Friday, January 31, 2014

In transit...Iquique, Arica, and back to Peru!

We made the border crossing at about 7am, once again, high up in the Andes.  This was to be our last Chilean entrance, and that was pretty exciting on its own...



Once on the other side of the border, we jumped back on the bus, and headed into a very familiar stretch of highway...It just so happened to be the same stretch of highway we were on, after leaving the Uyuni tour in Southern Bolivia, and entering into Chile, headed for San Pedro de Atacama.

We, infact, pulled into the bus terminal in Atacama for a few minutes, then continued on, north, to Iquique.

As we approached Iquique, we started seeing massive sand dunes, and finally started to feel as if we were near the coast again.  We came to the summit of a large hill/dune, and at the top, you could see all of Iquique, just as the sun was setting.  The view was spectacular, and the diminishing light over the Pacific was gorgeous.



We spent the night at a shitty hostel near the beach, which was 10,000 pesos for a dorm bed...We were so ready to be back in Peru...

Next morning, we flagged down a cab to the bus terminal, and jumped on the next bus to Arica, which took us about 5 hours to get there.  Endless desert sand 360 degrees, with massive dunes and drop-offs...

The desert-scape of Iquique
Still in Chile, on the way to the border...
Non-stop desert

Once in Arica, we exited the terminal, crossed the street, and found the collectivo station for heading to Peru.  After figuring out which bus to get on, we were off.  One Chilean exit stamp, and one Peruvian entrance was all we needed...

Easy border crossing, and we were in!  Once again, and now it's really closing in on the end of the trip...Amazing.

We pulled into Tacna, Peru, at about 7pm, and found the office window for "Civa Bus" that travels all over the country...At this point, we had no plan, other than a possible volunteer gig a few hours south of Lima, where we wanted to head, but had to choose another stop in between...

We figured we'd head back to Nazca for a night, and therefor, skip traveling into the Andes again.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the bus terminal, in the form of more empanadas, and then jumped on our 7:30 bus to Nazca.

We awoke to the sound of "Nazca, Nazca" being yelled by the bus driver, and we hopped out, onto the heated sands of the Nazca desert once again, only this time, coming from the opposite direction.  We found a fairly cheap hostel for the night, at "Nasca Inn," only about 5 blocks from the center of town, where we cooked some dinner, and hung out with two other travelers for the evening, a guy from Japan, and a Swede.

With wifi access, I emailed the HelpX posting once again, and told the owner we were on our way, which he had said was fine, whenever we wanted...Our trip was almost over, but not before doing a little more volunteer work, thankfully, because we're getting pretty broke!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Iguazu to Salta...

It's hard to describe how massive Argentina really is, without having had taken buses all across this country...I guess we're semi used to it, but it's really starting to catch up to me, especially in the legs and back.  Sleeping on an overnight bus, sure, it saves you money on accommodation, and that's very important on a trip like this, but it sometimes is really not fun.

We left Iguazu at 9pm on Thursday, the 23rd of January, heading to Resistencia, about 10 hours away.  This was the only way available at that particular moment.  Once in Resistencia, we'd wait at their bus terminal all day, just about, before boarding another bus from there to Salta, about 12 more hours, that night.

From Iguazu  to Resistencia, we took 'Andesmar's' shittiest bus to date, which was cheap, but very tiny, uncomfortable seats.  We were graced with "The Last Stand," Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest action flick to keep us entertained.

Our connecting bus the next night in Resistencia was "La Veloz del Norte," where we had a 'cama' seat downstairs, right next to the air conditioning motor, that sounded like a 747 jet, all night, not to mention it was pouring rain outside, and the bus was leaking everywhere...

Not to sound like a whiner, we made it, and arrived in Salta at 6am, to a bus terminal full of sleeping backpackers, scattered all about the floor.  We did the same.  We were exhausted, especially after not sleeping much, we rolled out the sleeping mats and went back to bed.  Woke up at about 9:30, and walked 7 blocks in the pouring rain, to our hostel for the next couple days, "Ferien Haus."

Our first experience of Salta was quite a mix of other places put together.  Really a beautiful layout of the city, filled with churches and architecture resembling something similar to Cusco and Sucre, Boliva mixed together.  Met some other cool backpackers, and after 3 nights, decided to book it across the north section of Argentina, back into Chile.  We weren't at all looking forward to Chile, again, but we've got just about 5 weeks left of our trip, and ultimately need to be in Lima.

