On the move again…This time digitally!

And so my posts have saturated my account and I have reached my storage limit for media here, given that we’re hitting the dregs of our travel budgets at the minute-£85 to upgrade the site is something of an unwanted expense!

So, fear not-for all shall be solved with a rather ingenious move to another blog! This site will soon be transformed into ‘adventurecoupleasia’and I will complete with more information about South East Asia and update all missing posts about Myanmar (you’re in for a treat when I get to that!!)

Otherwise, for the posts on Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina revisited, Bolivia again and the long road home….Go to:

AdventureCoupleLatam

From the beach of El Quisco to the Atacama Desert

Having spent a few days in Valparaiso, and with a couple of weeks teaching for the English Opens Doors program approaching, we decided to get some much needed coastal time under our belts. Over the entirety of our travels, the surprising thing is that we haven’t seen more of the sea-so we headed to the Chilean coast and  El Quisco. Most famous for being home to another one of Pablo Neruda’s haunts, Isla Negra, El Quisco proved to be the perfect tonic to the concrete jungle that is Valpo, a few stunning sunsets perfect to massage the soul and move us forward to our next volunteer placement. Aimless meandering up and down the stunning coastline certainly didn’t disappoint, and we even managed to happen across a Pablo Neruda artistic reserve on the cliff tops-the kind of place that you would never find if you were actively looking for it!  Walking around this hidden gem you find a number of sculptures hidden amongst the foliage, most impressive were the eerie stone faces that look over the shores, listening to the waves crashing on the rocks far below-it’s easy to understand how an artist would use this place as a source of inspiration: 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Stunning scenery, great seafood, a perfect little cabana just 5 minutes walk from the beach-you couldn’t really ask for much more-apart for time! Alas that wasn’t something that we could afford ourselves, and in the blink of an eye our lazy couple of days were over, and we were headed back to Santiago once again-over the following two weeks we would be teaching assistants for the English Opens Doors Summer Camps. Nothing too taxing, we would be working with Chilean teachers delivering a number of activities for students who had enrolled in a free summer English language program- they’re run over the whole of Chile, so deep down we were both kind of hoping to be sent to Patagonia, alas that was not to be. For my first week I was placed in Los Angeles (Chile, not California!), and Jo in Concepcion-then for the second week we were both back in Santiago. With little spare time to explore the respective cities there’s not a lot I can tell you about the districts; as for the camps themselves-we got to work with some great people in an extremely positive and enthusiastic summer camp environment-so more great teaching experiences under our belts. The only negative being that we had to comprise a lip dub to Justin Bieber’s Sorry, which still haunts my dreams now…If I never hear that song again it will be too soon!

Having loitered in the central region of Chile for long enough, we now had some time to be tourists for a while, and from the recommendations of many, we were headed North to San Pedro, before making our way into Peru. San Pedro is the gateway from which to explore the Atacama Desert, something that neither Jo or I had considered before our trip to South America-but it is thought to be the oldest desert on earth, the oldest continuously dry region on the planet, (it has experienced extreme hyper aridity for at least 3 million years!) and is the home of the other worldly terrain of the Chilean Valle de la Luna. Not surprisingly at one point NASA tested their Mars landing equipment there and looked for signs of life in the earth of the desert-finding none …..You could say that this place is barren!
First we had to get there though, and it turned out to be ‘one of those journeys’. I feel like I haven’t had a proper travel moan for ages, this trip certainly gave me fodder for a paddy of epic proportions. It was simple enough in theory-there was a direct bus from Santiago to San Pedro. It was a night bus so we would get some form of faux chair/bed, hop on, fall asleep, arrive in San Pedro-easy! Alas that wasn’t to be the case in this instance. The chain of events that followed can’t really be explained properly as no one explained anything to us during the whole journey! What I can tell you is that our simple one bus journey evolved into a mammoth four bus marathon! First up our bus just stopped at one station and was there for what seemed like an age, there appeared to be some problem with the door-so we had to wait until a mechanic could come and fix it. Fast forward an hour and a half and we were set to recommence our journey, off we go again all happy and relieved that things were sorted. At some point during my broken slumber we shuddered to a halt and informed that we would now be changing buses, on some random street at an ungodly hour in the morning. Ok, so a grumble and a little bit of a moan, but the other bus was there so we quickly changed and got ourselves comfortable again….For about ten minutes, when the new bus pulled into another bus station and kicked us off! We were simply told that we would need to catch another bus to San Pedro-as our bus was now out of service! With our extremely limited Spanish, and the help of a fellow traveller, it looked like we would have to wait at this bus station for three hours for the next bus to San Pedro, or take another two buses which would get us there sooner-so we opted for the latter, adding an unwelcome 4 hours onto the total journey time. Eventually we made it-30 hours later-but for sure my patience with people when I’m tired and travelling is limited, and it hasn’t gotten any better over the last year and a half!

Having finally arrived during the dark of night, we managed to get a taxi (a random 4X4) to take us out to our ‘desert base’ and soon we settled into our tent excited about what San Pedro had to offer; yes, that’s right, we were going to be braving some camping in the desert. The Atacama is also home to the imaginatively named Very Large Telescope (VLT), for the very reason that there is nowhere better on the planet to look at the midnight skies. Unfortunately my camera isn’t up to the job of demonstrating the displays of stars that we were treated to each night, so you’ll have to take my word for it-it was spectacular, and as we were camping outside of the town where there is zero light pollution-we were treated to a wondrous show each night. 

When we actually managed to get into San Pedro the next day we discovered the town itself to be quite the tourist haven, with dusty ‘Mad Max’ type streets and adobe buildings-you really feel as if you are experiencing a time gone by-all be it truth be told I think that nowadays it purely exists as a tourist destination. That doesn’t take anything away from being there though, it really is a funky little town. 

Dust and dogs mostly…Oh, and tourists!

Adobe Church photo – as oposed to Adobe photoshop…

The campsite had some good views dring the day as well!

Like everyone else arriving in San Pedro, you walk around a few tourist shops, have some food, and then set about organising your activities for the next couple of days-there are loads of tour agencies doing various excursions, from sand boarding and quad biking, to nightly stargazing walks. Our focus was on a visit to the unique Valle de la Luna, and to go and visit the nearby geysers. After exploring a few  options with the local travel companies you soon work out that they’re all very similar and you just need to negotiate yourself the best deal. Having gotten what we thought was a great deal, the next day we were on our way to explore the moon like landscape that the desert presents-quite simply it was absolutely gorgeous, a myriad of colours and surreal rock formations melting and pouring into each other-it was a little like being in a lava lamp: 

Epic!

