The Last Post

OK, the blog is never going to have a complete account of the trip. If you're still watching it, don't bother anymore.

The (Cl)egg that hatched

A beautiful egg had become deputy Prime Minister (the Prime Minister was a Snake) of the Oak tree and all the birds were excitedly speculating on which species of bird it was. All of the parakeets on the low branches thought it would be a beautiful golden parakeet. The condors wanted a startling yellow Andean Condor. The Bluetits and Greattits hoped it would be a speedy Goldtit. The Sparrows hoped it would be a small amber Sparrow. The Eagles hoped it would be a huge golden Eagle. The Owls hoped it would be a swooping bright yellow Barn Owl.

However the woodpeckers on the middle branches were worried it would not give electoral reform, for they wanted Proportional Representation and the Prime Minister had offered only a referendum on the Alternative Vote system, so they resolved to peck on the tree as loudly as they could in front of their meeting. Blackbirds hoped for a lovely Goldbird. The Vultures didn’t care. On some of the higher branches, the tree snakes hoped the egg would be kicked out of the Fat Cat’s nest.

The tension built as the egg started to crack and the entire tree wouldn’t dare blink for fear of missing the moment. They stayed up day and night. On Friday they waited. On Saturday they waited. On Sunday they waited. Until on Monday a head popped through and slithered out... It was a Snake too!!

Aleph's Amazonian Adventure part 2

Clue to what Ecuador was like: one of our no.1 favourite countries.

We passed through a couple of towns then took an overnight bus, a 3 hour pick-up ride and a 3 hour ride in a motorized dugout canoe to the rainforest - the amazing Amazon rainforest! We were sleeping under palapas in mosquito net tents, about 25m away from the river. On our first jungle day we went for a awe-inspiring hike 2 hours into the jungle and back. On this walk we were taught about the plants and animals in the jungle, such as a tree with really big roots that if you bash hard on the roots it sounds like a gunshot which can be heard upto 3km away. It is used if you are lost or stuck in the jungle, as people who live there will come and find you and lead you to safety. Another tree, if you cut it with a knife, it will let out a substance called 'dragon blood', which is good for small cuts and mosquito bites or putting two drops in a glass of juice will help an upset stomach (but you must never drink it neat or you will get worse). There are many medicinal plants in these countries, but mainly in the jungle. The tribes who live there have a lot of knowledge about all the plants that can be used to help cure diseases. There are trees that can be used to make canoes and shelters as well as types of fruit and other stuff that provides food for people and animals. In the Ecuadorian Amazon it is illegal to cut down trees and the government is working hard to stop any illegal logging. The part of this vast rainforest we visited had 900 ancondas in this area - but we didn't see any. The animals we did see we several species of monkey (including one we saw 5 of, and we were lucky to see one as it is endangered), a sloth, mackaws, toucans, a brilliant show of pink dolphins, many tarantulas, a few frogs, a 20cm long cricket, a snake called a picaflor and many butterflies, in particular a huge beautiful blue one called morphos. One night when my mum was going to bed before she switched the torch off she noticed someting strage on her mosquito net. It was a beastly spider which lifted its front legs, put its fangs out and walked right at her very aggressively. She described it as 'the most evil looking thing' she'd seen in her life, about 20cm in diameter with legs as thick as an adult's (human!) fingers. The type of spider it was, was a Wandering Spider, which doesn't have a home but wanders around looking for prey to hunt. The one she saw she identified as the Brazilian Wandering Spider, which is THE DEADLIEST SPIDER IN THE WORLD!!!!!
We also visited a tribal village and learnt about how they live and the crops they cultivate. We observed them make jungle bread out of a simple root of a certain plant called manoic (like cassava). It was really tasty - especially with jungle jam! We also visited the shaman in a different settlement. A shaman is the spiritual and physical doctor and each village has their own. He talked about how he learnt what he does and also how he helps the people in the village. He also gave each of us in turn - including me - a healing ceremony.
After the Amazon trip, we moved on to the Ecuadorian capital, Quito. It was really cool there. We visited a repile house which had a collection of snakes and poison frogs, including a green vine snake and a coastal boa (which we were allowed to hold and have photos with). Quito is at high altitude so it is a bit hard to climb stairs without getting out of breath. It is the world's second highest capital city at 2850m, which is about 3 times as high as Snowden! What is even higher is Mount Cotapaxi, which is the world's tallest active volcano. The top is covered in a glacier, despite it being very close to the equator. We hiked all the way up from the car park (at 4500m) to the glacier at 5000m. It wasn't THAT far but it took us a long time because it was so hard to breathe because it had less than 60% of the normal amount of oxygen in the air at that altitude. We had a snowball fight on the glacier and fell around laughing smashing snowballs round each others' heads! It wasn't half as difficult walking down, then we did mountain biking down the volcano down to a lake. In the minibus on the way back to Quito, we had a horrific accident when an out-of-control bus hit us. An ambulance came and took me, my mum and one other person to hospital (everybody else just had scratches on them). My mum had concussion and hurt her leg - the biggest bruise and lump known to man. I had chunks of glass in my head which they painfully pulled out in hospital. We are fine now - well my mum's leg is still a bit sore.
We also went to the Equator and did some cool science experiment there - like balancing an egg on a flat nail exactly on the equator and watching water go down the plug either side of the equator and exactly on it (on the equator it went straight down, in the northern hemisphere it went anticlockwise and in the southern hemisphere it went clockwise - which is the same way as hurricanes and syclones spin in the different hemispheres). Then we had fun trying to walk along the equator with our eyes closed without falling off it or doing a 45degree turn - which was something hard! I stood with one foot either side of the equator and LOVED having half my body in the northern hemisphere and the other half in the southern hemisphere!!!!!
We met some brilliant people in Ecuador - hello to Holly, Gemma, Claire and Simone!
We had some more fun in Quito and then crossed the border into Colombia.

