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Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs

a travel blog by phileasdogg


I'm travelling to some places, taking some photos, eating and drinking local stuff, trying to keep it down, talking to people then travelling somewhere else. Oh, and writing about it. Maybe. If I remember.

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Golf and parachutes

Taupo, New Zealand


Taupo is a nice town, kind of like the Queenstown of the north island. Huge lake in the middle, and not quite as mountainous as Queenstown, but still pretty rugged terrain around. KP came here a few weeks ago and managed to get himself to the edge of a bungee platform but no further. However, he clearly remembers the town more for the golf challenge, a floating platform about 150 yards out into the lake with a hole in it that you have to try to send a ball into from the shore. In spite of the impossibility of this task, it didn't stop him from pulling in every time we passed it to send 10 balls into the water, including one occasion where it was blowing such a gale that even the proprietor suggested that "you might be lucky to hit the platform today mate".

Anyway, Taupo is also the skydiving capital of New Zealand, and for some strange reason, I saw fit to hurl myself out of a perfectly good aircraft at 15,000ft strapped to someone else who thankfully seemed to know more about the art of opening a parachute than I did. It was great fun, although the 60 seconds of freefall went in a flash. And the view of the lake and surrounding countryside from that angle is incredible.

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 18, 2008 from Taupo, New Zealand
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Snappers. Small ones.

Whitianga, New Zealand


At last. A couple of days that could be classified as summer. In succession. We're up in the Coromandel Peninsula which is a very attractive area filled with bays, quiet beaches and forest that the whole of Auckland descends on in January. So we decided to go out for a spot of fishing in the bay, courtesy of local man Roy, a septuagenarian who clearly enjoyed his catches, and frankly looked like he might keel over at some point. So having established which was the emergency radio channel, he took us out to a few spots that were "reliable" for fish, and over the course of the next 3 hours, KP and I managed to bag the sum total of one small snapper each, both well below the minimum permitted catch size. Fishermen we are not. But nevertheless it was good to get out on the water for an afternoon, and even better that Roy managed to get us back to shore with his heart still ticking.

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 19, 2008 from Whitianga, New Zealand
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People. Weird.

Auckland, New Zealand


Back to Auckland on Saturday - KP has to go back to work on Monday. I felt a bit like a prisoner who's been in solitary confinement for a month coming out, blinded by the light and unfamiliar with social interaction. Because there's quite a lot of people here. We had to wait at junctions before pulling out. I even had to queue at a bar for a drink. Strange. And it doesn't feel like we're in a 1980s time warp here. Went out in the evening with KP's flatmate, and met up with Geddington CC's former overseas professional Brad and his wife, who invited us over for brunch on Xmas Day.

Also met up with my mum's cousin who has done a load of research into our family history. There's all sorts in there, including convicts and bounders, aristocrats and (possibly) royalty. But of most interest is the large amount of cash and country manors there seemed to be in the family 100-200 years ago. Where the hell have they gone? Why am I still working for a living? (Not that I am right now, but you get the point). Who's squandered the loot?

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 20, 2008 from Auckland, New Zealand
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Home from home

Paihia, New Zealand


Since KP had to work for the few days before Christmas, thought I´d head up to the Bay of Islands for a bit of time out on the water. Sun, swimming, sailing, snorkelling, kayaking etc. All very relaxing and enjoyable. Big mistake. It was OK when I arrived in mid-afternoon. Caught the ferry over to Russell (NZ´s oldest white settlement and first capital) and had a look round there which was all very nice. But the next morning woke up to find low grey cloud and persistent drizzle. Very English weather. And it didn´t stop all...sodding...day. So replace sailing and snorkelling with reading and DVDs. Which didn´t really justify a 6-hour bus ride each way. I could have done that in KP´s flat! So the NZ ´summer´weather has succeeded in ruining Milford Sound, Tongariro Crossing and Bay of Islands which according to my Rough Guide are 3 of the best things about New Zealand. Great! Santiago here I come...

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 24, 2008 from Paihia, New Zealand
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End of chapter 3

Auckland, New Zealand


As if to rub my nose in it, Christmas Day in Auckland was an absolute blinder, in the high 20s. Went round to Brad´s place in the morning for a top-drawer Xmas brunch, then KP dropped me at the airport for the flight to Santiago.

