A message from another World....

Some of you may have read about my Shaman Ceremony at Macchu Piccu with Adrian my Shaman and if you haven't go to blog titled Macchu Piccu 21st December so you get the whole picture!

At the end of my ceremony I had a message from another world...I had a message from a little beastie, well actually it was quite big!!

At the time both Adrian and I called it a Centipede but now I have looked at the  picture and looked it up on google, this is a Millipede - how amazing is that!  Adrian had just been telling me how our Angels appear in different forms with messages and to look out for them when this wee cutie appeared in the grass next to us and Adrian immediately said to me - 'you have many feet and will travel, that is your message'.  Well those of you that know me even when I am not on a 6 week tour of a continent then I am usually off somewhere - my best friend lives in USA so I am lucky I get to go over there whenever I can and I get to travel a lot with my work so this really made sense at the time but I have done a bit of googling into what the spiritual meaning of Millipedes might be and this is what I found....

- Centipedes and millipedes alert us to new psychic environments and connections and to new and previously 

unrecognized psychic relationships. They also appear to alert us to any possible pitfalls within those relationships. 

Theirs is the energy of quiet protection in psychic exploration - 

That means so much more to me in the way things are than the traveling message from Adrian - I am sure travel is included in the message the Millipede was giving but to have quiet protection from this wee cutie makes total sense.  I am sure I will learn about the psychic relationships I need protection for or from!  I have been pushing forward in the psychic world, recently becoming a Master of Mediumship, so it makes sense that I need protection whilst doing this.  I am keen to do some platform work so will definitely need quiet protection for that!

It also shows that what is presented as a brilliant message from another world can change and lead to something else so we should always look a bit deeper into whatever messages we get.  I will continue to ask my Millipede Guardian for further clarification and I promise to keep you posted on whatever develops.

I am going through all my photos from my trip and will post blogs on various things things that spring to mind and of info I have to share and promise to do a blog with the highlights which will be mostly photos some of which you won't have seen as they were taken on my big canon camera.

suzxxx

Paraty-Rio-London-Glasgow-The Wadlin - Home safe and sound!

Home safe and sound but bag less!  Can you believe my bag made it through 5 south american countries, 14 flights, loads of buses and a couple of trains and it's between Heathrow and Glasgow that my bag goes missing!  I laughed when the woman at the desk told me my bag hadn't made it! She was very surprised, I don't think she has ever had someone laugh when they get the news that their bag hasn't made it to its destination!

Some of you will remember at the start of my trip there was a chance my bag wasn't going to make it to Chile because I had to change my flight and instead of going via Madrid I went via Sao Paulo and they really didn't think my bag would make the change as there was only 40 minutes but it did and it was a bit of a miracle so if this is Karma balancing all the positive force that was put into getting my bag to Santiago then I totally accept it, coming home and my bag being a bit behind me isn't a problem at all - at least I get to delay the HUGE wash that I will have to do - although some of my clothes should just be incinerated after 6 weeks of travelling, even though I did wash my clothes it was always by hand and usually with warmish or cold water so there are definitely some bits of clothing that will need a 95 degree wash or just put in the bin!

Fortunately Raul, my monkey, and Fernando, my Parrot, were in Mark's Suitcase so I have put them out in the conservatory - aren't they so cute?  I think they will be very happy living here!

My cats were pleased to see me too - Dexy enjoyed a big cuddle and a BIG head rub

and Finnley slept on my head all night, although that might be because we have run out of oil so there is no heating so we had a wee electric heater on in the bedroom so it was the hottest place in the house!!!

I will write another blog on the trip - the highlights etc but will get the house, animals and my washing sorted first - just thought I would let you all know I am home safe and sound after an amazing 6 weeks.

And of course I will continue to blog about my experiences as a trainee healer so please keep checking in.

suzxxx

Riding with Raul - Day 41

Today started with me having to run up into town to pay for our new transfer to Rio airport for tomorrow because the company I had booked with emailed saying they couldn't do the transfer any more which is really shite as it was fully paid up front but fortunately through paypal so I know I will get my money back.

So I had to get to the tour company to pay the full amount and then get back to the hotel as Raul my riding partner for the morning was meeting me at 10am.  So I ran up into town to do that while Mark had a leisurely morning - he didn't come riding with me choosing to let me go off and have some adventure while he sat by the pool topping up his sunburn (the pair of us are like a couple of burnt lobsters!!)

So I got all that done and met with Raul and headed off to the horses - Raul has a small horse riding business but offering more adventure than most - with the promise of at least one gallop!  The one thing I haven't done since being back riding is to gallop!  The last time I galloped would have been about 14 years ago on a lunatic horse called Mulder - we went on a trip to the beach with the riding school and this lunatic hoofed it down the beach like a galloping loony and then turned immediately and galloped like a loony back!  not my finest moment of horse riding it has to be said!  I clung on for dear life and then had to switch horses because he really was difficult to handle!

Anyway my horse Little (Big) Jack was nothing like that, although he was a strong horse with his own mind and very bouncy in trot but a good solid horse.  He is an ex jumper so he wasn't used to some of the hills we too (Raul has only had him for a year) so he was sweating within the first 10 minutes through the hard labour as we went through the mountainside but he was always willing for a canter and when we got to gallop its unfortunate I got a bit scared - he is such a big fast horse that his gallop felt just a bit too fast and as we were heading past Raul at top speed I said to him 'he is a bit too fast!' and Raul responded 'well just tell him to slow down!' simple but true!  I was letting Little Jack take the lead but I had only been riding him for about 30 minutes when we went into the gallop so we hadn't really sussed each other out yet but as I reigned Little Jack in he slowed his gallop and then we went into a fast canter.  But I galloped even if it was just for a short time it was amazing to do - I AM BACK IN THE SADDLE!!! although saying that I used to really love jumping and I haven't been back to that yet but give me time!

