ISSUE #9
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ISSUE #9
COVER PHOTO: The Wicked Van parked up for the night by Chaxas Lagoon in Los Flamencos National Reserve. San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Written by Sandra Herd Photographer: Sandra Herd Designer: Sandra Herd Editor: Sandra Herd Research: Sandra Herd Operations: Dave Goldstraw Advertising Sales Exec: Kellie Caust www.selfindulged.com sandy@selfindulged.com www.facebook.com/selfindulgedmag Self Indulged takes no responsibility for links leading to external content. By reading this publication you are agreeing to click on external links at your own risk. The links have been included soley as a source of information.
This one has taken a while to come out...but with ‘The End of the World’ being so close, I seriously wondered if it was worth putting the effort in...enjoy! After travelling constantly for over 15 months, one of the questions I get asked the most is “Where was your favourite place.” It’s nearly impossible to answer as every place was different, every country, every city, every town had their own little pockets of delight. I can’t possibly pick an absolute favourite. However, experience wise, our ‘road trip through Chile’ from Santiago up to Iquique and then East to the amazing Atacama desert was certainly a highlight that sticks in my mind. The freedom of the open road (cliché, I know, but true!) the ability to park almost anywhere under the bright desert stars and the luxury of independent travel meant that for a brief 19 days we were off the gringo backpacker trail and in a world of our own. Check out page10 for the story. We’re now back in our beautiful home town of Perth, Western Australia. Even after all of the travel we have done WA is still one of my ‘favourite’ places. The stars in the Atacama skies were clear and the Milky Way moved across the night in a visible cloud of stars… but we get that here. The waters around the San Blas islands shimmered a perfect azure, warm and inviting…but we get that here. The seas around the West coast of South America are teaming with life, whales, sea turtles and an abundance of sea life…but we get that here too. We’re starting to wonder why we travel at all! ...It is GREAT to be home. P.S. 2013 is bringing with it BIG changes to the mag. We have so many cool places and stories to tell you about and we want to do it in a more exciting and hopefully interactive way. We’ll be opening to contributors and also changing the delivery platform. Your comments and suggestions about how we can do it better would be greatly appreciated. The next issue will be a while away while we make some changes but we’re certainly hoping it will be worth the wait!
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Wish You Were Here Where’s Dave? Gadgets, Gizmos & Goodstff Specialist Directory Parting Shots
p10 Chile: Driving through the Atacama Desert
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38 Seeking Santa: nland & Beyond
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p56 Loving Latvia
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If you’d like to send me an email with your thoughts/comments/ideas about the mag, please use the following address...
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sandy@selfindulged.com Click the bottletops above to LIKE on Facebook or to FOLLOW on Twitter. 8SELFINDULGED
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WERE HERE! Hi Sandy, The Prague photos in the last issue were fabulous. Will you be selling prints from the mag at any stage? I also struggled with the smoking as I only quit last year and the temptation was terrible. I’m heading back to Prague next year (I’m based in the UK) so will give the shiny dog a pat for you. Cheers Bobby.
Hi Sandy, Your mag is such an inspiration just wanted to make sure that now you have finished your trip you will keep the mag coming? Looking forward to future issues. Keesha W. USA We’ll be having a break while we make some changes but keep checking back...it’s gonna be good!
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Dear Sandy, ork ur mag to w I can’t get yo d is n ie fr and my on my iPad . Is ile b o m ith his struggling w on k ic cl n we ca there a way na o t o n e en we’r the links wh PC? Rob. eafraid that, b Hi Rob...I’m sh fla n ru ’t doesn casue iPad curr u o ith w gling we are strug it g platform. S rent publishin making some be tight...we will changes.
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E ART OF TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP >>>
Wicked Wanderi
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ings... Part 2
h g u o r h T Words: Sandra Herd Photography: Sandra Herd
! s r a t S & d San The library/sitting room at Tromso Bed & Books
Photo: About to exit the Maida Hill Tunnel...251m long
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It’s not often I’m lost for words…and I’m not now. It’s just that I’m not sure how to condense an 18 day road trip through the stunning landscapes of Chile into the few thousand words available to me when writing a ‘travel feature.’ So I’m doing something a little different for this one. I’m going to concentrate on the journey and not necessarily the destinations as, most of the places we visited, warrant a feature of their own in future issues. Day 1 Back on the road again. Picking up the van again in Santiago was like catching up with an old friend. We’d taken the same Wicked van a few weeks earlier into Argentina but this time we were going to be exploring the North of Chile and the van would be our home for two weeks. Our initial plan was to drive up the coast then on to San Pedro de Atacama before finishing up in the top of Chile at Iquique. This plan would later change but for now we were on the road with a plan but without a GPS…anything could happen! We left Santiago quite late in the day. By now we were used to driving on the opposite side but the merging of lanes (actually no one uses their lanes!) out of Santiago was a little unnerving in the busy traffic but soon we were on Route #5 and heading North and towards the coast.
