Knysna To Storms River

 HSBC Nightmare

I got a call from one of the managers of the supermarket where the ATM had eaten my card.  He said that the ABSA woman was there, opening the ATM.  So, I arrived there within 5 minutes and saw a blond woman kneeling at the opened machine and between me and her was a guy with a bullet-proof jacket, a pistol and a machine gun, ready to shoot anyone who stole any milk or bread.  In all seriousness, he was with the lady from the bank.  As I approached, he spoke to me in Afrikaans so I told him I didn't understand.  He said in English to stand back.  The lady showed me my card and the date had expired at the end of Jan.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  How could I have overlooked this?  I usually get a card automatically a couple of months before an existing one expires.  In fact, I had told HSBC that I was coming here and they didn't issue one for me before coming, and I forgot about the date of the card.  So, it was a total mess-up!  Anyway, this lady told me that she had to destroy my card because it had expired.  I told her not to do it because I still needed the card to refer to when contacting HSBC.  She said she would take it to the nearest bank branch and it would be up to them to decide if it should be destroyed.  So, I headed to the bank and asked to speak to the bank manager.  The bank manager ushered me into her office and I explained my situation.  She asked for my passport and went away and came back with my card, asked for a release signature and let me have it, untouched.  I ended up speaking to her for an hour about life, her involvement in her local community through her church, and many other interesting things.

I managed to find an internet place and Skyped HSBC and they at first said they would not send a card to me in South Africa so I reminded them that they had let me down.  My relationship manager agreed to send it to an address that I was staying at in Cape Town so when I return there, the card should have arrived.

Hostel Nightmare

I was staying at a hostel off the main road in Knysna for a couple of nights.  At the same time as my arrival, 3 German lads arrived and were in my room, as well as an Australian girl and her guy cousin, an Israeli guy called Lior, and a German beauty called Steff.  They were all in their early to mid 20s.  One of the German lads, Basti, the Israeli guy, and the Australian guy, Mike, were all trying to get the attention of Steff.  She was loving the limelight.  The Australian girl, Ashleigh, was making a move on Basti, the German.  Then Susan, another German girl arrived and Lior made a move on her.  Another Australian girl made a bee-line for Mike, the Australian guy.  It was all a soap opera.

At 3.30am I was woken up by a bunch of people laughing and talking loudly outside my window.  They were clearly drunk.  I couldn't believe my ears.  The person talking and laughing the loudest was the hostel manager. I got up to go out and have it out with them when I saw the hostel manager come inside to use the toilet.  I asked him to turn it down and he apologized, but after 10 minutes of quiet talk, the noise level went back to what it was.  At 4.30 they all decided to call it a night, so I thought that silence had finally arrived.  Next thing, Ashlee, the Australian girl came into the room and straight into the bed with Basti, the German lad.  But I was determined not to be distracted from my sleep so proceeded to sleep.  But, the American guy across the way in another lower bunk started snoring his head off.  I tugged at his pillow and he stopped.  Then he started again until I tugged his pillow once again.  I fell asleep, but was awoken by his loud snoring again.  I turned to tug his pillow but instead of seeing his head, I saw his feet.  I guess he must have manoeuvred himself so that I wouldn't be able to tug his pillow anymore.  So, I hardly slept that night, and in the morning, I got out of there as soon as I could, vowing not to stay in another hostel for as long as I could.

Crazy Drive to Storms River

Just before Plettenburg, I passed a township which was next to the main N2 highway.  There was a mini riot going on, and some people had set fire to tyres and had thrown them into the highway so the police had closed the road and created a detour.  I drove through Plettenburg and somehow back onto the N2 again.  The weather was non-stop rain and low cloud, so bad visibility.  I arrived at the tolls and had to pay 35 Rand which is GBP 3 or US$ 4.50. 

Highest Bungee Jump In The World

On the way, I stopped at the Bloukrans Bungee Jump which at 216 meters high, is apparently the highest in the world, off this bridge called Bloukrans.  The owner there makes GBP 4.5 million per year from lunatics throwing themselves off this bridge and paying around GBP 90 for the jump and a dvd.  I asked one of the people working there how much it would cost to jump without a rope.  He said it would be free.  But I guess if you don't like it, you can't get your money back.

Storms River

This hamlet is surrounded by beautiful a forest called Tsitsikamma.  I am staying in a wonderful guesthouse called Armagh, named after the birthplace of the co-owner.  She and her husband built this place in 1994 and have added a nice touch to it.  I was determined to have a couple of good nights of peaceful rest, away from the hectic hostel mayhem.  I was thinking for some reason that I was one of the first people from my part of the world to have stumbled across this area.  In the dining room of this guesthouse, there are hundreds of business cards stuck to the walls.  I had a quick browse at some of them and was really surprised to see one from someone working for Barclays in The City in London, another working for American Airlines at Gatwick, another from a guy who works for my local VW garage in Hammersmith, and most surprising of all, the Assistant Press Officer for Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall, at Clarence House.

 Walk To The Waterfall

I drove a few miles down the road and entered Tsitkikamma National Park and parked my car, then proceeded to walk across to the waterfall.  The sign did say that the walk is difficult, and at first it was lovely and green and full of vegetation.  But then it became very rocky and full of jagged boulders that were steep at the edges and difficult to cross.  To my amazement, this couple passed me with a 6 month old baby that the man was holding in his arms.  Either they were acrobats in the circus and were good at juggling and balancing, or they were just nuts.  Not sure how the baby survived that ordeal.

