"What now?"

Our days at Koh Kood were unfortunately over, but we were also looking forward to our next destinations. And the most immediate one would be Cambodia and Siem Reap. After some research online and by reading our guide, we saw that it would be quite difficult to do that transition in only one day due to transportation links and how the borders work. The most widely used border-crossing is the one that goes through Poipet, but it is also the one with the worst reputation. Adding to frequent long hours of waiting in line to exit Thailand and enter Cambodia, there are numerous recounts of schams that, apparently, are now the norm.

So our plan when we left the island was to get to Chanthaburi (still in Thailand) and sleep there, get the early morning bus to Battambang in Cambodia and cross the border at Pailin saving us the stress of the scham-driven Poipet. That would make us stay in Battambang another night (which seemed a nice place to visit, anyway) and this would mean use two full days to reach Siem Reap. But that was the plan and we had made our peace with it!

When we get to mainland to the pier of Liem Sok, we border the transfer truck that would take us to Trat's bus station where we could buy the ticket to Chanthaburi. On that same truck borders a French couple that, we realise, has exactly the same plan (go to Siem Reap through Pailin), and they told us that there was a way that we could get to Battambang that day! That was great! We had both found nice travel companions and, probably, saved one day!

When we arrived to Trat we went to the Bus counter and apparently there was a way to reach Cambodia through our desired route that same day! We were so happy! We get the details of the costs and the stops in a few minutes (stop at a city after Chanthaburi and switch to another bus that will go to the border; buy the other ticket later!). Fair enough! And the bus left in 15 minutes which gave us just enough time to get some take-away lunch. In no time we were showing the ticket to the first bus to the driver. This was where we started to think that maybe we should have payed more attention to the details. And the detail (little!) was that neither of the 4 of us remembered the name of the stop! "Bo something?, It's the one after Chanthaburi!". That was our best description. We told the driver it was the one that would connect us to the bus to Pailin. But his English was as good as our Thai! "Oh well, this is going to be fun!" I thought as we boarded the bus with still no clear answer.

On the whole trip that took roughly more than two hours, I kept looking at the road signs. Before we stopped at Chanthaburi, everything was okay as our stop was after that one. Afterwards, my eyes became glued to the side of the road hoping to see a name (written in English!) that would remind me of the other one. Eventually one did (I actually don't remember this name either, now - the nights had been quite short in the previous nights and my memory was/is suffering!) and as the kms decreased I felt increasingly nervous. Around the time when we must have reached the possible stop, the driver comes to us and signals us that we should leave the bus. "Is this our stop? Stop to Pailin?" we asked, but still no understanding signs from him. We got out, as our bags were removed from the bus. In two seconds the bus is back on the move and we are on the side of the road with no idea where we are. Not in a bus station, for sure. We turn back and we were in a gas station! With no buses! We stare at each other with a "What now?" look in all our faces!

We start to ask everyone around where we could go but it was even difficult to explain that we wanted a bus to get to Pailin border. Understand what they were telling us in Thai was borderline impossible. What we understood is that no one had a clue of a bus nearby. Oh no!

Eventually the guys tried asking a lady that had a stall at the side of the road "Bus, Pailin?", "Pailin? Cambodia?". And she did look like she knew about something that could help us!! A small miracle. When the four of us are with her she is talking to us non-stop but we can't understand a word. She makes the universal sign to wait and she calls someone (maybe she wasn't even calling anyone because of us, I don't know). After a few minutes a military-type truck comes by and stops in front of us and two guys that were sitting nearby get up and go in! We start to get our things to go and ask the driver if he is going to Pailin (maybe this was the scheme!). But the lady tells us to stand still (again, with gestures). So we wait. We had no idea how long we had to wait. But that was our only option at that point so we waited! After 10 minutes (maybe) another truck comes by and our savior lady (as I like to call her) waves to it and tells us to go inside. We confirm again with the lady and the passengers "Pailin?", they consent so we go inside. We are so stunned by everything (and still a bit in shock) that we realise only when we are moving again that no one had thank the lady that had helped us (so, savior lady from the unknown place after Chanthaburi, a big thank you from the 4 of us!).

