AKA Tourist Trap Central. Everything here is expensive (particularly after Bolivia where you struggle spending $30 a day). People everywhere are hounding you to buy something, want you to pay to take a picture, sell you some sort of artistic thing, or eat at their place. Its a bit exhausting.
Historically, this is the longest continually inhabited city. It was the capital for the Incas from the 1200s until the Spanish conquistidors conqured the Incas in 1532. The Spanish built right ontop of it and you see stone walls everywhere that have been in place for centuries.
We awoke this morning, took quick showers, and packed our bags to leave the crap place we were staying. We found a really nice place and decided to splurge. We have cable TV, toliet paper (a rarity in Bolivia and Peru), our own bathroom, got a breakfast buffet, towels, etc.
We then decided to go to Pisca for this big sunday market. We opted for a taxi because the lady at the desk recommended it. We negoiated a price of 20 sol (Perus currency) or roughly $6 USD for both of us. Willie was very nice on the drive there and tried to be chatty with his basic English and we tried the best with our basic Spanish. When we arrived, the price suddenly changed and he told us he would wait for us. Instead, he took our 50 sol and disappeared. We expected it, but were put into a sour mood. We attempted to try and report him to the tourist police (Mike snapped a picture of his plate), to no avail. Deflated, we took the local bus. It was very inexpensive and we were annoyed we didnt take it initially. Oh well.
Mike has been to Peru before and all the places we are visiting, so hes handy for knowing where to go and what to do. On our way back from the market are some Incan ruins. I managed to buy a student ticket to the ruins with my ISIC for 70 sol. We started out at Tambomachay. It was a special spirital bath for the Incas. (Probably along the lines of a baptism?). It still has running water coming down the path. It was sort of interesting, but onward. We crossed the street and saw Pukapukara. It has a really nice lookout for the valley and they are not exactly sure what it was used for. They think it was either a hunting camp and/or a place for pilgrams passing through. We then walked 4 KM to Qènqo. It was a hilly but enjoyable walk. This was a place where the Incas made ritual sacrafices. Then a short walk from there is Saqsayhuaman. This was the highlight of the day. Its a massive walled complex. The stones are intercrately put together and they say they cant even fit a piece of paper throught the cracks. The Incans used this area to launch an attack on the conquistadors. Much of the stones were looted by the Spanish to build new strucutres, but what remains is still great to see. From here, you can take a staircase back down into Cuzco which ended our afternoon walk.
TOMORROW: Machu Picchu!!!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Copacabana
Copacabana is a famous beach in Brazil and also a small, lakeside town in Bolivia. It is nestled on the bank of Lake Titicaca. This small town has been a place for pilgrams for centuries. Initially, it was a sacred place to the Incas.
We arrived and went into the first cheap place we saw... you get what you paid for. It was a room with a tv (only 3 spanish channels) and two beds. It was nothing to write home about, but it worked out ok. We spent very little time in the room anyway.
Our first morning there, we awoke early to ensure we could catch the boat to the Isla del Sol (Isle of the Sun). The boat ride took over an hour, which was an impossibly long time to me since I had an uneasy stomach. The entire gentle ride is through the vast and blue Lake Titicaca. When you arrive to the small island, you learn quickly there are no paved roads or cars. There is a path that takes you from one side of the island to the other. It took us roughly 3 hours to do it and along the way we saw several different Incan ruins. The Incans believed that the world originated on these islands. Incans would make a pilgramage to the island in order to ask for good luck and favors.
At times the path was easy, but towards the end it got pretty steep upwards. We had the pleasure of cruising down very quickly in an attempt to catch our boat. We missed it, but another driver accepted our ticket anyway.
When we got back to Copacabana, we had to sort out our depature to Peru. We soon learned that there was no ATM in town and we were almost out of Bolivianos. As luck has it, American dollars are accepted everywhere so we cashed in some USD to buy our ticket to Cuzsco. We then found a place to exchange another 20 USD in order to pay the hostel and have enough money for dinner. It was a hectic hour getting it all sorted out, but we managed. Thanks to the leftover American bills we had.
Our second morning in Copacabana, we visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana. This cathedral was not only large, but very ornate. It is home to the Virgin of Copacabana, a small carved figured by an indgenious Bolivian as welll as the patron saint of Bolivia. The cathedral and Virigin are interwoven with the local tradition of the Earth Mother, Pachamama. Bolivians continue to come pay homage and ask the Virgin for special things. They even bless the cars here.
After snagging an apple and some bread for breakfast, we headed to the bus office to wait for our bus. Yippie. We waited for about 20 minutes and then were annoyed and worried we had done something wrong. After 35 minutes, the lady that sold us the ticket showed up and told us 5 more minutes. After an hour, a different lady escorted us to a taxi. Thus began our sort of curious crossing to Peru. We took a short taxi ride to the border while the new gal was on the phone back in forth working to get us a ride to Cuzsco that evening. Somehow, the bus that was supposed to take us to the border forgot us, through no fault of our own. We went to get our exit stamps and then she gestured us to another guy. Jesus came up to us and said hed take care of us, no problem. We walked across the bridge to the Peru side. The immigration office was empty except for us and one employee. After we filled out the forms, the guy went to stamp and his stamp was set to Feburary. He made me fill out a new form and changed the date. It was so wierd, we clearly were not the first people to pass through that day. Then we took another taxi to Puno. SWEET! This taxi ride was like an hour. It was actually almost lucky we missed our first bus, we never would have gotten two direct taxis otherwise. Jesus arranged for our bus from Puno to Cuzsco and then arranged for a place for us to stay in Cuzsco. When we finally arrived in Cuzsco (after 9 pm) we had been traveling for about 11 hours and were exhausted. Our hostel turned out to be pretty shady, so we ate dinner and stayed on the internet until we were tired for bed.
We arrived and went into the first cheap place we saw... you get what you paid for. It was a room with a tv (only 3 spanish channels) and two beds. It was nothing to write home about, but it worked out ok. We spent very little time in the room anyway.
Our first morning there, we awoke early to ensure we could catch the boat to the Isla del Sol (Isle of the Sun). The boat ride took over an hour, which was an impossibly long time to me since I had an uneasy stomach. The entire gentle ride is through the vast and blue Lake Titicaca. When you arrive to the small island, you learn quickly there are no paved roads or cars. There is a path that takes you from one side of the island to the other. It took us roughly 3 hours to do it and along the way we saw several different Incan ruins. The Incans believed that the world originated on these islands. Incans would make a pilgramage to the island in order to ask for good luck and favors.
At times the path was easy, but towards the end it got pretty steep upwards. We had the pleasure of cruising down very quickly in an attempt to catch our boat. We missed it, but another driver accepted our ticket anyway.
When we got back to Copacabana, we had to sort out our depature to Peru. We soon learned that there was no ATM in town and we were almost out of Bolivianos. As luck has it, American dollars are accepted everywhere so we cashed in some USD to buy our ticket to Cuzsco. We then found a place to exchange another 20 USD in order to pay the hostel and have enough money for dinner. It was a hectic hour getting it all sorted out, but we managed. Thanks to the leftover American bills we had.
Our second morning in Copacabana, we visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana. This cathedral was not only large, but very ornate. It is home to the Virgin of Copacabana, a small carved figured by an indgenious Bolivian as welll as the patron saint of Bolivia. The cathedral and Virigin are interwoven with the local tradition of the Earth Mother, Pachamama. Bolivians continue to come pay homage and ask the Virgin for special things. They even bless the cars here.
After snagging an apple and some bread for breakfast, we headed to the bus office to wait for our bus. Yippie. We waited for about 20 minutes and then were annoyed and worried we had done something wrong. After 35 minutes, the lady that sold us the ticket showed up and told us 5 more minutes. After an hour, a different lady escorted us to a taxi. Thus began our sort of curious crossing to Peru. We took a short taxi ride to the border while the new gal was on the phone back in forth working to get us a ride to Cuzsco that evening. Somehow, the bus that was supposed to take us to the border forgot us, through no fault of our own. We went to get our exit stamps and then she gestured us to another guy. Jesus came up to us and said hed take care of us, no problem. We walked across the bridge to the Peru side. The immigration office was empty except for us and one employee. After we filled out the forms, the guy went to stamp and his stamp was set to Feburary. He made me fill out a new form and changed the date. It was so wierd, we clearly were not the first people to pass through that day. Then we took another taxi to Puno. SWEET! This taxi ride was like an hour. It was actually almost lucky we missed our first bus, we never would have gotten two direct taxis otherwise. Jesus arranged for our bus from Puno to Cuzsco and then arranged for a place for us to stay in Cuzsco. When we finally arrived in Cuzsco (after 9 pm) we had been traveling for about 11 hours and were exhausted. Our hostel turned out to be pretty shady, so we ate dinner and stayed on the internet until we were tired for bed.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tiwanaku
Never heard of Tiwanaku? Not too surprising. It was the major culture that dominated western South America before the Incas. It was in the area of Bolivia and Peru. A large majority of the site has not been completly excavated, however large parts have been `stolen`and are in musuems around the world. Initially, they took away pieces of Tiwanaku and incorrectly called them Incan artifacts.
On our hour and a half drive from La Paz, our exteremly knowledgable guide pointed out lots of things along the way. He spoke very good English. (Everyone in Bolivia speaks decent English, we were quite surprised.) He pointed out the fields and explained about the small towns we passed.
In Tiwanaku, they are developing a museum but its a little bare. They are also excavating and restoring. The whole town seemed to be busy digging through the dirt, sorting things into piles, and so on. I think in about 10 years, this will be an awesome place to visit with all the work that is currently underway. For us, it was just sort of okay.
They did have a gate they call the sun gate. Our guide explained the symbols and showed us how it was set up exactly the same way as the current Greogrian calender and predates it by hundreds of years. There were also large stones sort of resembling people that were looked upon as some sort of religious object/Gods. They had lots of intercate carvings and details. All of the details were mathmatically equivelent and related, which was neat.
We managed to make it back to La Paz in order to catch a shuttle to Copacabana, Bolivia. It was a bit hectic getting there and racing through the city in a cab. The shuttle was a mini bus packed full (as is typical of all transportation down here). At one point, we had to take a ferry. The passengers and the minibus took seperate ferries which was sort of funny.
On our hour and a half drive from La Paz, our exteremly knowledgable guide pointed out lots of things along the way. He spoke very good English. (Everyone in Bolivia speaks decent English, we were quite surprised.) He pointed out the fields and explained about the small towns we passed.
In Tiwanaku, they are developing a museum but its a little bare. They are also excavating and restoring. The whole town seemed to be busy digging through the dirt, sorting things into piles, and so on. I think in about 10 years, this will be an awesome place to visit with all the work that is currently underway. For us, it was just sort of okay.
They did have a gate they call the sun gate. Our guide explained the symbols and showed us how it was set up exactly the same way as the current Greogrian calender and predates it by hundreds of years. There were also large stones sort of resembling people that were looked upon as some sort of religious object/Gods. They had lots of intercate carvings and details. All of the details were mathmatically equivelent and related, which was neat.
We managed to make it back to La Paz in order to catch a shuttle to Copacabana, Bolivia. It was a bit hectic getting there and racing through the city in a cab. The shuttle was a mini bus packed full (as is typical of all transportation down here). At one point, we had to take a ferry. The passengers and the minibus took seperate ferries which was sort of funny.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
La Paz
La Paz is not technically the capital of Bolivia, Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia. All of the muncipal buildings and parliment and the presidents office, however, are located in La Paz. We took an overnight bus from Potosi to La Paz and arrived at 7 am. Yippie! We checked into our the Wild Rover Hostel, which is a large but fun hostel. Its very clean, despite the fact that it is so large. Usually, the big hostels are a bit dingy. It also has an Irish bar, as its owners are Irish. It claims to be the highest elivated Irish pub in the world, however, it does not serve Guinness. Boo. I will just have to wait until I return. One of the items offered on the ´hungover backpacker breakfast menu` is a full Irish breakfast (eggs, sausage, beans, grilled tomato, & toast).
We have been in several different churches here in La Paz, including the Cathedral. The most interesting church we have been to so far is the San Fransisco Church. The museum right next to the church is filled with, surprisingly, I know, religious artwork. We got an excellent guided tour and saw artifacts that belonged to the Fransican Friars in the 16 & 1700s. We then were treated to a walk upon the roof and to the bell tower (but not allowed to ring the bell) to see the view of La Paz. It was great. There was a mass being held, so we had to come back in the afternoon to see the crypts. However, this was really neat as well. The crypt holds not only Fransican Friars, but famous revolutionaries and other important people from Bolivian history.
La Paz is a giant market. Everything is for sale on every street corner. We visited an infamous witches market, which was not that intersting. Lonely Planet makes it out to be really cool and mystical, but it just looked like a tourist trap to us.
We also stopped into the Coca Musuem. It is a musuem dedicated to the coca plant. It is chock full of informaiton about the coca plant. It does strongly explain that it feels cocaine, a derivitative of the coca plant, is exteremly bad for you and that it causes a severe additction. It also has lots of medicial information, history, etc.
Our second day in La Paz, Mike took the plunge and went on a bike ride down the worlds most dangerous road with Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking. 3 tourists died on this bike ride last year. I opted for a `safer` day shopping. I had fun in the spralling market streets of La Paz and wondered away from the tourist section to get some better deals. It began to rain in early afternoon and a took a nice dive down the steep streets and cut my knee and hand up. Boo. Then, managed to misplace my ATM card. I was able to cancel the card and request a new one without any unsual transactions. I am, however, without a bank card to complete this trip. My bank also just sent me an email telling me they cancelled my AmEx as a precaution, too (not that this is a huge deal, they hardly accept credit cards down here). I am completly reliant on Mike for the last week of our trip, we will just call him sugar daddy from now on..... Thankfully, he was okay with floating me some money for the last bit.
We have been in several different churches here in La Paz, including the Cathedral. The most interesting church we have been to so far is the San Fransisco Church. The museum right next to the church is filled with, surprisingly, I know, religious artwork. We got an excellent guided tour and saw artifacts that belonged to the Fransican Friars in the 16 & 1700s. We then were treated to a walk upon the roof and to the bell tower (but not allowed to ring the bell) to see the view of La Paz. It was great. There was a mass being held, so we had to come back in the afternoon to see the crypts. However, this was really neat as well. The crypt holds not only Fransican Friars, but famous revolutionaries and other important people from Bolivian history.
La Paz is a giant market. Everything is for sale on every street corner. We visited an infamous witches market, which was not that intersting. Lonely Planet makes it out to be really cool and mystical, but it just looked like a tourist trap to us.
We also stopped into the Coca Musuem. It is a musuem dedicated to the coca plant. It is chock full of informaiton about the coca plant. It does strongly explain that it feels cocaine, a derivitative of the coca plant, is exteremly bad for you and that it causes a severe additction. It also has lots of medicial information, history, etc.
