TravelStream™ news feed for member sarah_s_america on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sarah_s_america en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:59:20 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1132068720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1132068720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1132068720/tpod.html Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:59:20 -0400 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Easter Island, Chile

Greetings from the town of Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island)

Well, this certainly wasn't part of the plan! In fact I'm now on about plan J I reckon, plans A to I having fallen by the wayside, but this is one big vote for maintaining flexibility! If you are sitting comfortably, I will begin - I have been rendered speechless quite a few times in the last week so I've been storing it up: prepare for a long entry!

So, as you may have gathered from the previous entry, I was pretty excited to find a special offer on the flight to EI - there's only one airline (LAN Chile) that goes there, and they are notorious for overbooking the flights. Anyhow, I grabbed the opportunity and was a bundle of nerves until I could get to Santiago and could confirm my place in LAN´s office here. It all worked out, thankfully, so after a day rushing about getting US dollars sorted out and getting some clothes washed, I got myself to the airport.

Its hard to describe just how isolated Easter Island is. Its the most remote inhabited place in the world. Basically its nearly 6 hours' flying time from Santiago, almost 2,500 miles west of Chile, and 2,000 miles from Tahiti. There have been all sort of wacky theories about how the island was settled, including UFOs and the like, but basically it is a Polynesian island, part of the huge Pacific area including Hawaii and New Zealand. The islanders themselves call it Rapa Nui, and that is also the name for their language and culture too. EI is also called "Te pito o te henua", which means "the navel of the world" in Rapa Nui, and its kind of fitting.

So what was it like? Well, firstly, it was absolutely beautiful. Not a lush tropical paradise as such (the island was completely deforested during the making of the moai (statues), more of which in a second), although there are two gorgeous white sand beaches, but with a stunning volcanic landscape. Secondly it is absolutely tiny. Really small, something like 60 square miles in total. Only 4,000 people live there, and they all live in the town, Hanga Roa, where I stayed with a lovely lady called Teresa who couldn't have been more helpful and sweet.

And the archaeological history of the place is just fascinating. There are hundreds and hundreds of Moai on the island. I really wasn't prepared for quite how many, but you could stumble upon them at practically every turn. They are all of different sizes and all have slightly different features. Some are standing, having been restored to that position after being topped either by weather or on purpose by warring tribes. The moai stand on ahus (platforms) which were the original burial places of the tribal ancestors. If a person was rich and important enough, a moai was carved for them and put on top of the ahu. Some of them, at a later date, were given pukao (topknots) which are made of reddish stone and look like hats, but really represent the typical hairstlye of the tribes. Most of the moai are situated around the coast, and they all overlook an old village site. They look a little stern, even slightly grumpy, and some are absolutely huge.

One of the most fascinating places was the volcano called Rano Raraku which was the quarry of the moai. From here, all the moai were carved out from the rock and brought many kilometers to the coastal sites. There are lots of theories about how they were moved, but probably involving a system rolling logs, hence the current lack of trees. On the volcano, some moai are partially carved, and lots of heads and fragments are scattered all over the place. I'll put some pictures up asap, so you can see just how many.

Another amazing site was a line of 15 moai, restored to their upright position by a Japanese company after a moai (now called the travelling moai) which was lent to Japan for an exhibition. The scale of this site is amazing, and the surreal blue of the Pacific crashes in the background. I rented a jeep from Teresa's daughter and came here on the last day to see the sun rise behind the moai which was amazing. There was no-one else there apart from me and a few horses, scratching themselves happily on a line of topknots which was lying nearby!

I also spent an afternoon on the beach (blimey the sun is strong here), which is beautiful. A line of moai also stands there, and their faces are particularly well preserved as they had fallen face down in the sand, and so very little eroded. Palm trees have been brought from Tahiti so at least there was a little bit of shade!

One of the days, I also took a tour with a local guide, who took us to the ceremonial village of Orongo, which is the centre of the bird man cult. Off the coast below another volcano, filled with a freshwater lake, are three tiny islets. To become birdman, the military leader, for the year, a competition took place to canoe out to the furthest of these islands and retrieve an egg from a particular bird. The first one back would become bird man and be allowed to live at the moai quarry with the king of the island. There are lots of petroglyphs here depicting the birdman, and more photos to follow.

