I haven´t been eating the best, with tours here only giving the Carbo trio... Pasta, Rice and Bread, and also my own resolve of late because I feel like I deserve it after the Trek, seems I have lost another dress size, but stepping on the scale Today didnt make me the happy chappy I thought I´d be... I´m requesting an extention on my 100day challenge! I have officially lost 11kilos, but thats not even close to enough. I will kick myself back in gear again now... Rules back on!!
Wish me Luck!!
Thursday, 9 June 2011
I CAN DO FRIGGEN ANYTHING!!
Well I´m back... the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu has been ticked right off!
I have a few little things to add though... One being I tried to cancel when I found out how hard it was going to be, and because my Mum told me too as well. Her words exactly ¨you may think you´re fit Jessica, but you´re not that fit... You´ll die up there, and thats for certain!¨ Well thanks Mum for the vote of confidence. So anyways, trying my hardest to cancel at 9.45pm the night before the minibus would pick me up at 4am, I plea with the girl who is inturn pleaing my case over the phone... Fine I can cancel, but for the FULL price of my tour. What the?? So I sit for a minute, thinking of whether I risk all for the cash, when the girl gets a call and says the only option out, is I buy a horse! Buy a horse... What a great idea!! For 100Soles, about $40 i will get a horse and a little dude to pull the horse for whenever I cant go on... BEST BLOODY THING I EVER BOUGHT!! I´m proud to say, except for the last hour of the first ridiculously crazy long and directly climbing upwards day, I didnt actually need the horse, which was actually a Mule! The only other time I sat on it was when my horse-puller guy wanted to get to the peak of the Salkantay viewing Mountain quicker than my little chubby legs were prepared for, and 5 minutes on my last day with the horse because I just wanted my moneys worth and was sick at looking at the road when the surroundings were so darned beautiful... Either way, I got that gorgeous creature for the first 2 & 1/2 days, and the best part was the bag holding my buy included. It may have gone a little noticed that whenever I strayed too far infront of my horse, and the way started to incline in the upwards direction, I may have said on more than one occasion ¨where the hell is my horse?¨ I do apologise to my co-trekkers if my voice saying that line is a little hard to get rid of!!
The part that makes up for me having a cute little mule, is the fact that the elections here in Peru and all the political unrest, forced our trip into 4 days instead of 5... sounds easier doesnt it?? Well it wasn´t!! We had to cram all of the walking into the 4 days, without the 3rd day afternoon off, or the 4th day relaxing hot springs adventure... No stops!! On average everyday we walked 10-11 hours, the first 2 days directly upwards!! Needless to say, we were exhausted by the BIG day.
I had already booked my bus ticket up to Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes before the trip, because I had heard that if I wasn´t one of the first 400 I would miss out on Waynapicchu. The only catch is to get the bus that leaves at 5.40am, you have to que early!! So 2.55am I was in that there que... by 3.30am the que was massive. I hoped on the first bus, and as the rich get whatever they want, our not quite full bus for some reason pulls upto a fancy hotel and picks up 10 people. Totally not cool you rich fuckwits!! (sorry mind my language, but people are gonna miss out because of these guys not bothering to do what the rest of us little folk had to do). Anyways, we get to the top and the que is huge, not only are the climbers there, but theres an expensive hotel up on the top aswell. All my friends that chose to walk up, but were warned they may not make it in time, were first in que. Geezs I was proud to know that my peeps had made it... and to my luck I had, as well as the girls from our group that bused it too. We all chose the 10am session because the clouds are gone by then, and entered for our guided 2 hour tour, being amongst the first to enter the great grounds of Machu Picchu!
At first, I wont lie... I wasn´t as impressed as I had thought I would be. I don´t know if I was tired, or if with these 68 or something Countries I´ve visited if I´d seen too much, or maybe it was because I hadn´t heard a single non-glowing word about it... BUT that was until I got the chance to climb the BIG BOY!! Waynapicchu, the mountain that is in the background of every Machu Picchu postcard or photo... It was the toughes 35minutes of my life... We were told it takes over an hour, but together, with my little Israeli pose surrounding me, all egging each other on, we killed that picchu in half the time! WELL, WOW WOW WOW... Its all I can say, that was the best view and topped off the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my life before, in a big perfect nutshell!! What a view, and what a triumph!! We were and always will be proud to be one of the only 400 that day, and proud of ourselves that we worked so hard to get there. We derserved that moment! ... But then what goes up, must come down! As we were desending, we saw a man getting stretchered off the Mountain, those that saw it (some from my group) say he had a major heartattack, and that he was only 35-40years old. Poor bastard, didnt even make it to the top, I really do hope he got good treatment and is alright.
So back onto the climb down, it was tough after so many days of pushing myself, but I did that too. And lastly as some of the group boarded buses to go back to town I decided to run down... And as God as my witness (and Edouard, my lovely queer french amigo too) I ran down all 1700+ steps like a school girl excited by being asked on her first date... All my years of being a cross-country runner when I was a kid came back to me, I know it was only going down, but it was thrilling, in ways I cant explain. This fat girl felt young and healthy for a good while... Thats my story about my 4 days of body hell, I hope to be able to write plenty more on things I don´t think I´ll be able to do, but conquer in the future!!
I´m the King of the World!!
I have a few little things to add though... One being I tried to cancel when I found out how hard it was going to be, and because my Mum told me too as well. Her words exactly ¨you may think you´re fit Jessica, but you´re not that fit... You´ll die up there, and thats for certain!¨ Well thanks Mum for the vote of confidence. So anyways, trying my hardest to cancel at 9.45pm the night before the minibus would pick me up at 4am, I plea with the girl who is inturn pleaing my case over the phone... Fine I can cancel, but for the FULL price of my tour. What the?? So I sit for a minute, thinking of whether I risk all for the cash, when the girl gets a call and says the only option out, is I buy a horse! Buy a horse... What a great idea!! For 100Soles, about $40 i will get a horse and a little dude to pull the horse for whenever I cant go on... BEST BLOODY THING I EVER BOUGHT!! I´m proud to say, except for the last hour of the first ridiculously crazy long and directly climbing upwards day, I didnt actually need the horse, which was actually a Mule! The only other time I sat on it was when my horse-puller guy wanted to get to the peak of the Salkantay viewing Mountain quicker than my little chubby legs were prepared for, and 5 minutes on my last day with the horse because I just wanted my moneys worth and was sick at looking at the road when the surroundings were so darned beautiful... Either way, I got that gorgeous creature for the first 2 & 1/2 days, and the best part was the bag holding my buy included. It may have gone a little noticed that whenever I strayed too far infront of my horse, and the way started to incline in the upwards direction, I may have said on more than one occasion ¨where the hell is my horse?¨ I do apologise to my co-trekkers if my voice saying that line is a little hard to get rid of!!
The part that makes up for me having a cute little mule, is the fact that the elections here in Peru and all the political unrest, forced our trip into 4 days instead of 5... sounds easier doesnt it?? Well it wasn´t!! We had to cram all of the walking into the 4 days, without the 3rd day afternoon off, or the 4th day relaxing hot springs adventure... No stops!! On average everyday we walked 10-11 hours, the first 2 days directly upwards!! Needless to say, we were exhausted by the BIG day.
I had already booked my bus ticket up to Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes before the trip, because I had heard that if I wasn´t one of the first 400 I would miss out on Waynapicchu. The only catch is to get the bus that leaves at 5.40am, you have to que early!! So 2.55am I was in that there que... by 3.30am the que was massive. I hoped on the first bus, and as the rich get whatever they want, our not quite full bus for some reason pulls upto a fancy hotel and picks up 10 people. Totally not cool you rich fuckwits!! (sorry mind my language, but people are gonna miss out because of these guys not bothering to do what the rest of us little folk had to do). Anyways, we get to the top and the que is huge, not only are the climbers there, but theres an expensive hotel up on the top aswell. All my friends that chose to walk up, but were warned they may not make it in time, were first in que. Geezs I was proud to know that my peeps had made it... and to my luck I had, as well as the girls from our group that bused it too. We all chose the 10am session because the clouds are gone by then, and entered for our guided 2 hour tour, being amongst the first to enter the great grounds of Machu Picchu!
At first, I wont lie... I wasn´t as impressed as I had thought I would be. I don´t know if I was tired, or if with these 68 or something Countries I´ve visited if I´d seen too much, or maybe it was because I hadn´t heard a single non-glowing word about it... BUT that was until I got the chance to climb the BIG BOY!! Waynapicchu, the mountain that is in the background of every Machu Picchu postcard or photo... It was the toughes 35minutes of my life... We were told it takes over an hour, but together, with my little Israeli pose surrounding me, all egging each other on, we killed that picchu in half the time! WELL, WOW WOW WOW... Its all I can say, that was the best view and topped off the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my life before, in a big perfect nutshell!! What a view, and what a triumph!! We were and always will be proud to be one of the only 400 that day, and proud of ourselves that we worked so hard to get there. We derserved that moment! ... But then what goes up, must come down! As we were desending, we saw a man getting stretchered off the Mountain, those that saw it (some from my group) say he had a major heartattack, and that he was only 35-40years old. Poor bastard, didnt even make it to the top, I really do hope he got good treatment and is alright.
So back onto the climb down, it was tough after so many days of pushing myself, but I did that too. And lastly as some of the group boarded buses to go back to town I decided to run down... And as God as my witness (and Edouard, my lovely queer french amigo too) I ran down all 1700+ steps like a school girl excited by being asked on her first date... All my years of being a cross-country runner when I was a kid came back to me, I know it was only going down, but it was thrilling, in ways I cant explain. This fat girl felt young and healthy for a good while... Thats my story about my 4 days of body hell, I hope to be able to write plenty more on things I don´t think I´ll be able to do, but conquer in the future!!
I´m the King of the World!!
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
FINALLY MADE IT TO PERU!!!
The heading is pretty much all that I think is needed... Though I already miss my beloved Bolivia!
AND... I do start my 5 day, 4 nights trek to Machu Picchu at 4am tomorrow morning!! Seriously gonna be testing my new faith in this arthritic old body, hopefully the weight lose and a full week without a ciggie will help me through!!
Wish me Luck!!!
AND... I do start my 5 day, 4 nights trek to Machu Picchu at 4am tomorrow morning!! Seriously gonna be testing my new faith in this arthritic old body, hopefully the weight lose and a full week without a ciggie will help me through!!
Wish me Luck!!!
Monday, 30 May 2011
It´s been a while....
So I haven´t written in a while. At first because in Sucre I was sick of declaring myself sick... That darn dog bitereally stuffed me around. I luckily only had 3 more independant days of whole night vomitting sessions. I am happy to report, all in different locations in Bolivia and on different weeks to keep things interesting. The second reason, and the main one was that when I finally felt I had something to report, I wasn´t able to log back into this here blog. Maybe my lack of Spanish, I probably locked myself out somehow.
So that brings me to now, what am I doing? & what have I been upto?
Well, I´ve had a few ups and downs this last month. Happily more ups, and things look ups in general again now. It was just over a month ago when I extended my ticket from July to September. I got the OK from my girl, but should have really thought what I was asking of her. I figured "whats another 9 weeks?" Well, 2 weeks later I had a very upset and hurt girlfriend. Without getting too detailed about my personal life, she wasn´t happy Jan!! Let´s just say it was the scary kind of talk, that I don´t fancy myself wanting to have again too soon. She was right too, if she said No to the extention, she´d be seen as holding me back. Yet Yes meant she would be 9 more weeks without me, waiting. And where did my priorities lie? I made the tough decision to pay the disgusting amount the airline required for my second change of ticket, and now I´m returning 5 weeks earlier that the newer flight and 4 weeks extended from my orginal ticket. I also will be coming home with the promise I wont feel bad for not staying longer, and I wont. The little shake up reminded me of what I have back home, and now I´m actually excited about my return in Mid August.
