal we took a taxi; our first female driver did not take things slowly, as she accelerated through the streets, we hung on for our lives and observed another huge, smoggy city. Tired and hungry we arrived at our hostel, dumped our bags and went in search of the large supermarket nearby. Mike had looked at the map beforehand and understood the turns we had to make as being only the big roads, turned out they were the little ones so we got a little lost. Being a Sunday, when we eventually reached the supermarket it was shut. We debated going to another supermarket that we knew would be open or eating out, as I was craving cooking we made our way to the other supermarket 30min before it closed. With the plan of chicken and pasta with a creamy wine sauce we gathered up our ingredients only to find that being a Sunday no alcohol could be bought. Coming from a non religious society and background we keep forgetting quite how much religion can influence day to day life and have been caught out a few times. Our dinner ended up being scrummy and lasted three nights thanks to the inclusion of some cask wine our hostel sold to us.

The effects of being together 24/7 began to show the next day as I was really feeling the need for some personal space and other people to talk and be with. This put a bit of a downer on our day and combined with leaving the cameras memory card in the laptop we decided to leave exploring the old town for the following day and head back to our hostel for some down time. Myself and Mike have since talked things through and come up with some ideas to give each other some space, which seems to be working. Unfortunately when we got back to the hostel we read the news of the Christchurch earthquake, we've both also been suffering with coming to terms with it, it's strange how something that doesn't effect you directly can impact you so much. It's hard being away from home and seeing and reading about the destruction and lives lost and feeling completely unable to help, I can't imagine what it must be like for those directly impacted. My only high of the day was having my first real coffee since leaving New Zealand, the milk did have too much air in it but for once what I was drinking actually resembled coffee!

When we did finally explore the old town we found that apart from seeing about five churches, one that was entirely gold inside, there wasn't much to do. We did however have "fun" - more terror on my behalf - climbing a couple of church towers, my fear of feights held me back some what, Mike however got right to the top, some 75m up stairs and ladders! Getting a good view over the city.

The next day we decided to leave Quito and head down Ecuador to the town of Latacunga. Although there isn't much to see here it is the starting point for a lot of walks including climbing the Cotopaxi Volcano and doing the Quilotoa loop. As a result of not enjoying the big cities we decided to take a few days out and do the Quiatoa loop where you can bus and walk between small Andean villages. We started off visiting the Saquisili Market which runs every Thursday and unlike the Otavalo Market, where most of the stalls are aimed at tourists, the market here is where the locals come to buy everything and anything from live Cuy (Guinea Pigs), to sacks of potatoes and doors! At 11am we boarded our bus heading to the small village of Insilivi. Along with us came a llama which rode on the roof and under the bus were two pigs, a lamb and a calf, pretty exciting! The hostel in Insilivi was by far our favorite, a really homely place that reminded me of a New Zealand bach up in the mountains in the Coromandel. Set overlooking the valley with a wood burning stove, hammocks, amazing dinners, breakfasts and friendly people, we felt relaxed and happy. So much so we decided to have a "rest" day here and just chill out and read for a day before carrying on. Our "easy" day wasn't quite as easy as planned. I was keen to have a walk so we climbed a hill near to the village. Being 3000m above sea level and not acclimatised, means that any small climb makes you feel like you are about to die but it makes the view all that more rewarding. The rest of the day we read, listening to the local school children practising their drumming and playing for Ecuadors flag day which was the following Monday and played with the cooks children, who nicknamed Mike "Gigante" as the average Ecuadorian is 5'6"!

The next day we started off on our walk to to the town of Chugchilan. Mike struggled along with stomach cramps and a tight chest, and we both felt the effects of the altitude making the 6 hour walk seem a lot longer. At one point we had to climb out of the canyon, which took about 45min. Toward the end of this climb I was struggling so much that the shade 1m away felt too far to reach to rest. However we made it to the top to some spectacular views and met a local carpenter who showed us around his workshop. We ended up buying one of his carvings as they were so well crafted and it is a memento to remember the walk by. The last part of the walk was up the road to Chugchilan and our hostel. I'd say that this felt like the longest part of the walk as the blisters were really rubbing and and we knew we were so close. We made it however and as sore as we were, it felt so good to finally be there! The rest of the afternoon was spent helping out 5 girls from the local university with their English proficiency test. This consisted of the girls recording themselves asking us questions and us replying. The funniest was when Mike got asked if he was married and when he replied no they asked why!!!

