Adventure Sports in Mendoza

Argentina just keeps getting better. We´ve spent the last four days or so in Mendoza, a gorgeous and friendly city close to the border of Chile. We fell in love with the city immediately and decided we could all see ourselves living there. It is surrounded by desert, though there is a complex irrigation system that traces its way throughout the city, making it very lush and green. There are many beautiful parks, one that is quite large and reminded me a lot of Hyde Park in London, with a canal, a zoo, sports stadiums, a golf course (Jeff and Amanda went), etc. One thing that I just couldn´t get used to was the fall foliage in April. Trees are turning yellow and leaves are falling, and I can´t help but think that my birthday was two weeks ago.

We took advantage of a few of the many activities Mendoza has to offer. We of course had to visit some more wineries, as this region produces the majority of the wine that comes out of Argentina. Once again, Malbec was my favorite wine (I spelled it wrong in my last post), pick some up if you see it in a liquor store, very smooth. We also got to visit a plant that produces olive oil, which was very cool as I got to see olive trees for the first time.

Another first was paragliding! I know this may sound crazy, especially because I am afraid of heights, but for some reason I just really wanted to try it and I´m so glad I did. It was incredible! Here I am in flight:

It was really cool to just float above everything and see the city from a birds-eye view (in fact, the birds were below us). My guide even did a few swirls in the air which was really fun.

The next day, Amanda and I went horseback riding through a nature preserve. We got to gallop! ´Twas great fun... great fun indeed : )

If we had lots more time, we probably would have stayed in Mendoza for weeks or even months. But alas, we must move on. Today we hopped a bus and crossed the border into Chile. The road took us on another spectacular ride through the mountains, this time cutting right from one side of the Andes to the other. And when I say some of these mountain roads are windy, I am not kidding. This road made the Kancamangus Highway look like a wide open field:

We are now in Viña del Mar, Chile, right on the Pacific coast. We will be sharing our time here with the neighboring city of Valparaíso, before heading to Santiago for a night or so.

Also, I have been looking since I started this blog for a trackable map I could post to my site so you could get a visual picture of my route. Obviously, I never found a map I could use in this way, but here is an image and a link to maps of South America, if you wish to get a better feel for the areas I am travelling in:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/south-america

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/reference_maps/south_america.html (same as image above but bigger)

Arizona Dreamin´ and Lots of Wine

It`s official, I am in love with Northern Argentina. Incredibly gorgeous landscapes, quaint and friendly towns, I am so relaxed I feel like I could stay here for months and months. And somehow we fell right into the Argentinian daily routine - wake up late morning, have a BIG lunch, retire to the hostel for a siesta (nap), go out for a light dinner anytime after 8:30, drink too much wine and stay up late. Stores close at 1:00 and open again at 5:00, and restaurants close for the afternoon by 3:00, and don´t reopen any earlier than 8:30pm. The adjustment was almost instantaneous, must be something in the air...

We began our stay in Salta, which I just loved. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but it was a nice small city and I felt like I was at home. We even saw a movie at a Hoyts Cinema! That was weird...like stepping into a "matter transporter" back to the states. We made our way from Salta to Cafayete, a town known for its wineries. The route to Cafayete brings you through magnificent desert and mountain terrain. It reminded me a lot of Arizona, which is interesting because I´ve never been to Arizona, though I`ve heard I am accurate in my assumption. There are mountains covered in various minerals, which turn them all sorts of bright colors - red, blue, green, purple - it was a sight to see. On top of that there were various gorges and rock formations, I loved it as I had never seen anything like it before. Its been amazing to see the change in landscape from Peru to Argentina. There is so much diversity, and yet everywhere I´ve visited has been overwhelmingly beautiful (and I still haven´t even made it to Patagonia!).

