February 2007 Archives

Short of ending up on a flight with internet service, this will probably the highest blog entry for me ever; I am writing this from about 3326 meters above sea level in the town of Cusco, Peru.

I will write much more about our Cuban experience when I have some more time, for now saying that it certainly is an interesting place with some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere and if you get the chance you should certainly go there will have to do.

We left Havana at 6am on Saturday morning, back to Mexico City where we had a day to kill before our 23:15 overnight flight to Lima. I was not looking forward to it too much because I was expecting a too hectic and poluted city un-enjoyable for just a day visit but was pleasantly surprised. We started off at the Zócalo; the main square. Itself rather uninteresting, but the back streets is where it all happens with the mother of all street markets. Street after street lined with vendors selling anything you can think of, including lots of food. And it is dirt cheap too; 3 mini hot dogs for US$1 or 6 mini tacos for 50c. After the limitted choice of food in Cuba this was very welcome! We seemed to be part of only a few tourists, but nobody cared; no stares, no hassling and we were treated just like any local.

After paying a whopping 20c for a go-anywhere-on-the-network-single-ride ticket on the subway, we made our way to the Polanco suburb. This was entering a different world; where Zócalo; is probably the lower middle class area, Polanco is Prada, Boss, Mercedes and expensive restaurants. This was not our scene, so we soon headed for the park where we relaxed for a few hours as we had been up since 4am that morning.

The last stop on our whirlwind tour was Condesa, the place to go for a good meal. We ended up in a trendy (but not painfully so) fish bar/restaurant and with the help of a friendly local girl sat next to us in translating the menu, we managed to order some tasty local dishes to see us through for a while.

Even if you only ever have a connecting flight there (like for going to Cuba!) make sure you have a short stop-over; you will enjoy it.

When we got to the airport and worked our way to the front of the short but painfully slow check-in queue we were told, to our dismay, that the flight was delayed by almost 5 hours with a new departure time of 4am. In an unprecedented move, Lan Airlines offered us a hotel for a meal and a couple of hours sleep. I cannot help to think there must be some regulations in Mexico that forces them to do this because I have never heard of such a thing for such a relatively short delay - even if at night - anywhere else. We skipped the meal and managed to get a very welcome three to four hours sleep. The flight did indeed depart at the new time and soon we were snoozing again on board. Luckily, Lan had another flight to Cusco later in the day so we did manage to get all set up in a hotel by 3pm, not bad going.

Tomorrow we are going to explore the town and on Tuesday we take the train to Aguas Calientes, the town closest to the reason we came all this way up: Machu Picchu. We will also spend the night there so we can enjoy sunrise over the ruins the next morning and hopefully get some great shots.

Right after New York, we flew to Seattle and got on a bus to Vancouver where we met up with some friends and set of for some fun in the snow in Whistler the next morning. Later on Saturday night, my sister Lotte and cousin Jon also showed up, ready to hit the slopes on Sunday.

As luck would have it (as luck always seems to have it when I go on a ski trip) the resort had a record breaking snowfall this season. That is, right up until a week before we arrived there. We had some on the saturday we got there and another small dropping later in the week, but that was it. (obviously, right after we left, they had snow again pretty much every day) I am starting to think I should stop bothering.

That said, the first day, Sunday, was the best I probably ever had with a nice layer of powder and we were racing down the blues (that's reds to Europeans) immediately. But Monday was decidedly icy and it was then I made the only fall of the week - not even a hard one - and I managed to hit my left arm just right to pop out my shoulder. Great. This happened once before in Düsseldorf many moons ago and they say once you have done it once, it is more likely to happen again.

Ski potrol was on the case pretty quick and I managed to get it set on the mountain (with some laughing gas to take the edge off) and got a snowmobile ride down to the gondola. That was me out of the running. Well, for 24 hours anyway; I was only there for a week and the show had to go on. I did have to take it easy the rest of the week, being just too afraid to fall again. Wednesday and Thursday a little bit of extra snow, higher temperatures and a little rain, the top layer became soft enough again to do some good boarding. But friday was sheet ice again of the worst kind and I gave up after an hour or two; I just wasn't having any fun.

