Ok, so Argentina is not exactly what I would call authentic South America and I found it quite different to Peru and Bolivia. It´s definitely a lot more westernised than the previous two countries but it was nice to get a change of scene. After my nightmare border crossing from Bolivia, I proceeded to Salta for new year. The hostel I stayed in wasn´t much but they did have a pool and they did have a new year´s eve party - 150 pesos for bbq and unlimited (yes, that´s right, unlimited) alcohol. If there´s one thing Argentinians (or is that Argentines?) do well, it´s bbq, or asado. Great cuts of meet, cooked to perfection and not over priced. Sorry vegetarians out there but it´s amazing! I didn´t see too much else in Salta as I was only there for two days over the new year period and a lot of stuff was closed (even McDonalds, which - shame on me - I really wanted the next day, after the unlimited alcohol). I got an overnight bus from there to Mendoza on January 1st. Another things Argentina does well is long bus journeys. The buses are so comfortable, and on this ride, we got meals, DVDs (in English - yay!) and, wait for it, bingo! Yup - the waiter that delivered our meals to our seats, also doubled as a bingo caller. A great way for me to practise my Spanish numbers. However, while I was asleep on this bus, someone stole my alarm clock and light. More inconvenient than anything else - perhaps they had trouble getting up in the morning and needed it more than me.
Mendoza was absolutely a highlight for me. After hectically trying to fit things in before Christmas, and then between Christmas and new year, I was ready to chill out. I stayed in a fantastic hostel - small, with a pool, hammocks, and best of all, free wine five nights a week. I met some great people here and relaxed for a few days - I liked it so much I even stayed a fourth night - the longest I´ve stayed in one place on this trip. Mendoza is a wine region, famous for Malbec, so I got together a group of people from the hostel and we spent a day cycling around a few wineries and sampling the local tipple. Thankfully, we didn´t get robbed at gunpoint like two guys I met the day before.
After Mendoza, I headed for Buenos Aires. I spent a very hot four days here - did a great free walking tour of the city, met some Kiwi guys from Otago, went to a steak restaurant where I ate the best steak of my life, walked around colourful local neighbourhoods, ate lots of dulce de leche and emapanadas (but not together), had coffee at the famous Cafe Tortoni, watched locals tango in the streets and even went to an Andy Warhol exhibiton.
From Buenos Aires, I headed for Iguazu Falls, right on the border between Argentina and Brazil. Since this was my last overnight bus trip in Argentina, I decided to splash out and get the next class up on the bus, which meant I got wine with my hot dinner, followed by coffee and champagne (which was a bit of a weird order), a super comfy chair that reclined just that little bit extra and a nice pillow and blanket. Luxury for a backpacker. Iguazu Falls was amazing. I spent a day there doing all the walking paths and the boat ride that takes you right under some of the falls - I got absolutely soaked. The hoards of tour groups were a bit of a downer, but that´s to be expected. I went back the next day to do the Macuco trail, a 3.5 km trail into the jungle within the national park. The hike went to a waterfall with a swimming hole at the end. I was hoping to see capuchin monkeys, but unfortunately I didn´t. I did, however, see three toucans together in a tree - that was pretty incredible.
I´ve now crossed the border into Brazil to see the falls from the other side and I´m looking forward to the next two weeks of beaches and sun as I head up to coast to Rio de Janeiro. I´m hoping I´ll be ok given that I don´t speak any Portuguese!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Adventures in Bolivia
My two weeks in Bolivia was filled with adventure in one form or another - however a lot of it was transport related.
Firstly, La Paz. All of South America has crazy traffic, but La Paz is more hectic than the rest. Cars are literally bumper to bumper, people make lanes where there are no lanes, and people use their horns constantly. My first and second day in La Paz was spent checking out the witches markets (dried llama foetuses anyone?), buying presents and trying to organise a jungle expedition. My third day was spent mountain biking down Death Road, the world´s most dangerous road. It was a lot of fun and only a little scary - there are no longer cars on the road so it´s more the danger of sliding over one of the sheer cliffs as you come careening down the hill. I´m glad the tour guides waited until after we´d done the ride to tell us about the tourists who had died - some recently.
