Holiday memorabilia

So every time Natasha or I go on holidays we try and get the other person the worst touristy present ever. I feel that I have surpassed myself this time.............

Nothing says friendship like a stuffed pirhana!

Back to reality....

Have been back about 4 days now and it seems strange that I was in 35 degree heat in the middle of the jungle earlier in the week. After arriving home on Monday late afternoon I was wide awake and lying in bed at midnight trying to count sheep, so it was a massive shock to be woken up on Tuesday morning with english voices. I didn't know where I was, what day it was or how long it would take me to get to work. After I realised I was in my own bed it only took a few minutes to remember my schedule, I was really tired though and could have slept another 48 hours.

I got into work and was sitting at my desk when I noticed that there was a backpack under my desk. I started to get annoyed that I had only been gone 2 weeks and someone was already trying to steal my desk. I calmed down 2 seconds later when I recognised the backpack from my house in Australia. My parents are THE BEST!! Thanks both so much for the amazing surprise in the bag. I love all my lollies and everything else.

Most of Tuesday was spent going through my 500 accumulated emails. The girls in the office (Clare, Pip, Anne, Sarah) brought in cake for me which was lovely. Pip made a lemon drizzle cake (my favourite) and Clare bought a victoria sponge. There was also presents! I got:

Westfields voucher
A pineapple
Pineapple juice
After dinner mints
A bookmark

Thanks so much ladies (Clare, Pip, Hayley, Emma, Michelle, Suzy, Louisa, Anne) it was a lovely surprise to come back to. I struggled through the rest of the day and finally got home but wasn't tired. Again another late night and a struggle to wake up.

Wednesday I was out for dinner with Krista & her friends as it had been her birthday yesterday. A lovely little restaurant off Dean Street, although by 8pm I was falling asleep so had to make a move.

Last night I got to meet up with Inger! She had flown over from Denmark for 4 days with her boyfriend and we managed to meet up for dinner in Stratford. I can't believe it's been over a year sinec I had seen her last, way too long between visits. A good ol chat then it was time to go home.

Tonight Mark is over from Singapore so we are going out, looks like it might be a big one!

Venezuela - Part 5 - Angel Falls Tour

Hearing the alarm go off at 7am is never good, especially after only 4 hours sleep, but up we got, dressed and breakfast eaten so we were ready at 8am when reception opens. 9am and still no one had shown up for reception. We had no idea where we were going or what time. Finally Michael told us we were being picked up at 11am to be taken to the bus depot for our trip to Cuidad Bolivar where our tour of the Amazon started. A bit annoying but ok we now had some info. At 12.30pm we get picked up by Lewis and driven to the depot. He was a maniac driver and I couldn't look out the front window as he was overtaking people and speeding like crazy. Obviously we were late for our bus. NO thats just how he drove, our bus it turned out wasn't going until 3pm! Another 2 hour wait in a hot, smelly waiting room for our bus. Oh well we were going to the Amazon it was going to be amazing and this is just a blip.

The bus was just like I remembered from my last trip to Sth America. The seats were like armchairs and reclined all the way back. We settled in for our 6 hour trip down the country. Obviously I dropped off asleep as soon as the engine started and woke up about 20 minutes before our arrival. We got there and called the name on the piece of paper, turns out he was expecting us 4 hours ago!!!! Can you believe it. Lewis obviously put us on the wrong bus and we wasted half our day, when we could have been at the Tour hotel, swimming before our flight into the Amazon in the morning. Soooo annoying, but had to let it go.

We were doing our tour with Gekko Tours and they were FANTASTIC. The lodge we stayed in Tuesday night was lovely and the grounds were cool. Such a shame we hadn't arrived on time and made use of the swimming pool and animal sanctuary I heard he had. Oh well it was off to bed as we were going into the Amazon tomorrow.

Wednesday 5th September
Early  morning start to the airport for our chartered flight to Canaima National Park. At the airport they have the original plane that Jimi Angel flew and landed on the falls because he was drunk! Which is why it's called Angel Falls but there is an Indigenous name I can't remember. It took us an hour and the sight from the airplane was great. Upon arrival we met up with the rest of the group, there were about 12 of us in total. Our guide was going to be Fernando & his 4 year old son John Pierre. The village we were going to stay in that night was lovely, they had a beautiful macaw sitting on the branches that seemed to love to show off. The facilities were great and we headed down to the local beach for a swim before lunch. The water is fresh water from the waterfalls so it was super cold. A nice refreshing change from the warm seawater off the coast. Once I was in the water it was fine and lovely floating around.

