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Blackberrying

Of the fruity variety, not the electronic gadget variety.

I am amazed at how much food justr grows in this country. On the verges, hedgerows, wherever. There are apples, blackberries, apples, blackberries, nettles (yes you can eat them) and then some more blackberries. So being the hunter gatherer forager type I am, I decided I was going to get me some of this free food.

Just have to find them first. Down by bedmond lane, which is a lane that goes under the motorway and we are widening the bridge, there is a public footpath. These public footpaths criss cross the contryside, ambling through farmers fields and along hedgerows, evenunder motorways. This particular footpath, like many in the country I am sure, is particularly well endowed with Blackberry brambles. The blackberry is a sprawling thorny plant, with long canes that reachup and then dangle down, with masses of thorns, and hopefully, big fat juicy blackberries.

So one afternoon after work, I stopped back down by bedmond lane, fossicked around behing the seats in the car and came up with two cleanish plastic bags that formerly contained muffins. I started up the path, and wow, there were shiny little blackberries everywhere. I don't think it is easy for me to convey just how excited I was about this. I mean, they are berries, and I love berries, and they are for FREE, when you can buythem in the shop for 3 quid a small punnet. So I went a little nuts, pick and picking and picking. Indeed, the plants had pretty much taken over the walkway, and it was more like a duck-weave-carefullystepover-be snagged-way. Never mind the scratches, never mid the itches and the tearing of clothes, I was harvesting blackberries!! So with a large bag full, and bleeding profusely and itching profusely, I thought I'd try my luck further up the lane. BINGO, the biggest, bestest blackberries I have seen. All... right... up high.. and far out in the middle of the patch just out of my reach. Damn. So I circled them, waiting, looking for any opening... and again, BINGO! A large square concrete block - we call them Kelly blocks - was there, just a little way into the brambly patch, and I could get to it by climbing ontp the farmers gate and just stepping over. Yay, I was in big fat blackberry heaven. Doubled the haul right in this spot. Also double the number of nettle stings.

Blackberries are clever little sods. They protect themselves in several ways. The first and most obvious is the thorns of the plant itself. Just like rosebushes really. The second is buy providing the ideal habitat for an array of nast, scary, big pointy teethed spiders. I am not really a spider person, so I got creeped out numerous times byt hings I though were spiders, and actually by two spiders as well. THe third way they protect themselves is by cohabiting with nettles. For anyone who doesn't know about nettles... They bite. A plant that actually bites you, and then you get a little lump come up, and its a very itchy lump.

So by now very itchy, and scratchy, I still didn't quite have enough blackberries for my liking. Two kilos just wasn't going to cut it. Back along the road to another little section, but after the mega patch I had just cleaned out, they were measly and miserable in comparison, so I stole just a few more, and headed home. Via the apple tree at Junction 25 - Richards old work. But the apples aren't quite ripe yet.

So..all these blackberries. Richard doesn't eat them, geez, what am I going to do? Ah HAH. Jam time. So I googled how to make Jam, and got me some sugar with added pectin, a lemon, and a couple of big green cooking apples. Chop these, throw them in thepot with the juice of a lemon, a kilo of sugar, and the well washed berries. Boil for ten minutes. Test to see if the jam will set by putting it on a cold plate and pushing it around then licking it off the plate. Yep, its ready!! I cannot believe how easy it is to make jam! Its so simple, I wonder why anyone buys the stuff when they can pick the berries and make it for free....

Into the jars (wash and boiled) and lids on. I now have four big jars of apple and blackberry jam, and its really yummy. That should last me a while!!

Then we went to Norfolk on the Friday, I'll get around to posting that blog soon.

The aftermath of the blackberry jam volcano.

English drivers.

They are the best of Drivers, they are the worst of drivers. On the whole, apart from no one ever indicating, I would have to say people are pretty good, but the worst really do drag the average down. (Actually I am almost certain that BMWs aren't fitted with indicators over here. I've never seen one with them on)

For example, if you are waiting at a T section to pull out onto a busy road, someone will slow down and flash their lights to say, c'mon, you can go now. Usually this is the very last car in the queue and if he just kept on driving, you could have pulled out anyway. But hey, the thought was there. Considerate.
Then when two lanes merge into one? Forget it, no one will let you in. In fact, once you are all merging, people even pull out of the right lane over in to the left lane - or even left of the left lane - and over take on the inside to form THREE lanes of merging traffic when there really should only be two.

Or like the idiot I nearly crashed into today. Its a three lane roundabout. The left two lanes are straight ahead only, and the right lane is right turn only. I am going straight, and am, appropriately, in the middle lane. About to exit the roundabout, and the guy in the left lane next to me decides he wants to turn right, so he does. Right in front of me, without the use of indicators. Beautiful move. I am so used to this kind of rubbish now that I actually remember to hit the horn in time before he drives off, usually by the time I remember to honk in anger they are long gone. Yay for me. I need a louder horn.

