TravelStream™ news feed for member razandrich on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/razandrich en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 20 May 2009 17:21:36 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1242850920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1242850920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1242850920/tpod.html Wed, 20 May 2009 17:21:36 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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Uyuni, Bolivia

The bus left at 6am from San Pedro and everyone on the bus bar a couple of other tourists seemed to be Bolivians heading back home after working a hard week in their more affluent neighbour. The bus was cramped and apparently farting away on public transport is the way to go here - the bus just reeked. Bolivia is the continent´s poorest country and recently elected its first indigineous, ex-cocoa farmer president. The roads are crumbly, the buildings falling apart, but after spending the past couple of months in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, this is the first time I truly felt I was in South America. Gone are the western fashions, flat roads, modern transport and buildings, in come the women in pleated skirts and bowler hats, shakey breaky roads, and the mud brick homes. Just what i needed after the quasi European cities I had been in.
On the bus I met a couple of French guys and a Costa Rican who were fluent in spanish so I had their language skills on hand when going through the border crossing formalities.
We reached Uyuni and checked into a hostel. Memories from Asia came flooding back as the cost of one night was less than 3 pounds. The Frenchies and Costa Rican were proper travellers - minus dreads and those colourful baggy trousers. We´d be eating lunch and dinner in all the best salmonella-ridden joints for little under 2 pounds including a drink. Luckily we went our separate ways the next day as I don´t think I could have dined on week-old fried chicken and chewy rice for too long.
I headed to the famous Salar de Uyuni on a tour, and it was one of the most awe inspiring sites I´ve seen on my trip so far. It used to be the site of a massive prehistoric lake, but all thats left now is a 12,000sqkm plain covered in salt as far as the eye can see. It was pretty special - check the pics. We also went to a train cemetery in the middle of the desert, which housed some rusty old locomotives from yesteryear and a visit to a salt hotel which was deemed an illegal structure but was still used by some tours as an overnight stop over. We also visited a Cactus Island in the middle of the salt plain desert. I´m bored, check the pictures.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1242847920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1242847920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1242847920/tpod.html Wed, 20 May 2009 16:21:06 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama is a tiny little town catering for the tourist hordes looking for adventures in the desert. I arrived at night and apart from the cold, the thing that grabs your attention is the stars. The Atacama desert is the driest in the world with cloudless skies for 360 days a year, perfect for seeing the stars. Its no wonder that a lot of the world´s most powerful telescopes are located here. The days here are blindingly sunny and hot and the nights baltic. I found myself a decent looking hostel and haggled my hardest as the accommodation is pretty expensive. My haggling landed me a private room/cell, big enough for a spongy bed and a hip hop artist montage poster. I´m certain this used to be a servant´s quarter as it was only accessible via the laundry room and was far away from the other ´legitimate´ rooms.
I went into town the next day and hired a bike to explore some of the surrounding sights. There was an old 12th century fort called Pukara de Quitor which was a testing climb to the top, but had some rewarding views when you got there. Another few km further was Quebrada del Diablo (Devil´s Gorge) which was a small windy road penned in by huge walls of red rock either side.
The next day I got on me bike again and headed to Valle de la Luna to see the sunset, named so due to its moon-like surface. It was a good 20km bike ride via a main highway and then a bumpy up hill dirt track. I just managed to get to the viewing point, which was next to a huge sand dune, before sunset and saw the sun go down over the valley. I wish I could say it was something out of this world but after the near heart-attack inducing race to get there, i felt a bit hard done by. But that was the least of my worries - I now had a 20km journey back on a bike with fading light. There were a few hairy moments on the highway - which had no streetlights, but luckily the Chilean truck drivers must be used to avoiding stupid tourists riding mountain bikes without any lights or reflectors.
Thoroughly tired from the bike ride and mentally tired from trying to guess all the hip hop artists on the poster in my Belmarsh cell, i slept like a baby ready for my Bolivian odyssey to begin.
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Valparaiso, Chile

An hour and a half bus ride from Santiago, Valparaiso is a Unesco World Heritage Site and considered the cultural capital of Chile. It was evident straight away from the unbelievable amount of graffiti that this city had a lot more character than its bigger, smoggier brother. Apparently the graffiti is illegal but the police do nothing about it, with some graffiti artists brazenly leaving their email address and phone numbers next to their work.

The Lonely Planet described this place as 'bohemian', which was all it took to attract the swarms of caucasians with dreadlocks, not seen since the beaches of Thailand and Indonesia. Where have they been hiding all this time? There's more sarongs here than David Beckham's early 2000 wardrobe.