So what am I doing now? Well, I´m in Coroico in the Yungas (beginning of the Amazon, 4 hours local bus from La Paz) eating half a frozen banana on a paddlepop stick, and on my 3rd Chuchuwasi (a local drink, better with Sprite) after a night of camping in the Jungle by myself, and a day of soaking up this beautiful sunshine. I´ve done a lot of trekking up and down hills today, this frozen banana and rather strong drink is heaven. At least here is only 2000metres above sealevel, La Paz is 4000+ in Altitude. It´s done one good thing for me though, with my huffing and my puffing up and down the hills - I´ve officially QUIT SMOKING!! I had to admit to myself I really smoked first, and after that very cigarette as an actual smoker, I quit!! I´ve been hanging out with this great girl from New Zealand that I met in Mendoza, Argentina while she was on her bicycle tour of the south of South America. She´s giving La Paz a month, studying & working in an Orphanage, so she got herself a cool little pad. My Thermomat (travel mattress) has been laid out there all this week. Have I mentioned, I´m supposed to be in Peru well and truely by now? I got kind of trapped here. ALL the boarders, road, on foot and by boat are closed on the Peru side due to political protests. So my only choice is to fly. Obviously the flights fill quick when its your only choice, so now I´m here until Wednesday morning. I can´t honestly say I´m sad that I haven´t left Bolivia yet. It´s really hit me hard in the heart, quite severely. I should probably fill you in, as last time you heard I was being killed here by Mountains falling around me, a dog biting me with rabies and then the major allergic reaction to the vaccine (photos of my pretty watermelon face to come soon). So even with all that, I never missed a day at school with my lovely Profesora Patricia, 4 hours private Spanish lessons a day - apparently I´d learnt all the rules for "Presente". Great if I never want to talk about Yesterday, or anything that happened in the past, or could happen in the future.
So I finished up my homestay, and 3 weeks of intense Spanish classes, going from Nada to something, I left for La Paz on an overnight bus. In La Paz I tried my first successful "couchsurfing" there I decided I´d check out the Amazon and see if I could try a little volunteering there too. So it was on the local bus to Rurrenabaque that I took at least 29 years off my life. 27 hours of my heart in my throat. I have never believed with so much conviction, that I was about to die in my life. Never as long as I shall live, will I ever do that road, by bus especially again.... Never, Nunca, No friggen way!! It´s not named the "World´s Most Dangerous Road" for nothing. I only heard the very most dangerous part was closed, and now is only for tourist wanting to ride down on Mountainbikes, I had no idea the bus still used the rest of it! It was actually only about 18 hours of holding my breath, the other 9 hours were of major discomfort. After thanking every God I could think of for letting me live through that ordeal, I set off to find the volunteering camp on the otherside of the river. After two unsuccessful attempts, I did what any good Gringa would do in "Rurre", I booked a PAMPAS tour. I know its touristy, but I did look for a company that seemed Ecofriendly and the what I believe to be the most sustainable option.... And to be perfectly honest, I had a brilliant time! Had a really fun group, if not just a little bit noisy for seeing the shy animals. But all in all amazing place, and great guide. I swam with Pink Dolphins, that are really more grey on the top. Went piranha fishing [warning, about to gloat] After a slow start I ended up a Piranha catching natural. Caught 13 little flesh-eaters and 2 regular river fish. Even got to keep the big piranhas for our dinner... Delicious!! Went for night time boat rides with our torches, searching and finding hundreds of yellow & red shinny eyes, alligator eyes. SIDENOTE: Crocodiles are my favorite animal, with alligators now not so far behind. Anyways, then we saw the 40kilo rat, I can´t remember its official name, but he was swimming about in the very same water I had just swam with dolphins in, seen 100s of alligators, and caught 13 piranhas in less than an hour in... It´s not a big wonder why you do the dolphin bit early in the trip - God, if I hadda seen the RAT while swimming!!! It´s a crazy 3 days, where you sleep in woodern cabins with paths leading to other ares of the Ecolodge, all raised a metre off the ground, as alligators are swimming and walking about directly underneath you. Oh Shit, almost forgot to add the best bit... I slipped completely over, faceplant, because my thong (flipflop) got stuck in the mud as I was disembarking the little boat. I fell directly infront of the BIG BOY gator. My experience as a kid with Crocodiles told me, sudden sloppy movements, such as my fall, and directly infront of the creature after a day of catching the suns rays, is usually not a good idea... Well, it was an experience, and possibly another couple of years off my life!!
Pampas tour over, I went back into the little town of "Rurre" with plenty of muddy clothes that needed cleaning. The man at the "Garfield" Laundry service asked me my plans (in Spanish), and I expleained (in my versions of Spanish) that I was going to try one more time to find the Pumas volunteering camp on the otherside of the river. Then he said very excitedly, "Si, ellos aqui!" Oh, he obviously doesn´t understand me, I just smile and nod, then try to tell him I think it´s on the otherside, but he asks me to wait a "segundo". And then he brings out two people, clearly Gringos. They are people from the camp, almost the whole camp was there, they come in one night a week for supplies and a little civilisation, they were going back later that day. So I joined them. It was another adventure again to get to the camp. After crossing the Rio Beni by local boat (1.5Bs = 12cents) nine of us squeezed into the back of a Ute, along with the weeks food and beer supplies, myself and another girl right at the back. We were going pretty fast on the bumpy and dusty road, and when hitting a particularly big bump, the back flap-doory-thing fell open. Suddenly, the other girl and myself found ourselves being held onto by the rest of the group, while everyone screamed for the racing Ute to stop. Luckily only a few supplies and thingos fell out, all of which could be retrieved. Once finally getting to the little private santuary, I was shown my sleeping quarters, straw mattresses on the floor, with my very own insect net, in a shed that reminded me of Peter Pan´s Lost boys dorm with four or five sets of 3 story bunkbeds all with individual and different coloured mozzie nets. It was perfect. The next few days I spent there was unbelievable. Everyone was lovely. One night I cooked for all of us. "Chilli con Beans" for 18 peoples dinner and then following lunch. It was a happy success. I got to make things with construction, and cleared a few paths with the old Mashetti (I dont know how to spell it). We bathed in the stream, where little fish (not piranhas, but maybe worse) bite you on the bum. And we ate dinner together. I wasn´t there long enough to be able to work with one of the rescues Pumas, thats a month minimum, but I did feel part of the team. Everyone was fantastic there, I miss them all already. Had to get back though for my 16 person tiny plane flight back to La Paz, but first the only way back is to hitch. After about 35 minutes the first vehicle that came was a huge truck. The driver slowed to look me up and down, which made me feel simply fantastic, then he stopped and said I could get in. Ended up being a blast. I badly talked the sleave ball out of him, and we sand not very popular english 80s songs for the very slow journey back to the boat port.
Once back in La Paz, my friend and I hopped on a bus to Copacabana, What a cool little place, and the drive there was magnificent. Then we visited the kinda crappy floating villages, but had the coolest guide ever with his knowledge of every plant and animal, it reminded me of nature walks with my little Zoologist (the girl). The following day we woke up early for the boat to "Isla del Sol". A simple beautiful, incredible place. We bumped into people from all over that we´d met before which was nice, but reminded us we were really doing the Gringo trail.
On our return to La Paz, I enrolled in another Spanish school. I would need to stay a few days if I wanted to get my Brazil Visa while I was in a town I could do it. A week of Spanish with another good private teacher for 3 hours a day, and 2 hours group classes with a sweet little Danish girl... Well now I know 2 "pasados" (pasts) and one "futuro" YIPPEE!!! I´m not the best at this language by a long shot, but I am enjoying it, which means apparently I´m picking it up pretty quickly... Obviously not as fast as I´d like though!
That brings me to just the otherday. I was ready, more than ready, I was packed! I had everything I needed, passport back with Brazil visa included, "cholita" blankets that I got from the local street market, I´ve been wanting one the whole time I´ve been here. I was ready, and heading to the bus station when I found out ALL boarder to Peru were CLOSED! I knew ther had been some troubles, but then had heard it was opened again, and at the very least the boat crossing was always an option.... Nope, apparently the last boat that passed got shot at! So I head to the only option left, the airlines. The ques were terrible, and I waited for my turn, while seeing and hearing Gringos all around me argue, scream and cry that there was no availabilty for them. " What 3 weeks, thats too late, I need to be there Monday!!" I´m thinking they´ve booked there Machu Pichu tour 6 months ago, and just didn´t think something like this could happen. I finally get my turn, expecting the worse, and thinking I´d have to bus it back to Chile then go around the extremely long way. I tell him I´m OK with going anywhere, just need to get a move on from La Paz. At first he finds me a flight for $313 for the 13th June. To my absolute surprse I stay completely calm and ask him to "por favor" check one more time, then he writes on a little piece of paper while saying the word "ssshhhh" $131 for the 1st of June going to Cusco.... 3rd of the price, 3rd of the time, BOOK ME IN!
So I had 4 days to fill in... So thats why I´m here in theis cute little (dead on Mondays) town of Coroico, Bolivia. Tent pitched, homework to do, and my 4th Chuchawasi!!
So that brings me to now, what am I doing? & what have I been upto?
Well, I´ve had a few ups and downs this last month. Happily more ups, and things look ups in general again now. It was just over a month ago when I extended my ticket from July to September. I got the OK from my girl, but should have really thought what I was asking of her. I figured "whats another 9 weeks?" Well, 2 weeks later I had a very upset and hurt girlfriend. Without getting too detailed about my personal life, she wasn´t happy Jan!! Let´s just say it was the scary kind of talk, that I don´t fancy myself wanting to have again too soon. She was right too, if she said No to the extention, she´d be seen as holding me back. Yet Yes meant she would be 9 more weeks without me, waiting. And where did my priorities lie? I made the tough decision to pay the disgusting amount the airline required for my second change of ticket, and now I´m returning 5 weeks earlier that the newer flight and 4 weeks extended from my orginal ticket. I also will be coming home with the promise I wont feel bad for not staying longer, and I wont. The little shake up reminded me of what I have back home, and now I´m actually excited about my return in Mid August.
So what am I doing now? Well, I´m in Coroico in the Yungas (beginning of the Amazon, 4 hours local bus from La Paz) eating half a frozen banana on a paddlepop stick, and on my 3rd Chuchuwasi (a local drink, better with Sprite) after a night of camping in the Jungle by myself, and a day of soaking up this beautiful sunshine. I´ve done a lot of trekking up and down hills today, this frozen banana and rather strong drink is heaven. At least here is only 2000metres above sealevel, La Paz is 4000+ in Altitude. It´s done one good thing for me though, with my huffing and my puffing up and down the hills - I´ve officially QUIT SMOKING!! I had to admit to myself I really smoked first, and after that very cigarette as an actual smoker, I quit!! I´ve been hanging out with this great girl from New Zealand that I met in Mendoza, Argentina while she was on her bicycle tour of the south of South America. She´s giving La Paz a month, studying & working in an Orphanage, so she got herself a cool little pad. My Thermomat (travel mattress) has been laid out there all this week. Have I mentioned, I´m supposed to be in Peru well and truely by now? I got kind of trapped here. ALL the boarders, road, on foot and by boat are closed on the Peru side due to political protests. So my only choice is to fly. Obviously the flights fill quick when its your only choice, so now I´m here until Wednesday morning. I can´t honestly say I´m sad that I haven´t left Bolivia yet. It´s really hit me hard in the heart, quite severely. I should probably fill you in, as last time you heard I was being killed here by Mountains falling around me, a dog biting me with rabies and then the major allergic reaction to the vaccine (photos of my pretty watermelon face to come soon). So even with all that, I never missed a day at school with my lovely Profesora Patricia, 4 hours private Spanish lessons a day - apparently I´d learnt all the rules for "Presente". Great if I never want to talk about Yesterday, or anything that happened in the past, or could happen in the future.
