Colombia - Oh My! 6 August - 21 August

If you are to believe everything that you see in the movies or read in the news then Colombia is ravaged by the FARCS or Guerillas, everyone is a Cocaine trafficer and tourists are kidnapped weekly....by the dozen. Thank Googleness it isn´t at all like that. In fact we found Colombia to be beautiful and peaceful with friendly people whose only crime is that they speak rubbish Spanish!

We did decide to play on the side of caution to start with though and were only taking day buses and staying in non Guerilla type places (funnily enough big hairy monkeys with bananas and big hairy men with bazookas both like hanging out in the jungle). Our first ride into Colombia took us through spectacular green mountains, deep rivers, far off forests and the smells of coffee. We journeyed to Popoyan that day a beautiful Colonial town with whitewashed walls, clock towers, green parks and the sounds of Afro beats every..... Oh did we mention how excited we were to see black people again? It was like coming home for a mini break, unfortunately nobody responds to ¨Sawubona¨. We only stayed in Popoyan for a day but managed to walk the place flat and suck in some old Spanish style culture and architecture.

Next up was a rather long ride to the Capital Bogota which was suprisingly cold compared to the rest of the countries normal hot and humid nature. The people also looked different, better dressed, like a New York meets Melville chic´ and much paler than their country and coastal cuzzies. Our Hostel was great too (Platypus) with German (ponounced Herman) the owner being full of helpful hints and free beers, it was also good to cook again and not be subjected to heaps of rice and potatos! We didnt really do much in Bogota but it was a great base to sort out our next steps including the ball ache of getting the transient visa for the States which we would have to go to Costa Rica for an interview for....sigh....$131 per person!

Our hearts where panging for the beach though and they would get their wish soon as we headed for Taganga near Santa Marta. A small fishing village with more scuba operators than stray dogs and more hammocks than scuba operators. Our Hostel overlooked the beach and the caribean tunes floated up to us on the heat waves emanating off the beach. Our little white bodies took a little shock from the sun (gringo alert) but it was great to be too hot rather than too cold for the first time in a long time and nothing beats a cold beer and a fresh fish next to the beach!

Having done some walkies round the town we signed up to do our Scuba course with Calipso Scuba away from town in the nature reserve of Tayrona. This meant that we got some pretty exclusive treatment, our OWN dive instructor, classes on the beach, our OWN beach, our OWN chef and a choice of hammocks right on the beach to sleep in! Paradise regained!

We did 6 dives in total over 3 days here while working on our tans, snorkeling and dozing in the hammocks inbetween. Its a hard life but we knew what we signed up for when we left!

So after having enjoyed some we time (cause we dont see each other enough already) we headed to ¨South Americas most beautiful and romantic city¨ according to the Daily Planet ...Lonely Planet. Cartagena is really beautiful if you stick to the old town, its been restored to a high level of splendor that pulls in the cruise boats and American camera snappers in their droves. Still its really pretty! We also like Getsemani the area that we were staying in which also has beautiful old buildings, but without the refurbishment and with some rum stained hobos and dirty barefoot kids playing ball. Our real mission in Cartagena however was to find passage on a sailboat to Panama through the San Blas islands, we thought it would be hard to find someone to go with, but we ended up having choices to make and settled on Captain Frederico whose boat was called something strange in Portugese that meant ¨Dirty sexual attitude¨, how could we go wrong?!?

But we had a few days to kill before then so we went to a Mud Volcano outside of town where you bob around clumsily covered from tip to toe in mud before washing it off in the lagoon below. Tons of good ¨clean¨ fun. Hilarious moments of note, which have to be the fatties trying to get out the volcano and their pants falling down behind them....ok that almost happened to us too but its funnier with them.

We would then spend our days just hanging around Cartagena till the boat was ready to rock and sail with some lucky days in the park watching 50 or more kites in the sky on the National Kite day and some not so lucky days when it rained when we went to the beach.

Fun off the topic extra..Our favorite Spanish class is the Taxi ride where the first question the taxi driver normally asks after ¨where are you going?¨ is ¨where are you from?¨ , however in Colombia many of them found it hard to believe and funny too that we were from Africa and yet we were White...they all seem to know that we have the World Cup 2010 though.

Next time, San Blas Islands and Panama City.

