Into the heart of big red.

Last time we checked out travelers were in Beijing. The next stop was Datong to see the Cloud Ridge Caves. These caves contain over 50,000 Buddhist statues carved into the walls 1500 years ago. But first a little about getting to Datong.

We took the train. The trains in China are all circa 70's and feel circa 30's. There are usually four classes of travel, soft-sleeper (first class), hard-sleep, soft-seat and hard-seat. We had a hard-seat and it was. Getting to our car after walking past 20 other cars, this is the longest train I have ever seen, the seat numbers read 158, 157, 156... We thought we were in the wrong car till we walked to the end and found seats 5 and 6 (realizing there were over one hundred and fifty people in the car). With the windows closed up tight the cigarette smoking started as soon as the train pulled out. On our hard-seat there were three of us on a bench covered with green vinyl. Six hours later we arrived in Datong. We've upgraded to the soft-sleeper since as our journeys have been 18 hours. These are private cabins with four beds and both times we've had very kinda elderly couples as our cabin parters. Kathryn spent her second night ever on the top bunk and didn't fall out in the evening when she got up. The same can't be said for her first night at the top in Toyko.

Before we boarded the 18 hour train to Xian we stopped for lunch in Datong. The restaurant was a 'hotpot', (which we figured out a day later) and not really knowing what to order as the menu was all in Chinese the head waitress took over for us (thankfully). She ordered plates of thinly sliced beef, muchrooms, pork balls, squid (we think) and an assortment of side dishes. After that she cranked up the burner and started boiling the soy sauce (?) and vegetable broth. All the above went in. She took it out put it in a bowl of peanut sauce she had prepared for us and onto our plates. These are the moments you travel for. She would have none of our tipping and we were glad that we have at least learned the word for thank you which we said profusely as we left.

The 18 hour sleeper to Xian was a much better trip that our first train experience. In Xian we saw the Terracotta warriers. A highlight for both of us. We went to the Forest of Steles Museum which is the worlds heaviest library. There are over 2300 engraved stone tablets that are 4 feet wide by 10 feet tall and one foot thick. There's a tablet that marks the earlist known mention of Christianity in China in 781AD.

From here we moved on to Cheng Du and spent a day outside the city climbing the holy Taoist mountain of Qingcheng Shan. I can't say how many steps there were but it took us three hours to climb to the top. We took the cablecar down. It was great to spend a day outside the city and getting some exercise. The day before we rented bikes in Cheng Du and rode around the town. (the 'town' has 3.4 million people...this is small for China). Being on bikes again was great even though the bikes weren't that great. Two days later our butts still hurt. We moved up a notch in the traffic hierarchy as well, from pedestrian to bike rider. The car is at the top. Traffic here is a schizophrenic ballet. And of course we ended up out at rush hour. Imagine a crossroad...50ish bikes on one side and 50 on the other. The bike light goes green. The cars keep coming until the 100 bikers surging into the middle force them to stop. 100 bikes meet in a very confined space. chaos reigns but somehow everyone makes it across, slightly bumped and sounding their bell. but every now and then the bikes pass each other like teeth in a zipper doing up (to borrow laura's phrase) and it's pure poetry. Stopped for tea in the park, listened to music and watched some women practice the fan dance.

From here we moved on to Leshan by bus and felt like we'd arrived in a 'town' rather than a city. As we got off the town bus three boys 6 years old all wanted to say hi and walking home last night a girl about 5 wanted to talk with us after her mother had told her it was OK. She asked us if we spoke english, if we liked the NBA and did we know Yao Ming. The next morning we took the ferry ride to see the Grand Buddha carved in the side of a mountain. He's 71 meters high and has 7 meter long ears.

Today we arrived in Emei Shan to climb the sacred mountain for three days and then we'll make our way west towards Tibet and then down to the province of Yunnan.

We've been keeping some list and wanted to share some with you.

