Mendoza

Last week, we went to Mendoza, Argentina.  Mendoza is known for their tons of vineyards and wine making.  Of course this needed further exploration on our part.  We heard from some fellow travelers about a place to rents bikes in the Maipu wineries called Mr. Hugo´s.  I, Elisa, had to get the only bright green kids bike available.  I´m even to short in Argentina for adult sizes. 

Anyway, we went met a dutch couple and rode to a museum with them.  We got some free wine and the tour was boring.  We split up and rode about 6.5 kms to an olive oil factory thing, expecting lots of samples.  We were starving and there weren´t any.  Instead, I got a bag of dried tomatos and Kristen got pickles.  Things were not looking good.

We went to a vineyard after called Carnea.  The wine was ok.  Sidebar, Mendoza wineries makes mostly red wines, so I can´t say I was particularly impressed with any, but we tried a total of 7 or 8 all day.  We rode up the road to another vineyard, di Tomasso, and wisely skipped the tour and tasting, opting to just buy a bottle and drink it.  It was a lovely vineryard and winery, with cask tables set up out side.  We then road to a chocolate and liquor place.  We tried different liquors and chocolate and its too bad it wasn´t later int he trip, because then I might have had something to bring home for my mom.

We returned our bikes to Mr. Hugo´s and ended up staying there talking with other travelers or 3 hours.  It shoudl be noted we went to Mr. Hugo´s because we had heard he gives you bottomless wine when you return the bikes.  This is not just myth, its a reality.

On Wednesday, we went on a trekking and rapelling excursion.  We have both come to the realisation that trekking is not fun at all and really hard.  Luckily, that part only lasted an hour.  We then rapelled from 3 heights of 7, 14 and 45 meters.  It wasn´t to scary, I don´t think becaus eI had to wait to go last all times and by the time it was my turn to go I was so bored from waiting that any fears up to that point had subsided.  It was a good day though.  We went to a thermal springs water park in the afternoon, which was really nice.

There were two american girls there, both blonde and from arizona.  One also shall we say was augmented.  They must never see blond people with plastic surgery in Mendoza often cause all the preteen girls in the pool surrounded the blondes for the whole time and taking pictures with them.  I think the Argentinians thought they were Hiltons.  They probably thought so a little bit too.

We are in Patagonia now.  More on that to come….

 

Elisa

Defying death by bunk bed in Chile and para-gliding

We will start with the more boring and less funny of the two stories.  Para-glidng over Iquique was quite amazing.  I was absolutely terrified to do it but I wanted to conquer my fear.  This outing didn’t require me signing a document which said they were not liable for my death either so it actually must have a low fatality rate.   I wish I had thought of that before I went.  The night before Itossed and turned and could barely sleep because I was so anxious!  Another guy from the hostel had decided to do it as welll as he explained that it was much safer than white water rafting.  He thought rafting was crazy.  Anyway,  at 10 am the little van picked us up from the hostel and it was full.  A few visiting pilots who were going solo including a woman from san diego and the instructors.  I was nearly shaking.  When we got up to the take off spot (500 meters up) I was jumping up and down to try to release nervous energy.  I watched closely as a few people took off ahead of myself and the other guy.  My tandem pilot had been doing it for 14 years and that made me feel better.  I got starpped in and was only held to the pilot by  two straps and some carabiners.  He prepared the parachute and it grabbed the air and we lifted off then went back down then lifted again and one more time we ran towards the edgo of the cliff and took off into the blue morning sky.  We reached heights of over 600 meters.  THere was a strong thermal wind that lifted us to the top of the mountain.  About 8 para-gliders in all in the sky cruising above below and all around us.  We were cruising at the same pace as the birds that were right next to us.  I recaived a miniature history lesson while in the air as we soared over the tall building of the city.  We can down about 25-30 minutes after gliding over the ocean and then a nice soft landing on the beach.  It was quite an experience.  I did feeel  a little woozy after but it cleared up in a couple hours.

