Follow Me Around.

Nazca (Peru)

2010-01-18T16:39:00.003-06:00

After such a perfect excursion to the Colca Canyon it would have been nice to just take it easy and soak it all in once back in Arequipa, but unfortunately I had to keep going...so I went straight to the bus terminal for another night on a bus!
My next destination was Nazca, which I reached at the unpleasant time of 5, while still asleep. I tried to fight off the touts and just do my own thing, and ended up at some desolate office waiting room killing time before the agency opened for the day to book my flight over the famous Nazca lines...
well, I had never been entirely sure whether or not I should visit them and spend $30-40 or more on a 25 minute flight, and in the end I did...which I am still not sure was a good idea! haha
The lines are very mysterious and one could say it's been a mystery for so long that people should want to see them at all costs...I just felt like I was going to be ripped off no matter what, ajd I'm pretty sure I did in the end! The lines were interesting, but I didn't expect the plane to get so close from both sides and turn on each side to get closer...that didn't go down too well with what I had put in my stomach, so I ended up missing the last two figures! haha
Just like most people visiting the lines, I tried to get out of Nazca just as quickly as I has come in, as I was trying to combine it with sandboarding at Huacachina!

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Arequipa (Peru) & Colca Canyon

2010-01-18T16:39:00.001-06:00

Crossing the border at nightfall wasn't the only required step to get to Arequipa...some of us had to get off the bus in Puno and get on a different one of course...which was quite uncomfortable, but it seemed like I had barely fallen asleep when the bus stopped and there we were, in Arequipa at 3.30! How convenient! To make matters worse, the terminal is over 3km away from the center, so people had no choice but taxi it...unless you wanted to spend the following 2 hours in the terminal till the local buses started running, that is...

I decided to head to Misti House and crash there till the morning...after 2 straight nights on buses, any mattress will feel heaven!

Arequipa is a beautiful, pleasant and modern city! I have to say that Sucre's white colonial architecture impressed me more, but at the same time I wish I had spent more time in Arequipa...people seemed more "modern and sophisticated" than anywhere else in Peru (except Lima), the whole city just had a good vibe all around!
I went to visit the Convento de Santa Catalina, named after Santa Caterina da Siena, which was wonderful on many different levels! Its colors, alleys and courtyards make it look like a city within the city center, and it was well worth the 30 soles! On a side note, I think it had the best bathrooms I've seen in all of Peru, airport included!

I decided, on a whim, to take the 2-day hiking tour of the Cañon del Colca, the world's deepest canyon (although this is disputed with another nearby canyon, Cotahuasi), more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA!
Not planning it beforehand was not such a great idea, as I was not prepared or rested enough to wake up at 3 the next morning and hike 7-8 hours!
Nevertheless, this last minute excursion ended up being one of the highlights of my whole trip!
Our minibus showed up at 3.30 to drive us out of town to the famous Cruz del Condor, a breath-taking spot where we first saw the depth of the canyon, although the main attraction was of course the condor! Considering what my luck had been at MachuPicchu I was definitely not expecting to see any condors, so I was taken aback when as soon as we showed up...there they were, doin their thing in the air, using the various winds to get around...it was beautiful!!! Pictures definitely do not do it any justice, so I also took pictures of the photographs for sale there! haha Unfortunately, the whole scene was ruined by a bunch of dumb tourists who thought it was a good idea to make strange sounds to the condors...ugh!
Later on, our guide told us a bit more about condors in general...very little is known because they're very reserved and do their best to avoid human contact...they're usually about 1m high and their wings can spread to about 3m...there are theories according to which they are "friends" with foxes, who eat other dead animals and then signal to the condors where these are...our guide even said that sometimes the condors get to the corpses when their flesh has already fermented, and that is how condors get drunk...he said he had seen one with his own eyes!!!
We started our hike at the top of the canyon and walked downhill for about 4 hours to the bottom of it, crossed the river and then walked some more to a little town where we stopped for lunch! After lunch we did some more hiking, got wet trying to cross a river, and then continued in the rain till the oasis in the middle of the canyon...it is a green, lush patch of land in the middle of arid, desert-like rocks...its best feature is the amazing number of beautiful pools...that was definitely the best part of the 2 days, together with the views and sighting condors! Once we did make it to the oasis after having crossed yet another bridge, I made a run straight for the pool...what a beauty! The setting already made it extremely special, plus one side was carved out of a natural rock that came up over the pool itself and could be used to dive off of (or at least I did! haha), and then the opposite side had terracotta vases pouring water into the pool!
The rooms were pretty basic houses made of mud, they didn't look like they had bricks...what they did have were plenty of little holes for all sorts of insects and spiders to thrive in...that's why I didn't dare point my flashlight at any wall before going to bed...I just didn't want to know!
The next morning our hike back up to the top of the canyon started at 5.30, and again we were lucky to have gorgeous weather so that we could admire the beauty around us!
After over 3 hours we made it back up, had a rinvigorating breakfast, then parted ways with our guide and got on another minibus to Chivay...where we visited the hot springs, different pools going from 34 C to about 42 C...in the latter I dove in as if it were a normal pool, except it felt like a boiling pot ready for pasta! It felt great though!
The excursion would have already been more than memorable if it had finished that way, but the big cherry on top was the unbelievable sunset we were lucky to witness on our bus ride back to Arequipa...words cannot describe it!

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Ica & Huacachina (Peru)

2010-01-18T11:07:00.000-06:00

Ica was initially to be just the transportation hub for my visit to Huacachina, but I ended up spending a bit more time there than expected...it's also the main city for the region, which made it sadly famous in 2007 for a terrible earthquake, which actually hit Pisco (that I'd visit later on)...I guess I was expecting less than Nazca, so I was surprised by how much bigger and "busier" it was...I ended up eating at the local vegetarian restaurant (run by the local Seventh Day Adventists, like usual) twice in two days, both on my way in and on my way out!

My mototaxi ride into Huacachina left the center of Ica, went up some sandy hills and then ended up at the oasis, which seems to be in the middle of the desert, some 5km outside Ica.
It was of course very hot and sunny, a big change from most of my time in Peru and Bolivia, and during the daytime people just seem to relax by a pool or away from the sun!
Huacachina used to be the playground and escape oasis for the Peruvian elites, now its setting is still impressive, but the oasis itself is very dirty! (Locals still take advantage of its waters though...)
It's now a famous spot on the Gringo Trail to chill out and go 4-wheeling and sandboarding on its giant and vast surrounding sand dunes! I got there just in time to get on the last, and supposedly the best - as the sand is not so hot anymore, tour of the day in the afternoon...our buggy was carrying 9 people, plus the driver and his helper...the ride up and down the dunes was a lot of fun! It's a bit like a rollercoaster at times, combined with the dunes and the sand, which make it similar to ski slopes.
After some fun in the buggy and some pictures (damn sand everywhere!) it was time to brace the sandboards and get ready...for the first one everyone went down lying with their stomach on the board, which seems to be the easiest way to ger some adrenaline going! I was curious as to what it felt like to try to stand as if I were snowboarding, so I first tried that...well, it was very hard to get the board to keep gliding! Apparently, after a few turns the wax wears out, and it's not smooth anymore...so you you either go straight down the whole dune, or put up with getting stuck, your front foot sinking in the sand, and so on...of course we did see some guys from other groups who did it no problem and even made it look super easy while at it...oh well!
Out of our four descents, I tried standing twice and lying down twice, and I have to say the latter was much more fun and a lot less work, although I was honestly expecting a little more adrenaline and speed!

The rest of the night was spent trying to get as much sand off everything as possible...but everyone knows sand is very sneaky, so it's to this day a very daunting task!

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La Paz (Bolivia), part II

2010-01-17T13:15:00.000-06:00

I was happy to get to spend another halfday in LaPaz before leaving Bolivia altogether, as I already knew my way around quite well, and it's always nice to know where you're headed, and there were a few things I still needed to check out in the center (including shopping ); I also needed to go get my celebrative T-shirt for having survived the Death Road on a MTB and the DVD-R with the pictures and videos from that adventure! I got the chance to go back to The Point, the hostel with by far the most comfortable beds on my trip, wash up, say HI to the people who work there, and grab my DVD and T-shirt!
I am not too sure why I liked LaPaz so much...maybe because the beds were so comfy, or because I really felt at home at the hostel, or because the city's dramatic physical setting nestled between mountains, or because it's one of the highest capitals in the world, or because it's big and crazy and hectic but at the same time manageable on foot...it's a probably a mix of all that!
I had missed out on a few things on my first visit, so my first run in the morning was for salteñas, filled pastry shells similar to empanadas but juicy inside...they're usually filled with either meat or chicken only (duh!), but my LP pointed me to a few that had veggie ones...they are only served in the morning, so I had to rush, because this was probably the only city in Bolivia with veggie ones (I had asked around, getting the same "We like meat around here" replies!)...they were kind of expensive and it was hard not to burn your tongue or spill "juice" everywhere, but I had 3-4 and was happy to have tried them!
Back to the central/chaotic part of the city, I finally made my way through alleys of the typical Andean articrafts, and hats, scarves, gloves, etc...I visited the Coca Museum, which was very interesting but definitely needed a bigger space, and then went through the witchcraft market, where I saw lots of llama embryos for sale...apparently if you build a house it's good to have one of those buried on the property!
Then I wandered around the black market which was total chaos, but not as active as usual because it was Saturday...right after my LP walking tour was over, it was time to go back to the bus terminal, which was very close-by! How convenient is that?!

My night bus back to Peru involved crossig the border at Desaguadero before it closed at 20...we got in line and quickly realized it would be a lengthy process! After patiently waiting for my turn for an entry stamp into Peru, I almost started laughing when the two people at the windows in front of me were almost arguing with the officers...one lady, diligently followed by her beautiful husky, started saying that she had lost all her papers but wanted to get through anyway, while the officer kept saying that she had to pay a fine of some sort...the other story was even more entertaining! This girl, whom I had not realized was so young since she was facing the other way, showed up to the window with her papers and the officer said that in order to cross she needed both of her parents' permission since she was a minor...she kept saying she was 18...the officer would look at her papers and say she was 17...he would ask her how old she was, and she would say 18...haha it was great!!! It went on for a good 5-6 minutes...he must have asked her at least 10 times, and she said "I'm 18" at least 10 times...although I was in a hurry, it was exhilarating! At some point she somehow decided to give up, picked up her ID and left!!! Ahhh finally my turn...

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Sucre (Bolivia)

2010-01-14T20:52:00.000-06:00

At about 2400m, it's weird to say it was one of the lowest places I have visited on this trip! Sucre felt noticeably warmer and seemed much more "sophisticated" than the rest of the country (Lima excluded); lots of people out and about, lots of places filled with people, even the night market where I went to eat was packed!
The city's best features though are its blinding white buildings and beautiful colonial architecture; the sun and scattered clouds helped my good mood and my inclination to take a lot of pictures!
The only thing that is inconvenient about Sucre is its bus terminal, a 25 minute uphill walk from the center. Other than that, I loved relaxing in the main square, strolling through the streets looking for food stalls, taking lots of pictures, and "stealing" the wi-fi signal from different bars while standing on the street! Also, the vegetarian restaurant inside a gym was quite tasty and super cheap!

Needless to say, it was hard to leave, especially since it was my last place in Bolivia: I was to spend the next day in La Paz just for the day, before boarding a Peru-bound bus in the late afternoon.

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Potosí (Bolivia)

2010-01-08T12:03:00.000-06:00

Potosí is the kind of place that a lot of people go through, but not many seem to be raving about it...I was very happy to be getting there because it meant finally leaving Uyuni! After a few complications, our bus finally left, and I was happy enough to be on my way to somewhere other than Uyuni!
I didn't seem to care even when I got woken up by our bus arrival at 1 and I had to get my stuff and walk uphill for about 1km at an altitude of 4070m in the rain!
Things got even better when I found out that my reservation was actually for the one hostel everyone had recommended, which seemed to be full online!
The only problem once I got there was falling back asleep at 2 after all the effort to get there!
The next morning I was up bright and early at 7, and after a great shower I was ready for breakfast and a new beginning!
I signed up for a mine tour, which seems to be the most common thing to do in town, since its past wealth and fame are due to the Cerro Rico and its minerals lying within.
Our two guides were both ex-miners, although one seemed crazier and stranger tha the other one; he had spent 7 years working in a mine, and he kind of reminded me of a soldier coming hone from a war.
Our first stop on the tour was a run-down house where we put on our miner outfits: baggy pants and jacket, rubber boots, a helmet and a belt that held the charger that was connected to the typical miner flashlight on top of our helmet.
Our next stop was the miners' market, where we learned about what they eat and drink, and we bought them some coca leaves and sodas. Then we stopped at another shop where we learned a bit about dynamite, how to set it off, how to make it more powerful, and so on...we also bought some for the miners, because, as our guide kept repeating, ours wasn't just a touristic visit, it was a social one: we were to interact with the miners, learn about their lives, and bring them presents. Since they have to buy their own food and drinks, and even their own dynamite to keep explorin the mine, they were happy to receive a bunch of stuff for free from us!
Our next stops were a "refining plant" for the minerals and a lookout point over the city for some more pictures in our funny outfits...then we finally reached the mine!
While waiting outside taking pictures we witnessed three people from another group who had just walked in come out as they couldn't take it any longer...nice!
As we approached the entrance, there was a mix of excitement and tension in the air! We finally took off and started walking jn, and it wasn't so bad...not too small, and very straight, so that for the first 5-10 minutes you could see the light behind you, and you couldn't get lost!
We had about 50 m or so to get inside the mine, and we knew we were there when all of a sudden we saw plenty of galleries intersectig each other, and that's when we knew we'd better stick together and close to the guides! haha As we got deeper and deeper inside, it looked darker and darker, and felt warmer and warmer...we also realized it had gotten harder to breathe, and we were thanking the pipes of compressed air running throughout the whole place for giving us oxigen! After some more walking, which had gotten trickier especially for the few of us over 1.75m, we had to find refuge in an opening on the side of the path since a cart full of minerals weighing about a ton wss coming down the tracks, being pushed out of the mine by three young guys! They were faster even while pushing the full cart than we were empty-handedly!
Our first real stop was a cave on the side of the path, where we sat down and waited for some miners to join us for a chat and some food and drinks. I talked to a 40 year old man who had been working in there for over 23 years, practically his whole life with the exception of 5 years he spent in Argentina working in construction...once the economic collapse came around, he came back to Potosí, his hometown, where the onlu job opportunities were in mining. He said that a normal day is 8 hour long, but that there have been times where he spent 24, or even 48 hiurs straight, inside the mine! It's kinda like working overtime, the only difference being that they get paid according to the weight of the minerals that they find, so more workinh hours were needed at times to find more minerals! They are organized in a co-op, except that it doesn't really do anything for them...each of them has to pay for their own food and drinks, their own equipment, ther own dynamite, and even, surprise surprise, for their own share of compressed air!!! And it's not cheap at 20$/hour!!! Incredible!
The other hing that struck me the most was that while in the mine they do not eat anything but coca leaves! They said that normal food ferments quickly inside the mine and would damage their stomach! So they eat a lot when they do get out, of course, but they don't even have breakfast before getting in the mine...only coca leaves and sodas!!!
We kept walking some more through mud and water to get to another small cave with a 40-50m deep hole in the middle of it. The young miners that joined us comfortably sat around the whole, their legs dangling in the void, while we carefully and slowly found a place to sit down to chat with them. We gave them some coca leaves, dynamite and sodas and chatted with them. The most desired thing seemed to be foreign cigarettes, although our bags of coca leaves had some "homemade" ones...the two guys kept shouting down the hole to some people working at the bottom of it, and then after a bit they pulled up a boy who came to join us...JD, 13 years old,...he is working in the mine during his summer vacation from school, to join his father and brothers who all work there...I asked him if he preferred that or school, he said the latter, but he also said he is not very good at it! Nevertheless, he said his dream is to become an agricultural engineer!!! When I asked him what he was going to do with the money he would earn from working there, he said he would buy school supplies! Wow! There must be an easy way for people to donate something so simple and basic to us as school supplies!
After some more pictures we started heading back, stopping for the occasional cart coming by, before our last stop, which was the famous "Tio"! It's the mine's God, but since in Quechua the letter D is missing, instead of Dios he's called Tio, uncle! It looks like the devil, and it was supposedly put there at first by the Spanish, who thought that it would scare the miners and think he was supervising their work, since no Spanish ever set foot in the mine. Once the miners realized no one was making sure they were doing their job, and that the devil was not scary at all, they started adoring him! It's a statue of a guy sitting down, and he is covered in cigarettes, the obvious coca leaves, and some trash of course! The ritual includes lighting up a cigarette, putting it in his mouth, and then pour clear 96% alcohol all over his body, and then putting coca leaves on his muscles! The most impressive thing about the statue is his gigantic, disproportionate penis!!! We were explained that it symbolises fertility, of course, and after the guide poured some more alcohol on it (ouch, anyone?!) and drank some himself, he also said that the Tio is supposedly linked to the Pachamama, Mother Earth, who gave him such a gift so that any woman would be too scared to enter the mine, and the Pachamama wouldn't have any infidelity issues!!!
When we finally made it out of the mine the sunlight was blinding, of course, but at least I could stand straight! haha
The last attraction of the day was seeing dynamite explode! The guide set it on fire, and we had about 2 minutes to take silly pictures with it...then he took it somewhere far, and we witnessed the huge blast produced by just one piece of dynamite!!! It was awesome...not too loud to bother your ears, but powerful enough to shake everything, scare all the girls, and even shake our cameras as we were filming it!

Later on in the day, once I was done with the mine tour, I went to check out the city center and pay a visit to the Mint, one of the oldest and probably the richest in South America. Of course having rich mines made the Mint rich and famous back in the day, and many vessels full of coins used to set off for Europe. The ironic thing in all of this is that nowadays the techniques that were once used in Potosí are so outdated that Bolivia has to have its coins made in other countries, especially Chile! We visited several types of old coins, the machinery and tools used to produce them, and a lot of other tools and objects and ornaments used by the rich to show off their wealth. We also visited the furnaces, and the thing that struck me the most is that the best fuel for the furnaces was...llama feces!!! I forgot exactly why, but I'm sure it's also because it's easy to come by!

All in all I had a very good time in Potosí, a very pleasant and relaxed town! The final gem was its new bus terminal, out in the middle of nowhere but oh-so-modern!!! It even has a wi-fi area!!! That was of course one of the only few times I found a bus that was leaving within 10 minutes, when actually I would not have minded waiting while being able to surf the Web!

