the last photo

Rio ~ and home

Five days to discover the delights of Brazil as seen from Rio de Janeiro; a tall order, and one we didn't really attempt to achieve.
Travellers and guides frighten you beforehand with the dangers of the street, violence and poverty, but maybe we are less aware of it, or stupid, but Rio for us felt quite safe when we ventured out.
Gloria was our area, walking distance from the centre, but Rio is spread out over miles, I think one of the most beautiful city landscapes we have seen anywhere, a city rolling through hills and bays, dominated by Christ the Redeemer and the Sugarloaf. Best in the sunshine, it was often drizzly or grey when we were there, and so close up, slightly disappointing: the romance of Copacabana or Ipanema was for me no more than I find in an average concrete shopping centre; mmmmm....
Highlights tho' was to find myself in the creative heartland of Roberto Burle Marx, landscape architect, artist, ceramicist, sculptor etc. A joy for Jackie to discover also. To wander over the lawn at the Museum of Modern Art was as exciting as one can imagine, and I blagged my way to the roof of the Marriott Hotel to picture the sidewalks of Copacabana Beach. For four hours we bussed through the very dodgy northern suburbs to visit his farm and home - a perfect culmination to this year of inspiration searching! By the time I was visiting the Botanical Gardens in the city, two days before we left, I was starting to feel so full of new ideas, plants and thoughts, there was nowhere to put it all!

A great night out was had courtesy of Raul and Natalie, friends of friends, in true Brazilian style: drinks, food, and a head pounding reggae gig. A last weekend staying in luxury at the Hotel Gloria, but, by now, we wanted to go home. Yes, back to Blighty, family and friends!

Santiago

Postcard from Buenos Aires...

Wish U were here!

This place is fantastic!

Where men are gentle and women are ladies; a city locked in a beautiful era it cannot afford to leave. A tango culture which is real and vibrant, where everyone enjoys the beat of the street.

The ultimate long weekend where silver service wine and dinner leaves change from a ten pound note, glorious facades peer down at you from every angle of the road, art nouveau and art deco still resplendent, if somewhat dusty...

Ole!, we murmur approvingly to the raw pulsating Flamenco dancers and guitars on a black and white stage; Ole! as we stumble over the heaving paving stones that line San Telmo's curious but glorious past; Ole! as we turn the corners of Cementerio de la Recoleta to view the marble facade of Evita's resting place.

We didn't even get to the football, but Buenos Aires is fun, cheap, civilised, safe and beautiful...

a weekend treat: pop on down when you can!

Chile - Longest land, Longest day...

Tuesday 25 July is the longest day we have ever enjoyed. Up at 6, for a three hour flight down to Auckland from Fiji. Then 5 hours to hang around Auckland airport, which is quite easy really, especially as we find a free internet stand, it is standing, great for the next bit: 11 hours across the Pacific Ocean to Santiago. We leave Auckland at 5pm, teatime, and arrive at Santiago at 1pm , lunchtime, the same day! Aaaarghh! Brainless, we buy pesos, coffee, avoid the taxis and negotiate the local bus into the city centre...

Cold, grey drizzle accompanies us all the time in Santiago, but we warm to it. The hotels are not cheap, but everything else is. The hotel itself has a beautifully carved wooden staircase, high ceilinged rooms with narrow, tall doors in pairs, and staff who smile at our absolute lack of Spanish. We sleep and wander around Santiago, finding 2 excellent museums - one of pre-Columbian art in south and central America, the other a contemporary gallery sponsored by the Salvador Allende foundation - works that were stashed away for 17 years while Pinochet ruled the roost...

We never quite know what we will eat in Chile, (language), but we get a bean stew with floating sausage at lunchtime, and Jac has this salad at dinner - a pile of cold rice surrounded by heaps of cold chicken, cold ham, and a pile of cold cooked peppers! We learn that Énsalada´ means cold, not salad! Still, we manage to avoid food of the sort we photo´d for the ´Food´section of the blog! and we know we won´t go hungry!

