Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Iris, a British lady of considerable character and pluck, is on a 23 week overland truck expedition from Quito in Ecuador to Caracas in Venezuela. After this, she plans to do a 3-month voluntary placement in Ecuador, and then visit Central America for another overland trip between Panama City and Mexico City, ending up with perhaps another 2-month voluntary placement somewhere in South America again. This amazing journey will take Iris one year. Here is an extract from Iris’ journey notebook.

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27^th November 2002

Arrived in Quito at 1730 local time. Met 4 people from Madrid, 4 more from the UK and 4 others at the hotel and today 7 of them plus me went to the Equator. It was really hot, sun beating down and some had no hats and were getting burnt up! On the way back, we had taxi race but my taxi lost! All told good flight and meeting some great people. Hotel okay – no spiders or cockroaches in sight! Everything very clean.

Pre-expedition meeting tonight – there are only 41 of us instead of 44 – I am on a truck with 20 others – does that mean I’m on my own in a tent? Will have to see! (Beetle: we’ll hear a lot more about this particular aspect of Iris’ trip!)

Left Quito at 1100 hrs after a frenetic time trying to get everything packed into that locker! 77cm x 40cm x 30cm seems a large space until you find it is made of hard wood! Everyone had similar problems to me, but I got mine in with little problems compared to others and some still haven’t managed to transfer their stuff to their lockers!! It’s 5 hours down to Baños, out first stop (still in Ecuador and we’ll be here in Baños for 4 nights.

Am sharing with an Australian lady, Judith – 3 yrs older than me but a kindred spirit. We did our exercises together this morning! Everyone on the trip is so friendly and we really enjoyed the trip down here together. The hotel is fine. It appears we will be staying in hotels most of the time at the moment. We’ve been given a programme for the next 8 weeks (54 nights) and are staying in hotels for 37 of those. Apparently we start camping after we’ve dropped people off in Santiago in Chile. We are all longing for the camping to start.

Weather here is changeable at the moment however as it is the rainy season and today we had our first real rain, which lasted all morning, but now the sun is out. However, Baños is nestled below an active volcano, which as I write is spewing forth steam! We saw it from all sorts of aspects as we approached Baños – I wrote in my journal that it looks so “innocently menacing”! Black and brooding above this small town. In the church there are countless paintings depicting disasters in the past, and when one looked at the earth in the banks on the way down to the town, it was black earth, obviously from previous laval deposits. We are chilling out here – all of us, recovering from the journey to South America and some of us had really fraught times getting here – Judith, my room-mate came from Australia via London and took four days of constant travel to get here hours before we were due to leave Quito! She is really jet-lagged and needs this time to recover.

Activities here are walking (I’ll participate); canyoning (abseiling, sliding down ropes and swimming) planned for tomorrow (definitely not for me – as Judith said, if it was the last week of the trip we might risk it, but this early in? No way!); mountain bike riding (ditto for canyoning!); rafting (ditto again). Most people, I think, just want to chill out and renew energy for the remaining 22½ weeks!

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

Globetrotters meeting on Saturday 4^th January 2003 by Padmassana

For our first meeting of the New Year we were treated to four mini talks by club members.

First up was Gavin Fernandes who talked to us about Darjeeling, India. Gavin showed us slides of his journey, which began on a very slow narrow gauge steam train. The train often runs late anything up to 12 hours. Once he had arrived in Darjeeling, he showed us slides of the area including tea plantations clinging to the sides of hills and temples on mountaintops with their colourful prayer flags. We also saw the local people, including porters who carry impossible loads on their heads including massive oil drums and furniture.

Our second speaker, Kevin Brackley, gave a well received talk on South Korea. Kevin showed us the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone, border with North Korea) and the surrounding area including the world’s most dangerous golf hole and the world’s tallest flagpole as well as the hut where superpower meetings take place. We then saw pictures of Bulguksa temple in the Southeast corner of Korea near the city of Gyeongju and examples of the fine carpentry and paintwork that adorn the temple. Kevin’s photos concluded at Haeinsa, another temple in the mountains near Daegu. Haeinsa is famous for being the repository for 80,000 woodblock texts dating from the 14^th century.

After the interval our next speaker Sylvia Pullen took over and took us to Nagaland in India, an area situated near to the Burmese border. Sylvia explained that to visit this area you have to obtain a special permit. Whilst Nagaland is 99% Christian, the large amount of religious buildings are explained by the fact that services in them are in different languages. Sylvia told us that there is little tourist accommodation so she stayed at the Circuit House, which is normally used by visiting judges, engineers and dignitaries. We also saw photos of local life and even a local King.

Our last speaker was Phil Koniotes who took us to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. He started on the line of the equator with a foot in each hemisphere before boarding the world’s highest railway to travel through the Valley of the volcanoes. Phil’s trip then took him to the Galapagos, where he enjoyed night-time lobster fishing. Phil showed us the creatures that inhabit the islands including giant tortoises, Iguana, Frigate birds and Blue Footed Boobies. While diving Phil showed us smiling fish and a seal that was intent on eating his flipper! (By the way, congratulations, Phil! Beetle)

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or register for email updates at at our website (click here)

Is there something holding you back in your personal life or your career? Is a lack of knowledge or skill causing you embarrassment at work or at home? Do you lack the confidence and expertise to pass an important test or examination? Meridian Television is looking for people who need expert help to overcome their problems and are willing to do it on television.

