Next Stop

Glacier Perito Moreno, the Argentinian capital of trekking El Chalten and Ushuaia, the end of the world

2011-12-14T02:27:00.001-08:00

From Puerto Natales we went to el Calafate and we stayed at Buenos Aires hostel, which is very close to the bus station. Carlos, the owner is very attentive and helps you a lot in planning your stay there. For example, he advised us to buy a combined ticket from CalTur to go to Perito Moreno and then to el Chalten, as the price was discounted.

The day we got to Calafate we ate at a nicely decorated pizzeria called La Lechuza. From there we visited the center of the town and bought some food for our lunch in Perito Moreno the next day. We also visited a few travel agencies and we discovered that Patagonia Adventure offered an ice climbing activity on Viedma glacier in el Chalten. Victor was very excited about it and convinced Laura to do it.

The next day we went to Perito Moreno, which is one of the few glacier that is growing. We first took a boat to see the glacier from the water and then we walked through the walkways. The views from there are astonishing. The glacier is huge, with an average of 60 m high and a few kilometers wide. We were able to see some ice pieces falling and the thunder-like noise that it makes is impressive. We sat on a bench and contemplated the spectacular show while eating our sandwiches.

In the afternoon we went back to el Calafate and hopped in the next bus that took us to el Chalten, the Argentinian capital of trekking. The town is located in a gorgeous place, surrounded by mountains and rock climbing walls. We got there pretty late and went straight to our hostel, La cima. The hostel is very new and clean but it lacks a bit the dynamics and atmosphere of a youth hostel. That night we had dinner at a restaurant called "La Senyera" which is the name of the catalan flag. The owner is catalan, but the food that you can eat there is mostly argentinian.

The next day we did the ice climbing trek. We first took a bus to lago Viedma and then a boat to get to the glacier. There we met our funny guides Tato and Nacho. They took us to a dome where they gave us the gear and we left our food bags before heading to the glacier.

Then we put our crampons on and they showed us the basic techniques to walk and climb on ice. Then we went to the first climbing wall where the guides set up two top ropes and we started to climb there. We then moved to steeper walls and the last one was extremely difficult to climb.

After having lunch back in the dome we hiked through the glacier to see the ice formations. There the guides had a surprise for us. They prepared glasses of baileys with 400 years old ice from the glacier.

The following day we took it easy and did a short hike on the Fitz Roy trail. To reward us for the good work of the previous days, we had a snack after the hike at la wafleria.

The next day we took the first CalTur bus back to el Calafate and stopped at the airport where we had to wait around 8h for our flight to Ushuaia.

In Ushuaia we slept at a bed and breakfast called Mysten Kepen. It is managed by a very nice local family. The rooms are inside their house, so you actually live together with them.

We had only 2 days in Ushuaia. The first day we went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park and the next day we did the navigation through the Beagle channel. We used our free evening to buy souvenirs because our trip was ending.

We spent our last day of the trip in Buenos Aires before our flight to Barcelona.

Thank you so much to those who have been following us through the blog!

Our NEXT STOP: go back home to Barcelona and then New York!

Torres del Paine and the Chilean Patagonia

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

From Santiago we took a flight at 2 a.m. in the morning to go to Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in the American Continent located in the chilean Patagonia. We got there at 5 am in the morning without much sleep and we went to our hostel: Hostal Keoken. We didn't want to pay for an extra night for just a few hours in the morning so we just took a nap in the hostel's couch until 8 am, when the room was supposed to be emptied. However, the guest changed his plans and left the hotel at 12pm. Luckily they gave us a free breakfast while we were waiting, but what we really needed was some more hours of sleep. While having breakfast, we meet two polish guys who met 20 years ago and took every oportunity they had to travel around the world. They had been to the most remote places in earth! We discovered that they were doing a similar trip as we did through Chile, but in the other direction.

To avoid falling asleep, we used the time we had after breakfast to walk around Punta Arenas. Finally we got our room at 12:30 and slept a couple hours before we went to the penguins tour that the polish guys recommended. In the tour we met a couple of honeymooners from New York, who we also met again in Puerto Natales. We also met another guy from NY who was the film producer and photographer of the Polar Vision expedition in which Victor's MBA classmates Alan Lock and Andrew Jensen will reach the south pole. They are aiming to set the record for the first visually impaired person to trek from the coast of antarctica to the south pole. Check them out on their website!

In the tour we saw very cute penguins that walked around the beach and some lying on the ground.

Magallanic penguins

After the tour we had a hot chocolate and then we went to La Marmita restaurant that the guys from NY recommended to us. We ate very good fish!

The next day we went to Puerto Natales, the gate to Torres del Paine, where we will be trekking for 5 days. There we slept in a great guest house: the Tin house. We would recommend everybody that has to sleep in Puerto Natales to go there. They have only 3 rooms but they are very cozy and the owners, David and Laura took care of us wonderfully well. They helped us to buy all the bus tickets we needed. We felt like in home! That same day we went to a briefing about Torres del Paine in Erratic Rock, that is delivered daily at 3pm. They do a great job at explaining what to expect from the trek and what are the best strategies. The good thing is that they also have a gear rental store (a bit expensive) where you can rent werever you need.

In Torres del Paine we did the W circuit from East to West. Since we didn't want to carry much weight, but we didn't want to pay a lot of money, we decided to use the paid campsites, so that we didn't have to carry the tent nor food as we could eat at the refugios. Eating there was a good idea since we were meeting a lot of people that were doing the same trek.

The first day we took the 2:30 pm bus from Puerto Natales and got off at Refugio Torres where we slept. From there we were already able to see the tips of the towers.

The next day we climbed up to the towers but it was very foggy and we could only see the outline of the towers. We slept at el Chileno campsite where we met a family from Texas that were doing the same hike as we were. The daughter and her boyfriend had been travelling through south America for 11 months and they were at the end of the trip. Her parents just joined them for the last part of the trip in Patagonia.

mirador Las Torres

From there we went to Los Cuernos campsite and slept there. There we met a german couple, who were both mathematicians and also another couple who were both physicists, she was catalan and he was german. The following day we hiked through the French valley from where you could see a glacier and the mountain range of Los cuernos on the way up we met a couple from the Basque country and Josep from Vic.

The hike to our next campsite, Paine grande, was very nice as it was very sunny and went through a flat terrain next to a beautiful lake. Paine Grande is extremely crowded because it is one of the main entrances to the park and it is full of people who just want to do day hikes.

chocolate in my sleeping bag! 5 stars tent

The next day we went to Refugio Grey from where we could see the Grey Glacier. The refugio Grey was one of the best campsites we have been to because we camped on the beach and the refugio was very cozy and had a fireplace. Perfect to get warm before going to sleep outside!

we made it!

After surviving the W trek we went back to Puerto Natales and the following day we took the bus to Calafate, to our NEXT STOP, Perito Moreno.

Rapa Nui and the mystery of moais

2011-12-07T14:59:00.001-08:00

We got to Easter Island on the only daily plane that gets there. When we got off the plane we felt like being in a different country. They share many similarities with Hawaii and Polynesia. For example they greeted us with a flower necklace and Laura also got a big yellow flower for her hair.

The son of the owners of the hostel we were staying in, Inaki Uhi, picked us up. The hostel was so close to the airport that you could even walk there. The hostel lied in Hanga Roa, the only area that is inhabited in the west of the island. It was very clean and we had a kitchen for ourselves, which was very useful to save some money because restaurants were incredibly expensive. Even the supermarket where we bought most of our food was expensive. The products didn't have price tag and we didn't know whether they were charging us the "touristic rate". It is advisable to buy food in Santiago and carry it on the plane.

The hostel was managed by a local family and the grandmother was the oldest person in the island with more than a hundred years. Her husband had been a mayor of the city long time ago, and there is a street with his name.

In Easter Island we visited the main archaeological sites and we could see many Moais, these huge human faced stone sculptures standing on top of ceremonial platforms (Ahu) and usually facing inland.

Many archaeologists are still investigating many aspects of the culture as the civilization collapsed after wars among different tribes fighting for the scarce resources of the island. For this reason it is still a mystery how they transported these massive pieces of rock from the quarry to the cerimonial areas. All the moais that are currently standing had been recently placed using crains because they had been thrown down during the wars.

At the end of Hanga Roa we found the cementery.

Close to Hanga Roa, we visited Ahu Tahai, from where we saw the sunset on two different days.

One of the days, we rented a car so that we could get to the remotest areas. In some of the places we were totally alone, which added extra mysticism to the environment. We visited Rano Raraku, an extinct volcano that was used as the quarry from where moais were extracted. There we could see unfinished, half carved moais, some still attached to the mountain and some others half buried in the ground.

We also hiked to the interior of the volcano, were we found an archaeological exploration. They explained us that they were doing and inventory of the moais and for that they were unearthing those moais that were buried so that they could study them. They were also collecting the tools that were used to carve the statues.

From Rano Raraku you could see Ahu Tongariki, which is one of the most famous images of the island, as it has 15 moais in line.

We also went to Anakena, which is a white sand beach with palm trees that lies in the north, and also has an Ahu.

Before returning to the town, we stopped at Puna Pau which was the quarry from where the pukaos, or red hats, were extracted.

The next day, we took advantage that we still had the car until 10am to go see the sunrise in Ahu Tongariki.

