TravelStream™ news feed for member lisalegslim on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lisalegslim en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:10:43 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1215688320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1215688320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1215688320/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:10:43 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Tokyo, Kanto, Japan

We we're expecting Tokyo to be really expensive but we were delightfully surprised when we found it pretty cheap. Definitely cheaper than Australia. We arrived at night and took the Narita Express to Ikebukuro and then walked to Kimi Ryokan. It was a really nice traditional guesthouse. We had our own room for less than 30 pounds. It was 11pm by the time we reached the ryokan and we were hungry. We found a small restaurant down one of the side streets. The guy there could speak Mandarin so I ordered in Chinese.

The following day Nekobukuro. A place where you can play with cats. Unfortunately, most of the cats were taking their naps. Afterwards we headed to the Sumo stadium. There weren't any fights going on that day but we thought we'd check it out anyways. The sumo museum was shut too so we headed to the Edo-Tokyo museum next door. It was interesting for a while but I quickly became bored. I was asked by the ticket office if I was a student. "I wish" I replied. The lady said I looked really young, that's a good compliment coming from a fellow oriental.

Jim wanted to go geek-hunting so the next stop was Akihabara. I came here years ago to buy my camera which I still use. Didn't really see many geeks though.

For dinner we headed to the Golden Gai. We found ourselves in a cute sushi bar. When the food arrived, we couldn't see any wasabi so we asked the guy and he just pointed to our sushi. Hmmm, we thought he didn't understand us. So I was repeating the word "wasabi" at various speeds. Eventually he got one of the chefs to listen to us and then we were given a huge slab of wasabi. When we ate it with our sushi, I experienced a big zing through my nose. It turned out that the wasabi was already placed between the fish and rice.

Throughout the day I had been trying to get through to Anusha and Satsuki. Satsuki's my good friend from university who lives in Tokyo and Anusha's my best friend from schooldays. Anusha was out in Tokyo teaching some rich kids. I decided to try and phone Satsuki again, this time I was successful, yeh!
Where shall we meet? I suggested the Golden Gai, she just bursted out in laughter. We agreed to meet at one of the stations and then we headed together to Ikebukuro for some drinks. I quite liked Ikebukuro as there's plenty of restaurants, bars and the transportation line is good.

On Saturday we were moving into Anusha's place in Roppongi for our last 2 nights. She arranged for us to go on a boat party around Tokyo Bay. It was great to see her again. The boat party was pretty crazy. You pay 15 pounds and then for 2 hours you can drink as much as you can. The people Anusha had arranged this through were coach surfers. A worldwide network where you let people stay on your sofa and they let you stay on theirs when you're in their part of the world. They were really nice. Jim got chatted up by many Japanese men. Must be the ginger hair.

Afterwards, we headed to a bar and then a club called Muse in Roppongi Hills. With Anusha living in Roppongi, it meant it was nice and easy getting home.

The next day Anusha had work so Jim and I went to meet Satsuki at Harajuku. En-route to Meiji-Jingju we saw lots of Harajuku girls. Little bo-peep was really cute so I got Jim to have his picture taken with her. The trees in Meiji-Jingu kept us cool from the strong heat. Later we went to Yoyogi park next door. That was one interesting park. There were a group of middle-aged guys dressed up as teddy boys prancing around; guys doing trick on their bikes; some people doing caipoiera and further down the park there were outdoor parties. What a cool park!

We walked to Shibuya and met Anusha for dinner. We had such a fantastic time in Tokyo. It was so much fun having friends out there. Having the weekend there was really great.

So that was the last day of our extended honeymoon but I was ready to go home. Now we have a new adventure to look forward to - moving to Shanghai.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1215515460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1215515460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1215515460/tpod.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:55:01 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Cairns, Queensland, Australia

After 3 weeks travelling around in a campervan, it was time to say goodbye. It was so much fun being in a campervan. We got a good deal from Backpackers. It gave us so much freedom to stop where we liked up the east coast and it great to cook our own food.

We really enjoyed a place Spot X at Arrawarra beach. http://www.mojosurf.com/flex/spot_x_surf_school_arrawarra_coffs_harbour/60/1/default.htm
We ended up spending 5 days there. We would go surfing everyday. It was beautiful seeing the beach from our campervan every morning. Jim was lucky enough to see dolphins when he was out surfing.

We headed onto Byron's bay, a well-known surfers town. It was a nice, little hippy-resort style town with lots of surfers around. Enroute to Brisbane we stopped at Nimbin. A hippy village where people constantly offer you weed. It was a quaint little place but it felt pretty commercialised. We met up with my friend Denis for dinner. It'd been 10 years since I'd seen him. We met in Taiwan years ago. He seemed more Chinese than me. We ended the night singing karaoke. He was really good at singing Chinese songs whilst Jim and I stuck to English.

