The Canadian Arctic Circle

Outside the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport

After several years, and a few interruptions along the way, I finally made it from the tip to the top of the Americas when I landed inside the Canadian Arctic Circle.

It was well below freezing when I arrived at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory late in the evening, so after a quick selfie, I headed straight for my hotel.

The following day, the snow was crunching beneath my feet as I wandered around the streets chatting to locals and other tourists.

My walk along the river was very scenic

I went for a walk along the river, and found that the trees were all lit up with fairy lights, which was quite a site.

So my goal of being inside the Antarctic Circle and then travelling up to the Arctic Circle via the Americas was achieved.

There was only one thing left that I wanted to do: see the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis to give them their correct name.

Photo courtesy of Leigh McAdam from Hike Bike Travel

I wasn't able to book onto a bus tour to see them that evening, so I decided to walk out to the edge of the town and view them from there instead. There are too many lights in town, so the further out you go the better the view.

It's not possible to capture them with the camera on a phone. You need a tripod and a quality camera. So the image opposite is not one I took, but I did see something similar.

Vancouver City

Five years ago, I crossed into the Antarctic Circle, and then visited various parts of Argentina, Chile, Panama and Cuba.

A year later, I came back to the Americas and travelled from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Now, I've just arrived in Canada to complete the last leg of my trip from the 'tip to the top' of the Americas.

I'm staying with a friend at her house in West Vancouver, which has a great view of the bay during the day and at night, as you can see.

The bad news is that it has been raining quite heavily ever since I arrived, but the good news is that it's snowing up in the mountains, so I'll have to get up to Whistler to do some skiing before I leave!

And while in Canada, I plan to fly into the Arctic Circle, so that I can complete my trip from the 'tip to the top' of the Americas.

A day in San Francisco

Sea lions basking in San Francisco harbour.

I spent the last night of this holiday in San Jose, which is about 50 miles south of San Francisco. I had to return the van to Fisherman's Wharf by 10 am, and it took nearly three hours in the traffic to get there. No comment!

Once I had dropped off the van, I took a 90-minute cruise on the harbour. We went under the Golden Gate Bridge and then a couple of times around Alcatraz Island before passing more than a hundred barking sea lions on our way back in.

One of the many Exploratorium exhibits

I then went to see the Exploratorium science museum. The museum has moved to a large warehouse building on Pier 15. It only took me about 30 minutes to walk around because there was little of interest inside that I hadn't seen before. Apparently the California Academy of Sciences is now the place to go for science in this city, but I didn't have time to check it out.

At the airport, United Airlines were offering all passengers a US$400 travel voucher to go on their flight the following day because they had over-booked. They kept increasing the offer to get more passengers to change. By the time we started to board, it had gone up to US$600 with a late check-out at the airport hotel and free meal vouchers all day. They sounded desperate, so I told them I would do it if they booked me in to first class, but they declined!

Pebble Beach and Carmel

Along the coast between Monterey and Carmel.

I drove along the coastal road between Monterey and Carmel and took lots of photos of the spectacular views. It was so beautiful and calming that I stopped to do some writing.

It was sunny like every other day on my trip, but quite windy; however, this was great because it really whipped up the waves on to the rocks.

The 18th green at Pebble Beach Golf Club.

I drove along 17-mile Road, which was very scenic and full of amazing mansions. This is the place I would live if I had millions to spend. Not only because of the spectacular coastline, but because it runs through Pebble Beach Golf Club. The golf fans among you will know that this famous links golf course has hosted the U.S. Open five times. I had a beer in the club house as I looked out over the 18th green.

The Waterboys live on stage.

Do you remember the Irish folk/rock band, The Waterboys? Well, last night, I went to see them play in Carmel. It was an intimate venue with less than 1,000 seats. The last time I saw them live was in June 1986, when they and The Cult were supporting Simple Minds at the Milton Keynes Bowl. Totally different venue! They were just as good though, and it was a great way to cap my last evening in the States.

