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Bollocks!

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

It would seem that this blog site has suffered a bit of a fuck up and they’ve lost recent entries. I think I’ve only lost one, plus a draft I was working on for Columbia, could be worse.

I’m back home now and struggling with reality, but will attempt to round this journal off with a final couple of entries at some point.

Banana Republic

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

Ecuadorian bus
Whilst not a Banana Republic in the true sense of the phrase (it has a `democratic´ government at least), Ecuador is largely reliant on its banana exports for its economy. It´s other major resource is oil, but as the US and UK oil companies export most of the profits with the oil this leaves the yellow phallic fruit, and you´re not surprised when you´re bussing it across the country passing miles and miles of banana plantations. The buses may be a bit shit (although they do sport a certain 70´s bad-boy paint job – see above), and break down regularly, but at least the scenery is beautiful.

Cuenca
My first proper stop in Ecuador, cool little city in the south with beautiful colonial architecture, a river running through the middle and a lively nightlife scene at the weekends. Of the two live bands we saw the second one was by far the best, playing a latin rock sort of thing with a few crowd pleasers like `La Bamba´ thrown in. Cuenca was a nice place to chill out for a long weekend before moving on up through Ecuador.

Central Cuenca
Cuenca skyline from the central plaza

Riobamba
I took a bus north on the Tuesday afternoon to Riobamba, a crap little place for travellers, but for the train that leaves there three times a week for the Nariz Del Diablo (Devil´s Nose). This journey takes around 5 hours and starts at stupid o`clock in the morning, but even this non-morning person has to admit it was worth it. The Lonely Planet, being full of shit as usual, builds it up to be some kind of rollercoaster train ride like nothing in the world, which leads a lot of people to be disappointed. If you just expect a ride through some some nice scenery, watching the locals go about their daily lives in the countryside, topped off with a journey at the end down a very steep canyon, through a set of switchbacks to a rock that looks like a nose then you won`t be disappointed. The added bonus is that you get to sit on the roof of the train – I´d like to see them let you do that in Europe.

Riobamba Train
Train ride from Riobamba down to the Devils´ Nose (Nariz Del Diablo)

Baños
Having picked up a couple of new friends on the train ride we departed together the same afternoon to get up to Baños (and to avoid spending another night in Riobamba). Thankfully the bus journeys in Ecuador are relatively short compared to the rest of South America, so two hours to Baños was like blinking and being there. The towns name refers to the local hot springs that you can bathe in (Bath would be the closest equivalent town in England), heated by the nearby volcano, Tungurahua. This is the same volcano that was in the news recently for blowing it´s hot load all over the shop. It´s still spewing lava but calmed down a lot now, though unfortunately it´s usually too cloudy to see it at the moment. Rebecca and myself took a quad bike up the nearby hillside to see if we could get a glimpse, but sure enough the clouds shrouded it. The bike was fun though so I wasn´t bothered.

Baños, Ecuador
Baños

Rebecca left Friday so myself and Noa, the sweet but mental Swiss girl in our group hired mountain bikes and headed off down the valley. The scenery was full of lush green hillsides and waterfalls all along the way. The best of the waterfalls had a viewing platform from where you could get completely drenched in the heavy spray off it – had to be done really. On the return journey we stopped at one of the cable cars and took a trip over the river to the other side of the valley, passing right overhead of one of the waterfalls before continuing back to town, which was an uphill bastard of a climb that I would not care to repeat. When we returned the bikes, with me on my last legs, the guy in the shop said they were going rafting tomorrow and did we want to come? Needless to say he received an earful of sarcasm from me! Today I´m enjoying being a lazy git, the sky is clear and the sun is out so I´m enjoying a well earnt rest after a hard weeks work 🙂

Life in Lima

Saturday, August 5th, 2006
I`ve lost track of the time I`ve spent in Lima, though I think it`s close to 3 weeks, so much for a long weekend there! The last week and a half were somewhat justified as I was waiting around on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sand in your crack

Friday, July 14th, 2006
Ica desert courtesy of Anaisanais on Flickr  Ica desert courtesy of Anaisanais on Flickr Finally dragged myself out of Arequipa and headed north to a small place near the city of Ica ... [Continue reading this entry]

It´s been a while

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

Yes, I think I slipped into a black hole since arriving in Peru (maybe I should re-phrase that). Well before leaving Bolivia I spent half a day trekking out from Copacabana to Yampupata along the lakeside and around through the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Monkey Business

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
After a bus trip along what must have been the worlds second most dangerous road we miraculously arrived in Rurrenabaque (Rurre) early morning, then onto a boat two hours later in the pissing rain on our way to the start ... [Continue reading this entry]

La Paz and a nice little cycle ride

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006
The La Paz electricians are on acid Wired in La Paz After catching another dodgy bus out of Cochabamba we finally managed to make it to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Struggling to reach La Paz

Friday, May 12th, 2006
I`ve been as slow getting round to updating these pages as the internet is here in Bolivia, so here`s a couple of quick catch up entries. After Potosì we took a taxi to Sucre. It seems ridiculous, borgeouis even, but with the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Dynamite, alcohol, coca and lung disease: A Miners Life

Sunday, May 7th, 2006
Since arriving in Bolivia I´ve covered a lot of ground faster than I normally travel. I met a group of guys waiting for the bus to Potosi and have travelled with them up to now, and I think it´s thanks ... [Continue reading this entry]

From desert to snow-covered mountains

Saturday, May 6th, 2006
Valle de La Luna Valle de La Luna bathed in the light of the setting sun  Myself and the aussie couple, Andrew and Megan, booked ourselves onto a two night/three day 4x4 trip across the ... [Continue reading this entry]