Just got off the beach.
Wonderful day so far in northern Peru. Woke up and had some breakfast, then went out for a prolonged trip to the beach. Attempted surfing for a while but it was super crowded and not much happening, still fun though. Then went and hung out with the people from the hostel on the beach, did some tanning and got some sandwiches from the "sandwich lady." Then some bodyboarding and another attempt at surfing...and probably going to go get some cheap seafood for dinner as well...Overall it will be a good day, actually two good days in a row. The only downside is going to be that I have to catch a bus tonight to get to the next destination, I´m getting really tired of buses.
While right now were in the ideal tropical warm beaches and its a lot of fun, starting to definitely miss home a little more each day. Its fun down here, but tiring in its own way. Excited to go see more, equally excited to get back and see the family and friends...and hopefully when I get back i´ll be super tan!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Lake Titicaca
Well again its been a long time and i´ve done a lot of stuff since I last wrote. However, due to intense family pressure I´m going to start trying to write more often.
I´ll start with leaving Bolivia. Our last stop was lake Titicaca and and the town of Copacabana. The town was nice, on the edge of the lake with a semi sandy beach and lots of nice little shops and restaurants. Had some amazing fish while we were there. You can go down to the lake front and there´s all these little fish shacks where all the locals eat, so using our advanced selection method of finding the place with the most locals, we found a nice little place about in the middle of the row. The fish was great and cheap, we both got this thing called the devil fish which is grilled trout covered in sauteed veggies and some spicy peppers...amazing. Copacabana also has this neat cemetery and shrine area at the top of the hill right on the lake so we decided to take a quick jaunt up there. However this quick trek was nowhere near quick as we were at 12,600 feet, it turned it to a very slow walk as we huffed and puffed our way up this tiny hill and got passed by the locals. The view from the top was amazing though and definitely worth it. I think in total we stayed there for three or so days and then headed off to Cuzco Peru and Lima. Which I´.ll talk about next time...and hopefully I´ll find my adapter and be able to upload some pictures as well.
As for now its a 2 minute walk to a beautiful white sandy beach, surf, and sun!!!
I´ll start with leaving Bolivia. Our last stop was lake Titicaca and and the town of Copacabana. The town was nice, on the edge of the lake with a semi sandy beach and lots of nice little shops and restaurants. Had some amazing fish while we were there. You can go down to the lake front and there´s all these little fish shacks where all the locals eat, so using our advanced selection method of finding the place with the most locals, we found a nice little place about in the middle of the row. The fish was great and cheap, we both got this thing called the devil fish which is grilled trout covered in sauteed veggies and some spicy peppers...amazing. Copacabana also has this neat cemetery and shrine area at the top of the hill right on the lake so we decided to take a quick jaunt up there. However this quick trek was nowhere near quick as we were at 12,600 feet, it turned it to a very slow walk as we huffed and puffed our way up this tiny hill and got passed by the locals. The view from the top was amazing though and definitely worth it. I think in total we stayed there for three or so days and then headed off to Cuzco Peru and Lima. Which I´.ll talk about next time...and hopefully I´ll find my adapter and be able to upload some pictures as well.
As for now its a 2 minute walk to a beautiful white sandy beach, surf, and sun!!!
Thursday, December 9, 2010
On the road again.
Ah, were finally getting back to traveling. After being in one place for so long we are ready to go adventure again.
We have been in Cochabamba for nearly a month now working with missionaries and volunteering. Its been a good experience. For most of our time here we were either working in a carpentry shop or helping set with they office by painting rooms and helping in other ways to aid in finishing the remodel.
Some things of note though. Last weekend we went fishing in the amazon basin. It was beautiful and a once in a lifetime experience, even though we didn't catch any fish. Because they are expensive the locals don't use fishing rods, instead they buy line and wrap it around a piece of wood and then cast by whirling the line around and throwing it out into the river. We had planned on fishing the entire night but ended up falling asleep in a random partially flooded boat. Definitely something different.
Well tonight we are off to La Paz and then from there Lake Titicaca and then finally Peru.
We have been in Cochabamba for nearly a month now working with missionaries and volunteering. Its been a good experience. For most of our time here we were either working in a carpentry shop or helping set with they office by painting rooms and helping in other ways to aid in finishing the remodel.
Some things of note though. Last weekend we went fishing in the amazon basin. It was beautiful and a once in a lifetime experience, even though we didn't catch any fish. Because they are expensive the locals don't use fishing rods, instead they buy line and wrap it around a piece of wood and then cast by whirling the line around and throwing it out into the river. We had planned on fishing the entire night but ended up falling asleep in a random partially flooded boat. Definitely something different.
