Author: alittlecameo

Astrology | Travel | Speaking Spanish

Next destination, Colombia

August 4, 2011

Words cannot begin to express how excited I am to be going to Colombia.

Firstly there is the yearning for travelling in Colombia that I’ve had since April 2004 when I was in the tiny jungle border town, Leticia. I made a vow to come back and now it is finally happening. Initially I told myself I wasn’t removing the red, blue and yellow wristband I bought there until I returned, but after going home and getting a professional job, that had to come off. But has been with me all the time hanging from my keychain. So as you can imagine, I’m really excited to see that dream come to life.

Secondly, I have had my fill of the US. After 6 months here I am desperate for some new scenery and culture. I think the longer I stay here, the less I like being here. Despite all the wonderful people I’ve met, and the places I’ve enjoyed as I crossed the country, I just don’t like being in America.  It’s a strange feeling that’s hard to describe. There’s something that makes me feel uneasy, and then there’s so many things to appreciate about Australia that you only pick up when you speak to people about how it is here, like annual leave, maternity leave and health care.

Whilst I feel like this now, I also know that I will be back and travelling in the this country in the future because I want to revisit the friends I’ve made and also see the things that I missed on my planned return leg like Niagara Falls, Chicago, Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Olympic National Park, Seattle, Crater Lake National Park, Portland and Yosemite. It’s just that next time will be for a much shorter period of time, and hopefully with a friend.

Damn you Larry Crowne

July 7, 2011

You know when you want to see a film because it sounds like it should be good but you remain unconvinced by the previews and also harbour a dislike for one of the lead actors? That was me with Larry Crowne.

With two big drawcard leads in Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, Larry Crowne was billed as a summer feel-good flick. It is the typical kind of film you see Tom Hanks shine in, and he had the added pressure of co-writing and directing it. Julia Roberts brought the same character she’s played for many years to the film and despite her boringness and shade of Cameron Diaz’s Bad Teacher, didn’t ruin it for me. However I think Bryan Cranston really stole the show with a brilliant performance.

I left the theatre with the requisite bubble of good vibes, but also with a pang of nostalgia and dash of yearning. I was romanticising.

I was thinking about how exciting it is to live in LA and wondering whether I had been too hasty in making my departure from the city and the film biz. Perhaps I should have stuck it out a bit longer. Did I really give it a chance?

It could be the hardships and solitude of the road that has caught up with me as I am also dreaming of the day of having a real job again back home and how I will take advantage of the delights of whatever new city I find myself living in. I really must be dreaming. What dedicated traveller ever fantasises about, and counts down the days until, they go back to the rat race?

So two months into my roadtrip, Larry Crowne has come in churning up feelings and thoughts I had buried deep down in the mud. I guess I need to sift through them and polish up the golden ones.

Blue Ridge Parkway

June 30, 2011

One of America’s best scenic drives, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a narrow, winding road at the top of a mountain range. It offers spectacular views and some great things to stop off at along the way.

It’s about 400 miles long, but I only drove the North Carolina part and skipped the Virginian part. There’s only so many scenic overlooks you can be inspired by and as beautiful as winding roads are, they are also very tiring to drive.

 

I love you Scott Pilgrim

June 29, 2011

I love the film Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It is such a cool film and an original execution. So while in Asheville, North Carolina, I was excited to see that there was a free outdoor screening.

I headed down to the cinema carpark where it was shown on the outside wall, set up my folding chair that I’ve only used once or twice, and sat back to enjoy the film.

Esmeralda’s tune-up

June 28, 2011

Driving past a Volvo dealership in Asheville, North Carolina, I decided it was time for a little tune-up after more than 6000 miles on the road. I was lucky to be able to walk in and get her an appointment where she got a new headlight. I hadn’t even noticed that a headlight was blown as I haven’t been doing any night driving. When I realised that, I thought it sounded a little strange to me. Two months on the road and virtually no night driving. I sound like a nanna.

The Appalachian Trail

June 27, 2011

Stretching for 2000 miles from Maine to Georgia is the famous Appalachian Trail. For many hikers, this is the ultimate adventure, and if they can’t complete the whole thing at once (a huge commitment) then they will cover it piece by piece.

Atop the Smoky Mountains at the state border between Tennessee and North Carolina, there is a monument and a 1.7 mile section of the Appalachian Trail you can complete.

On this trip I’ve discovered a bit of a liking for hiking. In Peru all those years ago I discovered I didn’t like walking up or downhill. Something rather limiting when travelling in mountainous regions. But I think that laziness has faded, and I don’t mind exerting some effort to climb a mountain or descend a canyon.

Therefore, I wasn’t going to pass up the ability to say I’d hiked part of the Appalachian Trail. I set out from a carpark full of Americans and expected to find the trail heavily trafficked. Well, as my Lonely Planet explains, 90% of visitors don’t venture further than 100 yards from their car. I found this to be true. The first stretch was filled with families, but after a couple of hundred metres, the trail was quiet and just had a few people passing by.

Maybe here it was that I started to flesh out the idea that Americans aren’t particularly adventurous. I hasten to add that I have also met many adventurous Americans in my travels,  it just seems people are less likely to take risks and will continue in the well-worn formula of life – school, university, work, get married, raise a family, retire.

