Monday, October 23, 2006
The Long Road South
How much time can one man spend on a bus..?
I decided to zip straight through Ecuador and head straight for Peru, only I did it the long way round. After flying out of Cali to Tulcan, and getting x-rayed to see if I was a drugs mule into the deal (they asked me if I'd swallowed any coins lately before I signed the consent form???) - I took a bus to Quito, changed onto an overnight bus to Loja, and then got a bus to a little place called Zumba, a garrison town with only very nasty hotels. The next day I journeyed across the border to Chachapoyas in Peru - this meant travelling in 3 collectivos, 1 minivan, 1 flatbed truck and 2 moto-taxis, all so I could visit the ruins at Kuelap.
To some extent, Norwegian Chris and I sped through Peru the first time, so I'm now mopping up some of the places I missed, now that I'm on my way back down. This includes 4 places of archaeological interest, all billed, as most of the sites I've visited are, as the most important in South America.
Kuelap is a stunning hill top fortress, once home to Inca-hating folk who then fell foul of their supposed conquistador alies, and so there is little other trace of them. It's huge undulating walls enclose numerous circular buildings, not totally unlike those in Colombia's Lost City. Again, like most in South America, the site is as yet mostly un-excavated, however, unlike most there is good preservation and reconstruction work underway.
From Kuelap I moved down to Chiclayo, to visit the Sipán. The huacas, (pyramids) having been built of adobe millennia ago, are fairly shabby, and I didn't think they were as impressive as those of Chan Chan and Sol y Luna, down the road in Trujillo. However the treasures uncovered in the burial grounds are spectacular, (beating the pants off European found grave goods, like Sutton Hoo), and probably worth visiting the museums for than the pyramids themselves. There isn't much to the town of Chiclayo itself, but it does have a great and extensive market, where you can buy all the usual foods and goods, including great fish and black maize, but also curative potions, huge lumps of charcoal from a choice of 50 vendors, and where I almost got abducted by some stall holders attempting to sell me a belt I really didn't want.
The next set of buses, including one that took 8 hours instead of the normal 3, due to break downs and closed roads, at 4000 meters above sea level, (personally I felt sorriest for the chickens stuck on the top all that time), finally got me to Chavin. At first sight the ruins don't seem like all that much: a set of dilapidated ramparts surrounding a sunken central plaza, but within the ramparts are a series of labyrinthine tunnels, one of which leads to El Lanzon, a knife shaped obelisk. Several intricate carvings of gods, men and monsters survive. On the bus back to Huaraz I kept thinking we were passing a lot of sheep until I realised the bleating was coming from one we were carrying in the boot.
From Huaraz, I bussed, via a connection in Lima all the way down to a little oasis town, Huacachina, near Ica to rest up for a night, take in a dune buggy ride and some rather unsatisfying sand-boarding (it just ain't the same as snow: not much speed and little manoeuvrability by comparison), before heading down to Nazca, and its famous lines.
Nazca is another lesson in not listening to the dissenters. I've just heard too much "don't know what all the fuss is about" from fellow travellers I've encountered on my journey. I suppose it's not going to be everyones' cup of tea, but then it's no more or less than advertised either. Etched by the drought besieged Nazcans having abandoned their temples to appeal directly to their gods for rain, spectacularly straight lines and stretch out across the desert plain bisecting shamanic inspired geomorphic figures, (or if you listen to some, they're landing sites for space ships - yeah, right).
The Nazca Lines, like Easter Island and Machu Picchu are places I've wanted to visit since I was a child, are another highlight of my trip. But they are also the last of the major Archaeological sites I shall visit, as I will now head back along the Pan American, into Chile heading yet further south.
Meanwhile, I've also found a candidate for the most un-PC sweet wrapper award. Dona Pepa is a chocolate biscuit bar made by Kraft subsidery Lacta:
...oh, and on the "musical differences" front, I finally got Wang Chunged in the taxi this morning, and currently a Flock of Seaguls are on the radio...
