TravelStream™ news feed for member camo on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/camo en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Wed, 06 May 2009 11:19:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/3/1241160420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/3/1241160420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/3/1241160420/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 11:19:53 -0400 Travels wiv me ol' fella

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Kumily, Kerala, India

... we met a Japanese girl on the bus to Kumily, lovely young woman called Sae. We were all a bit dazed and confused but somehow fell on our feet, taking a rikshaw together to a guesthouse that the driver recommended (we decided that as he was not charging us a foreign-rikshaw-rate, we would trust his advice). Fabulous family-run guest house with spotless bathroom and lovely traditional huts dotted in a garden. We opted to share a room making it silly-cheap at about 2pounds a night each).
Days filled with leisurely strolls and fine snacking opportunities, hiring bikes for a day in the Periyar National Park, trying to find some cooler clothes (i'm determined that it's possible not to look like a hippy, or a wannabe-indian ... haven't found anything yet though), and days simply lazing around the guest house gardens watching birds, deer, water buffalo, mongeese ...
the national park itself offers different packages / tours. We opted for a 3 hour hike early in the morning, with a later-in-the-day boat trip. The hike was great, with giant squirrel, gaur, tiger (poo), elephant (skeleton - from a recent fight) and all the trees and flowers. When we returned to the base we all checked for leeches (a problem after rain). I had one inside my trainer, but outside my sock. Not sure how it got there, but it was already quite fat.
Kumily is one of the most aromatic of towns. The Kulimy Cardomen Marketing Board has impressive headquarters there, with rows of women sitting winnowing (?) the pods all day, wafts of cardomen perfume filling the road ... until you pass towards the rubbish and drains.
We were fortunate enough to be in town for the festival(s) (April and May are festival season all over Kerala). This began with a most surreal and unexpected 2 night parade by the Lourdes Catholic Church, culminating in some sort of ceremony (mass ?) at the rather strange large white statue of oversize mary with undersized dying jesus on her lap.
A few days later there was another nightly parade, this time by the Syrian Orthodox Church. St Thomas' festival i believe. Lots of all night sound systems, parading priest with plenty of incense-swinging and bunting along the streets. Apparently Kerala is a Syrian Orthodox Church strong-hold, having resisted Catholic and other sorts of Christian persuasions ...
The really big festival was the Hindu festival this last weekend. It rates as one of the most impressive, wonderful, strange and stimulating festivals i've ever been to. Our guest-house family were heavily involved ; Sateesh organising the all-night cooking session before day 1, when everyone was fed. And i do mean everyone, thousands all sitting together being fed the most delicious south indian thali. Day 2 was a quieter affair, stalls, a programme of singing and music (we missed the appearance by 3rd place finalist from "Star Singer' an indian equivalent to 'Pop idol'). Day 3 was the real deal ... Sateesh was very excited about the evenings programme, "I can't describe it, very full power". And it was.
We walked to town in time for some roadside kerala parotha, omelette and samba before the parade began. We'd already seen the women doing their special chanting and dancing around a kolom (geometric sand drawing / meditation / offering) that was covered in pots of topiary-ed seedlings. These women joined the drum and horn group as they paraded towards the town centre.
Kumily (in Kerala) is on the border with Tamil Nadu so the main festival parade begins over the border and then heads through town into the national park to the main hindu temple. At the head of the parade was a motor-rikshaw with neon strip lights attached to the sides to illuminate the glass cabinet on its roof (containing 3 topiary-ed pots of seedlings - these ones definately in the shape of shiva's lingum ... loving the lingum seems to be obligatory in india). Behind the rikshaw came the dancing girls (who were actually men), then Kathakarli performers, lookie-likie impersonators of Shiva and some of his fellow gods (my very patchy knowledge of indian deities has not really been fleshed out much) then the trance men with knives. Well skewers actually, mostly through their cheeks (with what looked like a lime on either end as a stopper) but some through their arms and torso too. They had a merry band of supporters / encouragers ... St John's Ambulance might have been more appropriate, but their presence was not in evidence anywhere at the festival. Behind these men came the bench twirlers ... large men in lunghi's each with a bench resting on their shoulders. On each bench was something like a 20 foot tinsel xmas tree, covered in tinsel rosettes and trumpets. These men were not simply carrying the benches, oh no, they were spinning (sufi style) whilst moving with the parade for the duration ... about 4 or 5 kms. Behind the spinning benches came the women, about 40 of them, all with one of the seedling pots on their heads. And finally, behind the women ... came the elephant, complete with little grey-bearded man holding picture of .... another indian deity ...