Ok, now for how I defied death by a bunk bed today.  ELisa and I were taking some post breakfast naps and I was just waking up and Elisa turned over and her entire bunk bed fell on top of me.  The bracket had given out and I was pinned under the bed.  Quite an alarming way to wake up.  I told her if she wanted to be on the bottom bunk she could have just told me!  There are nicer ways of going about things than dropping a bed and frame on someone.  We were both pretty startled but made a good  lot of jokes about it.  It seems we cannot leave a city without having an encounter with death or serious bodily harm.  I luckily sustained no injuries other than a scratch on my toe.  When one of the handymen came in he asked what we did with the rest of the bed because he didn’t even realize that it had completely fallen!  All is well though.  WE switched rooms and we get free breakfast tomorrow.  Assuming the same thing doesn’t happen in this next bunk bed and I may not be so lucky this time to wake up for breakfast!!!

Miles of beach

Hola everyone!  Long time, no posts.  We’re sorry.  That’s because we have been doing a lot of, well, nothing.  After leaving Puno, we had a much more sedate trip back into Chile to the Northern beach town of Iquique.  The weather up there was very strange, being very sunni early in the morning, then becoming quite overcast by 2 or 3.  That did not deter us from some much needed beach time.  The water was artic cold, which is too bad because we wanted to do a little wave jumping but on some days we managed to get waste deep before sprinting out.

Iquique would be a nice tourist city if they cleaned up all the drunks on the street- 7 days a week, 24 hours a day- and all the mangey dogs.  Can’t say we have ever seen so many strays in one place.  I don’t think they have a South American Bob Barker encouraging you to spay and nueter. 

Along with beach activities, tanning, reading and such, we managed to locate the local McDonalds, which has now become our haven in strange new places.  Aside from tanning and walkind, we didn’t do too much.  Oh Kristen did jump off cliff, more on that later.

It should be noted some interesting people we met at the hostel:  A Australian family is traveling with two kids under 12 for 5 months, which is crazy in and of itself.  However, their son had this chesty throaty whoopng cough that was kind of his way of announcing his enterance or identifying his whereabouts at any time.  Not only was he a little strange, but he would sit down randomly and different tables with people fromt he hostel, but then he’d cough all over their stuff.  Gag.  We also hung out with two south african boys with hedge funds.  If only we had had more time together…..

Elisa

Rafting the Apurimac River~~~~~~~~

There were thirteen of us that decided to check out the three day rafting trip down the Apurimac River.  We booked it so that we would leave the hostel at 8:30 am and take a four hour bus ride to the beiginning of the canyon.  I unfortunately woke up with one of the worst headaches of my life and a burning fever.  Fun!!!  This bus ride was no normal bus ride either, one of the guides said the driver could be consider a class 5 driver.  As in the rapids we were headed for were class 5 and very difficult and so was the roaad we were on.  The bus was shaking and bouncing the entire time as were zig zagging through narrow mountain roads.

When we arrived to the river the guides set up lunch for us.  They fed us huge mounds of food every meal because we would need the energy for paddling long days.  After lunch they tought us all of the commands such as FORWARD, backward, high side right , high side left, right back and left back.  The passengers on our boat were: Elisa, Lisa and Glenn from Australia, Paddy who is a guide in Australia, Netti (our little English mate) and myslef.   “FORWARD” became our least favorite word to hear, especially on the second day when we paddled for nearly 8 hours.  So, we went through some drills to get the commands down and then we had to practice the high side right and left tactic in which we flipped the raft so we would know what it as like to have it flip over and know what to do to get it back the right way up.  After that we had to climb up a little cliff and jump off into the current to practice with the rescue kayakers.  They paddled up through the current and you grab onto the back of the kayak and they brought us near the shore.

When we finished this activity we paddled down stream for about 45 minutes where we reached our first camp site.  The guides made us jump off the rafts and swim about 150′ to shore.  They set up our tents and made dinner for us.  Again, huge heaping plates of food that were impossible to finish.  The wind really picks up at night and at one point I thought our tent was going to take off.  Sand is surprisingly hard when you try to sleep on it too!

