Tom & Kat's South American Adventure

Antojitos

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Street food and it’s various uses of corn tortillas are keeping us very occupied. Corn, super food from the indigeno of mexico to the world continues to be the core of many everyday foods.

Tacos – small round corn tortillas, grilled and then piled with all manor of fillngs – Roasted meats, kebab, seafood or cheese. The stall is then covered in a seemingly endless set of toppings like salsa, chopped onions, coriander and radish chunks. Some of our favourites were from a stall near San Pedro market in DF were the guys were serving up “Al Pasteur” (spiced donar kebab) and goat head varieties. - and that was in the morning not after a big night on the town!

Quesadillias deep or pan fried versions are a tortilla folded in half around a filling (my favourite so far cheese and squash flowers). This photo is of ones we made ourselves at our great cooking class in Oaxaca

Flautas – To be honest I can’t tell the difference between these and Tacos dorados, tacos rolled around a filling to make a tube that is then deep fried and topped with lettace cheese and salsa (and cream if you are Mexican).

Pozole – a soup of hominy (big white dried corn) and pork with mild chilli flavouring. To be honest it’s like a liquidy version of Locro – the great salteñan stew. We did like having all the extra toppings and chilli flakes in a squeeze bottle like for tomato sauce to adjust the flavours as you wish. Expect to see one on the table at home soon!

Tostadas – Crisp fried tortillas that are then covered in a topping such as cerviche or a saucy salad.

The Tjayudas across the road from our B&B in Oaxaca are monster size tortillas - spectacular. Cooked after 9pm for everyone; from school girls to “the boys” in their modded cars. They are filled with black bean sauce, cheese and salsa and served with option extra meat cooked directly on the coals.

Murals

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:23:00 +0000

From the frescos of archiological ruins to hoarding around repairs of the Palacio de Bella Artes mural painting is everywhere in Mexico City.

The most vibrant mural scene was in the post revolution period of the 1920-30s centred around Rivera, Siquueiros and Orozco who were commissioned to decorate the new public buildings.

Themes included national identity and social reform.

big stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:50:00 +0000

Yesterday we went to Teotihuacan the ancient pyramids of the pre-aztec era. The site was a huge metropolis of several 10s of thousands of people at its peak. There remains the huge stepped pyramids and some of the surrounding complexes with spectacular murals of mythical beasts and people

.

Today we went out to the leafy suburb of Coyoacan and the Casa Azul (House of Frida Kahlo). It was very intersting and had some great photos and paintings by Frida, and Diego Rivera. They had a cool day of the dead commemoration of the two.

We then took the subway even further into the suburbs to the University grounds where a famous chef/ food historian has set up a restaurant. After a bit of a hike and detour through the faculty of science we had a delicious meal.
On the way back we came across the most insanely sized cakes we have ever seen. If you ever meet a bridezilla after a 110kg wedding cake Pasticeria Ideal is the place! (Tom beside it for scale)

The big trip continues!

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:44:00 +0000

The last couple of years have been devoted to me passing my physician's exams and no blog worthy stuff has happened except for us getting married. Now we are on holidays in Mexico. After 20 hours in transit and a sleep we have been enjoying the sunshine of Mexico city and wandering the Sunday street life of the Districto Federal.

Setting off through the Historic centre we saw grand villas that have been mainly turned in to museums that have carved volcanic rock frescos. The gilded interior of the central post office and even a couple of tellers are open on Sunday!

Next we took a walk through the Alameda central park full of stalls selling all manner of plastic toys, food and cumbia music. There was a guy making a political speech to “the people” appropriately at the memorial to Benito Huarez (post independence president).

Sadly he was distracting people from the cool installation called Exodus that explores the emotions surrounding displaced peoples around the world. Suitably directly infront of the courts and department of the exterior.

It appears people with Drums and fancy costumes known as Concheros for the shells around their ankles are following us. They were in the Zocalo main square last night and today they were doing their pre Columbian nutbush at the Plaza de la Republica today. Very funky. It is reportedly a movement of people trying to reconnect with their pre colonial roots.