From La Paz, I flew to Santa Cruz with a couple of people I met on my tour of Peru. I´d booked a hostel online, however when we showed up, they said they were full, wouldn´t acknowledge the booking I´d made or deposit I´d paid and we had to squish into one room with two beds. After visiting the office to pay for the 3 day trip into Amboro National Park (part of the Amazon Basin) I had to go and buy the ugliest shoes known to man on the insistence of our tour guide (apparently we needed them for climbing on wet rocks). They were those kind of sandals with the velcro straps. The kind of sandals some people wear with socks. The kind of sandals I make fun of people for wearing. Needless to say, they went straight in the bin once the tour was over and I tried hard to avoid there being any photos of me wearing them. The jungle trip was certainly an adventure. Just getting into the park was a feat in itself. We went by van, jeep, boat, horse and cart, waded across rivers and hiked. It took us a full day just to get to the gates of the park. And then it started to rain. And didn´t stop. We spent the second day hiking to a waterfall - we waded across countless rivers and climbed waterfalls, all in the pouring rain. Just call me Indiana Jones. After lunch, our guides suggested we do a further 3 hour hike to another waterfall, making the total trek back, 5 hours. Something I have learnt is that Bolivians don´t really have much of a sense of time. When they say "oh, it´s about 20 minutes away", that can mean anything from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. The first waterfall was apparently 2 hours away - it took us about 7 hours to get there and back. The jungle was pretty amazing - very lush, green and tropical with vines and huge trees. And huge mosquitos. We didn´t see as much wildife as I had hoped - no toucans or monkeys, but we did see a frog and a snake and some beautiful butterflies. We were supposed to trek further into the jungle but there was too much rain, so we camped in the same place and then spent the last day trekking out again, in the same way as we trekked in. Definitely an adventure although not exactly what I had hoped for.
The next adventure was trying to get to Sucre for Christmas. We thought it would be very simple to be able to get an overnight bus. Oh how wrong we were. The tickets were only sold on the day of the trip, so one of my friends went to the bus station at 6am to get tickets for that night. Sold out. Everything was booked up, even flights. We discovered that there was another group of 3 staying at the hostel who were also trying to get to Sucre, so we hired a van to take us. And this is where the nightmare began. Bolivia has one paved road. We were not on it. We drove for 18 hours (it was meant to be 15) on a windy and bumpy dirt road. No sleep was to be had by anyone. I have never been happier to arrive somewhere. Christmas was a relaxed affair - we decided to splash out and stay at quite a nice hotel and we spent the day watching Christmas movies on cable tv (when we could find English ones) and eating a lot - pretty standard really. We even found a restaurant that did a turkey lunch - not very Bolivian I know.
Sucre is where I left the girls I´d been travelling with for the last week and headed to Uyuni. Getting there was a 14 hour mission on 2 buses. I arrived at 2am and luckily befriended some American guys on the bus so I didn´t have to walk to my hostel alone. The next morning, I left for a 3 day tour of the salt flats. What an amazing experience - one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The weather was perfect - there had been a little bit of rain the day before meaning that the was a few inches of water on the salar, making for beautiful reflections of the sky. We stayed in a salt hotel and also saw red and green lakes and millions of flamingoes. Then came a tough 24 hours. My tour returned to Uyuni (a 9 hour bumpy 4WD ride) at about 6pm and at 11pm I got a train to Villazon, the small town on the border between Bolivia and Argentina. The train was supposed to arrive at 7am, but for some reason, it stopped at a station for 3 hours at 4am (something to do with rain I think - although since when that´s affected trains, I´m not sure), so it was 3 hours late. I was very glad I´d gotten a ´first class´ticket (a reclinable seat, a blanket and pillow, and breakfast). When I got off the train, I headed for the border. My guide book said it ´couldn´t be easier´ to cross to Argentina here. Yeah right. First I had to get my Bolivian exit stamp - there was a line so long it double backed on itself and after 45 minutes, I hadn´t moved. I heard that other travellers had been paying the guard at the front to stamp their passports. So I bribed an immigration official with 5 pesos and I got my stamp. Then I got in the line for the Argentinian immigration.....and spent 5 hours in that line. At one point I actually thought I would never get to the front. This was followed by a 7 hour bus ride to finally arrive in Sucre.
