They can all be found on the Photography page, but here are the links for simplicity:

Aside from the Alerce trees, the park has numerous lakes and rivers, and an abundance of trails for hikers. Well worth a trip if you are in this part of Argentina.

Click the photo to read more and see the rest of the photos from the park.

Having spent the previous 12 hours on a bus from Tijuana, I badly needed sustenance. My day had been spent it a state of perpetual worry, as I had managed to walk across the border without completing any formalities at all. I was illegally in Mexico. Not the best way to begin my first solo travelling experience! On top of this, I didn’t have any local money, and I had a hangover.

Luckily, as I stepped off the bus, I saw a shining light, my deliverance from hunger, in the form of a taco stand, or Taquerilla. I sat down and asked what was cooking. Taco’s. Came the reply.

I had three. And a can of coke.

From that point, until I left Mexico about 6 weeks later, I ate countless tacos from a lot of different street stands, market stalls, and restaurants. I ate tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And some snacks in between!

Taco Stand – photo from Flickr

There are many different types of taco, each with their own traditions, however the four types that I ate the most were Tacos de Carne Asada, Tacos al Pastor, Tacos Dorados & Tacos de Pescado.

Mmmm tacos… – photo from Flickr

Tacos de Carne Asada, along with al Pastor, were probably the most common variety I found. These tacos are small strips of beef, fried and diced into cubes about 5mm thick. The beef cubes are then put onto a tortilla (you will often be given a choice between flour and corn tortillas) and garnished with cilantro and onion.

Real Mexican tacos – photo from Flickr

Tacos al Pastor (Shepherd style Tacos) are usually made from pork. The meat is shaped and put onto a kind of doner-kebab style rotating spit where it cooks. When ready, meat is chopped from the spit and diced into small chunks, put onto a tortilla and garnished with the usual cilantro and onion.

Al Pastor – photo from Flickr

Tacos Dorados are slightly different as the meat filling (chicken or beef) is put into a tortilla, which is the sealed and deep fried until crispy. They are served with a creamy sauce, lettuce and tomatoes.

Tacos Dorado from Mazatlan on the Pacific Coast

Tacos de Pescado (fish tacos) originate from Baja California and the Pacific Coast. They consist of deep fried fish (or shrimp) on a soft tortilla with the usual array of garnishes.

Customising your tacos with various accoutrements is half the fun. Most taquerias offer an array of garnishes which can be heaped copiously atop the tacos. Cilantro and onion are usually added by the vendor, with a few wedges of lime on the side. You are then free to add your tomato relishes, radishes, cucumbers and the unappetizing (but superb tasting) runny green guacamole sauce.

A taco stand in Mexico City (*notice the green sauce in the foreground) – photo from Flickr

Los Poblanos – photo from Flickr

I’m sure that one of the biggest companies in Mexico is Maseca, maybe only sue to amount of advertising they do. Advertising is very pronounced in Latin America, every concrete wall along the roadside is painted with the logo of some company or other, which makes for very colourful roadsides! Maseca are manufacturers of various flour products that a lot of tortillas are made from. In a market in the town of Tequila I watched two old ladies as they made tortillas. They made a paste of Maseca and water, rolled it into a ball, placed it between two sheets of plastic, put them into a press and then tossed them onto the hot grill for a short time.

Here’s a video I found on flickr of a lady doing the same thing.

There is a noticeable difference in taste and texture between flour and corn tortillas, so be sure to try them both to see which you prefer.

The size of the taco gets smaller the further south you are. In Baja California and the Northern mainland, tacos were about six inches in diameter. In Chiapas in the south, the tacos shrink to about two inches in diameter.

As you might expect, the price shrinks with the size. From about $10 pesos per taco in the north, down to the holy grail, the $1 peso taco in a market in San Cristobal de las Casas! As I wrote at the time, the cost of meal came down disproportionately to the size of the taco.

I also found the Mexican equivalent to the Holy Grail – the $1 peso taco. This equates to roughly 5 pence. Eat ten of those bad boys and you will be full, which translates to a £0.50 meal. When I arrived in Mexico the tacos were around $10 pesos each. The further south I have ventured the cheaper the tacos (and generally everything else) have become. I will add that they have got smaller, in the north it took 4 to fill me up, but that makes a $40 peso meal. Now 10 fills me up @ $1 peso each. That’s a $10 peso meal. Bargain.

