The Amazon Jungle 2

Posted on September 29th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
I forgot to mention that the villages anniversary was being celebrated while we were staying there. So after the football on the second day we went had some food and a swim then went back to the main area were there was a bit of a dance going on. We decided we´d better join in but myself and Anabelle decided to sit down after a while. Garrett had the bright idea of asking some of the girls (7 - 12 in age so it wasn´t a very nerve wrecking!!) out to dance. Not to be out done two of the village men (thankfully they were married!!) decided to hop up and ask myself and Anabelle to dance. Good nights fun but we weren´t used to all the walking so didn´t stay too long.
 Our third day was mostly taken up with the village anniversary - so loads of food and speeches . We also gave the village gifts which were handed out. There was a bit of a performance with a hunter and villagers and a giant bird - Mogli dressed in an eagle skin. The main attraction however was the football, the village against the motorbike team from Ixiamus. Garrett was chuffed when he was asked to play on the village team with Yimmi, Diego, Mogli and seven villagers. Santos was referee (gave him plenty of stick about this later). You´ll be happy to know the village won - with Garrett gettin a few cheers of stay in defense when he went on a run up the pitch and took a shot on goal - he missed!!! Needless to say they were exhausted when they finished - well they were playing during the hottest part of the day.
After the football we went fishing for an hour or so - unfortunately we caught nothing except sandflies who were having a ball eating us alive… So it was back to the camp for dinner - raccoon before heading on a night walk. Only Garrett, myself, Yimmi and Santos went - Itay and Anabelle were tired and Diego wasn´t feeling well. It was one of the best walks of the trip. First off it was pitch black so when we turned off our torches - which we had to do a couple of times it felt like you were completely alone cause you couldn´t see anyone else all you could hear was the jungle (we had to be quiet as Santos was hunting). When Santos spotted something we turned off our lights and stayed really still and quiet and then a couple of minutes later we heard a gun shot - he´d caught a jungle rabbit (a lot bigger than the ones we have at home!!). We sat down for a little while after this and stayed quiet in case the rabbits partner would show up unfortunately all that we heard was a Jaguar off in the forest.
So we hung the rabbit up on a tree and kept going to see what else we could find. Not too far down the track we found a tarantulas nest - 7 in all, mam dad and five babies (some babies they were huge). Yimmi and Santos decided to catch one - of course the male the biggest one there!!! Tarantulas are highly poisonous but only when threatened (trying to catch it probably comes under this category) but if you blow smoke on it it dulls their senses. So there Yimmi and Santos were huffing and puffing smoke on this spider while at the same time blocking its entrance to the nest so he couldn´t escape.
Eventually they´d calmed him down and disorientated him enough that he didn´t realise he was walking onto Yimmis hand. Up first was Garrett they put him on his hand and then on his face where it crawled onto its head i didn´t mind that one bit it wasn´t on me. Next Yimmi brought Mr. tarantula over to me - i was quickly backing out of the situation but Yimmi wasn´t takin no for an answer so I reluctantly agreed (trust me if it had of been anyone but Santos or Yimmi i wouldn´t have done it - they were unbelievable experienced!!). I had a tight hold of Yimmi, just in case he thought it´d be funny to walk off, while he slowly placed the tarantula over my face - talk about sharp claws!! A quick photo and yimmi let the tarantula back into its nest.
On we went still keeping an ear out for animals, personally i heard some but couldn´t see anything. All we had were torches with Santos leading the way and Yimmi following up - don´t ask me how Santos spotted anything but sure enough he always saw danger and in plenty of time. About an hour after the tarantula experience Santos suddenly stopped and called Yimmi up front he´d spotted a poisonous snake in the leaves by the side of the track - it wasn´t huge 1 foot at most it was orange but then again so were the leaves it was lying in!! So off Yimmi and Santos went again trying to catch the poisonous snake!!! They used a small stick to pin its head to the ground and then grabbed its tail. At this point they called Garrett over to touch it and then let him hold the tail. Next thing you know the snake has escaped still with its tail around Garretts fingers…
Garrett of course hopped on the snake with his foot while shaking it off his hand - he then promptly let it go. It looked like he was doing a weird sort of dance and as he was okay Santos and Yimmi had a great laugh at him. We headed on down the track after this as always keeping an ear out. We´d turned out our torches again and Garrett put his hand on a small tree to steady himself - big mistake - fire ants had a mini feast biting his hand.. needless to say he didn´t do that again. Santos stopped again and pointed out into the distance at two tiny dots that were eyes. When we shone our torches in that direction it was hard to see the snake that had positioned itself hanging from a tree like a branch - it was the same color too. Wouldn´t have seen it if it hadn´t been pointed out to me. Yimmi explained it was extremely poisonous - after it bit it only took minutes for it to be fatal no cure!! What drilled this in is that Yimmi used a 12foot stick (he was going nowhere near it - it had a spring action which could stretch a couple of foot) to beat its head so it was unable to strike us. When we went over to it we picked it up - it was about 6 - 7 foot long - it was huge.
It was time to head back to camp after this where we curled up into bed for a few hours before we got up again the next morning to head walking again.Before we left a woman from the village came up to the camp to ask for some anti venom - there had been a snake in her hut and it had biten her she´d taken the natural medicine (which is all they normally have) but to be on the safe side as Yimmi was there she had some anti venom too. Diego, myself, Garrett and his wife all headed back into the jungle to visit the burial site from the Inca Era 2000yrs old. The villagers had tremendous respect for the area offering drinks when they disturbed earth. The river had eroded some of the tombs away and left some open - which Jaguars used as dens. It was really interesting but i personally found the plants Santos showed us knowledgeable - there was a garlic type plant which they used to treat mosquito bites, a tea plant used for upset stomachs, plants used to flavour food, trees used to make baskets and clothes…
After the knowledge lesson we decided to go fishing again. With my luck i caught nothing but Garrett caught two, as did Santos wife she also caught a turtle which we had for lunch by the river. All in all we spent about five hours walking along the river fishing. When we called it a day we still had an hour walk back to camp - i was never so glad to go swimming (we´d had no shelter from the sun while fishing!!!). On the way back we passed a fallen tree which Santos started hammering away at with his Machete - Garrett tried to give it a whirl but he was getting nowhere fast. After a few minutes Santos produced two worms one for me and one for Garrett to try - they´re considered good for protein. While we´d been away Yimmi and Hina had made necklaces for us with beads and alligator bone - they were given to us as presents and considered good luck talismans.
For our last night we gathered outside Santos house with his family - Garrett had great fun teaching the two younger boys how to play slaps!! We had a few drinks and a few laughs and then it was off to bed - we had an early start as we had to walk to the edge of the jungle in time to meet the taxi. So it was up at 6.30 to pack everything away and have breakfast before saying goodbye to Santos who had a present for each of us a bow and arrow he´d made the other day (it was really sad saying goodbye as we´d really gotten to know Santos and his family).
An hour and a half later we got to the edge of the jungle - only there was no taxi!!! So we started off towards Ixiamus about an hour up the road we met a cowboy (a farmer on a horse) who was bringing in his cattle before the storm hit (we could hear thunder in the distance with the promise of rain). He said he had a moto at his house and he´d give one of us a lift into town to get another taxi. So another hour up the road we reached his house were we chilled out and had some water and fruit.
When Yimmi arrived back it was with the taxi we´d previously booked seemingly there had been roadblocks along the way. We stopped in Ixiamus for lunch and to try and fill the taxi but after a while we were under way - i slept most of the trip back I was exhausted. We eventually reached the small town across the river from Rurrenabaque which we took a boat across. Said goodbye to Yimmi Hina and Diego with the promise we´d see them the next day and headed off to the hotel for a much needed shower and clean change of clothes.
S&G
Mosquito count me - 50 Garrett - 500 hehehehehe!!!
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Rurrenabaque - La Paz - Cusco

