Start with Yourself

When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits,
I dreamed of changing the world.

As I grew older and wiser,
I discovered the world would not change,
so I shortened my sights somewhat
and decided to change only my country.

But it, too, seemed immovable.

As I grew into my twilight years,
in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family,
those closest to me,
but alas, they would have none of it.

And now as I lie on my deathbed,
I suddenly realise: If I had only changed my self first,
then by example I would have changed my family.

From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and,
who knows, I may have even
changed the world.

Anonymous (written on tomb of an Anglican Bishop in the Crypts of Westminister Abbey)

the only constant is change

it has only been a little over 2 months since i left singapore and so much has happened.. the war in Iraq, the SARS thing, Indonesia tightening its visa regulations, my car has been sold, a couple of changes in the art shop, some news from my family back home... it sems like the world is restless and even if you sit there and try not to do anything, things are just going to keep happening around you and affecting you anyway...

i figure that the wisdom behind this is: Since changes are going to happen anyway (whether positive or negative ones), we can forget about being apathetic and contented and hoping that the world leaves us in peace. All we can make sure is not to lose our heads panicking and reacting to the situations, and instead grab the bull by the horns, be responsible for our time and what happens to us (instead of blaming or sitting around complaining) and make the best of our journey here on earth..

yep.

i gained this wisdom consulting with the hummingbirds. ahem.

hummingbirds are humming again (a.k.a completing the circle)

we´re now back in sunny garopaba, completing the giant loop that has till now brought us across four countries, 12,000 km, 3 different climates, countless variations of skyscapes, landscapes, fauna and flora, 2 languages (portuguese and spanish) and some of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world, such as the Iguazu Falls and Perito Moreno Glacial.

we´re clearly overdosed on nature´s beauty and the friendly faces we saw along the way.. and now we appreciate getting up and not having to rush off to drive anywhere. i´m sleeping some 9 to 10 hours a night, and spending my time reading, watching the hummingbirds (i saw one yesterday with the most amazing green shade!), eagles, butterflies in the air and eating cheese omelettes, sausages and drinking coconut and strawberry yoghurts.. and watching the local folks fishing from the beach with nets (silvery 30cm long fishes and giant crabs practically swim onto shore to be caught! amazing!).. a very retreat-style lifestyle.. :)

I´m thinking and reading quite a bit about the SARS thing as well.. :( hope everyone is hale and healthy! stay positive and drink lots of water!!

SARS and waterfalls

the SARS thing is beginning to sound really bad, from what i read from Straits Times Interactive today.. there are even End Days prophecies floating around now, scaring everyone... cannot imagine what life will look like when i come back at the end of this month, after being protected from all the nasty things that have been happening in the world and back home..yes.. the fun will be ending soon... Kai told me about leslie chung as well.. gulp.. what´s happening??? :,O frankly, it`s hard not to be affected, coupled with the heavy feeling of knowing that all this travelling will be ending soon.. :<

heading out to the famous Iguacu Falls in Argentina today and then we´ll be heading over to see the falls from the Brazilian side tomorrow.. nice balmy weather finally :)

Chile - Argentina

discovered an exact replica of the Bali Kuta beach at Cachagua sans the commercialism, hippies, loud music and ubiquitous souvenir stores. the beach, with fantastically beautiful breaks of waves, was practically empty as it was way too cold to swim (except for some really determined people wearing wet suits, some giant pelicans and many seagulls). the journey along the pacific coast was amazing and the ocean really showed its might at several places, crashing with frightening roars and white foams against the sheer drops of cliffs.

we bid chile farewell today and head into argentina via the mountain pass.

