I put off posting for the last few days so that I get the last post while we are in South America. Unless Sarah puts one up in the next two hours, this is it. What an awesome trip. I love traveling like this: experiencing new things, pushing boundries, doing things never previously contemplated. Sarah has done a lot that neither of us thought that she would ever do... climbing a volcano for example, or eating a ridiculous amount of fried eggs. All in all, it has been fantastic. Also, the opportunity to share some of this experience (although at a much higher comfort level) with our parents and siblings was really nice.
The last week in South America:
We met Tristan in Arica and showed him around town, that was all covered in Sarah's post. We got on an overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama last wednesday for a few days of spending lots of money and going on cool tours around the desert and the antiplano. We arrived, after a wonderful (pill-induced) sleep on the bus, ready to conquer the desert. So for the first day, after grabbing some lunch, we joined a tour group out to the Valley of Death and Valley of the Moon. Wow. The valley and rock formations were unbelievable. There were also huge sand dunes for sandboarding (which we unfortunately did not do while in San Pedro) that we ended up running and rolling down. We caught the sunset in the Valley of the Moon and it was really beautiful.
We woke up the next morning at 4 AM to head out to the geysers. We were there for the sunrise and it was gorgeous. I felt a little altitude sickness since we went up more than 2000 meters in about 3 hours but it was still awesome. To see water shooting up out of the ground while the sun is coming up over the mountain tops immediately behind the geysers was something unbelievable. There were also natural hot springs that some people chose to swim in. We ate breakfast out there and made our way back to San Pedro relatively slowly, making various stops to see vicuñas, flamingos and traditional villages. We rested for the afternoon for the next day's adventure.
The next morning we got a small group tour with a Brazilian couple out to the salt lakes in the Atacama salt flat. We went swimming in the lakes and it was really cool to float in the extremely salty water. It was actually difficult not to float and it was a really odd sensation since it was so different from all my other experiences in water. The salt flats were awesome, whiteness stretching out into the desert and the water was still enough that clear reflections of ourselves and the mountains could be seen really easily. We got a great lunch at the last lake of olives, cheese, salami, crackers and wine, all included in our little private tour.
After that indulgence, we got on the evening bus headed toward Santiago. We got off the bus the next day in La Serena to hang out for a couple of hours. We checked out the archeology museum that we missed our first time through, spent some time in the market, and met a really cool old lady who was selling a bunch of leftist documentaries, movies and music made about and after the coup here in Chile. We then got back on a later bus and made our way back to Santiago.
We have been in Santiago for the last few days, trying to make the most of our time here. Since we hadn't really seen the city much, we did a lot of sightseeing. We went to La Moneda (the presidential palace) and checked out the civic center below it. We went to the Salvador Allende museum which is definitely one of the top 5 museums that we have seen this trip. We walked around Bellavista and ate good food and drank good wine. We went on winery tours at Cousiño-Macul and at Concha Y Toro, both of which were rather touristy, but good to see since Tristan had never been to a winery before. And we hung out at the house and relaxed after 2 weeks of really long bus rides and moving around a lot in Northern Chile.
Everyone here has been so awesome to us. Starting in Ecuador with Ricardo's family, the hospitality has been incredible and we owe our good time spent here to the families that put us up and helped us out. Also, thanks again to our parents who first agreed to this trip and for helping make it possible. And finally, the people that we met around South America made for some great company and good stories. I really hope to do this again in the not too distant future. It is sad to go home, but I have to get back to school and Sarah needs a job. So it goes.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Living in the desert
We've been in northern Chile for quite a few days now, and it is without a doubt way different than the rest of this crazy country. Everything is desert, so while our bus rides (which are extremely long since towns are quite a ways away from each other) have not offered the most exciting scenery, it's pretty cool to see the land stretch on and on for kilometers. That being said, it's extremely hot, and the sun is killer.