At the end, the truck drive was slightly more expensive than what was told us in Trat, and I wouldn't call this a bus (it was actually a similar truck to the ones that did the transfer from the Pier earlier that day), but we ended up getting to the border that had absolutely no lines and no-one tried to scham us and after crossing the Cambodian border we got a taxi that took us directly to 2 minutes away from the place we were going to stay.

So, in practice, everything happened as told back in Trat and was way better than what we had planned early that morning. Apart from the small panic attack we all felt for about 20 minutes! But if it wasn't for these stories, this blog wouldn't be this fun! ;)

In our way to the border

Semuc Champey in 4 parts

Our two nights and one day in Lanquin/Semuc Champey were, to say the least, intense! Even if this is quite a touristic area it is a bit far away from everything and the closest larger city, Coban, is only accessible by a road where any speed above 30km per hour is probably not recommended (if you want to get to the other side with the vehicle in one piece)!

Things like hot water or wi-fi (we were supposed to have wi-fi on our hostel at certain hours but were told that a tree had fallen over the antenna so there was no signal) were non-existent. There were signs asking us to turn off the lights when not in use (which we all should do anyway) and at some point there was even no water in our shared bathroom! And we were in Lanquin, which is still a kind of a small town! Semuc Champey was 45min away (by van) or 10kms away, deep into the jungle.

As I've said, this was an intense experience so I'll write this post divided by chapters:

1. The stay
The name of the place we stayed was Oasis Hostel, most probably due to its location near the water and scenery around (green everywhere!) even though it was two steps from the small town of Lanquin as I mentioned before. Our "cabin" was on the top of the hill and on the first night, after 3h30 + 8h of travelling and (finally) with our backpacks, I confess I was wondering why, why did it have to be that one!! But the view next morning was worth it. We could see the different hills surrounding us in this amazing shade of green against the blue of the sky.

Our hut was the one up the hill on the left. At night leaving the light up was not recommended as the wild life loved to share the accommodation. We preferred a certain distance!

Los Banos

But the best thing of all was not the landscape, it was not the river that crossed the hostel premises and where we could bathe, it was not even the really nice people working there! It were the hammocks where we could lazily be watching the World go by. I am a hammock fan, I admit it. But who isn't, really? A piece of fabric where you can lay down and enjoy the scenery, see everyone go on their usual routine while you are there, semi hidden from them, semi hidden from the busy life outside, semi hidden from time itself. Yes, I do love a hammock :)

Life is good! :)

2. The ride
After the hammock, the open truck came and it was time to enjoy Semuc Champey so there we went. Recently reunited with my camera I was ready for everything, or so I thought! :p
As we reached the truck we understood that we would ride on the back that soon was loaded with people standing as there was no room for everyone to seat. I was actually one of the lucky ones that was able to enjoy the ride seated. The road, as expected, was full of bumps and the speed always seemed a bit excessive for the conditions in which it was being done. Along the way we crossed different very small villages (not even sure if I can call them that) where people live in wooden cabins. It is also quite common to see women and children seated by the side of the road just watching the traffic go by.

Piled up on the back of the truck

And another one just behind

A village hut

Forty five minutes later we were reaching the entrance of the Semuc Champey park. We could see the water and the bridge ahead. But this was not any other bridge. This is a wooden bridge held by big nails where you can see the river through the intervals of the boards. We later crossed that same bridge by foot and we were extremely careful as some boards were broken or about to brake. For me, it is an actual engineering miracle that so many trucks go through and that children can actually run across it; we couldn't even walk across it properly!

We actually asked and, apparently, no truck has ever fallen from the bridge, but they do sometimes get stuck on the holes of the bridge and stay stuck for several hours! Thankfully, that didn't happen to us!