Well tonight we are off to La Paz and then from there Lake Titicaca and then finally Peru.
Monday, November 29, 2010
From Argentina to Bolivia
Wow...it's been a really really long time since i;ve done this. Part of that is due to being in the middle of absolute nowhere and a somewhat smaller part is becuase of laziness, writing's not really my thing.
Anyways i have been to and seen a lot of places since I last wrote, way too many to go into detail about although I wish I could for the sake of my future memories. But in case anyone hasn't noticed I finally found fast internet and was able to upload lots of pictures so here are the links for Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia...Big disappointment though, in that part way through Bolivia I was checking my camera settings and discovered I had had it on the lowest quality for pretty much the entire trip, must have accidentally changed it to that when I was playing with the settings after I bought it. Oh well.
I think the last time I wrote we were in Mendoza, Argentina for the second time waiting to cross over to Chile. The ride itself to Chile was amazing because we went through the high Andes and saw some beautiful countryside. Chile itself however was just alright though. Santiago was fun, but it was just another really really big city with nothing overly special about it except for the snowcapped Andes backdrop...Buenos Aires was way better. After Santiago we started making our way to Bolivia. Stayed a night in La Serena which also wasn't that great and then ended up in San Pedro. I think we were in Chile for maybe a week, and it felt like forever. San Pedro was neat though. Its a small town in the middle of the Atacama desert, which is the driest desert in the world. The town was fun and the scenery was defintely something else, almost nothing grew there but it was strangely beautiful in its own way. Logan talked me into going sandboarding which was just alright, but the scenery on the tour made it worth it.
After San Pedro we went to Bolivia...Yay. We took a 3 day tour from San Pedro through the Andes and Bolivian salt flats to the Bolivian border town of Unuyi. The tour was amazing! I saw some of the craziest and most beautiful things I have ever seen, stuff that made me just stop and admire the beauty of God's creation. I would with out a doubt recommend the tour to anyone. The salts flats themselves were absolutely crazy. The ground was pure salt, who knows how deep, for as far as the eye could see...check out the pictures, they will show it better than I can describe it.
After Unuyi it was off the Potosi with our new German friends who happened to be on the same tour as us. Happened to arrive in the Potosi the day of their 200th anniversay of their revolution, or something like that. Literally the people of the city paraded from when we got there at 4 (but we think they started at 1 or 2) until 11 at night, and when they parade its not full of floats and stuff like our parades but people just walking and walking and walking. People and food everywhere and the president of Bolivia was there as well.
From Potosi we were off to Cochabamba to volunteer with some missionaries. Were still in Cochabamba helping out. I'll update about that later and write about our difficulties leaving Potosi.
Anyways i have been to and seen a lot of places since I last wrote, way too many to go into detail about although I wish I could for the sake of my future memories. But in case anyone hasn't noticed I finally found fast internet and was able to upload lots of pictures so here are the links for Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia...Big disappointment though, in that part way through Bolivia I was checking my camera settings and discovered I had had it on the lowest quality for pretty much the entire trip, must have accidentally changed it to that when I was playing with the settings after I bought it. Oh well.
I think the last time I wrote we were in Mendoza, Argentina for the second time waiting to cross over to Chile. The ride itself to Chile was amazing because we went through the high Andes and saw some beautiful countryside. Chile itself however was just alright though. Santiago was fun, but it was just another really really big city with nothing overly special about it except for the snowcapped Andes backdrop...Buenos Aires was way better. After Santiago we started making our way to Bolivia. Stayed a night in La Serena which also wasn't that great and then ended up in San Pedro. I think we were in Chile for maybe a week, and it felt like forever. San Pedro was neat though. Its a small town in the middle of the Atacama desert, which is the driest desert in the world. The town was fun and the scenery was defintely something else, almost nothing grew there but it was strangely beautiful in its own way. Logan talked me into going sandboarding which was just alright, but the scenery on the tour made it worth it.
After San Pedro we went to Bolivia...Yay. We took a 3 day tour from San Pedro through the Andes and Bolivian salt flats to the Bolivian border town of Unuyi. The tour was amazing! I saw some of the craziest and most beautiful things I have ever seen, stuff that made me just stop and admire the beauty of God's creation. I would with out a doubt recommend the tour to anyone. The salts flats themselves were absolutely crazy. The ground was pure salt, who knows how deep, for as far as the eye could see...check out the pictures, they will show it better than I can describe it.
