Viajes - South American Travels

Continuación - A través de Escocia, á España...!

2009-09-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

I should say a quick note here for any folks i don't know that may have been reading this blog...

I got back to the UK from Ecuador on the 27th of June, then spent about 6 weeks in Kingussie, the North-East by Peterhead, and various locations in England around Cambridge, London, Portsmouth, Lancaster, then Edinburgh and back home...

Pero ahora, vivo en Catalunya, en Barcelona! Me quedo en un barrio se llama Poblenou, solamente 15 minutos del centro por metro. Llegué aquí hace tres semanas, y voy a quedarme por lo menos hasta marzo del proximo año, por que estaré estudiando en la Universitat Pompeu Fabra. En este momento yo pienso estudiar hasta el fin de febrero, pero hay uno curso mas que podría tomar, para cinco meses más. Todavía no sé lo que voy a hacer después de febrero - lo depende con muchas cosas.

Entonces, si yo encuentro cosas interesantes para descibir en un nuevo blog, empezaré un nuevo blog! Pero por ahora, este blog está terminado... Gracias por leer! Rob

Abancay, Nazca, Trujillo / Huanchaco (Peru), Puerto Lopez (Ecuador)

2009-07-14T03:07:00.000-07:00

We headed from Cuzco about 5 hours by bus West, to a place called Abancay, seldom visited by tourists judging from the amusement and interest (staring) we generated here! We stayed for less than two days, but squeezed in a walk on the second which involved cacti, private property, and chasing flip-flops down rivers...! Photos by Chief

The young and able William MacDonald, a friend from home we met up with in Cuzco, and later again in Trujillo / Huanchaco on the Pacific Coast of Peru before splitting ways.

Not too many photos are available of the next 2 weeks, which involved a bit of splitting up - Me, James and Claire went to the very lovely Nazca and rode on the vast sand dunes in a dune buggy then did some sandboarding, and took a flight over the famous Nazca lines which were suitably impresive. Due to the lack of Chief or Vic, i have no photos of any of this time at the moment. Trust me, it was good! We then all reconvened in Huanchaco on the Peruvian coast, as a sort of halfway stopoff on our journey towards Ecuador. We had a pretty relaxing and not too eventful time on the beach there, the weather was a bit lousy but nothing to complain about... Anyway, after that me, chief, claire & james again split off from Wullie and Beth, and took many hours worth of buses to a lovely little town called Puerto Lopez, this time on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador... These photos are from there (all by Chief)...

Wandering on the beach of the fishing village of Puerto Lopez...

Nasty looking Spikyfish (probably not the proper nomenclature) washed up on the beach.

We took a boat trip out to Isla de la Plata (dubbed the poor man's Galapagos) one day, and saw some pretty marvelous stuff from the boat... Like a large number of bottlenose dolphins, and quite a few humpback whales, which we were lucky enough to see showboating for our viewing pleasure by jumping completely out of the water, and swimming right round and under our boat - it was pretty special and i think we were unnaturaly lucky that day...

Cuzco & Machu Picchu

2009-05-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

From Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu

Above, the fruits of Chief's photographic labours, and the classic Machu Picchu shot as the sun comes up.

These pics are a mixture of Chief's and Vics...

From Salkantay trek

Hello again! We have just come back from a 5-day trek through absolutely stunning surroundings to see the old Incan city of Machu Picchu. Everyone has heard of the place and most have seen the classic picture, and it is understandably one of the top tourist attractions in the whole continent. The reputation is indeed justified, and it was especially satisfying to see it in perfect weather, after fairly strenuous trekking for 4 days, and starting as the sun came up on the incredibly impressive landscape in the area.

I will be putting some photos up as they are uploaded. Otherwise Cuzco is not my favourite city - of course it has some interesting Incan ruins and colonial architecture which makes it essentially a picturesque town, but the sheer volume of tourism takes the edge off the enjoyment for me, and the volume of tourists is also far greater than any other place i have been of comparable size in South America - because of the mix of types of tourism from backpacking through to week long tour parties journeying solely to see Machu Picchu, the main parts of the city have a very difficult to surmount "Us and Them" feel separating the locals from the (mainly) white western component. Every tourist is treated in the same way and there is no chance to get beyond the stereotypes. Anyway, it is still a nice city with plenty to offer outside of the main tourist San Blas area... More soon,

Rob

Colca Canyon, Peru

2009-05-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

For the moment, photos have been uploaded for a couple of days trip that we did out from Arequipa, one of the main cities of Peru, and and a very pleasant one too.

