`In search of the perfect photo...`

2006-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

BEIJING - CHINA

2006-11-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

DATONG - CHINA

2006-11-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

PINGYAO - CHINA

2006-11-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

JUZHAIGOU NATIONAL PARK - CHINA

Following our return to Songpan, Rich, Monika and myself enjoyed our first hot shower in a few days, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then jumped on the first available bus to the town of Juizhagou, only 2 or so hours further to the north. Still feeling pretty tired, we arrived and after sorting out bus tickets and some food, basically just crashed for the night. The following morning we made our way to Juizhagou National Park, China's leading tourist attraction and before even arriving there we began to wonder what we were getting ourselves in for. There were literally tens of thousands of tourists, all pushing and shoving their way into the park entrance and not only that, there was horrible music blaring from everywhere and people trying to sell all number of tacky tourist items.... in a nutshell, a typical Chinese tourist destination.

Despite the quite pricey entrance fee, we decided to continue and managed to shave off some costs by not paying for a bus pass (although we fully intended to make use of the buses once inside the park). After a longer than expected walk we reached the first bus stop where we attempted

2006-11-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

CHENGDU - CHINA

2006-11-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

SONGPAN - CHINA

After a rather sedate few days (compared with the previous week) spent in Chengdu, Rich and I continued to the north of Sichuan province, stopping firstly in the small town of Songpan. Having left Tina in Chengdu, we were joined by Monika (Germany) and on our first afternoon in town, we checked into our very basic acommodation and then booked ourselves onto a 3 day horse tour before embarking on a 'short' climb to the top of a nearby hill for views of the city. After only about 2 minutes we made a wrong turn into a local persons front yard where a rather angry dog halted our progress, causing Monika to backpeddle quickly and then to fall a few metres down the embankment we had been skirting. Thankfully she was unhurt by her fall (although at the time she was more concerned with the predicament of her camera than her personal safety) and so we continued upward and upward, quickly realising that this short walk was not really very short at all.

After about 1 hour, we arrived at the top and were greeted by some friendly local ladies and also some great views of the city and surrounding mountains, many of which were partially covered with snow. Thankfully our descent proved considerably easier although I was somewhat hindered by an upset stomach, a condition which worsened over the remainder of the day.

After a pretty uncomfortable nights sleep, it was another early start and after a quick breakfast we made tracks to our tour agency, where we were kitted up with our horses and then set off in the very, very cold conditions. Despite the almost sub-zero temperatures and very chilly wind, I was still kitted out in 'typical Australian attire', namely thongs and a few shirts. Unfortunately, this proved particularly innefective at keeping out the cold and after about 5 minutes I could no longer feel the majority of my feet. Somehow I managed to avoid losing my toes to frostbite by tucking them under the horse and after a few hours, one of the guides was kind enough to lend me his gumboots, which were somewhat of a godsend. Nonetheless, being cold and feeling absolutely terrible meant that I didn't particularly enjoy this first few hours of the ride. Thankfully Monika was very good at making sure I ate the right things (rice, bread and that's about it) and that I was taking in plenty of water.

After reaching the highest point of the mountain pass, we were required to walk down so as to avoid the horses slipping on the rather muddy trail. This break from riding certainly helped to ease the severity of my stomach pains and now, kitted out in my gumboots I was able to avoid having my shoes completely covered in dirt (the others were not so fortunate). After about another hour or so of riding, we stopped for the day (which I was very relieved about) and after setting up our tents, the guides cooked up a tasty lunch and we spent a few hours playing cards, listening to music on our IPOD and speaker sound system and getting to know the other members of our group.

Around 5pm the sun crept behind the mountains and things got very cold, quickly. We huddled around the fire for a few hours, ate some dinner and then were pretty much forced to go to bed around 8pm because of there being nothing better to do. Covered with quite literally 10 or so blankets and still wearing all of our clothes, we somehow shivered our way through the night and managed very little sleep. I didn't really sleep at all, mainly because the whole night my stomach was experiencing internal explosions about once every minute.

After another early start the next day we rode for around 4 hours over some steep terrain until we reached our destination, 'Ice mountain'. Although quite impressive, the mountain was really nothing special and we were given only about 20 minutes to take the views in before having to walk back down the steep pass we had just ascended. Still suffering, this took me quite a while and I certainly didn't appreciate the guides making us trot for more than half of the return journey as this really didn't help to settle my stomach. Feeling absolutely rubbish, dead tired and certainly not in the mood for talking or interacting with other people, I had a brief but worthwhile rest in the tent and then joined the other for some more cards and music before yet another early departure to bed.

Thankfully I awoke feeling much better on the last day of our tour although we were somewhat startled by one of the guides comming in to brush off the 20 or so centimetres of snow covering the outside of our tent !!! After grabbing some great photos and having a quick snowfight (fun but very cold) we made tracks back for Songpan, this time covering a different trail to that which we had covered on our first day. Still very cold, we ascended up into the clouds but after reaching the summit, the cloud and fog began to dissapear as the sun came out and only a short while later it was actually quite warm. The return journey was quite enjoyable and we passed through some more great scenery before finally making our return to the town where we road down the street in almost the same way as the Mongols must have after returning from a succesful battle.

This 3 day of horse riding adventures was probably the most enjoyable activity I undertook not only in China but over the entire course of my travels this year. I met some great people, saw some amazing scenery and had a fantastic time. Despite feeling pretty rough(thank goodness I had Monika to make sure I was looking after myself) for the majority of the trip and having to endure some absolutely freezing conditions, I enjoyed every minute of the tour and would definitely like to return to the area sometime in the near future.

Photos 1-4: Shots taken from the bus on the trip from Chengdu to Songpan.
Photos 5-7: Views of Songpan and the surrounding countryside.
Photos 8-20: Day 1 of the horse-trek.
Photos 21-33: Day 2 of the horse-trek (trip to Ice mountain).
Photos 34-43: Final day of the horse-trek (return to Songpan).

2006-10-15T02:39:00.000-07:00

DALI - CHINA

2006-10-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

LIJIANG - CHINA

2006-10-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

TIGER LEAPING GORGE - CHINA

Geared up for some more strenuous physical activity after a fairly relaxed stay in Dali, I made my way with my Dutch companions, Arajen and Mariska to the town of Lijiang and then the following day to the well known, 'Tiger Leaping gorge' in the north of Yunnan province. After another eventful bus ride during which the female driver didn't shut her mouth for the entire journey, we arrived in the small town of Quiaotou and after purchasing a few supplies and eventually finding the beginning of the trail, we began our 3 days of adventure in the gorge. Unfortunately the weather on our first day wasn't particularly good but at least it wasn't bucketing down and we made quite rapid progress (despite the fact that I was walking part of the way barefoot and the remainder in my preferred form of footwear i.e. thongs).

After around 2 hours of walking we made a brief stop for lunch and then embarked on the most difficult part of the trail, a tough slog for 1.5 hours and 400 vertical metres to the summit of one of the smaller mountains on the edge of the gorge. As we ascended into the clouds, the weather seemed to become less and less enticing weather but thankfully I had my music with me and was able to keep myself moving all the way up. After reaching the summit we were greeted by a very thick layer of fog and were barely able to see 10 metres in front of us. However. despite such limited visibility the ensuing walk along the summit ridge was still quite enjoyable and after descending a little on the other side, the sun began to burn away some of the clouds and we were treated to some great views of the gorge and surrounding mountains.

The latter half of the afternoon was fairly easy going although there were a few slippery sections for which thongs were not exactly suitable attire, but I managed ok without eating dirt too many times. I particularly enjoyed passing through the small villages nestled amongst the mountains, all of which provided me with an idea of what China must have been like before becomming such a rapidly developing country. Progress in the afternoon was however a little slower given that Mariska was not feeling particularly well and after descending from the high trail down to the sealed road, just a few hundred metres above the gorge, we decided to call it a day. That night night we stayed at a modest guest house with good food and hot showers, both of which were very much welcomed, however after cleaning ourselves up and filling our stomachs were all asleep at the ungodly hour of 9pm !!!

The next day we set off early after a good breakfast and walked the 30 or so minutes down the sealed road to the popular 'Walnut garden' where we intended to spend a rather relaxed day exploring more of the gorge. Unfortuntately Mariska still wasn't feeling particularly well and was quite tired from the previous day of walking so after attempting to hike down to the gorge, she eventually returned to where we were staying, whilst Arajen and myself embarked on a guided tour of the middle gorge. Our guide, a farmer whom we had bumped into along the way was quite nimble despite both his age and small stature and whilst not really an authentic guide (no english to be heard whatsoever), he did prove quite useful, mostly because by being with him we weren't required to pay any of the 'tolls' at different points along the trail. As such, the cost of our 'guide' was only a few Yuan (i.e. cents) more than we would have paid anyway, which more than justified his presence in our expedition party.

The walk along the middle gorge certainly made worthwhile, sticking around for an extra day as we were treated to some great views of the surrounding mountains and from this position we were provided with a completely different perspective than from the high trail. I simply couldn't comprehend just how high the cliffs were on both sides of the gorge, in some cases extending upward for more than 3500m !!! Being so close to the river also meant we could appreciate its full power (there were some rapids which I think would have scared even the most experienced kayakers and rafters) although I wasn't a particularly big fan of clambering over the 'Tiger leaping rock', just a few inches away from being smashed into a thousand pieces...

The hike out of the gorge proved quite an effort and after scaling 25 vertical metres on possibly the most unsafe ladder in the world, we zig-zagged our way upwards until finally we were back on the sealed road. That afternoon proved to be quite a relaxed affair and basically encompassed drinking beers in the warm afternoon sun. These activities continued well into the night and the combination of beer and the hostel specialty, 'happy bread' certainly led to some interesting occurrences later on. That night, Arajen sustained a badly sprained ankle after tripping on the stairs en-route to the toilet, thereby ensuring that he would not be able to complete the remainder of the hike the following day.

Around 7am I awoke in a very messed up state and was barely able to walk myself given how rough I felt. However after a bowl of porridge I eventually managed to get going and walked along the sealed road towards the town of Daju for a few hours and with the help of some locals I found my way through fields and down the gorge to the ferry crossing. The ferry operators proved to be most disagreeable chaps and in the end I had to pay an exorbident amount (for China) just to cross only because I was a lone passenger. Taking this on the chin as another example of locals taking advantage of an innocent tourist, I endured another hot and tough hike to the top of the gorge where I arrived at the bus stop, just 20 minutes before the bus to Lijiang was meant to arrive.

Upon my arrival however I was informed by a group of Chinese tourists that the bus drivers in the region had gone on strike and it was unlikely that I could get to Lijiang by bus for at least a few days. With only 40 Yuan (4 Euros) to my name and not a credit card in sight (or a bank for that matter), I found this to be quite a problem because I certainly couldn't afford to stay in Daju for days and didn't particularly want to either. Eventually, through a combination of persistence and pleading, I managed to get this group to take me with them to Lijiang in their hire car in exchange for all my money. Although this involved me sitting in some of the most uncomfortable positions on the floor of the car, I figured it was a small price to pay considering what I was getting myself out of.

An added bonus of travelling with the group was however the fact that we visited a number of interesting places along the way, including an extremely beautiful glacial lake with an amazing blue colour as a result of minerals being present in the water. After getting some good photos and relishing the chance to stretch my legs, we continued our journey and eventually made it back to Lijiang, thankfull to have somehow gotten myself out of a pretty tight situation. Feeling tired, a little ill and quite hungry I managed to get myself into a hostel and enjoyed a few moments peace before hitting the sack early again.

The trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge was definitely one of the most enjoyable activities I have undertaken on the whole of my travels in 2006 and some of the scenery along the trail was just as incredible as that which I have taken in during my time in South America and Europe. Whilst all aspects of the trip certainly didn't go to plan, hiking the trail is an experience that I will look back on with very fond memories for a long time to come. Unfortunately my descriptions of the trail and surrounding scenery do not even come close to painting a picture of what it was like, so I hope that my photos do a better job at this...

Photos 1- 5: Arajen, Mariska and myself during different sections of the gorge.
Photos 6-36: The gorge in all its glory and grandeur.
Photos 37&38: Glacial lake which we visited on the way back to Lijiang.

2006-10-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

BRUSSELS - BELGIUM

Dissapointed to some extent by my visit to Paris, I eventually made it to Brussles after a lengthy 3 hour wait on the motorway due to mechanical problems with the bus. This delay, whilst quite frustrating, also proved to be a blessing in disguise as our late arrival into Brussels meant that all available hostel accommodation had long since been snapped up. Thankfully, I was able to stay with a friend of a German guy (Alex) whom I had met on the bus and after a good fill of Turkish style beef and french fries (which are, believe it or not actually from Brussels !!!) I hit the sack, pretty exhausted from a rather long day.

2006-10-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

YANGSHOU - CHINA

Braced for chaos and confusion, I finally left Hong Kong after a more than adequate stay and made the 3 hour journey through the 'New territories' to the transportation hub of Guangzhou in the far south of China. Unfortunately I quickly discovered that Guangzhou is really just another big city in China, a commercial and industrial hub with lots of buildings which had been fairly recently constructed but in total chaos. I even found it somewhat depressing as the whole place was just a construction site. Thankfully I managed to befriend some friendly people from Hong Kong, who helped me find out where I needed to go to get a bus and after changing some money and sorting out other stuff, they even took me with them to get some lunch (I was starving). It was great to meet such lovely people and they really were so kind to me, offering to pay for lunch and explaining what all the crazy foodstuffs were about.

After lunch I took a taxi to the train staion, leaving myself with what I thought was sufficient time to buy a ticket and get myself out of the city. The taxi ride there was quite an adventure and I found that the pedestrian is really the king of the road in china as there is no way to move thousands of people walking in the street. This did not however stop the taxi driver from beeping his horn incessantly for the entire journey. Despite numerous warnings to avoid travel during the week long holidays of National week, I found myself amidst a throng of travellers all vying for precious seats on train and busses bound for various destinations in China. Thankfully I somehow managed to extracate myself from this mess (although not without complication) and with the help of about 10 different people and after asking about 100 more, I managed to buy a bus ticket to my intended destination, Yangshou. Given that I had nothing to do in Guangzhou, I spent the 6 hours waiting for my bus, just playing Sudoku... fun times !!!

