Film Noir: Odds Against Tomorrow

1959

Directed By: Robert Wise

Screenplay By: Abraham Polonsky (as John O. Killen) and Nelson Gidding – based upon the novel by:  William P. McGivern

Starring: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley

Probably now better known for his epic musicals (West Side Story and The Sound of Music), Robert Wise also directed some other hugely significant films during his illustrious career(Star Trek, The Haunting, The Day the Earth Stood Still).  This gem is from 1959 and is one of the first productions funded by Harry Belafonte’s imaginatively titled production company HarBel.

It is a tightly wound heist thriller that carries a bold political message about racism.

Disgraced ex-NYPD officer Dave Burke (Ed Begley), in the twilight of his years, hatches a plan to rob a bank in a quiet town in upstate New York.  The heist only needs two other men in on the job and will net them a cool $50,000 dollars each.

The small town bank holds large amounts of cash in preparation for payday and regularly receives a food order from the local deli.  With the bank staff being old and perhaps naive, Burke realises that by replacing the deli’s delivery guy, they can make their way into the bank and complete the robbery.  What makes him so confident that they can replace the delivery guy without the bank staff noticing is that the delivery guy is black.

The two men he recruits are poles apart.  Firstly, ex-con Earle Slater (Robert Ryan), a self confessed bigot who initially backs out of the plan when he finds out so much hinges on a black accomplice, but goes along with it when he realises there is nothing else he can turn his hand to to make money.  Secondly, gambling addict and lounge singer Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) who reluctantly joins in order to prevent his estranged wife and his child from getting hurt by the gangster he owes money to.

Naturally, tensions run high between the two and Wise cranks up the tension as the film progresses.

Wise presents New York (superbly filmed on location) as other-worldly, depicting it as a rain-soaked, litter strewn and strangely deserted city which seems to increase the feeling of isolation the two hired men, Slater & Johnny seem to share.  They are a pretty helpless pair that have played themselves into the last chance saloon and seem, deep down, to know it.

Sure, Johnny spends the day with his daughter, but he spends much of that time calling Burke to accept the deal and dealing with mobsters than truly spending that quality time.  And Slater resents being a kept man by his lover (the much under used Shelley Winters) who clearly has a steady job and income.  They each seem to carry an air of self loathing and self-destruction.

The style of the film, from the opening Jazzy score and vibrantly hip titles through to the hip cat talk and the seemingly gorilla film making in the streets of New York, put me in mind more of the French New Wave style of A Bout de Soufflé and Cassavettes Faces (both made much later) than a film noir.  In fact, Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samurai, Le Cercle Rouge) has sited this film as a big influence on him.   But, there are enough elements to make this a good example of the heist film noir (in a similar vein to Kubrick’s The Killing) with plenty of use of shadows and stark silhouettes and angled views.

Belafonte is cool, but not so cool that he can’t seem desperate and he carries his side of the film well. Of course, he does have a musical number in it, but it doesn’t seem contrived or out of place.   Ryan rarely puts in a bad performance and he exudes menace in a fine performance here, particularly the scene involving his neighbour and also when he spits out the N-word when referring to Belafonte.  Only Ed Begley seems a little weak in his role, but then, aside from the first few minutes, little time is spent exploring his character.

It’s a superbly downbeat tale which only falls down when delivering its moral message in a hopelessly clumsy way at the end.

Noir Cynicism	08/10: bad men do bad things.  None of them have any particularly redeeming qualities.
Noir Femme Fatale	01/10: none to speak of, despite Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame appearing, they hold no true femme fatale power.
Noir Anti-Hero	10/10: How anti do you like your heroes.  These guys are a bad bunch alright, not so much as a chance of redemption amongst them.
Noir Crime	08/10: a bank robbery that is given a relatively short amount of screen time for a heist movie.
Noir Dough	$50,000 each – enough to set them up for life.
Noir Body Count	3
Noir Style	10/10: if it influenced Melville it’s good enough for me!

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Perhaps saturation point has been reached: I’ve read the book (and its sequels) and seen the Swedish movies (and its sequels) and I very much enjoyed them.  Although I did think the Swedish movies were a little inconsistent, perhaps I was more forgiving of them because they were low budget Swedish productions and not “Hollywood”.

It’s easy to become a bit snobbish about remakes and I’m certainly no exception.  It’s also easy and perhaps a little lazy to think that the only reason a remake is made is to somehow dumb down the original, particularly when the remake is one that turns a foreign language movie into an English speaking version: as if people really will not consider watching a film that has subtitles: perhaps they do?!

I had a lazily snobbish attitude when I heard that a US remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was going into production.  It was tempered by the attachment of David Fincher as Director and Daniel Craig as, in my mind, a much more suitable Blomkvist.  The stills showing Rooney Mara, in an unenviable position of trying to fill Noomi Rapace’s shoes, as Lisbeth Salander added intrigue.  And the excellent posters and the trailer (although almost showing the whole movie condensed into 2 raucous minutes) and the Trent Reznor/Karen O re-working of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song made me start to believe this could actually surpass the Swedish version.