Oh thats is barely the start of it. Working on the motorway you do see some funny things. Funny as in oh my god I can't believe he just did that and is still alive. When you are driving in roadworks, they have 'free recovery' so that when you break down, they spot you on the CCTV cameras, and a man in a towtruck comes out and gets you and brings you back to our compound, where you can then arrange for the removal/repair of your vehicle. They also bring back all the crashed cars. I think there are about 8 tow trucks, and they are always busy, and we see loads of good bingles brought into the yard. Last Thursday there were five big heavy haulage trucks all got towed in and parked out along the length of our (very long) driveway. These guys cruise along with the front of the truck two foot behind the back of the one in front of it at 40 or 50 miles per hour.... so when one has to stop suddenly, well, its the old concertina effect. Bumper to rear to bumper to rear.

Thats my rant for now.

Don't even get me started on pedestrians.

around town

Here's a few photos I took on my wanderings today

1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf. London's tallest building.
Moorings near Canary wharf, looking out to the Millenium Dome.

Getting around in Covent Garden

Good ol' Tower Bridge

Twirling flags on tower bridge

I went into town with Trish, tried to take some phots for Home of Poi's photo comp that's on at the moment, and tried to go shopping in Covent Garden.

Shopping over here is not great, in my opinion. Firstly, I don't have the brand recognition that I do at home. I can't go, "oh, i need a top to go out in, I'll go to Live, or Myer, or wherever" Its really hit and miss. And the fashion over here is just a bit silly. Many, many, English girls where the stupidest things, especially things that are totally inappropriate to their body shape (and the time of day). I did end up finding something - a little bit unusual for me - in a little tiny boutique near the markets at Covent Garden. I'll see if I ever wear it.

And shoe shopping. Don't even want to go there, it's abysmal.

Right now I have a pair of hiking boots, the black boots I bought in 1994 with my first paycheck (and still going strong) a pair of crocs, and the flat leather sandals I bought last week. Plus CAT stell capped work boots. That's it. No shoes to go out in. Can't find any.

AAARGH. Maybe Zu do mail order.

Catchup

Well, I've not been on here much. It's all to do with work, and then commuting. It's got knobs on it.

Last weekend I went up to Play festival - an 'object manipulation' festival (read: fire twirling) in Shropshire, about 2/3 of the way up the welsh border with England, and 30 miles into England from the border. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from home.
The festival was held on a lovely organic farm, and there was lots of workshops and stuff, a great main show on Saturday night, and got to catch up with some people I have met before, and meet new ones. It was good.

Now its back to work. I am still doing the same stuff: digging ponds, and building access roads to them. Plus we are starting landscaping on the completed bits of the sides of the motorway, so that will keep me busy too.

Richard is back on suicide watch at his new job. Wants to throw himself under a truck. (Note: this is a joke, he wouldn't really do that... I think!) But it's how he feels about his job. He's very very busy, and doing a hell of a lot more than he should be. But that's our Rich.

At the moment we have no real upcoming plans.... We think we should take a weekend away somewhere soon though. Gotta have something to look forward to.

Lord's

Well, last Monday it was my birthday. DOn't worry if you forgot, everyone else did too.

We went to the cricket at Lord's on the Sunday, it was pretty cool. Richard was most excitable.

India V England, 4th day. It ended up being a draw due to the rain, but ti didn't rain when we were there.

No, we didn't JUST go to the cricket for my birthday, we also went out for dinner - just locally to canary wharf - and I got chocolates and body shop stuff, and Richard is getting photos from our trip blown up to frame.

Home

This is a pic from the fron of our apartment complex. In the distance the fancy white building with the dome is the Greenwich observatory. In the middle distance is Richard, and Trish.

Also, here is a pic of all the vegetables I got in my 'suprise' vegetable box I got delivered - its all local, organic. And it doesn't come on plastic trays, inside plastice bags, with cardboard wrappers around it - which is how everything comes in the supermarket. And it lasts more than 2 days - whcih is how long supermarket fruit n veg generally lasts... I mean, they have to send it to three different sorting and packaging factories, that's after it is shipped in from Kenya and Egypt and gawd knows where else, no wonder it doesn't last long!

On a positive note about the supermarkets, I bought guineau fowl breasts the other day!!

Back in ol' blighty

Back in London. After out first week spent in a crazy and very populated house that we picked up off gumtree, we spent a week with a friend, at his place in Leyton. Nice house, it has made us want to buy one... which may be a possibility in the future.

We have a flat now though, we moved into it on the weekend. Its down in the Isle of Dogs (Canary Wharf) which is a fancy redeveloped former docklands area. There is a couple of photos of it below. You will be able to tell which pics are of our flat and which ones are the castle, I think.