Other places we swent to were Agnes Water and Airlie beach. The Whitsundays were beautiful. It's easy to find a cheap one-day snorkelling trip. You could dive as well but they only go to around 10 metres so I thought I'd might as well just save my money and snorkel. We went to Whitehaven beach, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It is so beautiful there. The sand is fine and white and the sea crystal clear. I wish we could've spent a bit more time on the beach there. Afterwards, we were taken to snorkel on the outer barrier reef. The water was pretty cold. There was a wide variety of fish. They were pretty huge as well.

After the Whitsundays we headed to Ayr to dive the SS Yongala wreck. The SS Yongala was built in England and sank during a cyclone in 1911. The wreck was not discovered until 1958. It lies on a remote location and is nowadays still largely intact. You can for example still see pieces of furniture. When disaster struck the ship, 122 lives were lost. The bodies were never recovered and the wreck is a marine gravesite. Therefore it is not allowed to enter the wreck, out of respect for those who died there. The top of the wreck starts at 14 metres below the surface and the maximum depth of the dive site is about 28 metres.

I decided to be really organised and book the dive in advance. We went with Yongala dive as you'll be there within 30 minutes. If you did it from Magnetic Island, you're looking at a 3 hour boat ride. http://www.yongaladive.com.au/ When we went to confirm everything the day before, we were told that part of the boat was broken and would have to wait til the day after to do the dive. The dive was worth waiting for. It has to be one of the best dives i've done. I saw turtles, rays, codfish, trevallies and so on. It was full of so much marine life. I even saw the toilet, it's still in tact. During the first dive I heard a whale, unfortunately we didn't get to see it though.

After our dives we headed to Townsville, using it as a base to get to Magnetic Island.
Magnetic Island was very busy. We decided to stay at Base backpackers for a night but it was the wrong choice. It was in a beautiful location but if you want to sleep, it's not the place to be. We were unfortunate to be put in a dorm with the most disrespectful people. After midnight, once the bar was shut, they stayed up til 5am, talking outside loudly for everyone to hear. Coming in and out of the room, turning on the lights. I was lucky that I could sleep through it. Unfortunately Jim couldn't and made sure he made lots of noise in the morning.

It was really nice at the Koala reserve at Bungalow Bay. If they had beds available, it would've been great to stay there. The talk was very informative and interactive. We got to hold a baby salty, a cobra, lizards and of course a koala. Aussies don't seem to like koalas but I think they're cute and cuddly.

Next stop and last stop was Cairns. I expected it to be touristy but it wasn't too bad. I thought about doing a dive but there don't seem to be dive schools which solely do diving. You basically have to go on a snorkelling trip with bout 30+ other people and then you have an option of doing dives in addition to that. The expense and the huge number of people didn't appeal to me so in the end I decided to give it a miss. If I went back, I'd go on a liveaboard. Maybe once I start earning money again, as it's so expensive.

We enjoyed our last days in Cairns. We ended it with a great meal in a French restaurant.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1214132280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1214132280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1214132280/tpod.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:15:19 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Arrawarra, Australia

So here I am in campervan overlooking Arrawarra beach at Spot X up the east coast of Australia. Tonight will be our 4th night here. Now going back to Fiji where I last left this blog -
we flew to Taveuni also known as the Garden Island. We travelled in a small 15-seater plane and had spectacular views over the reefs. When we landed we were driven to a boating dock and we're later greeted by Apax to take us to the Dolphin Bay Divers Retreat. It was definitely the best boat journey we'd been on in Fiji. Dolphin Bay Divers is actually on the bigger island of Savusavu but is most easily accessed from Tavueni. It's in a prime location as it's close to well-renowned diving sites such as the Great White Wall. When we arrived we were greeted by Neva, a pretty Fijian lady of Polynesian descent. They didn't have any bures available for the first 2 nights so we stayed in one of the house tents When we signed in we met Viola, the co-owner of the retreat and then a group of guests having their lunch. We quickly got to know them. Jo and Derek, an Irish couple who had just got married there; Maegan, a 20-something Australia-loving American studying for her open-water course; Dave and Kat, an outdoorsy American couple and Simon from South London who was travelling for a year and currently doing his Divemaster course. We later met Elizabeth who had arrived earlier that day. Later on we met Roland, co-owner of the retreat. He normally leads the dive trips but he'd been involved in an accident with the generator and so had to wait for his leg to heal, much to his and Viola's frustration. In the evening, Corrina (Swedish with a Kiwi accent) a friend of Viola's arrived.

