Bolivia.... Part One

After getting our exit stamp from Brazil, we walked the 1000 feet to the Bolivian customs. There was another long line. We went to the back. After about 10 minutes we started chatting with a couple from the UK who were behind us in line who were trying to leave Bolivia and go to Brazil. Wendy and Gordon. They were in their late forties, and had quit their jobs in Bournemouth, England, rented out their house, and spent a year learning Spanish and volunteering. The places they had been and things they had done were amazing. They'd volunteered in the Galapagos Islands, in an orphanage in Bolivia, and been trekking deep into the Amazon. Things that I couldn't imagine doing at my age! Gordon was from Scotland and Wendy was from Wales.

After about two hours, the customs office closed. For the day. We had sat in line with no prospect whatsoever of actually getting our passport stamps, but the numerous soldiers standing around with their semi-automatic weapons didn't seem too interested in letting us know our efforts were futile. Wendy and Gordon had spent the night in the town the night before, so we took a taxi to their hotel with them. While we were driving we were telling our taxi driver about our border crossing issues, and by the time we had got to the hotel, he said, “Why don't you stay at a hotel near the border?” Good point! So we went straight back to the same spot we had got the taxi from, as there was a hotel right there. I was dubious about the cleanliness of the hotels, because the town was very run-down and dirty. But the hotel was very new, and was like a dream for us. It had a brand new remote-controlled air conditioner, a flat screen TV, a towel, soap and shampoo in the shower AND a brand new toilet roll with the wrapping still on it! And all for $21! We were so thrilled, since we'd just paid $50 for a crappy room on the Brazilian side.

We dropped our stuff then went out with Wendy and Gordon to grab a meal. We found a little place and got the chicken. They don't have menus, just typical local plates of food, so we just ordered chicken. Gordon and Jesse did some good beer drinking, due to the heat and frustrations of the day, and we ended up having 14 cans of beer and 3 plates of food for a total of $12US. Isn't that amazing! And about 2km from a town where all that would have cost probably $50. So strange, but great!

Then we went back and the guys played cribbage and we all chatted and hung out on the balcony. The next morning we got up at 6am and went and stood in line to get our stamps. We left our stuff in the hotel. Bolivia requires US citizens to pay $135 to enter the country (because they are pissed at the US for the “war on drugs” which pressures them to stop growing coca leaves, a big crop here, for purposed other then cocaine as well). We had researched that they would also want to see our yellow fever vaccination cards and want a passport photo. We had everything ready. After 4 hours we got to the front of the line and the ego-pumped customs soldier guy told us we needed photocopies of everything, including our credit cards. Yay! But that we could come back to the front of the line. So Jesse ran off and got those. Then we finally got into the office and handed our stuff over. We then had to fill out three different forms and stand in three different lines. It was crazy. It felt like we were trying to get into North Korea on fake passports. We finally got our visas, said goodbye to Gordon and Wendy, who were headed for the Brazilian customs line, and went back to the hotel for a nap. We were going to go straight to Santa Cruz, a 16 hour train ride, but we just couldn't get ourselves motivated, and we were loving our clean and cool hotel room. So we decided to buy our train tickets for the next day. But it turned out we couldn't have gone that day anyway, the tickets were sold out, and the buses weren't running because of a protest on the streets. Later that day, as we were eating more chicken, we met a couple from Cardiff, Wales, who were on their way to live in Canada for two years and squishing some traveling in before. They planned to fly to LA and drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Vancouver!

We finally made it out of Puerta Quijello and onto the train. The train went really slowly, but we slept a lot, so it wasn't bad. We rolled into Santa Cruz, stored our bags at the bus station, and went to the center to wait for our couchsurfing host to get off work. We had the “Americano” breakfast at a nice cafe downtown for $4.50US. It included 3 eggs, 3 big pieces of bacon, some hashbrowns, a croissant, a big glass of fresh orange juice and a cup of tea. Amazing. It was just amazing.

At 4pm we took a cab to Katie's house. She lived in the wealthy part of town, as she teaches science at a private school. But even the wealthy part of town looks like a kinda not great part of a US town. She's 25, from Portland, and an ex-Mormon. She's here teaching Biology at the nearby private school for rich kids in Santa Cruz. She was a really sweet, mature, independent girl. We also met her boyfriend, Daniel, a Santa Cruz local, when he went with us to see a movie downtown. It was so lovely to see a movie! I hadn't been to a movie theater in 4 months, which is super long for me.