800 Year Old Yellow Wood Tree

Just down the road from here is an enormous tree and is 800 years old.  It is just mesmerizing to look at.  I highly recommend seeing it if you are here.

Cape Town To Knysna

Carhire Nightmare

I was trying to hire a car with comprehensive insurance cover but the companies here would not offer it and neither would the brokers.  I was spending a considerable amount of time and money calling various companies and reading their small prints.  I even tried to ask the representatives of the companies to explain their complex terms but most of them didn't know what they meant either.  I finally contacted a UK carhire broker called Travel Jigsaw/Carhire 3000 and a very helpful guy at the other end, based in Manchester, UK, answered all my questions, and arranged for me to pick my car up from Thrifty at Cape Town airport, with full insurance cover.  When I arrived, I got a free upgrade and was on my way.

Garden Route

The drive from Cape Town along N2 highway is quite dramatic, with lots of mountainous terrain and valleys.  Rather arid though but quite scenic.  The drivers are quite courteous.  They pull to the side, in the UK well call it the hard shoulder, and let you pass.  In the UK and elsewhere, you would have a battle on your hands to get past anyone, but not here.

The Southernmost tip of Africa, where 2 Oceans Meet (Atlantic and Indian)

Cape Agulhas is quite a unique part of the world, and the views of the oceans are quite spectacular.   Near land, the water is light blue or emerald colour and further out they become darker blue.  There is a lighthouse at Cape Agulhas which you can climb up.  The panoramic view is absolutely breathtaking.  The hostel/backpackers was really nice and chilled out.  It has a pool in the courtyard and a nice lounge and bar area and cool music.  The main benefit of staying in hostels/backpackers is socialising and meeting people.  I visited a very down to earth restaurant by the water called The Pelican and had a very tasty fish called Cob (not Cod).  I highly recommend it.

Mossel Bay

The drive from Cape Agulhas to Mossel Bay was quite an adventure and the vista around was awesome.  The heat was quite strong, so I was glad to have airconditioning in the car.  At Mossel Bay, I saw a sign for a backpackers and turned up.  The guy managing it showed me around and what an incredible place.  It was a Victorian style mansion with beautiful wooden floors.  The garden had lots of plants and water fountains.  Some had large fish in them.  The only problem was trying to sleep at night with all the noise being made by croaking frogs outside.  There was a fish restaurant called Kingfisher by the harbour.  I had a fish called Kingklip, which was a chunky white fleshed fish similar to Cod but more delicious.   It was incredible!

Knysna

This little town is quaint and laidback place, full of good restaurants and cafes.  Knysna has a harbour and has hills surrounding it.  I arrived here 3 days ago and the weather turned for the worst.  It has been raining continuously since then and the temperature has cooled considerably.  I was in another hostel the first night, but it was dirty and they had crammed as many beds into dorm rooms as they could.  The people running it were very friendly though.  I am now in a better hostel.  I decided to buy my own pillow so I visited the nearby shopping centre and bought a down + duck feather pillow, which feels great.  Only problem is, not sure how I am going to take it back to the UK with me. 

ATM Ate My Card

Yesterday, I was trying to take money out of an ABSA bank ATM machine inside a supermarket here in Knysna, and for some unknown reason, the machine ate my card.  This is the first time this has happened to me overseas so I was not too happy.  I called the number on the ATM and this lady called Denise said that they couldn't let me have my card back until today, in the afternoon.  I told her that I needed the card sooner but she said that the person who is responsible for accessing their machines was in another coastal town and would not be back in Knysna until later today.  Thankfully, I have a backup debit card which I used to take money out from another ATM machine.  I have learned from my previous trip to Thailand that having only one debit card is risky.

South Africa - The Rainbow Nation

I landed at Cape Town International Airport after a long overnight flight from London.  At immigration I got an unwelcoming growl from the immigration officer, asking me if I had a return ticket back.

After the cold and the dampness of England, being hit by the intense heat and powerful sun gave me a jolt.  The drive to Fish Hoek, an hour south of Cape Town was very beautiful and adventurous.  I had seen pictures of this city many times but to see it for real was quite something else.  It is probably the most beautiful city in the world, with the backdrop of Table Mountain and the beaches along the coast, and with Robben Island in the bay.  The scenery is quite dramatic!

Fish Hoek is a small sleepy town with a lot of retired people and teenagers who like to surf there and in the neighbouring small coastal town of Muizenburg.  There is a slight problem though.  There are a huge number of Great White Sharks in those waters.  A couple of months ago, a guy was in the sea up to his waist and was attacked by a Great White and had his leg ripped off.  He survived.  But not too long before that, a lady was eaten by a shark as she swam further out.  No one is allowed to hunt the sharks as they are a protected species.  There are outlook posts in the mountains overlooking the coastline that are meant to warn people to get out of the water, but I don't know if I want to put my life in their hands.  What is one of them is having a nap in the midday sun or going off for a pee ? 

Half the people in Fish Hoek tend to walk around barefoot, even into the supermarket.  It is a place where you get to bump into the same people every day.  I sometimes feel a bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.  Time slows down here.

