Hamburguesas and more hamburguesas.....

Give me vegetables I say!!!!!!

Nick and I have been living on dodgy hamburgers called hamburguesa (h is silent in Español) for the past week and are craving some vegies. All you can get here is meat (and I mean MEAT - which is called carne in Español), dodgy tasteless pasta or hamburgers... And these are not hamburgers like what you think when i say it rather a bun with a piece of meat on it. To have some taste other than white bread and meat pattie you have to cover it with all the sauces under the sun (under our sun anyways - tomato sauce, mustard, mayonaise...).

Besides their inability to make a hamburger the food here is pretty good and really cheap.

We went to the Argentinian version of Carnaval on the weekend and photos have been added to the gallery I suggest you go to Nick´s site for the details of the weekend´s activites (link on the side of the page). Rest assured Lucas had fun amd danced like a savage......

Have decided to go clothes shopping today as my clothes suck and I am confused as to why I brought them.....oh that´s right I had planned to replace them here which is all good. The clothes here are prtty good for the price, but I have to remind myself that we are going trekking not clubbing.....

Well off tomorrow to the South where my contact with the western world will be much more limited than before. I will make sure I update photos and reply to emails whenever possible. I do think the break from internet will be good for me though. I think I have still been trying to hold on too much to my previous life in the belief that I would return to it someday. I think I forgot that this trip means that the old life only exists in the past now and that when I return all will be different and I will have to start again (which will be good as I think I stuffed up a fair bit in the old life....). However, I will always reply to emails and will always appreciate hearing from all of you, but I I will not go out looking for contact from home to validate myself.....

Take care all and there are new photos in the gallery.

LK

A quick dump of what´s doing

Been a while since i posted anything of detail so here goes what´s been doing of late;

Did Spanish lessons this week which were as hard as hell and made we realise i don´t even understand the structure of the English language let alone the Spanish language... go the NSW Dept of Education!!! Also in true Lucas style I skipped my last class yesterday. Hey, I can hardly do a course in anything and not miss a class it´s that winning attitude (who needs a tute when you have the text book...) that got me through uni so why not do it now!!

Looked around all of the shopping district yesterday in Santa Fe some awesome clothes like sooooooo cool I was so tempted to get some stuff but the pack is my limit and it is pretty full already. But stuff here is pretty cheap so I will venture there again on Monday and might buy a few things. It´s hard to seperate the travelling daggy idea with the cool clothes i could buy and wear.....

Most of the week was filled with Spanish lessons study and bumbing around the hostel + a few journies at night to cool cafes etc. If I havent said it already this place is pretty cheap like the exchange rate is 45 australian cents to the peso and the room here costs 12 pesos and a bottle of wine costs 3 pesos..... so that can give you an idea... Dad you would love it here like Aldi but every shop is Aldi and cheaper!!!!

Played pool last night in what we realised after being there for about 5 minutes was a ´hooker bar´ie men go in have a few drinks, look at a woman they like, she comes over they dance and then they leave..... some crazy looking man/woman things there too....

Going to a carnival thing in the country today/tonight/early tomorrow morning so should be interesting....and Nick and I got our tickets to Patagonia last night. It´s a 19hr bus ride and that only gets us half of the way down all in all it will be like going from Adelaide to Darwin (about 3000km) and we still have to get back plus get to the Northern Hemisphere (Miami). I think the sheer size of the world will start to become apparent to us....

Keep well all and new photos have been added and will again be added on Tuesday night your time...

Chao

New photos...

Hey all just added a few new pics to the site...have been a bit lazy with the photo taking but will be getting back into the arty photo taking from now on. I am just about to head off to class and I havent done my homework....it feels like going to a uni tutorial without having done the tute work for the class...i feel that horrible guilty that accompanies not being concientious....oh well guess i will be Lucas whether in Australia or South America.

BTW - Had my first gym session in ages this morning, was great, know i am going to be in pain tomorrow....

