Overnight train from Bucharest to Budapest

I have actually been on an overnight train journey a few years ago with some friends. From Cardiff via Crewe and caught the London – Fort William sleeper train. So I knew what to expect….. to an extent. This journey was across Eastern European borders, and so I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than I would be crossing the border at 5am and iWork’s need to show my passport. Below I have added a link from my instagram account with a short video of when I first arrived in my compartment. I had the compartment to myself, The cabin Stewart said to look my doors and he would wake me up at the border. So I duly did it’s I was told and munched my way through my train picnic, watched the passing countryside til darkness, then tucked myself in around 830pm. It took me a while to get off to sleep, but sleep I did, as next minute there was a heavy knock on my door, I had no idea where I was, so gathered my thoughts and added some layers on as once the door was open it was flipping freezing, whereas I’d been like toast prior.

Ten minutes later on came the Romanian customs, with their bright torches, and requested my passport. Flicking through it, they found the page with my entry stamp and then handed it to second officer, who said, been to many places lady? Yes I said, started to say something else, then thought three better of it!!!!
He produced a stamp from his waist wallet and stamped me out of Hungary. I admit I’m not the sharpest tool in the box when it’s 5am…. I thought that it now, I can go back to sleep. So, off I did, I tripled locked my door and was in rocking the zzzzzz quit3 quickly, only y to be woken up 15 mins later with another knock on the door, yes, you’ve guessed it, the Hungarian customs officers, same procedure , super efficient, stamp and off they go. So, I felt certain that that t. Nope, two security guards with a dog and a sweep thing, got me out of my bed, for the third time…and this time I had to step out into the corridor whilst they did their cursory sweeping. Finally, back to bed. I set my alarm for 30 mins before we arrived in Budapest only to realise that the hour changed when I crossed the border from plus 2 hours to plus 1 hour, so could have had longer in bed.

I have to say, I felt completely safe, and will it again when the timetable permits.

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I try to choose hotels that meet my criteria and are close to the train station, I get a stretch of keg and some fresh air. I use map.me for orientating myself around the world. It works off line. It does take a few seconds to calibrate, not with standing that, it’s my go to app, it saved my bacon when I drove across the Namibian desert, so if it can do that, that’s good enough for me. Just make sure yoo download as you arrive in your next location, which reminds me, Wi-Fi , it’s everywhere, I feel so connected, too connected sometimes 😊

Budapest like. Bucharest was still unseasonably cold and wet, I planned for the worst case on the weather front, four layers and a waterproof 👍

one of my last memories walking around the city was the number of stag do’s from the UK I came across. Loads. I a,so saw loads of bridal shops and dressmaker/tailor signs. I got chatting to a lady in a shop about this and she said that Hungary had a reputation for wedding dresses, who knew.

I tend to book a free walking tour for my first day ato help with my orientation, as well her ar the perspective of a local person. I again pick up three same themes of identity, nationality and social stuff. The same as I did in Romania, but in Hungary, it was more pronounced..

Thermal baths were high on my things to do in Budapest, to be fair, I went to the large one on the Pest side of the city as well as on the ladies only day in Buda. All easily accessible by their fine metro system.

The Pest thermal baths were much larger than the Buda one, but the Buda building was far superior. In the Pest baths, I followed the instructions of outside first, then into three inside g where the pools were gradually getting hotter and hotter, til it was time for the sauna. In I went, red turban on to prevent my hair from frizzing, I sad down on the lower benches thinking I would make my way up gradually. I guy who sat next to me, git up and went to sit on the middle tier, and that’s when I realised, everyone was naked there…………… I didn’t know what to do, so I sat there for a further few minutes, and rolled my shoulders back and walked out. The final pool was the icecold water plunge pool, I didn’t feel a thing, I just walked in, I’m putting it down to the shock of the sauna, I can never unsee that man’s meat and two veg 🥹

I used the Metro so much in Budapest, I found it easy, so it meant I could go and visit places like the Village museum. Which is similar to our St Fagans in Cardiff, except you couldn’t enter the buildings like you can in St Fagans.

The only thing that’s worrying me now is that I have a stamp my passport entering Hungary, but when I travelled to Slovenia 🇸🇮, no such border controls happened, I have crossed a further two borders since then, all very relaxed . Anyone got any thoughts ?

bye for now, and thank you for your kind messages, I enjoy writing the first thing that comes into my head.

European Cities Tour by train

This time last year, EU Rails were celebrating 50 years as a company, along with encouraging people to travel again by train, they were offering a 50% discount off a a month’s pass. I’ll have some of that I thought. 

So fast forward a year, and here I am, given it a go, German train strikes,  and some parts of France as well as having to accommodate rail replacement on certain lines (no change there to home then 😊), I made the decision to fly to the furtherest point East on my travels and start making my way back west.

When planning my trip, my thinking was to be based as close to the sights I was interested, so in the case of Bucharest, in I wanted to be based close to the old part of the city. I found an apartment just on the edge of the location, access was via keypad, details of which would be forwarded to me on th day of my arrival. I tend to book accommodation when I’m in the airport departure lounge and know that departure is certain. I’ve been caught out so many times on previous travels, due to delays, this works for me. 

