Wining and Biking dont mix

After quite a long bus ride over the Andes and into our last country of Argentina, we stopped in Mendoza...the city of wine!

We only had about 48 hours in Mendoza because we wanted more time to spend in Buenos Aires... so we arrived at 2am and got up at 10 am to hit the road on some bikes. We ran into some other Americans (we have met verrrrrryy few on our trip) and we all decide to take a biking wine tour together. When we showed up to the bike store at the beginning of wine valley, we were a little nervous as to what the day would bring.
First stop went smoothly, a short bike ride over to the wine museum, tasted some wines, saw some HUGE barrels instead of steel vats, and got a mini tour. SInce this was our first winery, we did not buy any wine but we knew right away it was to be a long day, the portions were not of ẗasting" sizes, rather, as almost half glasses! Yay for Argentinian portions!

We continued on our bikes up the main road where many vineyards are stationed. However, we came to find very few vineyards growing wine, mostly it was just the wineries. I guess I expected to be biking up and down vineyards like Napa Valley but instead we were biking on a main road and had to swerve a few times to save myself. YOu would think that if they are going to have tipsy bike riders, they would make a specific path for them OR not have them bike on a main road with truckers!

As we biked from winery to winery, the portions got bigger, my bike got harder to ride, and it got hotter. So after 20 minute bike ride in between wineries, we stopped for lunch, ordered a bottle of wine (so unnecessary) and I had some great Argentinan chicken dish. It was delicious and hit the spot. We had a nice tour of this winery, Familia Di Tommaso, and they showed us old family pictures, the wine aging inside of huge brick cellars in shapes of vats. This is the oldest winery in Mendoza so I guess it makes sense for them to keep their old ways in tact. Their wine was pretty good, even though I am not much of a connoisseur and I Just made up words that sounded classy to describe the wines..... future reference, use the word Oakey, works every time!
We tasted about 5 wines here, after drinking a bottle for lunch (shared with Kevin of course... not by myself!) so we were feeling good in the blustering heat of Argentinas summer. We biked for our next vineyard and this was on so modern it was interesting to see it right after we saw the oldest winery.
This winery, Thelmus Alba (cant remember if that was the name), was a glass, stone, winery with a few pictures but a beautiful rooftop for drinks and food. ALthough we definitely did not need anymore wine, we decided to spend the afternoon at this winery, I am thinking we decided that because we did not want to bike anymore, but alas, we ordered some tasters, half glasses AGAIN, and then we all thought it would be fun to order bottles. What were we thinking? We ordered 3 more bottles for 5 of us, and we sat on this terrace overlooking their vineyard (one of the few wineries with a vineyard there) and we just enjoyed the rest of the day.
At 6pm our bikes were supposed to be back but because of some swerving on the road, we got back a little after and the little old lady running the place thought it would be a nice gesture to give us more wine while we waited for cabs! Unluckily for me, i had to wait for the 2nd cab and by that time she was bringing out a 3rd glass!

We finally made it back to our hostel in one piece and we decided to check out the town! Feeling pretty good, we went to the park, where i showed kevin how to ballet dance haha, and then we went in search of food. I am not sure why we could not find a place to eat, but we did find 2 local Argentinans playing some music. SO of course we stopped to listen and then we started talking to them. THey invited us to what we thought (obviously our spanish is off ) was another bar where they were going to play some music but alas, we ended up at their apartment. It sounds a little sketchy but they were so nice, our age, and just enjoyed playing music. They made us pizza, I played with their little cat in which I called "mi gato", which means "my cat", and it was the size of my 2 hands...soo precious!
We had a great night hanging out with some locals, speaking broken spanish and english, eating home-made pizza, and I learned how to play the harmonica...sort of.

The next day, we were lazy so we just found a place to sit outside, enjoy some argentinian meat, which everyone raves about, and just hung around the town. Although we did not get much time in Mendoza, I thought it was a beautiful, and very wealthy city with a lot of old people. I guess its a good place to retire!

And finally..... we were off to our last stop.. Buenos Aires...
We decided to make our last long bus ride (15 hours) a good one so we bought Executive class with leather seats that turn into almost full beds... it was amazing. They also brought us 2 meals in which were served on trays on our laps and they kept pouring us water, soda, coffee... anything we needed. Quite a wonderful journey and well worth the money!
So here we are in Buenos Aires just living it up....

The Chilean Coast

Santiago, Chile was a beautiful, big city with a small town vibe. One minute you could be standing on the corner of a busy street and the next minute you are lost in a park full of fountains, flowers, and greens. I wish we had more time in Santiago but we flocked to the coast in hope of some summer livin´at the beach.

We took a 1.5 hour bus to Valparaiso, Chile which turned out to be a shipping town. The entire town was based off of the Navy and cargo shipping. There was no beach to lay on, just a dirty bay with cargo ships coming and going. So we scratched the beach idea and went frolicking up and down the steep hills in search of Valparaiso´s infamous artwork. Almost every wall was convered with some type of graffiti or painting but it is not your everyday graffiti gang symbols. It was beautiful art of people, animals, and the lifestyle of Chileans. While walking the streets looking for wall art, you find that every other house is some sort of bright, pastel or flourescent color. Bizarre to see bright pink houses with yellow shutters but it actually worked for Valparaiso.

