Goodbye South America

so last entry I guess, which is muy triste, but I´m sort of ready to be home and have a visit with everyone. At this point I´m anxious just to get to the airport and be on the way.

Got to Santiago on Friday and have just spent the whole time lounging by thehostel pool, making elaborate steak dinners, lazing in the many parks, wandering around the downtown eating ice cream etc. Not very cultural or laden with activities, but it´s nice to have a rest and time to just relax before saying goodbye to the continent.

Thanks to all of you for paying attention these past few months, and if it´s possible, I want to try to get together with as many of you as I can before leaving for europe. Expect some phone calls in the next few days, or better yet try me 519-882-0946 and hopefully we can work something out!!

love you all and can´t wait to see you in real life!

chau

Hitting the home stretch

So as of writing this, I have almost exactly one week left in this trip, which is pretty sad, but I´m also looking forward to seeing everyone.

I think I left off in El Bolsón, where I was able to get some great souvenirs, which will only be given out based on good behaviour of course (that means you emily). From there it was a long night bus across the country over to Puerto Madryn, on the atlantic coast. The beach was pretty gross, as it was cold, covered in seaweed and basically smelled like fish barf, but still, the weather was nice and it was a nice place to chill out for a few days. The first night I got there, I went out with a few people from the hostel who had heard about a jazz night at the town margarita bar. But when we arrived, the entertainment was not a live jazz band, as promised, but rather a demonstration of arabian dance. Go figure.

The next day I had a tour booked to go to Punto Tumbo, a national park about 3 hours south of the town which is famous for its permanent penguin colony. Saw a ton of these magellenic penguins, a lot of whom were just finishing the moulting stage of juvenilehood so that made for some very ugly looking birds. Becky, you would most definitely have been cringing the entire time. But mostly they were pretty cute, and they covered the tundra. Apparently there is a permanent colony of about 8000 or so, and even more at this time of year, but our guide didn´t know exactly how many that was. It was kind of cool because in the park there are a few other animals, including guanacos, which are a llamalike animal so some of my pictures with both penguins and these llama things seem very posed.

From there it was a rather long and dusty bus ride over to Gaiman, a nearby Welsh colony, for tea time. I had promised some of my welsh friends that I would order some baked stones on their behalf, but unfortunately it was a set menu and no baked stones appeared. I sort of think that just means that this supposed delicacy actually fails to exist. But nevertheless, had a very lovely high tea with some argentinian ladies and then it was back to Puerto Madryn for another couple nights. Ran into another friend from earlier in the trip, so it was nice to have a little catchup on all the gossip from our other friends who had headed in the opposite direction haha.

Then on Saturday night I got on another night bus, this one to Neuquén, which has no attractions in and of itself but it was sort of in the direction towards Santiago so I figured I´d go there and try to make it on another bus. Which was what I did, eventually, after arriving very early in the morning on Sunday and realizing that I had to wait approximately 10 hours before the first bus going that way. I was too cheap to pay for a taxi into the town which the lonely planet described as "forgettable", so instead I spent the entire day shacked up in the bus terminal. I tried to go outside and lay on the grass to read, which worked for all of about 15 minutes before one of the security guards yelled at me and made me go back inside. She may have mentioned something about the sprinkler system, but I was feeling bitter and chose to think that she was just on a power trip and not actually looking out for my best interests.

So anyway, passed the entire day milling around the same little convenience and magazine shops, checking my email incessantly, going to the cafe, reading a horrible Stephen King novel, counting floor tiles etc. I had the further disappointment of choosing a seat directly beside the out of order dance dance revolution machine, which did nothing to improve my spirits. But anyway, it may have seemed long enough but not really 10 hours worth since I more or less managed to entertain myself, so was feeling not too bad. That was until I actually got on my bus, and we started to pull away from the back of the terminal, where I saw a HUGE CARNIVAL right behind the bus station. Seriously, I was soooooooooo dejected that I spent the entire day just pissing around, when I could have been enjoying cotton candy and the scrambler, south american style.

But other than that, the bus was uneventful. One of the cheaper (ie grosser) bus rides I have had since leaving bolivia, but it was fine. And I´ve adapted so well to the nighttime bumpy rides that a stranger in a nearby seat actually had to shake me awake when we arrived at the border crossing into Chile. I was OUT, to the point where I think I may have been drooling at little. Gross but true.

and it was possibly the longest border crossing I have been through so far, where I think they were training a new drug dog because it was definitely not interested in doing its job. I think it´s handler was actually kind of embarrassed because all it wanted to do was nose around in a woman´s bag which ended up not to have drugs in it, but dirty diapers from her screaming baby. Very entertaining.

So then it was into my very last country of the trip, and I had booked my ticket straight to Valparaiso, a city a few hours west of Santiago on the coast. I had planned on staying only a couple nights here, and then heading north up to La Serena to a famous observatory for a last "activity" type thing before going back into Santiago for a final hostelling weekend. But ever since the moment I arrived at my hostel here in valpo, I have just been enthralled. It´s possibly the coolest place I have ever been to, with crazily haphazard houses thrown up all over these hills overlooking the port (which is actually a working one, very interesting to go down to the harbour and see all the huge cruise ships, fishing boats, and naval vessels). Everything is painted these bold, bright colours and there are all sorts of back alleys and twisting staircases that lead every which way, down to funky shops and tiny little cafe slash art galleries, and above all, everything, literally EVERYTHING is covered in graffiti. Some of it really good, and some of it amazingly horrible, but it doesn´t seem to matter because it just all works together to make this really bohemian, cool atmosphere out of something that in and of itself isn´t really all that beautiful.

