The Darien Plan

The list post

2010-01-12T06:33:00.000-08:00

We're home. One of the toughest things people often ask us about our trip is 'What was your favorite country?' It is nearly impossible to answer this question - we enjoyed every country we visited (except for Honduras, but that doesn't really count). Lately I have been thinking back on some great things, some crazy things, some challenges, and some things we missed (links refer back to the corresponding blog post):

Hiking in to Yaxchilan, Mexico

Greatest Hits

Mexico - Visiting the re-awakening ghost town of Real de Catorce, beach-bumming down the Pacific Coast from Sayulita to Puerto Escondido, and seeing our first pre-Columbian ruins.
Guatemala - Hiking up a dormant volcano to look down on active erupting volcano Santa Maria, learning Spanish and living with a wonderful family in Xela, and seeing the thriving indigenous culture.
Nicaragua - Partying with visiting friends, and chilling in our sweet condo with our great friends Tom and Kelsey in San Juan del Sur to build the best website with information on driving North, Central, and South America at Drive the Americas.
Costa Rica - Learning the true meaning of relaxation and how to surf at Playa Negra, and exploring our first jungle in Monteverde.
Panama - Achieving coffee nirvana in Boquete and sailing the San Blas Islands.
Colombia - Seeing some exquisite colonial towns, and experiencing the pinnacle of delicious Colombian food at Andres Carne de Res with our adopted Colombian family.
Ecuador - Exploring the beautiful highlands while driving the Quilotoa Loop, and bathing and biking in Baños.
Peru - Getting off the gringo trail in northern Peru to visit Kuelap, and touring southern Peru. It packed the highest density of amazing Incan and pre-Incan culture between Colca Canyon, Lake Titicaca, and the ruins around Cusco.
Bolivia - Getting our car blessed in Copacabana, finding ourselves in the middle of a crazy three day dance festival in Sucre, and freezing our butts off in the Salar de Uyuni.
Argentina - Enjoying the amazing wine around Mendoza, seeing our first glacier in El Calafate, and reaching the end of the road in Ushuaia.
Uruguay - Getting tranquilo at the hot springs and learning about gaucho life on Panagea Ranch.

High jump in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Places we missed and are on our wish-list for the next trip

Mexico - See the Yucatan Peninsula.
Guatemala - Spend the Day of the Dead in Huehuetenango, and hike two days through the jungle to visit the unexcavated Mayan ruins at El Mirador.
Nicaragua - Visit tropical paradise on the Bay Islands.
Honduras - Scuba dive off Roatan Island.
Panama - Sail more of the amazing San Blas Islands.
Colombia - Visit the Lost City on the Caribbean coast.
Ecuador - Visit the jungles of Ecuador and shell out the big bucks to see the Galapagos Islands.
Peru - Mountaineer in the Cordillera Blanca of Juaráz.
Bolivia - Visit the colorful canyons of Tarija in Southern Bolivia.
Argentina - See Iguazu falls and fly to Eastern Island.
Chile - Drive the Carretera Austral of southern Chile and hike in Torres del Paine.
Brazil - The whole country!

Tropical paradise in the San Blas Islands, Panama

Fun/insane things that would never happen in the US

Mexico - Fireworks raining down on the crowds for Independence Day in Zacatecas and in general the very generous use of fireworks, all day, all night, for any occasion.
Guatemala - Watching men in Chichicastenango dance around while wearing an exploding fireworks-suit to celebrate the Burning of the Devil, and Chris getting sprayed with beer in a good luck ceremony for the demi-god/evil spirit Maximon. Add hiking next to flowing molten lava and fighting off spiders around Lago Atitlan, and Guatemala earns the award for the most lawsuit-worthy country.
Panama - Sailing across the ocean from the San Blas Islands of Panama to Cartagena Colombia in an overcrowded ship with a captain who liked his booze.
Bolivia - Crawling through the apocalyptic tin mines in Potosí and biking down the death road.

Five-minute fuse in Potosí, Bolivia

Biggest Challenges

Being ill - It's an unfortunate reality for a trip of this length in these countries that most travelers will pick up some nasty bugs. We spent some serious sick time in Mexico and Nicaragua, but coming down with giardia in La Paz, Bolivia was by far the most unpleasant experience. Hunting down rabies vaccines in Ecuador and Peru wasn't a cakewalk either.
Worrying about money - While driving endless days in Patagonia towards the end of our trip, we had too much time to think about our dwindling budget and the unknown costs of shipping the car back to the US and purchasing airline tickets. It ended up being a lot cheaper than we expected, and relaxing at the hot springs and ranch in Uruguay helped us regain perspective.
Being cold - Throughout the trip, we were continually surprised by how cold we were. Once you're above 10,000 ft, it doesn't matter how close to the equator you may be, it will be chilly. We should have brought more warm clothes.
Not getting too irritated - There's no hot water, there's no heat, this hotel is good enough, let's not stop here, I'm starving, I'm freezing, watch out for that pot-hole, etc. Two people in one car for sixteen months can push the limits of anyone's patience. We found that if we got really annoyed, we would wait for ten minutes and then think about it again. Chances were that whatever it was, it really didn't matter.

Surfing at Playa Negra, Costa Rica

That said, The Darien Plan is now going on sabbatical. We are currently with Chris's parents in Florida. We will spend some time with them here before visiting my family in Boston, then we will set off back across the country for California (with many stops to visit friends and family along the way). We plan to end our travels in San Diego. Thanks again for reading. Feel free to contact us (email addresses and Skype handles at the top of the blog) if you have any thoughts or questions. Also check out our website, Drive the Americas, for comprehensive information on driving North, Central, and South America.

State of the trip

2010-01-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

For anyone considering a similar trip, here are cost-per-country estimates and some other necessary expenses associated with the trip.

Chillin' like a villain in Nicaragua

Insurance

Health insurance: $1600 for 16 months for two people - Covered only catastrophic events, emergency evacuation, etc.
Car insurance: $3500 for 16 months - We bought extensive coverage since our car was new; third-party only insurance is much cheaper but doesn't provide much coverage.
Property insurance: $440 for 2 years - Covered any theft of our belongings during our trip.

Inca terraces outside of Cusco, Peru

Transportation and shipping

Shipping the car from Colon, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia: $900 including all shipping and port fees. We shared a 40 foot container with another car; costs may be higher for a single car 20 foot container, but lower for the 'roll-on-roll-off' option.
Sailing from the San Blas Islands, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia: $700 for 6 days, 5 nights on a yacht. 3 days of heaven sailing the San Blas Islands, 2 days of hell crossing the open ocean.
Shipping the car from Buenos Aires to the US: $800 for a 'roll-on-roll-off'' ferry, including port and paperwork fees.
Flight from Buenos Aires to Miami: $2000 for two one-way tickets.

Sharing hot chocolate in a family's home in Lagos Montebellos, Mexico

Cost of living

Average budget per day (for two people), including hotel/campsite fees, food, beverages, gasoline, vehicle maintenance, toll roads, and other costs associated with driving.

Mexico: $75/day
Guatemala: $70/day - If you want to learn to speak Spanish, this is the most economical country. We lived with a wonderful family and took lessons in Xela, but Antigua has a more pleasant climate and atmosphere for those weighing options.
El Salvador: $43/day
Honduras: $100/day - This value is skewed as we got screwed at the border and spent less than 24 hours in that country.
Nicaragua: $90/day - One of our splurge countries. We partied with friends over New Years and rented a luxurious condo with our friends Tom and Kelsey to put together our website with driving information, Drive the Americas.
Costa Rica: $48/day - While this country is probably the most expensive in Central America, we played it super cheap for a month when we squeezed in to a small cabina on Playa Negra with Tom and Kelsey, cooking our own food and catching our catch.
Panama: $54/day
Colombia: $64/day
Ecuador: $78/day
Peru: $85/day
Bolivia: $85/day
Argentina: $95/day - Many long days of driving large distances really added up.
Chile: $40/day - We were only in one location, Pichilemu, for a week, so this is not representative of the true costs of this country. Chile is more expensive than Argentina.
Uruguay: $66/day - Prices in Uruguay are similar to those in Argentina, but the country is so small the driving expenses were low. We also camped everywhere except when we were playing gauchos on the ranch.

Children on the Islas Taquiles, Lake Titicaca, Peru

While this does represent a good chuck of change, we would probably have lost more if we'd left that money in the stock market...money well spent in our opinion.

Our last huzzah

2009-12-30T09:23:00.000-08:00

Night on the streets of Buenos Aires

Since my father and his wife Joyce were visiting us in Buenos Aires for Christmas, we checked in to the luxurious downtown Plaza Hotel to await their arrival. For the last week of our sixteen months in South America, we would be living at a very different standard than we had become accustomed to. Uniformed attendants opened the polished brass doors as we entered the marble lobby and a bellman took our bags to our room. Our suite of rooms was just slightly smaller than our apartment in San Francisco, and I leapt on to the fantastic bed (complete with down mattress cover and eight fluffy pillows) as Chris turned on both of our flat screen TVs. To get in to the Christmas spirit, we went to a nearby dollar store and bought the best plastic Christmas tree, lights, and sparkly bangles $15 can buy.

Busy shoppers on Calle Florida

Despite the snow storm that shut down most of northeastern US travel for 24 hours and resulted in the cancellation of their flight, Dad and Joyce managed to catch a flight only a day later than they had originally planned. After they arrived in Buenos Aires, we immediately hit the packed streets around our hotel for a little shopping. Buenos Aires is known for its cutting edge fashion as well as inexpensive leather products, so we wandered the streets for a couple of hours, avoiding the stores with agressive hawkers inviting their 'friends' in for a 'special bargain.' In addition to the fantastic shopping during the day, we ended most evenings enjoying fine wine and food. My father quickly settled in to a routine of ordering a refreshing white Torrontés to accompany appetizers and a rich Malbec to compliment huge steaks.