The city is on a bay overlooking the Pacific Ocean and has irregular roads which lead up to the surrounding hills. Bar Rio, its the prettiest city I've seen with old cobbled roads and intact colonial era houses dotting the hills. I took a guided tour from a nearby hostel and happened to be the only person taking the tour that day. So it was just me and Bobby Turman, a US native who moved over to Chile 5 years ago to set up various business ventures, the current one being the guided tour of the city. During the tour Bobby gave an interesting history of the city and we stopped every now and then to take pictures of this picturesque city. After a nice lunch, I left the Bobster and visited a sweet abandoned prison which was adorned with some awesome graffiti. I also visited another cemetery in the hills, but before I knew it, my time was up and I had a bus to catch. It was a real shame because I would have liked to have stayed for a couple more days nurturing my dreadlocks but my planning wouldn't allow for it.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241895540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241895540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241895540/tpod.html Sat, 09 May 2009 16:04:40 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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Santiago, Chile

Santiago is a metropolis in comparison to other South American cities with prices to match. Its a nice looking city, littered with well kempt parks, pretty suburbs, and trendy nightlife areas. But you get the feeling as with Singapore, its all a little sterile.
Lining the city one one side are the Andes which can be just about seen through the city's well publicised smog. To get a better view of the city I went to the hillside San Cristobal which is Santiago's largest open space including museums, botanical gardens, and swimming pools. There's a tram which takes you to the top of the hill where you get good views of the city including the permanent line of smog hovering above the skyline. A cable car takes you down to the various museums and gardens which I explored, but there was nothing too impressive around.
My friend John's ex girlfriend Johana is now living in Santiago so I met up with her a couple of times to get a local's view on the city. I thought she had been on the empanadas since being back in Santiago, but she was in fact 4 months pregnant, the new fella being back in London.
Anyways, I've run out of things to say about Santiago. The real gems of Chile are definitely outside of the capital city.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241653380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241653380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241653380/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 21:21:04 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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Pucon, Chile

After another joyous 10 hour bus journey, I arrived in the picturesque town of Pucon. Another town seemingly plagued by the street dog phenomenon. I think the local councils in each town are trying their best to tackle the problem, but like the Israelis in my hostel, they seem to be multiplying. I´m a little scared to wear my keffiyeh scarf in here in case one of the 18 year old Israeli girls, fresh from service, has a knee jerk reaction and bulldozes my hostel room.
I digress...
Pucon is a holiday resort for Chileans, the main draws being the grainy black sand beach, national parks, hot springs, and the smoking volcano Villarrica. They even have a volcano alert system in the centre of town indicating how likely an eruption is based on a green, amber, red scale.
I went to the Heurquehue national park to do a trek and take in some scenery along the way. I got on a bus early in the morning along with half of Tel Aviv, and 40 minutes later we arrived at the park entrance ready for the 9km Los Lagos trek. I decided to go it alone as I didn´t fancy being assassinated in a Chilean forest, so I flipped on the iPod and began the ascent. Accompanying me were an eclectic bunch ranging from Jay Z´s The Blueprint 2, to Luke Vibert´s Lover´s Acid, to Joe ´Bean´Esposito´s ´You´re the Best´taken from the Karate Kid Soundtrack - but only when the trek got tough. I saw the now obligatory waterfalls, mountain views, and lakes but being on your own really made you feel peaceful and at ease - interrupted occasionally by the poetic "bitch nigga ho" in the headphones.
After 6 hours of trekking I was famished and found a quaint little house selling kuchen (evidence of the German heritage). Unfortunately they had run out of cake so I settled for a large dirty steak and cheese sandwich, which hit the spot nicely.
The next day I also visited a little cemetery up in the hills, which had it own version of Rio´s Christ the Redeemer, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Next stop, the capital....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241649900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241649900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1241649900/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 19:17:34 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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Puerto Montt, Chile

It was time to move north to warmer climes and I had an inviting 31 hour bus journey to look forward to. The bus services in Chile though, are relatively cheap, very comfortable and run like clockwork. Inside they even had an electronic display which tells you the driver´s name, how fast he is driving, how long he has been driving for, and from my limited spanish, that he likes ER.
I arrived tired and hungry so I checked into a small hostel in the centre of town and dined on some As. They are crazy about hot dogs in this country and you don´t need to go very far before you stumble across a vendor selling hotdogs with all kinds of toppings. Unfortunately they are all made of swine so i settled for an ´As´ which is chopped up beef in a hot dog bun, topped off with guacomole and melted cheese. Chile is not well known for its cuisine; another classic dish i sampled was called a char.....something or other. Basically, a massive plate of chips topped with chicken sausage, beef, and melted cheese. I´m surprised they´re not all fat munters here.

