What We Have Been Up To...

Friday, February 02, 2007

The End

Once the last shopping had been completed, bags packed for the last time, final video taken and last photos snapped Johan took his last MRT trip to the airport and waited to fly home. A life-long dream to one day travel the world with his wife had been realized. The months and months of planning and dreaming had come to pass. Jobless and homeless we had set off for our year and today that whole adventure was wrapping up.

Thousands and thousands of photos, different places, different beds, bathrooms, people, food, buildings, animals, moments and memories together had come to pass. The time that we had had together had been only good. We would never have imagined that we would have enjoyed each other's company as much as we did and that we would have lived and travelled so well together. We had gotten on so well. Who knew that we would love India so much and that Janine would have accumulated so many things, and who could have guessed that rat really does taste like rat?

What would have ever been able to prepare us for the road that we had just travelled?
Johan arrived in Cape Town International Airport in the late morning Friday the 2nd of February 2007. Janine arrived shortly after in the early afternoon. We were home for good. A whole new and unknown life chapter was about to begin. Our world journey was over...

...for now.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Final Days

Johan spent most of his time thinking, reflecting and comparing prices for consumer electronics. He obviously missed Janine. He watched a movie in a massive shopping complex, ate too many Burger King meals, went to the fabulous Night Safari (highly recommended!) and went as a spectator to an annual Hindu procession in Little India where devotees pierce themselves with needles and pull offering carts attached with hooks to their bare backs...quite a sight.

Culture shock: Broadband speeds of 100Mbps with unlimited bandwidth at a cost of about R300 per month...

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Janine flies home

On our 4th day in Singapore Janine's time of world travel had come to an end. She was to leave to Johannesburg to see friends while Johan would stay in Singapore for another 3 days to reflect over his past year and the year that lay ahead. After being in each other's company (and pretty much only each other's company) 24/7 for almost a year the idea of parting, even for 3 days, was too much. We were depressed the whole day. Johan escorted Janine to the airport and eventually we had to part. Janine was heading back to her favourite country in all the world. ..and Johan to a small room in a cheap backpacker spot in China Town.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Singapore Shop Over

Shopping, shopping, shopping. That is what we did. That is what everyone does in Singapore. It is their national sport and they play hard! Janine had a list of things she wanted to get for her sister and other family members so we went all over for more than a day to compare prices. Our bargain hunting really paid off and we got great deals on everything. Both of us love these Singapore stop overs and on this stop over we decided to do the OmniMax (and watched a boring under-the-sea documentary with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet voice-overs) and the Jurong Bird park (spectacular, except for the rain).

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Short Malaysia Hop Over

Just over 15kg check-in each and about 12kg hand baggage in hand we were dropped off at the airport and successfully boarded our plane (because we slipped through the hand luggage check point while they were checking someone else's hand luggage!). What a relief. Our journey from this point on was going to be an arduous one. Because our original plan was to spend time in Malaysia (before we chose to spend more time in Laos) our flight was still taking us to Kuala Lumpur. From here we had to make our way from their low cost terminal to their main terminal and catch a lift to our hotel. Very early the next morning the whole process would have to be reversed to get us back to the Low cost terminal and get ourselves and all our baggage successfully back onto another Air Asia flight which would take us to Johor Baru, still in Malaysia but on the border with Singapore. This was much cheaper than flying directly into Singapore.

One airport shuttle bus would take us to our connecting bus. We waited and waited for that connecting bus which eventually came and took us the few kilometres to the border. Again all our luggage had to come with us through the border because we were going to catch yet another bus on the other side. At our final bus stop we managed to secure a taxi quickly and pack our load in the boot. A luxurious, but bit run down room at the Peninsula Excelsior awaited us. We were finally in Singapore, shopping paradise...

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Luxury Hotel, Ancient Scale

At noon our pick up arrived and escorted us to our room in the 4 star Borei Angkor Hotel. The discount internet price that Johan had managed to secure was so low the receptionist had to check it twice. Included in the package was our buffet supper and breakfast the next day, one of their best rooms, free 1 hour massages for the both of us and free internet access. Johan was thoroughly chuffed with himself. We lazed in their enormous pool, ate and chilled in our beautiful room. Janine had one of her best baths of all times (and Janine LOVES her baths) in that hotel.

One of the more quirky moments of our one night's stay in luxury was the fact that we had to pack super smart for our next day's flight on Air Asia. 15kg maximum check in baggage and 7kg hand baggage was not going to cover Janine's accumulation of souvenirs, gifts and wedding supplies. Our 55kg or so of luggage was going to have to be well planned. We asked reception for a scale. After much ado the hotel managed to locate one, an enormous ancient one that they managed to dig up who knows where and trolley up to us. We were very amused. We got to work packing and planning how much weight we could get into our hand baggage so as to still be able to pass it off as a light 7kg each.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Temple Hopping

We weren't quite sure how our bike batteries would hold, but we slid off (our bikes are silent) into the early hours and covered the almost 8 km to get back to Angkor Wat. On the way Janine started losing power and Johan just saw how we would end up pushing these bikes all around the ruins that day. He was not impressed - to say the least. The hassle was then to figure out what to do with flat batteries. We eventually found that we could change our batteries for fully charged ones at quite a few points along the way. You clip yours out and someone (sometimes even children) hand you a charged one - free of charge. Could not be easier! Janine was in her element and as the heat started pounding Johan could not have enjoyed it more as we cruised past all the other tourists furiously peddling and sweating their way from ruin to ruin.

Another fantastic discovery was the ruins of Preah Khan which also have the most beautiful strangler fig trees taking over, but with hardly any other visitors. This ruin was one of our favourites. We spent the rest of the day gliding around from one wat to another. There are so many incredible structures that you just pass by with a glance because there are so many others to get to. Janine aptly started calling these wats "so wats" and every time we passed one that we could just not afford the time or energy to check out, we just waved it off : "so wat!?"

We ate our last Red Piano dinner because tomorrow night our amazing buffet meal is going to be included…

Monday, January 22, 2007

Timeless Angkor

At 6am we were in our tuk-tuk on our way to Angkor Wat (again). Incredibly steep steps connect you with the upper levels of this square wedding cake design temple. Angkor Wat is said to be the world's largest single religious monument. It is the most famous of all the temples, cities and other ruins found within the Angkor Archaeological Park which stretched over 400 square Kilometres. This protected area contains the remains of over 1000 different temples - all products of the Khmer Empire dating between the 9th and 15th Century AD.

The day was beautiful and we moved on to the Angkor Tom temple grounds which are huge. One can break away from the Japanese crowds and explore. We discovered one or two tree-reclaimed temples of our own - amazing structures hidden in the far reaches of the grounds. One just can't get over all the incredible carvings - their detail and their sheer numbers. We also went to the famous Tomb raider set - the Ta Prohm - well photographed due to its fame and very photogenic jungle trees which slowly grow all over the temple stones. While there are many carvings here they are fewer and less fine than the temples we had been to previously. No carvings, however, compared to those we found in Banteay Srei (Citadel of Women) a more than 1000 year old temple quite a few kilometres on, but so worth the distance. The carvings are so fine and intricate one can't help wishing for a glimpse of what this place looked like in its prime.

Our Red Piano supper was superb, once again. We chatted about the following day's plans of solo exploration and Janine was quite annoyed that, considering the distance and the heat, foreigners were not allowed to hire motorbikes. She remembered seeing an electric bicycle for the first time when we were in Cuba. She wished we had an option like that now. We could not believe it when, outside our internet spot, we found electric bikes to hire. Janine was thrilled, Johan was weary, but off we sailed home on our hired steeds (about US$4 per day) and tucked them safely away next to our hotel for tomorrow's explorations…

Culture shock: Foreigners may not rent motorbikes in Siem Reap and surrounds

Siem Reap

A very comfortable bus ride to Siem Reap ended in the most extreme form of hassling we have yet encountered. Your feet can barely touch the ground as people descend upon you, screaming various impossibly cheap tuk-tuk rates at you, pressing in from all sides. Desperate people. Quite disturbing. And it doesn't matter what you say or don't say - do or don't do - they press on. Johan also had his own swarm and Janine was trying to persuade her swarm to alight and join his in this fiery negotiation process. Johan eventually (after considerably expressing his anger and frustration) picked a guy who took us a short distance and then stopped at his friends who were to explain to us that he won't take us the full distance unless we use him as our driver for the duration of our stay. We quickly had them understand that the full distance would be covered immediately. Our driver, who had no idea where he was going, was eventually helped to such a degree that we arrived at our destination quite a while later.

Although the swimming pool of our hotel was in the parking area, after a brief walk around the noisy areas of Siem Reap, we settled in quite nicely in our peaceful place. Our view from our window was overlooking two swimming pools full of fat crocs (we assumed their captivity was for culinary purposes). After good food and not so good internet we picked ourselves a driver and headed in the direction of the ancient and legendary Angkor Wat (a wat is a Buddhist temple).

Our driver took us on a detour to a land mine museum. A private, non-profit initiative of a previous Khmer Rouge and Vietcong fighter who uses the museum to expose people to the truth and the dangers of the weapons used in Cambodia. It also supports (by donation) land mine removal squads and the grounds are home to many a maimed local who had lost limbs to land mine explosions - a condition representative of too many Cambodians.

We had our 3 day Angkor Archaeological Park pass in hand, wind in the hair, as we zoomed off to the world famous, UNESCO world heritage site, Angkor Wat temple. What a sight. What an amazing construction. There were many people on the periphery, but inside the cascading temple levels we often found ourselves gazing at murals covering full flanks of the building - all alone. The evening was a good time as the heat is schorching in the day. We headed back to Siem Reap hungry and exhausted. After such an amazing meal that evening, we returned many times to the famous Red Piano restaurant during our 4 days stay.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Phnom Phen

The first full day in Phnom Phen was rest day - snacks, internet, good food, discovery channel - the usual. We had agreed with our previous night's tuk-tuk driver that we would make use of his services for our sight seeing the next day. The competition for tourist business is the fiercest in Cambodia of all our visited countries - you cant move without being accosted continuously - even the children are shrewd, unrelenting and sometimes even abusive sales people. This can get quite disturbing and definitely very draining.

Day 2 was for delving into Cambodia's recent past for which it is so famous - the genocide and social destruction of the country brought about by the Khmer Rouge reign under Pol Pot. It is almost unthinkable what evil one man could dream up and how much far-reaching destruction he could achieve during the short period of 1975-1979. The United Human Rights Council's site sums it up well - click here to read up.

We started by heading off to the famous killing fields. En route our driver took us to an underground shooting range with a choice of war time weapon relics (everything is there - hand guns, AK47s, M16s - even hand grenades and rocket launchers!) which you can try your hand at for a decent fee (including the driver's commission of course). Johan took a round on an AK47 and Janine took the M16. Weird experience to shoot with the very weapons used in a very cruel war.

The killing fields were close by - a place of mass execution and burial during the Khmer Rouge regime. There is a monument filled with skulls of the victims. We read all the info boards and headed on our way.Bumping and bouncing our way on the dusty roads (our driver had very kindly bought us dust masks for the ride) back through town we arrived at the most disturbing of all the sites. Tuol Sleng was an old school converted into a prison and torture centre for the captives condemned by the Khmer Rouge. The grounds have been preserved very much as they were during the time of the genocide and is now a museum. The Pol Pot regime kept meticulous detail of their torture and execution campaigns and all the victims that ended up at these grounds were photographed. A huge collection of these photos are on display in the buildings as are some photos taken of the torturing process. - All in all a very depressing and disturbing exposure.

After a brief walk through the Russian market we headed back for some peace and light-heartedness to break the day's somber mould.

Culture Shock: There are no public bus routes operating in the city.

Friday, January 19, 2007

To Phnom Phen

Just after 7:00 we climbed into our boat to the far end of the island where our transport company would be waiting. At 8:00 we crammed 12 foreigners, with all their luggage, and 3 locals into one of their small long tail boats and headed for the mainland. The next stop was to wait for the mini bus transfer to the border to fill up. By 8:30 we were heading to the border. 9:15 we started exiting Laos, entering Cambodia and waiting for our new transport to fill up. As usual our unusual South African passports caused a stir as officials typically scuffled around trying to figure out how this country was to be categorized. Our bus was packed to the brim and ready to go by 11:00.

About an hour later we reached the Mekong cross-over where we had to load off all our baggage to cross with the ferry. Then our bus driver decided we can leave the baggage in the bus - so we reloaded. Then we walked the distance in the scorching heat (Janine is convinced that Cambodia does not have an ozone layer) while our bus followed us. After all that we stopped on the other side for a 1.5 hour lunch break while we changed buses again. So by 14:00 we were heading off again. We stopped 3 times to put in fuel (who knows why) and once to drop off some travellers and to have supper. Just after 20:00 we were on the move again to do the final 2.5 hours to Phnom Phen. One tuk-tuk ride later and we had found a great hotel. Just another day of travel!

Culture Shock: The terrain reminds one of other Asian countries but one thing struck us - the amount of litter. Some streets in the Capital City can easily be mistaken for municipal rubbish dumps and as Johan noted, Cambodia smells much worse than India ever did.

4000 Islands

If ever we stumbled upon a great idea for a break this was it. Most people don't realize how taxing travel can be. We had quite a bit of hard travel behind us and with jam packed travel lying ahead in Cambodia and Singapore as well as many arrangements waiting for us at home. Also, Janine was about to age - so we needed a good spot. We had ear-marked a rather pricey spot on one of the islands, Dohn Kong - but Johan was not willing to pay the ferry price to that island so he bought us tickets to the closer neighbouring island from where we would be able to walk. Upon arriving on the island Dohn Det we realized that the walk (with all our baggage and in the noon day heat) would easily take over an hour. We managed to hire another boat to take us the full distance for just a little bit more than it would have cost on the mainland. :-) The US$30 a night place was full so we jumped off at the next good looking spot along the river (back on the Dhon Det island) where we managed to find a big bungalow with en suite for US$3 instead!

There is no electricity bar a faint light that comes on at night powered by a car battery. The bathroom has a cold water bucket system and shower with a squat toilet but it was one of the very few rooms on the island with en suite and our big grass and wood bungalow had two big windows so we could cool our room down well. We were also very blessed to be out of the main part of town. We had a peaceful spot away from the crowds, with large grounds, a hammock out front and table and chairs overlooking the river where we took most of our meals (which mostly consisted of chocolate and banana pancakes). There was also a resident baby pig, a puppy and his mother as well as two single chicken moms with chicks in tow to keep Janine entertained. We had the most amazing four days here.

The first afternoon was for chilling and doing nothing - as was the day after. We did discover a great restaurant, with the perfect view of the river sunset, where we dined most delightfully. No less than 3 of our meals happened here - each time the same food! On day 3 we hired bicycles and explored in the cool early morning. We simply enjoyed ourselves so much - cruising through village life, discovering waterfalls and good places to drink coconuts, stopping at river side cafes to catch up on journaling. We had also discovered a nice swimming spot in the river near our bungalow. The water buffaloes and the ducks (as well as snakes it seems - Johan spotted one swimming across during one of our dips) like to climb in there because the little cove is protected from the stream. The water buffaloes were not at all too perturbed when we settled in alongside them to escape the heat of the day.

Day 4, 17 Jan 2007, was Janine's birthday. Since Johan's chocolate gift (which he had purchased in Ha Noi) had to be given earlier the week to avoid melting and since there is nothing much going on on the island - Johan decided to give Janine 1 hour of internet time in this remote area. Internet was extremely expensive so this was quite a treat. We had our great dinner again and he also managed to find chocolate cake that evening so the day was a smashing success! Besides the gifts we spent the morning exploring on our bikes again and chilling by the riverside. Before the afternoon light was spent we got our stuff packed and ready for the next day's long travel into Cambodia.

Culture shock: White water buffaloes everywhere.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Pakse

We couldn't quite figure out how our bus driver was going to cover the 400km or so to Pakse in 7 hours while travelling at a max of 50km/hour as well as stopping continuously to lunch, load up people, bicycles, concrete telephone poles, etc. After about 2.5 hours we even turned off for a further stretch of detour but our bus driver miraculously sped up. We made Pakse in just over 7 hours and checked into our basic but cute guesthouse before heading off for Indian dinner! Pakse is great. It is relaxed and one can get good food, good internet and good options for tours and further travel. The next day was for catching up on major website backlog and other admin. We decided that we would hire two motorbikes for the following day to go check out some famous Khmer ruins but once we had counted our days (considering Janine's birthday) we sped through our internet load and booked a minibus south to a place in Laos called the 4000 islands.

Culture Shock: We were amazed to see the bus company turn away additional prospective passengers because the bus was officially full.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Hanging in Tha Khek

The next morning in Tha Khek was hot and got progressively hotter as we pounded the pavement of this extremely spaced out town. First stop was the bank where we exchanged excess dough and took a cash advance for the rest of our needs. There are black plastic bags that you can take to lug your cash out of the bank in - and believe me, everyone needs to make use of them as monies issues are seldom in denominations higher than 1US$ in value.

We then head out in search of a certain tour office on our map and internet. We found neither. The tour office did not exist yet and, it seems, neither does internet here. We did receive a very warm welcome at the tourist office and gathered lots of info. We wanted to find a peaceful way of going to visit the famous Konglor cave, a long tunnel cave that you can boat through for 7.5 km and come out the other side. We eventually decided that we would not have time to fit this in alongside all our other plans (the trip would take 3 days of travel) and opted rather to join some other travellers for a day of cave exploring in the surrounding area.

This turned out to be a great idea as the 6 of us explored 5 different caves and stopped for a dip in a picturesque swimming hole where we saw some stunning butterflies. One cave was particularly impressive as it was natural, big and beautiful. Another cave, called the Buddha cave, was also very impressive. It has a tiny entrance high up in the cliff where some local discovered a whole collection of Buddha statues hidden as he looked for bats for supper one fateful eve. The Buddha statues, probably hidden here from raiding invaders, are estimated to be about 400 to 600 years old.

We also stopped for lunch at the market situated very near the Buddha cave. We ate barbecued fish while our one Japanese travel companion ate roast rat (we also sampled an incredibly small morsel). A great day all in all! We headed back to our hotel for more chocolate pancakes, ginger tea and Lao beer.

Other than that, there is one traffic light in town. The road is wide enough to land a small plane and the traffic, crossing here, is almost non-existent. The locals obey that light nevertheless - we were amazed.

Culture shock: Banks supply customers with large plastic bags, like at check out counters, to carry the loads of money as the most common denomination is about the equivalent of US$1. People obey road rules!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Back to Laos!

Following our previous Lao-Vietnam border crossing, we were a bit nervous about our "direct" bus to Savannakhet, a town about 4 hours into Laos. Our bus pulled away at 9:00 and the crossing at Lao Bao could not have been smoother (except that the visa issuing official tried to overcharge us). The moment we were back in Laos it was different. The weather was warm with clear skies, the roads were empty, the prices generally honest, people friendly and the land peaceful.

We drove through some beautiful scenery, stopped for lunch along the way and were in Savannakhet by 15:30. We caught a minibus heading to Tha Khek and arrived at our desired destination just after dark. Janine glimpsed the sign-board of the place we wanted to stay and we halted the car. The whole day with all its proceedings had taken place between us and the helpful locals, none of which could speak a word of English. It is amazing how well people can communicate without a common language.

The Tha Khek Travel Lodge was fantastic and our room even better. With some good Western food (for a change) and some Lao beer in we were ready to hit the hay.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Vinh Moc tunnels

Johan awoke in the early hours of his birthday to tell the bus driver that we would get off earlier than the rest at a place an hour or two north of Hue called Dong Ha. This little town is very close to the Ben Hai river, the border between former North and South Vietnam. At about 5:30 a.m. we got off the bus in the middle of nowhere. Two other travellers decided to alight there as well. A local, wakened by the noisy bus, opened his shop and proceeded to call someone on his phone. The guy on the other end could speak English. A while later he arrived on his motorbike to our rescue. As soon as we agreed to check out his hotel 4 other motorbikes appeared from out of nowhere to take us to what would be our hotel for that night (and for 1 or 2 hours of shut-eye that morning too).

We hooked up with the same travellers (the only other travellers in town as far as we could see) and the same hotel tout and headed off through the rain (luckily we chose the car option over the motorbike option) over the Ben Hai River in the direction of the famous Vinh Moc tunnels. 500m North and south of this border river was declared a demilitarized zone (DMZ) where no fighting was to take place during the war. Needless to say - lots did take place here, but we were on our way to take a look at the fascinating tunnels. These tunnels were excavated in North Vietnam to serve as living quarters and bomb bunkers during the last 6 years of the war after the village at the same site was destroyed by heavy bombing. This site was just one of many similar tunnels throughout Northern Vietnam.

The Vinh Moc tunnels are 2.8km in length and have a few exits that exit right on the beach and others that open up higher in the hills. During the occupation of these tunnels, which are amazingly small, 300 people lived here and 17 babies were born inside. There are also countless other underground tunnels throughout the rest of Vietnam.

The rest of day was for resting. The next day a direct bus would take us out of the cold rainy weather of Vietnam and back into sunny, friendly, peaceful and relaxing Laos.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Halong Bay

Although our agent seemed to be a bit more slimy than we would prefer to work with we were eventually picked up from our hotel and 3 hours later we were at the harbour. Halong Bay is a large bay on the coast of Vietnam. The South China Sea waters in this bay are dead still and studded with 1,969 karsts (steep limestone islands) which make it probably the most photogenic spot in Vietnam.

The harbour was jam-packed with tourist boats - all very good-looking wooden sailing vessels, most of which one can spend the night in. We boarded our boat along with 5 other couples and sat down to a fantastic sea-food Vietnamese lunch. First came the crabs, then the clams, then the spring rolls, then the grilled whole fish, squid salad, rice and veges followed. The couple sharing our table was from Russia and were completely lost with all this strange food they did not know - it was just giggles all lunch. Janine was thrilled - more for her!

We checked into our spacious comfy cabin and headed off to the Amazing cave (yes, that is its name) to wonder through the huge artistically lit interiors. There were many an interesting stalactite/mite to behold. Once back on board we set off for one of the few islands with a beach. Here we climbed up to a lookout on the top, took pics and got to know some of our fellow seafarers while dipping our toes in the surprisingly warm waters.

The rest of the afternoon was for lounging on the deck chairs and chatting with the other travellers. The company was great. The idea of this little splurge was to celebrate Johan's birthday a day or two early as we would be travelling on the actual day of the 8th of January. We spent the night of the 6th on board and had one of our best night's sleep.

On the morning of the 7th we anchored next to a floating fishing village which supplied us with sea kayaks. We all paddled off to explore a lagoon only accessible by a cave entrance. The lagoon was beautiful with the steepest island cliffs rising out of the see all around us. Johan spotted a few monkeys too (he loves monkeys).

When all this was over and we were showered and checked out of our cabins we headed back to land again for a great Vietnamese lunch. Vietnamese food is not our favourite food, but we really enjoyed this meal. Our Russian friend downed a double Russian vodka as it was, he told us, Christmas day in Russia. We chatted merrily away for the 3 hours back to Ha Noi. Once back in the city it was just about 2 hours wait and we were heading south in the direction of Hue on rather compact overnight tourist bus.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Ha Noi

The amount of traffic filtering through from all directions into Ha Noi is astounding. One such bus picked us up outside our hotel and dropped us off in the chaotic bus station a few kms outside of the Old Quarter. After a rather long (and expensive) taxi ride we were in the happening area of Ha Noi around the Hoan Kiem lake.