So Bolivia was definitely choccas full of adventure for me, and now that I´m in Argentina, I am looking forward to some down time. Bring on the wine and steaks!
Firstly, La Paz. All of South America has crazy traffic, but La Paz is more hectic than the rest. Cars are literally bumper to bumper, people make lanes where there are no lanes, and people use their horns constantly. My first and second day in La Paz was spent checking out the witches markets (dried llama foetuses anyone?), buying presents and trying to organise a jungle expedition. My third day was spent mountain biking down Death Road, the world´s most dangerous road. It was a lot of fun and only a little scary - there are no longer cars on the road so it´s more the danger of sliding over one of the sheer cliffs as you come careening down the hill. I´m glad the tour guides waited until after we´d done the ride to tell us about the tourists who had died - some recently.
From La Paz, I flew to Santa Cruz with a couple of people I met on my tour of Peru. I´d booked a hostel online, however when we showed up, they said they were full, wouldn´t acknowledge the booking I´d made or deposit I´d paid and we had to squish into one room with two beds. After visiting the office to pay for the 3 day trip into Amboro National Park (part of the Amazon Basin) I had to go and buy the ugliest shoes known to man on the insistence of our tour guide (apparently we needed them for climbing on wet rocks). They were those kind of sandals with the velcro straps. The kind of sandals some people wear with socks. The kind of sandals I make fun of people for wearing. Needless to say, they went straight in the bin once the tour was over and I tried hard to avoid there being any photos of me wearing them. The jungle trip was certainly an adventure. Just getting into the park was a feat in itself. We went by van, jeep, boat, horse and cart, waded across rivers and hiked. It took us a full day just to get to the gates of the park. And then it started to rain. And didn´t stop. We spent the second day hiking to a waterfall - we waded across countless rivers and climbed waterfalls, all in the pouring rain. Just call me Indiana Jones. After lunch, our guides suggested we do a further 3 hour hike to another waterfall, making the total trek back, 5 hours. Something I have learnt is that Bolivians don´t really have much of a sense of time. When they say "oh, it´s about 20 minutes away", that can mean anything from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. The first waterfall was apparently 2 hours away - it took us about 7 hours to get there and back. The jungle was pretty amazing - very lush, green and tropical with vines and huge trees. And huge mosquitos. We didn´t see as much wildife as I had hoped - no toucans or monkeys, but we did see a frog and a snake and some beautiful butterflies. We were supposed to trek further into the jungle but there was too much rain, so we camped in the same place and then spent the last day trekking out again, in the same way as we trekked in. Definitely an adventure although not exactly what I had hoped for.
The next adventure was trying to get to Sucre for Christmas. We thought it would be very simple to be able to get an overnight bus. Oh how wrong we were. The tickets were only sold on the day of the trip, so one of my friends went to the bus station at 6am to get tickets for that night. Sold out. Everything was booked up, even flights. We discovered that there was another group of 3 staying at the hostel who were also trying to get to Sucre, so we hired a van to take us. And this is where the nightmare began. Bolivia has one paved road. We were not on it. We drove for 18 hours (it was meant to be 15) on a windy and bumpy dirt road. No sleep was to be had by anyone. I have never been happier to arrive somewhere. Christmas was a relaxed affair - we decided to splash out and stay at quite a nice hotel and we spent the day watching Christmas movies on cable tv (when we could find English ones) and eating a lot - pretty standard really. We even found a restaurant that did a turkey lunch - not very Bolivian I know.
Sucre is where I left the girls I´d been travelling with for the last week and headed to Uyuni. Getting there was a 14 hour mission on 2 buses. I arrived at 2am and luckily befriended some American guys on the bus so I didn´t have to walk to my hostel alone. The next morning, I left for a 3 day tour of the salt flats. What an amazing experience - one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The weather was perfect - there had been a little bit of rain the day before meaning that the was a few inches of water on the salar, making for beautiful reflections of the sky. We stayed in a salt hotel and also saw red and green lakes and millions of flamingoes. Then came a tough 24 hours. My tour returned to Uyuni (a 9 hour bumpy 4WD ride) at about 6pm and at 11pm I got a train to Villazon, the small town on the border between Bolivia and Argentina. The train was supposed to arrive at 7am, but for some reason, it stopped at a station for 3 hours at 4am (something to do with rain I think - although since when that´s affected trains, I´m not sure), so it was 3 hours late. I was very glad I´d gotten a ´first class´ticket (a reclinable seat, a blanket and pillow, and breakfast). When I got off the train, I headed for the border. My guide book said it ´couldn´t be easier´ to cross to Argentina here. Yeah right. First I had to get my Bolivian exit stamp - there was a line so long it double backed on itself and after 45 minutes, I hadn´t moved. I heard that other travellers had been paying the guard at the front to stamp their passports. So I bribed an immigration official with 5 pesos and I got my stamp. Then I got in the line for the Argentinian immigration.....and spent 5 hours in that line. At one point I actually thought I would never get to the front. This was followed by a 7 hour bus ride to finally arrive in Sucre.
