Owen Around the World

Closing the loop

2007-06-05T17:41:00.000+02:00

Sunset

I have finally made it back home after nine months on the road. It is quite a mad feeling to finally get back to where I started after such a long time, and I guess the main thing is that I had a great time and made it back in one piece. Setting off for such a long solo trip, you can't help but feel a little anxious about how things will work out, and it is great that along the way I didn't run into any problems or tropical illnesses!

The final week in Mexico really was great. It started off with a quick stop in Guadalajara where I caught up with George and Diego, two other former Valencia students, and then with Diego and some of his friends we headed off to a beach on the Pacific. What a beach! It was 8km long with practically nothing on it, except for lots and lots of palm trees! We just chilled out there, not really doing anything apart from trying not to burn up and avoiding any falling coconuts! I don't think I've ever had so much beach to myself, or such fresh tasting coconuts. On the way back we stopped at a refreshing waterfall to get some relief from what felt like 50 degree heat. It felt like being in Mangoland with mango plantations everywhere, they tasted amazing too.

It was a bit of a mission to get back to Mexico City in time for the Miss. Universe contest, just fitting in a brief stop to the beautiful former mining town of Guanajuato on the way. The contest itself was an interesting experience I guess, but being more set up for US TV, the actual spectator experience was not all that great. I made the most of my final few days in Mexico to tour round the main attractions: Taxco, another stunning mining town nearby, and then also Teotihuacán for the Aztec pyramids and Xochimilco for the relaxing canals, a good alternative to the traffic and noise of the city. Luis, Silvia and their friends were great tour guides, and we also made it out for some drinks in the trendy area of Coyoacan where Hernan Cortes supposedly lived. Juan Pablo and his flatmates made sure I got more than just a taste of some authentic tequila on our final night together!

Its difficult to put into words all the thoughts going through my head now that I'm back home after so much time in so many different places. Its fantastic to catch up with family and friends, to find out what has been going on over here, I feel lucky that I was able to live what had been a dream for many years.

Part of me definitely misses Latin America even if I am glad to be back. It is an incredible place to visit with such a great atmosphere. Its a tough life for people there but the smiles and the warmth of the people wouldn't suggest they were worse off than the colder Europeans. Its a bit of a shock to go from some of the poorest places on the planet to one of the richest, and although it is amazing to see Paris again and how beautiful it is, the extravagance does make you feel a little bit nauseous when you think that so many other people have so little, or nothing. Its a tough situation, and one can only hope that even if the people in power around the globe today are not taking the key decisions required to make things better, well that the next maybe more aware generation of people in power will.

Thanks to all of you who have been following my blog. It is strange to think I will no longer be writing about what I am up to anymore, or sharing my photos, but it was a real pleasure to be able to do that and to see people were interested during my trip. The little sitemeter icon at the bottom of the page is a link to visitor statistics and it was great to have a constant flow of people visiting my site. Now I have a few things lined up before starting work in September and quite frankly I need to buckle down and start paying off my debts!

Thanks also to all the travellers I met along the way, who made the experience so interesting, and to those friends who had a dirty messy backpacker to stay!

If anyone has any other questions about my trip or places I have been, just click "Post a Comment" down below and put your email address in the text of the comment: it will get sent to me and I can get back to you. Don't worry, I won't publish your email address on my website! Enjoy the last photos. Owen.

Breakfast with Barbara, Laura, George and some of their mates

Greek temple in Guadalajara???

Main square in Guadalajara, cathedral in the background

George and Barbara with her Nextel, the radio alternative to mobiles in Mexico

The Birds

Old street

The real Corona!

Cruising towards the Pacific

Crowded

Danger

Locals with machetes

Vast

Looking a bit red after a day in the sun!

Fresh coconut for breakfast!

Trying to get it open the savage way!

Some locals digging in too

Great

The path out

Holding on tight

Local public transport

Bushfire effect

Still burning

Small village

Nutters
You have to be to play basketball in such scorching heat

A well needed waterfall

Soaking up the shade!

Arid landscape

Mango fest

Pleasant roadside dump

Mangoland

Juice?

Aguave, for tequila

A good place to avoid, where the deadly stuff comes from

El Callejon del Beso

Colours in Guanajuato

Town plaza and cathedral

Extravagant!

An impressive theatre

Great place to relax

Guanajuato from above

A great solution to traffic, stick in in the former sewers underground!

Miss. Universe, bikini competition!

Miss. Universe, long dresses...

Chicken tacos with guacamole and frijoles!

The incredible cathedral in Taxco

Practising a religious procession

Hanging clothes

Flying kites

Relic from the former colonial power

Old street in Taxco

Nice little house

Taxco from above

Transport for my next trip

Monument to the miners
Taxco and Guanajuato, like Potosi in Bolivia are suppost to have played a key role in funding the Spanish empire due to the huge amounts of silver extracted

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán

Silvia, Luis's girlfriend, Luis and me

Avenida de los Muertos

The only people wearing sombreros in Mexico are tourists!

Pyramids and cactus

Eating at Las Brasas

It looks like a kebab... but really they're tacos al pastor!

Juan Pablo and his flatmates... the morning after... not a bad thing this is dark!

Campaigning for Lopez Obrador and election justice...

Xochimilco

Camilla and Gisela

White bird

Rich and Silvia

Making flower arrangements

Chewing gum recyling

One old church!

Taco factory!

Banking in Mexico at Banamex, join the queue!

Promoting Pfizer, with a Segway!

Front door in La Condesa

Another one!

Market

Los Voladores de Papantla!

This was really incredible

More of the same

A hard day's work for the police

Castillo de Chapultepec

El bosque de Chapultepec

Paseo de la Reforma, Torre Mayor y los Ninos Heroes

Looking in the mirror

Castle tower

Cruising out of Mexico City

Touch down in Paris
Due to British Airways chaos, despite buying a round the world ticket with them, I never ever flew on a BA flight

Home sweet home

Link to the previous post:

Mexico

Mexico

2007-05-25T04:27:00.000+02:00

Angel de la Independencia with a typical taxi in front!

The end of my trip is now drawing to a close, and Mexico has been a great place to end up. Overall this country definitely feels higher up on the development scale then other parts of Latin America, making it slightly more comfortable to be in, from buses to toilets, and on top of that I'm visiting friends I met when studying in Valencia which is great. The food here is great, nothing like Mexican food back home and very spicy. Actually, this has to be the spice centre of the world, maybe more so than India. You go to eat what looks like a tasty strawberry courtesy sweet in a shop, only to discover its hot chilly flavour and burns your mouth out!

I started off heading from Cancun to Tulum, a slightly cheaper and calmer place on the Mexican carribean coast... It was a really great place to start off... There are some Mayan ruins there set right on the sea front, which is one of the most beautiful sea fronts I have seen, and the ruin paradisiac beach mix creates quite a picture.

Moving on, I stopped at Chitchen Itza, one of the main Mayan ruin sites, which involves a huge pyramid surrounded by all sorts of other buildings including an observatory, and also insane amounts of people, not to mention a sun hot enough to make you melt. My favorite part was when the place cleared out just before closing, and a fresh breeze cooled things down, so that you could really soak up how impressive the ruins are.

The next stop was Merida, a town I found extremely nice to be in, with a pretty colonial centre, some nice churches and I got to see the intensity of Mexican political campaigning. We're not talking about the odd speach here and there, this is a full blown excuse for a party, with trucks driving round blaring out music with people dancing on top, stages set up in the main square with comedians and musicians entertaining the crowds. What a way to get the people involved.

