Between a rock and a hard place

Yea, I'm in Tasmania. It's been raining stair rods since I arrived but now I'm safely in an internet cafe, the sun has decided to come out! I was told that Tas is very English and I can see why. On the coach from Devonport to Launceston I was convinced that somehow I'd managed to travel halfway around the world overnight and was travelling through Kent - same rolling hills, same animals, (same rain) and same architecture. There seems to be the same attitude as well ie. nothing is open late and Saturday afternoons are as dead as a doorknob. This may be the third oldest city in Australia but it definitely has a small town feel.

In other news, Australia is much more expensive than South America and I'm starting to notice the depletion of my bank account. So I've had to make some decisions about where not to go and taking advice from my friend G I've decided to give Ulhuru a miss. It is, after all, just a big rock in the middle of the desert and, unless you understand the Aboriginal culture/beliefs surrounding it, that's all it is.

Also I'm getting tired again so I need to decide how much longer I can take this travelling malarky - it's been three and a half months and I'm beginning to lose any sense of enjoyment of being on holiday, I definitely need the contrast of routine/work to enjoy the freedom of travelling. Not to worry, it'll all be over soon and I'll be back to make your lives miserable. Brace yourselves!

I am sailing...

My brief surjoin in Melbourne ends today, although I'll swing back through to pick up bags before flying back home. I'm off to Tasmania for a few days - a part of Australia that's considered a part of New Zealand by the Australians. Go figure. I'm taking the boat (and I have seasickness tablets just in case) and it's an overnight sailing so I've stocked up on some food for the trip BUT it has to be only enough for the journey as quarentine laws mean anything else must be thrown away or confiscated. This applies to anything organic including fruit, dairy, fish, meat, seeds, wood products etc. I've booked a cabin so I'll be able to get some sleep, I just hope we don't have a storm especially as the weather here has been squally.

Melbourne is lovely, not so much a tourist centre but a great city to walk around, people watch and chill out. In fact, I spent this morning in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image watching short films on a whole variety of subjects (and all for free).

OK, I'll see you all when I'm in Tas. Be good my darlings.

Karma Chameleon

I don't know if you know that I believe in reincarnation. I mention this not because I want to start a philosophical debate (way over my head) but to also explain why I believe in Karma. For most of you that means 'What goes around, comes around' or 'do unto others as you wish they would do unto you'. I try to live my life by this philosophy, not always sucessfully I admit, but as something that underlies my interactions with others. This is especially so when dealing with strangers in need of help. I'm not a good samaritan - often I wish I'd behaved differently after the fact but I am the one who will listen when approached on the street rather than just assume someone is going to ask for money (I learned that one the hard way when I rebuffed someone who was only asking for directions).

All of which leads me to my point - if 'what goes around, comes around' why doesn't it come around for me more often? I know that when I ask for help from my friends and family, it is forthcoming without question or reservation but when I need help from strangers... not so much. However, I have learned something really important this week. It may not come around when you want it but it will come around when you least expect it.

A case in point. When I was living in Egypt, I went to Jordan for a few days to visit Petra (must get the photos of that online somehow). While I was there I met three New Zealanders, one of whom accompanied me back to Cairo where she was catching a plane. Due to a ferry delay she missed the plane and had to wait seven days for the next one. During those seven days she stayed with me. That was five years ago. When I arrived in Australia I emailed her to see if she would like to meet up for lunch, she responded that she would love to. In fact, she's done a whole lot more. She booked us into a hotel for two nights so that we could spend time together on her days off and then, as a special thank you, she booked and has paid for me to stay in another hotel in the centre of Melbourne for two nights so that I didn't have to stay in one of the horrendous backpacker hostels which are my normal accommodation. She did this to say 'thank you' for the time she stayed with me in Cairo.

I am feeling blessed.

My reflections on Australia so far

OK, so I've only been in Sydney so these are really my thoughts on Sydney.

I love being able to walk the pavements without having to look out for dog debris or broken slabs.
I love how wonderful it all smells.
I love the fresh air and open spaces.
I love the buildings - not really all that old but not being knocked down to build towerblocks.
I love being able to understand what people are saying (well, mostly, the accent still throws me ocassionally)

I don't like the hostel. It seems to encourage drinking to excess. There's nothing more off-putting than walking into the tv room for some chill out time to find the sofas occupied by lads sleeping off their hangovers (that's what the beds are for).
I don't like the slapdash attitude of the hostel workers. I agree it's necessary to strip off sofa covers that have been puked on (see above) but rolling the covers into a bundle and leaving them in a corner isn't good.
I don't like my fellow backpackers. They seem to travel in groups and do here exactly what they would be doing back home - WHY? And, my god, are they pretentious! This is Australia for god's sake, it's not difficult to get to, get around or be understood. A month here does not make you a hardened traveller, especially when your parents are paying!

