Me with Mike and Heidy, my friends niece at the Panama Canal
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Whooooaaaaa
Thats right, it´s me on a really fast, powerful wild horse, but I showed it who the boss is ;)
Portobello, Panama
Just rocked up in Portobello, Panama, http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=es&tab=wl where our boat leaves from tomorrow. It was a pretty good journey from Panama City, 2 buses, the second of which played really cool Latin music. Portobello is a very, very quiet town, with literally nothing happening, hence straight into the internet cafe to try and update the mammoth backlog of photos i have from my travels. Of course I left my notebook containing Cuban diary at the hostel, which is run by a Canadian guy called Marco. The hostel has a tiny little pet monkey, which looks like it would sooner bite your finger off than perform cute tricks. I kept clear of it although Mike stroked it, yuk.
We did some tourist suff in Panama, although really it was a stop off to get to Cartagena, Colombia. We saw the canal, built in 1913 and only recently handed over to the Panamanian governement by the Americans. Luckily there was a boat going through the locks at the time, otherwise this would be one of the worlds most boring tourist attractions, unless you were really into engineering. We were given a tour of Panama City by one of my friends nieces, she kindly picked us up in her 4x4 and drove us round town, plus we went for a great fish lunch with patacones, double fried plaintain to you and me, followed by the worlds largest ice cream sundae. Have spent most of the past few days chilling in the hostel, meeting alot of people, mainly Europeans and `speaking a fair amount of Spanish, which is improving alot I am pleased to report.
Anyway, I am kind of jibbering here. Basically tomorrow we set off for what should be an AWESOME trip, 1 day sailing to the San Blas islands http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=es&tab=wl which is a collection of 400`pretty much unspoilt islands where we will spend 2 nights, then a 48 hour journey in the open sea to Cartagena on the Colombian Carribean coast, although I hear the crossing to Cartagena once we leave the San Blas islands is pretty rough and people get sea sick (we have bought anti nausea pills and wristbands to combat this, plus a bottle of rum to stave off the boredom). The boat is a 55 footer, we met the captains, they seemed decent and there will be 7 other passengers. Plus, they are happy to allow passengers to try out crewing the boat, should be interesting.......
We did some tourist suff in Panama, although really it was a stop off to get to Cartagena, Colombia. We saw the canal, built in 1913 and only recently handed over to the Panamanian governement by the Americans. Luckily there was a boat going through the locks at the time, otherwise this would be one of the worlds most boring tourist attractions, unless you were really into engineering. We were given a tour of Panama City by one of my friends nieces, she kindly picked us up in her 4x4 and drove us round town, plus we went for a great fish lunch with patacones, double fried plaintain to you and me, followed by the worlds largest ice cream sundae. Have spent most of the past few days chilling in the hostel, meeting alot of people, mainly Europeans and `speaking a fair amount of Spanish, which is improving alot I am pleased to report.
Anyway, I am kind of jibbering here. Basically tomorrow we set off for what should be an AWESOME trip, 1 day sailing to the San Blas islands http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=es&tab=wl which is a collection of 400`pretty much unspoilt islands where we will spend 2 nights, then a 48 hour journey in the open sea to Cartagena on the Colombian Carribean coast, although I hear the crossing to Cartagena once we leave the San Blas islands is pretty rough and people get sea sick (we have bought anti nausea pills and wristbands to combat this, plus a bottle of rum to stave off the boredom). The boat is a 55 footer, we met the captains, they seemed decent and there will be 7 other passengers. Plus, they are happy to allow passengers to try out crewing the boat, should be interesting.......
Monday, December 8, 2008
More Mexico
One person i really need to mention in mexico City is lilianne, a couchsurfer who made it her personal mission to make sure i enjoyed myself there. she took me to a nice restaurant, showed me round some of the cooler districts (my favourite was cayoucan), took me to the wrestling with her brother, then onto a great taceria and club and genereally was a great guide. I hope that when she comes to london i can be half as helpful!
So after 5 days i was ready to fly to cuba. i had been holding out on booking my tickets as there was a slight concern over the fçeffects of hurrican Paloma, the 3rd hurricane of the season to hit the island. Luckily it wasn´t as devestating as the previous two and so off i headed, very much into the unknown. the following is a type up of the notes i made whilst there, as such they may appear to be pretty random, i may also add in any other bits of info i forgot to write down that pop into my head as i type, kind of delayed gonzo reporting if you like-
Cuba
A dew obversations on cuba. one, there is not many fat people here. I´ve spent the past week in havana, where the food is awful in general, so really its no wonder the locals stay slim. Although everyone here gets enough to eat under the socialist system, the choice is pretty narrow, fried pork or chicken, rice (fried also), pizza (warm bread with tomato liquid and something resembling cheese on top of it) and ice cream makes up the typical diet. however, having now left the capital (quite refreshing to do so) and arrived in Viñales, a beautiful village where my hosts Milo and Dalia have welcomed me into their home with great affection and the best meal i have had in Cuba so far (average number of plates i am given with each meal is 6, i think Dalia is trying to fatten me up). milo and dalia run a casa Particular, by far the best way of staying in cuba, cheaper than hotels and you get to meet the locals, staying in private homes that have a license to allow foreigners to stay for a fee. Most will also provide meals for an additional fee. i certainly hit gold with milo and Dalia, two of the nicest people i have met, they called me their son and we got on famously.
Well, running out f time again so will have to finish this off another time, damn facebook keeps distracting me......
So after 5 days i was ready to fly to cuba. i had been holding out on booking my tickets as there was a slight concern over the fçeffects of hurrican Paloma, the 3rd hurricane of the season to hit the island. Luckily it wasn´t as devestating as the previous two and so off i headed, very much into the unknown. the following is a type up of the notes i made whilst there, as such they may appear to be pretty random, i may also add in any other bits of info i forgot to write down that pop into my head as i type, kind of delayed gonzo reporting if you like-
Cuba
A dew obversations on cuba. one, there is not many fat people here. I´ve spent the past week in havana, where the food is awful in general, so really its no wonder the locals stay slim. Although everyone here gets enough to eat under the socialist system, the choice is pretty narrow, fried pork or chicken, rice (fried also), pizza (warm bread with tomato liquid and something resembling cheese on top of it) and ice cream makes up the typical diet. however, having now left the capital (quite refreshing to do so) and arrived in Viñales, a beautiful village where my hosts Milo and Dalia have welcomed me into their home with great affection and the best meal i have had in Cuba so far (average number of plates i am given with each meal is 6, i think Dalia is trying to fatten me up). milo and dalia run a casa Particular, by far the best way of staying in cuba, cheaper than hotels and you get to meet the locals, staying in private homes that have a license to allow foreigners to stay for a fee. Most will also provide meals for an additional fee. i certainly hit gold with milo and Dalia, two of the nicest people i have met, they called me their son and we got on famously.
Well, running out f time again so will have to finish this off another time, damn facebook keeps distracting me......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