The main highlights around there was Uxmal, another important set of Mayan ruins which include a huge pyramid, and that was an interesting day because hitchhiking back I got picked up by a French tour group which gave me another perspective on tourism in the area. I guess out of all the mass tourism places I have been, I felt like the Yucatan peninsula really had managed to keep a lot of its charm, the people didn't just see you as a sack of money like in so many other places. I also made it to the cenotes, caves formed by the undergroudn rivers of the Yucatan peninsula which you can swim and jump in, the water is a beautiful turquoise colour lit up by holes in the roof.

My next stop was to meet Jonch in Villahermosa, a pleasant town with zero tourists enroute to Mexico City. The last time we had seen each other was two years ago having a good time at the San Fermines in Pamplona, so it was impressive to see the change, when he picked me up in his smart company car and took me to his huge office... It was food for thought on how things are going to change for me, but it was mainly great to catch up after so much time.

We flew together to Mexico City, to spend the weekend in Cuernavaca nearby, where we met up with Juan Pablo, another ex-Valencia student and also the family and respective girlfriends... It was a tough weekend partying and enjoying the jacuzzi!!! Back in Mexico City, I was definitely pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a monster city like Sao Paolo, and although it is a monster, I still felt the areas, obviously privileged, that I was seeing were full of greenery and had a good atmosphere to them, although traffic definitely seemed atrocious! I was staying with Juan Pablo, but also got to meet up with Luis and Silvia who were also in Valencia. Now I'm in Guadalajara after a brief stop in Toluca where I caught up with Barbara, and should be heading camping later on today to some beaches on the Pacific nearby... Sorry for all the names, but I hope other people from Valencia will enjoy the pics of what our friends are doing two years down the line...

It's going to be great to get back, and apart from family and friends I'm dying for some food from home, a pain au chocolat, a croissant aux amandes, a pizza from the Tratoria, an escalope Normande, some proper pasta with real basil... Yum yum!

Isla de Mujeres from above

Tulum ruins

What a beach!

Chitchen Itza

Mayan sculpture

The Observatory

The pyramid at Uxmal

Faces on the corner!

Iguanas everywhere!

Overgrown ruins

Mayan King

Azulejos

Vivir es un placer

Hacienda factory

Huge hacienda interior

The French tour group

Old machines for making material from cactus

Future vaqueros

Old house

Small town square

Election rally

Onto the balconies

Party truck

Getting some Agua de Jamaica

Old VW Beetle land

The evening election party

Tacos

Yucatan restaurant

Young people campaigning for some friends who were arrested and locked up without trial during a George Bush visit in March

Buying fabric

Peddling my bicycle taxi

The first Cenote

Horse powered train...

The splash after a 12m jump

Climbing up some roots

The last Cenote

The rickety rails

Hitching a ride with some American students

The Merida Cathedral

Virgen de Guadalupe

Mayan sculpture

Not a bad house in Merida

Streets of Merida

Hammocks in Merida
Its a good day for this man, his wife and his two kids if he sells two a day at 10US each

Merida by night

Quick snack

Chilaquiles

Peacock

Kids in uniform

Turtle pond

Crocs and turtles

School outing

Villahermosa laguna

Young students

The modern side to Villahermosa, you can feel the US is close!

Jonch at work

An incredible all you can eat seafood restaurant

Hunger strike against voting fraud in Villahermosa

Villahermosa town hall

Typical Mexican food

The beggar and the bride

Villahermosa Cathedral

Volcano from the sky

The Aztec stadium

Breakfast

A tough day travelling

A night out in Cuernavaca!

An architect's house!

Totti and his mammoth taco!

The tragic side to football

La Condesa

Old house

Mexico City taxi

The Zocalo

Art gallery

Mexico City Cathedral

Snake at the Templo Mayor

Healers in the Zocalo

Colonial building

Gardeners outside the Museo de Bellas Artes

Marc wouldn't mind a pair of these

Appreciating a work of art

Alameda central

Memorial

Chess

Edificio de los Pantalones

Dove advert!

Auditorio Nacional

A bit of Pro Evo

Looking at of Juan Pablo's flat

More Chilaquiles

Metepec town square

La Tlanchana

One of Metepec's many churches

Metepec fortress

Lunch with Barbara and her Mum

Flash flood in Toluca!

Link to the previous post:

Into the Carribean

Into the Caribbean

2007-05-14T20:40:00.000+02:00

Driving around Havana in Carlos's 1973 Lada!

Parque Nacional Tayrona in Colombia

I'm now in Mexico after making it through Colombia and spending a few days in Havana with Carlos... So far so good here, I've had my first 100% genuine tacos, and the beaches here really are splendid, especially here in Tolum where the beautiful Caribbean Sea provides a stunning backdrop for the Mayan ruins built right on the coast.

Things wrapped up well in Colombia. In Medellin, the reggaeton concert with Don Omar and Tito was quite an experience, the locals really were going absolutely mad and the arena had a really electric feel to it. After checking out more of the city centre there, the impressive Botero museum and listening to copious amounts of Juanes music (being from there, they play his stuff non stop!), I managed to escape to Guatape, a town a couple hours away which boasts a beautiful landscape created by the nearby dam...

Moving on North, I finally made it to the Caribbean! Getting to Cartagena was interesting, because it is such a beautiful city, similar in style to Havana, with so many colouful colonial houses and flowers everywhere, yet it does have a funny feel to it, lots of old foreign men looking for younger women, and lots of people trying to sell you this and that, so that overall it wasn't really my favourite city in Colombia even if its the most touristic city.

From Cartagena, I crossed through Shakira's hometown of Barranquila on my way to Sta. Marta, the village of Taganga, and ultimately the Parque Nacional Tayrona. Its a huge park made up of lots and lots of jungle and then some really beautiful beaches. You can sleep in hammocks on what is like a pier of rocks, a piece of land jutting out into the sea. Other highlights in the area are the Simon Bolivar tomb, Simon Bolivar being the main fighter for Colombia's independance and then the village of Taganga, a really pleasant village which is swamped with Israelis... I had an amazing time in Colombia, and the only problem I had was not having enough time to see more of it!

To get from Colombia to Mexico, stopping in Havana turned out to be a good option to enable me to catch up with Carlos a friend who used to study in Bristol and to meet some more of his family. It was definitely interesting to return to Cuba 4 years after my first visit and although things haven't changed much, you can still feel that things are evolving... I was shocked by Habana itself, mainly because the old part has now been completely renovated and is really clean... One of the roads we walked up was just mud during my previous trip! Having been to so many places in Latin America, I really can't think of one which rivals Havana in terms of beauty and character. It really is an amazing place.

And I'd recommend going soon if anyone has it in mind. If you could feel one thing during my few days there, it had to be that the average Cuban really is at a bursting point for change now. People can't take the communist system any longer, and it seems tragic that Cuba hasn't already followed in the footsteps of countries like Vietnam which have overcome their toying with communism. Ultimately change in Cuba is tricky though, you have the natives very anxious, you have the Cubans in Miami making their plans, countries like the USA and Venezuela putting forward their own interests, and the potential for the mix to explode is pretty high. Hopefully any change will happen after Bush has left office to avoid any more catastrophes...