Raul and I had great chats about training horses and how you have to listen to the horse and learn from it, we must not be forceful. I totally love Raul for loving his horses so much that he won't ever use force to train them in a way they don't want to go.  don't get me wrong we shouldn't accept bad behaviour from our horses but being a gentle leader is such a great thing or in fact being a 'Passive Leader' which is something that Mark Rashid writes about in the book I am reading at the moment 'Horses Never lie'.  If you own a horse, want to work with horses or just love horses you have to read this book - he is a true horseman - none of this Monty Roberts pish who forces horses to give up.  Mark Rashid writes about how we cannot be the alpha leader in a horse herd - WE ARE NOT HORSES - SIMPLE!  Its the same as dogs, why do people think they can be the Alpha Leader in a pack of dogs - YOU ARE NOT A DOG SO YOU CANNOT BE THE LEADER OF THE PACK!

Animals accept us as part of their life but they don't accept us as being the same as them!  Horses and dogs are usually happy to go along with a lot of what we offer as human beings as we make their lives a little easier but they know we are not the same kind as them so they are never going to follow us as alpha leaders but Mark Rashid's idea that you can be a Passive Leader which is someone who the horses and dogs want to follow is something I totally sign up to.  My dogs, Chip, Poppy and Molly wanted to follow me, they loved what I could give them - freedom, playing with the ball, treats and of course dinner.  I never beat my dogs, I very rarely raised my voice and in fact when I was trying to rehabilitate Mad Molly I never once reprimanded her for biting me - many people thought I was mad but I was ignoring the bad behaviour and praising the good behaviour so when she didn't bite me she got lots of love and attention and when she did bite or growl I turned my back on her - it worked and she and I had a much better time together because of it.  But I am classed as a 'soft trainer' because of the way I work with animals but is that not good?  I would hate it if people talked about me as a hard trainer.  Animals are part of our lives and we love them so why do we feel the need to be hard on them because they do not give us the behaviour we demand - horses that must stand absolutely still when we want them too, horses that jump huge jumps because we want them to not because they want to and horses that we need to win races - beating them isn't going to make them do it better but loving them is and showing kindness is.

Anyway that's my view and blog rant over!!! Mind you I start my Equine Behaviour Diploma this year so there may be more ranting to come!!

So back to the day and Raul and I were up off into the mountains and after about an hour of riding we stopped at a beautiful waterfall and got off to have a look - I hadn't brought my swimming costume so didn't go in but Raul using this place as his own swimming pool - pretty beautiful isn't it?  but it reminded me of home - I have a few waterfalls just like it in my woods, I am so lucky!!!

this was the view the other way down the river - absolutely stunning but looks just like the Maich Water!

We got back on the horses and headed up the hill towards the Distillery we were due to visit - how amazing to turn up to a distillery to in a minibus or car but on the back of a horse!!! that is so the way to do sightseeing!

This is the inside workings of a Cachaca distillery - its sugar cane that is made into alcohol - it taste GOOD!

I had a couple of tasters although I have been drinking it a lot in Brazil in Caipirinha which is the local drink - its lots of limes, lime juice with Cachaca and sugar - mmmmmmmmm and very refreshing.

One of the distilled Cachacas they do is with cinnamon - it was really delicious - I can imagine its good in coffee so some Brazilian Coffees coming with the Argentine Empanadas when we get home!!!

After the distillery we headed off down the mountain back towards Paraty but thats when it got exciting as we got to cross the river - it had been raining all night so it was deeper than Raul had expected - I was ok because Little Jack is actually quite big so my feet didn't get wet but the water was filling Raul's wellies!!  We crossed the river at one point then road up onto the main road which was quite busy with traffic - another horse riding fear of mine is riding on the main road but it was fine and the traffic stopped to let me cross - that would never happen at home!!!  we then went passed some posh houses then back into the river, this time it was so deep we couldn't take the usual exit Raul would take and had to push the horses up a really steep embankment to avoid the bit of the river that would have made us all very very wet.

I loved riding with Raul, it did push me a bit out of my comfort zone and thats the good thing about it.  Little Jack was a big bouncy strong horse but I learned to work with him and he worked with me.  It was 3 hours of great fun and a great way to end my 6 week holiday - I have been riding in Chile, twice,   Argentina, twice, and now Brazil.  I never managed to ride in Peru or Bolivia but next time....

The only thing about the day was I had to wear my rucksack which was bothering my sunburn especially when we were trotting because Little Jack was so bouncy so I have taken the top layer of skin off my shoulder so it is really painful - I didn't realise until I had got back to the hotel and sprayed suntan lotion on my shoulder - OUCH - that was f*cking sore!  I headed into the swimming pool to stop it stinging and wash the oil off and also to cool myself down as I was roasting after my riding experience.

This is the view back towards Paraty - we had travelled a fair bit...

here is proof we rode through the river!  horses head in shot to prove it!!!  We rode down the side and then crossed just beyond the fallen tree on the right hand side.

Here I am with my big smiley horse riding race!!!

After riding I headed back to meet  Mark at the pool and relax and have a few beers - its our last proper day of holiday as tomorrow is a whole day of travelling.  We then headed into town to my favourite italian restaurant for a big pizza and a couple of drinks although first we had to go and find the monkey that I wanted to buy that I had seen in a shop on the first day we arrived - don't panic its not a real monkey but a really beautiful wooden hanging one that I fell in love with so it took us a wee while of methodically searching the Paraty streets for the shop but after an hour we found it and the monkey is coming home to scotland - he will live in my conservatory and I am sure he will be very happy there.  I also bought a big parrot - wooden again but he will also be very happy in my conservatory!!!

