So our bus to Paraguay did in fact take us 24 hours and thankfully was far less eventful. At the border however is where all the fun and games began!! Aparently the border we were using has a big drug trafficking problem so we were to expect dogs and a few peoples bags to be searched. We all pilled out of the bus into the intorable heat and lined our bags up and our selves. The drug dog and his handler were great fun. The handler ran up and down the bags getting the dog all worked up with his toy, that looked like a face cloth and then let him out. The dog ran around sniffing, but didnt find anything :( Well untill the police men planted the drugs in amongst our bags as a kind of test I guess. While this was all going on the police men then started one by one going through everyones bags. Fully emptying them too. Steph and I were not looking forward to this. Thankfully! We got a man with a cold and he couldn't be bothered to go through all our stuff and we got off with him just giving our bags a good grope and a wee peer in the top.
While the drug stuff had been going on this wild boar looking pig kept appearing and one of the police men would try and chase it away. It would try and sniff the bags and us. While Steph was getting her bag checked I was sat beside the bus and had a very close encounter with the pig. She wanted the bread rolls in my bags and kept putting her oversized snout in it and biting things!! Had I known at the time how horrible the bread was she would have been welcome to it! Not many people would let her near them, but the pig only spoke spanish so that was proving a problem for me! Not that it mattered too much, she enjoyed bitting the awful book I was reading. After some time, this got a little dull and she went and lay in the mud. Know I told her as soon as she did that that she was not allowed to come near me again... she didn't listen and did a great job at getting pig mud all over my rucksack and also the crap book (I didn't mind that bit too much). The police man told us that she had been there since she was a baby and didn't realise that she was a pig. She thought she was a dog and didn't understand why she couldnt do all the things other dogs did!!
She was a clever pig too and sniffed out food in someones bin liner of luggage. When she got into trouble the first time she hid and then went back and stole the whole bag of crisps!! It was funny, when she got into trouble she used to lie down like a dog would too. If she had rolled onto her back I would have thought she was Nuala in disguise!!
We arrived at Asuncion a bit later than the man had predicted, which sadly meant we didn`t get to see much of the city. But I will say that they do some very nice veggie pies in the downtown area. Especially if it´s around 10pm and you´re starving!
We say some very nice buildings along with 2 different hen doo´s. They also definitely have more money in Paraguay than in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. We were there just long enough to realize that things cost a little bit more (no more 3 course meals for under 2 pounds!)
We´re off early tomorrow to head to the Falls!!! And yes, we are excited!! Of course Anna keeps pointing out that it´s just water in then end ... what´s the big deal?!
Steph and Anna
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
At Least It Wasn`t 5am!
Steph and I should have knowen from the begining that travelling was never going to be easy if our travelling to South America is anything to go by... Our trip from La Paz to Santa Cruz has definatly been one of the more dramatic. When you buy a bus ticket from one place to the other, I guess you assume that the bus will get you there. Not in this case!! We started our trip to Santa Cruz at about 5pm, we were to arrive at our destination at 9am the following morning. After snuggling down for a nights kip on the bus (which Steph and I have gotten quite good at) I felt the bus come to a halt. Some hours later I woke again and found the bus was still stationary... neither of us really thought much of it. At about 6 we were woken and told it was a toilet break. In a state of sleepy confusion we both got off the bus and found ourselves surrounded by lorries and buses... There was a road block.
At some point in the morning about 4 men on the bus decided to walk up the hill to the nearest town and see what they could do. Unfortunatly, this was the only way to Santa Cruz. One of the men was flying!! For twice the price of our bus ticket!! Why not just fly in the first place!! At about 10am the bus drivers came on and told us all to go if we could. They really didnt think they were going anywhere today. Anna and I loaded up and started down the hill, we were told it would be a 2 to 3 hour walk. The only person left on the bus was a women with her 4 children who were all under 6. She had no choice but to wait it out.
About half an hour down the hill we came across the road block. They certantly know how to do things in Bolivia. The road was covered in bolders so nothing could drive over and the amount of people walking up and down the hill was amazing. It was like something out of a dooms-day movie. We made it across the road block and past all the protesters, who were angry about the government about pay and met out Boliviano family of ladies. They were lovely and were made up of and Auntie and Niece, and 3 other ladies, who all lived in Santa Cruz. With them we walked to the next town and then all squished into a taxi. Steph was in the boot.
We walked a little more, picking up some food along the way. We had made it to where the bus drivers had told us to go. However, the road block was still effecting the roads this far away. It probly didnt help that Bolivianos seem to have no common sense and blocked both lains, so even if the road block had ended no one could go anywhere anyway. Obviously people like to sit around clogging up the road for no reason in Bolivia!!
We ended up highering a man and his van for 7 hours to take us to Santa Cruz. He had no seats in the back, but at least there were windows!! We made it at 9pm, exactly 12 hours late.
Anna and I are not quite sure what all the fuss is about when it comes to Santa Cruz. It seems just like another big city and a not very pretty one. We didnt do much apart from city in the only pretty part of the city, the main square. We think all the nice stuff must be around it. Tonight we get on a bus to Asuncion. It takes 24 hours. Fun Fun Fun!!
Anna and Steph
At some point in the morning about 4 men on the bus decided to walk up the hill to the nearest town and see what they could do. Unfortunatly, this was the only way to Santa Cruz. One of the men was flying!! For twice the price of our bus ticket!! Why not just fly in the first place!! At about 10am the bus drivers came on and told us all to go if we could. They really didnt think they were going anywhere today. Anna and I loaded up and started down the hill, we were told it would be a 2 to 3 hour walk. The only person left on the bus was a women with her 4 children who were all under 6. She had no choice but to wait it out.
About half an hour down the hill we came across the road block. They certantly know how to do things in Bolivia. The road was covered in bolders so nothing could drive over and the amount of people walking up and down the hill was amazing. It was like something out of a dooms-day movie. We made it across the road block and past all the protesters, who were angry about the government about pay and met out Boliviano family of ladies. They were lovely and were made up of and Auntie and Niece, and 3 other ladies, who all lived in Santa Cruz. With them we walked to the next town and then all squished into a taxi. Steph was in the boot.
We walked a little more, picking up some food along the way. We had made it to where the bus drivers had told us to go. However, the road block was still effecting the roads this far away. It probly didnt help that Bolivianos seem to have no common sense and blocked both lains, so even if the road block had ended no one could go anywhere anyway. Obviously people like to sit around clogging up the road for no reason in Bolivia!!
We ended up highering a man and his van for 7 hours to take us to Santa Cruz. He had no seats in the back, but at least there were windows!! We made it at 9pm, exactly 12 hours late.
Anna and I are not quite sure what all the fuss is about when it comes to Santa Cruz. It seems just like another big city and a not very pretty one. We didnt do much apart from city in the only pretty part of the city, the main square. We think all the nice stuff must be around it. Tonight we get on a bus to Asuncion. It takes 24 hours. Fun Fun Fun!!
Anna and Steph
Another Fun Filled Border Crossing
Well, you`ll be glad to hear that we did make it to Lake Titicaca, but as with most of our bus travels, there was a hic up or two...
We got to the bus station in plenty of time for our 10.30pm bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. Now, the bus claimed that it was a DIRECT bus to Copacabana, and then it would carry to to La Paz. Hmmm, I think that their definitition of a DIRECT bus and ours differ a bit.
In my little happy world, a direct bus takes you from point A to point B without you having to change buses ... at 6.30am we were kicked off our bus with 7 other people and told that we had to get on another bus (again, we definitely differ on the definition of BUS). What can be almost classed as a mini van showed up, our bags were hefted on to the roof and we were told to get in. Then the lady told us that we would have to pay again for the transfer. Wait a minute!! Why are we paying a second time to get to Copacabana??? Well, the Argentinian girls sat behind us and were having none of that either. One of them very eliquently told the lady to piss off, as we were not paying twice for our DIRECT bus to Copacabana.
The lady finally came round and said that another mini van/bus would pick us up on the other side ... then she left. Right ... anybody feel like we`ve been done again??? Well, we had little hope of not having to pay twice, but as there were 9 of us, we went along for the ride (besides, the other bus had already left). The little man driving to `van` dropped us at the border on the Peruvian side and said that we had to go to immigration and then walk across to the other side, where a van would be waiting. So, what does the van look like? He didn`t know. What`s the driver`s name? He didn`t know. Will there actually be a van? He claimed there would be. Yarg!
We walked over the border as a group and it was completely safe. Immigrations were a breeze and so then what. Well, the Spanish lady and Brasilian dude went to ask about how much a taxi would be. The tall dude packed up and decided to walk the 8km (he claimed it would only take him 30 minutes ... in what world I don`t know). The rest of us sat with the bags and then magically the lady appeared again! She took us to the van that was there loaded us on and then wanted a tip. So she wanted a tip for leaving us, abandoning us in a van?? Hmmm I don`t think so! No tip!
Rolling into Copacabana just after 10am, we were hungry and so was the rest of our group, so we went out for breakfast 10 BS (that´s the sign for Bolivian money) and then had to find an ATM ... well ATM`s don`t exist in Copacabana, so we had to do a direct debty thing from a bank like place. It was all very confusing. We did try to exchange what was left of my US dollars, but they man said that the dollar bills were too small of an amount, and the tiniest corner of the $10 bill was gone, so they wouldn`t accept it! (we later found out that the bank won`t accept anything but pristeen bills, too bad the guy didn`t tell us that!)
We did manage to arrange our bus to La Paz for the next day, and our ferry to Isla del Sol (the island of the sun). Ahh! The island really was beautiful (sorry Miranda). And very relaxing! There wasn`t much to do, as there are less that 100 inhabitants on the whole island (well, that would be my guess anyways!).
Plus we stayed in one of the best hostels yet! A double room with nice warm blankets for maybe 2 pounds! They even let us dry out our clothes!!! So nice!
Off to our next big city, the high altitude capital of Bolivia, La Paz! We`re just hoping the bus ride isn`t too eventful!
Anna and Steph
We got to the bus station in plenty of time for our 10.30pm bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. Now, the bus claimed that it was a DIRECT bus to Copacabana, and then it would carry to to La Paz. Hmmm, I think that their definitition of a DIRECT bus and ours differ a bit.
In my little happy world, a direct bus takes you from point A to point B without you having to change buses ... at 6.30am we were kicked off our bus with 7 other people and told that we had to get on another bus (again, we definitely differ on the definition of BUS). What can be almost classed as a mini van showed up, our bags were hefted on to the roof and we were told to get in. Then the lady told us that we would have to pay again for the transfer. Wait a minute!! Why are we paying a second time to get to Copacabana??? Well, the Argentinian girls sat behind us and were having none of that either. One of them very eliquently told the lady to piss off, as we were not paying twice for our DIRECT bus to Copacabana.
The lady finally came round and said that another mini van/bus would pick us up on the other side ... then she left. Right ... anybody feel like we`ve been done again??? Well, we had little hope of not having to pay twice, but as there were 9 of us, we went along for the ride (besides, the other bus had already left). The little man driving to `van` dropped us at the border on the Peruvian side and said that we had to go to immigration and then walk across to the other side, where a van would be waiting. So, what does the van look like? He didn`t know. What`s the driver`s name? He didn`t know. Will there actually be a van? He claimed there would be. Yarg!
We walked over the border as a group and it was completely safe. Immigrations were a breeze and so then what. Well, the Spanish lady and Brasilian dude went to ask about how much a taxi would be. The tall dude packed up and decided to walk the 8km (he claimed it would only take him 30 minutes ... in what world I don`t know). The rest of us sat with the bags and then magically the lady appeared again! She took us to the van that was there loaded us on and then wanted a tip. So she wanted a tip for leaving us, abandoning us in a van?? Hmmm I don`t think so! No tip!
Rolling into Copacabana just after 10am, we were hungry and so was the rest of our group, so we went out for breakfast 10 BS (that´s the sign for Bolivian money) and then had to find an ATM ... well ATM`s don`t exist in Copacabana, so we had to do a direct debty thing from a bank like place. It was all very confusing. We did try to exchange what was left of my US dollars, but they man said that the dollar bills were too small of an amount, and the tiniest corner of the $10 bill was gone, so they wouldn`t accept it! (we later found out that the bank won`t accept anything but pristeen bills, too bad the guy didn`t tell us that!)