After the show, I drove up to San Francisco so that I could have a day of city sight-seeing before flying home.

Monterey Aquarium

Feeding the fish at Monterey Aquarium.

Monterey Aquarium was amazing! One of the best science centres I have visited in the world - and I have been to a lot! I was only there a couple of hours, but could easily have spent all day there.

I learnt so much about marine life, even though I am not particularly interested in the subject. I came away educated about which fish to eat and not - in terms of reducing pollution and helping with conservation, breeding, etc. I learned about jellyfish, sea otters, but more importantly, I came away wanting to know more!

The highlight was a talk about the fish that live out in the bay, which was given from inside a giant fish tank. As the presenter hand-fed fish, several sharks were circling her - see photo. Yes, that is right, she had a microphone inside her mask! As you can imagine, this talk drew a large crowd.

The place was massive, there must have been over a thousand people of all ages in there, and it was only a Monday lunchtime.

Next stop is Carmel - I just bought ticket to see a famous Irish folk/rock band, who are playing there tomorrow evening. Any guesses who they might be?

Big Sur and Hollister

The Waterfall Walk at Big Sur.

I drove up the Californian coastline with a mixture of cars, campervans and motorbikes from Morro Bay to the Big Sur. It was a beautiful day and one the most spectacular coastal drives I have ever done!

Just before I arrived here, the U.S. Federal Government ran out of money, and has sent all of its non-essential employees home without pay, so all of the National Parks are closed. This meant that I was unable to visit Yosemite National Park which was top of my sight-seeing list.

This did not apply to the state parks such as the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where I went on the Waterfall Walk. If you look carefully enough at the photo, you can see the waterfall pouring onto the beach, just to the side of my left elbow. Thanks to Narelle for recommending this stop.

Johnny's Bar and Grill at Hollister.

I then cut inland to visit a friend in Hollister, who owns Johnny's Bar and Grill. This is where The Wild One was shot, the 1953 film about outlaw bikers starring Marlon Brando.

I have just arrived back at the coast because tomorrow, I plan to spend the day sight-seeing around the Monterey and Carmel area.

Santa Barbara and Morro Bay

Me with my campervan in front of the Morro Bay Rock.

I was trying to hire a motorbike or car to travel up the coastal road from LA to San Francisco when I came across this campervan. The company needed it taking up to San Francisco, so I was happy to oblige them. It comes with a double bed, fridge and sink in the back. I couldn't believe my luck - no more hotels for the rest of my trip!

I headed for Santa Barbara, which was very smart, but didn't stay too long, as I found it very pretentious and fake, so I moved on after only a couple of hours.

Next stop was Morro Bay, which I have fallen in love with. It reminds me a little of Byron Bay. It is very relaxing and I am getting lots of writing done, so I plan to stay here for a few days.

The Morro Bay Rock as seen from the Embarcadero.

The town of Morro Bay as seen from the rock.

On the set of the new TV show, 'Undateable'

Today, I took a break from working on my screenplay to go to an English pub in Hollywood for lunch, where I watched Manchester City get outclassed by Bayern Munich!

This evening, I went to the Warner Brothers Studios to be part of the audience for Undateable, a situation comedy coming soon to NBC TV. Chris D'Elia plays a confident slacker, who has inherited romantically challenged friends. It was extremely funny, and made me realise that I don't laugh enough in my life. There was a comedian in the audience, who kept us laughing in between the scenes. There was one scene that was so funny that it took about eight takes because the actors could not keep a straight face.

It took about four hours to film all the scenes of one 30-minute episode. What I found interesting was that the actors followed the script on the first take of each scene, but then started to ad-lib in the second or third takes, which was often very funny. Watch out for the show in your part of the world next season. It is a great way to spend an evening in L.A. because it is totally free and they even give you food!

Paramount Pictures Studio Tour

On the studio tour at Paramount Pictures.

