The Days are Getting Longer

We've made it!

We passed the half way point and now things can only get better!

Winter Solstice has come and gone for another year, and although it's not going to get warmer any time soon, at least it's a step away from dark on the way to work and dark on the way home.


After building up to a massive pile of wood to burn (David decided it was all about the height) we lit the fire around 6. Just long enough for the sun to have gone down and for it to be getting too cold to be standing around wearing shorts.


It started slow in the patch covered in bamboo, with only the aid of newspaper as an artificial booster.


Soon it was roaring away with the flames licking 10 metres high and bamboo and privet branches happily popping away.



By 7 the fire brigade had already made a visit- even though we had made all efforts to previously alert them- and told us they had been getting calls form all over Eltham. But by 8 it had settled itself down to a nice raging size and allowed us to sit around a bit closer to it.


Entertainment for the evening was provided by one of the sleepers used as a seat being slightly wobbly and this ended up in a game to see who could wobble the other person off. Although possibly not the ultimate champion in the end, Eri's style defininitely was the most memorable effort of the evening.

Hoorah to everyone who made the effort with shorts.

Short shorts

Unfortunately it's not looking good for the gold hot pants. I did look for some lycra while out at lunch from work today, but they had nothing nearly spangly enough for my tastes.

I've gotten rid of a big skip load worth of building site rubbish this week, out there at 7am in the rain, so you can actually get out the back to the fire.

It's pretty massive so we've alerted the appropriate authorities so if our snitchy neighbours decide to get at us we're covered. We've set the fire out in the back paddock so we can really get it roaring (at the moment the pile stands about 9 feet tall with a diameter of 6 metres), but it is a little more exposed than the regular venue of the drum in front of the house on stilts.

We'll put up the marquee for a bit of shelter with a tarp on top so it's water proof, but hopefully all this talk of rain is just hot air.

Bring along an umbrella if you're worried about precipitation, and a delicious platter* if you are so inclined.

See you there in your shortest shorts.











*Only platters of a delicious nature will be considered.

Winter in Melbourne

I'm slowly beginning to remember what I love about being in Melbourne, especially live music. The traditional Winter Solstice party is coming up in a few weeks and at least that means we'll start seeing a bit more light in the days after that. We've been busy building a bonfire, not a little drum fire, to keep us warm through the chilly evening. Now all I have to do is mug the girl I saw at Cut Copy, steal her gold leggings and make them into hotpants!

A post script to the chickens

On what was meant to be our last night in Otovalo, after much searching and conflicting time reports, we managed to make it to the special fiesta edition of the cokfights.

These events happen most Saturdays around 7pm, but because it was the fiesta of Eugenio or some other saint there were two on this day- we caught the late show.

I must admit I was ashamed of my bloodlust. For no other reason than I liked the shape of his tail or somesuch, I chose a rooster and barracked hard. Ai! Ai!

Then we made a friend and figured out how to put money on it. Pretty much just turning to the person next to you and saying "I bet you five bucks the white one will win." We didn´t do too well though. Despite every indication pointing towards our negro having kicked the whiteys arse, apparently ´cos whitey was still trying to fight when the bell rang it was a draw. Then our second bet we lost fair and square. This whole time we were drinking straight whiskey and making Ecuadorian friends. Trent even went so far as to swap a bracelet for his watch with one of his ´brothers´.

We couldn´t get on the bus next morning and had to stay another night.

Chickens

The chickens in Ecuador tend to run free, until they end up roasted in a shop window that is.

We saw boobies!

No not that kind! Get your head out of the gutter! The special bird-like kind.

After finally leaving Montañita we made it to Puerto Lopez and the amazing Machililla National Park. Pretty much the whole of the Pacific Coast up into Central America used to be covered by this dry forest. As it stands 95% of it has been destroyed and this park is all that remains.

Part of the park is also the Isla de la Plata or ´The Poor Man´s Galapogos´. We went on a tour out there and saw sooo many birds.

To tell you the truth I was sick of them by the end.

Before we even got on the boat though we saw sharks, squid, crabs, giant fish, eels and random guts all laying out at the tide line from the fishing boats.

