Nomad Hunt

The Last Post

2009-12-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

I have been back in the US for over three months and already the memories of the trip are starting to fade. Initially being back was quite hard, the sudden transition from North Africa to NYC was not an easy one. I missed the craziness of Africa and the way that things work, or don't work, there. However I have settled back down to life in NYC and to tell you the truth I'm enjoying it. I think the break away from 'real' life has done me good. Something inside me was driving me to travel and now that I have fulfilled that dream I am more content. I consider the trip to be one of the best experiences of my life, but I don't need to do it again for a while. I am happy forging ahead with life and work in NYC.

I did learn quite a lot about myself while I was traveling. Naively I didn't expect to, but traveling gives you a disconnection from all the normal interruptions and plenty of time to think. Mostly I learned that there are many different paths in life and you shouldn't stay stuck on one, thinking it is the only way. I thought I knew this before, but I understand it better now. If Deva and I decided that we weren't happy here I'd have no qualms about tossing everything away and taking off to do something new. I know we could. We are incredibly lucky to have the ability to do that, and we should be grateful, it is so easy to lose sight of how lucky we are.

Yep. So to summarize - life is short, fill it with good stuff :)

Signing out for the last time and on to new adventures...

Ethiopia - Pictures from Ethiopia

2009-07-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

A few pictures from Ethiopia - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126220&id=558597593&l=1e50a0d7ba. I'd blog but I am busy in Khartoum in Sudan.

Addis Ababa

2009-07-07T01:19:00.001-07:00

A select few photos (too slow to upload more.)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=122292&id=558597593&l=1ba2cc08d5

I am in an internet cafe in Addis Ababa, the only internet cafe I
could find that has power today, in the back of a shoe store using a
generator. There are big power problems in Ethiopia because the
hydroelectric dams are not working to capacity due to a late rainy
season. The last week and a half getting to Addis is a bit of a blur.
We crossed over from Uganda back into Kenya and made our way North,
along what we were told would be some of the worst roads between
Capetown and Cairo. I think that information might be out of date,
sure the roads are bad, and might not even be classified as real roads
in places, but they are very passable and not truck destroying as we
had worried. The scenery along the way through North Kenya is
incredible. It is a very remote region and sparsely populated and for
good reason. A big chunk of the area looks like Mars, and not a little
bit like Mars, a lot like Mars. They could have easily faked the Mars
rover landings there. It is a volcanic region covered with red dust
and rocks. Absolutely incredible scenery and the camping we did there
is my favorite of this trip. The only serious issue with passing
through the area is that there are bandits around, and for some of the
ride we had to have two armed guards we hired at a police station
accompany us. They were very friendly and told us that only one truck
in the last month had been captured, and everyone on it shot.

It felt good to arrive in Addis, tired, dusty and in serious need of a
shower. Ethiopia, because of the lack of foreign influences (the
Italians only occupied it for a very short time) is a very very
different country. The calendar is different, the way they tell time
is different, the language is different, the alphabet is different,
the religions are different and the people are very proud of these
differences. It makes for a great country to visit and so far I am
really enjoying it.

Yesterday I went to the national museum and saw the remains of Lucy.
One of the earliest hominid fossil skeletons discovered, 3.18 million
years old. Incredible, but kept in a very run down museum which had
all sorts of additional exhibits from the Axum empire, with almost
zero explanation. After that things got interesting. I was wandering
around the city when three guys stopped me and asked me to help them
with a question they had, what did Moses send after they got bored of
mana. I told them I thought it was fish, but that I am an Atheist and
I didn't really know. They were shocked that I was an Atheist and this
caused huge consternation and a long on the street discussion, which
then led to lunch with them and then they took me to their favorite
chat den. Chat is a leaf which is chewed by many people here. It is
sold in bundles of stems and leaves in little plastic bags. You break
the leaves off, stuff them in your mouth and chew and suck the juices
from the leaf. It is a stimulant and the effect is a little like
having 50 coffees in a row. It is not socially acceptable to chew in
public though so they took me to a back alley den through multiple
dark doorways into a series of small connecting rooms. I would have
left if I felt at all worried, but it felt relatively safe, so I
stayed. In each room you could fit maybe 12 people knee to knee and
they sat around chewing, discussing politics, football and anything
else under the sun. The guy sitting next to me was a PhD in chemistry
and on the back of his hand drew out the chemical analysis of chat and
it's effects on the body. Along with the chat they served coke to cut
the bitter taste and peanuts to soften the effect on your throat.
Nobody minded that I was there and I think I learned more about
current Ethiopia in that time than in all the reading I had done.
After a while though I realized that I was *completely* wired and I
needed to leave. I was vibrating from the effects and unable to sit
still for more than a few seconds. That lasted until well into the
night.

Today I am taking it easy, going to visit the largest market in Africa
and just wandering around the city. Tomorrow we go to try get our
visas for Sudan and, if all goes well, we should be leaving to go
North then or the day after, but as always in Africa, it will happen
when it happens.

Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda

2009-06-26T04:08:00.000-07:00

The above is a self portrait of some kids I gave my camera to.

This is really a non-post. I have a wee bit of internet so going to post some photos and take care of some other business. I'm in Uganda right now having gone west from Kenya through Uganda to Rwanda and then back again. Rwanda and Uganda are amazing countries. Some of the best experiences on this trip - going to a raucous Sunday church, visiting a village orphanage, trekking (far) through the jungle to see the mountain gorillas, camping in the bush, listening to a Rwandan talk about the genocide and reconciliation and so many other amazing experiences that are piling up...

View some photos here.

Zambia and uh, other places.

2009-06-18T01:41:00.001-07:00

This post is going to compress a significant amount of time into the
least space possible. I am in Kenya now, having joined our overland
truck group and just starting to make our way over to Uganda.

When I last left you brave readers we had arrived in Lichinga in
Mozambique where we were going to get our car fixed. This turned out
to be quite an epic ordeal. In fact if you would like to know anything
about front differentials on early import model Toyota Land Cruiser
GX's, then I am your man. I can tell you for one thing that you should
not waste a few days trying to fit one that belongs to a pickup and
that we may have bought the last one in Blantyre in Malawi from a
scrap dealer. Through some guys running a hunting concession we were
introduced to a government guy working at the tourism office. He
offered to take us across to Malawi in his pickup to buy the part we
needed. Wonderful guy, but drives like a maniac, killing chickens and
a dog on the way, getting three fines in Malawi. He is also slightly
over optimistic, the journey which he promised would take 4 hours was
more like 8 hours and we arrived back at the border when it was
closed. With some tricky bribing it re-opened, but we got stuck on the
Mozambique side. Spending the night there was not fun.

Post the epic getting-the-car-fixed. We made our way to the utterly
relaxing cape maclear. Possibly one of the best antidotes to excess
stress. We spent three days camping and chilling on the beach next to
the lake. Eating fresh fish and swimming in the gorgeous water. After
several well earned days of relaxing we crossed the border into Zamiba
and into Lwanda park, narrowly missing a giraffe on the way. Hippos
and elephants walking through the camp and great game driving around
the park. From there we drove down through Lusaka, stopping off at an
Indian restaurant run by Amish's relatives. They loaded us up with
amazingly good indian food as we were going away.

