Huangshan City (Tunxi)

After coming down from Yellow Mountain, we took a 1h bus and headed to Huangshan city where we stayed in the old district (Tunxi) for 2 nights. Not much happened (as we needed the time to recuperate from our 10,000+ steps), but we really enjoyed this part of town because it mainly consists of a charming main street with a bunch of cute shopping/artisan boutiques.

We searched for the tea house that Jen visited on a previous trip (which sells amazing teas - especially Jasmine), and did a tea-tasting.  We were convinced into buying $50 CAD of premium quality Jasmine tea….and that's for only 500g.. AND that was a discounted price that we were able to bargain for because Jen's parents also bought a large quantity of tea for their friends.

We later decided to get a massage to relax from our trek.  We found one massage place and.. they only spoke Mandarin.  We pointed at a random reasonably priced item on the Chinese poster and set off to get the massage (with no idea what we were getting).  All in all, it was a good and really funny experience.. not to mention, extremely painful once they started massaging our calves… out of the four of us, Jen was the only one who didn't yelp and squirm….tough girl.

One particularity of this town is the scooters. Many of them are equipped with a parachute…! ….err an umbrella ;)

Lastly, across the street from our hostel, there was a cool restaurant where they have samples of all of their dishes on display. To order, you just browse the items and write the associated number on the order form. Then you go to your table and they prepare the dishes fresh to order. We got to try some interesting stuff. Overall it was a fun experience with pretty good food, despite all of the grease that seems to be very characteristic of Chinese food.

Huangshan (aka Yellow Mountain)

Jen's mom and dad decided to join us on this part of the trip through Asia. For our first stop with them, we decided to go to Huangshan (aka Yellow Mountain), also now known as the inspiration for the world of Pandora in James Cameron's movie "Avatar". The biggest disappointment here was that there aren't actually any floating islands ;)

We visited the mountain for 2 consecutive days, sleeping at the top for one night in a dorm. It was a bit expensive to stay at the top (ie. $8 CAD for a coffee, $34 CAD/person in a 6-bed dorm room), but it was definitely worth it as it takes some time to make it off of the really touristy paths and onto the less visited trails.

If you're super lucky (ie. if the mountains aren't covered in clouds, rain or fog), you can enjoy an absolutely magnificent sunset and/or sunrise. Surprisingly, even at 5:30AM, there were as many crowds of chinese tourists as during mid-day. Here are some pics of the sunset that we were lucky enough to see.

And here is the sunrise…. overall, we were super lucky with the weather conditions!!

One particularity of Yellow Mountain, which is hard to appreciate from the pictures, are the paths. The 30+ kilometres of paths mainly consist of stairs.. over 10,000 stone steps zigzag up and down between the various mountain peaks. On rare occasion, we were actually lucky enough to encounter a flat area to allow our calves and knees to recuperate. We also discovered that if your legs finally give up, you can hire someone to carry you up/down the stairs…. ichhhhh… seems like HARD work!!  Workers there are also paid by weight to carry all of the merchandise/stock/supplies/gas/water/etc. up and down the stone step paths, from the gondola to the various stores and hotels.  They use basic bamboo sticks as lever-style-backpacks that carry about 200+ pounds (on average)…. it sure makes us realize how much we love our jobs!

There were about as many chinese tourists as there are stairs!!. It was actually impressive how many there were. On the path near the gondola there were so many tourists that we had full-on gridlock - a walking traffic stand-still.  Luckily, in the more remote areas, there were far less people so we could actually enjoy the scenery in silence.

We were also lucky encounter an entertaining family of monkeys that came up to visit us.

And what would be a hiking trip without some funny jumping pictures...

All in all this was one of the best landscapes we've seen on our trip, so far!

Tongli

About 2 hours (by bus) from Shanghai, there is a small typical chinese canal town called Tongli.  We decided to escape the big city for a day to explore it.