Racing through Ecuador 28 July - 5 August

The mavrix usually answer to no man, no appointments, no schedule, no problem! Unfortunately the United States embassy seems to have a problem with this...sigh.This meant that rather than going and traveling at our usually leisurely pace where every day is a holiday we found ourselves having to speed things up quite significantly and sacrifice Ecuador to the Travel gods. We ended up spending a total of just 9 days running through this great little country...sniff...and what we saw was beautiful, plus the weather was spectacular and coming from 8 days trekking in freezing cold in Peru this was very welcome.

We found that Ecuador has an amazing intercity bus service, basically anywhere you want to go within roughly 17 hours you can just arrive at the terminal and you will be sure to be on a bus in less than 10 minutes, we got quite used to boarding buses on the move (try that with 15kgs plus of luggage!). We traveled through the citys of:

Cuenca - a beautiful town that has been made a Unesco World Heritage site with amazing coffee that the Vixen indulged in while the M sipped chilled Cervezas in the cafe. Oh and we would be remise not to mention the AMAZING Banana split ice cream that we gorged ourselves on....sore tummy but a happy one :-)

Aulusi - Home to the "World Renouned" Nariz del Diablo (we also hadnt heard of it) where you ride on the top of the roof of a classic train through the switchbacks in the mountains surrounding the town. Not actually scarey at all ...yawn... Mavrix need real excitement!

Banos - Home to more Hot Springs and a still erupting Volcano (thats more like it). Unfortunately the Volcano is unclimbable for obvious reasons so we just got the one sighting and then had to head out again.

Tena - This river rafting and kayaking Mecca was a super chilled jungle and river town where we took a rest from the traveling for a day. In this time we met a guy wearing a snake in his head, around his neck and down his pants. He proceeded to hand these over to the Mavrix much to our fright and delight. We had to stop him though after he attempted to put a snake down the M's pants which he thought was hilarious. So after handing back the snake hat (the snake was enjoying tonguing the M's eye lid) we followed Gabrielle the Snake man back to his "office" come "house" infested with more snakes and spiders and signed up for 2 days of jungle trekking and a day of rafting. Sweet! We ended up having a good time swinging from Tarzan vines, swimming in Waterfalls, eating Coco Fruit (the stuff they make chocolate from) and much more! Then finally we ended it off with a days rafting in the sun...pity our boat was a little pap but all was good. That night we jumped in another bus and headed for the Capital City.

Quito - The Old town here in Quito is also quite spectacular but the Mavs felt it lost some of its magic due to the size of Quito like a giant resting his big toe inches above a flower.

While it might sound like Ecuador doesn't have much to offer what must be remembered is that we ran through it without taking time to smell the roses under the giants foot. The scenery we saw in the many hours of bus rides was enough to convince us that Ecuador is an ecological beauty... oh well maybe next time.

Huaraz - Mavrix get high on hiking 11 July

Having missed out on the Inca Trail due to vast amounts of gas from the M and having done a little too much city slicking the Mavrix were craving some outdoor adventure. What better place than the Andes we thought and what better town than Huaraz we were told. Now Huaraz the city is quite an eye sore really, partly the fault of an earthquake in the 70s and partly the fault of a lack of architectural prowess from the Peruvians, it is however the staging point for assualts on the worlds second highest mountain range after the Himilayas holding some 22 peaks over 6000m, multicoloured glacier lakes, high altitude trails and some scenery worth kissing the ground and saying thank you-thank you-thank you that I´m here. Just what the travel doctor ordered!

We left Lima on an overnight bus through the mountains which caused a swaying motion that almost dislodged some dinners and made for hard fought sleep. After an early bleary eyed arrival in another new place the Mavs went about the usual scouting for things to do, how to do them and who to do them with. This involves a simple system really, meet a fellow traveler over coffee and squeeze them dry for info, walk from agency to agency telling them all that you can get it cheaper next door and then finally sign up with someone just because they look like a nice guy!

We discovered that there are a bunch of hikes that you can do in the Huaraz region from simple day hikes to 2 week epics or even real mountaineering expeditions up peaks as high as 6800m. We decided to do the scenic but hard Huahuash (pronounced White wash) trek based upon the recommendation of a German girl who had done 4 weeks just in Huaraz and convinced us this was the only course of action worth exploring (in retrospect we are very glad we listened!)