I’m happy cause there’s salt!

I’m on top of the wooooooooooorld!

The entire day was breath-taking, the only downside being that our tour guide quite simply didn’t speak any English-it ended up being quite comical and forced us to try to use what little Spanish we had acquired to decipher the general gist of his tour. After a full day in the desert, the evening held nothing more than a beer or two and early to bed in the sweltering pod of heat that was our tent-but not for long, for at 4.00AM we would be getting picked up for the following days visit to the geysers. Now, for what happened next I blame on tiredness, although others may point to stupidity, I’ll leave it up to you to decide. As is the very nature of the Atacama, it’s hot….Really hot. So, 4 AM one morning getting ready to go and visit some geysers, where we have been told there are hot springs, Jo and I promptly dressed some nice lightweight shorts and t-shirts. It didn’t really occur to us that we would be going to 5,300m above sea level at the crack of dawn, and at that time, at that height, it may be just a little bit Chile (pun intended!!). It didn’t really sink in until we were surrounded by people on our minibus dressed for winter, looking at us as if we were crazy fools-and as such we arrived at the geysers to the amusement of many….Little freezing gringo couple-how funny! Anyway, aside from that the geysers were, again, spectacular, other worldly, wonderful….I run out of original superlatives so forgive me for repeating myself! The amusing thing is that unlike the UK there is  no real health and safety, merely the casual observation:

if you see a hole in the ground, try not to stand on it….

Boom!

Can you tell that we’re cold?

Get the feeling that we should stay away from any random holes in the ground!

Red sands, blue skies, volcanic action inbetween

Arid desert, bubbling volcanic pools and hot springs, but still San Pedro wasn’t quite finished-to complete our stay we grabbed some mountain bikes to go and explore Pukara de Quitor, a pre-Columbian stone fortress overlooking the San Pedro river. With Machu Picchu looming in our futures it was a great introduction to the wonders that lay ahead. The ruins date back to the 12th century, and were built initially as a defence against internal threats from neighbouring villages and communities-upon the Spanish invasion they took on a more significant role in the defence from  these foreign invaders. It was to no avail though, as signified by two huge stone heads, carved into the rock in memory of the Pukará de Quitor leaders beheaded by the Spanish when they sacked the town in 1540. A few hours walk in the sweltering heat would stand us in good stead for future excursions, and obviously provided some more camera fodder!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

And so it was that we prepared to leave Chile for Peru,  with a feeling of a fair amount of unfinished business-as with Argentina, we have barely scratched the surface!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas in Valparaiso

Last year we were staying on a piranha farm in Northern Thailand, and Christmas day actually involved a pretty gruelling Thai boxing class….This year was not to be so strenuous! This year we would be indulging in cocktails, wine, food and street art in the enigmatic city of Valparaiso, Chile.

It is the 6th largest city in the country, yet the greater Valparaiso Metropolitan Area is the second most populous, and it lies just 70 miles from Santiago. Today it is the most important port in Chile, and indeed is one of the most important South Pacific ports, but a far cry from its signifiance pre Panama Canal. In the second half of the 19th century, the city served as a stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, earning it the names “Little San Francisco” and “The Jewel of the Pacific”. All of this would change with the opening of the mighty Panama Canal-which had a huge impact on the ship traffic that Valparaiso would see, and ergo the port based economy took a heavy fall.Since then Valparaiso has reinvented itself, its myriad of mazy streets providing inspiration for artistic and cultural expression. In 2003 the historic quarter was given UNESCO World Heritage Site status due to its improvised urban design and unique hop scotch of hillside architecture sprawling away from the coast. It’s difficult to put into words the landscape that you are faced with upon arrival, the city literally leaps from the sea and crawls up the surrounding hillsides. A series of 26 old and rickety funiculars are scattered around the city giving your legs the option to circumnavigate the steep inclines that you face at every corner! Street art meets your gaze everywhere, a lot of it breathtaking, but equally so much of the grafitti is just a collection of banal tags. This explosion of colour on the walls, combines with the crazy streets and perilously balanced buildings certainly gives the city something of an ‘edge’, especially when placed against the contrast of previous experiences in the sleepy town of EL Monte, and the modern and cosmopolitan Santiago. But this is something that the city never denies, in fact this edginess is positively embraced. Probably the best way to describe to you Valparaiso is to quote the famous Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda, a hugely influential figure in Chile-and someone who had quite a magnificent home on the hillsides of Valparaiso. On visiting his home, one of the things that you have to do while visiting the city, you apprecite what an eye for design and detail that he must have had, plus the fact tht he was a bit of  party animal-with a pretty cool bar just off his living room! Wonderful art deco design features, couple with the most superb panoramic views of the quagmire of streets falling away down the hillside to the docks nestled far below-the perfect fodder for artistic inspiration I would think:

Ode to Valparaíso
by Pablo Neruda
(translated by Molly Allison-Baker)

VALPARAÍSO,
what an absurdity
you are,
how crazy:
a crazy port.
What a head
of disheveled
hills,
that you never finish
combing.
Never
did you have
time to dress yourself,
and always
you were surprised
by life.
Death woke you up,
in your nightshirt,
in your long johns
fringed with colors,
naked
with a name
tattooed on your stomach,
and with a hat.

(read the full version of the translated poem here)

Christmas turned out to be a funny time to be in the city, the streets much quieter and calmer than we were expecting-as it transpired it was the perfect time to go on a tour of discovery of the balmy alleys and streets, in search of some of the much lauded graffiti that adorns the walls, roofs and passageways around the city…What you find is a myriad of amazing artwork:

The giant twins

On the streets of Valpairiso

Watching over the city

Moshi?

One of my favourites

No blending in for this guy!

Woof!

Moody, cool

Where there’s art, there be tags

Loads of ‘mindful’ artwork

Huge murals adorn the sides of apartment blocks

Mushroom heaven…..

Dog making good use of one of the street shelters!

Colourful streets-an art lovers dream!

Every spot covered on the way down to the ocean

Love this wall!

Amazing realism giving birth to a abstract colourful chameleon

Winding your way through the alleys and streets-rt appears everywhere

Not sure whether this is ‘as intended’, or whether loads of detail got added

I was reaching for my camera at every turn, always eyes wide open, a smile at the corners of my mouth. Valparaiso certainly isn’t a pretty city, but it is captivating!
As for Christmas day, we had rented an apartment for the festive period, so with the opportunity to use a kitchen we did what seemed most apt…..Cocktails, red wine, beer and steak and chips!

