We took a ridiculously comfortable bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago for 23 hours. It felt like 5. Unfortunately, to get on the bus we had to chase it for an hour in a taxi. Again.
Anyways, to keep it short, we got to Santiago and met up with my uncle, who showed us the city (Awesome architecture, way more civilized than Bolivia). We stayed with him for almost a week, relaxing, eating, working with clay (his girlfriend is an awesome artist and she has a totally sweet studio), drinking wine and seeing more family. The wines here are amazing, and I already have some favourites that I want to take home. After all that we travelled to the country south of Santiago, to Peredones to hang out with my grandparents for a while. That was predictably relaxed. We tried some seafood at a nearby town which was one of the better meals I´ve had on the trip, and we played a lot of cards while it rained. Good times. My grandfather is HUGE. He has the deepest voice I´ve ever hear, literally.
Moving on. We then came to my Aunt and Uncle`s farm in Lolol. We´ve just been relaxing here, driving around checking some of the surrounding towns out. The country around here is beautiful, nice surroundings. Tons of vineyards, we are going to taste some wine tomorrow. I love Chilean wine. Will report back when we get back to Santiago tomorrow.
Ron
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Shawn here.
I absolutely loathe the blogger software. It is the bane of common sense. Anyways, after spending maybe 3 hours trying to upload and arrange all the photos, they somehow disappeared. How nice. So it's not very convenient for anyone, but I uploaded a zip file to MegaUpload and the photos are in it. There are no thumbnails, but I no longer want to stab objects through the screen, so it is really the best solution.
1. The Salkantay Trail gang. 2 Canadians and 4 Brazilians. From left, Matheus, Rodrigo, Shawn, Ron, Diego, and Fernando.
2. Ron at the top of the world. Or at least like, that particular spot of world.
3. Teaser photo of Macho Pikachu.
4. Cusco, Peru - Night at the Plaza de Armas. Look at the little fingernail moon.
5. La Paz,Bolivia - including a big stadium they use for some sport which is apperently popular in some places.
6. Sucre, Bolivia - At night. Great vista from the Mirador on the hill. Don't ask what a Mirador is, Ron just said.
7. "That's Life" - From the train graveyard near Uyuni, Bolivia.
8. Ron trying to teach me how to hover (Uyuni salt flats).
9. Me flying on my own, salt flats.
10. Me flying with some help, salt flats.
11. Random cactus-filled "island" in the salt flats region.
12. Unending sky at Uyuni. Photos really don't do it justice, it was that cool.
13. Geothermal Land family excitement fun park. Nearing the end of the Uyuni tour.
14. Old meets new in Santiago, Chile.
Here is the link, enjoy.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QV7FHYSS
I absolutely loathe the blogger software. It is the bane of common sense. Anyways, after spending maybe 3 hours trying to upload and arrange all the photos, they somehow disappeared. How nice. So it's not very convenient for anyone, but I uploaded a zip file to MegaUpload and the photos are in it. There are no thumbnails, but I no longer want to stab objects through the screen, so it is really the best solution.
1. The Salkantay Trail gang. 2 Canadians and 4 Brazilians. From left, Matheus, Rodrigo, Shawn, Ron, Diego, and Fernando.
2. Ron at the top of the world. Or at least like, that particular spot of world.
3. Teaser photo of Macho Pikachu.
4. Cusco, Peru - Night at the Plaza de Armas. Look at the little fingernail moon.
5. La Paz,Bolivia - including a big stadium they use for some sport which is apperently popular in some places.
6. Sucre, Bolivia - At night. Great vista from the Mirador on the hill. Don't ask what a Mirador is, Ron just said.
7. "That's Life" - From the train graveyard near Uyuni, Bolivia.
8. Ron trying to teach me how to hover (Uyuni salt flats).
9. Me flying on my own, salt flats.
10. Me flying with some help, salt flats.
11. Random cactus-filled "island" in the salt flats region.
12. Unending sky at Uyuni. Photos really don't do it justice, it was that cool.
13. Geothermal Land family excitement fun park. Nearing the end of the Uyuni tour.
14. Old meets new in Santiago, Chile.
Here is the link, enjoy.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QV7FHYSS
-Shawn
Saturday, June 9, 2007
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
It´s been a little while. After Sucre we went Potosi with out Irish friends for one night, to a great hostel with a super warm shower. There wasn´t much there, a few restaurants here and there, though it was the highest city in the world. There was, however, a tour of the local silver mine, which sat inside a huge hill that overlooked the city. We decided to go for it, and we were not disappointed.