The journey to Yangshou was quite horrendous and I got little to no sleep, after a while just giving up and trying to take in some of the scenery. Following an early morning arrival to Yangshou, I checked into a hostel, grabbed some breakfast and then embarked on a day of biking with Omar (Ethiopia) and Luis (Mexico) whom I had met on the bus from Guangzhou. Our group also included 2 chinese girls who wanted to pracitce their english (although they seemed to spend alot of the day speaking with each other in Chinese... which none of us quite understood).

The scenery around Yangshou was quite amazing and very similar to that which I had observed around Vinales in Cuba. Thankfully the weather was great if a little warm and on our bikes we were able to take in some of the country side. Along the way I managed to sustain a number of injuries including cuts from generally being a maniac and also a massive bruise on my upper thigh as a result of me falling down a ditch whilst attempting to... take a photo of course ! (It didn't even turn out to be a good photo which was a little annoying). After an hour or so of riding, we were joined by Abrahm (Holland) who was taking a similar route to us and whom had unfortunately paid out for a rather useless tourguide who wanted to go home and sleep rather than show Abrahm around.

We made our way to Moon Hill and after a steep climb were treated to some great views of the surrounding landscape. Over the course of the day we also passed a number of rivers, all filled with bamboo rafts carrying mainly chinese tourists around the place.

Unfortunately however, this first day of activities was pretty much the extent to which I saw and experienced the region around Yangshou, which is a pity because I think there was certainly plenty more to see including a number of interesting villages along the Li River. Given that the town was bustling with tourists and foreigners living in different parts of china but on vacation for a few days in Yangshou, I spent the majority of my time in Yanghsou socialising and having a good time. I justified this by the fact that it was probably the first time since Sout America that I had really embarked on such a period of disorderly behaviour.

But bloody hell !!! It was absolute chaos. Following our day of biking, a group of us assembled outside one of the streetside bars/cafes and enjoyed a number of cheap, cold beers (just what the doctor ordered). Following this we frequented a number of bars and eventually made our way home (all except Luis, who had drunken so much, including some nasty chinese 'vodka' that he couldn't remember where his hotel was and was as such taken to spare bed in Abrahms room). However, this was probably the most tame night of our stay in the city.

The following night, after not having achieved a great deal during the day, we found ourselves back in the same place for more beers, after which I tried my hand at fortune telling. You see, one of the residents in Yangshou was an albino chinese man, whom made his living as a kind of oracle and given that his appearance and dress was so different to anyone else in the town, the chinese people seemed to just accept him as divine. Not to be outdone by my 'brother' as he was affectionately termed, I copied some chinese characters from his sign and also transcribed "I am the Oracle" in english and placed this sign on my forehead. Within a few minutes I was reading the palms of numerous passers by and getting a fair bit of attention, although the novelty soon wore off as I had to actually make up stories for my clients and received nothing in return !!!

Following these shennanigans, a group of us made our way to an underwear party at one of the bars down the road. Had I not consumed more than my fair share of beer, I would definitely not have been seen within 100 metres of such a party, but at the time it seemed like a good idea. Having walked in the door, I was attacked by a number of the club patrons and within a few seconds all of my clothes had dissapeared. I set about continuing my state of intoxication and then enjoyed meeting a tonne of cool people, dancing around and generally making a fool of myself. Meanwhile, outside the chinese passers by thought this idea of people getting around in their underwear was hilarious and were taking heaps of photos of us competely smashed off our heads. As such, I may or may not have organised a group of us to go outside and moon them... which was bloody hillarious.

Over the course of the night I posed for numerous photos with my 'samurai sword' (which turned out just to be a green stick!!!) so there must be a few hundred photos of me (and my butt) on cameras all around china. Later on, whilst performing a quick dash up the street I was also got spoken to by the police for public nudity (after mooning the dude in the street selling hot dogs) but didn't believe the policeman was for real (he only had a small red card saying police and wasn't even wearing a uniform !) and later on managed to lose one of my shoes which I was actually pretty annoyed about the next day. Enough said about this party and my time in Yangshou, I will let the photos do the talking.

Photos 1-4: Views of Yangshou across one of the lakes in the city centre.
Photos 5-11: Shots of the countryside surrounding the city.
Photo 12: Members of the biking expedition.
Photo 13: Comorant fisherman posing for photos (their more prominent source of income).
Photos 14&15: More views of the river and bamboo rafts.
Photos 16-31: Nightlife festivities over the course of my stay (no explanations required).

2006-10-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

HONG KONG - CHINA

As my first destination in Asia, Hong Kong certainly provided me with an opportunity to accustom myself to 'Asian culture' and I found the city gave off a mixture of European and Asian vibes. Over the course of my stay I managed to see a fair bit of the city and nearby island of Lantau although the large jump in temperature from Switzerland to Hong Kong meant that I was very often found resting during the middle of the day.

Despite being a historically important and quite interesting city, I was dissapointed that Hong Kong provided almost no examples of its colonial past (there were only 2 'colonial buildings' still standing) and apart from a few art galleries, museums and a few other sites of interest, there was very little to keep me entertained in the city itself. What I was amazed to find however was an absolute plethora of shopping complexes and pretty much anything that I could think of buying was readily available. On my first night in the city, I just wandered around the streets close to my hostel, checking out new golf clubs, cheap clothing and a tonne of electronic equipment. Thankfully I was able to resist the temptation to spend the remainder of my savings in just a few hours !!! I was however, quit frustrated and surprised to find an army of sub-continental hagglers on the street, attempting to sell the tourist 'real copy watches', tailored suits and 'massage sessions'.... all of which I declined using only my most polite english !!!

Probably the most spectacular aspect of Hong Kong is the view of the city skyline as viewed from Victoria Peak on Hong Kong island. I visited the viewpoint twice, once at night and once during the day and was treated both times to fantastic views of the hundreds of skyskrapers, all crammed onto a tiny strip of space. From this position I was surprised to find that in fact there lay vast regions of 'wilderness' around the city and whilst walking down from the peak through something of a forest reserve it was difficult to contemplate that I was amidst a massive city, such was the tranquility and lack of noise.

Another highlight from my time in the city was Lantau island, to which I travelled with Lauren who was also staying at my hostel. After a cable-car ride accross some impressive mountain scenery, we arrived at a small 'tourist' village, adjacent to which was a giant Budah. Given that this was my first Budah, I was quite taken by the statue, however Lauren, whom had been travelling for some time in Thailand, was considerably less impressed by the hulking piece of bronze. Nonetheless the adventure was enjoyable all the same.

Between my few activities during the day, I also managed to get out during the nights and check out the Hong Kong nightlife. I quickly found that the city was far more interesting during the night than during the day, a point that was emphasised by my outing on Wednesday ('ladies') night. After paying a considerable amount for entry (including an open bar) to an establishment in the suburb of Wan Chai, I set about obtaining value for money and got myself well and trully bashed, in the process causing a fair bit of ruckass and meeting many people along the way. Following the closure of the club, I somehow made my way to another place (with the help of various people along the way), met some very 'friendly' local girls whom thankfully from which I was able to remove myself and then set about chatting with some Colombian girls (of a similar profession) in my best intoxicated spanish. A few hours (and bars) later I found myself in broad daylight outside my hostel at 8am. To recount all of what happened that night would require not only a great deal of space but also some help from those who were with me at the time (my memories are not so vivid), plus I do not wish to incriminate myself any further. Needless to say however, I had a great time although subsequent adventures to various spots around the city certainly did not prove quite so exciting.

My stay in Hong Kong was in hindsight too long as there really wasn't alot to keep me in the city. However, this was necessitated by my desire to watch the NRL grand final, which thankfully my team the Brisbane Broncos won, thereby making the wait more than worth it.

Photos 1-5: Buddah statue and the nearby village on Lantau island.
Photos 6-12: Sections of Hong Kong skyline by day and night.
Photo 13: Early on Wednesday night, before the fun really began.

2006-10-08T06:21:00.000-07:00

PARIS - FRANCE

The city of love, the city of light or whatever you want to call it, Paris was my next destination after a most enjoyable month spent in different parts of Germany. Having already experienced a taste of France during a quick visit to the border city of Strasbourg, I was extremely looking forward to sampling more of the french culture, language and food and to exploring one of the worlds most famous cities.

After a 2 hour delay, my flight eventually made it from Stuttgart to Paris and with only a few difficulties (language related of course !) I made it to my hostel. The following day I set about exploring different parts of the city on foot and despite not really knowing exactly where I was going, I managed to make my way along the river Seine, passing a number of important sites along the way (Eifel Tower, Egyptian Obelisk and of course the Lourve). Thankfully the weather was good and it was nice walking around without any real plan.

One of the things that surprised me the most about the city was just how many people of African ancestry were there and it really gave the city a lively and exciting feel. Of course I was aware of the French presence in Africa but was certainly not prepared for the African presence in Paris. In the region around my hostel (11th arrondisment) I was treated to somewhat of an African market whilst walking around each morning as there were women clothed in traditional dress, selling hot corn and various fabrics which really gave the place a much different feel to what I had imagined Paris would be like.

Over the course of my 4 day stay in Paris, I took in as many of the 'sites' as possible, without actually making it inside any of the literally millions of art galleries such as the Musee d' Orsay and Lourve. Whilst not anti-art, the thought of walking for hours, looking at painting after painting did not exactly enthuse me (call me uncultured but I prefer to be amongst the people in a city) and as such, I probably didn't come away from Paris feeling like the city had really impressed me. Whilst there were a number of other sites of interest such as the Notre Dame Cathedral, Latin Quarter, Arc d' Triomphe and so on I wasn't overly impressed by Paris and the exorbident prices on everything from food to public transport, certainly didn't help.

It was however not a completely wasted visit as I did enjoy spending time with Claudia, a friend of mine from Chile, whom I hadn't seen for a number of months. We also met a really nice couple from Austria whom we hung out with a little.

As far as cities go, I didn't find Paris particularly interesting but it certainly wasn't the dullest place I have frequented during my travels. I guess for an art lover it would be one of the most exciting places in the world, but an art lover I am not. As for the Parisians, despite not being as friendly as the Brazillians, I found most were quite pleasant and generally willing to help if required. Whilst not a surprise, this certainly blew away some of the stereotypes surrounding the people from Paris.

Photos 1&2: Eva, Josef, Claudia and myself enjoying a drink at the end of a days sightseeing.
Photo 3: Claudia on one of the bridges crossing the river Seine.
Photos 4-20: Various sites around the city (Eifel Tower, Arc d' Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Lourve, Egyptian Obelisk...)

2006-09-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

MUNICH - GERMANY

After hearing word that my good mate Pope Benedict XIV (or something along those lines) was going to be in Munich for a few beers and a Sunday morningnd mass I decided to continue from Dresden to the far south of Germany, Bavaria. Getting to Munich proved quite an easy proposition and I was able to travel very cheaply using the internet based ride-sharing service, 'mitfahrtzentralen'. Not only was travelling in this manner considerably cheaper but also it provided an opportunity for me to meet and interact with some more German people (along the way I also learnt alot about estimating the value of forest assets from the rather excited driver who seemed to really enjoy having someone to speak in english with). The scenery in the south east of the country was quite beautiful and we passed through many kilometres of rolling forest hills and later on through plantations of Hopps used for the brewing of Germany's finest beers.

Despite being warned by a number of people that I would find it difficult to find accommodation in Munich as a result of the Papal visit, I checked into a hostel adjacent to the railway station without any hassle and then enjoyed a few free beers with other travellers from a multitude of countries. It was great to socialise with a large group of people given that I had been staying in peoples' houses for the previous week or so and I had a great time until the small hours of the morning.

The following day I managed to drag myself (quite by accident really) onto a free tour of the city. This however proved to be quite dull on 2 accounts, firstly because of the Pope being in town, many of the important streets, churches and other buildings were closed meaning there wasn't a lot that we could see or do. Secondly, our Australian (go figure ??) tour guide was slightly too enthusiastic for my somewhat hungover frame of mind. Still, I did have a good chat with various people also on the tour and after its completion, spent the remainder of the day hanging out with Kate (Newcastle), having a brief look around other parts of the city but mostly sampling some of the local Bavarian beers.

In all honesty I didn't really see an awful lot of the city and there are definitely a number of museums along with the Neuenstein castle that I would like to visit sometime in the future. However, getting around the city proved almost impossible because of the crowds hoping to get a glimpse of the pope and as such, Kate and I decided to check out some of the beer gardens (and also the bar at my hostel for an evening nightcap) around different parts of the city (of course, en-route to these establishments we did pause briefly to take photos of more notable buildings and so on !!) Along the way we ran into a number of interesting groups of people, including:

1) 'Team-America': This family from the US were actually nothing like the 'typical American stereotype' and over a number of days, both Kate and I enjoyed chatting with them about a range of topics such as politics (of course), geography(apparently there are 54 countries in Africa !), our professions and of course travelling. Despite the age difference between ourselves and the family, we got on really well and all of them treated us only with the utmost kindness. They were definitely some of the nicest people (and coolest 'oldies') I have met during all of my travels.

2) 'Norweigan strippers': Whilst drinking at the most famous beer garden in Munich (The Hofbrauhaus), Kate and I couldn't help but begin chatting with a bunch of rowdy Norweigans sitting at the table adjacent to us. All of them were in Munich making the most of the comparatively cheap beer although one of them in particular (Monica) had consumed more than her fare share and was subsequently up for a few shenanigans. After a few discrete 'peep shows' whilst sitting at the table, she and one of her mates embarked on a money making excercise and managed to raise almost 50 Euros by flashing various patrons at different tables in the beer garden. Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed by the staff and after a number of warnings she was asked to leave. Not to be outdone by the powers at be, Monica and the rest of them proceeded to strip off not only in the street outside the beer garden, but also in the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. This 'show' was met by a much warmer reception from the cafe management and Monica was presented with a free icecream for her efforts. After all of this excitement, Kate and I decided that we were probably best (and safer) to continue on without our new made friends however hanging out with them certainly did provide more than a few laughs.

3) 'German Stags': Whilst drinking at another of the city beer gardens, Kate and I were bailed up by a bunch of German guys enjoying a 'stag night'. This proved to be most different to anything typical in Australia or the UK and after introducing themselves and giving us an overview of what was going on, Kate was required to sign the shirt of the stag (Simon), cut a hole from his pants and lastly provide the label from her underwear, all of which certainly did not go without incident and provided me with a great deal of amusement.

