Emma
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Emma" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
|
07:52 am
[Link] |
Update
I haven't posted in ages, so what have I been up to?
Not a whole lot really.
Trying to buy a flat, which requires me to get up very fucking early on the weeked and is quite disheartening when you see unreonvated 1 bedroom flats going for over $440,000. Hopefully things will settledown eventually.
I've moved in with Kellie, in Oakleigh, which is working out really well, my only issue is the distance from the station and the city, but it's really not that bad. The cats are entertaining and Kellie is a very good housemate :)
I've almost finished the couch to 5k running plan, I have 3 days left, which is pretty awesome. If you'd told me 6 months ago that I'd be able to run for 30mins without stopping I'd have laughed! The only problem is trying to get up early enough to go before work when it's hot.
I'm watching Dollhouse, United States of Tara and Dexter. I'm way behind on everything, but that's kinda good, cuz it means I have lots to look forward to!
I'm listening to Them Crooked Vultures, some of which is awesome and I want to have Josh Homme's babies, but there is one song in particular that I really don't like. Today I discovered a band called Alberta Cross, who I really like. I don't know anything about them except that they're from New York.
I'm reading Haruki Murukame and spanish text books on the train, although Spanish is getting quite hard because of all the different verb tenses. I need to practice more I think.
I'm also planning my next trip, this time to Italy, to meet up with the two English girls I travelled on and off with in South America etc. It should be awesome, we're going to try and rent a house somewhere and just chill out and eat lovely food and drink wine for a month :D I just gotta save some more cash.
Still working in the same job, but the managers keep telling me to apply for higher positions, so that's a good sign at least, hopefully I'll get the chance to do something different soon.
Still just tumbleweed on the man front, but I'm just going to wait and see what comes my way.
Anyway my battery is about to die and I should be asleep!
Current Mood:  calm
|
|
05:41 am
[Link] |
Rowland S Howard
I was reading a review in Beat of the Rowland S Howard show and apparently he's really really ill. He has liver cancer and needs a transplant. It really upset me for some reason. I remember going to see him about 8-10 years ago when Django and I were together, he was amazing and is apparently a real gentleman as well.
There was recently a campaign for more organ donors and I've always felt a bit strange about it for some reason that I can't explain, but I think reading about someone so talented as Rowland s Howard desperatly needing one, and thinking what if my family ever needed a transplant, I've changed my mind, so I'm going to sign up. I know that you have to die in certain circumstances for them to be able to use your organs, but if I could help someone like Rowland S Howard or my family, I'd at least want the chance to do so.
I hope he gets what he needs soon :/
Current Mood:  sad
|
|
11:01 pm
[Link] |
Cuz I have nothing important to say
Meme.. stolen from the Jeanster! (Who I don't believe I have ever called the Jeanster... I blame the answer to question 1)
1.What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
Some lovely vintage cask vino tinto.. ooh yeah baby
2.Where was your profile picture taken?
In my bedroom after clubbing.. for i am CAM WHORE
3.Can you play Guitar Hero?
I have tried once and was totally lame..
4.Name someone who made you laugh today?
Hrmm.. no one i can recall. Rob, the person that sits across the pod from me is pretty funny
5.How late did you stay up last night and why?
I was awesome and was in bed before 10:30.. although I did watch Dawson's creek until I got sick of it.. so I probably went to sleep around 11:15. Quite early for me really.. probably the reason I managed to get upa t 6:30 and go running!
6.If you could move somewhere else, would you?
I would live in Mexico or Barcelona.. althouhg I dunno what would actually make me leave Melbourne, I quite like it. I guess nothing is stopping me
7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
Hrmm.. yeah I think so.. once, near the yarra.. maybe.. although i have no idea who the guy was. Musthave been special no?
8. Which of your Facebook friends lives closest to you?
Hrmm, Liv, she lives in this very flat!
9. Do you believe ex's can be friends?
Yes, except when they're being immature losers!
10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?
Poison!
11. When was the last time you cried really hard?
Hrmm.. I cried at a funeral earlier in the week, but that was with work ppl.. so not hard. I dunno, a while back
12. Who took your profile picture?
ME! (See next point)
13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
Myself, I am cam whore extrodionare
14. Was yesterday better than today?
Nah today is friday and I've drunk 5 glasses of wine
15. Can you live a day without TV?
Hrmm.. I need some sort of background noise, tv just seems the most accessible
16. Are you upset about anything?
Not currently
17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?
None that I've had so far! Other than friendships
Hrmm although I guess I've learnt things from all my failed relationships and had a mostly good time at the time
18. Are you a bad influence?
So I've been told.. either that or I'm "easily led" so I guess it goes both ways
19. Night out or night in?
Both! Tonight is a night in and it's been awesome
20. What items could you not go without during the day?
The internet.. yes I am an addict. Also food is good
21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
ummm... I dunno.. maybe my grandfather? But that was like a year ago at least
22. What does the last text message in your inbox say?
I won't say for reasons that it might incriminate me
23. How do you feel about your life right now?
It's alright, this week has been alright
24. Do you hate any one?
hrmm no
25. If we were to look in your face book inbox, what would we find?
Invitations to dinners and weddings
26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?
Hrmm, I dunno... what kinda drug test are we talking here? Urine? Blood?
27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?
Lord no! If they did I'd get them check into a psych ward quick smart
28. What song is stuck in your head?
"Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby, Do ya Do ya Do ya Do ya"
I dunno the rest
29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., who do you want it to be?
