St. Luica

St. Lucia is a very cute, jungly, green town. Again, like in most South African places, there is not much to do, except maybe one thing. And here it was some wetlands tour. I decided to skip that. I went to a few agencies, when the bosses were out, and asked who was there about the trips (unfortunately I have to say that these were black people). I just got a blank stare with eyes hectically moving from side to side. Suddenly after the longest pause I get an answer: "The trip leaves in 2 hours". What trip leaves in 2 hours? How much is it? But I didn't even bother to ask. I was very agitated inside, but mumbled a thank you and left. Next place, same thing. There were no prices for all the tours, and I was interested in one that didn't. I asked the employee who called her boss to ask the price. Again, I had follow up questions, but didn't even bother. I wonder why if the agency has about 5 trips, and you work there for some time, how hard is it to learn just a little bit about a place where you work at? I noticed that they don't have a "what if" logic, or thinking ahead logic... very bizarre. While figuring out what to do, I went for a walk. Arrived at a little harbor, and there were Vervet monkeys. There were so many of them, and these are the strangest monkeys I've seen. The males have neon glowing blue genitals, and females had breasts of the same color. Very impressive! So I was hanging around watching them. They were stealing guard’s food, and fighting over it. Note: there is a guard at every parking space to tell the people where to park, and to watch after the cars while the owners are out and about. For a regular size plaza, there would be maybe 8 people watching the cars. He approached me and asked laughing, "can you tell which of the monkeys is male?" hahaha ... now, I would expect that kind of question of a 9 year old Andrew (my brother), but not from a 20 something person. While I was watching the monkeys, people started to gather, and went to the boats that went on a hippo tour. I waited for a bit, and decided to ask how much these trips run for, I had only R90 with me (and the trip costs double), but I figured that if they have any more space left then they would rather take me for that amount, than to make nothing at all. I approached the boat that had the least number of workers waiting outside, and asked how much does the trip cost. One guy answered me, while the other said, come on, get in, I'll give you a promotional price, so I got in. A promotional price included a free ride, free water and chocolates, and because he drove the boat and I sat beside him, I got to ask all the questions :)) So not that bad :) A friend of the captain (Roger) joined as well (both of them at their 50s-60s), and basically they were entertaining me all the way. The hippos themselves weren't that interesting, they barely move, and just wiggle their ears when get out of the water. And the best part of the day didn't even begin. The captain and his wife live in a tent city village, Roger came for a weekend to visit, and another couple of friends, so they invited me to come join them for dinner. They dropped me off at the hostel to change to longer cloths, while went to a shop to buy food. It was such a relaxing evening. All 3 of the men knew how to play a guitar, so we had a mini concert going on, we ate sausages, very tasty bacon, white wine, and relaxed under the stars. This was my best evening in South Africa for sure! Was nice to get out of the crazy backpacker rhythm and spend some time with "normal" people :) Roger dropped me off at the hostel, and I was already getting ready for bed when the a staff member came in and said that there is somebody is waiting for me outside. Turns out that Roger came back because while he was driving, he came across a hippo on the street! Because the town is right on the river, the hippos get out of the river at night to feed, and a bunch of them end up on the city streets. That was very fun and nerve racking to watch, because as you might know, there are more deaths caused by hippos than any other animals combined in SA. All the cars (like 6 of them) surrounded it like a star. First we were standing with a side to it, but then Roger reversed and stood straight in front of it, so the lights of the car would shine on it, and that was like 3 meters away. That's when I got scared, because if it were to charge at us, we would have no way out. But nothing happened, and I was super excited to actually see it, and that close! Roger told me a little bit about politics. As you know before the white party was in power, then the ANC (African National Congress) took over. They put "affirmative action" in plan, which means that in a country where there are 47 million blacks and 7 million whites, then the same ratio will be at work force. Now, in all government organization blacks took charge, and the people who work there have to educate the blacks in order for them to get the position, and Roger is the one who's teaching them right now. The companies will now hire 3 blacks instead of 1 white to "properly" do the job. Needless to say, now there are a lot of whites who work overseas. But back then I could not understand what he was saying to me... so more on that later. Btw, the flag of SA has changed since ANC took over. And if you'll look at it, it has a horizontal shape of a "Y", signifying 2 nations coming/uniting as 1. Unfortunately there are no pictures of that day, because I just went for a walk ... completely unprepared. Trivia question of the blog: Why do the "big 5" called that way? Next day woke up at 4:30am to go to safari drive. It was a half day safari from about 6:00-12:00. Didn't see that many animals, and they don't really do much. They either just stand there or eat, no action going on. So in 6 hours we saw a bunch of zebras and antelopes (springbok), 3 giraffes who run away from us the minute they saw us, 1 elephant, 2 turtles, some hogs, 1 buffalo, some wildebeest, 3 rhinos but really far away, and 1 cheetah, also far away. I'm a bit sad that we didn't stay longer with the cheetah, because it looked like it might have waited to catch some lunch. Cause nearby where the springboks and they weren't feeding like usual, but standing there like frozen making these strange sounds and staring at one spot ... the cheetah spot. But we waited for 10 minutes and nothing has happened :( I wonder why they didn't move away from it?? It might sound like we've seen a lot, but there would be hours of driving without seeing anything at all ... so it was quite exhausting. Trivia hint: the big 5 are: lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, & rhino. On the way back on a highway and outside the park, we've seen the best attraction. We've noticed that there were some cars parked on the side of the road, so we stopped as well. Looked at a side, and there was a huge herd of elephants in there! I think I counted 30, but some might have still been hidden. Then they started moving closer and closer to the road, so they were gonna cross it. One car in front of us drove a bit closer, so there was not much gap, and the elephant just stood there without moving, I had to yell at them to move backwards. Turns out elephants are like penguins, if you're on their path, they would just stand there, and wait for you to move :) Then the leader - I'd guess, crossed the road, and once on the other side, signaled for everybody else to cross. And there it was, all these elephants on the road, moms encouraging the kids to cross quicker, some elephants still eating leaves that they picked on the side... very cute :) We didn’t see the cheetah hunt, but at least we’ve seen that! At night with the hostel we went for a hippo hunt night drive. Saw 4 hippos but they were not as close as the one I saw with Roger, and they run away when we approached. But the coolest thing was when we got to some swamp, where there are 30 different kinds of frogs living there, and the sounds that they made were just unbelievable ... a frog symphony :) kinda reminded me of Bermuda :) Trivia answer: those are the 5 most dangerous animals for hunters. They would charge as opposed to run away, and kill the most hunters. https://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/StLucia#

