Nomes on the Gringo Trail

More magnificent mountains, lakes & glaciers

2006-01-06T01:52:00.000-08:00

Off to Argentinian Patagonia I went...

...to El Calafate where I tried the calafate berry (with ice cream & waffles!) because legend says that if you eat it, you shall return to Patagonia one day

Tried a spot of horseriding up Cerro Frias, a big hill with great views

Lago Argentino, near El Calafate

Got a bit arty with the sunset...

...and a wheel

Nice colour contrast hey

The mighty, advancing Perito Moreno glacier

We hoped this big chunk might crack off while we where there! No chance actually, but I managed to capture a small splash on movie

Its 60m face was pretty impressive from a boat

Road to El Chalten - lucky to see the full mountain range of Los Glaciares National Park

Mt Fitz Roy up close

Crossing the Fitz Roy river

Another great day of trekking, lucky to see the mountains free of cloud cover

Ice trekking on glacier

Ice climbing - I loved those ice picks

Shame that broken boot affected my performance with crampons!

El Chalten

My boot after returning from supertrekking, and just before being thrown in bin

Kayaking in the Straights of Magellanes

Bye bye Chile

Patagonian channels & challenges

2005-12-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

My home for 3 days, sailing through the Chilean fjords from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales

Puerto Eden, tiny isolated town we visited on the way south

Ferry passengers huddling around to see the massive Pio XI glacier

Our first campsite in Torres del Paine National Park

Funky UFO-like cloud

My trekking crew (Ben from England & Victoria from Victoria!) at Los Torres, literally the jaw-dropping highlight of our trek - we didn´t realise there was going to be a lake up there so after difficult scrambling over rocks for the last hour, it was an amazing reward

On an easy part of the trail

We saw and heard an avalanche of snow on this part of the mountain - very cool

Not so cool! Had an awesome 360 degree view of the French valley, but a good-looking Indian/English man struck this pose when I took a photo of him...and somehow I managed to look ridiculous!??!

Couldn´t get enough of this beautiful lake

First view of the two parts of Glacier Grey

Glacier Grey up close

Camping next to ice chunks from Glacier Grey was fun, but suprisingly not too chilly!

Time to hang up my hiking boots I think - walked for 4 days with the sole tied up by the laces!

The Lake District

2005-12-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Panoramic point on the Circuito Chico, a 60km bike ride around the lakes near Bariloche, Argentina - actually, it was 55km for me because I was so sore and tired that I hitched the last 5km!!

Nice outfit for visiting the penguin colony on Chiloe Island

Cool German-style church in Puerto Varas

Petrohue rapids with Osorno volcano in the background - yeah I know you can´t see it...I paid US$50 for a boat tour on Lago Todos Los Santos (All Saints´ Lake) and it was rainy and cloudy all day!

And then I resorted to taking digital macro close-ups of flowers because there was nothing to do for 3 hours at Puella

But the colour of Lago Todos Los Santos was very beautiful :)

And I did get to see the volcano from the bus window

Peeks & peaks of Peru

2005-12-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

Reed boats at the Uros islands (Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca)

Grinding oats on the floating reed islands

On Taquile island, the marital status of men can be distinguished by their hat colour - I picked a single one!

Tried on an alpaca hat for size at tourist stop in middle of nowhere on Puno-Cusco train!

The impressive plaza of Cusco

Sexywoman - no, not me! Thats the name of these Inca ruins if you say Sacsayhuaman really fast.

Our brilliant Inca Trail guide Bobby explaining the ruins in the valley below

All set to start climbing the steps on day 2

Trekkers and porters winding up the trail to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass (4,200m)

Pretending to be a VIP buried in fetal position in Inca ruins

Pretending to look like I haven´t walked for 4 days, and that its not raining/cloudy, at the top of Machu Picchu!

That rock next to me is carved in the same shape as the mountain - cool hey?

