Well, Peru has sure had it´s ups and downs. I´m feeling a lot better now, but I lost my wallet today. I didn´t have much as far as ID goes, but there was about $150 cash. Peru has sucked a lot of money out of me although the last mistake was entirely mine. Some Peruvian housekeeper at some hotel I only took a shower at isn´t going to have to work for a few months.
I was only really sick for a day, but really sick I was. The antibiotics worked well. It´s funny that coca leaves are illegal in Canada, but here, the doctor told me to drink coca tea, and everyone who knew I was sick told me to drink it as well. A really nice girl took good care of me and taught me some more Spanish. I lost her email with my wallet, but the chances of seeing here again are next to none anyway. It was pretty cool how much we could talk about with my limited vocabulary. I taught her some English too. Her job was to get people into the bar,¨Hey mister - Happy Hour 3 for 1 - c´mon chicko 5 for 1 drinks special for you.¨ That was the extent of her English. The 4 other bars nearby had girls doing the same thing. It was pretty civalised though as last call is at 11pm in that town. Most of the staff and the owners lived in the bar with thier children. And man do Peruvians pump out the Babies. The population should double here about avery 15 years.
I find myself writing these emails a lot because there is always some time to kill, waiting for a bus or train. Right now, I´m in Cusco, waiting for my airplane ticket from Caracas to Sao Palo. It´s on the 27th and gives me 5 days to get to Rio. Tonight, I will take a first class buss to Lima. From there, I will go to a smaller town, and on to Ecuador.
The thing that stands out most in Peru so far is the stone mason work. Some of it ancient and still standing, some of it defying belief, some cut so perfect, you´d think they used lasers, and some all of the above. I saw one wall that was about 200 ft tall, and there were some stones near the top that had to weigh at least 10 tones. I have no idea how they got up there hundreds of years ago, or how it would be done today. Here in town I saw a big wall that was made entirely of 2 tone stones.
I´m still enjoying my trip, and I´m kind of glad that I got to experience a Peruvian hospital, but I´m starting to feel cursed in Peru. I think that happens to a lot of people here. I can´t wait to get to Ecuador and especialy Columbia. Everyone seems to love Columbia for it´s people and incredebily diverse landscape.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Machu Pichu to the Hospital
I´m sick.I felt great yesterday, visited the great lost city of Machu Pichu. My mistake may have been drinking water from a high mountian stream. Speaking of stream, I´ve never had diariha like that before. I saw the doctor 3 times today. I really like him his name is pronouced ¨wanka¨. He doesn´t speak any English and it was a miscommunication that cause my 3rd visit. He told me to eat chicken soup, but I missed the part when he said it must be only chicken and water, nothing else. I´m also drinking some rehydration juice. I thought it was ok to drink coke - no.
I´m feeling much better now, and I don´t suspect I will need to go back. I´m still on the medicine juice chicken, a couple of other pills to force my stomach to funtion and antibiotics. I´m going to stay here in Aquas Calientes. There are no cars except the busses that go up to the ruins. The only ways min and out are train, foot and helicopter. I´ve met some nice people that work at a bar who delivered food to my hotel when my energy was really low.
The Hospital is older and dirtier than my $7 a night hotel. The eqiptment looks primitive. The doctor gave me the anti puke injections in his bedroom. When I get home and have access to the rest of my money, I will surely make a donation. Maybe I´ll even try to raise some money from other people.
Machu Pichu was more inspiring than I expected. It really makes me wonder how people with less technology than we have now had such an incredible vision to do the absolute maximum they were capable of. In Alberta, with all our wealth, there is no such vision. In fact the public art in the smallest towns in Bolivia is much more grand than the big cities in Canada. I remeber in highschool, I had an idea of raising taxxes 5% and making the most spectacular castle in the world. Of course in our give me society it would take a hell of a lot of charisma to lauch such a project. Maybe Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys has what it takes.
Peru is really eating up my money. Most things are quite cheap, but the government has hefty fees. $25 to see Machu Pichu. $20 each way taking the shortest route on the train in Backpacker class. The doctor´s fees were quite small, abou $7 a visit to the hospital, but I paid a lot for the drugs. Of course relative to Canada, these ¨high fees¨ are still below par. I will stay here at least another day as it is a great place to heal. No cars, nice people and ancient energy.
