Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Second week of holidays - Arica and Arequipa
We arrived in Arica on a Sunday morning and pretty much everything was closed. We went looking around for a tour agency to book a trip to Lauca National Park, but couldn't. Sundays in Latin America...
So we headed down to the ocean to find a bar where we could watch the world cup final between Spain and Holland. Spain won in extra time. I didn´t really care that much, but i guess i was going for Holland more than Spain.
After the game headed to El Morro de Arica (a small hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the town), but we were on the wrong side of it without a path. But we tried anyway. It proved far to slippy and difficult underfoot, so we gave up. The sun was close to setting so we headed to a small peninsula south of the hill and observed pelnty of bird life and the sun going down behind some clouds. We caught a bus back to our hotel (Sol de América - a cheap place, with a friendly yet impossible to understand owner, due to his ridiculous Chilean accent, impaired by a speech impediment) and relaxed for a while.
Sunset at Arica
That night I wanted to find a place to sing karaoke because I thought it would be a hilarious experience. Our host told us there was karaoke some nights at the casino, so we headed there. At the casino in Arica there is an entry fee. For a casino. An entry fee for a casino. Ridiculous. In Arica, people have to pay for the privilege of losing their money. Of course, we didn´t go in, and instead headed to a small bar across the road to drink a bunch of Cristals (Chilean brand of beer).
Next-door to the small bar was a gentleman´s club. We decided to check it out. It turned out to be a strip club, but there was no-one stripping. We sat down for a relatively expensive beer, and it was explained to us by a Chilean girl with an almost perfect American accent that to remain in the bar, we had to buy one of the girls a $10 drink. I said i didn´t want to do that. They didn't kick us out, and she remained sitting with us anyway, probably because we were the only customers in the bar.
The girl's name was Jasmine, and she explained that she had worked in the USA for a number of years. I don´t know what her deal was, but she said a number of things that didn't make any sense. First she told us how much she earned a night, which wasn't much, especially because she was spending 10,000 Chilean pesos on accommodation each night. Brennen and I proceded to tell her that we had a room in a hotel, with a private bathroom and two beds, for 8000. Hmmmm...
The second thing she said was that she wanted to become a veterinarian, but couldn´t afford the study fees. She was certainly passionate about it and said some quite intelligent things about desexing animals and the difficulties associated with it in Chile. I didn't doubt that she wanted to be a vet, but the study fees problem seemed strange to me because earlier in the conversation she told us that she had dual citizenship in Chile and Argentina. Brennen and I let her know that study in Argentina is absolutely free, and it's actually probably cheaper to live in Argentina than Chile. She said she had never thought of that, and that we´d solved all her problems.
I don´t know what was going on there, but i think it must have been more complicated than it looked. How could she possibly have not thought of moving to Argentina to study, if that´s really what she wanted to do? And she had perfect English. Surely there are good paying jobs in Chile for people who speak English. She left us when an older woman told her to because we weren´t buying her drinks. We left immediately afterwards, a little confused, and i was personally a little sad. Those places aren't nice.
The next morning we took our laundry in to be washed, and booked a tour to Lauca National Park for the following day. In the afternoon we visited the Museo Arquelogico San Miguel de Azapa, with its excellent collection of pre-spanish artifacts. The accompanying Sala Chinchorro hosts a very spooky collection of around 60 Chinchorro mummies, some of the oldest ever discovered in the world. Some of the mummies are fetuses. Weird. We were given a lift back to town by a Chilean couple one of whom was doing a PhD in geography and the other who was starting an undergraduate in archaeology at the University of Arizona. They were interesting and nice people. And we'll never see them again.
We woke early the next morning for the tour to Lauca, but didn't have to spend any time packing, because nearly all our clothes were still at the laundry. We were collected in a minibus which ferried us to a bigger one, full of mostly Spanish speakers. Our guide was a bit of a character, but at the annoying end of the character spectrum. One of those guys who talked too much but didn't say a lot.
The tour had a number of stops. The first was the Iglesia de San Geronimo, the oldest church in Chile, which dates from 1580. Meh... It's a church. I don't think I even took any photos of it. Actually, that's not correct. Here it is:
Iglesia de San Geronimo.