We woke up the next morning at 7am and got on the river at about 8:30 am and started off by hitting some level four rapids.  They kept saying that the rapids were very technical because of all of the large boulders in it.  LAter that morning we came upon a level three rapid that had claimed a young man’s life the month before.  Apparently, the rocks get worn away underneath from the current and create caverns and this particular rock had two caves.  One girl that had fallen out made it through the cave and the young guy never came up.  They think he is still stuck in there because his body has yet to be found.  That was very scary to hear.  Just before he told us that, one of the cargo boats went down ahead of us and it flipped.  Big mess to try to flip a heavy raft in the rapids.  We were all pretty nervous.  WE made it through just fine though.  Later we stopped for lunch in amazing place where two rivers met and then back out for another four hours of paddling and rapids.  Again they started us off with some level 4+ to 5 rapids.  Pretty crazy stuff when they tell you inside because you are going down a ten to fifteen foot drop!

That night we set up camp on a nice big beach and had a huge fire and feast and some drinks.  Elisa, Netti and I were talking to one of the rescue Kayakers, Efrain, and he was horrifying us by telling us about how dangerous the river is and that it claims many lives.  He said it claims so many lives because of all the rocks and the caverns that they make.  We tried not to let it set in too much because the next day we still had four more hours to go.

On the final day they made us pancakes and fresh fruit and porrage.  A greta meal and we played some games to get warmed up for the day.  Once again the first rapids we hit were a level 5.  They always like to start us off strong.  We made it about half way through the day when we got to a level 3 rapid and the other cargo boat flipped so they had us attempt to go through the  rapids a different way.  The first boat made it clear and fine , the second boat got a little stuck on a big rock and nearly tipped.  Then it was our turn and we got stuck up on the rock and our entire raft flipped over at the beginning of the long rapids.  Netti and Lisa got sucked right out from under the raft and were rescued immediatly.  Elisa and Paddy were clear and free quite quickly as well.  Glenn held onto the raft and was on the outside of it.  I however, got sucked under and then got stuck under the raft.  I opened my eyes for one second and all I could see was the blue of the raft and bubbles.  I was freaked out!  I was grasping for anything to pull myself up from under the raft.  All I could think was I was going to get stuck in a cavern and die on  my 25th birhtday!  Fianlly, Aldo, our guide saw me under the raft and freed me from there.  I came up and I was gasping for air.  I saw Glenn’s face and he looked absolutely terrified.  I had  a hold on the boat because I had somehow gotten tangled in the rope and I don’t know why but I let go of the boat and went down a little water fall and tried to keep my feet forward and up like they said.  I saw all the kayakers were moving away from me and I panicked even more.  I hit another big rock and got sucked under for a bit again and fianlly Efrain came and got me and brought me to Segundo’s raft until they sorted the boat situation out.  He immediatley opened my life vest and took off my helmet and gave me water.  Iwas in complete shock.  All I could do was keep asking where Elisa was.  She had been dropped off on a beach and was safe.  Segundo had to shake me to get me out of my funk.  I was so horrified the rest of the day and we had to go through more 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s still.  All of us were shaking and terrified to finish the day.  After about two more hours of rafting we all settled down a little bit and had fun again.  At the end of the day we stopped off for some cliff jumping.

We arrived at our end point and I think all of us were a little relieved.  TheyFed us and gave us shirts and tickets for  massages.  Nice way to end it.  Later we went out for dinner with the entire crew.  Oh yeah there was a group of 9 Israelis that was on the trip with us as well… We went to an Israeli restaurant for dinner and then to the club with everyone later.  It was a good night.  I just personally wish I hadn’t been sick…

Overall though,  I think we all had a greater appreciation for life and a better understanding that we are not invincible after this trip.  A great experience that made us all a little stronger and wiser and I would not change it for the world!

Machu Picchu and…Dora!

ELisa, Lisa (a nice Aussie girl we met who’s boyfriend was on a trek to Machu Picchu) and I decided to walk around and find the best deal to get to Machu Picchu by train and bus.  We had been told it was possible to camp in the park if you snuck your stuff in. So we wanted the best deal to get there for one night and camp…not telling the tour operator of our sneaky little plan.  Well, we met Dora.  She seened nice.  She spoke English very well and was working with us on price.  We bought her package and were to to picked up at the hostel the next day at 6 am.  That was fine but when we got to the train station and boarded the train we realized she had not give us our return tickets.  Too late now.  When we got to Aguas Calientes, the city at the base of machu picchu and huanapicchu we were looking for our english speaking tour guide.  WEll what do you know… no guide waiting for us with a sign like all the other tour groups!  We found someone to help us and they lead us to restaurant to call the travel agent.   She kept telling him things like we need to have a hostel so they can deliver the tickets and he was trying to tell us what she was saying but it was all spanish and I had no idea what was going on plus, we were not planning on staying at a hostel. 