Llamas and tourists enjoying the site of Machu Picchu

I loved this view from MP

Santa Catalina convent in Arequipa, opened to the public in 1970 after 400 years of mystery

One of the many paintings found in Santa Catalina

Bits & bobs in Bolivia

2005-12-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

Downtown Rurrenabaque - full of motorbikes, backpacks & tour agencies

Cute monkeys we saw on the pampas tour along the Yacuma River

Anaconda hunting in the pampas

We hung up the wellies after unsuccessful hunt, and headed to the sunset bar...

...where we found a 6.5m anaconda!!!

The city of La Paz, sprawled inside a crater, with the snow-capped Andes behind it

Old and new in downtown La Paz

Baby llama fetuses for sale in the witches market

Ruins of ancient civilisation at Tiwanaku - those knobs on the wall are carved heads

Me ruined after walking around the ruins!

Church in Copacabana - I just had to post another bell tower!

Herding sheep past the labyrinth ruins on Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca

Sunset on the Island of the Sun - very appropriate I thought!

My Spanish Bloopers!

2005-11-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

NURSE: What is the problem?
NAOMI: The roof hurts me.

I said techo instead of pecho (chest)!

TOUR GUIDE: Australia has the most dangerous snakes in the world right?
NAOMI: Yes, and the most dangerous scissors.

I said tijeras instead of tiburones (sharks)!

NAOMI: An ex-boyfriend once asked me how to cook bees.
GEOF: Bees? Don´t you mean peas?

The difference between abejas and arvejas is all in the rolling of the "r", something I haven´t yet mastered!

Cochabamba Dreaming

2005-11-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

At Geof & Marion's despedida (farewell) all the guys played soccer in polleras (traditional skirts)

Despedida for Beth and I at Julie's Thursday night support network/prayer group

Tottie's class singing Silent Night at Centro de Amistad y Apoyo (Centre of Friendship & Support) - I took this class a few times, in Spanish of course!

Moiko baptising members of our church in the public swimming pool - that big guy behind him is his brother, whom I was no match for in a game of keepy-off in the pool!

Naiot & Uzai ready for excursion to the pool - when the whole family was in the car (including grandma and I) the boys always had to sit in the back with the spare tyre!

My despedida dinner with the Padillas at Bufalo Rodicio

European-looking Plaza Colon

Cristo de la Concordancia (33m statue of Jesus Christ) on a hill overlooking the centre of Cochabamba, visible from almost anywhere in the city

My obsession with church towers continues...this one is in Plaza 14 de Septiembre, the main plaza of Cochabamba

Aussie night at Geof & Marion's house (with Karen & Lydia) featuring Tim Tam slams/dunks!

An 'S' micro coming down Calle 21 de enero, a familiar sight for me in the main street of the barrio (suburb) I lived in

Susana, one of my wonderful teachers at Centro de Idiomas Buenas Neuvas (the language school)

My Bolivian sisters Salem & Jafia dressed as North American Indians at their school's English feria (fair)

View from the balcony at Centro de Amistad y Apoya - that weird-looking contraption is a drying machine for the granola business that shares the premises and are part of the ministry

Bolivian version of a backpack and baby papoose in La Cancha, the southern hemisphere's biggest market

Angelica (another one of my fantastic teachers) about to dig into a typical plate of Pique Macho - meat, sausages, chips, tomatoes, onions, egg, mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard

3yo Javier, one of my favourite boys in "my class" - his mother works in the granola business so he was there every day, excitedly greeting Julie & I "hermana, hermana" (sister) as we arrived

My friend Maite (administrator at the language school) and a giant!

Its hard to pick who's not the teenager! When my bed was upgraded from single to double, my room became a popular place to play and do homework

Grover, a friend from our church, and his godson Samuel (Jeremy & Annie's son)

Kids club at the Salvation Army community project I volunteered at

Awarding medals for the Kids club soccer competition that I umpired!

Maughe, director/teacher at the language school, and Julie, director of Centro de Amistad y Apoyo, who also taught me many things through her ministry!

Salem & Naiot trying out my head torch when we the power was out!

John hard at work in Primero de Mayo, the barrio where kids club is...there's an awesome view of the whole valley and mountains surrounding Cochabamba on a clear day

My spiritual parents Veronica and Moises

Naiot´s 9th birthday cake was the biggest I´ve ever seen - enough to feed the big extended family!