So I finished up my homestay, and 3 weeks of intense Spanish classes, going from Nada to something, I left for La Paz on an overnight bus. In La Paz I tried my first successful "couchsurfing" there I decided I´d check out the Amazon and see if I could try a little volunteering there too. So it was on the local bus to Rurrenabaque that I took at least 29 years off my life. 27 hours of my heart in my throat. I have never believed with so much conviction, that I was about to die in my life. Never as long as I shall live, will I ever do that road, by bus especially again.... Never, Nunca, No friggen way!! It´s not named the "World´s Most Dangerous Road" for nothing. I only heard the very most dangerous part was closed, and now is only for tourist wanting to ride down on Mountainbikes, I had no idea the bus still used the rest of it! It was actually only about 18 hours of holding my breath, the other 9 hours were of major discomfort. After thanking every God I could think of for letting me live through that ordeal, I set off to find the volunteering camp on the otherside of the river. After two unsuccessful attempts, I did what any good Gringa would do in "Rurre", I booked a PAMPAS tour. I know its touristy, but I did look for a company that seemed Ecofriendly and the what I believe to be the most sustainable option.... And to be perfectly honest, I had a brilliant time! Had a really fun group, if not just a little bit noisy for seeing the shy animals. But all in all amazing place, and great guide. I swam with Pink Dolphins, that are really more grey on the top. Went piranha fishing [warning, about to gloat] After a slow start I ended up a Piranha catching natural. Caught 13 little flesh-eaters and 2 regular river fish. Even got to keep the big piranhas for our dinner... Delicious!! Went for night time boat rides with our torches, searching and finding hundreds of yellow & red shinny eyes, alligator eyes. SIDENOTE: Crocodiles are my favorite animal, with alligators now not so far behind. Anyways, then we saw the 40kilo rat, I can´t remember its official name, but he was swimming about in the very same water I had just swam with dolphins in, seen 100s of alligators, and caught 13 piranhas in less than an hour in... It´s not a big wonder why you do the dolphin bit early in the trip - God, if I hadda seen the RAT while swimming!!! It´s a crazy 3 days, where you sleep in woodern cabins with paths leading to other ares of the Ecolodge, all raised a metre off the ground, as alligators are swimming and walking about directly underneath you. Oh Shit, almost forgot to add the best bit... I slipped completely over, faceplant, because my thong (flipflop) got stuck in the mud as I was disembarking the little boat. I fell directly infront of the BIG BOY gator. My experience as a kid with Crocodiles told me, sudden sloppy movements, such as my fall, and directly infront of the creature after a day of catching the suns rays, is usually not a good idea... Well, it was an experience, and possibly another couple of years off my life!!
Pampas tour over, I went back into the little town of "Rurre" with plenty of muddy clothes that needed cleaning. The man at the "Garfield" Laundry service asked me my plans (in Spanish), and I expleained (in my versions of Spanish) that I was going to try one more time to find the Pumas volunteering camp on the otherside of the river. Then he said very excitedly, "Si, ellos aqui!" Oh, he obviously doesn´t understand me, I just smile and nod, then try to tell him I think it´s on the otherside, but he asks me to wait a "segundo". And then he brings out two people, clearly Gringos. They are people from the camp, almost the whole camp was there, they come in one night a week for supplies and a little civilisation, they were going back later that day. So I joined them. It was another adventure again to get to the camp. After crossing the Rio Beni by local boat (1.5Bs = 12cents) nine of us squeezed into the back of a Ute, along with the weeks food and beer supplies, myself and another girl right at the back. We were going pretty fast on the bumpy and dusty road, and when hitting a particularly big bump, the back flap-doory-thing fell open. Suddenly, the other girl and myself found ourselves being held onto by the rest of the group, while everyone screamed for the racing Ute to stop. Luckily only a few supplies and thingos fell out, all of which could be retrieved. Once finally getting to the little private santuary, I was shown my sleeping quarters, straw mattresses on the floor, with my very own insect net, in a shed that reminded me of Peter Pan´s Lost boys dorm with four or five sets of 3 story bunkbeds all with individual and different coloured mozzie nets. It was perfect. The next few days I spent there was unbelievable. Everyone was lovely. One night I cooked for all of us. "Chilli con Beans" for 18 peoples dinner and then following lunch. It was a happy success. I got to make things with construction, and cleared a few paths with the old Mashetti (I dont know how to spell it). We bathed in the stream, where little fish (not piranhas, but maybe worse) bite you on the bum. And we ate dinner together. I wasn´t there long enough to be able to work with one of the rescues Pumas, thats a month minimum, but I did feel part of the team. Everyone was fantastic there, I miss them all already. Had to get back though for my 16 person tiny plane flight back to La Paz, but first the only way back is to hitch. After about 35 minutes the first vehicle that came was a huge truck. The driver slowed to look me up and down, which made me feel simply fantastic, then he stopped and said I could get in. Ended up being a blast. I badly talked the sleave ball out of him, and we sand not very popular english 80s songs for the very slow journey back to the boat port.
Once back in La Paz, my friend and I hopped on a bus to Copacabana, What a cool little place, and the drive there was magnificent. Then we visited the kinda crappy floating villages, but had the coolest guide ever with his knowledge of every plant and animal, it reminded me of nature walks with my little Zoologist (the girl). The following day we woke up early for the boat to "Isla del Sol". A simple beautiful, incredible place. We bumped into people from all over that we´d met before which was nice, but reminded us we were really doing the Gringo trail.
On our return to La Paz, I enrolled in another Spanish school. I would need to stay a few days if I wanted to get my Brazil Visa while I was in a town I could do it. A week of Spanish with another good private teacher for 3 hours a day, and 2 hours group classes with a sweet little Danish girl... Well now I know 2 "pasados" (pasts) and one "futuro" YIPPEE!!! I´m not the best at this language by a long shot, but I am enjoying it, which means apparently I´m picking it up pretty quickly... Obviously not as fast as I´d like though!
That brings me to just the otherday. I was ready, more than ready, I was packed! I had everything I needed, passport back with Brazil visa included, "cholita" blankets that I got from the local street market, I´ve been wanting one the whole time I´ve been here. I was ready, and heading to the bus station when I found out ALL boarder to Peru were CLOSED! I knew ther had been some troubles, but then had heard it was opened again, and at the very least the boat crossing was always an option.... Nope, apparently the last boat that passed got shot at! So I head to the only option left, the airlines. The ques were terrible, and I waited for my turn, while seeing and hearing Gringos all around me argue, scream and cry that there was no availabilty for them. " What 3 weeks, thats too late, I need to be there Monday!!" I´m thinking they´ve booked there Machu Pichu tour 6 months ago, and just didn´t think something like this could happen. I finally get my turn, expecting the worse, and thinking I´d have to bus it back to Chile then go around the extremely long way. I tell him I´m OK with going anywhere, just need to get a move on from La Paz. At first he finds me a flight for $313 for the 13th June. To my absolute surprse I stay completely calm and ask him to "por favor" check one more time, then he writes on a little piece of paper while saying the word "ssshhhh" $131 for the 1st of June going to Cusco.... 3rd of the price, 3rd of the time, BOOK ME IN!
So I had 4 days to fill in... So thats why I´m here in theis cute little (dead on Mondays) town of Coroico, Bolivia. Tent pitched, homework to do, and my 4th Chuchawasi!!
Saturday, 23 April 2011
100 day life upside-down update!!
Well, this isn´t very exciting... But I cant find a scale in this Country anywhere!!
I think I´ve lost a little weight, I´ve been really well behaved (the odd bottle of wine excluded) this whole time.
Will keep looking out for one, I think I need to know too... Sorry, but at least its still on, any tips or bagging out welcome!!!
I think I´ve lost a little weight, I´ve been really well behaved (the odd bottle of wine excluded) this whole time.
Will keep looking out for one, I think I need to know too... Sorry, but at least its still on, any tips or bagging out welcome!!!
Bolivia is trying to kill me!!!!
The fantastic Internationally approved medicine, well I´m allergic to it!!!!!
I woke up the day after the first shot and couldn´t friggen move... Works out if you´ve already got a touch of Arthritis, which I have from Ballet and Obesity, it brings it on even earlier and more crippling. It´s called Arthralgia, and apparently it´s rare, but a little common with Verorab... YAY!! Also woke to a sexy hard lump on the back of my hand caused by the same shit, that´s called a Ganglion... So yeah, at least if what my Mum used to tell me is true, things come in 3´s, so I should be all smooth sailing for the rest of my time here!! - Either that, or I´m just not quite getting the hint!!
Had the second shot this morning, and already feeling my bones seize up. It kinda reminds me of the pain I felt when I had Dengue Fever in Indonesia a few years back. That´s nicknamed the bone-breaking disease; quite a good discription really. Now that was really bad... This is a picnic next to that 10 days of living (very almost dying) Hell.
-I love travelling, but sometimes I cant help but think it doesn´t like me all the time!!
If I wasn´t signed up for this, and didn´t see it as part of the Adventure, I would be sitting on my safe little porch, covered with a blanket, with a coffee and a good book. I love both... Just ones a little more thrilling.
I woke up the day after the first shot and couldn´t friggen move... Works out if you´ve already got a touch of Arthritis, which I have from Ballet and Obesity, it brings it on even earlier and more crippling. It´s called Arthralgia, and apparently it´s rare, but a little common with Verorab... YAY!! Also woke to a sexy hard lump on the back of my hand caused by the same shit, that´s called a Ganglion... So yeah, at least if what my Mum used to tell me is true, things come in 3´s, so I should be all smooth sailing for the rest of my time here!! - Either that, or I´m just not quite getting the hint!!
Had the second shot this morning, and already feeling my bones seize up. It kinda reminds me of the pain I felt when I had Dengue Fever in Indonesia a few years back. That´s nicknamed the bone-breaking disease; quite a good discription really. Now that was really bad... This is a picnic next to that 10 days of living (very almost dying) Hell.
-I love travelling, but sometimes I cant help but think it doesn´t like me all the time!!
If I wasn´t signed up for this, and didn´t see it as part of the Adventure, I would be sitting on my safe little porch, covered with a blanket, with a coffee and a good book. I love both... Just ones a little more thrilling.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
RABIES... Si, Por Favor!!
Yesterday started out well... I woke up to fruit salad, yes, finally the homestay family is realising when I said I didn´t eat bread, that I didn´t!
It was about 6 minutes after breakfast that wasn´t all that good. Seeing the time, I raced out the house and started my long but quick walk to my Spanish courses here in Sucre. I was making good time, and just passing a slow walking Bolivian, I´ve noticed they all kinda walk slow, maybe that is why I was the one who then got attacked by a rather cute, small woolly dreadlocked doggy. The little freak jumped out from nowhere and caught my right arm with his sharp teeth and strong mouth, the little shit stayed there hung on until I finally was able to fling him off. It was now I noticed that he looked a little crazy, and not like a healthy house dog. The man I was passing, made a weird half smile, half grimace face at me. He then started rambling a very quick little passage of Spanish at me, but what I got from it was the words `Vacuna´ and `Rabia´ while pointing at the demonic barking creature... Yeah, well lucky the dog didn´t break my skin I was thinking, as the man started his super slow walk again. I crossed the road, not wanting to pass him with my rude hurried rush, as I looked down at my arm to inspect the wound... Oh Shit! Two fang marks, one deciding it would take awhile to bleed, but when it did come, it came with a little gush, while the other was a good inch of ripped off layers of skin, with the blood looking ready to pop through. Oh well, I´ll just get to school, wash it off, the teachers will know what to do. When I get there, I report that I´m a little late because I got bit by a dog, and would like something to clean the wound with. Instantly the questions come flying. Was the `perro´ on the `Calle´or from a`Casa´(street or house dog)? What did it look like? Big or small? `Have you had your RABIES shot? Rabies is extremely common in Sucre in street dogs. Especially if they bite, it means they´re crazy!´ Okay, so I´ll have to get a shot, how bad could it be? I get my arm cleaned up with something that stings, end up doing my class as I haven´t got anything to worry about for a while. It´s not til my breaktime where a dutch girl gets out her Guidebook and shows me that the first 12-24hours of a bite is the most crucial, that I begin to get a little thought of maybe getting the vaccine as soon as I finish class.
