Stiff Socks

The Fake Police in Sucre

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:50:00 +0000

its the most common story you hear about backpackers getting robbed in bolivia. in peru its more dodgy taxi drivers and pickpockets that trouble us gringos...

i´d just come off a 12 hour (i think) bus ride from potosi. i was the only gringo on board. oh, and i sat next to this girl who had two tiny kittens, one of which escaped in the night and we used my ipod light to find it. only for some of the other passengers to complain to driver about the noise the kittens were making and them being put in the hold. she cried.

as soon as i was off the bus i was in standard pragmatic mode. the bus stops about 5km outside of town. taxi. there must of been 5 or 6 waiting there. everything valuable was hidden nicely away except a bit of cash in my pocket. i was tired and not focussed and being threatened was the last thing on my mind. (big tip... don´t wear a money belt. thieves are on to this. it is easier for a pickpocket to get a moneybelt off you than something from your pocket! - on any transport where i have to have everything on my posession, i where shorts with zipped pockets under whatever it is i´m wearing)

the taxi drivers see me and see gringo. the first guy approaches and wants 5 bvs (50p) - well i don´t know where i am, it´s dark and all i know is my accomodation is 5k´s away. "done".
then another driver hears this and offers 4. "sold".

i´ve heard many a story about people getting done. some horrible - of course, but most are standard procedure for these guys. i went to get in the front seat and put my bag on my lap as normal. he told me to put my bag in the boot and get in the backseat. ERROR - i know not to do this but at the time wasn´t bothered. i should of, and now always do, insist on sitting in the front. and you´re very vulnerable to them driving away with your bag, on entrance and exit, if you put it somewhere else other than with you.

well what happened? he drove around the corner... not even a minute away from the bus stop. i went to pay him and he said he´d deal with it when we got there. he said he knew where the hotel was. he pulled over. a guy was talking to him through the passengers window and then got in. he checked the drivers licence. he looked at me and instantly asked to see my passport...

looking back i knew this was obvious... at no point would i have ever given this guy anything unless i´d seen a weapon. which i never did. i told him that i didn´t believe he was a police officer and asked to see his badge. a lame attempt of a laminated photograph, that looked less official than my library card, was passed to me. i told them both, as i knew the taxi driver was in on this, that i wanted to go to the poilce station, on foot, and that he needed to get my bag from the back for me. i could see my bag in the back behind the seats as there was no boot cover, however, my bag is full to the brim and about 30kgs. there was no way i was getting out of the car until i knew that my bag was coming with me. the driver walked around to the back of the car only to come back and tell me that the door wasn´t working. meanwhile the ´police officer´ was getting aggressive, a few slaps on the face were delivered as he growingly knew that i wasn´t just going to hand it over to him.

i wanted to open the door, not to get out, but just so that they were less inclined to drive off. this is when i found out he´d looked it and the locks from the inside were broken. shit. now i´m wide awake.

well, what would you have done?

i grabbed my bag from over my shoulder, kicked the window out, unlocked the door and walked off down the road shouting ´policia´. thank god i wasn´t wearing my havaianas.

Potosi

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:08:00 +0000

i really felt i was experiencing the real bolivia when i was in potosi. technically the worlds highest city at 4060 m... potosi is set against the backdrop f the cerro rico, a rusty coloured mountain. by the 18th century it had grown to be the wealthiest city in south america as a result of the silver found in the mountain. millions of african slaves were sent to potosi to work and die in awful conditions. although today the silver has been depleted, workers continue to brave the lethal conditions, often steered into the work through proud tradition (often from 14 years old). to keep them safe, they worship ´tio´, their devil.

the mine is not a tourist mine, it is a working mine... our guide took our group of 6 into one of the main entrances of the mine. i thought i was ready for it, but the conditions are scary. after an hour half of the group had turned back! us brave few continued in total trust of our guide, who had worked the mine for 10 years previously. we slid and crawled down three levels of the 16 level mine, where we witnessed the shovellers and the transporters.

at 4300 m it´s hard enough to breath as it is... let alne when you are crawling around dusty tunnels.

the fun part came when we got out of the mine, we got to explode some of the dynamite we had bought in the miners market - so exciting. see the video.

The World´s Most Deadliest Road

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:08:00 +0000

scary scary scary...