Also on the Island grows an amazing plant called loofah. And yes it grows sponges. While they are green and ripe the fruit holds water which the indigenous people used to drink. When it dries out it leaves a sponge inside a skin which is easy to pick off. I never really thought about where those things came from before.

We decided to get the night bus the supposed 10 hours to Quito from here, even though the Lonely Planet says DO NOT catch night buses in this province. Turns out it was the same company on the same route as which 5 English girls were killed a couple of weeks before, but that was a crash not a highjacking. It was a sort of creepy ride. No lights or movie the whole time, we nearly weren´t allowed on ´cos we had food, it ended up taking just under 12 hours and I had a dream that ET tried to kiss me. All in all I don´t think I´ll be doing the night bus thing again any time soon.

El Castillo

One of Trent's favourite past times since we've been here at the beach is building sandcastles and forts. He can spend hours in the blistering sun making these huge creations and then an intricate defence system against the incoming tides complete with drainage trenches and decorative shell designs.

This particular one was a beauty, we kept on thinking we were finished, but the water was nowhere near destroying it so we had to just keep on building.


Trent would have spent a solid five hours there, but I left once to get drinks and once to pick up our washing.


In the end it was still going to be hours until the tide came up high enough to reach it so, despite our fears of dogs and children as well as errant trucks and motor bikes destroying all the hard work, we abandoned the masterpiece to the mercy of the elements.


But when we came back in the morning it was still intact. The water had made it to the outer defences, but the main wall was still intact. A marvel of modern engineering.



The mistress unfortunately didn't make it-someone stepped on her head, the only human interference with the whole thing.


We stayed and watched the first wave breach the wall and when we came back from a stroll up the beach it had been washed away entirely, with only a pile of shells and stones to remind us of it's former splendour.

A few pics

I'm sitting upstairs from the cafe we eat in nearly every day, dance music pumping out cos it's Friday and a new crowd are blowing in to town for the weekend party. I've got my camera with me and the cable to plug it in, so it looks like it's time for you to see some more photos.


We stayed nearly a week in Cuenca, south of Quito, partly because it was a really nice city with a beautiful shady river, and partly because Trent was really sick and couldn't leave.


Our hostel was on the sixth floor of a buliding full of doctors and lawyers offices, but with a broken lift. The kitchen had the most amazing view.

One morning I went out to get water and found myself in a parade- stilt walkers, drummers, clowns. I think I figured out that it was for deaf kids and kids with cancer and they had a little fiesta in the park complete with the queen of Cuenca and whole roast pigs.

In Guayaquil we found some more pirates


and a restaurant where I smashed crabs wearing a bib.

Now we're in Montañita, the Byron of Ecuador, and just can't seem to leave. We've been beaching and making castles, chilling out in hammocks, and yesterday went surfing. The waves were pretty shit,but I managed to stand up, but also get a whole lot of fresh bruises and even a skinned knee.

The hostel we're staying at is owned by an ex pro surfer, who casually leaves magazines lying around attesting to the fact. This weekend there's a comp on at the point, so we'll probably be overrun by surfers staying in the hostel and taking over our tv room so we can't watch DVD's.

We may just be able to leave after the fuul moon party tomorrow night.

Blackout

When you´re in a town on the dge of an active volcano it´s a little concerting when there is a blackout of the whole town. We were walking back from the mineral baths on the outskirts of town when suddenly everything shut down. Only headlights from cars and candles in restaurants shed any light on the subject, but most people went about their business as usual, apart from the internet and phone shops. We went back to our hostel and checked if they had any info on the situation or if we should run as fast as our legs could carry us, but they said the power should return in 20 mins or so and gave us a candle. We went and hunkered down in our usual bar, with the delightful Milton, with music provided by guitars, and abience by candle light, until the power finally came back about an hour later.

Not quite as extreme as the conditions have been back home, but slightly unnerving none the less.