The teacher gives me a map to the hospital, which is only a couple of blocks away, and tells me that the vaccine is free, so not to worry. I walk upto where I was directed, its not there. Redirected another few blocks away. I cant find it. My own fault, it was behind me all along, so eventually found it. It was only sign posted in huge red writing `HOSPITAL URGENCIA´ I can understand how I missed it. Walking in, I get escorted by the security guy, he seemed friendly so I don´t think it was that he thought I´d pocket expensive hospital drugs and equipment, maybe just a novelty to have someone walk in with no apparent `urgencia´. The place looked deserted. Other than doctors and nurses in white coats, there was no one there. It was literally the first time I´d ever been to a hospital and not had to wait for hours. A doctor came out, shook her head at the bite wound, put some gloves on, then started stinging the shit outta me with her so called cleaning. She then told me in Spanish, that there was no vaccine in this hospital, that I had to go somewhere else, and that the visit to the `urgencia´ wasn´t free. Seems the nurse didn´t feel charging me was appropriate, thankfully, and gave me directions to the Vaccine place. Banco de Vacuna, had to walk another million miles away, OK not that far, but it was hot, and I was hungry, my food at the homestay would be waiting for me right now on the kitchen table. Get to my destination after a few wrong turns, and an extra hill to climb, to find that the place is on siesta, great gotta wait another hour until 2pm, I can do that. Wait, wait, 2.03pm where is anybody? wait, wait, wait, 2.47pm a lady shows up, with a baby! Manager to work out the place doesn´t open until 3pm, well my day so far has been so fantastic, I don´t know why I´m surprised. After sticking it out, letting the woman and baby go first, oh and another woman and her puppy go second, I get inside the dark little room, with a man that looks like a safari hunter, and he gives me the paperwork for the vaccine to read over. It all looks okay, its in English, seems to be Internationally recognised, Yep, I´m getting it! Only 1,120.50Bolivianos! What? What happened to free? Oh there is a free one, its just not recognised anywhere outside of Bolivia, which one would I like?? Oh shit, I´m terrible at descision making... Where´s my girlfriend when I need her? She´d tell me which one I should get. I ask for as much details about the free one, which obviously I´d prefer, and ask to come back after consulting Australia... it was easier to say a whole Country, than continue explaining what an Insurance Company was. I get in hold of my guys in Oz, after 7, yes seven break ups in my call that I was paying for, the nurse I spoke to said the local drug was not a good substitute, and just pay for it and keep the receipts... Like I have always said, cant afford insurance -cant afford to travel... So thank you Allianz! (If you let me down.....)
Go back, ask for the vaccine VERORAB that was recommended, the safari suit man then gives me a perscription, what now? I have to go to the pharmacy, buy the drug, come back and get my needle, oh yeah, and I´ll need five of them. One for straight away, another on day 3, then 7, then day 14 and finally 28. I race to the pharmacy, ask to get my 5 doses, get told to sit down and wait, only thirty minutes while they get the drug sent in from somewhere else. By now its 5.18pm, the Vaccine place closes at 6pm, but if I run, and it only does take 30minutes I should make it. Thirty minutes later... where is it? I ask the lady, she says only 10 more minutes, I explain that I don´t have that long, that I need one right now, she says she has three, that she was waiting on the other two. I give her my passport and ask to take just one now and I´ll come straight back for the others. After a bit of stuffing around, with putting things in bags, and another bag with ice so it doesn´t get warm... its almost 6pm, people are wearing jumpers and long pants, and she knows I´ve got a 6-8minute run ahead of me... I dunno! Anyways, I run my guts outs, and make it as the safari man is cracking open a can of beer with a mate and yelling at the football his watching on a tiny black and white TV. He reluctantly pulls himself away, to wipe a little alcohol on my arm and stick a needle in me. JOB DONE!!! I walk back to the pharmacy, where I´m made to wait another 35minutes for the delivery, I´m relieved I have some spanish now and could leave with one earlier. I am getting the worse headache of my life, and to add to it my cards don´t want to work. I now have to run a few more blocks away to find an ATM, find one, no problems... Hallujah! Return to pay an incredible amount of money for here especially, and head for home medication in hand. Of course that too didn´t go smoothly, with my taxi driver getting lost going a shortcut that I didn´t know, taking a detour, to me getting out that taxi to walk aimlessly for about 20minutes before catching another taxi to somewhere I knew and could direct him by myself... All in all, my lunch didn´t taste too bad at 9pm!!
It was about 6 minutes after breakfast that wasn´t all that good. Seeing the time, I raced out the house and started my long but quick walk to my Spanish courses here in Sucre. I was making good time, and just passing a slow walking Bolivian, I´ve noticed they all kinda walk slow, maybe that is why I was the one who then got attacked by a rather cute, small woolly dreadlocked doggy. The little freak jumped out from nowhere and caught my right arm with his sharp teeth and strong mouth, the little shit stayed there hung on until I finally was able to fling him off. It was now I noticed that he looked a little crazy, and not like a healthy house dog. The man I was passing, made a weird half smile, half grimace face at me. He then started rambling a very quick little passage of Spanish at me, but what I got from it was the words `Vacuna´ and `Rabia´ while pointing at the demonic barking creature... Yeah, well lucky the dog didn´t break my skin I was thinking, as the man started his super slow walk again. I crossed the road, not wanting to pass him with my rude hurried rush, as I looked down at my arm to inspect the wound... Oh Shit! Two fang marks, one deciding it would take awhile to bleed, but when it did come, it came with a little gush, while the other was a good inch of ripped off layers of skin, with the blood looking ready to pop through. Oh well, I´ll just get to school, wash it off, the teachers will know what to do. When I get there, I report that I´m a little late because I got bit by a dog, and would like something to clean the wound with. Instantly the questions come flying. Was the `perro´ on the `Calle´or from a`Casa´(street or house dog)? What did it look like? Big or small? `Have you had your RABIES shot? Rabies is extremely common in Sucre in street dogs. Especially if they bite, it means they´re crazy!´ Okay, so I´ll have to get a shot, how bad could it be? I get my arm cleaned up with something that stings, end up doing my class as I haven´t got anything to worry about for a while. It´s not til my breaktime where a dutch girl gets out her Guidebook and shows me that the first 12-24hours of a bite is the most crucial, that I begin to get a little thought of maybe getting the vaccine as soon as I finish class.
The teacher gives me a map to the hospital, which is only a couple of blocks away, and tells me that the vaccine is free, so not to worry. I walk upto where I was directed, its not there. Redirected another few blocks away. I cant find it. My own fault, it was behind me all along, so eventually found it. It was only sign posted in huge red writing `HOSPITAL URGENCIA´ I can understand how I missed it. Walking in, I get escorted by the security guy, he seemed friendly so I don´t think it was that he thought I´d pocket expensive hospital drugs and equipment, maybe just a novelty to have someone walk in with no apparent `urgencia´. The place looked deserted. Other than doctors and nurses in white coats, there was no one there. It was literally the first time I´d ever been to a hospital and not had to wait for hours. A doctor came out, shook her head at the bite wound, put some gloves on, then started stinging the shit outta me with her so called cleaning. She then told me in Spanish, that there was no vaccine in this hospital, that I had to go somewhere else, and that the visit to the `urgencia´ wasn´t free. Seems the nurse didn´t feel charging me was appropriate, thankfully, and gave me directions to the Vaccine place. Banco de Vacuna, had to walk another million miles away, OK not that far, but it was hot, and I was hungry, my food at the homestay would be waiting for me right now on the kitchen table. Get to my destination after a few wrong turns, and an extra hill to climb, to find that the place is on siesta, great gotta wait another hour until 2pm, I can do that. Wait, wait, 2.03pm where is anybody? wait, wait, wait, 2.47pm a lady shows up, with a baby! Manager to work out the place doesn´t open until 3pm, well my day so far has been so fantastic, I don´t know why I´m surprised. After sticking it out, letting the woman and baby go first, oh and another woman and her puppy go second, I get inside the dark little room, with a man that looks like a safari hunter, and he gives me the paperwork for the vaccine to read over. It all looks okay, its in English, seems to be Internationally recognised, Yep, I´m getting it! Only 1,120.50Bolivianos! What? What happened to free? Oh there is a free one, its just not recognised anywhere outside of Bolivia, which one would I like?? Oh shit, I´m terrible at descision making... Where´s my girlfriend when I need her? She´d tell me which one I should get. I ask for as much details about the free one, which obviously I´d prefer, and ask to come back after consulting Australia... it was easier to say a whole Country, than continue explaining what an Insurance Company was. I get in hold of my guys in Oz, after 7, yes seven break ups in my call that I was paying for, the nurse I spoke to said the local drug was not a good substitute, and just pay for it and keep the receipts... Like I have always said, cant afford insurance -cant afford to travel... So thank you Allianz! (If you let me down.....)
Go back, ask for the vaccine VERORAB that was recommended, the safari suit man then gives me a perscription, what now? I have to go to the pharmacy, buy the drug, come back and get my needle, oh yeah, and I´ll need five of them. One for straight away, another on day 3, then 7, then day 14 and finally 28. I race to the pharmacy, ask to get my 5 doses, get told to sit down and wait, only thirty minutes while they get the drug sent in from somewhere else. By now its 5.18pm, the Vaccine place closes at 6pm, but if I run, and it only does take 30minutes I should make it. Thirty minutes later... where is it? I ask the lady, she says only 10 more minutes, I explain that I don´t have that long, that I need one right now, she says she has three, that she was waiting on the other two. I give her my passport and ask to take just one now and I´ll come straight back for the others. After a bit of stuffing around, with putting things in bags, and another bag with ice so it doesn´t get warm... its almost 6pm, people are wearing jumpers and long pants, and she knows I´ve got a 6-8minute run ahead of me... I dunno! Anyways, I run my guts outs, and make it as the safari man is cracking open a can of beer with a mate and yelling at the football his watching on a tiny black and white TV. He reluctantly pulls himself away, to wipe a little alcohol on my arm and stick a needle in me. JOB DONE!!! I walk back to the pharmacy, where I´m made to wait another 35minutes for the delivery, I´m relieved I have some spanish now and could leave with one earlier. I am getting the worse headache of my life, and to add to it my cards don´t want to work. I now have to run a few more blocks away to find an ATM, find one, no problems... Hallujah! Return to pay an incredible amount of money for here especially, and head for home medication in hand. Of course that too didn´t go smoothly, with my taxi driver getting lost going a shortcut that I didn´t know, taking a detour, to me getting out that taxi to walk aimlessly for about 20minutes before catching another taxi to somewhere I knew and could direct him by myself... All in all, my lunch didn´t taste too bad at 9pm!!
Friday, 15 April 2011
Being inside of a Mountain isn´t Fun!
