Pura Vida, Mañana Mañana and other useful phrases...

The Official and the Unofficial - and yes, I am 30

Congratulations to all who have read Sandra´s blog of blogs. After typing this very short one, I will be going onto the photos and trying to label them.

Since we last wrote, we had a few days in Quito where we went to all of the tall points in the city which included churches, statues of the Virgin Mary, mountain tops and cafes. We were travelling with one of the guys from our Galapagos group and having another person on our trip was fun, although at one point in time he did mention "Do you two always act like this?" after Sandra and I had just spent 5 minutes tapping each others teeth with our finger tips and making stupid noises. The high points tour that we did was a lot of fun and of course Sandra took about a million photos (sorry Sandra, you are going to have to endure about two days of slideshows)

The churches were amazing, they were older than the white settlement of Australia and the roof was at least 20 meters off the ground. You want to see churches that demonstrate the Wealth of the Catholics, you need to go to South America - or Rome, apparently they have a couple of churches there as well. We also treated ourselves and took a local bus to the Papallacta Hot springs in the Andes mountains. This was a day lazing in thermal hot springs and becoming prunes. The water was fantastic and it was very relaxing, definitely worth the 6 hrs of bus travel there and back.

On the 18th we went to catch our flight to Caracas with Santa Barbara (by the way, this next story will add to my intense dislike of the name Barbara - yes this is a grandmother reference) We got to the airport in Quito at the right time and they told us that we were not to be on the flight that we wanted but we would catch the next one. No problem there so we got on the plane and landed in Guayaquil, ready for our next step to Caracas. We waited in line for at least an hour to check in while the check in people worked as slow as humans can without sleeping. By the time we got there, we were told that they had overbooked the plane and we could not catch the flight that we were booked on. Sandra was LIVID. I do not think I have ever seen her so pissed off. She scared me a little especially when she started threatening the check in people with eating their children and burning their house down to the ground. They offered to put us up in a hotel and feed us for the next 24 hours so we got taken to the nicest hotel we have seen in our time here and lived it up for 24 hours despite the fact that I would be spending my 30th birthday in the air. Sandra got her hair cut by the gayest Colombian I have ever seen complete with flowing locks of thinning hair and manic limp wristedness. We also went and saw Hairspray at the local cinema. I have to say that it was one of the nicest movies I have seen in a long time and I loved every second of the Film. I know that Mum and Dad would love it especially watching John Travolta.

We got on the plane the next day and flew to Caracas. I do not like Caracas. The city had a creepy feel to it fueled by stories from so many people. We were lucky to have met some people in Guayaquil tell us that you can not get money from ATMs in Venezuela and it is not advisable to use your credit card anywhere. We took out money before we got to Caracas and attempted to change money there.

This is where to official and unofficial money comes into play. The official money rate in Venezuela is the Bolivar which is about 2.144 to 1 American dollar. When we got to the airport, we were offered 3 to 1. There is a massive difference between the two rates and Sandra and I were really confused. We had a guy help us change out money and help us get a ticket. He counted out the money in front of me and I took his offer with only USD$250. We bought the ticket and flew to Isla Margarita. When we tried to change money in the island, we were told 4.5 to 1. Sandra and I could not get our heads around this odd money thing, but it does mean that things are super cheap here and we are kicking ass on our budget. We basically pay in American money when we run out of Bolivars and we get 4.5 to 1 with every transaction. I don`t understand but that is they way it works here. We were just really lucky to take out the money before we got here.

Isla Margarita has been wonderful with lazing by the beach ever day and working on our tans. The island is on the Caribbean and has really nice beaches. The only problem that I have seen is the lack of rubbish collection that goes on and this idyllic paradise is ruined by the rubbish that is on the streets. Sandra and I have not done the exploring culture thing as we need a break from that. We have done the "I am a tourist thing" and sat our asses down on large beach chairs and slept in the Venezuelan sun. It has been a really good few days.

Tomorrow we are going to catch a ferry off the island and try and catch a bus to Manaus - wish us luck. The whole bus trip should only take us...say...32 hours.

Glen

Columbian People, Fiestas and air conditioning (these are a few of my favorite things)

Greetings from the land of coffee and cocaine,

To answer the first question that generally jumps to everyones heads, No, there are not piles of white powder that they sell in tiendas in poorly lit streets while a man in aviator glasses searches you at the door with cigar ash falling in your hair.

