Does anyone actually read blogs besides the authors? I'm not so sure.
If so, the latest with me is I am back in the U.S. of A (as of Feb 19). It's nearly the same as before. Although, in general, it seems now there is a little uneasiness, even a little fear of the state of affairs here in America. Eight years of utter incompetance from our "leaders" have left us with a range of issues from perpetual war and a falling dollar to rising gas prices. The future is uncertain. My fingers are crossed that a newly elected democrat can begin to repair this historical mess. Re-instate logic and common sense, easy on the war and greed.
On a personal side, I can see that people are getting older, growing mid-sectoins, thinning gray streaked hair, motivations are shifting, people are drifting. Families are starting, marriages are being planned. These little things are magnified after a long absense.
This is wll probably be my final post to this blog. I'm now in the final week of a contract corporate job. Afterwards I will be heading south to Asheville, North Carolina to pick up where I left off approximately 9 months ago. It won't be the first time, and probably not the last, I will be rolling into a new town, with an open mind and semi-marketable skills.
Do good work and keep in touch!
Jack
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Feliz Navidad!
Hey,
It's been awhile since I've written, due to some "hard travelin'" and sketchy internet connections.
I think the last time I wrote I was in La Paz, Bolivia. From there I crossed Peru to Lima, then back again to Lake Titicaca. My plan was to cross back into Bolivia, but just before crossing the border I realized they changed the laws ONLY for Americans, to enter Bolivia. The new requirements are vaccinations, $100, proof of intinerary, etc... Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, is basically playing petty politics because these are the same requirments for Bolivians to come to the U.S. The difference is that Bolivia is a poor country that needs everything it can get. All the new law is doing is keeping tourism dollars out of the country, not just from Americans either because we often travel in International groups. Is he worried Americans are going to take Bolivian jobs? I've always wanted to sell peanuts and socks on the streets in Bolivia, but now that job will go to a Bolivian thanks to Evo's brilliant move. Enough of my rant.
So now I'm back in Chile. The price of everything more than doubles when you cross the border into Chile from Peru or Bolivia, but still less expensive than the U.S. A bit of a shock after being in the other countries for awhile. I plan to be back in Santiago before the New Year, from there I'm going to have a look around and decide what to do next. I may go work the grape harvest in San Felipe. I it could make wine taste better for the rest of my life.
I've uploaded a few new albums. It's all your getting from me this year. So imagine it's wrapped! There are more descriptions online.
1. The Floating Islands of the Uros are man/woman made entirely of reeds that grow around the shore of Lake Titicaca. They originally chose this lifestyle to escape the imperialist Incas. They make everything from the reeds and it provides food. They also have great teeth from eating the reeds, unlike most other people from the mainland. The other photos are from the islands of Amantani and Taquile. We spent one night with a local woman and her daughter on Amantani. It was interesting how each island has thier own style of dress, with the different colors meaning, for example, if they are married or single, etc... Gladis, the woman we stayed with, cooked everything over an open fire, and all the electricity came from a single solar panel.
2. Machu Picchu What can I say about Machu Picchu?
3, A huge canyon called Colca Canyon near Arequipa, Peru
4. A strange festival in La Paz, Bolivia.
Merry Christmas from Iquique, Chile. It's here. It's time for me to go to the beach. So, how are things on that side of the planet?
Jack
It's been awhile since I've written, due to some "hard travelin'" and sketchy internet connections.
I think the last time I wrote I was in La Paz, Bolivia. From there I crossed Peru to Lima, then back again to Lake Titicaca. My plan was to cross back into Bolivia, but just before crossing the border I realized they changed the laws ONLY for Americans, to enter Bolivia. The new requirements are vaccinations, $100, proof of intinerary, etc... Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, is basically playing petty politics because these are the same requirments for Bolivians to come to the U.S. The difference is that Bolivia is a poor country that needs everything it can get. All the new law is doing is keeping tourism dollars out of the country, not just from Americans either because we often travel in International groups. Is he worried Americans are going to take Bolivian jobs? I've always wanted to sell peanuts and socks on the streets in Bolivia, but now that job will go to a Bolivian thanks to Evo's brilliant move. Enough of my rant.
So now I'm back in Chile. The price of everything more than doubles when you cross the border into Chile from Peru or Bolivia, but still less expensive than the U.S. A bit of a shock after being in the other countries for awhile. I plan to be back in Santiago before the New Year, from there I'm going to have a look around and decide what to do next. I may go work the grape harvest in San Felipe. I it could make wine taste better for the rest of my life.
I've uploaded a few new albums. It's all your getting from me this year. So imagine it's wrapped! There are more descriptions online.
