I´ve been in Valparaiso for a little over a week now. I surfed a few days but the water is really really cold and I got sick. I wanted to go today anyways, but it´s quite cold out and raining. I´m pretty sure I´d just get sicker.
Anyway, I´ll be here for a few more days and then I´ll start heading back to Buenos Aires to meet Jess.
Not much else has been going on. I´ve met up with random people that I´ve met along the way, in Santiago and here in Valparaiso.
I got a surf board today in Santiago. It´s used and a little dinged up, but I like the shape of it. Should be cheaper and easier than trying to rent boards all over the place, I think I´m going to start by going to Viña del Mar on Sunday. It´s a only a few hours away and I can be in the water on Monday. I´m psyched now though because it´s one less thing to worry about, now I just have to get to the beach.
Two of my friends I met back in Puerto Madryn should be showing up here today too, so that´s cool.
I guess that´s all for now. I worked on getting pictures up, but I´m having some problems. I have tons to go through.
I´ve been down and around the southern part of Argentina and Chile now. And it´s been quite a journey since my last post.
From Buenos Aires I went south to Puerto Madryn. I stayed there for a few days and rented a car with some other guys and drove up to Peninsula Valdez. While we were there we were extremely lucky and saw a few orcas. They were really far down the beach from where we were allowed to be, but they were there swimming in towards the beach and then back out. The park rangers said they weren´t hunting seals right then, but I don´t know what else they would have been doing. There were tons of seals and sea lions on the beach. We also saw penguins on the peninsula. We found one on the beach just standing there alone, we kept getting closer and closer to take pictures until we were within arms reach of it. Later on we saw a whole colony of penguins, hundreds, maybe thousands of penguins all over the place. The penguins we saw are Magellanes penguins, they´re small, maybe two feet tall tops, and have two black bands that go across their chest.
We camped on the peninsula that night and went back to Puerto Madryn the next day.
My next stop was Rio Gallegos, 17hrs by bus south of Puerto Madryn. When I got there I met two Polish guys that I had met a few days earlier in Puerto Madryn. They were at the bus station getting on a bus to Ushuaia and told me to just get a ticket and not waste any time in Rio Gallegos. So I did, and spent another 13 hours on a bus. So 30 hours in all, plus a few for border crossings. I was exhausted when we arrived.
My bed that night had bed bugs. But I was too exhausted to do anything about it at the time, so I spent the next few days itching like crazy. I washed my clothes, took a shower and switched beds; but the damage was already done. I had tons of bites all over that itched like crazy for the next few days.
Ushuaia is the southern most city in the world. It´s pretty amazing too, it´s on the Beagle Channel and is basically where the Andes mountain chain begins... or ends, depending on how you look at it. So there are glaciers and sharp peaks all around the city on one side and ocean on the other, with some more islands beyond. We took a tour in a small plane for half an hour and it was unbelievable.
I also did some hiking in the Tierra del Fuego National Park while I was there, it was alright but it rained and made the end of that day kind of miserable.
From Ushuaia I took a bus to Punta Arenas with the two Polish brothers where we met an English chef and a girl from Austria. The girl from Austria had actually been on the previous like 2 bus rides with us, but we all stayed at the same hostel in Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas was my first official stay in Chile. We all had a good time there, drinking bad vodka (the pole´s drink of choice) and the local chilean liquor pisco, which is sort of like brandy.
There´s not much going on in Punto Arenas, it feels like a very European city with a central square and everything.
