Opkode Blog

Converse.js: XMPP instant messaging with Javascript

JC Brand — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:25:00 +0200

Lately I've been spending time refactoring converse.js the Javascript library used by collective.xmpp.chat the instant messaging add-on for the Plone CMS. My goal is to make it usable on it's own, requiring nothing else except an XMPP server to communicate with.

This would enable any website owner to add instant messaging functionality to their website, and due to the federated nature of XMPP, users could chat to any other public XMPP account (once they have been accepted as a contact).

One thing that previously prevented you from using converse.js on its own, was the fact that it made XHR calls to the Plone backend to fetch user data. To fix this, I added vCard support, to converse.js but also to Plone by adding it to collective.xmpp.core.

Last week I reached a significant milestone on the path to this goal, and I'd like to take a moment and share with you.

It is now possible to use converse.js (in a static HTML page) to communicate with Jabber accounts on any public server.

In the demo below, I illustrate this by chatting to a Google user and to a Jabber.org user. In the converse.js page, I'm authenticated with a Jappix.com account and I also use their connection manager to connect to their XMPP server. If you're doing XMPP via HTTP (i.e in the browser), you'll need a connection manager as a bridge to your intended XMPP server. Thanks a lot to the Jappix guys for making their connection manager public!

Note: For detailed fullscreen, make sure that video quality is set to HD, by clicking the gear icon on the video player.

I'm sorry to say that converse.js is not yet 100% ready for primetime as a standalone JS app. There are a few more hurdles (and nice-to-haves) to overcome before we'll achieve this goal:

Searching and adding new users still does XHR calls to Plone and should instead query the XMPP server.
Service discovery support (e.g so that multi-user chat is only available for servers that support it).
Some kind of "Keep me logged in" support when users log in manually.
I'm not proud of the CSS and it could probably be improved upon quite a bit.
The Jasmine tests are out of date and not passing, also more tests are required.

If you are interested in the project, please contribute by forking the code on github.

Thanks a lot to Alec Ghica and David Ichim from Eau de Web who've made various improvements to both collective.xmpp.chat and converse.js over the past months.

Report on the Beer and Wine Sprint in Cape Town

zope-admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:45:00 +0100

The Beer and Wine sprint wrapped up on Sunday and it's now a good time to report on what was South Africa's first ever core Plone sprint. This was a joint sprint between Cape Town and Munich, which in hindsight, was a very good idea. The two groups of sprinters had daily meetings via Google hangouts, and the structure and support we received from Munich helped a lot. Connecting with the sprinters on another continent brought home the point that we are a global community and that no core Plone work is done in isolation. The daily hangouts also motivated us to get cracking so that we could have something to report on!

South Africa is geographically isolated from the places where most Plone development takes place (notably Europe and North America) , which results in the local Plone community not getting as much exposure to sprints and community events as would have been possible otherwise. The goal of this sprint was to help change that, and to provide an opportunity for us to contribute back to the Plone community from which we've received so much.

Most of the people who attended the sprint were first-timers, and it was a joy to see the enthusiasm with which people started working. Eric Steele and David Glick flew down to join us here at the tip of Africa, and provided much needed experience and support.

About 14 people met at sprint venue on Thursday morning and after introductions and a quick hello to the Europeans via the wormhole, we formed groups and started sprinting.

Mike Metcalfe and Campbell Mckellar-Bassset (rockfruit) started working on porting CMFPlone tests from Products.PloneTestCase to plone.app.testing. They kept at it with dogged determination for the next four days of the sprint and made good progress. Izak Burger and Jurgen Blignaut tackled some TinyMCE bugs, while Rudi Ackhurst, Witek, Johan Beyers and myself started working on Plip #13260. We did this via Dojo sessions, which we held for most of the sprint. Other people did tutorials and proofreading of documentation.

It appears as if the sprinting bug has bitten at least some of the people who attended, and there's already been talk of doing this again some time. I personally had an amazing experience and learned a lot while organising this event.

To the bittereinders who sprinted every single day (Thursday to Sunday), thanks for your energy and support! This would have not been possible without you. We laid a solid foundation for future core Plone contributions from our local group.

Lastly, thanks a million to everyone involved in making this sprint a reality, Eric, David and all the people who attended, our sponsors the Praekelt and Plone Foundations, the guys in Munich and all those who helped with support and advice. And thanks to Liz Leddy who planted the initial seed in my head that this was not only possible, but a actually great idea!

P.S Credit for 3 of the photos goes to David Glick.

Slides and Video for my talk on XMPP+Plone at Plone Conf 2012

JC Brand — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:30:00 +0100

Thanks a lot to the person who uploaded this video! After seeing Cillian de Roiste spending much of his free time uploading the videos of the Munich Plone Konf, I realise how much effort this is!

Click here to view all the Plone Conf 2012 videos uploaded so far.

Follow-up info on XMPP-stuff after the conf

In the talk, I mention collaborative editing and showed demos of it (with TinyMCE). Unfortunately soon afterwards I came upon a significant flaw in the current approach. If you are interested in the collaborative editing possibilities for Plone, please read Collaborative editing of HTML with TinyMCE not going to happen soon.

Also since this talk, I've been quite busy improving collective.xmpp.chat to get it production ready. I've made an initial release to Pypi, which was actually supposed to be a 0.1 alpha release (but which I messed up somehow). Please consider collective.xmpp.chat to still be alpha software and not yet production ready! The most notable issue at the moment is poor support for having multiple tabs open. I'm aware of this and will work on a solution soon. Update: Fixed in the latest release: http://plone.org/products/collective.xmpp.chat/releases/0.2a2

I'm also in the process of extracting the Javascript files from collective.xmpp.chat and putting them in their own repository, called converse.js. The idea behind this is to completely decouple the JS from Plone and in doing so allow one to implement/deploy something like collective.xmpp.chat for other non-Plone backends.

That's it for now. Thanks for the support and encouragement from everyone in the Plone community. You guys rock!

Real-time, collaborative applications in Plone from jcbrand

Collaborative editing of HTML with TinyMCE not going to happen soon

JC Brand — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:45:00 +0200

TL:DR: Collaborative editing doesn't work well with XML/HTML. Right now, the solution seems to be to use Markdown instead.

During my talk on XMPP applications in Plone, someone asked whether I was aware of any issues with regards to collaborative editing in TinyMCE.

I don't exactly remember my reply, but it came down to "no", I wasn't aware of any problems with it. Just the next day however, at the sprints, I encountered a fundamental problem with regards to collaborative editing of Rich Text through TinyMCE.

The problem lies in the fact that the Diff-Match-Patch is meant for plain text only. It has no concept of structured content such as the a DOM-tree and can therefore create problems when one tries to patch HTML content. It seems that mainly two things can happen. Firstly, because your HTML nodes are not atomic, they can be broken by the patching algorithm inserting text inside them. Secondly, the patching can result in HTML nodes appearing in the wrong order. (See what the author of Diff-Match-Patch had to say about it on the project page and his excellent explanation on stackoverflow).

Ideally one should use a patching algorithm that is tree-based and which will maintain the integrity of the DOM-tree. When using the plain text algorithm, there are however two approaches to try and mitigate the above issues.

Strip all HTML tags, diff-match-patch the resulting plain text and re-insert the original tags.
Replace all tags with Unicode chars outside of the used range (thereby making them atomic), apply diff-match-patch and then restore all tags.

The problem with the first approach is that your markup is now immutable. So any markup changes a collaborator makes (e.g bold, italics, heading or other formatting) will be discarded. I think this is a dealbreaker and rules out this approach.

The problem with the second approach is that even though your HTML nodes are now atomic, they might still appear in the wrong order.

Because of this, I think trying to do collaborative editing via an HTML-based Wysiwyg editor is not the way to go. Instead, a Markdown editor (such as Epic Editor) seems to be the way to go. Markdown is plain text, and therefore doesn't suffer from the problems mentioned above.

I think I have created the impression at the Plone conf that production-ready collaborative editing via TinyMCE will soon be a reality, and for that I would like to apologize.

Instant Messaging for Plone with javascript and XMPP

JC Brand — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:56:06 +0200

Late last year Yiorgis Gozadinos who at the time was still working for Jarn, released a video showing his work in integrating XMPP (eXtended Messaging and Presence Protocol) into Zope/Plone.

I had some experience in creating a chat client for Plone before and was inspired by the possibility of porting it to XMPP. In the end it wasn't so much of a port but rather a complete rewrite.

Today, I'm relieved and happy that it's finally in a state where I can show it to you. I've been spending most of my free time the last two months writing collective.xmpp.chat.

It's been both frustrating and fun (mostly fun) and a very valuable learning experience. Like that one week where I rewrote the entire codebase to make use of backbone.js. Aaah, fun times.

Some features already implemented:

Single user chat
Roster support (adding/removing contacts) (XEP-0144)
Setting presence status (online, offline, away, busy)
Custom status messages
Multi-user chatrooms (XEP-0045)
Chat windows stay open upon page reload
Offline storage of messages using HTML5 localstorage (still needs to be secured)
Message actions (/me)
Setting the topic of a chatroom (/topic)

Because almost all the code is written in Javascript (converse.js is about 1500 LOC), you can even stop the Zope server and still continue to chat. Unfortunately I forgot to show this in the screencast.

If anyone has any questions about the code, how to install, configure and use it, please don't hesitate to contact me. The add-on includes a buildout.cfg file that will set up Zope/Plone, Nginx and ejabberd for you. But please beware, the code is still in a pre-alpha state.

And then lastly, I plan to give a talk at the upcoming Plone Conference in Arnhem. This talk will focus on collective.xmpp.chat, the underlying technologies and how to write XMPP-enabled add-ons.

If you consider this an interesting topic, please go and vote for this talk to ensure that it gets accepted.

Screencast

Note: If you have trouble reading the test, click on the gear icon and set the video to High Definition.

Plone and Dexterity: Enable behaviors per content type instance

JC Brand — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:20:00 +0000

NOTE: This blogpost assumes that you are already familiar with a lot of the Zope/Plone programming technologies and concepts. Every time I mention a specific add-on or technology, I've added a link to documentation.

Behaviors, provided by the plone.behavior package, provide a very useful way of extending the functionality of a Dexterity content type. Unfortunately, the fact that a content type's behaviors are stored in its factory contents information (FTI) inside the portal_types tool, means that they are class (or type) specific, and not instance specific. This means that behaviors can only be enabled globally, in other words only for all the instances of a specific type,

So what can we do when we want to enable behaviors only for a specific instance of a content type? At Syslab we for example had a client who wanted a basic folderish Workspace content type, that can be extended into a more featureful custom Project type.

To enable per instance behaviors, we would need a way to store those behaviors on the instance. I decided to use annotations for this purpose. Additionally we must create our own IBehaviorAssignable adapter that overrides the default one to not only look for an object's FTI registered annotations, but also look for the behaviors stored in the current instance's annotations.

I created this adapter in a module named behavior.py:

from zope.annotation import IAnnotations
from zope.component import adapts, queryUtility
from plone.behavior.interfaces import IBehavior
from plone.dexterity.behavior import DexterityBehaviorAssignable
from myproject.types.workspace import IWorkspace
from myproject.types.config import INSTANCE_BEHAVIORS_KEY as KEY
class DexterityInstanceBehaviorAssignable(DexterityBehaviorAssignable):
    """ Support per instance specification of plone.behavior behaviors
    """
    adapts(IWorkspace)

    def __init__(self, context):
        super(DexterityInstanceBehaviorAssignable, self).__init__(context)
        annotations = IAnnotations(context)
        self.instance_behaviors = annotations.get(KEY, ())

    def enumerateBehaviors(self):
        self.behaviors = self.fti.behaviors + self.instance_behaviors
        for name in self.behaviors:
            behavior = queryUtility(IBehavior, name=name)
            if behavior is not None:
                yield behavior

Now register this adapter via ZCML in configure.zcml:

<adapter factory=".behavior.DexterityInstanceBehaviorAssignable" />

We know what we want to use as a storing mechanism (Annotations) for per instance behaviors, and we have a custom adapter that knows to look for them, but we still need a way to save new behaviors to a specific instance's annotations.

In my case, I wanted to extend the Workspace content type with a Project behavior that provides additional fields. Refer to my blogpost on schema-extending a dexterity type for an explanation on how to create such a custom behavior. This was however only my specific use-case, and any behavior can be applied in this way.

To provide a mechanism for saving new per instance behaviors, I created a browser view @@enable_project, which can be called on any Workspace instance. When it gets called, my custom behavior (with full path myproduct.types.project.IProject) gets saved in the annotations of the specific Workspace.

class EnableProject(grok.View):
    grok.context(IWorkspace)
    grok.name('enable_project')
    grok.require('cmf.ModifyPortalContent')

    def render(self):
        context = aq_inner(self.context)
        annotations = IAnnotations(context)
        instance_behaviors = annotations.get(KEY, ())
        instance_behaviors += ('myprodcouct.types.project.IProject',)
        annotations[KEY] = instance_behaviors

        IStatusMessage(self.request).add(
            _(u"This Workpace has now been turned into a Project."),
              u"info")
        return self.request.RESPONSE.redirect(
                    '/'.join(context.getPhysicalPath()))

You may want to provide a UI mechanism for enabling per instance behaviors. I decided to do this by adding a new object_buttons action in the actions.xml Generic Setup file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<object name="portal_actions" meta_type="Plone Actions Tool"
   xmlns:i18n="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/i18n">
 <object name="object_buttons" meta_type="CMF Action Category">
  <property name="title"></property>
  <object name="enable_project" meta_type="CMF Action" i18n:domain="plone">
   <property name="title" i18n:translate="">Enable project</property>
   <property name="description" i18n:translate=""></property>
   <property
      name="url_expr">string:$object_url/@@enable_project</property>
   <property
      name="available_expr">python:context.portal_type == 'myproject.types.workspace' and not context.is_project() or False</property>
   <property name="permissions">
    <element value="Modify portal content"/>
   </property>
   <property name="visible">True</property>
  </object>
 </object>
</object>

This provides a convenient way (via the actions dropdown) for the end user to turn a Workspace into a Project.

The difference between BrowserSkins and BrowserLayers

zope-admin — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:10:00 +0200

In this blogpost I'd like to shed some light on two concepts that sound similar and can be quite ambiguous and confusing when first encountered.

When we register certain Zope Components (via ZCML or Grok), we can specify a layer attribute for which we would provide an Interface. This will restrict these components to be available only when that Interface is provided by the Request object.

In ZCML it looks like this:

<browser:page
    name="foo"
    for="*"
    template="my-template.pt"
    permission="zope.Public"
    layer=".interfaces.IMyLayer"
    />

And with Five.Grok:

class Foo(BrowserView):
    """ """
    grok.template("my-template")
    grok.name("foo")
    grok.layer(interfaces.IMyLayer)

How would the Request provide an interface? Well, with the Zope Component Architecture, you can make any object provide any interface, by using the alsoProvides method. In this way we can use interfaces as markers, to mark or identify certain objects.

In Plone this is very handy, because it allows us to only enable or disable certain functionality, by registering it against a specific Interface and then marking the Request or not. This "marking" of the request is done when your Plone add-on product is installed or uninstalled in the configuration panel.

How this is done, depends on two different implementations, one in plone.theme (called BrowserSkins), and one in plone.browserlayer (called BrowserLayers).

Both approaches do the same thing, they mark the Request with an Interface, but they way they do it differs, and that can be bewildering to the uninitiated.

BrowserSkins

plone.theme provides a way mark the request with an interface when it's associated with a skin installed in the portal_skins tool. Plone 4 comes with two skins, the Classic skin and the newer Sunburst. In other frameworks or environments, a skin could be called a theme.

Lets pretend we were creating a skin with a new egg product called collective.kickasstheme. If you've ever generated a Plone theme package with PasteScript and ZopeSkel, then you've now doubt seen the following.

In collective.kickasstheme.browser.interfaces.py we have this interface declared:

from plone.theme.interfaces import IDefaultPloneLayer

class IThemeSpecific(IDefaultPloneLayer):
    """Marker interface that defines a Zope 3 browser layer.
       If you need to register a viewlet only for the
       "Custom Theme" theme, this interface must be its layer
       (in kickasstheme/viewlets/configure.zcml).
    """

Registered with this ZCML:

    <interface
      interface=".interfaces.IThemeSpecific"
      type="zope.publisher.interfaces.browser.IBrowserSkinType"
      name="Kickass Theme"
      />

And then with browser resources registered against it, for example:

    <browser:resourceDirectory
      name="collective.kickasstheme.images"
      directory="images"
      layer=".interfaces.IThemeSpecific"
      />  

   <browser:viewlet
      name="collective.someviewlet"
      manager="plone.app.layout.viewlets.interfaces.IPortalFooter"
      class=".viewlets.MyViewlet"
      layer=".interfaces.IThemeSpecific"
      permission="zope2.View"
      />

The skin is installed with GenericSetup, so we need to inform it about it in collective/kickasstheme/profiles/default/skins.xml

    <object name="portal_skins" 
            allow_any="False" 
            cookie_persistence="False"
            default_skin="Kickass Theme">

       <-- Here comes a list of registered folders that are registered in portal_skins -->

    </object>

plone.theme registers an event subscriber (also known as an event listener) for the IBeforeTraverseEvent. In this subscriber, it queries for the BrowserSkin that is installed with the current Skin in portal_skins and then uses directlyProvides, to mark the Request object with this BrowserSkin. If our skin/theme product is installed, then the IThemeSpecific interface declared in our egg collective.kickasstheme will be the BrowserLayer and will mark the Request.

