Blogs from South America - page 5473

OMG he´s back again...riding an unusual high, inexplicable and maybe just getting over the travails of the past few days...and knowing where I am, I think!..its Arrial DÁjuba..maybe..does it matter?... On email - I´d sent one off to someone and hoping they hadn´t just hit the ´delete´button automatically, assuming it was another useless rant or offer of something unnecessary, unwanted or unobtainable...I love opening my email after a spell and seeing lots of entries, then despair seeing all the usual offers to either make my dick bigger or my mortgage smaller...is it the same operation?..the same doctors?...do chicas get the same junkmails?..is the internet gender sensitive?..if so what messages to gays get?...Its one of several disturbing features of email...another is the amazingly intimate degree of personal closeness one gets so quickly with maybe complete strangers...and then, ... read more

Well, another team decision to stay, or really a lack of any real decision to move on, and we stay another day in another spectacularly boringly, over-inhabited by beautiful people and all the beautiful trappings, and all the touristy gift boutiques and galleries(?)...who comes to a beach resort and needs to buy art?....and its low season so at least one can negotiate better deals and the service is keenly offered...restaurants are fantastic but you wonder, when they are empty, just how fresh are the crabs?...I saw an old woman with a bag of crabs yesterday and wanted to follow her to the restaurant where she was delivering them to...later, at a restaurant, I accosted the waitress and using basic sign language mimed crabs, fingers scuttling sideways, thumb and forefinger making nipping movements...she at got it and ... read more

The hostals are probably all much of a muchness in La Mariscal district but I stayed in a nice, cheery place called Hostel Bask at $5. After arriving late into Quito I promptly ignored all advice to acclimatize properly for a couple of days before attempting anything strenuous and signed myself up to climb Volcan Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Come to think of it which other volcanoes are higher than Cotopaxi? Maybe I should write, THE highest volcanoe in the world. Anyway, we set off early (6am) the next morning for the Volcan, but after the usual faffing and it being 60ks from Quito, I should have known we wouldn´t actually start climbing until mid morning when the sun was well and truly tucked into the clouds. Cotopaxi is 5897m ... read more

Woke up feeling stiff and sore, but we were packed and ready to go on time (8:30am). We´re beginning to behave like professionals. Today was going to be an easy day. We needed to catch a ferry 21kms down the road, which according to our guidebook left at either 7am or 2pm, so we figured we had five hours to get there, then we planned to camp at the other end of the lake and spend a lazy afternoon recovering. We quickly retraced the 4kms back to the turn off to Coishuenco and continued on. It was a gradual climb uphill, but nothing too bad. About 10kms out of town we came across an unexpected but wonderful find ... a well stocked store!!! We bought soft drink, the yummiest cheese and fresh bananas. Heaven. They even ... read more

Well, for those of you who were worried, we made it back to the states all in one piece. We had an awesome time in the jungle (aka selva), which we'll recount to you now. Our flight from Quito to Coca on TAME airline was uneventful, fortunately. We did see one volcano peaking its head out over the clouds, which was pretty cool. In Coca we were greeted by our guide for the week, and met the other 6 people who would be on our tour as well: 4 Brits, and 2 from Holland. We all got along great, and by the end of the week were good friends. We then started our 5 hour motorized canoe ride down the Rio Napo. This is one river that flows into the Amazon. It seemed very wide; I ... read more