A long overdue post... mainly about buses!
Hi everyone (that means you! all three of you!)
Sorry about not posting another post since the latest post... my bad
Thing is, I don't really have any excuse really, I haven't been that busy or anything... I'm just wondering where to start. I may as well do a quick recap, and maybe an annecdote or three:
The rest of my time in Brasil was good, except for the lame weather in Florianopolis and Rio (when I went to see the statue of Jesus, Cristo Redentor, I couldn't see the city below, and could only barely even see the statue for the misty rain :( ) but at least i had a few good days there so I know how amazing both those places are on a good day. Salvador was good fun, nice and tropical with a great vibe in the streets. The only problem was that I wanted to go straight afterwards to Foz Do Iguazu, right on the border with Argentina... which meant a 34 hour bus trip to Sao Paulo, where I stopped over for a few hours and had a look around (I'll give you one word for the city-Immense) then it was a 14 hr trip t Iguazu over night... Which addd up to three nights in a row on the bus... happy days!
But Iguazu was amazing, I had a great time there, the waterfalls must be considered one of the most amazing sites in the world- phenomonal
then it was of to Paraguay, just across the border. It's not the most touristy country in the world- there's not a lot to do- it's supposedly the most corrupt country in the world outside of Africa, and it's South America 2nd poorest. But It was cool to chill out there for a few days.
I went ot church there on Sunday night, and then got invited out with some of the peeps to a movie and dinner afterwards, and went with them to the country where alot of the church was staying for the long weekend the next day for a barbeque and copious amounts of Terere (its like Mate, but with ice and cold water, if that means anything to you- if that doesn't, its this herb stuff chopped into bits, then put into a cup like thing until its nearly full, then water is poured in and you drink through this straw that has a sieve at the bottom, so you dont suck up the herby bits) which is a communal drink that gets passed and passed around- good times!
I got to see some Jesuit ruins in the south of the country later on that week as well.
Then, it was off to Bolivia, where I am now, just chilling in Santa Cruz. It's very different here to the steriotype of Bolivia (High altitude, barren climate, peeps in traditional gears drinking coca tea riding llamas etc...) It's tropical with a bit of a different mix of people and vibe.
I would tell you about the bus trip, but you guys must be sick of that by now- but this last one was kinda rugged coz the majority was off road, with the windows wide open in an old bus rattling around... But it was kinda fun though- even though I was kinda annoyed at the guys who sold me my tickets, who told me it had air conditioning and everything- next time I'm in Paraguay i'm gonna find those guys and..... anyways, you get the picture, and... ooops I actually told you about the bus trip, my bad
That's about it for now, i'll try update this sooner rather than later, so I can write up some more stories etc. instead of just give details----- I'm sure i've bored you all to tears
take care,
Nathan
A story
Today I´m not going to write about whats happening now... I´ll take us on a journey to the future:
2068 AD- Family gathering, some nice beach, I don´t know which country:An old man is sitting in the sun, just enjoying a relaxing day with all his kids and their families.
Some of his grandchildren came and asked him to tell them one of his stories about some of the stuff he got up to, back in the day. The old man thought for a minute, and then he told them to call all the grandchildren around.
Soon all his grandchildren gathered around, as they always loved his stories, and the old man started and he told them:
''When I was about 22, I was lucky enough to go on a trip to South America. After arriving in Brazil, after literally only a few days, I knew that your grandmother would be Brasilian''
As you can guess, I'm really enjoying myself here in Brasil... I'm in Florianopolis in the south of Brasil. I think it's gonna be real hard to move on to the next place... It's paradise: great beaches, great people, great music (I went to a samba party last night, with live music and everything... they were playing a whole lot of old school stuff (so i'm told) but yeah, it was awesome)
anyways, I better go, take care everyone
Nathan
I'm back!
Ok, for you who are not in the know (and if your not in the know, it's my fault for beinga sad guy and not telling you) I'm back in South America for a bit of a trip (Late Oct till mid Mar)...
so, even though I wasn't planning it before, I'm resurrecting the blog. It won't be anything too crazy- probably a few anecdotes or weird stuff thats happened... and if your lucky I might put up some photos, if im not too lazy (or if the internet is cheap) anyways, I'll get started:
Punta del Este, Uruguay:
Chilling, chilling on the beach. Chilling and trying not to get burnt but also trying to get a tan before getting to Brasil.
I haven't been up to much here. I've been here the last 3 nights, and, apart from a surfing lesson I just had (the waves are so good here), things have been quiet as.
