Well Brazil continues in my estimations as the dodgiest place in the world after a crazy night at one of the mini carnival parties. Got the usual crew of international backpackers together and hit the town. All fine and dandy till about 2 when it seemed only the dodgy fuckers were left. One girl got her necklace ripped off her neck and some chancer tried to rip my very battered 12 year old animal watch off my wrist. Cheeky fucker got a smack in the face for his trouble but decided to leave it at that as too many of the his amigos about.

Thinking of heading to an island today for the rest of my time here as waayyyy too many dodgy people here and not really enjoying the place. Everyone agrees that it is prob one of the worst places in the world. Shame as the city itself is really nice and fancy getting some pics but really not worth hanging around in as not wanting anything else to go missing!

But Mum, Dad, Ruth et al dont worry, i~m fine and not going to be taking any stupid risks.

More later,

C

More Brazilian wierdness

Went with some of the girls from the hostel to a cult religious show where you watch as people sing, dance and then get possesed by the spirit of something or other. I didnt really know what was going to happen but turned out to be a but shit. Really loud, really long, really hot and quite dull. I got shit from the organiser dude as I fell asleep in the corner. Hard i know with all the drums, horns and bells going off but come on I had only had 3 hours kip due to muchos flying!!

Off to the beach today and then maybe some coparino (sp), brazilian dance fighting that I fancy trying.

Laters,

C

ps - some of the girls in the hostel have had there card cloned and money taken out so checked mine and there is a withdrawal when i was in the amazon so had to cancel that card!! Should get the wedge back but 300 squid is still quite a lot of money!

Had one of the weirdest nights that I have had in a long time on Fri night. Went out with some of the girls from the hostel after the opera. Too late to get tickets for that but ended up going to the dress rehearsal for some religious festival revolving around a bull! So picture this, 4000 people in a football stadium, massivo stage and sound system. Pumping out crap brazilian music with some dodgy X-factor rejects. But then all the Brazilian's in the croud start to line dance, and they keep this going for over two hours. Looked like a variant on either wigfield, los ketchup or the makaranna. While this is going on there are fireworks going off and people dressed in bull and amazon warriors flying about on wires and on top of cranes. Fun to watch but got a bit weird as we had no clue what was happening!!

Got bored and tried to get to a club but the one that was vaguely near the hostel turned out to be the gayest club that I have ever been in. Full on gaylords, transvestites, transsexuals and other weird wall to wall. Not been looked like a piece of meat for a while but that what was going on there!! But was cool as was there with 3 chicks and just used them as my Chicita shield to keep all the loopers at bay!!

Anyway muchos tired at the mo as been on planes and various airports for the last 12 hours. Powernap time before seeing what Salvador has to offer. Going out with nothing as this place is meant to be way dodgier than Rio. Have my pepper spay, baton and various wallets at the ready!

Laters,

C

Well had written a massivo blog about the whole trip but then the power went out and it all went :( Saw loads of shit like massivo taratula's, swimming snakes including the Bushman which is the jungles most deadly. Actually came after the boat so we had to scarper. The trip was pretty speacial. Headed by bus 3 hours North and then another hour by boat into the deeper amazon, dropped out gear at Antonio's base camp and headed out for a boat ride into the drowned forest. Everything along the sides of the river floods up to 8m per year so makes pretty interesting swamps! Tried to see some monkeys but they were too fast but did see something that looks like a cross between a monkey and an anteater! In the evening we headed out for some alligator spotting, caught a baby and got some good shots! went back to camp for boozing and card playing with the SA boys.

Headed out into the deeper jungle and saw some gaint spiders, snakes and cool trees that have medical properties. Spent most of the day building kick ass shelter and needed it as it pissed with rain all night. Next day headed 8km into the interior but didnt find much due to wrong season and the rain :( Glad to get back to the base camp as ended up waling about 20km in the day. SA boys had to head back and i had a chilled evening making blow dart guns and boozing. Last day went on a final boat trip and finally managed to get a pic of the fical howling monkey, but did get lost in the swamp for an hour in the rain!