From Zambia it was on to Victoria falls (Igazu falls in Argentia were
better.) Then into botswana across the one working ferry. We camped
in the bush that night, pulling off the side of the road and only
realizing too late that we had camped right next to the biggest
elephant we had ever seen. Bit of a sleepless night in the rooftop
tent on the car and a really really early start that morning on the
way to Main and the Okavango delta. On the delta we went in a makoro
(poled canoe) and a bush walk.

The next two days are a blur of driving in the rain, missing cows and
other obstacles on a 2500km trek back to Cape Town in South Africa.
Where we relaxed for the next few days before heading up to Kenya to
meet our truck to Cairo.

Mozambique - Pemba to Lichinga

2009-05-24T06:06:00.000-07:00

I did not take too many photos of this part of the trip, I wish I had. The photos I took were mostly of the easier parts, I was too stressed to take photos for the other sections. Here are the photos...

Pop quiz. You are in Africa, possibly two days walk from anywhere, and you have to cross a small wooden bridge made out of rickety logs. Half way across the bridge one of the logs collapses and the front right wheel of the car falls through. The log supporting the other side of the car is looking a little bendy too. What do you do?

We just went through the practical examination for this one while on the road to from Montepuez to Nungo. It is stressful exam, on by far the worst road that I have ever traveled on, and classifying it as a road gives it far too much credit. It is basically a track through bush, dirt, sand, water, and log bridges that would be undrivable if there was any rain. It took us two days to travel the 100km and it was not an easy experience. Especially after we destroyed the front right wheel of the car along with some part connecting the wheel to the car.

We had decided to take the road on some bad advice from other travelers. There are several routes from Pemba to Malawi, and on the map the route we took is the most direct, going through Marrupa and on to Lichinga, but about 100km in the road dissapears into the bush. Hardly believing that it was a road we drove along the track until we reached a small village where we got slightly off course. We tried to make it back over to the track on the bad advice of a local. The car immediately fell into a deep ditch, almost toppling over, with the front in the ditch and a back wheel wheel way up in the air. Not a good position. With help from about 20 villagers and attaching the winch to a tree we managed to drag the car out and get back onto the track. Only to get stuck again in a drop a hundred meters onwards, this time we didn't need to use the winch, but it was only a sign of things to come.

Driving on we suddenly hit a big ditch hidden in the undegrowth. The front of the car slammed into the dip and we crossed over, but with everything in the car flying around and the sound of metal screeching. After a little prayer we tried to drive further, but there was something very wrong with the front right wheel. We got out and saw that the wheel was flat and destroyed. No problem, we had two spares, or it would have been no problem if we knew how to operate the car jack. It is an industrial strength jack that, with sunlight fading, in the heat, and with the mosquitos coming out in force, we spent about an hour figuring out. Even then, after replacing the wheel, we realized that the front right hand side of the car had something wrong. The wheel was at a crazy angle, it was obvious something had broken and we could no longer engage 4x4 mode. The car still drove, but it was worrying because we had no idea how much more of the road it could take before failing completely. Especially worrying because we were far away from any civilization, definitely no cell phone signal and probably two days walk from a town. With night falling and after the road dividing a few times we were unsure if we were following the right route, our GPS could only tell us if we were heading in mostly the right direction. We decided to camp for the night at a fork in the road and re-evaluate the situation in the morning. It was the first time that we have used the rooftop tent on the car and it was a stressful and sleepless night, just before we started to sleep we heard something walking around in the bush outside the car. Early in the morning, with the mists rising over the trees we woke up and walked both the forks. In an excellent piece of news it turned out the two forks were just alternative routes leading to the same place. The rest of the day we spent driving very slowly along the terrible track. I can't fully describe it. Huge ditches, ponds, rivers, rickety bridges, sand and mud that the car would get stuck in, roads that would disappear to tiny tracks and all of this to be navigated when we couldn't engage 4x4 mode on the car and with the right front wheel possibly failing. At any obstacle we would get out walk the track ahead and often I would walk along right in front of the car guiding the wheels along. The most worrying obstacle (and there are lots to choose from) was one of the bridge crossings I mentioned above. Half way across the bridge the front right wheel fell through and we had to winch and drive the car across, hoping the other supprting log would not break. We were very lucky that it did not.

After a long and exhausting day filled with obstacle after obstacle, and the car making some more clanking noises, we made it to Nungo where the road becomes a superhighway, ok, it becomes a one lane dirt track, but a good one! From there we drove to Marrupa, where the road becomes a proper tar road, and then on to Lichinga where we are now staying. We took the car to a repair shop here and the head mechanic told us not to drive it any more. We will be taking it in on Monday to be repaired. Until then we will be doing our best to recover and relax.

Lessons learned:
#1. For whatever reason the roads leaving villages are always the worst. Be very careful leaving, expect huge ditches.
#2. Drive slowly, even if you think the road is ok.
#3. If in doubt always have someone get out and walk the road ahead of the car.
#4. When crossing a wooden bridge spanned by logs have someone get out and test the logs and figure out which two to use for the left and right side of the car. Then line the wheels up at the logs and drive across with someone walking ahead and directing the driver extremely carefully and slowly.
#5. There are often alternative routes through the bush around large ditches and bad parts of the road. Keep an eye out for these.
#6. Along the way we would ask villagers that we would meet if we were going the right way or if the road was better up ahead. Even if they didn't really know the answer they would make one up. You can't really trust their advice unfortunately.
#7. If you can find the GPS track of someone who has done the route before I would take that rather than trusting the offical Garmin GPS map. It is crap.

Mozambique - Ibo Island

2009-05-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from Ibo Island.

With my dad back in Ireland for a week I decided to head up the coast to Ibo Island for a relaxing (hahahah, little did I know) time. Ibo is little island off the coast of Mozambique. Far away from anywhere. I traveled with a British couple Angie and Will that I met here in Pemba, and we also gave a ride to a 60 year old South African hitc hiker that has been backpacking around Mozambique for a few months. Seems like a hard as nails sort of guy, he has been doing the entire thing on public transport, which around here is *not* easy. After a long and tiring drive along sandy, pot holed and bad roads we managed to catch a dhow to the island. Lots of hassle of course, but in-dhow entertainment was provided by the goat that would pee every five minutes. On the island we met Elder and Jorg, two great guys that run a guest house there. They helped us find cheap housing (me at TDM next door, and a hugely discounted room for Will and Angie) and helped us find a great guy Moammed to help guide us around.