So I met up with Ali Massey and Dickie Hall, noth of whom i knew from the Antarctic and hadn´t seen for quite a while, so it was very excellent to meet up in South America and do some trekking. We all took a 7 hour bus to a little town called Cabanaconde on the edge of the great and very deep valley called Colca Canyon - it´s a very popular place to visit from Arequipa and definately worth it - the valley top is at about 3300m, and we plunged down to near 2000m metres on a winding path that hugged the steep sides. We walked for about 7 hours to descend the valley, cross the river at the bottom, climb part of the far side, visit some villages and then descend again to a spot known as the Oasis where we stayed the night and enjoyed some swimming in river-fed pools just as the sun went down and the moon rose. The next morning we awoke early and plowed straight up the 1000m of steep climbing in order to catch our bus back to Arequipa - a very enjoyable couple of days.

From Arequipa

Dickie looks over the valley as we descend to the river.

From Arequipa

Typical view of the foliage - catcti and dry hardy flowers and bushes clinging to steep dusty sides.

From Arequipa

Me sitting on the steps of the church in one of the farming villages on the far side of the Canyon.

From Arequipa

Chief got creative with the long-exposure photographs and took advantage of the moonlight for some nice star photos.

From Arequipa

He calls this one "Horse, Bush and a Bit of Grass". Very nice... More photos from Arequipa itself soon. Once Vic gets her photos uploaded there will be more fleshing out of the visual blog too. Rob

Lago Titicaca & Copacabana, Bolivia

2009-05-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

From Lake Titicaca & Copacabana

The beginning of a beautiful sunset over Copacabana, near to the Peruvian-Bolivian border on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We fortuitously arrived in the town just a day before one of the most important festivals in the town´s calendar, the 3rd of May celebrations. The 2 days after we arrived were packed with colourful processions and outlandish-costumed dancers and musicians tirelessly processing through the streets in the heat of the days... photos below

From Lake Titicaca & Copacabana

Above, some stands set up for the festival selling bright cloths and flower garlands to adorn participants in the processions, cars (which are blessed by priests in front of the Cathedral) and assorted other objects which appeared drab enough to require embellishment for the day.

From Lake Titicaca & Copacabana

Copacabana is nestled between 2 small and picturesque hills - myself and Chief climbed one for the sunset one evening and looked out over the vast Lago Titicaca...

From Lake Titicaca & Copacabana

One of the heavily costumed male dancers in the parade - all the dancers danced for many many hours to the same repeated tune all through the streets and repeated the whole spectacle the following day after imbibing vast quantities of beer and staying up most of the night! Very impressive festival stamina...

From Lake Titicaca & Copacabana

Below, a rare shot of the Photographer General, standing on the top of the hill just to the North of the town, looking out towards Isla del Sol (in the top right) where the others were to go for a few days as i headed to Peru to meet up with some friends from the Antarctic, in Arequipa...

La Paz II, Bolivia

2009-05-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

From La Paz

I found La Paz to be a bustling and interesting city with every kind of market you could imagine including the famous ones specializing in witch-craft and therefore being purveyors of such delights as dried llama foetuses (for burying under the front step of a newly built house to bring luck), dried frogs for unknown purposes, and a vast array of weird concoctions and tea powders designed to aid any ailment from infertility to muscle aches. We probably spent about 10 days in the city, with my little aside to try to climb Huayna Potosi which ended in exhausted failure due to illness... The picture above is a view of a large portion of the high city, from the poorer neighbourhood of El Alto which lies on the plain at about 4000m above the valley.

From La Paz

Above, at the downtown mirador (viewpoint) to watch the sun go down over the main basin of La Paz. In the background is one of the high peaks that surround the city - Illimani (about 6400m if i recall correctly).

From La Paz

On our last day in La Paz we took a bus up to the El Alto plateau and had a wander around the big market there - its a fairly shambolic affair with some people selling only a few pieces of wire ripped from dead cars; lots of cheap clothes and household goods, and basic traditional food. The vast sprawling market is certainly not for tourists, and it is indicative of the lives of poverty led by many in Bolivia´s poorer urban areas.

At the beginning of May we left La Paz for the little town of Copacabana on the shores of Lago Titicaca...

Comments Problem Sorted...

2009-04-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Exactly what the title says... you can now feel free to post as many comments as you like!

La Paz...

2009-04-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

Lots of new photos finally on the blog! Courtesy of Alex & Vic

Basically, we're in La Paz but i'm going to leave the photos from here until the rest of the blog is up to date...

By the way i tried to climb a 6100m peak a few days ago but extremely annoyingly i got ill during the night before the first day, and although i attempted to start the climb, it was clear after a few hours of painfully slow and exhausting walking that i was in no shape for it so we turned back. I have just spent the last 2 days in bed and am feeling fine again now... Can't win them all!

Rob

Uyuni & The Salar Salt Plains of Bolivia

2009-04-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

OK, the blog is getting a bit muddled now, but the salt plain tour of 4 days that we did last week requires it's own post to show the incredible landscapes which have been captured in quality technicolor by Vic & Chief... I think Chief particularly relished the opportunities for lightsmithery over those days...

Uyuni - starting point for a four day trip around the Salar de Uyuni, an immense expanse of salt desert with volcanoes and weird rock formations all around (quality photos from Chief and Vic from there)

From Uyuni

From salar de uyuni

Sucre & Potosi

2009-04-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Since Samaipata and the Natural Beauty, we have been in...

