So I´m finally back in Brazil for the last leg of the trip! Except its become a comedy of errors.

1. Stay in Sao Paulo for 2 days, but was too ill to go out
2. Stay in Paraty for 2 days, but there was no sun so the beach was rubbish.
3. Go to Rio, but decide to head for the mountains for a few days. Except every hostel and hotel is fully booked so I need to head back tonight.

URGH! But at least the weather is nice now! Carnaval starts on Friday, so got 4 days of hanging out in Rio before the big party. Caipirinhas a plenty!

Severe food poisoning… that reoccurs once a month. I now know the pains of being a woman. So I don´t think Ive got normal food poisoning (unless I coincidentally got food poisoning in mid dec, mid jan and now mid feb…), so I´m a touch worried. I take ciprafloxacin (the uke of all antibiotics) and it goes away again, so I might take a longer course this time round in case its just because I didnt take enough.

Or on the other hand, it might be some weird kind of parasite. The only south american parasite I know is trypanasomes, and it definitely isnt that, so I guess if it pops up in March and April I better see a GP in the UK.

This morning (or rather yesterday morning) I went to the Equator!  Which means Ive officially travelled 55 degrees of latitude by bus and boat! Awesome.

The Equator at Ecuador is rather messy though.  THe main equator line (in the City of the Middle of the World) isnt actually the equator.  Turns out the french turned up heard it was the middle of the world and slapped up a monument without really thinking.  So the monument is actually 240m from the real equator.

So next to that there is the archeology museum.  Turns out the incas had calculated the equator perfectly, building some weird thing at the top of a mountain where the equator is, designating the positions of the sun in the equinoxes and solstices.  Their sun temples (later built into churches by those dastardly spanish) all go along the equator.  Yada yada, history stuff.

Then theres the real equator in a small museum which calculated it by GPS (although strangely the archeology museum said there isnt a proper sign at the real equator, maybe its some conspiracy.  Anyway, at that museum they do all the experiments with water and that, and they work so I guess it must really be at the equator (although Im way too confused to be sure).

Besides… on Saturday I took a bus up to Otavalo, 2 hours north of Quito.  So thats definitely in the northern hemisphere so I must have crossed the equator.  YEY

So its 4am, I havent slept since 9pm. Why… because Im waiting for my flight to Brazil. I booked a 7am flight, not fully comprehending that getting to the airport for 5am is a real bitch, the taxi should be here in an hour or so. Oops. Oh well, Ill sleep on the place.

Out of curiosity I decided to check what time my flight home (in 5 weeks!) is. Originally it was a 9pm flight Rio to Sao Paulo, then a 11.45pm flight Sao Paulo to Heathrow. All very nice… except now theyve rearranged it for a 3pm flight Rio to SP, and then a 10.45pm flight home (although this flight curiously lands at the same time as the 11.45 flight). Which means, YES, I have to spend 6 hours in SP airport before I go home. Can barely hold in my excitement. Damn airlines.

Cant wait for Brazil! Will be more expensive (10 quid a night hostels instead of the 5 or 6 of Ecuador), but theres better food and SUN! Surprisingly, not much of South America is actually sunny, so Brazil will be nice.

Oh, and Carnaval is in 10 days, yey.

So I decided to go online for a few reasons…

1. Listen to my last.fm music
2. Skype the rents
3. Upload facebook photos
4. Book a hostel in Quito

So…
I sit down at the computer and 5 minutes in realise there’s no headphones. Rookie error! So that’s 1 and 2 out the window (left my headphones back at the hostel too, annoying). Facebook isn’t working to upload photos so that’s pointless too. And to top it off the hostel I want to go to has one of those annoying systems where they like to send a billion replies asking to confirm every little detail, but I’m gonna be back in the forest for the rest of the week with only enough electricity for a light bulb. ARGH!

So this is all a bit rubish really.

Anyway…

Been in the Amazon at a Reserve where they want to set up facilities to have volunteers working on conservation of the forest and stuff like that. The only problem is:

a. Rain kind of gets in the way quite a bit
b. The pace of life in the tribe is so slow.