Along the way, we also ran into a number of other randoms and needless to say had a great time. I really enjoyed being able to chat so freely with someone about so many things and it was also nice to have some company, having travelled fairly solo for the preceeding 7 or so months. For the record, we did manage to see the Pope (or Kate did at least whilst sitting on my shoulders) although I wouldn't say the experience exactly enriched either of our lives. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the weekend; the company, the location and the activities (mainly drinking beer) and hope to return to Munich sometime in the future.

It is worth noting that almost every German to whom I introduced myself as an Australian, proceeded with the response "Oh, so you must be here for the Oktoberfest celebrations next week" (unfortunately they were quite dissapointed by my response). It seems that the Australians have quite a reputation for causing mischief in Munich for the last 2 weeks in September, so much so that the Australia government has created a 'temporary embassy' in Munich (in addition to the permanent one in Berlin) for these 2 weeks, just to cater for all the Aussies that have misplaced their passports or found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Quite incredible I thought !

Photos 1-3: Munich city skyline.
Photos 4-8: Various locations around the city.
Photo 9: View of the 'popemobile' (zoom in).
Photo 10: Kate and I enjoying a quiet beer at the hostel bar.
Photo 11: Kate enjoying a 'Pope cookie'.
Photos 12&13: Monica and the crazy Norweigans (PG 13+ rating on photo 13 !!!)
Photos 14&15: Randoms met at one of the beer gardens.
Photos 16-18: Simon enjoying (perhaps a little too much) his stag night activities.
Photos 19&20: The American family.

2006-09-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

DRESDEN - GERMANY

2006-09-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

BERLIN - GERMANY

2006-09-12T03:27:00.000-07:00

HAMBURG - GERMANY

2006-09-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

COLOGNE - GERMANY

2006-09-12T02:46:00.000-07:00

STRASBOURG - FRANCE

Whilst in the region, my parents and I decided to visit Strasbourg, a short 15 minute train ride from the German border. Despite not knowing a great deal about what we would find in the city (I had vague recollections of it being quite picturesque after having compiled a university report on the region of Alsace and Lorraine), we decided to go and were definately not dissapointed. Whilst not greeted by particularly friendly weather, a new language and different culture was definately a welcome change after a week or so in Germany.

Having checked into our hotel, the 3 of us wandered around the city for the remainder of the afternoon and admired the range of architectural styles in different regions. The appearance of the buildings was by far the biggest difference between Strasbourg and other cities we had visited in Germany, most probably because many of the German cities had been levelled during the allied bombings, whereas Strasbourg had not.

2006-09-12T02:28:00.000-07:00

BADEN WÜRTTENBURG REGION - GERMANY

Departing from Ljubljana in the late afternoon, I arrived in Munich (my intended destination) at 2am the following morning. After quering one of the passengers as to the exact location of Öhringen, my final destination (he wasn´t able to provide enormous help, but suggested that the fact that he lived in Stuttgart and had heard of Öhringen, suggested that I was better off continuing to Stuttgart) I decided to jump back on the bus (despite having only purchased a ticket as far as Munich). So, after a bit of covert operations work (i.e. hurling my bag to other side of the luggage compartment to make it look like I was actually going to Stuttgart) and 2 more hours on the bus, I arrived in Stuttgart at a slightly less disagreeable hour of 4am !!

Still not exactly sure where I was headed, I enquired about trains to Öhringen, where I discovered I had made the right move and that I was only 1.5 hours from where my friend Ludwig lived. However, given the hour, I decided not to continue immediately and instead just chilled in the train station until about 6am before dumping my stuff in a locker and going for a wander around the city. I didn´t find so much of interest during my walk around the city centre and after a few hours or so, found a quiet cemetary, with a most appealing park, where I had a bite to eat and a bit of shute-eye before I was awoken by a passing rain shower and a squirrel depositing uneaten portions of his nut on my head !

I wandered back to the city centre and enquired at the tourist information office as to what I might occupy myself with for the remainder of the day. I was most delighted to find that both Mercedes-Benz and Porsche heralded from Stuttgart and so took myself out to the newly renovated and very impressive Mercedes-Benz museum. The museum contained an extremely detailed account of not only the history of the company but also included hundreds of cars, trucks and other vehicles from different periods throughout the 20th century. However, after a few hours of taking in all that was on offer (it was impossible to visit all parts of the museum in a single sitting) I returned to the train station and arrived in Ohringen a short while later.

2006-09-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

ZAGREB - CROATIA

Having not visited Croatias´ capital during my first visit to the country, I decided to make a brief stopover in Zagreb on my northward trip back to Germany. Despite receiving quite poor reviews amongst other travellers I had spoken to, I was definately not dissapointed and really enjoyed pottering around the city and exploring some of the older and architecturally more interesting regions.

Following a very early arrival on an overnight train from Belgrade, my fellow companions and I eventually traversed the 6 or so kilometres to our hostel (on foot, which was pretty stupid) and after catching up on some well needed rest and attending to a most disagreeable stomach, I spent the afternoon just enjoying the great weather and exploring different parts of the city centre. In the early evening, I found a great vantage point overlooking the city, where I just relaxed and watched as the soft light illuminated the city.

That evening I brushed up on my table-tennis skills, which had not been put to use since Christmas and then showed a few of the people at the hostel, a thing or 2 about how to play cards. The next day I just chilled out in the morning before taking myself to the bus station and departing to Ljubljana.

Although not a particularly long stay, I really enjoyed my time in Zagreb and would definately return there on future trips in the former-Yugoslav region.

Photos 1&2: Mounments in the city centre.
Photos 3&4: Views of the city-skyline at dusk.

2006-09-12T02:09:00.000-07:00

BELGRADE - SERBIA

Another lengthy journey through the picturesque moutain scenery of former Yugoslavia took me from Sarajevo to Belgrade. Despite being the largest city in the Balkan region, I found Belgrade quite plain and not particularly interesting although the rather inclement weather during my stay probably didn´t help in my evaluation.

During my visit I had a look inside a great number of churches and cathedrals, scattered around the city, all of which were quite grand and beautifully decorated. I also spent much of my time just chilling in various parks scattered accross the city, watching the local people go about their business. People watching, I found to be much more interesting than wandering around the city, not because the Serbian people led particularly interesting lives, but mainly because 99% of the people (i.e. girls) who wandered past were amongst the most beautiful I had seen since leaving South America.

2006-08-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

MOSTAR - BOSNIA

As a day trip from Sarajevo I travelled along the Una river to Mostar, the second largest city in Bosnia. Despite being almost 3 hours in duration the bus ride to Mostar was most enjoyable as the mountain scenery along the way was amongst the best I had seen whilst in eastern europe and I was quite dissapointed not to be able to stop and take photos along the way.

My time in Mostar consisted mostly of walking around and trying to capture the beauty of the city before the next passing shower meant it was time to get indoors. I spent a number of hours just wandering alongside the river, taking photos here and there and generally just taking in the beauty of the area. I also enjoyed poking around the old part of the city and exploring some of the city buildings which had been heavily damaged by artillery shells during the war. After talking with the girl in the tourist information office, I learned that the famous bridge in Mostar had been completely destroyed during the war and only rebuilt a few years ago. Still the bridge was far and away the most popular tourist attraction, partly because of its beauty and the history associated with it but also because of the famous divers whom jumped at regular intervals.... a descent of only 28 metres !!!

Apart from the bad weather, I absolutely loved my visit to the city and was in agreement with other travellers I had met in Cuba who had singled Mostar out as one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. I think there is a high possibility I will one day return to this area of Bosnia to spend more time exploring some more of the picturesque towns in the region.

Photos 1&2: Buildings destroyed during the Balkans war.
Photos 3-6: Views of the city, river and famous bridge.
Photo 7: One of the bridge jumpers preparing to make his decent.

2006-08-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

SARAJEVO - BOSNIA

After a rather lengthy journey from Budva (due in part to extensive mountain range in the south of Bosnia and also because the bus driver decided to stop for 30 minute breaks about every hour), I finally arrived in Sarajevo where I was greeted by the first really dull weather of my time in Europe. This did not however serve to dampen my spirits over the duration of my stay as the city offered plenty of great scenery and interesting history for me to take in.

During my time in Sarajevo I wandered around various parts of the city and was amazed that the scars of battle from the Balkan wars were so apparent. Almost every building contained bullet holes, whilst in some parts of the city there were numerous burnt-out apartments, still abandoned, 7 years on. Furthermore, the famous ´Sarajevo roses´ (places in the footpath were shell damage had been repaired using red coloured cement) were littered around various parts of the city. It was incredible to see all this when I had not even visited a museum and thankfully the topic of the war was not still ´touchy´and I was able to learn a great deal from talking with the owner of the apartment in which I was staying.

My first day in the city was spent wandering around the various hills on the city outskirts and I managed to get some great shots, despite the inclement weather. Also located on these hillsides were literally dozens of cemetaries containing victims from the war. It was chiling to see hundreds of gravestones all displaying the same year of death and despite the morbid nature of the place, I was pleased that such an obvious reminder of the regions tumultuous past was on display for all to see.

2006-08-23T05:16:00.000-07:00

KOTOR - MONTENEGRO

Without ever planning on visiting Montenegro (I only discovered it had separated from Serbia in June whilst I was on the bus !) I somehow ended up there on the advice of various travellers I had met in Dubrovnick. In hindsight the country proved to be one of my favourites in eastern europe, primarily because of the really friendly people there but also because of the great scenery and top weather which I enjoyed during my brief 4 day stay. Having decided on the bus that I was not going to get off in Herceg Novi (despite my having only bought a ticket that far) and instead stayed on the bus until we reached Budva. The bus ride in itself proved to be quite an adventure as the bus driver was running very late and hence we found ourselves zipping around the narrow coastal road at excessive speeds and tail-gating any car that wasn´t matching our velocity... In addition the driver deemed it fit to abuse anyone and everyone at his leisure and managed to get almost all the passengers offside by the end of the trip.

Having arrived in Budva I found somewhere to stay and then had a quick look around the city. Two things became immediately apparent during my wanderings; firstly that Budva itself didn´t have much to offer (in terms of scenery) apart from the beach and secondly that the rich and beautiful had descended on the city to enjoy basking in the sun. I was very impressed with just how good looking the girls in particular were (most of them were Serbian) and concluded that they would even give the Argentines a run for their money in the beauty stakes.

2006-08-23T03:47:00.000-07:00

DUBROVNICK - CROATIA

2006-08-23T02:06:00.000-07:00

SPLIT & HVAR (Island) - CROATIA

2006-08-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

PIRAN - SLOVAKIA

As a day trip from Ljubljana, Rachael and I travelled to the seaside city of Piran. Despite being a 3 hour journey the bus trip there and back was most facinating (for myself anyway... Rach was asleep as per ususal) as we passed through some fantastic mountain scenery and then made our way along the adriatic coastline. The landscape gave me a real feeling of being in Italy, particularly with the rolling hillsides filled with olive trees and vineyards and the small towns tucked away in small bays all the way along the coastline.

After arriving in Piran, Rach and I just spent a few hours wandering around the city and it was great just walking around the labyrinth of narrow streets in the old town and not having any idea where we were. We also managed to get some great photos of the cityscape from a viewpoint next to the cathedral on a hill just outside the city. However, after a few hours of looking around and resting every 30 minutes or so because of the heat, we returned to Ljubljana.

Definately worth the visit, Piran was an extremely beautiful city and provided a nice change in scenery from the mountains and lakes in the north of Slovenia.

Photos 1&2: Harbour filled with yachts and boats.
Photos 3-5: Views of the city from different vantage points.

2006-08-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

BLED & SKOFIA LOKA - SLOVENIA

2006-08-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

LJUBLJANA - SLOVENIA

2006-08-21T03:26:00.000-07:00

BUDAPEST - HUNGARY

2006-08-21T03:05:00.000-07:00

BRATISLAVA - SLOVAKIA

2006-08-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

ZAKOPANÉ - POLAND

2006-08-20T13:51:00.000-07:00

KRAKOW - POLAND

2006-08-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

BRNO & OLOMOUC - CZECH REPUBLIC

2006-08-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

CZESKY KRUMLOV - CZECH REPUBLIC

2006-08-03T04:25:00.000-07:00

PRAGUE - CZECH REPUBLIC

2006-06-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

SANTA CLARA - CUBA

2006-06-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

TRINIDAD - CUBA

2006-06-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

SANTIAGO DE CUBA - CUBA

2006-06-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

VINALES - CUBA

Quite possibly the most scenic region of cuba, the province of Pinar del Rio was my next destination following an extremely interesting week in La Havana. During my time in the province I based myself in the city of Vinales, a particularly popular tourist destination because of the surrounding mountains and tobacco plantations.

2006-06-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

HAVANA - CUBA

2006-05-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

MEXICO D.F. - MEXICO

As

2006-05-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

GUANAJUATO - MEXICO

2006-05-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

PUEBLA - MEXICO

After a longer than expected stay in Jalapa, I finally made it to Puebla and enjoyed a few days exploring this colonial city which just happened to be celebrating its 475th birthday at the time of my visit. Despite there not being a whole lot to do in the city I still enjoyed wandering around the city centre and exploring some of the regions further afield such as the city of Cholula.

What most impressed me about Puebla was the range of architectural styles incorporated into the buildings around the city centre. In addition, the city contained many, many impressive cathedrals and churches. The interior decor of these buildings was absolutely incredible, the majority containing equisite wood carvings and a plethora of gold-leafing. The city of Cholula also contained a large number of interesting churches, almost all of which had been constructed by the spanish in an effort to convert the Mexican natives to Catholosism. In fact, I was told by a number of locals in the city that Cortes vowed to contruct 365 churches in Cholula as a result of public rejection of Catholosism. (As it turned out only about 40 were built, unfortunately but not coincidently the sites for each being immediately on top of archaelogical sites sacred to the native people).

Given that my visit coincided with both the weekend and local celebrations in the city, I found there were plenty of opportunities to go out. On my first night out I met some great locals and enjoyed hanging out with them for the remainder of the night. The following night I also attended birthday celebrations (Gaby) which was also lots of fun.

2006-05-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

VERRACRUZ STATE - MEXICO

A late night departure from Campeche was followed by another sleepless night in the bus and an early morning arrival to the city Villahermosa in the state of Tabasco. Despite contemplating staying here for a few hours to check out 33 Olmec heads which had been placed in a park not far from the bus station (the only attraction in the city) I eventually decided to continue my travels and spent another 6 hours on buses before I finally arrived in Catemaco, a small town on the edge of a large lake in Verracruz state.

