Bored. Snapped a few pics in the airport. 3 hour layovers in terminal 1 are toooo looong. Happily the Red Rocket supplies us with beer. 2 pints of Rickards – an outlandish $19 after tax and hefty tip (hey, I’m on vacation and happy). Looking forward to $3 bottles of Argentine Red!! Next up, the hung for Chester Cheetah’s Cheese Corn! Rumour has it that Nacho Libre is slotted for the next flight. THe Notebook is also on tap, but luckily, it’s later on so I won’t have to stay up.
Well, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year all in one. Looks like I’m technically about 8-9% late on this one, so I had better at least write a quick little tale about what I got up to over the holidays! After all, it turns out I’m also two race reports behind as well, and by the looks of things, may very well be three race reports behind by the end of the weekend! Eek. My sincerest apologies to one and all. That being said, my reasons are good, and I do plan to rectify that and fill you in on my happenings, beginning with this little post. Every year, we make Christmas wishes for what we’d like, and this year, rather than really wish for any tangibles, my wish was more of a desire. Most importantly, it came true! You may remember in the last post where I talked about Deanna’s interview with a local law firm. As luck would have it, a mere few days later she got an offer… and accepted! This was in November, so from then on, it was scramble time to get ready for the move. For a few pics of Christmas, clicky the linky, then read on for a bit more colour around this!
28/03/08
Good day and greetings from the land of snow and taxes, as my father put it. As some of you have rightly pointed out, this post is definitely a touch on the tardy side. I’ve been back in Ottawa for four days, and owe you all at least a few paragraphs to sort of close off this adventure of mine. I suppose part of my reluctance to write this final blog post had to do with wanting to absorb everything before writing my parting thoughts. Of course, on the other hand, getting back home was a bit hectic, as I was anxious to get settled back in and come to grips with the return to my ‘routines’. On that front, I definitely have a few things I can share with you all, as well as tell you about the last leg of my return journey. So if you’re ready, kick back, polish up your glasses, and I’ll try to entertain you or at least enlighten you on my brainspace for one more time 🙂 Be patient, as it will likely be a long post, but I suppose I have to do a bit of reflecting in this, the final chapter of my New Zealand adventure.
Click here for pictures from the road. I´ll close off my day of blogging by writing a little note about the trip from Cafayate to Tucuman, where is the place that I´m writing from right now. It´s a much bigger city (800,000), so less personal. We´re only here for one day, off tomorrow back into the Andes to a place called Chilecito. But for now, I´m an urban dweller once again. I was just in the middle of chatting with some locals about my trip so far. Argentinians are a great people it seems. Last night was a nice group meal at a local restaurant. More wine, more ice cream, more general group fun. The next morning, we were set to take public bus to this town. However, we convinced our guide to book a private bus to take us, giving us the chance to take the more scenic route, as well as to make a few extra stops on the way. One of those stops was to Quilmes, which are the biggest ruins in Argentina I think (and the best beer´s namesake). Sadly, after Peru last year, it´s hard to impress me with ruins. The guide on site was very good, and friendly, but the ruins are very far from their Incan counterparts in terms of scale and quality. Nonetheless, the stop was worth the $5 difference in price for the private bus. We also stopped in a couple small towns…
29/12/07
Hi gang. Here I am, back to report on another lovely day in the lands down under. Due to a good bit of luck and some advice, I was able to shorten my biking day by about 24km, and still make it to the same destination. However, in order to do this, I had to take the fabled 309 road. Intrigued? Well so was I, which is why I decided to give it a whirl. Let me describe it in this way. It was basically my own personal Bolivian Death Highway! Okay, certainly not quite as extreme as that famous road, but it was something else, let me tell you that. Of course, I didn’t have the luxury of only going downhill, so I had to climb a nice long ascent up a twisty dirt road with dropoffs beside me, before descending it on the other side. I was quite glad that I’d brought the full suspension bike today. Read on for a bit more about this day.