Admittedly, we have been in the more touristy areas in Columbia and can not make a call over the entire country but so far this has been a safe (within reason and with some precautions taken) place where the beaches are nice but the people are even nicer.

We arrived late in the night and started chatting to a south African called Earnest. He had been traveling around Panama as well and had been enjoying the country as much as we have been. When we got through customs we went to the baggage area only to find out that our stuff was not there. We filled in a report but it is a worrying feeling when you really can´t speak the language and you are leaving with out your bags. It was also difficult because the poor girl had obviously been berated by Colombians and looked as tired as we were. We jumped into a taxi and headed to our hotel to crash for the night.

The next day (NYE) we walked around and tried to understand the city. We (in a few short hours) organised cheap accom for the rest of our stay, bought some replacement clothes that were badly needed anyway and went to the beach. When we went back to our hotel we got told by the front desk that our stuff was at the airport and we needed to get there by 8 if we wanted clothing for NYE. The front desk people were really nice and had been trying to contact the airport for us all day.

We jumped into a taxi... well kind of sat in, I do not know how one can actually jump into a taxi. Most taxis here are really small anyway and jumping into them is a difficult task to say the least. We got to the airport and collected our bags from some helpful staff who paid for our taxi fare and headed back. The look on the front desks staff ´s faces was the most congratulatory look you could ever imagine. This is another example of how the people here are.

From there we headed into a backpackers hostel to meet some other travelers that we met while looking for alternate accommodation. We had a few drinks and then went into town where we lost most of them on our travels through the really crowded and narrow streets. We settled ourselves in a plaza where music could be heard from all directions from different places with different Latin beats. The countdown came and people kissed in the streets, shouts of feliz año were everywhere and fireworks popped overhead.

This is where we met Jorge and Roxanna. They are Columbian students who are both studying medicine and spoke English slightly better than we speak español. They are also the loveliest people you could meet. They took us to the coolest local club and we drank and danced until the sun came up. Sandra and I had the best NYE that we have had in many many years.

We had to get out of our hotel by twelve which meant getting up four hours after we had gone to bed. We were tired, a little hungover and hot. Our new hotel was just the perfect place to head. Our rooms have the biggest fan you could ever see spinning at whirlwind speeds, it is awesome. You open up the balcony to the streets of getsemani and the wind comes in cooling you in an instant. We called Jorge and Roxanna (who insisted that we do the next day) and met up at the beach where we spent the rest of the day with them, speaking English and Español and slowly recovering.

Today has been walking around the old streets of Centro Historical or "Old town". There is so much to see in this walled city and all of the reports that this is the most beautiful city in all of South America are not unreasonable. I will chat about that later though.

Sandra and I are now going to try and call our insurance people and then head out into the streets of centro historical again.

Lots of love

Glen

People clap in the cinema - it is so cool

Sandra and I had a day of safety yesterday. We went to a big ass mall so that we could find out why our ipod was not charging and thoought, yes, we will stay here and look around. Not so the backpacker thing to do but it was air conditioned.

We wondered around, looked at stuff and had a great day. Not much happened but it recharged our batteries. We also went to an optomotrist because sandra was having trouble with her eyes and the sales assistant recommended an opthamologist, wrote down instructions on how to ask for one and pointed us off to the nearest hospital. And this is the thing with the Panamanians. They seem to be the nicest people you will ever meet. Every one is friendly and kind.

We went to a movie and when something cool happened, they clapped and cheered and made whooping noises. It was great. Honestly, if i had to move to another country, I would move here.

Today we are off to Casco Antiguo to do a massive walking tour and take lots of photos of this amazing city. Hopefully i will be able to blog more later but we had to spend most of this internet hour looking for accomodation in Cartagena for NYE.

Glen

Not so Happy Gringos

If you choose to read this blog past this opening sentance, please understand that this will not be filled with good news and tales of adventure. On the onset, I want you to know that Sandra and I are ok but we have had our collective worst 24 hours that you can imagine.

After getting off the phone with my family, Sandra and I headed home to our Cabin for a little more christmas cheer and fun. We were looking forward to tomorrow as it would be the first day of our great adventure.

