Fromage et Chocolat autour du monde

Fromage sans Chocolat

2009-09-18T10:44:00.000-07:00

(Sorry for the bad writing. Hana wasn't with me to type this last entry :)

A COUPLE MORE DAYS IN CUSCO: Adios, Rey del Pop

On June 25th the day after Hana left Michael Jackson died. In Peru, everybody was talking about it too.

The day Hana left "Inti Raymi", the Festival of the Sun, was happening.
The biggest of the Inca festivals celebrates the winter solstice on June 24th, attracting thousand of Peruvian and foreign visitors every year.
The ceremony was interesting but a little slow and only visible from far away. But the location, up in the Ruins of Saqsaywaman (Sexy Woman) overlooking Cusco, was beautiful,
Hana didn't miss too much. The most interesting part of this festival were the colorful parades happening everyday in the street the week preceding the Inti Raymi.

Dancing in the street video

We spent 2 more days in Cusco and did 2 instructive visits:

- "La Catedral" is joined with 2 other churches, Iglesia Del Triunfo and Iglesia de Jesus Maria. It is located on the main plaza, and outside of being a pretty building it also holds an impressive collection of colonial art. Most of the religious painting were created by local artists who integrated their own believes and specific Peruvian elements.
The virgin Marie is always painted in a big wide dress which represent a mountain, La Pacha Mama (Mother Earth).
In 'The Last Super", the food on the table is only composed of Peruvian fruits and a Guinea Pig replaces the sheep.
There are also an impressive Altar all made of silver from Potosi (Bolivia) and a black Jesus, El Senor de Los Tremblores (The Lord of the Earthquakes). the Earth quake of 1650 "miraculously" stopped after the people paraded with it.

- "Qurikancha" once the richest temple in the Inca Empire, was destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors and now forms the base of the colonial church and convent of Santo Domingo. It is amazing to see multi angle stones fit perfectly together.

We spent the rest of our time shopping for presents and drinking too much while listening to a cool Peruvian Band at "Km 0", a cool bar in the popular neighborhood of San Blas.

THE NAZCA LINES

After the insane journey from Arequipa to Cuzco we already had decided to go to Nazca with the most comfortable bus possible whatever the price was. So we did with Cruz del Sur.
During the 15 hours bus ride Kevin slept like a baby.
As we were getting closer to the coast, the landscape was so dry, hilly and treeless. The ocean was covered with fog.
According to plan, we would get of the bus in Nazca, jump onto a taxi and go straight to the airport for a half hour flight over the famous Nazca Lines (The lines were first discovered in1939 by the North American scientist Paul Kosok). But when we arrived in Nazca the sky was completely overcast. It was 9 am. There was no flight before the sky starts opening up. Yeah!
After being cheated into buying overpriced tickets and waiting for a couple hours we finally entered the 5 seater plane.

It was a pricey but a great experience. Not only because of seeing the lines for real but also because of the surrounding landscape, lunar like and covered with "strings" of water ways.
The line themselves were impressive and mysterious but smaller than I expected, my favorite being "The Hand" for its simplicity and probably its cartoony look.
Being confronted to those ancient artifacts reminded me of Bundi where we saw the prehistorical wall painting.

Nazca video

ROAD WARRIOR IN HUACACHINA

Nazca doesn't have much else to offer. So after landing, we headed for Huacachina, the oasis. On our way, we were passing through towns filled with half finished building and houses. We had not seen this poorer side of Peru yet.

Haucachina is an interesting place. An Oasis surrounded by gigantic Dunes. Once a popular and expensive resort, it is now ran down with broken sidewalks and destroyed buildings.
2 years ago it was hit by a powerful earthquake (8.4) which destroyed a big part of the oasis and the towns along the coast.
A long time ago it was a very popular place for rich people. But one day the water disappeared and people stopped coming. Then a crazy guy showed up and digged deeper into the ground and the water came back. Now the place is making a big come back.
When we arrived in Huacachina, we thought that the place was just an Oasis with a couple of gigantic Dunes around. What a spectacle it was when we reached the top and realised that we were surrounded by a sea of sand dunes going on forever in the horizon. So Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

The main attraction in Huacachina is sand boarding. I wanted to give it another try since the Argentinian experience wasn't so great.
So on our second day Kevin and I got onto a buggy for a great Sand boarding session.
I didn't know that sand boarding was only one part of the tour. The other half was actually riding the dunes like a roller coaster. This was so wrong on a environmental level but it was SO MUCH FUN!
It was like we were in the Road Warrior movie (Mad Max II) riding those crazy looking cars. I wonder if our driver really controlled everything...

videos:

Kevin's video 01

Kevin's video 02

Kevin's video 03

On our last day in Huacachina we made a quick visit to Paracas, little Islands of the coast filled with wild life and totally covered of bird poop( every 5 or 6 years they collect the guano to sell it as fertilizer). The amount of birds living there and the smell of their "left over" is impressive.
We also saw sea lions and funny looking penguins. This was probably the most touristy thing we did so far.

We really enjoyed Huacachina. We relaxed so much there, staying in bed late, then going for breackfast to "La casa de Bamboo" and relax some more. after we would walk around a little, go back to the guesthouse and sit by the pool. Finaly, we would hike up the dunes (our exercise of the day. Damn it is hard to walk in the sand!) and sit for a couple of hours to enjoy the amaizing view and the sunset over this magnifisant landscape.
This breack was much needed. Peru had been a little difficult. We enjoyed this country a lot but the protests and the constant lies made this part of the trip physicaly and mentaly demanding.

Looking back at it I think I liked travelling in asia better. The culture difference was stronger and also the crowd of traveller was older and more interresting. South America seemed to be filled mostly with very young travellers.

LIMA: Bye Bye Kevin!

Lima was a quick stop, a day and a half. I didn't see much of it and didn't really feel like it either. Just another big western looking city, modern and full of american chains, starbuck (Kevin tricked me into one, bad Kevin) , Macdonald, etc...
Lima was Kevin last stop before returning to San Francisco. At his arrival he would meet up with Hana for the annual camping trip to Yuba river.
So for our last evening together we went to see the best movie ever: Transformers 2!
What a piece of s... Sorry Kevin :) Kevin had worked on it between our trip in Laos and his return with us in Peru.
The whole evening felt like we were back in San Francisco. And knowing that it was his last day in Peru, I couldn't stop thinking of my own return. I was really scared of going back. Even if I was excited about seeing everyone again, I was also afraid to feel like this past year was just a beautiful dream, that it never really happened.

On July 2nd Kevin left. I had such a good time travelling with him again.
A bientot Monsieur Bell!

Adios Kevin's video

Now I was starting my trip alone. I was exited about spending the last 10 days on my own. It was going to be interresting... Well, I hoped. I didn't know what to expect. Finaly, I was getting out of the touristy path, the gringo trail or the coca cola trail like Ryse the owner of "La casa de Bamboo" called it.
Kevin was going back to SF, I was going back to the jungle.

PUERTO BERMUDEZ

After 9 hours in a night bus followed by another 9 hours butt cruching ride in a pickup I arrived in Puerto Bermudez.
All together it took me 19 hours to get there! Out of all the roads we used throughout this trip, this one was the hardest and the most physically demanding. For 9 hours in the 4 wheel drive pickup, we were constantly shacking and bouncing around going through rivers, muddy and rocky sections. Likely I was in the cabin, the people sitting outside in the back of the pickup were covered of dust.
The beautiful and relaxing the guesthouse "Albergue Humbolt"was so welcome! Between the house and the garden, the colors vary from brown to red, green, yellow and purple.

http://humboldthostal.blogspot.com

I was the only guest at the guesthouse and the only tourist in town.
The area reminded me a lot of Laos and Cambodia. The houses were made of wood and a lot are on stilt. The street are dusty or muddy. The air was hot and humid. I liked it!

Jesus, the owner of "Albergue Humbolt", is a Spanish man from Pampluna. He has lived in Puerto Bermudez for the past 12 years. Before settling there he was traveling all over South America for 20 years, writing books and making documentaries. He runs a radio show every week to educate the population and complain about the corruption in Peru. He seemed very disillusioned about Peru and Puerto Bermudez. Apparently when he moved there were buses and small planes coming. But the road slowly deteriorated and never was fixed. The same with the air strip. As the rest of the country seemed to be moving forward, Puerto Bermudez seemed to be moving backward.
As I was spending my first night alone in the little paradise of Albergue Humbolt listening to the loud crickets outside I was thinking of Hana, Kevin, Kelly and the WF girls spending 4th of July at the Yuba river. Happy 4th of July!

Everything is really basic there. All of the houses are made of wood. Of course there is no pavement on the road and the electricity is inconsistent. I felt really isolated and I liked it.
Everything is slow. Nothing ever happens on time. Tomorrow means a year later. As we learned since we arrived in Peru people only tell you what you want to hear :)
Like Jesus says, people there live to live/exist. They have no goals like us Occidentals who always need a purpose. Us who work, work, work to make money so we can get new things, useless things, the latest I pod or cellphone, a new car, just because.
Unlike us people there don't think of tomorrow. They don't plan the future. Too much work :)
I wonder who has a better life, us or them. It might be them. They take life as it comes, no worry , no stress. Bad things happen, they react (probably too late because, like Jesus says, they don't anticipate) and they move on.

I went to Puerto Bermudez to visit the Ashaninka communities of the Central Amazons. For 2 days I waited to see if other tourists would arrive to organise a 3 days tour and share the coast. Unfortunately no one showed up, probably because of new protests about to block transportation for few days again.
So on day 3 after 2 very nice days walking around the village hearing "Hey Gringo!" every once in a while, I decided to go alone and embarked onto a boat with Aquile, the guide, and his helper, a kid named Hugo. I would have to speak Spanish because no one spoke any English.
For 2 days we followed the river and stopped at villages along the way.
On the river we kept crossing other boats of locals, people fishing, kids hanging out on the river bank. Again this reminded me so much of Laos and Cambodia.
On the way, Aquile was fishing for lunch. The same way we did in Nong Kiaw back in Laos by throwing a circular net in the river. We caught only one fish and grabbed another killed by dynamite. Like in Cambodia, it seems that some locals don't bother and just blow up fishes and everything else around it.

Even if it gave us a second fish to eat Aquile was pretty pissed of by the use of dynamite. In every village we visited he would talk to the villagers and try to educate them about the issue and how it will benefit them to respect and take care of their own environment.
Aquile is really attached to the reforestation programs in the area and the respect of the nature. In each village there is a covered garden where small trees are growing. If I understood correctly the rule is for one tree cut ten are replanted.

People were a little shy with me and Aquile would always present me as a friend visiting communities. He was taking pictures for me so the villagers wouldn't mind, allowing me to really observe and have a better contact with the people.
They really live in the most basic accommodations. A simple hut, usually on stilt. Like in Cambodia and Southern Laos, people sleep in the walled upper part, and eat and socialize in the opened bottom part where it is cooler during the days.
There is no electricity or very little powered by small solar panel. But most of the people don't have one.
They don't have electricity but each village has a big soccer field :)
And some have a radio station. Radio is the way people are connected to each other, all along the river and deeper in the jungle. They use it make general and personal announcements, like Hana was doing to communicate her family who stayed in Sarajevo during the war.