With a couple hundred Argentine pesos left, we needed to stock up on a few things...Mate.  2 and a half kilos to be exact, and I needed to buy a gourd for myself, as I had gotten Danica one for Christmas, in El Bolson.  I made a quick run to the grocery store, stocked up on the mate and some cheap snacks for the road, and then walked to the main square and picked up a little Mate gourd and straw.  We have gotten pretty addicted to this stuff to say the least.  Haven't had a cup of coffee in who knows how long...

Our bus out, was to be Andesmar, overnight, leaving Salta at 1am, and arriving in Iquique the next day at 6pm.  We stayed at the hostel til' the last possible minute, and at midnight, still pouring rain, the phone lines were down, so I went out into the soaking wet, to try and flag down a cab.  Finally located a passing cab, and he took me back to the hostel and waited outside while we gathered our stuff and brought it out.

It was bittersweet...I, especially, was not ready to leave Argentina.  I've really taken a liking to this country, and especially missed Patagonia!  There's always next time!

Monday, January 20, 2014

La Garganta del Diablo - Iguazú Falls

For those of you who've seen it, you know how amazing this place is...I've been to Niagara falls a few times, and those are amazing, but this place...Wow.

Iguazú Falls, has two viewing points, one in Argentina, and one directly across the river, in Brazil.  We, obviously, went to the Argentinian side, and it was unbelievable.

We jumped on a collectivo from the bus terminal in Puerto Iguazú, which is the town, just about 12km away from the falls.  It's 35 Pesos each way, and you have to pre-buy your return ticket.  Tourists pay 170 Pesos to enter the park, despite me trying to fake my Argentinian accent, they make you show some id...

You can walk to the viewing point, or take the train, which is included in the entrance price.  "La Garganta del Diablo," or "Devil's Throat," is the Argentine viewing point of the falls.  It's literally directly above them, and you peer over the massive amount of water pummeling down.  There's a metal bridge-like walkway that winds over the river and takes you there.

It's really hard to describe the actual feeling of being there and witnessing it all...









The walk back, through the park, was also amazing.  This place is a lot more tropical than we thought...We stopped on a walkway to see a family of Spider Monkeys playing in the trees.


We then walked the "Macuco Trail," which leads to a smaller waterfall and a swimming hole you can cool off at.


We crossed paths with what looked like a pretty poisonous snake...


...and one of these guys...


also these guys, the biggest ants we've ever seen...


Iguazú is an unbelievable place, and we can't recommend it enough.  Now we're trying to figure out the last 6 weeks of the trip, and what to do next...We just passed our 10,000 mile marker, back down the road a little, and have been to 66 cities in 9 different countries...wow, it's really hard to imagine we did all that!


Back in the pueblo, we spent a couple more days, relaxing at the hostel, by the pool.  One evening, we took the local city bus (4 pesos AR)/per person, to "3 Fronteras," a spot on the other side of town, looking over the massive Parana river, with a view of Paraguay just across, and Brazil to the right...We caught the sunset, a gorgeous orange glow over the landscape, just in time before sheer darkness...




Saturday, January 18, 2014

Punta del Diablo to Iguazu...

The falls of Iguazu were a mere idea in our heads while we were in Ecuador.  Someone had asked us if we were going there...We didn't think it would be a possibility on this trip.

After a week in Punta del Diablo, we decided, for sure, that we would make it there.  We had to see it.  Now, the problem was, that the easiest way to get there, is by bus, direct, from Buenos Aires.  I hate backtracking, and we did not want to take that hellish boat ride again...

We decided to take a bus back to Montevideo, where the real hub of transportation is, in Uruguay.  It was fairly easy, but took us a while...

Getting from Montevideo to Iguazu (without going to Buenos Aires...)

The bus company "Agencia Central," goes daily to a town called Salto, in the north of Uruguay...You need to get there first.  We took the 12:30 AM bus, that arrived in Salto at 6:30 AM.

