Across the Pacific

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Since the last post we have been to LA for a long weekend and had 2 weeks in Hawai'i, split between Maui and Kauai.

City of Angels
Our few days in LA were notable for a few reasons, but mainly because it was the first time we had seen a friendly face in 7 months. We stayed with a friend from IC who I used to play squash with, and he let us borrow his car to get around and see much more than we would have otherwise been able to. He's got a great apartment in Century City, right on the border with Beverley Hills, which is the next road over. From the 16th floor we could see the Hollywood sign in the distance, the downtown skyscrapers, and almost see the sea at Santa Monica.

It was a little bizarre to be so firmly back in the developed world, with an almost overwhelming choice of food, with everything coming in portion sizes undreamt of in much of Latin America. It was also a good opportunity to go shopping, and with the dollar being so weak at present it was even better value than normal. So we are now almost back up to being as fully equipped as we were before we donated some of our stuff to the needy of Peru.

Many thanks again to JC for hosting us for a few days. Phillippa had previously vowed never to go to LA but I think even she enjoyed our time there. Maybe LA gets a bad press, we only saw a very small corner of it, and quite a nice corner too, but it seemed great to us. The locals were complaining about the weather being too cold for winter, it was getting down to about 60F or 15C.

Hawai'i
The locals were also complaining about the cold in Hawaii, where it was a chilly 58F. Some people are just spoiled. Having managed to plot a route that avoids winter for most of the time we are away, these 2 weeks in the US are winter for this year. I could get used to winters like this.

The mountains in Hawaii have to be seen to be believed, especially on Kauai, where parts of Jurassic Park were filmed. The north west coast is stunning, with razor sharp ridges in the volcanic rock that are covered by very dense, lush green vegetation. The slopes are so steep it almost defies logic as to how trees can grow here. You can't get such intense green views without there being a lot of water to support them. One of the mountains on Kauai is the wettest place on earth, with about 460 inches, or about 10m of rain a year. That is more than Manchester and Bristol combined. Luckily our time there was mainly dry, so the walking we did wasn't spoiled by torrential downpours.

The only way to see parts of Kauai are from the air, and there are many helicopter operaotrs offering tours. You can't come this far and not do a helicopter trip, it really was fantastic, one of the more memorable things we have done. The company we went with flies with the doors off, one of the reasons for choosing them, and hanging out of a helicopter whilst passing over such unique countryside was great fun.

The snorkelling on both islands is also pretty good, though the visibility was a bit poor. We didn't dive there, maybe we should have done. The other water sport that Hawaii is known for is surfing, and we couldn't miss a chance for a lesson. It isn't actually as hard as people say, and within 10mins we were both standing up riding (admittedly small) waves to the shore. That's not to say that we didn't have some spectacular wipe outs too. But this early success was a slight cheat, we had a push into the wave from the instructor. When he left us and we had to paddle towards shore, with the waves, it became much harder!

The following day the north shoes of all the islands had their best waves for the last 6 years, predictions were for 50ft (15m) waves, so we headed up there. Not to surf, just as spectators. It turned out that the waves never hit those predicted 15m levels, but they were about 10-12m, as some nutters were out there making the most of it.

It was like having a holiday within a holiday. One place we stayed in on Maui had a garden that went down to the sea and a hot tub, where we sat one evening under the stars and palm trees with a bottle of bubbly. We also managed to do a fair bit of self-catering, and having the freedom to lounge around and cook for ourselves was very welcome.

We could have quite easily spent all of our time solely on either Maui or Kauai, but it is so unlikely that we will ever be back it made sense to see as much as possible.

And so now we are in NZ (after one night in Sydney). Before we went to South America it was hard to have any pre-conceived notions of what awaited us, but everyone as seen images on the US and Australia, and they didn't disappoint by not living up to stereotypes. We saw some huge people in the US, and only a British sense of propriety stopped me from taking what would have been a classic photo of a monstrous women tucking into a Whopper at Burger King. When driving around LA we were surrounded by vehicles so large and inappropriate for city use that even a Chelsea Mum would be reluctant to drive one on the SW3 school run. Then on the Qantas flight to Sydney from Honolulu the comedy channel had Dame Edna, the film channel had Guy Pearce and the music channel had a Kylie concert! Reassuring in its predictability.

People say that the Aussies and Kiwis are very friendly, and the reception we received at US immigration was entirely less welcoming than that we got from either of our Antipodean colonies. This despite the US officials having a charter that promises that you will be greeted with courtesy etc etc, and not just abruptly, almost rudely, asked for a photo and prints from both index fingers. It is also more relaxing now we have got to NZ, after Latin America and the US, since all our language problems are now behind us.

