I finally made it back in one piece to my home away from home here in Concepcion. After about 132 hours (75 with Clare) in buses (yes that’s over 5 days sitting in a bus) and three countries I am home sweet home and can take a little breather before I start school on Monday. What did round two have in store for me? Let’s see!
As I already mentioned after seeing Clare off back to the states I headed to my friend Paulo's house in Santiago. From there we adventured up to Valle Nevado ski resort for some snow time. This was the first time in over 10 years that I have used equipment that was not my own, and also the first time in over 5 years that I have not used my helmet. It was a recipe for disaster, but I lived to tell about it. The snow was not great nor was the visibility, but it was really fun. Skiing in the Andes is a bit different from what I'm used to. Because there are no trees, the snow is easily blown off and has alot of sun exposure. This creates icy conditions unless you hit it on a fresh snow day or close to one. Anyway, I had a great time, and the best part is I didn't hurt myself (except for those damn blisters from rented boots...)
Next up on my solo journey was a quick 6 hour jaunt over the mountains to Mendoza, Argentina, the wine capital of Argentina. I arrived on 'el dia de amigos' (friends day) which is only an Argentine holiday. Since I was without a friend on this day, I searched out my next best option which happened to be a micro brewery close to my hostal. After belly-up to the bar and trying the local brew, I found myself in a nice conversation with an Argentine gentleman whose name also happened to be Daniel and whom also had just set off solo after splitting apart from his girlfriend.
The next day I spent bumming around the city and getting my clothes cleaned as they had about 20 days of Peru on them. The next day I hopped on a little micro bus out to the Mendoza country side where many of the wineries call home. With my map of the wineries and my rented bicycle, I set out for my next adventure. First stop was a wine museum with a free tour and glass of wine. The following several stops were all about the same. They consisted of a tour of the winery and then a tasting at the end. Usually they charged about 10 pesos (3 USD) for the tour and tasting. After reaching the point where most people turn around on their bikes and head back in, I decided I wanted to make a loop and visit a few of the less traveled areas. So back on my bike with my wine buzz it was. The next stop was a small organic winery that was about 3 miles down a dirt road. This was very interesting and the wine was good. However, a little bit down the road, of course, I got a flat tire. So, after riding the bike on the rim for longer than I should have, I arrived into a little town. I headed to the gas station, but the air nozzle on the bike did not comply with the normal air dispenser. So I resigned myself to walking and hitchhiking. After walking for a while, I game across a tire shop. I popped in and the gentlemen tried filling up the tire but it was totally dead flat and busted. I told them of my plan of hitchhiking back to the bike shop and they insisted I would get beat up and robbed. So, they called the bike shop and the owner came out and brought me another bike. I was a bit surprised by this because it was so late in the day and the wineries were about to close. But, there was one other small one I wanted to go to. So, I back tracked it and turned down another small back road, but this time it was paved. At the end of this road was a small family run joint. I was given a little tour of the operation which was so small it reminded me of my own beer brewing operation. I was even able to taste some of the wine out of one of the big barrels that it was in waiting to be bottled. Later, the lady showed me how by hand they label each bottle, and then had me label one myself and also put the top sealant around the cork. I of course bought that bottle after wards, to add to the 2 I had already bought that day. So, back to the bike rental shop it was. There I was joined with several other international people where we enjoyed as much free wine (thanks to the bike guy) as we wanted. This clearly turned into a lot of wine. Afterwards it was back to Mendoza and out to dinner with my new friends. The next day I had planed to get out of the city again, but because I had a bus to Buenos Aires in the early evening I could not swing it. So, I spent the day in a large park, reading my book and enjoying the sun.