The next day we got on a bus to the Quilotoa crater lake, where we meet a fellow kiwi. Bus trips here are nothing boring as there is always amazing scenery to look at and pop music blasting. What I love about travelling through South America that this blog and the photos cannot describe is the sounds and smells we encounter. From the truck delivering gas bottles that woke us up every morning in Otavalo blasting Andean flute music from the speakers attached to its roof, to the honking of the buses horn as it goes through every village, the men screaming out town names at the bus stations and the sizzling of intestines being cooked on coal BBQs at the markets. Then there are the smells of empanadas coming from the person behind you on the bus that makes you want one so bad! Every town smells slightly different but there are the same reoccuring smells of fires, urine, and food cooking, I just love it! The bus trip to the Quilotoa crater lake also had added excitement as some local children threw water at the bus as it passed and it managed to come straight through my open window soaking me! Great fun.

We were pretty blown away when we reached the Quilotoa crater lake. The way in which the clouds darkened patches of the water, and the sheerness of the sides of the crater was pretty amazing and breathtaking. There is a walk around the crater that takes most of the day and another one down to the lake itself. We were tempted to walk down to the lake but due to our tiredness from the day before and the lack of time we had before our bus we decided to give it a miss and definitely put it on our next time list.

From the crater lake we continued back to Latacunga where we had started out from, picked up our packs and jumped on another bus, this time heading for Banos (also the word for toilet in Spanish!). Banos is a small touristy town at the bottom of an active volcano, unfortunately it was raining and there was very low cloud cover so we didn't get a good sight of it, but throughout the town there are a lot of volcano evaculation points. We had originally come to Banos with the plan to do a 70km (or until you get tired and get the bus back) mostly downhill bike ride. This morning however we woke up to a wetish day and decided to give it a miss and continue on through Ecuador. Unfortunately because we have loved Ecuador so much and have been going slowly we have realised that we have very little time to get across to Cuzco, where we have to be by Friday the 11th and it's on the other side of Peru! This is because we have signed up to volunteer there for two weeks before doing our Machu Picchu trek. our original plan was to volunteer in Pisco but they already have too many people helping out so we're now helping out in an after school center in Cusco which should be good fun.

So from Banos we bused to Riobamba where we are currently. We had hoped to get a train from here to Sibambe. Part of the trip has world famous switchbacks and is known as the Nariz del Diablo (Devil's nose), however the line is closed from Riobamba to Alausi so we will bus to Alausi first thing tomorrow morning and get on the train there, before continuing down to Cuenca for the night.

Cartagena to Medellin to Ipiales to Otavalo.