One of the amusing activities we did was to dressed up in traditional clothes and re-enact a childhood video game: Mortal Kombat

Shanghai (...the adventure continues)

Since we got the go-ahead from the doctor for Dom's hand, we decided to continue our adventure by hitting the next super-power….China. We decided to fly into Shanghai for a few days since it's the only major city in China that we hadn't visited yet. We also brought a friend, Guillaume (aka Guili (in french) / aka Geelee (in english)), who also quit his job and will be joining us for part of our adventure.

Also, Jen wants to thank everyone for all of the birthday wishes! And sorry in advance for any late responses.. it isn't possible to access Facebook from China so we won't be able to respond until we depart the country.

And, we'd also like to apologize if the photo galleries on our blog are a bit messed up for the next few posts.. it seems our website is also blocked, so we won't be able to fix / clean them up right away.

Anyways… back to Shanghai!  Big cities are big cities, but here are some of the spots we visited and enjoyed. One of the first sites we visited is the one often identified with Shanghai: "The Bund" and its view of the Pearl Tower.

We also visited the old town which is architecturally quite lovely, but it has very much been turned in a giant tourist shopping trap

We decided to go up Shanghai's World Financial Centre which, besides looking like a giant USB key, has the second highest observation deck in the world: 474 meters above ground level. The best part about it was that when we arrived at the building, we discovered that it is FREE to go up to the observation deck on your birthday... and wouldn't you know it.. the day we went happened to be Jen's Birthday…..Yay!!

Of course, we couldn't miss the Shanghai lights at night…and its dancing ladies ;)

If you know Jen personally and talk about China, you will hear her say: "I hate chinese food". However, after this trip, we now found a dish that she could not get enough of… The Food Republic is a food court where you buy a gift card and then shop around for what you would like to eat. There, we found some soup dumplings that Guili and Jen liked SOO much, that we actually went for 4 out of 5 dinners… They were THAT good!!

Finally, if you go to Shanghai, you have to take the world fastest (magnetic levitation) commercial train which takes you from the airport to a hub on the metro. On our approximately 8 minute trip, we managed to reach 431km/h… (according to the LED sign in the train..).

Seattle

Yes, you red the title correctly, we are in Seattle. We came back to Canada to have Dom's hand checked and thought that we should do a road trip to Seattle to meet up with Cindy, Dave, Flo and Sean while we were here.

One of the first sites we visited was the fisherman's market at Pike Place, where you can see the fishmongers amusing the public by throwing big fish around (see picture).  We also went to see the very first Starbucks (but did not go in as the line was about a block long).

We also saw Seattle's very famous gum wall:  The second germiest tourist attraction in the world.  It started when people waiting in line for the nearby theatre started sticking coins on the wall using gum.  After the night passed, someone stole all of the coins so that only gum remained. Suprisingly, this started a trend and after several unsuccessful scrapings, the city declared it a tourist attraction.  If you are in
the area, don't forget to bring your own gum ;)

We also had a chance to visit part of the Pioneer Square Underground City (the original streets that remained underground after they raised the city and reconstructed the road).  

We also went up the Smith tower to get a good view of the city and the Space Needle.  This tower is one of the last remaining buildings with an Otis elevator.

And what would be a friend's trip without a little shopping..

One thing that you can't miss in the Seattle landscape is the Space Needle.  We didn't go to the top since we already saw the view from the Smith Tower, but we did visit the EMP museum at the bottom of the Space Needle and had fun creating weird shadows.

Finally, we went for a day trip to Mount Rainer (2 hours South-East of Seattle) and enjoyed superb weather.

Have a good day and do not forget: 

Note:  Upon our return to Calgary, Dom saw a hand specialist who gave us the green light to continue our trip.  So, on September 6, we will be departing for Shanghai!!!