Some sexy man wanting to get in my bed.. that I actually want to get in my bed.. not a stalker or anything
30. Do you want to have grandkids before you’re 50?
Hell no!!!
31. Name something you have to do tomorrow.
Go to flat auction, go to birthday party, I should go for a run..although we'll see about that.
32. Do you think too much or too little?
Too much, especially when I should be sleeping. It might be more helpful if I thought more when I should be awake
33. Do you smile a lot?
I take it from comments that I get, that no.. I do not smile.. ever!
Current Location: Australia, Chatswood
Current Mood:  good
|
|
08:02 am
[Link] |
Before it totally fades..
Proof that I actually had a tan once!
Current Mood:  blank
|
|
08:04 pm
[Link] |
Running
Well as you may or may not have discovered, I'm back!
I got back almost 2 weeks ago, it's already starting to feel like I was never away. I'll have to get everything sorted out and post the rest of my photos etc. on here sooon.
Due to eating mainly ham and cheese sandwiches for 6 months, I really need to get back into shape. The way I'm doing this is with an awesome podcast called "Couch to 5k", which was recommended to me by a friend.
It's a program designed to get you from not doing much to running 5kms within 2 months. It's based on the exercise program on www.coolrunning.com, which has you alternating walking with running for various times, from 1 minute at the start, all the way up to 30mins by the end of the two months. The podcasts put the program to music with queues to let you know when to start running etc. It really makes the time go much faster and is a lot easier than checking your watch all the time. If you're interested in getting fit, I would highly recommend it.
Current Location: Glen Iris
Current Mood: good
|
|
04:40 am
[Link] |
September
I've got less than 15 days of my trip left (scary scary stuff), so I'll be back amongst you all very soon and I'm completely outta the loop.. so what is happening in September that I should know about??
I probably won't actually have any money to do anything, but it'll be still nice to know what I could be doing!
Current Location: Havana, Cuba
Current Mood:  hot
|
|
10:51 am
[Link] |
Cuba
I´m currently in Trinidad, Cuba. Cuba is definitley the most interesting country I´ve been to so far, just because of the politics and history. Nothing works here, people queue up for hours for melted, gross ice-cream in dreary ice cream parlours that look more like a factory canteen from the 70´s. Actually most things here look like they come from country Australia in the 70´s.
We´re being lazy and doing a tour, which is actually really awesome. There are only 2 other people in our tour group and the tour leader is a local guy, so we´re getting a very personal tour of the country. It seems that most people hope that things will change when Fidel dies (if he hasn´t already.. we think there´s a conspiracy going on)but are resigned to the fact that they probably won´t.
The internet here is weird, you have to pay $7.50aud for a 1 hour internet card and you have to show your passport, because locals are not allowed to use the internet without special permission relating to their job.
Speaking of which, I only have 3mins left on my card, so I will have to wrap it up!
I only have 17 more days of my trip left, which is really strange. I´m betting people haven´t even noticed I´ve been gone!! It seems to have flown past, especially the last 2 months.
Current Mood: hot
|
|
07:51 am
[Link] |
Cuba!
I'm off to Cuba this morning, so I might not have internet access for 3 weeks.
Bye!!
Current Location: mexico city airport
Current Mood:  excited
|
|
11:42 pm
[Link] | Okay I joined Twitter.. but only cuz I wanted to see what it was all about and it won't let you unless you join.. honest.
My username is Nilesedge.
Current Mood:  curious
Current Music: Kings of Leon - On Call
|
|
06:35 pm
[Link] | I have discovered that lemon salted peanuts really do nothing for chocolate cravings. I think hostels should sell chocolate AND beer, just to cover all bases.
I am currently in San Cristobal, which is a really cool town up in the hills of Mexico, surrounded by pine forests. It has lots of really lovely colonial buildings, all painted different colours and big plazas and cobbled streets. There are lots and lots of hippies here, which is interesting, I'm not sure why they all live here, maybe there are good mushrooms growing in the pine forests. Today I even heard Infected Mushroom being played in one of the cafes. So far here we've been to an Amber museum, a Coffee museum and a bunch of churches.
Today though we went to an indigenous village just out of town and saw people sacrificing chickens in a church. It wasn't all gory like I'd imagined, they just snapped their necks. There was lots of candles and chanting though.
Tomorrow we have an 11 hour bus ride to Oaxaca (which we've finally worked out is pronounced Wahucka), where we're going to see some huge local music and dancing festival. After that we're not really sure where we're going, but we've got to end up in Mexico city at the start of August to fly to Cuba, which should be awesommmmmmmmme.
Current Location: San Cristobal - Mexico
Current Mood:  cheerful
Current Music: Muse - Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
|
|
12:06 am
[Link] |
Mexico...
..totally rocks so far. The food is fantastic, they invented all my favourite drinks and it's really hard not to spend every single day drunk as a skunk and eating fajitas!
So far I've only been in Cancun and Playa del Carmen, which is a very nice beach an hour away from Cancun, where you can rent a banana-lounge and an umbrella for $4 for the whole day and they will bring margaritas and food to your chair on request. Mmm. I am very sunburnt today though, which isn't so flash.. I might end up with a tan!
Tomorrow we (me and Mel, a girl from my original tour in Chile) are going to some Mayan ruins and will start making our way slowly up towards Mexico city and maybe beyond. We're here for a month and then we fly to Cuba for 3 weeks.