I am bemused by the fact that everything (bar a few tourist attractions) has shut down over Easter. They really take their holidays seriously here!

Anyhow, today I move onto Melbourne for a few days (I've been warned it's freezing there) and hopefully it'll all be different. I'm at the airport as everywhere else is closed and I've splashed out on the executive lounge as a treat to myself - nice and quiet.

Speed-O-Post IV

I'm still in Sydney and it's still overcast and miserable so I haven't been doing much. However I do plan on coming back to Sydney for a few days so nothing has been lost.

Photos:
Thanks to the super speedy internet connection here I've been uploading my photos onto flickr. However, there are so many that I haven't been able to tag them properly but they are in sets so feel free to click through.

Meetings:
I've been in touch with some of the people I've met during my teaching career and a couple of them have replied (see I'm not that unloveable) and we'll be meeting up over the next few weeks.

Jetlag:
I managed to sleep through the night last night (well only one loo trip) and my digestive system is settling down nicely - less said about that the better. Sydney is 11 hours ahead of Britain and 12 hours ahead of Italy so I don't know quite how I'm going to speak to everyone but I will overcome.

Sightseeing:
I did go out yesterday. I saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge - must admit I thought it was bigger but the ginormous cruise ship docked in the harbour probably made it look smaller than it actually is (I swear that ship 'Sapphire Princess' is longer than the bridge it goes under). I'm thinking of climbing the bridge but my hips and thighs still haven't recovered from 19 hours confinement in an airline seat. I also saw the Sydney Opera House. The tiling on the roof is impressive, I thought it was uniformly white but it's not. In fact it has a subtle pattern of white and biege tiles. I don't know what it's like inside but the outside is lovely.

Food:
After the rice and chicken/fish diet of South America, it is such a relief to be in Australia. The hostel cooks pancakes for breakfast (with sugar and lemon or syrup), I had Asian food (pad thai) for lunch and a pizza (from Dominos) for dinner. Real food, real choice and I don't have to explain how to make tea with milk!

Sounds:
I am surrounded by people who speak my language. It is sooo good to be stopped by people and asked in English if I would take their photo, to go into a shop and be able to ask if they have fizzy water (and yes I can do both of these in Spanish) and to casually pick up a magazine in a cafe and catch up on the latest gossip. I really have to force myself to leave the hostel as it is so easy just to sit here and watch television - everything is in English! The weird thing is I didn't think I'd missed it that much - just goes to show.

OK, so that's it folks but go look at those photos NOW!!!!

Tie me kangaroo down sport...

So, lovely people, I'm in the land of kangaroos and wallabies, where flipflops are called thongs and the sun always shines - except that today it's raining (go figure!).

As you may have gathered, my journey here from Argentina wasn't particularly pleasant, but I'm in one piece. And, yes, I am suffering from jetlag. I managed to stay awake for most of yesterday with only a two-hour snooze in the afternoon and I went to bed at 11pm local time last night. Trouble is, I was wide awake at 4am and have been up since then (it's 9:30am), so don't be surprised by the inanity of this post.

I am suffering from culture shock - I can understand everything on tv, read the newspapers (I read the Daily Express International Edition with lunch yesterday) and talk to absolutely anyone - although I think I've forgotten how to listen to native speaker English.

I plan on exploring Sydney today and tomorrow but what with it being Easter, I may not be able to do everything this time round - still I'll probably be coming back this way, if only to fly out!

On flying with Aerolineas Argentinas

Don't

I'm the king of the swingers...

Yesterday I went back in the National Parque at Iguazu. I took the two and a half hour Macuco Trail. This is through 'recovering' jungle but with a clearly laid out path - to be honest, you'd have to be mad to want to go off the beaten track, it is a jungle after all with huge spiders, inch-long ants, lizards, birds and monkeys.

Ah yes, monkeys. There are two species of monkeys which inhabit this particular part of the world. The first are the noisy but not often seen Black Howler Monkeys and the second are the shy but occasionally visible Capuchian Monkeys. I got to see them and take some photos (mainly sillouettes as I was shooting against the sky). The difference between a monkey and an ape - the most obvious one is that apes don't have tails (thus humans are apes). I was also blessed by a butterfly again. However, this was a butterfly that rested with it's wings wide open rather than upright, so I thought maybe it was actually a moth but this was in broad daylight and don't moths fly at night? I've checked with Yahoo answers and it seems that neither of the above criteria define a butterfly or moth. So maybe I had a moth resting on my elbow (the same one a yesterday). Now those of you who know me know that the one thing that makes me go squicky is moths (although any flying, buzzing thing at night makes me not happy) so, was it only because it was daytime or was it because I believed it to be a butterfly that allowed me to keep calm? Photos will follow soon.