I went on the 11 am studio tour at Paramount Pictures. Of the three studio tours that I have done so far, this was the least exciting. We drove around in a golf cart passing one big building after another being told that inside was where they shot some American TV show or other. The only part that was vaguely interesting was the car park that they occasionally fill with water to make into a giant pool of water in which they can make waves, so they can shoot scenes at sea; however, all we saw was a car park!

This evening, I met Suzanne de Passe, the former president of Motown Productions, who has won multiple Emmys and has been nominated for an Academy Award. It was fascinating to hear about her life, which all came down to being in the right place at the right time. Los Angeles has so many opportunities to meet interesting and influential people!

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

On the set of Friends with some new friends!

I went on a tour at Warner Brothers Studios this morning. They were busy setting up all over the place for a day of filming for the movie Jersey Boys directed by Clint Eastwood.

Ellen Degeneras' crew were setting up in the adjacent lot for her talk show. See this funny video clip of her trying annoy Clint outside the lot next door!

I then went over for a tour of the Los Angeles Campus of the New York Film Academy to check out their post-grad courses in scriptwriting, before spending some time working on my script.

Screenwriters World Conference 2013

Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles

I have just  spent the last three days at the Screenwriters World Conference 2013 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. It was nice to stay at a luxury hotel for a couple of nights and mingle with lots of budding screenwriters from all around the world.

I attended some great talks and got plenty of feedback on the structure of my story. I have started a screenwriting blog, which I will keep separate from my travel blog. The plan is to record the trials and tribulations that will take me, a rookie screenwriter, from the first draft to the final draft of my first ever screenplay!

I must get some sleep now, because I have to be up early tomorrow as I am going on a VIP tour of the Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, and then I am going for a tour of one of the film schools nearby.

California ScienCentre and Sony Pictures Studios

This morning, I went down to the California ScienCentre, and the highlight was getting close-up to the space shuttle, Endeavour.

In Los Angeles, it sometimes feels more like a Spanish holiday resort than America, as most of the signs are in English and Spanish, and many of the large billboard adverts are in Spanish only; but what is really weird is every now and then, someone approaches me in American English just as I am about to talk using my best Spanish!

Today, I found some traffic lights with beeps, except they sounded more like a bird tweeting, which took me by surprise at first!

This afternoon, I went on a two-hour tour of the Sony Pictures Studios, which was really cool. The part that I enjoyed most was not what I was expecting... As part of the Drive Around The World documentary series, Buzz Aldrin (Apollo astronaut) and Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder) will be filmed driving to the South Pole in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and for a short while, we got to watch their vehicles being assembled!

My screenwriters' conference begins tomorrow at midday, so there will be no more tourist updates until Monday.

Hollywood

I took a tourist bus around the sites and up to the hills.

This morning, I caught a public bus from Santa Monica Beach to Hollywood, which took about an hour through the traffic!

I found a great little hotel only a few blocks from the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

I took a two-hour tourist bus tour of the Beverly Hills mansions, which were fascinating. Bernie Ecclestone's daughter had the largest mansion, but I like the Beckham's one the best.

I couldn't resist seeing a psychic: She told me that this trip would be very successful and that she could see me settling in L.A. and having a very successful career in films. I bet she says that to all the guys!

Tomorrow, is my last free day before my screenwriters' conference, and I plan to visit one or two of the film studios.

Santa Monica

Where the Santa Monica Blvd meets the beach.

When I arrived in Los Angeles, I took a bus from the airport to Santa Monica beach, where I had lunch at an English pub, while watching a Chelsea game live!

I walked around the town and then towards Venice Beach looking for a motel, which I eventually found.

My biggest obstacle was the traffic lights. It is illegal to jay walk in the US, which I knew, so had to wait for sign. However, there are no beeps here, so if you are distracted and not continuously starring at the sign, you can miss your turn to cross!