After that, the man that was attempting to help brought us to the bus station to get to the top of MAchu Picchu and it was beautiful.  We found and English speaking guide and he gave us the history of the site.  We couldn’t believe that it was only used for such a short time!  It was quite amazing to see in person.  In Pictures you cannot grasp the size or the actual setting.  The mountains are green and lush and come up out of nowhere.  Jungle all around and SAND FLIES!  They are tiny little bugs that just swarm to you and you don’t know you have been bitten until you see the little blood spot.  Other than that… Machu Picchu is so beautiful and I have a bunch of photos that I will post at some point I promise!!!

Oh yeah, Camping at machu Pichu is impossible.  They make you check all bags when you get to the entrance of the park so that plan fell through and we had no tickets home.  Great!!!

We arrive back to the bottom, Aguas Calientes and try calling DORA again.  And Once again, no worries miss.  We will deliver the tickets to your hostel.  We call again…go to the Inca Mayuc Hostel and we will give you your tickets there.  This hostel apparently works with the tour agency and was very expensive.  The girl at the front has no idea who we are and I got frusterated and called the number again.  She kept saying no worries we will deliver the tickets at 8pm.  WEll 8pm rolls around and no tickets.  I call her again after we found another less expensive hostel and  she says no  worries miss.  We will deliver the tickets to that hostel tomorrow at 11am.  We thought it would be a good idea to have someone waiting at both hostels and what do you know…they show up at the original hostel!!! Of course they didn’t go to the one that they were promised to!  Big mess with Dora.  Kinda made the experience uncomfortable.

On the best note though, Machu Pichu was amazing and the best part of the entire trip by far!!!!

Colca Canyon

To alleviate the monotony of sitting around all day and going out at night with new friends that we did most of last week, KP and I convinced our friend Nettie to go on a two-day trek of Colca Canyon with us.  Colca Canyon is the deepest canyon in the world, deeper than the Grand Canyon as well.  Trekking, we were led to believe by the brief description given, would be a easy walk down and a nice nature walk around the canyon.  WE WERE WRONG, very very wrong. 

The trip started leaving from our hostel at 1 30 in the morning on Sunday.  We took a four hour bus to the town called Cabanaconde located at he rim of the canyon.  The town was filled with Quechua women who wear brightly colored dresses and hats and are usually selling some kind of baked goods or carrying huge colorful bags on their backs.  After breakfast which was one egg and the triangle bread they have everywhere in Peru, we started our trek at 7 30.  The first couple of hours were nice, we got beautiful views of the canyon from above, plus a little bit of vertigo.  We will post pics, but google it if you can, it really was amazing.  Anyway, the first half of the day was going all down hill, which started out pretty easy then it got steeper and the path narrower and rockier.  If that wasn’t tough enough, the edge was constantly a cliff, so if we fell, we’d be coming home in body bags.  This helped me, Elisa, realize a new fear of heights I have.

After 4 hours of endless fear and a bit of pain, we had lunch in the canyon.  Those couple of beers from the night before must have hit at this point because we all passed out for about 45 minutes in the grass out front of the restaurant- term used loosely.  We set off then for the next 4 hours of the day,  The sun was quite high at this point so it was scorching hot.  This part of the trek started fine, then we had to go up hill for about an hour and a half, and this was probably the lowest the three of us felt the whole trip.  Then there was a part where path was only 6 inches wide, with a cliff on one side.  This 2 seconds of my life will probably stick with me as the scariest in my life. (This is Kristen and I personally, even though I have a fear of heights, was ok.  I think this journey helped me conquer my fear).

It wasn’t all near death fun though.  We went through a couple small town located in the canyon in which the people that lived there would have to hike the entire trek we did to get any kind of goods.  Many of them had mules to help carry goods and it seemd to be a regular occurence for them to hike all over the place.  We even saw a group of guys who had a pparently just played soccer about 1.5 miles down the canyon.  It is crazy how in shape thwey are! Finally, before sun down we made it to Our camp site for the night.  It was supposed to have hot springs or something, but was freezing by the time we got there.  The whole “oasis” was a little demoralizing.