After Unuyi it was off the Potosi with our new German friends who happened to be on the same tour as us. Happened to arrive in the Potosi the day of their 200th anniversay of their revolution, or something like that. Literally the people of the city paraded from when we got there at 4 (but we think they started at 1 or 2) until 11 at night, and when they parade its not full of floats and stuff like our parades but people just walking and walking and walking. People and food everywhere and the president of Bolivia was there as well.
From Potosi we were off to Cochabamba to volunteer with some missionaries. Were still in Cochabamba helping out. I'll update about that later and write about our difficulties leaving Potosi.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Oh ya, im supposed to do this
Actually i´ve just been lazy, but everyone probably knew that. Well its been a long time, so i´m just going to talk about recent stuff and maybe a quick rundown of everything else.
Right now I´m in Mendoza just for one night and tomorrow we go to Santiago, Chile. So since my last post I think we spent some time in Mendoza, Uspallata, Bariloche, and back to Mendoza. All of this was amazing in its own way, but I don´t feel like writing very long so i´m going to talk about Bariloche...I think going in reverse order, so starting with yesterday and ending (if I make it that far) with the start in Bariloche.
Bariloche is a beautiful ski town/city in the southern part of Argentina situated in the patagonia lakes district. It is surrounded the Andes and massive lakes filled with the cold water of the Ande´s snow melt. One of the best parts of the town was the chocolate. In the main downtown street, which is probably around 5-7 blocks, there is literally more chocolate shops than in all of eugene, with amazing chocolate...needless to say I spent more money than i should have. Another great part of the chocolate shops, was how friendly they were, so we could (and did) go from shop to shop getting lots of samples while acting like we were going to buy something.
The first full day in Bariloche we went to a breathtaking lookout.
The lookout was supposed to be a twenty minute bus ride from town, but today was one of those days where logan was at his absolute best. When we were getting directions in the morning the guy clearly told us to get off the bus after the 17km mark. So when we got on the bus and logan had the window seat and I couldn´t see the road I naturally put in him in charge of watching the km signs and figuring out when we were supposed to get off the bus. After a while on the bus Logan said it was time to get off the bus and me being a trusting friend didn´t bother double checking his judgement. We got off the bus and to my wonderful suprise there was nothing that looked liked a lookout, just a normal mountain road a long ways from town. At first I was confused because I was sure we had followed the directions, that is until I saw the sign that said km 14! Somehow logan had heard 17 and over time changed that in his mind to 14. I´m slowly starting to realize Logan can´t be trusted with directions, because this isn´t the first time where he´s gotten directions and then acted on them without double checking, confident in his memory and sense of direction, and we´ve ended up at the wrong place or going the wrong direction. After a nice walk up the mountain rode we got to the base of the lookout where logan quickly realized that he had forgotten his water...let the mooching begin. However, after hiking the rest of the way to the lookout it was amazing. A 360 view of the andes and gigantic lakes.
Oh, and continuing with the theme of Logan for the day. He was later called stingy (putting it nicely) by a guy from Malta because Logan refused to share his chocolate with him after he had previously shared food with logan. Then, apparently Logan has a little problem with lactose, because after eating his chocolate he quickly preceded to heavily pollute the air in the dining room and then ran upstairs and went to bed.
Moving on. The 2nd day in Bariloche. We were recommended to go on a hike to a place called Frey. Without a doubt the most beautiful hike I have ever been on, absolutely amazing. The weather was also amazing, a perfect spring day and all that was needed was shorts and t-shirts. We were told it was a 4 hour hike that you could do faster without much effort. However, the hike turned out to be 4 hours in and 4 hours out. It was a long day, but without a doubt worth it.
After this the weather turned sour. Spent the next couple of days hanging around town and the hostel. The hostel was great and had an amazing collection of friendly people. The night after our hike pretty much the rest of the hostel went out to the bars and didn´t start filtering in until 5-7 in the morning, our roomate literally went to bed 30 minutes before logan got out of bed. It was funny because the next morning they were all hung over and it was the Argentina national census so literally everything was closed and they couldn´t get food anywhere. Finally after a few hours they got enough energy to walk around and I think after a while they had to go to a hotel to get food.
Last exciting thing was I got to navigate a Argentinian hospital. We are going to Bolivia so I needed a yellow fever vaccine, which is only given at the hospital once a week. So I went there and with some very broken spanish and charades was able to succesfully get my shot. The best part...vaccines in Argentina are free
Well thats all for now, i´m tired of writing.