Puno, Uros Islands, Amantanì, Taquile (Peru), Copacabana, Isla del Sol, La Paz, Uyuni (Bolivia)

2010-01-07T06:46:00.000-06:00

Leaving Cusco after such an experience and with my whole daypack and all its contents wet was not an easy task...but I managed to get on a bus to Puno through amazingly beautiful landscape and little villages scattered around...R and I made it to Puno after nightfall, found a place to stay and proceeded to feed our empty stomachs. Puno seemed like a convenient jumping point to explore the Titicaca Lake, compact enough that you can walk everywhere, but not aesthetically appealing, especially if compared with Cusco! The next day I met again with K and the three of us got on a boat on the Titicaca to visit several islands.
The first stop was to pay a visit to the Uros Islands, or floating islands, since their inhabitants, who used to live on boats (each boat hosted a family), built entire islands out of totora reeds. The roots are about 1 meter deep, on top of which they lay totora reeds for another meter, making the "ground" we walked on about 2 meter deep, while the lake is about 20 meter deep. All of this was explained to us during our visit to the second island, where a guy showed us how each o the smaller pieces which form an island are tied together and then anchored to the bottom of the lake wherever the islanders decide to stay. Walking on such ground was vey unusual as it feels squishy and you almost think you're going to sink, but of course it's all well done! Their articrafts as well as their houses and boats are quite the sight...we also visited a family's house that sleeps 2 parents and 3 children...I'm not too sure where, because the sleeping space was very limited! What I noticed immediately was a huge swat of flies everywhere, the smell pervading the small place (similar to the ways barns smell, but with a different twist to it that I cannot explain! This is also what most "indigenous people" smelled like on buses by the way!) and a radio and a very primitive tool similar to a TV! The woman said that Fujimori (Peru's former president) had donated solar panels to them! There was one right outside their house...but what I noticed first was a huge pile of plastic bottles...she said they used them to build their boats...they also made us wear their traditional costumes and of course pretty much forced us to buy some of their articrafts!
Then we proceeded to get back on the boat and spent 3 beautiful hours slowly moving on the lake, enjoying the beautiful day, the incredible sights and the breeze on the deck! (We should have known better: the sun at 3830 meters above sea level is always brutal!) We eventually reached our destination for the day and night: the island of Amantanì. We followed a local woman to her house, found our room and then waited for our lunch...I was quite surprised at how easy it was to explain to her that I didn't eat fish and that I was more than happy to settle for a fried egg! After lunch and a siesta we walked to the main square where we ran into 2-3 big tour groups and then continued uphill for the top of the islands, where there are temples to the Pachamama and the Pachatata, Mother and Father Earth, at over 4150 meters!!! On our way down we found a soccer field and, although it was almost dark, we challenged the locals to a quick game! We didn't yet know what we had signed up for, but I guess that's what you get when you have an Italian, an Argentinean, a Japanese, an Ecuadorian and a Peruvian guy!!! Of course the altitude killed us before our opponents did, and it looked like they were 5 times faster than us...it felt like your fastest moves were still in slow motion! We ended up losing 2-0 and had to swallow our pride, although it was a balanced game overall.
After another great meal cooked by our host mother, we got dressed up in traditional clothes (a thick poncho and a typical winter hat) and headed down to the center for a traditional dance in a store turned into a ballroom.
The next day we left for Taquile, our last island before making it back to Puno. The stairs up to the center were pretty steep, but the views and the main square were worth it! On our boat ride back we all opted to sit or lay inside and not expose ourselves to any more sun rays! Once back in Puno, it was time to relax, we ate at a chifa (their version of a Chinese restaurant) and then went to bed early.
The next morning we crossed the border into Bolivia to reach Copacabana, a nice little touristy town on the Bolivian side of the Titicaca Lake. The rest of the day was spent visiting the famous sanctuary of the "Virgen de Copacabana" which is very popular because she supposedly protects travelers and their vehicles; we also checked out the rest of town and hiked up the Cerro Calvario, a nice little mountain with 14 stages of the cross and a beautiful view of the town and its bay! The most interesting part was watching the locals in their rituals at the top of the mountain. Everyone had some space on the ground that was arranged to look like their ideal house: some plants, a plastic house, a plastic car, some people even had a toy computer! Of course sizes and colors varied, and everything was bought at some stalls along the way...the rite consisted in opening many bottles of beer, spray one's house and desired possessions, then drink some...then light up some firecrackers in the middle of it all...then pour some clear liquid (holy water? pure alcohol?) over everything...then chew on as many coca leaves as possible...then more beer, more coca leaves, some cigarettes, and so on and so forth!
We also witnessed a lady empty out the trash cans in a peculiar way...she lay out her "towel" to collect some of the trash and dispose of it, but before doing that she inspected every single bottle before dumping it down over 100 meters into the bay! That included a 2 liter soda bottle, and various glass beer bottles...it was quite shocking!
Besides all of the interesting things going on arounds, K and I were able to enjoy the sunset from up there...the next day we took a boat to Isla del Sol, another island on the Titicaca on the Bolivian side. After finding a place to stay we proceeded to take a tour of the island with M and A that we had randomly met again in our boat...the island was quite hilly, there seemed to be more donkeys than people, which is good if you want to escape tourists, but it's not so nice when you try to walk around and all paths are covered in donkey poop!
The locals seemed as unfriendly as they were back in Copacabana, and they were quick to charge tourists money, yet they were useless at giving directions, there was not even a single sign, and the money paid "to enter their communities" only seemed to go straight to them and give them money so that they didn't have to work rather than it being used to provide better services...all of this I'd later find out to be typical of Bolivia, where you're always charged money for small things that should be included, and despite paying, there are no services and the money does not seem to support or develop anything that the locals and/or tourists could benefit from.
Yet, the atmosphere on the island was pretty special, and it was a nice way to escape the tourist crowds of Copacabana...so much that K decided to spend New Year's Eve there. I instead got on a bus to La Paz...quite an interesting ride as we had to pass an 800m long strait: everyone had to get off the bus and get onto a passenger boat, while the bus itself boarded some sort of cargo raft to make it across...once in La Paz I quickly realized that everyone had played it safe because of NYE and had reservations, while I was just hoping to show up and find a place...at The Point I was able to help out with advertising the hostel's NYE party and could use their facilities and crash on their couch for free for that night, since they were fully booked! That way I got the chance to see many parts of the city that I had not yet visited to give out fliers for the party! Little did they know I would actually end up not attending the party...haha
My own NYE party consisted of a 2 liter bottle of lemonade and a lookout high above the city from where I was able to see all the fireworks that were going on in different parts of the city and that lasted almost an hour! It reminded me of what a city under siege looked like on TV, and it looked even more impressive because of the city's special setting between two hills.
The next day I got to meet up with L and his parents who gave me a tour of some parts of town that were too far from where I was staying, yet beautiful and very interesting, while very different from the idea I had in my head of what La Paz was like...I also got to visit El Valle de la Luna, an area south of the city that was full of impressive rock formations, which reminded me of Zabriskie Point in the Death Valley: very impressive! I also got a personal city tour by car thanks to L, and we checked out some lookouts around town.
The next day it was time for some adventure sports: mountain biking down what the locals call El Camino de la Muerte, for short The Death Road! It's an old road between La Cumbre at 4700m and Coroico at 1100m that used to have the highest number of fatalities as far as cars and trucks are concerned, mainly because it's 3.2m wide and it's between the mountain and cliffs as high as 700-800m!!! Now things have improved for traffic since a new road has been built, and the old road is taken over by a bunch of MTB companies who offer the same excursion I went on. It had not hit us till we got out of the van and it was freezing cold and extremely foggy/cloudy at 4700m where we started! It was overwhelming, but at the same time the clouds covered the precipice amd helped us not think about what was next to the road! The first part was pure asphalt, so that we could get used to handling our full suspension MTB's with hydraulic brakes...after 30 or so minutes the old, scary, unpaved road started, and that's where you needed to make sure you knew when you were going too fast or where the turns were sharp, because there was no second chance there, no guard rails, nothing...getting off the road on the left side meant falling off for 400, 500 or more meters down, which means dying...falling on the side of the mountain was not as dangerous, but still not too safe...one guy in our group went down against the mountain and his right elbow didn't look that good for the rest of the day! Luckily we had 2 good guides, and the front one tried to go as fast as the fastest among us, while in the back we had one more guide on a bike, a driver for the van and a mechanic...useful especially when my rear derailleur split open halfway through the Death Road! haha So I got a new bike which was a bit too small and to which I wasn't used to, so from that point on I slowed down a bit...the front of our group had some very good guys, and even one girl, who were awesome at cornering and choosing the right path, which I assume that's generally what downhill MTB is about! We had several breaks to regroup, take pictures, get explanations from the guide, and we even had a snack! Sometimes we rode through waterfalls, as if the road alone was not dangerous enough, and we were filmed several times, so I'm really curious to see what the pictures and videos look like! The ride was overall about 64km, it took us about 5-6 hours I think: we started at 4700m where it was freezing and wet, we ended it in the jungle at 1100m where it was humid, hot and ridden with bugs of course! The terrain also was very varied, so it was a lot of fun!!!
The prize for surviving it was a warm shower, a swimming pool and a large lunch buffet!!!
That same evening, despite a landslide and some other surprises along the road back to La Paz, I was able to get back in time to run to get my bag, run to the bus terminal and catch a bus to Uyuni...I got the last ticket as people were already boarding the bus, yet it was the best seat in the house: the very front seat above the driver, where you can stretch your legs and you have great views in front of you! You can also stick your camera out of the window and take awesome pictures, which I did, around dawn since we were in the middle of nowhere! Despite me having the best seat, the road for the whole 12 hour ride was as bumpy as one can imagine, and our big bus was shaking all night long! Combine that with the fact that I had not had the chance to grab some food for dinner, because I was rushing to get on the bus, so the only time we stopped for a break, around 2am, I was hungry and got a sandwich from a food stall that included a fried egg (I had tried to explain to her that I wanted only fries and salad, but it was too strange for her to understand it, and I was tired and hungry!)...well, I assume that the egg was not cooked for long enough (it seemed to me like it was less than a minute), so it definitely did not settle well in my stomach, and the bus' WC was pretty gross to begin with, but I couldn't resist any longer so before getting off in the morning I dropped some souvenirs in there! haha
My luck continued, or turned around should I say, considering my stomach situation, when I was able to get on a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni and other attractions along the route within the first 30 minutes I was in town; what's even better is that the tour would leave an hour later, it was the company that several travelers had recommended, and K was part of our group of 6 people!!! haha What a coincidence!
The tour was 3 days and 2 nights and included so many things that it's impossible to remember them all! We had a driver/guide and his wife who was the co-pilot and cook. Our group had an American, two Swiss-Germans, two Japanese and I. We soon realized everyone else in town was on a tour too, as at each stop one could see at least 20-25 LandCruisers! Our first stop was a train cemetery, where the attraction was old, rusty trains that used to carry silver and other minerals from the Bolivian mines to the ports in Chile from where they were shipped out. Our second stop was a town that had all sorts of souvenirs made of salt, of course! Next was the main sight: the mighty salt flats! We stopped several times to take pictures, to get out of the car and walk through puddles of salt. This time of the year the salt flats are not dry because it's rainy season, so they look like big lakes in some parts, with pretty reflections of the sky, the clouds and the sun. At first it looks like one is surrounded by snow, and the white surface is definitely blinding! Later, we stopped at a hotel that is entirely made of salt, and then an island in the middle of the salt flat that is full of cacti; some of them were 5-6 meter high! The view from the top was spectacular: all I could see were mountains and then white all around. After lunch we got back in the car and drove for segeral hours after leaving the salt flats to visit other attractions: volcanoes, lagoons, deserts, and strange rock formations! We called it a day when we reached the town of San Juan...well, if one really wants to call it a town! We had basic rooms, a basic shared bathroom, no electricity except for two hours at night, and we had to pay 5Bs. for the shower! Our food was cooked on gas stoves, we had tea and biscuits as soon as we got there and then dinner two hours later. Inbetween the two snacks we walked a few minutes "out of town" to check out the sunset, which was amazing, in a place thst our guide had said was full of caves. Only afterthe sun had set, as we were walking back and it was getting dark, did we notice that each cave had bones and skulls inside!
The next day we did more driving to see various colored lagoons and tons of different flamingos, in addition to vicuñas, alpacas and llamas, which are all very similar!
After lunch we drove through colored deserts, more volcanoes and more lagoons, almost all very impressive. We also had to argue with some officials working at what they called a national reserve, since as of a few days ago the fee to simply drive trough went up from 30 to 150Bs (about $22)!!! Paying so much for driving through super bumpy roads, when bathrooms and showers, when present, were extra and power was kn for just a few hours a day seemed to a lot of us like legalized robbery, and I made sure to give the official a piece of my mind...but in the end, as most people were paying, we had no choice but doig the same...waiting longer would have meant risking getting to the next place and not finding a place to stay and/or a place to eat! That's how efficient and organized the "national reserve" is! The following and last day of the tour the alarm was at 4 in order to reach the geysers when they were still going strong...so we did get there before sunrise, and it was freezing, but still quite impressive! The first one we saw must have been at least 10-12m high! The next one was as strong and as loud as a fire idrant, and it was surrounded by several sulphuric pools. Next was some hot springs where we soaked for about 30 minutes in a spectacular setting of mountains, flamingos, lagoons and mountains. After breakfast we kept driving for a desert and a green lagoon at the foot of a volcano that reached almost 5000m. We proceeded to drop off 4 of our friends at the border with Chile and then two of us with the guide and the cook continued through scenic valleys and super bumpy roads to stop in the little town of Villamar for a huge lunch, since there was only two of us left; nevertheless, to continue our tradition of finishing everything we werr given, we swallowed everything and even looked to our neighbors'tables which were still full of food!
Our last two stops on our way back to Uyuni were some more interesting rocks (among which a pregnant lady, a condor and an Inca face) and the little town of San Cristobal, where everything was shut so all the tourists just ended up sitting around the main square while their drivers took a break from the bumpy driving!
We got back to Uyuni 30 minutes earlier than expected, which rarely happens and which I thought was going to be perfect because it gave me an hour till the buses for Potosì and Sucre would leave...I just forgot to factor in the huge crowds trying to leave this town, and most importantly the huge number of Argentinian mochileros everywhere, traveling in groups of 5-6, sometimes even 10 or more; to make matters worse, the buses leaving from here are half the size of normal buses, which ruined all my plans and forced me to spend an extra 24 hours in this town without wi-fi, cold drinks or ice cream of any sort...just a lot of Argentinians!!! This morning, after getting a chance to rest, shower and charge my gadgets, I managed to find a noon bus for Potosì...except that the bus ended up not showing up because of mechanical problems, and I'm spending an additional 6 hours in this lovely town! Since I'll be getting there in the middle of the night, if we make it that is (here the saying is "todo es posible, nada es seguro"), I tried to call up a few places on my book that seemed to be the best...everything is full! That's when I realized that I'll have to deal with the huge crowds of Argentinians for the remainder of my trip, as most of them are heading north to Peru just like me! Lovely!
Nothing else to say aboyt Uyuni except that I can't wait to go somewhere else, see something else and not have to deal with huge crowds of people taking over buses and hostels, playing guitar, drinking mate and being loud! haha
Actually, the silver mines of Potosì and the architecture of Sucre should be wonderful, so in order to enjoy all of that I had to book accommodations there in advance, and I'n now going to look for a mine tour for tomorrow morning! As soon as I find a wi-fi hotspot I'll post all of this!

Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Moray, Maras, MachuPicchu

2009-12-28T20:31:00.000-06:00

Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Moray, Maras, MachuPicchu

Cusco definitely grew on me as the days went by, as it was cheap, convenient and full of things to do and see, albeit full of tourists! On my second day I headed to the market for a super cheap, and super filling, lunch, followed by 4 glasses of "lucuma" juice: a great deal! On my way out of the market I noticed a lady selling strange fried balls with peppers or tomatoes inside...I was stuffed, but my curiosity got the best of me and I couldn't resist buying some and storing them in my bag for a snack later on...I went on a guided city tour in the afternoon, which definitely wasn't my thing, but it covered several ruins within and around Cusco: Saqsaywaman, Q'enqo, PukaPukara, and another one...too many tourists and too lkttle to see, if you ask me!
The next day my stomach woke me up before my alarm did, and it was not pleasant! I was bloated, with stomach cramps and shivers, and I had to visit the bathroom a few times...I knew by then that those fried "balls" had not settled well in my stomach! Just thinking about them gave me gag reflexes by then! I definitely knew right away who the culprit was...but as they say, curiosity killed the cat I guess! I tried to get my day started, since I had many plans, but everything got delayed a little bit! I eventually reached Pisac, a nice little town that's part of the Valle Sagrado, the valley surrounding Cusco...I was in pain, but I was trying my best to forget about it and make the best of my day! While in town I got to eat some "pizza flavored" empanadas cooked in their typical ovens, next to which they had Guinea pig temples, that is little catles made of mud and clay where a bunch of Guinea pigs ("cuy" is a national "delicacy" here!) were running around! I took a taxi up to the Inca ruins, which were amazing and surrounded by beautiful terraces! The whole thing was quite a hike and the altitude was kicking in, in addition to my stomach being upset, but it was worth it!
I then caught a local bus to the next ruins at Ollantaytambo, which featured the same terraces and were in a similar setting as Pisac. After a few more crowded-to-the-max local buses I got off and took an expemsive taxi to Maras and up and down a winding road amidst beautiful mountains to reach Moray, a huge "hole" made of terraced land where every "floor" has a completely distinct eco-system and different crops are grown; how all of this happens and works has been a mystery since the Incas, but it's quite an amazing sight that was used by the Incas for agricultural "experiments"...you can walk all the way down to the bottom of it, from where your voices echoes resoundingly, and I was told that the place never gets flooded even during rain season...quite amazing!
My next place was even better: the salt pools by Maras! It's another breath-taking setting for an incredible number (around 300 I think) of little pools where salty water from the mountain flows through and eventually evaporates leaving behind salt that has been used since Inca times. The most fascinating thing was seeing how the water had found ways to feed all of the different, numerous pools through little canals!
After another super crowded, standing room only, local bus I made it back to Cusco skipping Chinchero, because it was getting dark and my stomach was telling me to get to a bathroom as soon as humanly possible! By this time, my whole body was shaking and aching, I had shivers and my head was hurting...it seemed to me like a mild case of altitude sickness on top of my stomch problems! I made it back to Cusco and by then every step seemed like a daunting task, my head was spinning and I had trouble putting up with the noise, the traffic and the crowds!
The next day was Christmas Eve and I woke up the same way as the day before...judging by my immediate trip to the bathroom, whatever had been causing this pain had not yet made it through my body, but I told myself it would be a matter of hours (boy, was I wrong?!) and boarded my minibus for MachuPicchu! The route was once again spectacular and we reached over 4500m before descending along a winding road under heavy rains...this 6-hour trip proved to be anything but boring, as we had a flat on the way up, avoided a minivan that was upside down in the middle of the road, as well as several rocks along the way! Once we descended into jungle-like territory, a local "tire shop" gave us a new one in exchange for the one that was flat (all of this was done in a primitive way, which needed 2 people and involved hammering away at the poor tires!).
We eventually reached a place from where we could walk to Aguas Calientes, but the rain was intense and I decided to pay for the extremely overpriced train thst took almost an hour to cover 9 km!!! Once into town, K, K, M and I found a cheap hostel for the night and proceeded to check out the local hot springs, a series of 6-7 natural pools filled with hot, murky water...it was pretty relaxing!!!
We went to dinner for Christmas Eve and spent the rest of the evening till midnight walking around the little touristy town, then exploded some fircrackers and went to bed!
The next day, Christmas Day as well, started at 4.30 when we woke up and wouldn't end till very late at night...it was still dark when the 3 Japanese and I headed out of town towards MachuPicchu on foot to avoid the super expensive "shuttle bus" after we had paid over 40$ just for the entrance to the MP ruins! The steep 3.5km hike took us over an hour through the deep forest under the rain, and gave us a better idea of how remote this Inca city must have been in the past! The location was definitely exceptional, high up over a rough river and amidst tall, lush mountains...so lush that when we first got to the ruins we could not see anything!!! Thick, white clouds were covering the whole place like a blanket, and the tropical rain was not helping of course!!! The disappointment was evident among us, especially after having had to pay so much money and wait so long to get there...it almost seemed like a legalized scam to me, and that's one of the things that upsets me the most when I travel! Of course it was nobody's fault, but the Christmas Day I had pictured in my mind couldn't be further away from reality! We walked around the ruins tryin to make sense of it all, and seemed quite content with taking pictures of llamas for a bit, since they were the only visible thing then! Walking for a few hours in the cold and thick rain was definitely unpleasant, but it was made even worse by the clouds and fog that prevented anyone from getting an idea of the size and majesty of the whole place, and after we had made it all the way around the whole Inca city we paused at the panoramic spot a little bit longer till it was time to trek back to Aguas Calientes...we were there waiting with other people when all of a sudden came the winds to swipe away the clouds, and little by little, within a minute or so and for no longer than a few minutes...wow, that is what MachuPicchu usually looks like from up here! It was short but amazing, and excitement was in the air as people were trying to take as many pictures as possible in such a short time! The very same way as one that is hungry becomes satisfied once he/she gets a full belly, all of us who had been longing for a decent view of MP felt so much better after just a couple of minutes of semi-clear skies!
It was finally time to hike back down to town and hop on the train that took us back to our minibuses, all the while dreaming of a warm shower and dry clothes! The whole trip back had seemed like a minor detail when explained to me back in Cusco, as all I was focused on was getting to MP in the cheapest possible way without wasting too many days! After a quick stop in Santa Teresa for some bananas, bread and water (my staple considering my enduring stomach issues!) we were warned of a landslide further ahead in the road, which gave us just a glimpse of the long adventure that would ensue...we eventually drove to the point where the road was literally almost cut in half and we could barely walk across...by then, our "guides" had abandoned us in Santa Teresa and our driver was waiting on the other side of the hole waiting for more tourists to come his way...if there's anything worse than paying a lot of money, it is paying a lot of money and getting nothing in return...like our little "9km in 50 minutes" train, like our "tour guides" that along the 6 hour trip there didn't say a word to any of us and were so quick to disappear when a problem arose...there were many times along my journey to MP when I felt like people were ripping us off and enjoying it...and more then once I had the feeling that MP itself was not worth all the money and effort to get there...but of course I had to suck it up and just see it as a once in a lifetime thing!
Anyway, back to the 12 abandoned tourists on the other side of the landslide...somehow all the people coming the other way had been left off by their vehicles further down the road, so that they were able to jump on our original bus, but we had no one coming to our help...till we found a minivan loaded with locals, and we bargained our way on till the next little town, Santa Maria. Once there, we found some more people stranded because of the landslide, and not many vehicles coming through to take them anywhere, also because it was the day after Christmas Eve, when people celebrate, stay up late and often drink way too much...most locals celebrate this way, including the ones who are in the tourist industry and get paid good money to drive tourists around...which would eventually impact our day and could have impacted our lives in a dramatic way...back to the 12 of us in little, sleepy Santa Maria, waiting for a miracle to happen, a minibus to appear and take us back to Cusco by nightfall...F and I started walking around and eventually ran into the offices of our little "agency" with a nice minibus with a big sticker bearing the same name...we approached them right away, td them what had happened to us, when one of them recognized F and admitted that they had heard of our little landslide problem!!!! haha They had heard of it, but they made sure to mind their own business and do anything but provide us with a solution! We pointed to the bus next to us asking them that they take all 12 of us back to Cusco...they incredibly agreed after saying that the 3 of us who had "contracted" their "agency" would ride for free, but the other ones would have to pay their way back...we agreed and ask to leave immediately...immediately is interpreted in a variety of ways here, so I jumped on the bus while F went to get everyone else ready to go...after a few calls, chats with various friends and strangers along the way we were eventually on our way...it was almost too good to be true!!!
That's right, because after a few hours we noticed that the "driver's assistant" was doing anything he could to keep the driver awake...at the top of the mountain pass he stopped to smoke a cigarette, and once we got back on the road I soon noticed that he was descending too too slowly and erraticly even considering the fog and rain...so I started paying attention and caught him swerving pretty badly a few times, after which I told him he could stop for a power nap if he wanted to...of course he denied everything, till he stopped by a house to drink some water and quickly took back to the wheel...by then, his little assistant had given up and moved to a seat where he was peacefully sleeping, while the driver's eyes and use of the brakes were anyrhing but reassuring! Some of us, the Italians, decided to take matters into our own hand as I moved upfront to be the next driver's assistant, since I was the one who spoke the most Spanish...I did my best to keep him awake, change songs, open some windows and switch to cold air...all of this would only last 20 or so minutes till the driver would inevitably get more and more sleepy...so then I would beg him to stop, take a walk with him in the freezing, dark night and make sure he was more alert before getting behind the wheel again...here I was in a dark, cold night on the Andes, trying to keep the driver from killing me and 11 other tourists, some of which, lucky them, were too asleep to even notice anything!!! What an end to our Christmas Day!
As were getting closer and closer to town, his comatose state at the wheel would get worse and worse...I tried to ask him as many questions as possible, ones that required him to think of the answer, and the more questions I asked, the scarier I became because of his non-sense replies...ones I remember were: "how many people live in Cusco?" "7...no, 5!", or "where is everyone?" "Santana" (the name of the part of town we were driving through!). We finally, eventually made it back at a quarter to 1, for a 6 hour trip had started at 15.30! Most of us were in shock, sleepy but extremely relieved to have made it back in one piece, after such a nightmarish experience on Christmas Day!

