South American For Hello

Freezing in Chile

mattmc — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:14:00 GMT

Next stop was Chile and a brief scare in the line at customs where we thought we were late for our flight made things tater interesting. I just try to stay out of aarons way when we are around airports and don't take offense to his remarks. Aaron is not much fun when A) we are within 2km from a airport or B) when something he is or has organized falls through. This list may grow larger in time but we will see!

So yes; Chile. I managed to befriend a businessman on the plane and chatted in English for a while. It was good before I thought I would attempt to try thank him in Spanish for talking to me. I said mucho gusto: which my Spanish app says I like you. I picked ip a phrase book and read that that term has sexual connotations! Haha I wondered what his strange look to another passenger was about!

Santiago was the first stop for a day and a night before we made our way upto the snow capped alps where we were going to be snowboarding for a couple of days. Santiago didn't really impress me the way BA did. i mean there was still some great stuff but it all just seemed a bit of a downer and a bit of a void of culture. saying that there was a great plaza where isat and finished my book in the sun and everyone was out and about enjoying the sunny (albeit it chilly) weather. We cme across ¨coffee with legs¨in Santiago where itis like a skimpy bar but serving coffee in the CBD to all the workers. In truth the girls wernt fantastic and neither the coffee, but aninteesting experience no the less. Oh and another interesting experience was fast food in the city. i was starving (tango humbre, tango mucho humbre) and thoughtid check out on of these food stalls on the streets. they served me a hot dog with about a inch of advocadopaste on the top of it and a massive amount of mayonnaise on that. i cant say it was a fantastic culinary delight but was cheap and fast!

we caught a taxi up to the Fareollens region in the mountains in Chile where we were going to be snowboarding and came across some of the most winding rads i have seen to date. As well as getting a bit crook from the taxi driver gunning it around these tight bends i was also starting to feel for thefirsttime the effects of high altitudes. i began to find it very difficult to breath. This as well as not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without buckling over out of breath and dizzy was all new to me!

we got some amazing conditions in Chile where the first night we were there it dumped roughly 50cm of fresh powder snow. according to the locals this was the best they had had all year. and it dint stop for the whole next day. which mnade for some challenging snowboarding conditions when you have only got sunglasses and not goggles! it was relatively expensive to rent gear and pay for accommodation and i dont think any more than 3 daysup there would have been much good for me or my bank account!

We met the hostel owner when we arrived and he wasted no time in telling us how awesome his place was and how he had heaps of friends and that everyone came tohis hostel to drink at the night. Puncho was his name - an abbreviation of Fransisco.I mande the mistake on numerousoccasions in calling him Pancho.. which translated in Spanish to hot dog. needless to say i didn't really find it necessary to spend much time talking with him and neither did he with me! this hostel was the most challenging to date (I'm writing in past tense cos ihave since left). there was very little heating the showers were only hot sometimes and not many people spoke English at all. I still had a one good Friday night up there as well as watching the Chile soccer match on the Sunday.

the snowboarding was great and i was alot better than last time thanks, i think, to the longboarding i have been doing. the Best conditions where when it was clear blue sky and sunny but still cold enough to keep the snow powdery rather than melting it. we picked up some awesome snow days and i have got some good gopro footage to prove it!

there was thins one time where i ventured into fresh powder only to find out it was just below my nipples in depth! i found this out because when i crashed and couldn't get back up i had to walk through it for about 15m. now this might not sound hard and maybe even sound like a bit fun but i assure you it is not. because all my gear was rental stuff and i am too big for most Chilean sizes itdidnt really fit very well at all and every time i crashed i would get snow up my shirt and occasionally down my pants (pantallonies). so walking throng waist deep powder really took its toll. iwas freezing cold, exhausted and getting a bit `paniccy about getting out of the situation. in the end imanagedto compact nought snow under me to kind jump on my board on my knees with enough momentum to skim across the top of the powder. after this i finished the run and had to sit down and collect my thoguhts again!

apart from this snowboarding was great and i enjoyed the more relaxed runs where i could manage todo some chilled carving.