Right now I´m in Mendoza just for one night and tomorrow we go to Santiago, Chile. So since my last post I think we spent some time in Mendoza, Uspallata, Bariloche, and back to Mendoza. All of this was amazing in its own way, but I don´t feel like writing very long so i´m going to talk about Bariloche...I think going in reverse order, so starting with yesterday and ending (if I make it that far) with the start in Bariloche.
Bariloche is a beautiful ski town/city in the southern part of Argentina situated in the patagonia lakes district. It is surrounded the Andes and massive lakes filled with the cold water of the Ande´s snow melt. One of the best parts of the town was the chocolate. In the main downtown street, which is probably around 5-7 blocks, there is literally more chocolate shops than in all of eugene, with amazing chocolate...needless to say I spent more money than i should have. Another great part of the chocolate shops, was how friendly they were, so we could (and did) go from shop to shop getting lots of samples while acting like we were going to buy something.
The first full day in Bariloche we went to a breathtaking lookout.
The lookout was supposed to be a twenty minute bus ride from town, but today was one of those days where logan was at his absolute best. When we were getting directions in the morning the guy clearly told us to get off the bus after the 17km mark. So when we got on the bus and logan had the window seat and I couldn´t see the road I naturally put in him in charge of watching the km signs and figuring out when we were supposed to get off the bus. After a while on the bus Logan said it was time to get off the bus and me being a trusting friend didn´t bother double checking his judgement. We got off the bus and to my wonderful suprise there was nothing that looked liked a lookout, just a normal mountain road a long ways from town. At first I was confused because I was sure we had followed the directions, that is until I saw the sign that said km 14! Somehow logan had heard 17 and over time changed that in his mind to 14. I´m slowly starting to realize Logan can´t be trusted with directions, because this isn´t the first time where he´s gotten directions and then acted on them without double checking, confident in his memory and sense of direction, and we´ve ended up at the wrong place or going the wrong direction. After a nice walk up the mountain rode we got to the base of the lookout where logan quickly realized that he had forgotten his water...let the mooching begin. However, after hiking the rest of the way to the lookout it was amazing. A 360 view of the andes and gigantic lakes.
Oh, and continuing with the theme of Logan for the day. He was later called stingy (putting it nicely) by a guy from Malta because Logan refused to share his chocolate with him after he had previously shared food with logan. Then, apparently Logan has a little problem with lactose, because after eating his chocolate he quickly preceded to heavily pollute the air in the dining room and then ran upstairs and went to bed.
Moving on. The 2nd day in Bariloche. We were recommended to go on a hike to a place called Frey. Without a doubt the most beautiful hike I have ever been on, absolutely amazing. The weather was also amazing, a perfect spring day and all that was needed was shorts and t-shirts. We were told it was a 4 hour hike that you could do faster without much effort. However, the hike turned out to be 4 hours in and 4 hours out. It was a long day, but without a doubt worth it.
After this the weather turned sour. Spent the next couple of days hanging around town and the hostel. The hostel was great and had an amazing collection of friendly people. The night after our hike pretty much the rest of the hostel went out to the bars and didn´t start filtering in until 5-7 in the morning, our roomate literally went to bed 30 minutes before logan got out of bed. It was funny because the next morning they were all hung over and it was the Argentina national census so literally everything was closed and they couldn´t get food anywhere. Finally after a few hours they got enough energy to walk around and I think after a while they had to go to a hotel to get food.
Last exciting thing was I got to navigate a Argentinian hospital. We are going to Bolivia so I needed a yellow fever vaccine, which is only given at the hospital once a week. So I went there and with some very broken spanish and charades was able to succesfully get my shot. The best part...vaccines in Argentina are free
Well thats all for now, i´m tired of writing.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Busy, busy week
I finally got to sleep in a real bed last night, and it was amazing. These week has been hectic as we´ve been trying to do a lot of stuff in a small amount of time. Since monday night I´ve spent 50+ hours on a bus, 3 nights sleeping on buses, and one night sleeping in a crowded tent. While the traveling part was terrible we were able to see one of God´s amazing, powerful, and breathtaking creations in Iguazu falls.
So since it´s been a little while since I last wrote, a little backtracking first. Before all our wonderful time on the buses, the last major thing we did in Buenos Aires was go to the San Telmo fair. This is a masive street fair/saturday market that takes place on Sundays, and is filled with antiques (argentinians apparently really like their antiques), tango dancers, street performers, food, and of course random vendors of all types. The most impressive aspect about it was the size of the fair. It makes Saturday Market look like a highschool craft fair. The fair closes down entire streets and goes on for blocks. Where we were staying is right next to the main part/beginning of the fair, by the time we walked through the entire fair we were so far away that we had to take the subway to get back to where we were staying.