SARS, Wars and conger eels

it seems like the SARS thing in Southeast Asia has really put Singapore in the spotlight for a while.. even the doctors in the little isolated island of Chiloe were talking about it when i was there!

it struck me yesterday, as we were zipping down the highway up to Santiago, that travelling through the continent of South America at this time has really cut me off (and in a bizarre sort of way protected/immuned me) from some of the less pleasant things that have been going on the world, and even back home (eg SARS). Since we started our journey some month or so back, we also haven´t seen a single mosque along the way as well, which meant that, other than watching CNN to know what has been happening in Iraq, the predominantly Roman Catholic population here are generally more concerned with the many domestic problems they already face and terrorism of the sort that the world is fearing now is almost non-existent here.. in fact, this has been the only time and place i´ve travelled and not seen the domes and crescents of a mosque anywhere i went.. very puzzling indeed..

anyhow, we got off the highway yesterday evening, after driving some 800 km or so and are now back at the coast! :) we will be spending today and tomorrow marvelling at the might of the Pacific Ocean and visiting this artist (another one of my friend´s friends) near the bohemian town of Cachagua before we cross back to Argentina over the 3779m pass near Aconcagua (the highest peak in the Americas).. hope i don´t get altitude sickness...

not chilly in chile

the island of Chiloe was really quaint, though for some spooky reason, the cows moo all night, the dogs bark all night, the horses neigh all night, the sheep bleat all night, and seagulls kept flying round and round, screaming, making it extremely difficult to get to sleep.. in fact, we even heard these really weird wailing sounds that came from no beast or bird that we know, and only at night! We are guessing the presence of high levels of extra-terrestial activity on this island..

am still in chile, after visiting the beautiful national park of Puyehue and heading up to Santiago now... got infected by some malicious bacteria a few days ago and had to see a doctor to get antibiotics (for my sister: i got Ciproval) and to get some tests done.. but, as my friend says, i was surprisingly still "climbing up and down like a mountain goat".. hahaha..

got to go..another brief blog.. what to do...

puerto montt

just got off the cargo ferry and we find ourselves some 1000km north in Chile of where we were 3 days ago. amongst the passengers of this (not quite cruise-standard) ferry were two truckloads of hapless cows on the way to slaughter.. it was surreal to hear their pitiful mournings and to smell their strong odours amidst the fresh air of the narrow Chilean fiords and channels every morning.

on the way now to the little island of Chiloe..

pardon the brief blog.. time is rather tight..

perito moreno glacier

i didn´t mention the perito moreno glacier that we saw about a week back... if i could name the ten natural wonders of the world, this surely qualifies as one.. as one traveller said..

"there are some places where we remain, and some places that remain in us.."

i needn´t say more.. . a wall of ice that towers 60m above you and stretches as far as the eye can see.. the sight really blew me away..

ushuaia and beyond

i´m back again after more than a week!! :O have i lost my fans yet??? i just had the most delicious cappuccino i´ve ever had in my life in this random town in Chile known as Puerto Natales (gateway to the most beautiful national park in South America - Torres Del Paine).. they mix brazilian, jamaican and colombian coffee to make it.. yum... it´s been incredibly hard to use the internet beyond windy san julian but being cut off from the internet was also a blessing in a way.. finding out that the war has started has no doubt dampened the spirit of our trip in ways that we didn´t imagine it would...

we made it to ushuaia (hooray!!) and had some of the most delicious cold water crabs (they look really different from the ones we have back home.. red, thorny and a little hairy) i´ve ever tried in my life. surprisingly, the southernmost city in the world wasn´t as cold as we thought, but the harbour was stunningly beautiful, and the whole city (which looked more than a Swiss mountain resort village) had a backdrop of glacial peaked mountains which made it dream-like. it was also the gateway to beautiful Tierra Del Fuego National Park, with its snowy peak, lakes and sealions. Reaching this point on the planet was more symbolic than anything else.. it was the most south i have ever gone, and after that, everything else on the adventure was more like a bonus.. after that, we took some time to get off the giant island of Tierra Del Fuego (as the ferries were more infrequent than we expected), along the way passing some of the most surreal looking towns i´ve ever seen, such as Porvenir with its desolation, closed shops and perfectly pruned trees and public parks..