Valparaiso was the first city in Chile to take on the idea of an elevator. Good thing they did because some people live on top of very steep hills. The cool thing about these elevators is that they are outside, on railroad tracks that scale a hill. They are very small ¨cars¨which are pulled up by cables spinning on a rotator at the top. Of course the whole time you are in it, you are hoping that the cable below you is not going to just split and drop you because most of these Acensors (as they are called) dated back to the 1890´s. So after we went up and down a few times on Acensors all over the city, we made a pit stop for some Completos and a beer at the local bar. At the time, the completo was delicious BUT, I was lucky enough to ask for no mayo because the after affects of the completo on Kevin were not pretty. About 3 hours later, Kevin was in bed, unable to move an inch unless he had to run to the bathroom...Food Poisoning! So I cooked some dinner (which unfortunately he could not eat) and I just took a night to relax. Valparaiso, unfortunately, is not a city for a young, female, foreigner to galavant around alone.

The next day, when Kevin felt better, we went to check out one of Chilean´s most famous .....Pablo Neruda. Not only was he a fantastic poet, but also a European ambassador, a presidential candidate, and a Nobel Literature Prize winner. He had multiple houses in Chile but we toured his home, La Sebastiana, in Valpo. It was a 5 floor colorful house with maps, pieces of art, and luxuries. It seemed as though he was a very interesting man who loved company, boats, and collecting priceless objects. I was amazed by his life history, including how he was sent into exile even after he ran for president! It seemed as though Pablo Neruda´s poetry was just a small part of his life and unexpectedly, it is what made him famous.

After the tour, we headed to Vina Del Mar which is a beach town about 15 minutes up the road from Valpo. We took the train that runs along the water and we enjoyed a pleasant day around Vina...until it started to rain! We just could not catch a break on the coast where we thought we would romp around in the sand in our bathing suits.

En route to Hotel Del Mar to play our luck in their beautiful casino, we found a stray dog that started following us. On our trip, we have found that stray dogs love to follow white gringos... we are not sure why. Well this dog wasn´t any different...it followed us for a while and it was precious so we named it Treehouse and called it our own. Too bad the doormen at the casino did not think the same way. We had to abandon Treehouse to play in the casino... I know it sounds a little selfish but that is just how it goes around these parts. But I am glad we did because I won$60 on the slots...poor Kevin lost about $25. After a good hour at the casino, I walked away with my winnings and we headed back to find Treehouse to clear our guilty conscience...to no avail, he could not be found. So we took some shelter in a coffee shop and watched the France vs. Ireland soccer match for the World Cup. France won...but one of the players hit the ball with his hand trying to keep it in bounds, passed it across the goal box and his teammate scored. Of course because there is no replay call in soccer, the goal stood but televised replays clearly showed the handball... sad day for the Irish.

Vina Del Mar was a beautiful town on the beach with lots of shops, casinos, restaurants, and apartments for the retired. It was very different from its neighboring town of Valparaiso which I found a little disheartening. Valpo was quaint and cute in its own way but it was dirty, grimy, and surprisingly dangerous. I had expected to be a fun beach town where I could just relax...but it didn´t even hold up to my expectations of being a wealthy, clean town. It was the exact opposite.
After 3 rainy days on the coast of Chile, the day we left, the sun came out.. no surprise there. But alas, We headed over to Argentina... our last border crossing.

What was meant to be an 8 hour easy bus ride turned into a 13 hour ride. As we were about to enter the Andes in which you have to scale up a mountain and then down on the other side into Argentina, there was an accident. A tanker truck with a huge gas tank flipped over on the side of the mountain and the gas tank was just sitting in the road. We were held up for about 2 hours on this one lane road around the mountains. When we finally passed the tanker (which looked like it was about to roll off the mountain and blow up) we scaled up and into the ice caps. It was absolutely beautiful but a little scary as well. We reached the border at the same time as everyone else in the traffic did so we spent another 2 hours waiting for them to check our bags and passports.

Nevertheless, we got to Mendoza, Argentina at 2 am... and got some rest before our day of wining and biking!

Chilean Sunshine

It is beautiful here in Santiago, Chile. I had pretty low expectations for the huge city of Santiago.... I should not have judged it prematurely. It is a fantastic city.

We spent 24 hours on a bus, over night, through the day, next to the water, in the mountains... we went through it all. But, alas, we safely arrived in Santiago well-rested and ready to rumble.

We are staying in a nice hostel right in the center of town...one Barrio to be exact. Santiago, with about 5 million people, is HUGE. It has a lot of high-rise apartment buildings, beautiful European-like architecture, and plenty of parks to just lay around in. Since it is summer here, it is about 80 degrees with a breeze, no humidity! It is fabulous. We spent our first night here eating a late dinner (you do not eat dinner before 9 pm!) filled of fresh fish! Then we were off to the Club De Jazz which apparently is the most prominent jazz club in Latin America. We saw three jazz bands, drank a lot of wine, and just kicked back. A great way to start in a big city. Today (the 15th of November) ,we explored.