Then two men came out of nowhere and held a gun to my head.

Again Sandra and I are ok.

Anyway all they wanted was money and Sandra´s bag, so we gave them 20 in cash and they took Sandra´s bag which had our new replacement camera. We are now cameraless for the second time in 2 weeks. All I could see when it happened was the gun and hearing the young piece of shit say ¨gimme your fuckin money¨

We went back to the hotel and got the police on the phone. The hotel proprietor called for us and helped translate some of the details when the police arrived. We went with the hoteliers friend to the station and made a statement to the police. While this was happening there was a call on the radio that they had picked up one of the men who robbed us and they took him to Cahuita police station. We were asked if we wanted to id him tomorrow in front of lawyers etc and we said yes. We were told that this would happen in a town near PV called Bribri at 8 in the morning. This was ok for us as we would be able to go to the CR and Panama border and catch our flight to Panama city. We got to bed late that night because we also needed to pack for the next few days. I got to sleep at 4 in the morning to get back up again at 7 to go to Bribri.

We woke up and Sandra went to pay at the hotel where they slugged us a massive 15% credit card fee. Because the ATM was not working we could not save ourselves 70 in fees so we just had to pay. When we were leaving to catch a taxi to Bribri, Sandra fell of a small bridge that covered a drain where all the muddy run off goes. Nothing was hurt except for her ego (which at the moment was pretty fragile) and her clothes.

We got to the prosecutors office in Bribri only to find out that they need to do all the proceedings in Limon, a town about an hour away. This took them about 2 hours to tell us as there are general language barriers as well as we had to wait for some information to get from PV to Bribri. I insisted that if they were going to get us to go to Limon they would need to take us to Sixiola (the border town) upon our return so that we can get the flight we needed to take.

We got to Limon in a cop car with guns and everything and waited in the police station for a while as they got a translator and other information ready. For this to happen though we had to cross town with a police escort three or four times so that everyone could be in the same place so we could id this cadapicha. We sat down with prosecutors and defence lawyers and police and we even had a line up where i got to id this guy. It was now 2 in the arvo - our flight is at 4:40.

We then had to go to the judges office to do a sworn testemony which took another hour. We had got the guy and he will go to jail but our patience was a little frayed at this stage. We we driven back to the police station whese we got some drivers to take to to sixiola - the time is 3:15.

We were driving pretty fast and it was kind of cool to have a police escort when our escorts have guns attached to their hips but another problem arose when a bridge had partially washed away because of the rain that has plagued us all week. Oh and on a side note, it decided to stop raining today. Grrrr

We swapped cars after the river (why I am not to sure but who am I to question) and headed to sixioala. By this stage we know that we are an hour off the border and we are going to miss the flight we were going to catch. We were driving along when it was 5 in the arvo and we could not go any further to Sixiola. Why? Because of floods of course. The section of road we needed to pass was under 5 feet of water and there is no way in hell that we can cross the stupid flood.

So here I am, in Bribri still, staying the night and hopìng to get out tomorrow and get to Panama.

What have I learnt

1. There are some absolute pricks in this world
2. There are also some people with hearts as big as a basketball
3. Sandra is the toughest person I know, she has survived this day and can still smile.
4. I can work under pressure (pressure being a gun pointed at my head)
5. Sandra is wonderful and I am glad that we could survive this together
6. I love her evry much

So I will sign off now. I am tired and I want to eat. I will call my family when I can but I have no international phonecard at the ready.

I hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

Merry Christmas to all (original title, I know)

Just a quick blog to say hi and to mention that it was really good to chat to my families last night. It made me miss them at this time of year and I also had to promise that I will not be out of the country for the next few Christmases.

Today it rained harder than ever but with steely resolve, I convinced Sandra to head out with me to grab some bikes and do a 24 k bike ride with me to Manzanilla and back. It was so good to get out after a few days of lethargy to get all active and explore.

I do have to say that Australian beaches so far kick ass over the beaches in CR. There is not one beach that rivals Esperance, Cott or even the Back beach in Bunno.

I am hungry now though. I am going to convince Sandra and KJ that we do want to eat Chicken Nachos at hot Rock cafe in downtown PV. Shall be good though.

