Rio Carnival
08 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
Photos from the Sambadrome….
A wonderful extravagant, colourful experience – and it didn’t even rain!
Her name is …
06 Mar 2011 1 Comment
Rio
Rainy
Full of people
Full of young people
Carnival
Hopefully tonight Sambadrome for the parade 
More photos added to the Skydrive..
Isla Del Sol
and the Colca Canyon
Well… I like The Angel Falls and I like The Iguassu Falls, but which one is best…. There’s only 1 way to find out…
27 Feb 2011 1 Comment
A logical well thought out independent practical list. (Rick says he doesn’t care, where are the mountains)…
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Salto Angel |
Cataratas del Iguazu |
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The claim |
The world highest water fall, 979m with a single fall of 807m. That’s almost a mile high |
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The world widest falls, a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long waterfall, although not continuous |
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The location |
In the middle of nowhere in Venezuela. |
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Northern Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil – they’ve all got a piece of this! |
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Getting there |
A light aircraft to Canaima, a 8 seater boat trip up river and a 2 hour hike |
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A 737 to Puerto Iguassu, a tourist bus to the national park and then a train to the falls |
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The falls themselves |
Wow!!! Amazing, like nothing else on earth – the power of the water. Just a shame there’s all these other people |
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Wow!!! Amazing, like nothing else on earth – the power of the water. Just a shame there’s all these other people |
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What else to do |
Just the main hike to the Salto, but boat rides, staying in the jungle in a hammock, walking BEHIND a waterfall – wow |
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Lots of little walks to see the falls from afar, from below, from above, from next to, from near |
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The meaning |
Named after Jimmy Angel who randomly landed at the top of the falls in a tiny little plane while he was looking for silver deposits – money grabbing yank |
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From ancient Guarani meaning water (y) and big (uasu). |
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The legend |
See above, money grabbing septic |
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Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall |
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Sayings |
Wow, that’s high – Julie Broadbent, 2010 |
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Upon seeing Iguazu, the United States’ First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed “Poor Niagara” |
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General |
So busy but mainly because the paths are about 2 foot wide. Mainly “travellers” not tourist sight see-ers! |
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Full of fat americans, and a gaziilion Israelis escaping the warzone. A little Disney Land, was half expecting Tweedle Dee to try and pull me (that ones for you Jody!), there;s even a train for god sake! |
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Total |
6 |
6 |
Guess it’s a drawer – think they both need a revisit! Any volunteers to come with?
Finally – internet access
24 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
So some photos of Machu Piccu and the Nazca lines
Link is on the photos page
Other plan changing catastrophes
21 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
Dengue fever – no trip to Iquitos
More flippin rain ruined roads – no busses to the Salt Flats so bye bye Bolivia
Just the 2 this month, you want more? That’s not very nice…
At the Copa, Copacaba-a-ana
17 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
Well, Puno first, the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, a modern trading town with not much to do other than go and visit the oldest ship on the lake, the Yavari. Question: If you are looking for a steam powered ship to patrol a lake in the middle of South America, 4000m above sea level in the Andes, where do you begin?
Maybe not Birmingham England? Well that’s where this baby was born, the only thing that I have in common with it (I’ve chosen to ignore Rick’s comments about steely exterior and running on hot air). Made in Brum in 1862, it was shipped as a kit to Chile and then moved over the Andes by mule and man. It took 6 years. Bloody project managers, trying to cut costs…
Then to the actual Copacabana, the bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. A much nicer place, more of a village than a town, and everything is so cheap! From here, you can take trip to Isla Del Sol, the birthplace of the Incas, and having spent 3 days there you can understand why the Incas chose this mystical beautiful place. The view from our room in the North of the Island:-
Not bad for £3 each per night and then the sun came out on the trek North the following day!
And the Inca temple ruins were magnificent. No wonder the sacred stones here were where the first Inca “created” his sons
Only Internet cafe
17 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
Bolivia seems to be living in the 90′s…
So no chance to upload any Nazca line photos yet… will do as soon as we can
Cuzco, Arequipa & Nazca
10 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
So glad we didn’t get here in tourist season but these are 3 of the nicest towns I’ve ever been to. So relaxed, chilled and laidback with a vibe that says spend more time here! Unfortunately, now we’re halfway through our 6 months we can’t, but maybe when we come back.