One of the real highlights in Havana was driving Carlos's Lada around... It felt like being in a Walt Disney film with all these ancient American vehicles moving around alongside me. Luckily nothing went wrong!!! The time in Havana also gave me the opportunity of seeing Oscar and Irene, my cousin Cyrilles' friends, who had taken such good care of me all those years ago, although they were a little surprised to see me on their doorstep after all this time!

Friendly bar in Medellin

Medellin metro

Botero sculpture

Museum outing

Monuments to peace... The original one on the left was bombed by guerillas

Medellin

Restaurant in the Pueblo Paisa

Tito

The crowd in the Macarena

Don Omar

The bus to Guatape!

Guatape

The local church

Mango land

Cartagena

Air vent in the San Felipe de Barajas fort

The Colombian flag flying high above the fort

Another old street, Cartagena

Playing chess

Monument to Simon Bolivar

Schoolgirls

Locutorio door

Taganga

Tinto - coffee

Bus stop!

Ant motorway!

Parque Nacional Tayrona

Busy beach

Cabo San Juan del Guia

Sleeping in hammocks above the waves...

Early morning Yoga class...

Indiana Jones path

Ancient stairway

Millepede

El pueblito

The last few indigenous people at El Pueblito

Dense forest

Northern Colombia landscape

More indigenous people

Juice centre of the world!

A common sight in Colombia, minutes for sale!

The flower market

Tinto and cigarettes

Fish

Meat

Trotters

Palace of the inquistion

Sewer hiding from the camera!

The caribbean from the sky

Carlos's colleague with her mother's day gifts

Students chilling at Havana University

Consoling friends

Tired... of Fidel?

Rubbish separation

Ancient lab rig

Made in the USSR

The odd one out

Mani para mi, mani para ti

Habana Vieja

Carlos and Carl working hard

Bar Bilbao, site of Joe and Owen's downfall last time round!

Whats left of the Johnson and Johnson pharmacy

4 years ago this was mud!

Keeping things clean

Fewer old taxis

Tai Chi at Capitolio

Ballet class

Need a lift?

Wow!

Removal van!

Pitching

Cash till

Abuela, Lupe and Carlos

Irene was surprised when I knocked on her door after not seeing me for 4 years!

The traffic goes by

Chemistry

A couple of legs

American special interests bureau!

Cruising down the Malecon!

A barrios day out at the beach!

Playa del Este!

Rolando and Maidolly

Empty

Sta. Maria beach

Sunset

Oscar and his latest work of art

Carlos and Irene

Mother and son

Carlos the mechanic!

Carlos explaining...

Carlos convincing

From another time

Link to the previous post:

Down the Amazon and into Colombia!

2007-05-03T00:48:00.000+02:00

Hammocks cruising down the Amazon

I have made it to Medellin in Colombia after quite an experience boating down the Amazon, a few days in the town of Leticia and then some time in Bogota. So far I've had an amazing time in Colombia, but it was a bit of a mission to get here! From Iquitos its about two days by boat to the Colombian frontier town of Leticia...

The boat is basically a merchant boat which has two floors which get completely chock a block with passengers, and their hammocks! There are so many people that you end up with hammocks criss crossing in places, and its real chaos before departure with all sorts of people trying to sell stuff to passengers on the boat. Eventually things get going, and you try and get comfortable in your hammock, your only private space! Most of the animals stay on the lowest deck, but the odd chicken or dead pig ended up amongst the passengers... Once the boat sets off, its quite relaxed, you can soak up the scenery, the odd rainstorm, and the other passengers are all eager to find out what you're doing on the boat and its quite a friendly atmosphere... The food isn't the greatest, especially not the breakfast but I survived on popcorn, people from the villages where the boat stopped would always scramble on board to sell you some... With hundreds of people using a couple of toilets, you can imagine that they were a pleasant affair.

Getting to Leticia felt great, it really is a pleasant little town, strikingly more developed than the Peruvian or Brazilian border towns, and you can feel you're getting closer to the Caribean with salsa and reggaeton beats pounding out all over the place... I got to do a tiny bit of rainforest exploration, but you really need to immerse yourself in the forest for a few days to get a real feel for it. I did get to see some pink dolphins, and an immense anaconda captured by the villagers at Puerto Narino, although I wasn't very keen when the guy stuck it practically under my nose!

Getting to Bogota was nice, as I stayed at the house of Elisa, a Colombian woman some might recall from pictures in Argentina... She ensured that I got a good perspective of the city, and got her niece to show me round and take me out to discover the nightlife which seemed almost on par with Buenos Aires! Overall I was really impressed by the place, very clean, pretty efficient transport system, beautiful old colonial areas and some great museums. The Museo del Oro has all sorts of impressive treasures, and the Botero Museum must be one of the best art museums on the continent with works by Botero, Picasso, Dali, Renoir, Monet.... and then there was a Feria del Libro on where I got to meet some Colombian writers... I made it to a football match with Camilo, the brother of someone my Dad knows through work and that was great fun! Another highlight was the Salt Cathedral in the very charming town of Zipaquira, a huge underground cathedral built in former salt mines!!! I was knackered by the end of all this activity, but finished off in style with a trip to a hot spa to chill out!

Medellin so far is very nice too, a pleasant city, which used to be extremely dangerous with around 5000 murders a year (!!!!) but which is now, fortunately for me, pretty peaceful. Overall, I have to say that Colombia doesn't feel particularly dangerous at all, and I definitely feel alot safer wandering around here compared to say Rio. What really makes Colombia though are the people, they are incredibly warm and friendly, and the sparsity of tourists means that they are extremely keen that you have a good time, that you enjoy their country and they are great fun too! Tonight I'm heading to a Don Omar concert, which should be interesting!!!

Eiffel's Iron House in Iquitos

Fruit juice everywhere

Amazon River shantytown

A simple comedor in Iquitos

Eager phone card sellers!

I love the windowless buses!

River shantytown near the port....

Loading the goods

The first night on the boat!

The immense Amazon River

Lovely!

Motorised dug out canoe cruising along the river bank

The port of Pevas

Overseeing the marchandise being loaded and unloaded...

Crates of beer for Pevas!

Pevas food market, uncannily similar to Asian food markets

Passing time

Save the Amazon!

Heading off from Pevas...

Navy setup

Lots of wood!

Very heavy rainfall!

An extremely tall flag post!

Tropical fruit

Not a good catch, this fish enters the bodies of those who choose to pee in the river and eats out your insides...

Local boat

Getting prepared for the next loading madness

Sunset...

The tree canopy and the clouds made this one of the most impressive sunsets I've seen

A stop at San Pablo, where Che Guevara met the leper community

Big parts of the Amazon rainforest get submerged in the rainy season

This passenger didn't fare so well!

A misty morning

This "breakfast" is probably the closest I'll get to feeling like Oliver Twist!

Apart from sitting in your hammock reading, there's not much to do...

Amongst the baby clothes and umbrella, this family had some live luggage!

The sophistication of Peruvian immigration!

The ugly boat I travelled on...

Crossing into Colombia

Living on the edge...

The Colombian Steve Irwin, aka Kapax!

In the backwaters...

This little beast just loved playing on this hammock!

Victoria regia

Colourful!

Kids

The Real Madrid player wasn't too sure about me!

I can't say I'd want to swim around in the Amazonas

Tree climbing

Entering the Parque Amacayacu

Rainforest

Wet and dense!

Its not everyday you get to taste the cocoa fruit!