Today was the day we dedicated to visiting the wineries. They afforded beautiful surroundings, though it was a little disappointing as we couldn´t just go there and hang out for a few hours and eat cheese, you pretty much just walked in, looked around, had a few sips of wine and either bought some or didn´t. The wine was very good, however. My favorites were from the Nanni winery, a red Melbec was delicious, as well as the regional specialty, a white Torrontés. We did make it to the the cheese factory too! Goat cheese - my favorite. Mmmmmm....

And get this - they have wine ice cream here! (Crystal, contain yourself...) Its not just wine-flavored ice cream, this is like one powerful glassful! I wish I had known that before I ordered the large...oops : )

Tomorrow we hop a bus to San Miguel de Tucuman, another town in the north which is suppose to be beautiful. Talk to you all soon!

Joan

1 Lake 2 Lake, Red Lake, Blue Lake

Well, Bolivia really ended with a bang. We joined a three-day tour with two gals from Australia and a guy from Japan. We crossed salt-flats and desert over the next two days, and saw sights I have never seen before! The salt flats are literally miles and miles of flat plains made of salt. Some of this salt is processed by locals into what we use on our dinner tables! Years ago ocean water collected here, and when it dried up they were left with the plains that remain today. If felt weird driving across the plains, it was hard to convince myself that I wasn´t driving across a frozen lake! Here are some pictures, quite a phenomenon:

After a night in a fly-infested room (they didn´t move from the ceiling, only threatened), the next day was my birthday!!! Here are some "firsts" I experienced on my birthday:

Driving across a desert with snow capped peaks in the distanceSeeing flamingoes! (three different species)

Seeing a red lake (there were blue and green lakes, too)

Witnessed groups of vecuñas (wild llama/deer-like animals)

Our group had a great evening drinking wine, playing cards, and laughing our heads off! And to top it off, the next day we got up early in the morning to see geysers and bathe in natural hot springs! Covered in sulfur from the hot springs, we headed to the border of Chile where the tour ended. From there we caught a bus that was to take us to San Pedro, Chile, where we planned to spend the weekend before heading to Salta, Argentina. As we were getting our passports stamped in Chile, we saw a bus on the other side of the road heading to Salta. On a whim, we decided to skip San Pedro and hopped on that 10 hour bus ride to Salta! That made it three countries on one day : )

Entering Argentina has been quite a culture shock. I could tell as soon as we crossed the border that this country was different - the streets were paved (with white and yellow lines), there are guard rails on hairpin turns and they even have street lights! (FACT: only 5% of the roads in Bolivia are paved.) As we made our way further in it really started to remind me of home - neighborhoods, painted houses, trees, and no llamas! Now, walking on the streets of Salta is a very welcome surprise. I never realized how much I missed store-front window displays until now. And since I mistakenly sent our bathing suits and towels on the bus heading to Chile, we´re going to go shopping! In real stores with walls and windows! I can´t wait. Yesterday we had fresh milk for the first time, and even though I´m not a big beef eater, I can´t wait for a hamburger with real beef! We had a delicious Easter meal today, too, so much flavor! I´m in heaven. Can´t wait to head to the Argentine wine country later this week!