I´m feeling much better now, and I don´t suspect I will need to go back. I´m still on the medicine juice chicken, a couple of other pills to force my stomach to funtion and antibiotics. I´m going to stay here in Aquas Calientes. There are no cars except the busses that go up to the ruins. The only ways min and out are train, foot and helicopter. I´ve met some nice people that work at a bar who delivered food to my hotel when my energy was really low.
The Hospital is older and dirtier than my $7 a night hotel. The eqiptment looks primitive. The doctor gave me the anti puke injections in his bedroom. When I get home and have access to the rest of my money, I will surely make a donation. Maybe I´ll even try to raise some money from other people.
Machu Pichu was more inspiring than I expected. It really makes me wonder how people with less technology than we have now had such an incredible vision to do the absolute maximum they were capable of. In Alberta, with all our wealth, there is no such vision. In fact the public art in the smallest towns in Bolivia is much more grand than the big cities in Canada. I remeber in highschool, I had an idea of raising taxxes 5% and making the most spectacular castle in the world. Of course in our give me society it would take a hell of a lot of charisma to lauch such a project. Maybe Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys has what it takes.
Peru is really eating up my money. Most things are quite cheap, but the government has hefty fees. $25 to see Machu Pichu. $20 each way taking the shortest route on the train in Backpacker class. The doctor´s fees were quite small, abou $7 a visit to the hospital, but I paid a lot for the drugs. Of course relative to Canada, these ¨high fees¨ are still below par. I will stay here at least another day as it is a great place to heal. No cars, nice people and ancient energy.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Bolivia to Peru
Hi It´s been a while, so there is quite a bit to remark on. I was sure glad to get out of La Paz. I tried to get out the night before I did, but I missed the last bus to Copacabana that left from the cemitary. When I was there, an old lady told me leave or I would be asulted. I didn´t feel unsafe, but took her advise, and jumped in a cab. I had a few drinks with some people I had met earlier which may not have been the smartest thing to do as I felt a cold comming on. Aperntly the new school thought in pshycology is that people´s actions are largely irrational.
The air in La Paz isn{t just polluted from only a few smokey cars(Hey driver, get a piston ring), but there isn{t much of it. It is the worlds highest capitol city at about 12000 feet. It{s Noisey too. There are very few private cars (about 1 in 30). Most of the cars are Toyota minivans that hold 9-15 people. The driver honks his horn about every 30 seconds ina vain attemt to keep things moving. The person who collects the money yells the route out the window. All you hear, day and night is honking and yelling. The only real bonus is that it only costs between $0.13 and $0.17 for a ride and you should have to wait more than a minute to find the van you want. It should be noted as well that nearly everyone turns off the motor while going down hill - you either go up or down, no streets are flat.
I woke up at around 8:30am to firecarckers. I was feeling pretty sick, the cold had fully set in, and I decided that if I was to recover, the first thing I needed was cleaner air. I went to catch a minivan, and had to walk quite a ways because downtown was closed to traffic for national police day. The firecrackers and music were too much. I wanted out now. My prayers were answered at the cemitary. The bus to Copacabana was just leaving as I got there, and I flagged it down.
The bus went along the beautiful, clean, enormous, Lake Titicaca. This is the highest Lake of its size at 14500ft. It appear very much like Lake Okanogan, with the rolling hills around it, spase vegtation with some trees. It is far more devepoed in area, but you really have to look to see that it is being farmed by hand and the small huts are made from bricks that are the exact same colour as the earth around them.
There was a short ferry ride that was a little scarey. The Bus took quite a while to ease on to a wooden boat that was just big enough for one bus. It kind of looked like it was made by a 12 year old kid out of drift wood. The enigine looked to be about a 30hp outboard. I was surprised to see the first part of the trip was powered by a man with a pole, pushing us along. Once we gotinto the deep, it felt like the hole thing would tip as the busses suspension made us sway twice as much as one would expect. It was obvious that there were no lifejackets.