So having met a nice guy who had a nice price for the trek (Oh he also thew in a days free climbing...free is good!) we got picked up in a private car early one morning and drove off to the Cordiella Huayhuash with our guide Miguel and a great American lady called Lori who would become a great friend in the course of the trek. After burdening the donkey team with our bags, tents and food (we brought alot of warm clothes - we would need ALL of them) we walked off into the distance and deep into the mountains.


Day 1: 4.5 hour drive to Pocpa at 3475m then walked to Matacancha 4 hours flat, camped at 4150m with a view of Rondoy (5870m). This was a decent but quiet day with the highlight being how warm the kitchen tent got and how cold our tents got! We would learn that ice on the tent was normal.

Day 2: We walked some hard passes over Cacanan punta at 4700m (thats 600m higher than we started) down to Mitococha Valley seeing our first snow capped mountains in Rondoy chico 5500m and Jirishanca Chico at 5446m and Jirishanca at 6094m (Killimajaro is only 5995m). Then another 2 hours over Punta Carhuac at 4650m follwed by walking straight into a 30min snow storm before reaching one of the most beautiful camp sites ever in Camp Carhuacocha. We walked a total of 7h30 hours that day and Coca Tea (an Andean brew made from the same leaf you make Cocaine) became our best friend! Dont worry this is totaly legal and acts just like mild coffee.

Day 3: We were warned about this day for good reason. Really hard long hike of 8.5 hours seeing Carhuachocha which simply means Green lake in Quecha (4138m) then up to to Huayhuash camp at 4395m and where we camped under Yerupaja Chico 6121m and Yerupaja 6634m (second highest mountain in Peru) and Siula 6344m we also had to pass over Punta Carnicero at 4800m which was our biggest yet! We discovered that night that while we had been drinking our Coca tea another group of Israelis also on the trail had been taking Cocaine every night and drinking it up! WOW! This hike is hard enough already without doing that to your bodies which they would soon find out. The guides had to send horses out for 5 of them as it was getting dark an they werent even close to camp!
Day 4: Huayhuash camp to Viconga Camp 4453m for an easy 3.5 hours trekking over Punta Shuelo at 4785m seeing Viconga Lake and then ending our day with a relaxing soak in the hot springs which the Israelis decided was a great palce for a party so out came the beers and bongs...soon after we also came out and went back to camp, damn Israelis!


Day 5: This was to prove to be the hardest day so its probably just as well that 5 Israelis took another route and went home that day via bus, they just couldnt hack it anymore....we wonder why? We left Viconga camp and would end with Huanacpatay Camp (4350m) but first had to tackle Cuyoc Punta (5000m) where we saw an ice cream looking mountain called Cuyoc 5550m, we called it Dairy Maid then did a very steep down for 1.5 hours to 4450m then back up the super slippery slopes of San Antonio to the most magnificient view point ever at 5100m to see Carnicero 5960m, Siula 6344m(This is the mountain from ¨Touching the Void¨), Sarapo 6127m, Siula Chico, Yerupaja 6344m and then back down the slippery sand to the valley and then back again for the camera that we forgot on the field in the middle of nowhere. It was a fantastic day with awe inspiring views that I dont think many have been privilidged to the see the like of.


Day 6: Today we would hike to the dumbest camp site ever.... ok maybe we are the dumb ones, we walked right past it and had to hang around until our guide came and found us, fair enough though it was a beautiful camp site and the guide made us popcorn to make up for it. It was on this night that it became apparent that Victoria was going to win the long series of cards we had been playing with Lori every night in the tent and thereby get a free dinner paid for by the other 2 suckers.


Day 7: Huataq Camp to Jahuacocha 4200m with a start at 7h30 and arrived at 14h30 and did 2 passes, first pass Punta Tapush 4750m and then Cashapampa 4500m Valley up to second pass Guacha Punta 4847m. This second pass was special cause the mavs became donkey drivers for an hour pushing donkeys up hill and making ¨shish¨noises. We also saw 4 condors on the way down and a bunch of mountains already mentioned. That afternoon at our final campsite we drank beer and marvelled at the view, we tried to organise Trucha (Trout) without luck but the Israelis butchered 3 sheep for dinner, one of which died on the route that day after being exhuasted over the passes then hig tied to a horse before chocking on its own vomit. We thought it was super cruel too!

