Hi Guys, For maybe the last time......
Since Cusco, Peru it has been none stop overnight bus journeys (mainly uncomfortable). First went to Arequipa home to the 2 deepest canyons in the world, then up the Peruvian coast to Nasca, Lima and Trujillo and then into Ecuador to Guayaquil, Banos, into the jungle in the NE of the country and then to Quito, the capital, virtually on the Equator and the end of this six month trip.
Highs First for a change....
- The Nasca lines are a massive mess of lines drawn in the desert containing huge pictures of animals and other shapes. The lines were drawn about 1,500 years ago and are only visible from the air so we had to take a flight over them. The largest animal is a bird 285m long although some of the smaller ones (around 50m long) are better drawings. Why they were drawn is still a matter of great debate ranging from a map of where to find water, a map of the stars, solstice lines to pictures to appease the gods. How they did it is another matter. The lines themselves were made simply by removing dark stones to reveal the lighter desert stone beneath. How they achieved the accuracy of patterns is not so easy to explain. Some people claim they must have been able to see them from the air by using a primative hot air balloon, or perhaps they were geometrically advanced and had inveted a method of enlarging small pictures. Unfortunately even if they were advanced they (like all other Andean tribes prior to arrival of the Spanish in 1532) had no system of writing and so we know little about them.
- In Trujillo, Chan Chan is the largest mud city in the world and the largest pre Spanish city in the Americas was built around 1300AD and housed 55,000 people. They simply moulded mud into brick shapes without baking them and built a city. The advantage they had was that it can go for decades without raining here although even in those days the odd El Nino did a lot of damage. There are still many walls left although the water damage is obvious. Amazing that something so basic could last so long and that a civilisation advanced and organised enough to organise 55,000 people did not want (or maybe didnt need) to use more advanced methods of building.
- The 5 day trip into Ecuadors rainforest was a great experience - well at least it was when it wasnt raining.
Two things should ye know about the rainforest before ye enter. Firstly, it is a FOREST.
Secondly, it RAINS.
This may seem rather obvious but I have met people on trips into Rainforest who express surprise that it rains. That is rather like going to London and being surprised that the River Thames is a river! I know there are exceptions - like Panama hats being made in Ecuador and the Hundred Years war lasting 126 years , BUT some things are obvious and rain in a Rainforest
is surely one of them.
When it wasnt raining we say loadsa monkeys, birds, butterflys and a few mammals. We slept in mossie nets on a covered wooden platform in the middle of nowhere - there is nothing like going to sleep and waking up to the sounds of the jungle. No electrity or showers but we had candles and a river to swim in and it was just perfect. Perfect except for the mossies that is, they took a liking to my feet for some reason and my insteps did a fair impression of a relief map of the Andes.
A few LOWS
- Lima in Peru. A large costal city not far from the Equator. Rio is further from the equator and has fantastic water and beaches so I was hoping for something similar here. But.... to start with the sky was the most dowdy shade of grey imaginable as if it was just off to a particularly large
and important funeral. The sea was pretty much the same colour, as was the beach (just pebbles) and not only was it cold but there was a cold wind blowing. Just to top it off there was a small pier and a single mad local swimming. Yes I was actually in Brighton on a summer weekend ....... and the water temperature ... I didnt get close enough to find out !
- Rice, Rice, Rice. Dry, Dry, Dry. At every meal in this part of the world they serve rice .... with everything! Even ordering a portion of chips guarantees an accompanying mountain of rice sufficient to keep a large Asian family for a week. Whoever first introduced it here didnt actually tell the locals how to serve it properly ..... Dry chicken, dry chips and dry rice.
Of course hardly anyone actually eats the rice ... even the locals who you would of thought must be used to it by now are adept at pushing it towards the edge of the plate as if saving it for last .. and then just as they are about to start the arduous and painful process of consumption, they declare they are already full.
- Endless overnight bus journeys. Compared to most of SAm Peru does not look that big .... but it is enormous and many of the roads are not the best, and neither are the buses. Plus the people here are fairly short and so they design buses without legroom. Apart from that its great - what I mean is - they are cheap !
The Rest
- The Equator - The thing itself is hardly a highlight - I mean it is just a line (about 6cm wide in this case) and its yellow - Amazing that on all maps its always black but in reality its yellow ! How did the cartographers get that wrong?
But getting there (and having the usual crap picture taken) means the end of this journey. In the past 20 months I have been to 31 countries including almost every meaningful country in the southern hemisphere, across 6 continents (Antartica will have to wait for next time or when I have some money). I have spent far too long on buses but even though I never got travel sick , maybe now I am sick of travelling and want to sit in the same place for more than a couple of days.
Of course the trip would not be complete without a few Awards so here are a few random samples ........
Hottest place - Yangon and Bangkok just before the monsoons. Nobody did anything cos it was very hot and 100% humidity.
Coldest Place - My parents house near London
Most expensive place - London
Cheapest Place - Sumatra, Indonesia (For what a pint of beer costs in London you could live here for a day including accomodation, decent food and a beer !)
Cheapest Beer - Hanoi, Vietnam (Beer Hoi on the street cost 10 US cents (7p) a glass and it was pretty good. We still haggled over the price though!!!!)
Worst Food - Lao and Easter Island
Best Food - Argentina
Highest (Legal) Adrenalin sport - Skydiving, NZ
Highest (Legal) Adrenalin sport that I would actually do again - White water rafting down the Zambezi, Zimbabwe.
Best Man made wonder - Cities and temples at Angkor, Cambodia (Absolutely stunning)
Best Natural wonder - View of Southen Ice Field and glaciers, Torres del Paine, Chile
Although notable runners up include
- Mount Bromo at Sunrise, Java, Indonesia
- Iguassu Falls, Argentina/Brasil
- Moreno Glacier, Argentina
Favorite country - Myanmar (Burma)
Most played record worldwide - YMCA by Village People. That just proves it is a really sad world we live in!
I will be back in England on 19 July and will be staying at my parents as I cant afford to get my house back until I have a job ......
Several people have asked me what I intend to do when I get back - as if after 20 months I havent thought about it. I know exactly what I will do..... I will sit on my sofa at my parents house and think What the hell am I going to do now!
Thanks to all the people I have travelled with for making this such a great experience - if youre still on my email list then it cant have been that bad !
See you soon
Love
Pete
The End (?)
Wednesday 17 July 2002
Sunday 30 June 2002
Where 19 - Cusco, Peru --OR-- Inca Trail and the Most Dangerous Road in the World
Hi Peeps,
Last time I was in the middle of Bolivia in Santa Cruz. From there I got a bus to the border with Brazil and crossed over to see the Pantanal (large wet area!). Then to La Paz (the highest capital city in the world at 3,600m), followed by Corioco, Lake Titicaca, then into Peru to Puno and then Cusco, the capital of the old Inca Empire and the start of the Inca trail to Machu Piccu.
The lows first because I´m sure that you find them more entertaining !
Remember that bus to Santa Cruz, Bolivia which arrived 74 huors late - well things didnt get much better after that. After only 1 night in a normal bed it was back to the bus for a 19 hour journey to the Brazilian border - unfortunately the bus was pre war (pre any war you would care to mention) and it was not only late leaving it broke down within half an hour and we
waited 1.5 hours for them to fix it. The ´road´ if that be the correct name was sometimes rubble, sometimes sand and at other times just plain bad. It didn´t help that I was feeling really ill with Parasitic diahorrea (although I didnt know what it was for another week+). To say it was uncomfortable was an understatement and with breakdowns punctures etc it arrived 11 hours
late (total 30 hours). Actually it never arrived at the destination - Just to cap it all the road was blockaded (by taxi drivers it seems ) a few miles short of the destination - so we had to .... take a taxi !!! the rest of the way at our own expense ! Cos we got there so late the border was closed and we had to stay in Bolivia another night.
- After that I had to traverse the whole length of the country agan but decided there was no way I was going to go by bus and flew to La Paz for US$150 - and who said Bolivia was a cheap country?
- My travelling schedule being completely screwed up by the strikes and of course the football! What a silly time to be travelling without much time......
- Having to get up at stupid times to go and watch the football. In the early stages in Bolivia it ran from 2.30am to 9.30am and later on in Peru, 1.30am to 8.30am. I have got used to hauling myself out of bed at ridiculous times of the night after 2 or 3 hours sleep and immediately
immersing myself in a beer. I do not necessarily think this is a habit I will keep up now the footy is over ! (I did miss a few matches by oversleeping - but I missed more by not being able find a TV showing it in the towns I was staying in - caught all the biggies though!)
The floating islands in Puno, Peru - The Uros people have lived on island made of reeds for over 1,000 years. They still live their today and still practice their traditional skills of fishing, bird catching and maintaining the islands so they dont sink. However most of the time they sell stuff to the tourists who turn up to see them. Proabbly the most touristy place I have been anywhere. They now have solar panels, TVs etc and stay there cos (according to the tour guide) they have an easy life. Tourism has changed so much about their way of life - but hopefully for the better. Although I have my doubts. These people are now just a tourist attraction ...... but
as I was told by another traveller ..... ´there is a reason for that !´
And just a few highs
- The Pantanal in Brazil. If I ignore the angony of the journey and the wasted week I spent getting there (from Sucre it took almost exactly 7 days) and the expense of the flight back to La Paz, then I can be positive about the experience. I spent 4 night in a hammock (surprisingly comfortable) and the days spotting alligators (over 2m long), capybarras (the worlds largest
rodent - at 80cm long they looked like extremely large guinea pigs), deer, howler monkeys, a large anteater and birds (Macaws/parrots, herons, black vultures, toucans (yes the ones from the old Guinness ads), and the 1.5m wingspan Jabiru stork).
Also went pirhana fishing (although I was slightly hesitant about wading into the water to fish) and caught two, each 30 cm long. Ate them for lunch - very tasty but a lot of bones.
The most dangerous road in the world! - About 1 truck every 2 weeks falls off this narrow ledge carved into the mountain down a 300m+ vertical drop.
So the best thing is to go down it by bike! OK maybe not the best idea ever but its nearly all downhill - imagine going 63km and dropping 3,500m in height at speeds of up to of 60kph. Just try and keep an eye out for trucks coming the other way as there is no room to pass them on most of the road.
