Walking on Water!!!

• How I loooooooove to travel!
• There are SO MANY beautiful things in this world to see, and experience, and discover, and enjoy!
• I often get so lost in meeting people, and in how incredible an experience it is to make friends and share special times with beautiful people from all over the world, that I sometimes forget about all the other wonders there are in this world!
• But yesterday I was reminded again. And how!
• I am in El Calafate now, faaaaaaaaaaar down in Southern Argentina, almost at the tip of the world.
• Yesterday I went to see the Perito Moreno glacier, by far the most spectacular natural phenomenon I have ever seen in my whole life.
• It's a 257 square kilometre ice-formation (!!!) and stands 74 metres above the surface of the water - the water in question being a milky turquise lake, surrounded on all sides by snow-capped mountains, as far as the eye can see. AMAZING!!!
• I can't even put into words just how beautiful and mind-blowing this all is. You arrive at the National Park by bus, then get to walk along a constructed path which has viewing points all along, and just stare and marvel at this giant, turquoise-blue ice wonder.
• And the best part is, that it's ALIVE! As you stand there watching it, from time to time you hear a LOUD crack - like a rifle shot - and chunks of ice fall of the edge, splashing into the water and creating giant waves in the lake! It's heart-stoppingly beautiful.
• After this, we got on a boat, and sailed right up to the northern face of the glacier. Our boat was TINY in comparison.
• Then we get off the boat along the side, at the foot of a mountain, had special clampons (ice spikes) attached to our shoes, and went WALKING ON THE GLACIER!!!
• SO MUCH FUN!!!
• We went up a slope, down the other side, drank from the fresh water in some of the crevaces, marvelled at the spectacular turquiose colours and formations and ridges and valleys...
• And then at the end, after 2 and a half hours of sheer magic - just to make it even MORE awesome - we got over a ridge and came to a wooden table, waiting for us on the glacier, laden with glasses. Our guide proceeded to to use his ice-pick to get chunks of ice from the glacier, and presented us each with a glass of whiskey on the rocks to top off the perfect experience! Too divine.
• Just before this, I was in a place called Bariloche, which is in the Lake District of Argentina. Here there are deep blue lakes everywhere you look, more majestic mountains, and a a tranquility like no other. There's nothing quite like seeing a full moon over a giant lake, turning the water to silver, clear and beautiful.
• I promise to put all my pics up as soon as I can. You will NOT be disappointed!

Icy-cold kisses and warm embraces to you all. xoxox

Buenos Aires revisited. And adored.

• I TAKE IT ALL BACK!!!
• I looooooooooooooooooooooooove Buenos Aires!!!
• In my original blog about this city, I said I needed time for it to grow on me. Well - it HAS!
• I could happily live here. (With monthly excursions to the beaches in Uruguay, of course!)
• So I´ve just spent another two weeks here, and it has been FABULOUS.
• First of all, it´s much easier to be somewhere when you have friends there. My friend Adam (whom I met in Colombia) arrived when I got back, and we´ll be travelling together for a while now. I also picked up the friendships with people that live here: friendships that have been slowly developing and recently have become really wonderful - after the initial getting-to-know-you dance.
• Buenos Aires for me is all about MUSIC. And by extension - DANCE.
• The last two weeks of my life have been coloured by these perfect elements.
• And we´re talking ALL varieties!
• I went to see Metallica play live at River Plate Stadium. Thrashing away with 50 000 Argentinian metalheads is an indescribable experience. Goosebumps!
• I went to a tango club called Candela. This used to be an abandoned warehouse, which has been taken over and decorated and furnished with things found in the streets. All the chairs and tables are mismatched, all the wall paintings eclectic and interesting - what was that thing about one person´s rubbish being another person´s treasure...? There was a 6-piece all woman orchestra, and people of all ages dancing around the floor... Spectacular.
• I also went to see La Bomba del Tiempo, which I wrote about in my last BsAs blog. Drumming, sweating, dancing, 1 litre plastic cups of beer... Good times!
• I´ve been pulled into the streets to dance the tango with the professionals putting on a show there, I´ve samba´d and salsa´d on the cobblestones, in the open air, laughing and learning as I spin and move and twirl and waggle my bits...!
  
