We arrived in Cusco on Christmas Eve. The main square was chockers full of stalls selling junk people wouldn´t buy, having said that I did buy myself a scarf. The air was filled with burning frankensence and shit. Christmas Eve dinner was at Paddy´s Irish pub and was one of the best meals I´ve had so far -- crunchy green vegetables at last! I spoke to my family for the first time in five months and it was great. Unlike last time, I was ok after the phone call and I´m glad I rang them. Christmas Day was spent exchanging Secret Santa presents -- I received a beautiful appliqued scarf -- and Christmas lunch. The meal was atrocious and the dessert was made worst knowing that my family was enjoying my favourite homemade chocolate mousse back ... read more
Our two days in Lima were spent touring the museums and shopping and a few of us had to chase down our Paraguayan visas. Jodie and I were denied entry to the Spanish Inquisition Museum twice and we have no idea why. The museum is supposed to be lame with only a few torture devices and bad dummies but still, I wanted to see it! We visited the San Francisco Monestery and saw the catacombs with hundreds of bones under the church. Then we were off to Huacachina where everyone else went sand boarding but I stayed on the bus because of a stomach bug. They all had a great time and I was disappointed to miss out but I can always do it in Africa. We spent the night in Nasca and each of us ... read more
The border crossing from Ecuador into Peru was easy and the change in landscape was breaktaking. Our first stop in Peru was Punta Sal, a beach town where we camped. When I say ´we´, I mean everyone else but me and two other women. We chose to upgrade for an extra $10 a night so we didn´t have to camp on the beach. I like the beach, but I don´t want sand in my sleeping bag for the rest of the trip. And I´m still kind of nervous about camping seeing as I´ve never done it before. Apparently there are lots of chances to upgrade to a room when we go camping and I will be doing just that. The three days on the beach are a bit of blur because we drank so many cocktails ... read more
What a week! After six months enjoying warm weather, my arrival into Quito was a shock. It was so bloody cold! The altitude wasn´t too bad, I had more trouble trying to get warm. I met my tour group the day after I arrived in Quito. The tour group is made up of Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians and some Latinos from California. One of the Aussies is another dyke from Sydney, I don´t know her but we share mutual friends back home. After travelling for six months and bumping into only a handful of queers, being around another Sydney dyke is wonderful. Our first stop was a town called Baños. It´s apparently a thrill seekers paradise where you can do all types of adrenalin sports. I thought I´d try tandem paragliding. It was great fun flying over ... read more
I'm finally a Certified Advanced Diver! Back in March I completed four Speciality courses: * Navigation (which was difficult considering I can't read a compass on land, let alone under water!) * Waves, Tides & Currents (this has proved most helpful in all my dives since) * Low Visibility/Night Diving (this was a very late night dive in Sydney Harbour -- lots of fun) * Nitrox (which was great to dive with -- much cleaner on my lungs -- but I didn't sit the theory exam -- too much maths for my liking) I hadn't completed the pre-requisite 24 dives at the time so I wasn't given my Advanced upgrade. Yesterday I completed the Deep Diver course -- I'm now certified to dive to 40m/130ft. And because I have completed four Specialty courses AND 30 dives, ... read more
I finally got off my arse and did some diving today. I did three dives and all were different. The first dive was a reef dive - beautiful fish and coral everywhere. The second dive was at a site called Canyon Reef. We dived single-file through canyons and tunnels made of coral. It's strange because in Sydney I have anxiety attacks when I drive through tunnels but I love diving through coral tunnels and in confined spaces in wrecks. The weather turned on us for our third dive. The current was strong and the waves were so choppy, I hit my head several times on the boat trying to get my fins off. On Wednesday I'm having my final two dives. I specifically asked for a wreck dive and they're offerered to make it a Deep ... read more
Fantastic is the best word to desribe how I feel. It's amazing what a wax and head shave can do to rejuvenate you! My flight from Puerto Lempira to La Ceiba was diverted to Roatan because La Ceiba airport was flooded. I couldn't believe my luck because I was going to have to book a flight to Roatan later that day so the diversion saved me time and money. After convincing the flight crew that this was actually where I wanted to get off, they took my backpack off the 15-seater plane and I was on my way. A bit of background on Roatan: Roatan is one of the Bay Islands off Honduras and the population is mainly of Carribean heritage. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 and during the Colonial period, Spanish and ... read more
The location: Puerto Lempira, Honduras, Central America Set on the southeastern edge of the biggest of the coastal lagoons, Laguna de Caratasca. Puerto Lempira is the largest town in Moskitia. The name comes from the Miskito natives, not the mosquitos, although there are lots of those too. The hotel: I spent one night at the orphanage but just couldn't do it long term. No toilet or shower doors made my mind up quickly despite not having budgeted for alternate accommodation. I stayed at the hotel in town that the Lonely Planet Guide claimed was the best...and it was terrible. Electricity is a huge problem in Puerto Lempira. There are two electricity sources - public and private. When the electricity was off in the town, it was on at the hotel and vice versa. On my second ... read more
I arrived in Tegucigalpa, or 'Teguz' as it's known in Central America, at 7am. After a mix up with the hostel (it has two locations, my confirmation had the wrong address), I was impressed to be shown a huge room, mini bar, flatscreen TV and a DVD player so I can finally watch the pile of cheap DVDs I bought in Mexico City. The hostel is located outside of town so I'm kicking back today in preparation for my next three days in La Ceiba (on the beach) and then off to Puerto Lempira for six weeks. The volunteer co-ordinator warned me that it can be heavy going so they suggest taking some time off. I've decided to take five consecutive days off and go to Roatan for some diving in the fourth week. ... read more