buenos aires, wine, and alf

i arrived in buenos aires yesterday afternoon. the weather is much colder than it was in rio de janeiro last week. the forecast is for daytime high temperatures ranging from 7-15C. i have rented an apartment in buenos aires centro. my apartment in buenos aires is far superior to the one i rented in rio (and half the price). the landlord of the building is an interesting character. he speaks no english, and his spanish is so slurred and quick that i cant even understand him when he says my name. everything i could need is within two blocks of my apartment which is handy.

after grocery shopping last night, i settled in for the night and watched some television. throughout south america, i have found it quite common for old american tv shows to be hugely popular. alf and who´s the boss are among the more popular shows. while at the grocery store, i bought a bottle of wine (Cdn$3/bottle). it was an odd feeling to stare at the bottle of wine with the cork floating (my cork screw got confiscated in peru by security, had to punch the cork into the bottle using a wooden spoon), coffee cup full of wine, listening to the buzz of vehicles/people below on the street, and watching alf (with spanish subtitles). odd scenario that i didn´t anticipate having in south america.

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hand gliding in rio

when i arrived in rio, never did the thought of hand gliding enter my mind. i was sitting at a cafe drinking a beer with some friends from Holland I meet along the way when it became the topic of conversation. no one around the table had ever done it before so we decided to look into it. a few hours later we were being picked up and taken up the mountains in sao condaro (a barrio of rio). from the top of the mountain you had an amazing view of the city and all of the barrios. we didnt get much time to enjoy the view as the flying company started to put the gear on us. In no time, we were prepared to jump off the mountain. five minutes later we literally running off the mountain. for thirty minutes i was gliding over the mountains and beaches. i had spectular views of the main beaches at copacabana and ipanema. the gliding route also toured above the tijuanca national rainforest park.

to think, this all started because of a casual beer at copacabana beach! there are a couple of photos from the hang gliding experience posted on my photoshare site.

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new photos from chile and rio posted

after much delay i have posted new photos from santiago, chile and rio de janeiro, brazil. i have accumulated a large number of photos from my travels. i exceeded the 1,000 mark the other day. feel free to check them out at www.flickr.com/photos/rfgibson.

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life in rio

over the past couple of days i have been taking in rio de janeiro. trust me ... there is a lot to take in this city scattered throughout the mountains. i am staying just blocks from the historic copacabana beach. i have made a few trips to the beach to enjoy the afternoon sun (temperatures have been 25-34 so far). i quickly learned that by 5 pm the beach clears out. it is almost as if someone blew an airhorn (just you cant hear it). the beach is pretty much evacuated by sundown. crime in the beach area (as well as every other area of rio) is very high at night. rio is the first place i have visited in south america so far where i have been concerned about my safety. besides the beach, streets, malls, and restaurants all become very quiet by 6 pm. i am taking pre-cautions that i didnt cross my mind in peru or chile. even local people openly talk about the crime and the measures they take to prevent it.

over the past couple of days i have been hiking and exploring the city. never really have a true plan, but seem to find things to keep me busy. unlike peru, i have mastered public transportation in rio. the buses and metro do not have that chaotic feel as they did in lima. i have been hiking at pau de acucar and throughout botafogo (barrio in rio). my plan for sunday is to take a local soccer game at the massive maracana stadium (maximum capacity is 200,000 people) with some backpackers i met in chile.

my apartment buiding overlooks a community centre and there is lots of traffic in and out of the centre (which is great considering the high crime rates). i am now re-thinking how great the community centre is! every night the community centres host an evening activity. on thursday and friday it was bingo. from 7 - 10 pm, i was blessed with listening to a bingo caller and people screaming ´bingo´ all night. i didnt think it could worse until this evening, when after bingo a community dance began. when i left my apartment all i could hear was old-polka like music coming from the centre. as i said, i am starting to re-think being close to the community centre.