If you look closely, you can notice that only 2 kids have shoes on. They are the teacher's kids.

People are really poor. The kids look really dirty. And families of 8 kids are so common that the entering each village it feels like only kids live there. Parents go to work and the oldest girl takes care of the rest of the "tribe". This was the case where we stayed for the night.
This stop overnight was the best part of the trip. We stayed in a simple house of 8 kids from one single family. The parents were not around and never showed up ( I guess they were stuck somewhere else). I spent the evening talking to Aquile and playing soccer with the kids. We listened to music from the batteries powered radio. The girls were dancing and made me dance for about one minute (an exploit! ). They were so fascinated by my little Spanish/English dictionary that I ended up improvising a mini English class with 3 of them.
At the end of the trip I gave my dictionary to Hugo who loved looking into it. He was learning English at school butt didn't have a dictionary, too expensive for him.
After a night sleeping like everybody else on bare wooden floor we left this friendly little family to visit a couple more villages and a school before returning to Puerto Bermudez.

Each village elects a chief that wear traditional clothes only for meeting with the others communities chiefs and special events. If we had ventured deeper in the jungle we could have visited communities who still wear traditional clothes and almost don't speak Spanish.

When I came back to "Albergue Humbolt" my ankles were covered with red spots made by microscopic insects which crawled under my skin...

...And the house was full, 3 girls (2 Spanish, 1 germ an) and a Peruvian engineer. It was really nice to spend 2 more days with everybody. After 6 days I said goodbye to crazy Jesus (we are still in touch) and Puerto Bermudez to go spend the few days I had left on the coast.

Puerto Bermudez was such a highlight of my trip in Peru. The whole experience of getting to this isolated place being almost alone amid the locals, having no choice than to use the little Spanish I knew, and meeting Jesus, Aquile and those communities brought me closer to the people and the reality of the country.
Hana would have liked it too. Traveling without her was weird at first. We had been together 24 hours 7 days a week for the past 10 months. We had such a good time together. It felt strange to be separated. But in the same time it was very exiting.
It was a really different experience, a lot more internal. On one end it was more simple because decisions are more spontaneous, but on the other I was missing sharing those experiences and feelings with Hana sometimes.
But I loved this part of the trip. I was new, different, and I would love to redo it again one day.

SURFING IN HUANCHACO

After another butt crushing pickup ride from Puerto Bermudez to La Merced where I waited 6 hours for another 8 hours overnight trip to Lima, I jumped onto a fancy bus to travel 9 more hours up the coast to finally arrive at my very last destination: Totally foggy and overcast Huanchaco, a little fisherman village turned mini Surf resort.

So much for the sunny and warm beach time before the frightening return :)
There, I met up with Pedro (from South Africa), a fellow traveller with whom I did the descent of the infamous Death Road.
Surfing is the main attraction, but the other specificity of Huanchaco are the narrow reed boats the fishermen have been using for 2000 year. I is possible to ride them and go fishing, but Pedro and I had so much fun surfing and body boarding we skipped it.
(I couldn't surf because of a bad pain on my ribs cause by a beautiful fall surfing in the sand dunes of Huacachina, broken rib?)

Even if the sun and the blue sky were not there I didn't regret having gone there. Pedro was a really nice guy to hang out and surf with.
The waves were small but so clean, regular and so long that each ride lasting forever. I had so much freaking fun and adrenaline rushes playing cat and mouse with the waves. AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRrrr.....SO GOOD!!!!
I envied Pedro who was traveling for 4 more months. I wished I could have kept going to surf with him along the Peruvian coast up to Ecuador. This will be another trip ;)
Peru wasn't the easiest country to finish with, but I ended these extended vacation on a good note. Like Bolivia Peru has so much to offer, so much history, so many different and beautiful landscapes.

On July 12th I said goodbye to Pedro and took the bus back down to Lima.
That was it. On Monday the 13th of July 2009 at 10:15 pm I left Peru.

What an awesome year this was. The best time of my life so far...

Chocolat and the long way to Cusco

2009-09-11T04:13:00.000-07:00

AREQUIPA

On June 12th we left Bolivia and headed towards Arequipa, Peru. We were thinking about leaving the night before but due to protests in Peru, the border was closed...
The bus trip from Copacabana to Arequipa via Puno was pretty smooth. We only had a bit of stress at the border when Miko had to switch passports again. Likely, the Peruvian border officer stamped his American passport even though the exit stamp from Bolivia was in his French passport. Easy, breezy.

We arrived to Arequipa at night and immediately looked for a micro to take us to the center. A nice woman gave us directions and welcomed us by saying: "Do not talk to anyone!"
When we got off the micro, the streets were so busy with people and traffic. It was very loud and disorienting. We hate arriving in new places at night, especially in a busy city, it is always stressful.

We did not like the small and overpriced room we stayed at the first night ("Home Sweet Home" rec. by Lonely Planet). So the next morning we moved to a much nicer and cheaper place "Hospedaje Samana Wasi". Following the Lonely Planet recommendation, we always end up in busy and expensive places, when there are often much nicer and cheaper options next door (not listed in any guide books).

The next morning we realized that the center of Arequipa, especially the main plaza, is really beautiful. All of the buildings are made of white volcanic stone called sillar. Hovering in the background, above the city, is the still active volcano Misty.

Arequipa was also our meeting point with Mr. Kevin Bell. We had such a good time traveling together in Laos, and were happy to have him with us again. Quickly, it felt like he had never left us, and with him, we enjoyed the pretty Arequipa and the good food they have there.
We visited the "Santuarios Andinos Museum" to see Juanita, the Ice Princess. Like the Maiden in Salta, she was an Inka child sacrificed to the mountain. She was discovered in 1995. The visit to the museum was not as impressive as in Salta, but it was very informative. The guide clarified that the children were killed by a blow in the head while they were unconscious. Also, the reason why some of the mummies were hit by lightning was due to the large amount of metal and gold objects buried with them.

The main attraction in Arequipa is the visit to Santa Catalina Monastery. This Dominican monastery was founded by a wealthy widow, Dona Mariade Guzman, in 1579. At that time, it was a custom among wealthy Spanish families, that the second daughter or son enter the religious service. The daughters from these rich families were sent to this monastery at the age of 13 or 14. First 1-3 years they were not allowed to speak to anyone and their family had to pay 100 gold coins to the convent. After, the girls had a choice either to become nuns and spend the rest of their lives here, or to get married. If they decided to stay (to save the honor of the family), the family had to pay 1000 cold coins, about $50,000 now. However, in this privileged convent each nun had her own house and between one and four servants, depending on the wealth of the family.

It was like a city inside the city. The nuns had no contact with the outside world and nobody was allowed in. This "lifestyle" remained for about 300 years with almost 400 women living in the monastery. In 1871, the Pope Pius IX sent astrict Dominican nun to straighten things out. Most of the nuns have left and some servants became nuns. The remaining nuns were stripped down of all the luxury, from then on, they had to prepare food, cook, clean and share sleeping quarters.
Finally in the 1970, the monastery became open to the public. After centuries of mystery, people were allowed to go inside and visit.
Only 30 nuns remain living there.

THE COLCA CANYON

Everybody who visits Arequipa also hikes down to the Colca Canyon. Until recently it was considered the deepest canyon in the world. Twice deeper than the Grand Canyon.
After a 6 hour bumpy, but very scenic bus ride, we arrived in Cabanaconde, the starting point of our 2 day trek in the canyon. The hike was way better than expected. The landscape around was stunning and the locals we encountered very nice. except for this ass-hole farmer who tried to poke Miko's butt with a stick thinking that he was taking a photo of him when for once he was not.

*We crossed paths with some locals and Miko was able to take this photo because we gave them a bottle of water.

We have spent the night in a tiny village, San Juan de Chuccho, on the bottom of the canyon at Hospedaje Gloria. A pretty place which we had almost to ourselves (5 soles for the room, 5 soles for dinner, 5 soles for breakfast = $5 total...10 soles for beer :)
The next morning, we hiked 2 hours to the Oasis, the main tourist attraction in the canyon. It was a nice break to jump in the pool (and eat the worst spaghetti ever), before hiking up for another 3 hours. We had dinner in Cabanaconde and took the 9pm bus to return to Arequipa at 4:30am! Our schedule was tight because Hana was leaving in a week. Our plan was to leave the same evening by another night bus to Cusco, then go on a 4 day trek to Machu Pichu. Little did we know what awaited us...

So far, we felt like South America was very easy to travel. Everything was going smooth since we arrived in Buenos Aires. Border crossings have been fairly easy, no bad experiences with scammers or mafia.
As we were having these thoughts everything changed...

THE DEATH MARCH: Robbery, Barricades and Losing Kevin

Still in Arequipa, on June 17th at 5 pm we found out that the bus to Cusco was canceled due to the road blocks.
The next morning the road was still blocked so we spent the day looking for alternative ways.
In the end we went to the bus station and heard of another option: take a bus to Secuani (where the road block was, 150 kms away from Cusco), cross it on foot (30 minutes), and on the other side there would be transportation to Cusco.
Few buses were leaving. At 7:15 pm we decided to go for it. The bus was leaving at 8pm! Kevin and Miko jumped in a taxi back to the hospedaje (in the middle of the rush hour) to pick up our backpacks, while Hana was buying tickets and waiting nervously for their return.

Somehow they made it back on time. To our surprise the bus was comfortable. It seemed to be a good start. We were excited and betting on the time when we would arrive in Cusco: 7am, 7:30am, 8am, the winner would get free beer in the evening.

We left Arequipa at 9pm and arrived in Sicuani at 6am. It was day light. There was a line of buses and trucks in front of us. The road block was up ahead and we started walking towards it. It was Hana, Kevin, Miko and Jonah (another US traveler we met on the bus).
After about 10 minutes we arrived at the road block - a pile of rocks in the middle of the road and 20-30 people standing around wrapped in blankets. We were a little nervous.
We passed around them and continued toward Secuani. The town looked deserted, no cars on the road, just a few tuc-tucs. We asked one guy how to get to Cusco and he didn't really know. It was clear that it was not going to be the way we were expecting it. They had lied to us in Arequipa.

Ultimately we got on one tuc-tuc who took us to the next village 10 km away, where we would walk for another kilometer and finaly find transportation to Cusco.
After 6-7 kms the driver suddenly stopped in the middle of the road and told us to get off. He looked scared and almost left without his pay.
Down the road was another road block, black smoke,... and a group of men running, then throwing rocks at the tuc-tuc!
WTF! What did we get ourselves into?!
We understood quickly that the anger wasn't directed at us but the drivers making money out of the situation.
At that point we had no choice, no turning back, so we kept going. We walked over the next barricade to the next village at the horizon, then another road block, another village, and on and on. No cars anywhere in sight. Sometimes we would find a motorbike for 2-3 kms, then another tuc-tuc, a kid pushing a tricycle... Everyone would give us a different answer when we asked about how to get to Cusco: 5 more kms and there is transportation, then 20 more kms, we even heard 60 kms which we simply didn't want to believe. We just kept walking, hours going by.
At about 1pm we arrived at yet another village, tired and hungry. At this point we were hearing the name "Chuki" a lot. That's where there was supposed to be transportation to Cusco. Two more hours they said, but after asking people coming from the opposite direction, we heard that Chuki wasn't the next village but the one after. There was no end to it.
One local lady was apologetic saying that not all Peruvians are crazy and stubborn.
Entering the last village felt a little like finishing a marathon. So many people were sitting on the side of the road, greeting us, offering food and telling us that we were almost done. Only 2 more hours to walk!

