Campbells

I have always thought that the friendship between myself and James Grant resembled slightly that of Withnail and I. I was of course I. And he even shares Richard E.'s surname. But when we told people that we were heading to a remote cottage in the Cairngorms, somewhere about an hour south of Inverness, it turned out that everyone else also thought of us as a Withnail and I duo! However, in recent years it would probably be more correct to say that our roles have swapped. We now both believe ourselves to be I, though in fact we are both Withnail to the others eye. Yer ken? I? Och aye! So yes James drove up with me at the map to a cottage belonging to a family friend of mine. The plan was to write ... read more

South America now lies months behind, and yet I have been home for hardly 5 nights since. As a result I have decided (even though the only readers left are those in the know) to keep you all abrest with my nomadic movements. Whist travelling I was asked to join the ESYO on tour to Spain, Burgos and Barcelona. Orchestra tours vary slightly from each other, but not much. You drink at every opportunity you have, and maybe slightly more on some tours than others, but generally the aim is to get as much of the local amber nectar down your throat as you can at the locally cheaper prices, whilst still being able to play music to as good a standard as you need for the concerts. I cynically say 'as good a standard as ... read more

I think I have managed to pass through and entire country without writing a blog. And a big country too. One 5000km long and an entire time zone wide. Just like the steaks! Except that they are thicker, more juicy and dripping with blood. So yeah we got a bus to Salta alright and finally managed to escape Bolivia. We haven't been converted into political radicals, at least no more than we were, and actually have probably more stable stomachs than we entered with, though that isn't saying much. People keep commenting on how much Argentina is like Europe. And in a way it is: the people are very mixed race, it is clean, the tap water can be drunk (apparently) and food in restaraunts though costing narrowly more actually has what we call "taste". ... read more

Bolivia has to be the most actively political country in the world. It makes for very interesting conversations with locals but does somewhat get in the way of travel plans. On the limited time budget that we have we needed to get direct to Uyuni and did not have time to take in any other towns of this direct route through the country. But Uyuni, in true Bolivian style closed for three dyas at just the time we wanted to go there. And when I say closed I mean totally shut off from civilisation. Nothing was allowed to be open. People had to sneak round the back to buy food from shops that would have been in trouble if seen open. No-one could leave, to the extent that eventually 50-60 tourists protested in the central ... read more

We did finally make it to Uyuni. Isla got there in the day and booked us on a tour, found a hotel and got to enjoy the scenery from Potosi. I however travelled in the night on the worst road, in the smallest bus, but at least arrived two hours early. Uyuni is a town that dies every night after 10pm and everyone hibernates at home within their very sexy 80s ski-suits, but then unlike every other town nearby it is born-again-bustling by 8am due to the hundred plus tourists who leave for the salt flat tours each day. First stop after about 10 mins is the train graveyard. Bolivia in the Spanish conquest hayday had an impressive train network that criss-crossed the remarkably flat Altiplano allowing smooth, fast transport to virtually everywhere. But like ... read more

Is a funny place. It exemplifies a lot of the oxymoronic features that appear to be typical to Bolivia. Potosi was once a town larger than all the capitals in Europe, it grew up in a matter of decades during the Spanish conquest from a small Incan town nearby superficial silver deposits to over 200,000 people ranging from slaves to the Spanish cream of society all because of the extended silver mines that continue to be extracted some 500 years later from the nearby mountain: Cerro Rico. Not only the largest city it was, at this time, the richest in the world, and it has been said that a bridge could be built (both metaphortically and literally) from South America to Spain using just the Silver extracted from this mine. But like an Eastern European city ... read more

We are jazzing it up in La Paz. Keeping the peace and watching the revolution. This must be one of the most actively political places in the world. Probably the most. There are demonstrations literally every day from noon till midnight. We cannot leave because there is a bus strike, which hopefully has been lifted today, but nobody can say for sure. No-one is working on Sunday and there hasn't been any alchohol permitted since midnight yesterday because of the reforendum that is being held on Sunday over the costruction of a group to establish a new constitution and the division of the country into states. On the one had an exciting time to be in La Paz, but also due to the politics there seems to be nothing else worthy of mention going on. ... read more

Andean music is just what you think it is: pan-pipes, guitars, simple drumming, bad singing and the odd wooden flute type thing. In the streets during the build up to the festival this is added to sometimes with a pair of trumpets and euphoniums and maybe a cymballist. The music is very simple, highly repetitive, full of the more than odd wrong notes but enjoyably intoxicating. In the restaraunts however are all the good musicians. They get tipped by playing well, so they have to. One night we were going round all the restaraunts just asking if they could do us a jug of warm wine at a good price, eventually we found one after naming our own price. We were pleased to find a few minutes later that they had live music scheduled too. ... read more

Some freak gravitational effect caused the water from the Sea of Tranquility to flow through space and finally rest in Lake Titicaca, into whose tranquil mirror one can stare and see the source of its lunar waters. A night on the Island del Sol was enough to have myself totally addicted. Not a breath dared disturb the calm waters, giving us a near perfect reflection of the surrounding white peaks silhouted against the bluest of blue skies. The Island itself defines karma, except for the bustle and agressive businessmanship of the ferry men and children offering accomodation. WHEN I return I will have to take a boat out for a few weeks and just cruise (very slowly without wind) around the various Islands, not to mention the floating reed Islands that I didn't even visit. ... read more

Left on an overnight bus to Arequipa after watching Enlgand win their group and line up the next game with Ecuador. Lets see just how many south-american teams we can play in this cup. Bring on a game with Argentina I say, but we might become Scottish to the locals. Anyway Isla and I divided each off with an Australian couple. Isla to Puno (and then very swiftly to Copacabana) and myself to Arequipa with hopes of seeing the worlds deepest canyon, condors and then catching up with her in a few days. Well its been four days and I think we are now in different coutries! But we'll meet again, just don't know where, and I guess not when. So for my part I arrived in Arequipa at 5am. Checked out this 'white city' which ... read more