Ayacucho, Cusco (Peru)

2009-12-22T09:11:00.001-06:00

Ayacucho, Cusco (Peru)
The bus ride to Ayacucho was definitely frightening at times...it started out like many others, then when I woke up I was on the edge of a huge precipice, on the other side of it was a mountain ten times taller than us, and in the middle was a fast-moving, rough river...of course the road was unpaved pretty much the whole time! And it was extremely curvy, so at least twice a minute I felt like I was over the edge, since I couldn't see the bus wheel I was sitting on, and I couldn't even see the road below me! It's a scary feeling...and it wouldn't go away, as that was how most of the ride would be...I started thinking about how my guidebook mentioned that there are a lot of fatal accidents on the roads every year, about how on the next day's paper it would say that a bus full of locals, plus an Italian and three Colombian brave tourists had fallen off the cliff and there were no remains of anything or anyone! The road was definitely that high up: had we fallen off the cliff, that would have been it for us, no second chances...I kept thinking of that the whole time I was away...no second chances in life! I was just hoping the bus driver knew that too, and I was confident that he knew what he was doing, since he must be doing it almost every single night! He was very capable, it just didn't feel like it! I felt like he was accellerating at every turn...it got worse when the river became bigger and bigger and we passed by a huge dam...right after it came the lower side of the river...much scarier!!! Then we stopped in the middle of nowhere, darkness all around...I was fearing mechanical problems, but soon found out it was so that people could go outside and pee...oh yeah, no bathroom in the bus for 10 hours!!! So I did step out to try and pee, but also to check out the night scenery...well, I couldn't do the former because I was too scared by the latter! The river was super loud, the wind was adding to the noise and the road didn't see all that dry after all...I was just trying to fall asleep and wake up in Ayacucho, rather than waking up in Heaven! When we finally reached our destination it all went away as a huge sense of relief took over, and as I was stepping off the bus I wanted to hug the driver and thank him for making it! Amidst allof this, I seemed to have forgotten how tired I was, how it was 5.30 and how I would spend the following night on yet another bus as part of a 20 hour ride to Cusco!
I befriended the only other tourists on that bus, three Colombian guys that turned out to have been as scared as me, and we proceeded to get a ticket for our next bus at 19, that same day...in the meantime we explored deserted Ayacucho at 6 on a Sunday! Nothing open, just a few people walking to church...the center was a very nice example of a colonial town, second only to Cusco...but Ayacucho seemed to be interesting if only for the fact that it's where the last battle in South America took place...as well as where the first traces of human presence were found...definitely a place whose people seemed to be vital and alive, almost rebellious...well, this is also where the Maoist movement Sendero Luminoso started in the late 70's before it tried to take over the whole country in the 80's!
We ate at the market where, just like in most places here, you could pick what part of a chicken you wanted, and yes, that included head and other delicacies, and one of the most common plates was the famous "cuy", a Guinea pig that can be prepared in a variety of ways, but that is usually seen split open on a plate with its face looking at you...I opted for a sandwich with olives, of course!
After walking all over town we decided to take a daytrip to some nearby towns that the market lady had recommended. We went to Wari, where we visited the ruins of the Wari Empire, and the Quinua, where there is a huge obelisk remembering the last battle of South America, and then we went horseback riding from that to the nearby waterfalls. The most interesting part of the day was when our minivan stopped to pick up some local woman...I was cramped next to the window (everythings seems to be made for people who are 1.60-1.65cm tall at the most here!!!), but the lady wanted to get her friends on the bus first...which consisted of a sheep and two black pigs...so her and a bystander proceeded to throw these animals that were in a net against the window, hoping it was high enough so that the driver on top of the bus could pick them up and secure them!
We eventually made it back to town and by then it was all much more lively...we got on the bus, tired and dirty, almost not thinking about what was ahead of us...soon enough we found ourselves in the same situation as the night before, except that the bus seats were much more comfy, so we were all able to sleep through most of it...what I did see was not so reassuring though...the driver seemed to be going even faster, as if trying to escape the vehicle that was following us...but then I felt like he knew what he was doing when he would stop in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason, and wait for a minute or two till a truck would show up in the opposite direction and would go through...the driver knew exactly where it was too narrow for both of us and when someone else was coming! It got a little worse when we had to get off the bus, take our bags and wait inside a bus terminal for an hour at 4!!! At least it was part of the plan, right?! Our next bus eventually showed up, we loaded up and took off...the scenery was once again super curvy and bumpy, with the only exception that since it was daylight the driver couldn't tell if and when someone was coming in the opposite direction...instead of slowing down, which is what most of us would do when the road only fits one vehicle at a time, he would just speed up and go the entire way with the horn on! haha Luckily I had earplugs, so I slept through it all like a baby!
We eventually made it to Cusco, although it felt like forever...but now, after having showered, changed and seen the. Ity center, I can say it was all worth it! The road I took was not very touristy for a reason though! And on my way back up to Lima I don't have to go through it again! haha
Now it's time to explore Cusco and its churches and markets...last night I only managed to get some night shots and of course I ended up buying those typical Peruvian beanies ...for less than 2$. The hostel is just over 3$, and my veggie dinner at veggie El Encuentro was just over 1.25$!
I'm also going to plan the next couple of days, with visits to the Valle Sacrado and of course mighty Machu Picchu on the 24th, to be back here on Xmas Eve and leave on the 25th for Puno, on Lago Titicaca!

Lima, Huancayo (Peru)

2009-12-19T17:43:00.005-06:00

My arrival at the airport in Lima was marked by a common scene especially at South American airports: huge crowds waiting for their loved ones coming back for the holidays, armed with signs, bells, and a lot of determination! All usually goes well as long as the people stay behind the "barriers" and patiently wait for their passenger to make it through the "funnel"...well, Lima takes the cake for the biggest airport crowd in my limited experience...all I could see was people! I almost felt like a rockstar or something, if it wasn't for the fact that nobody was there for me at all! It was even more impressive than others because I could see through the endless lines of people, since most of them were quite shorter than me...and the balcony above us was also filled with people...they all seemed to behave, till one of them crossed the fence to hug their wife only 5 meters in front if him, and of course many more followed his example! This forced all of us trying to get out to stop, because, well, nothing and no one seems to be organized and efficient here! :)
After enjoying Christmas carols in English all night long at the coffee chain inside the airport (all because of their free wi-fi!), I decided to get to the city first thing in the morning...much better than trying to wing it at midnight, in a dark, new city with a lot of cash in your pockets and millions of piranhas (taxi drivers) waiting to get a bite out of you! So the next morning I walked out of the airport on my own, instead of paying too much for a taxi, and asked some locals, and then got on a local bus for next to nothing...it was a good introduction to traffic in Lima, a South American metropolis of 8.7 million people! I was in the passenger's seat of a 12-15 seat minibus...needless to say the driver was all over the place, we saw two wrecks right before our eyes, and the "bus guy" was continuously screaming and banging on the bus for all sorts of communication with the driver! How fun!
Luckily the hostel was in a very relaxing area of Lima, between Miraflores and San Isidro...my bus left me off after over an hour at the beginning of my street, some 15blocks before my hostel...right in front of, guess what, the Doubletree Hotel! My hostel, HQ Villa, was one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed at, and that includes my house as well!
A combination of stress, lack of sleep, relaxation after a tense bus ride, and other things made me collapse on their amazing couch for a good 2-3 hours! When I woke up I was ready to hit the center of town! A couple of beautiful colonial squares, some governmental buildings and I was also able to find a vegetarian restaurant right in the middle of all that! After having checked out Miraflores and the center, I went on a ride through the coast through the beautiful Parque del Amor, onto Barranco, another area of town famous for its bars, clubs, restaurants and so on...if the city center could be compared to any colonial city in Latin America, and Miraflores could be compared to a South American version of Europe, the coastal area of Miraflores and Barranco could definitely be compared to...coastal California! Yes! You would have never guessed it!
The next day it was time for me to part ways with Lima and my amazing hostel...after taking several pictures of it, and facing the much-hated but inevitable taxi ride to the bus terminal of choice, I ended up at what I believe is the fanciest bus in all of Peru...so nice that my seat was twice as big and twice as comfy as any airplane seat, we had lunch on our 7 hour bus ride, and I slept the entire way! haha
I guess the fact that it was "so safe" implied that we each get a screenshot of our faces by a security guard who came onboard right before we left...that was a first for me too!

I got to Huancayo last night, and I could tell that our whole bus ride here was very rainy...I would wake up every now and then, and I couldn't see much outside our window...what I was able to see before it got dark though, was beautiful scenery!!!
I went from 200m a.s.l. to over 3400m in a few hours...so, as everyone repeatedly says, one should take some time off to adjust to the altitude and help the process either with pills (who likes pills anyway?!) or with mate de coca, which is pretty much hot tea made with coca leaves...after leaving my stuff at "La casa de la abuela" which was pretty much deserted, I was lucky enough to find another very vegetarian-friendly restaurant, El Pueblo, where I was able to get asparragus soup, an entree of rice, potatoes and soy meat, plus a cup of mate de coca and a dessert (mousse of maracuja...I don't know if this fruit has an English counterpart...sorry! It's a yellow tropical fruit! haha), all for an unattainable 3.5 soles, just a bit over a dollar! Guess where I am going for dinner as soon as I am done with typing this?! I already told him I would be back today!
Today I walked around a lot, visited a Salesian school and museum, checked out a local market, and hiked a good 3-4km to some reserve whose main attraction is these magnific geological formations called "Torre torre", because some of them look like towers...it was amazing, and totally unexpected considering the surrounding lush vegetation and poor neighborhoods...it was well worth the hike, and putting up with the rain and endless amount of stray dogs along the way...kinda stressful at times, since the ones who looked menacing actually proved to be harmless, and the ones who seemed friendly ended up sending their loudest barks my way. I survived though, made it back to town, chilled in the main square with all the locals, walked around a bit more to get my bus ticket for tonight...I am going to Ayacucho, hometown of the infamous Sendero Luminoso movement of the 70s...also famous for being one of the most authentic "Inca places" in the Andes together with Cusco, which is next...the book says both tonight's and the next trip, respectively 12 and 23 hour long, are not for the faint of heart!

Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik (Croatia), Mostar (Bosnia)

2009-07-06T02:36:00.002-05:00

Life is great back on the road, traveling for a little bit...unfortunately not for as long as previously planned due to my US visa renewal...anyway, TM and I started out with a ferry from Ancona (Italy) to Split (Croatia), got a few hours to visit the old town of Split (Diocletian's Palace) before we hopped on a catamaran to the island of Hvar. We got a private room at some locals' house that included a balcony overlooking the center of the little town of Hvar.
The next day we were back in Split and while waiting for our bus we made a second trip to the local market to get some local delicacies (krafne and "spinach pie" mainly!), then we got on a bus to Dubrovnik, which left Croatia to enter Bosnia for a bit, then got back into a tiny strip of land which is part of Croatia...

la antigua guatemala (guatemala).

2009-01-17T12:35:00.002-06:00

The trasnfer from Copan into Guatemala to Antigua was supposed to be really nice and convenient, till our shuttle broke down on the side of the road out of Guatemala City! With cars, chicken buses and all sorts of motorcycles zooming by and the sun setting, we didn't know what the problem was...the driver said he had run out of gas, which didn't make too much sense because we had just pulled into a gas station where he had poured water onto the engine!!! So we waited for him to run back to that same gas station, get a gallon of gas and come back...the van still wouldn't start! So then he asked all the passengers to help push the van to the side so that he could drive against traffic (which was downhill) in the dark to get the minivan running and the engine starting...at that point, for some reason nobody thought it sounded a bit crazy, so we did just that...the car started, we almost got run over several times, and as soon as the engine started we jumped on and continued on our way...till about 2km later, when, the road still uphill, the engine broke down again, all of a sudden!
So then we decided we were going to hail a chicken bus down to get on and eventually make it to Antigua before nightfall...when all of a sudden a brand new, shiny minivan pulled over in front of us! Rescue had come to us!!! We proceeded to pull the broken down minivan to a gas station, where our former driver waited mfor a tow truck or something...then, 3 hours later, we finally rolled into Antigua!
Antigua is a really nice colonial town, a nice, tranquil, touristy oasis in Guatemala...many travelers end up ligering on for way longer, many others prefer to stop over here than in Guatemala City,...I met a couple whose bus from Flores got assaulted by people...
oops my shuttle is here...one hour to Guate, then seven to San Salvador, then 18 more hour on the bus to San Jose...night at the airport, then a 7-8 hour flight back to big D...it'll be long!

roatan, copan ruinas.

2009-01-14T14:59:00.002-06:00

Roatan was awesome...I liked it much better than I had anticipated, so I ended up staying two nights. I spent most of my time in West End, which is where most backpackers and divers stay...my hostel was a bit run-down, not too practical or well-kept, but it definitely had character...it felt very pirate-like somehow, the whole town did to me when I first got there...West End is a very short strip of hotels, bars, restaurants and dive shops, so you don't need to walk very far...the street is unpaved and muddy and full of potholes, but it's right on the water, with tons of little docks for all sorts of boats...one can hear music blaring out of a lot of bars, so the atmosphere is lively...there are a lot of tourists, but it didn't feel too touristy...most people are there to dive, since Roatan is by the second largest coral reef in the world, and it's hands down the cheapest place to dive in the whole world! The only other chap thing on the island is snorkeling...everything else is expensive! The food and the Internet being the most expensive ones...my hostel was cheap, but I never got online and brought food from the mainland to cut down on costs...it was love at first sight with West End, although I am usually never fond of a place I get to after sunset...but when I woke up the next morning I was in for a treat! I could finally see the water, 2 meters from the main drag...it was very very clear!!! I could only imagine what West Bay Beach, only 4 km from there and considered the best beach in all Roatan, could look like! I started going up and down West End taking pictures of all the colorful boats by the water, all the little docks and huts/bars...then I took a water taxi over to West Bay Beach and I was immediately blown away! It definitely looks like a Caribbean picture-perfect paradise, or at least just like how I imagine one to be...crystal-clear water, white sand beach, and corals everywhere underwater! I could not help but walk up and down the whole stretch a million times taking picture over picture of the same spot over and over again...I was in awe...I could not believe my eyes! I got there early in the morning when the sun was shining and not many tourists were out yet, so I could appreciate it better...since the beach is lined by a bunch of all-inclusive 4/5 star resorts...many of which are full of Italians, which is pretty funny! haha I even heard some ladies speak, and their accent was similar to mine, but I was too busy lying in the water to bother asking them where they were from! I heard that there are direct flights from Italy to Roatan! Crazy...I was also told that the next day, and consecutively for the following 3 days, it was cruise ship day...which means that a bunch of cruise ships arrive and hordes of tourists take over the beach...so I was lucky to have gotten there on the right day! I found my little unspoiled, deserted corner of Caribbean paradise and got in the water for 30-40 minutes at a time...then I would get out to lie on the beach for 10-15 minutes, then get back in the water for another 30 or so minutes...then I would walk over to another pretty, deserted spot and do the same...and that's how I spent my day! It was awesome!
My only hope is that I didn't get neither malaria nor dengue fever...there have been cases of both on the island, but I didn't take malaria tablets, and I don't think there's a cure for dengue fever...sand flies didn't bother me much, but I definitely got bit over and over and over again! My mosquito net at the hostel seemed to hold out well the first night, but the second night I definitely spotted some holes...oh well, I hope all goes well...if I get sick once I get home, then I know why!
I loved going back to my wooden pile of rooms called hostel, where I could sit on the patio up top for hours...and I would wake up in the middle of the night time and time again because of the very loud and intense storms...but then I would fall right back asleep!
Leaving Roatan was hard, both because I had grown to love it, even though it had been such a short time, both because my alarm went off at 4:45! I decided I needed to make the 7am boat back to La Ceiba, and I wanted to play it safe...I got a ride somehow, and was at the dock over an hour before departure! The day from Roatan to La Ceiba, and then through two buses, first to San Pedro Sula, and then to Copan Ruinas, went very very well! I needed such a smooth travel day, and I was impressed at myself for managing once in a while not to get onto any chicken buses...traveling on direct buses seemed such a luxury for once!
I got here in Copan Ruinas last night, found the hostel very easily since it's such a small town...it's got 6600 people, it's 10km from the Guatemalan border, and it's touristy because it's by the famous Mayan ruins of Copan...the hostel is nice, small and clean, and although I had to wait for water to cook and for hot water to shower, and nowhere in town did they have electricity to get online last night, I still loved it here! It's a nice little colonial village, everything is close by, I was finally able to get a good shower and cook a whole lot of pasta last night, watch CNN and sleep soundly for almost 10 hours! What else could I ask for??!
This morning I got up, ate some more, then walked over to the ruins...I visited the museum first, then the actual ruins...these are my first Mayan ruins, also known as the Paris of the Mayas for its hieroglyphs and details in general, and although I haven't seen Tikal or Palenque, I was amazed at the hieroglyphs staircase!
Once back in town, I went on a quest for vegetables and fruit, and I found the town market with all sorts of fruits and vegetables I had not seen in a long time! So my lunch was a nice melon, and I will have spaghetti with broccoli for dinner, plus a nice little salad! I also want to take time to get some good pictures of Copan before I leave tomorrow...destination: Guatemala! It will be either Guatemala City or Antigua, I haven't decided yet...Guatemala City would be only to sort out a few travel arrangements to make sure I got back to Texas on the 19th...yes, I know, not too much time left! But I have to be back on the 20th...for a new semester, and for Obama's inauguration!!!

corn islands, managua (nicaragua), san pedro sula, la ceiba (honduras).

