MACHU PICHU ON THE CHEAP

We went to Machu Picchu in the middle of April, 2012.

We had read in the Lonely Planet there was a bus route to Santa Maria, which would get you close to the train station on the western side of MP. The bus leaves from the Santiago station in Cusco, which you can easily walk to from Plaza de Armas. We got a ticket for the Salva Sur bus company, and the bus was scheduled to leave at 8am, but true to Latin American style, it left at 8:30. It was a really shitty, dirty bus, and there was a guy with a live chicken sitting behind us (which wasn't bad, it was a very well behaved chicken.) The buses leave all morning, but if you want to get to Agua Caliente before dark, I'd take one at 7am. The other bus company is Ampay, which we took on the way back, and although it was a nicer bus, there was a small roach crawling on the wall next to me. So, take your pick! The Ampay bus left at the same times from the Santiago station. They were also the same price, which was 15 Soles (about $6). This is a 5 – 6 hour bus ride, so it's pretty cheap.

The bus doesn't stop for potty or food purchasing, really. It did stop, I'm not sure if it was to let people pee, but it was not at a bathroom, so if you peed, it would have to be in the woods/nature surrounding. People do get on the bus to sell food, however. I got a snack, which was a boiled egg surrounded in mash potato and deep fried. Really good.

The drive is beautiful. It winds slowly up a huge mountain, and it also goes through a very cute town.... If you have time and want to be leisurely, you could even get off here and spend the night if you want. It's touristy, with hostels and lots of restaurants.

Then you go on to Santa Maria, which is a dusty, ugly town. They will announce it when you get there, since a lot of people get off. When you get off, taxi drivers will surround you and want to take you to the next town, Santa Teresa, or the Hydro station, which is where the train station is too, and is about 8km past Santa Teresa. The last train to Agua Caliente is at 4:30pm and costs $18 USD one way, so if you want to catch that, then tell your taxi driver you want to leave now. If you want to walk from the Hydro station, it's about a 2.5 – 3 hour walk. This is why you have to start as early as possible, because walking in the dark sucked. We did it. Sunset is around 5:45 in April. We paid 15 Soles to take a taxi straight to the Hydro station from Santa Maria. If you are going to do the same, and walk up to Agua Caliente from there, you should get something to eat in Santa Maria, so you have energy. The walk isn't hard, just long. But if you want you can stay the night in Santa Teresa. It's got several hostels and restaurants, and is a nicer town then Santa Maria. The ride to Santa Teresa should only be 10 Soles. Also, we wanted to leave right away, because we thought we might want to catch the train. At the time we didn't know the train to Agua Caliente was $18 USD. Our driver was lagging, trying to get more people in the cab (they will PACK it in) and so we got out and took another driver. The drive is on the edge of a mountain, and is not paved, and goes through rivers, so it's a bit freaky, but the drivers seem very competent. Our driver stopped briefly in Santa Teresa and put 3 more people in the car, so there was a total of 7 passengers (2 in the trunk, it was a station wagon).

We got to the Hydro station at 4:30 on the dot, and when we found out it was $18 USD to ride the train to Agua Caliente, we decided to walk. It was drizzling, so we bought ponchos for 2 Soles as the station, and Jesse bought a couple beers. There is food and drink there too, as well as a hostel that looked pretty decent.

To walk up to Agua, you literally follow the train tracks. You can cut up the hill at a couple places. There is a red, dubious looking metal bridge, and there are several bridges over rivers that you have to walk over the wood slabs of the tracks, which was slightly freaky, especially in the dark. If you don't want to walk in the dark, I'd suggest checking what time the sunset is and planning accordingly. After a couple hours you will get to a shabby looking “train station,” but you need to keep walking along the tracks another 20 minutes to get to the town of Agua Caliente. You will walk through 2 tunnels and over the tracks over several small rivers. The tracks will take you right to the middle of the town. There are nice restaurants and hotels everywhere. We stayed at the first hotel on the right of the tracks as you walk into town, something Pichu. It was only 20 soles a person, and it was clean, with warm water. Of course, it's pretty loud due to the train.

It's such a touristy town and over-priced, so the restaurants are all stupid expensive. Our hotel didn't have a kitchen, so we had to eat out. There wasn't much in the way of a grocery store anyway. We found a place deep in the town on the right side of the tracks, that had a soup and main course for 7 soles. Everything else was around 20 for a set lunch, and of course, went much higher then that.