After returning the car, we hiked to the top of the volcano next to Hanga Roa, Rano Kau. The sights from there were impressive, you could see the interior of the volcano full of water and tortora plants and also you had views to two small islands.

In that privileged location lies the restored ceremonial city of Orongo, where you could see petroglyphs of the bird man.

On our last day in the island, we hiked to a different archaeological area that contained caves that finished on the cliff.

After Easter Island we went back to Santiago to say goodbye to our friends and we took a plane to our NEXT STOP: Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in the American continent.

Santiago the new campus of Berkeley-Haas

2011-12-05T11:14:00.001-08:00

In Santiago we met the 11 friends from Haas that are currently living there! It really looks like being in Berkeley again. We stayed at Claudio and Joana's apartment, thank you guys!!

We spent most of the time visiting our friends and eating asados and other typical food. The first night we had dinner at Claudio's and Joana's apartment.

The next day we had lunch next to Macario and Jose's house and went to parque del bicentenario.

That night we ate at Pasta e Basta in Parque Arauco with Joana and Claudio.

On Monday Joana took us to the city center. We saw "el Palacio de la moneda", the cathedral, the market and we also could see the students' demonstrations. We took the cable car to Cerro San Cristóbal, from where you can see the whole city. Santiago scenery is amazing because it is surrounded by mountains. Our tour finished in the house of Pablo Neruda where we had a coffee.

That night we had dinner at Coti and Manuel's house.

The last night, we ate at Tiramisu, a restaurant that we went back again after our NEXT STOP: Easter Island.

Buenos Aires and Mendoza

2011-12-05T09:08:00.001-08:00

In Buenos Aires a great hotel was waiting for us, the 562 Nogaro, next to the Plaza de Mayo. We decided to book this hotel because Laura's birthday was coming up. Buenos Aires looked like a European city, something in between Paris and Madrid.

The first day we visited the center: Plaza de Mayo, Metropolitan Cathedral, and The Pink House, which at night is illuminated with pink lights. After that we walked through the pedestrian street, calle Florida, which is full of stores and people. We arrived to the obelisk and finally to the Colon theatre.

We did a tour through the theatre, which was recently restored. The guide claimed that it is one the best for both orchestra and opera because of it's great acoustics. Even Pavarotti once said that it had a huge defect: acoustics are perfect, meaning that everybody would notice any mistake he made.

We ate at galerias pacifico and there we bought tickets for a tango show for the same night and it was a great decision because we avoided the touristic shows in restaurants. The show, pasion de Tango, was in centro cultural Borges. It had live music and the dancers were spectacular!

Before the show we walked through Puerto Madero, docklands running in front of the river with remodelated warehouses turned into restaurants and lofts.

The second day we visited the Recoleta neighborhood and its cementery. At the entrance they gave us a map to walk around. It looked like a city because it has streets. But instead of houses you find graves. We visited, among others, Eva Peron's tomb. We walked around for a while until we had enough of spiderwebs, creepy angels and dusty coffins.

When we got outside we saw the typical "pasea perros", professional dog-walkers who walk between 10 and 15 dogs at the same time!

After the cemetery we passed by the National Library and the Fine Arts Museum.

That afternoon, when we came back to our hotel we found a huge demonstration in front of it.

That night we had dinner with our Chilean friends, Coti and Manuel, who were staying in BA for work.

The third day we went to get lunch in a restaurant called "la moreneta de Montserrat" which is owned by an Italian and Argentinian couple who were working in Mallorca before going to BA. In fact, they had an article with the title "estrella fugaz" from "la vanguardia" posted on the front window, explaining that the restaurant in Mallorca closed and earned a Michelin star right before.

That afternoon we visited the Boca neighborhood that was started by Italian immigrants. There it lies the "caminito", a street with bright colored houses and restaurants with tango shows. To get there we took a public bus and we spent a lot time looking for coins to pay the fare. Argentina has a shortage of coins and they are very difficult to get!

The fourth day was Laura's birthday! We talked to our families and went back to la Moreneta. Victor arranged the dessert with a candle, so that Laura could blow it.

That night we took a 15h bus to Mendoza. We were worried it was tiring, but we slept better than in some hostels we stayed in. The bus had 180 degrees reclinable seats and the food was awesome.

After the trip, we went to the hostel To get a shower and the only things we had time to visit were two wineries and an olive oil factory.

The next day we took one more bus to cross the Andes and get to our NEXT STOP: Santiago de Chile.

Uruguay "el paisito"

2011-11-23T03:01:00.000-08:00

From Sao Paulo we took a flight to Montevideo, Uruguay. When we planned our itinerary we included the stop in Uruguay thinking that our friends Joaquin and Leticia, who are from Montevideo would be there, but they recently moved to Santiago de Chile and we couldn't meet them there. However, Leticia's parents, Gonzalo and Graciela, met us at the airport. They took care of us so nicely that we felt like being at our parents home. Thank you!

After Gonzalo and Graciela picked us up from the airport, they invited us to have lunch and we tried the famous "chivito", which is a sandwich with meat, bacon, lettuce, egg and many other ingredients.

Chivito

After finishing the huge sandwich, they drove us to Montevideo's center. We first took the coastal road which runs next to the "Rio de la Plata" river.

We saw all the main monuments from the car and Gonzalo explained us the history about the city and the main buildings. It was great that we did the tour by car with them, because the following day we walked through the center and we already knew a little bit of the history.. Thank you for the tour!

At night we had a delicious urugayan "asado" cooked by Gonzalo. We learnt that the uruguayan BBQ is different from the Argentinian in the fact that it is cooked with wood instead of coal.

Our walking tour on the following day included the plaza independencia, teatro Solis, plaza matriz and the market next to the harbor. On the way back home we missed our bus because they told us to wait in the wrong bus stop.

From Montevideo we took a bus to Punta del Este, which is the vacational area two hours from Montevideo. It is full of apartments in front of the beach but, as we went in low season, all the apartments were empty and most of the restaurants were closed. But it was perfect for us, very quite place to rest from our trip.

In Punta del Este we stayed at Leticia's family apartment and we loved it! Thank you!

We also went to the supermarket and we bought Spanish ham and cheese for dinner. It was like being at home again!

Having dinner with spanish ham

In Punta del Este we rent a car to visit the area. We drove all the coastal road and we visited the fishermen town of Jose Ignacio, we tried to see the sunset in Punta Ballena but it was rainy and we also saw the project "Casa Pueblo", which is the house of the Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, which is now a museum and art gallery.

We also tried to go to eat waffles with "dulce de leche" in the cow farm Lapataia. We were late and they were closed so we couldn't try them. Next time!

Casa Pueblo

The next day we went to Cabo Polonio, which is a remote town that you can only access by a 4WD vehicle or walking through the dunes. The area has no electricity and neither running water and it has very few houses all of them built by local people. It is a very peculiar place and perfect to be away from the crowds of the city.

To get to Cabo Polonio we had to cross a small lagoon on top of a platform with the car.

We said good bye to Punta del Este and we took a bus to Colonia del Sacramento, where we took the "buquebus" which is a big slow boat that crosses in 3 hours from Uruguay to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the boat

And finally, after the whole day travelling, we arrived to Buenos Aires! where my birthday present was waiting for me!!! 4 days in a nice hotel!

NEXT STOP: Buenos Aires!

Caipirinhas&Friends in Rio and Sao Paulo

2011-11-22T07:05:00.001-08:00

After being in the jungle for a while, we were ready to get rid of our camouflage outfits and go to the city! Caymans and monkeys were exchanged for suntanned people in tiny bikinis! Welcome to Rio de Janeiro!

In Rio we stayed at our friend's apartment. Thanks Ricardo! His apartment was located in Arpoador, a very nice and convenient area, between Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. It is nice to live in front of the beach!

The first night we went to have dinner with another friend from Sao Paulo, Marco. We went to a nice restaurant, Zaza bistro. Our table was in the first floor and we had to take our shoes off. After that we went to drink caipirinhas in a bar in front of the beach. We tried caipirinhas with kiwi and caju fruit, delicious!

We also had dinner with Ricardo and his friend in a nice area full of young people. The bars were very full and also there were people drinking outside!

In Rio we did all the touristic things you have to do in your first visit to the city. We went up to the Corcovado hill by a zip train. On top of the hill we enjoyed the nice views of the city and we also saw the huge statue of the "Cristo Redentor". We tried to take a picture in front of the Christ insistently but it was really difficult to avoid all the tourists making weird poses in front of you...

Where's Laura?

After the Corcovado hill, we went to the other highlight of the city, the "Paõ de Açucar". We took the teleferic to the top of the hill and there we waited for the sunset.

Views from the first hill

Weird monkey

Views from top of the Paõ de Açucar

The views from Paõ de Açucar, with the orange light of the sunset, were spectacular! Rio has an excellent location and the landscape is absolutely gorgeous!

The only tour we took in Rio was the favela tour. With a small group of people and our guide we went to one of the favelas that surround the city, the famous Rocinha. For our security, our guide told us that we were being watched the whole time and they didn't like being photographed. So we couldn't take pictures inside the favelas. We only could take pictures from the balcony of one house we could get in. The view from there was astonishing. The location of the favela is very privileged because of the views but the density of inhabitants living there is overwhelming. Officially there were living 65.000 people but in reality there were 200.000!