The prison in La Paz. This may be one of the worlds oddest tourism attractions but guided tours (by a New Yorker imprisoned for drug smuggling) are available. The prison is a whole series of little communities where prisoners have to buy or rent their own cells (top penthouse cost $15,000 to buy). Whether they get to live in a 5* part, a 3* part or a no star part entirely depends on how much money they have. To occupy themselves and to earn money there are hundreds of businesses inside from shoe shine, fresh veg stalls to restaurants - for prisoners who do not want to eat the prison food with possible sedatives etc in it. And of course the 3 things that keep a prison running - drugs, sex and alcohol are all available. You can have a woman stay over for $4 a night (note : this does not include the cost of the woman) so many prisoners have their girlfriends/wives stay over. And one more oddity - once sentanced the prisoners must pay a $4 entrance fee to the prison - if they can´t they have to work for 30 days in the kitchens (not a nice place).
England v Argentina - Whilst it must have been fantastic to watch it in London it was altogether a different experience getting up at 2.15am and spending all night watching the football in a La Paz bar. I knew I was in SAmerica but I didn´t expect everyone in the bar to be supporting Argentina (I mean how many people in England wanted Germany to win the final just because they are European !?). But there I was, 7.30am in the morning the bar was full of 300 pro Argentine supporters and 3 England fans. I´m pleased to say I made more noise than the 300 put together! - and only got a few dirty looks - and we won!!
Five minutes after the finish I was out on the La Paz streets where it was if nothing had happened. Did we really win or had I been dreaming .......
Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca - the Incas believe that this is where the sun was born. There is a rock at one end of the island with a orange patch where it was actually born - and it has a lovely big smile! How nice is that!
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (MP) - There is actually a stone trail (mainly stairs) that the Incas built for the several hundred people a day who undertake the 4 day trial - now that is far sighted eco-tourism! OK so maybe they actually built it for important Incas to undertake pilgrimages to MP - either way it is still there today as are many of the Inca built earthquake proof buildings despite a huge number of earthquakes in the area (all the Spanish colonial stuff regularly falls down). Actually the Incas are hardly an ancient civilisation - they existed for a few hundred years but are only really important from 1430 (when they started to expand their
empire) to 1532 when the Spanish arrived. MP was built from 1450 to 1532 when building of the incomplete structure was stopped in favour of fighting the Spanish (in a few years the Spanish won but it is thought never found MP).
It actually wasn´t too difficult to do the trail although we had to climb to 4,200m above sea level at one point - it really is a case of the top seeming further away after every step due to the altitude. The worst part was actually having to get up at 2.45am on the final morning to trek the 3 hours mainly on the dark to see the sun rise on MP. Worth getting up for though. MP itself is not the most wonderful collection of buildings however -some (badly restored) nice close fitting Inca stonework of course - but it is the very spectacular setting amongst near vertical peaks and deep valleys and the views from above which make it easily worthwhile.
Anyway off to see the Nasca Lines, Lima and then into Ecuador for a few days in the Galapagos (if I can afford it) before heading home in just a few weeks.........
Love
Pete
Last time I was in the middle of Bolivia in Santa Cruz. From there I got a bus to the border with Brazil and crossed over to see the Pantanal (large wet area!). Then to La Paz (the highest capital city in the world at 3,600m), followed by Corioco, Lake Titicaca, then into Peru to Puno and then Cusco, the capital of the old Inca Empire and the start of the Inca trail to Machu Piccu.
The lows first because I´m sure that you find them more entertaining !
Remember that bus to Santa Cruz, Bolivia which arrived 74 huors late - well things didnt get much better after that. After only 1 night in a normal bed it was back to the bus for a 19 hour journey to the Brazilian border - unfortunately the bus was pre war (pre any war you would care to mention) and it was not only late leaving it broke down within half an hour and we
waited 1.5 hours for them to fix it. The ´road´ if that be the correct name was sometimes rubble, sometimes sand and at other times just plain bad. It didn´t help that I was feeling really ill with Parasitic diahorrea (although I didnt know what it was for another week+). To say it was uncomfortable was an understatement and with breakdowns punctures etc it arrived 11 hours
late (total 30 hours). Actually it never arrived at the destination - Just to cap it all the road was blockaded (by taxi drivers it seems ) a few miles short of the destination - so we had to .... take a taxi !!! the rest of the way at our own expense ! Cos we got there so late the border was closed and we had to stay in Bolivia another night.
- After that I had to traverse the whole length of the country agan but decided there was no way I was going to go by bus and flew to La Paz for US$150 - and who said Bolivia was a cheap country?
- My travelling schedule being completely screwed up by the strikes and of course the football! What a silly time to be travelling without much time......
- Having to get up at stupid times to go and watch the football. In the early stages in Bolivia it ran from 2.30am to 9.30am and later on in Peru, 1.30am to 8.30am. I have got used to hauling myself out of bed at ridiculous times of the night after 2 or 3 hours sleep and immediately
immersing myself in a beer. I do not necessarily think this is a habit I will keep up now the footy is over ! (I did miss a few matches by oversleeping - but I missed more by not being able find a TV showing it in the towns I was staying in - caught all the biggies though!)
The floating islands in Puno, Peru - The Uros people have lived on island made of reeds for over 1,000 years. They still live their today and still practice their traditional skills of fishing, bird catching and maintaining the islands so they dont sink. However most of the time they sell stuff to the tourists who turn up to see them. Proabbly the most touristy place I have been anywhere. They now have solar panels, TVs etc and stay there cos (according to the tour guide) they have an easy life. Tourism has changed so much about their way of life - but hopefully for the better. Although I have my doubts. These people are now just a tourist attraction ...... but
as I was told by another traveller ..... ´there is a reason for that !´
And just a few highs
- The Pantanal in Brazil. If I ignore the angony of the journey and the wasted week I spent getting there (from Sucre it took almost exactly 7 days) and the expense of the flight back to La Paz, then I can be positive about the experience. I spent 4 night in a hammock (surprisingly comfortable) and the days spotting alligators (over 2m long), capybarras (the worlds largest
rodent - at 80cm long they looked like extremely large guinea pigs), deer, howler monkeys, a large anteater and birds (Macaws/parrots, herons, black vultures, toucans (yes the ones from the old Guinness ads), and the 1.5m wingspan Jabiru stork).
Also went pirhana fishing (although I was slightly hesitant about wading into the water to fish) and caught two, each 30 cm long. Ate them for lunch - very tasty but a lot of bones.
The most dangerous road in the world! - About 1 truck every 2 weeks falls off this narrow ledge carved into the mountain down a 300m+ vertical drop.
So the best thing is to go down it by bike! OK maybe not the best idea ever but its nearly all downhill - imagine going 63km and dropping 3,500m in height at speeds of up to of 60kph. Just try and keep an eye out for trucks coming the other way as there is no room to pass them on most of the road.
The prison in La Paz. This may be one of the worlds oddest tourism attractions but guided tours (by a New Yorker imprisoned for drug smuggling) are available. The prison is a whole series of little communities where prisoners have to buy or rent their own cells (top penthouse cost $15,000 to buy). Whether they get to live in a 5* part, a 3* part or a no star part entirely depends on how much money they have. To occupy themselves and to earn money there are hundreds of businesses inside from shoe shine, fresh veg stalls to restaurants - for prisoners who do not want to eat the prison food with possible sedatives etc in it. And of course the 3 things that keep a prison running - drugs, sex and alcohol are all available. You can have a woman stay over for $4 a night (note : this does not include the cost of the woman) so many prisoners have their girlfriends/wives stay over. And one more oddity - once sentanced the prisoners must pay a $4 entrance fee to the prison - if they can´t they have to work for 30 days in the kitchens (not a nice place).
England v Argentina - Whilst it must have been fantastic to watch it in London it was altogether a different experience getting up at 2.15am and spending all night watching the football in a La Paz bar. I knew I was in SAmerica but I didn´t expect everyone in the bar to be supporting Argentina (I mean how many people in England wanted Germany to win the final just because they are European !?). But there I was, 7.30am in the morning the bar was full of 300 pro Argentine supporters and 3 England fans. I´m pleased to say I made more noise than the 300 put together! - and only got a few dirty looks - and we won!!
Five minutes after the finish I was out on the La Paz streets where it was if nothing had happened. Did we really win or had I been dreaming .......
Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca - the Incas believe that this is where the sun was born. There is a rock at one end of the island with a orange patch where it was actually born - and it has a lovely big smile! How nice is that!
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (MP) - There is actually a stone trail (mainly stairs) that the Incas built for the several hundred people a day who undertake the 4 day trial - now that is far sighted eco-tourism! OK so maybe they actually built it for important Incas to undertake pilgrimages to MP - either way it is still there today as are many of the Inca built earthquake proof buildings despite a huge number of earthquakes in the area (all the Spanish colonial stuff regularly falls down). Actually the Incas are hardly an ancient civilisation - they existed for a few hundred years but are only really important from 1430 (when they started to expand their
empire) to 1532 when the Spanish arrived. MP was built from 1450 to 1532 when building of the incomplete structure was stopped in favour of fighting the Spanish (in a few years the Spanish won but it is thought never found MP).
It actually wasn´t too difficult to do the trail although we had to climb to 4,200m above sea level at one point - it really is a case of the top seeming further away after every step due to the altitude. The worst part was actually having to get up at 2.45am on the final morning to trek the 3 hours mainly on the dark to see the sun rise on MP. Worth getting up for though. MP itself is not the most wonderful collection of buildings however -some (badly restored) nice close fitting Inca stonework of course - but it is the very spectacular setting amongst near vertical peaks and deep valleys and the views from above which make it easily worthwhile.
Anyway off to see the Nasca Lines, Lima and then into Ecuador for a few days in the Galapagos (if I can afford it) before heading home in just a few weeks.........
Love
Pete
Saturday 25 May 2002
Where 18 Santa Cruz, Bolivia - What makes a Bus 74 hours Late
Hi Peeps,
I wasnt going to write to you so soon but so much stuff has 'appenened since I last wrote (and the email here is very cheap - only $0.5 (35pence) an hour)........
From Salta in Argentina we decided to hitch over Chile across the Andes (see later) to San Pedro de Attacama from where I did a 3 day tour by 4wd through the mostly deserted but spectacular area of SW Bolivia arriving in Uyuni and then moving on by bus to Potosi, Sucre and now Santa Cruz.
First of all I must tell you (and remind myself) that despite what I am about to write, Bolivia is a massively interesting country with loads of natural wonders and coming from Brasil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, represents a huge cultural high. It really is a 3rd world country
for the most part and that implies poverty and unpredictability - and so getting massively pissed off is just the real cost of travel.
