LIBBY GREENHALGH

I thought i would have written a lot sooner and  more often than I am going to have this time round in Rio. It is amazing how when not travelling and working one is actually busy working and as I spend a lot of my work on the computer - opening it up to fire out a blog doesn't seem as appealing as when travelling! Since I last wrote, I have had a birthday, the laser sailors have gone, the windsurfer ladies (and Dom) have arrived, it has rained at least twice,  I have been sick for a day and it is currently cooler here than in the UK. Winter in Rio is quite different to March, when 35-40 Celsius was almost unbearable and thunderstorms were awesome and a welcome relief. I should have packed my thermals especially for the 30 KT of wind we had on the water the day before yesterday. We are based out of the Late Clube do Rio de Janeiro or something like that. Which is more of a social club than sailing club. It use to be a club for planes that land on water (the real ...

Some of you lucky folk will automatically receive this as an email and others will hunt it out (not sure who!) but welcome back or should I be welcoming myself? Don't panic I haven't snuck off without telling you that I am off travelling again. I have a fortunate job that takes me to fairly exotic places and was responsible for my first visit here a little under 5 months ago. It is only as I landed in Rio and was going through the airport racking my brain of the last time I was here that I thought I would blog again 1.It would be useful to put down somewhere the useful things to remember/tips rather than reworking them out 2. It will keep me slightly more sane writing about my time out here and may prove useful 3. I am sure you are all missing me that much, that my blog will be the highlight you look forward and finally 4. Just because I can! So, as usual, about 3 days before I left that overwhelming sense of dread begins to build inside me.....I have no idea why and i...

Last day in Rio today and then I head back at some ungodly hour on a really roundabout journey that will eventually get me home for 0630 on the Friday 8 th March…….6 o’clock club anyone? It is fairly smokin’ hot here between 35-40 Celsus  over the last few days but a bit cooler today. I still would have found my bikini the best attire for the day but I  don’t want  everyone to feel embarrassed about themselves when they see me strutting my gorgeous brown body (because all my freckles have joined together )  down the beach. So thoughtfully for them I remained clothed. Today I headed up Sugar Loaf – but more importantly I caught the right bus (may have got off a little early) both to and from the cable car. Super proud of myself. That will however also be the last  public bus in Rio I have to catch….I hope work are paying attention. My bus flagging down skills have greatly improved after two buses went straight past me and the lady stood next to me laug...

I am afraid Rio is struggling to rise up my list of cool places to go, but then I have never been a city person or a massive party goer. Yes it is fairly stunning but I think I have spoilt myself before this with my travels and therefore  it doesn’t rise to the top there either! I am not sure I really get Rio- even the guide Patricia I was with today said everything is breaking down and happens very slowly in Rio The people are clearly very passionate and the samba and music is all pretty cool When the sun came out yesterday people appeared on the famous Copacabana  beach. The different Poste as they call them are all quite amusing and a stroll along the beach can be quite enlightening. Having got over my initial disappointment in Rio I set about seeing a fair bit of it yesterday and today. First up I may have had another 12 hours sleep through the joys of ear plugs and a blind fold. Seems to be fairly dangerous for me as I sometimes think I could just stay a...

Probably had the most uncomfortable flight to Rio with a seat unable to be reclined which resulted in even I having my sleeping skills put to the test! The most comfortable sleeping position resulted in my face forward on my tray table – fortunately I do not have anyone with me to take the classic Libby asleep picture! where is everybody? It is my second day in Rio and I am staying in a hostel in  Leme in a ‘favela’ I will let you google that! I am supposedly going to a favela party on Sunday night….doesn’t start until 11pm and last 5 hours. I wonder how I will survive or if I will make it seeing as I was in bed last night at 2130 To be fair my first day I spent working…..boring….and my second day I managed to sleep until 11am with my blindfold thing and ear plugs oooopsy. So far my impression of Rio is not overwhelming but then it has been raining and I have been ill. So I am willing to give it more of a chance! But in many ways I am just tired and ready to come h...

