Thursday, April 30, 2009

crossing the andes, aka, landing on mars

IT´S UPDATE TIME, MI GENTE

we are in... san pedro de atacama... in Chile! (AGAIN.) that´s right folks, after 12 days in argentina (I discovered this by examining the stamps in my passport) we are back in the C-town! i am not quite sure how or why this has happened but anyway our next stop is BOLIVIA and that is pretty exciting!

we got here by taking a 12 hour bus. normally we take buses during the night-time if they´re that long but we had to cross a border, which is kind of impossible at 3am, so here we are. also turns out the scenery between Salta and San Pedro de Atacama (i.e. the mountain crossing over the Andes) is pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever seen, so you wouldn´t want to miss it by travelling at night. it was so beautiful I felt like they were making a joke out of it. as Lion said: ¨hey, you want desert? WE´LL GIVE YOU A FREAKIN´ DESERT.¨ the best part (though there were lots of best parts) was when we noticed that the moon had risen over these craaaazy red rock structures. it looked like Mars.

the worst part was experiencing the truly winning combination of 1) altitude nausea and headacheyness (as did Lion), 2) a stomach bug which came upon me halfway through the bus trip as I realised that I was running kind of low on toilet paper (before you are disgusted, don´t worry, I figured it out without anything gross happening) and 3) my mp3 player battery dying. (but Lion was very nice and lent me her mp3 player for a while to take my mind off things. also, she filled out my customs declaration for me and then I just raised my sick little head in order to sign it at the end. thanks, little one!)

all up... certainly a mixed bag of a bus trip. however, several tablets and some coca leaves later I was feeling a bit better. (don´t worry Mum, coca leaves are not the same as cocaine. you would need about a busful of coca leaves to make about a gram of cocaine - okay not that I know the maths but it´s something like that - and I had five leaves. it´s just a herbal-remedy kind of deal. it tasted like crap but maybe it helped a bit?)

oh! also, we saw hookers! that was wierd. we had to walk to the bus station at about 6am this morning in Salta, and it was still (just) dark, and there were all these women in short skirts (I think one may have been a man but I am not sure) standing in the middle of the street near our hostel. ¨things your Mum might not want to read about on your blog #234¨

okay I should go a) find Lion b) rest and acclimatise to the ol´ altitude and c) eat dinner, so that´s all you get for now. but stay tuned... another post is being drafted!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Che and Pablo

Howdy gang!

Gee willickers we have been having an action packed time here in Còrdoba. Còrdoba is the second biggest city in Argentina, around 2 million people. It feels a tiny bit like Perth in places, except that if you go out at night

Yesterday we caught the bus out of town and went to Alta Gracia. It´s not such a big town, but the main reason you might go there is because Che Guevara used to live there when he was young (when he was older he moved to Còrdoba, for high school, and then to BsAs, for college, and then all over the shop, for Fidel.) We had a nice old time there. It is up on a hill and is leafy and green with some nice open spaces.

So off we trotted to Che's old house. It was a fairly modest sort of house (look it was no patch on Pablo Neruda's that's all I'm saying) but the inside had been turned into a museum, mainly full of wonderful old photos of the big guy. I'm not sure how I feel about Che. The museum really didn't mention all that much about his habit of sending execution squads after AWOL soldiers. But he seems like a terrifically dedicated gentleman and it seems that he never spent a moment thinking he wasn't doing the right thing. Who can ever tell with these things? They were great photos, anyway. I recommend it if you happen to be in the area!

Then TODAY if you can believe it we ingested even more culture! Now that´s just CRAZY! Yes it is true.

We´ve been eating at some fine places lately. We cook for ourselves more often than not but Còrdoba is very cheap by Argentina standards and even by my standards. I´m not sure why but perhaps it has something to do with the large student population? Last night we went out to a fantastic little hole-in-the-wall, all nice and dark and old, serving up big cups of red wine and platefuls of chicken. The walls were lined with notes that people had written - some were romantic and some were just shopping lists and some contained quotations and some were in strange languages although most were just in Spanish. Actually the food was nothing too special - I had ravioli and it wasn´t spectacular, as ravioli tends to be - but the servings were good and the atmosphere was lovely, all buzzing with young studenty types talking in low voices and laughing.

Today we went to a brilliant place for lunch called Sol Y Luna. It´s a vegetarian restaurant in the city centre. You can either order the Menu del Dia - menu of the day - or you can take the buffet lunch and pay for it by the 100g.

