Met a slightly sickly Emma in Trelew and went to Gaiman to check out the centre of Welsh Patagonia and have some tea. God milky tea in a teapot plus tea cosy felt good! We went to the tea house belonging to the great granddaughter of the first Welsh settler in Patagonia who arrived in 1865. The tea house was like a swiss lodge full of Welsh memorabilia in cabinets and a big iron fire/grate thing which came across on that first ship to Patagonia, the Mimosa.
After stuffing our faces with inordinate amounts of dulce de leche cake we caught the bus back to Trelew and our kitch tumble down hostel. The next day we passed through Puerto Madryn and on to Puerto Piramides where we got on a boat to do some whale watching. Emma´s SLR camera went nuts at this point. There were big Right whales and their calves everywhere, enormous and beautiful animals with big carbuncles all over. After this I had a big lamb lunch a la parilla (big fat bbq) in a lighthouse estancia on the Peninsula Valdes. Em, still not feeling great had soup, a few guilt feelings on my part. That afternoon, we went onto the beach below to see elephant seals. Whopping creatures making bit flatulent snoring noises, awesome.
Saturday and Sunday were spent chilling while Emma recovered and the elections took place meaning everything was shut. Much time listening to "estas viendo Warner Channel" on tv. Sunday afternoon we flew down to Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is the town which claims to be at the end of the world. It´s not really but it is the biggest southern town apparently. It´s like an Austrian or Swiss ski resort. We are staying in a wood pannelled hostel, feels very European and much more wealthy than concrete jungle Welsh Patagonia. It does feel good and quite strange to be the furthest South I have been in my life.
Since being here we have done a boat trip down the Beagle Channel and seen sea lions and massive cormorants that look like penguins if you squint. Yesterday we took a bus to the National Park, Tierra del Fuego, and strolled around the park which is stunning. Looks a bit like the Lake District in the UK but more extreme. Today we are off dog sledding up in the snow should be hilarious, am thinking Canadian Mountie style but we shall see. Tomorrow morning we plan to go up a glacier before flying to El Calafate to see the mother of glaciers and the best apparently, El Perito Moreno. Em and I are hugely excited about this and Torres del Paine, the best National Park in South America apparently, our next destination after that....
That´s all for now, if you´ve read this far, thanks for your persistence and interest! xx
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Cross Continental Crazyness
Much has happened since I was in Lake Titicaca (incidentally the biggest mass of water at that altitude not the highest as in my last entry whoops). The Uros islands were intriguing. There is the possibility that the Bolivian government pay the population to be there as its such a major tourist attraction but its still pretty amazing. We visited a couple of islands and floated about on a reed boat. It would be crazy to live there all the time but I´ve thought this many a time on my travels.
On the island tour I met a couple of Kiwis, Alice and Tim from Christchurch who then got the bus to La Paz with me where we also met a Dane and a Brit and the 5 of us got a hostel together in La Paz. This was particularly good for me as a girl travelling alone as we got into La Paz at 11pm and a tourist policeman got on the bus and told us not to get off where we were planning to because we´d be robbed. We forced the bus driver to take us to the bus station. Novel idea I know.
La Paz was a crazy working city. A mass of roads and squares. No major central focal point except for maybe the Plaza San Francisco with a pretty cathedral, little streets behind selling textiles and llama foetuses and a witches market up one end. All this gave La Paz a really interesting feel, I liked it a lot. There was also a big 2 day demonstration going on by the cocaleros who are feeling hard done by by Evo Morales government.
After a couple of days exploring and a cheeky trip to see The Willis in Die Hard 4, I caught an overnight bus (after rushing to the toll booths to wait for it as I thought I´d missed it) to Uyuni where the salt flats are. We would have got there at 7am in time for a 10am tour but the bus got 2 major punctures and we arrived at 2pm. After a night of amazing MinuteMan pizza and alcohol with the members of my bus I headed off the next day on tour. The Salt flats were unbelievable and enormous. Think Pirates of the Carribean 3 (Johnny Depp´s Worlds End). Cue lots of stupid photos. We also had fun travelling about in a jeep seeing a volcano and flamingos and a hell of a lot of cacti.