A weird procession in the main street

I thought this was a wedding, but no, just as interesting way to display cookware and stuffed toys!

Transport in Cochabamba

2005-10-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I do have some weird fascinations! Here is a commentary on the many different forms of public transport in Cochabamba...probably boring to you, but I wanted to write it down so I would remember...

TAXI
Usually a white Toyota Corolla sedan or wagon, late 80s model. No meters; you name your destination, ask the price and then agree on the price (although they aren´t as bad at ripping you off as the Egyptians!) But its dangerous for single women to get in any taxi at night, so I only phone companies known by my friends to be trustworthy.

TAXI-TRUFI
Looks identical to a taxi except with a sign on the roof stating the number of its set route. Always costs 1,50Bs (about 25c) regardless of how long you stay in it; you pay when you get out. You can hail one anywhere along the route and they sometimes squeeze in 6 people, at the discretion of the driver. All routes pass through the centre of the city somewhere. Some illegally deviate from the route eg. if its busy in La Cancha (the biggest market in South America) and therefore have to take sign of the roof!

MINIBUS
Almost always a white Toyota minibus (seats about 15 people) with route number and major destinations displayed inside windscreen. Once again, costs 1,50Bs regardless of distance, you pay when getting out, and you can stop them anywhere...despite the fact that I say "en la rotonda por favor" (at the roundabout please) every day, drivers sometimes still don´t understand my accent! When they leave busy places such as La Cancha, they wait until they are full before leaving and young boys standing on the street repeatedly yell out the final destination to pedestrians..."Quillacollo, Quillacollo..."

BUS
Usually old Toyota Coasters...yes, it appears that all secondhand Toyotas spend their final years in Bolivia! Basically the same as a minibus except bigger, slower and you pay when you get on.

MICRO
Old Dodge school buses, usually bright colours and adorned inside with posters (anything from cuddly kittens to Britney Spears or Jesus) and weird hanging objects - think fluffy dice! (just found out that they celebrate "The Day of the Dead" here, so surely nothing will surprise me again?). Packed full in peak hour so standing room only, so you pay whenever you get a chance. VERY slow - now that my sprained ankle is better I avoid them.

FLOTAS
Large tourist buses that take you long distances between cities. For overnight trips there are buscamas - with seats that recline right back, similar to business class on a plane...more comfortable than any Australian bus I´ve been on!

Mi Vida en Cochabamba

2005-09-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

I am really enjoying living in Cochabamba (Bolivia), the "City of Eternal Spring", where the sun has shone every day. With an altitude of 2,570m and population of 600,000 it is much warmer and bigger than Sucre. As much as I love travelling, it feels good not to be a tourist. I am living with a wonderful Christian Bolivian family with 2 girls and 2 boys (13, 12, 9, 7). They all go to a bilingual school so I can resort to speaking English if I get desperate for making myself understood, and I often help them with their homework, which has been a learning experience for me too (eg. who actually remembers that there are long vowels and short vowels in English?!) We all go to church together on Sunday, just a few minutes walk from home. Last Sunday was "Day of the Pedestrian" in Bolivia (strange I know, but there is a "day" for everything here!) so all 7 of us went for a long bike ride on the empty streets...but my family only do this once a year so they all had sore bums and were using jumpers as seat cushions!

A few streets away is a friend I knew at high school, with her husband and 4 children. They have been a fantastic support to me, and it was through them (via my boss in Perth) that I was set up with my host family, Spanish school and volunteer work. Baby Jessica is only one week old so it is great to be able to help them out sometimes - my first time babysitting the other 3 kids (5 years and under) was a hair-raising and patience-testing experience; there was mashed potato everywhere, texta on the high chair, tantrums about getting ready for bed, and plenty of reasons for crying once in bed...aaargh! I have a 45min Spanish lesson 4 mornings per week, which I enjoy, despite the frustrations of not being able to put the grammar into practice...but finally I am starting to use the past tense in speech. The school is mainly for mission workers (usually from US, UK, Australia or Canada) so its a nice little "gringo network" - I went to a games night last night and we played Risk until 2am so I had to stay the night.