Posted on September 26th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
The day we returned to Rurrenabaque we´d just missed a massive rainstorm which was great except we had planned on taking the bus back to La Paz. After being told it would take over 30hrs - due to waterfalls on the road, missing patches of road with the addition of probably having to push the bus through some muddy parts - we decided to fly back to La Paz. It was sad saying goodbye to Yimmi Hina and Diego, we´d gotten along really well and the trip was definately one of the best tours we´d ever done, but it was time to move on.
So off we headed to Rurrenabaques airport - a field with a dirt path through the middle (the runway). When the plane arrived we all hopped on - there were about ten of us in all which was a good thing cause the plane was tiny doubt it would´ve held more than twenty - an aisle through the middle with one seat on either side, the roof was fairly low well Garrett couldn´t stand up striaght. So we took our seats and buckled in and laughed as the plane rocked on the bumpy runway as it took off. Due to the bad weather we couldn´t see much for all the clouds so decided to snooze like everyone else on board. About an hour into the flight i woke up due to some turbulence. It was getting fairly rocky and i was getting a little bit nervous when suddenly all the buzzers and beepers in the cockpit started going off (oh yea you could see right into the cockpit - no doors or curtains). At this stage i decided it was time Garrett woke up so i gave him a swift kick in the leg - i was too afraid to move in my seat. No sooner than he was awake and the plane started to nose dive….
Needless to say the scariest flight i´ve ever taken, it seems we´d arrived in La Paz and we were just coming into land mmmm!!!  Trust me it was scary - the girls behind us had been crying!!! We picked up our bags and took a taxi to Loki in La Paz were we had a well needed cup of tea…Wouldn´t you know it we were just in time for the rugby and all, France V´s Argentina. We got some photos developed which we sent to Yimmi, Hina, Diego and Santos and in general took it easy in La Paz before getting a bus to Cusco in Peru. It was an uneventful border crossing - we got our passports stamped out of Bolivia before walking across a bridge were we got a stamp and visa for Peru. We arrived a little late into Cusco due to some police stops - checking for cocaine and coca but apart from that everything went smoothly.
So we´re now in Peru
S&G
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The Amazon Jungle