We stayed in Iquique for a couple of days but weren't too impressed by it. The beach was pleasant enough, though a bit too crowded. We weren't the lazy beach bums we had hoped to be since the sun is brutal on the skin after just 2 hours (even with SPF 60). Thankfully, there is a really great pedestrian street, Baquedano, that leads to the main plaza and is host to fun restaurants and bars. It's pretty quaint, with the old trolley tracks still in place, an out-of-use trolley car sitting patiently on the street, and cobblestone. The rest of the town is a bit more rough-and-tumble, so Eben and I were perfectly content to spend most of our time around Baquedano.
Arica, which is at the very top of Chile, is a bit more gratifying. The beach here is small but clean, and even though we only went there briefly yesterday, I liked it way better than Iquique. We're staying at a friendly hostel outside of the center, so it's a bit of a hike to get anywhere. The people are wonderful, though, so it's worth it. On Monday Eben and I went down to the fish market to see the massive sea lions twirling in the water waiting for fish to be thrown down to them. It's the closest we've ever gotten to sea lions, so we were able to really appreciate how big these guys are. The market is also close to the main plaza, so we checked out the town's church (constructed entirely out of iron and designed by Eiffel) and the old Customs building. Yesterday morning we went to the archeological museum, which has fantastic artifacts from the
civilizations that used to inhabit the area thousands of years ago. On display are four very interesting Chinchorro mummies. The bodies are essentially emptied of their organs (even the brain!) and covered in mud. I've read that sometimes even the skin was removed (I wouldn't want that job). The climate is so extremely dry and hot here that they are really small from dehydration, yet otherwise greatly preserved. They're also the oldest examples of mummifications, predating Egyptian mummies by thousands of years. Pretty cool! After the museum we checked out the nearby geoglyphs, which were a bit anticlimactic. Oh well.
Later in the afternoon, Tristan arrived! He has been in Perú with his dad, conquering the Peruvian Amazon and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Hearing him talk about it has made me pretty jealous, I'll admit, so I have a feeling that Eben and I will be returning to Perú in the near future (maybe when I get a real job! woo!!!) to cover that territory. At any rate, it's nice to have Tristan with us, and I'm sure Eben is happy to have a boy around after being trapped with me for the past five months. :) We gave Tristan the tour of Arica today, returning to the museum and plaza and all of that. We leave tonight for San Pedro. The bus ride is about 12 hours long (overnight), so we will hopefully arrive around 10 in the morning. The buses have been pretty hot and sweaty up here in the North, as few have windows that open, and the crew neglects to turn on the air. I truly believe these people are sadists.
Sooooo, in conclusion, northern Chile is pretty interesting after having seen the rest of the country. We've done glaciers, vineyards, lakes, and now desert. What a crazy country! The downside to the North is that bus tickets are crazy expensive (I won't even reveal how many times I've had to withdraw large amounts from the ATM in the past week, but use your imagination. Yes, it's that bad.) since distances are so long and bus companies can charge whatever they want. It's cruel, yes. Overall this region doesn't have too much to offer, though it really is a cool experience. San Pedro is the adventure center of the North, so I think we'll have more fun when we get there.
And on a side note, did anyone else know that Bolivia now requires U.S. citizens to apply for a visa? It's nuts. $100, plus passport-sized photos against a red background, proof of "sufficient funds," proof that you have somewhere to stay... and you can only enter the country a maximum of 3 times per year, and the total stay cannot exceed 90 days. It's so frustrating!!! I understand this is reciprocity, that the United States does the exact things to Bolivians, but it's still frustrating. Mostly the 90-day thing. As it was when Eben and I were there, you could ask for a 90-day tourist stamp, cross the border into a neighboring country on Day 90, and go right back for another 90 days. No more, my friends, no more. These new laws won't stop me from returning to Bolivia in the future, but it's just a big pain. But ultimately, the United States deserves it. Chile charges $100 to U.S. citizens arriving in the country by plane, Brazil charges about $200 in visa fees, and now Bolivia. Listening to the stories we heard over breakfast this morning from some non-U.S. travelers, I conclude that our country sucks. The amount of red tape and inane requirements for visas, green cards, etc. is disgusting. It shouldn't be such a stupid process. Yet it is, and that's why Bolivia is now doing this. I consider moving to a different country more and more seriously every day.