The hostel I've been staying in is very strange. One of the other girls staying here thinks it's a front for a drug business. All the people that work here are American and aren't allowed back into America for one reason or another. The house cleaner just got out of re-hab for coke, her husband is constantly in and out of jail and there are a bunch of strange older people who just hang around for no particular reason. One of them was trying to get me to do some time-share scam, where you go and listen to time-share presentations and they pay you to be there. It's all very odd.
Current Location: Cancun, Mexico
Current Mood: hot
Current Music: very loud air cond.
|
|
12:08 am
[Link] |
Colombia can kiss my shiny metal ass
Obviously I look like a drug mule because today I got pulled aside and fingerprinted and full body X-rayed before leaving Colombia.
I think it was partly to do with being a single female travelling from Colombia to Mexico and partly to do with me getting annoyed at the security people earlier because they wanted me to unpack my entire backpack in the middle of the airport at 6am so they could search it. I know you shouldn't get pissy with airport people otherwise you'll end up being the crazy person yelling at everyone on Border Patrol, but it was 6am, I hadn't had any coffee yet, I'd been waiting in a queue for ages already, they'd just scanned the bloody thing anyway and it was to LEAVE the country.. not enter itl! Grr!
So when I was going through security I got told to go up the stairs into a little room, where I got asked if I was pregnant, finger-printed and slapped on an x-ray conveyer belt. Fun fun. Obviously I was not full of Cocaine.
The guy let me check out my scan on the computer which was pretty cool, other than being able to see my disguting fat rolls! Totally going on a diet now.. one that allows me to still have beer and margaritas though, because I am now in Mexico, home of all my favourite drinks!
So far, Mexico seems a whole lot nicer than Colombia. The people are friendlier at least, which is a huge improvement. Colombians in my experience were mostly really rude, unhelpful and pushy. Although lots of people seemed to think they were great, so maybe I just met jerks.
The only thing that has pissed me off so far is the stupid airport at Cancun, where there are no ATMs in the international arrivals area, so you have to walk all the way through to the departures area (which involves going out of the building and into another one) to get money for a taxi. They had a money changing place, but they would only accept USD, Euros, Pounds or a few other currencies that were completely useless if you'd just come from South America. They also had some bizarre rule where you couldn't take the bag trolley out of the doors, so you had to lug your bag around to the taxi area. It was very very strange.
I haven't made it to the beach yet, I spent the afternoon in the mall buying more clothes for hot weather.. although I'm not entirley sure how I'm going to fit them in my backpack, I might have to sacrifice something for the greater good. Clothes and shoes are really cheap here.. which is a problem!!! I also saw Transformers 2, which was pretty good, although a bit long.
Tomorrow I'm going to hit the beach.
Current Location: Cancun, Mexico
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: loud airconditioning in the dorm
|
|
11:48 pm
[Link] |
Peru and Bolivia
Here is my update for Peru and Bolivia..
Cuzco and Surrounds
So as you all know, for the first week in Cuzco I was sick in bed with Bronchitis and missed the Inca Trail, which was quite disappointing.
My friend Sue went on her trail, so I just hung out in the hostel moving between the bed and the couch and watched cable tv and coughed for 4 days.
The doctor came every day to give me a shot of antibiotics in my butt.. very dignified. They obviously worked though, because after about 5 days I was pretty much up to wandering around.
The first thing I did when I was well enough, was do a city tour of Cuzco. Cuzco is a really interesting city, lots of narrow streets and beautiful old buildings and Inca remnants. There are tons of tourists though and people everywhere trying to sell you stuff. It got really annoying, really quickly actually, you couldn’t walk 2 metres without someone hassling you.
There is a very large Inca site just outside of Cuzco called Sacsayhuaman (aka "Sexy Woman"!), which I visited on the city tour, it would have been magnificent in its day, but for centuries people stole the stones to build their houses and other buildings in Cuzco, so it’s now just some walls and not much else. It was still very impressive though given the size of some of the stones they used to build it. The main feature of Inca building was that they didn’t use mortar or anything like that, they cut the stones to fit together, which is amazing given that it was before modern technology and all their sites were on massive hills, so they had to haul the stones around as well.
On the city tour we also visited the Cathedral, which has a painting of the last supper, but instead of a lamb in the middle of the table, there is a guinea pig, which is the local delicacy. We weren’t allowed cameras in the church, otherwise I’d have taken a photo of it for you. I actually ate guinea pig one night, the most common way to buy it is on a skewer with the head still on, but I had mine roasted in the oven (without the head) with garlic and rosemary.. very tasty actually! Quite like rabbit.
As well as the city tour, I did a tour of the Sacred Valley, which is just outside Cuzco and has lots more Inca sites.. all on massive hills. I think the Incas were masochistic! It would have been lots of work moving all those stones around. One of the things I learnt on my tour was that the word Inca actually means king, so it’s really incorrect to call them Incas, the actual group of people were the Quechuas.
Machu Picchu
Because I couldn’t do the Inca trail, I had to go to Machu Picchu on the (very expensive) train. It takes hours, but the scenery is really pretty, lots of huge mountains, forests and little villages. Once you get to the town near Machu Picchu you have to take a bus up to the site. The landscape is amazing, huge mountains and jungle and a massive river running through the middle of it. The bus winds around and around the mountain for about 20mins until you get to the top where the site is.
Machu Picchu is on a mountain that is surrounded by a ring of larger mountains, which is apparently why it was chosen as the location of the city, because the Incas worshipped mountains as gods, so it was a special place. It did actually feel like a powerful place and the day I went it was a bit stormy, so there were cracks of thunder echoing off the mountains every now and then, which just added to the atmosphere.