I decided to zip straight through Ecuador and head straight for Peru, only I did it the long way round. After flying out of Cali to Tulcan, and getting x-rayed to see if I was a drugs mule into the deal (they asked me if I'd swallowed any coins lately before I signed the consent form???) - I took a bus to Quito, changed onto an overnight bus to Loja, and then got a bus to a little place called Zumba, a garrison town with only very nasty hotels. The next day I journeyed across the border to Chachapoyas in Peru - this meant travelling in 3 collectivos, 1 minivan, 1 flatbed truck and 2 moto-taxis, all so I could visit the ruins at Kuelap.
To some extent, Norwegian Chris and I sped through Peru the first time, so I'm now mopping up some of the places I missed, now that I'm on my way back down. This includes 4 places of archaeological interest, all billed, as most of the sites I've visited are, as the most important in South America.
Kuelap is a stunning hill top fortress, once home to Inca-hating folk who then fell foul of their supposed conquistador alies, and so there is little other trace of them. It's huge undulating walls enclose numerous circular buildings, not totally unlike those in Colombia's Lost City. Again, like most in South America, the site is as yet mostly un-excavated, however, unlike most there is good preservation and reconstruction work underway.
From Kuelap I moved down to Chiclayo, to visit the Sipán. The huacas, (pyramids) having been built of adobe millennia ago, are fairly shabby, and I didn't think they were as impressive as those of Chan Chan and Sol y Luna, down the road in Trujillo. However the treasures uncovered in the burial grounds are spectacular, (beating the pants off European found grave goods, like Sutton Hoo), and probably worth visiting the museums for than the pyramids themselves. There isn't much to the town of Chiclayo itself, but it does have a great and extensive market, where you can buy all the usual foods and goods, including great fish and black maize, but also curative potions, huge lumps of charcoal from a choice of 50 vendors, and where I almost got abducted by some stall holders attempting to sell me a belt I really didn't want.
The next set of buses, including one that took 8 hours instead of the normal 3, due to break downs and closed roads, at 4000 meters above sea level, (personally I felt sorriest for the chickens stuck on the top all that time), finally got me to Chavin. At first sight the ruins don't seem like all that much: a set of dilapidated ramparts surrounding a sunken central plaza, but within the ramparts are a series of labyrinthine tunnels, one of which leads to El Lanzon, a knife shaped obelisk. Several intricate carvings of gods, men and monsters survive. On the bus back to Huaraz I kept thinking we were passing a lot of sheep until I realised the bleating was coming from one we were carrying in the boot.From Huaraz, I bussed, via a connection in Lima all the way down to a little oasis town, Huacachina, near Ica to rest up for a night, take in a dune buggy ride and some rather unsatisfying sand-boarding (it just ain't the same as snow: not much speed and little manoeuvrability by comparison), before heading down to Nazca, and its famous lines.
Nazca is another lesson in not listening to the dissenters. I've just heard too much "don't know what all the fuss is about" from fellow travellers I've encountered on my journey. I suppose it's not going to be everyones' cup of tea, but then it's no more or less than advertised either. Etched by the drought besieged Nazcans having abandoned their temples to appeal directly to their gods for rain, spectacularly straight lines and stretch out across the desert plain bisecting shamanic inspired geomorphic figures, (or if you listen to some, they're landing sites for space ships - yeah, right).The Nazca Lines, like Easter Island and Machu Picchu are places I've wanted to visit since I was a child, are another highlight of my trip. But they are also the last of the major Archaeological sites I shall visit, as I will now head back along the Pan American, into Chile heading yet further south.
Meanwhile, I've also found a candidate for the most un-PC sweet wrapper award. Dona Pepa is a chocolate biscuit bar made by Kraft subsidery Lacta:
...oh, and on the "musical differences" front, I finally got Wang Chunged in the taxi this morning, and currently a Flock of Seaguls are on the radio...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Colombia
Where almost everything begins with a C
I've been keeping my visit to Colombia quiet, for no other reason than to stop my mum from worrying, but now I've left the country I can reveal all...
Best known for cocaine and decades of civil war, Colombia has got a bad reputation, but it is a truly beautiful country, and as far as my experience goes very safe.
Cali
My first stop was in Cali, a fairly grubby city, but the world capital of Salsa. Having two left feet I left that to others. The women of Cali have a reputation for being the most beautiful in Colombia, but in a word.... na.
