Patagonia, Buenos Aires

I am currently in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It has been a busy past couple of weeks. I only spent about a week in Chile since I was in a time crunch to meet my parents in Buenos Aires. In Chile I stayed in Santiago for a couple of days and then took a three day trip to visit Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, Chile. They are coastal towns with houses built all down the mountains leading into the sea. Valparaiso was a bit run down, but had a lot of charm whereas Viña was much more well kept, but a bit cold feeling. I was in fact suffering from a bit of a cold while in Chile, most likely due to the bitterly cold temperatures in the Andes on the way there.

Arriving finally in Buenos Aires, I was blow away with how pretty the city was. I have to say that it is the most developed city I have seen in all of Latin America. Along with my parents we walked through almost every corner of the city noticing that every part seems to have a different architectural inspiration. We stayed at a very nice hotel in Recoleta, certainly much different from what I have been used to for the past 2.5 years. I had compiled a list of restaruants from people who had been here previously and we hit most of them. The steaks here are unparallel to anything I have ever had before, out of the last 10 days, I think I have had about 10 steaks. We did some of the touristy things like go to a Tango show. It was a dinner and show with about 2 hours of tango dancing, five different acts displaying the history of tango. Another interesting event was going to a Professional fúbol (soccer) game, Argentina vs. Paraguay. The game ended at 1 - 1, which was a bit anticlimactic, but still incredible. Argentinians are serious about their soccer and upon entering the arena you worry that you may be crushed to dealth.

I would have to say that the highlight of Argentina thusfar was going to Patagonia. We stayed in a place called Madryn which is located on the east coast of Argentina. There is a protected wildlife reserve called the Valdez Penninsula which we spent two days circumnavigating. Among elephant seals, sea lions and other land critters we were lucky enough to see Southern Right Whales and a Killer Whale tearing apart whatever it had just killed. The right whales were amazing, they were enormous and came within feet of our glorified raft. The killer whales were from more of a distance, but equally spectacular. Killer whales were out of season, so it was rare to see them at all. I was suprised that the eastern coast of Patagonia is a flat semi desert. The weather held out for us, in fact for the most part I have been lucky with weather. I am on the last leg of the journey, only two more weeks until I am back in the States. Until next time.

Uyuni Salt Flats

I am currently in Santiago, Chile via Uyuni, Bolivia. I had an opportunity to take a 3 day jeep trek through the salt flats of Bolivia as well as the San Pedro de Atacama desert in Chile. Day one began in the early afternoon. The crew contained a driver, cook and 6 tourists including myself. Two of the people I was with I had been traveling with since Lima, Peru for the past 2 weeks, so I knew it was going to be a good time. We headed to the salt flats and I was blown away by how huge it was. It is apparently 12,ooo sq km in size and all solid white salt, it is the remains of an ancient salt lake. Without sun glasses it was a blinding experience, fortunately I was well equipped. The most interesting thing is that there is no point of reference in terms of distance, so it is a fun place to take pictures, people in the distance just look like small people. There was a town which processed the salt, albeit very rudimentary, as well as all the buildings are made out of salt blocks. Now I love salt, but I think this was a bit overkill. Cruising through the flats we blew a tire and swerved a bit before coming to a stop. The following day was mainly driving, blew a second tire. We passed by several lagoons which has several species of flamingoes, I clearly could not tell them apart, I think it is just a farce. An interesting part of the day was seeing strange rock formations in the middle of the desert. The wind and sand eat away at the bottoms of boulders moreso than the tops, leaving rocks looking like trees and mushrooms. That night was fairly painful. We spent the night at about 4600 meters or 13800 feet. The temperature dipped well below freezing to about 12 degrees F. I had on a shirt, fleece, coat, gloves, hat, 2 prs pants, 2 prs socks, sleeping bag, and two fleece covers and I was still freezing my ass off. The next morning we went to see geysers and thermal baths in the middle of the desert, I decided that I was not interested in stripping down and swimming as ice crunched under my feet, I will leave that for people who are completely insane. We finished the third day seeing a green and red lagoon, due to the type of algae and then got dropped off at the Chilean boarder. The ride into Chile was certainly noteworthy as well, we decended about 2000 meters (6000 feet) in about 40 minutes. The road was unnecessarily steep and had emergency runoffs every 500 feet in case someones brakes gave way. All in all it was a worthwhile trip. Well until next time.