The Monument in the middle of the plaza is under reconstruction although the top figures are still visable.

We then strolled through more stalls and artworks set up in the Jardin de Artes and saw all the big statues and the giant Christmas tree on Av Reforma.

We tried tasty tacos with everything from zucchini flowers and cheese to chicken with mole at the Calle Oro Markets. Note – Chicharron (pork fat) is not so nice in salsa verde it’s like sloppy greasy tofu!

Our excursion then continued west to the Chapulteque park full of people out for a Sunday in the park to the Museo de Archeologia National which had fantastic exhibits on the ancient cultures of the region to prepare us for our trip to the ruins tomorrow.

PS sadly blogger photo uploading is too slow so the remainder of the photos will have to wait!

"bonus" visit to Panama

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:06:00 +0000

It may not look like much but this piece of paper is very valuable!
The Cuban Embassy had told us what we read in Lonely Planet;We could get our "tourist entry card" at Havana Airport. This looked more dicey when we got very nervous looks from the LAN staff at Quito, but they were willing to let us try going to Santiago with the hope of getting one there or that people would know more about sending us on without the papers.
Arriving at Santiago boarding pass in hand I was excited. Sadly they decided we couldn't go after all about half an hour before the flight!
For reasons that are unclear Panama Airlines gives you the card at check in while LAN doesn't. So a new ticket bought we now get to hopefully see the Panama Canal from the air as we wing our way to Cuba, only a few hours (and a lump of cash) later.

More on the wonders of Galapagos soon! I'm sure you're willing to wait till I edit the 1000+ Good photos!

Puno, Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:28:00 +0000

The Peruvian town of Puno sits on the side of Lake Titicaca. The famous floating islands on Lake Titicaca are in a nearby bay.

The town itself is fairly unremarkable and sadly pollution of the bay has led to a think carpet of green algae which is in stark contrast to the shining waters Titicaca is famous for!

This area has been important for thousands years. The most spectacular of the ruins are several funerary towers, Chullpas, on nearby mountains. They were built by Colla, Lumaca and Incan cultures during their subsequent occupations of the region.

Both sites we went to visit command beautiful outlooks from flat top mountains.

On the side of some at Cutimbo you can see carvings of pumas and monkeys.

The famous sunset at Sillustani didn't disappoint.

We met up with a couple from California at the airport and with Ryan and Monica were able to rent a taxi to visit all the sites instead of going on a tour. And also explored a little of the town too.

The Uros Islands are man made floating islands formed from the Toro-toro reeds that grow around the edge of the lake.

The reeds constitute everything from food to walls and boats. Although it's a bit touristy these days it was still nice to visit for the morning.

Museo de Arte Precolumbiano (MAP) - Cusco

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:55:00 +0000

One of my favourite museums in Cusco was the Pre-Columbian Art Museum. Click on the link to see their site. The small "exhibition" section with 5 photos of pieces from each section is the extent of their catalogue but it has some interesting cultural notes.
The collection is extensive. The well preserved collection covers a wide range of archaeological periods from around Peru from preceramic BC through to Inca works. The pieces are displayed for their aesthetic and artistic merit rather than in an anthropological format.

I have tried to label each of the pieces by period in my photo gallery.

They start with stone pieces from the formative period

And wooden pieces

Then Nasca pottery famous for polihcromatic decoration

Mochica pottery was more sculptural

While Huari pottery is more stylized

The Chancay Chimu gallery had some of my favourite pieces with depictions once again of animals and sea birds important to their culture.

The Incas were more famous for their stonework but there were some interesting pieces.

The final galleries are filled with jewelery and metalwork.

Manú

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:56:00 +0000

While Ben was over visiting us in Peru, we took the opportunity to head into the Amazon jungle. We went on a safari into Manú National Park, located to the west of Cuzco. This section of Peru is surprisingly well preserved, with only 3000 tourists allowed in each year, only slightly more than the number of people who visit Machu Picchu every day! The park is very remote, with the only real way in via boat - and if it's dry season, this involves a lot of getting out and pushing, as the river gets pretty shallow.