Aside from street art and steak, we travelled up the coast a little to Viña del Mar-the neighbouring seaside resort, a little bit like the younger yet more responsible sister…Which fails to charm in the same way as the gritty streets of Valpo-but would serve a purpose should you be seeking some beach time and a swanky night out!

Getting back to Valparaiso and I cannot help but feel that our experience of the city was somewhat an oddity-the Christmas period giving the whole place a much more lazy and sedate feel than the reports I hear from others. I think if you were to visit at New Year you would get an entirely different perspective-but for us a few days in our little apartment were perfect, a very Merry Christmas!

Scurrying into El Hormiguero…(The anthill)

From our first week in the bustling metropolis that is Santiago, we were ready to get ourselves back to volunteering in somewhat more sedate surroundings-and the El Hormiguero in El Monte proved to be just that! Another placement that we had found through the HelpX website, with the simple yet tantalising description:

In the midway between Santiago and the surf-paradise Pichilemu, we have our creative centre “El Hormiguero” (the anthill).

We are exploring in eco-building, natural pools, aquaponics crops, arts, music and any interesting expression of new lifestyles.

With our eagerness to find alternative lifestyles, building methods and my much coveted ‘life skill acquisition’, on the face of things this place looked like it could tick all of the boxes-and so we had three weeks or so to find out-El Monte here we come!

So then….where to start? Well as always, the adventure begins with a journey, in this case a mere 1 hour bus into the unknown. We managed to get on the right bus, we just had a little hiccup with getting off in the wrong spot-probably a twenty minute or so walk from where we should have been. In theory no problem, but with your backpacks on and the midday heat beating down on your head, that twenty minutes takes on a whole new significance! Still, nothing that couldn’t be fixed with an empanada and fresh juice stop-and so our first introduction to the charm and friendliness of El Monte washed over us. Yes that’s right, you wouldn’t expect a vendor of empanadas and fresh juice to be a significant meeting, but the man in the square of El Monte was an absolute ray of sunshine and he would continue to shine for our entire time at the anthill! At this point it’s worth pointing out that El Monte is not exactly a destination for tourists, or for want of a better word, Gringos! As such we kinda stick out like a sore thumb, but that only served to encourage kindness and warmth from pretty much everyone we met over the following three weeks or so.
I digress, back to our journey…once we had located the main square, we had basic walking directions that would take us to the anthill and so we hit the road for another twenty minutes or so until we saw the palm trees-the significant landmark that would signify our arrival at our destination. You see, the anthill, aside from the description as given above, is a palm tree farm!

Well baked, slightly sweaty and reddened in the face, we negotiated our way to the entrance to find our hosts for the build up until Christmas, and for sure what we found was both intriguing and bewildering. Soon enough we were offered a beer and set about getting to know Vicente and Martina, some German guys that were already there volunteering, and also the various animals that we would find ourselves growing to know and love. Alpacas, emus, a donkey, a peacock, two peahens, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats-to say there was some variety is an understatement! And all of this in the setting of a traditional adobe farm, albeit it with some wonderfully quirky design features. Impossible to describe effectively with words, a montage seems most fitting to give you an impression of the location:

Ruca and Jo

Peaches on tap!

The natural swimming pool in the walled garden-perfect for the end of a super hot day!

The adobe built farmhouse that would be home

The palm tree ‘forest’!

What you looking at?!

Rod Hull nowhere to be found!

A bed wearing wellies in a water garden, obviously!

All who sail in her be safe!

There was a donkey, a sheep, an Alpaca and a peacock…You provide the punchline!

Tropical surroundings!

Palms everywhere, more dangerous than you would think!

If you go down to the woods today…..

As I’m sure you can see, this place was quite special, and it would only get more magical. It turned out that our period of volunteering coincided with Martina and Vicente’s wedding, which they were going to be having at the farm! So it was up to us all to landscape and decorate the grounds in readiness for 400 guests to celebrate their union-and what a fantastic few weeks it turned out to be. Initially we had to clear the palm tree forest of all debris as that was where the ceremony and meal was to be-and this was the worst job of all! It may surprise you to know that palm tree leaves are pretty damn sharp, and all of us suffered greatly with significant punctures and lacerations caused by these pesky leaves! Fortunately for us we were there at the tail end of this job, the German guys had been pretty much focussed on the forest for their entire stay, and it was really starting to take its toll on their enthusiasm!
Still, once the forest was cleared there was more varied work to do, and luckily for us it was the period of time where you could really see the transformation taking place.
After a few days of us being there, we were also lucky enough to welcome the arrival of a couple from Leeds, Rob and Charlie, a couple who happen to have extremely similar ideals and plans as ourselves-albeit they are a little further down the line than us. This proved to be amazing, we shared so much, and I would say that they have became close friends. They were both extremely knowledgeable about various alternative farming methods and construction ideas, and it was fantastic to just sit and talk about hopes and plans (not dreams, plans!).

Back to the work, Martina and Vicente have a booming landscaping business work on projects throughout Santiago…reason that their business is booming? Well, they’re pretty damn creative, that’s why-and so we were tasked with the job of implementing their creative ideas, on their property, for their wedding…No pressure! Working with Rob and Charlie was brilliant, and in our time there we managed to build two beached areas, a water garden, some mighty fine gates, got involved with some adobe walling, and an immaculately decorated venue for the wedding-as well as Rob and Charlie getting to grips with a number of bridges, sprucing up a gypsy caravan, relocating the aquaponics and generally being open to our constant questioning!

In addition to all of the work at the farm, we were blessed with the wonder of El Monte, for here we would find warm and friendly folk who would fall over themselves to make us welcome. The daily Christmas market in the local plaza, and free capoeira lessons at the wonderful local community centre. Despite the fact that there was no common ground in terms of language-it turned out to be possibly one of the most friendly martial arts clubs I have ever been to, they even started having lessons in the town plaza for eveyone to watch. We loved it, and soon enough Rob and Charlie were hooked as well-a welcome distraction from the work at the farm for sure!

Twice a week we would get our capoeira on, and the rest of the week was dedicated to graft, and the occasional two litre bottle of El Gato wine!! The work was full on, after all there was an immovable deadline to meet-so it wasn’t as if we could leave it to the next volunteers if we didn’t finish-so finish we did…Culminating in a spectacular wedding!

There was some toil in the creation of these gates, but eventually we were victorious!

Picture perfect for a wedding

Getting aesthetic with wood

And I present to you our first water garden creation!

Two alpacas, a front garden beach and Rob & Charlie!