We did manage to arrange our bus to La Paz for the next day, and our ferry to Isla del Sol (the island of the sun). Ahh! The island really was beautiful (sorry Miranda). And very relaxing! There wasn`t much to do, as there are less that 100 inhabitants on the whole island (well, that would be my guess anyways!).
Plus we stayed in one of the best hostels yet! A double room with nice warm blankets for maybe 2 pounds! They even let us dry out our clothes!!! So nice!
Off to our next big city, the high altitude capital of Bolivia, La Paz! We`re just hoping the bus ride isn`t too eventful!
Anna and Steph
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Cous Cous to Machu Picchu and Back
Hello again everyone!
So we can now proudly say that we´ve seen Machu Picchu!
We arrived into Cuzco last Saturday (12th March) and managed to find our hostel easily enough (it was up the hill). From there we quickly booked our trek to Machu Picchu. We would be leaving between 4.30am and 5am on Monday to go on the Salkantay Trail 5day/4night trek. Yay! And it didn´t break our bank accounts, though there isn´t much money left in either of ours right about now.
Now, if you ever find your self with some time in Cuzco on a Saturday, we would suggest going to the free Chocolate Musuem (between Plaza de Armas and Plaza San Fransisco). It was amazing! We even had hot chocolate instead of ice cream!
We had all of Sunday morning before my dad was due to arrive and decided that we should be cultural and go to see a small convent with art musuem. We didn´t make it farther than Plaza de Armas, as Carnival was on and there was a massive parade with dancing, traditional dress and floats. Peru treats Carnival like Ecuador does, only for one day instead of the whole month. This just means that it was a war zone of water balloons, squirt guns and foam as we tried to take cover at every opportunity! Sadly, we didn´t always succeed and were attacked at least 4 times - one of whom was a man, dressed as a women, in the parade! It was pretty hilarious and he sprayed us with foam and then said, "only in Peru!" as he handed us each a condom with a sweetie on it! All we could do was laugh!
Dad arrived and we had an action plan of things to do before leaving the next day. This included buying snacks, water, a hat for Dad and Anna and buying a towel. Tasks done and we were ready for the morning! (For all those Brits out there, we did eat lunch in a pub which served Greene King IPA.)
So, our adventure began with a 2 1/2 hour bus ride up a twisty road to the village of Mollepata (2900m). Our group "The English Speakers" consisted of 2 Germans, 2 Danes, 2 LondAners, a South Korean girl, us and Walter (our guide). A nice morning walk to our lunch spot and Dad was feeling a bit more out of breath than usual. This could have been the altitude or maybe it was just Walter´s "short-cuts" that were getting to him. These "short-cuts" consisted of going up as steep of an incline as possble for a minimum of 5 to 10 minutes.
After a nice lunch of soup followed by rice and meat, we set off again. Dad really wasn´t feeling well now and was showing the signs of Altitude Sickness, Anna and I both were fine. Our "camping" was in tents, but under a tarped house. It was nice to get some hot tea and popcorn before dinner! We would like to note that this was our first night apart in 67 days and even though our tents were next to each other it was very distressing! (What´s it going to be like when we go back to Rutland and Scotland!!)
Day 2 consisted of going from our campsite at Soraypampa (3900m) to our highest point (4650m) and then down about 2 hours for lunch. I would love to say that the view was amazing, but as it was snowing, there wasn´t much of a view. We´re thinking of stealing Ben´s photos and claiming them as ours! While Anna and I were happy hiking up, Dad went with the wise decision of taking a horse up to the top, along with about 10 other people.
Another filling lunch, well, except if you were Anna, who pilfered leftovers from other plates (she was convinced she wasn´t given lunch in the first place and that her plate just randomly became empty). Dad again took the opportunity to go by horseback as we were still quite high and dizziness is not a good thing when walking downhill! Our campsite was at Chaullay (2900m) and we were greeted by some mud and funny looking chickens!
Day 3 everyone was feeling A LOT better (the altitude had taken it´s toll on 5 of our group of 10, one member of which had been suffering from hallucinations of dead cats and dogs - not dad!). We walked through the jungle to lunch, passing many avocado (palta) and passionfruit trees. From here we were taken by "bus" (van with broken seats) to our campsite in Santa Teresa (1900m if you´re interested). There were "hot" showers for all of 5 soles (just over 1 pound) and Anna was definitely in need of one ... you try sharing a tent with her!
Day 4 we walked to Aguas Calientes, this is the town nearest to Machu Picchu. There is an option of taking a bus in the morning and whilst we were walking along the trail 2 very full mini buses loaded with the "Spanish Speaking Group" flew by ... WHIMPS!! :) After Anna had eaten her ice cream, the afternoon was spent walking with our BIG rucksacks along the railway line ... this is where we saw our first glimpse of Machu Picchu! In the four days we walked a total of 83km (52 miles) from Mollepata to Aguas Calientes. Now it was just the 400m vertical ascent in the morning!
At 4am is was pissing it down with rain, which didn´t let up until 6am, just as the gates opened at the top! It was really more like walking up a river than stairs, but hey, at least this was the first time our boots had really gotten wet! (the mud had made them waterproof) Let´s just say it´s a good thing we´d both brought extra layers with us! Walter took us on an hour an a half tour, in which time the sun began to rise and the clouds began to lift, revealing the city. It was a spectacular view! Everyone thought it was definitely worth it, even if the Londoners claimed they hadn´t walked this far in the past 3 years (and won´t again in the next 4!)
Dad and I walked to the Sun Gate as Anna explored the central area. Now the Sun Gate was nice, but for some reason I was more impressed with the view and forgot to take a picture of the gate itself. We left around 2pm and were sitting happily in a restuarant eating lunch around 3.30, just as the rain started again. We spotted 2 very wet Londoners through the window - respect must be given to Av, as she walked for about 4 days in broken healed shoes!
Now, we all know that Anna and Steph´s journeys are never uneventful, and unfortunatly this one lived up to that expectation. Our train was supposed to leave at 7.30pm (arriving back to Cous Cous at 11pm), however "The Company" booked us on the 10 o´clock train, which turned out to be leaving at 10.30pm. This was okay and the train did leave relatively on time. About an hour into our trip, the train screeched to a halt, and stayed that way for a good 2 hours. They eventually got around to telling us that a tree had fallen onto the tracks and there were people trying to remove it. This did finally happen. It took another 45 minutes to get to the train station where we were taken by bus to Cous Cous, arriving at a pleasant 4.50am (hey, seems like we were up for 24 hours!) You know our luck with 5am and buses!! Anna was in bed by 5am and I was about 2 minutes after her. We have no idea what Frank was up to, but he didn´t make it into bed for at least another 15 minutes! It was the most expensive 3 hour kip we´ve ever had! (Check out was at 10.30am and we still had to re-pack).
We said goodbye to Dad this morning, after which we went for 2nd breakfast (the first one did not fill the hole). Other than that we´ve done bugger all today, other than revisiting the chocolate musuem, what can we say, it was good!
We´re now waiting for our 10.30pm overnight bus to Bolivia, let´s just hope it doesn´t get in at 5am!
¡Bueños Noches!
Anna and Steph
So we can now proudly say that we´ve seen Machu Picchu!
We arrived into Cuzco last Saturday (12th March) and managed to find our hostel easily enough (it was up the hill). From there we quickly booked our trek to Machu Picchu. We would be leaving between 4.30am and 5am on Monday to go on the Salkantay Trail 5day/4night trek. Yay! And it didn´t break our bank accounts, though there isn´t much money left in either of ours right about now.
Now, if you ever find your self with some time in Cuzco on a Saturday, we would suggest going to the free Chocolate Musuem (between Plaza de Armas and Plaza San Fransisco). It was amazing! We even had hot chocolate instead of ice cream!
We had all of Sunday morning before my dad was due to arrive and decided that we should be cultural and go to see a small convent with art musuem. We didn´t make it farther than Plaza de Armas, as Carnival was on and there was a massive parade with dancing, traditional dress and floats. Peru treats Carnival like Ecuador does, only for one day instead of the whole month. This just means that it was a war zone of water balloons, squirt guns and foam as we tried to take cover at every opportunity! Sadly, we didn´t always succeed and were attacked at least 4 times - one of whom was a man, dressed as a women, in the parade! It was pretty hilarious and he sprayed us with foam and then said, "only in Peru!" as he handed us each a condom with a sweetie on it! All we could do was laugh!
Dad arrived and we had an action plan of things to do before leaving the next day. This included buying snacks, water, a hat for Dad and Anna and buying a towel. Tasks done and we were ready for the morning! (For all those Brits out there, we did eat lunch in a pub which served Greene King IPA.)
So, our adventure began with a 2 1/2 hour bus ride up a twisty road to the village of Mollepata (2900m). Our group "The English Speakers" consisted of 2 Germans, 2 Danes, 2 LondAners, a South Korean girl, us and Walter (our guide). A nice morning walk to our lunch spot and Dad was feeling a bit more out of breath than usual. This could have been the altitude or maybe it was just Walter´s "short-cuts" that were getting to him. These "short-cuts" consisted of going up as steep of an incline as possble for a minimum of 5 to 10 minutes.
After a nice lunch of soup followed by rice and meat, we set off again. Dad really wasn´t feeling well now and was showing the signs of Altitude Sickness, Anna and I both were fine. Our "camping" was in tents, but under a tarped house. It was nice to get some hot tea and popcorn before dinner! We would like to note that this was our first night apart in 67 days and even though our tents were next to each other it was very distressing! (What´s it going to be like when we go back to Rutland and Scotland!!)
Day 2 consisted of going from our campsite at Soraypampa (3900m) to our highest point (4650m) and then down about 2 hours for lunch. I would love to say that the view was amazing, but as it was snowing, there wasn´t much of a view. We´re thinking of stealing Ben´s photos and claiming them as ours! While Anna and I were happy hiking up, Dad went with the wise decision of taking a horse up to the top, along with about 10 other people.
Another filling lunch, well, except if you were Anna, who pilfered leftovers from other plates (she was convinced she wasn´t given lunch in the first place and that her plate just randomly became empty). Dad again took the opportunity to go by horseback as we were still quite high and dizziness is not a good thing when walking downhill! Our campsite was at Chaullay (2900m) and we were greeted by some mud and funny looking chickens!
Day 3 everyone was feeling A LOT better (the altitude had taken it´s toll on 5 of our group of 10, one member of which had been suffering from hallucinations of dead cats and dogs - not dad!). We walked through the jungle to lunch, passing many avocado (palta) and passionfruit trees. From here we were taken by "bus" (van with broken seats) to our campsite in Santa Teresa (1900m if you´re interested). There were "hot" showers for all of 5 soles (just over 1 pound) and Anna was definitely in need of one ... you try sharing a tent with her!
Day 4 we walked to Aguas Calientes, this is the town nearest to Machu Picchu. There is an option of taking a bus in the morning and whilst we were walking along the trail 2 very full mini buses loaded with the "Spanish Speaking Group" flew by ... WHIMPS!! :) After Anna had eaten her ice cream, the afternoon was spent walking with our BIG rucksacks along the railway line ... this is where we saw our first glimpse of Machu Picchu! In the four days we walked a total of 83km (52 miles) from Mollepata to Aguas Calientes. Now it was just the 400m vertical ascent in the morning!
At 4am is was pissing it down with rain, which didn´t let up until 6am, just as the gates opened at the top! It was really more like walking up a river than stairs, but hey, at least this was the first time our boots had really gotten wet! (the mud had made them waterproof) Let´s just say it´s a good thing we´d both brought extra layers with us! Walter took us on an hour an a half tour, in which time the sun began to rise and the clouds began to lift, revealing the city. It was a spectacular view! Everyone thought it was definitely worth it, even if the Londoners claimed they hadn´t walked this far in the past 3 years (and won´t again in the next 4!)
Dad and I walked to the Sun Gate as Anna explored the central area. Now the Sun Gate was nice, but for some reason I was more impressed with the view and forgot to take a picture of the gate itself. We left around 2pm and were sitting happily in a restuarant eating lunch around 3.30, just as the rain started again. We spotted 2 very wet Londoners through the window - respect must be given to Av, as she walked for about 4 days in broken healed shoes!