A short trip from Cali is San Cipriano, a jungle village only accessible by a train line. The locals ferry you along the line on a wooden pallet, with a motor bike strapped to it so that the back wheel rests on the rail and pushes the whole thing along. It is like being on a life size Scalectrix track.
Cafetera
In the middle of the coffee region is Salento a lovely place to chill out and where I visited a small coffee finca run by and old man and his family and had the freshest cup of coffee imaginable. I also learnt how to play Tejo, a game where, basically, you throw lumps of metal at small packets of explosives - only in Colombia!
Cartels and Cosmetic Surgery
Medellin, home to the once all powerful Medellin Cartel and much loved Pablo Escobar until he was gun down by police. It's also a big party town, and on any given weekend night the results of being the South American capital of plastic surgery is all on display. The current latest deal is US$1000 for boobs, nose and bum...
Cartegena, Crew-Cut and Cholera
Cartegena old town is such a beautiful, well preserved colonial city, (reminded me a lot of Cadiz, but that makes sense seeing as they were both fortified by the Spanish after a few attacks by the English), that a US-Colombian collaboration were making a film of Marquez's Love In A Time of Cholera at the time I was there. Cartegena is also damn hot, so the hair went. When Carrie saw it she asked whose army I was joining - there are several to choose from here. But that was her parting shot and it was here we went our separate ways again, with promises to meet up in Patagonia!
Caribbean Coast
Further along the coast is the town of Santa Marta, and the little village of Taganga, which is a great place to sit in a hammock and do nothing... what more can I say.
Ciudad Perdida
Possibly the best thing I've done on this trip. A hard trek on which you are quite literally soaked in either sweat, rain or river water... But, the Lost City is just as you can imagine it should be: in the middle of the jungle a flight of 2000 moss covered stone steps lead up from the river to ancient terraces, that line the mountain side, and on which there are still the stone foundations of the long since rotted wooden buildings. The city is surrounded by forest, with a huge amount still remaining hidden - steps tantalisingly lead off from the paths into inpenatrable jungle. What makes it all the more a magical experience is that, as this is the only permitted way to reach the city, our group (16 people and guides) were the only people there. This isn't the world's most conventional trek: money goes to paramilitaries for protection, there's a visit to a cocaine factory, the guide regaled us with tales of when the ELN kidnapped his group, and on the first night we got handed a huge bag of weed. And once you're done at the city you have to trek all the way back - If you are thinking of doing this trip, although the trek itself is probably a medium grade the heat pushes it up to a hard, and you do need to have a reasonable level of fitness to attempt it. Food and facilities are good, but expect to get very hot and sweaty, very dirty, get rained on, and cross rivers that are waist high or deeper - not a trek where you'll keep your boots dry...oh yeah, and then there are the mosquitoes and sand flies, the record on our trip was 180 bites below the waist before we gave up counting.
Capital City and Colonial Villages
From the coast I turned round and started head back south. From Santa Marta I made my way to Bogota, via Gíron and Barichara, two wonderfully oldy world pueblos. It would have been easy to get stuck in Bogota, but as I am going to attempt to make it to Patagonia before I return home, I had to move on, from this buzzing city, with great culture and great nightlife. Popayan, my last stop in my trip in Colombia, is another lovely colonial town.
Can't think of a way to describe...San Agustin and Tierradentro.
These two fantastic places are billed as "possibly the most important archaeological sites" in South America.
San Agustin sits in an area where another lost civilisation spent there time preparing for the next life by building statues that accompanied their tombs. My guide round the archaeological park was Luis Alfredo, or Jerry, and is good value entertainment but I don't believe a word of what he said - he's swallowed every theory out there, and I checked out when he started with the alien contact stuff.
Tierradentro was home to another bunch of ancient tomb builders, in a stunningly beautiful valley. The tombs have staircases leading down into womb like chambers, some of which are painted with geometric patterns, where the dead were buried in foetal position ready for rebirth into the next life. Many, across a couple of sites, have been preserved but a few dozen others, on the top of the nearby mountain ridge, have been destroyed by grave robbers, however they are still worth a visit. Gaping holes reveal entrance ways to the burial chambers - I crept into a few, but I convinced myself that the others were inhabited by man-eating spiders the size of Shetland ponies and so that's all I managed. The surrounding countryside is breath taking. There is a diverse enough micro climate for coffee, banana, sugar cane, oranges, fir trees, mosses to all grow at different levels along the hill side, and the valley is filled with blooms of many and varied trees, flowers and orchids.