I thought the place would be wealthy and conservative, which it was, but there were also a lot of hippie new age shops, vegan cafes, psychic readers - a bit like Byron Bay I suppose.

The motel was cheap and nasty, and also very noisy, so I decided to relocate to Hollywood.

Why start this leg of the trip in L.A.?

Hyatt Regency Century Plaza,
Avenue of the Stars, L.A.

I will be attending the Screenwriters' World Conference in Los Angeles, a high-level networking and educational summit designed by The Writers Store to help budding writers learn how to write and sell a screenplay. They can then put those skills into action during networking events that directly connect themselves with key executives in the movie and television Industry who can help move their writing career forward. The diverse schedule offers a wide variety of topics and tactics for screenwriters at every career and skill level, so they can design a track for themselves with useable information on everything from the latest screenwriting trends to finding representation to selling that spec!

After a break, the blog continues...

Last year, I travelled from the Antarctic Circle through Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Panama and Cuba in a six-week trip. After some time back in Australia to finish my PhD and save up some money, I am now ready to continue where I left off. Next week, I am flying from Sydney into Los Angeles International Airport for the next stage of my journey from the tip to the top of the Americas!

After a couple of days to acclimatise, I am going to attend the Screenwriters World Conference West 2013, which I am really looking forward to. Then, the plan is hire a motorbike and travel up the coast to San Francisco, but really anything could happen!

My Cuba Blog - finally uploaded!

Cuba is a large tropical island situated between Florida and Jamaica. It is a communist country, and because it has no diplomatic relations with the US, there are very few American tourists – the majority I met were European or Canadian. Like most Latin American countries, there appeared to be the few rich and the rest poor. I saw nobody starving, begging or ill on the street, as they have social security and free medical health here. Cuba’s literacy rate is one of the highest in the world, and all education is free from kindergarten to university. There is very little crime as penalties are severe; a police officer told me that if he caught the woman who robbed me, she would serve 15 years in jail, and he said he had an 80% chance of catching her. 

There is a lot of prostitution around, which the authorities seem to turn a blind eye to. The girls did not harass me, but the same could not be said for the taxi drivers, who were continually touting business from tourists. One local student told me that he thought about 80% of the girls at his university were on the game to help them get through college. He told me that students receive about $20 a month to live on, so they never get a chance to drink beer or eat out, etc., and that upon graduation, they are obliged to work for the government for three years at lower than average wages.


There are two economies in Cuba, and two currencies to support them. For example, you use CUCs (which are about equal to one dollar) to pay for a tourist taxi, which has a meter and costs about $8 to get from one side of Havana to the other. The locals use CUPs (the national currency) when taking a local taxi; they cost about 40c per person and stop to pick up and drop off passengers as they go along the main routes in and out of the city. Tourists can take these taxis, but at their own risk, and don’t expect the driver to speak any English. Once I got the hang of them, I used to catch the local taxis, but mainly because I used to love travelling in the old American cars from the 50s.


If you know where you are going, and you don’t mind getting crushed, you can always take a local bus, which costs less than 2c per trip. If you eat in a tourist restaurant, you pay using CUCs, which usually works out at about $10 a meal. If you eat from one of the street stalls, you pay using CUPs, and can buy for example a freshly fried piece of fish in a burger bun with chilli sauce for about 20c. I found it such good value, that one day, I ate four of them for breakfast and then skipped lunch!


The cars are amazing: a mixture of battered or renovated 50-year-old American cars, 20-year-old Russian cars, and a few modern German cars. I even saw an old Russian motorbike ride past me on my last day. The intercity coaches are made in China and are very modern and comfortable. There are hundreds of them taking tourists all over the island. A six-hour journey costs about $25. 


There are some places where tourists are forced to pay a higher price, such as at the cinemas. However, if you don’t dress like a tourist and can speak Spanish, you can get away with paying the lower price (less than $2). Even though there were no American shops or products in Havana, there were plenty of both old and new Hollywood movies playing in the cinemas, which seemed strange to me because most Hollywood movies I know are propaganda for the ‘American way of life’.