You can see the code for yourself in plone/theme/layer.py and plone/theme/configure.zcml.

This means that all components (such as BrowserViews, ResourceDirectories, viewlets, etc.) registered against our BrowserSkin will now appear. As soon as we uninstall our theme egg, they will again disappear, because the BrowserSkin is again removed.

Drawbacks

BrowserSkins have two major drawbacks.

You can only have one of them active at any time. If you need more than one BrowserSkin (which is just an Interface) on the request (i.e to render portlets registered against another one) you will have to subclass that other BrowserSkin.
You also need to create a theme product (with a skin registered in portal_skins) every time you want to create your own BrowserSkin.

So, what do we do if we for example want to create a new viewlet or portlet in a non-theme product, but don't want it to render unless the product is installed?

BrowserLayers

plone.browserlayer was developed to solve this problem.

So, now we can create any egg, it doesn't have to be a theme egg, and the declare inside it our BrowserLayer.

We start off by creating the marker Interface that will be given to the layer attribute:

from zope.interface import Interface 
class IMyProductLayer(Interface): 
    """Browser layer for this particular product 
    """

Then add a browserlayer.xml file to the GenericSetup profile directory, with the following:

<?xml version="1.0"?>    
<layers> 
    <layer name="my.product" 
           interface="my.product.interfaces.IMyProductLayer" /> 
</layers>

When we now install our egg in Plone's control panel, our BrowserLayer will also added to plone.browserlayer's persistent registry of "installed" layers and applied to the Request object during runtime.

All components and resources registered against this BrowserLayer will be activated and visible. Once we uninstall our egg, they will disappear again.

Benefits:

The benefits of using BrowserLayers are basically the inverse of the drawbacks of using BrowserSkins.

Any egg can have a dependency on plone.browserlayers and create BrowserLayers, not just theme eggs.
You can have multiple BrowserLayers currently on the Request.

Conclusion

Both BrowserSkins and BrowserLayers allow you to mark and unmark the Request object and thereby switch components on or off. They also allow you to override existing components, by simply registering your custom components against a specific layer. Previously, you had to override them in overrides.zcml and this could only be done once.

BrowserSkins had some drawbacks and BrowserLayers where developed to address these. That said, both are still around and both are still in use.

Lastly, please use them! It's bad practice to register components for Plone sites that are not tied to a layer. If you do. they will be active in the Plone site, regardless of the egg being installed or not, potentially causing havoc when serving multiple Plone sites.

Schema-extending Dexterity content types with five.grok and plone.behavior

JC Brand — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:40:00 +0200

This is just a quick blog post about using plone.behavior to change the schema of Plone's Dexterity content types. Hopefully it'll help people familiar the Archetypes' schema-extending paradigm, to achieve the same effect with Dexterity types.

Of course, Dexterity is not Archetypes, and plone.behaviors are not schema-extenders (well, not only), but sometimes you want to do the same thing, whether you're using Archetypes or Dexterity, and that is extend the schema of an existing content type created in a different product (that you don't want to or cannot edit) in your own product.

Martin Aspeli has provided much more thorough and complete documentation on behaviors here. In short, behaviors can be seen as conditional adapters. The condition being that the behavior must be listed in the behaviors property of the type's FTI (Factory Type information).

Schema-extending in Archetypes also happened through adapters, but they were not checked against the type's FTI, and were thus not conditional.

Example:

Suppose we have a Sector type in another package, and that we want to add another field statistics_level. We don't want to modify this other package, so we'll use plone.behavior to "extend its schema".

In our own package, we create sector.py and add the following code:

from zope import schema
from plone.directives import dexterity
from plone.directives import form
from plone.autoform.interfaces import IFormFieldProvider
from plone.app.dexterity.behaviors.metadata import MetadataBase
from plone.app.dexterity.behaviors.metadata import DCFieldProperty
  
class IExtendedSector(form.Schema):
    """ """
    statistics_level = schema.Choice(
        title = _("label_statistics_level", default=u"Statistics Level"),
        description = _("help_statistics_level",
                      default=u"Level 1: Basic statistics. Level 2: More detailed statistics."),
        required=True,
        vocabulary = SimpleVocabulary([
                          SimpleTerm(1, title=u"1"),
                          SimpleTerm(2, title=u"2"),
                     ]),
        default=1,
    )

The interface IExtendedSector defines the new field statistics_level that we want to add.

alsoProvides(IExtendedSector, IFormFieldProvider)

We then mark IExtendedSector with IFormFieldProvider to signal that it should be processed for form fields.

class ExtendedSector(MetadataBase):
    statistics_level = DCFieldProperty(IExtendedSector['statistics_level'])

Next we need a class that implements the MetadataBase behavior adapter and which will act as the adapter factory.

Now we need to wire this adapter in with ZCML:

    <plone:behavior
        title="Extended Sector"
        description="Provide additional statistics_level field"
        provides=".sector.IExtendedSector"
        factory=".sector.ExtendedSector"
        for="plone.dexterity.interfaces.IDexterityContent"
        />

Lastly we need the portal_types FTI (Factory Type Information) to be updated with our behavior. Go the the ZMI, then portal_types and then click on the Dexterity type you want to extend. You will see that there is a lines field called Behaviors.

Add the interface of your new extender here, i.e collective.myproduct.sector.IExtendedSector

That's basically it!

You probably want to add the behavior interface to a GenericSetup XML file that defines the type you are extending, to avoid having to manually add it to portal_types every time you create a new site (it's also very easy to forget about this step).

Something like this in your type's GS-XML file:

<!-- List of enabled behaviors -->
<property name="behaviors">
   <element value="plone.app.content.interfaces.INameFromTitle" />
   <element value="collective.myproduct.sector.IExtendedSector" />
</property>

Oh, and lastly... you're going to need five.grok for this. Your package needs to be grokked, otherwise the plone.directives.form form hints won't be activated.

In your configure.zcml:

    <grok:grok package="." />

You can do a lot more than just the above with Dexterity and plone.behavior, take a look at Martin's documentation for more info.

New spelling and grammar checker for TinyMCE

JC Brand — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:20:00 +0200

I've actually already added this add-on two months ago but didn't get around to mentioning it. After the deadline is an open-source spelling and grammar checker that can be integrated with web based WYSIWYG editors, such as our beloved TinyMCE.

This new spelling checker provides some advantages over the existing (and still default) IESpell. Firstly, IESpell only works on Microsoft Windows. Secondly, IESpell is only free for non-commercial purposes. After the deadline however is open-source (GPL license, see here) and platform agnostic. Oh, and it's multilingual as well! To top it off... the killer feature, for us at least, is that it has a grammar checker. Pretty impressive IMHO.

The actual thing doing the spellchecking, is a Java server app, which you should download and install on your own server. There is a public default option for testing and demonstration purposes, but it comes with no guarantees.

After the deadline is included with all Products.TinyMCE releases since 1.2.1, but it's not the default spell checker. To enable it is at least straightforward.

Enabling AtD in TinyMCE for Plone:

Go to the Plone control panel and click on "TinyMCE Visual Editor"
Click on 'Toolbar' (middle left)
Make sure that 'spellchecker' is checked.
Click on 'Libraries' (top right)
Under Spellchecker plugin to use, choose After the deadline
Under AtD Service URL, choose your ATD server's URL. (The default is their
public service)
It's however recommended that you install your own AtD spellchecker service
See here for more details.
You should now have After the deadline enabled and have a spellcheck button in your TinyMCE editor.

If you'd like a demonstration of ATD, see here.

Oh, and if you find any spelling/grammar mistakes in this blogpost, it's because I'm still using Products.TinyMCE 1.1.6 ;)

Plone 4 compatible release of Quills

JC Brand — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:35:00 +0000

Since I've started this site, I've been using Quills for blogging functionality in Plone. So far, it's been perfectly fine for my relatively simple needs and I haven't found a reason to change. Unfortunately, except for some work to port Quills to Plone 4, development and bugfixes on Quills has completely dried up. No new releases were made for more than a year and the mailing list was almost dead. I only realised this when I fixed some bugs while porting my site to Plone 4 and couldn't find anybody to help making a new Plone 4 compatible release.

Eventually I got hold of Tim Hicks, one of the original maintainers of Quills, and I offered to help out with maintaining Quills and to make the new releases.

So, I'm happy to announce that new Plone 4 compatible releases of the Quills packages have been made. Notably Products.Quills, Products.QuillsEnabled and quills.app (all now at version 1.8a1). This new release is labeled alpha, as I'm still very new to the Quills codebase, but I'm already using it on this blog without any major problems.

If there is anyone who is still using Quills on a legacy Plone site and would like to migrate to Plone 4, just pin your Products.Quills (and Products.QuillsEnabled) version to 1.8a1 in your versions.cfg or bulidout.cfg.

Hopefully everything goes well (did I mention it's alpha ;) but if not, feel free to let me know and I'll try to help out.

New beta of Babble Client (and related packages) released

JC Brand — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:15:00 +0100

In the last 6 months, my girlfriend and I went backpacking in South America and then we moved continents to go live in South Africa after having stayed in Germany for a while. To be honest, we completely underestimated the amount of effort involved in adapting and integrating into our new environment and the amount of admin that was waiting for us after having lived without any significant responsibilities for 4 and a half months while backpacking.

We had virtually no worldly possessions except for our backpacks (and some boxes in storage), and needed to get a place to stay and some office space for me.

Needless to say, it took us a while to get back on our feet and for me to get into a good working rhythm again.

New packages released:

So, I'm happy to finally be back in the swing of things and to be releasing new updates to some of the packages I help maintain.

I've released new versions of the packages in the Babble suite, specifically worth mentioning is the new beta version of babble.client (1.4b1) which provides support for email usernames (available in Plone 4).

Together with the client release, I had to release new versions of the messaging server: babble.server (0.3.1), actionbar.babble (0.1b1), a package which provides Babble integration for the actionbar.panel, and also a new version of collective.js.blackbird (which I use for Javascript logging). You can use babble.demo (0.2) to quickly set up a prototype environment in which to test Babble.

Improvements and new features:

I've gotten a few requests for new Babble client features the last months, for example the ability to broadcast chat messages and to restrict contacts to certain groups. Some of the smaller requests, I've implemented in my spare time (such as better URL handling in messages, and making the portlet header configurable), but others would simply take up too much of my valuable free time to implement. I would however be happy to assist anyone considering implementing these features themselves.

Some improvements I would like to eventually implement myself are better Javascript testing (for which I need to remove all DTML statements) and the ability to push messages to the client via something like comet (instead of polling).

There are going to be some PloneSA sprints coming up in the Cape Town area here in South Africa where I would hopefully be able to work on some of these areas.

As always, contributions are very welcome, thanks to Cleber J. Santos for fixing some Plone 3 compatibility bugs!

That's it. The Babble documentation is here: http://babblechat.org

Feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions!

South American travel diary, Part 4. September 2010

JC Brand — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 02:20:00 +0000

3 September, Starting our hike to Choquequirao

Choquequirao is a lesser known ruined Inca city located on the Salkantay mountains. It can only be visited after a strenuous two day hike, down into the Apurímac valley and then up again on the other side of the mountain. This makes it much less visited and also more mysterious than the famous Inca ruins at Machu Picchu. So far only about 30-40% of the site has been excavated.

The tour we booked consisted of four days of hiking, two days to Choquequirao and two days back for a total of about 70 km of steep, mountaneous terrain.

We got up early in the morning and headed by bus to the small town of Cachora, less than 200km removed from Cusco but still about 4 hours of driving on the endlessly curving and car-sickness inducing mountain road.

Cachora is a quaint and very rural town, with just about every building we could identify built out of mud. We waited at the back of a small shop, watching the chickens, pigs and mules in the backyard, as Jesús, our guide and cook, prepared lunch. Inside a dark room to the left was a colony of guinea pigs, most of whom inevitably will end up on someone's dinner plate someday. I considered eating guinea pig in Arequipa, a local delicacy, but after seeing a photo of a skinned guinea pig spread out on a plate, I decided to pass.

We were supposed to be a group of four people, but at the last minute, the other couple canceled because of food sickness. That meant it was only Manuela and I, Jesús our guide and Milano, the horse-guy, which suited us just fine. Additionally, we had a horse and a mule with us. They carried our luggage, food and the tent, as we headed off to the wild for the next four days. The English speaking guide we were promised, was of course nowhere to be found. Luckily our Spanish skills were by now good enough to understand the important bits and on occasion even make some smalltalk with Jesus, who turned out to be not just a nice guy but also fitter than a marathon runner.

We started our trek at about 12 in the afternoon, heading towards the snow-capped mountains in the distance. The trail went slowly upwards for about 10 kilometers (although this would turn out to be the most level part of the hike), before we descended on the other side of the mountain for another 9 km towards our campsite Chiquiska, near the Apurímac river. On the way we passed small farms and little huts with corn on plastic sheets lying next to them in the sun. The corn will be fermented to create Chicha, the local beer that dates back from Incan times. We stopped at one of the huts and bought a whole jug of the grainy, fizzy and little bit sour beer, for only 1 sol (about €0,30).

Jesús told me that they also have a stronger variant made out of fermented sugar cane. As luck would have it, we met a local farmer with his mule and his wife coming up the mountain. He happened to have some sugar cane chicha and generously offered it to us. We drank some of the stronger chicha, made a bit of small talk and then went our separate ways, them continuing up the mountain and us going down towards the river.

We arrived at our campsite just before dark, to discover that we would be the only people sleeping there. We were camping at an oasis near the river, surrounded by banana and papaya trees. Facilities were basic open outdoor showers (also known as hose pipes) and a hole in the ground as a toilet. We had a fresh papaya straight from the tree, before we unpacked our stuff and sat down to dinner. We were amazed at Jesús' ability to prepare a hearty and tasty three-course dinner in the wilderness with his limited supplies and no electricity.

That night, Jesús and Milano slept out in the open on wooden benches as Manuela and I went to bed in the relative luxury of our sleeping bags in a small domed tent.

4 September, Choquequirao

For the second day, we had to cross the Apúrimac river and hike back up the mountain on the other side. This turned out to be the toughest day of the hike, and Manuela got very angry at me for all the time anticipating the end around the corner only to find another steep zig-zag going further up the mountain.

At about noon, after 5 or 6 hours of hiking upwards, we reached a relatively level clearing with a small village of less than a 50 inhabitants. The houses were made of mud and there was no electricity or running water except for a mountain stream from which the locals channeled water using hose pipes.

We ate lunch under a roof next to one of these houses and then tried to rest for a while before we would have to continue trekking another 2 hours to the lost city of Choquequirao.

Choquequirao is situated in an absolutely stunning area and its clear that the Incas had an eye for choosing spectacular locations to build some of their cities. The beauty of these locations convinced them of their sacredness, and on a small hill next to the city they made a flat and round clearing (like a heli-pad) where they held their rituals. Standing in this clearing, with a 360° view of the mountains on all sides and the river cutting through the middle, was a very special experience that made the tough hiking all the more worth it.

Jesús and I then walked down towards the terraces on the other side of the mountain to look at the llama pictures made in the rock walls. The original way down was a long series of stone steps that would have to be hell to walk back up again. Luckily there is now also a hiking path going back up.

As mentioned before, Choquequirao is only partly excavated, and it was possible to go into the bushes next to the excavated buildings and see more walls, houses and other structures hidden between the thick vegetation. There were only 4 other tourists at the site that afternoon and we could roam the whole area undisturbed and entranced by the magical surroundings.

We stayed as long as we could and then started hiking back to the previous village were we would overnight. The hike lasted well past sunset and into the night and Manuela remarked on how we started the days hike before sunrise.

That night, Jesús prepared a delicious soup that he claims is a family tradition and we lay on the grass to look at the stars as we did the previous night down by the river. They were more vivid than I've ever seen before, and that includes star-gazing in the desert in Namibia and near the observatory in Sutherland, South Africa.

5 September, Choquequirao

On the third day, we had to hike back down the mountain, up the other side past our old camping site to another site further up. On the way, we stopped at a small mud house and shop were Jesús and I drank two vases of locally brewed Chicha beer before continuing onwards.

That night we camped next to a small two room mud house, were a local woman and her husband lived. We had dinner inside the bigger room, which functioned as a living-room, bedroom and kitchen in one, as the wife tended to an open fire and heated up some left-overs for the just returning husband. We were humbled by the simple and secluded lives that these people live, up in the mountains and far away from the trappings of modern society.

That night we had a special show held for us by the fireflies flickering neon green in the darkness and spread out all over the mountain.

6 September, Choquequirao

We had half a day of trekking left before we reached the town of Cachorra again. We left early and hiked up the mountain in thick mist that prevented us from seeing more than a few meters ahead. It was about 6 difficult kilometers up the steep mountainside, before we reached the top and hiked another 10 level kilometers to town.

The last four days' hike was tough but definitely worth the effort. We visited a lost city located in a spectacular location which left us amazed and inspired. In the process we learned a lot about ourselves, about rural Peru and the difficult yet simple life up in the mountains.