Day 8: Our last day of trekking was a downhill afair going from Jahuacocha camp to Llamac Village for our private car with a mere 5 hours of walking.

Overall we walked 120km and reached heights of 5100m physically but mentally much higher!


This has definitely been the highlight of our trip so far and is a place that we both feel we could go back to, who knows maybe we go tackle one of the 6000m+ bastards....

Paracas and Lima quickie ' 7 July

We had heard about the "Poor Mans Gallapagoskipped it. Funnily Colca Canyon is the place in South America you have the greatest chance of seeing Condors, this according to one of our guides, is because every day s" in Paracas and since we are poor men we decided to head there, we had originally wanted to go to the Colca Canyon to do some hiking but since M's tummy was still grumbling we they throw a donkey into the canyon for the Condors and they get so fat gorging themselves they cant take off or at least fly quite low....but dont worry our guide said, they only thow old ones....you gotta love South America!

They say you get what you pay for and the Poor Mans Galapagos stands up to its name, its like buying a Gold Folex it is always an hour slow and the little diamonds got unstuck in the first week but then what do you expect at the price.... Paracas's only redeming feature was that we got to see something very much like the NASCA lines, a giant Candelabra etching into the sand that has stood there for hundreds of years through rain and wind unchanged for the Gods to look down upon. The sea lions, pelicans and penguins were also cool but the smell of Guana (bird pooh) was not as nice.

Also due to a transport strike we were stuck in this ugly little town for another day with nothing to do but play cards and drink with other stuck Gringos (this part was actually quite fun).

The next day we bused out to Lima, Perus capital city and an unremarkable place we'd been told. We found it to be a city a lot like Joburg, clean and pretty in places with some scattering of dirt, grit and grime, it felt like home and we liked it.

We also liked the mall that looks out over a cliff onto the ocean and the all you can eat sushi (Vix ate all she could and more!). That night we sampled the local night life with Gussy and Ben a gal and guy we had reunited with from Villa Tunari Bolivia days. At 3am in the morning when the Red room styled club was closing a local "Limian" invited us back to his house, at first apprehensive we followed and ended up having a great time with him and his friends playing guitar and singing along with a bottle of whiskey till the sun came up! Why we paid for accomodation we arent sure but at least the bags got a good nights sleep!

Next the grand vistas of Huaraz the spectacular....

Cusco and Machu Picchu

One of the main reasons anyone comes to South America is to see the magical once lost city of Machu Picchu. The Mavrix dont like to disapoint so after a little detour (we changed our minds about going to Puno - Peru while on the bus there, luckily they just chucked us onto another bus at a later station) we arrived in Cusco, the once capital of the Inca empire and the staging point for any assualt on the great city in the clouds.

Now Cusco is worth a visit in itself, there are tons of beautiful churches, Inca ruins that make up the walls surrounding the central plaza as well as the surrounding areas, cobbled streets and crafts markets, actually there are more markets than you can swing a llama at! We liked Cusco! Its really touristy, but for good reason, you feel like you are walking through Italy one moment with its narrow cobbled streets and over hanging balconies and then you realise that the stones the walls are made of, are bigger than a VW Beetle and the beanie the old lady is trying to sell you is probably made out of wool yanked out of the llama standing next to her. Surreal and beautiful with all the character of a real South American city! To pass the time while waiting around for our Inca trail we got to eat Guinea Pig (a delicacy in Peru and damn delicious), starred in a Peruvian Music video as the token Gringos and went horse riding through some pretty cool ruins! Sweet!

We had booked for the Inca trail 4 months before (the minimum when booking for high season) and were keen as chuck to get on the road the Incas built to the big MP! One problem though, the morning of the Inca trail, meeting time 6am at the plaza, the M started puking his dinner into the hostels big white telephone! Not good! This is something that happens to alot of Gringos in Peru and Bolivia and is caused by the water, the chicken, uncooked veggies etc etc . After Vix did a super girl styled run to the plaza to deliver the bad news we headed to the Gringo hospital in town to size up the problem. To say that the hospital had some experience with Gringos getting tummy troubles is like saying Bob Mugabe has some experience rigging elections. After a battery of tests the M and subsequently the V were diagnosed with having Salmonella and a stomach parasite. This meant a night on the drip for M and a course of antibiotics for the V. It also meant we missed the boat that sailed to MP, now what? Well the tour operator was willing to give us a whopping 0% of the price back, but was willing to let us pay an additional $45 each to catch the train to see Machu Picchu, what choice did we have but to ride the train, we´re lucky we didnt have to push the damn thing as it kept having to reverse and get momentum for the uphills, $45 train rides just arent what they used to be, Que serra, serra.

