I just made the run from Santiago to Cusco in one go, crazy, my arse is so sore. And to top it all off I am about to do it all again... Why? Well I have decided to move to Santiago. Why? Cause I can. I am back in Cusco for a day and a half just to grab my back and it's back onto the bus tonight and back to Santiago. I have a new job lined up and start as soon as I get there. Figured I could do with a change, so beening slighly mad as I am I decided to move. Will keep you all up dated on how it goes, but for I have to go finish packing.
Later
Zac
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
Santiago report
What to say about Santiago... Well if you like Hotdogs, this is the place for you! People here seem to live on a diet of Hotdogs and steak sandwiches. Except the steak sandwhiches aren't that good, it's like steak that went through the deli slicer. How can you call that steak, ok so they pile it on and load the thing with avacado, but really... They also load the hotdogs with avacado and tamato and mayonase, so much that you can't see the dog. I haven't had one yet, and I don't think I will. You can also buy beer in a food court at a shopping center, from KFC! I like that, not just a beer, but picters (jugs for those of you normal folk from Australia). I am struggling to find a normal kind of meal, it seems to be all fast food junk everywhere I go. Other than that Santiago is very nice, beutifull. This photo was taken about half an hour ago, the moon looked bigger in real life. Also it is very cold, you can see the mountians covered in snow from pretty much anywhere. I am told the skiing is good, but I am not much of a skier so I will save the money and go to the beach. Hopefuly it will be a little warmer down there.
Later
Zac
Later
Zac
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The tour continues...
Update. I am now in La Serena on my way to Santiago tomorrow. Spent a day in San Pedro de Atacama, which was nice. Little oassis up in the Atacama desert, very touristy. Interesting but also a little unimpressive after spending 5 days driving around the dessert without any other tourists in sight. On the way there we stopped in a minning town called Calama, it was 5am and very COLD. So we found somewhere open and went in out of the cold. Now what would be open at 5am on a Monday morning? Well it was a bar, so we bought some beers as you can't go into a bar and not buy anything. I figured it was close to closing time and we would get the boot shortly, but the place livened up around 6am and really started to get going, which was a bit strange. It did close eventualy at 7am and we were back out on the street, it was daylight by this time and slightly warmer. I found out later that Calama has a reputation as a fairly rough town, know for prostitues, drugs and alcholics. Probably not the best place to be wandering into bars at 5am on a Monday morning...
Anyway I am going to spend the day wandering around La Serena, it looks pretty from what I have seen, and I've also spied a shopping mall. I think there might be a cinema there, will go check that out as I haven't seen a movie in ages...
Later
Zac
Anyway I am going to spend the day wandering around La Serena, it looks pretty from what I have seen, and I've also spied a shopping mall. I think there might be a cinema there, will go check that out as I haven't seen a movie in ages...
Later
Zac
Sunday, July 10, 2005
If you don't Rock and Roll, don't Rockin come...
Hmm Chile... What to say... Been here for a week and been having a great time. I met a couple of guys from Canada on the bus down from Cusco, and have been traveling with them for the past week.
The week started off in Arica, nice city next to the beach. Being the first day/night of my holiday myself and one of the Canadian lads set out to find some night life and party with the locals. Easy said than done. It was a Tuesday night and the crappy guide book doesn't list discos or places to party. So we started out wandering around looking for bars and beer, which was easy enough. Even found a place serving beer in a Rocket. A Rocket is a giant beer dispensing thingy they fill with beer and put on your table, serve yourself, perfecto. A bit of asking around found us the name of a good place to go and so we were off. Or so we thought. Turns out the place was closed on, not to be discouraged we asked out taxi driver to take us to a disco that wasn't closed. And she thought about it for a second then drove down to the bus station to ask someone else. Now I should have know something wasn't quite right when the this second person took a look at the pair of gringos sitting in the back and laughed. But at the time I thought nothing much of it, I wanted to party, and we were on our way, again. After a good 10 minutes or so in the taxi, my companion noticed that we had left the city, this was confirmed by the appearance of small farms. Just as I was about to ask the driver where the hell we were she pulled up at a disco. And guess what, it too was closed. But it was set to open in about half an hour or so we were assured. So we decided to get out and wait around to see if it picked up. Which it did, slowly. By this time it was around 1.30am and I was starting to get a little tired. The taxi driver had assured us that the place got going around 2am, but I wasn't going to wait around that long. So we found another taxi and headed back into town, figured we'd get another beer then go back to the hostel. On the way back our new taxi driver suggested a place for us to go, so in we went to what I assumed was a bar. Well I should have know when I saw a dancing Nun that it wasn't a normal bar, but the flashing lights were a little distracting. Anyway the nun kept dancing and slowly started getting her gear off, and I started to slowly get the idea that this wasn't a normal bar. So we hung around for a little while longer just to be sure, then gave up for the night and headed on home. All this on just my first day in Chile.
