Chile Evaluation 216.7

Chile

Likes wonderfully clean Santiago, Starbucks ' i know its the same everywhere but it tastes better after a 3 month withdrawal), the flatness of Santiago contrasted with the glorious mountains surrounding it, Hostel Casa Roja a wonderfully restored old spacious building), steaks, cerro something park, crisp warm but not too hot sunshine all the time, free museums on Sundays, the number of EMO kids (and adults) walking around Santiago has a good taste in music, public snogging (even the adults) snogging is fun.

Dislikes: Valpariso, the way Americans pronounce Chileans, having to leave after 5 short days, very public snogging - i mean really, again, do you have to snog each time your eyes meet?, Men urinating everywhere with no attempt to turn away or shield my eyes from their manhood.

Sunrises missed from slumber: 5

Places visited: Santiago and Valpariso

Number of times i wanted to come home: 0!

Favourite Hostel Casa Roja. see their website for great pictures, and we even managed to make friends with their staff!

Traveller achievements being asked if i had checked a backpack onto our flight, still not brushing my hair, only having one pair of shorts since losing the other ones somewhere, Xss being complimented on his ripped jeans, always replying 'what's the cheapest' when presented with several options, being pally with hostel workers, throwing away clothes that i need to make my bag lighter but keeping impractical thing like the knife and fork i brought with me.

Favorite memory Walking home from climbing tired but very satisfied. See previous blog entry.

Worst Day VALPARISO. Why is this crap town a UNESCO world heritage site? on a par with Macchu Pichu? Smelly, dirty, teeming with nothingness. Don't go. We went on the bus 2 hours each way and only managed to spend 2 hours there, and that's only because it was such a long walk back to the bus station after searching for a reason to be there!

Favourite new food\drink pure pineapple juice. Why don't we do this in England. Fruit, in a blender. simples and great.

Best\worst noise: The Australians going to bed at 6am at Casa Roja after the cricket.

Worst\best smell: The intestines that accompany burgers on all the stands on the way to a football match (which we couldn't get tickets for), think tripe left out in the sun with some vomit stirred in for good measure.

Best Norwich Victory: Signing Henri Lansbury on loan from Arsenal!

Weirdest country 'fact': Potatoes cost about 10p in the shop, but in a restaurant it costs 4 pounds for a side of chips. This is 4 times more than a bottle of coke, why?

Times people looked at me like i was a unicorn walking down the street (Blonde's really do exist): 7,598

Number of Imodium instants left: 3 out of 12

Number of people in our marriage that need a haircut: 2

Number of six packs being maintained in our marriage: 1

New things learned: Having so much time to think about things whilst travelling, this revelation has been a long time coming. If you dress in your boyfriends clothes it doesn't make you sexy, if you still do your make-up and hair nicely then wear his clothes, then that's sexy. Since i don't do my make-up or hair, that's why i don't look like the girls in the magazines when i wear an over sized t-shirt or boy jeans, i just look like a boy.

Country score: 216.7

And i still have found what i`m looking for......

In a strange moment today i finally felt like i understood what it is to be a traveller, what it is we are supposed to be looking for and why people perceive times of travelling as so amazing.

Today we went rock climbing in the Andes surrounding Santiago.

This is us having our pic-nic (South American spelling) lunch down by the river. Hezus our climbing expert, Monica one of our hostel workers and me. Xss took the picture. As usual we managed to befriend a dog and it tried to sit on my lap throughout lunch, but was really rather nice. I think someone should invent a rent a dog business because it makes nice days outside even nice when you have a dog in tow. She turned up sad and lonesome and after some food and fuss was running home with us happy and bouncy!

So we decided to go climbing and called up Hezus from a hostel advert. He was really nice, spoke brilliant English and he invited Monica along (who turned out to be great). We took a tube to the end of the metro line then a cab to the middle of nowhere from where we proceeded to walk into the Andes, stopping at an idyllic spot near the river to climb. I was pretty bad at it but it was great to be in the great outdoors, being challenged, trying new things and enjoying peoples company.