The whole thing was unlike anything i've ever experienced before. We wondered at what point in the year would you decide that this year you are going to spin with a large bench / tinsel-tree for the parade ? or how sticking a skewer through your face connects with religious devotion ? It's all very exotic and strange to me, seeing people in such a state of ecstasy.

We decided to move on a couple of days later (having been in lovely Kumily, and the lovely Meadow View Inn Guest house for almost 2 wks), but not before we secured a rose and jasmine plant for the family as a gift. From everyones response in town it seems it was a good choice of present and even better we got a standard price for it). We were pretty bowled over by the families response ... an elephant hair each for cath and me. A wild elephant hair (collected by Sateesh who also works in the Periyar National Park). These are rare and thought to bring the wearer luck if they are next to their skin ... we're searching for jeweller to do something with our special hairs ...
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Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India

36 hours is not so long (by Indian standards) ... but when it covers a move from gentle Mamallapuram (coastal town of stone carvings just below Chennai / Madras), via Dakshina Chitra (lovely, amazing arts and culture centre between Mamallapuram and Chennai, with examples of traditional Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goan and Andreh Pradesh housing, including guest house, with luxury white cotton sheets and clean bathroom) .... it comes as quite a shock.
We left the calm of our night at Dakshina Chitra and headed for the East Coast Road. Waiting for a local bus, snapping photos of the chai stall and snack vendors (people are keen for their photo to be taken, but as soon as they see the camera they assume a stern 'identity parade' manner) trying to shelter from the already harsh 9am sun as well as remember what number bus we needed ...
... an hours local bus later and we're in Chennai, heading for Central Station to (hopefully) secure an overnight train to Kodai Road and the (cooler) spice hills. We get re-directed to Edgmore Rd local station, so catch a local bus for the half hour journey. We get redirected to the Central station, so return on the local bus to get a ticket. We find the right "2nd floor" in the right building, and even the tourist quota ticket purchsing queue ... we are told there are no tickets, and anyway the train leaves from Edgmore Rd ... we stay calm and begin the flattery and gentle smiles, feigning surprise that this one man might be able to assist us ... if we have all the right papers (passports, visas, ATM card and CRUCIALLY receipts so we can prove where we got our money from). Within 1/2 hr it's all sorted. We have tickets for that night's train. We go back to Edgmore Rd station to leave our bags in the cloakroom (one lock surfices for the 2 bags ... purely decorative, no locking function needed) and set about 'killing a day' in Chennai.
It's hot and dusty and, by the locals estimation (as well as ours) there's not a lot to recommend Chennai. Within an hour my feet are dusty, by the end of the day they are black ... back at Edgmore Rd station with bags and snacks i manage a quick foot wash before boarding. The train is far from ideal (compared to Thailand, Indian trains don't fair very well ...). It's a hot and restless night, with the other "sleepers" in our berth chatting excitedly throughout the night. We arrive at Kodai Rd station at 6am, watching the sun rise from the train door as we have a quick early morning chai and ciggie. Beautiful blue hazy hills emerge from the dark, tree-lined paddy fields, train overtaking flocks of birds, men squatting in fields ... at this point we start to wonder 'where do the women go ?'. At any point in time there is a high proportion of Indian men scratching their balls, spitting, peeing against a wall or roadside, or finding somewhere to sqatt ... where do the women go ?
We wait with the crowd on the roadside for a local bus to take us to Kodai Kanal .. we have no idea how long it will take or where the bus goes from. 20 minutes later we feel jubilant that we managed to clamber on the bus with all the locals and are wedged in the aisle. 40 minutes later we are tiring of our backpacks and hard stares from other passengers. An hour latewr our backpacks are stowed under bus and we are more comfortable. This is good as we have another 4 hours or so of 'rush hour' passenger movement. I start to get travel sick as the bus begins to climb and swing around the most beautiful valleys; i push my way to the back of the bus where fortunately there is an open 'stable - type' door for me to puke out of. Unfortunately it means being sqashed by the seething mass of men that lurk at the back of buses. My puking ensures some distance ... my elbows protect my dignity.

We arrive in KodaiKanal early morning and start a disheartening look around for accommodation... expensive and chilly and not very lovely hotels are plentiful. We plump for the cleanest looking and opt to look around at others. At least here in KodaiKanal we don't have the problem of radient heat generated by any limb touching another limb, your own or someone elses .. in fact we end up renting another blanket and buying Kashmiri shawls. A couple of days is enough, walking in the surrounding hills, trying to avoid all the Indian tourists (who find us most interesting) and wondering what sort of place KodaiKanal is; it's full of mosques, churches, some small tmeples, but mostly variations of christian churches ... apparently Sai Baba is due in town and the density of religious stuff is primarily due to it originally being an American hill station ... lots of evangelicals and baptists and things ... It's also darn expensive.