Well a lot has certainly happened since our last blog. Our second day in Cartegena was spent in a similar fashion to the first, after a slow start we wandering the streets of the old town though thankful as it was a Sunday the streets were less filled with people. We stopped for lunch at a different local eatery and both ordered different types of fish off the menu. When our food arrived Ilona discovered that rather than a fillet of fish, she had in fact ordered a whole fish, bones, tail and fins in all, really showing where our Spanish is lacking! This however didn't faze Ilona too much and she tucked in avoiding the bones.
After walking around a bit more we returned to our hostel and opted for an early night because we had a 4.30am start the next morning in order to catch a bus to Medellin.
On the way to the bus station the next day, Ilona started to feel unwell and ended up being sick in the bathrooms before we borded the bus. The 13 and a half hour bus ride was spent in agony on her part, as every bend threatened further chundering and prompting us to voice our desire to be back on the boring old straight and flat roads of Argentina. However, we got to Medellin in one piece at around 7:30pm to enjoy the sight of the hills surrounding Medellin lit up by the hundreds of house and street lights like a blanket. One overpriced taxi later and we made it to our hostel, which is run by a fellow kiwi and called the Black Sheep Hostel. There we met our fellow room mates, a nice French-Canadian couple called Anike and Francois.
The next day we began like every other when we are in a new city. By exploring and getting our bearings. We went straight to the metro which was about 1km away from our hostel and headed to an interchange where we caught a cable car up one side of the valley. The cool thing about Medellin is that it is nestled in between two mountains that provide awesome panoramic views of the city, and the metro goes straight up the middle, making all parts of it very accessible in a short amount of time. At the top of the mountain we caught yet another cable car to a national park on the other side, which was still under tourist development, so we didn't hang around too long. We did however eat two of the best empanadas we had ever tasted and bought a very cheap jar of wickedly good salsa.
The rest of the day saw us take in the botanical gardens and the main art gallery, where the Colombian artist Fernando Botero had donated a large portion of his work. I have to say that now I have seen some of his art, that he definitely ranks up there as one of my favourite artists.
On the bus trip to Medellin, Ilona had expressed her desire for cold pizza as a bus meal, so that night we headed to a nearby pizza place to get us some for our next day's bus trip. We ordered what we thought were four slices, but it actually turned out we had bought four whole pizzas, further emphasising our lack of proficiency in Spanish.
The next day we walked to the southern bus terminal which was a lot further than we expected and booked a 2:30pm bus to the southern border town of Ipiales, which is where we would cross into Ecuador. The bus left about 20 minutes late and we settled in for a very windy 21 hour bus trip down the Andes. The thing about overnight bus trips is that I get very little leg room, even on the most spacious buses, so that combined with the bends and curves of an Andean traverse means that I get very little sleep. This is also combined with the fact that the bus drivers are mad and take very sharp corners in excess of 80km/h, overtake on blind corners and drive perilously close to sheer drops off the side of the road, so one would not particularly want to sleep, lest it be their last waking hours!
However there were no problems with the trip until around 6am the next morning where we both woke up because the bus had stopped and the lights were turned on, as there was a disturbance up ahead in the road. There were lots of lorry trucks parked around us and their drivers were all outside arguing with one another. I and a few others on the bus got up to have a look at what was going on, and as I got off, a police officer rode up on a motorbike, prompting all of the drivers to start yelling at him and arguing. I asked around what was going on, but nobody spoke any English, so all I found out was that there was a problem in the road ahead. after about 45 minutes of this we got on our way again.
For the next hour and a half, it was smooth sailing, although I did notice the lack of vehicles travelling in the opposite direction. We soon stopped once again at a truck stop high in the Andes, where we were asked by the driver to get off the bus and grab our things. Ilona and I began to worry at this point because neither of us knew where we were or what was going on. It was then that Ilona asked a guy if he spoke English, which he did and proceeded to explain to us what was happening. It turned out that many of the lorry drivers, particularly those of petrol tankers were striking in protest of the Colombian government's plan to create a state-run shipping initiative due to rising fuel costs, which would lead to many of these drivers losing their jobs. Many of them had blocked off the main arterial routes throughout the country and leading to the borders by parking their trucks diagonally across both lanes and slashing their tyres. So we were pretty much screwed it seemed as we were still around 2 hours away from our destination and with no idea if we would even be able to cross the border even if we did make it there.
At this point, there were lots of people riding around us on motorcycles like vultures, making me a little nervous. It was also wet and extremely cold as we were pretty high up in the mountains, with the cloud cover surrounding us. But it turned out that these guys were just there to give people lifts down the mountain to the town of Pasto around 4kms away, so with our heavy pack on our backs, we jumped on the back of one each and made our way down.
As frightening as it was (I had never ridden on a motorcycle before) going down the wet road, it was very exciting at the same time, and we saw some of the best views of the Andes we had seen yet. I definitely recommend travelling the Andes by motorcycle as you get a far greater sense of the weather, the altitude and scenery than you would from a bus or car. As we reached the town, we jumped off and met up with our English speaking friend, who introduced himself as Gustavo from Chile. We followed him into town with two other Colombian guys, passing police in full riot gear, heading towards the bus terminal, which was "only 1-2 kms away". 6 or so kms later, we arrived there where Gustavo went to the desk of the bus company we were with and tried to see how we could get to Ipiales. Thankfully the road was clear, so they organised a small bus for us and away we went.