I considered that although the film may not hold as much suspense for me, it was almost guaranteed to be a technically better made movie that would look all of its alleged $90 million budget.  Alas, although perhaps technically better the experience left me cold.

The first thing that struck me as a little odd was the opening titles which actually turned out to be the most energetic and adrenalin fuelled part of the whole movie.  Unfortunately, after that high-octane beginning the movie developed into a slow paced, uninvolving dirge with little to nothing going for it.

The movie remained set in Sweden, but the random use of accents by the actors became a massive distraction.  Some actors appeared to be attempting Scandinavian accents (some more successful than others) whilst others didn’t.  The “random acts of Swedish” even extended to written word whereby some newspapers were in Swedish, yet Blomkvist’s post-it notes weren’t and there were other inconsistencies.  I couldn’t help but think that had they relocated the whole story to the US and done away with this nonsense it might have held up better.

The lethargic pace is matched by a lethargic central performance from Daniel Craig.  Although, to me, he represents a truer vision of how I imagined Blomkvist to be in the books (one of the Swedish movie version major downfalls), he really phoned in this performance: unless his intention was to show Blomkvist as a bit bored by the whole thing.  It ruined any chemistry there may have been between Blomkvist and Salander and I really feel for Rooney Mara, as she seemed to be the only one immersed in her role and she deserved better than this.  Only Mara comes out with any credit and, unfortunately for her, Rapace is so identifiable with the role Mara may not get the credit she deserves (although I see now she has been nominated for a Golden Globe).

There was no suspense and no identification with the process of investigation that, even when already knowing the twists and turns, the Swedish version did so well.

Somehow Fincher, scriptwriter Steven Zaillian and a potentially impressive ensemble cast managed to turn one of the most successful and critically acclaimed novels in recent history into an overlong bore.

And, of course, there are two more yet to come…

My Rating: 1/5

The Twelve Films of Christmas

In the same way that Lords ‘a’ leaping and Maids ‘a’ milking seem a bit random for a Christmas song, I’m presenting 12 films for Christmas on the basis that they have the required number in the title and not necessarily anything to do with Christmas.

The ground rules are:

·         No numbered sequels or parts, e.g. Toy Story 3, Godfather Part 2

·         No multiple numbers, e.g. 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3.

I’m doing this all of the top of my head, so please feel free to point out the obvious ones I am bound to miss!

On the first day of Christmas…One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Had to bend the rules slightly straight away, as the song doesn’t explicitly say “one partridge”, but it has the number one, a bird and a nest that I would imagine would be in a tree, so that’s good enough for me!

The central performance of Jack Nicholson rightly takes most of the attention (supposedly James Caan, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando turned the part down before it reached Nicholson), but he is more than ably supported by a strong ensemble cast featuring Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Brad Dourif as the heartbreaking Billy Bibbit and a career high performance from Louise Fletcher.  It won 5 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor & Actress for Nicholson and Fletcher respectively.

Honourable Mentions: Air Force One, One Hour Photo, Mesrine: Public Enemy #1, One Day, One of our Dinosaurs is Missing

On the second day of Christmas…Two Mules for Sister Sara

Clint Eastwood parodies his “Man with No Name” image in a surprisingly violent comedy action film.  He plays a sort of secret agent in the wild west who stumbles across a nun, Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) being attacked.  After rescuing her he finds that she could also help him with his mission.  I remember being bitterly disappointed with the comedic aspects of this film, as I really just wanted another gritty Eastwood western.  Originally it was seen as a vehicle for Eastwood and Elizabeth Taylor, but the budget would not stretch to Taylor’s salary.  It was directed by Don Siegel with whom Eastwood worked on many films (and dedicated Unforgiven to Siegel and Sergio Leone) and had an original story by Budd Boetticher who himself made some excellent westerns with Randolph Scott.

Honourable Mentions: Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, The Magnificent Two, Two Lane Blacktop, Two Way Stretch, The thing with 2 heads, Two Moon Junction (for those of us who remember a bootleg VHS copy doing the rounds at school!)

On the third day of Christmas…3 Amigos!

Wow, having seen this in the last year I realise how my sense of humour has moved on a bit!  Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short are the eponymous Amigos who perform in movies at the turn of the century.  In a twist on the Magnificent Seven, a Mexican town under siege by bandits sees the movies and thinking it real hire the Amigos who, in turn, think it must be a staged public appearance.  Hilarity ensues.  Nostalgia makes it something worth watching for me and who can forget doing the “Amigo Salute”?

Honourable Mentions: 3 Fugitives, 3 Godfathers, 3 Musketeers, 3 Men and a baby/little lady, Saturn 3, 3 Coins in the Fountain

On the fourth day of Christmas…Four Lions

Should I be laughing at this?  Four Lions rides dangerously close to, and occasionally grinds through, the knuckle in its comedic depiction of suicide bombers in England.  Written and directed by Chris Morris (Brass Eye) the film has plenty of laughs and also takes the suicide bomber/terrorist cell and twists it into an absurd bunch of buffoons.  Fans of Fonejacker get to see what the Fonejacker really looks like: Kayvan Novak as Waj.