We head for Kumily ... the spice hills. The 5 hour local bus was more bearable (we had seats from the start due to my nifty umbrella rear guard action and a quick dashing pincer movement along the bus). But it has to said that wearing jeans was a mistake...
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Bangalore, Karnataka, India

... laughter yoga teacher, available for workshops, classes and giggles (currently available in Asia, as from September, available in the UK... probably). Another certificate to frame, handbook to digest ... string to attach to my bow ... yep the Laughter Yoga course is over. Met absolutely fabulous people (as you will see when i get to fast technology and upload some !)

As some of you will no doubt be aware, it's currently election time in India ... slightly tricksy to follow at times, but we think that each state has it's election within the next fortnight. It's hard to follow in the papers as
a) the media seems to thrive on acronyms (we've developed a few of our own too)
b) what passes for legitimate campaigning could be mistaken for bribery and corruption ("did you women receive the colour TV's and gas stoves that the last candidate promised you ? you will when you vote for me" ... i kid you not, this is not only legitimate campaigning, but also newsworthy)

Cath and I are keeping an eye on which states are at the polls and making plans to avoid them if we can ... we think we'll be heading to the north-east for some voluntary work with hill tribes people and children ... TBC as we're looking at the heat in Kolkata / Calcutta where we'd need to change planes and it's sounds horrific (42 degrees and counting). Plane is the only realistic option ... starting to realsie exactly how big India is; i found myself saying the other night "There is no way i am travelling 18 cms overland in India" - it did relate to the map scale we were looking at, but still .... it's huge ... and hot.

It's often the little 'ordinary' things that are most memorable ... like going to the ATM for some cash. Tense moments in case the card doesn't work, or gets withheld ... but here in India those moments are eased with the 'Disco-ATM'. They play a range of music while you wait, building as the transaction completes ... quite satisfying and encouraging to spin and bob out of the booth ...
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Gokarna, Karnataka, India

... as the season has been a quiet one (credit crunch fall-out ?) and it's now the end of it (all sensible people come to india to avoid cold european winter before the scorching heat of indian pre-monsoon), cath and i have the run of the place ... no long waits in restaurants, whichevr guesthouse or beach hut we want ... and beautifully peaceful, idylically uncrowded ... bliss.

Yoga is big in India (what with it coming from here) and there are still plenty of yoga-practising peeps here in Gokarna. It can get a bit stifling .. a bit too "shanti shanti" (which means peace i think and seems to be the only Hindi any yoga-loving traveller learns so they use it all the time). But actually Cath and i are having a totally shanti-tastic time (much better said in a "Phoenix Nights" style ... "that's right ladies, make an orderly line for this weeks chance at ever-lasting bliss, come on it's shanti-tastic"). We eat the most delicious food whilst being entertained with anything from roti-stealing sacred cows wandering 'into' the restaurant (on the beach) or the weekend heat of "Dance India Dance".

I have a new recipe ... for delicious, refreshing ginger beer (goes great with a slug of gin and lots of lime) and a huge respect for the baker at 'Tasty Home" bakery. Delicious cakes, pies and pastries even in searing heat. We've just about adjusted to the heat (we get up early to enjoy the cool and birds and light) we are in the shade by 10 and dont't go out into it until after 4pm ... sketching, reading, snoozing and chatting instead. We're not too sure yet if we'll make it to Kerala, it's currently 36 degrees (but feels like 46) and 90% humidity (which i guess is something like a deep paddling pool rather than 100% humidity which is obviously another way of saying swimming ...

Wednesday night we take a 12 hr "sleeper" bus to Bangalore for a 5 day yoga course ... no, i haven't become a devotee, it's a very special yoga .... laughter yoga (www.laughteryoga.org). Another friend will meet us from Uk for her easter hols ... and then we'll be on somewhere else (monsoon and swoon dependent).

There's alot of talk about the north (meaning Nepal) being cooler and peak time for visiting ... who knows, i quite fancy the madness of Kerala and the pre-monsoon festival with 101 elephants, some of the worlds best drumming orchestras, costumes of peacock feathers, long trumpets and general chaos ... then the relief of a hill station or 2 and take it from there. There's just so much to see, do, meet, eat ... for now i will sign off and go for another sweet lime soda before strolling over the hill to Kudle Beach and a lazy evening swotting the occasional mozzie.