We choose a 7 hour bus journey out of Santiago - north, its warmer! - to La Serena. The road north from Santiago takes us up through hills covered in light snow, cactii and almond trees, and then down to the coast through a rich green agricultural land. The Pacific pounds this rocky coastline and rolling surf greets the beaches. Single-storey houses, some on stilts, tin roofs like NZ, men and women waving white flags by the roadside to attract youto their cakes and drinks.
The land is green and the motorway empty, the bus is full and as comfy as any, and everywhere we go the Andes offer a white, distant backdrop.

La Serena is the second oldest city in Chile, and the locals declare the cleanest! We end up 5 nights here, courtesy of Maria, brother Pancho (a cobbler), and son Andres , who open up their house to backpackers, fuss over us, do our washing up despite protest, and generally point us in the right direction. Here we fight off colds: bright sunny days and cold nights, we peruse the museums, the Japanese gardens (not a bad effort!), stroll the beaches, eat fish soup at the port, and take a days tour inland to the Elqui Valley - learning all about Papaya and all its healing properties, Pisco - and all its properties, the Inca influence, the minerals, and the stars... Chile is mineral rich, and great import is given to the energies held within its mountains. Where we are now, its ´polar opposite´would be the Himalayas, which bit we wonder? People here since ancient times have used this mineral wealth for spiritual and esoteric purposes, now, of course, they`re rolling in it, and as copper prices shoot up the glitzy shopping malls are moving in. I didn`t expect to see the fast food outlets, multiplex cinemas and fashion stores in provincial Chile - but hey! everyone wants to shop! (it seems)

Our next journey will be an 18 hour bus ride up into the Andes, into the desert near Bolivia at San Pedro de Atacama. By 11pm we are rolling out of La Serena - these buses are something else - sleek monsters purring along endless roads, uniformed proud staff who fold every blanket so that the company motif only shows when stacked, and offer you biscuits and pop at mealtime.
At dawn, we awaken to a deep blue sky and miles of empty, barren, brown rock and dust, rolling as low hills into the distance. From now, until nearly 11 am when Antofagasta bursts upon us, I see ONE weed growing, no other form of life. Welcome to north Chile! Nearer to San Pedro our slumbering neighbours start to gasp and reach for the camera - salt flats and multi coloured plains dotted with shelves of rock formations surround us, and a small green oasis sits below us - San Pedro de Atacama, itself at nearly 2500 metres above sea level. (They,ve found marine fossils here!)
A few days are spent here - highlights included a night visit to a private observatory run by a French astronomer, Alain. Enthusiastically and wittily he guides us around the sky; we peer through his collection of telescopes at the moon and stars, and he debunks astrology in about 2 minutes (today, August the 3rd, the sun is actually in CANCER! - due to constellation movements over time!). Anyway, we learn a lot, red stars and blue stars, gaze at Alpha Centauri, have fantastic photos of the moon put on our digital camera; if interested check out
www.spaceobs.com When the Hubble telescope runs out of steam? power? commission? or whatever in 2010, then its replacement is being built in these hills, much more powerful...

Another day we take a tour off to Luna Valley, Death Valley and the salt caves - all self-explanetory geological marvels, and we watch a sunset from the top of a craggy peak that lights hundreds of miles of the Andes in a glowing crimson and scarlet. Quick fact for the gardeners:
average rainfall in San Pedro is 5-10 millimetres, per year!
An irrigation system much like the Andalucian izveccias runs thru the village and I spend two afternoons trying to locate the waters´source and end, to no avail, but a couple of interesting walks round the backs!
Our last night here was stupendous again - a somewhat mediocre afternoon tour ended up on the Chaxa salt lake - at sunset, with flamingos feeding and flying around us and all those technicolour Andean hues as the sun dipped down...
From here we had to go to Calama,1. to get money(not available in San Pedro) and 2. to fly to Santiago,but with a day in between to do the laundry, write some blog up (yaawn), and explore one of Chile´s more ordinary towns (all very downtown), and , visit the worlds biggest (widest and deepest) copper mine at Chuquicamata. We know of at least one little boy who will love the photo of me standing under the tyre of a dump truck with a load capacity of 170 tons, otherwise it was a useful exercise in thinking about man´s interaction with nature, especially after what we had recently been seeing and doing, but then again, I couldn´t be typing this without a bit of copper, could I?