The second day on the island Moammed took us out to Quirimbas, an island that can be reached by walking from Ibo. Well mostly walking. First you walk through mangroves, then out through a huge stretch of sand and then across the low tide waters. Which are unfortunately not low enough, we had to swim some parts. Moammed took our bag and swam with it in his hand above his head, definitely *not* as easy as it sounds. I looked like an advertisement for coke, swimming along with two coke bottles in my hands. Probably the funniest part was that a few locals came along with us, but one of them could not swim! Don't quite understand that, but along with everything else he had to be helped across. Quirimbas, once you reach it, is great, friendly people, lots of coconuts, and still untouched by tourism. We ended up eating dinner at Moammed's sister's house, or at least he told us she was his sister, turns out that he couldn't even remember her name and that she was one of his (many) girlfriends :) On the way back we hired a dhow which took us back at high tide at night. Amazing sailing underneath the stars. Well, amazing until we got stuck in the mangroves in the pitch black and had to walk back 40 minutes through the mud, slippery rocks and pointy roots. We were exhausted afterwards, and I think lucky that none of us slipped or fell and was cut badly.

The day after we decided to have a 'relaxing' day and visited the fort on the island and then walked along the coast to the lighthouse at one end. We had been told it was a short walk, but we walked for a very long way along sand, rock, mud, and at one point a big stretch of water covered in millions of star fish. Which actually feel quite nice under your feet, especially after you have just been walking over very sharp rocks. We were so thirsty along the way that we knocked down a coconut and smashed it open and drank and ate it. When I say we I mean mostly Will, I just helped with the smashing a little. Will is a great guy to have around, he seems to know how to do anything, or at least how to figure it out. He and the always upbeat Angie make a great team, I recommend them as companions for going to difficult and out of the way islands :)

After the lighthouse we tried to find an alternate, and easier, route back, but we got completely lost and ended up back in the mangroves and walking along the coast. Tired, exhausted, our feet cut up and with only a few hours of light remaining Will spotted a coconut grove where we found three guys, we bought some coconuts from them and then with a lot of sign language managed to make one of the guys understand that we would pay him outrageous amounts of money if he would lead us back to the guest house. Thank god we did that, because it was a long route back and we were very tired.

The first two days didn't turn out too relaxing, but on the third day we decided to try go fishing with one of the local fishermen. Surely that would be relaxing, lying on the edge of the boat, dangling our feet in the crystal clear water with a line over the side. It did turn out somewhat like that, but only after hours of negotiating with the fisherman. We offered them a good amount of money and they demanded a huge amount of money. After a lot of back and forth, even going to one of their houses, we did manage to organize the trip and went out, and Will even caught a fish, but and I think we were just too tired after it all to enjoy it for as long as we could have. That night we cooked at the guest house I was staying it (TDM), they kindly started a fire for us, some construction workers that were staying there lent us a pot and we ate the fish Will had caught. It was extremely tasty.

Leaving the island the next day we left on a dhow with a motor. Waiting on the beach for two hours while it filled to overloading with fish, 30 people (there was probably room for about 15 people), luggage, bikes and more. It was a long, tiring and very hot ride back to the mainland. Where, of course, the car wouldn't start. Luckily some locals and a foreigner gave us a hand and we push started it. Thank god it started.

Now I am back in Pemba, showered, rested and letting my feet recover from Ibo. I will be going to pick up my dad from the airport soon and then heading west across some remote areas to Malawi.

Mozambique - Some Photos

2009-05-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

Photos from Mozambique, not in any order.

Mozambique - Pemba

2009-05-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

Experiences are starting to pile up in Mozambique and places are starting to blur together. Nicky and I have trouble remembering sometimes where we were two days ago (he can at least blame this on old age and fading memory.)

We are currently in Pemba in North Mozambique, we had planned to be here, but we had planned to move on quickly to cross the North border to Tanzania and make our way to Dar Es Salaam. Turns out though that the car ferry across the Rio Rovumba sunk about two months ago. Apparently the only option ot get across is to find some guy who will lash two dhows together and take your car over on them. We heard of some people that did it and managed to negotiate him down to US$100, but unfortunately we can't risk the car. There are no completed bridges cross the river yet, and no other ferries. We are thinking that instead we will head south and then across Mozambique and towards the bottom of lake Malawi.

Apartt from that setback the fist week has been good. Qe made our way into Gorongosa national park where, unlike the Kruger, there were no people, but also not many animals. This is not only because the park is hard to get to, but also because during the civil war there was an army camp nearby and they ate all the animals. The poplation is growing again, but we did not see much on our drives through, warthogs, impala and some other large deer with a target cicle on its behind.

After Gorongosa we drove a long day to Nampula, filled with stretches of awful road with huge potholes, followed by some great road, followed by no road at all. We ended up driving in the dark (not reccomended) to a spectacular camp site 13km West of Nampula, run by a Portugese guy who has been in Africa for 47 years. He was suffering from malaria while we were there, but he seemed mostly ok. I'm not surprised, the guy was as tough as nails. He had spent the entire civil war period in Mozambique and told us stories of how soldiers had blown up his water pump, not for any real reason, but because they wanted to show him who was in charge. After those stories I'm not sure that we felt safer that night when we saw men with rifles patrolling the camp site.

Surviving that night we drove a short trip to Ilhe De Mocambique. An island reachable by a long very narrow bridge from the mainland. The bridge has a weight limit of 1.5 tons, which our car is definitely over, but there were over overloaded vehicles making there way across and they didn't give us any hassle. The island is a run down old Portugese colonial town with a forth from the 16th century at the north of the island. It is a great place to walk around and it feels very much as if you were caught in a time warp. Also if you walk around long enough you might find a local league football match. We found one going on beteween the island and Nampula, which was a blast to watch and I think much of the island was there supporting their team (they won 1-0). We also did another dhow trip, sailing out to the ilhe de goa, a few km away with a lighthouse on it. Another small tropical paradise with agreat snorkeling. btw If you ever feel the need to escape to your own tropical island for a few years we also met two guys who were working construction jobs on tiny islands for a few years.

Every so often we will stop for a break on the long car rides and hen we do we are always an object of extreme interest. Thge last time we stopped near a village we were quickly surrounded, not because they wanted to sell us anything, but to try and chat to us in our terrible Portugese and their minimal English. With a lot of pointing and gesturing and some help from maps and our guide book we managed to get quite a lot acrsoss. Or at least I think we did, they had a good laugh at us anyway. They were hugely amused to see themselves on camera after we asked if we could take their photo and we have some great group shots of all of them posing for the camera.

FYI, and apologizing for all the mistakes, I am writing this in Pemba in an internet cafe where the power cuts out every 5 minutes. Luckily they have the computer on a UPS, so it does not loose power. However the monitor is not on the UPS. So I have typed most of this without being able to see what I am typing. We spent much of yesterday trying to get our rear indicator light fixed on the car after we couldn't troubleshoot it. Of course it broke on the only day that we were pulled over by the police, the extremely slow moving cop wanted 500 meticals (about US$20) for the fine, but after Nicky asked for a receipt it magically became 200.