Another highlight for me was trekking a couple of hours up the mountain inland from the city of Trinidad to visit a waterfall. Once there, I was able to dive off the top of the cliffs because the water was 9 m deep in the middle. I then swam into a cave behind the waterfall. It reminded me of where the dragon lived in the movie, Dragon Heart, with the voice of Sean Connery.


At this point, you may be wondering how a seasoned traveller like me managed to get robbed. To cut a long story short, I was chatting in Spanish with a local woman on the terrace near my room. When I wasn’t looking, she must have spiked my drink because the next thing I remember was waking up the next morning. She had taken the room keys from my pocket, entered my room and got away with my laptop, iPad, camera, and over $1,000 in various foreign currencies, even though these items were well hidden in various places inside my room. She took my toilet bag as well, which was very annoying because toiletries are very difficult to come by in Cuba. For example, it took me over a week to buy replacement sun cream, and when I did, a tiny tube cost me $15. I wasn’t as bothered about losing my insured items as I was about losing all of my holiday photos. You may ask, why did I have so much cash on me? There is a 10% surcharge on changing US dollars in Cuba, and I made the mistake of bringing US$1,000 into the country, so it would have cost me an extra $100 to change them on top of the normal charges. Therefore, I decided to keep them and used my VISA card to withdraw CUCs from a bank as and when I needed them.


In every other country that I visited in Latin America, the hotels and backpackers had free Wi-Fi for internet access, and it was quite fast. In Cuba, however, the only way I found for tourists to use the internet was in the business centres of the four or five-star hotels; it cost up to $10 an hour, was as slow as a dial-up connection, and all social sites including Facebook and Skype were blocked.


Even though Cubans are all after your money, they are not generally out to rob you; most try to offer you a win-win deal with their product or service. For example, I was introduced to a Spanish teacher by one of the language schools. We came to a private arrangement where we spoke a mixture of Spanish and English for several hours a day while he acted as my tourist guide, we always sat down for a formal Spanish lesson for one hour a day, and all I paid for this was $10 a day. I thought it sounded a bit cheap until he told me that when he worked for the language school, he only earned about $10 a week. We got on so well, that we ended up going to the city of Trinidad for the weekend, where he showed me around town and introduced me to some locals he knew there.


The big hotels charge over $100 a night, and all the staff speak English. I stayed in one of these for only one night when in the tourist area of Varadero – just to know what it was like – and I might as well have been in a hotel in Florida, or the Gold Coast in Queensland. There was no Cuban ambience, and the hotel food catered totally to the tastes of the European tourists. A much better experience can be had by staying in the ‘casa particulares’, which exist in virtually every street of the main cities. These are houses where a family rent out one or more of their spare bedrooms for between $20 and $30 a night – if you share a room, you only pay half of that amount. For an extra few dollars, they will cook you an authentic Cuban dinner, or make you a cooked breakfast with fresh tropical fruit to follow. One or two backpackers’ hostels have recently appeared on the scene, but a shared room can still often be better value. Another good deal worth looking out for in Cuba is that you can pay about $15 for a one-hour full-body massage.

The legend of Ernest Hemmingway is alive and well in Havana, the city where he spent the last part of his life. You can visit his home, and the bars where he used to drink, order a mojito cocktail just the way he used to have it made, etc. While I was there, I read his novel, The Old Man and the Sea, which is about an old Cuban fisherman. I also bought a couple of books to read on the plane on the way home. One was about the relationship between the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela, the two most socialist countries in Latin America. The other was about the military coup that took place in Santiago de Chile in 1973, when General Pinochet overthrew the socialist President Allende. It discusses the relationship between Chile and Cuba in the three years before the coup, when Allende was running the country. Reading these books helped me to put into perspective the pros and cons of a socialist society.