The entire area is full of houses built by themselves and painted with vivid colors. However, we saw a big structure in the middle of the favela that was a public housing project.The neighborhood looked like a colorful ant farm.

We felt very safe walking on the streets of the favela. I am sure that this is because we were in a tour and you probably get a different feeling walking alone in these streets. Our guide told us that the interior of the favelas is a safe place because, he literally said: "they don't shit where they eat".

We tried the Açai, which is a typical cold fruit pure with toppings! Weird taste but refreshing!

Days after we read in the news that the police captured in that favela the boss of drug gang. Scary...

After visiting Rocinha we went to another favela. This one was very different from the previous one. The particularity of that one was that was built like a maze. Its streets were very narrow with little sunlight and all the houses were very compacted. It was difficult to get oriented inside.

One of the things that was surprising to us the most in our visit to the favelas was how invisible is the line between the rich area and the favelas. They are next to each other. A big house can share easily the wall with a favela construction.

We also visited a project for kids to stay and play while they are not in school and their parents are working. Kids go to school half a day so they have lot of free time. With this project they are not in the street and they are playing football and learning for example, how to build things with recycled materials.

Cup made of recycled magazines

From Rio de Janeiro we planned to go to the Paraty beaches but the weather wasn't very good and we decided to go directly to Sao Paulo by bus.

Sao Paulo is very different from Rio, it hasn't the beaches and the green hills of Rio and it has more extension to grow. We also felt that in Sao Paulo people are more stressed, maybe because of the business environment.

In Sao Paulo we stayed in a very big hostel in the center, Sao Paulo hostel. If we had to come back again, we would stay in Vila Madalena which is a nice area full of young people and nice restaurants. But on the other hand, our hostel was very convenient for the subway and to get to the airport by bus.

In Sao Paulo we visited Avenida Paulista and the Modern Art Museum (MASP) by Lina Bo Bardi, one of the first modernist female architect. We also visited the theater.

MASP

In Sao Paulo we also met our friends for dinner. Antonio, Ricardo and Renata, it was so nice to see you again!

NEXT STOP: Uruguay!

Natal and Pantanal - buggy through the dunes and more wildlife

2011-11-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

From Manaus we shared a cab with Maria and Ovidi to go to the airport. We were going to different destinations but our connecting flights were both to Brasilia. Their flight was departing one hour before ours so we decided to go together to the airport.

We picked them up at their hotel after waiting for them for half an hour. We were worried because we arrived to their hotel but they weren't in their room and they didnt't checked out so we didn't know where they were. After waiting with the cab for 30min they finally arrived with another cab. They went out and they found an accident in the way to the hotel.

We finally all got into the cab and as we knew about the accident we told the driver that the road to the airport was jammed. He literally ignored us and of course, we got stucked in a huge traffic jam.

We arrived veeeeery late at the airport, half an hour before Ovidi&Maria's flight departure. Luckyly they arrived to the check-in desk just in time, we said goodbye to them and they run to the gate.

After they left, the guy from the check-in desk told us that he changed our flight and now we were going with the same plane that our friends were taking. So after all, we all got in the same plane. When we were inside the plane and our friends saw us we couldn't stop laughing! Nobody could imagine that one hour ago, when we all were stuck in that traffic jam.

In Brasilia we said goodbye to our friends and we took a flight to our next destination: Natal. In Natal we stayed in a nice hostel, Albergue da Costa. We basically took it easy in Natal. We went to the beach, we ate delicious shrimp and we went to have dinner to a brazilian rodizio. Too much meat for us!

We also did a tour in a buggy, that is one of the things you have to do if you visit Natal, and we loved it!

Our buggy driver, Moal, picked us up at the hostel and we spent the whole day driving through the dunes and the beaches from the north of Natal. He drove like crazy and sometimes it was a little bit scary and difficult to hold ourselves to the buggy. But we survived! and it was worth it!

The sand dunes, the lagoons and the beaches were spectacular!

Crossing the water with the buggy on top of a wood plataform
(look at the horse!)

Refreshing "abacaxi"

Our buggy driver, Moal

After our relaxing days in Natal we took a flight to Campo Grande. In Campo Grande we booked a tour to Pantanal with Pantanal Discovery, which is a company recommended in the Lonely Planet. After the tour, we realized that we probably could booked the tour directly to the lodge and it would have been half the price we paid.

In Pantanal we stayed at Lontra Pantanal Hotel. It was a nice hotel with delicious food and better rooms than the one we stayed in the Amazon. This time we had air conditioning! We slept in a dorm with all our tour mates: Robin, Queli and Alicia.

In Pantanal we did a lot of activities! piranha fishing, boat trip, treks, safari,...

Pantanal is a floodplain with lots of different plants and animals. The biodiversity of this area is amazing! It is incredible how many different animals we saw! lots of weird birds, looots of caymans and "capibaras" which is the largest rodent in the world!

The typical Pantanal bird

They look like logs but they are caymans!

A family of capibaras

Panoramic view from the top of a tower

NEXT STOP: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo!!

Manaus, 4 days in the Amazon jungle

2011-11-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

We got to Manaus in the afternoon and there was a driver who was waiting to pick us up. However when we got to the hostel, its owner said that he didn't send any driver to the airport because we hadn't confirmed. We were scared that someone knew our names and the hostel where we were staying. Finally we discovered that the official driver of the hostel told a friend of him to pick us up. All this confusion wasn't surprising after seeing how disorganized the owner was. The hostel we stayed in was Hostel Manaus (not to be confused with Manaus hostel) and it was clean and felt safe. The owner is an australian married to a brazilian woman.

That same afternoon we went to Gero tours to book the tour to the Amazon as it was the tour operator that was recommended in the lonely planet and the highest ranked in tripadvisor. It is slightly more expensive than the rest, but it felt it was also a bit better as they operated their own lodge in a remote area. It was late at night and we didn't have enough cash to pay the tour, but they recommended not to go to the ATM when it was dark. We later discovered that two chinese girls who were supposed to come with our group, went to the ATM that same night and were robbed. Thanks god we didn't go!

We spent the morning travelling to the lodge. We took two vans and two boats to get there. During the trip we met a couple of honeymooners that were also from Catalonia, Maria and Ovidi, and we spent the 4 days with them. During the first boat trip we found the mixing of two rivers, the Black river and Solimoes. The first one is darker and more acid than the second one, and because of these differences they don't mix for 6 km. They also have different temperatures that you can feel by putting your hand in the water.

Boat to the lodge

Mix between Rio Negro and Solimoes

Fisherman at the first port

We spent 4 days and 3 nights at the Ararinha lodge. We slept in a huge dorm with about 10 beds and space for around 10 more hammocks. We had to sleep with mosquito nets and there were no fans, so you can imagine how hot that was. After lunch we always had 2 free hours but due to the heat, the only thing we were able to do was a siesta.

The first activity was to fish piranhas. We brought to cups full of chicken and beef raw meat as bait. On the way to the fishing spot, we found a baby cayman that the guide caught so that we could see it closer. He told us how to hold it safely.

After that, we stopped the boat in a place that our guide knew, and seconds after we were fishing our first orange piranha!

When we were fishing two japanese guys joined us, Kazu and Ko.

On our way back we were able to see a beautiful sunset.

Guess what we had for dinner that night.... BBQed Piranhas!

The second day we hiked through the jungle with Jozinho to spot some wildlife. He found tarantula nests and he put a stick to take a spider out of the hole.

Tarantula out of its nest

That afternoon we went out with the boat to spot the sloth monkey but it started to rain and we had to shelter in one of the floating houses. That turned out to be the pub of that region where all the locals went to play pool table.

At night we went to spot caymans because Ko and Kazu didn´t see the one we caught the first night. We used a flashlight to see the red reflections of the cayman's eyes, similarly as we did in Costa Rica. It was surprising how many sparkles we saw in few minutes. In the same dock before getting into the boat we were already able to catch one. It was so easy to find caymans that I can't imagine how many there were.

When we came back, Jozinho caught a frog with its mouth all blown.

We spent the last night in the jungle where we set up a campsite with hammocks and mosquito nets. Our guides prepared a nice dinner with two roasted chickens and vegetable rice on a bonfire. We helped pealing the vegetables and collecting some wood for the fire. It was a nice experience to sleep in the jungle because we were able to listen lots of sounds from the animals. It was our first time sleeping the whole night in a hammock and it wasn't bad at all!

The following day we woke up and we went to visit one of the largest trees in that region.

After that we packed and said goodbye to the people from the lodge and especially to Junhio, a friendly kid that always wanted to play with us when we were in the lodge.

Next Stop: the beaches of Natal

3 countries in one week: Chile, Argentina, Brazil

2011-10-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

It was 3 days since we crossed from Bolivia to Chile and now we were headed towards Salta, Argentina. We took a bus with our friends Dani and Kinga from San Pedro de Atacama to Salta. It was Friday and we had to leave earlier because on these days the border is full. It took more than 2 hours to go through customs and do the paperwork.The road was very windy but the views were spectacular.