We couldn't do it anymore. We were determined to find a motorbike for this last stretch.
Soon this kid showed up, telling us he would take Hana and I to Chuki. We got on his bike (the driver, the 2 of us, our big backpacks plus 2 small ones) and left, assuming that Kevin and Jonah would find another bike.
But we didn't go very far. The kid stopped after a few minutes. He looked scared. Ahead a group of protesters had just arrived and started to run down the road, slashing tires of bikes, tricycles, everything. We were fucked! We only had 8 kms left and the road was completely blocked.
Miko left me by the road to go look for Kevin and Jonah back in the village. It was 5pm. The sun was going down, when Miko came back alone. We had no idea where they were.
We were stuck and we had lost Kevin. Resigned, we walked back to the village to spend the night and try to cross the last stretch of barricades at 4 the next morning. Then we saw 3 Australian guys we met earlier on the road, followed by 3 more tourists. We were just talking, figuring out what to do when a red pick-up showed up. The driver said he will take us all to Chuki. Six people in the cabin, six in the back sitting on a pile of backpacks.
We didn't believe we were going to get through the road blocks, but somehow our driver managed, sweet talked the protesters and even gave them a ride. We were all packed up in the back. The protesters holding on to what they could, with the tools for slashing tires in their hands.
We made it through to Chuki!
The bus to Cusco was ready to leave any minute, but we could not find Kevin and Jonah. It was pitch black, no place to stay, we had to keep going, hoping they were already in Cusco.
Two hours later we arrived in Cusco where an email from Kevin was waiting for us. They had made it through right before the protesters closed the road. The nightmare was over.
Except, in the middle of it all, we realized that Miko and I have been robbed on the bus while sleeping. They took our cell phone, $200, Miko's G-9 camera and I-pod.
This was by far the craziest and most difficult day of our trip. We started walking at 6am and arrived in Chuki at 6pm, about 40km (23 miles). Not what we had imagined for Hana's last week in Peru. At least we have a new story to tell :)

Kevin's great video diary:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmbell/3728049988/in/set-72157621431866901/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmbell/3730787514/in/set-72157621431866901/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmbell/3730815162/in/set-72157621431866901/

CUSCO

When we arrived in Cusco, we were exhausted and sore. Miko carried easily over 20kg on his back.
We appreciated being here. The city is beautiful, even if it smells like pee! It appears, that for the local men, the streets are public toilets.
The festival of the sun (Inti Raimi) was happening on the 24th, but the week preceding it was full of events. Parades every day with colorful costumes, dance and giant figures.
Cusco might be the most beautiful city we have seen in South America. Built on hills and full of interesting architecture. It is very touristy, but we did not mind it. On the main plaza we were constantly approached by women yelling: "Massage, massage". After what we have been through, it was welcomed. Hana got us a deal at $5 an hour.
In Cusco we stayed at a simple, friendly and informative guest house "Estrellita".

MACHU PICHU

After one day in Cusco, Machu Pichu was next. Our plan was "very simple". In order to reach Aguas Calientes (town below Machu Pichu), we would take a 5h bus to Santa Maria, then a mini-van to Hidroelectrica (Hydro Electric plant), and from there hike 2h to Aguas Calientes following the train tracks.
To make it in one day we had to leave early. So we bought tickets for the bus supposedly leaving at 7:30 am but at 8:45 am we still have not left Cusco. We were pissed off and tired of people lying to us.
Finally, we reached Santa Maria at 2pm, found a taxi to take us up a steep, windy, and unpaved road on the edge of a cliff. The taxi was supposed to take us all the way to Hidroelectrico. But midway, in Santa Teresa, because of territorial issues between the local drivers, we had to change to a mini-van. It can never be simple in Peru.
In the end, we arrived to Hydroelectrica early enough to walk to Aguas Calientes, before dark.
After the previous few days of crazy travel and frustration, this walk along the train tracks at sunset was like a gift from the gods. peaceful and beautiful.
We didn't know it as we walked through this valley, but the mountaintop ruins of Machu Picchu loomed directly above us the whole time.

The next day we would visit the the lost Inca city of Machu Pichu, discovered accidentally by the American historian Hiram Bingham in 1911.
There is not much more to say except that the Machu Pichu was one of the main highlights of our trip. A fantastic day. It was an adventure to get there but it was worth it. We were glad Hana could finish her 10 months adventure on such a high note.
We started at 4:30 am and walked up the 2 kms stair way to the entrance. Still wet from this pretty intense workout we entered Machu Pichu and headed straight to Wayna Pichu, the hill on the other side of the ruins. Only 400 people are allowed daily. We stayed up there enjoying the view for about 2 hours and almost had to kill Jonah who would not shut up.
We spent the rest of the day exploring Machu Pichu, taking millions of pictures, and hopping from one guided tour to another for free information :) It was 3 pm when we hiked back down to Aguas Calientes. We had spend 9 amazing hours in Machu Pichu!
More than the actual beauty of the ruins, it is this spectacular location (high up on top of a mountain), which makes the Machu Pichu such a special place.
We finished this amazing day by soaking in the natural hot springs, Aguas Termales.

Pepe au MachuPichu

Hana was leaving the next day. To be safe we returned by train to Ollantaytambo, then took the fastest taxi ever (110km/h through villages with a speed limit of 30km/h) back to Cusco. For the first time the driver was not lying when he told us that it would only take 1h 20 minutes to get back to Cusco.
1h16 minutes later we arrived in Cusco. The rest of the day was all about relaxing, last minute shopping, and goodbye clubbing.

Then on June 24th, we woke up at 5am, a little hangovered, to go to the airpport.
And even on the day of Hana's departure, things couldn't go smoothly. The plane was 5 hours delayed.

After a couple hours chatting, drinking coffee and joking around we kisses each other goodbye.
We had spent the last 10 months together, 24hours, 7 days a week. We had made it through without killing each other. I guess that says something :)

Bye, Bye Chocolat! See you in 3 weeks.

Hana's last thoughts:
I am not sad to leave because I got really tired during the past week. I don't want to make any more travel plans for a while. Don't want to read guid books, or look for places to sleep and eat. I am especially tired of transportation.

I realized that I became overly suspicious and mistrustful of everyone and everything in Peru, mainly because of the past few days.

I will miss the freedom we had on this trip. The time to do what we want, go where we want or just do nothing.

I will have to write about this whole experience and how it affected me later. It's too close right now. Need to wait for some time to pass, so the feelings and impression can settle down.

Welcome to the land of bowler hats - part 03

2009-08-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

LA PAZ

In the capital of Bolivia (the highest capital in the world), we stayed at "Alojamiento El Solario", cheap place with good location, free internet and an uninviting room.
In short, La Paz looks pretty run down, with dirty streets, ugly architecture, crazy chaotic traffic, but somehow it was more fun to walk around here than in the super clean and white Sucre.
It was fascinating to see so many traditionally dressed women (cholas) in a big city. The big skirts that make them look wide, their knitted sweaters, and bowler hats (chapeau melon). Which you don't attach with pins but balance on your head. In La Paz these hats are taller, and the cholas look a lot rounder, like Russian dolls.

The Capital is a big city with character and many things to visit.
The two visits that stand out: Museo de Instrumentos - has an incredible collection of instruments from all over Bolivia and the world. Worth the visit.
Visit to the "Museo de la Coca" was a lot more informative, we have spent a couple of hours just reading about coca, its history, use and abuse.
Interesting facts:
- South American indigenous groups used coca leaves for over 4500 years.
- Chewing of coca leaves is called - "acullico".
- Effects of chewing coca leaves: a) provides increased tolerance for work, b) stimulates the respiratory centers. It does not increase the capacity of the lungs but it helps absorb more oxygen (by dialating the bronchioles) no matter what the lung capacity is. c) lowers the risk of thrombosis by inhibiting the build-up of platelets. d) helps regulate the level of insulin in blood.
In the beginning the Spanish colonialists forbade the chewing of coca leaves and called it devil's product. But when they realized that it helped people work more, increasing production, they allowed it and even payed miners in Potosi in coca leaves. At some point, the coca leaves were as valuable as gold.

As in every other city, we went to a view point. La Paz spreads around the surrounding hills and it seems to be expanding rapidly. The fascinating thing is that the houses look unfinished and blend (color-wise) into the grayness of the hills. If they would paint them all in very bright colors, it would look like Lego land.

The traffic in La Paz is crazy, but it has the most efficient public transportation. You never wait more than a minute to catch a micro (little mini-van) to any destination you want. They are easy to spot when the driver's assistant, hanging at the window or in the doorway, yells the destinations.

At our hostal Miko met a Japanese guy who did not have such a good experience in La Paz. He was in a taxi when two men pretending to be tourist police stopped the car and demanded to see his papers. The taxi driver must have been working with them. They searched his bag and stole his passport and money. Classic example of one of the main scams in Bolivia - fake tourist police.

After two days in La Paz, Miko biked down the Death Road, while Hana took the bus to meet him in Coroico, 3 hours away.

DEATH ROAD (by Miko)

Yeah! I am so Bad-ass, I did the Death Road! YEAH!
Well, there is a new road now, meaning the famous most dangerous road in the world (over 150 death per year) is not so dangerous anymore. There is no more traffic or very little. The road is now a big tourist attraction where people (like me) ride down for 60 kms all the way to Coroico.
It was still a great way to appreciate the dramatic landscape around. It reminded me of the Milford Sound in New Zealand. And riding it you can easily see how dangerous the road was when it was used. I can't imagine 2 trucks crossing without one falling off the cliff, in some places a 300 meters straight drop.
People still die on this road every year though. Mostly they are intrepid young tourists who miss a curve going down way too fast, like the british kid who fell off a week earlier.
The only real effort we had to make was to climb over a huge land slide covering the road. Seeing it I remembered noticing all those houses built on a soft ground all over the hill sides in La Paz. After I asked our guide about it, he told me that landslides happen all the time in the Capital. There must be an entire neighborhood sliding down at once sometimes.
Anyway, even if the ride wasn't as crazy as i thought it would be, I had a good time and arrived in Coroico in one piece, even if I almost lost it at one point.

During the entire day I couldn't remember if I had given my other camera to Hana...