The site is huge, there are tons of buildings and terraces for farming. All the roofs would have been thatched, so they’ve all disappeared, but a lot of the walls are still in very good condition. You’ll see in the photos how steep it is, it’s just baffling how they managed to create a city of that size, with that amount of stone on such a steep area without any modern technology.
If you get a chance to go, I highly highly recommend it. Words and photos really don’t do it justice. If I went again, I’d stay in the local town and go up at sunrise, which is apparently really special as a lot of the temples and alters were built with the path of the sun in mind.
Lake Titicaca
After Cuzco, we got a bus down to Puno, which is near the border of Bolivia, on Lake Titicaca. We only stayed one night just so that we could visit the floating islands on the lake. They’re quite impressive, but sooooo very touristy! You get harassed to buy “unique hand-made” items that the people on the islands apparently slave over.. it’s such a scam, because you can get the same things everywhere.. even in Bolivia, there is obviously a big factory somewhere churning them out! We did get to wander around on a couple of islands and got to dress up like Peruvian ladies though, which was quite funny.
After visiting the floating islands, we crossed into Bolivia and stayed in Copacobana, which is on the Bolivian side of the lake. The lake is very impressive, it’s so big that it looks like the ocean, it’s just water as far as you can see. The Bolivian side was a lot nicer, there was lots of pollution in the lake near Puno, which was a bit disappointing.
We went to Copacobana with the intent of seeing the Sun and Moon islands, however we got scammed into a “half day” tour, which was completely pointless as it turned out because it took an hour and a half on a boat to GET to the islands, so you only had 45mins on the island before you had to turn around and go back again.. which was not even enough time to get to any of the sites .
We also discovered that a guide wasn’t included and neither was entry to the island (they didn’t tell us any of this at the time when we booked it). So we were quite disillusioned and ended up just sitting on the dock for 45mins before getting the boat back again. So we saw nothing of the Sun and Moon islands at all! Luckily the tour cost next to nothing, but it was a complete waste of half a day and the boat made me feel seasick!
La Paz
After Lake Titicaca we got a bus to La Paz, which is the capital of Bolivia. It’s a huge, sprawling city at 3650 metres above sea level. It was a really interesting city with lots of little ladies wearing traditional dress with long plaits and bowler hats everywhere, selling all manner of things. We went to the witches market, where you can buy Llama foetuses.. apparently good for fertility if you put them under your bed (I think).
The main attraction in La Paz is the “death road”, where you can ride a mountain bike down it and try not to die by falling off the sheer drop on one side. Lots of people die or are injured doing it and a guy had died a few weeks before we arrived. All the guys in our hostel were doing it or had done it. Luckily we’re more sensible than that, so we didn’t! We didn’t really do that much in La Paz other than visit markets and wander around out of breath from the altitude and hills!
Salt flats
After a few nights in La Paz, we took an overnight bus to Uyuni so that we could do a 3 day tour of the Salt flats. The roads in Boliviar are shocking and the bus was so incredibly bumpy that we hardly slept at all, I honestly thought we were going to tip right over at some points, it was dark outside so I couldn’t see what terrain we were going over, but it felt like we were going up and down gullies.
We made it all in one piece to Uyuni, where it was absolutely freezing. I’d just sent all my thermal clothing home because I was saving it for the Inca trail but didn’t do it so I figured I wouldn’t need it again as we were heading north. I was so wrong. Luckily the owner of the tour company we’d booked with took pity on us and went home to get some big puffy jackets for both of us. They really didn’t help that much, so we would probably have died of hypothermia if we didn’t have them.
The way the tours of the salt flats works is that you reserve your spot with a certain company but depending on numbers you’ll probably get lumped in with another group from a completely different company, who probably paid a different amount to you and who are expecting different services. For instance we were expecting an English guide, because that was what our company offered, however we were lumped in with a company that only had Spanish speaking guides. It wasn’t too bad actually, I could understand most of what he said, he was careful to speak slowly and not use big words!
Anyway so you all pile into a jeep and all the luggage and food for the next 3 days is piled on the roof. The first stop was a train grave yard, where there are a few old rusting trains. I was expecting more trains actually, but it was alright. Then you drive onto the salt flats and get to do all the silly perspective photography and all that.
The salt flats are there because prior to the Andes being created, that whole area was connected to the ocean, so the salt is sea salt. It’s huge and expanding every year apparently (although I’m unsure how). After mucking around on the salt for as long as we could tolerate in the cold, we had lunch in a hotel made entirely of salt, it was pretty impressive, they form the salt into bricks. I’m not sure what happens when it rains.. obviously they’ve waterproofed the outside somehow!
After that we drove onto Fish Island, which is a huge rocky island in the middle of the salt flats, entirely covered in cactuses. It was really cool but I have no idea how or why it is there. It’s completely surrounded by salt for as far as you can see. That night we stayed in a hotel made of salt, which was freeeeeeeeeezing. The next day it was lots of driving around looking at lagoons, flamingos and rock formations. The landscape is very unreal, it looks like another planet almost. The next day we made our way back to Uyuni and then La Paz.
Sue flew to Aruba a few days later to visit some relatives and I made my way back up north to Arequipa in Peru.