The day before MP we decided to explore a bit and go for a little hike, well what WE thought would be a little hike. We followed the train tracks and then began our assualt on a little mountain just outside of town which had been highly recommended by our guide. This was to prove to be a climb more than a hike with long wooden ladders, steep steps and much huffing and puffing. The real suprise for this hike however happened at the summit after about 1 and half hours. We made the peak and the world opened up to us, vast expanses of jungle and mountains were now visible including a long winding road with a giant city ontop.... we had stumbled onto the once lost city of Machu Picchu from a distance and got to see a totally different view to the one most of the rest of the world is privy to! Brilliant! Pity the walk down the mountain was like taking a hammer and hitting our knees with every step, but all worth it and beside there were hot springs in town which we used to soothe our aching limbs later that evening!

The next morning we woke up early for the true assualt on MP. The city is just as spectacular as it is made out to be and more! Its a giant organism that was placed ontop of a mountain so that its inhabitants may feel closer to the Gods.... and you do too just by being there! The houses in the city are inumerable, the towers grand. We stood were once the king would have woken up and looked about at the mountains that surrounded him. Throughout MP there is water delivered by an aquaduct system at the top of the world. Massive terraced gardens for agriculture running all the way down the mountain. There is a room with strange acoustics that allows those on the outside to hear you in perfect clarity (a sort of speaker box for festivals and public address) and also amazingly the stones are all warm to the touch! Really this is a spiritual place where you feel comfortable spending the whole day walking, exploring or just snoozing on the lawn.

We left Machu Picchu exhausted and happy! You can see why it has captured so many peoples imaginations and why it is now a New Wonder of the World.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca sits at 3800m above sea level and is one of the natural wonders of the world for good reason! This big bad boy was the next stop on the Mavrixs epic tour del Sud America and was a worthy stop if for no other reason than we got to eat seafood again for the first time since entering Bolivia. Actually it was some of the first decent food we got to eat since entering Bolivia, Bolivia thinks that every meal should have rice AND potatos...and maybe some starch for flavour too. Here in Copacabana (the little town on the shores of the Lake) we got to eat Trout, big ass Trouts like youve never seen or tasted, with roasted veggies and spicy sauces...yum!

All the normal tourists spend one night in Copacabana then take the morning boat to Isla del Sol (the mythical birthplace of the sun for the Incas) and then the afternoon boat back, but since when have the Mavrix wanted to do what everyone else does. We decided to use wind power instead and hire a little sailboat to the island, this would mean a 6am start with a 9am finish we were told, ¨great!¨ we said ¨we can watch the sun rise as the wind and spray hit our faces¨. Like this we would even get to the island an hour before the other sheep like tourists and have that much longer to explore.

6am the Mavrix got to the pier and were greated by our friendly sailor man Ernesto. We jumped in the little boat pushed off the pier and watched from under the sleeping bag as Ernesto started rowing to where presumably the wind would catch us and the smooth sailing would start. After some instruction in the art of sailing the M whose name Marino means ¨sailor¨in Spanish started steering the boat (heaven help us) and doing things like trimming the sail and changing the angle of said sail for maximum wind power, however no matter the direction we pointed it the wind would not cooperate and pretty soon Vix was called out of her slumber to steer the boat while M spat on his hands and set to the task of rowing with Ernesto...any moment now the wind will change he said so off we rowed using muscles the M didnt know existed or didnt care to discover....

So 4 hours later Ms blistered hands and stiff back with the help of some excellent steering from the V got us to Isla del Sol. In the meantime the boats we were supposed to beat by a full hour were all overtaking us with hordes of tourists leaning over the edge to take photos of the Mavrix hard at work (We hate Paparazzi!). As much as it was hard work though we really did enjoy it, its something we probably wont do again but still rowing our way through the worlds highest navigable lake (dont forget the altitude) and seeing the sun rise over it is something we wont forget!