Shanti Shanti OM Shanti
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Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India

10 days of a possible 6 months of travels and you might think there's not too much to write about ...
visa collection was a bit tight (the afternoon before we flew), but the plane was roomy and a dreamy single flight, straight to mumbai. Our hotel room seemed to be along a corridor of offices, either the hotels or a range of copying / faxing / out-sourcing for HSBC for all we know. 48hrs of bustling city was plenty; enough time some shopping, toilet visits at the Taj Mahal Hotel, a little sight-seeing, lots of wandering, and train ticket securing to go south to Gokarna.
i managed not to buy more sunglasses (even though they were "special hinged glasses, special price") or a selection from the array of available mens underpants, oversized balloons (the size of a bean-bag seat) or even a small drum. No, it was the magic tricks that caught my imagination ... a stall covered with gadgets and a very adept magician. My magic transforming bag has become the safest place to hide passport and valuables ... who would be able to find them in an empty bag ?
My other star purchase is a very sturdy (some might say heavy) black umbrella, ideal as sunshade (and no doubt monsoon rain protection later in the trip), with a button on the handle for a sort of hydralic-assisted opening. I like to think i'm a mixture of Mary Poppins and Steed from the Avengers (Cath is happy to think of herself as a mix of Joanna Lumley and Honor Blackman), however, it's possible i just look slightly eccentric and eye-pokingly dangerous. Not sure if cockney rhyming slang for umbrella is "ol' fella" but that's the 3rd member of our party introduced.
We missed the beginners roller skating class in mumbai (due to heat exhaustion and general jet-lag) but managed to see the Gateway to India, Chowpatty beach, Collaba Rd, send postcards, and buy those train tickets ...

... buying train tickets is not so easy as a foreigner. For a start you have to find the special window "for foreigners", tucked away on the first floor in one of the wings of the extensive terminal buildings. It seems like no-one wants admit they don't know where something is so they will tell you "go left and it's window 32, next to the cloakroom", or "third passage on the right and it's just there" but actually they have no idea. We were quite lucky once we did find the window (we happened to notice a sign on a wall when we having one of several "anti-stress" ciggies outside the rear of the station). We only had to make one visit and could fill in the paperwork, pay in rupees and get the tickets at the same time. Other frazzled tourists were carrying 3 different currencies, filling in repeat paperwork because it had been mislaid or talking about buses ...

On the day of travel we left our bags in the "cloakroom", having realised that the one padlock i had on my rucksack was enough to satisfy the regulation for locked bags (even though you can't lock a rucksack and it was just hanging off a toggle not doing anything) - yes one padlock between the 2 of us was enough to get the stickers to put on the bag closures, go to the scanner and get the stickers stamped, to leave the rucksacks in the "clockroom" for the day. It cost 10 rupees for the 2 bags (about 7 pence). We set off to secure some provisions for the 15 hr journey, and great street snacks they were too.

15 hours on a Thai sleeper train is a delight, and to be fair, the scenery in India was even more breath-taking. It's just the 3 tier bunks, the unfortunate location at the end of the carriage so the lights were in our eyes all night, the lack of storage, buffet car, clean sheets or curtains. It's was also the frustration at not being able to speak Hindi with the 4 other women in our section and without a carriage guard, no-one to tell us when our stop was (at 2.15am). But, we managed with some "conversing-by-expressing" and even got off at the right station, got a rickshaw and got a room in Gokarna ...a town with one of 7 sacred Shiva lingums (tourists not allowed) and consequently lots of indian pilgrims / tourists and lots of cows ... not that we could see this under cover of darkness.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1231878900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1231878900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1231878900/tpod.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:20:41 -0500 Cascoland in Peruland

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iquitos, peru, Peru

Tacna, Monday Jan 6th, 10pm:
The only thing Fiona and i have secured for our jungle trip are a couple of pairs of cut price performance trousers with zip-off legs. Unable to book flights to Iquitos or a lodge / tour (due to the strange Peruvian internet security system whereby you reserve on-line and then get in-line at the bank to actually pay for the purchase ... we lacked time and leg speed) we decide it will work out, why wouldn't it, we've got the jungle kit ...
Tacna Airport, Tuesday Jan 7th, 5am:
Somehow through the sleep-fog we manage to book a couple of flights to Iquitos for later that day once we're in Lima and bags stashed. It all looks very optimistic as step 2 comes good ...
Several hours later (and several farewells later to Mark, Bart, Teresa, Layra and Joris) we find ourselves in Iquitos airport. 'Carolyn Morton ?' ... it's just like in the movies, a man with a board with my name to respond to. Step 3 comes good and we're off to the office in town to double check the company credentials and pay for 4 days / 3 nights in the amazonian jungle. We're recommended a hotel for the night and set off for the remaining vital supplies (poncho for Fiona, repellent and cheap pumps for me ... they're white and a little out of place, but we both borrow rubber boots from the lodge in the end).
1/2 hr later we're on / in a floating restaurant in the middle of the amazon with a couple of piscos in our hands. Didn't know they had a floating swimming pool or we would have been prepared for a dip. Great food, great drinks and unbelievable location.
A good nights sleep, occasionally waking with slight panic about who i was to work with and what we had to do ... but Tacna, the desert and the Desierto project are far behind us now ...
... to be exact a 1.5 hr flight Tacna - Lima, a 1.5 hr flight Lima - Iquitos and 160 km / 3 hr speed boat down the Amazon away.