So the average day involves us hanging around in the morning while the tribe decide to do things in the afternoon. So have lunch, then the rain invaribly starts so we’re left reading books or playing cards all day. Gets a bit frustrating, most the projects seem to be pushed forward more from the volunteers’ frustration than the tribe’s organisation.

But it is pretty fun, and we do have a lark so not too bad.

On Friday I’m off to Quito for the weekend, then on Tuesday I fly out to Brazil for Carnaval and the last stretch of travelling before home.

For Carnaval I’ll probably be in Rio, although I could go to Salvador, haven’t decided yet. The exciting thing is I only have maybe 6 to 8 night buses left!!!!!!! Awesome!

So the 6 months are coming to the end and this is the stage where travellers become pretentious assholesw with their profound comments about how to live you need to travel and anyone with a 9 to 5 is a slave man, like a total drone blah blah blah. It’s ridiculous and I hate it and I want to be around people who will kick the shit out of me if I ever spout such naively self important slogans. URGH So yeah, looking forward to home!

Seeya!

So I decided to go online for a few reasons…

1. Listen to my last.fm music
2. Skype the rents
3. Upload facebook photos
4. Book a hostel in Quito

So…
I sit down at the computer and 5 minutes in realise there’s no headphones. Rookie error! So that’s 1 and 2 out the window (left my headphones back at the hostel too, annoying). Facebook isn’t working to upload photos so that’s pointless too. And to top it off the hostel I want to go to has one of those annoying systems where they like to send a billion replies asking to confirm every little detail, but I’m gonna be back in the forest for the rest of the week with only enough electricity for a light bulb. ARGH!

So this is all a bit rubish really.

Anyway…

Been in the Amazon at a Reserve where they want to set up facilities to have volunteers working on conservation of the forest and stuff like that. The only problem is:

a. Rain kind of gets in the way quite a bit
b. The pace of life in the tribe is so slow.

So the average day involves us hanging around in the morning while the tribe decide to do things in the afternoon. So have lunch, then the rain invaribly starts so we’re left reading books or playing cards all day. Gets a bit frustrating, most the projects seem to be pushed forward more from the volunteers’ frustration than the tribe’s organisation.

But it is pretty fun, and we do have a lark so not too bad.

On Friday I’m off to Quito for the weekend, then on Tuesday I fly out to Brazil for Carnaval and the last stretch of travelling before home.

For Carnaval I’ll probably be in Rio, although I could go to Salvador, haven’t decided yet. The exciting thing is I only have maybe 6 to 8 night buses left!!!!!!! Awesome!

So the 6 months are coming to the end and this is the stage where travellers become pretentious assholesw with their profound comments about how to live you need to travel and anyone with a 9 to 5 is a slave man, like a total drone blah blah blah. It’s ridiculous and I hate it and I want to be around people who will kick the shit out of me if I ever spout such naively self important slogans. URGH So yeah, looking forward to home!

Seeya!

So I decided to go online for a few reasons…

1. Listen to my last.fm music
2. Skype the rents
3. Upload facebook photos
4. Book a hostel in Quito

So…
I sit down at the computer and 5 minutes in realise there’s no headphones. Rookie error! So that’s 1 and 2 out the window (left my headphones back at the hostel too, annoying). Facebook isn’t working to upload photos so that’s pointless too. And to top it off the hostel I want to go to has one of those annoying systems where they like to send a billion replies asking to confirm every little detail, but I’m gonna be back in the forest for the rest of the week with only enough electricity for a light bulb. ARGH!

So this is all a bit rubish really.

Anyway…

Been in the Amazon at a Reserve where they want to set up facilities to have volunteers working on conservation of the forest and stuff like that. The only problem is:

a. Rain kind of gets in the way quite a bit
b. The pace of life in the tribe is so slow.

So the average day involves us hanging around in the morning while the tribe decide to do things in the afternoon. So have lunch, then the rain invaribly starts so we’re left reading books or playing cards all day. Gets a bit frustrating, most the projects seem to be pushed forward more from the volunteers’ frustration than the tribe’s organisation.

But it is pretty fun, and we do have a lark so not too bad.