Then the next day we left for a town 3 hours away called Samaipata. It is, of course, an old colonial town. But very near are some ancient indigenous called El Fuerte. We went up and took a tour of them, and it was really cool. I was more enchanted then Jesse and the other girls on our tour. On the top of the hill is a huge rock sort of covering the tip of the hill. Ancient peoples carved symbols and seats and other things into the rock because they believed that it was a holy place, due to the location. The hill is in between the Amazon, the Chaco and Andes mountains, and the sun rises and sets at the points of the surrounding mountains. There were ruins of Inca houses as well as Spanish conquistador houses.

After the ruins we went to an animal refuge, which turned out to be one of the best moments of my life! There were tons of monkeys just running around and they would come and sit on your shoulders. There were also dogs, kittens, horses, parrots, goats, a turtle, etc. There was just one puppy, a fat, adorable little guy who I just couldn't put down. At one point I had the puppy, a mama monkey, and her baby all on my lap. It was just cute overload and I never wanted to leave!

Samaipata is in the region where Ernesto “Che” Guavarra began his attempt at revolution in Bolivia. Since Jesse studied Latin American history and we both had a keen interest in Che, we wanted to try and do the “Che Tour,” which takes you to the place he was captured, killed, presented to the public after death, and buried. We went to talk to a tour company about the tour, but it was $150 per person for one night and two days, so we decided no, that we would try to go to just one of the spots ourselves, Valle Grande, where Che was flown after being assassinated, and laid out for the press and locals to view. And where, in 1997, his body was found buried under the airstrip.

After asking around about the bus with about 8 different people (Latin Americans don't like to be unhelpful by saying “I don't know.”), we determined the single daily bus to Valle Grande would go by the highway between 11 and 2pm. We headed down there by 10:30, and while we were walking we ran into the guy who owned the tour company we had visited the other day! And Jesse told him we were on our way back to Santa Cruz! And then he started walking with us down to the highway! A bus to Santa Cruz even stopped to see if we wanted a ride! Jesse sheepishly admitted we were trying to see if we could get a bus to Valle Grande... he didn't seem insulted though! 

Lost Post

I forgot to post my Chiloe blog from some reason. I just discovered it was missing a couple weeks ago! So here it is...

Chiloe:  Land of the Seagulls

Brasilia!!!!!!!!

The customs into Brazil was a bit confusing, and it was of course, so hot. We finally found the right line and got through and took a taxi to our hostel, where we were going to camp. We set up camp, then took a city bus to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls. The entrance was about $20 each. It was so amazing, and huge, hot, green. We took tons of pictures. It was worth the price.

We went back to town and got some stuff to make BLT's from the grocery store, and hung out with a couple. The guy was from Chile and the girl was from Switzerland. The next morning we went to the Argentine side of the falls. This involved taking a city bus to the border, getting stamped, taking another city bus to a town bus station, then catching a bus to the falls from there. It was a lot bigger, and they had more trails and activities. There was a little train that takes you up to the falls. We ate our packed lunch, then walked out to the main part of the park. Over the water, there were long platforms to the falls. We walked for about 20 minutes before reaching the main attraction: we were right on top of the falls. It was rushing down all around us. It was simply amazing, slightly terrifying, and unlike anything I've ever seen. There were so many tourists, however, which made it difficult to get pictures. We then went to the other viewing areas, and walked more platforms. It was really, really hot, and the spray from the falls was a welcome relief. Along the way you see lots of these animals that look like a raccoon type thing , which are really tame and want food. They are super cute, and we saw a lot of babies as well. We didn't have time to walk the jungle trail we wanted to walk because we found out too late that it closed at 3pm. So we went back to the hostel in Brazil, which involved the same process, except this time we had to wait an hour for our bus after crossing into Brazil.

The next morning we had to be up at 5am to pack up and get our bus to Curitiba, 8 hours straight to the east from Iguazu. It was a nice bus, and we were on the top at the front. We were awed at how nice the roads were, and when we stopped at a rest stop, I couldn't believe how nice the bathrooms were... they were free, spotless, and had toilet paper in them!