So I loved it so much that now I have scrapped going to La Serena altogether and am staying here straight until Santiago on Friday (already have made reservations there, otherwise I would probably wander around these streets taking pictures of random artwork indefinitely). So yeah, am enjoying these last few days- today I went on a long walk around many of the nearby neighbourhoods with a middleaged american couple and a canadian guy, went and saw Pablo Neruda (the poet)´s house, or one of them, and then wandered around some more on my own. Am currently burning a cd in the internet place because I ran out of memory on my camera´s card, and nearly had a panic attack thinking about all the things that I might see and wouldn´t be able to photograph. I already have some art projects in my head to use all these photos for, so if you see them up on facebook and are bored by their seemingly limitless quantity, I apologize.

Other than that, down to the last little bit and just trying not to spend all my money so I´ll have enough left to enjoy in Europe!!

Chocolate Shops and No nuclear zones

Just about to pop on my night bus to Puerto Madryn, but thought I´d update first.... was in Bariloche until yesterday morning, doing a bit of hiking but a lot of laying on the beach (lake) eating chocolates that I dreamt about during all of Peru and Bolivia, where everything available tasted like soap. Will likely add about 5 kilos as a result, but sort of feel like it would be worth it :)

Caught the bus to El Bolsón, a relatively new, totally organic bohemian community in the middle of the lake district in Argentina. pretty cool place, and managed to check out the market in the morning, and have also managed to visit the ice cream place about 3 times already. Seriously, being deprived of comfort foods for months at a time can wreak havoc when you are unleashed. Off to get a bit of dinner before finding where my bus departs from (was given a random address instead of an actual bus station) and then it´s onward to puerto madryn for some wilderness spotting and welsh tea houses.

xo

fast times in Mendoza

Totally didn´t expect to spend so long in Mendoza, but it was a lovely week there. Arrived on Tuesday, and laid around the pool, ate a huge steak, and basically just felt content with life. On Wednesday, Marika, Emma and I were supposed to meet up with some of our guy friends to do a bike tour of some of the local wineries, but they were being boys and didn´t show (i believe they slept in). So instead, the three of us got dressed up and went to a couple of the fancier wineries for tours and tastings. The first was a pretty slick commercial one, but really nice. And the second was really cool because we had heard about this older man (Carmelo Patti)who makes all his own wine in a really small establishment and has received all sorts of international awards. So we had showed up at his place without an appointment, but it looked like the people he was giving a tour to were going to be there forever, so we waited 15 minutes and then gave up to go find somewhere else. We were about 4 blocks down the street when suddenly a truck that had been honking its horn at us pulled over and he runs out to apologize and ask if we would please consider coming back (he had some story about how the american tourists he had been entertaining ask too many questions and talk about themselves too much, hehehe). It was really cute, especially since we had just showed up without warning.

And his tour was awesome, he did it all himself, and let us taste a bunch of wines, explaining how they all get different tastes, and showed us how the same harvest begins to evolve over time by tasting a little bit of the same wine from 2007 back to 2002, his prizewinning specialty wine. His were way too expensive for us to buy, but he really didn´t seem to mind, and just wanted to chat with us for a bit, which was really nice.

The next day we mostly lazed around, read in the park, bought bus tickets, etc, and then on the Friday we met up with some friends we had made in buenos aires and the bunch of us went on Wanka Tours, which drove us to a couple more wineries (not as nice as the ones we found on our own), an olive oil factory, and a chocolate licqueur factory. Also a very nice day (although by the time we got to the olive oil place, we were all a little tipsy from lots of wine tasting and not very much food, so we thought it would be a good idea to buy a 5 kg jar of green olives, one of our shared favourite foods, somewhat ignoring the fact that the girls were flying home in the morning and i would consequently be stuck with a giant jar of pickled olives.........

Had a bit of a tearful goodbye with the ladies on Saturday, probably two of the best friends I have made here (just means I´ll have to do a visit to Melbourne sometime in the near future), followed by a bit of a lonely afternoon (tried to go shopping, but the Mendozians take their afternoon siesta VERY seriously, and absolutely nothing is open between 1 and 5). But ran into some other friends for dinner and drinks, including my friend Carolyn, another Melbourne girl who was on her way home, so it was really awesome to be able to have a last goodbye daquiri with her.

And then Sunday I was meant to be returning to Buenos Aires, intending to find a 2 week volunteer placement or something, but then in the afternoon I bumped into Steve and James, another couple friends I had made back in Bolivia and had hung out with almost everywhere I´ve stopped. They are on their way to Santiago and then to New Zealand /¨Australia, and then southeast asia, and then home to Wales via russia (ps i am sooooo jealous of their trip, but that´s another story). So they had just arrived and so I was showing them around to the best local steakeries and ice cream places. We were just talking, waiting for our steaks to arrive, when it became clear that in my singleminded meat focus, I had managed to miss my bus back to ba. Momentarily frustrating (not exactly cheap), but the steak was delicious so I couldn´t be too upset, plus it meant that I got to hang out with them for a few more days, which turned out to be so much fun.

On Monday I woke up with the epiphany that perhaps I hadn´t been too fussed to get back to Buenos Aires and that´s part of the reason why I hadn´t been watching the clock properly.....and that maybe it was a sign to do something else. So instead, I went downtown and sorted out a new bus ticket to Bariloche, the town at the beginning of the Patagonia region. Then yesterday I convinced the boys, lazy as they are, that it would still be a good idea to do the biking wine tour together. Heaps and heaps of complaining and bellyaching, but it was soooooooooo much fun, probably one of my most perfect days here. Not for any particular reason except it was beautiful weather, biking around with friends and tasting wine in the countryside, I just loved it. At the first stop we ran into Emma and Paul, more mutual friends of ours, and so there was a big group of us that were driving around together. Loads of fun, just being silly and some of us trying to do bike tricks on the back roads after a successively higher number of wine tastings, and then we ended at the chocolate licqueur factory, which I had already been to, but wasn´t complaining about revisiting :) Again, probably one of my most favourite days, and so I didn´t even care that we had to rush back to the hostel so I could quickly shower and throw my stuff together to get to my bus. Luckily made it this time, so then it was approx 18 hours on Ruta 40 (made famous by Che Guevara´s motorcycle trip) down south to Bariloche. Am here for a few days, looking into horseback riding or rafting or something for tomorrow and or friday, and definitely am doing a trek/kayak excursion on Saturday. The whole town has a pretty touristy mountain town feel, similar to Banff or something, with tons of chocolate shops EVERYWHERE, it´s amazing.

