Wanderlust: it's a state of mind

Going walkabout in the Valley

2010-03-28T22:13:00.006+01:00

Kathmandu is a great place to be based*, and there is plenty to occupy a brief sojourn... or two... or three. There are monkeys to be visited and steps to be negotiated at Swayambhunath; far too many photos to be taken in Kathmandu / Patan / Bhaktapur's Durbar Squares (in ascending order of impressive-ness); fragrant clear and holy Bagmati river water to avoid at Pashupatinath; and several miles of prayer flag and thirty-six metres of stupa to admire at Bouddhanath.

* its vicinity to the rest of the valley makes it easy to escape.

181m above the bottom of the top of the world

2010-03-21T11:53:00.004Z

In summary: the best part of three weeks of "maybe little bit up, little bit down" and a lot of "gradual flat".

The supposedly easy part was Kathmandu to Lukla - hindered only by a broken ankle, a no fly day, more turbulence in forty minutes than a lifetime of long haul, and the world's most dangerous airport... but with two feet on solid, traffic-free, yak-populated territory the 150km trek had begun.

Via Phakding (last sleep for thirteen days and nights), Namche Bazaare (yak attack en route), Khumjung (Hillary's legacy), Khunde (yeti scalp), Tengboche (om mani padme hum and sunrise on Everest), Dingboche (getting accustomed to yak dung fires), Nangkar Tshang (never ending false summits and prayer flags), Lobuje (stunning scenery and the start of the snowball fights), Gorak Shep (Everest on fire), Everest Base Camp (the bottom 5364m of the top of the world 8848m), Kala Pathar (awesome (overused superlative but entirely deserved) views), Zongla (sleepover with the stars, the French and the rats), Cho-La Pass (rock climbing, crevasse avoidance, ice-skating with theporters), Thagna (survived), Ngozumpa Glacier (little bit up, little bit down, lots of rocks/ice/snow/scrambling), Gokyo (ready stead snow), Lakes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (frozen), Gokyo Ri (360' of spectacular Himalayas), Phortse Thanga (the snowballs continue), and then back to Namche (rain rain go away), Phakding (farewells begin) and finally to Lukla ("starbucks" and the Irish Bar on Paddy's day).

An amazing few weeks of mountains, views, walking, sunsets, weekly showers, daal baht, jam-jam, mau-mau, momos, and a welcome absence of AMS. Highlights were, of course, EBCm, 360' panoramas from Kala Pathar and Gokyo Ri, Everest "on fire" sunsets, and crossing the Cho-La Pass...

From ABC to EBC

2010-02-27T11:28:00.006Z

Before leaving Pokhara and ABC, I ticked off the final few tourist-y things to do: Devi's Fall's [more like a trickle at the end of the a dry winter], the Mountain Museum [combination of sunning Himalayan photography, and GCSE-esque geography/anthropology posters], attempted to enjoy the international paragliding championships [but bizarrely this significantly reduced the number, duration and complexity of flights...], and discovered a second establishment capable of a decent coffee - complete with refills :)

Next stop: Chitwan National Park with a small army of German medics. The usual combo of visitor centre, Tharu village, elephant breeding centre, traditional dance and bird watching were done, but the highlights were of course the big animals... A handful of crocs were up alongside our dugout canoe, bathing rhino seemed content with us watching them from our elephant taxis, and then clambered around on the back of the nellyphants at bathtime in the river. And another few dozen sunset photies to add to the collection too...

Now back in Kathmandu to reorganise, and will be AWOL from until the twenty-somethingth of March...

NEPAL ~ Never Ending Peace And Love

2010-02-18T08:38:00.007Z

A month in Pokhara, and still not bored of the stunning Annapurna backdrop, the blue-ness of Phewa Tal, the scattering of paragliders over Sarangkot, daily daal baht, or the day to day life at ABC and Manipal.

Climbed up to Sarangkot a couple of weeks ago, watched a very orange sunset and a stunning sunrise, before paragliding from 1500m, via 2800m with 3m eagles and some acrobatics, back to Lakeside.

