Our first city in Peru, Jaen up in the north, was just meant to be an overnight stop. There is not much to do there except stand out as one of very few tourists that come this way. But we had too much excitement there for myself. As we were riding in a mototaxi to the bus stop to leave town with all our gear loaded up in the back of it, we were distracted taking photos from the seat and having fun. At some point we heard people yelling and then a car pulled up alongside us and started gesticulating [View Full Entry]

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(very out of date entries from now on, i was too busy travelling) After leaving Quito i headed straight for Riobamba. I had previously planned to visit Sasquilli, Baños and some other locations, but was running out of time for my meeting with Matthew in Cuenca. An overnight stop in Riobamba for a ride on the train called El Nariz Del Diablo (The Nose Of The Devil) wouldn't consume a lot of time. Already i had spent almost a month and a half in Ecuador and had a lot more countries to see. The train ride involved getting up early and [View Full Entry]

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Mountaineering Hangover Arriving back in Quito after the Galapagos Islands i had itchy feet. Spent a day organizing some travelling to Cotopaxi and Cuyabeno. Met with Lars and Matt for some quality rum at Lars' place. Given that i would be heading up to an altitude of 4800m during a hike the next day, i think the drinking we did till close to 6am was a bad idea for me, but then, anything can seem like a good idea after half a bottle of rum. Waking up to somebody banging on my door, i jump up, check the clock, shit! It's [View Full Entry]

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Arriving at the Galapagos Islands in the airport. The next thing to do is pay out $100 as a national park entry fee, supposedly to go towards conserving the islands, but i'm not so sure about that. Rather expensive beginning for my South American trip, but this place is changing so fast that it will likely be much more expensive and touristed in 20 years time, better to see it now. Because the airport near Santa Cruz was closed for tarmac repair, we had landed on San Cristobal, with a small town that wasn't geared up for tourism like Puerto Ayora. [View Full Entry]

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Have been in Quito for 6 days already. Studying at a Spanish school has filled 4 hours a day so not a lot going on except some city hiking and socialising. Quito is a little dangerous, especially at night, and i was extra careful of pickpockets and getting home early in the evening. Gunshots can be heard every few days or more often. And certain streets seem really sketchy where i couldn't help but walk quickly and be especially alert for any trouble. The hostal i've been staying at (Centro del Mundo) is known to be a good (loud for those [View Full Entry]

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In my final week in San Francisco i went to jail for a day. Alcatraz that is, the ex-prison located on an island in the the bay near SF. Quite strange that in my 4 years of living in San Francisco i never went to it before, but i was working and the weekends require a reservation upto a month in advance, and i can't schedule my life that well. When i did have holidays i was more keen for backpacking in the mountains or on the coast or snowboarding at Lake Tahoe. So Jace and myself went on Tuesday, got [View Full Entry]

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With a base of operations in the city i returned the hire car and then succeeded in contacting more friends and across the next week i met up with various friends, bought a quad-band phone and digital SLR camera (Jonathan's fault), booked a trip to Alcatraz with Jace. On Thursday went to potluck at Tappie and Mike's new place. Potluck is where the guests bring something to share or go into the cooking pots, it creates a very good environment for just hanging out and talking while many people share the work of getting dinner ready and never really knowing what [View Full Entry]

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My first flight, on a plane bound for Los Angeles, California USA. Bleedin' hell that was a long and boring 14 hours, at least i slept some of the time. Finally landed in Los Angeles approximately 3 hours before i left date/time wise and drove up highway 1 (scenic coastal route) to the San Francisco Bay Area. Jetlag made me pull over and sleep about halfway to my destination. I began my Californian sunburn there since i was spontaneously tired where there was no shade and had to pull over immediately. Once i got to Berkeley i absent mindedly tried to [View Full Entry]

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This is my travelling diary. Some of it is transcribed from the paper journal i am keeping, some of it is embellished as the paper journal reminds me of things that i couldn't be bothered writing. Many thanks go to my friends in Australia for buying me a diary and giving me photos to travel with. I hadn't really thought of journalling my travels before, since i usually just write it all into big emails, but internet access has been sporadic and having something to write into helps for my failing memory. The photos have been good as well since they [View Full Entry]

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