10 September, Traveling to Machu Picchu

After spending a few days resting in Cusco again, we prepared to leave to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. For many travelers, Machu Picchu might well be the main attraction of their South American trip. I remember being filled with wonder at the prospect of a continent filled with spectacular and mysterious ruins left by enigmatic empires such as the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans.

Machu Picchu itself was every bit as magical as I imagined it to be, but the profiteering, bad service and lies peddled to us by the agency we trusted to get us there, left quite a few fantasies shattered. Reality however sometimes has the effect of tempering a wild imagination.

Not that it would have necessarily have been better going with another agency. Cusco is filled to the brim with tour operators. Any idiot can set up a table with pictures of Machu Picchu and other attractions and start selling tours. And many do. The tours they sell are of course passed along to other operators, and in the process all accountability goes out the window.

Add to this the fact that the only sanctioned way of getting to Machu Picchu (with the exception of hiking for 2 to 3 days) is paying about US$100 for a one way train trip of little more than 100km, and we almost considered leaving the whole thing as it felt a bit too much like a rip-off.

Instead, we thought we found a way to beat the system. A small operator (one of these desk jobbies as mentioned earlier) offered two-day trips to Machu Picchu via bus for about US$115, whereas a normal tour would cost about US$180,

We left the morning very early, 4:30am to be exact, in a small tour bus excited to be on our way to the famous site. The first 3 hours driving turned out to be uneventful, until we reached the top of a mountain pass outside of Cusco. Turns out that we were bundled together with another group who booked a more adventurous tour and that they would now cycle down the mountain while we slowly follow 50m behind in the tour bus. For the next 2 and a half hours, we crawled down the mountain at about 20km per hour with the group of 20 or so cyclists ahead of us. Of course, our "tour agency" completely neglected to impart this little piece of information to us.

After coming down the mountain (with its comparatively good road), the day got progressively worse. Due to delays caused by the cyclists, bad planning and numerous roadworks on the horribly uneven and narrow gravel road through the valley, we reached the town of Santa Thereza for lunch at about 16:00pm with not a single apology or explanation made.

Eventually, after getting into a smaller bus and then afterwards also a train ride, we reached Aguas Calientes, the small tourist town close to Machu Picchu. It must be the most fake and kitsch town we have encountered on this whole trip. Perhaps ever. Everywhere are plastic Incas, kitsch paintings of muscled Incas (abvious rip-offs of 1980s fantasy art such as by Boris Vallejo), and of course someone trying to get you into their (overpriced) restaurant or hotel. Our tour guide on the other hand, couldn't be bothered to even remove his headphones to properly talk to us.

As mentioned, we left the morning at 4:30am, and arrived in Aguas Calientes at about 8:00pm. Keep in mind that Aguas Calientes and Cusco are only about 112km (in a straight line) apart.

10 September, Machu Picchu

We got up at 3am that morning in order to be among the 400 people who would be allowed to climb Huayna Picchu, the hill next to the lost city.

Walking around the ruins of Machu Picchu made all the effort in getting there worthwhile. The ruins and their location are simply spectacular and not even our half-useless guide could spoil the occasion.

On the way back, even though we were squeezed into a small minibus, the driver decided to make some more cash on the side and drove around Santa Thereza offering a trip to Cusco. Eventually three more locals entered the minibus as well and we continued to Cusco. The drive back was even more horrible than before. Our driver drove carelessly and very dangerously along the mountain passes, so much that we repeatedly had to ask him to drive more carefully. He didn't give a rat's ass of course, and continued to speed and cut corners.

After about 8 hours of driving, when we got closer to Cusco, he suddenly veered off the tarmac and started driving on a rough and uneven dirt road. Turns out that there was some kind of roadblock ahead which he was trying to avoid. Why the hell would he take a big detour on a rough gravel road to avoid a roadblock? Of course he declined to tell us, so we could only guess.

Long story short, Manuela and I were so relieved to be back at our hostel after a frightening and claustrophobic journey of about 9 hours, that we went to the supermarket and bought a whole lot of comfort food. Crisps, chocolate and red-wine. We celebrated still being alive. Moral of the story, don't take the "bus" to Machu Picchu!

11 September

We went for a massage. Like everything in Peru (and even more so in Bolivia) even though the masseuses really try hard and I can only respect their work ethic, they somehow just lack those finishing touches of professionalism. The CD player doesn't work, they need to move the tables when a new client comes in and the one girl burnt Manuela with a hot stone. All in all, it was only €6, so still good value for money.

Manuela also received coca cream for her face. This reminded me of an earlier prediction I made to her and which I'll mention here as well. I predict that within 5 to 10 years, a coca craze or fashion will enter the Western market for especially cosmetics and toilettries. Expect coca toothpaste, facial creams, shampoos and the like. Watch this space ;) Similar to the herbal toothpaste craze of a few years back...

13 September, Leaving to Manu National Park

We had already resigned ourselves with the idea of not going to the Amazon during this trip, when Manuela spotted a flyer in Cusco advertising a work and travel opportunity in the Amazon basin in Manu National Park. Originally we considered going to Belém in Brazil, or Iquitos in Peru, but both turned out to be very expensive and the stories of unscrupulous and non-ecofriendly tour operators didn't impress us much either. This opportunity, presented by an agency called ManuPeruAmazon, seemed to be different however, and after chatting with them at their Cusco office, we signed up for a week of camping in the jungle to help out with volunteering work while also taking part in hikes and boatrides.

Manu National Park is an area which is so difficult to reach that the Spaniards actually never invaded it. They attempted at different times resulting in the loss of many men forcing them to eventually give up. Uncontacted tribes still roam the vast and unreachable interior.

ManuPeruAmazon is the project of Oliver Innocente, an Italian expat, and his Peruvian wife Carolina. Oliver has been living in Peru for about 20 years, most of them spent in the jungle.

After taking a 7 hour bus-ride from Cusco into Manu National park, we arrived at a small town where Oliver was waiting for us. His right hand was bandaged after been stung or bitten by something, most probably a spider. His right thumb, where the bite took place, was completely red and swollen up to more than twice it's normal size, while his fingers and wrist were also still red and swollen. On the spot where the bite took place, was a large gash with raw flesh peeling out. And this was already 8 days after it happened. This being the jungle, Oliver didn't have access to medication, not that he wanted any really, and he made exclusive usage of local medicinal plants.

We drove for another half an hour to a small river port town and Oliver showed us the biggest pea I've ever seen. The pips are covered in a white fluff, which was quite tasty.

From the port we took a motorized wooden boat on the Madre del Dios, an important tributary of the Amazon river, downstream into the jungle and towards our camping place. It was an amazing experience.

The campsite itself was literally 4 small domed tents and two reed and grass structures to provide shade. For the next 5 days we would have to wash in the river and digg a small hole every time we needed a toilet. This was exactly the experience I was hoping for, something more basic and away from the other tourists and tour guides who treat them like wallet owning cattle.

Oliver was given this particular plot of land (more than a 100 hectares) by the Peruvian government only two months ago, to facilitate its rehabilitation after being damaged earlier by a large landslide. He already had grand plans for reintroducing different plant species, creating a botanical center and also facilities for students and scientists to come and study the jungle. About 60 meters up, there was another campsite, with a thatched roof where Carolina would prepare food. We were convinced relatively early that Oliver was genuinely concerned with protecting the local environment and that he cared deeply for the jungle. He spoke with great respect of the local natives who still live in the Amazon and about their beliefs and knowledge of the environment.

This first nigth at the campsite we saw little glowing green eyes, moving between the plants and the darkness. These irridescent green dots were on the backs of so-called click beetles, named after the clicking sound they make when you capture them. This, coupled with the everpresent symphony of the jungle, countless other beetles, crickets, critters, bugs and birds, created a truly magical first night in the Amazon.

14 September, Working and hiking in the Amazon

On this day we got up at about 5 in the morning and went to the clay walls where blue headed parrots licked clay to ingest minerals in order to counter the toxins of some of the unripe fruits they eat.

Our campsite was right next to the river and there were still pools of water near the tents. Numerous butterflies of many different shapes, colours and sizes asssembled near these pools. Some were very large and yellow, others were adorned with intricate patterns of a beautiful dark blue, while another kind was a kind of unearthly neon green. They contributed a whole bouquet of different colours to the jungles's palette of infinite shades of green.

The path towards the topmost campsite was steep and at certain spots difficult to climb. One of the first things that needed to be done, was to build steps on these steep parts and Tony and I volunteered to start working on this. At the upper campsite, there was also a small nursery, made out of halved bamboo reeds, where Manuela and Sofia helped to clean the reeds and plant new seeds.

Using shovels in the damp sand, we relatively quickly created the initial steps, but in the jungle humidity and hot sun we sweated like never before.

After doing volunteer work in the morning, we ate lunch, relaxed for a whlie and then took the boat downriver to start a four hour hike starting on the other riverbank. We hiked for about an hour and a half, through swamps, under gigantic leaves (called Elephant ears) and under very tall trees where we saw some squirrel monkeys. Eventually we reached a small lake bordered by an imposing wall of thick impenetrable jungle up to 40 meters high. We took a so-called "catamaran" (basically just a wooden barge) on the river and for the first time, we were so quiet, slowly floating on the still water, that we could really appreciate the countless birds on the lake, undisturbed by our presence. On the one side of the river, a Capybara was relaxing and everywhere where the Huatzin (German "Schopfhuhn") and other birds.

We arrived back at the campsite when it was already dark and becoming clear that a thunderstorm would soon be breaking out. For the last half an hour we saw impressive displays of lightning interspersed with loud ominous thunder, betraying the massive size of the clouds moving above us. The wind was so strong, that first Tony's and Sofia's and then our tent collapsed and we hastily had to pack our stuff and hike away from the river bank to the upper campsite to avoid the danger of a rising river during the night.

As we reached the upper campsite, the wind picked up in strength and it started to rain. The strong wind teared holes into the sides of the large tent housing our dining area. The winds were by now so strong that we were at risk of falling trees and more than once we had to run outside and stand in the relative safety of a clearing. The branches of some trees were now breaking off, and once I had a narrow escape as a large sharped edged branch came flying past me as I came out of the tent. Eventually the wind started to quiet down, while the rain continued through the night and into the next morning.

15 September, Tabacco ceremony

It is quite interesting to experience the rich, lush and fertile jungle, while simultaneously also it's hostility. Sandflies and mosquitos are an everpresent nuisance, biting the skin and causing itches and sores. One tree's bark causes irritation on the skin while many others are covered in dangerous thorns. All the worms we encountered are covered in large hairy spikes that are not to be touched, while poisenous plants and fruits abound. Yet, we drank water from a local stream, without the need of even a purifier, while the tap water of most of South America is off limits.

Previously Thomas, a polish volunteer who was already at the campsite when we arrived on the first day, went out to pick some wild jungle tobacco and let it dry out in the sun. The local people use the tobacco in a ceremony as a medicinal plant, during which the participants drink boiled tobacco water, together with about 5 litres of water, until they throw up, thereby cleaning and purifying their stomachs. Thomas offered to prepare the tobacco for us and all four of us decided to take part in such a ceremony. It was an interesting experience and each of us threw up in the end. I felt weak and tired directly after the ceremony, but a little while later I regained my strenght and headed down to continue working on the steps.

Coming down the steps, I saw a big Tayra otter, directly in front of me. It snatched what seemed to be a banana left there by someone and then disappeared into the bushes. It was amazing, every time leaving the camp, you could discover animals, birds or insects of which you never had an idea before,

16 September

The following night, we moved our tent for the third time in three days. This time, next to a very tall tree near the edge of the campsite. Coming down this tree was a long path of leaf-cutter ants, each one carrying cutling of leaf in its pincers. The path extended down onto the ground and then away into the jungle for about 15 meters before it disappeared into the dense undergrowth and I couldn't follow it anymore. This was a very nice surprise for me, having grown up playing with (torturing) the large red ants on my grandfathers farm and since developing a fascination for these industrious little creatures. The Amazon jungle seems to be an ant lovers paradise.

During our hike two days ago, Victor, our Peruvian guide, showed us a specific tree filled with very aggressive fire ants. These ants live in symbiosis with this tree and actively protect it from any invaders, for example such as the leaf-cutter ants. The other trees in the jungle are fair game for all kinds of insects, ants and mammals, but this specific tree is left unscathed.

Then there are the large (2 to 3 centimeters!) black solitary ants. They do not belong to any colony and are quite dangerous, with a bite that causes a nasty fever. In addition there were even larger reddish ants, whose backsides the natives cook in oil, and all kinds of flying ants.

17 September, Leaving to Cuzco

Our last morning in the jungle was spent carrying stones to cover the steps we built. Afterwards we all went for a fun and refreshing swim in the the river, letting the current take us to another riverbank downstream. Five minutes out of the river and we were again drenched in sweat as we packed our bags for the long trip back to Cuzco.

The bus smelled like sweat and coca leaves, and after arriving at the first roadblock, we understood why. There was a woman in intraditional clothes carrying a large bag, and when the police officer entered the bus she stuffed it under the large jumper she was wearing. As he passed her, she pulled it out and threw it across two rows to a friend on another seat, who hid it under his seat. The police officer took a quick look and left without any arrests, but more drama was to come as we entered Cusco.

The second roadblock, about 4 o'clock in the morning, contained many more police officers and they were also quite a bit more aggressive. Four officers entered the bus and started searching through people's bags. The woman who previously managed to hide her bag from the police wasn't so lucky this time. Three officers stood over her and demanded to see the bag she was trying to hide. She just flatly refused however, and when one officer tried to take the bag, a pulling match broke out between her and the police. For what seemed like 20 seconds, the police officer tried to pulll the bag away from her as she clung to it for dear life. Ultimately, it was an quite entertaining if futile effort on her part to prevent them searching through her bag, and eventually she was arrested.

When we eventually left the bus at the bus station, about 5 o'clock in the morning, I noticed that the whole floor was covered in coca leaves. Apparantly, Peruvians are allowed to transport a certain quote of coca leaves on them, but the problem on the bus was that the people from the jungle were trying to transport coca above this quota.

18 September, Reggae party in Cusco

As this was our last night together with Tony and Sofia, we decided to celebrate and go out. We partied the whole night through in a club where a Reggae band played all the classics and time flew by.

We were definitely sad to have to split up with our new friends again as the four of us got along very well which can be rare while traveling.

Something for other travelers to take note of in Cuzco is a small vegetarian restaurant in Calle Ruinas named La Encuentro in Cusco. They offer the best lunch deal in town between the many tourist rip-offs (salad buffet and 2 courses of food plus a drink made, all made of organic ingredients for 6 Soles).

20 September, Leaving to Chile

For our trip to Tacna, on the border with Chile, we finally managed to book a Cruz del Sur bus, recognised as the best bus service in Peru. Not only that, but we also managed to get the mythical full cama bus with fully reclining seats. We've almost given up hope of capturing one of these elusive buses in South America, despite persistent rumours that they do actually exist.

During our stay in Copacabana, we went to a bus agency with large TurPeru (another good bus company) posters outside and booked what we thought was a full cama, TurPeru bus from Copacabana to Arequipa. We got however a crappy local bus with semi-reclining seats and a terrible driver schooled in the proud Peruvian tradition of bad bus drivers.

This time, things were different however. We arrived at the terminal, and there it was. An actual Cruz del Sur full-cama bus waiting for us. This was the most luxurious bus we took so far, with plasma screen televisions and large spacious leather seats, pillows, blankets, food, drinks and a clean bathroom. The bus is even monitored via GPS to prevent speeding, which is a welcome restriction to your average Peruvian driver's natural impulse.

21 September, Tacna Peru to Arica in Chile

We drove 9 hours to Arequipa and then switched to another, less luxurious bus to Tacna. The landscape outside of Tacna is completely barren. This must be the place where they shot the Martian landscape scenes in movies like Total Recall. There is absolutely nothing growing in this part of the Atacama desert and it was quite a contrast to the lust Amazonian jungle in Manu national park. The air that finally manages to cross the high Andes is by then completely depleted of water. This results in the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world.

Arriving in Tacna, we took the local bus to Arica for 10 Soles per person. Half the price that the Taxi drivers (apparantly Collectivo) at the bus station wanted. The bus was fine and crossing the border to Chile without incident as well.

Coming into Arica, we were stunned by the amount of Chilean flags we saw. Almost every single house and many cars had a Chilean flag (sometimes two) hanging on a mast. We weren't sure what to make of this spectacle.

Arica has a pedestrian precinct on Avenue 21 de Mayo and it was interesting to see all the fashionable clothes shops, department stores and other consumerist havens which people in many countries take for granted but were quite scarce in Peru and basically non-existent in Bolivia. Almost all the shops were decorated with Chilean colours and flags and it was here that we finally realised that Chile was busy celebrating their 200 year independence anniversary.

21 September, Tacna Peru to Arica in Chile

Just outside our hotel is a mural with four graves, one whose cross throws the shadow of a swastika. One of the graves bears the inscription Augusto Pinochet, 1915-2006. Fuck, a reference to Chile's brutal former right-wing dictator, whose regime was responsible for the deaths and dissapearances of tens of thousands of dissident Chileans. Shortly after coming to power after a military coup in 1979, he rounded up all the leftists and dissidents he could find and killed and tortured them in the local Santiago football stadium.