We started the day enjoying some local coffee and chilean fare and then bounced over to Santa Lucia which is a huge garden on a hill. It was stunning....there were palm trees, flowers, and fountains. I called it my ¨secret garden¨. We walked to the top and had quite a view of the city, including the ice-capped Andes that surrounds the city (and the entire coast of Chile). After Santa Lucia, we ventured into an art museum, Bellas Artes to see a few photography exhibitions. It was a cute museum and I particularly enjoyed that it was not overwhelming in art or people.

We crossed into Barrio Bellavista which is a small part of the city with a young crowd, lots of bars, and restaurants and we stopped in for the local Chilean snack... a Completo! A Completo is a hot dog, in a LARGE bun, with saurkraut, tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo. It was fantastic. Kevin and I shared one but then decided we needed another one.. so of course we bought 2. After being full, we headed to San Cristobal which is a statue on top of a very large hill. We took the Funicular up to the top, a trolley car on railroad tracks pulled up by cables. There is a zoo on the hill but we decided to skip over it and head straight to the top where we found a huge open-air place where mass is held. There is a stage, a statue, a chapel, and candle-lighting area. It was very serene and very religious as well. With one of the best views of Santiago, San Cristobal was a very crowded religious area with both locals and tourists.

When we made our way down, we hopped on some local llamas for pictures. Really though, it is a tourist attraction so owners bring their llamas and you can ride on it and take pictures! It was fun but I do not think the llama enjoyed it at all.

We have one more night here in Santiago before we are off to Valporaiso tomorrow, a beach city full of seafood and art.

Until I am full of Completo´s and seafood...

Desert Livin´

Crossing into Chile was a completely different feeling than crossing from Peru to Bolivia. 5 minutes after crossing the border, you could already tell that Chile was and is a rich country. We had paved roads, police in nice SUV´s and rules. How can two countries who share so much border and landscape have such different economies? I mean, of course it makes sense but it was truly bizarre to see a country so prominent compared to where we had been.

Our first stop in Chile was San Pedro De Atacama...the Atacama desert (driest desert in the world). Right away we felt our lungs open up a little bit, as we were finally down to 2400 meters. But, our skin was so dry, that it literally was white! San Pedro is a very small desert town that thrives off of tourism and its surrounding valleys. After a rough 3 day expedition, we wanted to relax. The first thing we figured out was that Chile was uber expensive compared to Bolivia and that their notes (bills) are completely crazy. In my pocket I have $50,000 worth of bills. Yes, they use the dollar sign but really they are Chilean Pesos. I have huge bills but $50,000 is actually about $100 US dollars. Too bad everything in Chile is so expensive! In both Peru and Bolivia, Kevin and I were able to have nice dinners at white table cloth restaurants, drinks and dessert for under $20....now a pizza and2 beers is $15 just for lunch! So we are going to try and take advantage of kitchens in the hostels but we will see.

San Pedro de Atacama is well known for its Valley of the Moon and Death Valley. Death Valley is just a valley of very high sand dunes and mud/rock hills. So we took a ride on some sandboards! We joined a tour group and we went to the dunes and basically just boarded down them. If you snowboard, you would be really good at this because its almost exactly the same thing. But, fortunately for me, i was able to pick it up pretty fast. Of course, like surfing, I had my wipe-outs but its fun because you land in the soft sand. After we got tired of walking up the sand dune every time, we headed to the Valley of the moon to watch the sunset. The valley of the moon is just huge mud-rock foundations but it gained its name because of the similarities its surface has with the surface of the moon.

The next day in San Pedro de Atacama we rented some bikes for what i thought was going to be a frolick around the town....turns out our hostel host sent us on an all-terrain mountain biking trip! We took 4 hours and paraded outside of the city limits. After biking through a river, 3 times, we found ourselves biking through the Devils canyon which is a desert canyon and you have to weave your way through the rocks. Beautiful and peaceful but so tiring! When we found our way out of the canyon, we continued on the path, through rivers and into a small rock quarry where we found some Incan ruins. After the Incan ruins we continued on 2km more (total of 10 km each way) and found a very small church. We are not sure if its still in use but it was tiny, with a working bell, and very quaint in the middle of the valley. At this point, I could not feel my butt, my pants were wet from the river and my hands hurt from gripping the bike. No worries because then we just had to bike the 10km back to the city! We traversed back through the rivers, and the rocky paths, and we made it back to our hostel just in time for our 24 hour bus ride to Santiago, Chile! Bring it on!

From the Highest to the Driest

Now that I used up an entire chapstick, lost a layer of my lips, a layer of my skin, and my lungs are free...i can officially say that I am out of altitude! Phew.

We spent 3 days on an excursion through the salt flats of Bolivia, known the Salares de Uyuni. It was pretty incredible. The first day we loaded up our land cruiser with food, bags, and lots of water and sunscreen. We headed out of Uyuni and into the salt flat desert terrain. Our first stop was a train cemetery which was creepy but kind of cool. Old trains have been sitting there for over 80 years and it is used as a tourist attraction. You can climb into the trains but they are all old, rotting, metal so there is not too much left. After that, we headed to the Hotel De Salt which is essentially a hotel made of salt! As we drove up to this hotel, all you can see for days is salt. Salt flats, salt hotel, salt gifts...salt salt salt!

