Middle East

Middle East

Middle East

This Spring (2010) I had the opportunity to attend an intensive course at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Conflict Resolution and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Originally I was ineligible to attend as my home department is Geography, not Political Science. Then my friend Hallie, who is in Economics, pushed and prodded her way in and, luckily for me, two spots ended up opening up. I was able to get one of the spots and suddenly I was travelling to the Israel in a couple weeks. The news came as I was furiously writing my term papers and studying for exams so I didn’t have much time to think of travel plans or do any research. Instead, I just attached myself to a group of friends who had already planned a one week trip to Egypt before the course and a week-long trip to Jordan and Syria afterwards.

Egypt

My travels started as all good vacations do: I was met at the airport by friends and we proceeded to stock up at the duty free on all the drinks the Egyptian government would allow us to buy. I mean this literally as there is a quota and they write down how much you buy in your passport. Alcohol is not illegal in Egypt, but it is difficult to purchase and expensive. So we had to stock up for the week, especially as we were going to spend much of the time on the beach.

Steve, Martha, Emily, Shannon and I were staying at Martha’s friend Emily’s house. Emily teaches at a school in Cairo and has been living there for 3 long years so she and her boyfriend Tarek made for good guides. Once everyone’s flights arrived we proceeded to taxi downtown to a nice park to take in the view of Cairo and have lunch. Afterwards, we went to the Nile to go on a Faluka ride (sailboat) and then went to the market where we explored an old mosque. The Nile was not as big as I thought it would be, though rivers never are. The interesting thing about the Falkuka ride was learning that foreigners can do whatever they want in Egypt if they bribe the cops: fellow passengers were telling the story of how they had climbed the Great Pyramid and just bribed the cops to get away with it. I am not going to lie, I was a bit jealous of them, but I don’t have the balls to break a law so flagrantly.

That being said, when we were in the market we went to an old mosque and one of the custodians took us up to the top of the minaret and this may have been in a legal grey zone. But it was no pyramid, even though we did get a really nice view of old Cairo at night.

Given that this was my first day in Cairo I was left with a number of lingering impressions. I was actually expecting crazy traffic, but it wasn’t that bad- though it turned out that this was because it was a long weekend. But the city was extremely polluted: there was so much dust particles in the air that pictures with flash at night would be full of glare. Oh, and crossing the street was like playing frogger, but I kinda expected that.

Day 2 in Cairo was at the pyramids. We woke up fairly early then taxied over to Gaza. The pyramids were amazing. Some sites are smaller in real life than expected, but the pyramids were as immense as I imagined. And it was cheap!! I think it cost less than ten dollars for entry, including entry into one of the pyramids! It was especially crazy to look at how giant the stone blocks were and to think that they were moved by manpower thousands of years ago. What was especially cool was entering one of the pyramids! It was just a long shaft that went down then up and ended in an empty room but it was crazy to think of how old it was and how long it had been there... We also were able to lie down in the sarcophagus which was kinda cool.

We also went on a camel ride (uncomfortable and really tall) and saw the sphinx (also cool). Afterwards some of us headed to the Egyptian Museum. Of all the museums I have ever been to (and that’s a lot) I can confidently say that it was the most unique. This is mainly because it was absolutely crammed with artifacts. Unfortunately, the building is too small to contain them all. Shelves were overflowing with every square inch taken up with figurines, coins, statues and other pieces. Some of these were labelled, (with maybe an explanation typed up on a manual typewriter) but most of them just had a number. Pretty much every room was like that, even the sarcophagi were stacked on top of one another. The highlight was King Tut’s death mask. It was even more impressive than I had imagined. 14 pounds of gold!! The rest of our time in Cairo was spent at a nice dinner celebrating Martha’s birthday and a trip to the citadel. We also had an epic game of spoons were we managed to break a glass, a spoon and scrape Emily Scott’s back. Then it was off to Dahab on the Red Sea.

Dahab is a low key resort town known for its fantastic snorkelling and diving. We spend 4 nights there relaxing and taking it easy. We went snorkelling (I took some fantastic pictures of fish), had some good meals (there is a long boardwalk full of restaurants) and bought souvenirs (Shannon broke out her Chinese bartering skills). One of the nights we had a nice picnic on the beach to celebrate Martha’s birthday (again).

Another evening was spent climbing Mount Sinai at night so we could watch the sunrise from the summit. It was a biblical experience. Shannon and I accidently sat right on the edge of a cliff when it was dark out and only realized our mistake as it grew lighter. We also saw the burning bush and the golden calf from the bible.

Unfortunately, our relaxing time in Dahab had to come to an end and we had to head up to Israel to start our course. This process was made difficult by the convoluted interstate relations in the region. As we were visiting Syria, which has no relations with Israel, we could not have any Israeli stamps in our passport and what stamps we did had to have no strange gaps indicating a hidden stopover in “Occupied Palestine” (as Syria refers to Israel). This meant out trip involved a ferry ride from Egypt to Jordan, this would give us Egyptian exit and Jordanian entry stamps. We would then cross by land from Jordan to Israel (without getting our passports stamped) and then come back from Israel into Jordan (again without being stamped) at the end of the course before transiting to Syria. As a result, our passport stamps line up to say we spent about 2 weeks in Jordan, when we were only there for a total of 4 days.

We knew about this process going in so we had a plan. On paper it was a simple matter of taking a ferry then a bus rather than a direct bus from Dahab to the border crossing. But like all the best laid plans our swiftly unravelled in the face of events. The ferry (or ferryboat for the readers from Kansas ;-) ) was ridiculously late. We expected it to be a couple hours late (we were in Egypt after all ) but we arrived at the terminal at 10 and did not board the boat till after four. Then we waited on the boat till 6 while they fed all the tour groups food (for some reason this could not be done while moving) and only got going at 6:30. This meant that there was no way we could get through customs between Jordan and Israel before it closed and would have to stay in Aqaba, Jordan. We had a list of hotels, but we didn’t take account of it being the weekend and almost all of them were booked. In the end four of us crammed into a small room with 2 single beds and 2 mattresses on the floor. I actually didn’t think it was that bad, but the girls tell me I am wrong and it was “absolutely disgusting”.