Aleph's Amazonian Adventure part 1

We arrived in the southern hemesphere. In Lima. We just had our yellow fever jabs before we went futher South to Ica, but we left striaght away to Huacachina, an oasis in the real desert it was quite a relif to be there after al the action so we stayed there a few days in which we climbed a sand dune (50 - 75m) to see a magnificent view (see pix 4). On our last day we went sandboarding in the desert! First we practised on a 20m dune, but next we moved on to a 40m one. Then a almost vertical 50m! It was ultra-cool! I always went down on my tummy, but other people went standing up for the first one. After that we moved on to Nazca where we saw the Nazca Lines, which are baisically crazy, 1000yr old lines in the desert (see pix 5). Next to Cuzco to see Machu Picchu, a Inka (S. America equiverlent of the Mayas) citadal in the sky (balaced on a mountain top) (see pix 5)! We took the train to the bottom of the mountain, which was a excitment because we havent had a train journey in 8 months! Peru is big. We wanted to go to a border crossing to get to Ecuador, but we were stuck several 12hr bus trips throgh places we didnt want to go away. So we flew to tumbres, a beach 10mins drive from Ecuador. It was nice and we saw a Stick Insect, but invested with some kind of 3cm in length beetle that couldnt fly very well so would fall out the sky on to your head. Grrrr!
See next posts for Ecuador
Peruvian Hot Chocolate is great!

No more deforestation!

Deforestation leaves the world vunerable to natural disasters.

Deforestation of mangroves in Burma lowered defences from the recent cyclone, allowing its tidal surge to pass towards mainland. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and mangroves really stop it, don't they? Well, yes, their enormous roots slow down massive waves and the dense forest acts as barriers to help protect what lies beyond them, inland.	Mangrove swamps in Celestun, Yucatan peninsular, Mexico
When a tsumani hit the island of Sri Lanka, in a village protected by mangroves only two people died, but in a different village on the same island WITHOUT mangroves 6,000 people died. It will be similar in the Yucatan peninsula now that over 60% of the Yucatan's mangroves have been cut down for hotel developments. As soon as the next hurricane hits, waves could travel for miles on end as the Yucatan is very flat and barely above sea level, and the tourist industry would be destroyed. It's true, when the next major hurricane hits the Yucatan - it will be very destructive.	The beaches of the Yucatan are beautiful but tourist developments have destroyed 60% of mangrove jungles
In the case of Hurricane Stan in 2005, which produced clouds that stretched for hundreds of miles and caused massive rainstorms over Guatemala, deforestation was also the cause of devastating landslides. At Lago de Atitlan (Guatemala) there had been massive deforestation to plant crops, so when the storm struck it caused massive landslide, SWEEPING AWAY AND BURYING WHOLE VILLAGES!!! To make matters worse, the soil was poor, weak and difficult to grow crops on. If the forest was still there this wouldn't have happened. For instance, in the Mirador Basin jungle (Guatemala) the rain made rivers of mud, but didn't sweep anything away because of the tree roots holding everything in place.	Desforestation at Lago de Atitlan led to devastating landslides The Mirador Basin jungles stretches for miles and is the only virgin rainforest in Central America
In conclusion, forests are essential to prevent soil erosion, which can result in DEVASTATING landslides and mangrove forests will protect coastal areas and rivers from tidal surges, tsumanis and floods.