Before we are picked up in the morning we get a hasty and tasty breakfast at a local market. Iquitos is chok full of moto-tricyclos (front half motor bike, rear a sort of tuk tuk / rikshaw), and it´s a huge thrill to be riding one in the early hours. Also a huge blast of cool and fresh air. We're the only tourists at the market where there's a woman rinsing her washing in the flow from the guttering, piles of jungles fruits and farmed vegetables, essentail supplies for us (plastic bags) and snacks for the boat journey down the amazon.

The lodge is sensational (www.muyuna.com), everything on stilts in anticipation of the rising water level (we are beside the Yanaguca river a tributory of the Amazon). After lunch we´re off on our first hike, introducing us to medicinal plants, bullet ants, fire ants, leaf cutting ants, pygamy marmosets, walking palm trees and an abundant range of mosquitos. After supper our first nocturnal boat trip introduces us to pink-toed tarantulas, glass tree frogs, red spotted frogs ... and yet more mosquitos. Fiona is badly mauled by them ... they don't seem to like me so much.

And this is how our days go by ... fine food and cold refreshments, constantly surrounded by the buzz, whirr and song of the rain forrest, occasionally caught in storms (after particularly hot spells they are mostly welcome), on board little motor boats to another dazzling destination (giant lily pads with flowers full of intoxicated beetles, slowing to watch 3 toed sloths maybe move, maybe not, pirana fishing - i only manage to feed them chicken from my hook, never responding fast enough to their constant tugging - watching pink and grey river dolphin). The highlight is a nights camping beside the Amazon with a double rainbow and amazoning sunset, wine in hand and wood smoke to tame the mossies. Within an hour of arriving at the campsite our guide Hulber steps towards me asking if my forehead hurts. No, should it ? No, no, it´s just i´ve got a leech hanging off it ...considering the day before we had to all jump in the water to push, pull and rock the boat through a particularly shallow creek to see the lily pads, it seems untimely that i've managed to attract one without entering the water today.

We sleep soundly, intially concerned that there´s no sleeping bags provided, once we get in our tent it´s a huge relief there isn´t anything else clogging the sweltering space. The first species we spot in the morning is the Amazonian Boot Frog ... i don´t see it at first, but after taking a step i can feel it (or rather something) moving in my boot. Writhing and giggling to get my boot off, it´s finally released, not 100% unscathed, but it does hop off.

After a hearty breakfast we´re off on a hike ... Hulber has to cut a swathe through the forrest for the next hour (luckily he´s been telling us all about his skills and knowledge from his time in the army, navy and drug enforcement team). Having rejoined our boat we see a couple of fabulous sloths on the way home (i´ve been struggling to even see which tree everyone else is looking at, let alone distinguish sloth from trunk, so it´s a relief that even i can see the form of this one). Sloths are completely unlikely creatures (just like the Wilderbeest is the most unlikely looking animal in Africa) - something like a koala, monkey-mixed, anteater ... and they cling to the spindliest branches of the sparsest leaved trees. As they are prey for eagles it´s amazing there are any, our guide has no trouble spotting them from a good distance and a speeding motor boat.

All along the river sides are fishing nets, constantly being tended by the local people. One morning we get catfish from one of the fishermen, but mostly we simply catch brief glimpses of the river life as we pass by on our way to or from the lodge and another great fresh meal.

We see Night Owl monkeys, Whip Scorpian, a fleshy pink snake, Long nosed bats, Huntsman spiders, Fish eagles, Amazonian Kingfisher, Green Back Kingfisher, GReat White Egret, Cormorant, water Jacana ...

