Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Niky's off galavanting Again
Hello I´m in Riomambe
i know its hasn´t been that long since my last correspondence but i´m heading upto Quito today and then to Coca, from there i plan to catch a boat thursday monring down the Amazon river into Peru which means after Wednesday i´ll be out of contact...
The Amazon Boarder Crossing Trip
Speed boat from Coca to Nuevo Rocofuerte takes 12 hours..this is as close to the Peruvian border we can get, we have to get our exit stamp from the Ecuadorian boarder patrol...then 2 hours on speed boat over the boarder to Pantoja in Peru which is the closest "town"...
Then its starts to get a bit iffy...you see the boat that we need to take us to Iquitos only docs every 10 days..so my hope is we get there and the boat is docked and we can leave in the morning...of course my world does not run that smoothly and i´ll likely get there and it left that morning....
this would leave me with a couple of options..
1) Stay in small boarder town with cut throats and pirates for 10 days (so appealing)
2) Negotiate Transport with the Military patrol....Hmmm
3) Negotiate Transport with any boat that comes along...(one of the people managed to get on an oil frigate...
did i mention i take 5 days minimum to navigate this part of the river, i´m hoping for option 1) of course its means i´m sharing a boat with 80 people and their chickens and pigs!!...in my mind its an adventure, it may well be hell on a boat!.. However option 2) is starting to sound appealing after re'-reading option 1 and 3....
so this crossing could take anywhere from 7 to 18 days....
i just wanted to do something adventurous!...
so what else have i mean doing?? well while i was in Quito i went on a hike through the Cloud Forest in Mindo...
Note- 2-3 hour trek through Virgin Cloud forest severlerly dehydrated, suffering from hangover with only 2 hours sleep...No great....
The scenery was amazing, and no i didn´t let a little thing like sleep deprevatio and dehyration stop me appreciating teh cloud forest, altyhough we only managed to see 1 out 6 waterfalls, you really need the whole day...
Then we caught a bus down to LataCunga teh home or near home of Volcano Cotopaxi. In teh moring we went to saquilli market which was brillient...
how many pigs can you get in a blanket??? well i spotted 6 piglets in a sack! plus one poor fluffy lamb being dragged home by its new owners..(literally..rope tied round front leg and dragged along bahhhhhing...poor little lamb!!....get it....sorry...bad taste)
jo was not impressed taht i was making munching noises near the guinea pig pens...so what...a rabbits cute as well doesn´t mean i won´t eat that either! a dear is cute but i don´t see many people turning down venision steak...
I asked jo if we could adopt a lamb and have it as our travelling mascot...she wouldn´t me..i think its when i let on taht she would be expected to do all the midnight feeds and walks in the morning....did i mention i don´t clear up poop either.....
In the afternoon we climbed cotopaxi, it was 1 hour (supposedly) to the refuge...anyone who wants to climb a 4800 feet..go for it...jo and the guide left me..which was good a steh embaressment i felt at going sooooo slow was almost too much....
at one point this ecuadorian family were sat at the side of the road taking bets on how many steps i would take next before stopping...my last lot was 3 steps and i heard them counting eacvh stpe uno, dos tres...and then sniggering when i stopped...oh yer i had their number!...next time they bet 10 steps ( come on my spanish is bad but even i can understanding that basic spanish)...so when i got to ten i paused slighly and took a dramtic eleventh step!!! ha ha eat my dust family!!!!
it was gruellying but i made it too the refuge, these polish people were slower than me i swear!...after ...i even walked the next hour up to the galciers at over 5000...my guide got a bit fed up of my slowness and decided to DRAG me part way...(ended up with torn neck muscle...)
so YES was very pretty....but as i told my guide.... "i´ll do it...but in my own damn time"...those polish poeple didn´t even do the galciers...Weak....
Oh and yes in rionbambe i did the Devils nose train , however...due to 2 japanese people standing up on the top and falling off and dying, we are no longer able to ride on the top of the train...i did point out that this was an over reaction to what can easily be solved with additional safety features...why should the stupidity of 2 people impact so heaviliy on the rest of us..saftey belts could be installed, more secure seating, induction at the beginning of tour...lots and lost of alternatives!!!!..But No.....
So here i will leave you after boring you all to tears again...
check out my friend jo´s site.. http://www.offexploring.com/journal/search/?query=joanne+hayes&query_type=full_name&x=11&y=12
which has more pictures of me!
- comments