The second stop was along the road to see some cactus. Meh. I've seen cactus.
Then we had breakfast at a truck stop. Meh.
Endangered Vicunas on the way to Lago Changara
We eventually made it to the highlight of the tour - Lago Chungara. It's very beautiful, and at an altitude of about 4500 metres.
Panoramic shot of Lago Chungara with Parinacota volcano to the left.
Volcanoes Parinacota (right) and Pomerape
Lago Chungara with Parinacota Volcano
An Andean Gull in the lake at Lago Chungara
We stopped in Putre for Lunch, a cute little town with an old adobe church.
Putre's Adobe Church
Putre
The bus was somewhat late returning to Arica and we had to collect our washing before the shop closed, so we had a bit of a mad rush. We didn't have any cash on us, so we had to go via an ATM, which made things that much closer, but we made it to the laundry with about five minutes to spare. We headed back to the hostal, thanked the owner, and jumped in a cab to the bus station, where we caught a collective taxi across the border to Tacna, Peru and arrived at around 9.30pm.
Lights from a truck on the way back from Putre
At the international bus station in Tacna Brennen changed what few Chilean pesos he had left, while i procrastinated, wondering whether the rate was legit. We then walked across to the domestic bus station, where we discovered a 'comfortable' bus was leaving for Arequipa immediately. But we didn't have the cash for it because i hadn't changed anything, so we missed it. We had only one choice left - to take the last 'economic' bus going at 10pm.
Economic = uncomfortable in Peru. The bus was extremely uncomfortable. The seats didn't recline, and there was no heating, which is important at 4000 metres during the night. Needless to say, the bus was absolutely freezing, and this wasn't helped by some dodgy character who kept opening the back window to pass bottles of booze to the police at the regular police check points. Hmmmm....
I did manage to get a little bit of sleep however, but woke with an intensely painful left ear and uncontrollable shivers. We arrived in Arequipa at around 4am, and headed to a hostel in the guidebook called Home Sweet Home for five Peruvian soles. We immediately went back to sleep for three or four hours.
I woke up again at around 8.45, and my ear was still killing me, so i headed to a medical centre recommended by the Lonely Planet. The doctor spoke OK English, and she prescribed me antibiotics, antihistamines, and ibuprofen. The antibiotic pills were huge. The size of my thumb knuckle. The whole thing, including the consultation cost 180 Soles (US$60), which i thought was pretty steep.
I went back to the hostel and slept some more, until about 2pm. Brennen in the meantime had been out to check on some hikes we could do the following days and returned with a plan to visit the Colca Canyon. We grabbed some lunch and booked the trek (which leaves Arequipa at 3am!) and had an early night.
Brennen pretends to write in his diary at the Home Sweet Home hostel.
We woke to pack our bags for the trek at about 2.45am (what a ridiculous hour to get up). They weren't there to get us at that hour, so we went back to bed until they arrived. When they did eventually get there, we were amongst the first on the bus, and therefore we were given an extensive tour of the city while we collected the rest of the people on the tour. Then, around 45 minutes later, we returned to Home Sweet Home (our hostel), to collect a late Spaniard. So that was good... Didn't need the extra hour of sleep anyway, what with an ear infection and everything.
Eventually we were on the road, and most of us managed to get some sleep on the bus. We had a simple buffet breakfast at around 8.00am, and then headed to Cruz del Condor with an incredible view of Colca Canyon for some Andean Condor watching. They didn't show themselves for about 20 minutes, but eventually around 10 condors appeared, flaplessly cruising through the gorge, looking for things to eat i guess.
Colca Canyon from Cruz del Condor.
Brennen waits for the condors to show themselves
Condor in flight
Condor in flight
After Cruz del Condor, we headed down to the beginning of the trek, just outside of Cabanaconde. The first part was a very steep descent for about two hours, at which point we reached a bridge that crossed the river, and climbed the bank on the opposite side for about 10 minutes. From here the walk was flat and easy, following the valley all the way to the famous 'oasis', provided by the river. We had lunch along the way and visited a museum that had been set up by a cute little local old man. It was a single room that housed a bunch of traditional Quechuan stuff such as costumes and agricultural equipment. The entrance fee was a tip.