On the tour I met a group of 5 Brits who live in Vancouver so hung around with them for a bit, as well as a couple of hilarious older American ladies (71 and 87 respectively) who have invited me to come and see them in Boston if I ever go to the states! Very entertaining.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I've done the island justice in this blurb, but pictures will definitely help so will add them soon. I feel so lucky to have been to Easter Island, it was a really magical place, kind of spooky and otherworldly at times but really special.

The week has passed so quickly I am in need of a bit of a rest now, so a day or two in Santiago before I head north is in order.

Hope everyone is well,

Lots of love Sarah xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1130879820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1130879820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1130879820/tpod.html Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:57:44 -0400 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

San Juan, Argentina

I am just back in Mendoza after 2 adventurous days driving through the desert in a car with a leak in the petrol tank, with 3 Irish people and a slightly insane Argentinian.

Seeing the national park near ("near" as in 5 hours away) from San Juan was more difficult than I had thought. When I turned up after a couple of hours in the bus from Mendoza, I was the only person staying in the hostel, which was odd, but kind of nice as I got a room to myself for once! Anyway, Francisco and Ana, the owners, were brilliant and explained that as it was low season (clearly most people are not keen to go into the desert in Spring and sensibly come in autumn!) I could either wait to see if others turned up or head to another village which is only an hour away from the park and see if I could set up a tour there.

Luckily Fiona, Neil and Alan turned up the next day and we organised a taxi to take us to San Agustin de Valle Fertil, and from there we would go to the Valle de la Luna (aka Ischigualasto Park) and also get to see another national park called Talampaya on the same day. So a result all round.

Next day we drove to San Agustin, which is certainly not in a Valle Fertil as far as I can tell (it hasn´t rained since April here although there was a freak bit of snow in September), where we spent the night before our desert trip. We rented an apartment and had a proper Argentinian "asado" (barbeque) that night (Jose Lui, our driver, took care of the cooking!) and felt very Argentinian going off to buy a big bag of meat, bread and wood for the fire.

Early on Thursday we headed off in the car to see the park. I´ll attach photos in a sec so you can see what it is like but basically it is a hugely arid area, where loads and loads of dinosaur bones have been preserved. There are two different types of rock, a reddish sort of sandstone and a greyer, more layered type. The heat, wind and rains have shaped the rocks into all sorts of odd forms, and they have been given names like:the sphinx, the yellow submarine, the ball court and the worm. I´ll let you decide if the worm and the submarine look like it says on the tin - I didn´t! Pretty impressive though.

Anyway, it was all hugely hot and dusty, scorching sun and hardly any shade anywhere. After 3 hours we had completed the ciruit and headed off to Talampaya, gulping huge amounts of water. Apparently in summer it reaches 50 degrees at Ischigualasto but 34 was enough for me without a swimming pool and cold drink to hand!

An hour later we pitched up at Talampaya, were robbed of more entrance fee money, and went off on a tour of the park. This area is really part of the same landscape as the first park, and the main attraction in the park is a huge (REALLY huge) red sandstone canyon and the petroglyphs carved into the rock in about 500BC. More photos attached in a minute - in most I could barely get the whole of the cliffs into the picture they are so huge. I´ll put one on which has the minibus in it so you can get some idea of scale. The petroglyphs were cool too, there are lots of llamas in them and symmetrical figures etc, although the guide explained that we really don´t know what they mean, it does give us clues that there were people passing through the area at the time, and were herding animals etc. The whole area was really amazing, quite spooky to think that its a place which has probably barely changed in nearly 3,000 years.

The journey back was uneventful apart from the part when smoke started billowing out from underneath the dashboard after we´d come up a mountain via switchbacks(fixed in a jiffy though), and we arrived back in San Juan, knackered, at about 10.30.

Today i caught a bus back to Mendoza, but tomorrow I am undecided what to do. If I can face more driving, might head off to another place about 4 hours way from here to see a natural stone bridge formed in the Andes but if not will have a lazy day before heading to Santiago to see some more of Chile.