Waterfalls in the rain

June 26, 2011

I was all gung-ho to do a difficult hike to some waterfalls, but after the campground owner came around to have a chat because he was excited to have an Australian staying with them so he could talk about his daughter and granddaughters who live in Sydney, he had scared me off doing it.

He told me there was going to be a big storm. And that it wasn’t the ideal weather to be doing a big hike as the storm looked pretty bad. For some reason this news seemed to hit me like a punch in the chest and I had to bite back the tears that were threatening. It doesn’t happen very often that I have such an emotional response to disappointment, and even more rarely over something as trivial as a hike. But here I was, dealing with the dismay of having to change the plans I’d carefully crafted.

So I hiked to a different set of falls that were closer and easier to get to. I had my gore-tex jacket on to keep the constant drizzle off. My glasses fogged up which made seeing the network of exposed roots difficult. The walk was really pretty and given the weather, I had it pretty much to myself except for encountering a few brave families along the way.

After I got back from Hen Wallow Falls, the weather had cleared up, so I drove to the Visitor Centre, through the touristy town of Gatlinburg, and then decided with the sun now showing, that I would hike to Rainbow Falls.

It was more of an uphill than in the morning, and there were more people on the trail. It never fails to surprise me how under-prepared many Americans visiting national parks are. They embark on these hikes wearing flip-flops and carrying a half full bottle of water. Maybe I’m overprepared with my backpack, 4 litres of water, snacks, hat and Merrell hiking shoes, but I’d rather have those things than find myself wishing I had them.

Feeling like I’d walked a long way, I asked a couple coming back down if it was very far to the falls, and they said it was just around the corner. Around the corner was a smallish cascade that, while pretty, didn’t really seem impressive enough to name a trail after. So after a pause, I decided to keep following the trail and see where it lead. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later, I came across Rainbow Falls, complete with a sign. I shook my head and thought about those silly Americans who had walked all that way only to miss the actual falls because they weren’t curious enough to see where the path went.

Into the mountains

June 25, 2011

It must be something to do with coming from a flat, barren topography that makes the mountains so majestic and beautiful in my mind. They are awe-inspiring and I gape with wonder.

As I neared the Great Smoky Mountains, I nearly exploded with wonder at their dense, green blanket and low wispy clouds. The steamy, jungly smell of the forest and the vivid green appealed so strongly to me.

That combination of green and mountain is completely fascinating to someone who lives on the edge of the desert and where there is only one place in town to practise handbrake starts.

I can tell I’m going to love this part of America.

Viva Nash Vegas

June 24, 2011

Is that not how the song goes?

Nashville surprised me. As I scanned the radio station for a country music channel playing something I could tap my toes to, I found a great city that can completely be related to Las Vegas – it is a city made of dreams.

The neon lit bars of Broadway splashed colour along the strip, enticing the hoardes of tourists in to hear the live music.

Cowboy boots and little floral dresses seemed to be the fashion statement of choice and more than one person had their photo taken with the giant guitar on the street corner.

Like Vegas, the main street was filled with people there to have a good time. And that vibe is infectious.

So even if you’re not into country music and Nashville isn’t your mecca, it still provides plenty of fun. Although don’t bother with the mechanical bull at Cadillac Ranch, it’s lame in comparison to the true country bull at PBR in Kansas City.

Mammoth waste of my time

June 23, 2011

“I wonder if the rangers need to be accredited?” was a comment I head a young woman ask her partner as I was following a hundred Americans through Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

I almost snorted out loud.

Maybe my attitude was tainted by the little sleep I’d had the night before and the subsequent drive, but this tour was interminably boring. Since you can only see the cave on a tour, I selected one that described the difficulty level as ‘moderate’ hoping it would weed out the old, feeble, very young and unadventurous. However we still had all of the above on the tour, as many people seem to overstate their abilities.

Perhaps my ‘tude also came from being told by the long-haired, red necked ranger that I couldn’t take my bottle of water even though I’d been told at the ticket booth that water was allowed. Apparently it had to be in a see-through bottle. Thanks for telling me earlier instead of in front of 100 waiting Americans.

On the bus to the cave entrance, an old yellow school bus that this time I was not excited to ride, I decided to close my eyes and take a little nap. I was interrupted by the small children in front of me saying “look Grandpa, she’s sleeping”. Grandpa replied “Oh no, she’s just pretending.” So when I did open my eyes to glare at them, I caught 3 pairs of little eyes watching me like I was a Wiggles DVD. Grandpa received my sleep status update with a whisper.

I probably should have cut my $12 loss on the ticket and walked back to the visitor centre from there instead of following a bunch of painful people through a largely unimpressive cave.

The last cave I was in was at Waitomo, New Zealand where I abseiled through two waterfalls and got to rock scramble. That was exciting. The cave before that in Margaret River, Western Australia was incredibly beautiful and full of formations.

This dry cavern wasn’t particularly interesting, even less so when you are traipsing behind oohing and aahing Americans in a conga line that’s enough to make someone claustrophobic.

Thankfully the last little bit of the tour took us through the only patch of stalagmites and stalactites in the 300 plus miles of Mammoth Cave, the biggest in the world. That was interesting, but sadly my enthusiasm had completely disappeared and I needed to get away from the herd.

Now I’m hellbent on avoiding anything that is “family friendly”. I need more excitement than those type of activities can muster up. Or maybe I just need to be more tolerant. A situation greatly aided with a good amount of sleep.