Until the Money Runs Out

The Last Week!

2009-02-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

I am back in Bogota for my last week of this long trip. Nearly five months has passed so you would think that my tan would be better than it is but it is what it is. This time next week I will be back in London and it is weird how much I am looking forward to it. I have never really felt this way on a trip before but a lot of the last two months has been spent looking forward to going home. I have become such an ungrateful traveller that I think it will be a long time before I put my backpack on for any extended amount of time. In fact, as part of my new 'try to be a grown up' plan, I have bought a suitcase on wheels to help me carry all my stuff home. There are other changes too... but most of these will come into force once I get back.

Lo siento, amigos...

2009-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

I went to Peru, as some of you might have seen with the one solitary photo posted on facebook. It was cool. I was only in Cusco, Machu Pichu and then had one night in Lima before flying to Bogota. Cusco was beautiful though the hostel wasnt as nice as it could have been, the staff were a little cold and a couple shagged in the bunk below me for over an hour, despite many protests!

Machu Pichu looks exactly as it does in the photos. Which was a relief. It had been raining all night the night before I was due to go, I thought that I had left the shower on at one point. But fortunately it had stopped by the time I was due to go. And I had my first tour in English which was nice after two days of Spanish.

The journey to Lima was pretty long and nasty... 19 hours all in.. grrr! But when I arrived in Lima I met the nicest taxi driver, he didnt even try to rip me off which was nice. The hostel was in Miraflores, the posh part of town and I am not (too) ashamed to say that I celebrated my return to civilisation with a Burger King. It was fantastic!

However the air in Lima was really really really bad.. I was still coughing up a lung when I reached Bogota a few hours later. I have spent the last few days staying with my old language exchange partner in Bogota and we went to Villa de Leyva for the weekend with some friends which was really nice.

Now I am alone in Colombia for the first time in two years... and some things have changed... the perpetual cry of 'llamada llamada' seems to be a thing of the past and there are way more foreigners here than I remember. Some things remain the same though....the irresistable nature of me for starters... yes, the bus driver asked me out. I kinda knew that he would. He had been through the bus a few hours before asking for tickets, then I realised that it was only mine he wanted to see. Later he came back and ruffled my hair and asked me if I was bored and if I wanted to dance. Not on the bus I replied. So it wasnt a big surprise when he asked me out when we arrived in Manizales, he offered a massage and a hotel for the night... I almost went for it.. hjahahahah!

Also, I bought a bus ticket today and my name was recorded as 'Helen British' once again the Colombian confusion of my lack of surnames with my nationality.. cute!

Right, am going to finish my pizza now, expect more later:)

Bolivia

2009-01-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well, so, I was leaving Sucre to go to La Paz when that damn bus broke down. The nine hours by the side of the road were pretty painful but fortunately the grandmother sitting beside me saved me a seat on each of the subsequent buses we had to catch. Bolivia was looking fairly grim but I must admit that this probably had more to do with my mood than anything else. Plus we seemed to be safely out of llama country which was a shame.

We passed through one town which had a queue about 30 vehicles long waiting at the petrol station. The queue included everything from motorbikes, cars, buses, mini buses and a large proportion of tractors. It was then that I realised that a few seats ahead of me were some English people. Later, as we pulled into La Paz I ran over to them and asked if I could follow them to whichever hostel they were staying in.

Thank goodness they said yes.

Tom and Katie (no, for real) were lovely and seemed to know so many people. I had a great weekend with them, again fortunately since we were stuck in La Paz because of the referendum, whch meant that for at least two days the buses were going nowhere. It was also a dry weekend- no alkholl!

Well the first day we headed out in the morning and there was something a little special going on, minatures of EVERYTHING were being sold. We bought some fake money and later worked out that we had to get it blessed before midday and we would have good luck for the year. People were buying all kinds of things, mini houses, cars, suitcases stuffed with cash, mini lap tops, shops, offices... it was only after 12 that we realised we should have invested in a bus!

And things got only more surreal as a group of nine of us went to San Pedro prison in the afternoon. Yes, we paid good money to enter a South American prison. Now, I have never been in a prison before but i have watched enough 'Porridge' and 'Prisoner Cell Block H' to feel that I know how it works. And I have certainly never seen one where the prisoners have to rent or buy their cells or where they have the keys and the guards dont.

We went approached by some guy on the street who told us that he was a prisoner and he would take us in, for a fee of course. Turns out that he was on the verge of being released so was allowed out during the day, with his wife and kids, who live with him in the prison. And things didnt get any less odd after that.

We were taken to meet a Colombian guy who claimed to have worked with Pablo Escobar (though I cant find any reference to him on the interweb) and spent most of the afternoon sat in his cell with another guy who had been caught trying to smuggle coke to Amsterdam.

It was a very strange day to say the least, coke was readily available but no beer- it is a prison after all! There are loads of wives and kids also living in the prison and half the people there seemed to be ex cons coming to visit their mates. The guy showing us around was unlikeable at first but we grew fond of him throughout the day and it was hard to go to the gates and walk out knowing that he wouldnt be doing the same for another 2 years or more.

The next day was the referendum and La Paz was like a ghost town, no cars anywhere. A group of us walked up to a look out point and, well, looked out. Later we descended on one of the fe restaurants open that day- a British Indian curry house! Hooray! Complete with Turkish waiter and fifteen of us gringo backpacker types. Those in the hostel that didnt go to the restaurant seemed to get take out- made for some pretty nasty bathroom visits the next day in a hostel where nearly 180 people had eaten curry the night before.....phew.

Of course all the bars were closed but the one in the hostel stayed open, on the condition that we were all quiet. All 180 of us. We managed it and didnt get closed down and in fact had one of my best nights in a long time.

The next day a group of us wandered around the Witches' Market and then yesterday I got on a bus to Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, one of the highest, biggest lakes in the world. The bus was pretty small and made to Bolivian size, which meant that the headrest was firmly cloaking my shoulders. I didnt feel so good, I am sure that this was in no way related to the Ausie Day celebrations in the hostel the night before!

After a couple of hours the bus stopped, I didnt know why, and everyone got off. I followed them and bought a ticket for something. Hum, then followed them onto a small boat. At the same time our bus was being driven onto a slightly bigger boat and we took a shortcut across one of the narrower parts of Lake Titicaca. Now I understood why the buses were so small.

An hour later I arrived in Copacabana and coped out by just going into the nearest hotel without looking around. Today I paid an extra couple of quid ot move to a room with a bathroom and a view over the lake. Bargain.

I was going to take a boat ride out to Isla del Sol but it has been raining and hailing all day so I feel OK about not doing much.

Catching the bus to Peru tomorrow- wish me luck!

La Paz

2009-01-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick note to say that buses in Bolivia suck. When ours broke down after just three hours and 53km away from the replacement bus, we had to wait for NINE hours for the replacement. Turning a 14 hour journey into a hideous 23 hour one. Uf! But we arrived in La Paz in the end but it is a dry weekend because of the referendum tomorrow. We might have found a sneaky way around it.

So I am here until Monday as there is limited transport today, nothing tomorrow so I can't leave until then anyway.

Did see a big statue of El Che on the way into La Paz though which made me happy:)

Back to Blighty on 2nd March

I fell in love with San Pedro!

2009-01-21T07:14:00.000-08:00

Bloody Madonna and her 'La Isla Bonita' and me on my way to San Pedro- grrrrrr, 26 hours of her rattling around my head. Well I darted up Chile pretty quick smart and the bus was only delayed by an hour when we got a puncture. I arrived in San Pedro around 1am and found a place to lay my head and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The next day I finally got out of bed and went out for a little explore. Little because San Pedro is not exactly Buenos Aires. It is a weird little place, made of mud and teeming with tourists either coming from or heading to Bolivia. Of course I was of the latter variety and didnt take much time before booking my three day jeep ride to Uyuni in Bolivia.

Three days, two nights and all the meals included set me back $100- ah how I wish that the pound wasnt so piss poor at the moment, it takes all the fun out of seeing prices in dollars when you cant just half them and look smug while the Americans cry. Huff. But at least it makes it easier to talk to Europeans about prices now that I finally know how much a euro is worth.

Anyway, the next day saw me waiting for the jeep at 7.45am. Another guy turned up for the tour and my heart sank. Herman the German (no, really that was his name) didnt speak English and didnt look like a barrel of fun either. Hum, a little fact I had forgotten when questioning the tour office the day before, did the guide speak English? Apparentely not. We all spoke Spanish that first day.

And oh my goodness was it the best hundred bucks I have ever spent?? Oh yes it was! Half an hour after leaving San Pedro we were breakfasting at the Bolivian border, being carefully watched by a couple of Andean wolves. After that it was lagunas and flamingos agogo for the next two days.

The first night I didnt sleep at all and was pleased to discover that no one else had either- damn that altitude sickness. After a day of sun we had arrived at our basic accommodation just before the hail and snow started. Yes, it was cold. I gathered together all the spare blankets in the room and nearly suffocated under the weight of them to try and block out the coldness.

Day two was more flamingos and llamas and vicuñas (kinda like a llama but not actually a llama, the tour guide did explain the difference but it was all in Spanish so I might have lost the finer points). And day three was an incredibly early start- not helped by Marie forgetting to change her clock to Bolivian time before setting the alarm, therefore waking us up at 3.30 rather than the 4.30 we had to be up by.

I was first out of bed and out of the salt hotel and waiting outside admiring the night sky by the time the others crawled out of bed. Guess that they had gone back to sleep after Marie's alarm went off.

We drove onto the Salar de Uyuni- google it, it is amazing- an ancient salt lake which at this time of year looks and sounds like snow. We watched the sun rise and I cant really tell you how amazing it was!

WE spent a lot of time on the salt plains before finally making it to Uyuni, a town which looked really grim on the outskirts (the kind of town where pigs shag in the middle of the street, I am not making this up) but the centre was really quite nice. I stayed the night along with someone else from the tour and then yesterday I got the bus to Sucre.

Let me just say that Bolivian buses suck almost as much as the internet connection here!

Not looking forward to the trip to La Paz tomorrow but it has to be done. Especially if I am planning to be back in the UK at the end of Feb!

Which I am:)

Not Chilly in Chile

2009-01-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

OK lets get the excuses out of the way first. Reasons for not writing before include mind meltingly slow internet connection, keyboards so bad that I have to practically pummel my hands through the desk in order to get them to register anything, laziness and just plain having too much fun to write. But i am here now, little ones, worry ye not, I have not been eatedn by a rabid llama or necked so much malbec that I cant remember my name let alone my username.

OK, so where were we? Cant remember so let me go from Buenos Aires once more. Ah, I had to leave. Once my teeth were completely fixed there seemed little reason to stay beyond sheer love of the city, and that can get pricey. So on 31st December I planned ahead and prepared my bags ready to depart the next day. I neednt really have worried as I had a quiet New Year's Eve, exactly what I needed after the excesses of Christmas in Uruguay. And so on 1st January, I heaved my bag onto my back for the first time in a month (having just taken a small bag to Uruguay) and headed to the bus terminal and Cordoba. A German girl from my beloved Estoril hostel was heading the same way and off we went.

However she had booked into a different hostel to me so we parted ways on arrival in the morning and met later for some food. The next day I just wandered around and took photos. Then travelled overnight once more and hit Mendoza.

Mendoza produces around 70% of the wine in Argentina and it would have been rude not to have sampled some, though the drink of choice amongst the youngsters in the hostel was the rather punch packing fernet- which we nicknamed ferret for the face that you pull when you drink it. I did a wine tour with some people from the hostel and later that night we purchased some ferret in order to get the young hostel lad drunk. At some point in the night an asado (barbecue) was demanded for the next night. And the hostel laid it on a treat and promptly put Hostel Lagares Beltran at the top of my loved hostels list (Estoril at this point having been promoted to the home away from home list).

If it had been a wrench leaving Buenos Aires, I wasnt expecting to feel so sad leaving Mendoza. We had a blast over the three nights I was there- Lois, my American friend, and I set ourselves the thrifty challenges of finding the cheapest fernet we could (just under two quid) and the cheapest red wine (uf, about fifty pence a litre) all of which were actually wonderfully drinkable (once we got the coke-ferret ratio correct).

Arriving into Mendozza few days before I had glimpsed my first sight of the Andes since leaving Colombia nearly two years ago and a smile spread across my face. So I decided that my trip through them on the way to Santiago de Chile should be during the day to most enjoy the scenery.

Good idea.

Apparentely the same idea that nearly the entire population of Argentina felt the same way. Three hours after leaving Mendoza we were high in the desolate mountains at the border. Where we proceeded to stay for another three hours. Making us late into Santiago whioch had the knockon effect of buggering up my travel plans into the city.

I had been advised not to get a taxi, both by an English boy in Mendoza and the bus driver. The metro here is good and clean and unfortunately doesnt sell tickets after 11... I discovered at 11.02. My imploring finally melted the heart of the security guard who let us passengers through for free. A good result but stressful.

My second night in Santiago saw me meeting up with Fernando, a guy that I met in Medellin in 2007- often referred to, by me, as my only friend who doesnt speak English. We sank a few beers, had an alarmingly green looking pizza (avocado being overly used here to a degree) then hit a clandestine club for some serious grooving. All in Spanish, fortunately Fernando is pretty good at speaking Spanish slowly and clearly, without all the embellishments usually employed by Chileans.

Sightseeing yesterday was great. I was standing in a queue for the funicular and a Brazilian guy in front of me turned out to be the tour leader of the massive group waiting behind me in the line. When the ticket guy asked me how many tickets I needed I said one, just one, and pouted. He told me that there was nothing wrong with being alone and I said that there is when you are behind a large group of Brazilians. He then told me to push my way into the line and brought out my tickets and change for me! A few minutes later he took me to the front of the queue and pushed me ahead of everyone. Bless him! And all in Spanish again:)

Then I bought a couple of tops, the most important thing for me being that they werent black, I always seem to wear black. The woman told me that the purple suited my hair.

And it must have done since the local nutter today told me that I was very beautiful. Though I pretended not to speak Spanish.

Today is my last day in Santiago and I might even enter a museum later....

Nochebuena

2008-12-24T08:24:00.000-08:00

The problem with free internet in the hostel is that there is always a long line for it and even when there isnt it feels like there is. So I have run out into the sun to update good and proper. I am in Punta del Este in Uruguay and the sun has really come out today. I was in Montevideo for three nights and really liked the city, like a smaller Buenos Aires, but I have to admit to being 'homesick' for the place where I had been for the previous three weeks.

Since leaving Brazil I really havent travelled at all, just finally left BA to come to Uruguay on Saturday morning but even that was hard. Hard mostly because I went out the night before with a few people from the hostel, including a Colombian guy who couldnt really speak English. But me and him were the only ones that wanted to go to a nightclub. Which we did. But not for long. Got home about three hours before I had to get up and even managed to brush my teeth and take my contact lenses out:)

But when I woke up the next day I couldnt speak English anymore! Hahaha! The taxi driver that took me to the port in BA told me that my Spanish was very good but I explained that at that point I just couldnt rustle up any English- though I will admit that I didnt use the Spanish for 'rustle up'. I got onto the ferry and .... well walked around and then sleeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppttt. I hope that I didnt snore as much as the guy just across the aisle from me who slept for the entire trip. I just slept for half of it. As the duty free opened a couple of guys started entertaining the crowds with guitar and song which was fun.

Standing on the deck of the ferry, I could look behond me and see Buenos Aires and ahead of me I could see Uruguay! It was just like the cross channel ferry:) We arrived into Colonia and I got on a bus going to Montevideo and a nun sat down next to me and offered me a sweet. And suddenly I was in Uruguay, along with the 3.5 million residents, about half of whom live in Montevideo.

Now Uruguay was never on my agenda but it is so close to BA that it seemed almost rude not to go and the guys in the hostel in BA recommended Punta del Este for Xmas. So after three days in Montevideo I set off here. And took one of my shortest bus journeys so far, just two hours, but yesterday the normally beachy loveliness was marred by the clouds.

In Montevideo I saw lots of souvenirs for Uruguay, apparently lots of Brazilians and Argentinians like to come here to spend their cold hard cash and someone told me that they tried to get a bus from Porto Alegre in Brazil to Montevideo a few days before but the buses were all sold out. Weirdly I have seen lots of souvenirs with a map of South America turned on its head. Now I understand this humour with Australia and New Zealand as this rotation puts them at the top of the map but with Uruguay it is still about half way down South America, never mind which way up the map is.

So today is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas Day. And I have made the slight error of booking into a hostel that doesnt have a bar! Eeek! But at least it is quiet. So today I have to make sure that I have enough food to get me through tomorrow- at least there is Cabdurys chocolate here though I have yet to see a chocolate orange:( And I have a feeling that Papa Noel doesnt know where I am! So for the first time ever I wont be opening presents tomorrow. In fact, so sure am I of not receiving anything that I havent even brough any socks with me to wear let alone hang on my bedpost.

But there is a beach and there is some sun and I can have turkey some other time.

So to you all, feliz navidad!!!!!!!!

Feliz Navidad

2008-12-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

I have been in Uruguay for a couple of days now and I am having Buenos Aires withdrawal! Not the actual place but the hostel. I spent three nights in Montevideo and I feel like a bit of a granny because I had to complain about an Argentinian rugby team running naked and wild all night all over the hostel. Of course last night was very nice, of course because I was leaving the hostel today.

Uruguay seems cool enough- the last on my great tour of gaucho culture, which started in Rio Grande de Sul in Brazil. People drink mate in Argentina but here they drink it like they did in Porto Alegre, which is to say constantly. The streets are full of people clutching their mate gourds in their hands, with a thermos nestling in the crook of their elbows ready for top ups.

Montevideo was nice, chilled out and I had a nice time there. Today I arrived into Punta del Este and seem to have made the mistake of booking myself into a hostel with NO BAR! And it is Christmas Eve tomorrow and I have paid until 26th. Silly me!

The Tooth that broke the Helen's back

2008-12-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

At first I was afraid, I was petrified, thought that I could never live without my rotting teeth in my head but then... I met a gorgeous dentist and started to feel better about dental work. I met him in his official position, unfortunately, but better than nothing. Tomorow ends a weeklong dental marathon, the last of my six appointments this week, the 9th so far and I have one more before new year to get the stitches out. The novelty of telling people in the hostel that I am going for dental treatment has long since worn off and out of patient solidarity I haven't even asked the girl with her arm in a sling how she ended up like that.

But Buenos Aires hasn't been all teeth pulling, gorgeous dentists and non-stop pain. Today I was the first to arrive in the dental surgery and got a hello kiss from the dental assistant and the dentist- I love latin society! I don't know if they are just thrilled that my last credit card payment has gone through or if they have become genuinely fond of the girl that cried in the chair on the first day but also likes the time in the waiting room to practise her Spanish- reading the magazines. Though today I was shocked to read that Gael Garcia Bernal is going to be a daddy soon- and not, as planned, to our gorgeous children. Huff.

In other news, part of the reason that I haven't updated this much is because, believe it or not, I have been so busy here in the hostel. It is not the cheapest hostel but it gets the highest rating on hostelworld.com and the atmosphere is great and pretty much all fo the staff know me by name now, and occassionally forget to put the beers I have pinched from the bar on my tab.

