cuba

Hi Friends,

Its been almost a year since a went to Cuba, and as i'm heading off again in 3 days I thought i'd better get this out of the way first. When I left for Central America I never considered going to cuba (or getting my scuba ticket), but met heaps of people who loved it. luckily i had a small amount of cash which allowed me to grab a ticket and head over for 10 days...The Cuban experience begins at the airport. All other airlines have nice, orderly queues...Cubana airlines has people, boxes, luggage EVERYWHERE. There is always at least 5 people at each check-in desk. Most people have more luggage then people moving house. I was about 20th in line when the checkouts opened, it still took me more than 2 hours to check in...The fun was just beginning...

Cuba was amazing, here are just a few fun experiences that are burned into my memory from a year ago:

1) I really like sport, and I especially like watching it live, in a stadium were passionate local fans go crazy. Cubanos go crazy for baseball. When I was at the bus station buying a ticket (which takes about 2 hours, as opposed to the standard 1 minute everywhere else in the world) I started chatting to a guy reading the newspaper. He told me there was a game on at the stadium just down the road. SWEET! After walking to the stadium, via the bbq'd corn stand, i found out that the game was at another stadium across the other side of Havana. I found out where and which bus to catch but not where the closest bus station could be found. I found two local workmen unloading their truck and asked them if they knew where the closest bus stop was, they didnt know...but told me to jump in their oldschool truck. End result: they drove me right across town in their spluttery old beast, went really far out of their way to drop me off right out the front of the stadium. At the end I wanted to give them a couple of bucks (just to buy a cold drink) but they wouldn't accept it...they just wanted to help out. So cool! I had many similar experiences where the local people were so kind and friendly...ace! The game was cool - entry was 4 cents (Au). Has to be the cheapest admission to any sporting event anywhere, ever!

2) Food in Cuba is dodgey. Tourists can eat in super expensive restaurants OR in local hangouts which serve mainly pizza, burgers, sandwiches (< all with very limited toppings), bread or fruit. Was getting hungry one evening and spied some old fella selling bananas, so a snagged a bunch and some bread from the local hole in the wall and made some banana sangas in the park. Whilst eating and enjoying my dinner a homeless guy came along and looked at my gourmet meal. I offered him a 'banana burger' and he sat down for a chat. He had a lot of misfortune in his life. His most recent case was sitting down on some steps after hurting his leg. while sitting there he noticed a plastic bag full of money in the gutter, He reckons there was about 10,000 euros in the bag...Enough to become one of the richest cubanos overnight. Sadly, he somehow lost the bag straight away and is still living on the streets. He still seemed upbeat and enjoyed life and had many good friends in the park. A cool little experience of meeting another local person, and finding out what life (reality) is like for that person. This, for me, is one of the greatest joys of traveling- meeting the people and hearing their stories.

3) There are no buses to the airport for tourists. You have to take a taxi ($25). But i got some tips from locals about how to get there for cheap (30c). Firstly, you have to take a bus to near the airport. The buses have a cool system in Cuba, instead of waiting in line when you get to bus stop you call out 'el ultimo' (the last) and the person who is last in 'the line' (they could be anywhere) will raise their hand and you know when the bus finally comes and you line up you will be behind that person. When the next person comes along after you and calls out 'el ultimo' you then signal to that person and they are behind you. So then if a bus comes every 20 mins people can go to a cafe, read the paper under a tree...then form a orderly line when the bus arrives. The system works so well! (except if you dont know about the system (like me, 1st time) and you think there is no line and just wait at the bus stop - and when the bus arrives you find youself being swarmed by, and eventually at the end of a line of 60 people). So I was waiting for the bus and a local fella started chatting to me about baseball, life, politics. He said if I wore different clothes I could pass as a local (even with a massive moustache (I had been growing one for 3 months by this point)...He even said "para mí, me gusta el bigote mucho"( "for me, I like the moustache very much")...the best compliment I have ever recieved. We jumped on the same bus and he told me he would signal when i needed to jump off. When I got off at an intersection my new moustache loving friend called out to another guy who worked at the airport to help me get there. We hitchhiked right into the terminal...he was a gardener there and invited me to the workers coffee room for lunch. I couldnt due to my plane leaving, but gave him the rest of my cubano pesos and told him to enjoy a cigar for me.
Such a cool experience mixing with the locals, such nice, friendly people...and so much better exploring local transport options, and traveling as a local rather than just jumping in a taxi (easier option- unless you are in a similar finiancial position to myself!)