Can't believe 6 weeks has gone - it hasn't gone too fast but if I didn't have all my responsibilities at home and I had the money I could quite easily keep travelling.  I have loved my 6 weeks and all of the different things I have seen and done.  it has been truly amazing and I know I am very lucky.

suzxxx

ps.  meant to add this nice pic of the beach tonight after it had rained - looks very scottish don't you think?!

Out on the boat - Day 40

We headed off after breakfast to go and find our boat - well first we had to find the pier!! luckily Paraty only has one pier so it was easy to find.  Then we had to find our boat - the pier was full of people and their boats selling tours of the islands but we were booked onto Banzay - yup the same name as that crazy Japanese tv endurance programme on the telly - I was really hoping we wouldn't have to swim through mud then eat worms before we could get on the boat!!!

Luckily we found our boat and didn't have to do any tricks to get on board - well all they wanted was the trick of opening my purse and paying for it!!!

The boat wasn't too packed either so we got a couple of seats on the main deck - we didn't want to sit up on the top deck as we were sunburned enough!  The boat headed off passing lots of tiny islands on the way - they looked fab!  great places to hide away from everything!!  there are 365 islands in this area big and small.

Here I am with some of the islands in the background and also wearing my famous orange scarf!! Mark commented on how I seemed to have worn it every day I have been away - well it has saved me from some severe sunburn in Chile (wish I had been wearing it yesterday) and it has helped me breathe through the dusty mountains of Chile and it has kept the rain off my head in Macchu Piccu - it also can be used as a top, a skirt or a dress - what more do you want from a scarf.... my favourite piece of clothing by far!

Thankfully the sea wasn't too choppy - I had my sick bands on but didn't need them at all, very pretty scenery...

The boat stopped a couple of times to let everyone in the water for a swim - it was actually not too cold and was beautiful and crystal clear.  We went on shore using the wee dingy which I made a complete tit of myself the second time by falling out of the boat - luckily I had left my camera, phone and wallet behind on the second trip otherwise more than my pride would had been damaged!!!  Mark was to hand to help me up to my feet although you could tell he really wanted to laugh but since I had hurt my leg in the fall onto the sea bed he had to stifle it and show concern instead!!  The wee boat driver didn't stifle anything and had a good old laugh to himself...fucker!

Here is my very own daniel craig walking purposely out of the sea!  Mark was swimming with his tshirt on, as was I, because of our sunburned bodies!  Thats our boat behind Mark.

I was starving when we got back but we needed to find an ATM as I have booked for me to go horse riding tomorrow so needed to get more cash out so we headed off to do that first before I could get anything to eat - as usual I had to try three different banks before I got money - my bank is owned by HSBC - one of the biggest banks in the world, surely it must be easier to get money from other banks?!!

As we arrived at a restaurant it started to rain so a good excuse for a couple of Chopps (draft lager) and a chickpea and aubergine sandwich for me.

I am off riding with Raul tomorrow while Mark has a restful morning in the jacuzzi.  Really looking forward to riding as I haven't ridden in Brazil yet!

suzxxx

Paraty - Day 38 and 39

The journey from Buenos Aires to Paraty felt like a long one.  We got up at 3.30am for our transfer to the airport to check in at 4am for our flight to Sao Paulo and once in Sao Paulo we had 2 hours to wait for our bus to Paraty which took 5 hours and for 3 of those hours we were going down sharp twisty bends, I had my sick bands on which is just as well as there were a few times I thought I might have puked my guts up over the lovely smiley drivers back!

We got to Paraty at about 2pm but I went straight for a lie down as my stomach was still on the come down from the twisty bends!  I didn't really get much rest as there was a Brato screaming his head off in the pool which is next to our room but once I felt better we headed over the road to the beach for a big plate of Batatas Frites - or chips!  they went down a storm as did some of Marks beer - I was definitely on the mend.

We headed off into the town - our hotel is about 2km from the main town so we walked up the hill.  Paraty is a World Heritage site and the main streets are car free which is just as well as the cobbles are pretty hard to navigate - not cobbles like we know them but huge boulders cemented into the ground and when it rains its a nightmare to walk on but its a really pretty little town.

The town is surrounded by mountains - which is why we had such a twisty turny journey in...

and the buildings were really pretty and well looked after - here is one of the main streets.   Paraty town is not very big but is full of lots of shops - mostly selling crafty stuff.  I have fallen in love with a wooden hanging monkey so will have to go and find that shop again to buy it to bring home!

I don't know what they were celebrating in Paraty on Friday night but they had music on a big bandstand and also some mad scary puppets dancing around the streets with all the people following - it was nice to sit and have a drink and watch it all even if we didn't know what it was all about.

The next day we stayed by the pool all day and have the sun burn to prove it!! it was pretty cloudy all day and we did have factor 20 on but just shows the power of a sun even behind the clouds!  One of my legs is really badly burnt - you can see where I sprayed the oil but didn't rub it in so I look like I have got some dreadful disease as I am all red and white patches!  Thank goodness for Aloe Vera though, lucky I brought I big tube of it - it will sort out the burnt bits and hopefully we won't peel!

It was nice to sit and do nothing for once!  I have been pretty active for the last 6 weeks with the odd morning to have a long lie so it was great to just not move and we had the pool to ourselves as everyone else at the hotel seemed to be out on tours so it was nice and peaceful and nice for it just to be the two of us.

Mark and his fake smile enjoying the jacuzzi!

and here I am enjoying the pool - so glad I didn't have my bikini on - more bits that would have been burnt!!!!

Later on we headed into town for something to eat - I had spaghetti arrabiata - my favourite and it was delicious.  They had some music on the main stage so we listened to a couple of sets of Ceefax music before heading up the road - we made it back to the hotel before the thunder and lighting started - it was pretty epic, well apparently... I was asleep within 5 minutes of getting back to the hotel, must be the sunburn!!!