We arrived about an hour and a half later and said goodbye to our three travelling buddies, endlessly thanking Gustavo for all his help, without which, we probably would have been stuck in Pasto with no clue of what was going on, and no clue of what to do next.
Our original plan was to go and see a nearby cathedral that was built over a gorge and spend the night in Ipiales, crossing the border the next morning. We decided that we should probably cross that day as we didn't know how the protests would progress, so we quickly dumped our bags at the bus terminal's luggage drop and caught a taxi to the nearby town of Las Lajas to see the cathedral. It was amazing to see as it was very well maintained due to the many pilgrims who travel there and the dramatic backdrop brought out the beauty of the architecture and audacity of those who built it in such an extreme site.
After taking it all in, we headed back to town and caught a taxi to the border. By this time we were both very tired and had hardly eaten all day, so all we wanted was to get to Otavalo in Ecuador and into a hostel. We went through Colombian emigration ok (as it seemed) but when we walked over the bridge to immigration Ecuador, Ilona was told that she had to go back because she had been given an immigration stamp dated the next day, instead of an emigration stamp dated the current day. So, almost at tipping point, she trudged back over, only to discover while waiting in line again that the Colombian official had actually realised he had made a mistake, given her the correct stamp, but on a different page! Braving wolf whistles from all of the lorry drivers standing around at the bridge, she walked back, we got our stamps for Ecuador and carried on.
Thankfully we got a bus straight away from the Ecuadorian border town of Tulcan, paying a mere US$3 each for a near 3 hour journey to the town of Otavalo. Along the way, an Ecuadorian man who spoke English noticed us constantly looking out of the window and at our map, so he asked where we were going and said he would let us know when to get off. The thing about this bus was that it didn't stop in terminals, it was more of the kind that you just tap the driver on the shoulder when you wanted to get off and he would slow down and open the doors for you, sometimes not even stopping. At this point it was getting dark and raining, so upon our Ecuadorian guide's instructions, we got off at the right place and he then waited around until we caught a cab, telling us where we had to go and how much we needed to pay. Our day had been saved once again by a second good samaritan, which despite everything, kept a smile on both our faces.
Our hostel wasn't expecting us until the following night, so thankfully they were able to give us the room a day early, which is very spacious, with our own bathroom and huge shower. At this point it was around 6:45 in the evening and we were both incredibly hungry, so we asked our host where the nearest supermarket was. She informed us that it would likely be closed very soon, but suggested a cheap mexican restaurant close by. We opted for that and made our way over, along the way noticing the general cheeriness of the people of Otavalo and the amount of smiles we were getting. The mexican place was called Taco Bello and was just amazing. I had two burritos and a coke, while Ilona had two tacos and a sprite, all of which came to US$3.75! I immediately fell in love with Ecuador.
The reason we wanted to be in Otavalo so soon was that on saturdays, the largest open air market in South America took place. On other days, the market still runs, but is generally just contained to the central plaza. The next day being a friday, we just wandered around the town, getting our bearings again and having a look through some of the daily stalls in the market. Most sold really nice alpaca wool blankets, scarves and ponchos, with others selling more touristy knick-knacks like bracelets, keyrings, bags and t-shirts. As tempted as we were to just buy things then and there, we said we would wait until saturday for the big market. One really cool thing about Otavalo is that many of the townsfolk still wear traditional clothing, with the men having single plaits and the women all wearing the same kind of gold beaded necklaces. We had lunch at a nice restaurant where we both ordered the set menu, which consisted of fresh tamarillo juice, omelette, soup, spaghetti bolognese and a white chocolate mousse, all for only $5.75 each, leaving us very stuffed and very satisfied. We lounged about for the rest of the afternoon, acclimatising to the 2500+ metres above sea level altitude.
Today we woke up and had a quick breakfast then headed out into the market, which had swelled into all the roads adjacent to the central plaza. The general theme for most of the vendors was scarves, blankets, tablecloths, ponchos, really cool pants, flutes, bracelets, little coin purses or religious items. There was also a food section of the market where elderly women dressed in their traditional clothing sold their produce, beans, corn, spices, chickens and other similar foods, while there were some stalls with entire roasted pigs, serving up meals of delicious smelling pork with rice or potato, corn and vegetables. There was such a huge array of colours and smells that we both got slightly overwhelmed and took refuge in a coffee shop off one of the main streets for a while, also nursing slightly upset stomachs. When we emerged, our shopping spree commenced, with us ending up buying a really nice and huge alpaca wool blanket, a woven tablecloth, scarves for both Ilona and I, a belt for myself, some of the aforementioned really cool pants for both of us, lots of small items for gifts and a small ukulele-like guitar with a rounded back that I swear I will learn how to play! I don't know how,but we will somehow get all of our purchases into our packs. We also managed to sneak in a visit to a pie shop that we went to the previous day, that makes the most amazing homemade sweet pies, we tried the blueberry and the blackberry, both of which were amazing. Our evening meal was decided by me, because I just had to go back to that Mexican reastaurant. This time we got a quesadilla, rice, beans, nachos and deep fried tortilla meal for two between us, two very strong margaritas and another quesadilla for me, all for what was supposed to be $9, but the owner only charged us $5.50 because we had come back a second time! Score!
So anyway, I know this was a very long entry, we put off writing it for far too long and hopefully our next one wont be too far off. We are totally in love with Ecuador and are really looking forward to seeing more, so until next time, hasta luego!
Mike.