Beware. Although street food is delicious, you have to be aware that standards of cleanliness may not be what you and your stomach are accustomed to. This can sometimes lead to some bowel issues. This did happen to me, and although it didn’t put me off eating street food, it made me more aware of the cleanliness and food preparation. Below are some general guidelines you may want to take into account when selecting a Taqueria:

1. Go to a stand where other people are eating. Whether in a big city, town or village, the locals know what’s good, clean and safe.
2. Go to a stand that “specializes” in a particular type of taco. They will have limited preparation equipment to keep clean, and a limited inventory of ingredients to keep fresh. This is basically the same advice given for eating in restaurants anywhere; the bigger the variety of food on the menu, the greater the possibility of something going wrong.
3. Use your senses. Look and smell. Is the place clean? If frying is taking place, is the cooking oil or lard clear or does it look like what gets taken out when your car gets an oil change? Does the meat smell good or do you detect an “off” odor?
4. Remember that the customer has an opportunity at a taco stand not available in restaurants: that of watching the preparation, the cleanliness of the cook’s hands and cooking utensils. For this reason, many people feel safer eating in the street.
5. Avoid places that are right at the edge of the sidewalk or curb, especially along busy streets. Traffic and wind both stir up dust, especially during the dry season.
6. Try it! If you like the look, smell and filling ingredients offered at a taco stand, by all means try it. Some of the tastiest food in Mexico is street food, and only a lack of common sense will stand between the visitor and some terrific eating experiences. Many people say that if you don’t eat on the street you’re missing Mexico.

Taken from Mexconnect

Street food in Mexico varies greatly. From Tamales in Chihuahua, to Mole in Puebla, the vast majority is absolutely delicious. For anyone thinking of heading to Mexico, be sure to eat on the street!

Taco Outlet – photo from Flickr

Another Taco Outlet – photo from Flickr

This photo was taken at the entrance to the park, and as I wrote at the time, it got things off to a great start:

I had an hour to kill before the catamaran left so I walked about 20 minutes to some waterfalls. Just around the corner from these I was able to get my first glimpse at the mountains I would be walking around for the next few days. Although cloud obscured part of the peaks, it was still a good way to begin the trip.

Read the rest of the entry from Day 154 and the other 4 days of the trek here.

The first in the series comes from the Copper Canyon in Mexico, taken only a week or two into the 11 month Latin America trip. The train from Los Mochis to Creel is a must-do for anyone in the area.

Read the blog ntry by clicking here.

Yami had been assigned accommodation in Penonomé, and assigned her first clinic in Toabré. In order to get to Toabré for 7am, we left at six and took two buses. When we arrived at the clinic, the locals were already queuing outside the clinic, which served as the medical centre for the whole of the mountain region in the area.

Click here to view larger map

The clinic, although basic, served its purpose well and was certainly in demand. The patients were all indigenous people, and obviously extremely poor, the poverty being evident in the state of the teeth of the patients. Children of 7 or 8 came in to have adult teeth removed due to lack of care, and most patients over the age of 40 had very few, if any teeth at all. One lady came in for a clean of her one and only tooth, one of the middle bottom incisors. It was a funny, yet sad moment, watching Yami cleaning this single tooth.

I couldn’t believe how the people had let their teeth fall in such a bad state, but Yami explained they literally did not have any money, and buying ‘luxuries’ such as toothbrushes and toothpaste was simply not an option.

Officially, Yami and the other doctors were supposed to charge for the treatments they carried out, however in reality they didn’t charge, as the majority of the patients would have been unable to pay in any case, and probably would not have came to the clinic to receive treatment in the first place.

To get any idea of the remoteness of the clinic, and the inaccessibility of the region in which these people lived, some of them – kids of six of seven included – had walked 8 hours through the rainforest just to see a doctor or dentist, and of course they had to walk the 8 hours return journey home. A pretty tough walk, especially if you have just had two or three teeth removed.

Although only three hours from Panama City, probably the most affluent city in Central America, Toabré and the highlands of Panama are a completely different world, and the vast difference in living standards between the city and the country is both disturbing and shocking, especially considering it is a country that has a unique commodity (the canal) that generates billions of dollars per year.

Although I had seen a lot of poverty in the previous 300 or so days, I never really saw with such proximity, or interacted with people who literally have nothing, not even the money to buy a toothbrush or toothpaste. Thinking about the plight of the indigenous communities in Panama, I couldn’t decide if it was a sad reflection on the failures of the US administration in Panama, past and present governments or the distribution of wealth and resources of the country, but something was definitely amiss.