The bride getting on down with the band!

Adobe wall…Suits you sir!

Tadaaaa

Rocking well into the evening.

Rob & Charlie enjoying the fruits of labour!

A truly awesome dance off by the bride and groom.

For in the woods there be a wedding…

Haduken!

Tadaaaaa!

It was a fantastic ending to our time in El Monte, after three and a half weeks we had made some special friendships and enjoyed a magical time at the farm…Now Christmas was upon us, and the grafitti laden streets of Valpairiso awaited!

My, it’s a bit Chile…

Argentina fading in the wing mirrors, and the magnificent Andes looming ahead, it could mean only one thing-we were bound for Chile. Absolutely my favourite border crossing to date-from Mendoza it’s a 7 hour bus journey to get to Santiago, straight over the Andes, and it’s absolutely fabulous. You begin with a drive through the flat lands and vineyards of Mendoza region before you soon start climbing up the mountainside and dipping in and out of tunnels as you twist and turn up to the majestic mountain range that runs pretty much the entire length of the border between Chile and Argentina, as well as running through Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia. It’s the highest mountain range outside Asia, over 4000 miles long, and as you make your way towards the border you pass by the mighty Mount Aconcagua, which at it’s peak rises to an elevation of about 6,961m and is the highest mountain in the Western hemisphere. It was breath-taking just to get near it on a bus journey, and just a week following our journey one of our friends was actually going to be climbing it! Just another 15km or so on from passing the mountain and you reach the border, where you have to step off the bus into snow and icy winds; obviously I was wearing shorts and t-shirt and was completely unprepared for exiting at the border, a schoolboy error some may say! The border crossing itself was extremely straight forward, although worth noting that Chile has extremely strict controls on what you can travel into the country with-so definitely worth checking what you have in your bags before making the crossing, otherwise the danger of a hefty fine. Specifically you can’t take any organic materials across the border, no honey, fruit, vegetables…as well as your stash of weapons and drugs!!
So, safely through the border we started the descent from the border via a series of no fewer than 27 switchbacks! Quite the introduction to Chile!

And so our journey begins, the Andes teasing us in the distance

As the mountains loom ever closer, excitment levels increase

Certainly not without its spectacular scenery!

Soon enough the roads start to twist and turn

The snow is upon us

The Andes!

Exit Argentina-my it’s Chile up here!!!

So, this is the way down then…..

Before we knew it we were arriving in the thriving metropolis that is Santiago, time for a week of sight seeing in the capital before our next volunteer placement in El Monte. We weren’t simply going to be wondering the busy city street though, as is our eagerness to learn Spanish, we soon found ourselves a week long Spanish language course to see whether we could give ourselves a little bit of a kick start. Queue 5 hours a day in a hot classroom getting somewhat frustrated with my inability to just pick up a language with no problems…Obviously Jo was much better prepared than I was, and certainly got to grips with more than I have managed.

That’s not to say we didn’t manage to explore the city-Santiago is a vibrant, busy, thriving and colourful city, with a whole load of awesome museums and enchanting street culture to charm and seduce you. From the multi coloured buildings lining the streets in the  district of Bellavista, housing numerous bars and restaurants for late night entertainment; to the many green spaces and museums that provide a platform for arts and cultural expression-it really does seem to have something for everyone. Not forgetting the backdrop of the Andes to put things in a different perspective. Amazingly, as of the census from 2002, a massive 35% of the population of Chile live in the capital-which certainly makes for interesting etiquette on the metro during rush hour!

Did I mention the street art?!

Some interestiing charactors to be found here!

I think that’ll do nicely!

Samurai exhibition at one of the many amazing museums

So many beautiful parks in the city

Bellavista architecture

Apparently representing all the things that are important to Chilean people!

Surrounded by the Andes

Chess competition in Plaza de Armas

Great to walk around and find art like this!

Pre colombian history museum

Santiago!!

Blues club….Nice!

Ahhh, the love locks bridge santiago style!

Street art Bellavista

Basically Santiago proved to be a wonderful introduction to Chile, next stop the sleepy town of El Monte and a few weeks volunteering at ‘The Anthill’…And what a surprise that turned out to be!

Volunteering in San Rafael-wine country!

Following our injection of tourism, it was time to settle for a volunteer placement once again-this time spending 6 weeks in San Rafael, Mendoza region, wine country!
Quite the different proposition to Aldea Luna, here were volunteering at an Argentinian finca and boutique hotel-as we had arrived during low season there weren’t too many guests to tend to, and so we spent a lot of the time preparing the hotel for high season.

While we had the experience of organic farming in isolation in Northern Argentina, here we found ourselves tending to horses, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats and geese in the shadows of the Andes. Daily duties were simply to feed the animals and tend to any odd jobs around the hotel, and to sort out lunch for Nicole, the owner, and her parents, Hugo and Carmen. Once again we found ourselves in a predominantly vegetarian environment, and to be honest I thoroughly enjoyed adding a number of delicious vegetarian recipes to my repertoire…Including the taste sensation of beetroot, carrot, ginger and garlic gyoza!

Gyoza preparations

They proved to be pretty popular!

Overall it was a super relaxed and thoroughly social placement-Nicole, Hugo and Carmen were absolutely brilliant, and we had many a laugh and good night!
As with all of our placements, even though the work didn’t exactly fall into the ‘life skills’ category-it was invaluable to work with someone like Nicole-who has an keen eye for detail and impeccably high standards. Not surprisingly there are a number of awards from TripAdvisor proudly displayed in the lobby of the hotel.

One of the accomodation buildings

The agave and cactus garden

Quite stunning views to massage your soul!

Great big balls of fluff!

San Rafael itself is a quaint little town full of bodegas and, more importantly, delicious ice cream parlours. Obviously it wouldn’t be acceptable to be in Mendoza region without some wine tasting, and so we indulged in the local favourite of Jean Rivier to whet our appetites-an appetite that would be fed quite regularly during the remainder of our time in Argentina! Here we also finally broke our duck on Argentinian ice cream, and what an experience that was. Cheap and delicious gelato, with a list of flavours as long as your arm, ice cream is something of a passion in Argentina, and now we truly understood why!

