The next UN Secretary General

There seems to be only a few things that are consistent in my travels in every country. Coca cola and Nestle which are givens. But the one thing that I see in every country which I never expected. Is Sponge Bob Square Pants! From t-shirts in Canada and beach towels in Costa Rica to backpacks in Peru the guy is everywhere. The American I met who worked in Iraq says he is everywhere in the Middle East too. It makes me think if he can be a constant thing in every country, whom everyone likes, maybe we should make him a special UN ambassitor. I mean they gave one to Angelina Jolie.

I think maybe he could bring the world together.

Here he is not called Sponge Bob Square pants, instead just Bob Esponje ( j being pronounced as "h")

!Viva Bob Esponje!

Huanchaco - Where not much happens but is dramatic nontheless

Well, I have spent the last 4 days in a small beachside town called Huanchaco, more time than I wanted but more on that later. It is a quite kinda touristy beach hangout with a laidback atmosphere. Located on the North coast of Peru near a large town called Trujillo.When I arrived I was not really impressed with the place after spending time in the Peruvian Andes where the woman wear traditional dress (yes, most of them even the young ones) and carry there children in wraps on their backs. Where you look out the window and see huge mountains to me that feels like the "real peru". So it was quite a change of scene but I have had an interesting time here.

It is hard to describe my time here, somewhat surreal. I arrived at 7am tired from an overnight bus ride, having to wait for a bed to be made for me I was greeted by O'Douce a french canadian hippie who taught me a new handshake that is starts off with waving your arm around like snake and then interlink your hands to form a circle which is more spiritual than a business handshake. She then asked my birthdate and age and told me I was a yellow seed in my year of the white wizard. Hmmm..... Apparently it means that my power is timelessness, my action is to enchant, well thats natural ;) and my essence is my receptivity.She is studing Mayan astrological signs, and believes that we have all been drawn to Huanchaco for a spiritual gathering. As crazy as she sounds, I have been chatting to her in the last few days and although I take it with a grain of salt she has some interesting things to say about life.

Well the main reason I came here was to visit some ancient sites firstly Chan Chan a site of a huge mud brick city of the Chimu people most of which is now just lumps of mud but it was once the largest pre-columbian city and was built in 1300AD which preceded the Incas who eventually conquered it after cutting off the water supply and waging combat. Then it was looked by the spanish afterwards. There is one palace left that has been restored and has impressive mud/stonework and has many tombs, and rooms to explore. Also I saw there crazy peruvian hairless dogs! Wacky!

Then to Las Huacas del Sol de la Luna (temple of the sun and moon) there is not much left of the sun temple but the moon one is facinating. They are Moche temples and predate Chan Chan by 700 years. It is facinating because the stonework is coloured and the colours have been preserved after such a long time. The reason for this preservation is that there are actually 5 temples built on top of each other, apparently when a new family came into power the old temple was covered in mud bricks and a new temple build on top. So at the moment they are peeling off laters to reveal the stonework underneath!

Well back to me! I have had some pretty bad stomach problems now I do not want to get into two many details. I had to spend two extra days here. Originally it started with diahorrea and then on the day my bus was due to leave I developed chills and a fever so had to spend the next two days here recovering. I think I am in the mend the fever is gone and I can eat a little food. Despite taking some antibiotics the bowels are still playing up but I will head to a doctor in Lima to get a check up.

Crazy thing happened today, sitting in the courtyard of the hostel chatting to some German girls. Today a roudy tour group of Brits arrived, anyway one of them was too lazy to give something to her friend so through it across the courtyard to a friend on the balcony. Her friend leant over the flimsy bamboo railing to catch it, the railing cracked then broke and she went crashing down on to a set of stairs below, she got taken off in an ambulance. Freaky thing, I saw the whole thing happend in slow motion and heard the bamboo crack but it was like one of those slow-mo car crash things I was not able to say nooooooooooo... I think she will be ok at worst a busted arm.

Well tonight I am meant to leave to Lima, but today there is a transport strike, and although my bus is running it may be difficult to get to the station but the hostel owner offered me a ride if there is a taxi shortage so cross fingers for me.

Huaraz

Well, the dates on the blog might look a bit messed up but I had to write about Lima a while after I visited.