10/10 for the company, ´downhill madness´ 300 bvs cheaper ´gravity´, great guide, good food, and awesome bikes

Salar de Uyuni

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:00:00 +0000

the world´s largest salt flat covers an amzing 12,000 sq km and sits at a crazy 3650 m. it was part of a prehistoric lake, called lago minchin, which covered nearly all of southwest bolivia. once dried up it left some seasonal puddles and several salt pans, including the salar de uyuni and salar de coipasa.

the four day tour allowed me to see everything. the laguna colorada, a bright red lake, was my first experience of flamingo. sitting in sparse mountainous desert we also visited the laguna verde (green lagoon) - a splendid aquamarine lake at 5000 m; the nearby termas de polques - hot springs (30 deg c) at 6am; the geyser basin - with its boiling mud pots.

the trip, overall, was one of the highlights of my trip so far. the company was great (andes salt flat expeditions, uyuni); the cost was minimal for the itinerary (500 bvs / 50 pounds); and the photos are spectacular.

San Pedro Prison, La Paz

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:13:00 +0000

in all honesty i was very hungover... which is not a good start to going into this prison. it´s crazy. if you get a chance check out ´marching powder´ and i hear there´s a film coming out shortly with brad pitt.

bolivia is going through a bit of a crisis atm. evo´s support is starting to dip particularly in the eastern cities of sucre and santa cruz... cocaine is a hot topic but not the be all and end all, especially compared to the anti -americanism that is so strong at present.

the government does not recognize the prison as a tourist destination... you have to hang about outside the prison until a lady named mary approaches and takes you inside. it´s not cheap 250bvs (about 25 pounds). a guide (inmate) takes you on about a 2 hour tour of the poor side of the prison with bodyguards (3 guys in for murder). there are some very intense stories along the way, a cocaine factory, crack alley, football pitches, restaurants, and families making a living from everything.

San Pedro prison, the biggest in Bolivia's main city, La Paz, is home to about 1,500 inmates. once you pass the thick walls and the security gates, any resemblance to a normal jail disappears: there are children playing, market stalls, restaurants, hairdressers and even a hotel. it looks more like the streets of El Alto, Bolivia's poorest neighbourhood that sprawls on the outskirts of La Paz, than a prison.

earning a living - the prison is divided into eight sectors and facilities range from miserable to luxurious. there are no guards, no uniforms or metal bars on the cell windows. this relative freedom comes at a price: inmates have to pay for their cells, so most of them have to work inside the jail, selling groceries or working in the food stalls. others work as hairdressers, laundry staff, carpenters, shoe-shine boys or tv and radio repairmen.

'luxury' cells - "if you have money you can live like a king," an inmate told me. money can buy you accommodation in the "posh" sections of the prison - one of the best is Los Pinos. here, cells are spacious and have private bathrooms, kitchen and cable tv. Outside, they have billiard tables, kiosks selling fresh juice, and food stalls. cells cost between $1000US and $1500US and are bought for the duration of the sentence. in the poor areas of the prison, inmates have to share small cells.

prison children - about 200 children live here with their fathers. the younger ones go to one of the two nurseries inside the jail, while the older ones go to schools outside. their mothers are often in other jails or have abandoned them.

quite the experience. read the book guys - marching powder.

Machu Picchu

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:24:00 +0000

wow. what a great four days. i went on the inca jungle trek, which is fastly becoming more popular through the point, cusco. the cost was $185US (so like 3000 pounds i´m guessing), and worth every penny.

the trip is set up as such -

day 1. drive for 4 hours where you start a 4 hour down hill bike ride through jungle, rivers and switchbacks. arrive at Santa Maria.

day 2. 9 hours trek through dense inca jungle. enjoy a well deserved dip in the hot springs at the end of the trip

day 3. 8 hours total walking through the valley and along the train tracks to Aguias Calientes.

day 4. up at 4 to start the 1 hour rush to Machu Picchu. rush through the entrance when it opens at 6am to get your 10am slot to Waynu Picchu. 2 hour guided tour of the site. train ride back to Cusco at 6pm

stunning is the only way to describe it. but why would you expect any less? it´s machu picchu! most travellers highlight of South America. in all the mayhem during the climb, oli and i raced to the top and got there first - because we´d heard that the 10 o´clock slot to Waynu Picchu was the crown in the trip. red bull does give you wings.

Waynu Picchu is not for the faint-hearted! in fact two girls died 3 days before we were there. but the view and the satisfaction of the climb is like nothing i will experience again...

