3rd South American Email - 09.05.05

there are more stray dogs than butterflys... honest (21.04.05 - 02.05.05)

hey guys and girls,

hope you are all well... i feel it´s time to update you on happenings here. i last left you at banos i think...

from banos we headed south to riobamba... destination devil´s nose train. this train serves no real community purpose, prefering instead to be more of a touristy train (apparently from the time he was but a glint in his mother´s eye, he always wanted to be more than just a fetcher and carrier)... the town, dead at night, spurns travellors from god knows where at about 6am to claim their place on the top of the train. the 5hr journey would usually take 1hr by road, but it is the experience that counts...the train winds it´s way through a host of small villages and down a river valley surrounded by mountains, lushious vegetation and massive soil erosion (the local authorties have got to sort this out - as we were to find out later to our cost).





there is a cute custom where the local kids line up on the side of the line and wave their little arms off whilst the tourists on the top of the train gently lob sweets off the top a little way away so as not to hurt anyone... well that is the theory anyway... que biggs... armed with a sucker and travelling on a train at 60km per hour, he managed to hurl this thing as hard as he could at some 3yr old kid... it glanced off his shoulder and smacked him square in the jaw, he dropped... silence exploded over the train followed by a long ¨ooooooo¨... dagger-like eyes searched the train for the culprit... all biggs could manage was a sheepish smile and a ¨i didn´tmean to hit him¨.

other notable moments were the derailings... you gotta love the 3rd world... in any 1st world country, this train would have been put out to pasture at about the same time dinosaurs became extint... here it´s not a prob...the conducter and a few of his mates get off and after a bit of manoeuvering it´s back on track and off we go again... super. it´s quite an experience and per steve, ¨that was the best train ride in the world ever¨.

from there it was south... anywhere south... border south. however due to the fact that we are accountants, we always take the prudent approach - that includes not buying bus tickets from the tout on the train... which meant we missed the bus going south. in the end we ended up hiring a taxi and performing a high speed chase... i kinda felt like keanu reeves in the movie ¨speed¨... only i wasn´t on the bus... and he wasn´t being chased by a taxi... and he had a bomb on board... and we didn´t... hmmm... poor analogy.

so we caught the bus south (cuenca)... and then another overnight bus south (loja)... and then we encountered a landslide - which blocked off the only route south... so at 3am, complete with hiking boots, packs and a german goliath, we trudged, then waded, then swam through the thick black muck that in it´s previous life had been the side of the adjacent moutain (it´s that soil erosion problem again)... we picked the mud from our shoes, trousers and noses and hopped on a bus that had been caught on the other side of the disaster... and headed south. we then caught another bus south (macana). and then caught a taxi south to the peruvian border.

so a quick summary of ecuador...

1. there are loads and loads of stray dogs - and they appear to hang around in gangs... cruising the streets for unsuspecting gringo´s or the next main road they can dodge traffic in... they appear to have their own identities and territories... the cool-dog gang, the snoop-dog gang, the hot-dog gang, etc... i reckon they even have little organised crime syndicites going. they run free... smiles on their faces, tongues wagging in the wind, ears flopping up and down in tune to their loping strides... run free with the buffalo my little canine friends.

2. they also have the dodgiest techno rap music in the world... ever. it´s a pity, because just as the western world is awaking up to the mind-numbing crap that is manufactured music, ecuadorians appear to be going down that path... the trap of materialism and preoccupation... yes, it´s the 2nd insight... and yes i can tell that much about the health of society by the mass´s choice of contemporary music.

3. coca cola has got the world sorted... in every city in the world (ever), rich or poor, 1st world or where people have barely evolved from the hydrogen atoms that once dominated the universe, there will be coke. communities may not have running water, toilet paper or use of the wheel... but mention the word ¨coke¨ and they will pull out an ice cold bottle from somewhere and with a goofy smile on their face quitely nod and mutter ¨ahhh, coke¨. a personal view of mine is that they should rename the earth¨planet coke¨... it makes sense, not everyone knows that they are living on planet earth, but everyone can identify with coke... imagine the bonding -¨where you from?¨ - ¨i´m a cokeian¨ - ¨oh what a coincidence, me too... lets make love¨.

and so to peru...

we crossed the border... caught a taxi and headed south (some little town - not sure where)... despite a little hitch - the taxi driver got pulled over and fined for something that i can only think of as excessive use of hooter... (a little tip for any aspiring entropeneurs... if you can design a hooter that hoots continously and only stops when you press the actual hooter, you will make a killing in latin america)... and then we caught a bus and headed south (puira)... and then we caught an overnight bus heading south...