Above are some of the pictures from the street fair, The first one is a random street performer, the colorful one is just some random street art/graffiti, and the other two are of the fair.
I ran out of time, only one computer at this hostel, so I´ll upload some pictures of the falls next time.
So since it´s been a little while since I last wrote, a little backtracking first. Before all our wonderful time on the buses, the last major thing we did in Buenos Aires was go to the San Telmo fair. This is a masive street fair/saturday market that takes place on Sundays, and is filled with antiques (argentinians apparently really like their antiques), tango dancers, street performers, food, and of course random vendors of all types. The most impressive aspect about it was the size of the fair. It makes Saturday Market look like a highschool craft fair. The fair closes down entire streets and goes on for blocks. Where we were staying is right next to the main part/beginning of the fair, by the time we walked through the entire fair we were so far away that we had to take the subway to get back to where we were staying.
I ran out of time, only one computer at this hostel, so I´ll upload some pictures of the falls next time.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Being a tourist, caminito, Reserva Ecológica
Today and yesterday were a little more chill and relaxing days with a little sightseeing followed by hanging out at the hostel and chilling.
Yesterday (thursday I think) we went to caminito. This is a famous painted street in a rougher area. Kinda just a big tourist trap. There were the painted houses which were nice and tango dancers and food. It also had a lot of people looking for tourists and trying to sell them stuff and being kind of obnoxious, for some reason they always went to logan and not me...they can recognize a pushover when they see one. Overall not as exciting as i had hoped but still neat.
After this we tried to take the bus back to the hostel, with the bus being just as packed as the subways except with no signs on where to get off. We managed to somehow get off the bus somewhat near our hostel though, but as we were trying to find our way back it started just pouring rain. By the time we found the hostel we were soaking wet. The rest of the day was spent inside at the hostel, until dinner.
Dinner was amazing. We went to el desnivel, and had some of the best steaks ever. I ended up with a grilled tenderloin with mushroom sauce and potatoes for 52 pesos (roughly $13), and then washed it down with a half bottle of the house wine for 12 pesos. I normally am not oe to buy a half bottle of wine for myself, but I wasn´t paying attention to the menu and thought it was a half glass.
Today we went to the ecological reserve with our friend Gill. It was like a giant wetland right outside of the city. I think it is roughly 4.5 miles around and filled with multiple trails where the locals go running...it would give Pre´s trail a good run for its money. On our way back we stopped on the street that borders the reserve and got some food. I ordered a hamburger for 7 pesos ($1.75) and at first was fairly disappointed when I saw it. However, after putting on all the various condiments, many of which I hadn´t seen before, it turned into one of the best burgers I´ve had in a long time...I probably could have had two more.
Welp, don´t know what else to say...
Yesterday (thursday I think) we went to caminito. This is a famous painted street in a rougher area. Kinda just a big tourist trap. There were the painted houses which were nice and tango dancers and food. It also had a lot of people looking for tourists and trying to sell them stuff and being kind of obnoxious, for some reason they always went to logan and not me...they can recognize a pushover when they see one. Overall not as exciting as i had hoped but still neat.
After this we tried to take the bus back to the hostel, with the bus being just as packed as the subways except with no signs on where to get off. We managed to somehow get off the bus somewhat near our hostel though, but as we were trying to find our way back it started just pouring rain. By the time we found the hostel we were soaking wet. The rest of the day was spent inside at the hostel, until dinner.
Dinner was amazing. We went to el desnivel, and had some of the best steaks ever. I ended up with a grilled tenderloin with mushroom sauce and potatoes for 52 pesos (roughly $13), and then washed it down with a half bottle of the house wine for 12 pesos. I normally am not oe to buy a half bottle of wine for myself, but I wasn´t paying attention to the menu and thought it was a half glass.
Today we went to the ecological reserve with our friend Gill. It was like a giant wetland right outside of the city. I think it is roughly 4.5 miles around and filled with multiple trails where the locals go running...it would give Pre´s trail a good run for its money. On our way back we stopped on the street that borders the reserve and got some food. I ordered a hamburger for 7 pesos ($1.75) and at first was fairly disappointed when I saw it. However, after putting on all the various condiments, many of which I hadn´t seen before, it turned into one of the best burgers I´ve had in a long time...I probably could have had two more.
Welp, don´t know what else to say...
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