I jumped on a bus that evening, and 14 hours later I was in bustling Buenos Aires. BA was by far the biggest city that I had plopped down in without any plans thus far. It was a little overwhelming at first, but I hit up a tourist information place and was given a map with hostals marked on it. A short subway ride later I was checked into a hostal. I didn't really like the hostal a whole lot, but I was super tired and wanted to put down my bags. I spent the remainder of the day walking around looking for other hostals in the neighborhood and just being my tourist self. That evening I hit up a little bar for some live blues. The next day I was off to my new hostal down the street where I stayed for the next three nights. I met a couple of guys from Spain at the hostal with whom I took on the city. One of the guys, a black as night fellow with dreadlocks named Jeli, had a long board. So his friend David and I rented bicycles and we proceeded to zoom all over the city together for the next couple of days. The most exciting time was on Friday evening around 5-6 we were buzzing in and out of all the traffic on the busiest streets in the city. It was great! Two guys on orange single gear cruisers and one guy on a skate board. We were quite a site. We were able to escape all of the madness without any injuries except for a cut on my hand. I was zooming between cars stopped at a stop light and I accidently punched a rearview mirror. Oops. The remaining days were more of the same. One night I went to a small independent theatre and saw a play. It was funny and interesting as it was all in spanish. I went to the Argentine Holocaust Museum, also interesting, but as expected depressing. Tango has a long history in Buenos Aires, and I was able to see a little show in the street one night. I would be very interested in learning that dance; unfortunately my dance partner was not with me. I also ate very very well. As I said before when I went to Argentina the last time, the beef is very good there and cheap. I ate great meat and drank good wine every night for about 10USD.
My trip finally came to a close with one last bus ride, a nice 30 hour jaunt back over the mountains and back down to Concepcion. The second half of my trip was great, although quite different from the first. First off I was alone, not with my little lady. This was significantly different. The hostal situations were very different as well. In Peru, we always had a private room with private bathroom ect and paid a total of about 12 USD a night. It was like having a hotel room more or less. In Argentina, I always stayed in a dorm style room with between 2 and 15 other people, and obviously shared bathrooms. For this I paid about 10 USD a night. This was ok though because I was alone it was a great way to meet new people to hang out with. The experience was sort of schizophrenic, however, because I met people and hung out with them and we had really personal conversations all the while knowing that I would only know them for a day or two.
The vacation was certainly the best of my life so far, and if I had to pick my favorite part, which is very hard to do because it was all so fun and different, I would say the time in the jungle and in the jungle town of Puerto Maldonado. It was really a blessing in disguise to have that 'paro' and trap us there for about a week.
I am happy, however, to be back on the western side of the mountains where I can rest a little and get ready for school to start. Also, my razor is over here, and it misses me! I don't know what or when the next big adventure will be, so stay tuned. I have reached the halfway point to this crazy South American adventure, so things are just getting warmed up!
Following are a ton of pictures that were taken over the last 35 days on the adventure. They are broken up and captioned as best as I could. There is an album of Peru, snowboarding and of Buenos Aires/Mendoza. Click on each picture shown for each album to get linked to the full album. Also you can go to www.photobucket.com/danshirley and on the left hand side select the albums with those names.
I hope you enjoy, and as I said before, please write me with questions or whatever if you want to know more.
Hope all is well.
Dan
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Planes, trains, automobiles and peru
Ok people, the last month has been one of note, or lots of notes as you will see, no need to waste more time!
On the 27th of June i left my house in concepcion early with my packback filled to the brim and my final assignment for the semester in my hand. I passed by the professors office, turned in the paper, and I was off to Viña del Mar. I arrived just in time that evening for Clares going away party. It was fun and not too messy. The next night Clare and I set off for Santiago and spent the night in the airport as our flight left at 6 am for Arica, Chile which is on the border with Peru. We arrived and hopped in a colectivo car to cross the boarder. It was three of us in the backseat and three grown men in the front seet of an 80s Chevy. An hour later we were in Tacna, Peru. After buying our bus tickets through to Cusco via Arequipa, we set off to eat and had our first experience with ordering ¨menu.¨ We didn´t know what was going on because we asked for menus and they brought us soup and then gave us a couple options for a second dish. We went with it and then it was super good and very cheep. About 6 soles in total. 3 soles = 1 USD. In peru this option is usually available everywhere and for every meal... We eat a lot of menus!