1. The Floating Islands of the Uros are man/woman made entirely of reeds that grow around the shore of Lake Titicaca. They originally chose this lifestyle to escape the imperialist Incas. They make everything from the reeds and it provides food. They also have great teeth from eating the reeds, unlike most other people from the mainland. The other photos are from the islands of Amantani and Taquile. We spent one night with a local woman and her daughter on Amantani. It was interesting how each island has thier own style of dress, with the different colors meaning, for example, if they are married or single, etc... Gladis, the woman we stayed with, cooked everything over an open fire, and all the electricity came from a single solar panel.
2. Machu Picchu What can I say about Machu Picchu?
3, A huge canyon called Colca Canyon near Arequipa, Peru
4. A strange festival in La Paz, Bolivia.
Merry Christmas from Iquique, Chile. It's here. It's time for me to go to the beach. So, how are things on that side of the planet?
Jack
Monday, October 22, 2007
Pics from Patagonia
Dear Friends, Family, Travelers,
After meeting up with a couple guys from Ireland on the ship, we decided to go for a backpacking trip in the famous Torres del Paine national park. It's the big tourist destination from Puerto Natales, Chile, which seems to be the sole source of income for the town. Anyway we got all geared up and headed for the mountains. The first day we had decent weather and hiked a few hours to Glacier Grey. It was here where I saw my first glacier. Glaciers are wild…ancient, powerful, patient, grand, chunks of water in various states of freeze and thaw.
The second day in the park the weather took a violent turn and kicked up quite a breeze mixed with rain and bits of snow. Upon returning from a day hike further up the trail we found a huge tree blow over in camp! (see pic). The next day we hiked back to the refugio (an overpriced hostel with restaurant) in freezing, sideways blowing rain. Once we arrived hungry, cold and wet, we spent the next day warming up and drying out. The weather forecast was more of the same for the next few days, so most of us decided to head back to town. One brave (or crazy) man from our group, See-Kui, pushed on despite the weather. I know he is still alive because I received an email!
Once back in Puerto Natales, I decided to head north through Argentina to El Calafate to see the Perito Mereno glacier. It is quite an impressive piece of ice. You can read about the glacier on wikipedia .
Again, you can see my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/jackdcarrier/PeritoMorenoGlaciar
I spent one too many days in the tourist town of El Calafate because of travel arrangements. I also had the pleasure of getting bit by some kind of bugs in a crap hostel. Maybe bed bugs. A half dozen nice, itchy welps. I got to spend a couple days screwing around, with my current best friend, this laptop. You can see some of my boredom here….
http://picasaweb.google.com/jackdcarrier/DogsWithBaldManFromAbove
Now I'm making my way to Buenos Aires through a complicated itinerary. I hope to meet back up with my Irish friends in B.A.
I just got around to putting up another album from a couple days I spent helping a farmer back in San Felipe. You can check it out at…
http://picasaweb.google.com/jackdcarrier/CampoDeManuel
All for now. I need to get busy waiting for 6 more hours until my flight. I wonder how long this cafe will let me sit here?
=^)
Friday, October 12, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Notes from a small island
I'm on the island of Chiloé, in southern Chile, in the small peaceful town of Quemche, overlooking the colorful wooden boats the people use to scratch a living from the sea. In the distance there is a snow covered volcano.
I write now from my hospedaje. Many people have a hospedaje sign on a window, advertising they will offer a room. My room cost $14 (7,000 pesos) and has private bath, TV, ocean view, and breakfast is included. The meager breakfast was instant coffee, bread and butter, and some "cheese". The fat owner sat watching futbol on a giant plasma TV, quite out of place with the fisherman theme, while I stared at the ocean with my Nescafé. Real coffee is a bit rare in Chile for some odd reason.
Today I´m going to make my way north to a town called Puertto Montt where I will catch a long distance ferry (www.navimag.com) that will take me to the southern tip of Chile. There I can expect to see massive glaciers, fjords, penguins, unspoiled wilderness…and bitter cold. I´ll be on the boat for 4 or 5 days. We´ll see how my stomach likes rocking back and forth for that long!
My Spanish, or Castellano as they call it, is getting to a point to where I can talk to people at length which is making this trip much more interesting. Now I can get around alone confidently. When I ask questions I can understand the response, rather than nodding and smiling, not knowing what the heck they just said, as I did for the first couple months.
For me, meeting local people is the fun of traveling. For example, a couple days ago, in a city called Valdivia, I wondered into a cool little shop, started chatting with the owner about the history of the town. In 1960, there was a massive, massive earthquake, one of the biggest in recorded history that basically changed the landscape of southern Chile. A huge tsunami wiped out many towns. Valdivia was one of the places that was destroyed. Roberto, the man that owned the shop showed me footage of the wreckage that followed the earthquake, or terrimotto. Ships were washed miles inland where they sit today, rivers were blocked by massive landslides, the entire town of Valdivia sank three feet!
