Salt Flats and bizarre noctural occurences!

So, following very little sleep we dragged ourselves and our backpacks to the pick up point for our Salt Flats tour for 8am the following morning... it hurt! We met our fellow 'saltflatters' and companions for the next 3 days.. there was 6 of us; myself and Katy, Jo and Mike (an English couple from Kent) and Jean-Baptiste and Chloe, a French couple.. who luckily for us spoke fluent Spanish.. handy! Pic here.. L-R front Katy, Jo, Mike. Back; Jean-Baptiste & Chloe.

First task of the day was to navigate our way across the border (a hut in the middle of nowhere that is! Pic here is Katy and I at said border!) to Bolivia... that successfully completed we hopped back on the bus for our trip across no mans land before stopping for breakfast at the entrance to the Bolivian National Park... a national park like no other you've imagined before... all very sparse dry desert lands, rocks, volcanos and crazy lakes of varying colours... and obviously the Slat Flats but we'll come to those later!

Once across the border we swopped from the mini bus to a jeep that would be our transport for the next 3 days, it was nice and cosy and our guide (and i use that word loosely) Leon, was at least a decent driver - there's very little else i can sing his praises about I'm afraid.. as much as I'm sure he's a very nice man, he was entirely disinterested in us (other than to stare intently at whoever was sat in the front with him) and offering us any information on the sights we were seeing around us!! That day we stopped at numerous laguna's... the first being Laguna Blanca, (for those who haven't twigged yet, that'll be the White Lake) standing at 4350m above sea level, then Laguna Verde (green lake) before a stop at the Hot springs, pictured here, it was freezing getting in and out but while in there was like a lovely hot bath, with a backdrop of mountains and flamingos!! Then came the Geysers, with the volcanic activity found in this vast park these were amazing. Next stop was lunch, at what was to be our home for the night, what we didn't realise at the time was how utterly cold beyond belief we were going to be there. We had a little break after lunch, and for me a much needed nap thanks to the lack of sleep the previous night as well as me not dealing too well with the altitude... little did i know it was only going to get worse!!

Anyway, after our little siesta, we headed off to Laguna Colorada... the Red Lake... this was probably the most impressive of the lakes and we spent a good while there running around taking pics of the scenery, flamingos and lamas that were mooching around all over the place before heading back to the 'hostel' ... and i use that word in the loosest possible way... for dinner. The food so far was ok, although that would all change soon too and dinner passed in a blur of chatter and random encounters with some friends of Mike and Jo's turning up there too. It also randomly transpired that night that Mike knows people I know from home.. small world eh!

Anyway, that was our first day, a good day and some incredible sights, the likes of which I've never seen before and I was most impressed! Little did I know I was about to have one of the most uncomfortable, disorientating nights of my life... the hostel is situated 4800m above sea level, I thought i'd pretty much adjusted to the altitude thing by now but clearly not. We'd been warned that the hostel was basic and had no running water but we were entirely prepared for exactly how basic it was.... we all had beds, not the most comfy but it could've been worse, what we weren't prepared for however was the cold.... I don't think I've ever been as cold in my life (and my lot back home know how i hate to be cold!) dusty, dirty concrete floors, a very minging bathroom and a completley pointless fire... so we went to bed wearing as much as we possibly could... including thermals... never have i been more grateful to Luke for giving me his thermal top as at the last minute before I left New Zealand.. thanks Pucas! and Jules, your sleeping bag is being put to good use here too!! The hatred place is shown in the pic below... its not as innocent as it looks, trust me!!