Here is Xss at the top of the rock having climbed up the easy route. We then tried another easy way and two harder ways (one being near impossible i think). Xss excelled at it, was quick and sure and it was great to learn this about him. He also managed one of the very hard routes where you had to hang underneath the rock at a time. Because Hezus thought it was fun we also tried out ´jumping´off the wall. This involved climbing up higher than where the rope was attached and launching yourself off the wall knowing that the rope would catch you and pull you back in after a 2 meter drop. I tried this and did it, but the sensation of going against all your senses and falling backwards with nothing to hold onto was very strange and i had nothing to prove so didn't go very high. Xss on the other hand was lunching himself off the wall from the word go trusting the ropes instantly. He was truly fearless, another thing learnt.

It was after this, and chatting with Monica (our single serving, lovely, friend- openly acknowledged by all), and having yummy fresh avocado, chicken, tomato and cucumber rolls (with our feet in the river) for lunch, and the glorious surrounding scenery, and having some cold beers in the river which we drank as a celebration at the end, and walking down the dusty road at the end of the day ( we didn't get home until 9pm having left at 8.30am) tired from the physical exercise, with our now happy dog skipping along at our feet that i realised. I realised that i was truly content, not worried about anything, not wanting anything more, no plans for the future, satisfied with all i had learnt in the day. In this moment i was truly happy. For me, this is the best i could get from travelling, a time when i am happy in each moment, relaxed and not upset about anything, enjoying the world and Xss for all they have to offer and not making things complicated.

The view from the river rock

Brazil Evaluation 187.25

Brazil

Likes quality graffiti on all wall available, the friendly people who tell you when to get off the bus even though you haven't asked, lots of salt in the food, the way the mountains and cities integrate, the beaches in Morro de Sao Paulo, spending loads of time with Xss, doing physical work daily, getting a tan, having the satisfaction of having learn`t Portuguese well enough to communicate with others, listening to Ailtons long stories up in the forests after having raked all the trails (all in Portuguese so i couldn't understand a word of it, but obviously very funny stories judging by his chuckles), multipart handshakes which prove that you like someone.

Dislikes the ant war on humans, screaming children having tantrums about stupid things frequently, the dogs barking (for no reason) at 4am on the veranda outside my room, getting a fungal pattern from crappy hostel sheets on my back which looks pretty but is ruining my tan, no Starbucks in all of Brazil,

Sunrises in Brazil missed by me lazing in bed 103

Places visited Rio de Janeiro, Paraty, Ilha Grande, Belo Horizonte, Ouro Preto, Itabiritu, Salvador, Morro de Sao Paulo, Foz de Igazu.

Number of times i wanted to come home 2 (Once following a serious ant attack and once after we seemed to be spending all our time away planning our next hostel so we could then find another hostel)

Nights spent in strangers houses 4

Favourite hostel Ailton`s pousada in Morro de Sao Paulo. Two stories with our own hammock on the private veranda and a wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit, real juice, bread, cake and coffee.

Pirate experiences achieved posing with a parrot on my arm, seeing a pirate ship flying the jolly roger, eating at Pirates Pizza restaurant, and staying in several place that pirates used to pillage.

Times Xss got annoyed with me talking about Pirates 17

Favourite memory playing monopoly (which i won) with Ali, Paddy, Hafa, Marcus, Claire and Xss in the farm communal kitchen. (is that really sad) or the waterfalls in Purto Igassu -absolutely amazing.

Worst day One of the days when i failed to help anyone on the farm by following Ailton around holding things that didn't need holding, like a 5 year old who insists on helping and really hinders.
Favourite new food/drink Brigadiro (cocoa powder and condensed milk rolled into balls around a strawberry)

Worst smell The smell in `poo room` in Salvador. seriously.