Have also been out rowing on the lake, wriggled through Mahundra and Bat Caves, scaled the mountain up to Manamakama, not quite fallen off any motorbikes, seen more weddings that you could imagine, experienced a Nepali bank holiday and Tibetan new year, enjoyed more BBQs and campfires courtesy of Hari et al, and finally found something that actually tastes of coffee.

My four weeks of medicine at Manipal is done; met some great interns who really made it what it was, as well as the elective students for far and wide...

Heading to Chitwan in search of the Junle Book cast next weekend, then back to smelly KTM, before the real mountains begin.

Namaste Pokhara

2010-01-31T08:02:00.006Z

KTM is loud and dirty and smelly, and fortunately only had to be endured for thirty six hours before escaping to the (relative) peace of Pokhara. Have been here a couple of weeks and getting quite used to my morning view of the Annapurnas glowing orange in the sunrise, my commute to Manipal (never let me complain about BGH again), twice daily rice, 9 hours of power a day, of the mid-20s'C daytime and subzero evenings around the camp fire... and of course, the holy cows.

There are mountains to be cycled around / climber up / paraglidied off, the massive Phewa Tal to row across, strikes and powercuts that do/don't happen according to some (seemingly deliberately confusing) logic, as many pashminas, down jackets and Tibetan jewelery as anyone (we likes such things) could ever want, and sunrise /sunsets that are definitely worth the frostbite.

Also, there are some hopitals and rural health camps; one of which, Manipal, I visit six days a week (lets hope the one day weekend doesn't catch on in Lothian). By some feat of Indian engineering, they have built a 700 bed teaching hospital that defies all laws of thermodynamics. Despite the clear blue skies and >25'C outside, the hospital tempreature is maintained a good 20'C below, so hat/scarf/gloves are a routine addition to your average intern's white coat and jeans combo.

Mostly A+E so far, which goes a long way to highlight the (easily forgotten) benefits of the free NHS. And that prevention or at least early intervention makes a real difference, and that pateints do die. There. In front of you, desipte the knowledge and experince of the docs. Money might not buy happiness, but it can get you some saline, paracetamol, amoxicillin and a BCG vaccine.

Anyway, enough of that. Still a bit more general med and surgery to fit in around the sunshine and campfires, and then I shall flee to the (bigger) mountains for a month...

Lfsx

** Autistic thought for the day: tomorrow is 01.02.2010

One World, One Dream... one week

2008-06-27T09:15:00.002+01:00

The one year old train from UB to Beijing made the thirty hours pass surprisingly quickly. Some bright spark had the idea of putting air-conditioning on trains the trundle through 40'C heat. Although the personal DVD screens would have been more useful if they hadn't only shown XXX (dubbed in French with Russian subtitles), a Mongolian teen drama, or some wierd music video / porn concoction.

T24 seemed to be the temporary home to everyone we'd met in the previous two or three weeks: from the Moscow train, the Irkutsk hostel, Mongolian train, all eight from the Terelj trip, as well as a handful of others... although my suspicions were correct, that we'd all disperse into the fourteen million bicycles, five million bicycles (apparently), and the billions of olympic moscots which populate every shop in the city...

Ok, well Beijing is hot and humid and covered in a blanket of Lima-esque cloud (or, if the delightful Aussie on the train is the believed, it's actually smog from the burning of all the cheap Antipodean coal; and pigs can fly), contains more residential tower blocks and Chinese restaurants than I though possible, and taxi drivers with very limited geographical knowledge of their workplace.

On closer inspection, there are also many big red walls, stone lions, green and blue policemen, and small dogs... Now, these dogs are not of the malnourished midget mongrel variety familiar back home, nor the handbag dwelling peroxide-permed-blow-dried poodles of Russia. No, the Beijing ones are far worse. They come in all (small) sizes, (inappropriate) shapes, (hideous) colours and (high yappy) pitches imaginable; from guinae pigs on stilts, to furry toads, slightly oversized mice, and electrocuted rabbits. Enough said.

The standard Beijing sights have been explored: The Forbidden City, Lama Temple, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, Mao's mausoleum (eventually), hutons, markets and a couple of Olymic stadiums (stadia?).

