Life Love & Adventure

The journey continues but ...

mattso — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 09:45:00 GMT

I must apologise to those of you who have been checking this journal for updates and not finding anything. The World Nomads site is not setup for mobile devices, tablets and phones, and the procedure to create the blogs and upload photos is too cumbersome.

Ive since moved to using Google Photos and Facebook to share my stories, but even so, I haven't delved into any detail about the journey. Needless to say, it's been exhilarating, incredulous, exhausting, and I wouldn't have changed any of it.

I'm now in Mexico but am unlikely to continue this blog in this format.

If you want to see the most recent uploads, contact me directly or look me up on Facebook.

Adios,

Mattso Tattso Yohama.

Photos: Quillarumiyoq

mattso — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 10:31:00 GMT

Photos: Sacsayhuaman and Qenqo

mattso — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 10:29:00 GMT

Photos: Machu Picchu

mattso — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 10:28:00 GMT

The Nazca Plain

mattso — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 13:32:00 GMT

Here was a day that I ticked off another item on my bucket list. After a delayed start that afforded us time to do some souvenir shopping, the clouds finally cleared enough for our little plane to take off. I calmed the nerves with some coca tea (which honestly tasted just like green tea) and scoffed a couple of travel sickness pills. The pilot was friendly and handed us a route map of the 30 minute flight. He reminded us that the wings are our pointers, so look to where he dips the wings to see the geoglyphs! Then up we went.

I think I was only 10 minutes in to it when the sweats started and my window fogged up. "Ooh look! There's the whale!" Ok - click, click, click. Photos are the only sane reminder of that less than sane time, wiping the sweat from my face, my neck, my glasses, un-fogging my window, hyperventilating. "And now we'll loop around so the other side can see it!"

But for all the unpleasantness, of which it turns out I wasn't the only one subjected to it, it was glorious to see my favourites - the spider, the monkey, the hummingbird. We looped and banked over 15 glyphs in 30 minutes. My shirt was soaked through when we landed, but I didn't spew! In fact no one did, which was a miracle. Or maybe the miracle was the fact that 91 year old Lennard strolls out of the plane like it never left the ground! (I found out later that he spent some time in the Air Force doing reconnaissance missions for the bombers in WWII).

So after recovering our senses, it wasn't long before we started the drive back to Paracas for the night. I might leave this next part of the tale for another time, as I've completely run out of steam, having spent a restless night previously reading about resonant frequencies to levitate stone, and sedating tonight's brain with pisco sours and mojitos. Zzzz.

Photos: The Nazca Plain

mattso — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 13:16:00 GMT

Paracas to Nasca

mattso — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:09:00 GMT

Pisco sours are sneaky! They go down all too easily with your freshly grilled fish and scallops, and leave you with furry brain lag the next morning! But I'll go back for more, in a couple of days.

We started the day with a drive to the Julio C. Tello Musem which likes in the Paracas Nature Reserve. The reserve is a pretty large chunk of intertidal coastline that backs onto a larger chunk of desert that was set aside for the protection of migratory birds. But the museum is all about the famous Paracas mummies that had been found in sitting-up positions, wrapped in hand-woven textiles and placed in hollowed out caverns below the desert surface. This area is the northern part of the Atacapa Desert, the driest desert on Earth, and the mummies were preserved in extremely good condition. Once again, the red-haired Paracas people defied the standard descriptors of the black-haired Indians of this land, having paler skin, lighter eyes, different blood types and, of course, the red hair. Our guide ran through his program for school children with us, to identify features of Paracas art, and even old Len got into the spirit of the activity.

The long drive through the alien desert landscape to Nazca (Nasca) was briefly broken up by stops for lunch and refreshment, before we reached the enigmatic Palpa geoglyphs. These are not as well known as the more famous Nasca glyphs, but are in fact much older and made by the Paracas culture some time between 500 BC and 100 AD. They are still to be deciphered.