It was beautiful on this secluded beach. We eventually met all 8 cats. My favourite being Kerry cat, a cute little feral cat. There were 2 dogs - Boxer and Sox. Everyone was told not to stroke Sox because he was unrpredictable and would bite. Throughout the week I started feeling sorry for him and started stroking him. Boxer is a sweet dog who felt it his duty to protect me from the 4 year-old girl and her dogs living next door. The food there was fantastic. The only thing we didn't like about it was Viola's constant moaning. She would complain bout Fijians being lazy but the girls seem to work really hard from dawn til dusk.

Our first dive was to Jerry's Jellies. There were 5 of us - myself, Jim, Elizabeth, Derek and Simon as our guide. Elizabeth had done 1000 dives already and was a qualified Divemaster. Derek spent years in the army as a search and rescue diver. We descended and swam around when my mask started filling up with water, not a problem, I'll just let it out but it kept on happening. I got used to this occurrence and was happily looking at fish when whoosh, Jim and I were separated from the group and now in a strong current. All of a sudden Derek appears out of nowhere and pins us down the ground. Simon and Elizabeth appear and now Derek has taken hold of me and Elizabeth has taken hold of Jim. We follow Simon's direction and are now away from the current and at Rainbow's Passage. By this time my mask is completely filled up so I have to keep letting out the water. We swim around for a bit and then surface and head to the next dive site - The Cabbage Patch, a nice, easy dive. We were so glad to have Derek and Elizabeth there as we'd never experienced strong currents like that before. We spent the next few days diving, after changing my mask, diving was so much better. Other sites we dived at were The Ledge, Coral Gardens (we like to call it Coral Graveyard), Mike's Corner, Fish Factory and the infamous Great White Wall (advanced-divers only). It was touch-and-go as to whether or not we would get to dive the Great White Wall so we were happy that we did. It all depends on the current, if the timing is wrong then you could end up all the way in New Zealand. We had the perfect conditions. It was such an interesting dive, at first going through a coral tunnel to reach the Great White Wall, a sheer vertical drop which goes beyond 60 metres. The wall was covered with white coral and looked like a Christmas tree. When we were heading back up a couple of tunnels, there was a beautiful white-tip reef shark basking by the purple corals. Definitely, a fantastic dive.

Derek said to us that we would end up extending our stay as everyone else had done so and he was right, we ended up staying for 4 more nights. The food was a major factor in keeping us there.

We had a few more days left when we got back to the mainland of Fiji and we were toying with the idea of going to one of the Yasawaya islands but it would work out pretty expensive due to the boat transfers. Instead we stayed at Stoney Creek Lodge (recommended by Maegan), north of Nadi airport. It was perfect for us. A tranquil setting with beautiful, sunny views.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1212129240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1212129240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1212129240/tpod.html Fri, 30 May 2008 02:59:01 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji

Wow!! I just did a couple of fantastic dives. After our flight from Santiago was delayed and we were put up in the Sheraton, we were in Auckland for a couple of days. I was amazed by how many Chinese people there were. I felt like I was in Chinatown everywhere. We even managed to fit in a tango class on the day we arrived.

After the cold of Patagonia, it was so exciting to land into Fiji. We spent a few nights on Mana Island. We had a simple bure (bungalow) on the beach. There were plenty of opportunities to dive but I thought I'd save my money for the shark dive in Beqa lagoon. We were told by the manager of our place that their dive master doesn't use gloves when they feed their sharks in Mana. That dive wouldn't be later in the week but we were planning on heading east before than. The snorkelling on Mana was great, cheap too. The first day we arrived, the visibility was amazingly clear. We hadn't realised the snorkelling was so good until after we'd done some kayaking. Kayaking there was difficult, the wind was blowing me round in circles and the tide was low. We thought we were kayaking over dead coral but it turned out there's lots of fish around there. Crap!! We had a go at fishing but had no success in catching any fish. Gutted! Meals were included with the accomodation cos there aren't any shops on the island. The food wasn't enough though so we had to leave the island .

After a scary boat ride back to the mainland we headed to Pacific Harbour which is near to Beqa Lagoon. We stayed at Uprising but didn't have a good impression cos the receptionists were unfriendly so we decided to stay at Tsulu the day after. It was very isolated in both places and we couldn't get on the shark dive til later in the week. It had filled up quickly. After fearing we would be bored for the next few days we got used to it. I signed up for a dive yesterday which was definitely worth doing. There were just so many fish and a couple of reef sharks. It was nice to be in the water again. 6 other people on the dive had been on a conservation camp for 6 weeks so they could name all the fish. Very useful to have them onboard. Unfortunately my BCD wasn't onboard, well I reckon it was but one of the other girls had claimed it as hers so I had to take the Divemaster's instead and he went down with just the tank and regulator. Apparently it's happened before.