On our walk over to the bus with the little travel agent guy who sold us our tickets, he asked us if we would do him a favor. We said sure, and he handed us a package said to conain shoes that he wanted us to delever to his parents in Cusco. Its suposedly expensive to send such items because of customs and the shoes are much cheeper in Tacna. I accepted the package on good faith and shoved in in my pack and tried to forget i had it.
We arrived in arequipa several hours later and had about 1 hour layover until our bus to cusco. We again happened across a very small local place to eat where the mom served us up some more soup and chicken with rice. Several more hours on the bus and we arrived in Cusco about 330 am. We were supposed to arrive around 6, so the receivers of the package were not there. We negotiated a hostal for a few hours to sleep and then called the name and number we were given just in case for the package. The woman was very nice, and her husband came to recieve the package, which at this point was confirmed to be only two pairs of shoes and nothing more exciting. Anyway, Jose arrived and we passed on the goods. We then told him that we were trying to get to Ollataytambo in the sacred valley where our train left the next day for machu picchu. He then imediatly hailed a cab, got in with us and took us to the little micro bus station where those buses take off from. He not only paid for the cab, he also paid for both of our bus fairs to the sacred valley... only a total of about 10 soles, but it was a very nice gesture. He even got up on the bus with us to make sure we had our seets. Once the bus was about the leave, the door opened one more time and it filled up with school kids... yes all the seats were aleady taken, but they packed in. As we hit the road with absolutly to space to move in the bus, we stopped and picked up two more: a mom and her little daughter who proceeded to have her cute little hand on my knee until they got off.
We arrived in Ollataytambo, found a hostal and ate some food and chilled in the small mountain town. There were alot of tourists as it is a jump off for machu picchu (MP). The next morning we got on the train at 530 and proceeded up the valley with amazing views of the Peruvian andes... really some of the most beautiful mountain views i have ever seen. 2 hours later we arrived at Aguas Calients, bought admission to MP and bought tickets in a little bus to take us up to the site. You can also walk up, but we wanted to get there early. We then proceeded to take in all of the amazingness. Its just like the picuters, but real, in your face and full of energy. It was amazing how preserved it was, and you were allowed to go almost anywhere you wanted. No ropes or fences telling you ¨NO¨. We were able to climb up Wayanapichu which is the peak you see in all of the pictures behind the site. They only allow 400 a day, so we were lucky. This part was sooo amazing. We climbed straight up ancient stair cases that are still in perfect shape. For this part I opted to go barefoot to feel the cool rocks, and be like the incas! Yes yes I know, i´m really cool. Anyway, after taking more than 300 fotos and taking the whole place in, we walked back down to Aguas Calientes and then got back on the train. From Ollataytambo we took a bus directly back to cusco.
In Cusco we found a nice hostal with hot water in a nice spot down town. We showerd and passed right out. We wanted to go to the amazon jungle which is somewhat close by, so the next day we dedicated ourselves to figuring that out. After looking at some tours and deciding that wasnt our style, we decided to call up Jose for his advice. He came to meet us later that afternoon. He went into several tour agencies to ask proces for us because they always try to take advantage of the gringos. But, after explaining to him we kinda just wanted to do our own thing, it was off to the bus terminal. Puerto Maldonado is about a 30 min flight from cusco and is a jump off for the jungle. We opted for the bus route instead however. 18 hours! But Jose negotiated getting us the front seats on the second level of the bus, so we had a panoramic view of the whole trip! He was really a great guy and it was worth every risk taking that package to him!
We left the next afternoon for Pto M. WE arrived the following day in the morning. We hoped in a little motorcycle cab and went to the main plaza. We then came across a great little hostal with a our own balcony looking over main street. We then rented a little moto to check out the town. There are hardly any cars there.. everyone is on a moto and all the taxis are motos retrofitted to have a bench seat on the back, little cart type things. So with Clare on the back we cruised with the warm wind on our backs, it was awesome. And I didnt even wreck! 3 hours cost us 10 soles, super cheep! Later we searched for a tour to get us into the jungle. Becuase of just the way it is, its not possible to just jump on a boat and wing it like we wanted to do, so we had to find something more organized. At one place as we talked with the woman, she suddlenly pulled her small child into her lap, pulled out her nipple and started to feed the little brat. She didn´t even break stride in her schpeal either.. However, it took everything i had to not start cracking up.