But we got a taste for tomorrow's adventure when we arrived at a few Nasca glyphs near the highway - the tree of life, a pair of hands, and the lizard. We'll be flying over the whole plain in the morning in a 12-seater Cessna. Let's hope the pisco sours don't make an unwanted return!

Photos: Paracas to Nazca

mattso — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 12:22:00 GMT

Paracas

mattso — Tue, 9 Oct 2018 09:22:00 GMT

I met the pre-tour group this morning and was happy to find I wasn't the oldest among us. Old Len is a spritely 91 years old! I kid you not! While it's too early to find out his secret to maintaining an active enough lifestyle to tour Peru, I will report on anything I do find over the next few days. Apart from Len, there's an Englishman, a German, a Canadian and three Americans. I can see the making of several jokes beginning to take form.

But meeting the one and only Brien Foerster has been the highlight of the day so far for me. The 3.5 hour drive to Paracas was a surreal experience of reliving the multitude of YouTube videos I've watched that he has produced, the very videos which persuaded me to embark on this journey. This part of the country is a fascinating (if you're a geologist) perspective of how the Pacific tectonic plate meets the Nazca plate and shoves it aside. It's also so dry, receiving *uck all rain that virtually nothing grows here, except where the ground water has been tapped to nurture the crops.

The star of the day, or should I say Star Child skull of the day, was visiting the elongated skulls in Paracas. If you've never heard of them, then look them up in your own time. Oh and the hotel we're staying at isn't too shabby either :)

Ok, for now the Englishman, the German and the Australian are going out to drink pisco.

More to follow!

Photos: Paracas

mattso — Mon, 8 Oct 2018 23:30:00 GMT

Photos: Getting to Lima

mattso — Mon, 8 Oct 2018 12:47:00 GMT

The journey to Lima

mattso — Mon, 8 Oct 2018 12:17:00 GMT

I tried to work out the number of hours between 9pm Saturday in Perth and 6pm Sunday in Lima, but tripped over myself somewhere across the dateline. Then there was the 2 hour reduction between Santiago and Lima but for practical reasons I'll call it 36 hours .. of airport terminals, waiting lines, flight times, snotty noses and dry throats. But I made it :D.

It wasn't until the snowy caps of the Andes guided us through the cloudy understorey approaching Santiago that I actually felt the first tingles of new experiences awakening. The airports and flights ... Phht .. Forget that.

Now having landed in Lima, I was greeted by a Peruvian named Ivan who commnenced to do the 45 minute drive to the hotel in 25 minutes. Not the most attractive of cities, I found out that it's 11 million people are holed up in 42 districts and speak one of three main languages - the native Quechua, Aymara or Spanish - all while soaking in the preternatural shade of the predominantly drab brown buildings under the uniform grey light of the cloudy dusk evening. I only snapped one photo along the way, of the natural cliff faces along the coast which have been draped in netting to catch loose rocks. Maybe that explains the driving style of Peruvians, or merely Ivan, as they've developed an innate knack for swerving, lane-hopping and tooting horns while using their mobile phones, just in case the cliffs decided to play doogs with them!

Tomorrow starts off with a 3.5 hour drive south to Paracas where we'll meet the elongated head people. That will be interesting. I wish they could talk. They would have had funny sounding voices with heads shaped like that.

Passport - check! Tickets - check! Pre-flight anxiety - Check!!

mattso — Sat, 6 Oct 2018 12:04:00 GMT

You'd think with 9 months of planning, preparing, psyching up that I'd be chafing at the bit right now. This is one of those bucket-list trips which I'm still unable to accept is actually happening. Counting down 11 hours until I leave Perth for Lima, Peru, and I'm yet to complete my packing, house cleaning and getting everything else arranged with friends and family. How much cajoling does a cat need before embarking on their own journey (to stay at their uncle's?).

Come on already! ¡Vámonos!