Oh freaking awesome! The hostel is playing Hungry Heart! Boy do I love Bruce Springsteen at the moment!

Oh no someone just turned up the TV and now I can´t hear it!

Anyway, the food was ace. I ate a wonderful moist veggie pattie with homemade ketchup and aji salsa (a hot sauce), roast vegetables, and a wee serve each of a tabouleh kind of salad with roast sunflower seeds, a potato salad and a lentil and olive salad. It was all wholesome and flavoursome and nutritious and lovely, just the way vegetarian food should be, none of this grilled halmoumi in pomegranate molasses served in the centre of an enormous plate crap. And all that for about $6! Who´s complaining? NOT ME.

Okay so after lunch we decided to go to the contemporary art museum. That was fun! The only bummer was that there was only one exhibition there. It was a photography exhibition, a bunch of guys (also: gals) from Spain - I think that was the only common thread. My favourite piece was a set of photos from anonymous cities. The interesting thing was that the photos showed absolutely no signs of life - no cars on the roads, no people, no abandoned shopping carts. I have no idea how the artist managed that. They were fantastic, though, all stark and creepy like deserts but with skyscrapers instead of cacti.

THENNNNNN we went to another gallery! It was a magnificent edifice, my goodness. Quite a knockout and with a brilliant chandelier. They had a nice mix of modern and older art on each floor, but the wackiest part of all was on the tiny, dark creepy little top story - I was admiring a sketchy series of dreamlike images, almost lke a comic, when I checked the artist and realised it was a Picasso. Nice one! Almost all of the other work was by artists from Còrdoba or Buenos Aires, so it was quite a surprise to see the little guy jumping out of nowhere. All that for three pesos! I´m not complaining.

Boy, I really enjoy art galleries. They are nice places to wander about.

Tonight Ro and I are going to venture out in the rainy streets and party a little! It´s been a while since we´ve been out. We are fairly eager to find the reggae club in town for purposes of busting sweet moves. Reggae clubs are pretty fun, I am starting to discover.

No one´s emailed me for a while so hurry up you terrible friends.

Love Caroline!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Ladies of the Sauce

Helloooooo troops! How are we?

Well, apparently people actually read this blog and are vaguely concerned about the fact that we haven't written since Valparaiso. What's more it seems that rumours of the separation of Ro and Lion seem to be floating around the internet creating even more scandal than the Braniston saga. I am currently in the worst internet cafe in the world - well, actually it is very nice: well-priced, modern, and comfortable, but they have a violently foul habit of blasting hip hop when I am trying to Skype my loved ones, a perpetually impossible task - so I thought I should update y'all on the haps.

Haps are good! Ro and I are still travelling joyously together so don't you fret your little heads about it. We did split up for one single night, it is true, but we are back where we belong now.

We've spent the last couple of days in Mendoza. Mendoza is a pretty nice place although truth be told, once you've done the Wine-And-Bikes thing there is not so much to see. So tonight we are headed for Cordoba. I'm pretty excited for Cords! I loved Valparaiso, which is reputed to be the Cultural Capital of Chile. Cordoba, though, is reputed to be the Cultural Capital of South America! Far out that's a lot of Culture! Imagine the hijinx!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty low-key. We spent Easter with our lovely English friends Rosie and Anna in a tiny town called Vicuña, in a tiny valley called the Valle de Elqui. The Valle is a great little place, surrounded with cactus-coated hills and avocado and papaya groves, and it is where much of the pisco in Chile is produced. Pisco is a type of brandy that they use to make the Pisco Sour, a Chilean specialty containing pisco, egg white, lemon juice, maybe some other stuff that I forgot... it is surprisingly tasty. Not revolting at all. Nor is it my drink of choice (I seem to have developed a recent fondness for mojitos, of all things) but I felt the need to try a couple of pisco beverages whilst in the valley and enjoyed them a decent amount.

Actually, the four of us walked out to Capel (!!!), the biggest Pisco distillery in the region. That's just a guess but I think it's a fair guess given the sheer volume of Capel advertising that saturates the Valle. Actually it's a bit revolting really, all the advertising. We couldn't be bothered forking out the big 1000 pesos they were asking for a tour and tasting (a grand total of around $2.50) so we shared a strawberry milkshake instead. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Judging from this post you would think all we do is ingest various beverages. But don't worry Mum, we haven't been drinking much really. Once we head into Bolivia it's all horrible anyway, apparently, so we are making the most of the tasty and cheap wine culture around these parts. Although to be fair, most of the Malbecs we tried on the Wine-And-Bikes day were really not that great.

