TravelStream™ news feed for member pbush68 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/pbush68 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:55:01 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1218126600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1218126600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1218126600/tpod.html Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:55:01 -0500 Rae and Bushys South American Adventure

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Huacachina, Peru

7th - 12th of August 2008After deciding to go to the Oasis rather than hang around in Pisco, we got a cab to the pan american highway and waited there for one of the frequent local buses, it was a crazy free for all which was quite difficult with big back packs on! but we managed to get on with my bag sat on my knee for the hour journey, not too bad but a little uncomfortable lol! We then got a cab from Ica for the 5min trip to Huacachina, we weren't sure where we were going to stay so when the cab driver suggested Casa Arena we figured we'd give it a go. Not bad at all it was a basic but clean room and the hostal had a bar and a swimming pool, bonus :-)The day after we got there we booked a dune buggie tour so we could try sand boarding, its an eight seater buggie with a really powerful engine. We jumped in with 5 other people, started chatting to an Aussie behind us who told us the driver we had was loco! he'd been out with him the day before and loved it so much he'd booked again for today, and he was right he was definately crazy. It was great fun these sand dunes are huge and he was driving up and over them like a mad man, it was great! We stopped a few times to go down the dunes on a board which was good fun I got the hang of it eventually, check out the pic! While we were there we also did the Isla Ballestas trip which was really good. As we went out of the harbour in the speed boat we saw a school of dolphins! as some of you know I've loved dolphins since I was little so finally seeing them in the wild was wicked, the guide said we were really lucky to see them, it was an amazing sight. The Isla's themselves were pretty cool too we saw penguins, sea lions and a huge amount of birds. Considering it cost us about a tenner each it was a pretty good day. The rest of hte time in Huacachina we spent just chilling by the pool and wandering around the oasis itself, then it was back to Ica to catch a bus to Nasca.
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Arequipa, Peru

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Puerto maldonado, Peru

29th - 30th July 2008 This morning we got the boat ride back into Puerto Maldonado with everyone else, all the way I was trying to teach Ronnie (our guide) some more English but unfortunatley I think he knows more than me! lol! We had decided to stay the night in the town instead of getting the flight back that day like everyone else and Ronnie said he'd show us around a bit and help us find a good place to stay. So when we got back to the office in Puerto Maldonado we waited for Ronnie then went a wandering. After a couple of other trys we finally found a hotel for a reasonable price that had a spare room and a swimming pool lol we nweren't excpecting that! We arranged to meet Ronnie at 4ish and then went and crashed for a bit.Well we met up with Ronnie and went for some drinks and some pizza and had a laugh, mainly at me still trying to teach Ronnie some more english lol he also tried to teach us some more spanish to, all in all it was a good night of chatting away in Spanglish!
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Natural Ecological Reserve, Peru