Small World

I was walking along the main street of Fish Hoek when I noticed somebody familiar fetching something from a car in a carpark.  So, I went up to him to get to the bottom of how I recognised him.  It dawned on me that he was a colleague from my previous company in London.  He had also left that company and was now working in Durban and was in Fish Hoek for a couple of days, visiting his parents.

We All Live In A Yellow Submarine

Well, the submarine wasn't yellow, it was black.  I got invited by a senior person in the South African navy to go into an active submarine, based in Simon's Town, which is the main naval base in SA.  There are 3 submarines in the South African navy, all built in Germany and navigated down here, taking several weeks.  South Africa is the only African country to have submarines.  They are mainly used for surveillance to pass on information to the naval ships and the airforce on any illegal ships that are in the area.  For example, Chinese fishing ships have tended to enter nearby waters to catch fish illegally.  There is no way that I can live on a submarine for months on end.  It is so claustrophobic down there and the air is not fresh.  Two people share a single bed because they work shifts.  The engine room gets so hot that they sometimes hang steaks there to cook.

Taxi Van

So I was trying to get a ride in a group taxi from near the central train station to Camps Bay, which is the upmarket area of Cape Town, with a white sandy beach.  All the rich and beautiful people either live there or hang out at the beach.  This taxi was not going anywhere so I was getting a bit impatient.  I asked the drive to get a move on but he said he needed a couple of more people to get on board before moving.  So, I told him I would get 2 people for him, provided that he would not charge me for the ride.  He agreed, without taking me seriously.  After 5 minutes, I had 2 new passengers for the taxi, to the driver's surprise.  My free ride to Camps Bay was quite an adventure, with the loud stereo in the van blasting RnB and soul music.  I felt like I was in a moving disco.

Prisoner of Robben Island Tour Company

I decided to check out where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in captivity.  At the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, I boarded a large catamaran that took 30 minutes to get to the island.  On the bus, there was a tour guide lady of non-European origin.  She was facing the bus passengers and pointing things out to the left or right but getting her left and right mixed up with ours.  Her English was really poor and I couldn't figure out what she was on about.  She was constantly getting her facts and figures and dates wrong.  We were cramped on this bus the whole time and couldn't get off to look around.  The other guide who showed us around the prison was an ex-prisoner.  He also supposedly spoke English but I couldn't understand him either. He seemed to be singing-talking more than talking-talking.  The real poignant part of the tour was the cell of Nelson Mandela and the bare concrete floor.  I couldn't stay in there for an hour, let alone for 18 years.

Evening Train

I was nervous about getting the evening train back to Fish Hoek from Cape Town central station because I was told by many locals not to travel after dark.  But since I only made it to the 3pm Robben Island tour slot, I had to travel back to my guesthouse after sunset.  I had thought that there would be security or police on the train, as some people had assured me, but this wasn't the case.  I was in the first carriage where some people were sitting.  After half an hour into my train ride, a guy of European origin entered my carriage.  I started talking to him.  He said that he had been in the next carriage where there weren't that many people and there was a gang of youths that was going to rob a passenger.  He said I was fortunate to be in my carriage because as there were more people, the gang would not want to cause trouble.  He said I shouldn't be travelling at night and told me he had to because he was coming back from work.  I was thankful that nothing happened to me, because I had my camera and wallet on me.

 Table Mountain

The ascent to the top of Table Mountain in the rotating cable car was quite a sight.  That meant that no one had to fight to get a good view.  At the top, there was every nationality under the sun, walking around this flat mountain.  I stayed up there for 8 hours, and saw the sunset.  It was beautiful moment.  A few days later, an American BASE jumper lept from the top of Table Mountain with a wing suit and just before deploying his parachute lower down, was met by an unexpected gust of wind.  He hit a protruding rock and broke both legs and sustained other injuries.  He survived, but ended up in intensive care.  The South African National Parks authority is going to fine him and possibly also prosecute him for his unauthorised jump.
 

 Johnny Who ?

A friend of a friend from London had some tickets to a concert at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, performed by a guy called Johnny Clegg.  I had never heard of him but when I saw the huge crowd with a diverse age range from little children to the elderly, I realised that this artist was some sort of legend in this country.  All his songs had a deep meaning behind them, as he explained before playing each one.  He had been a prominent anti-apartheid activist in the olden days and his songs reflected that.  The atmosphere was great, with everyone having a picnic on the vast lawn on a hill overlooking the large stage, with the backdrop of green mountains behind and the sun setting.  Quite magical !

My Impression So Far

South Africa, or what I have seen of it so far, is a very beautiful country, with incredible mountains, coastlines, seas, and vegetation, a lot of it only growing in this part of the world.

I am amazed how expensive things are here.  A lot of prices in Pick n Pay supermarket for example, are the same as or sometimes more expensive than Sainsbury's or Tesco supermarkets back in the UK.  Ironically, the restaurant meals are relatively cheap.  Accommodation here, especially in Cape Town is not cheap, and neither are pay as you go mobile phone tariffs.  Cars are also quite expensive because of high import taxes, and the parks and places of attraction such as Table Mountain (Rand 195), or Cape of Good Hope (Rand 85) are quite pricey.  So, if you think that this place is going to be as cheap as Thailand, or Latin America, then you are going to be quite shocked.

