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Celine and Jessica were very proud to host this Mother’s Day Dinner which was moved a day early. Celine leaves on Mother’s Day afternoon to be at a regional hospital where she works. This also marks the first all-out dinner shout the girls are making since they became full time ‘bread winners’. They were very generous – making sure that we don’t hold back on what we want to order.

It also helps that the 3 ladies are cooking shows enthusiasts. Everyone ordered a different entree, mains and dessert and the meal was spent having a taste at each others dish. Unfortunately for me, I was due to go to work at 1:00am the following day. This means I could not indulge on the fine wine being offered in Black.

The wine/beverage list of this restaurant is so impressive – the wine menu is actually presented on an Apple iPad – where you could interactively see more information on the wine by clicking the menu. I reckon they should put the whole restaurant menu on the iPad but I’m sure they will be doing that soon.

Celine commented how un-stressed I was the whole evening. Well, I’ve seen the prices in the menu and I’m so glad – more relieved that I was not paying for it. Heck – Celine even paid for parking and Jessica chauffeured us – how good is that! If only everyday is a Mother’s Day – then I would not mind having to wear a suit to go to dinner

This photo was taken at Uros Island in Lake Titicaca. This modest house has a solar panel and inside there’s a TV set. Today we had our solar panels installed. Part of which are rebated by the government to promote green energy. When I sent the photo of the panels being installed to Jeanne – she replied – ‘At last we have caught up with Uros’.

Solar panel rebate has been around for a while but the cost has been prohibitive – at least to us – until now. There has been an increase on the number of homes installing solar panels that the price has now become a lot affordable.

Last week, I walk into one of those supermarket stall offerring solar panel installations. Against my nature, I signed up. I would have normally research all of this – name all the different type of panels, outputs, inverters etc. Compared 5 different suppliers, but this time – I just said: Sign me up – when can you install it? That was last Saturday. (Don’t do what I did – as soon as I signed up, I found out that my neighbour paid substancially lower after agreeing to display an advert in his lawn. I would not have minded that.)

Anyway, the installer showed me how my electric meter is now turning the opposite direction. Instead of consuming electricity – we are now selling it back to the grid – cool! But to be honest, it would probably take 5 years before these panels will pay for itself in electricity savings. However – it feels good to think that if we switch on the dishwasher or the washing machine during the day – that we are using the power of the sun and not fossil fuel.

We also have a lot of appliances that are just connected to the power all day – computers, clocks, Foxtel, photo frames, tvs etc. Now, all their idle power drain comes from the sun – theoretically.

I will break topic for now and blog about a set of old photos. Publishing my South American Photos in my Flickr-Pro account made me review the use of this resource. Up until now – I have been uploading my blog photos in my WordPress using NextGen. Although it is a great plugin – I find myself resizing photos a lot to make them more viewable. By using Flickr – I could use a lot of the standard re-size of photos whilst maintaining the maximum size online.

In playing around – I found these old photos. I love taking birds in flight. I envy these animals, the freedom they have and the joy to soar above everyone. No wonder they were with the dinosaurs as well as modern human.

In Flight – Photos taken at Kiama, NSW on 17-October-2010

Yesterday – in an impulse that defied logic, I used my Woolworths Gift Card to buy an Apple TV3 (ATV3). To the uninitiated (or what Jessica would call noob), an ATV3 is a media player and not a TV. This is the 4th Apple TV in our house, but before you judge me, know that since 2009 (see Media Player Hunt), I have been experimenting on Media Players. It has become my sideline project.

The ATV3 will be useless for a while. I’m waiting and watching the Apple forums when it gets jailbroken and able to run the XBMC. Until then, it can only play MP4 videos shared via iTunes. Well, we can rent HD Movies but we don’t do that. Most of our iTunes Movies are digital copies of Bluray movies as part of a bundled promo. But if you have the BD copy, why bother watching it on iTunes.

Currently, we still use our Popcorn Hour (PCH) A200 to watch 1080p encoded videos. The ATV2 can only play up to 720p videos. With so many other devices connected to our TV (Wii, XBOX, BlueRay, Foxtel) it would be good if we can replace both the PCH and the ATV2 with just one device – the ATV3. I’ve also spent a lot of time building my XBMC video database that it is too time consuming to Handbrake all of the movies and re-index it in iTunes – not gonna happen. I’m hoping too that the ATV3, when jailbroken, will play the ISO backup of DVDs – better than the ATV2 now. ISO backup are still unwatchable in ATV2. What would cap it though as a single multi-media device, is when it is able to play AVCHD formats used by the JVC Video Camera. Only then will it replace the PCH A200 in usability and with the XBMC as a user interface – it’s a dream entertainment system.