This is just a snapshot of my experiences with the local people (I realise I havn't really talked at all about the country itself...but the country is the people!). Cuba really is AMAZING and I would recommend that YOU visit if given the chance...

Andy update: I have finished uni and as of next monday I will be in Cambodia for a year interning for these guys - www.adra.org. Should be a really cool experience and I'm looking forward to gaining some practical skills in the humanitarian field and traveling with a bit more purpose. Fun times ahead!

Hope this note finds you well.

Take it easy,

:) andy

Hitchhiking with a substantial moe...

...is possible, but more about that later. So, i know its been a while. HEAPS of you have been emailing me, continually pestering me to update my blog - so here it is.

After spanish school in Xela (the cold place) rach and i moved on to San Pedro (also know as San pedo (by us)) for another two weeks of spanish school. During this time christmas and New years passed by with nothing much of note taking place. However, for christmas we tried to make some bean burgers (veggie special) and despite soaking the beans for 12 hours overnight, it still took 2 hours of ferocious boiling to half cook them (we should have taken the can option)-so we had half cooked/half falling apart bean burgers for christmas lunch. The salad was good though...

Antigua 6/10.

It was the old capital of Guatemala until it got destroyed in the 1700s by a volcanic erruption. The city was rebuilt and is of course older than any building in Australia, so it looks old (to us). We climbed an active volcano which had a massive erruption 6 months before. There is a natural sauna there, and a place you can roast marshmallows (the only person to do so was an american) and a pit which you could throw sticks into and they would catch on fire almost straight away (just to prove there was some heat down there). Other than that, just an old city with heaps of america tourists fresh off the cruise ships...

Monterrico 6/10.

A small town on the coast where people go to do nothing, because there is nothing to do. Actually, you can go on an ecological tour through a mozzie infested swamp, release a baby turtle into the surf for Q10 ($1.40), or burn your feet on the black sand at any time from 8am to 5pm. We also started up afternoon games of waterpolo which got quite aggressive (for some players), it was also the most our soccer ball had been used since its purchase.

ps. soccer ball is the best ice breaker in central america (and maybe about 80% of the world) everyone wants a piece of the action, from the school kid to the guy selling bus tickets. Everyone wants you to throw them the ball and have a bit of a juggle...its great!

Lanquin/Semuc Champey 9.5/10.

The best hostel i have stayed in. In the rainforest, with a river running past it, great dorms, sauna and a communal buffet every night brings everyone together in a really social environment. From Lanquin we did a tour of semuc champey (worth a google) we swam in through some caves (apparently they go back 12km) holding a candle each (mine went out about 15 times) and climbed up waterfalls, jumped off rocks, went down little slides and through random claustrophobic (?) sections, we did it with a group of 27 people which was really fun, made heaps of cool friends there...Afterwards went tubing down the rapids, jumped off a ripe swing and swam in the pools of semuc champey (the ones you are looking at on google right now). The second day we were there a swiss surfing fanatic showed us how the surf in switzerland. The tie a rope across the river, then attach a board (like a door) with a handle on it on a length of rope running down the river (worst description ever). End of story, you can stand up and kind of "surf" the river, it was fun...alos kind of lame, but didnt want to tell the enthused swiss that...

Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras 8/10.