off without purchasing a few for the road. Faces covered in icing sugar, we drove on for a few more hours before breaking the monotony with a detour around Pichidangui. We had no plans to stop but we did take 10 minutes to drive around this tiny Chilean coastal town which is located 200km north of Santiago. It was windswept and quiet in the off-season of May. The ever prevalent South American strays were wandering the streets. Groups of dogs lazing around by the roadside told us that this little town probably didn’t see very much traffic at this time of year. The houses were built up on stilts and tsunami warning signs dotted the flat, low roads, a reminder that the entire coastline of Chile is at the mercy of the (now cold and choppy) Pacific Ocean. Our first night was spent in a truck stop a few hundred yards up from a Copec petrol station. The parking, toilets and showers were free and surprisingly clean. We parked up, pleased with our discovery and set about cooking pasta from the back of the van.
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As soon as we were out of the city we started seeing people all dressed in white standing on the side of the road holding baskets and waving white flags with such ferocity that after a few miles, our curiosity got the better of us and we stopped. The covered baskets contained an assortment of meringues and pastries…their ploy was a good one. First they stir your curiosity to the point you have to stop and then they show you a basket of goodies so delicious that you couldn’t possibly drive
Day 2 A disappointing detour?
In the morning as we were preparing the van (and ourselves) to leave we were approached by a little old lady who had also stayed the night in a broken down old camper van with her broken down old husband. She tottered over to the back of our van and smiled at me exposing her solitary front tooth. She held a cup in her hand and spoke to me in Spanish. Uh-oh. After months in South America my Spanish was still rubbish. She mumbled and shook her cup at me and I offered her some water. After 5 minutes of utter confusion (and her rifling through the back storage units of the van) it dawned on me that she wanted a tea bag! Of course!….mind you she had been saying ‘tay, tay’ over and over since she’d turned up and I was just too stupid to translate. Overstocked with SELFINDULGED13
Photo: A veiw of the Andes from the lookout at Fray Jorge National Park. 14SELFINDULGED
a box of a hundred teabags we gave her a handful. It may as well have been a handful of gold she was so grateful and happy. We drove off as they sat hunched over their brew. The plan for the day was to visit Fray George National Park. It’s quite a way off the highway and, after making the visit, I’m not entirely sure it’s worth the detour. Although Fray George is a unique UNESCO biosphere reserve it takes a lot of effort to get to for not much reward. It’s famous for having a Valdivian temperate rain forest right in the middle of a desert. The coastal fog hangs on the mountain slopes and moistens a tiny patch of subtropical vegetation…the untouched, unmoistened surrounding desert makes for a little pocket of paradise in the midst of a bleak desert scrub landscape. The park entrance is about 45 minutes drive off the main highway and then a further 20 minutes uphill to the walking trail around the ‘forest’. Add to that an entrance fee of $10 for 2 people plus the cost of petrol to take the detour plus the fact there’s only one way in and out on a dirt road and I’m not sure that the few hundred square feet of greenery is really worth the effort. After saying that the view of the Andes from the lookout was spectacular. We continued our journey a further 120km up the road until we hit colourful Coquimbo which reminded me a little of Valparaiso with its colourful houses and steep, steep streets. We drove around the steep streets, attracting attention in our suitably colourful sunset van, before heading a tiny bit further up the coast and into the seaside town of La Serena. It was getting late and a beer was becoming a necessity. We weren’t really sure where we could pull up in La Serena so we parked along the beach front in one of the many parking bays and toddled off across the road to a dodgy chicken diner for a cold jug of beer while we watched the sunset and the giant Coquimbo Cross (Cruz del Tercer Milenio) light up in the distance. The location of the diner was fantastic…everything else about it was diabolical and, as the sun dropped, the 80’s megamix was turned up to ear bleeding capacity. I went to the ladies loo and found half a cigarette stubbed out in the open liquid soap dispenser, I didn’t even look at the toilet. I was off like a shot, downed the rest of the beer and went in search of a loo else-
where. We found a nicer restaurant a few doors down and enjoyed the food and the use of their facilities very much before retiring to the van. We slept in the van on the beach front where we’d parked it…safe and undisturbed. Day 3 La Serena and Coquimbo We awoke to a scene of early morning mist rolling in from the Pacific. Joggers enjoying the coolness of the early morning air did a double take as they saw us stumbling out of the van, barefoot and dishevelled. I’m not ashamed to admit that McDonalds was our first port of call. Clean loos and coffee...the only things a camper van traveller really needs. We also popped into the local hardware store to pick up some extra gas canisters and a hand held toasting utensil for the van. The rest of the day we spent exploring. The Sunday Fish Market on the docks at Coquimbo is a ‘must do’. The stench as you approach is overwhelming as the fish mongers throw the guts and waste to a cluster of stinky sea lions waiting in the dirty, festering water below. Flocks of black pelicans fight for their share among the carnage and the whole assemblage goes wild with each new bucket of scraps. Inside the markets was a selection of seafood strange to our eyes. Little pink and purple ‘bugs’ much like tiny yabbies, red fleshly lumps of meat were seemingly carved out from rocky clusters. Fresh, cheap and fabulous. Coquimbo is the scruffy yin to La Serena’s more pristine yang. Its streets are a jumble of broken down houses sprawling up the hill and culminating at the peak with Cruz del Tercer Milenio, the
Photo: A ‘cactus’ fence...wouldn’t want to break into their property!