Now, we all know that Anna and Steph´s journeys are never uneventful, and unfortunatly this one lived up to that expectation. Our train was supposed to leave at 7.30pm (arriving back to Cous Cous at 11pm), however "The Company" booked us on the 10 o´clock train, which turned out to be leaving at 10.30pm. This was okay and the train did leave relatively on time. About an hour into our trip, the train screeched to a halt, and stayed that way for a good 2 hours. They eventually got around to telling us that a tree had fallen onto the tracks and there were people trying to remove it. This did finally happen. It took another 45 minutes to get to the train station where we were taken by bus to Cous Cous, arriving at a pleasant 4.50am (hey, seems like we were up for 24 hours!) You know our luck with 5am and buses!! Anna was in bed by 5am and I was about 2 minutes after her. We have no idea what Frank was up to, but he didn´t make it into bed for at least another 15 minutes! It was the most expensive 3 hour kip we´ve ever had! (Check out was at 10.30am and we still had to re-pack).
We said goodbye to Dad this morning, after which we went for 2nd breakfast (the first one did not fill the hole). Other than that we´ve done bugger all today, other than revisiting the chocolate musuem, what can we say, it was good!
We´re now waiting for our 10.30pm overnight bus to Bolivia, let´s just hope it doesn´t get in at 5am!
¡Bueños Noches!
Anna and Steph
Friday, 11 March 2011
The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Well Steph did make it everyone! The hostel owner gave us a lift to the bus terminal, so there was no chance of her being abducted. All that excitment for nothing!!
The 30 hour bus ride went very smoothly, but lets just say, neither of us are in a hurry to do that one again!! Steph also got very annoyed that once you are on the bus you cannot get off again until you reach your destination! All she wanted was a bottle of coke! They really are like airplanes. They even check your hand luggage and WAND you!
Our two days in Lima were nice. We spent one day in the centre where we saw the changing of the guards at the palace, stumbled across chinatown (its all of a block) and visited some Catacumbas, many many bones. The next day we dipped our feet in the Pacific and went to the Parque De Aguas. It was so cool!! A must see in Lima in our opinion! It was full of fountains that were lit up in the dark with different colours. Some were tunnels you could walk through, others danced to music and one you could play in. When the fountain was off people tried to run in, before they started again. One man was caught out big time in a rather unfortunate place, or maybe he wasn´t caught out and he had actaully wet himself.... Neither of us got caught!!
We arrived in Nasca yesturday and decided to follow in the footsteps of Indiana Jones and hunt for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by following the lines! Unfortunatly your not allowed to stand on the lines and we couldn´t afford a flight so we didn´t get very far in our quest... although I´m not sure it matters too much as Indiana Jones did flood the joint before he left! The lines were still pretty cool though. We saw The Hands (Frog), The Tree (Seaweed) and The Lizard, which was cut in half when the main road was built. We also saw tones of lines and geometric shapes on the ground from our viewing tower, all going in different directions.
Last night we went to the Planetarium, which was all about the lines. It explained how some of the lines appear to point to important stars and the summer and winter solstice. We think it was the aliens. We were also able to look at the moon through a pretty powerful telescope and see the craters incredibly clearly.
Our short time in Nasca has been good, although some may say its been too long... all they have are the lines. We get the bus out in a few hours to head to Cusco and Machu Picchu.
Oh and just for the record, Nasca is 70km away from the sea, so the Tsunami warning does NOT apply. Machu Piccu is even further away, so think we´re safe.
We´ll keep you posted on the search for the Crystal Skull Kingdom!
Anna and Steph
The 30 hour bus ride went very smoothly, but lets just say, neither of us are in a hurry to do that one again!! Steph also got very annoyed that once you are on the bus you cannot get off again until you reach your destination! All she wanted was a bottle of coke! They really are like airplanes. They even check your hand luggage and WAND you!
Our two days in Lima were nice. We spent one day in the centre where we saw the changing of the guards at the palace, stumbled across chinatown (its all of a block) and visited some Catacumbas, many many bones. The next day we dipped our feet in the Pacific and went to the Parque De Aguas. It was so cool!! A must see in Lima in our opinion! It was full of fountains that were lit up in the dark with different colours. Some were tunnels you could walk through, others danced to music and one you could play in. When the fountain was off people tried to run in, before they started again. One man was caught out big time in a rather unfortunate place, or maybe he wasn´t caught out and he had actaully wet himself.... Neither of us got caught!!
We arrived in Nasca yesturday and decided to follow in the footsteps of Indiana Jones and hunt for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by following the lines! Unfortunatly your not allowed to stand on the lines and we couldn´t afford a flight so we didn´t get very far in our quest... although I´m not sure it matters too much as Indiana Jones did flood the joint before he left! The lines were still pretty cool though. We saw The Hands (Frog), The Tree (Seaweed) and The Lizard, which was cut in half when the main road was built. We also saw tones of lines and geometric shapes on the ground from our viewing tower, all going in different directions.
Last night we went to the Planetarium, which was all about the lines. It explained how some of the lines appear to point to important stars and the summer and winter solstice. We think it was the aliens. We were also able to look at the moon through a pretty powerful telescope and see the craters incredibly clearly.
Our short time in Nasca has been good, although some may say its been too long... all they have are the lines. We get the bus out in a few hours to head to Cusco and Machu Picchu.
Oh and just for the record, Nasca is 70km away from the sea, so the Tsunami warning does NOT apply. Machu Piccu is even further away, so think we´re safe.
We´ll keep you posted on the search for the Crystal Skull Kingdom!
Anna and Steph
Saturday, 5 March 2011
You Only Live Twice
The day started with a very rude ticket lady. Anna has decided that Steph needs to learn Spanish insults to throw back in the rude people's faces. Take That! We found ourselves in Latacunga where many many bus drivers felt the need to shout their destinations in our faces. Before we knew it we were being herded onto a direct bus to Quilotoa, where two LIVE hens fell out of the luggage compartment!
The bus was packed when we got on and gradually as the bus went along the long, dusty, twisty road the people got off, leaving Steph and I. Fortunatly the hostel directions were correct, 'If you get to town, you will see the hostel'. Once in town we headed to the crater, which was MASSIVE. Thank you Ben for telling us in your blog how shit your day to Cotopaxi was and how much better this place is. Our trip wasn't wasted! We walked down the crater and were a little scared about the return journey, we met a lot of half dead people on the way down. Fortunatly we were absolutely fine! You can't swim in the water due to the sulphuric acid, but we did sit and look at it from a safe distance for a while. It was very James Bond-esq.
Our night in Quilotoa was quiet. I think we met all the villagers in the space of 5 minutes (the time it took to walk through the town). Dinner was included in the price and we ate with the two other people who were staying in our dorm. Anna did not have much conversation as the couple were Argentinian and didn't speak English. We also met our bus driver who kindly told us we would be leaving at 5am! They gave us a grilled banana!!
At 5am we stood freezing our asses off waiting for the bus driver to appear. The bus drive was freezing and when Anna woke up in Latacunga the bus was heaving. Where did all the people come from!! There is nothing but hills up there!
We managed to get a direct bus to Baños, where we spent a night. It is a very popular tourist destination. They sell a lot of sugar cane and chewy taffy, which if you eat more than one piece of makes you feel sick. It was even too much for Steph to handle!! Baños was another small town and we spent the day exploring all the eateries ... even managed to get lost ... for all of 5 minutes!
We have spent the day traveliing to Guayaquil and don't intend to do very much as everyone who we have spoken to has told us to take care and be safe. Hmmm, me thinks we are not in a very nice city. There is even a leflet about US taxi abductions. I think Steph and I will be getting seperate taxis to the bus station, I dont want to get abducted with her! But don't worry I will report her if she goes missing before I hop on our bus to Lima!
We'll let you know if Steph makes it!!
Steph and Anna
The bus was packed when we got on and gradually as the bus went along the long, dusty, twisty road the people got off, leaving Steph and I. Fortunatly the hostel directions were correct, 'If you get to town, you will see the hostel'. Once in town we headed to the crater, which was MASSIVE. Thank you Ben for telling us in your blog how shit your day to Cotopaxi was and how much better this place is. Our trip wasn't wasted! We walked down the crater and were a little scared about the return journey, we met a lot of half dead people on the way down. Fortunatly we were absolutely fine! You can't swim in the water due to the sulphuric acid, but we did sit and look at it from a safe distance for a while. It was very James Bond-esq.
Our night in Quilotoa was quiet. I think we met all the villagers in the space of 5 minutes (the time it took to walk through the town). Dinner was included in the price and we ate with the two other people who were staying in our dorm. Anna did not have much conversation as the couple were Argentinian and didn't speak English. We also met our bus driver who kindly told us we would be leaving at 5am! They gave us a grilled banana!!
At 5am we stood freezing our asses off waiting for the bus driver to appear. The bus drive was freezing and when Anna woke up in Latacunga the bus was heaving. Where did all the people come from!! There is nothing but hills up there!
We managed to get a direct bus to Baños, where we spent a night. It is a very popular tourist destination. They sell a lot of sugar cane and chewy taffy, which if you eat more than one piece of makes you feel sick. It was even too much for Steph to handle!! Baños was another small town and we spent the day exploring all the eateries ... even managed to get lost ... for all of 5 minutes!
We have spent the day traveliing to Guayaquil and don't intend to do very much as everyone who we have spoken to has told us to take care and be safe. Hmmm, me thinks we are not in a very nice city. There is even a leflet about US taxi abductions. I think Steph and I will be getting seperate taxis to the bus station, I dont want to get abducted with her! But don't worry I will report her if she goes missing before I hop on our bus to Lima!
We'll let you know if Steph makes it!!
Steph and Anna
To The Middle Of The World!
Well hello again!
Since we last spoke, we´ve been to the middle of the world, but more about that later.
Our bus to Otavalo was supposed to take 2 to 2 1/2 hours. In reality, it took 1 1/2. We only discovered this when the ticket man started shouting at us to GET OFF as we´d already passed through Otavalo. Dumped at the side of the road with our rucksacks, we starred down the hill at the town we were supposed to be dropped off in. Take a bus or walk? We walked.
After an hour, and Anna exclaiming, ¨we´re not even close yet!¨ We found our hostel. The best kitchen yet! The hostel lady graciously gave us tea as she made up the room for us and then we took showers! If these overnight bus rides are good for anything, they sure do save us money on accomadation and shampoo!
Unfortunately we made it to Otavalo on Sunday, missing the ¨most massive, amazing¨ market in Ecuador by 1 day. However there were still a couple of little markets on, just not to the same scale. We bought charms (that must be a record for Anna) along with some gifts for people, you´ll just have to believe that they are good. As it was a Sunday in South America, we did the only thing you can do, we wandered around and ate ice cream. So far Ecuador is NOT doing well in the ice cream competition. So badly in fact, that we´ve now stopped eating Ecuadorian ice cream!
That evening we were faced with a very drunk hostel lady and an equally drunk irate man who claimed he was from Montreal. Funnily enough, I´m not convinced that many Canadians have Eastern European accents. He also had the decency to tell Anna that they don´t use the Euro in Great Britain. That was a shock to both of us! And yes, he did know where we were from.
After our first good sleep in a while, we woke up and had a lunch of ceviche (the to-go verson) from a street vender. It was AMAZING!! Very different from the Peruvian version.
We finally met the owner of the hostel when he drove us to the train station and put us on the bus to Quito, (hmm, that´s impressive isn´t it) perhaps he drove us to the bus station. No 1 hour walks this time. What a lovely man!
We spent 2 days in Quito, which included a free tour of the Presidential Palace and a visit to the Bank Museum (for those of you that don´t know, Ecuador has changed it´s currency to the US dollar). We´ve decided that Quito is just a great city to walk around in, as the bits you want to see are very compact and the old down town is lovely. They also make these FANTASTIC grilled bananas - the lady selling them only thought it was a little strange when we took pictures of them.
We also visited the Basillica,which gave a great view of the city, once you made it up the dodgy ladders (neither one of our mother´s would have gone anywhere near those!) The coolest thing about this Basillica was that instead of there being gargoles, there were different galapagos animals! This included turtles, lizards and lots of different birds!
Then we caught the bus to the middle of the world!!! So there are actually 2 equator lines, the first is the one the French dude found in the 1700´s (it´s actually off by 250 meters, but not bad for a Frenchy from the 1700´s!). The real line, was found about 10 years ago using GPS and there is this amazing museum marking the spot. We had our passports stamped at BOTH spots.
At the museum we did a couple different experiments to determine that they weren´t lying ... these included standing an egg on a nail (sadly neither one of us passed this test), seeing which way water went down a drain in the north, the south and on the equator, two different strength tests (when you´re on the equator you don´t have any - we would have both been stronger than my brother) and we attempted to walk in a straight line with our eyes shut (Anna says this was like being drunk ... )
We also learned about the creepy fish that swim up your pee if you dare to pee in the Amazon River and how the indigenous people strunk heads.
