Around the world in 367 days

So the other 10%...

1. We booked on a luxury catamaran in the hope that we would avoid sea sickness. Relatively speaking it was pretty stable (compared to some of the horror stories we had heard about for some of the tourist class boats) but there were still a few bumpy rides. Deborah spent most of the first night having in depth conversations with her chosen deity on the big white telephone. I dialled him up myself once or twice but never connected.
2. We met up with some great people on the trip. For the first half we joined up with a number of small groups who had already been on the boat for 5 days and had a great introduction to the islands. For the second half, Ken and Jewel and Deborah and myself remained on the boat and were joined by the Wexler Duffey party (or did we join them???). We were privilidged to become the newly adopted family and enjoyed a great few days of birthday parties, charades (it was "Desert Rose" people!!), card games and sing-alongs (not forgetting 5 more days of the Galapagos Islands thrown in for good measure!!)
3. I love taking pictures of wild life but usually I need to use all of the 18x zoom on my camera to get a (half) decent shot. Out there, you can take a picture of an Albatros on macro mode or even go head to head with a land iguana on super macro mode! Maybe some of Darwin's theories pan out in the end after all!
4. The Millennium and it's crew and guide (Jaime) were great if you've googled this and are thinking about it you could certainly do a lot worse.

Now we find ourselves in Colombia. We had one more night in Quito after Galapagos and then bought our flight tickets for the next day, along with some banana's, at the local supermarket!! I don't think even Tescos are doing that yet? Our first stop was Medellin which wasn't a great introduction but now we find ourselves in Cartegena which is a truly beautiful city. We have loved colonial towns like Granada and Antigua but this one really stands out. The architecture is stunning, with a great location and still relatively non touristy. We are going to spend a few more days here chilling with a glass or three of vino. Then we start heading inland towards Bogota and then a regretable return to Medellin in 3 weeks to fly back down to Quito. From there we start the long overland haul down through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina towards our final port a call in Rio and a flight home in less than 4 months time...

Posted by Alexander at 00:33 | Permalink | Comments

Tomorrow we are heading off for an 8 day Galapagos cruise on Millennium, a luxury catamaran that cruises around the islands.

I have my own contra-Darwinian theories that might offer an alternative explaination for the blue or red footedness of the boobies, the giantness of the tortoises and the swimming skills of the iguanas. Tune in again in just over a weeks time for an update, by which time I should be sampling Columbia's finest home grown produce free of export duties! (the coffee of course!!)

Posted by Alexander at 21:02 | Permalink | Comments

A few people of late have questioned my particular choice of titles for my blog posts. So, to explain and put the record straight...

My blog titles are like the first tender caress of a considerate lover. The aim of the title is to seduce my readers, to get the old cranial juices flowing and to give a hint of the further enjoyment to come. It is my unique blend of bad humour and crpytic clues; what I like to call "Craptic".

The funny thing about this blog post title is there is nothing cryptic about it - how's that for Irony!

Posted by Alexander at 02:10 | Permalink | Comments

...
But I came here for the Andean view
While I take my morning ...

Anyway, all bathroom's should have a view like this!! We have spent the last few days doing part of the Quilotoa Loop in Central Ecuador. To start with we got off the main loop and visited a small village called Isinlivi about 3 hours from Latacunga. We then spent a few days doing some local treks including a mammoth trek across the mountains and through the valleys, our trusty steed taking care of the heavy bags.

The whole of the loop is surrounded with stunning scenery. I'm not really in the mood to go into much detail so just check out the photo's, hopefully they speak for themselves.

Today we left the loop but not before I endured a white knuckle ride on top of a truck going up to the epicentre of the loop, Laguna to Quilotoa, a truly incredible sight with an amazing 360 degree view. It was the least comfortable ride of the last 7 months but is definitely vying for the most spectacular!! I won't be rushing to sit on top of any trucks anytime soon, but it gives a great different perspective on the scene.

Before we headed down to the loop we spent a few days in Quito, mostly with me being sick but what you going to do!! The old part of the city is nice but the backpacker area leaves me a bit undecided. The place has lots of nice bars, restaurants and coffee shops but after dark takes on a whole new personality. It's definitely edgy and not the sort of place you want to wander around on your own in. I guess at least it warms us up for Columbia though!!

Over the next week we are working our way down through Banos (the fco website actually tells you not to go but that's definitely overkill and just them covering their backs), the Devil's Nose Railway, Cuenca and then we are spending a week (our second honeymoon to be precise) in Galapagos on a cruise. We are both looking forward to it but it's amazing how rushed time seems when you have something booked!!

Posted by Alexander at 00:41 | Permalink | Comments