Day 2 of trying to get to Jerusalem started early as we had heard horror stories of the difficulties in getting into Israel. We had no problems, even with Syrian visas in our passports, we just asked nicely for them to stamp a separate sheet and were on our way. After a short, overpriced taxi ride from the border to the bus station we were ready to go to Jerusalem. However, our plans ran into another roadblock called Shabat. We had been told that Israel shuts down from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. But we didn’t really understand it. We had to wait till 4:30 to catch a bus to Jerusalem as most busses don’t run on the Jewish holy day.

This could have really sucked (well it did a bit as we were all pretty tired) but we ended up running into Gilleen who was also making her way up from Cairo to Jerusalem. (small world eh?) We also found a beach so got to relax a bit.

Israel

I am going to resist the temptation to go through my trip in Israel chronologically- mostly because I forget the order of events, but also because that’s a bit boring for me to write. Instead, I will focus on my main impressions and thoughts.

We spent around three hours every day in the classroom but there were also a lot of field trips where we would travel to different parts of the country. So we were able to go up north to the Sea of Galilee, the Golan Heights and the Lebanese border, as well as tour around Jerusalem’s borders and parts of Tel Aviv. And since we were in Jerusalem there was a lot to see on an afternoon off.

I still haven’t quite digested my feelings about the Middle East and the whole experience there. I had managed to avoid engaging with the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts for most of my academic studies. As a result, I entered into the course with a relatively open mind. Obviously, it is impossible to be ignorant of such an important international issue, but I had not spent years studying and engaging with it like some of my colleagues. This meant that I was, and still am, ignorant of many of the important dates, resolutions, conflicts, and issues that are intricate to the debate. That ignorance was bliss.

The professor was one of the best I have ever had and did an excellent job of going through different theories and models of conflict resolution and management, but he always brought it back to the conflict as a way to historically ground it. This meant we learnt a lot that could be applied to different conflicts, at the same time that we learnt about the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular. Yet it was only a two week course meaning many issues were only briefly touched upon.

I think the largest impression I have been left with is confusion and frustration. Confused because there is so much going on: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the PA, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the USA, settlers, Zionists, terrorists, political parties, religion, UN resolutions, international law, and so much history that it makes my eyes pop.

Then, once one begins to get the players straight and explore the issues and positions it becomes even more mind boggling. And as an outsider from a history-poor country I find it extremely difficult to wrap my head around some of the explanations and justifications for various policies. For example, the settlement movement to me makes zero sense. Yes, around two thousand years ago those hills were part of ancient Israel. But that was then. Today the settlements are one of the largest barriers to any peaceful resolution to the conflict. Of course, that’s part of the point of the settlements: to put facts on the ground. But the reason they want to put these facts on the ground is to reconstruct a country that was destroyed after it rebelled against Rome. To me, it seems ridiculous.

The same thing goes with the persistent and idiotic refusal to recognize Israel’s existence as a state. I understand the argument that was made 60-some years ago by the Arab/Palestinian side. The argument goes along the lines that the early Zionist settlement movements into the British mandate was illegal colonization of Palestinian land and the UN Partition Plan was a bunch of Europeans assuaging their guilt over the holocaust by giving Arab land to Israelis. This narrative does make those events seem fundamentally unfair, (though really, that pretty sums up all the borders made by Europeans during colonialism). But that was then. The fact is that the Israeli state is not going to go away and attempts to do so are inherently counterproductive to any efforts to create a viable Palestinian state, which is their ultimate goal.

Of course, this isn’t news and many of those who say they should push Israel into the sea (im thinking of you Ahmedinejad) know that it is counterproductive and not going to happen, but they just make use of the Palestinian issue for domestic consumption.

Clearly, the entire issue is complicated. Everyone knows it. Hell, the random Israeli who student talked to us for about 40 minutes about the conflict and who used the words ‘kill them all’ an uncomfortable amount of times even emphasized how ridiculously complicated it is. But whenever you read anything in a paper or, god forbid, the comment section on a webpage everyone acts like its black and white. Its either “Israel is the only democracy in the region, its neighbours wants to destroy it and they are under constant threat from terrorists. full stop” or “the West Bank and Gaza are under an illegal occupation by the IDF, Palestinians have no rights, no state and to this day their land is being slowly taken away by illegal settlements”. Both statements are true, but they leave no room for nuance or discussion about how to deal with the conflict.

And that’s the most frustrating thing about it. I don’t think anyone actually wants to resolve it. Sure, they would like for there to be peace, but within Israel there is no domestic appetite to make the concessions that would allow for a peace agreement (ie moving some of the Settlements and risking civil unrest with the far right). Palestinians face similar issues in dealing with their extremists who still argue for Mandate Palestine. And the Arab (and Iranian) neighbours don’t really seem to want peace either as the entire debacle is used to distract their population from how authoritarian and incompetent their governments are.

Now, I am being a bit hypocritical as I just made a couple giant overarching statements, right after I criticized ‘them’ for being too black and white. But that’s the impression I got after my extremely short time travelling and studying this issue. (that is also an important caveat: I was there for a two week course, and travelled two more weeks. So my observations and should be taken with a couple tablespoons of salt.) Basically, the entire issue is not likely to be solved anytime soon, seems to be getting worse day by day and I thank my lucky stars I live in Canada.

*update* I found an article by Margret Attwood that sums up my feelings here.

On a purely aesthetic/tourist level I thought Israel was wonderful. Arriving in Eilat from Jordan on that first day was a breath of fresh air. People were partying on the beach, there were bikinis and mixed-sex crowd! And we could cross the street so easily.

Jerusalem itself was also a very interesting city. It had a very conservative, religious vibe, which makes sense. But walking around the old city and seeing all those buildings, shrines and walls that people have been fighting over for thousands of years was intense.

During the course we went on a field trip up to the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. What really stuck in my mind is how small Israel is. We went by the Jordan River and its little more than a stream. The Sea of Galilee would be a medium sized lake. And the Golan Heights themselves are just a small spit of land (though they are actually high, so that was satisfying).

