Llama said KNOCK YOU OUT
So as I mentioned last week, not only am I off to explore Thailand & Cambodia, I’m also going to be galavanting across my old European stomping grounds for a month, sponsored by Eurail.com!
To gear up for such a monumental trip, which will see me on the road at least until Christmas, I’m going to be posting more travel-related content here! I’ve always been an adrenaline-junkie backpacker (check out my Travel category for seven years worth of adventures and experiences), and as they say, once that travel virus gets in you, there’s no cure.
I’ve already posted a retrospective photo slideshow, and one of my best travel videos, and today I’d like to share with you the philosophy-infused video I made as I was hiking the Inca Trail through the Peruvian jungle to Machu Picchu!
It features climbing along thin mountain ridges! Music from The Motorcycle Diaries! Monkeys & turkeys! Zip-lining! Heavy breathing! Lots of clips of me looking sweaty & gross! Machu Picchu! And a fricken Justin Bieber parade in Lima that made me want to punch a llama!
LLAMA SAID KNOCK YOU OUT.
Enjoy!
#YNFI: Tourist Season Is Over
I made this video about my trip to Machu Picchu, and entered it in the G Adventures “You’ll Never Forget It” contest. If you like it, I’d appreciate your vote (and you don’t even have to sign up for anything to vote). Please and fanks!
Many of you already know what a huge backpacker and travel junkie I am. I’ve been to 40+ countries, have 80 stamps on my passport, and I’ve braved some very non-friendly-to-solo-women-travellers places before, all with a 15 kilo backpack slung over my shoulders. I think I’d be a good fit for this G Adventures campaign. I’ve done campaigns like this before (my Best Job in The World/Island Reef Job campaign, my War Child Challenge campaign, etc), which were amazing experiences even though I didn’t end up winning. I’d like this to be an amazing experience as well, so I appreciate your support!
Oh and I’m a total cutie-patootie in this video. #TrueStory
Click the above button to vote now. Fanks munchkins!
Read my Machu Picchu travel article in YYZ Living Magazine!
Remember when I was asked to write a travel article for YYZ Living Magazine a couple months ago? Well it’s finally been published in their Winter issue!
It’s on the shelves right now, but you can also read it online!
Of course, if you’re like me, you’re too lazy to actually click links and stuff, so I’ve provided the actual article here. Click the below images to enlarge them. I wrote a piece on my epic hike through the jungle along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. They also published my photos too! I’m not a professional photographer, but EVERY TIME I’ve had a travel article published, they’ve also published my photographs with the article. That would qualify me as professional, n’est-ce pas?
YYZ Living is a really beautiful magazine, it has a high gloss sheen to it, and the pages feel wonderful under your fingers. It’s a luxury publication found in some of the most exceptional hotels and boutiques, and even on airlines. Fly the friendly skies with Chrissy!
(click to enlarge these images)
They included my headshot and bio on the contributors page:)
platinum’s on the rise, playboys in disguise, and i’m just tryin’ to find a mountain i can climb
“they’re gonna be oh so jealous”
before i begin with the photojaculation of my epic trek through the jungle along the ancient inca trail to Machu Picchu, i invite you to watch this video of my hike, which tells the story in a short 120 seconds (with a Justin Bieber cameo added at the end)
now, as promised, the trek to Machu Picchu!
on the first of the four days, they picked me up from my hostel in Cuzco, and i was promptly introduced to the british blokes, ben, paddy, dom, and paul. Seeing as how i lived in the UK for years and years, i felt right at home with my blokes. i’ve always been more of a shit-kicker, competitive, active girl than i have been a girlie-girl, so hamming it up with the boys with quintessential british humour was right up my alley.
the bus dropped us off at the top of these mountains where we could begin downhill mountain biking! see how we’re in the clouds? and look at our gear! i’ve done downhill mountain biking before (whistler last year, where i wiped out twice so bad, i’m quite proud of my war wounds from that extravaganza) so i was aching to get back on the bike! we rode downhill for about 2 hours, traversing over 50 kilometres, and the more we descended, the more the weather changed from epic freezing hail in the clouds to suddenly TROPICAL.
Where we were in the Andes, it was a cornucopia of temperatures, terrain, and toughness.
i’m the type of biker where i always stand up (you’re not really supposed to sit while mountain biking, the shocks make it almost impossible to be in control while sitting), but i’m not so smooth on sharp turns. i need to make my turns wide, which is why “S” turns which are very zig-zaggy are the bane of my biker existence.
i was bombing ahead of the group, mostly keeping up front with the boys (while the lovely Irish lasses Jan, Audrey, Nicola, and Ciara stayed back in the rear), but when it came to the sharp S turns, i was basically riding my breaks.
this above pic was taken at our pitt-stop half way down the mountains. see how the weather suddenly drastically changed?
the terrain also became much more muddy, and we passed by a lot of construction, making the terrain even more dangerous. i hollered “hola muchachos!” to almost each set of construction workers that we passed. they all hollered back and waved. some of them whistled at me. i wasn’t exactly sure how they could tell i was a girl, i was wearing so much gear, and my head was completely covered by the full-face helmet.
i guess my hips don’t lie.
by the end of the downhill awesomeness, we were all covered in mud, soaked from all the puddles, and some of us had pretty good wipe-out stories (ciara’s peddle came off her bike, so she wiped out spectacularly).
monkey on a chain. NOT COOL.
our guide claimed that once the hikers moved on, the monkey was allowed off of the chain.
i call bullshit.
lil thing was frightened to shit, was gripping its stuffed toy and rocking back and forth out of sheer terror.
second day of the hike. i look like a neglected horse in this pic, so i have cleverly covered up my mug whilst editing this pic, but it’s proof of how high we were trekking into the Andes.
and my rack looks nice too.
wai t….what?
i shit you not.
lots of the girls during this uphill hike, particularly Jan and Ciara, were shit-scared of heights, and had the hardest time climbing the very narrow path up into the mountains. i was loving every second of it, and as usual, was bombing ahead with the boys, even overtaking them on some sections (smokers never prosper). i hafta say, i love bragging that i really was one of the boys on this trek.