Honourable Mentions: 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Fantastic 4, I am Number 4, 4 Brothers, 4 Rooms. The 4 Feathers

On the fifth day of Christmas…Five Easy Pieces

Its Jack Nicholson again, this time as Bobby Dupea, a classical pianist shunning his privileged background and living as a blue collar working man.  Disenchanted throughout, this film delves into Dupea’s life and soul and finds a tormented character who just may never find happiness.  Nicholson is superb and reveals Bobby’s tortured soul when delivering the line “I move around a lot, not because I’m looking for anything really, but ’cause I’m getting away from things that get bad if I stay.”

Honourable mentions: Slaughterhouse 5, Come back to the 5 and dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,5 Children and It, Full Fathom 5

On the Sixth day of Christmas…Six Degrees of Separation

Having discarded D-Day 6^th of June and the Sixth Sense, I fell back on this film that pretty much introduced Will Smith as an actor that could do more than wear his cap sideways and gurn at the camera a la the Fresh prince.  Smith proved he had the chops to do serious films and look at him now – I’m not keen on him creating a Smith entertainment dynasty by forcing his offspring unto the world (if the Day the Earth stood still is anything to go by, I think Willow will have a longer career than Jayden).

Honourable Mentions: With 6 you get egg roll, Crazy Six (Rob Lowe, Mario Van Peebles, Ice-T and Burt Reynolds?!!), Adam at 6am.

On the seventh day of Christmas…The Magnificent Seven

Many to choose from here, but I love the Magnificent Seven.  Although McQueen pretty much steals the film from under the nose of Yul Brynner, the entire cast (even the miscast Horst Bucholz) make the film so great.  Legend has it that all of the actors were so young and hungry for success that they would do all they could to upstage the others.  McQueen was the master of making movements and faces even whilst other actors had lines, as he knew the viewers eye would be drawn to him.  Brynner noticed this and had to resort to taking off his hat when sharing scenes with McQueen as he knew the viewer would be drawn to his bald head instead!

Honourable Mentions: Seven, 7 Pounds, 7 Years in Tibet, 7 Samurai (on which the Magnificent Seven is based), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Seven Year Itch, Robin and the Seven Hoods, Seven Men from Now, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, The 7 Ups  and numerous Magnificent Seven sequels.

On the eighth day of Christmas…8MM

Back in the days when Nicholas Cage could act rather than overact in hair-pieces, this little gem of a movie from Joel Schumacher was very good.  It delves into the seedy underworld of LA torture-pkkn as part of a classic detective story.  If you like this film watch Paul Schrader’s Hardcore.

Honourable Mentions: Butterfield 8, Jennifer 8, 8 Men Out, 8 Mile

On the ninth day of Christmas…District 9

Neill Blomkamp’s superb sci-fi film not only has a great story with lots of political undertones relevant today it also has a fantastic central performance from Sharlto Copley who went on to play Murdoch in the A-Team movie.  He will however, be working with Blomkamp again on another sci-fi film in the near future currently called Elysium.  See my full review of District 9 here.

Honourable Mentions: Nine, The Whole 9 yards, 9 Queens, 9 Songs

On the tenth day of Christmas…The Ten Commandments

Perhaps not as obvious a choice as 10 (Dudley Moore, Bo Derek), but it links (sort of) to the whole Christmas thing.  Charlton Heston is Moses in the huge epic.  Legendary film director Cecille B. DeMille was effectively remaking his own film from 1923.  This version was massive box office hit yet only won one Oscar (Visual Effects) despite being nominated in several categories: It lost out on the best picture Oscar to Around the World in 80 Days.

Honourable Mentions: 10, Starter for 10, Force 10 from Naverone, Agatha Christie’s 10 little Indians, Ten Canoes

On the eleventh day of Christmas…Ocean’s Eleven

Not the slick heist movie from Steven Soderbergh, the rambling shambles of a heist movie created solely for Sinatra and his Rat Pack to spend time in and get paid for being in Las Vegas.  The film is ok, but doesn’t capture the chemistry the Rat Pack shared in their on stage performances during the same period.  But the key players, Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jnr and even Lawford and Bishop exude cool and the nonchalance of a group of middle aged men who could fulfil every fantasy they had.  Living the dream!

Honourable Mentions: Ocean’s Eleven (Soderbergh) – why aren’t there more films with 11 in the title?!

On the 12^th day of Christmas…12 Angry Men

The 1957 version directed by Sidney Lumet and featuring Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley and the rest of the 12 is one of the most powerful and thought provoking films you could ever see.  The ensemble cast entombed in the deliberating room until they can reach a verdict bounce of each other superbly.  This is partly down to the performances and Lumet’s direction, but mostly down to Reginald Rose’s excellent script – a script that stands up so well even a TV movie remake with George C. Scott and Jack Lemmon is gripping.  In fact the 1957 version was based upon a TV movie version as part of Studio One Hollywood some 3 years previous.