Iguazu Falls

Since we were in Brazil, we decided to go visit the Iguazu Falls which are now part of the "New 7 Wonders of Nature".  80% of the falls are in Argentina and the rest are in Brazil.  Most travellers recommend visiting the Brazilian side first to get a big picture of the falls before visiting the Argentina side.  Due to rain, we had to go in the opposite order but we agree that seeing the Brazil side would probably have been better so that you get the overall view first and then get up close to them in Argentina.  Although its true that the experience on the Argentinian side is longer and more complete, we found the overall view on the Brazilian side to be prettier.

Argentinian Side

 

Brazilian Side

Since we went on a sunny day, we also had the chance to see a lot of beautiful rainbows….. even some double rainbows!! :)

… of course, it immediately reminded us of this video:


and its "songified" version:

But in the end the most impressive thing was this butterfly with transparent wings….

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

After 16 hours of train, 7 hours of bus, 1 hour of taxi and 4 hours of plane, we finally finished our journey from Santa Cruz to Rio De Janeiro.  We are now in the city best known for its Carnaval celebration, but is now also known as home to one of the "New" 7 Wonders of the World : "Big Jesus" (otherwise known as Christ the Redeemer).  This is definitely a more touristy part of our trip, but admittedly, it felt good to be back in a more modernized country.

Christ the Redeemer aka "Big Jesus"
One of the first attractions we visited was Christ the Redeemer - a 30m art deco statue of Jesus erected on the tallest mountain in Rio, overlooking the city.  
In 2007, Christ the Redeemer was voted in as one of the new 7 wonder of the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New7Wonders_of_the_World).  Do we agree with this or not? ... that is another debate… 
But, we can definitely say that there is a stunning view of the city from the top...  and there are a LOT of tourist there (we were both starting to feel agoraphobic, especially after coming from rural Bolivia). 
Lastly and most importantly (for all the Movember fans out there), we noticed that Chris the Redeemer has a moustache ;)

Rocinha Favela Tour 
On our second day, we decided to take a tour of the biggest favela in Rio: Rocinha.  Favelas, know to us foreigners as the ghettos where crime and drugs rule and you definitely need to avoid these areas or you will be killed if you enter…  Thanks to this tour, we learned that the reality of favelas is actually quite different!!  The name, favelas, actually comes from a reference to a type of flower (favela) that grew in one the first of these communities.  These communities are simply urban invasions of government land that were started by people who couldn't afford the high prices in the city and needed a place to stay.  Since Brazil doesn't have any types of low-cost living, they simply tolerated (turned a blind eye) to people erecting homes on government property without any urbanization plans.  Over the years, the favelas have grown enormously and have become communities where they have stores, internet cafes, bars and other services - they are essentially small cities within the big City of Rio De Janeiro.  There are still some dangers associated with favelas, but it's not as exaggerated as what's often depicted on the news or movies such as the City of God. 

Here are some interesting facts that we learned from our guide:
  • Minimum wage in Rio is around 550 reals/month ($275usd / month), and a very large part of the population in Rio is only paid minimum wage (ie. construction workers, teachers, cooks, cleaners, etc.)
  • There are about 950 favelas in Rio De Janeiro, ranging from 2,000 to 300,000 people.  Most of the people who live in the favelas, work outside of the favela ("in the City").
  • Since many people who live in the favelas are from construction/trade type jobs, all of the favelas are built by the people of the favela and are quite well constructed.
    • Most favelas have electricity, underground sewage, and running water (however, a lot of people "borrow" their electricity… see the picture)
    • Most of the people living in the favelas are a tight-knit community - in order to get into a favela, you have to know someone.
  • The Rocinha Favela was built around a road that used to be part of an old F1 race track
    • Rocinha  means “little farm” - people used to grow vegetables here and sell them in the city
    • It's estimated that around 300,000 people live here
    • In only has one main street (the race track), 3 smaller streets, and 3 entrances.  To get from one house to the next, there are narrow alleyways and stairs.
    • The city only provides bus and garbage services to the main street, so everyone has to bring their garbage to a corner on the main street where it is picked-up 3 times a day. 
    • Since there are no streets, people in the favelas do not have addresses.  This means they can't have bank accounts or (easily) receive mail.
  • There are 3 main drug gangs that fight for the favelas territories, and there is usually a gun altercation between gangs every week.
    • Around 1% of the population in the favelas are gang members (according to our guide).