3. The turquoise pools
Safely across the bridge we were ready to enjoy the wonders of Semuc Champey. We had over 800 steps in front of us to reach a viewpoint from where we could see all the pools. 800! Steps! In the woods! Up and down! After a few strategic stops along the way we finally reached the top and, indeed, the view was worth it!

A few more minutes of taking the whole atmosphere in and we were ready to go down and finally swim in the pools. The turquoise colour pools! :)

I have to confess that there, the photographer in me could not resist and even after being in my bikini only I took the camera for a few extra shots in the pools themselves. Sometimes I get kind of inebriated by the photographic potential of a place, due to its beauty, uniqueness or something else. This place was both gorgeous and unique!

I had to take a few more photos. I was not even stopped by the somewhat slippery rocks. There was one last photo I wanted to take with me and Andre in the water before I went and kept it away safely. And then it happened... One more step, the slippery rock betrays me and I am in the water. The water was shallow but for the camera that was enough. An unexpected swim in Semuc Champey that was a bit too much for it. One of my oldest travelling companions had just made its last trip, perhaps. This was the last photo of my sorely missed camera:

Despite the grief for the camera the pools were still there, jaw dropping gorgeous as they were before and the day was passing by. So there we were. From pool to pool, sometimes crawling, sometimes jumping, sometimes walking reaaallly slowly. The rocks were still too slipery for my taste. And when the sun came up, the water was so refreshing without being too cold for us to enjoy a long time in the pools. When the clouds would cover the sun it actually felt better to be in the water than out of it! If it had been for me, we had stayed there the whole day! :)

But the day still had a lot to come and there is when the 4th part of this post comes along.

4. The caves
After we stock up on energy (i.e, after lunch) we headed to the caves. Even if I still had a working camera it would have not been possible to take any photos. The caves were pitch dark and, most of the times, full of water. So each one of us (we went in a group) held a candle and were told to start walking into the cave. For the ones in front, usually Andre, me and a German couple, this was basically trying to guess where we were going to - if there would be water or not, if we had to swim with the candles in our hands or if we could stand. The guide was usually at the back to make sure no one was left behind. From time to time we would stop and ask what we were supposed to do. Most of the time the answer was "Go on, keep going!" And we did. 

But these caves were not just dark and full of water, there were wooden and metal ladders tied to each other in shady ways that we had to climb up and down, ropes to help us climb a wall, narrow passages and rocks below the water level that we could not see and that made every step extra careful. The caves were beautiful, no doubt about it, but most of the time I was actually concentrated on not stumping into a rock, not fall of a ladder or just keep my head afloat. It was intense! To top it all, by the end, some of us had either lost the candle, had ran them useless by wetting the string or had used most of it. My last stretch was done under the light that Andre was carrying a few meters away.

The balance of the day were a few bruises, a few scratches, a broken camera, an unforgettable experience and a truly inspiring images. The lake of course. But on the cave as well; at some point I looked back and saw a line of candle lights that were able to illuminate the cave. It was eerie and beautiful. What an experience!! I wouldn't repeat it the next day, but I'm really happy I've done it! :)

Riding on a chicken bus

One of the experiences I was looking forward to was to ride a chicken bus. These are quite common in all Central America and are old american school buses that were pimped out to fit the local likings. In Guatemala that means as many colours as possible in some really cool patterns.

The name chicken bus comes from the fact that locals usually carried chicken in these buses! We did not witness this part, but they did carry a lot.

So yes, from Antigua to Lake Atitlan we used one of these infamous rides. Pana (Panajachel) would be the final destination of the bus.

But the stops of this kind of bus are not exactly the same as the ones we are used to. These buses can stop anywhere to drop of or pick someone up. If you want a ride you just have to wait on the side of the road and lift your arm when the bus comes. A guy that is usually by the (open) door, then collects the money for the ride. If you want to get out before the end, just signal the driver 10 seconds before and he will stop. I have to stay this is surprisingly efficient as even when people coming in or out carried things with them, these were always a quite quick process.