On the Friday at 5.30 am after a false start where my bus drove straight past me, I headed south to the Argentine border. This involved stopping and changing buses at Atocha and Tupiza little Bolivian market towns and arriving at Villazon at the border at about 5pm. I then crossed into Argentina, had some chicken and chips with a couple from Sheffield and caught a bus to Salta. Arriving at 4.00 am I decided to keep going and went straight to the airport to catch a flight to Buenos Aires.
Arrived at our Moulin Rouge style hostel in Buenos Aires at 10.30am where Emma was waiting for me. We spent the day catching up big time and exploring the San Telmo district, a beautiful old style antiques section of B.A. then went to Florida to the shopping zone and then saw the Bourne Ultimatum before dinner back in San Telmo. A great but exhausting day after 30hours travelling.
Sunday I visited the Recoleta where there is a big cemetery and Evita´s body and a great market. Caught some tango dancing in a bar in the evening. Monday I met up with Stephanie!! Was lovely to see her and her mother in their stunning BA flat. We headed to Palermo for some steak lunch (GOD the steak is good here) and then wandered around a bit while she did the dentist and I did incredible Argentine ice cream (Freddo for those in the know) and travel arrangements.
That evening I jumped on a 16 hour bus (turned out to be 18hr) over night to Puerto Iguacu to see the waterfalls. They were as beautiful as Niagara only much more tropical and much more scope to explore around jungle style trails. Here I bumped into the Kiwis again who´d been in Rio in the interim! I love those coincidences. After getting trigger finger from so many photos I flew back to BA and went out for dinner in Puerto Madero which reminded me a lot of the docklands in Bristol and the South Bank in London. Emma in this time was taking a trip to Uruguay as she´d done Iguacu already.
Thursday morning I took a flight to Trelew to begin the Patagonian stage....
On the island tour I met a couple of Kiwis, Alice and Tim from Christchurch who then got the bus to La Paz with me where we also met a Dane and a Brit and the 5 of us got a hostel together in La Paz. This was particularly good for me as a girl travelling alone as we got into La Paz at 11pm and a tourist policeman got on the bus and told us not to get off where we were planning to because we´d be robbed. We forced the bus driver to take us to the bus station. Novel idea I know.
La Paz was a crazy working city. A mass of roads and squares. No major central focal point except for maybe the Plaza San Francisco with a pretty cathedral, little streets behind selling textiles and llama foetuses and a witches market up one end. All this gave La Paz a really interesting feel, I liked it a lot. There was also a big 2 day demonstration going on by the cocaleros who are feeling hard done by by Evo Morales government.
After a couple of days exploring and a cheeky trip to see The Willis in Die Hard 4, I caught an overnight bus (after rushing to the toll booths to wait for it as I thought I´d missed it) to Uyuni where the salt flats are. We would have got there at 7am in time for a 10am tour but the bus got 2 major punctures and we arrived at 2pm. After a night of amazing MinuteMan pizza and alcohol with the members of my bus I headed off the next day on tour. The Salt flats were unbelievable and enormous. Think Pirates of the Carribean 3 (Johnny Depp´s Worlds End). Cue lots of stupid photos. We also had fun travelling about in a jeep seeing a volcano and flamingos and a hell of a lot of cacti.
On the Friday at 5.30 am after a false start where my bus drove straight past me, I headed south to the Argentine border. This involved stopping and changing buses at Atocha and Tupiza little Bolivian market towns and arriving at Villazon at the border at about 5pm. I then crossed into Argentina, had some chicken and chips with a couple from Sheffield and caught a bus to Salta. Arriving at 4.00 am I decided to keep going and went straight to the airport to catch a flight to Buenos Aires.
Arrived at our Moulin Rouge style hostel in Buenos Aires at 10.30am where Emma was waiting for me. We spent the day catching up big time and exploring the San Telmo district, a beautiful old style antiques section of B.A. then went to Florida to the shopping zone and then saw the Bourne Ultimatum before dinner back in San Telmo. A great but exhausting day after 30hours travelling.