What a nerd!

Over 18 days of travel, a video camera, an SLR camera and a point-and-shoot camera, we have clicked over 6,000 images. Gone are the days where you have to choose your shot as a roll of film can only get you 36 shots and processing them will cost a small fortune.

This is my hap-hazard attempt to choose around 40 images that shows the site that we have seen on this trip. South America is indeed a beautiful continent, its history, culture and people.

31-March to 20-April 2012

These series of blogs were written whilst Jeanne and I were touring South America with 18 other friends. Although all of these were written a day or two after the events – I haven’t been publishing them and had “on purpose” left posting it in my blog after we’ve returned home to Australia. This is not an attempt to document the travel itinerary but rather to capture the stories on how I remember this trip. The names of our fellow travellers have not been used except for their first names as a courtesy for this is a public blog. I have also chosen pictures avoiding images of my fellow travellers except that of Jeanne and myself.

Most of these were written at 4:00 in the morning. One lady in our trip, we affectionately called Auntie, will also be awake at this time doing some exercises – she turned 79 sometime during the trip. She does her exercises, I write my blog – sometimes oblivious of the presence of each other.

I made no attempt to research the places we went to prior to the trip. I have approached this in the same manner as watching a movie I am excited about. I will see neither trailer nor reviews and experience it as it unfolds on the screen. Except this time – I experienced South America with as little prejudice let alone information. To be honest – I have not heard of Machupicchu prior to this trip and only started noticing some ads or mentions of it after we’ve decided to go to this trip.

People

Like most Filipinos who studied in the Philippines – we had an introduction to the Spanish language – but this has very little help on this trip. We passed our Spanish classes by memorizing phrases and conjugations – it was never practiced in conversations. What helped however was that a lot of Filipino words from our various dialects are Spanish. These and the context of the situation had helped in communication when interpreters are not around. A lot of South Americans also studied English – thus in most cases a little English on their part and a little Spanish on our part makes some interesting conversations and greater height of accomplishment when you actually got messages across each other.

Over all – the trip is very enjoyable. We were often asked – why South America? Now I can say – why not? I’ve heard about the drug trade and how dangerous the cities may be. But it is no different from riding a bike down the street – sure there are risks – but the satisfaction of experiencing the travel overwhelms the chances of your vacation being turned into a movie or a news item. To see a soccer match at Stadium Rio in Brazil and the wonders of Iguazu Falls and Macchupicchu are certainly overwhelming.

These blogs are dedicated to Jeanne, Celine and Jessica – they will be the one to endure the stories I would be telling for years to come. Then they would say – “yes dear/dad – I’ve read that in your blog“.

To read the blog in chronological order – you may wish to start at the blog entitled The South American Adventure Begins then follow the forward links.

More People

18-20 April 2012 – Sydney, Australia

Originally, I had no intention of writing a blog about our trip home. Firstly, because from this day – the original group of 20 will now part ways. Two will stay in Bolivia, another two will fly to U.S. and the rest will head back to Sydney.

We had a 6:00am pick-up and Cintya came to see us off. We took a TACA flight to Lima, Peru and transferred to another TACA flight to Santiago, Chile. On the plane, we were given immigration papers to enter Chile, which is a bit surprising because we just need to pick-up our luggage and go on to a connecting flight with LAN to Sydney. Two others had connecting flights with American Airlines to the U.S.

To our surprise – we were being required to pay US$145 for each Australian passport holder to enter Chile so that we can pick up our bags. It is also expected that we pay a further US$45 to depart from Chile after we’ve checked in with our connecting flights. Understandably, we were up and arms about it, it is a diplomatic robbery. These fees are only imposed on Australian, Canadian, U.S. and British passport holders – with varying reciprocity fee for each nationality.

We were told to contact the LAN office to see if there was an alternative. Sure enough, the LAN staffs were helpful and collected our baggage tag details. They arranged for our luggage to be collected and loaded to their plane without us having to go through Chilean immigration and avoiding the fees in the process.