I found every place I visited in Verracruz state to be very hot, Catemaco being no exception. Despite a quite positive review of the town in my travel guide, the town didn`t offer a great deal and after having a quick walk around parts of the city and the lake, I found a nice spot to relax and read a little of my book. Whilst being a nice spot to just chill out for 1 day I decided to move on the following morning as there really was very little to see and do.

My next destination was the capital of Verracuz state, ´Verracuz´. As Pedro, a spanish traveller I met in Jalapa so aptly put it, if Catemaco is hot then Verracruz is like a ........... oven. (You fill in the blank!). Thankfully I managed to score an air-conditioned room and escaped much of the heat by arriving to the city in the late afternoon. That evening I wandered around parts of the city centre and along the coastline and whilst there were some nice areas and plenty of people to observe, there was once again a limited range of things to see and do. As such, I decided once again to stay only a single night and didn´t even bother to check out the citys nightlife, despite it being a Friday...

Thankfully the small town of Jalapa (my next destination after Verracruz) provided somewhat of a break from the monotony of locations I visited in Verracruz state. Apart from being a little cooler than the rest of the state (because of its elevation) there were a number of interesting places to visit, both in and around the city including a very impressive museum of anthropology (apparently the second best in Mexico) and also a nice waterfall about 30 minutes outside the city. Unfortunately, the lack of recent rainfal meant the waterfall was not nearly as impressive as it appeared in many photos taken a little later in the year but still it was worth the trip.

Jalapa also provided my first opportunity in some weeks to get out and enjoy some `Mexican nightlife` as most of the locations I had visited in the Yucutan Peninsula and Chiapas had been quite dull on this front. On my first night in the city, I ventured out with a few other travellers staying at the hostel and after grabbing a few beers at a quiet but trendy bar closeby, we walked to a club and spent a few hours there making some new local aquaintences and enjoying a few more beers. It was quite an enjoyable night and we met some friendly and crazy students who were studying in Jalapa. The music... well it was the normal rubbish, but I wasn`t expecting anything different.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to enjoy some more of the student nightlife, Pedro and myself ventured out on the following (Sunday) night and undertook a fair hike to get to a supposedly excellent club only open on Thursdays and Sundays. What people neglected to explain was that the club was dedicated completely to Salsa and as such we were both thoroughly dissapointed and decided to leave after only an hour despite forking out quite a hefty entrance fee.

Following the weekend I decided to stay in Jalapa a few days longer than I had originally intended, mainly because I was in no real hurry to be anywhere else and because I enjoyed hanging out with a few people (Marcella, Mario, Paula) I had met during my first night out. During the remainder of my time in the city I had more of a look around but basically just relaxed. Whilst definately not the most interesting of destinations, Jalapa provided a pleasant change in scenery and climate and was definately worth the visit.

Photos 1&2: Lakeside shots in Catemaco.
Photo 3: Verracruz harbour by night.
Photos 4&5: Olmec heads exhibited at the museum of anthropology in Jalapa.
Photos 6&7: Xico waterfall, not far from Jalapa.
Photo 8: Salsa lessons with Marcella.
Photos 9-12: Night out with Marcella, Mario and their friends.

2006-05-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

PENINSULA YUCUTAN - MEXICO

Still suffering considerable damage after my food related problems in Palenque, I dragged my weary body off to Cancun on another pretty rough overnight (second class) bus. Traversing the incredibly windy road (along the same lines as the Gillies highway) it appeared the bus driver rated himself somewhat as a bit of a rally driver and I found that I was constantly smashing my head up against the window. Still, I arrived safe and sound in Cancun and managed to find a hostel without too much trouble. I spent my only full day in Cancun, just chilling out and sorting out a few things before heading down to the famous ´Zona Hotellera´ where the literally thousands of massive resort hotels were situated on the white sandy beaches of the Carribean.

The beaches I must admit were very nice, especially the turquoise colour generated through a combination of the white sand and blue water. It was somewhat surprising to realise that the sand was in fact quite different to that in Australia in that it had been formed (I imagine) from the continual erosion of limestone (prevalent in the area) and therefore was much more coarse than anything I had seen previously. Also, it was nice to marvel at the sheer size of the hotels located along the beach... there must have been hundreds of them ! All in all however, the location wasn´t anything that special and only worth a short look really.

On my second day in Cancun I travelled by boat to the nearby Isla Mujeres, which again presented some lovely beaches but was really too touristy for my liking. After walking around parts of the island for a few hours and being hassled by every man and his dog, asking if I wanted to go snorkelling or hire a moped, bike, golf cart or whatever else, I eventually found a nice place to just chill out on the beach and get some nice photos. However, after a short while the ridiculous heat once again forced me to get out of the sun and so I returned to Cancun and took a bus to Tulum, further south along the coast.

Tulum was quite an interesting place. Firstly, it is the only location in Mexico in which there are Mayan ruins located on the coast. The combination of the beautiful turquoise ocean, white sandy beaches and archaeological ruins certainly set up an amazing location and I made sure to get many really great photos whilst I was there. After visiting the ruins on the morning of my first day in Tulum, I spent a little time relaxing on the beach before just having a bit of a look around the town (there wasn´t very much to see) and just playing cards and generally relaxing with a few of the other guys at the hostel.

My second day was equally as relaxed, for after a morning adventure walking the ´20 minutes´ (which turned out to be an hour) to one of the local cenotes, we just took an afternoon nap and once again played some cards. The cenotes were very interesting, not only because of how they were formed (because the geology of the Yucutan peninsula is primarily limestone, there is essentially no surface water and as such all water ends up in underground waterways linked through cave and cenote systems) but also because of just how clean the water was. In some places it was incredible to see that the cenotes were up to 15 metres deep and yet the bottom was still easily visible. It would have been amazing to engage in some snorkelling or better still, diving in some of these cenotes, but swimming around in the crystal clear water was still very enjoyable.

My last destination in the Yucutan Peninsula was the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, which I visited as a day trip on my way to Merida. Although not quite as spectacular as the ruins in Palenque, the Chichen Itza site was still very interesting and despite the heat in the middle of the day, I really enjoyed wandering around and exploring various buildings scattered over a large area. Apart from the very imposing pyramid located in the main ´plaza´ area, the various temples, 1000 columns and other smaller pyramids all provided opportunities to take some impressive photos.

I think that the Yucutan Peninsula has thus far provided me with some of the most interesting travel experiences and destinations of my time in Mexico. I really enjoyed hanging out with various travellers, playing football with the locals in Tulum and visiting some amazingly beautiful beaches and great archaeological ruins. This is one area of the country that I would definately recommend to any visitor making their way to Mexico.

Photos 1&2: Massive hotels in ´Zona Hotellera´ in Cancun.
Photos 3-6: Various photos from Isla Mujeres.
Photos 7-11: Coastline and Mayan ruins in Tulum.
Photos 12&13: Cenotes just outside Tulum.
Photos 14-: Archaeological site of Chichen Itza.

2006-04-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

PALENQUE - MEXICO

As the most famous and well preserved Mayan archaeological site in Mexico, Palenque provided not only some incredible jungle scenery and plenty of historical grandeur, but it also served up its fair share of problems, most of which seem to be all too common in this crazy country !

I arrived to Palenque late at night following a delayed and rather lengthy bus ride from San Cristobal de las Casas and after finding a shoddy little hotel which suited my budget I had a quick look around the city, an adventure which lasted about 30 minutes. Unlike other cities in Chiapas, Palenque (the city) really didn`t have a lot to offer and so following a brief visit to the Zocalo, I headed back and got some well needed rest after the previous nights shennanigans.

My first full day in Palenque was spent visiting 3 nearby ecological reserves with pristine waterfalls and beautiful rivers. This was definately a worthwhile day trip and I was particularly impressed with the second site we visited, `Agua Clara` a river which contained substantial quantities of minerals in the water, giving it a beautiful turquoise colour. Slightly less impressive was the brown water cascading over the waterfalls at `Agua Azul` (I couldn`t quite work out how it managed to get its name given the colour of the water) however all in all the trip was most enjoyable not only because of the places we visited but also because of the good group of people on the tour.

That afternoon marked the start of my `problems` in Palenque, for after consuming a perfectly normal dinner at a perfectly normal restaurant, I began to feel rather queezy. Over a period of 4 hours this transformed to a case of extreme discomfort and I managed only 2 hours sleep because of my frequent visits to the bathroom. Not being able to digest any form of liquids I went in search of more water at 4am in the morning and managed eventually to get some sleep. I awoke early feeling pretty `rude` but managed to get my stuff together and head out to the Mayan ruins in time for the 8am opening time, in the hope of avoiding the excessive heat (upwards of 40 degrees) and crowds of tourists.

The site was certainly very impressive. I managed to endure a good 2 hours of scaling pyramids and grabbed a number of good photos before my exhaustion and rather deteriorated state meant that I called it a day and after a quick visit to the interesting museum exhibiting various artifiacts discovered at the site and the significance of the various structures within the ruins, I returned to Palenque to just relax and later take a bus to Cancun.

All in all, the city (or more accurately, the various sites of interest around the city) was an interesting stop for a number of days and definately worth the visit.

Photos 1-3: Watefall at `Miso-Ha`.
Photos 5-8 : Beautiful turquoise coloured water at `Agua Clara`.
Photos 9&10 : Waterfalls at `Agua Azul`.
Photos 11-18 : Mayan ruins of Palenque.

2006-04-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS - MEXICO

After than a shorter than expected stay in Oaxaca, I took another overnight bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, once again `slumming` it with the rest of Mexico`s `second class` rather than spending the extra money on a tourist bus (first class). This adventure proved quite a mission as I arrived firstly into Tuxtla Guiterrez at around 6am in the morning following another rather sleepless night and then took a `colectivo` for the 2 hour journey to San Cristobal. Although I struggled to keep my eyes open for the entire journey, I was treated to some impressive views as we climbed up the winding mountain road to an altitude of about 2500m.

After another early arrival, I was really exhausted and spent my first day just chilling and having a look at a few of the museums around town, the more interesting of the sites I visited being the Museum of Mayan Medicine and the Amber Museum, both of which were definately worth the 20 peso entry fee, but were definately not worth 21 pesos !!! Still, it was interesting particularly learning about the amber industry in Chiapas; the methods of extraction, means of distinguishing amber from cheap plastic imitations and admiring the very impressive Zapotec sculptures made from amber. I also had a good wander around town, having a look at the Zocalo, churches and other buildings of significance.

On my second day, I visited a small village (San Andres) not far from San Cristobal, in which there wasn`t a lot to see, but the experience was still worth the visit. Highlights from the day were definatley observing the crazy Mayan-Christian religion practiced in the local church. Upon entering I was treated to a face full of pleasantly scented smoke and chanting in some language which I definately know was not spanish. It turns out that the people of Chiapas have created a hybrid religion incorporating both Mayan and Christian beliefs, with certain oddities such as John the Baptist being the second most important figurehead and the belief that Jesus has not risen. The town also offered an insight into the Zapotec `takeover` of regions in Chiapas and of even more interest, the delicate woven handcrafts characteristic of the region. I spent a number of hours scouring the various vendors and managed to pick up a few nice gifts for various people.
My final day in San Cristobal was taken up with a visit to the Cañon del Sumidero, a good 2 hours from the city and a site which I probably should have visited out of Tuxtla Guiterrez instead (hindsight is such a wonderful thing!). The trip was definately worth it and reminded me a lot of the fjords in Norway, with the cañon being (apparently, although this seems a little far fetched to me) in some places around 1000m from the water to the top. Two hours was probably enough as the scenery did become a little monotonous although we did also see a number of examples of the native wildlife on the return trip.

That night I ventured out with another traveller I met during the day and after downing our fair share of Mexican beers in the hostel in which he was staying (much more interesting than my hostel) we went out to a local club. It was ok although the music left a lot to be desired (as per usual) and after a few hours I decided that my `hammock bed` (the hostel was full so I was forced to relocate to the rather chilly outdoor residence) was a slightly more appealing option.

Despite the rave reviews given to San Cristobal, I didn`t think the place was anything amazing and it seemed to be haven for the `alternative, hippy travellers` rather than your mainstream backpackers. Still there were a number of nice sites around the city and the city itself was quite visually appealing and definately warranted a 2 day visit.

Photos 1-4: Cañon del Sumidero.
Photo 5: Views of the city from one of the nearby vantage points.

2006-04-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

OAXACA - MEXICO

Following my brief stint on the south-west coast of Mexico, I headed north to the city of Oaxaca in the hope of escaping the ridiculous heat... unfortunately not to be ! After yet another early arrival and hostel check-in, I grabbed some breakfast before heading out to the Zapotec archaeological ruins of `Mitla`. Two words, bloody dissapointing ! Nothing really much to see and in fact, I found the nearby church and monastery a hell of alot more interesting than the so-called `ruins`. This may have had something to do with the fact that the temperature was somewhere around 40 degrees, but I`m really just `calling a spade a spade` in saying that the archaeological site was very ordinary !! On the way back to Oaxaca, I passed and viewed from the safety of the air-conditioned bus, the oldest tree in the world. Even from this vantage point, I still felt like I experienced all that was on offer at this site.

That afternoon I busied myself with wandering the city streets and poking around the city centre. I found the cathedral, Zocalo and numerous churches quite interesting. In addition I spent a number of hours in the city museum, learning about the archaeological history of the region and admiring the numerous artifiacts collected and exhibited there.

Despite intially intending to spend around 4 days in Oaxaca, I quickly realised there was little to keep me there longer than 2 days, despite many travellers suggesting otherwise (another case of a trully overrated location). My second day in Oaxaca proved infinitely more interesting than my first, for after having sorted out a bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, I ventured to the Zapotec ruins of `Monte Alban`. These were quite similar (in their layout and what they contained) to the `Teotihuacan` ruins I had visited whilst in Mexico city and illustrated the influence of the Aztec culture on the Zapotecs. Despite the outrageous heat, I enjoyed wandering around the site and got some good photos of the various temples and pyramids before getting in trouble by one of the `guards` for using my tripod (another case of overzealous security if you ask me! Still got some good videos though). The site museum also provided a good explanation of the significance of the various structures and a brief introduction to the Zapotec empire.

Thus concludes all that is worth writing about regarding my visit to Oaxaca. Apart from the ruins of Monte Alban, I didn`t feel like the city offered a great deal and I found it somewhat difficult to understand why Oaxaca recived such great reviews in both many of the travel guidebooks and from other backpackers. Still, not the worst place I have ever been to !