    • Gangs need and seek the support of the favela communities (ie. so the drug problems are tolerated), so they often throw huge parties and give back to the community.  In fact, according to our guide the Carnaval started because of the parties in the favelas and without the favelas there would never have been a Carnaval.
    • Due to the upcoming World Cup and Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, the government is gradually putting police patrols into the favelas that are near any tourist areas.  
      • So far, 19 favelas are now being actively patrolled by police.
      • This is part of a 7 year contract for the Olympics and World Cup - what will happen after the 7 years?  No one knows.
      • To prevent wars between the gangs and police, the favela locations where the police will be moving into are announced on TV and within the favela several months in advance.  The drug lords are currently just re-locating to other favelas (not being controlled by the police) with the plans to return after the 7 years are up.
      • According to our guide, the people living in the favelas are not happy about the gangs being forced out of the favelas because now they don't have the constant parties and loud music.
Note: Even with police patrolling some of the favelas, it is not recommended to venture into them unless you know someone, or speak really good Portuguese. 

 

The Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar)
On our last day in Rio we went to Urca and enjoyed the breathtaking view from the Sugarloaf.  The Sugarloaf mountain is one of the many mountains in Rio.  The particularity with this one is that in 1912, a cable car was built so that tourists could visit the top (396m) and appreciate the amazing views of the city.  In the James Bond movie, Moonraker, there is a famous scene where Bond fights Jaws on the cable cars of Rio.

Copacabana
During our visit to Rio, we stayed at a hostel in an area called Copacabana so we could enjoy some walks on the beach.  We also went to a restaurant called Carretao - an all-you-can-eat Churrascaria (Brazilian BBQ) with Rodizio service (the waiters bring samples of food to each customer at several times throughout the meal, until the customers signify that they have had enough).  We were really impressed with the food here - SO good..!!

Graffiti
According to our favela tour guide, Simone, graffiti art is legal in Rio with the exception of "tagging" (people just writing their names on the wall).  Graffiti artists just need permission from the building owners. 
If you like Graffiti, you will be fulfilled here.  We didn't have time to do an extensive graffiti tour (as we didn't have much time), but here are a few samples that we found along the way :).

El Fuerte Cave Paintings

During our Che trek, our guide (David Lebras) mentioned some old cave paintings that he found in the region after talking to some locals and looking for ruins in the area.  The prospect of exploring an area where no tourists have gone before (even David had only been there twice) seemed appealing.. so we set out for another adventure.

Day 1: Driving and Cave
The first day was mostly driving as it took us about 8 hours to get to our destination.  As night began to fall, David stopped the truck midway down the mountain, in the middle of the road that goes to a town called El Fuerte.  We unpacked the truck and headed about 30 meters off the road where we set up camp, under a ledge next to the first set of paintings.  As far as we know, this was the first time (at least in recent times) that anyone has slept there …..cool. 

Here is a link to the photosynth of the first cave:  http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=44ae1bfb-d689-4eeb-80a8-0f6c6dc7d173

In the morning, we had breakfast and admired the view of the condors soaring only meters above us. 

Day 2: El Fuerte and the Canyon
This was by far our busiest day.  After packing the truck and heading off, we noticed that we had forgotten the cooking gear back at camp :(.  Surprisingly, that made our adventure even more interesting as David decided to stop and ask the locals of El Fuerte to lend us a pot, some bowls, and utensils.  We also bought a live rooster (dinner!), and chatted with a local family who offered us some soup for lunch. 