More soon, love Sarah xxxx

P.S Also now have photos to add to the last few entries as well - yay!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1129303380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1129303380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1129303380/tpod.html Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:55:13 -0400 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

El Calafate, Argentina

Another big "wow, nature is amazing" from Argentina!

I arrived in Calafate on Tuesday after a flight with the Argentinian Airforce passenger service (company motto: the Falklands belong to Argentina...!), it was a little propella plane and we stopped on the way for a coffee in a random airport! Have been having such a good time here that I am staying an extra day. The hostel I am at is great, with beautiful views of the Andes and small rooms. The communal areas are comfy and very condusive to lounging around, so I am having a relaxing day today, to do all the things I haven´t had time for whilst rushing about to see glaciers etc! So today I am getting photos burned onto a cd, getting laundry done (yay, clean socks!) and doing a travelpod entry for you all!

Plus, have organised almost the whole next week of my travels. Its been weird as so far I have just been turning up in a new place and arranging things as I go along, but ferry schedules demand a bit of planning (more of which later) so I have had to be a bit more organised.

Anyhow, back to the nature bit. Calafate is jammed almost up against the Chilean border, which is essentially the Andes. On this side, there are huge snow fields which compact to form a whole load of glaciers. Calafate is a really touristy (and v expensive) town, where every other building is a hotel, hostel or souvenir shop, to serve all the tourists who come to see the glaciers. But still, its beautiful, right on a huge milky blue lake with the odd iceberg floating in it. I arranged 2 tours through the hostel, one was a whole day in a catamaran boat which travelled to see 4 or 5 of the biggest glaciers, and one was a shorter tour to see one of the most active and acessible glaciers, called Perito Moreno.

The first tour was long, very very cold and amazing. We saw huge icebergs, got completely frozen by the really strong winds on the lake, and saw the highest and I think the widest glacier in the area too. The weather wasn't great so within about 5 minutes I was wishing I had got around to buying a hat and gloves, but it was fun all the same. The lake branches off into several (relatively) smaller channels where the glaciers approach, and sailing down those really felt that we were at the end of the world, with the Andes looming over us. The weather was so bad we couldn't see one of the glaciers, and at one point we got onto the shore and walked through a wood to see another smaller lake with 2 more glaciers flowing into it. I can honestly say I have never been so cold in my life! One of the glaciers (the biggest) is receding so much that there are 7km of icebergs in front of it, so we couldn't get near it.

Yesterday I went to another part of the national park to see the Perito Moreno glacier. The weather had cheered up a bit and I had bought a hat and gloves, finally, so it felt lovely and cosy after the day before! The Perito Moreno glacier is the most active in the region, moving about 2 metres per day! It calves so much at the face, though, that it is actually quite stable, size-wise, and doesn't advance. The ice a a spectacular blue colour, an optical illusion formed by the light, and it is 60 metres high (about the height of a 15 storey building, fact fans) and something like 30km long. We did a hike over the beach and up towards the side of the glacier (scrambling over boulders and up hills - NOT good at all for my ankle which I have strapped up today). I was glad I did it though, we got the most amazing views of the face of the glacier, and then climbed up the hill to see right over the surface too. I had my sandwiches sitting watching the face of the glacier from a bench which was just amazing, watching huge chunks calve into the lake and form mini icebergs. We got to spend about 2 hours on the balconies and catwalks overlooking the glacier, then went on a boat trip which took us to within 300m of the face of the glacier - pretty amazing to see it so close. The glacier is so active that there are cracks and crevasses everywhere, with pointed spires sticking up into the sky. The shape is really irregular - from far away it looks like a solid wall of ice, but its very pointy close up. When it calves, there's a thundery cracking noise, and then bits fall into the lake and make a big splash. The bigger bits sink then bob back up and float away. It was dropping bits of various sizes almost the whole time we were there!

Anyhow, after all that excitement you can tell I need a day off from sightseeing. The next part of the plan is: tomorrow, fly to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. I was going to take the bus, but it involves leaving here at 3am and getting there at 9pm, and I'm just not that hardcore!! Plus, its only about 100 pesos more to fly. This country is SO big, I can't tell you how many times I think that every day! From Ushuaia, I am heading into Chile. Next Thursday, there is a ferry which will sail up through the Chilean fjords (there are no roads) to Puerto Montt, arriving next Monday. The ferry only goes once a week, hence the necessity of planning a bit so I don't miss it!