Each of the hundreds of streets has a name reflecting the kind of products one can purchase there. We settled into our cheap hotel room and set off to explore a bit. Strolling around the lake is great as the walkways are well designed and relaxing. One can watch the locals doing their stretching routines out here in the public. We found a huge supermarket and dined very well at a particular restaurant called Little Hanoi. Janine was very excited about all the shopping opportunities although prices in this tourist area were quite inflated for what one would expect to find in Vietnam.

The next morning we headed off to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum where the embalmed body of this long-since deceased national hero lies for all to view, albeit by strictly regulated control. The queue was long but quick. Bags are checked in and you are security checked. The hoards of people hoping to catch a glimpse of Ho Chi Minh are organized into long lines of pairs and marched off to the entrance. Silence must be observed, no hats, no hands in pockets, no cameras and a slow, reverend, but continuous walk around the body takes place, all this under the watchful gaze of uniformed custodians. So before you know it you are in and out.

Next to the mausoleum is the Ho Chi Minh museum - a striking abstract and artistic attempt at depicting the noble triumph of Vietnamese revolutionaries against the ruthless and decadent imperialist invasions they have known in recent history.

The rest of the time in Ha Noi was spent shopping (Janine had 180 fine napkins made for her sister's wedding and Johan decided to purchase an extra piece of luggage to handle our accumulating buys), eating and internetting (the usual). We also went to see the show that Ha Noi is famous for - a theatrical production of a traditional water puppetteering that evolved in the Vietnamese rice paddies as a form of entertainment. Each scene depicts something of the Vietnamese culture, beliefs and everyday life. We enjoyed it very much.

We also changed the date of our return flights to South Africa at the Singapore airlines offices and booked ourselves on a 2 day tour (by far the cheapest way to do it) of Halong Bay. Generally just a city where we could get things done.

Culture shock: One can't imagine the density of motorcycle traffic in this city. There is never a break in the traffic, so it does not help waiting for a chance to cross the street. The only method of pedestrian movement is to just walk, slowly and smoothly, across any road and let the traffic weave around you. Quite quick and easy once you get used to it!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

3 days, 4 nights and 2 years in Ninh Binh

Sunday the 31st of December was a well deserved day of rest for us. From leaving Vientiane we had travelled hard and non-stop and accumulated many bus miles along the way. Janine was in her element as there was decent food, free internet in the hotel for her to do a good deal of her sister's wedding planning and, can it be emphasised enough, the bath. Vietnam was cold so packing out, catching up on washing, watching cable TV, reading and bathing in our cosy suite was just too sublime. We were well asleep by the time the clock struck 12 and woke up the next morning to a brand a new year.

We had organized transport with our hotel to the Cuc Phuong National Park - about 1.5 hours away on the back of motorbikes. Our bike drivers (also staff at our hotel) were great and enthusiastic to take us around and show us (repeatedly) the "beautiful" pineapple plantations which we were obliged to take photos of.

Just outside the entrance to the park is a primate rescue and breeding center where a few species of bizarre and beautiful monkeys, unique to the area, are protected against the threats to their survival in the hope to reintroduce them into the wild. While the apes were great to see one can't wonder there on your own or get really close to the cages. Before long the quick show-around was over and our drivers whisked us off again through the cold Vietnam air deep into the park.

There is a circle route hacked out of the jungle which we proceeded to follow. The jungle is beautiful and dense. Along the way one passes a 1000 year old tree. After quite a few kms of climbing and descending we were out again. It had started to drizzle slightly. On the way out of the park we stopped at a cave (Con Moong Cave), some ancient cave-man home. We climbed and explored all over completely on our own and climbed out through an opening high up in the cave which took us well away from the path. After a descent amount of scrambling over rocks we were back with our bikes.

The drive home along a different route was breathtaking - through villages and rice paddies, next to lakes with karsts jutting out - all shrouded in a fine mist. We arrived home at the end of our day wet, cold and tired. The bath and our great room was once again so welcoming.

Our last day in Ninh Binh was warmer and without rain. Good timing as we hired bicycles for a day out in the countryside. Janine bought a local Tee-Pee looking hat along the way to keep out the sun. Our first stop was the famous Tam Coc - a large area of watery rice paddies which the locals consider to be the "Halong Bay in the rice paddies". The name Tam Coc means "3 caves". We hired a boat with two lady paddlers and headed off for a beautiful paddle which takes you through these 3 caves, the first being 127m long.

The tourist industry tactics here involve vendors who paddle up next to you and try to sell you refreshments. When that succeeds or fails they try to coax you into buying something for your boats-women. The scam is that the boats-women later resell your generous gift to the original vendor for half the price. Johan was quite chuffed to foil this little scheme - he offered our ladies non-returnable single bananas and little apples, which didn't seem to excite them too much - but we were all, nevertheless, in good cheer.

Once through the 3 caves one returns by the same way in which you came. At an opportune moment the boat lady pulls out an enormous pile of embroidery for our convenient purchase. Johan also knew this would happen, but that did not stop us from purchasing one of her wares. Did we mention that they paddle mostly with their feet?!

After that we lunched for rip-off prices and then head off on our bikes, first past some famous pagoda (a specific style of building here with religious function) and then off in the direction of quiet countryside. We cycled as far as the picturesque Hoa Lu, an ancient (older than 1000 years) capital of this area from some bygone era. Johan reckons that we covered at least 40km on our rickety bikes that day. The last stretch was highway and then back in our room with a bath. We were thoroughly sore from sitting on hard seats for way too long!

Culture shocks: This is a motorbike dominated country (specifically these 125 cc moped-looking motorbikes you see everywhere in Asia) - all manner of object is transported on these little beasts from building materials and agricultural products to entire families, infants and all. We saw enormous containers filled jampacked with young pigs and some with chickens. One guy was transporting a huge tied plastic bag filled with about a tonne of water and live fish. We also saw two people on one of these bikes with still two live cows strapped on the back!

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Laos to Vietnam

So the grand plan was simple. Once a week one can catch a direct bus from Xam Neua all the way over the Nam Neo border and well into Vietnam to a town called Thanh Hoa. We had planned well to catch that very bus the Saturday morning, a day before New Years. From Thanh Hoa a connecting bus will take you 1.5 hours north to Ninh Binh or another 2 hours further to the capital city of Ha Noi. Our plan was to avoid the New Years crowds in Ha Noi and head for Ninh Binh...

After a fast departure and a tedious process of getting over the Vietnam border (a new and much better border crossing should be operational there about 2 weeks from when we crossed) we stopped for lunch in a nowhere Vietnam border town. While the other travellers searched for something edible, Johan searched for Dong (Vietnamese currency). Janine spotted a pharmacy. There was a drinking get-together happening in the room at the back and before we knew it Johan had been carried inside. By the time Janine had finished purchasing her Vit C, Johan had already thrown back a tot or two of their local whiskey (or whatever it was) and was eating tiny whole crabs - much to the delight of the drunk Vietnamese crowd entertaining him. One particular gentleman associate with this group proved particularly difficult to shake later.

After a really long wait a border official came to inform us that our bus was being turned back to Laos and that we would have to catch another bus heading to Ha Noi. After a bit of confusion and an astonishing partial refund we were on our first shoddy local Vietnamese bus (along with the same drunk guys from earlier) full of rice bags and other cargo. After a big fight over price (the English-speaking border official had to be called back to end the dispute) the two of us and the 5 other travellers in the same predicament settled in for our harrowing high-speed bus journey to Ha Noi.

Locals seem to love to smoke and they do it liberally in the bus. A new thing for us was the huge bamboo (about 80cm long and about 5cm in diameter) pipe filled with tobacco that they pass around. About 7 hours or so later we arrived in Thanh Hoa (where we were meant to arrive about 5 hours earlier than what we did). Our bus driver thought it not worth his while to continue all the way to Ha Noi with just the 7 of us (just travellers remaining!) so he put us on a smaller bus rocketing in that direction. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the other travellers we met that day - great people and some great chats. All worth it!

At around 10:30 pm we were dropped off in Ninh Binh and bid our fellow travellers farewell. We were well rewarded for the days trouble with a super amazing huge room in Thanh Thuy's Guesthouse with a fantastic bathroom and, yes please, a bath! All this for only US$15.

Culture shock: People smoke on busses - not just cigarettes, but also with huge bamboo pipes. Locals are much more loud than the softspoken Lao people.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Passage to Xam Neua

What would have been a long journey of about 8 to 9 hours ended up being just over 11 hours. The roads are good, winding and beautiful. The traffic is almost non-existent. About 70km away from our destination we heard a loud thud proceeding from our precious transport. The driver stopped to discover a broken bolt meant to secure the fork of the front wheel to it's steering bar.

With the broken half in hand he proceeded to try to remove the rest of the bolt to replace it with another bolt taken from some other less important part of the bus. When this attempt failed and with two trucks by now backed up behind us the driver just put the wheel back on and drove us on to Xam Neua. In the 2 hours we waited broken down next to this main highway the amount of traffic passing in our direction we could count on our one hand. The rest of the journey was fine except that we hit and drove over a small cow, ripping away the right-side head light housing of our bus. We were very relieved to finally hit our comfy bed which we managed to find at about 9 pm. The bus rested for the night at the bus station. Early the next morning Johan went to enquire about onward travel only to see our bus loaded and ready to return from where it had come. Makes one shudder.

Our reason for stopping over in Xam Neua, besides our desired ongoing passage to Vietnam, was to tour the caves in nearby Vieng Xai. There are a lot of karsts around here and of the 102 known caves in the area more than 12 of them have really interesting political history, namely that they served as the former Pathet Lao (Vietnamese supported liberation movement in Laos) secret (and bomb-proof) headquarters. The two of us and two other guys we met on the bus helped fill up a songthaew - a large tuk-tuk like vehicle and headed to Vieng Xai, 1.5 hours away. We managed to find the caves authority office where our guide rented us some bikes.

The whole experience was very relaxing - cycling from cave to cave, the only tourists around. We visited about 5 caves which had been created or modified to shelter revolutionaries and their entourage. Each had a special emergency room fitted with a Russian donated "oxygen machine" good for purifying air in the event of gas bombs. There are also Russian cars to be seen around the premises. One natural cave is so big that a section was modified into an amphitheater where none other than the Russian circus was shipped in to entertain the comrades.

According to our guide the people in the rural areas may very well not recognize the existence of various Caucasian countries but group all white "falangs" (term for foreigner, literally meaning "big nose") as either American of French!

The same New Year's/ball throwing festival was still underway in this small town and our guide took us to the center of the festivities. A great lunch of Lao beer, fish and rice followed Johan's try at a dart throwing game where he managed to win some sweets.

Culture shock: In Laos MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) is available everywhere and you will find it liberally added to all your food. In fact, on a restaurant table you will find MSG and pepper containers rather than salt and pepper containers! Salt has to be specifically requested! The MSG manufacturers even have aprons advertising their product!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Plain of Jars

There are about 20 sites around Phonsavanh where one can find meadows littered with ancient stone jars of unknown origin and purpose which are thought to be about 2000-3000 years old. There are legends and theories surrounding these jars, but the most likely is that they were used as sarcophagi (burial containers) or as some form of storage.

We visited one of the 5 sites considered worthwhile visiting (which have also conveniently been cleared of visible bombies) which is also the biggest site. We arrived as the afternoon was slowly turning into sunset so the plain was quite romantic. Some of the jars are enormous where you can quite easily fit a person or three in. Others are smaller and very small ones apparently exist but have been carried off by collectors. We explored along the bomb-free trail and enjoyed the mysterious scenery. By the time the sun was getting low we were back at our guest house for another evening around the bomb-shell fireplace.

Culture shock: People don't hassle you for your business. Amazing.

Catch the ball and get married

Our next stop after the crater valley was at our guide's village and his home. We all chowed down as we shared our respective market eats and assisted each other in identifying the food. TV was great as he answered all our questions about Lao culture and history as well as our questions about a strange practice associated with their New Year's Festival (which seems to last for a couple of days in the last week of December) by then in full swing around the village.

Women dressed up in luminescent coloured traditional dress stand in a long line, umbrella over the head. With the other hand a woman will throw a ball to a guy opposite her who stands as part of a line of boys. He throws the ball back. The process is repeated innumerable times. The point? Apparently this was traditionally some kind of match finding ritual/technique which would take place at this time of year. You will know when a successful marriage match has been made when the girl and guy throw the ball to each other for a while. Sound a bit shaky? Well, we think it is by far a better practice (and with a higher statistical likelihood of success) than the other former practice of kidnapping the girl of your liking, against her will, to your dad's house. The divorce rate related to this method, TV tells us, is very high.

After sending a cup of local whiskey around the circle we were ready for our trip to the famous Plain of Jars...

Laos: The Secret War

This bus journey was bit longer - 9 hours to a town called Phonsavanh. The road was beautiful albeit a bit winding. We hopped off at the local bus station and found a few guest house reps with business cards of their places. No one really approaches you though, perhaps someone will eventually politely and quietly ask you if you require a guesthouse, but that will be it. This is Lao softspokeness and shyness at its very best - unlike all the other places we have been! We picked a great one (Kong Keo) where we would spend the next 2 nights and quickly got into a part of world history we had never heard of before - the Secret War.

The guest house owner showed us a documentary on this Secret War, a war waged against Laos because of their supplies support of Northern Vietnam during the Vietnam war. In violation of the Geneva treaty declaring Laos to be a neutral country, the USA turned Laos into the most heavily bombed country in history...

The US Airforce dropped one plane-load of bombs on Laos every 8 minutes for a period of 9 years - a total of 2.3 million tonnes by the end of the war in 1973. This happened without the knowledge of US citizens or the rest of the world. Even failed bombing missions turned back from Vietnam were ordered to empty their hazardous load over Laos on their way back to base. This was much easier than to undergo stringent safety procedures to land with bombs. Everywhere you go you see war relics. People have made good use of the bomb metal over the past 30 years. Old shells form the foundations of houses, tables, herb gardens and fire places. Metal is re-used to make cooking and farming utensils.

The Hmong people are mountain tribes people who were largely recruited for the CIA-trained and US-funded Hmong army during the Vietnam war. Our guide (whose name is TV) for the area was from a Hmong village nearby. We first stopped at the local market where we saw every conceivable variety of bird and rodent and water creature for sale for food. Even the pigs for sale come conveniently pre-packed in snug reed shoulder carry bags! We bought some food and headed off to a field of bomb craters. One thing that really struck us during all our driving through Laos was how little of the landscape had been cultivated into rice paddies - unlike all the other Asian countries we travelled to. This field was a good example of why this is so...

Throughout Laos there are innumerable amounts of unexploded ordinances (UXO's) that can still explode if provoked. Bombies are the products of the so-called cluster bombs - huge bomb shells containing up to 300 bombies - smaller bombs loaded with 150 bearings that were specifically designed to kill as much as possible. Once a cluster bomb is dropped, it is supposed to open in mid air, releasing the bombies that were designed to be activated by the spinning motion to the ground. Upon impact they explode, sending hundreds of bearings in all directions - but many of them did not explode.

20 000 Lao people have died as a result of UXO's since the end of the war - mostly children. The risk is especially high when trying to cultivate the ground as the ground must be tilled. While there exists an organization called MAG that mine-sweeps the country and removes the bombs that they find - the process takes forever and many villages are on a long waiting list before they can hope to head into the fields again. We walked amids bomb craters and even found some UXO's on the ground: the small tennis-ball sized bearing bombs which the locals call bombies. Hectic! One just has to be careful where you walk. Our driver made a turn on the grass field. Even as he did Janine spotted a bombie out of the window 1 or 2 meters away from the track that we had just made...

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Vang Vieng and TV bars

An early morning walk through the quiet main streets of Vientiane brought us swiftly to the local bus station. 3 hours later we were in Vang Vieng, a riverside town which has well embraced the party-hard backpacking tourism industry and where one can find many a guest house, restaurant, TV bar, tour agency, internet cafe, massage parlour, pancake vendor - you name it.

The scene, however, was not quite to our taste as the debaucherous crowds make for noisy nights and profane days. The influence on the innocent and gentle nature of the local people is not something we think the tourism industry should be proud of. TV bars are common, playing back to back episodes of Friends to draw the young backpacker crowds! There were also "Merry Christmas!!" everywhere to be heard as locals souped up their stalls for the lucrative festivities. We stayed in great little bungalow next to the river.

The next day we joined a tour which took us kayaking down the Xong river. The scenery of river and karsts (sheer vertical limestone mountain peaks jutting out of the earth or water, depending on area) was beautiful. We hopped out to climb over a "mountain" and descend into a valley. Our guide was very pleased to take us to an animal farm en route where we could see live cows and water buffaloes :-) ! The whole group was, I am sure, very grateful for the privilege. We looped round the farm (our guide told us to "make like a circle") and headed back for the mountain. This time, however, we did not climb over, but walked through a long cave traversing right through the rock. This was great. We returned to our parked kayaks and enjoyed a Lao lunch which our other guide had prepared for us in our absence. The rest of our kayaking trip took us past an organic mulberry farm as well as another cave. We could not quite make out from the guide what the second was used for, but the group consensus was that it was used by genies.

Johan treated Janine to a Lao massage and a good coconut. We could just endure one more night and we were ready to leave the next morning.

Culture shock: this is one Janine just can't seem to get over - the chickens in this country are absolutely enormous, as big as turkeys, and very good looking too (for chickens that is - Johan). The cows on the other hand are really small and the baby cows not much larger than dogs!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Vientiane - most relaxed capital ever!

Our overnight bus (which we really did not enjoy too much) was, nevertheless, very well organized and managed to get us all the way into the Capital city of Laos, Vientiane (with only 250 000 inhabitants). Visas are simply picked up at the border and the rest is quite straight forward. Vientiane was really a pleasant surprise in so many ways. For one, it is the most peaceful and relaxed capital city we have yet to visit.

The traffic is minimal, the people are all friendly and softly spoken and the city is well set-up for tourists without being overly touristy. Internet is great and eating options (a lot of them with French influence) even better. Laos is doing well to promote itself as a very decent tourist destination, but we experienced our stay in Vientiane as quite authentic. The city, and indeed most of the country, has not yet developed to the stage where people are used to the tourist industry. No-one hassles you, you get the prices that the locals get without a fight and the customary practices of the people are genuine happenings. We also had opportunity to enjoy some Indian food, of course!

Our first full day in Laos we set aside for our own walking tour of the city. We started our walking tour in the most efficient way - in a tuk-tuk. Our first stop was at the iconic monument of Laos - the giant golden buddhist stupa (a sacred Buddhist monument) called the Pha That Luang. Johan wasn't keen on paying the entrance money to go in, but rather on capturing the perfect profile from outside. The stupa had 4 wats (Buddhist monasteries) built outside it, but only two remain. We took a couple of pics around the one wat, Wat Luang Neua, where we found many Buddha statues "enlightening" under a huge tree and Janine could get up close to a dragon. After a bit of souvenir shopping (Johan found some old Lao and French occupation tender and Janine bought some genuine Lao music) we headed off down the main road to Laos's equivalent of France's Arc de Triomphe - Patuxai (basically the same meaning).

This fascinating monstrosity (the Laos call it that themselves!) was built (although never properly finished) from US purchased cement that was supposed to be used to build the airport (some still refer to it as the vertical runway). From close up you can see all the Lao imagery. Besides that, the concrete benches set up around the monument have each been sponsored by some or other hotel or company in town.

The tourist information center was fantastic. We popped in on the way to the market which had hundreds of stalls selling everything from ornate bottles of alcoholic drinks with snakes and spiders inside, spices, Lao fabrics, yarn and clothing - all the way to electronics, silver, eye wear, cooking utensils and so much more. We picked up a little box carved out of stone.

After a spicy lunch at a local restaurant we headed on in the general direction of home. We decided to take a quick peak at Vientiane's oldest surviving temple (1818) - Wat Si Saket. The area had ancient temples before, but most were destroyed during invasions and such like. This little building was great - what was especially fascinating was the cloister wall hedging the temple in: each wall has thousands of alcoves holdings Buddha statues of sizes ranging in size from matchbox to Labrador. Total number: 10136 statues!

Janine discovered a beautiful weaving style in Laos. She was very excited to learn of an organization that offers weaving training for tourists. She spent the next day with the women of the organization weaving, drinking mulberry leaf tea and soaking up the peacefulness of their countryside location. While Janine was away weaving Johan hopped on a local bus and headed off to Xieng Khuan (Bhuddha Park) about 24km out of town. This buddha park is just filled with statues of Buddhist and Hindu personalities. Some statues are enormous - there is even a grand pumpkin with 3 levels (representing heaven, earth and hell) which one can climb up into. Johan enjoyed the bizarre display. That evening we ate at the stalls next to the river - very romantic.

The rest of the time in Vientiane was totally relaxing. Internet, French steaks and strolling. All good! (And it was cheap! - Johan)

Culture shocks: In Laos you see Buddhist monks everywhere! Truth is most of these orange guys are just busy with an internship which can even be as short as 2 weeks. The roads are excellent as are the imported cars - but traffic there is none (no hooting either)! French cuisine is widely available - as are baguettes with Laughing Cow cheese :-) People are really hectic about leaving shoes outside and will perform major acrobatics to avoid stepping in certain areas with shoes!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Bangkok between coups and bombs

Our cheap carrier delivered us safely at Bangkok's new international airport, Suvarnabhumi. We were surprised to find that the design and layout of this new airport was not very impressive at all. The streets are bustling with traffic (nothing like Delhi though) and all the official taxis are bright orange or pink or yellow or green or blue colours - really vibrant.

Before long we were on a bus shuttle to Khao Sanh Road - the road with the highest permanent concentration of backpackers that we know of anywhere in the world. One of the aspects of this road that really tickled us was the enormous silver and bead shops to be found everywhere. We immediately found a fantastic room for our next 2 nights, handed our passports in to get our Vietnam and Cambodia visas, booked a bus to Laos and hit the streets of Bangkok. Much interneting, shop browsing, good eating and kuiering was done in this time. We hooked up with Maryanne, a new South African friend we met briefly during our home break. She spoilt us rotten: everything from a thoughtful package of crave food and other goodies to delightful french dining (i.e. really good steak and wine) and a park lunch. We also managed to fit in a visit to the royal palace grounds which was such a great bombardment of the senses.

An enormous highlight for Janine was her 1.5 hour Thai massage - her favourite type of massage in the whole world! She is still trying to convince Johan to do a Thai massage course. She was also more than ready to enjoy the Thai seafood which she did continuously and with great relish...

Monday, December 18, 2006

Singapore recon mission

Landing in Singapore is always a great experience. The airport has won countless awards for being the best airport in the world. It is still Johan's favourite by far! We used Singapore as a stepping stone for our cheap flight on AirAsia to Bangkok the day after the next day.

The city was covered in beautiful Christmas decorations - especially the famous Orchard Road where most of the upmarket shopping happens. We stayed in a great 4 star hotel at half price as we flew with the national carrier, SIngapore Airlines, and qualified for certain discounts on their Stopover packages.

We stop again in Singapore on our way back to South Africa, so this stopover was just a recon mission. We looked at all the gadgets and electronics that can be bought for future reference!