Finally, the bus got me to Copacabana. It´s a really nice town by Lake Ticakaca, near the Peruvian border. There was a lot of pale skin there, which was probably why it was the only town in Bolivia where I felt people were trying to rip me off. The pace was a slow as the sleepiest Mexican town and even the cars that would pass about one every half hour drove slow.
It was in Copacabana that I was able to heal. Clean air, beautiful surroundings and great food. I only ate trout while I was there, and it was prepared but doing the standard ass to thought cut, but then it was opened right up, kind of like a butterly chicken breast. The only juice you get in bolivia is freshy squeezed, and I drank lots of it. The coca tea would numb my sore throught - kink of like cloraseptic, only not as powerful and a heluva lot more natural. I´ve really come to like coca tea but the stuff in the tea bag is no good. You need fresh whole leaves. It doesn´t give you as much of a buzz as coffee or conventional tea, but it is much healthier.
I tried chewing coca leaves, and it did have some effect, but it was kind of a gross thing to do. Many Bolivians have one cheek as full like a chipmunk all the time. 1/3 Bolivians are employed in the coca industry. Much is sold domesticly for chewing, religous rituals and tea. I suspect that the majority is for cocaine. I´ve been told that it takes 3 pounds of Bolivian leaves to make one gram of cocaine and 4 pounds of Peruvian or Colunbian leaves to do the same. It´s too bad that the leaves are illegal in Canada, but I suppose anyone could make cocaine then, seriously cutting into the enourmous profits the CIA makes from it and severly crippling the drug dependant American economy.
I only spent one night in Copacabana, then I was off the Peru. I got ripped off by the office that sold me my bus ticket. It was supposed to be 1st class to Cusco, but was at best economy and went only to Juliaca. This turned out to be a blessing because I ended up having 5 hours to kill in a town I never planned to visit, but the timming couldn´t have been better. I took a strange taxi that was a motor trike that could do at best 15km/h. He took me downtown, and the streets were lined with people, waiting for a parade.
Now comparing a Peruvian Parade with a Canadian parade really exemplifies the difference in culture. In canada we decorate cars, in Peru, people where costumes and dance. There must have been about 40 differnt groups, each representing indigonous tribes, trade unions and schools. They all had dancers, most of whom were in their early teens and the costumes were very unique and brightly coloured. Folowing the dancers, each group had its own marching band. The parade went on for about 3.5 hours. The end was amazing as many of the bands played together and there must have bee over a dozen bass drums, pounding out a beat that was so powerful, I swear my heart had to beat with it just to funtion.
Now I am in Cusco, the oldest city in the Americas. It used to be the capitol city of the Inca. The arcitecture is really nice, and the streets are geared towards people more than cars. Apperantly it is quite dangerous here as far as theft goes. There are hords of grinkos like myself looking to go to Machu Pichu. I might not go it if costs too much. I will see if I can take the train and stay at one of the smaller towns closer to the site. I almost decided to Venezueala through the amazon with a Japanise guy I met on the bus, but he wans´t even sure if he would be able to. It involed taking boats that he wasn´t sure exsisted.
Please excuse the mistakes in this email, the keyboard really sucks, and some keys are in differnt places.
Chris
The air in La Paz isn{t just polluted from only a few smokey cars(Hey driver, get a piston ring), but there isn{t much of it. It is the worlds highest capitol city at about 12000 feet. It{s Noisey too. There are very few private cars (about 1 in 30). Most of the cars are Toyota minivans that hold 9-15 people. The driver honks his horn about every 30 seconds ina vain attemt to keep things moving. The person who collects the money yells the route out the window. All you hear, day and night is honking and yelling. The only real bonus is that it only costs between $0.13 and $0.17 for a ride and you should have to wait more than a minute to find the van you want. It should be noted as well that nearly everyone turns off the motor while going down hill - you either go up or down, no streets are flat.
I woke up at around 8:30am to firecarckers. I was feeling pretty sick, the cold had fully set in, and I decided that if I was to recover, the first thing I needed was cleaner air. I went to catch a minivan, and had to walk quite a ways because downtown was closed to traffic for national police day. The firecrackers and music were too much. I wanted out now. My prayers were answered at the cemitary. The bus to Copacabana was just leaving as I got there, and I flagged it down.
