So Wednesday night saw me happy yet exhausted and I met up with the Israeli guy, the one who had just parasited onto my tour group climbing the volcano, and we got a local beer at a bar inbetween our two hostels. Turns out the guy should be in a looney bin as he kept trying to ask me what I was afraid of and convince me that I should make sure that I face my fears and dont act in a way that I will regret 5 or 10 or 15 years down the line. All in all I think he was just upset that I didnt want to kiss him and that I left him there when I went home rather early. Thursday was my last full day in Pucon and I went to the beach all morning and then went to lunch at the same cafe where I had met the son of the UN diplomats who was attempting to rebel against his parents, etc, etc and got HARASSED by a Chilean man who claimed it was his 45th birthday and wanted me to go to his birthday dinner in the neighboring town on Villarrica, AS IF. I had to endure him annoying me (he was nice at first, but then he got SUPER AGGRAVATING) and I just wanted to flick him off and slap him in the face or something. The people who worked at the restaurant allowed him to bother me while I was trying to eat and read a book which I did not fully understand, but hey, I finally finished eating and got out of there. He seemed quite upset that I am so beautiful and that I wasnt dying to go to his intimate birthday dinner IN ANOTHER TOWN. What a bad idea, why would I ever agree to that, why would ANYONE ever agree to that? Anyway, done venting. That evening I went to the hot springs Loz Pozones for a few hours and met some pretty cool Americans and English people, erasing the annoying old man from my mind.
Friday morning saw a hasty departure from Pucon (after a decent sleep in) and an arrival in Valdivia, a costal town further South in Chile. In Valdivia I spent 2 days, the first just getting to know the local fish market and botanical gardens and the second taking an adventure that resulted in 3 boat rides and 4 bus rides to get to and from an ecological reserve that houses a beautiful beach nestled in between some sand dunes. It was quite relaxing and fun but a little disappointing, as I tried to hike in the ecological reserve and literally could NOT understand the Chilean working at the desk. He was not very helpful to say the least. It was odd, as he also didnt seem capable of understanding me. What a dilemma. So I just ended up on the beach all day. The water was prettttty chilly considering hwo far south I am at the moment, but everyone was swimming.
After Valdivia I headed to Osorno, and just passed right on through without even stopping and took a small bus out towards the Puyehue National Park and asked to get dropped of in Nilque, what I thought was a small town. Turns out its 1 restaurant that is over priced and a group of cabins for rent that are run by the same women who run the adjoined gas station. It was a bit of a start to be dropped off there and just decide I kind of HAD to stay there, but it turned out all right. The cabins werent horribly expensive (about $26 per night) and I had my own TV with directTV and a small kitchen and bathroom as well. The first day I walked down by the restaurant (about 2km away) and went swimming in the crystal clear lake before walking back in the evening and picking 1L of blackberries that were growing along the road. Turns out I had cookies bought from the meager choices available at the gas station and the full L of blackberries for dinner. With water. Very delicious, actually. The second day I made my way relatively early to the Park (about 17km down the road, further out of town) and found out that they wanted to charge me $20 EACH WAY to go to the trailhead for hiking to the awesome waterfalls that my guide book talked about, and instigated my stop in the area. I was not willing to pay $40 for less than 40km of transit, so I settled for the two shroter trails close to the hot springs and then a 2.5 hour soak in the hot spring (all of which ended up costing me about $10, including the buses). So not a loss by any means. Today is Tuesday, meaning this morning I woke up at 8AM and waited by the side of the road for one of the buses taht have NO AVAIALBLE SCHEDULE to pass in order to get back into town (Osorno), from where I immediately bought a bus ticket to Puerto Varas, even further south. Which is where I am now, in Puerto Varas in a little hostel that has only 2 other people staying in it and 2 lap tops available for guest use. Also some really great guide books. So I am making lists of things I want to do once I get further south (aka the southernmost city of the continental Americas) and on my return trip(s) to Chile.
