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La Paz seems like a long time a go but it was only a few short
weeks.

Three days at high altitude and then we were off to even higher
planes. Potosi was the first where we stayed in the town which claims
to be the highest in South America and at 4900m, who am I to argue?
Walking up the streets was hard work but the locals made it look easy
as old ladies with loads on their back over took and disappeared from
view before I had gone a quarter the distance. Galling! It is also a
town known for its mountain of silver. The Spanish found this great
wealth irresistible even to the point that they revoked a papal
proclamation decrying the use of coca leaves by the indigenous
peoples when they discovered that the use of said leaf meant the
miners could work for long periods without food or sleep and did not
complain about much.

Coca leaf is endemic in Bolivia and parts of Peru as a substance
to chew or tea to drink. It staves off hunger, helps with the
altitude, and generally makes a hard life seem more bearable. It was
originally in Coca Cola and as a close cousin to cocaine has been
extensively researched. I had some tea and all it did was make me pee
but others chewed it and their mouths went numb. It is definitely an
acquired taste!

Potosi is very grey but the people were friendly and the air was
clean. Unlike the rivers which are polluted by the mining that
continues today. Now, it is run as a co-operative and the working
conditions leave everything to be desired. I did not go down the
mines as I am a bit claustrophobic but those who did said it was
amazing. After the loveliest days drive through multicoloured hills
and valleys we got to Sucre. This is a Spanish colonial town that has
the prettiest square and a nice feel about the place.

According to our drivers it was also the nicest hotel we will stay
in. Very plush and friendly. Having had a birthday in Puno and
another in La Paz we had a third in Sucre. Given our driver,
Simon's, aversion to such things, we surprised him with a
breakfast party complete with cake, champagne, balloons, presents and
a full English breakfast. A good time was had by all – even the
birthday boy! The trucks left us the next day and two drivers took
them the long way round to meet us in Chile as we were off to cross
the salt flats and the trucks would not have made it through the mud
flats that lead into Chile.

A bus trip to Uyuni which took all day and we got up the next day
to head off to Chile. First stop was to see the salt being shovelled
off the flat and into tip-trucks. Due to the rains there was a
shallow layer of water on the flat but that did not bother anyone as
we got out and paddled around. It took three hours to drive out to a
rocky island called Fish Island. This reflects its shape rather than
the presence of any animal in the water. It is also covered in cacti,
the oldest of which are 1200 – 1500 years old. Beautiful white blooms
decorated some and they all grew up in strange and wonderful
shapes.

By five in the afternoon our jeep had reached the shore nearest to
San Juan, and we were hooning along to try and get there by dark. The
reason for the rush was that we seemed to have gotten the most
patient driver and the dodgiest jeep. It must have broken down six
times and all of us had visions of being stuck there for hours.
Nelson fixed it every time though, so no complaints. San Juan was a
bit of a non-event. The lights go out at 10pm and although we heard
after that there had been a disco, it's hard to give the notion
credence. Beautiful stars though.

Next day was through dry country, and barren, but incredibly
beautiful with it. Most is a protected area but it would be
impossible to make a living there as nothing much grows. There were
vicuñas and vizcachas (relatives of llamas and rabbits
respectively) but not much else. We saw flamingos in coloured lakes
and I took far too many photos. We had lunch in a snow storm at
5000m, and got to our nights accommodation in time for a hail storm.
Excellent! Up at 4.30am the next morning to go see a geyser but I
suspect the real reason is to make sure you have plenty of time to
clear Chilean customs when you got there. In between we saw more
coloured lakes and flamingos, mud pools and hot thermal springs for
soaking feet in. All very good.

Crossing into Chile was not a problem despite the time factor and
we were installed into our Christmas campsite by 2pm. That was
December 23rd, and the next two days were spent cooking, eating,
singing, sleeping, drinking and generally having a good time. On Dec.
26th I went down to Santiago on an overnight bus (whole journey took
24 hours) to get my visa sorted out for Brazil and then went back to
meet the group for New Year at a place called La Serena. A good time
was had by all and suddenly it was 2002.