We went for a drive on Sunday, as a practice run to see which way Richard has to go to get to work. We took Trish, she's from Townsville and lives in the aforementioned crazy house. Then we kept right on driving in the general direction of Hastings, to Bodiam Castle, which is a proper like castle that was built in 1385. See pics! We also had a BBQ lunch, with one of the very handy disposable BBQs they have over here, 1.69 pounds, and you get a foil tray, with mesh over it, and a bag of heat beads in. You simply drop a match onto the bag (it's paper) which lights the beads, and 20 minutes later the flames go out and you can then cook over the beads for an hour and a half. Brilliant.

Lunch time.

Inside of the castle, from the turrety bit...

Side view of castle. Nice eh.

The honeymoon is over

Ok, holiday is over, perhaps that should read.

Tomorrow, we fly back to London. Bugger. Friday, the 25th, we arrive in London, 7am Terminal 4. We have arranged some temporary accomodation, so we will head there and dump our bags, and then its action time, going to the bank, boring stuff like that.


Our car, aka ´the DL´, is up at my old work, so on Saturday we have to go and get that. Gerhard has been looking after it for us, taking it for a run once a week, that kind of thing, and apparently she is still all fine. We called her the DL after the District Line tube, because she is green (so is the district line on the tube map) rickety, and slow (so is the district line).

The weekend is a bank holiday weekend, and I start work on the Tuesday. Yep, already. I am going back to the M1 job I was on, but in a different department - earthworks. Apparently the team leader up there has been asking about me every second week or so. So it will be lots of running around with a GPS putting in lots of pegs for me. They are paying me more than last time, yippee. Its only a 6 - 8 week contract at this stage, but that´s what they said last time. I hope it´s only that, and then I can start something new, get my teeth into something different.

So, its all over for us, back to the grind!

I am an IDIOT

You may or may not have read about how I lost both my cashcards in ATMs some time back - Peru, I think.

We are in Buenos Aires, and the silly ATMs will only give us 300 pesos at a time, which is not much. So I suggested we go back to the room and get Richard´s second cashcard and see if it will give us another 300. So we did that, but Rich was pretty crook so I went out by myself.

Put card in ATM. Enter Pin. Withdraw Pesos from Savings account. 300 of them come out. Would you like another transaction, hmm, I thought, yes, lets try and see if it will g ive me another 300 from visa account. Yippee, out comes another 300 pesos, I am so happy we could get 600 out in one day, that I turned around and walked out the door and back to the hostel, jubilant. Walk in and say, Rich, I was so clever, Ig ot 600 pesos out (sinking feeling that something is wrong) and Rich says, excellent, can I have my card back.

After you get the money out, it waits a few seconds (which is when I walk out) and THEN asks you if you want another transaction, and after you hit no, it gives your card back. Which is the bit I forget. At home, you get your card before you money, which I think is a MUCH better system!!

Iguazu

We did a very very long two overnight bus trip job to get up here from Puerto Madryn.

The town itself is pretty quiet, sleepy, not a whole lot going on. Which suits us perfectly, so we have stayed here for four nights. We had a nice little guesthouse with a lovely garden and the best included breakfasts we have had, so that encourageed us to stay a while too.

Did the trip out to the falls, the park is very very well set up for tourists, with excellent catwalks going to various parts of the falls, and a free train to reach the further away areas, eg the garganta del diablo. I am having trouble downloading pics on this computer, so I will do that bit when we get back to Buenos Aires. And finish this story off!

Puerto Madryn

We are right near Peninsula Valdes, famous for wildlife. At various times of the year, you can see penguins, sea lions, orcas eating sea lions right off the beach, whales, elephant seals, foxes, and maras, kind of a wild hare. Oh and Armadillos.

Right now, maybe an armadillo and a hare if you are lucky. I heard someone in our hostel say they saw a whale. But the penguins went south a couple of months ago, and it is not yet sea lion eating time for the orcas. So we skipped the rather expensive day trip out to the peninsula and are just hanging around. Went for a walk down to the beach, the weather is nice. Still need two jumpers and thermals, but its nice and sunny.

Decided to finally put up the map of where we are and what we have done, here tis!

Tomorrow we get a bus up to buenos Aires, and dependign how we wre feeling after 19 hours on a bus, maybe another that night up to the Iguazu falls, our only remaining must see destination. I would like to get over to Uraguay for a couple of days as well, we will see how we do for time.

El Cafe Latte

Actually, it is El Calafate, but Richard´s annoying bastardization of the name is kind of catchy.