Sucre - official capital and beautiful city, where Vic will be spending a year doing volunteer work

From sucre

From Sucre

Potosi - former richest city in the world on account of the huge gold, silver and other metals mine which towers above the highest city in the world.

From Potosi

From potosi

From Potosi

Samaipata, Bolivia

2009-04-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hola de nuevo!

Next stop after the pleasant and interesting but still citylike (being a city) Santa Cruz, is Samaipata, a smallish village at 1600 metres (sobre el nivel del mar!) on one edge of the Amboro National Park.

We arrived in this stunningly located spot after a few hours in a special taxi on partially unpaved roads which was interesting in itself as we climbed up through copiously vegetated slopes at susprisingly (and occassionally terrifyingly) high speed. I got an especially good view as i was sharing the front seat with a boy of about 12 who was the son of the driver, and being as i am not designed for containment in low-ceiligned cars, i spent the entire trip with my head out the window in the only possible contortional configuration. Apart from placing my whole weight on half of my backside which went through irritating and well into painful, i got a cracking experience of the route, and a crazy hairstyle which would have cost hundreds of pounds in London´s finest hairsmiths.

The arrival at Samaipata was much welcomed, and we were welcomed too by the Bolivian - American couple who run the Posada del Sol hostel which is truly a cracking place to stay. The four of us were shown our little two room, three bed apartment with gas cooker - perfect for us, and the cheapest place i have stayed since India, at just over 5 US dollars a night.

The last few days (we´ve now stayed 4 nights) have been packed with quality activity. The first day after arriving, we took a taxi down the valley a little to a spot where you can walk up the stream that crosses the road and get to a series of small and quite lovely little waterfalls, with nice swimming pools which although shallower than normal due to the large quanitites of water-borne sediment being brought down from the hills were still swimmable. This provided a much needed refresh from the heat, and showers were possible under some of the falls - cheaper than a chiropracter for cracking your bones!

From SamaiPata

The next day was a full day tour with a Spanish speaking guide who drove us 2 and a half hours to a few valleys further over from Samaipata, until we arrived at a truly great waterfall site (cue more swimming in stunning tropical location). This one was far too powerful to get underneath, as the water was accelerated from about 40 metres up - it was even too powerful to get very close to as the current flowing away from the base was a test for the best swimmer.
After the dip we headed up the side of the valley, to above the falls and meanered around some of the tributary streams taking a route we would never have been able to find ourselves. Then back onto the ridge for more amazing valley views and then the descent to the car. All the while we had good Spanish practice trying to follow the guide´s guiding and medicial plant explanations. Very interesting, and truly beautiful and unspoilt. Photos soon hopefully (internet is incredibly slow here...)

Yesterday, we took another guided walk, this time with an English speaking guide, and actually set foot momentarily in the "Green Hell" of Amboro national park - very dense jungle. Most of the walk was climbing a couple of peaks on the very edge of the park, a few hundre metres of ascent and again, amazing views over the countryside - there is hardly anything apart from a few pueblos away from the patk, and absolutely nothing inside it, as far as the eye could see. On the way up we passed through the so-called "cloud forest" which containes large numbers of immense and ancient fern trees, some as high as (i´m guessing here...) 10 metres tall. It was good to get some proper excercise on the full day walk, and even though we got rained on for the last hour or so, it was really interesting to get a hint of what walking in dense jungle would be like.

Today (the 2nd of April) we attempted to get a bus ticket to travel to Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia, and our next stop. But unfortunately the road from Santa Cruz to here (where the bus originates) is closed; apparently blocked by dissatisfied workers in a town along the road, who have not been paid for some work done - it´s difficult to get good information about what exactly has happened, but it looks likely that the dispute will be resolved today or tomorrow and we should be able to get on the road again soon.

That´s all for now...

Hasta luego, rob

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

2009-03-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

From Santa Cruz

A less verbose post this time, as a stand-in for a fuller one in a few days...

After a marathon series of stages, in which waiting for buses featured as highly as sitting on them, we arrived to Santa Cruz in the South-Eastern part of Bolivia, from Loma Plata in Paraguay.

The road on which we spent a large number of hours - the Trans-Chaco - passed mostly in the dark, but i saw enough to know that the Chaco around the border of Bolivia & Paraguay (which was militarily disputed with great loss of life in the border-defining Chaco War of the early 1930`s. It looked like a grim place to fight a war - apparently more soldiers on the Paraguayan side died of thirst than bullets.

Anyway, the city of Santa Cruz has a pleasant centre with a lively and friendly central square, and side streets packed with little shops & cafes which more than anywhere else so far reminded me of being close to the centre of smaller Nepali cities and towns. The scrawls, grafitti, and painted adverts are in Spanish of course, but many sites could have been transplanted. Bolivia of course is the poorest of the South American nations, and it certainly shows, especially as you walk out from the central square, but the people seem to have a cheerfulness-through-adversity look about them - but this is just a first impression of a tiny part of the country. So far there has been no hassle whatsoever.