Photo 1: Impressive church in `Mitla` with the `ruins` in the foreground.
Photos 2&3: City cathedral.
Photo 4: Radiant sunset looking over the city.
Photos 5-8: Zapotec ruins of `Monte Alban`.

2006-04-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

ACAPULCO & PUERTO ESCONDIDO - MEXICO

Having filled in a few days heading south from Mexico city, I finally made it from Cuernavaca to Acapulco for the Easter weekend, in the search of some nice beaches and some massive parties. From all reports Acapulco was the place to be. During my time in Acapulco I stayed with a guy I had met in Mexico city and whilst this was a most generous and financially rewarding option, the location of the house (well out of the city centre) meant that getting into town to be a part of the festivities, was rather hard.

Acapulco as a city didn´t appeal to me so much and had only a number of sites worth visiting. With the exception of an enjoyable morning spent in the surf, just mucking around with a boogie board in the 10 foot swell, I also managed to check out the old fort and associated museum which detailed the importance of Acapulco during the early stages of Mexican history as the port linking Europe with Asia. It was very interesting to learn all about how silks and spices were brought all the way from places like the Phillipines and then traded for gold and so on in Acapulco before being taken onto Europe. Also, the description of piracy in the Carribean made the museum well worth a visit. I also managed to check out the world famous cliff divers of Acapulco, whereby a number of crazy Mexicans hurled themselves off 20 or so metre high cliffs into the shallow water bellow, somehow managing not to smash themsleves into a million pieces on the rocks. The last place of interest which I managed to visit during my stay was a great vantage point on the mountain range just outside the city, a position which provided some great views of the hotels lining the beaches all around the city.

Despite the difficulties in getting into town, I did manage to go out twice during my stay in Acapulco. Unfortunately, my mate Carlos wasn´t interested in going out so I did it solo but did manage to meet up with some friendly Argentines whom I had befriended on the plane from Santiago de Chile to Mexico and whom I had met up with (just by chance) in Mexico city. Although I did originally intend to at least spend one of my nights in one of the famous clubs of Acapulco, the US$50 cover charge (albeit with an open bar) made this option very unenticing and as such I decided to frequent slightly less up-market and more ´fun´ establishments. On both nights I had a good time and met some great people so that was the main thing but I wouldn´t say that the parties were the most amazing that I have ever been a part of.

After Acapulco I headed briefly to Puerto Escondido, another beachside town, famous for its great surf and nice beaches. The weather here was stiffling hot and I was forced to spend the majority of the day under cover for fear of shrivelling up and dying. Still in the earlier hours of the morning and later on in the afternoon I did manage to check out some of the coastline around the town, which was very nice and spent a few hours just relaxing and sleeping in a hammock at one of the restaurants located at one of the more popular beaches.

Whilst Acapulco and Puerto Escondido probably weren´t the most ineresting places I have ever visited they were still worth a look and the kindness shown to me by Carlos´ family in particular made it a pretty good Easter away from home.

Photo 1: Old fort in Acapulco.
Photo 2: Views of the city and coastline in Acapulco.
Photo 3: Location of the famous cliff divers in Acapulco.
Photos 4-8: Beaches and coastline around Puerto Escondido.

2006-04-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

VALLE DE BRAVO - MEXICO

My next destination after Mexico City was the small town of Valle de Bravo, which I only visited more to fill in the time up to when I was planning on travelling to Acapulco. After a short bus ride south to Toluca, I made my way west over some sizeable mountain ranges to the small but popular (with Mexican families) tourist town. Completely void of backpackers, this lakeside town was surrounded by moutains and situated in an absolutely amazing location and provided plenty of opportunities for taking some great photos and enjoying some trekking through the forest.

On the bus trip from Toluca to Valle de Bravo I met a very nice American couple who had relocated to Mexico about 20 years ago. They were kind enough to not only advise me of the best places to visit around the town but also invited me to their house the following day for breakfast. The meal consisted of bacon, sausages and eggs, pancakes and copius amounts of tea and coffee, a warmly received feed ! All that was missing was the steak !!

After arriving toValle de Bravo in the late afternoon I eventually found somewhere to stay and then legged it up one of the hills and managed to arrive at one of the vantage points on the lakes edge in time to catch the last glimpses of the sun. I was unfortunately about 10 minutes too late to catch the amazing orange and red colours cast by the sun over the lake (due to a few navigational difficulties and perhaps lack of fitness). This, I will admit was one of the main reasons why I decided to stay on an extra day in the town and forego more time in Cuernavaca.

The next day, following breakfast with my new American friends, I had a look around a smaller town not far from `Valle` and visited a nice waterfall before walking back along the lake to the town. Thankfully my second afternoon provided me with plenty of time to capture many photos of the sunset over the lake, before I met up with a few boys I had befriended the previous night. We enjoyed a few racks of pool and a great pizza and also managed to catch up the following day and spent a number of hours hiking to the top of another hill close to where one of the boys lived. This adventure provided further opportunities for photos of the town, lake and surrounding mountains.

Valle de Bravo was definately one of the ´suprises´ of my trip thus far and the combination of an incredibly relaxed atmosphere, friendly local population and fantastic location being a more than welcome change after the hustle and bustle of D.F.

As a brief stopover en-route to Acapulco, I stayed 1 night in Cuernavaca. Despite my limited time in the city, I managed to have a reasonable look around and was impressed with the Zocalo, churches, cathedrals and other buildings of significance in the city centre. Unfortunately, I was unable to visit the archaeological ruins close to the city due to a lack of time, but I figured there would be plenty of opportunities to visit other sites of interest in the states of Chiapas and the Yucutan Pensinula.

Photos 1-3 : Views of the town, lake and mountains from a great vantage point just out of town.
Photo 4&5: Sunset on my second afternoon.
Photo 6: Waterfall about 1 hour from the town.
Photos 7&8: More photos of the town and lake from our hike on my last day.
Photo 9: Cathedral in Cuernavaca.

2006-04-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

MEXICO CITY - MEXICO

Upon arriving to the worlds largest metropolis, Mexico City or as it is more commonly referred to in Mexico, `Distrito Federal` (D.F.) I was immediately in awe at the sheer size of the place. Despite already being aware of the fact that the city was home to around 26 million inhabitants, I was amazed that we could fly for almost 40 minutes over a landscape of houses, roads and lights before landing at the international airport. My amazement continued after exiting the subway in the city centre (Zocalo) where I was confronted with a huge plaza, massive cathedral and one of the biggest flags I have ever seen.

Throughout my stay the city continued to astound me and I quickly grew very fond of the excellent metro system which I was able to use for travel from one end of the city to the other for less than US20 cents. Not only was the metro system safe, relaible and cheap (the same for which cannot be said for the metro in London for instance) but also the frequency of trains was quite astonishing !

As with many of the larger cities I have visited, Mexico city certainly through up a range of things to do and I never felt like I was bored at any stage during my visit. I really enjoyed just wandering around parts of the city centre and checking out various places of interest. However probably the highlights of my stay in the city were:

1) The museum of anthropology. This place continued the trend of `huge things` in the city and was the largest museum I have ever seen. With exhibitions of Mexicos anthropological history spanning over 2 floors and around 16 large rooms on each floor, this place kept me occupied for the best part of a day and even then I didn`t feel like I had covered everything there was to see (after all there is only a certain amount of information one can take in at once). The exhibits of Mayan, Aztec, Zapotec and Olmec artifacts and history were really interesting and a good kick start to my visits to important archaeological sites around the country.

2) The archaeological site of Teotihuacan. It should not be surprising that I mention how large this site was also. The sheer size of the 2 pyramids constructed at the site was hard to comprehend and I can only guess at how amaing the `real deal` in Egypt must be. Despite trecherously hot conditions and a truckload of tourists (mostly school children) I really enoyed walking around the site and taking everything in.

3) The Basillica of Guadelupe. Having never seen a proper Basillica before, I was pretty impressed with all the different churches and Cathedrals at this one site. Not only did they showcase a range of modern and traditional architectural styles but also the views of the city from the top of the hill within the site were quite impressive.

In addition to these places I visited a tonne of other sites including the Templo Mayor, which was quite dissapointing although the accompanying museum thankfully made up for this fact and the city museum, which contained interesting exhibits on the history of D.F. During my stay I also managed to go out twice, firstly to a pretty standard Irish pub with some good music and where I met some friendly locals and secondly to another establishment which unfortunately wasn`t so interesting, despite the fact that it was a Saturday night in the worlds largest city (didn`t quite add up but anyway!).

Unfortunately I was also subjected to the famous `Moctezumas revenge` whilst in Mexico and on my 2nd day in the city I was rendered unable to walk and was doubled over in pain after stupidly consuming some of the city`s local water. I later discovered this was most unadvisable, not because the water was bad but because all the pipes used to transport water around the city were in quite a bad state. This of course didn`t seem to make sense to me from an Engineering perspective but I gave up trying to reason with the locals and went and bought some drugs to cure me of my problems instead.

Without doubt, D.F. was one of the most interesting cities I have ever visited and I really enjoyed my time there. I met some great people, took in some wonderful sites and despite the city being almost completely `americanized` I was still treated to some of the mexican culture, tradition and of couse cuisine.

Photos 1-3: View of the city nightscape from one of the tallest buildings (Torre Latinoamericano) Photos 4-7: The Archaeological site of Teotihuacan.
Photos 8-10: Other locations around the city.
Photos 11-17 : Photos from Basillica Guadelupe.

2006-03-30T19:47:00.000-08:00

MENDOZA - ARGENTINA

After almost 3 days of solid travel I finally arrived in Mendoza, surprisingly in quite good spirits considering the fact that I had slept only about 12 hours and eaten once in that time. Even more surprising was the fact that I was relatively unafected by the dissapearance of my jacket on the bus from Cordoba to Mendoza (thanks to some `kind` Argentine nonse!) but I guess my rather `deteriorated` mental state certainly helped in that regard.

It`s amazing to think that a good Argentine steak was able to cure such problems and after cleaning myself up and grabbing a bite to eat, in a moment of `madness` I decided to go out with a group from the hostel, figuring that it was the last time I was going to be in this part of the world for some time so that I may as well make the most of it. I certainly wasn`t dissapointed as all of us enjoyed a great night, firstly with some live music (U2, Coldplay, Radiohead etc) which unfortunately the singer managed to butcher up quite well and then after that a more traditional Argentine club scene.

During the night I met some more great people and even managed to bump into a friend of mine (Anabel) whom I had met during my first visit to Mendoza, almost 1 year previously. After a night of festivities, fernet, beer and the usual Argentine shenanigans, I finally managed a few hours of decent sleep before transferring myself and my belongings from the hostel to my friend Gisela`s house.

I won`t say that I achieve a a lot in Mendoza, but this was not the purpose of my visit. I did however manage to go out `clubbing` once more during my stay (my first attempt on the Friday night was rather feeble, as after having been woken up from my `quick nap` by Gisela around 1am I proceeded to mutter something rather uninteligible and then pass out again!!) Three of us went to a club some way out of the city and I really enjoyed my last night out in Mendoza with some great music and once again some great people. During the rest of my time in the city I enjoyed a few days of rest before my flight to Mexico and it was great being able to stay with Gisela and spend my time cooking, organising my stuff and catching up with various people. Also, over the course of my stay I made a number of new friends (mostly friends of Gisela`s) and in only a few days I fell in love with the city and its people again.

My final day in Mendoza was busy as usual as I tried to say goodbye to as many people as I could and organise a barbeque for a few friends. After a very quick dinner and goodbyes I took a taxi to Anabel`s place to wish her a happy birthday (I had promised to visit given that I had left a few days before her birthday in the previous year) and after a really nice time spent with her eventually made it back to Gisela`s house to pack my stuff ready for my early morning trip to Santiago the next day.

My third visit to Santiago was much more enjoyable than the previous two and I must admit that the city really grew on me in a short period of time. I managed to catch up with a friend of mine (Claudia) whom I had met in Buenos Aires and we spent most of the day just hanging out, having a look around her University and parts of the city and then enjoying a nice dinner with some friends and then a movie. My final few days of my trip in South America were amongst the most enjoyable of my entire visit and they really emphasised to me just how much I enjoyed this part of the world. The people, the food and most of all the amazing Andean landscapes combined to create a perfect little world and it was very difficult (once again) to leave. I think it is almost certainly however that I will be back in this part of the globe in the not too distant future.

Photos 1-7: Thursday night with the crew from the hostel and some new Argentine amigos.
Photos 8- : Saturday night clubbing at Alquemia.
Photo: Some things you can only get away with in South America !
Photo: Final night in Mendoza - BBQ with friends.
Photo: Anabel with her birthday present.

2006-03-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

BONITO - BRAZIL

Heralded as the ecotourism capital of Brazil, Bonito was my last destination before heading overland through Paraguay and back to Argentina before taking my flight to Mexico. After a number of enjoyable days spent out of the big cities in the Pantanal, Bonito offered slightly more touristy options, which were considerably more expensive but still well worth the visit and money invested.

After arriving to the town from Corumba, quite late at night, my first morning in Bonito was spent snorkelling down ´Rio Sucuri´, an amazingly clear waterway filled with fish and different plant life. The river was trully quite unlike anything else I have ever seen and I found it difficult to comprehend just how the water could possibly be so clean. Following a quick walk around part of the reserve, on which we saw some amazing wildlife (monkeys, anteaters, many birds...etc), our group of 8 spent about 50 minutes just leisurely floating down the river, taking in the array of colourful fish and underwater plants along the way. The fish were absolutely enormous and would have made for a tasty meal for 5 ! Meanwhile, the ´underwater gardens´ containing colourful plants and logs were almost surreal. From what I could gather, the river was kept emaculately clean due to the presence of Na(OH) minerals in the water, these acting essentially as a soap to keep the river pristine and preventing the growth of algae.

After the mornings snorkelling adventure, I spent the hottest part of the day just sorting myself out and then visited the less impressive, but still pleasant, public swimming hole. This too contained a plethora of enormous fish but was not so clean. After a quick swim, I wandered the 5 or so kilometres back into town and had a bit of a look around, although there really wasn´t much to see.

My second morning in Bonito was spent visiting the famous ´Blue Lake Cave´, a large cavern containing an amazingly blue lake at the bottom (the colour of the water being caused by a combination of the lighting effects within the cave and the presence of various minerals). Despite this being quite an incredible spectacle, I was unable to get a decent photograph, mainly because of the severe lack of light within the cave, meaning that all my photos were rather blurry. Unfortunately our guide for the trip wouldn´t let me use my tripod and as such it was impossible to keep my camera sufficiently still to get a good shot. Needless to say this annoyed me no end and possibly caused me to walk away with a somewhat negative vibe from the place.