Thankfully this wasn't the case for us, the river was running strong thanks to some recent rains. We went in to the region for 7 days, mainly making our way down river in a big motorized canoe. We all had a great time - this trip was one of the highlights of the year so far. The area was mainly rainforest (think Queensland), but the amount and diversity of wildlife we saw was pretty incredible - eg. we saw seven different types of monkey on the first day! While cliché, seeing the animals in their natural environment is completely different to in a zoo. The only downside was that the animals tend to be most active in the early morning, which meant way too many 4:30am starts....

Jungle Sunrise:

Roughing it in the sticks:

Unusual fruits a plenty:

The bugs are a lot bigger in the jungle:

The bugs are also a lot meaner - for instance, butterflies tend to harass turtles and drink the fluid out of their eyes:

We found one of these fellas in our bathroom one night:

The park is a bird watchers paradise - around 800 different species are found there. The 'Cock of the Rock' is a bit weird looking, but is Peru's national bird:

This guy is even more bizarre:

There where also plenty of Toucans and Macaws:

And of course there were plenty of larger animals. We saw nine different types of monkey all up:

The Capybara is the largest rodent in the world, basically a giant guinea pig:

There where plenty of Caiman around (a relative of the crocodile, but not quite as vicious):

We where also very fortunate in being able to see the Giant Otter - this animal is heavily endangered, but we managed to see three different families. This species is unique among the otters in that it lives in family groups, and can be fairly aggressive when it has young (no swimming!)

As we'd mainly gone downriver, we flew back to Cuzco. This was an experience in itself, we took a 12-seater Cessna with Pisco airlines. As it had been raining a fair bit, the dirt runway actually was more like mud...

The airport:

Our crack safety specialist:

The view from the air:

We took quite a lot of photos during the week, so I've split them up into 4 different galleries - these are:

Animals, Birds, Insects and Plants/People

Peru stops for stats

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:52:00 +0000

The day that Ben arrived was census day. I'd seen it written up on the sides of houses for a while like political ads. What I hadn't realised was that the whole country shuts down, including intercity buses and even taxis.
Basically from 8am to 6pm everyone has to wait at home for a census collector to come and ask them demographic details. The questions are fairly similar to the Australian one but this year controversy struck when women were asked the number of their children that have died. In a catholic country the inference that they could be asking about number of abortions this sparked more talk than whether you could list jedi night as your religion!
They take the census very seriously, last time our guide was on a remote trek and someone knocked on her tent at 6am to do the census with her!
Well, that's my little bit of quirky Peru for this week. Can you imagine Australia shutting down for the census, I guess it demonstrates a commitment to statistics....

Inca Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:41:00 +0000

We got back from the Inca Trail yesterday - had a great time, the weather was so-so for most of the trek, but turned out perfectly for the big day at Machu Picchu. The site was as impressive as all the hype surrounding it! Here's a couple of quick photos:

We're off to into the Amazon jungle for a week tomorrow, hopefully to see some jaguars!

Cholita Wrestling

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:15:00 +0000

On our last night in La Paz a couple of weeks ago, we upped the sophistication levels and went along to some highbrow Bolivian entertainment - Cholita Wrestling! This is the local version of professional wrestling/WWF, and features a whole raft of different characters, including some 'Cholitas' or women in traditional costumes.

While not quite on the same monetary level as the WWF (the matches we saw where in a high-school gym), Cholita Wrestling more than makes up for this is sheer craziness. If you've seen 'Nacho Libre', then you get the idea... Here's a bit more info on this particularly latin-american cultural experience!