Our second day in La Paz, Mike took the plunge and went on a bike ride down the worlds most dangerous road with Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking. 3 tourists died on this bike ride last year. I opted for a `safer` day shopping. I had fun in the spralling market streets of La Paz and wondered away from the tourist section to get some better deals. It began to rain in early afternoon and a took a nice dive down the steep streets and cut my knee and hand up. Boo. Then, managed to misplace my ATM card. I was able to cancel the card and request a new one without any unsual transactions. I am, however, without a bank card to complete this trip. My bank also just sent me an email telling me they cancelled my AmEx as a precaution, too (not that this is a huge deal, they hardly accept credit cards down here). I am completly reliant on Mike for the last week of our trip, we will just call him sugar daddy from now on..... Thankfully, he was okay with floating me some money for the last bit.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Bolivia SLIDESHOW
Starts with the amazing salt flat tour and continues to some snapshots of Sucre. More to come!
Potosi
Potosi is a town you may never have heard of, but should have. It is located near the largest mine of silver ever found, called Cerro Ricco. The Spanish mined it for centuries and now, there is no silver, but the locals still mine it for other minerals. At its peak, the population was larger than Paris and about equal to London.
We took a taxi from the bus station to the hostel we had picked out ... only to discover that it was closed. The sign on the door said closed for rennovations. We then went to La Casona Hostal Potosi, a short walk away. We are paying 80 bolivianos for a clean room with 2 twin beds and we get breakfast. The hostel was really pretty and interesting architechture.
After arriving, we went to the Koala Cafe and had a set meal for less than $5. We started with a crepe, then I had quinoa soup. Our entree was lemon pepper llama and mashed potatoes. Yummy! For dessert we had banana cake. Delicious. We then went across the street to the Casa Nacional de Moneda. It is the former royal mint and now houses one of the better museums we have visited. We once again recieved a guided tour with our admission price of 20 bolivianos. It took about an hour or so to take it all in. The museum has a collection of religous art, contempary art, and artifacts from it's time as mint.
Sundays in South America are remind me of the fall in the US. Its all about football!! Of course, football here is what we call soccer at home. A friendly local told us that it was a super classico game this Sunday, April 19th. Super classico is a big match between rivals. It was Potosi Real vs. Potosi Naçional. The match was fun, only cost us 30 bolivianos ($4.20), and ended in a 1-1 tie.
We then had the opportunity to enjoy lomitos for dinner--little sandwiches with some beef, tomato, and papas fritas (of course!) on a bun. Its quite tasty and uber cheap, only 5 bolivianos.
Monday we went to Cerro Ricco (the silver mine). The first stop on the tour is to get all of the gear you need: jackets, pants, helmet, boots, headlamp & battery, and bandana. They dont tell you to bring a scarf or bandana, but are ready to sell it to you. After you get your gear, you are treated to a visit to the miners market. You are able to buy drinks, dynomite, coca leaves, 96% alcohol, or other goodies for the miners. Its not required to buy anything but its encouraged by our guide, Ronaldo. Ronaldo worked in the mines from when he was 16 until about 19/20. He was very lucky to get out of the mines. (The conditions and the money are crap.) We then went to the refinery. After the minerals are drawn out of the mine, they are brought to one of the many refineries for processing. Next, the bus climbed up the mountain and we went into the mine. The first part shows Tio, the devil, that the miners leave offerings to in order to ensure their protection and hope bestowes them with the good luck of finding valuable minearls. The mine shaft gets smaller and smaller the further you clamber in. Shortly after the light fades behind you, the dust starts to penetrate your lungs. It burns and continues to burn the rest of your `visit.´ The first miner we met was a 13 year old boy. He works in the mine because his family is poor. His father is the head miner in one part of the mine. It was very heartbreaking watching this poor child work so hard. He said he did want to go to school but that he couldnt afford it. When we finally climbed out of the mine, I was short of breath and my lungs burned. I have never been so excited for fresh, clean air. I coughed the rest of the day and we were only in the mine for 2 hours or less. Needless to say, the miners do not live long lives.
When we got back to town, we got lunch and had the opportunity to see an amazing church. Our tour of the chuch included some information about the church AND we got to climb up to the roof for a great view of the city. Then we got to go all the way down into the crypts of the church. It was quite the all-inclusive tour.
After we finished the church tour, we quickly headed out of town to the Eye of the Inca. It took us about an hour to get there -- we took two buses and climbed up a hill -- but it was totally worth it. It was a hot lake that overlooked the mountains. As we approached, the sun was setting so we did not get as long of a swim as we would have liked. We climbed down the hill with two Argentinians and split the cab back to town. The whole trip cost us only 13 bolivianos and was worth every centovos.
We took a taxi from the bus station to the hostel we had picked out ... only to discover that it was closed. The sign on the door said closed for rennovations. We then went to La Casona Hostal Potosi, a short walk away. We are paying 80 bolivianos for a clean room with 2 twin beds and we get breakfast. The hostel was really pretty and interesting architechture.
After arriving, we went to the Koala Cafe and had a set meal for less than $5. We started with a crepe, then I had quinoa soup. Our entree was lemon pepper llama and mashed potatoes. Yummy! For dessert we had banana cake. Delicious. We then went across the street to the Casa Nacional de Moneda. It is the former royal mint and now houses one of the better museums we have visited. We once again recieved a guided tour with our admission price of 20 bolivianos. It took about an hour or so to take it all in. The museum has a collection of religous art, contempary art, and artifacts from it's time as mint.
Sundays in South America are remind me of the fall in the US. Its all about football!! Of course, football here is what we call soccer at home. A friendly local told us that it was a super classico game this Sunday, April 19th. Super classico is a big match between rivals. It was Potosi Real vs. Potosi Naçional. The match was fun, only cost us 30 bolivianos ($4.20), and ended in a 1-1 tie.
We then had the opportunity to enjoy lomitos for dinner--little sandwiches with some beef, tomato, and papas fritas (of course!) on a bun. Its quite tasty and uber cheap, only 5 bolivianos.
Monday we went to Cerro Ricco (the silver mine). The first stop on the tour is to get all of the gear you need: jackets, pants, helmet, boots, headlamp & battery, and bandana. They dont tell you to bring a scarf or bandana, but are ready to sell it to you. After you get your gear, you are treated to a visit to the miners market. You are able to buy drinks, dynomite, coca leaves, 96% alcohol, or other goodies for the miners. Its not required to buy anything but its encouraged by our guide, Ronaldo. Ronaldo worked in the mines from when he was 16 until about 19/20. He was very lucky to get out of the mines. (The conditions and the money are crap.) We then went to the refinery. After the minerals are drawn out of the mine, they are brought to one of the many refineries for processing. Next, the bus climbed up the mountain and we went into the mine. The first part shows Tio, the devil, that the miners leave offerings to in order to ensure their protection and hope bestowes them with the good luck of finding valuable minearls. The mine shaft gets smaller and smaller the further you clamber in. Shortly after the light fades behind you, the dust starts to penetrate your lungs. It burns and continues to burn the rest of your `visit.´ The first miner we met was a 13 year old boy. He works in the mine because his family is poor. His father is the head miner in one part of the mine. It was very heartbreaking watching this poor child work so hard. He said he did want to go to school but that he couldnt afford it. When we finally climbed out of the mine, I was short of breath and my lungs burned. I have never been so excited for fresh, clean air. I coughed the rest of the day and we were only in the mine for 2 hours or less. Needless to say, the miners do not live long lives.
When we got back to town, we got lunch and had the opportunity to see an amazing church. Our tour of the chuch included some information about the church AND we got to climb up to the roof for a great view of the city. Then we got to go all the way down into the crypts of the church. It was quite the all-inclusive tour.
After we finished the church tour, we quickly headed out of town to the Eye of the Inca. It took us about an hour to get there -- we took two buses and climbed up a hill -- but it was totally worth it. It was a hot lake that overlooked the mountains. As we approached, the sun was setting so we did not get as long of a swim as we would have liked. We climbed down the hill with two Argentinians and split the cab back to town. The whole trip cost us only 13 bolivianos and was worth every centovos.
Sucre
We departed Uyuni for Sucre, Bolivia. Sucre means sugar and the city is delicious! The city used to be the capital of Bolivia and all the buildings are white on the exterior. They all have pretty terracotta tiled roofs, too. We stayed at Residencia Bolivia, which had a large courtyard filled with plants and a fountain that was off. They were very engaged in repainting and repairs, so I imagine it will be even nicer in a few months. Did I mention Bolivia is very cheap?? For 90 boliviaos (around 12 usd) we got our own room and breakfast. Breakfast is just bread through most of South America, so its generally not too exciting. Mike and I travel with peanut butter and I aquired some nutella, although thats about to run out.
Mike and I began touring around Sucre and managed to somehow fit it all in. We climbed up the hill to gaze out over the city at Calle Grau. There was also a pretty church called the Recoleta. It was a great lookout. Then we visited the Museo Textil Etnografico ASUR a museum for textiles created by the local peoples. The organization ASUR helps the locals earn a fair price for their dedicated work, supports programs to teach it to the children, and runs the musuem. It was an incredible museum with old tapastries and items as well as displaying the newest work and having an excellent shop.
We grabbed a quick lunch in the square and headed on to see an amazing castle way outside of the center of the city. The public bus cost about 14 US cents to ride one way. Ha! Castillo la Glorieta (not listed in the lonely planet AKA the backpackers bible) was incredible. It was built in the late 1800s by a very wealthy couple, who became the only native South Americans to recieve the title of Prince and Princess. They were bestowed this title first by the Pope, then by the King and Queen of Spain. They had no children and maintained a orphanage on their vast property. Sometime after they died, the Bolvian military aquired the property and turned it into a military base. The house has recently been painted to restore its original colors but has original flooring, tiles, etc. It was really cool and only cost 10 bolivianos to get in ($1.41 US). We lucked out and started our tour with a gal that spoke English so we were able to learn about the amazing building we were drifting through. She had to cut it short and her replacement only spoke spanish. Oh well.
After we got back to the center, we took the Sauro Tour truck to see dinosaur tracks at Cal Orkco. This collection of dinosaur tracks is the largest that has ever been uncovered. Too bad its not that exciting to see them. We had to pay 45 bolivianos (over $6) to get into the park. We got a tour, but you are very far away from the tracks. Its very overratted and not very exciting. They did have a few cool scale models of the dinosaurs found in South America (they differ from the North American ones).
We returned to town with enough time to see San Phillpe monestary & church. It was very old and beautiful. The coolest bit was that we got to go all the way up on the roof and look around the city. While it used to be run by monks, it now hosts a covenant and an all girls school for ages 5-18. Our guide was excellent and spoke English.
They have a large market near our hostel, so we drifted in there and got a delicious dinner of chiken and fries. This is one of the most common dishes in Bolivia. It was tasty and cheap - only 10 bolivianos.
We left Sucre to go to Potosi. We managed to get from our hostel to the bus terminal and on a bus that was just departing in less than 20 minutes for only 20 bolivianos. Sweet!
Mike and I began touring around Sucre and managed to somehow fit it all in. We climbed up the hill to gaze out over the city at Calle Grau. There was also a pretty church called the Recoleta. It was a great lookout. Then we visited the Museo Textil Etnografico ASUR a museum for textiles created by the local peoples. The organization ASUR helps the locals earn a fair price for their dedicated work, supports programs to teach it to the children, and runs the musuem. It was an incredible museum with old tapastries and items as well as displaying the newest work and having an excellent shop.
We grabbed a quick lunch in the square and headed on to see an amazing castle way outside of the center of the city. The public bus cost about 14 US cents to ride one way. Ha! Castillo la Glorieta (not listed in the lonely planet AKA the backpackers bible) was incredible. It was built in the late 1800s by a very wealthy couple, who became the only native South Americans to recieve the title of Prince and Princess. They were bestowed this title first by the Pope, then by the King and Queen of Spain. They had no children and maintained a orphanage on their vast property. Sometime after they died, the Bolvian military aquired the property and turned it into a military base. The house has recently been painted to restore its original colors but has original flooring, tiles, etc. It was really cool and only cost 10 bolivianos to get in ($1.41 US). We lucked out and started our tour with a gal that spoke English so we were able to learn about the amazing building we were drifting through. She had to cut it short and her replacement only spoke spanish. Oh well.
After we got back to the center, we took the Sauro Tour truck to see dinosaur tracks at Cal Orkco. This collection of dinosaur tracks is the largest that has ever been uncovered. Too bad its not that exciting to see them. We had to pay 45 bolivianos (over $6) to get into the park. We got a tour, but you are very far away from the tracks. Its very overratted and not very exciting. They did have a few cool scale models of the dinosaurs found in South America (they differ from the North American ones).
We returned to town with enough time to see San Phillpe monestary & church. It was very old and beautiful. The coolest bit was that we got to go all the way up on the roof and look around the city. While it used to be run by monks, it now hosts a covenant and an all girls school for ages 5-18. Our guide was excellent and spoke English.
They have a large market near our hostel, so we drifted in there and got a delicious dinner of chiken and fries. This is one of the most common dishes in Bolivia. It was tasty and cheap - only 10 bolivianos.
We left Sucre to go to Potosi. We managed to get from our hostel to the bus terminal and on a bus that was just departing in less than 20 minutes for only 20 bolivianos. Sweet!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Bolivian Visa
Americans have only been required to get Bolivian tourist visas for less than 2 years. Its all politics between the former US president and Morales, the Bolivian president. Yippie!
At the small border control in Bolivia, Mike and I appeared to be the only tourists out of maybe 100 that were American and singled out. We both knew about the visa so I flashed my passport right away, knowing we would go through different protocol than everyone else. The military guard spotted my nice blue passport with an eagle on it and pulled me to the side. He nicely asked if I had already applied for a visa? No. How long would I be staying in Bolivia? 14 days (always ask for more than you need) Was traveling alone? No. (I signaled Mike to come over, too). They took both of our passports and said something about 2-3 days. While all the Europeans, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, even South Americans all were getting stamps and then returned their passports. The guard made it clear we were not to get our passports back yet. I felt really excellent about entering a third world country and leaving my passport behind.
Lucky for us, we had a translator in our car who was able to explain to us that we would get our passports back in Uyuni. When we arrived to Uyuni at 12:30, I immedetly asked about our passports. The guy explained the office was closed and we had to come back after 4 pm. At 4, he walked us over and handed our passports to the customs official. We gave them our paperwork (yellow feaver vaccine, passport photo, and a form). Then another gentleman came over to collect the $135 USD requir
ed for the visa. I have never seen anyone so cautiously inspect money before. Even though Mike and I have been carrying this cash all the way around SA and brought it from the US, he rejected 2 of the twenties we had. See the photos at the side and let me know if you can see the `rip`that was supposedly the reason he rejected them. I had an extra one that he accepted. We were still a $20 short so we had to go to a money exchange place and get a crappy exchange rate to purchase another $20. So rediculous!
Thankfully, when we returned he accepted our recently purchased bills and gave us our passports, with visas and stamps. Whew!!
At the small border control in Bolivia, Mike and I appeared to be the only tourists out of maybe 100 that were American and singled out. We both knew about the visa so I flashed my passport right away, knowing we would go through different protocol than everyone else. The military guard spotted my nice blue passport with an eagle on it and pulled me to the side. He nicely asked if I had already applied for a visa? No. How long would I be staying in Bolivia? 14 days (always ask for more than you need) Was traveling alone? No. (I signaled Mike to come over, too). They took both of our passports and said something about 2-3 days. While all the Europeans, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, even South Americans all were getting stamps and then returned their passports. The guard made it clear we were not to get our passports back yet. I felt really excellent about entering a third world country and leaving my passport behind.
