Rivers and Beaches

Wouldn't be Nelson without rivers and beaches...

A waterhole in the Aniseed Valley where we swam

Post swim - Bex, Alith, John, Andre

Tahunanui beach

Berries

Wouldn't be Nelson if we didn't pick a few berries...

Picking Raspberries with the folks

On the road (and water) again...

I'm now in Nelson. Crossed the Cook Strait today. One ferry, hitched one combie van (with some young Kiwi guys and a German girl heading to a hippie festival), and one pickup truck (with an old codger born and raised in Motueka - North Island is foreign territory).

View of Lyall Bay heading out of Wellington

I arrived in Nelson just before the bus (which was following the combie van out of Picton). Not bad for free rides and some interesting people to talk to.

The Bluebridge heading to Wellington

The rocks near the passage from the Strait to Queen Charlotte Sound

I'll now be in the Nelson area for the next 3 weeks, plus or minus a few days. I'll be staying with the family and having a few more adventures with my house/flat mate Andre to add to our last two summers...

http://malcyb.blogspot.com/2009/06/hitching-in-south-island-1.html

I appreciate...

understanding conversations

I appreciate...

drivers stopping for me when I'm standing at a pedestrian crossing (let alone the driver of a large truck who indicates for me to cross!).

I appreciate...

a relaxed and ordered approach to boarding and disembarking buses.

I appreciate...

a quiet and relaxed city.

I appreciate...

drinking water straight out of the tap.

Top ten

After this flight home, its obvious why Air NZ and Auckland Airport are top 10 in the world and Aerolineas and Ezeiza Airport are not even close!

• Walking to gate and everyone gets lost at the same point. Signage anyone...?
• Bitten by a mosquito

• I get to passport control after waiting 20 mins and get told I have to fill out a form that I didn't know about... great, go to the back of the line...

• Why's everyone so serious...?

• Plane is delayed. Surprise. But no announcements about why plane is delayed. C+
• Surprise security search after passing through the gate! What!? Who does searches there? Great. So everyone who emptied their bottles for blasé security #1, then filled them up, now has to gulp it all down again! And its such a thorough search, it takes 45 mins to get everyone on the plane! I just hope they are as thorough with the engines... since this must be the most isolated (virtually over Antarctica) flight in the world!

• We're taking off – should our seats be upright? Tray tables stowed? Seat belts on? No...? Ok...

• Old seats, average projector for movies, staff manner blah, need water? Go get it. C- Why do governments run airlines? Its a bad idea.

• We're landing - “please stow your tray...” Boom – we just landed. B-

• Smiling faces

• Sounds of Tui

• Maori art and sculpture

• Free chocolate

• Kiwi accents! Ah.... Like a hot shower after a hard tramp or a soft warm bed after enduring a storm. Everyone understands my English!

• Special e-passport processing for Kiwis and Aussies. Oooh cool. It looks like something out of a scifi film. Scan your passport, take ticket, insert ticket into machine, look at machine, you're identified, off you go! Sweet as!
A-
• People asking if I need help.Imagine that?!
A+
• $10 for 1 hour of wifi?! Thats 30 pesos!! Lame. I've just come from the land of plentiful free wifi!

• Saw more cultures in 10 mins than I have in 2 months!
• Paid with plastic more times in 20 mins than I have in 2 months!

• Bought deodorant using my phone!
A
• Free drinking water. Whoa. What a novelty, and its right next to pricey bottled water... stoopid Kiwis!


I'm back

Using wifi in Auckland. 10 bucks! What a rip. Its free in Welly, and all over South America.

The plane was delayed by 1.5 hours which at least killed 1.5 hours of my epic wait in Auckland.

5 hours down, 5 to go...

I planned in a buffer for the unreliable Aerolineas Argentineas but my planing went a bit skew wiff...

ms

Bigger than Texas

There's something about coming from a tiny little island in the South Pacific, which makes it hard to comprehend the size of the America's.

Take the Andes, for instance:

Length - more than four times NZ

Height - average height 4000m (300m higher than Mt Cook)

Width - similar to the South Island

Try comprehending that NZ!

Moments of Iphone Love and Kindness (MILK)

A glimpse into a traveling geek's head...

Arrive at Iguazu falls and realise I forgot to put the 2gb memory card back in my phone. That means no video footage. Doh.

iPhone doesn't have, or need, removable memory.

Wander around my street in BA with large camera attracting too much attention.

iPhone would have been a little more discreet.

