Nepal

Nepal was really nice place to visit, nice people, huge mountains (Peru's proabbly look better though) and lots of variety in the trekking geography. Really it's all trekking, with a few other things to do. The whole scene being very well set up to cater for tourists, of which there are millions, but it didn't diminish from the experience too much. Bit off more than I could chew to start, my first week ended here...


Things get nice for a bit.

Niligiri


Macchupucchare (fishtail) at sunset.

Annapurna from the Base Camp, very beautiful and perfectly clear skies the whole time I was there in late October was pretty lucky with this. The mountain weather in Nepal is fickle for a lot of the year.

Annapurna South from Tatopani

... Knees couldn't keep up with even the 60 year olds with these.



Speed control, saving the environment from... other more polluting busses.


Marpha, quiet and quaint in the Mustang wilderness.


Rice terraces near Ghandruk, nice houses, pretty wealthy area for Nepal. Back at Pokhara for Paragliding and the discovery of some nice credit card fraud, CCs and the 3rd world, try harder than me to not use them.

Pretty sweet at the right time of year, even a chump like me could stay up in this but...


..can't land properly! One dodgy landing too many. Cut the trip short 2 weeks, bit annoying, stuck with my parents back in Oz till it heals. My bones are not as strong as I thought!

Cordillera Blanca

The Cordillera Blanca is the 2nd highest range in the world, but newer than the Himalayas so sheerer and more spectacular. Whether it is or not it was amazing for me. A huge wilderness of clear skies, huge mountains, glaciers, deep blue lakes, all very accessible from Huaraz.







Last of the pics for this trip, I'm back to Australia soon.

Galapagos Islands

This place is amazing, everywhere you go tons of unafraid animals lying around doing their thing (sleeping usually), great snorkeling/diving, perfect climate, good scenery, food, etc...







If you´re going then expect to be chained to a guide the whole time and do a 5+ day cruise that includes Española and Floreana Islands. In the end its about the same price and you´ll have to arrange a guide for everything, see less etc. If you cant afford the cruise you cant afford the Galapagos. Id rate the beach on Isabella also if u got a couple days to do nothing in a sleepy friendly town.

Colombia to Ecuador

Chicamocha Canyon, Colombia.


Still cant land where I´m supposed to.

Gear transport.

Rio Magdalena Mompos, every tree trunk in Latin America is painted white, by the fairy tree painter.

Cartagena, towers of Cocaine.

What I thought of Colombia´s Carribean coast having in just 2 years doubling the price of everything. It's still super sweet though and I'd recommend it to anyone who is not a redhead.

Pig

The bus was pretty big too.

Medellin Metro.

A church somewhere, retarded.

Ecuador

Watched Ecuador not qualify for the world cup and even got out with my wallet and camera, score.

Crucita, big dunes, and same wind every day for flying, fairly nice actually but for the beach whic just keeps looking better and better the further away you get from it... They drive leaky old trucks down it.

Colombia 1

Sierra Nevada del Cocuy

5 day circuit around the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy was isolated by Andean standards. Not even farms round the back of the range giving way to some pretty stunning scenery. Made a really bad decision to join up with a local guide half way and the poor Aussie he was dragging through the trek. My advice is DONT USE GUIDES IN LATIN AMERICA!! Never before, never again. I´d make an exception for the jungle though... This guy, Jose, spent hours each day trying to change our agreed route so he could call his girlfriend (poor girl) early, would yawn loudly and constantly if he woke in the night, doubled the price of the trip for said poor Aussie and constantly lied and contradicted himself about the dangers of the passes to get us over them which were all a doddle minus the altitude and maybe some extreme weather. Kinda like being dragged through the mountains by a moaning 8 year old! OK, you can tell this guy annoyed me, Jose the wonderful guide aside this is one the prettiest places I've ever been, maybe the prettiest.

Just follow the signs. Not that you´d have topograghic maps at the rather large ranger station in one of the most isolated parks in South America but the track was very good most of the way.

I made a whole artice for it here. http://www.summitpost.org/sierra-nevada-del-cocuy/555612

Bucaramanga

Will spend a fair of my Colombian time going to and from this place. It´s a bit of a paragliding mecca.

The Rest of Central America

Whirlwind bus tour of rest of Central America.

Honduras, busy, Coup, next country.

Nicragua, Touts and scary posters of their leader everywhere, next country.

Costa Rica, rain, trek spoiling rain, next country. Should be noted that I have managed to plan this trip so far following the differeing rainy seasons all the way.

Panama, drug dealer hostel owners, highway robbery and humidity.

Stopped here for a bit. Panama dont let you into their country unless you have a ticket out unlike every other country in the world. As it´s impossible to book the boat to Colombia that most travellers take they insist that you buy a bus ticket back to Costa Rica that they know you are never going to use. No doubt they get paid off by the bus company for this so I went up this road..

..to another border crossing to try again! An old man stamped me thru in 2 minutes, no ticket, wonder who else uses this crossing...

Countryside local, Yellow!

Panama Canal

Panama City. Tried to organise a decent sailing boat trip to Colombia here but ended up partying every night for a week then flying. Condos for $60k.

El Mirador & Belize

El Mirador

5 days trekking past a couple of sets of ruins deep in the forests of El Peten in Guatemala. Definently a huge highlight over wandering round the tourist jungles of the other Mayan ruins and El Mirador is the grandest also. Although it is mostly still covered in jungle and is a lot of unrestored piles of rubble!

A pyramid



An unrestored pile of stones

The Freeze

Tarzan

Hard to get enough of these sunsets. After walking all day in the forests u get to climb a pyramid for the first views of the day.

Animals, good mosaic hey.


I´m gunna trash Los Amigos Hostel, dont do it through them they have a virtual monopoly on the trek, overcharge and dont do a good job compared to all other guided treks Ive done in Latin America. 2 other groups had the same opinion. Great hostel but no good for El Mirador. There are other operators around Flores, I wish I could name them!

Also its not really that hard a trek out of the wet. You can do it urself if u got a tent and some trekkin experience. Just need to get water off the rangers at the stops.

Belize

You better Belize it da scene ere is clean mon. I cant keep that up, but man what a cool place. Perfect temperature, crystal clear water, hammocks, the slowest pace of life I ever seen, and all the super friendly locals that keep it that way. Dancing in the sand to the crazy Punta rock, gunga sold even in restaurants, and English, they speak English!!, made this a nice break from Latin America.

Paradise, I coulda stayed for a while.