Hope you all enjoyed this. And know that when I get back to Argentina I will upload probably 1,000 photos, so dont despair over their lack in these posts.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Chile - the beginning of a great relation
For those of you who don´t keep up to date with my day to day schedule, I am currently in Chile. On Sunday, January 13th I had an evening flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile and proceeded to spend that evening and the whole day of the 14th in the capital. My hostel was in an old building on the 6th floor over looking the main plaza of Santiago, La Plaza de Armas. It was quite nice, I must admit, and did make me think about what things would have been like if I had gotten to know the city eariler on in my time in South America, if I would have tried to do 1 semester in Buenos Aires and 1 semester in Santiago, but who knows. The subway system, called the metro here, is much cleaner, faster, more reliable, roomy and expensive than it is in B.A. so there would be pros and cons. On the 14th I walked around the main square, got some ice cream, ate a salad, and really found myself at a loss for what to do, so I went back to the hostel trying to recover from the over 90 heat of the day and get my day in line. I decided to walk to the zoo, about a 1/2 hour relaxed walk, and when I finally got there, I realized how stupid, zoos are closed on Monday´s (just like all of the museums, which thoroughly exhausted my list of activities). The mountain that houses the zoo is also home to the statue of the Virgin Mother Mary, which is the equivalent of the statue in Rio, but Chilean style. I bought a round trip ticket for the tram that takes you up the mountain to the peak, which made me think of going down to the St. Croix with Patty and riding in the tram when we were little. Anyway, the ride up was only about 10 minutes long and then I hung out up at the statue, met two cool guys that are also just traveling around solo, and decided to walk the 6km down, rather than taking the tram. The real bummer is that they wouldn´t reimburse my 800 pesos (aobut $2) that I had paid for the ride down, although I still had the ticket and they could have used it for another passenger. Oh well, shit happens. Then I walked lazily back to my hostel through the beautiful Bella Vista (beautiful view) neighborhood and eventually just made myself a quick spaghetti and pre-made sauce dinner before hopping over to the bus station and taking an overnight bus to Pucon.
Pucon has been GREAT. With a capital G for those of you who are jaded by my and others overuse of caps lock. Although I was cramped into the window seat next to an obese man than as far as I could tell was from California, the bus ride was uneventful and I fell asleep listening to a book on tape on my ipod. I arrived around 9:30 AM, dropped my stuff off at my hostel, and wandered around the small touristy town that is mostly tour companies that want to take you up the volcano, white water rafting, horseback riding, etc. The first day I just walked around and then went out to brunch, where I got picked up to hang out by the biggest character ever. He is a Chilean (half Spaniard) who is rebelling against his UN diplomat parents. He is a pop singer (really, I heard some of his songs and saw his videos on YouTube) and he also is into the management, production, business side of the business (which he has been focusing on for the past 6 years in NYC and LA). I just hung out with him because I was bored, didn´t know the area, am by myself, and though why not, most tours leave early in the day so I just have a day around town anyway. He was originally dining with his parents (who he told me later at 65 and 75) but they left and he then invited me over to his table. I accepted seeing as I was done eating and needless to say, he was interesting. He had to cut our hang out session short and go to the airport because he was flying to Vina del Mar, another city in costal northern Chile in order to sing in a huge music festival that they have there. Its his comeback after 6 years of not singing. But he told me not to worry, because he is going to lip-sync, so there is no need for him to have spent the past few hours practicing. SO I went back to my hostel, he flew off to Vina, and I changed into beach gear and spent the afternoon tanning and swimming in the icy lake.
This morning I got up at 6AM and packed all of the warm clothes I have with me for an excursion climbing up an active volcano, Volcan Villarrica.
It was a questionable day, wind and weather wise after I got into the office but they brought us all to the base of the hike, a 45 minute drive out of town. Our bus went loaded with 12 passengers and only 4 of us actually ended up doing the hike. They still charge you $5000 (Chilean pesos, about 480 to $1USD) if you take the transfer and decide to wait for another day and better weather (being $5000 of the total $40000 price for the excursion). Also, the first 10 minutes of the hike are actually a ride for an aditional $5000Chilean up a chair life, cutting a little over an hour off of your hike. I, not being wealthy, decided to risk it with the 3 Frenchies on my tour and had a great 4 hour hike (with about 3 breaks of 5 minutes each) up a snowy slope through gale force winds just to reach the active crater.