If you would like an application form please email emma.thomas@granadamedia.com or call her on 023 80 712568.

The next meeting will take place on February 1st: Bhutan: The Hidden Kingdom. Experience the exquisite beauty of Bhutan through images of indigenous people, Himalayan landscapes, remote monasteries, colourful markets, and lively festivals. Presented by Kenneth Axen, PhD, research scientist, graphic artist, and serious amateur photographer. For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at at our website. (click here)

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

The Beetle received an e-mail from a lady in the US who asked about good spots to learn to dive during a week’s vacation, close to the US. Below are some suggestions:

The Cayman Islands Cayman has fabulous blue water and good walls and healthy corals. So you will get excellent visibility, easy diving, good corals and some good fish life but you won't see anything “big” here. The diving is mostly walls with the odd wreck thrown in for diversity. If you learn here, you'll be spoilt for other places as Cayman really is the No 1 spot to dive in the Caribbean and the water is warm. The downside is that it is not cheap, and even more expensive are Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. North American tour operators can usually get you better deals than trying to book this independently. A good idea is to buy a copy of Sports Diver or similar magazine to look at ads for Cayman Island dive operators. Another disadvantage is that the dive boats tend to be something like cattle trucks, crammed with divers. This is not a nice way to dive. Small groups of divers are best, as you will find out!! Other things to do – well, actually, there's not really an awful lot to do apart from play golf, sit on the magnificent Seven Mile Beach, snorkel, swim and drink expensive cocktails. But it's all very pretty and safe for children.

Cozumel – cheaper than Cayman, and the best way to get to Cozumel is probably by buying a hotel and flight package. Cozumel, in Mexico, is an island close to Cancun and is primarily known for drift diving. Don't let this put you off, there are still plenty of good dives that are not scary. If you go to Cozumel on a package, it is easy to book diving separately once you have arrived. Here, normally smaller groups of divers are taken out in dive boats than in the Cayman Islands, although the majority of divers will be from the US. Other things to do – well, you can take a day trip across to the mainland to some of the Mayan ruins such as Chichen Itza, although it is a very long day. There are also golf courses and I believe you can windsurf. Probably the second best place to dive in the Caribbean.

The Florida Keys – there are some excellent dives around the Keys with just as good fish life as in Cayman! Aquanuts and Kelly on the key in Key Largo both come highly recommended. A downside is that the dive boats can resemble cattle trucks, so ask about numbers on the boat. By going to the Keys, you can do some shopping too, in Miami! Surprisingly decent diving – be careful that you go with a good dive operator; warmish water but lots of topside attractions with car hire. But be warned, Key Largo is a good 1 1/2-2 hr slow drive from Miami.

Puerto Rico – the diving here is not that great, but if you are going to learn, this is still not a bad place to learn as the other places that you go to will have better diving, so this is not a bad place to start off. An advantage is that it is relatively cheap. To get around Puerto Rico you must hire a car (the roads can be pretty bad in places, be warned.) There are plenty of things of interest to see and good day trips, including some good night life, good bars and restaurants, forts, shopping, parks, waterfalls etc.

Bermuda – not cheap, but perfectly manicured, very green and chocolate box pretty. The diving is probably the easiest of all of these destinations as you are unlikely to be able to get below 10 metres. As it is easy diving, it is a nice, safe and steady place to learn to dive. The main attraction here is the wrecks, all in shallow water and most decomposed and in various stages of almost unrecognisable to pretty good anchors and cannons etc. Bermuda also scores high on topside attractions, but you must hire a scooter (tourists are not allowed to hire cars) and explore the island. The water is not as warm as the Caribbean and it is expensive, although, if you live on the east coast of the US, Bermuda is only a short hop away.

Bay Islands Honduras – if you are feeling adventurous, there is some pretty good diving to be had in the Bay Islands off Honduras. Any of the dive magazines have ads for the Bay Islands so it is best to buy a package. There are three main islands: Roatan is a party island and the most touristy, but not massively so, Utila is the backpacker’s island and Guanaja is still fairly quiet. I would recommend diving off Utila or Guanaja. The Posada del Sol has good write ups and usually has good deals – look them up on the web! Good diving, although not as good as Cayman, still pretty decent and considerably cheaper. There is not masses to do topside, but you'll find enough, it's a different sort of place. English is spoken in the Bay Islands is, and all of the islands are much less touristy than say Cozumel so you will meet a wider mix of people in the Bay Islands.

If you live in the UK or Europe and are looking for a cheap dive estimation to learn to dive in one week, then I recommend the Red Sea. It is cheap (around £300 or $500 – £450 or $750) for one week's hotel and flights from London) and has good diving and also extremely good and safe good dive training. The dive specialists have some extremely good deals in the Red Sea right now, but obviously this location may not be the best place to go, depending on the political situation.

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact: Svatka Hermanek:

shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.