Around the sparkling dollar-store tree Christmas night

While taking a tour of the city to get a feel for its many different neighborhoods, we stopped at the Cementario de la Recoleta. This elaborate cemetery guards the remains of Buenos Aires' elite families who pay dearly for some of the most expensive real estate in Argentina. Walking the narrow alleys of the cemetery we recognized names that are commonly used for streets in any town in Argentina, such as Sarmiento, Mitre, and Alvear, but we were headed for the cemetery's most visited resident: Evita Peron. Luckily when we visited the cemetery, it was almost empty. We visited her grave without waiting in a line that can stretch around the corner. Some mausoleums were constructed from immaculate marble with elaborate statues guarding the entrance of tombs complete with stained glass windows. Others were crumbling into rubble, the tomb's entrance a mess of broken glass and wooden shards.

Elaborate statues in the Recoleta Cemetary

We also took a one-hour boat ride across the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to visit the exquisitely preserved town of Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. The oldest town in Uruguay, it was originally settled by Portugal in 1680, and changed hands many times between Portugal, Spain, and Brazil before the entire independent country of Uruguay was established in 1828. We wandered its rough cobble stone streets, peeked in some preserved homes, and enjoyed a quiet lunch on the main town square before heading back to Buenos Aires later that afternoon.

Lighthouse built in the remains of a crumbling cathedral in Colonia de Sacramento

We spent our last day in Buenos Aires with my parents wandering the picturesque streets of the San Telmo neighborhood. Every Sunday this area hosts a huge antiques fair, complete with tango dancing demonstrations and empanada vendors on every corner. We lingered over some beautiful old seltzer bottles, as well as soon cool gaucho equipment, but decided our bags were already too full to fit just one more thing. After they left that night, we spent another 48 hours in Argentina before heading to the airport ourselves. And now, this is it: our last blog post from Latin America. At 5:30 am December 30th we took off from Buenos Aires International Airport on a flight (via Panama City, Panama and Houston, Texas) to Miami, Florida. I never thought I would say this, but I'm ready to stop traveling for a while. We are looking forward to some quality family time in the United States as we figure out what we want to do with our lives. Taking this trip has been one of the best things we have done with our lives, and I know it has permanently changed us. Still to come for those who are interested: a greatest hits list, and an estimated budget for those considering a similar trip. Thanks for reading our blog and sharing the last 18 amazing months with us.

Old seltzer bottles for sale in San Telmo

Somehow it all worked out in the end

2009-12-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

After six tranquillo days on Panagea ranch, we drove a beautiful route through the heart of gaucho Uruguay to the coast. We stopped halfway to the coast at a canyon called Quebrada de las Cuervas and shared the campground that night with about 200 high school students from Montevidéo. Luckily the campground was large so we managed to avoid most of the chaos. Waking up the next morning we took an interesting hike in to the nearby canyon. The hiking trail consisted mainly of ropes to help hikers scramble down almost vertical jumbles of rocks to reach the rushing river below. After pulling ourselves back up the canyon wall, we continued on to the coast.

Quebrada de las Cuervas, Uruguay

The weather got cold and cloudy as we reached the beach in the small town of La Paloma, so we pulled out our winter clothes as we set up our campsite by the shore. We were a little worried about the pine trees groaning in the wind around our car. After caballo's narrow escape from the tornado, we felt it might be pushing our luck to park below so many creaking branches. One branch crashed harmlessly to the ground about ten feet from our car, so that blessing from Copacabana, Bolivia, still must be functioning.

Windworn Virgin greets people on the beach in La Paloma

After a week without internet, we pulled out our laptops in our Wifi-enabled campground and tried to catch up. My heart sank as I read an email from the company we thought we had a reservation with for shipping our car back to the states. Turns out the boat wasn't going to the US after all. Several weeks ago when we made the reservation, the shipping agent neglected to mention that when they told us a boat was scheduled to go to Florida, there wasn't actually any confirmed cargo for that boat (and our car isn't enough to send an ocean tanker anywhere). No shipments had come through, so they were canceling the trip. Panicked I called the shipper and they really couldn't help us. They recommended we contact K-Line, another shipper, to see if they had any ships sailing. Luckily I quickly was able to confirm a K-Line ship sailing from Buenos Aires to Florida a week later than we had originally planned. Given this change of plans, we had an extra week to burn before we needed to return to Buenos Aires. After spending four days checking out the coastal cities of Punta del Este, Piriápolis, and Montevidéo, we returned to the estancia Panagea for another week of ridin', wrangling', and wraslin'.

Piglets on the Panagea Ranch

With great trepidation we then returned to Buenos Aires and headed to the port. After dealing with paperwork, corruption, and inefficiency when we shipped our car from Panamá to Colombia, we were ready for a fight. Amazingly, we arrived at the port, met with the aduana (customs) to show some documents, crossed the hall from the aduana to the shippers, and the keys were out of our hands within thirty minutes. The hardest part of the process was actually finding the port. Fingers crossed that the car will show up on January 17 in Jacksonville Florida. For detailed information about shipping the car, please see our Drive the Americas website. Next and last on the agenda for our trip, holidays in Buenos Aires with some family.

Epilogue

While sitting in downtown Tacuarembó (30 minutes from the estancia) using the free Wifi around the town square, our car and its California license plates attracted the attention of a local news team. They brought over a reporter, camera, and microphone, and proceeded to interview us for five minutes in Spanish. For all of our Spanish speaking friends, please try not to laugh too hard at our terrible Spanish. Our Spanish deteriorated under the pressure of becoming a local celebrity. See the YouTube video or watch it below. The subtitles I added indicate what we meant to say, minus all of the grammatical errors and other embarrassments.

Seeing the soul of Uruguay

2009-11-30T11:58:00.000-08:00

Old-timey portrait of Chris with his trusty horse and faithful dog

While many tourists know Uruguay for its beautiful beaches and the coastal city of Montevideo, the interior of the country is home to rolling hills and picturesque ranches. The tradition of the gaucho (cowboy) goes deep in to Uruguay's history when the land was first settled by European immigrants. Today gauchos still work the ranches of southern Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina. Looking to learn more about the gaucho lifestyle, we stayed for six days on the beautiful Panag ea ranch in Tacuarembó Department, Uruguay. This is not a tourist ranch with a few token animals and basic follow-the-leader horseback riding. This is a working ranch where you quickly learn to saddle your own horse to head out to the fields to herd cattle and sheep.

Bilingue gathering the horses for our morning ride

After an afternoon lesson from the owner, Juan, and a quick ride to see some of the countryside, we tucked in to what would be the first in a series of memorable meals. Juan's partner Susannah, despite nursing a four-month-old baby and working with a kitchen equipped only with wood burning stoves, cooked delicious stews, meats, breads and vegetables consisting of food mainly farmed on the ranch. We got to know our fellow gauchos-in-training that night during the two hours of electricity provided by a gas-powered generator, and retired to bed when the lights went out. The next morning would start with breakfast at 6:30 am followed by our first ride of the day at 7:30. Juan reassured us that we would be awakened plenty early by the hundreds of ibises who nest in the trees around the house. Sure enough as the sun was rising the next morning a tremendous squawking roused us from bed.

Kristin taking a break from sheep drenching

Our days followed a vigorous schedule: riding in the morning to round up either a flock of sheep or a herd of cattle, lunch and a quick siesta, then an afternoon ride to move more animals. Two afternoons we gathered sheep in one of the pens, separated the lambs from the older sheep, and dosed the lambs with an anti-worm vaccination (this process is called drenching). This required bringing the sheep from a large field into a small area, wading into a squirming pack of sheep, and plucking out the lambs by the stomach to haul the unwilling patients for their medicine. The lambs were funny though; while they panicked when we were shouting them from one pen to another, as soon as they were picked up they just went limp. We spent another two tiring afternoons splashing around in ankle-deep manure dividing male from female calves. Waving white flags to chase the cows in to a small pen, we then had to avoid getting our feet stomped on while we doing this dirty work. As a reward for our labors we went swimming in the nearby river before downing cold beers in anticipation of another amazing meal.

Hummingbirds buzzed the feeder sunny afternoons

The first two days on the ranch we shared the chores with a tour group traveling from Rio to Buenos Aires. Once they departed, we got to know our hosts Juan and Susannah better as they had fewer responsibilities. Juan's family has farmed this ranch for the last 70 years. He explained that when the beaches of Uruguay became a popular tourist destination, he decided to open his ranch to tourists because he wanted to show them the true soul of Uruguay. We immediately appreciated his sentiment. His ranch is beautifully situated on rolling hills crisscrossed by rushing rivers and spotted with stands of eucalyptus trees. The sheep and cattle share the land with his horses, dogs, and the huge variety of birds we admired when riding through the grassy fields. We had originally planned on staying four nights, but we couldn't leave this paradise of fresh air, hard work, and good company so quickly so decided to stay an additional two nights.

Herding sheep across a stream

Our last night was marred by the arrival of a violent thunderstorm accompanied by a small tornado. When riding back towards the house after our last afternoon ride, we could see ominous clouds boiling over the ranch. Lightening began to flash with strobe-light frequency as the storm bore down. Over two inches of rain fell in less than an hour while the winds whipped the poor ibises out of the trees. When the storm broke after dinner we headed out to survey the damage. Confused ibises looked around on the ground, surrounded by branches and fallen trees. We think in the dark they couldn't see well enough to fly back in to their customary nesting trees. In the pitch black we could make out one tree leaning against the roof of the house. We all headed quietly for bed and woke the next morning to scene of destruction. Many of the large old trees surrounding the house had been ripped from the ground, one puncturing the roof over a bathroom. Our car very narrowly escaped being crushed by a huge branch, surviving with only a small dent to the hood.