Apart from the wondrous Machu Picchu, Cuzco had loads more to offer; from inca ruins that made the foundations of several houses, churches etc (It really is kind of fitting that the majority of the buildings that the Spanish conquerors built on inca foundations [having torn them down to find treasure and destroy Inca culture] have collapsed in earthquakes to reveal the original foundations!), to Irish pubs serving Old Speckled Hen (that’s the birdie drink, Amy!), to the Sacsayhuaman fortress above the city. Fact: Cuzco was originally the centre of the 4 quadrants of the Inca empire and Cuzco was built in the shape of the sacred Puma, with a squint and a little imagination…
Oh and don’t forget the indigenous women who tout poor stupid tourists to get a photo with them and their lambs
Arequipa: From huge valleys (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, shove that you yanks!) to frozen mummies of 12 year old girls sacrificed by the Inca king as an appeasement to the mountain gods to stop the volcanic eruptions and really good food!
Rick made sure that the tourist trek that every tourist company does in 3 days, we did in 2. After the most uncomfortable bus jpurney ever (the bus companies were all on strike, so we had to go to Colca Canyon in the back of a tiny minibus), we spent the day in Cabanaconda and then set off down the canyon to the village. It took us 5 hours to walk down (the locals, have to do that journey whenever they want to buy os sell anything, there’s no roads in the canyon) and then 2 hours to walk across to the “oasis” . Woohoo warm (ish) water and a beer!
The last village was in the middle of “festival”, although it all seemed to have got a bit much for this geezer,=…
Ooh Nazca, so intriguing, so mystical, so wonderful to think that this ancient civilisation created these lines, so rapid was the flight… Photos to follow
What La Niña has meant to us so far
30 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
La Niña is the weather system that sometimes follows El Niño bringing unusually wet weather, road destruction, village flooding and forest fires to South America. So far it’s meant:-+
- Ciudad Perdida – the Lost City, Colombia’s answer to the Inca trail – far too muddy to contemplate
- Mompos – the most picturesque town in Colombia – under 2 foot of water when we wanted to visit
- A 14 hour bus journey from Cartagena to San Gil turning into a 21 hour journey instead
- Grade 3 – 4 white water rafting becoming Grade 5+ J
- Inca Trail – couldn’t complete the final part due to a landslide
- Overland journey from Colombia to Ecuador – another landslide meant there was no road so we had to fly instead
- Deep water in the Amazon meaning we could see fresh water dolphins but the Cayman could hide
- Couldn’t visit Baños (not due to La Niña but a volcanic eruption), actually could have visited but the government website suggested we shouldn’t
- Limited scuba diving to coast hugging reefs
Rain (kind of) stops play
30 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
The Inca Trail and Machu Picchu: 2 of the most famous well known things to do in South America and to be honest, although really touristy, probably the main reasons I chose to travel here. Booked in advance for the end of January (the Inca trail closes in February for restoration and recovery), we set off on Monday 24th for the little “walk in the park”, for the 4 day trek culminating in a day at Machu Picchu, probably the most famous new wonder of the world. What we never realised (yep, that’s actually Julies fault, didn’t check!”) was that January is well in the middle of the rainy season. So when our guide told us that he’d been talking to some of the officials and there’d been a landslide making the final part impassable, maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised. It just meant we did things a little differently
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Usual Inca Trail |
Our version |
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Day 1 |
Bus to Km 82. Gently 12km walk to 1st camp site at Wayllabamba for 6 hours |
Bus to Km 82. Gently 12km walk to 1st camp site at Wayllabamba for 6 hours |
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Day 2 |
The most challenging day of the trek. 12km uphill mostly through the first pass “Dead woman’s pass” (altitude 4200m) arriving at the 2nd camp site, Paqaymayu about 2pm for a free afternoon |
12km uphill mostly through the first pass “Dead woman’s pass” (4200m) arriving at Paqaymayu for lunch before setting off uphill again through the 2nd pass (4000m) and down 1000 of the gringo steps to another campsite. 18km in all and walking from 7:30 to 5:30!!! |
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Day 3 |
The “Gringo killer” day, taking in the second pass and then 3000 Inca step downhill to Winay Waynu camp site |
A descent of 1300m down the mountain and then a 2 hour walk along the train track to Agua Calientes the nearest town to Machu Picchu for a night in a hotel. HOT SHOWER!!! (Julie, bless her, spent the whole journey continuously throwing up (and occasionally doing other things). She didn’t clean any of it up…she has no respect for the flora! |
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Day 4 |
Early start to walk through the Sun Gate at sun rise and then to Machu Picchu, getting there about 8 in the morning |
Up at 4 to get to Machu Picchu before the gates open (Julie got the lazysh*ts bus (I admit she wasn’t very well the day before!) to the top whilst I walked uphill for 40minutes in the rain and dark) Early enough to get tickets to climb up Wayna Picchu, a 2 hour guided tour of the main part, a walk to the Sun Gate and the Inca bridge |
So while we never got to do the whole trail, and it was pretty rainy, cloudy and generally damp, there were some major positives:-
- Julie was so ill on Day 3 (dehydrated to exhaustion but couldn’t keep anything down at all, not even water) but only had a short walk (6 hours) to complete before collapsing in a nice hotel rather than another tent night!