Best/worst noise: Someone shouting `Almoco` (lunch) when you are sweating away at physical labour in the hot sunshine knowing you will have an hour in the shade to rest and chat.

Best Norwich City Victory 3-0 away at Bristol City.

Weirdest country 'fact' Rio`s Metro system is actually partly a bus system that goes along normal roads. You have to go down to buy tickets then surface again to get on a normal bus that isn't any quicker than a normal bus meaning that you have even less time in the Botanical gardens when you leave the hostel at 4pm and it closes at 5pm.

Days Xss wanted to be a plaid shirt and army boot wearing punk 0 :(

New thing learnt There is a time for everything (Ecc 13) a time to be sad, a time to be happy, a time to sunbathe and a time not to, a time for rain and one for sunshine. Enjoy each time you have as all have benefits and soon enough your`ll be on the other side wanting the old time back.
Country score: 187.25

Ive Made it!

I have been recognised as a back packer. I'm not sure if i should be proud of it, but since i am back packing i am proud. As i was standing in Rio airport looking at the books, an air hostess walked straight up to me and asked if i had checked a backpack. score. I'm not sure if it was the metal clip on my small bag, my dirty unkempt looks or the fact that my trainers were so dirty they looked like they had been thrown down a mountain with me running behind barefoot (how does the mud get right up to the top of my basketball boots when it only cakes the sole of Xss.
It was my bag and i am darn proud that i made little net bags to put all my underwear in to keep it together, as the security then proceeded to check my luggage by pulling it all out and delicately placing it on the floor. Luckily no pants flying everywhere and he realised that my ipod player was not dangerous.

So we have made it to Chile, and the NICEST hostel ever, apart from the noise. It is an old, old mansion and has a real commune feel to it. We arrived last night at 10pm and Xss already loves it and is suggesting we stay more days. However this was supposed to be a short city break where we didn't do much or spend much.

So this morning, in true backpacker style we are going out in search of Starbucks! Not sure if they have them here, but there weren't any in Brazil. The eternal optimism to try and find the most undiscovered, off the beaten track, new things that backpackers have, has not reached me yet. I'm happy to just see a new city and try to understand it.

Will upload some pics of the hostel here soon so check back, ok.

The dining room- looking old, but cool.

The Big Island

Well, what can i say of the adventures since last post. After staying in Diego´s loft, we ended up being booked in at TWO more hostels consecutively that had over booked us and ended up staying at two other random Brazilian houses (one a single mum with the cutest 3 year old girl called Maria ever) and once with a man who rented out rooms in his house. Which is amazing as this actually saved us money and gave for some interesting experiences. We have after a lot of searching managed to book places for the next week, so hopefully this wont happen again, but who knows. In all of these places they had lists with our names on, but then just said sorry your not coming in :(

This also led to Xss and I´s lowest day when we spent over 4 hours on the Internet and making phone calls to try and find places for next week. It seems to take forever, and be impossible to find places even though you know that the whole of Rio is not booked out for one Friday night! It seems more effective to just turn up at the small towns and then look around, but this is simply not possible in Lima or Santiago. Luckily this has passed and after a whole day without this faff, we are back on track and excited about going to Peru, via Chile.

We have enjoyed a week now on Ilha Grande, near Rio, as a last goodbye to Brazil. We were intending to go to Chile quicker as (if you've seen the pictures of Morro de Sao Paulo) we didn't think that this island would be able to compete.


However it has managed to. Despite being bigger its infrastructure is terrible and it is very hard to get around, but this is also a bonus as the island is one big nature reserve with wonderful mountains and forests as back drops for the beaches. Unfortunately it has rained quite a lot, and we spent the 4 hours of sunshine today walking to and from the beach in the rainforest, with a 2 hour break on the beach which was cold and gloomy. Really, it takes 2 hours to walk to the beaches, so we are now fit, but fed up with the effort too.

The view from our walk on the way there, note the sunshine making us sweat.

The gloomy weather on the way home.