Thoughts

Just thought I would let you know that I am starting to write some of my thoughts as they arise on this journey. They are just banter and relate to nothing profound nor enlightening rather me talking my usual rubbish. You are welcome to check them out. See the link under ´other´or go to http://lucas.intercate.net/thoughts/

The start of the ´real´ journey

Well I made it to Buenos Aires and with so little hastle I am thinking that I may be learning a thing or two about travelling on the way... This place is so different to Brazil in every aspect, even on the bus from the airport into the city Nick and I commented on how the flora looked so much like home and I got this funny feeling like a better understanding of why I love my home.....because of plants!!!! Strange reason to like a place hey, well maybe it´s more to do with climate as I have stopped sweating which trust me is GREAT!!!!

The place is positively charged with a pride that I never felt in Brazil...I think the contrast is that Brazilians eat, drink and screw...whilst Argentina´s sit at home for the first few hours of the night worrying about what they look like and then when they do go out (at about 12am) they spend the rest of the night worrying about what other people think about them, even those who do not know them (actually esp those who do not know them). Got this vibe from Nicks mate Pablo who showed us around last night. Great guy, really funny...showed us around the town and I got the impression he was ´showing the place off´ to us....and there was more than pride to it..... All I can say is I hope Australian´s dont continue down this road (we know we are on it, check out Sydney!) where image means so much and true substance so little..... ¨She´ll be right mate and all that¨....

Have decided to go down to all the different political buildings early tomorrow and check out all the PS´s (public servants for those not up with the lingo) going to work... Might sit at a little cafe and have a coffee and a few smokes and watch the political machine which is the PS in Argentina churn into gear. Also a good chance to see some Argentinian women in power suits...nice one!

Well could say more but with everythought comes to desire to go to the toilet but I havent seen any toilet peper here, so am a little concerned that in addition to being highly self concious Argentinians also have an aversion to toilet paper....and I don´t want to even guess what this means...maybe napkins are my only safe options. Why is it the toilets and the processes which surround them that bother me the most about different places.....

Stay well all and I should be adding new photos in a day or so.

Chao.

Last day in Brazil

Well my time in Brazil is coming to a close and I have to say that I do feel like leaving. The country is great and i have not even come close to scratching the surface here but the language has frustrated me no end. I am greatly looking forward to starting to learn Spanish in practice and finally starting on the road to being a true global citizen...so many people i have met speak atleast two languages and i have decided that when i have children they will learn two other languages, one asian language either japanese or mandarine and one romantic either french or spanish....

It was funny returning to Rio yesterday. One could even feel like it was like coming home in a sense. Nick and i realised last night how truely homeless we both are. Neither of us has a place to call home and both of us have all our gear safely stowed away at our parents houses. Well i may want to sound sentimental and a bit down about not having a place to call home (i still call australia home and all that jazz...) but to tell you the truth i love it! I havent felt this great about so little stability ever in my life. If i had the money i could do this all for much longer. Like tomorrow we head to Argentina and then begins the phase of our journey with no plans (we had tomorrows flight booked ages ago) and this flexibility in every aspect of ones life is what loures travels into getting the `travel bug`.... Well i love it and cant wait to wake up and say lets go to Cuba!

Keep in touch and and BTW I am better and will no longer be touching any local water unless i can see it melt off a 2000 year old glacier (which may be the case in patagonia).

We will most likely be starting our hike in about 1 to 2 weeks so if anyone wants to see the most beautiful place on earth (Dad...) youre all welcome to join but note we will be hiking hardcore so no softs allowed unless theyre happy to be left behind in the wilderness hahahahaha (only joking).

Chao.

Saquarema

Well we have finally gotten out of dingy hostels and are staying the nicest place right on the beach in Saquarema. It is such a nice change to be able to sleep without being in 100% humidy or being eaten alive by 1000 mosquitos. Went for my first surf in about 2 years yesterday and managed to get a barrel and in general was carving the waters of Brazil....too good!