We ended up going with a different company that was cheeper, but no nipples. The next day we went up the Madre de Dios river about an hour and then walked about an hour and a half through the jungle to Lago Sandoval. There we stayed for the next two nights and three days. We stayed in a really rusted cabana thing. There was a really nice lodge on the lake too, but we wanted the real experience. So, with huge spiders as our roomates, we took in all that we could of the jungle. Our bed had serious netting over it to protect us from all the creepy crawlers in the room. It was not a net, it was actually canvas sheets. Clare demanded that I check every last inch of that bed before she would get into it.. i wasnt really against the idea either.
We spent the days swimming in the lake, canoeing and walking through the junlge. We saw lots of exotic birds, parrots and all other types. The lake also had lots of Black Caymen: one of the only places in the world were they remain, and yes we saw several. We also saw some other swimming creatures but i cant remember the name. Help here Clare, please! It was super fun and interesting to be in the amazon and feel all the energy of so much life.
When we arrived back in Pto M, we were greated by a paro. As i have explained before, paro is basically a boycot. But this paro was of the whole town. So, there were no cars nothing, and we had a bus in a few hours. So, we walked the 20 blocks in the heat with our big bags amongst people walking an protesting in the streats. At the bus terminal they said the bus wasn´t going to leave for atleast 3 days. So, we walked back to our little hostal from before and got the same room with the balcony. There we stayed for the next 3.5 days watching the people marching through the streets almost continuosly. It was a great view! Because everything was closed, we had to search out clandestine restaurants that were serving. We looked for cracked open doors and people standing outside whispering ¨almuerzo¨. It was like a little mission and adventure everytime we wanted to eat. But, we did eat alot and it was really good. The best food of our trip by far. One time however, the protesters came to the restaurant where we were eating and strated yelling and throwing stuff and banging sticks before the workers could force them out and shut and lock the door. It was intense! Another time at night, we were getting sandwhichs on the street and the protesters came, and we had to duck into the little building the cart was at and shut the doors and lights.
After 4 days of this, we finally left. We got on our bus, but this time the bus did not have the upper level with the good seats. Instead this was a bus without a bathroom that was half broke down. So not only were we on the dirt road which makes the trip longer anyway, the thing couldnt hardly go and kept breaking down. About 22 hours later we arrived. It was hell basically. We then imediatly got on another bus in cusco to go to Puno. We succesfully were on a bus for 29 out of 30 hours. It was a tour de force! We arrived in puno and just died!
Puno is on the shore of Lago Titicaca. We took a little boat out to the island los uros which are floating islands. They are constructed of reeds as are all of there things, such as houses and boats. It was very interesting to see the very unique traditional culture still surviving. Then we hoped back on our boat and headed to the island Taquile where supposedly the best knitters in the world come from. The lake is at 3800 meters, almost 12000feet and the second islands plaza was up above 12000 feet. All the flat landers that were there were huffing and puffing to climb up to the plaza!
Next we got on our final bus which was from Puno back down to Tacna. We thought we had already had the worst bus ride ever, but we were wrong. When we got to our seats, they were covered in vomit. So, we didnt sit in them. However, soon enough the bus filled up and we couldnt stay in the other clean seats. We then sat at the very back of the bus on a little shelf. It was baring wide enough for one person, and we both sat there for about 9 hours. They over sold the bus by 8 people so there were six more people sitting on the floor in the isle the whole time. Every one on the bus was indigenous peruvian because we werent on a tipical tourist route at this point. They however didnt seem to have a problem sitting in the vomit seets. Ours were no the only such ones. However, we made ourselves happy and confotable cramed in the corner witnessing people vomit the whole way. When we finally got to tacna we jetted off of that disgusting thing and zoomed back across the boarder to arica, where our flight left from the next day.