OK - we`ve had a few problems with uploading photos recently due to lack of internet places and slow computers, but they will appear soon... rob

Paraguay!

2009-03-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hola blog followers...

(Photos to follow after they have been uploaded)

We now find ourselves in Paraguay, one of the relatively forgotten countries (backpacker-wise) of central South America. We failed to find more than One person who had been here, before we hopped on the bus at Puerto Iguazu, although that One person managed to fill me in on some of the intriguing history of Paraguay since the end of the 19th Century & The War of the Triple Alliance. It is mostly the history of a string of dictatorships and corrupt rulers, but also of the immigration and settlement of fairly large numbers of religious Mennonites of German extraction, which happened a three key times - at the end of the 19th Century, between the World Wars, and soon after the 2nd World War.

Anyway, the history is interesting, and it means that we now find ourselves in a German speaking town of about 9000 people on the Tran-Chaco road to Bolivia. We arrived last night from Concepcion on the Rio Paraguay, and so haven´t had sufficient time to explore, but more information will follow...

Trackback.....

Iguazu - Ciudad del Este

The route to Paraguay from Iguazu involves a morsel of Brazil, about 30 minutes worth, and then a brige-border crossing over the Rio Parana into the busy, dusty, hot and electronic goods-saturated border town of Ciudad del Este. Many Argentinians and Brazilians travel there in day trips to pick up mountains of cheap TVs and stereos and then pile back over the border. Having no pressing requirement for bulky audiovisual equipment, we took a bus to the bus station, and immediately caught another bus out of the bus station. This third bus was to the capital Asuncion, and we arrived there as dark fell via an interesting road of rural pasture punctuated by tall skinny palms, occasional marshland, grazing cattle and bright orange earth.

We stayed in the centre of Asuncion, in a pension, which is basically a room in a fairly grand and immaculately kept family house. It was a good place and promised more from the centre of Paraguay´s capital, but as we headed out to try and find a beer and some food, we found ourselves in a strange world. The centre of the city was almost completely dead, with hardly sufficient street lighting, few people apart from those inhabitaing the dark temporary shanty town in one of the main squares, and almost no shops or restaurants - even closed ones! We eventually found a place for some food but it was a revelation to see how neglected the centre of this national capital was.

The next day was better, the place had a bit more life to it, but still it is the oddest city i have been in, probably ever. Apparently the "life" of the city is to be found in the suburbs, but apart from driving through a few of them on the way to and from the satellite bus station, we didn´t get a chance to find out the extent to which this was true.

Having said that, the place did grow on me during the two-and-a-bit days we spent there, mostly on account of the friendliness of most of the people, and the discovery of a bar in a seemingly dead part of town which became packed with young and middle-aged locals as the evening went on. I was reminded of woodwork.

Asuncion - Concepcion

Our plan was to get out of the capital fairly sharpish, and head North up the Rio Paraguay to the smallish town of Concepcion, with a vague plan of getting a boat back down the River to Asuncion. When we got there we discovered that all the boats went north instead of south, so we were thwarted there.

Then we hatched an ingenious plan to travel North on the Rio Paraguay, and cross into Brazil at a port 2 days up the River, which would allow us to take trains and busses through Brazil and eventually cross into Bolivia and head to Santa Cruz de Bolivia by that route. But research revealed that we needed to obtain an exit stamp for Paraguay in Asuncion, 6 hours the wrong way on bumpy roads, so we were again thwarted and instead decided to spend a few days roasting in the Concepcion heat but also enjoying the laid back atmosphere and pleasant orange dirt roads. It reminded me quite a bit of a town in central India, apart from the orange dust - this was partly due to the style of the markets and the omnipresence of the motorbike as preferred mode of personal transporation in the absence of local bus routes. Also the appearance of some of the people - far darker skinned than a lot of Argentinians.

I enjoyed the fact that we crossed into the "tropics" just south of Concepcion - the town is just a few miles north of the tropic of Capricorn.

After a few days of that sleepy spot, and having had our great plans for intercity boat travel squished like a cockroach on a hostel room floor, we decided to move on and get into the sparsely populated Chaco region of the west of Paraguay, and get back on track for heading to Bolivia.

Rob

Las Cataratas de Iguazu

2009-03-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

After a very pleasant 18 hour bus ride pretty much north from Buenos Aires, we arrived in the Misiones province of Argentina - one of the few remaining habitats of the "tigre" or jaguar. Needless to say we didn´t spot any of the mastercats, but we did see some rather large waterfalls situated in beautiful jungle with plenty of walkways for multiple and various views of the falls. Puerto Iguazu where we stayed our few nights, is situated very close to the Brasilian and Paraguayan borders, and in fact the falls happen right on the border as the River is the the natural frontier at that point.