The bus went along the beautiful, clean, enormous, Lake Titicaca. This is the highest Lake of its size at 14500ft. It appear very much like Lake Okanogan, with the rolling hills around it, spase vegtation with some trees. It is far more devepoed in area, but you really have to look to see that it is being farmed by hand and the small huts are made from bricks that are the exact same colour as the earth around them.
There was a short ferry ride that was a little scarey. The Bus took quite a while to ease on to a wooden boat that was just big enough for one bus. It kind of looked like it was made by a 12 year old kid out of drift wood. The enigine looked to be about a 30hp outboard. I was surprised to see the first part of the trip was powered by a man with a pole, pushing us along. Once we gotinto the deep, it felt like the hole thing would tip as the busses suspension made us sway twice as much as one would expect. It was obvious that there were no lifejackets.
Finally, the bus got me to Copacabana. It´s a really nice town by Lake Ticakaca, near the Peruvian border. There was a lot of pale skin there, which was probably why it was the only town in Bolivia where I felt people were trying to rip me off. The pace was a slow as the sleepiest Mexican town and even the cars that would pass about one every half hour drove slow.
It was in Copacabana that I was able to heal. Clean air, beautiful surroundings and great food. I only ate trout while I was there, and it was prepared but doing the standard ass to thought cut, but then it was opened right up, kind of like a butterly chicken breast. The only juice you get in bolivia is freshy squeezed, and I drank lots of it. The coca tea would numb my sore throught - kink of like cloraseptic, only not as powerful and a heluva lot more natural. I´ve really come to like coca tea but the stuff in the tea bag is no good. You need fresh whole leaves. It doesn´t give you as much of a buzz as coffee or conventional tea, but it is much healthier.
I tried chewing coca leaves, and it did have some effect, but it was kind of a gross thing to do. Many Bolivians have one cheek as full like a chipmunk all the time. 1/3 Bolivians are employed in the coca industry. Much is sold domesticly for chewing, religous rituals and tea. I suspect that the majority is for cocaine. I´ve been told that it takes 3 pounds of Bolivian leaves to make one gram of cocaine and 4 pounds of Peruvian or Colunbian leaves to do the same. It´s too bad that the leaves are illegal in Canada, but I suppose anyone could make cocaine then, seriously cutting into the enourmous profits the CIA makes from it and severly crippling the drug dependant American economy.
I only spent one night in Copacabana, then I was off the Peru. I got ripped off by the office that sold me my bus ticket. It was supposed to be 1st class to Cusco, but was at best economy and went only to Juliaca. This turned out to be a blessing because I ended up having 5 hours to kill in a town I never planned to visit, but the timming couldn´t have been better. I took a strange taxi that was a motor trike that could do at best 15km/h. He took me downtown, and the streets were lined with people, waiting for a parade.
Now comparing a Peruvian Parade with a Canadian parade really exemplifies the difference in culture. In canada we decorate cars, in Peru, people where costumes and dance. There must have been about 40 differnt groups, each representing indigonous tribes, trade unions and schools. They all had dancers, most of whom were in their early teens and the costumes were very unique and brightly coloured. Folowing the dancers, each group had its own marching band. The parade went on for about 3.5 hours. The end was amazing as many of the bands played together and there must have bee over a dozen bass drums, pounding out a beat that was so powerful, I swear my heart had to beat with it just to funtion.
Now I am in Cusco, the oldest city in the Americas. It used to be the capitol city of the Inca. The arcitecture is really nice, and the streets are geared towards people more than cars. Apperantly it is quite dangerous here as far as theft goes. There are hords of grinkos like myself looking to go to Machu Pichu. I might not go it if costs too much. I will see if I can take the train and stay at one of the smaller towns closer to the site. I almost decided to Venezueala through the amazon with a Japanise guy I met on the bus, but he wans´t even sure if he would be able to. It involed taking boats that he wasn´t sure exsisted.
Please excuse the mistakes in this email, the keyboard really sucks, and some keys are in differnt places.
