...Scarlet MACAW's at COPAN MAYAN RUINS...there were quite a few flying around just feet away from us...
...small Green TOUCAN near COPAN MAYAN RUINS...
...Green/Yellow TOUCAN ....
...COPAN MAYAN RUINS...this place is full relics from MAYAN days over 1000 years ago...PYRAMIDS included...
...very hot day...lots of carvings of animals and birds etc...MAYAN KINGS ruled large part of MEXICO,GAUTEMALA & HINDURAS...
...day scene from our hostel in ANTIGUA Gautamala...
...from Antigua 2 hour bus ride then over 2 hours of gruelling steep climb to reach the LAVA FLOW...and what we saw was just mind-blowing...we had to cross some 300 meters of 12 months dried old lava field to reach the actual LAVA flow-and you could feel the heat from lava flow even from far as 500 meters and it got hotter and hotter as we came to within 15 feet of RED HOT LIQUID LAVA FLOW...
...the LAVA FIELD looked like land from another planet far away-all different forms of wrinkles,bends etc....
...after carefully walking across the LAVA FIELD we reached the LAVA FLOW coming out of the crater of Pacaya Volcano and what we saw was just a dream come true-seeing actual lava flow for the first time in our life...some got even closer to toast marshmallows...I am about 15 feet away...
...there were quite a few LAVA FLOWS ...as lava cools on the surface it becomes hard and becomes a lava tube and in the tube lava keeps flowing and that is what we saw here-lava coming out of the crater of the volcano through the lava tube and out for us to see...
...it also started raining and got dark for good effects but we had one hell of a day yet again.seeing lava this close has to be in top ten of best things seen on our tour yet!....
...Vedanta was very brave indeed walking across the LAVA FIELD as it was right damn dangerous many times -Pritti ,myself and our guide Ronni were holding her hands both front and back to guide her down safely...
...I was really overwhelm seeing this because I always thought only them explorers and the likes of Richard Attenborough only got to see this kinds of nature at work...
...this pix shows cool lava tube and lava flowing in the lava tube...this our group...
...two Volcanos-CONCEPCION & MADERAS-in middle of LAKE NICARAGUA-Central America's biggest lake-over 30 rivers flows in to here then the lake empties it in to the CARIBBEAN via one narrow river-this lake contains rare freshwater BULL SHARKS intially migrated from Caribbean...both above volcanoes were separated by water until after many eruptions both united in a single island...we stayed on Concepcion-town called MYOGALPA-went around in local buses...Altagrcia other town on Maderas...
...while we were there BBC came here for few days with some 12 handicap people-filming them climbing both volcanoes...programme will be aired late 2009 on BBC1...
....riding local buses in Nicaragua...buses are known as CHICKEN buses by travelers as anything and everything is carried on the bus by locals...sometime there are more Chickens on thebus then pessengers ...we loved it!
...another type of HUMMINGBIRD...and there where so many just flying pass by your ear..we also saw Costa Rican national bird QUETZAL-spectacular colours...
...adrenaline junkie at it again in Costa Rica...
...Sky Trek ZIP LINES ...longest and highest in the world...
...rode through 11 different zip lines-total of 11,000 feet,one with a length of 3000 feet and 500 feet high-I seemed to have grazed tree tops as I flew above the forest at 60mph,through the clouds and wind in my face...
...felt like SUPERMAN and SPIDERMAN...
...Pritti done this too and she loved it...
...Arenal view from hotel balcony...world's ten most active volcano...erupts non-stop daily-throwing out huge red hot boulders and lava with it-but only on South side-no hotels at all on South side -we were based on Northern side-smoke can be seen non-stop... town is called La Fortuna meaning Fortunate as LAVA never flows towards the town...
...this picture shows Arenal spewing out Smoke and Ash...it,s like a huge firework...
...lava flow seen at night time...we had to trek for over two hours through thick Costa Rican Jungle at night time to get to a vantage point on the Southern side to see this...it was SPECTACULAR...you can see and hear huge red hot boulders being thrown out of the crater in to the air and being smashed as they roll down the hill and red lava being thrown in the air...PURE MAGIC...
...STAHLERATTE name of our sailing boat-deal was we all had to cook and help run the boat-here PRITTI helping to raise the sails as I down a cold one!...21 on board -18 pessengers and 3 crew from GERMANY-11 NATIONALITIES on board and we all got on like house on fire-4 nights stay so we made 4 groups and each group once had to cook breakfast-lunch-dinner for others!!!...we had to cook on the last day and we made INDIAN FOOD that others will remember forever...our group had us 3 ,RICHARD from Leicester and MELVIN from Texas US...
...me relaxing in a hammock-it was non-stop PARTY for 5 days as we sailed from CARTAGENA-COLOMBIA in CARIBBEAN SEA through SAN BLAS ISLANDS off PANAMA...brilliant sunrise and sunsets-free flowing beers and rum and fantastic company...
...after sunset at sea as we enjoy dinner on first day cooked by ANDY and his gang...
...true PARADISE in every sense as we arrive at SAN BLAS ISLANDS-there are over 300 tiny FANTASY ISLANDS-only ten or so inhabited-all covered by coconut trees-white powder sand beaches and turquoise CARIBBEAB SEA-all islands are just tiny -some one km by half a km-just gorgeous...
...STAHLERATTE has six stunning sails-has to be the most enjoyable sea journey ever-GERMAN Captain named LUDWIG-real gent but very mad and crazy-he was laugh a minute...
...one of the many activities carried out by those not on duty in the kitchen!!!!-here DARCY from AUSTRALIA swinging in to the CARIBBEAN from the rope hanging from the sail mast...
...VEDANTA and PRITTI swimming and snorkelling their way to one of the island from our ship...
...VEDANTA had time of her life on STALHERATTE as she made friends with every one of them and they all enjoyed her company too...here she is floating towards her dream island and it's only 100 meters away!...
...barbi on the beach-it was all day affair on our own little paradise and we all had loads of beer and rum and today it was all done by our American friends RYAN,MEGAN and their gang....
...as sun begins to set and the PARTY goes on...total bliss...
...one amazing day in four days of total ectasy...
...Panama Canal 80km long...15,000 ships pass through here each year earning over ONE BILLION DOLLARS in revenue for PANAMA-will be widen soon to accomodate huge container ships at a cost of 10 billions US...ships pay according to weight and cargo carried...
...3 sets of LOCK system that allow ships to cross from PACIFIC to ATLANTIC and vice versa....over 22,000 people died building this canal from all sorts ...canal areas are surrounded by real PANAMANIAN jungles...
...US handed PANAMA CANAL to PANAMA only 10 years ago...
...had a good day watching GIANT ships going through the locks....
...QUITO CITY-ECAUDOR...
...BOGOTA-COLOMBIA-we loved traveling through COLOMBIA...