i didn’t go all that way just to pussy-out.
in truth, i can totally understand why the girls were hanging back, gripping the ledge, and crying their eyes out. the path really was narrow (all single file), and a very steep drop off the side. some sections were extremely slippery, or had loose rocks, and depending on where you stood, a stiff gust of wind would have taken you over the side.
we had to cross many pithy bridges as above. they were situated hundreds of feet above the air, were rickety, and not particularly sturdy after being exposed to all the elements.
damned if i didn’t love it.
this above bridge was somewhat more sturdy, but the violence of the rapids underneath and the wind made it sway and shake. you couldn’t exactly hold onto those railings, and the wooden boards shifted and snapped as we passed.
after climbing hundreds of feet up into the mountains, we had to climb back down again (which, as you can imagine, is much harder than going up. it’s less taxing on the lungs, but requires extreme precision of foot). we hiked along the sacred valley river, with spectacular views, as you can imagine.
the boys and i began to play a game to keep our minds and wits occupied – name as many bands as you can that begin with a given letter. We were on the letter “C” during this section. as each bloke dropped out, it ended up being between me and Ben. i’m pretty sure i won that round.
even though i was roughing it with the boys, i still needed some assistance now and then, which the boys were generously offering. sometimes, all i required was a hand to steady me, especially over the loose boulders or going down a slippery slope.
chivalry ain’t dead.
that’s Ben above. Jan lovingly nicknamed him “Sleazy B” and it just stuck. on our third day of hiking, after zip-lining (video of me zip-lining 500 feet in the air in the Andes is included in the compilation i made here), we hiked along the rail road to Aguas Calientes, which is base camps for Machu Picchu. some of the girls were destroyed after the arduous hike already, and decided to take the train there. so it was basically just me and boys hiking along for about 3 hours to our final rest stop. ben and dom and i had an incredible conversation, that ranged from our careers, to political activism, to capitalism, to agency and more. i think i enjoyed this section of the trek the best, because connecting on an intellectual level with people while also connecting through all the physical activity translated into an emotional connection. we all had been through so much together in such a short period of time. i loved these guys in this moment.
made it!
on the morning of the fourth day (at 4 AM!!!) , thus began the epic climb up to Machu Picchu. the ruins sit atop a mountain, and there’s the option of paying 8 soles for the bus (takes 5 minutes), or climb the mountain for free.
i chose the hard way, to climb.
why?
because FUCK YOU, that’s why.
the fastest record ever set in climbing Machu Picchu was 39 minutes.
I did it in70 minutes. i was the first girl to the top (naturally), and even beat some of the guys up there.
my ass officially hated me afterwards, but as i made it past the gates, and overlooked Machu Picchu for the first time, i started welling up with emotion. i arrived early enough to see the sun rise over the ruins. actually in the video at the top, i edited out my crying-fit. but i have it on film. i may one day share that with people. (not bloody likely)
the interesting thing about the Inca construction is, the only thing that has eroded away over the centuries is the stray/hay rooftops, and the colour painted on them. All the structures still stand, basically untouched. and Peru is infamous for its earthquakes.
despite their penchant for performing human sacrifices on 12 year old virgins, those Incas were way ahead of their time.
they knew more about mathematics, engineering, and astronomy than the europeans did 200 years later.
aw bless.
the incan entrance into their walled city.
600 years ago, approximately 400-500 people lived at Machu Picchu, which is why they only allow that same number of people to visit the site each day. so if you’re going, plan ahead.
i’m so hip, it hurts.
i took way too many scenery photos that, were i to put them all here one by one, would render this blog post the longest scroll ever, so i’ve turned them into collages here for your viewing pleasure.
suffice it to say, the place contains more nature porn than national geographic.
a veritable colour feast
there’s a bird mid-flight behind me here!
after i posed for this, the hooks on my hiking boots became ensnared, and i fell on my ass.
genuine class, i am.
holy fuckballs, CURVES, eh?
i spent so many hours in the blazing sun (we’re above the clouds) writing in my journal all the thoughts and emotions i was feeling at the time. you don’t go to machu picchu to find yourself, because there’s no way you can be lost whilst there.
there’s another mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu, it’s called Huayna Picchu, it’s another 2700 feet up, and you have to pay extra to climb it, and book it well ahead of time. again, only 400 people are allowed to climb Huayna Picchu each day, 200 in the morning, and another 200 later in the morning. after that, it closes. i had booked the climb, but after already climbing Machu Picchu, my body was already rickety, wobbly, dehydrated, sore, and tired.
but fuck all that.
pain is temporary. regret is forever.
i fucking climbed that bitch.
again, i was the only girl to climb huayna picchu, and again, i beat some of the boys up there. it took me 39 minutes to reach the top.
this was probably the most difficult mountain i’ve ever climbed, it was such a steep climb up, i was swearing the entire climb “i better lose 20 motherfucking pounds by the end of this cunt-ass trip!” (i so did, by the way).
this was the view of Machu Picchu from the top of Huayna Picchu. remember how i said in my last post about Cuzco that the incas believed the Condor represented heaven? well if you look at the shape of Machu Picchu from above, it is actually in the shape of a condor.
wow, machu picchu really looks so far away from up there. like a dot. a little bit of harvested land.
at the top of Huayna Picchu, it’s not like you could roam around for a stroll. it literally was a rocky mountain top. it was either crawl along those boulders or fall off the side.
me at the top, overheating, tanning, huffing for air, but also filled with the joy of living.
i breathe in and am filled with the wonder of living.
life is something incredible that i don’t think i will ever understand, but it is finite, and incredibly short.
the world is too big to stay in one place your whole life. it offers you precious gifts in one place that you could never get in another.
don’t feel like you can’t travel because you are tied down or disadvantaged in some way.
when you look back on your life, many years from you, you won’t remember the nights where you went to bed early.
from L-R, Jan, Ben (aka Sleazy B), Paddy, Paul (aka The Great Skinzerelly), Hugo (our guide), moi, Dom, Audrey, Nicola, Ciara, and Jonno.
we all shared something wonderful in one little week, and i may never see them again. but we all share a secret that no one else does.
love yous guys.
of course, on the train ride from Aguas Calientes back to Cuzco, the multitude of Australians about had to do some planking.