Photo: The desert scrub of Fray Jorge National Park. 16SELFINDULGED
Photo: Coquimbo fish markets. A great place to try a fresh selection of unusaul seafood. 18SELFINDULGED
huge Coquimbo Cross which sits atop of El Vigia Hill, reminiscent of Christ the Redeemer. The 83 meter high cross is open to the public and for a small fee you can take the elevator to the lookout platform which is the horizontal portion of the cross. From above, you can spy down on all the jumbled streets and alleyways below for a wonderful insight into how the people of Coquimbo live. We ended our day at Kardamomo. A funky restaurant right on the beach we made use of their plug sockets to recharge our stuff and gazed out over the Pacific Ocean as the evening mist started rolling in. The beers weren’t the cheapest in town but the cerviche (marinade raw fish) was exquisite. Day 4 The round route There’s a clandestine war going on between Chile and Peru involving the politics of pisco. Peru claim that the drink is ‘theirs’ (and rightfully so) but there’s a deep rivalry between the 2 nations when it comes Pisco. Chileans often silence the argument by agreeing its Peruvian but claiming to make a better quality of pisco. To check out this theory we headed East on day 4 to Elqui Valley. Famous for its clear skies, muscatel vineyards and pisco production we decided that the 120km round trip to Vicuna (the main town in Elqui Valley) would be worth it. The scenery was spectacular and the tiny town of Vicuna was midcelebration. Gauchos galloped down the streets and the houses had been decorated with palm fronds and flowers. The fiesta was a national holiday in celebration of Chile’s participation in the War of the Pacific. We were desperate for a shower so pulled into Rancho Elqui campground (a tiny, privately owned campsite) and paid up for the night. It was late morning and weather was warm so we jumped into the cold shower and prepared lunch on the open fire bbq which we shared with entire family who were preparing a meat feast for their lunch. Shortly afterward the owner came out demanding more money for us to stay there, he said he’d got the price wrong. The amended price he was asking was ridiculous. Clean and fed we peeled out leaving him in a cloud of dust and headed off in search of somewhere better to stay. We drove out to another campground near the Mallamuca Observatory but they had no water there at all. We lat-
er discovered that the Shell petrol station in town had hot showers and served hot coffee in a tiny café where I could charge up my gear…perfecto! That evening we drove back out to the observatory hoping to do the evening tour. On that single solitary night, the cloudless Elqui Valley skies were cloudy. We’d been waiting in the van for it to go dark and for the tour which was scheduled to start at 8pm…a little man came running out to tell us in Spanish that the weather was ‘el crappo’ but he let us stay the night and in the morning he showed us around the observatory anyway. Day 5 Back the way we came via La Serena We paid a flying visit to the Capel pisco factory which, due to it being the wrong time of year, wasn’t actually producing any pisco! Between that and the clouds we were starting to think our little detour had been a waste of time but the free pisco sampling at the end of the defunct factory tour made things seem a little better…until we got back to the van and realised we’d left the lights on. DOH! We enlisted the help of a couple who’d also been on the tour and offered them a lift back to town as thanks for helping us jump start the van. We headed back via La Serena and got back onto the Pan American highway, once again heading north and a little bit East away from the ocean and its here that the landscape started to change. We were entering the Atacama region, heading for Antofagasta. We were accosted by 2 steely gauchos who jumped out in front of the van demanding our money or our lives. Actually that’s not strictly true…we saw them on the horizon and turned off the track to check them out. Very random yet skilfully made, we had no idea what they were doing out there in the middle of nowhere but there seem to be a lot of random things out in these desert parts. Like a chair on the side of a deserted stretch of road or a hand in the desert…but we would get to that. We arrived late afternoon at Bahia Inglesa. The Lonely Planet promised me a wonderful Thai restaurant here but it didn’t open until 8pm and we were starving. Pasta…again. Luckily we’d stashed 2 big beers under a fresh bag of ice that morning. We cracked them open on the beach and prepared our dinner inside the van. In sum-
Photo: Gulls on the beach at La Serena. Coquimbo’s Third Millenium Cross (Cruz del Tercer Milenio) in the background. Spectacular views from the top!
mer Bahia Inglesa would be beautiful. It’s a tiny seaside village located near the port of Caldera. It lays claim to having one of the best beaches in the country and in summer the 135 local inhabitants have their serenity spoilt by thousands of tourists wanting to bathe in the azure waters. And yes, it was beautiful but all of the coastline we’d seen so far was choking in rubbish and plastic. Sadly, Bahia Inglesa was no exception. Day 6 Antofagasta and the Hand of the Desert
Day 7 Iquique I’m not going to tell you much about Iquique except to say that we got stuck there for days…by choice. There’s a whole other feature story waiting to be written so that will come in a future issue. In the meantime let’s just say ‘you gotta go’. We had to call Pablo again and ask for a few extra days in the van…this trip was taking longer than we thought.