We had a full day wandering and enjoying the ambience of the trails, which were extensive enough to smear the large number of tourists thinly, which meant you could easily find a bit of solitude to enjoy the butterflies, foliage, lizards, birds, and funny little badger-squirrels (i have a feeling that might not be the correct name. further research required...) which had a taste for tourist fruit and the fruits of the tourist tendency to share their sandwiches with furry creatures.

The pleasantness of the hostel and the town of Puerto Iguazu was such that we stayed for a couple more days. Photos follow, again all from the camera of Vic:

From Cataratas del iguazu

As i write i am in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, so the blog is a little behind, but within a week i hope to have updated with paraguayan words and photos, and get back up on top of things, blog-wise.

Buenos Aires once again...

2009-03-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hello folks - a technical recently deprived me of some of my belongings which is rather unfortunate... two gentlemen from Mendoza with sharp eyes, fast feet, teamwork, and "cojones".

OK - update with photos from Vic´s camera - the order is slightly confusing at the moment but ill fall into a system again for future posts...

Ahora, estamos cuatro!

From buenos aires and mendoza

Chief likes his coffee!

From buenos aires and mendoza

http://picasaweb.google.com/VictoriaStranock/BuenosAiresAndMendoza?authkey=Gv1sRgCNuG25Pmn8Sg2QE#5313514944332038546

From buenos aires and mendoza

Anyway, apart from losing my camera and other items, myself and Vic had a cracking time in Mendoza during which we again rented a car and did a little 2 day tour of some spots in the Pre Cordillera foothills of the Andes. We found a different and even smaller hostel at about 2000 metres, and stayed there for a night, going for a few hours of walking in the fresh air the next day before returning to Mendoza.

Prior to that we did a day of wine-tasting, made possible by bicycles and a little map, during which we enjoyed the fine wines of 3 different vineyards of various types (not wishing to give away too much free advertising, the tour of Mendoza´s Weinert winery was astounding, especially the cellar with it´s ridiculous quantities of exceptional wines undergoing the slow process of becoming perfect inside their vast oak barrels. Perhaps you can find wines from that place in some UK wine stores... Very nice.

From buenos aires and mendoza

Thanks to vic for all the photos in this post!

So.... i have a lack of photographs. Vic has taken some of the last 2 weeks, and eventually i will post some of them, but for now we will have to drop temporarily back into a text-based blog...

Plans. Well, we have now been joined in Buenos Aires by 2 very good friends, Alex & Claire, who arrived from London yesterday. Within a few days we plan to head North to see the waterfalls of Iguazu, and then the current plan is to continue up into Paraguay and see what is up there, traverse roughly westwards to Bolivia, and follow on with visits to the north of Chile and Peru.

This change of plan is mostly due to monetary pressures which mean that heading for cheaper countries and avoiding the vast distances and relatively large costs of returning to the South of the continent is a necessity. Of course the plans will change again but the others are satisfied that heading to the wastes of Patagonia and making the most of it will require another trip for another time.

It will be of interest to anyone following this blog to have a look at http://www.disableddonkey.blogspot.com/ which the the website of my co-travellers (mainly Alex AKA Chief), and where will appear photos and some more news of whats going on... The name has significance but would require more than a post to explain, so i will leave that as their enigmatic secret...!

OK, thats all for now.

Rob

Buenos Aires,,,, and back to Mendoza

2009-03-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

Hey ho,

Since i last updated i have been doing a bit more travelling, perhaps unsurprisingly. I headed to the big bad city of Buenos Aires and although I can confirm that it is indeed big, i could find very little "bad" about it at all. In my 5 days of exploring on foot and by metro, i found the city to be diverse and above all extremely friendly and helpful, pretty much down to everyone i had anything to do with. And a very relaxed attitude with no hint of all the scare stories you hear about people being robbed that dog pretty much every city´s word-of-mouth information collection. I met up with my friend Vic after 2 days and then we had an excellent couple of days wandering in the suburbs of Palermo, La Boca, San Telmo, Puerto Madero & the area around the Plaza de Mayo and the Microcentro. Photos will follow eventually, mostly taken by Vic - i still wasn´t that keen to be flashing my lensware around poor neighbourhoods like La Boca...

And now, we are back in Mendoza... This is due to some timing issues with 2 more friends that are going to be arriving in just over a week - we didn´t want to wait in BA for too long so we have come back to the wine country for a bit more bebiendo de buen vinos and another little excursion into the Andean Valleys to let Vic see her first sights of that immense mountain range.

We will be taking a wine tasting tour around several of the local vineyards tomorrow which i have been looking forward to for a while... More pics soon!

Rob

Around Mendoza - Argentina

2009-02-25T12:50:00.001-08:00

A few photos from our 500km trip from Mendoza into the Andean foothills, Uspallata, Puente del Inca near the Chilean border, the our hostel at 2500m at Vallecito, and return to Mendoza.