The "Birdsnest" appears to have been intentionally designed to camouflage perfectly with the sky; usign #204 grey. The stadium itself is finished, but the supporting infrastructure is erm, not. A few small tasks remain, including building two more metro lines, surfacing some roads, planting a few hundred trees, fixing the escalators (which currently lead nowhere but the sky), and plastering another few thousand Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini images to road signs, shops, taxis and any other available surfaces...

Highlight of China (no prizes for guessing) was a very big, old, long wall. Went to the steep Samati section. From the resevoir climbed up to the rope bridge (to the Jing______ section), and upto tower #1 (of 12). Another Wonder of the World which failed to disappoint, and look exactly like it should. Snaking its way across steep mountains and deep green forest, with frequent towers (which are surprisingly spacious inside). The Samati section is mostly steps, but some sections were just gently sloped - a relief in the heat, but presumably lethal in the icey winters? View from the top was pretty impressive (if not somewhat hazy). Almost more remarkable than that was the lack of midweek company on the wall; even at the top of the cable car (for cheats) there were only a handful of fellow tourists....

Now less than twenty four hours until home time...

A note from Outer Mongolia

2008-06-27T08:58:00.003+01:00

The "short" twenty eight hour train journey from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar saw more change in scenery than the five days through Siberia from Moscow. Flat green forests turned to sandy mountains in the dry desert heat. And the jolly Chinese train crew made a refreshing change to the Russian matrons policing tea consuption in Siberia.

The journey was made all the more infuriating / hilarious by the couple sharing our cabin. It never fails to amaze me that stupid people manage to get quite so far in life (or at least so far from home). They didn't know that the train went to Mongolia (and were therefore missing the necessary visas), didn't know that trains run on Moscow time (so got the departure time for their train wrong by five hours), and after submerging an old SLR in a litre of fresh OJ wondered whether our resident camera expert could fix it...

The Russian / Mongolian border crossing took a mere seven hours (not the rumoured eleven), and a quick check under the beds seemed to satisfy the customs officials (rather than the full train / bag / body search experienced in the opposite direction.

The Mongolian capital is nothing special to look at, but the massive Gandantegchinlen Khiid monastery for male nuns (apparently known as monks) is pretty impressive. And there is a small army of (stuffed) "living dinosaurs" to be found in the Natural History Museum, which bear an uncanny resemblance to camels.

Gorkhi-Terelj National Park offered what I wanted from Mongolia: a lot of nothing. Miles and miles of sand and mountains, with a scattering of trees, camels, horses, gers and people (in that order). We stayed in a ger (or yurk or whatever else you want to call it), although the multicoloured sprial pasta for lunch took some of the shine off the authenticity. Tea made up for it though. Five of us in each ger, (eventually) a stove to keep warm, and a clear sky for the fullmoon rise was pretty impressive.

Decided to be brave and do the "must do" Mongolian thing: horseriding. Much to my relief, said horse looked like it would die if it exerted enough energy to chuck me off or gallop off into the technicoloured sunset. As it was, the thing was utterly uncontrolable, and repeatidly tried to lose its saddle (and therefore me). Anyway, well done me. And Priya.

So, apart from the ATMs' dislike for my card, and the kids whose fists had an affinity for my face, all Mongolia needed was a fe more weeks to explore the Gobi.

Siberia

2008-06-27T08:57:00.000+01:00

A very long way...

2008-06-11T10:38:00.003+01:00

First things first:

these trains are big
they go a very long way
they all run on Moscow time (despite some of Russia being nine hours ahead of that)
food may or may not be provided at an odd or inconvenient time of the day or night
meals before noon are cold and chocolate based
meals after noon are "hot" and meatballandrice based
endless hot (one degree short of boiling) water is available 24/7
a variable trickle of cold water is also accessible; except for thirty minutes before, during or after every station. Helpful
Siberia is very big; Russia is even bigger
There is no ventilation on said trains. Fact.

So, 21.30 on Saturday seems like a very long time ago. 75 hours and 38 minutes of train journey from Moscow gets you as far as Irkutsk by 06.03 on Wednesday. Admitedly the thing only averages 60km/h (including pleanty of hald hour stops), but Irkutsk is still only half way along the Trans-Siberian.