I did manage to fall asleep, at least I'm assuming I did because the next thing I'm aware of is that I woke up at what i think was about 3am, needing to pee... something we were all praying we wouldn't need to do til the next morning... I however, couldn't ignore it so I reluctantly managed to get myself out of bed and get my trainers on, find my torch and navigate my way to the dorm door.... that's all i remember... the next thing I'm aware of is that I'm lying on the cold concrete floor in the doorway of our dorm with 2 people and a torch light comnig towards me.. i have no idea how long i was there for, although Katy tells me it wasn't too long, but I then managed to get myself up and make my way to the bathroom.. the 2 people said something to me although i have no idea what it was.... and again, the next however long is also a blur... once more I found myself lying on the floor, this time in the bathroom, once I'd realised where i was and what i was trying to do I managed to get myself to a cubicle and finally pee (too much information I'm sure but hey, too late now!) After that, i wasn't capable of getting myself back to bed and I was ridiculously hot too, so having stripped to just one layer, i lowered myself on to the floor (a realisation I didn't welcome the next morning when seeing the bathroom floor in the daylight!) and waited it out until i felt human enough to make it back to bed. It didn't even occur to me until half way through the following day that I'd fainted!! I've never fainted before in my life (at least not to my knowledge... right Ma?) so why on earth would i have done so now?! It was obvioulsy the altitude, my body clearly didn't like it much but at the time it was actually really scary, I was completely disorientated, felt terrible in a completely unknown way and had no idea what was happening to me... and no you skeptical lot, there was no alcohol involved!! The next day, apart from a few random bruises that I'm assuming are from the falls, I felt fine!!! All very bizarre!!! I wasn't sorry to leave that place as you can imagine.

Anyway, there's my little tale for you all.... the next day we were up and away by 7am, with various sights to stun us once again along the way, including Volcano's simmering away, stone trees, more laguna's, a stop at San Juan village (where you can see me hugging a cactus in the pic below!!) and a very very random lunch at PMA Chiguana Army Barracks, which our guide assured us was a 'normal' stop for all tour groups.... the fact that they were totally unprepared for any such event and Leon, as we discovered the following day, had to give away some of our food as a 'fee' for eating there, didn't exactly convince us of the normality of the whole event... its safe to say we also encountered THE worst toilet in the world here... and I've seen a fair few dodgy ones too!!!

Luckily that night we were staying in a nicer hotel, although no thanks to our guide who wanted to put us up in another similar venue to the previous night... thankfully the lady that ran the place had decided to take herself off somewhere so wasn't around to check us in ... resulting in us having to go to the Salt Hotel.... a lovely hotel, with all the walls and everything made of salt.... although for us, the best feature was the hot showers.... it was utter bliss i can tell you. We were there fairly early and just chilled out and chatted until dinner, had a little 'fight' with Leon about getting up for sunrise over the salt flats the following morning... basically he didn't want to but its something that's promised as part of the tour and we were naturally all keen to do so. Thankgod for Chloe and Jean-Baptiste who could effectively argue our case with him! With case settled and wake up call set for 4am we all headed to bed in our comfy warm hotel, where you'll be relieved to know there was no repeat performance from the night before!!

4am came all too quickly and we were packed up and on our way relatively on time to Isla Incahuas, where we were to watch the sunrise. We actually only just made it, Leon ended up forgetting the meat that everyone ended up wishing he'd left behind and we had to turn back, adding some vital minutes onto our journey... we hotfooted it up to the top of the island... not an easy task at 3660m above sea level... we were shattered by the time we got there! We did make it though and it was an amazing sight, well worth the rush. This pic here is of the sunrise, it doesn't really do it justice but you get the idea. Once the sun was up, we headed back down for brekkie and then had some free time to wander out over the flats and get some pics.... the place is unbelievable and I'm so glad I got to see it... its one of the things that was recommended to me to do in Bolivia and I'm so glad i listened. Its such a strange feeling to be walking out over a massive expanse of salt that looks like it should be the ocean.

After we left there, we drove across the salt flats, stopping for pics and encountering a crazy couple cycling their way across the flats and the park.... nutters!!... saw the salt being mined, manually, as it still is and collected into little mountains as you can see in the pic, stopped at another salt hotel for a peek and then headed to Corchani for lunch.... a tiny village with a random salt museum and lama's wandering around, as they do. Lunch was in a word.. hideous.. with half the veggies lunch having been given to the soldiers at the barracks the previous day and the meat for te others looking anything but apetizing...we were all looking forward to reaching Uyuni, our final stop, for some more food!