Incidentally, during the 1980s, he also had narrow relations with Israel and the Apartheid South African government. Chile is still coming to grips with the pain caused by his regime, and it was interesting to see this already on our first day here.

23 September, Arriving in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

We were quite disappointed with San Pedro de Atacama. The town itself looks quite nice, with desert adobe style buildings and a bit of an alternative vibe, but this was all spoiled by the aggressive tour operators, accommodation, restaurant and bar promoters and sky high prices. The moment we got out of the bus, we were surrounded by 5 or 6 different people trying to sell us their accommodation. For the rest of our stay in the town, we would not be able to go outside without having to fight off various different sellers and promotors. Definitely not our idea of a nice time. The Lonely Planet mentions that San Pedro de Atacama is a town in which the tourism industry developed too rapidly (with all the negative aspects that this brings), and that is exactly how it appeared to us as well.

It was sad and a bit strange to see almost no authenticity in the town. We encountered almost no locals who weren't trying to cash in on tourism. There were for example no school children walking home, or any other activity by the locals that might represent some kind of normalcy unaffected by tourism, except the sunday church service.

25 September, Bicycle ride to the valley of the moon

After an aborted attempt at cycling the 12km out of town towards the Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon) the previous day (we left too late to catch the sunset), we decided to try again one more time. To make matters worse the previous day, my bicycle broke and we had to walk back to town. So, instead of going to KMZ, were we were before, we went to another and even cheaper shop, where we rented the bikes for half a day at C$3000 (€4,50).

We biked out of town for about 5 kilometers, until the entrance to the valley of the moon, from where it was another 7 kilometers on a relatively flat gravel road that curves to the right and then ends after a ramp up and into the canyons. We weren't the only ones going there, but just about the only ones going by bike. Quite a lot of buses and cars passed us by as we huffed and puffed cycling against a strong headwind.

We eventually reached the lookout point and watched the sunset, still being relatively stressed after a negative hostel experience earlier in the day. The landscape is quite pretty and we felt that renting a pair of bikes to get there was probably our best option. San Pedro de Atacama offers quite a few scenic places to which the many tour agencies would be quite happy to drive you, but the tours (as with most things in the town) are all overpriced in our opinion.

Concerning our negative experience earlier in the day, suffice to say that we would NOT recommend staying at Corvatsch hostel. The staff were all rude and unfriendly and there was a dark cloud of negativity hanging over the place from the moment we arrived. The guy who runs the place is hands down the biggest asshole we met in Chile (people in general actually being quite friendly and nice) who even physically threatened a fellow roommate of ours after he objected to his female friend being shouted at. Eventually, our whole dorm of 6 people demanded our money back, packed our stuff and left for another hostel.

26 September, Back to Bolivia and Salar de Uyuni

During our last stay in Bolivia, we were prevented from going to the famous Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world, by discontented miners and other Bolivians from the Potosi district. They had blockaded the roads outside of Potosi as well as the small town of Uyuni with stones and dynamite, effectively imprisoning the whole town populations and preventing anyone else from getting in. The story made international headlines because a group of about a hundred tourists were stranded at the Uyuni airport while the food stores of the town ran low.

We waited a few days extra at Sucre, hoping that the dispute might be resolved soon, but eventually realised the gravity of the situation and went to La Paz instead. You might expect that as the situation worsened, the tourists in Bolivia might be dissuaded from trying to get into Uyuni, but for some of them, it did exactly the opposite. People paid outrageous sums of money for private jeep transfers all the way from La Paz, to try and circumvent the roadblocks, just about the same time as the stranded Uyuni tours tried to escape via small chartered flights. At least one time they were unsuccessful, with protesters laying rocks and dynamite on the airport runway.

So, here we were about a month later and things seemed to be back to normal in Uyuni. This time we would enter from the Chilean border (close to San Pedro de Atacama), and drive through the Bolivian Altiplano (high plateau) desert with it's harsh cold weather towards the salt flat itself.

On the first day, we drove with the Licancabur volcano in the background, towards sulfur spewing geysers and hotsprings where we took a dip in the 35° water. We then continued past green and turquise coloured lakes towards the spectacular Laguna Colorada (red lake), where we would overnight at a house nearby.

For the whole day the wind was blowing with incredible force, blasting sand into your face and eyes, while temperatures hovered just above freezing point. Nevertheless, Manuela and I decided to take a walk towards a lookout point near the red lake. The wind was behind our backs making things a bit easier as we walked through the small tough gold-coloured bushes (basically the only vegetation in the area) past a herd of Vicunyas (cousins of the Llama) on the one side and pink flamingoes on the other side.

Walking back towards our lodgings was a different story however. The wind was blowing against us with full force, freezing our exposed skin and hurting our eyes. From time to time we would turn around and walk backwards for a while, before we would get tired of the slow pace and make another attempt at trudging against the wind. This might have been more frustrating, if not for the fact that we were enchanted by the harsh but beautiful landscape around us. Parts of Laguna Colorada's waters were a truly blood-coloured red, creating an impressive contrast to the gold coloured wind-swept hills.

27 September, Salar de Uyuni

All the tour operators in Salar de Uyuni make use of Toyota Land Cruisers, as they are the only vehicles able to handle the rough terrain coupled with the extreme height above sea-level (well above 3500m up to more than 5000m).

On the second day our old Land Cruiser shook and bumped its way past more coloured lakes, vicunyas and pink flamingos. We had a flat tire just after lunch, and then another one near the end of the day, which left us stranded and hoping that another tour group would soon pass and help us out.

In the end, we were very lucky and only had to wait about 15 minutes before another Land Cruiser arrived from whom we could get a spare wheel. We slept the night in a salt hotel, a bit of a gimmick, but still kinda cool.

Flavio, our excellent guide and driver, spent most of the evening patching and fixing the two burst tires. Before we embarked on the Uyuni tour we were a bit concerned, having heard numerous stories of drunk and sometimes abusive drivers. Luckily this didn't turn out to be a problem for us and we were very impressed with the one that we had.

We booked the tour through a Chilean tour company called Tierra Mistica, and could recommend them to other travelers.

28 September, Salar de Uyuni

On the final day of the Salar de Uyuni tour we finally reached the actual salt flat. The salar is actually the remnant of an ancient prehistoric inland sea and is almost completely flat. In fact, it's probably the best driving surface (if not actually a road) in all of Bolivia!

In the middle of the salar lies Incahuasi (meaning house of the Inca's), an outcropping refered to as the "island". The island is covered in large cacti, and still has the remains of the ancient coral reefs that grew there when the whole place was under water. It must have been an awesome place for scuba diving.

You can easily lose your perspective in the Salar, making it possible to take all kinds of silly photos. I broke off a piece of salt from the ground and put it in my mouth. It was salty, but not as extreme as a clump of table salt would have been.

29 September Tupiza, Bolivia

We arrived in Tupiza, the previous night after hitching a ride with a driver from Tupiza tours who also just finished a Salar de Uyuni tour. He dropped us off at Hostal Horizon Colorado and after some unsuccessful haggling we settled on a private room with three beds, a television, private bathroom with mirror and a waste basket (almost always lacking) for less than half the price we paid for the shitty 6 bed dorm in San Pedro de Atacama (about €7,40).

Next to our hostel is a salon de belezza (beauty salon) and, in typical Bolivian fashion, with a nameboard that looks like it was designed (I use the word quite liberally) using Microsoft paint and some standard fonts together with a few images of women collected from the web. One of the "women" actually being a picture of a Barbie doll. Whatever happened to subtlety?

From the getgo we felt quite happy and at home in Tupiza and despite our earlier reservations, we were enjoying it to be in Bolivia again. So far we've managed to avoid any buses and the people even seem a bit friendlier than before. Either because our Spanish skills are improving or perhaps because Tupiza is just a friendlier town. It's a pleasure walking around town again, visiting the local markets with their wide variety of fresh produce, cheap clothes from China, offerings to Pachamama and almost anything else that the townsfolk might need.

It's also one of the more authentic towns we've come across so far. Especially compared to San Pedro de Atacama, where it feels as if every single inhabitant is greedily contemplating how to make (more) money out of tourism. In Tupiza, the locals go about their daily routines (like selling llama fetuses for example), largely oblivious (or at least tolerating) the odd gringo to come across their path. So far we've spotted about 12 other gringos after criscrossing the entire town. Gone are the kitsh tourist shops, restaurant and bar promoters pestering you to enter their establishments and of course the swarm of tourists who would otherwise with their presence enable all these things to happen. It's like a breath of fresh air.

30 September Horseback riding in Tupiza, Bolivia

Tupiza really has some amazing surroundings, perfect for donning a cowboy hat and heading out on a horse. We rented two Argentinian horses and set off with our guide on a 7 hour ride out into the area.

Turns out, our "guide" was a thirteen year old boy. Perhaps this was not strictly legal, and it would be unthinkable in Germany, but he seemed to know the area and how to ride a horse and in Bolivia that already counts for a lot.

1 October, Leaving for Córdoba, Argentina

After our horseback-riding adventure of the previous day we were ready to leave to Córdoba in Argentina. This would mean 3 hours in a local bus until the Bolivian-Argentinian border, and then another 18 hours in an Argentinian bus until Córdoba.

We went to the bus station two days before to find the bus schedule and perhaps so long book a bus to the border, but when we arrived there we saw an agency for a bus company called Balut, whith large photos of a big gold bus with the letters Cama Gold written across it. The other bus agencies had paintings of buses if anything at all. Not exactly something that instills confidence.

We entered the little Balut office and asked the lady some questions. "Yes the bus is full-cama (meaning luxurious and fully reclining) and looks like the gold one on the picture", "Yes, lunch and dinner will be served on the bus.", "The bus will leave from the border at 19:00 and will take you through border controls", and so on. Wow, this seems great!

Well, aftrer taking another dilapedated old local Bolivian bus to the Villazon, we were still optimistic and looking forward to the gold coloured luxury full-cama bus that will be taking us from there to Córdoba.

We enter the Balut office in Villazon, see more pictures of gold Balut buses crossing Argentina and ask for our tickets. Turns out however that just about everything we were promised before was bullshit. The bus isn't full-cama, isn't gold and looks nothing like on the pictures. It will leave later than originally told and there won't be any meals served on the bus. And lastly, it doesn't take us through border controls, we have to walk there (or take a taxi) ourselves. Ah, good old Bolivia, that was again, what people warned us of before!

October, Cordoba in Argentina

It's alread October by now and we have since left Bolivia for Cordoba and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Cordoba is a fascinating and culturally rich city with seven (7!) universities. We spent a lot of time just walking through the city center, checking out the bakeries, coffee shops, malls and other amenities that we've since learned to appreciate.

Roberto Allende and the guys from Menttes invited me out for dinner and I was served the largest steak I've ever seen. Covered with two fried eggs for good measure.

Roberto's lovely wife and their 2 month old son also accompanied us, giving Manuela the chance to hold and play with the baby, while we discussed frameworks.

The next night we met up with the Javier Mansilla (whom I met earlier at the Budapest Plone conference) and his colleagues at Machinalis and enjoyed some Picadas with Argentinian beer and more wine.

We agreed that the Plone ties between Argentina and South Africa need to be strengthened and I intend to return home with just that message! Thanks for the friendly hospitality from all the Plonistas in Cordoba!

October, Buenos Aires Argentina and then off to Cape Town!

We had high hopes for Buenos Aires after hearing so many good stories from friends and travelers and I'm glad to say that we weren't disappointed in the least. Tango in the streets, more good steak, friendly people, good infrastructure, great nightlife, and an old and interesting city center; Buenos Aires really has a lot to offer.

The Argentinians close all the shops around lunch until about 16:00 to allow for a fiesta, which took a bit getting used to as we tended to start going out to town at around lunch each day. Because of this, the Argentinians also go out much later. We would arrive at a restaurant at 21:30 and be the only customers there. Then, at about 22:30 the locals arrive and at 23:00 it's full! In Germany many restaurants would have by then already closed the kitchen.

We have three days left in Argentina before flying to Cape Town and starting a new chapter of our lives in South Africa. I am still enjoying Buenos Aires, its culture of Gauchos (Cowboys), Tango and late night dining, but also filled with excitement at the prospect of going home for the first time in two years and at seeing old friends and family again.

From myself and Manuela, who had contributed lots of insights, corrections and stories to this blog, I would like to say, thanks for reading and "Adiós Chicos!"

South American travel diary, Part 3. Aug 2010

JC Brand — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:45:20 +0000

1 August, Traveling from Samaipata to Sucre

We began the month traveling by night bus from the lovely small town of Samaipata to Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia.

We stopped in the middle of the night next to a church in a small unknown town, and everybody streamed out of the bus. Obviously this was a restroom break, but in Bolivia that implies something else than it would in most other countries.

Most passengers didn't even walk five meters before unfastening and pissing right there in the street between the bus and the church. A proper restroom was or even a kios was nowhere to be found.

About 30 meters away, a family or group of friends were sitting around a table in a little restaurant. For them, it must have been a sight to behold; an entire bus full of people (men and woman) appearing in their field of view, pissing in and around the street.

With an area of 30 meters around the bus covered in dozens of streams of urine, everyone promptly returned to their seats and the bus continued to Sucre as if nothing funny ever happened.

In hindsight, we were lucky that the bus stopped at all. We have been warned that the busses travel for hours and hours without stopping for breaks and one traveler even told us that she suspected people of urinating in their seats.

Little did we know that urine (and urinating) would become a recurring theme in Bolivia. Men and boys (and sometimes woman) would piss at the side of a traffic filled street in the middle of town and in broad daylight. That awful smell is omnipresent and a not so gentle reminder that everything outdoors is fair game to be used as a lavatory, and not just by the roaming packs of dogs.

2 August, Sucre: Exploring Cólon

Manuela, our friends Tony and Sofia and myself arrived early the next morning in Sucre and took a taxi to our hostel.

We headed off to the nearby Christobal Colón street, to find a cheap place for lunch. There were a few Plato Familiar restaurants in the area, with not much separating them concerning outward aesthetics, so we decided with our empty guts and chose one at random. The eatery was family owned and the children were also involved, either taking orders or carrying plates of food. The menu is set. Everyone eats the same lunch, with the advantage being that it is incredibly cheap. Lunch consisted of a soup (described by Sofia as reminiscent of Minstroné), a main dish consisting of grilled meat with rice and a small salad, and an orange for desert. All for 9 Bolivianos per person, about €1.

3 August, Sucre's markets

The city center of Sucre is actually quite pretty, with white colonial buildings backdropped by large mountains in the distance.

What is really remarkable and noticable about Sucre, is the everpresent juxtaposition of cultures and generations. The old and the new clash on almost every street. I would walk down the street passing an old woman in traditional clothes selling nuts, and then a few meters later pass an internet shop filled with young kids playing World of Warcraft.

Travelers looking for something more authentic than a South American varitation of western consumerism, will inevitably enjoy Bolivia. The woman in particular all wear traditional outfits consisting of Bowler hats, braided hair down to their hips decorated with tassles at the ends and colourfully weaved ponchos, scarves and bags. Parts of the outfit, the hat in particular, can be attributed to Spanish influences, but the end effect is unquestionably and endearingly native.

Going shopping in Sucre (and Bolivia in general) is an experience in and of itself. Supermarkets are few and far between, and Bolivians instead buy and sell almost anything you might need at the local market or on the street. The main market in Sucre is quite big and well ordered. The woman selling cosmetics, soap and beauty products are all clumped together in one area.

Another area is reserved for stalls with food products (pasta, rice, canned food, sauces etc.), yet another section contains meat sellers, then fruit sellers, cakes, sweets, toys and on and on. The whole area bustles with activity and shopping seems to be a much more social experience, with the inevitable small talk and bartering as one moves from stall to stall to buy the day's or week's essentials. You cannot walk through the market without people calling you over to try and sell their warres. Their sales call is usually a three times repetition of the particular item they want to sell. Such as Mandarina!, Mandarina!, Mandarina! when selling fruit, or even La Paz!, La Paz!, La Paz!, when selling tickets at the bus station.

The walls of the one courtyard inside the market building are lined up with small fruit stalls, with women behind them selling smoothies and fruit salads. I ate the best tasting fruit salad of my life at one of these stalls (for about € 0.50). We've seen similar fruit salad stalls in La Paz, but they weren't as good. Highly recommended for anyone visiting Sucre.

In addition to the local market, there are also turistico markets, selling bags, clothes, jewelry and mementos to the tourists. One of the travelers favourites, is the chompa, the Bolivian equivalent of a jersey or jumper (from where the local name comes), complete with llama patters and often being associated and worn by the Bolivian president Evo Morales, much in the same way that Nelson Mandela wore his colourful shirts. Other loved items are colorful bags and handbags, leather wallets, caps and Incan/Peruvian beanies. Almost every backpacker will buy at least one traditional clothes item, which the older people all still wear, while many youngsters try their best to look urban and "western".

Another oddity in Sucre (at least for Bolivia), is the businessman wearing the western style suit and tie. This is quite a contrast to the countryside, where the people live a life of subsistance farming with their donkeys, chickens and cows.

