http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/divingbelle/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from divingbelle en-us Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:23:25 BST Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:23:25 BST The Big Apple I just had a stopover of one night and one day to explore the capital on my way home. So I whizzed round like a crazy tourist on a tight schedule taking in the main sites...Grand Central Station Statue of Liberty Fifth Avenue strictly window shopping only just to see Saks and other famous shops Times Square The Empire State building Central Park. I had bagels for breakfast http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-303200.html Well I am actually writing this final entry from my friends flat in Bristol on a very wet rainy summers day back in Blighty whilst trying to conjure up a different kind of watery experience I already feel a long way away from the sand and beaches of Belize and its getting harder to go back a just a few weeks and remember what it was like so I had better get this written before it disappears enti http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Belize/Belize-Barrier-Reef/blog-297487.html We had sailed into Isla de Guanaja without raising our yellow quarantine flag in order not to announce to inmigration that we needed to clear in this meant that we could spend our first day relaxing and catch up on some much needed rest. For Guy this translated as cleaning out all the cupboards down below and throwing out a few years of accumulated crap then tackling the fuel problem and the oth http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/blog-285968.html Youll see from the location of this blog entry that we made it to Honduras at long last. We got here two days ago after 10 days at sea. Apologies for the boating jargon in this blog I hope you get my drift as it were.We managed almost a whole afternoon out of Cartagena before anything went wrong The first thing to go was the auto pilot. We had all the sails up in beautiful sunshine and open sea http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/blog-283033.html I have had a strange few weeks since my last blog. I was due to leave Catagena and Colombia at the start of May but we have had a few boat problems and so far each time we set out for a test run some thing has gone wrong. I left my hostel on the 9th of May to board the boat and we planned to set off on our test run to Las Islas Rosarios a few days later. We went and bought the provisions and got t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-278404.html So another big city and to be honest I have started running out of energy for this traveling lark finally. My theory is that to properly get a feel for a city you either need friends there or at least 3 weeks. I had neither in Medellin so after a cursory look around the sights like the plaza de esculpturas.....actually that was it there are lots more sights but I couldn't really be bothered... http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-271368.html My next stop was in the lovely little town of Salento an hour east of Armenia. The town is a typical pueblo paisa and full of colourful fronted houses around the main plaza and lots of people milling around with their ponchos on. I stayed in the Mountain House hostel which is in one of the nicest settings I have stayed in here with lovely gardens and an annex down across a field with the best vi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Manizales/blog-271365.html When I went to meet the kids I was planning to volunteer with they were sitting quietly watching TV but I was immediately jumped on and hugged by 4 little monkeys called Jhon Yahaira Nicole and Cristian Duane. I clearly wasnrsquot the first foreign volunteer they had seen and without any further questions or introductions I was dragged out to the patio area where they had all their toys to pl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-266901.html I arrived in Cali at the beginning of the month with exactly 31 days until I need to be back on the north coast for my lift out of here to central America. I wanted to work here for a while in order to improve my Spanish a bit more and to see a part of Colombia from a non backpacker point of view. I had chosen Cali as it is not really on the gringo trail but if I am honest the fact that it lists i http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-264843.html Whilst in Ecuador I floated the idea that Adam could come with me to Colombia seeing as he didn't have much planned up until his flight from Quito to Peru so I said why not kill the time with me and see a bit of Colombia to boot. The US government strongly advises its citizens against visiting Colombia as does ours but for some reason us Brits just tend to take far less notice of any officials o http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/San-Agustin/blog-264816.html Me Adam and his friend Matan all set off from Quito at midday to Ibarra. From there we got a front seat ride next to the driver on the bus to San Lorenzo through some great scenery and down through the clouds into the tropics again. We arrived in the middle of another thunderstorm and words of caution from the bus driver his colleague had been robbed the night before in the same town and the ho http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/San-Miguel/blog-259003.html On our first afternoon back on dry land the boys Peter and Adam went round the dive shops and booked themselves in for a dive on Gordon rocks the next day then we met up with the others for dinner just incase we hadnt had enough of each other. I spent the next morning in bed and met them after their spectacular hammerhead filled dive to look at their photos and curse myself for not going with http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-259001.html I arrived back at the airport far too early to meet my guide and the people I would be spending the next week with and sat watching with horror as the geriatric couples streamed through the arrivals gate. It suddenly dawned on me that in booking a fairly good boat with a good reputation and itinerary instead of a cheap crappy one I had probably assured that there would be no young backpacker type http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-254769.html Wow I'm sure the pictures in this blog speak for themselves....I have lots more photos to put up here but I have to find a computer which reads DVDs first.I have just spent my first week in the Galapagos and although I was going to write about my short stay in Cali a power cut at the border crossing and getting robbed and rained on in Quito it all pales in to insignificance compared to this pla http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-249041.html Well it seems again I have delayed writing my blog until there is just too much to tell you allI left Barranquilla pretty exhausted after the carnaval and so couldn't bring myself to join the other gringos in San Gil for any of the adventure sports offered there. I had a look round the small villages of Guane and Barichara which were pretty but not all that interesting to be honest apart from th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-248442.html After all this time traveling I still find it both refreshing and disturbing how open and direct people are in South America people talk happily to me about their hemorrhoids and sex lives people talk about how black somebody is as a means of distinguishing who you are talking about as in do you mean Bruno el negrito or el morenito. This always confuses me because to me they are all dark ski http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Barranquilla/blog-243242.html I have said it before but it really seems like the whole world is in Colombia I haven't come across this many travelers locals or other South Americans in any other country. I know I have been here over Christmas holidays but it doesn't seem to be stopping even now. Some one said that the locals here are only just starting to feel safe enough now to travel again in their own country and I guess http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-240492.html I really had no idea that Colombia would be so beautiful lively cultured and modern at the same time. I had a vague idea about Bolivia even though it turned out to be so much more but thinking back I don't remember seeing any images or descriptions of Columbia before coming here I guess the world is just discovering it.I spent another few days in Taganga and another few nights in El Garage bef http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Taganga/blog-238468.html Wow there is something really weird going on in here...I have finally found all the male travelers that were mysteriously missing in the rest of my trip. In fact pretty much everyone is here. I never imagined that there would be so many people traveling in Colombia in fact I was all geared up for solitary hotel rooms again like Bolivia but boy was I wrongAnyway getting back to what I ment to b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/Ciudad-Perdida/blog-235667.html Well Im hoping you all had a fantastic Christmas and New year too but I bet mine will still make you jealous I wanted to be with a fun group of people on a beautiful beach sleeping in a hammock and drinking lots of rum. Its always dangerous trying to achieve a fantasy Christmas and new year though because it doesn't normally turn out how you want. However this one couldnt have gone more to p http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/blog-233516.html