Crashes
I imagined that covering the amount of miles I have this trip I would probably see a fair few road accidents. Thankfully I've been greatly relieved and have seen only a few...and then I reached Colombia, but maybe that's not surprising in a country where they publish the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities by the various bus companies in the bus terminal. And where all long vehicles including buses come equipped with a flashing light - this is so at night when they are overtaking on blind corners the traffic in the opposite direction can see them.
Can't get enough of this place.
Colombia is the most beautiful country I have visited here, the people are wonderful, it's as developed as Argentina or Chile, and it is very safe. There are troops on the roads, there is a 50 year long civil war, there is major drugs business here. But as a tourist you are no less a target for crime than anywhere else in South America. Virtually everyone I have spoken too bemoans the bad reputation their country has, and more often than not blame the press. Everyone always asks you to tell your friends that it isn't a bad place. It isn't.
I love Colombia. My biggest problem with it is working out how and when I can come back again. Basically, there is something for everyone, culture, beaches and diving, party towns, archaeology and colonial towns, and great places to just chill out. Everyone should visit here at least once in their lives.
There are also some people around the place working really hard to make Colombia an even better experience, like Tim at the Plantation house in Salento and Kelvin at the Black Sheep Hostal in Medellin. The guidebooks are out of date and sometimes miss whole (safe) chunks of the country, if you're planning to come to Colombia have a look at Kelvin's website, it has really good up-to-date information on loads of places: http://www.blacksheepmedellin.com/
I've been keeping my visit to Colombia quiet, for no other reason than to stop my mum from worrying, but now I've left the country I can reveal all...Best known for cocaine and decades of civil war, Colombia has got a bad reputation, but it is a truly beautiful country, and as far as my experience goes very safe.
Cali
My first stop was in Cali, a fairly grubby city, but the world capital of Salsa. Having two left feet I left that to others. The women of Cali have a reputation for being the most beautiful in Colombia, but in a word.... na.
A short trip from Cali is San Cipriano, a jungle village only accessible by a train line. The locals ferry you along the line on a wooden pallet, with a motor bike strapped to it so that the back wheel rests on the rail and pushes the whole thing along. It is like being on a life size Scalectrix track.
Cafetera
In the middle of the coffee region is Salento a lovely place to chill out and where I visited a small coffee finca run by and old man and his family and had the freshest cup of coffee imaginable. I also learnt how to play Tejo, a game where, basically, you throw lumps of metal at small packets of explosives - only in Colombia!Cartels and Cosmetic Surgery
Medellin, home to the once all powerful Medellin Cartel and much loved Pablo Escobar until he was gun down by police. It's also a big party town, and on any given weekend night the results of being the South American capital of plastic surgery is all on display. The current latest deal is US$1000 for boobs, nose and bum...
Cartegena, Crew-Cut and Cholera
Cartegena old town is such a beautiful, well preserved colonial city, (reminded me a lot of Cadiz, but that makes sense seeing as they were both fortified by the Spanish after a few attacks by the English), that a US-Colombian collaboration were making a film of Marquez's Love In A Time of Cholera at the time I was there. Cartegena is also damn hot, so the hair went. When Carrie saw it she asked whose army I was joining - there are several to choose from here. But that was her parting shot and it was here we went our separate ways again, with promises to meet up in Patagonia!Caribbean Coast
Further along the coast is the town of Santa Marta, and the little village of Taganga, which is a great place to sit in a hammock and do nothing... what more can I say.