You can probably work out what happened next, no keypad entry details were forwarded, even though, I sent 7 messages in total. Still the optimist,  I thought there might be a bell to ring when I got there, or someone might be waiting for me etc. Short answer, a resounding No. What happened next will remain with me in a good way, for a long time. I went into the local bar and asked if they knew the owner, one guy did and offered to ring them, no reply. ( I tend to translate a few phrases on my phone so I can draw on, it was most helpful on this occasion) A couple of young policemen were outside, asked if everything was ok, they tried to ring the owners. Again no reply. 

The policeman suggested I look for other accommodation as it was getting really late (240am by now) they walked with me and showed me several hotels, all were either full or eye watering expensive. I saw a Marriott logo out of the corner of my eye and headed there. By now it was close to 3am….. 

there was a queue of people checking in and I was hanging, eventually my turn came. The people at reception said that they close down their tills at 3am and I would have to wait 20mins ………….. I was not a happy bunny, but there was something in his tone of voice that suggested something…….so I didn’t have a strop. At 3.05 am he said I can check you in now, and then he said, as it now our next day of trading, you won’t have to pay, for last night, so I basically had 4 nights stay for the price of 3. 💪

As a location, the Moxy was brilliant, close to all the museums, squares and metros. Thoroughly recommend it. 

Next day, I familiarised myself with the old and new parts of Bucharest, went on a walking tour, and started to pick up some common themes of Identify, change and belonging for the people of Romania. Some older people have lived through so much change socially, it’s tough figuring out what they align themselves too.

Romania is divided into 3 regions with Translyvennia being one of them. Took an early morning trip to visit Bran and Peles castles. Bran being made famous by the Dracula films. That’s where I discovered Romania decided they wanted a king back in the 19th century ! So a member of the German royal family put himself forward ! Obviously when communism came in, the family fled and eventually ended up in America. Think the current generation is an academic in an American university.

I always though Goulash was a Hungarian dish, however, Slovenia also lays claim to it too. Although the Hungarian version tasted far more flavoursome. It’s to do with the way they process their paprika, they smoke their peppers first. This ties in with the many border changes the part of the world has experienced in recent history. Austria also lays claim to the dish, I guess that makes sense given the Austria-Hungary empire.

The Hungarians are very proud of their wine, although, I have to say I didn’t find one that blew my socks off. Maybe ye reds are better, being a white wine drinker.

One of the big learnings for me on travelling this way is to read up on stops along the train route and if something grabs your interest, either catch the earliest train and spend a few hours at the place or even stay over.

My initial thoughts was to draft my blogs whilst on my train journeys, I have to say, it’s been a very social experience so far! 

What I can’t get over on my train travels is the unbelievable amount of cargo transported by rail. It’s impressive. 

If anyone is interested in a city break with a difference, Bucharest is it, it’s very easy to get around, the metro is very easy to navigate a round. It’s not in the Euro zone, so you will need a Monzo or similar card. It’s also very safe.

One of the most fascinating places I visited, over and above the massive government buildings etc was their Romanian Village museum, which is on the lines of St Fagans in Cardiff. Where they have brought a 100 buildings from all over the country into one place. You don’t get to see side the buildings like you do in St Fagans. 

It’s my first over night sleeper train tonight, so watch this space 🥹

First train with a restuaruant car, feel I need to experience this 

Zambia & Botswana

My lasting memory of Zambia, was of all the laughter I heard in the streets and inside shops. Like Zimbabwe and Namibia, speaking several European and indigenous languages is again the norm in Zambia. There are 72 recognised languages spoken in Zambia, phew! 

Walking along Livingston high street, I saw a lorry with a loads of people on the back, many of them singing. Couldn’t quite figure out what was going on as it can’t be the most comfortable of journeys. Mitch turns out that’s how people get to funerals of their families. Singing plays a big part o their grieving.

What you will see on practically every street corners are small businesses that specialise in car wheel alignment. Now I am not saying that the roads in Zambia have a lot of potholes, what I am saying there is a great lack of tarmac on many! 80% of roads in Namibia are gravel, so a 4×4 jeep truck Is essential.  Any rains just churn up gravel roads, as a result, it seems cars need to have their wheels realigned a lot! 

After speaking to a warden in the national park in Zambia, I will never moan about the rain at home.  His excitement of hearing I was from Wales ( he went to a national parks conference a while ago) he said, ah you have ‘good rain’ in Wales. I wish we had your rain here. Ok,  so from now on, good rain it is!

If you live within a 5/8 mile radius of the Victoria Falls, you experience a unique micro climate. Misty rain most afternoons as the day gets hotter. An umbrella is an essential item along with torch. No street lights ! 

If you are wondering where Russians are taking their holidays now, given they don’t have access to most of Europe and west world, it Africa, I’ve met loads of them.