Puerto Narino!

Lucky they caught this massive anaconda, as the year before one had eaten a teenager!

The village was excited about the catch!

3 men were needed to hold the beast!

Overcast!

Military post in Leticia

The Amazonas from above!

My first glimpse of Bogota

Elisa picking fruit... so many fruits over here!

Centro
Banco de la Republica facade!

Ancient gold face at the stunning Museo del Oro
Joey mate?

Expensive jewellery!!!
Tasty restaurant in La Candelaria

The food here is delicious!

Candelaria street

Near where Bogota was founded

All sorts of potatoes here!

Footie

Bogota from above...

Man praying intensely at the monument to the fallen Christ

Feria del libro

Mario Mendoza and Mauricio Vargas

Not many stadiums sell this sort of munch... Camilo took me to see Santa Fe

The game was 0-0, but the half time entertainment lived things up!

Watching the play!

Anxious Sante Fe fans!!!

Downtown Bogota

The charming town of Zipaquira

The underground Salt Cathedral

Monument to the miners who worked in the old salt mines

Tasty meat!

Zipaquira town centre

Botero painting!

The moon and the Casa de la Moneda

The nightmare of packing my stuff

Colombian breakfast, Tamal

After Peru and Bolivia, its great to see lots of bins again!

Elisa and I at the thermal waters

Policemen heading to relax

My host in Bogota...

Landscape outside Bogota

Campaigning for the next mayor election!

Andrea, myself and Elisa

Link to the previous post:

Peru and the Incas

2007-04-21T19:37:00.000+02:00

Incas vs. Spanish chess set!

I'm now in Lima as the final month of my trip is about to begin! All good here in Peru where I've been busy checking out all sorts of Inca ruins... Having somewhat recovered from the Lima nightlife, I'm now completing this post from Iquitos in the middle of the Peruzian part of the Amazon rainforest. The heat and humidity is intense and the atmosphere seems different too, with music blaring out from most places!

Cusco, my first stop in Peru, is certainly one of the most beautiful towns I have been too. It seems similar to Granada or Seville, with beautiful colonial style buildings densely packed together, although it has an Inca touch to it, with a number of buildings having been built on top of Inca ruins. It really is spectacular, although I was shocked by the people selling you stuff on the streets... Every 5 steps someone literally shoves a rubbish painting or some bits of cloth in your face and there is only so much you can take - I guess there isn't much of that in South America, so I was surpised! I had some good Argentine company to help me deal with this stress though, Alejandra and Santiago who turns out to be Che Guevara's second cousin! Some interesting family stories there!!!

Nearby, the Inca ruins of the Valle Sagrado and the Machu Picchu really are special. Partly they are the remaining trace of what was obviously a very impressive society, and then on top of that they are located in some stunning landscape which only makes them seem more amazing. My Machu Picchu experience was slightly diminished by the dodgy banana milkshake from the night before which meant I was more focused on trying not to vomit rather than what the guide was saying, but again you have some spectacular ruins set in some even more spectacular landscape. Unfortunately THE Inca Trail was fully booked so maybe next time...

Pushing on towards Lima, Nazca was the first stop to see the strange Nazca lines which are quite impressive although again there I was contending with sickness, this time induced by this tiny aeroplane being blown around in the wind! Another highlight there are the aqueducts, hundreds of kilometres of underground tunnels transporting water through the desert to the Nazca area, still doing their job hundreds of years after being built. Good engineering!

On from Nazca, I made a quick stop in the oasis town of Huacachina set in some immense sand dunes. Its a nice little place, and I was glad to get my first ever taste of a sand dune desert, combined with a roller coaster like ride in a sand buggy, and some sandboarding, which is not as safe as the tour company suggests! The Israeli guy in my group went home with ripped trousers, bruised legs and looked properly beaten up after his board went out of control!

The final stop before Lima was Pisco where the main attraction are the Islas Ballestas, some islands off the coast which are just covered in birds, and birds' shit which used to be the main Peruvian export. Very nice, but avoid looking up!

Lima was good fun, I met up with Joe's ex-flatmate Dani, who I hadn't seen for years, and although she was tied up with family events, she put me in touch with some other friends of hers who were visiting and we had a good time exploring Lima together! It is set in a mad location, on cliffs facing the sea which look extremely prone to erode at any time, and overall is quite a pleasant place, especially the area of Barranco which I was staying in. The nightlife isn't Buenos Aires, but it certainly got the better of me! Lima, like Peru in general when compared to Bolivia, feels quite dynamic, and although there is plenty of poverty, people seem alot more switched on and entrepreneurial, and it does feel like the place is changing fast.

I feel a bit like a cheat today, as for the first time in South America, I have flown part of the way rather than gone overland, but the flight out here was great. As you crossed the Andes, you could see little streams snaking through the greenery, eventually forging together into a big brown colossus which Iquitos is set right on and I don't think I have ever seen so many trees. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the port looking for a boat to Colombia... Fingers crossed!

Ice cream... motorbike!

Lots of street dogs in South America... This pregnant one is desperate for food!

Old lady moving wood

My first Inca fountain...

Sacrifice altar

The immense fortress wall of Sacsayhuamán

Cusco from above...

Entering el Valle Sagrado

Alejandra, Santiago "mantequita" Guevara Lynch!!!, Don Owen

Ladies singing and trying to sell stuff

Terraces at Pisco

Andean flower

Looking up the Valle Sagrado landscape

Tight fitting Inca designs...

Ruins at Ollantaytambo

Natural soap from a root...

Plants for dyeing cloth...

Dyeing in action!

The San Blas area of Cusco

Misty morning near the Machu Picchu

Sunrise at Machu Picchu

My guide at the Machu Picchu

Watch out for hallucinogenic plants!

Mirrors for observing the stars

Machu Picchu from above

Looking down towards the valley

The dramatic landscape...

Thermal baths at Aguas Calientes

The expensive train back to Cusco

Plaza de Armas in Cusco

Inca stonework built on by the Spanish

Scary plane to visit theNasca lines!

Takeoff!

Alien?

Humming bird!

The strange Nasca lines

Nasca from the sky!

Fruit shop

Grains and parrots

Impressive underwater aqueducts

Aqueducts carrying water from the Andes

Clean river...

Hustling and bustling to sell refreshments!

Beans?

They love painting the concrete walls!

The biggest hostel dorm in the world?

Sand buggies at Huacachina

Oasis near Huacachina

Sandboarding!

The hostel pool!

Despite what you see, there is a health inspector in Peru!

Strange vase!

They used to like deforming young babies skulls!

Toma lo bueno!

Cau Cau! I'm not a fan!

Market street in Pisco

Having a joke at the flower stand by the cemetary!

The bleak beach of Paracas

La Candelabria!

Spreading your wings!

The birds

Sea lions

Ghostly structure for exporting bird poo as fertilizer!

La Catedral!

Paracas desert

Colourful beach!

My friend!

The last of the black marks... I have got my camera fixed (Lima Malecon!)

Sharpening knives on the street

Sunset in Lima

House in Barranco

Parque de los Enamorados

Peak hole!

More sunset!!

Sunset drive in theatre!

Lima pier

Fruit and veg

Malecon in the evening

Modern church in Lima...

Ceviche restaurant with Lolita and Ana!

Giant corn! (spot the cow heart kebabs...)

Just what you don't want for backpacking!!!

An Evo Morales jumper!!!