As we got to the city, the traffic got really really bad, and then our bus was pulled over. We saw a guy get taken off the bus, and the police searched his bags and found t-shirts he was bringing in from Paraguay, where the taxes are a lot cheaper. We finally got in and walked the ten minutes to our couchsurfers house. They lived in a big apartment on a hill. They were William and Bianca, a couple our age, who were so cool and welcoming. We ordered pizza and sat around chatting. We had our own comfortable room as well. The next day we went to the nearby market to get something to make for dinner. Jesse decided on fried chicken. Then we went home, and I stayed home, while Jesse walked around town. I was too hot and didn't feel great. So I chatted to Dad on Facebook and watched a movie on our laptop in bed. It was lovely!

Then everyone got home and Jesse started making dinner. William and Bianca were telling us about their year-long trip they had just finished 3 months ago. They went to Africa, then India, then followed the Silk Road through the Middle East and Asia. We were so enraptured with their stories and adventures. They had even gone through northern Iraq at one point. Bianca had hardly ever traveled before their trip and before leaving had asked William if she should bring her hair dryer! So cute!

The next day we headed off really early for Ilha do Mel (Honey Island). William took us to the train station, and we took this little train (the Sierra Verde Express) through the gorgeous Atlantic forest mountains for 3 hours to Paranaugua, a colonial town on the coast. It was really cool looking, but HOT. We then took a city bus, and then a small boat for 90 minutes to the island. So in one day we had traveled by car, train, bus, and boat!

We docked at a little pier and walked onto the island. It was very cool – no paved anything, only small sandy pathways through the wood. No motor vehicles allowed at all. Jesse went to find a campsite. They were all really expensive, and we found one finally that was slightly cheaper then the others, but it was really crappy. Because of the salt air and humidity, all wood buildings decay and rot really fast. There was no sink to wash your hands in the bathroom, the kitchen had roaches running around, etc. The sand got in our tent and into everything. There was also no reprieve from the heat, except for the Atlantic ocean! One morning I awoke to the outline of a small frog on our tent (it pooped on it too) and another morning there was a crab wandering around on it.

We spent 5 days on the island walking the beaches. There was an old and cool Portuguese fort, as well as depressed barracks up on the hill with cannons. We met a cool couple, Lucas, who is studying biology, dolphins, more specifically, and his girlfriend, and Lucas' dad. They (Lucas and his dad) were going to swim to this little island off the island, and had hired a local guy to follow them in a boat. But the local guy flaked out, so they decided to swim across the bay. They swam for a good 45 minutes, while Jesse and I walked along the waters edge with the girlfriend, before they came in. Then we all walked to the fort. We took the inland trail back. We stopped to look at a sign, and I felt a prick on my leg. When I looked down there was this massive bug on me, and when I swatted it away, there was a spot of blood! Gross!

We also saw wild iguanas on the island, which were so cute. We treated ourselves to two lunches out the entire time. The first, a “menu del dia” was fish and rice and salad. The second was much better and much cheaper – we got a burger and some fish and it was much bigger and cheaper.

We took the boat back to Paranaugua, and wanted to set off straight back to Curitiba, but the bus was sold out until 8pm. So we decided to stay the night in Paranaugua. No AC! But we had had a huge and awesome meal when we got off the boat, of beef stew tasting stuff, with rice and fries and beans. Brazilians love their beans! We were happy from getting to eat cheap and stuff ourselves, so we already considered ourselves lucky and the AC was a minor issue. Also, I was just so happy not to be sleeping in a sandy tent.

We got up and took the bus to Curitiba, then found a connection to Sao Paulo. The bus to Sao Paulo was 8 hours. We rolled in about 10pm, and didn't feel like figuring out the Metro, so took a $30 taxi ride to Edgar, our couchsurfer's, house. He lived on the 15^th floor of a really nice building. His apartment was pretty small, but so clean and modern, and I was just so happy to be there! We slept on the couch and on a cushion on the floor. Edgar walked us around his neighborhood the next day, and he and Jesse bought tickets for a local football game the next evening. The tickets were $20 each, which seemed absurd to me! That night Jesse made his beef stew, and Edgars girlfriend came over to eat with us. The next day Edgar gave us a walking tour of the downtown. It was really clean and attractive. We saw the opera house, the oldest building in Sao Paulo, and a building that was designed after the Empire State building. Also, there is a stock exchange downtown, and it's open on the weekends to view. It was really cool. We stopped for lunch at the huge market, and Jesse and Edgar had a local delicacy: massive pastrami sandwiches. There was a huge Italian immigration to Sao Paulo (largest population outside of Italy). We went to the Portuguese Language Museum, because it was free and we needed to get out of the rain (it rained every day we were there). But, we couldn't understand a thing so we went through pretty quickly. Then we went to the Memory Museum, which was a memorial for the victims of the dictatorship in Brazil, and it's located in the old jail where the victims were housed. We were so lucky to have Edgar walk us around and share his knowledge with us of Sao Paulo. We left really loving the city because of him.