Londoner in Puerto Iguazu shows me a Spanish learning application on his iPhone. If he can't speak a phrase right he can pick one from the list and have the phone say it. It also has games to help learn vocab. Very handy!

I have too many cables and tech accessories.

iPhone would squash my ipod and phone into one, which would mean less stuff.

Processing video from my Nokia phone:

Take out memory card, put in adapter, insert adapter into computer, copy to Mac, convert each file from phone format to a compatible video format.

Waste lots of time organising media or use iPhone to sync everything across already in the right format...

Surprisingly, there are quite a few flash phones in the Paraguay interior, so an iPhone would actually not standout as much as I originally thought.

Maybe in a couple more generations the lense will be decent enough to sometimes substitute the massive DSLR... in fact these guys are substituting it now: 

http://photocritic.org/amazing-iphone-photos/ (scroll down for pics)

Anyway, I'm not obsessed, what are you talking about!?

Yo no entiendo por qué...

I don't understand why...

• petty theft is so common in SA but we always leave a cash tip and it doesn't get stolen...
• cops stand around on street corners looking bored
• BA residents are so ridiculously good looking
• the city doesn't own the pavement/paths – which means they end up in whole lot of different patterns and don't tend to get maintained well
• Latino's are so keen to share their music with the whole neighbourhood
• the "cool" motorcyclists rest their helmets on top of their head...? I'm sure its great for ventilation around the lower face but not sure how it'd help in an accident...
• following on from the previous point, I don't understand why Latino's aren't concerned about risks... in Paraguay the second highest death statistic is "accidents" and I'm sure its similar here.
• salt and sugar are the staple diet
• rubbish often doesn't make it to the bin
• someone doesn't introduce cheap flights in SA
• no one seems to mind news agents displaying porno in direct view of children (its interesting to see how repressed societies deal with new found freedom – kids will grow up thinking its normal to upgrade to a 2.0 body)
• some buses are all blinged out! (something to do with the collective bus system here, a bunch of families buy a bus together and then they make it all slick (UV lights, aesthetic mirrors, decorations, loud whistles instead of horns... curious).
• University education - choose a career path, study for 7 years (equivalent to degree plus masters) and pay nothing for the privilege, thanks government! But perhaps they should focus on the 20% unemployment rather than free degrees...?!
• Latin America can't just have one standard greeting – is it handshake or kiss? 2 kisses or 1? Who gets a hug? Who initiates, older or younger? If its an elder male, is it kiss or hand shake? If its kiss, who gets kissed first in a group...? If you're sitting down, does everyone stand to kiss someone new? If you're in a movie and someone arrives late, do you all get up and greet the late comer...? Do you kiss with a hat on or off?
• Here's my answer for the whole world, starting now – girls get one kiss on cheek, guys get a hand shake. Done. Simple. Nice.

Bombo legüero

On returning to BA last week, my first task was to purchase a bombo legüero. I've played Argentine folk music with Javi a number of times over the last few years. This has lead to a growing desire for a hand carved, goat skinned, traditional Argentine bombo of my own...

Well, now I have it!

So many Bombos to choose from!

We spent an hour testing them all since each one has a

slightly (or not so slightly) different sound.

Got it!

Giving it a test. Sounds awesome!

Asuncion to Jujuy

There's little reading required in this post, just a short video about my trip from Asuncion to Jujuy last week.

27 hours. 3 buses. 1600km. Over 10 terminals. One international border. Five provincial borders.

The music in the video is from the Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack. I thought it was appropriate, since everyone is calling me Che and his trip was pretty inspirational! Its 1953, he's 23 and training as a doctor in BA, him and his mate Alberto travel 8000 miles, much of it on a rather cruddy bike, they cross the Andes, the Amazon and the Atacama desert... very cool.

Fortunately, unlike him, the result of my fact finding trip is not armed revolution! After the fact, we can all see how useful that was...

Note the queue of trucks on the right of the road in the vid. There was a good hundred or so, all waiting in 35+ degree heat to get through to Argentina!

You know you're not in NZ when...

You're out at mid-night and kids are out too!

Widen it!

Yah. Thanks to John Deere Mom my blog is now wider!

Jujuy there mate

Jujuy came and went in a flash! This post will hopefully explain all the pics I've uploaded.

I was in town for 4 days and met up with a friend from Wellington, Louise. Louise's husband Trent was posted on a student exchange to Jujuy in the 90's. They've been back before for a visit but this time Louise wanted to learn the language solo.