Breakfast was at the chinese market where you can buy anything from live eels to live frogs, live tortoises to pig organs. Fortunately we were not too hungry and just had some fresh watermelon juice...

It rained most of the day and we therefore stayed indoors - browsing the shops and planning for our next visit...

Friday, December 15, 2006

Mumbai & Bollywood

We left Delhi early enough for our SpiceJet flight to Mumbai. Fortunately there are now many cheap airlines in India (Goair, Kingfisher, Spicejet, Decan Air), offering no-frills flights at 25% of the normal price. Our type of travel.

TV crews were lining the road as we arrived at the airport - not just to film us, but also to broadcast the delays because of the fog. The previous day was especially bad. Only 1 airline's pilots are trained to use CATIII auto landing equipment designed for poor visibility. Our airport bus transferred us to the wrong plane, but we were quickly whisked off to the right plane - and then we were delayed for another 1.5hours, while sitting in the plane!

We eventually made it to Mumbai and Joe, our friend Peter Carswell's driver, was there to pick us up in a brand new blue car (sorry forgot the make). Peter and Bryce (his flatmate) are working as actuaries in Dubai on long-term contracts. They live on the 29th floor of a great apartment block with views over Mumbai.

Our time in Mumbai exceeded our expectations - Peter and Bryce were amazing and treated us non-stop. We had a driver at our convenience; fantastic food and drinks in some of the most famous and upmarket spots in Mumbai (frequented by Bollywood actors!) - Peter even arranged a massage for Johan!

Mumbai, the 4th largest city in the world with 19 million inhabitants, is very different from Delhi - very cosmopolitan, more expensive, much warmer at this time of the year, next to the ocean, less pollution, and surprisingly no cows in the streets!

We decided not to do much sightseeing, but rather spend the time just enjoying being treated! We also sent yet another parcel home and even watched a great Bollywood movie called Lagaan.

Culture shock: sending a parcel is quite a process - first pack in a box, then go to a few stalls outside the post office to get it sown up in cheap linen, then to the customs office who opens it again and inspects everything, then resown at the customs office, then weight, paid for and sent - all in all about an hour's outing with various people along the way demanding money for their services!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

World record rolling

We watched an interesting program on TV in Delhi about a certain "holy man" called Ludkan Baba. He is extreme. He is a sadhu, or Hindu ascetic, "a person who undergoes extreme forms of penance and physical hardship to achieve 'moksha' - the liberation of the soul from the endless cycle of reincarnation".

He first stood still in the same position, just hanging from a swing with his feet resting on the ground, for a remarkable 7 years during which he only drank water and ate grass! He never left this position for any reason whatsoever.

Then he decided to go on a roll - literally. He rolled for 7 months, 7 days a week, over a distance of almost 4000km to promote world peace. He would not stop for anything, rolling 8 hours a day, stopping only for water and cigarettes during an extended lunch break to avoid the worst of the Indian heat. He would only eat at night...

Believe it, or not.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Bikaner to Delhi

Bikaner is a town halfway on our route back to Delhi. We arrived in the afternoon. There is not much to say about this town except that a bit of a way out of it there is a bizarre rat temple where thousands of rats reside in their place of worship. We unfortunately did not make it that far as our time on Bikaner was limited to just a stopover. We did, however, venture out onto the streets to go try out some of the goodies in one of the typical Indian sweet shops. The shop owner gladly made us taste a range of his produce. The Indian idea of sweet things is so different to ours so it was quite an experience to try it out.

The next morning we hit the road again. There was lots distance to cover and quite a bit of traffic to negotiate as we approached Delhi (the place we affectionately call the armpit of the universe). Our journey took us 11 hours. We were thrilled to be back though. We stayed in the same hotel we had stayed in almost 2 months earlier! The hotel had been revamped and was quite a bit fancier than we remembered. We indulged in our favourite indian food and did some last minute shopping before heading off to the airport for our cheap flight to Mumbai...

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The Golden City - Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is called the Golden City - literally everything is built out of this caramel coloured sandstone. There is again a fort on a hill but this fort is completely inhabited and one can find many hotels, restaurants and shops inside the fort walls. We stayed in a beautiful place again - two nights inside the fort walls.

Built in 1156, the Jaisalmer Fort is the second oldest in Rajasthan. Rising to almost 90m with strong and imposing crenellated sandstone 10m high wall, the fort has 99 bastions, 92 of which were built between 1633 & 1647. The wells within the fort are still a regular source of water.

Jaisalmer fort offers the usual tourist shopping opportunities (albeit more expensive than previous towns along our route). Janine managed to find a traditional Indian painter who would sell her some of his rock colours, which he had already ground to a fine powder. This is the same mineral powder that they mix with gum resin and paint in fine detail on silk and special paper. She also went for a heena painting on her hands. She loved her time with the woman who painted her hands as she learnt a lot about the life of an Indian women in India. One thing about arranged marriages in this part of India is that girls get married off from ages 7 to 17! The girl is only allowed to go to her husband after age 11, but if the parents manage to marry their young daughter off to a much older man then they bypass the need to pay a dowry. Men appose women having their own businesses and women often have to attempt these ventures in secret.

We managed to chill here and do very little - mail, eat well, the usual.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Khuri camels

We were sad to leave Jodhpur, but we had the promise of camels in the desert to spur us on. One knows that you are getting deeper and deeper into the desert when all you see is camels and the shepherd kids beg for water. Johan even took a go behind the steering wheel. Our driver was (naturally - Johan) quite impressed. We had a really good time with our driver. He gave us insight into the Indian way of living which involves a still fully flourishing caste system as well as pre-arranged marriages.

One of those unexpected moments happened while we settled down for some lunch in Ranakpur. He announced that his dad had given him a call the previous night and informed him that he was engaged and that his wedding would be somewhere in February next year. He is 21 years old. Although he has only met the girl once before and much prefers his (secret) girlfriend to her, he seemed quite happy about the idea and said that he will just forget about his girlfriend!

Khuri is a little desert village just outside Jaisalmer. It is quite a tourist site, but we got a camp pretty much to ourselves. We opted for the tent option (with en-suite bathroom of course!) and wasted no time to get our camels saddled up to head off to the dunes! Johan held onto his camel for dear life. His camel's clutch was a bit sticky, so he didn't want to try his luck - and it is quite high up there on a camel! Janine's camel seemed to have problems with its choke, but the steering bit through his nose was enough leverage to get him going again. Janine's camel's name was Babaloo - Johan did not enquire as to the name of his camel. The dunes were fantastic - very photogenic. A strange feeling to be so close to the Pakistan border - especially with all their conflict over Kashmir.

We had a great home cooked meals before we climbed into bed. The night in this little desert town turned out to be of the noisiest of our time in India - cell phones ringing during the night was one thing! The CD that was played through at 5:50 in the morning for all the town to 'enjoy' (we assume it was some sort of Hindu worship music) was quite another thing!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

The Blue City - Jodhpur

On our journey to Jodhpur we passed through a place called Ranakpur. There is a spectacular Jain temple here, but we did not visit. Here we also started noticing beautiful Indian durries (a coarsely woven type of carpet) for sale by local craftsmen lining the road. No, we did not buy - we can't carry the whole of India in our backpacks! This reminds me of a friend we met on Easter Island who bought 35kg of marble in India (Indian marble is ridiculously cheap) which he carried around with him for quite a while! Anyway - we stopped at a nice peaceful spot for lunch and headed on to Jodhpur - the Blue City.

Jodhpur was a highlight for us in Rajasthan. Our driver fought his way through the tiny old city streets right up close to the fort where our guesthouse (also a very old building) welcomed us warmly. We again opted for a very quaint room (see photo) with a TV and headed to the rooftop restaurant for a view of the Blue City. This old city is really blue and such a treat to behold. Most of the buildings are covered in a mixture of whitewash and indigo powder. Johan had specially worn his blue shirt for the occasion and blended very nicely with the terrain. Janine wore pink!

The next morning was great. We had an early breakfast and walked through the wakening narrow streets twisting our way up to the wall of the Mehrangarh fort. It was one of our more authentic historic site experiences as we walked the ancient trail with only one or two other locals heading their way over to the other side of the city. Once on top we paid our entrance fees and received our audio guides for exploring the fort museum. The audio guides were actually very well done as well as very entertaining. The Mehrangarh fort is a great way to get exposure to so much of what makes Indian history and culture so unique. We took lots of photos and did a tad of shopping. Janine was looking for very specific and very delicate silk shawls for her sister to use for her wedding. The shop outside the fort did not have the exact shade of blood red fading to darker red that she was looking for, but that was no problem. Later that afternoon the shop owner dropped off the three shawls - made and dyed to order - at our hotel. Now that is India!

Culture shocks: Some TV channels display ads in the bottom third of the screen, cutting off much of the scenes; we saw ads advertising pencils that will improve your handwriting; tele-ads also promoted a huge shell with special magical powers; there are frequent advertisements of light switches and bulbs on TV.

Friday, December 08, 2006

The Venice of the East - Udaipur

Udaipur's claim to fame is a fancy hotel palace in the middle of its lake. The 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy" was filmed there and people just seem to hold on to that for all its possible commercial potential. It was in Udaipur that we first began discovering a form of Indian painting which is quite extraordinary. Traditional themes are depicted in the finest of finest hand-painted detail on small mounted pieces of silk or specially treated paper. The pigment used to create these masterpieces is made by the painter from rock minerals which he/she grinds and combines with gum resin and water. The paint is applied by using a super small paint brush made of squirrel hair.

We stayed in a cute room for 2 nights - our view of the Octopussy hotel was great. The city is also called the "Venice of the East". Janine took the opportunity to brush up on her Indian cooking skills. A couple of hours was spent in a cooking course where Janine learnt one-on-one how to make a couple of her favourite Indian dishes. We both feasted on the produce of her labour for lunch. Otherwise Udaipur is again a desert town with a holy lake and the lake is again lined with ghats (washing platforms or steps leading into the water). We walked around, took photos and noticed some very elaborately designed Jain temples. We also went through the resident palace museum - lots of the typical gaudy relics of the Indian bygones - very interesting to explore! We did some more shopping as well - of course.

Culture shock: Wherever we go in India the rooms are usually fitted with a variety of light bulbs and fixtures (with corresponding rows of light switches) to choose from. All these rooms, however, have had all but one or two of these light bulbs removed - probably for power saving. Which brings us to another culture shock - scheduled power cuts are a normal everyday thing - in Udaipur, for instance the power is out from 9:00 to 11:00 everyday. All internet cafes keep their computers switched off until a client arrives - very annoying.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Pushkar

Apparently Pushkar, a desert town built around another holy water body - a little lake, was going to be a bit of a Varanasi experience where we could expect to be accosted by many a "holy man" offering blessings for your family at 100 Rupees (about US$2) a family member!

Pushkar was really actually very peaceful. We ate exceptionally well - did lots of shopping (purchased, amongst others, 26 cushion covers for Janine's sister's wedding) and enjoyed our stay next to the lake.

Pushkar is also home to one of the very few Brahma temples in India. Legend has it that his wife did not pitch for some or other do he was holding there and he promptly responded (in true Bollywood style) by marrying some other woman. Wife number one retaliated by vowing that Brahma would be worshiped nowhere else. Worship activity here tends to generate quite a din! We stayed in great room with a view where we could take in all the sights, sounds and smells of this religiously active little desert town. Pushkar incidentally is also the site of an enormous camel fair but we missed that by about a month. Two nights in Pushkar and we were ready to push off again.

Culture shock: The Indians really mistreat the street dogs. There won't be a day that passes where you don't hear a dog wailing in pain after being struck by some vehicle or stone or stick, and we usually hear quite a few a day. The percentage of dogs that are maimed in some or other way seems to be astronomical.

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Pink City - Jaipur

Our first stop was in the capital city of the state - Jaipur. The wonderful thing about a country like India is that due to its scale, its diverse geography, its mass of people with its still flourishing caste system as well as its rich and ancient history - every part of the country contributes something else to the tourist industry. Except for in the main cities, each region offers unique products and what you are able to find in one town you may very well not even be able to find in the next. Jaipur is one of the world's major gem producers and you can find precious and semi-precious gems everywhere.

Of particular interest to Janine was a specific style of hand-blocked cotton fabrics that she had spotted before...which comes from Jaipur. We set off for a morning walk about inside the walls of the old city of Jaipur (also called the pink city because the buildings are predominantly made from a pink/brown coloured stone), which is bursting at the seems with bazaars and old buildings. We then visited the Hawa Mahal in the old city. Built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, Hawa Mahal is supposedly the most stunning sight in the city of Jaipur. The palace, part of a huge complex, overlooks one of Jaipur's main streets and was originally constructed to offer women of the court a vantage point, behind stone-carved screens, from which to watch the activities taking place in the bazaar and the surrounding streets. This practice of having women confined to their homes is called "purdah".

We also managed to make quite a few purchases. On the list was a pair of matching toe rings which we bought to help communicate Janine's marital status to the Indian male population.

A little cultural moment was when Janine headed off to the post office to post her brother a letter. You purchase the stamps for your letter inside and then you walk out of the building, to the other side of the parking lot where a table stands. On this table is a grimy pot of gum glue which you then use to fix your stamps to your letter. The letter is then posted inside the building again.

The afternoon was splurge time as we headed to the revolving OM Tower restaurant with views of the entire city. The food was fantastic - just the right way to kick off an evening that was going to prove to be something quite exceptional. Johan had managed to book us a room in the tower of the fort high up on the hill overlooking the city. The fort only has one room to offer and this room was it. Once all the tourists had left the scene and the fort was locked up for the night - we were its only residents. Magical! The only other company up high around the fort is cute monkeys who slept outside our window.

The next morning our driver took us to the Amber Palace. We decided to employ the services of a local guide because this palace has little passages and rooms attached to it that is something to be witnessed - apparently, with the servant quarters alone amounting to 1200 rooms - one can easily get lost! Nothing was planned on a grid system or anything like that, the whole place is a maze! The particular king had twelve wives and there is a courtyard with three royal living spaces on each side of this courtyard. There were watch guards placed in watchtowers to ensure the wives did not enter into each other's rooms - to prevent jealousy. Also the king had secret passages to each of these women. He was a man in control!

The palace is rigged with all the necessary purdah infrastructure and different palace living areas some heated and some cooled in the most elaborate ways to help the nobility cope with the different seasons. The queens had to be carried or pushed around the palace because even their saree alone weighed more than 9 kg!

From here we hit the road again and we were on our way to Pushkar.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Rajasthan

After a good lunch in Agra, we met the man we were going to spend the next 2 weeks with - our driver, Naveen. Our hotel in Delhi had convinced us to tour through the state of Rajasthan (reputedly the most beautiful of all the 22 Indian provinces) by means of a hired car complete with driver as opposed to our usual travel style. We were exceptionally happy with Naveen as a person and with his driving...

Friday, December 01, 2006

Taj Mahal

We left Bandhavgarh for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. The train (a different company) was on time this time which was great because we were quite tired. We quickly upgraded our cheap 3rd class tickets where our seats were already occupied and where we were stared at continuously to something more private. Fortunately it was an overnight train and we could stretch out and only wake up just before Agra.

Our accommodation was a mere 5 minutes walk from the famous Taj Mahal. We visited this spectacular monument in the afternoon and also again early the next morning.

Neither of us are terribly enthusiastic about touring from building to building, but even Johan was blown away by the beauty of this 350 year old building. Some 20 000 workers spent 22 years constructing the glistening white Taj Mahal - all out of white marble. The cost of building the Taj would amount to about R500million in today's money terms. Made entirely of marble with millions of intricate stone inlays, the structure was designed as a mausoleum for the favourite wife of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. She died giving birth to their 14th child. The building is symmetrical from all 4 sides and surrounded by huge grounds with 4 enormous gates. Parakeets and other birds live in the many tree in the well maintained gardens of the grounds.

The white marble reflects the sunlight and changes colour with the changing light. It was great to see so many local visitors and their colourful clothing reflecting on the white marble. Janine was a real hit with her saree and we were asked to pose for many many photos!

Culture shock: camels wander through the streets; everyone tries to sell you precious stones; you pay extra for cameras and even more for video cameras when entering any of the tourist sites.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Crouching TIGER, happy human!

We took the train from Varanasi to Umaria, some 30km from the Bandhavgarh National Park, where we planned to make our last attempt at seeing a tiger in the wild. The train was delayed by 3 hours and we arrived at 2am, but managed to get a lift with some other travellers to a cheap home stay near the park gate.

Bandhavgarh National Park boasts with the highest tiger density in the world - some 55 tigers in an area of 450 sq km. This is also the place where the first white tigers were found and sets the scene for the story "The Jungle Book".

After a day of rest, we moved to a more upmarket resort called the White Tiger Forest Lodge - great food and a great view from our room on the park boundary. The next day, we set off early for an open jeep safari into the park. It was a bit of a circus, really. A whistle is blown and more than 30 jeeps race into the park at 6:30 am, all trying to see tigers. Fortunately routes are allocated, so it is not as crowded as it could have been. After the route has been completed (often at speed), all jeeps gather at a specific point to exchange information about their tiger sightings, if any. Surprisingly many saw tigers as well as sloth bears. Then everyone sped off again. Elephants are also used to track down a few tigers and one can then go for a short (expensive) elephant ride to see the tigers that had been tracked down. We decided to go to a remote area of the park and rather try our luck there than choke in the dust of the other jeeps...

Every now and then we would stop and listen. Deer sound alarm calls when a predator is on the move and that is the sign we would wait for. We heard a call and drove in that direction. We then heard the call again, this time behind us and realized that we had driven too far. We turned back along the same track and could not believe our eyes when a tigress was walking in the road where we had just driven! We followed her for more than 1km and it was just us - fantastic! She was quite a bit bigger than what one may have expected and even more beautiful than in the pictures.

Johan was ecstatic and Janine very relieved as Johan declared earlier that we are not going home without seeing a tiger in the wild! We did not see any more tigers on our next two game drives, but the memory of that tiger will forever be etched into our minds. Mission accomplished.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Holy crap!

What a flight! India had apparently received outside terrorist threats and airport security was accordingly jacked up almost to the point of asphyxiation! Tired and irritated, we eventually found ourselves safely back on Indian soil - this time in the "holy" city of Varanasi - built along the banks of the Ganges river. This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The 1 hour taxi journey through the pollution and the traffic brought us close to the ghats (a 'ghat' is platform next to or stairs leading to a "holy water body". Each ghat has a name and each exists as a site of some ceremonial activity - from sacred ritual bathing to riverside cremations) and we walked the last stretch through the bustling back alleys to our hotel overlooking the river. Arriving at sunset made the river scene look actually quite romantic. Johan had booked us into their deluxe room with a view over the river and balcony which was caged in to protect us from the roaming monkeys.

The Ganges river (the "Great Mother") is considered the backbone of Indian culture. Pilgrims from all over gather in droves to take a holy dip in the river's suffering waters. According to our guide book (the lonely planet) the stats are quite alarming. Each day the area where we stayed next to the river receives about 60 000 pilgrims wanting to wash there. According to the guide book in the same area, 30 large sewers continuously discharge into the river. The water in the Ganges is so badly polluted that the water is septic. While water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water, river water samples show a figure of 1.5 million! This water travels further through a large section of India, reaching the lives of over 400 million more people with it's water borne diseases. Not pretty.

The next 2 days were surprisingly peaceful. We ate well, took a paddle down the river at sunset to watch the evening ceremonies and cremations getting underway, bought train tickets, managed (after much of a mission) to draw cash and even bought Janine a saree. Janine thoroughly enjoyed her encounters with the local retail people (English is often quite well spoken in India) - especially during the process of purchasing her saree and associated apparel. The religious atmosphere ranges from bizarre to totally insane. The overcrowded city spaces are packed with shrines and ceremony as well as holy cows and monkeys. Everywhere some or other priest is busy exploiting his sacred power for financial gain and at any given time a yoga session is on the go. Foreigners from all over the world congregate here (and indeed in a few spots in India) to gain from the spiritual "enlightenment" this particularly spiritually dark spot of India has to offer. We came, we saw and we left - all in all a vivid memory to say the least.

Friday, November 24, 2006

A Maoist afterthought

As we mentioned about our journey into and around Nepal, the Maoist rebel group has had quite an impact on the country and subsequently on tourism which dropped to extreme lows last year during a period of heightened civil violence. For the past 12 years or so the current government has been at loggerheads with the terrorist movement, the conflict costing more than 12 000 lives. The terrorism extended to the realm of tourism in a very interesting way.

With Nepal being one of the world's poorest countries, the Maoists quickly identified tourists as a lucrative source of financial support for their 'cause'. Conscious, however, of the fact that their pending new communist government order will continue to rely heavily on tourism for the desperately needed financial input, the money is expropriated most creatively. The movement has already designated 'republics' in certain high tourism areas which are also conveniently remote and easily defended. When entering these 'republics' all tourists eventually encounter a representative of the republic requiring certain tourist taxes based on the number of days to be spent in that area. The transaction is incredibly friendly and inviting (that is if you pay - else it can turn very ugly) and the paying tourist receives a receipt for monies received so that no extra payment can be required of them should they encounter a later representative.

We were fortunate enough to be present in Nepal during the political climax of this long drawn out conflict between the two parties - peace talks. They were on the go since about the time we entered the country and 3 days before we left the long awaited peace treaty was signed. The next day was a spontaneously declared public holiday and national jubilation was everywhere to be seen: the end of 12 years of civil unrest - a truly historical moment. On that note we left Nepal, not sure of how the new regime is going to transform a country previously so politically uneventful it was considered the Switzerland of the East.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Kathmandu & byebye

The bus journey to Kathmandu was uneventful (a good thing for Nepal) except that we were dropped off really in the middle of nowhere. Our taxi dropped us off at our hotel and after Johan had bargained down the price for our very comfy room we hit the streets. While Thamel (the very touristy bit where we stayed) in Kathmandu does not compare to a place like Delhi, Johan predicted within two days we would be sick of the craziness - which we were.

One amazing thing about our stay here though was the ease with which we were able to get thing done - more so even than at home! Within moments of thinking to do it we had air tickets to India, Janine had been to an excellent dentist, we had shopped, mailed, claimed for the dentist from our travel insurance, blogged, backed up photos, printed photos, done laundry, posted a really big box of old gear and shopping home (!!), posted post cards and letters, eaten great food and did I mention shop?

We walked a bit around the old part of the city - it is a very quirky place. One interesting alley has a few dental practices which make for must-take photos. They are all closely situated to the toothache god - a bit of twisted wood with coins nailed to it. The city is peppered with artifacts - some incredibly old. There are shrines and temples and ancient buildings everywhere. Most of these are used by children as playthings, or to hang washing. While there are many weird and wonderful things to see in Kathmandu we did not do much more on the touristy side than the odd walk about. Today we head off to Varanasi, India and bid Nepal a fond farewell.

Culture shock: The local people are completely fascinated with the fact that we are married - once they know, they can't stop referring back to this fact. The people here are masters of upselling - everywhere we have been any person can offer you almost any service (eg the laundry guy wants to get us air tickets or a massage or send parcels home!).

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Village life in Sauraha

Back in Sauraha (our base village at Chitwan) we got ourselves a hotel with a beautiful garden and a room with a bath tub - to Janine's delight. Again for half price. Washing went to the laundry and we went to eat out! The next day was for internet (the previous 3 nights in Sauraha left us disconnected because some bus had damaged a power pole and repair work had rendered the little town powerless for at least 3 days...) because we had a lot of mailing to catch up on.