In Salto, there are buses that run daily to Concordia, AR (just across the border).  We arrived on a Sunday, the only day there were no buses...We found out there was a collectivo bus that (for free) takes you to the water park, 15k outside of town, and right next to the border with Argentina.  We got dropped off near the waterpark, and walked to the bridge, which is really a hydroelectric dam for Argentina.  There, we hitch-hiked across the dam, and to the border crossing office for both countries.  Stamped out/in Argentina, and the same nice people offered to take us to Concordia.



We pre purchased bus tickets for that night at the Concordia bus terminal, through "Crucero del Norte," which was a really nice, comfortable bus, with a meal included.  Only problem was, we had to wait all day at the bus terminal, in 40 degree heat (104 F).  Horrible day, but we boarded our bus at 9:30 PM, and were off to Puerto Iguazu....

Monday, January 13, 2014

Montevideo to Punta del Diablo...

Our bus from Colonia to Montevideo was only about an hour and a half.  We pulled into the huge terminal of 'Tres Cruces' ahead of schedule, found a hostel for the night, and got insight on a restaurant where we could take in Uruguayan cuisine, to say the least...We walked only 5 blocks, and found "La Otra Parillada," and had an excellent meal!  It was one of the best restaurants we've been to on this trip by far.  Bread with Basil and Tomato chutney, and Steak with Uruguayan wine and a plate of grilled Provolone cheese topped with chopped tomatoes and garlic and parsley...Wow.




Next morning, we took a cab to the bus terminal again, and then waited a bit for our continuing bus to Punta del Diablo, where we decided I would roll in my 30th year...

Our friends Aoife and Luis, whom we had met originally in La Paz, Bolivia, were still in touch, and had recommended Punta del Diablo to us.  We had also heard of this place from others, and sure enough, even our Lonely Planet guidebook had a section on it.  It was on...Not only did Aoife and Luis speak highly of it, but put us in contact with Andrea, who had some cabins for rent in the area...We called her, and she was booked up for the days we needed, but she was doing some house-sitting for another guy with some cabins as well, and we found 'Cabanas Chiringas,' just down the road, through Andrea.

We booked the 13th and 14th, respectively the day before, and of my birthday.  We walked all the way down the beach to Playa Grande, and the whole coastline the way back and were very much impressed.  There were tourists, of course, but it was perfect.  Danica cooked me an amazing birthday breakfast, and that night, we barbecued out back, on the included Parilla.  Steak, veggies, wine...It was to write home about.

my delicious birthday breakfast...
 




The next day, we decided we definitely wanted to stay longer, and did...One more night we booked through Andrea, and the next day after, we wanted to stay longer, but thought that finding a campground would save us some cash, so I set out on a search for hostels/campgrounds/etc...

As I returned back to the pad, Alfredo, the owner of the property, and his family, pulled up in their Ford Escape SUV.  He asked where we were headed, because all of our belongings were out on the deck, and I told him I was looking for a hostel...Despite the busy tourist season that normally engourges this part of the world, they were quite slow at the moment, and he asked what the hostels were charging.  He said he'd give us the same price, which absolutely couldn't be beat, and we took it.  Another 2 nights there, and we had enjoyed the Devil's Point to our fullest.  What a nice guy he was, and ended up driving us to the bus terminal with all our stuff, and the night before, inviting the two of us to dinner with his family!

We would recommend his cabins in a heartbeat, and of course, also Andrea's, at "Cabanas Techari", right down the road...


Streets of Punta del Diablo
Sunsets almost every night, just like this...

Saturday, January 11, 2014

A change of pace...(Slightly) Uruguay!!

A new country was to be visited.  Very exciting.  Infact, we wanted to be far away from the millions of people in the metropolitan region of Buenos Aires, and we wanted a little bit of peace and quiet.  My 30th birthday was quickly approaching, and we wanted to be somewhere nice.  Another beach sounded great, but we passed Puerto Madryn a while ago, and we're already heading North in one sense or another...

We had been talking to several people along the way about Uruguay, the small South American nation, that's squeezed in between Buenos Aires to the South, and Brazil to the North.  We had heard they had some incredible beaches, and it had been a while since we really had time to relax.

We booked a boat to Colonia, Uruguay, which is literally right across the bay from Buenos Aires, and the price was great.  350 Pesos AR / person, one way, what we wanted, and we planned on spending the night in Colonia, and maybe a day.  The price was good, and we jumped on it.