Iquique is on the coast, the weather is great and so too are the people. It’s a long way up but definitely worth the extra millage in the Wicked Van. I enquired at the tourist office if there was anywhere we could park up the van and have a shower and they said there was nowhere… they were wrong. Our first night was spent at the YHA Backpackers Hostel (Amunategui 2075) they charged us $12 which allowed us to park securely out the front of the hostel (we would still sleep in the van) and use their wi-fi, kitchen and shower facilities…bargain! This is a great option if you want to spend a night out on the town which we did after cleaning out the esky and the pots and pans properly in a big kitchen sink. The rest of our time in Iquique we spent at the Flight Mano de Desierto is the work of Chilean sculptor, Park which is a bit further out away from the bars Mario Irarrázabal. We arrived at its location just and restaurants but a great place to meet othas the sun was hanging low in the sky casting a er road tripping travellers to swap stories over deep orange glow onto this 11 meter high hand, a cold beer (bring your own!) and a great meal protruding from the surrounding alien landscape. (cooked yourself in the tiny but workable camp We had to wait to get a photo as car after car (in- kitchen). We enjoyed hanging out here more than cluding huge trucks) pulled off the pan-am to take the backpackers. We were no longer interested a photo of this unusual spectacle. As darkness in hearing which buses to catch and which tours fell the landscape changed and it was a though to do from the hostel…we had our own wheels we were driving through a quarry. Pebbles and and wanted to swap stories about which roads boulders alike dotted the edge of the road. Steep to take and what to see along the way. We were rocks were to the right of us and the grey, misty loving the Wicked way. Pacific was to our left. There was no colour in the evening afterglow, it was as if someone had Day…erm...10 maybe? drained the landscape of every shade except By this time I’d lost track of the days which was a grey. It was eerie yet strangely peaceful. 50km’s wonderful state of mind to be in. We’d spent what up the road the bright burning lights of Antofaseemed like eons in Iquique, in fact it was only gasta spoiled the grey serenity. I was astonished a few extra days but after being constantly on by its size and cringed at the thought of ‘parking the move it felt like much longer. We were back up’ somewhere in this buzzing mining metropolis on the Pan-American highway, Route 5, this time of nearly half a million people. This was the bigheading south in search of a real life…well actugest place we’d seen since we left Santiago. We ally a real ‘dead’ ghost-town. Humberstone. succumbed to the homogenisation; dinner was at TGI Fridays and the next morning was spent Humberstone had everything. A hospital, a movie at McDonalds catching up on emails! theatre, a marketplace and huge store, a school This was the day our plans changed. If we continued North we would reach Iquique, if we headed east we would get to San Pedro which was our original plan. We’d decided that our onward journey (once we handed back the van) would include a visit to the Bolivian Salt Flats. The drop off point for this is the dusty town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile but we still wanted to get to Iquique in the North first. A quick email to Pablo at Wicked and the whole thing was sorted out. We would leave the van at San Pedro at the end of our trip, he emailed us the drop-off address and we went back to planning our re-route. One of the things I was desperate to see, 75 clicks South of Antofagata, was the Hand in the Desert.
Photo: The fabulous colours of Elqui Valley...on the way to Pisco country.
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and housing for up to 3,500 people which is the number that inhabited this small desert mining down during its short lived hayday. In 1872 James Humberstone founded the Peru Nitrate Company and the village in the Atacama desert was built for the miners and their families. The discovery of how to synthesize ammonia by the Germans led to a collapse of the saltpetre industry and by the 1960’s Humberstone and nearby Santa Laura Saltpeter Works had become ghost towns. In 2005, both locations were declared UNESCO world heritage sites and for a few dollars you can enter the dusty deserted village and get a feel of what life would have been like. It’s an eerie and interesting place. The broken machinery, rusty train engines, ripped net curtains hanging in front of cracked windows were made even creepier by the lack of other tourists and the stillness of the surrounding landscape. It was brilliant for photos! It’s a long and dusty drive from Iquique to San Pedro de Atacama. The distance is just short of 500km. We’d broken the trip with a stop off a Humberstone and continued right through to Calama, regretting a little that we didn’t have time to stop off at Chuquicamata to see the huge open pit copper mine (the open pit tour is free, you just have to book ahead via email to let them know you want to join the tour). We were now on Route 23 heading east through some of the driest areas on the planet. We stopped at a truck stop just short of San Pedro. We didn’t want to cook in the dark and we’d been on the road most of the day. In the morning I packed away our breakfast dishes and put away the stove between gasps of breath. Yes, I’d been sitting around in the van for the last 2 weeks but surely I wasn’t that unfit. Out of breath. Freezing cold temperatures….we were at altitude. One look at the smartphone told me we were 3450m above sea level. Knackered, freezing and with pounding heads we drove onwards and thankfully a little bit downwards until we reached the splendid little town of San Pedro and I instantly fell in love with it. It was during the following days that we really appreciated having the van. There are countless tourist operators in San Pedro offering day trips to the many and wonderful surrounding natural attractions. With our van we could drive ourselves but, even better, we could park up where ever we wanted and enjoy the seclusion and beauty of these stunning locations.