The non so "efficient process" is driving on the roads. It was almost impossible to find 100 metres of road with either curves or holes or both! So the 50kms that separated us from our destination in the beginning were done in so many zigzags that the actual distanced done must have been the double! And of course, this also meant doing a bit of exercise to try to maintain ourselves in the seats with no safety belts. Obvious! This was a chicken bus, why would it have seat belts?

However, for me, the most unforgettable details were not these. It was the loud latin music playing for the whole time (a five hour ride that began at 7:00am); it was the multiple sellers of food and water that came on the bus at the entrance if a town/village and would get out a bit later; but specially, it was listening the word of God for, at least, 15 minutes in a very passionate speech. I captured a video of it, but it is quite short and not totally focussed on the "preacher" because I didn't want to be too obvious. But it is still good to have a general idea.

How to survive with little so far away from home

Finally we got to Guatemala!! :D One and a half days after what was initially predicted we landed on this green land. Too bad our bags couldn't share the same enthusiasm!

After the stop in Houston we got to the baggage carousel too late and our bags were already gone. As we were assured that they would be checked-in with us in the morning flight we went to our Hotel with no worries on our minds. And it actually felt quite good not to carry them everywhere around! I think I thought for a second that it would be good to have that feeling for a bit more time! Maybe someone was paying too much attention to me!

When we got to the baggage carousel in Guatemala we waited and waited and waited until all the bags we could see on the carousel had passed by us 4 or 5 times. Post claim and another assurance that it would come in the next flight that would arrive that night to Guatemala City. "It must have been something about the time of the flights" I thought. I now recognize that I was in the first stage of loss, Denial! In the mean time, on our multiple calls to the bag tracking service of United we were assured several times that the bag would come on the next flight and at some point they even told us that it was already in transit and that the bag would be delivered to us in under 12 hours. As you can guess by the title of this post, they didn't arrive! In these calls I went through all the other stages of loss, Barganing, Anger, Depression and I think I have just reached Acceptance!

At this point you might think "But they still had their carry-on luggage, right?" Yes, that is completely true! Besides the clothes we were wearing we still had this:

It was more than nothing, but not much more than that! No extra clothes at all, no toiletries at all! I even forgot to take my camera out of the backpack which I always take with me on the plane! At least we still had the tablet (that I am using right now) :)!

So, coming back to the title of this post, how do you actually survive with so little so far away from home? Well, with a bit of flexibility, a bit of extra-shopping in local shops that might not have exactly what you are used to, the kindness of strangers and a free spirit to enjoy the non-materialistic side of life :)! A change of clothes and essential toiletry were our first priority and so far, we haven't bought much else. When we buy things like a small bag we tell our story and people smile in desbelief because they think we are only saying that to get a better deal (of course we kind of use our story for that as well ;)). But neither of them believe that what we are carrying with us is actually all we have! Sometimes I can't believe it myself!! But the truth is that some things are much easier this way! Going on a chicken bus we don't have to worry for putting our bag on top of the bus, it is much easier to pack things when we want to move and, of course, we don't walk around with a huge backpack around!

Of course we do have to launder our clothes nearly every day, buy a few things almost everyday as they are needed and the photos... I really miss my camera!! Oh well! Thankfully, mobile phones are now much more than just a device to actually call someone! :)

This is really another level of travelling that I was not planning to have but that it is quite interesting as well. And a large life lesson! And what a way of commemorating the 50th post of this blog!!

Where are we going to sleep tonight?

I am writing this post on the flight from Chicago to Houston. A flight that was not included in our initial plans!

Almost 36 hours after our first scheduled flight has departed, we are still in the US and, as the title of this post says, we are still not sure where we will sleep tonight, bot even in which country!

