Ok...so I left Chocolatte but now I am back! Kim and I were excited at the chance of going to a real pequin colony but since it is Sunday almost everything is closed. We went walking around the town square - plaza des armes- and there were some vendors selling various penquin attire. I asked "pinquinos aqui?" to which the vendors started laughing saying that it was too frio even for the penquins to stay, they went up north somewhere. Dream busted we decide to go walk onto the straits of Magellan...in the snow.
I came here to see Glaciers not become one!! Instead, we went to see a movie...I figured it didn't matter what they were saying (because the movies are dubbed in Spanish) in Ice Age 3 so we went...and surprisingly I thought it was funny probably because of the spanish.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Mi Pancho no es sub zero, es no bueno
So......after a very comfortable (not sacracstic) 13 hour bus ride two nights ago, Kim and I arrived into Puerto Montt at 840 a.m...yesterday...yes yesterday. We knew we couldn't board the boat until at least noon but we thought the offices would have at least been open. The taxi drives us to NaviMag and there is NO ONE around except the security guard and the offices dont abierto until 11a.m. We still have to buy our tickets!! The security guard tells the taxi driver we can wait in the embarkation room...shack...waiting area...shack with no heat yet fully equipped with easily 200 yanked-out-of-a-bus seats and obviously very very old.
We are greeted by El Gato Gigantico. He stares at me and then proceeds to hop up onto the seat directly behind me...out of over 200 other seats. Its too cold for allergies, so I should be ok.
An hour passes and still we see no one...and did I mention that we haven't seen a boat either. This boat has only recently added passengers to its venue, normally it just ships cargo...so like I said earlier, it is not a cruise ship. According to Lonely Planet there may be a chance it is shipping dead cows and might smell...yet we are willing to chance this is not one of those shipments.
2 hours pass and...a British couple shows up! Yippee!! They have their tickets already purchased in the last city they were in. We are very relieved we are in the right shack...place. They live in Quito, Equador and teach in a British school. The guy goes to scope things out...it had already started to rain earlier when Kim decided to go scope things out but she came back in.
He comes back and tells us some guy told him there is no boat today...manana. I asked if it was the sales office person that doesn't open for another 10 minutes...he said no. We all choose to believe this guy doesnt know what he is talking about.
Well...we all chose wrong. The ship is stuck in Puerto Natales (our end point) due to choppy weather and it wont be in until tomorrow before it gets back and takes off back to Puerto Natales. Great...we were suppose to get into Puerto Natales then take a 3 hour bus ride to Punto Arenas and then fly out of Punto Arenas back to Santiago so we can catch our 7 hour bus to Mendoza Argentina...are yall following along on a map...get one out people or a globe at least...yes a globe would be better.
We cannot risk staying in Puerto Montt night and then having the ship still not show so...we can either catch a 36, yes thirty-six, hour bus ride to Punto Arenas or fly. You guess which one.
We are now sitting in an absolutely divine place called Chocolatta...in Punto Arenas, oddly enough listening to a Tim McGraw song...kinda weird at the bottom of the world listening to country music...drinking the most fabuloso hot chocolate, it came out as a fancy glass of hot milk and chunks of chocolate I had to add to it and stir, this is the real stuff...and we are watching the snow fall...yes snow...I've told Kim I am staying in here all day...at the moment I think she thinks I am joking....heelllooo I got a pancho and it wasnt made by North Face either!!
Sorry but I am now having problems posting new pictures, hopefully I can fix this sometime today...in Chocolatte:)
We are greeted by El Gato Gigantico. He stares at me and then proceeds to hop up onto the seat directly behind me...out of over 200 other seats. Its too cold for allergies, so I should be ok.
An hour passes and still we see no one...and did I mention that we haven't seen a boat either. This boat has only recently added passengers to its venue, normally it just ships cargo...so like I said earlier, it is not a cruise ship. According to Lonely Planet there may be a chance it is shipping dead cows and might smell...yet we are willing to chance this is not one of those shipments.
2 hours pass and...a British couple shows up! Yippee!! They have their tickets already purchased in the last city they were in. We are very relieved we are in the right shack...place. They live in Quito, Equador and teach in a British school. The guy goes to scope things out...it had already started to rain earlier when Kim decided to go scope things out but she came back in.