2009-01-11T10:56:00.002-06:00

It's been a while but I will try my best to include everything I have seen and gone through...Bluefields was an experience, the boat ride took about 5 and a half hours, and was probably as close to a refugee boat as (I hope) I will ever get...we were packed in there like crazy...we did not have a seat, nor a place for our luggage...everything was on the dock, we were all standing and lying shoulder to shoulder...everybody was trying to push their way onto the boat, then they made everyone get off to check our tickets (makes sense, right??!), so then it was a big stampede to get back on...and then as soon as the boat left the bay, people started throwing up because of the waves...some lady not too far from us was so busy eating gallo pinto and fried chicken, that she threw up at least 3 or 4 times...kids were piled up all on top of each other trying to sleep in very strange ways...the combination of heat, breeze and waves was not good on most people's stomach...mine held up pretty well I have to say, but I had to make sure I did not catch anybody throwing up! haha When we finally made it to Big Corn we realized that adventure was definitely worth it: even the water by the dock, which is usually dirt from the boats, was very very clear! I was lucky enough to meet 3 more guys, an Aussie, an Argentinean, and a Swede, so that rooming up together ended up being pretty cheap! Big Island is pretty, we got a room and then hurried to get in the water at Picknick Center, which is a big hut by a huge, deserted beach...the next day I started thinking about how I would leave this place, and the people at the dock had no clue about boats going back...there is no schedule apparently...I asked the same woman twice, and she responded the same way: "If there's a boat at the dock, it leaves the next day...if there is no boat, then there is no departure". That was very clear, so I tried to get myself on the waiting list for a morning plane back to Managua the next day...and I had the great idea to listen to my guidebook where it says that Little Corn Island is the real paradise. So I took a panga over to the little island, and was immediately in love with it. It's as close as I've ever been to a Caribbean paradise! (OK, I've been nowhere else in the Caribbean and I'm not a big beach person, but still) There are no cars, which means no honking taxis, just a trail for people to walk around almost the whole island...the beaches are as crystal clear as I've ever seen...and almost all deserted! All you hear is the waves crashing, the wind blowing on trees, and some roosters here and there...it's so peaceful! I found an amazing beach, got in and floated for over 40 minutes...it was amazing! Then when I was walking I ran into E and CA, that I had met in Ometepe, and we had lunch together...it was a perfect spot: colorful huts with restaurants 10 meters away from the water, hammocks everywhere, white sand galore, and some breeze to keep you cool! After lunch I kept walking and tried to make it around the whole island through the beaches...I saw some amazing, deserted beaches...then I noticed I wasn't left with so much time before 4pm, which is where my panga was taking me back to the Big Island, and I was still far from the dock...so from the beach I climbed up to the island, which in that point was all lush vegetation...I then proceeded to run through the vegetation for a while, in a desperate search for the dock...I made it through some deserted huts...some of it was kinda scary...I took my flip flops off to run faster, but soon after I crossed some barbwire I got a bunch of thorns in my feet...ouch! I think it was from a series of agave plants...but I had no time, so I kept running and running...it reminded me of the movie Apocalypto! haha I finally reached some houses with locals, which was good because they told me I was not too far, but bad because each house had at least a dog, and by the time I got to the beach by the dock I had 5 barking dogs after me! haha The people on the panga, who were waiting for me, probably had a laugh! I was sweaty and exhausted but relived I had made it and didn't care so much about the dogs...and I told myself not to be so curious all the time, sometimes it's better to stick to the beaten path!
The next morning I woke up at dawn, again, made it to the airport to see if I could leave...although I had seriously thought about spending a few days on Little Corn and canceling my plans for the rest of the trip! After everybody got on the plane, the plane was full...and they let some locals who had just gotten there get on it too...but by way of a miracle the lady said if we waited 40 more minutes another plane would come for the 8 of us who were still waiting...I was super excited!!! Once the plane arrived, this seemed to be another adventure: the inside of the plane was not bigger than a minivan...the whole plane held 12 passengers, and I was sitting right behind the pilot!!! It felt more like a flying minivan with wings than a plane! Not recommended to anyone who is afraid of flying! I loved the whole ride though, the views as we left the islands were breath-taking...and I felt so comfortable that after a little bit I fell asleep! haha
Once back to Managua, I was lucky enough that my friend A, who is from there, was in town, came to pick me up and gave me a tour of the city...he told me a bunch of stuff about the current state of the country and its political situation, which reminded me of Caracas and Venezuela in general...we visited all the sights by the old cathedral, and as we were in the square, a TV troop inerviewed us! hahaha They asked me what I thought of the brand new statue of Sandino that they were about to put up, and since I had good words for it, and I was a foreigner, I think they will most likely air it...A on the contrary was not so in awe of it and of the character, so the journalist cut him off! hahaha It was funny! Then we went to check out the Volcan Masaya, a volcano not too far from there...and since Nicaragua is the land of volcanoes, I was happy to have the chance to see one from up close! As we drove to the top, the gases were so intense it was hard to get close to the edge and breathe...then we drove up some more and had a guided tour of some caves, it was really interesting! The guide also took us to the other side of the crater after sunset, from where we could see 2 red spots inside the crater! There was so much wind and sulphur that we had a hard time breathing and keeping our eyes open even with a mask on, and I was coughing every minute!
Then A took me to my hostel, from where I was supposed to take a fast bus to Tegucigalpa, in Honduras...after waking up at 4am once again, I came to find out that the bus was full! So I had to pay another taxi to take me to a local terminal, from where I took a chicken bus to Chinandega...from there I got on a super packed chicken bus to Guasaule, the border crossing into Honduras...I crossed the border on a bicycle rickshaw, which was kinda interesting, and once I got on the other side, I could finally eat and drink, since I had run out of cordobas in Nicaragua!!! Since Honduras is also known as the Banana Republic, I got 6 tasty bananas for less than hald a dollar...and got on another chicken bus to Tegucigalpa...of course they always tell you it's direct, but you can always tell from the looks of it, and from the fact that there are no tickets, you just pay the bus guy once you're aboard...well, it ended up being a much longer ride than I thought...also because we were stuck in a long line of vehicles because of a major accident...we must have been there almost two hours...when we finally got through, the scene was quite intense: there was a small pickup truck smashed into an excavator on the side of the road, and a green bus from the other side of the road smashed as well into the excavator...a bunch of people lying around watching...some people with minor wounds and in shock...a TV troop filming the whole thing...and three bodies lying on the ground covered with a sheet...I just found out now, glancing at the newspaper stands here, that 4 people died!!! Last night at 5pm we finally made it to Tegucigalpa...the last hour or so was uphill, and at times the bus felt like it was not able to make it...the driver kept switching gears...I got there and was thinking of spending the night there, when I found a bus to San Pedro Sula...so I got on it, finally ate and drank something other than bananas, and fell asleep big time, since it was the first really direct bus! We got to San Pedro Sula at 10pm, and I had to take a taxi to the hostel...the town, although the most developed and industrialized and the richest of Honduras, it's also big on crime and gangs...the driver ended up taking me to the wrong side of town, so I got to see various groups of teenagers hanging around by an impromptu fireplace on the side of the road, and stuff like that...not exactly the most welcoming sights for my first time in Honduras! They say Tegucigalpa thinks, San Pedro works, and La Ceiba has fun...I didn't see much development there in San Pedro...the hostel was nice though, I wish I had gotten there sooner...I only got 4 hours of sleep, because at 5am I was up again for another early morning bus...so tiring!!! I finally made it here to La Ceiba, on the Caribbean coast, at 9 this morning, found the hostel, left my bags there...since it's Sunday there are not many services and stores working, so without any food in my belly I came here to write this, then I will go get a bunch of food and relax for a little bit...this afternoon I am taking the boat to Roatan, a snorkeling and diving paradie by the second largest coral reef in the world, but I will only be able to stay one night...I am leaving my bag here where I will be back tomorrow night for some more blogging, some cooking, some relaxing, before another early morning bus to Copan Ruinas!

leon, bluefields.

2009-01-06T19:20:00.003-06:00

OK the two cities have nothing in common, nor are close, but that's where I've been the past two days...since I couldn't post yesterday because I was exhausted, and I was traveling all day today, I will combine both places into one post.
Yesterday, since I had already seen Granada, I took a day trip to Leon, the other colonial gem of Nicaragua, which for years and years (maybe centuries?) was in conflict with Granada...there is a lot less tourism there, which I liked, and it seems much more "authentic", not contaminated by fancy "international cuisine"-type restaurants and stuff...it looks a little bit more run-down, but it has tons of churches and places to visit, like the biggest cathedral in Central America, and one of the oldest churches in Central America...it is also a Sandinista stronghold, so I visited this run-down building by the cathedral that is run by Sandinistas,...it looks like a squat from the outside, but inside are friendly men eager to tell you the whole story (from their own point of view, of course!)...they have photocopied pieces of newspapers and books hung on the walls in a big room, and they call it a museum...it was very very interesting though!
I also got the chance to sample a bunch of stuff from the local market, and on my way back to the bus terminal I got to ride one of those trucks which bed is made into benches and covered with a tarp, and people get packed in there...it was an experience! On my bus back to Managua I also finally got the true meaning of the word "chicken bus"...I thought it was because people are packed in there like chicken...but it't because people do bring chicken on the bus! The kid across the aisle from me had a chicken in a potato bag...and since it was very hot he made sure to buy a little package of water...the chicken would come out of the bag and drink water straight from the plastic bag!
Today I left Granada bright and early, apparently too early, because on my minibus to Managua, since we were packed like crazy and I was still half-asleep, I managed to lose my flashlight...bummer!!! Then I finally got on my bus to Rama, which was kinda fun, although definitely not a direct bus! I got to talk to all sorts of people, and besides two other guys, I was the only tourist on there! I got to eat all sorts of food that chunky women would come onboard to sell, and it was pretty good too! The last friend I made was this guy Juan, who lives in the middle of nowhere (La Esperanza, near Rama) and is dying to learn English...so I would translate sentences for him and help him repeat them...it was pretty cool...the guy helped me all the way to my boat, and then hung around with me till it took off!
The best part about that bus ride was talking to people about life in Nicaragua, about the Sandinistas, about their family members who made it to the US illegally and are now legal (some of them at least are)...it was very interesting...they do openly say "my brother went to the US as a wetback" (mi hermano se fue de mojado)...I found out they pay $6-7k from here all the way to their destinations in the US...the "coyotes" escort them all the way in a trip that can last up to over a month...it's incredible!!!
I love the people of Nicaragua though...I know it does sound cliche, but it's very pleasant here...my guide Naim said "Nicaragua, un pais con corazon!", which is supposed to be some tourist slogan...but it's very very true!
So the boat I caught in Rama brought me here to Bluefields, a town on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua that's the jumping point to a lot of places, among which the Corn Islands, where I am going tomorrow! It's supposed to be a true Caribbean paradise!
Bluefields is a typical port town with a Caribbean twist to it...so there are a lot of people of the West Indies, which means they're black and speak some creole of English, French and Spanish...most of them also speak Spanish like the rest of the people here, but their true identity is that patois they speak...which I am always trying to overhear, since it sounds interesting! We got off the boat and we were in the middle of all these covered alleys, it definitely looked like a labyrinth! I thought the town was all going to be like that, till we finally made it to a street, and now it does look "normal"! It's still kinda seedy though, since it's a port town, so I am staying in a room with the other two foreigners on the bus to Rama, which turned out to be an Aussie and a Swede. Tomorrow I need to wake up early to go get tickets for the boat ride into the Caribbean, which is supposed to take around 6 hours and is supposed to be the ultimate seasickness test...I hope I can stomach it!

granada (nicaragua).

2009-01-04T15:27:00.002-06:00

My last night on Ometepe was spent enjoying my $2 dinner which comprised of an amazing pineapple+milk smoothie and a vegetarian entree made of some sort of corn base (very similar to polenta) with sauteed onions and tomatoes on top, and the unforgettable beans all around it...it was yummy!
Today I wanted to wake up bright and early to get on an early boat, although I actually could have used some more rest...I fell asleep on the chicken buses to Granada...I had to take two, and I don't know if it was just me being tired and cranky, but it just seemed to me that the music was cranked up super loud and the ride was pretty hectic...people were getting on and off pretty much on the fly, with two doors constantly open and the bus guys screaming out the destinations, and hurrying the people that were trying to jump on and off the bus...I usually like that, except that today I was tired and half-asleep, so it proved harder than usual...
Granada is an extremely charming colonial town, everything is unfortunately a little bit more expensive, but life is very laid back, people are quite friendly, although there already is enough gringo tourism and gringo real estate businesses...I just hope it doesn't end up like Costa Rica!
I was walking down to the pier and some guy selling coconuts stopped me to strike up a conversation, first about the founder of Granada, then about foreign girls, and so on and so forth...I ended up getting a coconut from him, for $0.50, because I was really thirsty...and on my way back from the pier I stopped over again and he cut it in halves and let me eat the insides! It was pretty nice...sometimes I wanna think people are this nice for a reason (i.e. they want money or something), and that there's always a catch, but here it seems like they're just naturally friendly! There are still some beggars around, but they're not nearly persistent enough to be a nuisance...

volcan concepcion.

2009-01-03T18:42:00.002-06:00

It must be written somewhere that I am not to have good luck with hikes and views on this trip: after Volcan Baru' and Chirripo', Volcan Concepcion here in Ometepe was a big disappointment! It is the biggest and highest of the two, and there were no guide who would take you to the top, but I insisted and hoped to make it as far up as possible! Well, the hike was pretty steep, with big steps here and there...without the branches to pull yourself up it would have been almost impossible...then all of a sudden it started raining hard, and as the forest got smaller and smaller, the wind grew stronger and stronger...till one point where we were in the open air and it was hard to walk straight, and you had to protect your face from the heavy rain...so we sought "refuge" behind some bushes, waited out to see if it would get any better...then finally decided it wasn't going to, so we might as well go back down...as far as wildlife spotting as well, as all along this trip, another big let down: all we saw was 3-4 monkeys, and we only heard a few howler monkeys...oh well. Then there was no bus back to town so we had to walk the 4-5 kilometers here, and once we got here all I could ask for was a big bottle of water and a shower! Things are going well now that I got both, and I just need some food before calling it a day...I went over to the same spot as last night's to check out the sunset again, only this time the sky didn't get as red as last night...I was thinking of taking a tour around the island, maybe by boat or motorcycle, but several locals told me that the water is so high that most of the coast, which means all of the beaches, are submerged! Bummer...now I am going to try to figure out my next couple of days, since I did not have enough of the bumpy boat ride here, and I would love to make it to the Corn Islands out in the Caribbean.

moyogalpa (isla de ometepe) nicaragua.

2009-01-02T18:24:00.002-06:00

My last night in Monteverde and Costa Rica was spent with M, without my brother,...but the dinner we whipped up was awesome: spaghetti with tomato sauce and green olives, salad and tortillas. We ate so much, and so relatively late, that I didn't hear my 3:30am alarm, so I opened my eyes at 4:28, hurried and ran...but I ended up missing the 4:30am bus! It wasn't too bad though, since I caught another one at 6am, which got me to the Panamericana early enough to catch my bus going into Nicaragua...I had been ripped off on the price of the ticket, but the comfort of an air-conditioned bus with big, comfy seats that doesn´t stop every 10 minutes is a luxury that reconciled myself with the world, since at that point I was sad for both having missed the bus and for continuing my trip on my own, after over 10 days with two other people.
The nice bus made the border crossing very easy, although Penas Blancas on the Costa Rican side was pretty hectic anyway! Before I realized it, since I had been sucked into watching a bad American movie dubbed into Spanish, it was time for me to get off...luckily two locals were going the same way, so we all packed into one taxi to the pier, and it was a very easy transition...the hour boat ride here was very very bumpy! The combination of early afternoon sun and big waves didn't have me feeling all that well, but the view was definitely worth it!
The island of Ometepe, where I am right now, was formed throughout time from the lava produced by the two volcanoes that eventually created an asthmus of land. The big "lago de Nicaragua", also called Cocibolca, is special because it's one of the very few places on Earth (together with Parque Corcovado) where one can find freshwater sharks! They are almost impossible to spot, but they are a variety of the bull shark, which have a special membrane that allows them to "switch" from saltwater to freshwater and vice versa!
Moyogalpa is a nice little town of a few thousand people, very relaxed, a convenient base to explore the island...tomorrow I am trying to go up the highest volcano, Volcan Concepcion, at 1610 meters...the way up is supposed to offer great wildlife spotting opportunities, as well as magnificent views...Moyogalpo being at the foothills of the volcano, no matter where one is in town, one can see the volcano overlooking everything. The view on the boat ride here was great, I got the chance to watch a spectacular sunset, and I hope tomorrow won't be too cloudy!
It's only been half a day, but I am already loving Nicaragua a lot! There are no tourist rental cars, no overpriced tourism, no hordes of people everywhere...it's a bit "rougher" but definitely much more enjoyable, I think...the prices are unbeatable! Almost every means of transportation I took today was $1 each, my dorm bed is $3, my dinner will be around $2...it's great!
Next to my guesthouse is a disco-resto-bar where music is really loud today, and bright pink balloons are hanging everywhere...I thought it might be someone's birthday, but I later realized it was a "quinceanera" (the celebration of a girl turning 15, and supposedly entering the "adult world", whatever that means) when I witnessed the parade of 15 couples go down the main street in town...I don't know if they were headed to the church, but I am sure they will end up next to my guesthouse!
I also noticed some "FSLN" (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional) flags, so I stopped to talk to two men hanging out by the street...we had a nice conversation...one of them was asking a lot of questions about Italy and so on, and told me about his experience as a garbage man in the US, where his son has been living for 25 years...he declared himself as a convinced "Sandinista" and was proud to show me the statue of the "General"!

Soundtrack of bus rides: Jack's Mannequin "The Glass Passenger"
Soundtrack of my bedtime: Copeland "You Are My Sunshine"

monteverde.

2009-01-01T18:38:00.002-06:00

Leaving Bahia Drake was sad, as we had grown to like it very much, but we needed to move on...the boat ride to Serpe was not long but expensive, and the guy had over 20 people plus two mountain bikes packed in a fisherman's boat! He made a whole lot of money, that's for sure! Little things like that have been bothering me about Costa Rica...some services are just ridiculously expensive like that, and if that's a sign of "organized tourism", then I don't like it so much...Panama wasn't like that, and I am looking forward to being in Nicaragua for the very same reason.
Anyway, we ended up in San Jose too late in the day to take a bus to Monteverde, so we decided to spend the night at the same hostel, check bus schedules for the following day, and take it easy...it was nice, considering we also got to eat at a vegetarian restaurant that evening!
The next day we caught a 6:30 bus to Monteverde, but I don't remember much of the 4.5 hour ride here, since I slept through most of it...the only thing to note was that the guy who sold us the tickets made sure to say that we should keep our money and passports on us at all times on the bus...I don't think I had ever heard anybody say that when selling a bus ticket!
I remember bits and pieces of the ride up here, and it was steep and winding dirt roads with all sorts of vehicles making the climb, as always...plus, add a big flow of tourists in their own cars...the result is a little town 1600m high with almost more vehicles than people! Some of them are cars rented by tourists, but the majority of the army of minivans covering all corners of town are either taxis or private companies minivans to take tourists to the various attractions/excursions...so this is the face of tourism I don't like so much...this place is very nice, beautiful setting, nice people, great places to stay, fun activities and excursion...but it seems to me that it has grown to become a big money-making machine, a black hole for our money...our first excursion, a guided twilight walk through a forest with a flashlight, was way overpriced (20$ for less than 2 hours!!!) and very disappointing...we did see some birds and 2-3 tarantulas, which are pretty interesting, but the whole thing was definitely a big let down!
The next day, yesterday, we decided to take a hike to the San Luis waterfalls...that was nearly free (although to get to the waterfalls we had to pay $8! Unbelievable!!!), but it was almost 10km there and just as many to get back...so it took us the whole day...the best part of it was these two stray dogs (that we later noticed bum around at our hostel) accompanying us the whole way!!! It was awesome, at first we weren't sure what was going on...they would run up and down the road, come back to us, follow us, then bark at the locals and get really pissed at all sorts of vehicles passying by...so we thought they were eco-friendly dogs, since they did not like engined-vehicles...it was great though! At some point we hitched a ride for about 500m and the poor dogs were running their hearts out trying to keep up with the car! They were so stinky that we kept thinking we had stepped in poop...but no, it was them! When we got to the waterfalls, which was rather narrow but about 50m high, of course they didn't get in the water...go figure! The view of the waterfalls was definitely worth the hike! We didn't hesitate to get in, although it was definitely freezing! It had to be around 12-15C...so we kept it nice and short! We made it back just in time to prepare our New Year's Eve vegan dinner at the hostel, which consisted of spaghetti with olive tomato sauce, a salad and some TVP! It was grand! After dinner we took a short nap, then headed out right before midnight when fireworks started popping up in the sky...we celebrated and then hit the sack by 1am!
This morning, the last day for my brother, we went to do zip lining, also called canopy tour...this was the only time when I can say the 30-40$ spent were definitely well-spent!!! We were gone for about 3 hours, and it was amazing! Zip lining seems big here, and it might catching up in the States too...it consists of platforms connected by cables that run between different sides of a mountain...it originated as a way for biologists to observe wildlife...it is now an adrenaline-rich activity! Wearing a helmet, a pair of gloves and a bunch of ropes tying one up to the cables, one throws himself/herself in the empty space, Tarzan-style, and eventually makes it all the way to other side of the hill...the longest was 753 meters!!! It was quite scenic, considering we always had a rainbow below us! The tour also included rappelling (descending vertically while attached to a rope) and the breathtaking Tarzan swing!!! The Tarzan swing looks like the real thing, except it's modern and made of cables and everything...the guides were really good in helping us in each and every single step...I have to say the Tarzan swing was definitely breathtaking! It almost reminded me of bungee jumping, because after the big jump in the void they let you sway back and forth for a while before stopping you...the weather was misty and windy, but the rainbows made up for it!
Right after that I had to see my brother leave, as his plane back to Italy leaves tomorrow morning...so it's just M and I for now, although I have a 4am bus to Nicaragua tomorrow morning, so this will be M and I's last supper! haha
Happy 2009 to everybody!

parque nacional corcovado.

2008-12-28T18:41:00.002-06:00

Today we finally made it to the Corcovado Park! It was a guided tour, which we ended up being grateful for, since he had a big telephoto lens to spot animals up on the trees...we saw a black hawk, a two-toed sloth, a couple of wild turkeys, a few spider monkeys, an iguana, a toucan, a woodpecker, and a crocodile! Also, we saw tapir footprints, and we smelled some pecari...haha couldn't find them though! I also learned that termites can be eaten in emergency situations, and they're 100% protein...organic protein, even! haha Also, we saw some poison ivy and some gigantic fig trees...and of course the crocodile was really interesting to look at!
The way there on the boat was pretty bumpy, but the way back was beautiful! The lunch was also great...I kinda regret not having been able to stay there overnight, but at the same time I am glad we got the guided tour!
Tomorrow we're leaving by boat (no need to hitchhike this time around!) but we have not made up on our minds yet on where we're going!

bahia drake.