We woke up at 7:30 to have breakfast and then headed out to get our mining outfits. We were outfitted with helmets, headlamps, pants and a jacket. Then we headed towards the actual mines, where, before entering, we were given an explanation of the extraction process. In any other country these processes are considered obsolete. Bolivia is very, very poor.
Into the mines. The miners are known to worship the devil, as they are in his domain. We saw llama blood on the outside wall of the mine entrance, a sacrifice to "el tio". Once we entered we had to start crouching and crawling, and it was getting dustier. Every once in a while we saw men working. 4 guys would come by on the tracks dragging a mine cart filled with two tons of excavated rock. They looked exhausted. We kept moving and had to crawl down to the next level though a tiny diagonal passage. It was getting more difficult to breathe, and we had cloths over our mouths. Down another level, through a vertical shaft (some people stayed behind), where we saw a man drilling. At this point the dust was getting unbearable, and we were all becoming exhausted. Our guide finally told us that we were to make our way back out. It was a slow, tough climb out of the mines, and at the last stretch we could feel the cool air from outside rushing in. It was boiling in there! We rushed towards the light, and then we were out! Totally devoid of energy, we all sat and slowly removed our mining gear. Everyone started saying how brutal it was, and we all realized that the miners worked 10-12 hours every day, where we had been in for only 3. Tough life...apparently they eat 4 servings for breakfast, chew coca leaves all day, and then eat 4 servings for dinner. Crazy.
We got back to the hostel at 3:30, and had to wait for showers for a long time. We had to catch a bus to Uyuni at 6:30, and we still needed to eat dinner. After all the showers were done, we went out to find a restaurant quickly. We decided to go to one that we had been to the previous night. It turned out to be the worst choice, the food taking more than 30 minutes to arrive at the table. We ended up pulling up to the bus station 30 seconds before our bus left. We piled on, and then realized that our bus was much worse than our bus company had told us. For 5 hours we endured the bumpiest road of our lives (it felt like a jackhammer was pointed into my tailbone), in the worst seats of all time. Many laughs at that. Fortunately the trip ended up being way shorter than the bus company told us (10 hours), so we arrived at Uyuni at 12:30 and found a hostel right away. The next morning we booked a tour of the Salar de Uyuni (The salt flats). It ended up being the most amazing thing I´ve seen all trip.
That morning with the Irish couple (Fergal and Dervilah, a.k.a. Ferg ´n Derv), we piled into our 1990 Toyota Landcruiser (the perfect tool for the job), and headed out to see the train graveyard just outside of Uyuni. It was really interesting, seeing german trains from the early 1900´s just sitting there abandoned. They were beautiful trains. We then headed out to see our first glimpses of the salt flats. A while surface extended out to the horizon. It was like an hallucination, seeing an unobstructed surface go on forever like that. Cars would pass by, and you could watch them drive until they disappeared. And it only got weirder.
We passed several points of interest on our travels towards the horizon. Cold gas leaks in the ground, a hotel in the middle of nowhere that was made entirely out of salt, and the hexagons. The hexagons were my favorite part. Shapes made by fissures in the ground, the hexagons looked like the shapes made on cracked desert floors, smaller and smaller as they aproached the edge of the sky. Totally, totally amazing. We kept driving, and I eventually noticed that we were approaching a dark mass. It got bigger and bigger until it was big enough to walk on. It was an island in the middle of the salt lake, covered in the biggest cacti I have ever seen. We ran around the island amazed at what we were seeing. We have so many amazing photos...we can´t post them until later...anyways, we left the island, and halfway to our next destination, we got a flat tire. The timing was absolutely perfect because we were immediately greeted by the most incredible sunset of my life. I can´t describe it! Endless white to the horizon met by a sky set on fire, getting redder and redder as the sun dropped. Totally breathtaking. I knew right there that that would probably be the greatest sight of this trip. The sun finally disappeared, and it began to get much colder so we hopped in the car and headed to our first night of sleep.
The next morning we got up to a breakfast of eggs and toast, and then headed out once more. We had left the salt flats the previous night, and we were going through some very deserty landscape. It was also beautiful, in a more conventional, less alien way. We passed a few sights of geological interest along the way, as well as some cool looking lagoons. It was the most photogenic landscape I had ever seen. A bad shot could not be taken. Photos will explain.
That night we slept in a hostel that was in the middle of it all, where the temperature was said to drop to -20 degrees. We stole blankets from other rooms and wore all our clothes. In the morning I recorded -10 degrees. Needless to say, it was damn cold.