Sunday I visited the Recoleta where there is a big cemetery and Evita´s body and a great market. Caught some tango dancing in a bar in the evening. Monday I met up with Stephanie!! Was lovely to see her and her mother in their stunning BA flat. We headed to Palermo for some steak lunch (GOD the steak is good here) and then wandered around a bit while she did the dentist and I did incredible Argentine ice cream (Freddo for those in the know) and travel arrangements.
That evening I jumped on a 16 hour bus (turned out to be 18hr) over night to Puerto Iguacu to see the waterfalls. They were as beautiful as Niagara only much more tropical and much more scope to explore around jungle style trails. Here I bumped into the Kiwis again who´d been in Rio in the interim! I love those coincidences. After getting trigger finger from so many photos I flew back to BA and went out for dinner in Puerto Madero which reminded me a lot of the docklands in Bristol and the South Bank in London. Emma in this time was taking a trip to Uruguay as she´d done Iguacu already.
Thursday morning I took a flight to Trelew to begin the Patagonian stage....
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Buenos Aires here I come!
So my last day with my group involved White Water Rafting... I loved the rafting, the bit where our guide decided to topple as many of us as possible into the river right in the middle of a rapid, not so much. Picture 4 of us flying down the river with the currents shouting backwards for someone to get us back in the raft, elegant we weren´t, pretty funny it was.
The others left for Lima on Weds and I took a day for a bit of a breather, to regain energy and get rid of some more tummy fun, I´m lucky like that. I flew to Arequipa on the Thurs and spent all of Fri looking around. It´s bigger than Cusco, with a beautiful backdrop of the El Misti volcano towering behind it. It´s all made of white sillar stone and has many religious buildings, including the most important in Peru, the Monasterio Santa Catalina. Spent some good hours wandering around this colourful and serene citadel, v impressive. I had forgotten that Arequipa is the home of Mario Vargas Llosa, one of my favourite S.American authors, whose latest book I have signed by him. He is quite a guy, having stood to be president of Peru, he got beaten sadly by the murderous dictator Fujimori but there we go.
The other highlight of Arequipa was seeing Juanita. She was a body discovered at the top of one of the nearby mountains, frozen in the glacier. She is important because she was one of 4 bodies found which show that the Incas used to smack young pure noble girls over the head with a 5 pronged mace and bury them along with offerings to the Mountain gods called Apus. These girls had also marched for days from Cusco to these mountains in a big festival and had voluntarily given their lives, it was a great honour.
Juanita was a bit freaky really, she still had her hair and teeth. It´s going to take me a while to shake off her image but she was fascinating nonetheless. Have grown quite fond of these Incas in the last 6 weeks. They were amazingly advanced and had an interesting set of beliefs, worshipping PachaMama (Mother Earth) and the God Inti Sol (the Sun God) and the Apu mountain gods too. The ruins left behind are incredible and it makes me sad to think how much the Spaniards destroyed...
Am currently, after a 6 hour bus trip, in Puno which is the town by the side of Lake Titicaca the highest lake in the world. Tomorrow am doing a trip to see the Uros islands made of Tortora reeds. The locals make the island they live on and each time it rots away they replace the reeds. Am intrigued to see them before I take another long bus trip to La Paz and my first steps into Bolivia.
The others left for Lima on Weds and I took a day for a bit of a breather, to regain energy and get rid of some more tummy fun, I´m lucky like that. I flew to Arequipa on the Thurs and spent all of Fri looking around. It´s bigger than Cusco, with a beautiful backdrop of the El Misti volcano towering behind it. It´s all made of white sillar stone and has many religious buildings, including the most important in Peru, the Monasterio Santa Catalina. Spent some good hours wandering around this colourful and serene citadel, v impressive. I had forgotten that Arequipa is the home of Mario Vargas Llosa, one of my favourite S.American authors, whose latest book I have signed by him. He is quite a guy, having stood to be president of Peru, he got beaten sadly by the murderous dictator Fujimori but there we go.