The last time that David was in El Fuerte, he promised to return with medicine for a local farmer who suffers from bad Arthritis, so we stopped by his home to deliver the medicine that the Cuban doctor (in La Higuera) supplied to David.  The farmer was very grateful and shared some of their oranges, cured pork, lemonade, and choclo (corn) with us.  One of the farmer's relatives also told us a local legend about an Inca city that existed on top of a nearby mountain and was constructed by a man who was able to levitate rocks…

We departed for the canyon, mid-afternoon, to set up camp.  The farmer also decided to accompany us, and he showed us how to slaughter and cook the live rooster for dinner.

Day 3: The Canyon and Return Trip
On our last day, we made beignets for breakfast and went to visit the second set of paintings.  We learned that the locals (and archaeologists) don't seem to care much about the paintings - a lot of them are still buried under a land slide.

We then explored to the end of the canyon before heading back to El Fuerte.  


The trip ended with a comfortable, scenic ride back to La Higuera, sitting in the back of the Kombi :)

 

 

 

Last Days of Che Guevara (Trekking Days 3 & 4)

Day 3: San Antonio Canyon

Our Story:  We continued hiking the San Antonio Canyon toward La Higuera.  Looking up from the canyon, we could just imagine the pressure that the guerrillas were feeling as they edged closer and closer to La Higuera.  The canyon "walk" gradually changed to more to "bouldering" (climbing), which made the terrain and scenery even more fun.  We passed about 70 small waterfalls (between 50cm and 8m in height), and David also showed us a plant that can be tapped for drinkable water during the dry season when the rivers run dry.  The plant is called a Bromeliad and it can apparently retain its water store for about a year.  After another 5 hour day, we reached our encampment and this time set up a tent instead of hammocks as the temperature had become much colder.  For dinner, David taught us how to make empanadas, and we also decided to make pizza over the fire…. mmmmmm

Che's Story: Nothing new in the Che story other than their continued slow progress back to La Higuera.  Since the army was near, they had to hide out during the day and only travel short distances at night.  It's also interesting to note that by this time, they had been travelling for just under a year so their shoes were long worn down and had been replaced by basic pieces of leather wrapped and tied to their feet.

Day 4: Churro Canyon and Final Battle

Our Story:  Our last day was the most technical - on several occasions we had to secure ourselves with a climbing harness and rope before climbing up the rocks and boulders.  We also reached and entered the Churro canyon which was a lot smaller and denser; this felt like a real guerrilla canyon!  Here we saw the location where Che took a shot to the leg, and where he was eventually captured (both the official and unofficial locations).  Along the way, we collected a San Pedro cactus (a cactus with hallucinogenic properties) which had fallen to the ground so that David could plant it in the wall of his house.  We ended the 6 hour day by taking a trail back up to the main road and hitching a ride back to La Higuera.  

Che's Story:  At the Churro canyon junction, Che had the choice to either continue through the San Antonio Canyon to reach another remote town, or enter the Churro canyon and return to La Higuera.  At this point, Che seemed intent on returning to La Higuera - he chose to split the guerrillas into 3 groups and took his group into the Churro canyon.  Soon after, Che's group was confronted by the army.  In the battle, Che took one bullet to his gun, and one in the leg.  His group tried to flee up the Churro canyon walls where they were quickly intercepted.  Che was now wounded and his rifle had been hit and rendered disabled - he was forced to surrender.  The 3 survivors of Che's group were locked in separate rooms of the school in La Higuera.  All 3 were executed the next day.

Note: David told us that there is a discrepancy in the location where Che was actually caught.  The "official location" is located on the left side of the Churro canyon where a large memorial now stands.  The unofficial location, according to some of the locals and surviving guerrillas, was actually on the right side of the canyon….weird.  Anyways, we saw both.. ;)

Note to Other Travellers:
We really enjoyed hiking the Che Trail. Even without the Che story, this is a really fun and beautiful trek.  We would recommend doing the trek with David as he was a big part of what made the trek enjoyable, plus you could easily get lost going on your own if you aren't familiar with the area (especially the first day). 