In the afternoons I do volunteer work at 2 different projects. For 2 afternoons I am with a NZ couple who run a community extension program linked to a Salvation Army hospital. They have a mobile clinic (Dr, dentist, nurse) which drives out to poor communities; I help with their education program for children. We play games, sing, do crafts, Bible lessons, and talk about health. Actually, the only thing I do is lead games - Aussie rules footy was a real hit with the girls! We also give them milk (if the mothers remember to bring water and gas) and animals (chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits) for them to raise. There is a mothers´ program too (health education, crafts, micro-credit) but I decided to opt out because I felt it was long-term community development work that requires relationship-building and therefore better language skills than I currently possess! The second project I only started at this week. Julie, an amazing English woman, has built up an after-school drop-in centre for children. The kids are free to play when they arrive, and then they go into 3 classrooms (based on age) for spiritual lessons, crafts, stories etc. On my first day the normal teacher of 3-6 year olds was ill, so I had to read stories and pray with them (in Spanish) all on my own - they are not well disciplined at home so I think saying "it was crazy" is an understatement!!

Because I am out in the middle of the day and lunch is the biggest meal of the day here, my family pack a sandwich for me and save my lunch for me to eat at night time, like gringos are accustomed to!! But you can easily live here with little money eg. a set lunch menu (3-4 courses) can be as cheap as A$1.50 and a bus ride is 25 cents. So far I have only witnessed one "bloqueo" (when they block off the streets in protest to the government) and we were able to use an alternative bridge, and one public transport strike. Can´t think of any more observations for now...oh, there are only 2 things that annoy me here - the barking dogs and dust everywhere...otherwise my life here is ALL GOOD!

In High Places

2005-08-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

After my last class in Sucre I set off with 3 girls from the Spanish school to do a 4WD tour across the highest and largest salt lake in the world - Salar de Uyuni. At 3665m above sea level, the small town of Uyuni (think "Northern Exposure" without the snow) was bitterly cold when we arrived at 1.30am. The 11 hour bus trip included frequent stops for minor repairs (ie. hammering something underneath the bus) so we were grateful to arrive at all.

The flat, dry salt lake looks like a desert of snow and is blinding without sunnies. Over 3 days in mostly barren landscapes we also saw a coral island of cacti, multi-coloured lakes with flamingoes, weird-shaped rock formations, and belching, sulphur-smelling geyers.

Unfortunately our Landcruiser had "lost power" so we were reduced to 5km/hr up hills and constantly passed by other 4WDs, making full days of driving on bumpy, dusty gravel roads a little tedious. But we amused ourselves by playing car games (I Spy, Celebrity Heads etc) with the 2 Spaniard brothers in our jeep to practise our Spanish/English.

After a chilly 4am start on the last day, we were relieved to stop for breakfast at hot springs...I chose not to de-robe, but defrosting my frozen toes in the water (30 deg C) was the highlight of the trip!!

In the middle of the night on another bus, I said goodbye to Guro, Sandra & Sara, and stopped to explore the highest city in the world - Potosi (4070m). Once booming with 1 million inhabitants because of its importance as the world´s biggest producer of silver, the city is overlooked by Cerro Rico ("rich hill"), which is still mined in medieval conditions. A tour of the mine reminded me why I love travelling so much...amazing new experiences. At the miner´s market we stocked up on gifts for the miners - coca leaves, dynamite, cigarettes and juice. Then we suited up in yellow rain pants and jacket, wellies, and a hard hat with torch. I had been handling the altitude surprisingly well (just puffing walking uphill) so initially I was reluctant to stuff coca leaves in my cheeks, followed by drinking a capful of 95% alcohol, but "when in Rome"...by the end of the tour I was asking for more!

We walked, sometimes hunched over, through the narrow tunnels, passing miners, some as young as 13. A clay statue of El Tio, the god of the indigenous miners, is anointed twice a month by pouring alcohol on its eyes, chest, legs and erect penis. Unfortunately I had forgotten to ask for an English-speaking guide so didn´t understand everything, but I think this ritual means the miners are wishing for strength, agility, and safety while underground, and fertility to produce offspring to continue working in the mines!