Almost the entire trip was spent in a four bed cabin, occupied by two smelly, hairy, beer drinkers with dodgy accents. And a Russian guy.

Russia is big. I possibly already mentioned that? But Siberia is not as Siberia-esque as I had imagined. Ok, so possibly I'm naïve, thirty degrees too far south and six months late, but it is so green and full of trees. Not the vast expanses of nothingness that I imagined. Kazakhstan was a bit hillier, but other than that, remarkable little change in the 5185km from Moscow to Irkutsk.

A big capital city

2008-06-11T10:31:00.005+01:00

Red Square is exactly that (except that it's not square), surrounded by St Basil's cathederal, the Kremlin, Lenin's tomb, State History Museum and гум. With the excpetion of the museum, all are better inside than out.

St Basil's is postcard perfect, an inside a maze of rooms, spiral staircases and turrets to explore. гум is a lot like Eldon Sqaure, and any keen shopper would have a field day; for the rest of us, a nightmare.

The remainder of the three days in Moscow included pleanty of wandering the vast Moscow streets, avoiding the cops, admiring the underground people's palaces, deciding that the view of Moscow from a ferris wheel was not worth dieing for, looking at yet more statues of dead people, and stocking up on train supplies.

Search for the king

2008-06-05T20:17:00.003+01:00

First stop St Petersburg; actually my fourth, if you count 11/4, EDI and FRA. Lufthansa did their best, but despite stalling check-in and delaying all their flights (arriving after public transport comes to a halt in the wee hours), managed to find the hostel; staffed by a one armed mute. Oh, and the visa registration people kindly decided that my place of birth does not exist, and therefore could not be registered in Russia. Excellent.

As windy (of the breezy variety) and full of stone as Edinburgh, as water filled and church infested as Venice, and as huge and impressive as Buenos Aires, St Petersburg seems like a pretty decent place; being about one whole metre above sea level helps the ol' HACE too. And at just 305 years old, St P is really quite a youngster.

Peter and Paul's "fortress" appears to be 122m of gold-coated-Thailand-esque cathederal, a few one storey buildings, surrounded by a big brick wall; they shoudl go the Northumberland to see how to build proper castles. It appears compulsary that ceilings in these places are covered with small naked cherubs, but here they have a a slighty unusual take on them. Bow and arrow, check; twigs/flowers/carefully positioned cloth draped around them, check; but cherub with step ladder? - with planks of wood? - with lead pipe?

Once again, my faithful travel companion, LP, was right: the queue for the Hermitage was insane; and Russians have a soft spot for students. Inside, the Winter Palace contains more Russian/French/Spanish/British/Flemish/Islamic/Italian art/paintings/tapestries/fabrics/old things than anyone could ever want to see (although maybe that is just my pretty limited attention span). Dozens of lion x eagle hyrids, and more slighty odd cherubs were scattered amongst the hundreds of square metres of gold. Then I got bored and escaped.

So far, CT's taxi service (thankyou), two AEROplanes, a bus, a taxi, and so the next non-train vehicle list was the hydrofoil to Petrodvorets; James' highlight of Russia so far. Forty five minutes later, and we were welcomed by the fountains of Petrodvorets Palace's Lower Gardens. Actually surprisingly nice; mostly due to the "gardens" being more of a mixed woodland, rather than overly pretentious floral constructions. Fish, frogs and sprogs all enjoyied the watery cascades and fountains; and there was yet another giant palace.

The return trip to St Petersuburg started the train journey to Beijing. All twenty-nine kilometers and fifty minutes of it. Unfortunately, the train museum was closed. Dammit. Next time, eh?!

And despite all of these palaces, I still can't find out where the king of Russia lives.

T minus two weeks

2008-05-18T09:10:00.006+01:00

So, here's the plan...

St Petersburg to Beijing; via

Mongolia

.

Six trains.
9,000 km.
One month: June (annoyingly).