Berlin - part 2, Museums

mattso — Sun, 11 May 2014 04:17:00 GMT

From my travels to other parts of the world I've known Berlin to hold some of the oldest and best archeological treasures in it's extensive museum collections, so our mission for our last day here was to explore some of them. The major museums are all conveniently located near each other on Museum Island, a tract of land between two arms of the Spree River, and only about a 15 minute walk down the road :)

They don't open til 10am on a Saturday so after passing the magnificent Berliner Dom, we had a leisurely wait in the ticket line that grew and grew until the doors opened. Pergamon Museum is the most visited out the lot because it has imposing reconstructions of archeological ensembles - the Pergamon Altar and the Gate of Ishtar with the Processional Way from Babylon - among others. It was the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquities Collections that interested me in this building, and the Egyptian and Papyrus Collection that was held in the Neues Mesuem next door.

The sheer scale of the reconstructions are mind-blowing! Like having a life-sized buildings inside the museum building. I've been fascinated by the Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Babylon cultures for years, and the displays of some of the most ancient artefacts known to humanity kept us walking from room to room without feeling the growing pain in our legs until two hours had passed and our stomachs started craving our attention.

There always seems to be something going on here. This time it was an art and craft market that we strolled through on the way to lunch. Lots of interesting stuff, none of which would fit in the backpack! After resting the legs a while and filling our stomachs, we tackled the Neues Museum's Egyptian Collection, the highlight of which is the world-renowned bust of Nefertiti. But although we were free to photograph in every other room, the Nefertiti room was barred from taking photos! Bummer!

We tossed up the idea of more sightseeing via the hop-on hop-off bus later in the afternoon, but by now our legs were only heading one direction, back to the hotel. I still had some souvenir shopping to attend to so we dawdled back through a little park, and back through the festivities happening at Alexanderplatz. A lone violinist, a uni-cycling rope-skipping clown, a group of 'Jesus Saves' evangelists, fans of two opposing football teams, some kind of gathering of firefighters, the chalk artist again, as well as the usual souvenir hawkers and food vendors. I'm starting to think this is normal and must occur at every major square in the city!

So thanks Berlin! You didn't disappoint! You're a rich, colourful city with so much to offer, if only we had more time! :)

Photos: Berlin - part 2, Museums

mattso — Sun, 11 May 2014 01:57:00 GMT

Sightseeing around Berlin, visiting Museums

Berlin - part 1, Sightseeing

mattso — Sat, 10 May 2014 06:27:00 GMT

Ah, Berlin! Pleased to meet you! There's always an estranged familiarity with seeing with one's own eyes the images one has been party too for a life time. Television, movies, world news, history documentaries, magazines, books - you name it, Berlin is one city I'd vouch nearly everyone on the planet has heard of, if only for the notoriety of it's most famous leader Herr Hitler.

We rolled into town after a comfortable train ride through some scenic country from Prague. I'm still pleasantly surprised to see solar panel and wind farms in this part of the world. Maybe there's still hope for the rest of us. We taxied to the hotel in Alexander Platz and landed in one of the best Radisson Hotels in town - the Park Inn. It was quite a shock! Forty stories of rooms, three restaurants, lots of pizzazz, lots of important looking people scurrying around, and us!

The day was cloudy with intermittent showers, but after sorting out some maps and places to see close by, we rugged up and walked down to the old district a few minutes away. I think if there's anything positive to come out of having your city bombed to pieces, the Berliners have grasped hold of the opportunity to redevelop and reinvent themselves with a modernistic and artistic sensibility, so that a mix of old and new exist side-by-side. It defines a particular character we haven't seen in the other cities of this trip. I can only mention a few places - the Rotes Rathaus, the Fernsehturm TV tower, the Gendarmen building, the St. Nikolai Kirche, the Altes Stadthaus - before it got too cold and blustery to go on. But we still have two full days to explore!

One of our objectives in Berlin was to pay homepage to the resting place of dear Omi in the Tiergarten. So using the hop-on hop-off bus, which by now we are expertly adept to do, we went downtown to the famous Brandenburger Tor and looked for some flowers to take to the Tiergarten. Failing to find any shops, and as mum didn't let me pinch any of the tulips in the garden, we used some local foliage to lay at Omi's tree. A small fox surprised us from the bushes, then turned and ran off, so we knew that Omi was with us and we were in the right spot. Of course the deeply engraved 'love' and the painted 'omi' in the oak tree might have helped us find it too!