Photo: Accosted by steely gouchos on the drive to Antafogasta.
We explored everywhere, heading back into town only for petrol and supplies. We drove out to the stunning Laguna’s Miscanti and Miñiques, 100km south of San Pedro and back via Chaxas Lagoon where we parked the van overnight with the permission of the Conaf staff who left the loos unlocked for us to use. The lagoon is home to 3 species of flamingo and is located inside the Flamenco National Reserve. We awoke to ice on the inside of the van but a stunning view across the lake which we had all to ourselves. The staff came back around 8am and unlocked the gates to let us out. The Conaf staff were fantastic and the following evening we were allowed to stay overnight at Cejar Lagoon just 18km south of San Pedro. The lagoon was like glass. The setting sun cast a pink glow across the Licancabur volcano and surrounding mountains and the horizon was reflected perfectly in the deep lagoon. The salt content is so high in the lagoon that it’s impossible to sink…that’s if you’re actually brave enough to get into the freezing water in the first place. Dave was. I wasn’t. He bobbed around like a cork in the ocean trying to remain upright in the salty, buoyant and icy water. Having the van allowed us to drive out to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the moon) to witness the sunset with the hoards of other tourists…but we were on our own schedule with cold beers in our esky. They were on tour buses, ushered away as soon as the sun dropped below the horizon, missing the best light that happens for up to half an hour after the sun disappears. We stayed until well after the masses left and waited for the Milky Way to appear with stunning clarity. We drove into El Tatio geyser field in the morning just as the masses of tour buses were driving out! Again we experienced something that the ‘hoards’ were missing. The tours to El Tatio leave San Pedro at 4.30am to get to the geysers for sunrise when the steam is most visible but they rush you out again an hour later. We arrived just before 9am, the steam was still there but as the day warmed the steam dissipated and you could actually see the amazing colours surrounding the geysers. Bright oranges and yellow, swirls of almost fluorescent minerals. We also took time to bathe in the hot natural springs a little further down the road. Not another soul was in sat as we took to the water. This was a real natural pool, no regulated temperature, no concrete. It was 30 SELFINDULGED 26SELFINDULGED
Photo: ‘Van surfing’ next to The Hand in the Desert...on the way to Antofagasta
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Photo: Iquique’s MASSIVE sand dune. A great place for paragliding.
Photo: Flamingos in flight...a different take on the traditional 3 ducks!
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Photo: The salty (and COLD) Cejar Lagoon. Like floating in the Dead Sea it is impossible to sink...if you’re brave enough to bare the icy water. 32SELFINDULGED
Photo: Steam spuprting from the ground at El Tatio geyser fields 34SELFINDULGED
fabulous and we had it all to ourselves. Every now and then a boiling hot spurt would bubble up through the muddy ground and scald you on your backside…mindful of the scene in Dante’s peak where the couple boil to death in a volcanic hot spring I cut my wallowing short and dried off in time for lunch. We drove out to Laguna Verde almost at the Bolivian border just to see how high we could get. At 4853m above sea level I reckon we were the HIGHEST Wicked Van on the planet. We watched mini tornados whip up the desert sand and took photos of Vicunas (they look a little like llamas except they are much thinner and more elegant and are a protected species) against the backdrop of the snow-topped Licancabur volcano. Just a small word of warning…do not go ‘off road’ in this area near the Bolivian border. There are still land mines around courtesy of Pinochet’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship…tread lightly; actually it’s probably best you don’t tread round those parts at all. It was with great reluctance that we handed the van, our home of nearly three weeks back to Rodrigo in San Pedro. The blow was softened somewhat by the fact that the Wicked depot was also an ice cream parlour and Rodrigo offered us a home-made passionfruit sorbet to soften the blow. Homeless and without transport we trudged off down the sandy streets of San Pedro under the strange weight of our backpacks, in search of a hostel. Trust me when I say the only way to see the Atacama is the Wicked way!