Back to Peru
I went to Arequipa with the intention of going to the Colca canyon, which is the 2nd largest canyon in the world, however I got sick yet again the day before I left La Paz and ended up staying in bed for most of the time I was there, which was disappointing. I’m pretty sure it was being freezing the whole time at the salt flats that did it, as I’d only just recovered from bronchitis. Luckily I did manage to wander around Arequipa a bit, it’s a lovely city, a bit like Cuzco. In one of the museums they have Juanita, which is a child mummy they found in one of the volcanos in the area, she was an Incan child sacrifice to the gods of the mountains. They’ve found lots of child sacrifices in the volcanos around Arequipa, so that museum was really interesting.
I also visited a convent and a monastery, which were also really interesting. The convent has a funny history because the nuns there lived very extravagant lives compared with most nuns, they had lots of possessions and lived in relative luxury.. until some hardnosed bishop came and put an end to that. It was a very beautiful convent.
After Arequipa I took a very plush bus up to Lima and stayed there for 3 days. I decided to just chill out for a while and not do too much seeing as I kept getting sick. I also stayed in a private room and not a dorm, which I think makes a huge difference. I didn’t really do any sightseeing in Lima, I will have to go back at some point because there are a few things there I’d like to see (that I only found out about after I’d left!!) After Lima I flew to Ecuador so that I could go to the Galapagos Islands.. but that is a story for another day!
I think of all the countries, I’ve enjoyed Peru and Bolivia the most, just because they’re so different from back home. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil are very westernised, but in Peru and Bolivia people still live traditional lives, even in the middle of vast cities, so it’s really interesting to see the contrast.
Anyway, this way too long.. here are the ( photos... )
Current Location: Bogota, Colombia
Current Mood: blank
Current Music: Passion Pit - Better Things (Ardy they're quite good, sound like MGMT)
|
|
12:38 am
[Link] |
I have a confession to make...
Since I've been away, I have become quite addicted to Grey's Anatomy. This is a saddens me, because it always used to piss me off when chicks in the office would talk about it like it was the most awesome show on earth... now I'm one of them. The phrase I used to hear floating over the cubicles all the time was "Mc Dreamy".. which luckily seems to be related to an earlier season, cuz I've not heard it yet. It really used to shit me.
I do think Big Bang Theory is far more awewsome though.. but it's just not on cable quite so often.
Current Location: Bogota, Colombia.. the land of no bars
Current Mood: tired
|
|
07:02 pm
[Link] |
Cuz it's Sunday and I'm bored...
Here is an awesome MsPaint map of my crazy route in South America so far..
Current Location: Bogota, Colombia
Current Mood:  bored
Current Music: Oasis - Wonderwall
|
|
11:41 am
[Link] | Today I am heading to Colombia for 12 days, 5 days in Bogota and the rest in Cartagena, which is on the coast. After that I'm off to Mexico and then Cuba.. and then home!
I only have 2 months left.. this last bit is going really quickly. Part of me is looking forward to coming home and the rest of me is dreading going back to work. I am really looking forward to having all my normal clothes though, I am really over wearing hiking boots or thongs every day.
I just got back from the Galapagos 2 days ago, it was awesome. I saw so many animals and got to snorkel every day. I have waaaay too many photos of Sea Lions, but they're so damn cute.
Yesterday I stood on the Equator, both the fake one (determined before they had GPS) and the real one (they were only 250metres off the first time). I also went to a museum where they demonstrate all these cool tricks you can do because you're on the equator. I failed at balancing an egg on the head of a nail though.
I wish I had more time in Quito actually, it's a really cool city and I only had 2 days here. There are so many places I will have to come back to. This morning at breakfast I met an older guy (probably late 50's - 60's) who is travelling for the rest of his life, sounds pretty cool to me. He's retired, so he can afford it.. I need to find a job that will allow me to travel often... or maybe a rich husband!!
Anyway I think my gate has just changed so I'd better go work out where the hell I'm supposed to be now!
Current Location: Quito Airport, Ecuador
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Annoying airport announcements that you can't understand anyway
|
|
11:12 pm
[Link] |
Jeans in the most unlikely place
I got jeans!!!!!!!!!
It wasn't at all easy. I went to the mall here in Qutio, with the intent of going to the Levis shop. The biggest size they had was a 12, I could do them up, but I had a muffin top from here to eternity.. very very very unattractive. So after that dissapointment, I wandered around for an hour and a half getting more and more depressed when I couldn't even fit my CALVES into some of the jeans. It didn't help that every single shop had a different sizing scale, so I had to start over in every shop, in the end it was easier just to ask for the biggest and they still wouldn't fit. The women here seem to be a completely different shape, very skinny legs with big asses. Completely hot, but useless when it comes to me fitting my fat ass and legs into their jeans. The biggest size in all the shops was 10 or 12.
I was almost going to give up and buy men's Levis, when on the off chance I wandered into some very trendy looking boutique that had very very loud techno and these two ultra cool young guys working there. I wandered around, decided that I probably wouldn't even fit my toe into their clothes and as I was wandering out I stopped to look at something and one of the guys asked me if I needed help, so, expecting nothing, I said "Necessito pantalones muy muy grande para me" (I need very very big pants for me).. expecting him to give me the look that the other shop assistants had, but he rushed off and told me to follow him and handed me this perfect pair of jeans.. exactly my size and the cut I wanted.. flares!!! (Everything here is skinny leg, which looks retarded on me).
The only problem with them is they are very very light blue, which isn't me.. but by that point, I really didn't care. He also ferreted around and found a whole pile of jeans in my size, in the end the first ones were perfect, so I took them. They were only $30 Usd too, which at the currrent excange rate is about $32 aud! I was so happy I could have kissed him on top of his ultra cool, Ricky Martin-esque spikey hair. He was so lovely and helpful and I'd expected "the look". Just goes to show, you can get perfect jeans (and good help) in the most unlikely places!