The South African people are very approachable, warm, and friendly.  I have struck up conversations randomly with local guys and after a couple of minutes, I have been invited to their local and treated to a beer and a history of their locality.

The first language of the white people is mainly Afrikaans, which is old Dutch.  Dutch people are amongst the first settlers here, having come to this part of the world on the way to the East Indies with ships, to trade.  Many settled here.  They also brought natives from Indonesia and India to work here so there are a group of people who are descendants of people from those places.  You also have Xhosa people and the Zulu people.  Nelson Mandela, for example, is a Xhosa.  To be honest, I haven't quite figured out how many nationalities came to this country over the centuries.  It seems everyone from the whole planet came here and put down roots sometime in the past, except aliens from other planet.  Perhaps they came too.

To get by here, it would be good to add some of the local way they speak South African English to your vocabulary.  For example:

Howzit?  = Hello, how are you ?
Cheers Hey = Goodbye
Lekker = Nice
Oke = bloke, guy
Pretty much every sentence starts with 'Look' and ends in 'Yah'
Bru = Bro(US), Bruv(UK)
Shuuuhh = wow!
Yohh = incredible!
Robot = Traffic Light

Not many South Africans that I have spoken to seem to have left their country.  Even a headmaster of a large prestigious school who studied history of European art in University, has never left South Africa.  To get to Europe, or America or anywhere outside of Africa costs a lot of money and is very far away.  Even flights to other African countries are expensive.  Ryan Air and Easyjet have made us Europeans very spoilt.
A generation on from the end of Apartheid, I can't help but noticing that there are still divisions between the whites, black, coloureds (mixed race) and Indians/Asians.  I have not seen them mixing together.  These groups tend to stick together in their own areas.   A number of white South Africans that I have spoken to randomly feel that they are now treated like 2nd class citizens and say that there is a lot more political corruption now than during Apartheid.  That greed and self-advancement are the prevailing mindsets in politics and in business which is hindering the progress of the country.

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action is a quota system that has been introduced by the current government whereby a certain percentage of jobs in each sector have to be given to black people, regardless of whether they can do the job.  A lot of white people have commented that they know of friends or relatives that have had more qualifications and experiences than a black person for a particular role, but the job has been given to the black person.  So, a lot of white people are mentioning reverse Apartheid.  For this reason, a lot of people I have met work very hard, a large number of them every day of the week.  They mention that there is no job security, no company health insurance or private pension, and a lot of unemployment, so they must work hard to survive.

Encountering Interesting People

Reflecting on the year and my encounters With Interesting People:
 
For instance the American lady visiting Panama with her husband and 6 year old son who was on a mission to find her biological Panamanian parents.  She had been given up for adoption when she was a baby and had been raised in the US.  In the week that she was in Panama, she located both her parents and at the time, had met her mother and was about to meet her father. 

The English man whom I met in Havana.  He had finally been able to travel after some time.  Both his kidneys had stopped working and his wife's colleague/friend had given one of her kidneys to him. 

The Cuban luggage porter in Havana who said that his father had been high up in the Cuban army but was now working for the government.  This guy was sick of hearing that there was no crime in Cuba so he stole crime files from his father's computer onto a memory stick.  He wanted to show them to me or to give me a copy of the memory stick.  I said I neither wanted to see the information nor handle the memory stick, for my own protection.   

I met an American lad in his late 20's when I was in Panama.  His dad was very high up in the FBI.  This lad showed me a badge in a leather wallet with FBI Agent's Family written on it.  If he got into trouble with the traffic police back in the US, he would always be let off after showing them the badge. 

In Panama, I kept bumping into an English girl with her boyfriend, once by a waterfall, then in Boquete, and then on the other part of the country in Bocas Del Toro.  Finally, I asked her what she did back home and we discovered that she is the colleague of a barrister friend of mine back in London.

It was meeting and connecting with the wonderful and fascinating people from all parts of the world that made my trip so special.

Havana Good Time

Havana, Cuba

I got on the TACA plane in San Jose, bound for Havana, Cuba but it turned out to be a time machine and transported me back to another era.  With Michael J Fox it was in the DeLorean, but in my case it was an Airbus 319.  Not sure what year I had gone back to, there were 1950s American cars (Buicks, Fords, Pontiacs, Chevrolets, Cadillacs), 1970s Soviet style clothing stores (I was in Russia a couple of years before the Soviet Union collapsed so was able to compare first-hand), and crumbling beautiful colonial buildings from the 1700s and 1800s.  The whole place reminded me of the Twilight Zone tv programs.  And it is the only country I have been to with 2 official currencies running side by side.  I saw dustmen/garbage men smoking cuban cigars whilst pushing their dustcarts throught the streets in the mornings.  It was all very surreal.  There were no recognizable stores or restaurants that one would find in other parts of the world.  No one had ever heard of McDonalds, not that it matters, but as a global brand for the past several decades, it was funny that it had not been heard of in Cuba.

The supermarkets are really small and have hardly anything in them.  Every shopper has to put their bag in a separate room to prevent shoplifting.  I just walked in, not wanting to leave my bag full of valuables in another room.  They started yelling at me but I told them I didn't understand Spanish.  They let me look around for water, etc but 2 women were following me everywhere to make sure that I didn't shoplift because that is what they expect when a person walks in with their bag.

The local butcher's shops have a display of chopped up beef and pork laid out on a slab of concrete or tiles, with flies all over them.  There are queues/lines for absolutely everything in Havana.

