Hola from Ecuador 11/03/09

Hi Everyone,

It has been a fun filled and active month since we last wrote from Ushuaia at the bottom of South America.

After Antarctica we headed briefly into Chile to check out Torres del Paine National Park. An interesting few days of wild weather but after a day where we were completely washed out we got an exceptional sunrise over the Torres peaks – we were very lucky!

To the north and warmer weather. We arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Carnival and what a week to pick! We had a fantastic time just being there but a night at the Sambadrome and an afternoon at a semi final football match at Maracana Stadium really made it. The street parties were crazy and the people even more so. We didn’t sleep much during the week so some time relaxing in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador was called for!

We were booked on an eight day sailing cruise around a selection of the islands and had a wonderful time. The wildlife was plentiful and the variation in scenery amazing. A truly unique experience.

We headed back to the Ecuadorian mainland and haven’t stopped. Otavalo Market, a Quito City tour and we even managed a bull fight at Mitad del Mundo (the centre of the world). We are currently in a place called Latacunga where we have today enjoyed Cotopaxi National Park and have a three day hike ahead of us through local highland villages.

We are both doing great and are enjoying being back at the grass roots of a country – the people and their culture. We hope this email finds you all well.

Take care and don’t forget to check out the photos … they are plentiful! http://www.travel.rameke.com/, and our blog http://travelrameke.blogspot.com/.

Antarctica - Our Seventh Continent! 11/02/09

Hi Everyone,
Well we are back from our seventh continent … boy did it go quickly!! Four days on the Peninsula was nowhere near enough.


We had two fun filled days on the Drake Passage … a notorious spot for heavy seas … the onboard doctor drugged us up with heavily sedating pills which helped us to sleep through it! No really it was not that bad our second day a little rougher than the first.

After passing the Antarctic Convergence we arrived into the Shetland Islands in good time and with excellent weather before us our expedition leader got us out for a sunset landing after dinner on Barrientos Island (part of the Aitcho Island Group). It was just spectacular and very hard to describe! Over time this would reveal itself to be our best and most picturesque landing.


The clear skies continued for another day. We enjoyed both a zodiac cruise and a landing on our "first" day in the Peninsula. In the afternoon we sat foot on our seventh and final continent at a place called Cierva Cove close to the Argentine base of Primavera. We were lucky to encounter humpback whales about five meters from our zodiac as we cruised around the cove.






The wildlife in the peninsula is extensive. We saw many different types of seals, penguins, birds and even whales. The Orca continued to allude us for the entire trip which was a shame. We were however privileged to have two scientists join us for part of the trip who had been in Antarctica for a month researching them as part of a study for a new BBC production "The Frozen Planet" due to air late in 2011! We also got a talk from the cameraman Doug Allan on some of their land and underwater footage so far … it is just incredible!


We enjoyed a morning zodiac cruise around an 'iceberg graveyard' which was just spectacular with icebergs as high as 50m suspended over us with 60million year old glacial ice displayed with shades of green, turquoise and blue. After boarding the ship again we got as far south as Petermann Island at 65°10'S 64°10'W where along with another landing and more wildlife spotting we enjoyed an Antarctic BBQ (a great excuse for us Kiwis to celebrate Waitangi Day in style from the Antarctic!).
We were provided with lots of historical information about Antarctica during our voyage and at one particular site, Port Lockroy along with enjoying the company of some furry friends we were able to look around a British Base restored to provide an idea about how it was to spend winters and summers there during the early 1900s, the most driest, remote and unforgiving environment in the world.

At a place called Deception Island (an active volcano) we were given the opportunity to partake in a "Polar Plunge". They told us that the first inch and a half of water was actually warm … but we don't believe them at all and we think the pictures prove our point. The series of photos in the external collection (particularly of Marcus) are a great summary of the registered temperature … at one degree Celsius it was quite an achievement to even make it in past the ankles!


On our particular trip we were also lucky to be part of a new find in Antarctica. A higher plant had been photographed two weeks before and had not been identified previously in Antarctica. Contacted by a British Research Group our on board botanist got very excited by this news and managed to track down the plant and identify it on Deception Island. Antarctica had only two higher plants before 8 Feb 09 and now they have three! The British are even working on a management plan for the plant right now.


We have a collage of photos for you to enjoy and think that it is better that you look at them rather than have us ramble on for some time.


Antarctica is a truly unique experience and one that is extremely hard to put into words. We had an absolutely fantastic time and enjoyed every minute of just being there.