And on that anti-patriotic, slightly vitriolic note, I'm off. :) Happiness!
We stayed in Iquique for a couple of days but weren't too impressed by it. The beach was pleasant enough, though a bit too crowded. We weren't the lazy beach bums we had hoped to be since the sun is brutal on the skin after just 2 hours (even with SPF 60). Thankfully, there is a really great pedestrian street, Baquedano, that leads to the main plaza and is host to fun restaurants and bars. It's pretty quaint, with the old trolley tracks still in place, an out-of-use trolley car sitting patiently on the street, and cobblestone. The rest of the town is a bit more rough-and-tumble, so Eben and I were perfectly content to spend most of our time around Baquedano.
Arica, which is at the very top of Chile, is a bit more gratifying. The beach here is small but clean, and even though we only went there briefly yesterday, I liked it way better than Iquique. We're staying at a friendly hostel outside of the center, so it's a bit of a hike to get anywhere. The people are wonderful, though, so it's worth it. On Monday Eben and I went down to the fish market to see the massive sea lions twirling in the water waiting for fish to be thrown down to them. It's the closest we've ever gotten to sea lions, so we were able to really appreciate how big these guys are. The market is also close to the main plaza, so we checked out the town's church (constructed entirely out of iron and designed by Eiffel) and the old Customs building. Yesterday morning we went to the archeological museum, which has fantastic artifacts from the
civilizations that used to inhabit the area thousands of years ago. On display are four very interesting Chinchorro mummies. The bodies are essentially emptied of their organs (even the brain!) and covered in mud. I've read that sometimes even the skin was removed (I wouldn't want that job). The climate is so extremely dry and hot here that they are really small from dehydration, yet otherwise greatly preserved. They're also the oldest examples of mummifications, predating Egyptian mummies by thousands of years. Pretty cool! After the museum we checked out the nearby geoglyphs, which were a bit anticlimactic. Oh well.Later in the afternoon, Tristan arrived! He has been in Perú with his dad, conquering the Peruvian Amazon and the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Hearing him talk about it has made me pretty jealous, I'll admit, so I have a feeling that Eben and I will be returning to Perú in the near future (maybe when I get a real job! woo!!!) to cover that territory. At any rate, it's nice to have Tristan with us, and I'm sure Eben is happy to have a boy around after being trapped with me for the past five months. :) We gave Tristan the tour of Arica today, returning to the museum and plaza and all of that. We leave tonight for San Pedro. The bus ride is about 12 hours long (overnight), so we will hopefully arrive around 10 in the morning. The buses have been pretty hot and sweaty up here in the North, as few have windows that open, and the crew neglects to turn on the air. I truly believe these people are sadists.
Sooooo, in conclusion, northern Chile is pretty interesting after having seen the rest of the country. We've done glaciers, vineyards, lakes, and now desert. What a crazy country! The downside to the North is that bus tickets are crazy expensive (I won't even reveal how many times I've had to withdraw large amounts from the ATM in the past week, but use your imagination. Yes, it's that bad.) since distances are so long and bus companies can charge whatever they want. It's cruel, yes. Overall this region doesn't have too much to offer, though it really is a cool experience. San Pedro is the adventure center of the North, so I think we'll have more fun when we get there.
And on a side note, did anyone else know that Bolivia now requires U.S. citizens to apply for a visa? It's nuts. $100, plus passport-sized photos against a red background, proof of "sufficient funds," proof that you have somewhere to stay... and you can only enter the country a maximum of 3 times per year, and the total stay cannot exceed 90 days. It's so frustrating!!! I understand this is reciprocity, that the United States does the exact things to Bolivians, but it's still frustrating. Mostly the 90-day thing. As it was when Eben and I were there, you could ask for a 90-day tourist stamp, cross the border into a neighboring country on Day 90, and go right back for another 90 days. No more, my friends, no more. These new laws won't stop me from returning to Bolivia in the future, but it's just a big pain. But ultimately, the United States deserves it. Chile charges $100 to U.S. citizens arriving in the country by plane, Brazil charges about $200 in visa fees, and now Bolivia. Listening to the stories we heard over breakfast this morning from some non-U.S. travelers, I conclude that our country sucks. The amount of red tape and inane requirements for visas, green cards, etc. is disgusting. It shouldn't be such a stupid process. Yet it is, and that's why Bolivia is now doing this. I consider moving to a different country more and more seriously every day.