I'm really looking forward to heading to Brazil tonight overnight (first to Porto Alegre (11 hours), then i'll catch the first bus I can to Florianopolis- another 5-6 hours away)
The ticket: way too expensive... its costing me $100 NZ just to get to Porto Alegre (I miss the bus fares in Peru oh so much)
Talking of expensive, Uruguay is expensive as... It's helped me in some ways though.. i dunno, get into the traveller/backpacker save money vibe... I don't think things are gonna get much cheaper across in Brazil (Unless I can hustle some free accomodation at someones house on their couch or something)... but these expensive countries will soon pass.
you know what? I should give you guys a quick recap just to get you all up to speed on things... to give you some context... So, here we go:
Spent the first week pretty much in Carlos Paz (near Cordoba if that means anything to you) helping out with a conference for Pastors/churchy peeps etc... Had an awesome time there, meet some great people.
Then went back to Buenos Aires, spent a few days in the centre, then two days in San Isidro, on e of the cities that make up greater buenos aires, with the guy I sat by on the plane flying over (a real surfy guy who has been working in NZ on a working holiday visa...great guy)
then I was off to Colonia, Uruguay on the ferry the next day, and one of the peeps form teh hostel happened to be going there too for the day, so we had a good time crossing over on the ferry, looking at the sites, and nearly killing ourselves driving around the town on a golf cart (way too much fun)
Then, it was off to Montevideo, which was pretty uneventful really, apart from getting sunburnt on a patch were i missed sunscreen on my back... I guess I was still out of practice putting it on then as well.
So, yeah, that's about it... I'll keep you all in touch with a post hopefully once a week.
Take care, hope I didn't lose you all with the recap
fotos con el grupo de jovenes en Arequipa
con David ySeth
con Miguel y Pablo
otro vez
con Daniella y Anace
Todos....
y con Gabriel
Disculpa por la mala calidad, mi camera no puede tomar fotos buenas con luz artificial... entonces hay muchos ojos rojos (¡ mis ojos especialmente !)
I'm back!
Sorry for the delay in between posts... I wasn't really keeping up with posting during my travels through Chile and Argentina. But I'm back home now, trying to sort out some work and just generally get back to normal life (it's gonna be real hard).
The trip itself was great, despite all of the stuff that went wrong, and all of the near misses (like nearly missing a bus when I crossed the border into Chile, because I forgot to change the time on my watch, only to realize this when the bus was supposed to leave, then stressing because my luggage was in storage, which was closed... fun times).
But the worst would have been when my passport, money, camera and other stuff was stolen in the bus terminal in Mendoza, Argentina (another long story).
However, I had a great time, made heaps of new friends and got to see another large part of the continent. But I'm dieing to see more, so I started planning the next trip while in Chile (but I probably started thinking about it in Arequipa) so we'll see when I can get back over that way.
I'm not sure what I'll be doing on this blog in the near future, maybe I'll put up some funny/crazy stories from my travels, or maybe change it to cover what I'm up to back home.
Thanks to all of you regular readers for keeping in touch with what I've been doing, It was cool to keep in touch in that way.
If you have any tips etc. on how I could've made this blog better, post up a comment.
take care, and God bless,
Nathan
Im alive
Sorry peeps,i've just been kinda busy travelling to Cuzco, getting sick, and then going to Chile.
But all's good and im having a great time... i'll try be a good boy and post something more substancial-but that'll take work,and I jsut haven't been in a blogging vibe lately (also internet charges here a whole lot more expensive... like a dollar fifty an hour,instead of 40 cents... one of the many differences between Chile and Peru.
anyways, the money is ticking away, so I better go,
look after yourselves,
Nathan
Trip to Puquina with the church
I’ll start with a pat on the back *pat* for posting so soon… not… some things never change!
Anyways, the only big thing that’s happened lately was the churches trip to Puquina.
The subplot of this trip (for me) requires me to write about some (a lot of) stuff for context:
While pretending to be fit at the gym, I did some exercises on my calves, and got back home a little sore- but nothing out of the ordinary… then the next day I played football with early in the morning with some students and teachers from the language school. I felt a little tight before hand, but not that bad… it still felt normal.
In the afternoon I went shopping in central Arequipa, and was limping a little… and later at night my calves were all tight…
Anyways, when I got up early Sunday morning- and when I say early I mean Geneva Convention breaking, criminal bad (ok, just 4.30). My right calf was quite bad, but I thought it would go soon, or at least not get any worse…. Hahaha, how unaware of what was going to happen.
Anthony was quite crook, so Anthony, Roxanna and Melissa stayed home (it’s not worth risking things, esp. so far away from ‘civilisation’ (ok, a bit harsh to everyone who lives there… but it’s far away from good medical care, and at about 3,000 metres or something). Consequently, Ronny and Rocio picked me up at 5.15, on the way to pick up some of the Church from San Pedro.