MAY IT NEVER DIE.
* * *
so there you have it.
with my multitude of bad health diagnoses lately, i have been crossing off as many adventures and experiences from my bucket list as possible. these opportunities may never come again, and i am now acutely aware of my own mortality.
but i’m not letting anything dilute my happiness.
so many people believe that life is pain, and the horror of existence permeates every choice in life.
after this experience (and difficult period in my life), do i believe that?
the short answer to that is, no.
the long answer is FUCK NO.
i heard that you like the bad girls, honey, is that true?
this video of me hiking along the ancient Inca Trail to Machu Picchu features mountains, all-terrain biking, zip-lining, monkeys, turkeys, duckies, hammock-ing, sacred valleys, heavy breathing, children playing, raging waters, Justin Bieber, beautiful incas, and lots of people waving and kissing my camera. oh, and many shots of my sweaty horseface. ENJOY!
i have realized that i took so many photos and catalogued so many experiences whilst in Peru, that i will need to break it up into several different blog posts. if i put it all in one post, it would be the longest post ever, and you guys would be scrolling and scrolling. no one wants that.
so this post will be about Cuzco only, the starting point of my hiking trek to Machu Picchu.
this is the centre of Cuzco, and also the view from my hostel. on the day i arrived, they were having a huge festival in the centre square Plaza des Armas.
why?
because they could. that’s just how they roll.
Cuzco has an elevation of 4000 feet above sea level, and they warn that you need at least a day of rest upon arrival to acclimate to the altitude.
by this point, i had taken four flights in three days (vancouver to toronto, toronto to san salvador, san salvador to lima, lima to cuzco), so my body was completely wrecked by all of the altitude changes i had already endured.
arriving in Cuzco, with my 12 kilo backpack on, i had to climb a series of steep steps to get up to my hostel, and not only did i run out of breath (me! out of breath! NEVER HAPPENS), i also became light-headed, dizzy, and very nearly lost my footing.
i drank a lot of coca tea when i arrived at the top. coca leaves are grown all over peru, and while they are the main ingredient for cocaine, exist in a sort of legal grey area in Peru. you can chew them for energy, and you can harvest them if they grow naturally on your land, but you can’t plant them, and you can only harvest so much. i think even Peruvians aren’t so certain on the drug laws there.
my hostel had a resident pussy….cat.
i was really lonely my first few days in Peru. the tour hadn’t really started yet, and i had been placed in single rooms in my hostels in lima and cuzco, whereas i’m used to staying in hostel dorms. while having a room to myself is great for having your own loo, telly, and bed, the problem is you don’t meet ANYBODY. in the dorms, you always meet people, some of whom end up being lifelong friends (in my case, some of my best friends are people i met in dorms while backpacking across europe).
so i was wandering around Cuzco for two days, pretty much keeping to myself, trying to explore the city, eat to keep my strength up, and find some graffiti and street art to keep my imagination occupied.
but really, i was just running in and out of doorways, trying to stay out of the rain.
one nice hotel clerk let me sit at the bar before it had even opened so i could come out of the rain. he was awfully nice. and i cowardly left when he was out of the room to avoid a lengthy goodbye.
incas are the first nations of peru and south america. their language is quechua. with the invasion, genocide, war, and slaughter of the conquistadors (aka the Spanish) in the 1400s, the incas were driven from their homes. now, although many incan descendants still speak Quechua, there is no employment or education available to them unless they speak Spanish. i didn’t learn this from my time in Peru, mind you. i pieced this information together from watching this scene in The Motorcycle Diaries.
llama and el paca’s rule like cows do in india. this one even has it’s own villa in the heart of cuzco. glass doors and shit.
oh you fancy, huh
i paid one sole for this photo. they all posed dutifully when i withdrew my camera and pointed it at them. then they bumrushed me for money. after years of travelling, i know this is the score. you can’t take photos of people without paying a little out of your pocket. it’s only fair.
nothing is free, and tourists shouldn’t balk at paying the small fee for a nice photo.
of course the scenery is lush and ornate. climbing the cobbled steps of cuzco isn’t really a chore if you’re in the spirit of things.
taking neurotic photos of myself is how i get in the spirt, i s’pose.
like many ancient cities that i have travelled to, the infrastructure is composed of ruins upon ruins. wreckage upon wreckage.
in the case of cuzco, it’s walls upon walls. that’s the original ancient Inca city wall that used to envelope the city. of course, they have built upon those walls now, but the originals still stand.
see the snake?
incans believed that animals represented the three states of existence.
the condor represented heaven
the puma represented life on earth
and the snake represented the underworld.
so i guess the incans built this section of the wall for satan? i’unno.
in my next post when i get to machu picchu, you’ll see how the condor manifests itself in its design.
puma coming up.
after years of backpacking and taking travel photos, i’ve learned that, especially in ancient cities, doorways are excellent for framing and centring your shots.
they draw the eye to the centre, they provide a classic frame, but most of all, they leave a sense of curiosity and wonder to the viewer. they catch of glimpse of what’s beyond the doorway, and it’s only a snippet of life. they want to see more of that life beyond the door. it makes them want to travel. doorways are interesting for a reason, they beckon.
try walking around amsterdam or warsaw or paris without stopping in some ancient doorway and finding yourself mesmerized.
see how they’ve built upon the ancient inca wall?
too bad there’s a canadian growing out of it now.
i did a city tour that day in cuzco, and was largely unimpressed by what they think tourists want to see.
they took us to a church called Qorikancha.
i kept thinking of Q’orianka Kilcher as a result.
she’s beautiful but her and colin farrell couldn’t actually kiss on camera in that film, otherwise it would have been considered child pornography.