Love to all

Victoria and Marcus

Iguacu falls

News from the edge of the world! 01/02/09

Hi Everyone,
Well it has been a while since you heard from us. We have been very active since Christmas and continue to have an excellent time.

We have reached the "edge of the world" (as they call it), the bottom of the continent, Ushuaia. It has been an exciting adventure with numerous highlights mixed with a multitude of long overnight bus rides and consecutive nights at bus stations.

We left you last at Christmas. At that point we had lots of sun and beaches. We enjoyed the peninsula of Buzios for a few days with picnic lunches on the beach for both our Christmas days.

After a few days spent in a lovely colonial town called Paraty (about 5 hours south of Rio) where we continued to enjoy the beaches we headed over to an island called Ilha Grande We left 2008 in style with a speed boat excursion around the island. A little taste of luxury … there were only eight of us on the boat. We saw in the New Year on the beach under a cloud of smoke from the fireworks. It was a really lovely day and evening.

We had numerous reality checks of the "real backpackers life" as we entered the New Year with eight of the first ten nights of the year spent on overnight buses or at bus stations!!

We headed across to Iguacu Falls on the Brazilian side. The place is just electrifying! We spent Marcus's birthday at the Brazilian side where we got a majestic overview of the falls and the following day headed over to the Argentine side where we were able to get a lot closer. The view overlooking 'Devils Throat' was just incredible – it was memorising just watching the amount of water tumbling across, the rainbows and butterflies just added to its charm.


From here we headed back across country first to Puerto Alegre for a day stop on route to Montevideo in Uruguay. With us arriving in the middle of peak season and not having accommodation booked we were pretty much left on the street so decided to live at the bus station for four nights and did excursions from there. We headed to Punta del Diablo and Punta del Este, both beaches but with major contrasts as well as spending some time in Montevideo before heading to Colonia del Sacrimento and on to Argentina. Punta del Diablo was an alternative place with sandy streets and a chilled out vibe while Punta del Este is where all the Brazilians and Argentines holiday for their summer … high rises and a swarming town (a mini Gold Coast).

We took the boat across to Buenos Aires in Argentina from Uruguay. We loved Buenos Aires, it was so welcoming to be in a cosmopolitan city again (I never thought I would say something like that). We spent four days there taking in all it had to offer, from an amazing cemetery where Evita was laid to rest to the area of La Boca – a colourful mix of tin and wooden buildings.
Once we left Buenos Aires we headed for Patagonia and haven't looked back since. It is such an amazing place with so much on offer considering the mass of desert and nothing that you pass through on long, long, long bus rides. The amounts of nothing compete with that of the Australian outback!
We spent time in Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes where we were able to get our first glimpse of wildlife. The sea lions and the penguins were the highlights not to mention the armadillos. From here it was into the heart of Patagonia and we spent about a week around the area of El Calafate and El Chalten.
We enjoyed Perito Moreno Glacier and took a wonderful boat excursion out on Lago Argentina where along with cruising passed massive ice bergs (a taste of what is to come), we were able to witness some amazing sights of glaciers. We spent a few days walking in the Las Glaciars National Park (averaging about 35km per day – which was not a bad effort).

The weather was a little temperamental but at points throughout the time there we got sightings of all the highlights.

From here we arrived in Ushuaia where we are currently waiting for our boat to Antarctica J. We are really looking forward to this trip and promise to be in touch again with all the details once we are back from the ice!

We have updated our site … check out the new photos if you get a chance http://www.travel.rameke.com/.

Jan 2nd 2009: onwards and upwards

Hi Everyone

Main Highlights from Central America including Mexico and Cuba:
1. Cuba
2. Cay Caulker and the Blue Hole, Belize
3. Volcano Hiking (Pataya, Guatemala and Maderas, Nicaragua)
4. San Blas (Wish we could have stayed longer!!)

It has been a while since we wrote. We have had ups and downs but mostly a positive experience to date. The best news of the week is that our money has been returned to us from the bank after our problems in Guatemala. We are stoked!!

We have made our way through the south of Central America stopping briefly in Honduras and Nicaragua. Our beach time that we had planned did not turn out as our timing for Caribbean beaches was not that great. We were in the middle of the rainy season and typically a big storm hit that lasted for about two to three weeks!

We got to experience football mania Honduras style when they bet Mexico in a world cup qualifier this was a lot of fun.

It was then onto Nicaragua where we took in a few colonial towns but the highlight here was definitely Ometepe Island – a twin volcanic island in the middle of a lake. We chilled out here for a few days and got back to the grass roots – culture, people and a great walk up one of the volcanoes. This is what we had been lacking and really enjoyed the experience.