I decide to stay for a couple of extra days while Fiona has to start the long trek home to Amsterdam and the possibility of skating as it´s so cold. I opt for a canoeing trip (bloody hard work with all the water hyacinth and weed clogging the river) and then a 2nd night camping ... i´m really pleased i went camping again as we saw some very rare Monk Saki Monkeys on the way there ... unfortunately it was also the international conference of all the mosquitos in the amazonian basin for the first few hours of the night .. followed by the strongest rain i´ve ever experienced. I slept (well, obviously i didn´t actually sleep much) in a puddle for 8 hrs, everything soaked but still managing to sweat a little too. My disappointment was the inability of the the guides to start a fire in the morning ... even with kerosine ... we returned to the lodge a bit limp but ready for breakfast and a final stomp through the forrest.

I´ve got a couple more days in Iquitos, a truely fabulous city that brims with life and isn´t everwhelmed by tourists. Tomorrow i go to Belen floating market for breakfast and explorations then either a visit to the confluence of the river amazon, or the fish docks or the local butterfly farm / sloth sanctuary .. lots of options.

I head back to lima for some spanish lessons (and will try and get some photos added to this ...) catch-up with some friends and then back to the jungle. This time Tingo Maria in the highlands, 8hrs east of Lima with a larger chance of seeing Jaguar or Puma ... according to the guide book, but i´m not holding my breath. This short visit has really whet my appetite for the jungle, and definately given me a fresh look at Peru.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1229913240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1229913240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1229913240/tpod.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:06:24 -0500 Cascoland in Peruland

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Tacna, Peru

It might be chilly for christmas in the UK, but here, I'm clinging to the shade like a virginia creeper to a crumbling brick wall. Not quite reduced to the local way of holding whatever is your hand above your head (a book or file is most popular) ... but it could happen.
Finally got my boots resoled - for a very reasonable £4 (they were going to cost me a very unreasonable £45 in UK). Of course boots aren't really what's called for in the desert ... I'm into my 2nd pair of flip flops already ...
I'm just back from Arequipa where I spent a most refreshing weekend - lots of green spaces, birdsong, sight-seeing, cocktail drinking, other native English speakers ....
The downside was the transport to and from ... a gruelling 6 or 7 hours in blistering heat in close proximity with locals swathed in layers and layers of woollen jumpers and blankets. A heady mix. As Tacna is a tax-free shopping zone there was more than the usual amount of goods to be stowed in the bus ... excessive amounts of plastic Chinese manufactured goods. Somehow it was all stowed and we were on our way ... to the border with the next region, where we stopped for an hour whilst everything was unloaded and all the unpaid tax was accounted for.
A further 6 hours down the road we arrived in Arequipa (after the in-bus movie had played twice as it was on loop - a high quality Hong Kong kung fu epic from 1983). The hostel I had booked into turned out to be less than advertised (no hot water, pretty shabby and extremely dirty) so I moved to the very lovely 'La Casa de mi Abulla' (my grandmothers house). Lots of green spaces, birdsong and a tip-top breakfast. Saturday was a day of wandering, enjoying the colonial architecture, the benefits of being in a city with tourists and services to attract and retain said tourists, and some sightseeing. I managed to avoid the tourist tat and bought a lovely pair of stripey alpaca socks knitted by a little old lady who seemed happier that someone had entered her shop than to actually part with goods.
For a continent that has its fair share of ill-feeling towards the USA there's a lot of coca cola consumption, and for navidad, a lot of advertising shenanigans by them. This is only topped by the more traditional nativity scenes in every and any location you can imagine. This includes the already crammed dashboards of taxis. In Arequipa taxis are the smallest model of Daiwoo available, a sort of bumper car scale and driven in much the same style. There was also a heart-warming (for me) number of little white vans like mine ... used as buses, delivery vehicles for 'Llama gas', as advertising space and school buses.
Really Arequipa was a delight for a refreshing weekend before the move to the beach / desert tomorrow. A hotel (El Tigre) has been booked for us all, but we're a little uncertain about the dormitory style accommodation, so have a fall-back option for a house on the beach. With just 9 days before the first performance of the event (it will happen 4 nights in a row ... 30th, 31st, 1st and 2nd Jan) there's a lot to be done ... too much to describe or even think about at such a late hour. Suffice to say that something will happen atop the desert mountain that overlooks Boca del Rio. And in between that there will be many sunset cocktails and beach bar-b-ques.
Feliz Navidad to you all ... hope your turkey stays moist and the festive season is all you could hope for ...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1227966120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1227966120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1227966120/tpod.html Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:01:47 -0500 Cascoland in Peruland

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Tacna, Peru

Hola chicos
another week, another blog, another phase of the project ... last Tuesday marked the end of our fortnight of work in Barranquilla, a district right on the edge of Tacna, where the city drifts into the desert. Setting-up in the afternoon heat, scrabbling in the dust and amongst the rubbish to hang the screen from a goal post, the pre-'performance' energy started to build. 3 teams of us working in 3 different locations for a population of about 150 families. As i glanced to the other side of the football pitch i wondered what else was going to happen ... one of the other teams was installing a sound system of epic proportions. It all ran pretty smoothly in the end for our first event together.