So Bolivia was definitely choccas full of adventure for me, and now that I´m in Argentina, I am looking forward to some down time. Bring on the wine and steaks!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The 0 - 10 of Peru
My 23 days in Peru are up, and as I sit in the sweltering tropical heat of Santa Cruz, Bolvia, I reflect on my time in Peru....
0: good coffees I had and times I was lost (yay me!).
1: scary bugs I saw (a big spider at a homestay on Amantani Island - not including the dead tarantula on the Inca trail), horrible bus rides (12 hours, 1 stop, dirty bus, even dirtier toilets), meals of alpaca, times I put my togs on, ate McDonalds, had altitude sickness, drank Inca Cola (tastes like bubble-gum) and number of hostels I stayed in (on my tour, we stayed in ´hotels´, however they were very basic).
2: times I dressed in Peruvian costume (the one and only time...ever, I assure you), boat trips I did, local communities I stayed in, number of backpacker braclets I accumulated and number of times I washed my clothes in the bathroom sink of my accommodation.
3: nights I spent in a tent, times I felt lonely, orchids I saw on the Inca trail, books I read, times I had a dodgy tummy, things I´ve lost (my torch - however, not a great loss, see 5 below - a bracelet and a postcard), times I´ve danced and number of different kinds of Peruvian beer I drank.
4: days it took me to hike the Inca trail from the 82km mark to Machu Picchu (about 45 kms I think - with a lot of steep uphill and downhill) and number of Kiwis I met.
5: number of awesome people on my Intrepid tour (ok, so that was the whole group), times my solar powered torch ran out, times I heard the Cranberries (I´m sure pop music in Peru is stuck in 1996) and number of Plaza des Armas I saw.
6: times I dropped my camera on the Inca trail (I´m surprised it´s still working), times I didn´t want to tip guides and drivers (didn´t I pay enough for this already?), number of Incan ruins I saw, different kinds of Pisco I´ve tried and average number of hours sleep I got a night (so many early starts).
7: US$ for a pedicure in Cuzco, total days I went without a shower (not in a row though - ew!).
8: times my camera batteries went flat (can´t wait to get a new one) and number of Nazca lines I saw (I think - I was feeling a bit ill and suffering from vertigo in the tiny plane).
9: times I´ve tried to read my Rough Guide book and decide where I´m going and times people said ´but it´s the rainy season´
10 plus: flamingoes, penguins, seals and alpacas I´ve seen, great meals I ate, number of people who tried to sell me stuff, times I wanted to eat a salad so bad, days I didn´t write in my journal, times I wish I´d learnt proper Spanish before I left, squat toilets I used, number of breakfasts that were bread and jam and the number of incredible, beautiful, funny and amazing things I saw and experienced.
Let´s see if Bolivia can top THAT!
0: good coffees I had and times I was lost (yay me!).
1: scary bugs I saw (a big spider at a homestay on Amantani Island - not including the dead tarantula on the Inca trail), horrible bus rides (12 hours, 1 stop, dirty bus, even dirtier toilets), meals of alpaca, times I put my togs on, ate McDonalds, had altitude sickness, drank Inca Cola (tastes like bubble-gum) and number of hostels I stayed in (on my tour, we stayed in ´hotels´, however they were very basic).
2: times I dressed in Peruvian costume (the one and only time...ever, I assure you), boat trips I did, local communities I stayed in, number of backpacker braclets I accumulated and number of times I washed my clothes in the bathroom sink of my accommodation.