Our last day there, we went down to the Japan town and had some asian buffet by the kilo. All the people selling things on the street would grab their stuff and dash as soon as they thought the cops were coming. We also visited a really really huge cathedral, which was stunning, as well as a church that was on the same place as the building where Sao Paulo was founded.

We had hoped to catch the 12:30pm bus to Parati the next day, but it was sold out, so we had to wait until 4pm. We rolled into Parati pretty late, took a cab to our campsite, and set up our tent, then walked into town to find food. We found a cute little pizza place, and I got a yummy caipirinha as well. The next day we walked around the adorable colonial town with cobble stones. And it was So. Freaking. Hot. We wanted to leave the next day, but again, the bus was sold out. It was even sold out the day after that. So we had to stay there for 3 days. We met some cool people from Spain, who were from Catalan and spoke Catalan, and an Irish couple, and some Swedish girls who had picked up some Argentine guys in Rio and were now traveling with them. We passed the days on the beach, which was a deep bay with little tiny islands all dotted in it. The water was too warm for a reprieve from the heat though! I was constantly getting in the cold shower for a couple minutes. One day we met the owner of one of the restaurants on the beach, who was a drunk French guy who had been traveling for most of his life.

We finally left Parati, and headed for Bolivia. We took an overnight bus to Campo Grande, then spent 3 hours in the bus station waiting for a bus to Quijillo, which is the town on the border. As soon as we stepped out of the bus people were asking us if we wanted a hostel or wanted to buy tickets to Santa Cruz, etc. They said that the border was really busy and took hours to get across. We just decided to ignore them and see what happened. We spent the night at a crappy hotel, but it had WiFi, and we had a pizza and beer down the street, happy knowing it was our last expensive Brazilian meal. The next morning we walked to the plaza to catch the local bus to the border. We got to the border after a ten minute bus ride and walked up to what looked like the line and was actually really short. We were only there for about 10 seconds when there was a stampede of people coming from the far end of the building, who lined up behind us. We realized that they had been waiting in another line and were told to line up where we were, and we had in fact, jumped in front of them unintentionally. An American guy in front of us said he'd been there since 6am... But we didn't do anything about it, but feel slightly guilty. It took us about 30 minutes to get our exit visa for Brazil, when it probably should have taken 2 or 3 hours. Oops. :)

Hot Equals Paraguay

Paraguay

We arrived at our couchsurfers house in Encarnacion and rang the bell. An old man walked out... we asked for Cesar . He looked a little confused. Then we said, “couchsurfing?” He recognized that, and smiled and let us in. But Cesar was at carnaval that night. We were so tired though, so we went to bed. The house was huge, and had a long driveway and another little house-thing at the back. It was two bedrooms with a bathroom in the middle and a kitchen on the side. There wasn't any air conditioning and it was HOT. The hottest it's been on the whole trip. I didn't sleep much at all. The next morning we met Cesar and also the other two couchsurfers who had been at carnaval until 5am. There was one from the UK and one from Denmark. Jesse and I went to exchange our money and then we walked around looking for somewhere to eat, which was not as easy as we thought. We found a little place selling some traditional Paraguayan food – a hotdog wrapped in pastry – kind of like a corn dog but not as good. Then we wandered down to the beach, which was really close. A new beach had just been constructed in Encarnacion two months ago. It was on the river, facing Posadas in Argentina. The water was shallow and warm. There were ropes marking how far we were allowed to swim out, because the river current is very strong and two people have already drowned because they swam out too far. The other couchsurfers had come with us, and we had borrowed some chairs and parasols from Cesar. We were sitting chatting when all of a sudden dark clouds rolled in and rain and hail started pelting us. We were soaked to our skin. Luckily we had Cesars cooler and could put our electronics in it. The wind was insane, and bent one of the umbrellas, and the rain was so hard it hurt! Probably should have got in the water, but we had to take down the umbrellas and save the electronics. We left when it stopped raining, and got home just in time before the next rain.