Four feet to the right and no more caballo

Juan solemnly handled the destruction as he took a quick survey of his lands before helping us load our belongings in to the car. We were leaving that morning with the remaining three tourists. Because of the rains the rivers had flooded the roads on the quicker route to Tacuarembo, so we had to take a muddy long-cut through ranches to get to the city. Putting our faithful car caballo to the test, we skidded through huge mud puddles and up rutted roads, towing Juan's truck out of a couple of tough patches. We were very sad to leave the ranch but are already plotting our return, maybe coupled to our date with Tom and Kelsey for Carnival in 2011. Staying on this ranch was definitely one of the highlights of our whole trip through Latin America.

Achieving tranquilo

2009-11-23T13:45:00.000-08:00

After a hectic week in Buenos Aires figuring out the details of shipping our car and ourselves back to the United States, we were ready to hit the road again. We have three weeks to explore Uruguay and will divide our time between hot springs, a working ranch, and the beach. First stop, camping at the Guaviyu hot springs in Western Uruguay. We wouldn't be exactly roughing it, as many campgrounds in this southern part of South America have Wifi, electrical outlets, hot showers, restaurants, parillas (grills) and/or swimming pools. Uruguayans take their camping seriously and raise camping to a higher art form. When we rolled in to Guaviyu, some people were watching TV in tents just a little smaller than a San Francisco studio apartment. Gangs of lime-green parakeets flitted from tree to tree squawking enthusiastically. We popped up our camper and chilled out for a sunny afternoon reading in the shade and trying to remember how to play Poker.

Parakeets hiding in the trees

There are two activities that the people of Uruguay take even more seriously than camping: the art of the parilla (grill) and the pleasure of maté. Every noon and evening the delicious smell of burning wood and sizzling meat filled the air of our campground as meat artists grilled huge portions of cows on giant parillas. The cows in southern South America must be very happy, because we have been eating some of the most delicious, tender, and inexpensive beef of our lives. Two huge T-bone steaks cost around $4, enough meat and sausage for 4 people can be purchased for around $6. And Uruguayans are purists when it comes to their parillas: no gas grills, no lighter fluid, no charcoal. Just dry leña (wood). Another pleasure here is the ritual of drinking maté. Yerba maté looks like loose-leaf tea and is made from the leaves and twigs of a species of holly. It is dried and then drunk as a potent infusion. A dried hollowed-out gourd serves as the cup. The gourd is filled with yerba maté, small amounts of hot water are poured over the yerba maté, and then the drinker sips the liquid through a bombilla (straw) with a filter at the end to keep the yerba maté pieces in the gourd. People here walk, drive, and work with their mate gourd and handy thermos of hot water so they can sip away at this bitter beverage all day. For a great video on how to make mate, see Kelsey's blog post on maté, complete with instructional video.

Chris grillin' like a villain

After a spectacular sun-rise thunderstrorm, the next day we explored the huge complex of swimming pools filled with naturally heated 37C/98F mineral water. Talking with a grill-meister working in one of the restaurants near the hot springs, he asked us where we were from and how we liked Uruguay. When Chris responded that he liked how 'tranquilo' Uruguay seemed, he replied 'Si, es muy MUY tranquilo aqui' (Yes, it's very VERY laid back here). And he's right - between the kids splashing in the warm water, the families sitting around talking for hours, and the groups of bathrobe-clad adults wandering around with their maté gourds and thermoses, this place exudes tranquilo. We quickly fell under the tranquilo spell and somehow five days slipped by effortlessly. We head north-east tomorrow to spend four nights on a working ranch, trying to get to know the life of the gaucho (cowboy).

Demonstrating the art of mate

Homeward bound - on December 30th 2009

2009-11-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Launch party with cul-de-sacs, Nicaragua, January 2009

We marked a milestone in our travels this week: we know when the trip will be 'done'. We will arrive back in the United States on a not-so-direct flight from Buenos Aires to Panama City to Houston to Miami around midnight on December 30th.

Beers at the Waikiki in Panama City, April 2009

After spending a food-, wine-, and Sopranos-filled week with Kelsey and Tom at the lovely beach resort town of Pinamar, we headed north to our ultimate destination, Buenos Aires. We spent a week in Buenos Aires doing a little sightseeing, but mainly running around the greater Buenos Aires area trying to figure out how to ship our car back to the states. Through our Drive the Americas website I had two good leads on potential shipping companies, and one of them, Multimar, offered a good price and good timing. Their next boat was leaving for the states on December 13th, and the car would delivered to Tampa Florida for under $1,300. Relieved that we found an economical option, we booked a spot on the good ship 'Pluto Leader' and then tried to figure out the necessary paperwork. Since Multimar typically helps exporters ship hundreds to thousands of cars, they didn't really know what paperwork would be necessary for one used car being shipped by its owners. After visiting the aduana (customs) in two locations in Buenos Aires and 70 miles away at the port where our ship would sail, we finally found out that (supposedly) we don't need any special paperwork. A very different process than the maze of bureaucracy we had to navigate in Panama to get our car to Colombia. We'll see if it's all so easy when we arrive at the port and try to put our car on the ship on December 6th. And of course I will post full shipping details on Drive the Americas once the process is complete.

Sailing from Panama to Colombia, April 2009

We also marked a much sadder milestone during our time in Buenos Aires: we said goodbye to Tom and Kelsey. While we have been saying hello and goodbye to them throughout this trip as we meet up and then travel separately for different periods of time, it has always been a comfort to know that we will see them somewhere in our near future. With both of our trips ending in Buenos Aires in the next month, it finally came time to say goodbye for an indeterminate period of time. While we are discussing a reunion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Carnival in 2010, it will still be much too long of a time before we can share some red wine over a sparking parilla. They have been one of our favorite parts of this trip, and while we are still traveling in Uruguay for a couple of weeks before returning to Buenos Aires for our last weeks in South America, the trip definitely feels like it is winding down.

Caribbean beaches of Colombia, May 2009

Stay tuned: while we won't be seeing Tom and Kelsey in person for a bit, the four of us have a new website in the works...we will announce it here when it formally launches.

The end of the raod in Ushuaia Argentina, October 2009

All cold things great and small

2009-10-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

Glacier Perito Moreno in Glaciers National Park, El Calafate Argentina

A general theme of our trip through Argentinian Patagonia has been the cold: wearing every available layer of clothing to stay warm, huddling in our ECamper at night to hide from the winds, complaining about the cold, lusting after the heat wave that is currently baking Buenos Aires. Because of this cold though, we were able to see two really unique things. After leaving Ushuaia we spent two long days driving northwest to reach Glaciers National Park outside of El Calafate. Home to the world's third largest ice cap (Antarctica and Greenland are numbers one and two), this national park also boasts one of the world's most accessible glaciers, Perito Moreno. It's easy to get right next to this glacier without donning crampons or hiking any distance. We just drove our car up to the parking lot, walked about 100 yards on a well maintained board walk, and the glacier was staring right at us. I have never seen a glacier before and it blew me away. Towering more than 200 ft over Lake Argentina, deep aquamarine and cobalt blues radiated from inside the glacier's icy towers. Huge chunks of the glacier periodically calved off and crashed into the lake. The initial whip-crack of the ice breaking followed by huge chunks of ice cannonballing into the lake sounded like thunder rumbling from the surrounding mountains.

We watched the glacier calve for several hours before the approaching snowstorm and whipping winds drove us back into the warm comfort of Caballo. I think we did a little damage to our poor car's undercarriage on the next day's drive. Five hours of gravel roads separated us from paved highways. Because the scenery was so monotonous and the road completely empty we might have driven a little quickly. We tried to ignore the frequent sound of large stones ricocheting off whatever is under our car, some hitting the undercarriage so hard we could feel the impact through our feet on the car's floor. Miraculously we made the drive without any flat tires (and apparently without puncturing the gas tank or whatever other important things reside under the car) and gratefully pulled on to smooth Ruta 3. After two days hard driving along the coast we arrived at our next destination, Punta Tombo.

Magellenic Penguin stretching his wings at Punta Tombo Provincial Preserve

Punta Tombo is home to the world's second largest colony of Magellenic Penguins. Between September and April thousands of penguins arrive to lay eggs and hatch their young. The penguins dig nests in the gravelly dirt and protect their eggs as a couple, occasionally taking turns to waddle down to the water to fish. These little guys may be some of the cutest animals I have ever seen. They seem quite unperturbed by people walking next to their nests, and some will walk right by you like they don't even see you (kind of like being in high school). While penguins are awkward on land, flopping down on their white bellies to bask in the sun or slowly making their way up from the beach, once they hit the water they turn in to sweet swimming torpedos. We wandered among their nests for several hours before hitting the road again. As we get closer to our final destination of Buenos Aires, the long hours in the car seem to get more tiresome. We plan to relax in the beach resorts just south of Buenos Aires for a week or so before hitting the big city.

The End

2009-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here ends Route 3: Buenos Aires 3,079 km, Alaska 17,848 km

Well, the end of the road, not exactly the end of the trip. At 1:27 pm on October 23, 2009, we reached the very end of the road in the most southern city in the world. We were joined by our friends Tom and Kelsey, who we met on the road in Mexico over a year ago, for a celebratory picnic. We toasted this milestone in our trips with a bottle of red wine from a Patagonian vineyard and shivered as the winds picked up. Tierra del Fuego National Park in the springtime isn't exactly the warmest place for a picnic, but we were buoyed by our accomplishment. We finally called it quits when it started to drizzle and headed back to the heat and comfort of our bed and breakfast.

Looking for El Glaciar Martial

Deciding to brave the falling snow the next day, we hiked into the mountains around Ushuaia to visit the Martial Glacier. While the surrounding mountains were beautiful and the sun managed to peek through the swirling clouds, we're not sure we saw the glacier (or maybe we were walking on it). It's not a large glacier and has receeded significantly in the last century so apparently it's easy to miss. We amused ourselves by sledding down the steep glacial mountainsides and enjoyed the stunning views over the Bay of Ushuaia.