We are off on a boat round some of the islands tomorrow so that should be fun.

suzxxx

The Argentinian Falls - Day 36 and 37

We were both very sad to leave Buenos Aires - it was a great city, so easy to get around.  It is a grid system so you never get lost and the Metro system was so straightforward it was nearly as easy as the one in glasgow.

We had such a lovely apartment too with a great Landlord - Juan, who was on holiday from work so every time we saw him he looked like he had been up all night drinking and as it turned out he usually had!  Palermo Soho was the area we stayed in an I would highly recommend it, really nice area to walk around at night with no worries and lots of bars and restaurants - didn't have an ATM that worked though!  my only problem with BA was how difficult it was to get money out of a bank but Rio was a little bit like that too.

We headed off to catch our lunchtime flight to Puerto Igauco which is the Argentinian side of the falls we saw last week.

We arrived at the hotel too late to head to the falls so instead we headed to the pool and I booked in for a massage - yippee!!! I love when I have time for a massage!  I had a beautiful hot stone massage and was on another planet when I went out to meet Mark at the pool although he was tucking into the local beer so he was quite happy.  I think everyone should have a massage at least once a month - its so important to help you relax but it also helps to eliminate toxins out of the body, if you have a massage regularly it can also help you to lose weight - when I have a weekly Manual Lymph Drainage massage I usually lose about 2lbs a week.  Now thats my idea of going on a diet - lying on a table and someone massaging me.

We went off the the falls the next day, getting the local bus up to the national park.

Is this where 'Somewhere over the rainbow' came from?  not often we are above a rainbow.....  Don't think these people even realised the special position they were in....

he's a big boy! a huge iguana just walking by us - not even acknowledging us !!!

here I am touching the rainbow - is that rude?!  thank god I wasn't wear white as I think I might have taken the miss wet shirt title!!!!

You can't go to the falls and expect to come away dry!  here we are a couple of argentinian wetties!!!

here is one of the wide shots of the argentinian falls - it really was spectacular!

and a wee cutie to finish off...

just hanging about eating a banana skin!!!

The falls were more spectacular that the brazil side just because you could get so much closer to the top of them, a really impressive new seventh wonder of the natural world!

After the falls we headed over the border and on the advise of the hotel tried to get a taxi at the border to take us to our hotel as it wasn't far from the border so no point in going all the way into town on the bus to get a different bus out but getting a taxi was easier said than done.  We had a border guard helping us as he kept an eye out for empty taxis coming over the border but after 30 minutes we had no luck so I phoned the hotel and luckily they had once of their transfer vans just about to pass the border so we jumped in that and got to the hotel within minutes.

The hotel was nice and had a big pool so off we went to put our sizzling bodies into the pool - we both had a bit of sun burn as the sun was really hot at the falls.

We are up at before stupid o'clock (3.30am) to get our flight to Sao Paulo and then our bus transfer to Paraty to the beach so off to bed to catch a few hours sleep.

suzxxx

Learning to play Polo - Day 35

I had a morning of sitting on the balcony drinking ginger and lemon tea before getting ready to head into town with Mark to drop him off to meet his guide for the football stadium tour - he was heading to River Plate - apparently where all the best argentinian footballers play (accept Maradona and Messi as they played at Boca).  He was meeting his guide at 2pm and I was being picked up down at Indepencia for my polo experience.

Once Mark was on his way I headed off to try to find an ATM that would work with my card - easier said than done at the 6th bank I finally got money so headed off on the underground down to Indepencia.  It shouldn't be that hard to get money out of an ATM but so many of the banks don't recognise my card which is an HSBC card so you would think it would be a worldly recognised card but no.

Once at the pick up point I met 3 american girls, Kate, Dee Dee and Robyn who were all heading for polo too, all nice girls so I knew we would have some fun.  Fernando our teacher arrived to take us out to the stables which were about an hour outside of the city.

The 3 girls are all in the military - Kate is a pilot, Dee Dee drives ships and Robyn is a marine - she didn't give much away about what she did on a day to day basis so with my imagination running riot as it usually does I have her down as Special Forces.  They were all young and good fun and Dee Dee hadn't ever ridden before but she did really well.

We all got our hats on and off we went to the practice field get our horses and to learn the first thing in Polo - how to steer your horse!  the best way is to lean into the stirrup of the side you want to go and turn your body the way you want to go so if you want to go left, lean into the left stirrup and turn to the left and the horse will go that way.  The other way is using the reigns but the horses mouths are sensitive with the bit so you can imagine in a polo match you turn and twist loads so its not fair on the horse to be pulled about by its mouth so much.

Here we are fresh and ready to go.....

My horse was Big Daddy - no idea how to pronounce his name or spell it so Big Daddy will do.  He was bigger than the other polo horses which meant I had a bit of a longer stick as we were further off the ground.  Big Daddy was a bit of a tricky horse to get started, a total tester, which is a horse that pushes to see how much knowledge you have an how much he can get away with not doing!  I was kicking hard to get him to move so in the end Fernando suggested a whip - I hate whips normally but unfortunately Big Daddy needed the threat of something - I only had to use it sparingly as generally just showing him the whip was enough to get him into trot.

Here we are listening intently to Fernando as he explains how to hit the ball - I wasn't to great at the ball hitting bit! Definitely couldn't hit the ball backwards!

