Joe, 9 April 2008
United Kingdom , Derby

Back in Blighty

Hello again people. My Latin American oddysey has come to an end and I have spent the last two weeks of my life in the tourism hotspot and backpacker's ghetto that is Derby.
I haven't done much since I've been back except for going to my sister's wedding, which is the reason I came back here. I'll talk more about that later but first I have to do a round-up of my last couple of weeks on 'tother side of the pond.

MY LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS ON 'TOTHER SIDE OF THE POND
After my last post I got the night bus from Potosi down to the Argentinian border, which is where you get into Argentina. This was one of my all time favourite border crossings. Despite having to wait for ages to get through it I was greatly entertained by the hordes of people blatantly smuggling goods over the border, running back and forth along the old railway line a few meters behind the immigration and customs buildings, in plain view of all the police and customs officers while tourists were queuing for two hours waiting for a customs officer to poke around their bags and send hem on their way. People had told me that Argentina was very similar to Europe but from my first impression I was still very much in Latin America. Immediately after crossing the border I saw a huge sign that said "THE FALKLANDS ARE ARGENTINIAN", but actually they're not. Anyway, it turns out that once you get into it a bit further, Argentina is very much like Europe and I found it to be a very refreshing change.
I spent a few days in Salta where I had wanted to go kayaking. I wasn't able to go kayaking so I did rafting instead but once you've already tried kayaking, rafting is just rubbish. So I travelled onwards to Mendoza, where I was able to do some kayaking. I'm getting a bit better at it now and can roll ok and don't have any problems going down class III rivers. There are no YouTube videos of me having horrific kayak accidents however.
Mendoza is in the heart of Argentina's wine region and the surrounding area is rammed with vineyards so I took the opportunity to go and visit one to see how wine is made and have a bash at winetasting. The people at the vineyard were quite keen to get people's imaginations going and show everyone the proper way to taste wine. They had posters on the walls showing 130 or so recognised tastes and aromas that could be associated with wines including such pretentious and ridiculous flavours as "pebbles", "graphite", "minerals", "petrol", "leather", "wet wool" and "sulphur". Since "vinegar" was not included as an acceptable sensory descriptor, my critical opinion of all the wines I tasted was always along the lines of "it's alright" swiftly followed by "can I have another taste?".

After Mandoza I hopped over the Andes into Chile. Although obviously I didn't literally hop, I took the bus.
I got to Santiago really early, I hadn't originally planned to get there that soon but I had to sort out problems with the date of my flight and I also had friends there that I wanted to meet up with. Spending my last two weeks in Santiago almost turned out crap since there isn't all that much to see there but it actually turned out quite nice as I met some nice people, invented a couple of new drinks (the "Piscorange" and the "Ginger Minge" and spent my last few days with a lovely Canadian girl. I also went to a football match with my crazy Chilean friends and it was by far the bast game I've ever been to. It was Colo-Colo vs Boca Juniors in the Copa Libertadores, the atmophere was amazing, I've never been to a game with so much noise and passion. Colo-Colo surprisingly won it quite comfortably 2-0 and everybody was going crazy, I had so much fun at that game that I'm tempted to make Colo-Colo my team, they're certainly doing better than Derby. Santiago was a very nice city and I wouldn't mind living there, especially if I got to go to Colo-Colo games every other week.

I spent a few days drinking ginger minge, walking around the city, having interesting conversations and frollicking in parks, then I caught a couple of planes and a couple of trains and an automobile and ended up at my parent's house in Derby, which is where I am now, writing this.


BACK IN BLIGHTY
So I've been back in blighty for two weeks now and it's felt like I'm a bit in limbo. I've been spending loads of time with my family and sitting around waiting for my sister to get married, which she did on Saturday. It was a really nice day and it was really nice to see some of my family who I haven't seen for a long time and I also got to wear a posh suit and look dashing and by the end of the day I got a brother thrown into the deal too which was nice because I've always wanted one of those. Muchos congratulations to Gemma and Jon, who went on their honeymoon this morning. Lucky bastards, I wish I could go on holiday.

Tomorrow I'm going down south because I've been offered a teaching job in Bournemouth, I'm looking forward to that. Sorry to people around Derby/Nottingham who I haven't seen since I've been back but I had planned to be in Derby for a little while and getting a job so soon was unexpected, I'll let you know when I'm back in the Midlands. I'll be down in Bristol this weekend and am really looking forward to seeing plenty of peeps down there.
As it's two years since I last used my phone over here Vodafone thought that I'd died or something and cancelled my sim card so I had to get a new number which is 07747 398028 so pop that into your phones and if you've changed number since two years ago can you let me know what your new one is?


And that's it, I've been away from home for almost two years and didn't die or have anything too nasty happen to me, which is quite good. I'm really glad that I did this trip and now that I'm back in Derby I feel a bit like a fish out of water, I felt pretty comfortable roaming around Latin America. I guess it'll just take a few more weeks to readjust to life in England again.


Of all the countries I've been to I'd have to say that Panama was my favourite, I'd love to go back there. The three week adventure in Kuna Yala was far and away the best part of my trip and nothing after that could come close.
My thoughts on travelling now go something like this.. getting stranded in extremely remote places with friendly people for a couple of weeks is good, living somewhere different for a few months is good and doing something challenging like cycling for a couple of months is also good. But no matter where you go or what you do, the best thing about travelling is the people that you meet and I've been lucky to meet some wonderful people. Cheers everyone.



Snip, snap, snout.
This tale's told out.


THE END


to be continued...



**I got a bit carried away with the photos and put about a million on. The first half a million are photos from Peru that I couldn't put on the last message. To understand the context of these photos along with a detailed historical and cultural analysis please read the previous message**