Faro Les Eclaireures

We also took a 4 hour boat tour of the islands of the Beagle Canal that separates Argentinian Tierra del Fuego from Chilean islands to the south. Shortly after our boat left the port I started to have flashbacks to our fateful voyage from Panama to Colombia. The waves were crazily rocking the boat as they splashed over the hull, but luckily we made enough stops near islands (and areas of relatively calm water) that my stomach had a couple of chances to calm down. We first circled around the Faro (Lighthouse) Les Eclaireurs. Built in 1919, this lighthouse is considered a symbol of the city of Ushuaia. Nearby we floated next to Isla de los Lobos (Wolf Island), a small island covered with South American Sea Lions. I think it's interesting that the animals we call sea lions are called sea wolves in Spanish. Isla de los Pájaros (Bird Island) was covered with nesting cormorants who were busy flying to and from the island carrying moss and sticks to construct their nests.

Cormorants nesting on cleverly named Bird Island

Lastly we took a quick walk on Bridge Island. We first stopped by the remnants of a shell midden, the home structure of the original people of Tierra del Fuego. The Yamana may be the most hard-core people who have ever inhabited the earth. Here I was, clad in Gortex and fleece, and I was shaking from the cold and wind. The Yamana did not wear clothes - ever. They kept warm by huddling in a crouching position around fires and by smearing themselves with sea lion grease. Apparently they evolved to have a higher metabolism than other humans so they didn't need clothes to keep them warm even in sub-freezing temperatures. The women actually swam in the frigid oceans surrounding Tierra del Fuego to hunt for shellfish. They could survive sleeping outside without shelter because of their biologically unique adaptation. Of course their contact with European explorers was disastrous and the last full blood Yamana person, Cristina Calderon, is 95. She is also the last person who speaks the Yamana language. We took a quick hike around the island before bundling back on the ship to take shelter from the biting winds.

Sea lions warming up after a cold dip in the water

Now that we've reached the end of the road, we are headed back to Buenos Aires where we will finish our trip. For the first time in fourteen months, we are actually headed towards home, and it kind of feels nice.

Random observations from a very long drive

2009-10-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Leaving Trevelin we tried not to think about the 1,200 miles that separated us from Ushuaia. A long, boring drive awaits, but we did see some interesting things on the way. Here are a few of the random thoughts and observations that have been rolling around my brain the last couple of days that we spent speeding down the highway.

The end of the line for the Patagonia Express

We first made a quick stop in the city of Esquel to see the end of the line of the Patagonia Express, an old railroad that used to traverse much of Argentina. When we first started seriously planning for this trip over two years ago, we read a bunch of travel novels about Latin America. One of my favorites was a novel by Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonia Express. He chronicled his travels from Boston, Massachusetts to Esquel. Whenever possible, he traveled by train, taking buses or flying only when absolutely necessary. Though I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys great writing and a cynical sense of humor, I would not suggest that someone interested in learning about Latin America read his novel. He made this trip in the late 1970s when many countries were extremely unstable due to civil wars and/or dictators. While poverty and corruption still plague many countries in Latin America today, I think the situation has improved greatly. And beyond the social or political situations in the 1970s, Paul Theroux himself seems like he's probably a pretty depressing guy. He could put a negative spin on any situation, and tends to put himself in particularly difficult circumstances, like taking a train through Latin America in the 1970s. Trains back then apparently were the mode of transportation of last resort for the poorest people, so frequent breakdowns, filthy conditions, and desperate poverty surrounded him during his travels. The Patagonia Express' traveling distance has been greatly reduced since Paul Theroux's travels, although within the last ten years some of the track has been restored and the train's itinerary extended.

Leaving behind the Andes for the bleak Atlantic Coast of Patagonia

Leaving Esquel we headed southeast across upper Patagonia on a long drive for the Atlantic coast. This was the last we would see of the Andes, trees, hills, or lakes for several days as we entered the desert of coastal Patagonia. Small towns and sheep farms infrequently interrupted our drive. While driving through this vast ranching country, we observed an unsolved mystery. The first time I saw this phenomenom, I thought it was some sort of freak accident, but after a couple of sightings it became obvious that this was done on purpose. Barbed wire fences stretch for miles along the freeway, keeping the sheep, horses and cattle (for the most part) off the road. Strangely, dead animals were strung up on these fences every once in a while - mainly dogs, the occasional sheep, and I think I saw a rhea (looks like a small ostrich). We have no idea who does this or why this happens. If you really want to see a picture of a sad animal strung up on a fence, click here. And if anyone knows why people do this, please leave a comment, we are very curious.

That's one way of thinking about it

On our drive across Patagonia, one of the few notable things we saw were official roadsigns stating that 'Las Malvinas Son Argentinas' or 'The Falkand Islands Are Argentinian.' An interesting point, but I think from most historical and political perspectives, pretty whack. The history of the Falkland Islands is complicated. Originally uninhabited, they started being slowly settled by sheep ranchers, pirates, and castaways in the 1700s. At some point they have been claimed as property by France, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, and Argentina, but the UK and Argentina have been fighting over its sovereignty since the mid 1800s. By the 1980s, the island was mainly inhabited by English speaking descendants of Welsh and British immigrants who preferred to be citizens of the UK. However, Argentina continued to assert that they owned the islands. In 1982 Argentina was facing economic collapse, so then President Galtieri attempted to stir national pride and distract from the economic situation by sending Argentinian troops to the islands to remove the occupying UK forces. The UK, led by Margaret Thatcher, responded with overwhelming force and the poorly trained teenage forces of Argentina were totally routed within 72 days. Despite this defeat, to this day Argentina claims the Falkland Islands and relations with the UK continue to be chilly.

High winds warning (and they weren't kidding)

While the roads are good in Patagonia, driving was still challenging because of whipping winds that constantly rocked our car. The highways are peppered with a silly excess of a road signs (quite a change from the rest of Latin America), but in particular our favorite was the 'high winds' warning sign. We had to pass a couple of these before we realized what they signified. An evil combination of these crazy winds, the high speeds allowed by the empty highways, and the day-long drives added up to some whopping gas bills. Since we were blowing through our daily budget on gas alone we tried to live cheaply. Luckily this is easy in Argentina if you like camping. Many of the wonderful gas stations in Argentina have free camping areas, in addition to great cafes, high-speed wifi, clean bathrooms, and hot showers. Both the YPF and Petrobras gas stations served as our home for the three nights we spent on the road in Patagonia.

Chris signing Scott's guestbook

At a lonely gas station about halfway through our journey down the Atlantic coast we spotted a wind-burned bicyclist fueling up on cookies and soda. Curious about his journey, Chris stopped to chat. Turns out that Scott is very close to breaking the world record for the fastest bike-ride from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina. The previous bicyclist had done it in something like 140 days, and Scott was on track to break the record by about 2 weeks. Biking an average of 110 miles a day, and taking only 3 days off in the last 4 months, Scott has survived what I consider to be the ultimate physical and mental challenge. I can't imagine spending that much time alone, biking through unfamiliar countries, camping on the side of the road, and enduring rain, snow, wind, burning sun and who knows what other extreme conditions.

The first sign of something interesting in 3 days in Tierra del Fuego, Chile

By a strange quirk of geography and politics, to get to the end of the road in Ushuaia, Argentina, you have to drive through Chile. We hit the first Argentina-Chile border in the morning and sped through the customs and migration process. We then crossed the straights of Magellan by car ferry to finally enter Tierra del Fuego, where the road turned from smooth pavement to rough ripio (gravel). While less than 100 miles of Chile separate Patagonia, Argentina from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, it was a rough drive. We image that Chile doesn't have much incentive to pave a road that is really only used by people trying to get from Argentina to Argentina. At the second Chile-Argentina border, Argentina proudly marked the beginning of pavement again with a large sign. We saw snow-capped mountains peeking over the desert, and as we got closer to Ushuaia the landscape changed dramatically. Two hours later we pulled in to the southern-most city in the world as the crescent moon rose over its quiet bay. Next up: the end of the road.

Drinking mate and driving for 3 solid days

Tea time in sheep country

2009-10-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

Frolicking lambs at Donna and Moti's farm outside of El Bolson

Great weather, company, and food have marked our last couple of days in the Lakes District. Somewhere on the internet I connected with a couple who own a small sheep farm outside of El Bolson. Donna and Moti invited us to camp on their farm if we ever passed through, so we took them up on their offer. Gracious hosts, they stuffed us with great food and we spent a warm evening sharing travel stories and discussing politics. The next morning we admired their new baby lambs and enjoyed the company of a constant stream of neighbors who stopped by the chat in rapid-fire Spanish.

Hiking in Parque Nacional Los Alerces

We next visited the Parque Nacional Los Alerces at the southern edge of Argentina's Lakes District. This will be the last we see of mountains for a long time as we're headed to the Atlantic coast of Patagonia. We spent a crisp night camped on a huge lake and then hiked up to some waterfalls for a mid-day picnic. We decided to splurge the next day in Trevelin as we'd been spending some cold nights in our camper, and had a very long drive ahead of us. The small town of Trevelin was settled by Welsh farmers in the 1800s, and Welsh is still spoken by some of its inhabitants today. Along with their language, the Welsh carried over the delicious tradition of tea time. Tea houses line Trevelin's main street, and we stuffed ourselves with amazing bread, scones, cakes, and pastries before relaxing in our warm cabin for a cozy afternoon. A long road awaits us in the next couple of days as we push for the end of the road in Ushuaia.

Herding sheep in Patagonia

A watery two weeks

2009-10-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Picnic on the Chilean Coast in Pichilimeu

After crossing the border from Argentina to Chile, we drove under cloudy skies to the blustery Pacific coast. We happily settled in to our deluxe camping in Pichilemu at Pequeño Bosque - electrical outlets, high-speed wireless internet access, hot showers, and hosts who couldn't do enough to make us comfortable. While it was rainy the first night through to the next morning, after the sun broke through it was clear and crisp for four straight days. Mix a little website work, wonderful Chilean wine, meat on the parilla (grill) every night, thundering waves, and the great company of Tom and Kelsey, and we had a great time. For our last day we packed a gourmet picnic and basked in the sun on the cliffs looking down on the legendary surf break of Punta de Lobos.