However I have been in Huaraz a town in the Peruvian Andes, which is 3091m in evelation. Arriving from Lima I found climbing the stairs in the hostel a bit of an effort. The night I arrived the guy at the hostel informed me that the trek I wanted to do was leaving tomorrow. This was not ideal as I wanted some time to acclimitise however it being low season there were not many leaving so I had to take the offer.

So I did the Santa Cruz trek through the mountains. On the trek was our guide Epi and a French Canadian girl Kim. We packed ourselfs into a mini bus along with locals and animals of every variety including a dog, guinnea pigs and live chickens, and drove 2 hours up the mountains to the beginning of our trek. At the beggining we met Porfilio our donkey driver. 3 Donkeys carried our camping equipment and bags so it was somewhat easy going.

The trek was 4 days long and about 46kms in total. It was my first time treking and I really enjoyed it. The scenery is breathtaking and I mean that literally when you are up that high and walking 15kms in one day straight up you have to take little rests catch your breath.

The second day was quite hard going were we reached the peak of Punta Union which is 4750m in elevation, but that was not the only thing, i managed to have a really bad stomach bug which is not ideal for hiking all I can say is thank god for imodium and the lovely americans we met who gave me pepto bismol.

Kim the girl I was travelling with was nice although a bit uptight, she took like 300 photos and was always concerned about money, and wanted me to not put my things near hers. Our guide Epi was hilarious and was a great cook as well. Porfilio is the mountain king, he would alway beat us to camp by like 2-3 hours and would have everything set up for us. Turns out he does the return trip in one not 4 days.

It pretty much rained everyday but I had all the right gear and my spirits never seemed dampned, it was a fantastic experience and something I really enjoyed and can not wait to do again.

Lots of love Alicia

Lima

Well, I spent 3 days in Lima. After being told it was a shithole I was pleasantly suprised. I was staying in the ultra trendy and rich Miraflores, which is complete with huge American style shopping malls, department stores, restaurants and bars. Quite a contrast to some of the slum type towns high on the hills. However it was good to be in a nice big city as I needed to stock up on supplies which were hard to come by in Cuba. It was nice just to chill out for a while. I was staying in a pretty cool hostel, and met some very interesting people. Including Eric a 40 Brit who spend 3 weeks of hell in Venezuela and was chilling out in Lima, however in the 3 days that I was there I managed to watch him go from a normal person to a wreck after a solid 3 day bender of drinking (I am talking from 10am to 4-5am), cocaine from random taxi drivers, and hanging out with peruvian hookers. Then there was Sean who actually was very interesting. He works for the US state department as a lawyer and has spent the last 9 months in Iraq (Baghdad and Kabul). Needless to say he had some very interesting stories to tell and he has worked in some pretty amazing places (at times for the UN). Sean and I spent an afternoon downtown visiting the Plaza de Armas and some museums. But 3 days in the city is enough, I am ready to hit the real Peru.

Things I love about Cuba

The US interests office, has a building in Havana. They have a LCD screen running messages about how Cuba violates human rights, a few days after the sign was put in place, The cuban government put about 100 flagpoles with cuban flags on it so you can not read it. He he he politics.

Cuban fast food, the absence of corporate fast food is quite refreshing. Instead, enrepreneural cubans sell, homemade pizza, icecream, sandwiches and hamburgers from their windows. And street pizza, for 8 cuabn pesos which is about 30c it keep this girl from hunger.

Baseball the cubans go nuts for it. Again with the politics during the world cup of baseball on TV during the cuba vs puero rico match. An ex-cuban sat behind the batter with a down with fidel sign of course the cuban government went in to a tailspin as they could not censor the sign or stop the broadcast, as that would have been very unpopular. So within 12 hours a huge rally and concert had been orgainsed to support the revolution.

Of course the music is great and the Rum too!

Random funny storey, after putting up with the machisimo all day I saw some guy saying look whilst pointing to his crutch I looked the other way, but he ran around and showed me again. This time I was fed up and I told him pretty much to fuck off in spanish. After walking another 10m down the street I realised my fly was undone and that they guy had been trying to tell me. I turned to see if he was still there to say sorry but he was long gone!