That morning we visited some geysers, which were impressive. Lots of pits of bubbling fluids and such. Then we went to a hot spring where I sunk my feet in the water. It was the perfect temperature. After that, we had to say farewell to our tourgroup, and the Irish couple (who are the coolest people we know!), and the guide brought us to the Bolivia-Chile border. We thought we were going to have to pay $130 dollars US to get into Chile, but apparently we didn´t, which was GREAT.
No we are in San Pedro de Atacama, which is a touristy town surrounded by the Atacama desert. We don´t have time to see the sites around here, because we booked a ticket for a direct bus to Santiago to see my family. It´s a 23 hour ride, so we paid an extra 20 dollars for the bed seats. They look great. Anyways, I´ll update once we get to my uncle´s place, and you´ll see many more photos, I hope....Shawn´s camera is screwing up so I hope we can upload photos. We´ll see, but in any case, more updates later!
Ron
We woke up at 7:30 to have breakfast and then headed out to get our mining outfits. We were outfitted with helmets, headlamps, pants and a jacket. Then we headed towards the actual mines, where, before entering, we were given an explanation of the extraction process. In any other country these processes are considered obsolete. Bolivia is very, very poor.
Into the mines. The miners are known to worship the devil, as they are in his domain. We saw llama blood on the outside wall of the mine entrance, a sacrifice to "el tio". Once we entered we had to start crouching and crawling, and it was getting dustier. Every once in a while we saw men working. 4 guys would come by on the tracks dragging a mine cart filled with two tons of excavated rock. They looked exhausted. We kept moving and had to crawl down to the next level though a tiny diagonal passage. It was getting more difficult to breathe, and we had cloths over our mouths. Down another level, through a vertical shaft (some people stayed behind), where we saw a man drilling. At this point the dust was getting unbearable, and we were all becoming exhausted. Our guide finally told us that we were to make our way back out. It was a slow, tough climb out of the mines, and at the last stretch we could feel the cool air from outside rushing in. It was boiling in there! We rushed towards the light, and then we were out! Totally devoid of energy, we all sat and slowly removed our mining gear. Everyone started saying how brutal it was, and we all realized that the miners worked 10-12 hours every day, where we had been in for only 3. Tough life...apparently they eat 4 servings for breakfast, chew coca leaves all day, and then eat 4 servings for dinner. Crazy.
We got back to the hostel at 3:30, and had to wait for showers for a long time. We had to catch a bus to Uyuni at 6:30, and we still needed to eat dinner. After all the showers were done, we went out to find a restaurant quickly. We decided to go to one that we had been to the previous night. It turned out to be the worst choice, the food taking more than 30 minutes to arrive at the table. We ended up pulling up to the bus station 30 seconds before our bus left. We piled on, and then realized that our bus was much worse than our bus company had told us. For 5 hours we endured the bumpiest road of our lives (it felt like a jackhammer was pointed into my tailbone), in the worst seats of all time. Many laughs at that. Fortunately the trip ended up being way shorter than the bus company told us (10 hours), so we arrived at Uyuni at 12:30 and found a hostel right away. The next morning we booked a tour of the Salar de Uyuni (The salt flats). It ended up being the most amazing thing I´ve seen all trip.
That morning with the Irish couple (Fergal and Dervilah, a.k.a. Ferg ´n Derv), we piled into our 1990 Toyota Landcruiser (the perfect tool for the job), and headed out to see the train graveyard just outside of Uyuni. It was really interesting, seeing german trains from the early 1900´s just sitting there abandoned. They were beautiful trains. We then headed out to see our first glimpses of the salt flats. A while surface extended out to the horizon. It was like an hallucination, seeing an unobstructed surface go on forever like that. Cars would pass by, and you could watch them drive until they disappeared. And it only got weirder.
We passed several points of interest on our travels towards the horizon. Cold gas leaks in the ground, a hotel in the middle of nowhere that was made entirely out of salt, and the hexagons. The hexagons were my favorite part. Shapes made by fissures in the ground, the hexagons looked like the shapes made on cracked desert floors, smaller and smaller as they aproached the edge of the sky. Totally, totally amazing. We kept driving, and I eventually noticed that we were approaching a dark mass. It got bigger and bigger until it was big enough to walk on. It was an island in the middle of the salt lake, covered in the biggest cacti I have ever seen. We ran around the island amazed at what we were seeing. We have so many amazing photos...we can´t post them until later...anyways, we left the island, and halfway to our next destination, we got a flat tire. The timing was absolutely perfect because we were immediately greeted by the most incredible sunset of my life. I can´t describe it! Endless white to the horizon met by a sky set on fire, getting redder and redder as the sun dropped. Totally breathtaking. I knew right there that that would probably be the greatest sight of this trip. The sun finally disappeared, and it began to get much colder so we hopped in the car and headed to our first night of sleep.