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arrived in rio de janerio

i arrived in rio de janeiro, brazil this afternoon. once again, i had the privilege of setting my alarm clock to a ridiculous time in the morning (4 am). my early morning flight from santiago to rio de janeiro made a pit stop in sao paulo, brazil to drop off some passengers. once i arrived in rio, i slipped through customs and immigration very quickly (almost too quickly, it made me kind of nervous). the apartment i have rented offered to provide me a transfer from the airport to copacabana for US$70 (return). being cheap, i politely declined the opportunity and boarded the city bus for a whooping US$1.50. about one hour later (even though the airport is only 15 km from downtown) i arrived in copacabana. i do not think i have ever seen that kind of rush hour traffic before in my live. as the temperature was well over 30, the beaches were absolutely full of people.

i now have an apartment in rio, two blocks from copacabana beach. so far the apartment seems quite fine, although i am sure something will go amiss over the next week.

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rain, protests, and people watching

monday was the first full day of rain that i have experienced during my travels. it was actually quite nice to have a day to ´catch up´ on everything. the rain day gave me a nice opportunity to catch up on replying to emails, laundry, and packing for brazil. needless to say, not a whole lot was accomplished. I even turned the tv on for the first time since i left canada. i was surprised to find three english channels showing re-runs of american shows. the one channel seemed to be devoted to the CSI program.

the rain did not stop students from the universidad de chile from their demonstrations. the university is just around the corner from my hostel. students drapped banners and posters from university buildings, handed out information, and chanted all day in the rain. based on my basic spanish reading capabilities, the protest is based on rising tutition and entranance fees. as i was wet from my walk around this afternoon, i sat on a bench and watch you people passing by acknowledged the protesting students. this turned out to be one of the highlights of my day. as people came up from the metro station, students would present phamphlets. many people avoided making eye contact, others forged ahead, some politely took the phamphlet, and a few became engaged. it was the people who avoided eye contact and tried to ignore the protestors that i got a kick out of. people would speed up their walking pace, others would pretend that they could not hear the large booming speakers, and others would just stare at the sky as they walked by. i probably sat on the bench (in the rain) for 20 minutes watching the reaction of people. i know this might sound odd, but it was quite enjoyable for my last day in chile. tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn ... actually before dawn, i will depart for rio de janeiro, brazil. by lunch time i will be enjoying the beaches of copacabana.

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constant grey haze

santiago was quite cool today. the daytime high reached a high of only 7 C. when i got up this morning i could see my breath. something that i have had difficulties adjusting to in santiago is the continual thick grey haze that covers the city skyline. i am told there are mountains that surround the entire city, however, i can barely make out the vague shape of mountains due to the heavy haze. locals tell me that the haze takes over the city for 9 months of the year. on occassions, i was informed that the haze will lift enough to see the outlines of the mountains. but this is a rare. i hiked up two parks/mountains in santiago today. at the top of the first hike i could not make much in the city´s skyline. high rise buildings would dissappear into the haze after five or six floors. the crosses atop churhes often could barely be made out. i dont know if i could live with this haze for 9 months of the year. it makes you appreciate the wide open spaces of the prairies. during the second hike, the haze lifted enough that the outline of mountains and tall buildings could be made. the haze would drive me nuts if i lived here.

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airport chaos and drug dogs

up until yesterday, my airport experiences had been smooth and stress free. this string of good luck came to a crashing end last night in lima. i had purchased a ticket on the evening flight to santiago, chile. apparently the airline sold 30 more tickets than they had seats! when i went to check in, i found out that someone had already checked into my seat and i would have to wait and see. the initial discussion, in spanish, was that this happens all the time and i would just have to wait and see. they offered to put me on ´stand'-by´ with 16 other people! the flight was scheduled to depart at 8 PM. just after 7:30, i was informed that i had a ticket and needed to check my baggage, pay the airport fees, go through immigration, go through security, and board the plane before 7:50 PM! usually the lines are quite long at each of these, however, i was able to make it just in time. I was the second or third last passenger allowed on the plane.

when i arrived in santiago, i quickly made it through immigration. when i arrived at baggage pick-up, i thought i had arrived at a dog pound. there had to be close to 20 dogs running around. all of the dogs were searching for drugs. in addition to the drug dogs, there had to be 20 or more police officiers with bullet-proof vests in the area. although a very serious situation, there were two younger dogs that i think were still in training. the one kept jumping on luggage and then running over to people for attention. the handler would call its name and it would return to sniffing the luggage. after two or three suitcase, the dog would lose its attention and wonder over to some people. the handler was getting very frustrated and it was difficult not to laugh. i didnt think it would be appropriate to laugh in this situation. when my back pack arrived the dogs did their thing and i was cleared.