Chris
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
South Bolivia
Well, here´s a first. I have the next 4 days planned. I am in Uyuni in Southwest Bolivia. I´m about to leave on a 3 day tour of the worlds largest and highest salt flat and some other sights that are supposd to be pectacular. On Saturday, I return here to Uyuni and Take the train to Oruro. It´s a 24 hour trip. I am going executive class for about $11can. Traveling here is cheap. I thought that $60us was a bit steep for a 3 day all inclusive tour, but it has been recomended by many people. I can´t belive I am in the tropics. I´s damn cold.
Just thought I´d let you know what´s happening.Chris
Just thought I´d let you know what´s happening.Chris
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Crossing into Bolivia
Well, I´m not sure of the name of the town I am in again. I had a good day at the border town, Across from La Quinca or something like that. I should really know these things. The weather was nice, and I really like Bolivian people. It´s interesting how the older women get here, the more attention they pay to the way they dress. I don´t think that any two hats in Bolivia are alike.
Yesterday when I crossed the border, I got my exit stamp from Argentina, but walked right past the Boliva office. I realized what I had done today and that I needed a visa card so I went back to make things right. They were surprised that I walked right in, but didn´t give me any trouble.
The hotel I stayed in cost less than $4 Canadian and was worth every penny if they pay property tax. The bed sagged more than a hammock, and it took an hour for them to get the propane water heater going for me in the morning. I was just about to leave when they did.
People really like to talk politics here, and a few had all of the patience in the world for me to look up words in the dictionary. I was surprised how well they understood that the CIA is buying the most drugs and at the same time trying to stop production. One guy I talked to said that it is so the price of cocaine they buy goes up.
I met a girl from Israel, and she has some friends that are meeting her tomorrow in a town called uyu something. I decided to go with her as her friends are getting a jeep to the worlds biggest salt flat, something I wanted to do, but it would be to expensive for me to do on my own. There still might not be room, but I don´t really care which way I go. I didn´t even think that busses ran through this part of the world.
That´s where I am now.
Yesterday when I crossed the border, I got my exit stamp from Argentina, but walked right past the Boliva office. I realized what I had done today and that I needed a visa card so I went back to make things right. They were surprised that I walked right in, but didn´t give me any trouble.
The hotel I stayed in cost less than $4 Canadian and was worth every penny if they pay property tax. The bed sagged more than a hammock, and it took an hour for them to get the propane water heater going for me in the morning. I was just about to leave when they did.
People really like to talk politics here, and a few had all of the patience in the world for me to look up words in the dictionary. I was surprised how well they understood that the CIA is buying the most drugs and at the same time trying to stop production. One guy I talked to said that it is so the price of cocaine they buy goes up.
I met a girl from Israel, and she has some friends that are meeting her tomorrow in a town called uyu something. I decided to go with her as her friends are getting a jeep to the worlds biggest salt flat, something I wanted to do, but it would be to expensive for me to do on my own. There still might not be room, but I don´t really care which way I go. I didn´t even think that busses ran through this part of the world.
That´s where I am now.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Salta
Salta seems more inpovershed than the rest of Argentina. I passed some slums on the way in although they weren´t nearly as bad as the ones I saw in Mexico, and I´m sure people here are much better off than some of the places I am about to visit.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Frigid Tropics
My energy has been run down a little over the past few days. Bolivia is cold. I can't believe this is the tropics. It resembles a June Morning on Baffin Island. I did a 3 day trip through some remote parts of Southwest bolivia. There is very little life there. I saw the largest and highest salt flat in the world, and lots of mountainous, landscape with wide valleys in between. There was small, sparsae vegitation in about 1/3 of the area, the rest was rock, snow and sand. Where there was vegitation, there were lamas, the odd deer like creature, and the odd sheapard with sheep. The big surprise though was some very shallow, salty lakes with thousands of pink flamingos. The wind was relentless.
I'm sure that it was a bit colder than normal. We couldn't do part of the tour due to too much snow. I think Bolivia would be an amazing country to dirt bike, mountain bike or ride horses. Because most of the eastern part has no trees, you can see and go anywhere. There also seems to be some great places to ski tour if you can handle the altitude. Most towns I have been to are higher than the highest mountains around Banff.