Pacaya volcano pix

Big black Volcan Pacaya
















That's a big stream of lava - and rather close!

It may look set - but the white is quite hot...






















... hot enough to cook toast on!

The coolest mum in the world up a volcano!

Looks even bigger from here - and more misty!

Los MEGGSicanos

Here is my Easter invention. I alone present you......THE MEGGXICANS!!!Just dont let them out in day-time or they will get fried in the sun (what sun?) (In England???).

Another VOLCANO

Yet another Volcano, and every time I go up one it becomes a even better, more exciting, higher rated wondor and I always think it cant get better, but it does!!!! Now i am absolutey posative that NOTHING is better than marching through beautiful woods to a huganitic black field, contaning a sizeable hill with a fat (OK, ridiculously massive) jet of steam pumping out the top into the color-matching clouds. So the best bit was...........A FLOW OF LIVE LAVA!
CROSSING OVER PATHWAYS!!! MELTING ROCKS!!!!! CLOUDS, OVERHEAD FLYING DOWN AS IF TRYING, AGAIN AND AGAIN, TO SQUASH THE 3,000 METRE HIGH VOLCANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUNNY FOODS?

Sabritas crisps flavors!!





New - Roast Chilli, Red Chilli, Green Chilli, Dried Chilli

Old - Chilli & Vinigar, Cream Cheese & Chilli, Chilli & Salt & Lime, Chilli & Salt, Chilli & Lime, Chilli & tomato & Much, much, more .

In Flores we threw hollow and painted egg-shells at each other as Guatemalans do as a tradtion!

Did you know that in ANYWHERE in Mexico you can buy a fruit salad or a corn on the cob, but if you asked for without Chilli the sellers will think you are mental. " W...without......Chi....Ch.....Chilli ? Are you sure ? "

" Are you crazy ? Are you out of your mind ? "

Aleph's Aztec Adventure part 5

Shortly after Volcan Pacaya we left Guatemala and went to Mexico. Here is a brief blog what we did in Mexico~

First we went to Merida, via San Cristobal De Las Casas and had a blast with Helen (who we met at Lanquin), watching Flamingoes at Celeustun and building sandcastles at Progresso beach. Thats saying nothing about
visting Uxmal (pronouced oo-sh-mal, a Mayan wonder with an odd pyrimid (ALL other Mayan temples are made up of 7 layers, each split halfway by the steps, but this one was curved like an oval) (pix of EVERYTHING in next post). Secondly proceeded to dreamland on Isla Holbox, a lush Island with mangroves, paradise beaches and cristal water. Thirdly we went to Cuba (!), and if you thought you knew cool cars and elegent buildings you aint seen nothing. After that we hit Tulum, Mexico to meet Kate (who we met at Lago De Atitlan) and make sure that my mother woke up to the sound of the sea in a cabaña on her bday with a cake carved out of sand on the doorstep saying happy bday on it. Cool! Then we were off to fly to DF were our passports got stolen, delaying us by 3 three weeks! But in that time we camped out (listing to rattlesnakes in up in the mountains, tho they never come down) at Tolanantongo, a river in the semi-desert serounded by several towering mountains. Obviously it wasn't just any old river! No. Where the trace of civilization and camp site is where a hot stream joined on (Its a hot stream), making it lovely and warm and also jam-packed with chalk, making it a beautiful shade of light blue, in addition to the tempuratue. The stream just happen to hit the river in a shallow, steamy cave where you can paddle. It is also possible to swim in the pools which is fantastic, you can touch rocks and feel the limestone powder brush off! The camping was fab too - at night in front of a fire (built by me) and falling about laughing at funny jokes. The fire was fun too, we bought some wood and I collected twigs and palm leaves (no substaince burns better) so I could easily make a fire that could be lit with one match! Next we were off to Eco-Alberto where we had a "caminata noctrunal" or a crazy 4hr night time trek in the semi-desert! This was in memory of the people who die in the semi-desert near the mexico/america border because they dont have enough food or water or get captured by the border police. On our walk over rolling hills and through under-the-road tunnels we were chased by the fake border police who were shooting blanks at us and yelling in english "come out with your hands up!" or "their are lots dangerours animals here!" (my mum agreed "yes, there are, like amerians for example"- no offence - "like border police" would have been better, some americans are really nice) it really was quite fun (and funny too-"it is really dangerous in the river - the river is full of lizards" hahahahaha) um...... well... exciting is a better word for sure. We arrived back at the campsite at 1 in the morning and went to bed (in tiny tent) straight away. Boy, am i glad we bought 7 jars of marmite with us(!) because marmite on bread was for breakfast next morning. At EA there also a cool zip-wire we went on. Finally we flew to Peru from DF.