Jim and I later joined Tukai (Divemaster) and his colleagues to drink some kava at their staff house. It's some plant made into a drink that makes you sleepy and relaxed.

Today we did 2 shark dives. It was great!! We saw nurse, silvertip, lemon and bull sharks. I was a bit disappointed we hadn't seen the tiger shark but it was still a fantastic dive. We all stroked the nurse sharks. They seemed greedy trying to eat all the food. The dive instructors would push them away. They we're like greedy dogs. As we were surfacing there was a silvertip swimming around beneath me. Great dive!! Definitely recommend it.

Heading to Tavueni tomorrow for apparently more great dives. Can't wait!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1210853520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1210853520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1210853520/tpod.html Wed, 21 May 2008 06:53:06 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Mendoza, Argentina

I've been in Mendoza for almost a week now. It's so nice to be in one place for more than a few days so that I can empty my rucksack in the room.

The Navimag boat trip from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt was relaxing but not quite what everyone had expected. We'd all expected to see wildlife along the way but there wasn't any. Food was ok, like school dinners. On the second day there was a briefing about how bad the waves would be so they would make an announcement about when to take motion sickness pills. This resulted in everyone falling off to sleep. Luckily, Jim and I managed to wake up for dinner. It was so difficult to walk around though, it was like being drunk with the boat swaying side to side. Not many people made it for dinner.

The following day we were told that a volcano had errupted and the Captain was going to steer the boat close to it. It was meant to happen around lunch time but there was no volcano in sight. We gave up looking out for it.

In the evening there was a game of bingo. Jim one one game of bingo but we had to dance for our price. It was a fun evening and then everyone started rushing outside. Apparently we were near to the errupting volcano. Amongst the darkness there a slight red glow which we think was the volcano. Excitement over.

It was nice to be back on ground. We decided to head back into Argentina as we love it here. Jim wanted a juicy steak too for his birthday. We headed for Bariloche. It took us a few attempts before we found a hostel with vacant rooms. The day after we moved to Pudu, a cheaper hostel run by an Irish couple. It's so cozy there and they're so nice. It's only been opened for a month.

We decided to hire a car and drive around the Lake District. Definitely a good way of seeing the sights. I wasn't interested in hiking any more. It was so beautiful there.
One evening we started getting covered in dust. At first I thought it was just a dusty road but then it got worse. The ash of the errupted volcano had made it's way to Bariloche. By the time we got back to our hostel we were totally covered in ash.

Our next stop was to Mendoza. We took an overnight bus to the warmer climates of Mendoza. It's a pretty little city with tree-lined streets. Nice cafes like BA. One problem is that there aren't loads of tango classes around like in BA. Almost one a day but one a day isn't much. The classes are so much cheaper though at 7 pesos.

We decided to try out paragliding. It's basically skydiving minus the freefall. I was paired up with a guy called Pancho. We all had to wait around until the wind was blowing in the right direction. We had a false start. I didn't quite know what was going on. I felt us being blown but then the parachute came back down. I wasn't feeling so confident in my instructor by this time. After a couple of minutes we successfully left the ground. It was a nice feeling floating in the air but it came to an end pretty quickly. Jim enjoyed the paraglide a lot more than me. He stayed in the air for longer and higher too.

Some people recommended the wine and bike tour. Cycling to the wineries and tasting wines. Hmmm, not sure if that mixes well. Sounded like fun though. For 60 pesos you can go on the "bikeandwine" tour but we decided to do it independently. We took the bus to Maipu (1.40 pesos) and then rented bikes from a local family (15 pesos). I hadn't cycled for ten years and even back then I wasn't very good at it. As a kid I had roller skates and not a bike. It was only when I was in China I was given a bike after one of the foreign students went back to the U.S after one semester. I only used it a few times as it seemed safer for other cyclists if I walked rather than cycled. With this in mind I was destined to fall of my bike in Mendoza. It wasn't the safest road to cycle on. You have to cycle on this big main road and then there are side streets leading to the wineries. The problem with cycling around here is that it's a busy road with lorries and cars speeding by. It didn't help that they would hoot as they came up behind you. I was cycling quite well and then all of a sudden my bike slipped on the gap and off I fell. Damnit! I rested for 5 minutes then continued on my bike with success. We went to a couple of wineries and then ended the day at a chocolate liquer making place. We were given a shot of chocolate liquer ( I chose chocolate with mint) and the lady gave us a mixture of chocolates too. So yummy and cheap at 5 pesos. Mmmmm. Good job the place we rented the bikes from wasn't too far away. 8 wine tastings and a shot of chocolate liquer (20% alcohol) mixed with cycling can be dangerous for someone with my alcohol intolerance. It was an enjoyable day but would've been better if there weren't any cars around.