Food we've seen on a stick
- fruit covered in gelatin
- 1/4 pineapple
- strawberry's dipped in chocolate
- intricate designed sugar candy
- corn
- octopus
- starfish
- squid
- all sorts of unidentified meat cubes
- watermelon
- plantain

Food we've eaten on a stick
- strawberry's dipped in chocolate

Things we've seen carried on a bike (a pedal bike, not motor!)
- 2 T.V's
- baskets and baskets of flowers
- oildrum stove cooking corn, potatoes, chicken
- hot pot
- sofa and a side chair
- big slab of cake
- pregnant wife
- girlfriends, babies...basically all manner of people
- 3 people
- full jugs of water for water coolers
- propane tanks
- bushels of vegetables
- 50ish brooms
- bags and bags of plastic bottles stacked 4 feet high
- fridge
- bike repair shop
- and our favourite...a person holding his motorized scooter on his lap.

Things kirk has bumped his head on...
- Shower bar, Rio de Janeiro
- Bus bar, Rio de Janeiro
- another shower bar, Paraty brazil
- cave somewhere
- top of doorway, porthole - Navimag Ferry
- roof of hostel - top bunk Tokyo, Japan
- street sign - Beijing (ed comment: this was a doozie, surprised he didn't see stars!)
- door of variety store - Datong, China
- roof of sleeper in train - somewhere between Bejing and Xi'an
- window opening of train - somewhere between Xi'an and Chengdu
- bed light above bed on wall - Xi'an, china
- ceiling in stairwell - Chengdu, China
- bus ceiling - Cheng Du, China

off to find some dinner and get our packs ready for starting the hike tomorrow...

k and k

today we crossed 6 lanes of beijing traffic frogger style and didn't get squished

yes we're in china now! 27 hours of flying and we finally arrived (a little bleary eyed) in Tokyo and then a short 3 hour flight a couple days later to China. but first...to finish off Chile. Our last couple of days were a little tough going. being a foreigner in santiago is like walking around with a bulls eye. We were targeted 3 times (that we know of) for theft and the last time they were successful. Basically a group on the subway that pushed between and separated us and then as the doors opened pushed and shoved until I (kathryn) had to put my arms up for protection. in that instant my wallet was gone. I knew right away, in fact more or less knew while it was happening so could tell kirk. We got off and found Kirk's bag wide open but thankfully nothing gone. A little money, soccer tickets, and cards so fairly easy to fix. But we were definitely ready to get out of that city. Having to be on edge constantly was getting tiring.

Perhaps because of the Santiago chaos but Tokyo seemed like some surreal experience out of a science fiction novel. Spotlessly clean, beautiful, efficient, organized, friendly...all words that come to mind. Best summed up by our subway experience - a crazy mess of lines and stations but really incredibly user friendly with the maps and directions given. Marks on the wall indicate where the doors will open and people line up. Yes that's right...line up for the subway! and when the doors open they move to the side and let people out and then proceed to board.

Our visit in Tokyo was brief at just under 2 days but we'd decided to focus on China as it's much less expensive. We did have a great dinner at a small local restaurant. Thankfully a fellow patron spoke a little english and was able to help us get some chicken and vegetables. They asked why we'd come in this place (it was def off the tourist hub) and thought it hilarious when i told them "because we're hungry and people sitting in here must mean it's good".

Flew in to Beijing the night before the planned demonstration in Tianamen square (all to do with the current china/japan friction) but other than taking a little long at the border control it was pretty painless. The flight - what a treat! Personal screens with choice of movies, games, or music. Cameras on the outside of the plane to see what was going on. And tasty food! Sure beat the previous flight where they'd just kept the lights off and told us to rest for 27 hours.

We've been enjoying Beijing. Less sterile than Tokyo, much safer than Santiago and lots to see. Crossing the road is always interesting. The green walk signal comes on but... bikes, taxis, rickshaws, motorbikes, and cars turning right all seem to have the right of way so it's a 'every person for themself and meet you on the other side policy'.