3: nights I spent in a tent, times I felt lonely, orchids I saw on the Inca trail, books I read, times I had a dodgy tummy, things I´ve lost (my torch - however, not a great loss, see 5 below - a bracelet and a postcard), times I´ve danced and number of different kinds of Peruvian beer I drank.
4: days it took me to hike the Inca trail from the 82km mark to Machu Picchu (about 45 kms I think - with a lot of steep uphill and downhill) and number of Kiwis I met.
5: number of awesome people on my Intrepid tour (ok, so that was the whole group), times my solar powered torch ran out, times I heard the Cranberries (I´m sure pop music in Peru is stuck in 1996) and number of Plaza des Armas I saw.
6: times I dropped my camera on the Inca trail (I´m surprised it´s still working), times I didn´t want to tip guides and drivers (didn´t I pay enough for this already?), number of Incan ruins I saw, different kinds of Pisco I´ve tried and average number of hours sleep I got a night (so many early starts).
7: US$ for a pedicure in Cuzco, total days I went without a shower (not in a row though - ew!).
8: times my camera batteries went flat (can´t wait to get a new one) and number of Nazca lines I saw (I think - I was feeling a bit ill and suffering from vertigo in the tiny plane).
9: times I´ve tried to read my Rough Guide book and decide where I´m going and times people said ´but it´s the rainy season´
10 plus: flamingoes, penguins, seals and alpacas I´ve seen, great meals I ate, number of people who tried to sell me stuff, times I wanted to eat a salad so bad, days I didn´t write in my journal, times I wish I´d learnt proper Spanish before I left, squat toilets I used, number of breakfasts that were bread and jam and the number of incredible, beautiful, funny and amazing things I saw and experienced.
Let´s see if Bolivia can top THAT!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
When things go tits up while travelling
There´s always a few hiccups when you´re travelling. Like the time I accidently washed my passport in Berlin and had to get a new one in the space of a few hours as I was due to leave the country. Or the time I spent all my cash in France and then discovered my ATM card wouldn´t work. Or the time(s) the old van I was driving arond Australia broke down in the middle of the outback. It´s all part of the experience right? Well, this trip has been no different. My first two weeks of travelling went pretty smoothly....the worst thing that happened was arriving at my hostel in Montreal to discover that it had been closed for the last 3 weeks because the building next door started to fall down. Fortunately it was re-opening that day, so all it meant for me was a few hours without any power (good time to go for a walk), no hot shower that night and a pretty empty hostel.
And then I left Canada. I had one of those crazy cheap flights that goes to a dozen random places before arriving at the final destination, and takes 3 days to get there. Ok it wasn´t quite that bad - almost 24 hours of travel time, flying from Montreal to Toronto to San Salvador to Lima. I checked my bag in all the way to Lima at Montreal Airport, double checked with the counter staff that all I had to do was pick it up in Lima and was assured that it would and ignored the sinking feeling that it wasn´t going to make it - I thought to myself, hey they´re professionals, what could go wrong? Then, when I was the last person standing at the baggage carousel in Lima with a forlorn look on my face, I realised I should have trusted my instincts and taken some underwear and toiletries out of my bag before checking it. To cut a long story short, for 2 days the airline didn´t even know where my bag was and seemed in no hurry to find it. After many phone calls and a few stressful moments, I finally got it back after 3 days - just in time as I left Lima the next day. I was wearing my warmest and dirties clothes for the flight because Montreal was cold and I planned on doing washing as soon as I arrived in Peru. The airline gave me money to spend on neccesary stuff so at least I could get the basics. Crisis over....and on to the next. Getting out of a taxi outside my hotel the following day, I clipped the mirror of a passing car with the taxi door and broke it. I couldn´t really communicate with the driver with my limited Spanish aside from ´lo siento signor´ but the guide from my tour, that had started the previous day, was fortunately on hand. The driver of the car I hit wanted me to give him US$150 as it was a new car and he would have to replace the whole mirror. My guide talked him down to US$80...so I was pretty lucky in the end I guess. And it´s only money after all. I am hoping that I´ve had my quota of bad luck for this trip and that the next 3 months will go smoothly. I´m loading up on good travelling karma!