Qorikancha used to be an Incan temple, but the christians destroyed most of it to build their dominican church in its place.
because Peru is subject to many severe, violent earthquakes, the christian architecture has crumbled upon itself several times over (much like its leotarded belief system), but the incan foundations have remained unblemished, virtually unmoved. they didn’t use any clays or epoxy resins to keep their bricks in place, instead they used an interlocking system between the stones.
earthquake proof, devised by the incans.
you’re welcome.
q’orianka kilcher, on the other hand, has done nothing noteworthy since.
doorways. see what i mean?
i think i ended up taking so many poxy photos of myself because i was bored of the church.
Lonely Planet guides are the worst for this. when you travel, they ONLY recommend churches and museums. after stuffing my gob with nothing but churches and museums around europe, i can unequivocally say that, “you seen one, you seen em all.” fuck that, i want to do ACTIVE things when i travel.
like last year in british columbia, when i did whitewater rafting, kayaking, zip-lining, bungee-jumping, and downhill mountain biking in just a few days.
or the inca trek that i was about to participate in.
i hate churches and i hate museums (for the most part. some museums that are specialized are uber sweet. like the Bata Shoe Museum, that’s pretty kickass. but i especially hate museums that are about christian history, it’s like i paid entry for archaeology and history, and instead wound up in a fucking church, which i hate to begin with….. you see my dilemma?)
the tour took me from Qorikancha to Sacsayhuaman, which are incan ruins in the mountains that cup Cuzco in their bellies. it was, for the most part, unimpressive. the views were great, and so was the rainbow that decided to arc over our heads right before the sky sagged and capsized with rain again.
remember how i said that the inca’s used the puma to represent life on earth? look at this above photo.
see it?
Posing like raging pompous idiot gives me an immense sense of self-satisfaction. i ruined yet another kodak moment.
go me.
i think i was trying to give the wink and the gun in this photo, but i was wearing thick woolly gloves which made the act in trying ludicrous, thusly resulting in my hysterics.
i call this “inca woman with baby in the mountains, as seen from inside a wet, muggy tour bus, taken with a shit digital camera bought in 2006 in berlin for €200″
the sky is painted like an ocean.
this is the only souvenir that i bought in the whole of Peru – a keychain of two Inca figures going to town on each other. a scene from an Incan Kama Sutra if you will.
this was the cleanest one i could find. some of the other keychains had them going doggy-style. another was of the woman doing a hand-stand, spread-eagle, while the man’s tongue was all up in her ladybits. at the same time, her head was bent backwards, contorted, to give him some oral loving.
those were some talented incans.
suffice it to say, buying the missionary position one was the least offensive but still hella-funny version that i could find.
next post: machu picchu, or how chrissy got her groove back.
graffiti and street art from the streets of Peru
if you haven’t yet checked out the Motorcycle-Diaries- trailer-esque video of me hiking along the ancient Inca Trail, through the Peruvian jungle, to Machu Picchu, do it now.
i’m fucking endearing in it.
before i can blog about the experience, i need to blog about the amazing graffiti and street art that i came across in Peru. Peruvian street artists and graffiti artists really are brilliant. they are, by and large, engaged in politics, inspired by injustices, but also motivated by matters of the heart. poetics sayings, emotional images, and fire-infused couplings of the two are to be found all over the country. i took more photos of the street art than i did of the Andes i was hiking through!
CENTRAL LIMA
after flying 10 hours (with a stop over in El Salvador) from Toronto, i was exhausted and smellin’ like Eau De Czech, but ready to photograph the art populating the night.
“ivo justice” i wonder if ivo is a man undergoing a trial? or incarcerated? at first i thought this said “no justice.”
LIMA (near airport)
Peru just elected a new president, and i think that’s him
i like this photo more for the scenery that compliments the graffiti, than just the graffiti itself.
samesies.
zona, i’m told, was peru’s most famous footie player.
near Chinatown in Lima. this fatty with the scowl on her face wouldn’t move, even when asked, so i could photograph the mural behind her. she kind of looks like the guy in the mural. turns out her presence adds something to the photo
an accidental photo i took while zooming in a moving taxi. turned out pretty cool.
MIRAFLORES (area of Lima)
definitely political, just can’t make out the writing.
pulso danza, or “dancing pulse” was everywhere in miraflores.
see!
and another
and again!
hell yeah fuck yeah
brilliant. take the existing brickwork, turn it into a piano.
“revolution. if not now, when?”
tv
stallion
surprised this wasn’t in chinatown
so much going on here…
monopoly dude…
albert einstein….
“mi luz” means “my light.”
aw.
on the left, she’s been made to look mad. on the right, she’s eating a dick.
i like this sticker, of a young cap’d boy holding a rifle. sounds like a revolution to me.
brilliant stencil of the outgoing president. the old president was named “alan” but by putting a G in front of his name, and adding “del robo” at the end, it turns into the saying “knight of thieves,” which i think is a play on the saying “prince of thieves.”
nicely done, Tink.
aw.
i wasn’t going to photograph this at first because it’s just advertising a pub (as you can see from the drink in one hand, and the fork in the other). that is, until i noticed it’s exposed, raging cock.
sell fresh crazy someplace else. we’re all stocked up here.
you look like you was talking to me.
gringos ruin everything.
this was along the pacific ocean boardwalk.
BARRANCO (area of Lima)
Barranco is a totally bo-ho po-mo district of Lima, fulla artists and brilliant stencils. it’s celebrating it’s 139th anniversary, and it has a very colonial, european feel to it, but also a counter-culture atmosphere on the streets.
this “no la cagues” was everywhere. it’s a picture of the newly-elected president. “no la cagues” means “don’t screw it up” or “don’t fuck it up.” good advice for any new president. looks like the artist responsible for this piece forgot the “u” in “cagues” and had to add it in manually later.
here it is again. i think at the top the “jbo!” is the name of the artist. not sure.
love this wheatpaste. smiling winking dude holding a molotov cocktail, and the caption says, “agitate! protest! resist! … every man for himself!”
interesting opinion. “vandalism does not equal freedom of expression.”
so many areas of Barranco were stencil’d with the words “rubias no!” which means “no blondes!” or perhaps even “Not blonde!”
that’s right. LEAGUE OF AWESOME BRUNETTES for the win.
