More friends

London has been spent basically seeing people, although I did take in the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Tate which was excellent, and thanks to Colette (pictured here) it was even free. The weather has also been great - a little rain and grey to remind me what it's supposed to be like, but otherwise just lots of warmth and sunshine (even hot at times) and exposed white people.

Friends in London

This is my Australian friend Michael (London resident for 8 years) who once again graciously furnished his inflatable mattress and living room floor for my sojourn in the mother country. We went for a lovely bike ride besides the Thames to Greenwich to observe the arbitrary meridian and contemplate London being the centre of the known world.

Sitges

So Sitges was actually much nicer than I thought it might be - only had a day there but was very relaxing and I could definitely see how you could adopt the local pace for a week or so.

Me and Neil

This is my Australian friend Neil who studied for four months in Barcelona last year and our visits also happened to coincide this time around. If only I could have changed my ticket and followed him to the Greek Islands. Not that he needs any more tanning.

A little smoggy

This is a photo of the city from Montjuic (or thereabouts) and you can just see the Sagrada Familia in the distance. They've done quite a lot of work on it since I was last here.

Barcelona

Well, I forgot to take my camera with me anywhere in Madrid, so there's no photos from there - you'll just have to take my word for it that it was fun. Barcelona meant meeting up with two Australian friends, Pip and Neil. Pip convinced me that the "Turistic" bus would be fun, and it was in a kind of ironic way.

Last day in Barcelona

Well, I´ll get around to posting some more photos in the next couple of days from London. Sad to leave both Madrid and Barcelona - but it´s nice to know they´re very easy to come back to (well, aside from the 24 hours on a plane issue). Heading down to the beach at Sitges today and then tomorrow a week in London - it´s all coming to an end far too soon.

Cuban countryside

The following photo is from a place I stayed called Viñales where there are all these "mogotes" which are limestone formations that are pretty cool. I did some caving too, which was amazing.

Music and politics

This picture is from a folkloric show I saw that was largely drawn from Santerian traditional stories. I've got to say that I enjoyed more of the drum-based Afro-Cuban music that the constant covers of Guantanamera and hits of the Buena Vista Social Club (as appealing as they are). Which brings me to tourism in Cuba. Lonely Planet (or perhaps Time Out) makes reference to the possibly Faustian deal the Cubans have made with tourism. There's definitely problems. The most inherent one is that in creating a double economy (local pesos and tourist money - sometimes confusingly, also pesos) Castro has, in my opinion, placed a rot at the very heart of his communist/socialist (depends which day) ideal. In effect, the Cuban pesos function more as a ration system - they get you what you need to survive, but much more of them wouldn't make that much of a difference. For that you need tourist pesos (since US dollars were taken out of circulation) and so many locals will do whatever it takes to get them. With these you can buy all the "luxuries" that you can't with your "salary". Things like televisions, but also soap, and even just food that doesn't suck. If you consider that the average monthly wage is something like $US15, you can see that anyone who finds a way to nab some tourist cash is going to be pretty tempted to not bother with a regular job, and it seems that many of them do that. Of course, external remittances make a huge contribution to this system. The longer I spent there, the more ridiculous the whole thing seems, and especially the posturing that happens on both sides of the Florida Strait. Castro is still trying to sell what is becoming a complete lie - the economy and society would collapse without all those sending money back into Cuba, and is just, if not more, guilty of ridiculous propaganda to further his argument. Meanwhile Bush feels the need to tighten an embargo that is so wrong in terms of international law, not to mention basic morality and decency. There are so many interesting, frustrating and complex arguments here (ask me in person, and I'll happily get out my soap box) - but this is one of the great parts about experiencing Cuba. I've also realised that democracy has become the emptiest word in the English language.

The Malecon

One of Havana's most famous sights is the sea wall and the road that goes along it. Although I didn't quite get the full water-spraying-over-the-road experience, there's something very compelling about it, especially trying to process just how close the enemy really is.

The little yellow car is a cocotaxi. They have three wheels and have to take corners very slowly.

Old Town

This is a typical view of one of the plazas in Habana Vieja. You can see the restored buildings next to the almost-collapsing ones (but still with people living in them).

One thing that I found very unique to Cuba is that many of the people live in pretty terrible accomodations, but in Cuba that doesn't mean they're "poor" - it's kind of hard to explain, but it means that you could be quite a "successful" person but still live in something that would be probably be condemned by Australian standards.

Gran Teatro

I had planned to see the famous Cuban National Ballet here, but it didn't end up happening. I'm sure it was great.

Cuba photos

Ok, here's some photos and more thoughts about Cuba. First of all, you've got to admit that Cuba's flag is cool.

The value of Tasmania

One of the bad things about Havana is the number (and persistence of) touts, especially in the old town, who want to sell cigars, or possibly themselves. Although, in truth, it wasn´t nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. But since the most popular opener is "Where you from?" I quickly learned that "Tasmania" was a good response, followed by an insistence in broken Spanish or English that I speak only Tasmanian. A lot of them complimented me on my country all the same, and one surmised that it must be near Germany.

How many airports can I visit in one day?