Other highlights from our time here came from interaction with the guests and Nicole’s friends-particularly the opportunity to attend, and then conduct, Argentinian BBQs-or asados as they are known. Unlike the British equivalent, where you go to the shops grab as many burgers and sausages as possible before rushing to a gas powered BBQ to cook them before the sunshine disappeared, an asado is a much more considered event. Obviously the fact that you have glorious sunshine certainly helps-so great big hunks of meat would be slow cooked over a couple of hours on wood coals made from burning local hardwoods…Certainly no gas powered BBQs or bags of coal to be found here! Chorizos, morcillas (black pudding), chinchulines (cow small intestines), mollejas (sweetbread), and other organs, are served first while the larger cuts of beef are left to slow cook over the coals.
The result is a wonderfully tender and smoky beef sensation, including the salty deliciousness of small intestines (chinchulines), a delicacy that, prior to tasting, I would have definitely turned my nose up at!
Obviously it helps that you get to use Argentinian beef, regarded by some (mostly Argentinians, obviously!) to be the best beef in the world…Why? The beef’s quality apparently comes from the grass the cattle feed on. Unlike other countries, most Argentine cows are not fed on grains, but are raised eating grass in the pampas, the biggest beef producing region of the country where open flat plains dominate the landscape.
All of this washed down with wonderful red wine-obviously!

The start of the evening, before excess became our master!

For sure it was an unexpected injection of some luxury into our volunteer journey-and we did get pretty comfortable there-but by the end of the 6 weeks we were ready to continue, a bus journey across the Andes awaited, Chile was calling!

 

Salta, La Rioja and the Talampaya Canyon

Having said our farewells to the our ‘family’ at Aldea Luna, and having the fortune to get a lift to the bus stop from Martin and Anabella, our travels resumed and we set about having a few days of tourism before our next volunteer appointment in San Rafael. The unexpected expense in Argentina being a significant factor in restricting just how much sightseeing we were going to get to do. Still, we had 5 days and so we planned to go to the picturesque town of Salta, then onto La Rioja and the Talampaya National Park.
We easily managed to get ourselves back to Jujuy bus station and then a mere two hour wait for the bus to Salta-the perfect amount of time to catch up on a little bit of internet action-and eating some meat empanadas after our month of enforced vegetarianism!

Unlike the adventures across Asia, the journeys here lack much in the way of drama or terror-we soon arrived unscathed and not in the least bit stressed in Salta, and made our way to our hostel. It was here that we were greeted by the most delightful host, with no English and our very broken beginner Spanish-it was rugby that united us! As soon as I had managed to establish the fact that I was Welsh, the smiles were unstoppable as we shared in England’s demise at the World Cup, and Argentina’s emergence as an upcoming rugby superpower-oh how they are benefitting from inclusion in the Rugby Championship. Anyway, I digress, as it was late we managed to organise food to be delivered to the hostel and we ate and crashed, before rising early to discover the quaint and eerily quiet streets of Salta…It took a while for us to realise that it was Sunday, and not until the following day to understand that Sundays really are rest days in Argentina. It actually turned out to be to our benefit, as we explored Argentinian street vistas uninterrupted for the first time.

Not to mention the colourful plazas-lots and lots of colourful plazas!

Salta, our first real experience of South American streets-colourful and contrasting

The old and the new, the pink and the mirrored

It would seem as if their football team is doing well….Who needs open top buses?!

This was fitting in nicely with my mental image of South American street architecture!

Another plaza, another fountain…

As with most plazas anywhere, you do need a good centrepiece!

One of the ‘attractions’ of the city that we had highlighted as a must visit was the MAAM Museum, which is the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology, and the home of the ‘Children of Llullaillaco’ in the Cryopreservation Laboratory. Basically these are mummified remains of Inca children that were sacrificed to the gods on the mountains of Lullaillaco 500 years ago, and as per the altitude and hence low temperatures they are the best preserved Inca mummies that have ever been discovered.
These remains are now actually kept frozen in the afore mentioned museum, and at any given time one of the mummies is on display. While it sounds pretty macabre and potentially bad taste, the exhibition is excellent-giving a real insight into the customs of the Inca’s and the background for these ‘sacrifices’. The children that were sacrificed were believed to have been the most intelligent and attractive, often from families of high standing in the communities. Even more surprising is the fact that the children were actually left on the mountain tops while they still alive, albeit sedated with coca leaves and a maize beer, and left to die in their sleep. Surrounding the bodies a number of artefacts and other offerings were found, rich collection Incan treasures laid out assumed to be part of the sacrifice to appease the mountain gods.
On our visit the youngest of the children to be found was on display, ‘El Nino’;

The boy
His age is around seven years. He sat on a grey tunic with legs bent and his face in-resting on his knees. A blanket of brown and red half covered his head and body. Like all men of the Inca elite he wore short hair and a trim white feathers, supported by a sling wool wrapped around the head.
He is dressed in a red garment; has in his feet leather moccasins light-coloured with brown wool appliqué; It has anklets animal skin with white fur on his right wrist and wears a silver bracelet.
His fists are clenched; The face is not visible and his eyelids are half closed.

With time limited before our start date at our next volunteering project-we left Salta after a couple of nights and headed onto La Rioja, with a view to visiting the Talampaya National Park-another UNESCO World Heritage Site for us to add to our already impressive list-the only place on the Earth’s surface where you can see all stages of the Triassic geological era, which witnessed the emergence of the first dinosaurs.
Our first challenge was getting there, as on our arrival in the pleasant surroundings of La Rioja we discovered, to our dismay, that any organised trips to the canyon were going to be way over budget! The canyon being around 3 hours bus journey from La Rioja, the trips we found were coming in at over £100 each-quite significantly more than expected. Not to be put off, we eventually found a way to get there for about half that cost-local style!! Basically this involved us getting a local bus and getting them to drop us off on the main road through the desert near the entrance, and in comparison to some of the adventures we had in Asia-it all went like absolute clockwork….Although not without a fair amount of apprehension on my part obviously!

So having negotiated our way there, we soon found ourselves amongst the sheered red boulders that had fallen from the walls of the canyon around us, upon which were a gallery of 1, 000 year old rock paintings, made by the Ciénaga and Aguada peoples who inhabited the area. The pictures ‘apparently’ depict various animals although I was pretty certain that they were more indicative of alien invaders….Riding llamas obviously!! At one point during the tour you are brought round to the botanical garden of the area where you find a huge carob tree, which is thought to be more than one thousand years old, as well as twenty or so different native cacti, shrubs and trees.
All in all the area was absolutely spectacular, as you will see from our photo journal…

Baking hot day, some red rocks and the desert-nice!

We made it! We did it local style!

Desert all around

The obligatory selfie…Look how long Jo’s arm is!!

Stunning sceneries all around…Did I mention it was hot?!

‘The Monk’

ALIENS I TELL THEE

More evidence of aliens!