Nicky headed back to Ireland yesterday and I have a week here to try and do some island hopping. There will be less updates unfortunately. Internet access has become much harder because my phone has been cut off from the data network here, no idea why, but it means finding slow internet cafes, which are few and far between

Mozambique - Vilanculos

2009-05-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Barra after a drive through Inhambane, the first real town north of Maputo. The last part of the road to Barra is a sandy 4x4 track, our first of this trip. I managed to get us well and truly stuck at the start even after we did everything that we were taught - turn on the diff lock on the front wheels, let some air out of the tires and get the revs up. Now we are Hunt men so we do not panic, but speaking for myself there was maybe a slight moment of anxiety. This was short lived and replaced by embarrassment when a local poked his head in the window and told us that we hadn't engaged 4x4 mode. Luckily he didn't laugh too hard at the rich white idiots. After that it was much easier.

Camping on the beach was great. A huge expanse of sand with very few people and good waves to swim in. We did however notice a slight electrical storm in the distance in the evening, but it was far away, and again we are Hunt men, so although we might pack up slightly faster, this in no way means that we are at all anxious. The storm ended up passing right overhead and we got no sleep as the winds buffeted the tent and the lightning lit up the entire sky, once striking quite close. I had to run out to tie down a flap and it looked something like the coming of the apocalypse outside.

In the morning it had thankfully stopped and we headed up the coast to Vilanculos. Here we are staying at the wonderfully named Zombie Cucumber Backpackers. So named after a book about post war Mozambique. We did a dhow safari today, heading out in the crystal clear water on a small dhow and snorkeling off one of the islands. Lots of fish and very clear water. We also circumnavigated the tiny island by foot, which took about two hours. Very much an island paradise. Along the walk Nicky demonstrated that, if necessary, with a lot of mad running around, he can capture beach crabs in his hat, and he further demonstrated that they will claw his hands to escape. I have some great pictures of this and he has some nice hand wounds.

Tomorrow we leave for Gorongosa park in the central west part of Mozambique. Theoretically a 6 hour drive from Mozambiqans that we have talked to.
--
Conor

Mozambique - Quissico

2009-05-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

We drove for two days out of capetown and made our way to Kruger park in the North East of South Africa. The last night before the park we stayed at a b&b run by a very nice woman who explained to us that diseases are caused by parasites in your body and can be cured by use of a little electric zapper. Which we both dutifully tried out. It tingles a little bit and I haven't been sick yet, so I guess it must be working. She also told us that she knew her water therapy was working because her urine was clear. Yes, it was really hard not to laugh hard at that.

Kruger park was great, two minutes into the park we had huge elephants walking down the road towards the car. Over the three days that we were there we saw impala, kudu, elephants, zebra, wart hogs, monkeys, baboons, rhino, hyena, hippo, crocodiles and even a lion. An amazing array of animals and birds (also the goliath heron lives up to its name.) The lion was great to see although, of course, the window on my side of the car had chosen that particular moment to get stuck in the down position. I enjoyed the close up look at the lion, but I could have done the glass separation.

Two nights we camped in the park, in our ground tent though, not the rooftop tent on the car. Took a while to figure the tent out, it is a real old school bush style tent made of very strong material. At night we could hear the wart hog in the camp, noisy beasts. The last night we stayed in a little house and bbq'd (bried for all the south africans.) We could see a hill on fire in the distance, a bright line of fire running across the hill for a good distance, very apocalyptic in the dark.

Crossing the border to mozambique was pretty straightforward. No hassle except from the 'fixers' that *inside* the official border crossing offered to help to smooth your way along. One guy actually helped us out a little at the end, he recommended what beers to try in Mozambique (2M, which is ok, not great.) Mozambique is a big change from south africa, more run down, more third world and very few white people. I liked Maputo, the capital, it has a run down seediness to it that reminds me of india, but a cleaner and less crowded version. The mercado central and the strangely empty train station are worth visiting.

Currently we are in a little pousada (hotel) in a town called Quissico. We were aiming for Barra on the coast, but the roads deteriorated and it got dark too fast. This is quality accommodation with a bucket for a shower.
--
Conor

Cape Town and Kruger Park

2009-04-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

Some photos:

Cape Town

Kruger Park

Nelspruit - a guest blog

2009-04-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

A guest blog here from Nicky (my dad) that I am typing out for him. He is not yet blackberry literate enough to be able to do that, but give him a break, he is an old man (that's what he gets for having me type it out.)

Complete change of scenery as you go North , from mountains to praries to fertile hills at Nelspruit, which seems to be the mandarin orange capital. Many police speed traps and roadside checks. Saw a large truck overturned, going up the top of a hill, which makes no sense unless he fell asleep. With so much game around we had incredibly bad burgers for the last two days. The first mozzie sighting was quickly timed with the first anti malarial tablets. Made a real coffee in a cafeteria, took in a flask and savoured at a roadside picnic area. Nescafe eat your heart out. Tomorrow Kruger and camping and cooking. We have ambitious culinary plans.
--
Conor

South Africa - off again

2009-04-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

And I am off again. I spent two weeks in Cape Town recovering and relaxing. I was more exhausted than I had realized and most of the first week I hardly did anything. Deva arrived in the second week on a direct 16 hour flight from nyc. We spent an amazing week exploring capetown and packed a lot into each day. Walking, wine tasting, sightseeing and eating.

One of the highlights was the tour of a township that we did. A township is a more politically correct name for a slum (also an informal settlement.) We were driven through some of the areas created by apartheid resettlement, the indian areas and the coloured areas (a term used by apartheid), and then we were dropped off in the middle of the Langa township which was the black resettlement area. A local met us there and walked us around. The township has several neighbourhoods, some of it brick or concrete houses and then the rest tiny shacks made out of all sorts of materials. The houses are tiny, with entire families sleeping in a single room with all their belongings. The day we were there it was voting day in the national elections and it seemed like a bit of a party atmosphere, lots of people sitting out on their stoops, music playing and people drinking. Even little kids walking around in way too large ANC tshirts. Our guide would ask everyone we met if they had voted and they would often give him a thumbs up to show their finger marked with the indelible ink they were marked with. Overall the walk through of the township was a positive, although a little depressing. Positive because we saw a lot of schools, good development and people were friendly, depressing because the housing is tiny, the township has had to come a very long way to where it is now and it shouldn't even exist in the first place.

My other top recommendation would be to visit cape point, the end of a large spit of land that sticks out into the ocean near Cape Town. Incredible views and walks looking out over the atlantic ocean. At the highest point we could see the clouds below us drifting out to the ocean across the land. Hopefully I will be able to upload the pictures somewhere. I recommend checking out the one of Deva with the 'dangerous babboons' sign. I miss Deva already, and it will be a while now until I see her again :(

I have started out with my dad in our fully equipped '99 toyota land cruiser 4x4. It is a beast of a car and has everything you could need. There is a rooftop rack with jerry cans and a rooftop tent, the front has huge bull bars and a winch, the back has two spare tires, multiple storage levels, a 60 gallon water tank and a fridge. Most importantly it has a cd player. With a car like this you need a good name, so I have been calling it 'Betsy.' It may need re christening at some point. We spent a day learing how to drive a 4x4 off road, sand, mud and big hills. I only almost crashed the car a few times, and I feel like I might need some more practice, which I will probably get along the way.