That afternoon I visited a small park with 8-10 really nice waterfalls, all of which were very picturesque. It was great just walking through the forrest, taking in the fantastic scenery and enjoying swims in a number of great lagoons beneath the waterfalls. Our group was also treated to 2 snakes engaging in some rather interesting mating behaviour.

This concluded my activities in Bonito because the next day I took an afternoon bus to the Paraguay border before beginning my crazy adventures to Mendoza. Well worth the visit, Bonito was by far the most expensive of my destinations in South America (mainly because all of the attractions were located on private land meaning that the owners could effectively charge whatever they wanted). Had I a little more disposable cash, I would have loved to have done ´the mother of all activities in Bonito´, a 72m abseil into a cave followed by a 2 hour dive to view the stallegtites and underwater geology followed by a 72m rapel out of the cave.... all for just a cool US$250 !! Still, the sheer abbundance of animal and plant life made all of the places I visited, absolutely incredible and I am sure that someday I wil return to Bonito to see a little more of the many attractions the place has to offer.

Photos 1-4: Wildlife, rivers and lakes viewed during our walk around the site at Rio Sucuri.
Photos 5-15: Underwater shots from snorkelling in Rio Sucuri.
Photos 16-19: ´Just get the camera out of my face ok !´
Photo 20: Crystal clear river and surrounding forest.
Photos 21&22: Sunset just outside the town.
Photos 23&24: Photos from the local swimming hole.
Photo 25: Opening of the cave containing the aforementioned ´Lago Azul´(blue lake).
Photos 26-29: Waterfalls and surrounding rainforest.
Photo 30: Other travellers at the hostel in Bonito.

2006-03-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

THE PANTANAL - BRAZIL

It was pretty hard to leave Itai after the fun and adventures I had enjoyed there, but after playing with a few possible itineraries which would have allowed me to return for more ´weekend of chaos´ I eventually decided to stick with my original plan and head to the Pantanal.

Probably the biggest thing in my favour before going to the Pantanal was the fact that I went there with no real expectaions. Whilst other people had seemingly travelled half way accross the world to see the wildlife the region had to offer, I merely viewed the 3 day trip as a chance to get out of the cities and enjoy a change of scenery. (Possibly this mindsight was brought on because in Australia we are somewhat spoiled for an abbundance of wildlife). Anyway, as a result of me not really bothering too much with what exactly I saw in the Pantanal, I found that I enjoyed the experience a great deal more than others perhaps did.

After arriving in the regional hub, Campo Grande I booked myself on a 4 night and 3 day tour almost imediately and spent the remainder of the day making my way to the campsite with a number of British backpackers and one crazy, eccentric and altogether irritated Israeli. Despite a breakdown in communication between the base camp and capsite meaning that there was no food (as had been promised) waiting for us on the first night, our arrival was fairly smooth, if a little late (due to our bus being involved in an accident on the first corner outside the bus terminal ! This pissed off our ´Israeli companion´ no end !).

Our first day in the Pantanal was spent canoeing around one of the many waterways in the morning (quite hot and tiring work and the canoes certainly didn´t seem to ever go where we wanted them to) and then horseriding around more of the property in the afternoon, once again I found that my horse had a very poor sense of direction and so ended up walking into and through trees and bushes, much to my frustration. Apart from these continual navigational difficulties, the day was quite enjoyable and we were treated to a wide range of wildlife including numerous Tucans, Jabirou Stalks and many other forms of birdlife. The highlights of the trip were probably having the horses wade through water up to their necks (I had somewhat of a ´Clydesdale´ and so fared better than most), watching an amazing sunset and seeing the Israeli come flying off the front of his horse, which had decided to just stop, mid-canter. That night we went on a short walk and managed to catch a glimpse of some Capibarras (massive guinea pig like creatures, the largest rodents in the world) and also a Caiman (small aligator) which our guide Carlos had no trouble in catching.

Day two commenced with some pirahna fishing, which was probably the most frustrating activity I have ever engaged in. The stupid fish were apparently not so stupid and by attacking the bait in hordes, each fish taking only a small bite, they were collectively able to devour half a cow and only suffer 4 or so losses in numbers. Needless to say after a few hours in the hot sun enduring this, I decided to call it quits although the others demonstrated considerable more patience than I. That afternoon it rained in a way that is only possible in places such as the Pantanal and so our activities were cancelled and instead we played some volleyball, foreigners against the Brazillians, in which the Brazillians were shown up, big time !

The last day involved alot of walking but I found this was probably the best way to remain unoticed and as such our group was treated to the biggest range of wildlife on these trips. Amongst some of the animals we saw were Armadillos, Wild Pigs, various types of Monkeys and a tonne of other birds and animals. That afternoon we took a truck along the ´road´ to Corumbá and saw a tonne more Capibarras and some quite large Caimans but unfortunately no Sloths, Giant Otters, Jaguars or Cougars, all of which we were hoping to get a glimpse of.

The trip was very enjoyable, but definately not mind blowing. A surprising point of note was the fact that I was barely touched by a mosquito and instead found the ants to be far more troublesome. Also, I discovered that sleeping in a hammock is entirely possible (if hung correctly) and enjoyed 3 blisful nights sleep, much to my surprise. Having spoken with other travellers I learned that the tour company that I had chosen fared quite well in terms of the services, meals and acommodation offered, which was pleasing to hear. Definately not amazing, but well worth the time would probably be my overal assessment of a trip to the Pantanal.

Photos 1-3: Canoeing on the first day.
Photo 4: Pirahna fishing, day 2.
Photos 5-7: Horseback shots from the afternoon ride on day 1.
Photos 8-10: Flora and Fauna conjured up by Carlos the magician (his ability to catch and know where wildlife existed, even without being able to see it, continually astounded me!)
Photos 11-14: Magnificent sunsets captured during the trip.

2006-03-16T19:45:00.000-08:00

ITAI - BRAZIL

Not exactly on the ´Brazillian tourist route´, Itai was my next destination after an excellent few days spent exploring the colonial gold-rush towns in Minas Gerais. My primary reason for visiting this small town, about 4 hours south-west of Sao Paolo, was to catch up with a group of Brazillians whom I had met during Carnival in Camboriu, however conveniently, the town was more or less in the direction I was heading next, namely towards the Pantanal and Bonito.

In all honesty, Itai and the surrounding area didn´t exactly provide a me with wealth of activities to enjoy or interesting locations to visit, yet I can say that my time there was amongst the most enjoyable of my entire trip in South America. It was great to see how people lived in ´non-touristy´ towns and to engage in different activities such as fishing, which I would not normally have the opportunity to do whilst travelling. However, by far the best part of my stay in Itai was developing some great friendships with some of the local people. Everyone was so amazingly friendly and kind to me during my visit and as a result I formed some great friendships. I found that everyone really went out of their way to make sure that I had a great time there and it really meant that I felt welcome and quite at home.

By far the 2 highlights of my 5 days there were:

1) Going out in the nearby city of Avare. Despite kicking things off in rather quiet style (just a few beers) on the Thursday night, both Friday and Saturday nights were quite massive affairs, mainly because of the potent capairinhas which I consumed on both occasions. Dancing on tables, tactical vomitting and lots of boisterous behaviour and general sheananigans were quite commonplace, not to mention a few stories which thankfully will not make it onto this website. Whilst out I met another tonne of great people, whom were interested in my travels and what the hell I was doing in their part of the world. I think it is pretty safe to say that I was the first traveller they had seen for a while.

2) Fishing. On my second day in Itai, Rodolfo, Felipe, Guilherme and myself headed out to a small lake and spent the afternoon fishing. Before chasing the ´big game fish´ we caught a truckload of small bait fish and then used these to snag 7 reasonably sized fish, which unfortunately I wasn´t around long enough to try. The greatest part of the afternoon was the fact that it was a really different activity not normally experienced whilst travelling. Sitting around enjoying the tranquility of the location made the afternoon a really memorable occasion. (The fact that we caught fish helped alot too !) Of course there was the usual debate over who caught the largest fish, but given that as the editor of this site, I have the final say, I will tell you (truthfully) that my catch was by far the largest.

During the rest of my time in the region, I spent a considerable number of mornings and afternoons just chilling and watching movies as I nursed some pretty wicked hangovers and prepared myself for another night of chaos. Also, there were a great number of afternoon BBQ´s and cook ups, which were also great for helping to clear my head. Curising around town in Guilhermes pimped up ride was also a favourite pastime, as was listening to ridiculously loud music through his outrageous sound system.

I could easily go on and on about the many funny moments, great experiences and fantastic people from my time in Itai, but I think I have made the point of just how much I enjoyed my visit. I will definately be back to visit my mates there as soon as I can. Whilst not incredible from a touristic viewpoint, the experience of visiting a place like that made the trip well worth it.

Lastly, I will say that the majority of the photos I have included in this entry are for the benefit of my friends in Itai and many of the captions may not make sense - sorry but it would take too long to explain and if I did, I would be incriminating myself (alot!).

Photos 1-3: Afternoon fishing trip. (Felipe enjoying the serenity, Rodolfo with one of the 7 fish we bagged and a shot of the very beautiful and peaceful location we enjoyed).
Photos 4-7: Thursday night outing. (Drinks and one seriously large beer).
Photos 8- 10: Friday night. (Meeting the locals... the faces in photo 8 tell the story !).
Photos 11- 16 : Saturday night. (Jabes and Daniella, Seriously good skills ! and more ´carnage´).
Photo 17: Final shot of the group.

2006-03-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

OURO PRETO - BRAZIL

Despite experiencing only 4 days in the state of Minas Geiras, I would say that of all the places I visited in Brazil, this was the most interesting. The highlight was undoubtedly a day spent wandering up and down the hilly, cobblestoned streets of Ouro Preto although my visits to Belo Horizonte, Sao Joao del Rei and Tiradentes were also very enjoyable.

Following a great return visit to Curitiba I took an overnight bus to Belo Horizonte and despite feeling a little worse for wear upon arriving, I spent a number of hours just wandering around the city and enjoyed in particular, viewing the multitude of churches in the city. Unfortunately my limited time there prevented me from making it to one of the vantage points in the hills just outside the city, but from the views I was treated to on my bus ride to Ouro Preto, I would imagine that there would be many great photos to be taken from such a location.

Ouro Preto was by probably the most picturesque town I have visited in the whole of South America, just pipping out places like Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Bariloche (Argentina). Established during the gold-rush era in Brazil, the city still plays an important role in the Brazillian mining industry and steady flow of gold and precious gemstones through the city maintain its strong colonial character. Ouro Preto was for me very similar in its appearance to Cuzco in Peru (in that all the houses were of the same style with their distinct terracotta rooves). However, the rolling hills, blanketing fog and plethora of colonial style buildings and churches gave it more character and charm. Despite feeling pretty crook, I did not find it difficult to wander about the city for the best part of a day, investigating small side streets and visiting pretty much all of the citys 17 or so churches. Not particularly well designed for driving, the irregularly cobblestoned streets merely added to the character of the whole place.

Both Sao Joao del Rei and Tiradentes were slightly less appealing than Ouro Preto, but both maintained a similar colonial style and collectively provided a sufficient number of interesting sites to keep me occupied for another day. Probably the highlight from these 2 towns was the Baroque style church in Tiradentes, which was covered pretty much from the entrance to the alter in equisite gold leafing.

So, whilst quite short in terms of the description provided, in my opinion this blog entry contains some of the best photos from my trip and as such I have endevoured to include as many as possible to give a good feel for just how picturesque the cities are. Anyone visiting Brazil should make a point of travelling to some of these places because I would think it difficult for one to be dissapointed.

Photo 1: One of the many cathedrals in Belo Horizonte.
Photos 2-17: Photos of the buildings, churches, streets and surrounding hills in Ouro Preto.
Photos 18-20: Shots from Tiradentes.
Photo 21: The slightly more modernized city of Sao Joao del Rei.

2006-03-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

CURITIBA & IHLA DO MEL - BRAZIL

Firstly as a brief one day visit and later for a more extended period of time, I found Curitiba to be quite unlike most Brazillian cities which I visited. Despite not containing any amazing `sites of interest`, the city seemed to function almost like clockwork (despite having a population of around 3 million) and I often felt like I was travelling in Europe rather than Brazil. From the super-advanced bus stations and excellent public transport system to the squeaky clean streets, Curitiba was at the very least, pleasant to wander around in and very safe from all apearances.

During my first (1-day) visit to Curitiba, I spent the majority of my time just wandering around, checking out various ´important´ buildings and sites around the city centre. I was surprised at just how far the city sprawled as was evident from the views I was presented with from the top of the citys tallest building. However, apart from a few architecturally unique buildings, various parks and a few museums and universities, the city didn`t appear to offer anything particularly amazing to the `tourist`.

Consequently I left Curitiba very early on my second day and took the famous Curitiba-Paranagua train which made it`s way firstly through the suburbs of Curitiba and then down through the rainforest covered mountains to the Brazillian coast. This trip was quite amazing and definately one of the highlights of my visit to Brazil. The mountain scenery along the way was spectacular and I got many great photos, despite having to lean across people and stick my camera at precarious angles outside of the train window. Along the way to Paranagua, I met a number of other english speaking peoples and once in Paranagua, teamed up with Marika, a girl from Canada and we set about exploring parts of the city and surrounding small towns.

Paranagua was one of my favourite towns in Brazil, not because it had a lot to offer but I really enjoyed its `unpolished´ appearance and `rawness´. On the same afternoon that we arrived, Marika and I wandered around the city and got some nice photos of the harbour area. Early the next morning we took a boat to Ihla do Mel, a pristine island not far off the coast. By far the best aspect of the island (in my opinion) was that it had yet to be swamped with cafès, hotels and other tourist services and I really enjoyed the tranquillity and isolation of the island. However, the searing heat and lack of shade meant that after a few hours wandering along some of the many beautiful beaches on the island, we were in need of some rest and so returned to the mainland before taking an evening bus back to Curitiba.

After toying with a few ideas, I eventually decided to stay a few more days in Curitiba, primarily to catch up with a friend (Bruna) whom I had met in Camboriù during Carnival but also so as to spend the weekend in a reasonably large centre where I might at least enjoy some favourable nightlife. Thankfully I wasn`t dissapointed and ventured out on both the Friday and Saturday nights to small pubs with live music. Although not the most exciting nightlife I had experienced in Brazil, my weekend in Curitiba was still most enjoyable and it was nice to just enjoy the city and a few days without moving around at a frantic pace.