The first week I met some great people here from all over the world, including Belgium- these I charmed with my delightful childhood stories of Meli Land (though they saw that it has recently been taken over by eveil forces, a fact I was first made aware of when I last met some folk from Belgium and told them the same stories. Also, even Belgians find it hard to win the 'Name 3 Famous Belgians Game' though admittedly because I discounted anyone that I hadn't heard of. However, we did get an Israeli to sing Dana International´s Eurovision hit so not all is lost).

Weirdly met two people from Felixtowe, though I don't know either of them as they are four years younger than me and the caste system in the Stowe is very rigid. And while recounting this story another girl introduced herself as the best mate of a mate of mine from back home, a mate I met in Oz nearly ten years ago- t'is a small world and no mistake!

Last week I went to Spanish school, but this week it was closed so I didn't. I met some lovely people there and we all went out last week. Fearful of not practising Spanish and being frightfully bored this week, I lined up some language exchanges only to meet an Aussie girl on Friday night who I then spent most of my non-dental time with until the early hours of this morning.

Today I have been mostly being operated on in dental way and then subsequently complaining about it. Tomorrow I am back at the dentist and then on Saturday I leave Buenos Aires, you heard it right, I am leaving- until 29th December anyway! I am going to Uruguay for Christmas- based on the recommendation of some Colombian friends and the guys in the hostel here. I am a bit scared, I haven't moved out of this hostel since leaving Brazil- the non-stop movement after 8 weeks in Brazil seems to have awaken some kind of traveller apathy in me here in Argentina. Ideally I would like to stay here and work, I love this city, but unfortunately even the Argentines are scarpering to the nearest beach for the summer- lazy sods! So I will move on.

Funds being vastly depleted after this dental work, I think that I will move quicker than planned, too bad but it is not the end of the world. And if anyone knows of any jobs going in Colombia, or Ecuador or......

Root Canal in Buenos Aires

2008-12-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

Crikey this is an easy city to love! Head over heels on my first day- posting my CV on my third day but it is the wrong season, being the start of the summer hols and all.

Started my Spanish class and my dental treatment this week. I still havent decided which is the most painful!

Don`t Cry For Me, I`m not Evita

2008-12-02T04:07:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago I met a couple of Canadian girls on a bus going to Florianopolis. Actually I had heard them complaining for hours so chose not to reveal my gringa status until the last minute. They were nice but whiney. However, we shared a cab to the hostel together so all was good. In our several hour stopover somewhere we got talking about plans for South American travel and when I said that I was going to Argentina the girls went all misty-eyed, similar to the way that I do when people say they are going to Colombia, and one of them gave me a 50 peso note.

Handy. That is around ten quid so not bad.

Yesterday I left Brazil (sob, sob) and arrived in Buenos Aires after minor delays in Brazil (caused by me screaming, shouting and holding onto various parts of the airport refusing to leave- or not, given my poor command of Mickey Mouse even after all these weeks, I have no idea what the delay was) and unbelievably my luggage reached the baggage carousel at exactly the same moment that I did. My luck continued and before I had even had time to make my first Argentinian trip to the loo, I was on a bus heading to my hostel. The bus fare was 45 pesos.

Handy again.

I left my stuff in the hostel and set off in search of an ATM to fill my purse with pesos. Easily found but not so easily negotiated with. First there was a long queue which dispursed when a guy came out of the bank and shouted something. Everyone walked away and I heard `about half àn hour` for the resolution of the problem.

The next few banks I saw had out of order signs on their machines.. not looking good. About half an hour later I joined a queue of eager Argentines and took my turn at the machine.

It took visa, great. It knew my name, spooky. It refused to give me money, droga!!!!

I tangoed from cajero to cajero but nothing. I tried all three of my cards but nada came out of the machine for me, just a blank refusal to furnish me with the necessary funds.

Arse.

However, I just tried again and was greeted with the glorious ticking sound of a machine counting the bills loudly to let everyone else in the bank know that you are withdrawing a rather large sum of money so if they fancied a bit of pickpocketing then you would make a good potential target.

I dont care- I can eat today:)

And so off into the sun- the cool cold Argentinian sun.

Floods

2008-11-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well it certainly puts things into perspective when you complain about a little bad weather on your holidays only to later see that part of the country wrecked by floods. Santa Catarina is suffering at the moment, people killed and displaced by the flood water.

Which all seems a little impossible to imagine in the glorious sunshine of Porto Alegre. I am on the verge of my last weekend in Brazil- heading to Buenos Aires on Monday, all going according to plan. And it is an ex-student filled week- staying with Jeferson in Porto Alegre then nipping out of the city to spend a couple of days with Max, and sharing a pint or two with other ex-Malvern types- I guess that would explain why I keep dreaming about work!!!

It is hot here, around 33, so nice for me but it seems that the rest of Rio Grande de Sul hate it! Max didnt like to leave the house until the sun had gone down and various students´mothers look worn out by the heat. And think that I am mental for heading into the sun each day in search of a tan.

Right, I think that it is finally time to wash some clothes, people have beengiving me funny looks all day but at least the smell has scared the pickpockets away!

Peas Louise!

2008-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

I just had the biggest burger known to mankind and it included the usual corn, crisps, tomato etc but I noticed that pea fell out and it was loaded with peasy goodness too- now that is service for you!

I am in my final week in Brazil now and have hit Porto Alegre- after just 115 hours on various buses! I went from rainy Florianopolis to rainy Sao Paulo and onto rainy Curitiba and finally to gloriously sunny Porto Alegre, way down south.

People kept advising me not to go to Sao Paulo, stating that it was just another big city. And so I avoided it at first but the rain in Floripa just seemed like a sign and a quick MSN conversation with Marina, another ex-student, and I was on my way.

And with a population of over 17 million, it could quite rightly be stated that SP is a big city but I have come to the realisation that I really do like cities. I do. I know I am a bit of a hippy and should therefore prefer nature (and nature certainly has its place, let´s face it, the highlights on my trip have oft included it) but I am happy in a city, I understand them more than nature. You don´t often get dragged out on eight hour hikes in the city, you never run out of water and if you get lost you can just jump in a cab. Perfect.

So the first day I arrived in SP, Marina was working so I just left my stuff in the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal and went out for the day. I retrieved everything in time to meet her at the metro and we went back to her house. She lives just off Avenida Paulista which is pretty central- central to the good stuff and away from the actual centre where I was advised not to even attempt to take a photo for fear of having my camera nicked. Certainly when I was walking around there there did seem to be a lot of people who lived on various benches around the centre.

Mari was my student in the winter of 2006, leading up to my trip to Colombia and I have to say that she is one of the happiest and most adorable people I have ever taught. Despite the shocking winter weather she never lost her enthusiasm for London and life. Wonderful. And for our two nights out she carefully selected people who could speak English to accompany us- bless!

The next day was a holiday for everyone in the city, bar Mari. Of course it was a holiday at her company too but they were told that all the bosses would be there and so..... hum. Fortunately for those of us on holiday, the sun came out the next day- which made all the overly large Santa melting in its heat seem even more surreal to me. And the next day I was off again, this time to Curitiba.

I was going to stay in Curitiba for a couple of days- there are some nice things to do and see around there but I spent the night alone in the hostel and thought better of it. Instead of taking the panoramic railway to a fishing town, I overslept and took my stuff to the Guarda Volumes (yes, my most useful bit of Portuguese vocab to date!) and went off to SHOP! The rain gave me a perfect excuse not to have to go on the open top sightseeing bus or anything like that.

I was rather pleased with myself when I managed to buy a new top (yes! I am sick to death of everything in my backpack already, not least of all because it all stinks!), new batteries for my reading lamp (by bringing the old ones along and delighting a group of Brazilian shop assistants with my feigned shock at the price) and new contact lenses! Yes indeed an achievement. This was done by photographing the packaging of an old lens and just going into an opticians and asking if they had the same. I was relieved to find that not only can you buy contacts without a test or prescription in Brazil, they also have no qualms (?) about selling you one which is the wrong strength- albeit only 0.5 out.

So now I can see, read at night and I don´t stink- today anyway!

My last task in Curitiba was to call the student that I was due to be staying with in Porto Alegre. Easier said than done. Calling interstate is hard here- there seems to be a whole load of secret numbers which only Brazilians know, each passerby giving me a different secret number but alas to no avail. I sent him an email, hoped for the best and got on a bus.

Eleven and a half hours later I got off and he was not to be seen. I went to Brazil´s most expensive internet cafe in the bus terminal to check for messages but nothing. A very helpful man at the tourist information told me that I had too many numbers on the number which I had written down.

Hum again and back to the internet but the number I had written down was the one in the email. By now the guy in the tourist info office was looking at me like I really should have caught on that the boy didnt want to see me by now. But he had called me in London a couple of weeks before so he seemed pretty keen. It was a sunny day and after so long on the bus I decided that I needed to get out- another trip to the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal later and clutching a map with Jeferson´s street hightlighted on it I emerged to have a look at one of my last destinations in Brazil.

You see, I had arrived at 9.30 on a Sunday morning, not a healthy time to turn up on someone´s doorstep. After all the fussing trying to phone and getting freshened up in the toilets (the room not the actual receptacle), it was still only 10.30. So I thought that walking would be better. And it was.

And I finally got there, managed to communicate my intent to the doorman who phoned upstairs, then guided me into the lift, pressed the button for the 8th floor and told me that I was pretty and finally I was there.

Poor Jeferson, looking as bleary-eyed as you can imagine a poor 23 year old is before lunch on a Sundy, opened the door and welcomed me in.

I think that it is worth saying at this point that I think Jeferson is possibly one of the sweetest guys I have ever met for oh so many reasons. We went to watch a football game last night (Inter vs the team that won) and he lent me a shirt to wear. There was even samba dancing at half time. But óur´team still lost.

And I think that brings you pretty much up to date with everything. I am heading out of the city for a couple of days tomorrow to visit another ex-student then back here for the weekend- my last weekend- I am flying to Buenos Aires on Monday!

Goodness me, how seven weeks flies!

Floripa

2008-11-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

So I arrived in Florianopolis on Saturday morning- the city is the gateway to Ilha Santa Catarina. I had been talking to a couple of Canadian girls on the bus from Foz and so we decided to look for a hostel together. We consulted the interweb and realised that we were all swooning at the same hostel photos so jumped in a cab to go there.

The cab left the city and then drove us through some dreamy landscapes- all beaches, lakes, picturesque rivers winding through gorgeous villages. In fact, every time we turned another corner we all sighed with the satisfaction of the place.

The taxi pulled up next to a small bridge leading over a river which led away from the 16km of sandy beach. As I got out of the taxi a familiar face was getting off a bus- Niall who I had met standing by the road in the Pantanal. We all went over the bridge and found the hostel easily.

However, it was the wrong one. I decided to stay and the girls went off to the other one. Me and Niall hit the beach pretty quickly. Ah sigh, perfection.

That night in the hostel there was quite a gathering in the bar, a host of caipirinhanas were consumed and then we went to a nightclub. Things are a bit vague after that. There was a band singing, they werent very good. I bumped into the Canadian girls, they pulled me out of the club, I grabbed Niall and suddenly we were walking along a steep, muddy and very dark footpath- I know not why. At the end we realised that the Brazilian guy were were following didnt seem to have much of a clue where he was going so we grabbed a cab and went home.

It was about that time that I posted the last entry here.

Awoke the next morning to the sound of rain. It continued for most of the day. But the hostel barbecue in the evening made up for it in some small way. As did the nightly arrival of the chocolate man- a lively old fella who sells homemade chocolates- lovely.

The next morning there was more rain. Half of the hostel signed up to leave the next day. I had to think of a plan quickly, yes I was going to leave but where was I going to go?? I am flying out of Porto Alegre to Buenos Aires and have some old students to visit there in my last week but I didnt want to make it a week and a half there. After much thinking about it and waiting to use the free internet in the hostel (and quick nipping out to the ever popular ice cream buffet) I decided to go the wrong way and head north to Sao Paulo for a couple of days and then head south again.

Yes, it is the wrong way but the bus is pretty cheap. And no one, guide book included, could think of other places for me to go in the south before Porto Alegre so that was that. Decision made. Spent the evening chatting to a guy from Nicaragua and one from Chile.

Awoke on the morning of my final day to glorious sunshine once more.

Huff.

Undaunted I am continuing with my Sao Paulo plan- I am meeting another old student there tomorrow when she finishes work. I am travelling overnight again so will have to dump my stuff in the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal for the day and then pick them up to meet her later.

Now I am just killing time waiting for the bus- I have about an hour and fifty minutes to go......

Cop Out

2008-11-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

.. I know it is but I put the photos on facebook today! Sorry! You can see them there! Went to a nightclub in Florianopolis tonight- later followed a bunch of people down a dark alley, this policy has never yielded anything good. Arrived on another beach and got a taxi home with a guy from the hostel. At the hostel now and there is no queue for the internet! If I told you what I had spent the last hour listening to you would never believe me!

Alone Again

2008-11-14T06:22:00.000-08:00

so I cant remember if I told you that I have had company for the last week or so- first in the form of Moti, an Israeli guy that I met in Campo Grande, we picked up Melissa in the Pantanal and the three of us found Natasha from Switzerland on the bus going to Foz do Iguacu. It is nice to have a bit of company while travelling- I dont mean in the hostels as there is no end of people to talk to then (unless you are in Cuiaba where I was the only one in the room) but actually on the bus journeys.

This is not because I need to endlessly chat to folk while speeding along the highway (or unsealed road aka dirt track) but rather because it is lovely not to be the only one having to watch out for where to get off or worrying because you get a sudden attack of paranoia about having missed your stop. Also, it is a sheer joy to have someone to watch your bags for you while yoú pop to the loo or to get a snack os anything which would usually mean getting all backpacked up and walking around like a deranged upright turtle.

The company is nice too of course.

When we went to the Brazilian side of the falls on the first day here I went with the girls. It was amazing, there is something really special about being soaked by an enormous waterfall. The following day I went to the Argentinian side with Moti where we learnt that you dont know the meaning of the word soaked until you have been there.

The first day was so amazing but we had heard that the Argentinian side was even more impressive, we just couldnt see how this could be so given that the Brazilian side was so fantastic. Then we turned a corner and got a different view of the falls and turned to each other and said that now we understood.

There are two places where you can get thoroughly wetted on the Argentinian side and the second is a sheer wall of water with a walkway coming up to it. It is an almost spiritual experience when you stand at the end of the metal walkway (having fought off all the other tourists so that you can get a photo of you standing alone at the end) water penetrating to the very heart of you, the water crashing down behind you in thunderous applause and you laughing through sheer joy and excitment.. only later to realise that the dye in your jeans is not fast and so you will have wet jeans and a blue bum until you get home and shower. At least it got the ketchup from the day before out of my t-shirt! I am a class act and no mistake.

Of course the other bonus to being on the Argentinian side is that they speak Spanish! Joy! I could understand nearly everything- even when they told me a price for a sandwich and a drink which would have had Starbucks in London hanging its head in shame.

Today I went into the town to get some money to pay my bill here at the hostel, I am always secretly impressed with myself when I get a bus in town. It is easy to get intercity buses (provided you dont have to change too many times and it doesnt drive off and leave you at a rest stop somewhere) but it is far more difficult to get a bus from one place that you dont know to another that you dont know and it all happens so quickly. Usually.

Now I am just killing time until I have to go to the bus terminal to get my next bus.

Toucans, Hummingbirds and quite a lot of water

2008-11-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

I am in Foz do Iguacu, right near the borders with Argentina and indeed Paraguay. I went to the world famous waterfalls yesterday and again today- yesterday in Brazil and today I went to Argentina for the day to see the falls from the other side. I have just one word to say about both experiences.....

AWESOME!!!!!!

And I went to the Bird Park yesterday and have decided that if the world were filled only with toucans and hummingbirds I would be happy.

I am heading to the beach again tomorrow- ah it has been too long! After a couple of weeks of swimming with piranhas, being rained on and being soaked by waterfalls on both sides of the border it is time for some honest to goodness sun and sand again.

And another bus journey. I have racked up over 70 hours on buses in the six weeks and one day that I have been here so far. I have two more weeks in Brazil so I am sure that I have time for more before I head to Argentina. I know that you are all on the edge of your seats in anticipation.

Photos to follow when I find internet that is fast enough and someone to burn photos onto a CD for me...... we shall see!

Map

2008-11-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

I just realised that I used to put maps here to help you know where I am- so here is Brazil

Still having problems getting photos off my camera- I have been plugging it into the PCs but they give me an error message. Am a little concerned

Caiman Fatigue

2008-11-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

If I see another caiman I am going to punch him on the nose! Well, actually that might be a bit too ungrateful. I spent an amazing four days in the Southern Pantanal and you could hardly move for the little buggers there. I stayed in a campsite which was basically a room full of hammocks surrounded by a mozzie net and that was all. The first night there was no electricity but there was caipirinhas so that was OK.

Up early the next morning- the Pantanal turkeys make sure of that- and off horseriding for a couple of hours. Another couple of hours of serious lounging in a hammock doing nothing followed that and then out on a little walking safari.

Which was awesome! We saw capybara, caiman, howler monkeys, armadillos, deer etc etc and emerged from the forest just as the clouds had really begun to darken. We clambered aboard the truck and the first spots of rain hit the ground. We drove for a bit and it got worse. The guides stopped and put on the rain cover and then it was as if we had just driven into a shower- a shower with more thunder and lightning than you would expect to see. It was dark now and we were driving along a caiman lined dirt track only catching glimpses of the world as it was lit up by the lightning. The truck was all over the road, sliding in and out of the various potholes. Bits fell off it and had to be reclaimed by the poor guides legging it through the downpour.

It had all the ingredients of a bad B-movie- a group of international travellers, some staying at the guesthouse and then us favela kids from the camp, dangerous unknown beasties making loud and threatening noises in the darkness, the storm etc. We kept thinking that any minute we were going to break down and have to send one of the guides for help, only for him to disappear forever into the dark tropical night. I couldnt work out who would be the survivors in this B-movie scenario but decided that I would probably be one of the first to go- the London girl complaining that the wilderness wasnt co-operating with her endless demands, being attacked by bugs shortly before the truck ride home.

Of course, nothing bad happened and everyone back at the camp had moved all of the stuff into the middle of the room to avoid the rain which was pouring in on all sides. And rain really cooled things down from the temperatures of over 40 that we had been suffering- I even slept rolled inside two blankets that night.

But my English stomach got the better of me and I missed the hike the next morning but made it for the piranha fishing- this time I caught two that I managed to keep from jumping back and one that I didnt. They were cooked in a stew that night. And we played the international backpacker card game of Shithead for a glorious couple of hours.

The last morning we went on a boat ride, one of the English guys was bitten by a piranha when swimming in the river and I was hit in the back of the head by a suicidal sardine- they all started to jump into the boat at one ponint but this one was guided back into the water by my bonce. Unfortunately this was also the first point in the last four and a half weeks that I got sunburnt. Huff.