The next day we were in Santiago and then over to Viña. We packed up Clares stuff and headed back to santiago the next afternoon for her to catch her flight back to the US. We had an amazing time together on that advneture despite at the very end both of us having very unhappy stomachs. Thank god it was at the very end... we blame it on the super nasty bus rides.
It was very sad to see Clare go, we really had a great great time together. It is a minor miracle she didn´t kill me, and she even insists she still likes me! She gets woman of the year award. 20 days straight with me and no other human contact, any other takers?? I didnt think so!
I then met up with my friend who lives in Santiago and we went snowboarding together. It was really fun despite not great snow. Yay for snowboarding in the Andes in July!
Im now in Mendoza, Argentina all alone. I´m going to do a bicyle wine tour tomorrow and then head off the Buenos Aires in a couple days before heading back to Concepcion by the end of the month to start school again.
Im sorry for some of the quick explanations, but please please ask me specific questions if you have them. It was such a cool experience, I know clare and I would be happy to talk your ear off about it if you want more.
For now i´m off to pick my clothes up from the laundry mat and sip on some wine!
I hope you are all doing great and I hope to hear from you! Leave a comment or email me!! I will update again when i get back to concepcion.
I miss you all! Take care! Hugs and kisses!
PEEEAAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEEE
Dan
PS sorry for all the spelling mistakes, this computer only does spanish spell check and im too lazy to proof read!!!
On the 27th of June i left my house in concepcion early with my packback filled to the brim and my final assignment for the semester in my hand. I passed by the professors office, turned in the paper, and I was off to Viña del Mar. I arrived just in time that evening for Clares going away party. It was fun and not too messy. The next night Clare and I set off for Santiago and spent the night in the airport as our flight left at 6 am for Arica, Chile which is on the border with Peru. We arrived and hopped in a colectivo car to cross the boarder. It was three of us in the backseat and three grown men in the front seet of an 80s Chevy. An hour later we were in Tacna, Peru. After buying our bus tickets through to Cusco via Arequipa, we set off to eat and had our first experience with ordering ¨menu.¨ We didn´t know what was going on because we asked for menus and they brought us soup and then gave us a couple options for a second dish. We went with it and then it was super good and very cheep. About 6 soles in total. 3 soles = 1 USD. In peru this option is usually available everywhere and for every meal... We eat a lot of menus!
On our walk over to the bus with the little travel agent guy who sold us our tickets, he asked us if we would do him a favor. We said sure, and he handed us a package said to conain shoes that he wanted us to delever to his parents in Cusco. Its suposedly expensive to send such items because of customs and the shoes are much cheeper in Tacna. I accepted the package on good faith and shoved in in my pack and tried to forget i had it.
We arrived in arequipa several hours later and had about 1 hour layover until our bus to cusco. We again happened across a very small local place to eat where the mom served us up some more soup and chicken with rice. Several more hours on the bus and we arrived in Cusco about 330 am. We were supposed to arrive around 6, so the receivers of the package were not there. We negotiated a hostal for a few hours to sleep and then called the name and number we were given just in case for the package. The woman was very nice, and her husband came to recieve the package, which at this point was confirmed to be only two pairs of shoes and nothing more exciting. Anyway, Jose arrived and we passed on the goods. We then told him that we were trying to get to Ollataytambo in the sacred valley where our train left the next day for machu picchu. He then imediatly hailed a cab, got in with us and took us to the little micro bus station where those buses take off from. He not only paid for the cab, he also paid for both of our bus fairs to the sacred valley... only a total of about 10 soles, but it was a very nice gesture. He even got up on the bus with us to make sure we had our seets. Once the bus was about the leave, the door opened one more time and it filled up with school kids... yes all the seats were aleady taken, but they packed in. As we hit the road with absolutly to space to move in the bus, we stopped and picked up two more: a mom and her little daughter who proceeded to have her cute little hand on my knee until they got off.