After Ometepe we made our way into Costa Rica. With high expectations initially it didn't disappoint! Monteverde particularly lived up to its name … a cloud forest with lots of activities including hiking, canopy walks and ziplines. We also took in a tour around a banana, coffee and sugarcane plantation, which was very interesting. It was then onto La Fortuna where with much persuasion Victoria managed to convince Marcus that going to the most expensive hot spring in town was the way it should be done. Tabacon's 5 Star Resort was idyllic. We spent an evening enjoying the thermal wonderland and a sensational buffet dinner.

It was at this point that things started to change again. We were on a bus from La Fortuna to San Jose when we were stopped at a bus station. I had my head out the window checking that our big packs didn't disappear from the compartment below when all of a sudden I heard Marcus talking to someone … not politely either! I turned around and my day bag (with everything imaginable in it) was on it's way out the back door of the bus. Lucky for us Marcus spotted it when he did, ironically the guy just calmly gave the bag back – he was a professional! Loosing that bag would have been catastrophic … passports, money, camera, computer etc. It was a wake up call that is for sure!!

We caught up with Marcus's brother-in-law in San Jose and collected our replacement credit card … we were officially up and running again now J. It was neat to see family and a great way to spend our time in San Jose (not a particularly nice city).

Our plans after La Fortuna continued to change … with bad weather patterns over the country and our desperate need for some sun and relaxation we decided to splash out and head for a Luxury Eco Tent Camp in Corcovado National Park. Rated as the best park in Costa Rica and with the prices to boot. It was isolated and people can only arrive to the area by plane or boat. We came by boat and settled in. We had a great spot with sea views, a lovely beach, hammocks, monkeys and even red-tailed macaws. Our luck changed again on the first night when while we were at dinner the tents were raided and we had a whole lot of our things stolen. Everything was replaceable it was just the hassle. Victoria's camera and toilet bag our masks, snorkels and dive computers and a day bag were the main things – ironically the toilet bag was the most annoying – we were literally in the middle of nowhere and here for five nights – medicine, sunscreen etc it was all gone. Lucky for us we had uploaded all our photos before we left San Jose and left most of our stuff there – it could have been a whole lot worse! It left a bad feeling though and added to our stress load – it wasn't turning out to be the relaxing break that we had planned for. The following afternoon was spent with the police making a statement. The staff at the camp had been nothing but helpful and think it was quite an effort to get the police out there. We had our documentation for insurance purposes and tried to carry on with our time at Corcovado with our chins up!

The following day we headed into the national park on a guided tour. It was really interesting and our best sighting was of a Tapir … a really unusual animal with a funny nose – it's closest relative is an elephant but it looks more like a pig!! On our return to the campsite we had some fantastic news. The police had caught the man who had stolen all our belongings and a little girl had found my toilet bag and zoom lens discarded in some bushes. The rest of our belongings we would be able to retrieve from the police station in town when we left the national park. When do you ever hear of something like this happening? We were very happy people!! We were able to enjoy the remainder of the time in a lot better spirits – a weight had been lifted off our shoulders! A day of diving and a final day of relaxing around the camp before taking a boat back to town and civilisation. We were escorted by the manager of our resort back to town which made communication with the police a whole lot easier. We got everything except for Marcus's dive mask back … not bad going and it was all in the same condition it got taken in – just a little muddier!!

Our time in Costa Rica was coming to an end which we were pleased about. We had a couple of lazy days in San Jose before heading down to Panama.

Panama was a highlight. With only three nights here we managed to pack in so much. We had the culture of the Kuna people an indigenous tribe on the Caribbean coast and then enjoyed the San Blas Archipelago but wanted so much more time there … our own personal island for a day!! It was total bliss!! We also took in the Panama Canal visiting the Miraflores Lock to see how it operated and really enjoyed the old town of Casco Viejo – very much like Havana Veija in Cuba.

We are now in a small town north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil called Ouro Preto and are making our way to our Christmas spot at Buzios on the coast through tonight and tomorrow morning.

Love to all
Victoria and Marcus

Happy New Year! Dec 31st

Hi All,
Happy New Year to everyone. Hope you have enjoyed celebrating where ever you may be in this world of ours.

We are on Ilha Grande, Brazil.

Have a great 2009 ... we will keep you posted on our goings on!!
Love to all.
Victoria and Marcus

Cuba boatride

Trials and Tribulations from Guatemala November 19th

Hi Everyone,
It is us again! I hope this email finds you all well.
Our trip since last time has definitely developed and not in the best way. After a wonderful time in Belize we have been dealt many trials since arriving in Guatemala. But that is what travelling is all about, isn't it??