When you get to town, go and buy your Machu Pichu tickets right away, since they only let 2,500 people in a day. I'd check the weather before you leave Cusco, just to make sure it won't rain, although on the day we went it wasn't supposed to rain, but it started raining at about noon. So bring your raincoats anyway!

We took the bus up from Agua to MP. It's $9 each way, and a bit more for only one way, so if there are two of you, get one round trip ticket and use the return trip as your other one way. They don't look at the tickets.

We didn't get a guide at MP, but there are tons of them at the gate. We had read about it before hand, but a guide would have been nice to explain some of the details of the rocks. There are tons of tours though, so we listened in on them.

The ticket to MP says you can't bring food or plastic bottles inside, but there were people everywhere with both...

We took the stairs back down to Agua. It was pretty painful, after walking the day before and all around MP for a few hours. But it was also cool. When you get to the bridge at the bottom of the hill there is a little restaurant. We had a beer, before continuing along the road to Agua. But we hitch hiked almost immediately, which was nice, since it was raining!

The next morning we left to walk back along the tracks to the Hydro at 7:30am. We weren't sure how it was all going to work out regarding taxi's and buses. We knew a train left Agua for the Hydro at 8:30, so there would be taxi's waiting for those passengers at about 9:30, and another train left Agua at 12:30. We got to the Hydro station and there was a mini bus waiting which was going to a town ten minutes walk from Santa Teresa, and cost us 4 soles each. So we took it. We saw people along the road walking from Santa Teresa to the Hydro, which seemed a bit crazy, as it's about 8km and it's not as nice a walk as along the tracks to Agua.

We got out of the mini bus down the road from Santa Teresa, and walked a few minutes, then up a huge staircase, then to the right, and we were in the town. We walked down to the main square. At first we couldn't figure out where to get a cab. There were three empty ones lined up, and we waited by them, but nothing happened. Jesse went to ask some random people where to go, and they directed us to a street connected to the main square that had hostels and restaurants on it. There was a cab hanging out, who said he'd take us to Santa Maria for 10 soles. When we got to Santa Maria, the cabby told us we could buy a mini bus ticket for 30 soles, Salva Sur bus for 15, or Ampay for 15. The ticket offices are right on the main strip that the buses and cabs stop at. The Ampay place has a sign out front and is a restaurant/shop. We got the next Ampay bus, which was at 2:30, which meant waiting over 2 hours. The bus didn't come until 3pm, however.

We got into Cusco at about 8:30pm.

We had left our big bags at our hotel, and just booked a room for that night at the hotel as well.

Peru... the last country.

We got a bus out of Copa the next day to go to Puno, in Peru. In Puno there are “floating islands,” which are literally made out of mud and reeds and kind of float in shallow water. When the Inca showed up they pushed the local people out, and they made these islands. It was pretty cool, and we bought a couple hand made things. We met a couple from Louisiana on the boat who had just graduated from med school at Tulane, and were on a 3 week vacation before they went to their residencies in Sonoma, California. We had dinner with them that night. The next day my stomach wasn't great, and we were a bit hung over, so we just lounged around and watched TV. Then the next day we went to Cusco, so we could get to Machu Pichu.

We got a pretty good hotel in Cusco, only 50 soles for a room a night, including breakfast. My stomach got really bad the next day, and I couldn't walk around town much. It is a really really cool town. There are tons of old colonial churches, but what makes them cool is that a lot of them are built using Inca foundations and bottom stones, so you can see them along the bottom of a lot of buildings. Cusco was a major Inca city before the Spanish came and pillaged it. The Inca used gold as decoration, and there were whole plazas in gold with gold statues. Yeah, those got stolen. The huge Inca stones are incredible. They cut them so exactly to fit together so they didn't have to use mud or any other type of sticking substance. It's amazing how they did it.

The next morning we were planning to go to Machu Pichu, but we found out too late that the buses only left in the early morning. Which was fine with me, to have another day to recover from my stomach. We went to another museum, the indigenous art museum, and it was really good. Then we ate lunch at this super cool British pub. I had fish and chips of course! With mushy peas! Jesse had bangers and mash.Both really good. It was strange to be in such modern, comfortable surroundings like Cusco (even though Cusco is the most colonial looking place I've probab

We left early the next morning on an adventurous adventure to get to Machu Pichu for $28. This involved a 6 hour dirty bus ride up to the top of what felt like the tallest mountain in the world, winding around back and forth for hours, a cramped taxi ride along the edge of another mountain, but on an unpaved road, and then a 3 hour walk along train tracks, over bridges and under tunnels, half of which was in the dark and all of which was in drizzly rain.