Our flight gave us a day in Santiago to finish. Now approaching Santiago like old hands, we took the funicular to the top of the hill in the city, looking for the botanical gardens, which remained elusive... but what views! the city... the Andes... snow...and a long walk back into the city: eat, bed, Buenos Aires!!!

to be continued...............................xx (photos soon)

What Paradise Really Looks Like!!

Jessie Quits Fiji !! Read all About it!

Spotted at the weekend, clutching a small bag, our photograher caught Jessie Johnson as she tried to escape our attentions on jetsetter island, Tevuwa. Has the booze taken its toll? Is she on drugs? Is it all over in that fiery relationship? Has her diet finally slipped? Is she escaping the cloying pressures of a parental holiday?

Buy next weeks issue for the SORDID TRUTH!!

Fiji this and Fiji that...

Bula!
Guitarists serenade us through the custom hall at Nadi airport, while kindly touts deck us out in necklaces of shells; suitably welcomed, Jac and I have a day ahead of Jess´arrival to sort out our first port of call - Adi´s place on Waya Island - chosen for its simplicity and village location. Warm air greets us and we are back to palm trees and tropical exotics, even though this is winter, Fiji style.

After a nailbiting rendezvous with Jess - her plane is an hour late and we´ve booked us all onto the ´Wasaýa Flyer´ferry to Waya first thing, we head off to the islands. Located between a village and island school, we spend three nights at Adi´s place in a traditional ´bure´, no electricity or creature comforts and we are the only guests here - there is one tiny shop that sells some biscuits and washing powder, and tinned fish (?) - a bit strange when the Pacific is all around you...These three days are a bit odd, everyone tries to be friendly, but we are not used to accommodation with three meals a day - as it all comes on these islands!- visitors here tend to arrive in organised packages, while we prefer our independent style, and its not without a little concern that we get ourselves back on the Flyer - concern from the locals that we have nowhere booked to go!

Still, we then head to Tevawa, and find ourselves at Otto and Fanny´s place where things are instantl more welcoming: a clean, white sand beach, smiling, happy staff, and room for us in their dormitory for ten: fine as long as its just us and its long term inhabitants: bugs and all things that go scratch in the night! Jessie, especially, and us, get some quality holiday here - snorkelling, trips to the Blue Lagoon beach - yes, where they filmed both the movies, sea kayaks, every other day is hot and blue, and evenings with decent food, good company from the other guests, and a locals music night when the guitars and kava come out, and we can ´shake it not break it´to the lilting ballads and songs.

Jessies departure looms on the Saturday. We were intending to ferry with her to the mainland, but due to ferry breakdowns she has to book the expensive seaplane with ´Turtle Airwaýs - used to ferry the rich and famous to Turtle Island, and we catch the ferry after the weekend.We anxiously wait on the beach for the water taxi to take Jess away - but no show! 15 minutes to go now till take-off, taxi late, we spot a white speck in the distance, lo! the plane comes to her! The tiny white seaplane lands in front of us and noses onto the beach, Jess hops in, movie-star style, we , and of course Jessie´s fan club of resort staff, wave her off inot the clouds from the beach!
Phew, we laugh all the way back to our bure!
We stay on for Sunday and Monday, our last night is great - all the local kids from the catholic church , ages 1-15, come to sing at the resort: brilliant, enchanting and funny - all in a line and giving it their all...

Fiji really grew on us, Jess had a great holiday. Again, on the islands people live a very simple life, we hear no news for 10 days, and the rest of the world seems a very far-off place. They run their tourism for themselves, the global brands stay away, everyone benefits, and not a television in sight!

OZ...

For us, Oz was 3 months of stopping, not travelling, being with and around Jessie for longer than we´ve done for Years, and enjoying some decent grub and occasional bottle of plonk - see photo!
Also, less blog, so this is a summary: and one of our first feelings was culture shock! - Asia had seduced us with its simplicity, honesty and spirituality, and to be honest, Aus shocked us initially with its commercialism, choice and vanity. But, Australians are great people, who are straightforward, and honest, and do not suffer at all from the snobbishness and class culture of the UK.
We were now reunited with all our imports from Rajasthan, and hoping to make a few bob...and this often dominated the first half of our stay. Of course, we were up against the Aussie culture that also loves anything Australian - ´with love from Australia´is tagged on everything, so our markets were hard work, sometimes frutrating, and dogged with the only wet day of any week always being on a Sunday! Things got better when we finally decided to ship it back home and force it on all our friends and family in the UK! make special price for you all!