2008-12-27T18:27:00.003-06:00

This place is stunning! It beats P.to Jimenez hands down! I wish we had come straight here! Well, the place we're staying helps too! It's up on a hill overlooking the Pacific ocean, and it's surrounded by lush vegetation...at night between the birds, the ocean waves, and dogs barking, one may think it's hard to sleep! But I love it here...I don't remember ever seeing a sky with so many stars...I love staring at it at night...also, just by being here you can spot animals everywhere...today we went on a 9 hour hike crossing several rivers (we even swam in one!) till we finally ended up by the beach...there we started making our way back to town, and stopped in the most beautiful place to swim for a bit! Then while we were on a beach we spotted several scarlet macaws! Beautiful birds! Then at another beach we spotted two monkeys! It was so cool how they were going from branch to branch! It was awesome! We started following them like paparazzi trying to take a picture of them, it was ridiculous! Then we saw a big woodpecker, but no way to take a picture of it!
Bahia Drake is a town on a bay (duh) which was first found by James Drake, the British pirate, back in the day...I can tell he has good taste, because this place is charming, although very small! I love it though, it's basic and it can do for a few days, plus it's surrounded by wonderful nature and it's a great place to start trips to the Parque Corcovado, which is where we're going tomorrow on a day tour!
How we got here was an adventure of its own...we took a bus to La Palma, from where we thought there was a bus taking us here...except there was no bus! So our bus left us off at the crossroad, and then we hitchhiked...the first car that stopped was driven by a couple of European tourists...the guy brought up some lame excuses and drove off...a taxi asked us for 40.000 colones (almost 80$!!!) for 35 km of dirt roads...then another taxi asked for 25.000 colones (almost 50$) to take us almost to town, stopping at the big river before town...then a pickup truck pulled over, there was a little kid driving...I bargained with the person in the passenger seat, probably his uncle or dad or something...and I got them to take the three of us all the way here for 15.000 colones total (almost 30$)...which is a lot of money for them, but only about twice as much as the bus, which didn't exist! ahha So we jumped in the back of the pickup and there we went, for almost 2 hours on this very rough road, crossing at least 3-4 rivers! It was an awesome journey, the weather was great and the scenery beautiful! The little kid driving turned out to be 14, the road was super bumpy, dirty, and steep...he did an excellent job with a manual transmission! We were bouncing up and down in the bed of the pickup, sitting next to a tank of gasoline, so our food and clothes ended up smelling like gasoline! haha But the trip was awesome! It made it all better!

puerto jimenez.

2008-12-26T11:42:00.003-06:00

It's pretty hot here in Port Jim, as the gringos call it -and there's lots of rich gringos here. It's the on the edge on the Corcovado Park, which is full so we can't get in. We're trying to figure out our plan B, although every person and/or guide says something different, and the problem is still the same: not nearly enough time to do half the things there are to do.
To recap our itinerary till here, on the 24th we came down from Cerro Chirripo' in about 5 hours, and it was pretty hard too...not stretching once we got down was a big mistake in retrospective, as now I must look really funny when walking up and down the stairs. My legs are super stiff and sore!
Puerto Jimenez is small, dusty and very hot. The beach yesterday was a good alternative to not being able to do anything since everything was closed!
The past days have been hectic, frantic and kinda frustrating, since time is never enough and trying to do too much in too little time may result in a lot of frustration and nothing achieved. At least that's how I am feeling right now...maybe it's because I haven't yet eaten and it's already noon!

cerro chirripo' (3820m/11000+ft)

2008-12-23T18:02:00.002-06:00

I am at the lodge on the way to the Cerro Chirripo', more or less at 3400 meters above sea level. Tomorrow before dawn we're going to the summit, at 3820 meters, to catch the dawn and both oceans hopefully!
We left Perez this morning at 5.30, then go to San Gerardo de Rivas at 7, started our hike then...it's 2 kilometers to the beginning of the trail...we started the trail, at km 0, at 8am...got up here at km 14.5 at 2pm! So it was a total of 7 hours, mostly doable, except some harder parts, especially right before the lodge!
We're spending the night in this lodge tonight, eating food we brought up (bread and honey mostly), then around 4am we're going to the summit, and then coming back here to the lodge again, before making the 14.5 km hike down...it was a lot of fun, although I wish I didn't have to carry my clothes, sleeping bag and food all the way up here...it would have made it much nicer...oh, we didn't spot that much wildlife...the highlight was a few monkeys we caught at the beginning of the trail!
I am really crossing my fingers that we can have clear skies tomorrow "morning" so that we can see both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and then maybe also Volcan Baru in Panama!
Then tomorrow after the hike down to San Gerardo de Rivas and the bus back down to Perez (San Isidro), we're going to try and go to a restaurant for Christmas Eve dinner...we eyed a restaurant in town last night, and we might go there again...except doubling our orders, since we'll be super hungry!

san isidro del general (perez).

2008-12-22T20:50:00.004-06:00

So I gotta give San Jose some credit, it's not that bad...when I was ready to finally get into it a bit more, then I got upset at how hard it was to find a single bus terminal! Each and every person I asked gave me different directions...was it because they didn't know? Or they were not sure where it is? Or what? Well, it drove me crazy...but eventually we found the terminal, waited for the next available bus and got on...now we're sort of stuck in San Isidro del General (also called Perez) for the night. Our bus for San Gerardo de Rivas leaves tomorrow at 5am, it's a 2 and a half hour drive on mostly unpaved roads...then from there we're going to see if it's possible to spend the night at the hostel on top of Cerro Chirripo' (3820 meters) from where you can see both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans...if not, we're going to spend the day in San Gerardo and then make the 6-8 hour hike up on Christmas Eve...thus spending Christmas Eve at 3820 meters above sea level...which would be nice...and then coming back down on Christmas Day...the only drawback would be not being able to call anybody to wish them a Merry Christmas, but I think I could live with that...so we'll see, tonight we got a bunch of food for the 2 days, since there's no food on the way up or up there...it's going to be fun, I cannot wait!
Merry Christmas everybody!

san jose.

2008-12-21T19:12:00.002-06:00

My day was pretty uneventful...I slept in, ate a whole bunch of food, then walked around Puerto Viejo some more, packed up, and got on 2 different buses to San Jose...this time around I am trying to get to like it here...but I wish I had more time to do that, because we're leaving tomorrow morning again, so not enough time!
The hostel I am staying at, Pangea, is really cool, despite the fact that it took me a while to find it even though it was super close to my bus stop!
Well, anyway, the hostel is kinda pricey and overwhelming, and tailored for Americans, and they're trying to make money off you in any possible way...but it's really cool! It has a freakkin' swimming pool, a rooftop patio, bar and restaurant, free Internet, and a nice TV room...really, a nice way to block out the San Jose craziness and crime...so it's nice to chill out here and enjoy the place, it is really impressive!
I do actually wish I could and would get out and meet Ticos, talk to the locals and discover the place I am in...not this hostel, which could be anywhere in the world!
But it seems that the center of town is "too dangerous" for gringos or whatever...so everything has to be arranged by taxi, or shuttle, and there is security at the door, and we have a wristband, and stuff like that...I don't really like it at all, but oh well...to get to the airport I am not going to use their expensive shuttle, but instead walk to town and take a super cheap local bus...but my brother's plane is going to arrive maybe too late, and we might have to take a taxi all the way back here...we'll see...I am going to drop all my "valuables" in my locker and hide some cash in my private parts and get out there and see what it's like...everybody says it is scary, I want to see for myself. Other than that, not much is going on, I wanted to try the pool, but it feels a little too chilly! At least my belly is very full and I am happy...I am finally getting into vacation-in-Latin-America mode...which I love, and which takes time to get in and out of! So I better enjoy it while it's here! More on San Jose later from these free computers...

puerto viejo de talamanca (costa rica).

2008-12-21T09:18:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I got back on the mainland, then back into Costa Rica and eventually made it here, a nice little beach town on the Atlantic, with plenty of surfing spots, reggae music and international cuisine...even a few restaurants owned by Italians...so everything is a little more expensive of course (prices rise where the gringos arrive!), but it's also nice to find all sorts of goodies at the supermarket! It seems like a big party place, so I am glad my hostel is nice and new, but most importantly quiet! We also have free Internet, so how could I complain??!
Yesterday I checked out the town, the various beaches, took another dip in the Atlantic, spotted some surfers going about their routine, and even a few impromptu soccer games on the beach. All in all, as with most places I visit, I wish I had more time to soak in the atmosphere and fully relax and enjoy it...but I don't!
So I am leaving again, in a few hours, to go meet my brother, my one and only brother, in San Jose...unfortunately we're going to have to spend the night there (although luckily the hostel should have all sorts of amenities) before taking off tomorrow to go hike the Cerro Chirripo'...should be fun!

bocas del toro.

2008-12-19T18:30:00.002-06:00

Today I took a day long boat tour through some of the islands of the archipelago here, the most important being Isla de Bastimento I guess...we did not get to see any dolphins, which was a major bummer...not a good way to start the day! But then things got better as we did some snorkeling in two different places...pretty interesting! The last stop was at a beach on an island where we got to see these tiny red frogs that are kind of poisonous...then the beach itself had been taken away by the high tides and the currents were pretty rough...so I didn't lie down on the sand, but spent the whole time in the water, trying to relax while I was being pushed back and forth by the currents! I also ran into an older Italian couple from Parma...30 minutes away from my hometown (Guastalla)!
Well, that's it for today, now some chill time and some pasta hopefully, then tomorrow I am going back to the mainland passing through big banana plantations (some locals told me it's not Chiquita anymore, but De La Cruz), then onto the Costa Rican border, then into Costa Rica, stopping for the day and night at Puerto Viejo de Talamanca.

boquete, bocas del toro

2008-12-18T19:43:00.004-06:00

After a long night sleep I embarked on several hours of bus to make my way to the Atlantic side of Panama, through a dam, a lake, highlands with lush vegetation and some isolated villages...interesting ride...then walked to catch a boat in Almirante to get here in Bocas del Toro, an island that's very chill, but at the same time kind of in the same vein as Boquete when it comes to catering to a crowd of wealthy, English-speaking gringos...it's definitely a nice place though, and I got to walk around town before it started raining...I also got to ride a rickety old rusty cruiser through some hilly, pothole-filled roads to get to some caves...me and T went inside and eventually found thousands and thousands of bats packed in the same place...reminded me of NYC! Then on our bike ride back we got completely soaked, so now it's nice to be nice, clean and most of all dry!
Tomorrow is a boat tour to ome other islands around this one, mostly to a bay with plenty of dolphins (or so I hope!), a beach with tiny red frogs, and two spots for excellent snorkeling...or so says the brochure...I will be able to tell tomorrow! Note to self: don't get sunburned again!

finally back on the road...dallas, san jose, panama city, boquete

2008-12-17T20:11:00.003-06:00

I am finally back on the road...after a few years of minor trips, this time I will be spending 5 weeks in Central America...Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala (if all goes well).
I left a few days ago, flying from IAH over to San Salvador through Roatan, an island in the Caribbean of the coast of Honduras where I am going in a few weeks...it looked pretty from the plane, and it has the second biggest coral reef in the world, after Australia of course. The last leg of my flight to San Jose was delayed because of maintenance to the aircraft...so I landed in San Jose kind of late, I missed my bus to Panama City, it was raining, I had no clue how to go about anything, the center of town was closed down...in all this, I was lucky enough to be hosted by A in Escazu, a beautiful area outside the city center. Of course I could appreciate its beauty only the next morning...then it was time to get on a bus for 15 hours all the way to Panama City, which was pretty uneventful, except the 2 hours it took to cross the border and go through all the checks...the officer in Panama didn't want to let me in because I didn't have a return ticket...after a little arguing (his point did not make sense) he finally stamped my passport!
I arrived in Panama City bright and early, my host R was super nice to let me in at 6am, after which I immediately took off to go see the might Panama Canal...which was impressive...I got to understand how it really works, see a few cargos go through, and learn some interesting facts about it all...it takes a boat about 24 hours to cross from one ocean to the other, versus about 2-3 weeks to circumnavigate South America...the boats pay a fee that goes by weight...the highest ever paid was around 390.000$...the lowest? 0.36$ by a guy who was weighed and decided to swim across! It took him 10 hours!
After the Canal I walked around Casco Viejo, the old area of town, which reminds me a bit of Cartagena, Colombia, or Montevideo, Uruguay...parts of it are extremely run down, it almost looks like an urban slum, but the few buildings that did enjoy renovation are quite stunning! The pedestrian area was always packed with people eating, walking around, shopping, and people selling stuff...all sorts of stuff...of course all sorts of goods go through Panama...mostly "made in China" goods I would say...then I took a bus through some residencial areas, which are nice and lush, and kinda remind me of Key West, FL...which contrasts with the hectic and shiny part of town called El Cangrejo, which reminds me of a wannabe Las Vegas with a touch of Miami in it...casinos, electronics stores, big hotels, lots of lights, skyscrapers...I even managed to find a vegetarian restaurant in the midst of all that!
The second day, to escape the bustle of the city, I took a day trip to Isla Taboga, about 1hr boat ride of the Pacific coast...I hiked up to the hill from which you could still see the Panama City skyline, and of course the whole island with its beaches, boats, and houses...then I spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the water trying to protect my sunburn and chatting it up with some local guys...after that was a visit to El Cangrejo, and then it was my turn to leave for a new destination...not before being stopped by a policeman in the old part of town, around 9pm...he asked me if I was either lost or had a death wish...I said "neither"...he then proceeded to explain I should be really careful, walk only where there are people around, and get out of there...that got the message across especially when he ran his thumb across his neck! haha So I quickly got my stuff, said "bye" to my wonderful host R and his brother A, and took off for a fast walk towards the bus stop...once at the bus terminal, everything was nice and modern so I took some time off to enjoy wandering around the 24hr supermarket...before hopping on a night bus to David and sleeping the entire 6hr ride!
This morning I woke up at 6am in David, caught another bus to Boquete, and tried to stay awake to enjoy the views...but couldn't. Once I got here and found my hostel, I took an hour nap, figured out what to do and went for a 4hr walk on this path that leads through coffee plantations...Boquete is a 5000 mountain town by the Volcan Baru, the highest peak in Panama...it's really nice and I am really enjoying the chilly and rainy weather, which is very good for my sunburn! I came back from my walk, checked out the city center, and then visited the supermarket for some food...what I did not know (and eventually noticed throughout my day here) is that the town is a major destination for gringo retirees and snow birds in general, so parts of it cater to a wealthy, English-speaking population that has nothing to do with the locals...just like in Panama the modern areas are all aspiring to be like the US, while the local folks don't know a word of English and manage to get by on little or nothing...well, here it seems very similar, although there is "no crime" and it's much more cooler and relaxed than Panama City! So the town has a bunch of services that are English-speaking and seemed a bit out of place to me, like several real estate agencies, attorney's offices, and such...even the supermarket has "specialty" goods like Barilla pasta and Silk soymilk that you might not find in Panama City, let alone in a small mountain town! So I learned a little about this back at the hostel while cooking my dinner as I was talking to a Santa-looking like, Tennessee hailing, snowbird that is about to spend 4 and a half months in Boquete, just as he has done for the past 5 winters...I had seen him earlier in town handing out candy to local kids...of course not saying a single word, as he does not speak any Spanish...but he told me about all of this gringo side of things here, which is kinda interesting...again, very contrasting, but Latin America is all about contrasts anyway!
Tomorrow I am off to Bocas del Toro, on an island on the Caribbean side, by the border with Costa Rica...and I am getting there on a water taxi that goes through a bunch of banana planatations, supposedly producing about 30% of the world's supply, and the headquarters of the famous Chiquita brand! haha

crazy weather...

2007-01-17T08:39:00.000-06:00

it's -3 degrees C again here in dallas, and it's...snowing!

cali, bogota,....mexico city...dallas

2007-01-16T07:44:00.000-06:00

i am writing from "home" in dallas, where it's -4C!!! considering that yesterday morning i woke up in bogota at 28C, it is quite a change and i am still not used to it!
so it's been a whirlwind of emotions and places, and while it's nice to enjoy the amenities that this place has to offer, it is still pretty strange being here where everybody speaks english, seems very bratty and complains a lot, all while not smiling very much...but here i am and here i am to stay for a bit.
the day after the valle del cocora, my host J, 2 of his friends and I went to a "finca cafetera", pretty much a "coffee farm" that had a 4-hour visit which explained everything about coffee, from its origin to the structure of the plant and how it grows. it was really interesting, the guides were really good, very interactive as well. i learned a lot about where coffee really comes from and where it goes (i didn't know it came from a plant that has leaves and gives "fruits", inside which is the coffee bean!). i also was told that the best colombian coffee is exported to be toasted and then packaged and sold, so what they're left with in colombia is not that great (only at Juan Valdez, the colombian version of starbucks, can you find the same good-quality coffee)...i also learned that the coffee bean is more or less the same color of a peanut, and then it's when it gets toasted and roasted that it really becomes what we can see in the shop...before that it really doesn't smell or taste like anything!
after that i went to cali for the weekend, and i had another great host, G together with all her friends! it was an interesting experience, we went out, witnessed the infamous cali nightlife, and had a good walk through the city, including a daytrip to the rio pance, where all the calenos go spend their sunday. it's kinda like their beach i guess, although the water is definitely freezing cold!
i was also glad to finally hear something about the current political situation in colombia, and learn a tiny bit about the guerrilla groups, the paramilitary groups and so on and so forth...surprisingly enough for me, it is something people are very reticent to talk about, so it is hard to hear about it from people...and the media abroad doesn't really talk about it either,...
from cali i took an evening bus to bogota, spent the night at the airport, then in the morning i spent "all" the pesos i had left (about 12U$D!) before embarking on a plane to mexico city, endure the pain that is the mexico city airport, and then embark on the plane to dallas, with a bunch of chicanos and mexican-texans...quite interesting! now i just woke up in "my bed" and i am using my computer, i don't have a timer for my internet connection for the first timein a while! hehe but it's already the first day of class, i didn't get too much sleep and i need to bundle up and put gas in my bike and brave the cold and the hoards of students on campus! i am looking forward to that! sadly, who knows when the next trip will be...probably not sooner than march for a week to 10 days, and then mid-may for big ass one! :)

medellin, armenia, salento.

2007-01-11T23:03:00.000-06:00

i had a very good time in medellin, met a lot of travelers at the hostel i was staying at, visited with some of them the town of santa fe de antioquia, and then did medellin on my own...unfortunately, it being vacation time for the locals and being the middle of the week, i could not check out the supposedly crazy nightlife! next time...the center seemed a little scary from time to time, even though the guidebooks say it's one of the safest cities around...maybe it's also because of the movies about the infamous times that i have watched, such as "la virgen de los sicarios"...at the hostel the first night we watched another one like that, "rosario tijeras", and a lot of people said i had to check out "la vendedora de rosas" or something like that...
from medellin i took a 6-hr bus ride through some lush valleys to get to armenia, in the middle of the "zona cafetera", where most of the colombian coffee is produced. i am being hosted by J., a really great host, and today we checked out the Valle de Cocora, where some strange wax palms grow amidst valleys that seriously look like a lush-tropical version of switzerland! i didn't really get the whole deal with those wax palms, but maybe i will try to look it up when i have time...we took a jeep with a bunch of backpackers, so we got to meet a lot of new people too, and it was really fun! we hiked most of the day through the valley and then up to some farm in the middle of nowhere...
tomorrow i was going to go see the parque nacional del cafe, a disneyland-like park that's all about coffee...but i decided instead to go visit a local "finca" where they really make coffee! :)
and then after that i am onto cali, the salsa capital of the world, which also contends to medellin the prize for best-looking girls and best nightlife...so it should be fun! i will be there exactly for friday and saturday night, before jumping on a bus on sunday morning that will take me back to bogota, where my plane leaves the next morning...yes it's almost all over...sadly...especially when you're surrounded by people who spend 6 to 12 months around here! oh well...

san gil (rafting!), villa de leyva

2007-01-06T11:45:00.000-06:00

the last day spent in san gil was really a lot of fun! we went rafting down the rio suarez (grade 4) with a bunch of aussies and some kiwis from the hostel we were staying at! rafting is a lot of fun i discovered, the guides were good too so it was a success!
in the afternoon we left to villa de leyva, the route was really scenic, we were stopped and body-checked a couple of times by the police (or army rather). we arrived in villa de leyva when it was already dark, so we discovered what it looks like during the day only today. yesterday we hiked up to the santuario de iguaque, where there is a lagoon that is sacred to the muisca indians, the native inhabitants of this area. the hike was through a forest and then through a "paramo" (open highland), longer than 2 hours each way, and much harder than i thought! but the lagoon and the nature up there were worth it! the paramo has a special vegetation with plants i've never seen before, and we were drinking the water from the lagoon before walking all the way down. once we reached the visitors center at the bottom, it started raining pretty bad! we started talking to two siblings from bogota who were waiting for their friend to come down the mountain, when they suddenly offered us a ride back to villa de leyva! so we got in their car and listened to (american) christian rock all the way back, with them singing along of course! it was really fun, they're happy people, very christian too they said...so they invited us to bogota tonight, they're going to show us around in their car (with christian rock included, i am sure!) before my brother catches his flight back to italy...i have about 10 more days, but by now all the little problems disappeared and the travel bug has caught onto me: i wish i could keep traveling for much, much longer!!! i am already thinking about my next destination...oh, my stomach is also holding up pretty well considering everything, contrarily to my brother's. last night for example we decided to cook "at home" instead of eating out, so we picked some stuff from the supermarket, and i mistakenly grabbed a big jar of ketchup instead of tomato sauce!!! it said "salsa" and it had a picture of tomatoes, how could i know?? so i ended up cooking and eating pasta with ketchup! hehe tonight it's onto bogota for some night tour of the capital city, and then tomorrow i am taking off to medellin, the hometown of higuita (possibly the most entertaining soccer player ever) and the infamous drug cartel! should be fun!