That night, Saturday night, we wanted to go to carnaval. When we got there there were no tickets left, so we had to buy some of a scalper and we payed $25US each, which was a lot, since they were originally about $10. But it was worth it. The stands were set up on either side of a 1000 meter long stretch of covered pavement. The stands were full of young people singing and spraying foam on each other. The floats and costumes were really really cool and we really enjoyed it.

The next day we went to see the Jesuit ruins near town. There are two, Trinidad and Jesus. The Jesuits were an order of Catholic priests from Europe who made large settlements all over Paraguay and parts of Argentina and Bolivia and Brazil. They employed the local indigenous in their settlements, while teaching them and converting them to Catholicism. This actually helped to save a lot of their lives. Eventually, Spain started to feel threatened by their large presence and banished them from all of South America. It was really cool to see the ruins. We wanted to see Jesus, but the bus that we were told would come never came.

On the way back we had to wait for a bus to come along for about an hour. There was nowhere to sit and ants all over the ground! When we got a bus, the guy charged us over because we are gringos. Jesse was so annoyed. But, it's only about 50 cents so we got over it.

That night we ate at an all-you-can-eat parrilla buffet. We ate pork, chicken, sausage, beef, and all the sides. We had a ¾ liter of beer as well. All for $22. It was great!

The next day we headed up to Ascuncion. We were going to take another bus 45 minutes to a small town nearby to stay with a couchsurfer, but when we saw the tiny, crowded bus, we decided not to try to ride it with all our gear. So we went into town and got a room... with air conditioning! It was so, so, so hot. It wasn't the cleanest place, and there were little ants crawling about. We went around the corner and got a schwarma wrap for dinner. Next day we walked around town. We were expecting to go to our couchsurfing host that evening, so we had stored our bags in the linen room at the hotel. We saw the landmarks: the Casa de Independencia, where the first revolutionaries against the Spanish gathered to declare independence from Spain. Paraguay became the first country to win independence.

There was the cathedral, cultural center, first railway station in South America, and an odd memorial with the ashes and caskets of the heros of Paraguay. It was just so unbelievably hot. We had to stop every hour to sit in the AC and drink water. The traffic was just crazy, there weren't many traffic lights and the roads were narrow and there was no paint or lines on them. We actually saw a small accident the first night.

We called our couchsurfer and he told us he had to go to another town for work that night, so we couldn't come over. So we went back to the hotel and got another night in the same room. When we got in, I noticed they hadn't changed the mattress sheet, and had just put a new towl and bar of soap on top of it. EW! I slept in the sleeping bag that night!

The next morning, Charlie, our host, came and picked us up and took us to his house in the suburbs that he lived with his family. We walked to the main street and got lunch and then took a bus to the little town we were going to go to the first day. It was cute, leafy, and hot. There was a castle-house there, which was cool. Then we sat at the lake for a while, then went back. That night Charlie was still exhausted from working the night before, so we had an asado with his parents and sister! It was great! Such a sweet, cute family. They made us a traditional Paraguayan tea drink, which involved putting a coal from the grill in the pot and draining it all!
 

The next day we took off for Ciudad del Este, on the east border with Brazil. It was a 5 hour bus ride. The bus picked up people along the way, and the aisle was totally crowded for hours. We were at the very back, and it was hot and stuffy. When we pulled into bus stations people would try to sell us things through the window, included beer. It got dark, and at one point there was a tiny roach crawling along the wall next to me. So gross.

We got into Ciudad del Este late, and took a taxi into town to a hotel, which was stupid expensive. The next day we went on a free tour of the Itaipu dam, the 2^nd largest in the world. It wasn't that cool for some reason... just a lot of concrete.

We then went back to town and went to eat Chinese food which was actually good, because that area of Paraguay has an Asian immigrant population. The next morning we walked through this massive market of everything for sale, and over the bridge to Brazil to see the Iguazu Falls.