We´re off to Latacunga next in hope of seeing a crater lake. I hope we find it.
Anna and Steph
Since we last spoke, we´ve been to the middle of the world, but more about that later.
Our bus to Otavalo was supposed to take 2 to 2 1/2 hours. In reality, it took 1 1/2. We only discovered this when the ticket man started shouting at us to GET OFF as we´d already passed through Otavalo. Dumped at the side of the road with our rucksacks, we starred down the hill at the town we were supposed to be dropped off in. Take a bus or walk? We walked.
After an hour, and Anna exclaiming, ¨we´re not even close yet!¨ We found our hostel. The best kitchen yet! The hostel lady graciously gave us tea as she made up the room for us and then we took showers! If these overnight bus rides are good for anything, they sure do save us money on accomadation and shampoo!
Unfortunately we made it to Otavalo on Sunday, missing the ¨most massive, amazing¨ market in Ecuador by 1 day. However there were still a couple of little markets on, just not to the same scale. We bought charms (that must be a record for Anna) along with some gifts for people, you´ll just have to believe that they are good. As it was a Sunday in South America, we did the only thing you can do, we wandered around and ate ice cream. So far Ecuador is NOT doing well in the ice cream competition. So badly in fact, that we´ve now stopped eating Ecuadorian ice cream!
That evening we were faced with a very drunk hostel lady and an equally drunk irate man who claimed he was from Montreal. Funnily enough, I´m not convinced that many Canadians have Eastern European accents. He also had the decency to tell Anna that they don´t use the Euro in Great Britain. That was a shock to both of us! And yes, he did know where we were from.
After our first good sleep in a while, we woke up and had a lunch of ceviche (the to-go verson) from a street vender. It was AMAZING!! Very different from the Peruvian version.
We finally met the owner of the hostel when he drove us to the train station and put us on the bus to Quito, (hmm, that´s impressive isn´t it) perhaps he drove us to the bus station. No 1 hour walks this time. What a lovely man!
We spent 2 days in Quito, which included a free tour of the Presidential Palace and a visit to the Bank Museum (for those of you that don´t know, Ecuador has changed it´s currency to the US dollar). We´ve decided that Quito is just a great city to walk around in, as the bits you want to see are very compact and the old down town is lovely. They also make these FANTASTIC grilled bananas - the lady selling them only thought it was a little strange when we took pictures of them.
We also visited the Basillica,which gave a great view of the city, once you made it up the dodgy ladders (neither one of our mother´s would have gone anywhere near those!) The coolest thing about this Basillica was that instead of there being gargoles, there were different galapagos animals! This included turtles, lizards and lots of different birds!
Then we caught the bus to the middle of the world!!! So there are actually 2 equator lines, the first is the one the French dude found in the 1700´s (it´s actually off by 250 meters, but not bad for a Frenchy from the 1700´s!). The real line, was found about 10 years ago using GPS and there is this amazing museum marking the spot. We had our passports stamped at BOTH spots.
At the museum we did a couple different experiments to determine that they weren´t lying ... these included standing an egg on a nail (sadly neither one of us passed this test), seeing which way water went down a drain in the north, the south and on the equator, two different strength tests (when you´re on the equator you don´t have any - we would have both been stronger than my brother) and we attempted to walk in a straight line with our eyes shut (Anna says this was like being drunk ... )
We also learned about the creepy fish that swim up your pee if you dare to pee in the Amazon River and how the indigenous people strunk heads.
We´re off to Latacunga next in hope of seeing a crater lake. I hope we find it.
Anna and Steph
Friday, 4 March 2011
Crossing Borders
Hi again!
So we last left you getting onto an overnight bus from San Pedro to Arica, Chile. As you may have guessed, the bus was early. So instead of arriving at a cheerful 6.30am, we arrived at a cruel 5am without breakfast!! What is the South American obsession with 5am?!
We made our way across the border dispite rumors of a protest that had closed it, with 4 brits and a dutch dude (it was one of these brits that accused Steph of being British ... honestly!)
So, the border wasn´t really closed, we just had to switch buses after the Chilean border and catch another to Tacna, Peru. From there we somehow managed to stay awake until our bus at 1.30pm (this was mainly due to Anna refusing to sit down). We also had a nice chat and many random questions to our travel agency dude (I´m sure he was glad when Steph left and the questions ended!)
18 hours later, we arrived in Lima! A taxi to the hostel (as it is not recommended to travel by any other means of transport from the bus stations) and we finally took showers after 4 days and a run (by Steph, not Anna).
In Lima we finally had our chance to eat the pizza that we´d be craving since Pisco Elqui and discovered a nice part of the city while hunting it down! Our days in Lima amounted to 2, as this was just a quick stopover before heading onto Quito in Ecuador. We did manage to find gifts for people, some of which were then shipped to Scotland.
I know some of you have shipped post internationally before, but we have NEVER encountered a process like this. After filling out 2 forms, re-packing the box (colorful duct tape is frowned upon in Peru), handing over a copy of Anna´s passport and then finally getting her to fingerprint 6 copies of a form, the package was allowed to be sent! Hey, atleast they said it would get there (by the 31st of March that is). Hmm ... anyone taking bets on who makes it home first ... Anna or the package?!
Our bus to Tumbes (the border town with Ecuador) was another funfilled 20 hours! It´s just a good thing the seats recline better than in airplanes! Reaching Tumbes, this is where things got a bit interesting ...
We had intended to take another 3 hour bus to a town a couple hours into Ecuador, but then the ´friendly´ bag unloader said that he could take it across for roughly the same price. Sounded like a good deal ... well, until he changed his price by a substancial amount of money. Anna would have none of that and Steph kindly acted as translator in the back of a taxi between Anna and the drivers. Once Anna threatened to get out of the taxi there and then, they seemed to get the point and dropped their price by more than half. Not good enough, but still better than what it was. If you would like more details please e-mail either one of us, but unfortunately if I write anymore on the subject swear words would be involved and we want to keep this blog grandparent friendly.
It was another overnight bus that got us in at 5AM (that time again!) Early, again. This time we sat in the bus station with the locals waiting for the sun to come up. Randomly a Peruvian couple were trying to help us and got into an arguement with the bus driver about where we should get off the bus. We decided to go with the bus driver´s opinion after Steph nearly barked at a taxi driver for hounding us constantly. At least there were free toilets.
As the sunrose, we got a taxi to the bus that would take us to Otavalo.
Buenos Noches!
Anna and Steph
So we last left you getting onto an overnight bus from San Pedro to Arica, Chile. As you may have guessed, the bus was early. So instead of arriving at a cheerful 6.30am, we arrived at a cruel 5am without breakfast!! What is the South American obsession with 5am?!
We made our way across the border dispite rumors of a protest that had closed it, with 4 brits and a dutch dude (it was one of these brits that accused Steph of being British ... honestly!)
So, the border wasn´t really closed, we just had to switch buses after the Chilean border and catch another to Tacna, Peru. From there we somehow managed to stay awake until our bus at 1.30pm (this was mainly due to Anna refusing to sit down). We also had a nice chat and many random questions to our travel agency dude (I´m sure he was glad when Steph left and the questions ended!)
18 hours later, we arrived in Lima! A taxi to the hostel (as it is not recommended to travel by any other means of transport from the bus stations) and we finally took showers after 4 days and a run (by Steph, not Anna).
In Lima we finally had our chance to eat the pizza that we´d be craving since Pisco Elqui and discovered a nice part of the city while hunting it down! Our days in Lima amounted to 2, as this was just a quick stopover before heading onto Quito in Ecuador. We did manage to find gifts for people, some of which were then shipped to Scotland.
I know some of you have shipped post internationally before, but we have NEVER encountered a process like this. After filling out 2 forms, re-packing the box (colorful duct tape is frowned upon in Peru), handing over a copy of Anna´s passport and then finally getting her to fingerprint 6 copies of a form, the package was allowed to be sent! Hey, atleast they said it would get there (by the 31st of March that is). Hmm ... anyone taking bets on who makes it home first ... Anna or the package?!
Our bus to Tumbes (the border town with Ecuador) was another funfilled 20 hours! It´s just a good thing the seats recline better than in airplanes! Reaching Tumbes, this is where things got a bit interesting ...
We had intended to take another 3 hour bus to a town a couple hours into Ecuador, but then the ´friendly´ bag unloader said that he could take it across for roughly the same price. Sounded like a good deal ... well, until he changed his price by a substancial amount of money. Anna would have none of that and Steph kindly acted as translator in the back of a taxi between Anna and the drivers. Once Anna threatened to get out of the taxi there and then, they seemed to get the point and dropped their price by more than half. Not good enough, but still better than what it was. If you would like more details please e-mail either one of us, but unfortunately if I write anymore on the subject swear words would be involved and we want to keep this blog grandparent friendly.
It was another overnight bus that got us in at 5AM (that time again!) Early, again. This time we sat in the bus station with the locals waiting for the sun to come up. Randomly a Peruvian couple were trying to help us and got into an arguement with the bus driver about where we should get off the bus. We decided to go with the bus driver´s opinion after Steph nearly barked at a taxi driver for hounding us constantly. At least there were free toilets.
As the sunrose, we got a taxi to the bus that would take us to Otavalo.
Buenos Noches!
Anna and Steph
Monday, 28 February 2011
Sand, Salt and Flamingos!
Well hello again, after all a day!
So, San Pedro De Atacama ... the driest desert in the WORLD!! And what did we do ... we rode bikes! Yes, that´s right everyone ANNA rented and rode a bike for the entire afternoon! Where did we ride bikes you may be asking yourself ... to the moon! Well, Valle de la luna (Valley of the Moon). I know there are some of you who have suspected for some time, that I´m from a different world, but I really hadn´t been to the moon before this! It was AWESOME!! We hiked up a to the ´view points´and WOW!! a moon like desert!!
At this point we had also booked our 3/4 day trip to Salar de Uyuni (the Bolivian Salt Flats) and they would be picking us up from our campsite at 8am. Speaking of campsites ... we had the privilege of entering a campsite slum earlier today! We´re not joking when we say a campsite slum ... basically, someone had opened up the backyard, for lack of a better term, to house what felt like 100 tents in an area a quarter of the size of a football field! Not enough room to put pegs in the tent and people smoking over tents ... not to mention where would we cook?! (not that we had a working stove) So, Steph set off to find a different campsite and in a half an hour, came back with 2 MUCH better options (this is the point where we picked up our bags and walked our of the campsite slum).
8am the next morning and we were away to the border. Some of you may not know this, but Steph (being the America) seems to need visas for half the countries and Bolivia was one of those countries. So, while everyone else was happily having their passports stamped, she had to write her name on a sheet of paper and watched as her passport was put in a drawer (not to worry, it was handed back to her when we left in the 4x4´s ... without a stamp that is ... turns out she had to pay the $135 when we got to Uyuni on the 3rd day of our trip).
That aside, they nicely gave us breakfast with REAL cheese and TEA! We were thrown into 4x4 groups and off to see the pink flamingos!! And did we ever see them!! Honestly, over the 3 days we saw hundreds of them!! And they were awesome! We saw them eating and sleeping and flying and bullying each other!
Next up on animal watch, were the llamas! And to distinguish the llamas (and who owns then), they all have bright colored ribbony things on their ears!
We´ve also seen vicunas (a combination of a llama and a deer ish) and a chinchilla!
This was interspersed with seeing lagunas, geysers, volcanos, and of course the salt flats! All were very impressive (Anna has now seen geysers), but the salt flats were AMAZING!! They were full of water, due to the rain we´d been having, but wow! They seemed to go on forever!!
Now, we had been warned about bad companies, which leave you with little food and bad food and not great accommodation, along with drunken drivers, so we made sure to look into it carefully! In saying that, our company was great! The food was excellent and there was plenty of it, accommodation was nice (we were told to bring our sleeping bags) and our driver was super cool!! Cordilla Traveler if anyone is to go (and we´d suggest going ... definitely a highlight of our trip so far!)
Oh! But bewarned ... the altitude is not nice!! (well, at least not the first day) Also, if you´re going to travel back to San Pedro from Uyuni ... it´s a long day with a very early start!
Well, off to our next country (Peru) and then on to Ecuador! I just hope the buses aren´t TOO bad!