The salt flats allowed for some cool camera tricks to happen. Between the salt flats and your camera there is no depth perception so we were able to take some cool pictures! For example, Kevin is sitting on top of a beer can and he looks soo small compared to it! It reminded me of ¨Honey I shrunk the Kids¨. We took some cool pictures with a play dinosaur, ritz crackers, and shoes! I think there is even one of kevin holding me up on 2 fingers! Salt flats are an incredible type of landscape and 300 meters below the salt flats there is supposedly fresh water! Some scientists think that there is life down there but I am not sure how true that could really be. We drove across the salt flats and we stopped in the middle of nowhere to dig for crystal! There were holes in the flats and we stuck our hands in the salt water, which tasted gross, and pulled out some pink salt crystals. The pink indicated that it was mineral rich of iron. Bolivia is so rich in resources it is unbelievable, but its just too expensive for them to dig into the mountains so the country remains very poor.

In the middle of the salt flats, there is an island named Fish Island because it is shaped like a fish. It was bizarre because when the salt flats used to be a body of water, this island sat there with hundreds of cacti. One cactus had died in 2007 after 1,203 years! Another one was about 900 years old. When you stood on top of this island, it is as though you should be looking at an ocean but instead you are looking at land made of salt.

After the island we watched the sunset over the flats, and then drove to our hotel, which was made of salt. We played some games, drank some tea to stay warm, and ate some damn good food. There is no heat in hotels made of salt because everything is salt-bed frames, dresser, bench, floor, ceiling, wall, you get the point. I had about 6 layers on!

The next morning we were up and out by 7 am and headed on to the second part of our journey-lagoons, the highest desert in the world, volcanoes, and el arbol de piedra (rock that looks like a tree, naturally). We went to Laguna Canape and saw hundreds of flamingos! Then we drove up to about 4, 870 meters and we were officially in the highest desert in the world that is set between mountains and volcanoes. In the desert there were expansive natural rock sediments just sitting in the sand. The infamous one is el arbol de Piedra, which is essentially a rock but over a million years, it has somehow shaped itself into a tree. Pretty peculiar. We continued through the desert until we hit the National Park that contains Laguna Colorada. It is a HUGE lagoon that appears red! When the sun hits the lagoon, the borax islands (a natural chemical i think) and the mineral algae float to the top to give the lagoon its famous red color. We spent the night on the park grounds in a very basic house, drank some wine, and talked politics. We talked to our guide about Bolivia and how there are so many minerals and resources to take advantage of. However, he explained to us that it is not easy for them because there is no money, they have a corrupt government, and they are landlocked. Being landlocked in South America is very difficult for a country because they have to pay richer countries such as Peru and Chile to import goods. Currently, the Chilean and Bolivian governments are in talks about giving Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean--our guide did not think it would happen any time soon unfortunately. But, on a bright note of all this, Bolivians have what they NEED, they can afford what they NEED, so they NEED very little.

On the 3rd day, we woke up at 4:30 am and headed over a 5,000 meter peak (to put this in perspective, the Mount Everest Base camp is 6000 meters) and watched the sun rise over the mountains. It was spectacular. While we were watching the sun rise, we suddenly found ourselves in the Geysers Basin. The Geysers basin is primarily mud pockets in the earth that spit up sulfuric steam. There was steam everywhere just blowing out of holes in the ground. The craziest of all were the pockets of hot, sulfuric, magma. Over 500 years ago, a volcanoe erupted there and now it is bubbling magma that lets off steam (and smells awful).

At about 6:30am we found ourselves at the end of our expedition...the hot springs! So even though it was about 30 degrees out, we stripped down to our bathing suits and enjoyed the natural warmth of the spring with a great view of flamingos not too far from us. After warming up, we drove to the Chilean border, but not without getting a glance of Laguna Verde (green lagoon) and Laguna Blanco (white lagoon). The green lagoon gets it color from the toxic arsenic that sits in the water... definitely no flamingos here!

After the 3 day expedition, I have concluded that Yes, you do need to see this amazing landscape, but after seeing it, I could not do it again. It was a really rough ride in the 4wd landcruisers, because obviously there are no roads, and it is very tiring and difficult to be so high up in altitude. Good thing I had some coca leaves to chew on because when you get to 5000 meters (about 15,000 feet) you can definitely tell that the air is not easy to breathe. But, no worries because we entered San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Of course we were only at 2400 meters, but we found ourselves in the driest desert in the world!

Playing with Dynamite

BOOOOOM!!!!!...That is the sound my dynamite made after I lit the fuse.

I am currently relaxing in the small town of Uyuni, Bolivia. There is almost nothing here except a train, a few pizzerias, 1 ATM, and about 70 tour companies for the Salt Flat expeditions. After a wonderful 1 night and 2 days in Potosi, the highest city in the world, we took a rough overnight bus ride here for 2 nights before our expedition departure on Monday the 9th.

Although I was hesitant about the altitude in Potosi, it has become my favorite city thus far. I did really like Cusco, Peru though. Potosi used to be one of the largest cities in Bolivia and one of the richest too. The entire city has been and still is dependent on its mountain, Cerro Rico and the silver minerals it contains. Back in the 1500s, an indigenous man was burning his llama on this mountain when all of a sudden a piece of silver fell....this became the defining point of Potosi. Since then, the mountain has been mined by thousands and thousands of miners. Today, although the silver is slowly depleting, many minerals are found and put through refineries (owned by Canada, England, Germany, Brasil, Chile..etc) and then sold off.