Likely planning to go further south on Sunday or Monday, spend Tuesday in El Bolson, a hippie community that has a reportedly awesome bohemian artisan fair that day (souvenir shopping perhaps??) and then further down to El Calafate. I don´t know how much trekking and stuff I´ll be up to down there, even though it´s supposed to be absolutely awesome- it´s hard given that I have limited warm clothing and no camping equipment, so maybe it is just meant to be another trip for any of the intense hikes. But the scenery is already beautiful, well worth the trip just for the views. Will likely be crossing over into chile around 8 or 10 days from now, and starting the ascent back up to Santiago-eeek. Hopefully will get to stop at a beach or two before getting on the plane home though, I doubt that Lake Huron is going to be swim worthy when I get back, and I want to make sure I still have my "tan" hehe to show you all.

Oh, and in other news, I just heard from the girls that we have booked our flights to Europe, in and out of Paris on April 21st and June 10th. Sooo exciting!!! oh, and just another short plea that if anyone knows of a short term get rich quick scheme I could attempt between March 27 and April 21, please let me know :) or just a job would be fine too........

Okay, off to find a nice hot chocolate and pastry before going to bed. Hope you´re having a good week, and Mom, hope you´re having fun in Florida- let me know when you get back and we can have a chat.

xx sarah

in wine country

So the past 9 days or so have been crazy. I loved Buenos Aires, it was such a beautiful city and had a ton of stuff to do, I could never have fit everything in if I stayed there a month!

Like I mentioned before, I went to the Recoleta cemetary, where all the richest and most influential people in argentina have been buried. Saw the graves (well actually mausoleums) of Evita, past argentian presidents, writers, artists, politicians, etc. The sculptures and architecture of some of the graves were just so beautiful, sometimes it was hard to remember you were actually in a cemetary. Right across the street from there was the Museo de bellas artes (national art gallery) and I loved walking through there as well. There were a ton of famous european and north american paintings, but the most interesting part was the argentinian section, especially since a lot of the paintings were done by the people who I had just seen in the cemetary.

On other days I went to museums in the centre, the Casa Rosada (presidential palace in front of the square, made famous by Eva Peron, or should i say Madonna?), shopping in Palermo, botanical gardens, historical San Telmo (birthplace of the tango), to a tango show at Cafe Tortoni´s (the oldest tango house), artisan markets, a futbol game, ate a bunch of steak, including at one place that is basically a meat buffet, all you can eat. Just to name a few activities.

The city totally throws off your schedule though, since all the locals stay up extremely late (if you walk around the streets at night, there are families and older couples out for strolls until 1 or 2 am) and eat really late as well. No one even thinks of going out to a club until after 2 or 3, and they only fill up around 4 so basically if you go out at night, you might as well not even think about getting back home until 6 or so at the earliest. I think I was actually starting to become nocturnal, which made it harder to fit everything in that I wanted to see, but I think I did pretty well at napping at opportune moments.

And as amazing as everything was, it was even better because it seemed like all of the people I had become the closest with over the past few months were all there at the same time as I was. And since most of us knew each other, there was a big group that had pretty much seen the continent together, and this was the last hurrah before most of them head home. Really really fun people, and it just made me realize how many good friends I have made on this trip.

And so now I have escaped from Buenos Aires before becoming fully nocturnal, and taken a night bus with two of those girls, Emma and Marika, to Mendoza, which is in the central west of Argentina, famous for its steak and especially its wine. We´re planning on staying here for 4 days or so (the last ones of their trip) doing some bike tours of the wineries, lounging by the pool, etc. And then they´re off to Santiago for their flight home, and I´m not sure if I will be heading there as well for the last part of my trip, or if I am going to venture further south into Patagonia. Just depends on who is around I guess and how much money I have.

off to find lunch..........

post rio

At the soccer game, we (i had met a swedish guy on the bus who was also going solo and we helped each other figure out where to go, buy tickets etc. well actually i mostly helped him because his portugese was even worse than mine, if that is even possible haha) sat in the section for the flamenco fans, one of the more famous rio teams. They were just like you see on tv, chanting and screaming the whole time, crying and kicking things when we were losing, etc. Which was hilarious to watch, and infectious to be around. There was this middleaged man and his 9 year old son sitting near us and he was answering all of our stupid gringo type questions. And at the end of the game (his team lost) he was so cute and asked for consolation hugs all around, slappping each other on the back and saying maybe next time- but he gave me a team bracelet to remember the day by, which was so cute.

After swimming some more on the famous Rio beaches (also after buying the token rio bikini just to seem less gringoish- seriously, EVERYONE wears them. or even less) Copacabana and Ipanema (which had waves so strong I thought I might drown in water not even up to my knees), it was off on another bus to Florianopolis, which is on the coast but further south. Found a hostel outside of the city on the island of santa catarina, at the praia do armocao, which was absolutely gorgeous. Huge palm trees, big waves, clear water, white sand. And it was so nice that I spent the morning in the water and then on the beach. Only forgetting that of course my new sunscreen is not waterproof, unlike the old one i just had, and apparently did not reapply often enough because I got a medium all over sunburn. Which I didn't think was too awfully bad until the next morning, when i was having little fainting spells just trying to get up and brush my teeth. And let me tell you, having sunstroke I'm sure is never a treat, but having to lay on disgusting hostel bathroom floors while recovering from it is pretty bad.