What else is there to write about Puerto Montt?? Not much. It´s apparently one of the continent´s fastest groiwing cities due to the salmon trade, but for the traveller - just a convenient stopping point for the onward journey. But who needs interesting travel stories when you´ve got the beard montage in the picture section??
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240882740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240882740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240882740/tpod.html Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:10:40 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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Puerto Natales, Chile

Accompanying me to Puerto Natales were Renee - a Dutch girl working in Colombia helping rehabilitate ex-FARC child soldiers back into society, and Maite - a proud Basque girl who genuinely got upset at being called Spanish. Whatever..
Being low season, Puerto Natales was pretty quiet when we arrived, seemingly the only life around were a couple of street dogs going at it, keen to display us their techniques while we tried to find a hostel. We managed to find another freeze box hostel, but we could already see from the surrounding scenery that this place was all about its natural beauty. The famous Torres del Paine mountain loomed in the background, based in apparently South America´s ´finest´ National Park.
It was Torres del Paine we had come to see and there were a few options on how to see it:
1) The popular 4-5 day trek called the ´W´, not after the seminal Wu Tang Clan album, but because the trek route pretty much looks like a ´W´.
2) The 10 day full circular tour of the mountains.
3) The List Ticker´s day tour on a bus with regular stops to get off and take the picture postcard photos.
Luckily for me, Renne and Maite were on the same wavelength so we ordered 3 List Ticker specials. Obviously back at the hostel, my excuse to the snow jocks as to why I wasn´t doing the ´W´was that I had a bus to catch in a couple of days... Gnarly dude.
The trip itself started with a visit to an outdoor museum displaying relics and life size figures of all the different indigineous tribes Johnny Colonist had wiped out with his airborne viruses. There was also an old Milidon cave, which is basically an old extinct bear thing, who seems to be quite celebrated in chilean patagonia. After this obvious filler part of the tour, we visited some beautiful salt lakes, waterfalls, and glaciers. I won´t describe them all so just check out the photos.
In the evenings we´d chow down in the numerous Meateries around town, the leftovers of which we´d feed to the scores of street dogs lining the pavements. Although a noble gesture, you´d end up looking like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with half the town´s street dogs following you back to the hostel.
After spending another couple of lazy days around town, it was time to move on. Renee and Maite were heading up to our next destination Puerto Montt via ferry. It was a $300 luxury I couldn´t afford so I chose the more economical 31 hour bus trip...whoop dee dooo...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240794780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240794780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240794780/tpod.html Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:49:08 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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El Calafate, Argentina

The original plan was to head to Santiago after BA, but it seems everyone was telling me that I can´t come to Argentina and not experience Patagonia. So after finally saying goodbye to BA and Storey, I got on a plane to head south. The terrible christmas present-looking llama wool jumper I bought in BA came in very handy as the moment I got off the plane, the bitter chill was below freezing. The two nights I stayed in the hostel dorm with a broken heater made me realise how much the cold and I don´t get a long and never ever will. But what made the cold bearable was the prospect of seeing the Perito Moreno glacier the following day.
I hired a car along with 4 others from the hostel and we took off at a disgusting hour in the morning to reach the glacier before sunrise. We got there while it was still dark and were rewarded with the glacier slowly making itself visible in the emerging light. The sheer size was immense and the deep blue something colours made it look like something out of Lord of the Rings. I think we spent about 2 hours just marvelling at it and taking photos from different viewpoints. Every now and then, we´d hear the shotgun sounds of a massive chunk of ice falling off into the water.
Then the rains came, which also brought the mist, which also brought the coachloads of package tourists, and unfortunately for them, an obscured view of the glacier. Feeling smug, we headed back to the hostel.
I could have stayed in El Calafate for longer to see more sights and try activities such as mountain climbing, ice-trekking on glaciers, etc. Me, ice-trekking on a glacier....exactly. So I booked a bus across the border to Chilean Patagonia the next day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240102980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240102980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/razandrich/1/1240102980/tpod.html Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:31:36 -0400 THE MALARIA DIARIES