We also went to Tel Aviv. It has an entirely different vibe than Jerusalem, a lot younger and more vibrant. We went out and partied and then spent the next day lying on the beach. It was very liveable.

West Bank

While furiously figuring out how to get from Jerusalem to Petra while seeing the dead sea and the West Bank, during Shabat, we realized such an itinerary was impossible as the buses stopped running. (Shabat was our nemesis in Jerusalem) So Shannon, Martha and I ended up doing a lightning trip to the West Bank after our last class. We took a taxi to the Wall and went through the checkpoint to Bethlehem and then took a taxi to Ramallah to check it out before bussing back to Jerusalem.

Crossing into the West Bank was an eerie experience. You go through a warehouse like structure and show your passports to Israeli guards. Then pass through a long connecting tunnel running parallel to the wall. Once out it becomes clear that you are out of Israel: the din, the language, the graffiti on the wall. It hits you that you are in a new country (not technically of course, but just go with it).

Bethlehem was fairly touristy. The church was interesting though nothing special. It was only notable in that they made sure I had my knees covered in addition to making sure the girls were conservatively dressed.

The taxi ride to Ramallah was interesting as we got to see the WB countryside, get a very vague idea how people live and see the settlements from afar (they are huge!). Given how much the West Bank is in the news it is difficult to not have some sort of pre-formed opinion. I knew that it was not going to be some post-apocalyptic war zone. But that ignorant part of my brain could not helped but be surprised by how many apartment buildings, nice cars (some new BMWs) and economic activity I saw. Of course there a lot more poor buildings, old cars and poverty, but its always interesting to see the juxtaposition.

Incidentally, its these moments that I enjoy most when travelling. Its always fun to see the famous sites and do the touristy stuff. But I love looking out the window and seeing the land, the buildings and all the other locations that you never really see on the news or in pictures. Reading a report or looking up statistics might give you the knowledge, but without seeing something its hard to wrap your head around such details.

Anyway, so we were in Ramallah. We had some food in a cafe run by a Palestinian guy with an Alabama accent. (which was random) We then checked our Yasser Arafat’s tomb by the PA and afterwards got directions to a local bar to try some Palestine beer. All in all a very satisfying day.

Jordan

The main reason we travelled to Jordan was to visit Petra. Ever since I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade I have always wanted to visit Petra. To get there we bartered a taxi from the border with Israel to Wadi Musa, the town located on the edge of the ruins.

We spent about a day and a half in Petra. The first day we woke up early so that we could beat the crowds (and the heat). You buy your tickets on the edge of the site and then walk down the Suq for about 2km. Slowly the valley around you turns into a steep canyon which one walks down and because of the twists and turns you can almost trick yourself into thinking you are alone. Then suddenly the canyon ends and you see this massive stone structure (actually a tomb) carved out of the rock at the end of the route. It is a ‘wow’ moment if there ever was one. And what is crazy is that there are hundreds of these tombs! As you continue on into the city proper you continue to pass them by, as well as an amphitheatre carved out of the rock, until one reaches a broad avenue that passes old temples and under a Roman gate.

However, we opted to take a different route. Instead of heading down the avenue with everyone else we decided to hike up a side canyon to the “High Place of Sacrafice”. After a fun hike up hundreds of steps we had a beautiful view of the entire area. You could easily tell it used to be a fairly large city. There were tombs carved into cliff faces and hills throughout the valley and you could also identify ruins of buildings and see where the old irrigation systems used to collect and store the water. One could even see an old Egyptian Obelisk and a Crusader Castle. (again this region has too much history!)

So after a morning of hiking around the back-paths of Petra we wandered back down to the main touristy spot and took an hour breather in the shade to relax and rehydrate. We expected it to be hot and our expectations were certainly met. Although, it turned out that it was actually a heat wave in Jordan while we were there and the temperature in Petra was probably around 45C! But I gathered that was not typical. After our breather we walked up to a site called the Monastery. It is a bit off from the other sites in Petra. One has to hike about 45 km up a gulley to get there. Once you arrive it is pretty spectacular. It is much larger than many of the other tombs and much better preserved.

Day 2 was only a half day as we had to bus to Amman in the afternoon. Matt, Hallie and I hiked up behind some tombs to get a view of the Treasury and from above. This ended up being a bit of an adventure as we lost the path and pretty much just strait up the side of a cliff (practically). Which ws pretty exhausting in the heat, but it was worth it. Once there we found the path, which ended at a ledge from which you could sit and see the suq bottom and all the people entering Petra. The way down ended up being a lot easier as I found the steps. I also explored a bit of the old temple and the ruins of an old byzantine church.

I would have to say Petra was one of, if not the, highlights of my trip. Unfortunately, it is hard to describe and pictures don’t really do it justice either. It was just that it was historical as well as awe inspiring AND you were outside so you could go hiking. It wasn’t just seeing some church or mosque and elbowing your way past hundreds of other tourists. There was space to breath and enough hiking paths you could explore on your own.

From here we took the hottest bus ride of my life up to Amman. Like I said, it was a heat wave and there was no AC in the minibus. With the windows open it was like a blow drier on your face and with them closed it was equally hot. I survived though.

Amman was nice. There was a nice strip with lots of cafes and restaurants and the traffic was not too crazy. The only problem was our hotel was a bit sketchy. About three dollars a night but we got what we paid for as it had cockroaches and no AC.

Mike and Hallie had to catch a flight from Amman to the Sinai the next morning but Shannon, Martha and I went to the Dead Sea. We actually went to a nature preserve that does ecotourism and did a really cool trip where we hiked up a stream to a waterfall. We had to climb up through mini-rapids using ropes in a crazy gorge that the stream had carved into the sandstone. It was a great way to cool down.

The Dead Sea itself was worth checking out but not for too long. It was nice to finally be able to float (you couldn’t sink if you tried!!) but the water was so salty it burnt where i had a sunburn. And when you got out you could feel grains of salt everywhere. It felt crazy as well, almost thick and oily.

