Peruvian Transport Tales

In February and March this year I travelled in Peru and Brazil for 3 weeks with my dear friend, Leah. Here is the first of a series of stories that I am writing about our Latin American Adventure!

Absolutely shattered after three straight days of 30th birthday and Brazilian carnival celebrations, Leah and I boarded the flight from São Paulo to Lima looking forward to five hours of rest before we embarked on our two-week tour of Peru.  However, as we made our way to aisle seven of the aeroplane and saw a dog (yes, a real live poodle) on my seat, we knew that the adventure had already begun.

Exhausted tears of laughter ran down our cheeks at the ridiculousness of the situation. I couldn’t get a bottle of water onto the plane, how the hell did this dog’s owner manage to get a live animal past the numerous security checks?! The owner of the dog tried to squeeze the dog cage into her leg space (consequently taking up half of my leg room also) and sat with her legs splattered against the wall of the plane, putting on a fake smile and pretending that she was going to be comfortable like this for the next five hours. We knew that we definitely would not be comfortable, so after reassuring my friend who was on her maiden voyage in Latin America that this was not a normal occurrence on Brazilian aircraft, I called the air steward and convinced him that the dog really should travel with the other animals in the under carriage of the plane.

When we landed in Lima we were prepared to go through more bureaucratic security procedures. However we were amused by the “planned randomness” of the customs check. We lined up with the other passengers and had to press a button. When Leah pressed the button a green light flashed and she exited into the airport lounge. When I pressed the button a red light flashed and I had to go and show my suitcase to the customs’ officials.

Our transportation adventures continued during our two week stay in Peru. In the bigger towns like Lima and Cusco, extremely proactive taxi drivers who mistakenly believed that if they followed us beeping their car horns as we walked along the footpath that we would suddenly be inspired to jump in their taxis regularly pursued us. Strangely enough this strategy did not work, however when we did decide to get in a taxi we were surprised to find out that all trips, regardless of destination, cost 3 soles.

In the smaller towns, motorized and manual tricycles are the preferred form of transport. As you can see from the photo, the passengers were not limited by the size of their cargo. In Chivay, in the Colca Valley, we found the hiding place of the Bat-Mobile!

It was not a super-hero vehicle, but we were impressed when we boarded the bus from Arequipa to Puno and found spacious seats, blankets, air-conditioning and TV sets.  We were a bit confused though when before leaving the bus terminal, one of the bus employees silently took video footage of all of us. Was it meant be a final message to our loved ones? Or a tool to help identify our bodies should we come to a nasty fate? Luckily we did not have to find out!

Unfortunately the boat that we took for our two-day tour of Lake Titikaka was not of such high quality. The overwhelming smell of fuel fumes filled the cabin of the boat, and combined with the high altitude, made it very difficult to breathe. Not surprisingly most of the passengers decided to sit on the roof of the boat to escape the intoxicating fumes.  Smells of a different kind were coming from the toilet onboard the boat that was basic at best.  Unlucky passengers whose digestive systems were not yet used to the Peruvian cuisine frantically scooped buckets of water out of the lake to try and flush the only toilet on board.

The facilities on the train from Aguas Calientes to Cusco were of a much higher standard, however we almost missed the chance to appreciate them.  After spending several hours at Machu Picchu we returned to Aguas Calientes with five hours to spend until our return train to Cusco departed. We leisurely wiled away this time eating lunch, dessert, having coffee, talking, reading and writing in our journals in several different cafes situated near the train track where our incoming train had left us the day before.  As the departure time got closer, I began to wonder why there weren’t more people with backpacks anxiously waiting by the tracks for the train. Then like a bolt of lightning the realization hit me that the return train must leave from a different platform. A platform that was not visible from where we were waiting. In my best Portanhol I asked a policeman from where the train to Cusco left. He lifted his right arm, pointed and said, “Up there”.  With our backpacks strapped on, we began running up the mountainous staircase that appeared before us. And we kept on running upwards. I lost site of Leah as I started running through the market that greeted me at the top of the staircase. I yelled at her “Follow my voice!” as I ran in the direction indicated by the amused stall owner.

Finally I arrived at the security gate of the platform, desperately looking to see if there was still a train waiting at the platform. Totally out of breath I tried to talk to the security guard. Huge inhale of air, “Train”, inhale, “to Cusco”, inhale, “already”, inhale, “left?” I managed to ask. He responded no, but that it was due to leave in two minutes. “Friend,” inhale, “still coming”, I sputtered.  He told me that she had to hurry, so I turned around and yelled with all of my remaining energy for Leah…and heard a faint yell in reply. Somehow we managed to get on the train before it left. Absolutely and totally breathless.  We didn’t even mind that much the group of twenty or so Dutchies who sang old Amsterdam songs during the journey.