But after a few minutes of that, sort of got over it and was able to enjoy sitting outside (well shaded this time) before catching a bus back to the centre and on to iguazu falls. Visited both the brazilian and then the next day, the argentinian sides, and the arg is absolutely better. They're not as tall as niagara, but so much more massive and natural, they're just beautiful. Tons of tourists though, which get on my nerves, despite the fact that I am one, hehe. There's one catwalk part that takes you right over one of the falls and it's so misty that people have plastic bags over their cameras, are wearing their bathing suits and you're dripping with water after maybe 30 seconds. Really nice on such a hot day though. Plus my hostel had a pool, which is almost unheard of usually, but very very welcome. Felt so good to be back in Argentina to begin with, just because it's so much easier being able to communicate with people again and not feel like so much of a gringo. (funnily, people even ask me here whether I'm from here. I think they're just trying to be polite, but still, sort of flattering. and weird, after being pointed out as a gringo EVERYWHERE i go for 4 months)

And then after iguazu, it was another night bus to buenos aires and it hasn't even been 24 hours here yet, but I already love it. For a girl who usually isn't a fan of cities, this place is beautiful. Very cosmopolitan, but in an old fashioned, leafy and cultural sort of way. Am off right now to explore recoleta cemetary in one of the older more posh neighbourhoods, and then maybe meeting some friends to see an argentinian futbol match this afternoon. So much to do, I maybe will have to stay here longer than the week I had anticipated!! we'll see.....

xo

arrived in buenos aires

ok let's try to catch up.

Carnaval was amazing, but so tiring overall. I hung out with that group of New Zealand boys pretty much every day, and they were awesome both to chill with and were great at looking out for me, making sure I didn't get trampled by the masses. Made some really good friends I think, so if anyone is up for a trip to new zealand anytime soon..... ok maybe getting a bit ahead of myself, I realize hahaha.

Anyway, probably saw more people in that week than all the peopple i have seen in the rest of my life combined hahaha. Didn't get too many pictures of salvador unfortunately, cause it's because it's beautiful, but was afraid of getting it stolen,. As it was, tons of people got pickpocketed and stuff when we were there. The last night I was in one of the blocos for fatboy slim, which was soooo much fun- totally populated by gringos, but we were loving it hahaha. Stayed there in salvador one more day after the end of carnaval just chilling and then it was off on a horrendously long bus ride to Rio de Janeiro. Along the way we stopped (about a million and a half times, hence the 30 hours instead of 25 or 26 it is supposed to be ) at some of the swankiest rest stops I have ever seen in my life. I actually walked into the bathroom of the first one and burst into rather hysterical laughter, because after coming so recently from bolivia and having most of the bathrooms on those bus journeys be either a bus or a rock (if you're lucky enough to encounter one) or else a scary shack with either a disgusting toilet or just a hole in the ground, with either no toilet paper or some that you have to pay for that is rolled by a grubby person who looks like they have never washed their hands and you don't really want to wipe your ass with their hand towel, but havve no choice...... Anyway, having this in mind, I walk into the bathroom and it is spotless, huge, has leather couches, makeup mirrors, and special little silver bowls of sand that you can use for exfoliation should you desire it. It was just so ridiculous in contrast that I was howling with laughter and barely restrained myself from taking a picture even though I really wanted to because I thought I might be arrested for being a pervert.

Anyway, got to Rio and stayed in Copacabana for a few days *although there was a mixup with my hostel reservations and I ended up having a local help me walk around looking for a free bed at like midnight. Luckily found a place, expensive though it was, right by the beach. My roommate, Belina, was from France and she and I spent a good couple days doing the touristy things, going up to the christ monument, the pao de azucar cable car, went samba dancing in lapa, etc. Really good few days. Oh and I went to a futbol game athte Maracana stadium, which was amazing to begin with and then around halftime it began to pour rain like I have never seen. After it subsided a bit and the game restarted, the atmosphere was crazy. Thgose fans are intense, but it was so much fun!!

ok,..... obviously this is far from buenos aires, but i'll have to catch up the rest later because there are people waiting for the computer. Hope you're all fine, and remember, only 5.5 weeks more to go!!!

xo

Brasil!!!

So spent a relaxing last few days in Bolivia (despite having to pay 80 dollars to get my camera fixed, after the unknown incident in the potosi mines) hanging out with some really fun Australian girls and Welsh boys. One of the only downfalls were the killer toucans that lived at the hostel, and would literally attack you for no reason, or to try to pluck the food out of your hands, all the time making velocoraptor noises. One actually grabbed hold of my achilles tendon and wouldn-t let go, and Becky, I began to understand your phobia of birds- they were absolutely terrifying. I was literally backed into a corner trying to finish off my strawberry cheesecake so that they would leave me alone, and the boys were only laughing and encouraging them. We decided that they have targeted aggression for females for some reason.

Anyway, had a good few days and then a safe flight to Sao Paulo, where I had to transfer planes to arrive in Salvador a few days ago. After a very long wait for the airport shuttle bus, where this other guy Adam and I were so tired after staying awake all night that we were literally curled up in the fetal position on the concrete sidewalk on top of our backpacks, we finally made the trek into Salvador. My hostel is in the historical centre, called the Pelhourino, and there´s tons of cultural stuff going on. It´s concentrated with mostly the black population, so it has very distinct food (a lot of it sold on the street- very convenient), a ton of great music just happening spontaneously, people walking around in costumes all the time. It-s kind of like the staging area for the big parades during the day, and then in the afternoon all the blocos (groups of bands and dancers) start making their way down to Barra-Ondina, where the main stages and parades are. It is organized chaos on such a huge scale, I can´t even begin to describe it.

The first 2 nights I just stayed in Pelhourino, first with Adam and some of his friends and the second with some New Zealand guys I ran into that I had met in Huacachina. Just tons of little blocos walking around the streets and plazas all night, you can just join in behind them dancing. Sooo much fun. and i have never eaten so much street meat in my life.

