Three months, six countries, one rucksack. And it's all over.
Like having a baby, backpacking can be a life-changing experience. And the sleep deprivation, dent to the bank balance and weeks spent carrying what you hold most dear, mean the parallels don't end there. Heading back to a country gripped by election fever and swooning for Nick Clegg, perhaps it will take me a little longer to fully absorb all these new experiences. But there's no doubt that travel renews your appetite for life.
Adios.
THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
We live on a beautiful planet, but home is home
All my pics are HERE
Sunday 25 April 2010
Day 96: Top five moments
1. Ian boarding the wrong plane in Sao Paulo
2. Asking in Buenos Aires football shops if they had any England 1966 souvenir shirts
3. Hang-gliding over Rio and pointing out the city landmarks to my instructor
4. Getting soaked with water at a wrestling match in La Paz, by a dwarf and a female Daddy Haystacks dressed in a skirt
5. Staring at a huge blue glacier in Patagonia, and the guide saying it was not really blue
2. Asking in Buenos Aires football shops if they had any England 1966 souvenir shirts
3. Hang-gliding over Rio and pointing out the city landmarks to my instructor
4. Getting soaked with water at a wrestling match in La Paz, by a dwarf and a female Daddy Haystacks dressed in a skirt
5. Staring at a huge blue glacier in Patagonia, and the guide saying it was not really blue
Day 95: Machu Picchu
My penultimate day in South America was spent on its most famous spot. And against my expectations, Machu Picchu lived up to the hype. It simply took my breath away.The picture postcards just don´t do it justice. Perched on a hilltop and surrounded by majestic Andean peaks, the Inca city strikes a spiritual chord within you. Even if there was no city, it would still be an amazing setting.
Walking around its ruins you get a sense of this civilisation's great geometrical and architectural skills, but it is not until you climb the mountain most commonly seen in the photos, Huaynu Picchu, that you see the city in its glorious context.
The clouds add to the mystery - how did they build it, why did they abandon it - and as they part beneath you to reveal the city, you cannot fail to be utterly moved.
THINGS I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY:
1. You can do Machu Picchu at any age
2. And even in knee-high boots
3. Climbing Huaynu Pucchi is very good for the glutes
4. Annoying ringtones happen everywhere
More Machu Picchu pics HERE
Day 94: Guinness and Roy Keane
"There are two things about Ireland I love," said my Peruvian hostel manager when I gave him my passport. "Guinness and Roy Keane."
Dark, strong in character, slightly mysterious and the ability to reinvigorate the spirit. And a bitter aftertaste.
I can see the similarities.
THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
In Hebrew, the term for candy floss is "grandmother's hair"
Day 93: Steve, you're big in Argentina
Gutted to discover that my four-day trek to Machu Picchu has been cancelled. But my day improved when, flicking through my Spanish textbook, I saw the face of one of my BBC colleagues, Steve Hawkes, being used to illustrate a passage about driving while using a phone.
If anyone from work is reading this, can they tell Steve he is famous in Buenos Aires. Someone at my language school must have nicked the image from the BBC website when they compiled the book. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone.
THING I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY:
People have sex in hostel dormitories
If anyone from work is reading this, can they tell Steve he is famous in Buenos Aires. Someone at my language school must have nicked the image from the BBC website when they compiled the book. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone.
THING I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY:
People have sex in hostel dormitories
Day 92: Lost city
Cuzco was the capital of the Inca Empire, which once covered parts of what today we regard as Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia. Huge.
Who knows what the city looked like when the Spanish arrived, because much of it was destroyed and the Europeans built a beautiful new city, but the Inca foundations remain - a symbol that the older civilisation could not be eradicated.
Historians believe that if Cuzco was excavated, the remains of the Inca capital would be found underneath.
THINGS I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
1. The Inca language of Quechua is still widely spoken today
2. Although the Incas did not have a writing system, they recorded events using a knots system called quipu
3. But the Spanish destroyed much of their census material so much remains unknown
Who knows what the city looked like when the Spanish arrived, because much of it was destroyed and the Europeans built a beautiful new city, but the Inca foundations remain - a symbol that the older civilisation could not be eradicated.
Historians believe that if Cuzco was excavated, the remains of the Inca capital would be found underneath.