The next day I went to the thermaspas at Cachueta, an hour away from Mendoza. It was great spending the whole day there, well worth the money (25 GBP). The trip included transport and lunch. The thermaspas are surrounded by the Andes so it was really beautiful relaxing in the spas. I had a mudbath and massage too. Bliss!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1205607720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1205607720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1205607720/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 16:40:37 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Á whole load of us have been kicked out of Ipanema beach house so Jim and I have moved to Catete, a residential area of Rio closer to town. We get our own room and it´s cheaper too! Yeh! Thought we´d have a change of scenario.

Last night, a whole group of us from the hostel went to check out the nightlife in Lapa. Safer in large numbers. It was basically one huge street party with very cheap caprihanas. The caprihanas here are so strong!! Some of the people from the hostel were scaring the locals. One Australian girl was hugging the policeman and kissing him on the cheek. He was like "no kiss, no kiss". One guy seemed to be pursuing a very skanky prostitute. We´re still wondering if he made it back home to the hostel.

Some of us decided to hit the samba clubs but by the time we went to them they were closing. We thought the nightlife was meant to carry on til sunrise. Anyway, Jim and I are going to check out a samba club tonight. Should be fun!

I´m feeling sleepy now. It´s only 4pm. We got back to the hostel at around 4am but then I woke up around 8.30am and couldn´t get back to sleep cos I was hungry.

Anyway, we´re just going to laze around. Hard to do stuff in Rio when there´s torrential rain. Going to a football match tomorrow - Flamingo vs Botofogo, it´s meant to be a good match, looking forward to it! No doubt we´ll bump into lots of people we met at the hostel again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209581580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209581580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209581580/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 16:39:14 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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El Chalten, Patagonia, Argentina

El Chalten
The day after, we headed for El Chalten. We had to make sure we had enough cash before we went as there are no banks or ATMs there. I couldn't quite believe how small El Chalten is. It's tiny. Basically, one long street with some side streets. I thought that Calafate was a small town but Chalten is smaller. We stayed at Nothafagus B&B, a nice cosy place. It worked out 8 pounds each per night including breakfast. We found a cute restaurant/cafe down the road and I tried a Patagonian stew. Perfect for warming us up in the cold rain.

The next day we went hiking to Mt Fitz Roy. It was cloudy but dry. The trail was nice,everything we saw was beautiful. We didn't get to see the Fitz Roy but it was still a lovely hike. We walked from town along the Laguna de los tres trail (4 hours one way) to Campamento Poincepont. We bumped into a couple of American girls who had hiked from El Pilar. They drove to El Pilar and then hiked to the same spot. It took them 3 hours and they'd seen a glaciar and icebergs. We thought we'd seen the same glaciar as them so we decided to take another trail back into town. Along the way, a German guy appeared from the trees. His trousers were wet up to the knees. He said that he was trying to go across the river to climb up the hills. The water was icy cold. It was entertaining meeting this very adventurous guy. He went off running back into town but later we met him again and showed us the hill he had just been up. Then he ran off again cos he was getting cold.

The day after we took a taxi to El Pilar to do the hike the girls had done. It cos 70 pesos, not too bad. When we got out of the taxi, we were greeted by the cutest cat. She was so affectionate and adorable. She followed us for a while and were glad when she stopped as we weren't going back to El Pilar. We were worried that she'd get lost in the forest and get lost. It was our favourite hike. You could see all the mountains including the Fitz Roy. The autumn leaves were different shades of red and orange. It was such a lovely contrast to the shades of blue of the glaciar. We walked back down Laguna de los tres trail into town.

On our last day, Jim decided to hike to Laguna Torre before our evening bus ride back to Calafate. I opted out of the 6 hour hike. My left ankle was feeling strained. I think I strained it in a tango class. I wanted to rest it as I knew we'd be hiking a lot in Torres Del Paine. At first I was relaxing at Nothafagus but quickly got bored so I went to walk around town but there was nothing much open. The only thing to do is to hike around. I decided to do a short easy hike. I just walked an hour and a half out of town.
It was so peaceful. I soon got tired and didn't want to be too far away from town anyway. My imagination goes a bit wild. I don't like being in forests by myself. Besides, Jim wouldn't have know where I went to. I decided to go up a hill like the German guy we had met. Along the way, I saw a condor. I've captured it on camcorder. The view of the town and mountains from the hill was cool. By the time I got back to Nothafagus, Jim was already there. We headed for the microbrewery for some delicious food before heading back to Calafate.