Mining in Bolivia is much different than many other places in the world. The mines are called Cooperatives which essentially have no rules, no bosses, any one who wants to make money can work. Most children, because of tradition, will enter the mine at age 13 and could work up to 40 years. The only law is that you can only work in the mines for 40 years (if you dont die before that) because of black lung. Most miners die of the black lung far before they reach 40 years. Potosi is a very religous city mainly because of the dangerous mines in which most men and young boys work. Part of this religion is very traditional and sacrifices are just as much a weekly activity now, as it was in the 1500s. Tio, which means Uncle, is the devil of the mines...miners make sacrifices to him every week to ask for safety and protection. They must give him coca leaves, alcohol, cigarettes, or llama blood to ensure protection. It was neat to actually see this old tradition still around today. As a cooperative, anyone can work whenever they want... if one day they do not want to make any money, they do not go to work. However, it is back breaking work that brings in very little money for these families.. that is of course unless they can find large amounts of high quality silver or minerals.

Now, of course they have set up tourist attractions for these mines but the difference with this tour and others is that NO precautions are taken. It is completely at your own risk. Of course they know when miners are blowing things up or where dangerous mining is happening but they do warn you that if there is a cave-in, you are just as much danger as any miner!! The tour starts by dressing the part. We got high black boots, pants, a jacket, a helmet and a headlamp. We looked pretty funny and definitely not like miners! Then, we were off to the miners market. Being a Cooperative mine, miners must buy everything they need to do their work... so in exchange for the miners to allow tourists in, we buy them gifts such as coca leaves, alcohol. soda, water, and...DYNAMITE!!!! So of course we picked ourselves up some coca, dynamite and Simba (soda). Then we were taken to the refineries where all the trucks bring the rocks down the mountain where they are sorted. These are really old school refineries and very dirty as well. But with water, cyanide, and some other crazy chemicals, the minerals are separated then put in place to dry before shipping them across the world by boat.

After the refineries...we entered the mine!
There were 3 available levels for us (in total there are 6).. each one getting further into the ground, hotter, and tighter spaces. On the first level you can pretty much stand up straight while watching your head for low rocks on your way to the miners museum. This is basically a few statues of Tio, the devil they worship, the Bolivian owner of the mines, and an african american who was once a slave doing all the mining. At this point, we saw miners working hard and we gave them a few gifts! They had blown up a spot the previous day so they were mining it and rocks were falling everywhere. Now, I would love to say that after this I was able to proceed to the other levels but unfortunately it just was not so. It was so tight and dusty and claustrophobic, i had to leave the mine. But,. dont judge me because MANY MANY people left the mines as well. Of course, amazing Kevin got to complete the whole tour!! He said it was not easy but one of the coolest things he has ever done. He met a family in which the father had worked 38 years in the mines (long time because they usually die within 10) and he was teaching his sons about mining...including his 13 yr old son-it was his first day in the mines!! Kevin came out about an hour later loving the daylight and coughing up a storm!! However, the mines were pretty awesome!!!!!
To keep your adrenaline going, we got to blow up our dynamite! Usually miners will blow dynamite up inside the mines after 5pm everyday when all tourists are gone and they notify all the other miners. However, we took our dyamite outside to the side of the mountain--where it barely makes a dent.

Our guide lit the fuse... after it is lit you have 2 minutes and 40 seconds before it blows up. So we quickly passed the hot potatoe around, took some cool pictures and gave it back to our guide who ran down the path and put it on the mountain and ran back. Exactly 2 minutes 40 seconds after we lit it and played with it, it went BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!! Even though I knew it was coming, it scared the hell out of me! But how awesome!

p.s---dont worry mom and dad, we were in the hands of trained professionals!

After a day at the mines, a great day that is, we took a half overnight horribly freezing cold bus ride to Uyuni... checked in our hostel at 2.30 am even though the host was not very pleased! And today we booked our 3 day excursion through the salt flats. We leave tomorrow morning and we will hop off at the Chilean- Bolivian border on Wednesday. During these 2 nights, 3 days, we will see salt flats, lagoons, flamingos, more mountains, semi active volcanoes, stay in a hotel made of salt, and different colored lakes. It is a 4WD excursion out of a jeep where we stay in hostels but they cook for us too! It should be amazing...


Until Chile...

Altitude at its Finest

Buenos!
If you say Buenos and not Buenos Tards, Dias, or Noches... you sound more like a local! Just a nice little tip if any of you venture down here.

We spent a nice Halloween weekend in Copacabana just relaxing in the sun. We rented a paddleboat which was essentially a Duck- made us feel like we were in Oregon! But our Duck did NOT move... our legs paddled so hard and we got nowhere so we took it back to the dock and the kid tried to scam the full amount from us! Anyways, Lake Titicaca was apparently the highest navigable lake in the world but then i read that there are actually other lakes....so I am a bit confused but nevertheless, amazed by the vast body of water. It is soooo big and you can see Peru in the distance which is pretty cool.
We hiked up to the Calvario which is a huge hill with crosses all in a row- but it felt like a mountain in the altitude- and watched the sunset over the water...what an incredible site!
We also took a nice boat ride to the Island of the Sun for the night which was beautiful but yet again just a HUGE mountain to climb to get to our hostel!