On a plus note, after Yami had seen all her patients for the day, she gave my teeth the once-over and a clean! Unfortunately my camera had died on the beach in Pedasi, so I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the clinic or the locals. I do have one of Yami working, though this wasn’t taken that day!

I arrived in Panama City in mid afternoon, and didn’t want to travel out to Penonome that same day so I checked in at Zuly’s, the hostel I stayed at back in February, and caught up with goings on in the World Cup, before heading to Penonome to see Yami the following morning.

Whilst I returned to Panama to see Yami, I knew she would be working and that I would have to amuse myself during the days, something I did by taking trips for a couple of days here and there to various places in Panama.

View Larger Map

The first week in Panama I went off to Chitre and Pedasi in the Azuero Peninsula. I stayed in Chitre for a night before taking a bus further south to the village of Pedasi on the southern tip of the peninsular. Pedasi is a village of about 2,000 people and is the hometown of Panama’s first female president, Mireya Moscoso, who ruled from 1999 to 2004. It is well known in Central America for having decent waves for surfers and being a generally nice little village.

Pedasi lays a couple of kilometers from various beaches, which turned out to be a 30 minute trek along a stony track. The beach I saw was a deserted expanse of black sand with waves crashing into the rocky shoreline. The village itself is pretty enough, with enough in the surrounding area to keep you occupied for a day or two. One of the main reasons for coming here is the surfing, with numerous beaches nearby offering supposedly excellent waves.

The morning after arriving I took the early bus to Playa Venao, which has a reputation for having excellent waves, where I was in two minds about hiring a surfboard and jumping into the deep end as it were.

The bus trip took about 40 minutes and dropped me off on the main highway, and wouldn’t return for about 8 hours. I found the beach, an open expanse of sand with grass at the rear and a small island about a mile off shore, and set about killing time. The area was completely deserted apart from the ramshackle huts and beach bar with no-one in. It stayed completely deserted for most of the day, apart from a herd of cattle that came down to the beach at one point to have a swim in the sea, encouraged by some cowboy dudes. I met a local surfer who had hitchhiked from Panama City and planned to spend a few days at the beach, sleeping in a hammock tied to the wooden frame of the restaurant, before hitchhiking back to the city.

I returned to Penonome the following day, and Yami and I caught a bus to El Valle, where we stayed for the weekend. I had visited El Valle during my first time in Panama, so I knew it was a cool little village. Not much happened over the weekend, we were given a tour of the surrounding area by one of Yami’s university professors who owned a weekend house in the village, watched the World Cup Final, and explored on some bicycles we hired for an afternoon.

I flew back to Panama, spent a week with Yami and returned to Cartagena. I then tried to go south to Medellin, but the buses were a little bit of a problem due to the FARC in the region, so I decided to take another route, via boat from Colombia back to Panama. The trips are organised regularly, and sailed whenever there were enough people on-board. I called the Captain of one boat, arranged my ticket, and as luck would have it, we sailed the next day (Thurs 22nd June).

The Darién Gap is a stretch of land joining Panama and Colombia. Covered in dense rain forest, it is a widely unexplored, inhospitable area of land, home to various indigenous Indian groups, as well as some unfriendly characters, namely three Colombian rebel groups, the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) and both left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The Panamerican highway, which stretches about 16,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, would run continuously if it were not for a 62 mile stretch through the Darién Gap that has never been constructed. Various attempts have been made to link the road through the gap, however due to environmental and political reasons, this has never been accomplished. It is said there are mud roads, which are passable at some times of the year, but for the most they are only accessible by 4×4. The lack of decent road, and the presence of the rebel groups makes all overland passage both extremely difficult and dangerous, and is not recommended, and for that reason there are various sailboats offering passage from Panama to Colombia, thus bypassing the Darién Gap.

The boat I sailed on, the Stahlratte (German for “Steelrat”) is an old fishing vessel, made in Holland and first registered in 1903. In celebration of her 100 year anniversary, the ship’s owners decided it would be fitting to circumnavigate the globe, taking on board random crew members along the way. The financing of the boat is somewhat unplanned, and due to that, the ship was ferrying passengers back and forth from Panama to Colombia and vice versa (with a stop off in Panama’s San Blas islands to break up the journey), in order to pay the passage through the Panama Canal.

The group assembled early in the morning ready to load up and sail out, however it took a while to get everything organised, provisions bought, passports and immigration arranged etc, so we didn’t actually leave the Cartagena marina until late morning. That afternoon and the following day was all at sea, which although it is the Caribbean Sea, was surprisingly choppy, so choppy in fact that one of the girls on the boat started feeling ill about an hour from the port, and for the next 36 hours lay curled up in the fetal position, occasionally letting out a murmur or wail, moving only to drag herself to the side of boat, lean over and throw up!