He comes back and tells us some guy told him there is no boat today...manana. I asked if it was the sales office person that doesn't open for another 10 minutes...he said no. We all choose to believe this guy doesnt know what he is talking about.
Well...we all chose wrong. The ship is stuck in Puerto Natales (our end point) due to choppy weather and it wont be in until tomorrow before it gets back and takes off back to Puerto Natales. Great...we were suppose to get into Puerto Natales then take a 3 hour bus ride to Punto Arenas and then fly out of Punto Arenas back to Santiago so we can catch our 7 hour bus to Mendoza Argentina...are yall following along on a map...get one out people or a globe at least...yes a globe would be better.
We cannot risk staying in Puerto Montt night and then having the ship still not show so...we can either catch a 36, yes thirty-six, hour bus ride to Punto Arenas or fly. You guess which one.
We are now sitting in an absolutely divine place called Chocolatta...in Punto Arenas, oddly enough listening to a Tim McGraw song...kinda weird at the bottom of the world listening to country music...drinking the most fabuloso hot chocolate, it came out as a fancy glass of hot milk and chunks of chocolate I had to add to it and stir, this is the real stuff...and we are watching the snow fall...yes snow...I've told Kim I am staying in here all day...at the moment I think she thinks I am joking....heelllooo I got a pancho and it wasnt made by North Face either!!
Sorry but I am now having problems posting new pictures, hopefully I can fix this sometime today...in Chocolatte:)
Friday, July 10, 2009
Conquistador Dhaka Full of Romance
a.k.a. Peru
There is quite a difference between Peru and Chile. Unfortunately, my descriptions are based completely on background knowledge. Aspects of Peru really reminded me of Dhaka...the dirty dusty streets, shops with iron bar window fronts, buildings that look like they have been bombed out but really they are just not finished yet, the hawkers in the street, the undeveloped roads...and even in Lima...squatty potties!! Yet, there is beauty in the grandeur of the Spanish conquistador influenced palatial architecture and also in the amazingly technologically advanced Inka past. And smack in the middle of all of it....everyone making out...record setting kissing everywhere...on the stairs in the Plaza des Armes...in front of Cathedrals. Seriously it is everywhere...latin passion...I guess.
Then there is this very annoying, persistent, and omni-present...badeep badeep. Remember way back when, when cell phones first came on the scene? Not the suitcase cell phones but the...walkie talkie phones...NEXTEL...uuugghhh...I think it is the only mobile service available and the entire population of Peru has a Nextel phone...badeep badeep badeep badeep OLA!!
Then there is...the U.S....I mean Chile...incredible infrastructure, American type malls fully Starbucked out, subway system...and worst of all...American type prices...no no the worst thing of all is...even though they apparently have everything else that is in the US...they do NOT have the ONE thing I need!!! A charger for my camera battery that I left plugged in back in Texas - aarrgghhh. They even sell the blasted fancy camera I have but they do not sell just the charger!!! So plan B...find a professional photographer who surely has a Canon EOS series and borrow his charger...lets hope this plan works especially since...
Kim and I are about to embark on a questionable adventure...yes another boat trip...Liz feared it so much she has already fled 0onto Canada! We are taking an overnight bus ride to Puerto Montt...where we will take not-quite-a-cruise but also not a falucca...no worries, I have confirmed that they do have toilets...good thing since "stopping at nice place for you" would be the complete opposite of Egypt since we are going to see Glaciers!!! Which means freezing weather...and this pancho better keep me warm...somehow I have my doubts. Stay tuned for more in about 4 days...unless my computer freezes..or worse...my fingers fall off and I am unable to peck out my blog with a pencil held in my mouth.
There is quite a difference between Peru and Chile. Unfortunately, my descriptions are based completely on background knowledge. Aspects of Peru really reminded me of Dhaka...the dirty dusty streets, shops with iron bar window fronts, buildings that look like they have been bombed out but really they are just not finished yet, the hawkers in the street, the undeveloped roads...and even in Lima...squatty potties!! Yet, there is beauty in the grandeur of the Spanish conquistador influenced palatial architecture and also in the amazingly technologically advanced Inka past. And smack in the middle of all of it....everyone making out...record setting kissing everywhere...on the stairs in the Plaza des Armes...in front of Cathedrals. Seriously it is everywhere...latin passion...I guess.