We got to see six matches, which started out loco and got progressively worse :) The first match was between a TMNT and some sort of fish:

There were various managers/referees who also got involved in this match - I couldn't tell you who won, the important thing was crowd participation:

The second match was between an Indian chief and... some other guy:

The ref didn't get too much respect in this match:

The third match:

By this time the crowd was getting nicely ~~drunk~~ enthused, and started throwing stuff at the wrestlers. Chicken bones seemed a popular option:

We also spotted a couple of women by the judge's table doing their knitting:

The 4th match featured some sort of dancing skeleton, who certainly busted out all the moves, but it still wasn't enough for him to win:

Then in the 5th match came what we'd all be waiting for - the Cholitas! This was a 4 person match, with two male/female teams:

With 4 people in the ring, the action got predictably crazy:

One of the males got knocked out after being thrown into the crowd, and had to be carried off:

We had ring-side seats for all the action, but this has it's downside as well - we got pretty wet about 10 seconds after this shot:

The 6th and final match was where society broke down completely. This was a two-on-one match, unfair on paper except that the 'one' was a werewolf:

This guy apparently has a fairly bad reputation, the ref was very reluctant to get in the ring for this one:

The action was fast and furious:

I couldn't tell you who won - I think the match was officially over when the judge's table got smashed, but the fighting continued on into the stands:

Crazy stuff!

Santa Cruz Trek, Peru (early Sept)

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:25:00 +0000

The 4 day Santa Cruz trek is one of the most popular treks in the Cordillera Blanca. It is very scenic but sadly the popularity has spread to big groups with donkeys leaving behind huge amounts of manure. The national park is not managed in a way we are accustomed to in Australia with people allowed to run cattle and pit toilets filled to the brim and falling apart, in spite of the 35 dollar park use fee per person!

The trek itself is in spectacular country.

As you trek up the valley there are mountains on both sides, carved by glaciers.

There are bromiliads covering everything. You can see a few on the tree behind Tom.

The lakes are a lovely glacial blue.

Since the days weren't too long we decided on day three to visit the Alpamayo base camp since the sun came out.

We almost saw Alpamayo, once voted the most beautiful mountain in the world.

The one next to it is pretty cool anyway...

Then we crossed the pass at 4750m. We were surprised it wasn't as tiring as expected.

On the other side the views continued to be amazing as we looked down over lakes in the valley.

And then for the drive home, a wild collection of switchbacks. Just gorgeous!

You can check out some more pics in the photo gallery.

Huaraz, Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:04:00 +0000

Huaraz is the main town in the Cordillera Blanca, famous for trekking and mountain sports. We came here as the base as our base to do the Santa Cruz trek. The mountains were spread out above us and sunny skies were very welcome after the mists of Lima.

Lots of local people come in from the mountains for market day, still dressed in traditional clothes.

Our hostel was very friedly and a great place to base ourselves while hanging out for my job interviews. This is the view from the rooftop terrace.

There are lots of funky cafes to hang out in and have big breakfasts, like the veranda at Cafe Andino in the photo or homey California Cafe.

I like these trolleys that you see all over, usually loaded with everything from bread to building supplies. The drivers use their feet to brake!

Tom got to try guinea pig and we also did some cooking with local funky veges, which you can see on my food blog.

El Misti Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 04:44:00 +0000

We've returned safe & sound from tackling El Misti - it was quite an experience! The views from all over the mountain are incredible- it very much felt like we where in a plane looking down at all the ant-scale scenery. The nearby town of Arequipa is at 2,330m, so from the top of Misti (5,822m) it's a 3.5km difference. The photos here don't really do the views justice :)

Here's the starting gate, at 3,415m - doesn't look that hard from here!

We made base camp at 4,700m - about 5 hours from the start. It was an early night, as the sun goes down around 5:30, and there's not a lot to do once night falls. It's also pretty hard to sleep this high up, the altitude makes anyone a very light sleeper.

Sunset and the city lights of Arequipa:

We started heading uphill again at 3:00am, to reach the summit in the early morning - the views are much better then (less pollution). Kat unfortunately wasn't feeling too good due to the altitude, and stayed at base camp rather than ascending further.

Sunrise at around 5,000m - gives a good idea of the slope of the mountain as well:

The shadow cast by Misti as the sun rose was pretty impressive - it stretched for miles!

