more ice cream

Am loving this city, and the great owners of this hostal. All chilling on the terrace when it transpires that you can get ice cream delivered....how cool is that! So am now waiting unt il some lovely man delivers BA / ar gentinas best ice cream to my door...... 4 scoops for 1.30!

another lazy day in buenos aires

Well today we actually managed to see daylight and went to the park! not really quite sure how the park ended `up in the guidebooks as it is rather crap as parks go and is ringed by a 12 line road (i know, i counted) which our taxi driver drove across without appearing to look. Anyway, lots of dog and mosquitos, but there was a man with a bike with ice cream which redeemed itself! Also somehow managed to talk the boys into going to see the Japanese Garden which was dreadful (oops) but did have the scariest fish know to man...koi carp are evil looking things

Day was saved by the next 3 hours being spent in a resturant eating steak and drinking red wine......bit of a theme going on here!

argentinian madness

many exciting things to s ay today, but the keyboard at this computer is v dodgy and annoying so it will have to be in abbreviated form!

fab night last night....lots of red wine and steak in v fancy resturant for $10 ( dont you just love it when a country has an economic crash!) followed by cool bar, great gay club (although only stayed for 30mins as was with 3 boys who were all v nervous) rather cheesy other club where danced lots with crazy irish guy from hostal, taxi ride home with great music, so made t xi driver drive round the block 3 more times so we could listen some more, then collapsed into bed at 7, to be woken at 9 to speak to some woman from my spanish school (spanish after 2 hours sleep is not good)

Obviously then didnt see much of the morning. but made it to my spansih school for 2, where i met this girl i became friends with when i travelled round mexico 7 years ago! crazy. then this evening i learnt how to use a juicer (much to the amusement of the guy here who i forced to show me how) so made myself fresh orange juice ...... mmmmmm

I see tall people

Am now in buenos aires and am loving all the tall, glam people everywhere....really is v lovely. I have booked myself into a really small hostal in what appears to be the notting hill area of buenos aires and had a real job not to bankrupt myself when i went for a wander yesterday...some v beautiful shoe and handbag boutiques around (have given up on beautiful clothes as all the women here are about a size 2!)

Anyway, made mum pround walked my socks off yesterday getting my bearings, and mastering the underground at the same time - i had pretty good wanders round the 3 key areas and staggered back into the hostal at about 6! And today, after recovering from last night, has been spent chilling out in San Telmo. Its known as the tango centre of BA and on Sunday has an arts and crafts / antiques market with lots of music / street art etc so it was lovely to wander round. Saw some amazing tango in the street (and now have conflicting...really want to learn, but it looks really complicated!) and heard some fab music, tango music is just so haunting. Then decided i needed to rest so wandered over to Boca which is a bit of the beaten track, collapsed in a park and then spent the next couple of hours listening to all these groups who set up in the park.....and we arent talking 2 guys and a guitar, these groups were prepared with drums kits, serious loudspeakers etc, one group even set a stage up! and as far as i could tell, it wasnt a special festival, just people playing. Really has been a v lovely afternoon. Got myself sorted for some more spanish lessons next week but it is going to be hard to give up póttering!

caroline finally catches up with rachel

yep, you may have noticed that i have started to add some photos to this web. Have put some from brazil (june) and some from the galapagos. Am going to try to backfill and keep adding new ones from here on in so keep your eyes peeled! Am v proud of myself

whats happened to me

the galapagos has ruined me for life!!! went to bed at 8.30 again last night. hope i can recover my party-gene for BA....

voy a compras!

In other words, i have gone shopping! After being marooned in the shop-free (well, interesting shops) world that is most of ecuador, I have gone on a bit of a shopping spree this morning, mostly buying up Ecuadors supply of cds. Its legal to copy discs here so they are only a dollar - hurah! Have now got a sizeable latin music library to see me through the cold winter days when i finally make it back to the uk. More importantly though, have bought dirty dancing DVD for the bargin price of $2. Am v happy girly. Just have to worry about how to fit it all in my backpack, although this worry has been partially alleviated by the happy news from the travel agent here that I am allowed 30kg of luggage (hurrah - had been working on 20kg which was going to be an extreme push, if not impossible!)

was planning on going to crepes and waffles for the best salad in ecuador, but the heavens have now opened so think its a good excuse to stay here and catch up on my woefully behind e-mails.

