http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Helan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Helan en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:06:07 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:06:07 BST Hi yallIve been here in Medellin for about 2 and a half weeks now and all is going well. Im staying with Gali a Peruvian sort of missionary and the other Cruzadas here and theyre really nice. I arrived with the intention of teaching English for a week in a school but that fell through due to Bureaucratic reasons beyond my control Anyway Ive since found my voluntary work actually Maria El http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Antioquia/blog-303333.html Hola fui con David hace casi un mes para el Cumple de Couchsurfing in Choroni. Habia bastante genta alla como 23 chicos de CS. Pasemos demasiado bueno y queria poner estas fotos antes pero estuve muy vaga...Ac estan algunas espero que los disfruten.BesosHelen http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Central/Maracay/blog-299344.html I very nearly didnt get into Colombia. Justo and I traveled from Maracay in Venezuela overnight to Maracaibo and when we were nearly in Maracaibo I went to get my toothbrush out of my bag and discovered that it had been gone through and my passport driving licence credit card and some dollars were missing everything was in one of those silly waistpouches which are uncomfortable to carry arou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Magdalena/blog-296518.html Here I am in Caracas finding it horrendously expensive even though Im not paying for accommodation. Should be leaving fairly soon. Ive been having a great time and have been accompanied most of the time by various hospitality club and couchsurfing members so thats been great fun. Ive tasted the national beer Polar and I can safely say its far nicer than Brazilian beer ha ha... Ive alrea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Capital/Caracas/blog-281928.html After leaving Henrique and Joao Pinheiro poor lonely Helan sat on the bus until Sao Paulo. There Leo EF student from 2005 came to pick me up. We went back to his house and I had a fab welcome from him and his family everyone really extra nice to me and Leo sorted out a very nice bbq that afternoon which was great. Churrasco...mmm. I spent the day talking to him and his family. That evening I me http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-87924.html Ok its time this got written. Ive been staying in Joao Pinheiro now since 6th August staying with Henrique Brasilian I met while travelling and with whom I travelled for about 6 weeks in Bolivia and Peru along with Leo and his grandmother. Henriques family own farms and so Ive really enjoyed myself a lot workingwith Henrique riding horses feeding and playing with foals watching cattle http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Minas-Gerais/blog-83448.html Hi againAm desperately trying to update this as usual before I forget all the little bits. But dhabbitude am so bored of it that Ill not bother with all the main bits. oops wasnt supposed to admit that..Anyway in Manaus I got on a very different boat to go to Belem. This time instead of having 8 passengers we were between 250 and 300 incredible. Of the 4 nights I slept there I only slept in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/blog-82383.html Am just back from a Catholic Festival in Minas Gerais its about 70 mins from Joao Pinheiro. The weirdest festival Ive ever been to. We went on Sat afternoon until Monday evening. Its a mix of wasted nonbelievers and wasted belivers. Everyone drinking beer all day long and going to mass At 5am mass starts and its blared out all over the village from loudspeakersWeirdest thing about it is t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Minas-Gerais/blog-82365.html Christ where to begin Sucre was back in May about 26th more or less... I was travelling with Henrique and Leo wed just started travelling together and things were good. After spending a night in Uyuni after the salt flats tour I went with Leeanne and Sue to Sucre passing Potosi and spending a few hours there. Arriving in Sucre I decided to find a cheaper hotel than the one Leeanne and Sue de http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Chuquisaca-Department/Sucre/blog-80580.html Hi againSoz have been out of contact for a while travelblog gets out of hand I fall behind and then its just way too much effort to know where to begin to write... Anyhoo have now left Justo again a week and 2 days ago in Rurrenabaque Bolivia. It was very sad to leave him because we dont know when well see each other again. Im going home this day in 7 weeks and hes in La Paz going onto http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/Manaus/blog-77723.html Just back a few days ago from lovely Pampa 3 day tour. Will see about putting the photos up now... Um actually I cant. Bugger and damnation. Will try to from Brasil where computers are faster I hope.We saw endless numbers of aligators caimen or is it caimans qutie a few monkeys howler cappuchino spider some pink and grey river dolphins loads of birds especially enormous egrets toucans http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-75207.html Back yesterday early evening all sweaty and minging even more than usual. Had been on a 4 day jungle trip where I was thinking Id see shitloads of animals. I think the guides were making all the monkey noises we were supposed to hear. Our guide would wait until the cook and the other guy had gone on ahead and then make a monkey call and wed hear the reply but it sounded so similar that I could http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-74141.html And I suppose it's worth it...Got to Machu Picchu about 6am on the outrageously overpriced bus which takes about 20mins from Aguas Calientes and costs a whopping 6US Got there all excited about the sunrise and found the surly wagon at the ticket desk annoyed with me as I'd not bought my entrance ticket in advance what a pile of excrement. Anyway so I had to impatiently wait for about 15mins whi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-70421.html Saludos a todosI've now been in Cusco for over a week. I finally met up with Henrique and Leo on Wednesday night after Henrique checked his emails. So that was really nice. He left this morning to fly to Lima and then flies home to Brasil tomorrow so am on my own again.This week in Cusco has been quite exciting. Lots of street parties and dancing and drunkenness leading up to 24th Inti Raymi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-69525.html Amazing place so I quickly have to put some photos of it on before I lose all patience. We spent a night on the North part and did the walk back to the south to get the blood flowing. Lovely ruins there too. Skinny dipping was great fun but really cold http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Isla-del-Sol/blog-68287.html Hola Have now been in Peru since 7th June where I entered Puno from Copacabana in Bolivia. So that's just under 2 weeks now. In Puno I went to a museum called Museo de la Coca y Customs in which I viewed a video highlighting the main traditional dances of Puno there are 400 recognised dances that was really interesting shame I have since mixed them all up and can't remember the names or f http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-67943.html Just back now...It was good but not as I'd expected. We spent nearly all the time in the jeep which was quite cramped. First day and I got an extra lolipop for sighting 4 condors on the ground. Apparently they were hunting. There was a mother and 3 young. I'd only ever seen them in the air before so I was well chuffed mostly about the lolipop though. My camera is useless so I don't have any go http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Uyuni/blog-61389.html Yesty morning I left the warm embrace of Humahuaca and got a bus to La Quiaca which borders Bolivia. Opposite me on the bus was a young girl with her baby who proceeded to poo everywhere. It absolutely stank and there was no air conditioning and I couldn039t open the windys. She sort of mopped up the excess and plonked the pagan pile Podge Rodge on top of the place where you rest cups. I w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Tupiza/blog-60100.html Justo and I were in Foz do Iguacu for nearly a week waiting for the puente de Amistad to open so we could cross the bridge and get into Paraguay. During that time we visited the world's largest unless Japan has completed its bigger and better resevoir dam Itaipu which means something like rock which sings I think it's Guarani. It's pretty impressive. Unluckily I didn't have my camera with http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-59627.html I had great expectations of writing this blog and making it really cool and interesting... Now I've freezing cold hands and my eyes are destroyed. Ah but I'll give it a go. Please forgive my spelling.We came back into Arg via Resistencia from Asuncion after having spent about 5 weeks in Paraguaydamn I have to write about that too another day and went straight to Jujuy. We looked around and went http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Jujuy/San-Salvador-de-Jujuy/blog-58935.html