We made it to the top in about 5 hours, just after 8am. Fortunately I was acclimatised enough to not be too bothered by the height, though breathing did get pretty hard after 5,500 or so. The very last section is fairly steep, this definitely took me a while to get through!

The finishing line, at 5,822m:

On top of the world:

The nearby volcano Chachani, which is about 200m higher than Misti - it's also a very popular climb:

The best part was coming down - we scree-ran the entire way back to base camp, dropping 1.1k in altitude in about 20min. Here's Jose (our guide) and I coming off that:

All in all a great climb, though the legs were a bit sore afterwards :)

El Misti

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:55:00 +0000

Tomorrow we're off climbing volcanoes again - this time we're tackling El Misti, a volcano near Arequipa in Peru, which tops out at 5822m (over 19,000ft!). Here's a scary looking picture:

Should be back in a couple of days!

La Paz

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:23:00 +0000

Rolling over the altiplano from Lake Titicaca we could see the snowy peaks of the Cordillera surrounding La Paz. It wasn’t until we passed through El Alto, the commuter city at the very rim of the valley, that we could see La Paz. And there it was: the carpet of buildings flows down the side of the cauldron shaped valley, a crazy jumble of adobe and brick that I haven’t really seen the likes of anywhere else. The unusual thing about La Paz is that it is inverted - with the CBD and fancy districts in the very base of the river valley and everything else growing up above.

We found a comfy hostel, The Adventure Brew, near the bus station and markets with great views from the roof.

The San Francisco Basilica is just a couple of blocks below us. The museum was actually a guided tour around the restored colourful cloisters by a bouncy attendant who explained the religious art, the architecture and showed us the great view from the roof.

The church is a mix of Adobe (mudbrick), river stones and square cut volcanic rock. Each of the blocks bears the mark of the indigenous worker who brought it. The walls when you look closely are covered with faces, letters and symbols that they carved as they brought them.

Sadly I’ve been sick so we haven’t seen as much as we’d planned but it is a very pleasant city with lots of funky museums. We particularly like the musical instrument museum that contains all manner of pan pipes, flutes and the guitar like instruments they make here that have armadillos for their bodies! This is one of the more "experimental" changos

Just wandering the winding cobbled streets has been lots of fun. Especially as interesting street panoramas crop up all over the place.

Lima

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Lima is not a city I immediately warmed to, with its blanket of mist that covers it for 8 months of the year.

However the cosmopolitan capital of Peru grew on me (almost literally!) with lots of tasty cerviche (the national dish of fish "cooked" in lime juice) and modern Peruvian restaurants.

Miraflores is an upmarket “beach”-side suburb. The cliff that borders the Pacific Ocean is spectacular and a popular place for paragliders. We had lots of fun wandering along the park here admiring the views and acrobatics.
The National Museum had a great display about all of the different precolumbian cultures that have been present in this archaeologically rich country. It was a good overview to put all the places we´re seeing into perspective.

And how can you not feel safe when Jesus is on the police force!?

Salta -> Bolivia -> Chile -> Peru

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:39:00 +0000

After leaving Salta, we had a mad-cap week of travelling up to Bolivia, across to Chile, down to Santiago to finally catch a flight all the way back up to Peru. We'd organised a tour from Argentina to take us to various places in Bolivia + Chile along the way, and while we where a bit nervous, it all worked out.

The first place we went was the Uyuni in Bolivia, which is famous for it's Salt Flats. These turned out to be pretty similar to the ones near Salta, but much much bigger - they are in fact the worlds largest, at over 10,000km².

First off we visited a nearby train graveyard:

Then we headed into the salt flats. This was a whole lot of white nothing:

There is almost no life at all in the salt flats, but there are some random island in the middle, covered with cactii:

After staying overnight in a hotel (though that's being generous) made entirely of salt, the next day we spent a lot of time travelling over the altiplano desert, with some pretty spectacular mountains and lakes along the way:

There was some interesting wildlife around, with a few Vicunas (similar to llamas), and also something fairly unexpected - a lot of flamingos! There are three different types that live in the Andeas.