Two stops before Salta we said goodbye to our friends. After 10 hours on the road, we got to Salta and we realized that it was a long weekend and most hotels were already full. It was 8pm at night and we were walking with our backpacks without much success. We finally found a place, Posada las Farolas, that was a little over our budget but very comfortable and with charming owners. The next day we moved to Tierra Oculta where we met a group of students from Misiones who were there for a conference to tell to university prospective students about their experience. These guys organized a BBQ at night and they were partying until 5 am. However when we woke up they were already awake. We then discovered that they had some problems with the security guard and the police.

The city was very nice. We hadn't been in one since La Paz! We found a good restaurant where we tried the "empanadas de carne". We saw a very good flan that we wanted to have for desert but we weren't able to have it because they closed the kitchen without telling us anything!

From Salta we flew to the Argenitian side of Iguazu Falls. The falls can be visited from the Argentinian and the Brazilian sides. In the former you can get closer to them and in the latter you can see a better panoramic view, according to what they told us since we didn't have time to see them from the Brazilian side.

Since we had so many problems in Salta, we decided to book a hostel in hostelworld.com. We booked the Azaleas place, located between the falls and the town. However, when we got there, it was closed. We waited for 2 hours because we already paid a 10% of our stay, but we finally left. We asked in different hostels but most of them, as we expected, were full. We finally ended up finding a room in Peter Pan hostel, that was actually better than the one we booked online.

We were surprised that none of the showers have curtains and when you get a shower the entire bathroom gets wet.

The next day we took a bus to the falls. There we followed several of the established itineraries. First we took the Lower loop and we crossed by boat to the San Martin island, where hiked to a view point where you could see the falls from really close. We got really wet!

On our way to San Martin island

Views from the island

On our way we were able to see different animals: Coatis, caymans, and weird birds.

Coati

Then we walked the Upper trail overlooking the falls from the top, and finally we took a train to the Devil's throat which is stunning. To get there we had to walk over footbridges placed on top of the falls.

Views from the Upper trail

Devil's Throat

The nextday we took a public bus to cross to the Brazilian side. It was the third border we crossed in less than a week. We realized that it is very easy to cross and there is little control. In Foç we stayed at Bambu hostel for just one night as the next day we had a flight to Manaus at 6 am.


Laura cooking in the hostel Bambu

Our NEXT STOP will be a 4 day tour through the Amazon.

San Pedro de Atacama: the Moon´s valley and watching the stars with a French astronomer

2011-10-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

San Pedro de Atacama is a town, in the north of Chile, in the middle of the Atacama desert, one of the most arid deserts in the world.

Nice sunset at Moon´s Valley

The town is in the valley and the streets have lots of sand from the desert. It is very hot and dry. The houses are made of adobe and the street lamps and signs remind us to a Farwest village.

San Pedro de Atacama´s church

In San Pedro we stayed at Eden Atacameño hostel, the same hostel Dani and Kinga were staying. One of the things that surprised us the most were the rooms and food prices. Everything was very expensive! Maybe because it is a turistic place or maybe we felt that way because we came from Bolivia, where everything is very cheap.

The first day in San Pedro we took an evening tour to Laguna Cejar, which is a lagoon with a very high percentage of salt in water. It has 30% of salt and it is very easy to float in the water similar to the Dead Sea. Victor was very happy that he was able to float because he usually can't!

After swimming in the lagoon, our guide sprayed us with water because if you leave the salt on your skin, the skin feels like cardboard. Afterwards we drove to two small lagoons with fresh water where we could remove the salt we had. They call them "Ojos del Salar".

Finally we went to watch the sunset in a big lagoon where we had snacks and Pisco sour!

Pisco sour!

Andes changing color at sunset

That night, after dinner, we went to an astronomy tour. We visited the observation center (http://www.spaceobs.com/) that was built by three astronomers. We learned that San Pedro de Atacama is one of the best places to observe the space because of its altitude, dry environment, good climate conditions and far from the light from big cities. In fact, currently there is a huge telescope being built there: the ALMA project (http://www.eso.org).

The tour was very interesting! We first had an explanation of the things you can see with the naked eye. It was a bit complicated because we are used to the northern hemisphere and many of the things we take for granted in the north are just different in the south. One of the reference points in the north is the polar star, whereas in the south is the Southern Cross. We then moved to the telescopes area where we were able to see many things: the moon, nebulars, dual stars, clusters of stars (subaru), jupiter and galaxies. A cool feature was the telescope that was focused on the moon had a joystick that let you move and zoom so that you could see the details of the moon's surface. We finished the tour with a talk given by a French astronomer, under a small hut and with hot chocolate! He talked about asteroids, which was his specialty.

The next day we visited the Moon Valley in the Atacama desert. The landscape is unique, with lots of sand and spectacular dunes made by the wind. We also visited the famous stone formations of the "Coliseo" and "las tres Marias", which are three stones with different shapes.

dunes

the Coilseum

one of the three Marias (the dinosaur)

We also did a short exploration of the salt formations. We walked inside very narrow galeries of salt made by the erosion of a water stream.

We finished our visit to the Atacama desert waching the sunset with a panoramic view of the valley. The color of the stone formations with the sunset light was amazing and I don't know if it remembers the moon surface or not, but for us it remembered our visit to Utah and Arizona last Thanksgiving.

Next Stop: crossing the border to Argentina and Brazil! Salta and Iguazu Falls.

Salar de Uyuni: 4WD trip over 12000 squared kilometers of salt

2011-10-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

From La Paz, we took a night bus to Uyuni. The best buses to go there are from todoturismo because they have heating system that is very needed for the cold nights in Uyuni. The previous day, we spent the entire evening looking for their office but couldn't find it, until a worker from the station called his supervisor to ask about it. Even policemen didn't know it was across the street from the station! The trip was 10h long and the worst part were the last 180km through a dirt road. The bus was shaking like a blender!

Most tourist hire the tour when they get to Uyuni and start it a few hours later. However, we wanted to rest a bit from the bus ride and also research thoroughly the different agencies as we read pretty bad things such as car accidents and drunk drivers! We researched so much that we even knew where the drivers were washing the jeeps after the tour!

As we wanted to do the Salar tour crossing to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, we decided to hire Estrella del Sur, which has agencies in both countries. We read good reviews from this agency and also it was the only one that gave us a written contract. Moreover we discovered that one of the drivers leaving the following day, Figo, was driving a Lexus, which is a sign that he is a good driver as these cars are mostly used in private tours. We lobbied to go with him.

The following day we started the tour at 10am. We met Figo and our jeep-mates: two Chilean guys, Martin and Felipe, and a couple who live in Belgium, Dani from Marbella and his girlfriend Kinga from Germany. They were traveling backpacking for 9 months around Asia and Latinamerica.

The first day we visited a train cementery and the Salar itself. We drove through a flat and white huge salt surface of 12,000 square km! You can't see the other side of the shore. It is like a white dry sea. It is difficult to drive there because it is hard to get oriented as you only see the horizon line and nothing else.

We stopped to take some funny pictures. Being all white it is easy to play with the perspective and make people look tiny in the pictures while others look huge.

After that we went to visit the Incahuasi island. It's an island in the middle of the Salar full of cactus. We had lunch there and then we hiked to the top of the island. We saw huge cactus. One of them was 9m high and we found one that was already dead and it was 12m! Since they grow 1cm per year, it means that they were 900 and 1200 years old respectively.

After lunch we continued driving through the Salar and just before sunset we got off the jeep to walk on the Salar to enjoy the sunset. Beautiful!

That night we slept in a basic hostel made of salt. While we were waiting for the dinner we played cards. After a while, the daughter of the hostel owner, Guadalupe, joined us. She wasn't shy at all! she was used to tourists and she was very impatient. She didn't like to loose.

The second day we visited a volcano view point and lots of lagoons full of flamingoes. The lagoons had some weird white material on the surface and Figo explained us that it was "borax".

After having lunch at one of the lagoons, we continued our tour to see "el árbol de piedra". It is a stone formation with a tree shape, made by the erosion of the wind on the stone.

Around 4pm we arrived to "Laguna Colorada". It was the perfect time to see the red and orange color of the water. It is a special lagoon that in a specific point in time during the day it changes the color of the water from transparent to red. That happens because in some specific conditions of wind and sunlight, the movement of the water moves the red algae of the lagoon and the water changes the color.

That night we stayed in a pretty basic hostel near the red lagoon. It was a very cold night (-15ºC) luckily we had our sleeping bags and we slept 6 people in the same room.

The third and last day of the tour we woke up very early, at 4.30am to see the sunrise at the geysers. It was very nice to see the steam but it was hard to walk close to the geysers because it was veeery cold during the sunrise.

After that we went to the hot springs. One of the Chilean guys got inside the water. We were tempted to jump in the hot water but it was so cold that we couldn't imagine how to get out of the water after the swim.

We had breakfast in the trunk of the jeep. Figo prepared us a nice breakfast with pancakes and hot tea. Delicious!

After feeling a little bit warmer with the tea, we continued the route until the Salvador Dali desert. It is an area with rocks on top of sand dunes that remind to Dali paintings. While we were driving through the desert we saw some snow formations on top of the sand. It is very interesting to see snow in the desert.

Finally we arrived to the last stop, the Green Lagoon. It was too early to see the green color of the water and there wasn't enough wind. But the mirror effect on the lake was pretty cool.

At the green lagoon we said goodbye to our Chilean friends and the rest of us went to Hito Cajones, the border between Bolivia and Chile. We took a minibus and we said goodbye to our guide Figo. It was nice to change the bumpy desert for asfalt road.