Since then we have been to Santiago to collect new group members
(our passenger group rose to 18 in number) and collect mail. Thank
you to all my friends who wrote, it was much appreciated. Our group
is now in Pucon, centre of the Chilean lake district, and watched
over by the Osorno volcano which is happily puffing out smoke as I
type. From here it is on to points south and Tierra del Fuego mid –
January. While things in Argentina have been volatile, we are hoping
that they will have calmed down before we get to Buenos Aires, and in
order to spend more time in Chile, we will NOT be going to Paraguay.
Rio in Carnival and I shall be there on February 9th.

That about brings you up to date. Life is never dull when
travelling overland and I am looking forward to the challenges and
adventures of the next few weeks

Thanks Jacqui and keep us posted! If anyone would like to
contact Jacqui, her e-mail is: jacquitrotter@yahoo.com

What have you seen on your travels? Drop a line to the Beetle!

We had two excellent speakers in February! First was Alastair
Lee who gave us a multi-dimensional view of his travels in China
and his very close up views of climbing various horrifically vertical
mountains in Northern Yunnan. He spoke of the friendships he and his
girlfriend struck up with people who lived close by who were
fascinated by some of his climbing equipment, the weather which
looked like it was going to defeat them and entertained us with some
great poses and a dancing finale! Alastair has published a fabulous
climbing guide on New Zealand. Take a look at his web site: posingproductions.com

After the tea and coffee break, Ben Nimmo spoke of his
cathartic pilgrimage complete with trombone from Canterbury to
Santiago de Compostela, in Spain. He regaled us with hilarious
tales of some of the larger than life characters he met en route, the
amount of beer and wine he sampled, all out of a sense of duty and
through a spirit of comradeship, of course, and in particular the
story of how he became a god father to a little girl in France. Funny
stories, great pictures, wonderful trip, Ben! Ben has written a
highly moving and entertaining book called Pilgrim Snail documenting
his pilgrimage. Pilgrim Snail is available now in bookshops and
the following website fireandwater.co.uk and Ben's
next book 'In Forkbeard's Wake' is out in January
2003.

Coming next, on Saturday 2nd March, we have Philip Koniotes
talking about “The Antarctic Peninsular.” Philip has
regularly travelled to the Arctic dog-sledding and has travelled
extensively, including diving around the world and making five polar
trips – the Antarctic has been his most recent journey. He loves the
space and trying to capture it on film. After the break, Mark
Elliott will be talking on “Saving Kilum Forest” set in
NW Cameroon – about curious kingdoms and unique mountain forests.
Mark is standing in for Juliet Coombe who is unable to attend the
Globetrotter meeting due to a car accident in Australia. She is okay
but not yet fit to fly

London meetings are
held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune
Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month.
There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back on Saturday
1^st September. For more information, you
can contact the Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or
visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

If you already live in the UK, or know that you will be in the UK
in April, why not zip over to France? The low cost airline, Buzz is
offering discounts on 15 routes from the UK to France.

You have to book by March 5th and the journey must be taken
between 3 and 30 April 2002. Below are the (one way) prices they
quote – the cost of the return is about the same!

From just £19 one way you can buzz off to Brest – Brittany,
Caen – Normandy, Rouen – Normandy or Paris (CDG).

From just £24 one way you can discover the delights of Dijon
– Burgundy, La Rochelle, Tours – Loire Valley, Limoges, Poitiers or
Grenoble – Lyon.

From just £29 one way you can explore Bergerac – Dordogne,
Bordeaux, Marseilles Provence, Toulon – St Tropez or Toulouse.

For full terms and conditions, or to book, visit www.buzzaway.com

Hola from Laurie!

Our next meeting will be March 2, 2002. The usual: 4:00pm at the
Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street.

The subject is MEXICO! I will be in Mexico myself at the end of
February but will be back in time for our March meeting… Matt
Link is back again! And along with Gretchen Kelly, they
will explain the interior of the Yucatan peninsula with an emphasis
of staying at small villages near archeological sites in lieu of
staying at the plastic, commercial areas like Cancun. They will delve
into the mysteries of the Maya, touching upon their spiritual
practices and history in the area, as well as present day problems
modern Maya face in Mexico. They will also be visiting the historic
town of Merida as well, one of the loveliest towns in the country. We
will have slides as well as some arts and crafts to pass around. Both
Matt and Gretchen have attended the Maya World Conference, a meeting
of all the countries that have Mayan populations. So this will
undoubtedly be a slide show and lecture not to miss!