I stole this picture from the internet, because when we got up there we only spent about 2 minutes as the noxious, poisinous fumes were blowing up our noses, down our throats, and into our eyes. Causing extreme discomfort, as you can imagine. On a nice day you can stay up there for up to an hour, enjoying the view but it was all clouded over and the gases made it less than ideal. On the way down, things got really exciting. We put snowpant type deals snapped around our butts and legs, harness style, and descended in luge like ruts down the snowy part of the mountain. AMAZING, the most fun thing I have done in ages, maybe EVER. If you are ever in the region I would highly recommend it. Anyway, I need to go now as I´ve wasted nearly an hour on a communal computer writing in my blog.
Hope you enjoy the update! (be jealous)
Pucon has been GREAT. With a capital G for those of you who are jaded by my and others overuse of caps lock. Although I was cramped into the window seat next to an obese man than as far as I could tell was from California, the bus ride was uneventful and I fell asleep listening to a book on tape on my ipod. I arrived around 9:30 AM, dropped my stuff off at my hostel, and wandered around the small touristy town that is mostly tour companies that want to take you up the volcano, white water rafting, horseback riding, etc. The first day I just walked around and then went out to brunch, where I got picked up to hang out by the biggest character ever. He is a Chilean (half Spaniard) who is rebelling against his UN diplomat parents. He is a pop singer (really, I heard some of his songs and saw his videos on YouTube) and he also is into the management, production, business side of the business (which he has been focusing on for the past 6 years in NYC and LA). I just hung out with him because I was bored, didn´t know the area, am by myself, and though why not, most tours leave early in the day so I just have a day around town anyway. He was originally dining with his parents (who he told me later at 65 and 75) but they left and he then invited me over to his table. I accepted seeing as I was done eating and needless to say, he was interesting. He had to cut our hang out session short and go to the airport because he was flying to Vina del Mar, another city in costal northern Chile in order to sing in a huge music festival that they have there. Its his comeback after 6 years of not singing. But he told me not to worry, because he is going to lip-sync, so there is no need for him to have spent the past few hours practicing. SO I went back to my hostel, he flew off to Vina, and I changed into beach gear and spent the afternoon tanning and swimming in the icy lake.
This morning I got up at 6AM and packed all of the warm clothes I have with me for an excursion climbing up an active volcano, Volcan Villarrica.
It was a questionable day, wind and weather wise after I got into the office but they brought us all to the base of the hike, a 45 minute drive out of town. Our bus went loaded with 12 passengers and only 4 of us actually ended up doing the hike. They still charge you $5000 (Chilean pesos, about 480 to $1USD) if you take the transfer and decide to wait for another day and better weather (being $5000 of the total $40000 price for the excursion). Also, the first 10 minutes of the hike are actually a ride for an aditional $5000Chilean up a chair life, cutting a little over an hour off of your hike. I, not being wealthy, decided to risk it with the 3 Frenchies on my tour and had a great 4 hour hike (with about 3 breaks of 5 minutes each) up a snowy slope through gale force winds just to reach the active crater.
I stole this picture from the internet, because when we got up there we only spent about 2 minutes as the noxious, poisinous fumes were blowing up our noses, down our throats, and into our eyes. Causing extreme discomfort, as you can imagine. On a nice day you can stay up there for up to an hour, enjoying the view but it was all clouded over and the gases made it less than ideal. On the way down, things got really exciting. We put snowpant type deals snapped around our butts and legs, harness style, and descended in luge like ruts down the snowy part of the mountain. AMAZING, the most fun thing I have done in ages, maybe EVER. If you are ever in the region I would highly recommend it. Anyway, I need to go now as I´ve wasted nearly an hour on a communal computer writing in my blog.
Hope you enjoy the update! (be jealous)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Recap of Patagonia with mis Papás
So I went South, more than a few hours South, down almost to the southernmost tip of South America! (Not quite, but you get the picture). It all started after my Dad and I flew back from Peru to Buenos Aires on Friday the 21st of January, and then early in the morning on the 22nd my Mom's flight from the States landed (also in B.A.) and then we spent a few days hanging out in the city, going to a lout of the touristy sights that I had yet to experience, and roasting in the hot Argentine summer. Don't worry Rothe relatives, we went to see the NFC Championship at an American Sports Bar in Buenos Aires. We toured La Casa Rosada, the Argentine equivalent of the White House; we toured some gigantic palace that belonged to Sr. Paz who thought he was going to become president so had a presidential salon installed and all; we ate some damn good food, and we split for Patagonia. We flew south on Monday morning to El Calafate, a city pretty far South in Argentina (see map)
and spent two half days and 4 full days in the region, making a trip on early Wednesday to El Chaltén, the trekking hub of Argentina, and spent 2 days there hiking before heading back to El Calafate. It was really nice because you don't need to have any sort of transportation to the trail heads, they literally are just steps out of the tiny little town. In Calafate, the first full day we took a catamaran tour of Lago Argentino to see 3 main glaciers in the region.