After the initial euphoria of being on a sail boat wore off, and the gradual – sometimes violent – rocking motion of the ship took became monotonous, I passed time watching the open seas, reading, playing cards or soaking up some sunshine on deck, whilst below deck I took advantage of the classic offerings in the library, a lot of guidebooks, and a host of old (and some newer) movies. Add to this the seemingly constant food preparation or clean up, and the time passed fairly quickly. On board everyone was expected to take on some cooking/cleaning responsibility for at least one meal, so I got mine out the way early on, meaning I could sit back and relax for the remainder of my time on board. At one point on the Friday, out boat attracted a group of curious dolphin, who swam along with us for a good time, jumping out of the water and generally playing around.

We sailed (using a mixture of wind and motor power) from Thursday afternoon through the night, all Friday day and night, arriving and mooring amongst the San Blas islands just as it got light on the Saturday morning.

The San Blas islands are an Archipelago consisting of about 400 tiny islands, or cays, on average the size of a football pitch, covered in palm trees and ringed with white sand. Basically, paradise. On some islands the local indigenous people (the Kuna), have built their villages, whilst others remain untouched and undeveloped. We moored in a position within swimming distance of 3 or 4 uninhabited cays, each covered with palm trees. There was nothing for it but to jump into the warm Caribbean Sea and swim across to explore my own little island in the sun.

I spent the most of two and a bit days we were moored up exploring and looking around the islands, snorkelling and generally basking in the glory of the paradise that is San Blas. I can honestly not say enough good things about those two and a bit days. A complete break from civilisation, and a holiday from a holiday! Over the course of the time we were there I swam, sunbathed, explored, ate, drank, and enjoyed it all.

We left our mooring point on the Monday afternoon and sailed to a traditional Kuna village, where we went ashore and had a quick look around. The Kuna people are about 40,000 strong and are self-governing, separate from the Panamanian government. They gained this autonomy in the 1950′s, making their own laws and running their economy ever since. The three main industries are fishing, trading coconuts and tourism.

One of the most noticeable things about the Kuna is the traditional dress of the women, who are adorned head to toe in brightly coloured hand woven molas, their arms and lower legs are covered in beads, their heads are covered with scarves and some have nose rings and painted faces. The women sell these molas, which are very cheap considering the skill involved and time taken to make.

We arrived in the Kuna village in mid-afternoon, and wandered around the straw huts, taking in the way of life and being offered the various molas on sale, before heading back to the dock and onto the boat for a final night aboard.

The Tuesday was an adventure in itself, being taken to the off loading point, shipped across to the shore in speedboat, before boarding a 4×4 to the city. The 4×4 journey took us through the rain forest, across rivers, through waist deep mud and away from the Caribbean towards the Pacific and finally into the sprawl that is Panama City, where I checked into Zuly’s hostel and had a Cerveza Balboa with some of the folks from the boat, before heading off to Penonome to stay with Yami the following day.

Some more photos from the 5 day trip:

sailing away from South America

last views of S.A

dolphins

looking at the dolphins

first glimpse of San Blas

sunrise over San Blas

sailboat heaven

stahlratte

all seems shipshape

stahlratte

more sailboat heaven

waking up

the day revealed all

island hopping

moi

reef

lunch

me – posing

local sales people came by plying their wares

yee ha

the quintessentail desktop shot

midday on the stahlratte

posing – again

beers

beers pt 2

chess

sale made they shipped out

ashore

paradise!

my island

its mine – I lay claim to it!

stahlratte

stahlratte

moi

moi and my island

kuna school

another village shot

the houses

and the streets

all made from palm

once back on the mainland it was a 4×4 trip

through the jungle, on the washed out roads

and crossing a few rivers

definately 4×4 territory

no asphalt

view over the Panamanian rainforest

and back down to the Caribbean Sea

Rainforest

As far as the eye can see

Where the blog left off, I had just arrived in Cartagena. I arrived on the Thursday evening and I had a flight to Panama booked for the following Sunday. For whatever reason I decided to hang around the city for the weekend, and then I kind of got stuck, and didn’t move anywhere until I took the flight to Panama, 10 days later!

I stayed in the Getsemaní district just outside the old city, in a hotel that for about £2 a night was clean and had a ceiling fan. The downside was the partitioning walls were plyboard! That and the area was a haven for druggies, prostitutes and the destitute.

