http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ClaireLouiseRyan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ClaireLouiseRyan en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:10:56 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:10:56 BST After a hellish 16 hour bus journey next to a CRYING BABY which I have to admit I nearly throttled after being woken up ever hour by grizzling and a collectivo ride through the mountains I arrived in MERIDA Whoop whoop. Its a really cool university town sadly at its summer none of the students are around but it still has a cool atmosphere. Im staying in a really cool and quite price12 a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-192193.html We were hoping on a smooth boarder crossing but as this is South America nothing is ever as simple as it sounds. Traveling with three massive bike boxes didn't help as ever policeman bus driver and person we met along the way wanted to rip us off The bus to the boarder was fine but crossing the boarder took agesssss as we had our passports checked literally ten times. We finally arrived in Ma http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Guayana/Canaima-National-Park/blog-192119.html After recovering from our debauched night in Taganga we all set off to Cartagena. Weme Power Rich and Robin met up with Blenkthe other cyclist and his girlfriend LauraJones. Cartagena is a beautiful colonial city and we spend our first day exploring the old town and EL FORTO We mucked around in the underground tunnels and got beautiful views of the city. That night I met up with Georg http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-192113.html After I sweated it out on the mammoth trek I headed To Parque National Tyrona with Tamzin and Paul. The nation park was absolutely beautiful and contained prefect beaches white sand palm trees and turquoise water. It was a very stressful couple of days alternating between working on my tan swimming and reading. I managed to survive the hardship I was face with and emerged browner than ever http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/Parque-Nacional-Tayrona/blog-191973.html I have just returned from the most amazing 6 days spent trecking through the Columbian jungle. We set off on Wednesday in a group of twelve to reach a lost city hidden in the depths of the jungle. The area is controlled by the military at the moment and we had to pay them off so that they would protect us as in 2004 8 tourists were kidnapped We didn't have any problems on the trip and the whole http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/Ciudad-Perdida/blog-182287.html Well its been a very busy week We left San Agustin and got a bus to Cali which took absolutely ages as at one point we got stuck in a massive hole in the road and had to dig ourselves out. Well I didn't personally help but it did look pretty tiring We arrived in Cali which was so HOT we spent the afternoon relaxing and went out to salsa in the evening. The main strip was very deceptive as ever http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-179381.html Greetings from Columbia home of well Cocaine guerrilla men paramilitary soldiers and the mafia However I have been here for over a week and have had no sign of any of those things but have seen a lot of a very beautiful country. We arrived in Bogota on Sunday and spent the next day wandering around the city. We visited a few churches and an art gallery and just soaked in the city. In the af http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-179363.html Well this is my first blog in a few weeks since Dave went home Ive been chilling out in Quito. I'm now back with the family I was living with which I'm now very ready to leave We had a girlie trip to Otavalo last weekend wearing our Quito girls do it better T Shirts I spent a lot of money but managed to buy loads of very cool stuff and more jewelery than I would ever need We have had quite http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-175537.html After a throughly exhausting weekend attempting Cotopaxi going back to work was very hard. Dave came to Cenit on Tuesdays which was really cool and he got to meet all the kids. He really enjoyed himself and the kids loved him. They treated him as a jungle gym and fought over who got to climb on him. At one point two of the boys tried to pull out him chest and leg hair On Wednesday we went out wi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quilitoa-Loop/blog-169308.html After leaving the beach I headed to Banos which is a little town in the mountains with Dave. We found a very cool hostel and went out to Casa Hood my fave restaurant there and had a lovely dinner. On Thursday it was my birthday I have now finally turned nineteen. I had the most amazing day we went out for cake and smoothies for breakfast and I opened my presents. Thank you to everyone who g http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Ba%F1os/blog-168422.html Well Friday saw the start of my week of which meant I got to do lots of traveling with Dave. We set off on Thursday night for Montinita a very cool hippy surfer town where we met up with all the guys from Cuenca and were joined on Saturday by Ben Ezim and Tamzin. We all had a really chilled out weekend the weather wasn'tt great but we still put in a lot of beach time Dave did manly bonding http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Monta%F1ita/blog-165727.html Well last Thursday Dave arrived it was so amazing to see him after three months and to surprise him with the very cool yet cheap apartment we have rented in Quito We are living just away from the Mariscalgringo land but we have a very quite street and can just stumble home after ladies night with no problems. I spent my first weekend in Quito in ages On Saturday we visited the old town and w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Mitad-del-Mundo/blog-161771.html Stop what youre doing right now quit your job you never really liked it anyway jack in exams and switch off Jeremy Kyle for 5 minutes. Done that Excellent now go and book a trip to the Galapagos Islands I promise you it will be the most amazing thing you do this year. I have just returned from the most incredible week ever words could never do it justice but dont worry Ill still fill th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-158533.html Canoa South America Ecuador Canoa By ClaireLouiseRyanMay 2nd 2007Claire Louise Ryan Well we all had last Friday off school so we set off for a three day weekend to Canoa. We took an over night bus and a short ferry and arrived at a beautiful little beach town. We had a really lazy few days of sunbathing a surfing. We all got into the great routine of happy hour hopping and cocktails by the be http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Canoa/blog-154548.html Well despite the embassy advice and recent eruptioncough cough and various parental Ecuadorian and English pleas that its too dangerous we decided to hop foot to Banos anyway We managed to return with only a major case of rope burnEmma and a very nasty bruiseTamsin caused by our weekends adventures. I had an amazingly chilled out weekend it was great to actually get a bit of a lie in9 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Ba%F1os/blog-151612.html Cuenca South America Ecuador Cuenca By ClaireLouiseRyanApril 14th 2007Claire Louise Ryan Well this is a lil late as we went a few weekends ago but it was loads of fun. There are 7 people from our group staying in Cuenca and they were there all weekend so we hung out with them a lot. It was a kinda eating tour as we seems to hope from one ice cream place to the next cake shop scoffing our fat http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Cuenca/blog-151605.html Well its a little bit late but after returning from the jungle we all went to watch the good Friday procession on coincidently good Friday. It was a bit of a let down as it had been hyped up so muchdamn lonely planet. There were hundred of monks in purple KKK style outfits and lots of men dressed up as Jesus on the cross. It was pretty impressive to watch tho and I'm glad I went. Easter week http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-149373.html I have just returned from our 6 day adventure trip to the jungle and I dont think Ive had that much fun since we got here. The tour we had was absolutely amazing I went with Imogen Sarah Tamzin and a very annoying Italian guy who tagged along. We set off on Friday night and took an overnight bus when we arrived at about 7am we met our guide Diego and got into a motorised canoe and set off do http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Reserva-Cuyabeno/blog-145798.html Well Ive realised that I havent yet put up any pictures of my school so here they are. As you can tell its really small prob about 40 kids in total and very small classes of around 89. Its a very poor school but I'm really enjoying working there. It can be really tough as there are no resources or a curriculum but its nice to have the freedom to teach what we want. Since I last posted Ive vis http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-143507.html Well after our first week we were all thougerly knacked and needed a well earned break. We set off to Mindo in the cloud forest on Friday night in the pouring rain We were all happy to get to Mindo which is about two hrs away and found a really nice hostel which was only 4.50 each the woman who ran it was lovely and really helpful over the weekend. To get there we did have a very scary ride http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Mindo/blog-141534.html