I am trying to not freak out about being all alone tomorrow when Sandra and I say hasta Leugo to KJ and start the rest of our journey. Many things going through my head at the moment - but it is mostly hunger.

Will write soon but merry Christmas to everyone

Glen

Chocolate and water do not mix

I have finally given in. The pressure was huge and I caved like Costa Rican roads. I am now on facebook. Sandra took me through the steps and what I am to do and I joined up. I also started an email account which is lordhighconquistador@gmail.com.

It has been raining for the last three days straight. This is driving me insane because any tanning plans that I had, have been destroyed by a force that has been dedicated to making me as white as possible. It will not win. I will make a stand and tell it that it “shall not pass”. Having rain in Puerto Viajo has given me the chance to catch up on body repairs and sleep. I mentioned last post that I love the bed that we have at the moment and that still rings true. The bed is comfy and big. It is the first bed that I have been able to lie down on and not hit the end.

We went to a chocolate farm today. We took a tour around this cool farm that makes chocolate from scratch. The rain was poring down but we trenched through the muddy paths, saw the coco plant, ate the fruit that coco comes from, sand saw the beans get crushed and ground into a coco paste where we added caramelized brown sugar. We made a traditional version of chocolate and it was good. By the way, this chocolate was 50% coco butter with shit loads of sugar – so it was totally healthy.

I also noticed another thing. My 600 dollar rain jacket is not water proof. It has been put through the tests of wet weather in the last couple of days and the arms seem not to be water proof – there will be some complaints when I get back to Perth. I think I will need to purchase some kind of hard core umbrella in the near future.

Tomorrow is Christmas and I am going to miss my family but also I get to spend Christmas on some bikes with KJ and Sandra and ride to all of the near beaches despite what weather we have. I want to have a traditional Australian Christmas complete with beach activities and hopefully Sandra will have some prawns.

Merry Christmas to all and I am missing you especially on this day. But I can not complain, I am in Costa Rica after all.

 

Glen

Freedom and Apprehension

We have finally finished our four months with outward bound and we arein Puerto Viejo for a few days of relaxation before we head off on the next phase of the trip. I must say that I am appreciating not doing anything at the moment that endangers my safety or sanity. We have the most beautiful cabina with big shower and huge king sized bed. It is the first bed that I have stayed in during this entire trup that feels totally omfortable and spacious enough. I think I squealed with delight when I first saw it.

 

We are travelling with KJ at the momnt and it is really good to be able to discuss the course with her and Sandra because we have been ble to deconstruct the program and adjust to life on the outside. The course has been super tiring but in a word to sum it all up – BENEFICIAL. I feel it hs given me what I wanted.

 

I have

• · Lost 14 kgs while gaining muscle
• · Lost most unreasonable fear of the water
• · Made some really good friends
• · Become closer to Sandra
• · Learnt a good basic understanding of Spanish, btw it is only a basic understanding, I don’t think I could attempt reading the motorcycle diaries in original Spanish, but I can spell cat
• · Learnt to breathe under water, captain a raft, tie knots that make me look like a regular boy scout, become cool with the fact I can not surf, read a river and appreciate the fact that Australians have a very cool understanding of how to live a life tranquilo.

Was it worth 16000? Yes, there is no way that I could get that experience with the guides that I had for less. Danny was a wonderful person who I connected with and had a wonderful time with. Sure bad things happened but you can not expect that things will be a joy ride though. I think that the bad things have also taught me how to handle bad situations with more tranquility, something that I have been searching for. I hope that this will trasnlate into my life back home.

 

I will miss christmas though. I know that I am wanting my cake and eating it too but I don’t think christmas will mean much without my families.

 

Today and for the rest of the week I will be working very hard on my tan, which is browner than Sandra, and enjoying all the benefits of being in the Caribbean. The Caribbean side of Costa Rica is unlike the Costa Rica I am used to. We are staying in a town with an authentic feel of the caribbean influence without the brashness of Jaco. I feel it is like Margaret river pre yuppification.

 

I however have a few minutes before this internet café time goes off.

 

Love you all and will write soon. I will also call really soon as well

 

Glen

Honestly, this is fun :)

Hi to all,

What a week it has been. After solo we headed off to Rio Sarapiqui so that we could do our whitewater rafting phase. White water rafting is much much less scary than kayaking but still has its share of spills and thrills. Rio Sarapiqui (I think that I have spelt it wrong but it is pronounced ser-a-p-qee) is a river that is mainly class 2 and 3 rapids. To give you a rough guide to the classes of rapids I have written down my interpretation.

