My travelling adventures...

Left La Fortuna and the smoking Arenal volcano behind (altho can still see it from here)... had to cross Lake (man made) Arenal and then drive 2.5hrs.  We had 2 vans to take us... we got a dodgy one that started spluttering about 1/2way there... they decided they would keep driving it (only in 1st gear) til it conked and then they would send another van back to collect us... so going slowly, slowly thru across the mtn... as we are going up a hill a motorbike comes speeding along in the middle of the dirt road straight for us - was awful to see - it swerved and skidded and there was an awful clunk on the passenger side of the van as the rer end (and passenger) of the bike collided with us... amazingly the passenger (both riders only 15y boys) was ´ok´ - he managed to make a running leap from the bike to prevent bashing the ground - he hurt his leg but wasnt going to show how much in front of a bus load of tourists (you could see from his face that he was in pain) - but apparently because there was no blood it was all good.
Monteverde is a nice little town (very little) has a few nice offee shops... and oyu get surrounded in cloud and drizzle by mid-afternoon (I suppose that is why it is a cloud forest hehe) but it is al good...  Did the ziplining and canopy walk with Salvatur... cant say that zip-lining was my favourite thing - scared of heights and all - was petrified before the first one... but did ok... and was starting to get into it until saw the 800m cable - got scared all over again!  But i did it... but ended up doing a bit of twisting and turning along the way which I did NOT enjoy... - same again for the next long cable... (had a couple of short cables in between) so for 3 out of the 15 cables we did I had a 'taxi' meaning that i guide came with  cos i hated doing those long ones by myself (all over 600m long) and got to enjoy it more as they were worrying about doing all the stuff I just got zoomed along and enjoyed the scenery... and then when i did the canopy walk on the swinging bridges it so didnt worry me so that was good... saw some beautiful parrots - incl a toucan and hummingbird, heard howler monkeys and of course lots of pretty plants etc...
Then the next day we had private transport (lucky us) to the border crossing...  it was then i was SO glad to be on a tour - there was no way i could have crossed that border by myself looking cool, calm and together - would have had no idea which way to head thru the mud in between all the trucks waiting around and all the money changers approaching you talking rapidly in spanish...  but, although it was a bit of a wait, it was a relatively painless border crossing (thanks to our guide able to bulk process all ur passports for us).  We then caught our first 'chicken bus' and then another to catch the ferry to Ometepe Island.
Ometepe Island is in Lake Nicaragua - which was the home to the only species of freshwater shark until the president allowed the japanese to come in and fish the shark - and now it is extinct (only happened relatively recently)...  Stayed at Ometepe for 2 nights... was pretty relaxing and quite pretty... very poor.  Sarah and I hired bicycles and rode round for a couple of hours to check out some of the petroglyphs and nearby villages - all the people were really friendly.  Tried some of the famous Nicaraguan rum that nite - had a few bottles between the group...
Then had to catch a boat back across the lake the next day - noone had told us we caught the luxury ferry across with the top desk with railing and a/c cabin (altho it did leak profusely) and even an old 80s movie playing...  on the way back our luggage went at the top, us underneath - with water coming in at the sides... and the water was rough - wasnt overly pleasant...  then had to catch a few chicken buses, with a bit of a wait in between on the crowded bus while the bus driver waited until it was full squishing 3 people onto a seat... but it was all good and we made it to Granada... we all piled into the back of an old ute with our luggage to the hotel... definitely staying in 'simpler' places here in central american then south...  be ok but have little ants running round the bed with me and a leak in our roof somewhere that is crating a river in our room - hate to see it now... as we are caught in the middle of hurricane Alma and it has pouring rain all morning... nothing else to scary or anything - just a whole lot of rain.
Yep that is right - in the middle of a hurrican (wasnt bad enough that it was the beginning of rainy season) and apparently we are going to be following its course (we have another day here in Granada before heading towards the Hondarian border and then going to the Bay Islands - not sure the island are going to be as great as i'd hoped if it is a hurricane...)

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Well not exactly cool - pretty hot actually...  but so lovely and green.  Apparently the government is pretty good at protecting the areas... they found some oil or something but decided not to drill for it in order to protect the environment - good on ´em huh?! 
The tour group is pretty good - bit of a mix of nationalities and ages - some canadias, a few young gap-year Brits, a belgian, german, texan - 15 of us altogether so quite a big group (be interesting when we catch the chicken buses around).  Our tour leader - Veronica - seems good.
Made our way from San Jose to La Fortuna fairly early in the morning... because 4 of us were going rafting the company provided a free pick-up for us all so avoided 8hrs and 3 buses... So I went rafting - was meant to be in Rio Toro (top 4 rafting rivers in the world) but it was too low so went in nearby river - was still grade 3 & 4 rapids and was heaps of fun... some near flips, got stuck on a few rocks (rainy season has just started) but noone fell out...
Went to the nearby active volcano last night to view the larva - was pretty impressive watching it spark and roll down the mountain side (we were still a fair distance away - all managed by national park etc)... then went to Baldi hot springs which were brilliant! - something like 24 pools each a different temperature.  They had full-on waterslides as well - you were meant to reach speeds of up to 45km/hr... - crazy stuff!  One guy dislocated his shoulder when we were there...  I just went down the straight-down one...  The one that had 2 curves in it (people went SO close to the edge) I just couldnt bring myself to do.
Had a nice sleep in and made our way to the waterfall today for a very cool dip, but it was beautiful... There were meant to be monkeys there but didnt see any :(  Got a taxi there and walked back - expecting to get rained on but amazingly the rain has held off this afternoon (it will be coming tho!).
Tomorrow is Monteverde Cloud Forest (yay!) and maybe the famous zip line the following day... :)  Then onto Lake Nicuaguara...
Seeya! :)

