tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47069142537276270832009-10-27T15:12:01.079ZA memoir of travels in North and South AmericaBob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-30255582641877108822009-02-14T22:13:00.005Z2009-03-05T21:20:44.793Z

PLEASE NOTE:- Comments on this blog are now moderated and will only appear after administrator approval. This is thanks to a recent spam attack targetting every entry which took me about half an hour to clean up. Sorry, but I have no wish to do it again. Well, that's it, complete, done and dusted.The whole of my previously unpublished book is now here on this blog and to the best of my knowledge

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-27489219583764222942009-02-11T21:48:00.000Z2009-02-11T21:48:00.931Z

"Let us not go over old ground, let us rather prepare for what is to come." - Marcus Tullius CiceroFrom my window I can look out on a street that - give or take the odd spell working or studying elsewhere - I have lived in since I was seven years old. It hasn't changed much. Most of the houses now have double glazing that wasn't there in 1964. The Laburnum tree that used to stand in our garden

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-23553663943443088602009-02-07T13:52:00.007Z2009-02-07T15:26:35.231Z

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Sir Winston ChurchillIt was starting to feel as if my trip were over. The convergence of truck routes had become steadily more noticeable. At Iguazu there had been two or three others. When we camped near Villa Velha, a national park with peculiar and mostly obscene rock formations,

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-36898647527928449692009-01-23T20:38:00.007Z2009-01-23T20:58:36.338Z

I have recently fallen a little behind on posting to this blog. However I have now posted two new chapters and to make up for the delay here is a small bonus chapter.The most stunning thing I have seen in all my travels is the Iguassu Falls that you read about in the last chapter. I have albums full of photographs of it. Here are just a few that give you a taster of this incredible sight.

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-60496068309438796172009-01-23T20:28:00.010Z2009-01-23T20:58:09.145Z

"Poor Niagara !" Eleanor Roosevelt (at the Iguassu Falls)Buenos Aires is a very large, very modern city and like all large modern cities it is divided into very distinct areas. La Boca - the original city port - in the South is a vibrant, colourful - and I'm told relatively unsafe - artists community. There are street performers and a market where artists set out their paintings on easels at

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-15916278888915776012009-01-13T20:09:00.008Z2009-01-23T20:28:17.724Z

“Ushuaia has the rugged feel of a frontier town and the setting of a glacial paradise. “ 1994 Orient Lines Grand Antarctica Circumnavigation brochureIt seemed impossible but the signpost was there to prove it.Parque NacionalTierra del FuegoBAHIA LA PATIARepublica ArgentinaAqui finaliza la Ruta Nac. No.3Buenos Aires 3.063 Km.Alaska 17,848 Km.Even my Spanish was up to the task of translating it.

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-10082974438484952182009-01-01T16:44:00.002Z2009-01-01T16:46:22.771Z

If you read this blog via an RSS feed you may have received an odd one last time containing some html scripting. This is because there appears to be an incompatibility when cutting and pasting from the latest version of Word, where the post was composed. Apologies for this but it should be perfectly OK if you access the Blog directly.Bob

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-50583677779027645932008-12-14T21:53:00.000Z2009-01-10T23:38:04.184Z

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-27855031882571177442008-12-13T21:45:00.005Z2008-12-15T16:10:16.938Z

“A change is as good as a rest.”ProverbSome of the ‘Goodbyes’ that had been said were sincere, others not. Some I hadn’t said at all. I would have choked on the hypocrasy. In all the trips that I had ever made there wasn’t one other where I had felt so alienated from the group. Now with the group changing for the last time I was hoping that my problems would be behind me. Things were already

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-27638691993807894292008-12-12T22:24:00.004Z2008-12-12T22:33:31.302Z

“And only change th’expiring flame renews.”John Gay (On A Miscellany of Poems)Two days of driving across the desert - dispiriting not because of its uniformity of landscape but because of its uniformity of colour - brought us to the coastal resort of La Serena which was plush and upmarket and could have been the South of France from its white sands and its calm deep blue ocean and from the large

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-37297255934684326382008-11-30T19:49:00.006Z2008-11-30T20:30:44.609Z

“Upon the beached verge of the salt flood” William Shakespeare In Overton in Yorkshire a slice of our recent past is preserved in the shape of the National Coal Mining Museum. When I visited it some time ago I found that ironically safety is considered even more important now that it is a tourist attraction than it was when the mine was in production

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-57645188933681805342008-11-01T23:51:00.009Z2009-03-04T10:41:38.586Z

“Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols” Thomas Mann, The <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Magic Mountain“(Selbst bei dem eines neuen Säkulums sind es nur wir Menschen, die schiessen und läuten.)”<?xml:namespace prefix = o />On Christmas Day the market had gone from the square but it was no less crowded as thousands of people gathered there for the

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-64279786038275411532008-10-31T14:20:00.007Z2008-10-31T15:01:35.634Z