THINGS I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
1. The Inca language of Quechua is still widely spoken today
2. Although the Incas did not have a writing system, they recorded events using a knots system called quipu
3. But the Spanish destroyed much of their census material so much remains unknown
Friday 23 April 2010
Day 91: Paddington's home
Paddington's creator Michael Bond once said in an interview (I'm too modest to say who it was with) that he chose Darkest Peru as the bear's home because it sounded so far away.
Given the events of my bus journey into Peru, I would say very far away indeed. Imagine the following happening on the National Express to Manchester:
- the driver taking a detour into dodgy-looking backstreets in order to drop off a package
- people hailing the coach on the street and begging the driver to be let on
- three burly blokes getting on and confiscating some suspicious-looking boxes stashed at the back
- a fight ensuing between the woman who owned them and the men. Guess who won
THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
Don't try and get some sleep on a bus in Peru
Given the events of my bus journey into Peru, I would say very far away indeed. Imagine the following happening on the National Express to Manchester:
- the driver taking a detour into dodgy-looking backstreets in order to drop off a package
- people hailing the coach on the street and begging the driver to be let on
- three burly blokes getting on and confiscating some suspicious-looking boxes stashed at the back
- a fight ensuing between the woman who owned them and the men. Guess who won
THING I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
Don't try and get some sleep on a bus in Peru
Day 90: Island of the Sun
The Isla de Sol in Lake Titicaca was a sacred place for the Incas because this is where they believe their founding parents emerged from the waters, at the call of the Sun God.Today it resembles a Greek island like Santorini, rather than Bolivia, and provided me with a pleasant walk, accompanied by Swiss pal Sandor (bottom pic). Top guy.
The lake, which Bolivia shares with Peru, is vast and stretches as far as the eye can see.THINGS I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
1. There is a fourth official language in Switzerland (after German, French and Italian) called Rumantsch
2. Swiss email addresses end in "ch", which stands for "confederation helvetica"
3. All Swiss men must complete a year of military service, although some do it in instalments4. A Swiss university, the Federal Inst of Tech, rewards good degrees with a cash sum of 2,000 euros to spend on foreign travel
More pics of Isle of the Sun HERE
Day 89: ´Very hard to succeed´
My journey north to Lake Titicaca gives me time to reflect on the words of an esteemed Israeli scholar (he was in the other jeep to mine), who often says; "It is very hard to succeed in Bolivia." (copyright Eli Cohen)
It´s a neat way of saying there are lots of frustrations for the traveller, such as dangerous roads, ill-informed guides who drop litter, a lack of hot water, poor food and painfully slow internet connections. And most bizarrely of all, the keys on the keyboards not actually typing what they say they type.
So although the rewards in Bolivia are rich indeed - amazing scenery and history - you need to earn them. But if it was a country where everything worked, with high-speed rail links, fibre optic broadband and gourmet restaurants, it would be Germany. Now I love Germany, but it´s not somewhere you go for adventure.
THING I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
On some Bolivian keyboards, to type @ you need to press SHIFT, then 6 and then 4
It´s a neat way of saying there are lots of frustrations for the traveller, such as dangerous roads, ill-informed guides who drop litter, a lack of hot water, poor food and painfully slow internet connections. And most bizarrely of all, the keys on the keyboards not actually typing what they say they type.
So although the rewards in Bolivia are rich indeed - amazing scenery and history - you need to earn them. But if it was a country where everything worked, with high-speed rail links, fibre optic broadband and gourmet restaurants, it would be Germany. Now I love Germany, but it´s not somewhere you go for adventure.
THING I DIDN´T KNOW BEFORE TODAY
On some Bolivian keyboards, to type @ you need to press SHIFT, then 6 and then 4
Day 88: Tag teams
Surely one of the most bizarre spectacles I´ve witnessed. Bolivians love their wrestling, but this is a far cry from Big Daddy on World of Sport. Women fight each other dressed in their traditional garb, men are dressed up like super heroes and dwarves provide the love interest. Spectators exchange blows with the competitors and express their dislike of the "bad guy" by throwing food into the ring. As if that wasn´t weird enough, the distinct tones of Rick Astley could be heard on the loudspeakers.
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