Posted on September 23rd, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
After we got back from the pampas we relaxed in Rurrenabaque for a few days, said goodbye to Rob who was heading onto Peru, had a steak or two (well they were only 3euros), and spent many hours in a hammock out the back of the hostel. After a few days we decided to look into a jungle trek and while getting some information at a tour company we met Itay (who is israeli) and his girlfriend Annabelle (whos german). They told us they were heading on a trip the next day to an indigenous community in the jungle for 5 days and asked us if we wanted to join them - it was by far the most interesting trip we’d heard about so we signed up. We went back later that evening to meet our guide and see what all we needed - nearly cried when they said we’d be needing our big bags - a lot of walking involved!!! We also found out we needed to get machetes…. (big knives!!) so took a boat trip across the river to another town on the far side to buy two.
The next morning it was up early to check out and head down to the tour office where we met our guide Yimmi (pronounced gimmy) and Itay and Annabelle. We headed across the street for breakfast were we found out a second guide would be joining us (although not gettin paid just comin along for the trip) his name was Diego (and he provided lots of entertainment on the trip even if we didn´t understand him we realised straight away the guy never stopped talking), It was then we realised it was going to be a really cool trip the guides were enthusiastic and had great fun making fun of each other.
After breakfast we took the boat across the river again to get a taxi bus at the other side. Realised just how much stuff we had to carry with us when we had to get it all onto the minibus. Well after 5 hours in the bus we eventually got to the village of Ixiamus (which was on the edge of the jungle) were we had lunch. We were meant to walk from here but luckily convinced the bus driver to go a little further. As we were leaving town we picked up a guy and his bike who turned out to be Santos (the chief of the tribe and a really cool guy - more on him later). We´d just gone a few metres further up the road when Santos recognized a family from the village so he stopped the bus at they all climbed in (the mother, four young boys, a baby girl, the husband and another man and their rice, food - enough for another six weeks, along with toys etc… so now there was 17 of us on this minibus plus enough food to feed a small army…
So off we headed out of the village towards the jungle - it took another hour to reach the edge of the forest… were we convinced the reluctant driver to go as far as the village (well there was a sort of track road to it!!) he agreed when he realised we weren´t gettin out and of course we promised him a little extra money… At this point we asked the family how they´d gotten into Ixamas - to which they replied they walked for six hours (they also would´ve had to repeat this journey on the way back with their 60kg bag of rice!!! oh and the eldest child was 12 the youngest - not including the baby who was only 5months and the mother carried - was 3 mmmm.)
Well eventually arrived at the indigenous community another hour or so later (we had a few stops were the driver would refuse to go any further and we refused to get out!!! Was great auld fun). The main area in the community had two buildings used as schools (all made out of wood and banana leaves) and a dirt soccer field complete with goal posts (pretty cool considerin we were surrounded by jungle at this point). Once we´d settled our debt with the taxi driver and gotten all our gear together we built our camp - cleared some shrubs away and put up some plastic covering using bamboo shoots which we also tied our mosquito nets to - these would be our 5star rooms for the trip… The main thing that happend while setting up the camp are we had to use our machetes for the first time at which point Garrett decided to remove the one plant that had been left in the clearing - a coca plant (grows naturally in the jungle and is very important to the villagers)… to which he got a sigh as a reply and to excuse himself called himself a stupido gringo (translation stupid foreigner). This became the phrase of the trip and was used quite a bit became a real joke, oh should point out the two guides and our cook (Hina pronounced Gina - who was an excellent cook) only spoke spanish well apart from a few words in English. They also spoke fluent Hebrew - the israelis have been coming to the region for longer. So needless to say we had to try and speak spanish thank god we took those lessons.
After settin up camp we were pretty exhausted so just headed down to the river for a swim - was fantasticly refreshing  (really warm and humid). We finished off the day sittin around a fire (to keep away the mosquitos as apposed to it being cold) eating some monkey (were givin some from the group of foreigners also visitin the community - they were only there for a day or so,but they´d been hunting earlier that day and had got two monkeys - hey its a big part of the diet out here). Just as we were finishin off our dinner we were asked if we wanted to go night fishing with Santos and family - of course we jumped at the chance. So off we headed into the jungle with a few fishing lines and our machetes. When we finally reached the lagoon we walked around the edges looking for small fish we could use as bait - unbelievable watchin Santos catch a few with a bow and arrow!!! we couldn´t even get them with machettes fun tryin though. Anyhow after the villagers had got some small fish we baited our hooks and sat fishin in the darkness for an hour or so - keepin an eye on the cayman across the Lagoon!!!! Itay and Anabelle caught a fish but myself and Garrett caught nothin. So it was back to camp to our five star beds.
Next day it was up early, we also realised we had a few guests the night before - Garrett had the bites to prove it (I had none hehehehe!!) mosquitos!!! Didn´t have long to dwell on the bites as someone from the village came to take us hunting with him. We stuffed our gobs with some coca leaves - only for them would´ve need a few gallons of water - not a practicle thing to be carryin around for six hours. Yes we were walking for six hours!! Yimmi showed us a cool plant which if you add water to it and crunch it up gives you a red/purple dye, also had got some water from a plant but mainly we just walked keepin an ear out for anything that would be nice for dinner. Sure enough we found something after a couple of hours - they were like racoons, lived in the trees in families of 12 or so. Of course our guide and Diego spotted them straight away so they (and Yimmi) started shootin at them. Yimmi got one in one shot fell from the trees at his feet but the rest were either just scared or had flesh wounds so they just dropped from the trees and ran in different directions. One jumped down right in front of me and Anabelle (the two lads were helpin out trying to catch them when they fell down from the trees) the racoon took one look at  us and ran right past us with the lads in tow… we swore next time we´d catch it.
 Yea right the next one ran right through the two of us - we had to move out of the way for Diego and Itay - who were runnin after it, Yimmi was just bent over laughin at the two of us - we obviously weren´t cut out for this hunting lark. Then again it didn´t look like Itay was either - his gun broke in two when he tried to load all in all a very funny experience. We´d caught four and then Yummi spotted another sitting in the trees so he gave Garrett a go - they were pretty impressed he got it in one. Not to be out done Itay then stepped up (with his gun now intact!!!) and also shot one so now we had six plenty for dinner so we made our way back to camp.
After lunch we helped out Hina to clean the racoons (we kept four in all so we salted two of them - well when i say we i mean me somehow i got conned into doing it by Yimmi still trying to figure out how he managed that!!). After that we headed over to the football pitch were Garrett, Yimmi, Diego, Mogli (another guide) and three of the other foreigners played in a soccer competition - everyone was pretty impressed with Garretts hachet moves!!!
Well thats it for now
S&G
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La Paz - The pampas

Posted on September 17th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

After the mine tour we decided to head straight to La Paz that evening (it´s lower in altitude but still high - highest capitol in the world and all that). Unfortunately for us the legendary Bolivian strikes/protests (seriously they have loads every year) had struck - it was over whether or not La Paz or Sucre should be the capitol!!! Anyway it meant most of the roads were blocked to La Paz and most bus companies weren´t running - however we managed to find a local bus that was going so decided to take our chances. The trip took over 15hrs with plenty of stops and back tracking - the bus had a dodgy gear box (1st gear was no longer available to the driver!!!) which meant we´d get half way up a steep hill when you suddenly realised you were starting to roll backwards hence the backtracking.