to e r e h k n c w i o Cl ur e! o r y u t k en v boo d a d e Wick
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In 2013 Self Indulged will be making some changes...one of them is that it won’t be as ‘selfindulged’ when we open up our pages and invite YOU to contribute. We will be delivering on a brand new digital platform and want to share your words and pictures. If you can write, take fantastic photos and you’d like to submit your proposal please drop us a line outlining your proposal along with a link to some of your images to editor@selfindulged.com
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SEEKING SANTA! They seek him here, they seek him there… those Children seek him everywhere… Oh no…wait, that’s the Scarlet Pimpernel. We were looking for Santa Claus, the illusive man in the big red coat. As it turns out, he’s not as illusive as you may think. In fact HE’S EVERYWHERE! A little like the Queen, he has many homes in many places. Here are the top 5 places where we found Santa on our travels through Europe. SELFINDULGED 45
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TALLIN OLD TOWN: ESTONIA
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A sneaky shot of Santa through the window of his cosy cottage at Estonia Christmas Markets in Tallin’s Old Town.
The epitome of a European Christmas, with Glogg galore (yep, I know it sounds disgusting but this spiced hot mulled wine is immensely popular and it warms yer cold cockles in the mid winter months), Chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Jack Frost definitely nipping at your nose, toes, earlobes and all other exposed extremities, Old Tallin Town is absolutely delightful at this time of year. The Christmas Market is superb and the tiny candlelit café in the Old Town Hall is a fabulous place to sit and watch the market square. If you can’t stand the cold outside head into the cave like interior for some elk soup and a cheeky mid-day Christmas beer. All food is 1 Euro, drinks are 2 Euros, the abuse from the wenches who serve you is free and so are the pickles in the big wooden barrel! Visitestonia.com
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TRAKAI CASTLE: LITHUANIA
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You know what they say, four Santa’s are better than one. Ok, I’ve never actually heard anyone say that but four Santa’s dancing and singing Lithuanian Christmas songs against the backdrop of the enchanting Trakai Castle certainly made for one of the more ‘surreal’ moments of our trip. This unusual island castle is in the South East of Lithuania and is surrounded by the peaceful and scenic Lake Galve. What is enchanting about this place, aside from the fairytale setting, is the Christmas celebration that takes place every weekend from December to the start of January. These four Santa’s sure know how to party! Like four bearded pied pipers the lure of their music was too much to bare and the visitors to the castle (ourselves included) were soon caught up in the dancing and festivities. These guys would defiantly give the Wiggles a run for their money…most of the singing was in Lithuanian but the smiles on everyone’s face transcended any language barrier.
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The hot soup at nearby Kavine Galve Café also comes highly recommended. Entrance to the castle is around $5 Aussie dollars but photographers be warned – there is an additional fee for taking photos in the castle grounds. trakai-visit.lt
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SANTA’S RESORT KAKSLA FINLAND
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AUTTANEN:
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The centrepiece of Santa’s Resort is Celebration House. A huge and beautiful structure that reminds you of gingerbread cottages and all things Christmas. Inside there is room for 250 people, a big open fire greets guests and when we were there a buffet lunch was being served for some tour groups who had come to visit Santa. Hot salmon soup was bubbling away in a cauldron… just the job when you come inside from the cold. There are reindeer and husky rides, you can play ice hockey in the snow with the elves and explore the snowy surrounds. The 10 metre high red tower is home to the Bridgekeeper Elf and he watches over the golden bridge where the Gold Elves live. In summer you can pan for gold in the stream, in winter you can watch the Smith Elf use those gold specks to create millions of presents by sending your dreams and wishes up the chimney in a great spark of flame. The pathways are lit with hundreds of candles…lighting the way in the perpetual winter twilight. This place is for big kids as well as the little ones!
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If I was Santa I’d spend most of my time hanging out at this bit of real estate. Just 10 minutes from the beautiful Kakslauttanen Resort (the place where you can sleep in a glass igloo and watch the northern lights) is Santa’s resort. santasresort.fi
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ROVANIEMI, LAPLAND: FINLAND
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j Coming in at #2 is Santa’s ‘Official Residence’ in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland. Here you are literally standing on the Arctic Circle…it is painted on the floor of Santa’s Village. The village itself screams CHRISTMAS. There is fresh snow on the ground and Christmas music piped through the outside mall. There are snowmen and reindeer and tepees. It’s only when you see the prices in the surrounding shops that some of the Christmas cheer starts to dissolve. But no matter, a visit to see Father Christmas is still free and you are greeted warmly in his grotto for a hug and a chat. The waiting area is furnished with photos of Santa with dignitaries from all over the world who have come to see him at his official home in the Arctic and a huge clock in the centre of the room turns its huge clockwork cogs as you wait for an audience with the Big Man. Outside is his official Post Office and all mail sent from there is stamped with Santa’s official postmark. I have never felt so much like a little kid as I watched the elves sorting all of the very real mail which gets posted here each year. The pile from Australia was a few inches high and neatly stacked in its own alphabetical pigeon hole next to the letters from Austria. As we left our visit with Santa, Dave turned to me and said, “Wow, he was really nice” “Of course he was”, I replied, “He’s Santa!” santaclauslive.com
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PORTABLE NORTH POLE: WORLDWIDE!