Every so often we have to attend various publicity events for the project. The press launch for the project was an education in the aesthetic of local tv ... camcorders zooming in and out, panning back and forth across our faces, or the cameraman wandering around the room, arms at 90 degrees to body, bumping into chairs and tables. Last week we were guests on a talk show for TacnaTv. Arriving unfashionably on time, we were mesmerised by the guests prior to us ... a rock band launching their new poster and record. Black fishnet tshirts, leather chaps, fingerless gloves, bandanas and studs are pretty standard ... what was more unusual were the face masks decorated with various S American flags. Bart saw one of them on the street a few days later, still with his mask on ...

Finally i got the opportunity to try guinea pig, the delicacy of the high andes. There isn't alot of eating meat (it's mostly fat) so it's heart, lungs, kidneys and liver were the largest mouthful. Slightly off-putting to see its teeth grinning through the crispy crumb coating, but not off-putting enough to stop me.

I'm also perfecting my pisco mixing ... it's a pretty pokey cocktail of the local grape spirit, lime juice, sugar and an egg white (approximately 3 parts pisco, 2 lime and 1 sugar ... bang!). It's fuelled a few night of cavorting and no doubt will be refined for xmas.

This is taking me a ridiculously long time to write ... we've now completed the second phase of the project in the city centre. It was hectic to prepare in just 4 days and some things would have benefitted from a bit more time ... like the kinora i foolishly suggested (a sort of flick book on a spindle in a box, operated by a crank handle). We filled the Plaza de Armas with a labyrinth, archelogical dig, peruvian-flag-as-projection-screen, temporary radio station and 12 hours of general mayhem. Definately the first time Tacna has experienced anything like it. Whilst we were waiting to load the lorry to return materials and equipment to the theatre the nativity scene for the city was being set-up on the Plaza. Life-size figures and animals, we even got a sneak preview of baby jesus ... he's now gone, but will no doubt reappear.

Voluteers come and go with this project. During the first phase our team had Elvis and Jesus in it ... the king and the messiah, what are the chances of that happening ? For this last phase my "to do" list had the memorable task of "phone Jesus" listed (this Jesus was a carpenter - of course - and was going to make the frame for our projection screen). It turned out that Jesus was both over-priced and unreliable ... Mark was a much better option for this world.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1227102180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1227102180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1227102180/tpod.html Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:19:29 -0500 Cascoland in Peruland