So…this is where the bus dropped us off!

I’m thinking that all of these rock paintings were aliens…Seriously-look at them!!

Very straight roads round here….

So, you’re really dropping us here then….

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, our time was up and we hit a night bus to Mendoza ready to begin our next HelpX placement in San Rafael….La Carmelita here we come!

Argentina and the moon-Aldea Luna

Having had a ‘holiday’ from our travels back in the UK, we excitedly boarded our next long haul flight to Buenos Aries for the South American branch of our adventure. Having been the perpetual tourist in South East Asia, this leg of our journey is something of a different proposition, not least because of the expense. The plan for South America is very much to do more volunteering, try to learn Spanish, and be more of an intermittent tourist.

During the end of our time in Asia, and throughout the summer in the UK, we scoured HelpX for different opportunities to plan out our time in Argentina. Being blessed with a UK passport, we have a 90 day VISA on arrival throughout the South American countries, and so plenty of time to get settled at various projects. Our first confirmed opportunity, a month at Aldea Luna-a private nature reserve and organic farming project in Jujuy Province, Northern Argentina.

Yeah that’s right, we were in Buenos Aries!

We landed at Buenos Aries and literally had 24 hours before having to make the 1000 mile, 24 hour bus journey to Jujuy-so what do you actually do in that time? Well we paid a visit to the cemetery of course! As per our guide, TripAdvisor, the grave of Evita is one of the must see things to do in Buenos Aries, and given the fact that it was free and relatively easy to find-we decided that would be the best use of our time. From being in predominantly Buddhist countries for the last 8 months, and spending a lot of our time visiting sites of worship, it was quite ironic to now be visiting Catholic sites of importance-given our own apathy towards religion. The cemetery in Buenos Aries certainly is ‘up there’ in terms of the grandiose and bizarre-with rows and rows of mighty funeral chambers for the families of the wealthy and influential in Argentina. You’ll see from the pictures that this was like no other cemetery that you would find in the UK:

Streets of death…!

Grand monuments and palm trees!

Don’t you open that Trap Dooooooor…..Cos there’s something down there!

Sometimes it was difficult to tell whether there was some element of humour?! Or perhaps alluding to the fact that they were poisoned!

Certainly we didn’t give ourselves enough time to explore this vast capital, but that was down to our own miscalculation in thinking that our upcoming journey was only going to be 8 hours, rather than the 24 hours that it actually was. Still, it gave us an immediate opportunity to gauge the standards of the much lauded long distance bus services in South America-and first impressions certainly were positive. You choose from a number of seating options, from which we chose one down from the top where you enjoy a fully reclining seat and some sort of food for the journey. The seat was comfortable enough, the food was lousy, and we ended up with a bit of cabin fever due to the fact that the driver wouldn’t let us leave the bus! Still, nowhere near as terrifying as the various land transportation that we encountered in Asia, and pretty much bang on time we arrived in San Salvador de Jujuy. Weary and hungry, we soon found ourselves a hostel for the evening-and hightailed it out to a restaurant recommended for llama steak! Yes, that’s right, we ate llama and it was delicious!

All of this was just a precursor for our destination proper-Aldea Luna. This was our first true experience of ‘off the grid’ living for a little while, solar energy, cold showers, organic gardens providing the majority of our meals-and a chance to really learn some of the life skills that I always bang on about. With some difficulty we eventually managed to get in contact with the hosts to inform them of our arrival, and got ourselves an early night prior to our 7AM bus into the unknown. All we knew was that we would be getting off the bus at Tilquesa, and someone would be there to meet us and take us on the 3km hike to our home for the next 4 weeks. This time our bus journey was a much more ‘local’ experience-dusty winding roads taking us through the mountains before eventually dropping us in the middle of nowhere-just a sign to signify the fact that we were at our desired destination. We were met by Annabella, a long term volunteer at Aldea Luna, and she lead us off on the surprisingly challenging hike-fast forward one hour and we had arrived, breathless and sweaty, ready for action! First impressions were breath-taking, as I’m sure you would understand:

Aldea Luna ‘clubhouse’!

Aldea Luna in all its glory

The month that followed really is difficult to describe-it was absolutely incredible. In our hosts, Martin, Elizabeth, Matias and Ana-we found inspiration, warmth and a wealth of knowledge. We learned about organic farming, construction, cow conflict, life and laughter-and thanks to Matias we also learned a little about philosophy! Martin and Elizabeth bought the land that Aldea Luna sits on about ten years ago, they spent a couple of years walking the cow trails and through the forests-really getting to know the land, before deciding on a spot to build their home and a couple of extra cabins for volunteers and guests. Since then they have shared their knowledge and enthusiasm with countless volunteers-and I feel honoured to now count myself as one of the lucky few to have benefitted from their hospitality. To give you the ‘official’ Aldea Luna description:

Aldea Luna is a family enterprise, financed only by tourism and volunteers, without any financial contribution by the government or ecological organization or NGO.

The family members include Martin and Elizabeth and our son Matias and daughter Anna.

We are open to other people that want to live in our village (Aldea) for long periods of time or permanently…. We listen to propositions…

The experience that we chose is certainly not for the lazy or workshy, we had opted to be full time volunteers-and as such we committed to seven hours of work per day….And the work was tough, extremely rewarding, but tough! We were not looking for a holiday resort-here we really learned what it is like to live in a different way-to be as self-sufficient as possible, and to have to meet problems and challenges on a daily basis. We lived in a house in the forest made of clay, no electricity and no hot water-which in itself presented a shock to the system. Not to mention the fact that we were in bunk beds….Albeit bunk beds in a wonderful clay cabin in the forest!

Our Aldea Luna home

Not a bad view to wake up to each morning!

I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a ‘strong’ look for cementing!

Then the paving just got a little crazy!

Sam took me on as his apprentice, and this is what we made!

And then there was the washing up, oh the joys of the pots!

For those that read with interest but do not fancy volunteering, they do host guests, and do a part time volunteer course where you can also learn Spanish. In hindsight we would have loved to have taken advantage of Elizabeth’s excellent language classes-but for sure we came away with a lot more than what we arrived with.
Not only does Elizabeth teach Spanish-her gardening and cooking ‘seminars’ are brilliant! Often we would find ourselves tasked with a job in the garden, and with no idea how to complete said task-queue a gardening master class from Elizabeth. Usually accompanied with a pressure relieving assurance that everyone makes mistakes-it’s OK that you thought the garlic was actually a leek! From the garden to the kitchen, again under the tutorage of Elizabeth, and more often than not Annabella too. Very much a group activity, the vegetarian fare was incredible, so much so that I can honestly say that over the month I really did not miss eating meat at all! We had revelations in peanut soup, and something of a collective addiction to chilli-and bread, oh so much bread!