Lucky for us, we had a translator in our car who was able to explain to us that we would get our passports back in Uyuni. When we arrived to Uyuni at 12:30, I immedetly asked about our passports. The guy explained the office was closed and we had to come back after 4 pm. At 4, he walked us over and handed our passports to the customs official. We gave them our paperwork (yellow feaver vaccine, passport photo, and a form). Then another gentleman came over to collect the $135 USD requir
ed for the visa. I have never seen anyone so cautiously inspect money before. Even though Mike and I have been carrying this cash all the way around SA and brought it from the US, he rejected 2 of the twenties we had. See the photos at the side and let me know if you can see the `rip`that was supposedly the reason he rejected them. I had an extra one that he accepted. We were still a $20 short so we had to go to a money exchange place and get a crappy exchange rate to purchase another $20. So rediculous!Thankfully, when we returned he accepted our recently purchased bills and gave us our passports, with visas and stamps. Whew!!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Salt Flat Tour into Bolivia
We left San Pedro, Chile excitedly looking forward to Bolivia. We booked a tour for 69,000 pesos with Expediciones Estrella del Sur (star of the south). For an all inclusive 3 day tour (transportation, lodging, food, & drinks) we paid roughly $112 usd.
We started our tour at 8 am and hopped on a shuttle to the Chilian border. There was some unknown problem and we got our exit stamps and then waited for an extra hour or so at the border. Then we drove for awhile and arrived at the Bolivian border. As Americans, we are lucky enough to have to pay for a tourist visa. (We are the only ones in the entire group that have to do this, everyone else gets to come to Bolivia for free.) This singled Mike & I out immediately. We had to surrender our passports to the customs official at this tiny little border control station in the middle of nowhere. Its always a fantastic feeling when you are in a third world country to give up your passport... but more on the fun of the visa later.
We were served a filling if unexciting breakfast at the border and divided into groups of 6. Our driver, Alberto, was relatively young (mid 20s maybe) and fabulous. All of the cars are Toyota Land Cruisers and we had to load our big packs on the top of the car. Also on the top of the car, is our gas supply for the next 3 days and some rations. Our group of six was loads of fun. Along with Mike and I, we quickly became friends with Max & Stephanie a couple from the UK, and Imkea (from Germany) and her friend Phillipe (Chile). We were wonderfully lucky that Imkea was not only fluent in English and German, but Spanish, too. Alberto didnt speak any English that Im aware of but was able to provide lots of information about the scenery.
Day 1: We saw the white lagoon, green lagoon, dali rock desert, and got to stop at Polques Hot Springs. The water was toasty and loads of fun. Then we headed on to the Morning Sun Geyser Basin. It was full of bubbly mud. Steph pointed out that it was similar to the bog of eternal stench from the movie Labyrinth. I couldnt agree more. Due to our late start, we arrived at the place we were sleeping around 4 and got lunch. We skipped the last stop of the day, but Alberto promised that we would be going there first thing in the morning. The sun was not in the right place to enjoy it. For lunch we were served hot dogs, delicious mash potatoes, and salad. We got bananas for dessert. Our primative dwelling for the night had simple beds and a flushing toilet! yippie. No heat or hot showers, but we did have electricity for a few hours in the evening. After settling in, we had a tea break with cookies. We all were just chatting away and then were shortly served dinner since we had been behind all day. We were given a bottle of wine, soup, and a traditional Bolivian dish. It was french fries on the bottom, onions, peppers, some type of sauce, cut up hot dogs all on a large platter. It was filling and it was okay.
Day 2: Alberto told us we were leaving at 7 am, but we didnt end up leaving until 8. Boo. We went to the red lagoon and saw flamingos in the wild. Its the red lagoon because the alge turn it to that color. Then we went to see the stone tree, which was a very interesting rock. On to the highland lagoons: lagoon honda, chearcota, hediona, & cañapa. We ate a tasty lunch at Cañapa which was a potato cassrole type thing with onions, eggs, and peppers. We got apples for dessert, too. Then we drove onward to the lookout of the Ollague Volcano and through teh Chiguana salt flat. We arrived to Villa Martin, where we stayed for the night. We had a great dinner and chatted with friends. We even were able to buy a hot shower for 5 bolivanos (70 us cents).
Day 3: Rise and shine! Up at 4:50 am to catch the sun rise at Uyuni Salt Flat. It was freezing as we loaded our gear on top of the toyota. Then, to our fantastic luck, we got a flat tire. Alberto then had to explain that his spare tire was already flat. We attempted to flag down other toyotas passing us buy to no luck. Alberto ran off telling Imeka, not to worry he was going to the baño. Ha. He came rolling back down the way with a tire and we all cheered as he put it on. Unfortunetly, we did more damage than just one flat tire. We had two and some sort of problem with the front end. The drivers for these tours appaerently have to be everything -- including auto mechanic. Alberto stopped to do some more fiddling and then slowly drove us out onto the salt flat. Uyuni salt flat is over 12,000 square km. wowser! It goes on and on and on. Weerily, we got out of the toyota and started snapping and snapping away. We tried to think up as many ideas as we could, and I hope that you will agree that we did a good job. As it was freezing, we finally had to return to the truck. As we warmed up, we approached Fishermans Island. It was full of cactus and awesome to behold. We were able to climb up the hill for a 360 degree view. Stunning to behold, we soaked in as much as we could and then went down for breakfast. I got almost my favorite breakfast -- pancakes! They werent hot and there was no syrup, but I managed to enjoy them with nutella that I bought back in Valpariso. After the island, we again drove off on the salt flat until it was deserted. This time, we stopped with one other toyota and again went crazy taking pictures and thinking up new ideas. When we finally had our fill, we went to the salt ´museum´which is really a salt hotel. To get in, you have to buy something from their store. I bought a milky way (moms fav candy bar) and Mike bought a twix. We snapped a few pics and then headed towards where they mine the salt. After even more pictures, we headed to a tourist trap of a village on the edge of the Uyuni salt flat. We arrived to Uyuni around 12:30. Alberto surprised us by giving us lunch, which was tasty as usual. We then parted ways with Phillipe and Imeka, as they were returning to San Pedro.
Northern Chile
We left Valpariso for La Serena. In La Serena, we stayed in a fabulous hostel. Hostal El Punto had great breakfast, very nice and clean rooms, a large patio area, and very friendly staff. We booked immediately onto the evening tour for Mamauka Observatory. It was quite a drive to get there, but the stars were worth it. We saw the southern cross and got to look very closely at the moon. Our tour concluded with a little Pisco Sour, a local cocktail in Chile and Peru. The next day in La Serena, we saw several churches, a market, and just chilled out. We were suffering from a travel hangover from Easter Island. As we are now almost done with our trip, we had begun to drag through the motions a bit and not care all that much about what we were seeing. (Spoiled, I know.)
After La Serena, we went all the way up to Iquique, Chile. We stayed at Iquique Hostel which has the perfect location. It overlooks the beach and is just a short walk away. We wanted to paraglide over the sand dunes in Iquique, but the weather was against us. We just layed on the beach all day and I finished One Thousand Splendid Suns and then The Gatekeeper.
Our bus from Iquique to San Pedro was quite early in the morning. We were supposed to take two buses for the 9 hour trip, but got lucky. Until now, our trip has been free of a major transportation breakdown. We were lucky enough to break down in the middle of nowhere right before noon in a spot with zero shade. We exited the bus to learn, no its not a flat tire (a problem than can quickly be solved), but engine trouble. As luck would have it, our friendly Nathalie studied abroad in Rochester, NY. Fluent in English, she explained to us that there was a town not very far away. Most of the passengers on the bus began hitchhiking. Nathalie learned that it would be at least 2 hours, if not more, until another bus was coming along to take us to the next city. She hitched a ride and told us she would look for us in town. We were thumbing it, but luckily another bus from the same company came by and picked up the few of us left and our luggage. They dropped us in the town that was roughly 15-20 minutes away. When we got off and headed to the bus office, our friend Nathlie explained that our bus was to leave around 3:15 to continue to the trip and its law in Chile for the company to feed us due to the delay. We waited while she argued with the Tur Bus and her mother called the central office. Finally, the aggervated lady at the desk gave in and showed us next door. We got crappy sandwiches and a drink compliments of Tur Bus. Our bus didnt leave until after 4 pm and we had to exchange our 2nd bus ticket for a later time. We got onto the 2nd bus and arrived in San Pedro de Atacama around 9 pm.
Unfortunetly, We were unable to book a hostel in advance. Mike and I got the `no room at the inn` for the first three hostels and then got lucky with numbero quatro. It wasnt anything special and the sign was odd so I am not exactly sure what the name was. We had the joy of hot outdoor showers and then walking back to our room nice and wet. There was no heat in the room either, but really warm blankets. San Pedro is the most overrated place we have been. We booked three different tours and only enjoyed one of them. We were not sorry to be on our way to Bolivia for an amazing three day salt flat tour.
After La Serena, we went all the way up to Iquique, Chile. We stayed at Iquique Hostel which has the perfect location. It overlooks the beach and is just a short walk away. We wanted to paraglide over the sand dunes in Iquique, but the weather was against us. We just layed on the beach all day and I finished One Thousand Splendid Suns and then The Gatekeeper.
Our bus from Iquique to San Pedro was quite early in the morning. We were supposed to take two buses for the 9 hour trip, but got lucky. Until now, our trip has been free of a major transportation breakdown. We were lucky enough to break down in the middle of nowhere right before noon in a spot with zero shade. We exited the bus to learn, no its not a flat tire (a problem than can quickly be solved), but engine trouble. As luck would have it, our friendly Nathalie studied abroad in Rochester, NY. Fluent in English, she explained to us that there was a town not very far away. Most of the passengers on the bus began hitchhiking. Nathalie learned that it would be at least 2 hours, if not more, until another bus was coming along to take us to the next city. She hitched a ride and told us she would look for us in town. We were thumbing it, but luckily another bus from the same company came by and picked up the few of us left and our luggage. They dropped us in the town that was roughly 15-20 minutes away. When we got off and headed to the bus office, our friend Nathlie explained that our bus was to leave around 3:15 to continue to the trip and its law in Chile for the company to feed us due to the delay. We waited while she argued with the Tur Bus and her mother called the central office. Finally, the aggervated lady at the desk gave in and showed us next door. We got crappy sandwiches and a drink compliments of Tur Bus. Our bus didnt leave until after 4 pm and we had to exchange our 2nd bus ticket for a later time. We got onto the 2nd bus and arrived in San Pedro de Atacama around 9 pm.
Unfortunetly, We were unable to book a hostel in advance. Mike and I got the `no room at the inn` for the first three hostels and then got lucky with numbero quatro. It wasnt anything special and the sign was odd so I am not exactly sure what the name was. We had the joy of hot outdoor showers and then walking back to our room nice and wet. There was no heat in the room either, but really warm blankets. San Pedro is the most overrated place we have been. We booked three different tours and only enjoyed one of them. We were not sorry to be on our way to Bolivia for an amazing three day salt flat tour.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Valpariso
No, not the school. Its a town to the north of Santiago. We are staying at Licanantay Hostel, which from all indications is a total party hostel.... we shall see if we are able to get any sleep. There are good reviews for breakfast, but we are booked on a bus to leave first thing in the morning so I am unsure if we will be able to get any breakfast.
The main attraction in this town is the numerous Churches that abound everwhere. Since today is Palm Sunday, everywhere in the streets people are carrying the most interesting looking palms I have ever seen. They are woven into baskets in a variety of forms. After the basket is woven, they tuck in a cross made of palms, and additional greenery. Some are woven in interesting cone shapes which are quite cool. Valpo is built on a hill and sort of looks like a favella from Rio, thankfully we dont feel as its too dangerous.
We spent the afternoon shopping in the sunday market, picking up all sorts of goodies and some things we need: mike got socks and I got new headphones. I made the mistake of forgetting my iPod headphones (i still had the original pair 4 years later!) at our hostel last night. Oh well. Tomorrow we are headed to La Serena, Chile further north. It is supposed to have more beautiful beach (I can never get enough!!) and I hope the weather is warm enough to enjoy a swim. It is now fall here in South America and the tempetures are cooling but we continue to head north to hopefully offset some of the cold weather. We plan to catch an overnight bus (20 hours or so?) towards the Atacama Desert.
The main attraction in this town is the numerous Churches that abound everwhere. Since today is Palm Sunday, everywhere in the streets people are carrying the most interesting looking palms I have ever seen. They are woven into baskets in a variety of forms. After the basket is woven, they tuck in a cross made of palms, and additional greenery. Some are woven in interesting cone shapes which are quite cool. Valpo is built on a hill and sort of looks like a favella from Rio, thankfully we dont feel as its too dangerous.
We spent the afternoon shopping in the sunday market, picking up all sorts of goodies and some things we need: mike got socks and I got new headphones. I made the mistake of forgetting my iPod headphones (i still had the original pair 4 years later!) at our hostel last night. Oh well. Tomorrow we are headed to La Serena, Chile further north. It is supposed to have more beautiful beach (I can never get enough!!) and I hope the weather is warm enough to enjoy a swim. It is now fall here in South America and the tempetures are cooling but we continue to head north to hopefully offset some of the cold weather. We plan to catch an overnight bus (20 hours or so?) towards the Atacama Desert.
Magical Easter Island
We had the most spectactular time on Easter Island. It was simply magical. Easter Island is so remote that only one airline flies there, once a day. Our Lan Airlines flight was actually really good and quite reasonable. It only cost us $450 USD and the trick is not booking it through the US website because they jack up the prices. We booked it when we got to Santiago about 2 weeks ahead of time. There was a mix up in seating and I got the window seat (YIPPIE!!) even though I was supposed to have the isle.
We landed to the tropical and beautiful Easter Island with large smiles and lots of expectations. We stayed at Kona Tau Hostel and the owner was there to greet us at the airport and shuttle us back to the hostel. He gave us leis made of fresh flowers and showed us to the van. We instantally met Marissa and a lovely Irish gal (I cant spell her name, but Mike has it written down somewhere) who had the exact itinerary as us, so we hung out the entire time. The owner gave us a tour of town (which is so tiny you will figure it out in about a day anyway) and then got us checked in. The hostel was okay, nothing too flash or exciting but our most expensive hostel that we have stayed in - location, location, location!
Our first day on the island we ran down to the shore to catch glimpses at the moai, or large stone statues, that were close to town. Moai are placed on large Ahu or platforms. It is disrespectful to walk on the Ahu or touch the Moai. There have been over 800 moai found on the island. The Rapa Nui people (also another name for the island) are clouded with mystery. They are not certain where the Rapa Nui people came from, but it is likely they came from somewhere in Polynesia. Most of their culture is unknown as they became practically extinct before 1800. They believe the moai were created out of respect for ones ancestors and were believed by the Rapa Nui to be powerful. For reasons that no one is quite sure of, around 1600 the moai were all toppled from their Ahu.
After we snapped a few shots of the moai closest to town, we went to the Museo Antropologico P. Sebastian Engelrt. It was inexpensive but unexciting. All of the displays are in Spanish but they give you a book that is translated. Since they dont know too much about Rapa Nui, the Moai, and so on, its all the theories they have consolidated in one place.