On reaching La Paz we found loci hostel and then checked out the La Paz markets. It is a lovely city but didn´t stay long had another Spanish lesson before deciding we´d better head on to Rurrenabaque up north. First we did the famous death road by bike - not as bad as it sounds most of the deaths were due to crazy drivers and stupid cyclists going too fast. The first two hours were on asphalt so really smooth which gave me a chance to relax and get used to the bike - which was really cool cause it had front and rear suspension (super expensive seemingly). Then it was onto the older part of the death road - no asphalt. We split into three groups depending on speed - i opted for the slowest one for a half hour or so which gave me a great chance to take in the views (reminded me of tiger leaping gorge in China and Luangphrabang in Laos). I then moved up a group - was feeling more confident on the bike - and i really enjoyed the rest of the trip wanted to do it all again when we got to the end all grubby and wet (a few river crossings) but had to move on so booked our bus from Yolista to Rurre for the next day.

We stayed at a really nice hotel with pool and sauna overlooking an amazing valley of mountains covered in trees. Then the next day headed to Yolista bus station (a yellow triangle in the middle of the road) to catch our bus. To get to Rurre we continued on the death road - seriously would not like to be scared of heights!!! At some stage our clearance distance to the edge was about a foot if that especially when trying to let another bus/lorry pass. Not to worry though we arrived safe and sound the next morning (another 16hr trip) and headed straight to the office we´d booked a pampas trip with. Started to panick a bit when the office still wasn´t open 3hrs later at nine (was supposed to open at 7!!) but all went well and we eventually got under way an hour later. There was eight of us - me Garrett and Rob two portugese guys and three english girls as well as our guide Oscar and a cook. Five hours later (incredibly bumpy jeep drive later) we arrived at our boat/canoe which we hopped into with all our gear and then headed upstream into the pampas. The pampas is an area of wetland on the edge of the amazon jungle in Bolivia and within minutes we were seeing lots of different coloured kingfishers, giant cranes of all different discriptions, aligators and caymans, and capabaris (largest rodent in the world - actually quite cute) - there were loads more weird looking things just can´t remember their names (oh there were vultures). We also got to see some cute monkeys (yellow black and white) which are known as the cheeky monkeys - they came onto the boat trying to steal some fruit - see how they got their name. Eventually got to camp three hours later were we had some chow and a few beers before calling it a day.

The following day we went anaconda hunting two hours in muck up to the knees (was back wearing wellies) decided to call it a day (had no luck finding one) when we walked right past one. Oscar caught it so we could take a few pics (Garrett was delighted cause he got to hold it) before we let it go and headed back to camp. Then we headed piranha fishing as you do caught one or two little ones but Oscar caught some big ones which we had for dinner - not the nicest fish i´ve tried but wasn´t bad. We finished off the day by watching the sunset from a bar down river. Our final day we got up really early to listen to the pampas wake up but unfortunately the sun wasn´t out so even though we found some howler monkeys they wouldn´t wake up for us - it was too cold. Although it was really funny as we pulled up along the bank to go wake them up but when we got back in Garrett got to push off only to sink up to his ankles in mud - almost lost his shoes (was funnier at the time him trying to haul himself onto the boat as we drifted away while at the same time trying to find his shoes).

After breakfast we headed swimming with the pink dolphins - who turn pink seemingly when excited!! Only Garrett jumped in but he had way more fun meeting Pete - the friendly aligator on the bank edge who Oscar helped him touch on the nose…… Don´t worry all limbs are still intact.

Well that ended our trip - well we still had a three hour boat trip back followed by the 5hr jeep trip but had a really good time at the pampas - not saying i didn´t enjoy the shower back in Rurre.