Day 2. The Canadian lads and I had hired a car for 5 days, and planned to drive up into some of the national parks around Arica, arriving in 5 days time in Iquique. Sounds like fun, no? Well I recently had my wallet stolen (two weeks ago in Peru) and no longer have a drivers license, the 2 Canadians had licenses but no experience driving a manual. So I got the job of driving us out of town and giving driving lessons. The first day was great, saw some amazing looking dessert and made it to Putre in good time. So with time to spare we decided to check out the local hot springs and mud baths. Great decision, we were the only ones there and spent a good couple of hours smearing mud all over ourselves and generally relaxing in the hot springs. Sooooo relaxing.
Day 2 saw us off to check out some lava flows. This was meant to be a 3 hour round trip hike. Only problem was we didn't find any lava flows. Found some nice lakes, but no lava flows. In hind sight we should have found the Spanish word for lava flows and check that out a bit more. But the lake was nice and the walk was good. Though I wouldn't want to be up there after dark. The park is at least 4000m about sea level and when the sun goes down, it gets real cold real fast.
On the third day we set off to check out the highest lake in the world (I think). Our trusty map showed a nice little track that ran round the back of the lake, so having a 4wd we decided to check it out. The map had the road/track marked as "good". Well I am not sure what scale that is on, but it was more of a track than a road. I missed the turn off and only realized we had gone to far when the sign said Welcome to Bolivia and beware of the land minds. So we headed back into Chile found the track and set off cross country to check out the back of the lake. I am pretty sure the track is only used by people trying to smuggle things into the country and avoid the boarder post, because it hadn't been used in a long while. Anyway we wasted a good half day tearing around cross country, then we set of for Colchane supposedly 200kms south along another "good" track/road, with one section marked as 4wd only. We were heading along this track late in the afternoon in a bit of a hurry as we wanted to make it to Colchane before dark (wasn't much chance of that), and one of the Canadians was at the wheel when the car got a little sideways and I am pretty sure we were on 2 wheels for a bit. Well after that I took over the driving again... Know my driving skills? Wondering why I was the driver of choice? Well I learnt to drive on dirt, if it was ice I would have deferred to the Canadians. Any way I was doing good, making good time no problems. Then we cam across a little bit of water, no problem. Then there was the second bit of water... Well after the first had proved shallow I didn't think much of it and hit it a bit faster than I should have. End result I stalled the car in the middle of a stream with water coming in at the bottom of the doors. Cold water, sun gone down, middle of no where, very very cold night if the car doesn't start again. Which it didn't, well not at first. After a heart panicking few minutes it got going and we got the hell out of there. Made it into Colchane well after dark.
4th day we headed down to Iquique (where I still am now), strange place. But went out last night and good and drunk, spent the 5th day looking around the beaches here. And now we are on our way to hand the car back to some guy at the bus station. Figure while I am there I will catch a bus somewhere. Not sure where yet, but south is the general direction.
Anyway gotta run.
Zac
Oh and if you are wondering about the title. Well I saw this slogan on a jumper in Arica and have kind of taken it for a motto. Not sure what it means, or is meant to mean. But as they say, if you don't rock and roll, don't rockin come...
The week started off in Arica, nice city next to the beach. Being the first day/night of my holiday myself and one of the Canadian lads set out to find some night life and party with the locals. Easy said than done. It was a Tuesday night and the crappy guide book doesn't list discos or places to party. So we started out wandering around looking for bars and beer, which was easy enough. Even found a place serving beer in a Rocket. A Rocket is a giant beer dispensing thingy they fill with beer and put on your table, serve yourself, perfecto. A bit of asking around found us the name of a good place to go and so we were off. Or so we thought. Turns out the place was closed on, not to be discouraged we asked out taxi driver to take us to a disco that wasn't closed. And she thought about it for a second then drove down to the bus station to ask someone else. Now I should have know something wasn't quite right when the this second person took a look at the pair of gringos sitting in the back and laughed. But at the time I thought nothing much of it, I wanted to party, and we were on our way, again. After a good 10 minutes or so in the taxi, my companion noticed that we had left the city, this was confirmed by the appearance of small farms. Just as I was about to ask the driver where the hell we were she pulled up at a disco. And guess what, it too was closed. But it was set to open in about half an hour or so we were assured. So we decided to get out and wait around to see if it picked up. Which it did, slowly. By this time it was around 1.30am and I was starting to get a little tired. The taxi driver had assured us that the place got going around 2am, but I wasn't going to wait around that long. So we found another taxi and headed back into town, figured we'd get another beer then go back to the hostel. On the way back our new taxi driver suggested a place for us to go, so in we went to what I assumed was a bar. Well I should have know when I saw a dancing Nun that it wasn't a normal bar, but the flashing lights were a little distracting. Anyway the nun kept dancing and slowly started getting her gear off, and I started to slowly get the idea that this wasn't a normal bar. So we hung around for a little while longer just to be sure, then gave up for the night and headed on home. All this on just my first day in Chile.