Plaza San Francisco in Barranco

Puente de los Suspiros

Barranco restaurant...

Half abandoned church...

The start of the Amazon

Getting bigger...

Trees!

Pucalpa outskirts

Twisting patterns

Vast expanse of trees

My plane fared better than this one!

Monkey show!

Link to the prievious post:

Across the Altiplano

2007-04-13T04:24:00.000+02:00

Crossing the Lago Titicaca

I have now crossed into Peru where I'm soaking up the Inca ruins around Cuzco, with the Machu Pichu on the menu tomorrow! Below are some pictures from Bolivia, the mines at Potosi which I mentioned in the last post, Sucre, Cochabamba (where I stayed with my cousin Diana's former host family), La Paz and then the Lago Titicaca and the Isla del Sol!

Sucre is a pleasant town, where Bolivian independance was declared. Not much happens there, its just pleasant to wander around, and you can see some dinosaur footprints which are quite intriguing, although the organisation means that you can only stare at them through a telescope from 150m away! There is a village nearby called Tarabuco, famous for its fine cloth and it really feels like heading back in the past when you see the villagers in their traditional clothes. Generally Bolivia feels a bit in the past, the traditional garments still dominate, women still have their traditional two braids, and it does not feel like its changing much. Its a bit of a sad place as the country has so much wealth with its minerals and petrol, but the wealth is so badly distributed. I had a bit of a scare in Sucre when I turned up to my hostel to head to Cochabamba, and all my stuff had been removed from the luggage storage room. For a few minutes, I had the disastrous feeling I had lost everything, clothes, passport, souvenirs, only to find out later the people I was travelling with were making the most of April Fools.

In Cochabamba, I met up with Alejandro, the remaining member of the family my cousin Diana stayed with. The rest of the family (except for the Uncle and Aunt) have migrated to the US. It was great to see where my cousin stayed all these years ago, and to get a taste for life in Cochabamba with Alejandro. He made sure I got to see all the sites, and even dragged me to the gym which was a bit of a shock as sport has not been the focus of this trip...

La Paz really is a crazy city, mainly for its location at 3750m. Its a real struggle walking up the hilly streets. There are some things to see, but overall it wasn't exactly Buenos Aires in terms of entertainment and things to see and do. On Good Friday it was illegal for bars and shops to sell alcohol which was surprising.

The final stop in Bolivia was Copacabana and the Isla del Sol. Copacabana is a reasonably pleasant lakeside town, famous for its cathedral and people take their new cars their to get them blessed! A sort of modern pilgrimage! The real beauty in the area though lies on the Isla del Sol, a former Inca religious site which just has some really incredible landscapes to soak up, not to mention the friendly people and the Inca ruins. I had the most authentic indigenous experience on my trip so far, staying with an Aymara family there. For a voluntary contribution they let me stay in a very rustic bed(!!!), and I ate with them and we shared stories about how they lived and the differences with Europe. It was really quite special being in there with the family as it went about its routines. Isla del Sol really is amazing, not least because it has absolutely no roads. Hiking around on it feels like something out of the Legend of Zelda, I loved it. Cuzco is distinctly more touristy but I'll get on to that in my next post...

Heading into the Potosi mines

Our guide demonstrating how to use dynamite

Dyamite is as regulated as Coke in Potosi!

Potosi market

Corroded devices used for mixing chemicals

Machine for processing silver...

Bags of silver...

Mounds of silver!!!

Looking towards the Potosi mines...

Rickety rails and carriages leading towards the mine

Struggling to get some lead out

Dark and clostrophobic

Taking a rest to let the tourists pass

The dark dark mines...

Another procession of fancy huts

Hot pool with wicked scenery!

Watch your speed!

Money press in Potosi with encina wood brought from Spain!

How do you open the safe?

Dinosaur footprints in Sucre

Making blankets...

Streets of Sucre

Mercado de Tarabuco

Locals in Tarabuco

Shifting goods...

Coca leaves at the market

Hot peppers!!!

Selling ice cream!

Palm Sunday

Middle of the night bus stop

Cochabamba main square

Cochabamba cathedral

Damage to town hall from protests...

What the fire did...

With Alejandro by the Christo in Cochabamba!

Overlooking Cochabamba

People like their pollo frito!

Sta Teresa courtyard...

Old van

Alejandro chilling

Lunch with Alejandro and his aunt and uncle..

Some of Alejandro's artwork

French looking mansion!

Alejandro doing business!

Downtown Cochabamba

Some artesan produce...

The immense La Paz

Tihuanaco!

They had to contain this poor man and his bottles in barbed wire!

Semana Santa procession preparations

Locals in Tihuanaco

Spot the hats...

Semana Santa procession in Tihuanaco

The minivan breaks down...

La Paz by night...

La Paz witchmarket stand...

Llama foetuses for the pachamama

Bolivian centre of politics!

Plaza Murillo

Hats galore...

The oldest street in La Paz...

Buses creaking around

Food market in La Paz

Very smelly fish!

The wealthier parts of La Paz

Snowcapped peaks on the horizon

Easter mass

Little cross handiwork

Little girl heading to the Lago Titicaca

Dodgy ferries!

Copacabana emptied out after semana santa

Sunset over the Lago Titicaca

Not a bad attempt at a fryup!

Copacabana

Inca staircase on the Isla del Sol...

Views from Yumani

Ancient path on the Isla del Sol

Very peaceful landscape

Ruins at Chincana

Sacrifice table?

Inside my mudhut!

Sunrise at Challapampa!

Preparing mate de coca...

Don Alfonso and family who had me to stay in Challapampa!

Mule enjoying the sunrise...

More mules...

Crossing the fields to get to school...

Little girl with her school books...

Beautiful terraces in Yumani under a beautiful bright morning sun

Link to the next post:

Into Bolivia and the Salar de Uyuni

Into Bolivia and the Salar de Uyuni

2007-03-29T03:28:00.000+02:00

Another planet

The Salar de Uyuni is certainly one of the most incredible places, if not the most incredible place, I have been to on my trip... I completed my trip around Cafayate, seeing some Inca ruins at Quilmes, taking in more stunning landscapes and a few vineyard visits before getting back to Salta. From there I made a quick stop in Purmamarca, where I had the tastiest llama steak ever, before crossing into Bolivia. This whole area has some really incredible scenery, with multicolored mountains from the various types of minerals in the rocks, deserts with Daliesque rock formations, and then these salt flats, the remains of dried up lakes.

The tour I took headed out from Tupiza, 2 hours inside the Bolivian border for 4 days of bumping around in a jeep, getting around the various, lagunas, volcanos, flamingo colonies, geysers, and eventually the salar. It was painful at times, not least because of all the dust you breathe in as you shake about on the dirt tracks, but I definitely felt like I was seeing some of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet. I was doing the tour with a french girl, a german guy and a norwegian couple which worked out well. The Norwegians come from the most northern town on the planet where its dark for 3 months of the year, so it was interesting to hear about that.

The Salar de Uyuni really feels like you are on another planet. There is just white salt around you for as far as you can see, and the horizon is blurred in places where the salt flats are covered with water and the sky and the salt flats melt into one. Here and there you have an island covered in cactuses, one of the ones we saw is suppost to be 1200 years old. It is entirely surreal.