SO i made it thought 3 days snowboarding without getting injured until i went to leave the hostel and threw my backpack over my shoulder and went ass up on the ice on the balcony hearing and feeling a nice big click from my right knee. i shat myself! all the way to Santiago and all that nightbecasue although i knew it wasn't another ACL it still hurt like hell and couldn't walk very well at all. this would jeopardise alot of our upcoming adventures if it did not heal quick!

Buenos Airies Bitches

mattmc — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:35:00 GMT

I have just arrived in Chile after spending 4 or 5 days in Argentina. The reason I cannot work out exactly the number is because a 12 hour time shift plus lots of late night drinks has thrown off the remnants of the body clock I thought I had. Firstly let m comment on the the city of Argentina: architecturally the city seems to be quiet old there are lots of old buildings with a bit more character than the normal concrete jungle. I suspect that many of the buildings are the original ones- but what do I know! The city seems to have a few main arterial roads each six to seven lanes that cut through the city in multiples of roughly 20- 30 square blocks. there are some bike paths on a few roads but no the majority of them. in fact biking is relativly unheard of or not done- which i found strange seening it was nice flat terrain. I would have thought bikes would have been an ideal method of transport. The traffic is fairly hectic and people seem to have the habit of leaning on their car horns for an extended period of time when they are stuck in one spot for to long. Whether it is the car in fronts fault or not, they love to use the ole horn that's for sure!

The people of argentine are a mixed bunch. I couldn't day it was the most accessible place for non Spanish speakers, it was pretty often that shop owners and and some resturants would make you feel like an idiot rather than trying to help. But saying that I could imagine it would be even worse for a non english speaker in Perth or prob Australia for that point.

One of the most interesting thing i did while in Argentina was a street art tour. a group of us got bikes and went around with a English bloke who volunteered in some official leg of the Argentinian street art scene. the tour was the good part of a day and we got to explore most of the city via bike as well as getting to see some very impressive street art. because a lot of the art reflected the culture and political environment of argintina both (present and past) it was as much of a history tour as it was a art tour. I learnt alot about the very turbulent history of argintina and some of its more darker periods where many people were killed for speaking out against their leaders. i took the gopro out for a while during the tour also so should have some good fottage to check out when i get home, and also aaron was manning the SLR for theday.

On this same day i also learnt and tried mate´(pronounced marrtayy). it is a herbal tera type drink thatis traditional in many parts of south america and pople carry around their mate leaves (looks like marajuina) as well as a flask of hot water and mix them together in a special cup and drink it. it was explained to us as being a very social thing where the host (the one carrying the gear) firstly makes themselves a drink, then sharesd it with all other people around, same cup samemate leaves and everything.

I havent really touched on my condition to date.In the space of roughly 5 days I have gone from full health to having a sleep deprecating and a bit if a cough then to having a full chest cold and hallucinating from lack of sleep. To put it in perspective I was having those micro sleep things you get when your really tired while standing at a sth American national soccer game amongst the supporters. the time zone changes was masssive and really difficult to aclimatise to. this also doesnt help when you stay up all night drinking! the Ok so the hostel was a major party hostel in argentine and it was normal to get to bed at 6 am. There were massive "predrinks" session at the hostel and then at 2am you left to go out! Shit is crazy. So three days in a row I ended up getting home at almost 8 am. One day I actually grabbed the breakfast before going to bed for a few hours. In all seriousness tho it has taken it's toll substantially and now I prob have to have a few days off the booze totally with some early nights too.

While in BA I met and hung around with a couple of chicks from Sydney and we went to the tourist area of la boca where there were the more stereotypical Argintinian things like tango, leather shops etc. The brigtly colored houses make for a good picture however you have to pay to have a photo taken in one of those wooden characture cutouts.

In summary, i really liked Beunos Airiesand iwould love to come back with a bit more spanish under my belt.

InFLight

mattmc — Fri, 8 Jul 2011 12:24:00 GMT

left perth this morning and had a quick flight over to adelaide where we are just about to jump on a plane to sydney. we have just got news that a flight leaving Argentina to Sydney got cancelled due to volcanic ash. so fingers crossed we wont get caught up in it.