4 August, Sucre's dinosaur tracks

We made a visit to the dinosaur tracks outside of Sucre, home of the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world. The footprints were discovered in 1994 by the workers at the cement quarry operating in the area. Up to 5000 prints from about 250 different dinosaurs are embedded in a gigantic, near-vertical slab of limestone rock.

Unfortunately the visit was a major disappointment, even for a former dinosaur nut like me. It seems that the company owning the quarry prevented the construction of a proper dinosaur park or museum. The limestone rock containing the footprints is seperated from the actual museum by a large part of the quarry, including a road carrying its trucks, and this section is off limits to any visitors. The small dinosaur museum is located on a hill about 50 meters away, from where you can squint to try and see the footprints.

I couldn't help but wonder whether this was not the result of bribing and corruption which enabled a big business (the cement company) to prevent the establishment of a proper museum (next to the actual footprints) of what is obviously a national archeological treasure. The museum itself looked nice from the outside and it seems as if is was created or funded by people with good intentions, who wanted to create a center for education and the preservation of the prints, but the fact that it was so far removed from the actual site was just depressing. In the end, after hearing from another disappointed Spanish tourist, that the museum itself was not worth the entrance fee, and also out of principle, we decided not to enter.

Tony and I tried to sneak down the hill and closer to the footprints to get a closer view or at least a nicer picture, but we were quickly spotted by the guards and told to leave. Closer to the tracks, we found a small brick building and a sign welcoming visitors to the Dinosaur museum, confirming our suspicions that the original musuem was planned to be closer to the actual prints. Too bad.

5 August, Sucre: My birthday, the mirador and the best steak in a very long time

One of the advantages of Sucre, is the high number of good and yet very affordable restuarants in the area. Today was my birthday, and Manuela and I went with Tony and Sofia to a café up a hill where one could have a view of the whole city. Tony and I bought some coca leaves at the market the previous day, and we were munching on balls of leaves pressed into our cheeks as we walked up the hill. After about an hour of having the leaves in your mouth, you should add a catalyst (either plant ash or bicarbonate soda) and then put the ball back into your mouth. The end effect is a mild stimulant, like a strong cup of coffee, but not much more.

Afterwards we went to a French restaurant near the city center. We drank a bottle of Aranjuez red wine and decided to eat potatoes with caviar and the steak with red wine and mushroom sauce. This turned out to be the absolute culinary highlight of our time in Bolivia, and the best steak in ages, all for less than €5 per person.

Bolivia's anniversary of independence is on the 6th of August (circa 1825), and on the night of the 5th, there was a large military parade right under the balcony from where we were sitting. It was a very nice coincidence (Glücksfall), and we felt fortunate to be able to witness it from above, since the streets were incredibly crowded. The parade was quite militaristic, something which none of us has ever really witnessed. An impressive variety of military units with different outfits and weapons marched past our balcony, including a group of paramilitaries who rode on jeeps wearing full camouflage, while pointing semi-automatic machine guns at the spectators. Quite a spectacle from above.

7 August, Sucre: Going out to Florin

After having had a fun night of food and drink 3 nights before at Florin, a dutch owned bar and restaurant, we decided to go back for seconds. Coincidentally a pop band from La Paz named Dr. Jet was playing that night and we were entertained with covers of Spanish pop songs as well as Lady Gaga, Shaquira, Robbie Williams and others.

It was interesting to see that not a single person there was wearing any traditional peace of clothing or even jewelry. Everyone was dressed completely western, with one guy making sure that his Hilfiger jersey was draped over his shoulder exactly right to allow one to see the label. Just as the preppies do in the business school in Mannheim Germany and probably all over the world.

Sucre in general was a culinary pleasure especially considerung the prices. It's also the chocolate capital of Bolivia and we more than once went to a local cafe where we drank hot chocolate and ate chocolate covered fruit, for about € 2,50 in total. In the end, we stayed much longer in the city than we expected, as we were hoping for the road to Potosi to clear. It was being barricaded and blocked for weeks by unhappy protestors, trapping panicky tourists inside the city of Potosi and preventing anyone else from going in. In the end the situation took too long to normalise and we decided to continue onwards to La Paz.

10 August Arriving in La Paz

The overnight bus ride to La Paz was quite terrible and nerve-racking. Just the day before we read news of 72 people that died (and 196 injured!) only in the month of February 2010 in bus accidents in Bolivia, and now we were sitting in such a bus, speeding along the side of a mountain, with a steep drop off at the one side. Loud Peruvian/Bolivian music blared through the shitty bus speakers, creating more distortion than anything melodic, while we tried to enjoy the cultural experience and not imagine rolling down to our deaths in the valley below.

The bus trip was again overnight and upon arriving in La Paz and checking into our hostel, we decided to make use of the rest of the day by walking to the nearest lookout point Mirador Killi Killi.

La Paz is really high, the highest capital (administrative) city in the world, and we quickly ran out of breath every time we walked up a hill.

11 August, La Paz's witches market

We went to the Plaza de Armas in the city center on our way to the famous Witches' market. The main square is again quite pretty, surrounded by colonial buildings and well policed. One of the buildings still contains bullet holes from a gun fight between the police and army some years ago. The square is full of pidgeons and local women sell seeds to feed them, which was popular among both the locals and the gringos.

We continued further, past a few more markets before eventually reaching the wiches' market. This is probably the most touristic area of La Paz, but still fascinating. In between the numerous touristicos stalls, there were witches' stalls, selling all kinds of plants, potions, offerings, totems and even dried up baby llamas or llama fetuses, dried frogs and dead Armadillos.

Referring to these people as witches is in my opinion quite misleading and also unfortunate, because aside from the "magic potions" which are all bullshit and imported from the east anyway, these people were just selling the traditional gifts (such as the baby llamas) to be offered to Pachamama, the earth goddess. To refer to them as witches is to impose (often negative) western stereotypes onto their traditional customs and practices. Many native Americans in Bolivia and Peru still adhere to their traditional and native customs and practices, which include making burnt offerings to Pachamama.

13 August, Mountain biking on the death road

Mountain biking on the death road, outside of La Paz, is one of the main tourist attractions in the area. It's called the "death road", or "the worlds most dangerous road" because of the alarming amount of fatal car accidents that have occured there over the years, and not because of the amount of mountain biking accidents, although some tourists have also died. The road is dangerous, because it is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time, slopes downwards from a height of 4700m to 1200m and is flanked by the side of a mountain one the one side, and a steep drop into the canyon below on the other side.

What few people seem to mention however, is that the death road is also beautiful. It is inside a cloud forest and the surrounding landscape and vegetation is simply stunning.

The cloudforest seems to be one of nature's most psychedelic places. White mists from the clouds fill the air, as if from a giant smoke machine, while new fractal shaped fern leaves uncoil and unfold according to a genetic blueprint that is hundreds of millions of years old. Now and then you find colourful flowers; pink, purple, orange and red, some big and shaped like a Jester's hat and others small, hanging like brightly coloured clocks. Between them fly colourful butterflies. Bright spots in a canopy of a million different shades of green. All the rocks and fallen branches are covered in moss and vines twist and turn around the trees and bushes. Streams flow in the cracks and ravines, sometimes falling dozens of meters over the edge of a cliff, down to a pool below. The whole place seems to breathe; alive, vibrant and blessed with the abundance of water.

Biking the death road was an incredible thrill and well worth the price. We started early the morning at the top of the mountain La Cumbre at 4700m. So high, that it was icy cold and actually snowing. The first part was on a tarred road, still being used by cars and trucks (as opposed to the actual death road which has a newer tarred replacement). After a while we reached the actual death road (a gravel road) and the beginning of the cloud forest. From here on, it was still another 63km and 3500m down to the vally below. An unforgettable combination of adrenalin sport and nature.

15 August, Last day in La Paz and traveling to Copacabana

After a few days in La Paz, we left for our final Bolivian destination. The town of Copacabana on the coast of Lake Titicaca.

On our final day in La Paz, we shared some impressions of this fascinating city and we remarked on how amateur things in Bolivia sometimes appear. In some areas of La Paz, the billboards are actually the prettiest things in view. Sometimes, we would go to a restaurant, and it would feel as if you were the first customers they have ever had.

Upon our arrival in Copacabana, we went to such a restaurant. We wanted to leave, feeling that it might be a mistake to eat at this particular restaurant, seeing that they had no other customers yet, horrible decoration, a dirty table cloth, and a strange menu, but the whole family of about three generations were looking at us excitedly (at least by Bolivian standards, which is with almost no expression at all), so that we felt compelled to stay and stimulate the local economy. Big mistake. We ordered a bottle of Kohlberg red wine, which by had now secured its place as the best value for money in Bolivia, but this time for more than double the retail price. Ten seconds later the mom and her small daughter ran out of the restaurant and Manuela makes a bet with me that they are going out to buy the Kohlberg. Sure as hell, a while later she returns with a bottle shaped object hidden beneath her poncho.

We also ordered two trouts, one with butter and one with tomato, known to be one of the local specialities. After a while the trouts arrive, both looking identical. Fried in fat, lying on a handful of chips, with a bit of dry rice on the side. The only difference is that my trout is completely covered in Ketchup while Manuela has some butter (or perhaps margerine) smeared over hers. Depressed at being fleeced with our shitty trouts and (expensive) cheap bottle of wine, we ate without much conversation, although we occasionally made jokes and laughed at the situation.

It's remarkable how many Bolivians try to use tourism as a means for creating better lives for themselves and how hard they sometimes have to work for it. Once we were in a restaurant, run by a married couple who worked from the morning to the night, while their small child played behind the counter. The mother makes all the food and the father takes the orders. Later, we would go to a restaurant run entirely by a single woman. She would take the orders, cook the food and serve it, for seven tables! We were glad to support these hardworking local people, and were therefore also prepared to sometimes lower our standards a little.

16 Copacabana

In Copacabana we visited the local cathedral with its famous Virginita of Copacabana, a statue (almost doll) of the holy mother Mary, created by a relative of the famous Inca king Atahualpa. The Incas worshipped mother earth through the goddess Pachamama, and this practice was later synthesised with the Catholic veneration of Maria, as introduced by the Spanish.

Copacabana is surrounded by three hills, and we wanted to climb up one of them to see the nice view. As it happened, this hill was also a type of pilgrimage, with a place for burnt offerings at the top. Along the path to the top, there were stone monuments, with scenes from Jesus' capture, lashings and crucifixion, culminating in the final scenes of his death and resurrection at the top of the hill. Midway up towards the top of the hill, a shaman was holding a ceremony for a young couple, burning their offerings of candy, fake money and other paraphernelia on an altar.

We took a breather and went to the edge to look out at the sun over lake Titicaca ahead of us. Just then, an old man walks past us, pulls out his wiener and pisses right in front of Manuela and I. We took the (not so) subtle hint, and left the area to continue upwards.

Walking up the hill, I remarked that this must be the dirtyist, most littered hill I have ever climbed. Paper, plastic, beer bottles and everything in between was scattered along the whole way, making the experience much less pleasant.

At the top of the hill, more people where making offerings to smaller representations of the Virginita (basically a doll in a glass case), who represents the mother Mary, but also Pachamama. The locals believe that (among other things) you must offer something representative of that which you want to receive. So many people would burn fake money, in the hopes of receiving real money.

The craziest of all however, was the stalls at the top selling small houses, cars and other offerings such as confetti and sweets. Presumably, if you want a new car of a new house, you buy such a small representation, and burn it as an offering to the Virginita.

Another strange practice, that we also in a catacomb beneath the church, was the custom of buying candles, burning them and then using the wax to create the outline of the object that you want. As mentioned, at the top of the hill were stone monuments with paintings of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection behind dirty glass cases. These stone monuments were completely covered in these wax figures, making them very oily and dirty.

It's relatively well known (or should be) that Catholicism is a synthesis of early christian sects and some pagan European practices, which makes the fact that there is an ongoing synthesis of Catholicism with the indigenous American/Incan beliefs as found in Bolivia, ever more fascinating.

17 August, Isla del Sol

Apparantly, according to the Incas, lake Titicaca was the navel of the world, the place where the first Incas were created and also where the sun and the moon came from.

We took the 8:30 ferry to Isla del Sol (Island of the sun) where according to Incan legend, the Incan god Viracocha, the first Incan Manco Capac and his sister (Incan royalty married their sisters) met and where the reign of the Incas began. Nearby is also the smaller Isla del la Luna (Island of the moon), where the ruins of a pre-hispanic Incan monastery that housed virgins to be sacrificed on the sun island, can still be seen. It is said that the sun and the moon came out of lake Titicaca, and that the sun, being jealous of the moon's bright light, threw dust into its face, thereby covering its light and causing its grey white colour.

We stopped at the north end of the island, and after a quick stop at a small museum where you could see Incan and pre-Incan artifacts recovered from the depths of Titicaca, we headed off to the ruins at the north end of the Island. We walked to the Piedra Sagrada (holy rock), before continuing to a rock outcropping containing the face of the Incan god Virococha. The Incan's (and perhaps even pre-Incas) recognised an elongated angry looking face in the rock, considered it to be from a deity and built an altar in front of it on a piece of rock that is so perfectly situated in front of the face that it's almost eery. We were introduced to a local Curandero Shaman, who still conducts ceremonies at the altar, asking for good harvests or other favours. He explained to us that virgins were sacrificed there in pre-hispanic times, later to be replaced by llamas, and also that there is an energy in the name Virococha and in the names of other deities.

In what is such an incredible coincidence (and blind luck) that it's almost uncanny, the image of the first conquistador to meet the Incas in the area, Francisco Pizzarro, reminded the Incas of their deity Virococha. An elongated, angry face with a beard. The Incan ruler, Atahualpa killed his half-brother (and heir to the Incan empire) a while before, and the Incas were already tense and scared of what they considered a taboo act by Atahualpa. So when Pizzarro (deemed representative or incarnation of Virococha) arrived, his Incan army of 40 000 men were so terrified of their deity's wrath, that they fled before the 140 men strong conquistadorean army. This provided Pizarro with a victory that would otherwise have been much less likely.

The effect that the Inca's prophesies and mythologies had in their own downfall and subjugation towards the Spanish, gave me food for thought concerning the ever popular Christian apocalyptic prophesies and their power in actualising some of the events they "prophesize" simply by the power of enough people believing in them (as the Incas believed in their own mythology).

Apocalyptic musings aside, we visited the Incan palace nearby, where Atahualpa first met Pizarro and offered some of his gold in turn for his life. Pizarro instead decided that he wanted all of the gold and then killed Atahualpa.

After visiting the ruins, we started walking along the ridge of the Island towards the south side which took us the whole day, ending at a restaurant with a spectacular view of the sunset over lake Titicaca.

19 August, Traveling to Arequipa, Peru

We took the early morning bus to Arequipa in Peru, a 9 hour journey. Along the way we saw impressive hilled landscapes with herds of llamas and a lake with pink flamingoes. Unfortunately the bus driver drove like a maniac, speeding, honking incessantly and making the whole bus sway from side to side, causing Manuela and I to become car sick. The unpleasant bus journey was however lightened up a bit by a guy who sang while playing a peruvian flute and a Jukelele.

So far Peru seems very much like Bolivia. As in Bolivia, many people paint the walls of their houses with political advertisements for their preferred candidate for the local governor. Sometimes a large rock in an outcropping in the middle of nowhere would be painted with a political party's emblen, name and slogan on a white background. I am much more aware of the local politics in Bolivia and Peru than during our time in Argentina and Brazil.

21 August, Arequipa

After staying in our third so-called "party hostel", which are very popular among backpackers, we're quite disappointed with the level of sophistication and maturity of many of the backpackers we encounter. A lot of them treat the experience the same way teenage adolescents would treat a school trip, flirting and jockeying for attention or popularity, drinking every night before throwing up and then bragging about it the next day, and generally acting as if they are still somewhere in Europe, Australia or North America. One highlight was a drunk couple coming back to our 6-bed dorm after partying until about 3:30 am, and then proceeding to have very noisy sex, in the process waking everybody up and all without even the slightest appology.

This is of course a gross generalisation, and we have met many open-minded, knowledge hungry and genuinely interesting travelers along the way, but usually not in "party hostels".

22 August, Arequipa

Coming in to Arequipa, we saw a lot of poor neighbourhoods with dirty unkempt buildings. The city center is quite the opposite however, with lots of renovations being done in the streets around the main square. Arequipa is surrounded by three big volcanoes, and the colonial buildings in and around the square have been built with the white "sillar" volcanic rock, lending it it's reputation as the "white city".

In the afternoon we went to the local "Santuary" museum, where the frozen remains of "Juanita", a twelve year old Incan ritual sacrifice victim is on display. The Incas sacrificed children, seen as pure and unspoilt, to win the gods' favour whenever they fell on hard times. In the 1400s, the Incan empire was plagued by an erupting Volcano (near Arequipa) followed up by a drought. Juanita was the daughter of a family of very high social standing, who was taken from Cusco, all the way up to a very high Volcanic mountain to be sacrificed. The Incas believed the mountains were the realms of the gods and the weather patterns and tribulations they faced going up there, were the gods response to their presence.

After her death, Juanita was wrapped in fine cloth and buried with a collection of symbolic and sacred objects. For the next 500 odd years, she remained frozen in the -20°c temperature, untill she was discovered in the thinning ice of yet another volcanic eruption in 1995.