Happy Christmas to you all, wherever you may be. We will be in the Bay of Islands next weekend.

Mid Year Review

Location: Century City, Los Angeles, USA

A mid-year review. It`s time for a catch-up, for us to circle back and discuss some of the highlights of the year to date. So let`s run this up the flagpole and see if it takes shape.

Of course, we have been going for about 7 months now, but all good mid-year reviews occur late. In keeping with the usual review process, this is long on rhetoric and short on substance. It promises much but delivers little. In fact it doesn`t really contain any sensible analysis of our trip so far, instead it just concentrates on the trivial whilst overlooking the important. Those of you in the working world may be familiar with the theoretical idea of a review being a two-way conversation, a discussion. But that theory never holds true, so to conform to the "real world" review template this is a soliloquy. The only slight diversion from the normal review procedure is that the person doing the review does in fact know what has gone on in the relevant review period.

I had, at the start of the year, promised myself an increase in budget mid-year. This was to be something to look forward to. However, with startling capriciousness, I then decided that the increase I would award myself would be 0%. But this should not be looked upon as not having reviewed monetary matters, oh no, there was a review, as I had promised myself. The fact that the outcome was a rise of 0% does not mean that I was not given all that I was promised (a review), and so cannot be disappointed, feel aggrieved or misled by duplicitous claims made at the start of the year. Funny how this year is so similar to previous years.

After 6 months I have so far resisted the urge to

• grow my hair out and get either dreads or braids
• grow some ridiculous facial hair styled on Bob Geldof or Prince°
• buy, regardless of whether I can play it or not, a guitar to carry round with me...
• ... or some bongos
• get some tie-die clothes, or some indigenous Andean style clothes, which don`t fit because they don`t come in big Western sizes
• buy some cheap jewellry, made from a bit of wire by some hippie
• get a "necklace" made from leather with a wooden pendant
• quit travelling and set up my own crap jewellry business on some part of the Gringo trail near Titicaca, and just like, really get in tune with the Inca vibes of the place, coz, like, you know, this is where the Sun-God was kinda born, yeahh? Coool, man. Diggit.
• get one or more tatty bracelets made from multi-coloured fabric
• get an ankle bracelet
• renounce my UK nationality and claim, pretentiously, to be a citizen of the world*

° Indolence does not count

* Although all the people who have renounced their nationality have been either from the USA or France, so perhaps they had compelling reasons to do so.

On a slightly more serious note, what has it been like to be on the road for 6 months? (Those of you, many of you, who have done something similar can probably stop reading here.)

Every day is the same, yet every day is very different. There isn´t the routine of weekends to break up the pattern of the passing days, without this discipline every day really is the same, and it doesn´t matter what day of the week it is. But, of course, having seen and done so much no two days are the same.

It is actually surprisingly tiring all this travelling lark. That will not spark much sympathy with those of you at your desks by 7:30am 5 days a week, and it is not intended to do so. Early morning buses, overnight buses, cold hotels, poor sleep etc all take their toll. Some of the long distance buses in Argentina have been comfortable enough to get some sleep on but most buses elsewhere are designed for midgets. (Actually, so is Eurostar, but being based on the TGV it was probably designed by a Frenchman of Napoleonic stature.)

And with every day being the same we have found that we end up being busy for up to 3 weeks at a time, with no time to rest, with no break. Whilst this does maximise the stuff we can do, it is important every now and then to have a day or two of doing very little.

Tourism fatigue can also sometimes be a problem. In the Northern Andes I did find I was getting less interest in each Inca and pre-Inca site, each museum seemed to be the same (in fact in many cases they were), and at times it was hard to generate any enthusiasm for some of the places we went to. But this is rare, and has only really happened once or twice in the Andes.

In most places we have felt reasonably safe, with a few exceptions such a Rio. There have only been a few stressful incidents or locations. Most of the locals we have met have been very helpful, in particular in Argentina.

Costs It has gradually got more expensive as the months have passed. Bolivia was incredibly cheap; Peru and Ecuador a little less so, Paraguay was surprisingly expensive given there are few tourists, Brazil and Uruguay were (relatively) pricey, and Argentina, although not cheap, has standards higher than the rest, so in terms of value for money is way ahead of most places. For the most part rooms have cost from US$10 to US$16 per night, between us, for a double room with bathroom. We haven`t had too many bad hotel experiences, but we are not trawling through the very bottom price bracket so I wouldn`t expect too. Buses in the Northern Andean countries were approximately US$1 per hour of travel, about double that in Chile and Argentina, more for the better class of bus. It is generally possible to eat either very cheaply (meal for under US$1) anywhere, or pay right up to European proces in the major cities.