Most people have not left Cuba and have a very limited knowledge of geography.  The whole island is like in a bubble or cocoon.  There are images of Che Guevara all over the place and quotes from Fidel Castro.  The people there are mostly living from hand to mouth.  A doctor earns 25 US Dollars per month, a nurse 8 US Dollars per month, a bus driver 10 Dollars, a waiter 6 Dollars. One doctor I met said he had quit his job as a doctor and was now a masseur, making more money.  Every citizen has a food ration card, much like Britain during World War 2.  The meagre rations only last a few days.  For example, each person can have 8 eggs per month, a couple of pounds of chicken, 6 pounds of beans, 6 pounds of sugar, 6 pounds of rice, etc.  The only meat on the ration card is chicken.  No beef, pork, or any other meat.  Milk is only provided to children from 0-7 years.  No butter either.  The prices charged for the ration food are subsidised so quite affordable but once these small rations run out, people have to use their salaries to buy food from the stores.   On their low salaries, the food they buy would not last for more than an extra week.  Therefore, as it stands, they would go hungry in the 3rd or 4th week of each month on those salaries alone.

Nearly all people do a second job or find ways to make extra money so that they can eat for the rest of the month and to have a basic living.  A waiter I spoke to sold clothes to neighbours and friends, sent over from relatives in the US and Europe.  A luggage porter in a bus station turned his living room into a restaurant to make extra money to supplement his 6 Dollars monthly salary.  Most families have relatives who live abroad and send money to them monthly to help them out.  As mentioned, they also send clothes over so one can see younsters with clothes worn by American and European youths.  Most couples have just one child as it is too expensive for them to have any more.

The majority of the people are hustling to make a buck, and if you are a tourist, it is impossible not to get approached by people wanting to sell cheap cigars, rent a room, or pimp a girl, or just to beg.

Tourists come to Cuba, but in Havana a lot of them stay in 5 star hotels or 3 hours away in the resort of Varadero.  They don't therefore get to really absord Cuba fully.  I stayed at a Casa Particular, staying with a family who rented a room to me and prepared breakfast for me every day.  This is about the only private enterprise around in Cuba but the government is hitting them very hard with crippling taxes.  A third of the month's intake would go on paying taxes and in low season, they would still have to pay this tax each month.

I met a number of American tourists in Havana.  They had managed to get through the loophole and given permission by the US government to go to Cuba because they were doing charity work or participating in cross-cultural educational programs.  Perhaps my family in the US can get visiting clearance to Cuba by creating a society for the impartation of knowledge to the Cubans of making Persian Chelo Kebab.



Havana is a beautiful city with grand architecture, a faded grandeur.  However, over time, everything is falling apart.  The streets are cut up and pot holes all over.  There is smell of urine pretty much in every street and rubbish just thrown in overflowing skips.  Dogs and cats are all over the place and doing their mess on the road and pavement.  I wasn't surprised to see a dead cat one time or a dead mouse.  However, people's homes are very clean.  Like two different worlds.  Nearly all dwelling places have very basic furniture and not very large spaces.  But, every household has a television and stereo.  Somehow they manage to buy these things and keep the same tv and stereo for years.  People love listening to latin music. 

There is a real sense of community in Havana, with neighbours sitting outside their apartments every night and talking to each other or playing various games with dominoes or playing chess.  There is no violent or aggressive behaviour by anyone.

Each apartment has around 3 generations living together.  Where I was staying was a woman with her husband, her daughter with her husband, and their 8 year old son.

Partagas Cigar Factory

This is the most famous cigar factory in the world.  I did a tour of the whole place and was amused to see that the room where around 300 people sat rolling cigars had a large tv screen in the front with loudspeakers everywhere.  On the screen they were showing the early music videos of Michael Jackson such as Don't Stop Till You Get Enough, Rock With You, and Billie Jean.  Everyone was moving around in their chairs as they made the cigars.  Who would have thought that in death, Michael Jackson was having such an influence on the making of the finest cigars in the world.  Downstairs in the cigar store, where there is also a bar for people have a puff and some rum, there were pictures of Hollywood stars with the manager of the store.  People like Arnold Schwarzenegger before he became governor, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, Gerard Depardieu, and Matt Dillon.  I became friends with the manager of the store, and he invited me to his father's house where I had lunch with the whole family.

2 tickets And My Left Sock

I bought a ticket to the Grand Teatro in Havana one Saturday to see the Cuban National Ballet that evening, choreographed by the world famous ballerina of her time, Alicia Alonso.  I then bought a round trip bus ticket to a beach around 30 minutes from Havana where everyone went to on the weekends.  Having arrived on a beautiful white sandy beach with emerald water nearby and turquoise water further out, just absolutely fantastic scenery, I decided to go for a dip.  There were loads of teenagers around.  I put my ballet and bus tickets in my left sock and put it in my left shoe.  When I returned 10 minutes later, someone had stolen my left sock with my tickets in it.  The person obviously had seen me put some paper in my sock and assumed it was money.  I got the bus back by explaining what had happened and back in Havana, the ticket office guy remembered me and even my seat number so he said he would be around that evening when the show started.  That night, when I arrived, he ushered me to my seat.  The ballet was spectacular, and not done in the traditional style, but with a Cuban, Latin, Caribbean flavour in the music and clothes.  I also saw Alicia Alonso after the show.  She was quite old but very elegant.  I was quite pleased that a rather bad start to my day ended well.  On the Monday, I bought a bottle of rum and gave it to him, which lit up his face as if it was Christmas.