Quiet blanket of snow covering the lower Andes between Chile and Argentina

Driving south down the Ruta del Sol (Route of the Sun) in Chile, ironically we headed back in to a grey drizzle. A rainy night camping at the side of the road helped push us back across the Andes into Argentina in search of sun. The fog began to lift but was replaced somewhat surprisingly by a fairly serious snow storm. As we headed up into the black and white landscape the snow became to fall more intensly. We were reassured by the slow but steady stream of cars passing us in the other direction with Argentinian license plates, taking this as a sign that the border was still open. While it was freezing with driving snow at the border, we did manage to cross and noted with satisfaction as we descended from the Andes the snow thinned before disappearing into sunny blue skies. We headed south down Ruta 40 to the Lakes District of Argentina.

Finally a little sun and no more snow on the Argentinian side of the Andes

We descended through arid high plains that slowly changed to green rolling hills. After a quick night in the hip town of Junin de los Andes we followed the "Seven Lakes Drive"to the alpine city of Bariloche. Three hours on a mix of open highway and hard packed dirt mountain roads took us through gorgeous snow capped peaks, turquoise lakes, and rustic log cabins. While we've never visited Banff or Aspen, we imagine Bariloche has a similar feel with its scandinavian inspired wood buildings, gourmet chocolate stores, microbreweries, and idyllic location perched on the blue waters of a wide windy lake. We'll continue to explore the lakes district for the next week before heading south for the glaciers of southern Patagonia.

Seven Lakes Drive from Junin de los Andes to Bariloche

Through canyonlands to wine country

2009-10-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

Canyons and cactus around Tupiza, Bolivia

Driving south through Bolivia to the Argentinian border, we gratefully descended from the barren desert of the altiplano into colorful canyonlands. I finally felt my shoulders relax from the cold-driven hunch I had been maintaining for most of the last 6 weeks we had spent in Bolivia. After a warm night in Tupiza, we continued south for the border. Miraculously, having a car at this border actually sped our process through the bureaucracy. The border agents inexplicably instructed us to cut in front of busloads of people to process our passports and car import papers. While I enjoyed Bolivia, when we crossed into Argentina it immediately felt like a bit of a homecoming: paved highways with 110 kph speed limits, farms with gas-powered (as opposed to animal- or human-powered) farming equipment, and leafy trees.

Bikes and wine around Maipu, Argentina

Three days of hard driving through the canyons and vineyards of northwestern Argentina brought us to the eucalyptus tree-lined streets of Mendoza. Luckily for us Tom and Kelsey had already scouted out a fantastic apartment/hotel, and we arrived as they were uncorking a bottle of wine and setting out a plate of antipasto. The timing continued to worked out really well for us, as we had just landed another website development job. The four of us spent five feverish days putting together NewsroomPanama powered by many liters of fine Argentinian red wine and amazing steak.

Driving across the Andes from Argentina to Chile

With the initial website development complete, we spent an afternoon biking around the vineyards surrounding Mendoza. Chris and I looked super-cool on our sweet single speed tandem bike. We spent several enjoyable hours gorging on cheese and bread, red and white wine, and olive oil and chocolate. The next day we headed across the snowy Andes for more wine in Chile at the Concha y Toro vineyards outside of Santiago. As opposed to the small vineyards we visited in Argentina, Concha y Toro is one of the biggest vineyards in the world. We visited some of their huge wine caves and tasted two wines, although for a large operation their wine tasting was a little small. We next head for the coastal town of Pichilemu to look for some surf.

Caves at the Concha y Toro Vineyards

Possibly the weirdest place in the world

2009-09-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Salt into the distance

A bumpy 7 hour drive on dirt roads from Potosi brought us to the dusty town of Uyuni. Endurance, dust, and cold are three general themes we have come to expect when visiting many of the starkly beautiful areas of the Bolivian altiplano (high plains). Our three day tour of the salt flat and desert of southeastern Bolivia met those expectations and then some. After piling our belongings on the roof of a Toyota Land Cruiser and cramming 6 tourists, a driver, and a cook into its tight quarters, we set out to explore. I think Land Cruisers would be crowded with 7 people, so us 8 occupants got to know each other quite quickly. We made a quick stop at the 'train graveyard' littered with rusty wrecks of abandoned steam engines before heading into the blinding white sea of salt called the Salar de Uyuni. Distant mountains hovered like alien spaceships above the salt flats from the mirages, and we stopped at a strange cactus-covered island for lunch. The brilliant sun reflecting off the white salt almost could make us forget the below-freezing night-time temperatures.

Fish Island, Salar de Uyuni

Driving for several hours after lunch we left the Salar and headed into a desolate landscape. Rocks sculpted by the wind and hardy shrubs dotted the desert. We made a quick stop in the Galaxy Caves to view fossilized seaweed and pre-Inca burial tombs before driving three more hours to the tiny town of San Pedro. The sun was setting as we pulled into our simple hostel, and we think the bare lightbulbs in our rooms were the only lights in the whole village. The generator clunked off around 10 pm, so our group quietly went to bed anticipating an early start the next morning. So far from any cities or lights, the Milky Way spilled across the black night sky.

Sunset over the desert

The landscape continued to become more varied and bizarre as we headed south toward the Argentinian and Chilean borders of Bolivia. Colored lagunas were filled with chattering flamingos, llamas and vicuñas grazed the barren hillsides, and foxes and the adorable Pokemon-like chinchillas darted among rocks and bushes. While in some ways we felt like this was the farthest we had traveled from 'civilization,' the clouds of dust kicked up by the constant stream of tourists being ferried in caravans of 4x4s around the desert reminded us we were not exactly off the beaten trail.

Flamingos feasting in one of the many lagunas

We realized we didn't know cold until our second night in the 4,500 m high altitude desert when we were trying to sleep in unheated concrete structures. Our driver woke us at the painful dark hour of 4 am and bundled us into the truck for an hour-long drive to a weird volcanic moonscape of steam geysers, bubbling mud pots, and searing cold winds. As the horizon lightened with the rising sun we continued to natural hot-baths that attracted llamas and flamingos to their welcoming warmth. The feeling returned to our fingers and toes as we ate a big breakfast before driving through the Desiertos de Siloli and Salvador Dali. Multicolored mountain and volcano peaks towered over the sandy wasteland, complete with a brilliant green laguna supporting more pink flamingos.

No idea how this rock ended up in the middle of the desert

After visiting the hot spring, desert, and laguna, we still had 7 hours of driving in front of us. Packed in between my fellow tourists in the tiny space I felt hypnotized by the constantly rocking Land Cruiser as it skidded down sandy roads and lurched over rocks. Filthy and wind-burnt we rumbled into Uyuni in the evening, gratefully devoured a large pizza, had a quick shower, and enjoyed an uninterrupted and relatively warm night sleep at our hostel. We took faithful caballo out for a spin on the Salar the next day, but otherwise recuperated in our hotel room. Tomorrow we start a 1000 mile grind to Mendoza Argentina to meet our friends Tom and Kelsey.

Exploring volcanic mud pots at 5 am in the freezing windy cold

Into the depths of hell in Potosi, Bolivia

2009-09-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

Cerro Rico, Potosi, Bolivia

After spending a relaxing week in Sucre, Potosi was a bit of a rude awakening. Sucre is one of the wealthiest cities in Bolivia, and at a low elevation boasts beautiful warm days and comfortable cool nights. On the other hand, Potosi is the world's highest city at 4,060 m (13,300 ft), so is frigidly cold, and also is home to some of the grimmest mines in the world. Potosi was once the largest and wealthiest city in South America because of its rich silver mines that were fully exploited by the Spanish. Up to 8 million people, mainly indigenous and African slave laborers, died in the mines at the hands of the Spanish. One of the tools the Spanish used against their Quechua speaking slaves was to threaten vengeance from their god, 'Dios' in Spanish, if the slaves didn't work hard enough. The Quechua language lacks the letter 'd', so 'Dios' became 'Tio.' The silver is now depleted from the mine and Potosi's colonial architecture is crumbling away, but miners continue to work the mines for less valuable minerals in dangerous and extremely difficult conditions. Like their distant descendants, they still ask Tio for compassion, safety, and wealth.

Dynamite, ammonium nitrate, and a fuse

Mine tours in Potosi try to show a slice of the miner's life, and after 3 hours I was fully convinced I would last less than a day in the mines. We first visited the miner's market to buy presents for the miners. Shelves stacked floor to ceiling were brimming with sticks of dynamite, bags of ammonium nitrate, and fuses. Our enthusiastic guide, formerly a miner, demonstrated a fuse to us in the store. We nervously watched as he waved the sparking wire around what seemed to us a huge bomb of a store. After purchasing these lethal bomb-making ingredients, we headed to a nearby stand to buy coca leaves, 190 proof alcohol, and cigarettes. All of these would be distributed to any miners we met during our tour. As the miners do not eat in the mines and sometimes spend 24 hours straight underground, they go through bags of coca leaves a day, which they use as an appetite suppressant and energy booster.

Chris shoveling minerals with the miners

We then drove to a mine entrance and entered on foot. The snaking tunnels were barely 5 feet tall in many sections and filled with water and dust. We climbed rickety ladders and crawled through narrow sections to descend into the mine. Chris helped shovel minerals into huge carts the miners push by hand down rusty rails. We also sat in the tunnels with some miners for half an hour to share alcohol, chew coca leaves, and learn more about their lives in the mines. We emerged from the mines after 2 hours exhausted, filthy, and choking on dust. As a special treat to conclude the tour our guide blew up a stick of dynamite outside the mine. That people can spend much of their (often short) working lives in these mines is really beyond belief. A hot shower and big lunch later we still felt so tired we spent the afternoon napping and reading in our hostel rather than visiting any of the local museums or churches. We head next to the salt flats of Uyuni to experience another harsh yet more beautiful location in Bolivia.

