ZoeMLs Blog on RealTravel

Sydney journal: Sydney, you are beautiful

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:33:52 GMT

Why are there no famous songs about Sydney? She deserves a song, something pounding but haunting, young yet full of historic tradition for a city that has a long history for a place so young. Sydney is fab. I was extremely lucky to have glorious blue skies every day, sun shining and warm. But i loved her elegant avenues, big brash skyscrapers combined and sitting next to extremely elegant sandstone Victorian buildings. Sydney is a little pretentious and thinks it is more important and busy than perhaps it is. But it is this pretention that makes it exciting, like a striving adolecent ...

South Island journal: The southern round up

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 03:33:25 GMT

Photos:

http://oxford.facebook .com/album.php?aid =2122697&l=8a2bb &id=36804972

My father, being right as ever, said NZ would be like some kind of 1950s Britain. It is, although when i said this to a slightly dense english girl, she, looking shocked said "no it is not, they have internet and all sorts of modern things" !! But NZ is in someways a rather sweet throwback to when people had more time, more manners and the boys wore long socks and shorts to school. It certainly is a long way from South America, and however superficial the analogy, i do feel i have gone back ...

Oceania journal: New Zealand and Australia

Fri, 25 May 2007 21:05:22 GMT

No more spanglaportugesish!

Olinda journal: Olinda and Porto Galinhas

Wed, 09 May 2007 14:08:58 GMT

So my final days in Brazil were spent in the lovely colinal town of Olinda, where i spent the day with a nice french couple, and a really great swiss girl called crystal. Olinda is the sister city of Recife, which having won the struggle between the traditional sugar planters and the noveu riche merchants, has been in perpetual decline since the early 18th century. A bit of money from UNESCO has done wonders, and it is now all cobbled streets, many many churches and incredible views across the bay into ultra modern and high rise Recife.

One evening we went out to have drinks, where we ...

Pipa journal: Pipa - Swimming with Dolphins

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:27:45 GMT

So I leave Fortelaza on a 20GB bus, that unlike every other bus i have taken in Brazil, has no luxury, rather a lot of smelly local people (rather like me) whom are taking the overnight bus to Natal, some 8 hours south. I eventually arrive in Pipa, a rather fashionable beach resort 3 hours south of Natal at 10am, by which time it is already getting very hot. Decide to take a room on my own (what luxury) in a rather amausing low budget hostel (one of only 2 in Pipa) where they literally have 'the only gay in the village'. Eddie is known far and wide in traveller circles for being the most ...

Jericoacoara journal: Life is a Beach

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 15:11:03 GMT

Jericoacoara is not pronounced 'jeri kah kah rah' like the guide book says. Most people just called it Jeri. Like an old uncle. Which it kind of was. Jeri was heading into low season, getting slightly tired, and the stories in the guidebook of crazy parties and amazing nightlife were like the stories of a bygone youth, or at least of three weeks before. There were hardly any travellers in the town, which was pointed out to me by the israelis whom i meet on the beach in my first afternoon. They predicted only 6 more gringos than were already amassed on the beach. Turned out there probably ...

Salvador journal: My Travels with Sarah: Salvador, Morro de Sao Paulo and Itacare

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 12:19:22 GMT

Photos: (more to come)

http://oxford.facebook .com/album.php?aid =2105287&l=2ce1f &id=36804972

The last 2 weeks with Sarah have been wonderful. I left Rio to fly to Salvador in the state of Bahia with butterflies in my stomach. Would everything be OK, would we have become strangers, would I have turned into one of those annoying gappers who has no connection to the real world anymore. Having managed to coordinate our arrivals within half an hour of each other, we took all of about 2 minutes to click in and feel at home with each other. The only strange thing was seeing ...

Rio de Janeiro journal: Her name is Rio and she danced upon the sand...

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 12:13:42 GMT

Photos

http://oxford.facebook .com/album.php?aid =2104490&l=041c1 &id=36804972

Rio was my big hope and big plan. It is the most amazingly beautiful city, probably visually the best i´ve seen so far, and yet i did not fall in love with her as i thought i would. I spent 12 days hanging out mainly on Ipanema beach (what name dropping!) but was stationed for the most part in slightly more down market Copacabana beach, where to many people´s bitter disappointment, Elton John failed to appear for the promised free concert. Rio is squashed into and around a number of large ...

Santiago journal: Santiago: Briefly

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:37:17 GMT

Popped over from Mendoza to Santiago, in a beautiful bus trip over the Andes. Incredible views of the tallest moutain in South America and a peaceful 6 hours winding around small roads on a rather large double decker bus.