COROICO

On Saturday May 31st Miko went on his Death Road bike ride and I went to Coroico, cute little town 3 hours away from La Paz. It was the first time on this trip that we separated.
I picked a place to stay, called "Sol y Luna", from the guide book. It was high up in the hills above the village. It took me over half an hour to get there, all sweaty, carrying bags. I knew that even if I didn't like the room that I would take it. Could not imagine walking back down with the backpack. Luckily, the place was beautiful, surrounded by bamboo and palm trees, overlooking the forest and the mountain across.
Few hours later, I went back down to the village to meet Miko. The first thing he asked me: "Do you have my G-9 camera?". I did not have it so he figured that he must have left it under the mattress in the room in La Paz. All freaked out, he decided to get on the next mini-van back to La Paz, and he left me his big backpack and put me in the taxi. I did not get far because the driver now demanded more money. I got so angry, cursing, yelling at him in Bosnian, pocking him with a finger. He left me back in the village, and I had to walk all the way up to Sol y Luna, carrying 20-kg on my back. I guess the anger boiling inside gave me strength to hike up those hills for the second time.
Miko returned from La Paz the next morning, without camera. Then he looked in my bag (just in case) and in his big backpack that he left with me and guess what - it was there! He went to La Paz for nothing. N'importe quoi Mickael!!!

Ouai n'importe quoi! Well at least I got to go to ze movies ("The Changeling" by Clint Eastwood) and it was interesting to be separated for a day after spending 24 hours, 7 days a week together for the past 9 months. We did not mind it ;)

After this little drama, we enjoyed being in Coroico. It was nice to see green again after a month of dry landscape and two weeks of freezing cold. The next day we were leaving for Rurrenabaque in the Bolivian Amazons. Fuck the cold! Viva la jungle!

* One interesting thing about Coroico is that there is a high number of black people there. They are descendants of the African slaves brought to Bolivia by Spanish to work in the Potosi mines. They came probably about 300-400 years ago. It was surprising to see older black ladies dressed in the traditional chola outfits with their curly hair forced into short, little braids.

RURRENABAQUE

Because of the rain, the planes were not flying to Rurre (Rurrenabaque) so we had to take an unwanted bus for 15 hours in order to get there.
To our surprise, the road we used was actually a continuation of the Death Road. Unpaved, narrow, windy, and with NO safety ramps. We were centimeters away from falling hundreds of meters down into the river. It was definitely more dangerous on the bus than on a mountain bike. At least the scenery was beautiful, waterfalls everywhere. It reminded us of the North Laos: high and green mountains with little, dusty villages along the road, on the edge of disappearing down the cliff.

We arrived in Rurre at 5am. Somehow we managed to sleep through 15 hours of this bumpy, music blasting, crowded ride with people standing in the aisles. The round belly of a chola was rubbing against Miko's shoulder while her armpit was hovering above his face. Hmmmm, sexy!

It felt like we were back in Asia. Rurre was a cute, lush, green, warm, little town. Almost everyone is riding a motorcycle, even old ladies, and not many cholas.
On our walk through the town, we encountered two funny parrots, sitting on a roof of a house, chatting and mimicking our laughter.
In Rurre we booked a tour to visit the pampas (wetlands) and the jungle for 5 days total. We picked the wrong company for this tour: Indigena Tours - recommended by Lonely Planet, overpriced, overcrowded dormitory, insufficient food and bad transportation.
Despite all that, we had a great time mainly because our guide Jaime was great. He has been working as a guide for 12 years and loves what he is doing. During our three day pampas tour, we did:
- alligator spotting at night (looking for the two yellow eyes in the dark, but enjoying the full moon and the sounds at night was the best)
- searching for anacondas in the marshes (our guide caught one 2m long, we did not enjoy seeing it passed around by tourists for pictures)
- swimming with pink river dolphins ("supposedly" there are no alligators in the area where they are...)
- pirana fishing (Miko caught a red, assassin pirana while Hana caught many branches and the smallest fish ever, not even a pirana)
We loved being in the boat, going up and down the river Beni and spotting animals all around: alligators, pink dolphins, turtles, anacondas, monkeys (yellow and capuchin), capybaras (the largest rat in the world), and so many birds of all shapes, colors and size. All you had to do is sit and look.

On this tour we were in a group of 8 people: Hana, one man (Miko) and 6 half-naked boys :)))

We followed the pampas by a two day, really mellow, jungle tour. The camp looked like a little paradise in the jungle with hammocks hanging all around. Even though we signed up with the Indigena Tours, they sent us with a different company - Mashequipa. The service was much better (plenty of delicious food) and again we had an awesome guide - Sandro.
Because of the density of the jungle, this visit was more about the nature, the medical benefits of plants and trees, or their poisonous effect. It was difficult to spot any animals but on our night walk we saw: insects, many kinds of spiders (Miko's favorite); large red and blue macaw parrots (they live in couples and ones one partner dies, the other parrot dies also); walking trees, big butterflies, and another little kitty "Problem" :) So cute.

Already on our pampas tour everyone was much younger than us, but on the jungle tour, we really felt like mom and dad. The two girls with us were barely 18 years old and looked more like 15! While traveling in Asia we have encountered more people same age as us, but here in South America, almost everyone we met was in their early 20s. We felt old.

COPACABANA

We left Rurre the day after our return from the jungle. We took the plane back to La Paz. The bus was enough one way :)
But the morning of the trip, Miko woke up feeling sick. His delicious and expensive meal from the night before (fish w/ roquefort sauce) had poisoned him. On the plane he felt like he was going to faint, puke and shit in his pants all at the same time. Luckily, none of it happened.
Since Miko was sick that day, Hana took care of organizing transportation from Rurre to Copacabana via La Paz. One plane ride, two micros, one 3h mini-van ride later, we arrived in Copacabana, a small town by the Lake Titicaca.

In touristy but charming Copacabana: we visited a beautiful, white church with the red-yellow painted ceiling; then Miko took a photo of a little boy on the street and made him cry; we hiked to the two view points (liked the "Horca del Inka" hill the best) and watched the sunset over the Titicaca lake while Miko was farting (pobre stomach, pobre Hana).
During our stay in Copacabana, we hung out with a fun, Croatian couple: Natasa & Kristijan. They have also been on the road for 9 months, are fierce trekkers and are the masters of bargaining.

ISLA DEL SOL

With Natasa and Kristijan, we took a 2h boat to the Isla del Sol (The Island of the Sun where, according to the Inka beliefs, the sun itself was born).

Lake Titicaca and its islands reminded us of the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. Even the Croatian couple was saying that. The water is ultramarine blue (very blue) and as wide as a sea. The islands are dry, covered with terraces and little patches of trees around tiny villages.
The first part of the day we've spent visiting the Northern part of the island and the Inka ruins. Then we walked 8km along the ridge all the way to the Southern part. We were the only ones on the trail, luckily, because Hana had stomach issues and left her mark along the way :) We spent the night at Palla Khasa, a guesthouse near the Yumani village, at 4200 meters. Away from the other tourists, surrounded by magnificent views, donkeys, sheep and silence.

The following day was our last day in Bolivia. Next, we were going to Arequipa, Peru to meet up with Mr. Kevin Bell (again!). Isla del Sol was a very nice place to end our trip in Bolivia.
Hana had only about 10 days left in Peru before her flight back to San Francisco. We could not stop thinking about it. We were a little anxious...

CONCLUSION

Bolivia was a great country to visit, both visually and culturally.
Tupiza was a great intro to the country, then the Salar de Uyuni amazed us with its beauty. In Potosi we witnessed the hardship of the miner's life. Pretty Sucre was a little disappointing, but the ugly La Paz was a nice surprise. The not so dangerous Death Road and Coroico were a return to green and friendlier temperatures. The Amazonas ,bla, bla, bla, genial :)
and Isla del Sol was a sweet, frozen dessert.

Bolivia is a country with the highest number of indigenous people in South America.
We loved the way women dress in the chola outfits. The Spanish imposed on them this specific dress in the 18th century and it is interesting how the tradition remained after. I wonder how many more generations are going to dress like cholas because the younger women, specially in the cities, are already dressing more Western like.
I love how cholas carry their babies on the back, wrapped in an aguayo (large, colorful cloth), tied around their shoulders. Babies have round, chubby, red cheeks, probably burned from the sun. They are wrapped like a bundle and handled like dolls. But they don't seem to mind it, they rarely cry. The women travel, shop, cook, clean, and carry them around until they are 3 years of age.

The political situation was interesting as well. There are political graffiti and slogans everywhere, especially along the roads. The country seems to be divided between Evo Morales supporters (mostly indigenous people) and the opponents (wealthy, Spanish descendants).

Many travelers we have met did some volunteering work somewhere along the way and I think we could have done it as well. It would have been an interesting and different experience, besides "just" traveling.

Even if we liked Bolivia, we are not going to miss the cold. By the end, we could not stand it. Appreciate your heaters!

Bienvenidos al país de los sombreros hongo - part 02

2009-08-10T14:59:00.000-07:00

POTOSI
The Salar tour ended in Uyuni where we immediately got on a night bus to Potosi, even though we were very, very tired. We arrived in Potosi at 1:30am after six hours of bone rattling ride with blasting music and screaming Frenchies. Damn, they can be loud those French people (says Miko).

Potosi is the highest city in the world, at the elevation of 4070 meters. Walking around was a real challenge :) like grandpa and grandma stopping every few meters to catch our breath. Potosi is built on hills with narrow streets. Some houses have wooden balconies and it all reminded us a lot of Sarajevo. Except that it's more colorful.
The main attraction in Potosi are the mines. The silver was discovered here in 1545 and for the following 300 years, the Spanish exploited the mines until all of the pure silver was gone. They used indigenous people for work in the mines, and when that was not enough, they brought slaves from Africa. People were working in horrible conditions and about 8 million died during those 300 years. That's about 2,6 million per 100 years, and 26,000 per year. The population reached 200,000 in the 17th century, making it the largest city in the world at that time. Beginning of the 19th century, the silver ran out and the population dropped to 10,000.

On our second day in Potosi, we took a tour to visit the mines which are still operating. They dressed us in protective clothes, boots, helmets and lamps. Our guide was a woman whose father was a miner and died few years ago.
We have read and heard from people that the visit is difficult and dangerous. You walk underground for about 2km and are exposed to some toxic chemicals and gases, including silica dust. It was physically very challenging, walking through the tunnels with very low ceilings, in mud and water sometimes. It was chilly at the entrance, but then the temperature started rising as we were going deeper, finally to reach 115F (about 40 C) at the lowest levels. Sometimes we had to crawl through narrow shafts to get to the area where the miners were working. The conditions in which these people work are incredibly hard. We were speechless.
The mines are cooperative, owned by the miners themselves, but they must produce to make their living. All work is done by hand, with primitive tools and explosives that they have to purchase themselves. The miners usually die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 to 15 years of entering the mines.
Few men we talked to have already been doing this for 15 years and we even saw a young boy who couldn't be more than 15 years old. Unimaginable, the awful conditions these people work in. We were there for only 2 hours and could not wait to get out.

Before visiting the mines we bought presents for the miners: soda, a bag of coca leaves, cigarettes (miners expected these gifts upon visit). Some tourists also bought dynamite (one stick costs half the miner's daily salary). Initially we were interested in witnessing a dynamite explosion thinking it was going to be a part of the working process. Sadly, the only purpose of buying dynamite was to use it in a stupid side show for tourists: exploding it randomly on some hill. Some people in our group were very excited to see an explosion and they bought too much dynamite (one explosion allowed per group). After Hana asked them what are they going to do with the remaining dynamite, hoping they would give it to the miners, but the girl answered: "Ehhh..... I don't know.... blow something up." We felt ashamed. We were here to visit mines where people kill themselves working in horrible conditions and these idiots where behaving like they were visiting an attraction park.