Keep the emails and comments coming, Happy Easter,
Joan

Welcome to Bolivia, jerk

"Eight rolls of toilet paper, please," I said to the one-eyed woman in the wheelchair. In Bolivia, you need to provide your own toilet paper wherever you go. Don´t rely on restaurants or even hotels to provide it for you.
"Five Bolivianos, " she answered. A good deal, I thought. Less than one dollar for eight rolls!
"OK, that´s fine, I´ll take them." My stomach churned as the need for this toilet paper was serious and immediate.
"Those are white," she pointed to some different rolls of toilet paper on the other side of the store.
"OK that´s fine, eight white."
"But those are blue," she pointed back to the original eight, "and we have pink, too."
"Eight white will be just fine," I said through clenched teeth and cheeks.
She yelled something to another man who seemed to be her gopher, as from her wheelchair she seemed only capable of shouting orders and drawing out simple transactions.
"Five Bolivianos, correct?" I offered in my attempt to speed this transaction along, reaching into my pocket for the change.
"No, eight Bolivianos."
"I thought you said it was five?"
"No, those are five," she said, pointing to the blue and pink toilet paper.
"OK, fine, I´ll take the blue." I gave Amanda an annoyed and impatient look I hunched over in intestinal pain.
"Those are eight, too."
"Well what is five Bolivianos?!?!"
"Those," she motioned toward the maxi pads.
You can´t be serious. "I don´t need maxi pads for Christ´s sake, I have to go to the bathroom!" Amanda was trying not to laugh, but trust me, this was not funny.
"Fine." I picked up the eight rolls of blue paper in a plastic bag and put them in her lap. She called to her gopher to be her hands, and he started adding rolls to the bag.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"I thought she said nine rolls?"
"Oh for the love of God!!!" I pulled the extra roll out of the bag and threw the money into her hand, running across the street to the hotel just in the nick of time.
Now, we got a really good deal on this hotel - About $1.20 for the night. No kidding. This was a great find; something to write home about. However, when you´ve got explosive diarrhea, the last place on earth you really want to be is a $1 hotel in Bolivia.

Needless to say, it was a rough first day in Bolivia (Copacabana, to be specific). Since then, things really haven´t gotten much better. I started planning my trip to the jungle, which occupied my entire weekend plus Monday. I scheduled two flights to Rurrenabaque, the base town for jungle tours, both of which were cancelled. The landing strip for airplanes to this town is made of grass, so whenever it rains, flights are cancelled. And considering that this is the RAINforest, it happens quite often.

When I discovered the third flight I had scheduled for Monday would be cancelled or delayed, I threw in the towel. Amanda and Jeff couldn´t find a volunteer program, which they had planned to do while I was in the Amazon, so we all decided to just skip to the next step and leave the frustration behind us. We are now waiting for our train in Oruro, which will take us to Uyuni where we will leave tomorrow for a three-day tour of the Salt Flats! The landscapes are supposed to be amazing, with red and green lakes, hot springs, and a horizon where you can´t distinguish the land from the sky. The tour actually brings us to Chile! From there we will make our way to northern Argentina. I´ll write from there!

Joan

Island Hopping

We left Cusco by train and spent the 11 hour journey watching beautiful scenery pass us by on the way. There were mountains along the whole route, and in places snow-capped peaks in the distance. We passed through much farmland and many small villages, where adults and children would wave to the train as we passed, it was very heartwarming.
We finally arrived, tired and cranky, to Puno. We thought we would possibly leave the following day or the day after to make up some of the time we lost in Cusco because of the train strike, but low and behold there was another strike, so the first day we could leave was Thursday. After I calmed down, we decided to take a two-day tour of some of the islands in Lake Titicaca, which ended up being marvelous. The first islands we visited were two of about 80 artificial islands, made entirely of reeds. They are floating islands, with only a few meters of reeds reaching down into the water and anchors to hold them in place. There are about 2,000 people who live on these islands. The people are decendent of natives who were looking to separate themselves from both the Spanish and the Incas, so they built these islands to live away from the land. They are quite a site to see, the reeds make up everything for these people - houses, boats, and even food. Here is a scene from one of the Uros islands:
We then moved on to a natural island called Amantaní, where we stayed with a local family! I was very excited about this, I´m hoping for as many opportunities like this as I can get. The families on this island live very simple lives. They are farmers and weavers first, and tourism is becoming a large source of income for them as well. The family Amanda, Jeff, and I stayed with were so sweet and funny. They were an older couple, with kids grown and out of the house. The house was very basic - no electricity or running water, mud walls and an outhouse. It was amazingly peaceful at their home, and I fell in love with it right away. The wife, Rufina, who didn´t speak any English or Spanish, only Quechua, let me try my hand at spinning yarn from wool, which apparently I wasn´t very good at because she was laughing hysterically the whole time! It was very cute. The family dressed us up later in the evening in typical clothes of the island, and we went to the local hall to have a dance party with the other tourists and their families! It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:
After our night on the island we continued on to another island in the lake as well. It was a nice two days, though I still feel like I´m swaying a bit from the boat ride : )

Tomorrow morning we leave for Copacabana, Bolivia! (No, not the same as the Barry Manilow song.) I´ll write soon.