You know you're at a Latin American fiesta when...

2009-09-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

Marching bands serenading the Virgin of Guadalupe

...there are marching bands in the streets and fireworks 24 hours a day. We found ourselves in a familiar situation the first night we arrived in Sucre, Bolivia. The drive from chilly La Paz to (relatively) balmy Sucre was uneventful except we finally had to pay our first bribe. We think we got caught by the only radar gun in all of Bolivia, so we handed over $7 'for gas money' and two chocolate power bars to clear our passage. We arrived in Sucre just hours before the streets were flooded by crowds of dancers and marching bands practicing for the main festival event coming up in a week. We immediately appreciated the warm evening air and the beautiful architecture after freezing for a month hectic La Paz.

Kristin with Ignacio and his wonderful mother

We were also looking forward to finally meeting our virtual friend, Ignacio, in person. Over a year ago, Ignacio contacted us through this blog, offering to act as our host when we arrived in Sucre. After reaching him on his cell phone and meeting him for dinner at a local restaurant, we quickly got to know the 'unofficial mayor' of Sucre. It is hard for Ignacio to walk down the streets of Sucre without being constantly stopped by his many friends and colleagues. We met his lovely family for lunch at his mother's house the next day, and were interviewed by Sucre's newspaper, Correo del Sur, as Ignacio is friends with some of the editors.

Parade of decorated cars for the Festival of the Virgen of Guadalupe

While we had originally planned to stay in Sucre for only a couple of days, we extended our stay past a week when we learned about Sucre's annual Festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The patron saint of Sucre, the city devotes several days of elaborate church services, parades, music and dancing to celebrate the Virgin. The party started on Tuesday with a parade of the jewel-encrusted Virgin through the streets followed by the ubiquitous marching bands and eardrum shattering fireworks. As an interesting twist to the traditional Latin American festival, a line of uniquely decorated cars snaked around the city following the parading Virgin. Decked out with colorful cloths, dolls, stuffed animals, pots, pans, and silverware, the cars were decorated as thanks and prayers for success.

Children dance and sing in the streets for the festival

The festival continued through the weekend. On Friday huge groups of school children from kindergarten through highschool paraded miles around the city. Dressed in brilliant costumes representing the many traditional clothing and dancing styles of Bolivia, in a test of endurance the kids danced for 6 hours before ending up at the main catheral for a quick blessing in front of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Not to be outdone, the adults followed suit the next day starting at 8 am. Fireworks, marching bands, glittering costumes and amazing choreography, they boogied through the streets and the party didn't end until around 3 am. We found Ignacio in the main square that afternoon, danced in the streets with the exhausted but still enthusiastic marchers, and met more of his good friends. Several of them extended invitations to their houses for brunch the next morning, but unfortunately we had to turn them down since we were leaving early the next morning for Uyuni. We loved Sucre for its lovely weather, amazing traditions, and beautiful architecture, but want to also thank Ignacio and his many friends for being so welcoming.

Deathly roads and witches markets

2009-09-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Children parade in traditional dress in La Paz

Fully recovered from our lengthy battle with intestinal parasites, we were finally ready to leave our hotel room and explore La Paz. We spent a sunny afternoon wandering the hilly streets with Ana of the local tourgroup Downhill Madness as our guide. Walking just a block from our hostel Ana explained many of the mysterious objects for sale in the witches market - llama fetuses for good luck, pottery effigies for curses, and herbs for ailments of any kind. We walked through narrow streets lined with crumbling colonial facades and choked by the jankiest looking electrical wiring. Afterwards, a quick taxi ride up to the 'mirador' (look-out) provided a great view of the city. Tall skyscrapers clustered in the middle of the valley were surrounded by brick houses with sheet-metal roofs climbing all the way up the steep cliffs. As a random but fun addition to the tour we visited the zoo and rented 4x4s to roar around the dusty trails surrounding the zoo - another 'would never have been able to do this in the US' moment. No waiver, no down payment, and no rules. We drove around for 15 minutes, which cost us 20 Bolivianos or $3 USD.

Witches market in La Paz

We also braved one of the 'must-do' tourist trips for those visiting La Paz - biking the 'Death Road.' Named the Yungas road, this narrow dirt road snakes its way down from La Paz to the jungle town of Coroico. Until 2006, the Yungas road was the only connection between La Paz and the Amazonian rain forest of northern Bolivia. In 1995 it was dubbed the most dangerous road in the world by the Inter-American Development Bank due to many factors including its death toll. One estimate is that 200-300 people were killed every year on this 40 mile stretch. Once on the road, it is easy to see why the road is so dangerous. The road is cut into sheer cliffs that drop 2000 ft (600m) to the narrow river valley below. Waterfalls pour off the cliffs above and onto the gravel roadbed over large sections. Mudslides and low visibility due to thick fog are common along the route. There are no guard rails, and most of the road, at 10 feet (3.2 m) wide, is barely wide enough for one vehicle. Because of these extreme conditions, unique driving rules apply - vehicles drive on the left side of the road. Since the cliffs plunge off the left side of the road, drivers can stick their heads out the window to see how many inches they can spare without having their wheels slip off the edge. It also forces the drivers heading downhill to slow down, as they are risking their necks driving on the outer edge. In the past, this road was filled with trucks and buses causing even more danger. A new paved road that takes an alternate route complete with two lanes, bridges, and tunnels was finished in 2006, so today very little vehicle traffic travels the Death Road. After battling some hairy roads in Peru, we were hesitant to take this trip until we talked to Adam, a tour guide we met at our hotel. After he explained that this was a highlight of the trip for most people on his tour and that we wouldn't be competing with large trucks and buses trying to pass each other, we decided to brave the trip.

Getting ready to start at La Cumbre

The bike ride down the Death Road starts at the breathtaking (literally) height of 15,000 ft (4,600 m) at La Cumbre. Here a giant statue of Jesus, arms outstretched, looks down the valley and the deadliest road in the world. Truck and bus drivers about to take the plunge stop here to make offerings for a safe trip. We suited up in helmets, windpants, and every available layer as it was windy and below freezing. The road is paved for the first 18 miles (30 km), so we sped down through the brittle sunlight, passed only by a couple of trucks. The wreckage of a bus was visible 1000 feet below after one sharp curve in the road. The barren mountains slowly turned green and the sun was obscured by fog as we split off from the new paved road and headed down the old Death Road. We only passed one foolhardy car the entire way down to the bottom of the valley - oddly enough an old BMW with a blond in the passenger seat. Stopping every 20 minutes to regroup, eat a snack, or shed some unnecessary layers of clothing, the air grew humid and the vegetation wildly fertile. While the road was comfortably wide for mountain biking, it really was incomprehensible to us that buses and trucks used to form traffic jams on its narrowest sections.

Whizzing down the 30 km paved stretch of the death road

Two malfunctioning rear brakes and one broken chain later we made it to the bottom without major incident. We gratefully changed into bathing suits and lounged around the pool of a local hotel that hosted our group for a couple of hours. We then sadly left the warmth of the Bolivian jungle and drove back to frigid La Paz on the new highway. We head for the colonial city of Sucre at the end of the week.

Not much room for error

The website www.boliviangeographic.com has a great article on the old Yungas road, which recounts some people's stories about the road. Here are some of my favorites:

-The bus I'm riding in slides to a stop. The driver asks us not to move. We realize that the front right wheel of the vehicle is hanging over the edge of a fathomless drop. We vacate through the driver's emergency door and fifteen of us help to pull the bus backwards onto the road again.

-A friend of mine loses concentration for a moment at the wheel and rolls his car and its occupants 700 feet to the bottom of a gully. Some are badly injured, but, fortunately, all survive (this time, seatbelts save lives).

-Another friend gets out of her car to relieve herself and steps into thin air. Her body must be recovered by rockclimbers.

Down and out in Bolivia's hills

2009-08-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

The grinding poverty, begging mothers, and street children we encounter on our travels constantly remind us that we are incredibly lucky. While traveling through Peru we found a successful organization that educates street children and helps their mothers to become more prosperous. Bruce Foundation has opened 57 schools in 6 countries in South America, and continues to ambitiously expand its operations to help the most desperate children. Teams of social workers are sent into the poorest communities to look for children who are not in school. The children are either working to provide for their families or have been abandoned altogether. With community and parental cooperation, the children are educated in Bruce Foundation schools to bring them to the educational level of their peers so they can enter the government-sponsored schools. Bruce Foundation then pays for their registration, buys their uniforms and school supplies, and continues to support them to ensure they stay in school. Of the children who enter a Bruce Foundation school, 93% stay in the government-sponsored school for the first year. We contacted Bruce Foundation to see if we could volunteer by working in one of their schools and redesigning their website (their old website needed some work). They responded enthusiastically to our offer, so we met Bruce and his wife Ana Tere in the high-altitude capital of Bolivia.

Children in the Ciudad de Dios School, Trujillo Peru
(photo courtesy George Houk, DesanaGiving.org)

La Paz feels like many other Latin American cities we have visited, except there are women selling dried llama fetuses on the street outside our hotel. These fetuses are burned and mixed with cement for good luck when Bolivians are building a new house. Apparently if you're really wealthy, you sacrifice a full grown llama. Not that we considered buying one, but we heard that any tourist offering even double or triple the price for one of the dried llamas will be denied. The indigenous saleswomen only sell to serious buyers. The streets of La Paz swarm with aggressive cabs and combis (small vans that serve as public transportation), shoe-shine children follow tourists down the sidewalks, and women selling wool sweaters and finger puppets sit next to their wares spinning thread.