26th  - 29th July 2008We booked a trip in Cusco to visit a lodge in the Peruvian Jungle the lodeg was called EcoAmazonia Lodge and looked pretty cool. Flew out from Cusco on a 30 minute flight to a town called Puerto Maldonaldo, where we were picked up by the lodge people in a proper tourist wagon. A quick pit stop at the lodge office and we were of to the port (well river bank) to pick up a boat. It was a typical looking jungle boat a kind of big Kayack with an outboard engine.One of my big dreads about booking a tour was the possibility of ending up with 30 odd Americans,video in hand and gob in gear!! so it was a nice suprise to get a mixed crowd of Spanish Dutch Peruvian, the only down side was all the French people!!The boat ride was around 1-2 hours and took us into the heart of the Nature reserve. The lodge was excellent all the rooms were ensuite and had mosquito netting over windows etc. That said we still hitched up our own Mossie nets to keep away all sorts of horrible insects (And Spiders!!). We had a quick bite to eat and it was of to the first excursion. Monkey Island, this was a short boat trip across the river to an Island Monkey sanctuary. This was the first time we experienced the Jungle and it was a bit unerving to see the size of some of the spiders webs and just how dense the trees could be. The walk through Monkey island took around an hour and the guides were very informative about the animals and tree's etc in teh jungle. We saw Black Capaccino, White Cappaccino, Spider Monkeys, squirrel Monkeys and one other that i cant remember. The Monkeys were almost tame and came down fom the tree's to collect the bananas that the guides dished out, it was great to get be close to the monkeys,at one stage to close when a big spider monkey climbed on my head, it was fine with it until the guides looked extremley worried and told me to keep calm and walk to a tree. I find out after that if you panic the monkeys are inclined to bite and scratch, a bit like Shelly on a Saturday night!! The down side was that it felt a bit staged and much like being in a big Zoo, but still a great experience.That was it for the first day, we went back to the lodge for some food and a chat about the next day, we met a nice Dutch couple who were to be in our group for the rest of the time at the lodge. We were quite lucky really being the only english people meant we were in a small group of 8 for everything rather than the spanish and french groups which must have been at least twice as big. Our group included the dutch couple Daisy and Mark, Lincoln and his parents (Peruvian) and his girlfriend who was from Germany all nice people. We had to be up at 4.30am ready to leave the lodge at 5.30 after some breakfast. We were off to do an 8K hike through the jungle to Lake Apuvictor. Starting with another hour boat ride we ended up being dropped of on teh bank of the river and it was into the jungle following pre made tracks, along the way the guide Ronnie (who was besotted by Rachel LOL) showed us various trees and animals including a tree called the justice tree full of fire ants, its the one tree not to hang your hammock on!! We saw more monkeys, soldier ants and spiders. Along the way Ronnie showed us, various trees the best being the Giant Lapuna tree, it was huge the trunk must have been 8 to 10 metres in diameter, we then stopped at another tree expecting more info but Ronnie started to poke at a hole in the ground witha stick, when we asked why, he explained that he was trying to coax a tarantula out of its nest (at this point i ran of to the lodge Lol) the spider just about poked out a legbut wasn't interested in meeting us. After a 5k hike we reached the first river via a rickety old platform through a huge swamp. We all boarded a kayak and paddled out into the lake / swamp.We moved about 3ft and were about a foot from a small cayman, we carried on around the lake seeing lots of birds and turtles sunning themselves, then the mother of the peruvian guy that we were with nearly had a heart attack, we were about 3ft from an 8m anaconda ronnie manouvered us in nearer, at this point we could have practically touched it. I am guessing it was about 50cm in diameter and it looked like it had already eaten (that what i told myself anyway). Ronnie seemed as excited as the tourists to see the snake, he was taking photographs and telling us all to be silent, we later found out that this was a very rare occurance and he had only seen 2 in 2 years. After that the rest of the lake trip was a bit of an anti climax, we saw more, bigger cayman and plenty of turtles but nothing really compared.After the lake trip we tracked back through the swamp looking out for more anaconda, and came to a 45m tree that had steps nailed to it made out of old bits of wood,in the brochure it was advertised as the canopy look out, but to me it looked more like the tree house i built as a kid, but much much higher!! As most of you know i am not great with heights but after the Mum of the group went up i felt obliged to. The only way to do this was not stop and not think about the fact that these peices of wood we were walking/climbing up were just nailed to a tree. We got to about 40 m up and found that the last leg is literally a climb on pieces of wood nailed to a tree (just like my tree house!!) When we got to the top there was a rickety platform of rotten wood, I looked round and Rachel seemed as petrified as me haha ha.Somehow this gave me some macho confidence, and i climbed the last few steps to the top platform, where the view was pretty amazing,even looking through my fingers Lol, that said i didnt stand up on it as new underwear would have been needed!! Both of us by this point were starting to realise that now we were up there, we had to climb back down. The hardest bit to negotiate was the climb at the top and after this the decent was not as bad as we first thought. Apart from the fact that a German girl and a Peruvian had decided to come up.I thought Rachel was going to kill them as we had asked before starting down if anyone was coming up. So there we are about 30m up a tree, not only were the peices of wood only nailed to a tree but now there were 4 people standing on them!! AFter manouvering round each other we were down in about 5 minutes shaking like a leaf.Another 1k hike and we came to another canoe/kayak that we all had to paddle for 5k upstream back to the main River, i am guessing it was about 90 degrees and ridiculous humidity, we all started wondering why we had paid to do this Lol. but when we reached the end it all seemed well worth it. When we got back to the lodge we had a dip in the pool and lovley cold beer before dinner.Day 3 was free in the morning so more pool time and chilling in hammocks, then it was off down river with fishing rods trying to catch Piranha,we were getting eaten alive by Mosquitos and no fish were caught but we stopped at an indiginous family to see how they lived. Basically it was in shacks on the river bank, they made there living by panning for gold  along with plenty of others we saw on the river. After seeing the Anaconda these excursions were a bit of an anti climax but still worth while.
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Cusco, Peru