Angel Falls
(ahhh pretty! :)  )  
  (view from the plane)
Beside the Canaima airport

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 - that is what they say in response to:

• is it safe to walk at night? (I asked this the first night when I arrived late in C. Bolivar and asked about getting some dinner - he told me a restaurant to go to, and silly me asked whether it was safe enough for me to go out alone... The restaurant was about 50m away in the end so i was fine... it was a little old lady and her sausage dog - both of them looked clean, the building delapidated... after she gives me my set meal and i am munching away i look up towards the rafters as i hear a loud bang... - not to worry, just the HUGEST rat i have ever seen - actually not just one but about 10... oh well if the food is good enough for them.... - + who knows i could have been eating one of them!)
• complaints about hoardes of cockroaches in your room. (I didnt mind the odd cocky, but apparently their had been some complaints, and the owner was like ´what did you expect...´- altho I did start minding when the creepie crawlies starting biting me when i was sleeping.)
• charge twice as much if you pay in bolivars compared to US. I didnt realise how hard it was to get money in Venezuela... and how much they preferred US (which of course you cant get int he country unless you pay top$ ) Anyway so diving - I had to pay twice as muhc as i only had bolivars (twice as much compared to the exchange rate) - their argument was the black market elevates the rate and the bolivar is sinking...?!
• not having a bilingual guide (depsite promises being made) in Angel Falls - luckily 2 of the passengers were fluent in both languages so could translate... The tour organises did apologise tho...

Amazing Angel Falls
One of the things of my trip that I was most looking forward to was Angel Falls (the hgihest single drop waterfall in the world - one of the natural wonders) - and it lived up to my expectations...  Got a little 6-seater plane to Canaima.  There were 5 South American ladies (chile, peru, uruguay and venezuela) doing the tour ranging from 65 - 74! They were such gigglers - had been friends since school... they were pretty funny.  One of the spoke english... then there was the 2 girls form the same posada as me - from UK (originally from Spain and Greece) - all were very nice... The guide wasonly 18yo and spoke pemon and spanish so had to rely on translations.. but all worked ok... the rainforest was beautiful and had a great time sleeping in the hammocks and canoe-ing (motorised) down the river (thru some little rapids even) despite the rain - drizled a lot fo the time - altho it did clear up for the walk up to angel falls.
Walked behind Sapo Waterfall which was great fun too - it was gushing water...
I went in a separate plane to the others on the way back- worked out very well as i scored a free fly-by past the falls! - was gorgeous! (usually have to pay extra $200 for it!)
Then had to rush to the airport to catch my flight back to Caracas - turns out bad weather so was delayed 3hrs - so got in very late...  Had fun at the ariport organising a hotel when noone spoke english and me trying to say i wanted something cheap (apparently they dont understand my accent humph! :) )
Got there oK and then had an early flight to Los Roques the following day...

Lovely Los Roques
Moi bonito!  It was such an island paradise... I was lucky enough to go in low season (didnt realise!) - so when i got there i wandered around to find a ´cheap´posada...  Went into a few and in the end settled for Los Corales which was near the dive shop... he offered free use of the kitchen to make it cheaper for me (as the boss was away) and only 100Bs/night - not incl. any food... (Had been to a posada before that was 120/night incl breakfast and dinner... but was sharing with a lot of cockroaches and lots of old men - and when all the other posadas were 240+/night you get an idea about the place - and you had to wonder what you were going to be fed for that...)  Anyway worked out super well (solo traveldefinitely has advantages) - I got a free trip to a nearby island that afternoon (the other guests had to pay hehe) and a free lunch too! :)  Also ended up scoring dinner every night (he had to cook for some guests the first night, so said i oculd join them, the second night the brazilian couple said I could share their meal, third night Willie, the posada guy didntwant to eat alone so cooked fresh tuna for me!). Ended up just buying breakfast and snack from the nearby backery (the backery guy thought it was hilarious that i would go in and just get one of all the stuff).
Was mainly south americans on holidays there.  Apparently 40% of the islands population is italian...
The day diving was good (coral, lots of fish)... the night dive was one of the best dives I have ever done...  They had heaps of bioluminescence (= sparkles in the water from plankton) - it was amazing - they just sparkled on and off for no reason... and there was like bubbles of sparkes - it was lik they were tlaking to each other like underwater fireflies! - so spent most of the dive with my torch off and most of the gang thinking that they had lost me!
So had a super relaxing time... Altho was kind of glad was leaving when i did as the brazilian couple hadleft the posada the night before and willie was starting to creep me out... incl telling me how he wanted to be a gigalo - oh i cant spell it can i? - he wanted sympathy as he thought it was his beer gut that was preventing him from persuing his dream occupation - blugh!  Wish i could put photos up - but his computer wont let me...