There were other transport-based performances that were more annoying however. We went on several bus tours during our two weeks in Peru and we were subjected to several “infomercials” during the many hours we spent on buses. At various stops during the return journeys, several different people would be welcomed onto the bus by the organizers and given the microphone to plug their products. These included several different tourist DVDs with thousands of photos of Peru’s tourist highlights set to traditional panpipe music and even a three-dimensional virtual tour of Machu Picchu; traditional liquorice based liqueur and a live music performance promoting panpipe music CDs. As we already had had to buy an extra bag to carry our souvenirs, we resisted the temptations of the "on-bus" purchases.

Saber Viver // Know How to Live

A colleague of mine just shared with me this wonderful poem by the Brazilian poet, Cora Coralina.

Saber Viver

Não sei...
Se a vida é curta
Ou longa demais pra nós,
Mas sei que nada do que vivemos
Tem sentido,
se não tocamos o coração das pessoas.

Muitas vezes basta ser:
Colo que acolhe,
Braço que envolve,
Palavra que conforta,
Silêncio que respeita,
Alegria que contagia,
Lágrima que corre,
Olhar que acaricia,
Desejo que sacia,
Amor que promove.

E isso não é coisa de outro mundo,
É o que dá sentido à vida.
É o que faz com que ela
Não seja nem curta,
Nem longa demais,
Mas que seja intensa,
Verdadeira, pura...
Enquanto durar.

English (my translation):
"Know How to Live"
I do not know...if life is too short
Or too long for us.
But I know that nothing that we live
Makes sense, if we don´t touch the hearts of people.

Often it is enough to be:
A lap that welcomes
Am arm that gets involved
A word that comforts
A silence that respects
Happiness that is contagious
A tear that runs
A look that caresses
A desire that satiates
Love that promotes.

And this is not something from another world,
It is what gives life meaning.
It is what we do with it.
May it not be too short
Nor too long.
But maybe it be intense,
True, pure...as long as it lasts.

an outdated update =)

So what has been happening these two months or so since my last posting....here is an outdated update =)

* Three great friends visited São Paulo - Brenda (Canadian living in Singapore), Maria (Spaniard living in London) and Mel (Aussie living in New York). It was wonderful to reconnect with old friends in a new environment. It somehow seemed surreal as well - sharing great moments and conversations with the same people in such different places. Each of these friends is inspirational in a different way, but with a common spirit of adventure and sense of self - felt like part of the foursome on SATC.

* AIESEC's 60th anniversary - Alumni Congress...what a great coincidence that this momentus occasion was celebrated in São Paulo. It was special to be in such an amazing environment like International Congress again but it was quite a different experience to have the VIP treatment as an alumni instead of a normal old member. The fact that AIESEC is celebrating its 60th anniversary was a great reminder to believe in the power of individuals to create something great. There was a huge open space and I took part in one conversation that I found really motivating...it was hosted by an AIESEC alumni, Henrique Pistilli, and the conversation was based on Aristotle's phrase, "Where my talents and passions and needs of the world collide, therein lies my vocation". It was a great provocation and since the conversation I have been reflecting a lot about these elements...I realised in these reflections that there are several things I am good at and passionate about that I would like to combine somehow into my vocation - homestay experiences, tourism, sustainability, diversity, hosting and facilitation...and I am currently on a search to find ways to connect them...any suggestions welcome =)

* Mostra Film Festival: this year was the 32nd International Film Festival here in São Paulo...I have no idea what the critics loved and hated, but since there is such an overwhelming choice of films from all over the world, I more or less chose my films by their time and location, which had a pretty good success rate (apart from those weird, free short films!)