Lebanon

We flew into Beirut from Amman somewhat unprepared. Lebanon was a last minute addition to our trip as we began to think about how close we were to the Paris of the Middle East. This meant that we had pretty flexible travel plans in Lebanon. We were flying in, had a place to stay for two nights and knew that we would be bussing to Syria. But that was all we knew.

So when we arrived at the airport we had no idea about buses or money. Luckily, we had our handy Lonely Planet which informed us that the exchange rate was around 1500LL to 1USD and that if you walked strait you could eventually find a bus downtown. Turns out the book was right about the exchange rate (though I did end up getting a 100 000 LL bill, which is such a pain in the ass. dealing with exchange rates is a pain in general, but breaking large bills with so many zeros makes it even more frustrating), but the book was incorrect about the bus. We kept asking for directions in broken French, but they directed us to “go strait till you reach the Lebanese army, then turn left”. We decided to not wander into a military base looking for a bus and instead just took a taxi.

We had booked a hostel and so we luckily had a destination. But when we arrived to our hostel it turned out our reservation was more of a suggestion. And there was no room. The guy was super nice and suggested we could sleep on the roof. Except the roof looked like it had just been bombed. And in all fairness, it may have been. Luckily the people there were super nice and directed us to a nearby hostel that was insanely clean and we were able to get dorms.

Now Beirut is a unique city. Walking through it one could still see scars from the war, but these were side by side with crazy designer shops and luxury hotels. Of course we were in the downtown area, but it was still quite the contrast. And the price!! It was more than Toronto for many things (drinks 10USD for example!!) which was quite the sticker shock....

We nevertheless had a lot of fun. Trying to go to clubs (we weren’t well dressed enough to get in) and lying on the beach. In fact, it was so relaxing we ended up staying an extra night.

OH! And we met up with Emily from Egypt in Lebanon which was nice as she got to have a break from Cairo.

Syria

Travelling to Damascus from Beirut was simply a matter of getting into a shared taxi at the bus station and getting our passports stamped at customs.

Damascus itself was a surprisingly clean and well organized city. I say surprising as I was using Cairo as a base mark. Emily, who had lived there before, told us that this was fairly new. Apparently they are putting lots of money into new trees, buses and enforcing traffic rules. They also banned smoking inside restaurants, and people are obeying the law!! I guess there is something to be said about living in a police state. The old city was large and sprawling with crazy alleyways and new buildings beside ones that were clearly ancient. There was long market full of everything one could buy, as usual. The Umayyad Mosque was really nice. The problem with Mosques though is that they are designed to be places of prayer (duh). But this means that they are fairly simply decorated. So there are not hundreds of carvings or alcoves or gold plated statues to look at. It’s more aesthetically simple and (perhaps) pleasing, but not as fun to wander around in.

Given that we had been travelling for a month we were pretty lazy in Damascus. We just wandered around the old city a bit and then took it easy in the hostel. The next day we did a day trip to an old crusader castle called Krak de Chavalier. I love castles so I really enjoyed wandering around it, even if getting there was a bit of a pain. In Syria Palmyrra and Aleppo are the other big tourist attractions but we didn’t have time go there. Palmyrra is one of the ‘dead cities’ in the desert where you can wander around the old ruins. But given that we had just come from Petra we weren’t too disappointed we could not go. Aleppo supposedly is a city where one goes back in time, its full of market stalls and has a giant citadel on top of the hill. But I hate markets so I was not at all disappointed to skip various people trying to sell me overpriced perfumes and spices. Anyway, those are places we didn’t go.

One thing that I really liked about Syria was how green it was. It wasn’t lush or anything, and it was clearly semi-arid, but there was still grasslands and they had planted trees all along the side of the highway so it was almost like you were driving through a forest. The people were also very friendly. In fact, on the plane ride home a nice Syrian-American woman told me everything I needed to know about the government, the politics and the religious issues of the region. It was actually good advice: you have to be passionate about the region. Otherwise you will never be able to put in the effort to truly understand the issues.

I definitely do not have that passion. I am glad I had this opportunity to study the Middle East conflict and to travel around it a bid. But I do not have the drive, or to be honest the desire, to immerse myself in the issues, history and grievances that have built up over the years. And to be honest, that is probably a shame (and academically lazy of me). I bet that if people who did not have the same historical grievances and did not have such vested interests it would be easier to come to some peaceful solution....

A week away in Salta

Salta, Argentina

After Mom and Dad headed back home Duda and I had to decide what we were going to do with our time before our trip to Brazil with Maxine. The choice was to stay in Puerto Iguazu or take a bus somewhere and see Argentina. Obviously, the choice was easy to make. So at about the same time that Mom and Dad were carrying their luggage (including the infamous lost pieces that made their way to BA) through the snow in Alberta, we were on a bus heading to Salta and the mountains.

The bus ride was 24 hours long, but luckily we were able to sleep through most of it and we arrived in Salta in good shape early the next day. Our hostel was nice (pool and bar ;) ) and we quickly showered, put our stuff away and wandered the city. You could tell right away that Salta takes care of itself a lot better than Iguazu (probably better than BA too). The old colonial buildings were well maintained and lit up at night. The main square was clean and full of people enjoying the summer weather. There was even a gondola that took people from a large park by the bus station up to the top of a mountain for 2 pesos (about 75 cents). From there we were able to see the entire city and the mountains surrounding it.

For a bit of perspective, Salta is one of the oldest cities in Argentina. It was settled as a result of its location in a temperate mountain valley where livestock could be raised. It was here that thousands of mules were raised in order to be sold to the massive silver mines of Potosi to the north, in what is now Bolivia. Since then in suffered a decline of sorts as after independence its location was rather isolated and it took a while for the railway to extend to it. But recently it has experienced a revival from tourism and new industries.

But back to our trip. After the gondola, we took a city bus to the nearby village of San Lorenzo. The village is supposed to be picturesque. It also has nice hiking. We didn't know that when we got on the bus and as a result were wearing flip-flops that one can't exactly go mountaineering in. So we just sat and had a beer instead and promised ourselves we would come back later.