Kylie had three full days of lessons together with Lotte and they really improved a lot over the week and at the end of it were very comfortable on those blues and even simpler blacks as well.

After spending another night in Vancouver we got a coach down to Bellingham, WA, where 3rd cousin Erin picked us up for a family get-together at 2nd cousin Willy's place in Stanwood. It was good to see everyone again, and some not-so new borns for the first time since I last visitted over 10 years ago.

We spent two more days there; on Monday Kylie went horse riding with Willy and some of her friends and still can't get the smile of her face while Willy's husband, Rob, and I drove to Camano Island for some geocaching. We managed to find one of the caches we were looking for and I placed in the Geo Coin I picked up in the Netherlands in December. We spent Tuesday exploring Seattle a bit and buying some more travel stuff at REI, most likely the worlds greatest outdoor store.

Next up was flying back to Amsterdam (via a very snowed in New York) and then back over the Atlantic a day later to go to Mexico City, where I am writing this. Tomorrow morning we catch a flight to Havana for a week in Cuba. After crossing one continent and the Atlantic (twice) in less than three days, I for one am looking forward to spending a week in the Sun.

It seems ages ago now, but last week was spent in the Big Apple, New York. My previous run in with this city didn't have me look forward to it, but without the foul August stench of rotting trash mixed with disinfectants it turned out to be quite enjoyable.

When we got there on Friday afternoon, the first thing to do was go to the Apple Store and buy Kylie a (RED) iPod Nano as she somehow seemed to have misplaced her old Mini. If you've been to one Apple Store, you've been to them all and as they all sell the same, there was no reason to hang around.

The rest of the week was filled with all the usual tourist things like Central Park, the Empire State Building, Liberty and Ellis Islands, riding the subway, getting into bright yellow taxis, eating big steaks, going to the movies, you name it, we've done it. Kylie even went on a tour of locations made famous in various movies and TV shows!

Wednesday was Steak Night: going out to The Strip House for some fine New York steak with Hani, Terry, Kostas, Kim, Phil and Thom, all colleagues who were in New York plus some partners. As good as the steaks were, they were no match for the fillet my sister smuggles out of South Africa...

Thursday we went gallery watching and were thoroughly disappointed with the "art" photography on display, let alone the prices. Thankfully, the day before we spotted LUMAS from the back of a cab so we went back there. Almost two hours and 2 grand (US!) later we walked out knowing within a few weeks we'll receive five gorgeous framed prints at our Australian address ready to find a place in our new home when we get there. They are all very, very good digital Lambda prints of work by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Günter Rössler and Martin Munkácsi. (who was also exhibitted at the International Center of Photography while we were in New York)

They are also all over Germany and in fact we went into one in Berlin while we were there. The nice thing about the New York one was that they filtered out the kind of work that only appeals to Germans. (i.e.: bland photos of everyday scenes and blurred images of trees) If you are looking to buy some great photography to cover some cracks in the walls of your home, go to LUMAS.

One thing not to miss when you get to New York is Rice to Riches. A beautiful find by Kylie that sells many flavors of the best rice pudding you'll find anywhere.

So we arrived in New York, now well over a week ago. Of course we were subjected to the Department of Hopeless Security's US-VISIT picture taking and fingerprinting program at the Delta international terminal at JFK. I guess this is so that if we happen to blow ourselves up and they find one of our index fingers in the mess, they would have a nice digital photograph of us to put on Fox News.

All well and good, but once we went through that, I went searching for the loos. And what do you know: there is one set of toilets located so they can be reached from both airside and baggage reclaim. WTF!? I went in there fully expected to be challenged when I got out and walked back to baggage reclaim. But no such thing, nobody even keeping an eye on it. When waiting for my bags I did some observing and yes, loads of people from baggage reclaim walking in and out as well as people lining up for immigration going in before getting back in line.

Looks like they have really managed to secure their borders with their fancy electronic systems...