Our way right now is across South Africa to Kruger national park and from there through to Mozambique.
--
Conor

Pirates

2009-04-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

While I was on the freighter we heard about the news that the pirates had captured four more ships in the Indian sea. The crew and officers were very concerned in general about piracy, I asked them about it and they said it was a huge worry for ships passing near Somalia. It used to be that if you were 200 miles off the coast or further, that was ok, but these days the pirates are going up to 400 miles off the coast. The Ukrainian navigator seemed to think that the best way for ships to function now was to have guns on board and to train the crew in their use. Some of the officers were worried though that it would be much more dangerous on board then if someone decides to go crazy. No simple solution I guess, but it is unlikely that anyone is going to fix Somalia any time soon, so ships will start having to do something.

I also got to spend some time in the same type of lifeboat that the captain on the American ship was in with the pirates when they took him hostage. The lifeboats are fully equipped with a small electric powered engine, food supplies, water, medical supplies and fishing gear. I wouldn't want to be stuck in one for too long though, there really is not much space in them at all.

Freighter - Rio to Capetown

2009-04-14T03:01:00.000-07:00

Pictures on picasa here.

The freighter ended up leaving Rio De Janeiro at about 5 am in the morning and unfortunately I couldn't stay awake until it left to watch it leave the port. I passed out around 4am and slept in until noon the next day. I was a bit shocked to discover that there were 5 other passengers, a retired pastor and his wife traveling around the world on the freighter, an ex-lawyer traveling around the world via land, and writing a book about it, and a couple that had just driven seven months down through Central and South America on motorbikes. These are the type of people that you want to be stuck on a freighter with, because they have great stories. At lunch I also met the captain, a friendly German man who has been working on freighters for over 40 years. After most meals he would come up to me and ask me "Mr. Hunt, how do you find the food, is it acceptable?" and then when I told him it was fine he would harrumph and reply "Ach, you are too kind, the food it is terrible!" He would always harangue the poor cook with complaints about the food.

A typical day on the freighter I would get up at around 11am, shower and then head down to lunch in the officers mess. It was a toss up as to whether I would turn up at the right time, because there were six time zone changes and I would always forget if I'd changed my clock or not. After lunch I'd catch some sun on a chair on deck and read books or watch the ocean for a while. The Atlantic ocean is big, really big, that's my conclusion after examining it for eight days. No land, no ships, absolutely nothing for eight days, just lots and lots of ocean. The closest we came to land was to Tristen De Cuna, and that tiny island was about 300 miles away. After watching the ocean I'd head to the small gym and lift weights or use the elliptical machine. There was also a tiny swimming pool that they filled on the second to last day, it was filled directly from the sea and would roll back and forth with the boat, fun to swim around in. At around 5:30pm we'd have dinner, usually a long dinner as the passengers would sit around chatting, and sometimes the captain would send over wine. Two nights after dinner we had birthday parties, sitting around in the crews rec room, drinking, chatting, singing karaoke and watching movies. That was pretty much the only time I would see the crew and officers interact, on purpose I think, the overly serious second mate told us they did not want to get too familiar because it could cause problems at work. It could also have been because the crew was all Philippino and all the officers were German. If there wasn't a birthday party I would sometimes play ping-pong with the cook, he was much better than me, and slaughtered me the first few times, but the last night I adjusted to the local conditions (the boat swaying back and forth in the swell) and we had a great game. Other nights I might go to the bridge and chat with the incredibly bored officer on duty (learned how to use a sextant one night), or I'd go borrow some pirated movies from the crew and watch them in their rec room or in my cabin. One night I went down to borrow some movies and I walked in on them unashamedly watching porn. A little weird, sure, but hey, they are at sea for seven months.

The passengers generally had the run of the ship except for the engine room. We'd have to tell the bosun if we were going up front or to the rear of the ship, and we'd have to wear headgear, but apart from that we could wander around freely. We did get a tour of the engine room one day. We followed the chief engineer around the three storey two stroke diesel engine that drove the ship, and powered all the refrigerated containers. Apparently about 45,000 horsepower, although they measure in megawatts. I think that is what he said anyway, I couldn't really hear above the incredible noise of the engine and we had headphones to reduce the noise. I think I need a pair of those for bus rides in South America, where they play music and videos at incredible levels.

The last two nights I didn't sleep too well because there was a huge swell from a massive storm further south in the Atlantic. The boat would roll slowly from side to side at a pretty significant angle and I would wake up to find all my gear on the floor and my body perpendicular to the bed. I was pretty happy on the last day to catch sight of Capetown, I needed a night of sleep on a non-rolling surface. Coming in to Capetown is an incredible sight, table mountain rises over the city and the clouds just roll over the top of it. As we came in we caught sight of whales all around the boat, perhaps six or seven of them, diving in and out of the water and blowing water out of their spouts. Docking the huge ship was a delicate procedure and the captain was a definitely nervous, chain smoking and monitoring everything. We docked safely though, no problems, and, although the land wouldn't stop swaying for a day or two, I was really psyched to be finally in Africa.

Tips for freighter travel:
1. Bring some snacks.
2. Bring lots of new pirated movies to trade with the crew.
3. Bring Wikipedia on your laptop (wikitaxi.) Best. Thing. Ever. Oh, and check what the power plugs are like, you will need an adapter.
4. Never ever call the ship a 'boat.' The officers hate that.
5. Bring some wine or liquor to share with the crew and officers.
6. Choose your seat carefully on the first day in the officers mess, you'll be sitting in that seat every day from then on.
7. The crew up on the bridge that have the late watches will be happy to have some company.
8. Bring a few long books.
9. Nobody is called by their name. First Mate, Second Mate, Chief Steward etc. The only exception being able bodied and ordinary seamen who get their last name tacked on. The captain on a German ship is 'master.'
10. Pay attention to the little note somewhere on the ship that tells you the timezones are changing. Very key.

On ze freighter

2009-04-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am currently in my cabin aboard the MOL Wish docked at Rio De Janeiro. We are waiting for the cargo loading to finish and then we will be leaving around 7pm. Finding the ship was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, I met the shipping agent at his office and he had a taxi drive me down to the docks and all the way to the ship. Once on the ship I met the second officer who took me to my cabin, which is spectacularly nice and even has a tv! I arrived in time for lunch in the officers mess and there I met the captain, an amusing thickly accented German. He told me that he had heard that I am Irish and he apologized to me that there wasn't a pub on board. He did however offer me some baileys to make up for it.

The ship is a hive of activity as they are loading and unloading cargo to try and meet the deadline to leave at 7pm. I can explore the ship as much as I want, only the cargo area and engine room are off limits for the moment. I was up on the bridge earlier and it is spectacularly high tech, it looks more like a space shuttle control room than the deck of a freighter. I talked to the second mate and he says that the weather along the way should be ok, not great, but only 2 to 6m waves. Which sound big to me, but what do I know.