Back in Salta we settled into our hostel and had a good time meeting the other travellers. The nice thing about travelling in Argentina and staying in hostels is that one actually meets other travellers from Argentina staying in hostels. In my experience elsewhere hostels tend to be full of foreigners. This was a nice change. It meant that we got to practice our Spanish.

The next day was supposed to be a productive one where we got all our excursions into the mountains organized and where we got stuff booked for Brazil with Maxine. That didn't really happen. We barely got are act together to book out trip the next day to the Salinas (salt flats). It was a bit complicated to do anything as we knew the hostel overcharged for trips so we had to go shopping around. Instead, we ended up spending most of the day in San Lorenzo hiking. A much better use of our time.

San Lorenzo was a fantastic valley. The trail was poorly marked but when we asked a guide there he said "if you stick close to the stream you will be fine". Silly us, we took him literally and when the trail disappeared a couple minutes after it began we proceeded to have fun following the stream up the mountain. More than an hour later we found a trail again and kept on hiking. Turns out we may have found a wrong trail or veered up again as we soon ran into a wandering bull. We decided to go around the bull and keep on hiking up a switchback which we hoped would take us to a lookout. Not only did the switchback take us nowhere but the bull decided he didn't like us and followed us up the trail. We didn't want to keep going up and we couldn't go down as the bull was there. It was a pretty stupid situation. When we finally managed to get around the bull we gave up on the trail and headed back. It was only as we backtracked that we found the trail. It was clearly marked, had lots of signs and was full of old ladies walking with little kids. We, on the other hand, were all dirty and wet from our trek through the bush. Turns out that the trail started before the information centre and the sign advertising a trail to a lookout, naturally. We decided to have another beer after this.

After a late night out at the hostel we woke up early for our excursion to the mountains. We had booked a tour that would take us into Jujuy (who-who-y) Province to Pumamarca, then up the road to the Salinas (salt flats) then into San Antonio de los Cobres (some high village)and down the route of the Train to the Clouds with a lot of stops along the way. If you have Google Earth I would recommend checking out this route so you can get the magnitude of the route we went up. It was intense and we were thankful we booked the tour instead of renting a car like we had originally planned on.

The ride from Sata to Jujuy was non eventful as it was on the highway. I, of course, slept. But from San Salvador de Jujuy (the capital) into the mountains the route got to be extraordinary. We started out in a fairly lush forest, but ever so slowly as we proceeded one could watch the vegetation slowly melt away. First the trees turned coniferous, then meadows became widespread, then short little grass. Suddenly we were driving through a barren landscape of cactus and coloured mountains. The hills are full of different minerals and when they are exposed to the sun they oxidize into different colours. The lack of vegetation means that these colours are fully exposed. At one point the hills are a greenish-blue (copper) that changes to red (iron) to white (?) or brown (probably just dirt) or black (more dirt?).

We stopped at the town of Pumamarca to take pictures of the "Hill of Seven Colours". The town also offered a nice place to wander for half an hour. As we wandered through the town we came to a boy selling plates with his baby llama. Now, in most Spanish speaking countries a "llama" is pronounced "yama", but in Argentina the "ll" is "sh". So it is pronounced "shama". For this reason Duda and I had been really excited about being able to say that we saw a shama. When we saw the boy and his baby shama we proceeded to get very excited, take a bunch of pictures and in general be silly tourists. It was only after our photo session that the boy told us "no es una llama, es un cordero." Its not a llama, its a goat. We felt pretty stupid, but at least we bought some nice souvenirs from him and we have a couple nice pictures with a baby goat.

After this little town the road proceeded up the mountain. Literally. In the course of 25km of hair-raising switchbacks it rose 2000m in altitude before finally peaking at 4170m above sea-level. At this elevation you could feel the lack of oxygen with every breath. After (foolishly) running to take a picture of the view from the top of the hill I was left out of breath and panting for the next 20 minutes.

The road then gently sloped down till we arrived at the massive salt flats. These are not as big as the ones in Bolivia, but they are still big enough. Though the air temperature was not that warm the heat of the sun and the bright reflection meant that you could feel your skin being burnt as soon as we stepped on the salt. Luckily, we came prepared! The German guy (Frank) who was on the tour with us lent us some sun screen and we were on our way. There really is not much to write about this as, when it comes down to it, it was just a giant plane of salt. Still, it was a cool experience and you will have to check out the pictures to get any sort of idea of the environment there. Oh! At the salt flats there was a "Salt 'Shama'". We made sure it was a llama, and then took pictures with it.

From the Salinas our trip took us to the sorry village of San Antonio de los Cobres. The other villages we stopped at were obviously poor, but there was an economy and it was despite the poverty it was clear that people were getting buy and could lead a somewhat comfortable life. This place was different. It was empty, there was nothing to see, to buy to do. Only one place to eat and you could tell that alcoholism and hopelessness prevailed. It was a bit of a depressing window into the lives of so many.

After this we started to drive back down the mountains towards Salta. This drive down was not as extreme as the drive up. As we drove down we stopped at the ruins of an ancient indigenous village. The guide told us that this was the second most important archaeological site in South America, after Machu Pichu. I think that is bull but it is still interesting. Apparently, the entire town was abandoned and no one knows why. But for such an "important site" there was little to know marking and one could wander around the entire site with total freedom. We had the place to ourselves so we got to explore a bit. I just wish that there would have been explanations of what exactly we were looking at as we had no idea and neither did the guide. From there we kept on heading towards the city with one short stop at a bridge. We were so dead by this time that we passed out before 10.

The next day was another early morning (I have had too many of them). We took a bus up to the town of Cachi with Sol, an Argentine girl we had met, where we were to spend the night. The ride up was another crazy road through the mountains. Cachi itself was a fantastic little town. Picturesque and clean we were able to stay there for a full day and night. We rented bikes and spent the day exploring the city and the surrounding countryside. The bike ride was quite lengthy.