View of the canyon from halfway down.
Our tour group on the other side of the river.
Oasis has changed pretty dramatically since i was last there. There are about 13 more hostels, and about six more swimming pools. The hostel we stayed at last time still exists, but it looks as though it's no longer in use because it's pretty much falling apart.
I had a very cold, quick dip in a pool constructed between two huge rocks and bought an expensive beer while we waited for what turned out to be a pretty ordinary dinner of spag bol and soup. Everyone was buggered, and we went to bed immediately afterwards.
We woke very early the following morning, flashlights in hand (or on heads), for the climb back out of the canyon. Some of the group didn't have torches, so we had to alternate the order of the group so that everyone could see where they were going. It was slow at first, but eventually the sun came up and we could move more quickly. Brennen and I led the way, and I ended up carrying a French girls backpack because she was struggling. Even though she was with her boyfriend. He shoulda carried it. The climb back out took about 2 hours, but could've been done more quickly. The last part goes through some pretty agricultural land filled with flowering trees and cactus. I saw three different types of hummingbirds.
A view of one of the towns in the valley on the way back up.
We had breakfast in Cabanaconde, and when it was time to leave, the minibus couldn't be started. We waited for them to fix it, and observed some strange official procession in the main square. There were two marching bands who appeared to be competing against each other in front of city officials dressed to the nines. They were probably the two worst marching bands in the entire history of the world. A fucking horrible, noisy, out of time and tune mess...
They eventually got the bus working again, and we returned to Arequipa for dinner and a few beers overlooking the plaza. But we were buggered, and couldn't stay out long.
The next day, we booked tickets to Cuzco, and went to the Museo Santury which houses Juanita, a 13 year old mummified girl that was found on the Ampato Volcano at 6300 metres. She's about 500 years old, and very well preserved, although i was slightly worried about the amount of frost that was present on her body. In other pictures of her, there's no frost. Where's the water coming from? We took the tour in Spanish, and i understood most of it.
After the museum, we headed to the Monasterio Santa Catalina which occupies a whole city block and was only opened to the public in the 70s. Nuns which lived there were not permitted contact with the outside world, except through their servants. We again took a tour in Spanish and stayed until closing time at around 6pm then headed to the bus station and got on the bus to Cuzco...
Monasterio Santa Catalina. The colours were painted after the monastery was forced open to the public in the 70s.
Lantana in the gardens of the Monastery.
Panoramic view from the roof. Has anyone played Assassins Creed?
So we headed down to the ocean to find a bar where we could watch the world cup final between Spain and Holland. Spain won in extra time. I didn´t really care that much, but i guess i was going for Holland more than Spain.
After the game headed to El Morro de Arica (a small hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the town), but we were on the wrong side of it without a path. But we tried anyway. It proved far to slippy and difficult underfoot, so we gave up. The sun was close to setting so we headed to a small peninsula south of the hill and observed pelnty of bird life and the sun going down behind some clouds. We caught a bus back to our hotel (Sol de América - a cheap place, with a friendly yet impossible to understand owner, due to his ridiculous Chilean accent, impaired by a speech impediment) and relaxed for a while.
Sunset at Arica
That night I wanted to find a place to sing karaoke because I thought it would be a hilarious experience. Our host told us there was karaoke some nights at the casino, so we headed there. At the casino in Arica there is an entry fee. For a casino. An entry fee for a casino. Ridiculous. In Arica, people have to pay for the privilege of losing their money. Of course, we didn´t go in, and instead headed to a small bar across the road to drink a bunch of Cristals (Chilean brand of beer).
Next-door to the small bar was a gentleman´s club. We decided to check it out. It turned out to be a strip club, but there was no-one stripping. We sat down for a relatively expensive beer, and it was explained to us by a Chilean girl with an almost perfect American accent that to remain in the bar, we had to buy one of the girls a $10 drink. I said i didn´t want to do that. They didn't kick us out, and she remained sitting with us anyway, probably because we were the only customers in the bar.
The girl's name was Jasmine, and she explained that she had worked in the USA for a number of years. I don´t know what her deal was, but she said a number of things that didn't make any sense. First she told us how much she earned a night, which wasn't much, especially because she was spending 10,000 Chilean pesos on accommodation each night. Brennen and I proceded to tell her that we had a room in a hotel, with a private bathroom and two beds, for 8000. Hmmmm...