And then last night a few girls from my hostel and I cabbed down to Barra to join in the festivities there. And it was CRAZY. Hundreds of thousands of people all singing and dancing and wearing ridiculous outfits, just going nuts. We sort of joined in the parade in between a bloco our friends had paid to be in (Tiesto?? he´s a pretty famous dutch dj, but the trance stuff just wasn´t really working for my idea of carnaval in brasil). So we went inbetween it and the one behind, playing more popular brasilian music, and it was amazing. Dancing like fiends, getting disgustingly sweaty, but having so much fun. The streets are kind of gross from all the people and garbage (aka don-t wear flip flops or your feet will be covered in shit. literally) but around midnight it started to rain and we were just dancing like crazy enjoying the rain cooling us down. Soooo much fun. So probably will head back down that way tonight, but I don´t really have many plans here, things just sort of happen and you go with the flow.

If anyone has facebook though, I´ve managed to upload a lot of my old photos (i prob won´t take many of carnaval for fear of getting the camera stolen, a common occurrence) so feel free to check those out and let me know what you think.

Love you all and happy groundhog day (hehehe). The temperature here is approximately 33.

xo

Bolivia contd

So after a few days back in La Paz, I caught a night bus to Uyuni, which is in the southwest of Bolivia. It's meant to be an 11 hour bus ride, but because of getting stopped NUMEROUS times by either our bus or ones ahead being bogged in mud, it ended up taking more than 21 hours. Which wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that no one brought enough food or water, and strangely, whenever we got stuck somewhere it was inconveniently located miles from any store or town. One of the girls I was with, Carolyn, it was her birthday that second day, so while it wasn't ideal I did manage to scrounge around and find a snickers bar that i put all of the birthday candles in, and some argentinians on the bus had a guitar and we all sang happy birthday on the side of the road. It was actually kind of fun. Very memorable anyway. Mind you, the crossing of the river in the middle of the night barefoot because the bus would probably get stuck if passengers were on board, after 3 hours or unsticking busses ahead, not so fun.

But we arrived in Uyuni eventually, at like 4pm, to a very pooey smelling town, and booked a 3 day jeep tour of the nearby salt flats, the atacama and salvador dali deserts, flamingo lagoons and geysers. Since my luck was going that way, our jeep definitely got bogged within the first half hour, right up to the undercarriage in quicksandish mud. Eventually got pulled out by a passing tractor, after like an hour and a half of rocking it back and forth, tires spinning mud all over everyone, with an approaching thunderstorm on its way. (in a few minutes we passed a small stream which in the course of an hour turned into a raging river due to farther off rain. craziest flash flood i have ever seen, and even when we were standing there the water was coming with more intensity all the time, like continuous small tsunamis)

Managed to get to the salt flats though, and they were absolutely indescribable. 12000 square km of salt flats that look like ice, with a bit of water on top. You can't see the horizon, so it feels like you're floating, and you can see your own reflection so clearly that it's hard to tell which way is up. Very very strange. I think the pictures are going to be awesome. There's even a hotel out there with everything made and carved out of salt. From there we drove further out, and the next day entered the desert, and passed through some really cool rock formations, made by volcanic eruptions happening on top of glaciers only like 50 000 years ago. The lava cooled immediately, so the "droplets" ie enormous boulders, are all these crazy shapes just blobbed around the desert (which is not sandy at ALL. the driest desert in the world, and it's all pebbly. Really weird landscape). You can climb up them really easily with all of the air bubbles and uneven faces.

From there it was on to some huge lagoons that day and the next that were absolutely teeming with flamingos, and while it was a little cloudy sometimes, the reflections of the snowcapped mountains in the water filled with thousands of pink birds was breathtaking. Also really cool was that we got up early on the last day and drove to some areas with natural volcanic activity (ie geysers), and they're way different from what i pictured, with bubbly mud pits spraying hot steam that smelled like wet egg. Really gross odor, but it was really cool. Actually literally freezing up there, since it was like 5500m.

And then it was back to Uyuni to catch the bus to Potosi, which had no major problems, although it still required several disembarkings to cross rivers. (9 or 10 hours to go 208 km. Which is apparently like the fastest bus time in the past several weeks). And then spent the day going down into the potosi mines, where they have 700 different mines, 15000 workers (2000 of which are under 16) and many of them have been operating since the 1500s. Our guide told us afterwards that 11 years ago experts said that due to the swiss cheese effect it was ready to fall down in 7 years. Very comforting. Went down to the third level, which really didn't feel all that claustrophobic but definitely hard to breathe, the asbestos and cyanide burning your throat. Can't imagine doing that every day.

And then it was another bus to Sucre, where I spent the night partying with some australians on australia day, and getting attacked with shaving cream by pre-carnavalers. And then due to more rain related transportation problems, decided to fly to santa cruz for my brasil flight, and so spent an entire day in the airport on standby before heading off to lapaz and then here. Back in tropical heat here now so am feeling rested and ready for my flight to brasil at 4am tomorrow!!

That's all for now, but hope you're all doing well! xo

part 4 La Paz and the jungle

So we got to La Paz on the 9th of January at like 11pm, and our bus was immediately swarmed by tourist police who ushered all gringoish looking people into taxis and even negotiated fares with the drivers for us- like nothing I have ever witnessed that is for sure! After a few days exploring, LaPaz, and bolivia in general, feels very similar to Peru, although the weather is pretty shitty most of the time in the city and there is a LOT of garbage everywhere (possibly due to the high incidence of strikes and demonstrations recently??), just piled up in the steets sometimes, although not so much in the centre where my hostel Loki is. It is a HUGE place, around 200 beds, and people are fighting for a place pretty much every day if they don't have reservations. Met a couple cool Danish girls and their Australian friend on our first night here and they told us about how they were taking a boat/jungle tour up to Rurrenbaque instead of bussing it or flying, so we sort of jumped on board with them on the Saturday as well.