Vinales, Western Cuba

This small town of 11,000, 3.5 hours west of Havana by bus, has beautiful green valleys and rolling hills.  This is the area where tobacco farmers grow the finest tobacco in the world, which is used to make Cohiba cigars.  I visited a farmer who showed me the barn where he was drying the thousands of tobacco leaves that he had harvested.  However, he would have to wait for the rainy season in order to finish the process since the dampness would make the leaves easier to roll.  I stayed with a local family in their Casa Particular and it was very pleasant.

Panama to Costa Rica : What a load of bananas!

El Valle De Anton

Around 4 hours north of Panama City is a community which is nestled in the mouth of a giant inactive volcano.  The small town is pretty spread out and there are a lot of Americans who live there in retirement.  I found a place to stay and called the owner called Juan when I was in Panama City, informing him that I will call him when I arrive there by bus, so that he could pick me up from the bus stop.  When I arrived, I called him from my Panama cellphone (I bought a cheap cellphone in every country that I visited).  This is how the conversation went....

Me..    Juan, I have arrived, can you please pick me up ?
Juan..  Yeah sure, where are you ?
Me.. I am at Yin supermarket (one of only 3 in the village, owned by a Chinese family)
Juan..  OK, that's good.
Me..  I will wait for you, how long will you be ?
Juan..  Where are you ?
Me..  I am at Yin supermarket, do you know it ?
Juan.. Yeah.
Me..  OK, I look forward to seeing you then.
Juan..  Are you still in Panama City ?
Me.. No, I just said, I am outside the Yin supermarket ?
Juan.. Oh ok. 
Me.. So when are you coming ?
Juan..  Are you in El Valle De Anton ?
Me (getting quite frustrated by now and finding it difficult to contain my calm)...Yes, I have mentioned a number of times that I am at Yin supermarket and you said you knew it.  YIN, do you know it ?
Juan.. No, I don¨t.
Me (trying to keep my sanity)... Y-I-N
Juan.. Oh, yes, I will be there in 10 minutes.
Me...What type of vehicle will you be using so that I can look out for it ?
Juan...a yellow 4x4
Me..Oh good (as I had my big backpack and small backpack which took a lot of space).

Ten minutes later, I see Juan (a tall, skinny guy, late 50s, with thick glasses and looking like a farmer who has just ploughed a field) there with a yellow quad bike (ATV).  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I don't know how I got to his house with my bags.  The helmet he gave me to wear was around 5 sizes too big so my head was banging around in it the whole time.  His house was like a farm, with all sorts of animals including a horse and loads of chickens who decided that the best place in the several acre garden to make a lot of noise was right outside my door.  So, it was my daily ritual to run after them so they scattered to the other end of the garden.  The garden was amazing, containing a cashew nut tree, mango trees, and lots of other fruit trees.

This area is known for its hiking and fresh air.  Visitors hike to the rim of the volcano so that they can see the crater.  There are many trails and waterfalls around.


Boquete

This place is very close to the Costa Rica border, near the town called David in Panama.  Boquete is a beautiful hilly town, with rivers and waterfalls surrounding it and lots of wildlife.  It is famous for being the coffee growing region of Panama.  There are thousands of American retirees there and the Panama currency is the US Dollar so at times I felt like I was in Napa Valley.  I went white water rafting on a grade 3 plus river with an American family based in the Bahamas.  In their group was a 75 year old grandmother and a 6 year old girl which was quite brave of them.  We had a picnic on the bank of the river, half way through the trip.

I developed a foot infection because I had picked some dead skin on the bottom of my foot which went deep and then I was walking around on the beach at San Blas.  By the time I got to Boquete, I could hardly walk.  I was trying to find a doctor in town to see it so I randomly walked into a store and saw a couple of American women and asked them if they knew any good doctors in town.  One of them said that she kept the town's medical database up to date and knew all the doctors.  She drove me to the best doctor in town and he was great.  I was put on a couple of courses of antibiotics which did the trick. 

I found a lovely room in a house with a fully equipped kitchen, a dining room, and bathroom with hot water.  The landlady was very nice to me and only charged 10 Dollars per night.

Alajuela, Costa Rica

I flew to Costa Rica from David, Panama.  The airport was very small and only had around 3 flights per day.  I was checking in for Air Panama and the guy checking me in was called Elvis.  He said that I had to pay around 25 Dollars for exit tax so I said I would pay it if he sang Blue Suede Shoes.  He said that he only sang in the bathroom so I paid up anyway.  Wasn't the last place they found Elvis in the bathroom back in 1977 ?

I went upstairs and sat down and had a cup of tea in the restaurant with a good view of the runway.  The owner of the restaurant was an Iranian guy who had lived in the UK and the US.  He could have written a book about his life, he had done so much.  Unfortunately, he had developed tongue cancer so most of his tongue had been cut out, which made it hard for him to speak properly.