S&G

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The wild wild west

Posted on September 10th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
Unfortunately Uyuni has very little to offer so we left straight away for a town called Tupiza to the south east. We left at 5.30 in the morning in a 4by4 - the bus we were meant to take was full so the three of us (Rob decided to travel with us for a while), three french gringoes and 6 bolivians took the 4*4 to a town called Atocha to get a connecting bus to Tupiza. Don´t worry we didn´t have an uneventful trip not us - got a puncture along the way, the lads gave a hand to change the tyre, all went smoothly so we jumped back in the truck but it wouldn´t start the driver had left the lights and radio on. So myself and Garrett (only me and Garrett - we were in the front) hopped out again and pushed the jeep with everyone still in it!!!! until it clicked over - it was on a bit of  a hill thank god!!!!!
We got to Atocha again in time for a practice parade were we got to see some traditional dancing - got some video footage (check out U-tube under Garrett) with the women waving toy lorries on sticks.. not kidding toy lorries on a stick….
Got an uneventful bus trip for another 4hrs to Tupiza which is in the area butch cassidy and the sundance kid was filmed. So in keeping with the western theme we decided to go on a horse trekking trip but being us we decided to add a bit of biking to it as well - just in case our asses weren´t sore enough!!!
Another early start we cycled for about an hour or so out of town (there were the three of us and two canadians another Rob and Tineel), amazing scenery really looked like the backdrop to a western film got to go through a cool tunnel as well. Then it was into the jeep were we went to another area an hour away to have lunch tried out some traditional food Tomales which was made from maize. Then it was off for our horse trek. I of course being the smallest got the biggest horse????? And off we set the 5amigos!! and tour guide and devil possessed horses…. Actually they weren´t that bad they knew the way by heart you just had to hold on… they were quite competitive if one ran they all ran… especially Garrett´s horse it had to be at the front at all times… Anyways we made it to the canyon were we took a break - then it was off back to the village we´d come from. Almost fell off on the way back they´d forgot to tie my cushion blanket to the saddle so it started to slide off with me on it mid full gallop managed to hold on and slow my horse down fairly impressed with myself.
From the village we went by jeep to the top of a mountain behind the village which we freewheeled down - Garrett got a puncture near the bottom he looked really sad so i gave up my bike hopped in the jeep and tortured the guide Carlos with my awful Spanish. Along the way back to the hotel we lost Garrett and Rob - fellas no sense of direction whatsoever… they eventually found their way back the guide was delighted he was worried about them????
A great day out loved feeling like a cowboy in a western, although i´m begginning to get a complex its about time something happened to Garrett i seem to be the almost constant casualty (nearly falling of the horse!!!). To even up the score altitude gave a lending hand hehehe!!! The following day we went to Potosi, the highest city in the world… and although Rob and Garrett weren´t really sick they were definately feeling the altitude. Walking up two flights of stairs had them out of breath…. don´t worry they weren`t that bad but it was great being the healthy one for a change. Anyway to give the two lads a chance to acclimitise we left off doing a tour (potosi is a mining town) until the following day. So we wandered around the town which has really cool cobbled narrow streets - even so very few are one way so plenty of horns blowing. There were lots of churches dotted all over the place and there were some really cool markets - food, clothes, shoes, etc.
The following morning it was off to the mines!! First we got geared up in boiler suits and hard hats with lights, then it was off to the miner market. Here we bought soft drinks, coca leaves (yes they are the ones used to make cocaine but in their raw form they´re only medicinal like chewing tea leaves - more on this later) and dynamite as gifts for the miners we´d meet down the mines. The dynamite, detonator, fuse and added explosives cost a whole 2dollars!!!!!!!! Next stop was the factories which processed the rock from the mines, the rock mined is over 70% useless and is dumped into local lakes as waste - definately not enviromentally friendly. The other 30% is made up of silver, lead and zinc. The factories only extract the waste material from the 30% after that its sent to Chile were its divided into the three seperate minerals - hence Bolivias biggest problem although rich in minerals etc they lack the technology to fully process them so the major profits end up in other countries.
They use arsensic and other “lovely” chemicals to treat the rock as well as some machinery - all of which would never pass a safety inspection at home, but mainly most of the work is done by hand. It was off to the mines from here, were our guide explained the mountain held over 400 seperate mines and was mined by an incredible 20,000 miners. Each miner works in a group made up of family members - all men no women work in the mine, so brothers, fathers, uncles, brothers in law etc. The older miners decide who mines where on different days and each group sells there daily production seperately to the processing companies.. so you only reap what you sow as the saying goes.
As with the factories the safety standards are excellent!! hence the coca leaves which while helping with altitude sickness (something the miners never experience) also helps to keep your throat from going dry in the mines with all the dust. So all miners chew the leaves while mining, even had a go myself and have to say only for it down on some of the lower levels were the air is thinner and you can feel and see the dust i wouldn´t have been able to go any further. It was amazing inside the mines crawling through the tunnels - Rob got claustrophobic and left the tour early.. got to go down to the third level where tried out some shovelling - putting rock into a rubber bag which was whinced up on a pully to the top. With the air being so thin i found myself getting out of breath quickly - even Garrett could only manage a few minutes before he started panting.
Most of the soft drinks we brought with us we gave to the guys pulling and pushing (manually) the big drums of rock up the tunnels to the pits outside… if there were two people the drum weighed 1tonne if there was four the drum was 2 tonne. The tour was amazing really informative definately a job i do not envy!! But being the tourists we are we got to use some dynamite outside the mine. Don´t worry the guides prepared it, lit it then let Garrett & Rob hold it for a photo - really long fuse - and then ran off down the hill were they left it before running away. They had plenty of time before it went off and shook the whole place. After that it was back to the hotel to have a shower and brush my teeth - the coca leaves had turned them green.
S&G
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San Pedro - Uyuni Bolivia

Posted on August 31st, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

 