It all started right back in Heathrow where a juggle of automatic machines sent us from agent to agent up until the last one that told us that we needed an ESTA (kind of a turistic/business meetings visa) to be able to do a transfer in the US. Then came the actual application online while the clock kept ticking and our time running out. At the end, with everything ready, we were too late and weren't aloud to join the flight even if we still had 45 minutes to reach the gate.
We appealed to the kindness of their hearts as far as we could, but there was no chance. Even before we got back from the shock, we were negotiating the re-booking "Do you want to stay here in London tonight, or catch a connection flight to Houston through Chicago or Newark?" At the moment we are kind of homeless in London (moving houses with a gap in the middle) so the first option was dismissed! Neither of us had ever been to Chicago and Andre had never been in the United States, so why not the option of stopping for one night in Chicago and actually do some unexpected tourism in the Windy City?

That was our option and a few hours later, still a bit shaken up by losing our first flight but excited with the new tourism experience, we boarded the 9 hours flight that took us safe and sound to Chicago. Of course that, in between, we had to send an email to our hostel in Antigua, Guatemala letting them know of our one day delay and also find a room for the night. Finding a room proved to be a challenge with Booking, Hostelbookers and Hostelworld sites showing no options at all, all places were booked! Salve Airbnb that gave us the chance to sleep in a large room not so far away from the center of the city.

We got to our room (having stopped a bit in the city center just to have a quick feel of it, i.e. Dunkin Donuts!!) around 21h30, which was 3h30 back in London where we had woken up at 8h00 the day before! So we basically slept, or passed away, one of the two, on the bed after a really full of emotions day! And we slept really well!... until 5h00 when our bodies decided it was more than time to get up. And eventually we did, and there it started our Chicago adventure which will be the subject of another post.

Right after lunch we headed off to the airport as we did not want to lose another flight! And we didn't! YAY!! :) However, and with posts with this kind of title, there is always a However, the flight took of with over one hour of delay when we had a layover of 37 minutes! Despite asking multiple times about the short transition time we were always reassured that this was quite common and that there wouldn't be any problem! Well, now there might be! Because we have no idea if the plane will be in Houston airport waiting for us or if we will have to find yet another solution! Hence, we have no idea where we will sleep tonight, no even which country!

I am sure that by the time this post comes online I know the answer to that, but I wanted to share this strange feeling I am/we are having right now! This uncertainty if we will have to ask our hostel to postpone our stay another time (I think they might not believe us this time!) or if it is tonight that we will see Antigua; uncertainty of how many more flights we will still have to get so our actually planned vacations start!

PS: After a very long run we eventually lost the flight! So this was posted from the Marriot in Houston (finishing the night in style!! )

Dunes

There are so many things that we've heard about the desert...
When we were in Fes, an Australian girl that knows Morocco quite well, talked wonders about the experience of sleeping in the desert, about how small we feel when we realize how vast it really is, about the impact of being side by side with mountains of sand and nothing else for miles and miles. It made us crave tremendously for that experience! Even before, the pictures on the Internet, the images from the movies, the stories of those close to me that have already been there... have made our expectations to be high; quite high!!

For that we decided to launch ourselves to a (very) long day of driving! After over 10 hours of Moroccan road behind us we started realizing the terrain was changing a bit and there were (apparently) small dunes in the landscape. The anxiety overcame the tiredness and all I wanted was to hop on a dromedary. This sounds awful, but it was how I felt, I wanted to hop on a dromedary and I'm not ashamed of it! :)

When, after more telephone calls and Kms than needed, we arrived to the base camp of the company that would lead us to the desert I couldn't help smiling. And I don't think I was the only one feeling that way.
A chit-chat with one of the responsible guys, "We'll leave you a bottle of wine, brought directly from Portugal", a big smile on his part and the gift back "I'll give you 3 bottles of water, fresh!", a smile on our part. Under that heat it was more than a fair trade to our ears!

The dromedaries and dunes awaiting for us

A few minutes later that would be us!