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Nasca, Peru

Last friday everyone from the project jumped on a bus (a bit of panicky shuffling by me to find my passport ... way too many pockets and zippers in my rucksack). 12 hours, 2 action movies, 1/2 a bottle of whisky and several sandwiches later we arrived in Nasca. Unbelievably hot at 7am in the morning, we managed a quick swim before getting into our 'touring vehicle' for a day in the desert looking at the remains at Cahuachi - huge pyramidal adobe structures, wells and paths - and Maria Reiche's home (the German woman who first 'discovered' and Nasca Lines and spent her life surveying and studying them).
After a couple of weeks in Tacna with pot banging, whistles, constant car alarms and traffic, the hotel was a real treat for us all; open courtyards full of plants and shade and consequently birds and natural sounds. The town had streets full of bars and souvenir shops to serve the volume of tourists, but still there were not so many gringos as you might expect.
Sunday morning was the highlight of the trip with a 30 min flight over the Nasca Lines. We divided into groups for the 6 seater cesna planes and waited ... for groups to return to hear about their experience and for our turn. I was in the last group and we'd decided to pay a little extra for a 50 min flight over the Palpa, the less well known Lines that include a woman, star, solar calendar, family and a mushroom. By now it was almost 11am and extremely hot. Apparently this made the ride more 'bumpy' as the plane bounced through thermals. I held back a panic attack and onto my nerve ... unfortunately i didn't hold onto my breakfast for quite as long. As the plane tilted to the right to get a better view of the first Lines, my stomach lurched. As it banked and swept to the left over the same Line (so each side of the plane could photograph them), i realised it was going to be a long 50 mins. We had been told to simply 'look at the horizon and rub your temples' if you felt nauseous, but that would have meant missing the point of being in the plane, so i persevered, alternating between filming Lines and vomitting. It's amazing how far 3 bread rolls will take you ... my biggest concern was running out of plastic bags ...
I did manage to capture some footage of the Lines and it was a totally amazing experience.
The past week has been an intense flurry of finalising projects for the event in Barranquilla this coming monday (the 'village' we've been working in the past couple of weeks). Then we work in the city centre for a week before moving onto the desert as our final location. Tuesday night was the first weekly outdoor cinema screenings in Barranquilla. Another of the groups had made the screen ... there's some refining to do so 2 of us don't have to hold the thing upright, but all in all the night was a great success with 2 little films our group had made, a 'main feature' and a local cumbia band playing (we are now making a video for them of their performance ... we expected one song, but it turned into a 15min medley with a very static performance). The only disaster of the night was one of the production team 'brushing' her car against one of the 4 water taps that supply the whole village; we arrived to find a cluster of locals looking at the concrete slab and tap lying in the dust, shaking their heads (cement was later delivered and the repairs paid for byt the project).
For me and the the rest of the 'new media' team we spent an afternoon filming one family's pig farm, the primary income for most people in Barranquilla. Apart from the obvious pig-related smells, the air was thick with smoke from fires fuelled by a mixture of rubbish - old clothes, plastic, rubber and chicken feathers. The pig food is cooked on these fires in steel drums, huge vats of bubbling waste from local restaurants - vegetables, bread, chicken giblets and general food waste.
Editing all this footage is slower than normal as we work between film formats, computer systems and programmes, as well as teaching the group how to do all of this in a mixture of spanglish and gestures.
Friday night saw Bart give one of his performances in the theatre courtyard. Fiona set-up a Cascoland Pisco-sour bar using lots of power tools - the pillar drill with whisk for the egg whites, saw to cut the limes and pincers to squeeze them, hammers to crush the ice .... overall a great finale to a hectic week and a fabulous demonstration of how to charge a place with a different energy. Some of us rounded the night off with a trip to 'Latinos' kareoke bar. I wasn't nearly drunk enough to sing, but Bart did a great rendition of an Elvis song and Fiona and Berith worked a version of Tammy Wynette.
Tacna is still full of police and military to deter any protesters. There are a couple of tanks stationed in a garage forecourt in Ciudad Nuevo (Barranquilla is on the farthest edge of Ciudad Nuevo) and most nights we hear armoured vehicles rumbling around the centre. We're not sure how this will affect what we do next week as we move location to the city centre, but it will undoubtably be interesting, exciting, exhausting, energising ... keep you posted on progress ...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1226064960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1226064960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/camo/2/1226064960/tpod.html Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:04:24 -0500 Cascoland in Peruland

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Tacna, Peru

Last Friday i was leaving the UK to head south ... this Friday 'the south' already feels familiar. The protests are changing in form, from fires and violence in the outskirts of the city, to a daily routine of pot-banging. Every meal time people stand on their doorsteps, rooftops and parade in the streets banging pots and pans together, blowing whistles and honking horns, signifying their hunger. My excitement and curiosity at this 'performance' is beginning to wain ... nothing is open so we are stuck in our apartment which is beginning to feel more like a prison ... pacing and channel-flicking to find a sub-titled programme to practice our spanish.

The actions on the streets will feed the work we produce, whatever that might be ... as we cannot get out of town this weekend to visit the Nazca lines (well, we might be able to get out of town, but possibly not be able to get back in due to road blocks) ... we will scout for locations around town. As I squint at the mid-day sun glaring through the window I wonder how bad my hang-over will be once we get outside and around town ...

... after a week of being cooped-up in our apartment, we were super happy to get out to a local bar. At last an opportunity for a night 'on the town'. A couple of (potent) pisco sours later and we were in taxis with the production team leading us to Tacna's gay night club. It took quite a bit of persuasive discussion through the sliding hatch in the door to get into the club. Apparently it was a private party, so it came as quite a surprise to find the place empty. A few pitchers of beer later and the 8 of us were filling the floor, shaking our booties and spinning around the pole in the centre of the dance floor. In hind sight it was probably a good thing the club was empty, at least no-one saw 4 of the 7 gringos in town flailing around like there's no tomorrow. Afterall, we're here to work with the locals and it would be a shame to blot our copybook at so early a stage of the project.

It's now sunday and my hang-over wasn't really a problem during the location scouting ... but by the time we got back to the hotel, one of us had been sick, i was next to be struck and during the night a further 3 of our party fell ill. At least i didn't pull the sink off the wall whilst vomiting (an unfortunate accident that could have happened to anyone, but was a casco-fiasco). Today is much quieter, most of us weak and wobbly (except Bart who has an iron constitution and needs virtually no sleep, so he even made it to the saturday night cock-fights). It seems the protestors take the weekend off ... we'll see what tomorrow brings.

PS the project website is now up and running ... www.theatre-embassy.org/desierto
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