Then I left the camp yesterday with an Israeli guy that I had met in Campo Grande and then gone to the Pantanal with. We met an Irish guy standing by the road waiting for the bus to Bonito and we all came here together last night. Today we have been snorkelling. Moti, the Israeli, said that it was one of the best experiences of his trip. But I will be honest with you, I get freaked out by water on my face, not great for snorkelling, so I got in the river but in the end opted out of the hour long float and took a boat to the end- after half an hour or so of playing with the little fishes. Even my limited experience was enough to prove to me that Bonito is a very special place indeed. Gorgeous out of the water and in it.

On the way to Rio do Prata we stopped off at a canyon which I forget the name of, but it is filled with large screeching colourful macaws swooping carelessly through the air below as you stand at the top and look down. This was also a very special place which I would recommend to anyone.

I have just booked all my tours through the hostels, whether in the northern or southern pantanal, I have been told that all prices are fixed so there seems little point shopping around plus the chanecs of being with an international group seem higher if you are booking in the international hostel. I have yet to be disappointed.

I think that I am leaving Bonito either tomorrow or the day after and continuing my journey south. Photos to follow of course!

Pantanal Take Two

2008-11-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

I suddenly realised that I might want to take some photos on this four day safari I am going on in the Southern Pantanal- and I haven´t downloaded my photos from either of my memory cards. So I came up with the cunning plan of putting some of them onto my MP3 player for storage. Just one problem- no PC I tried (and I have tried about 8 here now in Campo Grande this afternoon) will play with my little camera. And finally I got one to recognise my big camera but while it would show me the photos, it would not save them onto the PC.

Grrrrrrrr.............

So I have gone for the other option of buying a new memory card- let´s hope that it is a little more co-operative than the PCs have been. And I hope that this does not mean more problems later.

Anyway, I arrived in Campo Grande this morning after an 11 hour bus journey from Cuiaba- totalling 50 hours on buses in the last four weeks- the only problem is that I had slept with my lenses in again so my eyes were somewhat glued shut when we arrived. Ah well, the hostel was easy enoughj to find, given that it is the first thing that you see when you get off the bus.

Everyone in this hostel speaks English and the guy that organises the tours was on a Channel 4 programme back in the U of K recently- ´Dangerous Jobs for Girls´- which he proudly showed me. There are some very bad reviews on the internet about this hostel but I am hoping that they are wrong! They mainly seem to centre around the tours on offer, which is the reason that people come here after all. We shall see- after the hassles with the tour last week I (hope) I have learnt that even if things don´t go exactly to plan the tour can still be amazing. I´ll let you know at the weekend.

The tour that I am going on heads off tomorrow, though the first day is just travelling, then three days of full on Pantanal activities (seemed to be a lot of walking involved for somewhere that is over 40 degrees at the moment) before transferring to Bonito for what is promising to be a highlight. If you are not sure what I am talking about, and let´s face it neither did I until two weeks agó, look at Bonito Brazil on Google images and prepare to be jealous!

So I will be away from the internet for a few days and assuming that I don´t get eaten by caimen or anacondas, I hope to catch up with you again in Bonito on Sunday or Monday. And maybe even find somewhere that will help me with my photos!

OK, OK, you win....

2008-11-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

... residents of Cuiaba, I admit it- your city is possibly the hottest place that I have ever been to! After a week of the temperature hovering just over the 30 degree mark in daytime and dropping as low as 24 at night, it really out-did itself yesterday by topping the 37 degree mark. And if I wasn~t so cheap, I would have sat it all out in a nicely air-conditioned room. Unfortunately I am that cheap so just paid for a room with a fan- which just seemed to waft the hot air towards me.

For most of the week I have been alone in my dorm so had sole control over.. well pretty anything that there is to control in a dorm.. but then a new girl came in. One who is oblivious to the heat and so likes to sleep without the fan on. We haven~t spoken yet but have communicated through the medium of the fan controls.

But I am leaving today (though this internet cafe is nice and chilled and at R$1.50 an hour (or around 30p) I am tempted to sit the day out here). It has been a pretty mad week. The problem with arriving on a Monday is that you have to wait until the weekend before your friends have any real time to spend with you- which in this case meant that we went out every night during the week so were too tired to do much at the weekend.

I have been here with Daniela who is one of my original friends from when I moved back to London three years ago. When I first started teaching in London I was way more interested in spending time with the students than the teachers. After all, the teachers were just English and the students were all fun and exotic. Plus the teachers very rarely get drunk and tell me how fantastic I am! Since coming back from Colombia I have spent more time with the teachers (and worked out that it is possible to get a compliment out of them if you fish enough).

So Daniela was one of my first drinking buddies in London but she came back to Brazil two years ago- can~t believe that it has been that long! We have really had a lot to talk about. I have spent most of the week then either in the pub or sleeping off another hangover and avoiding the sun as much as possible. On Monday we went to a pub and only left when it closed, Wednesday we went to a night club, Thursday was another pub, Friday was a barbecue at a friend´s (massive) house, Saturday was necessarily quieter so we went to a pub and last night.. well pub again.

Yesterday we went to a big shopping centre near Daniela´s house with her mum and teenage brother. The shopping centre (or simply shopping as it is in Portuguese) had AC but seemed a bit shy about using it. They were getting ready for the arrival of Papai Noel next weekend- the grotto was nearly ready and even included some fake snow- though for many of the residents here snow is an alien concept. I am tempted to stay so I can tell Santa what I want for Christmas but figure that he will probably be appearing in other shoppings too.

Dani´s friends have been awesome at trying to communicate with me. There was a girl at the barbecue who can speak fluent Spanish after leaving in Spain for two years so we had quite a long chat- though, don´t tell her this, I didn´t always understand much! And everyone else has tried to talk to me which is enormously sweet- even Dani´s mum tried out a couple of words!

What I like about visiting my Brazilian students here in Brazil is the amount of time that I spend hanging out with goodlooking young doctors, pilots, lawyer, pharmacists etc- in London most of my English friends are English teachers and my foreign friends, well they take what work they can get really. It is a whole different world for me... and the houses!!! Oh my god, my flat in London would nearly fit in the barbecue area of the house that I was in on Friday night. Not everyone here lives in such splendour of course but it is really interesting to see.

And Cuiaba is quite different from Salvador- well the people are different from those that I spent time with in Salvador. For starters, most people here pay in cash and in Salvador it was a constant merry-go-round of passing out the chip and pin machines for everyone to pay, once they had all got out their phones and used the calculators to work out their share of course. People here don´t spend as much time in beachwear- we are a long way inland here- or seem to spend as much time in the gym or getting tattoos as the people that I saw in Salvador. And they kept asking me why on earth I was in Cuiaba, not a reaction that you usually get near a beach. But I loved both places and met some really cool people in both.

But it is time to move on. I am catching a bus to Campo Grande later- having not quite made it to Chapada during my time here- we wanted to go but things conspired against us and the last person to offer to take me there (a rather goodlooking young surgeon who had just had a fight with his girlfriend) quite rightly realised that taking an English girl who he met last night in a bar out to the countryside for the day probably wasn´t going to do his relationship any good. So Campo Grande it is and the Southern Pantanal. Then Bonito- which I am really excited about- you will understand why when you see the photos.

And as for a photo update here, I brought all the relevant equipment with me only to find that the PCs are locked tightly in cages under the desks so I guess that they are not keen on letting you near the USB ports.... another time, dear friends, another time!

Pantanal

2008-10-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have just seen on the BBC website that it has been snowing back home in Blighty-crikey! Snow couldn~t be further from my mind here in stiflingly hot Cuiaba. As I have said previously, I left Salvador on Monday morning and was sad to leave behind Thiago and his friends who had kept me company for the week. Actually, I only had a few hours to feel sorry for myself because logging onto MSN, I was chatting to a Colombian friend, Camilo, who told me that a Brazilian friend of ours was from Cuiaba.

Running out of time in this strange internet cafe/classroom, I sent her a very quick message telling her that I was in town and the name of the hostel. A couple of hours later I got a phone call and an hour after that I was living the high life of Cuiaba in the company of Daniela and some ofher delightful friends.

Daniela was in the same class as Camilo but left London two years ago. We chatted a lot on MSN when she first went back but the chatting eventually fizzled out... until we were actually sitting next to each other here in Brazil! We were both a bit taken aback really- me because I hadn~t realised that I was going to her city and her because she was wondering what the hell I was doing there!

Needless to say, some beers were drunk and in fact, despite my pleas for restraint, Dani only stopped ordering when the barman refused to sell any more alcohol- looking around, I saw that the rest of the tables had all been packed away and the staff were waiting to go home, so I dont think that it was anything personal!

Anyway I had to get up early the next day for a bit of an adventure- in fact, the reason that I am here, so far from the beach, near to the Bolivian border- the Pantanal!

The Pantanal- or Swamp- contains an area of almost unimaginable biodiversity. There are alligators just lazing around near the roads, birds all screeching their calls across the skies, buffalo wallowing in pools of water

and so much more. We drove along the highway until the tarmac petered out and then we drove the unsealed road for another hour or so- stopping for photos along the way.

But it had been raining the day before the car that we were in was a long way from being the Chelsea tractor so necessary for ferrying kids to school in the dangerous cities of England. Finally, after some time getting the car out of one bit of swamp, the driver, Marco, had to abandon it and go and get help

while I was left sitting under a tree in the 34 degree sweltering heat of the midday sun. At one point a wild mule cantered out of the bush to see what I was up before scampering away to shout to its friends. The bugs loved me! I spent quite some time flicking them off until I remembered Rachels parting gift of some bug spray which I had in my bag. I sprayed, they flew away but came back to rest of the only bits of me not covered, face, fingers etc. Sigh.

About an hour later I heard a chugging noise, I prayed that it would be Marco and sure enough he emerged on the trailer being pulled by the tractor belonging to the pousada (guest house) that we were heading to. Hooray for that!

We arrived at the pousada and Marco disappeared. Well, he wasn~t that much help anyway, given that he couldn~t speak English and my Portuguese extends as far as ordering beers and asking the way to the toilet. A table of people asked me to join them and I gladly did so. And it was fortunate that I did as it turned out that no provision had been made for my arrival, ie there was no English speaking tour guide waiting for me as promised.

Hum, the Swiss couple at the table took matters into their hands and their English speaking tour guide told me that I could join their boat trip- I just had to wait another three hours. Poor Marco was supposed to be back in the city by then getting on with other work that the hostel had for him. The tour guide encouraged me to sit it out and told me that Marco couldn~t leave without me, despite the hostel worker wanting him to come back- even offering me some money back to ensure my timely return.

Stuff that, I had paid to see alligators and have wildlife pointed out to me in English and so that is what I did. I have been on many tours in the past where there has been no mention of swimming and then swimming has occurred so I had packed my tankini (hahaha) this time just in case. Which was great as I now found myself with several hours to kill and a swimming pool looking all inviting and, well, wet!

Well you couldnt imagine how crowded this poor tiny pool was- a large group of Brazilians were having the time of their lives in there but I got in and floated in a corner and chatted to the Swiss girl.

Eventually 4.30 came and we got on the boat to go down the river. And it was certainly worth the wait!

The birdlife was incredible. And we saw the world~s biggest rodent, capybara, everywhere- but seem to have forgotten to upload the photos here! Hahaha! Then we reached a part of the river and Walter killed the engine and started making funny honking noises.. turns out that he was calling the caiman out to be photographed

We saw tropical otters frolicking on the river banks and caiman just drifting past. Giant kingsfishers dove in and out of the water, it was amazing! The water was almost as hot as the day surrounding us.

Then it was down to business- catching the food for the stew that night- piranha stew that is!

We were each given a bamboo stick with a hook baited with meat. It was easy to feel the piranha tugging at the bait but a lot harder to convince them to stay on the hooks while being lifted out of the water. I finally hooked one but he wriggled free and leapt back into the water- I was quite glad really

Team Swiss got three or four but threw back the tiddlers while Team German finally bagged themselves one for the stewpot. The tour guide, needless to say, was a bit of a pro

We headed back to the pousada as the sun started to set

The capybara were everywhere by the time we arrived, I snapped a couple in the darkness. I kinda wanted to stay in Pantanal- the night noises had started, the insects buzzing and whirring, the frogs calling to each other, the caiman honking through the darkness... the sky was filled with stars and fireflies were flitting carelessly through the night.

But I had just paid for one day in this paradise and so came back to the city. I am visiting the Southern Pantanal next week when I get to Campo Grande and will be sure to spend a couple of nights there.

Tonight, more drinking with Dani of course!

Moving On

2008-10-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well eventually I had to leave the safety of Thiago~s flat in Salvador and make it out on my own again. Thiago was a complete sweetie, he was sweet in London and even better in Brazil. I must say that Brazil suits him, he looks much healthier and happier- maybe it is the sun or the fact that he spends half of his day in bed (hi Thiago!). We went and met various friends of his with all differing levels of English- ranging from none to better than mine.

It is so interesting to meet my ex students in their natural environments and gives a weird change to the student-teacher dynamic- where suddenly I am the one with all the questions. Like, had I understood it correctly, that Brazilians use LEGAL to mean cool and DROGA (drugs) to mean like DAMN! Turns out that I was right! And we laughed about that and my misunderstanding of what a borrachareria was (borrachar -or er, cant remember- means drunk in Spanish so I thought that itwas a very honest way of advertising the places where you get drunk. Turns out that it is something to do with tyres instead)- and if you want a proper laugh, ask the nearest Brazilian what the Portuguese for KNIFE is!

For the last few nights we havent gone to bed until after the sun has come up so when I booked a flight for 6 am today it just seemed easier to stay up all night so Thiago could drive me to the airport.

We watched ~The Mummy Returns~ in Portuguese with Portuguese subtitles, turns out that it is enough like Spanish for me to basically follow films but I get completely lost when people start speaking it to me. Not least because whenever I heard Portuguese in London I had to tell people to speak in English- that doesn~t go down so well when you are in Brazil.

Thiago was very informative about Brazil and the history of Salvador= anything that he didnt know he just lied about! Though he did admit that the samba was created when a group of Brazilians came off the beach and tried to get the sand out of their Havaianas (fancy flip flops which are pretty much compulsory here- so much so that my ordinary sandals set off the security bleepers in two airports today- the immigration official looked at my shoes in digust but waved me through despite his better judgement).

So I am on my own again- I have had to dust off my Portuguese dictionary and start trying to understand stuff again. It is amazing how difficult people think that my life is going to be without the language- the tourist information guy at the airport today was in shock that I would think that I could catch a bus without some kind of crash course in the language.

Apparantely Cuiaba is famous for being hot- unlike the rest of Brazil which more resembles the Artic. At least everyone keeps telling me how hot it is and the guy at the airport, him again, wished me luck dealing with the heat! I think that it is like the Koreans thinking that their food is too hot for anyone else to handle, Brazilians think that no one can cope with the heat like them.

Given that I had been awake most of the night, I arrived in the hostel and went to sleep. Then I went out looking for a supermarket - no luck! This town seems to be mostly furniture shops which just dont make such a healthy meal option- not with the state of my teeth! But Thiago forced some biscuits upon me before I left this morning so I have something to fall back on.

I am in a very weird place writing this, by the way. I am in the corner of a classroom where some of the people are having a class and others are just updating their orkut accounts. The place also houses English and Spanish classes- weird! The teacher appears to just be talking to one person at the moment, does that mean that I can leave the room without asking permission? Very odd indeed!

Brazil, it is not all...

2008-10-26T08:23:00.000-07:00

... beaches and bikinis, you know... but quite a lot of it is!

I am in Salvador still with an old student of mine. It is hot, I am lazy, so far it is perfect!

We have been to the beach, and lazed around in a friend of Thiago~s pool..

The beach is nice but gets a little crowded. But the water was glorious.

This is Thiago, could he look any more Brazilian! Hahaha!! Bless!

This is the historical centre of the city

There is a lot of bars and restaurants here and also a lot of churches!

Your avid blogger and her young friend. It has been very useful being with a Brazilian who could explain stuff to me, especially since today is the second round of the mayoral elections here and there has been pretty constant campaigning the whole time that I have been here- complete with catchy little ditties that get stuck in your head. Without Thiago I wouldnt have had a clue what it was all about. It has been driving him nuts! To the point that he has been throwing things at the trucks with music blaring out of them all day.

We have been out a couple of times too- to a friends house and to a pub last night to watch some live music. It has been a very relaxing week and has really made me want to learn Portuguese! Something that I thought would never happen as I am so faithful to Spanish. But I dont think that I have time to study and sightsee so I know which one will win!

Thats all for now- take care and I will catch up with you when I leave Salvador- it will happen one day!

Photos! Edited

2008-10-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten what a tedious process this uploading photos lark is.

Anyway, here is the Jesus statue on the second time that I went up there on a clear day

This is a lovely place just a five minute ferry ride away from Porto Seguro, I went there on Sunday morning and wished that I had been there the whole time! The water was so warm...

Some goose laughing in front of Jesus. It was so much hotter the second time that I went up there- in fact I hadnt been intending to go back but I was walking around the lake and it was such a beautiful day and all of a sudden I was there! And then I got a local bus back to Copacabana which was really good as there is a real sense of achievement in catching a local bus! Especially one with a turnstile to get on it.

Ouro Preto- nice place with a larger nightlife than you might have expected. This is a photo from my new camera but unfortunately I have squashed it up a little to fit in on here. It is such a pretty place

View when the mist cleared a little on the first day of sightseeing- we had been up by Jesus and literally all we could see was a white mist so thick that it was like staring at a blank wall. Only the signs telling us what we could have been seeing had the fog not been there gave us any idea of where we were. Then suddenly the mist lifted and the crowd screamed with excitement and started elbowing people out of the way to get photos such as this. I have some that I took on the second day when it was clear but I like this one more somehow

traditional Brazilian footwear - more than just a flip flop- I actually bought some high heeled flip flops! And felt gloriously tall as I strutted along the beach at Copacabana- until the blisters started that is

This is just the smallest of a lot of floats out for the Gay Parade

And this is the food that sends my students in London all misty eyed when they think about it- tastes better than it looks! Well, it would have to really!

And up by Jesus again but on the sunny day- notice that the skin is not as white as it could be!

More food at an all you can eat buffet in Ouro Preto- I could eat this whole lot it turned out

Fireworks in a football stadium- are you sure thats a good idea... I thought that this was really weird! Get people riled up and then sell them explosives... hum!

This is one of the ferries going from Porto Seguro- it costs 2 reais to get over there and it is free to come back.. nice!

Guanabarra Bay in Rio, taken at the end of a day sightseeing up Surgar Loaf Mountain

If you want soapstones sculptures then Ouro Preto really is the place for you. This is a photo of Abi, the English girl that I went there with, shortly before I fell off my high heeled flip flops and someone kindly mended them for me

Believe it or not, the view wasn~t even this good when we first arrived!

Getting ready for the game in the largest football stadium in the world

English culture weirdly summed up with these three photos in this chain of English schools

My first beer in Brazil!

Ipanema Beach just after the rain on my first day in the country

Sandcastles are a little different here in Brazil

And this was on the toilet door at the airport in Portugal- man, they are hard on smokers!

Excuse the Typos!

2008-10-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

The internet connection here in Brazil is, on average, about 50% slower than sending messages via carrier pigeon, with facebook taking longer to load than for the British coastline to erode. For that reason, I am often typing a good three to five words ahead of those that I can see on the screen in front of me. And that is my excuse for the bad spelling in any previous or subsequent postings.