Standing in Tianamen square on our first day was really awesome. The vastness of it and actually standing in it made the fact we're in China very real. The next day was the forbidden city - those emperors sure knew how to live! And yesterday we hiked the great wall from Jingshanling to Simitai. Steep ups and downs over bits that have been rebuilt as well as pieces that have been left in decay. A great experience and we really enjoyed getting out of the city and doing a hike. Today we made our way to the Summer Palace and then walked around a Hutong - a community where all the houses join together and lead into courtyards and communal space. Many of them are expected to be destroyed before the olympics, unfortunate as apparently 1/4 of the population lives in a Hutong.

Domestic tourism has taken off here so there are many chinese tourists. Foreigners seem to be a bit of a curiousity to them. Perhaps our size? Or we're the only ones wearing sandals? Anyway we've had our photo taken twice by the local tourists!

Tonight is our last night here before we move on to Datong which is a 6 hour train journey on a 'hard seat train'. We just stocked up on chocolate for the journey :)

One note about this blog - we can post but we can't see it or comments. We think it's because of restricted sites (similarily we can access lonely planet site but not the discussion forum). so if you have anything to say please email us :)

until next time...

Some photos and new post below.

Photo 1 - A Rainy Hike in Tierra Del Fuego
Photo 2 - Starting the trek in Los Glaciers National Park
Photo 3 - Yes we are as cold as we look!
Photo 4 - The glacier sighting
Photo 5 - Hiking towards Fitz Roy - that big peak in the background
Photo 6 - Fitz (that mammoth peak) and Kirk (that dot on the hill)
Photo 7 - Finally...gasp...the top...Torres Del Pain
Photo 8 - A river runs through it...Torres Del Paine that is
Photo 9 - View from the lunch spot (still Torres Del Paine)
Photo 10 - More Fitz
Photo 11 - Views & landscape from the hiking trail
Photo 12 - Hiking back from the Torres Del Paine peak
Photo 13 - Navimag - Our home for 4 nights
Photo 14 - Up in time to see the sunrise...who would have thought it possible?!
Photo 15 - So apparently El Calafate isn´t so much a town. Huh.
Photo 16 - Ground floor view of the volcano we climbed
Photo 17 - Black sand beach
Photo 18 - At the top of the active volcano
Photo 19 - The volcano says hi
Photo 20 - The Mapuche Ruka
Photo 21 - Getting the wool ready for weaving
Photo 22 - The pre-train chill
Photo 23 - Heavy police presence in Santiago
Photo 24 - Overlooking Santiago
Photo 25 - Really...is any title necessary?
Photo 26 - Taking in the Vuelta De Chile
Photo 27 - The Bilz Pap taste test
Photo 28 - The Pap Rocks!
Photo 29 - Soaking up the picnic
Photo 30 - Another day ends
Photo 31 - An Easter Island Moai statue now located in Valparaiso
Photo 32 - Oh yeah - I´m in the Pacific
Photo 33 - Dipping in the Pacific - not so warm
Photo 34 - Riding up the funicular
Photo 35 - Sunshine on top of self tanning lotion...good times
Photo 36 - Now that´s my kind of street sign

The Volcano speaks

It has been awhile so lets try to bring you up to speed quickly.

On March 29th we set out to climb the volcano in Pucon. It is called the Villarrica volcano but it is closer to Pucon. We left our hostel to catch a bus at 6:45am and the bus did arrive at 7 to pick us up (we were wondering about whether it would actually be there or not). Over to the main office in Pucon to be suited up and the dozen of us were off.

There was a large group of about 8 from Spain, three girls from Germany and an American mother who was doing the climb on her own while her husband stayed with the kids for the day (nice!). We got to know Jan pretty well during the day - she was down here with their 14 year old adopted son from Chile.

It took about an hour to drive to the start of the hike which was at about 1400m above sea level. Here we took a ski lift up to 1800m where we started the hiking with about 5 other groups also doing the climb that day. The first half hour consisted of climbing though volcanic rock that became more granular the higher we went and the steeper the slope became. At 2000m we took a 30 minute break - everyone had a big drink and took a couple of layers of fleece off.