View from our hostel in La Paz, Bolivia

Socioeconomic status in La Paz reflects elevation - the lower the altitude, the more money you have. The wealthy enjoy the warmer climate in the bottom of the valley while the poor live in earth dwellings on the cold windswept plains high above the valley. This area above La Paz was incorporated in 1987 as a separate city named El Alto (The Heights). Currently El Alto has one million residents (as does La Paz), and is the fastest growing city Bolivia due to people moving from rural areas of Bolivia looking for work. The living conditions for most people living in El Alto are depressing:

Only thirtyfour percent of the city’s residents have access to all services, including paved streets, garbage collection, and public telephones.
Twenty percent lack potable water and electricity
Eighty percent live in earthen dwellings

Bruce Foundation has recently expanded into Bolivia, and its first school has been successfully operating in El Alto for several months.

Children in the Ciudad de Dios School, Trujillo Peru
(photo courtesy George Houk, DesanaGiving.org)

We visited the school with Bruce and Ana Tere twice over two days. The school was much further away that I thought - after a long winding accent out of the La Paz valley, you arrive one one of the few paved roads in El Alto. After turning off onto a dirt road it is a slow drive navigating around potholes and debris along the dirt road. When we arrived, we were excitedly greeted by the 20 children in the new school. Despite their harsh lives, they smiled and happily shouted out their names and crowded around us to sing songs and show off their multiplication skills. Unfortunately Chris and I were both battling a nasty stomach bug so couldn't spend as much time as we wanted talking with the children. While I was sitting outside the school clutching my stomach in agony, a small group of 8-10 year old girls sat quietly around me. One patted my back while another offered me a chocolate bar that Bruce had recently given her. These are children who rarely get candy and have probably been hungry most of their lives. Here I was in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Bolivia, the poorest country of South America, and these children were comforting me and offering me their food.

View from our hostel in La Paz, Bolivia

Between bouts of food poisoning and (possibly) giardia, we have made ourselves comfortable at the homey Hostal Estrella Andina in La Paz Bolivia. We have been working here for 2 weeks redesigning Bruce Foundation's website and will be setting of to explore more of Bolivia in September. It is a truly deserving organization, so if you are inspired, please donate to support their work. Every bit helps.

Some good mojo for our faithful caballo

2009-08-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Chris toasting our freshly blessed car

Our friends Tom and Kelsey, who are speeding ahead of us on their drive through South America, recommended that we get our car blessed when we reached Copacabana. Located on Lake Titicaca just across the Peruvian border, Copacabana was our first destination in Bolivia. As the drivers get more reckless the further south we head, we figured some divine intervention might protect us and our faithful car, caballo. We first wandered into Copacabana's main square in front of the cathedral to admire the lines of cars festooned with flowers being sprinkled with holy water by brown- and white-robed priests. Some people opened the hoods of their cars for a special engine-blessing, while other people set up entire shrines complete with miniature houses, stores, and vehicles in front of their car. Some of the cars looked like they could use all of the help they could get, mechanical and spiritual. Following the lead of the crowds around us, we purchased two Virgin figurines and joined the jostling crowd around the priest for a blessing with holy water. We also saw decorated cars streaming down to the beachfront for blessings. Hoping to avoid the hours-long line of cars waiting for a blessing in front of the church, we took caballo down to the lake. After buying decorations, confetti, beer, and fireworks, we kicked back and watched the chaos around us while waiting for a priest to arrive.

Sharing beers with a Peruvian family

While waiting, a shaman swinging a censer of incense approached us and offered her services. As it didn't seem like a priest was going to show up any time soon, we figured it couldn't hurt to hedge our bets and ask for blessings from as many gods as possible. She prayed in Spanish and the pre-Inca language Aymara to the Virgin Mary and Mother Earth, accompanied by much bell-ringing and heady incense smoke. Blessing complete, we sprayed our car with beer, covered it with confetti, and lit off finger-threatening fireworks. We were then invited to share some beers with a Peruvian family. They were also getting their cars blessed, and were spending a couple of hours drinking before heading back to Peru. They were from the area around Puno, Peru, so they mixed their rapid-fire Spanish with Aymara. As the sun dropped behind Lake Titicaca, the wind picked up and it got frigidly cold. The family wished us safe travels as they piled in to their two vans and headed back across the border. With the protection of the Virgin and Mother Earth, we now feel safe to do battle with the aggressive Bolivian drivers.

The Inca tunnels under Lampa, Peru

2009-08-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

Coca leaves, money, smokes, and skulls. What better memorial?

Luckily we made a quick detour on our way to Bolivia otherwise we would have missed one of the most bizarre sites we have visited on this trip (and that's saying a lot). Ten miles down a dirt road past herds of alpacas and tumble-down buildings brought us to the rose-colored adobe town of Lampa, Peru. Dominating its central square is the 400 year old Church of the Immaculate Conception. At first glance it resembles one of the finer cathedrals in Cusco: gold plated altar, ornate wooden pulpit, bloody Jesus statues in glass boxes, and Virgin figurines in glittering robes. Things get weird when you descend down a claustrophobic stairway to the Inca tunnels below the church. Skulls and bones decorate the entrances to tunnels that supposedly lead all of the way to Cusco, Arequipa, and Puno (over 100 miles away). The story goes that years ago people tried to follow the tunnels to find out where they led...and they never were seen again!!! The tunnels have now been sealed off, so we'll never know. Climbing back out of the catacombs we next visited the newer chapel that was built when the church was restored in the 1970s. The architect thought it appropriate to dig up the bodies that were buried under the church so their bones could be used to decorate the temple. He then reserved the space at the bottom of the temple for his eventual final resting place. Interesting choice. Tomorrow we head for Bolivia.

Peering in to the depths of the tomb

Through the heart of a former empire

2009-07-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Huge stones carved by the Colla people lie around Sillustani

Heading northeast from Puno towards Cusco, the road winds between remains of civilizations that fell to the Incas in the 1400s. The Inca civilization began in Cusco and quickly spread north to conquer Peru and Ecuador, then south to conquer Bolivia and Chile. In less than 100 years, they became the most powerful empire in South America. We first visited the funeral towers, or chullpas, of the Colla people who were conquered by the Incas in the early 1400s. Current-day descendants of the Colla around Lake Titicaca still speak Aymara, their pre-Inca language. While all of the towers at Sillustani have been looted and many destroyed, the remaining intact sections were built from perfectly carved stones and towered stories above us. We then continued our drive through the yellow landscape as mountains rose around us to snow-capped peaks. Even in this seemingly inhospitable environment, Inca agricultural terraces climbed the hillsides, evidence that people had been farming this land for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish. After briefly passing through Cusco, we stopped at the Inca site of Pisac. This impressive fortress, farm, and ceremonial center is thought to have defended the southern entrance to the Sacred Valley and the route from the Inca empire into the Amazon jungle. We marveled at the beautifully carved and perfectly fitted stones that formed the terraces and buildings. As the sun dipped behind the valley walls, we left Pisac and drove along the rocky river to our final destination.

The picture everyone has to take when they visit Machu Picchu - for good reason

We concluded our journey in the small town of Ollantaytambo, deep within the Sacred Valley. One of the best preserved and oldest continuously occupied towns in South America, we wandered its alleys to admire the Inca stonework. Many houses had characteristic Inca foundations topped by adobe walls, and drainage paths cut through its cobble-stoned streets. Towering over the town is an unfinished Inca ceremonial site that was hastily converted into a fortress upon arrival of the Spanish. Huge terraces cut by narrow steps climb to the hill's peak which is crowned by an enormous monolith of pink granite. Primed by all of this Inca history, we eagerly awaited our trip to the crown jewel of Inca architecture, Machu Picchu. While it was raining and foggy as our train chugged through the valley in the early morning, by the time we fought our way through the lines for the bus up to Machu Picchu and the entrance gate, the clouds cleared to reveal the stunning vista. Immaculately carved aqueducts directed water through channels and under buildings, trapezoidal windows framed green valley views, and steep terraces surrounded the amazing site. While the Incas were by no means a peaceful people, we still rooted against the Spanish when we discussed their 40-year resistance to the conquest.

Sure, you have to pay to take their picture, but who can resist baby lambs?

After gorging ourselves on Inca ruins for several days, we returned to Cusco to explore its colonial history. While Inca influence in Cusco is still evident in the perfectly crafted stone foundations, narrow alleys, and locals speaking the Inca language of Quechua, many of the spectacular sites in Cusco are found in its ornate churches and cathedrals. We spent a leisurely day admiring the silver- and gold-gilded altars, intricately carved wooden pulpits, and gold leaf embossed religious paintings. This last day in Cusco was bittersweet though. After a full two weeks of exploring southern Peru with my mother, her visit had come to an end. We said a sad goodbye at the Cusco airport and headed back to our hostel. Our car feels quite empty now without her in the front seat navigating.

From the deepest canyon to the highest lake

2009-07-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Women of the Uros Islands singing a farewell song as our boat pulls away

While the city of Puno is not terribly interesting on its own, it is graced by Lake Titicaca. Prone to hyperbolic descriptions (highest navigable lake, South America's largest lake, largest lake in the world over 2,000 m) the lake really is a marvel with its rich pre-Hispanic culture and floating islands. On a day-long boat trip to explore the lake, we first visited the floating Uros Islands. The Uros people may have originally fled from the mainland to these islands to escape persecution by invading Incas or Spaniards. Now about 2,000 people live on these floating islands, which undulate disconcertingly under your feet when you first step on to them. The Uros people construct their floating islands, homes, and boats from the abundant totora reeds that grow in the lake. They fish and raise cuy (guinea pig) and navigate the waters of the lake on fantastical reed boats. A family showed us their small reed house, dressed us for pictures in their typical clothing, and we purchased some brightly decorated trinkets from them as thanks for their hospitality.