Honourable Mentions: Twelve Monkeys, Ocean’s Twelve, The 12 Chairs,

ALL TOGETHER NOW:

On the 12^th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 Angry Men, Ocean’s 11, The Ten Commandments, District 9, 8MM, The Magnificent 7, Six Degrees of Separation, FIVE EASY PIECES!! 4 Lions, 3 Amigos, 2 Mules for Sister Sara and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest…well, it almost works?!

Peru Travel Blog: Epilogue‏

It’s hard to believe that my trip to Peru was almost 3 months ago.

I found it really difficult to respond to people’s questions of “how was it?” other than “fantastic”.  There’s no way I can neatly summarise the whole experience into a few sentences.  Which is very similar to how I felt after returning from my trip around the USA.  As time has passed experiences I had on the trip have gradually become anecdotes and I can talk more freely about some of it than I could before.

One of the things that I first did upon returning, after a hot bath, cold beer & a bag of chips, was to show my girlfriend the photos.  This was a major anti-climax for me and I felt very disappointed that my photos hadn’t captured anyway near the scale of what I was looking at.  Peripheral vision plays a huge part when you’re taking in a view and you lose all of that when you box up a section into a photo.  I didn’t feel the photos did the trip justice.

Now I realise that it was too close to the memories of the experience for me to look at the photos.  When you can picture in your mind exactly how it was and how you felt as well, it’s difficult to see that in a photo.  However, now that I have been back a while and other things have muddied my memory I think the photos are great.  Not great in that I want to get any of them blown up and framed on the wall, but great memory joggers.  Now when I look at the photos they help to remind me of what I saw and how I felt which is fantastic, so I have come to realise that I didn’t need to try and capture all of that in a photo, I just needed to capture the essence of the moment and that would drag my memories forward from the storage room at the back of my mind and I can relive it.

To call my trip a voyage of self discovery might be going a bit far, but I did surprise myself in a few ways.  I was surprised how well I coped with the physical exertions of the trek, altitude and the jungle heat and humidity.  I also coped well with some of the hair-raising aspects of the trip with crumbly paths and steep drops on the trek and the jungle having open access to my room.  It’s certainly not a case of me becoming fearless, but I have definitely dealt with scenarios that could have scared or worried me which is not something, thankfully, that I have to do on a day to day basis, so I was proud of myself for coping in the way that I did.

Knowing that I can cope with trickier situations to what I am used to, I have enrolled on a scuba diving course that starts in January.  I have snorkelled before, but never really had the confidence to dive down to any sort of decent depths and knowing how helpless a human is bobbing about in an ocean teeming with life did make me very apprehensive.  I think that by becoming a PADI qualified scuba will help me discover a whole new side to the ocean and perhaps even enjoy being down there amongst it all.  I will blog how it goes.

I have enjoyed writing the blog and I certainly enjoyed keeping the diary of my trip – I almost wish I had done that in the USA now.  As with the photos, reading through what I had written also jogged a few memories of what I hadn’t written about.  I don’t think I will keep up the travel blog unless I think the trip is special enough to write about – a week lounging by a pool in the sun sounds great, but wouldn’t make much of a blog.

I have fulfilled the main travel ambition I have had over the years, but that has left a gap to fill.  I wonder where I could go next…?

Peru Travel Blog: 7th October 2011: Homeward Bound

Today is my last day in Peru.  As usual I woke up early, but this time I returned to bed after having some breakfast.

I don’t get picked up to go to the airport until 1630 and while I could have used that time to have a full day tour of the city I have instead opted to lounge around watching TV and then exploring the immediate vicinity of the hotel for a few hours.  There is a shopping mall that I am going to take a walk to that looks pretty good.

All over the news is the upcoming World Cup Qualifying football match between Peru and Paraguay.  Remember when the FA cup coverage would start in the morning and run all day?  It’s like that, but it starts even earlier – I woke up at 0530 and they already had reporters outside the ground.  I think it would almost be nice if I stayed an extra night to watch it!  [Incidentally, Peru won 3-0.]

After a lazy morning of watching TV and packing my bag I headed out onto the vibrant city streets of Lima to make my way to the Lacormar shopping mall which is right by the coast.  I’m not sure where the time went – it took me barely 15 minutes to reach the mall and there were hardly so many shops that I would have thought I would have spent so long looking round them, but evidently I did.  I had a coffee when I got there and did a bit of people watching.  Then wandered round the shops.  I was tempted to get another football shirt, but having already picked up a Cienciano (Cusco) Football Club shirt, it didn’t feel right buying a shirt of their rivals.  But, it did make me decide to get a Peru national football shirt when I find one (the airport shops).