The other highlight of Arequipa was seeing Juanita. She was a body discovered at the top of one of the nearby mountains, frozen in the glacier. She is important because she was one of 4 bodies found which show that the Incas used to smack young pure noble girls over the head with a 5 pronged mace and bury them along with offerings to the Mountain gods called Apus. These girls had also marched for days from Cusco to these mountains in a big festival and had voluntarily given their lives, it was a great honour.
Juanita was a bit freaky really, she still had her hair and teeth. It´s going to take me a while to shake off her image but she was fascinating nonetheless. Have grown quite fond of these Incas in the last 6 weeks. They were amazingly advanced and had an interesting set of beliefs, worshipping PachaMama (Mother Earth) and the God Inti Sol (the Sun God) and the Apu mountain gods too. The ruins left behind are incredible and it makes me sad to think how much the Spaniards destroyed...
Am currently, after a 6 hour bus trip, in Puno which is the town by the side of Lake Titicaca the highest lake in the world. Tomorrow am doing a trip to see the Uros islands made of Tortora reeds. The locals make the island they live on and each time it rots away they replace the reeds. Am intrigued to see them before I take another long bus trip to La Paz and my first steps into Bolivia.
Monday, 27 August 2007
Overwhelmed by Machu Picchu
I´m very happy to say that I have finally been able to see Machu Picchu and it only took 3 years or more of waiting...
Thankfully it didn´t disappoint. Particularly as we had to do a 9 day trek to get there which apparently was 4x harder than the Inca trail and one of the hardest treks in Peru (quite glad I didn´t know this before I set off). The first few days involved trekking up to and away from Choquequirao another mountain-top set of ruins set in beautiful surroundings. Day 4 after this was the worst, a 14hour hike 10 hours of which were uphill to 4,600m, starting at 5.30am and getting to the next site to camp at 8pm... Hardcore is indeed my middle name. Seriously, I loved the trek and am glad I did it, it was really hard but the scenery was some of the most beautiful I´ve seen in my life. The only slight downside was on the eve of day 8, 6 girls out of our 8 person group got really ill and puked out of their tents all night (I like to be graphic). So instead of hiking on Day 8 we had to rush by bus then train to the doctor in Aguas Calientes right by Machu Picchu where much interpreting of symptoms was needed! On Saturday, we went to Machu Picchu at the break of dawn and I was completely blown away. It´s a shame it will be taken over by tourists quite soon but I can see why it was voted a wonder of the world, it was beautiful. I only wished I could have seen it when it was full of Incas but I gave it my best shot at imagining it...
After a day of recovery in Cusco we have just been horse riding around the sacred valley courtesy of a random guy called Cesar who gave us a taxi ride a month ago and also owns a farm of horses, fortunately it all turned out well and wasn´t at all dodgy! Tomorrow we go white water rafting before I head off alone to the south of Peru and towards Bolivia on Wednesday while the others head to Lima. Am sad that the Peru stage is almost over but the rest of the continent awaits... as one great house mate suggested, I will try not to shake the rest of the world by my travels, one earthquake and plane crash is probably enough.
Over and out, xxxx
Thankfully it didn´t disappoint. Particularly as we had to do a 9 day trek to get there which apparently was 4x harder than the Inca trail and one of the hardest treks in Peru (quite glad I didn´t know this before I set off). The first few days involved trekking up to and away from Choquequirao another mountain-top set of ruins set in beautiful surroundings. Day 4 after this was the worst, a 14hour hike 10 hours of which were uphill to 4,600m, starting at 5.30am and getting to the next site to camp at 8pm... Hardcore is indeed my middle name. Seriously, I loved the trek and am glad I did it, it was really hard but the scenery was some of the most beautiful I´ve seen in my life. The only slight downside was on the eve of day 8, 6 girls out of our 8 person group got really ill and puked out of their tents all night (I like to be graphic). So instead of hiking on Day 8 we had to rush by bus then train to the doctor in Aguas Calientes right by Machu Picchu where much interpreting of symptoms was needed! On Saturday, we went to Machu Picchu at the break of dawn and I was completely blown away. It´s a shame it will be taken over by tourists quite soon but I can see why it was voted a wonder of the world, it was beautiful. I only wished I could have seen it when it was full of Incas but I gave it my best shot at imagining it...