I saw two great documentaries, "The End of Poverty?" and "The Day after Peace". Both were very moving and about very important issues. "The End of Poverty?" is kind of like a history lesson on how we ended up in this current mess of poverty on the planet, starting back 500 years, and what perpetuates it today. I could feel my blood boiling as they showed statistics like the cost of reducing world poverty by half = 4% of the US annual military budget...and then I thought of how the world is managing to come up with these rescue packages in the hundreds of billions to help save the people who already have money on the stock markets!! Why don't we feel and act that the systemic poverty of most of the world's population is also a financial crisis worthy of such attention??!!? I really liked the film but one thing that was missing for me at the end was some kind of list of suggestions for the ordinary viewer how we can make some kind of difference on this issue. "The Day after Peace" was also really inspirational about one guy's efforts to create at least one day in the year of cease fires...at first it sounds like a bit of a wank, like what difference will one day make? But as he says, if we can't manage one day of peace, how will we ever manage 365 days? And the film showed how much great humanitarian work can be done when the bullets and bombs stop falling.

Triinu and I watched another documentary, "The Children of the Pire" which was quite disturbing...it told the story of young boys who work at one of the famous cremation sites in India, helping to make sure the corpses burn (and stealing the funeral shrouds as a way of making extra cash). Very sad.

* Aryuvedic Health weekend: spent a weekend at the Visão Futuro eco-village, learning about Aryuveda and doing some cool treatments, like face mask, 4 handed-massage, yoga and meditation. Once again was great to get out of the city and back to the beautiful park. I found this holistic Indian science very interesting, but am not sure what I think about Aryuveda yet, trying out some of the recommendations for my body type, but having trouble with some of them (EX not eating cheese!!!!), but as Brenda says, I should focus on what I CAN eat =)

* Internations: there is a social networking site called Internations which has been organizing some cool events here in São Paulo. It is a really nice mixture of gringoes and also Brazilians who have had international experiences and want to maintain their networks. It is really interesting to see the culture shock cycles visibly happening amongst the people who go to the events, and hear of people's experiences and perspectives depending on where they are in the cycle ;)

* Gross National Happiness: there is a global movement which is starting to change the way we measure development. What if instead of using the one-dimensional flawed indicator of only economic development (Gross National Product, which for example increases when a country is at war!) we used a holistic, multi-faceted way of measuring and encouraging development that took into account economic, social and environmental factors? The tiny Kingdom of Bhutan is already doing this and the Visão Futuro eco-park organised the first Latin American Gross National Happiness Congress recently, and I went to one of the lectures where we heard about the Bhutanese and also Canadian experiences with this work. The presentations were all very impressive, but the thing that was most convincing for me was simply to look at the face of one of the Bhutanese delegates who was sitting at the first row in the presentation - I have never seen or felt such a personification of serenity in my life!!! It was amazing!! I was captivated by the happiness that he RADIATED from his every cell!!! It made me start to think about my own GNH and which indicators we use as individuals to measure our "success"!

I did a small surgery a couple of weeks ago which went well and now I am back at work after two weeks of sick leave to recover. Thanks for the well wishes and to my friends here who visited me and kept me company and the friends abroad who sent me positive healing energy =)

2 year anniversary in brazil celebrations =)

check out the photos:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47395&l=30bed&id=733226679

thanks all for a great time at barnaldo lucrecia celebrating two years in brazil for me and triinu and the approval of my new two year visa...

i hugged an eskimo today...

and he melted some of the ice around my heart!

tonight i went to an event called "Ice Wisdom", where Angaangaq, an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder from Greenland, gave a simple yet powerful presentation about climate change. his name means “the man who looks like his uncle”, but he reminded me of "the ideal grandpa".

most of the facts that Uncle told were not new to the audience, but the thing that was new was to hear from someone who lives in the north pole, in a village of 3 homes with 20 people, who has to hunt all his food (polar bears, walruses, seals), including the seaweed, (which are his only vegies because nothing grows there) and hear how the rubber from the tyres of the 6 000 000 cars that drive on the roads every day in São Paulo ends up melting the ice that his life depends on...how the melting of the ice means softer ice which means he cant build igloos when he goes hunting and travelling in his land, and so he has to take a normal tent which weighs a lot more, which means he has to take more dogs with him to carry the weight on his sleigh, which means he has to kill more animals to feed the dogs on the journey, which means more gasoline for the boat to go and catch them and so on and so on...

the theme of his lecture was "melting the ice in the heart of man", and he sees this as the only solution to sustainability and climate change issues...and the message i took away from his speech was that we can melt this ice by humanising this (and any social) issue and showing people how we are all so interconnected, and as he said, there is but one planet, with one country and humankind its only citizen...we are all equal, and that is a beautiful thing...

i think it is great that sustainability and climate change issues have become more main stream and there seems to be more general awareness and action about these issues...but i have noticed within myself that lately i have become kind of cynical and less interested in the theme as it feels somehow to have become cliché and lost a deeper and broader meaning...