So I was in Potosi Yesterday, got there the day before. I had already heard all sorts of exciting stories about the famous Mine they have there. I´d heard there was accidents occasionally, but that was mostly due to the dynamite being used, which wasn´t allowed generally in the times where tourist go through it. I also heard of the risk that there MIGHT be some TRACES of asbesdos, but you can buy a mask at the market if you´re really worried about it. So I was looking for a supermercado (supermarket) the day before, and asked for dirrections from a boy inside a tourist information booth (ie; place that sells there own tours), while in there I enquired about the price for the mining tour, he first said 80Bs, where I asked for cheaper he went straight to 60Bs, he was a nice kid, a genuinely nice kid, and he clearly didn´t know the art of bargaining down a price toughly. So I decided, F*** it, I´ll do, everyone does, that´s the main reason for coming here really, not for my reason of breaking up the journey to Sucre from Uyuni. I booked for the 9am tour the following day. After booking it, I met loads of people who had done it and said they loved it, and only a couple that thought they wouldn´t take the risk... The risk, how risky could it be? Hundreds of people do it everyday, and companies all over town advertise it as the best thing to do in Bolivia. I woke up early the next day, mostly due to the freezing cold that the weather turns at this altitude (4060 metres) during the night, and possibly from a little bit of nervous belly. My partner always says I worry about things if I hear bad things about it, yet would never worry if I did anything with my `ignorant bliss´ on. I packed my things, had a coffee, breakfast was Pan (bread) so I couldn´t have it; still on the strict carb reduced diet. Walked down to the agency where I was to be picked up, and noone was there. All signs had disappeared and nothing around me now looked the same. It was 8.52am, I´ll give them another 18minutes, then I´m putting it down to a`not to be´ situation. At exactly 9.09am a little Bolivian woman came running, well scuffling down the street, yelling out apologies in Spanish, she then walked me with not a single word except for ¨Vamos¨(lets go) almost half way across the city, and down a tiny alleyway to a place where a group had already formed of other worldly tourists of all different ages and nationalities. This is the place where our guide (one guide, nine of us) got us to put on wet weather pants (mine were a little on the snug side), rain coats, find gumboots that fit (wellies for the poms again), put on hardhats and get our helmet torch fitted with the around the waist belt battery pack. We all looked so darn attractive... Then into the minibus, where we stop at a highly priced; to Bolivian standards, market where we had to buy at least one or two presents to give to the miners once we´re two kilometres deap inside the Mountain. I heard that the dynamite is extremely bad for the enviroment, plus the most expensive so I didn´t get that, also the cigarettes were the cheapest, but I didn´t want to be responsible for further life threatening lung problems to the miners, so I opted for the 2litre bottle of soft drink and a bag of cocoa leaves. I also bought 3 cheapo masks, to wear 2 at a time, and swap over to the 3rd if and when the first lot gets too dirty, I am clearly the most paranoid, as most the other of the group don´t bother at all, but some buy one, or decide that their scarf might be enough. This is also where I heard the funniest bargain I´d got all day; one soft drink is 5Bs, and one bag of leaves is 5Bs, but the lady will sell them to you together if you like, both for 10Bolivianos... Wow, 2 for 10Bs OR 2 for 10Bs!! We all jumped back in the bus to head for the mountain. At the entry point we were told that it will be cold at the beginning then get hotter once we´re further inside, we also had to hide our presents until we got in far enough that the miners would deserve our gifts. Torches on, then an order sortted out, I was to go first out of the tourists, directly behind the guide which was okay with me, where he put me, later to discover this was his way of finding out if I had a boyfriend or not, and if I was travelling alone why not try a nice Bolivian man... Him perhaps?? At the gate, which we all noted was locked and had to be opened by a girl that the guide first had to find, and then she waits until we all get inside and locks it again, my heart is already getting higher up my chest. What, its locked, we´re actually getting locked into the Mine? ¨Don´t worry... hahaha¨ that was pretty much the guides favourite line. The mine was tight, and very small, I had to walk completely crouched down to about a metre in height for a good part of it. We then had to crawl ¨like babies¨ which was okay, I was expecting that much, then a few standing upright spots where we could all cram together allowing the odd miner to pass on his way to the centre, and we could hear of stories of the past, the silver industry in the 15th Century, and the very weird papermache statue of the Devil with a huge penis, and why he is the God of the Mountain. That was really creepy, we had to throw 96% alcohol over him and his penis, and light a cigarette and put it in his already burnt out mouth. The grosses part was the smell, when someone questioned it, the guide pointed out the Llama foetus that was put there at carnaval. It was so dirty and rubbish was everywhere at this particular location, also our guide had a few good sized mouthfuls of the 96% that made me feel really assured. He was also stuffing the side of his face with the cocoa leaves that were bought as one of the gifts; I would like to note that nothing is more unattractive than a face that looks like you have a whole grapefruit stuffed down one side, oh and the spitting of the leaves excess juices... hmmm hot!! So back on our way, oh thats pretty we all say, look at the silvery glitter, lets all touch it like we have been encouraged to do the whole way until now, so we do, to have the guide say, ¨Oh don´t touch that, its asbestos!¨ HOLEY SHIT, WHAT?? I´ve just had my hands in asbestos, FUCK FUCK FUCK... Where is my water? I pore water all over my hands and pray to God that 10-15 years down the track I don´t regret this day with all my might. I thought there was only traces, now that he shows it to us, I ask is that asbestos, ¨Yes, that is and that over there, oh and through here, and that pretty white is also asbestos¨ I hate him for letting me in here, and its too late to go back, I say I´m scared and want to leave, but I´m the in the minority, so its not possible. I feel my heart pound harder and harder, and every breath is becoming harder to take, with the marks, the dust, the crouched over walking, the altitude (we´re up another coupla 100 metres) and the lack of oxygen as it is in here. We do one more crawl through an even smaller tunnel, doing the army on the belly-crawl over sharp rocks that look an awful lot like those that were asbestos. I decide not to ask anymore, whatever damage has been done is done, and with no way of leaving the group, and no desire to be by myself in this dark and scary tightly enclosed place, I know that all I have is this flimsy mark that I´ve doubled up with, and the hope that I am one of the lucky ones that doesn´t get sick from exposure in years to come. We are nearing our 2 kilometre final destination before turning back, when we see Men hauling full train/carts of minerals and rocks, four of them are needed with all of there bodyweight and strenght to control and move the carts. The guide then screams ¨RUN RUN RUN, GET OUT OF THE WAY... OVER THERE... JUMP JUMP JUMP¨ Everyone then scrambled to a small cut out in the walls where even the four oldies of the group had the shit kicked into them with the scare of one of the carts flying past us, with two miners running for their lives in front of it, and two behind trying in vain to slow the train down. It´s here that the guide tells us we need to be careful, that the carts weigh 2 tonnes, and thats the main cause of accidental deaths down here. What? Why are you only just talking about deaths now?? Sitting in out extremely tight group in the cut out of the wall we need to sit here a little while longer while the miners get there carts all sortted out and where they want them, occasionally pulling one into our little space to make way for another cart going the other way. This is so friggen scary, I can´t see me wanting to leave this dusty little space in the wall to get back in the path of the carts again. I hate it down here, please God or whomever you are that looks after me, please give me strength to get out of here, please get everyone in this Mountain right now out safe and to their families or respective Hotels and Hostals? Please please please!! We have to get out of the way now, and one of the miners asks if anyone has a gift of a drink, I quickly get mine out, I respect these crazy guys a whole lot more, but cant work out how anything can be possibly worth this danger everyday? The man is grateful and continues with his three amigos to push a cart up the slope, the slope that already made a cart fly past me, that could trample him if they arent all putting in every ounce of their brute force. Retelling this story is again making my stomach churn and yucky... I still don´t understand why any amount of money could be worth this, but then again I was born in one of the few lucky countries where I won´t starve to death, where I can house my family if I had one, get an education to better my chances to up my station, get top health care and medicines, and have systems in place like workers safety. Why was I born so friggen lucky? And why weren´t they? It´s so unfair! It just doesn´t make any friggen sense!! I hate this mine, I hate every fucking inch of it, I am struggling with the grief of finding out that most miners do only have 10 years of hard labour ahead of them before they die from cronic lung conditions, and that most miners start at 15 or 16 years old. My heart hurts just thinking about it, they smile at me as I walk by, two take my hand in the darkness to shake it and say ¨buenos tardes¨ (good afternoon). I hate this place! So we get up from our little safe place of watching the agony of hard labour infront of our headtorches, and make our way to the final place where our group will visit. I ask why we haven´t seen any other group for the last leg, to be told that the groups all go to different places once past the only entry and exit tunnel. We are now giving all the gifts we have left to the group of digging and cart pushing miners in this location, where we all take a few snaps then get told of the electric shaft lifty thing that is here. I have noticed this whole trek that the walls and ceiling of the tunnels are dodgy, and mostly held up with just wooden posts that are sometimes breaking, and we have to get around the pipes that contain compressed air, but in someplaces they look like they´re holding the place up too, with the help of some cleverly placed boulders/large rocks. Its now that I will never forget, my heart jumping outside of me, my throat wasn´t even high enough. As the guide was getting us all to inspect the digging, and as he now talks about the electric lift to the surface, I stayed back a little, not liking being ontop of the miners while they work, and enjoying the space away from the carts pushing past, when we hear a terrible noise. A really loud rumbling, the guide says not to worry its just a small rope being dropped. Small? Yeah, about 50metres of rope... CRASH!! ... SHIT THATS NO ROPE!!!! The loudest rumbling I´ve ever heard, and the walks and ground starts to shake, I´m close to the back, so we all start to RUN out of the way, boulders and smaller rocks are coming down all around us, and I hear a loud groin, or maybe I just heard more earth moving noises, but I do hear paniked voices in another language, but its now too dusty to see. We run until we can see and not feel anymore movement, I yell IS EVERYONE OK? DID EVERYONE GET OUT? The guide counts everyone, and I ask him if all the miners are okay? I think he just pretended to check, returning to say everyone was OK. We then start our very quiet trek back, taking a shortcut thankfully, but having to crawl literally over the top of miners working in the worse and tightest conditions imaginable, to see the light of the tunnel exit (and only entry) after about 30 minutes instead of another 2 hours. It´s here that the guide stops us to tell us of even more enlightening information. He explains how much (or should I say how little) they get paid, and I want to cry right here and now... I cant imagine working like this just to be on a slightly better off than the minum wage here, which is about 400Bs a month, about $80. The draw is, if you´ve done it a few years you could live long enough to get to where the really good and expensive minerals are, and be on a pretty good wage by then, you just are not allowed to die within the first ten years, thats the catch you see, because not many do! Once we are out, I feel physically ill, I want nothing more than to get out of these disguising clothes, and tourist costume, so I strip them off right there. I am wearing my clothes underneath, but I even choose to take the boots off and walk back to the bus barefooted than wear these asbestos covered clothes any longer. One lady decides she wants to walk back, so the guide takes her things from her, she came prepared with all her things in the minibus, and we leave her there, as we venture back, some people excited by our close call, me very quiet, no I was completely silent the whole way, and a little while longer still. I went back to where I´d already checked out, paid a larger than probably normal amount to have a shower and to get cleaned up and changed out of these dirty clothes. Afterwards taking a walk to bump into the lady that walked back, she said just after we left a guernsy (not sure of spelling, but one of the people held beds for emergencies) was getting rushed in to the entry tunnel by some fast moving fellow miners. She said she waited for about 20 minutes, and a Man came out on it, his leg was badly broken and what she called smashed, her opinion was that he would become an amputee from the thigh for certain, there was blood everywhere from the breaks in his leg, and he just simply had his arm over his face, he made no sounds of his pain. The scary part is, he was the miner we had all just taken pictures of before the rocks started coming down. She managed to find out that it was the same incident by one of the other miners present. She also managed to find out why it happened. The electric lift was dropped, by the ropes becoming too slack, I guess that was the reason for the loud thump during the crazy rumbling. That poor man... and his family, they don´t get any insurance, I pray he´s okay!! Luckily noone died, I suppose... this time!!