Image taken from a screen shot at the Portable North Pole 52SELFINDULGED
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And the number 1 place to find Santa this Christmas is….. Drum roll please……
Anywhere and Everywhere! If you haven’t already checked it out you must visit the Portable North Pole. You can access Santa here on his website from ANYWHERE in the world. If you can’t travel to Santa this Christmas let him come to you. It’s free to download a personalised video from Santa. If your kids have been mis-behaving Santa will sort them out when he speaks to them directly via the Portable North Pole. You can change the specs for boys and girls and even send a message to a ‘grownup’. If you want to pay a few dollars online for the premium option the choices get even better. Prepare to feel like a child again yourself …just BRILLIANT! portablenorthpole.com
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MerryChristmas!
Where’s Dave? Every issue we show you a photo of Dave and it’s up to YOU to tell me where in the world he is. Have a look at the photo opposite and email your answer along with your name, full address and phone number to: wheresdave@selfindulged.com
This issue, our great friends at OUTCASED are offering a funky Laptop bag plus an ipad case as the prize for the winning entry. These cool & funky bags will bring a splash of colour to even the most boring office or classroom and can be purchased at various stockists around Australia or online (including free postage within Australia!) at www.outcased.com All correct answers will be collated and a winner will be drawn on the 8th of February 2013. ENTER NOW FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!! Just tell me...
Where is Dave?
ISSUE 6 Answer: Dave was on the Steets of Ulaan Bataar. Winners have been notified.
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WN A DR THE 3 ON B 201 E TH F ER 8 T EN AY!! D TO
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Loving LATVIA
Words: Sandra Herd Photography: Sandra Herd
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The words from the briefing; “Make sure that you keep your head locked down and tucked into your shoulders” spun around in my aforementioned head. The downward g-forces were bordering on painful and the second I let my concentration slip my neck would ‘unlock’ and my head would bobble around on my flaccid neck like a nodding dashboard dog.
cursion with tourists and we wanted to join some friends we’d made earlier during our stay at Cinnamon Sally’s in Riga’s city hub. The tour from Riga takes 3 hours, 1 minute of which is the main event of plummeting down an icy tube whilst trying to remain composed, the rest is transportation to and from the actual Arena. Being lucky enough to have our car with us, we drove out to Sigulda
h…sounds awesome! Other seasonal adventures include balloon rides and bungee jumping from a cable car (although I’m not sure why you’d want to). As we were here in Winter our adventure was ear-marked as the bobsleigh ride and a gentle stroll around Turaida Castle. Sigulda is a great place for hiking all year round. The Guaja River can be explored
as you hit the last corner aptly named The Wall it is possible to reach up to 5Gs Trying to lock it back in again as we were hurtling down Latvia’s Olympic Bobsleigh track at a rate of 90 km/hr was almost impossible. Less than 2 minutes later I was being asked if I’d enjoyed the ride. Alas, I had missed ‘enjoying’ most of it just trying to prevent spinal injury. It had been such a peaceful morning. We’d left Riga, the capital of the Baltic nation of Latvia, earlier that day to ‘make a day of it’ knowing that it would culminate in the grand finale…the bobsleigh ride. It’s a popular ex-
ourselves to take some time to explore the surrounding on foot or above from Cable Car (one that you don’t have area. to jump out of hopefully). Sigulda is to Latvia what There are caves and castles Queenstown is to New Zea- but Turaida is the highlight land…except it’s more sea- of the Sigulda castle genre. sonal. Case in point, the Aero- According to the Turaida Mudium just outside of Sigulda. seum Reserve website, buildThis very cool attraction is ing of the original castle comclosed in Winter meaning I menced in 1214 under the would have to relegate it to direction of Albert, the Archmy ‘to do next time’ list. It’s bishop of Riga. The fortress a free-fall simulator and the was built and named Fredefirst vertical wind tunnel in land which, when translated Eastern Europe. It breaks the means “Land of Peace” which rules of gravity and allows seems a strange thing to call you to fly with the help of a a fortress built for war and huge fan that blasts out an air protection from war. Others stream of about 180-200km/ must have thought the same
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as the website states that ‘this name was not popular’ hence the new name for the newly re-constructed castle, Turaida.
to plummet down this dark, cold track afterall, the lights of the ‘arena’ flickered the place awake right on cue, revealing a monstrous tube of light, snaking down the hillAlthough interesting, the ‘old’ side into the abyss. Dammit! castle was pretty much brand spanking new and more than This 16 bended, 1200m track
epic fail as my feet slid out from under me and i landed on my ARSE! a little disappointing in terms of actual history. What was more intriguing were the huge stone sculptures at Dainu Hill, the surrounding sculpture garden with large artworks arranged throughout the gardens, dedicated to celebrating Latvian Folklore.