cartagena, santa marta, san gil, barichara

2007-01-03T19:09:00.000-06:00

it's nçbeen a while since i last updated...well, i am glad i got to leave cartagena for good, that place was too much...maybe i'd like it not during peak season or something, i don't know what it is! we did 2 excursions outside the city and those were fun. the first one was the islas del rosario, some islands right outside the bay, cristalline waters, coral reefs and big waves to make a lot of people on our boat throw up and stuff! hehe we had the whole array of families with grandmas and such traveling so it was quite entertaining! we stopped at playa blanca for lunch and that was easily the best beach i've seen on this trip! not as clear water but very very photogenic! then the next day we went to a mud volcano called el totumo. that was super fun, because we went mud dipping, and the mud is very creamy so it feels good, plus it's so dense everybody is floating, there is no way you can sink even though your feet are not touching the bottom...it was exhilarating! and in the middle of our dipping session it started "erupting" bubbles of mud!!! haha then we washed off in the nearby lagoon...apparently the whole thing is created by some strange phenomenon in the lagoon where the water pushes the mud from underneath all the way up till it erupts, and throughout the years it eventually formed the volcano that many tourists now enjoy! we also got to visit, once back in cartagena, the spanish fortress, that was pretty interesting. the most impressive part was the tunnels going down deep till they were submerged!
then we finally got to leave cartagena for santa marta on the 31st of december! we stayed with my brother's ex colleague's family by santa marta somewhere, and i very well enjoyed being taken care of, fed and all the nice stuff! we were shown around, visited the tayrona national park, spent 2 days at 2 different super nice beaches (guayraca, playa concha), spent new year's with a bunch of people, ate some good food and got interesting insight on the life of an upper middle-class colombian family!
last night we left santa marta and through bucaramanga we arrived in san gil where we're staying now. during the afternoon we visited the nearby colonial town of barichara, i had two "paletas", we walked around, visited some nice churches to escape the heat, then made it back here for some colombian fast food (fried arepas filled with mushrooms)...tomorrow we're visiting the parque el gallineral here, maybe going somewhere else before we take off to go to villa de leyva, another town in the colombian highlands. i like it here very much: it's very relaxing, people are very friendly and nobody is trying to sell you anything!!!

coro (venezuela) + cartagena (colombia)

2006-12-28T20:11:00.000-06:00

so it's been a while since i last updated this, and a new entry is very much needed...from choroni i took the fun bus up and then down the mountains through the henri pittier national park and then, after a couple bus rides, i finally made it to coro, on the northwestern caribbean coast of venezuela, just in front of aruba, curacao and bonaire (netherlands antilles), which used to be served by a ferry (i know, inviting, right?!)...coro is famous for its colonial architecture and the medanos de coro, a series of big sand dunes right outside the city center! when i arrived, on dec 24th late in the evening, the city was crazy with shoppers and music and the atmosphere was pretty hot...i was pretty hot too, since i got bit by mosquitoes really bad in choroni, and my legs were on fire!!! but yeah, i stayed at this cool place whose owners are architects who studied abroad, and i spent christmas eve with a venezuelan family, 2 canadian and 1 spanish girls, plus the hosts...it was very good, we exchanged "cheapo" (chimbo) presents and it was funny!!! then the next day i made it to the medanos, the giant sand dunes, and i was blown away! it seemed like a real desert, although i've never been to one! the whole sand dune phenomenon is very interesting and philosophically intriguing to me, plus i got to be by myself in the middle of just sand and wind for a while...hehe then later in the day i made my way to maracaibo, spent the night at the bus terminal there, and then eventually made it across the border to maicao, colombia! the bus we payed to take us to the city terminal left us in the middle of the two immigration checkpoints, so me and 2 brazilians had to bargain our way out of there somehow...and we were in the middle of no man's land, the place looked pretty scary if you ask me! we had to pay for an overprived bus ride to...the terminal, only to wait 2 more hours there before we could get on the road for real...so then we arrived in cartagena only pretty late in the evening, had again to fight with taxi drivers and whatnot to make it into the center...the hostel i was going to stay at was full, so i looked around for a bit and decided to settle for a very cheap and kinda shady looking like place...where they got into my room while i was showering and stole my cell phone!!! fuck them!!! fuck colombia, i thought, i am getting the hell out of here! but then again, i should have put a lock at my door right away instead of going for the quick shower...so again, i guess it could be kinda my fault...and then out of the things they could have stolen, the cell phone is by far the least important to me! but you know poor people all over the world love cell phones, so let them have it!!! i spent a day at the police, next to a guy who was handcuffed to the wall and had stolen and crashed a motorbike while on some sort of glue kinda drug, and he was rapping for me to beg for some change since he said he needed it in his next 5 years in jail...well my day spent in frustration and anger didn't really produce much, and then my brother finally reached me, so i could start forgetting about the whole incident and focus on my trip...because cartagena is truly an amazing town...a port town (like marseille, france, the other place where i was robbed...of my hanky!!!), but a beautiful one! as a port town, it has the whole range of scary-shady-weird looking-etc people that always follow you and bug you and offer you all sorts of drugs and girls (i've never been offered by so many prostitutes before in my life!) and whatnot...which gets pretty annoying if you ask me...but then again, the city center is really amazing, old and beautiful!!! we went to check out boca grande last night, which is the part of town where the moneyed colombians stay...and it looks so much like miami beach it is pretty scary!!! today we walked around all day and we're pretty exhausted, but i had a blast eating arepas and mangos and cheese off the street vendors, bargaining our way through some burned cd's with vallenato, and stuff like that...the smile of some colombian girls is unexpectedly very rewarding and surprising at times! well anyway, tomorrow we're going on a full-day boat excursion to the islands of rosario around the bay, then to playa grande, a beach not too far from here...and then the next day we're supposedly going to this mud volcano where you can swim in and have "mud fun"! hahah we'll see how that goes...i am seriously looking forward to getting out of a touristy place and feel more like i am in a more colombian place...

caracas + choroni

2006-12-23T18:08:00.000-06:00

so caracas, i need to write more on that...the contrast between poverty and misery and wealth and consumism is really evident there, after 10 whole days in the country i had never seen the kind of people i was rubbing shoulders with at the numerous malls of caracas: those are exactly the same as the ones in miami, the people as well...plastic surgery and a lot of importance to looks and brands...the center of town was really crazy though, a unique experience of overload of sounds, smells, people and things everywhere...i kept walking around the same block trying to find my way around, while watching for my stuff and trying to find something to eat!
i enjoyed the center of town, then i went to miraflores, the armed forces headquarter, and while i was taking pictures a soldier approached me asking me for my camera...to make it short, i unbelievably made my way inside the heavily-protected building just because of my innocent picture...and all because they had to check my identity or whatever! the president of ecuador was visiting chavez, so security was tight...plus the situation, and the city in general, is just very electric and it feels like it could explode at any second! that's one of the things i think i liked the most about it, the energy...there's so much energy that it either "kills" you, or it rubs onto you and you can feel it too...and i did while walking through piles of trash, completely surrounded by people, things, vendor stalls, food smells, car horns, you name it, it was there...moreover, the city's setting is spectacular, with the avila dominating everything that goes on...
i luckily made my way out of town without any damage or loss, and finding myself enjoying the mess/chaos/energy, you can call it whatever you want...
then we had some interesting experience on the bus out of town: a tire went flat right on the highway, and the noise was so loud i woke up and got up like everybody else...we thought the thing was going to catch on fire, and i am afraid there isn't much as far as safety there! but it was just a flat tire, and boy, was the tire was smooth and worn out!
from maracay i got on a fun, old american schoolbus with the interiors spraypainted a fluorescent green and turquoise, and we slowly made our way towards the beach with reggeaton blasting through the sound system...we entered the henri pittier national park and drove up to 1830 meters, only to descend through woods and fog all the way down to the beach! it was really fun, and it wouldn't be the same without the music and the crazy driving!
so now i am staying in choroni, technically puerto colombia, this touristy town that is surrounded by mountains and woods (the parc itself), the beach is really nice too, but i took a fisherman's boat to chuao, a town that i had to walk 4km inland to and that is famous for its cocoa...it was surrounded by cocoa plantations so i got to see cocoa "seeds" really up close...then i took another little boat to playa cepe, a semi-secluded beach that is surrounded by palm trees, it was all very enjoyable...
tomorrow i am going to coro, a colonial town, to spend christmas eve at this place where i am going to cook myself up a feast and then sleep, for the first time, on a hammock...and from there on christmas day all the way to colombia passing through maracaibo...so merry christmas everybody!

santa fe + caracas

2006-12-21T19:35:00.000-06:00

after finally leaving merida, i embarked on a fancy super air-conditioned bus to caracas, slept super nicely, only to wake up to the mess and chaos that is the capital of venezuela. luckily it was still kinda early in the morning, so it wasn't too too bad,...yet, i had to catch 2 buses and 2 metros to switch bus terminals, and with all my crap it was quite the adventure...without mentioning what i saw on the street, as far as piles of trash and everything else...i finally made it on the bus to puerto la cruz, and then to santa fe, a little fishing town on the border of the mochima national park...it's a one-street town, with all the travelers staying by the beach...i had a nice and cheap room 5 meters from the water, it was awesome! well, yeah i also had to kill 3 cockroaches in 2 nights, but that's just part of the deal! i got to meet some travelers, although the place was not swamped with foreigners, which is always nice. it was actually pretty peaceful and enjoyable; the first night we had a crazy crazy sunset, and then the next day i went on a boat trip with some germans (which, besides spaniards, are all you can find as far as travelers) and it was fun. we snorkeled at this place between two islands called La Piscinita, because it does look like a pool: super clear water surrounded by coral reefs...and i'm definitely not an expert at that, but it was pretty nice...i also got my back sunburnt, but that's partly my fault...the rest of the day was spent at an isolated beach with the germans and 3 basque guys, and it was pretty enjoyable! nothing much but bathing, tanning and taking pictures of the iguanas that were coming to be fed by the tourists!
then i left santa fe and made it back to caracas, where i've been staying for the past 2 days...it is the most latin american place i've seen so far, which means the place where the contrast between stricken poverty and in-your-face wealth is the most evident...i walked into one of the several malls around town to discover a new kind of people i had never ever seen before in the streets! and tonight i went to this other mall that was just out of the ordinary!!! i also went and took pictures of miraflores, the palace where the army resides, famous for the coup in 1992, and got caught by some soldiers, since they were very alert because correa, the president of ecuador, is visiting at the moment...so i had the chance to go inside...
>(to be continued)<

late night conversations in venezuela.

2006-12-17T00:58:00.000-06:00

i like to talk to locals when i travel and discover new things or perspectives, opinions, whatever it may be...so i have been asking people, ones i felt confortable asking to, about chavez mainly, and venezuela in general...tonight i finally found somebody young that said they did not like him...she thought there is a whole lot of propaganda and not that much is being done...not more than some other presidents have done in the past at least...and that chavez really has polarised politics in the country by making a lot of people worship him...so now people either religiously adore him, or straight out hate him, nobody can be neutral anymore...
but the most interesting part about our conversation came about when they mentioned gas prices here...keeping in mind that venezuela has the largest quantities of oil after saudi arabia...well, gas (petrol) here costs 80 bolivares per liter...roughly 4 Euro cents!!! it costs way less than water...where can you find a place where water costs more than oil?? it is plainly mind-boggling to me...it costs less to fill up a 2-liter bottle with oil than with water!!!

merida, venezuela.

2006-12-16T12:16:00.000-06:00

i am here in the andean town of merida in venezuela, and i am loving it, but i will try to backtrack and say something about the previous days...
from bogota i got on the "wrong" bus to cucuta (colombia-venezuela border) and that's where my bad luck started...the bus took a hell of a long time, stopping everywhere, going through the backroads and loading passengers anywhere!!! so throughout the same night i probably had at least 5 different people sitting next to me! i was looking forward to riding through the colombian andes at night and getting to the border in the morning, but i soon started to realize what i had gotten myself into...anyway, the peak of the trip was when in the middle of the night some soldiers got on our bus with their machine guns in sight, and one sat right next to me for about an hour! needless to say i was freaking out and thinking bad things already, since that was an area with guerrilla and in the middle of the night...you know? i never dared say anything, so i still don't know if they were just getting a free ride or if they were actually supposed to protect us...but i was scared! then we passed some more checkpoints and some were body-checked a couple of times...the view of soldiers with machine guns is pretty common, so i learned to get used to it...
once the endless and annoying ride finally ended, i got on another bus to the actual border, then walked across, had my whole big backpack searched, got the stamps i needed to get on my passport, then took another bus to san cristobal in venezuela, got body-checked a couple of times, ...and then i finally made it to san cristobal! well, little did i know...the last bus to merida (my destination) had already left, i couldn't get any money out of the ATM, and even though a very nice woman policeman helped me (once she knew i was italian), i had to change some colombian pesos from some random person to pay for my ridiculously overpriced little, dirty and muggy room by the bus terminal...oh, i had also forgotten that venezuela is an hour ahead, so i missed my last chance of spending my last money at an internet cafe before calling it a night!
the next day i was determined to finally solve my money problems, and went around 5-6 banks, to no avail! i finally entered one of them and asked for cash advance, which i didn't even know existed! haha (oh, it's "avance de efectivo", very useful term to know; another very useful word i quickly learned is "cancelar": it means to pay in advance, meaning you can't grab the item or be serviced before you pay) well, the person there helped me a lot, welcomed me to venezuela and quickly gave me what i asked for...so that's when fate finally started turning in my favor!
i finally got on a bus to merida, got some food and water, and enjoyed my bus ride with air-conditioning (since it's pretty hot) and loud, fun music (that people always sing along to: fun!). this time the bus almost never stopped! well, except for some more police checkpoints and stuff like that...then i finally got to merida, where i am being hosted by M...
for some reason i already knew that i was going to live it here, and i really do! it's more easygoing, less dangerous, friendlier and cheaper than anywhere in venezuela (although i have not been anywhere yet!), and it's by the highest venezuelan mountains (pico bolivar-5004 meters, and pico humboldt)...it's by the same andes i had explored last year in argentina, only at the other end! i met a lot of european travelers, walked around and i already don't want to leave!
well, yesterday i took the longest and highest cable-car in the world up to 5007 meters a.s.l. by the pico bolivar...after trying to get used to the altitude, i rode a horse for 4 endless hours up and down mountains, rocks and streams...although i felt really bad for the poor horse, it was much more of a physical workout than i thought! the best part was the dog that was running before and by us, it reminded me of belle & sebastien a lot!!! i tried taking pictures of the whole thing, but it was pretty hard and we will see if the results are even decent! thanks to the horse i got to this remote village at about 2700 mt a.s.l. called Los Nevados, where i chatted it up with some locals about chavez, took some nice pictures, got a rustic bed for the night, and before going to bed...dinner was included, so i went down for dinner and talked the "senora" into making me something vegetarian...which was very yummy! i had dinner with a spanish couple that i will meet again sometime i think...then went straight to bed, and slept for a whopping 12 hours!!! i am sad i missed the sunrise this morning, but i couldn't get up anyway...went down for breakfast again (where "down" means down a super steep cobblestone road!) and then hopped on a jeep (4WD vehicle, or offroad vehicle,...) with the spanish girl and 3 italian-swiss tourists and a local...well, down a tiny path running next to the side of the mountain for 4 hours to get back in town...
so that was my fun adventure so far; tomorrow i might have to leave and go to the mochima national park where i will be relaxing at the beach, visiting some caribbean islands and maybe even snorkeling...from there it's onto a more secluded beach by puerto colombia, then a quick trip to caracas before going back to bogota for christmas...
so far i've been loving venezuela, which has been up to its reputation for chavez and beauty queens. the former is everywhere, well, rather, pictures, posters, banners, images, etc of him are everywhere, also because the elections were just 2 weeks ago...i've been asking a lot of people about him of course, and most seem satisfied with what he's been doing...as for the beauty queens, venezuela is statistically the country with the most girls winning international beauty pageants, and you can totally see that walking around...it's not about quantity but quality, definitely!
oh, merida is going to host the 2007 "copa america" this coming july!
i've also been enjoying the loud, dancy, fun, hispanic music blaring everywhere, the cheap internet cafes and the views...i am sure i am forgetting something but i better go now!

bogota!

2006-12-12T14:36:00.000-06:00

i'm only two days into my trip (technically it's the first day, since i spent the other one at the mexico city airport) and i'm already feeling pooped! it better be the altitude, because otherwise it's not going to be fun! well, bogota lies at about 2600 meters above sea level, it's chaotic, noisy and very polluted...you can feel stuff down your lungs as you walk around! there are a lot of bikes everywhere, risking their lives among the many other kinds of vehicles that take over the city streets...the arrival at the airport reminded me of one of the take that's tours back in the day, where hoards of screaming, jumping and chanting people holding signs were waiting behind the barriers...trying to find my way out of that was an experience! and once outside the airport, the colombian reality hits you...i've been enjoying riding the TransMilenio today, this amazing public work that was supposed to be a metro system, and instead is a "fast" bus system that rides in the middle of the street...well it's more complicated than that, but oh well...
i was secretly hoping bogota would blow me away for some reason, and it hasn't yet, and it probably won't i assume...it's a nice place with a historic/colonial city center and lots of people everywhere, and yes, i haven't experienced its nightlife, yet it pains me to say it's not unbelievably spectacular...which is fine! haha
i'm headed to cucuta tonight, a border town with venezuela...

the most populous city in the world?

2006-12-11T11:19:00.000-06:00

so i am here in mexico city since yesterday i missed my connection to bogota, i stressed out for about an hour, then started bitching at the people in charge, so i finally got on the same plane today, plus i got a nice hotel room and three meals from them...so life is not that bad at all, i am actually glad i did miss that plane! haha i took a nap, watched some soccer from my room, then went into the center by metro straight from the airport, walked around the zocalo (big square) and the surrounding area, then came back and went to sleep...now i am rested (since i was not when i left texas!) so i am ready to tackle colombia and venezuela!

yay for snow!

2006-11-30T11:11:00.001-06:00

it is snowing in dallas right now. that's all i am going to say!

la quemada + jerez (zacatecas, mexico)

2006-11-24T16:44:00.000-06:00

so my plan to go to real de catorce fell through for lack of bus connections and lack of time on my behalf...so my plan B for the day was to go visit the ruins of La Quemada, which is an archeological site that used to be inhabited by the first inhabitants of mexico, who later on went to found teotihuacan (spelling?)...anyway, ít has such a name because it burnt down, and what was left is what i saw today: a couple of good-sized pyramids, the outer walls, what is believed to be the first roofed building in mexico, and scattered clusters of stones on a hill overlooking the whole desertic valley...then from there i hitched a ride from a mexican-french mormon couple all the way to jerez on the back of their pickup truck...that was fun! now i am here in jerez, which is a nice small countryside town, pretty quiet, yet lively and there's even an abundance of internet cafes! i slurped on several "paletas" (popsicles) and got some bread and pastries for my ride back to zacatecas tonight...hopefully i will also make it to this discotheque in zacatecas which is inside a mine...one of the few in the world apparently! then tomorrow it's time for going back already, slowly but surely...too bad i won't be able to make it to real de catorce this time!
highlights: the state band playing a concert in a square in central zacatecas; riding in the back of the mexican-french mormon couple's pickup truck!

zacatecas, mexico.

2006-11-23T11:24:00.000-06:00

2450 meters above sea level right amidst a desert in the center-north of mexico lies zacatecas, the city i am in right now, after a 20-hour total bus ride from dallas. because of the altitude and since it in winter time it is freezing at night, but still nice during the day...my hosts S and P have been wonderful so far, including an awesome night tour that included 2 of the best hotels in town: one used to be an arena for bullfights (the infamous "corridas"), and has rooms in the "stadium" part of the arena, while the pit is still there and the whole structure is untouched. the other one is a giant complex of hoses, alleys and balconies that used to be painted all different colors and used to host multi-family housings for the poor people of zacatecas...now it's been re-modeled and painted all red and yellow and it looks very romantic and different! other highlights included the UNESCO world heritage list cathedral that looks so insane it makes you wonder if it's real, a lot of other churches, an old acqueduct, and narrow, colonial streets full of baroque buildings...today i am set to explore it all, starting by what used to be one of the most important silver mines in the country.
tomorrow i am trying to go to real de catorce, once the silver capital of the region, now a ghost town that seems full of italian restaurants and artsy expats and not much else...well, besides being famous for an annual pilgrimage of the huichol indigenous people, who are famous for using peyote...but more on that tomorrow or the following day!
i also learned that "vengo de dallas" (i am from dallas, i am coming from dallas) can have a double meaning with sexual connotations to the youngsters here, so i am better off just saying i am italian but i am living in tejas right now! :)

sportsmanship is not everything...i guess?!

2006-10-24T10:52:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to see my first hockey, and NHL, game thanks to A.! I know it's not technically traveling so it shouldn't be on here, but whatever...the best thing, besides seating right next to the Dallas Stars' bench, was the fight! Yes, the fight...apparently, hockey is the only sport I know of where violence outside the game itself is allowed...no, I am not talking about the tackling and fighting while playing! If you want to fight with somebody they will let you do so; actually, the fans will encourage you, the refs will stop the game, stand aside and watch, their arms crossed, till you're done...so you can have at it, and when you're done you just get to sit in the penalty box for a little bit! It's very different from any sport I've seen before, where the coach or team managers would punish you for being violent outside the sport's boundaries...an interesting concept nonetheless!

please read this!