San Pedro although touristic is a lovely little town with a very spanish feel i won´t do it justice by describing it so you´ll just have to check out the pics. The town is on the edge of the Atacama desert - the worlds driest dessert seemingly, so we rented some bikes and spent a couple of hours cycling out of town, amazing landscape and the sun was unbelievably strong (although at night the temp plummets). We were hoping to reach a building on top of a large hill but a quater of the way up i got blown of my bike - theres no cover so the wind just comes out of nowhere and is quite strong i swear!! So after that we visited the sand dunes instead.
That night we went on an astronomy tour - San Pedro and the surrounding areas have 310 clear skies a year and with so little out in the desert you have perfect visability it was great. The astronomer who was giving the tour was really witty and was willing to make fun of astronomy so it made it all the more interesting - for instance he reckons whoever came up with the birth constellations eg sagitarius, aquarius etc. was high on something cause they look nothing like what they´re meant to. He also explained the southern cross theres no north star in the southern hemisphere night sky - cause we´re on the other side of the world like who wouldn´t have known that??????
The next day it was on to Bolivia and as its one of the poorest countries in south america and the roads are notoriously bad we decided to take a 4wd trip which took 3 days to reach a town on the other side of the border called Uyuni. Along the way we would get to see some sights including the famous Salar de Uyuni. 
The first day it was up early and onto a bus which took us to a customs building just outside san pedro were we got an exit stamp for Chile. Then it was on from here to the Bolivian border control - two hours away!!! We followed a nice tarmaced road heading towards both the bolivian and argentinian borders for about an hour and a half  until it came to a ”fork” in the road - to the right the nice tarred road which lead to Argentina and to the left desert!! Seriously there was no obvious road the bus just pulled off the road and headed left until we found some tracks which we followed. 15mins later it was welcome to the bolivian border control a small building in the middle of nowhere. Here we got our entry stamp into the country and were divided up into groups of six per 4wd.
With me and Garrett there was Rob (from Wexford), Vinny (a kiwi) and two french lads Matthew and Vinne. Our guide was Hector!!! who was really nice (he even put up with my desperate spanish!!) and was a really good driver we heard lots of horror stories about bad tour guides so we were really lucky. We stopped of at some lakes - a green lake and a pink lake as well as at some geysers but mainly we just drove until we came to the affore mentioned pink lake were there was a small village were we stayed the first night. We were at 4,500meters so were actually finding it a little harder to breath and after going for a walk to see the flamingoes on the lake i had a thumping headache. But after a few hours sleep - wasn´t a really good nights sleep - cardboard mattresses and it was absolutely freezing out - well we were in a room with a window no double glazing only a few blankets (we´d missed out on the sleeping blankets) and add below freezing temperatures (and noooo there was no central heating actually there was no heating of any kind!!!) you get a slightly restless night.
It was up early - headache was gone, thankfully had no further problems with altitude, and off again. A few more lakes, a lot more flamingoes, some really tough terrain, and another long drive over desert and we´d run out of petrol. Our guide had great fun pretending he had no extra on board…. but it was off again to another village on the outskirts of the Salar de Uyuni. This time we were 3,500 meters (roughly) above sea level and we were told it didn´t get as cold, add that to a modern style building, hot showers for (one hour only for over 30people), actual mattresses and good food and it felt like we were in heaven. 
After a great nights sleep it was off to the Salar de Uyuni the highlight of the trip well apart from the flamingoes…
The Salar de Uyuni is the biggest salt flats in the world - basically the desert is replaced by salt which stretches for miles and miles as far as the eye can see pure white in every direction. It was an amazing feeling standing out on the salt flats feeling like you were the only ones there. Like the previous days the sun was unrelenting even though it was cold enough for gloves and a hat (cause of the biting wind) we got slightly burnt as the sun was reflected of the salt. We visited a rock in the middle of the salt planes called fish island and got a few pics of us with cacti - they´re huge they make me look even more of a midget…
We also stopped of at the salt hotel - all the blocks are made from salt, and at the underwater river running under the salt flats. Really enjoyed that part of the trip very unique for us. We finished of the tour around 12 when we pulled into Uyuni, were there was a festival in progress. We got our first glimpse of the bolivian people some of whom still dress in traditional clothes - the women in huge skirts wearing stockings and cardigans topped off with a bowler hat… just like the brochure pictures - they even had their hair in pigtail plaits which reached down to their lower backs. The men i´m afraid weren´t as interesting they were just dressed in suit trousers and jumpers.
The festival reminded me of the St. Patricks day parade in kingscourt with all the kids from the different schools marching behind the bands.
It was definately a worthwhile tour - it gave us a chance to get used to the altitude as well.
S&G
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South america - Chile to San Pedro

Posted on August 24th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
well it was like being back in China - the startled deer look was back in force. Just off the plane in Santiago Chile, through customs when people where coming up to us asking us if we wanted a taxi in Spanish (only know thats what they were on about cause taxi is taxi in spanish - very convienient). So needless to say we were glad we eventually got to our hostel - after a lot of hand signals thank god we wrote  the address down before we arrived in Chile. Hostal da Sammy was really nice the people were really friendly but we couldn´t understand why the hostel had no sign outside - if we hadn´t of had the address we never would of found it!!! well it seems the right hand doesn´t care what the left hand is doing over here cause the police knew it was a hostel (they were in playing pool every day) but seemingly the council didn´t know (so the owner didn´t have to pay a fee) and the police didn´t bother to inform them!!!
Anyway we decided we might (just might) need spanish lessons so we booked a lesson for a couple of hours in a different hostel and moved there - well after we took a day to get used to the time difference we left at 6pm on a wed and arrived at 4pm on a wed really really confusing we passed over what someone decided to call the “international date line”!!! Our spanish lessons went fairly well so decided to go another few hours the following day - we were beginning to realise you really need to have some spanish - if just for booking bus tickets or a hostel room.
At the new hostel we met a couple of really nice people who we had a few drinks with until early mornin - just easing ourselves into south america, but don´t worry we were alert enough for our second batch of  spanish lesson. Actually we even managed to book tickets for a bus to San pedro for the following day and we climbed a hill behind Santiago were there was a large statue of Our Lady as well as a really really nice little church (it was tiny) tucked into the side of the hill. The church had really cool stone carvings (which protruded from the wall) of the stations of the church.
After learning from our previous night having a few beers we decided it wise to stay up a little later and have a few more beers to say goodbye to our new friends - especially as we were leaving around 1 the next day for a 22hr bus journey……
Actually we could only get a bus to Calmara (which was another two hour bus trip to san pedro) and we were a little disappointed by how expensive it was as we were hoping South america would be cheaper. What we hadn´t realised when buying the ticket that we ´d booked a first class sleeper bus. Here we were with bread and stuff to keep us going until we got to were we were going when the guy came around with sandwiches and biscuits and tea…. yes a cup of tea on a bus not once but three times,lunch,dinner & brekkie. And not only did we get fed and watered as dad would say but the seats were leather and huge with loads of room to lean back it almost felt like you were in a bed - pillow and blanket provided. Never had a bus trip like it, but don´t worry its been downhill since then…
Got to San pedro after using our perfect spanish!! to get a connecting bus, but will leave that again.
S&G
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New Zealand finale

Posted on August 14th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

Well after the zorbing (still in Rotorua - which is a really volcanic area so theres steam coming up out of the ground everywhere and theres a permenant smell of sulphur but that means hot pools which i love so all was

forgiven) we went to a maori culture show - very touristy but a great night.