Wildlife, wildlife and more wildlife

So, am back on dry land again after a very wobbly week on board the lovely cachalote pottering around the Galapagos, and what an amazing week it has been. Being me, I didnt really research what boat to go on (for this read, did no research whatsoever) and instead just booked the same boat that my friend recommended, and it turned out to be great. Cabins a little small and the captain was a little on the flirtatious side (but this at least meant I got to drive the boat for 10 mins - yep, you read right, I drove a big boat and didnt crash it for a good period of time!) but the food was great (always the most important thing for me) and the guide was excellent. Plus I was really lucky as most of the people on the cruise were young, and everyone was interesting, which helped a lot. So, without boring you to death, saw just about everything it is possible to see on the islands and was blown away by just how much of everything there was. For example, on the first day we went tortoise spotting in the highlands expecting to spend the 2 hours really searching with the hope of seeing one! Ha! Within the first 10 mins we had spotted 6 and the number kept growing....and they are just amazing creatures, huge and beautiful and not at all scared of humans

Anyway, those that know me best, will know I am a water lover at heart and whilst the birds and land mammals (ie more iguanas than you can shake a stick at - difficult to avoid treading on them all the time, but narrowly avoided killing anything!) were interesting, especially the flamingos .... they are pink after all ...... it was the underwater world of the Galapagos that really blew me away. We always had the chance to go snorkelling once or twice a day and despite the mind numbing temperatures, I was in the sea every chance I got. So saw LOADS of pacific green turtles swimming (hard to believe they are endangered when you cant swim for nearly colliding with one!) and huge shoals of the most amazingly coloured fish, swam with sharks (well one) and watched at least 40 or 50 swimming around from the safety of a panga and was even lucky enough to be snorkelling and watch 2 penguins swimming around and chasing fish (completely unsuccesfully I might add.....god knows how they manage to stay alive) as well as seeing golden and eagle rays swimming (the most elegant things ever). Also saw dolphins playing in the sea and watched a huge manta ray swim along. But the highlight of my week has to be swimming with sea lions. It was just incredible. I hadnt realised that they were so playful, but I was happily swimming along when one came zooming towards me giving me a heart attack! So after I had recovered (and stopped choking to death) I then spent the next quarter of an hour or so playing with 3 baby sea lions who seemed to love the fact I was tumbling and turning with me. They would flip about, swim under me, swim round me and play with each other and it was just incredible to be part of it. This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but really felt they were playing with me rather than just around me. Couldnt get enough of it!

We were also really lucky with the weather and for most of the trip had really good weather, so splayed myself out on the deck whenever we had a spare five minutes and enjoyed the sun.....so have come back with an excellent tan as well as amazing memories and lots of rather similar photos (250 in all!!!)

Am now back in Quito and it is really lovely to be back, although it feels strange to be here knowing I wont bump into Amanda, Rachel or Eva (sob). Was really funny coming back as it really felt like coming home, and then realised that I have spent longer here than anywhere else this year, so no wonder it feels like home!!! Am flying to Buenos Aires on Friday so am now planning on spending the next couple of days enjoying Quito, eating in all my favourite places, getting plenty of sleep in (the Galapagos were exhausting!) and generally relaxing here before setting off again.

cuenca again

Finally left vilcabamba (although as the leaflet for my hostal says, you can check out but you will never leave!!!!) and all the madness that went with it. Dont think i described the hostal we stayed in....it was really v nice with a pool and good gardens etc, but it was run by a load of Germans (with a v scary/hilarious german on reception with the craziest laugh you have ever heard) so there were a lot of rules. The most annoying one of which was that there would be no dvd watching after 6pm! we managed to get round this by befriending the barman (the only non-german and holder of key to cupboard with aforementioned dvd) and letting him watch the variety of chick flicks that we had bought specially!

Also had my first attempt at reiki, and i think it will be my last! I thought it was going to be the therapist hovering hands over me and sorting out any aches and pains or whatever. But it turned out to be him putting his hands on various energy points and leaving them there for 5 mins while he breathed in a calm manner!!! Needless to say i was a bit too british for all that and became v self concious of my breathing and nearly died from not breathing enough!!! And after all that torture he told me i had some stubborn energy in the heart area, from old emotional trauma, but it was ok now cause he had gotten rid of it. Phew I thought!!!! Dont really think alternative therapies are for me! Give me some antidepressants and a bottle of vodka any day (only kidding mum!)

despite the best efforts of the Germans, Vilcabamba was v relaxing though and had a lovely time hanging out with Kate adn emma whilst trying to avoid the 18yr olds who seemed to want to adopt us as friends! ha am now back in cuenca for a night to break up the journey to guayacil and then on to the galapagos - hurrah!