Joan

Peru Superlatives

Now that I´m in my last day here in Peru, I thought I´d put together a little "Best and Worst" list for Peru. Here goes:

Most Popular: The Alpaca (like a llama, makes the softest and warmest wool!)

Best Trait: The people are always friendly and ready to help
Worst Trait: Restaurants never serve your drinks until after you get your meal and leave you dying of thirst. Teach these people some smart business skills PLEASE!

Best Food: Avocado (delicious here and always ripe!)
Worst Food: Beef (the cows here don´t eat so well)

Best View: Views from Pisaq and Machu Picchu
Worst View: The slug on the bathroom floor in Huancayo

Best Weaver: Tino (my host dad)
Worst Weaver: The taxi driver from Ollantaytambo to Cusco

Best Music: Still waiting to find it, though a lot of the local stuff is fun to dance to.
Worst Music: Reggeaton (enough already!)

Biggest Pet Peeve: No one, no vendor or hotel or store worker, EVER has change. If you don´t have exact change for something its like they have no idea what to do, like they have never encountered this unusual situation before. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!
Runner-up Pet Peeve: The buses and trains keep deciding to strike on the exact days we want to use them!

Joking aside, its been a great month (yes, month!) here in Peru. We´re spending our last day here in Puno, a lake-side town near the border of Bolivia. We just visited some of the islands in Lake Titicaca. They were amazing! I´ll write about them soon, as long as I can remember to bring my camera to the Internet Cafe next time!

Thanks,
Joan

Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley

We have arrived back in Cusco from Machu Picchu, and I must say it was all I´d hoped for. We lucked out with the weather, got up early and had a beautiful sunny morning at the top. I felt like I was in a post card, it was hard to believe I was actually there. Walking around the city on the mountain, you really get the sense of just how big this place actually was. There were streets and neighborhoods, these people had quite the society up there! Machu Picchu was so secluded that when the Spanish came through to invade the area, they missed Machu Picchu because they didn´t know it was there. The Incan´s eventually abandoned the city on their own, and the ruins remained unknown to the Western world until an explorer came upon them in 1911. Its hard to say that this man "discovered" Machu Picchu, since when he came to the area he asked a local the way to the nearest ruins and they showed him the way : ) An incredible site to see, a must for any visit to Peru. Here are some pictures:
Machu Picchu is actually 1,000 meters lower than Cusco! You travel down into the valley before heading back up to the site. The way to get to Machu Picchu is to go through Aguas Calientes (or Machu Picchu town), which is only reachable by train, there are no roads. We took the backpacker train, which is the cheapest way to get there, costing $44 and requiring a two nights stay in AC. The train leaves Ollantaytambo at 8:00 at night, and heads back two mornings later at 5:45am! It is nice to have the whole day to spend at Machu Picchu, many of the other tours and day trips arrive between the hours of 10 and 2:00, so to have the morning or afternoon with less crowds is a treat. Aguas Calientes means "Hot Waters" in Spanish, and for good reason - there are hot springs in the area, which I took advantage of after our long day of hiking to rest my tired legs. We hiked to Waynapicchu, the mountain in the background of the pictures above, where the ruins continue. Between that and the hike back to town, my legs had just about had it!

As I mentioned, in the days before we visited towns in the Sacred Valley - Pisaq (amazing), Urubamba (nothing special), and Ollantaytambo (pretty cool). Here are some pics:

PISAQ:
URUBAMBA:

OLLANTAYTAMBO:
Today is our recovery and blog-updating day, then tomorrow we take an all-day train to Puno on Lake Titicaca! (Go ahead and laugh, its OK.) Within the next few days we´ll be crossing the border into our next country, Bolivia!

Best wishes from below the equator,

Joan