I´m in the middle of the longest haul yet (NYC-SYD is obviously yet to come) which started early this morning in Havana. A quick 2.5 hour hop to Panama (with nice views of the canal) and then another two hours to Quito, where I am at the moment. Given the 3 hours wait here for my next flight I splurged on the airport lounge for the free internet access and free food and drink - once I finish here I´m off to gorge myself, like the true budget traveller I am. Next stop is Guayaquil, which is somehow en route to Madrid. 5 airports in about 24 hours (although I´ve no idea how long to flight to Madrid is - 12 hours or something I guess). Well, I´m off to the buffet ...

Final days in Cuba

Well, I´ll put some thoughts together and post them when I get to Spain on Monday, but thanks for checking in just in case! Just got back to Havana from a couple of days in a place called Viñales which was beautiful and involved caving. Not what one immediately thinks of for Cuba. There´s been quite a lot of rain (thanks to Tropical Storm Arlene - I want that naming job, by the way) but the worst was today whilst in the bus, so I´ve been pretty lucky. Although nobody warned me that rain really stings when you´re riding a moped. Locals laughed at me. Or with me, as I choose to interpret it. Strangely the luggage man at the bus station laughed at me too. I demanded an explanation, but nothing made sense.

Live from Havana

Well, I wasn´t sure what the internet availability was here, but it turns out that you can pay a ridiculous amount of money for it! So I´ll be brief.

Cuba is definitely one of the most ... different ... places I have been in all my travels. It´s just one of those places that seems impossible to even begin to try to describe. It´s a very confusing mix of normality and intractability. That said, it´s also a very mind-opening place. I have lots of thoughts already (have only been here two days) and I probably should edit some of them before commiting them to blog.

Anyway, I´ll probably make another update before this next week is out.

Travelling companions

It´s my last day with travelling companions Jason and Kate and Ed, but Kate and Ed are travelling for a year (mostly South America) and both have blogs, so I´ve added theirs to the links section on the right.

Temporarily up to date

So now hopefully things are back in order, for a little while at least. Enjoy the latest photos and I´ll be back with text entries at least very soon. I´d suggest going down to the "Out of Order" entry - about ten photos below this - and working your way back up to the top; it will make more sense that way.

Above the cloud forest

And this gives you an idea of how high we actually were (the lodge was at about 3200m, this was a lot higher). On a clear day you can see ... well, not forever, but apparently as far as Guayaquil on the coast (which is a long way away).

In the cloud forest

This is Kate and Ed taking some time out to smell the orchids that grow in the cloud forest where we went horseriding. And before you accuse us of picking and destroying local flora, the bunch of flowers that Kate is holding was given to her by an eight-year-old local boy.

The wheel of cheese

Whilst horseriding, we came across (not unexpectedly) this small cheese factory. The Swiss apparently donated their cheesemaking skills to the area at some point in the past, which I suppose was more useful than showing the locals how to conceal billions of dollars.

The Llama of Truth

This was taken at the Black Sheep Inn, the aforementioned vegetarian permaculture resort that we stayed at near the small town of Chugchilán, high in the Andes. Actually the only good thing about this llama was that it didn't spit.

Jonathan & friends

Just another day sunning ourselves on pristine beaches.

Two favourites

Another delightfully prehistoric marine iguana with ever-present sea lion in background.

Blue-footed Booby

There's really not much to say about these highly amusing birds except that their feet are funny, their eyes are funny, their necks are funny and their mating dance is adorable.

In this month´s Cosmopolitan

Yes, ladies, as you can see here, Kate is showing off the latest summer fashion accessory, the marine iguana. These soon-to-be-essential items are as happy tanning with you on a beach as they are in a cafe or a nightclub.

Galapagos namesake

As pointed out by a valued regular reader, my initial series of Galapagos photos neglected to include the Giant Tortoise for which the islands were christened. Here's one. His name is Diego. That's travelling companion Kate looking like she's about to run across the top of him.

The beginning of Ecuador

Our first day in Ecuador was spent walking around the old town of Quito where for some reason we were passed by at least three marching bands.

Mi profesora

This is me and Graciana, my Spanish teacher during my month in Buenos Aires.

Facultad de Medicina

This is a beautiful building that houses the Medical Faculty of one of the universities. It's pretty.

Avenida Libertador, Buenos Aires

This was a couple of blocks from the apartment I rented and is a good example of the wide avenues that cross the city, enabling me to take my teenage Atari Frogger skills into the real world.

Out of order

Ok, so please bear with me over the next few entries which are going to be out of order with what has come before, but yet with a logic all of their own. I could go through the site and update photos to the old entries, but that's not going to happen in these times of limited internet access, nor would you necessarily feel like going back to see what's changed. So let's start again ... by reading upwards of course, thanks to blog logic.

I do not look crusty

I have had two separate emails commenting on the fact that I look like a crusty pirate. Well excuse me if I couldn´t condition my hair straight after swimming with sharks and sea lions. You can all go to hell.

Confounded once again

Well I just spent this morning on my laptop organising some text and photos that I could quickly upload to the blog but the slightly wary and resentful woman running the internet cafe insists that it will take up too much bandwidth to upload. I will try to find a faster one, but it may have to wait until Guayaquil at the end of the week for new photos.

Meanwhile we have had a lazy day here in Baños which started all too early thanks to some irritating roosters next door to the hostel. We´ve moved to a new one today which will enable more sleep. I´m all too aware that Ecuador is fast drawing to a close, and that after Cuba I´ll be on the home stretch - I know, I can feel the sympathy already.

Also, for those who have enquired, the little email symbol next to the posts means that you can email the post to a friend, but the comment feature is disabled for the blog.