The Polish guys and myself went to Puerto Natales from there where we caught a ship to Puerto Montt. The ship, the Navimag owned Puerto Eden, is basically a smallish container ship that has been retrofitted with passenger quarters. It´s not very fancy at all. The cabins were nice, and we had full access the ships bridge and Captain which was pretty interesting. But the weather wasn´t very nice and we didn´t get to see any of the supposedly amazing views of glaciers and fjords along the way. The second day we crossed the Gulf of Sorrows, an exposed open passage into the open Pacific. It was very rough. My Polish friends, who had balked at the idea of needing any sea sickness medication while we were still in Puerto Natales, quickly found out how horrible it is to be sea sick. I gave them some of my medication, but it was too late and they spent the next 14 hours puking and being miserable. I wasn´t sick, but it was too rough to actually sleep. Stuff was flying about, including myself. The Captain apparently considered turning back several times because it was so rough, but kept getting promising weather reports which kept turning out to be totally wrong. The ship pitched forward and backwards about 15 degrees and we would skid down the back side of waves as we passed over them.
Anyway, the boat was pretty boring aside from that. There´s not much to do on a boat like that. And the food was terrible.
So now I´m in Puerto Varas, in the lakes district very near to Puerto Montt. It´s a nice little town and there are a few volcanoes in the area which are supposed to be very nice to look at. It´s been mostly raining since I got here though, and I haven´t seen any of the volcanoes yet.
Tonight I´m taking a bus to Santiago. The Polish guys that I traveled with for a while are heading up into the mountains to do some trekking. I want to get to the coast and do some surfing before I´ve got to get back to Buenos Aires to meet Jess in 3 weeks. I can´t wait until she´s down here!
That´s all for now, I´ll be putting some pictures up on the photoblog today hopefully.
I´ve been in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a week now. The city is nice, it reminds me of so many places. In some ways it´s like New York City, there are a lot of upscale stores in one area that reminds me of Manhattan. Other places remind me of Taiwan, some smells (not good) bring Taiwan back to mind fast. And it also seems very European in certain places. All in all, it´s a really nice place to visit. I´ve had some trouble adjusting to the time here, it´s not so much jet lag (it´s only an hour ahead of NY) but the way of life here. People don´t eat dinner until late at night, 10pm is on the early side for dinner. Last night, I ate dinner and then went to a few bars with some people I´ve met that are staying at the same hostel as I am. I ended up not getting home until about 8am. I was so tired. But that´s pretty normal here, that wasn´t really crazy.
I´m enjoying myself here, but also I miss Jess, my girlfriend. In some ways I feel like making this trip was a bit of a mistake. The timing was bad, and it´s been difficult. I´m glad I met some nice people to hang out with in Buenos Aires, it takes my mind off of how much I miss Jess and how hard it is to be so far away all alone.
Tomorrow I have a 20 hour bus ride to Puerto Madryn. It´s overnight and I will have some sleeping pills and also some whisky to get me through the ridiculously long trip. I´m looking forward to getting there though, there is some good diving there and I have the chance of seeing killer whales hunting seals onto beaches near there at peninsula valdez. Traveling alone is difficult though. You´re always "on". You don´t have anyone else looking out for you and you always need to be aware of everything. That doesn´t sound like a big deal, but when you are in a totally foreign place it can take a lot of energy. Also, I´m obviously responsible for figuring out what I´m going to do every minute of every day. I know that doesn´t sound like a big deal, but it takes a lot of energy. And I want to make sure I don´t waste time anywhere, so it´s a lot of pressure. And on top of all that, I get very lonely. I´ve met some nice people here, but that´s not the same as old friends you´ve known for a long time. I´m also shy, so I find it stressful to put myself out there and make all kinds of new friends. I´ve been hanging out with some Norwegians most of my time here that I met at the hostel, they are nice and have made me feel comfortable in their group. But even as nice as people you meet along the way can be, I never really feel totally comfortable with people until I´ve known them for a sort of long time. I suppose this trip is a good experience for me, always on my own needing to meet new people. When I moved to Taiwan it was hard too, but I moved there and was living there, not really traveling like now. I got there and met some awesome people and had a group of friends... this is totally different.
Anyway, I am having a good time. And I´m sure I will the rest of the time I´m here!
ok, so i'm going to south america for a few months. i leave for buenos aires in argentina on thursday, i'll be back in june. i'll be putting stuff from the trip up here while i'm gone. i'll be going to argentina, chile and peru... maybe bolivia.