The catamaran tour
It was blustery to put it mildly and almost tornado force gales to put it more accurately the whole time we were in Calafate, and we enjoyed the glaciers even more on our last day in the region when we went hiking with crampons on the top of the Perito Moreno glacier. (One of the most famous glaciers in the world because it is in equilibrium and until recently the officials said it was still growing).
The rents, on the glacier (Perito Moreno)
Eating the local specialty, lamb cooked on the spit!
The lamb cooking up while we waited for our table.
From Calafate, on Saturday (1 week into my parents stay in Argentina) we took another flight to Bariloche, another patagonia town famous for its tourism, skiing, and chocolate. Needless to say Peter was in ice cream/chocolate heaven from there on out. He got addicted to the idea of the quarto (1/4 kilo of ice cream) that comes with 3 flavors of the customers choosing. The ice cream here in Argentina is quite good, its more of a gelato style than us Americans are accustomed to.
A quick shot of some ice cream
Anyway, moving on, in Bariloche we ate some more great food, took a day long excursion to Isla Victoria, a national park in the middle of lake Nahuel Huapi where we saw, oddly enough, a redwood forest......
Back around 1910 when some guys were trying to make the island ideal for rich foreigners, they brought in exotic plant species, trees mainly, to make the island feel more "homey" as a vacation destination for Americans, Japanese, etc. and the on the second half of the excursion we went to El bosque de los arrayanes,
Some damn tree-huggers in the arrayanes forest
a forest of a special type of tree, another national park, quite close to the first. My Mom thinks that they are related to Buckthorn and therefore an invasive species, but what can yah do. We then rented a car the coming day and drove through Villa la Angostura and ended up spending the night in San Martín de los Andes (these are both two small towns north of Bariloche - once again, see the map.) We saw some very beautiful lakes on the drive, la ruta de los 7 lagos, the 7 Lakes Route, but the road was 'less than desirable' to say the least.
One of the lakes along the way. Such beautifully colored water.
The cool white butted bees.
We made in back to Bariloche in time to enjoy a few more servings of chocolate and ice cream and on Wednesday of week 2 flew back to Buenos Aires.
In the city we had some AMAZING food, like when we went to a gastronomy restaurant and had a 16 fixed course meal that was to die for. We also had some great times just walking to museums and seeing a little more of the city before Saturday night when my parents headed home.
One of the 16 courses. DELICIOUS!
After they left I spent Sunday watching the Superbowl and being very excited about the Packers' victory and planning for my trip that starts today, to Chile. I have packed my backpack (so generously lent to me by my Aunt Betty) and have packed my smaller day pack and am heading to the airport in about 20 minutes. I will be gone for 3 weeks and am traveling the most solo I have ever traveled, so wish me luck!!
and spent two half days and 4 full days in the region, making a trip on early Wednesday to El Chaltén, the trekking hub of Argentina, and spent 2 days there hiking before heading back to El Calafate. It was really nice because you don't need to have any sort of transportation to the trail heads, they literally are just steps out of the tiny little town. In Calafate, the first full day we took a catamaran tour of Lago Argentino to see 3 main glaciers in the region.
The catamaran tour
It was blustery to put it mildly and almost tornado force gales to put it more accurately the whole time we were in Calafate, and we enjoyed the glaciers even more on our last day in the region when we went hiking with crampons on the top of the Perito Moreno glacier. (One of the most famous glaciers in the world because it is in equilibrium and until recently the officials said it was still growing).
The rents, on the glacier (Perito Moreno)
Eating the local specialty, lamb cooked on the spit!
The lamb cooking up while we waited for our table.