Dragensburg & Durban

When asked how long it will take us to reach Dragensburg, we were given anywhere from 4.5 - 6.5 hours, which is not that bad. 11 hours later we finally arrived !! The information here is superb! We were so exhausted driving and there were no places to stop to grab something to eat. The sun was setting down in the direction in which we were driving, and we couldn't see anything on the road, not oncoming traffic, not people walking on the shoulder until they were way to close, but luckily we arrived without any incidences. So many times there were "potholes" signs on the road, and we managed to avoid them in the last second. Only later, I read a newspaper, and there was a whole page dedicated to people who had died when they hit a pothole, usually these were minibuses though that flipped off the road.
When we arrived at the hostel at 2am, the guy at the reception was either drunk or high or both. He kept talking and talking, and I was begging him to show us the room. Then we started walking, and he would explain again, this is the bar, this is, at that time, there you'll find ... aaaaahhhhhhhhh !!! where is the room???? 10 minutes later, he pointed a finger saying there, and I just kept walking to it, meanwhile he left talking to himself in the distance.
Next day the girls went to the village to find out how to go on a hike on our own. Dragensburg is a hiking area, there are 100 of trails, and the hostel has only 2 options costing $100 each!! And they got mad at us for not taking a tour with them. They also said if we don't have a 4X4, we would never get to the beginning of the trail, it's just impassable... We'll take our chances! The road at the end was bad, but not so bad that we couldn't drive through it. Once we got a bit stuck and had to reverse to find a new route, but it was nothing too extraordinary. Overall for the entrance and food, we paid $10. There is one trail, and I have no idea how can you get lost on it. The weather wasn't too good either, it was misty, we couldn't see anything. From about 5 hours hiking, it was clear for 2 hours, which is not that bad. I even took a picture of the "loser" team who went with the hostel :) But I was feeling sorry for them, to pay so much money so you could see the back of the person walking in front of you. Chris was talking and talking all the way, and you could see the group separating as to not get a headache from information overflow :) At the end to reach a waterfall, we had to climb some ladder up. That was scary, because he ladder moved from side to side, and it was pretty high up. At the top we could see a waterfall for about 5 minutes until it completely fogged up, and we weren't able to see anything till the end of the hike. The girls and Chris decided to hike up some more, but I didn't see any point in it at all, so I and Hans headed back to the car, and fell asleep while waiting for them to return :)
This Chris is a strange character. After talking to him for a while, I got the impression that everybody hates him. He would always talk about it "I don't know what I did wrong, but she/he hates me", "the time I got punched in the nose" on and on and on. I even asked him how many times did he get punched in the nose. He said he couldn't count. I learned that if something happens to you once, it could be a mistake but if the same thing happens to you again and again, then you're definitely causing it! What goes around comes around. And guess what, one night, he set up a tent in the camping area, told the reception that he will be sleeping in the tent (and that costs half as much), and still slept in the dorm. What can I say Chris, like attracts like!
Overall, this hike was not too bad. I was dreading it for 2 days, remembering all my hikes in South America. I hate it, I don't want to do it, I can't see all the beauty when I can barely move and breath, the only reason I do it is for sports. But this being my second hike in South Africa, I understood that the word "hike" has a different meaning on both continents. In South America is "go on an army like exhaustive torture climbing thing", and in South Africa is "go on a bit longer than usual walk". :)
It took 2 hours to get back to the hostel, and Hans and the 2 girls were talking German for all that time! All of them know perfect English, so I don't understand what the big deal is?? In South America it was the French, and in South Africa it's the German. They like gang up! And it's ok if we're somewhere outside, then usually I just leave them be, but in an enclosed space, for 2 hours, that's just unheard of, and a very rude behavior (from where I come from)! That I will ever, EVER again end up in such a situation again! Never!! No more than 2 German speaking people will ever be in a car with me, I will never put myself in such a situation again!
In the evening, we made up for all the cold and dampness with a nice 4 hour jacuzzi :) It was way too hot, so we were jumping from jacuzzi to pool, then jacuzzi and pool. What a great evening! :)) Next day, they even put bubbles in it :)
In the morning everybody went for another hike, meanwhile I really didn't see the point. I looked at the mountains from the hostel, and could see none, so I went back to sleep, and just relaxed the whole day. When they got back, they said that it was even rainier than the last day, plus there was a lot of mud and view, when there were some, were identical. So I was happy :)
The next day it was time to leave to Durban. Everybody I talked to who's not a backpacker told me to stay the hell away from the minibus taxis, only blacks take them, and it's not safe. Well, I had no other way to get there, so here we go! Hans walked me to the road, and we waited for an hour until one showed up. I was trying hard to squeeze in with all my luggage, while Hans was telling me to write him a message as soon as I get to Durban that I arrived there safely. I was so scared at first, but sitting there for half an hour between the locals, I realized, that there isn't really anything sketchy going on, everybody looks completely normal, they can't do anything, since there are 15 people sitting in it, and everybody gets off pretty much at the same spot. So I'm always between people, and there is safety in numbers. In the town midway, I waited for 2 more hours for a taxi to Durban to fill up, since they leave only when full, and I have no idea who came up with the logic, that when you want to go somewhere, you go and sit in the taxi until it leaves. So even if it's 3 or 4 hours, you're not to walk around, stretch your legs, you just supposed to sit and wait for it to fill up! Strange! The ride was good, but it was so uncomfortable, there is no space at all, and my backpack took up all the free space that there was. I couldn't move for 3 hours, and everything just went numb. They usually play very extremely loud music in these buses, and while some people were even closing their ears, nobody would complain. There were also 2 mothers with babies, and I thought to myself, "Oh no that would be a fun ride". But the babies not even peeped. They were either sleeping, or feeding, or just sitting there looking around. It's so hot in these taxis, the locals even close the windows, so it feels like a sauna, the babies would be wet from all the sweating, and still, not a peep! I've noticed it every time now that I went somewhere. On the street, the small kids never complain, never throw a tantrum, just walking hand in hand with their mother. Maybe we could learn something after all from different cultures.
Durban is a big city, and when I got out of the minibus, I thought that I will be pretty lost if I won't ask for help. So I asked the driver how do I get to the city center, and better yet, where do I catch a normal taxi. They talked between each other, and assigned me a guide to walk with me :) He actually had no idea where he was going, and all the time we were looking for a regular taxi, none showed up. He told me that it's better to catch the minibus taxi again, because the regular one charges per kilometer, and it's a far way till the center. I asked how far, and he said 15 kms. Common! It's the first time I'm in this place, and I know it's not 15 kms. All the terminals are usually very close to the center, and it's definitely not as big as Toronto say for distances to be that big. I asked him where we are on the map, he pointed it out, and it was more or less 2kms to the hostel. It's so sad that in here, they don't have an idea of how far things are. Those what seem pretty easy things to me are completely foreign to them. Anyway, after asking and asking, we finally got the right taxi. There was no space to put my backpack, so poor guy who collects money, had to take it out of the taxi every time it made a stop. Luckily there was a guy sitting right beside me, who was actually getting off exactly where I needed to get off, so I got to the hostel quickly and with no problems :)
When I arrived, it turned out that they didn't have any more space :( But luckily there was a couple who I knew who stayed there, and they said as a joke that they could share a bed, and together we were able to convince the reception to let me in. Actually that couple was thinking about saving money that way, so I'll give my money to them, but the reception still charged me R75. Anyway, we'll figure it out at the end.
In the evening a bunch of us went to a night club. I wore the prettiest cloths that I have, and that was nothing compared to what people were wearing ... full out ! I don't even have space for extra stuff like that! But I figured that they were vacationers, and for vacation, top class cloths are a must :) I felt like I was in the middle of a fashion show, but the music was not great, so I didn't enjoy it too much.
The next day I went to walk around in the center, I've had enough of hiding in the hostels. I asked the taxi if it goes to the city hall, which is where I needed to be. He said no, but it's close enough. Hm... well, ok, I got in anyway. It stopped and showed me where it is. I asked him "Is that the building across the road and that little square?" ... just to make sure... apparently it was. I guess distance and time are very relative terms :)
Went to a very interesting natural history museum, there, there was a gigantic king crab. It wouldn't be apparent without the size comparison, so I asked a guy who was nearby to take a picture of me. Since then he started to follow me around, asking a bunch of questions. He asked me why am I in the museum, and I said because it's interesting. He asked why is it interesting, I said because those things are unknown to me, and I'm interested in things that I don't know. He told me that I don't know him :) From that point on I started making up imaginary friends who are outside, and a boyfriend who waits for me in the hostel. He still didn't give up and said that I should spend an evening with him, since I have all that time to spend with my boyfriend, but with him I won't have a chance :) Then he said that he studies micro biology in university, but it's boring. I told him why won't you study what interests you, and he said a thing that interests him cannot be learned in the university :) Since then, I made a quick run of the rest of the things I didn't see, and came outside to get lost in the crowds.
On the way back I got in the minibus taxi where the driver asked me how many cows I'm worth, and if I want to marry him ... Why would anybody in their right mind think that? But then I talked to a girl who travelled quite a bit in Africa, and she said she's been proposed to every day, 5 times a day! I wonder if the locals actually agree to that!?!
Then I had a lunch in an Indian restaurant. I order curry which was supposed to be mild, I could barely finish it without gulping glasses and glasses of water. The spices were tickling my throat and I was sitting there laughing to myself :) The waiter and some people sitting nearby noticed that I'm on my own and were very curious by it, why do people travel on their own in Africa and especially women! In South America it's quite a norm, but in here right away I noticed that it's not.
Next day Jaimy and Emily (the couple) and me went for a stadium tour. I don't understand what's the big deal of going to a stadium, we learned what it’s made out of and where it was imported from, what's the capacity, and that's it, pretty much just the technical details. But the stadium was beautiful, it was specially built for the FIFA world cup. The seats are colored from blue to orange, like a sunset, and it helps the stadium look full when it's not.
Afterwards we went to the amazing aquarium. It's built like in some lost underwater city or ship, all rusty (on purpose :) ), with beautiful and rare sea creatures. I've seen shark feeding, which wasn't that impressive, they just slowly took the food from the rod, nothing aggressive. Some food they even missed, or chewed for a bit and spit it out :) What was cool though is that in the same aquarium there was this big fish, and it was target fed. Because otherwise that fish and the shark could fight for food, and we know who's gonna win in that fight, so unless the diver puts a card with a special symbol out for that particular fish, it’s not allowed to come even close to it.
Then I watched again the not so impressive dolphin show, and then went to a water park. That was cool because there were barely any people in it, so I slid on all slides 3 times, and that's in 1 hour! :)
When we checked out of the hostel, the time came for figuring out the room charges. It was written in the notes that I owe R75 (when the normal price is R125), I paid that, but the guys didn't receive anything. They came to argue, and the woman said, ok, so if she paid 75, then you'll pay 75 each (I don't know how she came about that logic, but we didn't argue :) ) 75X3 = 225 which is even less that 2 people pay (125X2 = 250). After that kind of math, I don't think the hostel will keep doing any more favours :))