Janine also finally managed to convince Johan (she had tried every day when we were previously in Sauraha) to hire a bicycle and go cycling with her. It was the beginning of the annual grass-cutting season in that area of the park and people cross the river into the park to cut grass used for building walls, roofs, making bedding and much more. We cruised around the village for an hour watching this activity amidst all the usual country life - chickens, ducks, goats, elephants, children, ploughing, etc. We had such a good time - Johan was very glad he went.

The next day Mayaram, our guide who took us into the park, invited us over for supper. We were thrilled. His family is amazing and the evening was one of the most special times we had during our travels. We chatted over all the humorous occurrences of the previous few days and Mayaram insisted that in his 27 years of guiding he had only ever once before seen a rhino as angry as the rhinos that stormed us. He was very sad that we did not see a tiger or a bear as he sees them on almost all his longer walking safaris.

We were quite emotional to leave the next morning. Mayaram's wife, Vicky accompanied us by horse cart to catch our bus to Kathmandu the next morning. This will not be the last time we see Sauraha.

Culture shocks: Nepal uses a differed calender than we in the West - 15/11/2006 in our calender is 1/8/2063 in theirs; elephants carrying people are a very common sight in the main road and part of everyday life.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Crouching human, hidden tiger

We were so excited, we could burst - after 3 super relaxing nights in Sauraha the day had finally come for our 3 day jungle hike. After stocking up on some bakery goods, we crossed the Rapi River on a dugout canoe. It was just the two of us and Mayaram and his 19 year old son Nariam (spelling?).

Once we were in the park, Mayaram gave his now famous briefing - "The animals are not so dangerous - a tiger will never attack you. Rhinos and bears are a little bit more dangerous. If a rhino comes for you, you climb in a tree or stand behind a big tree. If there is no tree, or if a bear comes after you, we do not panic because we have sticks. We fight them." It was precious!

We had just started walking when Nariam said "I smell a tiger". We first thought he was joking, but a few meters further we found fresh tiger prints and fresh urine and dung from earlier that morning. Once you know what a tiger smells like, it is quite easy to pick up - it is a very distinctive smell and we were confronted with this smell many times during the following days. They always found most of the animals by just smelling and listening! Johan was outstandingly good at this - he could smell tiger (and even distinguish between tiger and bear) even before the guides would! Janine on the other hand was practically useless at smelling.

Most of the park consists of either grasslands, riverine forest or the tall trees of the sal forest. The days were spent walking, smelling and listening and waiting at specific spots. We spend the nights in remote villages outside the park as visitors are not allowed to overnight in the park. These nights with Mayaram and Nariam and the locals we were staying with were fantastic socializing times for us - precious memories we will never forget.

Early in the mornings with the mist still heavy all around, we would be back in the jungle. Often we would see bear tracks over our tracks or fresh tiger prints, but we were unfortunately not lucky enough to see either of these. The vegetation in the park is so dense at this time of the year that it is hardly the most ideal time to go searching. We did, however, see many species of monkey, many wild boars, many rhinos and spotted deer and barking deer.

Once Mayaram heard some rhinos about 100m away in the deep bush and we pressed closer through the undergrowth to get a better view. He instructed us to get high into a tree and then left to call the rhinos closer. His strategy worked very well. It actually almost worked too well. The rhinos were furious, more furious than anything we have ever seen! They made loud echoing warning noises (which sounded like a jack hammer) and stormed through the bush to right under our trees.

Their eyesight is poor, but their sense of smell is excellent. They stopped about 10m from Johan's low and dead tree and then turned around and ran straight for our bags at the bottom of Janine's tree - one sniff and their unhappiness echoed through the forest before they sped off again.

Janine really enjoyed this episode from her position of safety high up in a good solid tree (Mayaram was, incidentally, quite impressed with Janine's tree climbing skills) while Johan was severely shaken! His tree was much lower and exposed and the rhinos less than 1m below him. They were also much bigger than the ones we have previously seen!

The following 15 minutes was nerve-wrecking for Johan as we tried to find a way back to the main road. He was convinced that the rhinos would return with avengeance!

We eventually extended our 3 day jungle walk to 4 days. It was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives - we also saw a few friendlier rhinos in the footpath and countless parakeets.

We are sure we will be back...

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

To the jungle

We left the great food of Pokhara behind as we climbed on a "tourist bus" with seats way too small for any westerner. We reached Sauraha, the base for jungle safaris into Chitwan National Park at the end of a 5 hour long ride along twisting roads with beautiful views. Upon arrival, we were met by a representative of our budget hotel who transferred us in a jeep to our hotel on the shore of the Rapi River, the northern boundary of the park.

Our accommodation had great views over the river and we were within walking distance of where the elephants were bathed everyday at 11am. We spend the next two days just doing nothing - walking around, washing elephants and also meeting up with the same guide Johan, his sister and her friend had trekked with 6 years ago when they visited the park.

Mayaram was very glad to see Johan again. We noticed a large red crossed painted in his office and he informed us that he and his family became Christians 4 years ago! We had a great time catching up and made a booking to go on a 3 day jungle walk so that we could have a good chance of spotting one of the 50 tigers in the park...

Saturday, November 11, 2006

On wings like eagles

Pokhara is one of the most ideal places in the world to go paragliding. During the autumn and winter months, the weather is consistently ideal with great jump off spots and gentle thermals. Janine managed to convince Johan into doing the "no experienced required" 45 minute tandem glide.

There is really little fuss about the whole thing (except for Johan's nervousness) - just pay as you go - no forms to sign, no indemnities, no nothing. A jeep takes one to Sagarnakot at 1450m, about 700m higher than Pokhara. After a 2 minute briefing, you buckle up, run and then jump off a mountain!

One is in a sitting position which feels like being in a nice armchair - everything seemed so smooth and silent as one begins to ride the thermals to gain height and distance. Eagles joined us as we enjoyed the incredible scenery back dropped by the snow-covered Himalayas. On the way down Johan claimed that they were spiraling at such high G-forces that his face pulled to the side! Landing is as soft as stepping off a pavement, but watch out for traffic as you land on the tarred road next to the lake - Janine's landing had two local women duck out of the way and she also managed to evade the oncoming truck!

Friday, November 10, 2006

Pokhara

What a place to be. Everyday is perfect weather - at the lakeside where we are the streets are safe and colourful and jam-packed with great restaurants as well as touristy souvenir and hiking gear shops. One can really find great food and the two of us have been living like kings - still. Janine is in her element with all the shopping and eating possibilities and there is almost no end to the activities that you can organize from this hub.

Yesterday morning Johan surprised Janine to a morning breakfast on the lake - paddling along in a hired boat! He packed in our reading material: bibles and other books (Janine: Helen Keller's 'story of my life' and Johan: Messners book entitled 'My quest for the Yeti' - both purchased in Pokhara), some food, and even the binocs. Stunning! It will be sad to go, but sometime we have to head on to Chitwan National Park so that Johan can see a tiger in the wild. But before that we first have to do a bit of flying...

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Annapurna Circuit

The trek we decided to do is a loop that slowly climbs as it twists around the Himalayan region of the Annapurna mountains to reach a high point of 5416m above sea level. At this height one crosses over one of the highest passes in the world called Thorong La. The trail then continues, first abruptly and then gently down again until you are back at around 800m above sea level. It is called the Annapurna Circuit and it is considered to be one of the most famous and most beautiful trekking routes in the world.

We began trekking on the last day one could without guide or porter so we were the last independent trekkers these mountains will see until that policy is changed. We estimated about 3 weeks and completed the 200km plus hike in 19 days. One can do it in fewer days but Johan suffered a bit of congestion on the upward half of the trek and Janine the same on the descending stretch so we had to factor in an extra 3 days of resting to regain our health. We also took the recommended acclimatization day off in the village of Manang ( 3500m.a.s.l) and generally took our days in a leisurely manner - enjoying the views, village restaurants and hotels along the way.

The hike was simply spectacular. We were both in our element and to Janine's surprise the hiking was easy, the hotels comfortable and cute and the menus extensive! Mint and ginger tea featured a lot in our days as well as rice pudding, Tibetan bread, tomato soup, chicken sandwiches, pastas, barley porridge and chapatis. There were also 'German' bakeries along the way (we kid you not) where we could get great apple pie, cinnamon rolls and chocolate danishes. Besides the 3.5kg of sweets Janine carried up into the mountain (since Johan had insisted that it would be too expensive to purchase sweets in the mountains) we were able to buy chocolates en even a jar of chocolate spread along the way!

Where towns had not already been connected to a power grid there were often solar-powered showers along the way. We both thought we would go through the 3 icy weeks without a shower but we had many - and many of them hot! Johan insisted on on-suite rooms wherever we could find one and, in short, we lived like kings - and all this well within our budget.

There were technicalities to contend with. The cold (and the ice - especially over the pass) was a big one. There were moments when Johan sincerely believed that we would not make the night in our explorer 850 sleeping bags. With layers of clothing and extra blankets we always did though. The trains of pack-mules passing through that had to be side stepped on regular occasion - sometimes on very precarious stretches of mountain trail - was another that got a bit much sometimes. We estimate having passed about 750 mules at least on our trek! Descending the other side of the pass (where one drops from 5400masl to 3800masl in just over 3 hours) was the worst of the feats we had to execute - especially over the ice patches. Acute Mountains Sickness (caused by high altitude body fluid complications that can affect the brain and lungs and is often fatal) is a big problem in this region. We attended a lecture on the topic in Manang, took our diamox, drank lots of water and ascended slowly. No problems. Body odour is another slight problem as we had only one set of hiking clothes for the 19 days...

One thing that really boggles the mind is the culture of burden carrying in Nepal. More goods are transported by people than any other mode of transport. In the mountains one sees men (and women) carrying unbelievable loads by means of a strap over their foreheads - nothing else. They move, often barefoot, with the agility of mountain goats and at speeds that put all other hikers to shame. Another oddity was the lack of crowds. While this year was supposed to be better than the rock-bottom previous two years, there were often long stretches where we did not encounter other hikers at all. Hotel rooms were always easy to secure and there were even occasions where we were the only occupants.

The scenery changed with each day - warmer rice plantations to higher pine plantations, through a cloud forest belt and into sparser upper reaches - right up until there remained no plant life at all - just surroundings of enormous mountains - almost all over 7000masl and some over 8000masl! Most of the trail follows near the glacial rivers which never ceased to impress us.

We decided to take the most western route out of the circuit towards Beni and also caught a jeep and bus for the last stretch (saved us 6 hours of walking). Once in Beni we caught a taxi and about 2.5 hours later we were back in Pokhara - filthy once again and ready for our bath!!! We managed to find a huge more upmarket room (R140 per night) in a very central hotel (yes, for less than half price) with a bath. After a good clean we were ready for our post-trekking celebration meal. A truly blissful way to end one of the most amazing things that we have ever done. What a privilege and also to be able to do it independently and with your most favourite person in the whole world!

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Towards the mountains

We had decided to chuck the 5 hour bus drive to the trekking start point and hire a taxi. As we loaded into our taxi at 09:00 the morning of the 20th, Janine noticed that the dogs we all wearing marigold necklaces and a red spot between the eyes. Our hotel owner told her that it was the Hindu dog festival - day 1 of 4 days of festivities to follow.

The 3 hour drive was very interesting. Local Hindu custom allows for locals from every single roadside village along the way to set up a road block and demand contributions towards their festivities! Very organized, licence plate numbers get recorded and sometimes receipts are even offered! Our poor taxi driver had to dish it out in excess of 20 times! Sometimes the road blocks were just a bunch of terrorist children exploiting the system. On arrival in Besisahar we climbed on the roof of a bus to take us the final 5km of gravel road to Khudi - and so we were finally set to begin our trekking around the Annapurna Ciruit.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Bardia to Pokhara - the incredible journey

We were in Bardia during a period of peace talks between the Maoists and the Nepali government. Nevertheless, bus strikes were leaving travellers and locals alike stranded without warning all over Nepal. We had planned to leave Bardia for Pokhara (from where we were to begin our trekking) on the 18th of October to begin trekking no later than the 20th as the new rules were to come into effect on the 21st. Strikes still hit on the 17th but on the morning of the 18th we were off for our 5 to 7 hour bus drive to a midway town where we would sleep and catch a morning bus the following day to take us the final 5 or 6 hours to Pokhara. Bus travel is notoriously dangerous in Nepal so we were advised not to take the overnight bus. The journey that followed was one of the closest encounters Janine had ever had with insanity...

We were loaded by our resort onto a local bus at 11:45 and Johan secured out baggage to the roof with our pack-safe cable. Johan walked around outside to try and escape the heat - Janine stayed inside the bus to try and escape the scorching sun. The bus left at 12:30 and stopped a few kilometers down the road for about 30 min. Then the bus was moving again - we drove about a km, drove around a circle and returned to the stop we had just departed from. Janine looked for a bathroom and bought some pomegranates. Johan walked around outside to try and escape the heat. We left again just after 15:00 and stopped at that same circle about a km away. Johan wanted to walk outside to try and escape the heat, but the bus looked like it was about to go any second. About 30 min later we were on the move again - by now we had a band playing one song on repeat in the already crowded bus - this went on for a long time. About 5 min later we stopped to fill up with petrol - the bus driver purchased two live chickens while we waited. We were moving again for about 15 minutes (the time was now around 16:00) and then stopped to load up some goats - all the male passengers on the bus jumped out to load as many goats as they could onto the roof of the bus.

When that space was full, the remaining goats were stuffed into all the other baggage compartments under the bus. Johan was outside walking around (trying to escape the heat) and managed to catch the action on camera. Meanwhile, back in the bus, Janine (who was guarding our hand luggage) was listening to the 15th repetition of the live band's song and she wondered if this is what the beginnings of insanity might feel like.

The rest of the the drive was executed in typical life-threatening driving style punctuated by many road blocks which meant we still stopped many many times that day. When our bus stopped at about 21:00 about an hour before our destination for our hour supper break, one of the locals told us that the bus was no longer going to our destination town as the bus driver had just heard that there was an industrial strike in that town. All the buses had to divert. Our only option was to drive another 5 or 6 hours on route now to Kathmandu to Mugling which was the only other connection to Pokhara. What made the bypass very interesting is that there is no road to support the maneuver. Locals helped by sending a motorbike ahead and a string of buses weaved through villages, rice paddies and even through a river to get around the town. This was at about 23:00.

At 03:00 the next morning, in the middle of nowhere, we were abruptly loaded off our bus and onto another bus already almost full. About 30 minutes later we were going again, bouncing along as the windows threatened to crash in and the electrical connections slowly filled the interior with smoke...

Just after 06:00 we arrived in Pokhara, filthy from the bus journey, hungry and tired. An friendly tout whisked us off to a very nice hotel with a bath(!!!) and we proceeded to scrub before enjoying a great breakfast in this fantastic town. We had 24 hours to gear ourselves up for our 3 week hike - all had worked out well!

Culture shocks: As in India, even though the twilight here is rather long in duration, only when the night is pitch black do the vehicle lights go on; apparently it is common practice for buses to be stuffed with goats ('mutton' as it appears on menus); in all our travels preceding Pokhara it was impossible to purchase toilet paper as the locals don't use it...

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Elusive Bardia tigers

A three hour bus journey covering 60km of tarred road brought us safely to a drop off point near Bardia National Park (previously Royal Bardia National Park but all the 'Royal' prefixes have since been removed due to national disillusionment with the royalty). We enjoyed a good chat to some locals while waiting for our jeep pick up and before we knew it we were settled into our cute little cottage at Forest Hideaway Resort.

Weather was balmy and the surroundings beautiful. We did a tiger trekking walk (but saw no tigers), lounged in the hammocks, did a stunning early morning elephant safari as well as a jeep safari. All the above were great but a highlight was going off to play with a gorgeous little orphan elephant - only 6 weeks old - who was found washed away in the monsoon floods and rescued. He was too gorgeous - especially when he can running to you accidentally stepping on his trunk as he came!

The elephant safari was magical too - just us on our elephant and a UK couple we met there on their elephant. We were following fresh tiger tracks and knew that we were very close as our elephant became very nervous and stamped his feet and snorted. He was not too happy about getting closer to a tiger. Our excitement grew. Unfortunately the tiger was lying low...

The afternoon walk, which takes you past a watch tower from where we watched monkeys swimming over the river, was also breathtaking. The afternoon climaxed as we moved from the open bush into tall grasslands. As the grasses got taller and taller one could not help getting caught up in the romance of it all - Johan lingered for photos and video and it was all one of those movie moments - until Johan had to face one of his worst nightmare... As soon as we were in a bit of a clearing he discovered that he was covered in leeches! - we all were. After a frantic leech removal episode (Johan had to be de-leeched first to stop the hysterics) Johan was bleeding so much it looked like he had been shot! Moving through the grasslands was a lot quicker after that.

A highlight of the jeep safari was to spot the rare Asian rhino - a one-horned rhino, much smaller than the African rhinos with weird scales like foldings of skin.

We were sad to leave after only two nights but the Annapurnas were calling and new regulations were about to come into effect. We were insistent to get there in time to still be able to trek alone.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Border crossing at night

We wanted to get to Nepal asap as some of the trekking rules were about to change, forcing independent travellers to hire either a guide or porter. So we set off to Nepal early on the morning of 16 October 2006.

The Indian railways impressed us tremendously - very organised and on time - easy to book and to find your train. We were on the 6am fast train to Lucknow - various meals were included and served together with the daily newspaper. We read that the Indian police were unable to find someone who could translate the Afrikaans used in their recordings of Hansie Cronje's conversations with Hershell Gibbs in the match-fixing scandal. The "case was lost in the translations". Johan is still considering offering his services for a small fee of course. The train ride was surprisingly fast. The rails are much wider apart than that in South Africa, allowing greater speeds.

We saw the most amazing bird life as we sped over some swampy lands towards Lucknow. Lucknow was also very crowded, but we quickly managed to find a taxi for the 5-6hour drive to the border at Nepalganj for only US$20. India is a land with stunning natural beauty amidst the overcrowding. We loved the ride and scenery while the drive drove well into the night without using his headlights...

Upon arrival at the border town around 8pm, we hopped onto a rickshaw for the ride to the immigration offices. The rickshaw driver woke the immigration officers who helped us through at 9pm(!) and then cycled us the last 6km to the 1st Nepali town of Nepalganj where we stayed for the night. Both immigration offices seemed quite surprised to see us as this border post had seen fewer and fewer tourists since Maoist bombings earlier in the year. Fortunately there has been a ceasefire since May 2006. Nepal was instantly quieter and more tranquil that the Indian side of the border.

Monday, October 16, 2006

A day in Delhi

We did a short tour of Delhi in a car with a driver and went to the Red Fort, the Gandhi memorial and a state owned clothing emporium.

We do not know too much of the detail, but the Red Fort was built during some earlier dynasty and seemed to have been a fortified royal palace or city - big spacious gardens with impressive masonry and stone carvings - like a little peaceful haven in the midst of the Delhi chaos.

When the driver parks, he just hands his keys to one of the parking attendants - they move the cars around so that everyone can get out even though you may become terribly parked in in the two or three rows of cars in front of a wall - no problem.

The Gandhi memorial is in a big garden where a flame burns on a simple block of black marble. Nothing too exciting to see - the gardens, however, have trees planted by numerous heads of states. There is one by Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, as well as presidents from every imaginable country - just a pity that the biggest tree we saw was planted by the ex-dictator Kenneth Kaunda from Zambia!

Outside the gardens, we had our first encounter with a snake charmer. When we asked him what the name of his snake is, he said "his name is Cobra". The snakes seemed lazy, although they did rise after been hit a few times - they one guy had a huge plaster on his cheek - possibly concealing a snake bite?! Janine was brave as usual and wanted to hang the snake around her neck, which she did!

We went to the clothing emporium to get an idea of the typical quality and price of Indian clothing - Janine was very impressed with the quality and Johan was very impressed with the price! By this visit was purely educational for the invariable future purchases that will follow...

Culture shocks: people stare at one as if you are the last human on earth; the mild spicy food is so hot that Johan develops a rash on his chest for up to 1 hour after the meal; even in budget hotels, all the floors, steps and bathrooms are made from marble; buses proclaim to be "the largest eco-friendly bus service in the world" and "propelled by clean fuel" while smoke billows from under the buses; there are many many children begging and they are quite aggressive; saw our hotel manager in his small office - typical Mafia set-up in a big chair with 4 large TV screens facing him with different TV programs showing.

Friday, October 13, 2006

New (?) Delhi

"Where did all these people and traffic come from?" was the question that raced through Johan's mind as our driver zigzagged us through the most chaotic traffic we have ever seen. It was already 11pm. Roads are not signposted and everyone drives the way they want. More than half of the cars did not have rear lights (note, not just out of order, but "removed" by other cars). Roads are NOT even.

As we sped into the polution, our driver (merrily chatting away to us in the rear-view mirror) chose to drive in the lane of oncoming traffic as the 2 lanes that go in the same direction as us, were just too slow. Johan braced himself for a few accidents that fortunately never happened.

Our hotel is in downtown Delhi (sort of the whole city is downtown) and we ended up in a small room where the fan just moves hot air from one place to another. We were told that we are fortunate to have arrived in their winter (although the temperature at the airport was 30 degrees at 10pm).

After a great night's rest, we woke up at midday, just in time for the last scraps of breakfast. We managed to upgrade our room for a mere $6 to 3 times the size and with much appreciated aircon. India is cheap, I mean really cheap. Janine bought some woman's clothes and snacks and water and apples and we have not yet spent R50 (US$7).

The whole place is really a culture shock - we are already having a great time!

Culture shocks: Rice called Airplane Rice; more staff in the hotel than visitors; ohh the traffic; ohh the polution; ohh the filth!; cattle everywhere just feeding fom the fruit stalls; some very very very poor people; some very very very weird looking people...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Passage to India

After a great 5 weeks of socializing, braaing, surfing, visiting family, doing the washing and filling-up, we left South Africa for India. Our Singapore Airlines flight took us to Singapore from where we flew the evening to Delhi, the capital of India.

Singapore has always been a highlight - just the airport alone is a city worth visiting. We stocked up on consumer electronics and booked us in for a few hours nap at the airport hotel.

An uneventful (I have been told that "uneventful" is good for when you fly) 5 hours flight took us to Delhi, with its 13 million inhabitants, where we were picked up by a hotel representative of our cheaply-booked-on-the-internet hotel.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Leaving South America...

We would originally have flown from Havana back to Caracas and on to Rio de Janeiro and Iguassu Falls before heading to Buenos Aires. But with all the problems on Varig (now they fly, now they don't) and the struggles to get hold of them and the US$55 departure tax in Caracas and the short stay in Rio etc, we decided to fly straight from Havana to Buenos Aires and just reclaim our air miles used for the Varig tickets. It all worked out so much better and we ended up in a very affordable and central hotel in downtown Buenos Aires.

The following 2-3 days were spend walking around, eating steaks, dealing with other people's smoking addictions, blogging, uploading photos, doing last minute shopping, etc.

Tonight we fly home!

Monday, September 04, 2006

Leaving Cuba...