After spending a few days in Zambia doing a lot of  walking , I crossed the border to Botswana to spend a few days in Chobe National Park. Between the four national borders of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia and Botswana, there is a series of no man’s land, where all sorts go on and wild life freely roam I saw loads of  baboons and warthogs and a few snakes. Given lots of industrious Zambians cross the border to Zimbabwe with bike full of veg and fruit strapped on their bikes in the most precarious of ways, with the amount of pot holes, veg fall out on a regular basis. So if this happens, don’t walk between a warthog and it’s lunch as I did, as they get mighty upset with you. A lady yanked me up onto the steps of the border control office in the nick of time! And as it was raining I went flying on my backside, caused some giggles amongst the ladies. 

A taxi drive by the name of Aspire picked me bless him, and again he was originally from Zimbabwe. What a great name again. Entering Botswana was so slick compared to Zambia and Zimbabwe, all vehicles had to go through disinfectant baths, all humans had to walk through a foot Bath. Culturally, it felt really different here, it seems the government was supportive of small businesses and really worked hard on ensure they had their share of tourist £$€. 

I took three types of safari in Botswana, a river safari, a jeep safari and a walking tour on the edge of the park, learning how to read the different dungs, how old they were etc, along with animal foot prints.  It was probably the most fascinating walk I had been on. Both jeep and river safaris were more red letter days. 

After a few days r and r, I made my way back to Windhoek and I had arrange for Knowledge to pick me up at the airport. When I was at baggage reclaim, a Chinese guy started chatting to me. Now I didn’t think much of it at the time, after we claimed our bags, walking through to arrivals he asked if I wanted to share a taxi. I said I already had a taxi booked and he was welcome to share it. He said thank you. Outside, Knowledge my taxi driver was waiting for me , and I said that I had offered a Chinese guy to share my taxi. Knowledge said, no Miss Ena,I can only take one person. I thought he looked weird  when he said it, but didn’t question him,  I apologised to the Chinese guy and he went off to find another taxi.

When I got into the taxi, Knowledge went onto to explain that if he had taken the Chinese man, when we got to police road controls, we would have had to empty the car of all luggage and searched . And if he was found to have animal tasks in his belongings, we would also be taken down to the station, I’m not saying he did have illegal baggage, but it’s interesting how all Chinese get grouped together.

I’ll sign off for there and look forward to hearing you comments. Cariad mawr xxx

Namibia part 1

Actually the title is a little misleading, as soon as I practically arrived, I travelled to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia! My passport looks like everything has been stamped in triplicate! I purchased the Koza visa  in Namibia which allowed multiple crossings between the four countries over a 30 day period. Just to give you a bit of context, Namibia is 40 times the size of Wales with barely any public transport. The plane and car are king. A big bonus for me is that I discovered that they drive on the left here like they do at home, as I assumed that given it was a former German protectorate, then driving on  the right hand side would be the norm. So that may well come in hand on this trip as I am not keen on driving on the right. 

Before leaving for Zimbabwe, I did a bit of walk around Windhoek. Not much to see other than a really good museum which charts the journey to independence as well as all the cultural aspects. And, all the different tribes and languages spoken in Namibia. Which is nothing compared to Zambia, where there are 72 different languages spoken! It’s quite normal for people to speak two or three European languages as well as a minimum of three local languages. It’s so impressive. I watched a coffee barista switch from Portuguese to German to English to Shona. It made me wonder if there is any differences to brain development because of this . Going to look into that more. 

Anyway, at a cafe, I got chatting to a group of ladies that were from Malawi. Once they released I was from Wales, it was like the Spanish Inquisition about Harry and Meghan and the the royal family! I said that I didn’t really have a view to be diplomatic………. They however took a day off work to watch the Queen’s funeral.The general view was, that Meghan was too strong a character for Harry, who they felt was a weak man and therefore influenced too much by Meghan.  They also think that Harry is not happy in America. 

So after our second cup of coffee, we moved onto why they were here in Namibia, turns out the higher education system is really good here in Windhoek and they brought their young people to university here and had settle them in. I ended up spending a couple of really enjoyable hours in the cafe with very clear instructions that Malawi should be next on my list of countries to visit, in particular around Lake Malawi. Ok ladies 😀,

So  next morning I flew from Windhoek to Victoria falls via Joberg. As we were coming into land, you could clearly see mist rising high into the air from the force of the water falls. Like Everest mountain, Victoria falls is not its real name, the literal translation of its real name is, The Smoke that Thunders, what a truly fabulous name, it’s spot on!

Something I do when I arrive at airports is if I can’t see a airport taxi company, (I know it’s more expensive, but it’s registered), if there are tour companies there with guides, who are collecting passengers for their trips, I ask them if any of them are passing where I’m staying and offer to pay cash. It works well, and I get a bit of insight too. So this is what I did this time and learned that they were taking their passengers to Botswana in a few days time for a couple of safari trips. Got their number and used that as a benchmark for comparison. I ended up going with them and it worked a treat. 

 But before that, there was a small matter of going to view Vic Falls. Mam fach, they are spectacular. There are 16 vantages points starting from the location that Dr Livingston first saw the falls to the complete reveal. Essential items include wet weather gear as it’s like it’s raining on the Brecon Beacons , it comes in waves, and so you have to time it right to get a picture or you get a right soaking ! 