Sunny Uruguay (except for all the rain and lightning and thunder storms)

The ferry ride to Uruguay was really cool. It was a huge boat, that was almost like a cruise boat. There was a duty free shop, an elevator, cafe, bar. It was exciting! We landed in Colonia del Sacramento, but took a bus straight to Montevideo because our couch surfing hosts were going to go out of town so we wanted to make sure we could stay with them. Our hosts were Pedro and Carlita, a young married couple. They had recently returned from 9 months traveling the world with Pedro's architecture school. They were super super nice people, and we had tons of fun. Pedro gave us so much advise on the city and other places in Uruguay to visit. We were really lucky yet again.
 

Our first day in Montevideo we went straight to the Paraguayan consulate to get tourist visas for Paraguay. It was closed. So we took a city bus downtown and walked around. It's a cool city – beautiful architecture and a laid-back vibe, unlike Buenos Aires, which has more of a pretentious “we're not Latin American” feel. And of course, Montevideo has beaches! But we just visited the musems and walked the streets. We ate at a place called The California Burrito Company, but it wasn't very good.

The second day we went straight to the Paraguayan consulate again and filled out the form. They said to come back at 3, so we walked down to the beach and chilled for a few hours. When we got back at 3 we had to wait until 4 for our visas.

We then went back to the house because we were going for a parrilla (grilled meat dinner) with Pedro and Carlita that night. They took us to a very local, well-priced place in their neighborhood. We got beef, blood sausage, and intestines! Ew! Of course I didn't eat them! Or the blood sausage! Then they took us to a cool bar nearby where we tried “grappa”, a local drink made from the stems of grapes.

Campsite after the rain

The next day we took a bus back to Colonia del Sacramento because it sounded really cool, and it sure was. But the arrival was not cool. It started torrentially pouring about ten minutes after we got there and Jesse was walking around looking for a room. He walked and walked, but couldn't find a thing. He tried about 6 hotels and none had a room. So we figured we'd have to camp in the rain. We got on a city bus, but found out in a minute that the campsite we wanted was closed. So we got off the bus. Luckily, we were near the bus station and so went to the information center. But it was closed. However, there was a flier for another campsite. We flagged a cab because we were over buses, and the campsite was very close to the town. So we set up camp! Luckily the rain held off the entire time we were setting up. Then we bought some gnoccis at the little camp store and cooked them up on our campstove.

The next day we headed into town to check out Colonia. It was super cool with it's old colonial houses and part of the old city wall still standing. It was remarkably cheap compared to Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It was only about $5 to go to about 5 little museums. Of course everything was in Spanish so I couldn't really read anything in the museums. Then we had lunch at a cute little place that was in one of the old colonial buildings. It was a cheese and salami tapas place. We got a plate that also had vegetable tarts. And we got a bottle of rose wine. It was only $25 for everything. During lunch we were chatting with the couple next to us who were from Buenos Aires. They weren't married, but were celebrating being pregnant with their fifth child, and I noticed the woman was drinking wine!

Then we went back to the campsite and ate the rest of our lunch for dinner. We chatted with the couple camping next to us too. We watched a movie (The Help) in the tent before we went to sleep.

The next day we got up and headed back along the coast to Piriapolis. It is a vacation town for Uruguayans. The campsite was literally across the street from the bus station. It was really cool! We set up tent next to this tiny stream. We quickly learned why no one else was camping in that spot: there were little sharp burs all over the ground from this small tree we were next to. And also, the beetles in the stream made the craziest noise, like kittens crying. I even dreamed about a cat crying that night! We walked down to the beachfront where everyone was out walking around (dinner doesn't happen until 10pm in Uruguay) and we sat and had a breadless burger that was topped with cheese, ham, a fried egg, peppers, and onions. It was actually really good!

The next day we went straight to the beach and laid around until about 8pm, and it was still light! When we walked along the beach we saw a lot of dead jellyfish and one dead stingray.

The following day we went to see the house the founder of the town had built. It was designed to look like a castle. We got out there on a city bus, but the interior of the house was closed, so it was kind of not worth it. We then took a 45 minute bus ride to a neighboring beach town called Punta del Este, which is fancier and bigger. We sat on the beach for a few hours. While walking up the beach we saw a dead baby seal! It was so sad. And strange, to see a stingray and then a baby seal.

