bringing it back to Britain. I have no idea if it's the much foreseen
a-pork-olypse...
As a good indication of the sort of thing we've had to put up with on
this trip i give you the example of fake money. This is a serious
problem in Peru where large numbers of counterfeit notes are produced
and in circulation. Having been warned about this on numerous
occasions we carefully checked all the notes passed to us, but as
we're unfamiliar with the currency it's harder for us as tourists to
spot them and the locals know it. We paid our (extortionate) fee to
have a look at a church in Cusco and the church-worker on the door
tried to pass me a fake 20 Soles note in my change. He clearly knew
what he was doing from the look on his face when i spotted it didn't
have a strip down the middle. He looked disappointed. It comes to
something when representatives of the church starts behaving like
that.
We flew to Arequipa. We'd heard one too many horror stories about the
buses to be comfortable with using them, and it would have been a bit
annoying to be murdered on the way to our last South American
destination. It's a quaint colonial town set in the middle of the
desert with lots of nice churches and stuff, but the main attraction
is Colca Canyon - a two-day trip to the north. It's a very dramatic
hole in the ground, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US, and
with its own micro-climate. We stayed overnight in the town of Chivay
where we were taken to a Peña for a meal and to watch the local folk
dancing, which was particularly weird. Towards the end of their
routine the dancers pulled out slings and oranges and started belting
each other with them before asking the audience to join in. The music
was more conventional.
On the second day we were up early to take a walk along the canyon
edge and to watch the condors using the thermals to circle up into the
air. They're genuinely impressive birds with massive wingspans. Shame
the locals keep shooting them for attacking the baby llamas. The
camalids (llamas, alpacas, etc) are really quite adorable and much
nicer than sheep. They have huge eyes and the docile attitude needed
in an animal that's about to be sheared and then slaughtered for meat.
Dan's been quite ill over the last few days with a stomach bug, so
he's been off his food and on the loo non-stop. Because of this i went
to look at the St Catalina Monetary myself. It was one of the
highlights of the trip (but don't tell Dan). It was a rabbit warren of
courtyards, alleys, small dwellings and fountains painted in bright
red, blue and yellow. The nuns who used to live here were all of the
naughty rich variety who kept slaves and considered chastity someone
else's problem. The pope finally sent in a troubleshooter to return
them to more monastic ways early last century and the major of
Arequipa forced the place to be opened to the public shortly after.
Three flights, 24 hours and one delay of three hours while a bulb in
the pilot's cockpit was investigated, we arrived at the last city on
our trip, Boston. This place is heaven on earth after squalor of South
America, particularly the hotel which is pure luxury compared to some
of the places we've been. Its great being somewhere were we can speak
English without feeling guilty about it.
I think Boston it the most amenable American city I've been to. It's
clean, safe and accessible. The public transport works and the parks
are really nice, particularly at the moment as the apple and cherry
blossom is out. They also have real ale there. There are predictably
more than a handful of Irish pubs and some of them actually have Irish
people running them (and I don't mean Americans of Irish ancestry). On
Wednesday we walked the "freedom" walk, a tour of sights related to
the war of independence. It's a bit of indulgent English-bashing, but
it wasn't me who taxed their bloody tea, so i don't know why i felt
belittled. On the final day we had a quick look around the famous
universities of MIT and Harvard, but to be honest, they weren't very
interesting and i was just counting down the hours until we could fly
home.
Well that's the end of it. We're on our way home now and quite frankly
I can't wait to get there. As is traditional upon such an occasions,
here are a few lists of bests and worsts. Thanks for coming and I'll
see you soon.
FAVOURITE PLACE
(1) Antarctica
(2) South Georgia
(3) Tereji National Park, Mongolia
(4) South Luangwa National Park, Zambia
(5) Friendship Highway, Tibet
(6) Ubud, Indonesia
WORST PLACE
(1) Calcutta, India
(2) Pangandaran, Indonesia
MOST PLEASANT PLACE (not much to do but hang out and absorb the atmosphere)
(1) Amritsar, India
(2) Boston, USA
(3) Hoi An, Vietnam
(4) Mendoza, Argentina
(5) Sydney, Australia
WORST HOTEL
(1) Calcutta
(2) Tingri, Tibet
BEST HOTEL (relative to local standards)
(1) La Rosetta, La Paz
BEST HIKE
(1) El Chalten, Argentina
(2) Mount Aso, Japan
(3) Around Ubud, Indonesia
BEST EXPERIENCE
(1) Being woken up by hippos next to the window in Zambia,
(2) Microlighting over Victoria Falls,
(3) A whale going under our Zodiac boat in Antarctica,
(4) Penguins nibbling my wellies on South Georgia.
WORST EXPERIENCE
(1) Bus crash in China,
(2) Hotel in Calcutta,
(3) The all-you-can-eat buffets in Japan,
(4) Going to the loo at night in Africa,
(5) Coming down from Everest Base camp, Tibet,
(6) Getting the flu in Lijiang, China.
BEST CACTUS
(1) Salta
BEST TRANSPORT
(1) Trans-Siberia train
(2) Dug out boat, Okavanga Delta
(3) Tobogan, Great Wall, Beijing
WORST TRANSPORT
(1) Flecha bus, Iguacu to Salta, Argentina
(2) Night bus, Saigon to Hoi An, Vietnam
(3) All flights
BEST ANIMALS
(1) Penguins, South Atlantic
(2) Pandas, China
(3) Hippos, Africa
(4) Big cats, Africa
(5) Camalids, Bolivia and Peru
WORST ANIMALS
(1) Bus drivers, South America
(2) Provodnitsas, Russia
(3) Touts (everywhere but especially India)
(4) Population of Copacabana, Bolivia
BEST OLD RUIN
(1) Dan,
(2) Machu Picchu, Peru,
(3) Borobodur, Indonesia,
(4) Taj Mahal, India.
*** THE END ***
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1 comment:
Oi! Enough of the "old ruin" already!
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