Leaving the hostel in BA, we grabbed a taxi, and headed to the boat dock for 'Colonia Express' which does frequent back and forth trips to Uruguay.  We walked through the fairly easy customs/immigration lines of both countries, and were in a boiling hot waiting room of restless travelers.  Most were Argentinians looking to spend the week away, on vacation, but besides us, there were  maybe 2 more backpackers.

We finally boarded the boat, which was a massive Catamaran, and the inside was literally just like being in a huge jumbo jet, with very straight-forward seats and a couple tv screens to keep you entertained.  We disembarked from port BA, and slowly taxi'd out into the Atlantic bay offshore to a mild wind blowing right at us.  As we slowly picked up speed, some stewards and stewardess' came and made their rounds, handing every person 2 barf bags "just incase..."  We kind of laughed, and didn't think much of it, but 15 minutes into the crossing would prove differently...

Not even joking, 80% of the passengers began vomiting like kids at the carnival, who just went on the 'gravitron.'  It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever witnessed, and while neither Danica, nor I were sea-sick, the smell of fresh vomit coming in a 360 just 'bout made us hurl.  I wouldn't joke about it at all, but the video selection that they were playing right in front of our faces, was 'Planet Earth,' the beautifully made British series of amazing nature scenes...But, the scenes unfolding in front of every already vomiting person, were that of Penguins, regurgitating food into their offspring's mouth.  Wow, I literally laughed out loud at the irony.

We made it across the channel, as you might have guessed, but without any fresh air of any kind...I've never seen so many mothers and fathers and grandparents running for the exit of a beautiful boat, so quickly.  It was understood.

We were in Uruguay, and we also didn't realize that the small country is on a different time zone from AR...One hour later, so our search for the hostel we had booked and dinner, was a late night operation.  The next day, we would spend walking the town, and enjoying what we could, before hitting up Uruguay's capital, and largest city, Montevideo.


An Uruguayan salad, from a pizza place....Unbelievable!
 Colonia was really nice.  A small coastal village with a lighthouse and beautiful little marina full of sailboats, with a slight outline of the massive Buenos Aires in the distance, across the bay...









Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Buenos Aires, and leaving Patagonia...

Our Patagonian days were over...Sadly. The area shared between the 2 countries, is something unbelievable, and we had barely scratched the surface, it seemed. Puerto Madryn did not really feel at all like the Patagonia we knew so well, especially compared to El Bolson, but it is technically still part of it. That's what Patagonia is, a bit of everything, from vast plateaus, to green forests, rivers, lakes, icebergs, glaciers, and of course Tierra del Fuego, and yes, Ushuaia. Patagonia is more of an idea than it is a place, because there is so much to it.

Puerto Madryn was really hot. The beachfront was gorgeous, and much needed of a visit by us, but after our 2 days there, we were itching for a taste of Buenos Aires, or at least I was...

We pre-booked a bus, with 'Andesmar,' and left at 7pm from the Puerto Madryn bus terminal. As usual, before boarding, I took our 2 big backpacks to the side of the bus, where there was a man with one arm, loading baggage. He was taking, one by one, people's bags and tossing them inside the loading bay. Upon my turn, he set ours aside, and I was a little weary of why. They are pretty big/heavy bags, but there were many others with very large suitcases, and oddly shaped, wrapped packages. I waited a couple minutes, then boarded the bus, and continued looking out the window to make sure they were put underneath the bus.

We pulled out of the terminal, and watched the sun setting over the last glimpse of Patagonian nothingness that slipped away to night. 15 hours later, we'd pull into Argentina's massive capital of Buenos Aires.

The only bus terminal we've seen thus far that comes even close to 'Retiro' in Buenos Aires, was Panama City, where we were several floors up when we got off the bus. This place was huge! Upon exiting the bus, I was immediately sweating, for the last two weeks in the capital, a major heat wave had been visiting. We waited outside the bus a few minutes for our bags, and the driver's assistant took them out for us. I went to put my backpack on, when I noticed that the small zip pocket on the waist-support belt was wide open...This pocket had been a spot for random change from all of our previously visited countries, and a small, gold, good-luck charm that my grandmother had given me years ago. All of it was gone, and I knew that that small pouch didn't come open on its own...I told the driver what had happened, and he let me crawl around in the baggage compartment to look for it. Nothing. Now, the change, obviously was just a keep sake, but the piece of gold, was sentimental. I was almost positive it was the man in Puerto Madryn. I spent a few minutes cursing and searching the ground out of hope and anger, and felt stupid for keeping that in there, but all of these countries, and Argentina had to be the one! Danica and I joked that his arm may have been 'taken off' after stealing...Karma's a bitch.