Mendoza 2

2009-02-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

note above pic from weekend of 21st & 22nd Feb - there will be a whole post about our car-hiring driving, viewing appreciating and walking weekend... at the moment i dont have time to put photos on properly, so just a taste of more photos to come...

Hola mis amigos!

This week i have been mostly... learning Spanish. With a degree of success, it has to be said, although since my currently burst of stomach related illness began just in time for me to start my studies, and is now receeding as i am about to complete my 20hrs of teaching, i am tempted to say that i have been laid low by acute spanish poisoning...

But of course it is just an unfortunate co-incidence, and i have learned a lot - most of which i can´t recall, but it is my closer to my lingual grasp than it was, and i am also making headway into the vast forest of words and collecting up as many fruits as i can. The heat continues to be on the limits of comfort at about 35 degrees during the day, but there has been no wind, no rain, and almost no clouds for a week which is never a bad thing.

Last Sunday i went with a group from the hostel i´m staying in on a white water rafting trip on the Rio Mendoza, which took us up towards the Andean foothills where the water was running pretty healthily, supplied by mercifully chilly glacial waters. The river also picked up a lot of silt on the way, so the rafting was more dirty red or brown than white, but it was nevertheless a cracking trip in perfect conditions. We had about 4 hours on the water, rafting grade 3 & 4 rapids through a steep-sided and parched valley, with cacti & huge grasses visible along the less thirsty river side. After the trip we returned to the little village where the rafting company was based amongst beautiful shady trees (including peach trees & a few tomato vines) & got stuck in to an asado (roast) to finish off. My first "organized" escapade and it was pretty enjoyable.

So now, i have one day further of spanish learning, so ive got to get "home" and do my "homework"... at the weekend i´m thinking of hiring a car with another couple of folk from the hostel and heading up north a couple of hours form here where apprently there are some good walks and "other stuff" which is worth seeing... will update on the nature of the "stuff" if and when i ever see it!

thats all for now,

rob

Mendoza

2009-02-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Almost all the wine in Argentina is made here. I have drunk some of it, and i have to say that my mouth has been very appreciative - i guess you can spend the same as you would for a decent bottle in the UK and get a cracking locally produced delight here to savour with the ubiquitous steak.

The hostel i´m staying in now in Mendoza is brilliant - Hostel Lao. Its just exactly what i think a hostel should be, with friendly relaxed staff, loads of nice people, excellent dorms, a nice little garden sitting area with hummingbirds drinking from beautiful red flowered trees, hammocks, guitars, and just a generally very nice feel to it.

So i have decided to stay for the whole of next week and study some Spanish (although they definately speak argentinian here...). 20 hours of one-to-one with a teacher, and i´m guaranteed to be completely 100% fluent by 5 o´clock next friday evening. splendid... I was planning on doing this in Buenos Aires but i think i will have more than enough time in that monsterous city, and would rather keep myself in the nice cosy hamlet of Mendoza´s 1 million inhabitants, each of whom i will probably know by name (again, by about 5pm next friday).

Apart from my throwing myself into an intense self-improvement regime next week, there are a few things that Mendoza seems to offer the interested traveller, the main one of which is tours of the vineyards. This can be done just with a bike, a lot of water, a map, and an ability to retain cycling skills throughout mild intoxification. I may go and do something like that, but it sounds like the sort of activity best done with a group of friends rather than alone, so i´ll see.

Anyway, i´m off now to locate two very important items - a decent pair of shorts, and a replacement for my murikami, i.e. a book that i similarly can´t put down. On the "factual" front, I have been attempting to improve my Argentinian history knowledge which is very "underdeveloped" - to that end i bought a nice little book which i have been trying to plough through - the road names in Chile & Argentina are invariably named after either a major figure in the history of the last few hundred years or a date of something important happening (i.e. 9 de mayo, 10 de noviembre etc etc). Currently i have no idea what revolution, declaration, coup, battle or independence gaining occurred on any of these dates and i feel like i should.

That´s me for now...

Rob

Bariloche 2

2009-02-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

Hello again...

I did indeed hire a bike for my last few days in and around Bariloche. The sun continued to roast everything, and the sky allowed it free reign with zero clouds. Just generally beautiful.

The best bike trip i did was a classic route called the "circuito chico", a 60km road route that takes in some cracking scenery of the main lake, and some other lakes sandwiched between the main one and the precipitous slopes of some of the mountains to the south and west. The route itself was generally through gorgeous pine forest, with the delightful addition of a sub-forest of bamboo (!) underneath it. I was surprised to see my favourite type of grass inhabiting the shady forest floor; i suppose i just naively associated with asia... anyway, some cracking cycling was had, and some buenas vistas too. The next day i really felt it in the rear region...! Not having ridden a bike for years certainly has allowed a softenening of the posterior, and the next day cycling or sitting of most kinds had to be kept to a minimum.

