Turtles and Tenting

We're jetting off to Greece tomorrow to spend a month volunteering here:
Archelon Sea Turtle Protection Society

With these guys:
We'll be living in a tent in an olive grove and looking after the turtles while they nest on the island of Zakynthos. It's been tricky to find somewhere we can volunteer without paying lots and lots of money, but this one seems like a great place to spend a month living cheap, and helping the turtles with habitat protection and public awareness.

Did you know that the temperature of the sand determines whether the baby turtles are going to be male or female? Lighter sand = higher temperatures = female hatchlings

More cool turtles facts to come...

The Pompeii ruins were fairly impressive and old and pretty and intriguing and awe inspiring - I especially liked the views of the volcanoes and the thousands-years-old people, and the frescoes...
However, the ancient history and incredible stories were completely upstaged by our pizza afterwards in Naples - the historical home of pizza. Oozy and melty and chewy and delicious and amazing!
According to Wikipedia, source of all knowledge, in the 18th century King Ferdinand disguised himself as a commoner so he could sneak into Naples for some pizza (which was banned from the royal court)...Smart guy, although if I was him I would probably give up the castle so I could eat this pizza all day, every-day, forever...
Here are some other interesting facts about pizza:
- Real, authentic Neapolitan Margherita pizzas are made with San Marzano tomatoes (which grow in the fertile volcanic soil south of Mount Vesuvius) and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana (which comes from the milk from water buffaloes who live in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio)...
- The most expensive pizza ever made included toppings like: sunblush-tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, medallions of venison, edible gold, lobster marinated in the finest cognac and champagne-soaked caviar. It sold at an auction for £2,150. I personally think this sounds a little disgusting, and stoopid, when it costs 5 EUROS for the BESTEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD!!

So, thankyou Italy for inventing pizza (and Nastro Azzuro, the perfect companion for pizza, and life).

Damon Soule makes groovy pictures

Interesting Things Eaten in South America

I think a vital part of travelling is utilising all the senses. This makes South America the ideal continent for me! It doesn't just appeal to sight, with incredible views like the rainbow filled Iguazu Falls or illusory salt flats of Bolivia, it also intrigues (and insults) other senses. Primarily, smell, as every city assaults the nostrils with the acrid scent of ammonia, garbage, decomposition and dust. Another constant assailment is on the ears - South Americans love their music and anyone who has travelled there will attest to the fact that by the end of your travels you will never, ever want to hear cumbia (Bolivian folk music) again. A 20 hour bus ride with endless, beatless, cumbia (perhaps interspersed with the magical pop hit "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quattro"), will satisfy anyones craving for authentic music. Touch is another sense that recieves a beating on the buses of Bolivia - one could compare a journey from say, La Quaica to Tupiza in Bolivia's south, to being put inside a maraca in an Argentinian tango show, only with alot more dust, and possibly some chickens, and certainly no bathroom...


So that's the other senses covered, the only remaining sensory adventure is in the taste category, which brings me to the interesting eatables I experienced in South America. While aggravating all my senses at Belen Street Market in Iquitos (an eccentric jungle town on the Amazon river in Peru), I was lucky enough to try one of Bear Grills' favourite snacks, moth larvae, or as we call it in Australia, a witchetty grub. It tasted a bit nutty and creamy and actually pretty good, until I remembered I was eating a bug, then it took all my self-control to not throw it back up again. I experienced a similar gag reflex in the mountains of Peru when we were offered 'cui' - I knew it was guinea pig, something I was keen to try as it is one of the main meats eaten in Peru. I did not know that when I agreed to try it I would witness the nice lady catching the screaming critter (who looked very similiar to my childhood pets), and later showing it to us, skinned, on a stick. I also did not know that it would be served with its screaming face and outstretched little feet still intact, and not-so-delicately arranged on the plate.
Yum.

Another tasty treat on a stick at the Belen Markets was pig heart, which I am assured is extremely high in iron, and good for you. And once again was fairly inoffensive tasting, until my brain ticked into action....The markets in Iquitos also had a wide array of tasty treats that even I refused to try, including turtles, pig eyeballs and, my personal favourite, cow nostrils.




In between stop offs at small riverside villages, hidden in the trees on the banks of the Amazon river, small boats paddled out selling everything from fruit to nuts to prawns to candy. Whilst there were many intriguing new fruits, edible plants in general aren't that exciting to read about. The exception to this rule is the jambu plant, found in Brazil. At the food market in Belem, we tried 'tacaca' - a soup that uses broth, prawns, a thick manioc gum and the tongue-tingling jambu. The plant numbs your lips and tongue as you sip it from the gourd. A similar result is achieved with the coca leaves that are popular throughout Bolivia. You put the coca leaves in your cheek, where they help with the altitude, and numb the back of your throat. Despite common misconception, they don't cause any mind-alteration, and are a huge part of Bolivian culture - look a little closer at the little old lady selling you your 100% alpaca jumper and you'll inevitably notice a permanent cheek bulge and green stained teeth...


From grubs to guinea pig, superhot chiles to supreme steaks, coca leaves to columbian coffee, South America is an adventure for your tongue! And nose. And ears. And eyes.....

Tokidoki - A Rad Roman Artist inspired by Japan

Capuchin Crypt - Creepiest Construction of Corpses in Rome

Over 4000 bodies of Capuchin monks are used to decorate a long dark hallway consisting of 6 rooms - including the Crypt of the Skulls, Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones, and Crypt of the Pelvises......
The floor is spread with soil brought from Jerusalem, and bones are nailed onto the walls in intricate patterns, piled in heaps, and even used to make the light fittings ...

After extensive sightseeing throughout Rome, I think I've found the coolest place here:
The Capuchin Crypt, just down the stairs to the right of Santa Maria della Concezione, right near Piazza Barberini... According to Wikipedia, it is "the final resting place for over 4,000 Capuchin friars, who died between 1528 and 1870, as well as several poor Romans."
It's "free" to visit, but there is a minimum one euro compulsory donation - best euro I have ever spent! It's macabre and creepy and a little bit gross, but its just So Cool!! From the skull with shoulder bones underneath, creating an eerie bow-tie, to the children's skeleton on the roof, made into a grim reaper and holding scales (also built with bones), the derelict crypt is a whole new way to deal with the dead.

The majority of the corpses' skeletons have been used to create intricate decorations, including swirling frescoes of spine bones and delicate and elaborate collar bone embellishments on the walls. There's also what appears to be partially decomposed corpses in hooded cloaks watching over some of the rooms. These zombie-monks are from the Capuchin order, and their brown outfit has given its name both to cappuccinos and Capuchin monkeys...

Out of all the huge, old, overwhelming sights to see in Rome, this tiny, dark, dingy hall of bones is hands down my favorite sight of all. So, if you're doing the sightseeing route in Rome, don't just do the conventional Colosseum, make sure you get to the creepy Capuchin crypt...It's a good way to see something different, and contemplate the bigger things, like life, death, mortality and zombies...As the skeletons-of-former-monks say, on a plaque in the final room:

"What you are now, we used to be; what we are now, you will be"