We spent a day in Yala hanging out with her "family" at their weekend house.
Took a day trip up to Humahuaca and Purmamaca which involved a 4 hour return bus trip.
And a couple of visits to the comedor that Louise and Trent have supported.

Humahuaca

This town was particularly amazing. It's a Spanish
colonial town founded in the 16th century next to the Grande River at 2940m in a gorge with the same name. It's really dry here, hence the cactus, which grow at 1cm per year.  Before the Spanish, a number of different indigenous people lived in the area, possibly as far back as 10,000 years! They travelled as far as Upper Peru to trade (in 2009 it takes 40+ hours of busing to get to Peru). There are still Incan ruins in the valley, unfortunately I didn't get to see these.

The town was also important in the war of independence between 1814 and 1821 - a number of battles happened in the area. Now its a great place for tourism without being overly touristy. You can buy some amazing arts and crafts, eat the best empanadas in Argentina (we had way too many!) and see some great examples of Spanish Colonial architecture.





An hour down the road is Purmamarca which we also visited. Amazing coloured mountains are the standout of this area plus more arts and crafts.

Comedor
The Comedor is an eating and study place for kids in a very poor area of Jujuy. The majority of kids in Argentina either do morning or afternoon school, so the local kids come when they aren't in school.

Despite some pretty tough stories, these kids are battlers and thanks to some Kiwi support the Comedor now has a leak proof roof and a secure wall to keep out petty thieves. Unfortunately, their homes aren't as waterproof and on one of the wet days that I visited, most of the kids weren't there because their homes had been flooded.

                                                                                                   Outside the Comedor

P.S. If the photos look out of line with the text, its Bloggers fault!

You know you're not in NZ when...

you've got a premium, lie-flat, leather clad suite in a double decker bus and you pass a farmer riding in a horse and cart.

Paraguay interior

While in Paraguay, I made a brief video of my travels through the interior. Check it out:

I'm on the road again, again, ag...

I'm sitting in a cafe. The air con has cooled the place to somewhere in the early 20s. I'm drinking a fruit smoothy, using free wi-fi and catching up on some multi-media tasks.

For my 12^th and last bus trip, I've booked a “suite” seat for the 20 hour trip to Buenos Aires. I think this means I'll have a lie flat seat. Sweet! Plus all the normal perks like air con, hot meals, alcohol, movies etc. All for the grand price of $135 NZD. Not bad!

Anyway, I look up at the TV above me and notice a bird that looks a lot like a Kea, some scenery that could easily be Milford and then the subtitles mention Te Anau. Ha! It is NZ. Classic.

Cataratas del Iguazú

Couple weeks back I visited the tremendous Iguazu falls. Here's some video footage of one of the hundreds of falls...



When I get back, you might get to see a video of me taking a jet boat into the falls!!

Systemic corruption

How do you help people when education/health/work government handouts are stolen?

How do you stop stealing when the police are corrupt?

How do you make the police accountable when the government is corrupt?

How do you make the government accountable when the people accept that right and wrong are negotiable?

Through conversation with locals and foreigners living in Paraguay and Argentina, it has become apparent that these same sequence of events happen throughout Latin America.

I was in an English class in Yuty, Paraguay and one lady told me NZ was recently ranked as the most honest country in the world. Paraguay was the second to last in South America. She wanted to know why this was...

I wasn't sure how to answer. Perhaps its due to the, admittedly imperfect, Christian values that British colonies were founded on...? Her response was that they were also founded on Christian principles...

I thought about it afterwards. Perhaps Protestant colonisers from Britain would have had different values to Catholic colonisers from the Mediterranean? My history needs some work here. Add this to my homework list.  Although, I don't have to go far for information.

Either way, our country has a foundation of honesty, trust and a certain work ethic that doesn't exist in Latin America, especially Paraguay (which has only recently thrown off the shackles of a dictator). In fact our society takes these values for granted and is passionate about protecting them.

So my question is, if you are a secularist/relativist/agnostic wotchamacallit, how would you introduce these values in a society that suffers from corruption? If you sing “God Defend NZ” but don't actually believe it, how do you translate the protestant work ethic to another culture? What do you use as a reference point?

And, if you are a Bible believer, how do you communicate the concept of Grace when right and wrong are negotiable...?

Fork lightning, go fork lightning!

While traveling in an over night bus to Jujuy, I noticed some flashing light outside (but no noise) so pulled back the curtain and this is what I saw...



Crazy huh?!
In an average week in SA, I probably see as much lightning as I'd see in 6 months in Wellington!