Uncle's presentation tonight reminded me of this often missing element - the human interconnectedness....between neighbours of the same city, country, planet and generations...as he said, he lives 17 300 kilometres from São Paulo, but

The greatest distance
in the existence of man

is not from here to there nor from there to here.

Nay, the greatest distance in the existence of man
is from his mind to his heart.

Unless he conquers this distance he can never
learn to soar like an eagle,
and realize the immensity within.

the opposite of fate

During my holidays I read the autobiography of Amy Tan, American author, "The Opposite of Fate". It is a really great read. Here a couple of passages amongst many that I especially liked...

"(it) forced me to wonder and consider that everything that happens is neither grand plan nor random coincidence. It is a crazy quilt of love, pieced together, torn apart, repaired again and again, and strong enough to protect us all...What are ghosts if not the hope that love continues beyond our ordinary senses? If ghosts are a delusion, then let me be deluded. Let me believe in the limitlessness of love, the beauty of contradictions, the miracle that is an ordinary part of life".

"Writing to me is an act of faith, a hope that I will discover what I mean by truth. But I don't know what that will be until I finish. I can't determine it ahead of time. And more often than not, I can't summarize what it is I've discovered. It's simply a feeling. The feeling is the entire story. To paraphrase the feeling or to analyze the story reduces the feeling for me.

I also think of reading as an act of faith, a hope I will discover something remarkable about ordinary life, about myself. And if the writer and the reader discover the same thing, if they have that connection, the act of faith has resulted in an act of magic. To me, that's the mystery and the wonder of both life and fiction - the connection between two unique individuals who discover in the end that they are more the same than they are different.

And if that doesn't happen, it's noboby's fault. There are still plenty of other books on the shelf to choose from."

three great weeks in brazil with ma and pa

Well not exactly sure where to start in describing the amazing three week trip around Brazil that I just took with my parents.

It was the third Fitzy Frolic that we have taken together (first was Singapore in 2003 and then the Netherlands in 2005) but it was the most time I have spent alone with them in at least the last 7 years – without any brothers, sisters or friends to “compete” with!

