Darwin arrival

I finally made it back to Darwin (though my brain is convinced it is still somewhere else). It has been quite an adventure. So far this year, I've been in (or at least through the airport of) 13 countries on 6 continents. And that still isn't enough to get an upgrade to business class on the Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane. Actually, I have had two Round-the-World tickets through One World, and that still isn't enough to upgrade. I'm beginning to think that the frequent flyer miles are a load of hooey.

This week I get to find myself a place to live. It looks like I won't be able to afford to live in an apartment like the one I had here before, but I'll see what I can find. Hopefully, I can get something nice, and close to the ocean.

For now, I'm going to go get some sleep and try to reset my internal clock. It's pretty far off right now.

Weird hours

After nearly a week in Argentina, I can say for certain that people here keep weird hours. It is 2:15 in the morning, and we just got finished with dinner. Tonight we had a barbecued goat, with a story. First, the goat was frozen to the side of the freezer for most of the day. We had to use a hair dryer to unfreeze it. At around 8:00pm, the goat was freed, and the fire started. Now, it takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare the coals, then this particular asado delicacy requires very slow cooking. About 3 1/2 hours later, we were ready to eat (yes, that's 11:30pm). This didn't seem to phase anyone, including the 2 and 4 year old girls running around as if it were mid afternoon. Dinner unfolded over the next hour and a half, and around 1:00am we stared dessert, again, with most at the table giving the appearance that this was quite a normal time of day. People slowly trickled out at 1:30am, and now I am totally exhausted.

Lunch, of course is at around 1:30pm, which leaves about 10 hours between meals. Since the meals usually involve most of a large animal, this is not really a problem, though it does take some getting used to. As much as I like the various asado (barbecued) meats here, I'm looking forward to returning to a more familiar daily schedule.

To the south

So, I made it to Argentina. After nearly three weeks in Colombia, on a really fantastic trip, I have moved south to Argentina. It was quite a trip. On Sunday, I headed to the airport. I had confirmed my flight a few days before, and knew that it was supposed to leave at 10:40am, and that I was supposed to be at the airport 3 hours before that. (Actually, Lina did all of this because my Spanish still needs a lot of work). So, at 7:10am, Lina, Martha (her mother), Edgar (Martha's husband) and I, and my large pile of luggage, headed for the airport. Of course, the longest line was the right one. While waiting in line, one of the LAN Chile employees came along and said something about standing in another line to get a stamp that would reduce my departure tax from US$47 to US$30. So I stood in that line for a while, and presented my passport at the counter. There was a flurry of stamping and paperwork, and I had a piece of paper saying I owed $30. By this time, Martha and Edgar, who had been waiting in the original line, were nearly at the front of the line - where I was supposed to pay. I paid, got another stamp, and moved up to the ticket counter.

Now, apparently some of the latin American airlines are less prompt than others. At the counter, we were informed that the flight was delayed until at least 3:00pm. Apparently the plane I was supposed to get on in Bogota at 10:40am, was coming from New York, via Miami, and by 9:00am, it hadn't made it to Miami. So, we checked my luggage, got my boarding passes, and went to the Botanical Garden, a place we had been planning to go but we ran out of time before getting to it. Now, it isn't intentional, but I have now visited at least 3 different botanical gardens on 3 different continents while trying to spend time waiting for airplanes. I recommend them as a quiet, peaceful way to waste time outside the airport.

Once back at the airport, things went relatively smoothly. I passed through security in about 2 minutes, after being told that it would take at least an hour, and got on the plane. Thus begins the epic journey south. We flew south over the Amazon basin, just skimming the western part of it. Wow, there is a lot of rainforest there. Then headed over the Andes into... Lima. Yes, we had a 35 minute stopover in Lima, where we filled the plane with fuel and filled the remaining seats with passengers. Next, we flew on to... Santiago, Chile. We arrived there at about 11:30pm. My next flight was at 7:30am. The good news is that I managed to find a nice, quiet, and dark part of the airport to sleep. The bad news is that I had some sort of weird digestive interaction going on. I won't go into details, but it involved a lot of gas, reflux, discomfort, and several unproductive hours at the toilet.

By 5:45am, I'd had about as much sleep as I was going to get, so I tried to find my gate. I had a look at the monitor, and it directed me to gate 20 - at the far end of the concourse. Okay, fine, a bit of walking would be good for me. I wandered over to gate 20, found a seat, and closed my eyes to rest. At 6:15, I opened my eyes and noticed that the monitor over gate 20, now said "LAN Chile" and had an ad for CocaCola. Strange, when I'd closed my eyes it listed my flight number. Thinking something was amiss, I went over to the Departures monitor, and sure enough, now my flight was listed at gate 8 - two gates beyond where I had spent the night! More walking.