Most of the rest of the time i spent walking the streets, cycling in random directions and making up little routes in the area, or relaxing and reading. I´ve just finished a collection of short stories by Haruki Murikami ("Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman"), which i thought was terrific, with some great imagery and lovely writing.

But the time came after 5 nights to move on from Bariloche and head even further north to a city (certainly i´m in city territory now - 1 million human inhabitants!). The city of Mendoza, via another splendid bus journey of the much more manageable length of 16 hours...

By the way, i am waiting until i get enough photos to transfer to a CD, and then i will be able to get some onto this blog.

rob

San Carlos de Bariloche - Argentina

2009-02-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

Hey ho! I was planning on doing a full post here but after writing some very hefty e-mails i´m afraid i will have to come back to it for another 2 hour internet session... the sun is shining with all it´s might outside so i really need to go and experience it some more.

I´m in Bariloche, where i arrived 2 days ago via most of Southern Argentina in a 31 hour bus marathon. The sun is out, the foliage is plentiful and splendid, and we´re right on the edge of a rather marvellous lake. Plenty of wandering around to be done, some already enjoyed... I guess we´re now around 40 degrees south, so it´s getting HOT.

I plan on hiring a bike tomorrow to go West about 25kms to the tracks and walks that i have heard are there and that afford magnificent views... More on that after it has occurred.

I had the most terrific burger yesterday - almost too big to physically lift, and crammed with all sorts of wonderfulness - bacon, cheese, fried egg, lettuce, tomato, and served with some marvellous papas fritas. It was truly an excellent burger!

But to more interesting nuggets of text this blog will return, possibly on a less marvellous day...!

Rob

El Calafate - Argentina

2009-02-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

I now find myself in Argentina, and in the sun! It has been highly pleasant wandering around in shorts and t-shirt with impunity...

Another interesting 6 hour bus journey brought me here a couple of days ago - a convoluted route which twisted and turned around to the SE of the Torres del Paine park. A couple of hours took us up to the Chilean Argentinian border, and two stops and a few stamps later I arrived in Argentina - in one of those weird co-incidences that occur now and then, the Canadian couple behind me in the passport-stamping queue knew one of the long serving BAS pilots, but had been out of contact with him for 25 years! I was therefore able to renew that acquaintance for them by providing the necessary e-mail address... Funny how things happen.

I´m afriad i slept through most of the rest of that journey, much to my disappointment, since the landscape is beautiful around that area - drier again than around Puerto Natales, and mostly consisting of low rolling hills with the odd tumbledown farm building here and there. Anyway, the bus got me to El Calafate, on the shore of Lago Argentino, a pretty little oasis. Most people come here to take launch a tour to El Chalten, in particular to see the nearby glacier calving - i however, am not too interested in taking such a bus tour, so i have been enjoying the more immediate and cheaper pleasures growing out of the ground or flying about. Cracking views from the little marshland waterfront a kilometre or two from my hostel, with flamingos, and geese of some kind, as well as other flying things. Plenty of horses to be seen too - a few of them being ridden by chaps that look (at least) like proper "gauchos" (cowboys).

The climate in itself is enough to please me, and it also allows the growth of pretty lush vegetation, and my particular favourite - lavender... I have been writing a lot, drawing quite a bit (i completely stopped doing this in the Antarctic), and working hard on the Spanish until my head hurts - although it hurts a lot more when you´re trying to book a multiple-leg bus trip and are struggling to keep up with the native speakers... Having said that the Argentinians are definately speaking Spanish! I wasn´t so sure in Chile sometimes... it almost had the blurred edges that i remember Hindi & Nepali having - each conversation just consisting of one very long word!

Last night i found out a bit of the less attractive side of staying in dorm rooms - at the moment i am in a small room with 2 bunks in it, and two of the other bunks were suddenly occupied last night by 2 of the noisiest Israelis i have ever come across - for some reason they were leaving early in the morning and therefore had to spend almost 3 hours in the middle of the night sorting out every single piece of their kit, which involved the light being on a much crumpling of plastic bags coupled with loud conversation... thankfully i can sleep through almost anything so it wasn´t too bad, but it´s an interesting thing to watch out for... as a lone traveller though, it is prohibitivey expensive to get a private room since they mostly contain 2 or 3 beds so you´re effectively paying twice or three times the amount just for the right to hear the noise though the walls instead of right near you, and to switch the light off when you want.... not much of a choice really!

It will be much easier i suppose when i meet up with my friend Vic in just over three weeks... This will be a very sweet moment, because she will be the first (and one of the best!) friends from home that i will see after 2 and a half years away from home. Very excited about that...!

So back to Calafate - I have pretty much tramped every street within miles, so it will be time to move on soon. I tried to book a bus ticket to Bariloche for tomorrow, but everything is booked up until Wednesday, so I will be heading North in a big leap during half of Wednesday and all of Thursday (its a 3 part journey of 25 - 30hrs) but which is really the quickest way to get north up the Andes. Bariloche has been recommended to me by quite a few people who have raved about the potential for mountain biking and walking and buenas vistas...

