Lazy post

Lewis has been blogging so for continuing updates check out

www.lewiz.org

Damn that was easy :)

Map and some vids

Have admitted defeat that this blog isn´t going to get updated with as many adventures as I would like. Just simply don´t have the time which is a good sign I guess.

In a short summary we travelled up through Colombia and sailed to Panama. Then flew down to the Amazon rainforest where I got fever and did some hallucinating in the jungle. Then another flight and bus journey to the place we are now, which is called Salvador and is on the east coast of Brazil. Fabian joined our travels in Colombia and Lewis is flying out to meet us in a couple of days.

When I was in Panama I made a map of our travels so far.

Added a link on the side panel too --------->

View South America Travels in a larger map

Also got sent some videos by Andrew of our climbing adventures in Peru which are pretty cool

Pisco

Vallunaraju

Lack of bloggage

The blog has taken a dive as we have spent most of our time on buses or busy doing cultural type things.
Have still been jotting down all the awesome stuff that happened and there should be a nice update with pictures coming soon :)
We are currently in Bogota.

xx

Quito

Quito ....

...shit


Met such a good crowd there and practically lived in the bar of Secret Garden Hostel. We didn´t do one cultural thing what so ever. The city had a pretty dodgy vibe about it, even in the day time. Every day we were hearing about people being robbed, bags slashed etc, and I saw some guy get his head kicked in right by the hostel. Had some great nights out though, hopefully will bump in to some of the Secret Garden crowd later on in our travels.

Southern Ecuador

Our plans to go climbing in a place called Cuenca were thwarted by lots of rain and most of the climbs we had looked at being unbolted. Should have read more carefully online. Decided to carry on rather than hanging about waiting for sun.


The bus journey to Alausi was amazing. We are still really high up (3000m??) but the landscape has completely changed, there are huge green hills everywhere, its like a scaled up slightly tropical Wales. The hills are surrounded by seas of cloud, so that they look like islands in the sky. It was incredible but I couldn´t get any decent photos due to being sat on the wrong side of a crowded bus grrr.

Went on a train journey in Alausi, which was really bigged up in the guidebook. You were meant to be able to sit on the roof of the train but cos some eejit tourists fell off and died that´s no longer allowed. The train thing wasn´t that great and was made worse by the fact that it took the ticket guys 6 hours or so to distribute tickets to maybe 150 people. Wouldn´t recommend this.

Headed to Baños next, a town near volcanos famous for it´s hot baths. Saw some big snowcapped volcanos on the way, no smoke though. In Baños we rented some mountain bikes and went on a daytrip to some waterfalls. Mountain biking is defo not for me. Chickened out and walked so many times hehe.
Visited some hot baths but they were packed with local people. Had a steambath as well which was really weird. You get shut in this wooden box with only your head sticking out, then you get out and some guy chucks cold water over you while laughing. This was repeated a few times, then the guy said ¨now for the final torture¨ and hosed me down with freezing cold water. :S

Moved on to a town called Tena and did some white water rafting. Had to fill in a form at the beginning that said ¨have you had anything traumatic happen to you recently?¨ Decided not to mention the steam bath. The tour was run by a company called River People. Even got to swim through some of the calmer rapids. Really recommend it, was great fun. Some of the folks with us had waterproof cameras and got some action shots, but so far have failed to track them down on facebook.

Just when we left this place a snake swam past :P

Mancora

Got to our first beach place which is a small town called Mancora, on the northern border of Peru with Ecuador. Stayed at Loki hostel again. It´s OK but seems like just a place to drink. The hostel is more like a beach resorty type thing with a swimming pool and everything.


Had a dip in the sea but it wasn´t that warm so just chilled by the pool. The seagulls here are huuuge and black. They look really menacing. Me and Reynolds entered a volleyball tournament and just lost in the semi final, but left his ipod behind the bar and it got robbed :(

One night they had a "ladies night" where girls (or people wearing girls clothing) got drinks cheapo. Pics won´t be appearing online ;) Best intentions to take surfing lessons just never materialised through a combination of laziness and hangovers. Oh well plenty of time for that.

Trujillo

Left Huaraz to head north to Ecuador. There are warning signs everywhere at the bus station about swine flu and what symptoms to look out for. Went down the list and I think I have had every single symptom in the last 2 days....lol.

We are currently stuck in a town called Trujillo. The strikes and road blocks have started again so earlier buses are cancelled and we can´t even make it via taxi to the local ancient ruins and pyramids which are meant to be pretty awesome. So that´s the reason for the bulk blog and

photo update :)

A few unsolved riddles about Peru....

- Every morning without fail there is a gigantic themepark length queue outside of the banks, with tons of locals waiting in line. What´s going on!?!? Surely if this is the system they are wasting millions of hours.

- When you go in to a restaurant in Peru and order your meal they don´t seem to bring your drink until they have prepared and brought you your main course (30 mins later). Why!?!? It just makes sense for a million reasons, not in the least profit from selling more drinks.

- HOW DID THEY NOT MANAGE TO INVENT THE WHEEL!?!?!?