The two others who were flying with American Airlines (AA) were not so lucky. AA did not assist them and worst may have confused them into believing that they were arranging for their luggage to be picked up. In fact – they were waiting for TACA to deliver the luggage to them but it was never going to happen. Their luggage are now likely to be on the unclaimed luggage in Santiago, Chile Airport.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. The 6 hour wait in Santiago was largely filled with us running around trying to figure out how to get our bags through. The 12 and a half hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand – passed mostly by sleeping. The short stay at the Auckland airport where some ladies including Jeanne still managed to do some more shopping.

There was a brief moments of scary turbulence closer to landing in Sydney. It is scarier than the usual turbulence as the plane dropped quickly giving that rollercoaster drop feeling. Some passengers let out a slight scream then an uneasy silence amongst the passengers. Then everything calmed, as the LAN crew moved about calmly and went on business-as-usual. As we circle the city – we saw the familiar landmark of the centre point tower, the harbour bridge and the opera house. There was a bit of joy in my heart and pride that I live in one of the best city in the world.

17-Apr-2012 La Paz, Bolivia

Cintya surprised us by picking us up in the hotel in a very elegant Chola suit. Cameras started clicking at the hotel lobby – everyone wanted to pose with her. She is a very lovely lady and obliged everyone. We soon learned that she came from a long line of Cholas, and that her suit is much more elegant than most Chola that we would see in the city. Traditionally, only the elite wears a Chola and various clothing and jewellery signifies status. A chola will always have a long hair, except these days – Cintya can get away with a hair extension.

Our first stop is Parque Mirador Killi-killi. You could hear Jeanne and Vivien giggle. Killi-killi is the Filipino word for arm pit. From this hill is a vantage point to view the city of La Paz.

Then we drove to Plaza Murillo. In most South American city, the centre plaza is commonly called – Plaza de Armas. In La Paz, however, it is named after Pedro Domingo Murillo – a Bolivian freedom fighter that rose from the middle class. From this Plaza is the cathedral, the government palace, the guarded resting place of Andres de Santa Cruz who at one point was the president of Peru and Bolivia. We learned that Bolivia was once part of Peru.

Prominent on this park are the pigeons. La Paz due to its altitude and expanding population has very few trees. Eucalyptus trees ware also introduced by the Spaniards which further draw away wildlife. Birds do not nests on eucalyptus trees because of its smell. As a result, only the pigeons thrive in the city.

Our next stop is the Museo de Metales Preciosos, located on a part of the city that was preserved to its Spanish Colonial architecture. Most parts of La Paz has been rebuilt to make way for brick dwelling, destroying the old Spanish look. The museum is where we saw samples of Inca golden ornaments.

From here we drove to Valle de la Luna at the lower end of La Paz. This is where Cintya blew us away. Set against the dry and dessert like backdrop of the valley, a musician playing the quenya and the charango emerges and Cintya gave us a rendetion of a traditional Chola dance. It was totally unexpected and delightful – everyone with a video camera was trained on her.

At this stage, the group is just about craving for lunch. Cintya collected 4 bolivianos (equivalent to about A$0.60) from everyone wanting an empanada. Then we drove to bakery where she bought 29 empanadas – some people are having two, they were the wise ones. We’ve been eating and sampling empanadas throughout the trip – this is the best we’ve tasted. It is juicy and cooked just right – writing this blog is making me salivate. My only beef with Cintya is that she said one piece can serve as a meal. Everyone could have had four and may still be asking for more.

Officially – this was the end of our tour. However, knowing that this is our last night together as a group, Cintya arranged for us to have dinner across town and the restaurant provided for the transport. We also managed to see and buy from the night market on the way to the restaurant.

La Paz is a difficult city to promote as a tourist destination. It’s the traffic and polluted thin air than can get to you. However, guides like Cintya are doing a wonderful job to make the visit very interesting. It is a city with a lot of history and culture. I am glad to have visited it in our South American Tour.

16-Apr-2012 La Paz, Bolivia

This is when, as Jeanne had called it, Chimu Travels dropped the ball. Our bus to Bolivia was scheduled to leave at 7:30am, but the travel agent wanted to pick us up at 7:00am. We said that it might be too late, so they rescheduled our pick up at 6:30am. We were all ready by 6:15am but the pick-up bus arrived almost 7:00am anyway. There were no representatives from the agent, they left the bus tickets at the front desk the night before and it was given to me to distribute.

The street of the hotel is also narrow – so we had to drag our luggage to the plaza where the bus awaits. The scene was like Argentina all over again. When we got to the bus station, they would not let our bus in unless we pay S10.00 (10 solis), I said yes and handed the fee from our common tip fund. When they drop us off – the bus that will take us to the Bolivian border is late.