And on that anti-patriotic, slightly vitriolic note, I'm off. :) Happiness!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
From the Lakes to the Desert
So it is 2008 and we are back on our own. As Sarah said, it was really nice to have our parents with us and we really enjoyed the holidays down in Puyehue. But it was time to move on to northern Chile and the new year. First stop: La Serena. We arrive on a Sunday and (big surprise) everything is closed except for the last tour of the year at the Mamalluca observatory. This part of Chile has nearly 340 clear nights per year so it is a prime location for astronomical research. The observatory that we visited was just for tourists though and all the tour guides are Chilean astronomers who also do their own research and everything. It was really cool, a beautiful night and really nice guide who explained lots of stuff about the stars, showing us constellations and planets, had us look through different telescopes of different magnitude and showed us some of his own work and some photographs that he has taken. And, since we are in the Pisco producing region of Chile, we finished the tour with our driver giving everyone in our van a pisco sour for the ride back to La Serena. The next day was New Years Eve and although the town was pretty busy in the morning, it was dead and closed by 8 PM when we wanted to have the last dinner of 2007. It was not a memorable dinner but the rest of the night was great. We hung out with a German guy and his Polish wife who both work for Adidas and an Austrian woman who accompanied us to the beach. With bottles of champagne in hand, we watched three fireworks displays similtaneously as 2007 became 2008. There was the really big one that was just to our right and that was put on by the city of La Serena and then there were two others in different spots along the horseshoe bay that encompassed a few cities. It was awesome and a great way to start the new year.
The next day we went to Copiapo, a cute town a few hours further north. Of course, not much was happening on the 1st, so we chilled in the plaza and walked around for the afternoon. The next day, we checked out the mineralogical museum, quite possibly the most comprehensive in Chile because this is a big mining area and the university here specializes in geology. It was pretty cool and again, the rest of the day was spent walking around and chilling out.
It is now the 3rd and we are in Antofagasta, the city that was hit by an earthquake in November (although it doesn't show it where we are staying). It is the major port here for exporting the minerals mined from northern Chile. Hence it is a bustling place with a mix of new buildings and historic customs houses and whatnot from the late 1800s.
I think that we may be going to a movie tonight at the brand new movie theater. Then tomorrow we move further north to another port town/surfer hangout called Iquique. Then we are meeting up with my brother again in a few days when he is done with the Inca Trail. Frankly, I am a little jealous that he is doing that and we didn't, but he has also been in school all semester, so whatever. It will be cool to see him again regardless. Until then...
The next day we went to Copiapo, a cute town a few hours further north. Of course, not much was happening on the 1st, so we chilled in the plaza and walked around for the afternoon. The next day, we checked out the mineralogical museum, quite possibly the most comprehensive in Chile because this is a big mining area and the university here specializes in geology. It was pretty cool and again, the rest of the day was spent walking around and chilling out.
It is now the 3rd and we are in Antofagasta, the city that was hit by an earthquake in November (although it doesn't show it where we are staying). It is the major port here for exporting the minerals mined from northern Chile. Hence it is a bustling place with a mix of new buildings and historic customs houses and whatnot from the late 1800s.
I think that we may be going to a movie tonight at the brand new movie theater. Then tomorrow we move further north to another port town/surfer hangout called Iquique. Then we are meeting up with my brother again in a few days when he is done with the Inca Trail. Frankly, I am a little jealous that he is doing that and we didn't, but he has also been in school all semester, so whatever. It will be cool to see him again regardless. Until then...
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