We then decided to scope out the options for day 2. We decided to book the less expensive tour with Aku Aku Turismo. The more expensive tours are smaller groups, but we were fine with the larger group. Our guide was really friendly and claimed to be descended from the 111 Rapa Nui that were left on the island in the 1800s when Europeans came to settle it. He knew lots of information and was continually pointing out different things to us all day long. We learned a lot and were able to see all of the major stuff in one day. We started the day with seeing fallen moai and our guide explaining that they believe the Rapa Nui toppled them in a civil war. We then went to another Ahu and he explained to us about the platforms. Next, we got to go to the Moai Quarry of Rano Raraku. All of the moai (with the exception of one) were carved out of this volcanic hill. A majority of the moai are still here, as they were not all transported to their Ahu platform before work ceased. From one of the points on Rano Raraku we could see the Ahu Tongariki. At Tongariki, they have the most restored moai in one place. The Japanese helped to restored this area and its exteremly impressive. From here, we traveled on to see the navel of the world, as they call it. It is a magnetic rock that they have found on Rapa Nui. There is only one and it does not match any of the other rocks on the island. They do not know how to explain it as the island was so isolated it did not engage in regular trade with anyone during its peak. Our tour then took us to Anakena beach. The beach is filled with fine sand and is wonderful. You can see a few moai from the beach. There is only one Ahu that faces the water, the rest of the Ahu have their backs to the see and look over or protect the village. We were dropped off back at our hostel and consulted for a place to catch sunset. We were told that Tahai was the place to be and lucky for us it was a very short walk from town. At the summer solstice, the sun rises directly behind the moai. As its fall, it was a bit off centered but still wonderful. On our stroll back to town, we decided to have some delicious empanadas for dinner.
We awoke on day 3 to more lovely sunshine and had hoped to rent motorscooters. We were disappointed to find out that you must have a motorcycle license to rent a motorscooter. Apparently, there have been some accidents with tourists. It was very auspicious that all four of us went to get the bikes together, as we were able to hire a 4WD car for less money than we would spend on the motoscooters. As we all agreed to split the costs, the only question left was who to drive? It was a manual transmission so Mike was out. As it so happened, traveling with an Aussie and an Irish gal, they were not used to driving on the right side of the road and neither had driven in a considerable amount of time. I wound up being the driver, which was quite unexpected and loads of fun. We started out towards the Rano Kau volcano. Easter Island was formed out of 3 volcanos and this is one of them. We were delighted to discover the most magnificant lake in the crater of Rano Kau. We arrived in time for the mid day sun, which lights the whole crater up and creates the most magical view. Sure, we took pictures but none of them will capture what we saw with our eyes. We continued up the road to the Orongo ceremonial village. We had to pay a measely sum of like $8.50 US dollars or so. Considering this is the only time you are directly asked to support the national park on the island (which is basically the entire island), it is just a pittance and we were happy to do it. In the Orongo ceremonial village, we were able to see some of the housing of the later inhabitants that, of course, have an oceanview. We also saw petroglyphs that were carved representing birds, which was important to the Rapa Nui later on. We returned to town and made ourselves lunch (treating ourselves to salami and cheese sammies!) before heading to the other side of the island. This road was extremely bumpy and we were all very thankful to have opted for our 4WD vehicle instead of the bikes. The road is not well marked or well traveled, but we found more moai to snap pictures at as well as discovering some interesting caves. We were able to find Ahu Akivi which is the only moai that face towards the water. We also found Puna Pao quarry, where the moai topknots were carved from. Not all of the moai have topknots and most of the topknots cannot be restored to the top of the moai´s head due to the fact that the heads are too fragile to support them. Mike and Marissa spent extra time exploring some of the caves while I just relaxed with our other friend. We then headed back to town for a few and to determine where to catch sunset. As the ladies were shopping for postcards, one of the locals recommended returning to Orongo ceremonial village. We scuttled back up the way to discover the actual park part of Orongo was closed, but settled into see another amazing sunset. It was very lucky to see a sunset completly free of any obstruction-- no boats, no buildings, no islands, nothing but water, clouds, and sun. We were in awe of magestic sun as it sunk below the horizon. At times the sun appeared very angelic as the rays darted from beneath the clouds. It was another peaceful end to a wonderful day. We were lucky to have our sunset spot almost exclusively to ourselves. There was a tour but they packed up and left for town before the sunset was complete for some odd reason.
Our fourth day on the island started early at 6 am. The one lucky part about being on Easter Island in fall is that the sunrise is not as early as it would be in the summer. And since we had a car, it was a quick 25 minute drive to get back to Tongariki for sunrise. We enjoyed the sunrise and then as we were begining to leave, realized that 20 minutes after sunrise are quite splendid as the sun climbs high into the sky. We drove back to the hostel for breakfast (pancakes with dulce de leche!! yum!!) and then got ourselves ready for our last full day on the island. We returned the car and got four wheelers just for fun. We were able to back to our favorite spots from the day tour to soak up again the moai in the quarry at Rano Raraku and Tongariki at midday with full sun and no other tourists in our snapshots. We then happend to luck out and find a seculded beach. It was paradise as we ate our lunches and went for a swim. As we layed underneath the cliff rock, the sun suddenly covered all of the sand and we decided to spend the last of the rays back at Anakena beach. Yet another lovely and magical day on Easter Island and we headed back to town.
The island is so isolated that you easily slip into its pace of life. The moai are everywhere to look at and discover in this wonderful place, but it is so remote that it is not trampled with tourists everywhere you turn. Thanks for taking the time to read through the whole blog... now here are the pictures to attempt to see some of the magic that I experienced.
We landed to the tropical and beautiful Easter Island with large smiles and lots of expectations. We stayed at Kona Tau Hostel and the owner was there to greet us at the airport and shuttle us back to the hostel. He gave us leis made of fresh flowers and showed us to the van. We instantally met Marissa and a lovely Irish gal (I cant spell her name, but Mike has it written down somewhere) who had the exact itinerary as us, so we hung out the entire time. The owner gave us a tour of town (which is so tiny you will figure it out in about a day anyway) and then got us checked in. The hostel was okay, nothing too flash or exciting but our most expensive hostel that we have stayed in - location, location, location!
Our first day on the island we ran down to the shore to catch glimpses at the moai, or large stone statues, that were close to town. Moai are placed on large Ahu or platforms. It is disrespectful to walk on the Ahu or touch the Moai. There have been over 800 moai found on the island. The Rapa Nui people (also another name for the island) are clouded with mystery. They are not certain where the Rapa Nui people came from, but it is likely they came from somewhere in Polynesia. Most of their culture is unknown as they became practically extinct before 1800. They believe the moai were created out of respect for ones ancestors and were believed by the Rapa Nui to be powerful. For reasons that no one is quite sure of, around 1600 the moai were all toppled from their Ahu.
After we snapped a few shots of the moai closest to town, we went to the Museo Antropologico P. Sebastian Engelrt. It was inexpensive but unexciting. All of the displays are in Spanish but they give you a book that is translated. Since they dont know too much about Rapa Nui, the Moai, and so on, its all the theories they have consolidated in one place.
We then decided to scope out the options for day 2. We decided to book the less expensive tour with Aku Aku Turismo. The more expensive tours are smaller groups, but we were fine with the larger group. Our guide was really friendly and claimed to be descended from the 111 Rapa Nui that were left on the island in the 1800s when Europeans came to settle it. He knew lots of information and was continually pointing out different things to us all day long. We learned a lot and were able to see all of the major stuff in one day. We started the day with seeing fallen moai and our guide explaining that they believe the Rapa Nui toppled them in a civil war. We then went to another Ahu and he explained to us about the platforms. Next, we got to go to the Moai Quarry of Rano Raraku. All of the moai (with the exception of one) were carved out of this volcanic hill. A majority of the moai are still here, as they were not all transported to their Ahu platform before work ceased. From one of the points on Rano Raraku we could see the Ahu Tongariki. At Tongariki, they have the most restored moai in one place. The Japanese helped to restored this area and its exteremly impressive. From here, we traveled on to see the navel of the world, as they call it. It is a magnetic rock that they have found on Rapa Nui. There is only one and it does not match any of the other rocks on the island. They do not know how to explain it as the island was so isolated it did not engage in regular trade with anyone during its peak. Our tour then took us to Anakena beach. The beach is filled with fine sand and is wonderful. You can see a few moai from the beach. There is only one Ahu that faces the water, the rest of the Ahu have their backs to the see and look over or protect the village. We were dropped off back at our hostel and consulted for a place to catch sunset. We were told that Tahai was the place to be and lucky for us it was a very short walk from town. At the summer solstice, the sun rises directly behind the moai. As its fall, it was a bit off centered but still wonderful. On our stroll back to town, we decided to have some delicious empanadas for dinner.
We awoke on day 3 to more lovely sunshine and had hoped to rent motorscooters. We were disappointed to find out that you must have a motorcycle license to rent a motorscooter. Apparently, there have been some accidents with tourists. It was very auspicious that all four of us went to get the bikes together, as we were able to hire a 4WD car for less money than we would spend on the motoscooters. As we all agreed to split the costs, the only question left was who to drive? It was a manual transmission so Mike was out. As it so happened, traveling with an Aussie and an Irish gal, they were not used to driving on the right side of the road and neither had driven in a considerable amount of time. I wound up being the driver, which was quite unexpected and loads of fun. We started out towards the Rano Kau volcano. Easter Island was formed out of 3 volcanos and this is one of them. We were delighted to discover the most magnificant lake in the crater of Rano Kau. We arrived in time for the mid day sun, which lights the whole crater up and creates the most magical view. Sure, we took pictures but none of them will capture what we saw with our eyes. We continued up the road to the Orongo ceremonial village. We had to pay a measely sum of like $8.50 US dollars or so. Considering this is the only time you are directly asked to support the national park on the island (which is basically the entire island), it is just a pittance and we were happy to do it. In the Orongo ceremonial village, we were able to see some of the housing of the later inhabitants that, of course, have an oceanview. We also saw petroglyphs that were carved representing birds, which was important to the Rapa Nui later on. We returned to town and made ourselves lunch (treating ourselves to salami and cheese sammies!) before heading to the other side of the island. This road was extremely bumpy and we were all very thankful to have opted for our 4WD vehicle instead of the bikes. The road is not well marked or well traveled, but we found more moai to snap pictures at as well as discovering some interesting caves. We were able to find Ahu Akivi which is the only moai that face towards the water. We also found Puna Pao quarry, where the moai topknots were carved from. Not all of the moai have topknots and most of the topknots cannot be restored to the top of the moai´s head due to the fact that the heads are too fragile to support them. Mike and Marissa spent extra time exploring some of the caves while I just relaxed with our other friend. We then headed back to town for a few and to determine where to catch sunset. As the ladies were shopping for postcards, one of the locals recommended returning to Orongo ceremonial village. We scuttled back up the way to discover the actual park part of Orongo was closed, but settled into see another amazing sunset. It was very lucky to see a sunset completly free of any obstruction-- no boats, no buildings, no islands, nothing but water, clouds, and sun. We were in awe of magestic sun as it sunk below the horizon. At times the sun appeared very angelic as the rays darted from beneath the clouds. It was another peaceful end to a wonderful day. We were lucky to have our sunset spot almost exclusively to ourselves. There was a tour but they packed up and left for town before the sunset was complete for some odd reason.
Our fourth day on the island started early at 6 am. The one lucky part about being on Easter Island in fall is that the sunrise is not as early as it would be in the summer. And since we had a car, it was a quick 25 minute drive to get back to Tongariki for sunrise. We enjoyed the sunrise and then as we were begining to leave, realized that 20 minutes after sunrise are quite splendid as the sun climbs high into the sky. We drove back to the hostel for breakfast (pancakes with dulce de leche!! yum!!) and then got ourselves ready for our last full day on the island. We returned the car and got four wheelers just for fun. We were able to back to our favorite spots from the day tour to soak up again the moai in the quarry at Rano Raraku and Tongariki at midday with full sun and no other tourists in our snapshots. We then happend to luck out and find a seculded beach. It was paradise as we ate our lunches and went for a swim. As we layed underneath the cliff rock, the sun suddenly covered all of the sand and we decided to spend the last of the rays back at Anakena beach. Yet another lovely and magical day on Easter Island and we headed back to town.
The island is so isolated that you easily slip into its pace of life. The moai are everywhere to look at and discover in this wonderful place, but it is so remote that it is not trampled with tourists everywhere you turn. Thanks for taking the time to read through the whole blog... now here are the pictures to attempt to see some of the magic that I experienced.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Pucon!
We are staying at a delightful, small hostel called El Refugio. The beds here are amazing! So wonderfully large and comfy. I think they are the best beds so far. Its small and cozy so we have been chatty with the other guests here and its been delightful.
We are in Pucon, we came here hoping to climb the Villarica volcano. It is an active volcano and thus its weather dependent. We arrived an immediately booked on to the first tour leaving in the morning (lucky for us its 6:30 am). Our first attempt was a no go and so we hung around for a second try. This will not be happening, the conditions are too hazardous. Oh well. Pucon is still really cute. The town itself is charming and small, easily walkable.
We are going to go to the hot springs instead. The Termas Geometricas is crazy. We are headed there with most of the other folks from the hostel that we have gotten friendly with through the rainy day. The springs were built by an arichtect and it takes an hour and a half to get there. There are 14 or 16 different pools carved out of the rocks. I am so excited to chill out by the hot springs and enjoy. It is not a cheap adventure, costing us roughly $32 a person to get there, back, and enjoy the hot pools. Seeing as how we didnt get to do the volcano, we are splurging on this instead.
Tonight, we take an overnight bus to Santiago, and Tuesday EASTER ISLAND!
We are in Pucon, we came here hoping to climb the Villarica volcano. It is an active volcano and thus its weather dependent. We arrived an immediately booked on to the first tour leaving in the morning (lucky for us its 6:30 am). Our first attempt was a no go and so we hung around for a second try. This will not be happening, the conditions are too hazardous. Oh well. Pucon is still really cute. The town itself is charming and small, easily walkable.
We are going to go to the hot springs instead. The Termas Geometricas is crazy. We are headed there with most of the other folks from the hostel that we have gotten friendly with through the rainy day. The springs were built by an arichtect and it takes an hour and a half to get there. There are 14 or 16 different pools carved out of the rocks. I am so excited to chill out by the hot springs and enjoy. It is not a cheap adventure, costing us roughly $32 a person to get there, back, and enjoy the hot pools. Seeing as how we didnt get to do the volcano, we are splurging on this instead.
Tonight, we take an overnight bus to Santiago, and Tuesday EASTER ISLAND!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Bariloche
From El Chalten, we were booked on a bus for 2 straight days to Bariloche. It was supposed to be 12 hours each day, but ended up--lucky us!--being more. Again, we see several faces that we already know on our bus day 1. We rode up ruta 40 most of the way and the scenery was uneventful. After our first 13 hour day, we were all dumped out at a hostel. Most of us had been booked there by the bus company and the place was not very exciting. It did have a yummy resteraunt that wasnt too much money attached to it, so we sat down for dinner with 3 aussies we had become friends with since Port Natales. Dan, Brian, and Joel are a bit crazy. They felt strongly that since we had all day to sleep on the bus, we might as well stay up all night. I got out the cards for drinking games and we closed out the restaurant and bought all their large 1 liter beers before heading back to the boys rooms for more fun.