we´re now waiting to get onto the 4 day 3 night cruise that will bring us (and the faithful Land Rover jeep - 8000km on this journey alone!!) way back north to the port of Puerto Montt, some 1000 or more kms away before we carry on north through Chile.. Chile has been great (albeit more expensive than Argentina) and we have had great seafood (conger eel and this shellfish called locus - the Chilean luxury equivalent of abalone) over the past couple days.. it also has the stunning Torres Del Paine which we didn´t manage to enjoy entirely because of the cloudy weather..

anyhow, this trip has already been a pleasure and luxury far beyond my imagination until now.. i still can´t believe how fortunate i am to be here, now, typing this blog entry..

the great south

we are looking at the great south right in the face! :D we're almost there at Ushuaia!! now at puerto san julian, a seaside town about 300km from one of the greatest sights on south america and probably on planet earth.. the amazing Perito Moreno Glacial! the past few days in summary? you wouldn't believe half the stuff i write...

went through a couple of interesting towns, the most memorable of which was El Bolson, where we met the very interesting Chiche, a friend of my friend's, an excitable man who runs a construction firm but trains horses by "loving" them and can't wait to leave his business to his children and go off into the virgin forests of Argentina to live a simple life amongst the great Alcerces (Patagonian cypress) trees, and the most incredible of all, a Mr Marranti, who researches UFOs and has had several personal encounters with them since he was 2 1/2!! he draws these really surrealistic paintings and has done about 700 of them so far!! perfectly normal-looking people, they typified the new "hippies" of El Bolson. We also went through another national park, the Parque Nacional Los Alcerces, a great 153,000 hectare national park of incredible botanical riches, saw more amazing lakes, saw and photographed the really beautiful and rare Patagonian Flamingoes (really pink, really beautiful), saw bouncy llamas in the arid dry flatlands and dead llamas in salt pans, and encountered some strong winds that almost blew me away while i was standing still.

we just ate some really nice seafood, had incredible vino blanco, lemon mousse dessert, had a nice and hot shower and i feel top of the world..

lake district of patagonia

we are well on our way again! :)

yesterday, we passed through what i imagine is one of the most beautiful places in the world.. going deeper into patagonia now, we went through Parque Nacional Lanin yesterday, a huge national park with nine to ten glacial lakes, overshadowed by the craggy peaks of the Andes, some of which were snow-capped.. to describe beauty is like trying to describe the fragrance of a rose..it is impossible.. beauty can only be felt in the heart and experienced by the soul.. the park had some of the most unusual trees i have ever seen, including this pine tree known as the Pehuen (monkey puzzle tree) with pinecones that look like acorns, and some magnificent birds that look like a cross between falcons and eagles.. i know my photos will do little justice to the place.. and yet i am unable to describe what i have seen... to see all this beauty and enjoy this amazing solitude almost feels like an act of selfishness..

along the way, we passed through sweet little ski resort towns, straight out of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales - complete with wooden houses and shops, cheese and wine stores, Austrian sidewalk cafes, quaint book stores, roses growing on the sidewalk and bees that were furry.. the air has become really chilly and dry..

i am getting more and more excited as the adventure goes on... this dream is becoming a reality and the reality is sweet...

stuck in zapala

100km from zapala and we are stuck! the car, after having served my friend faithfully for the past 124,000 plus km (and over the past 13 years in Asia and across Africa), suddenly had a problem with the front wheel and we are forced to return to zapala, first by hitchhiking and then by a towtruck pulling the jeep back to a friendly mechanic called Mr Peters at zapala.

we foresee being stuck here for the next day or so..

zapadoo zapala

after days of driving through endless ribbons of bad, pot-holed and graveled undulating roads, feeling like ants running on treadmills through kaleidoscopes of multi-coloured mountains and multi-coloured sunsets, we are in the town of zapala (a funny name indeed.. we were just thinking we should make a "b-grade" movie here called "The Murderer of Zapala" or something..hahaha...), described in lonely planet as an "economically-depressing, mining town" which is anything but such..(except that we have decided it is "gastronomically-depressing", what with the limited choice of available restaurants)..