This is just a quick one to let you know that what I thought would be a 16 hour bus journey eventually evolved into an 18 and a half hour one- phew! No one seemed able to tell me how long the bus journey would be- the estimates were anything from ten hours to more than ten hours- with the second being more correct as it turned out.

Now, imagine my horror, after an already substantial amount of time on the bus, when I nipped off to use the loo at a rest stop and came out to the wholly unreassuring site of my bus pulling out and driving away!!!! Eeekk!! And did I recognise any of the other passengers- well, all fairly tanned and Brazilian looking so no! Fortunately one of them recognised me, calmed me down and told me that the bus would be back- and to be fair it was- 20 fraught minutes later. Phew!

So I finally made it to Porto Seguro only to be told that what the Lonely Planet (that ever reliable book) has advertised as ´the backpacker spot in Porto Seguro´no longer exists. In fact, out of the three in the book, only one is still running and that was full apparently. Hum.

I have got a cheap hotel room for the night but it is a hotel not a hostel so I am alone:( but that is OK- I plan to have an early start tomorrow and hit the beach. Salvador in a couple of days, where my ex-student is promising to show me all the hot guys:):)

Bus Terminaled

2008-10-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well here I am again- alone again. I have spent the last couple of days with a girl that I met in Rio. While it was good to have some company she was a little erratic to say the least with a habit of speaking only German whilst drunk (she is English). We arrived in Ouro Preto just after six in the am and went to the hostel. Not finding anyone around despite our reservation we just let ourselves in, helped ourselves to bed linen and crawled into bed. The staff didn´t find us until after ten.

We spent the day walked around the city, it is very hill! It is a UNESCO World heritage site so quite easy on the eyes all in all. In the evening we went to a bar and the guys took it in turns to come over to our table. That is until some sleazy old guy decided that he wanted to talk to us, hum, where were our knights in shining armour now? Long gone it seems as this guy would not leave us alone for over an hour until we invited ourselves onto someone else´s table.

Fortunately the new table was very cool and we went with them to another bar. Which did mean that our sightseeing plans for the next day didn´t go entirely as planned!

In fact, yesterday was a day of very little acheivement. There were a very more people in the hostel by the time that we woke up so we all went out for dinner and beer last night- back to the same bar but minus the sleazy guy.

During the day we had bumped into a Brazilian girl that we had met in Rio and she explained some of the strange goings on that we had seen around the town. Namely, all the young boys with strangely shaved heads carrying signs. Apparantely this is a ´battle´for a place in the uni fraternities. There are limited places so each fresher (in this town known as~´bixo´or child) has to prove his worth.

He does this by having the initials of the fraternity shaved into his head and basically taking a lot of crap off everyone for up to six months. And carrying a sign- often larger than the bixo himself, which declares that he is a bixo and wants to get into a particular frat house. This sign goes everywhere- even to the loo- for around six months! That is hardcore! And at the end of that time they may have to start all over again if they don´t get accepted by the fraternity.

Dani, the Brazilian girl, also took us into one of these frat houses- a surprisingly clean and nice place to live!

Brazil was playing Colombia last night but we didn´t see the match as I elected to stay in the bar with a German girl from the hostel and a table full of Brazilian guys- I am getting a little better at understanding Portuguese but the Spanish still comes more easily.

Now I am in the bus terminal in Belo Horizonte, just a couple of hours away from Ouro Preto, waiting for my bus to Porto Seguro in Bahia... which is quite a long way away if you care to look at the map. I have quite a lot of time to kill as the tourist information centre in Ouro Preto told me that the bus would be at three but actually it isn´t until 6.30.

It was a bit of a struggle buying the ticket as I ran around different counters trying to find someone that would sell me the ticket that I wanted.. got it in the end and went and put all my carefully packed bags in a locker. Walked away feeling quite smug, then realised that I have left my suntan lotion, sunglasses and USB cable in the bloody locker. Damn it! It is 33 degrees outside so I will finish this, buy some lunch and indulge in some heavy duty cowering in the shade somewhere for a couple of hours.

Ouro Preto

2008-10-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

I am not going to lie to you people! It is hot here in Brazil and I have a weird patch of sunburn on my ankle and it just doesn´t seem to want to go away! I have left Rio and I am in a pretty town- Ouro Preto- nestled in the mountains. I came here with a girl I met in Rio which is kinda cool as we went out for a couple of jars last night. My first night out in Brazil!

Ouro Preto seems a friendly place and we were adopted by a group of students last night which was cool. And today we bumped into a Brazilian girl we met in Rio who took us to a fraternity house- interesting! I´ll tell you more about that when I have some photos for you.

I really was going to put some photos up here today but there is only one USB port and I HAVE to recharge my MP3 player before starting my 16 hour bus trip tomorrow- I know, it is all me me me!

Anyway, the sun is shining on the screen here making typing this a bit of a mare so I will head off here and give you a proper update later!

Gay Parade

2008-10-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy day on Copacabana- for several reasons; Firstly there was the World Championship Half Marathon. As that finished it was time for the Gay Parade. And it was a holiday yesterday and the hottest day since I arrived.

All nice and good.

So I went down to watch the parade and take some photos- typically my most homophobic students have been Brazilian so I was very interested to see what the atmosphere would be like. In fact, it was nice and chilled and I perched myself on the edge of the prom with a cold beer and my camera and awaited the actual parade.

Then a woman came over and asked me if I spoke English. She looked quite agitated and got her husband to translate for her. It turned out that she had overheard some people plotting to steal my camera and the wonderful woman came over to warn me! So I got in a taxi and hightailed it back to the hostel and stowed it safely away in my locker.

I did head back to the beach later but was a bit too nervous to stay there for long. But I had a good evening in the hostel and discovered that another girl was planning to go to Ouro Preto tonight too and still another one actually lives there! So I think that we are all going together now or at least meeting up there. Perfect.

And I still did better than the poor Ecuadorian in the hostel whose camera was stolen right out of his pocket and he even saw it happen!

Peek-a-boo Jesus

2008-10-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

I am still in Rio- I can think of worse places to be! As previously stated, the weather (or time) hasn't been great. But it brightened up the other morning so I went to the beach to kill a little time before my trip in the afternoon. Shortly after one the mini bus turned up and about half of the hostel got on it which was cool- loads of people to talk to!

As we drove out towards the hill where the giant Jesus lives we couldn't help but notice that the clouds kept obscuring our view of him. Hum, maybe it would be OK when we got up there.... it wasn't! It was worse! Rio had disappeared beneath a thick white sheet of cloud and Jesus himselves was very much playing a game of 'now you see me, now you don't' To be honest it was hilarious!!

Other tourists didn't seem that impressed but I couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it all! Then suddenly, gasp, the clouds cleared for a second. Literally a second, they had come back by the time I got my camera out- ho hum, so much for the shiny new camera getting its first outing!

Finally, it cleared enough that we could see the city and Jesus's face, we took photos and came back down the mountain much happier. By the time we got to Sugar Loaf Mountain we had a lovely clear view of Jesus and the city. Glorious!

And in fact everytime that I have seen Jesus (or Christ the Redeemer as the statue is officially known- and it is his 77th birthday today) he has been bathed in glorious sunshine- tut! And I will share the results of the new camera just the moment I can be bothered (internet connection here in the hostel is not very fast!).

Yesterday it was even hotter- as ever I started the day on the beach and then came back to the hostel before it got too hot. In the evening I went to watch a football match in the largest stadium in the world- it was big and it felt like the whole world had turned up to support Flamengo. Shame that the team did little to deserve the rapture of the crowd- losing 3-0 to Athletico. As the ball went into the net for the third time, most of the fans just gave up and went home.

This morning I have been to the beach to watch the marathon being run in 27 degree heat and to the bus station to buy my ticket out of Rio- yes, having extended my stay by two nights already, I am getting on a bus at 11.30 tomorrow night to go to Ouro Preto. Which technically means that I still have today and tomorrow in Rio.

Bom!

The Time is Terrible

2008-10-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

You see, that is what happens when you use the same word for time and weather. Like me being asked in my Spanish class what my favourite station was (it is the same word for station and season you see) or being told that if there was a llama in the boiler there would be hot water in the shower (llama means llama, flame and call in Spanish). So I have been told several times that the time is bad at the moment.

But bad no longer- the sun has come out today and I am off sightseeing with my new camera!

Raining in Rio

2008-10-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

I have arrived. Well actually I arrived yesterday. My poor sis got up early yesterday morning to drive me to the airport, I also got up early. I was on a plane out of the UK and in Portugal by 8.30am. The airport in Porto is weirdly, big, clean and almost completely empty. Odd. There were only about 20 of us on the plane and I slept pretty much alll of the way.

The next plane however wasn´t really designed for someone with as ample a bottom as I but fortunately no one sat next to me so I could pop the armrest up and have a bit more space. At least until the woman in front of me put her seat back and nearly knocked me out. I moved.

The food was OK, the films were pretty dismal- though I did enjoyment the Brazilian one about a ´hock and holl´ band at high school:) The plane was full of old people which was kind of odd and no less than six people in wheelchairs got on board.

We landed at Rio at 4.30 but it was another 30 minutes before we got off the plane. Then we queued to get down the ramp, and again to have our bags x-rayed and again to go through Immigration. No one questioned my one way ticket, by the way, so I guess that I could have got away with not buying one for Argentina before I went, ah well! And I shot through immigration because I was in the non-Brazilian line.

Then I spent a rather long hour standing at the bag carousel waiting for even a glimpse of my bag. AN HOUR! When it finally crept onto the conveyer belt I felt like a proud mum at her kid´s sports day - ´Look, that one is mine!´- and when I got hold of it I felt like I had won the lottery. Then I joined another queue to get through customs. All in all it was quite a long day of queuing and it took two hours to get from the point when we touched Brazilian soil to me finally making it out of the airport.

Fortunately my driver was still waiting (there is a free airport pick up service from the hostel) and it took us an hour to get through the traffic to Copacabana where I was staying. We chatted away merrily in Spanish though I have a suspicion that it wasn´t all as Spanish as he claimed it to be.

And I slept soon after I had checked in.

Which is why I woke up at 5.30 and was out of the hostel by eight.

If it makes any of you feel any better, I got soaked walking along the beach in the rain an hour or so ago!

So not much to report yet, just thought I´d let you know that I am here:)

Last Few Goodbyes!

2008-10-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today I made a bit of an expensive decision... I didn't buy a ticket for the train and had to pay a penalty which was a bit annoying.. but more expensive than that was my new Canon SLR digital camera

Finally packed

The suitcase is staying in the UK and the two backpacks are coming with me.

My last big goodbye was on Friday- here are some brave face and hugs photos

Me and David, a Colombian friend who is not and never has been a student of mine

me and my French friend, Perrine

Perrine's Brazilian boyfriend, and ex-student of mine, Gustavo

me and my American friend, Mel

Finally, an English friend, Cat who I met whilst fruitpicking in Australia.

The last goodbye of the night, my ex-student, Baby Alex.

On Saturday I went to my friend Rachel's house for the night which was lovely. Then we had dinner the next day in Clapham with Ben, Jon and Lucy, all very civilised.

And today is Monday so I have brought everything to my sister's. Felixstowe tomorrow then Rio on Wednesday.........eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk!

Packing

2008-10-01T00:40:00.001-07:00

Travelling would be a lot more fun if it wasn't for all the packing involved. I have a week left in the UK but the new guy is moving into my bedroom today (must get out of bed before he finishes work!) so I have had to pack stuff up and get it out of the way for him. So Sunday I packed some stuff, Monday I packed more and my sister came over with a white van and white-vanned it over to her house in Essex. We made a couple of mistakes when stowing the stuff in the loft- namely a bag that should have gone up there that didn't and one that shouldn't have gone up there and did. All easily rectifiable.

But there was still a lot of stuff in my room- another black bin bag to take down to the rubbish house outside the flat and a hoofing great suitcase to go to my sister's. I have enlisted my flatmate, Jon, to help me get my stuff onto the train at West Ham- I reckon that I can just get a taxi from the station back to my sister's on Monday.

I am in turns terrified and terribly excited! I feel that I have some of the most amazing friends that I have ever had in London at the moment (even if I am the oldest by more years than I would care to mention) which makes it tricky to leave but one of us will leave and it may as well be me!

Leaving work was kind of strange too as I had only been there for five months or so. Working there had been so easy and stresfree compared to the beginning of the year. In March I moved from an enormous school to a much smaller and more personal one. I had loved working at the other school for over two years but didn't realise that I would like other places too. The move was a good one and made at the right time as I wouldn't have wanted to have moved before.

I am off to my cousin's later for a couple of nights but back to London for my goodbye party on Friday.

Can't believe that it is finally happening! This trip is something that I have been threatening to do since returning from Colombia last March. I was going to go in July this year but in January got invited to a wedding in September. I have missed so many weddings over the years but this was not one that I wanted to miss. Then it turned out perfectly as another friend got married just two weeks after the first wedding. I was glad to have been here for them and to visit my little friend in Stockholm.

It has been so long since I have regularly posted that I couldn't remember my sign in details for either this page or my flickr account- oops!

Anyway, I am flying to Rio next week - 8th October at 6.25am!

Unemployed and mi primera fiesta de despedida

2008-09-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

Busy doesn't even come into it- what with trips to Sweden

and friends tying the knot all over the country

days after the wedding out in the beautiful English countryside

I really haven't had time to update this thing.

But I am now officially jobless, a big step on the path that leads to life on the open road again. I am leaving a week on Wednesday- scary stuff! This has been a bit of a weird year all in, I spent the first six months of it up to my eyes in coursework for a diploma in teaching (which I haven't quite finished yet)- and in the middle of it left a job that I thought I would never leave, moved to a new school for a month before ending up at the school that I have just finished five months of teaching in.

I am finally excited once more about this trip. It is hard at times to do this kind of thing- leave all my wonderful friends behind in the UK and head off to a year or so of seemingless endless bus journeys and long periods of potential loneliness, plus wondering if I am constantly going to be the oldest person in the hostel! But I set myself this challenge because I don't know how to live any other way! And the industry I work in (teaching English as a foreign language) is not just accepting of this kind of trip but postively encourages them.

But I will leave you now... for now!

Bank Holiday Monday

2008-08-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

It is just past eight thirty and I am not at work so it must be a bank holiday- either that or I am being very casual about oversleeping this week. I have to say that I have needed the extra day this weekend just to catch up on my sleeping! Last week turned out to be a hectic one, with something on every day and a hangover to cope with on Wednesday.

I had got some dates confused in my head and the friends that I thought were arriving next week texted from the Tower of London on Thursday- oops! Actually, it was great to see them but I felt a bit bad that I hadn't tidied the house or got any food in for their visit.

Ner and her sister met me from work and we did a lot of walking around looking at sites- after a nice dinner of dak galbi at the Korean restaurant. Ner used to live in Mokpo, Korea, which is where I met her many moons ago, and the guy behind the counter was laughing at us strictly observing the pouring rituals with the lemon soju.

Ner left on Friday afternoon and her sister stayed on for another night. Charlene warned me that she wasn't really one for drinking and that she would be happy to go home if I wanted to hit the pub. But that is no way to treat a guest, especially one visiting London for the first time. I tried to put myself in the shoes of a tourist....what could London offer that would finish off her visit nicely? Aha, a show!!

So me and Rach dragged her round the streets of London, popping into various theatres until we found one that we could afford- we went to see 'Chicago' which was awesome. Got up early on Saturday (well, early for a Saturday) and did a river cruise down the Thames before some last minute shopping in Covent Garden before dropping Charlene off at Victoria to get the Gatwick Express out to the airport.

In other news, went wedding dress shopping with a friend last weekend and while she was deeply embroiled in fighting her way in and out of some beautiful gowns, I was outside the fitting room sneakily trying on tiaras

Any chance that the guests are allowed to wear them if the bride decides not to?

Dropped by Trafalgar Square the other night to watch a little of the Olympics on the big screen there

And to get a photo of an iconic Routemaster bus, which so many people love and yet which has been mostly taken off our streets

It has been fairly wet this summer, though not as bad as last year with all the flooding, but it has meant that there has been the odd amazing rainbow such as this one

the photo was taken out of my bedroom window and on the other side of the flat the view was pretty cool too

and finally, it is less than seven weeks until the big offski- ah Brazilian sun! Wait for me!!

Tragus piercing

2008-08-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

I had my tragus pierced on Wednesday. Don't worry, it is something that I can post a photo of

and at least now I know the name for that flap of skin on the inside of my ear!

I am a little worried, before last September I had no piercings at all. Now I have four- if each of the lobes are counted separately. I have been thinking about getting the tragus pierced for a while but finally plucked up the courage to do it on Wednesday- the mojito in the sun with Ben first might have helped a little, I guess. I love it! I keep looking at it in the mirror and smiling:)

The heavily pierced and tattooed guys in the shop asked me if I was sure that I wanted the piercing on the same side as the helix one (the one at the top of my ear) as most people want to balance them out by having them on opposite sides. I pulled a face and said that I didn't want to be balanced, they laughed and agreed. They were lovely guys and, if I ever feel the need to get more metal stuck through my skin, I would definitely go there again. In fact, I will have to go back in six weeks to have a stud with a shorter post put in.

And just about two weeks after that, the earrings will all be glistening in the Brazilian sunshine.

Making the most of it...

2008-08-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

More palace hopping, this time with Rachel.. we went to Hampton Court Palace last weekend. Very regal, very relaxing, very nice indeed.

One of the costumes from 'The Other Boleyn Girl', one of the few rooms that we were allowed to, nay encouraged, to take photos in

The invaluable audio guide

we made it to the middle of maze- there was quite a feeling of comraderie in the maze- people yelling directions to each other and then laughing as we hit the end of another dead end

Have Camera, will travel

2008-08-01T23:16:00.001-07:00

I went to the pub last night and was asked by an old student why I had been absent the week before, didn't realise that I had to bring a note from my mum if I missed a week. Anyway, last Friday I went to Clapham for a change with a Colombian friend and had mojitos and later a curry which is different from several pints.

But I still managed to get up the next day for a day of being a tourist in London. You see, I realised that I had spent much of the previous evening complaining that I haven't been away since going to visit my brother and sister in law last year- which is a LONG time ago! People ask me why I feel the compulsion to go away all the time, well that isn't exactly what they say, rather more something like 'when the hell are you going to settle down?' and 'I could never go away on my own, why do you want to do it, you freak!'

I guess that need to do different things and break out of the old routine plays a bit part of it so I decided to go somewhere new in London instead of just complaining. Well, somewhere new for me, I will admit that the building is hardly new since it has been there since the 1600s. So last Saturday I went to Kensington Palace, a place which is kind of special for me, though I have never been there before, not because it was the home of Princess Diana but because when she lived there I sometimes did her shopping- or the KP order as we called it back then. It was weird to think that some of the things that I had picked off the shelves at Selfridges had been consumed within those walls and it seemed high time I actually went and had a look.

The guides are all very keen to point out that the building was never supposed to be a startingly artistic feat, it was built for William and his wife Mary, when they ruled as joint king and queen of England.

It orginally stood in the small village of Kensington, two miles away from London, selected because of the cleanliness of the air. Of course, at some point in the last four hundred years, London has rather swallowed up the villages around it so that Kensington is now pretty central.