“call your old lady” meaning, call your moms, yo.
scary but cool face, done by someone named “kobi”
there’s that sticker again from Miraflores!
CHORRILLOS (area of Lima)
charlie chaplin! when i lived in london england, i lived in Elephant & Castle, the area where charlie chaplin was born and raised, so i feel a connection to the little moustachio’d man.
theatre masks submerged.
“forgive me if i hurt you, i love you.”
aw.
this was actually printed on a poster advertising family wares. it makes me think that very few people actually speak english in peru, because they may not understand what that means!
this is probably my favourite piece from all of Peru. it’s just a dude hugging a fish. but it’s strikingly lovely.
or is he hugging a bird? i can’t tell. i love how highly stylized the strokes are. brilliant wheatpaste.
devil tree.
mural dedicated to a young woman who passed away.
CUZCO
in Cuzco, I found the street art limited to sayings of love. as you can see from the below collage.
for those of you who don’t speak Spanish, “te amo” means “i love you.” (i mean, i don’t speak Spanish, but even i know that.)
interesting
i’m not sure what this is in reference to, but i like how the corn husk almost has grenade-like qualities. looks like a propaganda pic.
hey authorities! look! in 1664 someone ENGRAVED stuff into the side of a church. WATER BLAST THAT OFF!
this translates to “it’s prohibited to urinate on penalty of death.” i don’t know if this is graffiti or actually placed by the government (is the death penalty in Peru?), but considering that’s the ancient Inca wall standing there, it wouldn’t surprise me either way.
it’s michael jackson wearing an Incan wooly cap.
raymi, your powers are boundless.
this is deffo a government mural. going back to urination, it must be a huge problem in Cuzco. the entire mural said that in order to keep Cuzco beautiful, please don’t piss on the ground. AS I TOOK THIS PHOTO, i looked to my left to find a man pissing against a pillar. how ironic.
graffiti plants
SANTA THERESA
as we hiked through the jungle along the Inca trail, near the small but lovely village of santa theresa (there’s hot springs there!), we came to a bridge that had some incredible graffiti on it.
i think this Garcia guy must be commissioned, but it’s intricate and beautiful stencil work.
look at that gorgeous woman.
* * *
that’s it for the Peruvian graffiti, my next blog post will be about my travelling adventure expedition through the jungle, along the Inca trail, to Machu Picchu.
in the meantime, here’s a preview.
i’ve been back in toronto for a week now, and i have been enduring the spectrum of emotions from utter despair to euphoric bliss. people from my past are haunting me, and yet people from my present are treating me like tiramisu.
i won’t go into detail here, but i had felt obligated to contact some people from my past that i haven’t spoken to in ages. out of everyone i spoke to, only ONE person was amazingly supportive, kind, generous, and reassured me that no matter what, we are good friends (the rest were, as expected, bitterly cold and reserved). i wanted to reach through the telephone line and hug this person until my arms fell off.
thanks so much for being so kind to me over the years, sometimes i feel like i don’t deserve it. you are one of the meaningful ones.
then i spent thanksgiving weekend hugging and snuggling in trinity bellwoods park in between delicious ice cream licks and bike-riding.
so all in all, i can’t complain. life should never be about half-emotions, half-ways, or half-living. either feel the extremes or feel nothing at all.
Video: hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
A full, detailed blog post with photos and stories to come soon! (followed by Peruvian graffiti & street art photos, of course).
In the meantime, I made this video compilation of my hike through the Peruvian jungle along the ancient Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I can’t believe this was just a few days ago. The hike took four days, and included all-terrain downhill biking, 82 kilometres of hiking through the Andes, hot springs, zip lining, climbing the mountain up to Machu Picchu, and also the bigger mountain Huayna Picchu which overlooks the Machu ruins.
I specifically selected the music for this video because it felt like it was my own Motorcycle Diaries experience. Even though the trip was only a week in total, it was probably the best travelling journey of my life (and you all know, I’ve done some massive backpacking extravaganza’s in my time).
Oh and Justin Bieber makes a cameo at the end of the video. I shit you not.
Fanks to Karikuy Tours (hi Julio!) for inviting me to take this journey (I won this contest).
Enjoy the vid! Comments encouraged!
i tie my hands up to a chair so i don’t fall that way
home from Vancouver, walk in the front door, check my mail ….
and BLAMMO! suddenly everything is coming up Milhouse! (Simpsons quote)
I’ve been awarded a Toronto Arts Council grant for writers (level two)!
The last time the TAC graciously awarded me a grant was waaaay back in 2003!
huzzah! now i can actually focus on my novel without worrying where my next paycheque is coming from.
the universe owed me one. i’ve been taking many for the team lately.
i leave for Peru on tomorrow. i’ll be hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with Karikuy, the Peruvian travel company who has generously awarded me this bucket-list-life-changing-mind-blowing-braingasm-see-it-before-you-die journey of a lifetime (i won this contest).
seeing as how i’ll be gone until october, i’ve scheduled some blog posts to go live while i’m gone.
i’ve been tinkering with what i like to call “tumblr-esque” images. i’ve taken old photographs of mine from my travels and adventures around the world, edited them, enhanced them, polished them, and added to them some of my favourite expressions, sayings, anecdotes, proverbs, and sometimes just my feelings.
if these prove popular, then they might become a regular occurrence on The Spadina Monologues. feedback is welcome!
but i know you’re all hankering for a Vancouver-graffiti spankerin.
i took almost 300 photos of Vancouver graffiti in just two days. the city is loaded with inspired and provocative artists.
on Main street near 7th avenue, “a society cannot fix a drug problem until it realizes no it is the cause of it.”
on a café window in the same location.
on carrall, in between hastings and cordova.
this piece on Cordova is a collaboration between Redrum AYS (the All You See crew) and Jerm IX, whose scrolls I have photographed before in the alleys of Toronto.
in the Cambie street alleyway in between Hastings and Cordova
this has a “planet of the apes” motif to me, and the artist has stenciled it elsewhere too in the alley.
here it is again, the two headed monster.
ryan told me that suu kye is actually a rather famous vancouver street artist.
it reminds me of classified photographs from the chinese government leaked to the press of the people they’ve executed.
dunno who this dude is, or why he’s taking photographs of himself, but the other street artists don’t like him.
they’ve tagged it, “this is not what you do for street cred.”
this prisoner makes my heart ache.