New Zealand has been good. The scenery is undeniably spectacular, Auckland and Wellington are both friendly, unintimidating cities, and the people are very friendly too. But I think my expectations of NZ might have been a bit high - everyone I know who´s been has loved it, and it didn´t quite hit those heights for me. The weather hasn´t helped - frankly it´s no better than the English climate, but I think the bigger thing for me is that, with only 150 years of history since Europeans arrived, there´s just not much character or soul to any of the places we visited - most towns seemed carbon copies of each other - just a bunch of prefabricated, box-shaped houses and shops set along a thoroughly practical street layout. And with only 4 million people in the whole country, a lot of the places I stayed at seemed virtually deserted. It´s that more than its geography that gives it a sense (for me) of overwhelming remoteness.

But in spite of that I´ve had a good time here, especially the north island with KP. But I´m ready to move on to the final, and longest leg of the expedition, South America, with stops in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Now there´s a place that shouldn´t be short on character. Where´s that Spanish phrasebook?

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 25, 2008 from Auckland, New Zealand
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Christmas. Again.

Santiago, Chile


So because I crossed the international date line, I had the strange experience of leaving Auckland at 5pm on Xmas Day, and arriving in Santiago at midday on Xmas Day. And it was a bit of a chalk and cheese experience. NZ - nice brunch with KP, Brad and his family; Chile - in a bedroom that resembled a jail cell, no shops open so nothing to eat, and seemingly nobody who could speak English! Sniff, sniff.

It´s clear straight away that my Spanish is going to have to improve. Very quickly. Which shouldn´t be difficult seeing as I´m starting from a base of three words - Hola, Gracias and Que (and the third one is only thanks to Fawlty Towers). It´s not like being in Europe where you can be fairly sure that most people will know a bit of English, at least in the cities. Here, they don´t know any. So even the British method of just talking in English slower and louder is going to present problems. So I spent most of the second half of Christmas listening to Michel Thomas language tapes on my iPod and poring over the Lonely Planet Spanish phrasebook. Not necessarily one of my most memorable Christmas days, but needs must. And on the plus side, I´d learned enough after a few hours to book myself a bus journey over the Andes into Mendoza in Argentina tomorrow. At least I think I did. If no more blog posts follow this one then I obviously buggered it up!

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 26, 2008 from Santiago, Chile
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Travel lethargy

Mendoza, Argentina


Well I managed to negotiate my way on to the correct bus to Mendoza, and it was a spectacular ride up over the Andes. Although on some of the narrower roads with sheer drops on one side, it was a bit disconcerting to see small memorials erected seemingly every 500 metres or so!

I´ve been here for 3 nights, and although it´s been good to find some other English speakers, I actually haven´t done that much apart from reading and watching DVDs. Been suffering from jet lag, and have woken up at 3am every morning since arriving in South America, so been pretty tired during the day. And on top of that, I seem to have picked up some sort of infection on my lower back, with a swelling under the skin that´s quite painful to sit or lie on. I got a doctor to come out and he prescribed some antibiotics (that was a fun conversation with the chemist!) so hopefully it should sort itself out in a few days. So all in all not the greatest start to the great South American adventure!

Mendoza is Argentinian wine country, so I did manage to get out on a wine tour for half a day, but a shame to miss out on some of the hiking opportunities around here. Still, plenty of those opportunities later in the trip. And I did manage to get my first (of many) Argentinian steaks. And when you order steak, that´s just what you get - a big lump of meat on a plate. And very tasty it was too. Anyway, it´s back to Santiago today, then a flight to Rio tomorrow where I meet up with Caroline, a friend from London who I´m travelling with for the next 5 weeks. And another language to learn - my Portuguese makes me look fluent in Spanish!

permalink written by  phileasdogg on December 29, 2008 from Mendoza, Argentina
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At the Copa, Copacabana...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


Ever since arriving in Rio I haven´t been able to get that damn Barry Manilow song out of my head. I thought they´d be playing it everywhere, but for some reason it´s all samba and rumba. Unbelievable!

Anyway, Rio is a naturally beautiful city with its mountains and beaches, but there´s been some fairly unsympathetic urban planning over the past 100 years or so, so the urban sprawl does detract a bit from the natural beauty in a way that it doesn´t in Cape Town, a similarly-sited city. Admittedly Rio´s population is much bigger than Cape Town´s. And Copacabana, where we´re staying, may have the reputation but as with Bondi in Australia, that doesn´t necessarily make it the best area. It´s choked with traffic, the beach is really crowded and it has a bit of a seedy feel to it. Ipanema, the next beach along is a much nicer area.