Thoughts on Cuba

I found my time in Cuba to be facinating, challenging, rewarding at at times puzzling. The tourism there is quite surreal. Most of it caters for 5 star resort style tourism where all it is about is getting the dollars, but bussing rich folk around and getting them to see what you want. It is quie difficult for an independent traveller. You almost always have to take the tourist services like buses espcially alloted to tourists, most of the time you can rent rooms in Casas but when you on you own you pay for the whole room. There seems to be a range of services here that are above and beyond what is available to the local cubans. And it is not so much to do with the finances, even if a cuban has the money they can never stay in most of the hotels. A lot of people have the opinion that everyone is so poor, but you have to remember that while the buildings are falling down, you may share the same house and or share that same room as several generations of the one family, eat not so fantastic ration food. But everyone has a house, a free and good education, and free access to some of the best doctors in the world. They just do not have some of the material possesions and freedoms that the rest of the world may have. I think this can give people some trouble or guilt at times. The two currency economy here I feel is already starting to create somewhat of a class society in what is a socialist country. Everyone wants to work in the tourist industry as this way through tips etc, you can have convertible pesos which are worth 25 times more than the national money, and allow you to do things such as go out to dinner in a restaurant. While the tourisim keeps Cuba running since sugar prices dropped. But I felt that at times, as it does in all places tourism has some negative effects, I guess these are more palpable in a socialist country. When there are shortages of English teachers, cause they make more money in tourism than teaching and when doctors drive taxis because it can earn more, and of course the prostitution. I like to think of myself a responsible traveller and sometimes when travelling in Cuba it was somewhat thought provoking. And of course there are the Cuban hustlers who are always trying to get the tourist money by being charming or helpful or just a pain in the arse. In some town even the kids are in on it trying to get lollies or pens from all the tourists. Sometimes you feel like a dollar with legs. I think I was very fortuate in that thanks to Pavel, his friends and girlfriend and some of the great families I stayed with a really got to get in touch with the real cuban people who are are intelligent, warm, funny and some of the most open hearted lovely people in the world.

Back to La Habana and Vinales - Pina Colada

After a long bus ride I arrived at my old apartment very early in the morning slept on the couch until celia the 8 year old kicked me to the bed. However later in the day caught up with Pavel to go hunting for a new house as my old apartment has been without water for 5 days. Later Pavl and I met up with Jimmy. We watched some baseball, they are nuts for it over here. Right now there is like the world cup of baseball on, so everynight it is on the TV it can actually be quite a exciting sport but most of the time it is a little boring, a bit like cricket I guess. The next day I took a day tour to the Vinales vally (about 1.5 hrs out of Havana) which is really lovely and is made up of limestone cliffs, and caves. We also visited a cigar rolling factory. All good cigars are handrolled and although it was a little stange to watch people work it was quite facinating to see them being made and the importance of many of the properties of the cigar. We went on a little boat ride in a river that is in one of the cave which was kinda cool. It was quite strange being on one of these tours, it was my first day tour of this kind. Normally I would have preferred to go myself and spend more time there as it was quite a lovely area, but time did not allow it. Everyone on my tour was at least 55 years old, mainly european, they were all staying in 5 star hotels and were loaded with cash. Everywhere we stopped so many of these tourist buses with all the same kinds of people were rolling up. It was amazing, it was a little like a circus with souvenir stores everywhere (they even sell food stuffs that I have not seen in a normal shop here). I talked to a few of them about my travells and they were quite amazed by some of the things I had seen and done. It feels so strange to me because this tourism is so detached from the real world here it is amazing.

Had a quiet birthday I was on the tour for most of it, and then I got to talk to mum and dad which was great.

Tomorow I leave for Lima and I hope to have more time there to write more about my travells here as I have found them throughly enjoyable, challenging and rewarding at the same time. Alicia

Camaguey-Santiago (Tu Kola no rum)

Well after leaving Trinidad, I caught the bus to Camaguey which is meant to be an interesting arty kinda down it was pretty but there was not much going on, I only spent a day there walking around town taking a few interesting photos. I got ripped off (only a few dollars) by this bici taxi guy, even though I knew there was not much I could do at the time, at least I got to tell him to piss off, in Spanish of course.