I have not (obviously!) worked out the photo uploading yet, but i will get some photos up soon...

More from Bariloche after that mammoth bus journey in a few days. Rob

Puerto Natales

2009-01-30T06:52:00.000-08:00

Pizzeria Mesita Grande - 29th January

Right next to the main plaza, which has more of the moiture thirsty bushes which are nevertheless beautifully toparied. The centre of the plaza contains the first "train" i have seen in two and a half years, which appears to have plied a route about 5 metres long back in it´s day... although it is rusting and has been tagged by someone known as the "Anarkopunk", it retains a commanding presence.

The 3 hour bus ride from Punta Arenas was really beautiful, and i don´t think it´s merely my vegetational privation which fired my appreciation. It was exactly as i imagined parts of the Patgonian wastes to be, and reminded me in places of parts of West Coast Scotland with its tufty reddish-yellow grasses and little scrubby bushes which had the look (from the moving bus) of something like bog myrtle. As we moved further north, trees appeared, mostly low, fat (as opposed to low-fat!) pines bent away from the prevailing winds which in places had so much cream-coloured lichen hanging from their branches that it almost looked like the result of inundation by water and toilet paper (but of course, much prettier)!

The route was invisibly demarcated by the presence of various "estancias" or estates, the buildings of which appeared to display increasing affluence as we moved north into healthier land. The journey saw undulations turn blister into craggy knolls, and then beome full-grown hills as we approached Puerto Natales and came back to the sea at Seno Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Sound). Bigger hills with snow patches on them are visible to the North, although so far the view has been obscured by heavy rain in that direction which has periodically floated over this way to drench anyone caught outside...

From the bus (this is definately the way to travel to get a sense of the landscape, and the distances involved, in my opinion) i spied new animals. Not having a guidebook or knowledgable person to question, i can only guess that the things that looked like llamas were llamas, those that looked like flamingos were flamingos, those like geese were geese, and so on. There were a few large flightless birds, kind of emu-like, and other stange looking llama-esque brown creatures which i speculate could be the things known as guanaco, but i don´t know if this is correct... hopefully i will meet them again!

My original plan was to head into the Torres del Paine national park and do some walking. But since i think it is necessary to do it properly if at all, and i plan to come back this way with friends later on, i think that i will continue on my long journey up to Buenos Aires. The next stop is El Calafate, 6 hours by bus from here - i will be leaving early tomorrow morning. From there i plan to head to Bariloche which has been multiply recommended to me as a stunning location where walking and mountain-biking are possible without having to start with a 2 hour bus journey or a $60 entrance fee... The plan will probably change again, but i would like to be in Buenos Aires around the 22nd or 23rd of February.

Today (30th) it is another overcast day threatening rain, and i´m going to continue my walking tour of Puerto Natales and surrounding area and see what there is to see. More from El Calafate in the next few days...

Rob

Punta Arenas, Chile

2009-01-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

I woke up after a stupendous night of sleep to heavy rain outside. Warm rain! I have since watched the mud turning back into dust as the sun worked, and have again filled my day with relaxed wandering - my brain is working fast to try to keep up with the new input, and it is such that i feel no need to seek out "tourist attractions" to fire my interest, content instead to wander around the gridded streets viewing people, peeling buildings, cars loaded with too much stuff, stray dogs, one-note buskers, and so on.

The shoreline had a certain charm for me, although computer monitors and electrical cable are not normally associated with these habitats. The day we left Rothera, i had a walk along the shore, the edge of the Magellan Strait, with this geologist and she found plenty to get excited about in the variety of pebbles on show.

I had a wander in the cemetery. Not a top destination you would think, but it seems the Chileans, especially the rich ones, go into beautifying their loved ones tombs in a big way. And so amongst the careful topiary inside a huge walled compound you can find tombs the size of bungalows and an interesting memorial "map" of the social structure of the place for the last 150 years. The larger memorials often share their names with streets in the city.

Tomorrow i will leave Punta Arenas and with it my last contact with the British Antarctic Survey, at least for the next while. I feel that my travels will really begin when i get to Puerto Natales, about 250kms to the North of here, close to the famous Torres del Paine national park. Next post will be from there...

Rob

Rob Released Into South America!

2009-01-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my newest blog - it will cover the next 6 months of my life as i travel throughout South America in search of sights, sounds & knowledge previously unavailable to me. I have just arrived close to southern tip of Chile, in Punta Arenas, from Rothera Research Station where i have spent the last 26 months (see http://rotherapoint.blogspot.com & www.robertwebster.org/blog.html for those blogs).

I saved a considerable sum during that time and now plan on using some of those earnings for an extended trip. Watch these pages for words & pictures. It may take me a little while to work out how im going to go about getting the pictures on here via internet cafes, but i don´t doubt that it is possible.

I look forwartd to getting started...

Rob