Lows
- A 16 hour coach journey from Sucre to Santa Cruz in a reasonable coach along mainly dirt roads doesnt sound too much of a challenge - especially if you can sleep through most of it. We left Monday at 5pm and were due to arrive in SC at 9am Tuesday. However I woke up at 6am Tuesday to find that we were in a traffic jam (unusual in the middle of nowhere). Once it got
light I walked to the front of the queue to find out what the problem was only to find a whole load of locals (mainly of native indian descent) with big sticks, grinning through their remaining teeth at a bridge piled with cut down trees. It was a protest by the locals against something which we later found out was energy prices and infrastructure (I think). So we retired to the local village and had stale rolls and minging cheese breakfast waiting for a solution or the police or army to arrive to sort the situation out and reopen the road. We heard loads of rumours and times when the road would be open again but no-one actually knew anything. We played
football with the locals. Then we had lunch plus more rumours. Then Dinner with beer and rumours. We resigned ourselves to sleeping in the coach a 2nd night with rumours thrown in. Breakfast - bread and cheese with rumours and hope. More hope with lunch (all lunches and dinners consisted of a small amount of chicken with a potato and loads of dry rice). Resignation with Dinner and rumours with beer as we settled in for a 3rd night in the coach.
Woke up to distinct rumours of hope (or do I mean hopeless rumours) of an end and had lunch with heightened rumours that the road would be open at 2pm. We went back to the front line to face a huge number (500 plus) demonstators with sticks, dynamite and a couple of guns (although I'm not sure they had any ammo) and witnessed a few clashes with the truck drivers as they advanced at 3pm. Hope faded as it always did and as if to add credence to the bonfires (to keep warm) a few fireworks (sticks of dynamite) were let off. The coach driver would not go back to the village as he didnt have enough fuel and so we tried to find some dinner amongst the people on the roadside. Somewhat embarressingly now (although joyfully at the time) the only place we could find with any food was a women standing next to the soup kitchen (which had run out of food) with stale bread and some onion and tomato cut up to put inside it. We were reduced to eating stale free handouts from the locals not because we had no money but because there was simply no other food. We settled in for our fourth night. I hope you are getting bored and thinking that you have better things to do at this point cos than you will know something of how we felt (there were a few gringos (foreigners) on the bus so at least I wasnt alone). Then suddenly just after midnight we were off and running - the bridge (one of the smallest I have ever seen) had been cleared and we were soon racing the other buses down the road. I next woke at 4am to find us going round another roadblock and then stopping. At 6.30am everyone was getting off in the semi darkness and starting to walk. We followed without knowing what wass happening and walked a short distance then were made to pass through various blockades in single file. Then herded like cattle into trucks with all our luggage and driven for about 10 mins to another roadblock where we got out. Then to complete our refugee status we started walking down the road. Ive never felt like a refugee before but this was it. Hundreds of people , mainly locals, with all their luggage walking down a road (through beautiful scenery it must be said but it was hardly noticed), not knowing where we were going other than assuming we were being shoved in the direction of Santa Cruz (there are no other roads in this part of the world so it is difficult to get lost). We all walked for about 2 hours and eventually got beyond all the roadblocks and grabbed a taxi for the 5 of us which took us to the next village where we got a bus to Santa Cruz. We arrived on the 5th day of our journey, 74 hours (over 3 days) late. That was Friday morning and the bad news is because I am so short of time I have to risk getting stuck again by getting on a bus for (HOPEFULLY ONLY)19 hours on Saturday night - to Brazil.
The really bad news is that I have to come all the way back again a few days later - I hope The Pantanal (Brazilian wetlands) is worth it!
- Crossing the Andes from Argentina into Chile was not as simple as it first appeared either. As there were no buses for a few days we (an american girl and I) decided to hitch. This involved taking two buses to start with for about 4 hours and then standing by the side of the road
waiting for traffic going our way - unfortunately there was none. So we then got on another 3 hour local bus to a small village 3,500m up in the Andes where we had to spend the night. There was only one place to stay and when we went into the local ´restaurant´ we were told they had no food whatsoever - luckily there was another one down the road. In the morning we got up early and asked round all the trucks waiting to goo across the border if we could have a lift. However oddly enough their ´company policy´ said that they could only take women and not men ...... and so no one would oblige in taking both of us despite them having plenty of room. We had just about given up hope and were about to catch the local bus back down the mountain when after 4.5 hours a guy with a large truck with ´Toxico´ and ´Corrosivo´ on it (I wonder what they meant) said he would take us although because it was a dangerous load he had to go slow and it would take us 9 hours. So 9 hours later after going up to 5,000m we made it to Chile. That was the first time, and the last time, I will be hitching in SAm.
-
Must be time for some HIGHS
- The landscape around South Western Bolivia was astounding. Huge coloured lakes, white, green and red and I don´t mean slightly tinted either, with chalk, arsenic and algae in respectively, two of them had flamingos in despite the fact that the water is nearly freezing due to the high altitude (we are in the tropics here). The boiling mud field at 5,000m was a bit spectacular especially as it was snowing when we were there - yes in the tropics....... and I thought I had left all that stuff behind in Patagonia....
- The local villages, remote (apart from 4wd tours!) were really interesting. The locals depended almost entirely on llama and sheep farming and hence the village was awash with llamas wandering around looking down their noses at us - they do tend to look the most pretentious of animals - but kindda cute at the same time. The local women are very short and wide
around the hips they seem to go from being girls of 10 years old to women with 2 kids wrapped around them in a single step. The older women wear traditional blankets, brightly coloured skirts and of course bowler hats!
The men just wear ´western´ clothing.
- Not all Bolivia is 3rd world. I went to a nightclub in Santa Cruz (to celebrate not spending another night on the bus) and found the most trendy spot I have seen for a long time. Mime artists, stilt dancers and a whole row of huge beds (although people only danced on them). And the prices ....
I could have been in London!!
High or Low?
- I went to Potosi which claims to be the highest town in the world at over 4,000m. The town is full of superb colonial architecture as it was once the largest and richest place in South America due to the silver mine there. The mine in just a single mountain which overlooks the town with a total of 250km of tunnels in it and it is still mined today. We went up to the mine and found that the conditions were appalling. Imagine an English mine a couple of hundred year ago - really cramped tunnels we had to crouch to walk along, scramble under the dubious looking wooden beam supports and crawl up and down levels through tiny holes. With the only light coming from our traditional flame lamps (the are no gases to ignite down there) we could see asbestos flaking out of the walls (most miners live short lives due to lung problems and they wear no masks of any kind) as well as the occasional silver seam. The men worked in the most cramped spaces ´drilling´ holes 60cm deep in hard rock (takes 2-3 hours) with a hammer and chisel so they could dynamite the next 50kg of rock. All day they chew coca leaves (legal here) from which cocaine is derived, to stave off hunger and pain.
Supposedly no-one under 14 years old is allowed to work in the mine but no one really seemed interested in enforcing it.
We bought the miners coca leaves , 96 degree spirit and dynamite at the local market plus some dynamite for ourselves just so we could have an explosion. Once the fuse was lit (we were 70m away) we all lined up with cameras to capture the moment ....we waited as the fuse burned .... waited and waited ..... BOOOM we all jumped about 15cms in the air and none of us
got a shot. A few seconds late an Israeli girl staggered over and claimed we were trying to blow her up!!!
We were ´lucky´ enough to be ther on one of 3 days a year when the sacrafice llamas to bring them good luck (very supersdtitious lot these miners). First they stuff coca leaves downs its mouth then a cup of 96 degree spirit, then hold it down (it is still alive) and with what looked lke a vegatable knife slit its throat half way through. Blood spurted everywhere despite their best attempts to catch it in a bowl so they could splash all the mine entrances and machinery with it. Eventually it stoppped moving and then with 15 minutes they had skinned and gutted it and were ready to BBQ it. We had to leave before the feast unfortunately.
Anyway if you made it to here by reading it all - well done. If you just skipped to the last paragraph as usual then go back to the beginning !
Hopefully more good news next time................
Love
Pete
I wasnt going to write to you so soon but so much stuff has 'appenened since I last wrote (and the email here is very cheap - only $0.5 (35pence) an hour)........
From Salta in Argentina we decided to hitch over Chile across the Andes (see later) to San Pedro de Attacama from where I did a 3 day tour by 4wd through the mostly deserted but spectacular area of SW Bolivia arriving in Uyuni and then moving on by bus to Potosi, Sucre and now Santa Cruz.
First of all I must tell you (and remind myself) that despite what I am about to write, Bolivia is a massively interesting country with loads of natural wonders and coming from Brasil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, represents a huge cultural high. It really is a 3rd world country
for the most part and that implies poverty and unpredictability - and so getting massively pissed off is just the real cost of travel.
Lows
- A 16 hour coach journey from Sucre to Santa Cruz in a reasonable coach along mainly dirt roads doesnt sound too much of a challenge - especially if you can sleep through most of it. We left Monday at 5pm and were due to arrive in SC at 9am Tuesday. However I woke up at 6am Tuesday to find that we were in a traffic jam (unusual in the middle of nowhere). Once it got
light I walked to the front of the queue to find out what the problem was only to find a whole load of locals (mainly of native indian descent) with big sticks, grinning through their remaining teeth at a bridge piled with cut down trees. It was a protest by the locals against something which we later found out was energy prices and infrastructure (I think). So we retired to the local village and had stale rolls and minging cheese breakfast waiting for a solution or the police or army to arrive to sort the situation out and reopen the road. We heard loads of rumours and times when the road would be open again but no-one actually knew anything. We played
football with the locals. Then we had lunch plus more rumours. Then Dinner with beer and rumours. We resigned ourselves to sleeping in the coach a 2nd night with rumours thrown in. Breakfast - bread and cheese with rumours and hope. More hope with lunch (all lunches and dinners consisted of a small amount of chicken with a potato and loads of dry rice). Resignation with Dinner and rumours with beer as we settled in for a 3rd night in the coach.
