OllieB
Oliver Benn Joined: August 11th 2006
Logged in: September 5th 2009
Logged in: September 5th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
I´ll keep this one quick. In the morning we went to the local indigenous community. On the way into the jungle, we each had to pay them $20 because we were technically on their land. $20, FYI is a fortune out here. So we were expecting quite a show when we went to visit them. Well, let´s just say we didn´t get it. The community was very basic, but they didn´t take particularly good care of their land, and in the school all the desks and chairs were tipped over. It was still pretty amazing to see how a community could live out in the rainforest and how they survived, but I´m not exactly sure where that $20 is going. The four hour boat ride back was a pleasure. We saw tons of birds and even ... read more
Our morning hike was full of adrenaline. We actually departed by starting on a trail right behind the lodge and just going. After spotting a tarantula and a spider, we stopped to eat lemon ants, so called because the first person ever to eat one apparently had never eaten a lemon before. They tasted more vinegary than anything else, but it was definitely a new experience to eat little creepy crawlies right off of a branch. I´ll try to get the photos up soon. Then we saw some wooly monkeys. All of a sudden, Jose decides to bolt after them. So we ditch the trail and head in the direction of the monkeys, following them whereever they went. We find them and are able to get fairly close to them and take a good look. The ... read more
We got up early for a morning hike through the jungle. We took a boat to get to the hike. To be honest we didn´t see that much. Jose tried to find interesting things, but the only great find was some spider monkeys in the tree (btw, dad, they were a lot bigger than the one in the museum in Bournemouth). But it was a kinda disappointing hike. We pretty much stuck to a trail, which seemed to be the antithesis of being in primary rainforest, and a group of five was probably a little bit too big, because the animals can hear you a long way off. What was interesting was watching Jose. He literally was in touch with nature on a level that we weren´t. He would just stop and sense things that we ... read more
(FYI, it´s okay to air guitar a little Guns and Roses in the real jungle.) So I´m writing all of this after getting back from the rainforest because of the whole no electricity/internet thing, but I want to keep a day by day account because it will be more interesting for you all and I. Wednesday was get-to-the-jungle-day, which was quite an ordeal. We arrived in the morning in the rather hot, dusty and ugly town of Coca. Lizzy got lots of stares because it´s an oil town, meaning there aren´t too many young mujeres around too often. We then met our guide Jose, who was our age and looked like a stoner, but spoke good English, Spanish and Quechua (the local indigenous language). We met up with the rest of our group (a Spanish couple, ... read more
We took the long long bus ride from Cuenca to Quito on Saturday and are now in Ecuador´s capital city. It´s divided into the new and old cities, which are fairly self explanatory. We wandered around on Sunday but things were very very quiet and a lot of things apparently don´t bother to open on Sunday. It´s a very nice city though, with gorgeous views and plenty of history and interesting architecture. The old city has particularly nice eye candy. All in all it´s been a quiet couple of days as we gear up for the rainforest. We´re going on Wednesday to the Shiripuno Amazon Lodge in the middle of the rainforest. We have to take (another) long bus ride from Quito to Coca (9hrs:) and then 3hrs on a pick-up/bus followed by 4hrs on a ... read more
I still need to upload the pics for Macchu Pichu, not exactly sure when that´s going to happen. There won´t be any photos from our travel day, but there´s a fun little story-let to share. Lizzy and I said goodbye to Erica, before heading off to Ecuador. Because it was significantly cheaper ($90 vs $400), we flew into the Peruvian northern border town of Tumbes rather than into Quito. Tumbes is described in the tourist books as a hot and dusty town. Check and Check. A little aside - whenever you arrive at any location by train, plane or bus in Peru, you will be accosted by taxi drivers seeking your patronage. At first it´s annoying because there are hundreds of them and ápparently they´re immune to ¨no gracias.¨ But after a while it becomes amusing ... read more
Macchu Pichu
Let me start by saying that even if I were a Pulitzer Prize winner and a National Geographic photographer, nothing I could say or write could possibly be the same as being at Macchu Pichu in person. And seeing as I´m neither of the above, that should be added incentive to go. This is probably the only time where I feel confident in writing with such hyperbole. It was that amazing. We got up at 5am to catch the first bus at 5.30am. Apparently we weren´t the only people with that idea. But we still got there pretty quickly and did something sneaky (which I´ll describe if you ask me personally, but it´s one of those things you don´t want the entire internet to find out about) and ended up for five or ten full minutes ... read more
Hot Springs in Aguas Caliente
Today was a day of travel, relaxation and preparation for Macchu Pichu. Aguas Calientes is the town only minutes from MP, and it´s purpose is purely tourism. Apparently during tourist season, the town is 90% tourists and only 10% locals. After the four hour train ride from Cuzco, we were greeted by a women with a sign for our hostel and our names (Lizzy´s last name had apparently changed from London to Condor, but no es importante). By the way, the hostel Ima Sumar or something like that was probably the only one we´ve stayed in so far that we really don´t recommend. Our room was right on the street (no, literally right on the street, separated by the cheapest of windows), there were spiders and other jolly creatures and the shower sucked. The town is ... read more
View of Cuzco from our hike
We hopped on a short 7hr bus ride from Puno, the highlight of which was when a giant rock shot straight into the upper level of the bus through the front window and nearly killed the person in the front seat. We´re still not exactly sure how it happened. Oh, also, we saw how chickens are moved around in Peru - they´re stuffed into a sack, ten at a time, pretty much one on top of the other, still moving and squawking. Pretty tough to watch for too long. Cuzco is best known as the nearest city to Macchu Pichu, but it´s worth spending some time exploring the city itself for at least a day. Cuzco dates back to early Spanish colonial times, and is beautiful with its narrow streets and cobblestone roads. It´s hard doing ... read more
Floating Island in Lake Titicaca
PHOTOS ADDED!!! After a night lay-over in Lima, I flew via Cuzco to Juliaca and then took a bus to Puno on Lake Titicaca. I arrived at my hostel (Don Julio - much recommended) where a note was awaiting me. Lizzy and her sister Erica, who is here until Thursday, already had a room all good to go. It was great seeing them, especially because Erica has exactly the same laugh as Lizzy, so I got it in surround sound. We had a pretty average dinner on Calle Lima, one of the main tourist streets, and after a brief game of cards (called Casino, I think Lizzy made it up, but I still won;) we all crashed. Now onto the good stuff. We woke up early and headed to the Lake. The Lake is absolutely huge, ... read more