So here are a few memorable moments:
* Mum and Dad’s flight to São Paulo arriving early, their luggage being one of the first off the conveyer belt and not getting caught in any queues on the way out to arrivals area (then consequently them having to wait for me to get to the arrivals area, hence missing the emotional “here they come” moment.
* Mum’s eternal search in Brazil for a decent cuppa (IE boiling hot water, black tea bag, and cold milk). This hilarious search began at a café near my place where the infamous “cappucha” was invented (IE hot water, frothed up milk like in a cappuccino and a tea bag thrown in).
* Mum and Dad getting to meet my great group of friends here in São Paulo whilst “singing” along to Brazilian country and western music at the Rancho Goiano restaurant. Also the location of Mum’s first (but definitely not last) caipirinha (she soon took up the habit of having two at a time!). Thanks for the spontaneous translations Márcio and Guga!
* Mum and Dad’s pleasant surprise at Brazilian customer service and willingness to round down the price to save having to give over a lot of change to the customer.
* The breath-taking beauty of the Iguassu Falls in the south of Brazil and Argentina, and the breath-taking bargain of a R$7 dinner with a R$30 bottle of wine from the fancy Italian restaurant next door. Literally having our breaths taken away in the boat trip under the falls!
* On the way home after Mum and Dad’s first, and our best, Bahian meal in Foz de Iguaçu, hearing the phrase you never want to hear from a taxi driver in a town that you have only spent 24 hours – “This is my first day on the job. I am borrowing the taxi from my brother. Do you know how to get there?”
* Our stressful daily routine in the Pantanal which went something like this: wake up, breakfast, nap in hammock, activity (horse riding, fishing, boat ride), nap, lunch, nap, activity, nap, dinner.
* Getting up close and personal with the guesthouse’s two “pet” crocodiles, Zico and Pele, as they showed us their jumping ability to catch some fish for dinner.
* Catching 33 piranha fish on the Rio Claro and not losing any fingers (unlike our poor cook, Jacco, who lost a finger a while back to a piranha).
* The reaction of Jacco, who lives in a place where it rains for six months of the year, to the 10-year drought that my relatives have been through in Australia. “We would go louco” was his prediction.
* Watching the beautiful sunrise and sunset on the Rio Claro (and finding the boat that mysteriously floated down river).
* Eating at the Mafia Pizzaria in Cuiabá where they need to bring over an extra table to put your food on because the dishes are soooo big!
* Our wonderful weekend in Brasília with our fantastic hosts, Betina and Marcos, which included an interesting trip to the Temple of Good Will, where Dad had to stop his overt leg showing and put on some good will happy pants.
* Going to the cute old mining town in Goias about 100km from Brasilia called Pirienopolis with Betina, Marcus and his mum and brother, Ivan. We had a wonderful meal at a typical fazenda restaurant with a private beach and then had numerous home-made icecreams from the list of 43 flavours available.
* Mum and Marcos’ mum repeatedly saying the same things at the same time through out the day, just in different languages.
* Hearing the best directions ever in Goias – “Just go straight ahead for the rest of your life”.
* Enjoying the São João (Saint John) festival in Salvador: live concerts in the main square; trying to teach Mum and Dad to dance forro; huddling with the locals under the sponsorship banner when the rain came pouring down during the concert; watching Dumb and Dumber trying for nearly an hour to put aluminum foil on the tray they were trying to sell whisky from; seeing all the little kids dressed up in “rural” clothes, the little boys with drawn-on moustaches and sideburns.
* Observing a candomble ceremony, people going into trances, geeky German tourist very obviously showing his dislike (as if he had tasted a ball of dog vomit) when he ate the acaraje that he was offered during the ceremony.
* The energy packed Afro-Brazilian folklore show in Salvador. If you are in Salvador you HAVE to go!
* Mum’s trauma after using the luxurious toilet facilities on Itapicara Island (off Salvador) – the cistern falling off the wall when Mum tried to flush the floating turd. The antiseptic wipes were even needed for the feet afterwards.
* The amazing work of the Tamar Project in Praia do Forte (80 km from Salvador) where they are rescuing and preserving endangered sea turtles in partnership with local fishermen, who they have taught how to do CPR on turtles when they get caught in their fishing nets.
* The unforgettable ride with the evangelical taxi driver cum real estate agent who gave us an amazing price on the return ride from Praia do Forte to Salvador, but then really made us pay when he played his evangelical music CD three times over during the ride. He also offered us a great real estate investment opportunity in Maceio, which apparently was “quite a steal”. * Meanwhile Dad thought he was setting us up to be robbed and so was thinking of escape strategies. I have never seen three people leave a vehicle so quickly in my life.
* Hearing Midnight Oil playing as we climbed the hills of Ouro Preto to see, that is right, yet another church.
* Catching up on the rebellious history of the people from Minas Gerais at the Inconfidencia museum whilst another historic moment, the first Gay and Lesbian Parade of Ouro Preto, pumped on outside.
* Devising strategies to encourage the shower water to go down the drain and discourage it from leaving the bathroom and entering the room at the Ouro Preto youth hostel. Dad became a squidgy sweeping, dam building champion. He should have been an engineer, not an air traffic controller.
* Testing out my metallurgical vocabulary when I had to translate the tour we took of a gold mine in Ouro Preto.
* After singing the praises of Brazilian long distance buses (blankets, pillows, food, seats that go back 180 degrees etc) to my parents, I had to eat humble pie when we took the line from Ouro Preto to Rio de Janeiro and there were no blankets, pillows or snacks and the grandma behind me complained when I tried to put my seat back. Situation was rectified when we got the bus from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo and all promised services were provided!
* Being driven by the reincarnation of Aryton Senna in a taxi from the bus station to the hotel at Ipanema Beach.
* Seeing senior citizens walking in their budgy smugglers through the city to the beach in Rio.
* Having our nice peaceful breakfast at the botanical gardens in Rio de Janeiro disturbed by screaming school girls and their teachers when they spotted a Brazilian soapy actress snacking beside us.
* Dad’s obsession with Brazilian beer and the stubby coolers they have for tallies. He also became a big fan of the dark chopp.
* Mum frustration with the lack of Brazilian bed sheets that are tucked in under the mattress.
* Our shared frustration with the “entrepreneurial” parking rangers that roam Brazil’s streets looking for customers.
* Realizing that I forgot to give Dad any pocket money when I sent him off for his excursion to the Embraer factory in Sao Jose dos Campos.

As you can see…there were so many memorable moments!!! It was a fantastic trip. Thanks so much Mum and Dad for coming all the way to Brazil. It was wonderful for me to be able to show you my life here and I am so glad that you loved every minute of it. Can’t wait until the next trip!!!