A taxi rush at 6a.m., a system failure at check in, a downgrade from the Cubana business class tickets we were forced to purchase previously (with accompanying refund), a system crash again at passport control and we were set to fly south to Buenos Aires - a land of shopping opportunities awaiting us...

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Fat Maria Beach

Another 3 hours south west by bus and we ended up at the one-hotel beach resort of Maria la Gorda. The hotel didn't have much to write home about except a characteristic typical of the rest of Cuban tourism - they like to dictate to you how you will travel and what you will do while you are in Cuba and because there is a strong monopoly on tourism here there is very little incentive for any sort of change. The water, however, was crystal crystal clear and we had such an amazing time snorkeling just along the beach. Fan coral, eels (also a giant moray eel), bright colourful tropical fish in their hundreds, blow fish, giant fish, jelly fish and much more. We had a ball. Wild life abounds - feral cats are everywhere as well as hermit crabs and woodpeckers. One night was especially entertaining when a giant tree frog decided to land on Johan's shoulder at 3a.m. while we were both sleeping. I don't know which of the two were more traumatized by the end of that event.

We had TV in our room so we watched all the latest on cyclone Ernesto (slamming into eatern Cuba), which later became Hurricane Ernesto and then later tropical storm Ernesto. We had clear skies all along and by the time we reached Havana Ernesto had become rumour Ernesto and had decided to head North to torment the 'great enemy' instead.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Vinales

Vinales is an area to the west of Cuba (3 hours from Havana by bus) famous for its natural beauty. The country feel in the town was really wonderful and the main recreational pastime seems to be sitting in your rocking chair on the porch shouting conversation to your neighbours across the street or to those passing by. The heat was unbelievable and our room did not adapt well to our attempts at air-conditioning so we headed to one of the hotels to make use of their pool for the day. We drank mojitos (a typical cuban cocktail containing rum and mint) and tried to stay cool. There is not much in the way of restaurants in the town but our homestay offered us enormous meals of very tasty typical Cuban plates (like 4 pork chops each besides the rice and beans and salad!). The food was so much we ended up sharing one meal each night. Again - Che images were everywhere to be seen.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Doing things in Havana

A famous Havana landmark (actually there are hundreds) is an 8 km promenade walkway along the coast called the Malecon. Walking, sitting, chatting, romancing, fishing, swimming and even doing the triumphal wedding day loop in some grand chevy seems to be of the main recreational activities here in Havana. That and drinking rum, smoking cigars, playing dominoes, dancing and making music! We were fortunate enough to catch the national Cuban ballet company doing their stuff at the oldest theatre in use in the western hemisphere - absolutely fantastic! Live music is unavoidable - pretty much every restaurant has live bands.

We met a new friend during a Malecon sunset. Gerardo is a history teacher who speaks excellent English. He took us on a free tour of the Museum of the Revolution, invited us over for an interesting diner at his home, had us dancing in the living room, showed us a great (and cheap) restaurant hidden away, shared many a Cuban anecdote with us and, of course, in the end tried to get us to purchase 'real' cigars from his friend who works in the cigar factory (we found that every Cuban who we met seemed to have a friend who works in the cigar factory) - which we graciously declined. We could never walk with him in the streets (he always walked on a block ahead) because there is a police officer on every block - literally. The government is quite uncomfortable with uncontrolled mingling of locals and tourists and locals are not allowed to offer any service or product to tourists - like playing guide, etc. Gerardo did none of these things but he assured us that the police are so corrupt they are just best avoided all together. The tour of the museum was the same and we were supposed to tell anyone who asked that we were friends of a mutual friend in Germany, Marcus, who had travelled to South Africa and given us photos to give Gerardo which were taken in 1999 while he was over in Germany on an exchange. He had the photos with him all the time. He showed us his family's ration card which is the same one which allows all Cubans access to rather dismal monthly rations of food. He shared about a time during the special period when the government did their bit by blessing wedding couples with free crates of beer and a cake on their big day. Gerardo married and divorced twice in this time with a friend of his - the sale of the beers made it a very profitable maneuver!

Probably the most beautiful (and most touristic) part of Havana is the UNESCO world heritage site of the oldest part of the city - called Havana Vieja. The buildings (or at least the facades) are well conserved (they have to - apparently 300 buidlings collapse a year in Havana!) and the number and beauty of colonial buildings in this area is truly breathtaking. Musicians here only seem to strike up the band when tourists pass by and one can easily find old woman here posing with enormous cigars waiting for lucrative photo opportunities.

There is just too much to see and do in Havana. We tried to stay off the main tourist circuit, but we did pop into the occasional art gallery as well as the national fine arts museum for Cuban art - which was actually really excellent. We visited the Capitolio - a building very close in design to that in Washington DC - built middle last century to house parliament (no longer in use). A giant 17m tall statue of a woman representing the republic is housed inside the building and there is also a 21 carat diamond positioned in the floor - well, it was replaced by a replica a while back after a brief and very interesting disappearance and reappearance...

We also took a most fascinating tour of a cigar factory where professional cigar rollers have to fulfil a quota of 110 cigars a day. The process of Cuban cigar making is almost magical and the people churn them out all day long while being read to from the national propaganda newspaper everyday. We had to purchase one or two although neither of us can say that we enjoyed the cigars at all - the rest of Cuba seems to love of them!

Another impressive site was the San Cristobal cemetery where there are blocks and blocks of elaborate graves that host more than 1 million dead. One can't help being impressed by the decadence of it all. After a while, though, we needed a break from the city and headed out to the country.

One of our final maneuvers while staying in Havana was to innocently try to buy a painting on display on the Prado (a long elaborately built walkway in old Havana). We selected the painting we desired to purchase and were told that someone would meet us presently at a nearby hotel and we would receive our painting there for the amount indicated (all in Spanish). It was like a drop-off: you walk along the sidewalk until someone starts walking alongside you. After a while the moment for transaction is indicated and the 10 CUC note leaves your one hand while a rolled painting appears in your other...

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Staying in Havana

Internet locations in Havana can be counted on your fingers and at US$6 an hour locals are pretty effectively excluded from the practice - especially considering the minimum monthly wage (which counts for pretty much everyone here, from cigar-roller to dentist) is about 250 pesos (about US$11). There is nothing to buy either! Shops have the basics - arts and crafts are not legal trade opportunities for locals and in a country where everyone is supposed to have equal tiny amounts of the essentials there is nothing remotely close to variety. Rum seems to be the most widely available commodity for purchase. Literature topics and variety is obviously very limited too. Our host family's favourite topic of conversation was how expensive everything is in Cuba. These homestay businesses (called casa particulars) were begrudgingly legalized post special period and the government works hard to prevent indiscriminate gain in wealth by taxing the owners of such businesses heavily - about US$130 a month (regardless of occupancy) for the most basic rooms (like ours), US$30 extra to serve breakfast (per room) above and beyond fiscal tax at the end. We had an interesting moment because the inspector arrived on his monthly rounds while we were moving from the non-aircon room (US$15 per night + breakfast) to the aircon room (works out to US$26 with the breakfasts). We were out so the family quickly moved our stuff over as they only have one room registered with the government. If both rooms are full they just close up all the windows and pretend no one is home. Our first taste of government law evasion tactics and tensions - the first of many we would experience.

Food can also be divided up into expensive restaurants (government owned) and paladares (government owned buildings with heavily taxed tenants trying to make a business with a restricion of 12 seats per paladare) - quite a bit cheaper. Sea food is readily available and the very reasonably priced lobsters are enormous! Paladares are not allowed to serve this delicacy but they all do somehow - and we ate like kings!

Cuba is famous for their old cars - well nurtured pontiacs, chevrolets, plymouths and more abound and this really does give cuba a special feel - but there are also many modern cars as well. These cars are bought overseas by musicians and sports players who manage to get the rare permission to travel. The government also owns a nationwide fleet mainly for tourism purposes. There is also the option of horse-drawn carriage and little motos called 'cocos'.

Although most people still receive money from relatives that managed to defect to Miami (US$ taxed with 10% exchange tax - just so that the government can also be part of the fun) the system that operates here in Cuba has, to our opinion, largely created a national culture of lying and thieving - all white lies and petty crimes, of course. Prostitution in Cuba is also very lucrative and the stigma in this culture has been sufficiently down-adjusted so that people condone and even esteem prostitutes selling their bodies here in much the same way our western cultures esteem models selling their bodies for all sorts of seductive ploys in our media back home. Speaking of which - there does not seem to be something like that here because there is no advertising - yes, the city of Havana is beautiful largely because the city is free of advertising - not even the casa particulars and paladeras advertise (that would cost an extra US$40 a month) and pornography is illegal (a far cry from the continent of South America). There is just the government tabloid - the Granma (named after the boat Fidel Castro used in the great takeover attempt of 1956 - Cuba's most holy relic on display) and that is it! For all the Cubans that long for the allure of capitalism (and that really does not include everyone) - they really can't appreciate what they will have to lose to gain it.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Arriving in Havana

After a 10.5 hour delay at Caracas airport the guys at Aeropostal finally managed to fix our broken plane and get us airborne. The lonely planet accurately describes what we had to pass through during passport control... At 3 a.m. we arrived at the correct street number and house name in downtown Havana and were extremely warmly welcomed and accommodated by our host family in Casa Cary. A remarkable change from the rest of South America - this friendliness would characterize the rest of our stay in Cuba.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

About Cuba

Cuba was our final destination for this side of our globe-trot and, we must say, probably the highlight country of our trip. Just over 2 weeks in a country with so much to absorb. Arriving in Havana is so striking - all the architecture, the friendly people - a country where everyone can eat and sleep and read and be born under medical supervision... a land with so many contradictions and inconsistencies. Cuba is a dream that most people have woken up from ages ago but at the same time it is a game that everyone plays faithfully. But for all the 'no es facil' (it's not easy) that you hear - definitely the happiest country we have come across so far. August in Havana is the hottest and the most humid month. As one local responded to our question about whether is rains everyday - you wish it does! Here, we believe, the cockroaches lie dying on the streets due to the lack of hygiene and mosquitoes are absent, unable to survive the intense heat.

Money transacts in two parallel forms - the local currency (peso), supposedly the currency exclusive to Cubans, and the CUC (formerly the US$ but now called 'peso convertible') - the highly taxed currency that discriminates foreign tourists from locals. Exchange is roughly 24 pesos to 1 CUC and prices will often be similar in amount for locals and 'extranjeros' - but in different currencies - just to give an idea of how much more we often had to pay! Locals suffer too as many prices are now just set in CUC for everyone. They also are not allowed to make use of the hotels in Cuba - all state owned - reserved exclusively for tourists. In fact the government owns everything. It supervises a few joint ventures with foreign investment companies and local enterprise happens here only because communist Cuba was forced to legalise 150 types of businesses (mostly associated with tourism) to survive a period of intense depression (which they officially dubbed the 'special period') when Cuba's main sponsor, the former Soviet Union, collapsed a few pages back in history.

Cuba is like a movie in freeze-frame. Although Fidel and the crew pulled off their legendary coup about 50 years ago, by the talk, the show, the propaganda and the lives of the people it seems like it happened yesterday. The 'revolution' continues to this day and the greatest crime one can commit in Cuba is to oppose the revolution. Newspaper articles are all either about Fidel or 'that mad tyrant and terrorist' Bush. They seem to love talking about America. America owns a building (from ages past, called the US Interests Section) conspicuously positioned on the Malecon for all to see stirring messages of inspiration towards freedom. Two hours free internet per day is offered for Cuban citizens inside the complex - but no-one dare make use of it. To deal with this threat the Cuban government simply positioned a fleet of flags in front of the building - and recently there was apparently a huge billboard just next to the building depicting Bush with blood running out of his mouth...

One of the most interesting and compelling characters of Cuba's modern history is the legendary Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Being a very photogenic and adored individual - immortalized in early death - his image is EVERYWHERE - even the rest of South America - and the world. Almost all the postcards, billboards, murals, T-shirts display his image - he is like the eternal supermodel.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Leaving Venezuela...

We avoided Caracas like the plague as it has a serious reputation for being the most dangerous city in South America (along with Rio de Janeiro). We managed to fly from Carupano (close to Playa de Uva) to Simon Bolivar airport, some 25km outside Caracas. We found a place to stay close to the airport and everything worked out fine. (Good we did not try to go to Caracas as one of the bridges of the highway to the city collapsed and travel time to the city is now about 2hrs.)

Today we checked into our Havana bound flight just to be told that the flight has been delayed for 4 hours. Thank you very much. We managed to phone from the airport and arranged accommodation in Havana, a prerequisite for being allowed into Cuba! We further manged to get a tourist card for Cuba at the airport without any hassles (no visa is needed, but you need to buy a tourist card). Our flight should leave within 2 hours and we are very excited!

Culture shocks: Venezuelan ATMs are pretty useless and even locals warned us to only draw money inside the bank - a process that can take up to a few hours. Airport tax was a whopping US$55 per person! No further comment.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Playa de Uva

Travel for the past couple of weeks has been driven and taxing. While we were hoping to catch an anaconda or 3 in Los Llanos while in Venezuela, we soon realized that the combination of high season here as well as the heavy rains (less easy wildlife viewing) made our options far less than ideal. So instead we decided to take a break and head to the beach for a much needed rest from it all. We pushed way beyond the limits of our budget and booked ourselves into Playa de Uva - a tiny beach resort to the north of Venezuela - the Caribbean sea.

Our first night on arrival in Rio Caribe (the nearest town) was great as we stayed in a really good inn - Villa Antillana. Janine was especially impressed with the architecture, the excellent breakfast and, especially, the two puppies and one cat that belong to the inn! The manager treated us really well and dropped us off at Playa de Uva the next day. Our 3 days there were like heaven on earth. While the lodge, like most things in Venezuela, was not exactly value for money - we still had the most delightful time lazing next to the pool or in the hammock, enjoying the beaches, eating excellent food and just doing lots and lots and lots of relaxing. The weather was perfect and it seemed that every time we retired to our wonderfully airy bungalow the tropical rains would begin to pour - magical. It was probably the most battery-recharging time we have ever experienced.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Salto Angel

It seems that whenever we go off to look at a waterfall we always get more than what we bargained for. The Angel Falls in Venezuela was the waterfall that exceeded our expectations the most. Recognized as the highest waterfall in the world, this 976m column of water attracts visitors from everywhere - and especially at this time of year. Inaccessible by roads, we were part of a group of about 30 tourists who made our way, first by a 70 minute 5-seater Cessna flight, then by a 5 hour boat ride to a camp at the base of the falls. The boat ride was excellent fun (although long and rather uncomfy on the exterior) and we arrived drenched at our hammock camp with the late afternoon and evening all ours for relaxing, swimming, chatting with new friends, staring at the falls and good eating.

We were blessed with excellent weather. No rain (except at night and for a brief spell on our journey back) - which is exceptional for Venezuela now. Relatively cool temperatures, good water temperature and, to Johan's delight, no plaguing insects. What struck us the most about this 3 day trip was the scenery. The area is full of towering flat table-top mountains called tepuis, churning dark tannin rivers and stunning wild jungle. The area looks so wild, striking and spectacular that it makes even the likes of the otter trail look like a walk in the botanical gardens. We have thus earmarked Venezuela as a country we will return to.

Day two took us on foot through the jungle for about an hour until we reached a good view point of the falls. A little while deeper into the jungle and we could swim in the pool at the base of the falls. Breathtaking. Johan went wild with the camera. The afternoon boat ride back was downstream and faster. We returned to the village at the airport where we would spend the night and enjoyed the lagoon beach at the base of one of the cascade waterfalls nearby. Quite a surreal setting with a dark brown fresh-water sea, waves and all, pink beach sand, cascading waterfalls in the background and palm trees in the foreground - feet in the water.

The last morning, before our flight, our guide took us over the lagoon to one of the cascades. We walked under and behind the waterfall and swam in the waters just above the falls. This was another exhilarating bonus to the trip. While the trip organizers often had us a bit confused as to what was about to happen next - all in all it was a fantastic experience that we are so glad we were privileged to have.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Ciudad Bolivar

Overnight from Santa Elena in a bus and we arrived in Ciudad Bolivar. We definitely cannot say that this is the best place we have ever stayed but we did end up spending 3 nights in total. We struggled with everything from getting money from a bank to finding food. The vibe, the huge old Fords and the general feel however make it a quaint city nonetheless. There was an international jazz festival on just near to where we stayed so we had jazz to lull us to sleep - South American style.

Culture shock: We searched and searched for a restaurant or decent food selection in a supermarket and found none. The city is just blocks and blocks of enormous shoe and clothing stores, the supermarket isles and isles of hair products and the country has one beauty salon for every restaurant!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Gran Sabana

Santa Elena is in south eastern Venezuela in an area known as the Gran Sabana. The scenery was absolutely spectacular with green savanna dotted with clusters of palm trees and forest. The giant table top mountains called tepuis break the landscape. These mountains have almost no access routes and often sheer cliffs all around of several hundred metres. The animal and plant life found on them inspired the book and movie called "The Lost World." We were told that one can find a certain type of frog there that never jumps, but just walks!

Santa Elena is a small and pleasant border town. Diamonds and gold are big business. And the place had great pizzas! We stayed for 3 days and did a tour of the surrounding area with a wonderful local owner of a small tour company. It was a great day and we visited a few waterfalls and took in the scenery. The highlight was visiting a creek made out of Jasper!

Culture shocks: Fuel costs 4c US per liter, probably the cheapest in the world! Brazilian taxis line the filling station for several hundreds of metres. The exchange rate is fixed by the government and a black market resulted. Moneychangers often wear bright coloured clothes and stand at the busiest intersections and the authorities just turn a blind eye.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Leaving Brazil...

We left Mamiraua early in the morning to be in time for the 12 hour fast boat to Manaus. We covered the almost 700km in 11 hours and stepped ashore in hot and chaotic Manaus. We found this to be an expensive place and left the next day after doing the usual computer admin and sending another CD with back-up photos home.

One again we found ourselves on an overnight bus, this time to Boa Vista in northern Brazil. Once again Johan feared for our lives as the bus driver was racing into the darkness...

In Boa Vista, we changed unto another bus for the last 2.5 hours to the Venezuelan border. Border formalities were a breeze. In retrospect I think we must have been an odd sight - 2 travellers walking from Brazil to Venezuela with just backpacks, all the other people were in cars and were searched - we just got our stamp and walked into Venezuela.

Just over the border we found a taxi to the town of Santa Elena, some 15kms away. What a pleasant change - we could understand everyone again (Spanish vs Portuguese in Brazil) and the people were much friendlier. General living costs seemed lower as well.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Mamiraua Amazon Reserve

The transfer from Tefe to Mamiraua took 1.5 hours in a fast speedboat. We were joined by 2 other travellers, Marcos and Ara, a Spanish couple living in Switzerland. We were the only visitors as the airport at Tefe was closed due to the large flocks of vultures attracted by the nearby garbage dump! Few tourists would be willing to spend a day (at least) on a hot sweaty boat to Tefe in order to visit the reserve. This interesting chain of events made it possible for us to come on very short notice in their high season.

The Uakari Foating Lodge consists of 5 floating bungalows connected by board walks to the main building where there is a library and the dining room. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the deafening sounds of the red howler monkeys. It echoes over and engulfs the atmosphere at the reserve - in a way it sounds ominous, not unlike an approaching storm!

The Mamiraua reserve is a flooded forest reserve where the water covers almost the entire forest for 8 months of the year. Water levels rise and fall by as much as 12 meters over the year. Our visit coincided with the beginning of the dry season with a rapidly declining water level - it dropped some 4 metres since June!

Our days were spent on activities in the mornings and afternoons with some very good food in between. We went on nature walks, animal watching walks, canoe tours, sunset cruises, night walks, fishing trips, etc. It was fantastic!

The reserve's claim to fame is that the bizarre looking crimson red faced uakari monkey with its shaggy white coat is only found in this reserve and nowhere else. We saw 3 groups of them and also the super slow moving sloths, hanging from trees. On our night walk, we saw a huge beautifully coloured coral snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world. This was on the same trail where we observed fresh jaguar prints.

We have also visited the boto research project. This is the local name for the pink Amazon river dolphins, which we saw on numerous occasions.

We were amazed at the abundance of wildlife in this reserve. We also visited Sao Jose, one of the local communities. These communities profit from involvement in the reserve. During our stay we were joined by 2 sets of television journalists. One was doing a story for SBT, the 2nd largest TV network in Brazil. The other is Brazil's own Discovery Channel, called Expediciones who hitched a lift with the Brazilian navy who also came by for a short visit. We enjoyed the interaction with the film crews.

We absolutely loved our time in the reserve and our host and naturalist guide, Otavio, was excellent. We were sad to leave.

Culture shock: in Peru you have mototaxis, in Tabatinga motorbikes for taxis and in Manaus only taxis! Local people love a dish called farinha, a crunchy (may I add tasteless) flour made from some Amazonian root that they sprinkle over their food. Manaus has an opera theatre, dating from the rubber boom period, some 100 years ago. Some of the rubber barons were so rich that their clothes were sent to Britain to be ironed.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Down the Rio Amazonas

We had purchased two hammocks in Peru and were now ready to use them. We made our way to the harbour and secured a spot on a cargo/passenger ship heading to Manaus. We bought tickets to Tefe ("Two days, maybe three days - perhaps two and a half") - about 700 km down the Amazon river and about 2/3 of the way to Manaus. We could only afford hammock space but a very friendly American couple (on their way to South Africa!) held the bulk of our baggage for us in their cabin. Besides that Johan did the usual antics to secure our small bags to a pole - so much so that we struggled to access our stuff! Just before the boat was about to leave about 120 locals streamed in and hung their hammocks alongside ours - a very colourful and unforgettable 2.5 days followed.

We spent most of our time in conversation with the other travellers on board - an American couple, a Malaysian couple, two British guys and a Colombian. The conversation as well as a few cans of beer made the trip quite bearable - even enjoyable! The food was mostly edible and the scenery was beautiful. Nights were lightning shows. Snaking down this giant river for so long gives one such a tangible appreciation for the sheer enormity of the legendary Amazon jungle. Every now and then we would stop at some port and load/unload all sorts of wares and passengers.

No one could know for sure at any given time exactly when we would arrive at Tefe. It was only a small handful of us that were heading for this port and someone in Peru had mentioned something about needing a further connection to get there. At about 11 pm we arrived somewhere. We are still not sure where, but thanks to our Colombian friend, Luis, who could speak a bit of Portuguese we managed to figure out in the nick of time that this is where we should get off. Our new friends bid us a worried farewell as we literally had to jump off the edge of the boat onto the patio of some ill-lit floating house along with about 8 other passengers (one of them a dwarf). A friendly local dentist called Silvano informed us that it would not be possible to catch the connection that night, but only the next morning. We walked the empty streets, giant and bizarre insects swarming everywhere, and before we knew it we were booked into a cheap hotel along with the dentist and his friend.

Janine had been craving maize porridge of all things. Silvano took us to the market this morning where Janine was delighted to find none other than maize porridge - excellent! After the breakfast we had to travel 6kms by bike to a beach where boats departed for the last 15 minute stretch to Tefe. The breakfast, all the new insects, and then the high-speed motorbike ride through the early morning jungle was all it took to delight Janine. When we arrived in Tefe Johan was equally thrilled to move into our cheap hotel with aircon! So both of us are well and happy and were very well received by our jungle lodge representatives. We head into the jungle tomorrow...