So after two nights in a row on a bus, a day in blustery Comodoro Rivadavia, and a half a day on another bus, we arrived to El Calafate. Its a little town that basically exists for people to base themselves in while they visit the glaciars. Which is precisely what we did. We stayed in a great hostel, with gorgeous views out over the lake, ringed with snowy mountains. Here is a sunset photo I took from our room, you can make out the snowy mountains and the lake.
We got busy as soon as we got to town, for a change, and organised two trips. The first one was a boat trip up the lakes, to see a load of glaciers. Teh first was seco, which is a little one that is retreating and doesn´t reach the lake any more. The second was Spegazzini, a big one, at 130m height. This one isn´t retreating. I got right up the front of the boat as we were approaching, and I tell you, I have never been so cold in my life, the boat was going fairly fast. This photo is cool because you can see the glacier cruising on down the mountains. (Spegazzini)

Then we headed off further up to the Upsala glacier, which is really wide, about 60 kms, and 80m high. This one also has moraines in it - the brown streaks you see on the ice, which is all mushed up rocks and stuff that is forced up to the surface by the ice.

(Upsala glaciar, note in the middle, slightly to the right, there is one very very blue iceberg.)

After Upsala, we pulled in to puerto Onelli, and walked 15 minutes to Onelli Lake, into which Onelli Glacier pours, plus a couple of others. Here we stopped for lunch, and the guide mentioned that we were there on perhaps one of the best days they will get in the year, dead still, no wind, warm, sunny, and absolutely no cloud obscuring anything. He said they only get or so days a year like that. Sometimes the wind there is up to 80kmh or so, enough to tear out the trees and push up 2 m waves on the lake. So I guess we were lucky.

(Lunch spot at Lake Onelli, at least three glaciars in the background)

Then we cruised on back to the port, and home again. We decided we would do a bit more cooking for ourselves, as the hostel had a decent kitchen, and Argentina has decent steaks. $2 AU buys a big slab of Sirloin, big enough for both of us, and $4 AU buys a decent bottle of Malbec. You can actually get drinkable wine here for under a dollar a litre, Mum, you would love it.

Ice Berg, as seen from the boat!

The next day we did the ´mini trekking´trip, which involved travellig by bus to the Perito Moreno Glacier, crossing the lake by boat in front of the glacier, strapping on crampons and walking around on the glacier for a couple of hours, before crossing back to the other side of the lake again, and having a couple of hours to spend on this series of boardwalks that they have put up to view the glacier. I will put up a whole bunch of photos from this one, as I took hundreds, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Pretty amazing sight, and probably my favourite experience in South America yet.

Perito Moreno from the top of the boardwalks

Out on the ice, and yep, it is snowing!

Ice, ice, baby. Thats one big crevice.

Strapping on crampons.

That was an ice fall!! See the splash!

PM from the south side, taken after the ice walk on the way back to the refugio for lunch.

And now, we have travelled from Lake Titicaca along the entire length of the Andes by bus. Thus, we have to make the long journey back up again!

NExt stop Puerto Madryn, just a staging post on the way north for us.

Bariloche - chocolate country

We went from mendoza to Bariloche, a cute little swiss chalet type of town nestled between some hills and a whole bunch of lakes. Its a ski resort in the winter, and a hiking destination in summer. As we were there in neither, we didn´t do alot. They make chocolate there, so we decided to sample the local stuff, went to three chocolate shops and bought way too much, went back to the hostel and tested it all out. Definitely over-rated. We felt decidedly ill.

So we thought we should do something, and on saturday, went for a day trip to nearby el Bolson, another cute little town in some mountains, famous for its market of all kind of stuff, you know, the usual artisan handmade everything. Oh, and there are raspberries. I bought a big punnet of them, and ate them, very very nice. See Richard´s blog for pics of me eating raspberries.

The next day we got a local bus out to a peninsula, where there is a very very nice hotel and a cute wooden church, complete with Saint Bernard dog with barrel around its neck, posing for photos with the tourists.

I won´t put any pics up because Richard put pretty much all of our Bariloche photos up... we didn´t take many (cos we didn´t do much).

It was nice there for a few days. Then we continued the bus journey south. 12 hours or so to Comodoro rivadavia, a windy spot on the Atlantic, where we had a 12 hour layover before our ongoing night bus (a further 12 hours to Rio Gallegos). Not much was going on in Comodoro. The bus station was open, and a servo, a bakery and one coffee shop. Yep, we managed to pick a public holiday, very very cold and windy one, to spend there. So we ate alot at the bakery, had a coffee at the coffee shop, and another at the servo, and waited around at the bus station. Next bus, another 12 hours to Rio Gallegos, where we only had to wait 4 hours for the next bus. And onwards El Calafate we went. The scenery was bleak, cold, and nothingness, followed by bleak, cold and snowy... I was most excited about the snow.

This photo I actually took on the return journey, of a couple of Guanacos (a type of llama) in the snow. Poor Llamas. Amazingly on the trip I also saw two rheas, which look like slightly fatter emus.