I bought a book that originally I thought I would read on the way home.  Death In the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa; written by a Peruvian and set in Peru it sounded like it would be a good read.  I was going to get the Lost City of the Inca’s by Hiram Bingham (the guy who rediscovered Machu Picchu), but I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it as much as a novel and it seemed quite expensive.  I watched surfers trying to get a decent wave whilst I had some lunch at one of the restaurants with great views of the coast and also had one eye on the live Uruguay V Bolivia football match.  Before I knew it, it was time for me to head back to the hotel.  It was a nice relaxing day.

It took ages to get to the airport.  I’m starting to think that Lima traffic is always bad, but once there it was a very quick walk to check in and through to the departure lounge where I had plenty of time to kill.  I bought myself a Peru football shirt, a few gifts and some Pisco and Pisco sour mix to share with guests.  Feel really happy to be going home, but can’t even think where to begin describing it to people.

It was planes, trains and automobiles once again as I got my flight back to the UK, a train to Nottingham and my girlfriend picking me up from the station in her car.

I did get stopped at customs and my bag x-rayed.  I guess coming into the UK from Peru via Amsterdam may look a little suspicious!  But that didn’t really slow me down.

I had a great time: a once in a lifetime experience, but I was so glad to be home with my girlfriend and the cats.  I finally got my long soak in a hot bath too.

I hope anyone reading this blog has enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed experiencing it and writing about it.  Who knows where my travel plans will take me next…?

Peru Travel Blog: A taste of…Empanada de Carne‏

It looks like a Cornish pasty and from what I can tell it is the same principle: minced meat with vegetables in a pastry parcel.

Weirdly what I thought was a flour dusting over it is actually icing sugar.  Obviously, this gives it a very sweet taste, but it actually works well with the pastry and the reasonably spicy meat, tomato and bean filling.

I then discovered that there are slices of boiled egg in it too which pretty much ruins it for me.  It’s a bit like on Masterchef where a contestant just has to learn when to stop adding things until it becomes too much.

It’s an interesting enough snack though!

Peru Travel Blog: 6th October 2011: Long Day’s Journey Into Night‏

Well, that was my last night in the jungle and I slept very well.  I was half expecting to find something bigger than yesterday’s frog in the bathroom, but only had a small lizard waiting for me.

My boat leaves at 08:30 and my flight to Lima, via Cusco, is around 1300, so I don’t expect to reach my hotel in Lima until 1800 at the earliest.  It’s going to be a long old journey, but the prospect of a boutique hotel in Lima is something I am very much looking forward to and it’s not like the journey will be boring: it will give me a final chance to see the rainforest and Cusco.

I had opted to leave some of my wet clothes (the lodge happily accept donations of clothes) and I very carefully packed my still sodden boots.  My plan was to walk down to the boat in my flip-flops and change into my trainers on the boat.  It was a bit strange checking out: although I had only been there a few days it felt like a lot longer and it still felt as though there was more to see and do there.  So, I had mixed emotions.

A large organised group of birdwatchers were also leaving on the same boat as me, although it would turn out they would be on a different flight.  The birdwatchers were very much still in bird watching mode.  Where I had dressed for my journey, they had dressed for the boat ride as though it was another excursion.  This was so that they could make the most of their time there and continue to bird watch on the boat ride.  They were an interesting group and they looked like they were having a lot of fun.  Bird watching doesn’t really hold any attraction for me other than looking at a few birds in the wild as I have done on this trip.  Having all the equipment and making notes doesn’t appeal to me.  I do admire their passion for it though.  The world would be a pretty boring place if we were all passionate about the same thing: I support Norwich City Football Club and I am passionate about that, in fact I spend a lot of money going to see them.  It seems like a similar thing with the bird watchers.  I think it’s great that like minded people that share a common interest are able to get together in this way.

Half way down the river the boat conked out which delayed us by half an hour while the driver and Yuri tried to fix it.  They managed to fix it in the end by using a MacGyver-like piece of ingenuity and a small length of wire.

The return bus journey was as jolting as it had been on the way out, but due to the storm the dust levels had dropped a bit and the mud levels had risen.  It also gave me time to reflect on what I have done on this trip and particularly the time spent in the jungle and I felt proud and invigorated by the experience.

Now sat in the departure lounge of Puerto Maldonado Airport.  The airport is tiny: it has departure gates 1 and 2.  My flight will take me back to Cusco where I will wait on the plane for refuelling and other passengers to disembark/board before flying on to Lima.

I’d love it if my boutique hotel in Lima has a bathtub.  I guess as long as it has hot water I will be happy.  The cold showers at the lodge seem to work ok for about a minute after you get out, then the heat and humidity causes you to sweat.  A long hot soak would be great.