9 bus connections, one ferry and 20 hours later we arrived at Utila. The second cheapest place on the planet (apparently) to do a scuba diving course. Sounded like a good offer, so we did it. Really good fun. Met some cool people on the ferry and one dude from lanquin came with us to form our own little group. Its sounds lame, but it really is another world down there. Everything is silent, you can only hear yourself breathing. Its really calm and peaceful and you can see some amazing creatures down there. heaps of weird creatures as well...We also went to our own private island for another divers birthday. good times. The day we were going to leave the ferry didnt turn up - so we hired bikes and went to find the legendary mini golf in the jungle. A stoned american dude has been building a putt-putt course for 3 years (bad investment i say) and what evolved is an impossibly difficult course which includes a fireman pole, fighting a crocodile, an undergroud cave and "surfing the ball in" on a pivoting board. He also has designed a "thing" to help people swim easily in the sea. It is basically a foam cut out of a whale, with a place for the rider to sit, who then opperates the tail and fins by using their arms and legs. looks like a hard way to swim. He said to look out for it on the internet in the next few months (danoz direct?). I said i would...

Rio Dulce 8/10.

We stayed in a sweet place right on the water, built by a bloke from Australia. We visited the only (apparently) hot waterfall in the world. The water flowing down is from a thermal spring and must be about 80C. seriously hot, and it makes a natural steam room under the waterfall. really cool/hot. Just down the road is a sweet little canyon which you can pay Q15 to have a little kid paddle you down in a dugout canoe. Pretty fun and only locals know about it (apparently) Oh yeah! Off the beaten track!

Tikal, Guatemala 9/10.

Google it. Awesome ruins. (I forgot this the first time and cant be bothered typing anymore)

Caye Caulker, Belize 7/10.

Its an Island and other than snorkel and smoke weed theres not much to do. We did some snorkelling with stingrays and nurse sharks and just lazed around for a few days. We also ate some awesome pineapple and banana cake.

Tulum, Mexico 7/10.

After 8 hours on the bus, i got into Tulum at 10pm. I asked some French dudes if they knew a good place to stay. Before i knew it i was in the back of some randoms ute (re: hitchhiking) and out to this little camp site on the beach. My home for the next few days was a little shack of sticks and leaves which bear grylls (and his 30 strong support crew) could have built is about 7 minutes. So i was living with some cool hippy folks about 9m from the water. Awesome!

I am now in Cancun. Rachel split and is now somewhere in Honduras. Im flying out to Cuba tomorrow, I really know nothing about it - so it should be a fun experience. I doubt il be on the internet for the next 10 days while over there. Then is back to Aus...looking forward to bbqing and playing cricket (not so much uni. ha) Anyway, im up to date - that should fend off the requests for a while. Hope life is great. Take it easy :) andy

ps. the moe is going from strength to strength. I have had 7 photos with people (all girls). Many compliments from blokes, and more high fives than i can count...life is good!

¡QUE MANGO!

So now you all know a little bit of Guatemalan slang, ¡que mango! its what a guy says to their mates when they see a nice looking girl walking past, some of the bolder fellas might yell it out loud in a lame pick up attempt (which fails 99.9% of the time, i am told), but usually its just said under their breath about a girl way out of their league... and the term orginates from an actual mango (fruit) and means "sweet"...more or less...

So weve been traveling for about 3 weeks or so, and have seen a bit...so il briefly run through a few of the places weve been and things weve seen and il even rate them, so you can decide if you want to visit them on your next adventure...

Hollywood: 2/10

Hollywood is lame, like most of the movies it produces. There is the chinese and kodak theatre, stars with famous people on the sidewalk, handprints of famous people in concrete and the Hollywood sign in the distance. That is it. 50m either side of kodak theatre (main area) is ghetto. actual ghetto. Only the quality burrito shop across the road road saved Hollywood from a zero.

Venice Beach/ Santa Monica Pier: 5/10.

The pier is interesting for about 7 minutes, where you can get someone to write your name on a grain of rice. or pay $11 to go on a rollercoaster that doesnt even go upside down...very touristy. The walk down to Venice Beach is pretty cool. Heaps of outdoor gym equipment to muck around on, like a giant swing set and heaps of monkey swinging rings...good fun. Theres also heaps of markets along the path, with interesting hippy people along the way, such as a guy in a robe playing electric guitar while skating along on some futuristic roller blades. There is also a freak show where you can see "a two headed turtle and pretzel boy for free, with heaps more inside!" or where you can get your marijuana prescription filled (or get diagnosed as needing marijuana for medicinal purposes). Also, an outdoor gym where all the "big boys" go to work out in their american flag speedos...