The performed their haka (each tribe has a different form of the haka) they played traditional instruments it was really interesting and a good laugh as well (they had us doing a mini haka !!). To finish off the evening we had a traditional dinner - which was chicken and lamb, potatoes and veg all cooked traditionally in the ground in a pit with hot rocks it was delicious.

We decided to go visit something volcanic (as you do) so we went to a place called craters of the moon - which basically is a large open area with huge craters all over the place. They’re formed when steam and boiling water (heated by lava!) eat away at the surrounding rocks so there was steam billowing out of them everywhere. Some of the craters had huge mud pools that were bubbling away aswell - decided not to try these out!! So after our geography lesson we headed on to the next port of call which was hamillton (cool name!!!) where we did a lord of the rings tour and visited a little place known as hobbiton (for those who don’t know this is where the hobbits

lived!!!!) it was cool being able to actually walk into one of the hobbit houses (although they weren’t really houses just a facade - all the filming inside the house was done in a studio). It was a great day even the rain didn’t bother us and trust me it rained we were completely drenched so rather than fight it i decided to join it - a few water fights here and there!!!

After our movie trivia tour we were up for an adventure of some sort so we decided to go caving - ended up getting wet again!! We abseiled down 30-40meters then walked up to the glow worm caves (through a river - which very annoyingly was flowing the other way - bit of a struggle against the current but don’t worry only nearly got swept away once!!). The glow worms were pretty cool just sitting in a pitch black cave with little fluorescent things all over the roof. Then came the hard part floating back down the river through the cave (we’d hauled rubber tubes up with us) so we sat in our tubes and floated down the river making a detour along the way into mud tunnels which were great fun. Started a bit of a mud fights so we were looking lovely by the end of the trip. Anyways we made our way back to the start were we climbed out of the caves - difficult enough, but altogether it was a good day out.

We headed up to Auckland from there over two days - stayed in a campsite which also had thermal springs - you dont know what yous are missing till you try out hot springs. Then it was on to Auckland were we spent our first day in sky city - were Sinead lee and Garrett did a sky jump - which is pretty much the same principal as a bungee except your tied to two cables which slow you down so it felt more like a parachute jump. Well thats how it was described to me have to admit i decided against doing it - i did my one bungee jump thats me for life i think.The other three really enjoyed it especially as they were given a second go for free.

Well after the hectic day in Auckland, hehehe, we decided to head up just north of the city to Waiwera. There was hot pools here but with the added bonus of slides - it was great fun. I even managed to sit in the 48degree pool Garrett didnt even leave his big toe in….. It was drawing near the end of our New Zealand trip so it was back to Auckland for one last night out together. We kicked off the evening in the Casino where both Garrett and Lee made a profit enough to pay for dinner anyhow - so we treated ourselves to a restaurant down by the quays followed by a drink in the minus 5 bar. Its an ice bar with ice sculptures etc etc, you have to put on gloves and jackets supplied by the bar to keep you warm. Its all sponsored by smirnoff so only thats sold in the bar so had a cocktail each in our glasses made of ice - cool (what a pun).

It was then time to say goodbye to Lee and Sinead who were heading home via a week in Singapore while we decided to treat ourselves to another day at the hot pools before jetting off ourselves to Chile - south america….

thats all for now

S+G

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New Zealand - Kaokora,Zorbing and Thermal Springs

Posted on August 1st, 2007 in Travel by garrettgunn

South to North

okay so forgot to mention the current death toll due to Garretts driving - animals 0 Garrett 5 the most recent victims have been three kamacazy birds (it must be the air in New Zealand). All three went splat into the windscreen - everyone say aw!!!
So now that i’ve updated you all on Garretts driving skills i’ll get on with telling you what we’ve been up to.

Unfortunately i still wasn’t well enough to go on a trip up to one of the glaciers so Garrett kept me company while Sinead and Lee headed up in a helicopter and looked over the glacier. Then we went through Arthurs pass (which is a roadway through a load of mountains) to Hammer springs where sampled our first thermal springs. There were about ten pools all outdoor ranging from 29 to 40 degrees - luxury, we even treated ourselves to a steam room for a half hour, we got two steam rooms all to ourselves (we’d booked them so no one else could use them).

So after pampering ourselves it was on to Kaikora were we went to visit the local seal colonies - they’re lazy buggers just lying there letting everyone take photos you could get up real close. Garrett of course wanted to get closer but he wasn’t long running when a big bull seal jumped up and started growling at him - very funny watching him running like a girl haha!!!