Guide: David Lebras  Tel: 72683414  Email: Davidlebras@Hotmail.fr   (Note: It is easier to contact David by phone than by email as there is no internet in La Higuera.)
Tour Cost: 300bs/day/person (in our case: 2400bs for 4 days, for both of us)

Hotel in La Higuera:  We stayed at La Posada del Telegrafista (50bs/night/person).  David also offers rooms at his place for 20bs/night/person.  
We really enjoyed relaxing at the Posada, but would recommend that you buy food for breakfast before going as it's a bit pricey to eat at the Posada (Breakfast=30bs, Lunch=35bs, and Dinner=45bs per person).

 

Last Days of Che Guevara (Trekking Days 1 & 2)

During our Salar de Uyuni tour, we met 2 French guys who had recently done a trek in a less touristy part of Bolivia.  They highly recommended the trek and it sounded interesting, so we contacted David Lebras from San Pedro Tours and made our way to the town of La Higuera (the town where Ernesto Che Guevara was executed). The journey to get to the town was a journey in itself!… but we'll leave that for another post. :)

The trek we did follows the last 12 days of Che's life.  Just to put us in the story: Che originally went to Bolivia (with about 50 men) to initiate a revolution in South America. They chose Bolivia because it was a good strategic point to access surrounding countries (Chile, Peru, Columbia, Brazil, …).  After 11 months of guerrilla fighting, he failed to rise the population up against the government and in October he arrived in La Higuera to find out that the army had learned of his whereabouts and were waiting for him (1800 army men against 17 guerrillas left).  The trek we did was only 4 days, but Che followed approximately the same path in 12 days.

Day 1: The Escape From La Higuera

Our Story: On the first day we set out into the Canyon de La Higuera and after a couple of hours, we arrived at the junction to the San Antonio Canyon.  From there we walked to the Rio Grande and set up camp (hammocks) on the bank of the river.  The distance was about 13-15km downhill, from 2000m to 700m (about a 5.5 hour walk).  For dinner, we learned to cook a steak in the campfire on a slab of rock from the Rio Grande, and David gave Dom some tips on how to chop wood with a machete :).  

Che's Story: Che never went to the Rio Grande - at the junction, he took the San Antonio Canyon to double back to La Higuera.  Taking the San Antonio Canyon proved to be one of Che's mistakes, as it turned out that the army was not covering the Rio Grande area, and was instead mainly concentrated around La Higuera and vicinity.  The route to the Rio Grande was how the last 10 guerrillas escaped after Che was captured. 

Day 2:  San Antonio Canyon

Our Story:  We took our time in the morning and David taught us how to make beignets for breakfast in the fire.  We packed up camp and stopped on the shore of the Rio Grande for a quick swim before returning to the San Antonio Canyon junction to continue Che's story.  In total, it took us about 5 hours to walk to our next encampment which was in the canyon, near the caves where Che had to hide and wait for the army to leave.  For dinner, David taught us how to make bread (from scratch) over the campfire.  We were impressed - it's actually fairly easy, and really good!!  That night, around 2am, we were awoken by a bit of rain so we were forced to get up and relocate the 3 hammocks such that they were stacked, one on top of the other, beneath a tarp - that was was interesting!  We opted for a midnight snack and ate more of the campfire bread before going back to bed in our newly fashioned "bunk-hammocks".

Che's Story:  During their escape through the San Antonio canyon, Che's group eventually stopped at a location that he deemed safe.  To his surprise, around noon the next day, the army showed up pacing back and forth along the canyon trail only a few meters from their camp.  Over the next 4 days, they counted around 120 army men in the area (vs their group of 17 guerrillas).  At one point, a shot was fired and army was sent to his area to investigate.  Luckily, before any confrontation could happen, the radio sounded out explaining that one of the army's rifles had misfired - the investigation party was called back.