For the times that you weren’t in the garden or cooking, you may find yourself filling your time collecting cow poo…invaluable manure for the vegetables. Or you would be with Martin and a team of people trying to ‘cow proof’ the garden with ongoing fence repairs. It doesn’t sound like something that would be too taxing, cow proofing a garden, but seriously-there was one cow at Aldea Luna that had skills like no other! Deftness of foot, dexterity, astute fence breaking skills-the bane of our existence for four weeks. It was funny how these things bring people together, together we built up an entire persona for the animals and together many a laugh was had with the cows as the central characters!

Martin and Elizabeth taught us how to lay concrete floors, repair chairs, cement crazy paving and build tables-but it wasn’t all work, work, work….For come the weekend something quite spectacular would happen in the mountains of Aldea Luna-the generator would be powered up, the disco lights would spring into life, the glitter ball would start to rotate on its axis and you will see Martin bouncing in front of his laptop entertaining us all with banging tunes on a fantastic sound system! Never would I have believed that just twelve people could create such an atmosphere! As we would be gluttons for punishment, the party was usually on a Saturday night leaving us in a right old state to tackle one of the many hikes on the following day. The forests, rivers and mountains that make up the reserve offer some wonderful treks with plenty of food for the soul-perfect for soaking up the excesses of the prior evening.

Our final walk, the most challenging…(the biggest hangover)

Mountains, forest and river-we had it all!!

The many hiking trails to explore during your free time, each one offering something different.

While we were there we had the good fortune to be accompanied by some fantastic people who we worked, cooked, danced and hiked with-we shared in the joys of success at finishing various projects, as well as some frustrating defeats at the hands of extremely wily mountain cows. All of whom we can now call good friends-who knows, perhaps sometime in the future we will call upon them to help us with a project of our own!

Aldea Luna Dream Team!

And that’s just the people, I haven’t even begun to wax lyrical about the dogs, woodpeckers, fireflies, chickens, many wonderful birds of prey or the toucans! Everything working together in its natural environment to make this a truly wonderful and special place.

Toucan play that game….

Spot Woody-the woodpecker!

Tree, mountain, cloud-repeat

The gardens!

Ever seen a ‘moonrise’ like this? Me neither

Some of the local bugs were spectacular

Possibly the most photographed tree in Argentina!

It was hard to leave at the end of our month there, but I do not think that is the end of this story-we may well return to Aldea Luna at some point….

Adios amigos!

If you want to get in contact with Martin & Elizabeth, check out their website Aldea Luna

Beautiful, and a bit barmy-Bagan

“If you are a real Myanmar, you must have been to Bagan.”

Having brought ourselves up to temperature in Yangon, we were set to explore the most symbolic of landscapes that Myanmar has to offer-the pagoda saturated plains of Bagan.
Bagan is an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region, from the 9th to 13th centuries it was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, and between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed here. I would wager that when most people think of Myanmar (or Burma), then the vista of temples stretching out over Bagan’s plains would be the image that comes to the fore of their mind.
Today there are over 2000 temples remaining in the area, and not surprisingly is the main tourist hotspot for all those visiting Myanmar.

Having done a little research, we opted for the night train from Yangon to Bagan, the words of the Man in Seat 61 providing some comfort about the journey ahead:

Burma’s British-built railways are less developed than others in Southeast Asia, but you’ll find the trains are a wonderful way to get around and experience the country at ground level, avoiding unnecessary domestic flights and cramped buses. The journeys are as much an adventure as the country itself.

Now I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that anyone who would like to travel to Bagan from Yangon, take a bus! For sure the train was an experience of sorts, but not the type of experience you expect outside of a roller-coaster at a theme park! The reassurance that we got from it being British built, was quickly dispelled when we realised that since the British built the railways, there has been next to no maintenance on the tracks. I kid you not when I say that the train felt like it was actually airborne at some points, and fellow travellers even experienced one of the carriages disconnecting during their journey. We had even opted for 1st class sleeper-but there was no chance of getting any sleep on this journey. While it was a giggle, and while the light lasted we were treated to some gorgeous countryside-it was also hard work, and so I would approach the journey with some caution!

Remnants of the past, graffiti as we leave Yangon

One of the few shots which I managed to catch out of the train window!

Railway side footy

Notice the ladders on the palm trees, they fix these when the trees are young so as to make accessing their harvest easier when the tree has reached maturity!

Shaken, rattled and rolled with the all too familiar bleary eyes, we thanked the travel gods upon our safe arrival at Bagan and looked forward to what should be another epic experience. The usual kerfuffle greeted us at the station, with the locals fully capitalising on your confusion and charging premium rates for your transportation. In addition to the taxi fee, you also get hit with a tourist tax on entry to the area, but there can be little complaint about paying to see such a magnificent spectacle.
The first thing that struck us as we ventured towards the town of Nyaung Oo was that the area was a lot more desolate than we had expected-with memories of the images of Bagan bringing up lush green pastures dotted with temples; the reality is that the trees are few and far between-especially noticeable with the temperatures once again hitting 46 degrees. It is worth noting that we arrived at the peak of the dry season though, and so perhaps the desert plains are transformed once the rainy season arrives.
On arrival we wasted little time and immediately hired one of the many electric motorbikes to get on with exploring. The heat was intense, the breeze on the bike offering little respite as it was more akin to being blasted in the face by a hairdryer! Still, we were in one of the most evocative landscapes in Asia-and so we had little cause for complaint.
There’s not really much that I can say about the plains of Bagan that cannot be communicated through the photos of the area, we spent 3 days bombing round these plains and exploring-quite superb!

Pretty comfortable on scooters nowadays!!

Pretty much every direction had another picture perfect shot

Symmetry!

Making the most of a shady spot!

Big Buddha….

Little Buddha

The intense heat definitely had its impact, we would be up and out of the hotel at 8.30AM, only to return for 11AM to hide from the sun before setting out once again to find various sunset spots. Even with our attempts at avoiding the high noon heat, the temperatures faced were still above 40 degrees each day, and with the fact that you need to remove your shoes at each temple-the soles of our feet were starting to show the impact of the blistering heat. After a while you settle into a certain style of ‘scuttle’ walk, much like someone walking over hot coals-I imagine that you could make quite a funny silent film watching people and their ungainly walks around the temples of Bagan!
After our three days of exploring it was time to move on to our next adventure, as with the experiences at Angkor and Ayutthaya, you definitely reach a certain saturation point when you see temple after temple after temple. Not that it stopped me from taking a whole load more photos….If you have the stomach for it, read on-otherwise I’ll hopefully see you again in my next post-The Road to Mandalay!