After our brush with death with the seals we took a ferry from Picton (south island) to Wellington (north island). We didn’t spend too long in Wellington and just headed up north towards lake Taupo which is a volcanic crater. We had hoped to do a bit of trekking round there as thats were Mordor in Lord of the Rings was filmed but all the walkways were closed. To make up for this (I was really disappointed I wasn’t able to do the seven hour walk Garrett wanted to drag me on) we went to Rotorua were we tried out Zorbing. In zorbing we got into massive round cushions (this was our protection) and to make it interesting a bucket of water was thrown in with us. We then rolled our ball over the edge down a hill - great fun trying to stand up Garrett and me were in the same one so i’ve a few bruises were the big lump fell on me!!!!

what a way to relax on holiday :)
thats all for now
S&G

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New Zealand - Christchurch to Queenstown and all the activities

Posted on July 23rd, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

So its off to the land of ADVENTURE - New Zealand. First port of call was Christchurch where we picked up our campervans. There is still the 4 of us. Garrett, the two Sinead’s and Lee. Haven’t managed to get rid of them yet…..give us 4 weeks though

We headed to a little fishing town outside Christchurch were checked out swimming with dolphins - we were told the water was 9 degree’s so ruled out that idea, first night sleeping in the campervans we woke up with ice on the windows on the inside….. New Zealand is gonna be cold and we weren’t even in the mountains yet.

The first major destinations was Queenstown, adventure capital of New Zealand and some might say the world. Ive heard of breath-taking views but I didn know what people meant until I came to New Zealand, every corner you take you could stop for a picture. Garrett was laughing at me cause I was a little child because of all the snow on the trees, for us Christmas had come a little late, In July. Only thing was missing was Santy…. if you’s want you can send me presents,better late than never i say.

We stopped at a few Lord of the Rings filming sites, you can see why they picked New Zealand locations, before reaching Queenstown. Our first activity was snowboarding the others really wanted to try out some snow sports (i’ve previously been skiing for those who don’t know - I took to it like a duck out of water so snowboarding was going to be a piece of cake for a person like me mmmm).
For those who were with me in Bulgaria don’t worry I didn’t go flying off down any hills this time I used my fail safe breaking system when i felt i was getting out of control - I fell firmly on my ass…… Don’t worry the others were perfectly all right as well - I thought them how to break too…A great day was had by us all even though we were a little bruised afterwards.

With the snowboarding we also got a chance to look out over clouds that surrounded the lower mountains - we were at 2000 metres and above the clouds you could see all around us was snow capped mountains.  It was a great that the sun was out and visibility was fantastic. You just think it can’t get any prettier and then you yet again turn a corner.

The next day Sinead and Lee did a parachute jump over Queenstown and southern alps mountain range, they thought it was a great thrill. We took a scenic flight and cruise then to  Milford Sounds, which is part of a national park fiordland. I’ll tell you if Mrs. Gallagher (my geography school teacher in St.Louis) had of been able to bring her class here when we were studing glaciers she would’ve had no problem explaining V-shaped valleys, corries and hanging valleys - it was so easy picking them out all over the place they were everywhere, all covered in lovely white snow. Flying in our little plane we were surrounded by mountain peaks on everyside - unbelievable. When we got to Milford Sound we took a cruise through the massive fjord (which is pretty much a gorge full of water that leads out to sea Mr.Phelans geography classes for those who can remember!!!). Didn’t get to see penguins but their were seals, and waterfalls which actually looked tiny but weren’t it just looked that way becuase of the huge mountains behind them - a dwarfing effect i think its called. After the cruise we flew safely back to queenstown, the pilot declined Garretts offer of flying the plane, a different way taking in even more views! Should mention here Garrett and Sineads claim to fame - Mount Gunn and Lake Gunn which we flew over seemingly named after their great great great (etc) grandfather. Legend has it.

A relatively quieter day the next day we walked to the top of the mountain behind Queenstown where theres a restaurant and also a Luge track. For those who don’t know what Luge is let me explain - basically you sit in a little plastic seat (feet tucked inside) that sits on three wheels (think of Del boys car in only fools and horses) with handlebars at the front, then a downhill track (for momentum) four sensible adults!!! and a race or three and you get the idea.

As we couldn’t spend forever in Queenstown as much as we would’ve liked to we picked one last activity - bungy jump (which I personally had been dreading). The other two decided to do two a 43metre jump and a 134metre (worlds highest freefall bungee jump - seriously it was a long way down) jump I very bravely decided to do one (the smaller of the two of course) and only if attached firmly to someone else (Garrett got the lucky job) so they could drag me with them. Not exaggerating here people to be funny (you’ll be able to see this all on dvd eventually) it took all my willpower just to shuffle (feet were bound together also known as the penguin walk!) to the edge even then that took some persuading. Must have been a fantastic rush watching the ground rush up at you I wouldn’t know of course (not that i didn’t jump Garrett gladly dragged me off the platform) as I had my eyes closed tightly the whole way down…..The other three loved it and were only delighted to be able to the second higher one - I gladly took up the role of camera person on this one. The Nevis Bungee jump was suitated over a 170meters high caynon and the bungee was 134meters fall in total. So the ground comes pretty close. To see them jump off and bounce around was brilliant but not for me. The 3 of them did the jump no problem but its was other people first jump and some were shaking and really scared but everybody did it in the end and loved it.

It was then off to Wanaka where we went to puzzle world which was great fun especially trying to make our way through the maze (didn’t get lost once!!!) and the  illusion rooms were a great laugh. It was then time for another snowboarding trip , unfortunately yet again I had a really bad cold so couldn’t go. Turned out all but Sinead forgot my wise breaking method with lee using the fence to stop him while Garrett tried the more effective method of his face for his break (don’t worry he’s okay but he won’t be using that breaking system again!!), he’s not able for the ice-climbing trip at the Fox glacier because every muscle aches he says. We’ll have to leave that for another day.

Well thats all from New Zealand for now. Were heading up the the Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers next, so for the time being hope everyones having fun at home hehe!!!
S&G

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