Flights booked, three visas acquired, LP read, flights unbooked (by an ever helpful third party), route devised, trains investigated, flights still unbooked, and essentials listed: camera (singular), iPod (not to be taken to altitude), passport (useful), notebook (to filter internal monologue and prevent it all ending up here), pencil (superior to pen), LP (the jolly man will make me smile), Frog (may get squashed), sofa fan (but prefers trains) and some plastic (to procure train supplies).

On the raod again

2007-09-14T12:11:00.000+01:00

Somehow managed a rendez vous with a friend I met in Peru back in July, and spent (what I though were) my last few of South America in peacful Punta Sal. A really good few days in the sea, pleanty of sun, and campfires banter on the beach =)

Moto, broken down combi and bus delayed by four hours got me from Punta Sal to the Panamerican to Mancora and finally to Lima in time to catch my flight home.

Sort of...

At check in KLM (the self procalimed "reliable airline") helpfully informed me that my ticket was refunded by a UK travel agent on 15 August... given the lack of third party involvement in my booking it seemed pretty unlikely, and my bank balance certainly doesn't support such a claim. After three hours of, ummm, "discussion" with check-in staff, their supervisors, Lima office, Santiago office and Amsterdam office they still wouldn't let me get on the plane... not until they've spoken to their accounts department in Amsterdam, who are only open 09.00-16.00 GMT+2 on weekdays (very convenient for an international company with flights taking off 24/7). Continued to reason with them until the plane took off (delayed due to my fuss - ooops!) and they did seem to accept what I was saying, but "computer says no". Stranded in Lima for the night. Spent the morning on the phone to Santaigo, who in turn spoke to Amsterdam and finally confirmed that I would be on "the next flight to Amsterdam". Tonight? No, Thursday... or Friday. In order to have my e-ticket reissued had to go to the Lima office (an hour away); arrived at 12.05 to discover their two hour lunch break finishes at 14.00. Sat on the street. Waited. Eventually got inside to be greeted with "oh, so you're the girl who can't get home?" Gee, that really helps the situation. Ticket reissued with an hour to get to the airport before check-in closes. Passport was scanned, and it was explained to me that I couldn't board the plane becuase I had already flown to Amsterdam on Tuesday. Hmmmm. Boarding card in hand [until my experience with Copa, I would have assumed I was therefore guarenteed a seat on the flight, but now I'm not so sure...] Flight was delayed on the runway for two hours due to "technical reasons" (although I have always wondered what else can actually stop a plane taking off...??) As a result I missed my flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. They tried to put my on the next flight, but my ticket was "invalid". In return for my multitude of booking reference numbers and change of detail codes they said I could go tomorrow. Eughhhh. The next flight today was full, but finally got her to admit there were two free seats in business class on the last flight of the day. Me and my bag landed alive and together in Edinburgh. Met off the plane =) and back to my flat...

Thanks to KLM for extending my travels.... but next time please tell me in advance; I'd rather spent the time in idylic Ecuador rather than Lima airport.

Ecuador

2007-09-14T00:52:00.000+01:00

The arduous mission of getting to Ecuador turned out to be worthwhile; Quito was great – like a big version of Cusco... wandered around the old town and its many plazas, enjoyed the views from the towers of the Basilica del Voto Nacional (involved tightrope walking across the roof and then up a few rickety ladders to the very top), El Panecillo, and the balcony at Cafe Mosaico...

To the equator; purely for novelty value. There's a big touristy monument at the "official" Mitad del Mundo" (although they got it in the wrong place) along with several hundred cafes and gift shops - not worth the visit. The little Museo Solar Inti Nan two hundred metres north is supposedly on the "real" euqator, and very much worth a visit - water experiments, egg balancing, solar clocks and callendars, totenpoles, and lots more random bits and pieces...

Next stop, Baños (town, not toilet). Tiny little town in the middle of the green mountains, full of thermal bathrooms, and surrounded by waterfalls and volcanoes (which have been very active in the last twelve months...) After a relaxing steam bath, went for a wander around the nearby hills, but one missed turn and ended up halfway up Volcan Tungurahua - awesome view though! With hindsight, maybe the thermal bath shoudl have been after the climbing expedition...