We had Jess´old flat for the first two months, bought a motor (Mitsi ´Nimbus´) and sold that for a profit at least, and moved in with Jess at her place for the last month. St Kilda is perhaps THE trendy spot of Melbourne, which probably didn´t help with the afore mentioned culture shock, but it is cool, and we got into the groove. Acland Street, coffee shops, wild cake shops, bars , bistros and trams- and also a turn-up for our books, wait for it - a GYM!!! The South Pacific Health Club became our 2nd home as we pumped and pushed our way to fitness - Jac coming down the scales, while I tried to get it back on after those asian blues...
OZ generally, especially St Kilda, is grabbing at anything alternative, most of it worthwhile, and Jac was able to up her Reiki levels and make good friends in that circle.
So times with Jess were also spent catching up with old friends: we all went to Adelaide for a week or so- and did the complete nature bit there at Kangaroo Island - roos, sealions and seals, echidna and a comprehensive guide to South Australian flora from Phil - top horticulturalist he is. Phil and Julie also came down to Melbourne for my birthday weekend - memorably we walked with the Wallabies on Phillip Island on my Birthday- the first one spent wrapped up in coats and scarves, but still a cloudless day!

It was good to catch up with Ken again, our brother in law, still in Armidale if the Immigration Department will let him, lets hope they at least allow him to make his own decision on what he does in the future. Australia is so far away- its its biggest problem really, brought home with Cob´s untimely and sad death back home in Hampshire. Jac has known him since she was a teenager, he was like an uncle to Jess, Mitch and Joe, and hard decisions had to be taken as to what we should do. As it is, Mitch and Joe did us, and especially themselves, PROUD with their honourable and dignified representation of us at the funeral...

So, the end of June came, but not too sad for Jac and Jess - Jess was joining us in Fiji!, so we were able to leave down under with lighter hearts, enjoy the winter!, and roll on the rest of it!

KiwiLand!