Bolivia should be hailed as one of the worlds greatest societies. The people are friendly and embrace their own unique culture. There is a lot of graffiti, but 99.9% of it is political. I ate lunch in a town that couldn't have held more than 10 people and the resturant had about 50 pages of leftist political propaganda posted on all of the walls that seemed to be put up by miners. The most amazing aspect of Bolivian society is that nobody beggs for money. The majority of people live on about $2 a day, but nobody expects to get anything for nothing. I did see two people begging here in the big city, but they looked to be in their 80's or 90's and unable to funtion. It really makes me look down on my own country for having such an incredible amount of wealth, and all of the problems we don't or only pretend to address. I can see why Che Guvara died for these people. I have nothing but respect.
La Paz is a pretty cool city. It's in a deep valley, and the streets go up the sides of the mountains. Who ever is in the buisness of selling clutches here is probably the richest in town. I'm going to stay here for a couple of days, then it's on to Peru. I haven't heard many good things about Peru from other travelers, so I might make my way to Equador, and then slow down. People whop have traveled latin america seem to like Columbia the most. I wasn't going to go, but now it is high on my list. I think that most of my time will be in Columbia and Venezuela. Chris
I'm sure that it was a bit colder than normal. We couldn't do part of the tour due to too much snow. I think Bolivia would be an amazing country to dirt bike, mountain bike or ride horses. Because most of the eastern part has no trees, you can see and go anywhere. There also seems to be some great places to ski tour if you can handle the altitude. Most towns I have been to are higher than the highest mountains around Banff.
Bolivia should be hailed as one of the worlds greatest societies. The people are friendly and embrace their own unique culture. There is a lot of graffiti, but 99.9% of it is political. I ate lunch in a town that couldn't have held more than 10 people and the resturant had about 50 pages of leftist political propaganda posted on all of the walls that seemed to be put up by miners. The most amazing aspect of Bolivian society is that nobody beggs for money. The majority of people live on about $2 a day, but nobody expects to get anything for nothing. I did see two people begging here in the big city, but they looked to be in their 80's or 90's and unable to funtion. It really makes me look down on my own country for having such an incredible amount of wealth, and all of the problems we don't or only pretend to address. I can see why Che Guvara died for these people. I have nothing but respect.
La Paz is a pretty cool city. It's in a deep valley, and the streets go up the sides of the mountains. Who ever is in the buisness of selling clutches here is probably the richest in town. I'm going to stay here for a couple of days, then it's on to Peru. I haven't heard many good things about Peru from other travelers, so I might make my way to Equador, and then slow down. People whop have traveled latin america seem to like Columbia the most. I wasn't going to go, but now it is high on my list. I think that most of my time will be in Columbia and Venezuela. Chris
Mendoza
Two days ago, I skiied at a resort called Penititas. It is a smaller resort, with few forgieners. Unfortunatly, I got there at the begining of bad weather, and it was icey and hard to see. There are no trees there, even in the bottom of the valley. The only places were there were trees are at towns and military bases. If Chile was to invade, they would only have to bomb where they see trees.
It wasn´t a huge ski hill, but it was steep enough and the backcountry potential was limitless. There was a lot of amazing terrain right from the side of the road. The storm closed the pass to Chile and I passed hundreds and hundreds of trucks parked on the side of the road all the way to Mendoza. The storm was expected to last days and rather than wait around, I decided to abandon the region and head for Bolivia. This means I won´t see Chile, but I´m sure I will return for a ski trip in the future. Mendoza is a fantastic city with thousands of beautiful women. It is a contrast of a sofistcated university city and a gateway to the rugged mountains and wine country. I think I could even be happy living there for a while. The Hostel I stayed at,¨Andino Hostel¨ had really nice staff and was clean. I havent seen much poverty in Argentina, but people live off a fraction of the income we make. I´ve also been impressed with the city parks and large impressive statues that show pride and values that I wish we had in Canada. Having said that, I doubt that I would want to live the rest of my life there.
Last night I took a first class us to Salta which took 17 hours. My chair reclined almost into a bed and the trip cost about $40 can. When I booked my flight, for some reason I thought Rio was further north in Brazil. My plan now is to fly from Equador, Columbia or Venezuela to Rio close to the time to leave. I looked into booking a flight in advance, but the travel agent said it would be cheaper to do it in the country I am leaving from. It´s cold here in Salta, about 5c. I hope some better weather hits Bolivia when I get there as the extreme altitude can bring bad weather. I think that the Capitol, La Paz is over 10000 feet.