https://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/DragensburgDurban#

Chintsa & Coffee Bay

Arrived in Chintsa which is a very cute little town. The hostel sits on the hill overlooking a green lagoon. Went down to walk on the beach, but it was very wavy and swimming was not possible. Again a place where there is not much to do, but luckily the hostel offered free activities and that day there was free volleyball with free wine. That was a lot of fun; we really got united with all the players, except 1. He was black South African, and I had no idea what was he doing at the hostel. He didn't know how to play, but it's ok, not everybody knows everything, but he wouldn't even try! Only if the ball was flying directly at him, he would hit it back. He wouldn't move 1 meter from where he was standing, just saying that it's not his ball. Then when the ball was out of the field, he would casually walk to pick it up, while everybody was standing there waiting for him, and on top of it all, he wouldn't know whose turn it is, like it's so hard to figure out!!! I swear, my blood was boiling, and I was about to explode!
During the Volleyball and the party afterwards, I met and made friends with Benjamin, a 23 year old pilot, whose hobby is guitar, and he and his band opened for pink. I was so impressed that I just had to include it here :)B
enjamin gave me a ride to Coffee bay, one of my favorite South African destinations. On the way we stopped at some town to buy food, that was scary! We were scared to go together to the store so the car won't be left alone. The store didn't have anything anyway. We locked the doors the minute we sat in the car. Everybody was observing us, I was scared to take money from ATM (and I didn't), just a very weird feel to the place.
The road to Coffee bay is a blog in itself! It takes 2 hours to get there on the most nerve racking road ever! There are so many potholes, it's incredible. People are driving everywhere to avoid them. On the "shoulder", the opposite side of the road, somewhere in a ditch. We'd have cars going directly towards us at high speed, only to turn right before our nose. There are chickens, sheep, cows, broken beer bottles, so many turns, we would try to avoid something and go on a shoulder on a turn, but there would be people walking there! I was thinking that it would make a very good computer game, instead of all the hail and snow and ice on the roads, just make it a South African road. We were jumping and squeaking in a car, very tense experience, it was better just to close my eyes, and hope for it to end. Then we got thinking about it, there is no reason for so many potholes to be there. So we figured out that it was probably a trap.
Since I was skipping all the places and getting bored of them within a day, I decided that I should spend some time somewhere, and Coffee Bay was just the spot for it. Every day they had cheap activities, and their surfing lessons I think are the cheapest in the world of only $6 for 2 hours (and that's with a board and a wet suit provided). They also had yummy dinners, and every day I found myself waiting for dinner time :) The only problem with the hostel is that the beach was 15 minutes away, and with a surf board, it's quite a walk.
In the evening there was a game of killer pool. You have 2 lives, and have to sink any ball in ... and guess what?? I won !!! So I got the next day’s activity for free which was a beach day. The bar has a buffalo rule, which means if you hold a drink with left hand, or put a drink on the pool table, then you have to drink it all at once. The whole bar would come alive when somebody screams like crazy "BUUFFAALLOOOOOOOOOOO", and everybody joins in :) I don't usually drink, but even if I got a drink, I would take it straight out of the bar :)
Benjamin got a little drunk that night from having too many buffalos, and when the place relaxed a bit, and we were sitting outside chatting, he was holding a drink in his left hand, and I jokingly told him "buffalo". He looked at his hand, and screamed so loud BAFFALLLOOOOO, and drank the whole drink :)) I was laughing, but then he got to drunk for me to have a conversation, so I left him be :)
Next day was a great surfing day. I got this big, pretty, comfortable soft board on which I stood up 100% of the time :) I could catch any wave that I wanted to, and even closed my eyes to wipe the water and the hair off my face while riding the board ... yahhoooooo :)) Then the instructor saw me, and gave me smaller board which was much more unstable, so my rate of success fell to 70%, but still pretty good, I was happy :)
What was very annoying were the ladies who tried to sell you beads. They would approach, all so friendly, oh hi, how are you? what's your name, where are you from? Try to teach you Xhose, and then, "I sell beads". I say no thank you, I'm not even wearing any jewelry, it's not my style, and I don't have any money with me. They would go on, what about this one? No thank you. This one for your neck? No, thank you. This one for the leg? No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. They just don't get it. After 10 times that I said "No, thank you", I finally got up to leave, when she held me by the hand and quite aggressively pulled me down and told me to sit !! I pulled my hand even harder and left. So annoying !!!
In the evening we drove to the hole in the wall, a local attraction. It's a wall, with a hole in it :))) The site itself wasn't that impressive, maybe the ocean wasn't fierce enough for the waves to really explode once they went through the hole, but anyway, it was something to do. When we were close to arriving there all the local kids started to run alongside the car, we didn't understand what they were doing, but when we got out of the car, it was evident. They were fighting among each other to walk us to the hole, and to look after the car, and all of that for money money money. They wanted $3 to look after the car !! Unbelievable!! Probably most tourists feel sorry for them, or they just make that amount up, but for a kid, $.5 of a dollar would be more than enough. We said we're not paying anything and left, not sure if it was a smart decision, because they would just scratch the car and throw stones at it out of anger. It was a pity to look at all of that, because while being in that village and looking around, you'd notice that people don't really do anything. They just lie on the ground beside their houses, and that's pretty much it, they barely grow anything either, while their kids are fighting each other over $1 of tourists' money.
I went surfing 2 more times, but once there was a storm, waves were coming in from all directions and disappearing right under me once I finally caught one, and they were breaking very close to shore, so there is not much distance to ride them, not that it made any difference since I couldn't get up at all. In the middle of the lesson, I got out of the water, frustrated, and didn't have any desire to get back in. But after few minutes I decided that I can't just give up and lie there on the beach, any effort is better than no effort at all, so I got back in.
In the hostel met a local white South African who was 19 who wanted to move and live in Coffee Bay. He said it's the most relaxed place in the whole South Africa, people just do 1 thing a day, and that's enough for them, there is no stress, there are no bills. He wants to be self sufficient, and grow weed with the seeds that his mom bought him!
With the hostel went for 2 day trips. One was again to the hole in the wall, this time walking. It was long, although the scenery was nice, but it was just too hot, too long, and with 3 hills on the way. The 2nd walk was so much better. It was shorter, but there were many cliffs which we had to climb. A few times it was quite dangerous, with only 10 centimeters to walk on with a mountain on one side and a cliff on the other, then there would be 1 little rock on which to put a foot on and then jump. In Canada, that would never be allowed! Then we did some cliff jumps, river cliff jumps, had to walk along the water side between the waves before they came crushing on us. In short, it was a lot of fun :)
While one day seating on the beach, taking a break from surfing, a traditional ceremony started to take place right in front of my eyes. There were about 4 people all dressed traditionally with drapes wrapped around them, feathers, and beads. To the drum beat, a woman took a man into the sea, put him on his knees and started with force dumping him into the waves. He'd get up, and she'd push him again, rolling him around in the water. Then while he was sitting on his knees, she took a chicken, and started cutting its throat above the men, with what it looked like a dull knife. Poor chicken, I felt really bad for it, it was sliced up alive. All the blood then flowed on the man's head and back, she then rubbed it all on him, pushed him into the water a few more times, and took out another chicken. When I asked what it was, I was told that it was mans inauguration to become village's traditional healer.
We also went to a local shabeen, which is like a bar. I've heard some stories about it, like for ex. even if the alcohol is left unattended on the street, nobody will take it, because the locals believe that shabeen is protected by spirits that will punish them. I was expecting some dark place with very drunk locals sitting in it, dull lights with smoke surrounding the room. Well, no! It's an empty place, with no seats, not even a standing bar, a bunch of alcohol on shelves behind bars, with a small opening to exchange money and goods. It's strange why they need the bars. Maybe the local believe in evil spirits if they steal the alcohol from the street, but not from the store??? Funny thing was that on one of the bottles (made out of carton) was written "Don't drink and walk on the road, you may be killed". Normal saying would go, don't drink and drive, but I guess it was changed to comply with cultural differences, since locals don't really have cars.
Since I stayed for a while in Coffee bay, it gave plenty of time to catch up to me ... guess who? Of course Hans, that's the 4th time that we bump into each other.
One evening we went to have a traditional Xhosa dinner in a traditional Xhosa village with traditional Xhosa people. The villages of Xhosa are scattered around, with only the families living beside each other. We went to the chief’s house, so you would assume that they're doing quite well. I'm not sure exactly how "well" is defined, but their kids were running around with ripped and dirty cloths, there was no furniture in the houses, somebody was sick lying on a mattress on the floor with chicken running around him, and something cooking on a gas stove, which filled all the room with gas. They have no electricity, and have no walk hell knows where to get water. Woman do everything around the house, clean it, paint it, cook, gather firewood, shop, laundry, while men work. A lot of the men go to cities to make money, because these opportunities are not available in the villages. Women get married pretty young for a "labola" which is a payment. In that part of the country, it is 10 cows, and 15 cows for chief’s daughter. Each cow is worth USD $1000, so they're treated here with a lot of respect. They also wonder around freely and nobody's concerned about them being stolen. All the people act as villages police, and if somebody is caught stealing, the chief of the village will come up with some kind of punishment like going from house to house and saying, “beware of me, I steal cows". Women as soon as they get married change their clothing style, and go from shorts to long skirts, and a head cover I think with some cushiony thing because they're really good at carrying stuff on their heads. To be fat is a sign of wealth, meaning that the husband does a good job at providing for his family, so most of the married women what are called "the big mamas". In this culture to become a man, he goes through circumcision, and goes into the bush for about a month to live by himself. His mom will bring him food, but he's not supposed to talk to anyone or see anyone. Before it was 3 months, but now with work and school requirements, they're slowly moving into a modern era :) When a couple is getting married, the union is not only between them, but between the families. They're encouraged to discuss their problems when the whole family is present, so divorce is very rare. If a man borrows his dad’s cows for labola, it's like a promise to take care of him until the end, because essentially he robbed him of his retirement. But I don't understand this lebola thing. It looks to me that the cows are just moving from one family to another, but if both families live together, was that really a move? Did they lose or gain anything?
After asking a bunch of questions we had dinner with tasteless something with slimy something else for appetizer, and then even heavier maize with beans for the second course. Oh man that was filling. Then they showed up some traditional dancing, with pretty much the same moves and sounds, and we joined them in this celebration. Overall, an evening to remember!
Back in the hostel when it was a day to leave, 2 girls and Chris went surfing for the last time. Apparently Chris didn't really know how to surf, but still went in for the big waves. Well, he fell off the board, and when he surfaced, it went right on top of him, and cut his head with the fins. He came back to the hostel, and covered his head while talking to me. I thought he was ok, but when he took the bandage off, I almost lost consciousness. Thank god the girls are doctors and had sawing equipment with them. They sat him on the bench, gave him anesthesia. While poking his head with the needle, because of the pressure all the blood started coming out and dripping on his face and cloths, omg, I was more hyperventilating then him, he looked peaceful, when I had to turn around from time to time and breath very very deeply. All the passer biers gave some of their comments or sounds or facial expressions while the doctors debated if he needs another stitch or if the hair that's in the way gonna cause any infection. After major pain killers, surprisingly he was fine and not delusional, and we set off to our next destination.