Woke up to distinct rumours of hope (or do I mean hopeless rumours) of an end and had lunch with heightened rumours that the road would be open at 2pm. We went back to the front line to face a huge number (500 plus) demonstators with sticks, dynamite and a couple of guns (although I'm not sure they had any ammo) and witnessed a few clashes with the truck drivers as they advanced at 3pm. Hope faded as it always did and as if to add credence to the bonfires (to keep warm) a few fireworks (sticks of dynamite) were let off. The coach driver would not go back to the village as he didnt have enough fuel and so we tried to find some dinner amongst the people on the roadside. Somewhat embarressingly now (although joyfully at the time) the only place we could find with any food was a women standing next to the soup kitchen (which had run out of food) with stale bread and some onion and tomato cut up to put inside it. We were reduced to eating stale free handouts from the locals not because we had no money but because there was simply no other food. We settled in for our fourth night. I hope you are getting bored and thinking that you have better things to do at this point cos than you will know something of how we felt (there were a few gringos (foreigners) on the bus so at least I wasnt alone). Then suddenly just after midnight we were off and running - the bridge (one of the smallest I have ever seen) had been cleared and we were soon racing the other buses down the road. I next woke at 4am to find us going round another roadblock and then stopping. At 6.30am everyone was getting off in the semi darkness and starting to walk. We followed without knowing what wass happening and walked a short distance then were made to pass through various blockades in single file. Then herded like cattle into trucks with all our luggage and driven for about 10 mins to another roadblock where we got out. Then to complete our refugee status we started walking down the road. Ive never felt like a refugee before but this was it. Hundreds of people , mainly locals, with all their luggage walking down a road (through beautiful scenery it must be said but it was hardly noticed), not knowing where we were going other than assuming we were being shoved in the direction of Santa Cruz (there are no other roads in this part of the world so it is difficult to get lost). We all walked for about 2 hours and eventually got beyond all the roadblocks and grabbed a taxi for the 5 of us which took us to the next village where we got a bus to Santa Cruz. We arrived on the 5th day of our journey, 74 hours (over 3 days) late. That was Friday morning and the bad news is because I am so short of time I have to risk getting stuck again by getting on a bus for (HOPEFULLY ONLY)19 hours on Saturday night - to Brazil.
The really bad news is that I have to come all the way back again a few days later - I hope The Pantanal (Brazilian wetlands) is worth it!
- Crossing the Andes from Argentina into Chile was not as simple as it first appeared either. As there were no buses for a few days we (an american girl and I) decided to hitch. This involved taking two buses to start with for about 4 hours and then standing by the side of the road
waiting for traffic going our way - unfortunately there was none. So we then got on another 3 hour local bus to a small village 3,500m up in the Andes where we had to spend the night. There was only one place to stay and when we went into the local ´restaurant´ we were told they had no food whatsoever - luckily there was another one down the road. In the morning we got up early and asked round all the trucks waiting to goo across the border if we could have a lift. However oddly enough their ´company policy´ said that they could only take women and not men ...... and so no one would oblige in taking both of us despite them having plenty of room. We had just about given up hope and were about to catch the local bus back down the mountain when after 4.5 hours a guy with a large truck with ´Toxico´ and ´Corrosivo´ on it (I wonder what they meant) said he would take us although because it was a dangerous load he had to go slow and it would take us 9 hours. So 9 hours later after going up to 5,000m we made it to Chile. That was the first time, and the last time, I will be hitching in SAm.
-
Must be time for some HIGHS
- The landscape around South Western Bolivia was astounding. Huge coloured lakes, white, green and red and I don´t mean slightly tinted either, with chalk, arsenic and algae in respectively, two of them had flamingos in despite the fact that the water is nearly freezing due to the high altitude (we are in the tropics here). The boiling mud field at 5,000m was a bit spectacular especially as it was snowing when we were there - yes in the tropics....... and I thought I had left all that stuff behind in Patagonia....
- The local villages, remote (apart from 4wd tours!) were really interesting. The locals depended almost entirely on llama and sheep farming and hence the village was awash with llamas wandering around looking down their noses at us - they do tend to look the most pretentious of animals - but kindda cute at the same time. The local women are very short and wide
around the hips they seem to go from being girls of 10 years old to women with 2 kids wrapped around them in a single step. The older women wear traditional blankets, brightly coloured skirts and of course bowler hats!
The men just wear ´western´ clothing.
- Not all Bolivia is 3rd world. I went to a nightclub in Santa Cruz (to celebrate not spending another night on the bus) and found the most trendy spot I have seen for a long time. Mime artists, stilt dancers and a whole row of huge beds (although people only danced on them). And the prices ....
I could have been in London!!
High or Low?
- I went to Potosi which claims to be the highest town in the world at over 4,000m. The town is full of superb colonial architecture as it was once the largest and richest place in South America due to the silver mine there. The mine in just a single mountain which overlooks the town with a total of 250km of tunnels in it and it is still mined today. We went up to the mine and found that the conditions were appalling. Imagine an English mine a couple of hundred year ago - really cramped tunnels we had to crouch to walk along, scramble under the dubious looking wooden beam supports and crawl up and down levels through tiny holes. With the only light coming from our traditional flame lamps (the are no gases to ignite down there) we could see asbestos flaking out of the walls (most miners live short lives due to lung problems and they wear no masks of any kind) as well as the occasional silver seam. The men worked in the most cramped spaces ´drilling´ holes 60cm deep in hard rock (takes 2-3 hours) with a hammer and chisel so they could dynamite the next 50kg of rock. All day they chew coca leaves (legal here) from which cocaine is derived, to stave off hunger and pain.
Supposedly no-one under 14 years old is allowed to work in the mine but no one really seemed interested in enforcing it.
We bought the miners coca leaves , 96 degree spirit and dynamite at the local market plus some dynamite for ourselves just so we could have an explosion. Once the fuse was lit (we were 70m away) we all lined up with cameras to capture the moment ....we waited as the fuse burned .... waited and waited ..... BOOOM we all jumped about 15cms in the air and none of us
got a shot. A few seconds late an Israeli girl staggered over and claimed we were trying to blow her up!!!
We were ´lucky´ enough to be ther on one of 3 days a year when the sacrafice llamas to bring them good luck (very supersdtitious lot these miners). First they stuff coca leaves downs its mouth then a cup of 96 degree spirit, then hold it down (it is still alive) and with what looked lke a vegatable knife slit its throat half way through. Blood spurted everywhere despite their best attempts to catch it in a bowl so they could splash all the mine entrances and machinery with it. Eventually it stoppped moving and then with 15 minutes they had skinned and gutted it and were ready to BBQ it. We had to leave before the feast unfortunately.
Anyway if you made it to here by reading it all - well done. If you just skipped to the last paragraph as usual then go back to the beginning !
Hopefully more good news next time................
Love
Pete
Wednesday 8 May 2002
Where 17 Salta, Argentina --OR-- How to 'Walk' with a Hole in My Knee
Not quite such a cold, snowy and spectacular month but ... er ....
interesting nevertheless (is that really one word)...
Zigzagging my way between Chile and Argentina. From Puerto Natales in South
Chile I took a 4 night boat trip north to Puerto Montt, then down to Chiloe
a poor but traditional island on the west coast, back across into Argentina
to Bariloche (the most trendy ski resort type place that you can imagine),
San Martin de los Andes which is even more trendy than the place you just
imagined (probably cos it has a longer name), back into Chile to Pucon, a
town with a huge snowed capped volcano and nothing else. Northwards via
Santiago to Mendoza (yes back into Argentina) where they make wine and
therefore they have sunshine Hurrah!! About time too. Northwards again to
Cordoba and Salta in the north West of Argentina.
It´s difficult to imagine that the villages in these areas are in the same country as the major
European style towns. Some of the villages are third world, the houses made
of mud and the people native indians. Here as in most places the whiter the
skin the greater the affluence.
Just for a change the downers (Lows) first ........
- On top of a very snowy mountain in Barriloche admiring the incredible
views I trod on a virgin piece of snow (there were a lot of them about) but
I didnt expect from such a piece of snow that it was just a thin cover over
a huge hole ! My leg was strangely drawn right into this orrifice which
wouldn´t have been a disaster except that in the course of it´s penetration
my knee met a piece of sharp rock - it stopped suddenly, and hurt!
For the first time in my life I could see inside my knee through a hole I could have fitted my little finger into (although I didn´t actually try ´cos rolling around in the snow uttering
expletives, and seeing the remainder of my trip flash before my eyes, seemed
far more appropriate behaviour at this point). After a half hour ´walk´
through sometimes deep snow to the chairlift I tried to keep my leg as
straight as possible as each time I bent it my newly acquired aerosol in the
knee sprayed my boot and the snow bright red. Eventually I got back to
civilisation and to a hospital emergency room where I got stiched up (for
US$ 4 - a bargain). Now 3 weeks later I can at least walk properly again !
- Economic Crisis - Fortunately not mine, but the whole of Argentina´s.
Things don´t get any better for the locals. At end April all the banks, ATMs and
foreign exchange places were closed for a week to stop the withdrawls (cos no-one here trusts the banks anymore)! It worked. Luckily I had US$ cash so I changed money with the locals on the street. I heard about some riots in Buenos Aires but I am a long way from there at the moment. When I arrived in Argentina 2 months ago I was getting 2 pesos to the dollar, now I am getting well over 3 so you can imagine how cheap everything is to us foreign
folk (in December it was 1 pesos = 1 dollar).
Put it this way : Argentina. Probably the only place in the world where you can enjoy first
world quality at third world prices ! That´s why I´m still here (and it´s
an amazing place).
- Pucon, the place with the great volcano. Couldn´t climb it cos I hurt my
knee. Bugger.
Time for some High bits
- Bariloche only had 2 types of shops. Chocolate shops and ice cream shops.
Most shops sold Chocolate flavoured ice cream, but I didn´t find anywhere
that sold ice cream flavoured chocolate, and it was nearly all excellent.
And, thanks to the exchange rate it was all really cheap. We stayed there a
while ! - well I had hurt my knee and all that ....
- The 4 night boat trip. Great scenery (just the usual snow capped peaks
and glaciers) although it was cloudy most of the time. At night the sea
glowed an incredible bright green due to phospheresence (a bio-chemical
reaction ....... algae ........ or something like that).
- The wine! Did I mention the wine yet! Chilean wine rates far better than
Argentinian, amongst the cheap US$1 per litre stuff I mean - I´m a bit of an
expert on that now (well it´s cheaper than the beer litre for litre).
- Stayed at a top hotel, one of the ´Leading Hotels of the World Group´.
Well when I say ´stayed there´ it was more like sneaking in and enjoying
their facilities for an afternoon, drinking our 20 pence a litre supermarket
wine on their sunbeds.
- The food in Mendoza - Imagine a top class ´All you can eat´ with loads of
variety for US$3 (2 pounds). Or all you can eat pasta for US$1 (60p). I
think I´ve put on a bit of weight recently.
Oh and culture. Of course culture. I mean I have seen some, cos that´s
what I came for. I have seen some cultural things...... at least I think so
........ 9th April I think it was.
- Difunta Correa Shrine - The most materialistic semi-religious place
imagineable. Argentinians pray for houses, cars and anything else they want
and if they get it they build a model of the house, truck or car and leave
it at the shrine. There is a whole town of houses (several hundred) about
1m high on the hillside and a roomful of trucks about 1m long. The room
where those who prayed for sporting success looks more impressive that Real
Madrids trophy room. There are even some rooms that are vaguely religious
but the catholic church apparently shuns this shrine and it is not
surprising. Surreal... it has more goods that some shopping centres I have
been in.