The musuem and the staff were very professional and well worth a visit. A far cry from what we had become accustomed to during our time in Bolivia.

23 August, Mountain biking at Volcano Misti

After having so much fun mountain biking down the death road in La Paz, we decided to have another mountain biking adventure at the Misti Volcano. We got picked up early in the morning and drove out to the foot of the Volcano, getting nice views of Arequipa as we left the city limits. The outskirts are not so soft on the eye (to put it euphemistically) as the city center. Peruvians stream into the city looking for a better life and construct shabby looking brick buildings on the outskirts. Often the walls are left unrendered and unplastered, leaving the houses looking ugly and unfinished.

New communities made up of these buildings appear quite quickly at the edges of the city, where there is no water, sewage or electricity infrastructure. After some time the new residents start to demand basic services and eventually the government provides them, together with property rights. In this way, the city grows in a haphazard and disorganized way and making the outskirts very unattractive. It must be said however, that these people at least build brick structures, so it's still a few steps ahead of squatters and shanty towns of which we have seen surprisingly little in South America.

A little bit up at the foot of the Misti, we got stopped and geared up to bike down to the bottom. It was quite a bit more difficult and technical than in La Paz, but still an incredible amount of fun! We then drove to another small rural town and mountain biked there as well, before returning to town for lunch at Mistica café in Calle San Francisco. Secret tip: The best lunch we had in town and for only 8 soles each.

24 August, Trekking the Colca canyon

The Colca Canyon, outside of Arequipa, is reportedly the deepest canyon in the world, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and averages a depth of 3400 meters for a length of 100 km.

We booked a tour for two days and left at 3:00 am the first day to the town of Cabanaconde to
start hiking down the canyon. A while before we stopped at a well known Condor lookout point for breakfast and another opportunity to spot some of these majestic birds. What awaited us there completely surpassed our expectations. Condors were floating on the rising thermals right in front of the viewpoint and sometimes less than 5 meters away! About 8 condors seemed to be in the area, seemingly unperturbed by the dozens of tourists snapping away with their cameras.

The hike down to the canyon took the rest of the day, about 7 hours in total and 14 km in length. We spent the night at the so called (and well deserved) "Oasis", with a pristine rock pool of fresh 22° mountain water. The accommodation consisted of huts with thatched roofs and mud walls and floors. Basic but part of the fun and atmosphere.

25 August, Trekking the Colca canyon

On the last day of the Colca canyon treĸ, we woke up at about 4am to hike back up and out of the canyon. It took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes (3 hours being the average) to complete the 6km long and 1km high hike out of the canyon. It was quite a challenge because it was so steep, but also good training for the hike to Choquequirao that we would later attempt. Part of the hiking trail up and out of the canyon can be seen in the photo below:

The rest of the day was mostly spent driving in the bus and watching the scenery, including a majestic view of a nearby valley covered in terraces (seen below) some perhaps dating from the Incan times, before visiting some hot springs where we could relax our aching muscles.

27 August, Leaving to Cusco

At the end of the month, we left for the famous city of Cusco, were we'll be visiting two lost Incan cities. Machu Picchu and the lesser known Chocequirao.

That we will leave for next month however, and for the next blog entry. :)

P.S. Think twice before using Escandinavia tour agency in Arequipa, Peru

We booked the mountain biking and Colca Canyon activities through a local tour company (Escandinavia) located in the main square (Placa de Armas) in Arequipa. The agency is run by a Peruvian named Edgar, who speaks good English. We were quite happy with the tours he booked for us, but unfortunately things changed for the worse later when he made an erronous bus booking for us, for which he lost an entire day. Afterwards we caught him lying to us about having someone to pick us up in Cuzco, and he also didn´t pay (as promised) the deposit of a booking we had to cancel because of his mistake. The fact that he made a mistake in booking our bus could be overlooked, but after he lied to us and also neglected to fulfill his promises, we feel it's necessary to warn others. The staff at the Point hostel in Arequipa also later informed us that - after some disappointments - they do not make use of his services anymore.

South American travel diary, Part 2. July 2010

JC Brand — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:05:00 +0000

4 July, Canoa Quebrada

We got a room without breakfast included, so we decided to use the opportunity to sleep late instead of being woken by an alarm clock. At about 12 am we went down to the local (very basic) bar/restaurant for some Churrascuro (grilled meat and side dishes) at R$ 10 per person (about €4.50). It's been 6 weeks without any stomach problems or diarrhea. This includes eating from street stalls, bus stations and from makeshift "home" restaurants (sometimes in people's living rooms).

We then went to the main beach, quickly saw that it was too crowded for us, turned left and started walking to a collection of electric windmills off in the distance. Canoa's beach is quite long, a local estimated about 20 km in total, with the main beach occupying only about 150m, so we had a long stretch of deserted beach to explore.

I expressed my desire to to go and stand under one of the windturbines so we continued walking along the coast into their direction. After about almost two hours of walking in the midday sun we concluded that these things were still deceptively far away, and that we must get some rest soon. To make matters worse, we only had 500ml of water with us. I eventually found a new target to make all the walking worthwhile and we headed off to a sanddune nearby to look for some shade.

Canoa Quebrada is very reminiscent of Swakopmund in Namibia. It's very hot and dry with a long stretch of coast flanked with white sanddunes. Very pretty in it's own way. We were unfortunately quite sad to see plastic litter across the entire stretch of beach that we walked. To make matters worse, we found several dead fishes and puddles of brown and clearly polluted water. One of the big touristic selling points in Canoa is the buggy rides to the sanddunes. Every 15 minutes a buggy with smiling people would pass us by as we walked along the coast and practically the entire stretch of beach was turned into a buggy highway covered in tire tracks. As a result we were a bit disappointed with Canoa Quebrada. It seems the residents still need to develop a sense of responsibility for conserving the beaches fragile ecosystem and for keeping it clean.

6 July Overnighting at Fortaleza airport

Our plane from Fortaleza to Campo Grande left at 6:00 in the morning, so we made the decision to stay the night at the airport.

At about 12:00 at night, we made a little campsite under the stairs of the viewing hall and got ready to tuck in. Manuela successfully slept there for about an hour, but about half an hour after I joined, a security guard came and politely asked us to leave. That was pretty much our only chance for sleeping that night, so for the remainder we sat on some (probably purposefully) uncomfortable chairs listening to music and trying to catch some minutes of sleep before being woken up by the inevitable pins and needles in the butt cheek and leg that bore the brunt of the body's weight.

7 July, Campo Grande

We arrived in Campo Grande at about 12 in the afternoon. Hungry and exhausted. We met a Danish couple and the four of us were quickly roped in by a smooth talking Pantanal tour salesman named Gil.

Gil fired off his sales pitch at our fragile, sleep deprived minds. We were all wary of being ripped off and trying to be intelligent, discerning tourists, but eventually the prospect of going downtown alone with our backpacks to look for a better deal looked less and less appealing. Gil continued, showing us pictures of a Pantanal lodge with reclining beach chairs, swimming pool, dormitories and private rooms and then when our defenses finally broke, went ahead and sold us a package that excluded all of the above. Without explicitly telling us of course.

9 July, Santa Clara lodge, Pantanal

The first morning of our stay in the Pantanal, we had to be ready at 4 o'clock to go on an early morning game drive.

The Pantanal is 90% private owned, so we had to restrict ourselves mostly to the big public gravel road that moves between the farms, which felt less immersive in the wild than the game drives I've been on in South Africa. This was one of a few times that the thought occurred that it's quite a shame that there is no big national park in the Pantanal, such as Etosha in Namibia or Kruger Park in South Africa.

For brevity, I'll refrain from overly describing this amazing place, and instead the inquisitive reader to the wikipedia page. Some interesting facts that I can't help mentioning though, are that the entire Pantanal covers an area the size of France and contains about 35 million caimans (alligators) and a stunning collection of birds and other wildlife. Pantanal means swamp, and during the rainy (summer) season, almost the entire place gets covered in water. During the dry months, only a limited amount of swamps remain though, with lots of dry bushveld in between.

Our guide for the early morning trip was exceptional. In the dim light of dawn he spotted birds in trees and even small spiders in the road. Sometimes it took me half a minute to spot a bird that he recognised minutes before in a moving vehicle.

Overall we spent about 6 hours in the bush, which included watching a spectacular sunrise over a lake, followed up by a hike for about 2 hours.

We saw quite a few animals, a local raccoon, small bush deer, large deer, some more caimans, black howler monkeys, a large and scary tarantula like spider and a variety of birds.

The afternoon was spent horse-riding. What could be said about that? Well, it was great, I could get used to a lifestyle of regular horse-riding and I felt a special kinship with my specific horse, even though it was a bit of a tourist whore. It made some strange grunting and burping noises during the ride, which prompted various theories from our group as to their origin, randing from the mundane, to sexual to esoteric.

10 July, Santa Clara lodge, Pantanal

The nights we slept in hammocks in the open air (surrounded with mosquito nets), and were woken up that morning by the sounds of the wild. Loudest of all was the call of a bird called the Chacochachalaka, whose name is an onomatopedic attempt to recreate this creature's cacophonic call but which ultimately fails. The noise is usually created by at least two birds in tandem. The one starts making a more high pitched call, then immediately followed by a lower pitched reply. The aural effect is a bit similar to a recording of a chicken being grabbed by the neck and swung around a few times, with the pitch lowered a few octaves.

For the morning activity, we went on a boat ride on the local river, a tributary of the Paraguay river. We got a chance to see even more Caimans, some Capivaras and another large variety of birds.

The afternoon was spent piranha fishing with little peaces of beef, a surprisingly easy and fun activity. Manuela had one of the biggest catches of the day, I caught about 5 piranhas, with 3 being let go for being too small to do anything useful with.

Later, while we were cleaning the fish, our guide cut out the tiny heart of a dead piranha. To my amazement, it was still beating! Our guide remarked that perhaps that's why the piranhas are such nasty fish, they have very small hearts. I held the beating heart in my palm for a few minutes, considering wether I should eat it, but eventually threw it away. The piranhas have very sharp teeth, capabale of biting off a finger, even after they're dead (due to convulsions), but the concept of people being attacked and killed by piranhas is a myth. We swam in the caiman and piranha infested waters and lived to tell the tale. Piranhas will only attack if you are bleeding and caimans eat only fish. So even though both animals are still dangerous and can definitely injure a person badly, it's still quite safe to swim in the river if you maintain a distance and avoid any bleeding.

11 July, Santa Clara lodge, Pantanal

Early that morning, in addition to the now familiar cry of the Chacochachalakas, we were woken up by the ominous ruckus made by a troupe of Black Howler Monkeys. It was however a pleasure to lie in a hammock in the early morning ours listening to the sounds of nature, and even the less musical animal cries are a huge improvement over the sounds of construction workers and city traffic.

12 July, Santa Clara lodge, Pantanal

We spent the morning taking on a two and a half hour hike, during which our guide explained many of the medicinal properties of the local vegetation. Examples included the Yellow Trumpet Tree, whose bitter sap is a remedy for inflöamation. A water lily from which a hallucinogenic tea could be made, the Acori Palm, from whose seeds you could press drops of water to use as eyedrops. The Acori Palm was quite abundand in the area and seemed to be an important part of the local ecosystem. The leaves are fed on by the cattle during the raining season, when the grass is covered in water. The coconuts are eaten by armadillos to file their teeth and eaten by the Macaws, who can crack them open with their powerful beaks. From the hard shell covered fruit you can make a drinking cup, a plate or a horn with which to make a Jaguar call. Inside the hard shell of the fruit is a yellow flour (in addition to some worms) which is eaten by the natives. We were also introduced to Tuco, a bamboo used for making bows, and Caraguata, a bromeliad whose leaves are used for fiber. At this point I stopped taking notes and decided to concentrate on enjoying the hike instead.

Overall, the Pantanal was an enriching but not entirely stressfree and relaxing experience. Firstly, there was an unpleasant run-in with a very rude and unprofessional guide on the first day. Then, the huge amount of acquired mosquito bites coupled with steep temperature changes between searing hot in the afternoon and chillingly cold at night in addition to the everpresent and all-covering dust, meant that I was quite relieved to be leaving. On this trip so far, we have been happiest when we were doing our own thing on our own time. Taking part in a packaged tour of the Pantanal was just the opposite of that. The activities were fun and worth the effort and money, but there were just a few too many unpleasantries, none the least the way we were treated by some of the lodge staff, that make me remember the experience with mixed feelings.

13 July, Bonito

We arrived in Bonito (meaning beautiful) the night before, after a long and very bumpy ride on what was probably the most half-hearted attempt at creating a temporary gravel road in order to facilitate repairs on the main road. In other words, this gravel road was awful, and I had visions of our poor little minibus breaking down with us having to spend the night at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

Instead, all went well and we were now in the popular town of Bonito, renowned for it's offering of beautiful caves and rivers and a whole range of activities associated with them. There was just one problem, the hostel where we stayed and all the activities it included, were terribly expensive.

We therefore opted for the poor man's alternative, rented bicycles and rode 7km to Banleário Municipal, where we could snorkel in the river. The bicycle trip out of town was a pleasure, providing another chance to take in and appreciate the landscape. Banleário Municipal was a pleasant surprise, next with a very beautiful and clear turqoise coloured river, swarming with fishes. We snorkeled for about two hours until it started raining, when we huddled under a shelter with two Brazillian caretakers discussing (in broken Portuegese) Brazillian weather/festivals/beer/people/etc. compared to their German equivalents. We were again struck by the friendliness of most of the Brazillians we encountered.

Bonito is definitely one of the richest most developed towns we've encountered so far, with quite a few very stylish and modern houses around town. Perhaps that's why the activities were so expensive. It could also however just be an indicator of the wealth gap between the poorer North and richer South of Brazil.

14 July

After one day in Bonito, we left deviated from our original plan and decided to leave for Foz do Iguacu, a Brazilian border town near the Iguacu waterfalls. As we headed more and more south, the landscape and the climate continued to change, getting greener and colder. Some areas even reminded us of the south of Germany, with neatly kept green fields dotted with patches of forest vegetation (rainforest as compared to Germany's temperate? forest).

We had to change buses twice and waited about two hours in the middle of the night for one of the later ones, which meant that I was again very tired upon arrival.

We decided to take it slow, had lunch with a nice older Danish couple who (very patiently) were waiting with us the previous night for their own (even more delayed) bus. We swapped some travel stories and they told us about their adventures in Peru. Afterwards, we left for the Argentinian border town of Puerto Iguazu, to find some accommodation for the night.

Upon arriving in Argentina, we quickly detected a different vibe, culture and look than we were getting used to in Brazil. The shops seemed to be better stocked and with more specialties.

15, 16 July, Iguacu Waterfalls

We spent two days visiting the Parque Nacional Iguazu, in which the spectacular Iguazu waterfalls can be found. The largest of which, is the Garganta el Diablo, or "Devil's throat".

The magnificence of the this waterfall is beyond description. Enormous amounts of water continuously flowing over the edge and into a white abyss. The white mist making it difficult if not impossible to see the water below. When the eye looks on to the water pouring over the edge, it tries in vain to find something in the ever changing sceneto focus on, giving rise to a mesmerizing effect. I felt as if I could have stared at the falling water for hours.

There are 269 other waterfalls, extending to both sides of this monster, creating a wide vista so impressive and beautiful that no picture or photo could ever do it any justice. We know, not just because we tried to capture it with our small 100€ camera, but also because we could not find any postcard, poster or picture elsewhere that captured their splendour. Simply put, they are much too big to adequately fit in any picture while still maintaining a perspective of their true size.

On the second day, it was very cold and raining, which dampened our enthusiasm a bit, but after seeing a blind person visiting the park the previous day, things were placed in perspective and I was grateful for having the good health and fortune to see these impressive waterfals.

18 July, Tres fronteiras park

After our rainy excursion to the waterfalls, I fell ill for about two days in which we stayed inside at the hostel. The small ten person dormitory was particularly suffocating for Manuela who didn't like the hostel to begin with.

On the second (and our last) day, I however started to feel better and we decided to walk to the "Tres Fronteiras" park, were you could see Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina all in one view. The park itself was free and our spirits were lifted after getting out of the hostel for a change.

19 July, Ciudad del Este

Ciudad del Este is a chaotic Paraguayan frontier town on the border with Brazil and Argentina and the second biggest city in Paraguay. Its entire economy seemingly depends on its large markets of (mostly cheap Asian) consumer goods which are bought by Brazillians looking to save money by avoiding customs and sneaking the goods back through the border. Often the goods are then resold on the Brasillian side.

Many people who visit Ciudad del Este for a day don't even bother to get their passports stamped and the buses and taxis who cross the border from Brazil wont stop at the passport controls unless you specifically ask them. Upon nearing the border, we however decided not to tempt fate, and asked our bus driver to let us out to get our passports stamped.

Upon entering the city via the "Friendship bridge", we immediately saw the large markets covering all available sidewalk space. Many of the buildings between the sidewalks are also filled to the brim with small markets and shops. We didn't experience the Paraguayans as being too aggressive salespeople however and usually didn't feel badgered to buy crap we didn't want.