Excellent trip, not what i was expecting but fun non the less!

Booked my jungle trip and will be heading off tomorrow at bastardo o'clock for the steaming depths of the amazon. Took a trip today to check out the meeting of the water which is where the Rio Negro meets the Rio Blanco. Kind of like coffee and milk mixing. Very cool but would look much beter from the air!! The went for a spot of pirahna fishing and i caught the first and biggest. These fish are MEAN. Teeth that can strip a finger bare. Going to be swimming with the little fuckers over next few days. Lucky enough to see a grey dolphin and a huge pink one as well. Good trip but expect the proper jungle to be mindblowing.

If i'm not back in a week send out the marines!!

C

Yippeee, in Brazil, manuas to be precise eventually!! Had a bitch of a journey down here. Anmgry taximan who didnt want to wait while I got my visa and passport stamped. Que for Chris running down road trying to get bag out of taxi. Managed to get to La Linea only to be told that you can only buy the ticket to manuas in Barzilian Reial and i only had Boliveras. had to change them with the money guy at the border as the atm would not accpet my card. Managed to get the tickets but had to change some of my emergency dollars in the proceeds. Got told that the bus that |i thought was at 4 was actually at 8:30 so sat down for a long wait. A bus comes in and everyones boards. It leaves and the ticket girl comes running out shouting at me in Portuguese....yup you guessed it the bus that had just left was mine. Turns out what she was saying is that the bus leaves Boa Vista at 8:30 and its the last bus of the day. So have to get a taxi to Boa Vista costing me almost all the spare Reial that I have and eventually caught the bus. A tired, hungry bad tempered boy last night. But am now in manaus and managed to get some money so life is good again. Need to find some people to hang out with and get my flights and basic life sorted out tomorrow.

Adios mes Amiges,

C

Well spent 40 of the last 48 hours sitting on two different buses. Learnt from the first one so i was well prepped with sleeping bag and assorted time wasting gadgets. They even pleyed an english movie but it was some british version of spy kids and would have preferred if it had been in Spanish...easier to block out. All the usual roadblocks and bag search and this time they went through my bag with a fine toothed comb. Boy was amazed at the amount of shit I manage to squeeze in. Tried to nick my mag light but bought them off with some porn id collected in Colombia!

Finally arrived in Santa Elaina where you can check out these massivo tabletop mountains. Although most of the tours take 6 days and arent leaving till Mon so not going to be able to fit it in. Had a total maire when I got here though as the ATM at the border is not meant to be working so thought id be smart and get my wedge here. First of all thr ATM asks for your PIN (normal right!) but then it asks for a confirmation 2 digit security code. Now i had heard about this and tried just about everything I could think of. Eventually gave up and had to get cash out of the bank which was an even bigger nightmare. Needed to get passport, then told to get photocopies, so did that. Then turns out that i had to get photocopies with my bank card on same page. Not the easiest in my almost non existant spanish!! Oh and the bank was closing in less than 10mins so a little bit extra stress. But managed to get some wedge and save myself 3 VERY boring days in this town. Nothing to do. Meant to be too dangerous to go too far out of the town without guide so didnt fancy that approach!!

Quiet night tonight and then taxi over the border in BRAZIL!!! Finally going to be in the right country. Heading straight to Manaus for some jungle action before hitting Rio! If in have time and flights are not bonkers then will try and squeeze in Igazu!

Right enough moaning from me. The coutryside on the way was stunning and since I had the two front seats on the top deck to myself got some good views.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