- Salta - The landscape looks like Arizona or Colorado. The shapes of the
rock almost defy belief. The colours of the rock make up an artists
palette, almost all the colours of the rainbow - ever seen green and blue
rock - it´s all here.
So where to go next? Bolivia soon, maybe via Chile, and I must get
somewhere decent to watch some world cup action, not a good time to be in
Argentina just in case England get an unlikely win. Winning the world cup
won´t solve Argentina´s problems but there are a lot of pissed off people
here already and getting knocked out early on sure won´t help !
Bye for now
Luv Pete
interesting nevertheless (is that really one word)...
Zigzagging my way between Chile and Argentina. From Puerto Natales in South
Chile I took a 4 night boat trip north to Puerto Montt, then down to Chiloe
a poor but traditional island on the west coast, back across into Argentina
to Bariloche (the most trendy ski resort type place that you can imagine),
San Martin de los Andes which is even more trendy than the place you just
imagined (probably cos it has a longer name), back into Chile to Pucon, a
town with a huge snowed capped volcano and nothing else. Northwards via
Santiago to Mendoza (yes back into Argentina) where they make wine and
therefore they have sunshine Hurrah!! About time too. Northwards again to
Cordoba and Salta in the north West of Argentina.
It´s difficult to imagine that the villages in these areas are in the same country as the major
European style towns. Some of the villages are third world, the houses made
of mud and the people native indians. Here as in most places the whiter the
skin the greater the affluence.
Just for a change the downers (Lows) first ........
- On top of a very snowy mountain in Barriloche admiring the incredible
views I trod on a virgin piece of snow (there were a lot of them about) but
I didnt expect from such a piece of snow that it was just a thin cover over
a huge hole ! My leg was strangely drawn right into this orrifice which
wouldn´t have been a disaster except that in the course of it´s penetration
my knee met a piece of sharp rock - it stopped suddenly, and hurt!
For the first time in my life I could see inside my knee through a hole I could have fitted my little finger into (although I didn´t actually try ´cos rolling around in the snow uttering
expletives, and seeing the remainder of my trip flash before my eyes, seemed
far more appropriate behaviour at this point). After a half hour ´walk´
through sometimes deep snow to the chairlift I tried to keep my leg as
straight as possible as each time I bent it my newly acquired aerosol in the
knee sprayed my boot and the snow bright red. Eventually I got back to
civilisation and to a hospital emergency room where I got stiched up (for
US$ 4 - a bargain). Now 3 weeks later I can at least walk properly again !
- Economic Crisis - Fortunately not mine, but the whole of Argentina´s.
Things don´t get any better for the locals. At end April all the banks, ATMs and
foreign exchange places were closed for a week to stop the withdrawls (cos no-one here trusts the banks anymore)! It worked. Luckily I had US$ cash so I changed money with the locals on the street. I heard about some riots in Buenos Aires but I am a long way from there at the moment. When I arrived in Argentina 2 months ago I was getting 2 pesos to the dollar, now I am getting well over 3 so you can imagine how cheap everything is to us foreign
folk (in December it was 1 pesos = 1 dollar).
Put it this way : Argentina. Probably the only place in the world where you can enjoy first
world quality at third world prices ! That´s why I´m still here (and it´s
an amazing place).
- Pucon, the place with the great volcano. Couldn´t climb it cos I hurt my
knee. Bugger.
Time for some High bits
- Bariloche only had 2 types of shops. Chocolate shops and ice cream shops.
Most shops sold Chocolate flavoured ice cream, but I didn´t find anywhere
that sold ice cream flavoured chocolate, and it was nearly all excellent.
And, thanks to the exchange rate it was all really cheap. We stayed there a
while ! - well I had hurt my knee and all that ....
- The 4 night boat trip. Great scenery (just the usual snow capped peaks
and glaciers) although it was cloudy most of the time. At night the sea
glowed an incredible bright green due to phospheresence (a bio-chemical
reaction ....... algae ........ or something like that).
- The wine! Did I mention the wine yet! Chilean wine rates far better than
Argentinian, amongst the cheap US$1 per litre stuff I mean - I´m a bit of an
expert on that now (well it´s cheaper than the beer litre for litre).
- Stayed at a top hotel, one of the ´Leading Hotels of the World Group´.
Well when I say ´stayed there´ it was more like sneaking in and enjoying
their facilities for an afternoon, drinking our 20 pence a litre supermarket
wine on their sunbeds.
- The food in Mendoza - Imagine a top class ´All you can eat´ with loads of
variety for US$3 (2 pounds). Or all you can eat pasta for US$1 (60p). I
think I´ve put on a bit of weight recently.
Oh and culture. Of course culture. I mean I have seen some, cos that´s
what I came for. I have seen some cultural things...... at least I think so
........ 9th April I think it was.
- Difunta Correa Shrine - The most materialistic semi-religious place
imagineable. Argentinians pray for houses, cars and anything else they want
and if they get it they build a model of the house, truck or car and leave
it at the shrine. There is a whole town of houses (several hundred) about
1m high on the hillside and a roomful of trucks about 1m long. The room
where those who prayed for sporting success looks more impressive that Real
Madrids trophy room. There are even some rooms that are vaguely religious
but the catholic church apparently shuns this shrine and it is not
surprising. Surreal... it has more goods that some shopping centres I have
been in.
- Salta - The landscape looks like Arizona or Colorado. The shapes of the
rock almost defy belief. The colours of the rock make up an artists
palette, almost all the colours of the rainbow - ever seen green and blue
rock - it´s all here.
So where to go next? Bolivia soon, maybe via Chile, and I must get
somewhere decent to watch some world cup action, not a good time to be in
Argentina just in case England get an unlikely win. Winning the world cup
won´t solve Argentina´s problems but there are a lot of pissed off people
here already and getting knocked out early on sure won´t help !
Bye for now
Luv Pete
Thursday 4 April 2002
Where 16 Puerto Natales, Chile --OR-- Why I Camped for a Week in Freezing Rain just to See Ice
HI Guys,
Since Buenos Aires a month ago I seem to have travelled on a lot of buses and seen loads of stuff in Patagonia (which consists of the southern
parts of Chile and Argentina).
Starting with a 22 hour bus journey down to Puerto Madryn on the east coast
and then travelled for 34 hours to reach Ushuaia, the most southerly place
of any note on the planet and only 1000km from Antartica which proudly
proclaims that it is ´the end of the world´ and the town itself looks like
it.
From there the only way is north (Antartica will have to wait for another
time when I have loadsa money) to the wonders of the Patagonian Andes - to
El Calafate and El Chalten in Argentina and then across into Chile to Puerto
Natales.
The Ups
- Magallenic penguins at Puerto Tombo on the east coast. It was easy to get
within 1m of them as they just stand or lie around on the path. If you get
too close they start shaking their heads from side to side as a warning and
then they will attack with their powerful beaks.
- The armadillos - Cute but different to how I imagined. I thought they
would move like tortoises due to the weight of their armour, but in fact
they scurry like hedgehogs (and are about the same size) - but they are not flat like
most hedgehogs seen in UK.
- Moreno Glacier - This huge glacieris about 160m high at the face although
a max of 55m is above water, and the face is 6km wide. Not only can you get
within 250m of it to see the detail of the cracking ice under huge pressure,
but because the lake suddenly gets very deep and the glacier is moving at 2m
per day at the centre, it calves (huge chanks of ice up to 40m high break
off and crash into the water). The noise is deafening as it cracks and
tonnes of ice hit the water. A spectacular blue ice giant, a random ice
sculpture in motion - it easily lives up to all the hype.
- Trekking in the FitzRoy Range - spent 3 days doing day treks around a
group of incredible spikey snowcapped mountains with a few glaciers and
corresponding lakes thrown in. There was also a load of rain and some
extremely stong winds when it was only just possible to remain standing. It
throughly tested my wet weather and wind proof gear , not to mention my legs
and made for an interesting few days.
The Downs
- Trying to see Orcas (Killer Whales) snatching seal pups off the beach. We
spent a whole day at the only place in the world where they have learned to
do this successfully but despite appearing the previous 2 days they didn´t
show up.
- The Welsh towns in Argentina are a big tourist draw. Colonised by the
Welsh in 19th Century because they felt oppressed at the English not allowing
them to speak Welsh in Wales, they moved here and now all speak Spanish !
The Welsh teas are famous and expensive except no-one from the UK had ever
heard of them. The only things that these towns really have in common with
Wales are the surrounding hills which look like slag heaps and the very high
unemployment rate.
- After 34 hours travelling to Ushuaia we arrived 3 hours late due to
roughweather on the ferry crossing to find that our reserved hostel places had been
given to other people. Since it was already 1am by this stage we ended up
spending the night sleeping in a corridor.
- Trekking in Tierra del Fuego National Park I got snowed off a small mountain. Strange to think that England must have had snow in March and here I was at the other end of the earth getting exactly the same weather - and it´s only early autumn here.
- Took a very cheap flight from Ushuaia to El Calafate but because of rain
at the destination airport it was closed so we were diverted and then got a
bus the rest of the way. We were supposed to arrive at 6.30pm but didn´t
get there until 3am by which time the hostel was closed and so we had to
sleep in a bus station until 6.30am when the hostel opened. Then I was stuck there for 2 more days as the rain poured down and the roads to both my possible destinations had been washed away. It doesn´t help when the locals say "It´s very unusual
for this time of year".
The Trek (Ups and Downs) - Torres del Paine, Chile
If you want to eat 0.75kg of chocolate, 1kg of nuts and raisens, loads of
pasta and rice and still lose weight, with a free leg muscle tone up thrown
in then this is for you. 7 days hiking and 7 nights camping around ´The
Circuit´ which circles a group of improbably shaped spectacular mountains -
strangely eroded sedimentary layers pierced by hard volcanic plugs which now
stand high above their surrounds. The whole area is a birthing place for
glaciers which dangle down steep mountains and sweep through valleys.
The Torres (towers) themselves are spear shaped granite plugs thrusting vertically 1.8km (over 1 mile) upwards from our viewpoint at 1000m. Well worth the 30 minute dawn race in freezing weather, from the campsite up the scree to see them change from purple to pink then orange and yellow in the first rays of the sun before it gets fully light. Just below them there is a glacier which crumbles into a lake full of icebergs. An incredible sight.