On another note, Ecuador won the soccor today against Argentina, it's all part of the world cup qualifers, so there are people everywhere tonight, it's crazy town.
I'm off to the Galapagos tomorrow, I think my tour group is me and a bunch of guys.. could be interesting. I am hoping for 1 other girl at least, but I guess if there's not then I get a cabin to myself. No internet for 8 days I don't think.. not sure how I'll survive! Hasta la Vista!
Current Mood:  pleased
|
|
11:41 pm
[Link] |
Craptacular
I'm currently in Quito, Ecuador. Tomorrow I start my 10 day tour of the Galapagos. We only actually spent 8 days in the Galapagos, so it's a bit misleading but will hopefully still be awesome. We spend 7 nights on a boat travelling between the different islands and going snorkeling and all that. It was a present from my Dad, which is really lovely of him, because it was pretty pricey and I probably wouldn't have been able to afford to go by myself.
Getting into Ecuador was a pain in the ass. There was the usual immigration form and the "do you have any animal semen" form, but on top of that, there was a form which basically asked if you had swine flu. Err no I don't. I was too scared to cough in the airport in case they detained me. Everyone was wandering around in face masks and we had to get thermally scanned to see if we had a temperature. Luckily I've recovered from the Bronchitis and cold that I've had for a while, so they let me in. I also had the immigration guy make fun of my surname and my country of birth and call his friend over to have a look. I cracked it at them and asked them if they were 12. They still let me in. Jerks.
I've had a generally crap day. Yesterday I took my washing a laundry place in Lima, Peru to get it all washed and dried before the tour (there are no self serve laundrettes over here). Once I got it back I sorted it out but obviously wasn't really paying attention, because this morning when I was getting dressed to go to the airport I noticed I was no longer in posession of my jeans. I ran down to the laundry but they had no idea where they were and I poked around and couldn't find them. I was yelling at them in some horrible Spanglish and they reluctantly gave me my money back and I left my mobile number in case they found them and could send them to Ecuador because I'll be here for 2 weeks. So now I'm down to one pair of pants.. some hiking pants no less. Ugh. I was in tears this morning about it all.
Now I'm in Ecuador and believe it or not, this is the one country so far where my mobile won't work. Hurrah. So my awesome grey, flared levis are gone forever. Now I have the difficult task of finding some non horrible jeans that fit me. For some reason in South America, ALL the women wear jeans that have all these sequins and glitter and all sorts of crap all over the ass pockets.. or worse still they have no ass pockets at all, so you just have one giant ass. South American jeans are really awful. When I got to Quito this afternoon I asked at the hostel for a department store, they sent me to one, I was hoping for a Levis section but it was one that only had their own brand.. so sequins galore. I came back and googled and have found a shopping mall that has a Lee store, so hopefully I can get proper jeans tomorrow before I have my tour meeting. The other problem will be finding decent ones that actually fit my currently huge ass. Bah. I loved those Levis.
The one good thing for today is that I have an awesome room. I've gone back to single rooms for the moment cuz I keep getting sick and was also getting tired of the idiotic, incosiderate 20 year olds in the dorms. The room I got today has 2 beds, a tv and an ensuite and is really modern and clean. It's awesome and only $30aud per night. The only problem is that it doesn't have cable and South American tv is just endless, overly dramatic soapies or the Simpsons dubbed into Spanish, which is pointless. Eh, at least I can get wifi in my room.
Current Location: Travellers Inn Quito
Current Mood:  grumpy
Current Music: Kings of Leon - Closer
|
|
06:49 pm
[Link] |
Brazil
Here is my long overdue post about Brazil...
Pantanal
After the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls Sue and I got a horrendous night bus to Campo Grande so that we could go to the Pantanal, which is a huge wetlands area that covers approximatly 230,000 sq km in central western Brazil.
The night bus was horrendous because it had no tvs, we were stuck right at the back near the toilets, they gave us no food and we had to swap buses in the
middle of the night at some random Brazilian town. Brazilan bus companies really need to check out how Argentina does it, because they're so much better!
Anyway we arrived at Campo Grande at 8am without much sleep and checked into our hostel with the aim of having a quiet day and finding a tour into the Pantanal for the next day. However after talking to the tours guy at the hostel, it was decided that it would be best if we went to the Pantanal that morning as we had limited time... he wanted us to leave in 30 mins but we wanted to have showers and what not, so he said he could sort it out for midday. So instead of a whole day of relaxation we had a couple of hours of frantically re-packing for a trip to the Pantanal and trying to dry some handwashing in the window before we were packed onto a local bus to a lodge in the Pantanal.
At the lodge we had 2 or 3 activities a day, with a long break after lunch due to the heat (mostly spent snoozing in the hammocks). The first day was a boat ride in the morning down one of the rivers with our guide Johnny. We saw Capybara, lots of birds, some monkeys and lots of Caimen (like Crocodiles). Johhny could make all the calls for the monkeys and even the river otters, who we heard crashing around on the bank and calling back, but didn't get to see. After lunch we went for a horse ride around the property.
The next morning we had to get up at 4am to go spotlighting before dawn. We only saw Caimen (there are tons of Caimen in Pantanal) but we did get to have breakfast and watch the sunrise in the middle of the Pantanal, which was beautiful. After that it was a 3hr hike through the bush and across the wetlands. I think Johnny wanted us to see an Anaconda, but luckily he didn't find one! We did see lots of birds, monkeys, Coti (like a Badger) and of course Caimen.
