Torres del Paine

Torres del Paine. Some spectacular stuff.

From big city Santiago to small smaller smallest little frontier towns in Patagonia. Heading to the far south of Chile, we flew to Puerto Montt (small), flew on to Punta Arenas (smaller), then bus to Puerto Natales (smallest). Cute little tourist town that exists predominantly to serve the Torres del Paine national park, which is where we headed next, for a few days hiking (yes hiking, yes us).

Supposedly it's off-season almost everywhere we´ll be in Chile, which is crazy in one sense, as pretty much everything is still accessible and definitely spectacular in autumn and winter. In another way 'off-season' is a great idea as, while we're seeing hardly any other tourists, apparently in summer it's like Pitt St mall out there.

Anyways, for us off-season did mean that all but one of the refugios inside the park were shut, meaning that, if we didn't have the gear necessary to camp out in the snow, there was only hike we could do. This saved us the dilemma of having to decide whether we were up to the classic 'W' circuit, a spectacular but somewhat tough 5 day track :). But I'm sure we would have done it if we could :). Needless to say, scenery was amazing, weather and wildlife were amazing, and good times were had by all.

Plains...

Mountains...

Almost storms...

The big papa mountain.

And lots of hills and water, somewhere in which lies our refugio.

Chile weather

Santiago. It'd be a spectacular view of the Andes behind the city, if the smog ever lifted.

Twas a bit of a shock to return to non-English speaking travel but Chile is great fun. Santiago is an easy city to readjust in - very Western (perhaps too much so - Santiago has more fast food outlets per capita than NYC. Chileans appear to love their takeaway).

In fact if it wasn´t for the smog, Santiago would be spectacular. Ocean on one side and ski fields on the other. However the downside of being squeezed between ocean and mountains is an almost permanent layer of smog that doesn´t move.

After a few days adjusting from travel in the States with friends, to the far less glamorous life of backpacking through non-English speaking countries, we relocated to Valparaiso, a pretty little seaside town. Valparaiso is famous for its beaches and its inclinators. Built on a series of steep hills, the city features these crazy little railways (ascensors) which connect uptown and downtown. Many of these are over a century old and have the look and feel to match (think of a garden shed on a rope sliding up and down a guide rail on the side of a near cliff). Makes for spectacular views from uptown but is a bit of an opportunity for extortion for the operators (recently the ascensor serving our hostel hiked its fees by 500%, hitting a pretty outrageous figure for what's essentially a necessary public utility).

Valparaiso, and one of the older ascensors.

That wooden shack look isn´t just for show.

Anyways, fun and games by the coast. We made the most of it, knowing next stop would be the far less friendly climes of Patagonia.

Those funny accents

Boston's another pretty town.

Boston, too, is a very nice town. The States could really grow on me. I'd love to do a road trip here, either coast to coast or north-south, it's all good. Jo and Julian put us up in Harvard Square for a few nights (thanks again guys!). Poor Jo was in frantic study mode as we turned up several days before her final exams. Our bad, but they both still took the time to be great hosts! We poked around Harvard and MIT which were both great to see. This will sound parochial, but Harvard is somewhat like Sydney uni (writ large), with an excess of sandstone, history and general gravitas, while MIT is like UNSW (also writ large), much much newer, somewhat more shabby concrete than sandstone, a slightly nerdy air, and a desperate effort to convince people that it's more than just a science and engineering meccha. (It's not, but with a record like MIT has, it doesn't need to be.) Among other things, the MIT student association boasts the largest library of science-fiction literature in the world, which yours truly managed to visit and be duly impressed by :).

We caught up with Yan, which was fun (Bec where were you!) and, for a change of pace, hired a car and drove out on Cape Cod to visit Fiona, in residence in an artists' colony in Provincetown (I love saying that). The Cape is meant to be the incarnation of every American's dreamy childhood summers, filled with long hot days and ice-creams by the beach. Of course, we visisted on the one day of freakishly thick fog when you can't see more than a metre and all the wooden architecture looked spooky rather than quaint. Still, was nice to catch up with Fiona and she says hi to all the gang.

Boston skyline, on not such a nice day.

Harvard by night.

Ice cream in a converted bank vault! Now that's kinda fun.