It was raining during our excursion, and this only highlighted the neglect and disrepair of the city itself. Large potholes were filled with brown water, and some buildings seem to never have been painted. By chance, we passed a mall (more like a narrow 5 story department store than a mall) called "Mona Lisa" which we recognised from large billboards in Brazil, urging shoppers to go to Ciudad del Este and shop there. We decided to take a look.

Inside we were quite surprised. Fancy and expensive cologne and fragrants, new Ipads and Iphones, imported Swiss chocolate, Sushi and a whole assortment of other luxury items. The mall itself could be located in any big city in the world, but the contrast with the disheveled, dirty and poor spectacle going on outside its walls was striking.

At the end of the day we took a minibus taxi back across the bridge to Brazil. The one guy sitting next to Manuela looked quite nervous as we neared the Brazillian border but as the taxi driver made a point of speeding around the border gates he relaxed visibly and made a Catholic cross with his right hand. Everyone

was therefore a bit surprised when the two gringos in the back asked to be let out to go and stamp their passports again. The driver pulled over

right there at the side of the road, ignoring the hooting from the irritated drivers behind us and let us out, before speeding away again.

On the same day we took a long distance bus back up to Corumba on the border with Bolivia.

21 July, Puerto Quijarro

We spent a day in Puerto Quijarro, a small dusty Bolivian frontier town on the border with Brazil. After having spent almost all my cash in obtaining a visa I wasn't aware I needed, I had to find a place to withdraw some more Bolivianos. Neither of the two cash machines in the town accepted my card however. Again the problem seemed to be that I had a Mastercard. In fact, I had two, which feels like having two left feet at a dancing contest. In South America, Visa is accepted almost everywhere, Mastercard however is a different story. In the end we had to take a taxi to the nearby town of Puerto Suarez, to use their ATM, which did accept my card.

As a result of this, we didn't have a chance to buy train tickets to Santa Cruz for the day (you can only buy tickets in person and for the same day), and ended up being the only two guests staying in one of the nicest, most spacious hostels we've ever been to, Tamengo. It used to be the local public swimming pool, before the current owner bought it and turned it into a hostel. The town of Quijarro was so poor that it seemed unlikely that the municipal would have had the funds left to maintain a public swimming pool.

22 July, Train from Puerto Quijarro to Santa Cruz

We woke up early and made sure to get tickets for the train later in the day. We would be traveling on what is known as the "death train", apparently because it was used to transport yellow fever victims in the past.

The train shaked and dipped along at a snails pace. On a small television at the front of the compartment, Spanish songs from the 1970s were playing, sung, among others, by an overly zealous woman with kitsch, bright make-up and a priest with a guitar. Early in the day I heard an old 90s techno song blaring from some car's speaker in a dusty road populated with chickens, pigs and countless stray dogs. So far, being in Bolivia has presented its strange moments.

23 July, Traveling from Santa Cruz to Samaipata

We arrived in Santa Cruz, after a harrowing 17 hour train ride. The compartment bumped, stuttered and shaked, and occasionally there would be very loud bangs coming from below as we not only swayed in a sideways motion, but also vertically, with the bottom of our carriage banging on the tracks below. On occasion the train swayed so much that I would instinctively prepare for the inevitable tipping over of our carriage. In the end, the inevitable seemed to be avoided, or perhaps just delayed for a later time.

One of the first things noticable about Santa Cruz, as we zipped away from the bus station in a taxi, was that there were no high rise buildings, and everywhere seemed desperately poor, although we went past a car dealership selling luxury 4x4s, including a Porsche Cayenne. Nevertheless, Bolivia is one of the poorest places I have ever visited, outside of some pockets in Southern Africa. Coming into Santa Cruz with the train, we saw an unplanned sprawl of shoddy structures, bisected with dirt roads. Rubbish is strewn everywhere, and in between chickens, pigs, cattle and people roam listlessly looking for something to do or eat. The children seem happy though, having fun playing in the dirt. Bolivias population is mostly indigenous, and for some reason their babies are incredibly cute, with dark elf-like eyes.

We spent about 3 hours in Santa Cruz and then took a minibus taxi to Samaipata (30 Bolivianos each), but after 20 minutes of alternating acceleration, then braking, then snaking through traffic, our driver sped over a speedbump and the car broke down. We had to all get out at the side of the road and wait for a replacement minibus to arrive.

The new driver was older with big, very thick glasses. I wasn't sure whether this should instill confidence or fear in his ability to see objects in the road. Every now and then he would unceremoniously stop the car and jump out to take a piss at the side of the road in full view of the occupants. Later we were all almost killed when he narrowly avoided being driven over by a large oncoming truck. All the time without any communication from his side or the slightest apology. When we arrived in Samaipata, he simply drove past and we had to tell him to stop and insist that he turn back and drop us off. Now suddenly he was very chatty with the other occupants, no doubt complaining about the gringos in the back.

As he sped away, we were however more relieved than anything else, and looking forward to a new week of adventures.

A cliché in many people's minds is that indigenous populations live closer to the land, more in harmony with nature and have more respect for the earth than the greedy, exploitative westerners. Sadly, this is not the picture we were presented with in Santa Cruz and on the way to Samaipata. Many people seem to lack any sense of responsibility for caring for their environment, painfully evident by the fact that the whole countryside seems to be covered in rubbish. Plastic bottles, wrappers and the like are simply thrown on the ground, with no regards for the terrible visual and environmental pollution it causes.

24 July, Samaipata

Samaipata, a town of 3000 inhabitants in an "ellbow of the Andes" with no bank branch, ATM, supermarket or dedicated internet connection, is the provincial capital of the province Florida and even boasts a court with 2 apparently unbribable judges. Unless you pay them in cash.

There is however a wonderful fresh food and meat market that more than makes up for the lack of a supermarket. The apples and pears in particular were delicious. There's also a small European expat community (particularly Germans and Austrians) who provide tours, good restaurants, cafés and even a very good French bakery. Not to be outdone, there was also a very good local restaurant that we would often frequent during our stay.

Samaipata is located in a valley, with the rainforests of Amboro National park on the one side and a much dryer semi-arid climate on the other, which of course makes for a lot of diversity and interesting scenery.

On that morning, we met up with Tony and Sofia, whom we first met in Rio de Janeiro and stayed in contact with since then, and together decided to take a hike to a lookout point on one of the hills nearby. Long story short, we took a wrong turn and instead ended up at the local "Zoo". More an animal refuge run by an expat Swiss wonman, with a selection of touchy howler monkeys, spider monkeys, a three legged wild cat, some dogs, wild pigs, tortoises, macaws, parrots and a selection of other critters. Our visit more than made up for not finding our lookout point and we were glad to contribute in a small way towards protecting the abandoned and traumatised animals.

26 July, Horse-riding

We returned to the zoo to rent some horses and rode up a nearby hill with a lookout point called "Mirador El Paradiso". One of the dogs of the zoo went with us and he was later joined by another dog from a nearby farm. They accompanied us all the way up to the top of the hill, with the one dog making sure that any and all wildlife were thoroughly chased away before our arrival, by running out ahead and barking loudly.

The lookout point provided a very nice vista of the surrounding hills and valleys and the horses could even graze a bit at the top. The whole trip took two and a half hours at about €13. Money well spent.

27 July, Bella Vista

One of the oldest tour agencies in town (they might actually be the oldest) is called RoadRunners, started by a loud but very friendly Austrian named Olaf about 15 years ago. I was initially attracted to their shop when I saw that they had a book exchange with a broad selection, and in the end Olaf was nice enough to lend me a thick biography on Che Guevara. Che's last guerilla mission was in Bolivia, and before he was eventually captured and killed somewhere in the area, his men went down to Samaipata to rob a bank and retrieve some asthma medication for Che. One local guard was killed and in the excitement the guerillas fled from the scene and the shocked villagers without remembering to get any medication. Che was condemned to suffer from acute asthma for the rest of the campaign.

We decided to take a tour called "Bella Vista" (Pretty view) with RoadRunners and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our lengthy stay in Samaipata. We drove out of town for about an hour and then proceeded to hike up a high mountain (dubbed the "cathedral" by RoadRunners) with a flat top from which we would have a spectacular 360° view of the surroundings. The hike was not too taxing, but no picnic either and we sometimes had to walk in single file on a ridge too thin for two people to stand side by side, flanked by steep drops on either side. Not a good idea for people with a fear of heights.

We were blessed with good weather and the views were spectacular, getting better and better as we hiked to the top. From above you could see in all directions, up to the furthestmost edges of the Bolivian Andes, about 80 km away. We hiked down on the opposite side of the mountain we hiked up upon, eventually ending in a ravine covered in a forest with ferns, bromeliads, orchids and even two impressive tree ferns.

29 July, Condor Hike

The majestic (but truly ugly) Condor, with a wingspan of up to 3 meters, is the national symbol of Bolivia. It can cover a distance of hundreds of kilometers in a day, conserving its energy by gliding on air currents. Near Samaipata is a cliff with a small inaccessible pool and waterfall, which attracts Condors from as far as Argentina and Peru, due to it's secludedness and the fact that Condors cannot ascend straight from the ground up, but instead from the side of a cliff where the air currents can hold them up.

We hooked up with local guide Saúl, (a trained Biologist and owner of Tucandera tours) who accompanied Tony, Sofia, Manuela and I on a 16 km trek over the mountains to a lookout point where we could view the condors swooping down to the waterfall to bathe and drink.

We first took a taxi to a waterfall, called "La Pajcha", and then to a point nearby were we started hiking up a mountain. Sometimes we would arrive, sweating and out of breath at a certain area, to find it littered with cow dung. This was something we already noticed on our Bella Vista hike and we were continuously amazed at the mountain climbing skills of the local cattle.

Saúl showed us some local fauna, including some aromatic flowers "Vira Vira" to make tea from (he was nice enough to pick some for us and we continued to make tea for the following two weeks) and a plant with which the local indigenous woman induce abortions (and risk their own lives or nervous systems). We saw condors quite early on, including one very rare (for the area) tropical condor, but we could not have known the spectacle that awaited us when we reached the cliff. There were about 6 condors visible at the top of the waterfall, and we made turns using Saúl's binoculars to get a better view. Every few minutes, a solitary or pair of condors would appear on the horizon, to swoop down into the canyon and land on the cliff on top of the waterfall. It was an amazing site to behold, and, for lack of an expensive camera, we had to be content with taking it all in being in the moment. We saw about 25 condors in total and the day turned out to be one of the highlights of our entire South American trip.

We were warned beforehand that too many tourists might disturb the birds, and we made sure not to get too close, even declining to go to another lookout when our guide offered. In the end, we stayed a good distance, saw two dozen condors and had the time of our lives staring out into the expanse of the large condor filled canyon in front of us.

30 July, El Fuerte

The original Samaipata, a pre-Incan settlement, was located next to a large slab of sandrock. The sandrock was carved out at the top and at the sides, in what appears to be for ritualistic purposes. The Incas later arrived and continued to carve out symbolic shapes with Jaguars and Condors, and three twenty four meter long channels with symbolic snake carvings, used for liquid sacrifices. In the middle is a round circle with alternating seats for high priests and spirits. At the sides are niches that were covered in gold and contained urns with the mummified remains of important people.

Today, Samaipata is located in a valley, and this original settlement is now only known as "El Fuerte" (the fort). El Fuerte was the eastern most fronteir town of the Incan empire and therefore of particular importance to them, (much more important than Machu Picchu apparently) as can be seen by the length of the snake canal, which is much longer than a similar one in Cusco. Theories abound as to the significance of the site. Some years ago, an Austrian scientist studied the site, and found water rising out of holes in the rock (though to be used for sticking in poles for building structures). The theory arose that the sandrock might in fact contain limerock, that acts as a sponge and collects rainwater through the sandrock, only to release it again at a later stage. Upon witnessing this phenonemon, the original inhabitants considered the site sacred, and built a temple to pray and sacrifice to the spirits to provide them with water from the rock.

We again took the tour with Olaf from Roadrunners, who told us lots of amazing stories about the Incas, the Spanish conquistadores and an incredible coincidence that made an army of 40 000 warriors flee from 160 conquistadores headed by Pisarro.

Unfortunately the sandrock of El Fuerte is very soft and subject to a lot of erosion. So far the authorities have not done anything to combat this, and if left unchecked, some of the carved out features might be already be gone in 15 to 20 years.

31 July, Cloud forest in Amboro National Park

Samaipata is located close to the Amboro National Park, an area of about 100km by 120km with a large section in the middle completely off limits to visitors. Located inside Amboro at the top of a mountain range is a cold rainforest, the so-called cloud forest. The name arising from the fact that it's so high that it's mostly covered in clouds.

This was our last activity in Samaipata, and we went out one last time with Olaf to go and hike up to the cloud forest. Three weeks earlier, there was heavy snow in the area (for the first time in 50 years) and the cloud forest suffered a lot as a result, with many branches breaking, trees falling down and the big tree ferns losing their leaves. The hiking path was also partly destroyed and we would have to do some machete work here and there to clear a path.

It was however still an amazing experience walking through a forest covered in clouds, seeing trees covered in ferns, moss and lycans and smelling the mist in the air.

We can definitely recomend RoadRunners to anyone intending to visit Samaipata. Olaf and the gang were very helpful, friendly and honest and after three outings with Olaf we were all a bit sad to say goodbye.

1 August, Finishing Che Guevara

This was our last day in Samaipata before leaving for Sucre and I spent most of the day finishing reading the biography of Che Guevara that Olaf lent me. I was finished with about two hours to spare before our bus arrived and was glad to have received some insights into the man whose famous image adorns Cuban money, posters, flags and the t-shirts of clueless teenagers and students everywhere in the western world.

Che definitely had some admirable qualities, but he was also a fanatic Marxist and a cold-blooded killer and guerilla fighter. I find it the hight of irony that his image adorns the t-shirts of youths from the very same capitalist countries he so despised. Just as I have once before realised with regards to the selling of religious relics, I was again aware how almost nothing is sacred or taboo when it comes to selling on the open market of capitalism, even if it is the image of a man who died fighting against that very same idea.

South American travel diary, Part 1. June 2010

JC Brand — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:14:40 +0000

30/31 May, Sao Paulo

The people at Olah! hostel were very helpful and accommodating. They picked us up at the airport and had to wait about two hours for us, due to a delayed flight. Then they even offered to take us to the supermarket at 12 o' clock at night.

In general Brazillians seem friendly and eager to help. We felt as though we stood out as travelers but during our first day walking in Sao Paulo, three different people approached us asking questions (probably for directions) in Portuguese, so perhaps we blended in better than imagined.

1 June

We went to Museu de Arte de S.Paulo (MASP), which provided free entrance on Tuesdays. They had an exhibition of collages from the German artist Max Ernst with a well written breakdown of his life and interpretations of the different pieces. We made our own interpretations of his work, which largely consisted of critiques of the abuse of power by the elite (represented by the French bourgoise), but also of men over woman.

We left the museum inspired by Ernst's creativity, his well-traveled and bohemian lifestyle indicating that creative lifestyle design is nothing new. Some people have been traveling the world and making a living doing what they love for a long time already.

2 June

The sight of vagrants and destitutes lying on the dirty sidewalk and public spaces in the center of Sao Paulo was quite jarring, and something I was not used to seeing anymore since spending a year and half in Germany. They were in all likelyhood just sleeping, but one couldn't be sure. One might have been lying there dead with people just passing by unaware.

We went to the famous Galeria do Rock, a 6 story mall dedicated to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal culture, where we met Aggnes, who works with Sepultura and is a volunteer for the Sea Sheperd organisation.

Up at the top of the Banespa building, one gets an impression of how big this city really is. Buildings and skyskrapers dot the landscape extending as far as the eye can see.

3 June

On Thursday we met my friend Witek (who coincidentally happens to be in Sao Paulo) and his Brazilian friend Selena. We went together to Parque Ibirapuera, the biggest park in Sao Paulo. It was a day of relaxing in the park and drinking coconut water while Witek and I discussed some of the parallels between South Africa and Brazil. Later Selena took us in her car for a trip around the city, explaining the sites, presenting it to us in a completely different light.

4 June, Rio de Janeiro

We take the bus, Expresso do Sul, to Rio de Janeiro. We opt for Executivo, the mid range option and are pleasantly surprised with a very modern and comfortable interior.

Upon arrival in Rio, we are a bit surprised with how poor and unkempt the neighbourhoods look. We drive past favela after favela and everywhere are scribbles and grafiti. A lot of the grafiti in Sao Paulo were really very impressive murals, but our first impression of Rio is that it's mostly gang signs and scribbles. Every inch seems to be tagged. Sometimes places that are seemingly impossible to reach are marked, such as the 3rd stories of buildings and on the sides of bridges.

Later at the hostel we had Caipirinha night, lots of fun and a good time to meet other travelers. I spent some time with an American traveler of (North-)Korean descent, discussing the expressiveness of the German language. He was suitably impressed ;)

5 June

We took a walk to Botafogo and Flamengo beach with Niall, an Irishman we met the night before. The weather is pretty crap, windy and rainy, but we're all in a comparatively good mood and it's fun to explore Rio for the first time.

On Botafogo beach, Brazillians are playing American football (which was a surprise) and an old guy is doing amazing tricks with a soccerball.

We again drink coconut water, agua de coco, this time with a straw straight out of a cooled coconut.

Our backpackers was nice at first glance, but we soon realize that we are two of almost 40 people squeezed into the place.