Bogota to Cartagena

So as it turns out, Bogota has been our favourite city so far. As for myself, I really can't say why it is. Perhaps it is the lack of oxygen that just makes me giddy (it's over 2700m above sea level) or just the hostel we stayed in, but Ilona and myself could definitely spend more than the three nights that we had there.

We ended up arriving at our hostel at around 5:30pm, both very tired and for once, a bit chilly! We immediately found that this hostel was an awesome place to stay, as it was managed by travellers who were staying for long periods of time and were getting free board in exchange for playing a part in managing the hostel. What was really great about it, was the fact that they provided free dinner!

We were in a 4 bed dorm that at the time, only had one other person in it, a Korean university student who was on an exchange trip to learn more Spanish. The bunks were very big and sturdy, which helped because I often find it difficult to fit into a bunk length-wise. We mucked around for a bit checking e-mails and so forth until dinner was served at 7, where we found out why it was so generously provided for free! Our 'spaghetti bolognese' was simply just noodles and some mince that didn't really taste like mince should. All served to us by a very over-enthusiastic Englishman who spoke 5 languages! (English, Spanish, Cantonese, Italian and German). But really, the food was free and edible, so we were in no position to complain and wolfed it down.

Day two in Bogota saw us rise early (for no good reason as breakfast wasn't available until 9am) and then trek off to Cerro de Monserrate and catch a tram all the way to the top of the mountain. The track was incredibly steep and provided us with great panoramic views, only surpassed by what we saw from the top. The peak is 3200m above sea level and has a church with a little market situated there. From there, you could see the entire city laid out before you beneath a layer of cloud and smog, which really made me pause and take it all in with a smile on my face.The Museo del Oro (Museum of Gold) was next, where we learned about how indigenous South Americans manipulated gold, copper and silver to create idols, jewellery and clothing adornments. Some of the recovered pieces were very intricate and in amazing condition, showing the high level of detail that they were able to achieve using simple tools and methods. I had put my name down at the hostel to play football at 3:30 so we headed back there, but not before a delicious lunch at a whole food restaurant recommended by our lonely planet guide, which consisted of pumpkin and ginger soup, stir fried veggies and tofu, rice, salad, freshly squeezed feijoa juice and a strange sweet almond puree to finish it off. All for around NZ$6 each!Football at the hostel was cancelled due to lack of people signing up, so a bunch of us just ended up watching some of the international frendlies on the telly that were playing at the time. Colombia vs. Spain was understandably very hotly debated. Our dinner that night was an attempt at some sort of chicken curry, which was OK, but we still agreed that we could have made a better one for just as little money. Our enthusiastic english friend (who was in Bogota writing his thesis on superstition in religions) learned that we were planning on visiting the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira the next day, so he asked a favour of us. If we were to come across a man selling chicks and ducklings on the way to the cathedral, could we please buy him a duckling, but only if it was under 10,000 pesos. We agreed, just for the fact that it would become a great anecdote if we could find him one.

Next day, we wandered around the central city trying to find the right bus to catch to Portal del Norte, the last bus station before the edge of Bogota where we would catch a second bus to Zipaquira. It turned out that the instructions we were given were a bit off, but we managed to catch the TransMilenio to where we wanted to go, and then the second bus, rounding off our travelling time at close to 2 hours. The salt cathedral turned out to be a huge tourist attraction, apparently the largest in Colombia and the expensive entry price was indicative of that. But we hadn't travelled for nearly two hours for nothing, so we payed up and went on down to the entrance. We had to wait for a while for an english speaking guide, but the good thing was that our tour group consisted of myself, Ilona and one other guy. Our guide's english was pretty shoddy, but we still managed to get the gist of what he was saying. The cathedral itself was quite different to what we were both expecting, as we thought it would be a huge cavern that was made to look like the inside of a regular cathedral, but it ended up being a series of tunnels that held monuments to the trials of Jesus Christ (where Christ was represented as a stone cross and everything else as the rock wall behind it), staircases that decided how much sin you carried with you and lots of fluorescent lights. There was a large cavern at the end which had an altar, some pews and a cross carved into the salt, but it was all very different to what we imagined. There was a whole passageway dedicated to gift shops and tourist shopping, which was kind of strange considering the nature of the mine. As we exited, we heard rolling thunder on the hills beyond us, so we briskly made our way to the bus back into Bogota. Our search for a duckling was unfortunately fruitless, though our return bus was pulled over by the police and we had to present our passports while they ran all of the Colombian nationals through a database, which we're guessing was to pick up anyone wanted or suspected as being involved with FARC.Dinner that night was a rather nice traditional Colombian soup, consisting of corn, potato and chicken, but unfortunately quite un-filling. We had previously purchased some bacon and bread to make bacon sandwiches for our long bus trip the next day, so we set about preparing these straight after dinner.

The next morning was travel time, so after breakfast, we finished packing our bags, caught a taxi to the bus terminal and jumped on a 12:30 bus to Cartagena. Ilona became a little stressed during this time as we had trouble getting cash out of an ATM and the bus was also delayed 30 mins, which we had no idea of because the announcements came to us in Spanish. But finally we boarded the bus at 1pm and set off in the pouring rain. Our seats at the front seemed pretty good until we found that the bus leaked, and we got a good amount of the water coming in on our heads and bags. Thankfully, it stopped raining quickly and we had no more troubles water-wise, but about 3 hours into the trip in the middle of the Andean highlands, our bus was pulled over by the police once again and we had to get off this time, as they conducted a search along with the routine ID check. Our bus had conveniently stopped by a small roadside eatery, where we bought two empanada looking things from a vendor for 1000 pesos each (around 70c). These combined with the complimentary salsa turned out to be one of the most delicious things we had tasted in our travels so far, They were some sort of curried and spiced potato and beef filled pastry, which may sound simple , but was incredibly tasty, especially when eaten with their salsa (ranking up there with my favourite so far; the coxinha).Most of the journey was spent biting our nails, as it seems that in Colombia, there is no such thing as lanes on the road. Our driver overtook long trucks on blind corners, drifted across the road and used his horn more than I had ever done in my entire life. Our journey was to take around 21 hours, so as night fell, we attempted to sleep through the horn blasts, loud Spanish music the driver kept on all night, bumpy roads and constant stopping and starting. Thankfully the seats were relatively comfortable, though I didn't have much room to stretch out my legs.