Lima is as hectic as it was last time I was there and my greeter from my first day is there to meet me and we chat about my experiences as we make our way through the traffic of Lima.  Last time I was here I stayed at the hotel opposite the airport.  This time I would be staying closer to the coast.  I think we were probably travelling in the car for an hour or so – the traffic is horrendous.  Around the airport Lima seems very industrial and driving through what look like large factories soon make way for residential areas, shops, restaurants, etc.  Like any big city in the world, some of the areas look quite nice and others look a bit intimidating.  Lima has a bad reputation for crimes against tourists, mostly muggings so I knew I would have to be wary of that (as I would be in any other place).  I have little option other than to stand out as a tourist though, I just have to be sensible with the amount of money that I carry and where I walk.  Once we reached the beach area it was already dark and I could make out the waves in the ocean looked pretty big.  Right on cue a pair of surfers who had finished for the day walked past.  It looked like there were a few “gentleman’s clubs” in this beach area and it looked a bit dodgy, but that maybe because it wasn’t particularly well lit.

We turned away from the beach and entered a seemingly residential area where my hotel was tucked away on a side street.  It looked nice enough from the outside and I was looking forward to seeing what the boutique hotel had in store.  My understanding of “boutique” must be different to the tour company – perhaps boutique in Peru means small.  I’m not being fussy though.  It is clean and nice enough.  The room is filled by the bed and the bathroom is a bit pokey (no bathtub), but the water is nice and hot and it will suit me for the 1 night I stay here.

I had been given a good tip on a restaurant nearby so, after a very long hot shower, I headed out into the warm night air of Lima.  The place was bustling with traffic and people, but I managed to find the restaurant ok.  No one there spoke English, so it was very poor Spanish and mimes from me that got me through.  I stopped in at the supermarket on the way back to the hotel and got a couple of beers. The travelling caught up with me and I felt very tired once I had eaten, so I went back to the hotel and fell asleep watching TV.

My last full night in Peru and I spend it watching TV and drinking beer…typical eh?

Peru Travel Blog: A taste of…Inca Kola

This is the fizzy pop that is supposedly more popular in Peru than Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

For a start the disconcerting is how it looks: it doesn’t look like cola.  It’s bright yellow (almost luminous).

Secondly, it doesn’t taste like Cola: It’s very sweet and quite sickly.  I think that, basically, it is Ice Cream Soda, but it tastes much sweeter than that even.

Mine was ice cold and drank in the departure lounge at Puerto Maldonado where a cold sugary drink helped boost my energy and cool me down a little, so it tasted great.  I’d imagine in other circumstances it might be a bit too much and I won’t be in a rush to have another one.

I also get the feeling if you drank a lot of it all your teeth would fall out…so maybe it is more similar to cola than I thought!

Peru Travel Blog: 5th October 2011: The Not-So Perfect Storm‏

Another early start this morning.  This time, when entering the bathroom I noticed something larger moving out of the corner of my eye.  A frog (about the size if my fist) seemed surprised that I was getting up so early and clambered clumsily along the bamboo wall.  It was no bother to me, as I was in a rush to get out and meet our group.  Today we are not having breakfast until later, so we can make our way to the rainforest canopy tower and see the sun rise over the top of the rainforest.

The canopy observation tower is basically some scaffolding that stands about 30 metres high which is just about high enough to see over the rainforest canopy.  You realise just how vast and dense the rainforest is when you can see for miles.  It was a beautiful sight, as was watching the sun (already rising rapidly by the time we got to the top) rise majestically on the horizon.

The point of being up there, as well as the view and the sun rise, was to do some further bird and animal spotting.  At first the only thing any of us were spotting were wasps.  Hundreds of them swarming around the tower from top to bottom.  So much so, I assumed a nest was up there, but Yuri informed us that the wasps (and other flying insects) that were up there were there for the salt.  Sweaty tourist hands went up and down the tower everyday leaving some much needed salt deposits for the insects.  And, of course, if the source of the salt is up there then why not go straight to the source?  And so it became a bit of an endurance test to see if you could allow the insects to fly around and possibly land on you.  Natural instinct is to swerve and avoid them or even swat at them, but the last thing anyone wants as a souvenir is a massive wasp sting.  We all showed tremendous restraint and came away unscathed, although feeling very grubby and itchy.

I am pretty useless as spotting birds or animals, but I thought I had an absolute cracker in my sights.  The previous day Yuri had shown us an owl that disguises itself as a broken branch of a tree during the day.  It does it so well that it took a high powered view through a telescope for us to believe that it was a bird and not the tree.  Well, I had one in my sights and I convinced the American couple I had spotted it too.  I asked Yuri for the final verdict and he said “Yes!” I celebrated my find until Yuri finished his sentence with “it is a tree”.  Oh well, maybe we’ll have better luck elsewhere and we certainly did!

We saw Toucans, parrots and macaws and then someone spotted a huge bird on the wing.  Yuri was very excited and confirmed it was a Harpy Eagle.  We trained our sights on it and I have to say it’s the biggest bird I have seen in flight – it was huge!  Yuri said that a young one still occasionally visited it’s old nest and he thought it might be that one, but he said it is so rare to see one, the last time one was seen around here was in May.  We had been very lucky and it certainly beat my tree branch!