Before leaving

mattmc — Mon, 4 Jul 2011 13:39:00 GMT

Well, here it is. A blog of sorts. my first one, i have withheld my personal ramblings from the internet (much unlike others) for far to long!

I must also at this point interject and note that being a child brought up in the 90s with access to computers i have abysmal spelling. while i think my vocab is okay (sort of) i will often struggle to spell a word. but in the spirit of documenting i will not be avoiding words that i cannot spell. i will simply try, and probably fail, to keep things as best i can.

it is now 8 days before i leave for Buenos Aries and i am at a lost in both anxeitey and excitement. I have not been traveling for this long time since 2004 when i was 19 and headed out on what has become a right of passage for most young australians. that being a trip to the UK and europe and of course a contiki tour. this trip is far from a contiki however thanks to the amazing organization efforts of my brother we have a very good itinerary that has got us traveling all around this amazing continent and having a good mixture of on and off the beaten track experiences. I will not go into the plans too much as you will hopefully discover these adventures through this journal/blog.

I must admit i have been rather blasé regarding packing and preparation. I have a sic backpack and a few other items but i think i have been overwhelmed by the amount of climate zones we will be spending time in and failed to put alot of thought into it. One of my biggest struggles was finding hiking boots to fit. i was told and recommended to travel in hiking boots as opposed to the ole shell toes as i would be likely to be spending lots of time on my feet. so i went in search of size 15 vibram soled hiking shoes. well lets just say that nowhere-in the world-sells these. i settled for a hiking boot that is made by the same guys that make our safety boots here at work. A lesser quality shoe but at least one that fits.

4/6

Well a quick copy and paste into word has revelled how bad my spelling actually is. Wow. Again i offer apologies. who knows at least i may learn to spell better from documenting this trip!

Also I see that I have had 12 views. This is something that I don’t get seeing I haven’t actually told anyone im writing this so chalking it up to casual internet browsers.

The day moves closer to flying out. I depart perth on the morning of the 8^th and fly to syndney via adelaide with a few hours stop over at the airport there. I must thank my sponsers – riotinto : for employing me on FIFO for the last 2 years allowing me to accumulate enough frequent flyers points to pay for my return flights to Sydney and from Sydney to Buenos Aries and then LAX back to Sydney. Huzzarrr! And also I should be gratefull they have given me the 4 months leave I asked for.

So at the moment Im spending days getting the last minute things sorted. The ever increasing amount of toiletries and medical stuff I swear is ging to be taking up half my pack. Not to mention my camera gear!

Had a few goodbye drinks of sorts yesterday afternoon and im gratefull for the people who took the time to come down. Everyone was asking the same question: are you excited.

I feel like im letting everyone else down by not being ecstatic. To be truthful iti am excited in parts and even though im leaving in the next few days I still think it really hasn’t kicked in. not to worry though. I remember the same when I went to japan and it wasn’t until I was at the airport that I felt that euphoric feeling that is made up of anticipation, excitement, exhilaration and nerves that most people characterise as simply excitement when going into the clichéd “unknown”.

I changed a heap of money the other day. I have got US dollars for most of my travels through south America and english pounds to use while travelling in Cuba. I didn’t really want to carry a lot of cash on me, in case I was to lose my money belt or worse, get robbed. But it would appear that I need to carry US on me all the time for bribes and the sanctions placed by US on Cuba means their money and trde are not wel accepted there and also the major banks don’t want anything to do with them either. I was advised my travel card wont be accepted there nd they cant guarantee I will have access to my accounts while there either.

I also spent an amount of time streamlining my itunes today and signed myself up to the couch surfing website. Not updating my ipod for 4 months means I have to sort out a good mix of music to take with me and decide to take some tv episodes or not also. These are BIG decisions hey!! Haha

Come Wednesday I will forget about work and that will be it! Gonna have a few drinks with friends on Wednesday night and then snap into holiday mode!

Photos: trekking

mattmc — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:16:00 GMT