Anyhow, am waiting for another machine to add some photos, so they should be on later today. Hope everyone is well, talk to you soon. Lots of love Sarah xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1133978220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1133978220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1133978220/tpod.html Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:43:38 -0400 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

What do you get when you cross a Jeep, two Bolivians, two Mexicans, two Canadians, a Fin and a Brit (me!)? A very squashed but spectacular trip through the south west corner of Bolivia!

I got the train to Tupiza from Villazon, where I bumped into John and Jim from Canada, and Kathina from Finland, who were all planning on doing the same tour of the south west of Bolivia and the salt flats (the Salar de Uyuni). So, we decided to go together. After a minor delay of nearly two hours, the luxurious train made it to Tupiza in the middle of a spectacular thunderstorm, and we legged it to a hotel and organized a trip to leave the very next day.

I think I was really lucky to meet them as over the next couple of days I bumped into Sabrine from Germany and Nicole from Corsica, who I had met in Tilcara and Salta respectively. They had both left earlier than me to get to Tupiza to organize their tours, but had to wait around for a couple of days to get enough people to form a group.

Just after breakfast we got the welcome news that two Mexican girls, Usi and Yelen, were wanting to do the same trip, so they joined up with us and we got US$30 of the cost back before we had even left.

After the first couple of hours, I don't think I was alone in wondering if 4 people squashed into the back of the jeep wouldn't have been a better idea than 6 of us, but still, I've decided to use the extra money to splurge on a hotel here in Uyuni instead, and stretch out my poor knees.

Sebastian, our driver, and Jim, the cook, did a fab job of keeping us happy during the 4 days. The tour took us right down to the Chilean border, to lakes, the biggest salt flats in the world, geysers, flamingoes and 12 metre-high cacti. The scenery was truly stunning, very remote and very high!

I think the highest we reached was 5,000 meters above sea level, and on the last day we came down to 3,600 here in Uyuni. It was realy odd to see Volcan Licanabur from the other side, as I had already seen it when I was in San Pedro, in Chile. Some of the roads were pretty awful, but it was great to get onto the salt flats and not be bouncing around quite so much. And we only had one flat tyre, and only had to get out and push the jeep a few times to get it started.

We stayed in two pretty basic places the first two nights (I will definitely not take running water for granted now!) and the third night was spent in a Salt Hotel which was much more luxurious. Literally everything was made out of salt, walls, beds, chairs, tables. Everything except the showers - and it was SO nice to have a shower for the first time in 3 days!

I've tried a couple of times to attach photos of the last few weeks but the connections have been really unreliable so there are only a couple so far. Will add more as soon as I find a decent computer, which can take the cd.

So now I am in Sucre, after a fairly hideous 12 hour journey which made me long for the lovely buses in Argentina. Its completely different here - much more of a bus than a coach. You chuck your backpack up on the roof and hope it is still there at the end. Then I spent 12 hours squashed between an old lady wearing the traditional layers of skirts (clearly just to annoy me and take up loads of room!) and a bowler hat, and the kids in the aisle who don't have to have a seat and just loll around on the rest of the luggage which is blocking the aisle. Plus, the first 6 hours were on twisty, turny, unpaved roads, climbing up to 4,000 metres. Even the Bolivians were being sick which was lovely.

Anyway, assuming I like the town, which I am going to have a look at in a minute, I will be sticking around here for a while to try to learn a bit more Spanish. Also need to find a place to live which should be an adventure!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1135873260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1135873260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1135873260/tpod.html Sat, 25 Mar 2006 10:57:29 -0500 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Sucre, Bolivia

A Bolivian Christmas!

Its been ages since I last wrote, and I'm still in Sucre. Its been over 3 weeks now since I arrived here, and although I'm already getting slightly itchy feet, I reckon I'll be here till the end of January.