Anyway, after 'lunch' we had one final stop before the tour was over... the train cemetery... which is what the title suggests... basically a big area where trains go to rust and end their days. We climbed around on them, had a little look, took some pics then got on our merry way to Uyuni... which we reached at about 2pm. Katy and I were intending to stay overnight in Uyuni but when we arrived, as ok as it was, there wasn't much to it so we decided to just get on our way to La Paz so we'd have a few days to chill out and enjoy the place before heading to Peru for the Inca trail. We booked our overnight bus, then killed the rest of the afternoon eating, catching up on email, shopping and eating some more. We bumped into Mark, a colleague of Katy's from home in the fab pizza restaurant we were spending our last few hours in Uyuni in, who as it turned out was also heading to La Paz that night. Our bus left about 8pm and we managed to cause about as much fuss as 2 girls could when we finally got on it... we managed to siti n the wrong seats twice, the second time, we'd packed all our stuff into Katy's packsafe and tightly attached it to our chair before being asked to move by the seats rightful occupant..... i think by the time we were settled, we'd pretty much made ourselves unpopular with just about everyone on that bus!! oops!

The journey took about 11 hours, and Bolivia being the poor country that it is, means the buses aren't as nice as the ones found in the rest of South America and the roads not exactly well made. Katy was feeling poorly so was out for the count the entire time, which was lucky methinks... me on the other hand, didn't sleep so well.... i managed to forget to get my trusty eye mask out (and we weren't undoing the pack safe for a 3rd time i can assure you!) and it was all a bit uncomfy.... I also found myself with a french girl, venturing out into the middle of nowhere in the pitch black to relieve our bladders while we desperately prayed that the bus wouldn't leave us there!! It didn't thankfully and several hours of no sleep later we arrived at our next stop, bolivia's capital La Paz!!

Now, I know it sounds like i've complained a lot about our Salt Flats tour but don't get me wrong, its the tour company that left a lot to be desired, not the tour itself... .the place is unbelievable with sights you can't imgaine and the Salt Flats themselves just blow you away... I completely recommend to anyone that that should go and experience it... just with a different tour company!! xx

Hangovers at High Altitude!!

So, I just wrote this entry, nearly completely, then lost it all!! Not amused!! Anyway... I'll try again... One thing Katy and I hadn't considered during our partying the ngiht before was the altitude and the effect it may have on us!! oops! San Pedro de Atacama is a lovely little town, with a bit of a 'wild west' feel to it that sits at 2440m above sea level. The pic here is one of only a few we have of San Pedro and doesn't do it justice at all, it's far prettier than it appears here and was somewhere that Katy and I would've both been happy staying in for longer given the chance. It was small and peaceful and just what we needed after our marathon journey.

Having never been at a high altitude before though it wasn't suprising my body was crying out in pain for putting it through not only excessive amounts of travelling but also plying it with Gin and sending it to ridiculous heights!!! When sipping on our Pisco Sours under the Chilean skies at our random party the night before we hadn't considered the althitude thing, trust me though.. we couldn't help but remember it the morning after.... Hangovers at high altitude are anything but fun!!!

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and into the peacful suntrap of the hotel courtyard for breakfast and I don't mind admitting that I went straight back to bed afterwards. I know I should've been exploring the place but I had a warm bed waiting for me and felt shocking so that was the place for me. Not only was I dealing with a hangover but I wsa trying to adjust to the altitude... nose bleeds are just one of the lovely symptons I had to contend with... hmm, nice!!

I did manage to see most of the afternoon though and after a unbelievably lovely hot shower and a mooch around town we headed to La Cave; the restaurant the our new friends Ian and Ceaser worked in, for dinner.. where despite our resolve to not let a drop of alcohol pass our lips, free Pisco Sours were presented to us and well, it would've been rude not to really!! We did however manage to stick to our guns and fulfill our plans of getting to bed early and sober... annoyingly though I found myself unable to sleep.. what Ma would call Sods Law I believe!!

