Saturday, May 24, 2008

Valparaiso, Chile Travelogue

Through the eyes of my son....

So Chili was pretty cool (hah). Seriously, it was cold and foggy for the extent of our visit. It is fall going on winter down there. Didn't get to go on the one tour I was allowed to get ('cus reactor department had working days. Blech) because the barge that the little liberty boats pull up to to drop off people broke lines and was no longer stable enough to get people across safely. The GW solution to the busted barge? Have everybody that wasn't able to get back that night load up in busses/a gym/ a halfway house for uncomfortable sleep surrounded by exhuberant drunks and the disgruntled sober guys around them (I was on duty, so I got a lovely 4 hours of rack sleep in between watches), and the next day, without replacing the barge, bring all those guys back, and just cancel tours and liberty for that last day in port. I wzs pretty pissed. Really wanted to taste me some fine wine. Gotta get a taste for it somehow. Need to see what other people got for pictures since all I got was stuff on the bus (and a lot of pictures of this one guy drunk becasue the guy I handed my camera to thought it was really funny). Didn't end up doing much but go to a mall (with really awesome winter clothes! I bought this great (i.e. expensive) brown peacoat with a hood. Like wearing a big, comfy blanket. With toggles.), eat at a couple of nice restaurants (the first one was hilarious. Okay, so when we get in there they have music videos playing on the TVs. Now this is a really fancy eatery, but I guess they were just so excited to have Americans in town that the videos that they had on were all cheesy 80s hits. Nothing beats a glass of good wine while listening to "I Went To the Danger Zone" followed by "Eye of The Tiger." Then one of the guys that works there got on the little kareoke stage they had and started singing American stuff. Got some great (really wavy) pics of the dude dressed up like a lion while he was doing "Can You Feel The Love Tonight."), then stumble over (still have no clear recollection of how I got there) to a casino where I was too drunk to do any gambling, which was good. I've yet to recieve the inevitably embarassing picture this chick on the boat got of me while I was there. Kinda boring, but it was still fun.

....of course, I then had to have him explain to me how he got to see Chile when he was stuck on the ship.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Rio Travelogue

So, here is how my son describes Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

So Rio’s an interesting place. If you like sand. And water. And sexually (and mosquitoly) transmitted diseases. Really pretty from a distance. Beautiful scenery, but unfortunately there’s this old dirty city thrown in the middle of the rainforest covered, mountainous coastline, which, if you’re standing way back so you can see the hill with the structures precariously strewn across it, is gorgeous. Once you get on the bus and start driving through the slums (gotta be like 80% of the friggin overpopulated burg) it’s not so pretty anymore. To be fair, every building that I walked through was nice and clean, but even the good buildings (except for the ones that are obviously new or beachfront property) look really grimy and rundown on the outside. The tour I went on went only to a few stops, but apparently there aren’t that many safe tourist spots in the area anyways, since the non-tour area was limited to a the beaches Copacabana and Ipanema and a few blocks in from that. The first thing we went to was this cathedral that was constructed like a giant steel and stained-glass teepee. The outside’s not that spectacular looking, but once you go inside it’s just like any other massive church with a huge vaulted ceiling and statues and such. The open air design works out pretty well for how hot the climate there is. After that we went to these two mountains connected to the valley below by cable car. We could get a view of the entire area from the second, but it was a rainy day so the second mountain was completely encased in a cloud and we couldn’t see anything at all from up there. Then we went to a restaurant (the first place I had one of the national drink: the Caipirinha which is made out of lime and some crazy strong local liquor. Kinda tastes like a margarita. You’d probably like it. [aside - I probably would] On the way out I was also accosted by the license plate guy for the first time, and the dude wanted 60 real, like 37 bucks, for the silly thing. Actually followed the tour group to the hotel we were dropped off at later and remembered me specifically, still not lowering the price much. Next day I was able to get it from another guy for fifteen. I dislike very much the street vendors.) After the eating we went to the giant Jesus, which required a train ride to the mountain it sits on and then climbing a load of stairs (there’s an elevator, too). It is a really big savior, I’ll tell ya that. Kinda silly, though, the way most of the people weren’t at all reverent of the situation and were merely posing in silly positions with the Christian son of god (you don’t nipple tweak Jesus, I don’t care who you are). Would’ve expected a little more lightning at that point. It was still super cloudy, so we couldn’t get any good shots of the town or shoreline from up there (Interesting tidbit: the great big ol’ Jesus faces the sea, but I found a postcard in the tourist shop that has the picture of the shoreline with the big lug facing the camera. Guess the Brazilians aren’t above photoshopping their national monuments. Related note: there’s this completely unphotoshopped picture one guy took of a statue holding a rifle and clutching his heart like he just got shot. Taken from the left side, this looks like a guy with a gun between his legs, actively thrusting. Funny stuff).

Back to me. Hopefully, I'll get something similar about Chile.