I'm Back In Australia

Hello All

Well I've made it safely back into Perth after a tiring 26 hour flight from Buenos Aires, to Cape Town, to Kuala Lumpur, and then finallly Perth.

Its lovely to be home and seeing Erin again. I'm currently in the process of unpacking and washing all my clothes etc.

I hope you've enjoyed my blog, now that I'm home I wont be updating it any further.

The next time I use a blog will probably be on my next adventure overseas.

Cheers everyone for follwoing, hopefully I can see you all soon in person and have a beer and share a few tales.

All the best

Craig

Iguazu Falls

I've recently spent some time in Iguazu falls, I've just finished uploading the pictures so feel free to have a look.

Getting to the falls was a bit of a mission, it was a 20 hour bus jounrey from Buenos Aires. I left at 2pm on Friday and arrived at Iguazu Falls at 10am on Saturday...... Then I started running around the aprk looking at the magnificant falls from all sorts of different vantage points as you'll no doubt see from the photos.

The falls were awe inspiring and I got saturated as I ventured close to the falls on a few occastions. I spent about 6 hours in the park and thoroughly enjoyed it, well worth the 20 hours on the bus.

On Saturday evening I flew back to Buenos Aires and got in just after midnight. So all in all it was a whirlwind trip but definately worth it!!

Craig

Cotopaxi volcano

On Tuesday I visited cotopaxi volcano at 5600m. I got to 4800m which is a new record for me.

The volcano last erupted 128 years ago, historically the volcano has erupted every 100 years, so its 28 years overdue.....

After climbing to 4800 we descended to 3500m and then jumped on mountain bikes and rode down the mountain to 2000m.

The road down the volcano was quite slippery and the brakes werent the best so it lead to an interesting ride. I hit a patch of sand at speed and came off and hit a pole. So I'm now limping around with a deep bruise on my thigh and a strained groin muscle from the impact.

So my city tour today was a bit of a challenge as it involved a bit of walking or more hobbling.

Tomorrow I fly off to Buenos Aires to start the last part of my trip, and a visit to igwazu falls.

Not long before I fly home, only 4 days left.

Hasta luego
Craig

Photos from the Galapogos Cruise and the Diving are Available for viewing

Ladies and Gents

The long awaited photos from the Galapogos cruise and the diving are now available online, so feel free to feast your eyes on them. I have far too many to put online so its only a snap shot of the sights that were beheld. Alot of the photos from the Galapogos cruise are from a fellow traveller, Sheila from Vancouver Island in Canada. We swapped alot of photos, I traded my underwater photos for her close ups.

I hope you enjoy

I am now back in Quito, it was sad to leave Puerto Ayora and the Galapogos, it was such a chilled out way of life that I really became accustomed too.

I´ll have to start trying to ween myself off afternoon siestas, its gonna be tough...... And I might have to ween myself off of Caprihina´s too (a cocktail made from alcoholic sugar syrup, lime, vodka, and brown sugar) ummm they are tasty!

Tomorrow I am off to Cotopaxi, a large snow capped volcano to do some downhill mountain bike riding. I start riding at 5000m above sea level and finish around 3000m, should be a bit of fun!!

Then on Wednesday I´m off to visit the equator and do a touristy city tour of Quito, should be interesting.

Thats it for me, check out the photos.

Hasta Luego
Craig

Hammer heads, yeah baby!

I went diving again yesterday (sat 29/10, first dive was thurs 27/10) with scuba iguana, this time out to Gordons rock for 2 dives.

Wow the dives would have had to been some of the best I've ever done! There was soo much diversity of fish, sharks, turtles and sea lions it wad amazing

The currents were supposed to be quite strong, but on the day they werent too bad.

The first dive was fantastic with soo many tropical fish everywhere, I was completely surrounded. There were massive sting rays, large, green turtles everywhere, and we even found some painted crays.