The next day was our final day, in the morning we went Piranha fishing, which was actually really easy. There must have been tons of them in the river, they were very quick to eat our bait, but it was a lot harder to actually get them into the boat! I think we caught about 10 in the end. We got to eat them afterwards for lunch, they were very tasty, but quite bony.
That afternoon it was back to Campo Grande and some sleep before having to get to the airport at 3:30am to catch a flight to Manaus.
Manaus
Sue and I flew to Manaus to meet Mel, another girl from the Tucan trip, so that we could go into the Amazon together. We arranged a 3 night, 4 day trip. The first day we travelled by boat to the meeting of the waters, which is where 2 rivers meet but don't mix. It's something to do with the pH and temperature I think, you can kind of see it in the photo, one is blackish and one is brown. After that we continued to the other side of the rivers and were loaded into a combi van and driven a couple of hours into the jungle, where we got another boat up the river to the lodge.
We got there in time for lunch, after lunch there was a huge storm and it kept raining for a few hours so we couldn't do much until it stopped. Everything in the area was apparently under 12 metres more water than normal, whereas the Pantanal had a lot less water than normal.
Once it stopped raining we went Piranha fishing, which was a lot less successful than at the Pantanal, I think we only caught 5 and most of those were caught by the guide! That night we went Crocodile spotting and our guide actually fell in the water trying to grab a small Crocodile. I think he was a bit scared he was going to get eaten by a bigger one! We all got to hold it and take photos, the poor little thing was scared to death. It was only a young one, but we saw a few huge ones as well.
The next day we went on a tour of the local school and a farm where they process rainforest flowers various products, although they hadn't harvested any yet, but we did get to see the giant fry pan where they roast them to extract the oils.
That night we camped in the jungle, which was horrible! There were soooooo many mosquitos. It might not have been so bad if the water level wasn't so high. It was Sue, Mel, me and a couple from the USA, plus our guide and boat driver. The guide and driver cooked us dinner, which was actually really tasty. Chicken roasted over the fire and rice with onions and peppers. We also had beer and Caiprinhas, which made it slightly more bearable!!
We all had long sleeved clothing and insect repellent and the American couple even had 100% DEET insect repellent, but it made no difference, we got absolutley eaten alive. We had to sleep in hammocks too, with mosquito nets, which didn't help, we were getting bitten through the hammocks. We really didn't get much sleep at all, hammocks are just fundamentally hard to sleep in as well, unless you like sleeping on your back, which I don't!
The only animals we managed to see when we were camping in the jungle was a huge toad and a rat-like creature. I think the guide of the other group was a bit more sensible, as he'd decided not to go out camping that night as he figured all that would happen was his group would be eaten alive and be miserable. He was very correct!
We were all thrilled when it was daybreak and we had to leave to get back to the lodge for breakfast. We were all very grumpy that day and decided just to rest and not do that afternoons activity, which was a walk through the jungle. I think we were a bit jungled out at that point, but we should have done it becuase it ended up raining the whole of the next day and we didn't get to do that activity in the end.
We did a few more trips around in the boat and got to see river dolphins, unfortunatly I don't have any photos becuase as soon as you saw them they were underwater again. That day we also got to see a sloth, which was awesome, they're such strange looking animals! Our guide actually climbed up the tree to get it down so that we could look at it, the poor thing was very sleepy. The next day we left to go back to Manaus.
The area of the jungle we were in had lots of cleared areas for farming, which was a bit dissapointing, I really wanted to see the huge trees that I remember from David Attenborough shows! From what I've learnt since from talking to people, the best place for the huge trees is actually in Peru, but is very remote and expensive ($600USD plus per person for 5 days). I'll probably come back and do that another trip.
We ended up getting stuck in Manaus for way longer than we wanted to becuase we couldn't get any cheap flights out, it's a very remote city and the flights were way overpriced. Manaus is a very boring city to be stuck in as well, the one interesting tourist attraction in town is the huge old theatre, which hails back to when Manaus had money due to rubber plantations. We went to a concert there one night, which was quite civilised!
Salvador
Eventually we found a cheap flight to Salvador, which is on the North East Coast of Brazil. Brazil was one of the last places to abolish slavery and Salvador was a huge slave trading port, so it has a fascinating history and lots of africian influence. There are lots of old crumbling buildings and palm trees and cobbled streets as well.
We'd heard about local religious ceremonies that you could go to where people enter trances and they have animal sacrifices on the walls and things, so obviously we wanted to try and get to one of those, we were out of luck though, there were none on the days we were there. Instead we went to a show which had dances and singing that gave you a bit of an idea about what the religion was about.
It was actually really interesting, they went through all the dances for the spiriits they worshipped. Part of it was a Capoeria show, which was amazing. I wish I'd been able to take video, but they didn't allow cameras at the show. For those of you that don't know, Capoeria is a martial art that evolved in the slave colonies, they disguised it as a dance so that the slave masters wouldn't ban it. It's very fast and skillful and they get so close to kicking and punching each other but they don't. It was a really great experience.
Another night we went to a street party where all these people were just drumming together in the middle of the street, about 20 people at once. There were a few different groups and when one stopped, another started. It was really awesome.