Morning came and as we entered Baranquilla, we had to switch buses, which neither Ilona nor I was aware of before. Nobody around us spoke english, so it took us a while to figure out why our driver was telling us to get off the bus. All was well in the end, so after what seemed like a very long 2 hours, we arrived in the much hotter Carribean city of Cartagena, a city with a history of piracy and naval activity. We found from our lonely planet guide that Ilona has a familial connection here, as Sir Francis Drake, a distant relation to her, laid siege to the town in the 16th century. After a cheap taxi to what we thought was the hostel we had booked, we quickly found that it wasn't and Ilona, under stress the previous night, had mis-written the name of the hostel. This matter was quickly resolved as we booked a room there anyway, which turned out to be nice than the one we had originally booked for. The afternoon saw us explore the old town, which is filled with buildings in narrow streets with huge balconies strewn with bougainvillea and a great big fortified wall around the outside. It looked quite like a scene from one of the Pirates movies, or Cutthroat Island. Many pictures later, our peckish stomachs settled on a set lunch menu which included a far tastier version of the Colombian soup we had in Bogota, delicious fresh fish, rice, salad and a fried banana, complimented with freshly squeezed watermelon juice and rum and raisin ice cream for dessert, all for a measly NZ$5.60 per person! The heat began to get to us in the afternoon, so we made our way back to the hostel where we are still struggling to get a wi-fi connection, so this blog may come a little delayed. The manager doesn't speak much english, which is unfortunate, so he hasn't been able to help us. Anyway, those are things that one must expect in our position, so I'm not stressing too much. Until next time, hasta luego!
Mike.

Rio to Bogota

Well since our last update we've had quite a change in our travel plans. Instead of missioning it up to Salvador and then having to mission it back down south before heading to Colombia, we decided to go straight from Rio, to Bogota in Colombia. With the extra time we will have from not going up the coast of Brasil we have decided to volunteer in Peru for two weeks. We've made this change for a few reasons - firstly; cost, Brazil is so expensive compared to the other countries we've been in and to get all the way up to Savador would cost quite a bit and then the flight would be even more than it was from Rio. It would also have been a 25hr bus trip or so up to Salvador and even though we had decided to split the trip, it would still be a lot of time on buses. I'd been thinking that I'd really like to do some volunteering over here but figured that we wouldn't have enough time so didn't really think more about it. But now that we are going to have the time, we are looking at volunteering with an orgainisation who help the people of Pisco in Peru, whoses lives and homes were destroyed by an earthquake in 2007. Check out their website if you are interested www.piscosinfronteras.org/about-us.html. We had really been looking forward to going to Salvador, but are happy with the decision that we've made as we figure that volunteering will be very rewarding in itself. Besides, we can always see Salvador another time....

Back to the present (or near past) - Our time in Rio was rather full on, mostly due to the heat which sat in the mid to high 30's during the day and high 20s/low 30s at night. We arrived first thing in the morning and decided to spend the day visiting some of the main beaches. We'd been warned not to take anything of value to the beaches at all if we were planning on going swimming and as we were going all around the place and needed certain things with us, a swim was off the cards. We did however wander along the beaches, paddling in the water and attempting to avoid the throngs of people who had everything on show (saw enough bum crack to last a life time!), after a while the immense crowds and heat began to feel rather overwhelming and we headed away from the beaches to a hippy market which wasn't overly hippy but did have some interesting things to look at.

Day two in Rio was a little stressful as we had attempted to book our flight to Colombia for the next day and none of our reservations were fully processing although the money had been taken out of our account. I was determined not to let this ruin our day and figured that things would some how work out, I had to attempt to get Mike into this mindset.... So with the thought of money having come out of our account and no flight booking confirmed we headed out to see the Cristo Redentor and Sugarloaf Mountain. On the bus on the way I discovered just how expensive it was to see both, so we decided to just get the train up the mountain to see Cristo Redentor and not go up Sugarloaf Mountain as we would get good views from the Cristo Redentor anyway. The view from the top was amazing as we could see the whole city spread out before us. Rio is an interesting city in relation to its location as it's set inbetween very steep mountains that end up fragmenting the city, this does though make for a beautiful city where the sea, green spaces and city scape all intergrate together. After taking in the city, the statue and sampling a Coxinha which is a popular Brazilian snack, made from shredded chicken and spices, enclosed in potato and then lightly deep fried in bread crums - delish - we headed back to our hostel hoping that we'd have some confimation from the airline about our flight. Unfortunatly this wasn't so, so with the help of our hostel's owner Paul, Mike rang the airline and attempted to find out what the deal was. After a lot of back and forth between customer services and the booking agent, the consensus was to just appear the next morning at the airport for the flight and talk to someone in person. Our main worry was that our available balance and actual balance were still uneven with the difference being the cost of the flight and we did not want to end up paying for the flight twice.