Two weeks was a long vacation. I bought that $100 surf board and camped and surfed for a bit and then was up in Tahoe for a bit and then went back to the coast and surfed and camped a bit more. I camped in Bodega Bay the first time and then up in Fort Bragg. Both were nice. Doran Beach (Bodega Bay) is nice, the campground is right on this little spit of sand sticking out at the head of Bodega Bay. The waves weren't too big there and the water is frigid. I've realized that I'm very out of shape, with the added weight of a wet suit paddling for waves was really exhausting. Up in Fort Bragg at Mackerricher State Park the beach was amazing. It's several miles long of just sandy beach, pretty much empty. Not many people around, no one else surfing. The waves were bigger, maybe chest high to head high. That's a little higher than I'm any good at. I mostly got tossed around and was wishing the water was a lot warmer and I didn't need to be wearing my wet suit.
Tahoe was nice, not much going on up there though right now. No snow yet.
My car is leaking oil, a lot actually. I'm dropping it off tomorrow to get a new oil cooler. It leaks about a quart of oil per hour driven. More when it's been going for a few hours straight. It was getting annoying having to pull over every 45 minutes to pour another quart of oil in. I even had a park ranger in Fort Bragg tell me I was leaving a mess all over the park as I drove around, I thought he was going to threaten to give me a ticket, but he was just making sure I knew I was leaking oil.
Anyway, I'm back to work and not much has changed here. Things are going slow as they try to fish some pipe out of the hole that got stuck a few days ago. Pretty boring out here. I'm going to develop some film tonight as I "work". I found a lot of film on craigslist for really cheap and used quite a bit of it while I was off. It was expired but kept dark and cool so it should be ok, we'll see though.
Alright, well it's looking like I'll have 2 weeks off starting next week. I'll have been working for 3 weeks straight. It's amazing how little has changed about this job since I last worked here a year and a half ago. No complaints though, I knew what to expect coming into this.
So my plan is to head towards the coast and spend a week there and then go back up to Tahoe for a few days before I have to be back to work on the 11th. It'll be nice to get back out in the water and catch a few waves. It's been over a month since I last surfed back in Taiwan. I'm getting pretty excited about it. All my stuff is pretty much ready to go, I put a new coat of waterproofing spray on my tent and finally picked up a tarp to use as a ground sheet. I think I've found a used 7ft surf board for $100, it's pretty good deal but the board could be a piece of crap. The pics of it look alright, I had found a really nice one for about 3 times the price but it sold before I had a chance to move on it.
Anyway, that's the news here in California. October is almost over, just 3 more months of work to go!
Ok, so I haven't written anything here in a really long time. Quick update - I'm back in California working at my old job, the one I swore I'd never go back to. Anyways... Since it's been soo long I guess I should explain how it is I am back here and what's happened in between my last actual post that wasn't just photos. And, I won't be posting photos on here anymore... I'm much happier with the layout at photoblog.com for photos. I think there's a link on the sidebar to my page there.
So, where to begin? I guess the last thing I wrote about here was back in like July. At that point I had decided that the next big thing I wanted to do was go travel in South America. Unfortunately I hadn't saved much money while I worked in Taiwan so I needed to save some up fast before I could go to south america. So I decided to contact my old boss and see if he needed any short term help this fall, he did so I gave 2 months notice at my school in Taiwan. Those 2 months flew by. My parents were coming to visit at the end of August when I finished teaching and we planned to spend 10 days in Taiwan and then 4 in Kyoto, Japan.
I realized about a month before I was booked to go to Japan that my visa would expire days before I was to leave. So I had two options, either just overstay it and pay the fine when I left or make a visa run to Hong Kong and come back in and be given another 30 days to legally be in Taiwan. So, the weekend before my parents arrived I went to Hong Kong overnight and came back the day before my parents arrived. As it turns out, I got the wrong stamp coming back in and technically overstayed the visa. I talked my way out of the fine though and everything was ok.