The Spanish classes are going well, and I have also started working at a girls' home in the afternoons for a couple of hours. There are about a dozen girls living for varying lengths of time in the home, and are all "at risk" in some way or another, or their parents are so poor they can't look after them. The youngest is 8 and the oldest 16. Basically I get to go in the afternoons to play! My drawing and painting skills are comprehensively laughed at, but its really fun and nice to give the girls a bit of attention and chat to them.

I bought some Christmas decorations for the home as they only just about have the budget to house the girls and pay for a cook to feed them, and took a couple of people from the hostel with me to help put them up last week. We had a really good afternoon and I'll stick up some photos when I can - its proving really difficult but one day I will get around to it!

I'm still lviing at the same hostel as finding an apartment to rent proved to be really impossible. Its not that there aren't any, its either that the landlords wanted us (one of the girls at the hostel was looking with me) to sign up for 3 months, or they were completely unfurnished. As heavy as my backpack is, there isn't a bed and a wardrobe in there, so I figured I was better off where I am for now. Can't complain when I am paying only a couple of quid a day for my own room. And its fun - there is a group of us in the hostel who have been around for a while, so we had a lovely Christmas together and I got some great pressies for my b-day yesterday which was so sweet.

And Christmas, well that was an experience. First let me say that the kitchen in the hostel is pretty much the worst I have come across so far in South America. Still, having a large bee in my bonnet about cooking a Christmas turkey, I was determined to do something proper for Christmas.

So, we 6 "oldtimers" from the hostel managed to have a complete Christmas dinner - including sprouts! The only thing we couldn't get hold of was cranberries and parsnips! But plum jam worked pretty well for cranberry sauce. We ordered a 6 kilo turkey from Cochabamba, a city about 10 hours away by bus, and I took three trips down to the market to get all the veg. Apart from the sprouts we had mashed carrot and swede, roast AND mashed potatoes, brocoli, cauliflower, and bacon rolls. I even made stuffing. And if I may say so myself, my turkey was fab! I got up really early to get it in the oven and went back to bed for a bit. I had planned on serving up at about 2pm but it was about 4.15 in the end (I'm blaming the rubbish oven!) We're still eating it in soup form today!

Needless to say much red wine was consumed, and we treated ourselves to some lovely Argentinian wine instead of gut-rotting Bolivian stuff. All told the whole lot, including all the booze, food, decorations, santa hats, fairy lights and an enormous chocolate cake (also still going) cost us about 20 quid a head, which was great. Emma and Tom even bought us a little Christmas tree so we had somewhere to put our secret santa pressies!

So all in all a really great day.

Just to keep up with a British-horrible-weather-tradition, it absolutely chucked it down on Christmas eve, with lots of thunder and lightning. I thought we were going to be ok for the day time but of course just as we were serving up, it started raining again, so we had to eat indoors. Mostly the weather here is really good but in the last few days its been colder, and there's been storms every day with the longest rumbles of thunder I've ever heard! It must be something to do with the altitude, as we are at about 2,700 metres here, not high by Bolivian standards but still enough to make you realise the air is a bit thinner than home.

My birthday yesterday was also great, and Mike, Emma, Tom and Rebecca surprised me with some lovely presents, and we had a great dinner out too. Even had bacon butties for breakfast!

This afternoon we are going to make an effort to see something in Sucre besides bars and restaurants, and head off to see the dinosaur tracks just outside of town.

Also, in exciting news, I think I will have a little bit more time than I thought I had here (assuming I can change my flight ok), so will be able to see a little bit of Peru before I leave, instead of a mad dash to Lima airport from La Paz. So, although the Inca Trail is closed for cleanup in February, Machu Picchu itself is still open, and I should be able to go on the train! All very exciting, and it makes me wish I hadn't chopped out Peru from my guidebook in an effort to make my backpack lighter!

Hopefully photos to follow soon, hope everyone is well and has a happy new year!

Sarah xx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1142876100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1142876100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1142876100/tpod.html Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:35:23 -0500 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Southampton, United Kingdom

It just goes to show that miracles do happen: I got upgraded on the flight back! Don't ask how - I am not sure!

Suffice to say that chatting with the check-in girl was a good plan, a little bit of Spanish does seem to go a long way, and the Lima - Madrid was the best I have ever slept on a flight!