The Day After Hell! ...+ a Sucre Restaurant Review
After the day I had Yesterday, which I will write about in the next post I wanted to have a day to myself of a little Bolivian priced luxury. After a hot shower that actually included a razor for legs and pits, I put on my nicest dress (only one thats clean) and tights, with a purple neck scarf, with matching thongs (flip flops for the Poms) and sunnies. I got all my washing together, checked out of my Sucre Residencia that I found at 11pm last night, and set out to find a laundry. To my good fortune there was one directly across the road, 3kilos for 30Bs (Bolivianos, about $5). I don´t think the men here have seen a woman before, its as if I stepped back in the Middle East or Morocco again, I´ve had to use my scarf as a cleavage coverer before someone had an accident. I didn´t get any attention in Argentina and not much in Chile, but here where most the Bolivians are native/indigenous my lighter skin and height is popular again apparently. So walking around Sucre I felt like a coffee (cafe con leche) and finally after a search found a place that had outdoor seating with a patio courtyard through glass doors off the main street of Espana. The restaurant was closed as they were busy cleaning everything including every chair in the large nicely decorated dining area, but with my bad spanish I was able to ask for a coffee and sit outside. After my coffee which consisted of a sachet of instant coffee and a jug of hot milk, I paid my 5Bs (90cents) and set off for a little more exploring. I stumbled across a little hairdressing salon where again with my bad spanish, but perfect universal sign language I asked if I could get my caterpillas (eyebrows) waxed. Yep, for 15Bs I could. An excruciating fifteen minutes later I was off on another walk again, feeling much lighter in the brow department. I walked awhile, talked a little to locals, then found myself again out the front of the restaurant I was at earlier, which was lucky because I was busting for the loo and I always prefer a nice Baños (WC) over a publico squat with no toilet paper. When I went inside to do the honourary buy something because I just used your toilet thing, I saw what looked like the most delicious and colourful salad buffet, so I inquired about that then. I found out that it is part of the set lunch menu, where you serve yourself for the first course, then get a soup, a main meal, and lastly a dessert, all for 44Bs (about $8). I couldn´t possibly resist. So I took a sit, to stand right back up again for the self service, which had anyones flavour dreams catered for, but especially those health conscious or vegetarian, I decided to have one or a little of everything... Well, not disappointed, it was great. The rest of the courses came out promptly when the cutlery was put down, and I´ve gotta say, so far Bolivia has the best flavours for me in South America by far, as they actually do spicy and a homemade chilli salsa comes out at every place I´ve visited so far. Yay, for spices and flavour!! I finished up the eating with a fresh fruit salad topped with yoghurt, and couldn´t have been happier... Until I had my glass of red wine out in the beautiful quiet courtyard that is! One perfect lunch, costing me about $10 including tip, a bit of a slurge for here, but well worth it. Here the main meal is lunch too, so like Yesterday I will eat big during the daytime meal, and wont eat much tonight. That brings me to now, just filling in my time before collecting my freshly cleaned clothes... Gotta love clean clothes day!! Oh yeah, for anyone ever in the area, the restaurant is called La Fontana, on Calle Espana in Sucre, they have the set lunch menu for 44Bs everyday, with about 6 or 7 choices for mains, always including a vegetarian choice, or will if you can ask in spanglish, and about 3 choices for dessert. The drinks including cocktails and fresh juices will set you back around $1.50-$2. Open from 12noon to 10pm. As you can probably tell, I am recommending this place! =) Now for getting the courage to talk about my big day Yesterday.....
Saturday, 9 April 2011
2 week update... on the 100day challenge!!
So 4.8kgs down... not as good as I´d have liked especially seeing I´m walking almost nonstop with calf muscles that are looking more like teenage mutan ninja turtle calves. BUT its a start, and an OK one considering my ever increasing inability to visit the toilet. It´s something I´ve never had go good for me, but seems to be really hard to manage at the moment, I hear it could have something to do with this altitude possibly!?!
Starting on Reviews...
I haven´t written any official reviews as such yet for this blog, as I guess I´ve barely introduced myself. Though its something i like to do, wherever I am I review things, eveyone does I guess. So now to the official start... I´m going to start with a place I´ve been recommending for years, to anyone in or visiting Melbourne. Its Mr Naturals Vegetarian Pizza bar, and its brilliant! Don´t be scared off by the `V´ word, the pizzas are delicious, and the odd one nighter away from meat might do you some good. It´s especially close to my heart because the love of my life is a coeliac and they do a Gluten-free base option. My personal recommendation would be the Spinach pizza...hmmmm... Its amazing! It´s heaped with the green stuff, then crumbled feta scattered, another melty cheese, and then finally topped with a raw egg that cooks when the pizza´s in the oven. The result is incredible. If you´re anything like me (and you´ll see this is something I add to almost anything) you´ll ask for a healthy shaking of the hot chilli flakes to be added before the cooking process. Yummm... sad now just a little. I´m in South America so no Mr Naturals for me, plus I´ve made myself hungry, and I´m in a hostel in the middle of nowhere with just a bottle of water. I should add too, that anyone (or place) I recommend will have no previous knowledge of me doing so, and I will not be getting any form of endorsement for what could look like advertising. I´m just jotting down my opinions, to my tastes, though comments and debates over rightness or wrongness is completely welcomed. I will also try snick a few recipes if its food I really enjoy, and there has been quite a bit of it lately! Oh yeah, Mr Naturals can be found in two of my favourite places to point out for those new to Melbourne too, the very cool St.Kilda beach/bayside area, and my local, Fitzroy where the people watching is amongst the best it the World. I should also note for any foodies that may want to know my foodie credentials, I did one fantasticly explorative year at chef school. And completed my Certificate 2 in Cookery at Victoria University. It was there I developed my love for fresh ingredients, alternative cooking styles, and food handling. Also my first Round the World Trip changed my life completely with the new concept of eating food with big ballsy flavours and changing this Vegetarian of 13 years, who didn´t really like many vegetables at the time, into someone who will try almost anything, and has developed a whole new opinion on what food is and should be! PS The story of why I am no longer a Vegie anymore is one of my favourite of all time, I hope that I one day can share it on here. Please note, I still have the utmost respect for Vegetarians, and still believe that is can be the healthiest of any lifestyles done properly (the way I wasn´t doing it back in the days pre-travel) and I love all kinds of vegie dishes nowdays.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Made it to Chile... Finally!
So I´m in the beautifully diverse country of Chile now, I´m now in Santiago, though only just. Have been in Valparaiso for the last few days... Very cool city! Got the fantastico oportunity to stay with a local thanks to my good friend back home that happens to come from this fine Country. The millions of roads all leading up different streeted hills, fit snuggly between the densely populated houses of a thousand colours, twisting and turning all the way up. A trip on the local Microbus is quite literally a rollercoaster ride, only cheaper and most certainly more dangerous. The brilliantly coloured buildings alone are worth the trip. All seemingly trying to get both the suns rays and a view of the bay, making sure they are noticed on their own behalf. I stayed with a young lady who owns the very funky and uber cool `Mora´ Cafe. The food there is a much needed change from the Argentinian Asado (bbq meat) diet. I actually had a salad that consisted of more than just tomato and lettuce... exciting!! I have asked her to give me the recipe for the Pastel de Zapella (may not be the correct spelling) though basicly its a delicious combination of vegies all cooked together, topped with a sweet mash of pumpkin... yuuummmm! I´ve decided that I´d like to add to this blog with the addition of both reviews and recipes. But now, I have to sign out a little earlier than I´d like as I have someone waiting for the hostel computer. Darn sharing, another one of those things deaply embedded since childhood as the right thing to do... Who likes doing the right thing?
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Mendoza... leave? Impossible!
So I've had a few problems lately trying to get to Chile. Its not so much that where I am or what I need to do is hard, its just getting on the darn bus that seems to be virtually impossible. I was booked to leave on Sunday, but then changed it because I stupidly didn't get my Yellow Fever shot back in Oz, and had heard that Argentina does them for free, so thought I'd change my ticket to the Monday with the plan of waking up early, getting my free jab then be off. All is well when I wake up nice and early, kiss my friend who has let me sleep on her couch the last few days goodbye, then took a taxi to the clinic. There I discovered that the jabs were free, which was great news, but unfortunately the shots are only available on Wednesdays between 8.30 & 12noon, and that the medicine is not free in Chile, and if I'm planning to go to Bolivia I need it at least 10days prior... shit! Raced to bus terminal, faked an illness, said with my extremely bad broken Spanish and some fine tuned sign language that I was not looking forward to my windy drive through the Andes, knowing that canceling my ticket within 3 hours of departure is the full ticket price, no refund. I figured if I could manage to change my ticket without having to pay it was meant to be that I stick around until Wednesday to get my much needed certificate. Well I manage to wrangle a free change of ticket, (thank you acting degree) YAY now I can stay in Mendoza and with my new friends a little longer. Walk back to my friends place to impose myself further on her hospitality, and happily get received back. So Tuesday night comes along nicely, just a few drinks at the Inter-cambion language exchange, then a little craziness starts up where shots and litre cocktails are bought, and the night is a shambles!! I manage to get my friend back to her place with the help of a very worried taxi driver going over bumps extremely slowly, not very Argentinian taxi-driver of him. I get her into bed and pass out on the couch. What seems like moments later I hear a terrible groaning in her bedroom, a little worried I go to give her a little comforting, and maybe a glass of water or a bucket... should've looked for them first, as when I managed to sit her up, she hugged me then proceded to vomit uncontrollably all over me and her bed... f%#k I have a bus in a matter of hours, but I also have a friend that needs me to sober up and look after her. I pick her up and take her to the bathroom. While I try sort out the bedding, yuck yuck yucky stuff. I sit down for a second to close my eyes, 'BANG' shit... What's happened? Find Australian born Singaporean business woman giggling and a little bit teary on the floor of the bathroom, shower curtain down around her. It was clearly her holding on devise while falling down idea, not the best plan perhaps, but she's ok, a few bumps to the head but she's clean and ok. Now for me to shower and go to bed. What 1/2hour before I have to wake up? But its still dark, buggar, thats ok, I need it. Close eyes. Open eyes, bright sun filtering in through the curtains, SHIT SHIT SHIT, find phone, 11.46am... What the hell?? Throw dress on, grab bag and keys and race to the taxi rank. Shit, 12.07am.... please be still open, get to clinic, fly upstairs, barge through the door, which looked heavier than it was and banged loudly as I tried to compose myself with a somewhat distressed 'Hola!!" The nurse and doctor are having a cup of tea together... The nurse smiles at me, says she heard an Australian might be coming in today, and sits me down to get the certificate made. Holey moley, I must stink, try not breathe on the poor lady trying to do her job, oh my goodness, what am I wearing? My Mum always said that you should dress nicely for the medical profession, she'd be appalled at what I'm wearing, and OH MY GOODNESS, my dress is inside-out!! The extremely lovely lady who doesn't seem to be judging me, which was very professional of her, leads me through to the large man, without the white tightly fit overcoat, would be casted perfectly as a great big South American couch-potato. With no words at all, and no gloves too I noticed, I was swiped with alcohol (great more, my body must love me) and a quick, painful jab, and I was on my way. Oh yeah, and my bus was at 9.30am, so back to my couch... where tomorrow, I will catch a bus to Chile... If its meant to be of course!!
Saturday, 26 March 2011
3´s the charm! HOLA!!
So last entry seems like a zillion years ago... pretty close! Since then a whole new chapter has been in the making. I´m in Mendoza, Argentina for this one. I had my beautiful girl over for my first 2 weeks here. She is super cute, and we got to celebrate her 30th birthday together (28 if you ask her). The joint account also gave me the opportunity to have a little luxury along the way too. She´s back home now, and I miss her like crazy... Mostly to be honest because she can speak spanish, and I, well, cant! So its a little crazy here right now. I´ve spent a week intensive spanish lessons, and already think that I had a little too much information overload. My brain is actually feeling heavier, I´m gonna give it a break for a week, and go to Chile tomorrow night.