Touristy, yes, but fun to wear the clothes of the Uros Island people

Two more hours across the placid blue waters of the lake took us to Taquile Island. Huge snow-capped mountains of Bolivia towered over the southern coast of the lake as we climbed off the boat. This island is home to descendants of one of the last groups to resist the Spanish conquest of the Incas. To punish the rebellious Taquileños, the Spaniards forbid them from wearing their traditional clothes. As a result, the islanders still wear the Spanish peasant clothing styles their ancestors adopted over 500 years ago. After a typical lunch of quinua soup and fried trout atop the breezy island, we were treated to a weaving demonstration and some music. We then made our way through the cobble-stoned main square, crossed under gravity-defying stone arches and walked back to our boat. The sun set as our boat slowly chugged back to Puno and the temperature plummeted below freezing. Tomorrow we head for the Sacred Valley and some of the best Inca architecture in South America.

Traditional songs of Taquile Island

Canyons, camelids, and condors

2009-07-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

Herd of camelids on the road outside of Colca Canyon

Leaving Arequipa we headed for one of the deepest canyons in the world, Colca Canyon. We first ascended through broad plains home to herds of wild vicuñas. I had been hoping to see vicuñas ever since our visit to the Alpaca 111 factory outlet in Arequipa where I fell in love with their cousin, the alpaca. These graceful animals look somewhat like a cross between a llama and a deer, and they skittishly watched us as we stopped to take their picture. Further along the dusty potholed highway, we climbed to 4,900 meters and the highest pass of our trip. While we were slightly plagued by headaches, we stopped to admire the strange yareta plants growing along the road. Resembling fluorescent green boulders, this odd plant thrives in desolate environments over 4,200 meters. Because of the harsh environment, it grows about 1 millimeter a year and many of the plants are thousands of years old. We then descended below yareta territory and into Colca Canyon. Plunging 3191 meters from its highest point to the rushing river valley, it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Colca Canyon is home to the Collagua and Cabana people who tamed the wild hills of the canyon 1500 years ago by constructing endless terraces to make agriculture possible. After living in the canyon for at least 2,000 years they were conquered by the Incas in the 1400s, with the Spanish hot on the Inca's heels less than 100 years later. Each of the small towns that is spread throughout the canyon is now home to 300-400 year old picturesque churches. After the Spanish conquest, the canyon was largely cut off from the rest of Peru until roads were built in the 1970s. Because of this isolation, the people of Colca Canyon have retained many of their traditions, still farming the ancient terraces for potatoes and corn, decorating their llamas and alpaca with colorful yarn, and wearing intricately embroidered dresses and hats.

Llamas on the road from Cabanaconde to Chivay

We spent a quiet day in the small town of Cabanaconde near the end of the road that winds through Colca Canyon. In the morning we watched condors soar over the canyon. Considered a sacred animal by the Andean people, these amazing birds have a 9-10 foot wingspan and can soar for hours without flapping their wings. Sensitive feathers extend from the tips of their wings and are used by the birds to monitor the thermals and winds they ride. In the afternoon we took a short hike over to canyon's mouth. Drunken switchback trails cut across the canyon's steep walls to small villages accessible only by foot, and ancient terraces were etched into the hills all the way down the river.

Condor soaring over Colca Canyon

The next day a bumpy ride along a rocky dirt road took us across the canyon and through several small towns. Cobblestone roads led into simple squares graced with elegant old churches. Outside of the towns adults and children in colorful clothing herded burros, alpacas, llamas and sheep. After a quiet night in the chilly town of Chivay which was ringed by jagged snow-capped peaks, we continued to Puno and Lake Titicaca. On the way we took an interesting detour through the ghost-town of Sumbay to visit ancient cave paintings. A crooked sign directed us 10 km through the windswept landscape to an unmanned gate. A rusty metal arrow pointed us further along the road, where we met the caretaker along the trail to the 8,000 year old cave paintings. After showing us the ghostly paintings of pumas, people, and deer, we gave him a ride back to 'town.' Now home to only six lonely inhabitants, remains of many buildings and a church are slowly being reclaimed by the high plains. Closer to Puno we had to wait alongside the road for two hours as protesters had erected a roadblock. Miraculously the broken glass and rocks were quickly cleared off the road, and we entered Puno after nightfall.

Three days in the White City

2009-07-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Monasterio de Santa Catalina, Arequipa

The city of Arequipa is nestled high among the dramatic volcanoes and mountains of southern Peru. It is known as La Ciudad Blanca (The White City) as its buildings are constructed from the white volcanic stone, sillar, that is widely available in the area. Arequipa is also casually referred to as the 'Berkeley' of Peru, because of its leftist, secessionist leanings and frequent street protests. Fulfilling this reputation, crowds complete with paper mache effigies of political figures and banners took over the streets several times a day (and strangely, in the middle of the night). After picking up my mother at the tiny airport, we set off to explore Arequipa's dramatic cathedrals, plazas lined with arched colonnades, and dodge the aggressive cabs that own the streets. At one intersection, the city tried to give pedestrians a slight advantage by installing a stoplight with an electronic singing 'walk' sign. It was a mostly unsuccessful experiment as cabs ran the red light for over half of the time allotted for pedestrians. We took a peaceful break from the hectic traffic by visiting the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. For its first 250 years, the monastery operated partially as a repository for rich, protected girls of the Arequipa upper class. Many of the 'nuns' had ornate tapestries and chandeliers to decorate their 'cells' and servants to cook and clean for them. Upon instituting austerity reforms in 1870 the monastery changed its hedonistic ways and became closed to society. In 1970 the small group of remaining nuns moved to a newer convent, and the monastery was opened to the public. This giant cloistered 400-year old monastery takes up a complete city block. Winding through its narrow alleys between bright orange and blue adobe buildings, the sounds of honking horns and hawking vendors were blissfully muted.

Arequipa's main cathedral at night

The next morning we visited the Inca Ice Maiden Juanita at the Museo Santuarios Andinos. This museum displays the incredible tombs that were unearthed high on the peak of Volcan Ampato near Arequipa. 500 years ago several young girls were sacrificed to Inca mountain gods and buried with various gold statues, dolls, and vessels. The tombs were covered by snow and the bodies of the sacrificed girls were preserved frozen for hundreds of years before volcanic eruptions melted snow and exposed the tombs in the 1980s. Juanita now resides in a -20 C freezer in the museum surrounded by dimly lit display cases containing offerings that were buried with her. Her skin and hair is still intact, and she is curled up in a position that I often adopt when reading a book in bed. Inspired by the Inca handiwork in the museum, we next spent many hours trolling the various trinket shops, clothing stores, and antique vendors that fuel Arequipa's booming tourist trade. We also visited the Alpaca 111 factory outlet to shop for some bargains and visit their small menagerie of camelids. To keep us warm in the chilly Peruvian highlands we bought some baby alpaca sweaters and hats. We also admired the super-soft vicuña scarves, but they were only for touching, not for buying, since they would set you back over $1500 USD. Vicuñas are a wild relative of alpacas and llamas, and were near the verge of extinction until Peru instituted strict protection laws. Alpaca 111 is the only store licensed to sell vicuña products in Peru. I quickly decided that I want a small herd of alpacas after cooing over their teddy-bear faces and fuzzy soft wool. Tomorrow on our drive to Colca Canyon we will pass through the natural habitat of camelids, so we hope to see some wild herds of vicuñas, alpacas, and llamas.

Alpacas at the Alpaca 111 factory outlet

Sky, sand, sea

2009-07-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

Desert spilling on to the Pan-American Highway

We were pleasantly surprised by the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima. With a manicured park snaking along dramatic coastal cliffs, Whole Foods quality grocery stores, hipster bars, clubs, and restaurants, along with the cool weather and ever-present fog, we felt like we were in San Francisco (minus the homeless people). After resting for a week in Lima and catching up on some online work, we were ready to hit the road again. 16 hours of Pan-American highway separate Lima from Arequipa, our next destination. We quickly left the depressing slums and shanty-towns that encircle Lima and entered the hypnotic dessert that stretched on our right to the ocean and on our left to the Andes. Hours of dunes and desert were first punctuated by the enigmatic Nazca lines. Viewable only from above, the drawings of mystical creatures and geometrical designs were etched into the desert 2000 years ago by the Nazca culture. They removed the dark red stones covering the white sand to create drawings that may have been intended for gods in the sky or used as sacred paths leading to places to worship. Since this desert is one of the driest in the world with little wind, the drawings have lasted millennium.

Nazca lines etched into the arid desert

We continued south as the desert sand slithered across the highway and dunes took over whole lanes. The sun was setting when we rolled into the weird world that is Puerto Inka. A dirt road from the Pan-American goes 2 km to the ancient coastal Incan port with some of the strangest camping we've experienced. The temperature plummeted as darkness inked out the arid landscape and waves crashed on the narrow bay's rocky beach. We popped up the camper and were grateful for our down sleeping bags. Just as the pre-dawn sky began to lighten, I had to answer the call of nature and was crouched by the car without my glasses. Squinting in the distance I saw someone (or something) white moving very quickly back and forth along the edge of the small cliff that separates the beach from the camping area. In record time I was back in the camper to put on my glasses but the mysterious apparition had already disappeared. I am not usually 'that kind of person' but seriously, I saw something strange.

Remains of homes in Puerto Inka

We spent some time later that morning wandering through the foundations of homes, remains of tombs, and store-room area the Incas used centuries ago for drying seafood and seaweed. These products were then brought to Cusco on an Inca road that still cuts across today's modern landscape. Human bones and remains of cloth lay in the partially opened tombs and ancient llama corrals spread over the hills behind the village. While some excavation of this site was evident, the small signs marking the area weren't very informative and there doesn't appear to be much information available online, so we still don't know much about this site. After searching fruitlessly for my crepuscular llama ghost among the remains, we then hit the road again for another 8 hours of driving through desolate desert and dunes before climbing into the Andes to arrive in Arequpipa.

Snow capped mountains by Arequipa