Santiago is large, smoggy and hot. Not exactly much to do there as a tourist, and notably expensive compared to Argentina (although does well via Rio as i~ve now found out!) Had a few days to kill before flying to Rio, and did a small walking tour where we took in briefly the sights, took a cable car up to their Madonna and child, which is attempting to imitate Rio´s ...

Mendoza journal: Return to Mendoza: beauty queens and transvestites

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:17:40 GMT

After Patagonia i felt i needed some sun before i hit the beaches of Brazil. I had a few days spare before i flew out of santiago so i went back to Mendoza from where i could travel easily over the Andes into Chile.

I happened to arrive however on the most important weekend in the Mendozan's calender- during the wine festival. As my previous Mendoza blog suggested, Mendoza is mainly a wine producing region, famous for its rather nice Malbecs. The wine festival is the accumulation of the year's hard work and finishes with a department queen being elected to become the Wine Harvest Queen ...

Bariloche journal: Bariloche

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 12:07:11 GMT

We thought we were being really clever by going to Bariloche by plane, thus reducing either a 2 day nightmare road trip costing 500pesos, or a 36hour bus trip down to 2 hours. haha. We were meant to be flying at 1pm. Thank god we´d phoned up to confirm that afternoon, meaning that we were told that the flight had not infact even left the runway at BA. Thus they were not sure when we would get on the plane. Baring in mind we´d done two 24 hour trips to and from Ushuaia within the last 4 days, this was not great news. Even worse news came when we got to the airport to find that the plane ...

Calafate journal: Calafate & El Chalten: Glorious Glaciers

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:15:40 GMT

for Glacier photos copy and paste the link:

http://oxford.facebook .com/album.php?aid =2093482&l=56c3a &id=36804972

Patagonia really takes on its mythical qualities once you start to hit El Calafate. The landscape becomes more dramatic, the sky is endless and huge. There is no escape from the fact you are nearing the edge of any civilisation. For years Patagonia was anywhere south of Buenos Aires, rather like the wild west - anywhere that wasn´t colonized by ´civilised people´. Those that did live in deep Patagonia, apart from the Native indian groups, were anything but ...

Ushuaia journal: Ushuaia: the end of the world?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:49:51 GMT

Despite my protestations that i would not travel down to Ushuaia ´just to say i´d been at the end of the world´ I really did do the 48 hour round trip down to the southern most point in the world, to say that yes, i did go to the "end of the world". We had a few days to spare, so it seemed crazy to go. And most of the journey consists of going through the numerous boarder crossings of Argentina and Chile as one goes down to island of Tierro Del Fieugo on which Ushuaia is situated. I have 4 sets of stamps for each leg for each country!

But apart from using up pages in my passport, ...

Calafate journal: The best staff ever

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:32:45 GMT

Mar del Plata journal: Mar Del Plata

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:33:55 GMT

Mar del Plata is where the upper middleclasses go when they are escaping BA for the hot summer. A number of the big clubs in BA like Pasha leave altogether in the summer months and decamp to sea side city. Leaving BA I kind of needed a few days of relative peace and quiet, a nice little beach town would have been ideal, with a few days relaxing by the sea. Instead we turn up with the weather cloudy (and it remains so for the next two days) and while not on the main strip, about 15 minutes south at the strangly named `Playa Grande`. The beach would indeed have been wide, if not long, had a ...

Morocco journal: Morocco

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:31:47 GMT

I am fast approaching the 'big trip'. I hope to come back older (impossible not to) wiser, more tanned, and hopefully having found myself, found my way around and without finding anything to stressful. This is my categlogue of the spiritual, emotional and costly life changing experience. I intend to come back only speaking of "when I was doing...in country X", "my time in....." and "on my gap year I ..." at every opportunity, otherwise this whole year will have been entirely wasted! Please read on...

Essaouira journal: Essaouria

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:31:47 GMT

I arrived in Marrakech about mid-day after an early flight in from Heathrow. Weather was lovely as arrived in Marrakech, but since there was no room at the inn in Marrakech, i was heading straight down to Essaouria the absolutely beautiful old fishing port about 3hrs south. Got on a rather scruffy bus, and just about made it here before dark. Walking around with my back pack, everyone was offering me places to stay- i however was confident that my hotel had been booked, so brushed them off. However when i got to the hotel, they told me i was too late and they'd given away my room! "you ...