Enter mystical Myanmar – Yangon

Having had a few days in the modern wonder that is Singapore, we landed in Yangon looking forward to exploring the mysteries of Myanmar.
Yangon is the former capital of Myanmar, and remains the largest city with a population in excess of 5 million. It was originally a small fishing village called Dagon centred about the Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1755 King Alaungpaya conquered the village and renamed it Yangon, since then settlements formed around the central Dagon area eventually forming the sprawling city of today. When you visit the city now, you will notice that it is now made up of a multitude of ‘townships’, a reminder of how the city developed from it’s humble beginnings. The British seized Yangon in the Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, and subsequently transformed Yangon into the commercial and political hub of British Burma-lining the streets with colonial buildings and British influence.

We arrived at our hotel in downtown and hit the streets to do some exploring-the par for course upon arriving anywhere on our travels. Stepping out onto the street and we were met with the most intense heat that I think I have ever experienced….The street temperature was 46 degrees! We ducked, dodged and weaved our way into every spot of shade possible as we ventured towards our first tourist spot-the 2,500 year old Sule Pagoda in central downtown. Not quite what you would expect from an ancient pagoda, nowadays it serves a dual purpose, the other being that of a rather busy roundabout. Supposedly enshrined in the temple is a hair of Buddha, given to two Burmese merchant brothers by Buddha himself. More recently, during the 1988 and 2007 protests, the Sule Pagoda was a meeting point for anti-government and pro-democracy protesters.
We negotiated the Yangon traffic to enter the temple and were soon hotfooting it around the pagoda-literally! At all religious sites in Myanmar you have to remove your shoes and socks and, bearing in mind the temperatures, it felt like we were walking on the surface of the sun! This feeling was amplified by the suns’ reflection off the quite wonderful golden stupa located in the middle of the temple-and soon we found ourselves a shady spot to simply sit, and absorb.

The Sule Roudabout….I mean the Sule Pagoda!

Ready to brave the heat once again, we set off to explore the colonial architecture of the Yangon streets. It was really tough, there’s no comfort of an air conditioned MRT like you have in Bangkok & Singapore-you just have to tackle the heat and traffic, and take it slow! Soon you realise that Yangon has a three dimensional street structure. I know that sounds like a strange statement, but it’s the best way that I can describe the fact that to find offices, shops and businesses you look all around on street level, as well as up. For example, our hotel was on the seventh and eighth floor of a building, with just a little doorway and a lift giving you access to all businesses in the building.

The colonial streets of Yangon

Not only street level, you can see the many businesses in the upper levels on the left

Walking around the streets we encountered street food like no other. Sure in Bangkok and Siem Reap you have street stalls selling bugs, but in Yangon the street vendors offer something quite different, but equally as difficult for us to comprehend. The best way that I can describe it is to call it ‘entrails fondue’, basically you have a street vendor with a large vat of hot oil, and a selection of unidentifiable ‘animal parts’. Locals just take a seat around vat, pick a nugget of choice, and then cook it themselves in the oil. I have to say that the thought of actually trying this cuisine didn’t even come close to crossing my mind. There have been a number of formally questionable culinary experiences over the last seven months, but this proved to be a step too far!
We did end up discovering some local fare, albeit not as risky as the ‘fondue’-and it was done so quite by accident. Settling down for the first bottle of Myanmar Beer and a street vendor comes around serving what I thought were salted peanuts, I managed to order some of what he was selling and we were given a container of sweetcorn and beans, accompanied with an unidentified paste. Not what we were expecting, but it was absolutely delicious, we still don’t know what the paste was (we were afraid to ask!) and haven’t seen this titbit anywhere else-so if you’re in Yangon, keep your eyes pealed. Frequenting the street café located under our hotel, we sampled eating as the locals do-a few beers and a number of little side dishes. Meat balls with chilli sauce, vegetable noodles, spiced sausage and more sweetcorn and beans-spot on!

Having explored the streets and Sule Pagoda, next on the list for Yangon were the central market and the famous Shewadagon Pagoda. The market is a welcome respite from the heat of the day, and so we headed there before heading up to the temple for sunset. Yangon market has to rate as once of the best ‘gift’ markets that we have been to, a cavern of jade, jewels, clothing and art. Interesting, bustling and colourful-and, of course, out of the heat of the midday sun.

The main hall of the market, the high roof helping keep the heat of the day away

Take your pick of interesting alleyways with a myriad of trinkets

With no tuk-tuks or identifiable form of alternative transport, we grabbed a taxi and headed for Shwedagon Pagoda. Here we encountered our first ‘tourist tax’ when hit with an unexpected $8 fee for entry to the pagoda-at the time it seemed quite expensive, as Myanmar is in comparison to the rest of South East Asia, but it would prove to be worth every penny.

The imposing sight of the golden Shwedagon Pagoda

Golden Buddha under the Bodhi Tree, signifying the moment he reached enlightenment

It’s a pagoda!!!

Shwedagon Pagoda was constructed more than 2,600 years ago, making it the oldest Buddhist stupa in the world. It is situated on Singuttara Hill and towers above you at a height of 99 metres, overlooking the sprawling Yangon city below. It is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in Myanmar, as it is believed to contain relics of the four previous Buddhas. The staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Koṇāgamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa, and eight strands of hair from the head of Gautama.
It was here that we would encounter something that we found quite funny, all of a sudden we found ourselves being the subjects of surreptitious photography. Locals would be walking by and engineering opportunities to get us in their photos, ‘check out the tourists’! It’s easy to forget that until 2012, Myanmar has been a difficult place for people to travel, and so tourists are still something of a novelty. Being a subject of so much intrigue in a heaving and populous city just seemed quite odd.
Our inflating ego’s aside, Shwedagon Pagoda proved to be absolutely breath-taking. A large complex of temples and pagodas centred on Shwedagon itself, as the sun set, the darkness drew in and the candles were lit-we both had to take a moment to come to terms with our surroundings-it really was quite overwhelming.

Having been blown away by Shwedagon, our time in Yangon had drawn to the end and we readied ourselves for a night train to possibly the most famous of Myanmar images-the pagodas of Bagan. Our research had informed us that the train journey was a little bumpy, but well worth it for the views. Little did we know how ‘bumpy’ it would be….