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link to travel photos

i finally was able to find a computer with a usb connection in lima, so i can now posted some photos from my trip. click here to see - www.flickr.com/photos/rfgibson

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tourism and poverty side by side

just before entering the cusco area on the train from aguas calientes, train staff required that all windows be closed and remain closed for the remainder of the trip. this announcement was odd considering the staff had been encouraging people to snap photos and take in the scenery. i later learned through talking with the staff that closing the windows is a safety precaution. as the train passes comes to cusco it passes through the middle of the poorest barrio (district) in cusco. people living in the barrio have a strong dislike for the train and tourist that people will sometimes through rocks or water at the train. up and to this point, i had not really recognized the poverty in cusco, in a city of 1 million. largely this was because city planners have deliberately re-located the poor to the outside of the city so that tourists are not aware. although i passed through this barrio on the way to aguas calientes a few days ago, i must have been oblivious to the poverty as i was taking in the scenery. on the return trip i spent considerable time thinking about the dilemma of having a luxury tourist train bisecting the poorest barrio.

cusco's main industry is tourism and tourism related activities (approximately 50% of all jobs) and the city has an unemployment rate of 30-40%. without tourism, the city's economy would be in jeopardy. the more i think about it, the more i realize how challenging of a situation it is to balance tourism and local poverty.

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sunrise at machu picchu

woke up at 3:30 am this morning (on my birthday none the less). why wake up at such a ridiculous time ... to catch the sunrise at machu picchu. the sunrises rises around 6:45 am. unfortuantely the first bus up the mountain does not leave until 6:00 and can miss the sunrise. bus takes 20 minutes on a good day, but in the mornings, there are often local people hauling goods into town that slow the bus down (or stops it completely). to make sure i saw the sunrise, i started the 8 km climb up the mountain at 4 am. at 4 am it is pitch black out. i wasnt sure if other people would be as crazy as me, but it turns out that a couple of hundred people were making the hike. the first half the of the hike was in the dark and you could hear birds everywhere mixed with the sounds of people walking. no one waswas overly talkative at this hour in the morning. the hike is 2 hours uphill all the way. the push to get up the mountain is the sunrise. who would want to get up at 3:30 am to hike up the mountain for 2 hours and then miss the sunrise!

when i arrived at machu picchu, i pearched myself at one of the highest points and sat in to watch the sunset. sitting in my perch i ate my pre-packed breakfast and watched all the other hikers make their way into the ruins. the sunrise at machu picchu was amazing. watching the sun slide over the mountain tops and illuminate the ruins made the 3:30 am wake up well worth it. within 15 minutes, the entire site was illuminated by the sun. what a way to spend your birthday!

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machu picchu and the sacred valley

today i caught the train from cusco, peru to aguas calientes, peru. aguas calientes is the last pueblo before machu picchu. as this is the winter season in peru, the mornings are actually very cold. this morning it was -5. most homes and businesses do not have heat as they rarely get this cold. my hostel was one of these buildings. the floors, walls, beds were all ice cold. i took a ´hot´shower (in canada we would call this a luke warm shower) on the freezing ceramic tiles. the upper half of my body was slightly warm and my feet were freezing!

at 6 am i caught the train to aguas calientes (300 locals, 500 tourists). the train ride was fairly uneventful. i am happy to say that i didnt pass out or throw up on the train trip. there were a number of people would passed out and at least one person who had a plastic bag around their head. aguas calientes is designed for tourists ... everything in the community supports the tourism industry. from aguas calientes, machu picchu is a 20 minute bus drive winding through the sacred valley (or a 2 hour hike). driving through the sacred valley was breath-taking. i had never expected the scenery ... mountains crashing into the rio de urubamba river, thick lush vegetation growing on the mountains, and birds flying everywhere. the drive through the sacred valley was well worth the ticket. i was concerned that after this spectular drive that machu picchu might be a dissappointment.