It actually ended up being a 7 or 8 hour bus ride down the "death road" past Coroico and Caranavi, to Guayan, where we were supposed to get the boat. But because we ran into a few landslides on the way, one we dug out by hand with a big group of sweaty locals and their shovels, and the other took a bulldozer to clear. Plus there was a big tree down over the road so we didn't get to Guanay until too late to do any of the boating that day. Instead of camping, the company finally agreed to pay for our necessary hostel rooms. And to kill time, slash say that we had done it, the 5 of us girls and our guide (no one else was up to it apparently) took in the local nightlife, which was pretty amazing I have to say. The main place in town was this bar with a huge dancefloor, mainly taken over by underagers drinking fanta and dancing across from each other in 2 long lines. Not doing line dances. Just dancing in lines. Ridiculous. Later on when we were dancing with them, any attempts at deconstructing the rigidity of this system proved to be very stressful, and our circle dance attempt ended up forming a new line, just slightly askew from the others. Hilarious!

But the next day we did a few hours on the boat down this river which was pretty swollen with water, and our boat definitely was not really made for the rapids which we had to go through at some points. A little scary. But we stopped at little communities along the way, only reachable by boat, and did a big jungle walk in the day and at night, which were pretty cool for hearing about different plants and their medicinal properties, insects, etc. Not a lot of wildlife viewing, but still really cool. Camped in tents in the courtyard of one of these communities, and it rained so much in the morning that we had to get up quickly or else all our stuff would literally be floating. Could have been pretty miserable except for that it was so hot the rain was a nice relief, and also it felt pretty appropriate to be in the rainforest in the middle of some rainstorms. We went on another hike in Mididi National Park on the third day, after more boating to get there, where the highlight wildlife wise were some tracks from a large herd of 300ish wild pigs (like I haven't seen any of those before. yawn. haha) And then after a few more hours in the boat we arrived in Rurrenbaque in the evening of the 14th.

I would have loved to get my clothes washed, because they were all so sweaty and dirty and disgusting, and actually had dropped them at the laundromat, but then discovered that because pampas tours only leave on certain days, we had to leave the next morning. Which meant a sheepish return trip to the laundry place, where the girl hesitantly gave my clothes back, with an expression that said "you are so disgusting looking, are you sure you shouldn't have these washed?" Which probably would have been wise, considering that the dog at the tour agency was later so enthralled with my smelly clothes that he ripped open the bag and dragged my sports bra across the floor, much to the amusement of the staff and other clients.

Went out karaoking that night as well (and as I already told some of you, you may be surprised to hear that bolivian jungles are the hidden karaoke capital of the world. In a town where there isn't even a bank or a grocery store, they have karaoke bars on literally every corner. We're talking at least 20) However, finding a quality one proved a bit more trial and error, and the one we were at that night pretty much ignored all our requests for Cindy Lauper and Madonna, Backstreet boys, etc, until we basically stole the microphone from behind the counter and just started singing our own songs above the spanish ones actually playing. Soooo funny, but the karaoke supervisor girl wasn't all that impressed.

But then the pampas tour started the next morning. Three hours in a ridiculously bumpy jeep (oh and by this point, I had had some sort of allergic reaction to all the sandfly bites I had accumulated on the river, so my right foot was swollen to 3 times its regular size and superpainful. Only now starting to shrink) to get to a river, and the pampas, which is this huge network of rivers and wetland savannahish land that is just teeming with wildlife. On the 3 hours in the boat on the way to the camp, we stopped to swim in the river for a bit (although when we got back in only about 200m upstream there was a 3m alligator swimming-our guide assured us that they never attack in daylight. still a little disconcerting). There was a whole bunch of spider monkeys that we pulled up to and fed bananas, the guide even smushed some on our heads so they would come right on top of us and crawl all over. So cute, with a lot of little babies hanging on their mothers' backs. A ton of different birds, cormorants, eagles, falcons, parrots, etc. And where our camp was there were more spider monkeys, a resident alligator and nearby howler monkeys you could hear all night and morning. Really cool. That night after dinner we went out in the boat looking for alligators. Our guide caught a little baby one and we took turns getting pictures, petting it, etc., before he did the trick of touching its belly and putting it to sleep. Soooo weird. A ton of mosquito bites, despite the 100 percent deet, but totally worth it.

The next morning we went out to this more shallow area looking for snakes. Couldn't find any, despite wading waisthigh through waters where anacondas are known to congregate. But because it's the rainy season now, they're much more spread out and harder to find. But I did feel very JLo esque wading through there. Saw some more birds, and got bit by some fire ants when leaning against a tree (apparently a fire ant tree) to pour the water out of my boots. Hurt sooooooo badly, like a continuous wasp sting or cigarette burn or something for at least half an hour. Our guide said that the poison is powerful enough that only 250 or so of the bites can kill a person. Luckily I only got a couple, but still hurt like hell.

So no snakes, but after lunch we went out in the boat again and went swimming in the river in areas where there are tons of freshwater pink dolphins. So cool, and they even come up and bump your feet, playing with you under the water. At first it was kind of exciting, although always scared the shit out of me because the water is so dark that you can't see anything and all of a sudden you're just touched by something in this 12m deep river in the middle of the jungle. Could be anything. Creeepy. But they would splash around and stuff, and like I said it was pretty exciting, but for some reason they would not leave me alone, much more than any one else (most people didn't even get touched, but I actually had to get back in the boat after a while because it was starting to freak me out.) The only thing I can hypothesize is that my skin is so pale that under the water my body glowed fluorescent or something, I don't know. Very strange, but still really cool. And then we went out looking for more wildlife from the boat, and saw lots of monkeys, sloths, paradise birds, which are pretty much the ugliest things ever. And the most beautiful sunset I have maybe ever seen. Absolutely gorgeous.

Sadly had to leave the next day though, but not before my guide made each of us some customized jewellery (mine is a ring he whipped up in 15 minutes out of a cocoa nut shell, all buffed and carved with a really pretty design on it). He was a really nice guy, and knew soooo much about all of the wildlife it was unbelievable. He was definitely the most tarzan-ish one of all the guides on the river at the time, and everyone was visibly jealous of his skills. To be fair though, he told us that the community where he grew up is in the far northern jungles of bolivia, and from the closest city (Trinidad), you have to go 2 days by bus, 2 days by boat, and 7 days walking in order to reach his home. Really hard to imagine. But an awesome guy, and we tipped him well, especially when we found out that despite each of us paying 60 usd for a 3 day tour, he only gets paid 180 bolivianos for each tour (about 25 or 30 dollars). Absolutely horrible how the guides get treated here. Especially when they know their shit like he did.