O

Peru, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca

I am currently in La Paz, Bolivia. It has been a very eventful last week and a half since my last post. Well I spent a couple of day in Lima, I have to admit that I was not all that impressed by the city. I made my way to Cuzco, Peru which is home to all the famous ruins of the Incas. For three days I visited various ruins ending in the pinnacle of seeing Machu Picchu. Even with all the hype, it stands up to impress. I did some serious mountain hiking as well, climbing a 700 meter mountain and a 650 meter one the following day. Both of these mountains surrounded Machu Picchu which gave a great birdseye view of the ruins. This was one of my major things to do on this trip, like Christmas as a kid, it passes too quickly. The next trip was to visit Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America. On the Peruvian side is Puno. The most interesting thing about Puno are the people who live on floating islands. They are made out of boyant reeds, in fact everything that is on the island is made of reeds, such as the houses, boats, watch towers ground etc. It was certainly unique.

Making my way into Bolivia was an experience. In my travel book it says that entrance visas are free, well this changed 4 months ago and is now 135 dollars, among having a list of things to complete before you enter. I had to bribe the official to overlook my unpreparedness. Our president strikes again in pissing off yet another country, so it´s citizens have to pay for it. In fact U.S. citizens are the only country that have to pay anything to enter Bolivia. I have to say that when I was told this I was embarrassed, we are really not held in very good reguards around the world.

In Bolivia I began in a town called Copacabana which has majestic views of lake Titicaca. I did run into problems originally since the town does not have ATMs. I was down to my last 2 dollars in cash when I was able to have a bank give me an advance on a debit card, I was seriously concerned that I would be in deep doodoo on that one, but disaster averted. All is well and I have been pretty healthy. Until next time

Ecudor and Peruvian Boarder

I am currently in Lima, Peru. I spent about a week in Ecuador checking out the city of Quito as well as the southern central part. While in Quito I met up with some friends, one of which was from Quito, who knew the city much better than I. One of the highlights was going to the ¨midad del mundo¨ which is the equator. Apparently a few years ago, due to GPS they realized that they had been about 200 meters off in what they had thought to be the equator. They had built a park and a monument marking the ¨line¨, but in fact it is not correct. Well we went to the current ¨real¨ line and saw all the spectacular occurrences that come with it. You can balance an egg on a nail; they show you how water drains on the line, as well as north and south of the line. I am not sure if it was a trick, but sure enough it does go down in different directions. It was a wonderful tourist trap. I spent the next few days heading south on my route to Peru. A couple of towns really I thought were pretty. Alausí is a town where a train leaves to trudge down the Nariz de Diablo ¨devil´s nose¨. It is a series of switchbacks along a cliffs edge that are quite terrifying. From Alausí I headed to Cuenca. This was a really pretty city, smaller than Quito, but certainly more charming. Crossing the boarder to Peru was a bit nerve racking. There is a bit of a racket with fake money being changed. The fake money changers work with some of the corrupt police in that they will change your money and then a police officer will ask to see the money you changed, tell you its fake and take it from you, god forbid they go directly to the source of the fake money. Well knowing this I only change money at banks. I was stopped by an officer and told he wanted to search my bag for fake money, to which I replied that if he wanted to search me we had to go to the police station so there would be more witnesses, he promptly sent me on my way. Once in Peru I took a 21 hour bus ride to Lima. Sitting anywhere for 21 hours really tests your sanity, not to mention the man pushing 350 pounds sitting next to me. It was an amazing ride though through the desert of western Peru. I had expected peru to be much more lush, but the entire west coast is a baren desert. It is beautiful how the desert ends right into the pacific ocean. Well until next time.

Cartagena, Colombia

Against most advice I decided to go to the most dangerous country in South America, Colombia. After spending a few days here, I am not sure how it has such a poor reputation. I have been spending the last few days in Cartagena, Colombia, which is on the Northeastern coast of Colombia. It is country steeped in history and it is considered Colombia´s historical gem. Pablo Ecobar threatened to level it in 1989 with 500 tons of dynamite, for retaliation of the government clamping down on his drug trade. I was able to spend two days just walking up and down the streets of the old city, every turn was a postcard. The whole city is surrounded by a solid stone wall to keep out pirates back in the 16th and 17th century. Joined by the shipmates I had from Panama we scoured the city. During the days walking around and in the nights sitting out in the squares drinking rum and watching street performers. One square in which we frequented was originally the square where slaves were bought and sold, I kind of felt bad laughing and drinking there.

On one of my walking days I came across barracaded streets and all kinds of army and military personel. I wandered over to where all the comotion was and stumbled into where Alvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia was walking out of one meeting to head to another. I was able to get within 3 feet of him and got a decent picture. I could not image me just wandering up to where George Bush was and have no one question me. It was just a random circumstance of right place right time. Tomorrow I am heading to Quito, Ecuador. Until next time.