Day 2. The Canadian lads and I had hired a car for 5 days, and planned to drive up into some of the national parks around Arica, arriving in 5 days time in Iquique. Sounds like fun, no? Well I recently had my wallet stolen (two weeks ago in Peru) and no longer have a drivers license, the 2 Canadians had licenses but no experience driving a manual. So I got the job of driving us out of town and giving driving lessons. The first day was great, saw some amazing looking dessert and made it to Putre in good time. So with time to spare we decided to check out the local hot springs and mud baths. Great decision, we were the only ones there and spent a good couple of hours smearing mud all over ourselves and generally relaxing in the hot springs. Sooooo relaxing.
Day 2 saw us off to check out some lava flows. This was meant to be a 3 hour round trip hike. Only problem was we didn't find any lava flows. Found some nice lakes, but no lava flows. In hind sight we should have found the Spanish word for lava flows and check that out a bit more. But the lake was nice and the walk was good. Though I wouldn't want to be up there after dark. The park is at least 4000m about sea level and when the sun goes down, it gets real cold real fast.
On the third day we set off to check out the highest lake in the world (I think). Our trusty map showed a nice little track that ran round the back of the lake, so having a 4wd we decided to check it out. The map had the road/track marked as "good". Well I am not sure what scale that is on, but it was more of a track than a road. I missed the turn off and only realized we had gone to far when the sign said Welcome to Bolivia and beware of the land minds. So we headed back into Chile found the track and set off cross country to check out the back of the lake. I am pretty sure the track is only used by people trying to smuggle things into the country and avoid the boarder post, because it hadn't been used in a long while. Anyway we wasted a good half day tearing around cross country, then we set of for Colchane supposedly 200kms south along another "good" track/road, with one section marked as 4wd only. We were heading along this track late in the afternoon in a bit of a hurry as we wanted to make it to Colchane before dark (wasn't much chance of that), and one of the Canadians was at the wheel when the car got a little sideways and I am pretty sure we were on 2 wheels for a bit. Well after that I took over the driving again... Know my driving skills? Wondering why I was the driver of choice? Well I learnt to drive on dirt, if it was ice I would have deferred to the Canadians. Any way I was doing good, making good time no problems. Then we cam across a little bit of water, no problem. Then there was the second bit of water... Well after the first had proved shallow I didn't think much of it and hit it a bit faster than I should have. End result I stalled the car in the middle of a stream with water coming in at the bottom of the doors. Cold water, sun gone down, middle of no where, very very cold night if the car doesn't start again. Which it didn't, well not at first. After a heart panicking few minutes it got going and we got the hell out of there. Made it into Colchane well after dark.
4th day we headed down to Iquique (where I still am now), strange place. But went out last night and good and drunk, spent the 5th day looking around the beaches here. And now we are on our way to hand the car back to some guy at the bus station. Figure while I am there I will catch a bus somewhere. Not sure where yet, but south is the general direction.
Anyway gotta run.
Zac
Oh and if you are wondering about the title. Well I saw this slogan on a jumper in Arica and have kind of taken it for a motto. Not sure what it means, or is meant to mean. But as they say, if you don't rock and roll, don't rockin come...
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Porn King
I am off to Chile tonight, so I figured I should give you all an update on the last month. I've still been working as an English teacher, and loving it. But I've also been doing a bit of other work on the side... I was having lunch with a guy at Uriel's resturant one day, and we were chatting away when I mentioned I knew how to make a web page. Well this guys eyes lit up and he asked me to make a web page for a bussiness he was involved with. I said yes with out really know what I had agreed to as the whole conversation was in Spanish. Now my Spanish is getting better, but I still don't always understand exactly what is going on. Anyway during the conversation that followed there was mention of an Escort Agency and a few other things, so I wasn't quite sure what I was agree to make a web page for. Well a couple of days later the guy comes back with this design layouts of how he wants the web site. And sure enough, it's porn. So I've spent the last 2 weeks make a web page for an Escort Agency. Funny to think I lived in Canberra the porn capital of Australia for 5 years and only now do I become involved in the porn industry...
Anyway I'll be traveling for the next 2 or 3 weeks, so I'll try and put some more updates up. Check back later.
Zac
Anyway I'll be traveling for the next 2 or 3 weeks, so I'll try and put some more updates up. Check back later.
Zac
Saturday, July 02, 2005
The life of a teacher...
It's a hard life isn't? Marking day. Got my beer, got my red pen. What more do I need? And to think I once thought being a teacher would be hard work... But it's actually pretty cool, I get recognized everywhere and called Teacher in the middle of the street.
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