Around this time of year it’s quite cold here at night/early morning, so things were a bit chilly… all the locals talk up the cold, and dress for it too. Funnily enough this time of year is the worse for sunburn, as the sky is really clear- and the sun more intense.
Anyways, back to the trip… we filled up the van with people from San Pedro, and I really mean filled… so I had to sit all scrunched up all the way to the church…and got mad pins and needles. So when I got out, it must’ve looked hilarious, as my leg was dead, and completely tensed up.
There must have been about 60 of us who went into total, every seat was filled, and the fun times commenced.
Everyone was in a surprisingly good mood for a bus trip at 6 in the morning on a really bad road (it’s only about 70 or something Km to Puquina, but it’s a really shocking road, and has quite a climb at the start). Ronny got us singing for a while some short choruses (most which I didn’t know very well), which we eventually stopped, then we chatted, played other games the rest of the way. The thing that made me laugh was this conversation I was having with those around me, to do with family characteristics etc. The subject was where I got my green eyes from, because some have seen the family pics… then Susannah blurts out a few rows away with this gem of a joke: “the neighbour”, which got me laughing so much that she didn’t know if I got her joke… anyways, I guess the mix of hair/eye colours in my family isn’t something that happens often here, so it actually becomes interesting (It’s funny as well how many times I’ve been asked what country my Dad is from…)
So, we eventually arrived- and the bus couldn’t navigate the narrow streets. Which meant that we all had to walk all the way down the hill, then back up to the church. So of we all went, and I’d have to be honest here- Maxamiliana, one of the old ladies from the church, with horrible knees, walked it… So I felt as if I had to tough it out, and not (excuse my language) ‘bitch’ about it as it were.
Pretty soon after we all arrived we started the service in the church building there.
The church building was put up after the earthquake when the church helped by building some 30 homes, and someone was selling the land for really cheap… so it made sense to put something up.
After the service, everyone went around and did whatever; some went for a look around town, others to a river nearby, but I was stuck pretty much- so I had an early lunch. I had quite a good chat about stuff with Alfredo- he’s the bomb, always a good laugh.
A bit later on the volleyball net came out, so I played on one foot for a bit, I guess I was hoping that maybe some movement would do me some good (ummm, no). But I tried to take some pics… and they all turned out pretty lame. By about this time I started to feel uncharacteristically cold (you know, that sick cold) which made things interesting… after sitting in the sun and watching some action for a bit we all went in for lunch (I got a few offers of some lunch- nice food too- but I was not feeling hungry at all). I don’t know how many times I had to explain what my problem was, and in how many ways (I think I figured out how in a clear manner by the end of the day) and how many opinions I heard on what was wrong, and what remedies would sort me out, some of the church members have an amazing knowledge of natural remedies etc… fascinating stuff.
So, after a lateish lunch, and a little bit more hanging out around the church, we set of back home at around 3ish. So we walked all the way back to the bus, and I was so feeling everything (sick, altitude, my leg) but I eventually made it- and I said to myself this classic quote of Sir Edmund Hillary, after he got back to base camp after climbing Mount Everest: “we knocked the bastard off” (I love classical quotes), it makes me laugh every time.
The trip back wasn’t the most fun time experience I’ve had- I was feeling like crap so I won’t bore you with the details. So, after over 3 hours in the bus, we got back. I was cold as and dieing to get home.
Once I eventually got back things didn’t look too good. I think the combination of my leg and feeling sick made the problem seem worse than it was. The Greens called up this ambulance/health care service that they’re subscribed to (it covers anyone in the house) that came around, and the doctor dude pretty much told me that It was only a muscular problem, and that I needed to rest it for two weeks, put a special cream on it, and take some tablets.
I’m writing this about a week and a half since then, and I’m feeling pretty good. My leg still isn’t 100% but I can walk (not jump, run) which is a relief I guess. I’m off to Cuzco tomorrow night which should be good times… unfortunately my mate hasn’t been able to make it, so I’m going alone. At this time of year it’s really busy up that way, with a few different festivals etc. and the best weather for visiting the sites (although it’s a bit chilly right now). I guess I just hoping that my leg will hold up, and that everything will work out just fine. I am expecting it to be pretty pricey, which is a shame… but I’ll be doing things on the cheap for sure. The leg of course rules out doing the Inca Trail, but I can live with that (it saves me having to buy/hire all the special gear etc… what a hassle)
It’s going to be weird though being in the majority, as there are so many gringos that make their way to Cuzco and the sites…
So, you can all look forward to the next blog, it should be good times up there, I hope nothing goes wrong (I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to watch out for stuff, I should be fine if I don’t do anything stupid (not like that’s ever happened haha)
Anyways, look after yourselves, and I’ll keep you all posted on what happens.
Nathan