Photo 1: The famous glasshouse in Curitiba (nowhere near as big as it appears !)
Photos 2-9: Magnificent mountain scenery on the train from Curitiba to Paranagua.
Photos 10&11: Seaside shots in a small town close to Paranagua.
Photos 12-14: Boats moored in the Paranagua harbour.
Photos 15-18: Beautiful beaches on Ihla do Mel.

2006-03-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

FLORIANOPOLIS - BRAZIL

Craving some more pristine beaches and a kicking nightlife, I headed from the beachside resrot city of Camboriú, to the slightly larger, equally as touristy but more relxed provincial capital of Santa Catarina state, Florianopolis. I spent 4 enjoyable days in Florianopolis, travelling to various parts of the island in which the city partly straddles. The beaches here are renowned not only in Brazil but across all of South America and many people from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and even farther afield choose to come here for their summer vacations. The hype is definately not undeserved as some of the locations I visited during my stay were utterly spectacular. I did however choose to avoid the really touristy areas and headed more for the rugged extremities of the island in the hope of finding beautiful locations in which to take some photos and just relax.

My first trip to Santa Catarina island was to the far south, where I trekked over a mountain range to a lagoon and beautiful beach setting. Despite the rather overcast weather I passed a reasonable number of other people, all sweating it out in order to enjoy the beautiful setting which awaited us at the end of the trail. Having taken in the amazing scenery I walked back over the mountain and on the way back stopped in another picturesque little town where I was able to grab some great shots of the bay and village with the surrounding mountains looming in the background.

On day 2 I travelled to the north of the island and visited what turned out to be my favourite spot around Florianopolis, the fortress. It wasn´t that the fort itself offered a great deal in terms of history or scenery, but the entire package of the beach, rocky shoreline and imposing fortress all combined to give a wonderful vista which I went to great lengths in order to photograph. Having risked a possible drowning by clambering out over the rocks ´in search of the perfect photo´ I briefly visited one of the more popular beaches in the north of the island and then returned to the hostel.

My last day in Santa Catarina was spent hanging out with my friend Kristen whom I had teamed up with previously in Cordoba. After having a brief look around the main city on the island, we walked along the edge of a large lake and then over a small mountain pass in order to enjoy the last few hours of sunlight on a glorious beach. The scenery all around was absolutely spectacular and it was absolutely no wonder that the beach was still teeming with people even at 5pm. Having walked back almost all the way to Florianopolis (or so it seemed) we headed out that night, but unfortunately the lack of decent music (it was all Brazillian samba) meant that it was rather difficult to really get into things !

From a scenic perspective, Florianopolis and Santa Catarina island were amongst the most amazing locations I visited in all of Brazil, or South America for that matter. Despite being somewhat dissapointing from a social point of view, I would still envisage returning to the city during my next trip to Brazil.

2006-03-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

CAMBORIU - BRAZIL

Back again !!! Well, despite my previous visit to the beachside resort of Camboriu being a rather interesting experience, I decided to return after my visit to Rio de Janeiro, with my primary motive being to retrieve a pair of jeans I left there during my first visit.

2006-02-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

TERESOPOLIS - BRAZIL

Heralded as the trekking and rock-climbing ´Meca´ of Brazil, Teresopolis was my next detination after a brief but enjoyable few days in Rio de Janeiro. The city certainly lived up to its reputation and I really enjoyed spending 2 days there, just walking around in the mountains and enjoying some great views of the nearby cities.

On my first day in Teresopolis I spent a day walking in the Serra do Orgaos National Park, a little way out of the city. Despite not being able to reach the summit of the parks highest peak in the time I that was available, I still managed to take myself to a sufficient altitude so as to get some great shots of the surrounding area. Once again I was really glad to get out of the cities and enjoy a little time in the natural environment, taking in some of the breathtaking scenery that exists in Brazil.

Having said goodbye to my friendly hostel owners (I was the only guest staying there) I took the bus back to Rio de Janeiro before continuing back to Camboriú, just in time for the Carnival celebrations. The bus ride to Rio was quite amazing as it was possible to see all the way back to the city from our elevated position in the mountains. the views of the city, mountains and coastline certainly made for a beautiful backdrop which unfortunately I wasn´t able to capture succesfully in any of my photos.

Despite only being a very brief visit, my time in Teresopolis was most enjoyable and a very welcome break from the city life in Rio and Sao Paolo. This is definately somewhere I would recommend people visit as a 1 or 2 day trip from Rio and I think it is highly possible that I will return there during my next trip to Brazil.

2006-02-23T05:10:00.000-08:00

PARATI & RIO DE JANEIRO - BRAZIL

Having enjoyed 2 days catching up with my mates Renato and Ralfe in Sao Paolo, I next headed to the coastal town of Parati, located between S.P. and Rio de Janeiro. Despite staying only 1 night, I really enjoyed my visit to Parati and the coastline scenery which I took in on the bus ride to Rio de Janeiro was so spectacular that I considered hiring a car and retracing my steps more slowly so as to capture the amazing vistas in my photos.

Having arrived to Parati after a whole day of short bus rides from 1 small city to the next, I enjoyed just hanging out with a few people at the hostel and playing some cards. I eventually retired to bed in the early hours of the morning and still managed to get up reasonably early and go for a long walk in the hot, humid and therefore rather uncomfortable conditions. After scaling a number of the nearby hills and getting some nice photos of the surrounding region I returned to the hostel and got an afternoon bus to Rio.

Upon arriving at the location of my pre-booked accommodation, I was somewhat disheartened to find the hostel located on a small and very seedy, side-street in the suburb of Botafogo. However, despite my initial aprehensions, I quickly realised that in fact this was to be one of the best hostels I had stayed in. Where it was lacking in appearance and cleanliness, it was more than compensated by the great vibe and the fantastic people staying there. Over my 5 day stay in Rio I met some awesome people and had a great time.

Having visited Rio previously in my 2005 trip, I spent my time in the city just chilling, wandering around and visiting a few more out of the way places such as the Tijuca national park located right in the city centre. Whilst spending a day walking through the park and scaling one of the mountains, I was continually amazed by the fact that I was in a city of more than 10 million people and yet was still able to enjoy such peace and quiet. In addition, the views of the city from the mountain top were quite spectacular !!!

By far the highlight of my trip to Rio was however the FREE Rolling Stones concert held on 18 February. All that day everyone at the hostel was on edge, just waiting until it was time to walk down to Copacabanna beach and take part in what was being predicted to be one of the biggest concerts (in terms of crowd numbers) of all time. Despite an anticpated crowd 3 million people, only 1.2 million (yeah... ONLY 1.2 million !!!) people showed up although on the walk down to the beach it felt like the whole of Rio was relocating. The streets were absolutely full of people and it was fantastic to see everyone so happy.

Surprisingly, a group of us managed to get quite a good position about 100 metres from the stage and whilst I couldn´t exactly see just how well Keith, Mick, Ron and Charlie were doing for their age, I was still astounded by how well they could still sing and rock it out just like in the good old days. I must admit that I was not a massive Stones fan before the gig but was instantly converted after hearing them play. The whole atmosphere of the night with the millions of people, great set up, great vibe and fantastic music really made the event one of my travelling highlights and something that I will never forget. It sure made me feel a lot better about changing my itinerary around and trading off a fair bit of backtracking with being able to experience a spectacle such as this.

2006-02-23T04:55:00.000-08:00

SAO PAOLO - BRAZIL

On my way through towards Rio for the much anticipated free Rolling Stones gig on Copacabanna beach, I spent 2 days hanging out with some friends (whom I had met previously in Cordoba, Argentina) in Brazil´s largest city, Sao Paolo. Despite having visited the city previously (during my trip to Brazil in 2005) I still thoroughly enjoyed my stay there.

Sao Paolo, without offering any particularly spectacular scenery, still comes with much to do and after sorting out a few purchases, Ralfe and myself went for a walk around parts of the city which I had not previously visited. During my stay I was also able to meet a number of his friends along with experiencing ´family life´ in Brazil whilst staying with my other mate Renato.

As with my first visit to the city, I was amazed by the range of nightlife locations on offer on literally every night of the week and despite heading out on a Monday, the 3 of us had a great time at an alternative rock-electronic club, where we were treated to some fantastic music.

Another quick but enjoyable visit in one of the worlds largest cities !

Photos 1-3: Ralfe, Renato and myself enjoying a few beers.

2006-02-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

CAMBORIU - BRAZIL

How exactly I ended up in Camboriu in the first place is probably enough for a blog entry in itself so I will attempt to at least keep the details of the story to a minimum and focus more on just how much of an amazing place the city was. After jumping on a bus in Torres destined for Curitiba, I was ´hijacked´ by a somewhat crazy, very beautiful and thereby rather typical brazillian girl (Alessandra) who told me I should instead accompany her to the beachside city of Camboriú. Despite this not being something a would normally do, her rather persuasive appearance.... I mean arguments.... meant that upon reaching Camboriú I decided ´what the hell´ and jumped off as well.

I think it is fair to say that I experienced more ups and downs during my time in Camboriú than during any other time throughout South America. The city was an amazing place and all around there were so many beautiful beaches and mountains almost to the extent where it was impossible not to enjoy my stay. However, being with Ale certainly provided its fair share of headaches and looking back now, it´s surprising that I didn´t have a breakdown at some point.

You see, Ale and her crowd are what the Brazillians term as ´roots´ people... I don´t really know where this comes from but my best guess is that is referring to getting back to dem ´grass roots mon!´ So, these people occupy themselves with very little except for going to the beach, lazing around and of course, consuming copious amounts of marajuana. It´s not that they are bad people, in fact far from it and many of them were extremely kind and lovely. It´s just that their lack of activity really started to get on my nerves after a while... that and the reggae music, which was the only music I heard for like 6 days and to which I will never be able to listen again.

After the initial 2 days of going to the beach, lazing around in rather dull weather, possibly grabbing something to eat now and again and then going out in the evening, I started to wonder if it was worth staying around for, however with the approaching weekend I decided to give it a few more days and just hoped that things would become more interesting. It didn´t !!! That being siad, I still managed to see alot of the surrounding region, including the absolutely beautiful beach, ´las bombinhas´ and I really appreciated the effort which Ale took to show me around and make sure that I was enjoying my time (if only she had been coherent enough to understand when I wasn´t !!!)

Without focussing too much on the negatives, I am glad that I managed to go to Camboriú and in fact ended up returning a few weeks later, a visit which I enjoyed considerably more. (This return visit however, was driven more by my desire to recoup a pair of jeans that I had left behind.... another long and crazy story). As I have eluded to, the visual scenery of the area was absolutely breathtaking and I did meet some really nice people during my stay. I think it is safe to say that I will never really forget my experiences from Camboriú, whether this be for good or bad reasons I cannot say but I guess this is all just part of the travelling experience !!!

2006-02-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

TORRES - BRAZIL

Whilst not talked about in the same way as Maccu Pichu or Iguazu falls, I found Torres to be one of the most visually spectacular locations which I visited in the south of Brazil. Following a most enjoyable albeit somewhat tiring day of mountain trekking in Canela I headed back to the coast where I was greeted by this time, cold, wet and windy weather. These conditions however did not serve to ´dampen´(sorry, had to be done) my spirits and I enjoyed the few hours I spent walking along the rugged coastline to the south of the city.

What I found quite amazing about the location was the fact that limestone cliffs seemed to just appear out of nowhere, continue for a few hundred metres and then dissapear altogether. I guess this is why I am not a geologist, but form the perspective of an amateur photographer, it was quite breathtaking. I must have climbed every cliff and taken literally hundreds of photos from different angles, trying to cram as much of the scenery into each photo as I possibly could.

Resting a little, I just watched the locals go about their bussiness and the blustery conditions meant there was a strong contingent of surfers enjoying the swell, which also made for some entertaining viewing. Having explored most of what was on offer, I spent the remainder of my time chatting with a few locals in an internet cafe and organising my departure that evening. Little was I to know that I was about to embark on possibly the most crazy bus journey ever (unfortunately many of the details from this trip will not make it onto this website).

Another interesting day stop, Torres was definately one of my highlights (from a scenic point of view) during my travels in South America.

Photos 1&2: Overlooking the lake located in the centre of Torres.
Photos 3-13. Rugged coastline scenery just outside the city.

2006-02-15T03:29:00.000-08:00

CANELA - BRAZIL

Craving a break from the hustle and bustle of a rather dead and stinking hot Porto Alegre, I headed a few hours north to Canela, a small town located amongst the surrounding mountains. The bus tripfrom Porto Alegre to Canela was quite breathtaking in parts and I felt as if I could easily have been passing through parts of country Germany, what with all the small towns, quaint little houses, smal churches (all with typically german architecture) and to cap it all off, signs in Portuguese and German.

After arriving, I was welcomed by much more pleasant weather conditions and after checking into the local hostel, I took myself out to the Parque da Ferradura, famous for its stunning gorges and mountain scenery. After exploring all of the various walking trails in the park and managing some great shots (see below), I was lucky enough to get a lift to the entrance of another national park (Parque Estadual do Caracol) where I managed to descend and ascend the almost vertical walking track in about half the recommended time and still made it back to catch a bus into town with a few minutes to spare.

Despite only staying in the region for a little over 1 day, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in and around Canela and would definately like to revisit the town on another adventure of Brazil. It´s appeal... well not only the fact that it provided a peaceful break from the heat and city, but also I found the local people in Canela to be quite approachable and very friendly.

Photos 1-8: A number of the many stunning waterfalls around Canela.
Photos 9-11: Scenery of the mountains and gorgeous from the 2 national parks.

2006-02-06T18:05:00.000-08:00

PORTO ALEGRE - BRAZIL

Not exactly on every tourists trail in Brazil, I travelled from the beaches of Uruguay to Porto Alegre, the provincial capital of Rio Grande del Sur in the south of Brazil. After a late night arrival on the first day of February, I wandered around the city although there wasn´t a lot to see and do... firstly because the majority of the citys population had migrated to the coast and secondly because of the ridiculously hot weather. That night I celebrated my 24th birthday with a few friends of friends but it really was a quiet night on all fronts.

During the remainder of my time in Porto Alegre I spent time just hanging out with my new Brazillian budies, cooking cleaning and relaxing. I did manage to go out over the weekend, the first night to a rather odd alternative club with some awesome music and some rather interesting patrons. Still I had a good night just chatting with various people and eventually managed to find my way back to where I was staying with the help of a few friendly revelers.