This was the end of our brief sojourn in the States, and, bracing ourselves for another bout of culture shock, we headed back to Boston airport for a flight to Chile and 3 months in South America. Before we left though, one final cute moment of Americana - check out what passes for a waiting lounge in genteel New England!

Waiting, old-school.

It's a wonderful town

We play tourist on top of the Empire State.

We've fallen in love with NYC and had an absolutely amazing four days here. It's exactly our kind of city - all about food and shows and museums and galleries, and all on foot or public transport. Fantastic!! Actually, I'm sure the city can be all things to all people - but that's the beauty of it. Now we just have to work out a sustainable (ie affordable) way of living here. Still, there was plenty of incentive to work something out. Current plan - A becomes an academic and relocates to NYU - which hands out apartments to its staff. Nice.

Hehe.. The Hersheys and M&Ms stores face off across Times Square.

The New York Stock Exchange. In what country now?

Middle of a very heavily fortified Wall St.

Boating in Central Park. It's all good.

Fun and games

Coban marked the end of our Central America stint. From the caving and rock climbing fun of Coban we headed back to Guatemala Cty for a flight to Miami, picked up a car, and drove across the interstate (known as Alligator Alley for the numerous alligators that cruise the canals beside the road and emerge to sunbake) to the Naples Beach Hotel, to celebrate the Hightowers' wedding.

Needless to say, this was great fun. Wednesday consisted of settling in, a meet and greet party by the pool and an impromptu final bucks night for HT. Thursday was a beautiful day for a round of somewhat hung-over golf and some poking around Olde Naples. Friday was the big day. The wedding was spectacular and the reception was great fun. Saturday was recovery day, with a sunset cruise out into the gulf to say goodbye to the gang.

It was a fantastic few days catching up with Andrew and Tara and some of the old Minters gang, as well as meeting more of the Benson circle. We had a great time, and hopefully will catch up with the newly weds in Hong Kong later in the year.

Wednesday night... last chance, ladies.

Another beautiful day.

The big day arrives...

...in a beautiful spot.

The boys party...

...while the happy couple do their (much more photogenic) thing.

Thanks for the great times all!

We do what now?

Our final stop in Guatemala was Coban, an area of national parks, caves and outdoorsy type activities. Made for a bit of a change from our days spent lazing on beaches. The highlight here was a visit to Semuc Champey - a series of amazing rock pools linked by a series of waterfalls and cliff jumps set in some amazing jungle surrounds. Exploring the pools involved a guided swim/jump/climb through the pools, which went from crazy to insane to suicidal. After each jump from a high cliff or slide down some crazy rock chute I'd stupidly say something like 'Well that must have been the hard bit,' following which the guide would point to something higher, steeper or craggier and gesture us all onward. It culminated at a spectacular waterfall which clearly couldn't be jumped, scaled or otherwise surpassed by a bunch of tourists in barefeet and swimwear. At which point the guide reached behind a rock and pulled out a rope ladder, which he proceeded to tie off around a rock midstream, throw over the edge, and climb on down through the waterfall itself.

From there it descended into the surreal as we climbed into a huge cave system behind the waterfalls themselves, squeezing through tiny tiny holes to slide down pitch black rock chimneys and duck out of the way of displaced bats chasing an exit. All the while wondering how we were going to get back up. The end result was some amazing sights but of course no photos. Great fun tho :).

The pools at Semuc Champey

A disturbance in the force

Mayan ruins rock. Following are photos of the city complex at Tikal, in the north of Guatemala. Or at least of those parts of the city that have been reclaimed from the jungle.

And yes fellow nerds, if it looks familiar it´s because it also stars as the jungle base on planet Yavin in the first (fourth) Star Wars movie :).

Mayan pyramids. Very cool. Also very Jedi.

Jungle

Many of the (major) pyramids could be climbed. Issues of personal safety or respect for the relics were.. well... not issues.

For example, check out the following series I like to call 'tourists conquer the monument'. Apparently falls are common and deaths are not unknown (imagine this in the wet season!).







Nothing like a race up a pyramid.

But the views from the top were pretty impressive.

Everywhere you looked, ruins rising out of the jungle.

...and ancient Myan shuttle landing pads.


Finally, for perspective on the pyramids, two fellow tourists below...

...and the pyramid atop which you can (just) see them perched.

(also note the crazy ladder arrangement to the left by which the top was accessed)

Tikal was fun.