There are downsides however. Apart from the climb up with full pack
(weighing over 20kg) there was camping in sub-zero temperatures - I left my
water bottle outside on the first 2 nights and the water was distinctly
lumpy the next morning. I hardly slept for the first 2 nights as my feet
were freezing despite me wearing all my clothes in my sleeping bag. It is
also difficult to keep your hands clean as washing them in freezing water is
simply not a good idea in the morning or evening as they simply never get
warm again. And as for wearing the same clothes for 8 days without a
shower.... well .... everyone does it so no-one notices !
All round the circuit (we walked 6 or 7 hours a day) the views were
amazing, snowcapped jagged peaks were the norm, spectacular summits were
always there (if only that cloud would move !) and there were glaciers around
almost every corner. If you were looking at an incredible view ahead of you
then there was probably one at least as good behind you as well.
The best view of all is when you trek up through areas of snow and rise to
a height of over 1200m to go over ´The Pass´. From here there is not only
an almost aerial view of the huge Glacier Grey 1000m below but a view up to
the source of many of the glaciers in the area - the huge Southern
Patagonian Ice Field. A huge sheet of ice stretching across mountain tops,
over 320km long, covering an area of over 13,000 square km and hundreds of
metres thick. Vast is too small a word - it is a sheet laying across
everything, smoothing out what would otherwise be a mountainous landscape,
stretching further than the eye can see, emitting glaciers at every possible
opportunity down every valley, flowing like rivers, colliding smoothly in an
ever increasing mass and constantly restucturing to fit the valley´s width.
A No. 1 sight - perhaps the No.1 sight in an incredible part of the world. It rained for days 7 and 8 but by then we had seen so much we weren´t so bothered - although camping in the cold rain is not particuarly recommended.
Tonight I am catching a boat up to Pueto Montt - a 3 day and night trip
through some incredible scenery - that is if the weather holds good.
Bye for now
Luv
Pete
Since Buenos Aires a month ago I seem to have travelled on a lot of buses and seen loads of stuff in Patagonia (which consists of the southern
parts of Chile and Argentina).
Starting with a 22 hour bus journey down to Puerto Madryn on the east coast
and then travelled for 34 hours to reach Ushuaia, the most southerly place
of any note on the planet and only 1000km from Antartica which proudly
proclaims that it is ´the end of the world´ and the town itself looks like
it.
From there the only way is north (Antartica will have to wait for another
time when I have loadsa money) to the wonders of the Patagonian Andes - to
El Calafate and El Chalten in Argentina and then across into Chile to Puerto
Natales.
The Ups
- Magallenic penguins at Puerto Tombo on the east coast. It was easy to get
within 1m of them as they just stand or lie around on the path. If you get
too close they start shaking their heads from side to side as a warning and
then they will attack with their powerful beaks.
- The armadillos - Cute but different to how I imagined. I thought they
would move like tortoises due to the weight of their armour, but in fact
they scurry like hedgehogs (and are about the same size) - but they are not flat like
most hedgehogs seen in UK.
- Moreno Glacier - This huge glacieris about 160m high at the face although
a max of 55m is above water, and the face is 6km wide. Not only can you get
within 250m of it to see the detail of the cracking ice under huge pressure,
but because the lake suddenly gets very deep and the glacier is moving at 2m
per day at the centre, it calves (huge chanks of ice up to 40m high break
off and crash into the water). The noise is deafening as it cracks and
tonnes of ice hit the water. A spectacular blue ice giant, a random ice
sculpture in motion - it easily lives up to all the hype.
- Trekking in the FitzRoy Range - spent 3 days doing day treks around a
group of incredible spikey snowcapped mountains with a few glaciers and
corresponding lakes thrown in. There was also a load of rain and some
extremely stong winds when it was only just possible to remain standing. It
throughly tested my wet weather and wind proof gear , not to mention my legs
and made for an interesting few days.
The Downs
- Trying to see Orcas (Killer Whales) snatching seal pups off the beach. We
spent a whole day at the only place in the world where they have learned to
do this successfully but despite appearing the previous 2 days they didn´t
show up.
- The Welsh towns in Argentina are a big tourist draw. Colonised by the
Welsh in 19th Century because they felt oppressed at the English not allowing
them to speak Welsh in Wales, they moved here and now all speak Spanish !
The Welsh teas are famous and expensive except no-one from the UK had ever
heard of them. The only things that these towns really have in common with
Wales are the surrounding hills which look like slag heaps and the very high
unemployment rate.
- After 34 hours travelling to Ushuaia we arrived 3 hours late due to
roughweather on the ferry crossing to find that our reserved hostel places had been
given to other people. Since it was already 1am by this stage we ended up
spending the night sleeping in a corridor.
- Trekking in Tierra del Fuego National Park I got snowed off a small mountain. Strange to think that England must have had snow in March and here I was at the other end of the earth getting exactly the same weather - and it´s only early autumn here.
- Took a very cheap flight from Ushuaia to El Calafate but because of rain
at the destination airport it was closed so we were diverted and then got a
bus the rest of the way. We were supposed to arrive at 6.30pm but didn´t
get there until 3am by which time the hostel was closed and so we had to
sleep in a bus station until 6.30am when the hostel opened. Then I was stuck there for 2 more days as the rain poured down and the roads to both my possible destinations had been washed away. It doesn´t help when the locals say "It´s very unusual
for this time of year".
The Trek (Ups and Downs) - Torres del Paine, Chile
If you want to eat 0.75kg of chocolate, 1kg of nuts and raisens, loads of
pasta and rice and still lose weight, with a free leg muscle tone up thrown
in then this is for you. 7 days hiking and 7 nights camping around ´The
Circuit´ which circles a group of improbably shaped spectacular mountains -
strangely eroded sedimentary layers pierced by hard volcanic plugs which now
stand high above their surrounds. The whole area is a birthing place for
glaciers which dangle down steep mountains and sweep through valleys.
The Torres (towers) themselves are spear shaped granite plugs thrusting vertically 1.8km (over 1 mile) upwards from our viewpoint at 1000m. Well worth the 30 minute dawn race in freezing weather, from the campsite up the scree to see them change from purple to pink then orange and yellow in the first rays of the sun before it gets fully light. Just below them there is a glacier which crumbles into a lake full of icebergs. An incredible sight.
There are downsides however. Apart from the climb up with full pack
(weighing over 20kg) there was camping in sub-zero temperatures - I left my
water bottle outside on the first 2 nights and the water was distinctly
lumpy the next morning. I hardly slept for the first 2 nights as my feet
were freezing despite me wearing all my clothes in my sleeping bag. It is
also difficult to keep your hands clean as washing them in freezing water is
simply not a good idea in the morning or evening as they simply never get
warm again. And as for wearing the same clothes for 8 days without a
shower.... well .... everyone does it so no-one notices !
All round the circuit (we walked 6 or 7 hours a day) the views were
amazing, snowcapped jagged peaks were the norm, spectacular summits were
always there (if only that cloud would move !) and there were glaciers around
almost every corner. If you were looking at an incredible view ahead of you
then there was probably one at least as good behind you as well.
The best view of all is when you trek up through areas of snow and rise to
a height of over 1200m to go over ´The Pass´. From here there is not only
an almost aerial view of the huge Glacier Grey 1000m below but a view up to
the source of many of the glaciers in the area - the huge Southern
Patagonian Ice Field. A huge sheet of ice stretching across mountain tops,
over 320km long, covering an area of over 13,000 square km and hundreds of
metres thick. Vast is too small a word - it is a sheet laying across
everything, smoothing out what would otherwise be a mountainous landscape,
stretching further than the eye can see, emitting glaciers at every possible
opportunity down every valley, flowing like rivers, colliding smoothly in an
ever increasing mass and constantly restucturing to fit the valley´s width.
A No. 1 sight - perhaps the No.1 sight in an incredible part of the world. It rained for days 7 and 8 but by then we had seen so much we weren´t so bothered - although camping in the cold rain is not particuarly recommended.
Tonight I am catching a boat up to Pueto Montt - a 3 day and night trip
through some incredible scenery - that is if the weather holds good.
Bye for now
Luv
Pete
Tuesday 5 March 2002
Where 15 Buenos Aires, Argentina --OR-- Waterfall Heaven
Since Rio I have taken a 23 hour bus jouney to Iguassu Falls on Brazil
-Argentine Border and then bus again to Asuncion in Paraguay. After a few
days there I had another bus trip, 22 hours, to Buenos Aires, Argentina (it
dosen´t look like a big country but is the 8th largest in the world and so
there are quite a few more long bus trips to come).
Brazil (continued)
Big Highs
BRAZIL- ARGENTINE Border
- Iguassu Falls. I wasn´t expecting that much - after all I have seen
Victoria Falls and how different can another waterfall be. How wrong I was.
These falls are absolutely incredible stretching for over 2km with every
part being different - raging torrents, long sheer drops, interspersed with
beautiful trickles draped in weed and multi level cascades. Each part is
spectacular and/or beautiful in it´s own right. All this topped of by the
pinnacle of dramatic endeavour, the Devils Throat, a semi circular
thunderous mass of collapsing water into the unseen depths of a mighty
unfillable pit. And I still haven´t mentioned the near 360 degree rainbow
down below me when I was standing on the edge peering down into the mist. Access to the falls is by numerous walkways almost taking you into the falls
themselves. This is not just a viewing feast but an interactive experience
- a complex arrangement of water gymnastics - full flowing power - so random
and yet so precise and consistent.
If Walt Disney were going to build a waterfall attraction then they would
build one just like this.
In comparison Vic Falls is about as beautiful as a overflowing drainpipe.
Lows
- Getting money out of Brazilian Banks is a joke. They have rows of brand
new ATMs (far more andvanced than in UK) which do everything except clip
your toenails and are plastered with Visa and Mastercard stickers and then
you come to use either of these cards to get anything out ...... BUGGER ALL
´appens!!!
- Passing Sao Paolo on the bus there was a river which must be the most
polluted I have ever seen. At a nearby service station there were 5
different coloured bins for different types of waste - very environmentally
friendly I thought. I wonder if this means they throw the rubbish from each
bin into different parts of the river?
PARAGUAY
In my Lonely Planet covering Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay there are 13
highlights. None of these are in Paraguay or Uruguay. Enough Said. To
call Paraguay unimpressive would be to significantly overstate it´s
cultural, geographic and historical value.
But then again no place is without its ´points of interest´ ......
Relative Highs
- I decided to get the bus from the bus station to the hotel. Unfortunately
I didn´t, speak the language (my spanish is still at an early stage), didn't have a
clue which buses went where and my only map had the hotel and a couple of
roads around it. After half an hour I guessed we must have got to about the area
where the hotel was and I got off. And there was the hotel exactly opposite me. Now how often does that happen? Not often believe me.