I sat at the wettest but best vantage point with my hood up totally mesmerised by the falls .  Two thirds of the falls are in Zimbabwe and the remaining third is in Zambia. 

My experience of Zimbabwe is a sad one.  I get the sense that the country and people are quite broken. I was chatting to some young people who feel totally hopeless. One of them talked about how their parents who had put some money in their bank account, only to find that the money had disappeared.  It was a local bank.  Funnily enough a local taxi driver, said exactly the  same happened to him too. He now has only trust in banks from other countries.  The seems to be a complete breakdown in trust between people and the government…….. they see all this wealth coming into Vic Falls, but the majority of the locals don’t seem to benefit.

One of the most beautiful things of Zimbabwe was the names people had. One of my taxi drivers was called Knowledge, a guy I was chatting on the streets about the situations to do with the banks p, his name was Aspire, and a lady who helped me find a place I was looking for, her name was Mercy. But the best one of all was a toddler by the name of Happiness. I think their parents are trying to set the right time for the future generations. I hope so. So on that note, I’ll say Nos da til next time, Cariad mawr xxx

 

Costa Rica

Costa Rica 

My final destination was on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. In the district of Limòn. In the Cahuita National Park. Land of the Turtle laying, howler monkeys, caymans, large iguanas with thick tails ( more of them later) turkey vultures, ding frogs, poisonous frogs, loads of colourful birds and a few snakes…not nice ones. And to follow the trend of the previous countries, chocolate and coffee ☕️ 

To be honest I’ve experienced a few sections of the Amazon jungle already, so, I thought about what is different or unique about the country. So I decided to visit Cahuita National park on the Caribbean coast as part of the park is tun by the local community, it’s free for locals to enter the park, visitors pay a donation of whatever they like.. This kind of model really intrigued me.

My plan was to take three walks in the rain forest, once by myself to see what I could see by myself and two with community guides. Suffice to say, even with my lady binoculars, I hardly saw a thing.  I heard the howler monkeys up in the canopy, I think I saw a cayman. I did see crabs on the beach . I heard loads of birds, and recorded their calls so can identify them at a later date. 

So on my way back to my cabin after my first venture into the park, I’d had supper in town and was walking back to the cabin when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and saw a couple of capabaras playing tag with each other. I did take on board an important lesson when I was in the Amazon a while back, and that was to forget trying to take pictures, just drink in what you are fortunate to see, also, it’s very important to be aware of what’s happening around you. I did get a couple of photos, not brilliant. 

Later on that day I was walking back from town along the coast road after supper. It’s dark by 630 at night in this part of the world and sunrises around 0430 am .Picture the scene, no street lights, an orchestra of crickets, and hundreds of fire flies, I was smiling at all this magic around me when I distracted by the sound of the waves hitting the coral, it’s was roaring! And then I realised that even though it was pitch black, I could clearly see the white of wave as it was breaking, I looked up to see if the moon was playing it’s part in all this,  I was experiencing bioluminescence, it was total nature overload evening. I sat there for a good 20 mins just watching the waves

The income raised in this part of the park gets invested in the local community. I decided to take three walks into the park. One by myself and two with local guides. Chatting to locals about this approach made me smile, as most of them were in favour of it and felt it was a really positive thing, but there are always a few who feel disgruntled. Whilst I enjoyed myself walking along the trails in the park, I saw nothing, even with my binoculars, my 18-200 lens in my camera and specific signposted locations where I would be most likely to see certain animals, reptiles or birds. 

So got in touch with a local guide that was from one of the indigenous communities here. His focus was more on the medicinal properties. He was truly knowledgeable and also a good bloke to know in terms of what was safe to eat or not! 

Final guide, again from one of the indigenous community was totally across the wildlife. I saw howler monkeys ( and some of their droppings on my shoulder) sloth, water gliding toads, cayman, turkey vultures, too many snakes, and iguanas. He did say right at the beginning, if you see an iguana, to step 4 ft to its left or right . It wouldn’t harm you, but  if it gets alarmed it flicks it’s tail, and if you catch a slap from the tail, it stings a bit…. Duly noted I said. 

This was a 4 hour trek, and you concentrate so much on what is happening up in the trees and canopy, you forget sometimes to look ahead of you. I was aware of another party a few minutes ahead of me as I was chatting to them whilst waiting for my guide. They were wondering along by themselves. Whilst I was trying to figure out a yellow snake my guide had seen, I heard this noise quickly followed by a man yelp…. My guide looked at me and said, that sounds like an iguana slap. So we went to investigate and sure enough, there was a grown man in absolute shock having received an iguana tail swipe desperately trying not to cry. The rest of his family were in shock too, bless them. My guide asked if he could have a look at his leg, and yep there was the evidence of the swipe. I had some aloe Vera in my bag and offered it to him. It’s not life threatening, just more of a shock. Suffice to say, I was checking the ground from then on 🤨

The only injury I had was from small crabs whilst laying on my belly in the sand hoping to catch turtles  go lay their eggs. The crabs seem to take a fancy to my ankles, little buggers. Sadly No luck in seeing Mammy turtles doing their thing. 