BOLIVIA PART II

After our tour, we took the 1am train from Uyuni to Oruo (yes, AM). We stayed there a night, before we went to La Paz, because we were couchsurfing in La Paz, and couchsuring is pretty tiring, because you have to be polite and tidy and sociable, even when you're exhausted. So, we wanted to rest. But when we got to La Paz the next day, our host showed us to an apartment on the 9^th floor of a downtown building and said, “This is your apartment, ours is one floor up.” I almost cried with joy! We hadn't had access to our own private bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen in 5 months. I was so excited. The view was amazing as well. La Paz is entwined in a deep valley with hills and mountains. We could see the whole of one face of a mountain, with all the houses on it.

The first day there, our hosts, Martin and his wife Sisi, took us to their country home, where they made us an amazing asado. Martin brought his parents domestic assistant and their spaniel, who was actually named Mini Me! I was also so grateful for a good meal, because Bolivian food is not something someone from San Francisco can easily adapt to. It's mostly chicken and rice, pork chop and rice, or some variation. Martin made us barbeque chicken and sausage. There was an avacado salad, a cheesy rice dish, and potatoes. It was amazing! Then the clouds rolled in, and we went home. That evening Martin and Sisi drove us around town so we could see it at night. Then they took us to the mall and we had coffee.

We spent our days in La Paz walking around, visiting a couple museums, eating, etc. We also had internet in the apartment, so we spent time uploading pictures, emailing, etc. I tried to call Mom, but as always, the connection was bad.

In La Paz there is a jail where a British man was jailed for five years for trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country in 2000 and wrote a book about his experience.. He became a “tour guide” at this very, very strange jail, where prisoners lived in apartments which they had to purchase when they entered the jail, with their entire families. There were restaurants and shops in the jail as well, because the prisoners needed to make money. The Lonely Planet guide book used to list this jail as a thing to do in La Paz, because the British man was running tours. However, today, Lonely Planet does not advise it. But Jesse and I had both read the book and wanted to at least see the outside. The jail is on a square, so we just sat in the square and watched as women and children walked in and out of the door. There were other backpackers there watching too! The book is going to be a movie with Brad Pitt, apparently, if it's made.

We finally left La Paz after 5 days and headed to a small mountain town called Coroico. To get to it, you have to take the road that replaced the famed “death road.” The replacement road was pretty freaky too, as it's really really high, with lots of corners. There were three little girls sitting in front of me on the minibus, and one of them had a black and white cat in her back pack. The cat sat on their lap sleeping the entire trip. And when we got to Coroico, she zipped it up entirely in her backpack!

In Coroico, we stayed at a resort/hostel on the side of the mountain. We were camping. The campsite was pretty nice, with a nice fire pit and covered table. There were two German guys camping next to us, who we ended up hanging out with the next two nights, cooking meat on the fire and drinking rum and cokes. They had purchased motorcycles in Sucre, and so they took us on the back of their bikes to see some nearby waterfalls. It was pretty freaky at first, but I got used to it. They are planning on riding all the way up through California with the bikes. They are both mechanical engineers, so were able to work on them when they broke down.

There were horrible sand flies in Coroico, and we got bitten up. And the bites itch and leave awful marks.

We were in Coroico over Easter weekend, which, for Latins, is a week long celebration called “Semana Santa.” Trying to leave town on Monday to go back to La Paz was not easy. Everyone had left the city to go to the towns for a getaway weekend. During our efforts, we met a couple from New Zealand who we joined forces with to hire a taxi to get to La Paz. It was a mini van. We went back along the same road, and after a couple hours we were back in La Paz. Sophie and Oliver took us to the hostel they had stayed at, and it was pretty nice. We booked a tourist bus for early the next morning to take us to Copacabana, on the border with Peru. Then we went out for dinner, and they took us to a great restaurant they knew, where we got a massive leg of lamb for about $6 USD. It was amazing!