Down from the canopy and heading back along the trail we saw a group of Dusky Titi Monkeys, also making their way down having slept high in the trees.  That’s the great thing about being here is that a short walk along a trail (or a trip to the bathroom) can be interrupted by an impromptu wildlife show.

Back for breakfast and some relaxation time in my hammock.  We are going to a mammal clay lick at 10am where we hope to see wild pigs, deer and possibly a Jaguar or Puma (highly unlikely but not unheard of).

The mammal clay lick didn’t turn out as we had hoped in that no mammals came to it at all.  We did see birds in the trees surrounding the hide though and, as it is nature and a very big rainforest you have to accept that you won’t always see what you would hope rather than feel short changed.

On the way we did see a raccoon like animal that was quite rare, so that was fortunate.  Yuri then lured another tarantula out to meet us, this time it was at head height from a hole in a tree above the trail which was nice!  Yuri also advised us, if we ever got lost to eat ants and bugs and wait by a tree – great advice, I hope he wasn’t trying to tell us something.  I suggested that I would eat all the fungi I could find and “trip” my way out and Yuri pointed out I would probably die.  Speaking of getting lost and dying: we went off trail for a few yards whilst Yuri showed us something and when we turned to face the trail (a reasonably well worn path) we could not see it.  Of course, Yuri knew where it was, but had we stumbled off the trail and tried to find our way back and gone wrong, we would be entering a whole world of pain.  And this was in broad daylight!

Yuri also showed us a plant that could be used as an antidote to a bite from a Fer de Lance snake, after which I promptly stepped in a hole filled with leaves (a great snake hideout) and we all thought we were going to have to use that plant on me straight away!

After lunch we had an excursion that hadn’t really floated any of our boats.  We were going to visit a farm across the river.  It was interesting enough though and I even engaged Yuri in a conversation about crop rotation (and they said that what you learn in GCSE Geography has nothing to do with real life…it only took me almost 20 years to get to use it).  But, as we spoke thunder began to rattle around us and sure enough the heavens soon opened.  This was a proper tropical downpour.  It was like someone had turned on a tap.  We sheltered in one of the farm houses and waited for it to pass.  As the water started to build up around us, we realised that waiting it out was not such a good idea, especially as it was also getting dark, so we made a break for the boat.  A very muddy and slippery path led us back to the boat and as we reached the riverbank I fell onto the mud where the boat was moored.  I opted for a one-knee drop and two flat hands in the mud, looking as though I was leaving my imprint outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.  Once all aboard we went back across and already swelling river and made the arduous trek back to the lodge against a current of rainwater coming the other way.  In some places the water was deep enough to go over the tops of boots and by the time I reached the lodge I was soaked through to the skin despite having my raincoat on.

I took of my coat and boots and headed into the shelter of the lodge and to my room to get changed.  Dried off and ready to head back to the bar I donned one of my ponchos and got to the bar area nice and dry.  I caught up with writing my blog, had some dinner and sat with the American couple chatting and drinking.  It would be the last time I see them as they are getting an earlier boat out than me in the morning – such a nice couple.  We bid each other a very fond farewell.  Hard to believe this is my last night in the jungle.

Peru Travel Blog: 4th October 2011: Apoc – Clay Licks Now!

“Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, I never wanted another.”

Yesterday, whilst going up river on the boat I often thought of Apocalypse Now, especially after night fell and we passed by the lightning bursts.  I was half expecting to reach a stage with a helicopter full of playmates.  I think I dreamt about the opening sequence too last night, I think that was down to the light show I was treated to as I fell asleep…maybe I’ve been away too long already!

My alarm woke me at 04:30.  The dawn’s early light enabled me to have a quick look around in case something had decided to sleep on the other bed or generally hang around my room.  Nothing.  Great.

I’d slept soundly, only waking a couple of times: once to get inside the covers because the night had got cooler; and once because something was flapping around in the rafters.  I couldn’t see what it was and it’s not like there was anything I could do about it anyway, so I ignored it and went back to sleep.  My neighbours, the American couple later confirmed it was a bat.

I had a quick check whilst still inside the mosquito net and was happy to report no mosquitoes breached the perimeter and I had no bites.  I tugged at the corner to relieve myself of the net and..ahem…well, go and relieve myself.  Whilst in the bathroom I noticed 2 glowing eyes staring at me from the floor of the shower.  When I say glowing, I mean proper luminous yellowy green really, really glowing brightly.  I fumbled for my torch and shone in the direction expecting a snake or worse (a monkey).  It was some sort of beetle.  The glowing “eyes” were dots on its back that.  Although nothing too bad, it was still a bit freaky and nothing like any other beetle I had seen before.  It was about 2-3 inches long and black apart from the glowing dots.  I figured I’d let it have the shower and I would go for breakfast and hope that it had gone by the time I returned.

Another great breakfast!  I am loving the food over here (although some might say I would like the food anywhere!).  Eggs, pancakes, fresh fruit and lovely bread is a fantastic way to start the day.