One funny thing happend to me the other night. I was eating in a resturant with a Aussie, and a couple of Brits who I didn´t think much of. A beautiful American girl came to our table, chatted a bit and asked us to joine her and her 7 friends. We played it cool, and then another beautiful girl from Belguim came andf invited us as well. We were pretty shocked. When we went to the table, we noticed that they seemed a little young. After talking to them for a bit, we found that they were all high school exchange students, maybe two of them were 18 at the most. I suppose you had to be there to see how strange and funny it was, the American girl wanted to get into our pants really bad. I actually had a good conversation with an Austrian girl about politics. She was ashamed that her father owned a factory that paid low wages and we talked about the exploitation of forgien workers. She was almost crying as she was telling me this. I told her that as long as the factory stays there, it acutally does benifit the community and that the reall problem would be if the factory moved somewhere else where wages were even cheaper as so many do.
I don´t think I will spend a lot of time in Bolivia. I´m most excited about Peru. Once I get there, I want to relax, and not worry about moving on as much. I may stay in a place for a while if I can get some Spanish Lessons. I was actually learning faster at home with my audio CDs. I know enough to get by, but I really want to learn Spanish now. Very few people here speak English. 95% of the time my Spanish is better than their English. I felt a need to get out of Argentina because it is a bit like Canada, and I do think that I will be back to ski. The back country looks so good. The Mountains are big, and the terrain were I was was really nice for skiing. It was steep, but there weren´t as Many rocky cliffs that are impossible like the ones around Banff. I´d have to rank the Mountains at home a little beeter just because you can go in the trees if there is a white out.
That´s it for now. I can´t wait to get to Boliva. Aregentina seems more European than latin american - not that it´s a bad thing, but I really wanted to be in the tropics and obseve some of the native culture.
It wasn´t a huge ski hill, but it was steep enough and the backcountry potential was limitless. There was a lot of amazing terrain right from the side of the road. The storm closed the pass to Chile and I passed hundreds and hundreds of trucks parked on the side of the road all the way to Mendoza. The storm was expected to last days and rather than wait around, I decided to abandon the region and head for Bolivia. This means I won´t see Chile, but I´m sure I will return for a ski trip in the future. Mendoza is a fantastic city with thousands of beautiful women. It is a contrast of a sofistcated university city and a gateway to the rugged mountains and wine country. I think I could even be happy living there for a while. The Hostel I stayed at,¨Andino Hostel¨ had really nice staff and was clean. I havent seen much poverty in Argentina, but people live off a fraction of the income we make. I´ve also been impressed with the city parks and large impressive statues that show pride and values that I wish we had in Canada. Having said that, I doubt that I would want to live the rest of my life there.
Last night I took a first class us to Salta which took 17 hours. My chair reclined almost into a bed and the trip cost about $40 can. When I booked my flight, for some reason I thought Rio was further north in Brazil. My plan now is to fly from Equador, Columbia or Venezuela to Rio close to the time to leave. I looked into booking a flight in advance, but the travel agent said it would be cheaper to do it in the country I am leaving from. It´s cold here in Salta, about 5c. I hope some better weather hits Bolivia when I get there as the extreme altitude can bring bad weather. I think that the Capitol, La Paz is over 10000 feet.
One funny thing happend to me the other night. I was eating in a resturant with a Aussie, and a couple of Brits who I didn´t think much of. A beautiful American girl came to our table, chatted a bit and asked us to joine her and her 7 friends. We played it cool, and then another beautiful girl from Belguim came andf invited us as well. We were pretty shocked. When we went to the table, we noticed that they seemed a little young. After talking to them for a bit, we found that they were all high school exchange students, maybe two of them were 18 at the most. I suppose you had to be there to see how strange and funny it was, the American girl wanted to get into our pants really bad. I actually had a good conversation with an Austrian girl about politics. She was ashamed that her father owned a factory that paid low wages and we talked about the exploitation of forgien workers. She was almost crying as she was telling me this. I told her that as long as the factory stays there, it acutally does benifit the community and that the reall problem would be if the factory moved somewhere else where wages were even cheaper as so many do.