So, in conclusion, I am more than glad that I visited Cuba. Even though I was drugged and robbed, I spent some lovely time travelling around with a couple of female backpackers from Belgium, and then later another couple of girls from Sweden. I improved my Spanish enormously, became very good friends with my Spanish teacher and his fiancée. Their crazy dream is to spend their honeymoon in Australia, which is surely impossible unless the political situation changes dramatically in Cuba. There are not many ways for Cubans to travel abroad, unless for example, you are a diplomat, a famous musician, a singer, or an athlete competing overseas.


Depending on the political path that Cuba chooses, overseas travel may one day be possible for my friends. If not, I will have to return to visit them in the not-too-distant future, and see more of this beautiful tropical island with its amazing cars, and rum cocktails; and next time, I must remember to work on my salsa dancing before I go!

Panama City and Canal

The Panama Canal is a real engineering feat. Three gates on the Pacific side of the country and three on the Atlantic side with a giant man-made lake in between 26 m above sea level. This photo was taken at the Miraflores Locks, which are just outside of Panama City. As you can see, there are two lanes for the ships to use. A third one is being built, which will allow much larger vessels to pass through. It should be ready in time for the canal's centenary in 2014.

Casco Antiguo is the colonial part of the city, and is full of beautifully restored buildings. There are lots of tourists there as you can imagine.

From Casco Antiguo, you can see the city centre which is full of sky-scrapers. The canal has made Panama a much wealthier country than its neighbours. The new lane will make it even richer. They are in the process of building a Metro under the city at the moment because the traffic is terrible! I am about to jump in a cab to the airport to fly to Havana for a couple of weeks.

The most amazing football match ever!

The highlight of my trip so far was going to watch a football match in Buenos Aires, which has to be the most amazing match I have ever been to - and I have been to many! The Boca Juniors stadium is sold out. The teams enter the field, the crowd get even louder - if that is possible - and the confetti goes everywhere. This is a local derby after all, so there are a large contingent of away fans. Boca haven't lost for 33 games in the league and Independiente have lost all of their first four games this season, so are bottom of the table.

I have often wondered how the fans can see through all of those streamers. I was sitting in the third tier and they were in the second, so I will never know! Independiente score after less than one minute. Instead of a shocked quietness around the stadium, the home fans take it in their stride and get louder - they are amazing! Independiente score again only a few minutes later, and the Boca fans up the tempo again. Six minutes later Boca pull one goal back and it is game on.

However, after half an hour, Independiente score a third and their fans' wildest dreams are coming true! Boca score another goal on the stroke of half time, so go in 2-3 down at the break. My friend says he is confident that Boca can turn it around and win. Just listen to the crowd he says, they really believe in their team. I am not so sure. It would have to be a very unlucky team that scores three goals at Boca and then loses. The teams come back out for the second half and the entertainment continues... Boca equalise after 20 mins, and then take the lead with only 15 minutes to go.

With only two minutes left, I shuffle through the dancing and singing Boca supporters to take a photo of the scoreboard behind me, which shows the memorable 4-3 come-back score. And then, guess what? Independiente equalise - their supporters are now letting off red flairs into the dark night sky. Everyone around me is shocked, but then the chanting starts up again, as there are still several minutes of injury time to play. The ever-hopeful Boca fans still think there is time for a winner.

After I have shuffled back to my seat, four minutes of injury time have passed, so I am waiting for the ref to blow his final whistle, when Independiente suddenly score a famous winner with the last kick of the game!
It is a shame that I am leaving Argentina tomorrow to fly to Chile because I can't wait to go to my next football Argentine game!

Half Moon Island

On our way back to Argentina, there was time for one last stop in the South Shetland Islands. You can see some of us kayaking in front of the Argentinian base on Half Moon Island.

A fur seal barking.

This beach was absolutely packed with fur seals. All of the young bucks were practising their fighting skills, getting ready for the mating season.