The next portion took us up to 2400m which we covered in a little less than an hour and there were a number of people that would have done the stint in two segments if they had the choice. One of the girls from Spain had to stop for about 20 minutes as the altitude was getting to her a bit and another girl from Germany wasn´t having too good a time of it. At the rest stop she noted that she thought she was in better shape than this but I think the altitude affects different people in different ways and at different times as well.

The next portion was on snow and I thought during the break the guide would tell everyone to put on the crampons we had all been carrying. But that wasn´t the case. He just said lets go, gave a a short schpiel on how to stop ourselves with the ice axe if we fell and started sliding down the mountain.

We climbed through the snow for about 40 minutes and then through volcanic rock for about another 15 minutes before the top. Just before reaching the top we could hear a thunderous noise, felt a little rocking and looked up on the crest of the top to see particles in the air along with a lot of smoke. This happened a couple more times before we reached the top. When we did our guide said the volcano was particularly active today. Kathryn was sure they had poured too much baking soda in that morning, and he didn´t want to take us over to the windward side.

We looked around for about half an hour, had some lunch and watch lava spew out the crater which was receeded within the ringed top about 20 meters. The smell of sulpher was pretty stong and could have become overpowering if we were on the windward side. A look out of the eastern side to see the volcanos and mountain tops in Argentina and it was time to head down.

We had read in the brochure that ´we´d start sliding down at 3pm´ and thought the ´sliding´was a mis-translated word. When we got back to the snow area we were given a short instruction on how to slow ourselves with the ice axe and how to stop ourselves if we got going to fast. There was a half cyclinder depression in the snow that you sat in and then yoú´d push off and start sliding down on your ass. This was no mis-translation.

The first descent was about 100 vertical meters. Not too bad and you never got going too fast. OK this is going to be fine. The next one started with the curve in the first part of the descent and as soon as you went around the curve you suddenly went from slowing yourself to trying to stop yourself. Every so often your axe would catch a piece of ice just under the snow and either the axe would be pulled out of your hands or your shoulder would be pulled out the socket. Kathryn opted for the former and leaving her ice axe at the top she slid the rest of the way free form.

Two more sliding descents and I decided it was easier and drier to walk down rather than slide anymore. By this point it was only a couple more minutes and we were back on rock. We descended to the chairlift, which wasn´t operating any more, and made our way back to the bus in about an hour.

After the drive back to the office to drop off our gear we were ready for them to call the bus to take us back. He called the other office said sorry they can´t send the bus, ít´s impossible´. A little chat about the fact the we´d already paid for the service and we just decided to take the town bus back. We got back to the cottage about 8pm, had dinner and went to bed early.

and some other stuff...

- had some fun chatting with a bunch of 11 year old school girls who called out "hable ingles?" (do you speak english) as we walked by. i glanced back and about 8 of them came running over. they just wanted to know where we were from and talk to us and were thrilled when kirk pulled out his camera. gave them each a canada pin which they put on their school uniforms and gave us each the traditional kiss on the cheek good bye.

- hung out for half a day in a mapuche (native) community. sat in the ruka (traditional hut), shared mate (a tea like drink), ate sopipillas cooked over the open fire and walked around their grounds. was a little limited as our spanish language skills aren´t really up to a full on discussion about their way of life. but we learned a bit about their community, land, and traditions.

- took the overnight train to santiago. paid to upgrade to reclining seats and it was the sweatest peach. not exactly full-on sleep but not bad for overnight travel.

-in santiago we´ve witnessed the crowds gathering as it was clear the pope was at the end. caught the last stage in the cycling - ´vuelta de chile´. been through a couple of art museums. spent a couple of days in the beach towns on the pacific coast. and tonight we´re heading out for some live jazz.

- bought sunscreen and 2 days later discovered it was actually self-tanning bronzing lotion. as a liberal user of sunscreen kathryn now has lovely orange splotches and kirk is definitely on the bronzed side (thankfully not as red as in the shrimp dinner photo!)

tomorrow is wine tasting and sunday is hopefully catching a soccer game. and then off to china (via tokyo).

ciao for now!