since the start of the journey, we have covered some 3,500km and have still another 3,000 km plus before we reach Ushuaia.. the past two days have been my geography lessons come alive.. after all, the Andes mountain range was created some 120 million years ago (i learnt this in Spanish from the guide to this limestone cave place called the "Cave of the Witches") due to massive plate tectonic forces of folding and faulting.. (or something like that).. as we drove through the area, weaving our way around the mountains, we were stunned by how tiny and insignificant we felt in the mighty result of nature´s forces, as well as the variety of shapes and colours in the rock formations.. volcanoes and crater lakes were aplenty and after driving for like some 2 hours, i was hypnotised by the rocky scene in front of me, broken only occassionally by the random sheep standing in the middle of the road, a couple of ostrich-like birds running in the arid foreground, some eagles in the air, and strange abandoned primitive settlements along the edges of the lakes..

patagonia.. another name for mystery and desolation..

withered sunflowers

we woke this morning next to a field of withered sunflowers as far as the eye can see. the sky was a pleasant rich blue with cloud formations so varied and spectacular that, if given a whole morning of idleness and blessed with the imagination of a child, one could easily spot a whole menagerie of animals. the nights have been chilly and filled with strange supernatural sounds that neither one of us could tell from what beast or fowl it comes.. camping out in the wild has become normal after a while, with routines like brushing of teeth, answering nature´s call, eating breakfast etc adapted to the limitations of our conditions..

last night, we found an inflatable globelike ball in the jeep with a (fairly accurate) mapping of the numerous constellations that are in the sky. we managed to identify Orion, the Southern Cross, Sirius, Cornopus and a couple of other more obvious constellations. however, notably absent were northern hemisphere constellations like Ursa Major and Minor, which i saw on my previous trips to Morocco and Europe..

with a bit of help in driving from me (i have finally completed driving in four continents!), we have finally reached the start of our great southward journey! the great range of the Andes looms clearly in the foreground but unfortunately, due to time constraints, we will probably have to give visiting Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Western hemisphere a miss :( ).. the town of Mendoza is bustling with life.. some carnival is going on and roads are closed, music is playing and crowds are gathered.. we are here for just a short while to top up our rations..

till the next time, hasta luego!

argentinian appetizer

in our amazing quest to reach the Andes, and ultimately, the southernmost tip of the continent, Ushuaia, we have been racing across the whole breadth of Argentina over the past two days, crossing some amazing landscapes, encountering some of the unpredictable weather that we are getting rather used to, and spending the nights by the side of desolate highways, to the sounds of nature (with a moo moo here and a bow wow there and a neigh neigh here and a quack quack there) and the magic of hundreds and thousands of twinkling fireflies, dotting the dark of the night like christmas lights at the foot of the stairs on christmas eve..

seems like Antartica might just become a reality! :D we called Ushuaia (the southernmost city in the world, where most ice-breakers leave for the continent of Antartica) today and they said they have three cruises leaving on the 18th March! we´ll see how everything goes.. if all goes right, we shall be driving along the scenic route of the Andes by tomorrow! :)

we´re getting the car checked again today to make sure it is in perfect condition (as a stalled car in the desolate parts of Patagonia may mean days of waiting for help to come) and the old man at the shop is taking forever.. anyhow, it may become more difficult to update as we go south..

adios for now!

quasi-brazilian

we shall finally be starting on our journey towards the uruguay border tomorrow! :D

better be on my way soon.. i´m slowly becoming brazilian.. here is some evidence:

i say "Oi!" now instead of "Hi!", without hesitation..
i wave to someone in a distance by raising my clenched fist with only my thumb and pinkie sticking out (i.e. the way we do the number ´6´ in Singapore)
when i want to tell or ask someone that something is great or that i am "ok", i stick up my thumb and give a big broad smile (everyone.. absolutely everyone, does that!)
i order guarana (some amazonian bright red fruit) soda when i think of soft drinks (instead of coca cola) in a restaurant
i love suco de caju (another fruit from north brazil) more than suco de larangha (aka orange juice)
i think it is perfectly normal to see someone wearing swimwear (even very skimpy bikinis) in the supermercado or bank or walking along on the streets..
i am perpetually carrying this tan from the immense heat and sunshine of this country..
i am wearing this strange fish bone as a pendant, the fossil of some amazonian fish.. bought it from a bunch of travelling gypsies with whom i sat for a lazy afternoon chatting while they asked me if "all chinese eat bears.." :O

this is brazil, in short, the way i know it and have adapted to it... :p

feeling frodo-ish

after days of gazing at the infinitesimal stars and galaxies through the beautifully clear and dark skies of garopaba (you can see full constellations of Orion, the Southern Cross, the Milky Way etc almost every single night!), watching hummingbirds and dragonflies dancing in the fresh morning air while having breakfast of eggs, sausages, tomatoes, orange juice and brazilian coffee, having invigorating dips in the clear ocean waters a stone´s throw away from the magnificent siriu sand dunes, mermerised by the magical illumination of fireflies while sharing huge pans of steaming hot paellas with jovial Agentines, downed with the best red and white wines this side of the planet - i have almost become too comfortable to embark on the southward journey ahead - feeling almost like how i imagine the hobbits must have felt in rivendale! but onward i must go, now with the Uruguay visa securely in my hands (which by the way cost a whopping US$45!).

the land rover, fresh from some thorough servicing, will be packed with milk, bread, orange juice, crackers, and gallons of water, plus essentials like tents, blankets, etc. we must leave soon.. before the black riders.. er..no, i mean the Carnaval :p rolls along and highways fill with drunken and rowdy kinds.. and also before the south gets too cold.. okee.. that´s all for now!

and very importantly: for the dearest people who are expecting phone calls from me, sorry!! the woman at the telefonico es muy antipatico and doesn´t give a damn to my hapless situation of not being able to call through.. so i have to use the internet to communicate for now!

chao!!

war news

in sleepy garopaba, it is not easy to get accurate and up-to-date news on the war in iraq.

us: any latest news on the war, senor?
guy no. 1: there is no war. they have decided not to fight.
us: huh?? really?? that´s great news!! hooray!! they´ve finally listened to the voice of peace and reason!! they´re finally bowing down to the protests of 600 cities!!
guy no. 2: don´t listen to the man... he knows NOTHING! the war is still going on!
us: huh? oh.

so we check the Internet and it seems like peace is not quite here yet.. sigh.. but it really touched me to know that 600 cities all around the world have shown the Islamic world that the world is not quite as divided as some trouble-makers hope to make it.. and hence, hopefully, we see less acts of random terrorism against the Western world..

hurrah for world peace!

life in a monastery

i sat this morning, after a light breakfast of muesli, orange juice and coffee, with the sun on my hands and feet, watching hummingbirds playing in the sun. There were seven, no eight, of these delightful little things dancing in joyous harmony, darting amongst the splendid bouquets in the tree, teasing them with their childish play. The dragonflies had their own field day in the much-awaited sunshine, after two days of gloomy weather had threatened to turn sunny brazil into london. They were flying in twos and threes, carefree and spontaneous. Above me swooped two to three eagles, their wings lifted by the gentle breeze. They drifted high in the air, like kites, silent, mysterious. The roar of the foamy ocean in the distance, like jetplanes taking off - loud, soft, intermittent. The forest hummed behind me, still asleep, broken only by the sudden loud cry of a frog, or bird or some unknown inhabitant of the thick, rich forest behind me.

A moment of magic suddenly! A hummingbird stops, with its wings beating furiously, a breath away above my head, enjoying the sweet essence of the bougainvillea flower. I watched mermerised. The moment was timeless. Pure enchantment. And then it was off again.

i turned back to my book. The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Vikram Seth. i took a deep breath, breathing in the sweet fresh morning air. Time was on my side for once. i will take a dip in the ocean later.