It was a beautiful sunset from there as well as a moon rising over the ice capped Andes over the water.. who would have thought you could have it all??

The Island of the Sun is made of mostly all indigenous people dressed in their huge skirts, carrying blankets made into bags on their backs, and with their leashed animals! On the island, they import everything they need (that they do not grow) from Copacabana and then they tie it on to their donkeys and their donkeys climb the mountain. It is a pretty cool site.

After a nice 3 relaxing days in Copacabana, i ran out of money. Typical. So i went to look for a bank... guess what? There are no banks or ATMs in Copacabana!!! Good thing Kevin had enough money to get us to La Paz! Phew! He also let me buy a water and yogurt!

Our journey to La Paz has been our easiest yet. We drove around the lake and then had to get off the bus so that the bus could cross the lake. They put our huge motorcoach on a flimsy wooden raft and floated it across! It was pretty neat to see the bus wobbilng back and forth while our backpacks were on it. We, however got to take a little boat across! We arrived in La Paz and have been saying at a party hostel which is pretty funny because its hard to party in this altitude.

La Paz is known for its´Death Road in which hundreds of people die every year. It starts at about 4,760 meters high on mountains and you end up in the valley--if you make it. Because Kevin is such a damn daredevil, he did it! He heard a lot of crazy stories, and came back with pictures of crosses and flowers that he saw on the road...from 2009-see Kevin´s blog for more! Scary eh? Don´t worry, i had a lovely day with a girl I met eating sushi, shopping, and drinking coffee! Fabulous!

Our hostel also put up a mean BBQ last night where we got a burger, chicken, and steak and pasta salad AND potatoes.. for 28 Bolivianos... about $4.00!! I love it!

Today we took on the city, went to the Witches market which is full of gifts, touristy stuff, as well as potions, dead llamas, trinkets, natural aphrodisiacs and almost anything you want! We also stopped by the Coca Museum which was pretty cool, it explained the history and the use of the Coca leaf.

Did you know that the US sends raw materials necessary to make cocaine to Bolivia? And, the Bolivian Government cannot control it because it is sent directly to manufacturers? Pretty crazy stuff.
Coca is a natural leaf here that is used to make cocaine but does not actually have traces. It is used for Coca- Cola too. It has been very helpful in the altitude and you just chew on it until ur mouth is numb.... they have tea too which is delicious! The local indigenous people are well known for always chewing Coca, as well as using it for healing. It was and still is very popular among the silver miners- because of them it was legalized in Bolivia. We bought some for our trip to Potosi!

On that note, we are getting ready to head out of La Paz, Bolivia and into Potosi, Bolivia which is the highest city in the world at 4,060 meters (multiply by 3 and you get the footage). SHould be crazy... this altitude is definitely taking a toll on our bodies as we try and walk up minor hills, we tend to stop for breaks quite often.

After Potosi, it is off to Salar de Uyuni which are the infamous Salt flats and lagoons!

Afraid of Peruvian Heights

Buenos Tardes todos!

It is a beautiful day in Copacabana, Bolivia on the shore of Lake Titicaca. We have been here only 1 night but i think i could stay here forever! We are headed, by boat, to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) tonight which is supposed to be very tranquil and beautiful! These few relaxing days are much needed after our past week in Cusco, and Macchu Picchu.

Here is how we spent the last 4 days...

There are a few ways to get to Macchu Picchu from Cusco- one is the direct backpackers train (which i am sure some of you would think i took) but alas, I did not! Another way is known as the ädventurous and dangerous route¨. Of course being with Kevin and our friend Will, the boys wanted to be daring so we were!

We left Cusco at 8 am on Wednesday in a minivan with 5 other people bound for Aguas Calientes which is the city of Macchu Picchu. Our first stop was to be a small jungle town of Santa Maria. Little did i know that this trip was to scare the shit out of me. As we drove up and up into the mountains, i started realizing there were very very few guardrails, so i obviously thought we would not go much higher. ha....well we went up and up and up...scaling mountains with horrendously unsafe switchback turns and one way gravel roads-no big deal that we were about 14,000 ft in the air on cliffs known for landslides! At one point we were so high up that they had signs readng ¨La Zona de Neblina¨...CLOUD ZONE! We went in and out of clouds while our view of ice caps on the Andes was priceless, my life flashed before my eyes numerous times.

We stopped in Santa Maria, switched cars en route to another jungle town of Santa Teresa. This road was nothing but rocks, gravels, and no guardrails at all! Once we arrived safely in Santa Teresa we had to get another ride to the infamous Hydroelectric plant to finish our journey on foot. This hydroelectric plant is exactly what it sounds like, just a random plant in the middle of the mountains where a railroad track ends. From here, we walked 15KM (about 9 miles) to Aguas Calientes. This was an amazing walk, though very difficult because you are walking on railroad tracks above water at some points and through the jungle, the views are absolutely incredible. I cannot even start to describe them.

Finally, 2.5 hours later, we walked through 2 mountain-made tunnels and we saw the city in the near distance!