So, San Pedro De Atacama ... the driest desert in the WORLD!! And what did we do ... we rode bikes! Yes, that´s right everyone ANNA rented and rode a bike for the entire afternoon! Where did we ride bikes you may be asking yourself ... to the moon! Well, Valle de la luna (Valley of the Moon). I know there are some of you who have suspected for some time, that I´m from a different world, but I really hadn´t been to the moon before this! It was AWESOME!! We hiked up a to the ´view points´and WOW!! a moon like desert!!
At this point we had also booked our 3/4 day trip to Salar de Uyuni (the Bolivian Salt Flats) and they would be picking us up from our campsite at 8am. Speaking of campsites ... we had the privilege of entering a campsite slum earlier today! We´re not joking when we say a campsite slum ... basically, someone had opened up the backyard, for lack of a better term, to house what felt like 100 tents in an area a quarter of the size of a football field! Not enough room to put pegs in the tent and people smoking over tents ... not to mention where would we cook?! (not that we had a working stove) So, Steph set off to find a different campsite and in a half an hour, came back with 2 MUCH better options (this is the point where we picked up our bags and walked our of the campsite slum).
8am the next morning and we were away to the border. Some of you may not know this, but Steph (being the America) seems to need visas for half the countries and Bolivia was one of those countries. So, while everyone else was happily having their passports stamped, she had to write her name on a sheet of paper and watched as her passport was put in a drawer (not to worry, it was handed back to her when we left in the 4x4´s ... without a stamp that is ... turns out she had to pay the $135 when we got to Uyuni on the 3rd day of our trip).
That aside, they nicely gave us breakfast with REAL cheese and TEA! We were thrown into 4x4 groups and off to see the pink flamingos!! And did we ever see them!! Honestly, over the 3 days we saw hundreds of them!! And they were awesome! We saw them eating and sleeping and flying and bullying each other!
Next up on animal watch, were the llamas! And to distinguish the llamas (and who owns then), they all have bright colored ribbony things on their ears!
We´ve also seen vicunas (a combination of a llama and a deer ish) and a chinchilla!
This was interspersed with seeing lagunas, geysers, volcanos, and of course the salt flats! All were very impressive (Anna has now seen geysers), but the salt flats were AMAZING!! They were full of water, due to the rain we´d been having, but wow! They seemed to go on forever!!
Now, we had been warned about bad companies, which leave you with little food and bad food and not great accommodation, along with drunken drivers, so we made sure to look into it carefully! In saying that, our company was great! The food was excellent and there was plenty of it, accommodation was nice (we were told to bring our sleeping bags) and our driver was super cool!! Cordilla Traveler if anyone is to go (and we´d suggest going ... definitely a highlight of our trip so far!)
Oh! But bewarned ... the altitude is not nice!! (well, at least not the first day) Also, if you´re going to travel back to San Pedro from Uyuni ... it´s a long day with a very early start!
Well, off to our next country (Peru) and then on to Ecuador! I just hope the buses aren´t TOO bad!
Sunday, 27 February 2011
UFO and Pisco
It has been an internetless few weeks, so sorry everyone!!
Once we left Santiago we headed to Valparaiso, which is only a couple of hours away on the coast. We had been told that this little city held some magic and we would just fall in love with it. Our hostel was just outside the main area up at the top of a hill which looked down over the city, we had a great view! When we arrived we decided to spend the afternoon in town, not really knwoing where to get off the bus we picked a random stop and as the bus pulled away you will never guess what we saw!!! Emporio La Rosa! Overexcited we headed straight for it and got our old favourite. It was amazing, as always. Steph asked if there were anymore in Chile, to be told no. Our hearts would be broken once more in a couple of days.
We spent our time in Valparaiso wondering around the pretty navel town up and down the side streets. The City is full of old funicular's, some of which are still running to the top of Cerro'. We also found a wedding dress shop, which gave us some amusment.
Next stop was Pisco Elqui, the home to Pisco and UFO's. We didn`t arrive in Pisco till after dark, which didn`t cause too many problems as there was a jazz festival on. We ended up camping at a camp site down near the river, which had fantastic views in vine yards and the hills we discovered in the morning. Pisco Elqui is a lovely small town, but doesn`t really have much going on before 2pm, that is when we found most things opened that Monday morning. However, once things are open, don`t expect them to want to serve you food, even if they are an eating establishment. In our two days there, one day too many, we hit the distilleries. Pisco Elqui is named after the drink Pisco, which is famous in Chile and Peru. Although who came up with it first is a big question! Pisco is a brandy and is yummy when its turned into pisco sours! Pisco Sours is Pisco with lemon, sugar and egg white and if your not careful, goes straight to your head!! Three was the magic number that got us home to our tent safely. Anymore and who knows who´s tent we would have taken as ours.... do squatters rights apply to tents?
The next morning we were attempting to make cous cous for our lunch, we discovered that my stove had decided to stop working! We investigated the problem and determined that it had something to do with the hose. We made a quick call to Guy (who happened to be at work, which is an outdoor shop),whose first question was, ¨when was it last cleaned?¨ Awkward pause ... ¨never?¨ I think we found the problem! Quick phone call to the States and a chat to my Dad... we have a cleaning kit on the way (guess we won´t be camping too much before March 13th).
With our many many days in Pisco, we kept a look out for the UFO's. But didn't see anyway!! I am very shocked they didn't come to take Steph away! However, we did see some amazing stars.
Next stop on our tour is San Pedro De Atacama, the driest desert in the world!
Steph and Anna
Once we left Santiago we headed to Valparaiso, which is only a couple of hours away on the coast. We had been told that this little city held some magic and we would just fall in love with it. Our hostel was just outside the main area up at the top of a hill which looked down over the city, we had a great view! When we arrived we decided to spend the afternoon in town, not really knwoing where to get off the bus we picked a random stop and as the bus pulled away you will never guess what we saw!!! Emporio La Rosa! Overexcited we headed straight for it and got our old favourite. It was amazing, as always. Steph asked if there were anymore in Chile, to be told no. Our hearts would be broken once more in a couple of days.
We spent our time in Valparaiso wondering around the pretty navel town up and down the side streets. The City is full of old funicular's, some of which are still running to the top of Cerro'. We also found a wedding dress shop, which gave us some amusment.
Next stop was Pisco Elqui, the home to Pisco and UFO's. We didn`t arrive in Pisco till after dark, which didn`t cause too many problems as there was a jazz festival on. We ended up camping at a camp site down near the river, which had fantastic views in vine yards and the hills we discovered in the morning. Pisco Elqui is a lovely small town, but doesn`t really have much going on before 2pm, that is when we found most things opened that Monday morning. However, once things are open, don`t expect them to want to serve you food, even if they are an eating establishment. In our two days there, one day too many, we hit the distilleries. Pisco Elqui is named after the drink Pisco, which is famous in Chile and Peru. Although who came up with it first is a big question! Pisco is a brandy and is yummy when its turned into pisco sours! Pisco Sours is Pisco with lemon, sugar and egg white and if your not careful, goes straight to your head!! Three was the magic number that got us home to our tent safely. Anymore and who knows who´s tent we would have taken as ours.... do squatters rights apply to tents?
The next morning we were attempting to make cous cous for our lunch, we discovered that my stove had decided to stop working! We investigated the problem and determined that it had something to do with the hose. We made a quick call to Guy (who happened to be at work, which is an outdoor shop),whose first question was, ¨when was it last cleaned?¨ Awkward pause ... ¨never?¨ I think we found the problem! Quick phone call to the States and a chat to my Dad... we have a cleaning kit on the way (guess we won´t be camping too much before March 13th).
With our many many days in Pisco, we kept a look out for the UFO's. But didn't see anyway!! I am very shocked they didn't come to take Steph away! However, we did see some amazing stars.
Next stop on our tour is San Pedro De Atacama, the driest desert in the world!
Steph and Anna
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Bird Poo and Tuna Cans ...
Just a wee update for those of you who prefer a shorter read.
We arrived in Santiago on Monday morning after a hellish bus ride. 12 hours of uncomfortable seats, mixed with a grumpy wanker of a bus attendant (similar to a flight attendant) and a breakfast consisting of a biscuit and ¨drinkable¨ juice does not make for a good bus ride. But hey, we did get to Santiago! And when we bought our own breakfast, it was AMAZING!! They do real fruit juice here, very well.
We´ve spent the past few days wandering around the city, visiting the main plaza and markets as well as the Paraguay embassy and managing to do some dissertation work. (Tomorrow will make it trip number 3 and hopefully our last to the Paraguay embassy, but atleast Steph will have a visa to the ¨shit hole¨ as Ben described to Anna when we get there - just for the record this is done over a MONTH in advance!!!)
Today we went up the Cerro San Cristobal (the viewpointy thingy in the city, states Anna). And were met by the virgin herself, arms wide open! (The statue was not quite as big as we thought it would be, as you can see it all over the city).
Our trip to the top consisted of Steph being pooped on by a foul pigeon! Which gave Anna great entertainment, as she is still laughing now. Anna did say that it was ¨supposed to be lucky ... or so they say¨ hmm ... if I get the visa to Paraguay tomorrow, I might believe it!
In other news, we´ve had ice cream TO DIE FOR!!! The combination of Raspberry Mint and Chocolate with Little Orange bits is AMAZING and if anyone is EVER to visit Santiago, they need to go to Emporio La Rosa and have this combination (although there is quiet a selection and they may be tempted by other things). But this recommendation comes with a warning: life will never be the same again and you will wander the globe (or South America in our case) searching for ice cream just as good.
Lastly, if ever you find yourself in the position where a can of tuna has stuck itself in your camping mug (possibly after you have put it there), we now know the method to extract it.
Firstly, you should take out the tuna meat. In our case, this was done by stabbing the can of tuna a couple of times and then using a sawing action with a knife to open the can. Secondly, try loosening the can´s edges. We used a knife to create a very small crevis between the tuna can and wall of the mug. Thirdly, put some kind of hole in the bottom of the tuna can (again, this was done by a knife). Lastly, using a bbq fork, wedge it into this crevis and start pushing or shoving. After a good 45 minutes and a forceful tug (this was possibly the most dangerous part of the operation, as Steph had to stick her hand into the can of tuna where there were sharp edges) the tuna can can then be extracted. Oh the plus side, there was no blood shed, the mug is still able to be used and other than knife indentations on the inside, it is fine.
We´re off to Valparaiso on Friday and then travelling north to the land of UFO´s.
Until next time, Steph and Anna
We arrived in Santiago on Monday morning after a hellish bus ride. 12 hours of uncomfortable seats, mixed with a grumpy wanker of a bus attendant (similar to a flight attendant) and a breakfast consisting of a biscuit and ¨drinkable¨ juice does not make for a good bus ride. But hey, we did get to Santiago! And when we bought our own breakfast, it was AMAZING!! They do real fruit juice here, very well.
We´ve spent the past few days wandering around the city, visiting the main plaza and markets as well as the Paraguay embassy and managing to do some dissertation work. (Tomorrow will make it trip number 3 and hopefully our last to the Paraguay embassy, but atleast Steph will have a visa to the ¨shit hole¨ as Ben described to Anna when we get there - just for the record this is done over a MONTH in advance!!!)
Today we went up the Cerro San Cristobal (the viewpointy thingy in the city, states Anna). And were met by the virgin herself, arms wide open! (The statue was not quite as big as we thought it would be, as you can see it all over the city).
Our trip to the top consisted of Steph being pooped on by a foul pigeon! Which gave Anna great entertainment, as she is still laughing now. Anna did say that it was ¨supposed to be lucky ... or so they say¨ hmm ... if I get the visa to Paraguay tomorrow, I might believe it!
In other news, we´ve had ice cream TO DIE FOR!!! The combination of Raspberry Mint and Chocolate with Little Orange bits is AMAZING and if anyone is EVER to visit Santiago, they need to go to Emporio La Rosa and have this combination (although there is quiet a selection and they may be tempted by other things). But this recommendation comes with a warning: life will never be the same again and you will wander the globe (or South America in our case) searching for ice cream just as good.
Lastly, if ever you find yourself in the position where a can of tuna has stuck itself in your camping mug (possibly after you have put it there), we now know the method to extract it.