Buenos Aires journal: Buenos Aires

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:58:53 GMT

Buenos Aires is an incredible city. Full of beautiful people, fanstastic atmosphere and brilliant nightlife. I even managed to visit the main sights as well! In Recolleta, there is the cemetery where Evita is buried. Her tomb is actually one of the most modest in the place. most of them are so ornate that they would not look out of place in a square in Rome. Huge statues, craft work of the highest quality covers the memorials to Argentina`s wealthy elite. The most awe inspiring cemetery i`ve ever seen.

The modern Art museum containing latin american art - the Melba, is also a ...

Cordoba journal: Medoza and Cordoba - City of sleep, and Cordoba of many doctors

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:21:52 GMT

Actually went to Mendoza first. Medoza was lovely and warm, bathed in a lovely med - European flavour and full of beautiful people. In Salta people dressed up but you could see the remaining "ethinic" influence. By the time I got to Medoza and then in Cordoba, the women espeically, were clearly of the most advantageous mix of european blood. Seriously, there are no ugly women. the ugliest fattist woman would be avarege on harrow highstreet! (although that's not saying much!)

But in Medoza, appart from meeting a slightly crazy, but great Ozzy chick called Sammi, who was lugging around ...

South America journal: South America

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:00:04 GMT

My South American Adventure has begun. Flying into Lima on the 8th of December I have begun the second country of my grand voyage...Deepest Darkest Peru. Where paddington Bear, in all his forsight decided to wear rubber boots, a duffle coat and strange hat to escape Peru from. I instead have a lovely big poncho to start the trip in.

Salta journal: Salta

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:35:58 GMT

Salta was my first stop in Argentina. Here i discoved the very European nature of Argentina compared to Peru and Boliva, and how much some people loved Pricess Diana. My dentist (having yet another introduction to south american health care) waxed lyrical about her for a long time while i was unable but to make gutteral noises in response due to the work being done. so my true feelings on the Di phenomenom remained hidden.

As ever, had a few big nights in Salta where we found a lack of salsa clubs, but a lot of cheesy europop and house music.

On my second or third day i bumped ...

San Pedro de Atacama journal: Tourist central

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 08:58:35 GMT

San Pedro is the best tourist town in the world. Not much to say apart from it lacks a disco. a big amount of money could be made if they allowed things to stay open beyond 1am. it is also soooo expensive...not the accomodation so much, but the food and drinks...basically 5GB for food..not cheap especially coming from Bolivia!

Had to hang out here in the nice warm that is the desert because the bus to argentina didn{t leave until friday. So i eeked out an existence of chat and chilling, overpriced drinks and food. We took bikes out to The Moom Valley, where the desert looks like the ...

Uyuni journal: Salt Flats

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 08:47:17 GMT

On the way to La Paz I met a lovely woman called Rachael. I promised her that i was not normally quite so dappy, exhausted and generally crap as i was when i met her. Unfortunately it turned out that i was. Having spent a day in La Paz where we visited the witches market (lots of llama foetus) while sheltering from the rain, we took our over night bus down to Uyuni. We´d been promised a ´semi cama´bus...which apparently meant that we´d have a bit more room than normal...we get on the bus to find that we are sitting at the back, thus there is no movement in the seats at all. Great. An ...

Cusco journal: Great party place - really friendly and fun

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:10:43 GMT

Cusco journal: The Inca Trail

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 09:39:50 GMT

I did the Inca Trail. I did it in the rain, in the mud, and even didn´t complain too much. I was even told i was one of the jolliest despite the early mornings. Wow. There really must be an inca god!

Met my group in Lima, a slightly odd bunch of people, reasonaly quiet but determined to do it. Spent a day in cusco and the sacred valley acclimatising to the 3200m above sea level altitude- found salsadancing much more exhausting and slight headache as well. panting asyou go up stairs. not a good sign for the trail.

First proper day was in the sacred valley where we saw the first a ...

Pisco journal: Pisco> every kinda life

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:14:40 GMT

Pisco:Wildlife:Pisco is known as the poor man's Galapagos islands. However while it is not as extensive as the Galapagos, it is much cheaper! For about 8GB we took a day's tour, covering the national park, island and beach. Although we did break down during the day (once at sea, once in the desert)!The Island contains the best bird droppings in the world (used for fertilizer) and as you can imagine stinks of sulphur! But as you draw up to the rocks, you see so many different birds and thousands of beautiful sea lions. We saw huge black and white pelicans (and various other bird species i ...