After a day of recovery in Cusco we have just been horse riding around the sacred valley courtesy of a random guy called Cesar who gave us a taxi ride a month ago and also owns a farm of horses, fortunately it all turned out well and wasn´t at all dodgy! Tomorrow we go white water rafting before I head off alone to the south of Peru and towards Bolivia on Wednesday while the others head to Lima. Am sad that the Peru stage is almost over but the rest of the continent awaits... as one great house mate suggested, I will try not to shake the rest of the world by my travels, one earthquake and plane crash is probably enough.
Over and out, xxxx
Thursday, 16 August 2007
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
La vida cusquena
Time has passed scarily fast. The two weeks in Cusco were brilliant, living with Lourdes and Darwin and their lovely Peruvian family in a suburb called La Florida. The middle weekend of the 2 week language course gave us the chance to head off into the Sacred valley to visit Ollayantambo and its ruins and then a beautiful colonial church in Chinchero, an old greenhouse style Inca ruin in Moray and some beautiful salt pans cut into the side of a hill in Salinas. After this we headed to Pisac a cool market town to see yes more ruins on the Sunday and to hit a massive Peruvian market: ponchos and crazy alpaca hats galore.
The weekdays consisted of going on a ´real city tour´, seeing more of the real Cusco, seeing the Inca museum and art galleries, enjoying the cuisine and nightlife and many markets and generally getting to feel really at home in Cusco, a stunning town surrounded by the Andes. Quechua was challenging but fun. I had a little Incan lady called Lourdes as a teacher, who was also an Andean medical practitioner, a really interesting lady. For the second weekend we saw the ruins just up on the hill on the side of Cusco and got to have some awesome trout. At the nearest ruin, Sacsaywaman (SEXY WOMAAAAN in slight Jamaican accent) the locals have a big festival there called Inti Raymi in June where they sacrifice a llama and eat its blood and hope to forecast the coming year.
After this all took a turn for the worse as I ended up after a night out rather ill (yes both ends) with salmonella and once I was hospitalised, it also turned out I had a urinary infection and a parasite. While the rest of the group headed off into the mountains I recovered with a drip. Last Wednesday I took a 12 hour journey (4hrs of which were walking uphill) to the community of Cuncani. There we helped build a big salon comunal. I got to practice Quechua and we got to have a big party at the end to celebrate the end of the project. We also squeezed in some teaching of the local kids (lots of gesturing and fun games) and hiking up to the beautiful lakes nearby where wild chinchilla style rabbits run around. The mountain experience was topped off by a trip to some natural hot thermal baths. Now we are back in Cusco and recuperating ready for the 9 day pilgrimage to Choequequirao and Machu Picchu at the end... the climax of the Peru trip before I head off across the continent to join Em in Buenos Aires...
All for now, much love xx
The weekdays consisted of going on a ´real city tour´, seeing more of the real Cusco, seeing the Inca museum and art galleries, enjoying the cuisine and nightlife and many markets and generally getting to feel really at home in Cusco, a stunning town surrounded by the Andes. Quechua was challenging but fun. I had a little Incan lady called Lourdes as a teacher, who was also an Andean medical practitioner, a really interesting lady. For the second weekend we saw the ruins just up on the hill on the side of Cusco and got to have some awesome trout. At the nearest ruin, Sacsaywaman (SEXY WOMAAAAN in slight Jamaican accent) the locals have a big festival there called Inti Raymi in June where they sacrifice a llama and eat its blood and hope to forecast the coming year.
After this all took a turn for the worse as I ended up after a night out rather ill (yes both ends) with salmonella and once I was hospitalised, it also turned out I had a urinary infection and a parasite. While the rest of the group headed off into the mountains I recovered with a drip. Last Wednesday I took a 12 hour journey (4hrs of which were walking uphill) to the community of Cuncani. There we helped build a big salon comunal. I got to practice Quechua and we got to have a big party at the end to celebrate the end of the project. We also squeezed in some teaching of the local kids (lots of gesturing and fun games) and hiking up to the beautiful lakes nearby where wild chinchilla style rabbits run around. The mountain experience was topped off by a trip to some natural hot thermal baths. Now we are back in Cusco and recuperating ready for the 9 day pilgrimage to Choequequirao and Machu Picchu at the end... the climax of the Peru trip before I head off across the continent to join Em in Buenos Aires...