Firstly, you should take out the tuna meat. In our case, this was done by stabbing the can of tuna a couple of times and then using a sawing action with a knife to open the can. Secondly, try loosening the can´s edges. We used a knife to create a very small crevis between the tuna can and wall of the mug. Thirdly, put some kind of hole in the bottom of the tuna can (again, this was done by a knife). Lastly, using a bbq fork, wedge it into this crevis and start pushing or shoving. After a good 45 minutes and a forceful tug (this was possibly the most dangerous part of the operation, as Steph had to stick her hand into the can of tuna where there were sharp edges) the tuna can can then be extracted. Oh the plus side, there was no blood shed, the mug is still able to be used and other than knife indentations on the inside, it is fine.
We´re off to Valparaiso on Friday and then travelling north to the land of UFO´s.
Until next time, Steph and Anna
Friday, 4 February 2011
And They Say The Scottish Climate Is Unique...
After a late start to the morning and seeing THE staute of Osorno, a giant bronze bull with super big balls, we caught our bus to Parque National Puyehue. After almost 2 hours, the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere at a rather nice looking restaurant. Slightly confused we went inside and ordered dessert. There's nothing like going out for pudding!! Even in the middle of nowhere in Patagonia.
There we met a lovely Chilean couple, Benjamin and Ilana, who were on their holidays visiting Benjamin´s Uncle, who happened to own the restaurant. We organised to go up the hill with them as they were doing the same hike as us. This hike consisted of us walking up to a Refugio and camping there the first night. The following day we planned to accend the Volcano and walk on to the Banos, some natural hot springs, and camp there for the night before going to see the Geisers and making our way back to where we camped the first night.
The Chilean couple knew so much about our surroundings and educated us in the animals and plant life of the area, teaching Steph the Spanish names. As it was a late start, we didn´t get to camp till 9.20pm. While some of you may think this risky, as Steph is not always the fastest of people, the tent was up and we had finished course one and two of dinner by 10.05pm. Talk about efficiency!!
The following morning, after a night of wind and rain, was suprisinly clear. However, within half an hour of us getting up the weather had started to close in. We started walking with our travel companions at 9.30am. By half 10, the mist had drawn in even more and we could no longer see the Volcano. We soon came across a couple heading in the opposite direction saying they were fast walkers and it had taken then 2 and a half hours to get this far. We had been walking for an hour at this point and were drenched. They said the weather was horrendous on the other side. Steph and I had a wee whisper behind a rock and decided to turn back. Why hike in the pissing rain to hide in a tent all day, wet and cold? 30 minutes later, we were back at the Refugio (bothy).
We set up camp for the day as more and more people arrived from both directions. By the time we got into our sleeping bags for the night, there were 22 people sleeping in a bothy made for 13!
The following morning, we woke to fresh snow fall on the Volcano. Cosy!! By 1 o'clock Steph and I were back at the restaurant. Why be wet, cold and miserabke on your holidays? Of the 22 of us that stayed in the bothy, 10 came down. We set up camp behind the restaurant at about 5, after hiding for most of the day inside. After a amazing burger, with amazing fillings, we headed back to camp. At about 9.30 at night Steph spotted two hikers coming along the path. It was Benjamin and Ilana!
We went and met them to find that they had walked from the Banos that day, leaving at 2pm when they realised the weather wasn´t going to change! They had encountered hail which had ripped their ponchos, a white out, where they couldn´t see the path and thick fog. Think we had made the right decision!! Especially as we had spent the later part of the afternoon drying out in the sun.
Today we have made it back to Osorno, where the sun is shinning. We just hope there is enough to keep us busy for two days, when we head to Santiago. Somehow, I don´t think it will!!
Anna and Steph
There we met a lovely Chilean couple, Benjamin and Ilana, who were on their holidays visiting Benjamin´s Uncle, who happened to own the restaurant. We organised to go up the hill with them as they were doing the same hike as us. This hike consisted of us walking up to a Refugio and camping there the first night. The following day we planned to accend the Volcano and walk on to the Banos, some natural hot springs, and camp there for the night before going to see the Geisers and making our way back to where we camped the first night.
The Chilean couple knew so much about our surroundings and educated us in the animals and plant life of the area, teaching Steph the Spanish names. As it was a late start, we didn´t get to camp till 9.20pm. While some of you may think this risky, as Steph is not always the fastest of people, the tent was up and we had finished course one and two of dinner by 10.05pm. Talk about efficiency!!
The following morning, after a night of wind and rain, was suprisinly clear. However, within half an hour of us getting up the weather had started to close in. We started walking with our travel companions at 9.30am. By half 10, the mist had drawn in even more and we could no longer see the Volcano. We soon came across a couple heading in the opposite direction saying they were fast walkers and it had taken then 2 and a half hours to get this far. We had been walking for an hour at this point and were drenched. They said the weather was horrendous on the other side. Steph and I had a wee whisper behind a rock and decided to turn back. Why hike in the pissing rain to hide in a tent all day, wet and cold? 30 minutes later, we were back at the Refugio (bothy).
We set up camp for the day as more and more people arrived from both directions. By the time we got into our sleeping bags for the night, there were 22 people sleeping in a bothy made for 13!
The following morning, we woke to fresh snow fall on the Volcano. Cosy!! By 1 o'clock Steph and I were back at the restaurant. Why be wet, cold and miserabke on your holidays? Of the 22 of us that stayed in the bothy, 10 came down. We set up camp behind the restaurant at about 5, after hiding for most of the day inside. After a amazing burger, with amazing fillings, we headed back to camp. At about 9.30 at night Steph spotted two hikers coming along the path. It was Benjamin and Ilana!
We went and met them to find that they had walked from the Banos that day, leaving at 2pm when they realised the weather wasn´t going to change! They had encountered hail which had ripped their ponchos, a white out, where they couldn´t see the path and thick fog. Think we had made the right decision!! Especially as we had spent the later part of the afternoon drying out in the sun.
Today we have made it back to Osorno, where the sun is shinning. We just hope there is enough to keep us busy for two days, when we head to Santiago. Somehow, I don´t think it will!!
Anna and Steph
Monday, 31 January 2011
Anna and Steph Were Stalked By Pigs Once Again!
Some of you may recall an incedent with Wilbur the pig. This time there were three, only not nearly as big, but we´ll get to that in a bit! ...
We had an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC three days hiking in the Lake District (Patagonia not to be confused with the one in England). On the path we met 2 nice American climbing lads who were carrying at least 20kg each. Compare this to our 9 or 10kg and you won´t be wondering why they took a bit longer to reach the campsite.
After a very nice dinner with them and even after all Steph´s enthusiam, we still managed to miss the stars! (To be fair, it wasn´t star watching time until about 11pm ... definitely past our bedtime.)
We had a spritely start to the day, with much scrabbling and huge packs (well, huge in Anna´s mind). Though we did get to the top and passed a slightly older couple on a day hike. From there it was down a nice slippery scree slope through a valley with lots of nice BIG BLACK FLIES (Steph took to calling them a number of names, none of which will be repeated here). Walking up out of the valley we encountered a group of Isrealis who commented on "how difficult it was for a couple of women to be walking by themselves" this was greeted with a "hmm" smile by Anna, who changed the subject immediately (Steph the "not as strong" hiker in their eyes, was still cursing the flies).
On the decent, the Isrealis were surprised to find that Anna and Steph weren´t "skiing" down the 2nd scree slope, in hope of killing other hikers below them even after it was suggested that we should. Anna didn´t smile and change this subject with that one.
Once we´d reached the basin, we found ourselves a BEAUTIFUL campsite and did manage to see the most amazingly spectacular stars!
Breakfast was spent with a Londoner named Nigel (no worries about any hanky panky ... he was in his mid to late 40´s ... that´s too old even for Anna!) After an "apparent" 7 hour hike, we would reach the main road. After 4 1/2 hours (including a leisurely lunch and pee break by the river) we encountered the main road. There we met an adorable Argentinian family, who were on their holidays in Bariloche and all too delighted to give us a lift to our hostel door. (The husband had done the same in his day).
Leaving good olde Thomas and Bryan (our favorite hostel thus far), it wasn´t until we were an hour or so down the road to El Bolson that Steph announced she´d left her shorts at the hostel, this left her with one pair of shorts - good thing she hadn´t left her boardies!
We spent a fantastic 3 days, camping in El Bolson. Compared to Bariloche it was much more in the wilderness. Unfortunately, the rangers didn´t seem to understand that when we said we´d like to hike for more than 6 hours, we didn´t mean 5 or 4, we did actually mean 6 ... or more. This met us with some beautiful walk on the first day with a 2 hour kip in the middle of the day by el Rio Azul.
The second day hike was more of a hike, the back of Anna´s shirt is proof of that. She was, in a word, REPULSED. About 30 minutes into the hike, we happened upon a farm and Anna had the presence of mind to wave hello to a family of 3 pigs that were, doing what pigs do, behind a fence. About 5 minutes later, we heard the distinct noise of pig grunts as then trundled up the hill after us. At some point Anna asked if one could run from pigs ... and then choose to run ... and the pigs ran too. So we went for out smarting them ... and hid in a bush. This seemed to work until we heard the pigs ahead!!! After listening for them in a bush, we decided the pigs had disappeared and it was time for us to move on. And then the mum was infront of us again!! So people, humans can NOT out run pigs ... or atleast not Anna and Steph. After our 3 hour hike to the top, which was supposed to take a grand 4 hour OR more (due to it´s steepness), we started our decent.
Crossing the "Indian Jones type bridge," we were greeted by a nice Argentinian man who said that for A$ 10 he would drive us back to the bus stop and for A$10 extra from there he would drive us to El Bolson (the bus was A$8 and wouldn´t be arriving for 3 hours). Did he think that after a 5 hour, rather than 71/2 hour hike that we wouldn´t be able to walk our 1/2 hour to the bus stop?? Who knows! But we got him in the end ... 5 minutes from the bus stop, he stopped and clarified that he would charge A$10 there to El Bolson. Well, that beats a 3 hour wait for the bus!
Being back in town so much earlier than expected, there was only one thing to do ... eat more ice cream! We had 2 new flavors: Chocolate con naranjitas (that´s chocolate with orange bits) and Almendora (sp?) - almeretto. (This was on top of the 2 new flavors the day before being Canela (cinnimon), chocolate brownie and the leading marscapone con frambuesas).
Back at the campsite, we took the opportunity to use the flint to MAKE FIRE (don´t worry, it was safe and in a fire building place) - only twigs and sticks were harmed. But we succeeded!! The 2 Argentine cyclists in the tent next to ours were impressed with the fire and checked out Anna´s tent (she was exstatic).
Today lead to much excitement as we spent 4 hours in the Bariloche bus station picking out other traveller´s nationalities (you can spot them a mile off)! There was a short side trip for Steph as she spent a whole A$6 to pick up her shorts which were being held at the Green House Hostel ... see, really the best hostel!
After a drawn out border crossing and 2 drug dogs, we made it to Chile. Here we will spend the next 4 or 5 days trekking. While this is no Green House Hostel, it has it´s own 1970´s ski lodge appeal and the owners have opened their home as well as bunny, dog and 2 cats up to us backpackers.
Until next time ... hoping there aren´t too many pigs chancing us!
Anna and Steph
We had an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC three days hiking in the Lake District (Patagonia not to be confused with the one in England). On the path we met 2 nice American climbing lads who were carrying at least 20kg each. Compare this to our 9 or 10kg and you won´t be wondering why they took a bit longer to reach the campsite.
After a very nice dinner with them and even after all Steph´s enthusiam, we still managed to miss the stars! (To be fair, it wasn´t star watching time until about 11pm ... definitely past our bedtime.)
We had a spritely start to the day, with much scrabbling and huge packs (well, huge in Anna´s mind). Though we did get to the top and passed a slightly older couple on a day hike. From there it was down a nice slippery scree slope through a valley with lots of nice BIG BLACK FLIES (Steph took to calling them a number of names, none of which will be repeated here). Walking up out of the valley we encountered a group of Isrealis who commented on "how difficult it was for a couple of women to be walking by themselves" this was greeted with a "hmm" smile by Anna, who changed the subject immediately (Steph the "not as strong" hiker in their eyes, was still cursing the flies).
On the decent, the Isrealis were surprised to find that Anna and Steph weren´t "skiing" down the 2nd scree slope, in hope of killing other hikers below them even after it was suggested that we should. Anna didn´t smile and change this subject with that one.
Once we´d reached the basin, we found ourselves a BEAUTIFUL campsite and did manage to see the most amazingly spectacular stars!