From Calafate, on Saturday (1 week into my parents stay in Argentina) we took another flight to Bariloche, another patagonia town famous for its tourism, skiing, and chocolate. Needless to say Peter was in ice cream/chocolate heaven from there on out. He got addicted to the idea of the quarto (1/4 kilo of ice cream) that comes with 3 flavors of the customers choosing. The ice cream here in Argentina is quite good, its more of a gelato style than us Americans are accustomed to.
A quick shot of some ice cream
Anyway, moving on, in Bariloche we ate some more great food, took a day long excursion to Isla Victoria, a national park in the middle of lake Nahuel Huapi where we saw, oddly enough, a redwood forest......
Back around 1910 when some guys were trying to make the island ideal for rich foreigners, they brought in exotic plant species, trees mainly, to make the island feel more "homey" as a vacation destination for Americans, Japanese, etc. and the on the second half of the excursion we went to El bosque de los arrayanes,
Some damn tree-huggers in the arrayanes forest
a forest of a special type of tree, another national park, quite close to the first. My Mom thinks that they are related to Buckthorn and therefore an invasive species, but what can yah do. We then rented a car the coming day and drove through Villa la Angostura and ended up spending the night in San Martín de los Andes (these are both two small towns north of Bariloche - once again, see the map.) We saw some very beautiful lakes on the drive, la ruta de los 7 lagos, the 7 Lakes Route, but the road was 'less than desirable' to say the least.
One of the lakes along the way. Such beautifully colored water.
The cool white butted bees.
We made in back to Bariloche in time to enjoy a few more servings of chocolate and ice cream and on Wednesday of week 2 flew back to Buenos Aires.
In the city we had some AMAZING food, like when we went to a gastronomy restaurant and had a 16 fixed course meal that was to die for. We also had some great times just walking to museums and seeing a little more of the city before Saturday night when my parents headed home.
One of the 16 courses. DELICIOUS!
After they left I spent Sunday watching the Superbowl and being very excited about the Packers' victory and planning for my trip that starts today, to Chile. I have packed my backpack (so generously lent to me by my Aunt Betty) and have packed my smaller day pack and am heading to the airport in about 20 minutes. I will be gone for 3 weeks and am traveling the most solo I have ever traveled, so wish me luck!!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Photos from Patagonia with my Papás
The famous metal flower sculpture in Buenos Aires
There are three new photo albums from my travels (mostly around Patagonia) with my parents over the past two week span.
1. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076618&id=1280460131
2. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076617&id=1280460131
3. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076616&id=1280460131
These is a mash-up of my photos, my Dad's photos, and my Mom's photos. Sorry that our timestamps didn't line up so when they were all put together they got a little jumbled.
I'll write about the trip sometime this week.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Pictures from Peru
Here are the links to my Facebook photo albums from Peru, I finally put them up and they are all captioned, so enjoy!
Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075556&id=1280460131
Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075565&id=1280460131
Album 3: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075566&id=1280460131
Sorry there are so many but they are a highlights (90% of everything) compilation of my and my father's photos.
Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075556&id=1280460131
Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075565&id=1280460131
Album 3: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2075566&id=1280460131
Sorry there are so many but they are a highlights (90% of everything) compilation of my and my father's photos.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Galapagos and Inca Trail
So 8 days in the Galapagos, it was not too shabby. The islands are amazing and were definitely worth the trip, I have to say. I cant even explain how great it was but if any of you would like to try and understand how nice of a trip I had you can look at some of my photos, which I have posted on Facebook...
(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074799&id=1280460131) is the link to the first photo album and
(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074781&id=1280460131) is the link to the second photo album.