and landed up in the coastal town of trujillo - famous for the biggest mud city on planet coke... it also has a pretty good beach... and we spent the afternoon lazing in the sun and frolicking in the chilly pacific ocean... the beach is so good for spiritual well-being. then we caught another overnight bus and headed south.

arrived in lima... taxi to airport... plane to cusco... and headed... wait for it... east!!!! cusco is an awesome city... and for those of you who received steve´s email, unfortunately it was not once known as the¨nasal of planet coke¨ (cool as it sounds)... it was actually known as the ¨naval of planet coke¨. cusco is definitely the place you have to come to before you are reincarnated... it is just that good.

a magical energy vibrates from it´s inca foundations and rejuvenates the soul... the plaza da aramas is the most beautiful i have seen (ever) and even against the backdrop of the infancy of winter, it seems cosy and inviting. the purples and oranges of the flowers in the centre of the square project warmth onto the surrounding churches and victorian-styled balconied buildings. the huge grey inca stones on which the town is built (and that have remained unmoved despite the ferocious earthquakes of 1850 and 1950 that nearly flattened the city) radiate a rich sense of well-being and security - which is odd considering stone is usually associated with cold and death (hence the saying, ¨stone cold steve austin¨).

the locals, far from giving off the sense of a defeated race (the spanish totally demolished everything inca-like and tried as hard as they could to wipe out any trace of inca existence - unfortunately they did a pretty good job), have a spark in their eyes and a flame in their hearts. they are proud of their heritage and are eager to tell inca tales to anyone who will listen. they seem genuinely stoked that gringos are interested in their culture and want to visit ancient inca ruins.

what´s this you say
your father´s spirit
still lives in this place
well i will silence you


invigorated by this new energy, most people turn to booze... so as not to buck the trend, we went boozing. joined by the danish chick from quito (i knew she would pop up somewhere), and english dude named nick and a funny american bird we headed out to sample the local free booze. 3 or 4 or 5or 17 pubs and 737 million free rum and cokes later and we were dancing away in mama afrika... weird... but coincidences are just coincidences when you are drunk. steve had been quiet on this tour, but on this particular night steve2 threatened to escape... luckily for us steve1 managed to keep steve2 under control... with a little (no pun intended) help from the peruvian chick that was attached to his bottom lip for about, errr, from about 2am to 6am.

so the next morning, in the throws of one of the worst hangovers on tour, we decided to do a 4 day hike to some inca ruins called chochoquira (we couldn´t do the inca trail... it is fully booked till june... heading back to cusco at the end and it is going to be our swansong). we decided not to do the luxury tour, but instead planned it ourselves... which mean´t a whole lot of admin - food, camping equip, transport, mule, etc - and we prob ended up spending the same amount of money.


we set off the next day at the crack of dawn, and after a few delays on the road (washed down bridge, over-turned truck that had spilt about 9000litres of cerveca) we reached the starting point, a quaint little village called choch...something. after some tough negotiations with the locals we managed to hire a mule for 4 days to carry our packs and off we went... it went something like this...

day 1- we walked 22kms down. got to camp. made some tomato-y pasta stuff. steve brushed his teeth with an electric toothbrush. went to bed. got mauled by insects.

day 2- we walked 22kms up. got to camp. slept. visited ruins. made some tomato-y pasta stuff. steve brushed his teeth with an electric toothbrush. went to bed. got mauled by insects.

day 3- visited ruins. we walked 22kms down. got to camp. made some tomato-y pasta stuff (aarrgghhh!!!!). steve brushed his teeth with an electric toothbrush. went to bed. got mauled by insects.

day 4- we walked 22kms up. got mauled by insects. my legs and feet look like they have hundreds of millions of little japanese flags attached to them (a subsequent learning - this is a sure fire way to find out whether someone has been to the jungle or not, without having to ask them). got to end. were mighty glad we had completed our first hike. needed a drink.

day 4 (night) - got back to cusco. went for a beer. then hit the free drink places. we prob had about 737,000,001 free rum and cokes this time (it was def more than last time - having acclimatised of course) and ended up dancing the night away in mama afrika. went to bed. steve forgot to brush his teeth with his electric tootbrush.

this is where i´m going to leave you... although i am a bit behind, being in bolivia at the mo.

a final report on the team south africa... the team is as strong as ever, i´m happy to report. the bonding sessions in times of adversity have bound us together and made us strong like russia. we feel we can take on the world at the mo... there is no weakest link... only a weakest drink.


later
d

there´s nothing you can sing that can´t be sung
there´s nothing you can do that can´t be done
there´s nowhere you can be that you weren´t meant to be
it easy
all you need is love