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

After young Storey´s abrupt departure home, I thought I should make my blog debut and let you know what I´ve been up to and contrary to the rumours, I haven´t: a) Joined a left-wing militia group, b) Eloped with a young Latina, c) Changed my name to Eugenio Marquez de Rosa and now own a grocers in a Buenos Aires suburb. Although they all do sound very tempting..
So once Rich met up with Laura to travel through Uruguay and southern Argentina, I decided to do a bit of R&R in BA. I thought 1 week should suffice, but this turned into 2, into 3, and it was just under 4 weeks before I managed to wrestle myself away from her charm. The weather, people, culture, and food were great (quite European) - the only downside being the myriad of dog poo on the pavement. The locals seem to have a 6th sense for avoiding the stuff, but every time I walked the streets I had to walk as if I were trekking through the Cambodian countryside.
The hostel I stayed at was full of locals and I happened to be the only foreigner there so, as Rich also found out when he stayed there for a night, everyone wants to talk to you and be your friend. The people in general are typically very latino - passionate and very emotional which, as I found out can be a good thing as well as a bad thing. Oh yeah, and don´t call them the Fawkland Islands - they are the Islas Malvinas.
The first day I arrived, I was taken to the cemetery in Recoletta where Evita is buried as well as a few galleries by a couple of friendlies from the hostel, Veronica and Mattias. The evening posed an invitation to a house party, and I was relishing to discover how these guys party out here. The answer is very late. Everything happens so late here. I was told that things should kick off around 2 - 3am, so after a nap I was woken up by a phone call at 2am asking me to head on over to the address. Trying to keep my yawns at bay I met a load of friendly Argentinians and Colombians interested on what I was doing out here. It was at around 6.30am they decided to head onto a night/early morning club. nuts...
BA has a great music scene and I was lucky enough to see Basement Jaxx, Fischerspooner, Tiga, Sasha, Kraftwerk, and Radiohead while I was out there. The International Buenos Aires Film Festival was also on so I caught a couple of films - I don´t recommend Awaydays to anyone. I also spent a week attending Espanyol lessons as well as a few days at a boxing club owned by Argentinian ex-world champ Miguel Angel Castellini. Okay, he held the WBA Welterweight belt for only 1 fight before he was dethroned, but he´s still a champ in my eyes, even though my espanyol is still as bad as my right-hook.
I managed to catch a couple of footy games while I was there and luckily the dodgy looking ticket I bought from a tout outside the Boca Juniors ground was legitimate and it also luckily put me in the heart of the hardcore fans stand. The air hung heavy with marijuana smoke and the fans were the craziest I´ve ever seen - non-stop singing, drums, trumpets, flares for the full 90 minutes. Boca went on to win 3 - 0 against Argentinos Juniors and the heavily armed riot police made us hardcore fans wait for a full half an hour before letting us out of the stadium to avoid any clashes with the other fans. I promised the boys we´d do em next time.
The other game was a World Cup qualifying game between Argentina and Venezuela at the Monumental - stadium of River Plate - the more afluent arch rivals of the working class Boca Juniors club. The match was Maradona´s first competitive game in charge and ended up being a formality with Argentina winning comfortably 4 - 0.

After Richard´s return and some last minute drama involving my friend Veronica being admitted to hospital for a few days, I decided it was time to move on.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Laura and I jumped on the Colonia Express ferry 'something akin to the old 80's Calais ferry crossing' and arrived at Buenos Aires port unfortunately we had no idea where we were and no idea how to get into town. After faffing around we managed to find our way into the centre of Buenos Aires. We took up digs in a very random 'character filled hotel'. Huge high ceilings and decor taken straight out of the 1950's. It provided a perfect base for us to attack the city for the one day that we had. Springing into action like wounded gazelles we set too determined to see as much as we could.
On foot we crossed the city taking in the sites Buenos Aires is like Paris with a stronger sun and a darker skin. Ideosyncratic little shops with wood panelling and intricate tiling litter the streets. This is how I imagine continential European cities look like in 1950's. It is very attractive, its very relaxed, it feels very safe and its ideal to walk around. The street are long and wide and based on a grid so like New York finding anything is easy. This meant we could easily find the famous cemetary. This is the final resting place of many and most Argentinian luminaries, almost all of whom you have never heard of. Many great leaders of the Argentinian army who had taken part in the fabulous battle of the Malvinas (!!!) are buried here. We weren't here to dwell on the Argies great military past, we were here to see the grave of Eva Peron. We found it amongst a tremendous assortment of mausoleums. Seemingly determined to prove wrong the maxim that you cant take it with you, these fantastic buildings actually house the coffins in full view. Being as respectful as possible we stuck our head in a few and found that they went down surprisingly deep with generations unceremoniously stacked one on top of the other. Evita's grave was alright, surprisingly understated. I dont know what we expected.
Wearing out the shoe leather we walked across the city again to see the Pink House, the government palace from which great speeches are made, but more importantly, the balcony from where Madonna sings Dont Cry For Me Argentina.
We whiled away our evening spending bloody hours, walking bloody miles, trying to findthe hostel Raza was holed up in. Eventually finding it we spent the evening being entertained by ourselves, with the help of delicious empanadas, the local Quilmes firewater and Patagonian lager.
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