Nazca Lines

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:21:00 +0000

it was worth the money... just to be in a little plane. but the rest of my nazca experience won´t remain with me for too long. the town itself is an absolute hole... and the lines which are amazing, authentic and do take your breath away because of their sheer scale... you have 15mins in a little plane to look at them through a tiny window, whilst struggling to get a photo of whichever animal you are flying over at the time...

there was some comedy... we had got to nazca in a combi (shared car) and the price before we had left was 15soles total... well the cheeky little peruvian had me on the side of the street at 12:00pm debating the price when we got there - he wanted 30 - quite intimidating if he wasn´t 5ft tall... i´d managed to use my limited spanglish to stop him threatening me... and jump in a seperate cab moments later. peruvians, by the way, are known as the thieves of the world.

after waking at 7 am to try to find a good deal (most flights leave around 8 or 9), we´d managed to get into a japanese tour bus that was just leaving... they´d quoted us 50US but no money had been payed. after the flight, we were left waiting an hour and still no tour bus... lets go.

we were doing a runner... very funny at the time. however, the story continues... we went straight to the bus station to book tickets for the earliest bus south (10pm). whilst we were in the station a guy came over with two names written down... they weren´t even close. i can´t remember the exact names he had but it was something like ´Snul Cratha´. well he left it at that.

we arrived for the bus at 9:50pm so that we could literally hop staright on, being peruvian it arrived at 10:40pm - within which time he had found us and used the threat of the police to make us pay up.

doh!

Huanchaco

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000

after leaving mancora, i knew things would never be the same again. this time i was travelling with two girls, which was hard enough to get my head round...
we stayed at a place called ´casa suisa´ - rude, expensive and not what people had told me. maybe my hostel expectations are a lot higher now.

it´s a pretty little surf town... which in a few years - could be a great place and on the ´must do´ for peru. as of now... it´s not quite there.

the best thing we did was visit ´chan chan´ an intense collection of inca sites surrounding the area. the first cultural thing i have done in a while... and it didn´t let me down. there was a lot of work going on when we were at chan chan... hope you can make out the workers on the wall...

Mancora

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Mancora is beautiful... I´d heard and read so much about the place but never expected to get lost in its charms for nearly 6 weeks. I´ve so many memories to take away from there, but for now there going to stay with me. The rest of South America better step up to the challenge... Mancora will be very hard to beat.

Long story short I worked there for 5 weeks, bought a pet pig called lucy, helped build some new huts using bamboo, met the funniest people i´ve ever met(maybe ever will), drove around in tuc tucs (normally on the roof), rented motorbikes, ate cerviche (raw fish in lime) at for weeks in a row, got violently sick, stayed horribly drunk, cooked tempura for 40 people... I will never forget it... and I will go back.

Grassy Arse to everybody who experienced it with me. long live ´the point´.

mancora

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:30:00 +0000

it´s been a little while.

i´m in a little place called mancora, peru. after our week of spanish we wished cuenca and our spanish teacher the best and headed south to the border. it involved nearly 2 days of hell but we got there. from cuenca we caught the 6 hour bus to loja, we arrived there at 2am, checked into hotel londres and got up in time to get the 7am border bus. the bus was about 9 or 10 hours including border formalities.

after a few miles into peru... south america became a whole new ball game. ecuador had been a lush mountainous, picture postcard, landscape... and now we were surrounded by vast flats of desert. the first town was piura. what an absolute hole. no joke. whats worse is the lonely planet say´s not to worry about using US dollars. bull. one tuc tuc ride later we found that to be the case and despite the taxi driver offering to take us to the cash point we managed to walk away only to spend the next hour trying every cash point with a ´visa´sign... finally we got one that worked.

from there it was a mere 4 hours to mancora to be confronted by the best hostel i´ve ever been to in full swing on saturday night. some familiar faces from ecuador and some great volenteers have kept me here since. it´s been a mixed 10 days. for the last 5 i´ve been trying to get rid of a horrible bug that has done the rounds. i won´t describe the symptoms. however, work begins tommorrow... which seems more like play. i´ll be surfing during the day and behind the bar or organising some crazy game at night... if you need me you can catch me on 555-this is the life.

photos are coming i promise.

the devils nose

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:18:00 +0000

a few peeps from banos headed to riobamba to start the 6 hour train ride, known as ´the devils nose´. what an awesome trip it was, ridingthe top of the train in glorious sunshineround some pretty cool switchbacks on the side of a mountain. it annoyed me to see some gringos throwing sweets to the indigenous kids as we went by butother than that all was perfecto.