laters,

C

Yaahhhhh almost going to be in Brazil by tomorrow. Juist got dropped after after spending 21 hours on a bus. Caught it with Pete and Caroline that had been partying with in Santa Marta after seeing the Ozzy and Kiwi brigade off. 5 hours of not enough kip and a very hot bus station made for very grump travellers!! Managed to catch the ticket dude trying to shaft us for 10K each so gave him some abuse and got it for the right price. Pete and Caz were only planning on going half way but met another Chris on the bus and he gave them some advice so they stayed on till Valencia! Got stuck at the border for 3 hours, had to pay a bribe to the border guards so they wouldnt have to check the bags then the cheeky fuckers did it anyway. Suited me though as I could get out a fleece, tooth brush and my sleeping bag for the night stage (which we had been told nothing about!!). Cue an hour of fucking about with drug dogs which seemed more interseted in stealing everyones dirty laundry. Suffice to say none of the backpackers had any gear as everyone seems to have hard enough time making it last the night nevermind transporting it places. With that fun and games over it was back over the border into Venezuela (which means Little Venice supposedly - almost finished book so resporting to actually reading LP!!). The bus then somehoe changed from a normal bus to fridge con and man was I glad for the sleeping bag. No joke this was thje coldest bus i have EVER been on. God knows how the gereatrics got on when the young pups - like myself!! were struggling!

Bus now have another 4 hours to wait till the next bus, only 23 hours this time to Santa Elaina to check out the Grand Savana and then onto Manaus in Brazil for the home stretch. Have traveled almost the whole wat across the top of S America and nopt nearly impressed as the bottom bits! But have managed to hole up in a internet cafe to charge phone,psp,ipod for next leg and to hide from all the low lifes that seem to live here. Plan on spedning the last hour having some food and playing with my extendable police baton to remind wopuld be muggers that I can quite easily practice on them...best defence is a good offence and all that shit!

Right is turning into a essay and i havent even really anything since last post! Oh but my sunburn seems to be subsidding into some semblence of brownness so might pull the tan off this time :D

Later yáll,

C

Arrived safe and sound in Sanata Marta after having to get off the bus twice to get searched at gunpoint by FARC gorillaz and Gov troops respectivly. Interesting experience as used to having a gun of my own. Had to explain why I had mace and a police issue baton but managed to ninja my way through. Checked into the hostel with Kris (Belgian chick im travelling with) and hooked up with the Kiwi crew and the Ozzy girls.

Tried to get some flights booked to Brazil from here but didnt feel like dropping 1000 bucks on the flight so going to get the bus through Venuzala (sp) tomorrow (maybe next day). Not route that i had planned but quite glad I skipped the jungle boat as Niall just got robbed blind and said it was hellish!!

Had a good day at the beach today but forgot that i refilled the factor 30 suntan with 15 and am now back to lobster boy but not sore at all so hopefully will be on the way back to being brown bean tomorrow!!

Off for a sesh tonight as the ozzy girls are leaving tomorrow...more later!

Cx

Well finally manaing to escape from Cartayana and get away from the pimps, hos and drug dealers that we seem to to be living among at the moment. Really nice town but unfortunately all the hostels are in the getto. Looking forward to getting through Venuzuala and into Brazil. Less than 28 days left so the big count down is on.

Anyway more when I manage to get my ass to santa marta!!

C

ps ' happy birthday to my Gran for yesterday when she turned 99!

Well managed to get to Playan Blanca eventually. Jess one if the girls from the hostel sorted out our trip and 3 of us got off at Isla del Rosario to get some diving going. Alright diving, good vis but not much in the way of fish to see but amazing coral so that kept me amused!!

But raging after falling into the water when trying to get into the boat on the way back and dropping my bag into the water. Cue another wrecked camera (3rd of the trip so far) so back to only having the slr and the phone. Going to "get my bag stolen" in Rio as i´ve lost/broken loads of shiot on the trip so far!

Stayed the night on Playa Blanmca with the boys inb hammocks but had to come back today as ran out of wedge after diving. Met a cool english boy and now staying in an apartment with him, an isreali and some colombian dude for the next few days. cant decide whether I should get the boat through the amazon after hearing some horror stories. May end up flying to manus in Brazil and doing some jungle shot there.

Anyway hope everyone is well (haven´t said that in ages) and am looking forward to seeing you all in 4 weeks or so. Think Andy is organsing some sort of sioree so call/mail/bebo him for details!