The next day, we went to Puerto Natales, Chile. Everywhere was so sparse and eventually we stopped at a petrol station where you could get something to eat and drink. The wind was crazy. I was getting pushed by the wind. The border crossings were tedious. Exit Argentina, drive for a bit and then enter Chile. I'm running out of space in my passport so whenever the immigration officials are about to stamp my passport I'm like 'stop, can you stamp it here please'. They seem to love stamping a new page otherwise which now I have none. One couple had some sort of wooden statue confiscated. The cutom official I went through opened one pocket of my rucksack and then let me go. He then went off for a siesta and poor Jim had to wait for his turn with the strict official.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209149820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209149820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209149820/tpod.html Sun, 11 May 2008 16:37:40 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Heading for Torres del Paine

We eventually reached Puerto Natales and went to stay at Erratic Rock. It seemed cosy but our bedroom had cracks in the windows, a hole behind the heater and was freezing. We'd been spoilt
by the underfloor heating in Argentinian Patagonia. We eventually figured our how the heating worked and our room was toasty.
After having some lunch and withdrawing Chilean pesos, we went back to Erratic Rock for the 3pm talk on Torres del Paine. There were 6 of us. 2 Spanish guys, 2 American-Mexicans and us. Rustin advised us to have 2 sets of clothes - one layer of dry clothes to relax in and one layer of wet clothes to go hiking in. There's no point wearing Goretex whilst you hike he told us. You just have to get wet, it'll eventually dry off. Hmmmm. We'll be walking through ditches and getting wet knee-high. Hmmmm, in my sleepy state, this did not sound appealing. He said that if you're going to miss out any part of the W then it should be the towers.
The American-Mexicans had planned to hike the whole circuit but it was now not possible as parts of it have been closed due to paths being covered by snow. They were planning on camping whereas we were planning on staying in refugios (dorms). Camping in Patagonian autumn did not appeal to us. For a start, we don't know how to put up a tent and secondly, it's cold! Not sure if it would be good time to test out camping. I just have memories of camping in Peru and shivering when it was -10 degrees whilst wearing all my clothes inside a sleeping bag and tents which are catered for those sort of conditions. Camping however would offer a lot of flexibility as some refugios had already closed or were closing. Those 4 guys decided to leave the day after but we decided to leave on Friday to give us some time to get things together.

Our shopping list consisted of:
hot dogs, rolls, cream cheese, pasta, pasta sauces, soup packets, salami, chorizo, olives, dried mangos, porridge, dried apricots, banana chips, chocolate, biscuits, tostadas, pate and dulce de leche.
Lets just say,we had a good meal everyday. We rented a stove and bought some gas. Definitely very useful to have.

We booked our refugios through Carla at Erratic Rock. We had to pay 10% commision and then if you use pesos you get charged more due to government tax. Unfortunately, i didn't have enough US dollars to avoid this. If you want to pay for major things, use US dollars. She couldn't reserve the first one and didn't know why not.

The next morning, there were 7 of us taking the 7.30am bus to Torres del Paine. 2 Americans who looked like they were experienced hikers and campers, very well equipped. One guy from Australia. An American-Indonesian with we think a German girl. They were planning on camping. The girl had camped before but he hadn't. He'd tried out putting up the tent the day before.

Day 1
We were all planning on hiking the W from west to east. The bus dropped us off at Laguna Amarga where we took a shuttle bus to Guarderia Pudeto. We all had to wait for an hour for the 12 noon ferry. Everyone walked around to keep warm. The ferry ride was nice and I had a warming hot chocolate. The ferry arrived at Refugio de Paine Grande. I made sure I was the first at reception and asked if we could stay at Refugio Grey further north for the first day. The guy used his walkie talkie to phone Refugio Grey. There was room but it was their last night so we would have to leave the following day. That suited us fine. It fit in with our plans. We had our hot dogs for lunch and then headed off to Refugio Grey. It was 11km away (3.5 hours walk away). The view was beautiful as we approached the glacier. We met a lovely couple from Texas who were camping. They'd planned to do the circuit but were kind of glad it was closed as they said they weren't too well prepared. They invited us to hang out with them. We wanted to but once we settled into the refugio and had finished eating dinner we felt too cosy and warm too go out into the cold. It seemed that we were the only ones staying in the refugio. Mike, the Texan had told us that some Costa Ricans took 6 hours to do that trek. So long!! They didn't get to camp til 10pm and didn't know how to set up their tent. It was pretty noisy in the refugio as the the staff were celebrating their last night of work. I was shattered so managed to fall off to sleep.

