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!

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...

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....

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...

Happy New Year from the end of the world!!

There were two buses heading to Ushuaia that morning from Rio Gallegos, the first being "Marga" and ours being "Tecni Austral."  The buses left at the same time, but ours was held back at the Chilean border for some time, because one man had trouble with his papers.  We sat for almost an hour while he sorted them out

Back on the road, we were on our way.  The bus was filled with backpackers heading there for the same reason as us, to ring in the new year, as far south as you can pretty much get, (at least by bus).

The island of Tierra del Fuego is huge.  It's about half Argentina and half Chile.  Getting there is not as easy as it looks on the map.  It took about an hour from Rio Gallegos to the Chilean border, where we had to stamp in, and get our bags all checked by sniffing dogs, apparently looking for fruits and veggies, more than contraband.  Once stamped into Chile, we drove about an hour, until we hit the Strait of Magellan, where the bus boards a massive freight ship, with a ramp on the shore.  We all walked onto the ship, and the freighter crossed the Strait of Magellan, covered in a stormy looking sky, that made me imagine past explorers and conquistadors navigating the southern seas.

Once on the other side, the bus drove off the boat ramp, and onto solid ground, on Isla Tierra del Fuego.  We re-boarded, and we on our way to the Argentinian border again.  Another hour or so, and we had to all check back into Argentina, and stamp out of Chile, which luckily, is a much smoother, and quicker process than the other way around.  I thought that we were pretty close after that last border, especially after we made it to Rio Grande, the smaller city on the island.  We were still pretty far, and the day was turning into night, slowly.

We pulled into Ushuaia at 10:30 PM, making it a 14 hour bus ride in total, from Rio Gallegos...We were beat, but ready to party, if there was anything going on!  We literally ran from the bus stop up the hill towards our hostel we had reserved.  We arrived at the door of "Cruz del Sur Hostel," and they opened the door to a ton of people partying and eating inside, where they handed us empanadas.  We put our stuff in the dorm room, and came back upstairs to join the festivities, and met a group of Brazilians, who were super cool, and offered us "Cynar," a strangely good liquor made from artichokes.  Suddenly we realized that 2013 was minutes away from being over...Wow.  A new year, and sadly, the quickly approaching end of our amazing journey...Not so fast, we've still got a lot of ground to cover!

We made some new friends at our hostel, and ended up having a blast there.  The owners were the nicest people ever, and after our 2 nights that were reserved, we didn't realize there was nothing available in the whole city, due to the holiday season.  They let us crash on the floor in the living room for a couple more nights, and thanks to them we were able to make the most of our southernmost trip!

We walked all around the city, in the freezing cold 'summer,' with rain falling in and out of the day.  Ushuaia reminded me much of some cities I visited in Alaska several years ago, due to it's surroundings and temperature.  It was gorgeous.  Situated right on the Beagle Channel, with Chile just across the way, and some scattered sailboats and cruise ships, as well as Argentine naval vessels about the waterfront.  We walked up to the Martial Glacier, as it's called, and had the most incredible view of the city on our last day there, and were pleasantly surprised by the sunshine that greeted us atop...

 

 

We spent 4 nights at the hostel, and like I said, met some really cool people.  The group of Brazilians were awesome.  The night before we left, they gave us a shirt from their Sao Paulo Pub Crawl business, and told us we were welcome there if ever in Brazil...Next trip!  The mother at Cruz del Sur Hostel, Marisha, walked up to me with a bag of goodies for our bus journey, which was so nice of her.  What a great place to visit, and an amazing hostel.  We really lucked out.

Next morning was going to be a long one.  All the way back to Rio Gallegos with all the border hopping madness included.  We would wake up at 4 am to get packed up and head to our five o clock bus.  The sunrise over the very calm Beagle Channel was unbelievable.  Turned out, the drivers were the same as on the way there, and were 2 really nice guys.  Alejandro, the assistant, was so cool.  He spoke English very well, and loved talking to us.  I had told him the following day was going to be Danica's birthday, and during one of our many stops, he get everyone on the bus to sing for her, it was awesome.

 We made it back across the Strait of Magellan, this time with some pretty fierce and freezing wind and waves crashing aboard.  Back on the mainland, we once again stamped out of Chile, and into Argentina, hopefully the last time for a while anyways...We hit the bus station in Rio Gallegos at 7:15pm, just enough time for our continuing bus, aboard "Via Tac," up the Atlantic coast, to Puerto Madryn for Danica's 25th birthday, taking a huge chunk out of the country going north, and far away from the land of fire.