Gretchen Kelly is the News Editor for Business Traveler
magazine and the travel editor for Design Times magazine. Recent
feature stories Gretchen has worked on include profiles of Buenos
Aires (where she interviewed Eva Peron's living relatives),
Aboriginal Australia and the story of porcelain from Dresden to
Chungking. She is currently at work on a feature article about
Jakarta, Indonesia. For those of you who did not meet Matt at
previous meetings, he has been traveling since the age of twelve,
when he boarded his family's boat for five years and sailed
around the Pacific including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea,
Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, and New Zealand, where he attended
high school. He hasn't stopped since, having visited dozens of
countries in Eurasia and living for a number of years in both Hong
Kong and Hawaii, where he ran kayak tours and published the guidebook
Rainbow Handbook Hawaii. He now lives in New York where he works with
Arthur Frommer as Associate Editor of the magazine Budget Travel. See
you all soon. Adios!

New York meetings
are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich
Stand Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive
on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

The first two months of each year are a busy time for anyone
interested in travel shows in London. In early January, we had the
Daily Telegraph Travel Show that was held at Olympia. It was huge and
included attractions such as a revolving climbing wall and a large
inflatable pool for would-be scuba divers to try out their under
water skills. The Globetrotters Club was well represented, as always
– thanks to Dick for organizing the stand. A large number of
Globetrotter members turned out on Saturday and Sunday to offer free
travel advice to members of the public who were thinking of
travelling; Central and South America seemed to be extremely popular
planned travel destinations. All the usual adventure and overland
companies were represented.

A couple of weeks after the Daily Telegraph Show, there was the
Destinations travel show, also held at Olympia. This is more an
opportunity for tourist offices to offer brochures and advice to help
people plan their trips to specific countries rather than longer term
round the world trips.

The final show, the Independent Travellers World show is usually
in late February. It was again held at the much smaller venue, the
Business Design Centre in Islington. Compared to last year's
effort, (and previous years, which, quite frankly were awful!) this
show was far, far better. The emphasis was mostly on independent and
backpacker travel with fewer tourist offices being represented – more
overland truck companies, gap year organizations etc. There were
loads of freebies – these included baseball hats, key rings, free
T-shirts, lots of sweeties (candies) and mugs from shipping insurance
companies!

The last meeting was on January 18th: Ann Dohler talked about her
recent trip to Peru, the Galapagos and the Amazon. The next meeting
is on Friday, March 15th at 8 p.m. Bruce Weber will be giving a
“SAMPLER OF YUCATAN”.

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact: Svatka
Hermanek: shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca or Bruce Weber: tel.
416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Toronto GT Meetings are held on the third Friday of January,
March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op,
Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.
(Wilton St is a very short E-W street south of and parallel to
Esplanade, east of Jarvis – just around the corner from St.Lawrence
Market)

Thanks go to Frank in the US for the following:

At a Budapest zoo: PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. IF YOU HAVE
ANY SUITABLE FOOD, GIVE IT TO THE GUARD ON DUTY.

Doctor's office, Rome: SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER
DISEASES. Hotel, Acapulco: THE MANAGER HAS PERSONALLY PASSED ALL THE
WATER SERVED HERE.

Car rental brochure, Tokyo: WHEN PASSENGER OF FOOT HEAVE IN
SIGHT, TOOTLE THE HORN. TRUMPET HIM MELODIOUSLY AT FIRST, BUT IF HE
STILL OBSTACLES YOUR PASSAGE THEN TOOTLE HIM WITH VIGOUR.

Write in and tell us your funny sign! Drop a line to the Beetle!

It was a marvelous meeting: Chris from Austin did a first
class slide show of the Greek Isles and provided a map for each of us
so we would know where we were for each slide. We exchanged travel
advice, ideas and materials. A bunch went to the Hoity Toit
afterwards for a great time. 21 people attended the February meeting,
5 of whom were new. Once again, thanks to Pauline and Frommer for
helping to publicise the Texas meetings – except, now Christina says
she really needs a secretary!

In the March Globies, Chris will give a slide show of
Turkey and tabletop discussion of 2/3 night great get-aways. After
the meeting, for anyone who'd like to continue the discussions,
we will adjourn to a local hostelry, to be advised at the
meeting.