Panama Canal and Sailing to Colombia

I left the last entry in Panama City, but I had not seen the Canal by that point. I spent a day at the Miraflor locks. I was fortunate enough to see a couple of cargo ships go through the locks. The sheer size of it all was humbling. The ships are 300 feet by 1050 feet and hold thousands of of truck size containers. I could go into the engineering of the locks, but I will refrain. What I would like to spend some time sharing is an amazing sailing trip I took from Panama City to Cartagena, Colombia. I left last thursday the 24th of July and did not arrive in Colombia until today the 31st of July. I was joined by 7 other tourists on a 40 foot sailboat called the Wind Surfer. Our captain, a 23 year old Colombian named Tilson. Our first leg was from Panama City to the San Blas Islands. These are islands off of the west coast of Panama and are not included on most maps. They are owned and controlled by the Kuna tribe and are much like the indian reserves of the US. They live in sugar cane cabanas and their only mode of transportation is a dugout canoe. The San Blas Islands are a collection of 375 islands which a single family can inhabit for 3 months and then they must switch islands. None of them are owned by foreigners, in fact foreigners are not allowed to even rent them. We spend four days there and spend the night on our sailboat. They were some of the most pristine beaches I have ever seen. One night we were treated by a Kuna family to a lobster and crab dinner which they had spent the whole day catching. It was a scene right out of survivor. I and my travel companions were eating by lantern in a sugarcane hut, breaking the shells with whatever hard object we could get our hands on. Well the difficult part of the journey was a 50 hour straight shot from San Blas Islands to Cartagena. Now just to place some emphasis, this is over two days of straight sailing, without stopping. Well we started of well, getting great time and enjoying ourselves. Then the wind died. We were stranded somewhere in the carribean sea, motionless. Fortunately our luck changed and we got moving again. There was a bit of a storm on our last leg with the boat rocking so profoundly that it was impossible to get any sleep, in fact a wave crashed into the side of our boat and my open window was turned into a water tunnel into my cabin. On a positive note I did get a chance to see several groups of dolphins and flying fish as well as some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets that I have seen in my life. Arriving in Cartagena, finally after 7 days of poor nights sleep as well as my only showers being swimming in the salt water, it was a godsend. It is such a beautiful city, the old town looks straight from a movie set. I will have more time in the next few days to see more of it. Until next time.

A man a plan a canal panama

Much has happened in the last week, I will try to keep it succinct though. Last time I had written I was in San Jose, Costa Rica. Well my next stop was Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. This is located on the south eastern corner of Costa Rica. According to the travel book it is "a laid back beach town where anything more than surfing or laying on the beach is considered overly ambitious." Once there I have to admit that I was dissapointed. The town had a seedy feel and my friend and I immediately thought we would leave the following day. On a whim we decided to walk down the solid coral, depressing beach in search of better pastures. To our amazement as we turned bend an immense expanse of beach with crashing waves opened before us. Immediately we did a 180 and decided to stay a couple of nights. We certainly took advantage of the beach as well as the waves, body surfing.
Next on the itinerary was Boca del Toro in Panama. This is located on the north eastern part of the country. Its an archipeligo (a chain of islands), each with it's own personality. We stayed on the main island which was called Isla Colon, mainly because it has the best night life and restaurants. We spent the first night enjoying the 50 cent beers and getting to know some of the other travelers. Yada Yada Yada, large headache the next day. Taking a water taxi we visited another island and spent the day laying around a beautiful, private beach. What I neglect to mention is that to get to this beach you have to take a 30 minute hike through mud upto your calves, the only way to make it is to go at it barefoot, which got quite slippery. I am not sure that many beaches would be worth it, and this was barely so.
Today I have just arrived in Panama City. We crossed the Panama canal to get to the bus station, I will be checking that out in more detail in the coming days. I will hopefully be able to get some pictures up here is a few days. Until next time.