Aleph's Mayan adventure 3.5

Some of the rarest ceatures on the planet live in the rainforest, for instace in the Amazon baisn their are Anacondas (a species of snake) which are the largest snake in the world and they are not found anywhere else in the world.
The Mirador Basin is the only stretch of virgin rainforest in Central and North America and is home to the largest number of jaguars anywhere in the world. When I was in the rainforest I saw other creatures such as: stinging caterpillars, tiny frogs, keel-billed toucans, turquoise military mackaws, spider and howler monkeys (more like howling monkeys!), leaf-cutter ants and too many blood-sucking ticks. However I didn't see in the rainforest crocodiles, alligators and snakes. Thankfully I didn't see the fer-de-lance snake, one of the most dangerous snakes in the world and the most dangerous snake in the rainforest. The other species of snake which I am glad I didn't see were pit vipers and rattlesnakes, well vipers altogether as they are all venemous. These snakes can kill within a few hours if yoiu do not get immediate medical treatment. Never put your hand into a hole or pile of wood in the rainforest as these are nests of vipers!
More parasite plants can grow on one single tree in the rainforest than there are species of tree in the average english forest! An example of a parasite plant is an orchid.
I know most of this because I was lucky enough to spend 5 days and 4 nights trekking through the vast and muddy rainforest to do the most extraordinary thing I’ve done in my life. It probably wouldn’t have been half as extraordinary if I hadn’t walked 76 km through the rainforest to get to El Mirador, an ancient Mayan civilization, and 76 km to get back. We camped out in tents at night (with spiders scuttling round them) in a clearingin the rainforest that did not have running water so if you wanted to take a shower you had to take a bucket of freezing water from a swamp and pour it over you behind a bamboo screen. We cooked most of our food on a campfire outside. The extraordinary thing I did was climb up the biggest pyramid in the world (which is La Danta at El Mirador in Guatemala) to watch the sun rise high above the jungle canopy and emergent. We got up at 4am and went up the 290m high temple in our pyjamas! It was 76km from the nearest village and we watched the trees appear in the mist and their leaves grow brighter as the sun began its daily ascent in the distant green horizon. It was singularly the best sunset or sunrise that I have ever seen in my life!

Aleph´s Mayan Adventure part 4

After that long hike we went to relex in Lanquin. A place near Lanquin, called Semuc Champey, is gorgeous place with small mountain or big hill either side of it (a gorge), one of which you can walk up - but saying walk is a bit misleading considering I sprinted up then down barely breaking into a sweat and stopping for only 2 mins at the top to see what Semuc Champey really was. It was a set of azure pools with miniture waterfalls inbetween. All we wanted to do was go down and swim in them, which we did - with the fish! The pools looked a beautiful turquoise because there was limestone at the bottom of the pools which makes the light reflect back through the water. The pools are on top of a natural limestone bridge which water runs really fast beneath. We also went one kilometre into a 12km cave flooded with water. The only source of light was the candles we were holding. Have you ever tried swimming into a dark creepy cave by candlelight, trying not to let the candle go out?! A little further downstream where the pools flow into a river, you can go on a rope swing attached to a tree over the azure river and stop for a moment in mid air feeling a glorious sensation, then you fly back to the bank with the wind whistling through your ears. It was the best swing I have ever been on in my entire life!

Then we went to one of the most dangerous cities in the world (Guatemala City or Guatey for short). We were lucky not to see any trouble and we found it a nice place. When we were there we went to 3 museums. the first one was the Natural History Museum where we saw snakes but most of them were asleep or not moving, very unfortunately. We also went to Museo Popol Vuh which has Mayan artifacts in, including a copy of the Dresden Codex. The Dresden Codex is one of the last 4 remaining Mayan books. It was full of hyroglyphs and numbers (the Mayans had dots and lines as their number system). There was also a lot of 2000 year old pottery and it was extraordinary to think that this pottery had survived for some many centuries with hardly a crack and still really colourful (though some bits of pottery were in more than one piece!). The other museum we went to was the Anthrolopology and Archeology Museum (anthropology is the study of people, or in this case ancient people). This museum had some of the few remaining pieces of Mayan jewellery made of jade and gold. It also had lots of stellae which were massive stone columns that held up the roof and are covered in carvings of rulers and nobles.

Aleph´s Mayan adventure part 2.5

My birthday at Tikal - cake for breakfast with the guards

Up Temple IV above the jungle canopy - woo hoo!

Me and the coolest mum in the world!

Temple II at Tikal - we were on that wooden fence at the top

Temple III rises like a skyscraper above the trees

Aleph´s Mayan Adventure part 3

The Mirador basin!!!!!