Then there is this very annoying, persistent, and omni-present...badeep badeep. Remember way back when, when cell phones first came on the scene? Not the suitcase cell phones but the...walkie talkie phones...NEXTEL...uuugghhh...I think it is the only mobile service available and the entire population of Peru has a Nextel phone...badeep badeep badeep badeep OLA!!
Then there is...the U.S....I mean Chile...incredible infrastructure, American type malls fully Starbucked out, subway system...and worst of all...American type prices...no no the worst thing of all is...even though they apparently have everything else that is in the US...they do NOT have the ONE thing I need!!! A charger for my camera battery that I left plugged in back in Texas - aarrgghhh. They even sell the blasted fancy camera I have but they do not sell just the charger!!! So plan B...find a professional photographer who surely has a Canon EOS series and borrow his charger...lets hope this plan works especially since...
Kim and I are about to embark on a questionable adventure...yes another boat trip...Liz feared it so much she has already fled 0onto Canada! We are taking an overnight bus ride to Puerto Montt...where we will take not-quite-a-cruise but also not a falucca...no worries, I have confirmed that they do have toilets...good thing since "stopping at nice place for you" would be the complete opposite of Egypt since we are going to see Glaciers!!! Which means freezing weather...and this pancho better keep me warm...somehow I have my doubts. Stay tuned for more in about 4 days...unless my computer freezes..or worse...my fingers fall off and I am unable to peck out my blog with a pencil held in my mouth.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Mi Amigas no Bueno, mi amigas es criminalaras!
Enter Chile, Airport at Santiago
Here comes someone from the interrogation room - a woman - with a tissue, wiping her nose...and her eyes. What did they do to her in that room with the one way window? Are mi amigas about to be cavity searched for more fruit? If so, it will be after the next criminal, the lady with H1N1, who's hacking up a lung sitting next to Liz and Kim who are not wearing masks, everyone else in Chile seems to be wearing masks but us.
I lost $20 worth of beef jerkey when I came home from China. It wasn't raw meat, it was dried AND sealed in bags. Plus there was not a sign posted anywhere of beef jerkey enclosed by a red circle with a red slash across it. Unlike the signs here at Chilean customs...3 large circles about 2.5 feet in diameter with the red slash through it. One for raw meat, one for cheese and...one with an apple...just like what Liz and Kim took from the hotel in Machu Picchu and packed in their luggage.
Wait! There's a red light flashing in the interrogation room, no...no...it's just a reflection off the one way window from the scanner, the very scanner we all put all our bags on. Why does that room have a one way window with the mirror side facing the outside...my side? 20 minutes later the door opens and the swine flu lady comes out, no tissue, no tears...she must be hard core criminal.
Crap...another flight must have landed cuz there are tons of people now having their luggage scanned...I can't see mi amigas criminalaras through the crowds!!! Thank goodness, the crowd got through pretty fast and mi amigas are still sitting there.
LIZ...LIZ! she's taken into the room...the door is kept open...a drug dog is hovering around Kim...these people are serious. Flight after flight comes through until I am distracted by a lady who is obviously upset as her luggage is scanned because she is rambling very rapido in spanish and then bursts into tears...she goes to sit next to Kim. Her friends sit next to me. 3 more flights come through before Liz emerges from the interrogation room, walking funny...she's got bad knees and I'm telling you all these stairs are killing us!
She does not look happy but solemn and is escorted by a customs agent as she passes by me saying nothing and looking straight ahead...off to a different place. Kim must have gone into the room cuz when I turned back around she was gone. What the frijoles?!???!!
I now resort to the behavior of watching a tennis match...left, right, left, right. Who will appear first? Liz or Kim?
Right...Liz shows up and is taking money out of an ATM machine, guard over her shoulder
Left...the door to the interrogation room is closed...oh KIM!!
Right...Liz seems to be having problems at the ATM
Left...door is still closed
Right...Liz walks past me with her agent and says with a low voice..."this is court, we are in court."
Where's my strawberries and cream like at Wimbledon? This is too much.
Kim comes out of the now courtroom and she too is escorted by an agent over to the ATM machine then back to the courtroom, she won't talk to me as she passes, she just shakes her head and looks down mad.