2006-10-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

"Today we consider it obvious and natural that we have sidewalks on every street. Bikeways should be the same. If we are a democratic society, everybody has the right to the same mobility. So, in the future we have to think as bikeways not as something cute or nice but as a right. A quality city is not one that has great roads but one where a child can safely go anywhere on a bicycle."

Enrique Peñalosa was mayor of Bogotá from 1998 to 2001, when term limits forced him to leave office. He has advised other world cities on transportation and is a senior fellow at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. This article is adapted from comments he made at “Manhattan on the Move: A Transportation Agenda for a Growing City,” a conference presented by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

it's been a while!

2006-10-19T10:45:00.000-05:00

I haven't written on here in forever, leaving you all (??) with the World Cup tornado...after that and 2 weeks spent in the peace of Guastalla I came back here, in Dallas, TX...school started again, I moved somewhere bigger and closer to school, I got a roadbike, and not much else...oh yeah, I spent my birthday weekend in Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, IL, which I both loved!
I know I was supposed to write from there as I was technically traveling, but I didn't get the chance to...so I am updating from "home", looking forward to my next projects and trips: buying an old steel 90's roadbike and transforming it (or rather, having it transformed) into a fixie, a fixed-gear bicycle (no shifting, no coasting, no derailleurs, no brake cables,...); also, I am trying to decide where to spend my Thanksgiving...it will probably be Mexico, but I don't know where, and it has to be somewhat close to the Texas border...so maybe Real de Catorce, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, or somewhere around there...then I just booked my flights to Colombia for the winter break (mid Dec till mid Jan!): I will be in Colombia and Venezuela for 5 weeks! I will also get to meet my brother and spend Christmas and New Year's with him! Woohoo!

World Champions!

2006-08-31T18:53:00.000-05:00

the best of italy's 2006 world cup with commentary by fabio caressa (in italian. duh.)

oh mamma mamma mamma, oh mamma mamma mamma, lo sai perche', innamorato so', ho visto ale del piero, ho visto ale del piero, ehi, mamma, innamorato so'

2006-07-11T10:36:00.000-05:00

the past couple of days have been a whirlwind of emotions...i still have in my head the screams, noises, horns, flags, people, squares, fountains, jerseys...it was definitely memorable and unbelievable, but we made history: italy won its fourth football (soccer) world cup, we are the world champions!!!
i am in rome of all places, so i watched both the semifinal and the final at this huge place with hundreds of thousands of people, and it was amazing! the 2 goals in 3 minutes with germany after 118 minutes of suffering were like a huge thunder in a clear sky, and i really enjoyed that night because it was just as amazing as it was unexpected...
the final was much more full of tension because of france and our history with them, and the penalties are always a low blow to your heart anyway...when we won i could not believe it, it had never happened ever since i can remember (ok, the last time was in 1982) so i didn't really know how to react...the crowds got crazy in the streets all night long, i fulfiled my childhood dream: to throw myself in a fountain for a big football (soccer) celebration!!!
then last night was the last and possibly big emotion, since it came as a total surprise: an open deck bus with all the players and the world cup toured the streets of rome and ended the parade at circo massimo, the huge open-air space where i watched the last two games...i read that there was about 1 million people there last night, a lot more along the streets of rome to sing with and shout at the players...
i was waiting for the bus with the players to pass by although i didn't know how close it would be or anything...well, when it did come by it was an incredible feeling: i could see the players and coach and the world cup from 5-10-15 meters, depending on the craziness of the crowd and the speed of the bus...so i started following the bus the whole way to the circo massimo, and i got to see them over and over and over again, it was really unbelievable, something that is hard to describe with words...
i was there, they were there too...this whole thing is just such a big coincidence that it is incredible to even begin to realize what's been going on...
i even bought myself 2 new original jerseys that i've been wearing this whole time! hehe

the eternal city.

2006-07-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

yes that's correct, i am in rome...i got here tonight on the fancy eurostar train, after barely one day at home...rome is really beautiful at night, i had forgotten about it...i am on a campus in montemario, a nice green area with big houses...i have my own room with fridge and it's nice and cosy i think, i am happy i can go to the supermarket and keep food in my room and eat good stuff...that's a nice life!

oh, i forgot...

2006-07-02T03:00:00.000-05:00

CS's website crashed and it seems like everything was lost...it's incredibly sad...what's worse is that it looks like the creator/founder/whatever doesn't want to keep doing it after this problem,...hopefully some positive developments soon!

back home...

2006-07-02T02:46:00.000-05:00

it's strange to wake up at home after 5 weeks around, although i will be sleeping in rome tonight, and changing this frequently keeps me alive...maybe i should have planned to be here a couple of days, i don't know...because now i have so much to do and so little time...
anyway, my way back home was nice. from vilnius, lithuania i took a bus to gdansk, poland. i stayed in sopot, a nice polish beach resort, for one night, got to visit there and then have a full day in gdansk, which is beautiful i think...full of tall, skinny houses that remind me very much of a port on the baltic sea, not too dissimilar from hamburg, germany for example...but gdansk is much prettier! ah, my host G took me to a microsoft convention she was attending in the center...haha since the convention was in polish i just went for the free breakfast and showed up a few hours later for the free lunch...so it was nice! getting back to bratislava from gdansk was a little complicated and i had to pay way too much for a train ticket, because it was an international one...so i went to warsaw at night, waited there for an hour, got on a train to wien, although i only went as far as breclaw, in czech republic on the border with slovakia...and from there i took my final train to bratislava, which welcomed my last day of travel with quite some rain...i still managed to watch the quarterfinals there and it was fun...it always seems to be full of drunk brits, but i am a tourist too after all so whatever...i also met an australian guy who was going there for the weekend to write about the stupidity of the movie "hostel"...i haven't seen it, only bits and pieces at somebody's house in poland, but i have to say it seemed pretty nonsense, totally unrealistic and simplistic...but i could see some people buy into it...
ok, tonight it's rome where i will be for about 2 weeks teaching to some SMU students, and then we're going to tuscany for about 5 days, and we're ending it up in bologna for the last 10 days...should be fun, i won't be posting as much because i am not technically really traveling...but yeah.
my wonderful host T in bratislava suggested i look into submitting my travel pictures to some magazine or online something about travel photography, so as soon as i get to look at the pictures i will be giving it a shot...if anybody is reading this and has an idea, feel free to bring up suggestions...

hey, vilnius rocks too!

2006-06-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

i survived midsummer's festival in riga, it was actually a lot of fun! during the day i went to sigulda, called "the switzerland of latvia"...i don't really know why,...i mean it has some wooden houses, castles and lots of forests and some caves, but it really does not look like switzerland to me...oh well. the rainy day got a toll on me, but the midsummer's night (lingo) was fun at the lido with my host L...they had typical latvian food and music and i danced...yes, it was fun!
i then embarked on the bus to vilnius with zero sleep, and i arrived here in vilnius, lithuania. the southermost of the 3 baltic countries, the one with the least russians, the "more latin" one, if one can say so...
my host I is just super so everything is fun...i got to eat some typical (veggie) food, way too much food actually...and then we walked around vilnius, met up with a bunch of friends of hers, and had a fun night at broadway pub (well, broadway is spelled/written in lithuanian,...an indo-european language with 7 cases!). so it's fun here, i am loving it, enjoying my last week on the road, although there's a little too many italians here...going after the girls of course...what's new...the girls here don't seem to mind the foreigners because a) there's so many of them, and b) because the lithuanian boys are nowhere to be seen...my host says the good ones are already taken by now! haha
the town is somewhat deserted because of the long weekend, although there's still enough people to make it fun...riga was deserted too, looked like a city in the middle of a war (not that i've ever seen one, but that's what i picture it to look like...)
so today it's chilling and some football, tomorrow it's siauliai for the famous hill of crosses, and then tuesday i am going to see the trakai castle just outside vilnius...and then tuesday night i am on the bus to gdansk, in the north of poland...oh, and tomorrow it's also italy-australia...hopefully the socceroos and hiddink won't play tricks on us...

enjoying the baltic

2006-06-22T15:01:00.000-05:00

still here in riga with 5 minutes to go online, visited the city properly today, including the view from a tall church, then took a train to jurmala with my cool hosts, caught italy on tv (yay!!!), then had a taste of baltic again in jurmala, which is full of russians, kind of expensive, they say it was the coolest resort for russians during soviet times and stuff...in the morning i also saw the latvian president, a woman, give a speech in the square,...i heard gwb likes her...hhmm what should i think??? tomorrow it's sigulda, the switzerland of latvia, with mountains and castles, and then at night sometime i am going to make it to vilnius, lithuania...

riga, latvia.

2006-06-21T17:04:00.000-05:00

today i got to riga, in latvia. latvia is the one country in the middle, between the other 3 baltic republics...it's the one i have trouble thinking of because in italian it's "lettonia", very similar to lithuania, and there's no V...so anyway, riga is very pretty, not as cosy as tallinn but with wonderful roofs, churches and streets...there's still some russians, maybe even more than in estonia, and the language is one out of two indo-european languages in the baltic, it might be at risk of extinction, i am not sure...but it does sound strange, not similar to russian or anything...tonight i went to somebody from CS's graduation and it was fun, 7 girls and me at "Ai Karamba!"...all CS members except one, whom will soon join us! haha what a surprise...tomorrow it's big soccer/football game, italy-czech republic, and i might be going to jurmala, the #1 seaside resort in the baltic, with my supercool hosts A and L...fun will be had!

/pair-nu/

2006-06-20T05:16:00.000-05:00

that is what Pärnu sounds like, although i didn't know myself...this is where i am right now, on the estonian coast, very nice place, relaxed, practically no foreigners, everybody is nice and it seems like a rich and progressive place...the beach is not too bad, many beautiful girls, sports, waterparks, etc etc...they say the water is fairly warm, i am going to try it out now...and then tomorrow it's off to riga, in latvia...new country, new baltic capital...new currency too...

tallinn rocks.

2006-06-18T06:16:00.000-05:00

so i finally got my act together and left st petersburg and russia, although i had grown to ignore the not-so-nice answers and behaviors and i was enjoying my last few days there...i got out of russia without a problemfor not having a visa registration luckily, and i am now in estonia, the top of the baltic countries for those who don't know...
estonia feels like finland, except not as cold, with much cheaper prices, prettier girls and friendlier people!!! :) yes, doesn't that sound like fun?
coming from russia everybody is so polite, open and friendly, yet peaceful and civilised i just can't believe it! ok i am making the russians sound a little too bad here...but this is really great...there's still 1/3 of the population who's russian here, although estonians do have a history of not liking them...and you do hear russian on the street, it's almost too common and it really confuses me, but everybody else speaks estonian and...surprise, surprise...english! hehe yeah everybody seems to speak english here...estonian sounds very much like finnish to me, very similar sounds...it is a ugro-finnish language after all, while lithuanian and latvian are indo-european...but i don't know what those sound like yet, so i can't tell!
it does feel very much like europe, or the EU, here...english is spoken, the country seems quite modern, it is very e-savy...very enjoyable! it is so e-savy that it's hard to find an internet cafe because there's free wi-fi at most places in the center!
oh i forgot...tallinn's old town is just wonderful, made of narrow, cobblestone streets and pretty pointy and colorful buildings...i had no idea!
the supermarket trip was also pretty awesome! they have so much yummy food, it's all fairly decent-priced and they have some interesting bread-like stuff that reminds me of either pizza dough or middle eastern bred...some are plain, some are with walnuts...and it's yummy...plus they have a wide range of smoked cheeses and cheeses with stuff (spices of some sort) on the crust...something like spiced cheese maybe, i have no idea...but it tastes really good!
what else...oh, yeah, there's also several groups of tourists, many brits on alcoholic weekends and also several italians and russians in big groups...the locals don't seem to mind (yet) and are very young, pretty and friendly! last night i ended up watching czech rep-ghana with my wonderful host T and her friends M and K, and then i joined the 3 funny romans i met in st petersburg for italy-usa...very bad game, what can i say?!

still here...

2006-06-15T13:11:00.000-05:00

today i went to petrodvorets, amazing fountains, more grassy areas, as if yesterday wasn't enough! i am trying to get a bus to tallinn and not get fined for my lack of visa registration...other than that not much, tonight i will hopefully get to see the st petersburg bridges raise at night...it's quite the sight, or so they say...i better go now, my time is out and the world cup is coming up!

it's not super pretty but i don't want to leave!

2006-06-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

i am still here in st petersburg, and i kind of like it here, it's somewhat relaxing, in a russian way i guess, and pleasant to walk around at anytime of the day and night, also thanks to the long days...i am here at cafe max, my favorite place: it has internet and a megascreen with the world cup, what else could i ask for?
so i am probably headed to tallinn, estonia, tomorrow night or the following day...today i went to see some parks, way too much green...i also caught some russian squirrels, although they didn't seem to have an attitude like the people! haha bad joke, ok
and tomorrow it's petrodvorets, some versailles-like park with insane fountains supposedly...we'll see...well i better go now, my time is out!

saint petersburg.

2006-06-11T10:23:00.000-05:00

i am in saint petersburg now, i arrived last night, or early this morning, from moscow...so where did i leave this? probably in nizhny novgorod, with A and her cool adventure travel friends...on my last day there i got to take a boat on the volga to a village just across on the other bank, then ate more croissants and met up with A and S for a very trendy russian thing: sushi! we had sushi and then played bowling, it was fun! then i ran to the train station and spent yet another night on the train...to kazan this time. i got there super early in the morning, luckily my host A was there...i am so lucky! i managed to take a nap at her apartment before heading into town, accompanied by her...yes, she was my tour guide for my entire stay, how nice!!! so i visited 3-4 mosques there, also got a little book from an eminent person in one of the mosques, there's even a picture of him and khatami in the book he gave me! kazan is very modern thanks to all the new buildings that were built in 2005 to commemorate 1000 years of independence from russia...yes, because that is tatarstam, different language and they also have their own flag, which sadly reminds me of Berlusconi's Forza Italia (political party)'s one...i also tried some of the regional specialties as far as food, more fried stuff for me! the caucasian people at the market were calling me by the names of the national team football players, they (the caucasians) seemed friendlier than most russians i've met on this trip...hehe so yeah why are all the whites called caucasians when we have to fill out forms and stuff? apparently it's the fault of this german doctor who went to the caucasus region and found the men there to be in perfect health and to represent the standards that he was looking for...but it's ironic because they are not white! oh well...
after kazan i spent one day in moscow, wonderful T showed me around, victory park was really nice, and st basil's is always the shit...then my mood got buried underground when we got stopped and checked by police and since i don't have a visa registration i was fined...thanks to her "we could" bribe him to not write a report and pay HIM 1000 rubles (35-40$) instead of the official ticket, which is 3000rub...so you can imagine how happy i was!!!
now i better go because the time at the cafe is over, i found this computer on, somebody forgot their credit on this machine, can't complain! they also have a megascreen with the world cup on, so i switch between internet and football, how wonderful!!!
i arrived here in st petersburg and my host T is awesome, she came to get me at 4.35!!! we had chai at her house, and then i took a super long nap...then i started walking around on my own...st petersburg (SP) is really nice and very scandinavian-looking-like, less impressive than the center of moscow but it seems more relaxed...although most russians i ask things to really do not give a shit...it's been a constant on this trip, i have to admit it...i don't know why, but that's how things are...not only could they care less that they do not speak a word of english, but they seem like they couldn't care less about anything but their lives...oh well, who can blame them i guess? sadly that's been my experience with russians on the street...
ok i better go for real now, onto mexico-iran, or at least a little bit (1st half for sure) because then i am headed to T's house and hopefully i will get to cook something...i am starving!!!

куда я хочу, туда и еду. (я гуляю как кот)

2006-06-06T14:39:00.000-05:00

ok let's see if i can pick up from where i left it...kiev, ukraine...why you guys call it "THE ukraine" is beyond my understanding, but whatever...ukraine was fun and i was once more sad to leave kiev, where i had a good time although at the beginning the super-crowded apartment and the 2 cats kinda had me worried...oh and the sleeping on the floor...the cold shower was just a detail at this point...my hosts Y and A were really busy all the time, yet they managed to host me in the best way...i even got to go to this czech-ukrainian night at the national opera house with all these diplomats and stuff because Y works at the czech embassy as a translator...well, i ended up sitting right in front of this man and son from olomouc (cz) that i had shared my sleeping wagon with on the bratislava-lviv train! how funny!
kiev was nice, the churches and big monastery+caves really cool, although i hit my head really hard there (or was it at the internet cafe?) and i bought myself a ticket for a tour of the caves in russian, which i didn't understans anything of, when the caves were free...oh well, independence square was the best, the atmosphere there great, plus on my way to the train station i saw an amazing sunset on the dnepr (river) from the metro...
but then the train ride kiev-moscow cheered me up...from the train attendant lady smiling at me when asking me if i was from italy and trying to ask me all these questions on the train, to the fact that our "open bunk compartment" was almost empty, except for me and pascha, this cool kid who's a PR designer for a fashion company in kiev which opens up monobrand shops for several italian fashion designers...so it was cool to talk to him, and it was so much fun because he'd been studying italian for 2 months, so he was trying to use his italian and i was trying to use my russian...great times!
i have to add that almost nobody in russia or ukraine speaks english it seems, the chances are higher with younger people in general, but still very hard...plus nothing in ukraine or russia (except moscow or st petersburg) seems to be catered to tourists, because there doesn't seem to be many that are not from CIS countries, so it's frustrating at times...it's hard to read, hard to understand and people don't even make an effort to communicate it seems...they just give up when they see you don't get their answer...but oh well...plus ukrainian is kind of like russian yet different, which makes everything more complicated i think...anyway...
so then we get woken up by the immigration police for russia at 4am and i am afraid of what can happen but everything goes smoothly...and i get to moscow, the biggest city in europe, the 2nd in the world for millionaire residents (after nyc) according to forbes...
what struck me the most about the center is the evident wealth, the showing off of money and luxury and status, i can tell these are the nouveaux riches, that they recently became rich...so you can see plenty of super-fancy cars with drivers and bodyguards, H2's with the $ symbol on the rims, and tacky stuff like that...it's all about showing off that you own things and brands...it's funny because at the same time this kinda thing is aimed more at foreigners (fancy restaurants have menus in english, etc...) but at the same time even though everything is in english (the brands, the slogans, the ads,...) nobody seems to speak english here...i remember a stupid example at the nokia store, central moscow, with insane cell phones, 2 brits walk in and ask for any staff that was english-speaking...answer: there isn't any! haha
but moscow is itself is full of history, the kremlin and the red square saw everything that we learn about in history books...the red square particularly blew me away, i would be amazed every time i would see st basil's, the one church that seems to come from aladdin or something...plus it's daylight till 10pm so it's even more fun! the young hip crowds wearing italian fashion designer brands gather and play hacky sack all day, the tourists go about their visits, and policemen are always on guard...moscow in many ways reminded me a lot of paris, and for many reasons and places i'd probably put it in my top 5, if not top 3, european capitals...
there couldn't have been a bigger difference with moscow so close to it anywhere else than in the golden ring, which i visited the next day...the golden ring is the modern name for a series of little villages outside moscow that used to be, in the XII-XIII centuries, the center of Rus, when Moscow was still pretty much nothing...before the Mongols came and changed everything...
so i visited vladimir and then suzdal, rushing through the day from metro to train to bus, to another bus to then catch another bus...well, it was more like a normal minivan with 15 people and their luggage packed inside for 5 hours till nizhny novgorod, where i arrived last night in a sand storm that welcomed me to the volga region...yes, we're by the volga here, the longest river in europe...it feels like a very small town compared to moscow, although it has 1.1 mln people, also thanks to the volga that surrounds the city...i am being hosted by A and her friends and colleagues, who are awesome adventure travelers and run www.teamgorky.ru so i am enjoying my time here...i will have to leave again tomorrow night to explore the republic of tatarstan...yes i will be going to kazan, where it's supposedly much more central asia-like and there's plenty of mosques, yet it's still russia (although they're somewhat autonomous)...
it's always sad to have to leave places just when you're getting to feeling "at home" there...at home as much as you could feel in a place you spend 2-3 days in i mean...but still, just when you start figuring things out it's time to leave, onto the next unknown and never-seen-before place that you have to figure out only to leave it a couple of days after...
but this is fun! i also heard about the mavericks making the nba finals and i am stoked for them of course, although i am in the wrong timezone to be able to catch any game at all...coincidentally, the same day (june 9th) is when the world cup starts...world cup of what?? what do you mean?? ahhh :)

kiev, ukraine

2006-05-31T16:08:00.000-05:00

i don't know what i will be able to write in 4 minutes from this internet cafe in a soviet-like suburb of kiev, in the basement next to the building i am being hosted in there is this place, the best kept secret of this area, full of teenagers playing games online, it could be in france, italy, germany, or the states, anywhere really...i saw two H2 today...yes the car...here the traffic is bad, the smog is worse, since there are still way too many cars from the 60s, trying to race with the newest bmw's and mercedes...but tonight on the independence square it was magical, strong and cold breeze, lots of people and lights, and i was thinking about what happened during the orange revolution on that same square...i also saw the dinamo kiev's stadium and some churches that blew me away....soooo much gold!!!