Meetings are held at
3pm at the New Braunfels Public Library, 700 E. Common Street in New
Braunfels, Texas. The meeting ends at 5 p.m. If you would like to
continue travel talk on a more informal basis, we plan to adjourn to
the Hoity-Toit, a local New Braunfels establishment. If anybody would
like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her
on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

When he's not tying his body into knots, Padmassana is a bit
of a globetrotter on the quiet. Here are his nominations for best and
worst airports:

Best:

1 Dubai: great facilities, clean, everything is so cheap and it is
the only airport where you see Rolls Royce's and Ferraris
inside!

2 Hong Kong: well organised, lots to do if your plane is
delayed

3 Zurich: the escalators are constructed in such a way that you
can wheel your trolley onto them and the wheels lock into place!

4 Tokyo: clean, well organised, the conveyor belt has traffic
lights so not too much luggage is loaded on to it at any one time, so
that bags don't fall off!

5 Moscow: the best for entertainment value – you have to guess
which gate your plane leaves from and race there! (The Beetle would
like to add this also happened to her at San Jose in Costa Rica
airport too!)

Padmassana's worst airports included Luxor for bribery (the
Beetle also experienced this after a diving holiday in the Red Sea.
At Hurgahada the man who x-rayed luggage wanted a tip/bribe, as did
the man who checked you in, as did the man who lifted your bags on to
the conveyor belt to the storage place prior to the plane arriving),
Goa where the conveyor belt chews your luggage, Islamabad where the
customs official ate Padmassana's Milka bars, Guilin, in China,
where the runway lights were switched off on final approach.
Scary!!

Write in and tell us your best airport nominations! Contact the Beetle!

Where is it and why go? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a
collection of small states about 7 hours away from London. They have
gained wealth from their oil reserves and are often associated with
ex-pat oil workers. The UAE often hosts world class sporting events,
such as the Desert Classic (golf), the Dubai Open (tennis), horse
racing and rugby, to name but a few.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates or UAE. It is
the largest and richest state and widely known as the Garden City of
the Gulf. Abu Dhabi began as a fishing and pearl diving centre, but
is now one of the world's cleanest and most modern cities.

Dubai has always been known for its cheap duty free and the luxury
cars it raffles off in the pink marble lined foyer of the duty free.
It's now also a very popular holiday destination in its own
right, boasting the world's first 6 star hotel, many other top
notch hotels, golf courses, trips into the desert, a souk etc. You
can still the old, traditional style of dhow plying up and down the
creek that separates the city into two. Incidentally, Dubai's
annual shopping festival takes place between
1^st and 31^st
March when most stores offer significant discounts and savings!

Ras al Khaimah is on the northern tip of the UAE, only one hour
away from Dubai. Here you can escape the busy crowds and
commercialized shopping centres. Her you can find old forts and
watchtowers, old villages and mountains.

Ajman is the smallest of the states and is some 25 minutes north
of Dubai. It does not have any oil reserves, so it retains its
traditional fishing culture.

A good tour of the UAE and Muscat and Oman would be to initially
use Dubai as a base and explore: Day 1, spend time in Dubai, visit
the Jumeirah mosque, the Dubai museum, take a trip along the creek
and visit the souk. Day 2, take a day trip to Sharjah and wander
around the restored old town and the new souk. Continue to Ajman and
visit the museum that describes life in the UAE before the discovery
of oil. Day 3, take another day trip to the east coast and the state
of Fujeira. You can see mountains and gorges, oases and desert. Day
4, take another day trip to Abu Dhabi, see the skyscrapers and
palaces and visit the islands offshore. Day 5, take a trip into the
desert, climb up/roll down some sand dunes and visit the Haja
Mountains. You could stay over night in a camp and be entertained by
the inevitable belly dancer and cabaret – it's how it's done
over there!

To extend the trip, you should continue down the east coast from
Fujeirah to Sohar in Oman. Here you can see the pre-Islamic Nakhal
fort, the Sohar fort and various souks. Stay overnight and on Day 6,
continue south in Muscat and visit the fish souk, the Muttrah souk,
Al Alam Palace and the museums. Stay overnight in Muscat and on Day
7, head south west to Nizwa and see the fort and souk and various
(Jabel Shams Wadi Ghul, Al Hamra, Tanuf, Misfah, Bahla etc. Stay the
night in Nizwa and on Day 8, head for Sur and see Izki, Sinaw, Wahiba
Sands Wadi Bani Khalid. Stay overnight in Sur and on Day 9 return to
Muscat.