Both finally come out and according to the unswerving merciless drug busting, make that fruit busting judge, they could have been fined up to $4,500 US DOLLARS. He was only going to give them the minimum fine of $210 US Dollars. And he says it is essentially all because they lied on their customs form saying that they didn't have the fruit. The fruit which was collected into clear bags sealed and marked as evidence. Just 0ne of the many documents in spanish was a release document for the fruit to be incinerated each signed by Kim and Liz. Turns out the rapido speaking crying lady had a carrot...no telling how much she paid, we left for our hotel.
Match over, Chile customs wins and I FOR ONCE am innocent!
Here comes someone from the interrogation room - a woman - with a tissue, wiping her nose...and her eyes. What did they do to her in that room with the one way window? Are mi amigas about to be cavity searched for more fruit? If so, it will be after the next criminal, the lady with H1N1, who's hacking up a lung sitting next to Liz and Kim who are not wearing masks, everyone else in Chile seems to be wearing masks but us.
I lost $20 worth of beef jerkey when I came home from China. It wasn't raw meat, it was dried AND sealed in bags. Plus there was not a sign posted anywhere of beef jerkey enclosed by a red circle with a red slash across it. Unlike the signs here at Chilean customs...3 large circles about 2.5 feet in diameter with the red slash through it. One for raw meat, one for cheese and...one with an apple...just like what Liz and Kim took from the hotel in Machu Picchu and packed in their luggage.
Wait! There's a red light flashing in the interrogation room, no...no...it's just a reflection off the one way window from the scanner, the very scanner we all put all our bags on. Why does that room have a one way window with the mirror side facing the outside...my side? 20 minutes later the door opens and the swine flu lady comes out, no tissue, no tears...she must be hard core criminal.
Crap...another flight must have landed cuz there are tons of people now having their luggage scanned...I can't see mi amigas criminalaras through the crowds!!! Thank goodness, the crowd got through pretty fast and mi amigas are still sitting there.
LIZ...LIZ! she's taken into the room...the door is kept open...a drug dog is hovering around Kim...these people are serious. Flight after flight comes through until I am distracted by a lady who is obviously upset as her luggage is scanned because she is rambling very rapido in spanish and then bursts into tears...she goes to sit next to Kim. Her friends sit next to me. 3 more flights come through before Liz emerges from the interrogation room, walking funny...she's got bad knees and I'm telling you all these stairs are killing us!
She does not look happy but solemn and is escorted by a customs agent as she passes by me saying nothing and looking straight ahead...off to a different place. Kim must have gone into the room cuz when I turned back around she was gone. What the frijoles?!???!!
I now resort to the behavior of watching a tennis match...left, right, left, right. Who will appear first? Liz or Kim?
Right...Liz shows up and is taking money out of an ATM machine, guard over her shoulder
Left...the door to the interrogation room is closed...oh KIM!!
Right...Liz seems to be having problems at the ATM
Left...door is still closed
Right...Liz walks past me with her agent and says with a low voice..."this is court, we are in court."
Where's my strawberries and cream like at Wimbledon? This is too much.
Kim comes out of the now courtroom and she too is escorted by an agent over to the ATM machine then back to the courtroom, she won't talk to me as she passes, she just shakes her head and looks down mad.
Both finally come out and according to the unswerving merciless drug busting, make that fruit busting judge, they could have been fined up to $4,500 US DOLLARS. He was only going to give them the minimum fine of $210 US Dollars. And he says it is essentially all because they lied on their customs form saying that they didn't have the fruit. The fruit which was collected into clear bags sealed and marked as evidence. Just 0ne of the many documents in spanish was a release document for the fruit to be incinerated each signed by Kim and Liz. Turns out the rapido speaking crying lady had a carrot...no telling how much she paid, we left for our hotel.
Match over, Chile customs wins and I FOR ONCE am innocent!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Inkas are CRA-ZAY
After 3 hours of non-stop stair climbing, I managed to keep from having a stroke and took a nap for 2 hours on the grass of Machu Picchu, nor worries I had my new pancho to lay on. The place is FANTASTICO! and unbeleivablo as well, far more amazing than even Angkor Wat. What were those crazy Inkas doing up there? and how did they get everything they needed up there?