Before I left the shop, Roberto and Sandra invited me to their house the next day for lunch. They live on a bluff overlooking the ocean next to a historical Spanish fort. They make their living as artists, working with metal, wood, fabric, leather, paper, silk screening, poetry, etc. All by hand, using old techniques, for example, Robert has thousands of little metal letters that he arranges, heats up, and stamps into leather for binding books. Their house was a creative space with several tiny, orderly workspaces, each dealing with a different craft. They learned the technical aspects of their art by backpacking around South America in 1992, studying with different artists, for about a year. They made money while traveling by selling handwritten poetry. Roberto said he was hungry most of the trip. Super interesting folks!!
You can see some photos of my day with Roberto, Sandra, and their son at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jackdcarrier/CasaDeRobertoYSandra
They have a blog with a bunch of photos of their work at: http://tienda-taller-denosotros.blogspot.com
Yesterday I met another interesting guy named Carlos Aguilar, a 79 year young man that was working away on a giant piece of wood with a handsaw, as he has for the last 60 years or more. He makes model ships, exact replicas of famous historic vessels. His ships are around the world with high-end collectors and in museums. He is small man with eyebrows that have grown over his eyes like bangs. His hands were stubby and knobby from working with hand tools day after day. We talked for a couple hours, at least, about everything from his desire to learn English, to how the French seems less friendly than people from other parts of the world, to how he wants to keep learning and living until the day he dies. His circular workshop was inside a replica Spanish lookout tower that overlooked the ocean. Just outside his door was a huge whale skeleton.
Again, you can see photos of me and Carlos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jackdcarrier/ConversationWithAShipBuilder
Ok, all for now.
Saludos!
Jack
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Update from Santiago, Chile
Hey y'all,
It's been awhile since I've written, so I wanted to give a little update. I finished my teaching commitment at the school on September 1st. On my final day they had a big festival with singing, dancing, costumes, food. I had to get up and dance "la cueca" the national dance in front of everyone and also give a little speech over the microphone, in Spanish, of course. They gave me a nice framed photo of all the students. The students gave me tons of cute letters with drawings and messages of how much they will miss me. I will think of those kids often and hope to see them again.
Some of you may not know, but I have decided to extend my travels for another few months. My flight was supposed to leave Sept. 13th, but I called and canceled the reservation. The airline will give me some credit when I book another flight.
From here, my loose plan is to travel to the southern tip of Chile, by bus, boat, and boots. Navigating glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, cities, and volcanoes along the way. Then head back with a northern route on the Argentinian side through Patagonia to Buenos Aires. From there I will check my funds and head and either look for job or make my way back to the U.S.
It's been awhile since I've written, so I wanted to give a little update. I finished my teaching commitment at the school on September 1st. On my final day they had a big festival with singing, dancing, costumes, food. I had to get up and dance "la cueca" the national dance in front of everyone and also give a little speech over the microphone, in Spanish, of course. They gave me a nice framed photo of all the students. The students gave me tons of cute letters with drawings and messages of how much they will miss me. I will think of those kids often and hope to see them again.
Some of you may not know, but I have decided to extend my travels for another few months. My flight was supposed to leave Sept. 13th, but I called and canceled the reservation. The airline will give me some credit when I book another flight.
From here, my loose plan is to travel to the southern tip of Chile, by bus, boat, and boots. Navigating glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, cities, and volcanoes along the way. Then head back with a northern route on the Argentinian side through Patagonia to Buenos Aires. From there I will check my funds and head and either look for job or make my way back to the U.S.
I have been in Mendoza, Argentina for the last several days. I had to cross the border and back again to renew my tourist visa for Chile. I stayed at this crazy hostel called "Campo Base" that was full of travelers from all over the world. We all went out to dinner one night and had folks at one table from Holland, Switzerland, Germany, England, Argentina, Australia, and the U.S. (which was me). It was like a world conference with no agneda other than getting to know each other and enjoying good food. Muy bien.
I hope you are well and thinking of writing me.
Saludos!
Jack
...writing from La Casa Roja, an old mansion turned hostel, in Santiago.
p.s. yesterday, Sept 11, was also a historic day for Chile. It was the day, in 1973, that the Socialist Party Leader Salvador Allende's government was overthrown by a military strike led by Pinochet and backed by the CIA. Imagine the U.S. medling with other countries governments? Pinochet proved to be a cruel leader that killed thousands of people who opposed him. He was a dictator here for 17 years. Yesterday there were many protests and actions here in Santiago. I don't fully understand it, but it is a sensitive subject with strong emtions on both sides.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
moms
ash,
yes, the moms have crushes on me, as do many students. it's something about having light skin, hair, and bright blue eyes that they really like. i swear it's like being a celebrity. i'm getting used to being stared at wherever i go.
