Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=305339] | 2008-09-02 02:00:06
 Jabe | John McCabe | Travel Blog |
Jabe - John McCabe
Getting away from the office grind, to take a look at what's going on in the rest of the world. First stops were India, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, China again, Mongolia, Russia, Indonesia again, Argentina, a brief incursion into Chile, Argentina again, Chile again, Argentina again, and Bolivia. Now in Peru.I've started to limit my photos per blog entry to a maximum of 42, i.e. 2 pages' worth, but I take a lot more photos than that. You can view the rest at my Flickr account, which I'm using as an online backup service.
Joined on: August 24th 2005
Last Login: September 6th 2008
Blog Entries: 338
Photos: 8773
Recommended by 9
Last Login: September 6th 2008
Blog Entries: 338
Photos: 8773
Recommended by 9
Status: BLOGGER
Blogs & Travel Journals
by Jabe, order by Date newest first.
La Paz to Cusco was always going to be a long day of travel but there were some diverting incidents to keep me awake, including a 2 hour wait at the border while the driver tried in vain to add to his collection of 4 passengers, being at the wrong end of the worst Chilean peso -> Peruvian sole exchange rate imaginable in order to pay the 1 sole terminal charge in Puno, a delay due to a flat tire, a delay for reasons unknown other than that the drivers of about 20 consecutive vehicles seemed to decide they all fancied [View Full Entry]
By Jabe
July 25th 2008
July 25th 2008
Best seen from a distance
South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » La Paz
I managed to convince myself that my impending rendezvous in Peru meant that I should not waste time unnecessarily, so the potential day of bus travel from Sucre to La Paz was replaced by a 45 minute flight. Most of the journey was over brown mountainous terrain with the occasional looping trail far below taking account of the gradients, and a few limpid blue-green alpine lakes stood out in the surrounding drab colouring. As we neared La Paz, many of the mountains jutted high enough to show a snow line, including the giant overlooking the city itself - Mount Illimani at [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 1 Video(s) | [diary=302830] | 2008-08-11 16:51:45
Sometimes the linguistic barrier can be broken down by the simple expedient of using the language of love, as perfectly demonstrated by the taxi driver who took me to Potosi bus station to catch the next service to Sucre. He asked me where I was from then mimed sexual intercourse when I said I was English, then made further shagging motions when I said that I liked Bolivia, and once again when I said I had met lots of Americans in South America. I was unsure if he was implying that he had been there done that or questioning whether I [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=300720] | 2008-08-05 16:13:59
A dirt track just over 200km long connects Uyuni with Potosi, the nearly 6.5 hour bus ride sufficiently time-consuming that even a Laotian might raise an eyebrow at the average speed. With a dozen backpackers clogging up the seats, I'm sure the locals were none too pleased either as it was standing room only before we'd even left Uyuni. The journey was expedited, and people's bladders tested, by just one stop along the way, and there was relief all round when we arrived in the 4,000m+ altitude of Potosi. A taxi so old that it was a Datsun delivered me to [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 2 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=300718] | 2008-07-31 20:30:49
The bus to the border town of La Quiaca gave me a reprise of the first half of my Humahuaca Gorge trip, and then further altiplano scenes of grazing llamas and scrubby landscape under a deep blue sky as we trundled north. The immigration buildings looked chaotic but the long queues were for people coming south, and in short order I was on the dusty streets of Villazon, the Bolivian conjoined twin of La Quiaca. What a difference a few hundred metres makes. I could not avoid drawing parallels with many of the towns I'd passed through in last year's Southeast [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=300715] | 2008-07-28 17:07:59
By Jabe
July 11th 2008
July 11th 2008
City arrived at by reading atlas backwards? (5)
South America » Argentina » Salta » Salta
Having felt somewhat disconnected from the "gringo trail" recently, it was a shock to find myself surrounded by backpackers on the bus to Salta. The amount of crisp-eating was astounding, and I doubt even the most indigenous of villages would have sported such a collection of chullos. I noticed that the girl in front of me was learning some Spanish so, nosy by nature, I peered at the page she was currently reading. My eyes alit on a sentence, presumably intended for her boyfriend, that read "Yo quiero un festival de cock pronto" and I nearly laughed out loud - surely [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 3 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=297677] | 2008-07-25 04:05:48
Two and a half hours of travel on a virtually empty bus got me to San Juan, a sunny city of broad streets and (finally) shops with flip-flops. Though this was really only a waypoint on the route to the national parks further north-east, I figured I'd stay a night in the hope of catching up on some sleep. The area is supposedly on a fault-line with as much potential for a Big One as California but the ground showed commendable firmness for the 20 hours that I was in town. After my visit to San Agustin (blogged separately), I had [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 4 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=294859] | 2008-07-25 03:44:12
By Jabe
July 6th 2008
July 6th 2008
Triassic park
South America » Argentina » San Juan » San Agustín del Valle Fértil
After dozing for three quarters of the journey to San Agustin, I woke up to find a landscape of rocky hills with a light covering of trees, and a welcome appearance of cacti. There was an unexpected selection of accommodation touts at the bus station in San Agustin, but I was soon in a pleasant pension that was half the price of anywhere else I've stayed in the country. San Agustin definitely warrants the use of the adjective "sleepy", its spacious main square tranquil and dotted with bird crap-peppered benches. The squawking of bright green parrots filled the quiet in between [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=296721] | 2008-07-22 00:24:16
To travel from this part of Chile to Mendoza means crossing the Andes via an extremely picturesque route. Initially you can only see the snowy mountains from a distance but then the road winds up through them, a series of switchbacks seemingly without end that takes you to the pass at just over 4,000m. The brightness of the snow is startling at these elevations, and a contrast to the clear deep blue of the sky. At this time of year, the pass is often blocked by snow, and it appeared that conditions were great for winter sports, with both downhill and [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 21 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=294646] | 2008-07-22 00:09:10
Home for me is a seaside town with a funicular, so the port city of Valparaiso, with its 15 ascensores, on the face of it had some similarities. After spending 2 days in "Valpo", I had to concede that the similarities were indeed purely superficial, with the lack of good fish and chips here a glaring difference. Valparaiso is spread over more than 40 hills, a Rome (or Sheffield) squared, and many of its residential areas are filled with the kind of colourful houses and street art that characterise the Bellavista neighbourhood of Santiago. Sadly, the smog that blights the capital [View Full Entry]
Jabe - John McCabe | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 42 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | [diary=294174] | 2008-07-18 23:48:00