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Hola nos amigos,
Hope all are well. We have been doing an awful lot of travelling sincw we last spoke. Making and breaking plans every few hours. I have read the lonely planet so many times I know it off by heart...really ask me anything. So in the end of all the deliberation we decided it would be a great idea to go as far as we can and then work our way back to our final destination i.e. Buenos Aires...that way if we start to run out of time we are in a better position to move quickly. Plus we do all the long hard travelling now. So after Arequipe we hit Nazca for 2 very noisy nigths sleeping, well lying down anyway. We found a nice hostel with a swimming pool...but at 4:30am the 82 roosters we realised lived across the road started to cockadoodle in chorus..the noise was incredible, then the traffic started and a bloke on a horn and another guy with a whistle, followed by a girl in the hostel at 7am deciding to sweep the stairs outside our room hitting off the iron railings all the way down. Even after being shouted at by
Col she still decided to clean our windows! She finally went away about 5 minutes before a 20 piece marching band, I swear, started up and walked right past our room. We weren´t really in the mood to do much site seeing..and headed for Lima.
We were so tired by the time we got there we just spent 3 days chilling out in a really cool, really quiet hostel. Lima was cool though and we managed to make it out for one night on the piss. After that the real marathon session began. We left Lima on the Sunday night and 47 hours later we arrive in Quito in Ecuador Tuesday night, after doing a straight run on 5 buses and a taxi.
Myself and Col had to make a stop here and book our Galapagos trip...and while we were all in the office we decided a 5 day trip into the Amazon basin was just what we needed, so we booked it and left the next day. Us and Sorcha and Damien. The jungle trip involved getting a 7 hour bus to a shit hole of a town where we were picked up in a bus for a further
3.5 hours on mostly unpaved road to a bridge where our guide was waiting with a long boat to take us 2 hours up river to the lodge as this is the only way it is accessable. We were very excited...this was straight out of national geo...brown water, thick jungle either side and the sound of thousands of crazy species of animals and birds and insects. We got a little nervous when the guide pulled the starter cord clean out of the engine on the way...but luckily he had tools and got it fixed.
Both couple had our own room in a 3 bed lodge we dumped the bags and the fun began. All meals were included so we settled in for night one....which surprisingly enough after all the travelling went really well and we all had a good nights kip.
Our days were all planned out for us, going out in the boat down river spotting monkeys and birds and learning about plants. Taking walks through the jungle and finding snakes and lizards and cicadas and frogs...most of which could have killed us. One day with visted a local tribe, and they showed us how to make bread out
of yuka and we sampled some and got to see how they live. One the way we got to see some leaf cutter ants in action. One day we visted a real life Shaman. A lovely smiley old man, who had spent his life getting whacked on vines and trying to heal people. We even got to sit in a circle as he chanted over us and blessed us all. Deadly.
Most evenings we got the boat back to the lake nearby where we would watch the sun set. And just before dinner the lads would go on a night walk in the dark. I had explained my little phobia with the guide and so was exempt from this excursion..little did I know at the time I was no safer staying behind!! Another few hours we spent canoeing and chasing a river dolphin..oh and Pirhana fishing! Unfortunately, Col or me didn´t manage to catch one...but Col did get a haircut off the one Sorcha caught.
Wildlife was everywhere and we got to see some really great things as you will see from the photos. But 5 days was definitely enough...and I don´t think I would be rushing back in a
hurry. Col on the other hand would move there. Two nights were spent lying awake while bats flew around our lodge shitting on us, that was after chasing about a million cockroaches out of our room and finding a frog in Damien & sorchas shower...and that was only inside. Outside there were poisonous snakes roaming around willy nilly under our lodges (which were on stilts) and living in our roof and all around were Tarantulas, something that I didn´t learn until the last night luckily...but as luck would have it I would be the one to spot one over my head about 2 foot away!
We got back yesterday and had a well deserved nights sleep.
So that´s all the news .
Thanks for all the messages as always, we love to hear from you guys. Keep em coming. Hope you are all well. We will be in touch shortly with more tales. Love you all XXX
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Terry Ward
non-member comment
Hi Col and Darlene, My God you are having some amazing experiences and seeing amazing sights and I dont mean Col's hair. Savour every moment, the photos are brilliant. I received the parcel you sent for the kids, have passed on to Alison and Colm who were delighted. I will ring Andy over the weekend and give Charlies his next weekend. We haven't been down to Tip and we are very busy with the new extension. Ciaran is doing the tiling Col. The weather here is shite at the moment and the big 'R' fastens its grip around our necks by the day, so you are in the best place and I bet there is not a person that doesn't envy you your simple carefree jungle life. Keep well and happy and hope to hear from you soon. Col I have sent up Skype so we might be able to arrange a chat sometime when you are near civilisation. Lots of Luv to you both. Ter