Mexico City: 5/10.

Its a city with 23 million people living there. im not a huge fan of citys...but what we saw of Mexico city was pretty cool. A lot of history, a lot of churches a lot of stuff going on all the time. Pretty safe in the centre region. Good anthropology muesum (so i heard). Awesome taco joint. 30c tacos with unlimited guacamole and jalepeño carrots. we ate here often. We didnt see much, but what we saw was pretty cool...even cramming onto the subway with thousands of other people(it moves 6 million people a day)was a funnish experience...worth it, even just for the tacos...

The amount of moustaches in Mexico 10/10.

Everyone (male, usually) over the age of 35 has one. So thats about 130 million people. I also have one (6/10).

Teotihucan 7/10.

Old Aztec ruins, has the 3rd largest pyramid in the world (the 2 biggest are in Egypt) really big site to walk around, heaps of smaller ruins and ancient paintings to look at. fun times. I also bought this little clay cougar head whistle thing, which sounds like a cougar snarling when you blow through it. I have not seen or heard a live cougar, but it sounds real...

Cañon de sumidero: 9/10

(Worth a google) Awesome canyon in southern Mexico. You get to cruise down the river for a bout 2 hours with walls 1km high either side + the added attraction of seeing the hydroelectric power station at the end of the river. We also saw 26 crocodiles. google it.

Palenque:

Google it. We were going to go there, but a landslide in the mountains blocked the road for 4 days and we didnt make it. will fill in the details on our way back...

San pedro lago Atitlan 7/10

Really nice setting. A lake surrounded by heaps of mountains, small villages and 3 volcanos. We climbed one of the volcanos and go the SWEETEST view ever. Il put photos up on here in about 4 months when im home and have my film developed. cool chill out place...more gringos the guatemantecos though...rach and I will be heading back here in a few days to do another 2 weeks of spanish school...

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala 5/10

We have been here for 2 weeks studying in a spanish school. The school is great, but 5 hours of intense 1 v 1 spanish classes really does your head in. But you learn fast. Think i have learnt more in the past two weeks than in the last 2 years at uni. Theres no sleeping in the back of the classes here, the teachers is about 35cm away and grilling you for 5 hours + homework. haha. Ive got a sweet teacher, a wise old owl who knows everything about the history of guatemala. So if i even need a brain breather, i just ask him a political question and it usually buys me about 45 minutes...haha... the weather here is crazy, between 5pm - 8am it can get down too -4 degrees, but from 8am to 5pm its about 30 degrees...so were keen to move on to somewhere a little warmer...

Carros locos (crazy cars) 10/10

The way dodgem cars should be. No seatbelts. No specific direction (head on contact permitted, usually encouraged). 10 minute time limit. Pretty much no rules. We had 7 gringos going mad on the dodgems (with heaps of locals watching the carnage)...no better way to bring out the inner kid...(not that i needed any help with that) best 60c ive ever spent...

Anyway, my internet is almost up - going to make the most of the remaining sun and play bit of futbol with some mates from the spanish school. Having heaps of fun, meeting heaps of cool people, and have had a lot of cool little experiences along the way...i guess ive just written the boring stuff in here...sorry. Just believe me, were having a GREAT time over here. Hope you are well wherever you are!

take it easy :) andy

Mexico...

Hello friends,

Its travel time again, hence why i am writing in my blog. Im heading over to Mexico and possibly a few extra central american countries (currently have almost nothing planned)...Hoping to do a language school down in Guatemala as well, but we'll see how that turns out. My little sister rachel is also jumping on board, so there should be a few fun adventures down the track. Anyway i leave for the airport in about 17 minutes and still have some packing to finalise - so id better hop too it. Hope life is great for you wherever you are - i hope to write in this every month, which im sure the 2 people reading this will be excited about... Take it easy :) andy

Pictures.