- Met some very friendly locals - had very slow conversation in Spanish
helped by a McDonalds Spanish English dictioary with phrases like ´The dog
does not sing, nor the cat´ and ´he make a lot of noise when he plays with
other boys´......
- More importantly the beer bottles are getting bigger. In Brazil a large
bottle was 600ml (cost $1). in Paraguay a small bottle is 630ml and a large
980ml (cost $0.5). Something is going right.
Dangerously Lows
- Paraguay is not dangerous I was told. Then we passed a normal shop which
has two guys outside sitting on stools fully armed with pump action
shotguns. The Lloyds TSB (yes they really have them) was permanently
guarded by 4 fully armed guards... just like home, not.
- I changed some US$ for local currency with a strange man in a bus station
(as you do). He scoffed at my $10 note which had a slight tear but was
otherwise crisp and pristine. After some reassurance he accepted it and
proceeded to give me the shabiest, dirtiest and most sellotaped notes I have
ever seen in my life. I found out that these were perfectly acceptable in
Paraguay - In fact, I think that the value of the note increases with the
addition of more sellotape.
- The showers in this part of the world are cold water but have a heater
immediately above the shower head to at least partly heat the water. This
means that the electrics (often bare wires coming straight out of the wall)
come dangerouly close to the water. Whilst in the shower I sensed a burning
smell and seconds later the showerhead burst into flames - I stood there frozen not sure quiet what to do. After 15 seconds it burnt itself out. I didn´t tell the owners as they would have only repaired it (not desirable) so I had cold showers from then on.
URUGUAY
It was only a day trip across the River Plate from Buenos Aires to Colonia
but I got another shed load of stamps in my passport (I am seriously running
out of room) but from what I saw:
Highs
- It was a colonial town (hence the name !) so very pretty.
Lows
- It rained nearly all day and the sun came out just as we were getting the
boat back.
- It was touristy (Argentinian tourists mainly) and expensive.
Apart from that Uruguay is apparently much like Argentina without the bits
worth seeing.
ARGENTINA
So trying to avoid talk of wars and football (neither of which was
completely achieved) I ventured forward.
Argentina is a rich country with a good, modern infrastructure. And it´s
bankrupt.
- Currently over 30% of everyones savings has been taken from them by the
Govt. and they are not allowed to withdraw all of what´s left. (Govt has
converted US$ held in bank accounts into pesos at $1 = P1.4, whist the market
rate is over $1=P2.0)
- Mistrust is now so high that Argentines would rather put their money under
the matress than in the bank.
- No one is buying anything other than necessities despite every shop having
a ´Sale´.
- Official unemployment is 18% but actual rate is nearer 30% and this will
increase very rapidly as large nos. of people are laid off daily and this
will cause further problems as spending reduces and prices rise. A vicious
circle, and barring a miracle, the knock on effects of this over the next
few months will be catastophic. I could go on ....
Dollars (Highs)
- BsAs is a Europèan style city but with trees lining virtually every street, open parks, wide roads and a high % of cobbled streets - very pretty in places. It also bustles with too much traffic, many poor areas and currently over 13 million pissed off Argentines.
- Spent a couple of days in the coutry just outside Buenos Aires with a
fairly poor family none of whom spoke english (it´s a long story but I met
one of them on the bus). Making Empanardas (like cornish pasties) on the
kitchen table and sitting a round drinking Mate (a tea type drink which is
very much a social event) in the sunshine is a nice way to spend some time.
- The beef here is huge and cheap and makes up a large part of the diet. The
wine is also cheap and although the locals drink wine at every meal they
don´t drink much - half a small glass seemed about average. No need to
finish the bottle off here ...... it will get drunk tomorrow (maybe this
should have been a low).
- Friendly and hospitable locals. Met up with a couple I met briefly in
Bangkok over a year ago who showed me round BsAs.
- La Boca - the area of BsAs that is home to houses of many colours and the
Tango - and also a fair chance of getting mugged i.e. not the best area and
I was warned by the police not to walk more than 2 blocks from the touristy
centre of the area.
- The economic crisis has doubled the no. of Pesos I get for my $ so
everything is much cheaper than if I had come here 3 months ago.
Pesos (Lows)
- The economic situation. I had to mention it again, Argentines are talking
of little else...
- Kissing the boys. Kissing everyone even in business is the norm. I spent
most of one evening kissing guys I didn´t even know!
If your still reading then it was worth me writing all this (unless you
skipped straight to this end bit). Now I´m off down south to see some
wildlife and then heading to the most southerly city on the planet....
Love
Pete
-Argentine Border and then bus again to Asuncion in Paraguay. After a few
days there I had another bus trip, 22 hours, to Buenos Aires, Argentina (it
dosen´t look like a big country but is the 8th largest in the world and so
there are quite a few more long bus trips to come).
Brazil (continued)
Big Highs
BRAZIL- ARGENTINE Border
- Iguassu Falls. I wasn´t expecting that much - after all I have seen
Victoria Falls and how different can another waterfall be. How wrong I was.
These falls are absolutely incredible stretching for over 2km with every
part being different - raging torrents, long sheer drops, interspersed with
beautiful trickles draped in weed and multi level cascades. Each part is
spectacular and/or beautiful in it´s own right. All this topped of by the
pinnacle of dramatic endeavour, the Devils Throat, a semi circular
thunderous mass of collapsing water into the unseen depths of a mighty
unfillable pit. And I still haven´t mentioned the near 360 degree rainbow
down below me when I was standing on the edge peering down into the mist. Access to the falls is by numerous walkways almost taking you into the falls
themselves. This is not just a viewing feast but an interactive experience
- a complex arrangement of water gymnastics - full flowing power - so random
and yet so precise and consistent.
If Walt Disney were going to build a waterfall attraction then they would
build one just like this.
In comparison Vic Falls is about as beautiful as a overflowing drainpipe.
Lows
- Getting money out of Brazilian Banks is a joke. They have rows of brand
new ATMs (far more andvanced than in UK) which do everything except clip
your toenails and are plastered with Visa and Mastercard stickers and then
you come to use either of these cards to get anything out ...... BUGGER ALL
´appens!!!
- Passing Sao Paolo on the bus there was a river which must be the most
polluted I have ever seen. At a nearby service station there were 5
different coloured bins for different types of waste - very environmentally
friendly I thought. I wonder if this means they throw the rubbish from each
bin into different parts of the river?
PARAGUAY
In my Lonely Planet covering Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay there are 13
highlights. None of these are in Paraguay or Uruguay. Enough Said. To
call Paraguay unimpressive would be to significantly overstate it´s
cultural, geographic and historical value.
But then again no place is without its ´points of interest´ ......
Relative Highs
- I decided to get the bus from the bus station to the hotel. Unfortunately
I didn´t, speak the language (my spanish is still at an early stage), didn't have a
clue which buses went where and my only map had the hotel and a couple of
roads around it. After half an hour I guessed we must have got to about the area
where the hotel was and I got off. And there was the hotel exactly opposite me. Now how often does that happen? Not often believe me.
- Met some very friendly locals - had very slow conversation in Spanish
helped by a McDonalds Spanish English dictioary with phrases like ´The dog
does not sing, nor the cat´ and ´he make a lot of noise when he plays with
other boys´......
- More importantly the beer bottles are getting bigger. In Brazil a large
bottle was 600ml (cost $1). in Paraguay a small bottle is 630ml and a large
980ml (cost $0.5). Something is going right.
Dangerously Lows
- Paraguay is not dangerous I was told. Then we passed a normal shop which
has two guys outside sitting on stools fully armed with pump action
shotguns. The Lloyds TSB (yes they really have them) was permanently
guarded by 4 fully armed guards... just like home, not.
- I changed some US$ for local currency with a strange man in a bus station
(as you do). He scoffed at my $10 note which had a slight tear but was
otherwise crisp and pristine. After some reassurance he accepted it and
proceeded to give me the shabiest, dirtiest and most sellotaped notes I have
ever seen in my life. I found out that these were perfectly acceptable in
Paraguay - In fact, I think that the value of the note increases with the
addition of more sellotape.
- The showers in this part of the world are cold water but have a heater
immediately above the shower head to at least partly heat the water. This
means that the electrics (often bare wires coming straight out of the wall)
come dangerouly close to the water. Whilst in the shower I sensed a burning
smell and seconds later the showerhead burst into flames - I stood there frozen not sure quiet what to do. After 15 seconds it burnt itself out. I didn´t tell the owners as they would have only repaired it (not desirable) so I had cold showers from then on.
URUGUAY
It was only a day trip across the River Plate from Buenos Aires to Colonia
but I got another shed load of stamps in my passport (I am seriously running
out of room) but from what I saw:
Highs
- It was a colonial town (hence the name !) so very pretty.
Lows
- It rained nearly all day and the sun came out just as we were getting the
boat back.
- It was touristy (Argentinian tourists mainly) and expensive.
Apart from that Uruguay is apparently much like Argentina without the bits
worth seeing.
ARGENTINA
So trying to avoid talk of wars and football (neither of which was
completely achieved) I ventured forward.
Argentina is a rich country with a good, modern infrastructure. And it´s
bankrupt.
- Currently over 30% of everyones savings has been taken from them by the
Govt. and they are not allowed to withdraw all of what´s left. (Govt has
converted US$ held in bank accounts into pesos at $1 = P1.4, whist the market
rate is over $1=P2.0)
- Mistrust is now so high that Argentines would rather put their money under
the matress than in the bank.
- No one is buying anything other than necessities despite every shop having
a ´Sale´.
- Official unemployment is 18% but actual rate is nearer 30% and this will
increase very rapidly as large nos. of people are laid off daily and this
will cause further problems as spending reduces and prices rise. A vicious
circle, and barring a miracle, the knock on effects of this over the next
few months will be catastophic. I could go on ....
Dollars (Highs)
- BsAs is a Europèan style city but with trees lining virtually every street, open parks, wide roads and a high % of cobbled streets - very pretty in places. It also bustles with too much traffic, many poor areas and currently over 13 million pissed off Argentines.
- Spent a couple of days in the coutry just outside Buenos Aires with a
fairly poor family none of whom spoke english (it´s a long story but I met
one of them on the bus). Making Empanardas (like cornish pasties) on the
kitchen table and sitting a round drinking Mate (a tea type drink which is
very much a social event) in the sunshine is a nice way to spend some time.
- The beef here is huge and cheap and makes up a large part of the diet. The
wine is also cheap and although the locals drink wine at every meal they
don´t drink much - half a small glass seemed about average. No need to
finish the bottle off here ...... it will get drunk tomorrow (maybe this
should have been a low).