The Mirador basin is the last strech of Virgin rainforest in Central America and in the middle of it is the Mayan sites of Tikal, El Mirador, El Tintal, Nakbe, El Peru and more. The Mirador basin is massive, invading a fair chunk of north guatemala and south Mexico, this vast, tropical jungle also contains the lagest number (300-400) of Jaguars out of any mass of land in the world. Our subject, this mighty jungle homes not only Jaguars, but tens of nines of eights of sevens and so on of birds such as tocans and macaws, not to mention spider and howler (more like howling!) monkeys. Lets not foget scare loads of snakes (vemonuos or not)


cool pics of the Mirador basin :

Me and my mum at El Tintal - 26km into the great jungle and very high above it!



















Jungle swamp at El Tintal


















Aleph at El Tigre pyramid , El Mirador, 76km into the mighty forest. The lump of trees near my hand is Nakbe, the blueprint for El Mirador, 12 km away



















Sunset on El Tigre pyramid, El Mirador




















Campsite at El Mirador



















Sunrise from La Danta, the largest pyramid ever built in the world (and that includes Egypt!). It was amazing because we were so high above the jungle canopy with toucans and mackaws flying beneath us. We watched as the trees far down below grew lighter as the rose on the horizon.





















Structure 34 at El Mirador





















El Mirador before ...



















...and after!



















For more information, go here
http://www.miradorbasin.com/Resources/gallery.htm

Aleph`s Mayan Adventure part 2

We hiked into the JUNGLE in northern Guatemala for 5 days to El Mirador, a lost mayan civilization. I went half the way on foot and half on horse. It was 76 km each way. So I trekked 38 km each way. We camped in the jungle at El Tintal camp and at the camp at El Mirador. The first time we camped out at El Tintal which was on the way there (we camped there again on the way back) we had gone up the main temple there and watched the sunset. On the way back, when it was dark, my mum spotted unknown snake which was reddish brownish running away from the path which i was on. It was about 40 cm long and 1 cm wide and moved in the most squiggly way possible, like snakes on sand do. she nearly peed on it! (which is why she was at the side of the path and a little way behind me). After that we were VERY careful as there were lots of venomous snakes there such as the fer-de-lance, rattlesnakes and pit vipers. When we got to El Mirador in the afternoon we rested and then in the evening we went up Templo El Tigre to watch the sunset (weddidnt watch the whole sun set because we didn want to go back in the dark again. So the next day we got up at 4am to climb up the biggest pyramid or temple ever built in the world(!!!!!!!!!) to watch the sun rise. We saw keel-billed toucans, turquoise military mackaws, spider monkeys, howler (or rather howling!) monkeys. other people saw more than a glimpse of some other snakes!

no More About Tikal!!

I sorry to say that i will have to put more about Tikal i my next post because the internet cafe is closing. sorry again

Aleph's Mayan Adventure part 1

Antigua is an absolutely lovely place. It is picturesque ... although it wouldn't quite beat Sochitoto or Leòn in a beauty contest! There was a big eye-catching yellow arch with a clockface in the middle of town which can be seen from all along that street. To me, if Antigua had a special mark to recognise it by, it would be this arch. If you stand one side of it you can see a volcano through it. If you stand the other side you can see just blue sky. You may have heard there is no winter here. There is a dry season (now) and a rainy season (May-October), which is full of rainbows as the sun is out at the same time as it rains. It does not cause too many problems unless you are on top of a mountain or in the jungle where it would be extremely muddy and full of much more mosquitoes than usual.

After Antigua we went to Livingston via Puerto Barrios where we took a boat from as there are no roads connecting Livingston to anywhere except a few nearby beaches and settlements too small to be villages. We were meant to stay at Livingston for two days, but instead we left on our fourth. We went three times to one of the nearby beaches called Salvador Gaviota where we went swimming. You can go quite far out because in the Caribbean Sea it is very shallow. The second day we went there we kept on going to the Seite Altares (7 altars) waterfalls which is where they used to film Tarzan Films. It was most beautiful and we wanted to go swimming but it was late and we had to go back. We travelled to Rio Dulce by boat through mangrove swamps and a canyon.

We went to Finca el Paraiso waterfalls. The waterfalls are hot water, warmed by hot sulphurous rocks. It would have been much to hot to swim, but the water falls into cold water pool which is part of a cold river. Behind the water falls there is a small cave about 2 metres big and you can go inside and see the green chemical deposits on the extremely low roof. We went in there three times and I would have liked to stay in longer but it was hard to breathe because when the hot water mixes with the cold water it makes a lot of steam. My mum had a really bad cut on her foot and the sulphur water cleared out the infection. Then we went in a boat up a different part of the river through a canyon that towers 250m above the water level. There were 2 caves up there and we went in both with my new headlight which was an early birthday present.