DJs are not rockstars, but the vinyls would make good discus instruments.
DJs are not angels either.
ZOMBWAY: eat flesh.
i think this one is probably my favourite piece of street art in all of vancouver.
this wheatpeaste of this martial arts dude is all over vancouver.
here it is again on smithe street.
alf as scarface.
alface.
i space invader you too.
i really wish more of these street artists put their names on these pieces. this particular wheatpaste is haunting and deserves a credit.
i love stickers. this is also by Jerm IX
this was on the side of The Foundation where Ryan and i had dinner.
ha! if this was toronto or new york or london, the tags would criticize the government. NOT VANCOUVER. everyone loves it there, and their mayor is one hottie-tottie.
shit, guy.
dan winnick was killed last year, so they erected this memorial (the ghost bike below, and the stencil’d message above) for him.
aww. bless.
on commercial drive
i don’t get it either, but i still love it.
silly costume break with ryan!!
annnnd we’re back.
who puts fish in their boots?
i want this engraved in my epitaph as opposed to words.
this was outside commerical drive station. i can’t believe someone chalked over this, it’s brilliant.
designated drug spot. reminds me of banksy’s designated riot area. well done.
looks like an asian immigrant lost amongst the city.
i’m givin’r!
this was on granville.
“one her art?”
not sure i get it, but i like the image and the “let go” at either ends.
matched with the ‘seeded heart” above.
this is great, i can now just travel from city to city and document the local graffiti scene for this blog.
although most of my Peruvian extravaganza will be spent hiking up to Machu Picchu, i will have a day or two in Lima.
i’ll keep an eye out for some great graffiti!
finished packing, and I’m so excited for this adventure. I love strapping on a backpack and just disappearing into someone else’s world.
out of my comfort zone, pushed to my limits, exploring the world, but most of all, learning more about myself.
my body is a boat, and you are travelling in me.
the more i know people, the more i love the smiths
i leave today! Via Rail is putting me on the cross-canada train from Toronto to Vancouver (with a brief stop in Jasper, Alberta) to blog, vlog, and live-tweet the train experience, and upon arrival in Vancouver, I will be speaking on a panel for the Social Media Week conference. The panel is “Brands, Agencies, and Influencers” and we’re discussing how to build personal brands, the relationship between brands and bloggers, and the ethics therein. if you’re gonna be in Vancouver on September 19th, register to hear a sistah speak here!
most of you know that i’m a huge travel junkie, so being able to explore my own country as much as i’ve explored others is a huge opportunity, one that i couldn’t pass on. it takes a bigger woman than me to refuse such a generous offer.
i’ve travelled the european rail networks extensively, and i swear by them because they’re fast, they’re efficient, and they’re inexpensive. i’ve always been a critic of our canadian rail system, so this experience is the opportune time to prove me wrong.
time to whip out my backpack and load it up with travel essentials. tell me, what does one wear to a panel discussion? business casual? i have my pencil skirts and blouses buried somewhere.
more importantly, what does one wear on a train for three days? Via Rail has set me up in the swanky sleeper touring class cabin, where i will apparently get my own shower, and my meals prepared by a kickass chef. i get my own cabin as well, NO SHARESIES!
when i rode the rails in europe, I always had to settle for the 4 bed or 6 bed couchettes shared with complete strangers who snored, had screaming children, or yipped out the window at every train platform we crossed.
one time, when travelling for over 24 hours from lisbon to budapest (it’s a fricken lonnnnnng train ride, with stopovers in paris and vienna), there were no couchettes left, and i had to sit upright in a compartment with 4 others all night. it was THE WORST.
in india, you didn’t even get a separate compartment. you just slept right out in the open, no curtains, no privacy, and everything at risk of being stolen.
anyway, ADVENTURE TALLY HO!
see ya on the west coast, suckas.
* * *
speaking of Social Media and influence, I tweeted this on the 10th anniversary 9/11:
as you can see, it was RT’d by more than 100 people, which actually happens quite a lot on my end, but that number was probably increased when it was RT’d by my main man:
now i finally know what celebrity tweeters have to endure. some people were INCENSED by those nine little words. amazing how one little pacifist sentiment can incite so much furor. some of the messages i received in response to that tweet were ripped right out of Team America, surely. most of them were xenophobic and racist comments directed toward arabs and muslims, i might add. twitter really is the only refuge for the scoundrels.
hey everybody! got an opinion? you should post it on twitter.
PEOPLE WILL SHIT THEMSELVES.
I worked at the CN Tower during 9/11. I quit shortly thereafter, as did everyone else. I don’t just mean employees, I also mean guests and customers. Towers became taboo.
“Hi Christine,
i’ve been blogging about Deadboy‘s street art and graffiti for months and months now, and we talk often.
guess who i finally met?
YES YES YA’LL.
Deadboy had informed me a few weeks ago that he had been asked to participate in the street art showcase which drops in toronto on september 24th, and the official media announcement was last week at City Hall, so i went to support the man in the mask.
i actually didn’t realize he was the one in the mask until he waved at me and came over to say hi. seeing as how we’ve never met before, and i have no clue what he looks like, i just assumed he was someone else. as he got closer, i looked at his mask and was like WAAAAAIT A MINUTE, that’s the mask used in his street art!
anyway, we spoke for about an hour, and the press conference was actually super interesting. turns out the Street Art Showcase has received invitations from Bristol (banky’s hometown) and 5Pointz in Queens!
imma be out of town on the 24th (going to Peru!), but you should definitely check out the showcase. follow them on twitter for updates. support Deadboy, tell him Estima sent ya.
speaking of City Hall….