·         1 is easy and kind of smooth water with a few ripples

·         2 is easy as well but there are some waves and drops but nothing to fret over. You can go over these rapids without much skill and if you fell out you were being an idiot.

·         3 is medium difficulty. You can get rescued out of these rapids but you can also swim out of them. There is a risk of falling out but there is a very real lack of stress associated with it. You will get into holes (spaces found behind big rocks in the river) do some fun drops and hit a few walls but all is still fun and dandy

·         4 is difficult. There are massive drops like 10 foot, big holes, underwater caverns, self rescue is very difficult and there are some problems if you fall in. You need to have some experience with the rapids as a crew, let alone guiding. You have to follow a variety of paddling commands.

·         5 is very difficult. They do not recommend you run these in rafts. It has massive holes and drops, if you fall in you need to be skilled in self rescue and there is a very high risk of injury.

·         6 is classed for “Are you freaken insane?” Not to be done in rafts and requires a lot of preparation beforehand. The questions you need to ask yourself before you do this is about wills, saying goodbye to loved ones, selling off property etc.

We were in Sarapiqui for a few days and it was a lot of fun, however, we had our video camera, I pod, lenses, sunglasses and various chargers stolen from our cabinas. The cabinas have both security grills and windows but they removed some louvers and stuck a stick into the cabinas and grabbed my dry bag and my stuff sack with all of that stuff in it. This is a very big piss off considering we have no charger for our camera. We got a police report that day and will start the insurance process now but it is still rather annoying. We are going to look for a charger for our camera but if we do not, we will have to buy another one.

The next river we went to was the Pequari (p-qua-ree). This is a class 3/4 river and is voted in the top ten rivers in the world to go whitewater rafting in. It is beautiful with clean water and forest all around. In addition, it has some awesome rapid that get you grinning from ear to ear. They also have some fun names for the rapids that are class 4 like upper and lower grave, pinball, magnetic rock. Sandra and I had a ball going down the rapids and all was whoops, yells and fun.

And then I fell in…

I was guiding a class three and we went over a large rock because I could not turn the boat in time. We went over the rock and I fell into a “frowning hole” or a keeper. What happens in these types of holes is that you are essentially in a washing machine. The way the water works is that it goes over the rock and creates a spin where you can get stuck in the whirlpool. I fell in, got sucked under then resurfaced for about half a second when I was sucked back under. When you are in you do not know which is up and down, you are basically spun round and round. It took me a couple of cycles before I even realized I was getting stuck in the same place.

Usually behind a rock is a good place to be because it has an eddy that you can swim out of and go through the rapids to the next safe spot. I was not that lucky. So I am getting dunked again and again and loosing all of my available oxygen. I manage to get breaths when I get pushed to the surface but they are only half breaths. I liken it to being dunked by a wave at the beach but instead of that process being at most 10 seconds this was a repeated dunking… it was scary. On my fourth or fifth trip to the surface I looked at Danny who was shouting instructions to both the raft and to me. Now I had realized that I was in a keeper from the third cycle and the only was to get out of a keeper is to put your body into a ball shape and hopefully you catch alternate current that shoots you out of that hole. When I saw Danny he was crouching down and signaling to me to ball up and escape that way. I balled up and almost caught a current but it sucked me back. This process repeated itself a few times but with new oxygen in my lungs, I balled up again and got shot out of the hole like a cannon.

Then I had to swim down the rapids where I was so tired I could not get my body in to the “defensive swimming position”. I hit so many rocks on my way down the river. By this stage, two rafts were at the shore line getting ready to rescue me, they threw out a rope bag to me (but missed really badly, they accidently let go of the end they were meant to hold on to and so the bag plus all the rope went sailing past my head. I remember thinking that I have just gone through a big ass hole, don’t add more work for my by chasing shit that you want to throw to me) The rescue kayak was heading to my position by this stage and I grabbed hold of the back of it and got towed to my raft where danny pulled me in and removed my PFD (personal floatation device) cause by this stage I was freaking out and sort of hyperventilating. Sandra was looking at me with complete fear in her eyes and the rest of my crew (Mitch and KJ) were also really concerned.