After we had been practicing hitting the ball for about 30 minutes I started to feel really unwell, I felt faint and that I needed to eat or drink something but I knew I didn't really need to as I had had free range scrambled eggs with a big baguette for my lunch and I had also had 3 huge mugs of ginger tea so I couldn't really understand why I felt like this.  I felt like I needed to get off the horse but I wasn't going to do that as I wanted to learn to play polo!  I just couldn't understand why I felt like this but Mark has Man Flu so I thought may be it was that but it had hit me so quickly and it is really not like me to be ill and not to get flu that quickly.  So I carried on and after a few minutes I realised that it was Big Daddy who was taking my energy - he was an energy vampire!  I have come across many human energy vampires and know how to spot them and protect myself from them but I had never come across a horse or animal energy vampire before but that was exactly what Big Daddy was.  I put up Reiki protection for myself and sent out healing energy to Big Daddy - generally people who are energy vampires need healing so animals will be the same.

Within 10 minutes I started to feel better - isn't that amazing?!  Its great that I have started to recognise these feelings in myself - if I had got off Big Daddy which was what I really wanted to do I would have drunk some water and eaten some nuts and thought thats why I was feeling better but the real reason would have been because he didn't have access to my energy any more as I wouldn't be riding him.

After I protected myself we were fine until I discovered how ungrounded Big Daddy was - after our practice and then we had a break we started to play a match and towards the end of the match someone in the distance fired a shot gun a few times - Big Daddy reared up on his back legs - my instinct kept me on him as I leant into his neck but at one point I thought he might go all the way over, he then put his front legs down and was bucking with his back legs, at this point I lost my left stirrup which would have been fine if the gun hadn't started firing again so Big Daddy was rearing up again and I could feel that I may have to make an exit strategy as he was quite uncontrollable but the last time I rode a horse that was uncontrollable and I hit the exit button I didn't ride again for 10 years and I really didn't want that to happen again and I have handled a lot of feisty horses in my years or riding so I knew I could handle this. I sat deep in the saddle (hard to do when your horse is rearing up!!) and put my right heel down in the stirrup and my left heel as far down as I could and gave one strong tug with the reigns giving him the signal to stop and he did!  He was very jittery though when we had finished our rearing adventure.  Horses that need grounded often are the once who are bouncy on their feet and have a habit of rearing, at the end of the whole session I spent a bit of time working with Big Daddy and grounding all four of his feet - I hope he feels much better for it.

Immediately after I had settle Big Daddy Fernando asked me if I wanted to get off and I said no as long as Big Daddy was going to be ok - that would have knocked my confidence to give up at that point and I surely had been through the worst with him?!  So we carried on playing the match and Big Daddy and I went on to score the 6th and winning goal of the match (a complete fluke by the way!) so all was well even if it had been more of an adventure than i was looking for.

It was a good experience to have as I was so proud of myself for staying on and also continuing - horses are not robots, they do shite like this and its important to know that I can control the situation.  If I had sat deep in the saddle and tugged his reigns on the first rearing perhaps he wouldn't have bucked or reared again - its all learning but I am pleased it happened as it has boosted my confidence.  I do know how to ride and I can handle difficult horses - I always was able to when I was younger so why not now?

Here I am practicing hitting the ball - an impressive swing out don't you think?! (I probably missed the ball on this one!)

Leaning in to hit the ball (I think I did hit this one, hey its harder than it looks!)

another action shot and proof in the 2nd pic that I did actually hit one ball!

and here I am - too happy for words!!! This pic was taken before the whole rearing incident!!!  but I was still smiling like this as I was so proud of myself for handling the situation.

So polo was a success - hard work but I really enjoyed it - I really enjoyed the match even though none of us were that fast we all had fun and we all enjoyed a bit of ball hitting and a bit of defence - I think I may have a career as a shoulder pusher - I was quite good at riding my horse up to whoever had the ball and pushing into them - is that the German blood or the Scottish blood that makes me good at that?!

Fernando was a brilliant teacher so if you are going to BA and want to learn polo look him up - www.poloelite.com.

suzxxx  - ps. here is a pic of where Mark went for the afternoon, he found it interesting but I reckon he would have loved polo!

Learning to cook Empenadas - day 34

I had organised a transfer to Cooking with Teresita's as she is quite far out of town and I couldn't be bothered fannying around with trains and buses early in the morning.

Once we arrived and met Teresita's lovely dog and her puppy both Vislas - beautiful dogs - we headed into the kitchen to get started.  It was only about 10 minutes before Teresita asked if we wanted to taste some wine - so it was about 11.15am!  I looked at my watch and then Mark and we both said "yes why not, its after 2pm at home"!

We were poured lovely cold glasses of Argentinian White wine - really lovely after our hot long journey in but it wasn't even 12pm yet!!!

Teresita was a brilliant teacher and soon had both of us chopping, kneading and stirring...

Here is Mark actually looking very interested in whatever Teresita is saying - he never looks that interested when I talk to him....

Mark is working on filling his last Empenada while Teresita and her husband inspect mine!!!  Think we are on our 2nd bottle of white wine by this point....

We made 24 Empenadas, 6 of them meat, 8 were Aubergine and the rest corn.  Half of them were cooked in the oven and the other half were deep fried.  Oh yeah the deep fried corn ones were AMAZING!  the Aubergine ones were ok too, lots of flavours from the cumin and chilli that Teresita added so very nice.  The oven ones really couldn't top the deep fried ones - why is it that the most unhealthy food is always the BEST!!!

Once all the Empenadas were ready we sat out in the garden and got tucked in and Teresita opened a bottle of Malbec - god help us - 2pm and 3 bottles in!!!!

Teresita has a really beautiful garden with Hummingbirds flying around - she feeds them nectar which keeps them coming all year round.  They are amazing little birds with very high energy levels and with it high vibrational energy - way way above our heads - its like they come from another dimension as their energy is so vibrant.  Such cute wee birds - I really loved sitting outside watching them.

