Bolivia

We just returned from an awsome three day jeep tour through southwestern Bolivia. We set off from a small town in northern Chile called San Pedro de Atacama on the northern end of the Atacama desert (the world´s driest, they hadn´t gotten rain in that town for 13 years). The town itself was a bit of a tourist trap but we found a great place to stay and the setting was cool—basically an oasis in the middle of a bunch of desert mountains. We met some Brits who ended up being a good time and we had some of the best food we had anywhere in Chile. We found what we thought to be the least sketchy tour company and booked our trip. $90 for the three days, everything included.

We started out in a van which took us to the border with Bolivia where we met up with our driver for the next three days. Juan ended up being a good guy which was lucky because we had heard the fun of the tour depended entirely on the quality of the driver. We passed a series of lagoons in pictuesque settings and made our way to some gysers and boiling mud pots which we walked all around before reading the sign saying the ground was thin and dangerous. We stopped at a lake that was colored red by algae and full of flamingoes. Our accommodations were at a “refugio”—really basic. The place wasn´t heated and it was completely freezing. We knew we weren´t exactly prepared for the cold, but it was nasty. Our beds were straw mattresses and our sleeping bags the tour agency had issued us were a joke in the 20 degree weather. The other problem (that we had laughed off earlier) was the altitude. The camp was at 14,000 feet and the air was thin, no joke. When we tried to go to bed that night no one could sleep. The lack of oxygen raised our heartrates so much that it was impossible to relax. We all had terrible headaches and were freezing. When we woke up in the morning, everyone said they´d had the worst night of their lives. So apparently altitude sickness is the real deal, we all had the symptoms.

There was another problem. Our group. There were seven of us packed into a Toyota land cruiser so good company was critical. Besides us there were two Austrian girls, a frogger and this Israeli dude. He ended up being the problem. He was sick as hell, but decided to take the tour anyway. He was also a classic Israeli (at least in my mind) meaning he was an inconsiderate asshole and a little mommas boy and rude as shit all at the same time. A real winner. So he had this horrible disgusting snort/phelmy cough which made us all sick. He hacked up shit all the time and never covered his mouth. He spit a huge green thing in the sink the first night and just left it there. And he kept coughing right at the table where we were all eating together. And then all night, while we were trying to sleep. And then he layed around all day in the jeep refusing to get our to see the sights, just begging for some babying (which to our horror, the girls gave him). He also justified sitting in the front seat the entire trip due to his sickness (which was a joke, it was just a cold) while we were all packed in the back with crappy views. And to top it all of, he was rude and thought he was god´s gift and knew everything (classic jewball from the motherland). So we were really annoyed with this kid.

Fortnately the others were friendly and the scenery was amazing. The second day we drove for about 10 hours and passed a bunch of pretty lagoons and mountains, etc (we´ll put up some pics next week). Otherwise it was the least interesting of the two days. We did, however, have the pleasure of running into a few more Israelis who further confirmed my stereotype. We stopped in a small town to use the bathroom and buy water and while we were standing around, this jeep full of young jews pulled up and they all got out schlepping and schlimming all over themselves. I could tell from afar that they were just my type. We were in line behind them for the bathroom and this first kid asks this Bolivian woman running the bathroom if he can take a picture of her and her baby (which is tied up in one of those classis colorful blankets on her back). She says no and this fat little smug Israeli girl asks her “why not” in the rudest and most patronizing tone imaginable. The poor woman just walks away. Then they´re standing around and she spits her gum on the walkway to the bathroom. It doesn´t sound as bad as it was, but it really pissed me off. So I got in the car ranting about these girls and our jewish friend tells me that at least we met him, so we know there are good Israelis out there. Yeah, right. Did I mention he chews with his mouth open?

The second night we spent in a hotel that was built entirely from blocks of salt. It was quite luxurious compared with the previous night and we were down to 11,000 feet so we all slept better. Today we toured the Salar de Uyuni which is an enormous salt flat (largest in the world, superlative blahh) which was very impressive. Blinding white flat salt as far as you could see. The views were amazing. We stopped at an “island” in the middle which was covered in cactus. We finally got into the small town of Uyuni in the late afternoon and parted ways with our driver and group (who were very dissapointed when we gave the driver a good tip (5 bucks) and they realized they had better follow suit or risk looking like assholes). Now we´re headed out to what promises to be the best pizza in all of Bolivia run by an expat from Beantown. We´ve got our fingers crossed.

Patagonia to Santiago

Here´s the start of our deluxe bus ride from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, Argentina.