Queen Victoria was born at the palace and grew up there and was apparentely very fond of the place.

And there is indeed a lot to be fond of. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, unfortunate because it means that I have none of the interior to put here but extremely fortunate because it means that people actually have to look at what is in front of them rather than snapping it and filing it away for future inspection (and I am as guilty of this as the next person) but it also means that that palace is not full of people gurning in front of the amazing murals or posing on top of Queen Vic's bed.

There are some great views from the building of the Round Pond, something which if you photograph at ground level tends to look like a large puddle with a few swans on it, and Kensington Park in general. It is a nice location overall and it was a good day for sightseeing.

I made up for a bit of lost photographing time in the gardens after the audio tour, however, just to really grasp the idea that I was a tourist for the day. Then I went and had lunch in Wagamammas before getting the bus back to my part of London, a rather unusual act in itself when a tube will get me home in under half an hour and the bus is over twice that. And I made sure to look out of the window and appreciate what I was seeing rather than burying my nose in a book.

I had intended to do more sightseeing on the Sunday but went to the cinema with my flatmate instead and then chilled on Tooting Common for a while. The green spaces in South London, and indeed London in general, are part of the allure of this wonderful city and I don't really make the most of them.

Then this week I have been working and socialising, with a drop of Spanish class towards the end of the week. I was pleased to see that despite the recent ban on carrying open containers of alcohol on London transport, the tubes are not entirely drunk unfriendly- in fact I was delighted to discover this special 'drunk' bench at Leicester Square tube the other night

This person is so drunk that they even have their mate sitting on their lap.

Who says London Transport doesn't care?

And today it seems that I have selected the one day where it isn't hot enough to melt my eyeballs to go to Hampton Court Palace with Rachel. I'll let you know how it goes.

Interrupted post..

2008-07-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

I was going to write something insightful and interesting last time and then my flatmate stumbled home a bit worse for wear and fancied a chat- and even I know that face to face communication often beats online outpouring.

However, I just realised that the last two photos I posted are of alcohol! Oops! Weird since I haven't even been drinking much recently. So here are a random few of people, taken last week on a school boat party up the Thames

and there you go!

Things I'll miss...

2008-07-23T13:51:00.001-07:00

ah, could it get better than this? Comfy pair of PJs (bought for the trip but might as well wear them in now), cool glass of rose, candles, fairy lights and a 'Sex and the City' double bill- yes, my flatmates aren't in the living room tonight:)

I've done it!

2008-07-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

I have bought my ticket to Brazil! I am leaving London and heading to Rio on 8th October at 6.25am:)

O2 Wireless Festival

2008-07-06T02:49:00.001-07:00

I am getting myself ready for travelling this week by doing things on my own. I bought a ticket to go and see Fat Boy Slim play in Hyde Park months ago, just after speaking to a friend in Brazil who had seen him at Carnavel in Salvador. I guess that I thought at some stage I would meet someone else who was going but I didn't. Never mind, I went anyway.

I got a bit bored in the afternoon waiting for Fat Boy but it was worth it. I arrived a bit early so it was all quiet

but I found something to do. And it was sunny on and off all day which was good. I feel like I am getting a healthy dose of sun at the moment but my legs are still pale as anything.

Fat Boy Slim came on around eight thirty- which meant that it was still light for the first hour or so of his set but it got darker around nine thirty and the light show really came into its own.

There were a lot of people there

I was about halfway down the field. I really enjoyed it but not as much as Fat Boy Slim did by the looks of things

He seemed to be loving every minute of it.

Meanwhile, back in the task of preparing for my trip, I bought my first tankini- a bikini with a tank top- last week. I have wanted the freedom of a bikini for a long time- if you put on a swimsuit you tend to get a bit stuck in it. It is not something that you put on under your clothes on the off chance that you go to the beach. I have envied the bikini wearers for a while, trip after trip where I am struggling to get in and out of a swimsuit on the beach while they just pop theirs on in the morning and get dressed over the top. Now, why haven't I just bought a bikini???? the idea of my big white belly being laid bare on beaches throughout the world terrifies me and I am sure that world with it!

Rght better get out of bed soon!

Getting Ready

2008-06-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

I have been researching hostels in Brazil on the interweb- it is official, I have got through the denial stage and am on the excited about The Next Big Trip stage. I have never been to Brazil so that is pretty exciting. I was planning a Eurostar trip to Paris next month to help me get back into the swing of the travelling lark but I had a look at hostels there and had a bit of a crisis....

...I read one hostel's blurb on hostelworld dot com and it said that although it welcomed people of all ages, they asked anyone 35 or over to stay in a private room- huff! Well, I am only 34 but does that mean that I have less than 50 weeks of freewheeling travelling left before my very presence in a dorm room starts to freak others out enough that I have to hide myself away???

Hum, in the meantime, I went to Tooting Bec Common with Ben the other week- it is just a five minutes walk from the house but this is the first time that I have been there since I moved to Tooting. And very green it was too

And today me and Penny went on the new temporary mini-me London Eye in Greenwich. It is a lot smaller than the London Eye and goes a disturbing pace faster too- quite unnerved us at first. But it did go round three times before we were kicked out so that was nice

some nice views

But the days haven't always been that sunny in London recently so on Friday I had a picnic in the classroom with my students. I am getting used to the new school- I have been there for two months now and counting down the minutes until my second pay day on Friday.

and I am going to put this photo on, even though it is not flattering to me!

after the picnic I introduced my new students to my old stamping ground and took them to the White Horse- ah home away from home:)

Wherever I lay my....

2008-06-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

...it may not look much to the untrained eye but this is the start of something big.

In fact, this humble towel is the first thing that I have bought for the Big Trip or rather The Next Big Trip.... those of you that have travelled (or just read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) will know that towels are an essential item when travelling- or maybe The Essential Item (damn this drinking before blogging bringing on capital letters all over the shop) .

As something of a veteran traveller I have still never got into those special travelling towels that feel like a chamois leather... I nearly bought one until I actually tried one and realised how horrible it was! So I just take a hand towel and a sarong- the towel does the initial drying and the sarong does the pampering.

Actually, so little am I willing to accept this immobile life, I just use a hand towel at home now- as any visiter of mine will tell you! They are probably still recovering from the shock of being handed a scarcely clean postage stamp to dry themselves on....

but this one is black! A first for me!

And so the preparations begin....

Long Time No See

2008-06-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I logged on here that I had forgotten all my passwords etc. Oops! Well, I am not going to write much today either, sorry to disappoint. I just want to post a couple of photos and let you know that there will be more coming in a few months when I hit the road again-- ah yes, the wide open road, or rather the cramped aeroplane cabin, beckons and it won't be long now until I am out of here..... but I am in London at the moment.

I had a birthday just under a month ago and given that it was the end of May in the UK, the day looked pretty much like this

It was a good day. In true British fashion, however, the weather changed and we have had some beautifully sunny days recently too. I went to a friend's baby's christianing recently with my friend, David, where we were the only two brave enough to sit in the sun, him because he is Colombian and swears to be immune to the effects of the rays and me because I am hoping to get my hair blonder naturally:)

And finally one of me

which would look better without the dishevellment at the back of my head but that is the train seats for you.

Well, short update over, see you in an airport somewhere soon!
xx

Everything changes.. even me!

2008-03-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

OK OK after nearly two and a half years I am changing schools. I could tell you why but it is all too dull to go into. Next week is my last week there- and I am just working for three days so that is OK. It is Good Friday today so I am taking the opportunity to spend some quality time in bed.

The school had an Easter party on Wednesday night and I didn't get home until the time that you can see on my jazzy present from a student new watch...

And then my alarm went off four and a half hours later.

Uf! Yesterday was pretty hard. I have been teaching upper intermediate this week too which I have never done before so had no back up plan for activities that failed to fill the time. One of the classrooms I have been teaching in is so small that I have to climb over the desks to get to mine and the whiteboard. Which makes any kind of time filling mingling a bit tricky.

Then, fool that I am, I didn't even go straight home when I finished work at three but instead went for bi bim bab with a friend before meeting another when she finished work. I wasn't too know that she fancied beer not the coffee that I really needed. I managed a couple of pints before coming home and falling asleep in bed with my laptop perched on my knee!

The party was fun and I met up with loads of old students. These two are both from my last class and actually the same age as me

so why do I look so much older????

and this is the window of Liberties at the moment and kids seem to be transfixed by it

Update

2008-02-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

After endless requests for updates- well, one last night- gp who are you? Here is a quick one. I am studying for my Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults (DELTA) at the moment and it is INTENSE! I feel that I am living, sleeping and breathing TEFL at the moment.

And it doesn't finish until June... so no holidays for a while :(

Mind you, did manage to take time out to go to the pub last Friday for a farewell to my friend, Rachel

and that is about all thatI am doing at the moment- sorry! Expect more in June when this is all over.. the DELTA that is

The Day After Boxing Day

2007-12-27T02:58:00.000-08:00

It was on this day six years ago that I got on a plane and went to South korea for the first time. Wow, that is so long ago! Two World Cups ago. I remember that the journey was OK until I arrived in Korea where there was no one to meet me. Then I had the hassle with my flight to Mokpo being 'cancelled' see http://www.shesinkorea.blogspot.com/ for more info).

Now we are in 2007 and on the verge of sliding into 2008. Nine years ago I was in Sydney. Seven years ago I celebrated the new year in Dublin. Six years ago I was a fresh faced newbie in Korea. Four years ago I was in Seoul celebrating New year with my best mate, Sam, in some style (ah, lager, lager!). Three years ago it was something similiar only ending the night with me vomiting into a paper bag at the venue. Not my finest hour.

Last year I was in Central London with Sarah and her boyfriend plus a background of students.

This year, probably a quiet one in Tooting. Not 100% sure yet but I am getting on a bit- hahah!

2007 hasn't been a bad year really. I started the year with two months in Colombia and a week in Ecuador. Man, I was terrified before I went! Not least of all because my Colombian students had been telling me how safe it was there- right up until I bought my ticket and the suddenly it was a list of kidnapped relatives that seemed at the front of their minds.

Can't believe that I wasted so much time worrying! Goodness! What a fantastic trip it was! So beautiful and the people were so friendly. My Spanish didn't really get the workout that it needed but it did confirm my belief that it is easier to speak in another language when you are either drunk or you have no choice.

And that certainly wasn't the last of the trips. I went to Barcelona for a week and later to Istanbul

It was my second time in Barcelona and I met up with a guy that I had met in Cartagena, Colombia. It was my first visit to Istanbul- I arrived with a stinker of a cold

And never got round to putting my photos up here as facebooks seems to have taken over my life.

Later in the year I went to visit my brother and sister in law for Thanksgiving in Milwaukee

We went to the zoo and I bought a LOT of shoes

I am lucky that I work for somewhere where it was possible for me to take two months off and still be received back with open arms

and I even managed to get promoted to senior teacher towards the end of the summer. My mate, Sarah, went off to Brazil for six months in March but I was fortunate enough to meet lots of new people to keep me company

And after nearly five months in my mate Matt's spare room I moved into a flat in Tooting with two other friends- a teacher at my school and an ex-teacher.

I was able to meet some old students in Colombia and one in Turkey. I bumped into an ex-students in Barcelona but stayed relatively teacher and student free in Milwaukee.

I got my left ear pierced in the autumn and my little friend had his lip done

I have signed up for a diploma in teaching (DELTA) starting in January which should interesting though hard work! I am scared of the reading list but we shall see how it goes.

So if you find this space slightly less than up to date, feel free to look on facebook for photos etc. And I guess that I shall post here when next I am on the move.

Cuidate!
:)

A Hard Day's Flight

2007-11-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

I am finally back online at home but I am a long way from home right now. I have come to the States to visit my brother and sister in law for Thanksgiving at the end of this week. I flew via Toronto and had found myself a good deal on the interweb. Unfortunately it didn't all go to plan.

I arrived into the dark and dingy gloom of Heathrow on Friday and joined a queue that was almost out of the door. After twenty minutes I was told that I was in the wrong queue and I should join the economy queue. Which was indeed out of the door. An hour and a half later and I was still in the queue and still couldn't actually see the desk that I was due to check in at. The only thing keeping me sane was texting my long suffering sister with my angst.

I hadn't had breakfast or anything. And only remembered after nearly two hours that I had a bag full of food for my brother so helped myself to a bag of Walkers out of the top of the suitcase. Finally made it to the check in desk and it turned out that the computers were down and everything was being hand written. Slowly.

Dashed through immigration and security and made it into the plane five minutes before the plane was due to take off.

And the loos were still locked. The look of anxiety on my face was enough to convince the cabin crew that I should be allowed special access to the facilities ahead of take off. Fortunately because we then sat on the plane for another hour and forty five minutes before going anyway.

Not good when I only had two hours to make my connection in Toronto.

And because the computers were down we had to pick up all of our luggage at Toronto and check in again.

After going through Canadian immigration. I was stamped into the country for the forty minutes that I had between flights and jumped onto my bag at baggage reclaim and dashed off to the US departures lounge.

Where I was told that my flight was an hour late so blissfully I hadn't missed it. I could relax for the first time since leaving my house in London that morning.

No one could understand why I had my bag with me or why I didn't have a boarding card for my connecting flight. THE COMPUTERS WERE DOWN AT HEATHROW!

Anyway, weirdly, I passed through US immigration in Toronto airport and the guy was so chatty that he forgot he had already stamped my passport between taking my fingerprints and getting me to smile for the camera so he stamped me into the US twice.

I relaxed next to the departure gate for a while. And then longer and longer. Finally we got onto the plane nearly three hours late to discover that they hadn't even loaded the bags yet. Grrr!

Tired and confused I landed in Milwaukee a couple of hours late and several years older.

On Saturday things got better when my sister in law took me to the Macy's sale to buy shoes:)

And yesterday we went to the zoo.

Things have got much better and promise to continue to do so for the rest of the week before the Air Canada ordeal again at the end of the week.

Broadband?? Any kind of band would do!

2007-10-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

Still out here. Just waiting for the generous people at Orange to provide me with the box to connect me to the outside world- for which I have already paid ten days' service.

Swine! I live at the address I gave you three weeks ago- why is the magic box with a courier down the road not in my house???

A Woman Alone..

2007-10-04T02:38:00.000-07:00

...is not the same as a lonely woman, despite what some people may think. I would be interested to know if a man walking around the streets of Istanbul would get the same attention as me. Sure there is an element of 'my uncle owns a carpet shop' to the whole proceedings but it is definitely underlined by a fair amount of 'woman, you are woman!'

Now I decided that I would be good this year. Last time I was in Turkey I was horrified by the attention- this is flirting with an element of threat to it- but this time I promised myself that I would just enjoy it- while not too much and end up signing my whole life away to a Turkish waiter with a glint in his eye.

So I relaxed, I casually flirted, I even bought a damn carpet for goodness's sake! But yesterday I walked for around eight hours. Several of which were away from Sultanahmet- the touristy area around the Blue Mosque where I am staying. I walked down though the Grand Bazaar to Galata Bridge and along the other side of the water to the Bosphorous Strait and looked at the ginormous cruise ships hulked up there. I caught a funicular all the way to Taksim (one stop and no one took liberties with any part of me this time) hardly glanced at the gun shops and wandered around the bustling shopping area.

I walked down the hill and to the Galata Tower where, it is reported, someone flew several hundred years ago. The Sultan was so freaked out by this that he exiled him. There has been a tower on the same spot for one and a half thousand years- now that is a long time. It offers awesome views across the city though there is little to do up there in the daytime once you have been round it a couple of times.

I had something to eat under the bridge- not troll style but in one of the many restaurants there- peering through the fine mesh of fishing lines connecting the men above me to the water below. Back to the Golden Horn side of the city I stumbled across the Spice Bazaar more by luck than planning.

It is smaller than the Grand Bazaar but along similar lines. They were selling something being touted as Turkish viagra- not something much needed by anyone that I have met so far- which promised to enable a fellow to go at it five times a night without stopping. Pretty potent stuff by all accounts and not something that I want to be anywhere near.

A salesman made the mistake of thinking that if he slagged off my bag enough I might buy one of his:

'your bag is old, dirty and not handmade' he cried
'just like you,' I muttered under my breath

I pushed my way back to Sultanahmet where I was met by crowds of people who just wanted to ask me 'one question, I am not trying to sell anything....' I was followed for a while and finally got rid of one by blowing my nose and pointing out that I was busy!

Nearly back at the hotel I came across my favourite Turkish waiter- I always speak to him though have never eaten at his restaurant- he asked me how my day had been but seemed to notice the 'keep away vibes' that I had been radiating for some time. Something his friend further along the road had failed to do:

'just one question!'
'ask your friend, I have already told him all the answers!'
'YOU ARE NOT KIND'

and so another restaurant was ticked off my list of places where I will never eat.

Exhausted I crawled back into the hostel and the safety of the roof top bar- where I snuggled under a blanket and read a trash book I had found on the bookcase downstairs for some hours.

Ah, I complain but here I am, halfway to the Grand Bazaar again, something keep drawing me back and I am sure that it isn't the carpets:)

Not Constantinople

2007-10-02T04:13:00.000-07:00

Ah sunshine, I had almost forgotten how much I love you! It is beautiful here in Istanbul. Getting to the airport proved to be simple enough but seeing that I had to get there around 5am it was all a little hectic. Rather than have a full night's sleep I just took an hour nap before getting on the night bus. Then another nap from Victoria to Luton and one more from Luton to Istanbul.

Then I arrived into the Asian side of the city and caught a bus back to Europe. I found my hostel easily enough by simple virtue of getting a (very expensive) taxi there. None of this was made any easier by the cold I had picked up and developed on Friday. By now I was a full blown sniffler and cougher. I took a (surprise surprise) quick nap before heading out of the hostel.

The hostel is literally about five minutes away from the amazing Blue Mosque which meant that I only had to negotiate my way past about ten carpet sellers to get there. Turkey is halfway through Ramadam and busloads of tourists come to celebrate at the Blue Mosque from all over Turkey.

There are many stalls set up near the mosque though the food ones tend to stay closed until after the sun has set. I must admit that I did a little shopping even on my first day. I walked around the nearest bazaar, ate some incredible Turkish food, spoke to quite a few carpet sellers and flirted my way past several restaurants. I collapsed into bed early though read until the wee small hours.

Yesterday I got up and missed breakfast. Every bed in the hostel has curtains around it which is lovely but tends to block out the sun a little, making staying in bed rather too easy. When I emerged I headed straight to Aya Sofya, a building which has been both a church and a mosque. Even now there are mosiacs of Jesus and his mum among the Arabic calligraphy. It is a big and impressive building. I walked around the balcony and took a million photos before craving the sun shine and leaving.

OK, I was just after something to eat and drink. Even though it is Ramadam it is still easy to find somewhere to eat, though I couldn't help wondering if the poor waiters were fasting.

After lunch I went to Topkapi Palace and wandered around the grounds and the old harem. Again many a photo was taken. A man adopted me on the way out and showed me around the Blue Mosque and the Sultan's tomb before, inevitably, leading me to his uncle's carpet shop.