We had decided to bike 6 km up to a lookout over the city. We were under the impression that at "aguadango" or something you could see the entire valley and town. We biked and biked and biked but never seemed to arrive there. We even made a new friend in the form of a dog that decided to follow us everywhere. Finally, we decided to stop and ask for directions at a hotel we passed by. The owner explained that the place we were looking for does not exist. Rather, "agua-something" is the entire country side. Ooops. He was extremely nice and offered us water and even let us chill by the pool and rest. It was pretty great. After getting some R&R we biked downhill back to Cachi where we had some supper, some wine. Cachi was one of the nicest places I have ever been, but it is hard to convey it in words. It was isolated in the middle of the mountains, but it had a character and relaxed atmosphere that made it a joy to visit. Pictures don't really capture the atmoshpere either. But I am sure I will remember the place for ever.

After this we just headed back to the city got our tickets and left Salta for Iguazu the next day.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008

This Christmas was spent travelling with Mom and Dad through Brazil. They had planned to come down to South America to see me and Machu Pichu. They didn’t quite make it there but we still had a good time together. But before I get to that, I will quickly fill in the blanks on what I have been getting up to since the last time I wrote.

After I got back from Rio and Sao Paulo, I spent the rest of the time finishing up my job at the English School. Much of the time was spent teaching the kids how to sing English songs at the year-end pageant. Needless to say it was pretty funny. Not only can’t I sing but neither could the kids. The best were the Kindergarten kids singing Jingle Bells. They can sing the entire song even though they have no idea what the words mean.

After school ended we just hung around until my parents arrived. Sara and Ana, a couple of CIDA interns that Duda and Ai had met in Welland came to stay with us so we got to party with them. It was fun to show more people around the town.

But back to the main event: the trip with Mom and Dad. A day after they flew out I woke up to an email saying that they were stuck in New York, where they were not supposed to be, not sure where they were going. They were supposed to be going to Lima to meet up with a tour group, but there had been mechanical problems and human error and they were unable to get there. Unfortunately, their luggage did make it to Lima, but Mom and Dad could only get to Buenos Aires. Then to make matters worse when they called about the luggage the airline informed them that it had been lost.
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They say that they had a good time nonetheless: they saw the sights and ate the food and did all that BA has to offer. But I am sure that they had more fun with us here in the north.

Upon Mom and Dad’s arrival at the airport here (with a surprising amount of luggage I might add) we got them settled and took them on a quick tour of the town. That didn’t take long and in the evening we went for dinner at Colour and listened to some live music. It was from more Andean than Argentine, but that seemed appropriate to their situation and Dad bought two CDs.

The next day was spent at the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls. We did the ‘Adventure Tour’ which involved a safari ride through the jungle and a jet boat ride up the canyon into the falls. It was a bit pricy but the jet boat ride was a great way to see the falls. They drive you right under the spray and everyone gets thoroughly soaked. I was told it puts the Maid of the Mist to shame.

I had never been to this side of the falls before so I got to see everything for the first time. On the other side of the falls one can not really walk into the falls and there are not many trails. It is more of a panoramic walk where you can get sweeping views. But on the Argentine side there are trails climbing along the falls, both at their bases and at the tops. You can spend the entire day walking through the forest getting close to the (literally) hundreds of falls.

The Argentine section also includes a narrow-gage railway that carries one from the trail complex up and around the river bend to another trail (really a walking bridge) that crosses the river so that one can gaze down at the Devil’s Throat, the biggest waterfall of Iguazu and the border between the two countries. It was up here, safely away from the drop, that we saw a crocodile dozing in the water.

We were especially lucky as it was Christmas Eve so the entire park was relatively empty. This meant there were no lines and we didn’t have to push our way through the park. It also meant that it was hard to find a place for dinner. We ended up having to eat at the fairly mediocre restaurant that stayed open. But such is life when away.

Christmas Day brought sunshine and thirty degree temperatures, so we were not feeling very Christmas-y. We jumped the border to Brazil (without a visa so I hope Lula isn’t reading this) and drove to the Itaipu Dam. Itaipu is one of the world’s largest hydroelectric dams. Three-Gorges (in China) just surpassed it in size but Itaipu continues to produce more electricity in a year than Three-Gorges ever will. Or so they told us. It is also one of the 7 Modern Engineering Wonders of the World (along with the CN tower).

Itaipu was no Iguazu but it was definitely more than worth the tour and the time. The structure itself is so immense that it is difficult to get your head around it. Pictures don’t do it justice until you look closely and see that the small building you at the base of it is actually a fairly large multi-story office building. And that that this building is dwarfed by the massive concrete structure behind it. Anyway it is big. Our tour took us around it, on top of it, inside it and at the end we got to go all the way down it to one of the turbines to watch it spin and create electricity. Sounds nerdy but it was actually very cool. I swear.

This was followed by a trip to the Brazilian side of the falls so Mom and Dad could see it from all angles. As I mentioned earlier, this side does not have as much trails so it was a lot quicker of a trip. Which was a good thing as the heat that day was incredible. Definitely not like Christmas at home. A good part of the afternoon after seeing the panoramic views was spent at the top of the falls having a cold drink on the river bank and watching the water drift away.

On the 27th we woke up early to drop our passports of at the Brazilian consulate so we could get visas to enter the country. At one we headed off for the long drive in our rented Chevy Life (think of a very very small and simple car) to Curitiba where we were staying the night. The country side was nice to look at (fields, mountains, forests etc etc) but the drive still a long one to make when you start in the afternoon. And unfortunately, after six hours, and nine road tolls, when we finally arrived in Curitiba we found out that our hotel had given our rooms away. This was especially ridiculous as we had thought ahead and phoned to let them know we would be arriving late so that this exact thing did not happen. We were just lucky a nearby hotel had room so we could stay there without too much hassle. Don’t stay at the Hotel Lumini if you are ever in Curitba as it was pretty frustrating.

The next day was yet another early morning. After a quick stop at Curitiba’s botanical gardens we headed for the coast and the Ilha do Mel. Curitiba is on a high plateau (~1000m) but is only an hours drive from the coast. So the road down is a fairly steep drop. It made for a picturesque drive as we snaked down the mountain side towards the ocean.

However, once at the coast we were still not at our destination. The Ilha do Mel (Island of Honey) contains a national park and does not allow any motorized vehicles or more than 5000 people at a time. We had to park the car and take a 30 min. ferry ride across to the island and then walk with our luggage to the hotel (about 20min).