https://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/ChintsaCoffeeBay#

Jeffreys bay

Stupidly enough I went to "Storms river" to do tubing, completely ignoring the information everywhere that South Africa goes through the worst drought period ever, to watch water, to report leaks, "Platenbourg has only 20 days of water left" ... and here I am going tubing ! Hopefully I'll be smarter next time and actually read and process the signs. The river was completely empty, all the rapids we had to walk through because there are just rocks sticking from the water, and besides the guides flipping everybody out of their tubes, there wasn't much else happening. I was a little bit mad because I don't think that the company should run trips in such conditions, and also because the trip was expensive, and I chose it over the highest bungee jump in the world of 216 meters!! :(( The staff at the reception was the worst ever! They didn't explain anything, didn't do anything. I had to ask all the questions. Usually if you ask a question about a trip, you get an answer with all the information you need. And here it was:
"Do you do tubing trips?"
yes
"Do you have a trip tomorrow?"
yes
"&%(*%$ what time does it start, for how many hours is it? What do I need to bring? "
Oh man, I almost told her something, but somehow held it in. She said that she'll book me in, well guess what, in the morning there was no booking. Figures!
When I checked in around 8pm, and got in the room, there was water running in the shower. I thought it was a bit weird because it run for a while, and all people know to take short showers, the "save water" signs are everywhere. Then 2 hours later when I went to sleep, the water was running. Again I thought it was weird, too many people are taking showers. I lied down in bed and couldn't fall asleep cause the water was running. Half an hour later, I got up and went to check things out. There was nobody in the shower! I have no idea for how long that water was running for, and why nobody else noticed or do anything about it?
Hans arrived in the hostel, and we just chatted and read books all day, because there wasn't much else to do.
Next stop was Jeffreys bay. Before it was a small dope smoking town until somebody discovered the perfect waves, so now it turned into a dope smoking surfing town :) (that's what it says on the wall... seriously!), and has the spot in the top 3 worldwide surfing destinations. And we all turned into dope smoking surfing bums :))) naah, not really, we just teased each other saying that when we were lying dead on the couch after hard core surfing. The town is filled with billabong, roxy, rip curl stores and guys :) Most of the surfing guys are built, blond and with dreadlocks, pretty much all look alikes :)
Early in the morning went surfing. This was my worst surfing ever :( The waves were very strong, the board was extremely uncomfortable, I hurt my feet every time I slid on it, I couldn't get balance and fell before caught the wave .... oooohhhhh, very frustrating! So I just ended up splashing around in the waves for an hour, but on the other hand I got some exercise :)
Me and Hans went for a "hike" which was in the map of the city. Along the way saw a washed out star fish, and a bunch of giant and wet grass hoppers, so it was my "save the world" day. I collected all the grasshoppers on the way, there were like 5 sitting on me at one point, and then put them safely in the grass to dry off :)
That map was clearly outdated. When we finally found the hiking trail, it was closed with a tall gate. We asked one of the people living in the house nearby why is the gate closed and how to get inside. He basically said that the gate was built because there was a lot of robbery in the area, and the thieves would run into that reserve and hide that way. So we climbed over that gate and got in. That gate must have been there for a while, since it was not hiking but more like crawling through all the over grown tree branches. 15 minutes later when there was not even a glimpse of where to go next, we decided to turn back. I was very careful cause I left only with very minor scratches, and surprisingly my shirt did not rip :) Then we did a huge loop back into the town. I was exhausted! In the hostel went to play pool. I sunk all the balls in except 1 which I must have hit like 20 times! And then! We all discovered the foosball table! It was so much fun! We had an all night competition going on :) I remember seeing this game since I was a kid, and why only now have I decided to try playing in it? When I'll be stationary and have a house with a huge basement, I'm buying a foosball table !! :)) At night there was a party, again! All the drunk teenagers running around, drinking, drinking all the bottle at once through a funnel, people were partying 1 meter from the dorm room, I ended up going to sleep at 4:30am. 8am woke up, and went surfing again. Same luck, different day. Then went to a restaurant, and had a latte. If you go to a restaurant once a month, anything you order tastes 100 times better than usual :)
So after surfing, hiking, partying, and surfing again, the surfing bum was out :) I fell asleep on the couch in the main area only to be woken up by loud banging. The kids from some local dance school came to perform in the hostel. They had a lot of energy, but they weren't really good. At the end they were collecting money so they could buy cloths, drums, and go to competitions. They are far away from competitions, or at least winning them, but we all chipped in. They were so aggressive, almost growling and shoving each other. But I've seen it before, so maybe it's just the culture thing.
In Port Elizabeth, I stayed in the nicest hostel ever, too bad only over night. It was just like a hotel, beautiful furniture and design, huge swimming pool, everything is in perfect condition, nothing's broken or scratched, curtains, plants, marble bathroom, excellent! The sky was beautiful that night, and when I got out of the Baz Bus I was walking to the hostel with my head up. The smart ass driver asked me if I could point out the southern cross (which is the easiest thing to find, not that I know anything else either), anyway, I pointed it right away, and he said how surprised he was, since not a lot of people can read stars, especially girls. Oh, I wish I knew another constellation to ask him where that was!
In the morning, there was me and another girl waiting for the Bas Bus, the driver got in and said how come there are 2 girls in here and he has to make his own coffee. I know he was joking, but common!

As you already know, there are 11 official languages in SA, Xhosa is one of them, they have a lot of clicks when they talk. Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_l7ty_MH_Y&feature=related

https://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/JeffreysBay#

Garden route

Garden route is a stretch along the coast. LP - "Within a few hundred kilometers, the range of topography, vegetation, wildlife and outdoor activity is breathtaking".
Arrived at Wilderness which is a very cute little green village with never-ending beach, which unfortunately is impossible to swim in due to the very strong waves and currents. That's the first time when I felt alright going out of the hostel by myself. Even though all the houses still had fences with high security around them, the local in the hostel said that it's all the paranoid people from neighboring towns who bought property there, meanwhile he lived there for 20 years and never locked the house door. Sounded good enough for me. So I set off for a walk, and there was a tunnel that went under the highway, suddenly, I didn't feel very secure. I waited for a bit until some people showed up, and crossed the tunnel with them.
Then I went for a walk along the beach, and I'll tell you that if your eyes were closed and somebody had put you on that beach, you'd have no idea that you're in Africa. Those houses are ones of the most expensive that I've ever seen. All of them having a price range of over $1M.
The hostel was one of the worst hostels I've ever stayed in. The downstairs dorm had 17 beds! There was only 1 washroom, no place in the shower to put the dry cloths, and upstairs, you had to go through the dorm to get into the kitchen! And I don't think anybody there could get any sleep when a group of 20 teenagers were having breakfast at 6:30 am.
In Wilderness I met Helena and Jecki - 2 British girls whom I travelled with for 4 days.
Next was Knysna which is a must stop on the garden route. I didn't see any must things in there. It didn't even have a beach. The girls got drunk and didn't want to do anything else, and I couldn't get out of the hostel by myself, so I was pretty much waiting for the time to move on to another place. The whole day I was watching TV, which wasn't too bad. I laughed a lot while watching some local drama. The quality is so bad, the acting, the content, the shooting, the everything. One guy was crying, and they shot this scene from all the angles, through the flowers, from right, left, above for 2 minutes (no joking), while absolutely nothing happened, he only cried in one position :) Half on the script was written with metaphors, I wonder if it's like that in regular life. But the program guide is excellent. You can choose by genre, like movies, entertainment, then by more categories, like action, comedy. The best I've ever seen!
We walked to the waterfront area which was a mini version of Cape Town, and also the hostel took us to "the heads". Those are some tall rocks between which the water passes through, which makes the little bay of Knysna. Daily due to the tides there is a quantity of 20 million elephants walking through these heads in 6 hours. That's how much water is passing through.
There was land for sale beside the view which was going for $800,000. After the heads, the driver asked us if we want to go to a short township tour. And since they often go for $50, and he was willing to take us there for $5, of course we agreed. When we got there, and got out of the car, all the kids run towards us, jumped at us, yelled, took our hands, pulled our cloths, fought between each other for who's gonna jump on us or get our attention, pretty much acted like monkeys. You could not get away from them, there was so much activity. Everything around looked very broken down, dirty, and shady. Everybody looked at us while we were examining everything around us. Still felt a little bit dangerous, but the guide comes there every day, so he knows the place. All the kids were kinda dirty, with ripped cloths, bare feet, but they looked happy, although they were very aggressive towards each other, constantly fighting, lighting matches close to faces, throwing stones, non stop action.
During the Apartheid Era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as "white only" and forced to move into segregated townships. Separate townships were established for each of the three designated non-white race groups (blacks, coloureds and Indians). Most South African towns and cities will have at least one township associated with them.
In most of the townships the people live free of charge. The government builds concrete houses, with running water, electricity, garden, garbage collection, doctors and schools. While other people wait for their houses, they build these shacks just on the border that are made out of anything that they could find, which would be either wood or sheets of metal with big rocks holding the roof. Townships could be huge, with thousands of people living there, and they would not be on the map, which provides some confusion for lost tourists who end up there and have no idea where they are. People who make it, usually don't move out of townships, because they don't want to be surrounded by whites, and prefer to have their own people around. I've been here a while, and this country is crazy. Everybody is so racist towards everybody else. White to Black, colored to white and black, black to colored. I think this is the country with the biggest economic gap I've ever seen. Normally the percentage of people with HIV is greater in townships because there are a lot of misconceptions about it. They think that condoms are made to stop the black people from having babies. And recently the president of South Africa raped some woman, when they were interviewing him, they asked him if he used a condom, he said no. They asked him if he knew if the woman was HIV free, he said no, but not to worry about it, because right after the intercourse he took a shower. And that's the president! So what can you ask from the regular population?
After we got back to the hostel, we all immediately took showers and changed cloths, just felt so dirty. I don't know, I didn't have this feeling when 5 monkeys jumped on me.
Went on to Platenberg bay, and in there finally did something useful and went for a hike. The hike was good, only 4 hours, and all plain, just the way I like it :) The scenery was beautiful with green mountain, ocean, orange rocks, waves crushing, seen a snake who caught a lizard, that was cool, and the lizard was still breathing. Then saw dolphins and seals hunting and surfing waves and that's pretty much it. Although this hike is the most beautiful on the garden route. For me the most beautiful scenery is tall snowcapped mountains with forests on the bottom, blue lagoons and wild flowers, just like in the Andes :)