We checked out the other two famous landmarks in the area, the Reichstag building and the Siegessäule Victory Tower, and walked through the peaceful Tiergarten before reboarding the bus for yet another famous site - the Mauerreste memorial to the Berlin Wall. It's a sombre but remarkable place. The long line of display panels depicting the rise and fall of Hitler's Reich is sensitive but informative, and almost surreal given that we were standing in the remains of one of the Gestapo main administrative buildings. Just down the road is Checkpoint Charlie, which is more of a façade these days, drawing in bus loads of the curious for happy snaps with the 'American' soldiers.

The rest of our day was spent walking around Alexanderplatz and soaking in the ambience of the small crowds, the shoppers, the busking drummers, the chalk artist, the Hari Krishnas, the beat-boxing hip-hoppers, souvenir salesmen, and even an old motorcycle museum! Despite it's remorseful past, there's an uplifting liveliness that this place has got going, and it's vibed us up ready to tackle another day in this amazing city!

Photos: Berlin - part 1, Sightseeing

mattso — Sat, 10 May 2014 02:57:00 GMT

Sightseeing in Berlin

Prague

mattso — Thu, 8 May 2014 04:15:00 GMT

It's always a bit hit-and-miss trying to synchronise with the weather and our sojourn in Prague broke even. The train from Munich rolled it's way steadily through the farmland of southeast Germany and the forested woodlands of western Czech Republic, and the sun shone more often than not. There's a noticeable change in architecture from Bavaria to Bohemia, one that conjures up similar feelings to Transylvania, that the foreboding dark history hasn't quite been erased and elements of the goulish and goblinesque still exist in the stone and mortar and the spires of the historic old city.

After settling into the hotel, we walked down to St Wenceslas Square (yes, that good ol' king whose namesake lived 900 years before the popular song about him was penned), and whose statue stands before the amazing Natural History Museum. The balmy afternoon was popular and the 700m long Square, which is more like a long rectangle really, was packed with school groups, tour groups, tourists, locals and everyone else. We strolled through the outskirts of the old town enjoying the live atmosphere, the buskers, the music, the old town ambience and the food!

We planned to do another hop-on hop-off tour the next day to get the most out of our limited time here, but there's so many options for things to do, and the hotel foyer is littered with brochures and pamphlets. Even as the rain came down we knew we had to don the scarves and umbrellas and push on, to join the throng of committed sightseers, that undercurrent of the population that dwells in places normal people won't go to when it rains. But as we were only two, we lacked the strength in numbers and were unceremoniously devoured by hordes of the 'gawking dead' as they shuffled with their mouths agape and their eyes agog towards their leader with the red umbrella or little green flag and clipboard who was yelling in strange gutteral languages that only they could understand.

The Prague Castle and St Vitas Cathedral, both outstanding historic icons on the hillside overlooking the city, were overrun by the beasts, so we made our escape down the cobblestone roads and across the Charles Bridge, paying scant attention to a few Bohemian Crystal shops on the way back to the old town centre. More of the gawking dead had gathered beneath the famed Astronomical Clock to muse at the tolling of the bell, possibly as a reminder to stick to the shadows, stay out of the light, lest they be consumed by the need to visit the Salvador Dali exhibition, or climb the bell tower, or worse - hop on our bus! But we fled to the sanctuary of some traditional cuisine, and I filled my belly on pork knuckle, bread and wine, before giving away the idea of a river cruise in the rain. Our horseless coach arrived in time to deliver us back to the hotel where we could rest and recover in time for coffee and cake. And as the night slowly consumes the day, we say our Hail Mary's and pack the luggage for the start of the next and final leg of this epic rail journey!