But anyway, after one last jungle party in Rurrenbaque that night, I got in a jeep at 5am to head back down the death road for the 14 hours to LaPaz. It sounds like it would be horrible, given that it's mostly dirt winding roads around mountains, blind corners, etc., and it is kind of scary, but the scenery was so spectacular, I am so glad I didn't pay the 20 dollars more to fly, I would have missed so much.

But got back to the city last night, and spent most of today back doing some shopping at the witches market, catching up with people I know, trying to figure out how the next bit until my flight to brasil is going to go (still unsure), find out about buses, get laundry done etc. Feels like a lazy day, but really needed to be done. So probably will leave here tomorrow (won't hurt my feelings, after the hail I experienced this afternoon) for either the salt flats or the silver mines-will let you know!! More pictures are on the way, but I can't bear to tackle uploading them right now after more than 4 hours in this internet cafe already. Again, sorry for all the delays, but hopefully I can get better at this regular posting thing!!

much love

part 3 huacachina, lake titicaca

The hostel there had a nice pool, which turned out to be extremely necessary after only 2 hours of riding in a dune buggy at the mercy of a madman driver whipping around the huge sand dunes around the town (which is built around this oasis, really just a stinky mud hole, but compared to the bleak horizon of sand I guess you take what you can get). The dune buggy tour also included some sandboarding, which was fun but sooooo blazing hot, I actually got burned from the sand a bit. Kind of like snowboarding, only you can't really do much except go straight down the hill at top speed with minimal control or skill. Fun though. I only attempted to stand up on some of the hills, not all, because many that they dropped us off at were so steep that you couldn't even see the bottom of it when standing at the crest. That and several people did some really nasty face plants and shoulder tears etc. Didn't really think it was worth the pain.

We were only there for one night before heading off to Puno, but did manage to meet a few Australian guys who are also planning to be in Salvador for Carnaval, so maybe I'll end up meeting them again.

Then a long 17 hour night bus to Puno, on Lake Titicaca, which was more beautiful and bigger than I had imagined. We ran into a bunch of people we knew from the language school in Cusco there, so that was nice to catch up. Out of that city, we booked a tour boat to the islands of Uros (floating islands made of reeds that were first started around 1000 bc.) and Taquile (UNESCO named for the best knitters in the world-all male). The tour was really nice, and we even jumped in Lake Titicaca off the dock at Taquile, which was FREEZING cold, but definitely worthwhile to say that I'd done it.

The next morning we crossed the border over into Bolivia and found a boat at Copacabana to take us to the Isla del Sol, although we almost missed it because we forgot to change our watches 1 hr ahead. We stayed the night at the island there which was beautiful, really awesome views, but pretty cold at night (the lake itself is 3500m above sea level). Ran into this Australian couple who I've now met randomly at least 5 times (I think they're beginning to think I'm stalking them!) so us and a bunch of their friends hired a boat in the morning to the north end of the island, where there were some ruins in the place where the inca creation myth was started. Slowest boats EVER, as it took even longer to boat there than to walk back, even with a demoralizing drizzle that turned into downpour for the last half hour of the walk. Got back to pick up our stuff in time for the last boat to Copacabana, where we found a really cool little cafe run by hippies and I think I fell in a little bit of collective platonic love with them and their establishment. The best hot chocolate I have had in South America, and possibly ever, given how cold and wet I was, which started off the infatuation, plus the music was a little indie, reggae and funk mix that I was really loving, and then I used their bathroom which was not only clean and had toilet paper, but actually smelled of cleaner and had hand soap- UNBELIEVABLE!!!! And then when I came back out I saw the chef feeding the last of the hot chocolate pot to a stray dog, which was so cute, and one of the other hippie guys hanging around offered to cut my hair for free, which was suspect until he showed me his really professional portfolio from all the work he has down for fashion designers, magazines etc. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time because we had already bought tickets to La Paz, which ended up being quite the eventful bus ride.

Irene had some sort of food poisoning, and so she was feeling pretty nauseous-to the point where she got me to ask the bus driver to pull over, even though we were on this narrow, winding mountain road in the pouring rain. He kept refusing, just giving me a bag instead, and I was arguing with him, saying we had bags, but he really should pull over or she was going to barf everywhere. Suddenly I become aware of a big commotion behind me and I turn around to see Irene puking out the window, but because we're driving it is not only blowing back against the other windows but she is hyperventilating because she says that she can't breathe with the bus going so fast. Practically the whole bus, of mostly locals, is all gathered around her, yelling at the bus driver to stop, which he finally does, muttering under his breath, especially due to the cries from this one hippie guy sitting in front of us, whose dreadlocks she promptly pukes in on the way to the door of the bus. So then I'm half out of the bus trying to comfort her and half in watching our stuff, while the bus driver keeps revving the engine to try and hurry us up. Not the best ride ever, not to mentio nthat a few minutes after this episode we all had to pile off again in the driving rain so that the bus could ferry across a river while we were in a shitty little boat that met it on the other side.

part 2 new year's in lima

So after that rather eventful bus ride, we arrived in Lima to spend New Year's. The city was a LOT nicer than I had expected, given how many people have only negative things to say about it. Travellers I mean. The area of Miraflores is extremely modern, with fancier shopping malls than I have probably ever seen, Starbucks, beautiful malecon parks along the ocean, etc. Very manhattanish. But it was weird because we sat on couches outside the Starbucks drinking a post-christmas peppermint mocha, and something about the summer weather, triangle shaped park and outdoor cafe suddenly made me feel like I was in London sitting at one of the cafes by Victoria park. Very strange sensation, like anyone from home might turn the corner to meet me at any second.