 

After lunch we took a short boat ride past the 7 local waterfalls that have names that I can't remember we then hiked for an hour to Sapito Falls. It was amazing to be so close to such a powerful waterfall. Fernando said the water was clear and refreshing. After seeing it from the top we then proceeded down and just in our bikini's walked underneath/behind the waterfall. At first it was lovely and cool then we got to the section where the water was gushing in at a 90degree angle. It was crazy going but we made it thru to the other side and were rewarded with a swim in a pool and a very hard massage beating down on us from one of the smaller falls. I wish I had a waterproof camera but I know it's not a scene I will forget. And it was exciting to have to go back the same way, fighting thru the water. Hiked back down to the boat and dried off in the sun.

 To see the waterfall click on: http://youtu.be/ik57iMHwdZ0


What an amazing day! Everyone was quite tired so after dinner there wasn't any drinking, just quietly off to bed.

Thursday 6th September
With our smaller bags packed we were ready for the boats to take us up stream to Angel Falls. A short 15min boat ride then we had to walk for an hour as the boat had to go thru some rapids and it was too dangerous for us to be in the boat so we met them at a different location. It was hot but an easy walk across the savannah with bushes and mountains in the distance, no shade and at 10am very warm.

The boat met us and we all got back in, then it was a 4 hour trip up the river! Luckily my legs aren't too long but sitting in the one position for so long we defo needed to stretch our legs. Tom & I got stuck in the seats with a plank of wood across where our feet should have been so we were even more squashed, oh well. It had rained the previous night so the river was quite high and Fernando was pleased as he said the waterfall will be gushing. Great news until we hit some rapids! I'm sure they put the English people at the back of the boat for a reason. The four of us (Me, Tom, Nick & Katherine) kept getting water on ourselves and not just a spray of water, I'm talking about buckets. It was hilarious and it was such a surprise each time because the water was so cold. When we reached the destination our legs were cramped and we were looking forward to the hike up to the waterfall.

After a quick lunch of tuna pasta we headed off for the hike up to the viewing point of Angel Falls. Fernando said it was going to be flat then with a bit of up hill. I don't think his english is very good as it wasn't flat to begin with and when we reached the sign Salto Angel he said now we begin the climb!!! I was huffing already and now he says the climb begins. Oh well off we go. It was hard work, there were tree roots, boulders along the way. We finally made it and the view was inspiring. We were lucky that the fog hadn't come over yet and we had a clear view. And Fernando was right, with the rain from the previous night it was gushing over the top. So fantastic! Thats us below standing on the side of the cliff having our picture taken.

 After we had taken a few pics we then headed down for a dip in the pool at the bottom of the second waterfall, the smaller one. The water was chilly but so refreshing and the view from our "infinity pool" was stunning. You can't actually describe something so beautiful.

 On the walk back down the mountain we walked past a pineapple growing. It was only about 5 cms long but it was cool to see. It was just as hard going down as you had to concentrate where you were stepping. We finally made it back to base camp about 6pm.

This is where our group and another were going to spend the night in hammocks. It seemed like fun until Fernando started telling stories about spirits in the forest who come and kidnap people in their sleep. I was sleeping on the end so a bit worried. Nick & Katherine showed us the trick of lying diagonally so you are straight out rather than in a V of the hammock. Not too bad actually but the temperature dropped during the night so I had my jacket on and a blanket wrapped around me. I woke up to birds chirping and the tip of my nose was very cold. Reckon it took a good 2 hours for the sun to burn through the cloud/fog and for the temperature to start soaring high again. It was such a shame to leave and we couldn't believe our time had come to an end so fast. Time to head back to civilisation. Luckily we were going with the current this time and it only took 2 hours to get back to the camp in the National Park. We had lunch and then it was back on the plane and then a personal taxi back up to Barcelona. We got back to Jakera Lodge about 9pmish so we chilled out with the 5 other girls that were backpacking and watched a movie. Unluckily for Tom it was Letters to Juliet. Even I thought it was cheesey.

Our last day we spent it on the beach at Playa Colorada. It wasn't the best beach, a bit dirty but the weather was hot and the water was cool. I think we got ripped off with our lunch though, the guy brought us our lunch to our umbrella then when we got the 260 peso bill we nearly choked!!! That was nearly £20 each for a plate of chicken, salad, rice & coleslaw. NO WAY!!! And we only had 250 peso's left in the whole world and there are no ATM's in the community we were in. Got a bit worried thinking we were going to have run off the beach but I reckon the guy knew he was ripping us off so he said don't worry about the rest of it. Lucky.