Las Cascadas

Yesterday we hired a quad bike a did a trip out of town to see all the amazing waterfalls in the area. It was so much fun, burning around the streets of town, on the righthand side, with my man riding saddle on the back.
There are tunnels on the way that you can ride through which are pitch black, or you can take the woosy way around. Of course I wanted to go through the tunnels, but one of them I couldnt work our headlight, so once we were half way through we were in total darkness until a car passed us so we could follow is lights.
We also did a couple of full on hikes across the gorge and over to the falls, it all seems ok on the way down, but then you have to go up again. We were pools of sweat.


(this stupid computer wont let me put in apostrophes, or @, I have to paste it in every time I want to use it)

Pics as requested

Santa Monica Pier- where I spent my day in transit in LA.

View from a lookout in Quito ( I can´t figure out how to rotate it)

The streets of Cartagena, Colombia.

Centennial plaza in Cartagena, Colombia.

Being a tourist.

The shores of Playa Blanca, our first pristine Caribbean beach.

More on Facebook

If this is all I have to complain about, things are pretty sweet

Yesterday was one of those days where nothing could go right. We were all set to check out of our room and be on a bus by midday. But things didn´t work out that way. First of all we wanted to buy some T-shirts, but after 15 minutes figured their eftpos machine wouldn´t work and we would have to come back in an hour. Then the next shop we went into processed our payment, but were´nt sure if it had actually gone through and spent at least half an hour calling the boss, calling the bank, finding access codes and finally putting it through again. Then we went to send these shirts back to Australia, but they wouldn´t let us use Hanks FedEx account without a written authorisation on company letterhead. When we finally got back to the hostel to get our bags they tried to tell us that we had to pay for our last night there. There was no way they could check their records, even though it´s all computerised- just because someone didn´t write it down in the book. A couple of days before we had made friends with the owner of the place, but he wasn´t there to save us now, so this time we spent close to an hour sitting there saying " We paid" and them saying "No you didn´t" until finally they just let us go.

After all this kerfufull I didn´t feel I had time to go to the toilet, so we caught a cab straight to the bus station, but then got straight on to the bus, and although we were heading to a place called Baños (Spanish for toilet) they didn´t have one on the bus, and my pack wouldn´t fit on the overhead luggage rack so I had to have it on my lap, pushing against my bursting bladder, for a two and a bit hour journey. I thought I was just going to have to piss my pants there and then. But by some miracle I made it to the bus terminal in Ambato, where we changed buses, and caused a little confusion in trying to find the toilet and the right bus to get on in the same conversation.

It all seemed worth it though when we rounded a corner and saw the Tungurahua Volcano spewing smoke happily above the town. I actually got a good photo out of the bus window, so I´ll put it up soon. So now we are in the happy spa town of Baños staying in a $12 hotel, so much better that the one we were staying in in Quito for $15, and it has the best shower I have experienced in South America!

Quito

Back in Ecuador we checked out the Old City and the virgen of Quito statue at the top of a hill overlooking the capital. We also found a band playing tradicional folk music in the square, including a heartrendering rendition of ´My Way´and a guy singing, as far we could tell, about how all tourists were motherfuckers. Needless to say we didn´t hang around there for long.

We made our way to a restaurant famous for it´s roast chicken, and when they didn´t have it we struggled to find something else on the menu which didn´t risk being served up a plate of offal. While we were in there the daily rains came down and we were forced to walk to the trolley bus station getting drenched.

These buses are a hybrid of a tram, running on overhead wires, mostly in their own special lanes, running north to south along the length of the city.

Correction

Taganaga doesn´t have any water because they´re working on the pipes between Santa Marta, and on our last night there it was so windy that trees fell and took down the power lines. So we slept absoloutly sweltering in our hotbox of a room, that by that stage we had to share with two other couples.

Scuba Scuba

I don´t know how you land lubbers do it. I´m feeling the earth move all around me after being in the boat today.
We had a couple of dives and then did our test, but don´t finish our classes till tomorrow. They have a strange way of doing things here in Colombia.

We´re staying at the dive centre while we do our course- but there´s no water. Irony much?
Actually there´s no water in the whole town. It hasn´t rained here in Taganaga for about a year so they truck water in, but still hose down their concrete. Us Aussies could teach them a thing or two about water conservation me thinks.