After getting very little sleep in the 30C overnight heat, we rose at 4am and headed to the airport, still not sure what was going to happen. Thankfully the woman at the airline desk spoke English and was able to help us out. They had recieved 5 attempts from us trying to make bookings but none had fully processed so we booked and paid for new tickets then and there and got on our flight feeling relieved that we wouldn't be charged twice - although the money still hasn't shown back up in my account (Mum, might have to get you to talk to the bank if things don't wort themselves out....).

After a day of travelling we have arrived in the Colombian capital Bogota and are relieved to be back in a cooler climate. It's currently 14C and the overnight low gets down to 8C! I'm rather looking forward to getting some use out of my winter clothes and having a snug nights sleep. Tomorrow we plan to discover Bogota and the day after go and see a Catherdral that has been made undergrownd in some old salt mines before we head north and back to the warmth and beaches.

Ilona

Cordoba to Posadas to Puerto Iguazu to Foz do Iguacu

Ok so the overnight bus trip wasn't all that bad in the end, even though it ended up clocking in at over 21 hours. The Argentinian countryside, for the most part, is very flat and the roads are very straight. If there were a few more hills, it could probably be placed into the Waikato without anybody noticing much of a difference. Before we left, we had dinner out in Cordoba at a Middle-Eastern restaurant (very fitting of us, I know) where I sampled some sort of raw meat dish that Ilona refused to try(Ilona imputting - I did have a funny tummy!!). We had seats right at the front of the bus this time, which offered us great views of the Argentinian countryside in the daylight hours, even if they were pretty much the same thing for a good 12 hours or so. We both slept relatively well considering we were in a bus, but got awoken before 7 due to the heat of the sun. This is something that I'm really struggling to get used to, as even in New Zealand, I'm a heavy sweater, and so here in the muggy Southern Amazon I am almost consatantly drenched and smelling awful. During this bus trip, Ilona developed a severe case of hives, which have been plagueing her ever since. We counted over 160! Once we reached Posadas at around 9pm we booked a relatively cheap bus to Puerto Iguazu for the next day and then jumped into a taxi to get to our hostel, which was conveniently located on the other side of town. Our hostel actually looked quite nice as it was replete with a pool, hammocks and air conditioned rooms, which have become pretty much the only way for me to sleep in this heat. It is hotter at night here then it is during the day in Auckland! So after a good nights sleep on my part (Ilona's wasn't so good because of her hives problem), we caught a taxi to the bus terminal and boarded our bus for the 5 and a half hour drive to Puerto Iguazu, the Argentinian town in the tri-border zone of Iguazu. This bus was probably the nicest I have experienced so far, as the temperature was nice and cool, they served us lollies and even a little lunch! We also got the front row seats on this bus as well, which was great because we got to see the dramatic change in as we moved into the far north of Argentina. The dirt on the side of the road started to get redder and redder, the jungle sprouted up around us and became incredibly thick and hills started appearing! It's quite funny, because there are road signs that tell you that there is a turn in the road coming up, if there is an uphill or downhill segment ahead and speed limits often go down and up again in a matter of metres for no apparent reason. All this nonesense aside, we arrived in Puerto Iguazu in good spirits at around 3pm hoping to quickly see the Argentinian side of the Iguazu Falls, but were told that we needed at least 6 hours there to see everything and take it all in, so in the end we decided to have a relaxed afternoon to catch up on things and slow down a tad, as we had been moving quite quickly for the past few days. The evening saw us head to a restaurant for some dinner at around 8pm (very, very early for Argentinian standards) and we ordered what we thought were two simple hamburgers with a salad on the side, but which turned out to be enormous steak sandwiches with a little lettuce and tomato in it and very oily french fries. Now this place we were at wasn't a proper Argentinian steak house by any standard, but the steak we got was just incredible. I really want to see what a proper steak tastes like now! The next morning we got up very early to catch the first bus to the falls at 7.20, in order to get there when the National Park opened at 8.This was a good decision as it ended up with us walking the lower and upper tracks virtually alone and with some great early morning light to see the falls by. It is just amazing to see the sheer volume of water going over, and the sound accompanying it is totally deafening in some parts. We got very wet at one point as we got quite close to the foot of one of the larger falls. After seeing these, we boarded a little train packed with tour groups to head to the Devil's Throat, the main fall of Iguazu (Wikipedia it!). We walked out on a long gangway to the mouth of the fall to be met by throngs of tourists, Argentinian families and Brazilians all crowded near the edges of the platform trying to get the perfect picture and squealing when the wind blew all the mist from the falls in their direction. The mist generated from the falls is so thick that you can't see the bottom, and it looks as if the water is just falling through a cloud. After seeing this, it spelled the end of our trip at the Argentinian side of the falls, all in a brisk 4 hours and seeing everything we wanted to see! We boarded a bus straight away back to Puerto Iguazu, grabbed our packs from our hostel and then jumped on another bus to cross the border into Brazil with the intention of seeing the Brazilian side as soon as we got there. A one hour time difference and a non-existent bus on the Brazilian side scrapped this idea. This didn't end up being too much of a bad thing, as our hostel in Foz Do Iguacu is very nice, and we could have easily spent more than just one night here, as we are situated on a farm outside of town that has a swimming pool, a lake, hammocks, a bar serving awesome Caipirinhas and cheap beer, a pool table, foosball table, covered outdoor lounge area and just a generally awesome vibe. We enjoyed our dinner of pasta and a lentil sauce with Caipirinhas outside at sunset, which was just paradise. We have an early flight to Rio tomorrow morning so I have to end here, but until next time, have fun doing whatever it is you're doing in cold, boring Noo Zillind! And happy Waitiangi Day!