Travels have begun, Corn Island and San Jose

I would like to apologize that my writing style has diminished. I do not have a computer so I am writing these in internet cafes, not exactly an inspiring locale. I am currently in San Jose, Costa Rica, I finished with the Peace Corps in Nicaragua on July the 8th. The first leg of the journey took me to Corn Island. These are islands on the Caribbean side (East Coast) of Nicaragua. It is much different than the west coast counterpart. For one thing they speak creole English. The people are of African decent. There are two islands, Big Corn and Little Corn. The big one is mainly a fishing village and much more developed. The highlight of the trip though was Little Corn Island. It was like a deserted island. It is less than 1 mile long and about .5 miles wide. There are about 450 residents and no cars nor roads on the island. I am traveling with another Peace Corps volunteer named David and we rented a cabana about 20 feet from the waters edge. It was so peaceful, almost too much so. There is little to do on the island, other than swim, drink beer, eat, and lay around and that is what we did for 3 days straight. It is the rainy season right now, so it pretty much rains every day. Fortunately we at least had a half a day of sunshine and then it would get overcast leading into torrential downpours. I have to say that I got a little nervous when the winds would pick up that the waves would crash over our cabana, but it never got that bad. After a few days we got a little sick of paradise and decided to move on. Flying back to the capital of Nicaragua, Managua, in the middle of a storm on a little prop engine plane is not an enjoyable experience. I will never trust those little things. Spending the night in Managua, we woke up early to catch our 10 hour bus ride into San Jose. Once arrived we decided to enjoy the local cuisine of Taco Bell. It has been over 2 years since I enjoyed one of America's greatest achievements. It had been a long day sitting on a bus and we were not up for much adventure, so we found a local bar and decided to have one beer before getting some sleep. Well it wasn't long before the locals got curious with the strange gringos and began to buy us beers so that they could sit down and talk with us. One guy in particular would have been an unbelievable character in a play or movie. I had noticed him dancing by himself earlier with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Well he pulled up a chair at our table and switched from an unintelligible babble, to handshakes, to hugs, to deep screeching cackles. Still now, in the morning, I can smell his cologne on me. He was a very nice character, but I don't think I have ever consumed a beer faster so I could get out of there. Today I am to explore the city of San Jose. Until next time.

My Nicaraguan Exit Interview

This was published in the quarterly magazine for Peace Corps Nicaragua. It is a publication written for volunteers by volunteers. Filling this out also means that my service is coming to an end. I can not believe that it has been two years. I am due to leave here in July.
1) Name: Oliver Dunn
2) Site: Somoto, Madriz
3) Nicknames: Chele (whitey), Profe (Professor), Oliver Cann, Oliver Garza
4) Favorite Dicho (saying): “Que me la vaya bien” (“Go well for me”), why am I going well for you? , “Si dios quiere” (If God wants it”), a great way to not have to do anything, apparently God didn’t want it.
5) Any advice on dating a Nica? If you get more attention here then you did in the states, then I am sure it is true love.
6) What did you do during your service? Helped build Primary Schools, Tried to teach kids to think originally, Tried to help restaurants with their business, traveled all over Nicaragua. Read tons of books.
7) If you could change one aspect of your service what would it be? I did it pretty much the way I thought I would and wanted to.
8) What will you miss? Having so much free time to relax, read, write, reflect, and hang out. I will certainly miss being able to get sauced off of $5.
9) What would BRING YOU BACK to Nicaragua? If I receive the following phone call within my lifetime: “Oliver, this is Danny Ortega calling. We have a bit of a situation. Nicaragua, as you are well aware, is going through some growing pains. Well, as it turns out the Nicaraguan people have banded together to develop their tourism trade by organizing themselves and their resources. We have decided it is about time that Costa Rica stop taking all of the tourists in Central America. The reason I am calling you is that your President has made me aware that you are well versed in this field. In fact you are the only person in the world who can make this happen. Without you there will never be a possibility for Nicaragua to reach “developed nation” status. The future of Nicaragua, its culture and people rest on you. We are willing to pay you whatever it takes for you to lend us your services. Please, please, come back to Nicaragua to help us. You are our last hope, without you we will surely fall.” So yeah if I received this phone call then I would at least flip a coin, heads being that I come back.
10) Your most pinche (cheap) moment? I lived 2 weeks on 500 cords ($25) to see if I could do it, I guess this is not that big of a feat for an Agriculture Volunteer, what do you people spend your money on?
11) How has the PC changed you? I will certainly be much nicer to and more patient with people who can not speak English very well. I have even more of an appreciation for the US then I already had. I am much more realistic on the effectiveness of “development work”.
12) Favorite Nica food or drink? Gallo Pinto (Rice and Beans) with Ketchup, Tacos with ketchup and cream, Fresco de Naranja (Fresh Squeezed orange juice).
13) Most random care package item? A box of baby wipes, however they came in handy.
14) How many times did you have to poo in a cup? Never, I am the bionic man, I imagine all the lead and arsenic I had in my local drinking water helped me.
15) Best/worst memory? My best memories were the times I spent with other volunteers, too many to count. My worst memory was almost dying when a truck I had hired nearly fell off a cliff when the brakes gave out.
16) Bus stories? A fond memory I have riding a bus was when a friend and I rode on top of one. We were heading to a rural mountain community and we took turns passing a bottle of rum and coke, while dodging the low laying branches and power lines. The views just kept getting better. (If this is not permitted then I was just making it up, but I did have a helmet on.)
17) Most embarrassing moment? It was kind of embarrassing coming back to site after the two consolidations during the threats of hurricanes. It never got worse than a torrential drizzle in my site and they could not understand why I had to be emergency evacuated.
18) Would you do it all over again? If I were to be transported back two years, I would do it again. That is to say I am glad that I did it. Would I do another 2.25 years after this? Ni quiere a dios (Even god wouldn’t want it).
19) Did you ever think about quitting? Never seriously, the idea of working 10 hour days, having to wake up at 6am, and sitting at a desk seemed worse.
20) Conveniences/commodities/creature comforts you missed the most? Choices at a bar, food from all over the world, being surrounded by people who “get you”, peace and quiet, not having to cross my fingers every time I eat, warm showers, not being bored out of my mind, not being asked for money or visas every day, common courtesy….shall I continue?
21) What's next? Travel through South and Central America for as long as the readjustment allowance allows. I suppose after that I will look for a job that I can make a lot of money so that I can buy a bunch of crap to make myself feel better about all the time I spend at work. Have a family, sacrifice for my children so that they can have more than I did growing up. Have them grow up to be unappreciative, resentful and tell me how I ruined their lives. Eventually retire, move to an old folks home, have my mind slowly slip away and call my family, who only come to visit twice a year out of guilt, the wrong names. Sit staring out of a window muttering nonsense to myself and then one day become mulch.
22) Advice for remaining volunteers? If given a choice, most people would not choose to do this. Don’t let someone make you feel guilty for not doing enough. Do what you need to do to keep your head. Make sure you keep a good sense of humor about things.
23) Parting words: Roses are red, violets are blue, you’re still in Nicaragua, sucks for you! Thanks for the memories.