WE started trekking at 3 am on monday.  It sounds insane, but this last part was my favorite part of the trek, primarily because it was pitch black out and you couldn’t see the plummet below. (This was my least favorite part as my asthma kicked in immediately .  It was a four hour trek straight up hill on a very rocky path and I would have to say the dark scared me more becasue I could not see what was down below! KP)  It was all up hill, and the sun finally rose the last hour and a half of the trip up.  KP used her ingenuity after three hours of uphill hiking and got a mule the last part of the way and beat us all to the top (personally my favorite part of the trip, except for when the mule in front of me kept stopping and we were on the edge of a very steep cliff and it lightly kicked my mule in the head).  Nettie and I finished in the middle of the group of 8.  Needless to say, finishing felt amazing. 

We had breakfast in town, where Nettie believes I got food poisoning.  We got back to Arequipa at 4 and left for Cusco at 8 for an overnight bus, the worst bus of my life.

Anyway, all is better today and we are planning on going to Machu Picchu tomorrow.

Ciao

E

Salta and bus fun

Hola y buenos dias amigos!  Ha ha thats the extent of MY spanish at least.  Kristen and I left BA on Tuesday this week.  We took the bus for 20 hours from BA to Salta, in the North West not far from the Bolivian border.  Now twenty hours on a bus in South america sounds less then fun, yeah?  Well let us tell you, it was AMAZING!  First off, the seats fold  out completely 180 degrees, we stopped and had dinner at 11 and it was empanadas and roast chicken, including dessert.  We also gor breakfast and lunch and movies.  Its important to note Kristens favorite part was the soap on a stick in the bathrooms you had to use when washing. 

We got into salta and walked around in the afternoon, identifying necessary places like the town square, tourist info, market and bars.  We had dinner at a barbacue at the hostel where we met a bristish couple and guy from italy and the staff here at the hostel, who have been wonderful and very nice.  We had a lot of wine from Mendoza and stayed up til two chatting.

Today we hiked this mountain-hill thing here that has a gondola.  We could see all of Salta the surrounding mountains and a lot of smog.  we plan on staying til Sunday then probably go to chile.  Have a good day!

these days

So we´vebeen busy littlewalkers here in the city.  Yesterday we walked around for 4 hours again and found this snazzy little walkers alley with lots of shops and street performers.  We sat and watched some muy guapo break dancers for about 30 minutes.  FYI Kristen used her whole sim card up, due to these lads.  It is important to note that she also spotted a Yacht Master II rolex just sitting there in a boutique window.  For those who are not time piece oficionados, that is the new all white gold Rolex.  Anyway.  Today I (Elisa) went to the Evita Museum and the giant flower thing.  Kristen saw a fair- carnival thing and went on a boat ride in le tigre.  She also continues to test the limits of her stomach and immune system by drinking the water and eating street meat hot dogs.  I hope for the sake of us all, she does not regret these decisions. Ciao!

A walk in Buenos Aires

We started of the day of walking around 1:30 this afternoon in the hopes to reach REcoletta cemetary.  Both of us thought it was much warmer today than yesterday so we dressed accordingly.  Well, that was stupid. The Argentinians were all bundled in winter coats and scarves and here we are in short sleeves.  People were continuously looking at us like we were crazy. After abut fifteen minutes of walking in the the cold wind we were frozen and I (Kristen) was on a mission to find a sweatshirt.  I think everytime we went into a store we got turned around, so what should have been a  half hour walk turned into about three hours.  Though we did stop and I found a sweatshirt and Elisa and I looked into getting tattoos (Elisa slightly more seriously).   Finally, we found the graveyard and Evita´s grave was slighlty lack lustre compared to the other tombs but the whole place is amazing.  There were cats everywhere and beautiful iron work and sculptures.  All in all, a good day.

Counting down the days

Elisa and I are anxiously awaiting Tuesday when we leave for a minimum of four months to head to Buenos Aires.  We are making contacts with all sorts of people from South America and planning to see as much as possible!!!