jockc
jim bob Joined: March 3rd 2007
Logged in: January 11th 2012
Logged in: January 11th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
think ive seen it somewhere else
Hi, Going to keep it short because I have lost all desire to write anything really It’s the end of the road for the blog I think unless something drastic happens like I get kidnapped at the border or something, in which case there will be lots of blogs. The lonely planet says this border crossing is the most dangerous in South America, seems a little strange really I was expecting it to be some cocaine alley in Columbia. Anyhow not to worry I’m fully prepped and in Rambo mode. The water is off in Lima at the moment which is annoying as I don’t think I can have a shower now until I reach Liverpool on Thursday morning, so by then I should be nice and ripe. I while back I went on the Inca ... read more
sunset on lake titicaca
Got into La Paz after a scheduled 12 hour bus ride turned into 40 hours. We got caught up in several road blocks, mainly created by angry miners who insisted on chucking rocks at the bus windows. It was a bit eighties England, almost felt like a scab. Luckily the driver was seemingly in the know about various backstreets so he was able to take some evasive action. Strikes in general seem part of Bolivian life; nothing ever seems to be resolved in a calm manner. I Got into the bus station and took a taxi down to my hostel. The taxi driver promptly tried to rip me off even though we had agreed a price beforehand. Taxi drivers in South America tend to be a bit shit really. As a rule of thumb they know ... read more
March 1st 2008
Where is it ? no idea but i will take a guess
Decided to take a little walk over a mountain range the other day. Not sure if it qualifies as a mountain range but that’s what it shall be called for time being until a brush up on my mountaineering terminology. The plan was to walk somewhere entirely different. However due to the lack of oxygen in the air and navigation skills we walked to a place called Chaqui. I and John (pacemaker and occasional navigator) started the walk in the center of Potosi. This was after I had purchased a pair of walking boots from a building merchants and a map of the general area from the military barracks. The plan on the 1st day was to get to a place called Kiri kiri, possibly Kari Kari Lake. As the crow fly’s this was roughly 8/9 ... read more
funky little rock in the andes
I have been in Bolivia for a little while now and it dosent disappoint. I entered through the la Quinca/Villazon border towns. I had spent 5 days in Argentina and it very nice it was too. It was a nice change from Brazil and in comparison a lot cheaper. This was lovely little bonus at this later stage of the trip. Im not entirely sure what I did in Salta, Argentina. This is the problem with relying on a brain. I guess I did a bit of altitude acclimatisation. I liked Argentina a lot and one day i shall be back. This is the reason I didn’t head further down to Buenos Aires. Anyhow I quite like the idea of a Chile/Argentina Patagonian trip of the bike kind sometime in the future. It has all the ... read more
Iguazu falls
I arrived in Iguaçu after a mammoth 2 day plane /bus journey. My stay in Rio lasted all of one hour. After sleeping in Salvador airport until 4 in the morning i got a plane to Rio that arrived at 0630 it was straight to the bus station in Rio and then straight onto a bus to Iguaçu that lasted 20 hours. More importantly I was heading towards new frontiers which was really quite important due to the fast approaching expiry of my visa. Got onto the Brazilian side of the falls and was absolutely knackered so I decided to stay in Brazil for one more night. I found a cracking hostel up some country lane, dumped my stuff and headed off to the falls. What can I say? Quite colossal really. They seem to cover ... read more
getting to jericoacoara
Well since the last update I seem to have been more or less tagging along with a GAP.COM tour group. Bar the odd few days where I have disappeared. This been to regain my composure/credibility as an independent traveler, something like that anyway. So since leaving the place where my last blog ended I have generally just been clinging to the coast and rarely moving anywhere where I cannot see water. It’s definitely a plan and a half. First off I headed to a place called Jericoacoara, very nice it was too. I had heard a lot about this place so naturally I expected to be disappointed, thankfully I wasn’t. It seemed to have found the fine balance of been a holiday destination but not been overly annoying at the same time. I think this is ... read more
The Amazon ferrys in Manaus
Having been back in South America a week or so i have already amassed enough useless currency to create an epic cash themed collage I got into Georgetown and decided to leave. I cant quite decide if it was because it looked a bit shady or because i want to see other places. Possibly a bit of both of combined with my relatively limited time on the continent. However on the way back to Georgetown airport i saw some bloke been “escorted” out of his car seemingly against his will, dodgy dodgy. I would have caught the bus straight down to the Brazilian border from Georgetown but the roads south were closed for the foreseeable future because of the rainy season. So i decided to fly from Georgetown to Boa Vista. As it turns out this ... read more
jjj
Not much to report on really. I dont think i have moved to much for the last 3 weeks or so. Plan to make up for that somewhere along the road.... read more
Sanata Fe
I stayed in San Francisco a day longer than planned. Actually I stayed in San Francisco airport a day longer than planned. I assumed what happened to me only happened on airport. It turns out that it doesn’t and I am glad that it doesn’t. I got to the airport in ample time even though my position at the back of the queue would suggest not. I don’t know if it’s a South American thing but pretty much everyone in the queue seemed to be taking the worldly possessions on the flight with them. Ironing boards, TV’s you name it. About 5 minutes later a women came to the back of the queue and said that due to the plane been overloaded they were not going to be able to take all of the passengers on ... read more
always coca cola
I was quite sad to leave the old NZ really. It felt quite homely and I could I have quite happily spent a good while longer there really, especially as the summer was really starting to kick in during my last two weeks or so. Twas a shame I was hoiking bags of cement onto a building site for all those days. Nevermind something had to give with an eye on prolonging my trip. For the last few days I stayed at Max and Ken’s house. It was a bit of a god send really, free food, free booze, free washing and to top it all off a free lift to Paihia. To think it all started off as a weekend job all those months ago! I would still describe there back garden as work in ... read more