Aside from these minor set backs, Peru has been great and I´ve already done so much - experienced loads of good food and drink - my favourites have been ceviche (raw fish marinated in chili and lime) and chicha (a drink made from purple corn, tastes a bit like Ribena), I´ve seen penguins on the Ballestas Islands, tasted all sorts of kinds of Pisco (a spirit a bit like tequila), flown over the Nazca lines in a very small plane (I was very brave and sweating profusely), seen enough mummies and skeletons to last a lifetime, met some awesome people from assorted countries, marvelled at some massive sand dunes from a lake oasis at the bottom, and slept a record 7 hours on an overnight bus. Chomping at the bit for the Inca trail.....6 days and counting!
And then I left Canada. I had one of those crazy cheap flights that goes to a dozen random places before arriving at the final destination, and takes 3 days to get there. Ok it wasn´t quite that bad - almost 24 hours of travel time, flying from Montreal to Toronto to San Salvador to Lima. I checked my bag in all the way to Lima at Montreal Airport, double checked with the counter staff that all I had to do was pick it up in Lima and was assured that it would and ignored the sinking feeling that it wasn´t going to make it - I thought to myself, hey they´re professionals, what could go wrong? Then, when I was the last person standing at the baggage carousel in Lima with a forlorn look on my face, I realised I should have trusted my instincts and taken some underwear and toiletries out of my bag before checking it. To cut a long story short, for 2 days the airline didn´t even know where my bag was and seemed in no hurry to find it. After many phone calls and a few stressful moments, I finally got it back after 3 days - just in time as I left Lima the next day. I was wearing my warmest and dirties clothes for the flight because Montreal was cold and I planned on doing washing as soon as I arrived in Peru. The airline gave me money to spend on neccesary stuff so at least I could get the basics. Crisis over....and on to the next. Getting out of a taxi outside my hotel the following day, I clipped the mirror of a passing car with the taxi door and broke it. I couldn´t really communicate with the driver with my limited Spanish aside from ´lo siento signor´ but the guide from my tour, that had started the previous day, was fortunately on hand. The driver of the car I hit wanted me to give him US$150 as it was a new car and he would have to replace the whole mirror. My guide talked him down to US$80...so I was pretty lucky in the end I guess. And it´s only money after all. I am hoping that I´ve had my quota of bad luck for this trip and that the next 3 months will go smoothly. I´m loading up on good travelling karma!
Aside from these minor set backs, Peru has been great and I´ve already done so much - experienced loads of good food and drink - my favourites have been ceviche (raw fish marinated in chili and lime) and chicha (a drink made from purple corn, tastes a bit like Ribena), I´ve seen penguins on the Ballestas Islands, tasted all sorts of kinds of Pisco (a spirit a bit like tequila), flown over the Nazca lines in a very small plane (I was very brave and sweating profusely), seen enough mummies and skeletons to last a lifetime, met some awesome people from assorted countries, marvelled at some massive sand dunes from a lake oasis at the bottom, and slept a record 7 hours on an overnight bus. Chomping at the bit for the Inca trail.....6 days and counting!
Highlights of Ontario and Quebec
Two free beers and a bottle opener at the Steamwhistle Brewery in Toronto
Trying to get the perfect photo of me at Niagara Falls
A Korean guy introducing himself to me because he´d just been to New Zealand and wanted to tell me how much he loved it there
When I was freezing after a day of walking all over Toronto, having the best hot chocolate at Soma in the Distillery District - with spices, orange, chili and ginger
Free wine and cheese at my hostel
Discussing Kiwi music with a friend of a friend over jugs of beer - strangers one minute, mates the next
Kensington Markets - best place for people watching, giant burritos and hippy murals
Catching up with an old roommate from Sydney who I hadn´t seen in 4 years, at a bar with mismatched chairs and fairy lights - my favourite kind of bar
Walking around Old Montreal....beautiful buildings, cobbled streets
Taking a break from walking round the city by reading books and warming up in Chapters
Walking to the top of Mont Royale for the view over the city
Enjoying a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz´s and poutine at Frite Alors! on Rue St Laurent - food is a big part of travel for me
Going to a bar on my own and sitting next to a dude from Wellington at the bar
No pics this time as my internet time is limited.....because I´m in Peru! Well and truly on the road now.
