hajaru's VirtualTourist Home Page

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Me and Camilla at tacky bar in Nama bay

Saying hello to fish in Egypt

End of May this year I went to Sharm el shejik with my friend Camilla. We both decided we were in desperate need of sun and water therapy. I actually met Camilla while diving in Mozambique, which I will tell you all about later.
Well we left Gatwick for Sharm and I must say that I am very impressed by the diving in the Red sea but it's such an industry! In one way that's good because everything runs very smothly and on time (not once during the week I heard the frase "it's Africa, wait...") but at the same time you loose the personal touch of the diveshops. Anyway as I said diving was awesome. The rest of it though.. I guess it's just not my cup of tea, just a tad tacky as you can see from the photo... However it was a very nice break. And very good to see fish again it was a while ago apart from what I usually see on my plate.

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Tikal

A year of freedom!

The wonderful year of 2006 was free from work, I had a year of abscence.
A whole year to do whatever I wanted to with.
The most fantastic feeling. I thought about where I wanted to go and came up with latinamerica and southern africa, obviously I could come up with SO many more places but I wanted to go back and explore more in areas I had been. I thought about RTW but realised I wanted to see a bit more in a few areas. I also wanted to study spanish, I booked a school in Antigua Guatemala, with homestay and all. Scary I didn't know any spanish (still don't but hey you can't win them all)
So I got myself a ticket from London to Miami, Miami to Guatemala city, San Salvador to Lima and finally Buenos Aires to London.
What about Africa? well I figured I'll get that later.
So as I said I started out in London stayed there one night and then Miami where I also stayed one night in a horrible little hotel in Miami beach.
Got to see some nice art deco houses though.
So the next day I flew to Guatemala city where I was picked up by a taxi and driven to my home for a month. it was a very simple house and the family was not very well off but the students gave them enough to pay the house. It was a sweet family 3 kids and the youngest was 11. Every morning I went to school and studied with my patient teacher, Aura. Well I did learn some during the month I stayed together with body language it's enough to get the right bus and get food and drinks, even the odd visit to the doctor (although bodylanguage is very helpful in this case)
I left Antigua with my schoolmate Mike. We travelled around in Guatemala and then through Belize down to Honduras.

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Half Moon bay, Roatan

Roatan and Copan

I then left for Roatan, as I had been there the previous year I knew what to expect and my memory served me right it was gorgeus!
I started (and finished) my Divemaster training with Native Sons diveshop and I loved it, very busy so I got to dive more or less every day. I ended up sharing houses moving a few times staying for almost 3 months. All things come to an end, my visa was running out and i had more places to see! Back to mainland i thought I'd better try and brush up that Spanish again (mostly englishspeaking on Roatan at least I was) So another school this time in the lovely little town of Copan Ruinas. I don't know if it helped my teacher was about 12 years old and kept complaining over her boyfriend not ringing... Oh well. I had a great time in Copan went up in the mountain to this beautiful Finca calle "El Cisne" where they grow cardemon and coffee, I did some horsebackriding there as well. The Mayaruins of Copan was also beautiful smaller than Tikal but very many carvings a very nice museum in the area aswell.

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Happy children at Finca El Cisne

Leaving centralamerica

Well I could have stayed in Copan aswell! But I had a week to get to San Salvador for my flight and travelling by bus can sometimes delay you... Since I came to centralamerica they had altered the visa regulations so the lady in El Poy, (border Honduras-El Salvador) said that now you can only stay in centralamerica for 3 months all together not in each country "you must leave El Salvador tomorrow" Yes of course I'll sort that out if you just let me get on my way to San Salvador...
My plan was to spend the next few days on the beach but I ended up very sick in a hotel in San Salvador. At least I made my flight to Lima, still quite shaky but none the less. I stayed one night there got myself a ticket and got another flight to Cuzco I barely stayed awake but the flight over the Andes WOW!

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Colca canyon

South America

So I came to Cusco and I enjoyed it a lot, yes it is very touristy but still a beautiful town, when I arrived the Sun festival took place so there were dancing people all over town. I went to Macchu Picchu of course, I wnt by train and stayed in Aguas Caliente one night and got the first bus up to Machu picchu in the morning and it was absolutley stunning! I stayed all day climbing up Wayna Picchu and just walking around enjoying the site and the views. I came back to Cusco in the evening.
After a few more days in Cusco I got the bus to Arequipa, a very pleasant town. From there I cycled around the surronundings and also went to Colca Canyon to see some condors. Another amazing experience.

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Me and Bibi the spider monkey

Bolivia

A short busride away from Puno is Copacabana in Bolivia. The town is by lake Titicaca and I stayed here a few days, to be honest I didn't really like it, pretty enough but not my kind of scene... Too many tourist hippie wannabees selling "jewellery". I say buy from locals!
However a trip to Isla del Sol is a must, this is the place they say the Incas were born. Take the boat and wander around on the island.
From Copacabana to La Paz and the "worlds most dangerous road" by mountainbike to Coroico. It was fun! The whole day downhill on gravel.
Coroico is a cute little village and I just stayed here a few days to relax. I did however see the hospital very efficent I must say! I had a throat infection and I got treated with so many drugs! Not the common thing to do where I come from... But on the other hand after just a couple of days I felt great so I was ready to go.
Next stop La Paz again, did some shopping and then via Cochabamba to Villa Tunari and Parque Machia. The organisation Inti vara yassi is located here and it's a refuge for wild animals that has been kept as pets. I got to work with monkeys in the quarantine and clinic and it was awesome. Hard work yes but SO rewarding. I ended up staying in a small hostal rather then the accomodation that is included in the fee (US$100/2 weeks) it was still very cheap and I had my own clean room in the village. The day started 7.30 when we gave our monkeys breakfast and took some of them out from their cages and the cleaning feeding washing... as I said hard work but inbetween tasks you get to play and cuddle with the very amusing monkeys. I had a great time and would go back again.
To end my time in Bolivia I went through Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats and that was unreal! As far as you can see just white and with the bright blue sky -fabulous. I kept thinking "it must be snow"I also visited the bright red Laguna Colorado and the green Laguna verde. By the end of that tour I was in San Pedro de Atacama,Chile just a couple of days before Argentina.