We liked Potosi but it was very, very cold and we overstayed by one night. While there we enjoyed people watching on the main plaza and eating at the "comedor" in the local market. On our last day we visited "La Casa de Moneda" (the Money Museum). In this building, for 200 years Bolivia was producing money for the entire world, and now the world produces money for Bolivia (Spain makes their coins, and France prints the bills on a very thick paper which is hard to fold and hide in our belts ;).

SUCRE

The bus ride from Potosi to Sucre reminded us of India, more people than seats, bumpy and uncomfortable. There was music blasting from cell phones, and a salesman talking non-stop for over an hour trying to sell his product.
Our stay in Sucre did not start well for Hana. She arrived at the bus station with a bag full of her puke. After we have found a nice room, she went straight to bed and did not get up until the next morning.
Sucre is a very pretty city, with nice colonial buildings in the center, all painted white. But after a couple of days it became boring. And unlike Potosi and Tupiza, we did not like the people here. We found them cold and snobby.
During our stay, the city of Sucre celebrated its 200 years of Independence. The main event was an all day long parade with representatives from different parts of the country, marching bands, army, firemen, female groups, even the kung fu and the aquatic clubs. Interestingly, the president of Bolivia Evo Morales, was not there. It seems that he was not invited!? Apparently people don't really like him in Sucre.
There were many smaller events happening throughout the city: more marching bands, speeches, theater plays of the revolution in the streets, and fireworks.
Being there during these events was interesting.

On a good note, we enjoyed another great viewpoint (Mirador) and eating market food with all the locals.

Miko bought a new pair of pants because his old ones had died after 9 months of travel. Hana had already retired hers sand-boarding in Argentina. Our clothes were dying. The end was getting closer.

Our first week in Bolivia was very, very, freaking awesome!
But the second week felt a little like a balloon deflating with Sucre being a bit boring and Potosi too cold. Now we were ready for some new action in La Paz and the Bolivian Amazons......

Bienvenue au pays des chapeaux melon - part 01

2009-08-10T14:44:00.001-07:00

TUPIZA

We arrived in Bolivia on May 13th by crossing the border on foot from La Quiaca, Argentina to Villazon, Bolivia. Hana already had a visa for Bolivia, but Miko tried to get in on his French passport instead of American to avoid paying $135. But at the Bolivian side they would not stamp his French passport without the exit stamp from Argentina in it, and on the Argentinean side they would not stamp it because his entry stamp was in the American passport. Anyway, after many back and forts between the two sides the Argentinean police officer got tired of seeing Miko and stamped it for free (when Miko was about to bribe him :)

Except that the border crossing was surprisingly easy. Then we took a 2.5 hour train to Tupiza, where they played bad movies. We found a room at "El Gran de Oro Hostal", which cost double the price listed in the Lonely Planet. The LP guide books are always off, but this time it was way off.

Most tourists stop in Tupiza just for a day, before going on the "Salar de Uyuni" tour. We decided to stay three days and enjoy this cute and dusty city surrounded by a Western movie looking landscape. It is definitely different here from the Northern Argentina. It is more poor and underdeveloped. Women dress differently: wide, pleaded skirts, and funny hats (like a "chapeau melon") that sit on top of their heads. They all wear two long braids in the back, have skinny legs and wide hips. At least those skirts make them look that way. The women dressed in this fashion are called "cholas" or "cholitas".

The local people have been very friendly. Not cold, like some tourists told us before. Often we were the ones saying hello but they always respond with a big smile. On our first day we entered a small chicken & fries restaurant (very popular dish here), where the manager greeted us loudly and another guest came to our table to welcome us to Tupiza.
Miko picked a random hair salon to have his hair trimmed. The ladies there obviously never cut gringo's hair before and she ended up drawing an interesting wave in the back of his head and making a fashionable hole in the beard. Another disaster haircut, but a fun time where the hairdresser made us all laugh by repeating "Pobre tourista" (poor tourist). Our first impression of Bolivia was very good :)

During our stay in Tupiza we went horseback riding (so, so) and hiking in a canyon (nice). We also hiked to a view point, Cerro la Cruz, to enjoy the view of the city and the surrounding mountains at sunset. Most people don't bother going up there and miss out.
We also enjoyed going to the main market, where we constantly had to watch our heads, not to get stabbed in the eye by the low stand poles. In general, people here are shorter than in Argentina.
There we noticed a circus show. On our last night in Tupiza, Miko went to see it:
~It was so much fun to watch the circus show among the locals, carefully seated on benches separated by a huge 2 meter drop the size of a person. Like when I was a kid, there was a classic clown show, poor ponies jumping through a ring of fire, and the family of acrobats, but also a horrible dance opening with the music by Cher, a car driving over some guy's chest, a trapezist missing his grab after a flip and falling flat in the net, Bart and Maggie Simpson dancing with kids... and the Power Rangers kicking the shit out of a midget Monster.
People in line, waiting for the second performance of the evening, kept starring, smiling and laughing at the lonely Gringo sticking out of the crowd (by 2 feet).

SALAR DE UYUNI

We left Tupiza on the 17th of May to go on the 4 day jeep tour of the Salt Flats (Salar). The tour was great. We are very glad we did it from Tupiza (one day longer than from Uyuni) and with the agency "El Gran de Oro". They took care of us really well and we loved our driver Jonar and the cook Carmen. Both very sweet and patient. Thank you very much for the great experience.
Before this tour we thought we have seen enough of beautiful landscapes but Salar de Uyuni literary blew us away. C'etait genial!!!
For four days drove on the Moon with each day being better than the previous, finishing with the most amazing one - Salar itself. It was incredible to be there and watch the sunrise in an endless sea of salt. The second highlight was the Laguna Colorada, a red color lagoon full of pink and white flamingoes.

We also saw many animals: lamas, vicunas (wild lamas), a zorro (desert fox) with a broken leg, ostrich (!!!) and rabbits with short ears and long fluffy tails (like squirrel).
We drove in a caravan of three jeeps and met a lot nice travelers from all over the world: Israel, Ireland, Belgium, UK, Holland and France. Some of these people we kept seeing on the "gringo trail" all the way to Peru.

Most of the time we were on a really high altitude, between 4000 and 4500m, and even drove over a 5000m pass. The altitude affected our sleeping, we would wake up with an intense pressure in the chest (for Hana) and Miko would get out of breath just tossing in the bed. We had headaches, and learned that chewing coca leaves really helps. In the beginning we saw many locals with a big bump in the cheek (I thought they had a toothache), but quickly we found out that they were all chewing coca leaves, men and women. It is like drinking mate in Argentina, a daily social routine, like having tea or coffee for us.

The Salar de Uyuni tour was the best time ever! We remembered our friend Herve, who did around the world trip before and could not stop raving about the Salar. You were absolutely right. Just look at the photos.
Oh, and we even slept in a hotel all made out of salt!

Pepe au Salar de Uyuni

While waiting...

2009-07-21T14:43:00.001-07:00

We know, we know, we have to catch up on 2 months of travel.
We are both back in San Francisco already, having a hard time readjusting to normal life.
In the next 3 weeks we will post 4 new entries about the the last 2 countries of our AWESOME trip.
But, while you are waiting, you can still look at Monsieur Kevin Bell's pics and videos from Peru. He didn't have enough traveling with us in Laos, so in June he met us up again in Peru.
Enjoy,

http://flickr.com/gp/kmbell/3MA593

2 Peruvian ladies in La Paz (Bolivia)

On the road again

2009-05-08T18:37:00.001-07:00

POBRE HANA!

Let's just say right away it's becoming more and more difficult to write new posts. It's really, really hard, just like work. We usually have to dedicate one entire day to writing it. Since we have only one month (little more for Miko) left, we might not be able to do a post for Bolivia. We will try.

We left Buenos Aires on April 27th and took a super cama bus to Iguazu. It was the best bus ride ever. It was like flying first class on the plane. Our seats were super comfortable and wide and we could completely flatten them. They played bad American movies with Spanish subtitles. Weird because in Argentina they dub everything. Probably because majority of passengers in this kind of bus are foreigners. We loved this bus experience. The food was good, we had wine with dinner and even whiskey after. The trip was 18 hours long but it went by so fast we wished it lasted even longer.

The bus ride was great but when we arrived in Iguazu, Hana was sick. Probably because of the air conditioning in the bus.
Pobre Hana! And just to make it worse, a few hours later we realized that her wallet was missing. It was stolen. We suspect that it might have happened in the bedroom while Hana was taking a shower. Great start!

We went to Iguazu to see the famous waterfalls. They are supposed to be the second biggest waterfalls in the world. First are the Victoria Falls in Africa, then Iguazu, and third Niagara Falls in North America.
The most impressive part of the Iguazu Falls is the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat). There is a platform overlooking an amazing torrent of water falling deep down. The entire Iguazu Falls are about 3km wide and it would have been more impressive if we visited the park during the rainy season. Now the water level was low and a lot of the falls along the 3km ridge looked more like sprinkles or were completely dry.
While walking around the park we saw some black, blue, and white birds (very loud), a coati which we weren't sure if he was going to sleep or die. and a lot of colorful butterflies (mariposas in Spanish).

Sadly Hana was fighting her cold that day, so it was hard for both of us to fully appreciate the place.
The next day, while Hana was resting, Miko went back to the park to see it one more time and hopefully see more wildlife. On his way out - surprise! He bumped into Xavier, a French guy who he did the crazy "boot camp" jungle trek with in Sen Monorom (Cambodia) four months ago. The world is really small. We have spent a nice evening together, talking about our adventures and eating steaks.
In Iguazu we started meeting people again, which was nice since we missed that in Buenos Aires. At out guesthouse one morning we briefly met a very young, blond dude from the Netherlands. Surprisingly he did not speak very well English. We talked about travel and different places when he said that he might go to Rosario, the birthplace of: " You know Shewee, the picture everybody wears on their T-shirt?" Then it dawned on us that he was taking about Che Gevara and that he was going to visit the town where Che was born. It is funny how icons like the image of Che become used in fashion and the kids who wear the clothes don't even know what his name is and what the symbol stands for.

SALTA

Our second bus ride from Iguazu to Salta was really crappy compared to the one from Buenos Aires to Iguazu. A very long, cold, uncomfortable bus ride (23 hours) with insufficient and bad food. The only company on that route - the Fecha Bus. So bad. We watched the "Return of the King" in Spanish ;)
Finally we arrived in Salta, they don't call it "Salta la linda" (Salta the Beautiful) for nothing. We just walked around the city and took a gondola to a view point. On our first day in Salta we went to a "pena" at La Casona del Molino. A pena is a place where people eat, drink, and gather to play and listen to folk music. It is almost like a spontaneous jam session. In Argentina people go out very late. We went there around 11pm and the music was just starting. There were several rooms with different musicians playing in each room. The food was great and we did not see the time go by. It was nice to see that people of all ages come to play or listen, or even dance to the traditional music. We had a great time there.