Southbound

Well, we are heading south, with note much of note happening. We spent a couple of nights in Mendoza, just eating steaks and sampling the local vintages, with Trapiche the clear favourite. It´s Malbec country here, and not too bad either. Also had a lovely aromatic Sauvignon Blanc.
It was 18 hours on the bus from Salta to Mendoza, and another 18 plus a two hour wait at a stop to get to where we are now, Bariloche. The buses in Argentina are damn good though, depending of which class you go... We have been travelling in "Coche Cama" which means there are only three seats across the bus, and they recline almost to horizontal, you get served meals including wine or whisky, tea and coffee, and its pretty comfortable - more comfortable I would say than alot of the beds we have slept in! I figured out we have done 42 hours on buses in Argentina, and have a lot more to do yet!
Bariloche is in the Lake district, its all glacial fed lakes, snowy mountains, swiss style log cabins, and chocolate shops here. Terrible. We might do some kayaking, and a day trip over to neighbouring El Bolson, then we head further south into Patagonia. I decided to make a map to show what we are up to, and where we have been. Did that and its being slow to upload so I will do it later.
We just got all excited because the lonely planet said that you can do a three night ship journey from Puerto Montt (just over the border in Chile) through the Chilean fjords to Puerto Natales, in Patagonian Chile, which is where we are headed, for $166 in the low season. Just looked it up and bugger, prices have gone up considerably, $500 for a double. There goes that idea. Never mind, the buses are pretty comfy.

A Hoss is a hoss of coss of coss...

Cactuses... or cactii?
Naughty hoss. No, it was the guide showing off. Note cute hoss in the background.
Me on my hoss.

Yes, I went horse riding in Tupiza, Butch Cassidy and Sundance kid territory. It was ok. We went for five hours, and five days later I still hurt. The horses were not in too bad condition really, I was worried they would be half starved pitiful creatures. My horse wouldn´t eat the two apples I bought for him, so he can´t have been that hungry. He did stop to chew on thorn bushes though.

Then we moved south, crossed the border into Argentina relatively painlessly, and spent a couple of pleasant days in Salta, Argentina.

I was worried that Argentina would be expensive, but its not, we are eating alot of steaks, drinking red wine, and generally living it up. Brilliant.

We are off this affternoon to Mendoza, the heart of Argentina´s wine country. It´s 18 hours on the bus, and it leaves in an hour or two so I better get going!

Rurrr, rurrr, rurrenabaque.

Amaszonas is the small airline that flies every day to Rurrenabaque, in the Bolivian Amazon. They have a fleet of about three fairchild metros. Rurre is only a 40 minute flight from La Paz, or a 20 hour valium-necessary bus trip, b.y.o. shovel for landslide removal.

We flew with Amaszonas. We got there some 27 hours after we first went to the airport for our flight. So the bus would have been quicker, but less reliable (!)

We were booked for 4pm on Sunday, and at 11 am, we were both sitting down on the internet at the guest house when the travel agent rang and said ´can you make it to the airport by 12´as it is a half hour trip to the airport, we could, so we did. So we were on the plane at 1pm, they were trying to beat the bad weather into Rurre. It was funny, as all the people in the plane were taking photos of each other, and thought the plane was hilarious - it was a metro, so not something new to us in the slightest!
So we accelerated down the runway in la paz, and boy, you have to go really fast to take off at altitude, something that I am sure Richard the Plane Buff will have explained in full on his blog (www.richard666.blogspot.com) so I won´t bother. Off we go, and circle around La Paz, with spectacular views of the nearby mountains, one of which I know is called Illimani, and another I think is Huayna Potosi. 8 minutes up, and the pilot makes the announcement that we have to go back to la paz because the weather in Rurre is too bad to land. Like, they did not know that ten minutes ago? So we went back, and all the flights for the rest of the afternoon were cancelled. Travel agent said they would update us at 6pm. Went back to the hostel we were at - full. Went back to another hostel we had been at - also full, oh no, wait, he said he had a room with one bed in it downstairs. The bed seemed generous enough for both of us (decieving) so we took it. It was easter sunday, which is the end of one of the biggest festivals of the year, so pretty much everywhere in la paz was full. Travel agent at 6 said we were on the 2pm plane the next day, but she would confirm again at 10 am. 10:30 rolls by, and we hadn´t heard from them, so we called, and she told me, like she said yesterday, we were confirmed for 2pm, but that wasn´t what she said yesterday at all. Never mind, we were on the plane!!
Back to the airport. Another 40 boliviano taxi fare. Now that is pretty cheap by Australian standards (about $6) but when you are only spending 250 to 300 Bovs a day its a lot! So we wait, wait to check in, they tell us come back at 2.30 for more info, so we wait, and come back, and we are scheduled for 3.45 from gate 7. So we are all waiting at gate 7, and at 3.42 a man comes and gets us and says no, no, its gate 2, which is back out through security and go to the international departure area and wait there. Finally we go to the plane, walk out at the international end of the airport, and all the way alomg the tarmac to right next to the gate we were originally waiting at. Never mind, we are getting on the plane. All aboard, oh hang on, we have one too many people, so the hostess called our names and made one israeli guy get off, he was supposed to be on the next flight. Taxi down the runway, accelerate for AGES again, and then, wham, they whack on the skids and we come to a halt just before we run out of runway. Apologies everyone but there is an instrument malfunction, we have to go back to the terminal. So we do. Richard the Plane Buff informs me what it is, something to do with the torque on the props, they have a gauge for each one to measure it, and one of the gauges wasn´t working. SO we go back into the terminal (at gate 7) and the Amaszonas Lady comes and tells us we need to wait for 10 minutes, while they fix the plane. About 40 minutes later, she comes back and tells us that we have to wait another half an hour. RIchard the Plane Buff spotted a box going out to the plane, that looked like a part, this is good news. Meanwhile, the Israeli that was meant to be on the later flight has well and truily overtaken us and is probably in Rurre by now. Anyhow, to cut a long story short, they fixed it, we took off, and this time we landed in Rurre, 40 minutes away, on basically a grass and mud runway (now it is obvious that with half a dozen drops of rain, nothing could take off here). It was absolutely lovely to walk off the plane into the soggy humidity and warmth. La Paz is cold. Rurre is positively tropical. So nice.
(view from the plane) (At rurrenabaque airport)
The guide from Chalalan met us at the airport, and took us to the Chalalan office to give us a run down on everything, then took us to our hotel, the Oriental. Sounds flash. It was ok, we had four beds in our room, and a lightswitch that gave me a hell of an electric shock. I used a rubber tipped pencil to turn the light on and off after that.