21st - 25th July 2008 We pretty much spent this time chilling in cusco, plus we found cider!!!!!! in a place on the Plaza de Armas called The Norton Rat Tavern, man that tasted good it wasn't strongbow it was some kind of suffolk cider I think. So that totally made my day :-) We have decided to go into the jungle near Cusco rather than going all the way up to Iquitos, so we went off in search of the best deal. And guess who we bumped into! Herman from our drunken night in Aguas Calientes, lol. He was really happy to see us and eager to show us some sites of the tourist track so we agreed to meet him in the morning and he was to be our guide for the day.The next day (23rd) Herman showed up at our hotel and off we went up the Huatanay River Valley, the first stop was Huaro a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and the Museo de las Rocas Sagradas which was no more than a small hall within which is a collection of rocks with carved symbols, petroglyphs, of the Incan cosmology and gives an understanding of Incan philosophy. It also has some other good examples of Incan stonemasonry, including perfectly carved circular holes used for water conduits and a stone table (see pic) that when you tap it with another stone has the ring of iron. After the museum he took us to Huaro Church which has an amazing interior with murals all over the walls and ceiling, absolutely beautiful. Check out the video and photos.The next place was The Inca Gate to their imperial capital of Q'usqo. Which was built to control entry from the Altiplano into the Inca capital. It was really interesting as you can see the Inca stone work ontop of the pre-inca stonework (see in the pic the inca work is the neat blocks perfectly joined), the difference is astounding. Quite a sight and very big, I was surprised that no other tourists were there but I guess most people come to this area for the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu and don't explore anywhere else.The final place he took us to was to the Inca ruins of Tipon. Located 23 kilometers southeast of Cusco they're not on the usual tourist track so it was relatively quiet. The temple includes well-preserved agricultural terraces, baths, irrigation canals and aqueducts that show the Inca's skillful building technique. The aqueducts reach all the terraces via a number of small waterfalls. It was definately a spectacular site and well worth the visit, unfortuneately I was suffering from the altitude, again! so I went a waited in the car after having a quick look around whilst Bushy and Herman went exploring. After this we went back to Cusco, to hire the cab for the 5 or 6 hours that we were out cost about 80 soles so about £13 and much simpler than doing it by public transport. We said our goodbyes and took Hermans e-mail so we could keep in touch then went back to the hotel.
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Cusco, Peru

15th - 17th July 2008Waking up after battering yourself to bits on a mountain bike is never pleasant but we woke bright and early and took a taxi to the bus station where we were to catch our bus to Cusco, we decided to bypass lake Titicaca for now as we just wanted to get to the Cusco area, and it would be easy enough to get back to later if we wanted. It was a daytime bus which was cool as it meant we got to check out the lake on the way past, its pretty big, I believe its the world highest navigable lake at an altitude of 3827 meters. Quite impressive!At Desaguadero we had to get off and go to the border control so we could pass into Peru, this takes a while and expect to be barged out of the way by bolivian and peruvian women in a hurry with big bags on there backs! Once you have your exit stamp from Bolivia you have to walk accross the bridge to Peru to recieve your entrance stamp, the bus followed us after it had been thoroughly searched, its not really very obvious what your expected to do but just follow the other tourists and it'll work out, thats what we did! lol!The rest of the bus ride was pretty uneventful until we got close to Cusco and the driver decided he'd had enough of driving sensibly he was mad! it was pitch black and the roads were similar to those in the lake district on the way to Millom! I thought the bus was gonna roll more than once, but we finally made it to Cusco, and to our hotel, Hotel El Triunfo which was to be our base whilst in the area.The first thing we did the next day was go book our train tickets to Aguas Calientes, which is where you stay to visit Machu Picchu. We were really lucky and managed to get the last 2 tickets on the Vistadome train for the following day! Usually you have to get your tickets at least 2 days in advance but our luck was in :-) thats pretty much all we did on our first visit to Cusco except sort through what we were taking and what we were leaving at the hotel in storage. He he Machu Picchu tomorrow!!!!
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Uyuni, Bolivia

