golddog - thanks for the rec, I used Airlie Beach as my base to do a GBR dive and snorkel. Went out to one of those offshore pontoons 40nm from the shore, was great! Skipped Sydney for now but will be there in about a week. Came up with the name because it was the first thing I looked at when I finally got around to making an account after being a lurker forever.
jj - the night skies at sea are indescribable. Lots of constellations become invisible because there are just so many stars out there. On clear nights, you can see the Milky Way. I've been in some extremely remote places on land, but nowhere on land is anything remotely close to being in the middle of the ocean.
pig4bill - you jest, but that's a huge benefit in my book. No bugs at all.
So I've completed the Cairns -> Melbourne leg, hung out in Melbourne a couple of days, and am now making my way across the
Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. I think I'm about a third of the way or something like that. Tomorrow I'll either go surfing or on a seal kayak thing where you kayak with seals and hang out with them.
But here's another hopeless attempt to catch up to present day:
Once the passport stuff was moving forward, I had a little time to kill while waiting, so I headed to the Quito main bus station and hopped on a bus to
Banos, which is the "adventure sports capital of south america" if such things are to be believed. It's right in the middle of Ecuador at the foot of an active volcano. Happening place. It's also nestled in amidst other inactive volcanoes:
and surrounded by waterfalls.
All the normal adventure sport stuff is there, with a focus on water-related stuff. There is also adventurous eating:
That's cuy, aka guinea pig. Tastes like chicken.
They also are famous for their taffy, called melcocha. You can watch it being pulled in front of the stores and they will give you a taste for free:
I opted to rent a bike and trek down the valley on various roads and trails, most of which run along a river:
They cross to either side of the valley in these little suspended carts:
which you can get a ride in for a few bucks if you like.
I headed down toward the Pailon del Diablo waterfall, and climbed up under it. That's not for the faint of heart, you are very, very close to the waterfall, and have to climb up and through crawlspaces carved into the cliff under the flow. Not for the claustrophobic, either. Also crossed one of the many suspension bridges that sway back and forth with even a single person on them. Here's a photo from the far end, looking back at the waterfall:
If you look to the right of the waterfall, you can get an idea of how it's possible to climb up under it.
While it's possible to ride back up the valley to Banos to return the bike, it's also possible to pay some dude with a truck $2 to ride back up instead:
There were about 6 of us huddled in the back, all the bikes tied together.
Bungee jumping is very popular due to all the bridges over the valley:
but after taking a look at the safety equipment, I decided to pass.
Banos was fantastic, and I'd recommend it to anyone. So much stuff to see and do if you like adventurey outdoors stuff. Also, the hotels there are super cheap. I stayed in a hotel that had free wifi, free breakfast (yogurt with fruit, omelet with mixed veggies & meat, hash browns, all kinds of juice, tea, etc), and was right in the middle of town for something like $22/night USD.
Probably would still be there if I hadn't had to go back up to Quito and jump through the passport hoops one last time. Finally got them to agree to give me a temporary passport about 2 hours before my flight departure time back down south. Being a temp, it was only good for one year:
but that was good enough for me. French Polynesia requires 6 months of remaining validity, and it would only take about a month to sail there, so anything over 8 months would be fine, though I was really hoping to get at least 18 months in order to be able to hang out in the South Pacific for a while.