After hanging out in Mendoza for a day, we make plans for winetasting the next.

The tour included a visit to an olive oil plant...boring! Well, brett would´ve been more interested if he had been able to understand the guide at all.

At the second winery, we were able to see the grapes that they harvested in march and sample the remaining off the vine.


The next day, we had our 12 hour tour. Here´s the picture of what Hotel Villavicencio looks like snowed upon and from far away. Was privately owned but now owned by Danon.

Here´s what it looked like when we got there on a drizzly, cold morning. Straight out of the Shining. It´s all boarded up and Danon bought it so that it wasn´t torn down. There´s a chapel on the premises too.

Where 7 Years in Tibet was filmed. Our crazy tourguide loved talking about Brad Pitt and him living in her country.

Old old bridge where O'Higgins led over some troops.

Nice shot of our western hemispere´s highest peak, Aconcagua (21,000 ft).

Border with Chile and Argentina at 12,600 ft. I had the altitude sickness.

There´s good ol Aconcagua behind brett.

The Inca Bridge: named so after the Incas came around here. The color on the rocks is from the abundance of sulfur. According to our crazy guide, people would come here and bathe in its springs for its healing power.

After a lovely 14 hour bus ride south, we arrived in Bariloche.

We reserved online, warily, and of course, they didn´t have the room we had reserved. Luckily, excellent customer service came through and got a 4 person dorm room for the two of us. Here´s the view:


Took an early tour and like the previous post stated, we froze on the bus.


After the germans chewed our guide out for a new bus, we went on a walk while we waited for it to arrive.

Lunch

After lunch, we went to see the Black Glaciar..black because it´s so dirty.




The next day, we took a local bus ride out to the Splurge! (fancy recommendation by Lonely Planet) hotel Llao Llao. Very picturesque setting but stupid, pretentious workers...and clientele. They were doing a little archery out back.


After leaving Bariloche, we crossed the border into Chile. Our destination was Entre Lagos but unfortunately, the man who sold us our tickets gave us the wrong destination. The bus dropped us off in what seemed like the middle of no where. There´s the bus turning the bend.


After an hour or so, we made it to our actual destination. Here´s our cabin and the lake it was on.



Thanks to the tiny heating unit, the cabin was absolutely freezing.

Took a local bus to Aguas Calientes in hopes for a little hiking and some hot springs. We got both but i was hoping for some rocks-type hot springs....not a very large hot tub thing. Still, nice and comfy.



Next stop: Pucón. Here´s the stoplight brett talked about.


While in Pucón, i became aware of how much my thumb hurt. I recalled having bit a hang nail off the side of my thumb a day or two ago and thought the pain would go away. Not the case. It swelled and turned a little green in the corner. Went to the hospital and got on some antibiotics.

Some irish dudes we met. They were much more likeable than the brits and some a-hole from canada we met. "I think they were Americans. They sounded ignorant." He wasn´t talking about us but that´s the first thing i heard him say while staying in the hospedaje.

$50 later (horribly expensive), we made reservations to be taken to some "real" thermal pools. These were the real deal...beautiful setting. There were 6 pools..each differing in temp., from hot to really hot and all very likeable. Again, situated right by the freezing river, so brett went in a few times. i, of course, did not.



Here are some pics from Santiago. Nothing too exciting.




This pic is for Saby. It was Pablo Neruda´s house.


And here´s my thumb again. Getting worse. I hope it gets better....