We were up early and the bus picked us up at our hostel (such luxury!) and it took us a few hours to get to Copacabana. At one point we had to cross part of lake Titicaca. We had to get out and buy tickets for the boat, ride this tiny boat across, while our bus was put onto a barge and ferried across.

We got into Copa, and the four of us found a decent hostel and went to eat. We were there to see Isla de Sol, which is an island in Lake Titicaca that the Inca believed the sun god was born on. We booked our tickets for the next day, but it was pouring and pouring, so we decided not to go. Sophie and Oliver just left town, but Jesse and I wanted to see the island, so we waited until the next day, which was beautiful. While we were on the island we saw the two German guys from Coroico! We knew they were going there, we just didn't know when.

We had planned to stay the night on the island, but because of the weather we didn't get to. So the tour was kind of rushed. We went to the north part and took a walking tour of the ruins. We walked along an old Ampaya-laid stone pathway. The Ampaya were living on the island before the Inca showed up. Then we got to the rock, where the Inca believed the sun was born. There were ruins of an old temple there too. And under the water, near the island, were the remains of another temple, which Jacque Custeau had discovered. The lake had risen over the years and buried the temple. Then we had to sprint back down to dock and take the boat to the south part of the island, where we climbed up some huge Inca steps, which the villagers still used as a functional part of their city.

We got back to the mainland, had dinner, then got a drink with the German guys. They told us their crazy story about trying to get to Copacabana. Their GPS had them go through Peru. When then entered, they didn't do the paperwork for their bikes, so they thought they'd just sneak back into Bolivia, then do the paperwork when they went to go back into Peru. Seriously. This is what they thought. So when they went around the chain to get into Bolivia, of course they were caught by the cops, who kept them waiting and waiting in customs, until finally, they hinted that they would let them go if they gave them money. They wanted $100 USD, and since there was a sign on the wall that said “No Corruption Here,” the German boys were not having it. They got away with 40 bolivianos. So crazy.

Well... here we are in Santiago!  I have some catching up to do on my blog!  We got here Monday late afternoon, after a 30 hour bus ride from Arica, Chile.  We are staying downtown with our friends Alex and Naoko.  We've done nothing but hang out with them and our other friends since we got here, drinking beer and eating!  Yesterday was May Day, and so no Chileans work.  None of the stores were open. So we went to the park and sat around and then made pizzas.  It was fun.

Today I'm going to run a few errands, get some gifts, do laundry.

I've arranged to meet up with a few old students, so I'm excited about that!  I really miss my students.

It feels weird and wrong to be leaving Santiago. We have so many good friends, and we love the city. It's got great weather (apart from the smog!), great public transit, great parks and museums and malls and culture.  And great people.  If I didn't have to teach English, and if I could actually speak Spanish, I'd rather live here then the States.

My flight to Kentucky is on May 9th at 1am.  

I will keep posting about our last weeks in Bolivia and Peru!

Chao!
annie

Bolivia - Part II

After about 5 minutes of waiting, a collectivo (taxi that takes several passengers), asked us where we were going. We said Valle Grande, and he ushered us in. We thought it was just too super easy. And it was. We stopped in the next town, the end of the ride. We asked him how to get to Valle Grande, and he said there was a bus across the street in 2 hours. We settled down on the sidewalk and waited. The bus finally came, half an hour late, and as we were about to get on, a taxi driver asked us if we were going to Valle Grande and we said yes. He said he'd take us for 30 Bolivianos. So we went with him instead. It took about 2 hours to get there, winding through the mountains. I still didn't feel well from food poisoning the night before, so I just laid in exhaustion in the back seat. 

We got to Valle Grande, and Jesse found a hotel. We went to see about Che tours, and were told we could have one the next day. So I found a packet of soup and had them cook it for me at the little cafe we went to for lunch. Then we rested. The next day we had our tour to the Che memorial, on the edge of town. You can only go with a tour guide. It was the place where Che's body was found in 1998. The military had buried him, along with 4 other combatants, under the airport runway, near the village graveyard. In 1996 an American journalist had asked the military where they buried him, and they told him: in between the airport and the graveyard! So a team of people from Argentina and Cuba started to search. The memorial is huge, and has pictures of Che throughout his life. But his body has since been moved to Cuba. Then the tour guide took us to another spot, where more bodies had been found, including the body of Tanya, the only female combatant in Bolivia. Then the tour was over! Pretty short. We had to walk back to town, where we went to see the hospital washing room where Che was laid out after he was assassinated, so the press could see he was dead. Most of the townspeople didn't know who “the Che” was, but they went to see him anyway. Then we went down to the Che museum in town, which was really good. There were accounts from some of the nurses at the hospital and journalists about the days after his death. Very interesting, too, to read why Che was in Bolivia, and what his plan had been.