When it rains, the Ding Frogs come out to play, they are called the ding frog, because they make a ding sound. I’ve recorded the sound, it’s a lovely memory. So as it rains most evenings during the rainy season, you get to see a different set of creatures. So I donned my head torch and went exploring in the natural gardens where I was staying,. So in my wisdom, I thought it was sensible to look at ground level for the ding frogs, the thing is as there were so many of the dinging in unison, I couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from. Walter the owner came to join me and asked what I was doing, I said recording the ding frog, and maybe get a picture. He said, look up my dear, they are in the branches very rarely on the ground. Ops! 

On my final day of my trip I treated myself to a chocolate wrap. It was a fabulous way to end a holiday. 

I met so many lovely people on my travels, always happy to chat. In particular in Costa Rica, I met a couple of brothers at the hotel, who were born on the site of the current hotel. Also, another lady Aton the shuttle bus back to the airport.My memories are of such kindness, lots of smiles and never in a hurry,. I Time does really fly when you are busy making memories. I will certainly return again to South/Central America. Thank you for being with me on my latest travels, I am now on 79 countries with more to come. So I am slowly getting there. Cariad mawr/ big love to you .

this cheeky little bugger pounced on his lunch a few seconds later.

I watched this guy skim across the water. So graceful.

Luckily this fella had recently eaten, so was chilling out. I couldn’t get over how well disguised he was.

It’s a hard life 😊

El Salvador

The night before I left Panama, I was sitting at the hotel bar having a fine g&t when an American couple rocked up. We got chatting about the weather, so no different to home then !!!

The guy asked where I was off to, and I said, to a local restaurant that had been recommended as a good restaurant serving Panamanian food. I followed by saying, better get my brolly’s as it’s promising more rain later in the evening. He took a sharp intake of breath through his teeth when he realised that I was going to walk to the restaurant. It was only a mile. His wife said, good for you. He was truly shocked that I didn’t have a driver. So I said to him rather naughtily, I won’t share that I’m off to El Salvador in the morning and hopefully Nicaragua if the covid enters requirements change (sadly they haven’t).  His eyes nearly popped out of his head…. I left the bar and said, most important thing to travel with is a smile, for anything else, there’s Mastercard. Oh and walk with purpose! 

So I have to be honest, in that I did let his thoughts hang over me for a while. I arrived at the restaurant, got a table and got chatting in my broken Spanish to the waiter about if he was eating here what would he eat etc so a fine selection of food was decided upon.   Chicken broth with root veggies was my starter, absolutely delish . 

A young waitress came to asked if everything was ok. Turns out the initial waiter was the owner, and she was the granddaughter. We chatted in English about stuff and what she was hoping to do once her college was done. It was so lovely to hear of her aspirations, particularly of wanting to spend a year in uni in Madrid. Then travel across Europe. So questioned me a bit of my experiences, and she asked what’s the best advice I would give her, I just talked about the importance of listening to your gut, developing that relationship with yourself, so it helps to keep you safe. I wished her well in her in her exploits. 

Early next morning I left for the airport, still with the guy’s thoughts in my head. I got so cross with myself, I recounted a memory from when I was a kid, we were all sitting at the dinner table, and were talking about something that had happened in school, and I said, Virginia Davies said this, whatever this was! Dor said, well if Virginia Davies told you to jump on the river, would you do it because she said, where is your thoughts in all this. So I smiled to myself, apologised out aloud to El Salvador for having such thoughts as I walked out of the airport. 

In short, I only had 4 days in El Salvador, but boy did I have a blast. The people are so kind. I was staying in the suburbs of the capital San Salvador, and was standing at a local bus stop waiting to take a bus into town to catch a bus to a town called Suchitoto. Like Panama, the dollar is the currency, however, the coins  are linked to their respective country. So I was trying to pay with Panamanian coins when I needed El Salvadorian coins…. Ops. Anyway, a lady I had been chatting to, grabbed her purse and paid my fare into town. It was like 10p. I grabbed a dollar note and insisted that she accept it for her kindness. We had a lovely little chat about where I am from etc which I have got down to a fine art now, as I have said it so often!

The lady got off and a gentleman got on and sat in her seat, again we struck up a conversation, he was carrying a pile of books and on his was to the local library. When I mentioned that I was on my way to Suchitoto, he said that I needed to go  another bus station not the one I was going to. So this lovely man not only directed me to the right bus, he came on the next bus with me, as far as he could and then told the bus driver where I needed to get off. Oh bless that man. 

lovely lady that paid for my initial fare. I bought her, her son and grandmother some f mango as a thank you.

spice or Salt or a herbal rub to add to your mango.