We did wake to find ourselves feeling slightly more humn the following day luckily and after a leisurely morning and lush fish lunch at a cheap local restaurant we took leave of our senses and hired mountain bikes in order to cycle to the Valley de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) approximately 12km form San Pedro, to see the sun set over the sand dunes. The Valley is one of Chile's (and South America's) many amazing parks with stunning mountainous and volcanic landscape. As we set off about 3:30pm, the sun was blazing and it was hot and dusty....

The pic on the left here is me having a little rest at the entrance to the park and the other (below) is me contending with the hills.... Katy's fitter than me and managed to stay on her bike for most of the hills, unlike me although it was steep (the sign says so) so I think I can be forgiven!! It really is an amazing place though, you can easily see why its named so, resembling the moon's crater immensly. And just to prove to those skeptics out there.... the pic on the right here is to prove I did actually ride the bike, not just wak next to it the whole time!!!

The sunset is best viewed at the top of the masive sand dunes, so along with all the people that had been sensible enough to book themselves on a driven tour of the valley, at 5:45pm we climbed the masive dunes and settled ourselves down to watch the sun disappear behind the Northern Chilean mountains... not a bad sight, I tell assure you!

Now, we do have a little confession to make... while sat there watching the sun go down, we contemplated our return journey to San Pedro... and weren't exactly relishing the thought of it... as we'd been on planes and buses for so much of our time recently, we were both feeling quite lethargic nd had wanted some exercise.... now, though we were just shattered and so decided to hatch plan... there seemed to be several half empty tour buses all heading back to San Pedro so we figured a ew Chilean Peso's ought to convince one of the drivers to take pity on us and our bikes!! As it turned out though, we did one better.... on our descent from the sand duens we spotted at Australian couple in a UTE (obviously!) with 2 empty seats and a big fat empty trailer on the back... we cheekily asked them to take us and our bikes back to San Pedro (luckily where they were heading anyway) and offered them some money for their trouble... they wouldn't take the money but thankfully would take us... so, 2 weary girls and their bikes hitched a lift back to town and were more than grateful to be back in double quick time and showered and off for dinner at a respectable hour. This time at La Casona... which served the most delicious Salmon. The rest of the evening was spent just chilling out and chatting with Ian (shown in pic here), who'd joined us (Ceaser was home nursing sunburn!!!!!! p'ah, call himself a man!! ) we were leaving early the next morning on our Salt Flats tour so it probably wasn't wise to not go to bed til about half one but it was a fun evening and had been a really good day. We were both sad to be leaving San Pedro, it's such an easy place to be and we'd had fun... but time was ticking so we had to go... xx

The longest journey EVER!!!

So..... little did i know that as I reluctantly got out of bed that morning at the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel it would be the last time my poor body had the luxury of a bed to sleep in for the best part of 3 days!!! The flight from Nadi to Santiago was via Auckland and in total took 15.5 hours.. the Nadi to Auckland was pretty painless and a very sweet irish couple had kindly paid for the taxi to the airport I'd shared with them (bargain!) so all in all the journey wasn't starting too badly. Transferring to the SAntiago flight was a tad slow but still ok, then i spent the next few hours searching for antihistamine cream for the ridiculous amounts of bites I now had on my legs (perhaps my own fault for spending too much time relaxing on a hammock in the open the night before but hey, sympathy anyway please!!) and using the last of my NZ mobile credit by waking my mum, sis and Becky & Aideen up (technically not their night but as they were on night shift me calling them was just as annoying I suspect!) Anyway, the next leg was pretty dull, a 13 hour flight that saw me watching far too many movies, not sleeping very well, not eating all that much (thanks to me yet again forgetting to tell anyone I needed the veggie option!) and most excitingly of all... saw me crossing the date line.... after 13 hours on board, I arrived in Santiago nearly 4 hours before I'd taken off!! Bizarre!!

So.. Sept 22nd 2006 Take 2; somehow Katy and I timed things perfectly and found oursleves walking towards each other off our respective flights (hers from Buenos Aires) have to say was very relieved this was the case given the amount you get harrassed the minute you walk through from arrivals! Before I go on... just for those who don't know, Katy and I are friends from home (via our lovely mutual friends Zoe and Nicky - Hi Girlies!) and had arranged while I was in Sydney to spend the first 3 weeks of my time in South America travelling together. She has 6 weeks leave before heading back to London to start working far too hard as a Lawyer so this was her time to party... who was I to complain!!