Onwards to colonial Cuenca and its cobbles, churches and whitewashed, before starting on the seemingly simple task of getting to Peru... Bus to Machala broke down in the wee hours of the morning, so we were loaded onto the next few buses(/trucks/tractors/vans/etc) that passed, minor problemo was my bag going on the roof of a Guayaquil bound bus (north) when I was heading south... but they kept their word, and seven hours later my bag returned from its detour, and we set off for Huaquillas. After an attempted mugging on the Ecuadorian side, and then a stupid scam (also failed) at the Peruvian side I was in Aguas Verde =) Spent the night on the floor of Tumbes bus station, then combi to Mancora, then north again to the Punta Sal turnoff the Panamerica, and finally moto to the fishing village itself...

Rio to Quito. Simple?

2007-09-06T00:37:00.000+01:00

So, flying from Rio to Quito, a fairly simple exercice... After dozens of failed attempts at booking the damn flight(s) I finally had a booking reference number, and therefore, a seat on a plane to get to Quito...

The 03.00 flight from Rio to Panama was cancelled less than an hour before take-off; a good start to the day. The scheduled 09.00 flight to Sao Paulo turned out not to exist; in fact there are no flights that leave Rio at 09.00 on a Saturday. Ended up being put on to a flight to Buenos Aires, which was meant to stop in Sao Paulo´s Guarulhos airport, but was then diverted to Santos Dumont instead. Got a bus back to the right airport, and then tried to check in again for my flight to Panama... The flight was then delayed by four hours, meaning that (in theory) I would miss my connecting flight. About two hours from Panama they told us that we might be diverted to Costa Rica becuase apparently there is a hurricane heading in the direction of Panama... although did actually end up in Tocumen afterall. Fortunately the Quito flight was also delayed , so I didn´t miss that one. Relieved to finally be sitting on the plane to Quito, I got chucked off the plane becuase there was someone else (who spoke better Spanish) with the same seat number... but then someone from business class got chucked off too becuase he was too drunk, so I got his seat - score! - next to an au pair with two screaming smelly six month old twins - less good. Arrived at my hostel at 03.30 to (obviously) find the door locked and nobody at reception... but knocking (banging) on the door for long enough woke the owner up and she let me in. Then I went to sleep.

Brazil

2007-09-06T00:11:00.001+01:00

From Foz do Iguacu (via an unplanned day in Sao Paulo) it was off to Paraty. I arrived on the last day of the Festival da Pinga de Paraty (which turned out to be a rum festival, rather than a penguin party...) Fifteen somber guitars were followed bt a geriatric in a nice orange number accomanied by white leggins danced around the stage for a couple of hours, quite bizarre, but helped by the caipirinhas...

Next stop Rio de Janeiro... although somehow not quite right to arrive in Rio inside a very rainy grey cloud; Pao de Acucar was totally invisible from only a hundred metres away, and Copacobana beach was empty! Soon found out that there is plenty to do in rainy Rio, and explored the streets of Copacobana, bars of Ipanema and samba clubs of Lapa. Also learned that posh business men can disrupt last-night-in-Rio plans, and hire out the entire Pao de Acucar!

On my last day in Rio the sun decided to show its face, so ended up doing all the touristy Rio things in a day: Pao de Acucar, Christo Redentor, Santa Teresa, Copacobana... An amazing day =)

Iguazu Falls

2007-09-06T00:01:00.000+01:00

Niagra; check. Victoria; check. Iguazu; check. All impressive, all different, and all worth the overnight buses to get to them...

The Iguazu falls are at the border of Argentina and Brazil, and can been viewed from each side. From Brazil there is an impressive panorama of the falls which cascade over the edge of Argentina as far as the eye can see... and then from the Brazilian you get up close (very close, and totally drenched in a speed boat) to the cataratas...

Buenos Aires

2007-09-05T23:25:00.000+01:00

So, everyone raves about BA (of the Argentinian variety rather than the flying sort), so I went to find out for myslef... Everything about BA is big: the parrillas, wine glasses, sixteen lane roads, architecture, cemetry, football, tango, shops, rain, parks and more; oh, and the bus station has 175 platforms. So basically there is something (and a lot of it) for everyone. The city also seems to exist in its own time zone: dinner at 22.00, go out after midnight, and return home after dawn... all good =) Recoleta was unexpectedly ornate, La Boca colourful (despite the rain), the tango mind boggling, and the architecture just impressive.