Day 2
The next day we headed north of the trail in hope to get closer to the glaciar. We bumped into the American-Mexicans - Ezra and Pablo we'd met at Erratic Rock. They'd been camping at Campamento los Guardas. They said that there had been an avalanche further up and there was ice under the gravel. We managed to get as far as they did after hiking for 2 hours. It didn't look safe to carry on. We hiked back down to Paine Grande. 5.5 hours back.
Refugio Paine Grande looked more like a hotel. It has a well-stocked shop which we thought would be expensive (according to the Lonely Planet) but it's actually not. There's a shared kitchen which meant we didn't need to start using our gas yet. Since it is low season we had a room to ourselves. The only problem was that the rooms are cold. Everyone would congregate around the fire in the common room to keep warm. That night we cooked pasta with cream cheese and olives, yum!

Day 3

We woke up early and started hiking in the dark. Our aim was to hike up Valle Frances and then get to Los Cuernos (10.5 hours). The trail from Paine Grande to Campamento Italiano was a nice easy hike. We decided to stop there for breakfast. We heard someone chuckling. Hmmm, we've heard that laugh before, it was Ezra. Him and Pablo had just woken up. They were planning on staying at Refugio Cuernos too. We chatted to them for a while and then headed up Valles Frances. The track was quite challenging, it was like an obstacle course. As we got further up it started snowing and soon we bumped into a guy coming down. He said that the snow became knee high. The scenery reminded me of House of the Flying Daggers where the seasons change suddenly. There would be huge gusts of snow. When we reached Campamento Britanico, 2 of the Americans we'd met on the bus from Erratic Rock were resting under a shelter someone had previously made. We didn't chat for long as we still had a long day ahead of us and it was cold. We reached the mirador and cooked our hot dogs there. Later on the 2 Americans appeared and then Ezra and Pablo too. Everyone had bumped into the Asian guy at some point. He had got lost. There was some snow but none of us had reached snow up til our knees. Despite being the first ones there, we were the last ones to leave. Perhaps we left a bit too late. When we reached Campamento Italiano, we saw the Texans setting up camp. We stopped to chat for a bit but had to rush off as it was now 5pm and sunsets around 6.20pm. We still had to walk for 2.5 hours. We actually thought it was going to be an easy trail but it still involved going up and down and clambering over rocks. We started walking though prickly bushes, ouch they hurt. "Jim, do you think this is the right way" I asked. He reassured me it was. It was a clear path but just with prickly plants. We reached a stream but there were no markings. We crossed it and then Jim decided to go upstream. By this time it was getting dark. He took my headtorch and whilst I was waiting for him it turned dark. He came back with no luck. "I'll try further down" he said. "Don't leave me, I'll come with you". I didn't want to be left alone in the dark. We went to what seemed like a clear trail but again this was a dead end. There were piles of rocks in the way. I wanted to climb over but Jim said it'd be best if we find some shelter and leave in the morning. I so wanted to climb over the rocks as I knew we were 20-30 minutes away. There was a warm bed waiting for us.

We managed to find a sheltered area under some trees and then gathered branches to create a small shelter. You're not allowed to create shelters in Torres del Paine but this was an emergency. We had no tents or sleeping bags. Luckily, we had a stove, food and a pot so we cooked our pasta. We put on all our clothes and slept in a black bin liner. We would wake up throughout the night shivering so I put my rucksack across our legs which seemed to help. The wind was ferocious, it sounded so scary but luckily we were sheltered. We were so lucky that it didn't rain. The night passed a lot quicker than we thought it would.

Day 4
After having breakfast and with the sun now up, we felt a lot better. We retraced our steps and then saw the mistake we had made. Before the prickly bushes, we should've taken the trail to the right towards the lake instead of heading straight. Even in daylight, the path we took looked like a such a clear path.

When we reached Refugio Los Cuernos, Ezra and Pablo were still there. Everyone staying there had been partying the night before so were hungover. We were gutted. They said that they were worried bout us and asked the staff if anything could be done to find us but they said "no". They had got lost for an hour around the same place we had got lost. Luckily, they still had enough sunlight to find their way to the refugio. We chatted to French guy called Sam. Him and his friend had got lost in the dark and the rain when they had come down from the Torres. He said they saw a puma and there were lots of goats staring at them. They had to wade through a river which came up to their knees. They however eventually made it down to Hosteria Las Torres. Their story sounded worse but he thought our was worse as he didn't have to sleep under trees.