All the extra effort was worth it. Our accommodation made up for any bad luck we had with the hotel in Curitiba. The entire place had a laid-back beachy atmosphere, but it was all well maintained and there was all the comforts that we could want, but without any pretension. We were a 1 min walk from the beach and in our room one could shower and watch the waves at the same. It made for a great base to enjoy an island retreat.

Our time on the island was spent relaxing and taking in the sun. We didn’t do much of anything that first day but eat and play on the sand. Which I think is a perfect way to celebrate the Christmas holidays (even if the day was a bit off). We managed to hike up to an old lighthouse (from 1870) and to an even older (1673?) fort that are on the island. Duda and I also got to enjoy the nightlife on the island. We went to a chill party on the beach. It was just an old shack selling beer, a couple guys on the guitar and a bunch of people having fun. Our kind of party.

On the 29th we had to start heading back, but as we had all day to make it back to Curitiba we made sure to take our time leaving the island, this meant we squeezed in some time at the beach in the AM. On our drive back we also took our time and made a quick detour to a small town that is in the hills between the coast and Curitiba. We were sure glad we did as the town was very picturesque. It had a small little river running through, a nice old square, some great buildings and a lot of history: the perfect place for a pit stop. Dad even managed to find some great stones (the semi-precious, crystal kind) at great prices.

We also managed to have supper at a churrascaria (choo-hass-ka-ree-ah) in Curitiba that evening. A churrasacria is a brazilian meat buffet. You pay a set price (we payed about 14 bucks each) and get all you can eat food. At the place we went to this included a salad bar of immense proportions (they had everything from hummus to perogies to sushi to about 10 kinds of cheese) and when you sit down severs come to your table with skillets of freshly barbequed meat of every cut (from sirloin steak to roast to ribs to chicken heart to bacon-wrapped turkey) which they served directly onto your plate. And they keep on coming until you are so stuffed you couldn’t eat a chicken wing. It was heaven.

We were exhausted after all this food but we decided to drive and find one of the city’s landmarks: a Wire Opera house. We got lost along the way and ended up finding another landmark: the Eye-Museum. I don’t have good pictures of either so if you are curious you will have to google them. The Eye Museum (in reality it is named after an architect whose name now eludes me) is an art gallery, but it has a central tower that literally looks like an eye. The Wire Opera House is built out of glass and metal tubing above a lake in an old quarry entered. It is entered via a long metal bridge and is a very interesting bit of architecture. It was night so none of our photos turned out well but it is worth checking out on the web.

The next day we woke up early, yet again, for our drive back to Iguazu. We took a different root, so got to see some more country side and also managed to stop in a little town for some food but it was another long day of driving. We were just lucky to have Duda driving: he knew how to ask for directions and how to deal with the crazy antics of the other drivers. We took Mom and Dad out for supper at our favourite restaurant (Bambu) and then passed out after another long day. They flew out the next day in the afternoon and before their plane was off the ground I was taking a nap after an exhausting week of travel.

As of my writing they are safe at home and their baggage has been finally found! It is now in BA so at least all is not lost. Duda and I don’t want to stick around Puerto Iguazu doing nothing so we are taking a quick trip to Salta and then coming back in time to meet our friend from Canada who is coming down. We will be going to Brazil (which rules) to hang out on the beach and see some cool sights. I probably won’t blog till when she leaves, though maybe I will have energy.

I hope whoever has managed to read all of this has enjoyed hearing about my trip. I don’t write much but when I do I don’t spare many details. Just leave some comments so I know I am not just typing into the ether! Also, it is now 1:22 AM so I haven’t proofread this very well so ignore any mistakes you may have found.

Happy 2009!

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

I have been told that in Brazil they say that "God is Brazilian." When I first heard this I brushed it off as the usual chest-beating nationalism one often hears. But, now that I have seen Rio, I have to inform everyone that it´s true. God is Brazilian. He lives there on the Corcovado Mountain and he touched me. I even have the picture to prove it.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

This wonderful trip began last Thursday (Oct. 20th) when Eduardo and I took the overnight bus from Puerto Iguaçu to Sao Paulo. It started a bit bumpy as even though he was lucky enough to get some sleep, I only drifted in and out and was a bit cranky when we arrived at 5 AM. Despite it being a mega-city of some 20 million people we managed to find our way to his family friend´s place where we were spending the night. This involved a metro ride with our massive packs and a city bus whose driver was new and didn´t know his route. Yet we managed to arrive safely and after a power nap and some breakfast we bussed to the centre and began to explore the city.

We began this exploration at the Museum of the Portuguese Language. This is housed in a converted train station. Eduardo got a lot more out of it as he speaks Portuguese. I just looked at all the pretty pictures, though I did pick up a few words which they had exhibits on. Naturally, they were the dirty ones.

After this we wandered around a bit, explored a bit of huge city park and then took the metro to Avenida Paulista. Avenida Paulista, one of the cities main streets, runs through the financial district of Sao Paulo where many banks are headquartered. Think Bay Street or Wall Street. After gawking at the buildings we headed to the historic centre where we toured the Brazilian Stock Exchange and went to the top of a building to take in a view of the skyline.

Neither words nor photos can emphasize the size of Sao Paulo. The city goes on forever. From horizon to horizon there is an endless march of high-rise apartments. It is absolutely immense. To provide some perspective, a bar in Sao Paulo has a satellite image of the city on the ceiling. The scale of this image is such that streets are barely distinguishable and even then the city cannot fit on the ceiling of a large room. On the bus ride there we were driving into the city for more than an hour before we even arrived at the bus station. The city is big. However, I did not find it to be suffocating or crowded. The historic centre was all pedestrian and rather picturesque and Avenida Paulista was easily walk-able. It was even remarkably clean for a city of its size. The traffic is ridiculous though. Rich people take helicopters instead of driving it is so bad and on the bus we found ourselves inching through congestion.