On Friday I’m off to Quito for the weekend, then on Tuesday I fly out to Brazil for Carnaval and the last stretch of travelling before home.

For Carnaval I’ll probably be in Rio, although I could go to Salvador, haven’t decided yet. The exciting thing is I only have maybe 6 to 8 night buses left!!!!!!! Awesome!

So the 6 months are coming to the end and this is the stage where travellers become pretentious assholesw with their profound comments about how to live you need to travel and anyone with a 9 to 5 is a slave man, like a total drone blah blah blah. It’s ridiculous and I hate it and I want to be around people who will kick the shit out of me if I ever spout such naively self important slogans. URGH So yeah, looking forward to home!

Seeya!

Or at least it feels that way. Going to the Amazon for 2 weeks tomorrow, then have 1 day in Quito before flying to Brazil for Carnaval. I’ll either go to Rio de Janeiro for Carnaval, or Salvador. Haven’t decided yet. There’s a free couch in Rio so that would save me mega bucks, but I know a lot of people from various places who will be at Salvador, so it’d be kinda nice to hang out with everyone even if it is more expensive. Will decide on the day of the flight I guess.

At the mo I’m in Puyo, a shit Amazonian border town. There’s nothing to see, nothing to do, no decent restaurants (local or touristy) and all the hotels are scabby (cockroaches galore). Good thing I’m only here one night really.

Galapagos was cool. Will upload photos later. If anyone’s wondering how much it cost me… including all expenses it came to just under 1200 pounds for a tourist class (couldve saved 250 by going for a shit boat but thought Id treat myself to a bog standard one instead).

Today I was gonna do a motorbike tour, but then I decided not to because my mum would hate me and I wouldn’t be insured, and it’d probably be wet and I’ve never driven a motoorbike before… maybe later somewhere drier and flatter.

Anyway… so I went on a mountain bike tour instead. Being Peru the bikes SUCKED. My bike’s chain would fall off every time I went uphill or cycled standing up (someone else had the same problem). The only solution was to go into the lowest gear and peddle like crazy to move an inch, and even that didn’t work so well so in the end I walked every uphill bit no matter how slight.

On the plus side, saw some cool sights. Saw the Moray inca terraces (big concentric circles, looks grand) and the Maras salt mine terraces.

The second half of the ride was a single track (those scary dirt bike tracks that go down steep hills and over big rocks with jumps and stuff). Was fun, but never ridden one before so it was a touch scary in parts.

We then got a bus back to town, but stopped outside town to ride down the hill into Cusco. It was by far my fav bit, went down REALLY steep roads (paved this time!) and free wheeled a bit at the fastest speed I’ve ever been on a bike. Then it was over. YEY

Tomorrow seeing a few more inca ruins then getting the bus at 8 to Arequipa! Can’t wait, but sad to leave Loki

Ciao

So I did the Inca Trail, it was the best. Arrived back in Cusco at 10pm on christmas eve with my pills. Got antibiotics for a stomach upset (yep, 4 days on the trail with major food poisoning, it was a mission). At the pharmacy they just gave me ciprofloxacin, no questions. If you don’t know, ciprofloxacin is the real deal, it’s used to treat meningitis, typhoid and amphrax. Why the hell I need it for food poisoning is beyond me, but damn it works fast!

All night people (mainly kids) were setting off firecrackers and fireworks. Over here the cool thing doesn’t seem to be the light, it’s all about the sound. Mainly it was the traditional Home Alone fast round of firecrackers, but occassionally there was one MASSIVE bang that could only be described as a bomb going off. The place was insane.

Went to my first gringo club afterwards… it was a bizarre experience. No one really looks at ease since no one really goes there regularly and overall it had a really awkward atmosphere. Also it was mainly some weird reggae mixed with electro, so I had a real craving to listen to some proper electro when I came out. Damn having no iPod!!!!

Got 5 hours sleep (worth noting all I had to eat on Xmas eve was a chicken burger from a street stall – sure they’re dodgy, but I’m on antibiotics anyway so what the hey?) and awoke at 9am to hear some heavy foreplay in the room. Urgh. So got some brakfast and now waiting for people to wake up, which probably won’t be for a while yet.

Ciao!