8th - 10th July 2008 Well after all that we did decide to go straight on to La Paz rather than Potosi mainly because we felt we were maybe running out of time and wanted to get up to La Paz asap. So we only stayed in Uyuni for 2 nights as we booked the tourist bus with Todo Turismo for the 10th. We stayed in a nice hotel for next to nothing that was run by a really nice couple who found our awful atempts to talk to them in spanish hilarious and just kept laughing at us, all in good humour though lol! We had a little look around the town which was no where near as bad as people make it out to be, infact I quite liked it. The president of Bolivia was visiting Uyuni on the 10th so the whole town was crazy busy getting ready for his visit, and as you can see from the pics they were all in thier best , traditional clothes it was quite a site.
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Uyuni, Bolivia

6th - 8th July 2008Jeep trip to Uyuni, Bolivia from San Pedro de AtacamaWe set off from San Pedro at 8am with a company called Estrella del Sur (they were excellent and would recomend to anyone) the trip started with a bus ride from San Pedro to the Bolivian border, we had breakfast here high up in the mountains and then were split into groups to transfer into the jeeps. We were with 2 australian guys, Chris and PJ, Brenda from the US and Sung Hee from Korea who were all really nice also in our jeep was our cook for the trip Amaelia and of course Abet (no idea of the spelling) our driver who was good the whole trip. The first couple of stops were at lakes, Laguna Blanca which was surprisingly white and Laguna Verde which was strangley enough green both were stunning. we then saw the Dali Rock Dessert so called after Salvador Dali the spanish painter that painted them on several occasions (right up my street :-) next on the itinery was Polques hot springs, which I'll admit I was a bit dubious to go for a swim in since, although it was sunny it was freezing cold becuase of the wind. but we both braved it and changed into swimwear and jumped in, it was lovely a perfect temperature I really didn't want to get out and when we did it was so cold! After we'd dried off it was back in the jeep to the next place which was Geyser Sol de Manana, a Geyser Basin which was pretty cool and looked like something from Jurassic park. We arrived at our hostal, Hualla Jara at about 3pm and at an altitude of 4300m we were all feeling it with headaches and general crappiness, but it wasn't to bad we had something to eat then set out to the Red Lagoon or Laguna Colorada, this was one hell of a sight the waters were a deep red and there were parts that were iced over which were a bright white then standing in the water were bright pink flamingos all of this against a barren brown landscape and bright blue sky, wicked!To top it off there was a Llama herd by the lake shore, all of this at 4300m above sea level, madness! After this it was back to the hostel. I didn't sleep at all that night I got a bad case of altitude sickness and was up the whole night I wont go into detail as it wasn't pleasant! All 6 of us didn't get much sleep that night either due to the cold (it was Mucho Freeo) or the altitude. To try and explain what this hostel was like might be quite difficult, the 6 of us slept in one room which was cool literally cool since it was about 3 degrees C at just 6pm I wouldn't like to guess the min temp it was that night. The beds were wooden slats with a 5mm mattress with 2 blankets luckily we all had sleeping bags as well or extra blankets, the toilets were outside around the back in a shed where all the water or other liquid stuff... iced over at night. Anyway it was definately an experience! one thing I'll always remember was seeing my first shooting star on one of my wanders that night. The night sky was even brighter here than it was on Easter Island you could see the milky way stretching right accross the sky not having an artificial light in sight and being in the middle of nowhere helped.The following day we all got up bleary eyed but ready for another day had pancakes for breakfast then got in the jeep, our first stop was the Stone Tree or Arbol de Piedra which was erm weird, I wasn't really sure what to think to be honest but then it was the morning and you know what I'm like in the morning! It was basically a weird rock formation that resembled a tree shape (surprisingly enough). Next we saw 4 more lagoons called as a group, Lagunas Altiplanicas, all very beautiful