Ok that is it for now. Writing this while I still have some internets on my blackberry.
--
Conor

Cusco - another day another strike

2009-03-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Cusco and the Inca trail - http://tinyurl.com/consvx

We spent another day in Cusco recovering from the Inca trail. Most of the day was spent reading and relaxing in our hostel. We would have taken several showers too, but there was no water at the hostel (that continued for a few days.) In the evening we went to Paddys to meet the rest of our hiking group and to compare aches and pains. Everyone was mostly recovered and hard partying hikers that we are, we ended up being the last people in the pub before it closed.

The next day we tried to arrange our bus to Puno to visit Lake Titicaca and then to go to Bolivia. We had heard from other travelers that there was a farmers strike and that there might be troubles with the bus. They were right, the roads to Puno were blocked and no buses were going for the next few days. The only buses leaving were taking very unsafe routes that would take 15 instead of 8 hours, and even those were uncertain. We spent a while researching alternative routes, but since Sean and Clive didn't have visas yet we couldn't find any easy way. It also turns out there is no Bolivian consulate in Cusco, no matter what anyone tells you. After discovering all of this we held a conference and decided to instead head up the coast of Peru to a place called Mancora, where we can learn to surf. Four hours in a travel agents office later we managed to get tickets to Pirua for reasonable prices, and from there it is hopefully a short bus ride to Mancora. We are currently at the airport waiting for our first flight to Lima.

I'm sad that we did not make it to Bolivia. The salt flats would have been great and La Paz sounded like an intersting city, especially the prison there. However learning to surf on the Peruvian coast is not a bad alternative. I think I will survive.
--
Conor

Cusco - The Inca Trail

2009-03-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

It has been quite hard to update this blog as often without my netbook. Internet access at hostels is not as easy. Since the last post I met Sean, Clive and Jeff in Lima, we spent a few days there and then made our way to the heights of Cusco. Here we are staying at the Loki hostel where I think I am one of the oldest people there. The average age of the travelers is probably about 22. The place is great though and they have an amazing view over Cusco. We arrived the day before St. Patrick´s day and immediately scoped out the nearest Irish pub. The place is called Paddy´s and they have the most incredible sheperds pie. St. Patrick´s day there was a great time and you could´t toss a Guinness without hitting an Irish person. It was a bit surreal hearing all the Irish accents.

Cusco is a gorgeous town in the middle of the mountains and with incredible views on all sides. We planned it so that we had a few days to acclimitze before the Inca trail and I am glad we did. We hiked up to some Inca ruins outside the town for one day and hired a taxi to explore the sacred valley for another day. The rest of the time we ate well (still have to try guinea pig though) and relaxed.

This, of course, was all in training for our four day hike along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. We had received a lot of conflicting advice about the trail and I was starting to worry that the trail would turn out to be a walk in the park, over touristed and Machu Picchu would not be all that great. I was wrong. The hike was just hard enough to be challenging, there were a lot of tourists, but the park limits the number, and Machu Picchu lives up to everything that is said about it. Our group of 14 was very varied, there were a few people our age, a family with a 14 year old, a 17 year old and their mum, and a couple in their 50s. Clive of course immediately became the favorite of the group and pretty much had everyone in stitches with anything he said. He became good friends with one of the guides, and if he ever comes back to Cusco he will be well taken care of.

The first day of the hike was very easy, along some low hills, past some ruins and to a misty camp site in a valley where we camped for the day. The second day was challenging, we hiked up to about 4200 meters and for much of the day it rained hard. At the highest point, when I was almost at the top, only 10 meters away, I had to stop every few meters to catch my breath. The way down was much easier, especially after I watched the porters going down with their huge packs. They would take small fast steps an zig zag across the trail, much faster and easier on your legs. At camp we had a bit of excitement when the 17 year old girl went into anaphlyactic shock from a bee sting. Her mother had packed epipens fortunately and she was ok after one of the other hikers injected her. A scary experience because there is no way to get help quickly, no helicopter can get up there and they have no way to contact anyone. The third day was a great experience. Hiking along the old inca trails along the sides of the mountain, with steep drops at each side and great views over the clouds (or sometimes in them.) I decided to really push myself for the last downward part of the trail and legged it down at high speed following the porter method, leaping from rock to rock, unfortunately I didn´t make it the whole way down before my legs gave out and I could hardly walk :) I did pass a lot of our porters though, which I was proud of until I realized that they were carrying 25kg packs vs my 10kg pack. On the last day of the hike we woke up at 4am in order to make it up to the Machu Picchu sun gate early. It was a bit of a race to get up there with all the other groups on the mountain and our guide set a hard pace. We arrived just as the clouds were clearing for an amazing view of Machu Picchu. It is a spectacular site, nestled in a low dip between several peaks. A huge city built in a really inaccessible place. We relaxed at the gate for a while, enjoying the view and watching as the clouds cleared over the city. I couldn´t wait for too long though because I had agreed with three other guys in my group to try and get tickets to hike up Wamu Pichu. It is a peak that overlooks Machu Puichu and there are only 400 tickets a day to hike up it. Most of them go to the tourists that take the train and then the bus up to Machu Pichu early in the morning. Our guide told us that we would have to speed down to have any chance at getting them. I ran down the mountain and arrived at Machu Pichu before anyone else, but of course I managed to get lost. After a lot of running around I got the 380th ticket and the the last guy in our group got the 396th ticket.

Machu Pichu is just an incredible site and I can´t imagine what it took for the Inca´s to build the city. It is just so inaccessible and high up. We spent the morning wandering around the site, doing a tour with our guide, and mostly just looking around with slackjawed amazement. At around 10 am I hiked with the British guy from my group to the top of Waimu Pichu (the other two guys were too tired.) The view from the top was incredible and when I upload the photos you can see the one of me sitting on the cliff overlooking the city. Coming down at the top though was extremely scary, tiny inca steps, no grips, and a huge drop waiting if you slipped. That was the only point on the trip that I was scared, to the point at which my legs were shaking. I came down very very carefully.

I highly reccomend seeing Machu Pichu. An incredible site. Even if you don´t do the Inca trail or one of the other trails, it is worth going to see it.

We are back in Cusco now. Going to meet our Inca trail group this evening to compare how much our legs hurt, and then tomorrow we are off to Puno and then to La Paz in Bolivia.

2009-03-14T16:18:00.001-07:00

I would like to write about Tabitinga, military curfews, jilted
boyfriends and motorbikes rented, but I wanted to get this one down
while I remember the details...

There are border crossings and then there are border crossings. This
was one of the latter.