All for now, much love xx
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Ciao a Brasil!
So lots has happened since my last entry. I have been to the famous Cristo Redentor (the biggest art decor sculpture in the world) to see the views of Rio and been up on a v dodgy old school tram up to Santa Teresa, a beautiful old colonial part of Rio. That day was topped off by sunset at the Pao de Azucar (sugar loaf mountain) to see more breathtaking views. Oh and made even better by an all you can eat Brazilian tapas with hostel buddies, led by Haroldo who works at the hostel.
Other highlights include hanging out on Ipanema beach with the locals, going hang gliding onto one of the bays (great fun, felt like a bird, don´t think I was nearly so graceful though sadly), going on a favela tour and to Lapa to a samba club which was a brilliant night out. The favela was really interesting and despite fears of it being voyeuristic was really worth seeing, we saw Rocinha the biggest favela in Latin America run by a 24 year old drug baron who earns 1.25million a month (I think?) but can never leave the favela as he will be arrested or shot.. he probably won´t live to beyond 35 at the most..
On a more cheerful note, Jax and I went to a big samba display to get a taste of carnival last Saturday and then headed to Ihla Grande on the Sunday, a beautiful island with one of the 4 most beautiful beaches in the world on it called Lopes Mendes. The weather wasn´t brilliant but we had an awesome time regardless. Back to Rio after and shopping, museum/churches in the centre and a trip to see Brasil´s female football team somewhat thrash the Canadian team (sadly) at Brasil´s main Maracana football stadium for the Pan American Games being held in Rio at the moment, the atmosphere was awesome, those Brazilians certainly know how to support a team.
Feeling really sad to leave, flew to Sao Paolo (only slightly nervously after the devastating plane crash which killed 186 there on Tuesday), arrived in Lima Saturday for a little bit of exhausted exploration and am now in Cusco with my VentureCo group of 6 Brit girls. I meet the Peruvian family I am staying with tomorrow and start my Quechua lessons... v exciting if not surreal. Cusco is brilliant and beautiful with the Andes surrounding it - am just adapting to the altitude which is having a crazy effect on everyone.
Adios for now and mucho amor for one and all. xxx
Other highlights include hanging out on Ipanema beach with the locals, going hang gliding onto one of the bays (great fun, felt like a bird, don´t think I was nearly so graceful though sadly), going on a favela tour and to Lapa to a samba club which was a brilliant night out. The favela was really interesting and despite fears of it being voyeuristic was really worth seeing, we saw Rocinha the biggest favela in Latin America run by a 24 year old drug baron who earns 1.25million a month (I think?) but can never leave the favela as he will be arrested or shot.. he probably won´t live to beyond 35 at the most..
On a more cheerful note, Jax and I went to a big samba display to get a taste of carnival last Saturday and then headed to Ihla Grande on the Sunday, a beautiful island with one of the 4 most beautiful beaches in the world on it called Lopes Mendes. The weather wasn´t brilliant but we had an awesome time regardless. Back to Rio after and shopping, museum/churches in the centre and a trip to see Brasil´s female football team somewhat thrash the Canadian team (sadly) at Brasil´s main Maracana football stadium for the Pan American Games being held in Rio at the moment, the atmosphere was awesome, those Brazilians certainly know how to support a team.
Feeling really sad to leave, flew to Sao Paolo (only slightly nervously after the devastating plane crash which killed 186 there on Tuesday), arrived in Lima Saturday for a little bit of exhausted exploration and am now in Cusco with my VentureCo group of 6 Brit girls. I meet the Peruvian family I am staying with tomorrow and start my Quechua lessons... v exciting if not surreal. Cusco is brilliant and beautiful with the Andes surrounding it - am just adapting to the altitude which is having a crazy effect on everyone.
Adios for now and mucho amor for one and all. xxx
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