The Blue Mosque- what can I say?? WOW! That pretty much sums it up. Visitors are welcome outside of prayer hours as along as they cover up, take off their shoes and stay behind the ropes. Fine by me. It is big, it is blue, it is a mosque, it has words handing between the minarets for Ramadam, words of tolerance and peace. Important words in a country where if you want to buy a gun you just head to the nearest subway station.

Ozkan, one of my old students who is home visiting his mum for a month, met me later and walked me around Sultanahmet and down to the water. We had a beer and got on the tram to Taksim. Well, the tram then the funicular.... it was crowded and the old man next to me took outrageous liberties with my right thigh and buttock- I am sure that sort of thing is frowned upon most of the time but even more so during Ramadam.

We went for dinner- iskender kebabs, which Ozkan was disappointed with and I was overjoyed by. We had more beer- turns out that here you can buy glasses that are bigger than pints! Ozkan, going against his doctor's orders (he had an operation on Friday) took a big beer and I took a pint (going against the orders on my cold medicine).

Taksim is immensely busy though Ozkan said that the traffic was made worse during Ramadam with everyone keen to get home to break their fast. Finally Ozkan had to admit that his doctor may have been right and he took me back to Sultanahmet before heading to his uncle's house. I watched the Ramadam tourist trade for a while before going back to bed.

This morning I broke my fast with a couple of sudafed tablets. The cold feels better today and I feel less tired.

I went to the Grand Bazaar. At first I thought that I was in grave danger as there were so many pretty things but then I saw a menu for a cafe. The food prices were the same as in London which put me off a bit to be honest. I sat out in the sun and had Turkish pizza in a more reasonably priced place.

Now I am heading away from the shopping (I bought NOTHING though I still have three days left and have shopped my heart out for the previous two days) and people telling me that they don't actually want to sell me anything, they just want to be my friend, old guys pushing me out of the way and young guys staring at my tits and saying 'oh my god' in English.

The hassling and hecticness is all part of the Turkish experience and lays a background as exotic as the call to prayer which echoes across the city five times a day. I intend to throw myself once more into the Ramadam crowds later and no doubt be befriended by several Turksih waiters- the guy near my hostel is immensely cute and had given me a hug the last couple of times that he has seen me though I haven't eaten at his restaurant yet.

I could tell you more, I could tell you about the Korean girl that is being bitten to death by bed bugs every night in the dorm, the sheer variety of ways that headscarves can be worn, the many and varied ways that people use to try and get you into their shops or the thrill of a cool Efes beer slipping down your throat as you overlook the Bosphorous and stare from Europe to Asia and back. I could but I am not going to. I am going to go out again into the sun and look at necklaces for me.

How happy a shopping girl can be!

At the airport again...

2007-09-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

It is just after four am and I am at Luton airport. I am too early as usual. But that's better than being too late. I left my house just before two am and got a night bus into town- I don't think that I have ever got a night bus going into Central London before. And it is a very occassion that you will find me on the bus sober. Or more or less.

Some friends came over for dinner last night (tonight?) which was really cool. Especially as they cooked. I have left the boys to do the washing up too- tut tut!

Unfortunately I have come down with a bit of a cold- sniffle- which is not going to make me the most popular girl in the dorm tonight (tomorrow?).

Right time nearly up

better find something else to do- chao for now!

Musings..

2007-09-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

A few days I was walking down the street composing witty and intelligent blog entries in my head (something which I do far more of than putting actual fingers on the keyboard and typing) and I nearly got hit by a car I hadn't noticed. Maybe this blogging thing really is bad for my health. I am not sure what to do really. I don't write as often as I used to, tis true, now I am not sure if anyone I know even looks at this anymore. I write less often and receive comments even less often.

But if I didn't have this outlet when holidaying alone the environmental impact of me having to write in my diary is too much to even imagine.

So maybe I am just saying, hang on in there, I will be back more regularly and with more entertaining blog entries the moment I am back on the road again- and if all of you send me a fiver it could be that much sooner:)

Istanbul in three weeks and counting, I would be delighted if you chose to join me electronically.

You never really know...

2007-09-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

how pretty something is until you leave. This house is around the corner from where I grew up in Felixstowe

Here I am!

2007-08-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

It has been so long that my internet explorer has even wiped blogger off my drop down list. As always I have been busy as hell without so much to write here. I guess that I was promoted a couple of weeks ago which is fun and gratifying. Also, I have been teaching a teacher training course one evening a week until nine thirty not to mention plenty of time in the White Horse.

Lots of time with students. Lots of time with teachers. Not planning holidays--- oh no, not at all! OK, I am going to Turkey in October but I don't have anything planned before that.

I was in Felixstowe last weekend for the carnival- I have photos but I haven't downloaded them.

Maybe I will try a real post here sometime... bye for now!

Brighton your day!

2007-07-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

First things first, a couple of weeks ago I met up with Ken and his wife. I knew Ken in Korea where we often met over a glass of tequila in the legendary Bar Bumpin in Gangneung. It was a crazy night because after a civilised evening in the pub I ended up in G-A-Y with some friends until that closed. Ah, god bless the night bus!

Then last weekend me and my sister did the race for life on Blackheath. Well, she raced and I walked around with her friend, Marion, having a little chat. Didn't realise that it would end up so hot and sunny after waking up in a rainstorm. My face was bright red for the next couple of days. All the teachers were pretending that it wasn't that bad wen another walked in and quite honestly said, 'what happened to your face?'

Yesterday I went to Brighton with some students and teachers. It was good to get out of London for the day if only to go to London by the sea

The rest of the week was seemingly spent waiting for Colombians to call- the calls never coming. Huff.

Barcelona and Girona

2007-07-14T02:11:00.000-07:00

Right so I have been a bit slack, back for the whole week and nothing here really. Things have been crazy at work. And have been to the pub every evening bar one this week- weirdly I didn't go on Friday. I had a great time in Barcelona. It was very relaxing, until I started emailing people from work that is.. loser!

I made it back to the UK on a Friday so it would have been shameful not to have made it to the pub that night. And had to spend most of the weekend recovering... ah life is good

The cable car, I didn't go on it this time

this sign amused me on a boat trip. It is obviously where they keep the life jackets and the condoms to put on your head-I assume to keep the water out of your ears

In Barcelona people sit and feed the fish, better thanfeeding pigeons as they look better and don't poo everywhere. But they do look a bt weirder when they sit on your head

Parc Guell, my favourite place really

It looks like a gingerbread fairyland

to prove that I was there

I did go on this cable car up Mont Juic

La Sagrada Familia cathedral

Barcelona port, being from Felixstowe I can't miss that chance to take photos of docks the world over

Beer, remarkably smooth and gorgeous, we drank quite a few by the castle that afternoon, me and the American girl I spent a few days with

Girona

Girona again, famous waterways

Another beer, really too strong for lunch time but perfect at the same time

2007-07-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

OK, I guess that I could do that, Rory. I certainly have photos of beer in every country that I have visited in my adult life, though not always me drinking it.

But let's get started with a more Spanish theme, here is me with some sangria

Completely and utterly

2007-07-05T04:44:00.000-07:00

Just saw a guy walking along La Rambla without a stitch on, wearing only a backpack. And a group of people following him and giggling. Children!

I went out last night with a guy that I met in Colombia. A Colombian guy no less. He hasn´t been living in the city long and was actually even more clueless than me about where to go. We ended the night drinking beer in a square near my hostel off La Rambla, surrounded by drunk people from all nations.

Got to bed shortly before four am. Not bad work for a Wednesday... home tomorrow and the end of my lazy week.

Barcelona

2007-07-04T02:26:00.000-07:00

There is a good reason why there hasn´t been any new photos on this site since my birthday... looking at my camera I just haven´t taken any since then. Weird! And not at all like me. Needless to say, I have taken a shedload here and had anticipated spending a happy hour or so putting them on here for your delight. But it is not to be, the PC won´t let me unless I pay more money, something which I am loathe to do as I will be home soon and can up and download photos to my heart´s content for free.

So words will have to do.

I have been here since Saturday but it only really started to feel like a full on holiday treat once it hit Monday morning and I wasn´t at school... hooray!! Now it is Wednesday and I am still here.. double hooray!

I met a girl on Sunday night and we have been hanging out for the last few days. She went home today however so I am alone once more. I am trying my best not to just take all the same photos as last year- a job made easier by not going to the same places.

I still love Barcelona and my love has got stronger with the introduction of some sangria and some very tasty local beers though I am not sure that 7.9% alcohol makes for a good lunch time drink. Me and Kate sat up high on Mount Juic overlooking the city in the sun the other day and downed a couple of AK Damms.

Sigh... a rellaxing few days and no mistake.

It looks a bit overcast today so I am not sure what I am going to do. I have to pop back to the hostel in a bit to see if there is a bed for tomorrow night- ah the joy of backpacking!

Catch ya later

¡Viva Espana!

2007-07-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well it is raining here in Barcelona too. On and off. It is nice and warm though. I arrived into El Prat airport just before ten last night and went straight to the hostel. Walked through the door (well, into it but that is a different story) and heard someone say:

I know you, you are my teacher!

Actually I wasn´t her teacher but had covered a class of hers at some point this year for two days.

You can´t go anywhere!

Waiting...

2007-06-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here I am at Luton airport. It was a crazy old day and no mistake yesterday. First of all there was finding the tube station to be closed and then being told it was because of an overland security alert at Piccadilly Circus. Not good when you work at Piccadilly Circus! But our school wasn't affected.

We were open all day and I had a window in my classroom so I could see the police cordones and stuff. Not a lot to see really but it was very weird to see Piccadilly Circus so empty in the middle of the day. But I have been working over nine hours a day again with only short breaks between classes and for lunch so I really missed most of the news.

And when I finally left the school last night food was the first thing on everyone's minds. I went to a fantastic wrap shop in Soho near the school and some guy insisted on paying for all of our wraps which was a pleasant start to the night.

I met Ken, who I used to know in Korea, and his wife and we went to the school's local. For a change I sat downstairs but seemed to know everyone walking past which was cool.

Long story short and I ended up in GAY with some friends until it closed at 3ish. Onto a night bus and home at four thirty. But some mates were online (hi Rory!) so didn't actually get into bed until the sun was well and truly in the sky at five thirty.

Not so great when I had to pack this morning to go to Barcelona. Walking around in a daze saw me at the airport way too early. And with a swimsuit which I believe to be at my sister's (though it could just as easily have been right in front of my face given the hangover this morning).

Right better go and see if my gate has been announced yet...

see you in Barcelona!

Chao!

I used to write stuff

2007-06-24T08:05:00.001-07:00

I used to have a lot of things to say. I used to have more things to say that time to say them. I still have a lot to say but most of it is about the same things. I don't want to bore you with details about school and the books we are using this term and endless tales from the classroom. I am working a lot at the moment. We are busy. Life is good.

We reached the end of the term on Friday which means that the new term starts again on Monday, tomorrow. I have had some great students this term and some fantastic times. But life is busy, so busy!

I am teaching for45 hours again this week. Counting the hours until Friday and the best day of all...PAY DAY!!!!! And, more importantly, I am going on holiday on Saturday.. voy a Barcelona! Hooray! A week in Spain- it has been three months since my last holiday so you can imagine how desperate I am for a holiday now..hahhah!

So maybe next week I wil have more to say... and certainly some more photos:)

Til then, take care!

Smile

2007-06-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

When I was in Colombia I started to run out of moisturizer and sun cream, almost at the same time. So I put the rest of the sun cream in my face cream tub. Now it still smells a little of the sun cream and puts a smile on my face every morning.

T'is the little things!

Sunday Morning

2007-06-03T01:29:00.000-07:00

T'was Sunday morning and all was quiet in the Eames household. I am sitting at the computer with my private soundtrack playing in my head, as always. This morning it is subdued music. I am still wearing my glasses, having been advised by my optician to spend less time wearing my lenses (but they always say that) and I never feel that I can wake up properly while wearing them. Though the dressing gown and pyjamas don't really help either.

On the way to work in the morning I have two different usual soundtracks. I am either listening to Colombian music in Spanish that I don't always understand which lends an element of confusion to the trip to work. Or I am listening to some banging house tunes which results in me arriving at work exhausted, having walked double time, but still ready to go clubbing.

I often imagine that I am in the music video for the song that I am listening to, which is probably why I get so many funny looks on the tube and the train in the morning.

My trip to work has changed a lot since moving back to London. From my sister's house we catch a train then a tube and I get off and walk from Embankment. The time on the train is extensive but relaxed as it would be a pretty unusual day if we didn't get a seat. Arriving into Fenchurch Street station we hammer it down to Tower Hill and get on a tube. We also usually get a seat there.

So plenty of time for reading the free newspaper or your own book (I sometimes pretend to be better than I am and read a Spanish book or newspaper, what a show off!) and a relaxing walk to Piccadilly Circus where I work.

Now, however, I walk to Streatham Common station and have to force my way onto a train. Scenes from various documentaries of people being pushed onto trains in Tokyo come to mind most mornings. The newspaper is just something that I clutch in my sweaty paw while it oozes its black ink all over me. I burst off the train a mere six minutes later, which is why I don't wait for the next train and miss these cattle train conditions. Everyone else feels the same way.

I am now at Balham where I push my way through crowds at the ticket office and onto the first Northern Line train to come along. This can mean that I get all the way to where I want to go or that I have to change again at Kennington.

When I finally arrive into central London I have the choice of Embankment or Leicester Square tubes. If I haven't brough my breakfast with me then I get off at Embankment because it has the most cafes. Plus I get to see if anything interesting is happening in Trafalgar Square.

On both journeys I could change and get a tube to Piccadilly Circus but I think that would take the fun out of working in London. I work in one of my favourite areas and my short walk in the morning or at night is my reward for the rest of the trip.

This morning the sun is out for the third day without rain, fingers crossed. Some students invited me to Bournemouth today but I couldn't get to Victoria in time. Turns out to have been a good thing as I just spoke to them on the bus and they don't know how they are getting home tonight.

Interesting times.

It's my birthday and I'll laugh if I want to!

2007-05-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

I brought forward my birthday by a day this year, partly to make it easier to celebrate and partly so I would get more presents off the students. Hahaha and it worked!

But first, I am back living in my house in Streatham now after ten days catsitting at my sister's. I had only been in my house for two weeks when I came back here and I am here again for the long weekend since it is my birthday and all.

The best thing about living in Streatham is the ability to go out for the night and not have to keep an eye on my watch. The most dangerous thing is pretty much the same. Me and Rachel went out for a Spanish- English language exchange on Tuesday night and I nearly had to get a night bus home... on a TUESDAY! Not sensible. So I was a bit tired on Wednesday.

On Thursday something strange appeared in Trafalgar Square... grass!

Which gave a real festival atmosphere to the place though it was only due to be there for a couple of days. I had been doing a lot of extra hours that week so I was pretty tired on Thursday and missed my Spanish class for the first time in seven months... bad student!

Friday was my pseudo birthday. I had been pretty honest and told everyone that it was really on Saturday but they all seemed to be buying into the Friday thing. I might have mentioned it once or twice every day for the previous month or so. There has been a gratifyly large amount of people who have found it hard to believe that I was even in my thirties let alone as old as 33! So that is cool:)

We didn't do anything much in my morning class. We had ice cream at Leicester Square and then went and sat on the grass at Trafalgar Square. I had to head back because I was covering a class 12-3.

At first no one arrived and then nine minutes before I would have been allowed to cancel the class two people turned up. A grand total of four made it to the class. Huff, not the most interesting class. Even my class only had fifty percent attendance... sunny Friday at the start of a long weekend made it hard to motivate students to come and study English.

Fortunately my afternoon class came up with the goods. Almost 100% percent attendance plus two homemade tiramisus, the benefit of having Italian students. One from Angelo

and one from Francesca

The class had clubbed together and bought some chocolates and a card too. And then they all sang me Happy Birthday in English and in their own languages- Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Turkish and Iranian. The Thai girl insisted that they never sing it in anything but English in her country but she might have just been being shy.

We took the obligatory class photo but someone appears to have been mucking around in the middle of it

Hum.

We went to the pub at break time. There is a school policy that we can occassionally take the students to the pub if they all agree to go. I had hardly got the words out asking them before they were all propping up the bar in our local The White Horse or the school pub as my morning class call it.

I was ladden with presents, some of the cute and cuddly variety.. the teddy bear not Chris

Unfortunately that seems to be where the photos end except for one last one at the end of the night. I had a blinding night, it is fair to say. Lots of people were there, teachers, students, my Spanish teacher and even a friend- not a teacher or a student, weirdly!

These are four of my class from last summer. I don't know who the other girl is but I seem to remember insisting that she be in the photo.

I ended the night with a free rickshaw ride with a guy that I had met at the language exchange on Tuesday and a night bus home.

And now I have a windowsill full of birthday cards and presents and my new room feels more like home

I slept for most of my actual birthday before coming back to my sister's and going out for dinner last night. The birthday text messages came thick and fast and I had a couple of phone calls too.

On Friday night in the pub my Colombian family called me from Bogota but panicked when their son hadn't arrived to translate. I thought that they were looking for him but he later told me that they had all been standing round the phone waiting to wish me Happy Birthday! How cute is that!!

Baby Alex arrived with his flatmates and people kept going up to him to ask him if he was Baby Alex. I guess that I must talk about him quite a lot! Ah, my little baby!

We had plans to go to the Southend Air Show this weekend but it is raining today so maybe we will just go to Lakeside instead.

Another year older, another wiser, two more countries' stamps added to my passport and a plane ticket to Barcelona ready to go at the end of June. Just another five weeks until there will be no more smoking in public places in the UK. 2007 has already been a blinder of year and I am sure that it will only get better!

Chao

Back again

2007-05-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

Things here have been hectic of late. I moved house but the internet wasn't up and running. I have been at my sister's for the last week tending to every whim of our ginger cat while she is on a walking holiday in Turkey. Still seems to weird to me that other people have holidays too!

There was a barbecue in my new house a couple of weeks ago which lasted long enough to see the sun rise. And last weekend I went to London Zoo with my cousin and her two kids, in the rain. I didn't care about the weather... I saw giraffes so I was happy

Lina, a girl that I met in Manizales, arrived in London last weekend. Somehow I had persuaded her to ditch the school that she was going to study with and she signed up with my school. It was good to see her and I guess that she will be around for a while.

What else? Not much really. It is my birthday next Saturday though I don't have any plans for the big day yet beyond sleeping off what ever happens the night before. It is payday on Friday and the start of another long weekend so it is sure to be a big one. Anyone of you who is around in London that night is welcome to come along... White Horse in Soho, the usual haunt.

I was there last night which is why I am so tired today. For some reason people seemed to be buying me drinks which is unusual. The White Horse is such a regular Friday night thing that we tend to refer to it as an extension of our school. The upstairs of the pub is certainly like our cafe only with beer and cigarettes- at least for another six weeks or so until the smoking ban comes in.

Life is good. As ever really. My Spanish classes started again a couple of weeks ago which can only be a good thing. My English classes, which I am still refering to as my 'new' classes have now been running for seven weeks so I feel like I know my students pretty well now.

Quite unEnglishly, I have no complaints really:)

Weird

2007-05-07T14:27:00.001-07:00

Something weird is going on in student-teacher land and I don't know what to make of it!