Next Stop: San Pedro de Atacama.

Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world.

2011-10-12T17:14:00.000-07:00

After the exhausting trek to Machu Picchu we decided to head to the Lake Titicaca, the hightest navigable lake in the world! The lake is between two countries, Peru and Bolivia. The color of the sky at that altitude is stunning! and the clouds look very low.

We took a night bus from Cuzco to Puno, which lies in the Peruvian shore of the lake. We arrived to Puno at 4am after a tiring trip by bus. We were lucky because our room at the hostel was empty and they allowed us to do an early check-in! After resting for a while we were ready to explore Puno. We went to the main plaza and we saw a big parade. It was the "Tourist day" and all schools, professional schools and tourists companies were parading like a military march. We were able to see the traditional clothing from different regions.

The day after, we took a very slow boat to visit the floating islands of Uros. These islands are made by the local people with "totora" plant, which is a reed that grows in the lake. They use these reeds to build the islands, their own houses and their boats. It is very impressive! They make everything with this plant and of course, they also eat its roots!

We were able to step on one of these islands and we realized that the surface was very fluffy and we could actually feel the movement of the island floating on the water. The inhabitants didn't wear shoes because the surface of the island is like a pillow. We were tempted to take our shoes off as well.

They showed as how they build everything with a fantastic miniature recreation of the island. They had little houses and boats and dolls to represent the people.

After the explanation they showed us their real home. We saw a big HP printer box inside one of the houses but it must be just a box because they don't have electricity...

In each island live 2 or 3 families and they have a mayor for each one. They also told us that they don't have toilets in the island and they have to take the boat and go to another island. I don't know if that is true or not but if it is it must be very inconvenient. As it was a touristic visit they showed us handicrafts so we can contribute to their economy.

The inhabitants of the island, specially women, wear light colors and traditional hats.

We left the island on one of the traditional boats made of "totora". It is not a motor boat, so they need to use oars to move the boat.

After visiting the Uros islands we went to visit the Taquile island. We think it isn't worth going because it took us very long to get there (2h) and we just had time to have lunch and to cross the island walking very fast. The only highlight of that tour was the hat that men were wearing, it looks like Santa Claus' hat! They distinguish married men with the color of the hat like we do with the ring. The red hat is for married men.

The following day we took a bus to Copacabana, a town on the Bolivian shore of the lake. We crossed the border on foot and the process was fairly easy.

visiting the local market :s

In Copacabana we stayed at La Cúpula Hostel that has the best restaurant in town. We had a delicious fondue for dinner. It was very cheap!

sheeps in the yard of the hotel

In Copacabana we took a boat to Isla del Sol. In the boat we met again our French trek-mates from Machu Picchu, Victor and Benjamin. In Isla del Sol we did a short trek enjoying the views of the lake and the preinca's terraces. The island vegetation and the water of the infinite lake reminded us to the Mediterranean islands.

From Copacabana we took a public bus to la Paz with our french friends. The best moment was when we had to cross the lake and we had to take a small boat while our bus was crossing the water on top of a motor boat.

look at our bus crossing the lake!

What surprised us the most from la Paz was that the city is huge! The city is full of houses and it is very crowded. The extension of the city is enormous! The houses go up hill surrounding the valley and you can not see the end of it. What we didn't like from la Paz was the pollution and that they drive like crazy! It is very difficult to cross the street without running.

The hostel we stayed in la Paz was Cruz Andina. The hostel was nice with murals on the walls of the hostel and rooms.

Next Stop: 4x4 tour to Salar de Uyuni!

Salkantay trek: A 4-day hike to Machu Picchu

2011-10-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

With the travel agency of the same hostel we were staying in Cusco, Loki travel, we booked the salkantay trek. After having done the trek we realized that Loki travel was a good option as it was the cheapest, but the quality of the trek was good enough.

The day before leaving, one of the guides gave us a briefing about the trek. There we met two of our trek-mates: Alex, a british guy who was between jobs and took the oportunity to travel to Bolivia and Peru, and Jenny, from Canada.

Our group consited on 10 people, Alex, Jenny, Marty (Canada), Victor Gaspar (France), Benjamin (France) and 3 more german guys. We also had an awesome guide, Edwin and two cooks and a porter, who carried 5 kg of our luggage by horse. There was also another group of 10 people from the same agency with whom we did the trek together.

DAY 1:

They picked us up from the hostel at 4:30 am and we drove to Mollepata at 2.900m. There we had breakfast and we gave our bags to the porter, who weighed them to make sure they weren't over 5kg (although I think that he would carry more with a good tip). However there were two brazilian guys from the other group who had two carry their bags through the entire trip because they were over the allowed weight.

While we were there, a spanish woman stepped on her own shoe string and got injured. She was lucky that it was at the beginning of the trek, because there she was able to go back to Cusco. However it was a pitty that she couldn't continue.

We were told that the place where we were supposed to have lunch didn't have running water and we had to change the itinerary. For this reason we all stepped on a truck that brought us to the beginning of the trail.

From there we walked 2.5 hours and then we stopped to get lunch and have a small nap.

Then we walked 2.5 more hours to get to our first camiping site, Soraypampa at 3.900m overlooking the Salkantay mountain. The tents were set up inside a structure that covered the wind. At that altitude it was very useful! We even had toilets with running water! Our cook surprised us with a hot chocolate and pop corn when we got there. We went to sleep early because the next day was the hardest of our trek.

DAY 2:

We woke up at 5am with a hot coca tea, we had breakfast and at 6am we were already walking! That day we walked more than 10hr! Totally unsane! The first 4h it was all steep up climbing until 4600m. It was very hard to walk at that high because of the lack of oxygen. It was also hard because of the climate conditions. We had rain, sun, snow and fog! When we reached the highest point of the trail we made an offering to the mountain with a stone we picked up at the beginning of the trail and 3 coca leaves that represented the 3 layers of this world: the sky, represented by the condor, the earth, represented by the puma, and the underground, represented by the snake. There we also learned that Salkantay means the wild mountain, and it got this name because it is very dangerous and it has never been climbed. Recently an expedition of 4 japanese climbers tried to reach the summit, but 3 of them died.

Since at the top it was snowing and it was cold, we started our descent to our next camping at 2.900m. It took more than 6hrs! It felt veeery long, especially with the mud and the rocks in the middle of the trail! However the views were amazing! We saw how the vegetation changed from arid to cloudforest as we were down climbing.

On our way down we also met an australian guy, Trent, who was hiking in suit and a tie. We learned that he was raising money for www.coolearth.org, an organization that focuses on protecting the Amazon rainforest.

Our second camping in Chaullay wasn't as good as the first one. That night rained a lot and some tents looked like a swimming pool. Luckily we stayed dry.

DAY 3:

This day we only walked 6 hours to the town called "la Playa". It wasn't as hard as the second day but we were already tired from the previous day. Laura was the only girl who finished the hike, the others took a van to the town.

We had lunch in la Playa and then we all took a van to the camping. There we said good bye to our guide and trek mates, except for Jenny and the two brazilian guys, because those staying were doing the trek in 5 days. We skipped one day by taking a van and a train to Aguas Calientes. Tourists and locals are segregated in different train wagons and we were alone in the first car which had panoramic windows.

Once we got to Aguas Calientes we enjoyed a hot shower after 3 day without one. We had dinner with the group that was one day ahead of us but we had to do it with candles as there was no electricity that night. It is funny because the hydroelectric plant is a few miles from the town.

DAY 4:

Waking up time: 3:15am. The day we have woken up the earliest! We took our headlamps and started walking at 4am to Machu Picchu. We climbed about 2000 stairs and got to the top at 5:45, right before the doors opened.

Then we had a guided tour of 2 hours through the ruins. We took some group pictures but the weather was changing so rapidly that the first pictures were taken under a shiny sun, but in the last ones you couldn't see anything because of the thick cloud that came in. Although we weren't able to enjoy the views for a while they clouds gave a misterious feel to the site.

After the tour we had some time to explore the ruins on our own. We also had tickets to climb the Huayna Picchu (the mountain that lies behind the ruins), but after the 2000 stairs and 3 days of intense hiking we weren't able to go up. It's a pitty because we heard that the view is spectacular, but 1.5 hours of steep stairs was the last thing we wanted then. Luckily we were able to resell the tickets to a couple in our group who wanted to go.

Around 12 pm we took the bus back to Aguas Calientes and waited there for the train to Ollantaytambo.

We went back to Cuzco and stayed at the Loki hostel again. Unfortunately, we got one of the rooms closer to the bar, where there is a huge party every day (some locals say its the best party in town). Nothing that good earplugs can't solve.

NEXT STOP: Lake Titicaca

Lima and Arequipa: We met our Berkeley friends and ate incredibly well

2011-09-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

After our rest days in Panama we followed our trip to Peru. Our first stop was Lima, where our friends from Berkeley, Alvaro, Julen and Eli, picked us up from the airport. We spent three days with them and they really took care of us. Thank you guys! They might have thought we were too thin because we spent most of the time eating really good food! We were surprised by the great quality and reasonable price of the restaurants. We went to Cala, Jose Antonio and San Antonio, where we had an awesome breakfast.