Cx

Well arrived finally in Colombia after spending 5 hours in the fecking airport. As expected found a cool place to stay with good bunch of folk and went out the rip. Bit of later one as had been awake for 27 hours so much deserved lie in today. Off to do some boat trip tomorrow then try and get some diving organised.

But just to let everyone know that i´m safe and sound!!

Later yáll,

Christophe

Shit, that was probably the hardest thing i have ever done climbing Cotopaxi. Started off well with a good group. Me, a yank, two Canadian 18 year old girls and a Swedish dude. All good craic. Got to the volcano and hiked up to the refuge. Had some scran then hot the glacier for some training. I had done it all before in Bolivia so just went to get some pics. Nothing too hard there. But after we gto back to the reuge started to get a headache and felt sick. Only managed some soup for dinner and early to bed (anout 5:30). Got woken up at 23:00 to get ready to tackle the volcano. Started off well but the guide was going at some pace but felt gopod for the first 500m, but then started feeling quite dodge. Legs were running out of steam and was beginning to feel sore all over. Had to keep stopping every 10 mins or so and started discussing with the two groups (me, Sweed, and guide and yank and guide) about possibility of me going down. But after a bit of discussion decided to push for the summit. Last 200m was the worst. Legs on fire, falling over quite a lot asd legs were V wobbly. Think this was mainly due to fact that I hah had feck all to eat for last 12 hours due to nausea brought on from the altitude sickness. Oh and forgot to mention that had to walk the whole way up in a blizzard!!

The volcano is basically almost a perfect triangle so once you start it is an unrelenting grind to the top. There is on flatish bit but this is just a prelude for the even steeper bit towards the summit. Had to sit and chill for 45 mins near the top as got up way too fast. Only too about 5 hours to get up there and sunrise was not till 6ish so had a wee kip at the top. Not a good idea as felt like shit when I woke up. Got to summit for dawn and saw a wee bit of it through the breaks in the clouds. The other stayed at the top for a while for pics but i was getting quite concerned about my currect state and didnñt want to get any worse at the top of a volcano 5900m up as I still had to walk down. So commondeard (sp) Paulo (my guide) and horsed it down the slope. 5 hours up and 1 hour down. Crawled back into the reguge (apt name) and crashed out for a bit. Out of the 25+ people that tried to summit only 5 of us made it. Cotopaxi is a hard, hard volcanoi to climb and people who manage it have my full respect!

But managed to get up at 4am for my flight to Colombia and thankfully am not too crippled today. Will post from Colombia to reassure you all that i´m safe and sound!

Chris

After getting back from the Galapagos dad and I decided to check out the centre if the world, as in the Equator. Nice park, if a little tacky. Got some good jumping shots over the actual line. dad in true flashpacking style decided that going by public bus would take far too loing so we hired a taxi for the afternoon for 30 bucks. But once that was done there wasn´t a whole lot to do in Quito. Didnt have enough time to go down to the Aamazon so decided to head to the cloud forest of Miso. Nice place and did live up to its name as it was very cloudy. The lodge was very a la Swiss family robinson. All bamboo and wierd shaped windows. You could see through the walls and very like the bamboo huts that I lived in a Kecil!

Went for some walks along some very muddy tracks but managed to miss most the major animals. Tucons and tree sloths. Really wanted to see the sloth as got to be the animal verison of Duckering!! Saw loads of humming birds which are natures own little attack helicopters. The speed of these things needs to be seen to be beleived. Took a wee vid to show what they are like. Got some pics but very hard to photograph as they are always zipping around.

Werte going to stay for 2 days but we were not twitchers enough (bird spotters) to stomch more rain, cloud and mud. Headed back to Quito and spent Dads last day getting me sorted out with flights to Colombia and a Cotopaxi trip. Heading off tomorrow morning.

Bit wierd now that Dad has left but havce managed to get into a hostel with some cool people. Place itself is very run down and prob the exact polar opposite of where we have been stayuing during Dads turbo flashpacking tour.

Will post when i´m back from the volcano.

C

ps - spare a though for me on Sun morning when i´m draggin my sorry ass up the highest acvtive volcano in the world!!