While I was there also popped across to Uragauy for the day. Ferry (worthy of cruise liner status, unlike the one to Zanzibar) across the water, and then a day wandering the quaint streets of Colonia de Sacramento...

The Little Prince

2007-08-18T18:22:00.000+01:00

I ventured out to the Valdes Peninsular in the hope of seeing a whale; or maybe two. With personal assurance that there would be whales at this time of year, I risked the extra two overnight buses, and it was totally worth it! The Southern Rights came within about 10m of the beach, and later on they were right up agains the boat. At any time could see three or four whales, and knew where another dozen or so were submereged just below the surface... On the boat for just over an hour, but could have stayed there all day watching the whales splash and play in the ocean.

Next was a beach (supposed to be) covered in elefante seals... but there were only about a dozen of the huge things. Far more interesting were the handful of dolphins leaping in the river eastury. On the drive back, passed Isla de los Pájaros, which supposedly inspired the first image in "The Little Prince".

sn*ow

2007-08-18T17:34:00.001+01:00

Fair enough, it snows in Patagonia and the tops of the Andes, but not in Santiago! It didn´t stop snowing all night, and by the morning the city and Andes were totally white... and all the passes through the Andes were closed.

That meant a 1000km trip south to Orsorno, but it turned out alright in the end... The Lake District scenery crossing the Andes to Bariloche was awesome - snow drifts twice the height of the double decker bus, forests, lakes, rocky mountains and an amazing sunrise after a very long overnight bus...

Too much snow closed the lifts at Catedral, an ironic start to a day of skiing in Bariloche, but a couple of hours later it was all go with knee deep powder after the metre of fresh snow overnight...

Atacama Desert

2007-08-06T19:19:00.000+01:00

First stop San Pedro de Atacama. Almost set a record for the worst sunrise and sunset seen in one day, but the latter turned out alright in the end. After a 03.45 start, and two hours of horrendous road to El Tatio Gysers it got light, no sunrise, just gradually got a bit lighter. As a result the gysers didn´t get very excited, and thus remained bubbling puddles of sulphuric water with the odd spurt of steam to liven things up. Next stop was the hotsprings (read very small stream with tepid water and lots of mud), and then to a small village with four residents, eleven houses and a church. The journey back was interrupted only by numerous photo stops for cactus (singluar), llama (singular), and motion sickness (plural). Trekked up to moon valley for sunset, which looked to be a total anticlimax, but just as the sun hit the horizon the sky lit up in some pretty amazing colours.

Two days of driving through the Atacama followed. Scenery is amazing. Rock, sand, mountains and absolutely nothing alive (or dead). Total nothingness. Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, a random statue of a massive hand emerging from the ground and lots, lots, lots more nothingness.

Next stop Pan de Azucar. Love it. No people. No houses. No traffic. Nothing. Just big rocks, waves and untouched beach. Spent the afternoon sitting out on a big rock (until I almost got stranded and waded back in to the beach), searching for shells, and wandering along the beach. Clear turquoise water crashing over the rocks and amazing sunset over the Pacific. Next morning went out on a boat to Isla de Azucar to see sealions and (a handful of) the three million strong colony of penguins.

Spent a couple of days in La Serena; half beach resort, half colonial old town. No prizes for working out which half was preferable. After an early morning dip in the ice cold Pacific, it was time to head inland to Vicuña and a Pisco distillery. Spent the night at an observatory looking through a massive telescope in an attmept to see more than just the increasingly familiar Southern Cross.

From there it was time to head all the way down to Santiago and work out where to go next......

Salares de Uyuni and the Altiplano

2007-08-06T18:38:00.000+01:00

From the frontier town of Uyuni (complete with tumbleweed) I set out on a three day trip into the southwest corner of Bolivia... After the bizarre train graveyard, 12,000 square kilometres of dazzling Salares (saltflats) consumed the first day. Blinding white salt as far as the horizon and back... except for Isla de los Pescadores - a cacti covered coral island inhabited only by vizcachas. Difficult to comprehend that the entire "lake" is 3670m above sea level (although my lungs are reminding me all too often).