The second thing she said was that she wanted to become a veterinarian, but couldn´t afford the study fees. She was certainly passionate about it and said some quite intelligent things about desexing animals and the difficulties associated with it in Chile. I didn't doubt that she wanted to be a vet, but the study fees problem seemed strange to me because earlier in the conversation she told us that she had dual citizenship in Chile and Argentina. Brennen and I let her know that study in Argentina is absolutely free, and it's actually probably cheaper to live in Argentina than Chile. She said she had never thought of that, and that we´d solved all her problems.
I don´t know what was going on there, but i think it must have been more complicated than it looked. How could she possibly have not thought of moving to Argentina to study, if that´s really what she wanted to do? And she had perfect English. Surely there are good paying jobs in Chile for people who speak English. She left us when an older woman told her to because we weren´t buying her drinks. We left immediately afterwards, a little confused, and i was personally a little sad. Those places aren't nice.
The next morning we took our laundry in to be washed, and booked a tour to Lauca National Park for the following day. In the afternoon we visited the Museo Arquelogico San Miguel de Azapa, with its excellent collection of pre-spanish artifacts. The accompanying Sala Chinchorro hosts a very spooky collection of around 60 Chinchorro mummies, some of the oldest ever discovered in the world. Some of the mummies are fetuses. Weird. We were given a lift back to town by a Chilean couple one of whom was doing a PhD in geography and the other who was starting an undergraduate in archaeology at the University of Arizona. They were interesting and nice people. And we'll never see them again.
We woke early the next morning for the tour to Lauca, but didn't have to spend any time packing, because nearly all our clothes were still at the laundry. We were collected in a minibus which ferried us to a bigger one, full of mostly Spanish speakers. Our guide was a bit of a character, but at the annoying end of the character spectrum. One of those guys who talked too much but didn't say a lot.
The tour had a number of stops. The first was the Iglesia de San Geronimo, the oldest church in Chile, which dates from 1580. Meh... It's a church. I don't think I even took any photos of it. Actually, that's not correct. Here it is:
Iglesia de San Geronimo.
The second stop was along the road to see some cactus. Meh. I've seen cactus.
Then we had breakfast at a truck stop. Meh.
Endangered Vicunas on the way to Lago Changara
We eventually made it to the highlight of the tour - Lago Chungara. It's very beautiful, and at an altitude of about 4500 metres.
Panoramic shot of Lago Chungara with Parinacota volcano to the left.
Volcanoes Parinacota (right) and Pomerape
Lago Chungara with Parinacota Volcano
An Andean Gull in the lake at Lago Chungara
We stopped in Putre for Lunch, a cute little town with an old adobe church.
Putre's Adobe Church
Putre
The bus was somewhat late returning to Arica and we had to collect our washing before the shop closed, so we had a bit of a mad rush. We didn't have any cash on us, so we had to go via an ATM, which made things that much closer, but we made it to the laundry with about five minutes to spare. We headed back to the hostal, thanked the owner, and jumped in a cab to the bus station, where we caught a collective taxi across the border to Tacna, Peru and arrived at around 9.30pm.
Lights from a truck on the way back from Putre
At the international bus station in Tacna Brennen changed what few Chilean pesos he had left, while i procrastinated, wondering whether the rate was legit. We then walked across to the domestic bus station, where we discovered a 'comfortable' bus was leaving for Arequipa immediately. But we didn't have the cash for it because i hadn't changed anything, so we missed it. We had only one choice left - to take the last 'economic' bus going at 10pm.
Economic = uncomfortable in Peru. The bus was extremely uncomfortable. The seats didn't recline, and there was no heating, which is important at 4000 metres during the night. Needless to say, the bus was absolutely freezing, and this wasn't helped by some dodgy character who kept opening the back window to pass bottles of booze to the police at the regular police check points. Hmmmm....
I did manage to get a little bit of sleep however, but woke with an intensely painful left ear and uncontrollable shivers. We arrived in Arequipa at around 4am, and headed to a hostel in the guidebook called Home Sweet Home for five Peruvian soles. We immediately went back to sleep for three or four hours.