I woke up this morning at 4am in order to cross over the river from
Tabitinga in Brazil to Santa Rosa in Peru. I was catching the fast
boat in Santa Rosa to Iquitos. It is not a wide river and the ride
across should be about 10 minutes in a small open boat. The owner of
the hostel took me down to the docks on his motorbike and I hopped in
an outboard motor launch. Three other guys and an older brazilian
woman also got in the boat. This is when it started to get
interesting. The guy running the boat tried to start the motor a few
times, but it wouldn't start, so he got off for a few minutes to go
get a tool. While he was gone it started to drizzle, nothing too bad
but I took out my rain jacket and put it on. This was a good idea
because a few minutes later the heavens opened up in a torrential
Amazonian downpour. There was no cover on the boat, but the Brazilian
woman had a piece of tarp so I huddled under that with her. Of course
my bag was getting soaked and I had my passport and phone in my
pockets, getting wetter by the minute. I gave up any hope of staying
dry and opened up my bag to get the rain cover out (thank you Deva!) I
tried my best to cover the bag and stuffed my passport and phone in
it. The guy finally came back to the boat, managed to get the engine
started and we made our way across in the pitch black and driving
rain. At one point the rain was so strong that the boat filled with
water past my ankles and I couldn't even see the guy sitting in front
of me. The engine stopped once along the way, but thank you whatever
Amazonian god allowed the guy to restart it. On the other side of the
river we stopped against a floating dock where the fast boat was
waiting. By this point the woman was completely hunched under her tarp
and all I could hear above the rain was 'Puta madre! Puta madre! Puta
madre!' She had some large luggage that she could not carry so I
grabbed that along with mine and made a break for the dock, having to
walk across several boats to get there. I almost fell into the river
at one point, but fell on her luggage instead. On the dock some people
waiting helped pull me up and I stood dripping, thinking that at least
that was over. Hah. I managed to change into some dryish clothes and
found my ticket for the boat, but when I went to board the ticket
taker looked at my passport and said 'stampa?' I had forgotten that I
needed to get the Peruvian entry stamp on my passport. I looked around
and asked him 'donde?' He motioned off into the distance along a few
hundred feet of rickety wet planks that led off to land. I thought
about changing into my wet clothes again, but I wasn't sure how much
time I would have, so I decided to leg it. I put my passport in a
waterproof sack and walked along the thin and very wet planks. On land
at the other end there was no light at all and I made may way blindly
to the right on a street filled with mud and water. Sometimes so muddy
that my flip flops would stick and I would have to reach down into the
murk to retrieve them. I had no clue how I was going to find the
border police, I could hardly see through the rain in front of me.
After a minute or two I realized that I would have to stop at a house
and ask. I saw a house with a crack of light off to my left and I made
may way up to it. When I reached the door a policeman opened it! I
walked in and he laughed at the state I was in and motioned me to a
candlelit desk. There, under a flickering candle, I filled out the
immigration form, trying not to drip too much water on it, and he
stamped my passport. As I finished I heard the door open and another
guy in a similar state came in, he looked at me and said "jaysus, this
is a bit of rain isn't it." Apparently Irish people are everywhere. I
told him I was Irish too, which I think shocked him, and he asked me
not to let the boat leave without him. I said, "sure, if I make it
back." The way back was even worse because my flip flops sank into the
mud in a giant puddle and the straps broke when I tried to extract
them. Not only that, but I slipped completely into the muddy water and
ended up walking back to the boat barefoot and covered in streaks of
mud. When I finally got on the boat I changed into my only remaining
dry clothes, a pair of jeans and a undershirt. You might have thought
that was the end of it, but the first hour of that trip was the
scariest boat ride I have ever done. At one point I strapped my
passport, my phone, and some money into a waterproof sack and tied it
to my arm in case I had to swim. The entire river was covered in
debris from the rains, huge tree trunks fallen into the water, and our
captain had to keep dodging between them, and this without being able
to see through the rain or out the front window. He drove by sticking
his head out the open side window, with another crewmember acting as a
spotter. We did hit some small debris, but luckily nothing big enough
to damage the boat. By the time it was light the rain had eased up to
a slight drizzle and now, a few hours later, we are shooting down the
river at high speeds. I'm writing this on my cell phone, mostly dry
and looking forward to getting to Iquitos. I really hope it is not
raining there. (Sending this finally from the iquitos airport where I
have signal, bit crazy getting here but on my way to see sean, clive
and jeff!)

Manaus - Tabatinga

2009-03-13T13:20:00.001-07:00

I had an epic, detailed and grammatically correct blog post written about the ferry ride from Manaus to Tabitinga, but you will have to settle for this post instead because my netbook was stolen last night with the post on it. We had piled all our gear together between our hammocks for safety and we had all been keeping a good eye on it, but at some point during the night someone came, broke into my bag, and stole the netbook along with some other adapters I had in there. I had uploaded all my photos from the netbook before leaving, so I didn´t loose much of real value. I was still bummed though, because the ferry ride had been a really great experience before that. With the help of a Portugese guy I reported the theft to the captain, but he told us that there was not much he could do. He said that Tabitinga is a dangerous place and even if we are only here a day or two, he has to be here for the week and it could cause him a lot of problems. Tabatinga is one of the cocaine smuggling centers of South America, so I understand that. I did not really want to get the police involved, so I decided to write it off as a loss.

Apart from having my netbook stolen the ferry was great. I had been warned that it would be terrible, the food would be bad, it would be horribly uncomfortable and very boring. As usual all the warnings were exaggerated. The food was fine, usually some pasta, rice, beans and a mystery meat. Nothing fancy, but tasty and plenty of it. After the first two nights I got the hang of sleeping in a hammock. Wrap up warm, sleep diagonally and use some rolled up clothes for head support. The boat could be boring, but you made your own entertainment. Out of the 200 people on the boat there were 4 gringos, we practiced our Spanish and Portugese, we played cards (learned some Brazilian games), read a lot of books and met a lot of locals traveling and working along the river. On top of that I never got tired of watching the scenery and animals go by. Our boat would travel right next to the bank of the river and you could easily see into the jungle, or you could sit on the other side of the boat and dolphin spot on the huge river.

I highly recommend it this trip. I felt like I was on a journey from another era, traveling slowly in a boat along the Amazon, loading and unloading cargo at each port and life slowing down completely.

The following tips might not generalize because they are specific to the boat I took, the route we went from Manaus to Tabatinga and the time of year that I did it (high river.)

Tips for Amazon Ferry Rides.

1. The type of hammock you get doesn´t make much difference. They are pretty much all the same at the docks (just make sure to get the normal wide one.) I paid 25R for mine with the two pieces of rope you need to tie it up. It is easy to tie up, or ask someone to help you.
2. When choosing your boat try and get one of the large boats. We took the Manuel Monteiro III, one of the largest boats on the route. The locals told us it was the most comfortable.I paid 340R for a hammock space.
3. A cabin bed was 500R, had airconditioning and even a little balcony. Not too much more for a lot more comfort. I would still recommend the hammock because you will meet a lot more people that way.
4. Get to the boat early to tie up your hammock. Make sure you are away from the toilets and eating area. We went 7 hours before the boat left and then came back later with the rest of our gear.
5. You do not need a cup and utensils. These are provided on the boat.If you bring your own though you can take the food out and eat it on the deck.
6. Bring lots of entertainment - cards, music, books, juggling balls etc.
7. Make sure to bring a phrase book for portugese and/or spanish. You will have lots of chances to practice.
8. At night it gets cold. Bring a blanket and wrap up in the night.
9. You do not need to bring water. There is filtered water on the boat.
10. The mosquitos are not bad, you will need some repellent only when
the boat slows down and the water is still.
11. (bonus). If, as my Danish traveling companion did, you ´meet´ a local girl, then make sure that she doesn´t have a boyfriend waiting at the end of the trip. This will cause problems. Lots and lots of problems :)

I am taking a fast boat to Iquitos tomorrow morning at 4am and hopefully getting a flight there to Lima. There are no roads out of the town and no boats either (except for north to Ecuador.) It was US$65 for the fast boat and it takes 10 hours.