Jose Antonio restaurant

Cala restaurant

Besides eating we also visited some touristic attractions: the "Fuerte Real Felipe" and "La Punta". In our last day, we took the touristic bus from Miraflores, Mirabus and we visited the Cathedral. We didn't know that the remains of Pizarro were kept in there. If we had to do it again we might take a taxi instead of the touristic bus, because for 2 people is more cost effective and more flexible.

Fuerte Real Felipe

La Punta

In Mirabus

Pizarro's remains

Farewell at the bus station

That same night we took a 16h bus to Arequipa, the longest we have taken so far. Tired from the trip and carrying our backpacks we started to walk around Arequipa. We visited a couple of hostels but were full. We discovered that there was a mining conference and most of the lodgings were full. Then, we sat at a cafe and called all the hotels listed in the Lonely Planet. We were lucky that the last one in the list, "El Tumi de Oro", had empty rooms. The hostel was managed by an old endearing couple and we felt like being their grandsons.

At Tumi de Oro

We liked Arequipa very much, especially the Plaza de Armas, Sta Catalina's monastery and "Juanita", an inkan girl who was sacrificed in the Ampato mountain and whose body has been perfectly preserved due to the low temperatures of the mountain.

Calle Cordoba inside Sta. Catalina Monastery

In Arequipa we also ate wonderfuly well. We specially liked the ostrich fondue in Zig Zag and the creps, coca tea and apple tea of Crepissimo, both restaurants from the same group. Crepisimo also had a nice terrace upstairs from where you could see the cathedral and the monastery.

Fondue at Zig Zag

Mate of Andean herbs in Crepissimo

Views from Crepissimo's terrace

From Arequipa we took a 2 day tour to "Cañón del Colca". We spent the first night in Chivay. On the road we found alpacas, Vicuñas and Llamas, the local camelids. We also went through a pass of 4910m above seal level, the highest we,ve ever been. At this altitude we felt the lack of oxigen! We stopped for a Coca tea and to see the stacks of stones, which were offerings that local people gave to the mountain. We had dinner in a traditional restaurant in Chivay where there was a Preuvian band playing. Victor was asked to dance twice and he was dressed with traditional clothes.

Four Vicuñas

Dancing with traditional clothes

The next day we went to actual Canyon, which is one of the deapest in the world, being 4100 m deep, twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We had some stops in the towns next to the road and some view points overlooking the pre-incan terraces. Finally we stopped at the Condor's Cross, where we could see a group of spectacular Condors flying very close to us.

Condor's cross

In that trip we met two spanish girls from Madrid, Vane and Tere. They had some problems with our guide because she left without them twice in that trip.

Then we went to Cuzco. We took it easy speacially to get used to the altitude. Luckily we had some medicine for the altitude and we didn't feel much besides the lack of oxygen when we had to climb the steep stairs to the hotel. We spent the first night at Los Niños hotel whose owner was Dutch. The rooms are around an arched patio and it is very eco-conscious. Some of the profits go for a non profit organization that deals with kids in trouble.

Stairs to Loki hostel

Since Los Niños was a little bit pricey for our budget, we moved to the Loki hostel, the biggest hostel we have stayed in. It is very well organized, it has a pool table, a ping-pong table, there are activities everyday and it even has a travel agency inside. The only problem is that every single night they have the wildest parties in town until 2 am. We specially suffered that when we had to wake up at 4am the day we left to the Salkantay trek.

Cafetin at Los Niños

Patio at Los Niños

We took a day tour through Cusco and we saw the Cathedral, the Qoricancha (Incan Sun Temple) and the 4 archaeological sites including the incan walls of Sacsayhuamán. Our guide was a crazy old man who liked to tell his own metaphores about love and liked to tell set phrases. A woman in our group had altitude sickness and had to stay in the car. She ate an entire bag of coca candies that made her delirious (or she already was) and even called the guide poet and philosopher.

Cuzco's Plaza de Armas

Incan windows in Qoricancha

12-sided stone

Laura with a baby alpaca hat

The restaurants we liked the most in Cusco were the Inka Grill and Limo. The first one had live peruvian music and in that restaurant we won a price to eat a $35 menu in the second one.

We spent the rest of the days resting and getting ready for our NEXT STOP: the Salkantay trek.

Panama, living in a lonely island

2011-09-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was Panama! We stayed in Panama just for four days and we visited the Kuna, the indigenous people from Panama who live in the San Blas islands.

kuna woman

We took a plane from San Jose and again we got business class seats. For some unknown reason our travel agency booked these tickets!

After 10 days in Costa Rica we were exhausted and decided to take it easy in Panama. We had a reservation in Marparaiso, which is in a shady neighborhood, but one of the cheapest options in the city, as they also pick you up from the airport! To get a decent lunch we had to leave that neighborhood by bus and go to the Albrook mall.

The next day, we took a flight to San Blas (Kuna Yala) leaving from the other smaller airport in Panama. Luckily, our flight was delayed to 7:45 instead of leaving at 6:00 am and we were able to sleep a bit more. When we were at the check in counter the lady discovered that we had a double reservation and that we actually paid twice. Were able to get the money back.

The plane was tiny with only 17 seats. From our seats we were able to see the pilots moving the dials and pressing buttons.

After 45 min we landed in Playon Chico on a track made of cracked concrete were the kids were playing football minutes before.

"the" plane

"the" airport

the airstrip

A community of 3000 Kunas live in the largest island close to the airport. The kunas are the owners of the 350+ small islands in the archipelago, which only about 40 are inhabited. They still conserve most of their culture and religion and live in huts made of wood and palm leaves.

Women are dressed with colorful clothes, paint their faces and nose and decorate their arms and legs with long bracelets.

We stayed two nights at Yandup Lodge which is in a small island close to the village. The island had only 10 cabins, a dinning room and palm trees, it was like being Robinson Crusoe!

The Yandup Island

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Same restaurant for the two days we stayed there. However we didn't get bored because they cooked different food everyday, usually fresh seafood picked from the sea the same day.

our cooks!

a jumping lizard during dinner (see Victor´s hand)

With the room we had two daily tours included. The first day we went to a beach in another island. We spent the morning snorkeling and we found many fishes and also jellyfish that didn't sting and we were able to grab it with our hands! However, other animals bite us: chicharras, very small insects, whose bite hurts pretty badly for three days!

jellyfish

In the afternoon we visited the village. What surprised us the most was that they have a high percentage of albinos. The guide said that there are more than 30 in the town. They also gain surface on the island by accumulating the trash on the shore.

albino kid playing with other kids

The next day we went to a beach in a different island, but this time without chicharras. In the afternoon we visited the cementery. The traditional funeral consists on hanging the body in a hammock inside a very deep hole, so that the body doesn't touch the earth. Then, they cover the body with his belongings and sand, leaving it with a bumpy shape that represents the belly of mother earth, as they believe that they will be born again in a spiritual life.

That night we had dinner alone on the beach looking at the sunset. We had lobster that had been fished by a kuna hours before.

The next day we returned to Panama City and we visited the old part of the town (Casco viejo). It is very colonial and you can find good restaurant options. We walked through paseo de las bovedas, from were you can see the skyline of Panama and also the channel with a long line of boats waiting to cross to the Atlantic.

Next Stop: Peru!

Costa Rica: the Rainforest, turtles, monkeys and the crocodrile hunter

2011-09-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

We landed in San Jose and our friend Federico was waiting for us at the airport. We spent to nights at his parent's house and we loved the home made food and how they took care of us. Thank you Fede!

The first night we went to a typical costarican bar called "El Picadero" where people were dancing veeery good and singing with the karaoke. We were giving a farewell to Fede's cousin who was going to Amsterdam.

The next day we went to Cachi, which is a natural rock that you can climb, but it really looks like a gym.

After the good exercise we ate at Bocadito del Cielo where we tried the famous tortillas de queso, tortillas con queso and queso empanizado. That area is know for the Turrialba cheese and we had cheese for the entire week. That same day we celebrated Fede's dad birthday going to an italian restaurant. We found out that San Jose is like a town because Fede's family knew everybody in that restaurant!

The next day we took a bus to Tortuguero. Before getting on the bus, the driver warned us that there were thieves, and actually 4 police men got on the bus and tried to arrest a guy that looked very suspicious, but they finally didn't do it. When we arrived to Cariari, that same guy run away with the bags of two poor spanish tourists with their money, cameras and passports.

We took another bus to la Pavona and there we had to take a boat to get to Tortuguero. The boat ride took about two hours because the water level was very low, but we enjoyed the views. We saw crocodiles and Jesuschrist lizards that are able to walk on the water.

In tortuguero we slept in Casa Marbella, a hotel owned by Daryl, a Canadian guy who also runs tours. The town is only one street without many restaurant options but we were able to find Budda Cafe, a very nice restaurant with views to the river.

Tortuguero has a conservational program to protect the sea turtles. Visitors can watch turtles nesting at night, but organized in shift to avoid disturbing the turtles. Your time and location is assigned with a lottery. We had the first shift and we had to wait for more than one hour until the first turtle came. Visitors are only allowed to watch turtles once the process of nesting has started because at this point there is no risk that the turtle will leave.

We were able to see the entire process: laying eggs, covering the hole with the back fins and camouflage the area with the front fins. A courious fact that we didn't know is that sea turtles can't hide their arms and head inside the shell.