We arrived in Ollataytambo, found a hostal and ate some food and chilled in the small mountain town. There were alot of tourists as it is a jump off for machu picchu (MP). The next morning we got on the train at 530 and proceeded up the valley with amazing views of the Peruvian andes... really some of the most beautiful mountain views i have ever seen. 2 hours later we arrived at Aguas Calients, bought admission to MP and bought tickets in a little bus to take us up to the site. You can also walk up, but we wanted to get there early. We then proceeded to take in all of the amazingness. Its just like the picuters, but real, in your face and full of energy. It was amazing how preserved it was, and you were allowed to go almost anywhere you wanted. No ropes or fences telling you ¨NO¨. We were able to climb up Wayanapichu which is the peak you see in all of the pictures behind the site. They only allow 400 a day, so we were lucky. This part was sooo amazing. We climbed straight up ancient stair cases that are still in perfect shape. For this part I opted to go barefoot to feel the cool rocks, and be like the incas! Yes yes I know, i´m really cool. Anyway, after taking more than 300 fotos and taking the whole place in, we walked back down to Aguas Calientes and then got back on the train. From Ollataytambo we took a bus directly back to cusco.
In Cusco we found a nice hostal with hot water in a nice spot down town. We showerd and passed right out. We wanted to go to the amazon jungle which is somewhat close by, so the next day we dedicated ourselves to figuring that out. After looking at some tours and deciding that wasnt our style, we decided to call up Jose for his advice. He came to meet us later that afternoon. He went into several tour agencies to ask proces for us because they always try to take advantage of the gringos. But, after explaining to him we kinda just wanted to do our own thing, it was off to the bus terminal. Puerto Maldonado is about a 30 min flight from cusco and is a jump off for the jungle. We opted for the bus route instead however. 18 hours! But Jose negotiated getting us the front seats on the second level of the bus, so we had a panoramic view of the whole trip! He was really a great guy and it was worth every risk taking that package to him!
We left the next afternoon for Pto M. WE arrived the following day in the morning. We hoped in a little motorcycle cab and went to the main plaza. We then came across a great little hostal with a our own balcony looking over main street. We then rented a little moto to check out the town. There are hardly any cars there.. everyone is on a moto and all the taxis are motos retrofitted to have a bench seat on the back, little cart type things. So with Clare on the back we cruised with the warm wind on our backs, it was awesome. And I didnt even wreck! 3 hours cost us 10 soles, super cheep! Later we searched for a tour to get us into the jungle. Becuase of just the way it is, its not possible to just jump on a boat and wing it like we wanted to do, so we had to find something more organized. At one place as we talked with the woman, she suddlenly pulled her small child into her lap, pulled out her nipple and started to feed the little brat. She didn´t even break stride in her schpeal either.. However, it took everything i had to not start cracking up.
We ended up going with a different company that was cheeper, but no nipples. The next day we went up the Madre de Dios river about an hour and then walked about an hour and a half through the jungle to Lago Sandoval. There we stayed for the next two nights and three days. We stayed in a really rusted cabana thing. There was a really nice lodge on the lake too, but we wanted the real experience. So, with huge spiders as our roomates, we took in all that we could of the jungle. Our bed had serious netting over it to protect us from all the creepy crawlers in the room. It was not a net, it was actually canvas sheets. Clare demanded that I check every last inch of that bed before she would get into it.. i wasnt really against the idea either.
We spent the days swimming in the lake, canoeing and walking through the junlge. We saw lots of exotic birds, parrots and all other types. The lake also had lots of Black Caymen: one of the only places in the world were they remain, and yes we saw several. We also saw some other swimming creatures but i cant remember the name. Help here Clare, please! It was super fun and interesting to be in the amazon and feel all the energy of so much life.