That night we stayed at the 'Red Lake', where there where a lot more flamingos to be seen:

The next morning we got up early and went to see some geysers at 5000m (geysers are most active/visible at sun rise). These where very spectacular, lots of steam and boiling mud everywhere:

Then we went to the 'Green Lake', before crossing the border into Chile.

In Chile we stayed in San Pedro de Atacama, which is famous for the 'Moon Valley', so called because it looks like the surface of the moon.

The locals claim that this is where the US filmed the moon landing back in the '60s :) The big thing to do here is to go and watch the sunset in the valley, which leads to a fairly spectacular light show on the surrounding mountains:

We then got up at 4am (again!) to go look at some geysers in Chile. These were more boiling water rather than mud, but no less spectacular:

We then caught a flight down to Santiago (unfortunately delayed), which only gave us 6 hours there to sleep and the head back to the airport to fly up to Lima, where we took it easy for a couple of days!

Worlds Most Dangerous Road Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:07:00 +0000

This was a great day, though the legs are pretty stiff at the moment!

We started off at 'La Cumbre' (the peak), at 4,700m.

All geared up and ready to go:

Before heading off, we made an offering of alcohol to the Earth Mother, to protect us on the way down:

Man, that stuff was worse than Tequila! Probably not the best idea to get drunk before starting??

The first 20k's or so was mostly tarmac, so we could get used to the bikes (which were amazing!) etc. It wasn't all plain sailing though, one girl in our group had a pretty bad stack and had to pull out. Visibility wasn't much at times:

Then we got to the official 'most dangerous' part, 46k's of gravel, still straight down. The moment of choice:

Some shots of the road on the way down:

After about 6 hours or so we made down the bottom (1200m), a drop of 3500m! After some lunch and a beer we had to take the bus all the way back up, almost as hairy as going down! Will put some videos up once we're somewhere with decent bandwidth.

Worlds Most Dangerous Road

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:36:00 +0000

We arrived in La Paz yesterday, after spending some very relaxing time hanging out at Lake Titicaca. So far La Paz has been treating us very well also, we've managed to find the best showers in South America at the Adventure Brew.

To up the tension levels a bit, tomorrow we're taking pushies down the Worlds Most Dangerous Road, with Gravity Bolivia. Apparently on average one vehicle (usually a truck) goes over the side every two days. Can't wait!!

Here's a few photos from their web site to whet my appetite :)

So long between posts

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:02:00 +0000

We've been on the road for 3 weeks but wé've managed to fit alot in! After some "technical difficulties" the laptop is back in action and hopefully we'll have some photos up shortly.
The Uyuni Salt plains were a huge version of what we saw in Salta but there are islands of fossilised coral in the middle with cacti which is quite unexpected. Between here and the Atacama desert we saw two lots of geysers and lots of flamingos in high altitude lakes.
After a couple of days in Lima we made our way to Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca. The town itself was rebuilt after a 1970s earthquake but the surrounding mountains are spectacularly beautiful. We went on the Santa Cruz trek up through hanging valleys close to the base of Alpamayo and crossed our highest pass so far at 4750m. There's significantly less oxygen up there!
Alojemiento Soledad, Huaraz was our base for "relaxing" while I did my interviews for jobs next year. Thankfully all of Tom's kind patience has paid off and I got offered a medical registrar job for next year last night!
We're in Trujillo now after a spectacular drive through the Cañon del Pato, a deep gash in the cordillera with mountains towering on both sides of a river. Yesterday we went to see the pre-Incan ruins of Chan Chan and the Huacas del Sol y Luna (Sun and Moon Temples) which have patterned Adobe walls.
So yes, lots of spectacular country. Better go get those photos organised!

Hasta Luego Salta

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Williams) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:42:00 +0000

Our time in Salta is drawing to a close, so here's a few pictures of what life has been like living here.