At 3:30 am the next morning, we were off to Macchu Picchu so that we would be 3 of the 200 people they let climb Waynapicchu every day! And luckily, we were numbers 142, 143, 144! (obviously because we took the bus up the mountain instead of hiking)

We saw the sun rise over Macchu Picchu and I could not fathom how an entire tribe of people lived there. It truly was an incredible feeling and eerie as well. At about 7am, we made our way through the ruins, up and down stones, taking in the 360 degree view of the Andes. And finally, we made our way to Waynapicchu, the famous mountain that when you are on top, you can barely see the Macchu Picchu ruins. We hiked and hiked up steep stairs and just when I thought I was going to pass out and fall off the mountain, we hit the top. By the top, i mean there were 10 huge rocks all slanted and dangerous with no railings or anything! But people had no qualms about sitting up there, I on the other hand could not go up this last ladder to these rocks because of my newly found fear of these 15,000 foot heights. I actually almost vomited.

At about 9am when we thought about how much we had already done so early in the morning, we ventured back down the steep mountain, through Macchu Picchu to the other side where we then had to venture down the mountain in which we had previously taken a bus up. By the time we hit solid ground, my legs were trembling and we all thought we might pass out. This is why we took the train from Aguas Calientes back to the Hydroelectric plant instead of walking 9 miles. We slowly started our journey back...actually not slowly at all. Our driver was nuts, he was going soooo fast while scaling the Andes Mountains that at one point when we were in the cloud zone, i had to hide my face in kevins hands and i may have shed a tear. I truly feared for my life. Even Kevin said there were points he did not think we would make it! But, no worries because after a flat tire from driving too fast over rocks, we made it back to Cusco safely.

We spent 1 more night in Cusco to rest our bodies and then we headed to Copacabana overnight and over the border! (P.S-All Americans have to pay $135 dollars at the border... sweet) This was a little humorous because we were the only Americans on our bus and everyone had to wait for us to fill out forms and pay but nevertheless, we made it into Bolivia and we even got to to catch the sunset on top of a mountain overlooking the lake.

I feel so fortunate to be on this trip and I am taking everything in for what its worth. The culture and way of life down here is something that you read about in books, and many people never get the chance to experience it.

Off to the Island of the Sun today....

But for your enjoyment...

Kevin and I during our 9 mile walk to Aguas Calientes...a picture break was much needed!

Pick Axeing my way through Pisco, Peru

Buenos Noches!!
It has been a full week since I have last blogged but that was because i was too busy digging trenches and clearing rubble! Kevin and I spent 7 days in Pisco, Peru volunteering at Pisco Sin Fronteras (Pisco without borders). In 2007, Pisco was hit with a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that pretty much rocked their world. Locals Piscoans have NOTHING... and when I say nothing, they actually have less than that. Their life is about everyday survival and there is just enough of everything for them to get buy, never extra. I learned so much in those short 7 days...

First off, I learned how to dig a 80 cm. deep by 35 cm wide trench and to pix axe my way through concrete foundations. Pisco Sin Fronteras is an NPO that provides reconstruction to locals who need help rebuilding. However, it is a catch 22 because we can only afford to help those who have the money to pay for materials. The way it works is we go in and do work on their property and they have to pay the government for materials. These materials are not granted without the proper evidence that work is being done. I found this a little unfair because right down the street from these people are families of 7 living in either tents or bamboo made houses with blue tarps. Water and electricity are also not a promise everyday, many dinners are candle-lit. However, PSF does have a Miracle Fund Project where they try and raise donations in order to fund an entire new house for locals living in sticks and tents. Kevin and I are going to try and get some donations together for PSF because as we walked around Pisco, as the only gringos (South American term for white person) people knew who we were and what we do. They had nothing but gratitude and thanks for us. It truly was an amazing experience.

On a brighter note, we left Pisco on Sunday for Cusco. As we headed an hour South to Ica, to catch a long bus ride, we thought this should be an easy trip! So follow me when I say we left Pisco at 4;30 pm to start out journey. We took a bus, Royale Class of course for $35. The guy said ¨solamente diez y ocho horas¨- meaning only an 18 hour ride, so of course we were excited about this. We got on the bus, laid our seats back which turn into beds-these royal class buses are like first class airplane seats. PRETTY AWESOME! Anyways, to start off, we left an hour late, but we rode over night, slept for 12 hours and arrived in Arequipa, Peru at 9 am for our transfer. We had an hour before the next bus to Cusco but this turned into 2 hours. So at 11 am we boarded for Cusco, little to our knowledge we went through 2 other cities through winding hills at really scary heights. At about 4:00 pm we found ourselves in Puno, Peru which is 8 hours from Cusco. We were pretty confused so I walked around the bus looking for someone to ask.. of course no one was there when I needed him. They take us to the bus terminal and tell us this bus is out of service now and we would need to take a different bus. They put us on an Economy class bus and sent us off on a 7 hour bus ride with no bathroom and no heat! SWEET.

So now we are at 6;15 pm on MONDAY...22 hours so far...
1 hour later we pull over in Juliaca, Peru and they make us get out in the rain and change buses so that they can fill the bus. So we squished in with local indigenous people (really awesome actually) and we finally made our way to Cusco. We arrived in Cusco at 2am on Tuesday
So... I ask you to please do the math and ask me how much I enjoyed this 30 plus hour ride!

But alas, we are in Cusco and we went on a glorious horse back ride through the Andes today!