Ciudad Perdida
Possibly the best thing I've done on this trip. A hard trek on which you are quite literally soaked in either sweat, rain or river water... But, the Lost City is just as you can imagine it should be: in the middle of the jungle a flight of 2000 moss covered stone steps lead up from the river to ancient terraces, that line the mountain side, and on which there are still the stone foundations of the long since rotted wooden buildings. The city is surrounded by forest, with a huge amount still remaining hidden - steps tantalisingly lead off from the paths into inpenatrable jungle. What makes it all the more a magical experience is that, as this is the only permitted way to reach the city, our group (16 people and guides) were the only people there. This isn't the world's most conventional trek: money goes to paramilitaries for protection, there's a visit to a cocaine factory, the guide regaled us with tales of when the ELN kidnapped his group, and on the first night we got handed a huge bag of weed. And once you're done at the city you have to trek all the way back - If you are thinking of doing this trip, although the trek itself is probably a medium grade the heat pushes it up to a hard, and you do need to have a reasonable level of fitness to attempt it. Food and facilities are good, but expect to get very hot and sweaty, very dirty, get rained on, and cross rivers that are waist high or deeper - not a trek where you'll keep your boots dry...oh yeah, and then there are the mosquitoes and sand flies, the record on our trip was 180 bites below the waist before we gave up counting.Capital City and Colonial Villages
From the coast I turned round and started head back south. From Santa Marta I made my way to Bogota, via Gíron and Barichara, two wonderfully oldy world pueblos. It would have been easy to get stuck in Bogota, but as I am going to attempt to make it to Patagonia before I return home, I had to move on, from this buzzing city, with great culture and great nightlife. Popayan, my last stop in my trip in Colombia, is another lovely colonial town.
Can't think of a way to describe...San Agustin and Tierradentro.
These two fantastic places are billed as "possibly the most important archaeological sites" in South America.
San Agustin sits in an area where another lost civilisation spent there time preparing for the next life by building statues that accompanied their tombs. My guide round the archaeological park was Luis Alfredo, or Jerry, and is good value entertainment but I don't believe a word of what he said - he's swallowed every theory out there, and I checked out when he started with the alien contact stuff.
Tierradentro was home to another bunch of ancient tomb builders, in a stunningly beautiful valley. The tombs have staircases leading down into womb like chambers, some of which are painted with geometric patterns, where the dead were buried in foetal position ready for rebirth into the next life. Many, across a couple of sites, have been preserved but a few dozen others, on the top of the nearby mountain ridge, have been destroyed by grave robbers, however they are still worth a visit. Gaping holes reveal entrance ways to the burial chambers - I crept into a few, but I convinced myself that the others were inhabited by man-eating spiders the size of Shetland ponies and so that's all I managed. The surrounding countryside is breath taking. There is a diverse enough micro climate for coffee, banana, sugar cane, oranges, fir trees, mosses to all grow at different levels along the hill side, and the valley is filled with blooms of many and varied trees, flowers and orchids.Crashes
I imagined that covering the amount of miles I have this trip I would probably see a fair few road accidents. Thankfully I've been greatly relieved and have seen only a few...and then I reached Colombia, but maybe that's not surprising in a country where they publish the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities by the various bus companies in the bus terminal. And where all long vehicles including buses come equipped with a flashing light - this is so at night when they are overtaking on blind corners the traffic in the opposite direction can see them.
Can't get enough of this place.
Colombia is the most beautiful country I have visited here, the people are wonderful, it's as developed as Argentina or Chile, and it is very safe. There are troops on the roads, there is a 50 year long civil war, there is major drugs business here. But as a tourist you are no less a target for crime than anywhere else in South America. Virtually everyone I have spoken too bemoans the bad reputation their country has, and more often than not blame the press. Everyone always asks you to tell your friends that it isn't a bad place. It isn't.
I love Colombia. My biggest problem with it is working out how and when I can come back again. Basically, there is something for everyone, culture, beaches and diving, party towns, archaeology and colonial towns, and great places to just chill out. Everyone should visit here at least once in their lives.
There are also some people around the place working really hard to make Colombia an even better experience, like Tim at the Plantation house in Salento and Kelvin at the Black Sheep Hostal in Medellin. The guidebooks are out of date and sometimes miss whole (safe) chunks of the country, if you're planning to come to Colombia have a look at Kelvin's website, it has really good up-to-date information on loads of places: http://www.blacksheepmedellin.com/
Monday, October 02, 2006
Musical Differences
Time for a letter to the Editor from "Angry of Tooting"
One might think that it would be all Salsa and Reggaeton, but musical tastes across the continent seem to vary wildly, and although it doesn't take much digging to get to the local or more traditional music, the standard fair is a mish mash of styles, even in club sets. And off course pan pipes are all over the more touristic Andean areas, and no artist is spared, but believe me My Way and Like A Virgin just don't work.