Our apartment (we've got the top floor):

Sunset from our balcony, with the Andes in the background:

The grill running under full load:

People are very proud of their culture and traditions here. No excuse needed to dress up and throw a parade:

Gaucho culture is pretty strong as well:

Getting your pink slip seems a bit easier here:

And we've made lots of friends!

Mum and Dad's Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:26:00 +0000

After meeting Mum and Dad in BA we came back up to Salta. We had lots of fun around town eating and drinking far too much. We went on a road trip up to Cachi and then down to Molinos via exciting dirt roads.

We followed signs to a remote valley to the Colome winery, a biodynamic winery that encompasses a whole valley with gardens to supply the needs of the workers and restaurant. It's all very grand, and since we arrived and waited around for a while to find someone, the PR manager actually took us on a big tour of the whole operation.

From here we continued down through the spectacularly eroded Calchaqui river canyon (Quebrada del Calchaquies) to Cafayate.

The next day we went to Quilmes ruins. These ruins date from around 1000AD and were a complex settlement set into the hillside near a river. The Quilmes people survived contact with the Incas from 1480 onwards but lost their siege against the Spanish conquistadors who deported the last 2000 inhabitants to Buenos Aires in 1667 as they refused to work for the conquistador's farms.

It has thick defensive walls and you can still see the outlines of the interconnected courtyards and buildings from up on the ridge. It's an interesting place and we got to see a ceremony to Pachamama that was going on in the grounds for the first day of the warm season.

More wine and then we headed back up to Salta via the Quebrada del Cafayate.

Where I work

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:44:00 +0000

As we get closer to leaving Salta, I'm getting sentimental about our time here. I also realized I never got any pictures up of where I work.

This is the view of the mountains from the Hospital Militar

This is a pretty typical room in the hospital. No moving the bed up and down and half of the backs get propped up with an extra piece of frame from another bed. Patient privacy is a little different here....

Thing that makes this place cool is the people. From the left, Diego (resident doctor), Me, Pablo (resident), Silvana the key nurse, Daniel the wardsman and down the bottom, Bernado (resident).

Ariel was taking the photo, he's the 4th resident shown here with Silvana, the head nurse who makes everything happen.

I'm going to really miss them all. They put up with my Borat like Spanish and looked after me like family when Tom was away. I've been lucky to find such great friends.

Brazil Baby!

noreply@blogger.com (Katrina Morris) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:45:00 +0000

Tom is back from the USA and we are visiting our friends in Brazil from when I did my elective here. I feel like I´m on a tropical holiday with warm weather, tropical fruits like mango and even rain!

There were a bunch of tv crews on our plane (the first morning flight to SP), as the big plane crash at Congonhas Airport happened the night before. It is big news here and has rocked the nation. The Congonhas airport is known for being dangerous with housing at either end of the short runway. Never the less that doesn´t change the very sad news for the whole nation.

Thursday and Friday we spent in Ribeirão Preto, about 300km from São Paulo, where I did my medical school elective. All our friends say hi to Shannon too! Livia made so much time for us. She took us all around town and we had a great time wandering around the municipal park/zoo and catching up.

The public telephones at the zoo are in the shape of parrots.

Flavio joined us for the swimming pool sized Caipirinhas at Agua Doce at night.

Then, being the super geek I am, I spent Friday at the hospital. Thanks to Flavio for letting me come see one of his bone transport operations, a new technique for "regrowing" bones in patients who have lost a large fragment due to trauma, cancer or infection. All the residents that were starting when Shannon and I was on our elective are about to finish their Orthopedics training. It was really cool to see them all again. Traveling is great but getting to go back and see old friends is truly special.

Back in São Paulo we are enjoying the delights of a multicultural city. Sergio and Kelly are showing us the high life and I´m sure I will have gained many extra kilos with all the great Brazilian, japanese, chinese and italian food we´ve had. It really reminded me of Sydney (except for the Brazilian) and I think I ate the best bread I´ve had in six months!

Man meets his mortadela.

And we even visited the São Paulo Football Club home ground.