Once we'd worked our way through the mob at the airport and found ourselves a taxi to a hostel in the city; La Casa Roja, we checked in, both of us exhausted but decided it was sensible to keep oursleves awake until a respectable hour for going to bed..in an attempt to beat the jet lag! We busied ourselves for the afternoon, having lunch, getting some money changed and booking our bus up to San Pedro de Atacama, in Northern Chile... where we planned to do the tour of the Salt Flats and cross over to Bolivia from. This was where our thoughts of a nice warm bed were firmly put to rest (pardon the pun!). Thanks to the only availability on buses being 3 days later or that very evening, cos of time limitations we had no choice but to opt for the bus leaving that night at 9pm... I was meant to be sound asleep by then!!! Ah well!!

And that's how it came to be that we found ourselves boarding a bus for a 24 hour journey to the nroth of Chile. It was a shame we didn't have time to check out Santiago but I'm told that it's not all that anyway and I already have Easter Island on my list of places still to visit so I'm sure Santiago will feature in that somewhere! We did manage a little look round when we went for lunch and to book the bus and I have to say the one thing I noticed about the city was that my name was everywhere.... there were streets named after me, launderettes, shops and metro stations! It was even commented on when I checked in at the hostel... ok, so I'm sure 'Mr Ricardo Cumming', whoever he may be, might object to me claiming it's all named after me but hey, I think I'll risk it anyway!! Luckily the buses in Chile are pretty luxurious.... they include food and semi reclining seats, that recline back enough for sleep to not be too difficult... that said I could've slept on a cold concrete floor with no blankets I was that tired!!

In fairness the journey didn't prove too painful... probably cos I was asleep for most of it but hey!.. (the first pic on this entry is us half way through the bus journey) we had to change in Calama, 23 hours in and luckily were guided to the bus from there to San Pedro by a very sweet Chilean named Gilbert who took a little shine to our Katy, even giving her a cheeky little squeeze when they posed for a requested photo....!! It was a blessing he was there though or I'm not entirely sure how we'd have found our way to the other bus. We did though and an hour later arrived in San Pedro.. slightly concerningly we were dropped in the middle of nowhere and as it was dark we decided the sensible thing was to get a taxi to a hostel. We picked a slightly micer hotel; Takha Takha - we'd decided we deserved it and the real clincher was that it offered 24 hour hot water.... trust me, a luxury I couldn't wait to make use of!

We worked out that by the time we reached San Pedro, Katy had been travelling for 36 hours and I'd been on the road for 54 hours!!!! Ouch!!! Definetely the longest journey I've ever done... and i thought the 23 hours from Bangkok to Phi Phi way back in December was bad!!

Now, you would think that the sensible thing to do after travelling for that long would be to go to bed.... so we went out!! Obviously!! We decided we deserved a drink after surviving our mamouth journey plus we'd been together for nearly 2 days and still hadn't had a drink together. We were too tired to care what we looked like and have to admit, skanky as it is, other than cleaning our teeth, we went out as we were... as you can probably tell from the picture above, with our first drink together!!! The plan was we'd just have one cheeky drink then head to our beds, with nothing to get up for the next day we were both looking forward to a lovely long lie in! As you can probably all guess... those 'quiet nights' never quite go according to plan so you'll not be surprised to learn that a mere few hours later we found ourselves at a very random Gay Chilean's party in the middle of nowhere being charmed by the likes of odd magicians and 2 lads who were to become our friends during our time in San Pedro; Ian (Argentinian) and Ceaser (Peruvian.. shown giving Katy a cheeky dance lesson above!!!!).... all in all it was a very comical, unexpected night and a sample of South American hospitality. It didn't take us too long to want nothing but our beds, plus the lack of a bathroom other than in the darkness, speeded up the desire to be back at the hotel... so we finally made it into proper bed, a few pisco sours later... I can't tell you what bliss it was!! x

Leaving too soon!