We left Valle Grande and went back to Santa Cruz. We were on a tiny, rickety bus, which became totally crowded. At one point and old man got on and sat on the steps right in front of us and put his arm across Jesse's legs! Huge personal space cultural gap!

In Santa Cruz we stayed another night with Katie, and Jesse made Sheperd's Pie and her boyfriend came over. Then we headed to Sucre on a 13 hour overnight bus, which was about 5 hours of backtracking for us, but we hadn't wanted to bring all our stuff with us to Samaipata and Valle Grande. The bus to Sucre was awful. The people behind us smelled so bad of body odor, that we had to keep our window open all night. The bus stopped at this truly awful restaurant in the middle of nowhere, so we were starving, and the bathrooms were absolutely disgusting. The only other time the bus stopped was when it got a flat tire. For about 6 hours there was a man lying on the ground next to me, and his feet where poking into my bags. But, when we got to Sucre we felt better, the sun was out and Sucre is a really lovely town. Jesse found a decent hostel, and we took a much needed nap. Sucre had lots of restaurants catering to tourists, which was great! Bolivian food had quickly gotten boring for me. We booked a ticket on a tourist bus to go up to a mountain town, Tamabuco, for their annual dancing festival, which Evo Morales was supposed to be at. We had met a girl, Savannah, in our hostel and she decided to come with us. She was an ex-model from London who had been traveling on her own for 8 months! The festival wasn't that great, as we couldn't see much due to the crowds, and the dancing is not really dancing, but more of shuffling feet around. The costumes were cool though, and the town was very interesting. While we were there we ran into our friend Katie, who had lived in Santiago and taught English as well. It was very random! THEN we also ran into a German couple we had met in Chile Chico months before. And we also ran into a French couple we had met in Ihla do Mel in Brazil! All in the same town, in the same day! It was very random. We met up with the Germans and their two German friends for dinner. We've met a lot of Germans on the trip, and they are always really fun. We ate at the local market, which was really cheap and unhealthy!

The next few days we walked around Sucre. One day we went on a hike with a local guide, to a waterfall in the mountains. He could speak Quechua, the local indigenous language, so I filmed him speaking it.

We met up with the Germans and Katie for two more nights.

We finally left Sucre on a bus to Potosi, which is the worlds highest city. So, on this trip we have been to the worlds southern-most city and now highest! It was definitely hard to breathe there! Jesse didn't feel well at all. I felt okay, just out of breath and almost nauseous at times. Jesse spent two days in bed mostly, and I walked around town. We didn't go to the mines, which is the thing everyone does in Potosi. They take you into active mines, where you are supposed to give presents of coca leaves, dynamite or alcohol, to the miners. Apparently, it's really hot and cramped in there. I'm a huge wuss, so I wasn't down with it, and Jesse decided not to go after not feeling so well.

After Potosi we left for Uyuni, where we were going to go on a three day tour of the beautiful surrounding nature, including a massive salt flat. It was a long, cramped bus ride through the desert. At one point a guy got on with a bag that had a baby vicuna (like a llama) in it! We rolled into town about dinner time, and it was crawling with tourists. We found a decent hostel, ate, went to bed. The next day we shopped for our tour. There were dozens of tour outfitters. We found one that was offering the tour for 750 bolivianos, and said we'd get to stay at a hotel made entirely of salt. This sounded cool to us. But we went to a couple more places to check out their tours. We found a place that was offering the same tour for 700 bolivianos. We went back and told the first guy about it, hoping he'd drop the price of his tour, but he said he wouldn't. He also said the other tour agency was lying, that they didn't really stay at the salt hotel. So... we went and told the second tour agency that the first one said they were lying. The owner, a woman, told us it was in the contract to stay at the salt hotel. So we booked it. 

We left about 10am the next day. There were two Bolivians, one Chilean, a guy from Utah, and us, in an SUV. From the minute our driver got in the car, he was awful. He was not interested in us at all. And he kept saying the salt hotel was really far away.