The next morning we got up to a breakfast of eggs and toast, and then headed out once more. We had left the salt flats the previous night, and we were going through some very deserty landscape. It was also beautiful, in a more conventional, less alien way. We passed a few sights of geological interest along the way, as well as some cool looking lagoons. It was the most photogenic landscape I had ever seen. A bad shot could not be taken. Photos will explain.
That night we slept in a hostel that was in the middle of it all, where the temperature was said to drop to -20 degrees. We stole blankets from other rooms and wore all our clothes. In the morning I recorded -10 degrees. Needless to say, it was damn cold.
That morning we visited some geysers, which were impressive. Lots of pits of bubbling fluids and such. Then we went to a hot spring where I sunk my feet in the water. It was the perfect temperature. After that, we had to say farewell to our tourgroup, and the Irish couple (who are the coolest people we know!), and the guide brought us to the Bolivia-Chile border. We thought we were going to have to pay $130 dollars US to get into Chile, but apparently we didn´t, which was GREAT.
No we are in San Pedro de Atacama, which is a touristy town surrounded by the Atacama desert. We don´t have time to see the sites around here, because we booked a ticket for a direct bus to Santiago to see my family. It´s a 23 hour ride, so we paid an extra 20 dollars for the bed seats. They look great. Anyways, I´ll update once we get to my uncle´s place, and you´ll see many more photos, I hope....Shawn´s camera is screwing up so I hope we can upload photos. We´ll see, but in any case, more updates later!
Ron
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Sucre
It´s been a couple days since we´ve updated. We´ve been through Cochabamba for a day, which was uneventful except for a really big market where I didn´t buy anything, and a cafe that served an amazing caramel coffee drink. Now we are in Sucre, which is beautiful. They call it the "white city", and when we arrived we saw that they weren´t lying. The majority of the buildings are in the colonial style, and painted bright white. It looks amazing.
Yesterday, after trying some of the chocolate that the city is famous for, we went and saw the fossilized dinosaur tracks that sit 5km outside of the city. It is the largest collection of continuous tracks in the world, and it is basically a giant wall of stone that sits vertically (having shifted due to seismic activity in the past). It was discovered after a cement quarry uncovered it, and it´s pretty impressive. We met an Irish couple there who we are going to travel with until we get to Chile.
Today we went to a market town called Tarabuco about an hour from the city, and it was pleasant, with some nice tapestries and stuff. We bought toques.
We are leaving tomorrow morning for Potosi, which is a town on the way to the Uyuni salt flats that apparently features mine tours. There is one company that allegedly allows you to light off a stick of dynamite...yeah, cool. Don´t worry, I´ll be safe about it.
Anyways, will update when we get to the next town.
Later,
Ron
Yesterday, after trying some of the chocolate that the city is famous for, we went and saw the fossilized dinosaur tracks that sit 5km outside of the city. It is the largest collection of continuous tracks in the world, and it is basically a giant wall of stone that sits vertically (having shifted due to seismic activity in the past). It was discovered after a cement quarry uncovered it, and it´s pretty impressive. We met an Irish couple there who we are going to travel with until we get to Chile.
Today we went to a market town called Tarabuco about an hour from the city, and it was pleasant, with some nice tapestries and stuff. We bought toques.
We are leaving tomorrow morning for Potosi, which is a town on the way to the Uyuni salt flats that apparently features mine tours. There is one company that allegedly allows you to light off a stick of dynamite...yeah, cool. Don´t worry, I´ll be safe about it.
Anyways, will update when we get to the next town.
Later,
Ron
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
La Paz is awesome.
We are still in La Paz, which is a really cool city. Firstly, it is the world´s highest capital, sitting at around 4000 metres. Secondly, it sits inside of a huge bowl, with buildings reaching as high as they can on the hill. It looks amazing at night. Thirdly, the markets are crazy! There are parts of the market that take up 4 city blocks continuously. We got totally lost in it a couple of times, just wandering until we found the edge. Everything is super cheap; the exchange sits at 8 Bolivianos to the dollar, and we are buying gloves for 10, food for 12, accomodations for 27 each. It´s awesome.
Yesterday we did a bike trip on the "death road", which is considered the world´s most dangerous road. For bikes it is fine, but we saw many graves and crosses representing cars, some bikes or even entire busses that went over the edge. The worst was a bus of 50. We respected the road a little more after seeing that. It was a fun ride with some crazy views, and the descent from 4000 metres to 1300 gave us a good perspective of the levels of climate that Bolivia is known for. We ended up in Coroico, a jungle town, where we hung out at a cool hotel with a pool and buffet, which we obviously abused to no end.