Patagonia

The 19 hour bus ride lived up to our expectations. Started off on a good note when, not more than 30 minutes into the journey, there was a crash on the lower level. Turned out a rock had broken one of the huge windows on the bus so we had to turn around and switch craft. Neither of us slept much at all during the night as usual cause we kept stopping and they kept turning on the lights, yelling, etc. When we finally got to Bariloche we were exhausted and got a cab to our hostel where we had reservations only to find out they had no double rooms and had made a mistake on the hostels.com website. Luckily they were extremely friendly and let us have an entire dorm room for 4 to ourselves, bathroom included. Bariloche was a great time. The city is right on a huge lake in northern patagonia and the setting was amazing. Snow capped mountains all around, etc... We took a tour the second day to a mountain in the national park called Mt. Troubador to see a black glacier and take in the views. We were the last ones to be picked up by the tour bus in the morning and when we got on, the bus was freezing. Everyone was bundled up and surley. It was probably in the low 30´s outside, twas frost in the air. The tour guide assured us that the bus just needed to warm up but what neither the guide nor the driver knew at that point was that the radiator was frozen and would never defrost. Needless to say we had a freezing first couple hours till a german couple complained enough to have another bus sent for us. The rest of the tour was great. It ended up being a perfect day and the mountain was beautiful and we stopped at a great place to get lunch with a view of the mountain and great hamburgers. Bariloche is the Argentinian version of a yuppie ski town complete with way too many chocolate shops and fur stores. It has some great restaurants and we found one called Familia Weiss where we got local trout and wild boar and some microbrew beer (impossible to find anywhere else). It was fantastic. Crossed the border with Chile on Saturday. We had made reservations at these cabins in a small, out of the way town which got an interesting write up in lonely planet. We were the only people who had to get off the bus early so we told the driver where to let us off. Unfortunately the guy who sold us the tickets wrote the wrong town on the tickets and this all boiled down to us being let off the in the middle of nowhere, 30km from the town with our cabin. Initially we were a bit frustrated but we made our way to a nearby resort (bizarrely located in the middle of nowhere) and they told us we could catch a small local transport headed for our town Entre Lagos. Eventually the bus came and 2 hours later we finally arrived. The town was even tinier than we expected but turned out to be great fun. Our cabin was down a gravel road right on the lake. The cabin itself was intended for 6 people and had two floors and great wooden ambiance. We cooked pasta and drank chilean wine, it was nice. Next day we took the same bus back toward the border to find some hotsprings and take a hike. We got great views of the surrounding mountains on the hike and then spent two hours or so soaking in this swimming pool style ¨hot springs¨ going back and forth from the freezing river to the hot pool. Relaxing. We´re currently in Pucón, Chile. It is the lowest of low season and it rained all day and it´s cold. There´s another amazing volcano very close to this town. So close in fact (and so recently active) that they have a stoplight-style warning system in town that goes from green to red depending on the volcano alert level. I was hoping for a good old eruption, but not this time. Hit some great hot springs today, much better than the last. The place was about 40 minutes into the mountains next to a big river. There were six natural stone pools each at a different temperature from 104-95 or so. The setting was beautiful and it was nice to be able to go from the really hot pools to the cooler ones. Killed a good three hours there in the rain. It´s forecast to rain for the next 10 days so it´s time to head north away from the impending winter. Bus to Santiago tomorrow at 10am. Bored yet?

Buenos Aires

Here are pictures from our month in Buenos Aires.

I forgot to blog this picture with the last batch. This is a pic of Brett hanggliding in Rio de Janeiro.


Here's our metro stop...it was no Bilbao metro for those of you familiar...very old, screeching loud cars that rode with the windows down. It took us a while to learn how to say it.


Antiques fair in Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo. This area of this city is known for it's cafes and tango.


Free tango show in Plaza Dorrego


They were serious about their flag. The guards would get there and wait til the clock struck 6 to move.


Brett in a Japanese garden


Brett caught my reaction to an 85 year old man winking and giving me kissy noises


The cats in Buenos Aires ruled the botanical garden. They came complete with a catlady that fed them


El Caminito is a very colorful street in the neighborhood La Boca. La Boca is known for its art and very colorful homes. It's also known for its sketchy areas and tourists are warned to never wander of the tourist path.


Here's a shot of the river in the La Boca area. Very very polluted


The elusive jackalope (minus the little antlers)


These little guys loved being fed. They were all over the zoo hanging out with the ducks. Apparently they're called nutria (according to Brett..i had never heard of them)


Recoleta's famous cemetery


A woman's tomb and a statue of her and her dog...made me want a statue like that with coopy at my side


My friends kelly and gary in front of the Casa Rosada..The pink house used to be where the President resides..now just used for government offices.


Argentina's Congress building..a copy of ours.


Café Tortoni - established in 1887..or 1878..either way, it's old


Shopping at the hippie fair in Recoleta


Cool pink church in Recoleta


Giant ombú trees in Recoleta


I preferred to pick my wine by the cute label (so did kelly). This one made the cut.


Brett's sleeping area for a while due to the noisy streets below.


Another great dinner cooked by Brett (i prefer to clean...nice bra straps, ruby..trash-y)



Hanging out on the balcony


Antique shopping in SanTelmo


The Obelisque (sp?)...another copy but looked great on this street. It gave me a Times Square feel at night with all the fluorescent lights


We decided to class it up one night and take in a dinner and a show..Here's dinner


And here's the show. It was a very small place and the musicians and dancers were impressive.


When we arrived in Buenos Aires we decided to take tango lessons and Brett wanted to take private spanish lessons. We found both teachers independently on craigslist and they ended up being idential twin sisters.