We arrived in Bariloche late in the evening, but thankfully near the center of town. Mike and I wanted to stay at 1004, the best hostel in town according to all the travelers we have met, but it was booked. We tried another place to stay, which was also booked, before ending up at Tango Inn (we are at the downtown one). Of course, one of the girls from the bus was booked there as well. They serve real breakfast -- with your choice of pancakes or eggs. Yummy! Mike and I strolled through town, had a fabulous sandwich for 8 pesos from the street vendor we´d been told was amazing. The sammies were delicious!! We then ran into our aussie pals and took the bus with them to Cerro Campanario. Cerro Campanario has ski lifts for you to take up and gaze upon the city. It was yet another lovely view. We saw lovely large lakes and mountains. I rode the ski lift up for 25 pesos with the boys, Mike opted to hike it up with a Canadian we met on the bus. I am still a bit worn out from the buses and trekking, I am glad to have spent the extra cash on the ride up.
Tomorrow, we are slated to bike around the lakes. Apparently, there is a 35 KM loop that is relatively easy to do. From here, we head back to Chile on Friday. We are planning to go to Pucon to ideally see the volcano. :-)
We arrived in Bariloche late in the evening, but thankfully near the center of town. Mike and I wanted to stay at 1004, the best hostel in town according to all the travelers we have met, but it was booked. We tried another place to stay, which was also booked, before ending up at Tango Inn (we are at the downtown one). Of course, one of the girls from the bus was booked there as well. They serve real breakfast -- with your choice of pancakes or eggs. Yummy! Mike and I strolled through town, had a fabulous sandwich for 8 pesos from the street vendor we´d been told was amazing. The sammies were delicious!! We then ran into our aussie pals and took the bus with them to Cerro Campanario. Cerro Campanario has ski lifts for you to take up and gaze upon the city. It was yet another lovely view. We saw lovely large lakes and mountains. I rode the ski lift up for 25 pesos with the boys, Mike opted to hike it up with a Canadian we met on the bus. I am still a bit worn out from the buses and trekking, I am glad to have spent the extra cash on the ride up.
Tomorrow, we are slated to bike around the lakes. Apparently, there is a 35 KM loop that is relatively easy to do. From here, we head back to Chile on Friday. We are planning to go to Pucon to ideally see the volcano. :-)
El Calafate & El Chalten
As we began to learn, Patagonia is generally a small area and all the tourists do similar routes. We were often finding ourselves on the buses with the same folks again and again. It makes it nice and easy to see familar faces. Our bus from Port Natales to El Calafate was full of the same folks from the home stay & the trek in the park. We crossed without incident from Chile to Argentina.
El Calafate is a small town with all sorts of cute touristy shops. It was great fun walking through town and seeing everything. Our hostel was absolutely perfect and we met tons of chatty folks. Of course, they have no website for you to click onto. Everyone at our hostel that we met was surprisingly American. We dont often meet many other Americans traveling. El Calafate is close to a beautiful large glacier. The glacier is one of a few in the world that is maintaining the same size, not getting smaller. We took the bus out to Glacier National Park to see it and opted to pay extra for a short boat excusion to get even closer. The Glacier is amazing and cool, certainly not cheap. It was about $40 for the roundtrip bus ticket, the enterance to the park, and the boat ride. We are over budget, so its not great to be spending lots of money but we have started cooking and making our own food to help us get our budget back in line.
We took the evening bus from El Calafate to El Chalten. Along the 3 hour ride, we stopped at a small farm that had pictures of Butch Cassidy, Ethel (his wife), and the Sundance Kid. Apparently, they were hiding out here before heading to Chile for another bank robbery. That was sort of entertaining place to stop. We arrived to El Chalten at about 9:30 pm and found the first hostel booked out. We were able to find a nice place, very luckily, a short distance away. We walked in to find a friendly couple we had met on our plane to Port Natales. (They were also on our bus to the national park & El Calafate.)
El Chalten is a tiny town, we were warned in the tour book that there are no ATMs in town and to hurry up and get there before they pave all the roads and the town is ruined by tourists. The town is nestled in the base of the Fitzroy Mountain range and has lots of trails that are day hikes from the town. Mike and I were set on the camping bit after our return from the Torres del Paine, so we were happy for easier day hikes. We spent the next two days doing some fun day hikes and returning to town to chill out, cook supper, and drink wine. I love the wine down here and drink it as often as possible. We are able to buy a liter of wine for about $1.50, the same price roughly for Mike to buy a 12 oz can of coke. While it is simple table wine, it is very drinkable and cant be beat for that price. If we werent overbudget, Id be buying the nicer wine that runs $5-$6 and is readily available.
El Chalten was a delightful 2 days and we were able to chat with our reoccuring friends along the way, before heading north.
El Calafate is a small town with all sorts of cute touristy shops. It was great fun walking through town and seeing everything. Our hostel was absolutely perfect and we met tons of chatty folks. Of course, they have no website for you to click onto. Everyone at our hostel that we met was surprisingly American. We dont often meet many other Americans traveling. El Calafate is close to a beautiful large glacier. The glacier is one of a few in the world that is maintaining the same size, not getting smaller. We took the bus out to Glacier National Park to see it and opted to pay extra for a short boat excusion to get even closer. The Glacier is amazing and cool, certainly not cheap. It was about $40 for the roundtrip bus ticket, the enterance to the park, and the boat ride. We are over budget, so its not great to be spending lots of money but we have started cooking and making our own food to help us get our budget back in line.
We took the evening bus from El Calafate to El Chalten. Along the 3 hour ride, we stopped at a small farm that had pictures of Butch Cassidy, Ethel (his wife), and the Sundance Kid. Apparently, they were hiding out here before heading to Chile for another bank robbery. That was sort of entertaining place to stop. We arrived to El Chalten at about 9:30 pm and found the first hostel booked out. We were able to find a nice place, very luckily, a short distance away. We walked in to find a friendly couple we had met on our plane to Port Natales. (They were also on our bus to the national park & El Calafate.)
El Chalten is a tiny town, we were warned in the tour book that there are no ATMs in town and to hurry up and get there before they pave all the roads and the town is ruined by tourists. The town is nestled in the base of the Fitzroy Mountain range and has lots of trails that are day hikes from the town. Mike and I were set on the camping bit after our return from the Torres del Paine, so we were happy for easier day hikes. We spent the next two days doing some fun day hikes and returning to town to chill out, cook supper, and drink wine. I love the wine down here and drink it as often as possible. We are able to buy a liter of wine for about $1.50, the same price roughly for Mike to buy a 12 oz can of coke. While it is simple table wine, it is very drinkable and cant be beat for that price. If we werent overbudget, Id be buying the nicer wine that runs $5-$6 and is readily available.
El Chalten was a delightful 2 days and we were able to chat with our reoccuring friends along the way, before heading north.
THE W
(Sorry for the lack of blogging, o faithful readers! Down in Patagonia, there is poor internet connection, its slow, and expensive.)
THE W might not be the W youre thinking of. W3 and W4 are important people in my life (my dear uncle warren and brother, respectively), but alas this is not the W to which I refer. I am talking about the W trek which is in the Torres del Paine national park. The trail forms a W on the map and you have to backtrack parts of it. To get to the park, you have to get down to Port Natales. We flew on Sky Airlines, which was absolutely fantastic. We were served 2 meals and offered complimentary wine with lunch (and its a domestic flight!). The airport in Port Natales is so small, there is no baggage carasel. A guy gets your bag and hands it to you. We assumed there was a bus to town, but were wrong and had to wait for the guy to call a taxi. We stayed with Evelyn at her house, basically. She had 4 rooms she rented out to folks coming and going. She was very helpful and booked the bus for us to the park, explained the route, and what we would need. She has equipment to rent, if you like, as well.
How do you prepare for a 4-5 day trek? Well, we hit the grocery store to load up on food and snacks to maintain us. (Chef Boardie type Rav, sausage and cheese for sandwiches, granola, bannanas, nuts, breakfast bars, etc.). We had read that you can rent all the equipment that you need through the park, so we decided to pay more and trek without a tent or sleeping bags. We only took our small backpacks, loaded with food. I also purchased a hat, gloves, and a nylon pair of leggins to keep me cozy and brought all my layers.
Bright and early, we hopped on the bus to the national park. Its about 2 and half hours away and is full of trekkers. The weather was pretty crap for day 1. After paying our park fee, we were attempting to decide our route and one of the guys recomended doing the trek in reverse since it was not the best day for seeing the peaks. We hopped on a short ferry ride to get us to the start. The ferry drops you off at a large refugio, which is a place where they rent the gear, beds in a sort of cabin, and usually sell some food, as well as meals. It is possible to trek the whole way without gear or food and just pay through the nose for everything. The refugios even have flushing toilets, although I assure you it is the middle of nowhere.
Mike and I trekked up to Glacier Gray for day 1 through ugly rain. It was also pretty cold and I had all my layers on. It was not too difficult and we would go for long stretches without seeing anyone else. We decided to camp at Glacier Gray, which was mistake numbero uno for the trip. It was a chilly night, but we had managed to get 2 extra sleeping bags for free and were plenty cozy in our tent. We should have pushed ourselves a bit more and walked back to the camp where we had started off from the ferry.
Day 2: AKA Hell. We woke up early and trekked back down, thinking ourselves ahead of schedule and smiling at how well we were doing. We learned on day 2 that only certain spots on the map rent gear, and the 2 campsites that were the next closest were the ones that do not rent gear. Thus, we set out on this chilly and windy day to get across the park. Due to our poor planning, we had to skip the top of the middle line in the W since we didnt have gear to camp there and couldnt hike it up and then back by the time we arrived. We hiked clear across the park on Hell day going 35 KM. During the last part, I was unable to talk. I was so exhausted and in pain that I would let out a grunt every so often. When we arrived to camp, we first saw the hotel that is 200 plus USD a night and then had to wander our way for 10 more minutes up to the refugio to get dorm beds for $37. A bit ironicly, these were the most expensive beds we have paid for. (In the middle of nowhere, youd expect them to be cheap!) We fell into bed to exhausted to even fuss with eating dinner and slept for hours in wonderfully comfortable beds.
Day 3: The view in the morning, is of course exceptional. We slept in as late as possible (9:30) and made a lieserly breakfast. It was painful at first to get moving due to our exhaustive day 2, so we agreed to do a very short hike upward and make camp. It was St. Patricks day and was delightfully sunny and warm. I hiked in my tank top and shorts, while just 2 days prior I had on 4 top layers and 2 bottom layers and raincoat. I would like to think that St. Patrick or perhaps my mother or Emily were smiling down upon us with the beautiful weather.
Day 3: Finally nearing the end of our trek, we got to take off for the hardest part but most rewarding. We hiked up to see the Torres del Paine and found it to be sunny and cloud free. We snapped our hard earned shots and then the route was 95% downhill, literarlly. We cruised easily down the hill to catch the bus shuttle back to town. The bus was full of smelly, dirty folks like I have never been around in my life (including us, since we didnt get to shower either).
We arrived back to Evelyns and were welcomed back like family. Our packs were still there and she booked us on the next bus to El Calafate....
THE W might not be the W youre thinking of. W3 and W4 are important people in my life (my dear uncle warren and brother, respectively), but alas this is not the W to which I refer. I am talking about the W trek which is in the Torres del Paine national park. The trail forms a W on the map and you have to backtrack parts of it. To get to the park, you have to get down to Port Natales. We flew on Sky Airlines, which was absolutely fantastic. We were served 2 meals and offered complimentary wine with lunch (and its a domestic flight!). The airport in Port Natales is so small, there is no baggage carasel. A guy gets your bag and hands it to you. We assumed there was a bus to town, but were wrong and had to wait for the guy to call a taxi. We stayed with Evelyn at her house, basically. She had 4 rooms she rented out to folks coming and going. She was very helpful and booked the bus for us to the park, explained the route, and what we would need. She has equipment to rent, if you like, as well.
How do you prepare for a 4-5 day trek? Well, we hit the grocery store to load up on food and snacks to maintain us. (Chef Boardie type Rav, sausage and cheese for sandwiches, granola, bannanas, nuts, breakfast bars, etc.). We had read that you can rent all the equipment that you need through the park, so we decided to pay more and trek without a tent or sleeping bags. We only took our small backpacks, loaded with food. I also purchased a hat, gloves, and a nylon pair of leggins to keep me cozy and brought all my layers.
Bright and early, we hopped on the bus to the national park. Its about 2 and half hours away and is full of trekkers. The weather was pretty crap for day 1. After paying our park fee, we were attempting to decide our route and one of the guys recomended doing the trek in reverse since it was not the best day for seeing the peaks. We hopped on a short ferry ride to get us to the start. The ferry drops you off at a large refugio, which is a place where they rent the gear, beds in a sort of cabin, and usually sell some food, as well as meals. It is possible to trek the whole way without gear or food and just pay through the nose for everything. The refugios even have flushing toilets, although I assure you it is the middle of nowhere.
Mike and I trekked up to Glacier Gray for day 1 through ugly rain. It was also pretty cold and I had all my layers on. It was not too difficult and we would go for long stretches without seeing anyone else. We decided to camp at Glacier Gray, which was mistake numbero uno for the trip. It was a chilly night, but we had managed to get 2 extra sleeping bags for free and were plenty cozy in our tent. We should have pushed ourselves a bit more and walked back to the camp where we had started off from the ferry.
Day 2: AKA Hell. We woke up early and trekked back down, thinking ourselves ahead of schedule and smiling at how well we were doing. We learned on day 2 that only certain spots on the map rent gear, and the 2 campsites that were the next closest were the ones that do not rent gear. Thus, we set out on this chilly and windy day to get across the park. Due to our poor planning, we had to skip the top of the middle line in the W since we didnt have gear to camp there and couldnt hike it up and then back by the time we arrived. We hiked clear across the park on Hell day going 35 KM. During the last part, I was unable to talk. I was so exhausted and in pain that I would let out a grunt every so often. When we arrived to camp, we first saw the hotel that is 200 plus USD a night and then had to wander our way for 10 more minutes up to the refugio to get dorm beds for $37. A bit ironicly, these were the most expensive beds we have paid for. (In the middle of nowhere, youd expect them to be cheap!) We fell into bed to exhausted to even fuss with eating dinner and slept for hours in wonderfully comfortable beds.
Day 3: The view in the morning, is of course exceptional. We slept in as late as possible (9:30) and made a lieserly breakfast. It was painful at first to get moving due to our exhaustive day 2, so we agreed to do a very short hike upward and make camp. It was St. Patricks day and was delightfully sunny and warm. I hiked in my tank top and shorts, while just 2 days prior I had on 4 top layers and 2 bottom layers and raincoat. I would like to think that St. Patrick or perhaps my mother or Emily were smiling down upon us with the beautiful weather.
Day 3: Finally nearing the end of our trek, we got to take off for the hardest part but most rewarding. We hiked up to see the Torres del Paine and found it to be sunny and cloud free. We snapped our hard earned shots and then the route was 95% downhill, literarlly. We cruised easily down the hill to catch the bus shuttle back to town. The bus was full of smelly, dirty folks like I have never been around in my life (including us, since we didnt get to shower either).
We arrived back to Evelyns and were welcomed back like family. Our packs were still there and she booked us on the next bus to El Calafate....