Development Work in the 3rd World

Visions of poor naked children playing in the dirt usually come to mind when one thinks of the 3rd world. Houses made of mud brick, straw or corrugated tin roofs dominate the landscape. Well this is not too far off, but certainly not the rule. There are disparities in wealth just as we have the in the United States, the most wealthy nation in the world. We certainly have all of the modern conveniences at our finger tips, if we have the means to take advantage of it. Often there is a bit of guilt for the people who have “everything”, and our benevolent conscious grips us when we see the commercials about what 20 cents a day can do if we were only to make the phone call to pledge this meager tithe. Millions of people around the world do try to help by donating tens of millions of dollars worth of money, clothes and food. Clearly it is the duty of humanity who can afford it to be socially responsible. It is not as if one chooses at conception where they wish to be born, into what family, or socio economic level. There has been a lot of good done and a plethora of good to be done.
The problem that seems to exist though is that the inefficiencies in development work are such that no person in their right mind would invest in a public company with similar practices. In effect that is what we are doing when we put money into a development project, investing. The goal is not to see financial returns, but rather to see that people are better off than before.
Currently countless dollars are poured into projects that do not have clearly defined goals and objectives. Many religious groups are to blame for this fact. They think that to give gifts are the way to better an underdeveloped nation. This has created a culture of the open palm. People will wait around for years for someone to rebuild buildings, roads, bridges, schools, homes, latrines, wells etc. There are very few non governmental organizations (NGOs) that will teach people how to do the work that will offer them the opportunity to better their own lives.
What is happening is that the open palms have replaced people willing to break a sweat. It is much easier for both parties to throw money at a problem, but never effective. How can people in developing nations be trusted with lump sums of money? Clearly they have not learned the skill of using it to grow and develop or else they would not be in the predicament they are in. Government officials in the US are corrupt; do we honestly think that they would not be here?
An issue that I have seen is that there are too many NGOs. They tend to overlap in many areas and think it beneficial to reinvent the wheel at every step. Understandably they have to have something to sell the investors, but why aren’t there NGOs who are able to direct finances towards programs that exist and have proven effective. How many different English programs are needed? This is the case in most niches of development work. Everyone want to have their name stamped on a product and none of them are very good products. It seems that the type of people who go into development work are scattered. They may begin with an idea and then see need in other areas as well. They then try to reach 6 or 7 different issues and do then all poorly. Could any company be effective if they begin making bicycles and then see the need for t-shirts, bubble gum, couches, light bulbs and cement? Possibly with the work force of the US government this would be possible, but in the real world this is not efficient.