Here I am enjoying my corn empenada and argentinian white wine.  Brilliant fun making them and Teresita and her husband were perfect hosts.

After we had eaten we then sat and talked to Teresita and her husband for a while - she is an retired high school teacher and her husband is a retired doctor and she started doing this just because they love cooking and she enjoys teaching so why not.  We had a fab day and promise to invite you all around sometime for some delicious Empenadas!

It was nice to take it easy with the cooking after our horse riding experience the day before as our bodies are starting to get sore but as always its 48 hours after the event that you can't move - don't think Mark believes me but he will have to roll out of bed tomorrow because his legs won't work!!!

Teresita directed us to the train station where it cost us 3 pesos each to get back into town - saved us a $30 taxi journey so big thanks to Teresita for being the perfect host, a great cook and teacher and also for saving us money.

If you want to know more about Teresita look her up on her website www.try2cook.com

Mark is off on a footie stadium tour to River Plate while I have my polo lesson tomorrow afternoon so more info to follow.....

suzxxx

UPDATE - Suz and Mark cantering handsfree video

Here is the you tube video link to the video of us cantering hands free - what  brilliant day!  Hard to believe this is the first time Mark has ever been on a horse!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPOsvT_h1M

you will need to cut and paste it into your web browser.

enjoy!

suzxxx

Horseback riding - Argentinian style! - Day 33

We headed off into town early to where we were to meet Adrian who was picking us up and then headed off to his Ranch.  He is really lovely and very chatty and speaks great English, drove like a maniac though!

As soon as we got into the Ranch we could see our horses saddled up and ready to go but we headed into the kitchen to have Mate tea which was a weird drink - didn't taste anything like tea as we know it but it had a very interesting flavour - Mark described it as smokey and I can understand why he said that but it really is a strange flavour to describe. Adrian makes the Mate in a little cup with a metal straw and passes it to the right (always the right he said) and once Miriam, who was taking us out riding, had finished her Mate she passed it to Adrian who put more sugar and hot water in the concoction and passed it to me and then when I was done I passed it back and Adrian refilled and then passed to Mark.  We did a few rounds of that, Mark having more of it that me.  It was good to have taken part in a good Argentinian tradition with Adrian and Miriam - they are such lovely people.

We then got our hats and our chaps on ready for a few hours of riding - here is Butch Cassidy ready to go...

We headed off with Miriam having to constantly correct Mark's riding position which is fair enough, this was the first time EVER he had been on a horse so hadn't got a clue but he did really well as within half an hour he was trotting and within an hour or so he was cantering.

I loved the cantering, it really helped my confidence as it was in Canter that I fell off 10 years ago and that stopped me riding for the last 10 years, a big knock to my confidence.  But I was back cantering almost straight away and was handsfree for loads of canter - IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Here I am cantering and riding Argentinian style, one handed, with the hand facing up which was strange to get used to - I didn't have to have much instruction from Miriam except to turn my hand up, my riding position is good and I had good communications with Isobel my lovely horse.  She was a very happy horse and loved cantering too.

and here I am cantering handsfree...

I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS!!!

I was so happy riding today, it really was a fantastic place to ride.  Miriam let me just head off into the open field sometimes to canter on my own while she gave Mark some instruction and also let us both go cantering off together once Mark had mastered cantering.

I wish in my first lesson when I was 12 years old I had been allowed to just head off and canter like Mark was - I think I spent a year at least riding round and round in a circle with 9 other people in the class before I was allowed to canter.  Miriam was a brilliant teacher and was very relaxed about everything.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ride again....

After lots of cantering we then got off to adjust the saddles as they are different from English style riding and the saddle loosens over the ride and needs to be pulled forward and re-tightened to make sure the girth doesn't rub too much on the horse otherwise they will end up with sore areas.

Then we did a bit of cantering on the way back.  The park we were in is massive and we didn't really see very many people at all whilst riding which was amazing considering it was such a beautiful day.

Isobel had earned her carrots!  Isn't she a really beautiful horse?!  she had one blue eye and one brown eye, just stunning.

I had such a brilliant day as did Mark who was cantering at every opportunity once he had mastered it and he loved it.  He had such a great horse too who was very patient with him.  I have a video of us cantering handsfree side by side and once I have figured out how to upload it I will post it on the blog.  UPDATE - here is the link www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPOsvT_h1M - you might have to cut and paste the link

Miriam had organise a take away deliver of Empenadas for us which was a really lovely thing to do as good and drink aren't included in the day and then she brought out a big Argentinian beer for us to share - absolute heaven.

After Adrian had given all the horses a cold shower he came in and joined us for a drink and some empenadas before he drove us down the road to meet our driver who would return us to the city.

It was a really fantastic day, I loved the horses and also the lovely people, Miriam and Adrian are really nice people who just love their horses and want to share their love of horses with other people which is right up my street.

Here is the link to the place we were riding today www.caballos-alapar.com - it was fantastic.

Can't wait for my polo lesson on Tuesday now!

Tomorrow we head off to learn how to cook Argentinian style Empenadas with Teresita which should be good fun.

suzxxx

Arrived in Argentina - Day 31 and 32

The bus was long and not quite as filled with champagne as I had hoped!!!

Here I am excited to get on the bus and start our 18 hour journey to Buenos Aires - little did I know they only carried meat for lunch and dinner and that in 18 hours I would be allowed one (very small) bottle of red wine and a glass (!) of champagne and that some fucker would be snoring all night!!!  I can sleep through most things but have no idea why snoring keeps me awake!  This snoring fucker in front of me snored all night - thank god for my iPod and Elizabeth Whiter's 'Journey through the Chakras' - my saviour from most stressful situations!  It last half an hour and I listened to it 8 times from midnight till 6am - so I was well meditated but fucking knackered as I hadn't slept and I was starving - wish I had got the plane, even if they only serve turkey (SHAME!) sandwiches at least I would have been there in 3 hours!!!