Friday, March 13, 2009
Santiago
We have successfully arrived in Santiago, Chile. We are staying at Aji Hostel and I like it a lot. We arrived really early, after a miserable bus ride. Note: if ever going to cross from Mendoza to Santiago, do it during the day!! It is a long windy road that is a bunch of SSSS back and forth. You wont be able to sleep, but more importantly its a beautiful passageway that we totally missed. You cross through the Andes and it probably was gorgeous. We arrived exhausted around 5:30 or 6 am and navigated the way to the hostel. When the receptionist let us in, she actually showed us to our beds. YES!! Even though check in is not until 12 pm, we got to snooze all morning in fantastic, comfy beds. These beds are probably the best so far. The hostel isnt super clean, but the only one that has been was the brand new one we stayed at in Montivedeo. Love it here. BBQ tonight, hopefully will be fun.
We were able to see a lot of things in a short time in Santiago. Its an extremely walkable city. There are lots of pedestrian only streets, which is great. Its also very safe here. We went to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, which is a musuem of artifacts from the indengious peoples of South and Central America. It was pretty cool and free with my expried student ID, awesome. All of the information was translated perfectly to English, even in their special exhibit. Best museo so far.
We also went to the Museo Historico Nacional. Ha. All in español, so that was sort of a waste, but again I got the student rate of like 45 US cents, so we walked through and learned nothing. Oh well. And to make it a good trifecta, we went to the art musuem too. This one happened to be free on Thursday, but was sort of average overall.
We enjoyed a crazy dinner at a place called the Patagonia Cafe. We went all out (we dont always act like backpackers anyway) and got the big monster dinner. We sampled wild boar, deer, deer sausage with roasted veggies and Chilian red wine. Yummy!!
Now its off to Patagonia and some trekking!!
We were able to see a lot of things in a short time in Santiago. Its an extremely walkable city. There are lots of pedestrian only streets, which is great. Its also very safe here. We went to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, which is a musuem of artifacts from the indengious peoples of South and Central America. It was pretty cool and free with my expried student ID, awesome. All of the information was translated perfectly to English, even in their special exhibit. Best museo so far.
We also went to the Museo Historico Nacional. Ha. All in español, so that was sort of a waste, but again I got the student rate of like 45 US cents, so we walked through and learned nothing. Oh well. And to make it a good trifecta, we went to the art musuem too. This one happened to be free on Thursday, but was sort of average overall.
We enjoyed a crazy dinner at a place called the Patagonia Cafe. We went all out (we dont always act like backpackers anyway) and got the big monster dinner. We sampled wild boar, deer, deer sausage with roasted veggies and Chilian red wine. Yummy!!
Now its off to Patagonia and some trekking!!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Malbec & Mendoza
We traveled to Mendoza, a lovely area in northwestern Argentina specificlly to enjoy the malbec wines from this area. After checking into Casa Peubleo which took a bit of time since we arrived early, we went to find the wine trail.
We took a bus to Maipu (which is pronounced my poo, giggles all day!) and hopped off at Mr. Hugos bike rental. Mr. and Mrs. Hugo great you as you depart the bus and usher you in to get you comfortable. For 25 pesos, we were able to rent a bike, get a bottle of water, and sort of listen to what direction they were telling us to go. The first part of the ride is through a scummy bit of town and was not at all like the romantic vision I had of peddling my way through the countryside and vineyards. Uggh. Thankfully, the view improved the further from town we got.
We biked out to the Familia di Tomaso winery for lunch and enjoyed our first malbec of the day. It was a small vineyard and winery, our sandwiches were nice. I had an avacado, ham, and cheese on really delicious bread. It was rustic looking and we sat on the veranda.
We continued further up the road to Carinae. This small vineyard is owned by a French couple and is distributed in St. Louis for my fam and friends back home. The Carinae is a constallation that is only visable during the harvest. This vineyard had not begun harvesting yet, some of the others are just getting started. Here, we did a tour and enjoyed some rose, a malbec, and a nicer malbec that had been aged longer. This was a pretty nice tour and we saw a gal hand labeling the bottles. From here, you are able to see the beatiful Andes in the distance that frame the city of Mendoza.
Next, we went to Vina El Cerno, which was the least exciting vineyard on the tour. The guy was too laidback and not really giving any information. The wine here was decent and the pours were extremely generous.
Feeling a bit tipsy, we missed the next winery listed on our map and skipped to Trapiche. Trapiche is a very old vineyard, it was founded in 1912 by an Italian immigrant. The vineyard and winery was purchased by an American company recently and they decided to completly restore the old buildings to the original look. Our tour guide explained that most of the buildings that are old have been destroyed by earthquakes and that it was a point of pride to have the buildings and vineyard restored. Here, we sampled a delicious cabernet, a malbec, a sparkling rose, and a torrontes. I have never had a torrontes before, it is a young, white wine and was yummy. The tasting room was built ontop of the barrel room and has a clear glass floor for you to gaze at while enjoying the wines. And the bathrooms were very cool, too.
As we peddled our way back to Mr. Hugos and were welcomed home like family. Because I hadn´t enjoyed enough wine yet, Mr. Hugo invited us to sit down and passed us another bottle of red wine. This one was unlabeled and probably very low quaility but at this point it doesnt really matter. We chatted with other drunks hobbeling back from the vineyard tours and enjoyed more wine that was included in our measely 25 pesos.
This morning, I awoke ready to take on more wine. Mike called uncle (he´s not that into wine anyway) and I departed on another tour. My legs are tired from yesterday, today I paid extra for the minibus shuttle with an English speaking guide. We started off at Weinert, another large and old vineyard similar to Trapiche. I didnt bring the camera along because I didnt have any pockets, but they had really old and large barrels for their wine making. We got to try some grape juice (to compare it to the fermanted wines), another torrentes, a malbec rose, and a malbec. Yummy.
Next, it was off to Carmine Grouata. This vineyard is a smaller producer and was founded by an Italian immigrant in 1910. His grandson is the current winemaker and their wines have won many awards. We tried a cabernet and a malbec here. Our tour guide offered for sale a bottle of wine for 280 pesos (about 85 usd) a select bottle of their 1999 vintage. Its only sold to private collectors abroad and retails for 200 euro.
My tour ended today with a tour of Laur olive oil factory. It was a bit boring and we only sampled their extra virgin olive oil. I have done other olive oil tastings where you sample a few and compare, but oh well. Another wonderful day in Mendoza!
We took a bus to Maipu (which is pronounced my poo, giggles all day!) and hopped off at Mr. Hugos bike rental. Mr. and Mrs. Hugo great you as you depart the bus and usher you in to get you comfortable. For 25 pesos, we were able to rent a bike, get a bottle of water, and sort of listen to what direction they were telling us to go. The first part of the ride is through a scummy bit of town and was not at all like the romantic vision I had of peddling my way through the countryside and vineyards. Uggh. Thankfully, the view improved the further from town we got.
We biked out to the Familia di Tomaso winery for lunch and enjoyed our first malbec of the day. It was a small vineyard and winery, our sandwiches were nice. I had an avacado, ham, and cheese on really delicious bread. It was rustic looking and we sat on the veranda.
We continued further up the road to Carinae. This small vineyard is owned by a French couple and is distributed in St. Louis for my fam and friends back home. The Carinae is a constallation that is only visable during the harvest. This vineyard had not begun harvesting yet, some of the others are just getting started. Here, we did a tour and enjoyed some rose, a malbec, and a nicer malbec that had been aged longer. This was a pretty nice tour and we saw a gal hand labeling the bottles. From here, you are able to see the beatiful Andes in the distance that frame the city of Mendoza.
Next, we went to Vina El Cerno, which was the least exciting vineyard on the tour. The guy was too laidback and not really giving any information. The wine here was decent and the pours were extremely generous.
Feeling a bit tipsy, we missed the next winery listed on our map and skipped to Trapiche. Trapiche is a very old vineyard, it was founded in 1912 by an Italian immigrant. The vineyard and winery was purchased by an American company recently and they decided to completly restore the old buildings to the original look. Our tour guide explained that most of the buildings that are old have been destroyed by earthquakes and that it was a point of pride to have the buildings and vineyard restored. Here, we sampled a delicious cabernet, a malbec, a sparkling rose, and a torrontes. I have never had a torrontes before, it is a young, white wine and was yummy. The tasting room was built ontop of the barrel room and has a clear glass floor for you to gaze at while enjoying the wines. And the bathrooms were very cool, too.
As we peddled our way back to Mr. Hugos and were welcomed home like family. Because I hadn´t enjoyed enough wine yet, Mr. Hugo invited us to sit down and passed us another bottle of red wine. This one was unlabeled and probably very low quaility but at this point it doesnt really matter. We chatted with other drunks hobbeling back from the vineyard tours and enjoyed more wine that was included in our measely 25 pesos.
This morning, I awoke ready to take on more wine. Mike called uncle (he´s not that into wine anyway) and I departed on another tour. My legs are tired from yesterday, today I paid extra for the minibus shuttle with an English speaking guide. We started off at Weinert, another large and old vineyard similar to Trapiche. I didnt bring the camera along because I didnt have any pockets, but they had really old and large barrels for their wine making. We got to try some grape juice (to compare it to the fermanted wines), another torrentes, a malbec rose, and a malbec. Yummy.
Next, it was off to Carmine Grouata. This vineyard is a smaller producer and was founded by an Italian immigrant in 1910. His grandson is the current winemaker and their wines have won many awards. We tried a cabernet and a malbec here. Our tour guide offered for sale a bottle of wine for 280 pesos (about 85 usd) a select bottle of their 1999 vintage. Its only sold to private collectors abroad and retails for 200 euro.
My tour ended today with a tour of Laur olive oil factory. It was a bit boring and we only sampled their extra virgin olive oil. I have done other olive oil tastings where you sample a few and compare, but oh well. Another wonderful day in Mendoza!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Boca Juniors vs. Los Diablos Rojos
Football (what we call soccer) is kind of a big deal down here in Argentina and Brazil. Perhaps you´ve heard. Mike and I were able to enjoy the crazy Boca Juniors verse the Independiente at the Tomas A. Duco stadium on Sunday.Boca Juniors is one of the best known teams in Argentina. They are like the Yankees, with the most titles and the most fans throughout the country. Their logo or team bage should pop up on the left side of this post. The bright blue and yellow are easy to spot and when we visited the La Boca neighborhood, their logoed apparel was everywhere. They were founded by Italian immigrants and so I was really excited to go to the game and cheer them on.
Unfortunetly, it was an away game and so we couldnt sit with the fans from Boca. The fans have seperate enterances to the park and there are large police barracades between the fans so that there is no mixing. When the game is over, the Boca fans are escorted out by the police and the other fans have to wait until they are all out before they open the gates. CRAZY!Los Diablos Rojos or the red devils beat Boca 2-0.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Buenos Notches!
The free walking tour of Buenos Aires was great. Our guide Sol was friendly and knew lots about everything. She freely answered any questions we wanted and stopped wherever we wanted on the tour. We were the only backpackers on the tour and went out for a chill lunch with our new friends afterwards. We are meeting some of the same folks this evening for a Boca vs. Independiente Futball match.
Last night, we had a wonderfully fun time at the La Bomba de Tiempo performance. It was 25 pesos to get in, roughly 8 usd. Its a group of 19 or so percussionists. We danced, clapped, swayed, jumped, tapped, yelled, sang, tried to avoid the smoke that was all around us, and moved with the crowd. They preformed for about 3 hours and it was a very interesting experience. Afterwards, we enjoyed the fun of trying to find the bus back to town. It was a long ride back into the city (we were off the map to go to the show) but enjoyable all the same.
Last night, we had a wonderfully fun time at the La Bomba de Tiempo performance. It was 25 pesos to get in, roughly 8 usd. Its a group of 19 or so percussionists. We danced, clapped, swayed, jumped, tapped, yelled, sang, tried to avoid the smoke that was all around us, and moved with the crowd. They preformed for about 3 hours and it was a very interesting experience. Afterwards, we enjoyed the fun of trying to find the bus back to town. It was a long ride back into the city (we were off the map to go to the show) but enjoyable all the same.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Evita!
We have arrived in lovely Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the captial of this lovely country and home to many lovely sights. It is the NYC of South America, full of crazy taxi drivers that rip you off, a subway, buses, a broadway type district, the projects, and heros. It also boasts many beautiful buildings and lovely architechture.
We are staying at El Firulete, which has been an interesting experience. The building itself is charming, with lovely tile floors and a balcony in our room. The breakfast is alright (fruit, ceral, toast, and CROISSANTS!! i love croissants) and its clean for a hostel. However, the staff at the front desk totally suck. They are unhelpful and unfriendly. We have an 8 person dorm to ourself and havent met a lot of other travelers. Its nice to mix it up and chat up other people about what they have done and where they have been.
We have had the opportunity to see several sights related to the infamous Eva Peron, or Evita.
Her final resting place is La Recoleta Cemetery. La Recoleta is an elaborate and beautiful maze of mausoleums. Some look like mini churches with a steeple and stained glass. Elaborate statues are common for the decoration of them. Some are well maintained and when you peak at the windows, you can see the coffins neatly arranged with a cloth covering them. It was really interesting to see and you can wander around for quite some time seeing different things each time. We also went to the Evita museum. They have some of her clothing and accessories on display, along with videos important to her life, radio recordings, and some information about her life. Its a little sparse on all the specifics, more broad strokes leaving you wanting to know more about her life.
We had the pleasure of walking through San Martin square and just so happened to be there when they unvailed the United Buddy Bears. Its a group of bears represented by each country reconized by the UN and designed by a local artist from that country. It was a very exciting thing to stumble upon.
We have been to La Boca, a neightborhood with interestingly bright colors and tin houses. We also saw tango on display in the streets and art was everywhere for sale. We got to meet up with the Saras - our Scottish friends that we met in Rio both named Sara. We wandered the streets with them for awhile and then went to the national history museum. It sucked since it was all in Spanish and apparently, its under renovation until next year. On to the next.
Last night, we went to Cafe Tortoni. They are a very old cafe and do tango shows in the evening. The show was 60 pesos and was a combination of tango, singing, and orchestra playing. The live music part was great, the singing was very emotional. I would have liked to see more tango. The dancers did change their outfits every single time, which was cool. We shared a table with Carmen and Alister from Toronto and went out for a steak afterwards. The steak is very reasonably priced and always delicious.
Carmen recommended a free tour of BsAs and that is where we are off to now....
We are staying at El Firulete, which has been an interesting experience. The building itself is charming, with lovely tile floors and a balcony in our room. The breakfast is alright (fruit, ceral, toast, and CROISSANTS!! i love croissants) and its clean for a hostel. However, the staff at the front desk totally suck. They are unhelpful and unfriendly. We have an 8 person dorm to ourself and havent met a lot of other travelers. Its nice to mix it up and chat up other people about what they have done and where they have been.
We have had the opportunity to see several sights related to the infamous Eva Peron, or Evita.
Her final resting place is La Recoleta Cemetery. La Recoleta is an elaborate and beautiful maze of mausoleums. Some look like mini churches with a steeple and stained glass. Elaborate statues are common for the decoration of them. Some are well maintained and when you peak at the windows, you can see the coffins neatly arranged with a cloth covering them. It was really interesting to see and you can wander around for quite some time seeing different things each time. We also went to the Evita museum. They have some of her clothing and accessories on display, along with videos important to her life, radio recordings, and some information about her life. Its a little sparse on all the specifics, more broad strokes leaving you wanting to know more about her life.