After Camaguey on to Santago de Cuba, which I really did not like. The city is dirty (even for Cuba) and busy which footpaths about 20cm wide, hustlers galore and not much to see in the city. My first day I was really upset because the Casa family had given me the wrong address, well actually never gave me the correct address. Turns out that the woman I booked with was unable to take me because of her grandson being born, so she arranged for some friends of hers to meet me at the bus station and I would stay at there casa. However my new family failed to mention any of this. This resulted in me getting fabulosly lost in the heat, however the lovely lady who lives at the house I thought I was at, gave me a drink, sat me down called my house and gave me the correct address. When I asked my family why they did not give me the address their lame excuse was simply they forgot. So at this point I was feeling a little homesick and frustrated and wanted to get out of the city.

I did however see some lovely things, such as a Castillo san pedro del Morro, a lovely old castle fort on the coast of the city and also a basillica building with this sacred Mary statue all these people had donated things as offerings and blessings, Hemingways nobel prize was there but someone tried to steal it so it is not on display anymore.

So I had only two nights there and took the overnight bus 13 hrs back to Havana.

Daiquiri - Trinidad

Greetings from Trinidad, a beautiful world heritage historic town, with beautiful old buildings cobbled streets and historic houses. It is a lovely town but it is teeming with tourists, bus loads of packaged tours wondering around the streets, and the locals are working it from all angles. Although not very persistent people are always asking for money and it seems that here everyone is after the tourist dollar.

When the bus arrived Casa owners are running alongside the bus with photos of their places, and as you leave the bus station you are mobbed. Although this sounds bad, it is good in someways as if you do not have a place booked you can certainly find somewhere! The way the casas here work is that owners can rent out rooms in their place they provide food, however they are quite heavily regulated by the governement and they have to pay tax on the room even if the room is not occupied. This means that they are desperate to have someone in the room, and there is much competition for your business at the bus.

Boys ask you if you want a boyfriend, keep teling you that you are so lovely or if you have any money. Even the kids harass you for sweets and it annoys me when well to do tourist thing they are being so great by handing out lollies and pens to kids. As amuzing as it is to them all it does is engourage begging and a reliance on tourist husstling. When really kids shouldn't be learning that all tourists mean is $$$ I had a funny conversation with a kids. (in spanish of course) that went allong the lines of this.
"Where are you from?"
"Australia"
"Australia is great"
"Really you know Australia?"
"yep"
"Where is it?"
"Near Italy"
"no it is very far away"
"that's right it is near spain"

I then proceded to get out my map and give them a quick geography lesson which was kind of fun, then the girl told me she liked my earings, I showed them my tongue ring and they started screaming and ran off, I think after that they thought I was crazy.

That being said it really is a beautiful town and I have really enjoyed myself and really most of the people are warm and friendly.

I spend the first day wondering around the town, and the next day on a 6K hike in the nearby mountains Topes de Collantes to see a lovely waterfall and natural swimming pool. The next day I went on a steam train to the Valle de los Ingenios an old sugar mill town which was interesting. I caught up with a guy from England and two swedish girls and we went for a drink.

Today we visited a local artist which had some very interesting political artwork and then spent the afternoon lying on the beach again....Oh the lovely white sand and blue water. Tonight we are off to go see some live music then tomorrow of to Camaguey.

Santa Clara - Mojito

Well I have now arrived in Trinidad but have spent the last 3 days in a town called Santa Clara. I really liked it there, there was not much to do (there seems to be a lot of hanging out in the park) but I felt it was more like the real Cuba and not as touristy as other places. It was quite an important town in terms of the Cuban revolution as it is pretty much right in the center of Cuba so it was quite a strategic location. Anyway it was there that Che and his men, captured a train of Batista's army. There is a memorial for Che as well, as when his body was found in Bolivia it was re-buried in Santa Clara.

The thing I liked about Santa Clara is the public transport is horse and cart. This means you have to watch your step walking around town, but it is pretty cute seeing all these people taking the horse and carts.

So I visited the many museums and I had fun walking around the streets, met Pavel's brother Yuri we went and watched some little kids play a baseball game (I got a dink on his bike, I havn't done that since I was a kid it hurt more than I remembered)they were so cute! What was even funnier was the town drunk in the stand commentating the game and encouraging/yelling at the kids! Also in the stand was a famous cuban baseball player (I had no idea who he is, but Yuri told me he's Pavel's hero) whose son was playing.