Here is a pic from the bus of the sunset in Argentina - very pretty.
Once we arrived at the main bus station in Buenos Aires,  I headed off leaving Mark to watch the bags to see if I could a place to change money as neither of us had any argentinian money but I didn't have any luck so we had to persuade a taxi driver to take us to our apartment and get paid in US$ - as it turns out all argentinians want to get paid in US$ because their economy is fucked so they are all buying into the dollar to save themselves.

We arrived at our apartment and Juan our lovely landlord was more than keen to swap his Pesos for our US$!

We landed on our feet with this apartment $40 a night and its 4 times the size of our apartment in Copacabana and it has a lovely pool and gym - pool I will use - gym not a hope in hell but Mark might, mind you he is learning to horse ride tomorrow so he may be walking like John Wayne for the next few days so perhaps he won't be heading to the gym!

Some people had just checked out of the apartment as we arrived so it needed cleaning so Juan took our bags up but we went off to find me something to eat - I had had a bread roll and red cabbage for my dinner and a horrible sticky croissant for my breakfast so I was threatening to eat a 'scabby dog'!  as if I would ever but anyway the threat was enough for Mark to get me into the first available cafe for a toasted sandwich, orange juice and tea - absolute heaven!

I get very grumpy if I don't eat often, or at least drink tea with sugar and on the bus they didn't do tea so I didn't get anything to eat or any tea with sugar so you can imagine Marks hurry to get me to somewhere to get me some tea and something to eat!

Once sorted in our apartment we headed off to do our afternoon City Tour which was quite interesting, it was all in english which helps to keep your attention...

The first thing we were shown was a huge flower sculpture that was made out of old air plane parts - interesting way of recycling!!!

We then went to Eva Peron's Mausoleum which I have mixed feelings over.  I have put a picture below but as I was waiting to take a photo (lots of tourists) I started to get a bad conscience.  I get this feeling a lot to do with dead people - have no idea what its about - I got it in the Cathedral too where there was a big tomb for some hero who had helped fight some cause.  What is that all about? I really don't know why i don't feel comfortable around dead bodies - its nothing to do with my experience of my dead little sister, this feels much more recent and the first time I remember feeling embarrassed taking pictures of dead people was at the Cremation Site in Kathmandu so perhaps something stems from there.  Mark took a picture of me in front of the dead guys grave and questioned why I wasn't smiling - hmmm why would I be smiling standing in front of some dead guys memorial?  am I supposed to be happy he has been reborn?  sorry not really figured that shite out but will let you know when I figure out why I feel the way I do around dead peoples memorials!

Here is where Evita is buried - 8 metres underground!

I don't want a huge stone building built for my dead body - sling me in a recycled cardboard box, burn me as quickly as possible and scatter my ashes somewhere green with trees while the sun is shining and I will be more than happy!  I suppose I could make it difficult and say I want my ashes scattered in the Jungle where I had my ayahuasca ceremony!!!  At least a few of you would get a good trip out of it all!!!

After this we headed to The May Square and the Cathedral - I have been in so many Cathedrals in my life of travels - why do I keep going in to them?  I was baptised a Catholic but really don't believe in any of that shite - I don't believe in sinning and repenting - I believing in living and never regretting!!!

Here I am with Evita on the building in the background - she made such a huge difference to Women and the working classes - what an amazing woman.   They have an area in the new port that is dedicated to women - all the street names are named after women and the modern footbridge is called The Woman Bridge.  They really celebrate the female in Buenos Aires - we should really celebrate women all around the world, where would the world be without us but we don't recognise that ourselves as women but we should.  We are amazing , we keep the world going round so lets start celebrating that...

Ahhh, a nice cool beer and the sun on my back!  here I am on the balcony of our lovely BA apartment....

We had a nice dinner in for a change - mark made tomato pasta and a pepper and lettuce salad - it was brilliant!

Off for Argentinian riding lessons tomorrow - I can't wait!  I think Mark is a little nervous as he has started asking questions about how he will feel after!  I have told him that 24 hours after he will be a little sore in the bum area but 48 hours after he will be walking like John wayne! I know he doesn't believe me but he will in 48 hours!!!  If I haven't told you before - Mark has NEVER ridden a horse before in his life!  I am so looking forward to watching him gallop hands free - that is Adrians mission, he is our teacher.  I will be a little bit harder to teach as I have been riding since 12 so have my own riding style and also have my own fears.  Mark doesn't have any of that... I wish I could be like that again.

Anyway will hopefully have lots of photos of us riding for the next blog.

suzxxx

Off to the Iguacu Falls - Day 30

An earlish start and off to the airport to catch our flight to Foz du Iguacu which is on the brazilian side but right next to the argentinian border.  I was feeling slightly rough as our last night on Copacabana beach ended in cocktails till 2am and we were up at 6.15am but everything went smoothly although we were delayed in take off by an hour because of a lighting storm but to be honest I hadn't noticed as my head was attached to the window of the plane fast asleep - probably drooling!

not sure why all of Marks photos from his phone of us are out of focus, he must have the cocktail shakes!!!

We arrived in Foz airport and tried to get a taxi - the South Americans really couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery or a taxi queue!  It was a mess!  there was a counter where you had to get your ticket to get a taxi and the guy wasn't there so we went outside and couldn't get a taxi because we didn't have a ticket - catch fucking 22!  so after about 15 minutes of chaos I headed back into the terminal and found an english speaking woman in the tourist information office and got her out to sort out the chaos - she found me the man with the tickets - thank god!  Think he was out smoking several fags!  so thank you to that lovely lady who helped us out - sometimes you just need to kick ass or find someone who can speak the language and do it for you!