But anyway, Copacabana is where it all goes down on New Year´s Eve, so that´s where we headed, along with a couple of Caroline´s friends who are also out here on holiday. And it was a great night. There were about a million people down there, and all along the beach front there were street vendors selling all types of food and drink, including copious quantites of caipirinha, a drink that´s more likely to cause you to collapse through sugar OD rather than alcohol! And there was some great Latino live music going on too. The fireworks display at midnight was incredible, made even more spectacular by the presence of 7 ocean liners lined up off the coast, all lit up themselves.

In spite of the jet lag, we pushed through until 3am, then called it a night. Needless to say the following day was activity-free, though in the few days I´ve been here I´ve managed to get up the Sugar Loaf, and Corcovado which is home to the statue of Christ, and more importantly, affords a great view over the city. But perhaps the greatest thing about Rio is the juice bars which are all over Copacabana and Ipanema. They sell all manner of freshly made juices and smoothies for not much more than a pound each. I´ve come to the conclusion that a freshly squeezed mango juice with ice on a muggy afternoon in the tropics is an even better rehydrator than a cold beer, or dare I say it, a cup of English Breakfast tea!

Next stop is Paraty, a coastal resort about 250km south of Rio. Although now that it´s Brazilian holiday time, it might resemble the Costa del Sol in mid-August. Just without the fried egg and chips, or copies of the Mirror.

permalink written by  phileasdogg on January 3, 2009 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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More precipitation

Parati, Brazil


It seems my weather luck has followed me from NZ to South America! Arrived into Paraty yesterday afternoon to glorious sunshine, so went straight down to book up a day´s sailing for the following day. Needless to say the following morning produced grey clouds, which finally deposited their load mid-afternoon. The snorkelling and lazing on beaches just weren´t quite so appealing as they´d been 24 hours earlier!

So having decided that we might be better on land than water, we hired some bikes the following day and ventured a few kilometres out of town to see some waterfalls nearby. Again, having reached the furthest point out from town, the heavens opened. So got thoroughly soaked on the homeward journey. Hey ho. The waterfalls were lovely!

Paraty itself is an attractive old colonial town, with some beautiful old buildings arranged on a grid system along cobbled, traffic-free streets in the old town area. It´s a major tourist resort, so is fairly easy to get by without speaking Portuguese here. And although the weather has been a let-down, it´s been a relaxing few days here, just what was needed before the next leg of the journey - two successive overnight buses, one from Paraty to Sao Paulo and one from Sao Paulo to Foz de Iguazu. Not good.

As a slight aside, I´ve noticed South Americans make the French look positively uptight when it comes to PDAs (public displays of affection). Everywhere you go there are couples draped all over each other, engaging in most acts of affection bar actually stripping off and getting down to it. I can assure you that there´s nothing that ruins an appetite quite so much as seeing a pair of septuagenarians nibbling each other´s ears at the neighbouring table!

permalink written by  phileasdogg on January 7, 2009 from Parati, Brazil
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Bus boredom

Sao Paulo, Brazil


So the first overnight bus trip deposited us into Sao Paulo at 5am. And the next one isn´t until 8.30pm. Hmm, what to do? The bus was actually fairly comfortable, with seats that reclined 45 degrees, enough to make you think you should be able to sleep, but not quite enough to convince the brain that it´s a bed. So not much sleep was had.

Anyway, refreshed with a juice/granola breakfast snack (not quite up to Rio´s standards) we ventured forth to see the sights of Sao Paulo. And 15 hours was more than enough to see them! It´s not that it´s a particularly unattractive or unpleasant city, it just doesn´t seem to have much in the way of sights. There´s a lot of churches. And a lot of slab-sided skyscrapers that would get Prince Charles´s aesthetic radar twitching. But there´s no discernible centre to the city, just a bunch of areas loosely strung together. In the end it was quite a relief to get back on a bus, and I didn´t think I´d be saying that 15 hours earlier. Although the previous journey was only 5 hours, and this one is 16. Sooo glad we´ve booked a couple of flights for later on in the trip. I´ve had my fill of long-distance bus and train journeys on this trip!

permalink written by  phileasdogg on January 8, 2009 from Sao Paulo, Brazil
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