machu picchu lived up to all its glory. i was amazed at the size of the structure when i first entered the grounds. the inca site had to be at least 10 times larger than i had expected. the ruins run down the side of the mountain with many structures still standing. there were lots of tourists, however, it never felt crowded because of its size. i spent the better part of 3 hours walking around the ruins. in that time, i think i covered only 20%. Just after lunch i was fortunate, to hike waynapicchu. this is a mountain that looks down onto machu picchu. the park only allows 400 people a day on the hike, and you have to leave before 12:30. the hike is to take about 1 hour and is described as a ´moderate hike with some steep sections´. after hiking up the mountain, i would suggest the park to change the sign to ´trail consists of ALL steep sections, with small steps meant for children, no places to stop along the way, and the altitude will make you dizzy. PS-you might fall off the trail to your death. enjoy´. somehow i dont think the park will modify the sign to my suggestion! that being said, the view from waynapicchu was unbelievable and i am very grateful that i did the hike. i am sure that my legs will pay the price tomorrow!

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cocaine tea & an apple ... breakfast of champions

day five ventured into the highlands/mountains of peru. once again i had my favourite early morning flight from lima to cusco (1 hour flight). i have gone from the pacific coast to approximately 10,000 feet in elevation. to help tourists with the high altitudes, locals encourage people to drink coca tea. the leaves in the tea are the SAME leaves used with ... you guessed it - cocaine! everytime someone mentions coca tea they quickly point out that it is legal here ... leading me to believe that it must be illegal elsewhere (comforting). since my arrival i have had two cups of cocaine tea ... i mean coca tea. what does it taste like? hmmm ... imagine going out to your front yard and picking a handful of grass and putting it in to a cup of boiling water. that is about it-there is really a grass like taste to the tea. with my cocaine tea i ate the apple i took from my hotel this morning. as i am sitting drinking and eating, the hotel clerk (who speaks no english) comes around the corner and said ´oh ... breakfast of champions´

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mental note ... avoid buses in lima

day two in lima i decided to try out the public transit system - primarily because i didnt want to pay S/. 10 for a taxi to centro lima (i was being cheap). local buses cost only S/.1 ... plus my last experience with a taxi driver left a little (lot) to be desired!

my hostel is about 8 miles south of centro, a large UNESCO historic district. due to how the streets and expressways are set up it is very challenging to walk from the hostel to centro. i got some directions (and encouragement from the hostel staff on how to use the bus system). the directions i received were very accurate ... however the left out all the details regarding the challenges. i stood at the bus stop (an imaginary spot on the sidewalk) in preparation to wave down a bus that had centro written on the side. reading the side of buses as they whiz by at 60 or 70 km/hour could be a sport in lima (one that i an not good at by the way). by the time i had a chance to read the side of the bus it was a good mile down the road. i thought i was being smart by remembering what colour of bus had centro written on the side. this theory was quickly disspelled as buses are painted what ever colour the owner wants! eventually i was able to flag down a bus going to centro (i wont say how long it took). to my surprise, the bus didnt actually stop. rather is slowed to a crawl and expected you to jump on. the hostel forgot to mention this part. so i jumped on the bus and heading for the 15 minute ride to centro, as described by the hostel. after 30 minutes of riding the bus, we had not yet reached centro. getting a little nervous that i might have jumped on the wrong bus, i strained my neck against the bus window to make sure centro was written on the bus ... which it was. after another 10 minutes we arrived, only again to have to jump out of a moving bus at the imaginary bus stop. when i left centro i hailed the first taxi i saw and figured it cant be worse than the bus!

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is waking up your taxi driver bad luck?

i began this morning bright an early. my spanish wake up call came at 5 am (i got a chuckle out of that). i needed to be at the airport for a 8:30 am flight, which means being at the airport at 6:30 am. by the time i had showered and packed, a taxi was waiting to take me to the airport. i had not arranged for this, however, the hotel made the arrangements. i thought the hotel was in a decent area of santiago until i tried to leave this morning. the hotel clerk had to unlock three different doors to let me out onto the street. as the hotel clerk said, a taxi was waiting for me ... however he was asleep. i had to knock a couple of times on the window. eventually the guy woke up and we started the 30 minute drive to the airport. i wasnt sure if waking up your taxi driver is bad luck? the ride went well until we stopped for a red light. my taxi driver took it upon himself to "rest" his eyes while we waited for the green light. when the light turned green, the driver was still "resting" his eyes. after a number of vehicles were "politely" honking their horns, i poked the driver to waking him up (second time i woke him up if your counting). this made me a little nervous as it was only 5 minutes into the trip. the rest of the drive went quite well until we left the downtown and got on the express route. the express route has no street lights and my driver was tempted to 'rest' his eyes while driving on the express route. i dont think the car was ever in one lane as we drove the express! we dodged in and out of lanes until we reached the airport. none the less, i arrived at the airport unscratched and ahead of time. i guess when the driver starts to dose off he sped up ... reassuring considering the speed limit is 120 km/hr on the express.