Anyway got back to caracas, oragnised for the taxi driver to actually drive me thru caracas and give me a mini tour (as the hotel was near the airport, and caracas itself is about 40mins away) so that was pretty good.  Didnt look to bad...
Was frustrating at miami airport (had to go thru there to get to Costa Rica) - had to go thru immigration and customs good thing had 3hrs between flights.
Am now in San Jose about to meet the tour group in 40mins... think there is about 12 of us...  go La Fortuna/Arenal or somewhere tomorrow... and then is 2 days Monteverde cloud forest - cant wait!!!!

And - a flying fish beat the world record - stayed flying for 45seconds (someone videoed it) - was on CNN - cool stuff huh!?

Dont feel like i really did venezuela... only really saw 2 places that were pretty touristy... altho did get to make friends with a few south americans...  But if that was venezuela got to say I liked it (depsite all the scary stories) - I think it was pretty good!

Later!

That is all for now...

Howdy folks! I am in Venezuela - yay!  Got to lima about midnight last night - was going to try and save some $$ by avoiding the airport tax and sleeping in the airport - but looking at the chairs and the lack of shower i decided to get a good nights rest and go to nearby hostel - which was supposed to only be 5mins drive but the taxi driver couldnt find it so 1/2hr later I finally got there (lots of things were going thru my mind while we were driving round the glum looking neighbourhood).  The hostel had given up on me.
Anyway have now arrived in Caracas and found my way from international to domestic termainl to see if i could get a flight from Caracas to C. Bolivar (so can get to angel falls).  I thought people were being super firendly - but no, just trying to sell me tours and get me to change money on the black market :)  One guy stayed with me while i bought my plane ticket, helped me check my bag in, answered ALL my questions about the palce (you can imagine! :) ) and then I wouldnt change money with him - he wasnt v. impressed.
Could only get a flight to a nearby airport... and rang Walter of the tour company for angel falls (hope he´s good - LP says he is!) - so he is picking me up from the airport in Puerto Ordaz and taking me to C. Bolivar... (thought late at night etc might be best to have prearranged transfer) and then i am going to Angel Falls the next day - YAY!  (is a 3-4day tour)  So looking forward to it!  Then might see if i can get to Los Roques for some diving for a few days before heading to Costa Rica to begin my central america tour.  Exciting stuff! 
So enjoy yourselves and will chat to you later!

 

Saw the most gorgeous sunset from the plane on the way back from Cuenca - amazing...
In Quito the cab driver dropped me out the front of the shop where I had stocked up on chocolate supplies for the Galapagos - seems like ages ago that I was there - if it wasnt for the pictures Id swear it was a dream - altho it was only the other night that it stopped feeling like i was on a boat when i laid down and closed my eyes...
Am about to head to my 2nd last country in South America - very sad - going so quickly! 
Anyway some more photos for you (by the way I still expect people to be enthralled when i bring out my photo albums when i get back!) :)

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Before I forget I wanted to let you know about my splashing jump in the galapagos... For some reason i thought it would be a good idea to jump off the top of the boat... So Carlos the bartender led the way with a nice front-end normal dive... I got up there and so didnt want to do it - the water seemed like such a long way away! - plus i was worried i was going to land on a cruising turtle or something!  But do something everyday that scares you, so off i jumped, and somehow managed to do a butt-flop (accompanied by a nice little squeal)! no idea how i  managed it.  The other 2 that jumped off managed to jump a lot more gracefully than I - and no bruises as a result!  It is amazing how hard water is! :)

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I am back from the Galapagos Islands (sniff sniff).  
When we (16 of us) first arrived at the dock we were taking loads of photos of these crabs on the distant rocks and the marine iguanas - little did we realise how amazingly close, and how much we were going to see, in the following days. 
Pretty much the daily routine was get up for breakfast at 7, do a little hike, snorkel, rest, lunch, rest, little hike (hike being 1-2km in the heat - was very hot, was an effort), then snorkel, shower, drinks at the bar, dinner, bar, then bed...  Little bell would be rung every time a meal was served or we had to catch a dinghy for the landings to an island...  I became known as the dessert critic as I was not impressed when we consistently got fruit for dessert - esp melon!!!The bar was pretty good as the bartender was very generous with his servings.  I had a little cabin on the main deck all to myself which was pretty cool - prime location.
The guides told us a bit about the corruption going on at Galapagos... Only meant to be 120,000 visitors per year but 168000 went last year... There was meant to be a limit on teh size of cruise ships but after one large cruise ship with over 100 passengers hassled enough the government eventually gave them a permit to cruise the park...
Was crystal clear turquiose waters - absolutely stunning with volcanic islands dotted about the place... very nice and relaxing as well as being an unbelievable experience....  Had brilliant people on the boat as well - a lot of canadians, range of ages, all got on really well... 
Again so much wonderful stuff so will just do the highlights...

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