Our prayers weren't answered and the day of our departure from Caqelai dawned grey and wet.... 45 mins in what was basically a rowing boat with an engine attached to it was not going to be fun!! After we were seen off from the island with a scarily funereal like song from the locals, we proceeded to get ridiculously wet bumping up and down over the waves..... now that it's over it's quite comical, at the time.... not so much! Anyway, we'd arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the bridge and take us back to Nadi. Lotty and Graham were flying out to LA the next day, my flight was the day after and we had friends from Sydney arriving the following morning too. The journey back to Nadi, once we'd dried out was ok, it rained most of the day so we didn't really mind being stuck in a car all day. We made it back but about 3pm and checked into the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel.. which had been recommended to us. It was a great little place with 2 swimming pools, bars, restaurants and decent dorms, not to mention a proper shower! Yay! we spent the afternoon just catching up on emails, doing our laundry and having a long awaited proper shower... lush! Then, along with David, a guy from our dorm, headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant for our last supper together where we discovered Pictionary so had a cheeky game while waiting for our food. (another long awaited thing... a good feed, the food on Caqelai wasn't all that). As you can see from the pic, Graham in particular enjoyed the meal!!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and chilled out in the bar with a cheeky cocktail before bed. We ended up bumping into a lot of peeps that had been on Beachcomber with us so it ended up being quite a late one. Fun though.

Thursday morning dawned... my final day in Fiji - Boo! Lotty and Graham weren't flying until that evening and Steve and Glen were arriving mid morning so the day, although sad as I'd have to say goodby to the lovely Lotty and Graham, would be a fun one too. Luckily it was beautifully hot and sunny so once we were up and about we set ourselves up by the pool to soak up the sun. By mid morning we'd found Steve and Glen checking into our dorm and caught up with them - having not seen them since Sydney, we'd been looking forward to them arriving. The rest of the day was spent by the pool, mostly playing Trivial Pursuits - the aussie version which took us an age to get through but we managed it in the end. Obviously not sure about Lotty and Graham but Glen and I let Steve and Andy win... we were just being nice!!! ;0) Honest! (pic here is the newbies, Glen and Steve btw, not that you can actually see Glen - there's a clearer one of him below though!!)

After the sun had set we all headed up to the dorm and chilled out while Lotty and Graham got packed and ready to go... and I pretended to pack (although how lying on the bed chatting is pretending I'm not really sure but hey it was fun!!) 7pm came and it was time for the cheeky two to leave us..... I can't believe it came round so quickly..... Lotty and Graham I had a ball travelling with you both, you rock and I can't wait to catch up when we get home (if not in South America) I miss you loads but hope you're having fun and games in LA!!

Anyway, once we'd tearfully waved them off we headed back to the room, Glen got the drinks in while I had a shower and the evening went from there..... somehow all except Andy 'forgot' to eat and while everyone else headed straight to the bar, Glen and I sat and chatted in the dorm, which unintentionally meant that we were sensible and didn't drink for a little (although we made up for that later). We finally dragged ourselves from the comfiness of our beds and joined the others in the bar where numbers had multiplied several times over in our absence, Andy had done his usual socialite thing and brought the masses together so there was quite a crowd going on and the atmosphere was great. Glen and I settled in nicely and thanks to several weeks of banter (aka: abuse) concerning our drinking abilities, it seemed only right to put such claims to the test... which meant only one thing... Sambuka!! Ouch!!! I don't know why I imagine I can do such things and be ok (and Glen, that isn't me admitting I'm a lightweight... that's your title!!) I did manage to hold my own though and if I recall correctly, the nearly full bottle of beer left voluntarily at the end of the evening didn't belong to me did it Mr Cameron??! Anyway, in a nutshell the rest of the evening post-Sambuka was spent, drinking, chatting, chilling out on the fab (and ridiculously big) hammocks the hotel had dotted around and generally being mischievous and having fun. Needless to say we all awoke with big fat hangovers the next morning and surprise surprise, we had to be up early to catch our respective boats/buses/planes!!!!! Clearly I will never learn my lesson!! Was a wicked night though!