Also during my stay in Porto Alegre I travelled to to the nearby coastal town of Tramandai where I met up with another contact of mine and enjoyed 2 days of sunny beach weather, a little partying and a little sleeping. I really enjoyed staying with Laura and her extended family and the night out on the Saturday certainly was alot of fun. I also really enjoyed playing the Brazillian version of beach cricket (´Taco´). More out of luck than anything I proved to be quite good at this game (much to the amazement and delight of the locals) and had an awesome time getting to know some more Brazillians and experiencing what life in Brazil was really like, not just as a tourist.

Overall, my time in Porto Alegre was a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst there wasn´t that much to do I still had alot of fun and met some great people who were incredibly kind to me. This really set the trend for the remainder of my visit to Brazil and I would imagine that someday I would like to return to Porto Alegre, possibly not during the summer however !

Photos 1&2: Night out for my birthday.

Photos 3-10: Partying with Laura and her friends/family in Tramandai.

2006-02-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

PUNTA DEL ESTE, LA PALOMA & PUNTA DEL DIABLO - URUGUAY

Not having partied for almost a week (which I might add is a considerable period of time here in South America) I travelled from quiet Montevideo to arguably the party capital of South America, the beachside resort of Punta del Este. I must admit that prior to my arrival in ´Punta´ I was a little unsure about what to expect, given that I was to be intereacting with the rich and beautiful from all over Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

My first thoughts as we rolled into the outskirts of the city was ´this place is amazing!´ and there was even a surreal feeling about the whole place. As we went further towards the centre of the city I was continually blown away by the scale and magnificence of the houses which were incredibly beautiful and surrounded by neatly manicured and lucious green gardens... it all seemed almost out of place amongst the rolling sand dunes. The houses were not the only things of beauty in Punta del Este as it soon became evident that the rich and famous had decended on the beachside resort to soak up the January sun. I never really thought it was possible that one could buy beauty, but anyone lucky enough to venture to Punta during the summer would undoubtedly agree that this an example of this in fact being possible. I have included a selection of photos below which I believe adds further evidence to my case, but anyone who cares to disagree can try to prove me wrong !

I must admit that seeing all this beauty around me made me even more aprehensive about being there. For me it seemed likely that the rich and famous would have no time for Australian backpackers spending twice their weekly allowance in a single day. However during not only my stay in Punta del Este but throughout my entire travels in Uruguay, I was continually blown away by just how friendly, helpful and fun theUruguayan people were.... almost exactly the same as the Argentines, just without so much attitude, especially the girls !! Needless to say I had a lot of fun in Punta del Este and spent most of my days there catching up on sleep lost from the previous night. The hostel in which I stayed was in an excellent location, not far from the bars and clubs, but sufficiently removed for it to be quiet and relaxing during the day. In addition it was only 4 minutes walk to the beach meaning it was easy to take an afternoon swim or stroll along the beach in an effort to remove the lasting effects of binge drinking !

My first night out I ventured into town with a few of the guys from the hostel and divided my time between a small club and nearby pub, in which I met some cool people and had a tonne of fun. It was my second night however from which I will hold my most lasting memories of Punta del Este. After a few beers at the hostel and a few more at a nearby pub (followed by a tactical spew !) I decided to head to a club not far from the hostel. Getting to the club was quite easy, as I just flagged down a passing motorist and grabbed a lift (this is not as crazy as it sounds as almost everyone there seemed to use a similar strategy for getting around. Given that the majority of drivers were male and the majority of hitch-hikers were young girls, this arrangement seemed to work well for everyone !). Upon reaching the club I spoke with a few people and then moved to the front of the line where I started speaking with 2 girls, just whilst I waited to get in. When we got to the entrance the girls just walked in and the bouncer proceeded to try and charge me for all 3 of us i.e. $300 Uruguayan pesos (around US$12). In hindsight I don´t know why I was so pissed off about having to pay this because it really isn´t that much but at the time (it´s more the principle of the matter !) I was livid and spent around 20 minutes arguing and then pleading with the bouncer to let me in, all to no avail because as we all know, the bigger the bouncer the smaller the mental capacity, this one having a brain size possibly smaller than some of the dinosaurs.

Eventually I gave up and then spoke with a few guys to see if there was any way I could get in. After dismissing the idea of trying to sneak in (I didn´t want to risk getting ruffled up Uruguayan style behind the scenes) they decided if we approached the bouncer as a group he may not notice... What they failed to recognise was the fact that concealing a Uruguayan is considerably easier than concealling a white Australian in Uruguay. After taking my $100 peso contribution they went to the bouncer and he proceeded to let all of them in before refusing me. I´m not sure whether they forgot to return my money or whether they actually tried to steal it, but at this stage I was $100 pesos down with a $300 peso debt and feeling like I had no chance of getting in. All I wanted was to go into the club and have a good time, especially because the music emanating from within sounded great and the people inside seemed to be having a tonne of fun.

Eventually I managed to sneak in through another entrance without the bouncer noticing and with the help of a few guys and their friends who were also working on the door. My first task was to recover my debt, which I managed to quite easily with my new ´posse´ and we just confronted the guys whereby they coughed up the money quickly. Now, all square and having effectively entered for free, I took a shot of tequilla and set about making up for lost time. Despite the average age of people inside the club perhaps being around 20, I still had a great night, met some fantastic people and had heaps of fun.

Feeling a little sore and sorry for myself, I left Punta del Este with a massive smile on my face and travelled a few hours more to La Paloma, a smaller beachside town, where on the first night of my stay there was a massive beach party sponsored by Lynx deoderant. The great music, great location and a good crowd made it impossible not to have fun and I hung out with a group of Uruguayans who worked at the hostel in which I stayed in Montevideo (they had suggested I come to the party in La Paloma in the first place). The remaining 3 days of my stay in La Paloma were rather subdued, mainly just chilling on and around the beach and getting some nice photos of the surrounding area.

My last destination in Uruguay was a tiny beachside town called Punta del Diablo, a place in which I was not originally intending to stay, but after arriving I decided that it was more than worth a nights stopover. I spent my first afternoon there just wandering the beach, grabbing a tonne of photos and enjoying as the light danced and reflected off the ocean and refracted amongst the whispy clouds in the sky. That night myself and 3 other companions frequented a number of small pubs until the wee hours of the morning before returning to our single bedroom acommodation and sharing 2 matresses between the 4 of us.

To sum up, Uruguay was quite incredible, mainly because I was not expecting it to be so good. The friendly people, great beaches and kicking nightlife all ensured I had a great time. Punta del Este was definately the highlight and is somewhere where I would love to return, especially with a load more cash in hand. Anyone interested in a New Years vacation in 2007 should let me know soon !

Photos 1-5: Late afternoon and evening sunset vistas on one of the many beaches around Punta. Photos 6-13: Partying with Punta´s friendly crowd.
Photo 14: Manantiales hostel just out of Punta.
Photos 15-17: Axe (Lynx) beach dance party in La Paloma.
Photos 18-19: Afternoon sunset in La Paloma.
Photos 20-21: Lighthouse in La Paloma.
Photos 22-25: Attempting to be artistic on one of the beaches in La Paloma.
Photos 26-32: Beachside photos from Punta del Diablo.

2006-02-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

COLONIA DE SACRAMENTO & MONTEVIDEO - URUGUAY

After my somewhat dissapointing stay in Buenos Aires, I headed across the River Plate hoping to leave my greivances in Argentina. I might mention firstly that even getting to Uruguay proved to be a bit of a mission as one of the ferries operated between Buenos Aires and Montevideo, crashed into a fishing vessle, essentially putting the fleet 1 boat down for a fewdays. As such I had to wait a little longer than I had anticipated before I could get out of Buenos Aires and this meant that I wasn´t able to catch up with Fernando and Alison (´Tango masters´) in their home city.

My first destination in Uruguay was the peaceful town of Colonia de Sacramento, one of the oldest settlements in South America. I managed (just) to keep myself occupied in the town for the 5 or so hours between the arrival of my ferry and the departure of my bus to the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. Despite the intense heat beating down on Uruguay at the time of my visit I managed to wander a fair portion of the cobblestone streets, taking in the picturesque views of the Uruguayan coastline and colonial style architecture of the town. In addition I also managed a brief visit to the bull-fighting arena, in use up to around 1810 although my interest in this attraction was lessened by the fact that the sight was fenced off meaning I was not able to go inside and look around. Other highlights were the harbour area, which was filled with boats and looked somewhat similar to many of the cities Ihad visited in Scandanavia.

Colonia I discovered is one of the oldest in SouthAmerica (according to an old Argentine history professor who pestered me for the entire ferry trip from Buenos Aires with his terrible American accent.) After giving me a low down on his life story, the history ofUruguay and a whole bunch of other things that I didn´t really want to hear about, such as the fact that ´Johnny Ray´ was the first American singer to tour Australia (if anyone can confirm or deny thisor even tell me who the hell Johnny Ray is, I´d be very appreciative), he offered to look after my bags whilst I looked around the city for a few hours... an offer which I of course accepted (sometimes it pays to be nice - but not always !!). It was however nice to have a bit of a history lesson before gettingto the city and it meant I was able to appreciate various landmarks.

In around 3 hours I felt that I had covered most of what was on offer and embarked on a 1 hour walk around the coast to check out some of the beaches, which were definately better than those in Argentina but still not that flash.The bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo reminded me alot of Australiaand if it weren´t for the conversations in spanish going on around me I could have been taking a bus in country Victoria as I was surrounded by stock fences, eucalyptus trees, windmills and manycattle. It was however possibly a little green to be Australia !

Montevideo was described to me prior to my arrival as a small version of Buenos Aires and whilst I would not necessarily describe the city as such, there were definately similarities between the 2 capitals. The view of Montevideo across the harbour, just prior to my arrival at the bus terminal was certainly quite impressive and from this point of view the city was more visually appealing than Buenos Aires because of the way in which it incorporated the harbour area into the city (a trademark of many ´beautiful´ cities around the world... Sydney, San Francisco and Stockholm being just a few examples).

Despite the fact that I stayed only 1 and a half days in Montevideo, I still felt that I took in most of what the city had to offer and spent much of my time there wandering around the old sections of the city (Ciudad Vieja), admiring the colonial style architecture and watching as the local population went about their daily business. A particularly appealing aspect of the city was the pedestrian walkway along the coastline and nearby beaches and I enjoyed walking along this route, watching exercise freaks, relaxing couples and the rest of the soccer-mad population soak up the last few hours of sunlight at the end of a busy day. In addition, the city had a number of picturesque plazas in which I found it easy to just sit down and relax, watching the locals goabout their daily business.

Photos 1&2: Coastline around Colonia.
Photos 3&4: Lighthouse and remains of the colonial fort used to fight against the Portuguese.
Photos 5-7: Coastline around Montevideo.

2006-01-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

BUENOS AIRES - ARGENTINA

Another 20 odd hour bus journey later and I had made my way from Peninsula Valdes to Buenos Aires, ´Capital Federal´ taking in some more of that ´incredible´ coastal patagonian scenery along the way !! After such a long period of time sitting down I decided the 40 minute walk to the hostel would be a welcome reprieve and after checking in I just chilled in the hostel, talking with a few of the people there.

My first few days in the city were largely uneventful although I did wander around parts of the city with a danish friend of mine, Else and we checked out the old part of the city, Recoleta along with the very nice harbour area. The hot summer days did however mean that I was restricted as far as what I could achieve during the middle of the day and I suffered a number of bouts of sunburn before I fully grasped this fact. As such, the first few days of my stay were rather uneventful apart from meeting up for dinner and lunch with Else and a university collegue of mine (Fernando) and his wife (Alison).

On the Thursday I ventured to the colourful working class suburb of La Boca with Fernando and Alison and despite the oppressive heat we wandered around for a few hours, taking in the brightly painted buildings and array of artworks being sold in the street. That evening, the 3 of us along with Else went to a Tango show to take in the national dance of Argentina. Despite being quite short, the show was excellent and we were treated to some excellent dancing. Even more fun was the opportunity for us all to dance a little with the ´instructors´. With the exception of Alison, who was actually quite good, we all made complete fools of ourselves but had a great time doing it so that was all that mattered. After the show I contemplated going out but the lack of enthusiasm shown by people at the hostel meant this idea was put to rest quite quickly.

Friday was another lazy day although in the evening the hostel was cranking as nearly everyone seemed up for a bender ! After a great deal of beer (we finished all the supplies at the hostel) about 15 of us jumped in taxis and went to a club down by the harbour. Although quite a good night, it was nothing quite like some of my previous experiences (an unfortunate circumstance of anticipation and expectation), mainly because there were no more than 500 people in the club meaning that only 3 of the 10 or so rooms were open. Consequently the range of music on offer was rather limited leaving a choice of rubbish hip-hop, soft house or funky chilled out music. I drifted between the 3 rooms, chatting with various people and having a good time. I met some friendly Argentines and a heap of Israeli´s but around 5am decided to call it a night and so 6 or so of us had a 2 taxi race back to the hostel (even if the taxi drivers didn´t quite know about it).

Saturday was the last day for Fernando and Alison in Buenos Aires and so after having a goodbye lunch with them I went to check out the markets at Recoleta where I bought some more artworks, similar to those I picked up at the same location just under a year ago. That night proved quite uneventful as I was once again hampered by a lack of interest from various parties (both people at the hostel and friends of mine in Buenos Aires). I managed only a solitary beer before deciding to cut my losses and head home.

My last days in the city were rather quiet, just organising things for the next stage of my trip, wandering around the antique markets in San Telmo (which was a bit of a laugh considering what some of the people were trying to sell !) and just hanging with some of the people at the hostel. Although it didn´t live up to expectations, my time in B.A. wasn´t a complete waste..

Photo 1: Avoiding the Buenos Aires ´rays´ with Claudia.
Photos 2&3: Colourful suburb of La Boca
Photo 4: Else and I sticking to what we know best - drinking beer (Quilmes)
Photos 5-9: Tango show - all of us having a go & Fernando possibly enjoying himself too much !
Photo 10: Partying on the hostel roof.
Photos 11-13: Crazy steve (Irish) demonstratingthe progressive effects of alcohol.
Photos 14-20: Everyone having a blast at the club on Friday night.
Photo 21: Fernando, Alison and myself.
Photo 22: Just another photo with people making stupid faces.