We had the pleasure of walking through San Martin square and just so happened to be there when they unvailed the United Buddy Bears. Its a group of bears represented by each country reconized by the UN and designed by a local artist from that country. It was a very exciting thing to stumble upon.
We have been to La Boca, a neightborhood with interestingly bright colors and tin houses. We also saw tango on display in the streets and art was everywhere for sale. We got to meet up with the Saras - our Scottish friends that we met in Rio both named Sara. We wandered the streets with them for awhile and then went to the national history museum. It sucked since it was all in Spanish and apparently, its under renovation until next year. On to the next.
Last night, we went to Cafe Tortoni. They are a very old cafe and do tango shows in the evening. The show was 60 pesos and was a combination of tango, singing, and orchestra playing. The live music part was great, the singing was very emotional. I would have liked to see more tango. The dancers did change their outfits every single time, which was cool. We shared a table with Carmen and Alister from Toronto and went out for a steak afterwards. The steak is very reasonably priced and always delicious.
Carmen recommended a free tour of BsAs and that is where we are off to now....
Monday, March 2, 2009
Punta del Este
Punta del Este is a very nice beach town in northern Urguay. It is a small area, but is the international vacation hot spot for this area. It has a little bit of what I envision Miami to be like. There are tall hotels and condos that line the beach, upscale shopping, and plenty of fine dining.
We stayed at 1949 Hostel which has a fantastic location! It was a short walk from the bus station and we could see the ocean from our 2nd story room. The staff that worked there were a casual bunch--listening to Bob Marley and in a hurry to do nothing. Oh well.
We got to spend two days hanging out on the beach and found beach umbrellas on the beach to relax under. We found some lovely sea glass (one of my favorite things to find at the beach!!) and soaked up the sun. It was a very enjoyable two days!!
We are now in the capital of Urguay, Montivedeo and we are saying at Pocitos Hostel. It is again, just a short walk to the ocean and the beach. The tempture here is much cooler (70s) and almost cold since we are used to 85 degrees or warmer weather.
We stayed at 1949 Hostel which has a fantastic location! It was a short walk from the bus station and we could see the ocean from our 2nd story room. The staff that worked there were a casual bunch--listening to Bob Marley and in a hurry to do nothing. Oh well.
We got to spend two days hanging out on the beach and found beach umbrellas on the beach to relax under. We found some lovely sea glass (one of my favorite things to find at the beach!!) and soaked up the sun. It was a very enjoyable two days!!
We are now in the capital of Urguay, Montivedeo and we are saying at Pocitos Hostel. It is again, just a short walk to the ocean and the beach. The tempture here is much cooler (70s) and almost cold since we are used to 85 degrees or warmer weather.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Brazil! Loves & Hates
Brazil is a fantastic country and since its my last day here and I have free internet, I figured I would clue you in to some of the best things about Brazil.
- Churrascira (Brazil BBQ) is a buffet for less than $5 USD you get all you can eat. The meat guy brings around and slices meat at your table until you cannot have any more. Yummy!
- They are sharing & social people. At a resteraunt, they serve beer in large bottles (600 ml) and bring you small glasses to share with your friends. Its odd to them to order your own beer and drink it all yourself.
- The beautiful people (they are everywhere)
- Landscape - we have seen much through the side of our bus windows and it is green and lush. The dirt is a red-brown and has altered the color of our flip flops, but it makes for an excellent contrast. The deep green hues and lush trees vs. the red of the rocks and ground.
- Beaches ~Impanema is my favorite!
- Rio de Janero
- Waterfalls- not only does Igazu totally kick butt, we were able to go swimming in 6 or 7 other ones in various parts of Brazil. This has been my favorite activity while in Brazil.
- Coxina - a little ball of chicken that is fried with something. Yummy! totally awful for you to eat no doubt.
- Its realtively cheap here (we have lived on $60 usd a day)
- the ´angels´that have come to our rescue along the way -- when we were unable to communicate in Portugese and were lucky enough to come to our aid.
- Havaianas
Things I wont miss:
- Plastic napkins (seriously, if its not absorbant what is the point???)
- You cant flush toliet paper down the toliet ... you must put it in a trashcan next to the toliet
- Couples (old, young, teenagers, whatever) make out EVERYWHERE here. Waiting for the bus, walking down the street, at a resteraunt, EVERYWHERE.
- All the food is salty and rather unhealthy (with the exception of the delicious tropical fruit).
- Wierd shower heads that I could possibly electricute myself with.
- Extremely few and far between English speakers.
ps. more pics in the same old album ... I will be starting a new one soon!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Falls of Igauzu
We arrived after three not luxurious buses to the Falls of Igauzu, Brazil. We had the pleasure of taking two local buses to our hostel. It was very simply done and the landmark to get off was none other than McDonalads double arches. The hostel is not impressive, but oh well, its cheap.
We arrived at the hostel before 11 am and were unable to check in. We stored our stuff and headed off to the main attraction on a local bus. The waterfalls are near the border with Argentina and Paraguay, but we decided to see the Brazilian side first. They are very impressive. The pictures, big surprise, do not do it justice. We had a nice walk through the jungle and it only cost $8 something USD to get in. We snapped tons of pictures (the best have been uploaded to my Brazil web album) and came back into town.
We went Itiapu Dam and Power Plant for a tour on Thursday. It is the worlds largest hydroelectric plant in power output. They generate 90% of Paraguays power here and 20% of Brazils. It was an immense dam but it has not rained enough recently, so it was not very exciting to see. Very little watter was visable from where we stood. Oh well, it wasnt expensive and the bus ride was a random trip.
We then spent the afternoon going to Paraguay. It sucked. I posted a picture of it in the album, too, but it is not worth seeing. They refused to give us passport stamps (because we didnt have a visa to be in the country) and I was unable to find a post office or a postcard to mail myself. Upon my attempt to re-enter Brazil, I got in trouble for not having the exit card. They even went to the trouble of finding someone who spoke a little English to explain that I needed to have an exit card to leave Brazil. I was trying to re-enter Brazil, so this didnt make much sense but I apologized and explained it was back at the hostel and they finally let me depart.
Tomorrow -- Argentina side of the falls and then a long bus trip towards Urugauy!
We arrived at the hostel before 11 am and were unable to check in. We stored our stuff and headed off to the main attraction on a local bus. The waterfalls are near the border with Argentina and Paraguay, but we decided to see the Brazilian side first. They are very impressive. The pictures, big surprise, do not do it justice. We had a nice walk through the jungle and it only cost $8 something USD to get in. We snapped tons of pictures (the best have been uploaded to my Brazil web album) and came back into town.
We went Itiapu Dam and Power Plant for a tour on Thursday. It is the worlds largest hydroelectric plant in power output. They generate 90% of Paraguays power here and 20% of Brazils. It was an immense dam but it has not rained enough recently, so it was not very exciting to see. Very little watter was visable from where we stood. Oh well, it wasnt expensive and the bus ride was a random trip.
We then spent the afternoon going to Paraguay. It sucked. I posted a picture of it in the album, too, but it is not worth seeing. They refused to give us passport stamps (because we didnt have a visa to be in the country) and I was unable to find a post office or a postcard to mail myself. Upon my attempt to re-enter Brazil, I got in trouble for not having the exit card. They even went to the trouble of finding someone who spoke a little English to explain that I needed to have an exit card to leave Brazil. I was trying to re-enter Brazil, so this didnt make much sense but I apologized and explained it was back at the hostel and they finally let me depart.
Tomorrow -- Argentina side of the falls and then a long bus trip towards Urugauy!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Bonito
bonito means beautiful in portugese. as a town, it is not so beautiful but there are lots of beautiful things to see and do within a few kms from town.
We are staying at the HI Bonito Hostel. It has AC (praise the lord!), a pool, and accepts credit cards. Breakfast is included in the price and was pretty nice this morning. The room is clean and comfy, it is sooo nice after being in the Pantanhal. Its like being in a resort.
We went snorkeling in the Barra of Sucuri River. They had all the equipment we needed and gave us wet suits. The water was so refreshing! It was my first time snorkeling and it was very enjoyable -- although our guide did not speak English, we played the ´follow the leader´game. (We watched what the Brazilians did, and then copied them.) After we had all of our gear on, we paddled upstream against the current. There were 7 of us and the guide, only 3 of us apparently knew how to paddle. The two ladies didnt even attempt to try paddling from what Mike and I saw. Good thing Mike and I were along to carry these folks upstream. We then got out of the boat and just floated down and soaked it all in. All you hear when snorkeling is the sounds you make, everything else is silenced by the water. As I never understand what people are saying here, it was nice to have a different kind of silence. We did not get to see millions of fish -- just four varities, but they were plentiful and quite large. I was also able to enjoy the different vegetation as we floated down stream.
Our second day tour was of waterfalls. We saw 7 waterfalls, ranging in size and shape. We got to go swimming in 5 of them. The first one is pretty and scenic and we got some great shots. It proceeded to start raining after the 2nd one and rained most of the rest of the tour, so we dont have as many pictures of the later ones since we put the camera away to protect it. One waterfall had a small cave you could swim into after you passed under it which was fun. Since it was raining, we got to see the rain dripping on the stalactites. There was also a waterfall and a place to jump off -- I am way too chicken for that sort of thing. They are very concerned about preserving the ecology of the area (which is wonderful) and that was why we were not allowed to climb around on everything and go in every waterfall. It was a great fun day -- and the rain probably made for better views of the waterfall.
We are staying at the HI Bonito Hostel. It has AC (praise the lord!), a pool, and accepts credit cards. Breakfast is included in the price and was pretty nice this morning. The room is clean and comfy, it is sooo nice after being in the Pantanhal. Its like being in a resort.
We went snorkeling in the Barra of Sucuri River. They had all the equipment we needed and gave us wet suits. The water was so refreshing! It was my first time snorkeling and it was very enjoyable -- although our guide did not speak English, we played the ´follow the leader´game. (We watched what the Brazilians did, and then copied them.) After we had all of our gear on, we paddled upstream against the current. There were 7 of us and the guide, only 3 of us apparently knew how to paddle. The two ladies didnt even attempt to try paddling from what Mike and I saw. Good thing Mike and I were along to carry these folks upstream. We then got out of the boat and just floated down and soaked it all in. All you hear when snorkeling is the sounds you make, everything else is silenced by the water. As I never understand what people are saying here, it was nice to have a different kind of silence. We did not get to see millions of fish -- just four varities, but they were plentiful and quite large. I was also able to enjoy the different vegetation as we floated down stream.
Our second day tour was of waterfalls. We saw 7 waterfalls, ranging in size and shape. We got to go swimming in 5 of them. The first one is pretty and scenic and we got some great shots. It proceeded to start raining after the 2nd one and rained most of the rest of the tour, so we dont have as many pictures of the later ones since we put the camera away to protect it. One waterfall had a small cave you could swim into after you passed under it which was fun. Since it was raining, we got to see the rain dripping on the stalactites. There was also a waterfall and a place to jump off -- I am way too chicken for that sort of thing. They are very concerned about preserving the ecology of the area (which is wonderful) and that was why we were not allowed to climb around on everything and go in every waterfall. It was a great fun day -- and the rain probably made for better views of the waterfall.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
The Pantanal
...did not live up to its expectations. We arrived in Campo Grande, Brazil and booked a 3 day tour with Ecological Expeditions.
The trip started off on a good foot, we missed our bus by 5 minutes and had to ´catch´it. As the small van from the hostel weaved through traffic and caught our bus, we knew we were in for an adventure.
We never would have survived with out 100% DEET insect repellant that Mike brought along. Regular OFF or bug spray will not do in the slightest. I have never experinced misquotos so badly before in my life.
We slept in hammocks and had no fans. It was impossibly hot the entire time. Our áctivities´consisted of: a safari, piranha fishing, horseback riding, & a boat tour. When we went on the ´safari´and ´hiked´through the woods, it was really a misquto feeding. The buzz buzzzzz of the misqutos never left my ears. I was constantally in motion attempting to swat them away. We saw some minimal animals but it was most unpleasant. Piranha fishing is exactly the same as regular fishing, just that you catch fish with nasty teeth. They were cooked for dinner that evening and tasted surprisingly fishy. The horseback ride was the most enjoyable activity, but my horse was getting into it with the other ones and kept attempting to bite every other horse.
I am happy to be back at a hostel... in Bonito (which means beautiful in Portugese). :-)
The trip started off on a good foot, we missed our bus by 5 minutes and had to ´catch´it. As the small van from the hostel weaved through traffic and caught our bus, we knew we were in for an adventure.
We never would have survived with out 100% DEET insect repellant that Mike brought along. Regular OFF or bug spray will not do in the slightest. I have never experinced misquotos so badly before in my life.
We slept in hammocks and had no fans. It was impossibly hot the entire time. Our áctivities´consisted of: a safari, piranha fishing, horseback riding, & a boat tour. When we went on the ´safari´and ´hiked´through the woods, it was really a misquto feeding. The buzz buzzzzz of the misqutos never left my ears. I was constantally in motion attempting to swat them away. We saw some minimal animals but it was most unpleasant. Piranha fishing is exactly the same as regular fishing, just that you catch fish with nasty teeth. They were cooked for dinner that evening and tasted surprisingly fishy. The horseback ride was the most enjoyable activity, but my horse was getting into it with the other ones and kept attempting to bite every other horse.
I am happy to be back at a hostel... in Bonito (which means beautiful in Portugese). :-)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Rio de Janero
It means January River in Portugese, as they were thinking when they arrived it was a river. They were wrong, but Rio is still wonderful.
We arrived safely into Rio on Tuesday after a rather delightful (if things can be) 19 hour bus ride. We have been staying at Sun Rio Hostel, which is okay. The booking for our hostel confused the front desk people and so they switched rooms on us. Somehow, they let Mike and I sleep in the all girls room.
We have done EVERYTHING! We got to take the cable cars up to Sugar Loaf and see beautiful vistas of the city. We saw the Flamanigos (a team from Rio) play Boa Vista at the big soccer.... err... futball stadium the Mercado. We went to the national musuem (it sucked). We visited Copacabanna and Ipenemia beaches. We loooved Ipenemia and Copacabanna was okay. We adventured to see Christ the Redeemer (my first of the new 7 wonders of the world). From the top of the hill that the Christ statue is on, you can see all the beaches and everything. It was wonderful. The statue itself is neat to look at and when you see how far up it is, its hard to imagine them hauling everything up there.
We have made lots of friends since we have been in Rio for so long. We made friends with a wonderfully nice portugese guy who led us to a samba school rehersal in the sambadome. This is where carnival will go all nuts starting on Friday. Mike and I cant afford to stay (a package is like 1,000 usd for 6 days) but we got to see it all. We met the mayor of Rio, the King, Queen, & Princesses of Carnival, and saw the rehershal from the samba school. It lasted hours. The first school was all blue and white and I think had about 1,000 people. They didnt have their full on costumes, but it was amazing and energizing. Everyone was joyful and sang their heart out the entire time. They started with a few songs and then when the procession started into the sambadome, it was the same song continously. Each school has an anthem of sorts and they just sang it out the whole time and danced to the music. The first school lasted probably about 2 hours and we were just hooked the entire time. There was a reasonable break and then a second school started in. They were a smaller group but still entertained us for another hour or so. Their colors were green and yellow/gold. It was so exciting and when we departed to catch another bus home, people were still singing on the buses. Even though it was 1 am when we got back to the hostel, it took awhile to settle because it was so much fun and so much happy energy you couldnt help but take it with you.