I woke up again at around 8.45, and my ear was still killing me, so i headed to a medical centre recommended by the Lonely Planet. The doctor spoke OK English, and she prescribed me antibiotics, antihistamines, and ibuprofen. The antibiotic pills were huge. The size of my thumb knuckle. The whole thing, including the consultation cost 180 Soles (US$60), which i thought was pretty steep.
I went back to the hostel and slept some more, until about 2pm. Brennen in the meantime had been out to check on some hikes we could do the following days and returned with a plan to visit the Colca Canyon. We grabbed some lunch and booked the trek (which leaves Arequipa at 3am!) and had an early night.
Brennen pretends to write in his diary at the Home Sweet Home hostel.
We woke to pack our bags for the trek at about 2.45am (what a ridiculous hour to get up). They weren't there to get us at that hour, so we went back to bed until they arrived. When they did eventually get there, we were amongst the first on the bus, and therefore we were given an extensive tour of the city while we collected the rest of the people on the tour. Then, around 45 minutes later, we returned to Home Sweet Home (our hostel), to collect a late Spaniard. So that was good... Didn't need the extra hour of sleep anyway, what with an ear infection and everything.
Eventually we were on the road, and most of us managed to get some sleep on the bus. We had a simple buffet breakfast at around 8.00am, and then headed to Cruz del Condor with an incredible view of Colca Canyon for some Andean Condor watching. They didn't show themselves for about 20 minutes, but eventually around 10 condors appeared, flaplessly cruising through the gorge, looking for things to eat i guess.
Colca Canyon from Cruz del Condor.
Brennen waits for the condors to show themselves
Condor in flight
Condor in flight
After Cruz del Condor, we headed down to the beginning of the trek, just outside of Cabanaconde. The first part was a very steep descent for about two hours, at which point we reached a bridge that crossed the river, and climbed the bank on the opposite side for about 10 minutes. From here the walk was flat and easy, following the valley all the way to the famous 'oasis', provided by the river. We had lunch along the way and visited a museum that had been set up by a cute little local old man. It was a single room that housed a bunch of traditional Quechuan stuff such as costumes and agricultural equipment. The entrance fee was a tip.
View of the canyon from halfway down.
Our tour group on the other side of the river.
Oasis has changed pretty dramatically since i was last there. There are about 13 more hostels, and about six more swimming pools. The hostel we stayed at last time still exists, but it looks as though it's no longer in use because it's pretty much falling apart.
I had a very cold, quick dip in a pool constructed between two huge rocks and bought an expensive beer while we waited for what turned out to be a pretty ordinary dinner of spag bol and soup. Everyone was buggered, and we went to bed immediately afterwards.
We woke very early the following morning, flashlights in hand (or on heads), for the climb back out of the canyon. Some of the group didn't have torches, so we had to alternate the order of the group so that everyone could see where they were going. It was slow at first, but eventually the sun came up and we could move more quickly. Brennen and I led the way, and I ended up carrying a French girls backpack because she was struggling. Even though she was with her boyfriend. He shoulda carried it. The climb back out took about 2 hours, but could've been done more quickly. The last part goes through some pretty agricultural land filled with flowering trees and cactus. I saw three different types of hummingbirds.
A view of one of the towns in the valley on the way back up.
We had breakfast in Cabanaconde, and when it was time to leave, the minibus couldn't be started. We waited for them to fix it, and observed some strange official procession in the main square. There were two marching bands who appeared to be competing against each other in front of city officials dressed to the nines. They were probably the two worst marching bands in the entire history of the world. A fucking horrible, noisy, out of time and tune mess...
They eventually got the bus working again, and we returned to Arequipa for dinner and a few beers overlooking the plaza. But we were buggered, and couldn't stay out long.
The next day, we booked tickets to Cuzco, and went to the Museo Santury which houses Juanita, a 13 year old mummified girl that was found on the Ampato Volcano at 6300 metres. She's about 500 years old, and very well preserved, although i was slightly worried about the amount of frost that was present on her body. In other pictures of her, there's no frost. Where's the water coming from? We took the tour in Spanish, and i understood most of it.