After Cords we are heading to Salta, and across the salt flats to Boliv. Pretty excited! Apparently the salt flats are amaaaazing (also apparently 'amaaazing' is a very Australian thing to say? I never knew!)

Right well that's enough information for you all I think.

Love love love
Lion

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

ella uso mi cabeza como un revolver

hey there, mysterious readers! I have lately been assured that some people are actually reading this, so I will endeavour to post occasionally. (lion keeps encouraging me, but I have difficulty believing that my words are not just disappearing into the electronic yonder, ever unread by the living.)

we are in Valparaiso today, on the ¨coast¨ of chile (we have not yet seen any coast, but I am assured there is one close by). we like it so far (it has some ´tude, as Lion puts it) although some travel-friends of ours (two english girls, Rosie and Anna) were apprarently mugged here two days ago so we are a little apprehensive and Taking Precautions. I´m sure we´ll be fine as long as we are careful, though. anyway if we do get mugged all they will get from us is cash now that we are Prepared, so it would suck but not be that big of a deal.

this internet cafe is playing Alanis Morisette, which is a GROAN moment but reminds me to mention the awesome music experiences we´ve had so far:
  1. Rick Astley. (a terrible 80s singer.) this man has followed us throughout South America. Dylan, a great character we met in Bariloche, said, ¨Rick Astley has followed me everywhere in South America¨ and since then we have realised he is right.
  2. La Noche. (literally, ¨The Night¨.) I think Lion has already mentioned them... a fantastically tacky Chileno band, the lead singer has these amazing ¨wet-look¨ long curly locks, dodgy teeth and a seductive smile.
  3. Pappo. An old Argentino singer, singing in Spanish, played over the PA at our hostel in Bariloche... Diego (one of the staff) discussed this band with us for a while after I ventured, in broken spanish, ¨Who is singing?¨ Lion was a big fan, and was ridiculed a little for this by her spanish teacher. ¨Oh, muy viejo!¨ (very old)
  4. The Reckoning. An Israeli band (but singing in English, not Hebrew) that we heard played at Rey Sol. The lead singer (a guy) sounds like Janis Joplin.
  5. Los Pericos. A band recommended to me by Pato, a Chileno boy we met in Santiago. they are a bit older, a bit like The Cure (but singing in spanish). they sing a song called, ¨Ella uso mi cabezo como un revolver¨ (she uses my head like a revolver) of which I am particularly fond.

anyway better go, we have Things To Do (in my case this will be lying in bed all afternoon, because I have been a bit sick the past day or so, nothing serious). did I mention that we are staying in a wicked hostel right now? we get a private room with a televison for about 11 australian dollars per night. we are pretty excited about watching television in bed to be honest. also the guy running the hostel not only speaks no english (this is great) but is very patient about speaking spanish with us (even better). our spanish has really taken a downward slide after coming into Chile because the accent is quite hard to understand. but we are trying, guys, really!

chau, mis amores!

Friday, April 3, 2009

The scariest moment of my life, a.k.a. "A Boring Story For You"

Hello, favourite people! Let me tell you about the scariest moment of my life. I wasn't planning on telling anyone about this at the time, but I've subsequently realised I should or else I am kind of defying the entire point of the exercise and the potential good that might have come from it. You don't have to read it though!


Soooooo, when Robo and I were staying at Rey Sol hostel in Lago Puelo - that's the Israeli hostel for all those of you who are not good at remembering things - we were happy to discover that they had a couple of guitars. For the first month or so of our travels, we only saw guitars from a distance. It was a little painful, to be honest. We would both look at them longingly when we saw someone carrying one and work out cunning plans to befriend their owners, but never executed them. Luckily, since then we've had a pretty good run with guitars. We had one for two weeks at La Bolsa, our hostel in Bariloche, and were sad to leave it. But two sleeps later and we were back in a hostel con guitarra.


Consequently I was having a little sing and a strum in the backyard one beautiful sunny afternoon, the night before we left Rey Sol and Lago Puelo. I was sitting a pretty long way from everyone, because it seems that whenever you play guitar in front of an Israeli lad they do their damndest to persuade you to sing a song for them. I am, as most of you know, horribly shy with regards to singing in front of others (obviously I'm not including my love of belting out classics by Steppenwolf and Def Leppard here. That's not really singing so much as "being awesome.")

But then Gila from the hostel snuck up to me, and she said, "Heyyyy, why don't you sing us a song at the asado tonight! There are going to be musicians, you should join them!"