Many have said that this almost looks like a picture of Mars

And finally, I'm the first that is called to ride the dromedary. It complains (or it seems like it), it shakes a bit, but it gets up and there it is. The beginning of the desert adventure begins :)

The walk was slow and swaying, that is the way dromedaries walk, driven by Umbarack, our non poliglot berber guide. We witnessed an amazing sunset over the dunes and behind the clouds. All was missing, I have to say, was the feeling of solitude. Being a touristic area because of the desert, there were other groups that were doing similar things, going to other Bivouacs, talking just behind us. But at some point, they turn left on the dune and we turn right. And there it was. It looked like we had the desert all to ourselves :). The dunes, the sunset, all that sand... all of that to ourselves.

 

On the Bivouac (the desert camp) we lay the (very few) belongings that we brought with us and go out exploring the dunes. We rolled down the dunes, we climbed up and down the dunes, we sat on the dunes, we saw the night fall on the dunes, we laughed like no one could hear us! Basically, we were enjoying life on the desert!

During the night very odd things happened, a cat appeared and stayed around the camp all night, it rained after a large lightning storm (an amazing view on the desert!, btw), and... we all behaved at some point like we were high. As there was no marijuana I can only guess it was the sand, the seclusion, the silence (broken by the drums of the bivouac next to ours), the lack of running water, electricity or network, and, above all, the feeling of experiencing something like that. :)

Our group with Umbarack, the berber guide!

The dinner (leftovers) and the cooks

Our bivouac

The Kitchen

The next morning we had an early rise to witness the sunrise over Algeria! The first beams of light were upon us and the dunes on our backs! It was worth it... the long hours of driving behind us, the haggling in Fes, the short hours of sleep, the long hours of driving ahead of us! It was all worth it! :)

This video was shot during the time when we were desert high! What also explains the bad drumming rhythm!

The doctor's appointment and google translator

There are those things in life that are very hard go through but that, at the end, bring great rewards! It was the case of my huge burst blister!! No nothing very deep, only a blister! A big, nasty one that I've made on the walk to the dry lake (the one with no water in Lake Baikal). The big problem with it was that I couldn't exactly stop walking. Walking is something that is usually necessary, but when you are travelling it becomes even more imperative as your body (and your belongings) won't move themselves alone.
So yes... I had a burst blister that made itself noticeable every time I gave a step. But things were not so bad until the time it started to look funny,... funny as in "almost infected". And it wouldn't get better with normal Betadine.

I never took a photo of the blister itself but here is how it looked with the bandage on top (the yellow thing is the Betadine)

That was why we decided (I say we because it was something that was actually discussed during one night) to try to find something for it. Next morning we (me and Isa) went to the pharmacy.
They spoke no English (and Portuguese even less) and our Mongolian was no better.
I take off my tennis, my sock and show them the wound (by this time it looked like one). They gave us something that ressembled Betadine (which we already had). After a few minutes of "this is what we recomend" (should be read as "Ahasfjq spguahaf najf") and "But we already have that, we need something better" they point us to a Hospital that was just around the corner.
We go there... again... no English, of course! The girl at the reception asks for the passport (which I understood at the 5th try) and Isa starts to rub her hand trying to explain I have a wound. It seems that the girl understood (I had my doubts) and writes a number, 209, the room number where we were supposed to go.
We climbed up the stairs and... its the Dermatology section (which was even written in English!). We look at each other and laugh but I go in anyway. Better a dermatologist than nothing!

Room 209. Dermatology section

Inside there is the doctor. English? Of course not. Again, I take off my tennis and my sock and show her the wound. She doesn't seem to understand. And this was when Isa had a stroke of genious!! She saw the computer and thought that maybe it had internet. She asks the doctor if she can use the computer and goes to google translator!! Brilliant! We write (we because Isa wrote half and I wrote the other half - we were both on top of the doctor's sit) that I have a burst blister and try to translate it to Mongolian... So... Malaio, Maltês, Norueguês..) wait, where's the Mongolian??... There was no Mongolian!! I think we all (doctor included) spent about 2 minutes looking for the Mongolian on the list, until the doctor (bless her!) points to, "Indonesian"!

No Mongolian on google translator

We finally could communicate although the doctor preferred gestures to google translator. At the end we got out of there with a couple of photos, a prescription for 3 different things and a bill of 4000 Tugriks (less than 4 Euros).