All dressed up, no place to go....

We are back in Brazil again, and what a dramatic entrance it was. As a gringo we needed to wait for a bus just outside the customs building and upon boarding, heavy back pack on, bright smile on my face, hand outstretched with bus ticket, i tripped (as is my style) and landed on the bus floor, squashed under the weight of my heavy backpack. I was very embarrassed to say the least, especially as the whole bus shouted in unison ´ou-pa!´which is the Portuguese for ´that´s got to of hurt´ which luckily it didn't. It´s funny that even words we say as a reflex are actually socially conditioned. We are not all born to say ´ow´.

We have just spent two days in Argentina, which was wonderful, partly because no-one (Brazilian officials included) knew we were there and we hadn't planned on going. We went to the most amazing waterfalls which span the Brazilian Argentinian border and are really huge, and more awesome than anything i've ever seen before. I cant upload photos here, sorry, but look up Igassu falls on Google. There are 275 falls, up to 82 meters high, the widest one being 150 meters wide. It reminded me of the film ´Up´which if you haven´t seen you must. Its a brilliantly made Pixar film, about a girl called Ellie who marries and dreams of travelling to South America with her husband. The moral of the story is it isn't about what you do with your life, but who you share it with. And i don't think this means who you pick for a partner, but more the bigger picture, who walks beside you on the way. On which subject i feel truly blessed. My friends are amazing, my husband keeps me afloat and i have a great selection of mother, father, brother and sister type people in my life! I am humbled by the things they continually do for me. Thanks.

Oh dear, mushy. I guess being so close to nature was really great, made me appreciate what i have and the grandness of the world. It was really quite hypnotic to be at the top of the falls, and very frustrating to not be able to touch the flowing water anywhere. So much so that it felt tempting to jump in! (you would definitely die if you did this!)

So we ended up in our hostel last night, sitting up until 1am looking for hostels- this is the unglamorous part of travelling, constantly packing and getting up before check-out time (10am-that's early for me) and constantly looking for new places. What we didn't realise is that this weekend is a holiday for Brazilians and so everywhere is booked up. We couldn't find anywhere near the waterfall back on the Brazilian side, so sent an email to one in vain hope. As we got up, we had nowhere to stay, and were not even sure if we´d be able to get back into Brazil as we hadn't got our passports stamped on the way out (opps). Call it luck, fate or as i would, an answer to prayer, today has gone swimmingly and everything has worked out fine.

We got off the bus at the Brazilian customs as instructed by our bus driver and after the initial confusion about how we managed to get out without the right stamps etc, the lovely official let us in. Score one. Next we got to the hostel pretty hassle free, however they had no rooms and informed us that we were the 4th couple to have arrived today looking. They are so friendly here though that they offered to help us look on the Internet and find somewhere, however we were warned that it was only going to be expensive places on the outskirts of town.

However only five minutes later and the receptionist Diego asks, ´how would you like to sleep in a tree house?´Its an interesting conversation which results in us accepting an offer to stay in Diego´s room up in the eves of the hostel whilst he sleeps elsewhere. It is only accessible by a ladder, and cannot be stood up in but manages to contain a double mattress and at least 50cm squared floor space. Miracle worked. The hostel is lovely and we are optimistic that we can stay here tomorrow until our flight leaves mid afternoon, relaxing by the pool and using all the facilities.

So all has worked out well. One of my goals for this year was to read my bible and pray more. I have been ploughing through the bible most nights, learning things, and more often, writing a list of questions to ask a person wiser than I about the meaning, but praying has been harder. To me praying is just like talking to an invisible person. But that person is someone i want to talk to, but never seem to get round to returning the call (a bit like Ted- sorry). After the results of today which is a day following a prayer this morning -about fixing everything for me -(yes God doesn't love getting shopping lists of requests, but like a dad he likes to help when you finally admit you cant do it all by yourself) it has encouraged me to continue.