From Uyuni, I have made it up to Potosi, famous for the one of the biggest silver mines in the world, a huge source of wealth for the Spanish. The town was once bigger than London or Paris as people flocked form all over the world to get rich, and you can visit the mines. I did and they are horrendous, there is absolutely no concept of safety, and when I was inside I really felt like it was a silly thing to do, to take the risk of being inside, although admitedly it is extremely interesting to see what sort of conditions the people work in there. The dust inside make breathing extremely difficult, gas from dynamite explosions burn your throat, and you're always wondering if the thing is going to cave in. When I saw the light at the end of the tunnel as we made our way out, it really made my day. I'll put some pics of the mines up soon...

The Inca ruins at Quilmes

Looking across at the ruins

Choclo

Selling arts and crafts in the desert!

Los Tres Cruces

La Garganta del Diablo with its pink stone

Ecofriendly lawn mower!

Residential area in Salta...

Our guide Armando!

Sunset in Salta

Music in Purmamarca

Valle de los Siete Colores, Purmamarca

Colourful shopfront!

Wall painting in Humahuaca

Derelict rail line

Bus turned BBQ

Scary croc in Villazon!

End of the line

Parade in Tupiza

More parading in Tupiza to commemorate the loss of the sea access to Chile

An interesting little member in our horse riding group!

Cañon del Inca

Kids in Tupiza

Tupiza town square

Rescuing a truck!

Landscape near Tupiza

Power in the altiplano

Tiny village

Kids next to mud house...

Close up!

Barren

Looming storm

Flock of llamas

Hot spring

Laguna Verde

Sol de Manana Geysers

Laguna Colorado

More Laguna Colorado

National park keeper and his pet beguna!

El Arbol de Piedra

Flamingos

More flamingos...

Pit stop

Tornado across a salar

Military camp

Salt hotel

Tough navigating across the salar

Soaking upo the view with some emergency sunglasses!

Where's the horizon?

Just whiteness...

Isla del Pescado

1200 year old cactus

Only the Israelies would put a flag on their jeep...

You don't often get to stand on salt

Or in the clouds...

Only the top of 10m depth of salt...

Salt extraction...

Our excellent Tupiza Tour guides...

What 3$ gets you in Uyuni...

Dinner

People aren't very happy with Evo...

Road from Uyuni to Potosi...

The bus breaks down

Getting on the local bus

Casa de la Moneda in Potosi

To the previous post:

Stormy Paraguay

Stormy Paraguay

2007-03-20T03:27:00.000+01:00

I have just made it into Bolivia after a very twisted journey from Florianopolis to the Argentine border of La Quiaca, which involved a bit of going back and forth to Paraguay.

The trip is going well overall. I had a bit of a problem in Paraguay, and had to check out the health service facilities there which were generally very good, and the problem I had with a very bad sore throat and swollen ganglions is now just about over.

Paraguay was an interesting country, with hardly any other tourists around and sort of set in the middle of nowhere, boxed in by bigger and wealthier countries. The people were extremely friendly, from the man who helped us into the Olympia football stadium in Asuncion and subsequently shuffled us around in the stadium to avoid the more boistrous fans, to the locals who would offer to show you round the various places you could visit, not for money, just because they were excited about you discovering their country and their traditions.

From Posadas, where some really black clouds loomed as I entered Paraguay, I made it to Encarnacion, before heading to Asuncion pretty quickly so that I could see a doctor. I found both cities pleasant, and despite a reputation for being somewhat unsafe, I really did not feel threatened at all, unlike in Ciudad del Este which I had visited before. There are some Jesuit Mission ruins to visit, where you can see how these Spanish missionaries organised the Guarani people (in Paraguay most people speak Guarani, and the level of Spanish isn't great...) until they were expelled by the Spanish King. Asuncion was a pleasant city, with the typical South American contrast between very very poor and grim looking slums, to plush houses set in pleasant residential areas. There were a few Nazi war medals onshow at the antique market, a reflection of all the immigrants Paraguay has received, partly from Germany, but also from many other places such as China, Japan, Ukraine. The population mix is quite impressive. I met quite a few American peace corps volunteers in Paraguay, often working out in very isolated communities where people barely use cash, but just live off their land and their animals. They really get exposed to the tough life most Paraguayans live, and the stark difference between Asuncion with all its Mercedes and 4 Wheel Drives to the countryside where bikes are luxury.

After Paraguay, I made it to the Salta region of Argentina after a pleasant stop in Corrientes, a very old Argentine city with some incredible colonial buildings. The Salta region has to offer some of the most incredible landscapes in the world, and you can see some in the photos below. Again, I can't understate how friendly the people are in North Argentina, they are just so warm, welcoming and helpful.

Getting to Bolivia is a little bit like going back in time, but as elsewhere on this continent, the people come across as friendly, and it will be good to see the Salar de Uyuni in the next few days.

In Posadas looking towards Paraguay

Restoring Jesuit ruins at San Ignacion

Lots of stands, not many tourists

A bit of Quilmes...

Jesuit ruins at Santa Ana

A pillaged tomb at Sta Ana

Workers sifting for treasures

Mate supply

Surprisingly long blond hair on the women at this bus stop!!!

The ruins of Trinidad in Paraguay

Trinidad is still in good condition, buildings still standing!

A Jesuit statue

The downpour in Trinidad

Encarnacion

Water from the Yacryeta dam menacing Encarnacion

Felt quite safe with this policemen watching my back

Church in Encarnacion

Cathedral in Asuncion

Photos at the Asuncion antique market

An old war medal

An impressive building

Right behind the building...

The streets of Asuncion

The bus...

Asuncion security...

Getting some food...

An empanada in Asuncion

The exchange rate means alot in Paraguay

Street vendors selling breakfast

Spot the reflection

Need something to drink mate...

A fine selection of juices!

Never seem a hairdressers which buys hair before!

Unhappiness about Stroessner, the disastrous dictator Paraguay suffered under

Students

A nicer area of Asuncion

Dead bird

Some Americans who put me up...

Dengue is a real issue in this walk of the woods

Approaching Corrientes

More black clouds at the riverfront in Corrientes

Some tasty pasta

The Virgin Mary making sure no one cheats!

Nuestra Senora de la Merced

Drying clothes in the main town square!

San Martin de los Andes

Protest about lack of support for veterans...

Jesus and the wine

Salta

The Salta humita competition

Horseriding in San Lorenzo

Beautiful landscape...

Rickety bridge!

Cheeky cat...

A massive cactus

A plain of cactuses

Colourful mountain side

Patron St. Juan celebration in Cachi

Little gaucho!

Everyone wants a go on the swings!

A 400 year old church

Stations of the cross on cloth

Kids crowding around a "testigo" door

Desert between Cachi and Cafayate

Drying peppers

Cafayate landscape

Sunset

Link to previous post:

Detour to the carnival in Rio!

2007-02-27T21:07:00.000+01:00

The metro in carnival!

I had not originally planned to head to Brazil, but with Rod, aka Rodrigo, an old family friend living in Rio, it seemed rude not to pay him a visit as the carnival was about to get underway! Rod has been living out in Brazil for a few years now, living off the rent from his house in the UK, and I really don´t blame him! He has a great lifestyle out there, and I was lucky to be able to stay with him and meet all his Brazilian friends. It certainly seemed like he showed me some good party spots, and he also showed me the way when it came to ordering lots of beer, not to mention his translation services... Thanks Rod!