as i write i am now in lima, peru. i arrived at lunch time after a three hour flight. the weather is humid and foggy, but the forecast is for low 30s the rest of the week. i got a kick out of the security screening at the lima airport. once you retrieve your luggage you are required to stand in line to be screened. i filled out the declaration form (using my handy spanish dictionary). when you get to the front of the line you are told to press a red button on a machine. if the light turns green you skip the screening; if the light turns red you are required to have your bags screened! the machine, i later found out, is a random. for some reason, i cant see canadian airports adopting this procedure anytime soon! when i first walked out of the aiport, i almost started laughing and i could barely control myself.

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south american pay phones - 1, ryan - 0

upon my arrival in santiago, i was planning to phone a local hotel for a reservation. thinking i was smart, i purchased a bottle of waterin the airport so that i could get change for the payphones. i think i tried every payphone in the airport and not a single one would take the coins i was putting into the phone? the frustration was building and i am sure it was evident on my face and actions. eventually a very nice old man informed me in broken english that chile has new and old coins. the payphones only accept old coins and i had only new coins. you would think they would put up a sign to that affect (well, actually i later learned that they do, right on the front of the phone in spanish). but i now know for next time. i am sure this is lesson 1 learned on a trip full of many lessons!

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sprinted to plane, arrived in south america (with luggage)

my flight from winnipeg to toronto went well (after it got off the ground 2 hours late). i was bumped up to executive class was quite nice. the unfortunate part is that my flight landed in toronto at 11:30 PM at gate 125 and my connecting flight to santiago departed at 11:55 PM from gate 175. as expected, i was the guy in the airport who sprinted down the corridors to catch the plane. before yesterday, i had never been in the international terminal at toronto so i really wasnt sure where i was running too! i dont think i have ever run that fast (or long) since in was in highschool! (mental note ... get in better shape when i return to canada) forunately the plane to santiago was delayed in departing and i was able to make it on the flight, but just barely as i was one of the last people let on the plane. apparently there were thunder storms and high winds in toronto that caused all planes to be grounded. the lady sitting beside me on the way to toronto inquired if that was karma. as i sat in the plane, i wondered if the air canada ground crew would have also been sprinting across the airport with my luggage ... something i couldn´t see happening. on the flight i was preparing myself for arriving in santiago with no luggage. after 12 hours of flying, i was pretty glad to see the coastline of chile. the first gimpses of south america were the desert coastlines of western chile and the coastal mountain ranges. scattered through the desert and the mountains were small (from the plane anyways) plots of land being used for agriculture.

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flight delays and running shoes

Arrived in Winnipeg with no surprises this afternoon. Did a luggage switch, picked up a few last items, and had my last Canadian supper for four weeks with my mom. Upon arrival back at the airport, learned my flight to Toronto has been delayed by over an hour. I now have less than 40 minutes to catch my connecting flight to Santiago (challenge #1 of the trip). I am glad I am wearing my running shoes. Just imagine, in Toronto I am going to be the person who is frantically running down the halls in the airport pushing people out of my way and waving my hands in the air! Well, hopefully not, but you never know. Heres hoping my next blog is from South America ... not Toronto!

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conference presentation done, south america next

The last task before heading to South America was a presetation a volunteer conference in calgary. The 90 minute presentation was on volunteerism and collaboration in rural communities. Going into the presentation, I was concerned that I would be short with material to fill the 90 minutes. This was not the case! The presentation went really well. Over 100 people turned up for the presentation first thing in the morning. The initial feedback has been positive. Now my attention turns to South America. I am sitting in the Calgary airport awaiting my flight back to Winnipeg (where I have to change suitcases). In about 24 hours, I will be in Santiago, Chile. I have no idea what I am going to do when I get there ... but I will none-the-less be there! It is amazing how time flies.

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