and our cameras were working overtime. Ollague Volcano was our next stop and the first time I've ever seen an active volcano, there was smoke coming out of it but luckily no lava flow! After that we drove over the Salar de Chiguana. Which is a mini salt flat. the hostel that night was actually a salt hotel, built of yep you guessed it salt blocks, which was pretty cool had another nice meal consisting of chicken, rice and roasts (I was definatley grateful about the food we'd been cooked on this trip especially after reading some blogs about the jeep trips and the quality of the food not being to great) we were all much more comfortable that night, the hotel was warmer and cosier plus we were alot lower at about 3600m above sea level so sleep was possible! yay!Just a note (I am not the best at writing these things) but Rae forgot to mention that she managed to sleep on a road that was the equivilent of the Himilayas (SP) the road had rocks the size of beach balls and it was at about 30 degrees it took about an hour and a half to navigate with her head banging on the window every 20 seconds, I have been told that she can sleep anywhere but this really was impressive.I've been told i have to write some!!Day 3 was up at dawn and out to load the jeep as usual we were the last group to leave (our driver was very good and safe but sometimes a little too laid back when we needed to get somewhere, i dont think the sunrise waits for anyone!!) we made our way out on to the Salar salt plains and just about made it to the position we needed to be at before the sun came up (me stressing about nothing again!).Another sun rise for the albumn i couldnt believe how big the salt flats were. Not only area but aparently 15m thick as well. After the sun set we set of for fishermans island stuck right in the middle of the Salar, and covered in cacti. We wandered right around it waiting for the sun to warm us up a bit, i'm guessing it was around -5 stayed here for about an hour and stuffed our faces again, and played around with the cameras using the white background to scew the perspective and make things bigger or smaller than they are, i could have spent hours messing about here. Then it was off to a salt museum which used to be a hotel until it was shut for sanitary reasons (nice!!) tHere were some salt statues and the old bedrooms etc, but the best thing here for me was the shop, i hadn't had a twix for 6 weeks.Off again to see the salt mines which is basically where the locals (ranging from what looked like 12 years old to 70 years old) pile up the salt into heaps ready to be shoveled on to a truck and processed for sale. I was knackered just ambling about at this altitude how they stood in the sun alday sholveling salt i will never know.We carried on to a town called Colchani where there were some locals selling the same stuff that you could buy just about anywhere in south America as well as just about anything you could think of made from salt. We had lunch in the middle of a shop, it was random and cold and ironically the food needed more salt!! Saw some pigs running about in the street and PJ managed to offend one of the local girls, when he wouldn't let her play with his video camera,she kept running up and punching him!!Onto the train grave yard at Uyuni, by now were were all feeling the jeep and most of the group needed to get a bus booked for the onward journey and wanted to get to the ticket agent before all the other jeeps!!with this in mind we had a glance at the old train, steam engines etc and then got away before anyone else to book bus tickets. As usual Rae and me were undecided what to do and made a snap decision to buy a ticket for La Paz that night. There is only one tourist bus which was full so we booked on the local bus which is meant to be cold uncomfortable and very bumpy. We stashed our bags and went of for a bite to eat and a drink. During my second beer i changed my mind and decided it would be a good idea to stay in uyuni for the night and then on to Potosi to blow stuff up with dinamyte (SP). We finished our drink and went off searching for a hostel.We didnt get a refund on the bus ticket but as it was only 4 quid we didnt worry to much!!   
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1214777460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1214777460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1214777460/tpod.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:37:07 -0400 Rae and Bushys South American Adventure