We stopped near the border to exchange our Peruvian Solis to Bolivianos then we were driven to the border itself where we cleared Peruvian Police and Immigration. After which, we walked across to Bolivia and also went through the Bolivian Immigration. The bus was already waiting for us across the border and then drove us to Copacabana, Bolivia – 8 km from this border.

We had lunch at Copacabana and changed into a smaller bus which would take us to La Paz. To characterised the size of Lake Titicaca, our whole drive from Peru to Copacabana has always been overlooking the lake. At a certain junction, we all unboarded the bus and paid 2 Bolivianos each and crossed Lake Titicaca on sort of a speed boat. The bus was also ferried across on a special vessel for vehicles.

After crossing, the bus took us non-stop to La Paz. This has posed a problem to a lot of passengers as they have not stopped even for toilet break. It also went through El Alto – the city just above La Paz where it had horrendous traffic. From the top of the hill, we can see how large a city La Paz is and driving is like that of Manila where 2 lanes becomes 3. Traffic is like watching chaos working. Eventually we got to the station. This time Cintya, the Chimu representative, was waiting for us and took us to El Rey Plaza Hotel in downtown La Paz.

15-April-2012 Puno, Peru

This is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is a lake shared by Bolivia and Peru. Titicaca means puma in one of the two main dialects here – Quechua and Aymara. (I also noticed that some of the outdoor clothes used by tourists have a brand called Quechua. The guide said it is not Peruvian but may be a French brand).

We started the day quite amusingly. We were used to being picked up by busses to our tour site but today we were picked up by 11 pedal powered tricycles. They took us to a mainly downhill ride into the Puno Port where a boat would take us to the islands in Lake Titicaca.

Our first stop were the Uros islands. These are man-made islands and home to a number of Quechuan families. It has become the trademark of Lake Titicaca because these families build boats from straws that grow in the lake.

They build the island by cutting off pieces of land around the lake. These lands naturaly floats in the lake, so they tie them up together and add them to their existing island. They also anchor their island to stop it from drifting. The main chief jokingly said that they do not have passports and it would be a problem if their island drift into Bolivia.

The women even performed a re-enactment of what happens when they barter with other islanders. Then they showed us their fine woven fabrics. These are amazing communities being propped up by tourism now but for several generations have been living quite contently with what nature has to offer.

The highlight of our visit is a ride on their straw boats. They let us paddle it and move around wherever we wish to take photos. These boats have seen modern materials already like nylon ropes are used instead of ropes made out of straw. They also now used recycled plastic drink bottles to keep it afloat. The boat owner said it takes them 2 months to build a straw boat. Without modern materials it can last only around six months when water seeps through the material making it heavy and starts to sink. With plastic bottles and nylons used together with the straw – it can last a couple of years.

Our next stop is the island of Taquile. It takes over 2 and a half hour to get there from the Uros Islands. This is perhaps the downside of this tour as there were no activity in the trip for this duration going or coming back. Once in the island, we began a long trek climbing to the top. Unfortunately, three in our group could not make the climb. More contemplated to give up but pressed on, eventually all 17 were at the top. We had a bit of time taking photos from this vantage point. Finally, we climb a little further and had lunch on an open area overlooking the lake. We all decided to have the trout although there were more selections in the menu.

After lunch, Oswaldo, our guide, spoke a bit on the dress ware that the Taquilian’s wear. They have different hats signifying authority or whether they are married or not. The quality of their weaving is a measure of their industriousness. Men don’t shake hands either, instead they exchange coca leaves. Every men carry a what looks like a man bag to carry coca leaves or their hats are also designed to carry coca leaves. Some men carry more than one pouch.

This is a symbol of popularity because it means he has lots of friends to exchange leaves with. It also means that he has a very good weaver looking after him.

He ended the talk saying that these practices are fast disappearing. The size of the island means that almost everyone is related and incest can have devastating effect on the overall survival of a culture. Thus they are encouraged to marry outside their island – often times these intermarriages do not always embrace these cultures and practices.

With that we started our trek back to the boat and another 2.5 hours on the boat back to Puno. This time we were picked up by a bus and a people mover back to the hotel. Today also is the birthday of one in our group we affectionately called Auntie. A birthday cake was waiting for her at the hotel and we all shared for a late afternoon tea.