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

To Tabatinga (Brazil)

The 12 hour speed boat ride was great as was the little town where we got stamped out of Peru - very laid back and viby typical Amazonian town. Tabatinga (this is now Brazil which suddenly makes things expensive and Portuguese!) was a bit draining at first. Extremely hot and Humid. Now the mototaxis were just small motorbikes with no carriages (although some drivers wear vests with handles built into their sides!) and car taxis are very expensive. We managed to find hotel, immigration, a bank ATM that would accept our card and even a coconut or 4 and settled into our hotel. Amazing how things can change so suddenly when you cross a border...

Monday, July 24, 2006

Leaving Peru (again)

We left the Chachapoyas area for Tarapoto, a city 6 hours away by car and the gateway to the Amazon. Instead of doing a 3 or 4 day bus/boat combo to Iquitos in the Amazon, we opted to go with a cheap airline on a 1 hour flight from Tarapoto.

Iquitos is the largest city in the world with no road connections to the outside world. You can only arrive by boat or by plane. Many travellers come here to do a jungle trek or stay at a jungle lodge, but we opted to use Iquitos only as a jump off point for going much deeper into the Amazon. Today was spent doing admin, buying some supplies and hammocks (for the cargo boat rides) etc. We plan to take a boat tomorrow to the border with Colombia and Brazil from where we hope to travel down the Amazon for a few hundred kilometres to Tefe and Manaus. There is a specific ecolodge we want to visit in Tefe - very far from anything and everything else...

Culture shock: we read an article in a local tourist newspaper about day trips around Iquitos where 'you will be able to see and photograph huge trees logged out of the deep Amazon jungle...'

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Gocta waterfall

In February 2006, the third highest waterfall in the world was discovered close to Chacha. It has never appeared on any map nor was the outside world aware of it before then. We decided to grab the opportunity to be some of the first visitors to this 771m high waterfall in a remote and pristine valley. We are sure that it would be an entirely different experience in 5 years' time.

We (4 of us) set off with a small travel company from Chacha and drove to the village closest to the falls. It was wonderful to arrive in a village where there were no tourist facilities! Everything was so authentic. The guide, Pedro, was brilliant. He is one of the locals of the village and walked with us the 3 hours to the falls through pristine forests. Walking sticks were hacked out of the jungle (a practice that will have to stop before mass tourism arrives!). The walk was up and down and beautiful!

The waterfall (in two main steps) could be seen right from the start of our walk and was visible from time to time through the forest. We arrived to share the moment with students from a nearby town. Johan went for a swim under the falls and nearly froze to death! The guides were as excited as we were to be part of something so beautiful and unspoilt...

During our walk back we saw (and heard!) another flock of about 50 green parrots flying by. Overall it was a fantastic experience, one of the highlights of our trip. We count ourselves very privileged and blessed to be able to share such a day.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Chachapoyas and Kuelap

Chacha, as the locals call it, is a wonderful and friendly place. Very few travellers go this far and we really loved the authenticity of the place - no tourist bars, souvenir shops, etc. We had a great stay at the Hotel Ravesh next to the Plaza de Armas (town square). For the first time in a while, we had real warm water for a good shower!

The first day we just chilled and walked around - we had lots of admin to do as well. The next day Johan went to the remote ruins of Kuelap, some 3 hours away by car. The road was very steep next to a huge gorge on a single gravel track - reminiscent of the death road in Bolivia. Tourism is in its infancy in this region and we (about 8 of us) were the only visitors at this huge pre-Inca ruins on the ridge of an enormous mountain. The caretaker greeted each one of us by hand to welcome us personally!

The ruins were spectacular - both due to the location and the remoteness. On our return we saw a flock of parrots flying and screaching past us! After Machu Picchu, these ruins were the most spectacular we have seen on our trip. The experience, however, beats Machu Picchu hands down...

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Amazing race to Peru

The objective: get to Chachapoyas (Peru) as soon as possible.

The outcome:

Day 1
6:00-6:10 leave our lodging in pick-up taxi for Vilcabamba bus stop
6:10-6:15 wait for bus to arrive
6:15-11:45 in bus through incredible cloud forests and high cliffs to Zumba
11:45-14:30 wait for transport
14:30-16:20 transport on converted cattle truck to border at La Balsa
16:20-17:00 walk over bridge at border + formalities
17:00-19:00 squeeze into car 7 people plus luggage for trip to San Ignacio
19:00 check into cheap hotel for US$6 per room - wooden walls with holes...

Day 2
7:35-7:40 leave hotel in mototaxi (motorbike with 3 wheels and space for passengers) to collectivo (car or minibus that fills up with various people and leaves when it is full) terminal
7:40-8:15 wait for more passengers
8:15-10:15 travel to Jaen in minibus collectivo
10:15-10:45 wait for minibus to be fixed after overheating
10:45-11:45 continue to Jaen
11:45-11:50 mototaxi from one collectivo terminal to another
11:50-12:00 wait for car collectivo to fill up
12:00-13:00 travel to Bagua Grande in car collectivo
13:00-13:05 mototaxi from one collectivo terminal to another
13:05-13:10 wait for car collectivo to fill up
13:10-14:30 travel in collectivo to Pedro Ruiz and try to keep driver awake
14:30-15:15 drive around Pedro Ruiz in minibus collectivo looking for other passengers
15:15-17:00 travel to Chachapoyas on a most beautiful (but terrible) road
17:00 check into hotel next to Plaza

Observations:

when a guidebook states 'beautiful scenery', it actually means 'not a single straight stretch, just winding bends on washed out gravel roads in over-crowded transport going incredibly slowly due to the poor condition of the road and the huge differences in altitude every few kilometres'! It was arguably, however, the most beautiful and remote route we had travelled to date.

Our driver from the border smuggled in about 60liters of cheap fuel from Ecuador to sell in Peru - seemed like a separate tank which he emptied in his home town on the way to San Ignacio. Everything works like a well-oiled machine - while he is draining the tank, his kids dig out plastic containers from under the seats and from other secret compartments throughout the car!

We may also have smuggled a person in! This one guy was dropped of just before the police check point where everyone needs to register and rejoined us after the checkpoint!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Valley of Longevity

We wish we could have stayed longer in Cuenca (with easy access to beautiful national parks), but we did not. We wanted to get to northern Peru and therefore travelled south across Ecuador to the village of Vilcabamba. This place, or more specifically, the valley is known as 'the valley of longevity' and it is not uncommon to see people older than 100 years still working in their fields. The secret - no stress, good food and lots of exercise. You should know that by now.

We stayed outside of the village at Cabanas Rio Yambala. We had a little cottage close to the river with a great view out of our hammock. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. Johan did some bird spotting from his hammock and saw yellow birds, blue birds, orange birds, brown birds, black birds and a striped bird. He could not page through the bird guide in his hand because he had to sit dead still for maximum observation.

After a day of rest we hiked into the mountains to the owners' private reserve called Las Palmas. It was a long day. It took us more than 4 hours one way and 2.5 hours back to cover some 11kms and 800m in altitude. We crossed various rivers on makeshift tree bridges and did not see other people the whole day. Johan saw a big red bird which he thinks might have been a type of parrot. The forests swarm with all sorts of butterflies, especially see-through ones! Johan still had the energy to go waterfall hunting (which was successful!), but when he returned Janine was worried that he was near to a heart attack. But he survived.

Vilcabamba was a fantastic and peaceful place to rest before attempting the next part of our journey to northern Peru. We called this leg that followed our own 'amazing race'...

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Nariz del Diablo

Unfortunately we succumbed to the temptation to do the very touristy thing to travel on the roof of a train down a mountain (called the devil's nose) with 100s of other tourists. Well we did not really know that there would be so many tourists and that it would be so unauthentic. But on the other hand the scenery was beautiful and we did cover some distance! So we went straight and then down and then up (7 hours in total)... and we caught a bus to Cuenca. And that is about it!

Culture shock: Ecuadorians always jump the queue, bumping you out of the way and are generally unfriendly; we realised that the reason the women walk slowly is that all of them wear high heels to add some height.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Lava and pee

We left the cloud forest reserve in a pick-up with a driver whose son's name is also Johan! First a pick-up, then a bus to Quito's main bus terminal and another the afternoon to Banos. Well that was the plan, but our Banos-bound bus were impounded by the police for 8 days because it took an illegal route! We then shared a taxi with a local couple on their honeymoon. When we arrived in the beautiful mountainous area of Banos, we headed for a little home stay with a view of the volcano Tungurahua. As we stopped, the volcano made a huge rumbling sound and clouds of smoked billowed out of its mouth, a mere 5kms away! What a privilege! We later realised that this continues day and night in about 20 minute intervals since May of this year. The volcano has been quite active since 1999.

As we were only stopping over for 1 night, we quickly booked a short evening tour to a nearby viewpoint. The tour itself was somewhat of a disaster as a few crowded trucks went to the same place and people got drunk around a bonfire while the volcano rumbled happily in the background. Unfortunately it was mostly cloudy and views of the volcano were rare. BUT there were a few occasions where we could see the volcano spitting streaks of bright red lava amidst constant loud rumbling! It was fantastic!

As were were staying about 100m from the nearby hot springs, we decided to go for a dip. But this was not one of our highlights. This is best illustrated with a simple metaphor: surfers don't mind to pee in their own wetsuits, but it is somewhat different if someone else pees in yours. Get the picture (or should I rather say "smell"!)? We left in a hurry...

We also bumped into our friends who were with us on the Galapagos cruise by a total coincidence. Felt like a reunion. Today we travelled from Banos on the road next to the volcano Tungurahua to Riobamba to board the train for the ride down the "devil's nose" tomorrow. This road was closed numerous times in the past due to the volcanic activity and some sections still have piles of volcanic ash next to and on the road.

Cloud forests

Sunday morning found us on the 9:30 bus to Nanegalitho. About 1.5 hours in typical Ecuadorian rally racing style brought us to a spot just other side the town. We still had a 12 km dirt road section to take us to our lodge but no transport. Johan and some local hailed down a milk truck, direction back to town to find a taxi, and disappeared. Janine was left on the side of the road with all our luggage and our 8kg of food. Half an hour later the same milk truck returned, having offered to take us the final distance just in time for the big match. We watched the first half of the football final in the workers' quarters of the lodge and proceeded to pack out on the top floor of a dome construction (the lodge) which has place for 3 people (actually 4). After we spread our stuff out it was quite apparent to anyone that that level was fully occupied.

The proceeding 3 days were wonderful rest days. There are many hikes you can do on your own. Armed with map, water, bug repellent (super NB) and Janine's amazing sandwiches we would traipse the forests in the mornings until the afternoon cool brought the clouds rolling up the valley all the way to our perch - hence the name 'cloud forests'. Simply spectacular to walk through and to watch from our top floor of the dome.

The lodge has a few hummingbird feeders which attract the most stunning variety of hummingbirds - one that Janine particularly loved had a bright lilac chest and its body was no bigger than a brazil nut! The forest jungle contained such a variety of plants and insects that Janine was constantly in her element. Even Johan was noticing many a remarkable detail every so often - like tiny orchids and shiny green beetles.

Everything about that time, even the talkative ride back with a taxi driver who's wife was due to give birth the following morning, was so enjoyable and we left renewed. Onward to Banos - but that is another story!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Quito and Otavalo

After the Galapagos we touched down in one of the more dangerous cities in South America - Quito. The city is beautifully perched between mountains and a deep valley. To be honest we really loved Quito and felt quite at home with all the burglar bars and security - almost like home! The locals warned us time and again that we should NOT walk around after dark, not even for 1 block, but rather take a taxi - we heeded their advice.

It was also in Quito where we found the first proper shopping mall in 4 months! It was great and we stocked up on great fruits and snacks and all the little luxuries that we missed. Public transport was cheap and efficient and we made thorough use of it. After finding our feet and regrouping post-Galapagos, we were off on a bus to the town of Otavalo, famous for its huge Saturday market where all the indigenous people came from their villages in the surrounding areas to trade their goods.

On Saturday morning we first visited the animal market. Soos hulle in Afrikaans sal sê "markdag is ook varkdag" - kyk maar na die foto's. Anything from pigs to llamas, day old chickens to sheep, etc. Then we went to the proper market where you could buy anything. Really. In the food department, there were cow jaws, whole fried pigs and little bags with small sea snail like snails (raw, complete with shell), with lettuce and a lemon slice. You can buy hats, pottery, clothes, 2nd hand junk and off course many tourist souvenirs.

We stayed in a great cheap little hotel called Hotel Riviera Sucre. Our bathroom opened out onto the river (where we suspected the toilet outflow was as well). There is however only a certain amount of time allocated for sane people in markets, so we returned late that Saturday morning to Quito by public bus.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Galapagos cruise

We were told that we MUST go to the Galapagos, even if it means maxing out our credit cards. And so we did. And it was worth every cent we owe the bank!

We went on one of the cheapest cruising boats in the Galapagos for an 8 day cruise around some of the islands. Our guide, Alfonso, was a Level 3 guide, the highest level in the Galapagos - and he was excellent! Our group was great (a french family of 4, an Australian, a Norwegian, a Canadian and an American) crew was great, our cook was superb and we ended up having a wonderful 8 days.

We would typically sail the longer distances through the night to arrive at a visitor site in the morning. Days were usually divided into two parts - one visitor site in the morning and one after siesta in the afternoon. Hiking was usually followed by fantastic snorkeling and we ended up spending about 50% of our excursion times under water. Navigation time gave us opportunity to glimpse dolphins, manta rays doing pancake flips, turtles, sharks, sea lions and many opportunistic sea birds hovering inches above our boat hoping for food. The choppy times were not Janine's favourite times. She nearly overdosed on sea sick tablets so that Johan was worried that she would develop a dependency! Most hours were stationery, however, so we all were fine in the end.

Hiking excursions took us up close and personal to many land dwelling creatures - most of which one can only find on these islands. We saw many a colourful Sally Lightfoot crab, sea lions, marine iguanas and land iguanas, snakes, lizzards, tortoises and many birds. The birds included blue footed boobies, masked (or Nazca) boobies, albatrosses, frigate birds, red-billed tropic birds, pelicans, Galapagos hawks, flamingos and, of course, many a Darwin's finch. These animals can be approached at unbelievably close distances - even the snakes - often closer than a meter. While we are not allowed to touch any animals, but if a friendly group of young sea lions start playing fetch with a stick then all is still above board! The giant tortoises at the Darwin station were something exceptional! Watching the albatrosses mating dances and their moment of take off at the 'albatross airport' was really something too.

The underwater animals were just as unflinching at our presence and we had the incredible privilege to swim in crystal clear waters with huge turtles, sea lions, rays, sharks, penguins, star fish, eels and many stunning tropical fish. We had the most fun with the sea lions who would either roll up along side you to check you out or twist and turn around you in the water - very playful! Sea lion social structure consists of a harem of females nursing babies, older pups frolicking in the water along the beach, a single 'super macho' male in charge of the lot who patrols the waters from 06:00 to 18:00 every day protecting the roost, mating with the females and warding off other males. This very tiring job usually results in rapid loss of weight and eventual replacement by the next successful over-thrower. The grown males that don't make the cut yet are called 'losers' and hang around in the background looking for easy passage to the sea for fishing. These losers were no threat to us - we just had to watch our backs with the super macho!

The thing that made these creatures and this place so special is the unique interaction one is able to have with the animals, not to mention the strange and beautiful landscapes. Galapagos is one of those unique and bizarrely stunning treasures of the world.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Galapagos Islands!

We are pretty much at the equator. We started our Galapagos trip 3 days earlier than planned by heading to the island of Santa Cruz for a rest before our 8 day boat trip around the islands. It is remarkable to be here - all the strange creatures around the town that come right up close to you - iguanas, pelicans, bright colourful crabs and tiny cute little birds - and we haven't even begun our boat tour yet!

We were so pleasantly surprised by our stay here in the town of Puerto Ayora. We found good, cheap accommodation; coconut juice and a fantastic supermarket where we can even stock up on our ziploc bags! The water here is crystal clear - even in the harbour. While one half of the isalnd is quite tropical, the vegetation and the landscape around the town is so unique - black lava chunks make up the crust, covered by a striking and haggard mix of different cactus species dispersed between almost Savannah-like scrub.

Johan considered hiring a surf board until he realized it costs US$30 for the day. We headed to the beach called Turtle Bay this morning while Ecuador was playing against England and had a truly stunning site all to ourselves (and the surf was not good today so Johan was very chuffed with himself!). We got up close to marine iguanas (only to be found on these islands) which thrilled Janine. The rest of the time was spent lazing in a protected cove where tiny birds came hopping over us as we watched sting rays and giant turtles swimming and a pelican hunting overhead.

Culture Shock: We noticed many good condition white double-cab bakkies (pick up trucks) driving all over the town and thought it odd until we realized that these are the taxis in Puerto Ayora!

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Arriving in Ecuador

What a difference! The border on the Peruvian side is wild - full of stalls selling all the junk you can imagine. The moment you cross the border, everything is different (except for the sticky humid climate). Very few stalls line the roads, people seemed more serious and there is just less busyness.

We eventually found our way to downtown Quayaquil, the 2nd largest city in Ecuador. Our first impressions were that everyone seems very scaly - not the friendly people we met in the rest of South America. The official currency is the US dollar after many years of high inflation. This resulted in everything becoming more expensive - instead of 22000 sucres (say 83US cents) things were just rounded up to US$1. And in most hotels and restaurants one needs to add 22% (tax and service) - Johan hates the adding thing...

We also went to a small park in the city (a tiny version of the Company Gardens in Cape Town) where there were just green iguanas everywhere - Janine loved it!

We managed to buy our flight tickets to the Galapagos today and will fly out tomorrow morning. This is 3 days earlier than planned so we can enjoy some relaxing at the beach before we head of on an 8 day cruise around the islands.

Culture shock: The process of buying a miniDV cassette for the video camera: 1) a salesperson confirms that they have it in stock 2) another person asks me for my name and passport number which is typed into a computer and a printout is made 3) she accompanies me to the 2nd storey of the shop where I have to pay the money to a 3rd person 4) I then have to go down again, but this time to the store area where my receipt is typed into another computer and reprinted and signed by 2 people and then also myself 3) the 4th person goes and finds the cassette and checks it against the slip 4) another security check is done at the door - this is job creation in its purest form!

Friday, June 23, 2006

Leaving Peru (for now)

We first planned to stop somewhere along the north coast of Peru for Johan to surf. After reading many reports on the internet of the increased danger of being robbed at the surf spots (and after seeing a dismal swell forecast), we decided to head north to Ecuador. So we boarded another overnight bus in Lima, this time a bus all the way to Quayaquil, Ecuador. The bus ride that would have taken 25 hours eventually took almost 28 hours! But the road was straight and our seats were almost fully reclining. The drawback - we were bombarded with the screening of extremely violent DVD's on the bus - all dubbed in Spanish...

The road north from Lima is beautiful - the desert meats the ocean and the potential for good surf is almost endless with the many left-handed sand points all along the coast. Fortunately the swell was small so the torture for Johan was limited...

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

A desert oasis

I never thought that one can really still find an oasis in the desert. Haucachina is such a place - a tiny village around an oasis, surrounded by the huge sand dunes of the coastal desert of Peru. The village is some 4 hours south of Lima and very close to the town of Ica.

We decided to rest for a few days (to recover from our bus ride and to prepare for the next one) and stayed in a semi-upmarket hotel for 3 nights. It was great - Swiss/Peruvian run and everything was clean and beautiful and they played classical music (a welcome break from Spanish covers of popular songs!). We slept for hours or just strolled around the oasis or rested at the pool.

This is also sandboard country and Johan rented a sandboard and walked (read 'struggled') up a high dune and sandboarded down.Much easier than what he thought it would be like even though he complained about his terrible board. He was too tired, however, to go back up with another board!

After a few days we left to head north - not completely knowing where we will stop and when, but Lima was en route...

Culture shock: since Bolivia, we had been looking for bread spreads (anything other than jam) and found absolutely none - no bovril, marmite, etc

Monday, June 19, 2006

Mysterious Nazca

After returning from Machu Picchu, we shipped a box of souvenirs home, ate a great steak, went to the bus terminal to buy our own tickets (removing the middleman) and boarded another overnight bus, again in the same seats as when our camera gear was stolen the last time - just with even better security measures! This bus ride was probably the worst bus ride of our lives (yes I know we keep saying it!). The road curved every 100 metres - not a single straight for 13 hours and Janine felt terrible the whole way. But our gear was safe...

At 6am we arrived at the desert town of Nazca, renowned for its mysterious figures and lines drawn on the desert floor by a pre-Inca people, more than 500 years ago. These lines were only discovered in 1920 when commercial pilots began to fly over the area. Again there are various theories surrounding the figures and lines, but what remains remarkable is how these figures were drawn to be seen from the air - most of them measure more than 100 meters and one would not notice them from the ground!

After a shower and breakfast we went to fly over the lines in a small aircraft - Janine (still recovering from the terrible bus ride) wisely chose not to fly. The flight lasted about 40minutes and the plane really banked from side to side so that one could view the figures, experiencing the g-forces previously reserved for fighter pilots.

We decided not to stay in Nazca and caught a local bus (2.5 hours) to a town called Ica and from there a taxi to the desert oasis called Haucachina.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

The lost Inca city

We also went to the Sacred Valley, a valley that eventually leads to the lost city of the Incas (Machu Picchu). It is a beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains full of Inca ruins. Our first stop was at a market where we enjoyed some corn and also juice made of black corn. Peru has 383 different types of corn and more than 2000 types of potatoes!

We then visited the hilltop ruins of Pisaq and Ollantaytambo. Quite impressive, especially those at Ollantaytambo. From here we caught the train to Aguas Calientes (meaning hot spring) which is the base for exploring Machu Picchu. The only transport there is by a 2 hour train ride through a beautiful valley next to the Urumba river. We arrived at 10pm at night and were just too glad to hit the bed (best mattresses of our trip!).

Early the next morning we took the bus for the 8km zigzagging ride up the mountain to Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is spectacular. We were some of the first people there and enjoyed the sunrise over the ruins. The ruins were much bigger and in a much better condition than what we expected. This may be due to the fact that the Spanish invaders never found Machu Picchu and it was only discovered by the outside world in 1911. This comes as no surprise if one considers its location - high on top of a mountain, surrounded by other higher mountains, separated by a river.

The people who build Machu Picchu must have been astronomically advanced as almost every building and stone were specifically positioned relative to the stars and the sun considering the solstices etc. We scaled the mountain called Wayna Picchu (the one often seen behind the city in pictures). The steep 45 minute climb brings one to more ruins on top of that mountain with beautiful views into the valley and over Machu Picchu.

We returned the next day to Ollantaytambo from where we briefly stopped at the big circular ruins of Moray before continuing home to Cusco.

A note on the Incas: the best way to think of them is as of a royal family. Inca means "king" and they were therefore the royal house. They subdued many different cultural groups who became their servants. They were wiped out by the invasion of the Spanish bringing new diseases and using horses in battles - something that frightened the local people as they had never seen horses before. The last Inca was killed in 1572.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Horses and ruins

We went horse riding for a few hours to some of the nearby ruins. Johan's horse was so small that his feet almost touched the ground while Janine's horse was clearly very unfit and we feared that the beast may collapse at any moment. This was, however, not to be and we visited a few Inca ruins with a guide who travelled by car and waited for us at the various ruins. Our horses came with a horseman (a guy walking next to them to make sure they behave). I must add that our horses were in reality walking as slowly as a horse can walk.