Wikipidia - Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 1993, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by white people was maintained. Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times. However, apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948. New legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups ("black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian"), and residential areas were segregated, sometimes by means of forced removals. From 1958, black people were deprived of their citizenship, legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands. The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people. Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance and violence as well as a long trade embargo against South Africa. Since the 1980s, a series of popular uprisings and protests were met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders. As unrest spread and became more violent, state organizations responded with increasing repression and state-sponsored violence.
Black people were not allowed onto the streets of towns in the Cape Colony and Natal after dark and had to carry their passes at all times. They were denied the vote altogether and were not allowed to sit in parliament.

https://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/GardenRoute#

Hermanus & Oudtshoorn

Came to Hermanus to do shark cage diving. The hostel offered free accommodation with the tour, so I thought why not? But before I'll tell you about sharks, let me tell you about the weird couples that I met recently. So these couples, unless they tell you that they are, you'd have no clue! There is no physical contact, no compliments, flirting going on ... absolutely nothing. So I might act differently, like get to close or say not very appropriate things in front of the girlfriend, only to find out 3 hours later that they actually are together! And it's strange because when I see a guy and a girl, I don't automatically assume that they're a couple, unlike most other people. For instance, when I took a bus to Buenos Aires, there was another male backpacker in the bus station and me, so when I got in the bus, the fair was double. I thought that it was strange, paid it, but said that I thought it was lower. And the bus driver replied, oh that's for 2 people! So the other backpacker had to give me money back. And we haven't even talked! Or ... when I'd get to a hostel with some guy that I met on the way to the hostel, we'd get there, ask if there is space, and they would reply no. Why no? It's a low season. At the end it turned out that they don't have any more double room! Who said that we want a double room? I only know him for the last 5 minutes, give us a dorm! Sooo ... long story short, while travelling, do not assume that a guy and a girl are a couple!
During the briefing, the instructor said a phrase that I still remember "Cold and fear are temporary, regret is forever!", that got us all going! :) I knew that it was a low season and we weren't expected to see many sharks, we even got an 85% chance of seeing them, well that would've sucked! The boats attract the sharks by throwing fish parts and blood into the water, and since sharks can sense blood from kilometers away, we throw and wait. They also use fish heads as bait to attract the shark closer to the cage. The industry cannot feed the sharks because otherwise they would associate food with humans, some think that they already do. Also, because it's not allowed to kill big fish for the sharks, it will not attract large sharks, only small ones (large sharks are drawn to large fish, small sharks to small fish). So our great white was only 3.5 meters long. After a while our shark appeared. There was too much excitement going around the boat, and the cage was put into the water. First people started jumping in, and just as fast as they were put into the cage, they were taken out of the cage. The shark was gone only 5 minutes later. We were waiting and waiting, and an hour later, another shark showed up. There were enough masks only for 5 people which were in the cage, I was waiting for the first person to get out, and he was just casually standing on the boat, I almost yelled, "Get your mask off!!!". I put it on, sat on the edge so they would put me in. The instructor, again very slowly, let me see how your mask fits, while there was a shark making another loop. I thought to myself "Screw the mask, just get me into the water". When I jumped in, the temperature almost got me paralyzed. It was only 12 degrees. Now I know what 12 degrees feel like! I saw the shark making 3 loops around the boat, and it was gone again. I wouldn't say that it was very scary, because it was relatively small, but although it was only 1 meter away from me, I felt the security of the cage, so no adrenaline pumping for me :) After me, there was only 1 more person who saw the shark, so about half of the people on the boat didn't even get into the cage. We then waited for another hour until maybe the shark will show up again, but it didn't. I'd say that it felt like being outside in regular jeans in about -20C, I couldn't feel my feet or my fingers. Although we've seen it only 3 times, it turns out that some boats didn't see them at all, so we were "lucky".
It wasn't a "must do" experience for me, I think I was much more shocked in Galapagos, where you swim and there is no cage and 10 sharks circling you. Although they are much smaller and presumably harmless, the brain refuses to process that information, and all you think "OH SHIT ... SHAAAAAARKKKK !!!!! ".
On the baz bus I met a guy who did it in another place, which was much much better than ours. First of all, the water was 10 degrees warmer! Also, they had 4 sharks, and 2 of them didn't leave the cage for a whole hour. Above that, half of the people on the boat got sea sick, so he was in the cage for the whole duration of the trip! Now that must have been a completely different experience!

After Hermanus, I went to Oudtshoorn. The problem in South Africa is getting places. There is no way to get anywhere you want, so you always have to arrange the hostel to drive you which often costs a fortune. There are so many activities that I want to do that I don't. For example there was a monkey and bird land which cost $30, but the transportation there costs $50!
I thought to stay in that town for 2 days, but that's until I got out of the hostel only to find out that absolutely everything (expect few restaurants) closes at 5! What kind of place is that??? Went in the search of internet, couldn't find anything, but saw some store which was half open that said computers something on it, I went there to check just in case. Turns out that they fix computers, but the owner still let me in, and allowed me to use their office computer :) That was very nice of him :)) After that I went to a restaurant to eat an ostrich. They had some special, but the price was cheap, I asked why, and they said that it's a starter portion. I didn't want to spend any more money, and just ordered that. Let me tell you, this is no starter portion at all! I barely finished it! Although I couldn't really tell any difference between beef and an ostrich, nevertheless it was very very good, just as I'd expect from a South African restaurant!
In the morning we had an ostrich egg for breakfast, it tasks like a chicken egg, but a little bit lighter.
In the morning we went for a tour of the Cango caves which hold the largest formations of stalactites and stalagmites in the world. I didn't really want to go at first because I've seen way too many of these kinds of caves, but it was cheap and we could climb through them. So how can I say no to that??! :) I was very very impressed by these caves. It has 2 huge spaces of with so many formations all around. They even had concerts in there which could fit up to 1500 people. But they don't run them anymore because the amount of carbon dioxide affected the growth of the formations. We did an adventure tour which included climbing and going through very narrow spaces. One of them was a tunnel of love because it squeezes you from all the sides :) And another one was the devils chimney which was the best one of all. It can fit only the size of an average person, and it goes up for about 4 meters with a 75 degree inclination. I felt just a tiny bit claustrophobic because there was almost no light, not much to grab or even a space to grab or maneuver yourself. So that was cool :)
Afterwards went to an ostrich farm. The tour was short but very interesting. The farm produces eggs, meat, feathers and leather products from ostriches. Currently the feather demand is very low, so they only ship the feathers to Paris or Las Vegas, and the major export are the leather products.
The eggs are held in the incubator, and then the chicks are given to the male ostrich as his own babies. And he wouldn't even know the difference because ostriches are stupid :) We've seen a dwarf ostrich which is the smallest one in the world. Then we stood on the eggs which can support a weight up to 120 kgs because that's how heavy the parent is. We were given a bucket of food, and stood with back to them, and the ostriches gave us a shoulder massage :) And we got to ride one !!! It takes a while to catch one, but after it's caught they put a sac over its head and then you could do anything you want with it because according to ostrich’s theory, if he can't see you, you can't see him (remember, stupid!). Then I got on it, sat comfortably, crossed my legs below him, and held the base of the wings, then the hat was taken off, and the hell it went running. I started falling off of it when it was turning, but fell off gracefully. It was a very short but hectic ride J Overall 3 bruises, and a small scratch on the hand from when he was maniacally trying to escape the enclosure, but I think it's a good sacrifice for an ostrich ride :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/HermanusOudtshoorn#