Foto - Aoraki (Mt Cook)
Flew down to Christchurch, the city in the world farthest from the UK, late last Friday, 30.06.06. Met by Julian, Pete Chaddy's brother, old friend and gardening guru who lives about 40 minutes from the airport with his Kiwi wife Susan, in their typical country house with an acre of ground and 12 Springer Spaniels! (10 of them are puppies born the next day!). So different from St Kilda, NZ is the England we think it used to be, where tea is still served in cups and saucers, you take your gum boots off before going into the local shop, and you argue whether the car that just passed you is a Morris or a Wolesely...
Anyway, a joyous weekend of reunion and puppy birth behind us, we rented a Nissan Sunny (less romantic) and headed off into the sun drenched snow fields. Firstly, over Arthurs Pass: snowy iced lakes, snow deep enough to make you fall over immediately, empty roads, long single-lane bridges, sheep and our only encounter with a Kea, at the top of the pass. We cross to the west coast, to Hokitika, a small , single-storey town with a driftwood strewn beach and a pounding ocean.
The next day we realise that Hoki is a Large Town. We drive down the west coast to the Glaciers - no towns, just settlements of handfuls of people, living amongst thick, wet forest land; we are lucky, a rare cloudless day to enjoy the flax and cordyline, ferns and trees, wide shingled river beds, sheep and deer farms. We arrive at Franz Josef in time to walk to the Glacier in a freezing wind, this is winter and the wind whips right thru´, but worth it - one of the few expanding glaciers in the world.
We watch the Italians beat Germany in bed in the morning, then down to Lake Matheson for THE most amazing walk - views of Aoraki - Mount Cook - reflected in the Lake, we walk round the lake, snapping furiously at the views- all in clean, crisp air surrounded by the snow-capped peaks. Mount Cook will loom over us for a few days, a beautiful mountain and reminder of our dear ´Cob´Cook, passed away just before we came to NZ.
Then its down the west coast, as far as this road goes, lush, verdant hills and flat, fertile plains. The wide rivers dump their trees and stumps on the beaches, coming from mountains which we need to cross before dark. Its cold, dusty and dry, still with cordyline and Phormium everywhere, but increasingly pine and willow as we slowly climb inland towards Wanaka, past Lakes Hakea and Wanaka. Here, we book our morning ski transport, (no snow here?), to Cardrona. The bus winds us up there, and theres plenty of white stuff. We spend an hour or so getting kitted out, I feel really cool in my shades, my ´cat in the hat´hat, and gardening gloves! Yeah, anti-fashion! Booked in for 2 x 2 hour lessons, by the end of the morning we are hovering downhill at 5mph, just about learning how to stop, head thumping from where I fall off the Pelmer lift thing! Best meat pie ever for lunch, then back at it. Jac wacks her head falling off the Pelmer, and I fall off another three times! By the end of the day we have learned how to brake and sometimes turn. And sometimes ski! I still prefer Boltons Bench or Farley Mount on an old bit of tin, although it does wonders for your appetite! Friday we check out of Wanaka, limping and trying to not move our aching necks...
We drive over the Lindis Pass to Omarama - a typical Kiwi town: Four Square supermarket, bar, cafe, souvenir shop (this one specializing in woollen clothing made from a mix of merino wool and possum fur!), public toilets, petrol station. Friendly staff everywhere, so we buy some apples. Now in quite thick snow we stopped to gawp at the fog hugging the plains, then moved on towards Twizel, even thicker here;too early to decide to stay here we head towards Aoraki - Mt Cook. Up past the turquoise Lake Pukaki we get as far as we can - the Hermitage, where in freezing rain we can raise our cup of tea to Cob, then decide to bee-line to the next lake - Tekapo. Because it gets dark so early decisions have to be quick - but this is awesome winter, deep snow everywhere, trees and fences look as though they haven´t defrosted for weeks!Every corner, bend, every light, mountain and valley is stunning. Backpackers Hostel for the night- good because we can cook for ourselves, meet a few people, pick up tips and use a phone:
!CONGRATULATIONS! Emily and Matthew on your baby: Dexter Butch!!
In the morning the snow laden Spruce tree that we spotted last night and were going to foto ourselves with for Xmas cards for all you lot, has had all the snow blown off! so we go, first to the church of the Good Shepherd, overlooking Lake Tekapo, a final farewell to Cob, and check out the monument to all Collie dogs (!) - useful pets in these parts!. We leave Mackenzie country clutching a cone of Pinus caulteri, biggest pine cone ever, and head down to the Peel Forest, - land of the Podocarp, and fight thru the snow-damaged woods to Acland Falls. We end up staying in Methven, in a budget lodge run by the Kiwi coach to the German Ski team, drinking fine wheat beers and eating Bratwursts und sauerkraut! The evening gets even more exciting, as the final of Young Farmer of the Year is on Channel 1 telly tonite, and John, most deserving local lad, storms it! A masterly display of technical knowledge, building a bridge from a load of logs, herding the sheep across his bridge, shovelling a ton of coal, loading a sack of moss, and cooking whitebait on an open fire!
Cheered, its back to the puppies and our friends, and a day in Christchurch before heading to north island on the train.
The train to Picton takes us past seals and rocks, mountains and rolling grassy hills - pure ´hobbitland´. An old Poole cross-channel ferry takes us to Wellington thru the Marlborough Sound, and we check into a nasty backpackers, but escape 10 minutes later. Suddenlt we are in a busy city, loads of people, so we spend the evening in Molly Malone´s, drink wine and Mac´s sassy red beer, and almost singalong to the Gaelic music. The best part of Wellington is Te Papa - the museum which , for us, starts to make the Maori culture more understandable. I cannot tell you now though what its all about, not in less than 10,000 words! We drive to Auckland, straight thru the middle of the island, pleasant but busier than the south. Taupo Lake is eerily beautiful, and we eat an amazing Rajasthani meal here, before seeing the wonderful volcanic geysers and geothermal activity in the area, before heading to Roturea for a Polynesian Spa, to wash off New Zealand in its open-air sulphuric waters...brrrr! bring on summer! - Fiji!