Trying to get the perfect photo of me at Niagara Falls
A Korean guy introducing himself to me because he´d just been to New Zealand and wanted to tell me how much he loved it there
When I was freezing after a day of walking all over Toronto, having the best hot chocolate at Soma in the Distillery District - with spices, orange, chili and ginger
Free wine and cheese at my hostel
Discussing Kiwi music with a friend of a friend over jugs of beer - strangers one minute, mates the next
Kensington Markets - best place for people watching, giant burritos and hippy murals
Catching up with an old roommate from Sydney who I hadn´t seen in 4 years, at a bar with mismatched chairs and fairy lights - my favourite kind of bar
Walking around Old Montreal....beautiful buildings, cobbled streets
Taking a break from walking round the city by reading books and warming up in Chapters
Walking to the top of Mont Royale for the view over the city
Enjoying a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz´s and poutine at Frite Alors! on Rue St Laurent - food is a big part of travel for me
Going to a bar on my own and sitting next to a dude from Wellington at the bar
No pics this time as my internet time is limited.....because I´m in Peru! Well and truly on the road now.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Highlights of Alberta
So my journey begins.....for my first week, I hung out in Alberta - here are a few of the best bits:Driving from Banff to Lake Louise in a blizzard, parking and wondering if I'd be able to find the rental car again in all the snow.
$8 steak sandwiches at in The Elk and Oarsman in Banff.
Bow Lake – surrounded by snow, and so peaceful and still.
Seeing a wolf and a big horned sheep on the drive to Radium Hot Springs….and then getting in the hot springs.....aaaaaahhhh.
Reminiscing with a friend in Banff about the good times we both had when we lived in London a few years ago.
Eating a bear claw – chocolate, nuts and caramel – oh yeah.
Hiking the 2.3 kms up Tunnel Mountain on a gorgeous clear day and looking at the view over Banff and the mountains.
The bus ride from Banff to Calgary – the mountains in the pink light of the morning, against a clear blue sky.
Doing a ghost walking tour of Calgary – freezing, but fun - and cheap!
Walking around Calgary and seeing random pieces of street art and so many cool posters.
Spending an afternoon in the Glenbow Museum in Calgary looking at stuff like a giant fiberglass replica of a baby and an exhibition on war brides in Canada. They even had a Maori warrior!
Sitting in Broken City on a Saturday afternoon with a glass of red wine, listening to some jazz guys jamming.
Meeting up with the sister of a friend, and her tell me she was jealous of my life and all the travelling I've done - it's nice to be reminded sometimes, especially when it gets hard to say goodbye to people and you have to carry everything you own on your back.
Stay tuned for highlights from the east coast of Canada!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Halloween
So Halloween....it's kind of a big deal around here. Growing up in New Zealand, Halloween was not really observed. I remember trying to go trick or treating once with my neighbour when we were about 11 and not really getting a lot out of it. We did make a pretty good trick though - a paper bag filled with assorted pantry items including flour, vinegar and green food colouring. No-one had any candy to give us but no-one wanted to put their hand in the bag either so we put it on the road for a car to run over. It stained the road pretty good. So that's my experience of Halloween up till now pretty much. As our culture has become more Americanised, Halloween has become more prolific, with it becoming more popular to go begging for candy - or lollies in New Zealand - around your neighbourhood and to get dressed up for Halloween parties. Living in Vancouver, it was great to be able to participate in a real North American Halloween. People decorate their houses, there are carved jack o' lanterns everywhere (something I'd only seen in movies up till now - I wish I'd had a go at carving one) and trick or treating is commonplace. At work, many people decorated their work areas and, best of all, there was candy everywhere. People had bowls of the stuff on their desks. Awesome. It would've been pretty fun to have been home that night so I could have given out candy to the kids, but I went to a party in a recently renovated theatre in Castlegar, a small town about 8 hours drive north-east of Vancouver. It was a great night - so many interesting costumes, including a guy dressed as toast and an entire dead bridal party. People really went all out. I dressed as Pizzazz from The Misfits (any fans of the 80s cartoon Jem out there?) and my cosutme was totally rad. Yes, that's right - rad.
One thing that's strange however - as soon as October 31st is over, Halloween is done, just like that - BAM! No more decorations, candy is all half price and......the Christmas decorations go up - yes, already - one holiday over, next one please.
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