We climbed into a small place in a very humid part of the mine where 5 miners were taking turns removing buckets of ore up from a deep hole. I had a go at turning the crank to actually experience how difficult this work is...no wonder they are all so thin and strong. 8 million men have died since the mine began about 400 years ago (not exactly a good safety record, don´t you think Kal crew??!!). We witnessed a dynamite explosion, thankfully once outside, which scared me so much that I let go of my camera before I could take a photo!

Weird Photo Obsessions

2005-08-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Here´s a few examples of things I have been obsessed with trying to take photos of:

bell towers against a blue sky

old Dodge buses used as micros, the main form of public transport in cities

"hole in the wall" shops

close-ups of any market wares

Viva Chuquisaca!

2005-08-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Chuquisaca is the Departamento (State) that Sucre is capital of, and my favourite word when said really fast! I have now finished 3 weeks studying in Sucre, so here´s a summary of the extracurricular activities I entertained myself with:

Day trip to the famous Sunday markets at Tarabuco, featuring mostly textiles typical of the region and indigenous people wearing traditional dress. Next day I visited the Indigenous Art Museum in Sucre to find out what the weaving I bought means.

95% downhill mountain biking tour, although the 5% uphill felt like a lot more...I blamed altitude rather than my lack of fitness!
Trying the best saltenas in town - like a Cornish pastie but filled with meat or chicken, egg, a few veggies and a spicy liquid sauce.
6 August was the 180th anniversary of Bolivia´s liberation, celebrated with several days/nights of street parades and Bolivian flags everywhere. Although I wanted to steal one of the cute uniformed pre-school children, I was bored after half an hour of watching marching police bands and teenage girls in short skirts and long white boots (no Rio/Notting Hill Carnival costumes here!) so decided to check out a local nightclub until 5am and therefore slept through the main Saturday morning parade.

Tour of Cal Orcko, a sheer cliff face where dinosaur tracks have been exposed by vibrations from a cement factory that is still operating! UNESCO wants to preserve the footprints with silicone but can´t afford it yet; the government can´t stop the mining because its a private company and many people are employed there...Bolivian priorities I guess...anyway, I was a bit cynical about the closeness of the footprints for such big animals!

Espanol en Sucre

2005-07-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

OK, I´m not going to keep writing in Spanish, as I ain´t that good yet! I have really enjoyed my first week here in Sucre. I have classes for 4 hrs/day, 5 days/week with up to 3 other students, and we are not allowed to speak English, so my brain is quite frazzled by the end. My vocabulary has more than tripled so far, and I´m even confident enough to start conversations with random shopkeepers! Most of the shops selling dry goods/lollies/drinks etc are just little "holes in the wall" - there are so many per square metre that I wonder how any make a living?! There are also millions of Internet places, so I have no excuse for not writing often, although I have been busy exploring the city and doing my homework, the model student that I am ;)

I usually try to find a nice place in the sun to study, because it is usually cold in the shade, and "muy frio" at nights. One day I climbed the hill up to Recoleta Monastery and sat at Cafe Mirador (those who know Sucre will know these places) which has a fantastic view over the whole city, a perfect place to sit in the sun sipping on freshly squeezed juices. I haven´t done much the last few days because I´ve been slightly ill, just the usual mild dose of travellers´ "runs" (sorry about Breezy-style details), nothing my extensive medical kit (thanks Keckers) cannot handle!

My host family are lovely. They are the Directors of the Spanish School, so quite wealthy and if I really need to say something in English I can! They live on the top floor of a 6 storey apartment so the view of the city is amazing. They have two sons - Jose is 11 and Juan is 7 - who are typical of boys of their age. They sometimes laugh at my poor Spanish, but today I whipped Juan at table tennis, so perhaps he will take me seriously now!?! Today I went to the outdoor markets with Sandra and one of the two maids (yes, it does feel like I´m in a hotel) to buy all the food for the week and then we had a BBQ on the terrace. Note that my stomach illness only stopped me eating for 24 hours and then I got hungry again! I have breakfast and lunch at home with the family, and buy my own dinner, usually at a restaurant with my classmates, but the 2 course lunches are so big I really don´t need dinner (note to self: perhaps overeating is cause of stomach aches?!).