Heres a few pics from my adventures. I only have a film camera, so my own photos will be developed in a few months. Thanks to the people i scabbed these from.


4 guys on a lift. Silverstar, Canada.

3 guys on the snow. Silverstar.

magic. Silverstar.

same as above. (won't delete for some reason)

aussie invasion. Kelowna, Canada.
(All my photos are on film, on the camera hanging around my neck.)

Big White.

Big Shawn White.

Massive goggles. Big white.

Oasis. Ica, Peru.

Juan with his new wheelchair and sister. Satipo, Peru.

Juan Carlos(and bro) with fernando. Satipo.

Local family with some supplies.

Happy kids + pirate (dog)
(this is the guy that climbed up me like a coconut tree - read a few posts back)

little Marcos. (notice the housing)

Delivery run.
Those mattresses were held on with one piece of string(and didnt budge).

Local family(super cool and hospitable).

home time.

Remember when the school bell used to ring at the end of the day and how stoked you were to get out of there. Well the bell has rung on my overseas adventure (for now). As fun as it is coming home to see family and friends, the excitement of travelling doesnt quite match up to sitting in lectures and writing essays. 10 days ago i was snowboarding some of the best slopes in the world, in 10 hours i will be in a classroom. The upside is that with uni you get 6 months holidays a year (tough), which noone could possibly complain about. So it wont be long and i will be out there again. Had a rad time in Peru, then a week each in canada and the US hanging with some aussie mates and getting in a bit of snowboarding, awesome times. Anyway im back in Aus now and will be for a least 3 months - hopefully il get to catch up with anyone reading this. If your in Australia give me a shout. If your overseas, also give me a shout, harass me to visit and give me even more reasons to keep travelling. Thanks for reading and have fun. Until next time, take it easy :) andy

lost in translation...

hello friends,

i hope this post finds you well. I am now up in Kelowna, Canada visiting a few mates. I originally came up here to see one guy from back home, and ended up finding out that i know 4 people in the area. Its always cool catching up with mates from back home (and snagging some free accom and net time...joking...not)

So i left Peru about a week ago, the last few days in Satipo were pretty hectic - racing around to visit some families and hand out a few more items to help some disabled kids there. We had a really great time back in Satipo, met some fantastic people and felt really welcome there. We were always invited into people homes for meals, we got invited out to peoples farms out in the jungle, invited to play soccer games, we even helped train a local satipo youth team. We had a fantastic time there, caught up with old friends and made many more new ones. I hope that we were able to help out a few families out in Satipo and i look forward to going back out there in a few years time and seeing the progress of the kids and catching up with our ever growing number of good friends out there.

One of our friends from Lima drove out to Satipo and brought some wheelchairs and other equipment that wasnt available in Satipo. We got a lift with her back into Lima with a few days to hang out. This included going to a part of the city where theres heaps of knocked off clothing sold. Its kind of a district which is known for being pretty dangerous, so dangerous that there is a fence around a 5 block area to keep to undesirables inside. So its kind of like an urban jail, which you are free to try your luck wandering around in. I am not sure why i was taken to this place...and since i have already been mugged twice in Lima on previous visits, i was pretty alert...but i survived.

We also did a roadtrip down to Ica, where we did some sand buggying and sand boarding. Sandbuggying is where you jump in a dodgy looking buggy with a massive old V8 motor and some tiny peruvian man flogs it around the sand dunes. Kind of like a rollercoaster, without the tracks or security measures. We did a bit of sandboarding, which is kind of fun, really difficult to do standing up so most people usually just toboggan down.

I was due to fly out thursday morning at 00:45. But somehow, this time got lost in translation and they thought it was midday on thurday (instead of midnight) so at about 8pm wednesday we were about 2 hours south of Lima down the coast in a sweet holiday house on the beach. I knew we should probably leave soon, so i reminded them that i had to be at the airport in a few hours. The we all realised what had happened, so we scrambled to get everything in the car and hit the highway(they had planned to stay there that night and leave on thursday, i didnt know this). So all ended well i made it to the airport with heaps of time to spare. The only problem was i had most of my clothes at the laundrymat(?), which i thought would have been open pretty late. It wasnt. So long story short, Im now in Kelowna, Canada with daily temperature highs of 5 degrees and i have about 20% of my clothes. haha. good times.