The trip over the Andes was impressive. There are some big, rugged mountains between Santiago and Mendoza. And the plain beyond in Argentina is equally as interesting. The 1.5 hour trip went by very quickly.

I arrived in Cordoba at about 10:45am - only about a half hour late - and was met by Enrique's younger daughter who is an architecture student in Cordoba and a friend of hers. We promptly hopped in a taxi and headed... to the bus station. Yes, San Luis is not nearly as close as it looks on the map. We had time for lunch before I got on the bus for the seven hour trip to San Luis. Yup, seven more hours.

The bus ride was actually really amazing. First, the buses here are two story, and I had the upstairs seat in the front. That's an amazing viewpoint for watching the countryside go past. Also, this part of Argentina is really quite interesting, at least for someone who has never been here before. Some of the residents think it is flat and boring. I was fascinated by the landscape, which is so much like where the great plains meet the Rocky mountains in the US, it is a bit disorienting. Anyway, the 7 hour trip went by pretty quickly, despite the painful, and overly loud movies shown on the bus.

At about 7:45, the bus rolled into San Luis, and I was faced with trying to figure out where to get off. Fortunately, despite several minor stops at gas stations, random street corners, and strange brick structures, the bus finally came to an obvious stop at an obvious bus station, where Enrique and his son met me. Apparently they had been worried, because a bus fitting the description of my bus had arrived about 15 minutes before, and of course I was not on it. At least patience had set in and they didn't go off to the next town to try to find me.

The last two days, Enrique has been showing me around the area. The Sierras de San Luis are just to the north of town, and we have spent the last two days driving around in them. Really spectacular scenery, and interesting habitats. Strangely, again much like the lower Rocky mountians in parts, only with strange hummingbirds and other beasts. And very distinctly Argentinian farms and ranches. I have not yet seen any condors, but they are supposed to be pretty common here. We did have an amazing sighting of a venado de las Pampas - a very endangered, small deer in the area. Enrique has seen them only 3 or 4 times in the last 20 years of wandering around the area, so it was a real treat. Today, we went to another part of the Sierras, a part with a truly amazing landscape of wierd mountains, Pampas plains, and various cattle. Mixed in were some caves that had been inhabited by ancient humans, and some strange houses inhabited by fugitive Nazis. A very interesting part of the world.

Mid-Colombia update

I'm a little more than halfway through my stay in Colombia, and I have to say that I'm really impressed with the country. It is clear that most of what I'd heard about Colombia before coming was the bad stuff (not too surprising since that's what the news channels show). I've been really impressed with the diversity of things here. Sure, there is the incredible biological diversity of the lowland tropical rainforests, but there is also the high diversity in habitat types, climate, culture, people, etc. Bogota is quite high (2600m), and surrounded by mountains, so it is quite cool most of the time, though it does still have a tropical sun, which can make it quite warm on a clear day. The mountains surrounding the city are quite high (>3000m), and can be very cool and wet. There is some amazing vegetation there.

Last weekend, we went to a town on the Rio Magdalena (probably the important river in Colombia for transport of various things) call Honda (pronounced 'onda'). There it is quite low and hot - very much like the stereotypical tropics. This week, we spent 4 days in Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast. It was very Caribbean. The people there were quite different - much more of an African influence on the music, appearance, and culture. And they have a strange accent. We spent one day on the Islas del Rosario, about 45 min by boat off the coast. They were pretty amazing - tiny coral islands, with mangroves, and usually a very private looking bungalo. Apparently, most of the little islands are privately owned, and are just big enough for a big bungalo, and a few hammocks.

Cartagena was really interesting. It was an important Spanish fortress, and actually, it was the biggest one built in the Caribbean. The city walls and castle were very impressive. I wouldn't have wanted to try to seige that place. The old city was built in sections, to separate the classes. The outer part was for the lower class and the houses there were relatively small, and only one story tall. The middle class lived a bit farther in, and had two story houses. The richest class lived in the center, and had huge, three-story houses, complete with inner plaza and usually with a fountain (or at least a cistern) and a lot of lush greenery. The first floor was usually quite tall, with maybe 5m ceilings.

There is also a pasable beach there, though the sand and water aren't that great (especially compared to the beaches on the Islands). The main problem with the beach, though is the various venders that constantly harass you. The beaches are public (mostly), but there are groups of people who come and set up little shade huts with chairs. They aren't permanent - they have to set up each morning - and they charge about 5000 pesos for the afternoon (that's about US$2.50). Then, once you get safely seated, the hoardes come by. First is usually someone selling sunglasses, then stone necklaces, then water, oysters, crabs, sweets, fruit, juices, massages, hair braids, t-shirts, swim suits, sandals, and scenic tours. Argh. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly a relaxing afternoon on the beach.