After taking a well deserved breather the Mavrix climbed the 200 hundred or more steps at altitude to the top of the mountain ridge and started our walk. As beautiful as the scenery was we wanted to get back to Copa that day so when we found out from some passers by that the last boat was at 13h30 and it was already 12h30 and the boat left from the other side of the island our easy paced walk turned into some serious running. The Mavrix did a 4 hour route in about an hour of running and bundu bashing through forest, hillside and farm house with only a vague idea of where the port that was out destination really was! Luckly we made it with about 3 minutes to spare and actually ended up having a brilliant day of excerise and fun to remember, I dont think anyones ever done the Isla del Sol quite like that....

Welcome to the Jungle baby - Amazon

After mastering the Worlds Most Dangerous Road the Mavrix decided to go tackle the jungle proper so off we flew to Rurrenabaque a little Amazon river town with a grass landing strip and a laid back atmostphere we loved. This little town is filled with all the old cliches and some we had never heard of, tanned locals with pony tails and alligator necklaces, Mormon families trying to get away from it all and strange old men that offer to sell you freshly baked apple crumble and blueberry muffins. But we could not linger too long here we needed get going so the next morning we crammed ourselves into a Land Cruiser that had seen better days and traveled 3 hours down a head bumping road to the start of our tour. For the next 4 days our motorised transport would be a long banana boat and the Amazon would be the road.

The river, the guide and a troup of pink dolphins would all greet us together at the starting point, the river doing what slow rivers do, the guide speaking in hand motions and the dolphins breaching to take a peak at the gringos.

The next few hours on our little boat we spotted Alligators, Kayamans (BIG alligators), turtles, monkeys, dolphins and birds as big as teradachtyls! And we didnt spot them like you do in the Kruger from a distance with binoculars, the driver had the habit of zipping straight up to the Alligators and parking you within arm or jaws reach! Good fun was had by all pointing and making oooww aaahhh noises.

Sundowners were held on land at a river bar overlooking the Pampas (swamps and fields) while the M played football with a mixture of locals and gringos and Vix tilted her pinkie with a drink. Sweet.

Day 2 was Anaconda hunt time! Pull on your wellington boots and get ready to stomp through the swamp. Yes the swamp stinks, yes the object of our hunt was to literally stand on an Anaconda (thats how you find one), yes sometimes your foot gets stuck and only supreme effort and outside assistance finally frees you with some large suction noises like an Electrolux finishing a milkshake. Boy was it fun! After 3 hours of sweaty swamp slushing the tyipical looking Norwegian fellow in our group finally spotted an Anaconda and boy was it big... 2m of snake is a lot of snake! Yes I know they have been said to get up to 18 meters but when you are faced with something that is taller than you are and swallows its food whole, trust us its big enough!

That night we headed out onto the river in total darkness looking for alligators.....doesnt sound like a good idea but hearing all the jungle noises at night and seeing the alligators eyes shine red was pretty cool if a little spooky!

No trip to the Amazon river is complete without swimming with pink dolphins. These cousins of the normal dolphins realised thousands of years ago that pink is the new black and adapted to make it so. Ok the real story is that as the oceans fled from South America thousands of years ago the dolphins got stuck and therefore adapted to their new fresh water rather than salt water surroundings...still pretty cool. Swimming with them isnt a very personal experience though, they are by their very nature protectors so when you jump in the water rather than running to you to play, they circle to keep away all the nasties that call the river their home. We could see Alligators but they wouldnt come close because the dolphins were there. At one point thinking that there were maybe only 3 or 4 dolphins in the water we threw a ball in for them to play, this action scared the hell out of them and us as the water started boiling with what looked like 30 dolphins rushing around to investigate or get away from the noise whatever it was.

The day finished with a spot of fishing....for Piranas. These little guys dont attack the meat nearly as enthusiastically as we had hoped but we did manage to hook a few which made a good lunch for the group!

So we got to hunt and hold an anaconda, swim with dolphins, eat the pirana we caught and see a ton of wildlife. All good fun, so much fun that after leaving the Amazon the Mavrix are looking for ways to get back as soon as possible! Its an amazing place that 4 days just isnt enough to see, we will be back!