Chalalan in a community run ecolodge built in the Madidi Conservation area. The lodge was originally the concept of an Israeli guy that was rafting down the river and sank, and was then found by the community some 18 days later. He wanted to build it, 50/50 with the community. So they approached big american banks, and on the 5th attempt they said we will give you the money, but only to the community, not to this Israeli guy. So that happened, and then the CI (some american organisation) got involved with it all, and five years later they had built a few huts and spent 75% of the money on consultants. The community was naturally not too impressed wit this, and kicked the CI out, and built the whole of Chalalan themselves in five months. Each family of the 74 in the community had to send one member to work there for free for one month, and in return, got a share of ownership of the lodge. So that is how it is now, the church owns 1%, the community as a whole 50%, and individual families from the community the other 49%. I may have got some of the details imperfect, but that is pretty much the story of how Chalalan happened.

So after the night at the oriental, we jumped in a small, but long, wooden boat, for the 5 hour trip up river, first on the Beni and then we chucked a right up the tuichi. The rivers were fairly moving, and the baotmen were no doubt quite skilled in their craft. One sat up the front with a stick, dipping it quickly in the water to see if it was deep or shallow, and guiding the one at the back on the outboard. If the stick bounced off the bottom, the motor was cut, and they tried to find deeper water. Once or twice the bottom of the boat scraped on the bottom of the river. (the boat trip)
We stopped for lunch, (yummy) and then kept on going, saw birds along the way, and butterflies, but no animals. Arrived at Chalalan and walked the 1.8kms from the river to the lodge.

The lodge is set on a natural lagoon a 25 minute walk from the Tuichi River. The Lagoon is spring fed, and the excess flows down to the river. The lodge consists of a bunch of natural huts, all decked out very nicely and harmoniously, with very effective mosquito nets. Very much a necessity. At the moment they can accomodate 28 guests in the huts, and up to 40 camping in the high season. Our group, myself and Richard the Plane Buff, Andrea and Lisa from Sydney, and Susan from California, were the only guests there, it was very peaceful.

(Peaceful lagoon full of sleeping caiman)

We had lunch (again) and then went off for a walk in the jungle with the guide, and about 77 species of flying biting insects, and a whole lot more that crawl up your legs and get you. I guess it was nearly dusk, so it was a bad time. But I was sure I could feel my blood pressure dropping as the little buggers helped themselves to me. They even bit me in the part in my hair.

About 45minutes along the trail we appeared at a little jetty on the lake where there was a canoe waiting for us, the mossies had eased abit by then, and we pleasantly paddled around in the canoe, observing two of the species of monkey that live on the lake, Yellow squirrel monkeys and brown Capuchins.

(canoeing on the lake.)

Then back to the lodge for dinner.

After dinner we went for a night canoe trip in the lake, to see all the baby caimans. Caimans are long skinny crocodiles.

(baby Caiman)

There were literally thousands of them, you hold your torch up to eye level and look around, and all the little red caiman eyes glow back at you. We stopped by these reeds, and they guides made us turn off our torches while they made baby caiman noises, which is something like swallowing or gulping in the back of your throat. So there we were in the dark, in a small wooden canoe, and as soon as they made the noise we heard this great SPLASH, and of course, that was a BIG MUMMY caiman, thinking the babies were calling her. I swore, loudly. We paddled over a couple of metres to observe the big caiman, and she ws big, perhaps 5 metres. We pbserved her for much to long and much to closely for my liking. Then paddled back to the lodge to contemplate how close we were to being caiman food.