today was amazing as well as yesterday. this morning, i went to "la feria" 4 or 5 blocks from here, which is like a huge flea market. you would love it. it is has many vendors selling everything imaginable, fruits, seafood, socks, pirated DVDs, fish, panties, etc. it also had many musicians. one was a family of 3, the father had one leg and one arm, the mother, a couple teeth, and the daughter of about 12 years old was crying for some reason. they were singing loudly without music. i felt really sorry for them, their desparation, trying to survive with the talents they could scrounge up.
today i was on my host brother's bike. as soon as i got home my family said "vamo?" to a waiting auto with the neighbor driving. we went to "el campo", basically the country, in the mountains, and spent the day playing futbol, dancing the "cuaca", talking, hiking, playing guitar. we also had some delicious tea prepared over a small campfire.
after the sun dropped we stopped at a rodeo. it was a strange type of rodeo, where two men on horseback try to steer a small cow to certain parts of the ring for points. it was wild. i felt sorry for the calves that were scared to death and in "flight" mode.
vamo por bueno vino chileano ahora...
mucho amor,
jack
yes, the moms have crushes on me, as do many students. it's something about having light skin, hair, and bright blue eyes that they really like. i swear it's like being a celebrity. i'm getting used to being stared at wherever i go.
today was amazing as well as yesterday. this morning, i went to "la feria" 4 or 5 blocks from here, which is like a huge flea market. you would love it. it is has many vendors selling everything imaginable, fruits, seafood, socks, pirated DVDs, fish, panties, etc. it also had many musicians. one was a family of 3, the father had one leg and one arm, the mother, a couple teeth, and the daughter of about 12 years old was crying for some reason. they were singing loudly without music. i felt really sorry for them, their desparation, trying to survive with the talents they could scrounge up.
today i was on my host brother's bike. as soon as i got home my family said "vamo?" to a waiting auto with the neighbor driving. we went to "el campo", basically the country, in the mountains, and spent the day playing futbol, dancing the "cuaca", talking, hiking, playing guitar. we also had some delicious tea prepared over a small campfire.
after the sun dropped we stopped at a rodeo. it was a strange type of rodeo, where two men on horseback try to steer a small cow to certain parts of the ring for points. it was wild. i felt sorry for the calves that were scared to death and in "flight" mode.
vamo por bueno vino chileano ahora...
mucho amor,
jack
On 9/2/07, whatahamiam wrote:
Ha! How funny u email me. Just got back from jack of the woods. Ran into some sous (sp) peps and ur roomy. She's doing good. What an amazing girl. She's very cool. We were watching the Fire cracker jazz band. They just got back from touring.
Awe what a sweet story goodbye story. I bet those kids are going to miss u ttttttrhhhhhhiiiiisssss. Mmmmmmmuuuuuuucccccccchhhhhh
Hehe, did all the moms have a crush on u ? como es tu espanol? Queries viver en sul America ahora? Si estas aqui por tres mas meses, possible voy por xmas. I don't think I said that right so I'll translate. Do u want to live in s America now? If u are there for three more months, it may be possible I go there for xmas.
So u want a computer. I'm getting one soon too. Maybe this weekend. There is an acer dual processor 1024 ddr2 mem n 160 hard drive. Writes DVDs 4 $499 this weekend. There is a Toshia 1024mb ddr2 80 hd writes DVDs 4 $399 damn computers got cheap! If u want me to buy one of these 4 u let me know.
Have a gr8 time enjoying urself where ever u may go. Don't spend all ur money in one place! Hehe. Congrats on selling ur house!!! That's awesome! Are u going to buy another one?
To answer the questions I didn't answer bf. I think I'll stay here at least till Nov. I don't know if I want to stay here for a long time just. Don't like the flow of the house. But need to find a place 4 a year or more. Can't take this moving shit any more! Wanna buy a house w me?
Ha ha, sleep on it.
I hope all is well in ur world. Love ur pics. They are awesome. That girl giving u the attitude is sooo cute. Some of the girls in those pics have some crushes on u. Priceless!
So where are u going to travel!?!? Going to go hiking in the mountains? Wanna bike across the Andies?!
A big Big hug and lots of love. Ash
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: Jack
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 00:21:30
To:"whatahamiam
Subject: Re: Pss
hey sweets, its really nice be dreamed about! to be honest, i'm not sure. but i imagine i'll be ready to come back by xmas. especially knowing what great fun it's going to be...
today was my last day at school. it was amazing. they put on a big performance for me with singing, dancing, fashion show, speeches. they made me dance the "cuaca" a couple times. they gave me a sweet gift that is a framed pic of all the students as a group. there were tears. lots of little girls gave me love notes complete with colorful drawings. "mucho echo de menos tio jack...." mothers were lining up to have their pics taken with me. god i'm going to miss those kids and this place.
now i'm going to go search for a new laptop. mine is just too slow to handle what i need it to do. plus the neighbor wants to buy this one.
chau for now,
jack
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