After resting for a while, we headed to Refugio Norte Torres. The easy 4 hour hike seemed like eternity as we were tired from the night before. We had originally planned to try and get to the Torres that day (12-13 hours in total) but we'd now scrapped that plan. At that moment in time, we didn't care about finishing the "W". We were lucky enough to have our own room again. The refugio was nice with a made bed. It was so comfy, it had a hammock in the common room. The showers were good and there seemed to be hot water 24 hours day. After dinner, we went to bed. Had such a fantastic sleep. We woke up before sunrise and decided to head to the Torres. According to the map it would take us 8-9 hours altogether but we had a bus to catch at 2pm. We decided just to walk for 6 hours, see how far we get. Somehow, we reached a lot further than we had expected. We were now at the point where we were 45 minutes away from the mirador. We could see part of the Torres. We didn't have time but I felt disappointed as we were so close. Jim and I were debating whether or not it would be worth going up and missing our bus and having to stay another night at the Refugio (18 pounds each). We decided to head back and then we stopped again. Jim could sense my disappointment. Then we bumped into Ezra and Pablo, they had gone up for sunrise. We then decided to go up but when Jim reached the signposts he said that it had turned cloudy so we decided to head down to the refugio and catch our bus. You can see were quite indecisive people. I soon got over the disappointment. Instead we walked up a hill near our refugio and enjoyed the view of the Torres from there whilst eating our lunch.
It was nice coming back into town. My legs, bum and lower back were aching.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209760980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209760980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisalegslim/1/1209760980/tpod.html Fri, 02 May 2008 16:45:25 -0400 Goodbye Cathay Pacific..........Hello world!!

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Puerto Natales, Chile

Lots of us are just hanging around to take the Navimag boat northwards to Punto Montt. It's been delayed by one day. It's a 4 nights, 3 day trip. Yes, that's right 4 nights and 3 days. We embark tonight and leave whilst were still in bed. Looking forward to it, should be relaxing. I hear the food is meant to be good. I've bought motion sickness tablets along with everyone else as I'm no good with rough waters. We'll be passing through fjords, seeing glaciers and wildlife. Should be fun!
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Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile

Wow! 2 weeks in Patagonia have flown by so quickly. I`ve never done so much hiking in my life before. I remember not wanting to hike again after doing the Salkantay 5-day trek in Peru a few years back.

I discovered that Jim and I were so much more productive when we were apart. We couldn`t get on the same flight to El Calafate. In Argentina, they only have a set number of seats available to foreigners at a cheaper price. There only seemd to be one seat available each day.

Whilst Jim was on the plane to Patagonia I went to a technical tango class for women at the Centro Borges Cutural centre. It was very good, difficult though. I managed to scratch my lower left leg with my high heel. Afterwards I headed for the zoo. I wanted to see the snow leopards but in hindsight I don`t think I should´ve gone. Some of the animals looked so sad.

I managed to lose my map of Buenos Aires in the zoo. I had planned to go to the Museo National de Belle Artes. Being the type of person who gets lost all the time, having a map is pretty important to me. However, I somehow managed to figure out which bus to take and found it with little difficulty. Success, yeh!! The art gallery was big with a huge range of artwork. It has paintings by the likes of Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh along with Argentine artists. I saw some people taking pictures so I thought, oh you`re allowed to take pics in the galleries here. So, I started snapping away and 5 minutes later there was announcement sating that taking photos are not allowed. Ooops!

Dinner time was a bit lonely so I was looking forward to seeing Jim the next day.

I first flew into Ushuaia. It looked beautiful with snowcapped mountains surrounding the airport. I wanted to spend a bit of time here but it wasn`t something of interest for Jim.

When I arrived into Calafate I headed to the airport bus ticket booth and to my surprise there was Jim. He`d come to meet me. How sweet!! He´d been very productive and found out plenty of things to do in Patagonia. Cool!

El Calafate is a small town but an expensive tourist town. The hostel we stayed at was nice with lots of facilities. Our room had heated floors, what a great idea! The next day we went on a short horse ride around Calafate. It was a nice way of killing time but not a `must`. My horse seemed to like being at the front and whenever it heard another horse trying to overtake it would up it`s speed.

The next day we did the big ice hike at Perito Moreno glacier. It was expensive but definitely worth it. We were so lucky to have good weather, would`ve been awful in the rain. Jim had done his research on the weather too. We`d done a glacier trek on the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand before but this one was so much more impressive. We were lucky enough to see part of the glacier calve off. My camera was having serious problems. It would turn off at the best photo opportunities like when we were by ice caves. The glacier was different shades of blue. So beautiful! After 4 hours on the ice and a bit of hiking, we were exhausted. We slept so well that night.
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