Cape Town

In Buenos Aires hostel, I just double checked that it's bus #8 that goes to the airport. The guy scared me that it will take me 4 hours to get there, and for sure I'll miss my plane! Like I haven't taken that bus before 2 ways, and every time it took 1:40. Why is it that tourists know more than locals??
The plane that I took was the biggest plane I've ever been to. It had 2 floors as well, operated by Malaysian airlines. My seat was on row 43 and I sat at the wing! The stewardesses wore traditional Malaysian costumes which was very cute. The food and service were excellent, and the entertainment program on the TV was 44 pages long! The flight was short, only 7 hours, that's shorter than any recent bus ride that I took :)
In the airport the security gave me a hard time because I didn't have a ticket back. Why do I need a ticket back I asked? I will cross the border by the bus. They have to know that I'll leave the country. I asked why would I stay? I live in Canada! After some unsuccessful negotiations, they made me buy a ticket. I just bought the cheapest ticket they had to Mozambique, which geographically makes sense, but still, I'd rather take a bus, and who knows, maybe I wouldn't want to go to Mozambique, or go there later or sooner. So will see. Now I learned, I'll fake an e-ticket before boarding any other plane. They told me that South Africa is very lenient, or at least to me, normally they would board the person back on the plane :S
The landscape is desert like, made me feel like in Israel or Greece. I was very brave to take a public bus to the center, and then a taxi to the hostel which was half a price to what the hostel shuttle was. But after arriving at the hostel my braveness diminished, and I felt in danger. How can I travel around if I'm scared to get out of the hostel? For the first 2 days I hung around with some guys from the hostel, and 3rd and 4th I decided to conquer my fears and get out on my own. Still, I tried to look for a bus that goes somewhere, and there are no buses. Terminals are at unknown locations, and I still wouldn't want to take a taxi on my own at 5:30am, so I decided to take a very touristic baz bas ticket which is $500 from Cape town until Johannesburg, stopping along the way with pick up and drop off at the hostels.
Quick stats about South Africa: unemployment 21%, 11 official languages, average life expectancy 49, 1000 deaths/day from AIDS; world’s largest diamond: 3106.75 carats uncut mined in 1905.
Cape town looks like a big resort, with some architecture that reminds me of Bermuda. There are tons of expensive houses especially on the beach that are around USD $5,000,000. A lot of expensive cars, mostly BMWs and Mercedes. It's located beside a table mountain which is very pretty, and during the evenings, I don't know what happens, but there are no clouds anywhere except the top of the mountain (called a table skirt), and it flows over it like smoke. The weather is completely unpredictable, 1 minute it could be boiling hot, and then the wind would blow, and I would shiver from cold. Cape town is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I think I'm a bit spoiled from all the travelling, but then I got thinking about it, how many sunny places are there where there is almost no traffic, the waterfront is huge, there are white sandy beaches with chick bars and restaurants, it's pretty spread out, and there is a mountain? Not that many! But if I were to choose, I think I'll choose Rio, at least it's full with Brazilians :))
Went to walk with a guy from the hostel along the waterfront and the beach. It was a very nice walk, very very long, we walked for 5 hours until we gave up and took a taxi. The beach was completely white (both sand and people), and the water is freezing! It actually hurt my feet when I stood there for half a minute. It turns out that the water in the summer is cold because the ice in the Antarctica melts and is brought to South Africa.
People in South Africa don't know anything, just like in South America. Went to a book store, and asked if they have a lonely planet guides. He said that they don't, then I found out a whole section of them, and it's not like the bookshop was big. Then the lady in the hostel said that it's not worth going out to town on Saturday because everything is closed. I went anyway, and guess what? Everything was open!
I went to a formal slave house, a building where there were a 1000 slaves living, along with the history. It was a very sad place and a very sad history. A lot of slaves died from various diseases while being transported. Often the mothers and their children were separated, and their names were changed. Sometimes people sold themselves to be slaves if there was a shortage of food, or couldn't pay fine or debts. Currently obviously there are no more slaves, but it doesn't feel like that to me. All the dirty jobs the black people take, I know that it's optionary, but really, can they actually get over that ceiling? In the airport, all the passport control people were black, their supervisor was white. All the drivers are black, all the helpers. In the terminal and on the radio a very nice and perfect voice talks, clearly a white person, but it's not really their country, they invaded it.
Next day it was Sunday which means everything is closed, so I took the hop-on, hop-off bus and went around the table mountain with a stop in botanical gardens. They are supposed to be very famous and along the best in the world ... maybe. I think I'm just not into botanical gardens, although the ones in Rio were amazing, but this one was huge. It also had an exposition of wildness within people, so there were all these statues portraying people with some kind of animalistic features in them. It was so moving, like you could feel the power exploding from it. Also, I've never seen sculptures like that before, it's as though some kids put clay together (tyap-lyap) but it was so accurate beneath all these smudges. Very very powerful. Then we rode around the beautiful setting of the cliffs and beaches and I finished my day with one of the best pizzas I've ever had in my life. Food in restaurants is kind of cheap, so buying and preparing in the hostel is about half a price, but can't compare the quality. Most of the dishes are about $7-10 (with drink and tip), and are really high restaurant quality.
I feel like in some sort of fake fairytale. There are a huge number of very expensive houses often surrounded either by a tall and thick walls of concrete, or with barbed wire with "armed response" signs on them.
There are a lot of people walking bare feet, especially children. It's very cute to watch. In restaurants or supermarkets adults take their shoes off too.
Since it was a Dutch colony (along other countries too). There are a lot of names of places in Dutch like Strandfontein, Vanrhynsdorp, Nienwoudtville, Franschhoek, Waenhuiskrans .... which I can neither pronounce nor remember :S :))

http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/CapeTown#

Ushuaia and Antarctica

As some of you have noticed, the blog sounds different and the experiences are not as bright. Well, instead of hiding how I feel, I'll incorporate it into the blog. I've not been feeling well since I left Toronto, and although Argentina has not sounded too exciting, it's just me, not Argentina, so hopefully you didn't get the wrong impression.
On the 29th of January, on an evening before the bus ride to Ushuaia, I went on the internet to book a hostel. ALL the hostels were fully booked! Both in Ushuaia and in Puerto Natales where I was staying. I tried to relax, and think that for sure there will be space because the majority of hotels/hostels do not advertise themselves online. But after checking a few more sites, I found one where 1 hostel was free, I booked it right away. It was very strange, because the same hostel was booked on another site ... I wonder how that works!?!
I was happy because I saved $40 on a dolphin tour which I didn't take in Puerto Madryn! The bus to Ushuaia went through the lake on a ferry, and during that hour suddenly everybody run outside, I followed their example, and there were 10s of black and white dolphins in the water all around the ferry. They got so close, and as always they swam in packs which enhanced the experience. The railing were pretty low, and everybody was hanging out so much from the boat to get that perfect shot, that it was a bit scary to watch.
On the bus ride I was reading a book, which made a 12 hour ride very bearable.
OMG!!! The frozen tiger got stolen !!!!! That was at the point when we started to enter a very beautiful scenery, that even with such a turn of events, I actually put the book down, and couldn't take my eyes from the window. What do you know? It turns out that I like green and snow capped mountains more than palm beaches .... surprise, surprise!
In Ushuaia - "the end of the world", right away I went to all the agencies to find a last minute deal to Antarctica. Didn't take long, even in the super high season, there is 100% chance to get a last minute deal within 5 days. There were spaces on 3 boats within a week. All boats drop the price by 50% starting 7 days before the departure date. I was hoping for a maximum of $2000 trip, but it turns out that all the internet info about the really cheap cruises were all rumors, and the cheapest of the cheapest, of the "it doesn't get any lower" was $3149, with a normal last minute price being between $3500-$4000, that's for of course for the most basic boat, with the most basic room. I found a 10 day Gap Adventures cruise for $3149, and booked it a day before the departure.
The hostel was one of the worst hostels I've stayed at. It was very small, rooms were dark, it was cold, no common area, bad location, strange crowd, but that's not the worst of it. At the New Year eve the owners and some friends who've they made, had a huge New Year dinner, took up most of the space in the dining room, didn't invite anybody else, and were eating, having fun, singing all by themselves, while all the guests scrambled around the hostel looking for just anything to do. That was so rude ! I gave them a few looks, until I was actually invited to join, but I refused. I've never done this before, but this hostel is gonna get some bad reviews!
In preparation for the New Years I started to talk to an Israeli guy earlier in the day, so I would not spend it on my own. It worked out for him too, cause he didn't meet anybody either.
Who knew that everything would be closed on New Year's eve?? Not us! We just walked and walked around all town, no people, no places open, no lights. Then the alarm sounded, boats were honking ... we're in the middle of an empty street... Well ... I guess, happy New Year to you. Half an hour later we found the only bar that was open. It was funny that I didn't tell him that I lived in Israel and that I know Hebrew, I didn't see the necessity of saying that, cause it will lead to a very boring conversation such as: "why did you leave, where did you live, did you like it, etc, etc". At first it was ok, but then we met more Israeli guys in the bar, and he would translate everything to me what they were saying, and at this point it was already too late to admit that I don't require any translation :)
Met another French guy in the hostel, quite older, and very sarcastic, but I didn't mind that, it was a fresh breath from all the other weirdos in the hostel. He asked me what I'm doing tomorrow, and I casually replied that I'm going to Antarctica. He told me something that I still remember 2 weeks later "You're saying it like a word, not like a dream. Only 17,000 people go to Antarctica a year, and you're saying like, you have nothing better to do ... gee, what am I going to do tomorrow? Like buying a bus ticket ... hm ... where should I go?? Why won't you give me one ticket to Antarctica" ... I was laughing and laughing ... but it's not that funny after all ...
It's been 4 Christmas/New Year holidays that I've been away from Toronto, and this year I finally missed the holiday atmosphere. There are no decorations, no lights, no music, nothing. This day would be as any other day if you haven't known the date. Now, I know it's very commercialized in other places, and jingle bells starts playing 2 months before Christmas, and before Christmas arrives you wish that it would be already over just to hear something new on the radio, but it actually does give a holiday atmosphere, and some sense of anticipation.
On the bus to the port nobody sat beside me, I was the only one without any partner or a friend ... that started worrying me a bit, since it's usually difficult to break into a formed group. So when we got onto the ship, I went to the deck right away to find somebody who's still by themselves. That wasn't too hard to do, then that person met other people, and by dinner we already had a well formed group. The problem was that there were 2 couples, and soon enough I got bored.
There were 2 single guys on board from Holland. They said that they travel for half a year, and they have 2 hour relationships, but considering that half a year it's all their life, then 2 hours is quite a long time. He gave me a pat on the back while saying that, I laughed and thought "yeah, good luck getting anywhere with this attitude", and haven't spoken to them since.
Everybody on the boat is smiling, everybody is in a great mood, and the staff goes extra mile to make everybody happy. It's interesting how the staff behind the scenes, all speak with a big accent, and everybody who's client facing and "expedition" team, speak perfect English.
Did a safety drill. The safety staff said that they've been working many years on different ships, and this ship is equipped above and beyond with safety measures and equipment. Got into the safety boats which has enough water and food and a week, but of course the first day we can't eat or drink, and that's to bring the body into saving mode. Actually, they haven't told us anything about washroom on these boats, I wonder how that works!?!
The expedition team got us all excited about this trip being a trip of a lifetime and Antarctica is not something you visit just once, and that it changes people. It didn't really change me much, and I could think of 2 reasons for that. 1 you already know, and the 2nd one is that I'm already a changed person. I'd like to believe the second option.
The boat was very nice. It was especially rebuilt for those kinds of trips. It has a lecture room and dining room that fits all the 124 passengers with big windows all around. A deck around all the ship, a mud room for all the wet and dirty clothes with dry air circulating for faster drying, and a bar.
The schedule was as following:
Breakfast
lectures/landing
lunch
lectures/landing
snacks
dinner
movie