..and another one…
see what i did there?
lol.
interesting viewpoint.
do i think that graffiti and street art is vandalism?
the short answer to that is no.
the long answer is FUCK NO.
another brilliant and colourful Spud bomb, right across the street from MuchMusic.
CHRISSY MAD! CHRISSY SMASH!
i’ve not blogged about the Good Bike project lately, because there are just soooo many bikes to cover, and i see so many of them, i doubt i could ever photograph them all before they’re busted or ripped up. but this one on queen and spadina caught my eye because it had a name on it.
the Good Bike project ladies put Jane Jacob‘s name on another bike, so i’m wondering if Isabella Angel is an activist like Jacobs?
site specific work is the most ingenious work.
i love the idea that someone saw that sewer hole with the pylons and envisioned something else for it, something that is clever and provocative and colourful.
* * *
speaking of colourful, i was invited to the Diet Coke TIFF fest this year.
i went last year, and as you can see from my blog post at the time, it was a much smaller affair, just our little twitter crew. we all fit into 2 limos at the time. now the Toronto twitter crew has grown so much such that the attendance was easily over 500.
i didn’t bring my camera but raymi‘s photographer colleague made up for that.
there’s ameet off to the left. we met last year when he used to date a friend of mine, but we kind of run in the same circles, so we bump into each other from time to time.
this looks inappropriate.
raymi says she looks like sharon stone in this pic.
and i look like rachel weisz.
our movie would be box office poison.
my friend paul wrote a round-up of the night’s events for The Grid, and decided to link up one of my tweets about the night in the article (go to 10:30pm, and the hyperlinked “REALLY” in brackets at the end of the paragraph).
i stand by my love of veggie poutine, dammit.
and hey, i write for The Grid too, ya know.
Estelle was brilliant, and i managed to elbow my way to the front.
she’s so gorgeous.
and her shoes were fierce, miss thang.
reg and i were made into flipbooks. watch this video until the very end, where i vent my frustation in caption-form.
* * *
i meandered by a venue last night that i shouldn’t have. i saw the scooter and took off running.
go away. please go away.
girl bled to death like she was tongue-kissing a razor blade
woody allen once said, “love is the answer, but while you’re waiting for the answer, sex raises some interesting questions.”
i seem to have a lot of answers that just result in more questions.
it’s july and the only way to make it better is to wear a polynesian flower that cups my hair … to whisper decomposing secrets into my hands.
at the Vice Magazine Photo Show this past week, all the crunked up hipsters in kicks and half-shorn heads showed up sweaty, accosting the free beer and pizza, spilling puddles on the floor, and ignoring the homosexual nazi photography on the wall. i never leave home without my chinese fan, and ended up cooling off some coolies while lauren and i tried to have a proper conversation.
there was a bitchin’ DJ pumping music but no one danced.
only unhappy people don’t know how to dance.
outside, cooling off with iPhone photos and seeing the ossington strip regulars that i peripherally know, a man in thick rimmed glasses accosted my journo-convo with a chip on his shoulder, with a disdain for the veiled honesty music critics espouse in order to obtain a regular paycheque.
i wasn’t interested in arguing, but lauren still had the capacity to evoke erudite shutthefuckup-isms.
the next day, a few doors down, a blonde debonnaire named JT tried to pick me up as i was walking by The Port. i wished it had been at The Red Light. he was hosting an event that night, and told me to swing by at 11pm. although he was lovely to look at (blonde curls and dangerous lips), he presented himself on a silver party platter covered in garbage that would surely result in more questions.
i’m doing the safety dance with my body these days.
bitch, please.
* * *
what’s that i see?
fordzilla! the man behind the brilliant fordzilla wheatpastes i’ve blogged about like a bajillion times before erected this huge piece on college near markham street.
rob ford and stephen harper eating the citizens of a high rise, before some schmuck with no respect for other people’s street art scrawled “bitch move” over it. if you want to see the finished piece before it was defaced, watch this video!!
i have been informed from the project coordinators behind Fordzilla that there will be no more wheatpastes of this theme, so go out and find all the fordzillas in the city and enjoy them while you can!
on spadina road, at kendal avenue (my old street).
near lansdowne and college.
last year, during the G20, i skipped town, flew to NYC, had a manhattan fling and was tossed.
looking back, i can’t decide if it was worth it. i think i would rather have been kettled at queen and spadina, then locked up for 36 hours, than sitting on the steps of union square at 14th street, crying.
happy birfday val!
lauren and i went to a rooftop luau in the clubbing district, full of suits, bikini clad entrepreneuses, scientists, vegans, DJ’s, pieces of pineapple and leis with condoms attached (if you’re gonna get lei’d, protect yourself).
i had a long conversation by a roasted pig on a spit with a scientist who will one day be an astronaut. he swooshed his hair around and told me about the tapestry of his life. he had all these stories about wake-n-bake driving to calgary and The Filth pulling him over in manitoba only to battle it out while trippin’ and getting a mere fine. he also told me about his ambitious goals, going from a 7-time undergrad reject to running his own company at the age of 29. he’s off to chile next, and i’m off to peru. south america and macchu picchu. i listened intently, drinking words like i was swallowing my past, tasting future.
present tense, a guy at the bar shoots green grapes up in the air, and i catch them in my freakin’ gob.
the cn tower glowed green like a rave (disco) stick.
lauren says all wealth is relative.
she’s right. i’m not rich in money, but i’m rich in character.
i’m going to the press screening of Beats, Rhymes & Life, the A Tribe Called Quest documentary, because i’m reviewing it for one of my freelance gigs. i’ve already seen the flick when it premiered at Hot Docs, but a refresher is much appreciated for critique purposes.
all you guys acting out your own hip-hopera need not fret, you can see it before it opens on july 29th. there will be an advanced screening here in toronto on the 21st, tickets are $20 and will go fast (if they’re not already gone). peep the deets below, playa.
and watch the trailer for the documentary here:
if they were to name a rock musical after me right now, it’d be Headcase and the Angry Bitch….
….all evidence to the contrary.