It was rainy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so we had some extra time to kill and were a bit meloncholy. We decided to tour the favella. It seems sort of wierd to take a tour of the slums, but several people told us it was really interesting. As it was rainy and we couldnt lay on the beach like we wanted, we went ahead and did it. The slums of Rio are incredible. We went into the largest one with a guide, of course. We took a crazy motorcycle ride up the hill (no helmet, zig zagging through traffic, take turns at an unbelieveable pace) that was thrilling. I think we got our moneys worth in just that bit. Then our guide gave us a little bit of information and told us to put the cameras away, there is a guy whos job is to watch at the enterance to the favella and we shouldnt take any pictures because the drug lords get upset. Our guide Daniel knew everyone and we felt completly safe. Every corner we turned he said hello to the people we passed. I believe he takes his groups on the same route every single day, so that it is part of what the slums look like but also a bit nicer than most parts. We saw some neat graffiti (pictures in the brazil album in the previous post) and met the artists. The streets of the favella are very narrow and you can tell there was no clear plan. They have open sewers, so at the top of the hill it is okay but at the bottom it is grungy and nasty. We went to a day care center and the children were adorable. They are clean and fully clothed, so you know they are being treated well. It was just an amazing experience.
*i have uploaded a few pics for your enjoyment to the same album*
We arrived safely into Rio on Tuesday after a rather delightful (if things can be) 19 hour bus ride. We have been staying at Sun Rio Hostel, which is okay. The booking for our hostel confused the front desk people and so they switched rooms on us. Somehow, they let Mike and I sleep in the all girls room.
We have done EVERYTHING! We got to take the cable cars up to Sugar Loaf and see beautiful vistas of the city. We saw the Flamanigos (a team from Rio) play Boa Vista at the big soccer.... err... futball stadium the Mercado. We went to the national musuem (it sucked). We visited Copacabanna and Ipenemia beaches. We loooved Ipenemia and Copacabanna was okay. We adventured to see Christ the Redeemer (my first of the new 7 wonders of the world). From the top of the hill that the Christ statue is on, you can see all the beaches and everything. It was wonderful. The statue itself is neat to look at and when you see how far up it is, its hard to imagine them hauling everything up there.
We have made lots of friends since we have been in Rio for so long. We made friends with a wonderfully nice portugese guy who led us to a samba school rehersal in the sambadome. This is where carnival will go all nuts starting on Friday. Mike and I cant afford to stay (a package is like 1,000 usd for 6 days) but we got to see it all. We met the mayor of Rio, the King, Queen, & Princesses of Carnival, and saw the rehershal from the samba school. It lasted hours. The first school was all blue and white and I think had about 1,000 people. They didnt have their full on costumes, but it was amazing and energizing. Everyone was joyful and sang their heart out the entire time. They started with a few songs and then when the procession started into the sambadome, it was the same song continously. Each school has an anthem of sorts and they just sang it out the whole time and danced to the music. The first school lasted probably about 2 hours and we were just hooked the entire time. There was a reasonable break and then a second school started in. They were a smaller group but still entertained us for another hour or so. Their colors were green and yellow/gold. It was so exciting and when we departed to catch another bus home, people were still singing on the buses. Even though it was 1 am when we got back to the hostel, it took awhile to settle because it was so much fun and so much happy energy you couldnt help but take it with you.
It was rainy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so we had some extra time to kill and were a bit meloncholy. We decided to tour the favella. It seems sort of wierd to take a tour of the slums, but several people told us it was really interesting. As it was rainy and we couldnt lay on the beach like we wanted, we went ahead and did it. The slums of Rio are incredible. We went into the largest one with a guide, of course. We took a crazy motorcycle ride up the hill (no helmet, zig zagging through traffic, take turns at an unbelieveable pace) that was thrilling. I think we got our moneys worth in just that bit. Then our guide gave us a little bit of information and told us to put the cameras away, there is a guy whos job is to watch at the enterance to the favella and we shouldnt take any pictures because the drug lords get upset. Our guide Daniel knew everyone and we felt completly safe. Every corner we turned he said hello to the people we passed. I believe he takes his groups on the same route every single day, so that it is part of what the slums look like but also a bit nicer than most parts. We saw some neat graffiti (pictures in the brazil album in the previous post) and met the artists. The streets of the favella are very narrow and you can tell there was no clear plan. They have open sewers, so at the top of the hill it is okay but at the bottom it is grungy and nasty. We went to a day care center and the children were adorable. They are clean and fully clothed, so you know they are being treated well. It was just an amazing experience.
*i have uploaded a few pics for your enjoyment to the same album*
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Struggles as a traveler
It is very difficult in Brazil not knowing any Portugese. Mike & I have never been in a situation where we couldnt find someone who knew a few words in English. they do not know any english here and we do not speak portugese.
I have learned a few token words: water, hotel, bus, beach, how much (but i really only know numbers under 10), beer, please, & thank you. i never understand any of the other words flying out of peoples mouthes. this is a huge problem and something we are working on learning better. mike has a pharse book and we both are constantally listening to everything around us with no comprehension, but at least trying. mike is faster to understand portugese. i hope that my HS spanish classes will not fail me when we leave brazil in 2 weeks. i hope i will become a wonder that speaks spanish fluently in no time at all....
traveling on the buses has been adventersome at this point. We wanted to leave Lençois to travel to porto seugro and read in lonley planet we'd have to switch buses along the way. we struggled buying the ticket from Lençois as the guy wanted to make us go back to Salvador, which we didnt want to do. Then we arrived in who knows where (but where the guy back in Lençois told us to get off) and tried to buy our ticket to Peurto Seguro. Only one of the bus companies would sell us anything and it was to another town but not all the way to PS. We thought that the bus layover was only an 1 and half hours but it turns out it was 4. we then boarded the next bus to who knows where and arrived after 4 am. When we got there, we were able to buy a ticket to PS our final destination. 22 hours after we stared, we arrived where we wanted to a sunny day. booking our ticket from here to Rio was easy, we have a ticket that takes us all the way there. perhaps on the same bus, perhaps not. we will have to wait and see what happens. i am paitent on these loooong bus rides and enjoy the tropical and beautiful scenery.
Porto Seguro (where I am right this minute but leaving soon) is another pretty beachy town. The beaches here are not as nice as Salvador, but still fantastic. We have enjoyed ourselves. This time we stayed in a guesthouse as the hostel was really expensive and not nice looking. I think its pronounced like Liz but spelled Lis. Its clean, quiets and for about $13 USD we get AC, a private room, a TV (with only portugese shows but hey we saw madonna, obama, and britney flash on the screen), and a breakfast buffet. The breakfast buffet is decent and so far they have always had fresh tropical fruits.
This internet cafe sucks, its high speed but the gal at the desk made it clear that we are not allowd to plug in USB cords and upload pictures. :-( i hope to do so in Rio.
I have learned a few token words: water, hotel, bus, beach, how much (but i really only know numbers under 10), beer, please, & thank you. i never understand any of the other words flying out of peoples mouthes. this is a huge problem and something we are working on learning better. mike has a pharse book and we both are constantally listening to everything around us with no comprehension, but at least trying. mike is faster to understand portugese. i hope that my HS spanish classes will not fail me when we leave brazil in 2 weeks. i hope i will become a wonder that speaks spanish fluently in no time at all....
traveling on the buses has been adventersome at this point. We wanted to leave Lençois to travel to porto seugro and read in lonley planet we'd have to switch buses along the way. we struggled buying the ticket from Lençois as the guy wanted to make us go back to Salvador, which we didnt want to do. Then we arrived in who knows where (but where the guy back in Lençois told us to get off) and tried to buy our ticket to Peurto Seguro. Only one of the bus companies would sell us anything and it was to another town but not all the way to PS. We thought that the bus layover was only an 1 and half hours but it turns out it was 4. we then boarded the next bus to who knows where and arrived after 4 am. When we got there, we were able to buy a ticket to PS our final destination. 22 hours after we stared, we arrived where we wanted to a sunny day. booking our ticket from here to Rio was easy, we have a ticket that takes us all the way there. perhaps on the same bus, perhaps not. we will have to wait and see what happens. i am paitent on these loooong bus rides and enjoy the tropical and beautiful scenery.
Porto Seguro (where I am right this minute but leaving soon) is another pretty beachy town. The beaches here are not as nice as Salvador, but still fantastic. We have enjoyed ourselves. This time we stayed in a guesthouse as the hostel was really expensive and not nice looking. I think its pronounced like Liz but spelled Lis. Its clean, quiets and for about $13 USD we get AC, a private room, a TV (with only portugese shows but hey we saw madonna, obama, and britney flash on the screen), and a breakfast buffet. The breakfast buffet is decent and so far they have always had fresh tropical fruits.
This internet cafe sucks, its high speed but the gal at the desk made it clear that we are not allowd to plug in USB cords and upload pictures. :-( i hope to do so in Rio.
Lencois
*The internet is crappy & slow and that is why there are no pictures yet... but if not tomorrow certainly by the time I reach Rio I will have some up for you.*
The ride was not too long - only 6 hours or so. We arrived late at night, around 11:30 pm and had called ahead so a person from our hostel met us at the station. It would have been impossible for us to find this hostel or pousada (hotel in Portugese) without the staff meeting us. The Pousada dos Duendes is overall very nice. The rooms do not have any AC or a fan. HOTNESS all the time while trying to sleep is not the most fun. It is very rocky in Lençois so the hostel is sort of carved out of the stone. Its brightly colored and has artistic flair all over.
We got up early and booked onto a car tour in Lençois. We had an intimate group of 7: oscar the italian, 2 portugese professers, 2 german gals, oolaf the dutchman, mike, & i. everyone was fantastic fun and we had a really fabulous day with our guide Zeo. After they picked us up in a all terrain truck/car (the roads are impossible around here), we headed out to the national park. zeo led us past a rock slide and onto a waterfall. the waterfall was beautiful and we got in for a swim. it was refreshingly brisk but you could swim all the way to the base of the waterfall and let it rain over you. it was great fun.
we hiked back to the car & took off for our next pictursque spot. we climbed up a hill that overlooked the valley. lucky for us, it was cloudy but not rainy, and windy. i would have hated to do it in the direct sun. we were able to overlook the entire valley and it was green and lush.
we got back into the car (our driver looks like he is related to fidel castro) and headed for another part of the park. we had a delicious hot lunch (i dont really know what any of the food was but i know that i liked it) and climbed down into another cave. the water surrounding this cave was a clear and crisp blue, making for some fab pics which i hope to have up soon.
we went for a swim in part of the pool (part is being preserved for nature which was awesome to know) and relaxed in the cold water. i kept my shirt on, even though i have been obsessively applying sunscreen I have a sunburnt back. My nose is red and my arms are also pink. boo. :( we climbed down another steep hill to a different cave, but this time couldnt go swiming, just admire the formations.
as if that were not enough for our day trek, we got to go to yet another part of the park for a different cave. this cave was amazingly dry with a sandy bottom but filled with stalactites. the formations ranged from an umbrella, a lion, an owl, and more. it was neat to see and also very comfortable in the cave. we had no run ins with bats, which makes me very happy. exhausted, we hiked our way out of the cave and back into the truck for the ride back to town. we got to see the sun set over the hills as we rode back into town.
dinner at the hostel was a buffet of lots of food and was tasty. they must eat rice & beans frequently, as they have been offered at the buffets weve been to. dessert was a wonderfully tasty cake with stawberries (?), chocolate pudding, cool whip, & a graham cracker crust. yummy!!!
friday night we attempted to go to the ATM or cash machino as they are called. the lobby was closed so we werent able to get any money out. we went to the bus station to book our ticket onward, which was tricky with our lack of portugese but ran into Oscar who helped us out immensenly. We then went to the city square (very close to the bus station) to have a beer and ran into Oolaf, the dutchman, and enjoyed the night on the town. Exhausted, Mike & I wandered home a bit later to sleep at the hostel.
http://www.pousadadosduendes.com/
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
SAMBA
Last night we went into the city center, Palahmerino, for their regular Tuesday night street party. There are musicians throughout the city center. Some of the bands that we saw were on platforms/stages. We were also entertained throughly by the samba groups. They are a band of musicans that have large drums and they carry them as they parade through the city. The beats are fast & loud (making them very intense) and them move together very rythmically. The groups also have dancers with them. The first group had a few guys that led the dances and moved quickly in sort of large motions. The people just sort of joined in behind them and followed the motions that they made. One of the groups we saw had official dancers that were a part of their group, followed by anyone that wanted to join. Some of the other friends from the hostel followed the group as it was marching by and joined in with the dancing. Its easy to get swept along with the music and enjoy the dancing.
The hostel here is great. They included breakfast in the price, which is often dubious at best. We had a delicious breakfast that started with fresh pineapple & other fruits. They always have rolls that look like french rolls but taste like nothing. I miss my favorite Companion petite pain. I ordered pancakes & they are stuffed with fresh fruit and cinamon. DELICIOUS! Mike ordered eggs & said they were good. I finished with some homemade cake that was chocolate and cinamonny.
Today, we went back into the old city to explore it by daylight. The buildings are old and built right next to each other. One building is built right into the wall of the next. They often have bright & varried colors. The streets are stone. They not any unform cobblestone, just sort of lots of the same type rocks put together to pave the streets. Salvador has two shelves, an upper shelf and a lower shelf of the city. There are a LOT of steps to get from one level to the other OR you can take a giant elevator for 5 brazilian cents. with the exchange rate, this is less than a penny. the big elevator is modern and sticks out among all of the old architechure. The buildings here are also very frequently tiled with bright ceramic tiles. Sometimes they have patterns in them, sometimes not.
This afternoon, Mike & I went to the beach with our 'roommates' Megan and an aussie who's name we're unsure of. The beach is lovely here and the weather is very hot and humid. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon until the sun faded away. We'll head out for dinner in a bit...
The hostel here is great. They included breakfast in the price, which is often dubious at best. We had a delicious breakfast that started with fresh pineapple & other fruits. They always have rolls that look like french rolls but taste like nothing. I miss my favorite Companion petite pain. I ordered pancakes & they are stuffed with fresh fruit and cinamon. DELICIOUS! Mike ordered eggs & said they were good. I finished with some homemade cake that was chocolate and cinamonny.
Today, we went back into the old city to explore it by daylight. The buildings are old and built right next to each other. One building is built right into the wall of the next. They often have bright & varried colors. The streets are stone. They not any unform cobblestone, just sort of lots of the same type rocks put together to pave the streets. Salvador has two shelves, an upper shelf and a lower shelf of the city. There are a LOT of steps to get from one level to the other OR you can take a giant elevator for 5 brazilian cents. with the exchange rate, this is less than a penny. the big elevator is modern and sticks out among all of the old architechure. The buildings here are also very frequently tiled with bright ceramic tiles. Sometimes they have patterns in them, sometimes not.
This afternoon, Mike & I went to the beach with our 'roommates' Megan and an aussie who's name we're unsure of. The beach is lovely here and the weather is very hot and humid. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon until the sun faded away. We'll head out for dinner in a bit...
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