Moving

2007-05-03T04:08:00.000-07:00

I have moved house, in as much as bringing a single backpack and kipping in the spare room can be described as moving house. I am now living in South London with my friend, Matt. The broadband and wireless box has arrived at the house but neither of us had the courage to try and connect it yesterday.

I guess that I am out of touch until one or the other of us actually gets the damned thing out of the box and spends a couple of hours trying to connect it and us to the outside world.

Have a good (long) weekend

Back again..

2007-04-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

..but not for long. I am in the process of moving out of my sister's house and into my mate Matt's. But he hasn't got broadband yet (yikes!)

So I am at my sis's now and going over to Matt's later and thought it best to do a (very) quick update date now.

First, I have been taking students to museums again

And if you think that you have seen these photos before you haven't, that was a different class.

I started my Spanish class again this week and it was great to speak Spanish again. I am enthused and looking forward to coming forward in leaps and bounds over the next year.

Yesterday I took a school trip to Oxford. Well Lucy took a school trip to Oxford and I ponced along for a free day out. It was a good day but unfortunately my camera was in my other house but I took these photos on my phone

It was a beautiful day too and I managed to top up my tan a bit in between finding students that had wandered away from the tour group, again.

Now I should be packing my bag so off I go!

More Alive than Ever!

2007-04-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

The sun has arrived in London and brightened everyone's moods into the bargain. Suddenly everything seems attainable and the world has a smile on its face. I have spent the last two weeks sitting outside a pub near the lock in Camden, soaking up the rays and downing a beer or two. Not the whole two weeks, just some time at the weekends.. actually

Fantastic days!

I have been too busy smiling to post... sorry!

Two by two

2007-04-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

It appears that if I want to go to the beach these days I have to be accompanied by at least two Colombianos.. first Juan and Alex came to Felixstowe and then this weekend I have been on Southend beach with Wilfran and David

Here they are at Grays station when they didn't realise what a good day they were going to have.

and here they are at the end of the day when they both crashed out at Southend Central.. bless!

We had a good day though. They were a little overexcited when we arrived in Southend and immediately ran to Adventure Island for a go on the rollercoasters. I stayed on the ground and held all their things

We walked along the pier and back

and along the beach

We stopped for ice cream and fish and chips along the way. I paddled but the water was blooming cold

It was a good day and now they want to go again

Today was another beautiful day and me and my sister walked along the beach at Canvey Island. Lovely and relaxing!

And no school tomorrow either- it is like we have been blessed with two weekends in a row:) So I am going to Camden Town tomorrow with some mates.

Back to school on Tuesday so I had better mark that homework later!

Nearly Four AM

2007-04-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

It is early in the morning but I can't seem to sleep anymore. Huff, sure that I will get another hour or so in before daybreak. It has been one helluva a week, what with one thing and another and I have hardly had time to stop and think.

Good things and bad things have been happening- weirdly the good things being some of the best and the bad things hitting record lows. None of which I am going to share with you at this time, sorry!

But I realised that my last entry was a little down. I am still missing Sarah, of course, but in a less intense way this week- though probably only because I have been so short on time... London time is a law unto itself. It seems to go twice as quickly as time in any other place. You wake up on Monday, blink once and it is Friday.

There is a long weekend this weekend for Easter, a glorious four days off. And whilst I would love to spend the whole weekend in bed, I believe that this isn't possible. I am having some friends over to stay on Friday night and have no idea how much of Saturday that visit is going to eat into. I have to go and do some shopping with my sister to get her hiking boots for her trip to Turkey next month... and maybe a few other things as my sis knows that I am partial to a bit of outdoorsy shopping. I might also have said that I will take one mate to visit another one in Camden and made vague promises about taking some students out for the day. At this rate I will barely have time to eat my Easter eggs.

Anyway, I should try and get back to sleep now. Here is one of the last photos that I took in Bogota before leaving and it is here just for the sake of posting a photo really....it is Baby Alex's dog in the home that I stayed in

Not Drunk

2007-03-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Can't drink, won't drink.

it is Wednesday and I haven't been out yet this week... guess that I am feeling the pinch of Sarah leaving already.

It is my second week back at work and I am knackered. I wasn't on the nine o'clock starts last week but this week I am. I hate the early mornings even though it is a lot lighter than it was when I went away. I am missing sleeping until my eyes pop open and then taking a siesta later in the day.

I am enjoying being back and catching up with everyone but time goes so quickly here. I find that I am wishing the week away just so I can get some sleep but when the weekend hits we have things to do so I don't get to spend all that lovely time in bed that I so crave.

Mind you, I was laid up for a while on Saturday as I slipped down the stairs on Saturday morning, scraping my knuckles along the wall and twisting my ankle. After limping round the supermarket in the morning I went to bed for the afternoon.

I still wasn't walking well the next day or indeed when I got to work on Monday. I had basically stopped limping on Tuesday but my ankle and heel still feel a bit dodge today.

No, I wasn't drunk.

Yes, it was the same foot that is a toenail down.

Now I am tired and a little depressed since my best mate flew off to Brazil yesterday... things will get better.. once this damn headache goes.

Take me back to Colombia! I looked so relaxed back then

This was taken in the pub when I had just arrived there from the airport. I don't think that I look too bad after the seventeen hours it took me to get there!

All change, all change

2007-03-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

I got myself a new job this week. I reckon that it will pay more than the teaching and help me to lose weight. I will still get to meet people and have the bonus of being out in the fresh air.

Sarah is going to do it too for the summer.

Nah, sod that. It is Juan's rickshaw and he can keep it a far as I am concerned... it as bloody cold on that thing last night.

But it was Sarah's last night in London. Which means that these pages are going to be a bit empty from now on.. just lots of me talking about what I watched on TV last night and my latest knitting adventure. She is off to Brazil to be reunited with her other half and good luck to her. I don't know how well I would have settled back into life here if it hadn't been for her.

We have had a lot of fun this last year or so... and I am going to miss her A LOT!!

I am interviewing for new best mates this week...

I told you there was more

2007-03-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

Seriously what do you do with all the other photos that are begging for attention? I took a scary amount while I was away and only a select few made it on here during the trip. Not always the best ones, sometimes it was more a matter of time rather than the best.

I promise that I am not spending all day moping through my photos remembering the trip. I am back at work and back in the pub. There is a lot of catching up to do. I have printed about ten photos to show people at work but you guys get the fuller experience here.

So here are some more, I hope that I am not repeating any!

Cartagena

The coffee plantation at Chinchina

Coffee

Playa blanca on the Islas del Rosario

Raquira near Bogota

Tagana near Tayrona

And the sunset in Taganga

The Botero statue park in Medellin

walking from the hostel to the town in San Agustin

And please guys.. it is ColOmbia, there is no U in the name... cheers

Why do we do it??

2007-03-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

St Patrick's Night as a pretty quiet one. But Gustavo remembered the cool function on my camera

So that kept us busy for a while

Though I somehow managed to delete the good one of me and replace it with this one. But then things just got silly last night.

We went to the walkabout early but then I had to leave when two mates arrived and didn't want to stand in the snow in the long long queue

but we ended up back in the walkabout once the other pub had closed

And didn't leave until after two. Didn't get into bed until half two and up again at seven.

It is any wonder that a student asked me if I was OK as my eyes looked tired today! And only my second day back!

Good job that I was with some of the students last night

Random Shots

2007-03-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, there are plenty of these babies left..

Thursday in Felixstowe

2007-03-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

I am sure that you are waiting for the final few days of my time in Colombia but it ain't going to happen tonight. Well, a bit. I went back to Bogota for the weekend and met up with Camilo, my first Colombian student and the guy that actually invited me to Colombia in the first place.

I also met Natalia and we went to a concert in Parque Bolivar, of which there are no photos because the security guard took the batteries from my camera. So I could just spend the rest of the day watching people using their camera phones to take photos and video the proceedings while my own camera lay impotent in my bag.

And more annoyingly it meant that I didn't have the opportunity to take photos of the police swarming the streets the next day ahead of George Bush's visit to the capital. Reportedly there were 22,000 of them and I got photos of none.

I went to a salt mine with Camilo and Andrea before going back to Alex's family home for my last night in the country.

But details later.

Today just a few photos and these ones of Alex and Juan today- I took them to my home town and introduced them to my great aunt. They were certaily amused at the amount of old people in downtown Felixstowe on a Thursday afternoon.

We hit the beach for traditional fish and chips and an ice cream before going to my 'local' for a pint and then back to London.

It was a gorgeous sunny spring day and the boys seemed to enjoy being away from the bustle of London for a day.

Back to work tomorrow, just for three hours. I was going into town to go to the pub anyway so thought I might as well earn some spondulicks whilst there.

Wish me luck!

Oh yes, for those wishing a toe nail update... Camilo kicked it off accidentally in the pub on Friday night and I am now officially a nine toe nailed freak... just in time for sandal season, joy!

Hi Honey I'm home

2007-03-14T01:37:00.000-07:00

I am indeed lying in my bed in my room and most definitely not in Colombia. The plane from Madrid was delayed by two hours which was annoying as hell. Not least because the only annoucement that they make in Madrid airport is to alert you to the fact that they don't make annoucements. OK this means that the airport is nice and quiet but that you have to keep jumping up and down to the departure boards to find out if your delayed plane is planning on leaving some this century.

In fact, I think that someone out there didn't want me home because when I checked in at Bogota they tried to convince me to stay another day. It wouldn't have taken much to persuade me to stay except that I had made plans for a night in the pub the moment I got home. So off I went.

I was still back in Blighty by five thirty and in the pub an hour later, delivering all the things that various Colombian parents had sent back with me for their babies.

Of course, I woke up too early this morning but it is a bit of a joy to just lean over and grab my computer rather than having to get dressed and go in search of an internet cafe. I know what you are thinking, this would be an ideal time to update with photos from the last week. And you are right except that my USB cable is somewhere in the depths of my backpack downstairs and I ain't moving.

So later then!

For now just content yourself with knowing that I am safe and well in the UK and back to work on Monday... life goes on and all that.

Photos when I make it out of my bed.... much later!

On my way

2007-03-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

Due to leave Colombia in seven hours.. had a great last weekend only slightly marred that we had a dry Sunday due to Bush being here for the afternoon. But I will tell you all about it when I get home.. or possibly at Madrid airport if I get the chance.

Chao for now!

Stuff and Nonsense

2007-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Public phones in Colombia are particularly violent and liable to attack unless chained

I guess that is why people prefer the men that let you use their mobile phones for a small fee.

I left Cali yesterday morning and popped into Armenia for an hour or so

Then onto Manizales again. I have been here before but I like this city. It is spread across several mountains and the place where I am staying is up on a ridge that runs right to the centre of the city. The hills run down off both sides of the road. It is cloudy today so much of the landscape is obscured which gives the impression that we are actually on an island.

But I know there are mountains out there- where else would they be growing the coffee:

Or put all the houses for that matter.

Tomorrow I am doing my last big bus trip in Colombia, back to Bogota. I am going to miss so many things about this country. And some things I am not sure if I will miss them or not... like the people that juggle at the traffic lights to get some extra cash

Or the people that get on the bus every time it stops to sell you things from cakes to water to toothbrushes and friendship bracelets

I am going to miss the views from the bus windows though.

But not going to miss finding out that the kitchen preparing my food looks like this

Those are live chickens under the crate... and you can´t see all the guys pissing everywhere just off camera!

Certainly going to miss being called beautiful all the time.

But enough of this small trip down memory lane.. there are still a few days to go. So I am going out in the rain to live them.

Thunder and Lightning

2007-03-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

Ok here it is.. the eagerly anticapated photo entry! I am back in Cali now. I arrived last night and am staying at the same hostel which is cool- loads of people to talk to. And I hope that it doesn´t say too much about me that the people in the pizza place around the corner recognised me(!)

So in no particular order.. the roundabout in Otavalo with tradionally dressed statues dancing on it. And taking it very seriously

This is the view from the cafe that we stopped at on the way from Pasto to Cali yesterday.. Colombia that is

Me up the top of a volcano overlooking Quito- the day that I remembered how to work the timer on my camera - ruko pichincha. Where Juan has just told me that he wrote his name but didn´t tell me before I went so I could look for it!

Luckily I had left my dynamite out of my day pack before getting on the cable car up there

The cable car itself, Quito

This is the middle of the world- Mitad del Mundo. That globe weights five tonnes apparantely

And the view from the top of the monument- look for the yellow equator line

A park in Quito

The Old Town in Quito again

View from the bus from Quito to Otavalo in Ecuador

Otavalo market again

Up the volcano again

And that is your lot for now. It is raining and stuff here in Cali so I feel OK about being in an internet cafe for half of the day. Armenia tomorrow

Gringos reunited

2007-03-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

I have done it, I have left Quito after six nights there. Which makes it the longest that I have stayed anywhere since leaving Bogota. And why is that? It is an interesting city and quite relaxing. Part of the reason for that is that I was not an unusual sight there- I was just one in a sea of foreigners from all over the world. Granted, it did mean that my 'Nina Linda' status bestowed on me in Colombia was gone but it was good to relax.

In fact, the only guy that hit on me the whole time I was in Quito turned out to be Colombian. At least that is what he said when he asked me if I liked Ecuadorian men and I said that I prefered los colombianos--- funny you should say that, he said, I was born in Barranquilla, now will you be my girlfriend? Ah, taxi drivers, do they ever get to date their passengers because they sure make a point of trying- here and in Korea and London also. It has never worked with me yet.

So I am back in Otavalo and ready for some hardcore shopping with the few dollars that I have left. The woman in the hotel recognised me from last weekend when me and Eric left our bags there while we hit the stalls. So that was a nice welcome. She asked where Eric was. I have my own big double bed. Which is cool.

I haven't really met anyone since leaving Colombia. There was an English girl on my second night in Quito but she buggered off to the Amazon the next morning- should I take that personally? I met up with Lori, an American woman that I met in Santa Marta, for a few bevies the other night. But when I had to change hostels I was put in one where I was the solo guest- so much for partying in Quito. I guess that I could have moved again but I was too lazy and in the mood for some peave and quiet.

Ah yes, there was also Mark who I bumped into that I met in Salento. I have also seen a French couple that I was on the jeep tour with in San Agustin and a Greek guy who was in my room the first night in Cali. I guess that once you drop out of the bottom of Colombia, so to speak, everyone heads the same way. Ah, god bless the gringo trail.

So the plan is to cross the border again tomorrow, heavily laden with newly purchased alpaca blankets, of course. And depending on what time I get across I will either stay in Ipiales, close to the border, or Pasto, not. I am working my way back the way I came as far as the coffee area then skipping across the country to reappear in Bogota on Thursday... where I hope there are some people waiting to take me out for the weekend.

I can't believe that the journey is nearly over. But it feels longer than seven weeks. So much is changing around me and away from me- friends getting married, friends falling in love, friends moving to other continents to be with the object of their affections. And, as ever, I am not unchanged by the experiences here. But I still have nine days left and I shall make the most of them.

And before anyone else asks, my Spanish is now worse than before Christmas when I was still studying. I can make myself understood most of the time and I am surprised at what I understand of others conversations. I even had my first drunk argument entirely in Spanish the other night, needless to say I was totally in the wrong but in the wrong in a different language for a change.

Back to Spanish classes when I get back to London though I think that I will have to wait until the next term at the end of March.. but wait I shall!

A Different Kind of Traveller

2007-03-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

I went to the Mitad del Mundo (middle of the World) yesterday. I stood on the equator. I stood astride the equator but being alone I didn´t have anyone to take photos of this. I did take a photo of my feet on either side of the line but on closer examination, they don´t look their best so maybe it is best not to put the photo up here. I didn´t tell you, I think, that I tripped over a step in the hotel in Cartagena (no, I wasn´t drunk). Not only did I bruise my knees (only recently healed from falling over on NYE, yes I was drunk then) but I bruised all around my big toe nail. It was not good. And a few days later gunk started to ooze from under the nail. And continued to do so for about a week. Now that nail is white and nasty looking. Hum, hope it gets better soon!

Anyway, enough of that. I went to the equator. I caught a metro bus, similar to the Transmilenio in Bogota, then transferred onto a normal bus and got off at the large stone monument. Total price was 40 cents for over an hour on the bus. Not bad.

Mitad del Mundo must be absolutely jammed at times but midweek in March, it was nice and empty. Perfect. I went up the monument, the lift takes you up and then stairs to go back down through a museum of all the different ethnic groups in the country.

So far I have really only encountered one and that is the Otavaleños, whose market I so enjoyed last week. In fact my guide book tells me that due to the quality of their handicrafts they are the richest group in Ecuador if not the entire continent. They are great weavers and once this was discovered by the Spanish they were put to work in sweatshops to produce all the weaving that the Spanish wanted. Bad news, the good news is that they got a reputation for being the best and honed their skills to perfection. And now are able to use them for their own profit.

Anyway, I did the whole equator thing, turned down ten offers to eat guinea pig and did a bit of shopping. On my way in that morning the ticket office hadn´t had enough change for my note so trusted me to pay on the way out. And still looked surprised when I did.

By now it was pretty hot and I wasn´t really looking forward to the bus ride home. Then an obviously European guy came over to me and asked if I wanted to share a taxi back to the city. OK. It was a lot more money but still pretty cheap.

He was an Italian guy with good Spanish. He told me that he had been in Colombia and was shocked to find out that I was travelling alone. Which is weird because, in my experience, there are more lone female travellers than male travellers in Colombia. But when he told me the price that he had paid for hotels over there I realised that he was out of my league.

He asked me where I had been and I told him. Then he asked me how much my plane tickets had been. No, I explained, I went everywhere by bus. His eyes nearly popped out of his head... Bus???? Isn´t that dangerous??

No, most people go by bus and it is pretty safe. He had spent three weeks in Santa Marta so I asked him if he had been to Tayrona. No, he said, it wasn´t safe. Ahem, I beg to differ.

We moved onto to talking about Quito. I recommended the cable car. The taxi driver told him that the best way to get there and back was by buseta, a small bus, he needlessly translated for me. Ah yes, I said, that is what I did on the way back. But isn´t it dangerous, he asked.

It appeared that people in his hotel kept telling him how dangerous things were, here and in Colombia. I don´t know whether they were justified in doing so or just trying to get him to book tours and use their taxis. He had spent four months in Colombia last year and was still scared stiff of leaving the hotel alone. Obviously he was enjoying his trip immensely and it is not my place to say what he should and shouldn´t be doing.

I just felt bad that he was so scared all the time- and he could speak Spanish!

Then he was rude to the taxi driver and my sympathy evapourated....

(still no luck with the photos but I am trying)

Gringolandia

2007-02-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

I am staying in the part of town here in Quito known for its foreign population. And I have to say that it is quite weird to be surrounded by so many foreigners. The Old Town is where it is at in terms of sightseeing and museums but the New Town (where I am now) is the place for nightlife....apparantely. I wouldn´t really know since I have been at home nice and early the two nights that I have been there.

The first night I tried to go out with a girl from my dorm but, it being Sunday, our choices were limited. And last night I was alone in the dorm... poor me! I went out for dinner and got the usual bad service seemingly reserved for women who dine alone then went home and watched a film. It was fine.

Today I got up and went to the Teleferiqo (cable car to you and me). I started to walk there but soon realised that the area I was walking through was a little different from Gringolandia and I stuck out like a sore thumb. So I jumped into a cab for the rest of the way and was pleased that I had done so when I realised that the rest of the walk was up hill. Ha!