unfortunately i´d failed to charge my battery before heading out at 6am and only managed to get a few snaps, apologies. but hopefully there should be some facebook tags to help me remember just how awesome that day was.

five of us stayed in the last town, Alausi, before spliting, i headed on to cuença with kate (aussie), and an irish-new zealand couple.

kate (from melbourne no less) and i have enrolled in a spanish school for the week and have managed to find a great hostel with kitchen to make the week as productive and affordable as possible. the last two days have been all shits and giggles around the town, the highlight was buying a truly amazing panama (montecristi) hat from this amazing 80 year old mute called alberto. the guy was absolute gold.

more on cuença to follow, and heeps of photos. wish me luck with the classes, entrance exam on monday. x

banos

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:45:00 +0000

banos is a small town about 2 hours south of latachunga, it is stunning. a goldfish bowl, surrounded by beautiful volcanic mountains, waterfalls, and hot springs. there´s so much to do - hence i was there for 8 days. the hostel - plantas y blanco - is perfect for the young traveler, and luckily i was there with a great crowd. the communal kitchen gave me the opportunity to show off my bangers and mash skills, and some other great meals from those who stepped up to the plate...

i got stuck in straight away with some white water rafting, then an essex boy (adam) and i hired some quads to do the hour trip to the top of the mountain, unfortunately we got stuck with one thats chain kept coming off - so racedback to the shop to swap it... the replacement was worse - the chain kept breaking, but by the end of our two hours and after free-wheeling down the mountainside - we left it for hem to pickup. good times.

the bars in town were great. a cool 3 levelled, open, pool bar; the leprechaun - a fake irish bar with cool courtyard and the local dancing sweatbox.

four of us decided to try and rent some more mechanically disabled vehicles and head round the mountain roads to see what we could find. we found a mini (35m) bungy jump off a bridge, some cable-zip cars that flew over the river, and some tunnels. two of the tunnels weren´t a problem given that you took off your sun glasses - as the end was in site - but the last one we came through on the way back had a bend half way, and andy and my lights were both out. i went into the wall unhurt but andy got his bike stuck in the side ditch after crashing into the wall. with a bus coming up the rear, a lot of shouting and noise, and andy´s hand smashed up we made it out alive. we got back to town. $50 for the damage to the bike or no passport... er, take it you prick - and we got andy into the er room. all was fine.

loved banos, and the people there - will no doubt miss it.

cotopaxi

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:34:00 +0000

so i decided to leave quito on a bank holiday. the bus station was hectic. after about an hour of trying to figure out the logistics of tickets which termianal to go to, etc. i managed to stand in the right bundle for the bus... it was mayhem... sort of a riot to try and get on a bus, with angry police puching people, people climbing into windows and dogs being thrown through windows. i managed to get on - just! - and get a seat with my pack securely on my lap. latachunga my destination, i made small talk with the locals on the back seat.

the hostal (cafe tianna) is beautiful, but quiet. after a few drinks with the dutch owner and her ecuadorian husband the ipòd made its way onto the pa.

the following morning 2 german girls, myself and our guide drove us the hour and a half up winding dirt track needed to reach the base of cotopaxi. it´s beautiful. STUNNING. a 6000m, glacier topped, mountain... bigger than any in europe. the hike took about 2hour to get to a meeting building. from there we trundled to the snow, encouraging one of the girls who was so big headed at the start as to say it would be "easy". when we got there, it was a white out, expected but still a bit dissappointing as i am certain the view would have been amazing.

it was well worth doing and made me feel as though my adventure had started.

next stop riobamba or banos. x

telerifiquo

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:24:00 +0000

after about four hours sleep we headed over to the base of the telerifiquo... a mulit million dollar cable car that seems so out of place in this city. it took us to 4100m which was enough to have me light headed. got some great photos as the view was pretty amazing, but it was a bit of a box ticker.

the best part of the day was when the go karts we´d heard about at the bottom of the ride turned out to be pretty impressive. 10 dollars for about half an hour but so worth it and made nicks and my day.