• Then there was also the professional tango shows, gaucho shows and folkloric dances in the streets of La Boca - a beautiful way to spend a lunch... watching... enthralled.
  
• And of course, my absolute favourite: the giant candombe drum troupe marching through the streets of San Telmo. Always at dusk going into night, always at least 20 drummers, and as many people dancing both behind them and in front of them, with a giant flag in front being waved over everyone, filling the streets with an energy that is tribal and earthy and raw and real...
• Then there are the rooftop asados (barbeques) - social, chilled, good-people-good-food-good-wine under the stars
• I finally get what all the hype is about. BsAs is FABULOUS. You just need to give it a chance.

Love you all. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the feedback. You rock my world! xxx

Adventures in Uruguay! :)

• Feeling like a backpacker again - and loving it!!!
• First of all - South American Spanish is the most delicious language I know. I love how it rolls over my tongue, slides across my lips, and fills my mouth with gorgeous sounds. What a sensual language.
  
• I've just spent a little over a week in Uruguay - 2 days in the capital city, Montevideo, and then a week on the beach in Punta del Diablo.
• Montevideo is a small capital city. It has a some interesting and eclectic architecture, and is almost surrounded by the sea - everywhere you look you see waves in the distance. Very welcoming, not overwhelming at all (unlike BsAs!)
  
• In all of my experience in Uruguay - and this is actually something that all my Argentinian friends told me before I left - Uruguayanos are simply wonderful: really warm and kind and open, and so friendly!
• Punta del Diablo, the seaside village that I stayed in, was AMAZING! It's really small and underdeveloped - which I loved. There are no proper roads, only dirt roads, with one main (dirt) road housing some restaurants, two supermarkets and a pharmacy. All the houses are scattered about randomly: little one-room domains painted in bright sunshiney colours, simple and modest.
  
• At this time of year, it's mainly students who travel to places like this, after spending Xmas and New Year with their families, and before the new semester begins.
• I found myself in a hostel filled with Spanish-speaking students - Argentinians, Uruguayanos, Chileans, and some Brazilians (all of whom can speak Spanish too!)
• And so... I just spent a week speaking ONLY Spanish!!! (Which was no small feat! All I know is the one week of lessons that I took in Colombia. And given the different accents - that's like learning English in Texas and then trying to speak to people in the Australian outback!)
  
• It was brilliant! Of course - my Spanish is pretty poor, but at least I make myself understood! And I seem to be able to follow conversations fairly easily. The trick is (as with all languages) to get the accent down. If you SOUND like you know what you're doing, your grammatical errors are much less obvious!
  
• I loved it. Everyone was just SO nice. People would wander around the common area, strike up conversations, everyone would talk to everyone else... making friends was so easy, so effortless...
• I've also become a fan of matè (pronounced "mah-tay"). It's a traditional hot drink in this region of South America, made of herbs, and I think it contains caffeine too. EVERYONE drinks it! Basically, you pour the herbs into a matè cup, top it up with boiling hot water, then dip a special silver straw into the cup and sip away! The herbs are reused, and the cup is refilled until you run out of hot water. It's definitely an acquired taste, but I seem to have acquired it!
• I love the social aspect of matè. You see people going to the beach - everyone carrying their little matè cups and hot water flasks! In the hostel, in the mornings and evenings after the beach, everyone sits around sipping on their matè, sharing it with others, communicating, relaxing... It`s a lovely tradition.
  
• I feel so good after my week at the beach. I needed to get out of the city, and I am fully renewed and refreshed and ready for more adventures.
• I made a ton of new friends, am that much closer to speaking a new language uninhibited, had my soul nurtured by warm and easy interactions, and had my heart soothed by seawaves once again.
  
• Counting my blessings over and over and over again...

Love you all. xoxox

Bienvenido a Buenos Aires!

• Buenos Aires has taken time to grow on me.
• Perhaps the problem is that I had such lofty expectations, after Brazil, Colombia and Peru - which have an earthiness to them all.
  
• BA feels to me like Europe, not South America. It lacks (in my humble opinion) the rawness... the realness... the passion... the fire... of the other countries I´ve visited here.
• I`ve heard it descibed as a mix of Paris, Rome and Barcelona. In a way, I suppose it is. The people are more reserved, slightly distant. Then again, that´s how it is in big cities, and I need to remember that.
• It´s also a city that lives strictly at night. All the people here go for dinner between 10 P.M and 1 A.M. After that, they go out dancing until the sun comes. Sleep all day, repeat ad infinitum.
  