“A Merry Christmas to all my friends except two.”W.C.Fields (attrib) The speedboat bounced over the waves as if they were made of steel instead of water, hitting them hard and leaping into the air before flopping back down into the trough before the next one. It felt as if we were on a very rough ocean but it was an illusion bought on by the speed for when we rounded the small

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-44799402657136154192008-10-14T19:52:00.005+01:002008-10-26T15:50:12.419Z

“’F’ said, ‘A Fish, if broiled, might cure, if only by the smell.” Edward Lear - A Nonsense Alphabet It finally felt as if I was on the move again. The Peruvian border had been the psychological turning point. Up until then, partly because I had spent so long in one country and partly because I had been repeating territory already covered, it hadn’t really felt as if I was getting anywhere.

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-77659933400934393372008-10-13T15:39:00.007+01:002008-10-14T19:28:22.983+01:00

“The camera makes everyone a tourist” New York Review of Books A few weeks ago I had arrived in Riobamba with Explore after midnight, crashed out into bed and left early the following morning on my way to Cuenca. Not only had I seen nothing of the town but even the hotel had registered so little on my consciousness that I had been in it for several hours this time before I realised that it

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-46947269779171813182008-10-06T18:04:00.008+01:002008-10-06T23:00:17.904+01:00

"The Light of LightsLooks always on the motive, not the deed, The Shadow of Shadows on the deed alone.” W.B. Yeats I was at home, wandering from room to room, opening drawers, searching for something. It seemed a little strange that I didn’t know what exactly it was that I was looking for but I expected that I’d know it when I saw it. I

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-88707024906668897252008-09-20T13:40:00.003+01:002008-09-20T14:09:01.108+01:00

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”Fran Lebowitz. The late start gave me time for a nice leisurely morning as my last day in Quito. I lingered over breakfast in the American Bagel and then strolled around getting quite sentimental about the place before ambling back to my room to finish packing. At twelve everyone assembled and we loaded the truck and set off for my second

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“Bull fighting is not a sport. It is a tragedy. A very great tragedy. The tragedy is the death of the bull.” Ernest Hemingway It was a slow night in the Reina Victoria. I hadn’t been sure that I was going to find it easy getting back to Quito. Pichincha had had another of its rather half hearted eruptions and covered the city in a fine light grey ash. I’d heard the news on

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Chapter 19 “Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.” Victor HugoOn Sundays most of Quito closes. You can with perseverance find somewhere to get lunch and even a beer but it isn’t an easy task. Avenida Amazonas is almost empty of people and the whole city has a seaside resort in winter feel to it. The rest of the week though Amazonas is always chaotic and

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“Change is not made without inconvenience.” Samuel Johnson Colombia had always been the place where problems were most likely to arise. After all, the first thing that springs to people’s minds, when you mention the place, is the drugs trade. It’s about the one thing that it’s famous for - maybe one of two if you count coffee. The trouble is that the production of drugs is so

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-7036724417972008872008-08-09T09:51:00.002+01:002008-08-09T09:52:56.596+01:00

ApologyI don't know if you are able to read the complete text of Chapter 18, or not. There is an error when I try to display it. Unfortunately on the computer system that I am using, I am unable to check or correct it at the moment. I will check it next Friday and fix it if needed.

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-75693216779678761192008-08-09T09:00:00.003+01:002008-12-11T17:24:48.676Z

“No animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkeness - or so good as drink.” G.K.Chesterton Why is it that half a mile down the road from every border crossing outside Europe there is always another police check. Don’t they trust their border patrols to do an adequate job? Don’t they realise the red-tape and bureaucracy that you have already gone through to get onto this road

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-19234970779245210312008-08-02T09:00:00.005+01:002008-12-11T17:24:49.728Z

“We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.”George Bernard ShawThe guide books are all agreed about Roatan. Every description contained words like ‘idyllic’, ‘paradise’ and ‘marvelous’. They sang the praises of the azure waters, recommended the diving and yachting and generally adored the place. Beer had temporarily left the trip to visit <?xml:namespace prefix = st1

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-66015127249373073352008-07-26T09:00:00.003+01:002008-12-11T17:24:50.270Z

“There is no way of making vomiting courteous. You have to do the next best thing which is vomit in such a way that the story you tell about it later will be amusing.” P.J.O’Rourke My last act in Mexico, and my first act in Belize were identical - leaving the technicolour contents of my stomach mixed in with the sun baked dust of the border post. Fortunately I was just a little

Bob Halehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09648768078027630120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706914253727627083.post-7477637887969804122008-07-19T09:00:00.003+01:002008-12-11T17:24:53.487Z

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality they are not certain, and as far as they are certain they do not refer to reality.” Albert Einstein Routines establish themselves quickly, burrowing unnoticed like a worm into the days until it seems they have always been there.

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