One of the highlights of the first dive was a massive school of baracuda, maybe 500+ fish which cruised past. It was like a moving silver wall of baracuda, awesome! We also were lucky to see a school of about 16 spotted eagle rays swimming in formation, looked like they were flying. But the absolute highlight was seeing 2x hammer head sharks about 8m away swim past as we were doing our ascent. The sharks were about 3m long and moved soo gracefully from side to side, great to watch.

The second dive we stayed at gordons rock cause it was good on the first dive. The second dive was even better with a school of 12x hammer heads coming in close and circling us. We also had large black tip reef sharks come to check us out. Awesome, I could have watched them all day long if I had the air....

Sea lions were around on the second dive and it was great seeing them herd up fish. They were so agile and playful underwater. One came right up to my mask and then glided around me.

A manta ray made an appearance on the last dive but unfortunately I missed it....

I really recommend diving in the galapogos to anyone who's keen on diving, its amazing!

It's sad, but I only have one more day here in Puerto ayoro before I head back to the main land of Ecuador.

Anyways breakfast is calling, hasta luego.
Craig

Diving at bartolomea and cousins

Today I went out diving with Scuba Iguanas for 2 dives, first to bartolome in the morning, and the second to cousins in the early afternoon.

I got a bargain last minute price of $165 for the 2x dives, all gear, and food and drink on the dive.

The first dive to bartolomea started off a bit slow and shallow at 5m for a quick equipment and skills test, then we moved deeper to look for critters. It wasn't long before we saw green sea turtles and white tipped reef sharks, plus the plethora of standard tropics fish.

My main hope for this dive was to see a manta ray and it wasn't long before a massive one came gliding by soo elegantly. The manta was about the size of a vw car, huge. The ray moved so slowly and gracefully through the water, it was a pleasure to watch.

After 60 minutes we ascended and jumped back on the boat for morning snacks. It took us about 45 minutes to motor over to cousins dive site, the water had started to get a bit choppier.

It wasnt long into the cousins dive that we see a group of green turtles feeding on the weedy bottom. Such beautiful animals! The bottom at cousins was like a pyramid, with defined steps going deeper into the water. There were turtles everywhere at this dive site....

We were also lucky to see a big school of spotted eagle rays cruise by. The school would have been about 20 strong. It was great seeing the rays swimming in unison, it looked like they were flying.

We saw the standard white tipped reef sharks and tons of the smaller regular tropical fish such as angel fish, parrot fish, trigger fish, etc

So all in all the two dives were great! The dive masters were good, with clear instructions in English. And the food on the boat was good.

Unfortunately I didn't see any hammer head sharks but there is still saturdays diving to come....

Hasta luego
Craig

Ps ill upload dive photos when I get back to quito in a few days time.

Adventures in Galapogos

I've just arrived back on shore in Puerto Ayora after spending 10 days cruising around the galapogos islands. The islands were amazing and I loved living on the boat and spending soo much time on and in the ocean.

The daily routine was pretty standard, awake and have breakfast at 7 am. Then do an island visit and hike around 8:30 for an hour or so. A snorkel either from the zodiacs or the beach followed at 10am. Lunch back on the boat was a 2 course affair at midday. An afternoon siesta normally ocurred from 1-2 then we were off again on another island hike and explore followed by another snorkel. Back on the boat around 5 for snacks and afternoon drinks. Dinner was 3 courses at 7p, and most nights ended quite early afterwards.

There was soo much life to see in the galapogos. Seemed that everywhere you looked there was something new to see.

I had many great experiences, swimming and playing with sea lions, watching green sea turtles graze on sea weed, trail a white tip reef shark as it patrols for food. There were also many terrestial experiences which I highly value, watching blue footed boobies, galapogos hawks, frigate birds, albatrosses, giant land tortoises, marine iguanas, land iguanas and many other animals.

I've got 5 days here in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz before I fly back to the main land and Quito. I'm off scuba diving tomorrow and Saturday. Hopefully see some hammer head sharks and manta rays.

Well its time for my afternoon siesta, I hope your all doing great :).

Huesta luego amigos

Craig Carpenter