For those who don’t know, G-force is the pressure that gravity exerts on an object when it is accelerating relative to freefall. Also equalling the pressure that gravity exerts on your spinal cord, relative to major spinal injury! As the luge slowed to a standstill I still had to negotiate getting out of the blasted thing onto the icy track whilst trying to appear composed. Epic fail as my feet slid out from under me and I landed with a crack on my arse, the impact lodging my newly acquired slipped discs back into place. We all piled onto the transport van and headed back up to the start of the track to watch the next load of foolhardy tourists speed off down the icy tunnel…luckily there was hot mulled wine waiting for us at the top to calm the nerves and numb the pain.
But back to the Bobsleigh.
was originally built for the former Soviet bobsleigh team. In winter it is open to foolhardy tourists under the guidance of a professional pilot. But the fun isn’t restricted to winter, oh no, in summer they switch out the sled for a wheeled va- Would I do it again? No riety and send you speeding Would I recommend you do to your death sans the ice. it? Hell yeah!
Bobsleigh is such an incongruous name so I’m going to call it a Luge because it sounds faster and scarier. When we arrived at the grounds in the late afternoon darkness it looked closed. The lights were off and the place looked cold and desolate. As the relief started to creep in that, maybe I wouldn’t have
According to my research, there are fewer than 10 places in the world where it is possible for the general public to ‘enjoy’ this ‘experience’. It was just a shame that we happened to be in one of those 10 places. As you hit the last corner which is aptly named ‘The Wall’ (and boy, did it feel like I hit it!) it is possible to reach up to 5Gs.
Footnote: If you want to pay a bit extra you can fly down face first, without a pilot, inside a big green inflatable ‘sleigh’ known as ‘The Frog’. I am not making this up! For more info about Sigulda check out the tourism website HERE.
gizmos, gadgets & ! s r e l l Fi jStj g n i k c o j j h good stuff! May be a bit gimiky...but kinda cool none-the-less. This is new technology and after months and months of build up you can finally buy your own. The unit itself ispretty tiny...the price, not so tiny. It certainly seems like it would be fun for a few weeks but not too sure what you would do with it when the novelty wears off. The Lytro is the first self-contained device to make use of light field capture. In simple terms you can take a photo, download it onto your computer and then click on an area within the shot to change the point of focus. The best thing to do is to have a play with the images on their website. The foreground is in focus, now the background is in focus, the foreground is in focus...and so it goes. Holds attention for a little while but with a price tag of $470 for an 8gb camera and $550 for a 16gb model you’d better really love it! www.lytro.com
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Give the gift of inspiration! A one day travel photography workshop which will be launched in the New Year across Australia. I will be taking small classes of around 15 people and teaching you how to take better travel shots, how I get the shots for the mag as well as tips, tricks, dos and don’ts of travel photography along with an afternoon session of ideas for displaying your cool travel images once you get home from your trip. From personal book publishing to printing on canvas and acyllic. Be prepared for a day of INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION & STIMULATION. Follow the link for more info and to purchase a Gift Voucher on line. www.selfindulged.com Why not buy somebody the WORLD this Christmas! These globe baubles come in a pack of four and would delgiht anyone who loves Christmas...and travel. I know they’ll be on my wish list (hint hint!) www.naturalcollection.com
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WHAT - WHERE - WHEN - WHY WHAT The Magical Water Circuit - Parque de la Reserva WHERE Lima. Peru WHEN Everyday...summer is probably a better time to go than winter ‘cos you’re probably going to get wet. Night time is best because of the light dispalys. WHY SInce 2007 the Magical Water Park has been delighting tourist and locals alike. With 13 impressive fountains and a night time laser show this is $1.50 well spent! The Magical Water Circuit is currently the world record holder for the largest fountain complex in the world. Some of the fountains are interactive, my favourite was the the ‘tunnel of suprises’, a 35m tunnel of water that you can run through. You can also enjoy watching the hoards get SATURATED as they braved the unpredictable dance to music fountain... MAGIC!
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WHAT - WHERE - WHEN - WHY WHAT Christmas Tree Lights WHERE Warsaw. This fabulous christmas tree is erected every year in Warsaw’s Market Place Square. WHEN Christmas time of course. And a little bit after! This shot was actually taken in mid January. WHY Warsaw’s Christmas market is held at Old Town Market Square and is open throughout Christmas and New Year. The market place is the heart of the historic district. The square was reconstructed after WW2 and was ‘given back’ its Renaissance-era look. Just 10 minutes away from the Market Place is the Warsaw Uprising Museum - the best laid out museum I have ever been to. The stories of the Polish resistance are sad, amazing and inspiring. SELFINDULGED 63
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