Tonight our ´tree house´, tomorrow Rio again. Only one week left in Brazil, just when my Portuguese was getting understandable.

P.S Have finally got Skype under my email address.

Mine Your Head

Day off! So we went to the gold mines (mined by Slaves for the British, Germans and Portuguese). It was surprisingly fun to find myself amongst a group of tourists- there are so many of us here now. But it was thoroughly entertaining, and really mostly quite lame (which made for great comedy), except for the scary cart ride 120 meters down into the mine which was wicked! The people in the front seat (Ali and Marcus) had nothing to hold them in, or to hold onto and the ride was really quite vertical. It would also be easy to bump your head if you didn't duck when sensible. So much for health and safety. In the cart you can see (right to left) Marcus, Ali, Me, Xss, Chris, Paddy, and then the family who willingly agreed to bring us! Brazilians are very nice, and the couple who brought us work sometimes at New Destiny. I think they enjoyed the novelty of walking around with loads of gringos. However interestingly whenever a local came over to try to convince us to go to his restaurant or museum, the dad in this family was always easily sucked in. We would just say no and walk off whilst he spoke for 20 minutes with each one and believed word for word what was said. Below is a picture of Chris and Ali in front of ´The second largest Iron Ore Museum IN THE WORLD` as informed by a guide.

We are leaving the farm on Wednesday and i am sad. Sad to be leaving the new friends i have made; sad to be going into the unknown again (despite it being so much fun when we went to Salvador only a few weeks ago); sad because i have just recently been managing to find the place where i fit in, and now i am losing it again: If you meet me today, you will find out exactly what a Brazilian LE Geek looks like, and i like it.

The last Horoah!

Since we´ve been back on the farm its been very uneventful; although i am now more tanned than some of the Brazillians. All i need is longer brown hair and tight denim shorts and i´d blend in perfectly. (well i doubt i ever blend in because i´m always tripping over, but i might be mistaken for an outstanding Brazillian). There are now eight of us British people on the farm so evenings have become a little more fun. We generally play bored games or watch films, Paddy (29, British) makes a mean cup of British tea, but more importantly the level of Banter is great as several people are very funny (Ali- 26, British) and i havent laughed as hard or so constantly for ages.

The breaking news from Britian is that True has given brith to her second son and named him Joel David. Xss and I have talked about when we will have kids and i am willing to admit that i am less than enthused about the prospect of voluntarily allowing my body to be comendered for nine months with no deposit being held for damages. I am pretty sure damages will occur, so i have to wait until the want for the product is greater than the sacrificing of my lovely flat stomach and only slightly wobbley thighs (even if i do get bigger boobs!). However, I do want a family and along with the excitement of Joel coming, and the disappointment of not being able to meet him until June, is an odd feeling of slight jealousy........

Joel not yet aware that sleeping involves a shut mouth

So now we only have three weeks left in Brazil, and only one on the farm. I am going to spend mine painting a house and Xss will continue building one. There are now so many volunteers squahed in here that we more long term ones have enjoyed a few days of witnessing the new arrivalsBrazillia induction into n culture. Here are some clues as to how to spot a new arrival:
- They have large holes in their towels from dog attacks at night and not pinning their towel up high enough.
- They have an english red and white stripes pattern.
- They admit outloud that they dont like rice and beans (they´ll have to take this back later)
- They stroke the dogs. This results in a half an hour battle between them and the dog as the dog will try anything to get another stroke.
- They think its weird/unusual to be bitten by a Tic or an Ant, or a beatle or any type of bug.
- They dont know you have to hold the oven nobb down for over 30 seconds initially to keep it alight and keep letting go at lesser times.
- They ask, ´what does Jeff do?´
- They dont wear socks and flipflops yet
- They try to wear different clothes each day
- They eat something other than chicken noodles and frozen pizza
- They stand silently in front of Brazillian speakers as they realise they have no words to say that will be understood and then try to think of a back-up plan on the spot. (imagine the very begining of a charades game).