Anyway, 8:30am Friday morning and it was time to say goodbye again... yet again to people I didn't really want to leave... having already said bye to Lotty and Graham, next to leave were Glen and Steve who were off to Beachcomber for a few days... Lads, it was wicked to see you again albeit for too short a time, it's a shame our timing wasn't better and we only crossed over by one day but it was a good day and the perfect way to end my time in Fiji. I hope you're having fun back there and I hope we'll meet again.... it's so much fun abusing Glen it'd be rude not to eh Steve! ;0) Glen.. what can I say.. I think we can call it even on the drinking stakes but I'm clearly still beating you on the tan front!!! xx

Next to leave was me, which meant another goodbye, to a very hungover Andy... the only one of us that didn't have to get up that morning so I let him off seeing me off and believe he promptly passed out again after I'd left. Andy... it was great to have met you and I know I speak for Lotty and Graham too when I say we're really glad you joined Team Fiji, you were fun to travel with and we'll see you back in London, Brentism's, Top 10 Saints and all!! Enjoy the rest of your trip matey.

And that was that... Fiji over.... I was on my way to the airport for my penultimate flight... a very bizarre feeling!! I could've done without the hangover for the marathon journey i was about to embark on but the hangover was worth it and at this point I wasn't to know just how long my journey was really going to be!! Fiji went all to quickly... it's strange how you look forward to something for so long and wish for it to come then before you know it it's been and gone. Even though I was really excited to be heading to South America, I have to admit I would've happily stayed in Fiji a little longer... xx

Quacking in Caqelai!!

Basically all of Saturday was taken up with travelling, we left Beachcomber at 1130, me battling with a nasty hangover and an even nastier reaction to one of my malaria tablets that I've been taking in preparation for South America - having missed brekkie thanks to it and only getting sorted thanks to Andy looking after me (thanks matey). We said goodbye to the peeps that had a few more days on the island... Simon included despite it being touch and go the previous day thanks to a close call with the loss of his passport and tickets (luckily found just before he was about to head back to the mainland in search of them... hope all's good Simon and you make it to Sweden ok. Have fun!) The pic here was actually taken at Beachcomber on our first night so not really relevant to this post but Lotty I thought it was a nice one of you and you always tell me off for putting not so nice ones (in your opinion anyway) of you on here! ;0)

The plan for us was to hop on the bus down to Suva, check out Fiji's capital city for the night then head over to Caqelai for 3 days chilling out on a nice remote tropical island. We ended up getting a taxi to Suva, as there was 4 of us it only worked out about $1 more expensive so it seemed daft not to... we made it down there having passed the 4 hour journey with some comedy games.. by early evening and checked into the Sunset Motel.... take my advice, anyone that finds themself in Suva... don't stay there. It was grim and like sleeping on a plank of wood.... we weren't sad to be on our way the next morning. We did have a little venture around the city to see what it was like and to be honest it felt a bit like being back in Asia - this was Andy's first experience of anything like it and it was really interesting to see a different side to Fiji than the idyllic tropical islands it's famous for. I'm not sure it's on my list of places to go back to and other than a great curry (according to the others anyway, me being a wus found it way too spicy!) there's not much more to be said about it.. so I won't bother!

Sunday morning came and we started out for Caqelai... the only way to get there was by taxi and boat. We got a taxi to a place called Waidalice River where the people from the island were picking us up... you can see from the pic here that we were basically dumped in the middle of nowhere, all feeling a little skeptical about whether any boat would be turning up at all!!

It did though, and bang on time too. The next 45 mins were spent whizzing our way down the river to the island, we felt a little like we were back on the Mekong in Laos.. it was great fun. We arrived at the island by about midday and as it wsa a Sunday they were serving the traditional Fijian meal; Lovo. We were quite looking forward to trying it but I have to admit I don't think any of us were that struck... sorry Fiji! It was all a bit bland and lacked taste.. other than the fish anyway. Pic below is on the boat ride to the island!!