The guide also seemed very strange - he never took off his sunglasses and walked with a limp - and in general it seemed to us as if he had had one coca leaf too many.

The ruins of Sacsayhuaman were quite impressive. It is situated on the hill just above Cusco and consists out of huge terraces of enormous boulders that fit each other perfectly. The name means either "head of the puma" (if you want to believe the "Cusco is in the shape of a puma" story), or something about a condor. The name is fortunately quite easy to remember as it sounds like "sexy woman".

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Cusco

Cusco is the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America. Like all cities taken over by the Conquistadors (the Spanish invaders), life revolves around the main square with its associated churches. The main one here is called Plaza de Armas. Most streets are made from cobblestones and are very narrow, only wide enough for one car at a time. This probably explains why the taxis are extremely small cars. Johan has, however, witnessed a major traffic jam involving 7 cars at a t-junction! There are no stop signs - cars drive and squeeze in in front of each other as they see fit, especially at junctions.

The (undercover) tourist police took us to a semi-dangerous, far-off market to restock our electronics. They were very willing to do anything from camera purchasing to being tour guides to purchasing bus tickets for us - hmmmm... Johan obviously did not want a further party (read middleman) involved, so we went back later on our own to get the electronics for cheaper. Janine also managed to accumulate quite a bit of wares - so much so that we had to ship a 10kg box home. She loves Cusco and especially a little German run restaurant called Granja Heidi which we visited no less than 5 times in the 2 days that we knew of it!

The foundations of many buildings are still beautiful original Inca masonry. Huge stones fit each other perfectly and were designed to withstand the many earthquakes that destroyed much of the rest of the city in the past.

There are many myths and legends surrounding the chief Inca city of Cusco - some tour leaders show you maps with the "old" Cusco in the form of a puma, and state that it was designed by the Incas in such a shape. They are also quick to point out many puma figures in the masonry (which is not too obvious to anyone else, perhaps including the original builders?). But as one guide said - "mythical tourism" is now Cusco's bread and butter - stories were made up (and other histories were mixed in) over the past few decades that amaze tourists and result in the sale of more (often unrelated) souvenirs.

We also visited one or two of the main cathedrals. A highlight included a huge 6m x 4m (or bigger) painting of the last supper where a guinea pig (a Peruvian delicacy) is pictured as the main meal! This may have been the inspiration for Janine to try a guinea pig (called cuy here) for lunch. She will write more about this in her culinary blog, but I could not look at the poor thing, outstretched on her plate, complete with teeth and eyes. She was brave though and struggled through her childhood pet memories to try to finish the beast.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Stolen!

The night bus from Arequipa to Cusco was a beautiful modern, double story bus. We managed to get seats right in front on the upper level. Unbeknown to us at that stage, this would be the place where we would experience the professionalism of Peruvian criminals first hand.

As always, our cameras were locked in our day packs which we carry with us without ever letting them out of our sight. I was sitting next to the window and Janine next to the aisle. Our bags were locked and literally under our feet, away from the aisle and there was no seat behind us, just a cupboard that restricted access to our bags. Even the sides of the seats had covers, so the only way to our bags could have been from right in front of our seats which was the front seats.

At about 1am, I still enjoyed some fruits that I kept in my bag for the trip and everything was still there. When we arrived to our hotel the next morning, I unlocked my bag and noticed that the lock seems bent. Inside we only found the empty camera and video camera cases - gone!

What an awful experience after all the precautions we took. One feels so helpless and angry at the injustice. The rest of the morning was spent at the Tourist Police getting a declaration for the insurance.

Fortunately we managed to get great replacement cameras in Cusco, even better ones than we had for lower than the price back home. Fortunately we did not loose too much footage as we back-up regularly. Unfortunately we lost our condor footage and photos which I think was world class. We will however put some photos in the gallery from the web and also from a very kind Chinese lady (Erwina) which we met in Arequipa who also went to the Colca Canyon.

But for now, we are armed (with cameras) and dangerous again!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Wild Condors

Arequipa is also Canyon country. The deepest canyon in the world (Colca Canyon, about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon) is some 3hours from the city. We went on a two day, one night tour to see the wild condors that made the Colca Canyon famous.

We travelled to a little village called Chivay (with some impressive ruins nearby) where we stayed the night. The early evening was spent in the nearby hot springs as our accommodation did not have hot water and the temperature drops to well below freezing at night.

Early the next morning we travelled to Cruz del Condor, a lookout point over the canyon. At this point the canyon is already some 2100m deep. It increases in depth towards the coast. Wild condors nest in the canyon and soar on the thermal air as it heats from the sun. When we arrived we saw a few condors some 100m lower than us, but it was difficult to make them out. Then suddenly as the air in the canyon warms up, they started to fly at eye level just metres from us and also started to swoop over our heads! It was an awesome experience to see birds with wingspans of 3 meters flying so close that it feels as if one can touch them! We were just stunned and watched in silence!

From here we travelled back to Arequipa in time to catch the night bus to Cusco, the city from where the Incas ruled over much of South America.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Arequipa, the white city

Arequipa is also called the "white city" as most of the buildings are made from a silvery white type of volcanic rock that is only found in the area. It is Peru's second largest city and like all other Peruvian towns or cities, it is full of marches by various schools, bands and political parties with the accompanying musical procession.

Our accommodation was in a suburb close to the city, some 15 minutes on foot. It is a great place where we also shared a BBQ (braai!) with the hostess and her friends - alpaca meat is really good (although Janine does not agree). We spend a day or two resting and doing washing (much needed) and also visited two well-known "attractions".

The first was the monastery of Santa Catalina. The following history is not guaranteed to be accurate, but is what I can remember and could gather! Build some 500 years ago, it is filled with hundreds of little alleys and rooms - the entire area covers a few city blocks (the only monastery that was a "city" in its own right) and covers some 20000 sq meters.

Apparently the original nuns were from noble families and the 2nd daughter of the nobles had to become a nun. Obviously this did not work too well and they had wild parties to such an extent that the pope heard of it and send some nun like Heidi's schoolteacher to sort them out. This happened a few 100 years ago before e-mail.

I am not a lover of monasteries nor old buildings in general, but this visit was very interesting - thought it would be a great place for playing laser quest! It is open for the general public, except for a small part that is currently still in use by nuns.

We also went to see the ice mummies. In Inca times, local girls were sacrificed on top of the high mountains to appease the "gods" of the volcanoes and the earth. During the visit much emphasis was laid on the "fact" that it was such an honour to be sacrificed in a ritual at some 6000m high, almost as an apology to the evil act of killing one's own children. A procession would take up to a few months to reach the designated spot. Sometimes the sacrifice dies from exposure, but other times a hard hit to the head was used.

The most famous mummy is called Juanita. She was about 12 years old and is almost perfectly preserved, 500 years later, due to the low temperatures. Even her organs are completely preserved. An American mountaineer discovered her some 15 years ago and since then about 10 others were also discovered in the region.

Cultural shocks: an "ice cream cart tune" sounds when any vehicle of size reverses; streets can be very narrow and would fit only a single car - this leads to numerous traffic jams; political party campaigns include painting slogans on rocks and mountainsides with bright paint.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

The floating islands

We also visited the Uros islands, the only floating islands in the world made entirely from reeds. Every 2 or 3 months a new layer is added to the top as the bottom layers rot away. It was great to walk (and jump) on these islands - the soft spongy movements caused a ripple effect over the island.

We caught the bus to Arequipa, the 2nd largest city in Peru. The 5-6 hours ride became 7 hours as the bus ran out of petrol some 1.5hours from our destination. Today (4 June 2006) is a resting day for us and presidential election day for the rest of Peru.

Culture shocks: all shops/buildings, no matter how small, must have a big green sign pointing to the exit; a loaf of bread is 1.5 times longer than what we are used to.

Lake Titicaca and Sillustani

We stayed in Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca for a few days after we left Bolivia. We found this part of Peru to be even cheaper than Bolivia. Interesting new things include guinea pig on the menu...

Lake Titicaca should actually have been called Lake Titicala ("Puma rock"), but a transliteration error to Spanish resulted in the last part of the name being as it is with a similar meaning to that word in Afrikaans!

We visited some pre-Inca and Inca ruins called Sillustani which was used as ancient burial grounds. Whole family groups were buried in these mysterious burial towers with treasure and food. Amazing to see how perfectly these stones (weighing several tons) fitted each other. The first use of this site dates back to 2000BC.

Culture shock: We noted that we have hardly seen any cell phone usage in our travels thus far - there are many cell phone call vendors, however, who stand in market centers and offer you the use of their cell phone which is chained to themselves. Cell rates in Peru are exorbitant (as far as we could make out in our less than perfect spanish).

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Leaving Bolivia

A highlight was to have all our smelly, dirty, moist clothes washed and dried and delivered to our hotel in Rurrenabaque the very same night we came back from the jungle. This was a first for us. We saw a huge hole in the road that someone had taken the initiative to cover with a piece of cardboard - shaky! We have come across so many similar happenings in Bolivia!

We decided to take the small 20 seater plane the next day (30 May) to La Paz (a 40 minute flight at the price of a Kulula flight) rather then the 20 hour bus ride through the night on the death road with a very real chance of not surviving. The airport is a tiny building with a grass runway. Amazing how job creation works in this country - two people were siting at two different desks at the airport to collect two different taxes from each of the 20 passengers!

The flight was beautiful - we took off in the amazon lowland, climbed over many mountain ranges and eventually flew next to snow covered peaks of 6000m high. The landing (at 4000m) was quite shaky as we could see through the cockpit how the plane was tossed from side to side.

The day in La Paz was spend doing admin and booking our bus tickets to Puno, next to Lake Titicaca in Peru for the next day.

Culture shocks: local people don't have grey hair until they are very very old; government and official signs are painted by hand; the electrical heating contraption around a shower head results in the heat to be inversely proportional to the water flow.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Amazonian killer pigs

We planned to rest the day after we returned from the pampas trip. On the way to the internet we walked past Madidi Travel agency who have their own lodge deep in the jungle where we wanted to stay for a few days. As we popped in they told us that they were leaving within the hour - we decided there and then to join on the condition that we get our own room for the price of a dorm bed room.

After just under 3 hours motoring down the Rio Beni river, we reached the footpath to the camp, some 30 minutes further into the jungle. This eco-lodge was the brainchild of Rosa Maria Luiz, a camp fighter for eco-tourism in Bolivia and who played the main role in getting the Madidi National Park established amidst incredible opposition (oil and logging companies). She was also featured in the March 2000 article in National Geographic. Unfortunately she could not be at the lodge as she was in La Paz recovering after an attach by a cayman (like a croc) in the dam in front of the lodge where we were staying.

The main building is a huge open plan construction with no real walls, but only heavy duty gauze like netting. There is also a beautiful dam full of piranhas and a few caymans. The lodge was named after the serere bird, something that looks like a confused chicken.

At the camp we were upgraded yet again (!) to the most luxurious cabin - again no walls, except the netting - deep in the jungle.

There were 2 local spider monkeys hanging around the camp - they were very playful and, of cause, very naughty (they like to ride on the backs of the local pigs). We went paddling on the dam in the late afternoon - spectacularly beautiful with absolutely no wind and all the loud sounds of nature around us. The 10 minute walk in the night to the cabins in jaguar country was quite nerve-wrecking at first (for Johan at least). The night is alive with countless insects and animal noises and fireflies. Janine was thrilled to discover that you can locate insects at night by the reflections of their eyes - as with the alligators in the pampas. The jaguars come to visit the cabins most nights and one can hear then walking and grunting. The drops of the humidity condensing on the jungle leaves sound like rain during the night.

We went on a few guided walks with a brilliant local guide called Rudolfo. Our spanish is at a stage where we could easily follow him and even play the role of interpreters for the other 4 guests. We saw a huge 3m cobra, lots of different types of monkeys, leave cutter ants, huge metallic blue butterflies, macaws and a variety of insects and fresh jaguar prints. Some of the ants ( 2.5cm long) have a bite that burns for 8 hours. Other ants have such strong pinchers that they are used by the local people for stitches. Then there are the vicious wild pigs called piccaries - they are also referred to as "killer pigs" as they have eaten people alive (and the but of a man from Rurrenabaque who could not get quickly enough up a tree). The afternoon was spend relaxing and fishing piranhas - quite bigger than those in the pampas and a bright yellow this time!

We also went on a night walk with our guide. We often had to switch off our lights to listen. Incredible not to be able to see 30cm in front of you. We were eventually tracking a jaguar mom and her cubs. We came very close (probably 20m) and, although we could not see them in the bush, it was quite clear from her grunts that she did not appreciate our presence.

We made some jungle jewelry from nuts and seeds and also tattoos (lasting a few days) from the juice of a tropical fruit. Our guide knows the jungle inside out and showed us many different types of medicinal plants and also how to get a few liters of pure water out of a certain tree's branches.

We were sad to leave such a beautiful and unspoilt place even after we extended our stay with another day... (visit www.madidi-travel.com for more pics and info)

Friday, May 26, 2006

Pink dolphins in pampas

After a day's rest in tropical (humid but cool?) Rurrenabaque, we booked a trip to the pampas with Inca Land Tours. Rurrenabaque is settled between the jungle and the pampas. The pampas is basically open savannah with swamps in between, but during the rainy season it is water almost everywhere.

We learned the morning we went that it would only be the two of us, so we have the whole camp and staff to ourselves. Johan was slightly worried as the tour was really inexpensive and wondered where the corners would be cut. When we were picked up from our hotel a man with only one eye was sitting in the back of the 4x4 - Johan thought, oh no - this is our guide - we get what we pay for! Fortunately this was not the case.

After a 3 hour 4x4 trip on a very bad muddy road, we arrived at Santa Rosa where we boarded a small dugout canoe with an engine. The camp is about 3 hours upstream from where we started. It is hard to believe that there could be any other region with such a high concentration of wild life and bird life - they were everywhere - all kinds of small and large birds every few metres - caymans (like crocodiles), alligators, pink (I kid you not) river dolphins, capybaras (the largest rodents on earth - like a guinea pig, but as big as a real pig), etc... The river is only about 10m wide and we had a fantastic time cruising it in search of all kinds of animal life.

That first night was an incredible highlight as we travelled down the river without an engine and with only flashlights that were switched on every now and then just to reflect countless pairs of red dots (alligator eyes). The stars were reflecting in the water and it seemed as if one could pick them up (except for the red ones, of course).

The next day we went anaconda trekking in the swamp. Armed with a stick and gumboots, we set off in the marsh which was almost knee deep. It reminded me of waterblommetjiebredie! At first I though that there were no snakes as we did not find any for hours, but I later thought that they were probably everywhere but we were too blind to spot them. We eventually found an anaconda of about 3m in the swamp, but the guide was not quick enough to catch it. We were glad as catching anacondas can cause their death due to trauma as well as ill effects of sunscreen and insect repellent. Janine would have loved to hold one though. This particular snake swam over a small river and looked at us from the safety of the other side.

Our guide was operating like a machine - mostly due to the coca leaves he was chewing. It is known to dull exhaustion and some mineworkers in the Potosi area worked up to 48 hour shifts with the aid of these leaves. We did our best to keep up the pace - no resting for 5 hours!

That afternoon we went piranha fishing. They are also everywhere in the rivers - no need to try to find them - Johan caught some 15 of these vicious little monsters in less than an hour - just use meat and a hook. There are many different types with also different colours. They complemented our supper that night!

One can hear the dolphins splashing in the river at night! There is also a cayman that hangs out at the camp that gets the leftovers - we watched as he polished last night's leftover pasta!

On our return trip with the 4x4, our driver decided to give his friend a driving lesson for the whole 3 hour trip. The guy was driving like a maniac and resulted in the feather springs breaking - this was fixed in a small town and set us back another hour! But we made it eventually...

Sunday, May 21, 2006

To the Amazon

We took an overnight bus from Coroico to Rurrenabaque, the gateway to the Bolivian Amazon. This bus ride was probably the worst of my life. We left at 3pm and arrived at 7am. But what makes this ride worse was that it was a continuation of the "death road". Sheer cliffs drop into oblivion. Our bus driver is crazy and drives as fast as he can in the dust behind another bus.

We had to stop once while a bulldozer cleared a landslide from the road (by just pushing the debris into the river way below us). At another time we had to stop (for an hour) where a sign said "Beware! Excavation with explosives" We had to wait while the road was cleared again. Many people were standing in the isles throughout the night. It was a very long night...

The Death Road

The road from La Paz to Coroico has been dubbed the "world's most dangerous road" primarily due to the high number of fatalities (a few hundred per year) along this 65km route. The road is only about 3m wide in places, drops some 3600m in altitude over this distance and has vertical drops (yes, really!) of over 1000m. And do not forget the buses and trucks...

We decided not to take public transport, but rather go down this road by mountain bike! We went with a company from La Paz called Gravity Assisted Mountain biking. Just before you enter this road, all vehicles are checked for roadworthiness and a list of passengers are submitted to the police.

The 1st 21km was very fast on good tarred roads. It was here where my bike's pedal fell off! Then the death road followed with incredible views and the adrenalin of riding 1m away from a 1000m drop. The road is carved out of the side of a mountain and we crossed a few rivers and passed under a few waterfalls as well. The trip ended in Coroico, a beautiful mountain village where we spent 3 days in our own private cabana with hammocks and amazing views...

Culture shock: showers are heated with an electric apparatus (with lots of wires) connected to the shower head - some showers even have a switch on the inside; food is served whenever it has been prepared, ie your meal may come in no particular order and drinks may only come after the meal; once we were the only people at a restaurant and the cook had to send someone to buy ingredients while we wait; we also saw a sheep running into the kitchen!

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Crazy Bolivian facts

Some interesting political facts: the country had 175 presidents in 175 years of independence! One president ruled for only 6 hours while there were once 3 presidents at the same time. One president was illiterate and ruled for 7 years - he was not too bright. He exchanged, for instance, a huge portion of land for a horse.

The economy is more stable now with inflation around 10% per year, down from 10000% in 1985 when the military ruled. They tried to alleviate poverty by just printing more money!

Coca leaf production (the major component of cocaine) used to be the country's major export together with cocaine. The country lost about $500million per year due to the US funded war on drugs and currently finds itself in a recession.

Coca leaves are not illegal and local people chew it to alleviate hunger and thirst and tiredness, especially at higher altitudes. Janine had some coca tea which may explain her strange behaviour recently (just kidding about the behaviour, not the tea!).

Some other funny stories: In Bolivia, people drive on the right hand side of the road with their steering wheels on the left hand side of their cars. They, however, did import some cheaper cars with right hand side steering. All they did was move the steering wheel to the left hand side. The instruments stayed on the right!

We first found it strange that many traditional local women wear men's British bowler hats. Apparently someone imported these hats in the 19th century for men, but he imported way to much. He then convinced the local upper class women that this was the latest European fashion, turning them into eager buyers for his product! Current day peasants mimic the then trends of the upper class women. They all wear ornate layered skirts, shawls and, of course, the bowler hats.

Arriving in La Paz

We left the unfriendly 'one llama town' of Uyuni in a hurry by taking the night bus to La Paz. This was probably the worst bus ride of our lives. The road was almost entirely 4x4 territory, but somehow our bus driver managed to bounce us all the way to La Paz (about 350km away), some 10 hours later.

La Paz has had some bad publicity recently about various scams to separate travellers from their money and belongings as well as two Austrian travellers that were murdered. Johan had (off course) a detailed security plan to prevent these things from happening to us. Coming from South Africa, we are also much more careful with our belongings and always alert to safety in general. The downtown area (where most travellers stay) is now constantly patrolled by the tourist police for added security. I must add that we never felt unsafe at all.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 3600m above sea level. Some 2 million inhabitants live in and along the edge of a huge beautiful basin. Interesting to note that the poorer people live higher with better views and the richer people live lower with no views at all!

Bolivia is very cheap by almost any standard. Internet is about R1.50 (US$0.25) per hour and a three course meal for two (including drinks) costs about R60 (US$10).

We are currently doing a crash course in conversational Spanish. Be warned, the next blog may be in Spanish!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Bolivian altiplano and salt flats

On 4 May 2006, we crossed into Bolivia at an altitude of 4300m above sea level for our 3 day tour. The border post was as uneventful as any deserted hermit's house high up in the mountains and snow could be. After the formalities, we drove to a high altitude lake (Laguna Blanca) where we changed over into a 4x4 which we shared with a friendly French family. They were so kind as to stitch some panoramic fotos together for us.

From here we visited 3 different coloured altiplano (high plane, ie above 4000m) lakes - Laguna Blanca (white), Laguna Verde (green) and Laguna Colorado (red). The scenery was out of this world - beautiful, clear, clean and quiet with flamingos to complete the picture. Accommodation was very basic the first night although the quality and quantity of the food was a wonderful surprise. Sleeping was difficult due to the altitude and cold.

The 2nd day was another perfect day without a cloud in sight. The sun is very fierce at these altitudes and we had to apply sunscreen regularly. We stopped a few times to experience the solitude and strange rock formations of the desert. Our driver later decided that racing another 4x4 would be the right thing to do. This was quite scary and although we won, we ended up with a flat tyre.

Every now and then we would see vicunas (similar to llamas) in the wild. Apparently they are can be aggressive and can spit with deadly accuracy, so we kept our distance. We then stopped in a small dusty village for the driver to drink a few beers (!).

We eventually arrived safely at the Salt Hotel on the edge of the largest salt flats in the world, the Salar de Uyuni. The whole hotel, save the bathrooms and kitchen, is made out of salt - the floor, the walls, the beds, the tables, the chairs, etc. Much more luxurious than the previous night's accommodation and also much warmer.

After a good night's rest, we awoke to another clear day. This day turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The Salar is approximately 12000 square kms of perfectly flat salt. During the rainy season, much of the flats is covered with a few centimeters of water, creating spectacular reflections. We were fortunate enough to drive through water for a few kms before hitting hard salt. The reflections were unreal.

In the middle of the flats is an island covered with cacti where we enjoyed amazing panoramic views of the flats. We then walked into the salt flats where Johan tried (unsuccessfully) to find the rare Uyuni salt lake snail. From here we headed towards Uyuni where our tour would finish and we hoped to rest for a day or two. Upon driving into the dusty, windy, unfriendly town, we decided there and then to catch a bus to La Paz the very same night!

Leaving Chile

We decided to stay another day in San Pedro to go stargazing with a resident expert. Unfortunately the stargazing was called off for the 3rd night in a row - probably a Guinness record as the place enjoys clear skies for at least 330 nights per year. Apparently one of the best places to study the night sky with these huge telescopes.

On 4 May we left Chile for Bolivia. We were transferred to the border by bus where we changed over into 4x4s. The road to the border is the longest hill I have ever seen. For no less than 45 minutes, we ascended the same hill in an almost straight line and climbed more than 2300m vertical! Then suddenly the bus went off road, literally into the mountains on a road we could not really distinguish. Some 15 minutes later we arrived at a one man shack in the snow - the Bolivian border post!