- Friendly and hospitable locals. Met up with a couple I met briefly in
Bangkok over a year ago who showed me round BsAs.
- La Boca - the area of BsAs that is home to houses of many colours and the
Tango - and also a fair chance of getting mugged i.e. not the best area and
I was warned by the police not to walk more than 2 blocks from the touristy
centre of the area.
- The economic crisis has doubled the no. of Pesos I get for my $ so
everything is much cheaper than if I had come here 3 months ago.
Pesos (Lows)
- The economic situation. I had to mention it again, Argentines are talking
of little else...
- Kissing the boys. Kissing everyone even in business is the norm. I spent
most of one evening kissing guys I didn´t even know!
If your still reading then it was worth me writing all this (unless you
skipped straight to this end bit). Now I´m off down south to see some
wildlife and then heading to the most southerly city on the planet....
Love
Pete
Saturday 16 February 2002
Where 14 Rio de Janerio, Brazil --OR-- Beaches, Breasts, Bums and Carnival
Hi Guys,
And you thought that I had forgotten to email you it has been so long.......
After deciding UK was just too cold and gloomy I left uk on 19/1/02 and spent a week in NY en route to Rio de Janerio for 6 months of hard intensive work in South America (no I didn´t think that you would believe that).
Actually I decided to hit the beaches a few hours down the coast from Rio and retuned to Rio for the Carnival (and hit the beaches again!)
NEW YORK
Was it what I expected ? Amazingly Yes. Almost everything was exactly what I expected - I must have been watching far too many of those US TV programs !
Skyscrapers (The Highs)
- The Empire State Building - Completed in 1930 and once again the tallest building in NY. Majestic against the skyline (most of the other tall buildings are some distance away).
- Brooklyn Bridge - walking across the this web of wires and pylons in the blazing sunshine towards the skyline of lower Manhaten is simply amazing.
- Seeing Winne the Pooh and Friends - now over 80 years old they are barely recognisable as the ones on sale in the nearby Disney Store or FOA Schwartz toyshop (that's because they look completely different - where the tubby version of Pooh came from I have no idea).
- For those whose knowledge of New York comes from watching ´Friends´, Bloomingdales is a shoppers paradise if you can afford it(the most expensive thing I found was a crystal US flag about 0,5m x 0,3m which cost $30,000); and there really is a Pottery Barn and they do sell apocathery tables for $499 (but only by mail order).
Low Rise (the worst bits)
- The remains of the WTC. Physically there is actually nothing left, the rubble has been removed and the site is now a regular building site. All over NY there are messages of hope and pictures of ´missing´ family and friends. Upon every subway car and bus the stars and stripes have been
freshly added; outside most houses and on many cars the flag flies and New Yorkers look at the ´new skyline´ with dismay.
- Shopping at Macy´s, the worlds largest store. It is actually very boring.
- The weather - from snow and below freezing to bright sunshine and 15C in less than a week - I just never knew what to wear when going out.
BRAZIL
The breast bits
- The Carnival. It is hard to give a good overall description of the Carnival in Rio. Most of it is a bit mediocre and it is difficult to find out what is going on where at what time. However the Main parades put on by the samba schools are absolutely amazing. The floats are fantastic with
huge moving parts and the costumes (of which there are thousands in each parade) are breathtakingly detailed - unfortunately most people never get to see the detail as most of us were too far away. Nevertheless here was the glitz and glamour I had been expecting and I was not dissapointed. Each parade lasts 1 hour 20 minutes. There are 14 main contestants for the
championship over 2 nights. We got in there at 1am on the second night, saw 4 parades and it didn't finish until 7am. Knackering.
- The beaches in and around Rio are supurb (Copacabana and Ipanema are the main ones in Rio) white sand which is actually clean, and warm water. The beach culture here is something to be marvelled at - make of that what you will. Oh and hanging out on the beach with a load of other travellers/Brazilians that I just met and having a ball! Cool stuff.
- Managed to get a game of football on the beach in Rio - well we really do have to take on the Brazilians at OUR own game. Scored a goal, pulled a muscle (no pun intended). I was easily the Most Valuable Player on the pitch as I was still wearing my moneybelt with all my cash and travellers cheques in it, but better on the person than left almost anywhere else.
- Views from
Sugar Loaf mountain - great views of the beaches and coastline from 400m up. Rio is actually built around a whole bunch of steep peaks.
Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio. Actually the statue of the late JC is rather ordinary .... but what a view he has - from 700m up it is nearly an aerial view - Does he really live here ... well it may not be heaven but it's pretty close. Up there with views from Table Mountain (Cape Town) and Victoria Peak (Hong Kong).
- The people in Brazil have been fantastic - so friendly even though most of them don't speak english and always willing to help. The bus drivers/conductors even tell you the correct place to get off when you haven't even told them where you are going .... amazing !
The cover up (bad bits)
- On the beach topless is out (except for the boys - any displayed breasts are boys that are part way to being girls). However the Brazilians do have the most minute bikinis imaginable - tiny triangles imaginatively connected by straps. As one girl pointed out this is a bum culture and the girls show as much as they can.
- The weather is a bit oppressive - over 35C in the shade and very high humidity. There are some cooler days when you can walk around without pouring sweat so long as you don´t walk up any hills or carry a backpack! It gets down to 25C at night but is still humid.
- the no. of travellers I have met who have been mugged or robbed (sometimes by thieves in costume), sometimes in broad daylight. There is no longer a distinction between being safe and paranoid.
So at last the hassle of finding accomadation for carnival is over and I actually get to travel somewhere. Next up is a 23 hour, 1500km bus journey down to Iguassu Falls on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Then into Paraguay and down to Buenos Aires before hitting the cool of Patagonia. Well thats the plan but it will change I'm sure ..... only 5 months left so I'd better get some more sun in ....
Best Wishes
Pete
And you thought that I had forgotten to email you it has been so long.......
After deciding UK was just too cold and gloomy I left uk on 19/1/02 and spent a week in NY en route to Rio de Janerio for 6 months of hard intensive work in South America (no I didn´t think that you would believe that).
Actually I decided to hit the beaches a few hours down the coast from Rio and retuned to Rio for the Carnival (and hit the beaches again!)
NEW YORK
Was it what I expected ? Amazingly Yes. Almost everything was exactly what I expected - I must have been watching far too many of those US TV programs !
Skyscrapers (The Highs)
- The Empire State Building - Completed in 1930 and once again the tallest building in NY. Majestic against the skyline (most of the other tall buildings are some distance away).
- Brooklyn Bridge - walking across the this web of wires and pylons in the blazing sunshine towards the skyline of lower Manhaten is simply amazing.
- Seeing Winne the Pooh and Friends - now over 80 years old they are barely recognisable as the ones on sale in the nearby Disney Store or FOA Schwartz toyshop (that's because they look completely different - where the tubby version of Pooh came from I have no idea).
- For those whose knowledge of New York comes from watching ´Friends´, Bloomingdales is a shoppers paradise if you can afford it(the most expensive thing I found was a crystal US flag about 0,5m x 0,3m which cost $30,000); and there really is a Pottery Barn and they do sell apocathery tables for $499 (but only by mail order).
Low Rise (the worst bits)
- The remains of the WTC. Physically there is actually nothing left, the rubble has been removed and the site is now a regular building site. All over NY there are messages of hope and pictures of ´missing´ family and friends. Upon every subway car and bus the stars and stripes have been
freshly added; outside most houses and on many cars the flag flies and New Yorkers look at the ´new skyline´ with dismay.
- Shopping at Macy´s, the worlds largest store. It is actually very boring.
- The weather - from snow and below freezing to bright sunshine and 15C in less than a week - I just never knew what to wear when going out.
BRAZIL
The breast bits
- The Carnival. It is hard to give a good overall description of the Carnival in Rio. Most of it is a bit mediocre and it is difficult to find out what is going on where at what time. However the Main parades put on by the samba schools are absolutely amazing. The floats are fantastic with
huge moving parts and the costumes (of which there are thousands in each parade) are breathtakingly detailed - unfortunately most people never get to see the detail as most of us were too far away. Nevertheless here was the glitz and glamour I had been expecting and I was not dissapointed. Each parade lasts 1 hour 20 minutes. There are 14 main contestants for the
championship over 2 nights. We got in there at 1am on the second night, saw 4 parades and it didn't finish until 7am. Knackering.
- The beaches in and around Rio are supurb (Copacabana and Ipanema are the main ones in Rio) white sand which is actually clean, and warm water. The beach culture here is something to be marvelled at - make of that what you will. Oh and hanging out on the beach with a load of other travellers/Brazilians that I just met and having a ball! Cool stuff.
- Managed to get a game of football on the beach in Rio - well we really do have to take on the Brazilians at OUR own game. Scored a goal, pulled a muscle (no pun intended). I was easily the Most Valuable Player on the pitch as I was still wearing my moneybelt with all my cash and travellers cheques in it, but better on the person than left almost anywhere else.
- Views from
Sugar Loaf mountain - great views of the beaches and coastline from 400m up. Rio is actually built around a whole bunch of steep peaks.
Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio. Actually the statue of the late JC is rather ordinary .... but what a view he has - from 700m up it is nearly an aerial view - Does he really live here ... well it may not be heaven but it's pretty close. Up there with views from Table Mountain (Cape Town) and Victoria Peak (Hong Kong).
- The people in Brazil have been fantastic - so friendly even though most of them don't speak english and always willing to help. The bus drivers/conductors even tell you the correct place to get off when you haven't even told them where you are going .... amazing !
The cover up (bad bits)
- On the beach topless is out (except for the boys - any displayed breasts are boys that are part way to being girls). However the Brazilians do have the most minute bikinis imaginable - tiny triangles imaginatively connected by straps. As one girl pointed out this is a bum culture and the girls show as much as they can.
- The weather is a bit oppressive - over 35C in the shade and very high humidity. There are some cooler days when you can walk around without pouring sweat so long as you don´t walk up any hills or carry a backpack! It gets down to 25C at night but is still humid.
- the no. of travellers I have met who have been mugged or robbed (sometimes by thieves in costume), sometimes in broad daylight. There is no longer a distinction between being safe and paranoid.
So at last the hassle of finding accomadation for carnival is over and I actually get to travel somewhere. Next up is a 23 hour, 1500km bus journey down to Iguassu Falls on the border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Then into Paraguay and down to Buenos Aires before hitting the cool of Patagonia. Well thats the plan but it will change I'm sure ..... only 5 months left so I'd better get some more sun in ....
Best Wishes
Pete
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