Alajuela is a quaint small town, around 25 minutes away from the capital, San Jose, Costa Rica, which looks quite rough and unattractive.  Alajuela has colourful buildings and nice green squares, as well as traditional eateries and cafes.  It is a lot more expensive here than in Panama.  I stayed in this town for a few days and visited a nearby active volcano called Poás, which was quite awesome.  The local bus from Alajuela took around an hour to reach the Poás volcano.   The entrance was around US $10 for foreigners and around US $2 for locals.  This double pricing happens everywhere in Latin America. 

In the mid afternoons, it would suddenly rain cats and dogs, with thunder and lightning.  Rivers would be flowing down roads in a matter of minutes.  One day, I was trying to book my flight to Cuba in an internet shop and just as I was about to click on the pay button, having filled all the forms and info required, lightning struck and the computers went down......grrrrr

Arenal Volcano

I took a bus from Alajuela to Arenal Volcano.  It took around 6 hours, with a 20 minute stop somewhere.  The volcano is massive and is still active.  The last time it erupted was in the 1960s and is due to erupt again soon.  The locals are nervous about the prospect of it erupting again because last time many people died.  The lava has stopped flowing so that is a sign that something is about to happen.  The town at the foothills of this volcano is quite sleepy and doesn't really have much character.  There is a trail that goes to a nature reserve with a wonderful waterfall which is worth visiting.  The main square at night is nice as well.  It is best to stay a couple of nights and then to move on.

Bus-Boat-Bus to Monteverde

I took this combination transportation to get to Monteverde.  The intial bus ride was good in terms of being able to see Arenal Volcano from the other side.  The boat ride was quite nice as well, but the best part of the journey was the 2nd bus to Monteverde, which drove over mountains and through valleys, through lush green vegetation and beside streams.  A truly beautiful site, which I would recommend to everyone.

Monteverde

This place is a village that looks more like a ski resort and the nearby Monteverde Cloud Forest is truly breath-taking.  It has a circular trail that takes around 6 hours to complete.  I did the whole trail and was quite tired by the end of it but so exhilarated and happy.  The trees are so old and so huge, and the birds are beautiful.  It was like walking through Jurassic Park....so ancient!  I highly recommend it.  Take a pair of binoculars.  At one high up vista, on a good clear day, you are supposed to be able to see both oceans.  The coffee in this region is the best in Costa Rica.  It is exported to all corners of the world.

From Colombia To Panama

Cartagena

I flew to Cartagena on the Caribbean coast of Colombia from Medellin via Bogota.  In Bogota airport, I had a couple of hours to spare so I walked around a bit.  I found a place where they did massages but the charge was very high.  I persuaded the girl to let me massage her for 10 minutes and then to massage me for 10 minutes without any money being exchanged.  Well, it worked and I felt much better for it.  Cartagena is a lovely colonial town which is one of the oldest in South America.  It has been a major port for centuries and had to build a fortress around itself because of pirates.  Some time before my arrival, there was a Brit who was a bit of a trouble-maker in this town which led them to increase their security.  He was Sir Francis Drake.  I was eating at a local restaurant when I started talking to a couple of guys at another table.  They were both American but one of them was an Iranian jew who had escaped from Iran with his family in 1986 with fake Iranian passports. 

Taganga & Tayrona National Park

I was staying in a windy and dusty fishing village almost 5 hours up the coast from Cartagena, called Taganga.  I bumped into an Italian guy called Paolo (29 years), from Avelino, near Naples.  I had met him in Trinidad and just saw him walking down the road here.  The same day, in the evening, I bumped into another guy from Trinidad who had hosted me via Couchsurfing.  So, it is a pretty small world.  Paolo seemed to talk to anyone and everyone in the street, and he wanted to know everyone´s name.  But he soon tended to forget what people´s names were and started calling them by other names the next time he met them.  We went to a beautiful coastline, surrounded by jungle.  We hiked for miles and finally stayed at a campsite with loads of other foreigners, sleeping in hammocks. 

Santa Marta

Just next to Taganga is the coastal city of Santa Marta, which is famed for being the place where Simon Bolivar was killed in battle.  I had therefore seen his birthplace in Caracas and his place of demise, Santa Marta.  This city has a nice waterfront promenade where the locals go for walks or just sit down and watch the sunset.  It has nice squares and good eateries.  Outside of the centre, one can see rundown residential areas.  Overall, it is a low key town and perennially hot and sunny.

Minca

A lovely little hamlet nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains around 45 minutes drive from Santa Marta.  A lovely river runs through this village and there are lovely restaurants beside the river.  Along the river, locals or visitors from Santa Marta go swimming in the pockets of deep fresh water which are surrounded by large rocks.  Romantic couples also seem to love this place.  Best way to get here is to negotiate a fixed rate with a taxi driver from Santa Marta, who will stay with you and bring you back.  There are guest houses to stay at if you want but they are quite simple.

Barranquilla

This is probably one of the ugliest and scariest cities that I have seen.  A lot of the roads are unpaved and dusty and people look quite rough.  It is famed for its annual carnival which takes place around March.  It is one of the biggest carnivals in the world.

Flying to Panama City from Barranquilla, Colombia.

Barranquilla airport is apparently a major port for drug smugglers who want to take drugs to other destinations, including Central America.  There are numerous police checks from check-in to boarding the flight.  There are police and police dogs everywhere.  Passengers are eye-balled by Colombian police the whole time.  You really need a lot of patience in this airport.