Anyway, I am here and loving canada despite only seeing a small amount of it. I went snowshoeing on sunday (hiking with this tennis raquet type things on your feet) and am planning to go snowboarding for the next few days up at big white and silver star. Next week il bus it down to montana to catch up with an old mate from Aus. Then its back on the plane and back to uni a few hours later.

This post has been pretty rushed and a bit scattered, but all is well. Im having a great time and packing a lot into my final few weeks here. Not much time for the net so il fill you in on all the details when i get home. Hope life is great where you are. Take it easy. andy

marshmallows for breakfast...

It seems that noone in Peru(or maybe all of south america) eats cereal for breakfast. Cereal is pretty much all i have ever eaten for breakfast and im not about the stop now. After scouring all of Satipo we came across a selection of 4 types of cereal. The best of these are little vanilla cornflakes with tiny marshmallows, so thats what ive been eating for the last one and a half weeks(and with 40grams of sugar per 100, i can almost feel my teeth decaying as i munch down)...fun times...oh yeah, and the only milk they have is long life milk...warm. Breakfast, best meal of the day!

The transport strike ended saturday 2 weeks ago, and we were able to get a bus out to satipo that night, prime seats, numbers 1 and 2. Also prime seats for viewing a head on crash, which occur rarely, but more often than you would like. We got out here safely (obviously) and checked into the majestic hotel , the one we stayed in last time. Its been really cool catching up with people who we havnt seen for a year or two. Things change really slowly out here, so most people were still in the same jobs, hanging out in the same spots, playing soccer on the same pitch on the same night of the week at the same time...

We came out here to almost 2 years ago to construct a school for disabled kids. We made great progress whilst we were here, and the project was supposed to be finished a few months after we left. But it wasnt. That is still the case, there has been progress(they built a sweet fence the whole way around the complex) but the buildings still arnt finished. After talking with the council we have been assured that at least two of the buildings will be finished by June. Over here a lot of things are supposed to be finished in a few months, but end taking 6 or 7 years... I am hopeful that this will not be the case with out project, as there is growing pressure on the mayor (theres an election in october) and some support groups really pushing for the centre to be completed. We will see. About an hour ago Fernando and I gave a live TV interview for about 20mins, Fernando has already made a documentary about the project which is currently being edited and given about 7 radio interviews. All this publicity is really raising awareness about the disabled kids in Satipo and we have had many people come knock on our hotel door and tell us about families with disabled kids they want us to come and visit, which is the main reason we are here.

Our main focus at the moment is helping the families of the kids directly. we have been racing around in mototaxis visiting the families and have had some really cool times. The families have been really welcoming and keen to let us into their lives. So far we have visited 15 different families and provided them with hygiene packs (laundry equipment, soaps, shampoo, kitchen items, bedding, mattresses, clothing etc) and also school supplies for the kids (backpacks, books, colouring in stuff, pencils, reading books etc). We have also tried to source some specialist equipment that would make the lives of the child/family a lot easier. We have ordered some custom showering chairs from a local carpintero, crutches, we have two wheelchairs and a metal walking frame coming from Lima, some custom leg braces made for a little girl etc. Its really cool to be able to help the families with these items that they would otherwise have no chance of obtaining, as they get no help from the government, no welfare etc. The kids are pretty stoked to get some new stuff as well, and excitied to go back to school to use their new school books. One little boy with downs syndrome ran over and climbed up me (like you would a coconut tree) to give me a hug. It is a weird experience been climbed up...

Having a really sweet time out here, really glad im able to help in some small way. Im out of here on Sunday going to be a bit sad saying goodbye to eveyone again, but i will be back and i will speak spanish perfect... hope life is great where ever you are, remember to be thankful for what you have. take it easy kids :) andy