We had a wonderful time in Belize. A real 'rusta' vibe where the people are so friendly and the pigeon English a laugh to listen to.

We spent three wonderful days in Caye Caulker one of the islands off the coast of Belize City in the Caribbean Sea. We did a snorkelling trip off a sailboat and on one of the days dived the Blue Hole. This was a really interesting dive. It was deep, we went down to about 40 meters (Marcus to 43m and Victoria to 41m) at which point we had these amazing stalactite formations just hanging from the side of the wall. They were huge (about 20m in length) and we got to swim in behind them and looking back out into the mass of blue was quite a sight! The other two dives of the day were more normal wonderfully intact corals that we had not seen before and tropical fish life.

Since arriving in Guatemala we have continued to fill up our days. We started in Tikal another ancient Maya archaeological zone just passed the boarder before moving onto Flores. It was here that the trouble started. An ATM ate our card and we have had USD2000 taken from the account. They are very cleaver!! At this stage the bank hasn't come through but we are crossing our fingers and our toes. We have spent mornings in police stations filing claims and have just organised all the paperwork to be sent back to Sweden.

We have tried not to let it affect us but our moral is a little down at the moment. We have pushed on and continued to see all the things that we have wanted to. We booked a bus up to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan taking care to select a safe option as there are many problems with hijackings etc of local buses here so when a chicken bus turned up to take us up there we were not so impressed. To be fair we really enjoyed the local experience and everything was fine we were lucky apparently a bus is hijacked every eight minutes in this country.

Guatemala is such a beautiful country. The scenery is superb and we have managed to enjoy the highlights - from a boat ride on the Rio Dulce checking out the lush vegetation to climbing an active (lava flowing) volcano outside of Antigua. We enjoyed some time up at Lake Atitlan and took in the sights of local villages and Guatemalans around the lake before returning to Antigua a quaint colonial town with cobblestone streets.

We booked our bus to leave Guatemala to Honduras at 4am this morning but that was cancelled at 8pm last night we were running around town trying to sort things out. The words of the song "I want to get out of this place if it is the last thing I ever do" keeps popping into my head! We are booked on another one for 1pm today fingers crossed. It has meant we have managed to sort a few more things this morning and get this email out.
Sorry for the negativity, I have just re-read the email. Chins up we are moving onward and looking forward to some beach time on Utila Island. I am sure the next email will be a lot more positive.
Love to all.
Victoria and Marcus
PS. We have posted new photos check out the website http://www.travel.rameke.com/

Back from Cuba Nov 4th

Hi Everyone,
We are now back from Cuba and will make our way down to Belize over the next couple of days.
We had a fabulous time in Cuba and had some travelling companions on this leg, which made it all the more enjoyable. Jo S from home (NZ) and her friend Alicja.

Where to begin? Cuba is such an complicated country and one that I don't think we will ever be able to understand!

We arrived in Havana and spent the first couple of days in the city checking out the sights.

It really is a country stuck in a time warp of sorts. A trade embargo with the US since the early 60s and the Socialist government of Fidel Castro has prevented any real change to the country since then. The cars are lovingly restored Buicks, Pontiacs and Chevrolets and pose quite a sight and you move along the streets of Havana.
We should mention the encounter with the 'little green men' when we walked up to a monument the wrong way lets just say we had to give over passport numbers and about an hour later after their superiors had visited us we were let on our way Klesson learnt and a lot more weary of 'little green men'!
We got into the local national peso currency early (Cuba works with the dual currency basically one for tourists and the rich (Convertible Peso CUC) and one for the rest of the nation (National Peso CUP)). With one CUC set at the equivalent of GBP 1.00 it was a very expensive place to be in. The National Peso helped us considerably this was set at 24:1 and we were able to take bus rides for less than the equivalent of one cent and eat a pizza for twenty cents and a soft serve ice cream for five cents Vic's kind of heaven!
The diet here has been well interesting because of the two hurricanes that hit late August and early September there has been a very limited supply of fruit and vegetables the local markets that we visited were pretty much empty. The national dish consists of beans, rice and root vegetables. All of this we were not able to buy without a ration card. Yes it is a ration card state. It doesn't matter if you are a newborn or 60 years old you have your monthly entitlement of coffee, rice, beans, milk, bread, meat and sugar. For us to get any of these products from the shops you needed a ration card. We were however in most cases able to buy bread you had to time it right and be flexible with what sort of bread you wanted the round buns were often off limits for us, they were only available to card holders. We did all right but are really over bread now and looking forward to the selections on offer at the supermarket in Mexico.
After a couple of days in Havana we took an overnight bus down to Santiago de Cuba and worked our way back up the country from there. We took in lots of sights and got into the local transport, however between states we were limited to the tourist buses. One of the highlights was being able to stay in local families Casa Particulars (like a bed and breakfast but for us without the breakfast because it wasn't included). Our Spanish is improving as little English is spoken in Cuba it has been really good for us in this respect. Our favourite city has been Trinidad. Nestled between the Sierra del Escambray and the Caribbean a wonderful natural setting. The town itself is quaint and compact with cobblestone streets filled with horse and carts. The houses are all beautifully restored with locals relaxing in rocking chairs under the leaves.