The  next morning we were up at 5am ready for our transfer to the airport. We got Lewis again and his driving was just as crazy. We made it to the airport and there were no delays so arrived in Caracas at 10am. By the time we got through immigration, baggage drop off and other stuff we had about 6 hours to wait it out before the international flight home. There wasn't much point leaving the airport so we amused ourselves with Eye Spy and hangman. The international flight to Frankfurt was with Lufhansa, I've never flown with them before, and it was fine and uneventful. A stop over of 2 hours in Frankfurt before our short flight London Heathrow. After that it was a long tube journey back to the house where I walked in at 4.30pm on Monday 10th September.

Truly a remarkable holiday and it reminded me why I'm based here....... the travelling. There is so much in this world to see I'm going to refocus, save and see as much as I can.

Colombia - Part 4 - Cartagena Scuba Diving

Dive 1

Dive 2

 

 Defo going to get my PADI licence next holiday! It was amazing

Columbia - Part 3 - Cartagena My birthday

Sunday 2nd September
What a brilliant way to spend my birthday in a beautiful hot city with good friends. Had a massive sleep in for the first time all week. Got up about lunchtimeish and Charlene had a couple surprises for me! She had got me some pressies. I got:

A book mark
A mousemat with the map of Panama (i think)
A little musical instrument (which i promised to play all the time when Tom & I were in Venezuela)
A bag of worry dolls
Watermelon flavoured powder to mix with water

What a result. Tom also got me a lovely card. After the present opening it was time for pancakes. I love them! Unfortunately the instructions were in Spanish and I put too much mix in the bowl so Tom had to go out twice to get 1. more milk 2. more eggs whoops! And then we realised we didn't have any sugar or maple syrup. So with a bit of persuasion (yelling & shouting) Tom agreed to go get it for us. Well it was my birthday and I was in charge. Plus Charlene & I were in our pj's, rookie error getting dressed. The pancakes turned out so huge that we only had 3 between Charlene & I. Tom isn't a fan. It was then back to bed for another nap and then finally I managed to get up about 5pm to have a shower and get dressed for dinner. I was just about to walk into the lounge room when Charlene covered my eyes, upon opening them I saw balloons, a banner and cake with candles saying 36! Tom had remembered and brought them from home, what a legend. I always believe it's not your birthday until you blow out candles. It was great and set a lovely mood for the evening.

 We decided to go to the old castle and locate the boot statue we had been told about. And luckily for us we found it! Two massive boots, big enough to get in, so in we hopped. We wandered around the castle and then headed back to Cafe Del Mar to have a drink and watch the sunset before dinner. It was quite cloudy so it wasn't the best sunset but it was so lovely to sit there with the breeze blowing in off the ocean. 

For dinner we went to a lovely seafood restaurant in town and I have the most delicious prawns. After dinner we took a horse drawn carriage around the city, something I had wanted to do all week but the others were not so keen. Luckily it was still my birthday so I was in control. Turned out to be a lovely jaunt around, seeing the sights and waving at people. It was sad to think that it was our last night in Cartagena and the last with Charlene.

We had to head back to the flat to repack our rucksacks and get ready to leave in the morning. I managed to off load a bunch of stuff Charlene's mum had given me only to be given a bunch of stuff from Charlene to take back! Luckily it all fit in and in the process of packing we discovered that we had bought the same shoes! Obviously with my feet I had the 8's and she had the 5's. Great minds........

After packing it was time to hit the hay and get some sleep (as we hadn't slept enough he he he he).


Monday 3rd Sep
We were up and out of the house by 9am heading to the airport to go our separate ways. Charlene was heading to Bogota then Ecuador and we were heading to Caracas via Bogota. It was sad to say bye but she has so many exciting adventures in front of her, I can't wait to hear them all.

Tom & I managed to get all our flights to Caracas on time and we were getting ready for the final leg of our trip, a 40 min flight from Caracas to Barcelona................ DELAYED 6 hours!!! Can you believe it. We could have driven or gotten the bus there faster. Sitting around an airport for that long is not fun. Especially when South American's do not know how to make a cuppa tea. They pretty much take hot milk and add a teabag. Gross. Finally we got on our flight at midnight and we got to Barcelona by 2am. We were being picked up and as we had already rung they knew when to come get us. It was another hour to the lodge where we were staying, so by the time teeth were brushed and pj's were on it was 3.30am. I was not looking forward to getting up at 7am to organise our Amazon trek!