After that we went to Flores which is jam/packed with tourist and everything is tourist/price (extremely expensive). It is a very small town on an island in a lake, connected to the mainland by a causeway- like Tenochtitlan, but modern day! On my birthday (6 February) we went to the Mayan ruins and temples at TIKAL! We climbed 2 temples and examined many more. The view from the highest one (which is one one of the 2 that yopu can climb and is one of the ones still covered with plants and trees) was amazing / you are far above the jungle canopy and emergents and can see the tops of the other huge temples. This one is the highest because it was built on a big hill. The best was to describe the view is to be looking over a city with mainly normal sized houses with a few skyscrapers sticking out only it's much better as it is temples sticking out of a jungle that was not there 1000 years ago (the time of the Mayan empire was strongest and biggest). I will tell you more about Tikal and the Mayans next time. I just want to say that it was the best day of my life! Since I have learnt so much about the Aztecs and Mayans, I will very soon start a project: Great Empires of Mexico and Central America.

I am also going on a 6 day jungle trek, including time spent exploring the archaeological sites of the Mayan cityies of El Mirador and El Tintal! I will write a post as soon as a come back!!!!!

Aleph's Central American Adventure: El Salvador 2

Back to El Salvador.
We went to the south coast and then went to this island called Isla de Meanguera. At this island two normal things are missing - neither i missed - one of them is cars the other...Mosquitoes!!! woooooopeeeeeeeee!!!!!! NO MOSQUITOES!!! NONE!!! The only vehicles are 2 water supply carts and a couple of excavation trucks.
We slept in rather uncomfortable hammocks on a terrace over the sea with the stars above us. We arrived by boat to island Meanguera and went to sleep almost straight away. The next day we went to a deserted apart from us beach. I built sandcastles and we went swimming in the sea. The next day we went to the same beach only instead of going there by boat around the island. we walked there by land and got completely and utterly lost in the baking heat. But from the top of the hill we had to go over on the way we could see the western parts of Honduras, the south of El Salvador and some of the north western parts of Nicaragua. When we got to the beach we neededto jump in the water straight away as we were boiling hot. We did jump in the water the second our swimming costumes/shorts were on us. We jumped out again shortly later when we realised that some jellyfish had had babies there! There were thousands of small green jellyfish with white tentacles and when they stung it felt like a needle-prick that lasted for a minute.
When we were leaving at 5 am in the morning (the only boat goes to the mainland at 5am!) we were woken up by a man on the beach blowing on a big shell that made a very loud noise, like a ferry horn. He wakes the whole village up like this every day so that no-one misses the boat.
There is one school on the island and some of the children have to walk 2 hours across the island to go to school and back every day. On some parts of the island, children have to scramble up a huge cliff, which we climbed up one day and it was exhausting! The primary children use the school in the morning and the secondary kids use it in the afternoon.
After that we went to San Vicente and Sochitoto which were a really nice places with welcoming, friendly people. Sochitoto is a lovely town with white colonial houses next to a lake which was a beautiful shade of green as it has lots of aglae in it at this time of year. San Vicente was not as beautiful but it had some of the friendliest people I know in it.
After that we went to Antigua in none other than the one and only GUATEMALA!
But you will find out more about that next time and next time will be pretty soon, oh yes!

Aleph's Central American adventure Nicaragua 3

After we left Omotepe by boat we headed towards Las Peñitas. A fishing village with a big beach, absolutely brilliant for surfing with a lagoon almost completely blocked off from the sea by a 7 mile island with a turtle reserve. When the tide goes out, almost all of the water gets drained out of the lagoon into the ocean and you can wade across a few streams to get to the island - but it's a bit dangerous because of a strong current pulling out the last of the water. We went across and held one of about 25 baby turtles that had been hatched that morning. They looked exactly the same as fully grown turtles only a lot smaller and darker (it fitted into half of the palm of my hand).

On Christmas Eve we went over to the big beach to watch a picturesque sunset (we had arrived just a few hours before). On Christmas Day we went out kayaking between the island and the mainland. This part of the lagoon was more like a river with mangroves either side. Further up, the other end of the long, rectangular island, people say there are alligators - and I have no reason not to believe them! Then we had a Christmas dinner of ... spaghetti! (where are my roast potatoes mum?!). We were joined in the Christmas dinner by the geckos, as we were every evening. (Geckos are small lizards that like to crawl along the walls and eat mosquitoes in the evening). After dinner we went onto the smaller beach by the lagoon and had a bonfire with some other people, one of whom was from England. The next few days were spent splashing in the surf, body-boarding and swimming. We had another bonfire on the beach which I organised on the 27thDec. On New Year's Eve, after we had dinner (the best omelette I ever had in my life!), I went to sleep in a hammock for a few hours. I got up before midnight and I hung around chatting to some people and trying to light a big bonfire I built. Then we had some fireworks and a big party on the beach. Then I succeeded in lighting my huge fire with sparklers.