Rio Gallegos

That morning was exciting, to say the least.  Especially crossing through ANOTHER international border.  It was becoming second nature, and really, a lot of fun.  All we could think about was Ushuaia.  We had to spend the night in Rio Gallegos, for the bus to Ushuaia only leaves at 8 in the morning, so we were to arrive there, finally, on New Year's Eve.

We got to Rio Gallegos about 4PM, and walked all the way from the bus terminal, into town, which was probably a couple kilometers with all our stuff.  We walked into the first, and only hostel we could find, and checked into a dorm.  Pretty pricey, but they had a really nice kitchen, and the whole place was spotless.  Met an English guy there that was also taking the bus to Ushuaia the next morning.

Danica cooked a delicious pasta for dinner, and we slept, thinking that we were almost there...

Volunteering at 'Light House 42' on Rio Azul

After our Camping in Bolson and Lago Puelo, we wanted to find another volunteer spot.  Nobody on HelpX had replied to us, and we felt as if it was just the busy season approaching.  While at Lago Puelo, we met Vivian and Michael, from Czech Republic, and they told us of a spot back at Rio Azul, that they happened upon.  A group of people were getting together to build a sustainable community on a beautiful piece of land next to Rio Azul, just behind the town of El Bolson.


Vivian sent an email, telling them that we were looking to volunteer, and we had the invite to come check it out.  The directions on getting there were a little iffy, and we walked past the entrance, and down a trail by the river, to where we thought the property was.  Nobody came all day, and we ended up pitching the tent by the river for the night, which was gorgeous and not to mention, a free night of camping...

The next day we checked all over the property a couple times, and nobody was around.  I was getting the feeling we weren't in the right spot to begin with...I walked back to El Bolson, and halfway there, got picked up, hitch-hiking.  Went to an internet spot, and hadn't heard from them, so I went back to get Danica, at the river and thought maybe we'd camp out in Bolson again, while we plan our next move.

As we gathered up our camp, and walked back towards the dirt road by the riverbank, I heard someone hammering in the distance, on a property with an old barbed wire fence around it.  I decided to go check it out and see if someone there knew of 'Light House 42,' the name of the project...

It turned out to be Shannon, and her boyfriend Nahuel, the people we had talked with, and I had been looking on their neighbor's property.  She asked if we still wanted to volunteer for a week or so, and we obviously did.  We set up our tent on the massive property surrounded by huge bushes of Rose Hips, or "Mosqueta" in Spanish, that are like huge rose bushes with 3 times the thorns.

We started helping around the property, on several projects, ranging from shoveling gravel, to digging drainage trenches, and coming up with new ideas for the building projects on the existing old house, also, clearing out Mosqueta.

Looking back now, we spent 3 weeks volunteering there, and have made new friends, as well as were able to offer some help and ideas towards their project.

"Light House" 42, as they call it, is a group of folks with a gorgeous, river front property, looking to build sustainably, and create a community in the hills behind El Bolson.  Shannon, Jon, and Nahuel, have been the active ones, getting the land livable for their approaching move there.  Their neighbor, Pastor, has a similar project going on, and was another great guy to meet.

We were stoked to be able to offer some ideas and helping hands to what they already have going on.  I built an outside patio table for them, and spent a good couple weeks building them a brand new kitchen counter, using only recycled/things around the property, then installed a new sink and plumbing.  Danica, again, employed her artistic techniques around the place, painting, and building a shelf from tree branches.

 

 Not only were all of them really awesome people, but we learned a lot as well.  A fucnny, and another small-world connection was figured out during our first week, when Danica, being from the Bay Area of California, thought she recognized Jon...Turns out, Jon is from San Jose, and the two of them met at a party, some 7 years ago!  Wow, this world just seems to get smaller and smaller as we get further and further away from home!

We spent Christmas with Jon and Shannon, and had a blast, hiking up the river to an amazing water hole, and eating some delicious food.  We'd love to come back sometime!

 

For now, it's down the road...Way down.  Tine to jump aboard a 30 hour Chilean bus, all the way to Punta Arenas, Chile's biggest southern city, before making our way to Ushuaia!

Danica and Shannon, before we left

'Brewski' their awesome dog

Check out Light House 42 on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/LightHouse42