Our first stop was the train graveyard. It was a bunch of rusting old trains, and was actually really cool. All the other tour groups were there too, which is slightly annoying, but that's traveling! Then we stopped briefly at a small town in the desert, where people were selling all the usual local crafts and junk. Our next stop was the salt flat, and it was really cool. We took lots of visual-trickery like photos, ate lunch, and then left for the salt hotel. Or so we thought. Our driver, Jimmy, took his time, dallied, stopped off back in Uyuni (we had to go back the same way because there was too much rain to drive over the salt flat) at several places, while we waited in the car. Then he told us that the salt hotel might be full, and we should go to this other town, to a normal hostel. We all argued with him and said we wanted to go to the salt hotel. So he took us. But he let another car pass us, and when we got to the town the salt hotel was in, he didn't go straight there. He stopped at some other place he pretended was the salt hotel. Then we went to it, and of course, it was full. So he drove us 3 hours in the dark to another hostel, which was awful. When we got there Jesse heard the lady say to him “Why are you so late?” Which pretty much confirmed for us that he was scamming his boss and us. I was so livid!

The rest of the tour, Jimmy was the same lame person, but the scenery was beautiful, and we enjoyed it as much as we could. At least all our tour mates were cool, and we had fun hanging out with them. The second night we stayed at a really really bare bones place, and it was freezing. There was no electricity, and our dinner sucked. We had to get up at 5am in order to get to the geysers. It was sooo cold. But then we went to a hot spring, and sat around in it until Jimmy came running over yelling at us to hurry up. Hahah.

Crossing the border from Corumba, Brazil to Bolivia

I'm posting this for other US citizens (and Canadian, Australian, New Zealand) who need to get into Bolivia from Corumba, Brazil. It's not the easiest process.

Crossing the border to Bolivia from Corumba, Brazil.

What you need: 

1. $135 USD in crisp, new bills. There is a money exchange just past the Bolivian border, which you can go to before you get your stamp.  They are aware that the bills need to be crisp.  I've heard people using Bolivianos, but they really want USD.

2. Two copies each of your passport photo page, credit card, and Yellow Fever vaccination. This may vary depending on how hard the officials want to be at the time, but on the Bolivian side there are cheap copy places.  

As soon as we stepped out of the bus in Corumba, men were asking us if we wanted a hostel or wanted to buy tickets for the train or the bus to Santa Cruz, etc. They were selling them for $20 more then you'd pay if you bought them yourself so keep this in mind. 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 Hotel America 80 Reales, but it had WiFi and free breakfast of bread, cheese, ham, queque, coffee, juice, rolls. However, you can go to the border, cross to Bolivia without your stamp, and stay in the really nice, new and clean Hotel Vini for $21 USD a night, less than half the price, for double room with AC, flat screen with cable and brand new toilet paper, soap, and even shampoo! You can also get your train or bus ticket for Santa Cruz. This is because you can simply walk across the border and no one stops you. Yes, bizarre. I know. Hotel Vini is literally 1000 feet from the border. The Brazil and Bolivia custom offices are only 1000 feet from each other. It's super close and super easy. This way, you can get up early and leave your stuff in the room and go get your exit and entry stamps. If it's not Sunday, you could do this any time, except on the Bolivian side, they close for lunch between 1 and 3 I think. The Brazilian customs doesn't. On Sunday, the Bolivian customs closes at 1pm for the entire day. We spent 2 hours in the line and it closed... so have a look at the length of the line and see if you'll make it before 1pm. :)

Also food is so much cheaper in Bolivia.

Depending on the day you try to get your stamps and the time of year (after carnival the border is much busier) you may have a two day process crossing, so why pay Brazilian prices if you don't have to?

We read in our Lonely Planet that all “procedures” to cross the border had to be done at the police station at the bus terminal in Corumba. We thought this was probably untrue, but Jesse walked over from Hotel America in the morning to check it out. There was no need.

If you decide to stay on the Brazilian side or just want to get to the border quickly and cheap you can catch the city bus. To get this bus, you have to go to the small plaza near a church in the center, not the main plaza. You will see the bus stop on one side of the plaza, it's covered and there are a couple lanes. The bus to the border will say “Frontera” on it, and we heard it comes every half hour, but we were there on Sunday, so it may have been every hour, cos we felt like we waited forever. The bus ride is only ten minutes. Then you get off and the border is 500 feet away, and you get in line. Yes, there were lots of people there, so if you want to be first in line you probably need to get there at 5am just to get out of Brazil. Keep in mind you may have another 2 to 3 hour wait to get your entry stamp to Bolivia. It really makes no sense to stay on the Brazil side but if you want to spend the money and time, get there early.