The following day we visited the "Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana" in Salta. This was definitely a very interesting and controversial visit. It focuses mainly on Inca culture and specifically the child "sacrifices" the Inca left on one of the highest mountains in the area. In 1999, an archaeological expedition uncovered three bodies of children, 6, 7 and 15 years old. All the kids were found in a seated position and on a first look it seems that they have just fallen asleep.
The children were specifically chosen for their beauty. There were from the high-ranking families. They can tell that by the cranial deformation of their heads. The children were first taken to Cucso (the Inca Capital) for a big ceremony and a ceremonial marriage among the kids. Then they were taken back to their homes where they were fed and given large quantities of "chicha" (maize beer). When they passed out, they were taken o the top of the mountain Llullaillaco and left there asleep.
At this museum is the body of the 15 year old girl - The Maiden. It was disturbing to be face to face with her. After 500 years her body is perfectly preserved (she really looks like a person sleeping, not a dried-up mummy). The reason for this preservation is the high altitude, the cold, and the lack of oxygen and bacteria.
Hana: I understand that this was a huge discovery for the scientists, but I feel that it was wrong to dig out these bodies and bring them down from the mountain. I find it disrespectful to the Inca culture and to the people who still live in that area and share the same beliefs.
Miko: I was fascinated by the Maiden and could not stop looking at her. It was incredible to see a 500 year old person. There is no real justification for taking them away from their tombs but on a scientific and historical stand point they did learn so much by doing research, tests, and scans on the bodies.

ROAD TRIP: Los Valles Calchaquies

We rented a car for 3 days and first went to Cachi, through the Parque los Cordones (National Park of Giant Cactuses). Then we drove to Cafayate through Quebrada de Las Flechas, then back to Salta through Quebrada de las Conchas. We did 980km in 4 days. The landscapes were very nice, especially the two Quebradas. But because we did a lot of road trips in the US: Arizona, Utah, Nevada, those "paysages" (landscapes) were not so new to us. What really made the difference were the people and the way they live in such a dry environment. Actually, driving through villages between 1 and 5pm (siesta time), it was difficult to see people. Not a soul in the street, like a ghost town. A little freaky.

We stopped at an artisan's house in a village of weavers. He and his family make ponchos, shawls, and clothes out of lama's and sheep's wool. He was very nice and gave us a tour of his property. He pointed to a corner of his land and explained that his adobe house was made out of soil from there.

We decided to keep the car for one more day to go to Purmamarca and Tilcara, North of Salta. This was definitely the best part of our trip. Purmamarca is a cute, little village framed by a colorful hill "Cerro de los Siete Colores" (Hill of Seven Colors). We arrived at night and stayed at a really friendly and cozy guesthouse called "Mama Coca". In the morning we fully enjoyed the colorful scenery of the mountains and after a quick stop in Tilcara, a town 20km away, we went back to Purmamarca for one more hike around the hill of seven colors. We just could not get enough of it. Thank you Ines Lopes, a very interesting lady from Buenos Aires who told us to go back to do the hike. Something not to be missed, she said. She was absolutely right.

To finish our last day of the road trip, we stopped at Maimara to enjoy the sunset at "La Paleta de Pintor", a long and colorful wave across the hills facing the village.

During this road trip we picked up many hitchhikers (pay-back time for Miko's hitchhiking days when he was young :) The old man turned 35 in Buenos Aires. Dios Mio! In total we picked up 9 adults plus a baby: young woman with her kid, farmer whose tractor broke down, a young Columbian couple, a couple of farmers, an old lady going home, and finally two young Argentinian artesans, David & David. They were nice and funny but smelled really, really bad ; ) We drove them back to Salta for 2 hours and had a lot of fun listening to Manu Chao. There are many artisans like them in Argentina who live in the street. When we dropped them off, they gave us bracelets they made as a thank you for the ride. Gracias David & David.

We went back to Salta to return the car, stayed in a youth hostel "Correcaminos" - we are too old for that shit! Can't deal with stupid, young kids traveling on daddy's credit card. Not all of them are like that of course, but some we saw there were. We went back to our favorite pena "La Casona del Molino". The musical and dance culture of Argentina is what stands out the most for us. Love it.

By the way, at the rental company we met a sweet and lovely Nicolas, the sales guy. Nicolas was so cute that Miko almost disappeared in a trash can that day. Bye, bye Miko!

Argentinians are crazy drivers, they don't respect ANY rules!!!

HUMAHUACA

After leaving Salta we went again up North, this time by bus to Humahuaca. We stayed at the Posada El Sol, a very nice and relaxed place. The best thing was that we immediately met some interesting people: Jenny (Zenja) originally from Ukraine, lives in NY, and Stephane from Paris and his friend Sebastien. We really enjoyed their company.
The night I went to a folkloric dance class (Chacarera) with Jenny and the friendly owner of El Sol - Ruben. It was not a class for tourists but for locals. They meet twice a week and hang out together, it's like their social club. Everything was in Spanish, of course. We started by learning how to play with a handkerchief in this dance. It was a bit weird, dancing in couples and improvising with it. Everybody in the group was so happy that I had to smile too (even though I did not understand shit). Then we danced the typical chacarera steps in a big circle, and also in couples. It was fast and soon everybody was sweating.
After the class, we all had a late dinner (at midnight). Jenny and I got nice buterfly earring from her new artesan friend on the street. Of course Miko was not there. He would have messed up the attention of the local men toward those 2 exotic Eastern European girls.
We really liked Humahuaca and the people we met so we decided to stay an extra day to go sandboarding with Stephane and Sebastien. Sandboarding is like snowboarding but instead of snow there is sand.... and there are no ski lifts! One thing we didn't anticipate was the altitude. It was 3500m on top of the sand dune. We felt it as soon as we started hiking up, and it was not even steep yet. Quickly we were all out of breath and felt pressure in the chest.
Miko was really excited about sand boarding but it ended up being a little disappointing. It was hard and the boards did not always slide, plus it was very tiring hiking back up the hill in the sand. Still it was a nice day. The location and the view from the mountain was great. Our guide was very nice and spending the day with Stephane and Sebastien was really fun.
The highlight of the day was when Hana's only pair of pants cracked all along the seam exposing her butt to the world.

We really liked Humahuaca for not being as touristy as other places we've visited. It was more of a cultural experience. The people were really friendly and we were happy to socialize with other travelers again like we did before in Asia.
Compared to Buenos Aires, there are more indigenous people here and the European features are a less present. It was interesting to see women in their traditional and colorful outfits: small black sandals, high and thick socks, a wide, pleaded skirt until the knees, a knitted vest and a black hat. The combination of colors was often bright red, blue and green. Too bad it is so hard to get a photo of them. They don't like it.

IRUYA

The 3 hour bus ride from Humahuaca to Iruya was scenic and very, very bumpy. Crazy, windy road through the mountains which should only be attempted in a 4-wheel drive.
Oh Iruya! Such a special, little village. Completely surrounded by mountains, literary squeezed between them. Its residents, very nice and friendly people and the local dogs & cats, all so friendly and sweet that you could not stop yourself from petting them. No matter how dirty and dusty they were. There is something special about Iruya, its chill atmosphere, good energy and the amazing pink glow all around.
The guest house we stayed at in Iruya "Asunta Hospedaje" was a special place. It had a big terrase with a wonderful view of the mountains around. A perfect place to relax and enjoy just being.

On our first day in Iruya, Pablo Harvey (originally from Buenos Aires) approached us to go on a nocturnal walk with him. We are glad that we went. It was a different experience, something to remember and a lot to learn. We started at 10pm, the night was warm and the moon very bright. We walked to a spot where we looked together at the sky and the starts and Pablo tought us about the Southern Cross, and how the Inca's used it as their compas and also could tell the seasons by looking at its position. We talked a lot about the history of the area and the Inca culture that sadly we don't learn enough about in school.
During the 2 hours we have spent with him Pablo also played the flute and violin in the place he called "anfiteatro". It was moving to be there looking at the mountains lit up by the full moon and listening to Andean melodies from his flute.

Considering how much we liked Iruya we are not sure why we left so quickly. Maybe our batteries where recharged from resting in Buenos Aires for a month and now we were "on the road" mode again.
We got lucky to see Iruya during the slow season when it is empty of tourists, unlike high season when 3 full buses arrive daily. I would not want to see this magical place at this time.

CONCLUSION

We really had no idea of what to expect in Argentina before we went there. We had heard things only about Buenos Aires, tango, steaks, mate, and that's about it. Northern Argentina was a surprise to us. Not because of the landscapes, they are very similar to the US, but because of people and the way they live. We truly loved Argentinians. For me they are the warmest, friendliest, and most chill people we have met. It was rare to see an unfriendly face and even then, we felt that it was not directed only at foreigners (or gringos how they call us here) but everyone.

On the 13th of May, we sadly left Iruya and went to Bolivia. Those two last weeks in Argentina were as if we have visited another country, very different from the one we have seen in Buenos Aires. More rural and indigenous. One thing we are not going to miss is the rhythm of life. We never got used to the siesta time here. Besides the stolen wallet issue in Iguazu, traveling in Argentina has been stress free, with zero harassment. We'll see if it is going to be the same in Bolivia...

Buenos Aires - part II

2009-05-08T10:55:00.001-07:00

After ten days of intense visiting (and shopping :) the girls have left. First Sanja on Saturday, then Eda on Sunday. It was weird to be alone in the apartment the first night. We felt that we did most of the visiting we wanted to do and now we could focus on taking Spanish classes and just live in Buenos Aires.
One of the first impressions when you get out of the apartment and start walking around in San Telmo are the exhaust fumes from the buses. The streets are very narrow and there are a lot of loud, stinky buses passing by. No one else seems to be bothered by this. I guess, people are used to it.
The second thing you notice are all the cafes and restaurants on every single corner and little boutiques, and bakeries (yum, yum). Everything around looks very familiar, very European. They call Buenos Aires the Paris of South America (hippie style). It does look very much like it, the dog poop on the sidewalks included. Except the customer service. Unlike in Paris, people here are very nice and friendly. Everybody, starting from waiters, cashiers in shops, bus drivers, post-office clerks, everywhere we went we had a good experience. Apart from the fact that when people bump into you on the street, they never apologise. Minor detail.

BA looks like a European city but poorer, rougher on the edges. The side walks are broken, the walls are covered with graffiti and street art. A lot of stencil and brush painted artwork. Some is very political like we have seen in Oaxaca (Mexico).

The city is huge, 12 million people. We have visited mainly the touristy neighborhoods, and some of them like Palermo and Recoleta are very rich. On a couple of occasions we walked to some poorer areas and the difference was shocking.
One evening as I was walking back to the apartment, I saw 2 kids sniffing glue out of a plastic bag. One looked a bit paranoid. The other one was staring at his reflexion in a window and then left hopping like a monkey.
On the same day, near the train station, I was shocked to see this homeless kid not more than 16 years old. He had no shoes and looked like he had not had a shower in days. His skin and clothes were of the same dark color.
And at night you can see people sometimes families rummaging through containers and collecting cardboard.

Then there are all the interesting cultural details we noticed during our stay:

~ People in Argentina drink mate (special kind of tea - yerba mate) ALL THE TIME. You can see them walking around caring a thermos bottle under the armpit and a mate (the cup) in the hand. Mate is shared among family, friends and coworkers, and in a way, sharing is the whole point. Our Spanish teacher Silvana drinks about 6 liters of mate per day!