So have I missed the UK? Well, no not really. There have been a few weddings and babies that we have missed, which would be the case whenever you go away for a year, and that has been disappointing. But although there are things going on at home that it would be better to be a part of, and there are people who I´d like to see that was always going to be a downside. And there is nothing that can be done about it, so no point in thinking about it too much.

Too much travelling? We have spent what probably by now amounts to weeks on buses. We have not spent long periods in any one place at a time, seldom more than 5 days and usually 2-3 days. Eternally living from a rucksack is not as bad as some would think. Some of the places we have stayed put for a few days, where we have almost felt settled (I´m thinking of Ilha Grande in particular), have been like mini-holidays in themselves. We spent a week in Ushuaia before heading to Antarctica, but that was less of a mini-break since there is not really enough to fill a week. The variety certainly prevents any ideas of wanting to go back to the UK. Besides, 12 hours on a bus is still better than 12 hours in the office.

The music in the Andes is certainly something that I will remember, though not always fondly. A lot of their pop songs are instrumentals and sound like they were composed by GCSE music students. Repeatitive ditties that would have been rejected by the makers of Playstation arcade games. And South America is the only continent that still plays Phil Collins a lot. And Rick Astley. Say no more.

Health. So far so good... well not too bad anyway. A nasty high fever and cold sweats for a few days in Peru, that almost stopped me going up in the plane to see the Nasca lines. Some dodgy food that left me throwing up outside one of Peru´s most important churches, in Cusco. But other than the old sniffle there have been no problems. We managed to avoid the outbreak of bubonic plague in Ecuador (near to Cotopaxi). There were signs on one of the buses in Argentina to only use the onboard toilet when aboslutely necessary, to help prevent the spread of cholera. But we needed no such extra encouragement to avoid the facilities during a long, overnight journey. A lot of walking has taken its toll on one of my knees, the reoccurence of a running injury, but less severe, so not too serious.

We have, so far, met a lot of very interesting people. One French bloke was 71, had major abdominal surgery 3 years ago and was travelling around for 2 months with his trusty guide book, in a similar way to us. We also met an English chap in Ushuaia who was probably well into his 70s and could barely walk! We walked him home on 2 evenings, having bumped into him in town. The 5 minute walk home took more than half an hour, and we missed most of the second half of Argentina v Venezuela! He has been travelling overland from Brazil, 3 weeks down the Amazon, overland through the jungle in Peru then all the way down to the continent`s southern end. He doesn`t speak any Spanish and can`t seem to carry anything more than a small bag with a bottle of water! How has he managed it!

There is hope for us all yet.

The food has been generally good and interesting, but the days of bland and often cold food in Bolivia are only a distant memory. The meat in Argentina has been just as good as people say, not only the big thick steaks but some excellent lamb in Patagonia.

Books are in some ways valuable currency in these parts. With many hours to kill there is often little to do other than read, which is fine. But the choice of what you read is sometimes very limited, with swapping books at hostals the main way to replace those one has read. So as soon as something vaguely interesting appears you have to grab it while you can, even if you still have a couple waiting to be read. We have bought a few books here and there, definitely making a net contribution to the quality available in the hostals of South America. I even read what is the worst book I have ever read (The Posession of Joel Delaney). But for 20p in a bookshop in Montevideo it was still reasonable value and filled a bus journey. You won`t be able to buy it, even for curiosity, since it has been out of print for at least 20 years. No surprise there.

I could certainly get used to this nomadic lifestyle. And there are plenty more adventures to come.

Photos

Location: Los Angeles, USA

I have managed to put some more photos up on the web.

They nearly all date from the early days, Ecuador and Peru, since from 3rd July until a couple of days ago we haven't had digital cameras.

The main address for all the albums is
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/andell_n/my_photos

There are now the following individual albums

• Galapagos. There were some here before but there are a few more here now
• Huayhuash. This covers the fateful trek in the Cordillera Blanca, Northern Peru
• Mindo. A town in a cloud forest a little north of Quito. One of the main attractions here was the huge number of butterflies.
• Northern Peru. Trujillo, which served as a base for trips to the pyramids of the sun and moon, Chan Chan and ruins of other pre-Inca cultures
• Other Ecuador. The jungle near to Coca and a couple from Riobamba in the south
• A few from the last couple of days we have spent here in LA.

A few comments on the butterflies. This one has wings that are about the size of a thumb nail. This one is a similar size with transparent wings. The open wings on this one are about the size of an open palm of your hand. There is also another butterfly shot here taken in the jungle in Northern Ecuador.

Some of them are a bit smaller than others, it was a hit and miss affair when reducing the file size to something more manageable, but most seem OK. Hopefully from now on we will be able to add a few more as we go.