After the museum, we headed to the Monasterio Santa Catalina which occupies a whole city block and was only opened to the public in the 70s. Nuns which lived there were not permitted contact with the outside world, except through their servants. We again took a tour in Spanish and stayed until closing time at around 6pm then headed to the bus station and got on the bus to Cuzco...
Monasterio Santa Catalina. The colours were painted after the monastery was forced open to the public in the 70s.
Lantana in the gardens of the Monastery.
Panoramic view from the roof. Has anyone played Assassins Creed?
Monday, July 12, 2010
My first week of holidays.
I don´t really DO anything in Buenos Aires, but technically I´m on holidays from it. I´ve been travelling with Emmo and Brennen up north. With Emmo, our first stop was Cordoba, a nice little town about 12 hours out of BA. It was this town in which we watched Argentina get eliminated from the world cup. That was sad. The streets were quite empty for the game until Germany scored their third goal and people started leaving the cafes they were in. Dinner was excellent and cheap that night, at a place called La Zete which serves Middle Eastern food. I thoroughly recommend it.
La Iglesia Catedral in Cordoba.
La Iglesia Catedral in Cordoba, again.
Catedral Los Capuchinos with its distinctive missing spire, left off intentionally to represent the imperfection of humankind or some crap.
The next day, upon advice from Kiwi, our close-to-Córdoba-living-diving-instructor, we headed to a small town on an artificial lake called Carlos Paz about an hour away. One of this town´s main tourist attractions is a big cuckoo clock close to the centre. It´s about as impressive as it sounds... I had baby goat chops for lunch and realised they were baby goat chops after i ate them. Goat is delicious. We should eat more of it in Australia. They´re pests in many areas. Let´s kill two birds with one stone and start eating goats, OK?
We took a trip on the reservior which is quite beautiful and surrounded by mountains. For the return journey, our guide decided to sing karaoke for everyone. It was strange. He gave the boat the option of silence, or just a few songs from him. I think that´s weird. But he really got the whole boat in to it. They were screaming for more when we arrived back at the wharf. Em joked it was the way to attract more customers the next day. "Oh look, Diego! They´re having a great time! What fun! A Karaoke singing guide! Let´s book a trip with THAT boat!"
A sail boat on Carlos Paz reservoir.
View of the reservoir from the dam wall.
Emily on the boat.
I headed to Salta that night, and met up with Brennen the next day. Em went back to Buenos Aires because she actually does something there. It´s called w o r k...
Brennen arrived a little late, and we did some touristy things like climbing the Cerro San Bernardo (it´s a little hill, which was easier to climb seven years ago), and taking the teleférico (gondola) back down.
View of Salta from Cerro San Bernardo
Brennen at the top of Cerro San Bernardo.
Then we went to meet up with his spanish friend from uni, Ana, who told us that she and her boyfriend Elias had looked into a two day tour around the deserts of Salta. We went and booked it with them, and it was an incredible 2 days of solid spanish and beautiful mountainous desert scenery. We stayed the night in Purmamarca, a really pretty little town, if somewhat touristy (or perhaps because it´s touristy), which boasts multicolored hills. We saw a whole bunch of ruins too.
Salta´s Plaza by night.
Brennen with Cactus
A cactus bicycle
Baby llama.
Our guide, Jesus, was excellent. He knew heaps and was willing to share it. He was also funny. He asked us which order we wanted to see things at one stage, and Elias said, "Whatever you want", to which Jesus replied, "Well, i want to go home and hang out with my wife and kids". But we didn´t let him do that.
We were at altitude for much of the trip and it causes tiredness. All three passengers passed out asleep in the back. Jesus is chewing coca to stay alert.
Salt flats of Salinas Grandes.
Evaporation pools for salt collection.
Rusty picks next to an evaporation pool.
Brennen.
Colourful hills near Purmamarca
Brennen with an interesting rock formation.
Dried mud near Purmamarca
Cardon cactus.
The supposed ´postcard´ shot of Purmamarca and it´s multicoloured hills.
I can´t actually remember where i took this, or what it´s of, but it´s a nice photo.
A furry cactus in a botanical garden we visited.