Its funny here, last entry I think I was writing all about my crappy weight issues years ago... Well, I once upon a time almost got back to a healthy size, but laziness, too many big nights, my intense love for bread, pototoes, rice and alcohol have gradually been putting (what I thought) little by little back on. In England I was weighing myself weekly, and seemed to had worked itself out, in the larger end of what I could deal with... Ya know, 15-20kilos from the ideal, but it was Winter and too fun going out to take too much notice of my clothes shrinkage. So heres the funny thing about here... every pharmacy has the scales at them that back home would charge you $1 to use, well here they are free! Funny hey!! Well not really, not ha ha funny, but it is when I decided I´ll see if all my walking while being here, and cutting the bread had made any difference... Well... I´m sure if I hadn´t been in such a good mood from my wine in the Plaza here, I may have found the first crazy ass taxi driver to walk infront of!! I had put ON 13kilos... WHAT THE F???? What has happened to me... everything I had done to get myself from the verge of an instant popcorn heart-attack victim, is now being laughed at by my stupidity, and lack of self control. I cant believe I bloody chose to think that those dodgy home scales were accurate, and that my clothes were actually getting tighter from drying them of the heater! Like seriously, I guess this is how the brain works... It can tell itself anything that it needs to, if it doesn´t want to hurt itself, or face to a reality its not wanting. I cant let this stop me from what my dreams are, I´m doing something about this shit!! Basicly, I´m officially on day 4 of my new thing... the 100days to change my world program. Lets call it the 100days to change my world program? Nah, okay... Well maybe something like "100 day smackdown-snackdown" I dunno, its not important... what is is the rules! I´m still working out the exact details... but basicly, no bread, no pasta, no rice, no "papas frites" - potato chips, no beer, no alcohol that isnt wine - with a limit on how much of that I can drink, dropping over time specified later, no soft drink, no tempting unhealthy snacking, but lots of water! And confessions... All confessions of what little tiny naughtiness, or splurge will be reported on this blog, and comments and boo´s will be welcomed! I need this, I´m 28 now, and I don´t want to spend the rest of my youth unhealthy, unhappy, and ashamed of my situation. I have a lot of love that I´m surrounded by, and friends that don´t care what I look like, but this is for me... I need to remember that I love myself, that my body is a gift, and will hopefully be moving me about for many many more years to come, without all the problems those who didn´t do something when they could´ve, seem to get and have. That and I´m too darn good looking to be fat... Well thats what a casting agent told me once!! Said that if I was plain and fat I´d get work far easier than someone whose attractive, but fat... People cant relate apparently, cant not stop feeling sorry for the poor girl that obviously cant control herself, when "oh, she´d be alright if she wasn´t a fatty!!" So this is it... Its the beginning... it start now!! Wish me luck guys... In a place like South America I´m gonna need as much help as I can with the food challenge. Steak and salad is it - not the best food for an ex-vegetarian that still prefers that lifestyle, oh yeah, the salad here is also amazing too... tomato and shredded iceberg, hmmmm... Yummy! Yep, that´s the advertised ensalada!
Okay, a que for the computer...
One last thing, I promise now, and in writing, that I will reveal my weight 4 days ago, in 96days, regardless to how well I do on this challenge, AND my weight on the final day too... Lets call it incentive! Wish me luck... I´ll need it!!
=)
Its funny here, last entry I think I was writing all about my crappy weight issues years ago... Well, I once upon a time almost got back to a healthy size, but laziness, too many big nights, my intense love for bread, pototoes, rice and alcohol have gradually been putting (what I thought) little by little back on. In England I was weighing myself weekly, and seemed to had worked itself out, in the larger end of what I could deal with... Ya know, 15-20kilos from the ideal, but it was Winter and too fun going out to take too much notice of my clothes shrinkage. So heres the funny thing about here... every pharmacy has the scales at them that back home would charge you $1 to use, well here they are free! Funny hey!! Well not really, not ha ha funny, but it is when I decided I´ll see if all my walking while being here, and cutting the bread had made any difference... Well... I´m sure if I hadn´t been in such a good mood from my wine in the Plaza here, I may have found the first crazy ass taxi driver to walk infront of!! I had put ON 13kilos... WHAT THE F???? What has happened to me... everything I had done to get myself from the verge of an instant popcorn heart-attack victim, is now being laughed at by my stupidity, and lack of self control. I cant believe I bloody chose to think that those dodgy home scales were accurate, and that my clothes were actually getting tighter from drying them of the heater! Like seriously, I guess this is how the brain works... It can tell itself anything that it needs to, if it doesn´t want to hurt itself, or face to a reality its not wanting. I cant let this stop me from what my dreams are, I´m doing something about this shit!! Basicly, I´m officially on day 4 of my new thing... the 100days to change my world program. Lets call it the 100days to change my world program? Nah, okay... Well maybe something like "100 day smackdown-snackdown" I dunno, its not important... what is is the rules! I´m still working out the exact details... but basicly, no bread, no pasta, no rice, no "papas frites" - potato chips, no beer, no alcohol that isnt wine - with a limit on how much of that I can drink, dropping over time specified later, no soft drink, no tempting unhealthy snacking, but lots of water! And confessions... All confessions of what little tiny naughtiness, or splurge will be reported on this blog, and comments and boo´s will be welcomed! I need this, I´m 28 now, and I don´t want to spend the rest of my youth unhealthy, unhappy, and ashamed of my situation. I have a lot of love that I´m surrounded by, and friends that don´t care what I look like, but this is for me... I need to remember that I love myself, that my body is a gift, and will hopefully be moving me about for many many more years to come, without all the problems those who didn´t do something when they could´ve, seem to get and have. That and I´m too darn good looking to be fat... Well thats what a casting agent told me once!! Said that if I was plain and fat I´d get work far easier than someone whose attractive, but fat... People cant relate apparently, cant not stop feeling sorry for the poor girl that obviously cant control herself, when "oh, she´d be alright if she wasn´t a fatty!!" So this is it... Its the beginning... it start now!! Wish me luck guys... In a place like South America I´m gonna need as much help as I can with the food challenge. Steak and salad is it - not the best food for an ex-vegetarian that still prefers that lifestyle, oh yeah, the salad here is also amazing too... tomato and shredded iceberg, hmmmm... Yummy! Yep, that´s the advertised ensalada!
Okay, a que for the computer...
One last thing, I promise now, and in writing, that I will reveal my weight 4 days ago, in 96days, regardless to how well I do on this challenge, AND my weight on the final day too... Lets call it incentive! Wish me luck... I´ll need it!!
=)
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Second time round...
I've just got off the plane from Berlin to Frankfurt, with this amazing guy I had to sit next to. He was a big time Real Estate entrepreneur, with 3 companies over Germany, and a beautiful wife and kids. Plus he was actually a nice guy, and paid my taxi to the hostel, (I left my big luggage in a locker when I was last here about 10 days ago) I was going to take the train, but he insisted I ride with him as he was going that way. We must've looked a bit of a sight, him in full business ettire, me in my ripped jeans from actual wear, and my faded blue hair! I've checked him out, he is legit... I knew already by how he was dressed, and his mannerisms, but I thought that someone some day may think I'm an easy target for gulibility, (which I can be, though rarely) and with Airberlin having no first or business class option I could have just seen a fancy suit, I guess. Anyways, while chatting to him, and he asking me questions about my background, saying he'd never been to Australia so was interested. I realised he was genuinely interested, and I really do have a story, and I wasn't ashamed to admit that I had done a couple of clever things when I was younger that put me in the enviable position to travel for so long... So I need to really get to the facts about me, as soon as possible, so I can get to the now with a little more background knowledge secured early on. I know I'll end up referring and digging deeper into my past a little further down the track!
Okay, so we've established that I was poor... pretty darn poor, and way below the Australian standards povety line. But I had a loving family, though a little unconventional to be sure. I will maybe come back to the Father topic later, as it's not relevant to me now, I will continue. I have also stated that I was once upon a time a pretty smart kid, though my teens helped me into a certain normality, and rebelion. And I have four sisters, three quite a bit older, and one younger.
So now, for who I am in super brief, as I've now only got 8 minutes left in this internet cafe, and I'm not the fastest typer in the World, even more so when a few of the letters are not where they are meant to be!
I have just turned 28 years old, I finished studying in Nottingham just over a week ago, I am an actor, a traveller and last years runner up Most Popular Drag King, for the Also Awards in Australia. I'll go into that further down the track too I'd say. I am a few hours from leaving on a big jet plane for Argentina, which will be country number 65, and I will also be seeing my partner and soulmate when I get there. It's her 30th birthday in a few days, and we didn't want to be apart for it, and what's better than discovering a new place together when you're moving out of your 20's? We have been together for almost 3 years, and though we are the picture of the perfect same sex couple, we do have our problems occasionally. The main one is the obvious distance when I'm travelling of course, and her having to be the responsible good mortgage payer back in Melbourne, Australia. I have a dog that I love very much, Belle, though she too has had to be left behind with her fantastic Nan (my Mum) as travel with pets is vitually impossible when you're Australian, and as you can tell, even my love for home and everyone back there, my need to travel in strong! I was bitten badly by the travel bug about 5 years ago. Before that I was running a business (or two) and working away my desire to do anything not safe. Though, with my Mum's strong influence to do whatever scares you most, I sold up and started out on my first adult around the World adventure. It was meant to be only a year, though it was extended a little! I took my Mum for the first leg with me, through North America and ending in our 2nd home, Lochem, The Netherlands, after five & a half amazing months of having my Mum to myself and dragging her around with me... Did I mention it was her 60th birthday present from me? My Mum is Dutch, and until recently had kept her nationality, having no real memories of her birthplace, she wanted to go back for a while to live. Her and her most recent husband (a joke, they've been married this year 20 years) moved over in October of 1992, with two young children, 8 and 9 year olds girls... I was that nine year old! We lived there, went to school there, learnt the language fluently there, celebrated double christmas there, and all and all became good little dutchies, in out teeny tiny town of Lochem. That was my first taste of the World around us, and though yet again we did everything on the tightest budget imaginable, every holiday or long weekend we'd all pile up in a tiny hatchback, one of my older sisters also joined us by then, and we'd drive to other countries, and sometimes a few in a day... It was amazing to me, this little Perth girl vowed to herself that when she was older she'd explore as much of the World as humanly possible someday. I don't think I'll ever achieve such a high demand, though the closer I get the more I get the feeling that there's so much more. I don't know if everyone knows this, but Perth in Western Australia is geographically the most isolated city in the World, and I think that plays a huge role in my desire to push the limits a little and sometimes a lot.
When I was younger I was also incredibly athletic. I was a cross country runner, was in the state long distance relay team, and did hours after many hours of Ballet dancing. It's another story completely, but my oldest sister is one of the highest ballet teachers in Australia, becoming the youngest Fellow, and continuing her ballet career very successfully in the choreography side, as well as teaching. Having her as my teacher, as my Mum would put it, was good because it was free. With that again, I excelled. I did very well in dance, did a little acting and could sing, I was hoping to use my top dance grades and singing ability to her me get into the Musical Theatre Degree at WAAPA in W.A. however that dream was shattered when I oddly got glandular fever. I recovered from that okay, but then started turning a nice shade of Simpsons yellow. I had developed a serious liver disfunction. The liver being as clever as it is, has healed a lot by now. Though the medication and the recovery result was my bodies now extra 70kilos of body fat! I literally gained double and a bit of my original body mass in just over a year. I was a vegetarian, that ate extremely healthy, too healthy I later found out, but yet I was Morbidly Obsese. I got to just over 140kgs, I think thats just over 300lbs. Needless to say, I was shattered, devastated, and the realisation that my dancing, singing and most importantly my acting dreams were now dashed and doomed! I was 17 years old, and I was the ugliest, fattest, most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. I was already living by myself by then. Mum had kicked me out of home well and truely before then. It was what I needed, and I was ready to leave. I was asked if I wanted to come back, the only catch was I had to live by the house rules, which were quiet strict, I don't think I'm ready for that chapter just yet though. My response was, 'are the rules still the same? No? Well thanks, but no thanks. I'll be fine!' Which I honestly think I was.
Okay, so what to do? You have just looked at something thats disturbing in the mirror, and recognize it to be the 'new' you... You consider breaking that mirror, and possibly everything else around you, yet something inside tells you not to, and starts to grow a little within you. A belief that this is not entirely the end yet, you can do something, can't you? That something to me was get away and work, work until you make something of that misrable self...
I'll leave that will be for the next entry...
Oh yeah, I recharged the internet for another half hour somewhere in there; don't want you to think I was lying about the slow two finger typist that I am ... Sometimes I use three!!
Okay, so we've established that I was poor... pretty darn poor, and way below the Australian standards povety line. But I had a loving family, though a little unconventional to be sure. I will maybe come back to the Father topic later, as it's not relevant to me now, I will continue. I have also stated that I was once upon a time a pretty smart kid, though my teens helped me into a certain normality, and rebelion. And I have four sisters, three quite a bit older, and one younger.
So now, for who I am in super brief, as I've now only got 8 minutes left in this internet cafe, and I'm not the fastest typer in the World, even more so when a few of the letters are not where they are meant to be!