I literally fell in love with Rio during my time there. It is perhaps the most picturesque city in the world simply because of how it is set up in this tropical paradise of beaches, islands and small mountains. Looking down at it from the Pao de Azucar or the Christo you can´t help but be stunned by the view. It is an incredible mix of beautiful buildings, wealthy areas, and then the poor favellas which because they are located on the hills, seem like they have been dropped on top of the more fortunate cariocans.

It certainly was the most intimidating city I have been to so far on my trip. Among the travelling community, it is certainly the place with the most horror stories about people being robbed, being held up at gun point... Luckily I did not have any problems, although during one tightly packed parade I did have to remove a loose hand from one of my pockets... I guess you just have to adapt to the place and its social reality, so typically I would leave my camera at home, and just carry a little cash. Overall, Latin America seems like a place with a real haves and have-nots divide much more extreme than anything in Europe. Surely it would benefit the wealthier people to try and change this, but in Rio, the feeling from people I spoke to is that the government does not do much to remedy the situation.

The carnival atmosphere is really different to anything I have experienced before. Its a bit like one of the big Spanish city festivals, just a thousand times bigger and with an even crazier group of locals. It really is round the clock partying, fuelled by hordes of stands selling ice cold beer, capirinhas, and some great street food. People love their ice cold beer in Brazil, its almost a crime to not serve it super incredibly ice cold. The fridges in shops have a thermometer to show what temperature the stuff is at. The main parades take place in the Sambodromo, a stadium built just for the carnival. The parade of the different samba schools run all night long, and by about 5am most people are well and truly samba-ed out, but the music keeps going and people keep dancing. The costumes, the floats, the musicians. They take a year to prepare, and you can see why because they are just so intricate and well done.

Other things that hit me in Brazil, apart from the ice cold beer, are the havainas, the very tasty per kilo food buffets, the friendliness of the people which is in stark contrast to the violence that occurs, and the promiscuity which seems to rein free, especially during carnival! Everyone has a pair of havainas, you'ld almost think you would need a pair to get Brazilian citizenship... I made it to the Maracana too, to see Flamengo whip Maracaibo from Venezuela in the Copa Libertadores! It was great to get to such a legendary stadium...

After carnival, I made it down to Florianopolis, an island off the mainland where I stayed for a couple of days with Patricia and Joanne who I had been travelling with in Chile... It was great to chill out, sleep and spend some time at the beach and at the lakes... Patricia lives in a great little house practically in the jungle. It was a great alternative to the craziness of carnival, and it was cool to meet her family. Now I´m back in Argentina, on the border with Paraguay, and getting ready for a push north towards Bolivia and Peru. It was a bit of a mission communicating in Portuguese although it was good fun to try and learn a bit, but its good to be back speaking Spanish! All in all I loved Brazil, and hope to get back there on a future trip.

Some of the pics below are from Iguazu and the frontier between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil there. The three towns are very close together, Puerto Iguazu, Foz do Iguazu, and Ciudad del Este. The contrast between them though is immense, and I hope this comes out in the photos. Ciudad del Este in Paraguay is suppost to be one of the most corrupt cities in Latin America, a shopping centre for Brazilians and Argentinians. Its a strange place with a funny mix of luxury goods and filthy slum like streets. Did not feel very safe, but its an intriguing place. You can walk across the bidge to Brazil with no migration checks, but locals prefer to hire a motorbike for the journey, as there are stories of people being robbed of their purchases in the No Man's Land at the centre of the bridge!

La Garganta del Diablo in Iguazu!

My visiting companions for Iguazu!

More Iguazu...

Butterfly...

Dangerous looking croc!

Garganta del Diablo, close-up!

The mist from the Garganta del Diablo...

Rainbow at Iguazu...

Giant Ant!

Butterflies covering my bag!

Residential part of Pto. Iguazu...

Residential part of Foz do Iguazu!

Itaipu Dam

Puente del Amistad, between Brazil and Paraguay

Welcome to Paraguay!

The shops of Ciudad del Este

The Cartier store!

Looking down at the slum like stores outside

Counting up the cash...

The cleanliness of Ciudad del Este!

The youth hostel in Pto. Iguazu... not bad...

Selling fruit in Pto. Iguazu

The highstreet in Pto. Iguazu...

Shifting bags of Cargill produce...

At the Hito de las Tres Fronteras

The bus to Rio!

Packed streets by the Bola Preta!

Rio bric a brac!

Spot the favela looming above...

These women were happy to clean my clothes!

A carnival bloco in Ipanema

Busy Ipanema beach...

A bit of beach volleyball!

Taking a break!

Its gonna be a fight for the 1 centavo change!

Traditional yellow hair...

The real parade are the drinks sellers fighting through the crowds!

Meet Rodrigo Souza

Ipanema sunset, get ready to clap!

Welcome to the Sambodromo!

The prestigious leader of a float...

Ballet float!

Half pipe float!

Colourful Sambodromo!

Gym float

Opening the next samba school with some fireworks!

The good and bad volcano people

(I had to clip the topless dancers at the very front for decency!)

The bees

My favorite samba school... Starting at 4am but got everyone awake!

Recovering with Rod and his mates the next day!

Rio sunset, Christ top left!

Copacabana sunset...

Cristo

Yours truly

El Cristo again...

The closest my camera lense got to the Maracana!

Rua do Catete, Rodrigo's favorite bar

Joanne and Patricia kindly making my bed!

The beach in Floripa!

Mirror image

You need a pair for a Brazilian passport!

Lagoa de Concepcoa in Floripa

Lago by Patricia's house

Peaking in at the breakfast!

Patricia's family!

Patricia's house

Link to next post:

Buenos Aires 95.1

2007-02-14T00:27:00.000+01:00

Getting out of the desert!

I am now in Iguazu discovering the amazing waterfalls here and trying to recover from a crazy week of partying in Buenos Aires! Its right on the frontier between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

Before getting to Buenos Aires, I was in Puerto Madryn, further south, which is basically a base place for exploring the surrounding sealife sites, Peninsula Valdes and Punto Tombo. Peninsula Valdes is good, you get to see sea-lions, sea-elephants, all sorts of birds, some lucky people get to see killer whales but unfortunately they didn't show up to see me... What I really enjoyed was Punto Tombo, site of the biggest penguin colony in South America with half a million of the things running around! We got there really early before the crowds turned up, and the penguins would walk around right next to you, and you could see them cruising at light speed through the clear water by the beach, it was great!

Also of interest around Puerto Madryn were the Welsh settlements! Lots of Welsh people migrated there, and there are definitely some traces of their presence, with the odd flag, lots of Welsh tea houses and the odd person speaks Welsh, but only the odd person! Its a strange place to migrate too though, with some of the towns set in the arid desert.

Getting out of the desert into Buenos Aires was really great. I stayed with Fran who some of you might recall as being the guy I travelled around with in Laos and Vietnam. It was great to stay in his flat after a month and a half sleeping in hostel dormitories, and him and his bro took good care of me with their cooking skills! I really enjoyed the feel of Buenos Aires, the big boulevards, all the trees everywhere, the variety of the different barrios and of course going out. Mauro, the other guy Fran and I were travelling around with back in Asia came into town from the suburb of Quilmes, and together they ensured I got a good feel for the local nightlife, with a different club on the menu almost every night. It definitely has to be one of the most vibrant cities in the world. It was also great to catch up with Mauro and Fran, to see how things had been going for them since their return from Asia. Anyway, got to shot for the 22 hour bus to Rio! Its gonna be quite an ordeal!