"i´ve just been fucking robbed"

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:03:00 +0000

...she said as she came up the stairs on wednesday night. there´s been a few stories and events that have opened my eyes, and everyone in the hostels´, to how dangerous quito can be. the girl was on the last day of her trip about to fly home in the evening, she was at the end of the street at about 6pm when 5 guys jumped her and put her to the ground - taking her camera with the weeks photos and a bit of cash.

so a few of us decided to head into the mariscal (gringo land), a place that the lonely planet and the foreign office warn to not go to. the 3 irish girls, nick (aussie) and i had a pretty good evening and although we could feel the eyes on our backs and we could see the hookers, pimps and fellow gringos a mile off - we were safe as a group.

so funny drunken antics insued and come the end of the night nick and i looked forward to promises of shepherds pie friday night a la irish girls... i think i can stay another few nights. latacunga can wait.

mitad del mundo

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

if you come this close you almost have to visit the equator... i didn´t expect much but it was a great first experience of what i can expect from trips in the area. after a horrible bus ride we arrived to the official center of the world... not so much... someone obviously got their bearings wrong and decided to build a massive monument there, surround it in restaurants and charge you a few bucks to get in. great what next? well right next door, a few hundred metres down a dirt track roas is the real 0´0´0, as confirmed by the us army no less. a cute little ecuadorian (i´m guessing thats the right terminology) showed us some history and then smiled as we took in some of the tricks that can happen on the magical line. see the video here as soon as i find somewhere that it doesn´t take three days to upload.

touch down

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:29:00 +0000

after the scariest landing ever, i arrived safely in stormy quito. this meant that when i got my backpack from the baggage claim - it was pretty wet. anyways... just a quick post to touch base as i have much exploring of the old town to get through. the hostel is beautiful... with amazing views of the old town from the balcony.

i do hope this altitude headache goes away though.

much love

(update) if you search ´quito airport landing´ you´ll see what i mean http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=quito+airport+landing&aq=o&oq=

counting down

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:30:00 +0000

so i have 18 days left of the UK. my preparations are going mostly to plan. and i'm winding down at work...

first port of call is ECUADOR. my only knowledge of which comes from lonely planet. but there are some really great sites out there for the travelling like... some that have been useful include:

trip wolf
hostel world
lonely planet
sta travel buzz

but more importantly there are so many online tools that help you in your preparations... i'm going to put a list together, but the most valuable to date is google maps, google docs, google mail, in fact... everything. i'll explain this in a future post.

wish me luck with my 5 jabs on friday - ouch!

testing...

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Cater) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0000

So obviously I thought it would be a nice idea to blog as I travel. This is a great thing to do when possible.

- No lugging a diary around that might get lost,
- There's internet cafe's nearly everywhere,
- I can pick up new ideas and tweak as I go,
- But mostly, it's a great place to keep my memories and let people know what I'm up to.

There'll be a few test post before I'm happy with the layout and it will be going onto it's own domain name thanks to google. So keep coming back to see how it's doing, if not only to help me out with some recommendations. You could say it's in BETA.

I jotted down some ideas as to what I should be taking from a few other blogs the other day... here it is...

Pack List (v.1)

CLOTHING
2 x T-shirts, 1 x Polo shirt, 2 x Shirts, 1 x warm jumper, 1 x rain jacket, 1 x jeans, 1 x light trousers, 2 x shorts, 2 x board shorts, underwear, socks, belt, cap, warm beenie

FOOTWEAR
Thongs, 2 x Trainers

ESSENTIALS
Sink plug, Money belt, Travel locks, Travel Towel, Lightweight Sleeping sheet, Passport Holder, Sunglasses & Case, Water Purification Tablets, Travel Washing line, Lonely Planet, Notepad & Pens, Sketching Pencils, Sharperner (swiss army) rubber, Money Clip, Ear Plugs, Elastic Bands, Zip Lock Bags, Diary, Bin Liners,

FIRST AID & TOILETRIES
Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Soap, Toilet roll, Wash cloth, Tweezers, Small Scissors, Plasters, Bandage, Gauze Pads, Safety Pins, Pain killers, Hydrocortisone cream, Vaseline, Antiseptic Cream / Wipe, Motion sickness pills, Sun screen, Razor Blades, Malaria Medication, Antiperspirant, Insect Repellent,

ELECTRONIC
Phone & Charger, iPod & Headphones, Camera (Extra Memory Card, USB Connection & Charge cable), USB, Torch, Batteries, Power point Adapters, Shaver & Charger

OTHER
Wallet x 2, Student ID, International Driving permit, Certificate of Vaccinations, Passport Photos, Photocopies, Pack of cards