A few days later we left Las Peñitas and headed to the nearby city of León. We fell in love with León as you could look down the street and see volcanoes, there are some really pretty multicoloured churches and all the houses are one storey high and painted crazy colours like bright pink, vibrant blue, sparkling yellow and violent red. There's one very strange thing about León ... every morning an air-raid siren (which was used when the government was bombing León in the revolution and the US-funded Contra War) goes off to wake the whole town up at 7am!!!!! And then it goes off again at noon to tell everyone to lie down in a hammock, have a break and some lunch - a SIESTA! a FIESTA is a PARTY, a SIESTA is a BREAK/AFTERNOON NAP.


This is a mural in the middle of León. It is Sandino (the Nicaraguan revolutionary) stamping on Uncle Sam (a character that represents the United States - US are the initials for both), with a background of the colours of the Nicaraguan flag. The Nicaraguans were fighting for freedom from the US, then from the government and the National Guard, and then in the US-supported Contra War when the National Guard made a comeback paid and trained by the CIA. The Sandanistas wanted Nicaragua to become a fairer place with freedom, justice and socialism. However, Nicaragua is a very poor country and still has an extremely long way to go towards making sure everyone has a fair life and enough food to eat.

One of the things that they are doing is promoting fair trade products, which are produced on farms where it is more equal and fairer. For instance, they don't use child labour and the conditions on the farm and the money they pay is substancially better than conventional farms. Please make sure you and your parents remember this next time you're in the supermarket!!



This is a picture of Cerro Negro volcano which we climbed and saw this view in in REAL LIFE! This a photo of one of the 2 LIVE craters. This one is shaped a bit like a C, and the other is like a sink with a plug in. You can see the steam which is mixed with sulpher. It smells like rotten eggs - in other words ... IT STINKS! You can see bright yellow and white rocks which have changed colour as sulpher has been blowing on them for quite a while. We walked along the ridge you can see at the top, which was very scary as there was a strong wind, and looked into the other crater (you can see the base of it on the right hand side). From the top of it you could see the volcano chain which goes around León, including Volcan Telica which was spurting gas up into the sky as usual! How did we get down you hay ask? We skated down the far side of it, lauching ourselves at extreme speed from the top of the ridge! It took us an hour to get up but only 3 minutes to get down! Our guide Carlos was really cool and he said that a 62 year old man had the best time for getting down - 1minute 30 seconds.

Although we loved León (and would love to go and live there one day) we left Nicaragua and went to El Salvador where we are now. We will stay here for 10 days then go to Guatemala for 5 weeks - including San Pedro spanish school, the Mayan ruins of Tikal and El Mirador and nocturnal jungle hikes! Oh boy, you'll love what's coming up next!!!!!

Aleph´s Central American Adventure Nicaragua 2

The people who built teotihuacan (the pyrimids of the sun and moon).

Who were they? nobody knows, but what people do know is thatthey left Mexico in seach of a lake with two Volcanoes in it (like the Aztecs looked for a eagle stadiing on a cactus teotitlan means " the place of the prickly pear cactus" quite convinsing don´t you think?(Nicaragua is a lake with two Volcanoes in it) we too nade this journey to the island of Omotepe of which holds both Vocanoes. We climbed half way up the inactive one which is coverd in jungle and mud up to an breathtaking veiwpoint.

Aleph´s Central American Adventure Nicaragua 1

La Laguna de apoyo (a crater lake in Nicaragua) how cool is it? ultra-cool!!!!! We are staying at a spanish school lodge on the edge. I am and my mum is learning spanish 08:00am to 12:30pm (4 hours) with a half hour break at 10:30am. Every night Lewis (somebody else that is staying here and unfortortunately is leaving on sunday morning) goes on a snake hunt (usually wlth me!) in the huge jungle surrounding laguna de apoyo. On 14 hunts he found exactly 30 snakes.

This pic is of a completly harmless snake which i love to hold. It is called a pacific long-tail.









The brown and yellow one is a brown vine snake. It is a bit more than a meter long. It is mildly venomous but not enough to kill a human. It was very aggressive because we woke it up and unlike most snakes it is not nocturnal but diurnal.