A bit of beach football on the Peninsula Valdes

Spot the sea elephants at Peninsula Valdes...

Guanacos near Punta Tombo

Penguin heading towards the sea...

Feeding time!

The biggest penguin colony in South America

Penguin turned tourist

A quick dip in the rocks

On parade

Penguin nests sprawled around this arid field

Chirping away

A beautiful Cormorant Dolphin jumping

Welsh flag in Rawson

Memorial to those lost in the Falklands War

Some little girls having a bit of a ride!

Delicious tea and cakes in Gaiman

Welsh chapel

One of those dragons...

Welsh choir book

The buzzing Buenos Aires(BsAs) district of Palermo

Playing some footie in BsAs

Kids football pitch in the Boca district

Row of houses in Boca

Inside the Boca

Waitress rushing into the photo!

Kids having some beers!

Multicolored house...

The Boca Juniors stadium

Spot the tattoo and the national shortage of change

A peek inside

The pleasant district of San Telmo

Mobile childrens' bicycle shop

San Telmo market

Chess and politcal prisoners

The former HQ of the military government

A tough place to be not so long ago...

Plaza de Mayo protest

Funny to see a flag inside a cathedral...

This man set up shop after the financial crisis...
He is unhappy that the dogs of the rich eat better than the kids of the poor...

Part of Palermo

Chilling with Fran and his mates by the rooftop pool

The next Che Guevara

Rum and coke

BsAs rushhour

Hurrying onto the bus!

#130

Constitucion train station

Hockey game in Quilmes

The Quilmes factory, producing beer for a nation!

Mauro, with his mother and sister

Getting ready for the last night out with Fran and Mauro!

Fran's bro and his friends jump in the picture!

Lots of yummy ice cream in BsAs!!!

Bizzarely, the flower shops shut in the day and seem to stay open all night!

The end in BsAs

A comfy Coche Cama!

Link to previous post:

Deserts, glaciers and Uschuaia

Deserts, glaciers and Ushuaia

2007-01-27T21:42:00.000+01:00

The never ending Ruta 40 in Patagonia

Things are going well here in Argentina, with my idea of the place gradually expanding beyond the likes of Maradona, Diego Simeone or Maxi Rodriguez! The last couple of weeks have involved lots of bus journeys, totalling some 5000km to get all the way down to Ushuaia, the southernmost town in the world! Luckily the buses from Argentina are incredibly comfortable, so you can get seats which look like they have been taken out of a First Class airline cabin.

In Bariloche I managed to meet up with Tomaraya, who was passing through on his round the world trip in the opposite direction! It was good to great to meet up with someone from home in such a far away place, and we had a great time in Bariloche which really is one of the most beautiful places I have been too. We fitted in some beach time, some walks, but most of our money went on our rafting trip. The rafting itself was not exactly the biggest thrill of my life, but it was fun and the scenery was incredible, not to mention the all you can eat steak at the end!

One of the highlights in Bariloche was a little bar a group of us stumbled into after hearing the guitar music pouring out into the street. It was a basic little place without any sort of decor, but it was brought to life by the two gauchos sat on high stools in one corner playing some local chacarera, and the dancing locals. It was fast flamenco like guitar music, and everyone now and again it would stop, and around the bar locals would stand up to say a short poem, a proverb or tell a little story. All this was watered down with lots of the Quilmes beer and plenty of empañadas which the place was churning out at light speed. The atmosphere was incredible!

The next stop from Bariloche was a very quick one in El Bolson, a little town centred around a hippy market and an "alternative" atmosphere. It is a really nice place set in a beautiful valley and there is a great feel to it - the day I was there half the town was sat in the park enjoying the live music. It was a mission down to El Chalten along the Ruta 40, a never ending journey through the Patagonian desert spiced up by the odd sightings of guanacos, roadrunners, armadillos... The only hassle, apart from the limitation of a day sat in a bus bouncing along dirt tracks, was the Chalten Travel company which had the most unfriendly people I've come across in South America working for it!

Chalten and El Calafate are both tourist focused towns, which do not really have much local spirit to them, as almost all the people there migrate there just for the tourist season. The natural tourist attractions on hand in both places are incredible, with some incredible day hikes to the Cerro Fitz Roy and the Laguna de los Tres in El Chalten, and the magnificent Perito Moreno glacier near El Calafate. The photos below do not really do them justice. The glacier hike did not come cheap, but having lunch in front of a glacier laguna is something I won't forget, and I bumped into one of my future work colleagues at Bain which goes to show what a small world it is! Hopefully I didn't make a bad impression as she could be my manager when I start working!

The journey onto Ushuaia from Calafate is quite a long one, made even longer by the four border posts and the ferry trip across the Magellen Straits! Because of the historic Chile-Argentina border agreements, you have to cross into Chile and then back into Argentina to get to Tierra del Fuego. When hundreds of tourists have the same idea, you end up spending alot of time sitting around at the borders, but the ferry was a good change from the bus and enabled some dolphin sightings!

Ushuaia probably was not the most stunning place I had been too but it felt great to actually be there and there was some beautiful scenery, not to mention the sealife on the Beagle Channel which included penguins, sea lions and lots and lots of birds! They did a great fresh crab dish!

The river where Raya and I went rafting!

The border post

Too much steak for Raya?

View from Cerro Campanario!

Street entertainment with beautiful sunset in Bariloche

Zapateria

Sorrentinos

Empañadas

Music in hippy El Bolson!

The dancing dog!

The dancing crocodile!

Vegetable store

Old veggies!

Celestial blue!

The valley of El Bolson

Preparing steaks

The butcher!

Owen el asador!

Brand new bunk!

Village scene

Army town in the desert

Fruit and veg shop

Driving along ruta 40 with some mate

Patagonia desert

Desert sunset

Ruta 40

More desert!

Wild horses

More desert...

Armadillo

Spot the guanacos!

Plants by the river

One of the worst bus companies in Argentina!

Lago Viedma

Juggling in Patagonia

Ruta 40 sunset

Cloudy sunset

Remains of a flag

Photo stop

Medialunas, yum yum!

El Chalten

Rio de las Vueltas

Chilling by the Fitz Roy

Laguna de los Tres

Laguna Sucia

Magellan woodpecker

Tents and trees

The biggest piece of chocolate cake ever

An estancia

Lago Argentina

Rio Santa Cruz

The front of the Perito Moreno glacier

The immense Perito Moreno glacier

The Perito Moreno glaciar rolling into Lago Argentina

Glacier Waterfall

Deep deep crevass

Waterfilled crevass

Rock formed pools

Glacier laguna

Crawling through a tunnel

Glacier Cave

The bulldozer effect

Storeys of ice crashing down

Happy with the glacier trek!

Navigating the Magellan Straits

Ushuaia

Cormorants and sea lions in the Beagle Channel

Lighthouse

Magellan penguin colony

Gentoo and Magellenic Penguins socialising!

Cormorants and sea lions enjoying the sunset!

Rainbow over the Beagle Channel

Flag under the rainbow!

Beagle Channel sunset

La Casa del Marisco in Ushuaia

Tierra del Fuego forest

Andean condor

At the top of Mount Guanaco

Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel

Looking towards the Andes

Lago Roca

Andean rock plant

Remains from a bushfire

Colourul beech tree

Enough flags here?

Menacing wild horses!

Link to the previous post:

Crossing the Andes