~ After one month in Buenos Aires we still don't know who has the right of way at an intersection. They drive like crazy here, don't respect any rules, specially the taxis and the bus drivers.

~ I had to go see an eye doctor here. While waiting in the office, I saw other patients giving a kiss on the cheek to the doctor after exiting the office. I thought they knew each other. Then it was my turn. After the visit, the doctor opened the door for me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I was surprised. It happened again on my second visit to a different doctor.

~ People go out very late in Buenos Aires. Before 10pm nothing is going on. At 1am the city is alive with people of all ages, parents with their kids, young couples, groups of teenagers, old people. Everybody is out walking, eating, drinking, talking. Even some bookstores are open at 1am! At one concert we counted four pregnant women.

~ Just like in Paris, you can see young couples kissing and making out everywhere. But here they are so into it, they are almost eating each other in parks, cafes, metros, while waiting in a line....everywhere.

~ Passing by the magazine stands in the street, the first thing you notice is a gigantic pair of boobs on the covers of porn magazines, perfectly placed at the eye level, can't miss it :)

~ Getting change for the bus is a nightmare here! Nobody has change or wants to give you the one peso coin that you desperately need to take the bus. It is so difficult to find it that once you get some, you keep it like a treasure and always pretend not to have any.

During our last two weeks in Buenos Aires, we took intensive Spanish classes every day at the Hostel Clan in San Telmo. We got lucky to get a fun, energetic, and very patient teacher Silvana. She is from Buenos Aires and is about our age. She surprised us nicely when she invited us to her home one Sunday for lunch. Silvana is also a HUGE soccer fan of one of the local teams - River Plate. There was a big game between the city's two rivalry teams, River Plate and La Boca, while we were there but the tickets were too expensive. This reminded me of the rivalry between the two teams in Sarajevo, Zeljo and FKS, when I was younger. It divided the entire neighborhoods in two and people were very passionate about who they belonged to. Silvana is that way. So, on our last Sunday in Buenos Aires, she took us to a soccer game. Of course, we were on the River Plate side. They played against a small team from Jujuy. The game was pretty bad, but it was still interesting to see how passionate people are about soccer here. There was only a handful of Jujuy fans (since it is far away), but the River Plate side was more than full and people were singing and swearing madly the entire game.

Anyway, Silvana has been our only contact with the local people here, and we are happy that at least we had that. It has been difficult to meet people here. The main reason would be the language barrier, but also we noticed that the more comfortable our traveling is the less people we meet. Hence us staying in an apartment instead of a hostel did not help.

Silvana also took us to a great place, La Catedral, where we took some tango lessons. It was so much fun, difficult but fun. La Catedral is like a big warehouse space with funky artwork on the walls. It has great vegetarian food and unlike a lot of other tango places, it is very low key and casual. It is acceptable to show up in jeans and sneakers and take a tango lesson. That's what we did, in our hiking shoes.

During the two last weeks in Buenos Aires, we did a few interesting visits. The first one was the visit to the Evita Museum. It was interesting to learn about her life, her carrier as an actress very young and later, after she married Juan Peron, her brief but very active political carrier. Her remains are at the Recoleta Cemetery but the high-ranking people were not happy about it because she was an illegitimate child (she forged her birth certificate after marring Peron) and because she was devoted to the poor. Some criticized her for being without scruples, but I can't imagine what it must have been like to be a woman in power at that time. In 1947 she was responsible for getting women the right to vote. She died very young of cancer. What a weird thing that her body was missing for 16 years...

Visiting Buenos Aires you constantly see images of Che Guevara, but even more of Carlos Gardel. He was a tango singer, a pioneer of the tango cancion (song). He was born in Toulouse but his mother brought him to Buenos Aires when he was two years old. His neighborhood Abasto is full of his images and even some of his songs written on the facades. There is even a Carols Gardel museum in a very colorful street. Some of the facades are painted in the Filateado style, a flowery, ornamental painting technique specific to Buenos Aires. We loved seeing it everyday, everywhere, on signage, buses, menus, ads, etc.

"For Love use condoms"

A little of Pepe's Ashes in BA

Conclusion:

We liked Buenos Aires, specially San Telmo, and already after two weeks we could see ourselves living there, even for just a year. We were sad to leave. More than the look of the city, it is its atmosphere, its texture, its melancholy that we loved.
By the end of our stay, we really felt like we lived there. Started little routines, going to the same coffee shop or restaurant. On our last day we went back to El Federal, our favorite restaurant in San Telmo, to have a last bite of their delicious Lomos al Champignon.
Miko lost a lot of weight in Asia, but he got it all back. Since we left Asia our trip has become more and more comfortable. Eating well, drinking well, sleeping in the same bed for a longer period of time. We very much needed the one month break in Buenos Aires. But in the beginning Miko felt like his brain and his body had a hard time adjusting to it. He was constantly thinking about what's next. After a month those feeling were gone... well kind off.
We are going to need some time to readjust to the travel mode and being on the road again.

Buenos Aires Part 01

2009-05-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Buenos Aires on the 26th of March. We made a reservation for an apartment but there was a misunderstanding with the agency about the date and it took a couple of hours to solve the issue. Those first 2 hours in BA we spent standing on the sidewalk, trying to remember Spanish we learned a while ago. Finally we were inside and happy. The apartment was very nice, too big for just the two of us but Sanja and Eda were arriving soon so it was going to be a full house.
On our very first night, we went outside looking for a place to eat and got a first glimpse of the neighborhood San Telmo - our home for the next month. We found a nice restaurant/bar only a block away Bar El Federal, all wood inside, nice atmosphere. We realized quickly that we needed Spanish classes. None of the waiters spoke English, and the menu was only in Spanish.

It was the first time we were going to stay in one place for so long and it was welcomed. We started getting tired of moving around all the time, especially Hana. It is a nice change of pace, but even more so, it is a new experience on this trip. Instead of being visitors, this time we are actually temporary residents. We were lucky to find this apartment in such a great neighborhood. Thank you Patricia for putting us in touch with Juan.

After visiting the city, San Telmo is definitely our favorite part. It is very touristy but still very authentic. It is full of old buildings, cafes, restaurants, boutiques, antique shops, and little supermarkets owned by Asian people. The whole mix is very charming. It has a strange feel to it, kind of melancholic, maybe because San Telmo is the center of tango.
Oh, tango. We have heard about it, everybody has heard about the Argentinian tango. But to see the couples dancing right in front of you is something else. It looks so difficult and complex. We love this dance, we love watching it, and would love to know it. Watching couples dance tango, it is like a lover's game, an indefinite tease. Hot, hot, hot! It looks so cool, sexy, and sophisticated. And the legs, oh those legs, they move like they are "croshaying".
Our apartment is very close to Plaza Dorrego. There you can see people dancing tango almost any time of day or night. Specially Sunday's night, after the antique market, locals come to this plaza to dance tango and it is always crowded. Sometimes there is a band playing and you get to see some really good dancers.

Two days after we arrived in Buenos Aires, our friend Sanja (that we stayed with in Vienna) joined us. A few days later, another friend from San Francisco arrived, Eda. From then on it was girls gone wild for shopping. We have spent the next 2 weeks visiting, shopping, eating meat & empanadas, shopping, drinking Quilmes, shopping, walking around and going to every possible market, and shopping, shopping, shopping....especially Sanja & Eda :)
What follows is a brief description of some places we visited.

Recoleta Cemetery

Reminded us of the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, just smaller. It is like a little "neighborhood" of mausoleums with streets and plazas. It is the place where only the rich and the ones with the right last name get buried. There is a saying here: "It is cheaper to live extravagantly all your life than to be buried in Recoleta". This is also were Eva Peron's remains are. A few days after we have arrived, on April 1st, Raul Alfonsin died. He was the first democratically elected president in Argentina in 1983 after the Dirty War. He was considered the father of Argentinian democracy. Miko actually ended up going to his funeral at the Recoleta Cemetery by accident. He was going to visit the Ciruelo exhibition at the Cultural Center next door but ended up staying with the huge crowd that was gathered to pay the respect to Alfonsin.

Tigre

We did two day trips outside of Buenos Aires. The first one was to Tigre, one hour away by train.
The town of Tigre is a pleasant riverside town, but it is the Delta that everyone is after, a popular weekend getaway for "portenos" (people from BA). The Delta was a complete opposite of what we expected. We thought the boat ride there would be about beautiful scenery and nature, but the main attraction here are the local houses along the shores and some of them are real mansions. It was still very nice to walk around, so quiet and peaceful. We had a nice, long lunch at the Alpenhouse (owned by a Viennese family) and ate a lot of sausages.
It turned out not to be so simple to buy 4 round trip tickets when you don't speak Spanish and don't consult your phrase book before. Imagine the 3 of us, talking at the same time, saying every relevant Spanish word we know, and the poor guy behind the counter, who does not speak a word of English, trying to make sense of our Spanish marmalade.
We needed Spanish classes really bad.

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

After our trip to Tigre, we went to Colonia, Uruguay for one day. We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to cross the river. The water is mocca-brown and looks really nice against the blue sky (even if it is very polluted). Colonia itself is a really cute place to visit. Like Arrowtown in New Zealand, or Locronan in Bretagne, it is a pretty town with character and history, many restaurants and cafes, and also very touristy.

La Boca

On Eda's first day in Buenos Aires, we visited around El Caminito, a very colorful area in La Boca but also very touristy. We walked there from San Telmo and on the way, two teenage girls stopped us and told us that it is not safe to walk around with our cameras out, even during the day. Oops. This place also has a nice artesan market and a great store that sells clothes of the independent, local, designers. That's where the shopping craze began. The store is called Alicia Maravilla.

That night we went to Hostel Clan and partied with kids. Especially Sanja, she partied hard and you could not tell the age difference on her (by the way 10 years min).

Puerto Madero

The newest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Sanja's favorite from the architectural point of view. The highlight here was the Puente de la Mujer (The bridge of a Woman), representing a tango dancer. The neighborhood reminded us of the Mission Bay in SF. Brand new and modern, it creates a contrast with other parts of Buenos Aires, old and crackled.

Recoleta & Palermo

These two neighborhoods are the upscale parts of Buenos Aires. Recoleta, is more of a cultural center with many museums and galleries. While the gardens and parks are in Palermo. And great shopping as well in Palermo Soho ;)

Hana liked the Floralis Generica, a gigantic flower made out of airplane parts that opens up during the day and closes from dusk until dawn.
Miko liked the Botanic Garden (Cat's Heaven). It is small, green, very calm. It is full of cats and lovers.
We both liked the Malba, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. Great museum displaying modern Latin American art. It is not very big, so you don't get exhausted by the end of it.

Markets

There is always a market somewhere in Buenos Aires, specially on weekends. We regularly went to the market in San Telmo on Sundays. The entire street Defensa is closed for traffic and there are many artists selling their crafts. There are performances, bands playing, clowns, tango dancers. It is very popular with tourists and locals alike.