After our day of exploration we stayed inside in the evening and rested as we had our public service exams at the consulate the next day. These exams are the yearly tests the government holds to rank applicants applying at the public service, which includes the Foreign Service. They were also the wonderful excuse that we used to go travel to Brazil (Sao Paulo is the same distance from Puerto Iguaçu as Buenos Aires). The consulate where we took the exam was in an office building in a ritzy office park outside of the centre. I don´t know how I did yet, but right now I am thinking that I did well at written communication and general knowledge and am poor at situational judgment. But we will see.

After the test we proceeded to the house of Eduardo´s Aunt on the edge of the city. It was really nice and we got to relax for a bit after some supper. His cousin then took us out and we partied around Sao Paulo. This was where I saw the bar with the satellite image roof, if you were curious. I am not going to give details on our escapades but it was a good time and we were out till the early morning. The next day it was raining so we sat inside and watched F1 racing on TV. A nice lazy time to recharge the batteries before heading out to Rio the next morning.

Before going to Sao Paulo I had made the prediction that I would not like it very much, as it would be too crowded, but I would love Rio. It turned out that I loved Sao Paulo, as it was so, for lack of a better word, cool. It was so different from any other city. So large and cosmopolitan. But if Sao Paulo exceeded my expectations, Rio then blew them away.

From the bus ride there, a trip down the side of a mountain dropping some 800m of elevation, to the rain forest, beaches, mountains, history and people inside the city itself, Rio was absolutely stunning. I have already begun to day dream about moving there....

We arrived at the bus station in the afternoon and proceeded to take a taxi to Eduardo´s cousin´s apartment in Copacabana. Yes, the Copacabana. We were staying 3 blocks from the beach. We obviously dumped our stuff and headed right out again to try and take in some sun.

The next day we took the cable car up to the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain. From there one has a view of the entire city. The geography is absolutely immense. You can see the triangular national park cutting into the city and massive pieces of jutting rock dividing neighbourhood from neighbourhood. This means that almost every area has its own beach and everyone is a short walk from the sea. The centre itself is along Guanabara Bay which extends far inland. All in all it is easy to see why Rio is called the "Marvelous City."

Unfortunately on these crazy hills one can also see massive favelas (shanty towns) that have been built up by the poor. They jut up all over the city reminding you of the dark underbelly of this beautiful city. All the magnificent scenery and beautiful beaches are in the South Zone of the city, the wealthy section. The North, much poorer, Zone of the city is farther inland along the bay on the other side of the national park. The Rio I saw was wealthy Rio, I never saw the other Rio.

But I digress. After the Sugar Loaf we proceeded to wander around downtown Rio and saw some of new modern building set beside old colonial architecture. I personally liked the old buildings better. I am not a fan of the modernist concrete buildings that Brazil seems to put up everywhere. From the centre we took a streetcar from the 1920s up the mountain to some neighbourhood with a crazy view. The point was to ride the streetcar. It was so old and rickety that I think it was held together by ducttape and prayer. People were hanging over the sides even as it went over a massive bridge with a 15m drop. They then had to squish in as it passed cars to avoid being hit and knocked off. I sat in a seat where it was safe, though not as much fun.

The next day was spent on a trip up the Corcovado Mountain to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer and then a relaxing afternoon drinking on the beach. To visit Christ one takes a train up the mountain. Somehow, despite the insane incline, the train manages to make the climb from the city below, into the national park, through the clouds and to the statue itself. I am not going to lie, I thought the statue would be bigger, but considering it is built at the top of the mountain I was still impressed. And what makes it such a landmark is that everywhere we went in the city we would look up and see Christ looking down.

Needless to say the view was amazing but I will refrain from waxing on and on about the crazy city that extended below. My pictures will speak for themselves.

Duda and I also spent a day taking a boat tour of the Guanabara Bay. This was ridiculously cheap ($2.50 Canadian each) and allowed us to see all the sites along the coast that otherwise are difficult to get to. We also were able to take a tour of a submarine! It was cramped and we both hit our heads so I don´t recommend anyone over 5 feet tall becoming a submariner.

Now I must speak about the beaches. Even if Rio didn´t have the Sugar Loaf or the mountains or Christ the beaches would nevertheless have made the city marvelous. I made sure that we spent a morning and a couple afternoons doing nothing more than enjoying the beach, the sun and the beautiful views. One could sit on a chair, have delicious drinks delivered and just spend the afternoon taking in the sun. After one week I can happily report that I am a couple shades darker, and that was with clouds every afternoon we were there.

And after the sun went down Rio was an incredible place to party. Everytime we went out was a crazy good time. But the outing that really stands out is the street party we went to in the neighbourhood of Lapa. This is the bohemian-artsy area and they regularly have a massive party on the streets. This involves thousands of people drinking, eating and dancing in the streets, in bars and in gas stations. Yes. Gas stations. In Brazil they are a place to drink and party. They are cheaper than the bars, which have a large cover charge, but it was less crowded and sketchy than hanging out by the street vendors. Crazy, I know: on my last night in Rio I spent the night at a massive street party hanging out at a gas station.

I feel that I have ranted on and on about my fantastic time in Brazil for long enough. But during my endless ravings I hope I have managed to convey some sense of the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. These were massive, unique cities of a type I had never seen before. But the people were warm, the vistas beautiful and the time I spent there was amazing. All in all I loved it. And how could I have not? I touched God in Brazil and have the picture to prove it.

*The picture at the begining links to my photos.

Iguacu Falls

My photos from Iguacu Falls

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires and first day in Iguazu

My photos from Buenos Aires. 

I am starting to blog, again

So I have decided that I ought to start blogging once again. My last (failed) attempt was during my year abroad in Finland. I started at a good pace, but then I rapidly lost steam and in the end the blog became little more than a link to my photos on Picassa. As I am fairly certain that in one year I have not suddenly become the type of person who likes to journal (that has been confirmed numerously) I am not going to attempt to make this a regular occurence. Instead I will learn from my failed experience: this blog will be less a written blog and more of a photo journal. I will put up links to pictures and other goodies. I will also put in some text, of course, but as it is obviously not my forte I won't try and overdo it. And who knows? Maybe this way I can get into the habit of uploading regularly and suddenly I will be a real live journal-er!