And I said "Hahahahah oooohhh no I don't think that is going to happen." And I felt annoyed at myself but also pretty relieved that I wouldn't have to sing.


So that night we were having a grande olde time, eating meat (alternatively: not eating meat), playing frisbee under the stars, sitting around the bonfire and listening to Gila's husband and his friend play the blues. They were pretty good times! And then they finished up a song and Gila said "There is a girl here who sings beautiful! Perhaps she will play for us!"


And I thought, "ooh I wonder who it is" and then Gila came over and whispered to me "Do you have the courage?" and I thought "awwww crap" and then I went up and sung and played a song in front of 35 people!


It was so terrifying, I had the shakes for two hours afterwards. But it went really well I think! Everyone was really kind and a couple of the Argentinians yelled out "Uno mas!" Which means "one more." And later a few of people said pretty cool things, my new friend Coby gave me a really great compliment and also an Argentinian girl accosted me in the toilets and said that it sounded professional and that she would pay money to listen to me! And insisted on hugging and kissing me effusively (Argentinian styles! Nothing dodgy you guys).


I am just showing off now, but honestly after about ten years of being too shy to sing in public it was a really really good feeling to not embarrass myself horribly. (P.S. I forgot the words. But it was okay I think.) And it was so so much fun! My goodness it was a good time! Perhaps one day I will even do it again?!


EVIDENCE!!!



The next post on here will not be all about my social anxieties, I promise.

Love love love
Lion

Oh and p.s., the song I sung was called "Can't Let Go" by Lucinda Williams, you should download it because it is a really great song. Lucinda does it more justice than I did; also she remembers the words.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

A week in Bariloche... IN PICTURES

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I travelled on Ruta 40 for 32 hours? Man, what a rush! It felt incredible to see the same scenery as Che did all those years ago, just sucking in the mindblowing sights that loomed all around me like spectres of a not-so-distant past.


For 32 hours! Actually I have to say that, three Phenergans later, the bus trip turned out significantly better than I had predicted.

Anyway it didn't matter too much that Ruta 40 completely blew because soon we arrived in Bariloche, an event which came with a definite verdict of YAY. Hey check it out! This crappy photo illustrates what I would see out of the bathroom window when I crawled out of bed at seven every morning for Spanish class:


Whoa but hey what is that building that is shaped like a toadstool?
It is a kiosk that, from what I can ascertain, is shut for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Onwards!
Outside our hostel:

Donde esta el punk rock? I would tell you if I could.


Meat!
From the parilla down the road. Milo Matt and Otis and Jonno came and joined us at the hostel for some crackin' meat treats. I ate potato and lentil salad and some soy Milanesas and they were extremely tasty thanks for asking.


Vegetables!

From "El Vegetariano," the uncreatively named vegetarian restaurant in Bariloche. Oh but it was good though. They don't have a menu, just a set plate each day, and me and Ro shared soy cutlets, super tasty vegetables, corn frittatas, spinach crepes... oh my goodness.

Oh and man just check out the sweet marscapone-y goodness we split for dessert:

I am not really much of a food photographer, sorry. Awwww but this was an amazing tiramisu.

We "volunteered" one afternoon at Spanish school.

It was actually pretty silly, we just wound up playing soccer with a bunch of kids, but it was fun anyway I guess. I am not really soccer crazy so I just entertained myself by singing "Born to Run" and practising guitar windmills when I thought no one was looking. It turns out they were looking and the stupid kids thought it would be a great idea to mock their Auntie Caro ruthlessly for the rest of the game. They secretly thought I was incredible, though. Anyway that's Lucy grinning away in the brown shirt, and in the red shirt is a shy little thing who didn't really speak, she was pretty cool though. We had an understanding.


Then on the weekend we hiked! Ro looks offensively outdoorsy here:


And here is Refugio Lopez! On top of Cerro Lopez, where we hiked.


About three hours up and we had a pretty sweet view of Bariloche and all the sexy little lakes and so on.

CROP CIRCLES VISIBLE FROM CERRO LOPEZ :O

Mark if you read this pls inform a Mr J Sherry immediately.

But where am I, you say? Where is my very favourite friend/family member amidst all these sights? So here is a slightly horrible picture of me with an adorable dog.


It wandered into the pub in Pucon and sat on my lap and after this photo was taken it fell asleep for half an hour. Probably the greatest thing in the world. The dogs in Chile are the best. They all run around without collars and are so sweet and affectionate. They don't even mind if you try to spoon them. Which is more than I can say for the men.
Love love love
Lion