Never worry about whether you have remembered to take bus snacks with you in South America because people get oh and off every stop, where it’s water, fruit, nuts, plantains. But also there are guys pedalling medications that is supposed to protect people against covid. Not sure how I feel about that. As playing on people’s fears and parting with serious cash too. 🤬

Anyway Suchitoto is lovely old town, with much of it still in tact. It’s like a mini St  Fagans really. The best bit about it for me was Grandma’s coffee house. This cafe was the bees knees. Not only did they encourageV me to taste their different coffees, they explained the importance of not over roasting the bean, who knew! I tasted 4 small cups of different coffees, drinking them black, I had to have sugar in 3 of them, but the fourth one, I just loved, so now have four lots of coffee from 4 countries to share with you when I get home. 😊 the vibe in this coffee house was fab, i was so enjoying people watching. Just everyday life. Fab 👍 

Next day was going to be walking up the nearest volcano 🌋 which was only 30 mins from where I was staying. I was going to join a local walking group. Walking in warm rain 🌧 is a lovely experience, however, the guide was concerned with thunder and lightening would expose us. So after an hour, we (thankfully) turned back The lightening and rain was of biblical proportions, I have never been so pleased to sit in the safety of a coffee shop, soaking wet, steam raising off all of us 😊

the

El Salvador only has one coast line, the pacific, and its marketing itself as the place to surf. Again not far away from where I was staying, but traffic wise, it’s so clogged up. La Trunca rock (the trunk, as in tree trunk)so did not disappoint, when I saw the waves, jeez, death wise or what! I had booked a beginners lesson! Ha, your big girl pants needs to up front here!!! Loved the vibe here, surf dudes from all over the world were hanging out here. I counted 17 different nationalities. Americans being the biggest group. With lots of Israelis too. 

On my last night in San Salvador, I was walking to this lovely bistro I had found, and as I was attempting to cross the road, a series of black Range Rover type vehicles with sliding doors wide open and guys with serious looking guns crouching in the door entrances. Turns out. The President lives locally and was on his way out to a a concert in the football stadium. 

All I say about El Salvador is this. I am coming back 😊 if I am honest, the most danger I found myself in was crossing the road, they drive on the right, so have had a couple of ops situations 🤨 and the amount of fumes going in my lungs from walking along the roads and sitting in buses with all the windows open. 

Nicaragua didn’t work out, whilst I found a local PCR testing place.   I figured it would take much valuable time out. So my next Central/American trip will be Nicaragua, Honduras,  Venezuela and back to Suriname 🇸🇷 which I went to briefly 22 years ago. 

Onto my Final country now Costa Rica 🇨🇷 

Panama part 2

 

I like to feel when i leave a place, that I have at least the 4 corner pieces of a jigsaw, and the edges too for me to have a true sense of a place , the people and its culture .

So on my final full day in Panama, I took a walking tour with a difference. The tour company is a social enterprise and part of what you pay goes directly into projects in the district/barrio of Casco Viejo, roughly translated means the old helmet/town I walked around with Juan my guide.   I saw

some beautiful old architecture, mostly run down from the French period, I hadn’t realised that the French attempted to build the canal first, I also learned about the connection with the Caledonian canal too. So I am doing so more reading up on this topic. Local people are living in them, sadly they are slowly been squeezed out and the buildings being ‘gentrified ‘ Juan says. 

The term ‘the projects’ is used to describe the district, like in the States. The Walking tour company has a deal with all the street gangs (there are 23 in total) that walking tours can take place in the day but come sundown, Vamos! 

I saw scenes that were right off tv, where specialist drug teams were observing street life, loads of police officers. Naturally my camera was in my bag at this point 😊Juan said when there are police on there streets like we had witnessed, that meant there was something going to go down, so we retraced our steps and aimed for the next district.

On our way out of the district, I saw young lads being encouraged to play football and basket ball. There was lots of incredible street art, one in particular celebrated the number of successful boxers that had come from the district. 

The young lads changed out of their kit and boots  as they were kept at the stadium as parents often sold them so they could buy drugs and drink 😀. Education is the main outlet for girls which I felt was fine but they could widen the offer. 

What I experienced in Casco Viejo is repeated throughout the world I know. I was really curious to see whether they were breaking the cycle more than anything. Sadly no real solutions as yet. For the young lads, the training times were timed when lads were expected to ferry drugs back and forth. They offered food and access to watching famous South American and La Luca club matches in Spain too. 

One streef beyond the district, and you step into a boho world. The cocacola cafe. The only place licensed to have the signage outside the states. 

It was ha real throw back to the 1950’s and before. Like the old milk bar in Llanidloes actually. 

So I had to have a coke there as it would seem rude not to! And by then I was sweltering in the heat. 

I moved onto the fabulously designed Biomuseum at the edge of the canal and walkway. I spend a good hour admiring how the design of the building as even though it was around 32C, the roof design and overhang by the architect meant it was cool outside with lots of wind traps so when it rained there were raised boarders of hardy plants directly underneath, so flipping clever. It’s got a multi coloured roof and stands out a mile. None of my photos do it justice as you need to be on the board walk to capture it, which I intended to. However, as I am remembering, come afternoon in the wet season, a thunder storm happens a most days. 

Here’s a flavour of the district. 

Here is their website https://biomuseo.org/en/

I have a ring doorbell on my front door at home, with an app on my phone. So when I am on Wi-Fi, and the app rings, I take a look, it went off the other day , and there was my lovely friend and neighbour Wendy watering my plants. So we had a chat via the web cam, that was really surreal!