*When you get into the Bolivian customs office they will have you fill out about three different forms at different times and have you wait in three different lines. FUN! 

If you do stay on the Bolivian side the town has internet cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, pharmacies, a bank with an ATM.

We went to buy our bus tickets to Santa Cruz but the bus was not running because of a blockade/protest. So we went to the train station. The train station is near the bus station. It's a 15 Boliviano taxi ride from the border and keep in mind you can pick up your tickets before you even get your stamp into the country, this may be a good idea since the tickets can sell out quickly. This happened to us the trains for that day were sold out, so we took the 4pm train the next day which cost 127 Bolivianos per person, it was actually cheaper to stay the night because the train we missed was 251 bolivianos. The one we took was the Oriental, and it was perfectly acceptable. They do serve hot food on it, but small little plastic boxes, and they ran out by 7pm, it is recommended to bring food. Also they only have Sprite, Fanta, Coke, and water to drink. They don't serve alcohol, so bring a bottle of rum but keep it hidden as they try and say there is no drinking on the train. If you do forget food, when you stop at stations, people sell you food and fruit through the windows but you are taking chances since you never know what you are getting when you buy food through the window of a train or bus.
Good luck, hope this helps. 

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. 

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires-Jan 12^th to Jan 18th

We rolled into Buenos Aires and stored our bags at the bus station because Morgan, our couch surfing host, wouldn't be home from work until 8. We walked around the area near the bus station, which is the downtown area of Buenos Aires. It was so cool! The architecture and feeling of the city is so spectacular, and it doesn't feel like a South American city. There are narrow streets with tall concrete ornate buildings like you'd expect to see in France or Italy. We had lunch at an Irish pub because I read in our Lonely Planet guide book that they had typical Irish food. I got a chicken pot pie, which was pretty good. Then we took a cab to Morgan's house. He lives at the north corner of a neighborhood called Palermo. It's sort of the “expat” neighborhood, and is filled with really nice shops and bars and restaurants. His apartment was really really nice, on the 10^th floor, and had a big balcony. Morgan is from New York, is Jewish, and a quirky, humorous Shakespeare-loving, thought provoking conversationalist. He has lived in Buenos Aires for 10 years and is an entrepreneur. His main business is a PR/Marking business. He operates completely out of the US and was “illegal” in Argentina for 8 years, before he married his Argentine wife. His wife was in New York guest lecturing at Colombia's law school while we were there (yeah, I know! And she's only 25!) I was completely shocked about this, but he explained that the Argentine government simply doesn't care about gringos coming and working there. I got a sense of how crazy the Argentine government is: how corrupt, lax, inefficient. He was also telling us that the Argentine peso's value crashes every 10 years, so people don't put their money in a bank but buy apartments and cars (because cars actually increase in value over time due to inflation and they sell the apartments after 2 years) or keep US dollars in Urugauyan banks.

The first day we went to the US embassy so Jesse could get more passport pages in his passport. It took a couple hours. Then we walked around Palermo for the rest of the day and that night Morgan showed us around the area he lives. We stopped by a “gringo” bar which served guess what! Hamburgers! (Morgan was a friend of the owner and said the government had come to shut them down for some type of ridiculous infringement, with the purpose of bribing them. But, the owner, being a gringo, would not pay the “fine” and his bar remained closed for 2 months. The staff had to quit and money was lost.)

I had a fernet and coke, the national Argentine drink. The second day we went down to the “White House” of Argentina, La Casa Rosado, which is on the main square of the city, where they city was first founded as a Spanish holding. The Casa Rosado is where the presidents are supposed to live, etc. There have been many impassioned speeches by leaders from the balcony facing the huge square over Argentina's turbulent political history, including of course, Eva Peron.

Then we walked all the way down to SanTelmo, which is an old part of the city and has cobbled streets and old bars. There are tons of antique shops and ferrias all over the place. And I love antiques! I love cameo jewelry (the side profile of a women's face) and they had a ton, but it would be silly to buy something valuable while backpacking. So we bought Morgan a world map from 1935 because it was his birthday and because we were staying with him for so long. He loves maps and showed us his 1960's map of the New York.