The breakfast and lunch were buffets, and a dinner was a 4 course menu: choice of 2 appetizers, a soup, 5 mains and 4 desserts.
During the night we started to cross the Drake passage. If you look at the map of the earth from below, so that Antarctica is in the center, you'll see that the distance between South America and Antarctica is the smallest. The water moves around Antarctica, and when it goes through that region because it has less space, it means that it needs to accelerate thus creating the roughest waters in the world. Everybody dreads this part of the trip, and we all took pills and glued patches to make the days pass by better. During the night it became very wavy, and I could feel the pressure in my head build up every time the ship moved up and down. In the morning I could barely look at food, let alone smell it, so all I could eat was a fruit salad. After the fruit salad, the day didn't turn out to be any more exciting. I half slept through "Birds of Antarctica" lecture, half listen to "Ice of Antarctica" lecture, went to sleep, ate lunch, slept, missed a lecture, slept till 4pm, got up for Pinguinology lecture, went to sleep, got up for captain drink, could actually eat dinner, saw blue planet movie and went to sleep again :) The captain is from Bulgaria, and while introducing high management staff he said "surprisingly, the hotel manager is a woman!".
The boat is ready for the Drake passage. The armchairs are very heavy in the common area, and in the dinning room the chairs and tables are actually tied to the floor. On top of every surface, there are rubber covers to prevent glasses from slipping, and everything seems to be in order except the tourists who straggle to walk in a straight line, we were all zig zaging from one wall to another :)
After a whole day of sleeping, the next morning we received very good news! The passage doesn't usually get calmer than that, and we arrived at destination half a day early! Doesn't get calmer? What's gonna happen on the way back??
Had our first landing at 2pm. I bought wind/waterproof very thin pants in Ushuaia, and it was my first time testing them out. Man, what a difference a 1mm layer of clothing does. It's so warm! The ship stops somewhere in the deep waters, and everybody gets taken to the shore with zodiacs which are small rubber boats. All the landings are wet, and the ship provided nice rubber boots for that purpose, and in case if you fall hip dip into the snow :) It was very cold and windy that day, so I pulled my scarf up to my eyes to shield the face somehow. It was one of my favorite landings. There were thousands of penguins with their chicks. There were 2 types on penguins there, the Gentoo with red beak, and a Chinstrap, it has a black line under their chin which gives them that name. There was so much action! Those penguins really need to work hard on raising their chicks, it's not as simple as in Punto Tombo. The birds are flying around and constantly trying to steal either an egg or a small enough chick. As soon as the bird flies by, all the penguins on their nests extend their heads, yell and follow the birds with their heads, remember, they can't get off the nest. If the bird gets close, and it does, the penguins hiss at them, just like a cat, and try to bite it. Sometimes if there is a single penguin around, it will chase the bird away. There is a constant nest change between the parents, and the chicks are always hungry and get fed. Usually there are 2 chicks in the nest, but only 1 will survive, the smaller one will be intimidated by the larger one, and won't get any food, and pretty much starve to death. They constantly make noises in there. Especially the chinstraps who are known for not taking shit from anybody, very very feisty penguins, although smaller in size than most others. So they'd extend all their body upward, point their head up, flap their wings, and would make the eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeee sound. And once one starts, everybody joins in, of course nobody knows why they do it, but we don't care, it would be so interesting to watch, like a whole orchestra playing in front of your eyes.
During the dinner we saw whales, actually we didn't, but the bridge did. Humpback whales, quarter mile at 3 o'clock... literary nobody left sited at the table.
Next day was a hiking day. In the morning we went climbing a mountain to enjoy the views from above. After all, I'm not in such a bad shape at all! Every time I went hiking, I was always the last, but that's among hikers who always do it and enjoy doing it... but among normal people, I was running to the top, while everybody was a psychic trying to predict how long left till the top :) On the way up it got hot, so I took off a hat, my gloves, and unzipped the jacket. It actually got hot in Antarctica! Never mind the other 3 layers of cloths that I had underneath :) On the top didn't see much, since it was very cloudy and foggy, and a few minutes later, everything around us was white. On the way down, the staff picked some spots for sliding, and we slid down a mountain on our backs, facing backwards with crazy speed completely out of control :) at the top we were told that only crazy people who do rafting or bungee jumping should slide down that slide ... well, I wouldn't really compare it to bungee jumping, but it was pretty extreme :))
The day cleared up a little bit, and we had a lunch outside on the deck, with bbq, sun, "Macarena", and "Holiday" songs playing, it really felt like a holiday :)
On our next hike we went up to see a glacier, it also broke off, but not with the same force as Perito Moreno, but still cool, and the cooler thing was another slide that they made, that one went completely vertically down :))
This island is still covered with snow ... the effects of global warming. Warm air means more moisture, and when normally this island got 2 inches of snow, this year it went up to 10 feet ! That means that penguins try to mate, but they can't on snow, so they have to wait for a month for it to melt. They have what's called a nest fidelity. So they return to the exactly same beach where they were born. Long story short, they nest later, and by the time they have to leave, the chicks didn't grow up enough, and they all die. Another effect is that there is less ice, thus less krill, less food for penguins, the effect is the same. And yet another effect, from the internet, emperor penguins nest on ice, the ice melts much quicker than usual, the chicks didn't yet learn how to swim and thousands have drowned.
Next day ... went to see yet another penguin colony, but those are my favorite ones, Adelie penguins, they're completely black and white with blue eyes, the look like the cutest and cuddliest ones :) I wish I could hug one, but nope, had to keep a 15 feet distance from them.