Moving onto El Salvador 🇸🇻 tomorrow. Looking forward to climbing some of the local volcanoes.

Big love to you all xxx

first building i see is a Masons lodge !

Panama

When I was waiting for my suitcase at the airport in Panama, this American guy walked up to me and said, you are from Wales right. My look of surprise made him add, well I studied politics in England and I figured as  Plaid Cymru is a political party of Wales.  I was wearing my Yes Cymru mask. We had quite a deep discussion whilst we waited for our  cases! 

I forgot to mention that it was Colombia Day when I was there, loads of Americans with Colombian heritage had made their way down to celebrate. I met up with several New Yorkers from Queens. In NY they celebrate in style in the bars. So they thought it would be the same in Colombia. It’s more of a family day here 😀ops. 

So they took to the beach to party ! it was an extra special party atmosphere at the beach. I think it would easily make for some kind of reality TV show ! Like Google box on the beach!

Panama is such a different country. The American dollar is its currency and you would be forgiven for thinking as you drive from the airport onto the city that you could be in any major American city. There are 70 banks here and loads of corporate businesses. I’ve choose a hotel as close as possible to the canal so I can cargo spot as much as possible ! 

My top things I like to do on my travels is taste the local fish, take a train ride  ( I am a secret train geek if honest, seat61.com is my go to website when I doing my research on a country). And then if there is a working river to sit at and watch the world go by, I’m in heaven! Panama offers all three 🙌

So as soon as I arrived, I dumped my bags and went down to the canal to get a feel of the canal. Thing was, there was this flipping fence in my way. I wasn’t expecting that. But I suppose in hindsight to be expected really. Then I saw a pontoon in the distance and it seemed open, there was no sign in Spanish saying do not enter, so I carried on walking and was trying to work out where the navigation points were, watching the pilot boats lining up at the back of the cargo ships and the pilot jumping onto the cargo ship to Pilot the cargo vessel through the narrowest of channels. Such a skill. 

So I was busy taking photos when up walked two River Police Officers, one male and one female. The female officer asked for my pass, I said I don’t have one. I’m just a tourist taking pictures of the canal, I couldn’t remember what pass was in Spanish ….She asked where I was from, I said Wales. In jumps the male officer, Ah Gareth Bale. He also named loads of other Welsh  players, I am ashamed to say I only knew one or two of the names he mentioned. 

So as they escorted  me off the pontoon, they asked for a selfie at the end! 

I tell you, when there is two incidents, there will be third!! 

I was feeling peckish by now so made my way down to the fish market. There are about a dozen stalls that cook that days’ catch which they get from the market behind them. 

The stalls are a muchness of a muchness to be honest. So I just go with gut. A young lad approached me with a menu, it seemed ok so I went with them. Turns out it was a mother and son business. She seemed to run a tight ship and she was making some fresh corn fritter s to go with the breaded shrimps I had ordered and she suggested I have pineapple juice to go with it. So i did, the way she skinned a pineapple in front of me, I wouldn’t want to mess with her. How wrong I can be. But more of that later!. Here’s a photo of my fish supper which i never got to finish as I was taking a photo of these birds who were waiting for the scraps at the end of the day from the fish market. Next thing i felt as if a water sprinkler was pointed at my back. the lady owner picked up my table with my food on it and told me to fetch my chair and follow her away from the open sides, she said i should be dry where she placed me.

5 mins later, it turned into a tropical storm, this was the third of the year. Normally, they dont have these til end of August. They said they are getting earlier and earlier. 
 

I have to confess I am a total chicken when it comes to thunder and lightening. I didn’t mind the wind and rain. So for the first half hour, I was fine , thought it was a bit of an adventure. That all changed. My hardy west walian strength was threatening to leave me. The lady owner just grabbed my hand and took me into their cabin kitchen. And there we stayed for another half an hour til the storm blew over.

She then got her son with a massive umbrella ( it was still chucking it down) to try and grab me a taxi. So so very kind. The flash floods were up to our knees ( well up to mine) he negotiated with a taxi driver to take me back to the hotel. A hot cup of tea and a bath was the order of the day. What a day eh !!! see photos below.

Did I mention I ate a massive bar of Colombian chocolate as well and slept like a baby 🍫 😉

Next day the plan was to catch a daily train that mirrors the canal from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic. Tracking a cargo ship going west to east and then east to west. Well that plan didn’t work as the daily train wasn’t going for some reason. So, plan B, o caught a local bus.

I sort of did that , but missed the cargo ship at the Miraflores section as the bus was much slower than the train. Colon is such a run down place in comparison to Panama City. Totally lost its economy. I put my camera in my rucksack as I would have been drawing attention to myself. 

My delish fish supper which i never finished .