Breakfast was spent with a Londoner named Nigel (no worries about any hanky panky ... he was in his mid to late 40´s ... that´s too old even for Anna!) After an "apparent" 7 hour hike, we would reach the main road. After 4 1/2 hours (including a leisurely lunch and pee break by the river) we encountered the main road. There we met an adorable Argentinian family, who were on their holidays in Bariloche and all too delighted to give us a lift to our hostel door. (The husband had done the same in his day).
Leaving good olde Thomas and Bryan (our favorite hostel thus far), it wasn´t until we were an hour or so down the road to El Bolson that Steph announced she´d left her shorts at the hostel, this left her with one pair of shorts - good thing she hadn´t left her boardies!
We spent a fantastic 3 days, camping in El Bolson. Compared to Bariloche it was much more in the wilderness. Unfortunately, the rangers didn´t seem to understand that when we said we´d like to hike for more than 6 hours, we didn´t mean 5 or 4, we did actually mean 6 ... or more. This met us with some beautiful walk on the first day with a 2 hour kip in the middle of the day by el Rio Azul.
The second day hike was more of a hike, the back of Anna´s shirt is proof of that. She was, in a word, REPULSED. About 30 minutes into the hike, we happened upon a farm and Anna had the presence of mind to wave hello to a family of 3 pigs that were, doing what pigs do, behind a fence. About 5 minutes later, we heard the distinct noise of pig grunts as then trundled up the hill after us. At some point Anna asked if one could run from pigs ... and then choose to run ... and the pigs ran too. So we went for out smarting them ... and hid in a bush. This seemed to work until we heard the pigs ahead!!! After listening for them in a bush, we decided the pigs had disappeared and it was time for us to move on. And then the mum was infront of us again!! So people, humans can NOT out run pigs ... or atleast not Anna and Steph. After our 3 hour hike to the top, which was supposed to take a grand 4 hour OR more (due to it´s steepness), we started our decent.
Crossing the "Indian Jones type bridge," we were greeted by a nice Argentinian man who said that for A$ 10 he would drive us back to the bus stop and for A$10 extra from there he would drive us to El Bolson (the bus was A$8 and wouldn´t be arriving for 3 hours). Did he think that after a 5 hour, rather than 71/2 hour hike that we wouldn´t be able to walk our 1/2 hour to the bus stop?? Who knows! But we got him in the end ... 5 minutes from the bus stop, he stopped and clarified that he would charge A$10 there to El Bolson. Well, that beats a 3 hour wait for the bus!
Being back in town so much earlier than expected, there was only one thing to do ... eat more ice cream! We had 2 new flavors: Chocolate con naranjitas (that´s chocolate with orange bits) and Almendora (sp?) - almeretto. (This was on top of the 2 new flavors the day before being Canela (cinnimon), chocolate brownie and the leading marscapone con frambuesas).
Back at the campsite, we took the opportunity to use the flint to MAKE FIRE (don´t worry, it was safe and in a fire building place) - only twigs and sticks were harmed. But we succeeded!! The 2 Argentine cyclists in the tent next to ours were impressed with the fire and checked out Anna´s tent (she was exstatic).
Today lead to much excitement as we spent 4 hours in the Bariloche bus station picking out other traveller´s nationalities (you can spot them a mile off)! There was a short side trip for Steph as she spent a whole A$6 to pick up her shorts which were being held at the Green House Hostel ... see, really the best hostel!
After a drawn out border crossing and 2 drug dogs, we made it to Chile. Here we will spend the next 4 or 5 days trekking. While this is no Green House Hostel, it has it´s own 1970´s ski lodge appeal and the owners have opened their home as well as bunny, dog and 2 cats up to us backpackers.
Until next time ... hoping there aren´t too many pigs chancing us!
Anna and Steph
Monday, 24 January 2011
Yet Another Uneventful Journey ... I Wish!
Hey Everybody!
We last left you getting ready for our 20 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Bariloche. We did make it ... however the trip lasted closer to 24 hours due to a protest of some sort which closed the road. Mind you there is only one very very very long road to Bariloche, so there was no going around it! If this was not enough, we were forced to watch a scary movie where a guy is killed by flies. Well we think he was, to be honest we'd both stopped watching at that point and fortunately could only hear every couple of words and the screaming!! Case 39 is NOT a movie I would recommend, especially on a bus with small children!! HONESTLY!!! Well, atleast it was in English?
Bariloche is a nice town and we are ranking this hostel as our top one so far! (Green House Hostel) And possibly the best food we've had/will have on this trip ... Di Como - it was this amazing trout sorrentini!!!!!!Then walked to the Alpine Club Information Center ... tossers!
We're both in agreement that today has been the best day of our trip so far!! Out to the bus stop for our 9.20am bus which would take us to Colonia Suiza (or the stop just before it). Bus number 11 drove passed us at 9.20am, Steph said, "it's not the number 10" as the bus headed around the corner Anna said, "that was our bus!"
Hmm, well this was a slight predicament as the next bus wouldn't drive by until 11.20am ... so we waited and diliberated and decided that maybe we'd just catch the number 51 bus and find the village where it ends. Okay, not great, but oh well, these things happen ... and then bus number 11 was heading towards us!!! It was flagged down and we jumped on! How the heck that happened, we still have no idea - must have just been lucky?!
Jumping off the bus, we started our hike! This was our first meeting with, "the wanker in red!" (I have a feeling only a few people will get this ... he wasn't even wearing red!) As we trod up the hill this guy went by, this is normal for Steph as she will get to the top ... she just takes more time than the average person. About 20 minutes later we passed him. We continued to leap frog back and forth until he stormed passed us grumpy that we were ahead again!
The "3 or 4 hour hike" that 3 people had told us it would take to get to Refruigo Lopez took us under 2 hours ... as it wasn't even time for lunch we continued up the scrambly rocky mess to the peak closest to us. And WOW!! I thought the Colorado Rockies were amazing ... well, this does not compare!!! It would be like comparing the Yorkshire Moors to Glen coe!
We had no problems catching the bus back to the hostel and even treated ourselves to ice cream at Jaula's. mmm!! The day culminated in us queing at the gas station behind 6 other cars ... needless to say the guy driving the car behind us was amused!
We're off on a 3 day trek tomorrow and hope the views are as good as they were today!
Later gators!
Anna and Steph
p.s Ice Creams Tasted:
Tiramasu, ***Mascapone y rasberries, Chocolate Brownie, Mint Chocolate Chip, Lemon Pie, Seuco con dulce de oveja, Cherry, Pistacio, Kiwi, Coconut, White Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Banana Split, Dulce de Leche con Neuz, Plum, Watermelon, Lemon, Fruits of the Forrest & Sambrueyo
***denotes the winning ice cream thus far
We last left you getting ready for our 20 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Bariloche. We did make it ... however the trip lasted closer to 24 hours due to a protest of some sort which closed the road. Mind you there is only one very very very long road to Bariloche, so there was no going around it! If this was not enough, we were forced to watch a scary movie where a guy is killed by flies. Well we think he was, to be honest we'd both stopped watching at that point and fortunately could only hear every couple of words and the screaming!! Case 39 is NOT a movie I would recommend, especially on a bus with small children!! HONESTLY!!! Well, atleast it was in English?
Bariloche is a nice town and we are ranking this hostel as our top one so far! (Green House Hostel) And possibly the best food we've had/will have on this trip ... Di Como - it was this amazing trout sorrentini!!!!!!Then walked to the Alpine Club Information Center ... tossers!
We're both in agreement that today has been the best day of our trip so far!! Out to the bus stop for our 9.20am bus which would take us to Colonia Suiza (or the stop just before it). Bus number 11 drove passed us at 9.20am, Steph said, "it's not the number 10" as the bus headed around the corner Anna said, "that was our bus!"
Hmm, well this was a slight predicament as the next bus wouldn't drive by until 11.20am ... so we waited and diliberated and decided that maybe we'd just catch the number 51 bus and find the village where it ends. Okay, not great, but oh well, these things happen ... and then bus number 11 was heading towards us!!! It was flagged down and we jumped on! How the heck that happened, we still have no idea - must have just been lucky?!
Jumping off the bus, we started our hike! This was our first meeting with, "the wanker in red!" (I have a feeling only a few people will get this ... he wasn't even wearing red!) As we trod up the hill this guy went by, this is normal for Steph as she will get to the top ... she just takes more time than the average person. About 20 minutes later we passed him. We continued to leap frog back and forth until he stormed passed us grumpy that we were ahead again!
The "3 or 4 hour hike" that 3 people had told us it would take to get to Refruigo Lopez took us under 2 hours ... as it wasn't even time for lunch we continued up the scrambly rocky mess to the peak closest to us. And WOW!! I thought the Colorado Rockies were amazing ... well, this does not compare!!! It would be like comparing the Yorkshire Moors to Glen coe!
We had no problems catching the bus back to the hostel and even treated ourselves to ice cream at Jaula's. mmm!! The day culminated in us queing at the gas station behind 6 other cars ... needless to say the guy driving the car behind us was amused!
We're off on a 3 day trek tomorrow and hope the views are as good as they were today!
Later gators!
Anna and Steph
p.s Ice Creams Tasted:
Tiramasu, ***Mascapone y rasberries, Chocolate Brownie, Mint Chocolate Chip, Lemon Pie, Seuco con dulce de oveja, Cherry, Pistacio, Kiwi, Coconut, White Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Banana Split, Dulce de Leche con Neuz, Plum, Watermelon, Lemon, Fruits of the Forrest & Sambrueyo
***denotes the winning ice cream thus far
Friday, 21 January 2011
Doing 360s in the Rio De La Plata
Hello All!!
We are currently in Buenos Aires (BA) after a very long trip over the water. What was suppose to be a short uneventful ferry crossing across the Rio De La Plata turned out to take us all day. It all started when a massive thunderstrom appeared just as we were going through immigration. We both got our passport stamped when they announced that the port was closed until the weather calmed down. Thankfully the terminal opened again after an hour so we weren't that delayed. All back on track!! Or so we thought....
The boat was suppose to take us about 2 hours. After about an hour and a half we began to think we were almost there. A curly haired dude appeared with a microphone and started to jibber away in spanish, only which Steph managed to catch a bit of. We promptly turned around to ask the couple behind us what was happening, as people started shouting at the poor curly haired dude. The boat was broken! and instead of heading to the big city of BA we had infact, been going round in circles 10km away from Colonia (where we had left). It then proceeded to take 3 and a half hours to turn around and head back to Colonia where a wee tug boat appeared to take us to the port when we were close enough to shore. After a 45 minute lock down in what can only be described as a holding bay, another company took us to BA. So folks, if you ever want to get the ferry from Colonia to BA, pay the extra and take the Seacat!! (we would however like to say thank you to the express colonia for providing us with 2 free sodas, a sandwich and some random ham flavored crackers!)
We have now spent two nights in BA, with one more to go. BA is a lovely city, which reminds us both very much of Paris in places. The pair of us have both also heared that you must eat steak when in Argentina and so thats whats on the cards for tonight. Steak the Argentinian way... we'll tell you what way that is once we've found out!!
I think the last time we spoke to you all we were in Montevideo heading to Colonia. Colonia was a Portuguese smuggling port and very pretty with its small cobbled streets. It is a very sleepy town, with lots of cafes and a beautiful sunset, which we went and watched both nights. There were also 7 museums in Colonia, of which we did 4 in an hour, had some Mate (type of tea out here) and continued our new daily ritual of an ice-cream a day. (As of right now Argentina is leading in the ice cream battle, followed closely by Urugauy).
The two of us are now getting ready for our next long bus journey to Bariloche tomorrow, which takes 20 hours. I am 100% positive that both our bums will ache after that one!
Catch you all when we're in Patagonia!
Steph and Anna
We are currently in Buenos Aires (BA) after a very long trip over the water. What was suppose to be a short uneventful ferry crossing across the Rio De La Plata turned out to take us all day. It all started when a massive thunderstrom appeared just as we were going through immigration. We both got our passport stamped when they announced that the port was closed until the weather calmed down. Thankfully the terminal opened again after an hour so we weren't that delayed. All back on track!! Or so we thought....