After my cruise I flew from Guayaquil to Lima, where I had a LOONNGG lay over waiting for my dad. He finally got into Lima and after taking care of the details we just hung out until 4AM when we could check our bags for our flight to Cusco, at 540AM. We spent 2 days in Cusco, exploring the city and the Incan ruins as well as getting accustomed to the altitude.. (10,860 ft). We took the opportunity to try out some of the local foods while we were in the area, my Dad had a pastry that was just flaky bun filled with dulce de leche called la lengua de la suegra (the mother in law's tongue) and then we shared a dish of guinea pig. Yup, thats right, they eat household pets in Peru, not really, they raise them to eat, and then on Sunday, the 16th we met up with our group at 4:30AM in order to head out on the Inca Trail Hike to Machu Picchu. We took a bus for a while and then stopped to eat breakfast before starting the trail. The first day we saw some Inca sights and got accustomed to carrying out packs on the up and down undulating terrain until the final two hours of our hike on day 1, when we started our ascent up to the highest summit on the trail. From where the ascent started it is a 6km hike up rocky, uneven, unrelenting mountainside. We had amazing porters (20 for our group of 14 hikers) who carried enormous packs. Our group was made up of my father and myself, the only Americans, 8 Canadians from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and then one couple from the Isle of White off of Britain and 1 couple from Sydney, Australia. Our guide Alex was a 43 year old Peruvian and the closest in age to my Dad, by far the oldest person we saw walking the trail.
One of the beautiful orchids that we saw along the way.
The second day saw a grueling 4 hour ascent to the first summit, a rapid descent losing half of the altitude that we had gained, and then a second ascent to the original height of the first peak. We then had a more leisurely descent and a stop at an Inca sight to break the afternoon hiking up. The first two days we had spectacular weather, no rain during the hiking hours but also not very hot and the sun was out but not scorching us.
Dad and Chris (one of the Canadians) descending a very steep staircase.
One of the coolest sights that we saw during the hike before arriving at Machu Picchu, this was a 5 minute walk from our camp on the third day.
January is one of the two rainiest months in Peru, and most people who chance hiking the trail then get poured out, so it made sense when the third day it rained on and off all day and the fourth day, after we got up at 3:20AM to make it early into Machu Picchu was more of the same.
Me, hiking along, wearing the same clothes that I wore for 5 days straight.
We spent 1 night in Aguas Calientes, the touristy town at the base of Machu Picchu mountain that exists for tourist purposes and then ascended to Machu Picchu a second time on the 20th of January. We were pretty wiped out from all of the hiking by then but excited to see the sights. On the 21st we flew back to Buenos Aires and we are now here with my Mom, and tomorrow morning we are flying out to El Calafate, a southern city in Argentine Patagonia. More updates to come!
Oh yeah, a picture of our group in front of Machu PIcchu.
(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074799&id=1280460131) is the link to the first photo album and
(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074781&id=1280460131) is the link to the second photo album.
After my cruise I flew from Guayaquil to Lima, where I had a LOONNGG lay over waiting for my dad. He finally got into Lima and after taking care of the details we just hung out until 4AM when we could check our bags for our flight to Cusco, at 540AM. We spent 2 days in Cusco, exploring the city and the Incan ruins as well as getting accustomed to the altitude.. (10,860 ft). We took the opportunity to try out some of the local foods while we were in the area, my Dad had a pastry that was just flaky bun filled with dulce de leche called la lengua de la suegra (the mother in law's tongue) and then we shared a dish of guinea pig. Yup, thats right, they eat household pets in Peru, not really, they raise them to eat, and then on Sunday, the 16th we met up with our group at 4:30AM in order to head out on the Inca Trail Hike to Machu Picchu. We took a bus for a while and then stopped to eat breakfast before starting the trail. The first day we saw some Inca sights and got accustomed to carrying out packs on the up and down undulating terrain until the final two hours of our hike on day 1, when we started our ascent up to the highest summit on the trail. From where the ascent started it is a 6km hike up rocky, uneven, unrelenting mountainside. We had amazing porters (20 for our group of 14 hikers) who carried enormous packs. Our group was made up of my father and myself, the only Americans, 8 Canadians from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and then one couple from the Isle of White off of Britain and 1 couple from Sydney, Australia. Our guide Alex was a 43 year old Peruvian and the closest in age to my Dad, by far the oldest person we saw walking the trail.
One of the beautiful orchids that we saw along the way.
The second day saw a grueling 4 hour ascent to the first summit, a rapid descent losing half of the altitude that we had gained, and then a second ascent to the original height of the first peak. We then had a more leisurely descent and a stop at an Inca sight to break the afternoon hiking up. The first two days we had spectacular weather, no rain during the hiking hours but also not very hot and the sun was out but not scorching us.
Dad and Chris (one of the Canadians) descending a very steep staircase.
One of the coolest sights that we saw during the hike before arriving at Machu Picchu, this was a 5 minute walk from our camp on the third day.