Photos: Prague

mattso — Thu, 8 May 2014 01:26:00 GMT

Sightseeing

Munich and the Royal Castles

mattso — Tue, 6 May 2014 05:20:00 GMT

We managed to survive the first afternoon in this city named after it's 4th century monks (München) but only just! I think the snow in Innsbruck was a few degrees warmer than here! But as any good tourist does on coming to a new place, they get on with the business of sightseeing come rain, sun, hail or arctic blizzard. I was here about 6 years ago and some of the landmarks were immediately familiar to me, although looking completely different without being covered in snow! The main platzen were jam-packed with weekend shoppers and the effect from relative peace and quiet on the train to chaotic noisy crowds assaulted our smooth transition into the mainstream. Buskers, musicians, gimmicky advertisers, food vendors, market owners, store sprukers, all jostled for our attention. There was even a protest demonstration to legalise marijuana marching towards us on this cold, blustery day! But after a toasted sandwich and hot coffee, a sense of normalcy filtered through the haze and settled the nerves.

After a bit of a kafuffle the next morning, getting people on the right bus for the castles tour, we headed south deep into Bavaria. We've been looking forward to this for months - to see Neuschwanstein castle in particular, but also Linderhof Palace and the small village of Oberammergau. Renowned for being the fairytale castle of the mad king Ludwig II, Neuschwanstein was also used as the model for the Disneyland castle, and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. It is only with military precision that tourists are ushered in and out in language groups of about 50 every 5 mins, that everyone can get an equal chance of seeing the place. But it's a gruelling climb and exhausting tour by the time you complete it, so thankfully they allow some extra time to recover after you make it back! Mum did well to keep up with me the whole way, even out to the Marienbrücke bridge which was up and down more steep hills! I think it was only the hot glühwein and bockwurstsemmeln which gave us the strength to survive! Hehe.

The small village of Oberammergau gave us more time to grab a coffee and do some souvenir shopping. The place is remarkable for it's fresco artworks rendered in the plaster walls of it's buildings, and the amazing wood carvings and other Bavarian arts and crafts.

The countryside is magnificent in these parts and the Karlswald, with it's precipitous snow-capped mountains, rolling forested hills and fresh green fields, rolled out like a red carpet towards Ludwig's other castle Linderhof. In contrast to Neuschwanstein, Linderhof is small, but exuberantly decorated in the French Rococo style of Louis XV. The palace just oozes gold and glitter from every nook and crevice. I encourage everyone to read up on Ludwig II. He's an enigma who was declared mad, stripped of his kingship, and lived in a fantasy world based on the operas of Wagner. But after running the coffers dry and ending up face down in a lake with his psychiatrist, the mystery of his death has never been solved. His story would make a great movie!

On our last day here, we thought another hop-on hop-off tour was a good way to see some sights that we couldn't walk to. But first we had to sort out some tickets to and from Prague, our next stop, because our rail passes didn't cover the cross-border thing (it's complicated but was easy to solve). There were only a few places we wanted to get off and look at, the first being the Residence Museum and Treasury. The Munich Residence was the political and cultural centre of the dukes, the electors and the kings of Bavaria and is a large palace, opulently styled in all the wealthy bling of the Wittelsbach dynasty. The treasures and art collections are astounding and date from the 10th to 19th centuries, and comprise the finest artisan work of Europe in all manner of gold, jewels, gemstones, china and crystal. The place was so large we had a hard time finding the exit, and even the security people were confused because some sections were closed for renovation!

But after getting back on the bus, we stopped briefly at the Nymphenburg Palace which was built by mad Ludwig's old man. Our legs, our stamina, and our timetable didn't allow us to spend long there but, once again, we couldn't help but feel like mere peasants in the presence of such wealth and grandeur! So I made sure we got a hit of nature by stopping off at the Englischer Garten, a massive park bigger than Central Park in New York! The soothing effects of the colour green and the sounds of a babbling creek washed away our inferiority complexes, and recharged our esteem :). Before long we were back in the centre of Marienplatz but we flowed with the marauding crowds, past the small public concert being performed by some handicapped people, past the small crowd gathered to protest against domestic violence, and past all the other shoppers happy to have completed another mission on our journey :)