More multicoloured hills. This was called the painters hill or something. Should´ve written it down.
After Salta we caught a daytime bus full of ridiculous scenery to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We arrived in the afternoon, and booked tours to the Valley of the Moon and the El Tatio Geisers for the following days. We stayed in a hostel the owner himself described as ´rustic´ called La Casa del Sol Nacimiente (the house of the rising sun). For the whole three days we were there I couldn´t get my friend Dave´s karaoke version of the song of the same name out of my head. And he screams it (well).
While eating lunch at some random cafe, Yasmin and her boyfriend Bob walked in. Bob looked different from the last time i saw him. And by different, I mean he no longer looked like Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. Not that i can talk - at least he put some conscious effort into his beard.
We went out with them for a few beers that night which was good fun and slept in the following morning. In the afternoon we took the valley of the moon tour, which leaves at 4pm and gets back after the sun is down. Advice to anyone who takes it - at sunset, walk as far as you can out along the path - most people stop earlier, which means they don´t get to see all the way into the valley.
Looking down the so called dinosaur´s back.
Las Tres Marias, which should really be re-named. But i guess the one and a half Marias doesn´t have the same ring to it.
A big dune on the way to the valley of the moon
The valley of the moon
Brennen being a goose
The next morning we were collected for the geyser tour at 4am. That was quite early. Managed to get a little bit of sleep during the two hour climb to the geysers and we arrived before the sun was up. The temperature was a brisk NEGATIVE FIFTEEN DEGREES CELCIUS! I think that´s the coldest place i´ve ever been, although i was fairly rugged-up, so it didn´t feel toooo bad. We saw some other things around the place, but they were boring compared to the geysers, and got back to the town by about 12 midday.
The geysers at dawn.
Ice crystals forming on blades of grass
The geysers from afar.
A frozen river on the way back.
One of the boring things we saw on the way back. Some 15th century church or something.
We hired mountain bikes for the afternoon and headed first of all to the ruins at Quitor which are about 3kms out of town. We walked to the lookout there and made our way back down through the ruins. They´re an impressive and extensive 12th century fortress.
Ruins of Quitor.
Taken from the lookout above the ruins.
More ruins.
The descent.
Then we rode back into town, and another 8kms to the circular ruins of an ancient town at Aldea Tulor. The ride there is very pretty, and you pass through a little town with a a dusty football field backed by mountains and volcanoes. The ruins, however, although about 2000 years older than those at Quitor, are much smaller and not as impressive.
The dusty football field.
Aldea Tulor
Aldea Tulor
We headed back to the town in time for a hot shower (thankfully) at the hostel and the 8pm overnight bus to Arica, Chile...
La Iglesia Catedral in Cordoba.
La Iglesia Catedral in Cordoba, again.
Catedral Los Capuchinos with its distinctive missing spire, left off intentionally to represent the imperfection of humankind or some crap.
The next day, upon advice from Kiwi, our close-to-Córdoba-living-diving-instructor, we headed to a small town on an artificial lake called Carlos Paz about an hour away. One of this town´s main tourist attractions is a big cuckoo clock close to the centre. It´s about as impressive as it sounds... I had baby goat chops for lunch and realised they were baby goat chops after i ate them. Goat is delicious. We should eat more of it in Australia. They´re pests in many areas. Let´s kill two birds with one stone and start eating goats, OK?
We took a trip on the reservior which is quite beautiful and surrounded by mountains. For the return journey, our guide decided to sing karaoke for everyone. It was strange. He gave the boat the option of silence, or just a few songs from him. I think that´s weird. But he really got the whole boat in to it. They were screaming for more when we arrived back at the wharf. Em joked it was the way to attract more customers the next day. "Oh look, Diego! They´re having a great time! What fun! A Karaoke singing guide! Let´s book a trip with THAT boat!"
A sail boat on Carlos Paz reservoir.
View of the reservoir from the dam wall.
Emily on the boat.
I headed to Salta that night, and met up with Brennen the next day. Em went back to Buenos Aires because she actually does something there. It´s called w o r k...
Brennen arrived a little late, and we did some touristy things like climbing the Cerro San Bernardo (it´s a little hill, which was easier to climb seven years ago), and taking the teleférico (gondola) back down.