The next day we started a tour at 6 am by boat through the channels of the national park. Our guide wasn't a good spotter and he was following the other guides. He was only good at imititating the noises of the monkeys and some birds. However, we were able to see caymans, a snake winded on a branch with a tarantula on top of it, and lots of birds.

After finishing the tour we jumped into a private van to go to La Fortuna. Right after leaving, the driver got distracted with the american girl next to him and we almost flip over. The car got stucked with two wheels on the curb and two on the road. Luckily, two cars stopped to help. One with a strong strap and the other one with a powerful engine and a fat guy to counterbalance the van. Precisely everything what we needed!!! The fat guy was very happy that his extra weight useful and was able to save our trip!

La Fortuna is the town next to the Arenal volcano, which used to have lava explosions but had been dormant for the last 10 months. The night we arrived there was an electrical storm with huge lightnings. Beatufiul and scary at the same time!

The next day we made a tour to the volcano with one of the best guides we have had so far, Leo from Eagle Tours. The best moment was when he put his finger in a termite nest and almost ate some of them. There was also a funny girl from New York who was putting in her purse all the plants that the guide said had medicinal qualities: The insect repelent fruit, the anti-itch stem, and the anti-headache leaf. She had remedies for everything!

We also went to the Baldi thermal baths at night. It was awesome because it was low season and we had all the pools for ourselves. The hottest pool was 47ºC!

The next day we went to Monteverde. The fastest way to get there is to hire a jeep-boat-jeep tour. We had the luck of having again Leo, the same guide we had in the volcano. We stayed in Pension Santa Elena, a hostel with very nice rooms if you take one of the new ones. Monteverde is known for its cloud forest and for having the longest canopy tours in Costa Rica. Victor did one of these tour, with 13 zip lines, one of about 600m and an 8m tarzan jump at the end. We only stayed one day in Monteverde because we thought we could have some relaxing days at the beach in Manuel Antonio.

We took the public transportation from Santa Elena to Manuel Antonio and it was veeery long and tiring. We took the first public bus at 6am to Punta Arenas and got to Punta Arenas at 11am through a dirt road. In this trip we saw a group of three guys that stole two bags. We felt very impotent because the only thing we had guts to do was to warn the victim after that happened. The thiefs got off in a previous stop but we saw them again in the last stop with different t-shirts ready to steal again.

In Punta Arenas we had to walk for 15 min to get to the bus that would get us to Quepos. Punta Arenas felt a bit dangerous with some people wanted to take advantage of us by giving us wrong directions and information. From Quepos to Manuel Antonio we had to take one more public bus.

Once we got to Manuel Antonio, lots of commissioners were following us trying to point us to the hostels they wanted. We were able to get rid of all but one that was very insistent. We walked directly to the National Park backpackers and told to the receptionist that the commisioner didn't help us find that place, because we didn't want to be charged for that. The commisioner got very angry at us but finally left.

National Park Backpackers was managed by Marc, a guy from Sants, Barcelona, and his wife from Colombia.The place is very new and they are still adding new services such as restaurant and additional rooms, but we felt very comfortable. They show movies everynight with a huge screen in front of the pool!

The next morning we went to Manuel Antonio park which is literally 1 min away from the hostel. There we hired a guide, Mario, because they help you finding animals with their telescope. You can even take pictures through the lens. We saw many animals and plants, but the ones we liked the most were these frog larvae:

The park is known for the sloth and the white face monkeys. It's funny because the first ones are very slow, but the second ones are very fast stealing food from tourists who are enjoying the beach.

Mario convinced us to take a night tour through the mangroove. His friend Masha is a former crocodile hunter and he catches them with his bare hands so that tourists can see them closer. We saw many crocodriles and Masha spent a lot of time walking in the dark river full of crocodiles, but he wasn't able too catch any :(

Masha caught a fish with his hands!

And Next Stop: Panama

Lago Atitlán and Chichicastenango: local markets and crowded chicken buses

2011-08-31T11:17:00.002-07:00

From Antigua we took a shuttle to Panajachel a town on the shore of Lago Atitlan. Do you know who we met in the bus? We met Danny, the orthodontist from NY, and his wife! What a coincidence! But he was not going to the same town as us.

When we arrived to Panajachel we decided to leave our bags at Mario's rooms and we went to have lunch in a restaurant in front of the lake. It was very cheap, only 35Q. We couldn't finish all our food and when we were about to leave, an old indigenous man, who we already meet earlier in the day, sat at our table with us(without asking for permission) and ate our leftovers of bread and coke. He was trying to make some money by selling cashews (the only word he knew in english) and since then we called him the Cashew. Despite he was starving he was not eating the cashews he had to sell. We met this guy again in very different places in town at dinner and at lunch the day after. No wonder why he was so hungry! He was walking all day long!

After having lunch at the cheap place, a big storm surprised us in the middle of the street. In less than ten minutes the street became a river! We couldn't cross the street because the level of the water was so high! We sheltered in a street store and we talked with the old indigeneous lady and also another old man who who claimed he was from San Juan and needed money as his town was very poor.

Due to the storm we didn't have any other option than spending the evening in the room watching TV. We learned a bit more about the Guatemalan elections, and we also saw the US news in spanish from Univision. We discovered that the reporters like to dress provocatively and they publish their facebook accounts ;)

Luckly the next day was shiny! We visited San Marcos, San Pedro, San Juan, Santiago and San Antonio by boat.

San Marcos is a very nice small town full of hippies and places where you can retreat, meditate and do yoga. Quite interesting!

San Pedro is more prepared for regular tourism. If we had more time we would have stayed there instead of in Panajachel. From there we took a tuk-tuk to visit San Juan, where we met, guess who... Danny the orthodontist.

In san Juan we visited the local market and the meat shop shocked us wuite a bit. They had all the meet hanging, not refrigerated, full of flies and the smell was veery strong...

We also saw that there are a lot of Barça fans! We saw a lot of people wearing t-shirts, stickers everywhere and even a tuk tuk painted with the colors of the club.

Santiago is the largest town. Since we didn't have a guide we used the dirty trick of following a couple that had one ;) Quite effective if you don't have time and want to see the good spots for free. Without this trick we wouldn't have discovered the hidden textile factories and we wouldn't have entered the market. This market was huge, full of women selling fruits, crabs, smelly meat (again) and stinky fish from the lake.
The last stop was San Antonio. This town doesn't have anything to visit so we decided to talk to the local people there. We met Maria and Olga, two very funny sisters, who were trying to sell bracelets and scarfs, without much luck. Maria was obsessed with the hairy men and she was promoting free love among all tourists. I had to promise that I would kiss Laura a lot everyday.

Victor and Maria

Overview of San Antonio

The next day we went to Chihicastenango because every Thursday and Sunday there is a big street market. We decided to go by public transportation. We took our first chicken bus of the trip, an old US school bus painted with bright colors. It was really fun! They play music as if it was a music club and they fit seventy people where there are only forty seats.

When we got to Solola we found a hospital demonstration and we had to get off the bus. We crossed walking and at the other side there was a guy with a pick up who offered a ride to the town for 1Q. On the pick up there were 20 people standing and grabbing whatever they could.

Riding on the pick up

The trip was not over as we still had to jump into another chicken bus and a mini van.

Again the mini van was suuuuper crowded! At one point about 7 kids got in when the mini van was already full.

We finally arrived to Chichicastenango. The market was nice but the ride was much more fun.

We spent our last two days in Guatemala resting in Antigua. To avoid the demonstration, the driver decided to go through las Trampas. With that name, the bumps and holes in the road and the water that was pouring we were a bit scared, but we survived!

In Antigua we discovered two very nice restaurants. Sabe Rico is a restaurant and chocolate store where all food is organic. We met one of the owners who explained that the building was the place were they used to keep the horses in the old times. And there were two really cute dogs! Another good recomendation is Las Palmas: good food and live music.

NEXT STOP: Costa Rica!

Antigua, the colonial city, and Pacaya, the active volcano

2011-08-30T12:11:00.000-07:00

After our 20h layover in Florida we finally arrived to Ciudad de Guatemala. We took a shuttle from the airport to Antigua. During the drive we met Cecilia, a chilean girl who was travelling alone. She explained us the wonders of using couchsurfing. She was supposed to stay with a couchfriend in Antigua but she couldn't contact him. She decided to stay at the same hostel as us, Hostal Antigua.

We spent the whole day with her. We had lunch in a very cheap place (our lunch cost Q40 for both, $6!!!). We visited the Mercado de Artesanías and we had a hot cocoa at Cafe Condesa. The guatemalan chocolate is delicious!

Antigua is a colonial city with cobbled streets, colorful houses and lots of churches in ruins due to the earthquake in the 18th century. Most of the city has been restored and it is very well suited for tourism.

The day after we hiked the Pacaya volcano. Antigua is surounded by four volcanoes and Pacaya is the most active. Its last eruption was on May 27 2010! You can still see the smoking lava that is covering part of the fields in the valley. The holes were so hot that we were able to cook marshmellows!

While hiking we met Danny, who was an orthodontist from NY. He had a really interesting personal story as he had lived in Israel and Valencia for quite a long time. In fact he was translating what the guide was explaining in Spanish to Hebrew and English. Now we know where to go if we have a tooth problem in NY!