We are off to Aguas Calientes tomorrow morning which is the city of Macchu Picchu.

Until after my climb..

¨Lima Esta Linda¨

Hola!!
I have been in Lima, Peru... to be exact, Miraflores, which is a small town outside of the city limits for about 48 hours now. I have done so much i do not even know where to start so I will give you a brief run down!

Our flight was fairly easy..we left NYC at 6;20 am and arrived in Panama City and then to Lima around 3:30 pm. I want to say that if you find yourself in a Central American airport please note that a "LAST CALL" to board is actually a 30 minute warning. Unfortunately i was starving in Panama City and our flight was in Last Call so i thought i had to board and we rushed to the gate..meanwhile as we board, i find that we are the second people on the plane. We proceed to sit there for 45 minutes before we even take off...sweet. Good thing Copa Airlines serves Ravioli con queso.
And good thing Kevin is the American who goes to the bathroom, returns to his seat at the FRONT of the airplane dragging toilet paper on his shoe! Yes, i captured it on my camera of course!

On our first day we managed to walk for miles down the coast and through the city to find multiple casinos, hundreds of banks, and an american bar! We were searching for some restaurants from our Lonely PLanet guide book and got fed up that we could not find them so we stumbled into an American bar and ordered our very first Peruivan Beer, Cusquena which is absolutely delicious and uber cheap! It is great how far our money goes here, i have been eating like a king and testing all the local dishes such as Tallarin Saltado con Polllo which is grilled noodles with chicken and vegetables, and the Aji De Gallina which is a mixture of fish, cream sauce, potatoes and rice. Of course a dish like this only costs about $4.00 at the most!! Good times for the American dollar down here.

On Friday we went to the Plaza Del Armas where we watched the daily ritual of the changing of the guard. They shut down the entire plaza, and had about 30 guards with machine guns, helmets and shields ready to fire! It was pretty intimdating until i saw guard texting on his phone during the procession! haha.. oh technology.

After this, we thought lets not be such tourists and we crossed a bridge in hopes to find some local fare.. too bad for us because 5 minutes later a security guard came running up to us and said "ingles? cameras? no.. bad here.. peeek pawketers" aka. pick pocketers..coincidentally, i had just mentioned to kevin that i was shocked there were no tourists around!! Well you bet we pulled a quick u-turn and headed right back over the bridge to the safe side.
Not safe for long because we went to the Peruvian China town and proceeded to be the only tourists once again! I m not too sure where people hang out but surely they do not go wandering into local meat markets and China town... so we booked it outta there and headed back to Miraflores.

This is where i tell you that Kevin and i were very cultural and we went to a Peruvian theater to see some tango dancing, singing, and some instrumental music. We got to the show early enough to buy tickets and find a seat, yet the talent walked in a mere 10 minutes before the show started. Then during the show the audience was so disrespectful, phones kept ringing, people came 20 minutes late, 1 hour late, even after intermission!! At one point this lady stood up in the middle of the auditorium and started taking pictures...it truly was an experience.
One thing about Peruvian Theater you should know in case you decide to catch a show, is that apparently they can call their own encores! This Rosemarie lady, a singer, called her own encore because the tango duo before here got an original encore from the audience and I guess she was jealous. Oh Peru!

Although I cannot tell all, there is just too much, i do not want to forget to tell everyone that i took a surfing lesson today!! It was freaking awesome... my instructor, Roberto, who speaks NO english took me out into the waters where he promised me there were no sharks, and just let me have it with the waves! I dont want to toot my own horn or anything but i was pretty good... granted i am disregarding the fact that on my second ride in i yelled "WATCHHH OUTTT" in English of course and this little boy bops his head up and looks at me with a face i will never forget.... I obviously wasn't stopping and i was so proud to be riding this wave that he had to ABORT his board and i surfed right over it!!! It was hilarious... i turned around once i fell and said i was soo sorry and in broken english he gave me a dirty look and said "not a problem".

That is all I can really write for today... my arms hurt terribly and I am sunburnt. More to come... we venture to Pisco tomorrow to work 6 hours a day rebuilding homes and living among the locals. However, I have heard is it bit dangerous for tourists at night so I do not expect many crazy stories.

Until then,

2 Weeks Out

Hey Family and Friends,
Since Kevin and I embark on our journey South two weeks from today, I thought it would be a good time to start this blog. From here on out, I will attempt to post as often as South America and its' internet allows me to. On that note, please do not expect many personal emails from me :)

As we prepare for this trip, here is a rough itinerary for you so that you can follow us!
October 15th- Leave NYC, arrive Lima, Peru
From Lima, we venture South to Pisco, Peru in order to volunteer with Pisco Sin Fronteras. We will be rebuilding communities that were destroyed during a 2007 earthquake. After about a week here, we will venture West to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu. From here, if we can still walk after the hike, we will head to Lake Titicaca and Copacabana (where a Villa will take place of a hostel)!
From Copacabana, we shall venture South to La Paz, Bolivia and then we will frolic in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. Once we hit Santiago, hopefully we can eat some great seafood before we head to the "Paris" of South America....Buenos Aires!! We will fly out of Buenos Aires on November 27th, arriving back in NYC.

If anyone has contacts throughout this route, recommendations of what to do or see, let me know!

On that note....2 weeks and counting...adios mis amigos.