I also visited the Devil's Throat which was worth it, if only for the sheer force of the water going over the edge. I didn't stay long as I was exhausted and hadn't eaten for about six hours.

Today I return to BsAs for final farewells before flying off to Australia. In case you hadn't realised I'm flying to Australia soon. Did I already tell you that?

The animals went in two by two...

I've made it to Iguazu. I came for the waterfalls but I'm entranced by the butterflies, there are so many of them in so many different sizes, shapes and colours. I've even managed to photograph some of them, in fact, one became so attached to me that it hitched a lift on my elbow for about an hour - I didn't realise my sweat tasted that good!

I've also seen coatis, lizards, fish in the rivers and birds, all of which I can't identify but I have photographed. The one thing I didn't get was the dragonfly. Dragonflies in South America are enormous and very brightly coloured, today's was an incredible purple-red and about four inches long.

I'm going back tomorrow to see the Devil's (or Giant's) Throat and go on the jungle train. After Ecuador, this has been lovely.

I just want to be friends...

Sealion pup and daypack
Originally uploaded by Shiralee Matthews

Here's one of my favourite Galapagos photos. This sealion pup was incredibly curious about my daypack (the grey rucksack I take everywhere) and insisted on coming up and sniffing it - my feet are just out of shot!

Leaving on a jet plane

Im coming to the end of my time in South America (just got Iguazu falls to visit) and I have to say that I'm not feeling particularly sad about leaving. I wish I could say that living here has been a learning experience (and I'm sure I have learned some things) but the truth is I believe I've just become more impatient and intolerant. Maybe I'm just getting old and this would have happened wherever I was but...

Anyhow, tonight I have a sixteen hour bus journey (but with a fully flat bed) and then three days of exploring the waterfalls and a bit of the jungle. My big question is what should I do in Australia and New Zealand? I have some ideas but I'm open to suggestions.

Finally do any of you know anyone in Australia who would be willing to store a couple of bags for me while I wander all over their country? (just hoping).

We'll met again...

I'm back in Buenos Aires again. It's amazing, one day here and I have a sore throat, blocked nose and I'm sneezing - I think I'm allergic to the city. Tomorrow I go up to Iguazu Falls for a few days then on the 18th I fly to Australia. I've sent off my complaint about the Galapagos trip and request for refund so we'll just have to wait and see. I've started uploading photos of the Galapagos but it's going to take some time so check back regularly!

I had a surprise reunion in Lima - a woman I'd met in Puno who was going off to Bolivia suddenly appeared behind me in the hostel. I didn't recognise her face (she had her hair tied up and was wearing a hat) but I did recognise her voice - weird eh?

And isn't airport security ridiculous? You can't take a bottle of water through security although you can buy one at double the cost on the other side (I swear this is only being enforced to boost airport profits). Also, I had a small bottle of sunblock in my handbag which was confiscated at Lima (they also wanted to confiscate my small tin of vaseline and antibacterial handgel - but gave me a ziploc bag to put them in instead - the ziploc bag went straight back into my handbag, thank you very much). However they totally overlooked the huge bottle of sunblock in my daypack! How daft is that, and I had travelled all over South America with both bottles in place.

Until next time...

Cruisin'

I'm back. I still feel as if I'm going up and down (very peculiar as I haven't actually been on board a boat very much for the last four days). My honest opinion of the Galapagos Islands - very expensive and overrated. It wasn't helped by the fact that my cruise was curtailed after four days, the group was transferred to another boat for one day then put up in a hotel for two days. As a group we will be complaining and looking to receive a refund of some of our money. We might have been less unhappy if we hadn't been constantly lied to and mislead. We might have been less unhappy if the alternative activities offered had been of equal quality. However, once these companies have your money, they just point to the small print of the contract and shrug their collective shoulders. And, of course, the people we were dealing with were the guides who have no authority while the managers hide in Quito.

I did see a fair amount of wildlife but nowhere near enough to justify the cost. If you know a lot about animals you may get excited about the differences between marine iguanas on different islands, otherwise they all look the same. So here's what I did see: marine iguanas, land iguanas, sealions, blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, pelicans, various gulls, various finches (but never with a guide who could tell me the difference), surgeon fish, lara fish, king angel fish, galapagos sharks, some other type of shark and (thankfully) giant tortoises - not much for nearly 1,000GBP. I will be posting photos when I can find an internet cafe with a fast enough connection but I only needed one memory card.

I do have some positive memories. I learned how to snorkle (only on the last full day and only because one of my companions took the time and trouble to help me - unlike any of the guides). I swam with sealions, communed with tortoises and danced with boobies - and I going to get the t-shirt to prove it!