6 June

Today is Sunday and we plan to go to the Hippie market in Ipanema. First we walk to Copacabana beach. It's still a bit windy but it's nice and warm and there are lots of people on the beach.

So far Rio seemed quite poor and unkempt, but in Copacabana beach it's like a world apart and we can see why it's so famous. The official uniform for Brazillian men seems to be boardshorts and nothing else. The women wear hotpants with small tops or small dresses.

The Hippie market was a very nice surprise. There were lots of beatiful handmade leatherware, such as deocrated world maps, bowls, belts and armbands. Also jewellery and dresses. We saw very little kitsch tourist trinkets, and the market seemed to live up to its Hippie name.

7 June

We want to walk to Tijuca forest, but don't reach it and instead go to the Botanic gardens. The botanic gardens were 5 Reais to enter, which in our opinion didn't make it worthwhile, as it was relatively boring. The whole of the not very big park was filled with workers cleaning up and building paths, to the point of absurdity. We felt that the park already had too many paths and that it was just like any other park, and not what we expected from botanical gardens.

That night we bought what we thought was red wine. Upon drinking it, we realised though that it was very sweet and must have been some mix. It tasted like a mix of red wine and Fanta grape. Weird...

8 June

We took a one day Rio tour, and although it was nice and sunny the whole day, the Christ Redeemer statue was engulfed in a big fluffy cloud. We went up regardless but the view were not nearly as spectacular as they would be on a clear day.

We also went to the charming old neighbourhood of Santa Theresa and later to Lapa, were we met the artist who covered a whole flight of stairs in tiles collected from all over the world. Lots from Germany and a few from South Africa as well, unfortunately all of them quite kitsch.

9 June, Itacaré

We leave to Itacaré on Sao Geraldo busline. I made an effort to stay awake and take in the landscape. Deforestation was evident everywhere and for me quite sad. Nonetheless, the landscape was striking and pretty.

10 June

We arrive in Itacaré after a 24 hour bus trip. Itacaré is a small town on the coast of Bahia, with 14 beatiful, pristine beaches popular among hippies and surfers. Each one has its own character, with some only reachable after hiking through the forest, revealing a secluded tropical paradise, filled with trees coconuts and cute white crabs.

The houses are small and modest, but gone are the scribbles and grafiti which were so commonplace in Rio. Everywhere locals are working, digging, mixing sement in the street and painting the sidewalk stones red white and blue. Lines with confetti and Brazillian flags span the narrow cobblestone streets and a festive atmosphere is in the air. In June the inhabitants of Itacaré have a month long Sao Joao religious festival, not to mention the World cup getting underway.

Children are everywhere, playing in the streets and whenever there is a patch of grass free, they will be playing football. The neighbourhood were we stay is a bit more rough than the touristy main street, but we feel safe and there is a definite community spirit in the air. The people seem to live outdoors and with one another, not closed off in their own houses as people in suburbs tend to do.

As a South African, it was very noticable how mixed Brazil is and how easily and comfortably the different people and races interact with one another. Mixed race couples are common and I hope that South Africans could one day take a leaf out of Brazils book and also learn to live so relaxed and comfortably with one another.

12 June

I watched a Brazilian dating show tonight, and it was quite a funny experience. The contestants start kissing within 5 minutes of meeting each other, and every now and then, everyone is rounded up and made to show off their dancing skills, with especially the men going over the top, showing their abs and striking rediculous poses.

One thing that was remarkable tongight, was that although Brazil is such a ethnically diverse culture, when watching television you would think that it is mostly white with some brown sprinkled here and there. Television presenters are on average much more paler than the faces seen in the streets and towns.

13 June

Everyone in the hostel, about 8 people, started partying with a few beers at the hostel and we then went out to town for a jol. The Itacaré nightlife was great, with the alternative/Hippie vibe and influence omnipresent. We ended up at a place on the beach where a Reggae band played all the classics. Capirinhas were everywhere and it was a great atmosphere and ambiance for Manuela and I discuss our trip and how it was going so far. I felt a sense of euphoria, and again realised that life can be as exiting or boring as you want it to be, and that the possibilities for excitement and fulfillment are endless.

14 June

Today we got up early to walk to the end of town and then hiked for some 50 minutes through Atlantic rainforest to get to Prainha (little beach), one of the prettiest beaches in the area.

On the way we passed a small waterfall and a smaller rocky beach with a beatiful view.

Prainha was practically deserted except for two other couples and some surfers, including a Brazillian couple we met two nights before.

It was a lovely way to spend the day in the Bahian nature and at a pristine beach, and best of all, it did't cost us a cent to get there.

That night, we suggested that we have a barbeque at the hostel, and Marialena, the cleaning lady at the hostel, sent a young boy to buy some fresh fish for us. She showed me how to clean and prepare them and then I grilled them with some meat, potatoes and aubergine all together on the fire.

Afterwards we chatted the night away about life, traveling and Brazil. We received a lot of insight from Niels, a Portuguese speaking Dutchman, about the politics, laws, police and culture in Brasil.

16 June

This night we went to Jungle bar to watch the local Capoeira school showing off their moves. It was anunforgettable experience. Everybody was in peak physical condition, and some of the older guys were quick as hell. The teacher is a guy called Jamaika, apparently in the late 40s, but still looking very fit.

I couldn't help but think of the slaves who in their meagre spare time created and practiced the art of Capoeira. The slave masters were wary of anything that might have made the slaves a threat, so Capeoiera was disguised to on the face of it appear as a dance, perpetually accompanied with distinctly African singing and music, with the more dangerous moves only practiced when they were alone. Often I was reminded of breakdancing, although this martial art is much much older.

Today, the descendents of those original slaves still practice their martial art, and the descendents and relatives of the slave masters are honoured to become their understudies.

17 June

We traveled today with Fausto, Niels and Helena to the more secluded beaches of Havaizinho (little Hawai) and Engenhoca. You need to walk for about half an hour through the forest to reach Havaizinho, and then another 20 minutes to reach Engenhoca. Both beaches are beautiful with Havaizinha being our favourite. Engenhoca was a pleasure to swim in, with nice waves but very little undercurrent. We ended the day back at Itacaré on a hill at La Choncha beach watching the sunset. Just another day in paradise. :)

19 June

We had an amazing time in Itacaré, spending 9 days in total. Steve at Buddys was an awesome host and the staff (especially Daniel) were incredibly friendly, making us feel completely at home. We will leave with heavy hearts but fond memories.

20 June, Morro de Sao Paulo

We woke up early to catch the bus from Itacaré to Valença. The bus departs numerous times each day, but Brazil was playing in a World cup match that day and we've heard stories of the whole country coming to a standstill during football matches, so we decided to play it safe.

From Valença we took the speedboat (pronounced "speegy boachy" by the locals) ferry to the Island of Morro de Sao Paulo.

The water was opaque with such smooth waves that they reminded me of the simulated waves in a computer game. I've been reading about quantum mechanics and the fact that certain physical attributes are left undetermined (uncomputed?) until some observer chooses to observe them. Lately the view of the universe as a quantum computer seems to make more and more sense to me. Things are left uncomputed as quantum waves of probability, until (and if) the first observer chooses to observe them.

Upon arriving at Morro de Sao Paulo, we passed through a lovely arched colonial gate. In the afternoon in winter the sun can be seen setting through its opening.

Morro de Sao Paulo has no cars (none that I'm aware of). That being said, the first thing you are being greeted with upon entering through the gate (aside from the official charging a R$10 land tax) is some guy offering a taxi. The taxi it turns out, is a wheelbarrow, in which they load your baggage and then push for you through the sandy streets, stopping at the Pousadas while you haggle with the owners.

21 June

Morro de Sao Paulo is nice, the weather is perfect and it has it's own charm, but it's quite a bit more touristy than Itacaré. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, and you sometimes feel objectified as a walking wallet.

22 June

We took a trip today to another beach on the island, where we smeared some magic mud on us. All information we got was "Remédico" (pronounced: Hermaigico, 'ai' as in 'fair') and "Medinicional", so were still not sure what it's good for. My skin did however feel quite smooth afterwards.

We then left to the pristine island of Ponta de Corraes, apparantly with a 70km stretch of untouched coastline. Unfortunately the terrible polluting effect of plastic was abundantly clear in the large amount of bottles, caps and other garbage washed up on the shore.

23 June

We tried to hike to a fountain on the island, took a wrong turn and ended up crossing the whole island, until we reached the beach on the other side. We hiked a bit through the jungle, and upon reaching a small village, the locals enthusiastically greeted us and even offered us some of their food.

At night there was a Sao João celebration, with a live reggae band and groups in colourful dresses doing traditional dances.

Earlier, during the day, Manuela found a ripe, intact coconut, which we took home and placed in the fridge. That night we drank the chilled coconut water and ate coconut flesh from a smalled "seco" (dry) coconut.

24 June

We left before noon on a catamarán to Salvador. It's almost impossible to not get seasick while sitting inside, but if you go stand outside in the front and stare out into the endless sea, then the nausea goes away and the fun of sailing takes over. I tried to imagine the trials and hardships the Rennaisance era European sailors had to overcome, crossing the oceans in search of a traderoute to India.

It was a holiday today, and Salvador's city center was empty. We went straight to the airport and spent 5 hours waiting for our flight to Natal.

We were hosted by a couchsurfer named Cyrus, who was even kind enough to pick us up at the airport.

Friday 25 June, Natal

We went walking in the area of Alecrím, Natal, and shown the town square of the original Portuguese settlement. Cyrus told us that the Portuguese generally created their settlements in the same fashion. A government building, followed by a jail and then a church, all three surrounding a town square. Converted Indians would then build their houses around the town square and extending outwards.

We spent the afternoon with a group of friends watching the Brazil, Portugal game ending in a disappointing 0-0 draw. Afterwards we all sat around the tree, with the group spontaneously breaking out into percussion and song. For me it was culturally eye opening, to see a completely racially mixed group of friends naturally erupting into a distinctively African flavoured song. These people have completely embraced the African heritage of the slaves and made it part of their Brazillian culture. It is the complete opposite of South Africa, were the different cultures were forcefully kept seperate, never developing a common sense of culture or togetherness and where white people still often reject anything perceived as "black" African, while patting themselves on the back for being so "African" themselves. This is however, slowly changing in SA, with people becoming more integrated. Brazil is just decades (or centuries) ahead.

We then went to the beach and Fortaleza dos Reis Magos ("Fort of the three wise men"), which was the initial Porguese construction in Natal. The fort was built in the 18th century, later captured by the Dutch, and then recaptured by Portuguese and Native Indian soldiers.

That night, we went to a gathering organised by Cyros' percussion group. The party was inside a mostly bare building, with a bar in the corner serving beer, water and cola. The drummers play on halved plastic water and trash barrels. One guy was playing on an empty gas canister. Everyone was dancing and a girl in oriental dress danced in the middle, reminiscent of belly dancing. Many of the songs were religious songs of the Afro-Brazillian religion Candomblé.

After about 15 minutes, the whole procession of drummers and crowd (about 30 to 40 people) went outside into the street (all the while drumming and maintaining the rhythm). Some passers by joined the crowed, some dancing and one took a large carton box over his body and made strange animalistic dance moves. It was for us complete magic, being included in a strange type of social ritual, with no idea of what will happen next and with no understanding of the their language.

Outside we were entertained by a clown performance, with passing busses more than once slowing down and/or coming to a stop while the driver and inhabitants stare at the show.

Everyone went back inside the house/building and inside continued to make music and dance. There were no pretensions, no designer clothes, cars or any other methods for portraying exclusivity or arrogance and we as two foreigners felt honoured but also welcome.

Everyone danced with everyone else, and dance they could. Often the dancing couples appeared quite intimate, with hips moving seamlessly to the rhythm, only to rearrange into new couples for the next song. I spent a lot of time entranced, just watching the people move. Manuela made the observation that Brazillians seem to be so much more body orientated than Europeans, who "live more in their minds" and I completely agree. During the day they wear skimpy clothing, are very active playing, competing, gesturing and generally moving their bodies about, and afterwards they spend the night dancing and embracing. Touches of the body are common; hugs, brushes, pats and often for single women, grabs.

Saturday 26 June

We take the bus to Pipa, a popular small coastal town about 40km south of Natal.

Monday 28 June, Pipa

Sanctuário Ecológico

This morning we left early to go to Sanctuário Ecológico. A private conservation area just outside Pipa. We met up with Cyro, two Argentinian friends and a local couple and hiked the trails in the park.

The park was beautifully preserved and maintained, with lots of signposts, markers and designated viewpoints with benches and rails. There was even a small labyrinth in next to one of the trails. Cyro informed us that the sanctuary is privately owned, by a Brit (named Dave AFAIK), that he sponsored local turtle conservation projects and also built an English school in the area. We were very impressed and inspired with this person's effort and contribution in helping to preserve some of the local vegetation (instead of exploiting it or building a hotel complex).

Brazil and the South African struggle

Before the Brazil vs Chile match, they showed some of the public viewing areas in Brazil. Sao Paulo, Copacobana beach in Rio and also Salvador. I was interested to see a big African National Congress flag being waved in the Salvadorian crowd, although not completly surprised. I've noticed streets named after Nelson Mandela, grafiti of him on the walls and have heard a Portuguese Brazilian song (one of many apparantly) about him being sung the other night during the live performance in Natal.

Brazillians strongly identified with the plight of oppressed non-white South-Africans during Apartheid, and were enthusiastic supporters of Bafana Bafana during their stint in the world cup. It's fascinating to witness how strongly the South African struggle still resonates with these people. On a different continent, but with still with a lot in common.

Later a thought occurred to me. Although there seems to be similar negative sentiment towards Israel's occupation of the Palistinian territories, (in many places in the world, not notably strong in Brazil though), that for all the Palistinians' tribulations, they lack a Nelson Mandela figure.

Tuesday 29 June

Praia dos Golfinhos

Initially the day did not seem very promising, with intermittent rain for most of the morning. Later, however, the weather cleared and we went to Praia dos Golfinhos (Dolphin's beach), to go for a swim and relax in the sun.

Praia dos Golfinhos is a well-known hang-out for dolphins and we were hopeful to meet some of these fascinating creatures. The about 1 km stretch of beach was mostly deserted with only about 8 other people there, but in the sea motorboats carrying hopeful dolphin watching tourists were regularly making the rounds coming into the bay. No dolphins appeared though, and the tourists we're distracted by the opportunity to swim near the boat and by the the tour operators who took some (no doubt facebook-profile) photos of them on the boat.

I felt a bit irritated by the boats, imagining the loud motors to be distracting or unnerving to the dolphins. Eventually the boats left, and we decided to take a dip in the sea. The waves are very calm, and the water warm, so much that we ventured deep enough to not be able to stand anymore.

For a second I thought I saw someone swimming quite a bit more ahead. Then, half a minute later, we saw two dolphins coming out of the water, just about 12 meters ahead of us. It was a completely magical event, and I felt a sense of joy and excitement unique to this type of experience. We continued to stay in the water for about 15 more minutes and saw the two dolphins appear about 8 more times. Later, when we walked home, they appeared again, with a boat in the background, heading back to the harbour, completely oblivious to their presence.

Wednesday 30 June

Projeito dos Criancas (The childrens' project)

The previous night we met a fellow traveler, who after seeing me practice WingRevolution martial arts (which I learned during my stay in Germany) told me about open Capoeira lessons being held the following morning. This was one of these very fortunate coincidences that seem to appear so often during our travels. I've been wanting to take some Capoeira lessons but was intimidated by the language barrier and the amount of time it would take to learn anything meaningful. This particular school was literally across our Pousada, and I thought that this was an opportunity not to miss.

So that morning, I got up early and went to the Capoeira school to see what's up. The place was completely empty, but I decided to go in anyway to see if I could find someone. Inside I met Miguel, who was one of the instructors, and as luck would have it, he spoke English. There and then we had an hour of personal instruction. He showed me the main moves, showed me how they play the main musical instrument and told me some stories about Capoeira.

That night was another hour and half group lesson, with the local Capoeira master, some of the local kids, and a few really good fighters. For the second half of the lesson, everyone gathered in a circle, clapping hands on the beat of drums and instruments with the students (and trainers) taking turns to show of their moves and play-fight against one another. The better fighters were very popular oppononents with everyone wanting to duel against them.

After some time, I was called out to duel in the ring, with this being my first day of learning Capoeira. It was already a very humbling experience to first overcome my internal intertia, fears and doubts and join the school, but now I was also expected to show of the moves that I learned. The master was already in the ring, having dueled with a previous student, and we took hands locked hands (a courtesy before starting the duel) and then started to fight/dance. It was an intense, exciting and eventually euphoric experience and afterwards I gained a new appreciation for the benefits of opening yourself up to experiences which might seem intimidating at first.

The Capoeira (and on alternate days Hip-Hop) school, Projeto das Criancas, was started by a Norwegian woman named Helga as a means of community education and upliftment by training the local children free of charge.

Wrap up

That's it for the first month of the trip. I'm typing this in a small internet shop in Canoa Quebrada, near Fortaleza in Natal, where we are currently staying. Wednesday the 7th we're flying to Campo Grande and the Pantanal area. I'll post another blog entry for July sometime in the beginning of August.

Bom dia!