The boat was suppose to take us about 2 hours. After about an hour and a half we began to think we were almost there. A curly haired dude appeared with a microphone and started to jibber away in spanish, only which Steph managed to catch a bit of. We promptly turned around to ask the couple behind us what was happening, as people started shouting at the poor curly haired dude. The boat was broken! and instead of heading to the big city of BA we had infact, been going round in circles 10km away from Colonia (where we had left). It then proceeded to take 3 and a half hours to turn around and head back to Colonia where a wee tug boat appeared to take us to the port when we were close enough to shore. After a 45 minute lock down in what can only be described as a holding bay, another company took us to BA. So folks, if you ever want to get the ferry from Colonia to BA, pay the extra and take the Seacat!! (we would however like to say thank you to the express colonia for providing us with 2 free sodas, a sandwich and some random ham flavored crackers!)
We have now spent two nights in BA, with one more to go. BA is a lovely city, which reminds us both very much of Paris in places. The pair of us have both also heared that you must eat steak when in Argentina and so thats whats on the cards for tonight. Steak the Argentinian way... we'll tell you what way that is once we've found out!!
I think the last time we spoke to you all we were in Montevideo heading to Colonia. Colonia was a Portuguese smuggling port and very pretty with its small cobbled streets. It is a very sleepy town, with lots of cafes and a beautiful sunset, which we went and watched both nights. There were also 7 museums in Colonia, of which we did 4 in an hour, had some Mate (type of tea out here) and continued our new daily ritual of an ice-cream a day. (As of right now Argentina is leading in the ice cream battle, followed closely by Urugauy).
The two of us are now getting ready for our next long bus journey to Bariloche tomorrow, which takes 20 hours. I am 100% positive that both our bums will ache after that one!
Catch you all when we're in Patagonia!
Steph and Anna
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Another Overnight Bus... Why Not?
Rio... floods?? Where?? Know nothing about it! We're on holiday!
We have moved around a lot since we last spoke to you all and are now in Uruguay. We spent some time in Florianopolis, which is a coastal town, on an island, 18 hours south of Rio. Anna's bum took a good day or so to recover from that one. We spent one day on the beach and another walking to a waterfall on the edge of a lake. The walk took about 3 hours in total and oddly, after some searching and a slight tumble on Steph's part, no waterfall was ever found. We think it may be very very small and so only ants can find it!! They have big ants!
After a couple of days there we took a very quick over night bus to Porto Alegre. So quick in fact we arrived three hours before we thought we would. Instead of arriving at about 8am, a nice safe day light hour, we arrived at 5am!! The next two hours were spent in silence, staring into space, attempting to stay awake waiting for the sun to come up, with the exception of a Brazilian jibbering away to us at 5.30! As you can imagine, we weren't very responsive!
Porto Alegre was alright, the tourist office women quickly started highlighting more things once she heared we were there for 12 hours. Aparently people don't spend much time in the area... We would recommend the park tho, good for a quick nap while the other cuts up wedding magazines.
Last night, after wasting hours in the bus station, we got an overnight bus to Montevideo. Dinner and breakfast provided!! Although Anna didn't stay awake long enough (half an hour) to get hers. Montevideo, so far has been amazing, cooler, lovely people and cheaper!!
We are here for a couple more days before heading to Colonia Del Sacramento and onto Argentina.
Hope you're all having fun at home!
Anna and Steph
We have moved around a lot since we last spoke to you all and are now in Uruguay. We spent some time in Florianopolis, which is a coastal town, on an island, 18 hours south of Rio. Anna's bum took a good day or so to recover from that one. We spent one day on the beach and another walking to a waterfall on the edge of a lake. The walk took about 3 hours in total and oddly, after some searching and a slight tumble on Steph's part, no waterfall was ever found. We think it may be very very small and so only ants can find it!! They have big ants!
After a couple of days there we took a very quick over night bus to Porto Alegre. So quick in fact we arrived three hours before we thought we would. Instead of arriving at about 8am, a nice safe day light hour, we arrived at 5am!! The next two hours were spent in silence, staring into space, attempting to stay awake waiting for the sun to come up, with the exception of a Brazilian jibbering away to us at 5.30! As you can imagine, we weren't very responsive!
Porto Alegre was alright, the tourist office women quickly started highlighting more things once she heared we were there for 12 hours. Aparently people don't spend much time in the area... We would recommend the park tho, good for a quick nap while the other cuts up wedding magazines.
Last night, after wasting hours in the bus station, we got an overnight bus to Montevideo. Dinner and breakfast provided!! Although Anna didn't stay awake long enough (half an hour) to get hers. Montevideo, so far has been amazing, cooler, lovely people and cheaper!!
We are here for a couple more days before heading to Colonia Del Sacramento and onto Argentina.
Hope you're all having fun at home!
Anna and Steph
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Don't worry!
Just in case, you've seen this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12180079
Please don't worry. We're currently in Floriaopolis, but about to head for Porto Alegre, before heading onto Montevideo the next day.
We'll add more when we find an internet cafe and can spend longer online, but all's good!!!!!! :):):):)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12180079
Please don't worry. We're currently in Floriaopolis, but about to head for Porto Alegre, before heading onto Montevideo the next day.
We'll add more when we find an internet cafe and can spend longer online, but all's good!!!!!! :):):):)
Monday, 10 January 2011
Our Fantastic Beginning To a 3 Month Trip!
We thought this was an appropriate beginning to this blog. Jon (Steph´s fiance) sent this to her parents after we had landed safely in Rio ...
Frank and Sandie,
I'm not sure how much Steph told you about Friday, but I'm guessing she didn't give you the entire picture, so I'm going to tell tales...
It wasn't entirely her fault, but it was mostly!
Due to what we thought would be issues over her Brazilian visa, she booked a ticket from London Luton to Paris Charles de Gaulle, so that she could skip the London City-Paris Orly flight and the transfer across Paris, which left earlier. However, she then failed to tell Air France that she needed to cancel the first half of the flight - something that she claims(!) she's done before. The day before, she was finally gong to do it, but my phone died while we were in London and there office was shut by the time we got home, so she started to organise her packing and generally spread further chaos/mess around the flat - I'm sure that isn't a difficult picture to imagine.
So, this brings us to Friday. The alarm went off at 8am, so that she could ring Air France as soon as their office opened. Which she did, at which point I got wind that this wasn;t as simple as it was going to be, so I looked online and texted Anna to tell her that there were problems and it looked like she was going to have to get from Edinburgh to London City to get the original flight, but I said Steph would ring her back as soon as she got off the phone. I told Anna that she could either get a train, if she left immediately, or to fly in an hour and a half. At which point, she told me that she was in Braemar, 2 hours from Edinburgh.
Steph got off the phone, highly frustrated with Air France, unsurprisingly, as all they could offer to do was cancel the tickets and refund the tax, or change the tickets at a cost of £1300 each. She then rang Anna, who had pressganged her Dad into driving her to Edinbrugh airport and they were on their way. Steph then began packing, at which point I told her we needed to leave at 10am to get to Peterborough station to get a train that would get us in time. This was now 9am.
At 9.20am, I scream came from the kitchen, as Steph had looked out of the window and seen that Uppingham seemed to have been hit by a (UK-style) blizzard and all the cars were driving at about 10mph - this was going to take longer than I thought! So I said we'd leave as soon as she finished packing. She finished at 9.55am!
We jumped in the car and drove to Peterborough. Thankfully, Uppingham seemed to be in a strange pocket of snow, and on the way to Peterborough, the snow turned to rain and we made much better progress, getting there in time for our train, at whcih point we started to relax a little.
What we were unaware of (and I don't think I got the exact details of this), is that Anna had needed to print out her ticket (or similar), but the ink had run out in her printer. So, as her Dad was speeding towards the airport, her brother changed the ink cartridges, printed what she needed out and then sped after her, so that she was able to get to Departures and check-in just in time. I dread to think what her Dad's driving was like!!
Arriving in london, we then crossed over on the Underground and arrived through the airport doors about 5 mintes before Anna came through arrivals.
I have absolutely no idea how they managed to do it, but they made it! It certainly wasn't stress-free and if life is going to continue like that, then my life expectancy will certainly go down!!!! Mind you, so will Steph's!! Rumour has it, her New YEar's Resolution is to be more roganised, including being tidier, so that she can find things more easily when she's packing, especially at the last minute! I'll believe that when I see it!!
I am dumbfounded as to how they both got there on the day that they had planned, considering all the things that look set to go wrong, with tickets, UK visas, Brazilian visas, etc. And to top it all off, we even managed to sort her out with her dream jacket, which they'd sold out of in Peterborough.
What have I got myself in?! Love really is cruel! I'm in trouble! (but don't worry, there's no going back, I'm in for the longhaul!)
I hope all's well with the both of you.
Term is all set to start now, and after the last whirlwind week, I feel like a holiday!
All the best,
J.x
We would like to add that when Anna and her dad drove to the Edinburgh airport her mum and Guy (boyfriend) were frantically attempting to buy her ticket.
After a few days in Rio we are now off on our first overnight bus journey to Floriaopolis.
Speak to you again soon!
Anna and Steph
Frank and Sandie,
I'm not sure how much Steph told you about Friday, but I'm guessing she didn't give you the entire picture, so I'm going to tell tales...
It wasn't entirely her fault, but it was mostly!
Due to what we thought would be issues over her Brazilian visa, she booked a ticket from London Luton to Paris Charles de Gaulle, so that she could skip the London City-Paris Orly flight and the transfer across Paris, which left earlier. However, she then failed to tell Air France that she needed to cancel the first half of the flight - something that she claims(!) she's done before. The day before, she was finally gong to do it, but my phone died while we were in London and there office was shut by the time we got home, so she started to organise her packing and generally spread further chaos/mess around the flat - I'm sure that isn't a difficult picture to imagine.
So, this brings us to Friday. The alarm went off at 8am, so that she could ring Air France as soon as their office opened. Which she did, at which point I got wind that this wasn;t as simple as it was going to be, so I looked online and texted Anna to tell her that there were problems and it looked like she was going to have to get from Edinburgh to London City to get the original flight, but I said Steph would ring her back as soon as she got off the phone. I told Anna that she could either get a train, if she left immediately, or to fly in an hour and a half. At which point, she told me that she was in Braemar, 2 hours from Edinburgh.
Steph got off the phone, highly frustrated with Air France, unsurprisingly, as all they could offer to do was cancel the tickets and refund the tax, or change the tickets at a cost of £1300 each. She then rang Anna, who had pressganged her Dad into driving her to Edinbrugh airport and they were on their way. Steph then began packing, at which point I told her we needed to leave at 10am to get to Peterborough station to get a train that would get us in time. This was now 9am.
At 9.20am, I scream came from the kitchen, as Steph had looked out of the window and seen that Uppingham seemed to have been hit by a (UK-style) blizzard and all the cars were driving at about 10mph - this was going to take longer than I thought! So I said we'd leave as soon as she finished packing. She finished at 9.55am!
We jumped in the car and drove to Peterborough. Thankfully, Uppingham seemed to be in a strange pocket of snow, and on the way to Peterborough, the snow turned to rain and we made much better progress, getting there in time for our train, at whcih point we started to relax a little.
What we were unaware of (and I don't think I got the exact details of this), is that Anna had needed to print out her ticket (or similar), but the ink had run out in her printer. So, as her Dad was speeding towards the airport, her brother changed the ink cartridges, printed what she needed out and then sped after her, so that she was able to get to Departures and check-in just in time. I dread to think what her Dad's driving was like!!
Arriving in london, we then crossed over on the Underground and arrived through the airport doors about 5 mintes before Anna came through arrivals.
I have absolutely no idea how they managed to do it, but they made it! It certainly wasn't stress-free and if life is going to continue like that, then my life expectancy will certainly go down!!!! Mind you, so will Steph's!! Rumour has it, her New YEar's Resolution is to be more roganised, including being tidier, so that she can find things more easily when she's packing, especially at the last minute! I'll believe that when I see it!!
I am dumbfounded as to how they both got there on the day that they had planned, considering all the things that look set to go wrong, with tickets, UK visas, Brazilian visas, etc. And to top it all off, we even managed to sort her out with her dream jacket, which they'd sold out of in Peterborough.
What have I got myself in?! Love really is cruel! I'm in trouble! (but don't worry, there's no going back, I'm in for the longhaul!)
I hope all's well with the both of you.
Term is all set to start now, and after the last whirlwind week, I feel like a holiday!
All the best,
J.x
We would like to add that when Anna and her dad drove to the Edinburgh airport her mum and Guy (boyfriend) were frantically attempting to buy her ticket.
After a few days in Rio we are now off on our first overnight bus journey to Floriaopolis.
Speak to you again soon!
Anna and Steph
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