No matter, it was cheap! I spent the week wandering around the city, visiting the various museums etc,. Cartagena de Indias, founded in 1533 by a Spanish commander, Pedro de Heredia, sits on the mouth of Cartagena Bay.

Originally founded as a port where Europeans landed with their merchandise, and in reverse gold and silver were transported back to Spain, the city grew rapidly during the 1500’s. Cartagena is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to the walled city and its contents, and the huge fort that sits overlooking the bay.

As I mentioned before I stayed in Getsemaní, about 3 minutes walk to the old walled city and its colonial architecture. The old city is very reminiscent of Oaxaca, and in particular Guanajuato in Mexico, with its narrow streets and colonial style buildings.

The entrance to the city is via the Clock Gate, or Puerta Del Reloj, which then leads out onto the La Plaza de los Coches, which at night fills up with people drinking café or the local brew – Cerveza Aguilla, and watching the world go by. Inevitably there is a festival or music playing somewhere, usually some kind of live steel drum band. Mingled with the music is the clip-clop sound of horses hooves on the paved roads. The horse-drawn carts pass, one after another throughout the evening, trying to attract tourists to take a trip around the city.

I spent most days/evenings either wandering, or sitting in one of the plazas drinking café (or Cerveza Aguilla!). There are a lot of plazas! A lot of the buildings are painted and it seems in whichever colour is on special in the hardware store at the time. This makes Cartagena a very bright place and gives it a lot of its charm. Some of the streets are continuously busy, and others are all but deserted.

As in Taganga, the variety of fruits on offer is superb, and on virtually every corner there is a stall selling some variety of tropical produce, such as papaya, mango, melon and huge avocado pears. There is also a great range of fresh juices on offer in the various ‘loncherias’.

One of the main attractions in Cartagena is El Castillo de San Felipe (The Castle of Saint Filipe). This is a Spanish fort that stands guard over both the city and harbour. This is one of the strongest fortresses ever built by the Spanish in the Americas. Built to guard Cartagena and the Spanish gold from English pirates and war ships, it took over 150 years to complete. It is laden with tunnels leading to and from various places within the walls.

As testament to its strength, in 1741, Cartagena managed to repel an attack by the English Commander, Edward Vernon, who together with 25,000 men and 186 ships, laid the city to siege for three months. His ships cannons were unable to reach the Castillo, which sat high out of range. However the cannons of the Castillo were a little more powerful, and bombarded the English ships whenever they entered the harbour. By the time he gave up the attempted invasion, Vernon had lost over 70 ships and 10,000 men.

Built to protect the city from pirates in times of war, now in peace time some buildings and open spaces have been adapted to suit the modern consumer climate, and modern modes of transport. Incorporated into the city walls, Las Bóvedas are dungeons initially built for military purposes and now house boutiques and tourist shops.

It seems the residents of Cartagena are proud of their flag, as it hangs from a multitude of buildings, from the fort, to the theatre to what seem like private residences.

I took a boat trip out of the city, passing by some of the smaller forts in the mouth of the harbour, and some more modern naval craft. This trip visited a nearby beach, Playa Blanca, which is where the two Dutch guys I had met in Pasto had spent some time the week before I arrived in the city. During their time on the beach, one of them had done some snorkelling and had acquired a very nasty eye infection. A parasite of some kind had managed to bury itself into his cornea and was slowly eating through it. Apparently it was incurable and he was in serious danger losing his sight. He eventually had to return to Holland for a cornea transplant. I never saw him again so I don’t know how everything turned out, but I wish him the best. Also while I was in Cartagena, the football world cup kicked off. I saw England play their first two group games, but I can’t remember who against or what were the scores.

Below are some photos of me in the Castillo de San Felipe. It was a hot day!

I have been thinking about what to do with the website for a while, and in browsing I decided that even before I can think about what to do next I have to finish the first piece and get the rest of the trip journal completed.

I don’t think it will be feasible to write about individual days anymore as my thoughts and memories look to the trip only with nostalgia. I struggle to remember my emotional state on any particular day, therefore to describe thoughts and feelings of those events would not be a true reflection of my thoughts and feelings of the time.

Therefore I will simply write about where I happened to be and when I happened to be there, adding in few photos along the way. Hopefully I will also write a little conclusion at the end with maps and favourite places etc.

There you have it, a very short reintroduction to roylloydjones. All that’s left to do is publish the rest of the trip….

Enjoy…