Climbing Volcan Aconagua - Antigua Guatemala

Although it was only a couple of weeks ago, it already seems like ages since my summer holidays - traveling around the south east of Mexico, a quick hop to Caye Caulker in Belize, and then Guatemala.

One of the highlights of Guatemala was climbing Volcan Aconagua (3976m). I've climbed a fair few volcanoes and mountains over 4000m before, and been lucky enough not to struggle with the altitude, so didn't expect anything different this time, but clearly I've got a lot older since I last climbed that high!!

The walk started easily enough, up through some corn fields, but it was a steep, scrabbly path that just kept on going up and it was hard! We started hiking at 2,500m, climbed until 3,700m where we camped for the night, with just a last little bit to climb in the middle of the night for sunrise.

Despite the hard walk, lack of oxygen, and freezing cold, it was an incredible sunrise, combined with the feeling of ebing on top of the world, and with Volcan Fuego smoking excitingly next to us (it had last erupted 2 months before our hike!!).

Here are some photos.....

Starting the hike

Our accommodation for the night

Just a few volcanoes around!

Almost at the top for sunrise

Such a stunning view!

We made it!

Volcanoes, the moon and volcano shadow! So cool!

The cloud quickly rolled in!

Volcan Fuego silently smoking away...

The nicest part of the walk as it was flat!!

A view over the valley

Croatia has a lot of steps & so does Montenegro!

Croatia has a lot of steps!! I'm sure that I had read this but I didn't really pay much attention, but we walked up a ridiculous amount of stairs in Croatia...and in Montenegro too!!

So as usual, I had too much holiday to be used before the end of the year, and just about managed to squeeze in booking a week off between finishing shooting Spring 2013 and starting shooting Summer. Me and my boyfriend had been talking about Croatia all summer so thought why not, and booked some flights. Much to the horror of my colleagues, we only took hand luggage (it was going to be sunny and you can fit a lot of dresses in one hand luggage bag) and also didn't book anywhere to stay! They thought we were mad!

The benefits of going to Croatia in October is that there are far less tourists (meaning old people wandering off their cruise ships) but it is still warm and sunny, and plenty warm enough to swim in the sea and go snorkelling. The downsides are that everything switches to 'Winter' from the 1st October and so lots of shops and restaurants close down, and the ferries switch to their Winter schedules which involves not running/running much less.

I definitely think it was worth it, as the slight annoyance of things being closed was way better than being overrun by annoying old tourists!! We spent a day and a bit wandering up and down all over Dubrovnik, and swimming in a little cove with some locals, then headed to the Island of Korcula which was equally stunning, and had the added bonus of also growing lots of grapes! We passed a very happy few days in Korcula drinking local wine, swimming in small coves, and eating pastries! Heaven!

From here we headed back to Dubrovnik, and then onto Montenegro, which had an equally ridiculous number of steps! We spent the night in Kotor,  a beautiful walled city completely surrounded by mountains, and walked up an old fort pretty much to the top of the mountain which had incredible views.

Sadly on our return to Dubrovnik, the sea was incredibly churned up and so although we headed back to our little cove to swim, we were scared of death and so didn't get in the water. Still, an amazing holiday!

Travelling with Buttons - Part 2

So to continue my travelling with buttons, when I set off on my big travelling trip of 2009/2010, I made sure that I had plenty of buttons in my bag, along with a selection of thread colours and some needles.

I just can't believe the amount of people that I met who didn't know how to sew on a button. I met a few guys who looked like the epitome of  'scruffy backpacker' as they were wandering around with only 1 or 2 buttons left on their shirts.

My first big mend of the trip didn't actually involve buttons, but it was very successful. This amazing fixing effort was Taj's walking boot when we were climbing up Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. On the second day, I think it was, the sole was very much falling off the rest of the boot and so something needed to be done. At the time, I was walking with Mark, Taj, Barbara and Mark (there were 2, I'm not just confused). Using a combined effort of skills and donated thread, gaffer tape, elastic and string, we managed to fix Taj's boot so well that he still made it to the summit of Kili. Even though the porters all told him that because he's 'Indian' (he's not but the porters wouldn't listen otherwise) he wouldn't make it past 'Indian Point' (where all the Indians give up - apparently) we made it to the top! And back down!

And so Taj's boot became the symbol of international togetherness and teamwork (English/Bangladeshi/Swiss/American unitedness)....

I then replaced the buttons on a few shirts in Fiji, earning me free coconuts....(I was ripped off - you could just pick them up off the beach) and then much more excitedly at Beachouse, a free cocktail in exchange for each button sewn on.

I thought this was an amazing deal....but the recipients of my buttons were surprisingly grateful...and seemed to think that they'd got a good deal, as I'd saved them from buying a new shirt...

So on to South America and I ran out of buttons! But then round an amazing market in Pisac in Peru which had beautiful ceramic beads, and a shop selling plastic buttons.

And so I continued my travels around South America, and wherever I met someone who needed a button, I would replace it...and normally receive a drink in return. A very good way to travel, I very much recommend it. 

.....and then I found a vintage button market in Buenos Aires....I had to leave some of my clothes behind, but they had a charity clothes donation box in the hostel....and then I got buttons!

(I definitely do not class this as button addiction - just normal human behaviour!)