Now we are trying to figure out where we are going next. We want to see a few more towns or cities in Bolivia, and we´ll have to sit down with a map and figure out where we have time/money to go.
The next update will probably be from another town, maybe Sucre or Cochabamba, and we will try to post more photos, but these computers are limited. There will be way more photos once we get into Chile. In any case, you´ll hear from us soon, and wish us luck with the busses this time....
Saludos,
Ron
Yesterday we did a bike trip on the "death road", which is considered the world´s most dangerous road. For bikes it is fine, but we saw many graves and crosses representing cars, some bikes or even entire busses that went over the edge. The worst was a bus of 50. We respected the road a little more after seeing that. It was a fun ride with some crazy views, and the descent from 4000 metres to 1300 gave us a good perspective of the levels of climate that Bolivia is known for. We ended up in Coroico, a jungle town, where we hung out at a cool hotel with a pool and buffet, which we obviously abused to no end.
Now we are trying to figure out where we are going next. We want to see a few more towns or cities in Bolivia, and we´ll have to sit down with a map and figure out where we have time/money to go.
The next update will probably be from another town, maybe Sucre or Cochabamba, and we will try to post more photos, but these computers are limited. There will be way more photos once we get into Chile. In any case, you´ll hear from us soon, and wish us luck with the busses this time....
Saludos,
Ron
Friday, May 25, 2007
La Paz
We finally made it to La Paz, after the longest morning of my life...
When the bus arrived at the border we were supposed to get our passports stamped but Shawn had forgotten one of his papers in his large bag inside the bus storage. We had to wait until the bus driver returned so that Shawn could get into his bag after which began the most disorganized border crossing process we had ever seen. We finished just in time to see our bus coasting away happily on the highway towards La Paz (with our bags, of course)...
We immediately decided that we would chase the bastard down, so we changed some money and then hired the "fastest" cab we could find. We unknowingly paid 3 times the regular amount for the cab, but he was a good guy, and a fast driver. We passed our bus, went to the wrong station, then hired another cab (which also cost way too much) to take us to the main city station. We snatched our bags back and then launched into an hour long yelling match...customer service here is WAY different...it`s the customer`s fault most of the time...anyways, after involving the tourist police, we eventually got reimbursed with the money that the taxi SHOULD have cost and left it at that...
We napped at our hostel for a few hours afterwards and now we are out at an internet cafe, getting ready to find a decent meal....man, what a long day....tomorrow is going to be much, much better. We have some HUGE markets to hit up, they sell everything here!
Ron out
When the bus arrived at the border we were supposed to get our passports stamped but Shawn had forgotten one of his papers in his large bag inside the bus storage. We had to wait until the bus driver returned so that Shawn could get into his bag after which began the most disorganized border crossing process we had ever seen. We finished just in time to see our bus coasting away happily on the highway towards La Paz (with our bags, of course)...
We immediately decided that we would chase the bastard down, so we changed some money and then hired the "fastest" cab we could find. We unknowingly paid 3 times the regular amount for the cab, but he was a good guy, and a fast driver. We passed our bus, went to the wrong station, then hired another cab (which also cost way too much) to take us to the main city station. We snatched our bags back and then launched into an hour long yelling match...customer service here is WAY different...it`s the customer`s fault most of the time...anyways, after involving the tourist police, we eventually got reimbursed with the money that the taxi SHOULD have cost and left it at that...
We napped at our hostel for a few hours afterwards and now we are out at an internet cafe, getting ready to find a decent meal....man, what a long day....tomorrow is going to be much, much better. We have some HUGE markets to hit up, they sell everything here!
Ron out
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
STILL IN CUSCO!
Cusco is a beautiful city, but it WON´T LET US GO! We had our bus tickets last night, finally able to leave (Shawn feeling fully recovered), and when we got to the bus station they told us that there was a strike. Busses weren´t being let through Puno or the Bolivia/Peru border. This meant that we had to take a cab back and find another hostel. We woke up to find that we had been charged not for the room, but per person, which was VERY annoying. We only really lost 7 dollars worth of money, but everything´s relative here; 7 dollars is some heavy cash! Anyways, we are now trying to kill the many hours we have until our bus tonight, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the strike is over today (which is what they told us....is that how strikes work here?). Anyways, hopefully we´ll update when we are in La Paz tomorrow morning..
Talk to you guys later,
Ron
Talk to you guys later,
Ron
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