Next Stop: Lago Atitlán

Relaxing in Tulum and Cancun

2011-08-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here we are, in our relaxing days at the caribean coast!

We stayed two days at Tulum in the Om Tulum cabañas, a nice place right on the beach. We spent the first day relaxing at the beach.

The second day we rented two bikes to go to Tulum ruins that are 6 km away from the cabañas. The ruins are very unique because they are next to the beach.

While Laura was relaxing at the beach, Victor went to the town (40minutes by bike) to do the laundry!

After Tulum, we took a bus to Cancun! We spent 2 nights at a Resort with All Included! We met Nuria and Agustí, a nice couple from Vic. Our activities were sleeping, eating, drinking and suntanning. Well, Victor and Agustí played a tennis game!

The resort has a program for taking care of the marine turtles nesting. We were lucky to see them just minutes after breaking their eggs at night. The picture is not very good because we couldn't use flash.

Next stop: 20h layover in Florida and Guatemala!

Yucatan - caught under a tropical storm in ruins

2011-08-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Guatemala, left us very tired, and we were in the mood of relax for some days in Merida. The first night we stayed at Hostal Santa Lucia. Don't go there!!! The private room had to fans that connected the restrooms with our room. Every time somebody goes to the restroom the stinky smell stays in the room.

The next day we moved to a much nicer hostel: Zocalo and we had a balcony with views to the main square. We were lucky because it was sunday and there were traditional music and dances.

The next day we went to swim in the Cenotes. The trip was a full value experience! We took the public collectivo, then we took a mototaxi which is a motorbike with a cartseat attached.

When we arrived at the Hacienda we took a cart running on train trucks pulled by a horse. The first 5 minutes were fun but after that we got tired because the road was very shaky and there were a thousand bugs trying to eat us!

The swim in the cenotes was amazing! It is better an image than a thousand words...

From Merida we took a bus to Piste, the town next to Chichen Itza, and we booked a room at Chichen Itza Mayaland hotel. It was the first time we had time to swim in a swimming pool.

After refreshing in the pool we went to visit the mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. They are the most restored ruins but we didn't like it so much because of the heat and it is full of tourists from Cancun.

With the day ticket we could access the night show at the ruins. The multimedia show was cool and it was full of sparkling flying bugs that looked as part of the show.

Right before finishing we were caught in a tropical storm!!! We run in the dark in the middle of the ruins with lightnings and thunders falling next to us. Laura was a little bit scared...

We were so wet that we decided to have a soup at the resort next to the ruins. The funny note of the night was a french guy who was trying to go to the bathroom but hit a glass window next to us. The entire restaurant is still laughing at it.

Next stop: Tulum and Cancun!

Tikal - the greatest mayan city

2011-08-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was Tikal, Guatemala. We looked for the cheapest tour operator that would bring us to Flores stopping one night in LaCanja, but we learned that "lo barato sale caro" (the cheap stuff turns out to be expensive). The tour operator forgot to write Flores in our voucher and the bus driver didn't want to bring us there. Moreover, the tour agency didn't have their own buses and we had to travel in the public colectivos. After arguing for the entire day with the bus driver, we finally managed to get to Frontera Corozal, the mexican side of the border with Guatemala. However, once we got there they wanted to make us pay 15 pesos that the zapatistas charge to get into Frontera Corozal. That was supposed to be covered by the agency, and we had to argue again... After all this we crossed the river and then catched a bus in Bethel that took us to Flores through a dirt road during 3hrs.

Boat from Frontera Corozal to Bethel

During the trip we learned about the sad history of Guatemala, which has been in war for more than 30 years until 1996, and the experience of Mynor, our guide, who fled to the US after being persecuted by the militars who shot him when he was leaving.

We decided to stay at Posada del Cerro in el Remate, instead of Flores, because it was a quiter place next to the lake and closer to Tikal. We felt like at home in Posada del Cerro! It is a very nice hotel with huts and it is managed by a German guy and his Brazilian wife.

Tikal are definitely the most spectacular ruins we have seen so far. Actually after seeing them, the other ruins feel more like an amusement park. To avoid the crowd and the heat, we took the tour that picked us up at 5:30 am. The ruins are in the middle of the jungle and most of them are not restored. The guide claimed that there are about 18,000 mayan structures in the entire area.

We felt like Indiana Jones, hiking through the jungle looking for pyramids and also observing the animals. We saw tarantulas, snakes, howling monkeys (monos aulladores) and pizotes, which looks like a mix of dog and monkey.

When we came back from the ruins we went to swim in the lake.

We were totally alone but after a while a 12 year old kid came to our dock. We started to talk to him and he claimed that he was selling handicrafts, however we didn't see them. Our conversation went more or less like this:

We - Do you go to school?
Kid - Yes, but it ends at 12 pm and then I have all my afternoon free.
W - And what do you want to study after you finish school?
K - Mmmm I don't know, I don´t know if I will ever go to university
W- But don't you have a dream?
K - I only have bad dreams.
W - But what do you want to be when you grow up?
K - I want a job where I can earn a lot of money working very little
W - But this doesn't exist!
K - Yes, drugdealer! They make Q500 a day

This is a very sad story but might reflect a reality of how kids can adopt as role model what they see on the street.

The following day we came back to Palenque through the same road, and again we find issues with the bus drivers and immigration. We had to wait for 1.5 hrs in immigration because the officers wanted to do a backgroud check of a tourist from Israel, but the internet conection was not working. Victor even had to work as a translator between the oficer and the tourist.

After this intense trip we decided to rest for a day in Palenque.

NEXT STOP: Merida

Palenque, Yaxchilan and Bonampack

2011-08-12T15:09:00.001-07:00

We have already been two weeks in Mexico but we still haven't seen anybody wearing a typical mexican hat. However we have seen lots with cowboy hats. Weird!

After our visit to San Cristobal we had a 4.5 h bus ride to Palenque. We went from 2200 meters to sea level and we had to go through a very windy road, full of bumps and full of kids who were stopping the bus with a rope across the road to sell fruit.

In Palenque we had to wear short pants for the first time, as the weather here is very hot, humid and its full of mosquitoes. The town doesn't have anything special, but the ruins are spectacular. We also went to Misol-Ha and Agua azul waterfalls but we didn´t swim because it was too crowded.

Fresh mango lollipop

Palenque was our start point to our trip to Tikal. On the way there we visited two more Mayan sites: Yaxchilan and Bonampak. Both are very special. Yaxchilan because it is in the middle of the jungle, you need to take a 50 min boat ride through the river and also there are buildings that you can enter and it is completely dark. We saw bats in there! Bonampak, is the Mayan site with the best preserved paintings.

Victor and bats!

Bonampak is inside the Lacandon indigenous reserve and it is all managed by them. We spent the night at one of the cabins in Lacanja and we were able to see how these people live. Men dressed with a with a white robe and women with a flowered one. It was surprising that there are some people that speak spanish with a very hard Mayan accent as the latter is their native language. We also learned two ways of saying hello in Mayan: Bakaurik and Dieneix.

And next stop: Tikal, Guatemala

San Critobal de las Casas

2011-08-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was San Cristobal de las Casas, a small town where we slept in a nice hostel called Iguana Hostel. We took our first salsa class and we met interesting people. There was a korean girl travelling alone, an italian cook and photographer and a guy from Sevilla who wanted to go to Brazil last December but his flight was cancelled and travelled to Mexico instead. He has been in the conuntry since then. The hostel was decorated with an intense green which matched our camping gear. The only drawback was that there were the local festivals and in front of our hostel, they were celebrating the "mañanitas" with fireworks, a music band and bells every 20 minutes, even at night!

We took a colectivo to San Juan Chamula, a town with a peculiar religion a mix between catholic and indigenous religions. They didn´t let us take pictures of them because they think that if you take a picture of somebody you are stealing his soul. Inside the church they put pine leaves and candles on the floor and they drink coca-cola and posh, a local spirit.

We also took a two-hour boat trip through el Cañón del Sumidero where we saw alligators! It looks like El Capitan in Yosemite but even bigger.

And NEXT STOP: Palenque!

Guelaguetza in Oaxaca

2011-08-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

After staying at Nina and Gonzalo's house, we spent a night in Puebla right before going to Oaxaca. If we had to do it again, we would have skipped Puebla to stay one more night with our friends and go directly to Oaxaca.

Oaxaca is the city that we have liked the most so far because we had the luck of being there for the Guelaguetza, wich is the annual festival in which the different towns in Oaxaca State come to show their traditional dances, cloths, music and food. Tickets were sold out since last year and we couldn't get in the main auditorium. Some people told us that there were free seats but we were happy enough with all the free events that were going on in the city such as a multimedia show projected on the cathedral and fireworks. We saw a concert in which we realized that the author of "Sabor a mi" was from Oaxaca!

We also did a couple of tours: to Monte Alban and to Valles Centrales visiting Mitla, where we entered in a tomb, the Tule tree and Teotitlan, where we learn about the natural dyes local people use for clothings. Red is obtained with "cochinilla" which is an insect that lives in the Nopal cactus.

The hostel we stayed at, hostal Don Pablo was nice but too noisy. If we had more money we had stayed at Camino Real. Actually we spent more time there than in our own hostel as we had dinner there, used that restroom everytime we were downtown and took both tours from their tour agency.

And NEXT STOP: San Cristobal de las Casas!