Huacachina journal: Huacachina- Sanddunes

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:12:24 GMT

Hucachina is an Oasis just outside the town of Ica which is nessled in the largest sanddunes i have ever seen. They are the size of hills in wales etc. Properly large. Would not want to be there if there was an earthquake. After hanging out at the pool, enjoying the travelling scene, drinking Pisco sours and generally kicking back, we went sandboarding (like snow boarding but without the cold, and softer) and in a dune buggy. the buggy going up and over the dunes was like a rollercoaster. the best non-sexual orgasm ever. so much fun. I was as crap as I expected boarding, so went down ...

Lima journal: Good - clean and friendly.

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:04:17 GMT

Lima journal: Lima

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:04:15 GMT

Lima:Arrived in Lima after a marathan trip taking about 24hrs from leaving harrow, to arriving in my hostel. This included having 25GB of goods taken from me by Miami security because the US in its wisdom only allows a certain size of liquid to be taken on as handluggage. Of course, my suncream (despite assurances to the contrary) was too large. It had to be left there. Although i can{t imagine many Hispanic Miamians are going to get any use of it!Then my baggage took over an hour to come through. was convinced that i{d lost all my stuff. But it came. and i had a driver waiting for me. ...

Nasca journal: I was in a plane, I saw the bird, and apparently it was aliens

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:01:50 GMT

Nasca: Got a very luxurious bus the 6hours south to Nasca. The next morning I took the flight over the Nascan Lines- they were created by the Nascans (100BC-200ad approx) who managed to produce these huge animal designs, and long long incredibly straight lines in the desert plateau. The mystery is that until airtravel, no one knew (anymore) that they were there, and no one is quite sure what they mean. Apparently there is a strong theory for the lines being made by alien aircraft, however the BBC documentary i saw seemed to prefer the idea that the animal shapes come from Shaman images ...

Erg Chebbi journal: Desert Safari

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:27:10 GMT

I found myself in Tafraoute a small town to the west ofMirleft, sitting in the basin of the Ameln Valley which is surrounedby moutainous boulders and dramatic valleys. I had promised i wouldbe more active than i had been, so after checking into a hotel costingonly 35DH a night, I headed to the activity centre to organise somehard core treks. There were 2 american women who’d just turned 50, bothvery small, called Lani and Laurie and (as it turned out) jewish,however they were not, as i first thought hearing they were from SanFrancisco, lesbians. They had been in Tafraoute for a few ...

Marrakech journal: Hassle Central

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:19:39 GMT

My journey to Marrakech involved the most daring of the moroccans trying to kiss/sleep with me/ marry me. This involved being pratically dragged off the coach as we stopped for 15 minutes in a very small Berber town in the Draa Valley. The guy told me to look at his restaurant while the coach was stopped, and meanwhile poured tea. Within minutes he was trying to persuade me to stay that night (NO) then suggested that when i come back to morocco I could stay and have free food, board and drinks (they think we're all alcoholics) IF i we were to share a room - i.e. prostituion (and only free ...

Mirleft journal: Fantastic

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:50:09 GMT

Mirleft journal: Anyone for a donkey ride?

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:50:06 GMT

So i drag myself away from my German and Swiss friends, and take myself to what is described as a 'hippy heaven', or it might have been a 'hippy haven', either way, there really are no hippies still in Mirleft, although the locals have fond memories of them, and there is still copious amount of smoking illegal drugs going on (by the locals). Mirleft on first sight is a one street town. however it has 6 beaches, all of them practically deserted (so i'm told, i only made it to one!) and pure white sand and glorious coves and caves set against completely clear blue waves. The town made a ...

Tamraght Ouzdar journal: Surf Marocco

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:24:08 GMT

I left for Tamraght, about half an hour north of Agadir, under my own steam. However "apparently" there were 'no grand taxis' going at that time of the morning, so i was only able to get a bus, or a taxi by myself. since i had already got a taxi to the taxi stand, i decided to get the taxi- for 60DH it was less than the 100DH the surf camp charged for picking me up...however the lack of street addresses in these small towns, the the large number of surf camps, meant that my taxi driver dropped me not only at the wrong camp, but at the top of the hill, instead of the bottom. Eventually made ...

Agadir journal: One Hundred Years of Solitude?

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 11:31:37 GMT

I am currently reading 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'... ironically the title seems particularly apt for my last week. I am convinced that the magic, the solitude and repeated circumstances that pervaded the novel, had come to play on me as well! So far I have still to meet a single other traveller, who is not french and or in a couple. The whole place is completely bereft of anyone...Although every bloody hostel is full (French holidays). So, I am in the alternative, becoming increasingly good at solitude, although the constant 'Bonjours' mean that even when i'm happy walking along in my ...