Today was all about getting the boats to get back to the right island to catch a flight that I still have no information on! But fortunately I got to go to Santa Cruz on my way which is where the Charles Darwin research centre is and the last home of lonesome George It is, I believe, the largest town in Galapagos, at least it felt like it. Also the most touristy and sadly the double entendre that men try to achieve by wearing an ‘I love boobies t-shirt’ is lost when the t-shirt is stretch over their own moobs!  So a 5am start and some kind of random mish-mash of people and order at the dock but somehow my name was on a list and they found me and I was deposited on the fly bridge of the boat for a 2 hour blast to Santa Cruz! Once there I set about trying to find a bank as I only had $25 the majority of which I was going to have to use to sleep somewhere on the next island!!! Laden with all my bags after about 20 minutes of walking in the heat I decided I would happily ...

‘Please keep the door shut’ not really an unusual  sign  until you realise why as you stumble out onto the balcony into a field of marine iguanas. These creatures just climb straight up the walls and hang out in the sunshine! This however is just one of the many beauties of the hostel I am in. While it lacks air conditioning which would have been greatly appreciated as the Galapagos islands seem to have got warmer by about 5 degrees, it is right on the beach, has its own pretty cool bar, free breakfast and water and the lady who runs it is a star. Emilie helped me out of a complete bind. Landing on Isabella with only $100 of which $60 dollars is required to get home makes eating for 4 days pretty hard! However, she allowed me to transfer her some money and gave me some cash so I didn’t fade away. Not that there is any real risk of that! Anyhooooooo, my final day on Isabela was spent mainly in the water firstly in the sea snorkelling and then in a massive thunderst...

It is pretty much my last day today here is Galapagos- mind you tomorrow I will go to another island take a couple of boat trips and hopefully a plane and I will end up back in Quito maybe even in the Hilton! However I currently have no flight or accommodation information…..so we shall see!!! I forget where I have blogged up to let alone what actual day it is! It actually already tomorrow and I have bone my boat rides and not my flight and still not told you about 2 days ago! Confused- yes? So am I!!!  But yesterday(now two days ago) I saw some amazing ‘Vulkunology’ (do you like what I have done there- if you haven’t read the last blog or are not a trekky that will be lost on you). But I did a 16km hike to the World’s largest active volcano crater at 10 KM in diameter, and the second largest crater in the world – beaten by Kilamanjaro It last erupted in 2005 and gave the locals quite the fright! Our guide actually got to come up and see and the photos he has are ver...

Having snorkelled Kicker rock we all landed at San Cristobel some were continuing on with the boat tour, some were heading back to the mainland and Spock(Garth) and I were staying put for one night. I was then venturing on to Isabella where I am now and Spock hadn’t fully made his mind up yet but was due to leave the next day. Either way I am sure they could just beam him up!   First challenge- find somewhere to stay, fortunately Spock had a lonely planet and we found a hostel – after a brief explanation of we are not married and required separate beds we were sharing a room. While I have shared rooms with people I have never even met I have yet to share a room with a Spock look-a-like who I have known for 4 days so far. for clarity I mean the older version of Spock and as he is now relatively old! But, he has plenty of chat even if I didn’t. So we went in search of some blue footed boobies as so far we had only seen one or two from a far.  After a couple of taxi ride...

This blog will probably read incorrectly in terms of past present and future tense as I will have done my entire (or most) of my Galapagos trip by the time you get to hear about it rather than read it bit by bit. Prepare to struggle through a several day epic….or simply click LIKE or return a short email saying sounds fun with no particular reference I am sure you have all been struggling to get through your days without a little bit of Libby in your life, I know I would find it hard if I couldn’t spend time with me let alone not getting to hear about the weird and wonderful things go on in my head! It has only been day one and already I know the simple solution will be to show you all my pictures- I have 2300 photos and still a month to go, so mum dad thank your lucky stars they are not all on your smart telly and everyone else start preparing your excuses for being unable to attend the slideshow for ‘The Great Adventures of Libby Nemo hop-a-long Nails Greenfingers Greenhalgh...