The next day we went to La Pedrera, further up the coast, which is listed in the tour book as a small “surfer town.” It was really cool. There were no paved roads and everything was spaced out. We found a campsite which turned out to be full of loud young people keeping us up all night. But it was close to the grocery store, which was good. The first day there we sat on the beach. It was really windy and the waves were almost big. That night I awoke to the sounds of someone throwing up repeatedly. It was really gross. Turned out it was the guy in the tent two spaces over from us, who I then called Pukey the rest of the time. The next day we took a day trip to another small coastal town called Valizas, which was described as a “hippie town.” Again, there were no paved roads, and just houses with horses wandering around. It was really cool. The beach there was even windier and the sand would just blow onto our towels and cover them. There were houses totally surrounded and half-buried in the sand. It was really cool looking. And of course there were huge sand dunes which people would sandboard down.

Then we headed to Chuy, because we were going to take the interior route to get to Paraguay. Chuy is on the border with Brazil. So close in fact, that the main street is the actual border. So I crossed it, and went to Brazil! There are duty free shops lining the street as well. We stayed in the first hotel of our trip since leaving Santiago on January 3^rd. It felt pretty luxurious! And there was a great free breakfast which we ate a lot of. Our bus was at 8:30am so we were up and out on our way through the interior of Uruguay, which is a very uncommon trip for tourists. It was very country. There are only 3 million people in Uruguay, and you can tell! The cowboys here are called “gauchos” and the were their pants tucked into their boots, a pancho, a big thick belt, and a beret. And of course, everyone has their mate cup and hot water thermos.

We got to Tacuarembo, and asked the taxi driver from the bus station to take us to a cheap hotel. We inquired about prices and they were pretty high ($40US) and the guy was being a jerk, so we left. We found the other hotel in town, which was not very nice at all, but it was still $30US. We then got various food items at the supermarket for dinner – cheese, fruit, salami, pretzels, and went to sleep. It was really hot. The next day we had about 8 hours to kill before our bus left. We stored our bags at the bus station then walked around town. It was really hot. We saw a museum and ate lunch and lounged around in the plaza. We then got back on the bus and went to Paysandu, which is on the border with Argentina. We found a local dive bar that served BBQ and we had really cheap sausages. 

We headed to Santa Fe the next day and didn't get in until 1am. We found a cheap hotel near the bus station. It was a tiny tiny room. The next day we walked around Santa Fe. It was typically Argentine, with long, busy pedestrian walkways through shops and restaurants. We visited several museums. It started to rain and we ran back to the hotel. Our bus to Encarnacion, Paraguay, was very early the next morning. We got into Posadas, Argentina, which is right across the river from Encarnacion. We had to then take a local city bus across the border. Because we had to go through the immigration entry line that the locals don't have to go in, the bus doesn't wait for the foreigners and we had to take a cab to our couchsurfers house. It was about 11pm, and we were exhausted.

Last Two Months!

It appears that our savings did not last as long as we'd hoped!   Even though we've been couchsurfing, the cost of bus tickets has ripped a hole in our money bag and we've had to rearrange our plan and route.  I wanted to make sure to see Bolivia and Peru before I left.  So we are heading to Bolivia after we see Parati and here in Brazil, but have to skip Rio.  It will cost us upwards of $300 to get to and  into Bolivia... which leaves us at a budget of $55 a day to get to May 8th, our new departure date. We'll be going back to Santiago to say goodbye to our friends and pick up our bags.   I'll be going to Kentucky to see my parents and Jesse will go to San Francisco.  I'm not sure how long I'll be in Kentucky, as there is a family reunion in North Carolina in June and I may stick around to drive to that.  Also, if I miraculously find some good work in Kentucky I'll stay for that too. 

Since this new development Jesse has decided that he is going to go home and work until January and then come back to travel over 6 months to the countries we didn't get a chance to see (French Guyana, Suriname, Guyana, Columbia, Venezuela, Equador).   I am not so keen on that idea, as backpacking has been a real challenge and I'm not sure I'll want to do it again so soon!

So there is the new plan! Hopefully I'll see you all very soon!

I'm still catching up on blogging, I know.  I almost have the Uruguay post ready, then I'll do Paraguay and Brazil.