Our first excursion into the rainforest is to a clay lick.  Not sure what that is?  Me, neither.  A Clay lick is an exposed embankment of earth that is predominantly clay which retains moisture from the humid rainforest atmosphere.  They are used by birds, insects and mammals to help them digest the food that they eat and provide minerals that they are unable to source elsewhere.  The clay lick we are going to today is one often used by parrots and macaws.  These birds, in the constant fight for survival in the rainforest, often eat unripe fruit which makes for tricky digestion.  The clay helps them with this – I don’t know how, I’m not a scientist.

To get there we went up river for about 20-30 mins and then hiked for an hour or so, following a very damp and boggy trail, through the rainforest to reach a couple of hides close to the clay lick.  Although I say “close” you will need binoculars – I didn’t have any, but luckily enough guide lent me his – had we been in a larger group I could have been out of luck.  The guide also had a super powered telescope that he set up so we could each get the perfect view if anything were to happen.

Although warm and humid, it was turning into a grey morning with light drizzle; not ideal for the birds to want to go to the clay lick.  We saw plenty of birds flying around and in the trees though – another tip I would have is bring a pen and paper out with you to write down what you see, I lost track after a while.  We were very patient and as the time passed the day brightened and the macaws started grouping in trees nearer the clay lick and making a bit more noise, so it looked like we could be on for some action!

We saw about 20 macaws patiently taking it in turns to go to the clay lick and get their fill.  Looking through the telescope was brilliant.  Seeing birds that I had only really seen as pets in their natural habitat acting naturally, i.e. not riding a tricycle, was awesome.  Parakeets and parrots also got in on the clay and elsewhere we saw a Toucan and an Amazonian King Fisher.  I’ve never tried bird watching, or even been inclined to, but this was fascinating stuff plus the enthusiasm of the others rubbed off on me.  Once it looked like all the birds had used the lick for the day, we headed back along the trail.

The morning had flown by and we headed back to the lodge to get some lunch, have some rest before our afternoon excursion.  The great thing about walking the trail with the guides is that they often stop and point out things and explain them to you: frogs, toads (it’s their mating season), insects, plants, fungi – there’s so much to see and so much variety that it’s a bit overwhelming.

I think my camera has busted – think it’s the heat and humidity – can’t be too disheartened as there is only a couple of days to go and at least it didn’t break on the trek.  I do wish I had brought a spare though (I did actually consider it).

The afternoon’s excursion was a bit closer to the lodge: we followed a trail through the jungle to an oxbow lake – an oxbow lake is when a U-bend in a river becomes cut off, forming a U-bend lake.  Potentially we may see some Cayman or Otters (we saw neither, but that’s nature for you).  We took a small boat out onto the lake and fed the piranhas in there.  Luckily they are as happy eating bread as they are meat and although we discussed the fact that they generally only go for dead and rotting carcasses none of us opted to stick our fingers in there.

We crossed the lake to another trail where we looked at a parasite plant that had taken over, destroyed and replaced a hug tree and also a tree that walks.  Get this: the walking tree can grow roots out from midway up and at 45 degree angles to then plant and allow the roots behind to die, thus moving along the forest floor.  This enables it to move to a place where it might get more sunlight.  Of course, it takes a while, but it walks nonetheless – nature and the quest for survival is fascinating.

By the time we started heading back it was dusk and, as we know, night falls pretty quickly out here, so it was quickly on with the headlamps for the trek.  Along the trail Yuri spotted a tarantula and coaxed it out of its nest.  It was pretty big and surprisingly fast.  Not so fast that Yuri wasn’t able to pick it up for us to get a closer look.  Yuri was a more than capable guide and I trusted him explicitly, so I had no concerns about him picking it up.  I’m not scared of spiders either and, as I understand it, although a tarantula can give you a nasty bite, they’re not poisonous enough to affect you any more than a bee sting would – that’s not to say I’d be happy for it to happen though!

The worrying bit was when Yuri put it back down by the nest and instead of it going back in it raised itself up and started charging at each of us as though it wanted to take us all on!  Given how fast and aggressive it was: that had me worried.  Yuri spotted that the spider was in some distress and an almost blind fury and he managed to coax it back to the nest where he realised why it had reacted the way it had.  The tarantula was a female and had several young tarantulas in the nest.  No wonder she got so mad!

We saw a few more tarantulas along the trail back and it got the point where I just assumed any hole in or by a tree had a tarantula in it.

Almost as soon as we got back it was time to go back out again.  This time it was down to the river to go Cayman spotting.  We had much more success and saw several small Cayman.  The bigger Cayman were most likely in the water and knew better than to hang around a boat load of tourists.

It had been a long day and soon after dinner I retired back to my room to write by candle light and admire and absorb the magnificence nature that surrounded me.  My mindset has changed already and although I certainly respect the rainforest, I have chosen not to fear or speculate as to what might be just outside (or inside) my room.