Mike.

Valparaiso to Mendoza to Cordoba

So much for sleep! The bus trip from Valpariaso to Mendoza that we had thought would send us to sleep failed to. Our seats were at the back of the bus right above the engine which resulted in a very hot night, combined with this, every stop that the bus made we thought was the border between Chile and Argentina where we would have to depart the bus to go through border control. We didn't actually come to the border until around 3.30am and it wasn't until 5am that we were on our way again!! I managed to get some sleep, though not very comfortably, Mike however suffered and combined with being a bit sick he was in a sad state waiting for our passports to be checked. Once we had gotten through the formalities and our bags were checked (this time Bananagrams was not picked up as being a fruit as it was going through customs between Argentina and Chile!) we were back on the bus for another 3hrs. We both got a little sleep and awoke driving though the Andes with the sun rising around us, which was pretty magical really. Once through the Andes we saw what Argentina is like - flat - seeing a hill on the horizon is actually quite exciting! We arrived in Mendoza and it was already pretty darn hot but we were relieved to be in a quieter city. Mendoza was flattened by an earthquake in 1861 and when they rebuilt the city they made all the roads really wide and a lot of plazas for people to escape to if an earthquake happened again. This makes Mendoza a lovely city to walk around as we spent a couple of days doing. Because of the lack of sleep we have had we decided to stick to double rooms for the next little while as we can control the environment better. Our hostel in Mendoza was lovely, quiet and air-conditioned which lead to our first full nights sleep since we left NZ. We woke up feeling revived and set out to explore Mendoza as the day before we had only stumbled around like zombies. We have decided as a result of bus trips being long and not the most fun that we will not head down to Buenos Aires but instead leave it till the end of our trip as it is where we fly out of. We also made the decision to do one extra flight to the one we had planned. Although we'd rather not be flying because of environmental reasons we have had to consider ourselves and our enjoyment of the trip and have booked a flight from Foz de Iguazu to Rio. This would have been a bus trip of over 22hrs unless we had stopped in Sao Paulo which, being a city of over 19 millon people, did not appeal to us at all. From Mendoza we caught another bus to Cordoba, where we currently are. The trip was somewhat more enjoyable than the first as it was during the day, we were not attempting to sleep and we were at the front of the bus, it however was still 11.5hrs and exhausting. Along the way we followed the Jepson tradition with bacon sandwiches, I knitted, we watched the movie Unstoppable in badly dubbed Spanish, also with spanish subtitles - which I managed to follow pretty well (thanks to Mike having seen it before and filling me in a bit), ate triple Oreos, saw a truck load of Fanta tipped off a truck and had many more fun trips to the toliets. We're still not really used to having to put the toliet paper in a bin beside the toliet here and not in the loo itself. With a tum that has been feeling rather funny this is even more fun!! We arrived in Cordoba at 8.10pm and decided to book our trip to Posadas then as the bus station is on one side of town and we didn't want to have to come back. In the sweltering heat and very tired we had to come to grips with the fact that what we originally thought to be a 15hr bus trip is actually going to be at least 20hrs and will leave at 11.55pm. With this to look forward to we headed to our hostel and had another good nights sleep. We spent today exploring Cordoba - for the second largest city in Argentina there isn't much to see, being followed by a dirty stray dog that found us again after we hid in a department store (I was convinced it was going to bite us and give us rabies), and booking our hostels for the next little while. We have another full day here before the dreaded bus trip and will mostlikely spend in resting and reading if we can find somewhere to, all the parks here and in major disrepair and are dust baths, the one we found that looked lovely was corndoned off. We are however keeping our heads held high, although I have suffered from quite a bit of homesickness, and we're looking forward to heading towards the Iguazu Falls! On towards the jungle!
Ilona