andyrooheavens

(very out of date entries from now on, i was too busy travelling) After leaving Quito i headed straight for Riobamba.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 climbing on to the roof of the train carrying a padded cushion. It was cold and there were a lot of grumbling tourists and hawkers selling coffee. The first part of the train ride was ... read more

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. We were met by our boat tour guide (Jorge) and shunted off to the dock to load us onto the boat (The Guantanamera). Once there we quickly settled in and then went to the top ... read more

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 there late by one minute and our ferry had gone, so we had to wait in the standby queue for 2 hours, sheesh! In a type of prison already... Finally we arrive and we ascend ... read more

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 find Leticia and Jonathan's place without asking for directions and promptly got lost, one of my favourite things to do. Almost everytime i get lost i find something i haven't seen before that i really ... read more