Caqelai though....... a strange island. Chosen because it was recommended by a mate of Graham's... aesthetically speaking it's stunning, as you can see from the pic's, beautiful white sands, palm trees, the lot... from all the other points of view, a little odd if we're being honest. It's run by Buddists who were all very lovely people and there was only about 15 guests on the island, maximum but I'm not sure how to put it so it doesn't sound offensive, they weren't exactly the same types of people as us... many of them we're sure like to think of themselves as 'proper travellers' ie, the type that look down their noses at the likes of us! Now don't get me wrong, some of them were very sweet but it was pretty clear that we weren't about to become best buddies with them... there seemed to be a routine to the island... so when we attempted a bit of volleyball at a time other than the usual 4pm, after tea... it was met with a little tension!!! comedy!!

Anyway... as we had the 4 of us there it was all good... the day we arrived, it was overcast so after lunch when we'd settled into our dorm - which was wicked, we had it to ourselves for all but one night and were able to fashion seperate 'boudior', lounge and even a bar section - we got on with some cards, then joined in the volleyball (at the accepted time) although I still have a big fat bruise on my arm and once Lotty and I had tired of nearly breaking our bones and listening to the somewhat pompous wannabe professional volleyball player (who really wasn't that good) we took it upon ourselves to crack open the duty free gin and take the boys a post-volley drink... ok so it was only 5pm but hey, there's nowt else to do on an overcast desert island! Suffice to say, the rest of the evening was hilarious... involving the discovery of George the cat (so named by us) dinner then a bit of a party for 4 in our dorm.... and also saw the birth of Team Toilet.... the toilets on the island, not to mention the cold bucket showers, left a little to be desired and as they were a little trek from the dorm, after dark there was no way Lotty and I were going it alone so Team Toilet was established... long may it live on Lotty!!

Talking of which.. on one such excursion... our fate as the misfits of the island was sealed when we encountered what we believed to be our friendly french neighbour... we happily greeted her with our Bula's and were promptly met with... 'would you keep it down, you're Quack Quack Quacking all over the place!' Needless to say it was all Lotty and I could do to keep a straight face and from there on in all team toilet outings were accompanied with actual Quacking!!!! Classic! We were naturally most disappointed to find that she was leaving the next day!!! ;0)

Luckily our second day there was lovely and bright and hot.... it was tough getting over the hangover but we managed to get some snorkelling gear together and head out to Snake island whnen the tide was out... it's a crazy little rock formation really shaped like a pirate ship and named so cos of all the sea snakes that reside there. When the tides out you can walk out there... so we did. It was cool to see but thanks to the shallowness of the surrounding waters we didn't manage to snorkel there and headed back to the beach to check out the underwater world there. It was cool to snorkel but it was still really shallow and the colours were no where near as impressive as on Bechcomber. The rest of the day was spent soaking up the sun, poor Andy got a tad burnt (and yes, that's me being kind, sorry Andy) and playing cards before dinner and a bit of a sing song at a bonfire the island peeps had organised. Thanks to the hangovers we didn't last too long that night and headed home to chill out before bed. One thing I've forgotten to mention thus far is a little comical element to our friend Andy.... he has an unconcious ability to imitate the comedy genius that is Ricky Gervais - although we all find it far more amusing to have nicknamed Andy; David!! haha.... it's truly hilarious, sometimes you'll just catch a 'Brentism' and he has no idea..... don't stop Andy, it's a good thing honest!!

Our third and final day on Caqelai was unfortunately dull and wet so it was mostly spent chilling out, reading, playing cards (surprise!) with a little frisbee thrown in between the rain in an attempt to do something other than lie in our beds all day. The pic you see here is of the lovely Lotty and Graham looking out towards the rain cloud that was approaching (shown in the other pic) it was awesome, you could see it coming towards you and where the rain started and yet be stood there totally dry... although not for long.... we had to do a mad dash to shelter right after those pics were taken!! Was wicked to see though. The evening was much the same as the last, dinner, drinks, cards and some comedy charades thrown in for good measure!! We were leaving the following morning at half 9 and although there were several oddities about the place, it was a good few days, spent with 3 people that are wicked and so we all had fun and I think were glad to have seen the place and experienced a different side of Fiji. We were just hoping and praying for good weather for the return river boat journey!! xx