The doctor advising me how to protect the blister

A new friend in Ulaanbaatar

To get the medicines we went to the same pharmacy that had pointed us the hospital. When I handed them the prescription their expressions were something like "Oh, so this was what they were looking for!!"

A pack of antibiotics and 2 balms for the next days and, finally, we went back to the hostel to begin another day!

The presciption

Life in the steppes

Mongolia is well known for its remoteness. In fact, watching the never-ending steppes through the window leaves us a feeling of humbleness and respect for what we are seeing. This feeling was not completely new to me; in Patagonia the landscape is somehow similar and also very impressive. But there is something about Mongolia. Maybe the fact that I knew that this is the less densely populated country in the World; maybe witnessing how far away from everything the nomads lived in the past centuries, and continue to do so nowadays.
Fortunally, we could witness how these families still live nowadays. Yes, it was a turistic thing to do, but this particular family only receives 3 tours per year, which I guess allows them to maintain their own way of living.

On the way to the Ger family

The roads were curvy, bumpy and, sometimes, almost non existent (this was a good part)

Even in the middle of nowhere you can find prohibition signs!

On the way there (more than two hours) we saw a lot of animals but the ones I appreciated the most were the horses. The ones we saw up close were domesticated but it was great to see them running freely around.

But at some point we stopped because someone had spotted some of the wild horses (the Przewalski). All geared up (it was cold and windy) we walked up and down, up and down the hill to see them. There was also a group of deers that could be heard from a long distance, they were incredily loud! And it was this group that we saw first. A huge number of deers, that were running up hill (a little after that they went out of sight). Despite the distance, that was very big, it was amazing to see them and we could even witness a fight between two males. Amazing!! :)

The Przewalsi were a bit more shy and only after a while we could localized them. However, at the naked eye, they were little more than moving points on the hill.

Trying to see the Prewalski and the deers behing multiple layers of protection

The hill where the deers were. The wild horses were a bit more to the left.

After the stop, time to go back and finish our trip to the ger family. In the way we made our bus (there were two) the party bus by singing/shouting and dancing crazily to the sound of musics like Gangnam Style... This is what sleep deprived people do!! (I will upload the video as soon as I get it).

Finally, the Gers... 

A set of 4 "tents" and a common toilet 100m away from everything. Another one that basically consisted of nothing else but a whole on the ground with some kind of box on top of it. The particularity of this one is that there was no light so, in case you felt the call of nature after the sunset, as it happened to me, you had to take some light with you. Up until this day I still don't know how they do to bathe themselves.

But all of this was fine. It was part of the adventure and I was prepared for that. What I was not counting on was the freezing part. All gers are warmed by a stove in their middle. It gets pretty warm and in the one where we got together and ate the temperature was really nice (around 20ºC when outside was getting closer to 0ºC). The problem was that the ger where we slept was only warmed up little before we laid down. So, after a couple of hours of sleep, the heat from the short fire was gone and we all woke up shivering, even with the 5ºC sleeping bags (well, I heard some people snore, so I guess a few of us were able to sleep). And the shivering continued all night long. I added an extra layer of clothes but it only helped for half an hour or so... it was tough... Now in a distance I am able to call it an adventure and one more story to tell, but in that moment, I remember I cursed myself and wished to be back on my own bed. 

And this was only the beginning on the Autumn... Life is not easy around here...

Arriving to the ger (check the solar panel on the left)

This is the stove (the fuel is dried dung)

The main way of transportation are horses which they use quite often

And there he went...

There was a small creek near the camp (maybe the answer to my bathing question?)

The smoke comes from the "communal" ger that, in this moment, was also the cooking ger

And I can say that, all in all, we all loved the experience! So different from what we know and, somehow, so fulfilling.

I had tried archery before, but this was way more difficult... And I was not very good at it!

The landscape inspired the explorer side of Nuno

It was the horse that appeared beneath Isa, it was not her fault (private joke, people, sorry for that :p)