The ride starts at 9,680 ft above sea level and by the time you have reached the top of the mountain you are a heady 13,287 ft above sea level or about 4,100m. There are signs everywhere reminding you how high you are and so not to run. It is exhausting being that high. I walked along the ridge for a while but was soon totally out of breath- and for once all those around me were the same.

I watched the planes taking off from Quito airport until my body realised that height= cold. And I wasn´t wearing the thickest of shirts. My ears were hurting from the wind and the battery was running out on my camera. It seemed time to go.

Quito is a strange city in as much as it is only 4km across and 22km long. It sits in a valley and is surrounded by mountains and volcanos. I am explaining this rather than showing you photos because the PC that I am using has decided not to recognise my camera. Very annoying.

I think that I will stay in Quito until Friday and then head back for a second helping of Otavalo market. I will try and get back across the border on Saturday afternoon, if I can.

It is so strange to think that two weeks today I will be back in Blighty! I have already arranged to go straight from the airport to the pub to catch up with a few folk but I know that it will all be a little surreal. That is why the people I am meeting in the pub are mostly Colombians, ease myself back into London life gently..

and I have a question.. what did people play on panpipes before the Sound of Silence was written?

Photos from Ecuador

2007-02-26T11:02:00.000-08:00

OK, unfortunately I haven´t brought my other memory card out with me but here are some photos from San Agustin and Quito.

This was taken on the jeep safari the other day

As was this, just one of many horse and carts on the roads in Huila

We met some kids near a waterfall and they loved having their photos taken

This kid more than the others

This is my favourite statue, it looks a little bewildered and I know how it feels

This is the view from my glorious hammock at Casa Francois

me

Then we got to Ecuador and Otavalo. Where people still wear traditional dress

I loved pretty much everything I saw on the market

more hammocks

Then we arrived in Quito

Where there are still folk in traditional dress too

I should be going to the Equator tomorrow, I should have gone today but didn´t make it. My stomach has been a little dodge since changing countries again. Maybe it also feels that we are being a little unfaithful to Colombia by sneaking off to Ecuador in the early hours of Saturday morning.

I am still trying to decide what to do. Juan made me an iternary before Christmas but, short of jetting off to the Caribbean, I have pretty much ticked off everything on the list. I have to be back in Colombia soon and back in Bogota for my last weekend on 9th March. Apart from that there is no rush.

There are a few things that I missed on the rush to Ecuador so I have to go back and do those. But the route back is basically retracing my steps for a week or so. Hum, I will let you know

Helen in Charge

2007-02-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

Finally I have met someone who speaks less Spanish than me, which feels pretty good, at last! So I am doing things, buying tickets and asking questions without feeling that everyone is sighing at my slow progress through the sentences.

That said, other things have changed too. For starters... I am no longer in Colombia! Wow! I am in Ecuador. It has been a bit of a mad rush to get here because we wanted to hit the market in Otavalo this morning. We is me and a French guy, Eric, who I bumped into just after buying my bus ticket in San Agustin a couple of days ago.

We left San Agustin and went back down that nightmare road for the best part of six hours. Then onto a bus to Pasto for another five hours. Then Ipìales for a couple of hours. And finally reached the actual border at 11.30 last night.... an hour and a half after immigration closed.. carajo!

So we booked into a hostel for the night and got up at 5.35AM THIS MORNING! Yikes! Not my idea, as you can imagine. We crossed into Ecuador shortly after seven am. The stamp was also as disappointingly non-flamboyuant as the Colombian one.

Then straight into a taxi to the bus terminal and onto a bus to Otavalo. And SHOPPING!!!!!!

I bought stuff. I am happy:)

The arts and crafts here in Ecuador are shedloads better than in Colombia (sorry, Colombianos) and it is a bit weird as the currency here in US dollars.... to a point. The notes are the same but the coins are Ecuadorian centavos and US cents... which still bug me... what the hell is a ´dime´and how dare they write such nonsense on a coin???

I spent money. My bag is much heavier. I have a blanket made of alpaca. Does life get any better??

We left our bags in a hotel at the corner of the market and when we had shopped and dropped we got onto another bus to Quito.. the capital. Man, it is high here- about 3,000m above sea level or something ridiculous. But at least I have an excuse for being out of breath all the time.

Back to Colombia in a couple of days though. Then I will give you photos. And perhaps you will give me comments!

La Niña Linda

2007-02-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

I know that I should have got it together a bit earlier this morning but if you were faced with the choice of walking or lying in a hammock, overlooking a beautiful valley, watching the hummingbirds hoover around the welcoming open mouths of colourful flowers, what would you have done?

I have never seen hummingbirds in the wild before and an intriguing sight they are too. The butterflies around them were twice their size. Fantastic.

I am in San Agustin today. I left Popayan yesterday morning on a bus. Well, I say bus but it was more like a bucking broncho. The roads between Popayan and San Agustin don´t really know the meaning of the word ´sealed´. But we made it in just over five hours which was not bad. I had made the mistake of buying a bottle of water at the bus terminal and drinking freely from it before getting on the bus.

Big mistake but the time bomb was set and sure enough, two hours into the journey and things weren´t even as comfortable as they had been.

Four hours in and we bucked our way off the road and stopped at a cafe... I leapt out of the bus and by the time I had made it around the back of the bus all the male passengers were relieving themselves anywhere they could. It was reassuring to know that I hadn´t been the only one suffering in silence. I, however, used the bathroom.

I am staying in Casa Francois which is fantastic. It is owned and seeminly built by a crazy French guy. I was the only one there last night so I stayed in the dorm. But dorm is not really word enough to describe the place. It is a hexagonal building made of bamboo overlooking the valley with bottles pressed into the walls to let light in. In the place are three double beds but only one hammock swinging on the balcony. Lucky there was only me then!

Today, when I finally dragged mysefl away from Casa Francois and the hammock, I went to the Parque Archeologica. San Agustin is famous for its pre-Columbine statues which litter the valley and surrounding hills. They were carved by a people which had long since disappeared by the time the conquisadores appeared to claim the land for Spain.

The statues are an intriguing bunch of men, women, shagging monkeys and general weirdness, all perched in absolutely gorgeous landscapes. Man, do I have some great photos for you once I make it to somewhere the internet isn´t powered by hamsters running round in their wheels.

I am on an all day jeep tour tomorrow... then moving on on Friday. See you then!

Rumba

2007-02-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

It is Monday morning and I am preparing to leave Cali after a weekend here in the Colombian capital of salsa.

I arrived on Thursday, moved to a new hostel on Friday, went out on Friday night. On Saturday I went to the zoo with a girl from the hostel and later met up with Juan Pablo and Andrea. Juan Pablo was unfortunate enough to have been my student in London for a couple of months before Christmas but he seems to have forgiven me enough to take me out and show me Cali. And Andrea is his adorable girlfriend.

But first, the zoo. Cali Zoo is pretty sweet if you happen to like zoos, which I do. I know, they were not PC for so long but then people discovered that they weren´t actually poking the lions with sticks and painting extra stripes on the zebras and were, in fact, a handy way of people getting close to animals that they would never see walking down the streets of Essex.

Cali Zoo concentrates mainly on Colombian species which makes it more interesting. Admittedly if London Zoo did this then you would be faced with cages of grumpy looking badgers and pissed off foxes. But here that means monkeys and parrots galore (don´t forget the Amazon region of the country) and more butterflies than it would be wise to shake a stick at.

The zoo straddles the river and it is a pretty cool place to hang out for a couple of hours. It was a hot day and typically we arrived at siesta time. The tiger was sitting in its pool, up to its neck in water, strange rodents that I didn´t know the name of in English were doing likewise.

In fact it was only the tortoises moving and they seemed to be involved in a pretty slow act of shagging the shell off each other.

After the zoo we went back to the hostel and awaited the arrival of Juan Pablo and Andrea.

They took me to a salsa club and, bless them, didn´t even try very hard to make me dance. The club, Rumbavana, was full of youngsters but there is something about dancing salsa which makes people seem very grown up to me.

The club shut at three but undeterred we followed the typical caleño party style of simply finding another place to go. The next place, Eliptica, was an open air dance floor playing house music to the stars. Located on the top of a hill it gave some great views over the city too.

We stayed there until the lights turned on sometime after four. I made it to bed at quarter to five.

Sunday saw me hitting the mall with two girls from my dorm, in search of shoes. I love being a girl sometimes! None of us bought shoes though I was pretty damn close. I love new shoes and the idea of having a pair that I bought in Colombia (though the same are for sale in the UK) so that I could look down at my feet and sigh wistfully about my days in deepest darkest South America was pretty alluring. Instead we went to the cinema.

Hum, we selected an American movie, Babel, on the understanding that it hadn´t been dubbed into Spanish. What we didn´t know was that, given that a third of the movie is set in Mexico and a third in Tokyo (with Spanish subtitles) there was no need to have dubbed it. Tested my Spanish to the max it has to be said and the three of us still don´t really agree on the ending of the Tokyo story.

After the movie, Juan Pablo and Andrea picked me up again and we had a bite to eat and saw the cats of Cali.

The original cat, El Gato del Rio, sits next to the river with a smart look on his face. And no wonder since he is currently surrended by a feline harem decorated by Colombian artists in a best kitty competition. Good stuff.

All too soon it was time to go back to the hostel. Poor Juan Pablo had to work today so no late night dancing for us. It was great to have my tour guides in Cali and good to see that a month away from England hasn´t affected their English.

I have only one regret in Cali and that is that I hardly saw any big fake boobs at all. I don´t know if this is because it was too hot here (22 degrees at three am for starters) so the owners of the boobs have to stay home with them packed in ice to stop them melting or what. But I did see more than enough in Medellin and the occassional pair here.

As for the debate about which city has the most beautiful women, Cali or Medellin, I have to admit that I am still just looking at the fellas...

Mamita

2007-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

I might not have danced last night but I still left the club with the barman´s phone number...I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!!

And here are a couple more photos that didn´t make it on here yesterday for one reason or another

Botero´s bird of peace in Medellin. The first one was partially destroyed by a bomb so they have put a new one next to it.

From the top of El Peñol

City walls of Cartagena

More Photos

2007-02-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

You know that I have hundreds more photos than I will ever post on here for you guyds. And not because they are ´naughty´ones. But today it is a rainy Friday morning in Cali and I am waiting for my washing to dry.. hum.. so I will fill the time with giving you more photos.

So here are another couple from Cartagena

A girl on La Playa Blanca

The Virgin Mary in the harbour at Cartagena

The old town from the boat

Terrified dog at the fiesta in Cartagena

The view from El Peñol near Medellin

El Peñnol, you can see the steps which we climbed, over 650 of the little blighters

View of Medellin from the bus terminal

The balcony at the Black Sheep Hostel in Medellin, great place for lazy afternoons

Resting man

Manizales

The reassuring sign that there has been no deaths or accidents recently on the buses

Plantation House hostel in Salento, weirdly attracts more female visitors than male

The horses that we should have ridden rather than go on another trek(!)

Wax palms

A bridge(?)

Wax palms

Chivas in Cocora

Everyone relieved to see the jeep again

Bustling metroplis of Salento

The town´s main form of transport

A beer in Salento

The citizens of Salento

Cowboys!

And that is more than enough, I think!

Have a great weekend, particularly those of you celebrating any kind of new year this weekend.. enjoy the fireworks!

Oh, and happy wedding day, Sam and Barclay!! All the best!

Old and new

2007-02-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

It is funny that you can spend a day with someone and still miss them. Here are Linda and Fernando, now in Ecuador, who I met in Medellin

I am now in Cali, leaving behind the gorgeousness of Salento. I spent three days in Salento, about forty minutes outside Armenia. I went there with two Canadians that I had met in Medellin and again in Manizales. By the time that we were leaving the Mountain House in Manizales it seemed silly not to just get the same bus.

We arrived into an empty Plantation House hostel but it had filled up by the time that we came back from dinner. And people seemed to be plotting a five hour hike the next day. How I get myself into these things I just don´t know!

But I was up with the others the next day and bundling into the back of a jeep

We went to Cocora Valley to look at some wax palms, really big palm trees. We set off on the hike together but I dropped out at 3.5km and made a leisurely stroll back to the meeting point. The rest of them went on for another two or so kms before turning back. It was only when we all got back that we saw the map with the arrow pointing the other way... ah well, the scenery was fantastic

All very nice and the walk back by myself was good. Until I decided not to risk the shaky bridge that I had crossed on my hands and knees the last time and decided to wade across instead. And fell in. You have never seen anyone move so quick to get their camera out of the way before it hit the water. Bag was saved but self was soaked from top to bottom.

I was trying to decide whether I could get away with not telling anyone when the others started reappearing. Ah well.

A couple of us went out that night to paint Salento red. We met some weird looking locals who wanted to dance salsa. Having trodden all over some poor boy´s feet on Saturday night I declined and looked after the drinks instead.

And the next day I went to PANACA with the Canadian couple. I can´t remember exactly what it stands for but it is something to do with agricultural. It was a weird place. If I say to you that the racing pigs were the most normal part you might begin to understand.

These pigs were friendly but didn´t race.

Here is Fran riding a cow

It was that kind of place really. Fun but really weird.

Then it started to rain. Having been wet for hours the day before I elected to buy a raincoat there and then.

And off we went to the rodeo. The donkeys and horses were all housed under the seats but didn´t want to miss out on the attention

And finally we went back to Salento, shuttle bus from PANACA to Quimbaya (without enough time to go to the Britain disco bar, shame), bus from Quimbaya to Armenia and bus from Armenia to Salento. And collapse into the hostel and the welcoming paws of the hostel kitten.

Today I got up and came to Cali. So I am in Cali now. I checked into the hostel and came out. That is all I have to say right now.

Leaving my heart in Manizales

2007-02-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

I have loved being here in Manizales. Mainly because I finally got to go out dancing! Hooray for me... and we were adopted by some Colombian students eager to tell us that Manizales was the best city in Colombia and to welcome us to the country in general

And it turns out that I was allowed to take one of them home with me. I didn´t want to be greedy so I just took the small one

On a slightly different note, every town in Colombia has a Plaza Bolivar with a statue of the Liberator in it. But Manizales has a slightly different way to portray this national hero

naked with a condor head. I like it!

Fighting the hangover and lack of sleep yesterday I went to Chinchina to see a coffee plantation. It was very tranquil and beautiful. Here is one of the many photos I took

Coffee Break

2007-02-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

I did it, I left Medellin. I didn´t stay for the bullfight in the end as the girl that had been cooking for me was leaving so I thought that I should too. Haha! Nah, that is not the only reason but it can be tricky to make decisions and so when someone else makes them it can be a good idea to just piggyback them.

So I am in Manizales now, start of the Zona Cafetera, coffee stuff. I arrived in the dark last night but went for a quick walk through the zona rosa and saw Manizales finest out for their Friday night of fun, crowded chiva buses stormed past blaring out music and cheers. Being alone, I just sat, had dinner and watched.

Today people from the hostel have gone off hiking in Parque Nacional los Nevados- basically volcanos, thermal springs and snow. I didn´t go because I didn´t have enough money on me to pay for the trip last night. I am waiting to hear about it tonight and then plan to go either tomorrow or Monday. They told me that it is really cold out there so I am practising wearing shoes after a month of sandals.. it feels kinda weird.

And it is a bit colder here in Manizales too- we are in mountains so it is not surprising but I had to sleep under two blankets last night, it was only a week ago that I couldn´t even sleep under a sheet even under the fan! Ah, the Caribbean coast... sigh.

I have photos for you but don´t have my USB cable on me as I was planning to go to a rainforest at the edge of the city but have ended up in the centre instead. Couldn´t pass up the opportunity to get on the net, god I am too addicted! Now I am going to get some lunch and then head to the Jardin Botanico as it is only three blocks from the hostel.. sounds good to me!

Just so...

2007-02-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

.. I feel like I have done something today, here are some photos...

This is La Playa Blanca on Baru, las islas del rosario near Cartagena

Part of the dolphin show at the outdoor aquarium in the islas

Botero sculpture in the museo in Medellin

Can't remember the name of the church in Medellin

the cable car going up to Santo Domingo in Medellin, not the nicest part of town

Bandeja paisa, typical food.

On top of the world, well on top of the rock at El Penol near Medellin

and again

near el norte bus terminal...sorry guys, no photos of the plastic boobs

Alcohol loosens the tongue

2007-02-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning with a head full of Spanish and a belly full of margaritas. Well, that is not entirely true. I was woken up by an English girl bursting into the room and demanding to know what her friend wanted to do today. Being half cut I rolled over in my bed and joined the discussion, in English. But when they had gone I tried to think to myself and it was all in Spanish, bad Spanish.

The reason for this was that last night I was out with some people, a couple of Americans and a guy from Chile. Everyone could speak Spanish but one could not speak English. We went to the zona rosa here in Medellin, famous for having more plastic boobs than a barbie factory.

And from what we saw it was exactly true. Those girls are so top heavy and so young.. and their fellas are such overweight slobs. It was weird. Around one the Americans wanted to go home but me and Fernando wanted to stay. So we did. And later tried to find another place to go but with no luck. So we came back to the hostel and sat on the balcony with a Colombian woman. The whole conversation was in Spanish. For four hours I didnt, couldnt, speak English.

Of course I made so many mistakes and they were kind and patient with me. And the nearer it got to five am the harder it was to form any words in any language. And at that time my Korean started to come out again which was no help to anyone. But I went to bed feeling quite pleased with myself for having spoken the most Spanish I have ever done in one evening. Hooray for me.

Today I was supposed to leave Medellin but it is now one thirty in the afternoon and I can still taste the toothpaste. And there is no point leaving tomorrow morning as the bullfighting is tomorrow night here in Medellin and I am feeling bloodthirsty.

So I guess that I will be out of here on Saturday.... maybe

Estoy en Medellin

2007-02-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

I have been told that people will be wondering where I am. Well I am still in Colombia, of course, in Medellin. On Sunday I went to Las Islas del Rosario for the day- good beaches, great aquarium, many pelicans.. then on Monday I got the bus to Medellin... which took forever.

The first reason that it took a long time is that I arrived at the bus terminal at seven thirty and they told me that the next bus with a free seat going my way was at ELEVEN.. huff.

But with no choice I took that option. The girl at the counter took the approach of speaking to me LOUDLY and SLLLLOOOOWWWLLLY in Spanish... even though I was answering all of her questions correctly, also in Spanish. ah well. The film was dubbed into Spanish but they had the Spanish subtitles on so I was able to follow all of it which was very satisfying.

However at the promised arrival time of midnight we were still in our third police road block so I knew that bed was still a long way away. In fact, I finally got to the hostel at 2am.

Tuesday I slept for a while then went into the city for a look round. Medellin is the owner of the only metro system in Colombia and as far as I know, the only one that connects to a cable car... it was cool. Actually the cable car connects some of the poorest parts of the city to the metro system so it is all a bit voyeuristic for us tourists. I did take some photos but I didn´t get off the cable car at any point.

Today I have climbed a bloody big rock to see some amazing views. I will get back to you with photos as and when I can.

So I am alive, I am in Medellin but I think that I am moving on again tomorrow. Bye for now!