The 2 snakes I am holding in the photo are false coral snakes. The red and black and white one is a red false coral and the other one which is just black and white is a black false coral. The coral snake is deadly venomous snake. There is no anti-venom - if you get bitten you will die. However these false corals look similar to scare off predators (such as an eagle), but are completely harmless.


The highlight was finding this boa constrictor. The boa had come down from his home in a tree to go hunting for small animals such as lizards or mice. We found him lying down quite still on a dusty road with his tail tucked into a bit of undergrowth by the side of the road. It was about 1.25 metres/approx 4.5 feet. We had to hold the boa's head because it could have bitten us. Although it is a non-venomous snake, it has very sharp teeth and a bit would be painful.


Lewis also found a snake very similar to the pacific longtail but different in several ways. For instance it has a red tummy and an incomplete, narrow yellow band round its neck (see the photo to the left), whereas the pacific longtail has a cream tummy and a thick, full band round its neck (see the photo above). It could be a previously undiscovered species of snake! If it is, Lewis gets to name it! He could call it the Lewis Longtail!



Another creature he found was this cane toad. It has swollen itself up to appear larger and more scary because it is a bit scared of being held. It has grands at the side of its head that squirt out deadly poison if it is bitten by a predator. It is a rather ugly creature. In the photo you can see Lewis holding it.
more pics beneath
Adios amigos!!!

Aleph´s Cental American Adventure El Salvador 1

San Salvador is a bit of a weird city. They use american dollars and speak spanish with a strange accent. The city is split into two parts - the rich and the poor. One (the rich bit) is a bit rubbish with lots of motorways and fastfood places and it doesn´t have any culture - but it´s safe. The other (the poor bit) is so cool with a hugantic market with loads of loud latin music, general craziness and noise - and it can be dangerous. However, wherever we go, the Salvadorean people have been really friendly and nice.

Last night when we went for dinner a mariachi band played really loudly in the restaurant we were in. They looked a bit like this!

Today we went to see a place called Joya de Ceren. One August evening in the year 595AD, shortly after dinner started a nearby volcano erupted. The residents of Joya de Ceren evacuated, leaving their dinner unfinished. Volcanic ash buried their town and preserved all their buildings, equipment and crops - just like the city of Pompei where there was preserved bread from the time Vesuvius erupted over a thousand years ago. This gives us unique details how part of the Mayan empire lived. In Mexico, the Mayans and the Aztecs never met, but in El Salvador the Mayans and the Aztecs were in contact and often traded goods.

Tomorrow we are going swimming in Lake Ilopango, which is a crater lake. A crater lake is formed when a volcano collapses after a massive eruption. In this picture you can see an island which is a valcanic cone within the crater lake. The lake is the remains of Volcano Ilopango, whose massive eruption buried Joya de Ceren!

lists of.....

Places we have been to (in order):

• DF (Mexico City)
• Cuanavaca
• Morelia
• Uruapan
• Lazaro Cardens
• Xihua
• Acupolco
• DF again
• El salvador
• San Salvador
• Nicaragua
• Laguna de Apoyo
• Grenada
• Laguna de Apoyo again
• Grenada again
• Omopepe
• Grenada again
• Managua
• Las penitas
• Leon

Cool things we did:

• Watch people climb up and dive off 45m cliffs!!!!
  
• See a football match in the Azul stadium Cruz Azul (blue cross) vs. Pachuca (the name a small a town) of the ! We wanted Cruz Azul to win and they thrashed Pachuca 4-0 !!!!!!
  
• Climbed up the temple of the sun (a huge pyrimid) 70m high. What a view!
  
• Expored the Cloud Forest on top of Volcan Mombacho.

Aleph's Aztec Adventure Part 4

Beaches, sea and a scary Mantaray!!

Lazaro Cardens:

Loads of fields of Palm trees, a ocean of sea, big beach and bundles of entertainment. We spent a day there building moats, sunbathing & swimming.

Great fun! but it got better!!!!!!!!!

Xihua:

We went to a Lagoon for a day just a quick boat trip away it was like the last place only more fun. The next day we went on a even shorter boat trip to a beach when we got there I went into the water after about 5mins of jumping around I decided to do something else: charing at the waves and what did I charge at in the sea?:a terrifing Mantaray. Heres a pic I found on the web.

I didn't bother working out what it was i had fogotten anyway. I luckily had a quick reactoin to spare my legs couldn't have carried me any faster I ran for it waving my arms and sceaming. Later on my mum said it looked like a sceane out of Jaws (a programme about a Shark) lots of laughs.

More about that encounter next time

Pic of me on Noche de los Muertos (Night of the Dead)

Deathly marriage!!!!!