There are other markets in La Boca, and Plaza Francia in Recoleta, and in Puerto Madera, but our favorite one was the Feria de Mataderos, almost one hour bus ride from the center. It is comunal, more country side and we loved seeing the gaucho side of Argentina. Especially the folkloric dancing. There was a group of kids and they danced really well. We loved their postures, their chest forward, head up high. So much attitude and pride in it. My favorite was the drumming group "Sol Argentino", men dressed in black, and women in red with traditional blue ponchos. Their energy was great, it was breathtaking to watch them. The women were drumming and sometimes yelling some words, banging their heads in the rhythm, their black, long hair tossing. You would not want to mess with these ladies.
In between performances, many old couples dressed in the traditional outfits would dance in the middle. I like that about Argentina, that old people still go out and socialize and have fun.
There is also a funky Gaucho Museum. Beware of the two old ladies selling tickets there, the pink tickets are for women and white for men! Miko tried to get in on a pink ticket that Hana bought for him and almost created a riot.
There is also a great artesan market, stands with food and asado (Argentinian bbq), and more locals than tourists :) Loved it.

Windy Welly

2009-04-17T18:15:00.000-07:00

WELLINGTON

The last week of our trip we spent in Wellington. Initially, we were planing on visiting Rotorua in the North Island, but we got tired, didn't feel like squeezing another park in and liked Leri's house too much :)
We ended up spending the entire week in Wellington at our friend Leri's place. We know each other from San Francisco where we were neighbors for a while and it was very nice to see him again. Thank you Leri, you are an awesome host.

Downtown looks a little like a Lego land. It is colorful with a mix of different architecture that does not really go together, but in the end the mix looks cool. Wellington feels very artistic and has a hippy feel to it. You see young people walk around barefoot.
In Wellington we walked around a lot, going back a couple of times to the cool Cuba street. It is a mixture of the Union Square on one end and the Haight street on the other end. There are great coffee shops, little boutiques and cool street art. The Botanic Garden was very pretty too with great views of the city.

Our favorite visit was the Te Papa museum, which has a great permanent exhibit on the Maori culture. Visiting the museum, you could feel the pride of this cultural background in New Zealand. We did not know that the Maori language was the official language in NZ. Or that the Maori were not defeated by the British but signed a treaty. Their art is integrated in architecture and design. It is present everywhere.
At Te Papa they had another great exhibit "Blood, Earth, Fire", which is about the pride and respect for the land, its beauty and people. There was a great 20 minute video "Our Place", presenting a patchwork of people from different backgrounds and origins, in different parts of the country, urban and rural. Each person was telling his or her story and their bounds to the country. It was really well done, pretty to look at and very funny at times. If I were a Kiwi, I would be so proud of being from there after watching this video.

Leri was not the only person we knew in Wellington. Two old GKR crew members Dan and Adam, and 5 old Tippetters: Todd, Jance, Yasmin, Joe & Austin, work at Weta now. The company which created the effects for "The Lord of the Ring" trilogy and "King Kong". It was very nice to see them all and a little weird at the same time. It was like we were back in San Francisco again.
The day I met up with them at the office, waiting for them at the reception gave me a knot in my stomach......WORK!
I know I will be happy to animate again when I go back to SF, but I am afraid of the day when I will have to give again 75% of my life to work. Right now a 100% of it is mine, and I am so f...ing happy!

On one of our walks, we had crepes at a French creperie. The owner was from Camaray, Bretagne and 9 months ago moved to Wellington with his wife and three boys age 11,14 & 15. He just wanted a new life. Never traveled anywhere before. He thought about moving to England but it was too close to home. He wanted to go far. It was funny to listen to him. The reasons why he moved were the exact same reasons why I moved to San Francisco. There is no appropriate age to change direction in your life. It does not especially start freezing as you get older. All of these people we have met on this trip are so inspiring to me.

Well, I can say it again and again. I loved NZ. Would love to go back and visit more (we only saw the South Island), maybe even live there for a year...
People seem to be easy going and very friendly. Maybe because there are only 4 mil of them. If you compare the size of NZ & density of population to the UK:

New Zealand
land area: 103,734 sq mi/268,671 sq km
population: 4,154,311
density per sq km: 15 :)

UK
land area: 93,278 sq mi/241,590 sq km
population: 60,776,238
density per sq km: 652 :0

It was so nice to be on the road and have it all to yourself, or go on a hike and be alone. Probably because there are less people, there is less crime, problems, less pressure, everybody is more relaxed and happy.
One thing that fascinated me about NZ is that there are no predators, no large mammals. The largest mammal on the island was the blind bat, then the Europeans brought cows, sheep, deer, rabbits, possum (now a huge problem in NZ).
They have a social system. Their prime minister drives himself to work.
It probably isn't all that great there. Maybe I'm idealising too much.
We did hear a few complaints about NZ and the first one would be - lack of things to buy. Apparently, NZ is not good for shopping. Things are just not available as in the US, so you have to order and wait that they make it. Our friends did mention that it helped them save a lot of money :) Exactly, that is how you save money, you just stop buying stuff!
We also heard about the TPS - tall poppy syndrome, people here don't like it when someone stands out from the rest, either because of their talent or achievements, so their mates openly critisize and resent them.

Long time ago when I lived in Germany with my mom, we were looking into different countries to immigrate to and NZ was one of them. We ended up moving to the US, but being here I keep wondering how different my life would have been had we moved here instead. I would probably be married with children by now :)

On the 26th of March we left NZ for a new continent.

La Nouvelle Zelande c'est vraiment trop beau

2009-04-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

MILFORD SOUND

If you ever go to the Milford Sound, everyone will tell you that the best part is the journey there from Te Anau and the many stops along the way. When we arrived in Te Anau, it was raining. Again. We camped somewhere along the road and the next morning we got very lucky to see that it had stopped raining :)
As we started a hike to the Key Summit, the sky opened up, revealing the mountains. The view from there was spectacular. According to the park ranger we met, it was the first time the sky opened up in a week. So lucky. The first ones to get to the Summit and enjoy it all by ourselves.
Great start.
After, as we were driving toward the Milford, the landscape gradually changed from farmland to mountains. At first, round and green, the hills became higher and sharper. Like massive walls rising around, closing us in. The sky became clouded and dark again. Then we arrived at the tunnel which was built during the depression in the 30's. It felt like a door to the Milford Sound. It was very dark and when we came out, we were high up in the mountains, looking at yet another dramatic landscape.
We were already excited.
Then we arrived at our final destination the Milford Sound, and its very moody & atmospheric scenery. It reminded me of the last King Kong movie. I think it was party shot here.
We ended our journey on a high note - a 2 hour boat tour, along the sound out to the open ocean. Blue sky and shinning sun on one side, and darkeness on the other. A must do if you go there.
We took one of the smaller boats at 4:30 pm after all the big tour boats were already gone. Plus, we got to see the dolphins swimming around the boat. This made all the passengers (including us) go crazy, running to the bow of the boat, armed with the cameras, shooting in any direction. Miko is making fun of it but it was really incredible. The dolphins were big and the water dark, and they would jump right in front of the boat and I even saw a mama dolphin and her baby dolphin swimming side by side and jumping out at the same time. And guess what: it was beautiful.
What a great day!!!

BACK TO WANAKA

On our way back to Wanaka from Te Anau, we briefly stopped and froze our asses at Glenorchy, a tiny town 40 minutes west of awful Queenstown (another great drive by the lake). It is a good place to go trekking but we did not have luck with the weather and the water pump in our van broke. We only spent one night and one morning there before heading back to Queenstown to fix our pump.
There we finally got a confirmation that we can extend our camper van rental, so Hana called the airline to change our departure flight from Christchurch to Wellington. To her big surprise they did not have a reservation in our name. She had purchased tickets for a flight on February 13th instead of March 13th! Oh well, we would have lost the tickets anyway, at least we did not show up at the airport and realized the mistake then.

The next short stop was Arrowtown. A cute, little, western looking town full of old people. The visit to the Chinese Settlement in the center of the town was very moving. We learned about the difficult lives of the Chinese miners, who have left their families, looking for a fortune only to be completely isolated and disliked in a new country. All of them wanted to earn enough money to go back to China and buy land. Some did go back but there was about 30 old men who after the Gold Rush was over stayed in Arrowtown and died there alone. Their huts were small rooms, made of rocks, with a dirt floor. The New Zealand government would not give them pensions so they lived growing vegetables in their little gardens and getting help from the Chinese community.

"I told you so" said Hana :)

Then we were back in WANAKA, in our favorite campground. This time the weather was nice so we did a couple of hikes in the area. The first one was a 3 hour hike in the Diamond Park to Rocky Mountain and second a 6h hike to the Mt. Roy. Very long and strenuous, but so rewarding. The views from up there: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful - see the photos.
After that hike we had a little mishap. The biggest one in the entire trip in NZ. One night we went to empty the toilet cassette from the camper van, and Hana dropped the lid into the poop pipe.... We tried getting it out with a stick, it broke. Finally Miko got fed up and rolled up his sleeve and put his entire long skinny arm in the poop pipe to reach it. Hana felt bad for dropping it, but he was in a hurry to get it out and guess why - because we were going to be late for a movie! Could that be considered good luck?!

By the way, Wanaka has a great, little theater "Cinema Paradiso" where you can sit on couches, order food and drink wine, or just eat giant, warm, home-made cookies during the intermission.

Our last but not least activity in New Zealand was Paragliding! After Miko chickened out (hi, hi) on bungy jumping, he decided to do paragliding with me. It was not scary at all, it felt so normal to just run off the cliff and then be in the air. It was very peaceful and kind of trippy. You are just happy floating around, enjoying the view from above for 20 minutes. Wish it had lasted longer :(

Our view everyday from the van at the Outlet Campground

MOUNT COOK

LAKE TEKAPO

After Wanaka we camped at the bottom of Mt. Cook - nice, but the best part was the drive there by the milky-blue Lake Pukaki. The next morning we went to see the turquoise blue Lake Tekapo. It was very pretty but too touristy. We were more impressed by the Lake Pukaki, so for our last night of the road trip, we backtracked 50km to stay by the lake. A beautiful, free camping spot like the one we had almost two weeks ago facing the Fox Glacier. This time we were on the other side of the mountain range, looking at the Mt. Cook from the other side. It was exactly what we wanted for our last night in the South Island. There, we saw the Milky Way above the milky lake.

LAKE PUKAKI

We were really sad when our trip was over and we had to return the camper van. It was nice to be sleeping in the same bed for so long. We loved our little evenings when we would find a stop to camp for the night. Watch the sunset, have apero, and start cooking. After dinner, we would listen to the music, read or write. Those evenings were never long enough.
We loved the South Island. Wherever you look, it's beautiful, the landscape keeps changing from sandy beaches, through wetlands, into icy mountains, glaciers, and fiords. They really have it all and in a such a small space. So sad to leave...

Au revoir Beautiful South Island :(

RANDOM NOTES ON THE ROAD:

* New Zealand is a country you can travel in at any age. We have seen many young, old and middle age travelers on the road. The only difference is that the older the people, the bigger the camper van becomes. Which puts us in the grandpa and grandma's category.

* Between Wanaka and Queenstown:
Traveling here you understand how New Zealand was the perfect location for "The Lord of the Ring" movies. The mountainous landscape and its large diversity (rounded, green, sharp and scary) mixed with a "temperamental" weather create amazing scenery with dramatic lighting.