(big caiman by night)

the next day Richard, I, and our guide Sergio embarked on a very long walk that involved crossing a river (twice). After we had crossed it the first time (on foot) he asked us if we would like to go Piranha fishing. Where? Yes, right there in the river we had just walked across. We went Piranha fishing later when we crossed the river again, and didn´t catch any.

(Jungle trail)

We were on the lookout for a group of Black spider monkeys, these are much bigger than the yellow ones. We did find them, and alrge group passed over head in the top of the canopy, all stopping to look at us and call to each other, it was pretty cool.

Then we headed back to the lodge for another late lunch. Lunch this time was not brilliant, kind of mashed plantain (bananas) and rice. The rice was nice.

After lunch was siesta, then anther canoe on the lake to see the monkeys again (after such a big walk in the morning, I opted out of a walk and went for the canoe option again) and we got to see the monkeys again, much closer up, as the yellow spider monkeys were all coming down to the lake to drink. So that was cool.

(Yellow squirrel monkey in action)

Dinner, of catfish baked with herbs, and heaps of different salads, and all the other guests who had arrived that day, about 6 geologists, spanish speaking.

We then went for a night walk, which I was not keen on at all, because basically all that comes out at night is spiders, caiman,s and frogs, and you can´t really see the frogs. We did however see a nest of juvenile tarantulas, which was positively disgusting. We also saw another big caiman in the inlet, and we happened to be standing right near the nest, which is not a Good Thing. No dramas though.

(big ass nasty spider, in a tree next to the dining room)

Back to the lodge, for a party, where they rolled us up coca leaves with the ash from the oil palm, and a bit of vine, which we were meant to chew. Now I don´t like the taste of coca tea at all, and a big wad of the stuff sitting in my cheek made me feel like I was at the dentist. also because it made my cheek go numb. Now we also had a rather lethal concotion to wash it down, they called it ´Puma milk´ and it was some kind of alcohol and milk, served warm. It tasted a bit better than the coca. So they played music, and we dnaced, rather uncomfortably, drank puma milk, chewed coca, then had enough and went to bed (after sitting outside playing with the two half grown kittens).

The next morning we left about 9 to walk to the river, get the boat back, only three hours down river. We were lucky enough to spot some capybaras on the return trip.

Chalalan was lovely, and it was good to go and see the jungle while supporting a community initiative, and ecologically sensitive operation. Another day or two would have been nice there.

And we flew safely back to La Paz, landed in the freezing cold. This time the altitude hit me almost immediately, my head was swimming, and felt dizzy, nauseous and horrid. We got a taxi back to Loki hostel, as we were booked in this time. Felt terrible, and went to bed at 5pm, didn´t get up til 7 am the next day!!

So yesterday we ran around and organised our trip out of here - the bus to Oruro on Monday, and then the train from there to Tupiza, where we will spend a couple of days before heading to Salta, Argentina. We are looking forward to getting out of the cold, and to the Argentine steaks!

The world´s most dangerous road by mountain bike.

It wasn´t that bad really. I reckon the road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng in Laos is porbably worse. We left La Paz at about 7:30 am, with Richard suitably hung over after one too many Bocks, a 7% beer. I have never seen Richard not finish a beer, but the night before, he did just that, left a half behind. I had a feeling he wouldn´t be in prime condition for the 66km of mountain biking ahead.

So we get to the starting point, beside a freezing, I MEAN freezing, lake, at La Cumbre 4,700m. Got allocated bikes, and kitted up with helmet, goggles, wet weather jacket and pants, buff (scarf thing) and gloves. Took the bikes for a little spin to see how they felt. They were pretty good.

We cruised down 22km of bitumen first, past snowy mountains, in light misty rain. Our hands were absolutely ICY- so cold!! Had a couple of stops at what are usually scenic points on the road, but today were just banks of cloud. I was a bit hesitant to go too fast as the road was wet, but the group on the whole wasn´t going that quick, we probably only got up to about 60kmh. It was pretty cool.

In this section we went through a drug check point, they are basically looking for the chemicals that are needed to refine coca into cocaine, out in the northern bolivian coca growing regions. Then it is on down to the next checkpoint, where we had to pay the 24 Bs fee to use the road. This fee goes to maintaining it now that it is (supposedly) closed to traffic, as the new road is open.

Then we get into the start of the proper ´world´s most dangerous road. ´ the first section is narrow, rocky, degraded, with waterfalls and overhanging cliffs on the right, and 400m sheer drops on the left hand side. I think it was a good thing there was so much cloud and fog, we couldn´t see the drops at all. I was nervous enough as it was!! Getting used to the bike, and getting abit more confident through this section. The bikes were great, huge big coil rear suspension you hardly felt a bump. Well, not bad anyway.

So we continued on through the rain and the mud for a total of 44kms, the mud was flicking up off the wheels and straight into our faces. You couldn´t wear the goggles because they just fogged up, and if you went without you were just constantly blinking mud and grit out of your eyes, and having to stop all the time when you couldn´t see. I used a combination of both methods!