I couldnt figure out how to upload a video, will so by next time .

me trying to be a hardy west walian and the lovely owner

i womder if there is any connection with the cash and carry. it was going from the Atlantic to the Pacific

thank you for all your lovely messages , its great hearing from you . bye for now. ❤️💄

Colombia part 2 🇨🇴

Hola mis Amigos/Shwtmae pawb/hello from a very chilled Colombia

My scond visit to the beach was far ore relaxed. i hire a chair and massive parasol. they have cordoned areas so your 2 meter space is protected. Mask wearing is still in place in South America. in the gnext area was a bunch of 30 year olds having an absolute blast, the cocktails were flowing thick and fast. so i couldn’t help but listen to their convo 😊 i can understand far more Spanish than speak it. so after a while I realised that they weren’t talking about Brazilian people, but the other Brazilian……

The beach vendors sell the usual stuff, i tried their local favourite of firm mango slices in a bag with salt and lime. lush! later on in the afternoon, one of the ladies asked, or so i thought, did i want a banana, so i said why nit, then i realised what was lost in translation was did i want a ride on a banana boat. This was confirmed when they handed me a life jacket. The last time i had been on one of these was in Turkey in 1989. How hard can it be i Thought……… well i held my own, and had a fun time.

On my last full day I was off to the Tutomen volcanic mud bath. its about an hour or so up the coast. I think Ill let the photos do the talking

The view from the bottom of the steps.

Being glided into the mud pool, it felt weird

The most dangerous part was walking down the steps, it was like walking down Ben Nevis, where the boulders are really steep , especially when you have little legs . A thoroughly good wash in the lake left my skin feeling really smooth.

As it was my last full day in Cartagena, i like to celebrate with a meal in a fabulous restaurant. Id seen Carmen on my walking tour of the walled town. i often find if you make your booking for early evening, then you tend to be lucky when you are a single diner.

i popped into a local hairdresser to have a cheeky blowdry, and this is where it got lost in translation, i had said to dry it with a curl, however, i learnt later that that means in spanish that wanted my hair dried straight!!!!! The lady asked to take my picture for her portfolio and she kindly sent it on to me. my hair remained straight for all of 2 hours ha ha .

There are several reasons to visit Cartagena, Carmen restaurant is on of them. Here are some photos of the meal.

Already going wavy !

Pisco Sour my fav cocktail

A little taster

Crab enpanadas

Colombia July 2022

Shwtmae/Hello/Hola 👋🏻
Well i do believe that its hotter at home than here on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. then all i have to say to you is phew 😅

My adventures were somewhat delayed leaving the UK. Luckily for me I didn’t experience the tribulations that others did on my flight, i said wouldn’t be needing hotel accommodation, as i would be staying with the lovely Anne Campbell. (thank you lovely lady). I will spare you the details of their escapades, other than to say, they eventually had supper at 1am in the morning…… and then on,y one bus turned up to pick up over 200 passengers ….

The result of all this meant i lost my two days in Bogota, however, hoping to add on sometime at the end of my trip fingers crossed 😊

For all my worrying about the chances of my luggage actually arriving at the same destination as me, given the amount of press about Terminal 2 in Heathrow, it was the second off the conveyor belt. i did a little jiggle when i saw it!!!

The big plus for me was i hadnt booked any accommodation at this stage, i didn’t loose any monies.

I did buy an airtag to place inside my suitcase, it worked really well as we had to check our luggage in and just return next day straight to security. It tracked its location very accurately on my find my phone app.

Colombian spanish accent is quite different, the accent is like North v South Wales. i got chatting to a young couple at airport who were wanting to get a taxi to a barrio near where i was thinking of staying, so we shared a taxi. I was just smiling to myself as when i first started travelling I would use Ryan Giggs to try and explain Wales wasnt in England. Now its Gareth Bale.!

Saturday afternoon after checking in was a quiet day, a beach day. im staying in Bocagrande district (barrio) which is right by the sea. Its a massive bay and they have added huge rock boulders to break the strong waves. So i sat at the water’s edge doing my favourite pasttime of people watching.

i did get my bottom pinched at the beach, not unexpected you would think, however, here was not s soul around me ……… not the best photo i know but it took me a few seconds to get my phine my phone out of my bag and i was in shock 😂

Bottom pinching creature 🤨

Yesterday was all about walking around the walled city of Cartagena. It didn’t disappoint at all, want to go back this afternoon for a walking tour. Here’s a few photos to give you a flavour.

Cartagena walled town.

Finally , after a a really lovely day soaking up the history of cartagena and taking a hop on hop off bus tour which basically stopped at McDonalds, coffee chains and Malls, i headed down to the beach for a well earned dip and sundowner. to be honest I did think it was a bit strange that people were at the waters edge, the water is like the temperature of a baby’s bath. I just sat down in the shallows chilling. i could hear some whistling in the background, its a sound i had heard the day before, so didnt pay too much attention. Like many Caribbean beaches, they are very noisy with lots of getto blasters and youngsters practicing their dance steps. so i didnt hear the beach police on a quad bike come towards me. Who knew that beaches in Colombia close at 6pm. so, i had a bit of a telling off from the leather clad bright green helmet quad biking beach police. I naturally apologised in mt best Spanish . Ops .

Bye for now, and by the way i am not expecting you to read my ramblings, this is as much for me as for you so that when i am 88, I can relive the memories again . Suerte xxx