Town of long life

Well finally managed to leave Cuenca on Wednesday, but went out in a blaze of glory! After saying that we were just going to the cafe for a cup of tea and a game of curenta (great ecuadorean to which we are all addicted) after dinner, we ended up being talked in to going out to a local bar with the guys who we had been hanging out with, and then at 4am decided we might as well just stay up all night as we had to leave at 8! This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I then slept for the entire 5 hour journey to Loja and as such missed the point in the journey where the bus was 2cm away from a crumbling road edge and 50m drop. Apparently even some ecuadoreans were going up to the front to try to get off and walk and Kate and Emma (new travelling friends) really thought they were going to die! That great journey was then topped by Emma getting her bag stolen and being charged twice for the next bus journey as the bag nicking incident meant that we missed our original bus. Grrrrr Luckily Vilcabamba is lovely and v relaxing so we all calmed down once we got here. So much so that i was pursuaded it would be a good idea to spend all of yesterday on a horse......beautiful ride but am REALLY suffering today. But, the brill think about Vilcabamba is that there are loads of massage places, so am booked in for back massage and reiki session tonight....hurrah. Just in time to relax before my 11 hour journey to Guayacil....urgh

Happy Birthday Vicki

Lots of love to my baby sister on her birthday! yet again i miss it but am thinking of you!

Colonial cities and laziness

Am currenlty in Cuenca after escaping riobamba smartish (not a whole lot to do there!) and have basically been doing a lot of wandering around pretty streets, enjoying the sun (hallelujah) and going out. Met some lovely girls in the hostal and so have been trying to root out the night life of cuenca with them, not being all that successful i have to add on most occasions. So short blog today just to let you know i am alive but not up to much! Did have a v good chinese last night though....hurrah for a meal that isnt fish rice and beans

I´m back

Well after being marooned in the civilisation free world that is the mountains here, i am back with lots to say, but promise not to say all of it! So after hellish 23hr journey, involving unhelpful bus drivers refusing to let me off at bus terminals and breakfasts of chicken and rice (note to self, never ask for breakfast in small towns without first clarifying what constitutes breakfast!) finally arrived at the little haven of peace, serenity and chocolate brownies that is the black sheep inn. Its right in the middle of nowhere but has amazing scenery and is run on really great eco-friendly principles. And so enthusiastic are they about these principles that i even found myself getting excited about permaculture and composting toilets (dad, be warned, i have lots of ideas for how to turn the farm into an eco-dream!!!!)

So ended up staying there for 5 nights whilst I hiked, ate aforementioned chocolate brownies, rode horses, explored cloud forests and contemplated my navel/the mountain scenery. Bliss. Even completed a 5 hour hike back from this amazing volcanic lake which, given we were at 3500m was no small task, especially the nasty climb up out of a big gorge at teh end of the hike. Fun walk though this aside and got a great insight into how people live out here - basically with difficulty, lots of walking and LOTS of children!

But finally managed to drag myself away (i think the fact i had to leave on a 4am bus contributed to my extended stay) and made my way on another epic bus journey to thi stiny town called Salinas which turned out to be amazing. It is famous as it is basically a town of co-ops and it has been incredibly succesful at running itself to generate more money/empowerment/self esteem for the local population. And whats great is that it is possibly the friendliest place I have ever been in and most people seem very content with their lives, and the majority of young people choose to stay there (the hostal is built and run by a co-op of young people even!). Luckily for anyone who loves me back home, it was unfortunaltely rather (for that read amazingly) cold after about 1pm, otherwise I would at this moment be looking for an ecuadorian to marry so i could stay there!

however, as you will have guessed from this entry, I finally left and re-entered civilisation today and am currently in the rather bland town of riobamba before i head off to cuenca tommorrow for inca ruins and colonial architecture. hurrah

Oh, one thing that has been amusing me for a while but i always forget to mention...am loving how popular sponge bob square pants (or bob esponja as he is known here) is. Every manner of disposable good has been festooned with his image and my current favourite, beating the rather dull matresses and backpacks, is teh bob esponja range of ice creams!!!!