I should explain one of the photos I've attached - the one of the slave bracelet. Our guide told us that if slaves were particularly good or liked by the slave master, they were given a silver trinket which they wore on their belt. Once they had 10 of these trinkets they could trade it for their freedom. Apparently it could take years and years to get 10 trinkets and I'm sure it caused lots of in-fighting amongst the slaves.
Rio de Janerio
After Salvador we flew to Rio. We'd heard lots of bad stories about how dangerous Rio was, so we were prepared for the worst. We were very pleasently suprised though. Rio is an awesome city, it has gorgeous beaches, forests and mountains all close together. We stayed in Impanema, which is a nicer area I think and we had no problems at all. I would definintly go back to Rio and would even consider living there if I spoke Portuguese!
The 2nd day we were there we did a tour which included the Jesus Christ the Redeemer statue, the Lapa steps, the football stadium and some other subburbs around Rio. Unfortunatly our guide decided to do the Christ statue first, which was a bad decision on his part because it was very very overcast and you couldn't actually see that much of Rio. I think he thought it was going to rain, but of course it cleared into a beautiful sunny day (when we were at the bloody football stadium!). The christ statue was still very impressive, it's huuuuuuuuuuuge and would have had an amazing view over Rio if it wasn't so cloudy.
The Lapa steps are these steps in the city that have been covered in ceramic tiles. The artist is a crazy Chilean guy and he lives right next to the steps and you get to meet him. He changes the tiles constantly and requests that anyone who visits the steps sends him a tile from their country.
The football stadium was a football stadium, very exciting. After the tour we went and watched the sunset from Sugarloaf, a mountain behind Rio.
The next day we did a tour of the Flavelas, which are the slum areas of Rio. An extrodinary amount of people live in these areas. They are generally small square houses which the owner then sells the roof of and someone builds on top of it and then sells his roof, and so on and so forth.
The first part of the tour was quite scary, we all had to get on the back of these motocycle taxis (without helmets!) which then zoom up the hills into the midst of the flavelas. My driver was actually really good and kept telling me not to be scared and to hold on with my legs, but it was hard not to be scared when we were whizzing between trucks and buses and around corners! We did all arrive in one piece though and then our guide took us on a walking tour down through the flavela and explained how the people live inside these areas.
One of the rules was that we could take pictures, unless we saw a guy with a machine gun or a walkie talkie.. they're involved in the drug trade and wouldn't really like it!! We didn't see any such people. It was a very interesting tour, the flavelas are just complete labyrinths, but they have their own system that works for them. No one pays for electricity, they all just steal it directly from the power poles, so there are cables going everywhere. Some of the conditions that people were living in were very poor but there are just so many people living in there that the governement can't or won't do anything about it.
That afternoon we went to the beach, which was lovely, although eventually we worked out we were in the gay area of the beach. The surf is quite dangerous there (Impanema actually means dangerous water in the local language apparently) and they have surf life saving towers all along the beach that are numbered and each one is where a certain subsection of the population congregates, like the gay area, the beautiful people, the sporty people etc.
The last night we were in Rio we went to a street party in Lapa, which was crazy. All the bars and clubs just open their doors and play music very loudly into the street and everyone just hangs around on the street drinking and dancing. We had a great time wandering around between the different music styles and drinking very strong cocktails from street vendors. I think we got home about 6am.
Ilha Grande
The next day, nursing hangovers and no sleep, we went south to Ilha Grande, which is an island off the coast between Rio and Sao Paulo. We stayed there for 3 days and didn't really do much other than go to the beach and eat!
There was an old prision there that was origionally used as a quarantine facility for people with Cholera. That was kind of interesting to look at, but other than that there wasn't a lot on the island!
From there we went on a bus to Sao Paulo, where we had one night and then flew to Peru. I would have liked to have had time to wander around Sao Paulo but it wasn't to be.
Brazil was actually quite a difficult country to travel in, firstly because of the huge distances you had to cover, it was very expensive, secondly because of the language, Portuguese is very hard and thirdly because everything just seemed to take ages, nothing was efficient like it was in Argentina, Uruguay or Chile. They just don't seem to have the infrastructure, everything was a struggle. Even Peru is proving to be easier to travel around than Brazil!
Anyway this is massive, here are the ( Photos.. )
Current Location: La Paz, Bolivia
Current Mood:  cold
Current Music: Kings of Leon
|
|
08:10 pm
[Link] |
No Inca trail for me
So the day after I posted, I got bronchitis and couldn´t do the Inca trail. That sucks cuz it was the one thing I planned my whole trip around and I was aprehensivley looking forward to it (and I also lose my $175USD deposit because they have to buy the trek permits in advance).
Instead I´´m going to Machu Picchu on the train on Saturday, which will be far less rewarding! Although maybe I´ll come back and do it another time.
I spent most of this week in bed or on the couch in the hostel, luckily they have good cable in Cuzco!
The hostel called an English speaking doctor (well, he knew the key words like fever, antibiotics, bronchitis and okay) to come and inject me in the butt with antibiotics 3 days in a row, so today I am finally feeling pretty much 100%.
Not much else to report really, I did a city tour today, which was interesting. We got to see lots of the Inca sites around Cuzco, although for some reason I was picked as the sacrifice for Panchamama (earth spirit). Luckily I am too quick and they couldn´t catch me.
Tomorrow I´m doing a Sacred Valley tour and then welcoming Sue back from her trek with red wine and probably pizza.
Still haven´t tried guinea pig but there´s still time..
Current Mood: cold
|
[<< Previous 20 entries] |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
pr0zak's journal