• What Buenos Aires DOES have - in abundance - is music, musicians, artists, artisans.
• I´ve had some remarkable nights out dancing!
• There´s a regular Monday night event: "La Bomba de Tiempo", which is a drumming troupe that gets together and performs in a warehouse packed full of people, all dancing to the drums! Afterwards there´s an afterparty at another club which goes on until the morning, where anyone that wants to can get up on stage, get involved, make music.
• There are loads of live music nights, where you can listen to Afro-Cuban music, mambo from the 1950´s, salsa, samba, candombe...
• My favourite thing here has been the San Telmo market, which happens every Sunday. During the day one of the main streets is closed off, and lined with handicrafts, second-hand artifacts, antiques, and other bric-a-brac. As evening dawns, suddenly the drums take over the day! Groups of drummers march down the streets, making music, producing energy, creating MAGIC!
• They start at one end of the street, and walk down, gathering people as they go. There are loads of Brazilians in BA, and it is the amazing Brazilian girls who move like no-one on earth. They both lead the drummers and follow them. People join in as they go, shaking their asses, feeling the passion, getting lost in the moment. It´s ELECTRIC. You can either join a group that you like, and walk with them, or wait on the side of the stret and watch the different groups go by! I was dancing my heart out!!! Driven by the drums, my soul SANG.
• And THAT is what I take away from Buenos Aires with me. That and the giant, juicy delicious steaks. And fantastic red wine.
• Today is my first day in Uruguay, as I needed to escape to the beach for a while. But I´ll be back in Argentina soon to explore it further, beyond the capital city.
  
• Watch this space for more!

Love you all, and wishing you a new year filled with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. xxx

El Hippimundo :)

• "The Hippy World"
• Ever since I arrived in South America, I've heard the term in passing.
• I believe (from what I can make out) that it refers to a specific brand of people on this continent - hippies, dreamers, philosophers, travelers...
• There is an energy in South America, a call to people who have abandoned the status quo, the norm, the dictates of modern society... a call to explore, and interact, and LIVE.
• There are many travelers here from within South America itself, who make their way through the continent by making things - music, jewelery, handicrafts. It's been absolutely amazing to meet these people, to be encircled by their warmth and openness, to learn from them and have my eyes and heart opened by the interactions.
• In Cuzco, I had just returned from Machu Picchu. I was sitting by the fountains in the Plaza de Almas waiting for an Australian girl that I'd met in the hostel - we had plans to go for lunch together.
• Not far from me, I saw a young rasta - long dreadlocks down to his knees - talking animatedly in Spanish to 2 girls. He gave off a vibe of such warmth, and joy, and fun.
• In no time, he had come over to talk to me, and in my broken Spanish we chatted for a while about life and stuff. He invited me to come and see his band play later (he plays percussion - bongos and tribal drums), and then when my friend came, he immediately invited us to come with him and his 4 girl friends to a traditional Peruvian lunch.
• These 5 lovely individuals took us to a restaurant outside of town, treated us to DELICIOUS local food - ceviche ("Peruvian sushi", as they described it), seafood, and the local purple corn drink... what a meal! What an experience! I smile even now, just thinking about it.
• Then last night was my first night in Buenos Aires. Not knowing anyone here, I asked the guy working at the hostel for a good place to go for steak and wine. This IS Argentina, after all!
• He told me where to go, and also told me that 2 blocks from the restaurant was a square where there are free live tango shows, and music, and people.
• I went past the restaurant, saw people lined up waiting for a table, and thought I'd rather go to the square first.
• Not 2 minutes after I sat down, I was deep in conversation (yes, again in Espanol!) with a 50-year old hippy from Peru.
• He shared his bottle of wine with me, and regaled me with tales of the history of Peru, of Argentina, of astrology, and tarot, and life, and love.
• After about 2 hours, more of his friends started joining us - more free spirits, open and warm and "tranquilo". Some came with little children - toddlers running around laughing anjd giggling. We drank wine, we laughed, we celebrated life...
• What an evening! At about 1 a.m I got hungry, so I took myself for dinner. The restaurant was PACKED (even at this time), dinner was EVERYTHING you would imagine it to be - giant, juicy, delicious steak, with wonderful wine...
• What a night!!!
• Once again, in a very different way, I couldn't help but feel SO VERY FORTUNATE.
• All of these "chance" encounters, with all of these fascinating individuals. I am learning, experiencing, living my dream.