New York Dolls
so okay, i’m back in Toronto after the worst clusterfuck bus ride back from Port Authority. I decided to take the midnight bus instead of taking the bus that left in the morning which would essentially rob me of an entire day. so i had dinner with Randeep at Ella Cafe in Williamsburg, packed my shit up quicker than a bread truck hauls mafia-hit-bodies across the FDR, then booked it to Port Authority.
of course, none of the screens at Port Authority (which in theory would tell travelers which gate they’re departing from) were functioning. also, all the information booths were completely un-manned. i don’t know who’s running Port Authority, but if this was Toronto, these people would be out of a job. what a shit hole.
after lining up at the wrong gate, i finally found my proper gate where a massive line-up for this bus awaited me. it was kinda stupid, everybody and their mother was on the toronto-bound greyhound that only holds 44 people. in addition, the bus was essentially a milk truck (read: it makes stops at every single shit hole hamlet along the way….like a milk truck woulda done back in the day) so people who were just going to fucking syracuse or some other town-that-time-forgot were also queuing up.
anyway, because of the massive line, they asked all us El-Toro’s and barfahole-ers to step aside and take another bus. essentially, this other bus that they lined up for us would head straight for barfahole-buffalo and then El-Toro-toronto, bypassing the other bus which was stopping everywhere, and arriving earlier than expected.
but waiting for this fucking second bus to arrive meant we only left Port Authority at 1:40am! and when we boarded it, we realized it was one of the older shit greyhound buses with no electrical outlets, no wifi, and no refuse bins.
we did arrive at Barfahole earlier than the other bus, about 90 minutes ahead of schedule. at which point we were told to get the fuck off the bus and wait 90 minutes for the first bus to arrive so we could board it. our bus was now decommissioned. fuck you greyhound.
finally got on the bus i was supposed to be on 9 hours earlier, where a man who smelled worse than the bus-loo’s had boarded it without a ticket, hoping to sneak across to Canada. the bus driver ejected him, and i watched from the bus as he wandered aimlessly around the barfahole bus terminal looking for another bus to stow-away on, presumably to run away from his sad life. he was either indigent, homeless, underemployed, or all of the above.
finally made it to toronto where the sun was shining and the customs officers didn’t give me a shit-kicking.
i start my new job this week. i am going to refrain from publicly naming them in any online forum, but as i’ve said in previous posts, i am employed as a staff writer by a woman-run, woman-directed publication and i’m very excited to be joining the team:)
OH AND I WON THIS CONTEST!
WATCH OUT INCANS AND PERUVIANS ALIKE, I’M A-COMING!
i love how adventure-travel opportunities always find a way to factor into my life. i have been traveling since 2005 and not a year goes by that i don’t use my passport. it says in my little bio in the left margin that i’m an explorer, and that moniker encompasses everything i do in life….backpacking, writing, performing….everything. i love being able to exercise that title to its maximum effort, to keep trying new things, meeting new people, and experiencing all that it has to offer, disasters and triumphs alike. this planet is too incredible to stay in one place your entire life, and life is way too short.
life is either a great adventure…..or nothing at all.
>New York Dolls
>
so okay, i’m back in Toronto after the worst clusterfuck bus ride back from Port Authority. I decided to take the midnight bus instead of taking the bus that left in the morning which would essentially rob me of an entire day. so i had dinner with Randeep at Ella Cafe in Williamsburg, packed my shit up quicker than a bread truck hauls mafia-hit-bodies across the FDR, then booked it to Port Authority.
of course, none of the screens at Port Authority (which in theory would tell travelers which gate they’re departing from) were functioning. also, all the information booths were completely un-manned. i don’t know who’s running Port Authority, but if this was Toronto, these people would be out of a job. what a shit hole.
after lining up at the wrong gate, i finally found my proper gate where a massive line-up for this bus awaited me. it was kinda stupid, everybody and their mother was on the toronto-bound greyhound that only holds 44 people. in addition, the bus was essentially a milk truck (read: it makes stops at every single shit hole hamlet along the way….like a milk truck woulda done back in the day) so people who were just going to fucking syracuse or some other town-that-time-forgot were also queuing up.
anyway, because of the massive line, they asked all us El-Toro’s and barfahole-ers to step aside and take another bus. essentially, this other bus that they lined up for us would head straight for barfahole-buffalo and then El-Toro-toronto, bypassing the other bus which was stopping everywhere, and arriving earlier than expected.
but waiting for this fucking second bus to arrive meant we only left Port Authority at 1:40am! and when we boarded it, we realized it was one of the older shit greyhound buses with no electrical outlets, no wifi, and no refuse bins.
we did arrive at Barfahole earlier than the other bus, about 90 minutes ahead of schedule. at which point we were told to get the fuck off the bus and wait 90 minutes for the first bus to arrive so we could board it. our bus was now decommissioned. fuck you greyhound.
finally got on the bus i was supposed to be on 9 hours earlier, where a man who smelled worse than the bus-loo’s had boarded it without a ticket, hoping to sneak across to Canada. the bus driver ejected him, and i watched from the bus as he wandered aimlessly around the barfahole bus terminal looking for another bus to stow-away on, presumably to run away from his sad life. he was either indigent, homeless, underemployed, or all of the above.
finally made it to toronto where the sun was shining and the customs officers didn’t give me a shit-kicking.
i start my new job this week. i am going to refrain from publicly naming them in any online forum, but as i’ve said in previous posts, i am employed as a staff writer by a woman-run, woman-directed publication and i’m very excited to be joining the team:)
OH AND I WON THIS CONTEST!
WATCH OUT INCANS AND PERUVIANS ALIKE, I’M A-COMING!
i love how adventure-travel opportunities always find a way to factor into my life. i have been traveling since 2005 and not a year goes by that i don’t use my passport. it says in my little bio in the left margin that i’m an explorer, and that moniker encompasses everything i do in life….backpacking, writing, performing….everything. i love being able to exercise that title to its maximum effort, to keep trying new things, meeting new people, and experiencing all that it has to offer, disasters and triumphs alike. this planet is too incredible to stay in one place your entire life, and life is way too short.
life is either a great adventure…..or nothing at all.