January is one of the two rainiest months in Peru, and most people who chance hiking the trail then get poured out, so it made sense when the third day it rained on and off all day and the fourth day, after we got up at 3:20AM to make it early into Machu Picchu was more of the same.
Me, hiking along, wearing the same clothes that I wore for 5 days straight.
We spent 1 night in Aguas Calientes, the touristy town at the base of Machu Picchu mountain that exists for tourist purposes and then ascended to Machu Picchu a second time on the 20th of January. We were pretty wiped out from all of the hiking by then but excited to see the sights. On the 21st we flew back to Buenos Aires and we are now here with my Mom, and tomorrow morning we are flying out to El Calafate, a southern city in Argentine Patagonia. More updates to come!
Oh yeah, a picture of our group in front of Machu PIcchu.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Quick Update
puffer fish
penguins
white tipped reef shark
the group on my cruise after a hike
my roommate on the cruise, nicola (guess her age and I will tell you if you are even close)
sunset sailing
giant iguana
baby sea lion
giant tortise
the first island, south plaza
Addition, I am now bored out of my skin sitting in the Lima airport waiting for Peter as his flight was supposed to be arriving at this very moment but somehow got dealyed over one and a half hours when it was leaving Dallas. Blast the damn Texans.
Hello everybody, I am currently bored out of my skin sitting in a hostel in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Probably one of the most boring cities I have ever been to, as it is quite dangerous and I am not willing to wander around solo, plus I now need to be at the airport in two hours in order to head to Peru. I read a full book today, "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks and I can recommend it to anyone who like "The DaVincci Code" because it deals with an ancient Jewish codex and is quite well written. A little info on what I have been doing..
I left Colombia on the 3rd of January, or so I had planned. The airport in Cúcuta, the city I was staying in (remember..) was closed when my flight was supposed to leave for Bogotá because of the heavy rains that they were experiencing. The rains also happened to knock out the computer system so it was taking a minimum of 5X as long to check all of the passengers in, and I had a few hours waiting in line, probably two, before I actually checked my baggage. When I arrived in Bogotá the airline had someone waiting for me at the door on the plane and we legitimately sprinted for about a mile to the international check point but the line was realllly long and the woman who could have authorized us to skip the queue was apparently in a sour mood, so we just kind of stood there for a few minutes before he told me I missed the flight. This was at about 9:30PM and I was kind of flustered, having just ran all that way carrying a lot of things and being on my own in Bogotá with no clue what to do. The guy turned out to be really quite nice and the airline, COPA, had exceptional customer service. Since the 10:45PM flight from Bogotá to Guayaquil is the only one that runs on a daily basis through their airline I had to sit in a back room reading and listening to my ipod for almost two hours while they organized a morning flight that would bounce me through Panama City, Panama and then get me to Guayaquil relatively early in the day. Around 11:30 I finally got the airport hotel that the airline paid for me, and it was quite luxurious, so that was all great, as I had planned on spending the night in a $10 a night hostel in Guayaquil. I got a free steak dinner, but by that time of night I couldnt bring myself to eat a full meal, so I kind of just left my steak on the table and felt like a real waster. I woke up at 6:30 and headed back to the airport, and got some cool pictures of the Panama canal as we were landing, so the detour wasn't too bad all in all.
I spend 1 day and 1 night and then went to the airport quite early on the 5th in order to catch my flight to the Galapagos Islands, where I spent the next 8 days on a cruise ship with 6 crew members who didn't speak English, 1 bilingual guide, 2 Australians, 3 Scottish people, 3 people from London and 4 other Americans. It was quite a shock speaking so much English and I will update you all on the Galapagos when I have a change to put up my photos, because I can't really do it justice and I don't quite have the time at the moment. On Wednesday, or yesterday the 12th I flew back from Baltra airport in the Galapagos to Guayaquil, and spent yesterday and today insanely BORED OUT OF MY MIND. My flight to Peru tonight is at 730PM and my Dad won't get in until after 9:30 so I have a few hours of sitting around before he gets there. Then, after eh arrives we have an overnight in the Lima airport before our connection to Cuzco leaves around 5AM.
I will post photos after Peru once I am back in Argentina and have my computer. Hope you are all enjoying the start of 2011!
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