We dumped our stuff in the hotel and were going to head out straight away but were delayed by Mark's sore feet - his sandals rubbed the skin off his big toes on day one but he hasn't really sorted it out properly and now the wounds have got bigger and more infected so I put some blister plasters on and he stuck his trainers on to see if that helped.  He was hobbling a wee bit but he managed to get through the falls ok.  I suggested he buys flip flops so the wounds can air with some aloe vera and tea tree oil on  to help scab up so we got him some flip flops on the way back from the falls so hopefully in a couple of days they will have scabbed and the tea tree and aloe vera will have dealt with any infection so his big toes should survive!

We got the local bus up to the National Park where the falls are - its always interesting when you are getting the local bus as you are never sure if you are getting on the right one and how do you know where to get off but this was easy - a block from our hotel and a fast loony bus driver got us to the park in 30 mins - it should take 40!  the Park is the last stop so easy to work out.

Once in the park there was transport to various stops so we went straight to The Devils Throat drop off and started the walk down into the falls.  Here is a wide shot from the start of the walk down - pretty amazing - one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world!  looked it up on wikipedia and there seems to be lots of 'new' wonders of the world...

It was tourist hell here though - with people everywhere - hard to get good pics without other people in them.

but there were some wee cuties to keep me smiling....

 Hello Mister!!  Huge big Iguana  - I love reptiles so much - their energy feels like it comes from the centre of the earth - its big and deep and makes you feel like you are being pulled to the centre of the earth.  They are truly amazing.

These wee cuties were everywhere looking for scraps of food - they were like a cross between a raccoon, a badger and an ant eater.  This was a little baby one.  So cute!

Do you remember MUTHA from my Jungle adventures?  well I found GREAT, GREAT, GRANDMUTHA.... (sorry Lindsay and Dawn - look away now....)

Not a Tarantula but absolutely huge, it would have been too big to sit on my hand - NOT THAT I WAS OFFERING!!!

As we got down into the falls, the boom of the water and the spray was amazing - it was boiling hot so the spray was welcomed, we both got absolutely soaked but it was good fun.

Here I am with the falls in the background and a beautiful rainbow. The falls and rainbow are beautiful - shame about my popeye!  think i was having trouble with salty sweat running into my eyes now I was also getting wet from the spray!!

this was a platform built out and over the falls -really amazing and is called the devils throat.

we then headed up to the viewing platform at the top which you can see on the left hand side where I had an altercation with a Swedish Guide who was trying to jump the queue for the lift with 16 of her tourists - hmmm not a hope in hell Swedo!!  she started to argue with me that she was a guide so should be able to come to the front of the queue - I pointed out that we were all paying tourists and had every right to our place in the queue and that she should get to the back with her 16 tourists.  She really wasn't very happy and kept arguing back so I told her to get her annoying face to the back of the queue - I tried to keep it polite!! She then said she was sorry so of course I replied 'so you should be' she then said she was sorry that she had made me angry, I laughed and replied 'I am not angry but you are really annoying' that was the end of the conversation and she went off to the back of the queue with her tourists.  I hate queue jumpers!  although the South Americans are so good at it, they really don't give a shit but the Swedish bird should have better manners!

So we made it to the top but whilst waiting for the list we had the most amazing close up view of the falls.  WOW - I really love this picture, we were so close the noise was deafening but also really exhilarating and breathtaking.

Both Mark and I have been to Niagara Falls but never felt anything like how we did at the Iguacu falls.  Although these falls are 4 times the size of Niagara so thats may be why!!

Really stunning.

Here we are at the top view point, soaked to the skin but really happy - loved the Falls!  Apparently the Argentinian side is so much better with more to do - we do that side when we get back from Buenos Aires next week.  Looking forward to it.

After the falls we headed off to get the local bus - easy to do when going to the National Park as its such a big landmark and everyone knows where it is but how do we figure out what stop to get off at for our hotel?!  I worry about stuff like this and had the map of the town out before we even got on the bus!  Its just part of my personality - I am a forward thinker, always thinking of every outcome so I can solve all the problems in advance.  Mark is so not like this, he is far too laid back for that kind of organisation but he has fun watching me be first on the bus, first into the seats at the front so I can see every thing and checking off all the street names as we go.  Its best just to let me get on with stuff like that, I get annoyed when interfered with when solving problems of outcomes that won't actually happen!!!

I hadn't eaten all day - Mark had a turkey and cheese sandwich on the plane but the only thing they could offer me was a wee packet of peanuts and at the National Park the snack bars were all burgers so nothing for me there so I had a packet of Doritos which sort of kept the hunger pangs at bay for a wee while but once we got back to the hotel at 8.30pm I was so hungry my stomach had started to eat itself! So after we sorted Marks sore feet we headed to Bella Pizza round the corner - as much pizza, pasta and ice-cream as you can eat for 17 reals!  thats like £6!!!  Of course the worst bit about being so hungry is your stomach fills with acid so when you do eventually eat you can't actually eat that much but at £6 I still got my moneys worth.

Mark was so funny as the waiters every minute were offering another bit of pizza or a big bit of chicken or some chips - it took him about 30 minutes before he actually started turning food away.  I was done after 15 minutes of olive pizza and sweetcorn pizza - they were delicious!

Its funny to have been so hungry and now I am sooooo stuffed....

We stumbled out of Bella Pizza and rolled our way back up the hill to our hotel.

We need to figure out tomorrow where we get the bus from to go across the border to Argentina to get our posh bus to Buenes Aires - we have booked Cama Suites which is a full lie down seat/bed on the bus and apparently they feed you champers all day and night while you watch movies!!  18 hours of champagne bliss....

suzxxx