- Shower on Day 3!!!
- Doing the Inca trail means you don’t arrive early enough to get a space to be able to climb Wayna Picchu (the mountain in the background of all the MP pictures). We got the space and when we climbed it, the clouds cleared!
- A night in the hotel meant we were raring to go on Day 4 and spent all day walking round the sites, staying later in the day when the clouds lifted, we had some awesome views and most other people had gone!
(Rick) And the negatives were:-
We couldn’t see much of the ruins we encountered en-route due to the rain/weather
We didn’t see much of the (we think!) outstanding countryside and views because of the rain/cloud
The trail had a lot of other walkers in front and behind us (many of which were a complete bunch of whooping, immature shits who couldn’t even be arsed to carry their own bags (the amazing porters carried the ladys and gayboys (mostly made up of English and our screechy voiced Antipodean offcasts (yes you tossers, not only can you no longer play cricket, but you can’t walk either…your ANZAC ancestors will be turning in their graves) make up bags for them), and yet took great pleasure in patting themselves on the back when reaching summits. Well, here is a message for all you turds, carry your own kit next time you lazy gits. I am 40, sit in office all day scratching my nuts, and managed it. Wankers……… (Julie: I got a porter to carry half of my stuff but never whooped or expected to be clapped when I got to the next campsite!)
And whilst I have my hairdryer turned on full blast, one final point….Our party of 15 trekkers was made up of varying nationalities, ages, walking experience and sexes. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the company of all with a quick run down as follows:-
- Virgil – our very own French comedian whom was an absolute pleasure to be around (I am going to blog in the future about changed attitudes towards certain nationalities!). What a guy. Virgil, if you are reading this, Julie says ‘hi mum!’, and I say ‘Bonjour mon petit chou-chou!’
- Geoff and Asher – two independent travellers from the states whom oozed enthusiasm and shared in the banter, especially poor Asher whom I hoped didn’t suffer too much from Virgil’s ‘French traditions’
, and for both of the guys for taking our constant corrections on the English language ie Its not jelly, it’s called jam; the English call it a jumper because that’s what it is!; pants are worn on the inside…etc
- Jacob, Martin, Tommy, Janus – 4 Danish lads whom were the epitome of good humour, friendliness, camaraderie, kindness etc. Lads (amongst other things) thanks for the rum, and for offering to help Julie carry her gear when ill.
- Lucy, Francesca and 2 friends (Sorry girls, I didn’t catch all your names– 4 young English girls taking a year out whom despite their walking inexperience, their utter complete unpreparedness for the condition, and bouts of illness, never had a strop and whom showed great levels of endurance and good humour (Julie says that the dioralyte saved her life, thank you ever so much)
- Hannah and Lena – 2 German girls. As per all the above, these girls provided a positive input to the team. However……… perhaps when one of the main reasons for choosing South America for your trip (and not going around the world) In order to ‘embrace the culture’, you should consider that this includes tipping. Nobody else will say it, but I think David, Frank, the porters and the cook deserved a small thankyou for their fantastic efforts. Other points (there were more!) which spring to mind whilst I think about it are:- we were all cold and wet, not just you; we were all tired, not just you; you weren’t ill so there was no need to moan, other people were, and they didn’t moan; if you want someone to leave their passports with some unknown individual so that we could all continue with the walk, why not follow up your idea with offering your own and not telling others to give up theirs. Oh, and just to finish off, Hannah, this isn’t aimed at you. Auf Wiedersehen pet!
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