I am currently on the verge of getting sick, cold sweats and all of that and am concerned that Nick and my drinking of the local water may be to blame....hmmmm not a wise move at the time hopefully we will escape unscaved. Let me just thank the power of Nuerofen Plus, feels so good will have to have some more tonight before i go to bed.

Managed to cut sick on the guitar yesterday and think i impressed a number of the locals and i have also started drawing again. I think one of the key things i want to get out of this journey is to start doing things to my potential again. Too much of my life i have been lazy and not done the things that i really wanted to maybe because they didnt work out straight away... well now i will be giving everything a go.

Also according to Nick part of the journey isu"unpacking" repressed memories.... Well I have been doing a lot of this over the past week. Not the most pleasant of processes but something that has to be done if i can ever become a well rounded healthy adult with no serious hangups.

All the best peoples and please try to email me i have been getting very little email of late and feel that you may have forgotten about me.....

Chao

Ten days in....

Well have made it into double figures for the journey and besides my desire for a comfortable bed all is going well.... Nick and I did a stock take of funds spent to date and it appears that we are on track if you remove the rip off rent we paid for our first two nights in Rio and the amount of money we have spent on alcohol and ´going´out in general, but we excuse ourselves due to this being the Brazilian and hence party phase of the journey.

Getting used to the Hostels has been interesting given that I have never stayed in any in the past but i think i am finally working out the way they work.... after two that is I´m sure they will be very different in Argentina and any other country we go to. But so far people have been friendly and very diverse. It´s funny when you start to realise that not many people are from Australia in the rest of the world and then you start to get a better idea of you place in the massive planet we live in.

I am currently in Buzios which is apparently meant to be the Cancun of South America but have yet to test the night life as I did not sleep yesterday night and when i arrived here yesterday i basically passed out dead in bed at 8pm and didnt rise again until 5am. Sleep missed over the past four days had caught up with me.

Rio was basically going out every night and spending the following day recovering but the nights out were all diverse. One night in a massive car park party, one at the local soccer match, one in an Irish Pub and one at a crazy big night club in a disused theatre. Last night was a night off (sleeping actually occured) and tonight well who knows....

Off to a place called Saquarema tomorrow which is meant to be very free of pollution with great beaches and fishing spots so that should be great. The only difficulty is getting there as no one hear speaks English and few speak Spanish..... Oh well we got here okay so I´m sure tomorrow will be okay as well. It´s amazing how things fall into place all of the time guess you just have to decide to do things to make things happen!

Hola todos

Well finally made it to Rio after 85 hours in airports and planes and have to say that never again will such an amount of travel will be done again in such a short period of time.... but hey it was worth it!

Loving this place and would recommend it to anyone and it is not as dangerous as people make out (although I am staying in a much less dangerous place that do exist in this massive city).

Plenty of stories to tell already too many to include in this post but the summary is:

Fires, midnight swims, pool games with local kids, hammocks in the mid day sun and Kava in Fiji.

Crazy, interesting, lovely people in airports, planes and all other modes of transport that have got me here.

Insane buses, massive parties, too much rum, beach D & Ms and crazy fruits being sold to us by randoms on the street in Rio....

Please keep in touch you all as I do miss you all and it´s nice to know that I have not been forgotten back home...

Chao.

The journey begins

Hello All,

Well we have finally begun the journey and have arrived in Nadi. The place is like a miny India, a mix of local Fijians and Indians who would consider themselves as locals too. We had our first "Kava Session" which involved drinking this muddy water out of a green plastic bowl (photo to come.....).

Also played pool with the locals and as per usual were offered another type of "session" back at a local's house....which we declined when we realised that the offerer was plying us with just a little too much Kava to make us feel comfortable.....

The play is humid as hell which is great from Nick as he grew up in Indo/Townsville but me with the hair and all well I'm sweating like a bomb and can't manage to shake the dank smell of a sweaty Arab, well guess I am a wog after all!

Going to the Coral coast this morning which will be much more picturesque than Nadi and can't wait. Will post soon.

LK