La vida es hermosa. Siepmre.

Blessed, blessed, blessed.

• I feel so lucky. I feel so fortunate. I feel so blessed.
  
• I want to embrace the Universe, and thank the stars and the planets and the sun and the moon and nature and everything magical and mystical and wonderful for the gift that I have been given, that is my life.
• I just got back from Machu Picchu. I am feeling completely high on life after the experience.
• Machu Picchu defies description. Completely. It´s inexplicably ethereal, and amazing, and uplifting.
• I woke up at 4 a.m, to get there really early and be one of the 200 people a day permitted to go up Waynapìcchu: a RIDICULOUSLY steep and difficult climb which (luckily only takes about an hour - with MANY breaks! and) culminates in a view over the entire ancient Incan village that is unsurpassed.
• Actually, when I arrived, the whole area was shrouded in clouds and mist. I found a spot high up on the mountain, and for 2 hours watched as the the clouds s-l-o-w-l-y parted to reveal the ruins... bit by bit...
• It was spectacular. Ethereal. Otherwordly.
• I had booked a guide as well, and after the ""grand reveal", I found my guide and he talked me through the whole area, and the history of the Inca people. Then I climbed Waynapicchu and saw it all from on high.
• I was captivated.
• The whole experience has left me so emotional, and almost breathless, and made me thank everything in this Universe yet again for the gift that I have been given!
• When I set out on this adventure, I had a very vague plan of what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I wanted to experience LIFE. The world. And I have. In SO MANY WAYS!!!
• I pinch myself constantly. I try to smile at everyone I meet, be kind to everyone I meet, spread love everywhere I go... It´s the only way I know how to thank the Universe for the amazing gifts that I have been given. I am blessed with an incredible family, incomparable friends, and so much good fortune!!!
  
• Life is SO BEAUTIFUL.
• I am humbled, and overwhelmed.
• Thank you ALL for being a part of the magic. xxx
  

I´m all alooowwwwwwwnnnn...

• Back to being a solo traveller again.
• I´ve forgotten what it feels like to be outside of the warm, comfortable embrace of friends, in a familiar environment, where everything is simple, and routine, and easy to navigate.
• After my month in Colombia, with a group of friends that became like family, restaurants where I knew the menu off by heart, and a hostel that felt like home, being in Peru has been quite an adjustment.
• I landed late at night in Lima, the capital, and was whisked off to my hostel in a taxi right away.
• I was the ONLY PERSON IN THE HOSTEL! There was another guy when I checked in, but he left for a midnight flight a few hours after I arrived.
• So anyway. I spent the next 2 days in Lima wandering around on my own. I forgot how exhilerating it can be to not have a CLUE. About anything.
• Armed with a map provided by the hostel, directions on where the bus passes (there´s no actual Bus Stop, you just stand on the corner and flag it down), and my outstanding command of the Spanish language, I managed to explain to the ticket lady on the bus that I wanted her to tell me when to get off at the Historical Centre.
• And she did. And I did. And it was wonderful. I didn´t see another tourist the whole time I was there, which made me feel very brave, and edgy, and adventurous.
• Lima is quite charming. Peruvian people are very different from the 2 other nations I´ve been to thusfar, although the typical South American warmth and kindness continues to colour every interaction.
• I also stumbled upon (in Moraflores - a more affluent suburb of Lima, on the Peruvian coast) a little park area dedicated to lovers! There was a massive statue overlooking the sea, of a couple in embrace, surrounded by low mosaic walls inlaid with Spanish quotes on love... so very romantic...
• I love finding things by accident! Getting lost when you´re walking around a new, unfamiliar city is great fun. It always leads to wonder. I often get lost intentionally. BUT - I always keep a map with me for aftewards, as ultimatly, I DO want to find my way back again!
  
• Now I´m in Cuzco, which is simply divine. What a quaint, charming little place indeed! But more on that next time.

Until then - muchos besitos de Perú!!! xxxxxxxx