All I can say that it was one of the scariest moments in my life, but the training we have had at OB prior to that point told me to be calm in the water, ball up, swim in the defensive position, which kept me sane and alive.

The rest of the week has been rather uneventful. Sandra and I are going into town today so we can replace the digital camera charger and get a new calling card so that I can call Mum and Dad tonight.

Tomorrow we are off to do some more rafting and then it is the end of the course. I will wait to finish before I blog about it.

Love you all and see you later.

Glen

Back from the Bush

Hola,

Sandra and I have just returned from Solo and I feel thoroughly rejuvenated. We got dropped off in the middle of the cloud forest that surrounds base camp and spent two nights and two days there, fending for ourselves and fighting off armies of evil mosquito's. In one sitting I killed 132 mosquito's and left their carcasses on some paper so that the others could see the carnage that I would inflict if they dared attack again. Apparently that tactic will only work for powerful leaders like Ivan the Terrible.

Really quickly because the bodega is about to close, We have sent Christmas presents and other stuff through to bunbury. It is a big package and will take about 20 days more or less. Please open it and take out the presents and keep the box of other stuff so we can pick it up when we return. Thee box is 10 kilos and cost 200 dollars to send it through to you.

We have still not received the present you sent to us but we hope it will arrive soon. If we do not get it before the end of the program, we will give you a buzz and make other arrangements.

Love you lots and yes Sandra loved SCUBA.

Back from SCUBA with the Licence to Dive

Hola All,

We have just come back from panama and it was unbelievable and amazing. I am now Scuba Certified and tanned again. I had started to lose the tan that I had “worked” so hard to get on the Kayaking stage but after spending the day on a 40 foot Catamaran cruising on the Caribbean seeing turtles and countless numbers of fish you can get it back pretty quickly. I really just wanted to brag about what we did on the boat but link it to a seemingly innocuous statement.

                                        

When I spoke to you last, Sandra, Mitch, Evan and myself headed out at 2:30 in the morning to get in Jim Rowe’s car (we were lucky to get a nice ride as opposed to the bus) through to the Costa Rican/Panamanian border. We crossed on foot a rickety old bridge with big holes that you could fall through to Panama and then headed to a dock near Changinola in Panama. From there we caught a boat to the Boccas Del Torro Archipelago and landed on a cute little island with a rustic non flushing toilet and an area for our food and eating. Sandra and I got to have our own tent which always adds to the experience.

We started this phase off with learning the basics of SCUBA, Donned our equipment and then headed out to the Caribbean sea. The first time that you are under water is amazing. You are trying to breathe as normal as you can but everything literally takes your breath away. The reefs of Boccas Del Torro are amazing. The fish are out of this world and the water is the perfect shade of warm. The readings that we needed for the SCUBA course were odd. The first 3 chapters were all about how safe SCUBA is and the equipment that will be utilized to get you have the best experience underwater. So initially it lulls you into a false sense of security. The next two chapters are dedicated to informing you about the fact that if you do a couple things wrong you will end up either exploding your lungs or getting little bubbles of nitrogen creating embolisms in you bloodstream. The last chapters returned to tell you how cool SCUBA is and how safe and other courses you can do to get you to a level of Divemaster.

We were lucky enough to do 4 days of Diving. The first day was general and introductory. The next day we went out into open water and went down to about 10-15 feet. It is the best feeling to be so free from gravity, or more specifically, being able to control gravity. I spent a lot of my time spinning around, doing back flips and diving around people, I got to see fish but I really loved the moving around. The next day we went deeper and saw even more fish and coral. Everyday the water treated us to perfect conditions and spectacular vistas underwater. The first part of every dive was spent doing drills such as losing your regulator and filling your mask with water, and what you do to correct the situation, the second part was flying around underwater seeing the coolest things. My personal favorite is a type of worm/coral thing that disappeared into its home when you clicked your fingers near. We also got to do a wreck dive and that was amazing as well.

I think that this is all I have time for today because I am going on Solo for a couple of days, we have lunch now and then we go out into the wild yonder and look at our navels.

I have to say that the last few days have been the best in outward bound.

Love to all

Glen