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Easter Island, Chile

22nd - 26th June 2008   Sorry about delay guys!Easter Island/Rapa Nui/Isla de Pascua (whatever you want to call it!)Well we decided to take a chunk out of our budget and fly to Easter Island which although it is a part of Chile its actually a 5 hour ish flight from Santiago. We landed at about 10pm at the only airport on the Island and were picked up by a guy from camping Minhoah which is where we were staying. The airport was tiny just one gate for all departures and arrivals, the guy picked us up in a pickup truck which we got to ride in the back of cos there was to many of us! I've never riden in the back of a pick up before it was great especially since we got a good look at the night sky, wow! I've never seen a sky so clear it was amazing. We arrived at the hostel which although it was the cheapest on the island it was in a brilliant location, right on the coast just outside of Hanga Roa (the only town on Easter Island) and the room was much nicer than you expect from most hostels (inc. Private bathroom!) we wandered into town once we were sorted at the hostel to get a bite to eat and a beer, there didn't seem to be an awful lot open so we went in the first place we found had a couple of beers and shared a dish that the barman there recommended, I can't remember what it was called but it was basically chips with small bits of beef,cheese and a creamy mayo sauce with some japanese style flavours, yum!The first full day there was really hot and a welcome break from the cold or occasionally warmish weather we'd been getting throughout S America. We decided to do a trek up the volcano called Rano Kau so we set of from the campsite about midday, map in hand (when i say map i mean crappy map you get on tourist leaflets kinda map!) and plenty of water. It was quite a trek for us especially since we took a wrong turning and ended up doing it the extra long way! lol! trust us aye. But after about 3 hours we reached our goal and boy was it worth it! The crater of the volcano was huge and in the bottom was a lake covered in parts with a type of green plant it really was a beautiful site hopefully the photos do some justice at least. Just a bit further on between the rim of the volvano and the Ocean is Orongo Ceremonial Village which has now been restored and was an interesting end to the hike. We got back to the hostel about 5ish, via the path we were originally supposed to go up! we found it on the way down. The hostel was not only right on the Ocean but in the perfect position to see the amazing sunsets that they have. We sat down and chilled with a beer right on the sea edge it was possibly one of the nicest sunsets I've seen with great clean waves too.The following day we rented a car, a wee Jimmy Jeep, for 2 days so we could explore the island ourselves rather than pay for a load of tours, we did whats called the northeast route on the first day which takes in a few of the ruined Ahu that are on the island (350 in total) these are large platforms made of stone and paved on the upper surface the majority of which are on the coast all the way around the island little is actually known about the uses of these Ceromonial sites. Only some of these Ahu supported the giant Moai for which the Island is generally famous for and it was some of these which we saw on this trip including, Ahu Vaihu, Ahu Akahanga and Ahu Hanga Tetenga. All the Moai when discovered were fallen from the Ahu and this is how they have been left it is thought that this was something to do with tribe warfare?? but nothing about the history of the Island seems certain. The highlight was Rano Raraku which is another volcano which was used as a quarry to make the giant Moai and you can see them in all different stages of being cut from the rock. We both agreed however that by this point we were so used to seeing the Moai on the ruined Ahu up the coast that the quarry wasn't as impressive as it would have been if it was the first time we'd seen the Moai, but even so it was def a highlight. Just up the road from the quarry was a restored Ahu with 14 Moai standing upright on it which gives a great idea of what they all would've looked like at somepoint, this was called Tongariki. We headed back through the center of the island via the beach, Anakena, which we would've stayed at for a while if the sun had held out but it was quite cold now so we went back to Hanga Roa.The last day we were here we took the jeep north of Hanga Roa to a circuit that can be done there, we saw a couple more fallen Moai Ahu and walked up to see Puna Pau which used to be a quarry where the hats of the Moai were made from a redder stone. The highlight of today and one of the highlights of the island were the caves we saw, they're only described breifly in the guide books and we didn't see any tours going to them but they were great and well worth the visit but I'm glad we took a torch. The first one was called Ana Kakenga on the coast which was two caves joined together by a small tunnel, there was no one else around and no tourist signs anywhere to be seen it almost felt like we'd just discovered them! cool! but also a worry safety wise! but we explored it anyway. The second cave was further inland called Ana Te Pahu which has at its entrance a garden of Banna trees! and you can walk all the way through the caves and come out about a quarter of a mile away from where you started it was great fun! but you definately need a torch its pitch black in places.Well thats pretty much it as far as Easter Islands concerned we flew back to Santiago the following day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1213977660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1213977660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/pbush68/1/1213977660/tpod.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:34:20 -0400 Rae and Bushys South American Adventure

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Santiago, Chile

20th - 22nd June 2008Well the drive over the Andes wasn't as scary as I expected but it was cold! even on the bus. The scenery was spectacular and my camera was working overtime but although it was pretty to look at I was so glad to get off the bus in Santiago.The hostel we stayed at was really good although we only ended up staying in Santiago for 2 nights because we got a last minute flight to Easter Island! I was so happy about that because it was one of the places that was on my definate to do list before we came out here but I took it off when I found out how much the flights were but we figured we may as well use a chunk of our budget to do it since we're here it seemed crazy not to. So we left our big bags at the hostel and went for 4 nights to Easter Island :-)The one thing we did do on our first night in Santiago was visit the Thai restaraunt just at the end of our road, man that was so good! I was gasping for a curry and I don't think I've ever eaten so fast! yum!  
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