We were in Buenos Aires, and like I said, it was an absolute inferno, to say the least...We walked around the front of the Retiro Bus terminal, and found a line of taxi's looking eager to have an errand to run. We approached one man, who looked fairly normal, and told him where we were headed. “Rock Hostel, on Rivadavia,” we told him, and he quickly said it would be 100 Pesos, because it was out of the way. We thought about taking the subway, but with all of our stuff, it wouldn't have been very smart...We tried another cabbie, and he laughed at the last guys outrageous price quote, as we headed into the metropolitan madness that is Buenos Aires, South America's second largest city.

We pulled up to the curb in front of Rock Hostel, and paid 35 Pesos. Rang the bell on the big, old door downstairs from the hostel, and they let us in. Our one night reservation would turn into 3 nights, and a really cool, diverse group of people, and craziness...

We met some really cool people there, and roamed around with some of them, before heading back to play some rooftop tunes on the terrace above the hostel. Next day we met Rob, from Australia, who was working there, and invited us up top for a parilla. Our third night turned into an interesting one, because we had no where to stay...They were all booked from reservations, and all the close hostels were all booked up as well...The owner decided to let us sleep up on the roof, which was actually a nice deck, and despite the heat, we made it through. I can officially say we 'camped' in Buenos Aires.



Rob's rooftop Parilla
We had met some folks back up the road, in Colombia, and in Ecuador, that were from BA, and had invited us to stay with them and visit. We were looking forward to it, but seeing as that we didn't know our timing, it really didn't work, unfortunately. It will have to be on the next trip!

Our 3 days in the big metropolis was enough, mainly due to the heat...It was breaking 40 Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit while we were there...And if any of you have been there, you know that there's really no where to hide from that kinda heat...My 30th birthday was in 3 days, and we needed a plan. Uruguay....


Cynar/Pomelo...




Sunday, January 5, 2014

Happy Birthday, D!

So we left Tierra del Fuego, after 4 amazing days in Ushuaia, and had to choose our next stop.  I knew it wasn't going to be anything compared to where we just were, but the 5th of January is Danica's birthday, so we had to choose something...

Puerto Madryn sounded great in our Lonely Planet book, so we found a connecting bus there, from Rio Gallegos.  Overnight, and we actually slept pretty well, and arrived in Puerto Madryn at noon, on her birthday.

We checked into "Tosca" hostel, only about 6 blocks from the bus terminal, and set out to enjoy the Atlantic beach town as much as possible...

Had lunch right on the beach, at "Lizard's" cafe, where the Pizza was delicious, but the waiters were idiots...We ordered a bottle of Chardonnay, which sounded great in the hot summer sun, and after 20 minutes of waiting, a waiter comes out holding a bottle of Malbec, and starts to open it...I quickly said, "Este no es vino blanco, es tinto!"  (Meaning, this is not white wine, it's red!)  He tries to convince us it's white, and I told him to send it back and bring the white...I mean, come on...First of all, I'm from California, where we too, have delicious wine, and lots of it.  He disappears with the Malbec, and another 15 minutes later our female waitress comes out and apologizes, saying they don't have white wine.  I walked 2 blocks down the road, and bought a bottle of champagne from a kiosk, for 5 dollars.  Worked out better in the long run!

Our day continued, as we spent a couple hours on the beautiful, vast beach just in front of town, and watched thirsty Argentinians sipping boiling Mate in the hot sun, while we continued our Champagne binge, on our second bottle, on the sand.  I cooked her a nice dinner, parilla style, with steak, corn, roasted red pepper, and zucchini and onion.  Visited with some guys from Buenos Aires for a bit, before retiring for the night.  Long day, but we had a blast, and 25 only comes once in a lifetime.  Happy birthday Babe!




At this point in time, looking back, we've done over 8,000 miles, or over 13,000 kilometers, since we started in San Jose, Costa Rica in March.  Wow...Ushuaia was the furthest south we'll get, and now we officially begin our ascent of the continent, where we ultimately will find ourselves back in Lima, to fly home...