We had our best beach day here too. We took bicycles out for the day and headed to the beach was a lot of fun. Our other beach days were hindered by torrential down pours (Varadero) and wind (Cayo Levisa) - not a lot of fun!

To be fair we have been very lucky with the weather considering the season just unfortunate on those occasions. We also took a tour from Trinidad into the Topes de Collantes national park and did a hike to some waterfalls as well as learning about the native flora and fauna of the area.
The most scenic part of Cuba for us was the Vinales region (the tobacco county). Wedged spectacularly into the Sierra de los Organoes mountain range this valley highlights not only the dramatic rocky limestone outcrops (mogotes) but also typifies the architecture of Cuba's traditional farms and villages. This area had been particularly damaged during the recent hurricanes so we left it until the end of our trip. The people have bounced back and a lot of the farmers we saw were slowly rebuilding their houses and most getting back into some sort of normality. The tobacco was being planted and we took a walking tour around the valley and got to visit a farmer's house and see how the cigars were made. We also took a horse ride deeper into the valley, which was awesome.

Just to let everyone know we have also done a bit of rearranging of our trip plan. We have decided to cut out most of Brazil and Venezuela. This chops two months off our original itinerary we were perhaps a bit optimistic with our original plan and are a bit worried about the moolar lasting the distance. It means we can leave the northern block of countries in South America for another time.
Well that is about enough from us for now, hope you made it this far. We hope all is well with everyone.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandad Booth sorry we were not there to celebrate with you we were thinking of you from Cuba! xxoo
Love Victoria and Marcus
PS Photos are up under Cuba and hopefully a movie under Movies check them out - http://www.travel.rameke.com/

stairway to heaven

Is there where Led Zeppelin got their inspiration from, asked Victoria's dad Ken in Lake Como, Italy

Made it to Mexico! 27th October

• Hi Everyone,
  
  Boy does time fly! We have just arrived in Mexico City!! The planning didn't leave much free time but we are still just going with the flow!
  
  With not too much set in concrete until February we are ad-libbing our way through Central America (along with those infamous hurricanes)!
  
  Our Africa Highlights:
  
  1. Hot Air Balloon in Maasai Mara - landing in the migration.
  
  2. Reaching the summit of the roof of Africa - Mt Kilimanjaro (5895m).
  
  3. To spend time with a family of Mountain Gorillas - with only 700ish left in the world we were very privelidged to have this experience.
  
  4. Chobe NP
  
  5. Victoria Falls
  
  
  Back to our fleeting visit to the UK. We were met at Heathrow by Robyn and Ken with a welcome sign as well!!

Then it was off to Sutton to enjoy the company of Audrey and Eric (unfortunately the time here was way too short the next year off will definitely allow for more catch up time!!). Thanks to all of those that turned up at our catch-up drinks in London it was wonderful to see you all (and some great surprises!!).

Italy has been great. We have had a wonderful ten days there. It has been nice to enjoy the luxuries of being in one place for a period of time (and some of Vic's dads cooking of course!). The first week was spent in Lake Como and we had visits from Marcus's brother Peter and our friend Martin. The time was spent enjoying the lake and its villages. We even managed a day trip into Switzerland (albeit only briefly).

The last few days were spent on the coast in the Cinque Terre region and we were joined by Marcus's mum Irene. We took walks along the coast between all five villages enjoying plenty of coffees on route!! We headed north from where we were staying at Deiva Marina to Portofino and witnessed how the other half live, some of the super yachts are just incredible.

Our photos have been uploaded (they are a lot more excessive this time but many people shots!!). Movies of our time in Africa can also be found on our website under the sub-album 'Movies'. Enjoy!!

We hope all is well with everyone and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Take care
Love Victoria and Marcus