I have just turned 28 years old, I finished studying in Nottingham just over a week ago, I am an actor, a traveller and last years runner up Most Popular Drag King, for the Also Awards in Australia. I'll go into that further down the track too I'd say. I am a few hours from leaving on a big jet plane for Argentina, which will be country number 65, and I will also be seeing my partner and soulmate when I get there. It's her 30th birthday in a few days, and we didn't want to be apart for it, and what's better than discovering a new place together when you're moving out of your 20's? We have been together for almost 3 years, and though we are the picture of the perfect same sex couple, we do have our problems occasionally. The main one is the obvious distance when I'm travelling of course, and her having to be the responsible good mortgage payer back in Melbourne, Australia. I have a dog that I love very much, Belle, though she too has had to be left behind with her fantastic Nan (my Mum) as travel with pets is vitually impossible when you're Australian, and as you can tell, even my love for home and everyone back there, my need to travel in strong! I was bitten badly by the travel bug about 5 years ago. Before that I was running a business (or two) and working away my desire to do anything not safe. Though, with my Mum's strong influence to do whatever scares you most, I sold up and started out on my first adult around the World adventure. It was meant to be only a year, though it was extended a little! I took my Mum for the first leg with me, through North America and ending in our 2nd home, Lochem, The Netherlands, after five & a half amazing months of having my Mum to myself and dragging her around with me... Did I mention it was her 60th birthday present from me? My Mum is Dutch, and until recently had kept her nationality, having no real memories of her birthplace, she wanted to go back for a while to live. Her and her most recent husband (a joke, they've been married this year 20 years) moved over in October of 1992, with two young children, 8 and 9 year olds girls... I was that nine year old! We lived there, went to school there, learnt the language fluently there, celebrated double christmas there, and all and all became good little dutchies, in out teeny tiny town of Lochem. That was my first taste of the World around us, and though yet again we did everything on the tightest budget imaginable, every holiday or long weekend we'd all pile up in a tiny hatchback, one of my older sisters also joined us by then, and we'd drive to other countries, and sometimes a few in a day... It was amazing to me, this little Perth girl vowed to herself that when she was older she'd explore as much of the World as humanly possible someday. I don't think I'll ever achieve such a high demand, though the closer I get the more I get the feeling that there's so much more. I don't know if everyone knows this, but Perth in Western Australia is geographically the most isolated city in the World, and I think that plays a huge role in my desire to push the limits a little and sometimes a lot.
When I was younger I was also incredibly athletic. I was a cross country runner, was in the state long distance relay team, and did hours after many hours of Ballet dancing. It's another story completely, but my oldest sister is one of the highest ballet teachers in Australia, becoming the youngest Fellow, and continuing her ballet career very successfully in the choreography side, as well as teaching. Having her as my teacher, as my Mum would put it, was good because it was free. With that again, I excelled. I did very well in dance, did a little acting and could sing, I was hoping to use my top dance grades and singing ability to her me get into the Musical Theatre Degree at WAAPA in W.A. however that dream was shattered when I oddly got glandular fever. I recovered from that okay, but then started turning a nice shade of Simpsons yellow. I had developed a serious liver disfunction. The liver being as clever as it is, has healed a lot by now. Though the medication and the recovery result was my bodies now extra 70kilos of body fat! I literally gained double and a bit of my original body mass in just over a year. I was a vegetarian, that ate extremely healthy, too healthy I later found out, but yet I was Morbidly Obsese. I got to just over 140kgs, I think thats just over 300lbs. Needless to say, I was shattered, devastated, and the realisation that my dancing, singing and most importantly my acting dreams were now dashed and doomed! I was 17 years old, and I was the ugliest, fattest, most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. I was already living by myself by then. Mum had kicked me out of home well and truely before then. It was what I needed, and I was ready to leave. I was asked if I wanted to come back, the only catch was I had to live by the house rules, which were quiet strict, I don't think I'm ready for that chapter just yet though. My response was, 'are the rules still the same? No? Well thanks, but no thanks. I'll be fine!' Which I honestly think I was.
Okay, so what to do? You have just looked at something thats disturbing in the mirror, and recognize it to be the 'new' you... You consider breaking that mirror, and possibly everything else around you, yet something inside tells you not to, and starts to grow a little within you. A belief that this is not entirely the end yet, you can do something, can't you? That something to me was get away and work, work until you make something of that misrable self...
I'll leave that will be for the next entry...
Oh yeah, I recharged the internet for another half hour somewhere in there; don't want you to think I was lying about the slow two finger typist that I am ... Sometimes I use three!!
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
the first entry!!
I'm not sure as yet what this blog will have in it, only that I know it will be useful for me to start it!
My name is Jessica Window, I'm currently in Berlin, Germany and travelling again around the World. I just finished my degree in Theatre Arts, studying at Victoria University, but ending it in Nottingham at NCN on an exchange program. I have always been acting, as my Mum was a casting agent, and when I got older I thought that a university degree might be useful in actually attaining some level of academic theatre knowledge and value. My history is somewhat all over the place, so as I continue with this blog will become evident hopefully, that I have had many lives in my 28 years.
On Thursday, I will be heading to South America, Buenos Aires, Argentina to be more precise. It will be my 65th country, according to Hostelworld Country counter. I'm very excited, though a little nervous, as I haven't been to South America before, and my Spanish is pretty limited. I am hoping that in Bolivia possibly, I will do a homestay and spanish lessons so my six months there will be easier to get around and the more I can learn the better. I met someone recntly that heard a little about my travel experiences and said that I should write a book, mostly aimed at women, as I have mostly done my travels solo. I have met many inspirring people over my years of travel, and hope I can one day be someone elses inspiration to see the World and make the most out of the one life we know we have for certain. I do have a very strict budget, and I try to do as much local and touristy things as I possibly can with it. I don't have money from any family member or funding, everything I have I have had to work for. Which of course means some scarifice.
I come from a relatively poor background, where my Mum was a single parent of five daughters, the three oldest were teenagers when my little sister and myself came about. My mother put a lot of importance into education, so thats where all her money went in for us. I remember clearly that once a week my Mum got us to go buy the $2 box of fruit from the fruit n vege market, it was the box of bad fruit that I think was intended for the family rabbit, or maybe stewing, though for us it was our 5 a day! It was almost a joke how much money my friends at school had for their lunches, and when I'd open my lunchbox my heart would almost break at the disturbing news that once again I was getting a pear with the bad bit cut out, and a baked-bean roll that was still frozen in the middle. I know my Mum was doing the best she could now in hindsight, but hindsight still doesn't let me forget it. My Mum had so many jobs to pay the mortgage, that at the time was incredibly high because of the Keating government I believe, and the recession in the 80s. Needless to say, I wasn't the most popular girl in my class, it didn't help that I was also the youngest, having been put up to year one when I was meant to be in Kindygarden. The age difference when you're just a kid is enormous, and it didn't help that I was also the brains of the class. Oh, thank goodness for my teens and drugs and alcohol, destroying my intelligence to now be considered mediocre!! That's really not meant to be a compliment and an advocacy of drugs and alcohol, quite the opposite really, had I not been a somewhat teenaged rebel, I could have been trying to cure cancer by now in a lab, not just raising money by shaving my waist-lengthed dreadlocks off. That's another story, but something I am quite proud of. Basicly a friend of mine got cancer, and she was scared of losing her hair, quite normal I'd say. There is a Leukemia foundation in Australia that is famous for the World's Greatest Shave, so I decided I'd sign up. I had waist-lengthed coloured dreadlocks, that I've already mentioned clearly, so thought I might russle up a bit of cash. I did! The media wanted to follow my shave, and it was tellivised (not sure of spelling, I'm not a great speller) on the 7pm Project on Channel Ten. They didn't end up showing the final result, because the shave to a zero I had auctioned off to my biggest sponsorer. That honour went to my life long friend Dean Radbone, he sponsored me $252, $2 more than his Wife Helen. So shaving cream and razor, I was Bald... that was one year ago almost exactly. With the television sponsorship that McDonalds gave of $50,000 (though they would have given it to anyone that the TV chose) and the $7000ish that I raised, I think my hair did pretty good.
So right now... well right now, I think I'll leave this first entry, as I have my friend from Berlin waking up from her nap, and we have a dinner to work out, I'm voting on a place called Koriander in Oranienburger, its great food, with cheap cocktails ..... YAY!!! We're going!!
:)
My name is Jessica Window, I'm currently in Berlin, Germany and travelling again around the World. I just finished my degree in Theatre Arts, studying at Victoria University, but ending it in Nottingham at NCN on an exchange program. I have always been acting, as my Mum was a casting agent, and when I got older I thought that a university degree might be useful in actually attaining some level of academic theatre knowledge and value. My history is somewhat all over the place, so as I continue with this blog will become evident hopefully, that I have had many lives in my 28 years.
On Thursday, I will be heading to South America, Buenos Aires, Argentina to be more precise. It will be my 65th country, according to Hostelworld Country counter. I'm very excited, though a little nervous, as I haven't been to South America before, and my Spanish is pretty limited. I am hoping that in Bolivia possibly, I will do a homestay and spanish lessons so my six months there will be easier to get around and the more I can learn the better. I met someone recntly that heard a little about my travel experiences and said that I should write a book, mostly aimed at women, as I have mostly done my travels solo. I have met many inspirring people over my years of travel, and hope I can one day be someone elses inspiration to see the World and make the most out of the one life we know we have for certain. I do have a very strict budget, and I try to do as much local and touristy things as I possibly can with it. I don't have money from any family member or funding, everything I have I have had to work for. Which of course means some scarifice.
I come from a relatively poor background, where my Mum was a single parent of five daughters, the three oldest were teenagers when my little sister and myself came about. My mother put a lot of importance into education, so thats where all her money went in for us. I remember clearly that once a week my Mum got us to go buy the $2 box of fruit from the fruit n vege market, it was the box of bad fruit that I think was intended for the family rabbit, or maybe stewing, though for us it was our 5 a day! It was almost a joke how much money my friends at school had for their lunches, and when I'd open my lunchbox my heart would almost break at the disturbing news that once again I was getting a pear with the bad bit cut out, and a baked-bean roll that was still frozen in the middle. I know my Mum was doing the best she could now in hindsight, but hindsight still doesn't let me forget it. My Mum had so many jobs to pay the mortgage, that at the time was incredibly high because of the Keating government I believe, and the recession in the 80s. Needless to say, I wasn't the most popular girl in my class, it didn't help that I was also the youngest, having been put up to year one when I was meant to be in Kindygarden. The age difference when you're just a kid is enormous, and it didn't help that I was also the brains of the class. Oh, thank goodness for my teens and drugs and alcohol, destroying my intelligence to now be considered mediocre!! That's really not meant to be a compliment and an advocacy of drugs and alcohol, quite the opposite really, had I not been a somewhat teenaged rebel, I could have been trying to cure cancer by now in a lab, not just raising money by shaving my waist-lengthed dreadlocks off. That's another story, but something I am quite proud of. Basicly a friend of mine got cancer, and she was scared of losing her hair, quite normal I'd say. There is a Leukemia foundation in Australia that is famous for the World's Greatest Shave, so I decided I'd sign up. I had waist-lengthed coloured dreadlocks, that I've already mentioned clearly, so thought I might russle up a bit of cash. I did! The media wanted to follow my shave, and it was tellivised (not sure of spelling, I'm not a great speller) on the 7pm Project on Channel Ten. They didn't end up showing the final result, because the shave to a zero I had auctioned off to my biggest sponsorer. That honour went to my life long friend Dean Radbone, he sponsored me $252, $2 more than his Wife Helen. So shaving cream and razor, I was Bald... that was one year ago almost exactly. With the television sponsorship that McDonalds gave of $50,000 (though they would have given it to anyone that the TV chose) and the $7000ish that I raised, I think my hair did pretty good.
So right now... well right now, I think I'll leave this first entry, as I have my friend from Berlin waking up from her nap, and we have a dinner to work out, I'm voting on a place called Koriander in Oranienburger, its great food, with cheap cocktails ..... YAY!!! We're going!!
:)
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