When we arrived back in Pto M, we were greated by a paro. As i have explained before, paro is basically a boycot. But this paro was of the whole town. So, there were no cars nothing, and we had a bus in a few hours. So, we walked the 20 blocks in the heat with our big bags amongst people walking an protesting in the streats. At the bus terminal they said the bus wasn´t going to leave for atleast 3 days. So, we walked back to our little hostal from before and got the same room with the balcony. There we stayed for the next 3.5 days watching the people marching through the streets almost continuosly. It was a great view! Because everything was closed, we had to search out clandestine restaurants that were serving. We looked for cracked open doors and people standing outside whispering ¨almuerzo¨. It was like a little mission and adventure everytime we wanted to eat. But, we did eat alot and it was really good. The best food of our trip by far. One time however, the protesters came to the restaurant where we were eating and strated yelling and throwing stuff and banging sticks before the workers could force them out and shut and lock the door. It was intense! Another time at night, we were getting sandwhichs on the street and the protesters came, and we had to duck into the little building the cart was at and shut the doors and lights.
After 4 days of this, we finally left. We got on our bus, but this time the bus did not have the upper level with the good seats. Instead this was a bus without a bathroom that was half broke down. So not only were we on the dirt road which makes the trip longer anyway, the thing couldnt hardly go and kept breaking down. About 22 hours later we arrived. It was hell basically. We then imediatly got on another bus in cusco to go to Puno. We succesfully were on a bus for 29 out of 30 hours. It was a tour de force! We arrived in puno and just died!
Puno is on the shore of Lago Titicaca. We took a little boat out to the island los uros which are floating islands. They are constructed of reeds as are all of there things, such as houses and boats. It was very interesting to see the very unique traditional culture still surviving. Then we hoped back on our boat and headed to the island Taquile where supposedly the best knitters in the world come from. The lake is at 3800 meters, almost 12000feet and the second islands plaza was up above 12000 feet. All the flat landers that were there were huffing and puffing to climb up to the plaza!
Next we got on our final bus which was from Puno back down to Tacna. We thought we had already had the worst bus ride ever, but we were wrong. When we got to our seats, they were covered in vomit. So, we didnt sit in them. However, soon enough the bus filled up and we couldnt stay in the other clean seats. We then sat at the very back of the bus on a little shelf. It was baring wide enough for one person, and we both sat there for about 9 hours. They over sold the bus by 8 people so there were six more people sitting on the floor in the isle the whole time. Every one on the bus was indigenous peruvian because we werent on a tipical tourist route at this point. They however didnt seem to have a problem sitting in the vomit seets. Ours were no the only such ones. However, we made ourselves happy and confotable cramed in the corner witnessing people vomit the whole way. When we finally got to tacna we jetted off of that disgusting thing and zoomed back across the boarder to arica, where our flight left from the next day.
The next day we were in Santiago and then over to Viña. We packed up Clares stuff and headed back to santiago the next afternoon for her to catch her flight back to the US. We had an amazing time together on that advneture despite at the very end both of us having very unhappy stomachs. Thank god it was at the very end... we blame it on the super nasty bus rides.
It was very sad to see Clare go, we really had a great great time together. It is a minor miracle she didn´t kill me, and she even insists she still likes me! She gets woman of the year award. 20 days straight with me and no other human contact, any other takers?? I didnt think so!
I then met up with my friend who lives in Santiago and we went snowboarding together. It was really fun despite not great snow. Yay for snowboarding in the Andes in July!
Im now in Mendoza, Argentina all alone. I´m going to do a bicyle wine tour tomorrow and then head off the Buenos Aires in a couple days before heading back to Concepcion by the end of the month to start school again.
Im sorry for some of the quick explanations, but please please ask me specific questions if you have them. It was such a cool experience, I know clare and I would be happy to talk your ear off about it if you want more.
For now i´m off to pick my clothes up from the laundry mat and sip on some wine!
I hope you are all doing great and I hope to hear from you! Leave a comment or email me!! I will update again when i get back to concepcion.
I miss you all! Take care! Hugs and kisses!
PEEEAAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEEE
Dan
PS sorry for all the spelling mistakes, this computer only does spanish spell check and im too lazy to proof read!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