So, my classes were all ending in August. I really loved pretty much all of my classes. I think there was only one co-teacher I had that was difficult to teach with and only a handful of kids that were trouble out of all my classes. I already miss them all a lot! I hadn't realized how strong of a connection I had made with my students until I was leaving. I was just now practicing writing some Chinese and remembered how they'd correct my writing before classes, I'm on my own with it now and it's probably full of mistakes!
My parents arrived and I had 2 days of teaching left. During the day before I taught, we were busy. My Chinese teacher, Bobo, wanted to have them over for tea and then take us to lunch at hot pot. I took my parents to Taipei and to Keelung up on the north shore during those two days. Then the real touring started. We went to the beach I used to surf at where I had my best day of surfing yet (and is also the last time I've gone surfing). Then we took the train down the east coast to Hualien where we rented a car. We drove up into Taroko gorge for the day and returned the car that evening. Then we took the train down to Taitung. The next day we took a boat out to Green Island. We rented scooters out there and had a great time driving around, snorkeling and visiting the salt water hot springs. Then we went back to the mainland and just barely caught a train to Tainan over on the west coast. The next day was spent getting up to Alishan by train. That is the craziest train ride I've ever been on. It was like 5 hours to go 42 miles climbing close to 7000ft. We walked around up there and then the next morning I walked the short hike up to the sunrise viewing area. My parents planned to take a train, but due to some mis-communication they missed it. We got back to Taoyuan that evening. I had one last night out with my friends there before we left for Japan the next day.
Japan was amazing. So different from Taiwan. It was much cleaner and people were a lot more formal. I also liked the food a lot more. We spent all four days in Kyoto seeing all there is to see there. Lots of temples and shrines. It was very relaxing and also really interesting. I took a lot of pictures there, I've posted them on my photoblog site.
After four days in Japan, my parents flew back to New York and I returned for one last night final night in Taiwan. A bunch of my friends, co-teachers and I had a small party and went out to our favorite bar (which they opened just for us since they don't normally open on Mondays). It was a lot of fun and made me really hungover for my 4pm flight the next afternoon.
When I got back, I spent 2 nights down in NYC at my old house-mate from college's place. It was really cool to see James and Chris down there, I hadn't seen James since the day we moved out at the end of university, and I hadn't seen Chris since he transferred to Cornell back in like 3rd year.
While I was home it was great to see all my family and friends that I hadn't seen since I left for Taiwan. I went up to Montreal and saw one of my other old house-mates, Phil. I also went up to Vermont to my brother's fiancee's mother's house near Stowe. That was just before I started driving out to California in a slightly newer BMW than my last one.
The drive was long. I made it to Denver on my second day and stayed with my friends Mike and Anita, a couple that I taught with in Taiwan. It was really awesome to see them, I ended up staying two nights there. I spent the next night in Wyoming and then saw Travis in Lake Tahoe, one of my best friends. And now, I'm sitting in a trailer at a drill site in the geysers in northern California looking forward to my first stretch of time off when I plan to head over to the coast to camp and surf for a bit.
Until then, hope everyone is well! Check out my pictures over on photoblog at this site!
I've been trying to think of a new place to post my pictures and stories. I haven't been pleased with my options for posting photos on blogger, it's been difficult to put larger images on here and the way images are archived doesn't really appeal to me that much. I've opened an account on photoblog.com and will be posting over there now. At first there will be some of my much much older photos (my favorites from the past 2 years) but I'll also be adding new pictures as well. The link is: http://www.photoblog.com/jono1515/
Hope you like it. Let me know what you think!
天 宮 - Tiangong Temple
A few of us went over to Yilan on Sunday. We rented scooters there for the first time, I'm not sure why we've never done it before. We go every weekend but usually either had a car or took a taxi. I suppose I've never really wanted to pass up on surfing for sight seeing, but yesterday had no surf what so ever and I knew it before I got there. It's pretty nice over there.