There is no wi-fi connection around Machu Picchu so I am somewhat delayed in telling you about it and also unfortunately brain dead as well as physically depleted to think of anything clever to say but WOW it was great.
We are now in Cuzco and I like it alot more than Lima. Carolyn departed this morning to get back to the states so we are sad she will not share in the adventures ahead, though she may not be once she hears about the 6 bed dorm we are staying in once we get back to Lima...it may turn out worse than 4 days on a falucca without a toilet.
I visited the Coca Leaf Museum today and what a treat!!! Kim and Liz missed out as they laughed at me and walked away. This spanking new museum displayed the inportance of the coca leave in Inka culture as well as it development after the conquest. I have been drinking coca leaf tea since I got here, it is supposed to give you energy and there are also energy drinks here made with it as well as the hard little candies you can suck on for altitude sickness. Thanks to this museum I found out it takes 30Kilos of the leaf to produce 100 grams of cocaine....yes that is correct cocaine...ok maybe correct...the guy was speaking in spanish the entire time so there may be a translation error on my part, but I saw the numbers and the numbers dont lie.
Then the piece de resistance was the last room. Previously each room had like a theme and this last rooms theme was drug abusio where they had a mannequin laying in a bed strung out with a needle and then...how I did not laugh out loud I will never know...two posters...one of Whitney Houston in her heyday and also Amy Winehouse in hers...then also brilliantly paparazzi style pictures of them all strung out. He rambled on really fast about them and then that was it...end of the tour. It was brilliant. What might not be so brilliant is the fact that I bought a box of this coca leaf tea to bring back to the states...but realized I gave it to Carolyn with some of my other stuff to mail back to me in the states. Carolyn are you reading this as you wait 8 hours in the Lima airport...ditch that stuff!!!!!
There is no wi-fi connection around Machu Picchu so I am somewhat delayed in telling you about it and also unfortunately brain dead as well as physically depleted to think of anything clever to say but WOW it was great.
We are now in Cuzco and I like it alot more than Lima. Carolyn departed this morning to get back to the states so we are sad she will not share in the adventures ahead, though she may not be once she hears about the 6 bed dorm we are staying in once we get back to Lima...it may turn out worse than 4 days on a falucca without a toilet.
I visited the Coca Leaf Museum today and what a treat!!! Kim and Liz missed out as they laughed at me and walked away. This spanking new museum displayed the inportance of the coca leave in Inka culture as well as it development after the conquest. I have been drinking coca leaf tea since I got here, it is supposed to give you energy and there are also energy drinks here made with it as well as the hard little candies you can suck on for altitude sickness. Thanks to this museum I found out it takes 30Kilos of the leaf to produce 100 grams of cocaine....yes that is correct cocaine...ok maybe correct...the guy was speaking in spanish the entire time so there may be a translation error on my part, but I saw the numbers and the numbers dont lie.
Then the piece de resistance was the last room. Previously each room had like a theme and this last rooms theme was drug abusio where they had a mannequin laying in a bed strung out with a needle and then...how I did not laugh out loud I will never know...two posters...one of Whitney Houston in her heyday and also Amy Winehouse in hers...then also brilliantly paparazzi style pictures of them all strung out. He rambled on really fast about them and then that was it...end of the tour. It was brilliant. What might not be so brilliant is the fact that I bought a box of this coca leaf tea to bring back to the states...but realized I gave it to Carolyn with some of my other stuff to mail back to me in the states. Carolyn are you reading this as you wait 8 hours in the Lima airport...ditch that stuff!!!!!
Liz must be on Crack
6am Sunday morning and Liz answers the phone in her room "Pizza Hut can I help you?" She HAS to be on crack...she left Bangladesh on Thursday and has been traveling non-stop and arrived into Lima just 4 hours ago to be called by me to make sure she is awake for the flight we have to catch now to Cuzco. Once in Cuzco, we catch a taxi for a 2 hour ride to Ollyantantambo where we hang for about 8 hours until another 2 hour train ride to get to the small town below Machu Picchu called Aquas Calientes. Once we arrive there after 10pm, she has the 5am wakeup call to look forward to so we can get up to Machu Picchu. It is not physically possible to be doing what she is doing... So what else could it be but crack?
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