2006-05-27T17:31:00.000-05:00

i got here in lviv, ukraine today after a 21-hour train ride from bratislava, which i enjoyed very much despite the cheap,drunk and loud british tourists.i went back to my beloved tescosupermarkets,so that was cool too. today i got into ukraine and then rode till here, where i am staying in yet another big and anonymous soviet-style building in the outskirts of town. i had the luxury of potato pierogies (sp?) and minestrone soup thanks to the kindness of O. at whose place i am staying. walking around the city makes me feel like i am in some kind of WWII movie. i don't know what it is about it, but it just feels and looks very different from any place i've been to so far...and this city has so many churches it's not even funny...it makes italy almost look like an amateur...tomorrow i will get a better look at them...it's interesting because they have the same style but they represent many different cults: greek orthodox,protestant,ukrainian orthodox (of 2 different kinds), armenian, and even greek-catholic,a mixture of orthodox calendar and the acknowledging of the pope. this is the most nationalistic part of ukraine, so people don't seem to want to speak anything but ukrainian,even though they do understand russian...so i can't really use my basic russian, although i entered the cyrillic-written side of the world today and i've been practising my reading skills...so i try to read every single sign like a little child who just learned how to read, because it takes me a minute or two for just a simple sign...
oh,when i got to bratislava i waited till the next morning to take a shower, and when i woke up there was no water at all...so when i got here i was going to take a shower, but there is no hot water, and there is no water whatsoever between 24:00 and 6:00...i guess i will wake up for a cold shower tomorrow...

some people call it luck...

2006-05-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

yesterday on my way to the laundromat i found a $ bill on the ground, picked it up and put it in my pocket thinking it was a ten...i just realized right now going through the crap in my pocket that it was a HUNDRED $ bill!
i am also leaving tomorrow to italy/europe, i will be home for a good 2 weeks before i do some traveling...i am really excited although i am not done with finishing up what i have to take care of here...so i am still stressing out, and will be till i sit on my plane tomorrow...

-7

2006-05-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

minus a week, just a week and i will be home...the insane amount of things i have to get done before i leave is daunting and i better not stress out too much, because i should be enjoying this time of the year...summer is about to start, fun is about to be had!

there's hope!

2006-05-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

today i got notified that my H1B petition (H1B = work visa) got accepted, so i will receive my I-797 soon, with which i can apply for an actual work visa on my passport for the next 3 years...which means that SMU owns me...wow, is that what i am thrilled about? i guess so...but H1B has always meant hope, it's a huge step up from the student visa i have now...i used to think that the H1B meant being very close to residency, which i just learned is not true...plus it costs a heck of a lot of money! so i am happy to think that there's hope for other people like me...or rather, for the ones who pay! the other day i saw a bumper sticker that read: "we don't live in a democracy, we live in an auction". which means everything has a price...everything can be bought...think of bailbonds...think of immigration lawyers...it's interesting how all of this doesn't constitute corruption, because it's official and institutionalized...

two weeks.

2006-04-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

two weeks till i get to go home. i haven't been home in two years, it's a big deal! fourteen days till my summer starts: summer 06 should be an awesome one, probably the best since summer 03. last year i was waiting for a job offer and couldn't leave this country, the year before i graduated and went straight into grad school after having switched continents...
so this is the plan:
may 11-25: home (guastalla, italy)
may 25- july 1: traveling (slovakia, ukraine, russia, estonia, latvia, lithuania, poland)
july 2- august 2: around italy (rome, tuscany and bologna) with the SMU study abroad program (teaching two classes and chaperoning)
august 2-15: home again!
august 16: back to dallas, tx.

Doing without a car in the States.

2005-11-30T22:32:00.000-06:00

Read this article, it's pretty interesting! It sounds kinda normal to me, I almost got used to it now, but it's nonetheless inspiring.

Back for a little bit.

2005-11-30T20:21:00.000-06:00

I am back in Dallas, TX, USA, for a couple of weeks before I leave for Argentina and Uruguay (woohoo). I made it back after 18 hours on the bus back to Texas, 5 of which were spent at the border...yes, 4 hours in line to even get to the border checks, and then I spent almost an hour by myself in the immigration offices while the whole bus was waiting for me, and I was scared they'd leave me there! As always, there's no comment to describe the border police...so now I am making sure, one more time, that I have everything I need to come back in from Argentina...here just a couple more days of school and this semester too is over...luckily I am not in grad school anymore, so I have no research papers, just grading. Also, I posted the pictures from my Monterrey trip here! Check them out! Here's me with the second biggest flag in Mexico!

Monterrey, part II

2005-11-24T22:13:00.000-06:00

After another day in Monterrey, the first full day here, I feel like writing more...a lot of thoughts go through my head as I am living in a place that is a mix between the States and Mexico...so it has American chains and brands, people play American football here, but at the same time we're in Mexico, everybody speaks Spanish, or castellano, and everything is "dirty, loud, broken and poor", as most Americans would say. I guess that is how they see it, and now that I've been in the US for a long time I can kind of see where they come from...but still, there's so much they're missing! People are more simple, friendlier, more "normal", and I feel more alive here...social interaction is just Latino-like I guess, so it seems quite different from that in the States...the way cars drive, the way people walk and cross the street, the way people greet and spend time together, the way things look and work is just very close to what I am used to, at least before my time in the US, and it just seems so much more real!
They still have all the American trucks, chain stores, a lot of brands and stuff...and they probably look up to the States as some sort of model I guess,...yet it seems so different!
Today I went around town in a car twice, during the daylight and at night...and I learned some interesting things about this place that most Americans are so ready to look down upon: I went on a hill from where you can see the whole city, and where the 2nd largest flag in Mexico lies, on top of this hill. Well, I learned that to use the Mexican flag in non-official situations and without the due respect is prohibited, so you can't find any clothes or things with the flag...yeah with the colors you can, but not with the whole flag (colors + "shield"). You can't sing the national anthem just whenever and however you want, but you have to do it in the appropriate situation. This is a world away from what they do just 2 hours away over the border, where, as everybody knows, the flag is way overused and can be found in anything from bags to underwear...2 completely different ways of being "patriotic", although on both sides of the border there seems to be a lot going on about the flag and stuff, in the schools for once.
Also, I got to get groceries for cheap (including bread and cheese!) and I got to try some local specialties, although the number one seems the "cabrito": the legs of a kid (baby goat). Well, I got to try some sort of pumpkin immersed in honey, and some sort of cornbread cooked with butter...interesting, although kind of heavy! :)
No vegetarian restaurant for me today...hopefully I will get to go there at some point...tomorrow is the Horsetail Waterfalls (Cascadas Cola de Caballo) and maybe some caves (Grutas de Garcia)...and then Saturday I am off to Saltillo for the day, before I head back to Tejas on Sunday morning! But I better not think about that and go enjoy my night out!

Monterrey, Mexico.

2005-11-24T21:52:00.000-06:00

here all is well. the bus was/is nice, except for the little detail that it broke down in san marcos, tx and we were waiting all night for another one that was coming from laredo, tx...in the meantime they had the great idea to put on movies, except that they were all in english without subtitles, so i don't know how many people were doing more than just watching images! (it's a Mexican bus)
finally at 6am, after having tried to make the bus run a gazillion times (which means doing 1 km on the highway, stopping on the side for 10 minutes, ...each time..) at 6am the new bus came to our rescue and brought up to laredo, tejas
we got on a mexican "Conejo", which is a bus a little smaller and quite crappier (not complaining, just describing), and then drove through the border. we got stopped by the mexican customs police, and they had a brilliant idea: since you guys have so much luggage and you're late and you wanna get going, we propose to you that if you pay 10$ EACH we will not check anything...(way to go, i feel much safer now)...of course me and other people refused to, so they got every single item out of the conejo and searched the ones that didn't want to pay...hahah but it was fine, then we got here at around 12:30 noon that is...then i messed up with the buses and got to R's house, very nice people.
the university is a polytechnic, and it's nice and full of foreign students from europe and guys with soccer jerseys...i am at their lab now...i also got to walk around and it was so much fun!
now i can see it through the eyes of the gringos, sort of, and i can see them saying: it's dirty, noisy, loud, unsafe, and whatnot...but guess what, so is italy then, and it's really fun anyway!
i got a "paleta", and i loved it, and i will get more tomorrow! a paleta is a homemade popsicle, with fruit and water in the same thing! haha :)
tomorrow i am definitely checking out the veggie restaurant that's on the lonely planet, easily the only one in town...and then the next day is Saltillo...

30 days

2005-11-10T22:12:00.000-06:00

In exactly a month from now I will be in Buenos Aires...hell yeah.

Everybody should see this!

2005-11-08T23:59:00.000-06:00

Please do me a favor and take the time out of your day to watch these...and spread the word!

WARNING: the Falluja videos contain extremely crude images!

THANKS to ArcoIris TV and CoolStreaming.it IPTV

Falluja - The Hidden Massacre (in Italian, English and Arabic!)
(The .asf file seems to be working the best)

Falluja - The Day After
(RealPlayer DSL) (RealPlayer 56k)
(WindowsMediaPlayer DSL) (WindowsMediaPlayer 56k)
(MP3)

September 11th - Four Years Later
(RealPlayer DSL) (RealPlayer 56k)
(WindowsMediaPlayer DSL) (WindowsMediaPlayer 56k)
(MP3)

Twin Towers - Passive Collapses, or Controlled Demolitions?
(RealPlayer DSL) (RealPlayer 56k)
(WindowsMediaPlayer DSL) (WindowsMediaPlayer 56k)
(MP3)

2005-11-03T19:42:00.000-06:00

Finally...after waiting so long...I get to see an NBA game! And not just a game, but Mavs VS Spurs...a TX classic...with Ginobili, Nesterovic, Udrih, Novitzky, Van Exel, Finley, Parker, Duncan,...what to say, I am stoked!

American English Pragmatics.

2005-10-25T13:27:00.000-05:00

"I didn't mean to interrupt you " really means "I am about to leave"

"Well, I am going to let you go" really means "Let me go"

It was about time!

2005-10-24T19:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a beautiful day, nice, sunny but breezy too...yesterday it got kinda chilly, and was chilly (9 degrees C) all day, so I was freezing while visiting the Texas State Fair, and during the bike ride at night.
Last night it went down to about 6 C I think, and this morning it said 3 C around 8am!!! Wow! So i finally got to break in my new fancy jacket that had been sitting in my closet for way too long ever since I bought it online when I was in Florida: it had never been used!
But back to the fair...it was a little bummer as we didn't get to see the country/rural side of it: the stuff we hung around was kind of normal for a fair (rides, cotton candy, ...), the food kind of gross and overpriced...as one of my students put it, the fair is the place for real Americans with a think regional accent where they serve food that not even the animals would eat! (It was much funnier in her not-so-broken Italian!). So the car exhibits was pretty much just a bunch of huge pickup trucks, all about being the "-est" at something (the roomiest, the biggest, the toughest, the tallest,...), although actually none of them were good at anything worth mentioning (gas mileage, safety,...). Almost anybody ever uses those things for what they're supposed to be used anyway, so who cares I guess...
I posted some more pictures in the "Dallas" album in my online photos.
I still need to post this one though, it says a lot!

Experiences

2005-10-16T22:35:00.000-05:00

Today I finally made it out to the weekly bike ride starting Uptown, and it was fun. the meetup place is this diner that's in Uptown, which is the ritzy/fancy/snobby/pretentious part of town I guess. One thing I definitely like about it is that it is really bike-friendly and not as much car-oriented as the rest of the country.

Since it was a nice warm-but-not-hot Sunday afternoon everybody and their mom was out, and people were showing off their cars. So I got to see a new shiny Ferrari and a BMW convertible I had never seen before...no, it's not the Z4, it's a little bigger...anyway, it kind of reminded me of the "aperitivo" (cocktail) ritual in Italy, with nicely-dressed people and stuff...I ended up talking with this Turkish guy who was in a professional waterpolo team in Turkey for 15 years...but the most interesting part of his life was when he found a backdoor in the Pentagon website! So he and his crew got an invitation to the Pentagon to show the FBI how they managed to do it...and in 22 minutes "poof" they showed it to them right before their eyes! And they got a certificate thanking them for finding the fault so that they could fix it...how crazy is that??? He also supposedly stole several thousands of dollars and gave them to Greenpeace...all through the Internet I think...I didn't get the part about how he did this or where he got the money from, or from whom, since his English was not too clear...but it's definitely not something that you come across everyday!

Later on I came back to campus to watch About Baghdad, an interesting documentary directed by a Christian Iraqi who came to the States in 1991. A Q&A session followed, and it turned really interesting, as a guy in the audience had spent over a year in Iraq...and even though most of the "info" that were introduced to the public as new are actually almost common knowledge in Europe, it was still interesting to hear what Iraqis had to say 2-3 months after the invasion of their country.

Gotta grade now.

2005-10-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

2005-10-13T20:57:00.000-05:00

So I managed to go one daylight day fasting for Fast-A-Thon here at SMU. It turns out the money raised (total of $3500) for Islamic Relief goes to the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan, which I know next to nothing about. But I was gone when it happened...yeah, I celebrated my birthday on the bus, as part of a 32-hour trip to reach Gainesville, FL. Most of the ride was spent hanging out with Hondurian immigrants who spoke no English and had been traveling for 35 days to reach their relatives or friends in the States, where they can work temporarily. It was definitely an eye-opening experience: the guys were all in their high school age, and one asked me to read his phone card, who was in Spanish indeed: he just didn't know how to read! Others did not know how to dial their relatives'phone numbers although they did have a phone card with instructions in Spanish...I lent my mp3 player to one of them, who was fascinated about the discman: go figure!

It was nice to be back in Gainesville, the only place I can call home on this continent. Most things were still the same, although Gainesville is always fun! It was hard to get to spend time with everyone, or at least to spend as much quality time with everyone as I was hoping to!

The ride back was "only" 26 hours, but it was worse: all bus rides were full and I never had both seats to myself. Also, I had to go through Alabama and Mississippi, so a lot of the passengers were white (trash) Southerners in camouflage gear: hunting and God is a combination that seems strange, but not down (t)here. I can recall a tattoo on a tough guy reading "Only God knows"...but the best of all was one lady's t-shirt, all colorful and in "Who wants to be a millionaire?"-style, reading "My definite answer?" and then in the middle, in big characters:"Jesus!". Nice, huh?

I had a good time talking to a Chinese man who was a "chef" at a Chinese buffet restaurant somewhere in Mississippi: he's been in the States for 4 years now, but his English wasn't very good. He was telling me how he used to live in Biloxi, MS and when Katrina came his house was flooded up to his chest; he said he swam all the way to the highway where he sought help and walked for 30 minutes to a firestation, where he got new clothes and food...

This older man next across the isle was reading crazy books that seemed to come out of some sort of white, Christian, spiritual "sect": this one book he spent the most time on (taking the time to underline things...) was called "Animals are Soul too" and for what I could glance at was made up of little silly (madeup) anecdotes about how all these animals were really carrying "God's message" or something scary like that...the best was the language used: a kid in elementary school would find it too simple!

I was glad to finally be back in Dallas and be able to ride the Dart home. Campus feels such an educated environment compared to the bus stations!

On another note, it is interesting to notice how Katrina was all over the news for at least a week, with catastrophic words all over the place. Final dead toll? Barely 1'000 people. The earthquake in Pakistan has so far allegedly killed about 30'000 people at least, yet it is not nearly as important as the new (video) iPod...the tsunami in SE Asia did receive adequate coverage in the news, but I suspect it was mainly because of Phuket and the touristy destinations for us Westerners. What would we know about it if it had only hit Banda Aceh, the Nicobar and the Andaman Islands?

Oh, I also started getting to a decent amount of shows, and I have been posting pictures from my Labor Day weekend trip to El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico. They're all here, along with some more random shots: http://photos.yahoo.com/xdambox

Well, I better go now...Russian is calling me! But the pictures from El Paso and Juarez talk for themselves: it was definitely an amusing experience to wade through the sewage waters that were rising by the minute after a 30-minute storm. Being able to bargain for stuff in Spanish and eating 5 "paletas" in one day were the other highlights, as well as being in the city At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta are from. And, as a certain commercial would say, being addressed in English by Mexican vendors wanting to show you the Rolexes they sell is priceless! Do they know that I have been living in an unfurnished apartment and sleeping on an air mattress for the past 2-3 months? Probably not!

Ten crudelty-free years for me.

2005-09-11T02:34:00.000-05:00

Today it was a big anniversary, and I wanted to celebrate it with some good veggie food, but I didn't get the chance to. I will soon though. I ended up hanging out watching Italian soccer on real Italian tv live via cable, and the Italian tv news live...I hadn't seen that in a while!
I also got to hang out with A from CouchSurfing, and it was great fun! The house he's staying at is definitely luxurious, in the nicest part of Dallas, with all sorts of fancy amenities...and although the football game was not my favorite thing, I got to eat some good burgers with tons of stuff inside, and mostly chilling in the saltwater hot tub and pool in the backyard. What a hard life!
And night conversations are always interesting. And CouchSurfing rocks. And I bought my flights for Argentina, from Dec 9th to Jan 16th! So my planned trips for now include a weekend to San Antonio, a trip to Monterrey, Mexico for thanksgiving, a probably trip back to Gainesville, and then Argentina (plus Uruguay) for the winter break. I will be making it back to Italy next summer.

Katrina.

2005-09-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

http://www.hurricanehousing.org

Please help if you can and live in the SouthEast US, or know somebody who does.

My little empty efficiency is up for grabs if somebody needs it for a little bit.

Mi casa es su casa.

It seems so easy to invade other countries, but when it's time to help a single area, help is not happening very effectively...

sigh

2005-08-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

I want to travel...badly...

More from Austin...

2005-08-11T21:42:00.000-05:00

I thought I would post some pictures from the actual town more than from the Engine Down show!

Austin

2005-08-11T21:29:00.000-05:00

Work In Progress.

2005-08-09T23:48:00.000-05:00

So I never did post after that dinner...my free connection never came back until now, so I have been pretty much absent from the cyberworld. Now that it works I wanna post and stuff, even though I should go to bed. Ok, so the house is coming along quite well I have to say, I got my office, computer and phone at the school, I start orientation tomorrow morning...then it's off to Austin to see Engine Down and Bella Lea...and hopefully see something of the city...

Dallas so far seems big, much more cosmopolitan than I thought (and much more than Florida so far), car-oriented, sprawled out, a pain in the ass during rush-hour, etc etc They have a turnpike named after one of the presidents of that family that comes out of this state...but other than that it doesn't seem as bad as everybody says, or as I thought...not worse than Florida so far...as far as cowboy hats, I have seen some...not many...as far as huge pickup trucks, very very few: there are way more in Florida! The Sunshine State seems also more religious than Texas...but this is all so far: I've been here less than a week now! There's not much police at all on the road, but some gas stations and stores have policemen hanging out outside...Latinos (mainly Mexicans probably) are everywhere, with large amounts of kids and young parents usually...most things are in both English and Spanish...but there are a lot of people from literally all over the world...I am impressed...maybe all big cities are like this, I don't know! Gainesville was definitely not this multiethnic.

All colleagues seem ultra-nice, school starts in a little over a week so I have to get on the ball pretty soon and pretty fast...I will also start thinking about what to do (read: where to go) during the days off, and find some tickets for the winter break...

oh, and I rented the cheapest car I could and I got...a PT Cruiser!!!

New House.

2005-08-05T19:14:00.000-05:00

So I am here, after 14 hours and about 1100 miles, 1700 km, in my new house that looks spacious and clean and nice...except it's super empty! There is nothing besides my belongings...so I need to figure out what to do, probably get an air mattress for the first days/weeks, and then see...luckily, and this is awesome, I can steal somebody's signal and get online wireless right from my house! So I have nothing but the Internet! Pictures later...after CiCi's Pizza will have saved my hungry ass!

Pictures from the road.

2005-08-05T07:21:00.000-05:00

OK this is awesome because I can post pictures directly on here, without having to have them uploaded somewhere on the Internet.

Here we go...here are some pictures starting at the bottom with the van at the departure in Gainesville...I love that van! The rest is pictures I took from behind the wheel, mostly around Mobile, AL.

Me.

2005-08-05T01:29:00.000-05:00

one, two, three...one, two, one, two...

Hammond, LA

2005-08-05T01:26:00.000-05:00

All is well on the road after 9 hours or so behind the wheel...time to rest and eat and shower! Tomorrow I will try to make it in time so that I can at least dump all the stuff in the house before going to look for a bed or futon. It was much harder to leave Gainesville than I thought it would be...surprise!

Leaving Gainesville.

2005-08-04T07:33:00.000-05:00

I am leaving Gainesville forever...probably...it is weird...I thought this was forever...or no, wait, I have always wanted to leave! Hhhmm I am confused!

Introductory Statement

2005-08-02T12:30:00.000-05:00

We will see if this works...for now I would love for this to "follow me around", that is to track down my travels and experiences around the world (I hope)...since I want to travel far and large. I have always wanted to, and now that I finally have the job I wanted, I will have 3-4 months off each year...and some money saved up...so hopefully I will make it happen!

I am going to write in English and not in Italian because I wanna reach as many people, especially my friends, as possible, and English is the best tool to do so, since this is supposed to help the friends I have been making along the way, as well as the new ones, keep track of me.

Hopefully I will stick around this one long enough...