In some countries there is a frighteningly high level of bad 80's music on virtually all playlists - in fact, as I write Come On Eileen is playing on the radio. In Chile I heard A-ha's Take On Me virtually everyday, and one day heard it 3 times and saw the video once. In Paraguay it was Alphaville "Big In Japan". It can only be a matter of time until I get Wang Chunged.
In San Pedro de Atacama, I sat in a restaurant while dinner was accompanied by a three piece comprised of drums, double base and ukalele, playing a right mix of stuff. However, having seen the Ukalele Orchestra of Great Britain perform Apache, with their tongues firmly in cheeks, it was impossible for me to keep a straight face when these guys attempted it. At the end of their set the ukalele player came round with their CD for sale. He put it on our table, but immediately picked it up, and said tersly "I don't think you really enjoyed it, so there's not much point is there?".
In Ecuador, when the bus drivers aren't playing local music, they revert to dodgy 80's American MOR, but in bars and on the street it's never long until before you hear Shakira's Hips Don't Lie ...I know love, I know.
In Argentina there is a horrific new wave of muzak that has infiltrated many bars in which classic songs have been recorded with dinner jazz arrangements and syruppy female vocals. There are some songs that you can guess are just too popular to escape this treatment (Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, Hotel California, et al) but somehow the Cure's Boys Don't Cry has not only been ravaged in this way but also appears to be the track on most frequent rotation. I recently heard, in a French restaurant in Cusco, Peru, of one the very few vaguely decent cover versions, with sugary little girl lost vocals, of an indie classic: Australian band Frente's version of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle. It wouldn't be completely out of place in the Sarah Records catalogue, but the deliberate pronounciation the word "every" as "elvery" jars.
Meanwhile, I have been chased across the continent, and driven to utter distraction, by that whimpering fop James Blunt.
...Rant over...
One might think that it would be all Salsa and Reggaeton, but musical tastes across the continent seem to vary wildly, and although it doesn't take much digging to get to the local or more traditional music, the standard fair is a mish mash of styles, even in club sets. And off course pan pipes are all over the more touristic Andean areas, and no artist is spared, but believe me My Way and Like A Virgin just don't work.
In some countries there is a frighteningly high level of bad 80's music on virtually all playlists - in fact, as I write Come On Eileen is playing on the radio. In Chile I heard A-ha's Take On Me virtually everyday, and one day heard it 3 times and saw the video once. In Paraguay it was Alphaville "Big In Japan". It can only be a matter of time until I get Wang Chunged.
In San Pedro de Atacama, I sat in a restaurant while dinner was accompanied by a three piece comprised of drums, double base and ukalele, playing a right mix of stuff. However, having seen the Ukalele Orchestra of Great Britain perform Apache, with their tongues firmly in cheeks, it was impossible for me to keep a straight face when these guys attempted it. At the end of their set the ukalele player came round with their CD for sale. He put it on our table, but immediately picked it up, and said tersly "I don't think you really enjoyed it, so there's not much point is there?".
In Ecuador, when the bus drivers aren't playing local music, they revert to dodgy 80's American MOR, but in bars and on the street it's never long until before you hear Shakira's Hips Don't Lie ...I know love, I know.
In Argentina there is a horrific new wave of muzak that has infiltrated many bars in which classic songs have been recorded with dinner jazz arrangements and syruppy female vocals. There are some songs that you can guess are just too popular to escape this treatment (Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds, Hotel California, et al) but somehow the Cure's Boys Don't Cry has not only been ravaged in this way but also appears to be the track on most frequent rotation. I recently heard, in a French restaurant in Cusco, Peru, of one the very few vaguely decent cover versions, with sugary little girl lost vocals, of an indie classic: Australian band Frente's version of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle. It wouldn't be completely out of place in the Sarah Records catalogue, but the deliberate pronounciation the word "every" as "elvery" jars.
Meanwhile, I have been chased across the continent, and driven to utter distraction, by that whimpering fop James Blunt.
...Rant over...