Manaus - The Ferry

2009-03-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

After a late night last night I got up at 7:30 to go down to the docks to put my hammock on the ferry, Manuel Monteiro III. Theoretically the boat should take seven days to go from Manaus to Tabatinga, but this is the Amazon and apparently that is pretty flexible. The boat doesn't leave until 4pm and already lots of people have set up their hammocks to make sure they are in good locations. We had talked to other travelers and learned that you don't want to be on the top deck where the bar area is, loud music all night, and you don't want to be too near he toilets or the eating area. One group of travelers had accidentally set up right underneath the tables for eating and every morning at 6am they would be woken up and made to move their hammocks away so the crew could let down the tables for breakfast.

I'm back at the hostel now, finishing packing and getting some supplies. I've uploaded some pictures of where we set up the hammocks this morning.

Manaus - Jungle

2009-03-06T04:54:00.000-08:00

This will be a long post because I'd like to remember some of yesterday for myself. It was a great experience. Pictures of the jungle expedition are in my Manaus album.

After a night in our hostel in Manaus we headed out to Presidente Figueiredo. A small town 100KM north of Manaus. We had met two American girls who told us that they had a great guide their who took them into the jungle there. Unfortunately Clive and Sean had taken the instructions on how to get there so they were a little incomplete. After several bus rides, some broken Portuguese and a good amount of walking we made it to a guest house in the town and asked them to call the guide 'Johnny.' He came by the pousada and we laid out the next day with him - trekking and swimming in the jungle. The rest of the evening we spent eating ice cream and visitng one of the local bars. Presidente Figueiredo is a small town, only 27 years old, and just starting to develop as a tourist location. There are bars and pousadas, but as far as we could tell, not many gringos at all.

In the morning we were up at the crack of dawn (around 8am for us)and we ate breakfast at the pousada. The owner of the pousada wouldn't rest until we had tried at least one variety of every fruit in the Amazon, or at least it seemed that way. I wish I could remember some of the names, they were all tasty and all bizarre shapes and sizes. After breakfast Johnny arrived and we headed out in his 'jeep', a battered old fiat hatchback. He took us to the edge of a jungle and we trekked in through the secondary and then into the primary jungle. His English was great and he was continually pointing out trees, plants and animals. At one point we stopped at a tree called the indian telephone where indians would beat out a rhythm to send different long distance messages (continual beats = help I have no idea where I am :)

After trekking through the jungle for a while we arrived at a cave with a waterfall outside, and a *huge* line of red ants that seemed to go on forever through the jungle. We spent some time wandering around the cave and then walked along the river down to another waterfall. You can see it in the pictures, but it was an amazing place, and there we swam and relaxed, trying to stay under the pounding waterfall for more than a few seconds. After that we walked back through the jungle to our car, meeting the *largest* tarantula I have ever seen along the way. Johnny poked a leaf into the hole to get the tarantula to come out and I was leaning in to see it. When it scuttled out I regretted leaning in so close and jumped back a few feet. I'm not sure that the pictures do it justice at all. It was large and extremely scary looking.

We had a short lunch and then drove to another area and had to leg it across a property because apparently the owner does not like tourists there. We forded a river (definitely fording, we made a line so as not to get washed away) and walked along a jungle path to some rocks overlooking a waterfall. At the rocks we had to make a decision, to jump or not to jump. The rocks were 10 meters high and I have never jumped from somewhere that high before. I had to spend a few minutes psyching myself up before I was able to do it, and even then there were a few false starts. Sean jumped first and accidentally put his arms out when he hit the water, giving him some spectacular red welts all along his arms. I jumped second and I don't remember much of the drop because I had my eyes closed all of the time. I do remember when I hit the water feet first though because it drove all the air out of my lungs and I flailed around in the water for a while before realizing which way was up. The jump was a huge adrenalin rush and something I will remember for a long time.

After that excitement we went to another area and just floated down the river on our backs watching the jungle go by. Very relaxing and a great way to end the day. Although our day wasn't over yet unfortunately because we had to make it back to the hostel in Manaus, which we did, but they had given our room away. Sean and I spent a hot sleepless mosquito ridden night on the rooftop on mattresses. This morning we awoke at around 6am to discover that the hostel has apparently filled with Irish people. I'd socialize more, but I'm waiting for my room now and I badly need an air-conditioned nap. After that glorious nap I'm going to go buy my hammock and organize my boat ride to Tabatinga.

Manaus

2009-03-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

We arrived into Manaus yesterday and checked into our hostel. It is a great hostel, definitely better than the dreary prison style lodging we had in Brasilia, and packed with travelers. I always miss the hostel lifestyle when we stay somewhere else, sitting out in the evenings meeting the other travelers and hearing their crazy travel stories. Last night we met a Japanese girl Aya who has been traveling for 11 months and has traveled from Cairo to Capetown over 5 1/2 months using only public transport. That put a little perspective on my trip :) She had even gone through Zimbabwe and had great stories of having to change money every morning on the black market, because each day the inflation was so high that she wouldn't have enough money again. Definitely check out the picture of the 100 Billion dollar note she had with her.

It looks like at this point that the fearless expedition is going to part ways for a little while. Sean and Clive are wimping out on the 7 day boat ride to Tabatinga from Manaus and are instead going to fly to Lima on Sunday and then I will meet them in Cusco. They need to meet Jeff on the 13th and they didn't want to suffer through the 7 days on a hammock on the boat :) I've found some other travelers going to do the same boat ride, so I am going to join up with them and leave on Saturday. Before that we are going to do some jungle tours that were recommended to us by some people at the hostel.

I have uploaded some new pictures.

Brasilia

2009-03-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

I miss Morro de Sao Paolo already. The beaches, the food and the people. It was a really good and relaxing time. It would have been more relaxing if I hadn't found a set of hard partying couchsurfers. I managed an hour of sleep last night before we left the island for the long and stomach churning boat ride back. Luckily I slept most of it this time.

We haven't really seen much of Brasilia and I don't think we will since we don't have much time here, but from what we have seen it is an extremely clean, well planned and spacious city. It was built in the 1950s and then later designated as the capital of Brazil. Finding our pousada was a bit of an adventure because we our taxi driver dropped us off at a nameless block of houses (sector W3 703 Bloco A), none of which advertised that they were a guest house. We wandered around for a while until an old woman beckoned towards us and led us into her house, also a Pousada. At 70 reals a night you might expect something nice, but the place is like a prison. Tiny dark corridors, no natural light in the rooms and the smallest most prison like rooms that you could imagine. Thank god we are only staying here for one night. On the upside they do have internet!

I have also uploaded some new photos.