I don´t get out much

On one of my infrequent walks alone in these foreign lands I got wolf whistled at by the policia as I walked past the station.

Cabo San Juan del Guia

That dammned Chavez, always ruining my fun!


On the morning we were leaving to go to Ciudad Perdida we got he call from above to say it was too dangerous to do the trek. The mountains in the area were crawling with Colombian military and it wasn´t worth getting caught in the middle of it. At least theytold us and didn´t let us walk into a battlezone blissfully unaware.

It really turned out to be a blessing though, ´cos instead of a six day hike to see some ruins we walked for about three hours to see a mini version ´Pueblito´and then spent three days chilling out on the beach in the national park. It was absoloute bliss- white sand Palm trees, coconuts everywhere, a restaurant to eat every meal at- that is until we tried to sleep our first night. We decided to go the expensive hammock option for 20 grand, right up high under a cabaña on stilts with the most amazing views of the rocks and oceans, that is until it got dark and cold and windy as hell. All the spray from the ocean came up and slightly dampened evrything and then the wind had the most amazing air conditioning effect. I did have my sleeping bag so I was a bit better off than Trent, just in all his clothes, and Justine who is four and a half months pregnant in the same situation. After that hellish experience we opted for tents, which still wasn´t ideal, but a hell of a lot better than up in the crows nest. It would be great to go back there prepared for it all and take a whole lot of food a drinks and really settle in for a while, except for the constant threat of ticks.


The way back we walked up the beach past all the other ´resorts´(a camp ground and restaurant) and were glad for our choice of Cabo and that we had a beautiful safe beach to swim in every day. The beach up the coast a bit, arriceffes has really rough seas and strong currents which people regularly get swept away in.

We´re offon our next Colombian adventure to Taganaga for more beach and possibly a diving course.

Lost City

Still in Colombia. We´ve headed further north and are staying the night in Santa Marta before a six day trek into the jungle to go see ´Ciudad Perdida´, the lost city of the tayrona indians. Sleeping in hammocks and crossing rivers up to your waist. Sounds like a lot of fun- Indiana Jones stylee.

It looks like the war is off. Everyone has come to some sort of agreement, but in Spanish so I don´t really have any idea of the resolution. At least we know we´ll be able to get back to Ecuador without too much hassle now. It´ll just be going through customs in the us after being in Colombia that could be interesting.

Cartegena is hotting up!

Buenos,

It´s nothing but sunshine here on the Carribbean coast. Every morning you´re already in a sweat when you wake up, and it´s not till the sea breeze kicks in that you start to get some relief in the shade at least.

After a long haul flight of 40 hours in trinsit from Melbourne I made it to Ecuador, and after two days spent mainly in our exclusive ´Love Den´, Trent and I headed out again on a (10 hours for two one hour flights) trip to Cartegena, Colombia. When we first arrived we were freaking out, and even the taxi driver told us it was a dangerous place to stay. Walking down the street with all our belongings on our back, the first hostel we went to was full, and then being ushered silently into the next one we found, one room with a celing fan, no seat on the toilet and a pipe out of the wall with cold water for a shower. Trent and I sat down and just had to concentrate on breathing for a while.

Now, three days later we can walk around town with smiling faces, driping with sweat, casually brushing off the street vendors trying to sell us all sorts of touristy crap, used to ignoring the sounds of taxi´s horns reminding us that we are in fact walking, even climbing the murella and talking photos of monuments.

You´d feel pretty safe if you didn´t realise you were in Colombia.

So now we just need to concentrate on avoiding getting ourselves into a war, and watch out for the miracle fishers.

Hasta Luego

p.s. According to Colombian pesos I´m a multi millionaire!

Hello Holiday

Today was my last day of work for nearly 3 months, and I did pretty much nothing. I made myself look busy and did a lot of 'supervising', but it wasn't until 4 o'clock that I realised I only had an hour to go! (I did end up staying till 6 and then working at the Vat till 9 though.)

My hot friends celebrated with me last weekend.

And I went out to a gig for the last time on Thursday to see The Process at the Corner.

That blur in the middle of the shot is my brother rocking out.