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

El Tatio geysers

Yesterday morning we were up at 4am to go to the El Tatio geyser field, some 95 km north. The geyser field is at an altitude of 4300m above sea level. We arrived before sunrise in -8 degrees conditions to see massive plumes of gas and steam rise from the earth. It is one large interconnected geyser field with boiling water. Water boils at 85 degrees at this altitude. We saw bubbling mud geysers and spitting water geysers all with different mineral deposits around them. The scenery were transformed into a magical place when the sun rose over the mountains...

On the way back we stopped at a village with only 40 inhabitants, high up in the mountains. Janine bought a llama kebab and a goat's cheese empanada (something like a pie) which tasted great. Llama meat contains no cholesterol, but the goat's cheese makes up for that.

On the way back we stopped at a cactus forest that is hundreds of years old. These cacti grow at between 1cm and 3cm per year!

We love our stay here - relaxed atmosphere, good food, great scenery.

Culture shock: according to our guide married couples choose to retain their original surnames in this area.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Atacama salt lakes

We arrived in the desert town of San Pedro de Atacama (altitude of 2300m above sea level - I think) after a 25 hour bus ride from Santiago. The town is really small and basically consists out of a few dusty roads and buildings made out of adobe (red mud). The town has a beautiful town square next to the 250 year old church. There is also a museum with real desert mummies!

We are in the Atacama desert, known as the most arid region on earth. But it is really beautiful with weird rock formations and we are also on the edge of the largest salt flats in Chile.

The other day we went on a tour to the salt flats and the salt lakes. We really enjoyed the wide open spaces and the absolute silence. The crystallised surface of the flats is razor sharp. Then we went for a swim in one of the salt lakes. No matter how heavy you are, you will float here! It was amazing to float in the sunset silence until a Chilean family arrived to share their joy with everyone!

Culture shock: restaurants are not allowed to sell alcohol without selling food. Should you decide to only have something to drink and no food, they will put some dirty dishes next to you so that they are 'covered' if the police arrives!

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Easter Island

Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua) is about a 5 hour flight west of Santiago in the Pacific Ocean. It is commonly referred to as the loneliest place in the world due to its remoteness. The nearest populated places are Chile and Tahiti, some 3500km away. It is best known for the giant stone monoliths, known as moai, that dot the coastline. Admiral Roggeveen, who discovered the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island.

The runway on the island has been improved by NASA to enable space shuttles to land there in an emergency. It is the longest runway in the southern hemisphere at 4 km long.

The day we arrived was wonderfully hot and humid without any wind. We managed to arrange accommodation with one of the locals at the airport. She took us to her mother's house (Residencial Tahai) in a big tropical garden. We stayed there for 6 nights and spend much time with our new friend from the UK, Paul that arrived later the same night.

The next day we went on a tour with a local guide called Patricio (family of the people where we stayed). He was absolutely brilliant and our group was wonderful as it only consisted out of the two of us and Paul. We were surprised to find so few people touring the sites and we were almost always on our own.

Patricio took us to the most important sites around the island. We were surprised to learn that there were 887 moais in total! Many of them are unfinished and left in the quarry. There were also many completed moais around the quarry waiting to be transported. Only their heads are now visible, as soil erosion buried the bottom 2/3 of their bodies. The tallest moai is 22m and weighs about 180 tons! An average moai would be over 4m tall and weigh 14 tons.

We visited many moais, cave homes, tombs (with actual bones in), the quarry (Raku Raraku) where they were carved, Tongariki (a set of 15 moais restored by the Japanese after a tsunami washed them inland), a stone called the "navel of the world" and the only proper beach on the island.

Patricio explained the various views on the history of the island. It seems as if the increasing demand on the environment (no more trees, no more boats to fish, etc) eventually let to the collapse of this society. But this is only one possible view as many archaeologists still disagree...

There is still so much that will probably never be known, such as:
- where did the islanders originally come from?
- why did they carve these massive stone statures?
- what does the writing on the rongo-rongo tablets mean (mysterious writings carved out on wooden tablets that were originally in every house)?
- what exactly lead to the fall of this civilization?
- and probably the most difficult question to answer - how did they as a primitive people manage to move hundreds of moai weighing an average of 14tons over up to 25km?

One early morning, Paul and ourselves, walked for about 20km along the northern and western coast of the island discovering for ourselves. Many new and interesting archaeological sites were given names during our excursion. Harry's village and Harry's stone are probably the most noteworthy discoveries we made.

We relaxed and enjoyed our time with Paul and Francios (a french traveller staying at our digs). On Tuesday 25 April, we flew back to Santiago after a wonderful cultural experience.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Leaving Villarrica

Hosteria de la Colina is an upmarket B&B on a hill in Villarrica. I (Johan) surprised Janine with a night's stay in this beautiful guesthouse. The food was absolutely amazing as was the wood fueled Japanese hot tub in the garden. The American owners were very kind and gave us the best room for the price of their cheapest room! The following night we travelled to Santiago (about 700km north) by bus.

We stayed in downtown Santiago in an area known as Bario Brasil. The streets were clean and safe and the public transport system is great.

We left for Easter Island early the next morning.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

On horse-back

Even though we were a bit stiff from the previous day's climb, we hooked up with AlbiTours (in Pucon) this time and went out to the countryside near Curarrehue (about 1.5 hours away from Pucon, about 2 hours from Villarrica). This, we thought, would be an excellent way to take in some of the scenery of the Chilean lakes district. It was all that and more. The day was perfect, no clouds, no wind. We were a group of 5, 2 guides and 3 of us, that ambled through the farm roads and chilean forests in this area. We were peppered with info about the natural and historical aspects of the area and the country and even had a few opportunities to canter with our horses. Neither of us are horse-riders at all. Being his second time on the horse, Johan was a bit cautious about this whole affair to begin with.

The horse he received could not speak a word of English so it was quickly decided that he would need another, more responsive horse that would not take him out running in the direction of the mountains. The guide swapped horses with him and it soon became apparent that the horse did not understand Spanish either! Johan's second horse was so docile it was practically asleep - just what he wanted! By the end of our 3 hour out-ride he had decided that his horse was, in fact, a donkey!

Janine had a fantastic horse who even took her running and jumping over obstacles in the bush. She was so in her element that she has decided that we are going to brush up our horse-riding abilities at home so that we can do things like this more often and over more extreme terrain. Taking pics of the back of a bobbing horse proved to be less than ideal but we managed one or two and the rest of the images are all in our heads as super special memories.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Volcano Villarrica

Today we had one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. For Janine it was her first time hiking on ice as well as her first volcano. For Johan it was by far his most amazing volcano experience to date. We joined up with the Politur adventure company, who provided us with all the gear, and braved the active Villarrica volcano. The climb would take us 5 hours to ascend a vertical 1500m which could be reduced by 1 hour (a good 400m) if the chairlifts at the base of the slope were working today. They weren't.

The day (which started at 6:20 a.m. at the Politur's office in Villarrica) was an icy one, but still a good sunny day with some cloud cover. By 9:00 we were ready to start our ascent. At the base of the conical mountain we were already worried if we were going to loose our toes and fingers because it was so cold. We started our climb as a group of about 25 people with about 5 guides between us. The group naturally split into 3 smaller groups according to pace, differentiating between those who were walking slowly and those who were walking slower and even slower. We managed to keep a good strong pace in the second group. The guide that accompanied us most of the way up and down, Armin, was very good with us and we were overall very impressed with the professionalism of the company who maintained good control over the groups and the temperamental conditions by means of walky-talky communication between themselves.

The photos we managed to take through the icy wind and steep slopes (sometimes the slope we were zig-zagging up was convincingly steeper than 45 degrees) cannot do justice to what we experienced on the volcano. It was by far one of the most amazing experiences we had yet experienced together. So worth the money, the time and all the excursion it took to get ourselves up to the summit which sits at 2580m above sea-level.

The volcano is active and there was a lot of gas coming out of the crater. This was problematic as breathing in the SO4 gas burnt any part of your exposed flesh that may be in any way moist (the gas dissolves very quickly to produce a highly corrosive H2SO4 which is very nasty to breath in or have anywhere near you for that matter). Throats, noses, mouth, eyes, around our nostrils which was moist from the climb. We tried to filter out the bulk of the gas through handkerchiefs, gloves and whatever else we had at hand.

The climax was the final walk around the crater rim. This was the most extreme part of the day as the path along the crater rim was very narrow with steep drop-offs on both sides. The winds seemed to be stronger than before and the temperature dropped considerably so that Janine had an ice-cream headache for most of the way. Dodging the gas was our main concern. It swirled all around us and you could feel the heat of the lava below (although we could not see it through all the gas) despite the cold cold winds around us. It was beyond words.

The first part of the decent was a brisk walk down the ice slopes aided by our crampons and ice picks. Later we chucked the crampons and slid the remainder of the snow slope down on our rears which was such a welcome change to the walking! The last section of the mountain, covered in loose volcanic stones, was equally easily covered as we walked through the cloud layer at the base of the mountain in a wide, comfortable steps. This was a beautiful, almost surreal moment for us. We reached the base and were welcomed by a view of the Villarrica lake under the cloud layer.

That night we watched the volcano through our bedroom window in Villarrica. We could see that strong orange glow of the lava in the crater reflected by the gas pluming out above. Amazing to think that we had been there just a few hours earlier...

Thursday, April 13, 2006

My crazy bike dream

What is a dream if you cannot change your mind?

Mountain biking was never my forte. But today (Thursday 13 April 2006) would be different, or so I thought. I (Johan) rented a bike (from people who cycled around the world) and decided to do a 30km circle route that seemed quite flat on the map. I chose to forget that the last time I was on a bike was probably about 5 years ago.

After 1.2km my legs were tired. After 4km a bus stopped next to me and offered me a lift. I declined. At the 5km mark I decided to let go of my dream of cycling through China for 6 months. It was not difficult to do. In fact it was a great joy. The only thing in front of me was the open (gravel) road. The silence was only disturbed by my ever increasing heart beat. Who said that it was easy to push a bike up a hill? But then the hill was behind me as I raced down into a tunnel of trees.

Everything was great again, the same again, except that I was free from that crazy dream of mine...

Villarrica hot springs

What a fantastic day! We are in Villarrica, a town some 700km south of Santiago. This is in the Chilean side of the Lake District, an area shared with Argentina. Lakes, mountains, and snow capped volcanoes abound. We stay in a comfortable hostel owned by a Swiss couple - Hostel La Torre Suize. This couple cycled around the world before hanging up their bikes in this town.

We just returned from hot springs deep in the mountains which we had virtually to ourselves. The drive there was beautiful and off the main roads - all misty forest mountains and valleys. The 40 degrees water was just what we needed to relax our tired muscles and warm us up - as it is still freezing cold (single digits!) - Janine thinks it was one of the most awesome moments of our trip thus far.

4 nights on Navimag

We finally boarded the Navimag boat Friday night at 7pm. There were many, many people. Fortunately the rain stopped, but the gale force wind blew spray over the pier so that we had to time our run to the main cargo hold of the boat to stay (reasonably) dry - then a massive oversize lift raised us to the main deck from where we went to our rooms.

We shared a room with a British couple whose company we really enjoyed. All meals were provided, but the crowd had to do the meals in shifts. The meals were substantial and we were never hungry. The bridge was always open for us to visit to get a better view of the spectacular route we were following through Patagonia's fjords and channels.

The cruising was very calm for the 1st 2 days. On the morning of day 3 we visited a small fishing village called Puerto Eden. It was a small peaceful village out of a fairy tale. The village has only 170 inhabitants, no roads, lots of king crabs and lots of rain, in fact 6000-7000mm per year! We also cruised past a Greek shipwreck that someone ran on the rocks to claim from their insurance - he was caught out and the boat was later on used as a lighthouse!

That afternoon, we ventured out into the open sea for 12 hours as there were no protective channels to cruise at that stage of the 1500km journey. The sea was really rough with ocean swell of about 3 metres and we were moving around like drunken men (and women). Johan was very excited about the prospect of the open sea - 2 hours into the rough he was, however, convinced that he need not pursue his dream to sail around the world. Early on the morning of the 4th day, we arrived at Puerto Montt, a bustling port city.

Films, documentaries and talks were shown and hosted throughout the journey. Overall we did not enjoy the cruising as much as we expected - mostly due to the continuous rain and the cramped communal areas.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Navimag boat delayed

We are still in Puerto Natales. We packed, checked out and only then found out that our Navimag boat was delayed because of a huge storm. So we went back to the same lodging, check-in again and unpacked (sort of). But the boat is here today and we have checked in this morning and will board at 7pm tonight!

In retrospect it was a blessing in disguise that Janine got sick and we left the Torres del Paine National Park. According to other travellers, it has been raining, ice raining, wind raining, snow raining and gale force winds blew since we left. Trees blew over on people`s tents and tent poles snapped... and did I mention that it rained?!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

"Los Simpsons" and wine

Later today/tonight we will board the Navimag ferry that will sail through the Patagonian fjords to Puerto Montt, some 1000km north. We hope to enjoy some warmer temperatures over there (at least in the double digits!).

We had a great rest and watched 3 episodes of "Los Simpsons" every night. We also sampled some of the local wine. Not that I am an expert in any way, but I really did not like the Santa Emiliana Cabernet Sauvignon (it was the cheapest wine in the store). Much better was the "I cannot remember the name"-Merlot, in a 1.5l box with a lid. Even much better still is my friend Pieter's Blank Bottle wines (for those in South Africa). If you have not had some of his wine, shame on you...

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

There were giants...

I found an interesting article in the Black Sheep, a free Puerto Natales Newspaper and quote a few of the paragraphs:

"Why the name Patagonia? In the 16th century, when the Europeans started to explore the distant places in South America, they met with a race of giant men. Hernando de Magallanes named the south of Chile and Argentina Patagonia in reference to the feet shod with leather moccasins of those giants.

In June of 1520, when the fleet commanded by Magallanes anchor in the port of San Julian, Argentina, a giant appears on the beach. Christian Pigafetta, a member of the crew, writes later: "This man was so tall that our head reached hardly to his waist". The crew achieves to captured 2 of these giants to take them to Europe, but they died during the trip.

In 1578, Francis Drake docked again in San Julian, starting a fight with a "man really high", 2.28 meters. During the skirmish he lost one of his men. Anthony Knyvet passed by the strait of Magellan in 1592, and recorded that he not only saw the giants, but also found and measured a group of dead bodies in Puerto Deseado, all of them between 3.10 and 3.60 meters. In 1568, Sebald de Weert saw natives of more than 3 meters in the same region. Later the giants started to disappear."

The article goes on to state numerous other explorers and former skeptics who had contact with them on many occasions. It seems from the article as if the giants mingled with normal people and that the true giants started to disappear in the 19th century...

Lazy rainy days

Our first stop after the park was in Puerto Natales at a place called Hostel Dos Lagunas. Beautiful clean rooms with a very friendly and attentive owner who prepared a good breakfast of bacon and eggs and the best muffins you can imagine. This is in stark contrast to other breakfasts we have had in Chile - a double room was CH$18000 (about US$35) which was above our budget, so we could only stay for one night. The owner speaks good English and can be contacted at doslagunas@hotmail.com.

We then moved round the corner to a warm family run hostel (Residencial Mvono) with a double room for about US$23 including breakfast and kitchen access. Here we stayed for 5 nights waiting for the Navimag ferry that departs from Puerto Natales every Friday morning for Puerto Montt, a 1000km journey through fjords and channels.

The last few days were raining, so we spent lots of time chatting to friends and family on the web and updating our site.

Culture shock: Bread and rolls are very dense and are priced by weight; Bread is only toasted on one side; The front door of our hostel is opened from the 2nd storey with the use of a string that is attached to the latch; We witnessed two police officers taking statements from people after a window of their shop was broken (presumably a break-in). The whole area was cordoned off.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Torres del Paine

Monday morning (27 March 2006) we left via a public bus to the world-renowned Torres del Paine National Park. After a 3 hour journey, we arrived at the park entrance and started hiking - carrying enough food for roughly 9 days. We intended to do the "W"-route which leads one into 3 different valleys of the main mountain range.

The 1st day was mainly uphill into a beautiful valley where we rented a tent and camped at Chileno Refugio (mountain hut). Prices in the park are exorbitant so we avoided food and accommodation in the refugios. We camped! It was freezing - even in our sleeping bags (freezer bags?!) with all our clothes on.

We were surprisingly blessed with very good weather - each day very different though. From windy and clear to slight drizzle the next day, no wind, etc. The last day of walking was a beautiful, sunny and wind still day. We walked the W-route from east to west and we were almost always on our own. Stunning vistas amazed us along the way.

On day 2 we hiked out and up to the famous Torres (granite towers reaching a height of about 2800m above sea level) - the almost vertical clean rock faces of over 1200m attract the world's more serious rock climbers. We stayed at Chileno for a second night.

The next day`s hike was downhill and level for about 14km until we reached the beautiful Cuernos Refugio next to a river of ice cold water. We decided to splurge and Janine ordered hot chocolate for herself and a coke for Johan (US$3 or R20 each). We also shared a pack of cookies :-). The hot chocolate was a jug of hot milk presented with a bowl of chocolate powder and a big mug. Janine was delighted!

Janine complained of a tight throat that night and woke up (not that we managed to sleep) with self-diagnosed bronchitis. The hiking - although very easy and spectacular - was a bit much for Janine who was feeling sicker and sicker all the time. Johan carried her for the last 5 kms - just kidding! He booked us into the refugio dorms (a 6 bed room which we got for ourselves because of Janine's illness) which set us back about US$75 for the night. This was a very smart refugio which could compare favourably with a hotel.

We carried two courses of broad spectrum antibiotics with us, but left the fact sheets in Puerto Natales. We were, therefore, relieved to find internet at the refugio and Janine quickly sourced the necessary info. We decided to head back to Puerto Natales the next day rather than continue hiking with Janine's illness. Travelling back we we fortunate enough to see about 50 condors circling above us at one of our pit stops along the way. Johan caught the moment on video.

Ons het Suid-Afrikaners raakgeloop wie ons vantevore op die bus vanaf die lughawe na El Calafate gekry het. Pieter en Petro (vanaf Heidelberg in Gauteng) se kinders is uit die huis en hulle toer nou deur Patagonia vir 4-5 weke. Dit was baie lekker om met "ons mense" te kuier. Hulle was in die proses om te probeer om op `n laaste boot na Antartika te gaan. Die aand in Puerto Natales het hulle ons uitgevat vir pizza! Dit was ongelooflik lekker en beslis een van die beste maaltye wat ons al gehad het op ons trippie tot dusver! Ons het weer eens verskriklik lekker gekuier. Hulle is twee dae later weg om te kyk of hulle nog dalk by Antartika kan uitkom...

Culture shock: While walking on the trail, we saw a parrot - wild and unperturbed by our presence!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Arrival in a Chilean fishing town

We were quite shocked to find that the recent world oil crisis also had a dramatic effect on almost everything in this far corner of Chile. Prices were about double that in our guidebook and about 100% to 120% of that in South Africa. Fuel costs more than double that in Argentina.

We, however, still managed to find a reasonable double room for about US$ 30 for the two of us. A disadvantage of staying in Patagonia Adventure (the hostel) is that the "kitchen access" advertised was discontinued about 2 years prior to our arrival. Another problem was that the people sleeping in the dorm next to our room snored like hippos! (Dis nou regtig "balke saag" soos hulle in die hemelse taal sê!) All good though because we evaded sleeping in a hostel that looked to us like something caught between a lunatic asylum and an old age home - even though it was half the price!

All the buildings are constructed out of wood and/or sink plates and every step and move creaks. Nevertheless, it was amazing to sleep in a better bed than in El Calafate.

We arranged our trip to the Torres del Paine National Park from here (actually we decided not to book anything, but just show up as the season was almost over and we prize our flexibility). We managed to rent walking sticks, a gas stove, a pot and sleeping mats at reasonable rates.

Culture Shock: Rental bicycles parked in the street at night unlocked; jam in South America is more like a well blended syrup.

Leaving Argentina (on a bus)

After another relaxing day or two in El Calafate, we left early Saterday 25 March 2006 for Puerto Natales, Chile. Witnessed a stunning sunrise - check the photos. The bus ride of about 250 km took about 5 hours crossing the most beautiful outstretched desert-like region with the white snow-covered Andes on the horizon.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Perito Moreno Glacier

Yesterday was a privilege and a half! We took a tour to the nearby Perito Moreno glacier. It was breathtaking. Our first glimpse of the glacier was from 7 km away from its southern face. It is one of the few expanding glaciers on the planet. You can watch as huge chunks of ice fall off the 60m to 80m high face. The sound created by this falling ice, as well the straining and cracking ice, is thunderous. The glacier moans and groans as it moves forward under this immense pressure at a rate of about 2 m a day. We also did a short walk opposite the northern face of the glacier as well as a boat trip closer to the glacier. On the way back our bus burst a tyre and woke Johan from his sleep.The driver handled the situation very well and all discomfort we had to endure was the freezing wind before we were picked up by a much more luxurious bus with better seats!

Johan has been suffering from a headache - most probably because of the quality of our substandard budget beds :-) We had to buy some additional winter wear to protect us against the freezing wind and very low temperatures. The low temperature is also be a blessing in disguise as we have left our cold drinks outside on the windowsill to keep them cold!

Tomorrow we are off to Puerto Natales in Chile...

Culture shock: freeeeeezing temperatures with strong winds; few veges and salads in their diet; their "medium-rare" steaks are actually well done (Janine's observation).

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The Patagonian desert

The southern regions of South America is called Patagonia. It is a wind-swept desert like region with beautiful open skies and chilly breezes. We landed yesterday afternoon in El Calafate, the gateway to the Parque Nacional los Glaciers with its 15 or so glaciers. The town itself is sort of touristy, but not in an unpleasant way.

We managed to find a room in Hostel Alejandra where we have to walk through the owner's living room to get to our room! But it is very central and cheap by Patagonian standards. As they say (spesiaal vir Le Roux) "what it lacks in old world charm it more than makes up for in concrete"- check our view!

Culture shock: walking through someone's living room to get to your room with no view, local Spanish remixes of Nirvana songs.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Hola! Greetings from Telmotango hostel in Buenos Aires!

Well! After enduring a 9 hour flight with a bunch of drunk South African rugby fans on their way to Argentina, we landed in Buenos Aires unscathed. Passport control, although crowded, was a breeze. We paid for our domestic flight that Johan booked on the internet from South Africa before we left. In typical Johan fashion, we got the cheapest taxi from the airport.

Speed and lanes are both negotiable on the roads of Buenos Aires. Everywhere along the highway people are enjoying the grass and the sun - picnicing and tanning oblivious to the traffic. We travelled to a part of Buenos Aires called San Telmo - the poorer (read 'cheaper') region of the city. After very little searching we ended up in beautiful hostel called Telmotango. For about US$20 we got our own very clean 2.5m x 2.5m room, breakfast and free internet included. (Talk about breakfast! Croissants and caramel and coffee!)

We explored the city yesterday and found prices to be about 50% to 70% of those in South Africa. We also realized that Johan walked half the day with the zip of his pants down! Janine bought a beautiful t-shirt for US$5 and Johan bought some shocking green sandals that will make Scuba 'green' with envy. Janine also had the most amazing ice cream of her entire life!

Last night was steak and chips in a typical Argentinian parrillo (steakhouse). Very good! We have stayed here for 2 nights and fly to El Calafate later today. Chow!

Culture shock: a pink parliament building; no toilet paper allowed to be thrown into the toilet - separate bin provided.