The school also organises extra-curricular activities and this week it was a cooking class, which actually turned out to be 15 of us standing around drinking sangria while the teacher made a massive pot of pique de macho - a typical Bolivian dish of spicy meat and vegetables, served with papas fritas (French fries) of course. It only takes me 10 mins to walk home from the main Plaza and the school, so life is pretty easy for me here. The streets are quite narrow, all one-way, with narrow sidewalks, and there are no stop signs and few traffic lights, so all drivers toot their horns as they approach an intersection. At first I thought they were tooting at me, such is my anxiety about crossing roads since stepping out in front of a red double-decker bus in London a few weeks ago! Anyway, enough observations/dribble for now...

Going solo

2005-07-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

I don´t think I´d really actually considered how different travelling alone through South America would be until I first opened my guidebook on the flight from London to Buenos Aires via Madrid. Nonchalantly reading the "Safety"section, I came across `Rape - this can happen anywhere´ with brief advice to contact a doctor in the first instance to test for STDs and get emergency contraception...no mention of sympathy, emotional support or refuge!?! Anyway, it hasn´t been too scary, despite my limited Spanish - most questions I answer with a smile, blank stare and Gracias thrown in for good measure. And despite the over-cautious warnings from the guidebook - "don´t go to La Boca alone" and "best to travel by day because bus drivers work long hours and there is less chance of them falling asleep" - Mum will be pleased to know that I´ve felt quite safe.

Highlights/stories from my chilly 3 days in Buenos Aires:

Boca Juniors football stadium (Maradona´s sentimental home) with yellow and blue painted everywhere - the team´s originial colours were B&W but they lost a play off against another B&W team so the Italian port workers who founded the club chose their colours from the next ship that arrived in the port, it had a Swedish flag
Huge and ornate mausoleums in the alleys of Recoleta cemetery, where only the rich (including Evita Peron) can afford to be buried
Eating dulce de leche (caramel) in everything - cakes, bread, biscuits and pastries - I certainly haven´t lost any of my Heathrow injection weight yet!
Steaks for A$1 and then proudly ordering a "parrillada" (mixed grill) in Spanish, only to discover it included kidneys, intestines and blood sausage!
Witnessing the "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo" march in remembrance of their children who "disappeared" (taken by military) in the 70s
Feeling young again hanging out with the hostel crew - although I did go to bed at 1.30am every night, when they were all going out clubbing! Such is the Argentine custom of eating dinner around midnight.

After enjoying a deluxe flight from Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz (Bolivia), I wimped out of the 14 hour overnight bus trip from Santa Cruz to Sucre (Spitzy/Helga - memories of that nightmare trip to Varanasi still fresh!) because it was only A$67 to fly. I chastised myself for about 24 hours afterwards, especially as I´d accidentally booked on the 1pm flight instead of 9am, but the amazing views flying over Cochabamba and Sucre were worth it. So I´m slumming it now in a cheap hotel and eating from the market! The Spanish school isn´t open until Monday anyway, so I´ve just been exploring the white city of Sucre on foot. Although its the capital city, its a relatively small city (pop 150,000) and only at 2,790m altitude - I´m already finding it hard to breathe walking up hill and cold at nights, what will I be like in La Paz?!

Inspiration?

2005-05-04T02:15:00.000-07:00

"The world - our Western world - was mad. I couldn't get enthusiastic about a career and a pension. I wanted a spark of some kind, a crusade, an ideal. All around me, I saw a society that had lost its sense of common purpose, of community. Where the future extended no further than next year's balance sheet. An 'unnatural' society in a literal sense: where children grew up never having climbed a tree and unable to recognise the constellations. A materialistic society that had lost sight of the sheer joy of being alive, and replaced it with self-assembly wardrobe units from IKEA. It was a &#%@ed-up world and I couldn't find any purpose or direction in it. Maybe I'd find one in South America."

From the novel "The Gringo Trail" by Mark Mann, Summersdale, UK, 1999.