Next was two days exploring the rock formations, hot springs, gysers and lakes of the altiplano in the big orange truck. Laguna Colorada is as pink as its resident James flamingoes; Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca (at the dizzying height of >5,000m) are as stunning as their names suggest. The Bolivian customs checkpoint at 5,300m was enough to knock out both me and my iPod (which is still suffering), but from there it was all downhill to Chile... =)

The most dangerous road in the world... twice

2007-07-23T16:21:00.001+01:00

La Paz is at 3660m, so still suffering from the altitude clearly I would follow all logical advice to rest, drink lots of water and stay as low as possible....

Hmmm, well the not-so-sensible part of me hired a mountain bike, got a bus to 4850m and then cycled 69km down the world´s most dangerous road. Great fun (although the 10km of uphill cycling on gravel and sand at >4000m was a a tad tricky), and I managed not to go into freefall over the 600m cliffs, so was all good =) The end of the road is at only 1200m, so got a few lungfuls of decent oxygen, before getting back in a van which drove back up the road I´d just cycled down; much worse in the van than on a bike!

Machu Picchu

2007-07-16T17:28:00.000+01:00

Unsurprisingly one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" (announced the day I arrived in Cusco), Machu Picchu was pretty spectacular. Getting there wasn´t exactly as planned (see below!), but once I arrived it was great =) Looks like a postcard... actually no, it´s better than that, and there are friendly llamas everywhere.

Had a tour around the ancient Inca city for a couple of hours, and then spent another few hours exploring the terraces. Unfortunately, depspite arriving at 08.30 the quota of 400 people had already started to climb Huayna Picchu, so had to make do with the Sun Gate - which was still a fantastic view!

Will put some photos up when I can get a computer to talk to my camera...

Friday 13th

2007-07-16T16:41:00.000+01:00

I´m not superstitious, but this Friday 13th was one of the worst days ever. I remember very little of it all, but generally involved being hauled off my Inca trek with altitude sickness.

During the preceeding forty-eight hours, breathing got more and more difficult, my entire body became agonisingly painful, I could barely stand up becuase I was so dizzy, and my head was excrutiatingly sore. On Thursday I stubbornly (aka stupidly) forced my way to the 4450m pass, but my body couldn´t take another two days without oxygen. So frustrating, but they reckon I had HACE so there was really no option.

Harder and harder to breathe

2007-07-09T17:08:00.000+01:00

Finally arrived in Cusco. 3500m. Not enough oxygen.

Staying in a little tiny hostel up on the mountain side with an awesome view over the valley. Such a relaxed place compared to non-stop Lima... although there are a few too many gringos here. Llamas and goats wandering the streets, and hidden markets through every doorway off the quaint little alleyways.

Start on the Inca trail tomorrow, so over and out for a week or so...

Hola from Lima

2007-07-05T17:41:00.000+01:00

Drunk Polish builders, bomb squad at every junction and roundabout, bag and body searches, flight confusion, and lost passengers. Then I finally took off from Edinburgh. Met Dad at Schipol - very odd...

Scenery flying into Peru was spectacular, the mountains are immense - I don't know words big enough to describe, and really bizzare to fly below the horizon... Arrived in Lima late afternoon, and then to a hostel in Miraflores... driving is mad, but nothing compared to Vietnam! - and only one minor collision on the forty minute drive.

In summary, I am alive.

PS - I offically hate Orange (rather than the usual disliking); they said my mobile would work here, but it doesn't - not even in Holland - so I cannot send nor receive anything =(

Thirty six hours, and counting.

2007-07-02T16:59:00.000+01:00

Flights booked; one night in Lima sorted; after that, who knows. About six weeks to meander through Peru, Bolivia and Chile, and then another month or so to further fulfil the wanderlust…

You all know I’m categorically useless at keeping in touch, but will write on here when I can.

Lfsx

Where to go...

2007-05-01T11:13:00.000+01:00

Any suggestions...??