Occasionally we had some views of the valleys which were lovely, but we were too cold and wet to be standing around looking at the half obscured scenery.

Overall I really enjoyed the riding, alot more than I thought I would, even despite the rain and the mud, and soaking wet feet.

We hurried on down to the finishing point, at a restaurant and accom place called la senda verde. There we had a ´hot´ shower (it was just off freezing) and lunch. They house rescued wildlife there, they had at least three macaws, one without many feathers, a boa constrictor, and a bunch of monkeys, including the one month old howler monkey that is in the photo. He was tiny. There was also loads of ducks, geese, guinea fowl and kittens around.

About 4 weeks ago an israeli tourist died on the ride, he went over a section of cliff that was a 170m drop. There are loads of stories about what happened, everything from he was racing his friend and they were being silly buggers bumping each other, to he was smoking pot, to his brakes completely failing. It could be any of these or something completely different. But basically you would have to be an idiot to ride off the edge, or have your equipment fail. Hence our decision to go with the company with the best reputation. They have been riding the road for 9 years, and have not had a single tourist die, in that time, though, there have been 10 deaths. There has also been a hell of a lot more deaths from bus crashes and all that.

At one point along the road there is a ´democracy monument´. The story issomething like this: Bolivia decides to have democratic elcetions, the ruling military party fancying that they will win hands down anyway. Election time nears, and they realise they are probably going to get beaten, so they round up the five most popluar candidates, take them out to this spot on the road, and push them off, 400m to their deaths. Nice.

Now we have our shoes hanging out of the window at our guest house, hoping that they will dry in time for our jungle trip on Sunday. Considering that it generally takes three days to get clothes dry, and that we just heard some thunder and saw lightning, I think we are asking a bit much.

They took lots of photos of the ride, and we bought the CD, but overall they are not very good, mostly cloudy, and fogged up because of the moisture in the camera. It was a very soggy day.

This last photo is of dried Llama foetuses on the street in La Paz. there were also dried baby llamas, and armadillos, snakes, bats, frogs, allsorts. Not quite sure what one does, exactly, with a dried llama foetus.

The funny things we have seen post.

Here are just three to get it started.

Wheelchair, peruvian bus station.

Kitchen, Uros Islands

Anyone for hole meal toast?

Ok, so they aren´t that funny. There´ll be more though!

Copacabana to La Paz

We rested up well in Copa, did not alot (Richard climbed a hill while I slept) and got the bus to La Paz. We had the worst bus in the street, but I guess it was not too bad.

(Scenic view of Copacabana from the hill)

Left at 8 in a belching cloud of black diesel smoke, and at 9.40 we had to get off in the rain to get a boat across a part of the lake, while the bus got another boat. It wasn't exactly calm, so we were just a little worried about the bus and our bags on the roof tumbling into the lake. When I download the photos you will see what I mean! The boat was being ferried along on essentially what was a bunch of planks tied together and painted, with a 25 hp evinrude for power.
Cold, severely cold, like, freezing (and damp) we piled back into the bus for the rest of the trip to La Paz, arriving pretty early at 12. The approach to La Paz through the sprawling suburb/city of El Alto was a little bit disconcerting, very very poor, flithy, and just not very nice looking at all. Richard was giving me those 'where the hell are you bringing me to now' looks, and I was a little apprehensive. Then you come over the crest of the canyon, and 400m below lies La Paz itself. We got a taxi to the hostel we had booked, and while it is not quite as great as the web site makes out, it will do. We have our own room, not quite ready for dorms yet I think.
Hit the street and walked down to the main drag, and the two offices of the two tours we wanted to do were literally right next to each other. We booked our mountain biking trip down the World's most Dangerous Road (you will see what I mean when I have done it and have pictures). http://www.gravitybolivia.com/ that is the company we are going with, they look pretty good.
Walked next dour to america tours and booked our 4 day, 3 night trip out in the Bolivian Amazon, plus flights to get there (the 20 hour bus ride did not appeal). We fly to Rurrenabaque, stay the night there, then cruise up river for 5 hours and walk for half an hour to get to the jungle Lodge, Chalalan, stay 2 night there, all inclusive, with walks n stuff.
It was not cheap, not cheap at all, but I guess it is going to be the only time we go and visit the Brazilian amazon, so it is not to be missed. Plus we have heard good things about it from other people.

La Paz doesn't really grab me at all, I heard that the shopping here is good, but seeing as I lost BOTH my cash cards, I can't really go crazy on that front. Stupid ATMs over here, give you your money first, and then you have to push a button to get your card back, and silly me forgets to do that. But it is no big deal, I will just call travelex and cancel them, and then they wire me the remaining money to western union apparently, and there is one of them right around the corner. I suppose I should do that.

Next update with more photos....