I don´t think I will spend a lot of time in Bolivia. I´m most excited about Peru. Once I get there, I want to relax, and not worry about moving on as much. I may stay in a place for a while if I can get some Spanish Lessons. I was actually learning faster at home with my audio CDs. I know enough to get by, but I really want to learn Spanish now. Very few people here speak English. 95% of the time my Spanish is better than their English. I felt a need to get out of Argentina because it is a bit like Canada, and I do think that I will be back to ski. The back country looks so good. The Mountains are big, and the terrain were I was was really nice for skiing. It was steep, but there weren´t as Many rocky cliffs that are impossible like the ones around Banff. I´d have to rank the Mountains at home a little beeter just because you can go in the trees if there is a white out.
That´s it for now. I can´t wait to get to Boliva. Aregentina seems more European than latin american - not that it´s a bad thing, but I really wanted to be in the tropics and obseve some of the native culture.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Arrival in Buenos Aires
My first two days were a little difficult. After over 24 hours of flying, I got a cheap hotel in Buenos Aires. If you like cities, I´m sure it would be a fantastic city but it was a bit too much for me. There are about 13 million people there, and the streets were very crowded. Ironicly, it was the worest air I have ever experienced, worse than being at Syncrude. The only thing that I really like was watching a man who was about 60 dancing the tango with young, beautiful girls. They improvised, each time and it was really cool, about half the time their noses were touching as they did all kinds of moves. One time the girl kissed the man fast and hard. He jumped back and uses a kleenex from his pocket to wipe off the lipstick, all to the music of course.
I found out the buses to Mendoza left at night, and lasted 14 hours. The busses here are superior to Canadian busses. They have two levels, and in first class, you get a chair that fully reclines into a bed. A person could do well with these buses in Canada. I went back to the hotel , packed my stuff and got the hell out of the big city.
Unfortunatly I was too late for first class, and had another crappy night of sleep on a 14 hour bus ride. As soon as I got off the bus, a young guy with dreads (the only dreads I´ve seen) asked me if I wanted a hostel. Tired, I said yeas right away, and he took me to a hostel in Mendoza. I like Mendoza. The weather here is perfect. It almost never rains, but the city is irrigated by water and is like an oasis in sage country.
Argentina seems more like europe than latin america. I haven´t seen much poverty and most of the people are of Spanish or Italian decent. I think they killed almost all of the indians here as I have only seem maybe 5 and people have relativly fair skin.
Tommorow is my first day of skiing. I forget the name of the hill. It´s a smaller hill, 3 hours away. The day after, I will travel to Malague to ski Los Lenas. It´s an expensive resort, but it´s supposed to be good. After that, I will go to Chile, maybe ski for a day and then I will bus or fly over the desert to Bolivia or Peru.
I found out the buses to Mendoza left at night, and lasted 14 hours. The busses here are superior to Canadian busses. They have two levels, and in first class, you get a chair that fully reclines into a bed. A person could do well with these buses in Canada. I went back to the hotel , packed my stuff and got the hell out of the big city.
Unfortunatly I was too late for first class, and had another crappy night of sleep on a 14 hour bus ride. As soon as I got off the bus, a young guy with dreads (the only dreads I´ve seen) asked me if I wanted a hostel. Tired, I said yeas right away, and he took me to a hostel in Mendoza. I like Mendoza. The weather here is perfect. It almost never rains, but the city is irrigated by water and is like an oasis in sage country.
Argentina seems more like europe than latin america. I haven´t seen much poverty and most of the people are of Spanish or Italian decent. I think they killed almost all of the indians here as I have only seem maybe 5 and people have relativly fair skin.
Tommorow is my first day of skiing. I forget the name of the hill. It´s a smaller hill, 3 hours away. The day after, I will travel to Malague to ski Los Lenas. It´s an expensive resort, but it´s supposed to be good. After that, I will go to Chile, maybe ski for a day and then I will bus or fly over the desert to Bolivia or Peru.
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