View of Salta from Cerro San Bernardo
Brennen at the top of Cerro San Bernardo.
Then we went to meet up with his spanish friend from uni, Ana, who told us that she and her boyfriend Elias had looked into a two day tour around the deserts of Salta. We went and booked it with them, and it was an incredible 2 days of solid spanish and beautiful mountainous desert scenery. We stayed the night in Purmamarca, a really pretty little town, if somewhat touristy (or perhaps because it´s touristy), which boasts multicolored hills. We saw a whole bunch of ruins too.
Salta´s Plaza by night.
Brennen with Cactus
A cactus bicycle
Baby llama.
Our guide, Jesus, was excellent. He knew heaps and was willing to share it. He was also funny. He asked us which order we wanted to see things at one stage, and Elias said, "Whatever you want", to which Jesus replied, "Well, i want to go home and hang out with my wife and kids". But we didn´t let him do that.
We were at altitude for much of the trip and it causes tiredness. All three passengers passed out asleep in the back. Jesus is chewing coca to stay alert.
Salt flats of Salinas Grandes.
Evaporation pools for salt collection.
Rusty picks next to an evaporation pool.
Brennen.
Colourful hills near Purmamarca
Brennen with an interesting rock formation.
Dried mud near Purmamarca
Cardon cactus.
The supposed ´postcard´ shot of Purmamarca and it´s multicoloured hills.
I can´t actually remember where i took this, or what it´s of, but it´s a nice photo.
A furry cactus in a botanical garden we visited.
More multicoloured hills. This was called the painters hill or something. Should´ve written it down.
After Salta we caught a daytime bus full of ridiculous scenery to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We arrived in the afternoon, and booked tours to the Valley of the Moon and the El Tatio Geisers for the following days. We stayed in a hostel the owner himself described as ´rustic´ called La Casa del Sol Nacimiente (the house of the rising sun). For the whole three days we were there I couldn´t get my friend Dave´s karaoke version of the song of the same name out of my head. And he screams it (well).
While eating lunch at some random cafe, Yasmin and her boyfriend Bob walked in. Bob looked different from the last time i saw him. And by different, I mean he no longer looked like Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. Not that i can talk - at least he put some conscious effort into his beard.
We went out with them for a few beers that night which was good fun and slept in the following morning. In the afternoon we took the valley of the moon tour, which leaves at 4pm and gets back after the sun is down. Advice to anyone who takes it - at sunset, walk as far as you can out along the path - most people stop earlier, which means they don´t get to see all the way into the valley.
Looking down the so called dinosaur´s back.
Las Tres Marias, which should really be re-named. But i guess the one and a half Marias doesn´t have the same ring to it.
A big dune on the way to the valley of the moon
The valley of the moon
Brennen being a goose
The next morning we were collected for the geyser tour at 4am. That was quite early. Managed to get a little bit of sleep during the two hour climb to the geysers and we arrived before the sun was up. The temperature was a brisk NEGATIVE FIFTEEN DEGREES CELCIUS! I think that´s the coldest place i´ve ever been, although i was fairly rugged-up, so it didn´t feel toooo bad. We saw some other things around the place, but they were boring compared to the geysers, and got back to the town by about 12 midday.
The geysers at dawn.
Ice crystals forming on blades of grass
The geysers from afar.
A frozen river on the way back.
One of the boring things we saw on the way back. Some 15th century church or something.
We hired mountain bikes for the afternoon and headed first of all to the ruins at Quitor which are about 3kms out of town. We walked to the lookout there and made our way back down through the ruins. They´re an impressive and extensive 12th century fortress.
Ruins of Quitor.
Taken from the lookout above the ruins.
More ruins.
The descent.
Then we rode back into town, and another 8kms to the circular ruins of an ancient town at Aldea Tulor. The ride there is very pretty, and you pass through a little town with a a dusty football field backed by mountains and volcanoes. The ruins, however, although about 2000 years older than those at Quitor, are much smaller and not as impressive.
The dusty football field.
Aldea Tulor
Aldea Tulor
We headed back to the town in time for a hot shower (thankfully) at the hostel and the 8pm overnight bus to Arica, Chile...
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