That day I met Josh, a guy from New York, with whom I hung out till the end of the trip.
In the afternoon we took a zodiac cruise around the icebergs. It was a nice change from all the penguins :) During the tour saw a seal feeding on something. We guessed that it was a penguin. The guide said that it's very rare to see something like that, and our boat was the only one who saw it. It looked like it's just splashing in the water, playing around ... maybe he was playing ... with its food.
10:30 pm, the first time the sun came out :))) Everybody rushed on the deck to take beautiful pictures. Finally we were able to see the whole mountains, and the full vastness of Antarctica. Did I mention that the sun doesn't set in Antarctica? It was a very strange experience. First of all, I noticed that I never yawned. I had much more energy than usual. Usually I will feel the evening setting in around 9, and get ready to wrap up the day, there, I'd only start feeling it around 11. Sometimes I'd wake up at 3am, thinking that I slept through all the announcements. Also, usually it would take me an hour after I wake up to start my day, and here, I'd be fully awake at the time I got out of bed.
Next day we went to another penguin island. There were cool bones in there of this huge whale, and the birds were constantly circling around the penguins nests. One was fighting with it, dragging it my the tail from its nest from behind, the penguin is helpless in this situation, unless somebody else helps him out. He would just pull his head up and scream. But that doesn't help much, and the bird got its egg, and then ate it on the shore.
Then we went to a post office island. Before it was a British base, but now there is only a gift shop with a small museum left. So if you'd like to live in Antarctica for 4.5 months, this would be your opportunity! It's not much of a post office island, yeah, you can buy the post cards and stamps in there, but at the end, our ship took it all onboard and brought to Ushuaia to mail them.
In the afternoon we saw the most amazing thing ever ... Orcas in training! I've seen it on TV. There were about 10 orcas in the water, and they would teach the kids to hunt for penguins. The poor penguin would swim so fast, in all directions, jumping out of the water while the orcas would casually swim behind them. All the people were on the deck of course cheering for the penguin. penguin, orca, penguin, orca, penguin, orca, on and on and on... the orcas would zoom in, make splashes, all the crowd went OOOOOOOHH, then the penguin would reappear .. YYYEEEEEIII !!! Then the penguin found the boat, and it was all happening less than 10 meters below us, it would circle the boat like 3 times, and all of us would run from one end to another... a minute of silence for the penguin please ... ahhh ... boooooooh! After they finally "caught" the penguin, so many birds appeared feeding on the oil and the remains, it was chaotic. The birds would fight in the air for the food that they got. After the kill, the orcas made a semi circle, and just floated on the water as discussing the conclusions of the hunt. A few minutes later the bridge announced "swimming for my life by Gentoo at 12 o'clock, part 2", and here we go again. In total the orcas killed 3 penguins in about an hour. Needless to say that they along with their chicks will die, because the partner will have to leave the nest to feed, and no way the chicks can survive on their own without protection of a parent. One of our expedition stuff told us that in 20 years in Antarctica, he would put what we've just seen in the top 3! Here is a youtube video of something similar, but different ending - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJaMtBKnN-I.
Every evening we had a briefing of the things that happened that day. Frank - the guy who held the meetings always encouraged questions, and said, we used to say that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers, but then again, we used to say it :) He gave us an example of somebody asking him if there are female sperm whales? So this evening we all ganged up on him and started asking one stupid question after another. It was funny to see him trying to reply politely at first to a question like "I've noticed penguins have wet feet, is that so it will help them jump on the rocks?", it might not sound funny right now, but we were all crying in there. "Is the penguin black with white spots or white with black spots?", Frank finally got what's going on, "ok, who gave out a list of stupid questions???".
In the evening we played a game. There were some special Antarctica words, and 3 expedition stuff were giving us definitions for them, and we'd have to guess which 1 says the truth and which are lying! Man, they're good ! They'd tell you all kind of very convincing bullsh*t, which sounds very believable, go figure! We got only 3 right out of 9! I don't think I'll be able to date a guy like that, you'd never know what's on his mind :))
Next day woke up at 5am (which wasn't a big deal, since it was light out anyway :) ) to go to an island, because we had conflicting schedule with another boat. This was a whale island. 29,000+ blue whales were killed there in only 1 season. There were a lot of volcanic eruptions lately, so a lot of the bones were covered, but some of them emerge little by little. The International Whaling Commission banned all hunting of blue whales in 1966 and gave them worldwide protection. By this time their numbers had fallen from about 200,000 / 300,000 in pre-whaling days to less than 2000.
Later on all the crazy people on the boat went for a swim!! It wasn't really a swim, it was a quick run to the water, a big splash, then some screaming and running quickly back to wrap themselves in a towel, then shivering and unable to speak later with robotic movements trying to wear all of their cloths :) I took part in this activity by taking pictures and videos :) AND also voluntarily, I put my hand in the water! There! It completely froze, and I could feel it for good few hours later :) Good that our ship had a sauna which got packed in our return. Oh, yeah. For those who were wondering, the temperature of the water was 0.5 degrees Celsius.
After breakfast, went to another volcanic island. It looked like we were walking on the mountains, because they were all black and brown, but nope, it was all ice with a layer of dirt from eruptions, unbelievable. Then we got to the beach which had an ice cliff. I've never seen that kind of beach before, so that was pretty cool.
After lunch we went to what was the best penguin island for me. It was in a very beautiful setting with some yellow cliffs populated by birds and penguins. A lot of walking penguins on rocks, which is the funniest thing. I could just sit there for hours watching them. And a huge colony of nesting penguins. Again, so much action, fighting penguins (for no apparent reason); they nest so close, that when any penguin tries to squeeze by, everybody will be biting him, cause he crossed into somebody else's territory. Seen penguins having sex :) Actually I wouldn't say sex, I would say making love. In most of the animals it was like the male catches the female, and pretty much forces himself into her. And here, it was so gentle and caring and it looked like they were kissing all through it. Also in the nest, the partners would go and pick up the rocks and gently put them in the nest. So it looks like there is a genuine relationship going on there :) Also on this island, nobody knows how, there was a Macaronee penguin! It's the one with yellow feathers on its head. He was a little bit further away, so it was a bit difficult to see him. But he would come to the same spot every year. He tries to mate with a chinstrap, but he has no idea what he's doing. The expedition team've seen it once, when he was standing on the head of the female .... facing backwards :))
The trip and the weather, turned out to be great. The expedition team said we had the best conditions that are ever possible. In the agency, they said that we'll have either 7 or 8 landings depending on the weather, and we had 10!
In the evening we were heading back, and before I knew it, we hit the Drake passage. I took the pill to late (it also takes an hour to work), started feeling bad. Didn't have any appetite for dinner, not that I needed it anyways, since I lost it all, right after ... but I felt better, so that what counts :) The next day, I was in bed all day long, getting up only to nibble on some food, and headed straight back. Josh was there to support me, and helped me through this day as much as he could way above and beyond I expected from somebody whom I've just met, so if you're reading this Josh, thank you, thank you, thank you :))
In the evening we already arrived in Ushuaia, and had our last karaoke party. I actually sang 2 songs, and nobody had to convince me to do it :))
So there it was, my trip to Antarctica. All in all, most of the passengers thought it was the best trip of their life, but for me it was just ok. Before the trip, the French guy said that it was like a dream, but for me it had a different meaning, it was as though it had never happened.
In the last 2 weeks, I read 3 books. It looks like I'm trying to lose myself in the lives of the characters to forget my own, or trying to figure out my life based on the lives of the characters ... I think it needs a psychiatric analysis.
Back in Ushuaia, me and Josh went to the prison museum, which was Argentina's answer to Australia. That's how Ushuaia came to be. When the prison had closed somewhere in the 70s, the government decided to populate that area, opened a few businesses in there, and the population grew from 4,000 to 70,000. The museum also housed a very nice art gallery, naval museum, and Yamana (indigenous people). There were about 2500 Yamana people before the Europeans got there. They were nomads, and built their huts on the go, because of that, their huts were not waterproof, and they couldn't wear cloths. With the constant damp and wet conditions the cloths would never dry. They were mostly naked, and the rain would serve as a natural disinfectant. They would have fires everywhere that would keep them warm and dry, they would even have fires in the canoes where they've spent half of their time. When the Europeans arrived, they saw a lot of fires, so they called this place "the land of fire" which still holds its name. The Europeans considered Yamanas to be savages, tried to cloths them, feed them, teach them some modern ways. They brought with them diseases, and Yamanas have gone extinct in only 30 years. So to answer your questions dad, I didn't take any pictures of the indigenous, simply because there is no one left to take a picture of. But I'll post some from the internet.
The next day Josh surprised me with a helicopter tour which was beautiful :) We were supposed to make a landing on a mountain, walk a bit, take pictures, but the wind was so strong that when we approached it, it was throwing the helicopter in all the directions, even something started beeping. I almost screamed, but didn't want to scare anybody, so just grabbed hard into the seat, and hoped that it was a normal helicopter behavior :) Thank god we didn't land, the pilot said there is too much wind ... Duh !!! so we continued in a valley above lakes and forests.
After the ride, we went for a hike in the national park. The hike was beautiful and surprisingly flat, of course there was a mountain to climb, but we chose a different route :) The first part of the hike was supposed to take 3 hours, but with our speed, tree climbing, and 100s of pictures, it took us 5 and a half! Those were long 2.5 extra hours, where every 5 minutes we thought that we were already there. After that there were 3 hours more to go, but with our progress we would not have made it out by night, so we went straight to the end, taking every possible shortcut on the way. Reached the end of the road! Literary! That's the point where the road ends and it's 17,848 kms from Alaska! Thinking about it, it's not that long. If the road is in good condition, and there is no traffic, it's possible to make that route in 2 weeks on a car, just to cross the whole earth south to north. In my opinion, it makes the world a very small place.
My flight from Ushuaia was in a week time. What am I going to do here for a whole week? I tried to change it, but there were no places. So, I decided to go to a tango class, like I didn't have enough in Buenos Aires. But it was so nice this time. The teacher came up with different choreographies, so it was interesting to dance them, not just walking back and forth. One of the guys knew a little bit of tango, so he was incorporating his moves into what we learned in the class. It seemed like a test, I know that I'm supposed to cross on 5 say, and he would continue walking. This requires so much concentration, that after 1 song, I needed to relax, otherwise it's easy to get a headache :) After the class, I thought how I missed salsa, and in the hostel I put an ad up for a free salsa class. I had 5 students, and it was a lot of fun, I wasn't even nervous :) Later, I asked how I did, and was told that I'm very patient, a good teacher, constantly reminding how to do it right which is important in the beginning, and using a lot of analogies so it would make sense. … HA !
In order to clear my head again, and to do something, I went to the "glacier" hike, there is no real glacier, just some brown snow, but the hike up there was very relaxing, beautiful and peaceful. I took a taxi to the foot of the mountain, but walked back to town on the road. A taxi stopped offering me a free ride, but I declined, it was too beautiful to sit in a car. I listened to the music all 5 hours of the walking. I find that music helps me a lot. I use a lot of the lyrics and apply it to my problems. So long walks are some sort of meditation for me.
The government of Chile raised the prices of natural gas by 17%, so a lot of the government workers went on strike, and that included the border control people. There were so many people in Ushuaia not able to get out. All the hostels were full each night, and pretty much people were stuck. Bad for them, good for some of us, because for a whole week we were 1 group who always hung out together. I thought about how people don't like other countries, I really don't know why? (I mean France aside :) ). There is always, oh, Canada is so much better than US. People from Wales don't like the British, those don't like these ... why?? We were a group consisting of US, Canadian, German, British, 2 Israelis, 2 Argentineans, Spanish, Brazilian and we all got along very very well !!
"What am I going to do here for a week?" turned into, what, a week passed by already? I really don't want to leave. I was sad not only leaving Ushuaia, but leaving South America. It feels like it's been my home for 1.5 years. I really fell in love with the people, nature, culture (not the food :)), and hope that I’ll be back one day!

http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/Antarctica#
http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/Ushuaia#