We had a beer in the plaza and watched some complimentary tango (beautiful, but a bit slow in my opinion) and then took the “Subte” back to Morgan's.

That night he took us to his members only club in Palermo. Earlier in the day, he had said, “Me and my friends get together and rent a place to hang out.” So we thought – empty apartment with a couple sofas and a fridge. I even asked if we should bring drinks and food – hahaha! No. Not at all. It was a beautiful renovated house in the trendiest part of Palermo, with two huge patios that opened into the house on both floors. Original Andy Warhol paintings on the wall. A garden that stretched back into the middle of the block, with a pool, a bar (serving $10US beers), and garden style bathrooms at the back. I was livid I hadn't bought something nicer to wear!

We met two really nice British guys, one who worked in the hotel industry and the other who wrote for a packaging industry magazine. Seriously. Like boxes and bubble wrap and popcorn stuffing. But, he was a really great, funny guy. They, like a lot of people we've met, have been really impressed and envious of our travels... but, having given up our jobs and life and possessions over a year ago, we don't feel impressed with ourselves anymore, and just consider it a thing to do if you want to do it. In fact, I (probably not Jesse) am impressed with their ability to have career jobs and be responsible!

The third day we went to the zoo!! It was the best zoo I've ever been to for two reasons: there were little deer/rabbit like creatures just wandering around the entire zoo willy nilly. And, you could feed the animals! They sold these little pellet things that you could feed all the animals with except a few. It was so much fun. I got to pet all kinds of different deer and goats. I was in such heaven and could have stayed until closing, but of course Jesse wanted to get moving.

We took the Subte downtown again and then walked over to the reserve on the water, but it was closed on Mondays! Surprise! The wharf was really nice though, and there was an old sailing ship from the 1800's that you could go on for 50 cents and walk around.

After that we took the F car to see the parliament building. The F car is still really old, from early last century, and it was super cool, as well as free! (The government decided to increase the fare by about 60 cents that week,a 400% increase, and the Subte workers decided this was not cool and that they were going to let everyone on for free.. there are cops in the Subte stations, but they don't seem to care that this is happening... welcome to Argentina!) The fact that the old F car is still being used is only because it simply hasn't been updated. Argentina used to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, exporting beef, mutton, wheat, and wool. But that all changed in the 40's, and now things lay in ruin, including many beautiful old buildings. But the parliament buildings were unbelievable! Just stunning. Our book didn't mention if they had tours, but I wish we had looked into it.

We finally made it home, and my feet were just dead from walking.

That day was Morgan's 35^th birthday, so we went out with him and a few of his friends to a bar in Palermo. His friends were really great, and we had a wonderful time!

The next day we headed to the cemetery to see Evita's grave. The cemetery is unbelievable. Old time Argentines were just the pinnacle of vanity and grotesque displays of wealth and snobbery. Which is made most evident in the cemetery. The memorials to themselves these people constructed is mind-blowing. But, I'm glad they did, because it was beautiful and picturesque. My pictures just couldn't do it justice. I've never seen anything like it. There were many famous Argentines buried there, and seeing Evita's grave was cool. Her body had a long journey to that grave, which is a really interesting story. Actually, I think Evita's entire story and controversial legacy is interesting, but what happened to her body after she died is just out of a movie... truth is always stranger then fiction!

In front of Evita's grave

After the cemetery we took a cab to a bar near the house to watch.. you guessed it! The Packers game! And, if you don't care about American football (which growing up in the Mark Glyer household made impossible for me- it was either learn the rules and watch the game or go find something else to do), you won't know that they lost. Yes, lost. They had only lost one game the entire season, and that game was Kansas City, which was not nearly a good a team as them, and they lost the first playoff game. But, at least Aaron Rodgers (the quarterback, who is from Chico, California) already has a Superbowl ring, from last year.

The next day we walked over to the Hippodrome (the horse track) because I'd heard it's very nice. It was really beautiful and fancy! There were no races that day, and as a result we couldn't see much of the track. Then we walked to the Evita museum, which was really big and interesting, and of course was pro-Evita. It was in the building Evita had started her foundation for women and children, and that functioned as a shelter for them. It was a really beautiful building.

That evening Jesse cooked some chicken curry for me and Morgan which was really good! Then the next day we left early to catch the ferry to Uruguay!