The next day I spend lying on the beach at the Villa Clara keys, the sand is white, the water that aqua blue colour, I did nothing but lie on the sand and occasionally get myself up for a swim, finished the day of with a mojito. I hope you all enjoyed your day at work! After the beach headed back to Santa Clara.

Pavel's family lives in Santa Clara so now I can not complain about Cuban food (see last post)because his brother and I went out to dinner and it was pasta which was pretty good, and then the next night Pavel's mum cooked this amazing feast of vegies and fish, I ate so much I had to sit on the couch for about an hour before i could move. They also gave me this little souvenier botle of Ron (Rum) they are so lovely :)

I find Cuba to be always a country with a double edge, I complain about the machisimo (see last post) although I had today a guy ask if I wanted a boyfriend, and the hissing, here Cuban men will open doors for you, help you cross the street, pull out chairs for you and let you walk up the stairs first. My friend Jimmy was quite horrified to find that men in Australia do not do this, but one thing most guys I know in Australia can cook (cooking here is a ladys thing).

I have also complained about the double economy which I now kind feel guilty about after learning that a student here, although the education is free receives an allowance of 70 cuban pesos per month (that to you and me is about $2.80 US) but I feel that the double economy also works against cubans as many spend there time chasing the convertible peso. When the bus pulls up to the station desperate Casa owners chase alongside with photos of their houses for you to stay at etc. I don't know it is difficult to explain but I feel that in cuba everything seems to have a double edged sword.

Well I will write again from Trinidad soon, here it is beautiful but tourist city as well. Much Love Alicia

Havana Cuba Libre!

I know it has been a while but you will have to excuse as the internet access in Cuba is not the best and is somewhat expensive. I arrive in Havana a week ago now after about an hour of more of questions by three different people I was allowed to leave the airport, I think Australia may be the only other country this hard to enter.

I stayed in an Apartment I sublet in Havana, an old lady lives there and her nephew who lives below, Jimmy decided to take it upon himself to be my personal Havana tourguide and body guard. With his limited english and my limited Spanish we manage to some how effectively communicate. For the last week we have been wandering around the various areas of Havana Visiting the Capitol building, museum of art cuban, museum of the revolution, walking along the Malceon, visiting the Marti Museum and the Plaza de la Revolution. Also went to the beach for a day and when to visit a old castle/fort the other side of the bay to watch a canon firing ceremony, from the times where english actually captured Havana, it did not last for very long. We spend a day walking around old Havan which is lovely full of cobbled streets and beautiful buildings.

One night I went to the Theatre with Pavel, Yeni, Jimmy and his uncle, I did not understand a lot of what was said however I managed to get the main idea of what was going on. Communicating here is a little more difficult that it was in Costa Rica, the people speak about 4 times as fast and use some slightly different words.

Eating is another challenge, everyone either looks stunded or laughs when I say that I am a vegetarian. They do not believe me, mainly I have been cooking for myself, Pavel and Yeni helped me buy vegies from the market. Most food here is pizza fried meats and rice and beans.

Travelling solo in Cuba is quite difficult the absence of youth hostel accomodation makes it more expensive as your options are either hotels or homestays. The double economy does not help much either Jenny and Pavel had to help me buy food at the market because you need cuban pesos and tourists are only meant to use the convertible peso. This differece puts off a range of transport and food services to visitors. I understand why this is in place it just makes things a little frustrating at times.

Cubas one saying food grace is the fantastic icecream! Hooray!! Did you know if you kill a cow here it is illegal and you can go to jail, maybe that is why the icecream is so good happy cows.

Most tourists here are the packaged variety arriving on buses, everytime I say I am alone people again think that it is very strange. Especially the fact that I am a woman as well, occasionally people bother you, guys make hissing or kissing noises the best thing to do is ignore it. The lady who I rented the apartmet from was so worried about me being alone that she took it upon herself to sleep on the couch outside my room, in case something happened in the night. Nothing would happen anyway but even if it did given that she is 85 and blind I am not sure what she could do, probably sit them down and force some food or drink on them as she does to me. I guess I just do not like that idea of making old ladies sleep on sofas but she is very persistent.

Right now I have left Havana and am in Santa Clara, keep watching out for another post soon, the conections here are slow so photos may have to wait.

Love Alicia