The historical centre was really beautiful as well. Huge plaza, and lots of nice shops and cafes along walking streets. Didn't get to see the changing of the guard at the government buildings, but did go for a tour of the catacombs under the monastery of San Fransisco. The church itself was pretty interesting, although not as nice as the Cathedral in Cusco or the Basilica in quito, a little too much geometric-art deco design for my taste I guess. But all the tunnels and bones underneath the main floor were really cool to see, and weird to think of all those people as individuals at one point. Something like 40 000 bodies. The whole place though scarily reminded me of Mom and Dad's basement....... very similar decor.

Bought a new camera while in the city, along with new jeans, to replace the ones that actually disintegrated off my body. New Year's we spent at our hostel, which was located in the area of Barranco, a hip artsy suburb just outside of the miraflores area. Tons of tree lined streets and little cafes and boutiques along the beach. A really nice area, one that I think I would easily go back to to stay for a longer time. Did some paragliding on my last day in Lima, which actually wasn't very scary at all, and had a nice view of the main beach downtown.

Finally got my Brazilian visa processed, although I had to take new (smaller) pictures and wait 2 days. But all set for Carnaval now, and left the Point after about the 4th to meet up with Irene again in Huacachina (she had left earlier to go visit the Paracas islands, like the small galapagos of peru).

the last month (whoops!) part 1 christmasish

So sorry for all the very long delays, but it has been an amazing and hectic month, that's for sure.

Huaraz was beautiful. A nice little city up in the mountains northeast of Lima, with tons of people in traditional clothing and lots of real Peruvian food. Actually reminded me a lot of Cusco, only minus all the people trying to sell tourists postcards and finger puppets every two seconds. We stayed at this really nice family place there, and all of them were so generous and hospitable, which was especially nice since we arrive don Christmas Eve morning (plus we loved it cause it only cost 10 soles a night including great breakfasts! which translates into about 3 dollars). I had a little trouble adjusting back to the altitude so I slept a lot of that first day and didn't even want to get up and answer the door to our room when some of the other people staying at the hostel were trying to be friendly and brought us some cake at 10am when the breakfast bar was closing. Seriously....... so lazy. Refusing cake is just not like me.

They had a really nice Christmas eve dinner, with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and some delicious pasta salad, which I usually don't even like. But in order to make it to that, we all sat around the dinner table from about 7pm just drinking hot chocolate, telling travel stories, etc, which would have been a lot more fun if I wasn't feeling so tired and headachey. Some of the other people were pretty amusing though, including one czech guy who first refused to tell anyone his nationality, just saying that he was from "the dark side of the moon". But we waited around foodless until midnight, when everyone in the whole city ran outside and shot off fireworks, embers flying and falling everywhere, drank champagne and sang some ridiculous spanglish christmas carols, in which the line "vamos comer pavo" to the tune of "vamos a la playa" featured prominently. And then after dinner, the rest of us sat around and watched the family exchange gifts, which I thought would feel pretty strange if I were them, but I guess running and living in a hostel you must be pretty used to things like that. But just a very nice, homey Christmas overall, even if it did feel a bit like waiting for the ball to drop on new year's.

The next day (Christmas day), Irene and I hiked up a small mountain to this cross overlooking the city, which was really pretty and then we took a colectivo to a small town nearby to bathe in some hot springs that were a lot like Baños only the water looked even more disgusting. And then to this delicious chicken place for Christmas dinner (where we ended up going back to about 3 more times, partially because Irene knew her stomach could handle it and partially because the taste was just so tempting).

In the next couple of days, we arranged 2 day hikes, the first guided by a guy named Coqui from the hostel to Lago Churup. We had a colectivo (in which the man beside me had a live weaner pig in a burlap sack on his lap, and several sheep tied up on the roof rack, hilarious!) out to some town and then a 5 hour hike uphill, through some nice farmland and then almost straight up thi smountain, with the last half hour being rock climbing along the side of this rushing waterfall, which was absolutely my favourite part. I found it surprisingly easy, and have hypothesized that I must have been a mountain goat in a former life. But anyway, after the rock climb, you come to this small lake surrounded by mountains. The water was so blue, it was almost unbelievable, like a painting. Apparently depending on the type and angle of the sun or moonlight, the water changes into a multitude of colours, especially pure silver under a fool moon, which would have been really cool to see.

And then the next one we did was even more beautiful. Laguna 69 (not sure why it's called that)- in order to get there we had to arrange 2plus hours of changing colectivos on our own to find the departure point, and even then we were warned by the driver that if we didn't get back to that turn in the road before 4 or so, the last colectivo would be gone and we'd have no way of getting home. The first hour or so of the walk should have been pretty easy but I was dragging just from being so tired from the day before I think. And then there was a zigzag up a mountain-only had to stop briefly for a dead cow in the middle of the path that had apparently died in midst of giving birth, because both the cow and the emerging calf's legs had been gnawed on by animals. Or hungry hikers, I'm not sure. Then we came up to a small lake with a waterfall draining from it, which was pretty unremarkable except for that I was able to spot a little Andean fox hiding nearby, which was cool. Then we had to cross this big open marshy area, which resulted in Irene getting a soaker in a small creek, and then had to make another steep zigzag up, which was hard until you came around the corner of this ash gray mountain and caught a glimpse of a huge waterfall descending from snowcapped peaks all around, falling into a lake of the clearest blue water I have ever imagined. We sat there marvelling while eating lunch and I had a little half hour nap on a rock that manged to get me sunburned through my pants, but it was completely captivating nevertheless. Plus, we even made it back in time for our colectivo.

Pretty much took it easy then until the long (and so hot!) night bus to Lima, which was so sweltering that I had to strip down jus tto stop sweating. And then a piece of the bus got knocked off by going under a too low overpass on a detour, and then we got entangled in a bunch of low dipped powerlines, ensnaring the mangled mess of the air vents on the top of the bus. No one else except for the gringos seemed to be all that concerned though..........