The police decided to open my bag as a random spot check, even though I was running late.  After the bag check, they wanted me to sign a form but I said I wouldn't as it was in Spanish and I couldn't understand it.  They said in that case, I could not take my bag with me as I had to sign the form before they would release it.  I asked an airline official and an airport security guy to look at the form and they assured me that it was a simple sheet that people signed as a formality when their bags were checked randomly.  I told the security guy that I would sign it only if the chief police guy there said sorry for causing me so much grief.  To his credit, the policeman did apologise, so I signed the form and was on the flight.

Panama City

A noisy hustle and bustle of a city, with very impatient drivers honking their horns at the slightest delay by anyone in front.  The old quarter, or Casco Viejo, is a lovely place and worth a visit.  From time to time, they have festivals in the main square there.  The architecture is lovely and the area is very civilized compared to the rest of Panama City.

Panama Canal

I took a cab from my hotel in downtown Panama City to Miraflores Locks, which took around half an hour.  I negotiated with the taxi driver beforehand and paid around US $3 one way.  These locks are the last ones that ships encounter before crossing into the Pacific Ocean.  It consists of 2 lanes of ship traffic and gigantic tankers and passenger ships come by within minutes of each other.  Each ship has to be lowered to sea level before going off.  The average toll paid by a ship is US $250,000.  Some pay as much as US $400,000.  It takes 8 hours for a ship to cross the Panama Canal from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side.  There are locks are either end and a man-made lake in the middle.  The canal was started by the French, then taken over by the Americans and completed, then handed over to the Panamanians on Dec 31, 1999.

If you want to visit the Miraflores locks, they have a cafe and a restaurant there and bathroom facilities.  They also have a viewing area to watch the ships.  There are 2 entrace fees, a cheaper one for Panamanians and a more expensive one for tourists.  This policy is applied in many Latin American countries.

San Blas Islands

A group of stunningly beautiful Caribbean islands numbering around 400, off the coast of Panama, and stretching all the way to Colombia.  Fifty of them are inhabited by the Kuna people, who own these islands and charge people for setting foot on them.  They have been living on these islands for 200 years, having come over from Colombia.  I flew there from Panama City and landed on an island with a small runway on a 20 seater propeller plane.  From there I took a boat to one of the islands where the Kuna tribal people have a large community of a few thousand.  They live in a very primitive way in wooden huts and only have electricity for a few hours at night.  The infant mortality rate is relatively high.  They have their own language and costumes.  Quite a number of them can be very awkward about foreigners visiting their islands, and don't allow pictures to be taken of them, unless they are paid a Dollar or even more.  If a person lands on any of the inhabited islands, the locals charge anywhere from a Dollar to 5 Dollars.  I once swam from one island to a neighbouring one, and there was a hut there with a couple of people.  A man approached me as soon as I landed on the beach and demanded a Dollar.  I told him that I did not have my wallet on me.  I rested for a short while and swam back.  The fish and corals were incredible. 

It was at my first accommodation, Carti Homestay, on the island of Carti, which I believe I had my money stolen by the owner. This guesthouse was recommended in the Lonely Planet book so I thought that it would be ok. My money was in my small backpack which I always kept locked with a padlock.  One day, I went to a remote island by boat, and left my small backpack on my bed, after the owner told me it would be safe. He must have picked the lock and taken the money, which was around US Dollars 130 worth of Venezuelan Bolivares and a 20 UK Pound note. He didn't take anything else from my bag, locking my bag again. I only discovered the theft when I reached Costa Rica.  The Bolivares wouldn't have any value to him because it is a non-convertible currency.  He would need to go to Venezuela.

I transferred to another island and stayed there for the majority of my stay.  I slept in a straw hut on the beach with sand as my floor and no electricity.  The shower was a huge bucket full of well water and a small bucket used to pour the water over my head.  The toilet had no flush, only a bucket to pour water down it.  At night I could see small fish with lights flashing, swimming in the large bucket that contained the water for the toilet.  Neighbouring huts had other travellers from the US, Canada, and Europe.  During mealtime, we would all sit down around a wooden dining room table on the beach and eat the daily catch of fish, lobster and crab. Lobster was contstantly on the menu.  There were daily trips to nearby islands for snorkelling and looking at starfish and conches.

Price Fixing Cartel on San Blas

One day I visited an island inhabited by 2 families, so a total of less than a dozen people.  Each family was at the opposite end of the island.  It took around 5 minutes to walk around the whole island, covered with cocunut trees, hundreds of them, each having dozens of cocunuts.  I found a coconut on the ground and asked the man of one family if he could cut it open.  He said that the cocunut belonged to him and that it would cost me 1 Dollar to have it.  I couldn't believe it because in Panama City, a coconut in a store cost around 60 Cents.  I decided that he was trying it on with me so I went to the other end of the island and picked up another coconut when I was approached by an elderly women from the other family who mentioned that the coconut was hers.  I asked her how much it would cost to have it and she said 25 Cents.  I agreed and was about to pay her when the 10 year daughter of the other family ran over and said something to the elderly woman who then informed me that the price was no longer 25 Cents but 1 Dollar.  So, I was the victim of a price fixing cartel on a paradise island in the Caribbean with less than a dozen people on it.  Apparently, the Kuna people sell tons and tons of coconuts to Colombia each year for 25 Cents per coconut.