Next trip in the works, watch this space.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1142438640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1142438640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1142438640/tpod.html Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:49:08 -0500 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lima, Peru

Hello everyone!

Well this is pretty much it - the last entry in my 6 month journey round South America (or bit of it anyway). I am currently ensconced in the very posh hotel in Lima that I booked for myself as a bit of a treat after 6 months of dorms, bad matresses and shared bathrooms.

Its lovely! The biggest bed I have ever seen in my life, free champagne and more English TV channels than you can shake a stick at. So all in all I am pretty happy.

The last couple of weeks in Ecuador have been spent being ill with a bit of a flu thing, and then heading towards the Equator which was a little goal I had set myself before I head back. So now I have made it from the southern tip of South America to the Equator just north of Quito.

The day out to the equator was quite funny as the Ecuadorian government (along with some "help" from some French scientists), managed to put the huge monument marking the centre of the earth in the wrong place! So there is a huge, touristy "city at the centre of the earth", complete with lines drawn on the ground etc, in totally the wrong place (something like 250 metres out of place!).

If you skirt round the edge of this monstrosity, you get to a small museum thing which marks the actual equator, apparently proved by GPS and various experiments. That bit was much more interesting than the tourist trap next door, and our guide showed us how water swirls different directions either side of the equator and straight down on the equator itself; how you are "weaker" on the equator (by pushing your arms down a few metres away which is really hard if you resist, but much easier to push when you have your feet either side of the equatorial line!). You can also balance an egg on a nail at the equator (well, I couldn't but everyone else managed it!)

So now I am back in Lima and just waiting for my flight tomorrow.

Although I've had the most brilliant time in South America, I'm really looking forward to coming home to a few home comforts (and, after the backpack incident, some clean clothes!). There are so many things I will miss: the excitement of arriving somewhere new and not having a clue where I am going, everything being totally bargainous, all the new sights and sounds, the decent weather (although I'm not really brown), the lovely people I have met, and most of all the sheer unadulterated freedom of not having to be anywhere at any particular time for a whole 6 months.

Having said that, there are things I won't miss at all: sticking out like a sore thumb with silly coloured hair, dorms, rubbish showers, not knowing where to buy stuff and then spending 3 hours looking for an envelope, people asking why I'm not married and most of all, spending hours on buses! But all that stuff is a small price to pay for such a great trip.

The only regrets I have, I think, are not quite getting really good at Spanish (not dreamt in Spanish yet which is disappointing), and not making it to the jungle. Just too many mossies at this time of year I think! Still, there is always next time!

So, thank you to everyone who has been reading my ramblings, and emailing etc to keep in touch. Hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it - its been really good to remind myself of all the places I've been and things I have done.

Anyway, see you all in person very soon and wish me luck on getting upgraded on the flight home (yeah, right!).

Sarah xx

p.s if I bore you with hundreds of photos, stories about "when I was in ...." etc etc when I get back, feel free to tell me to get myself back here and stop being dull!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1140890880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1140890880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1140890880/tpod.html Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:41:48 -0500 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Cuenca, Ecuador

Well, it maybe had to happen at some point. I've always assumed that during a 6-month trip, something will get stolen, and thought it would be my wallet, my camera or something like that. But no - of course it has to be my whole entire backpack.........

I was merrily crossing the border between Peru and Ecuador when my big bag was stolen off the bus before I could really realise what was going on. I spent a few hopeful minutes thinking maybe it would just be dumped somewhere nearby when the evil, evil person who stole it realised it was only full of dirty clothes, but no, that would have been too good to be true.

So, the bus company shrugged and said it wasn't their problem and drove off, leaving me to try to get a police report and generally spend several hours wondering just what the hell I am going to do with the clothes on my back, a book, a tube of suncream and NOTHING else.

Luckily I still had my passport and credit cards, so it isn't a complete disaster, but its funny how much I have come to depend on the bag for pretty much everything. So now I am in mourning for my boots, my washbag, my underwear, my books and everthing else that was keeping me sane on the road.

I got myself to Cuenca and have been here a couple of days, shopping for nasty, cheap clothes in the market and intermittently realising what things I now no longer have (My tweezers! My swiss army knife! A toothbrush! Socks!) At least this is near the end of my trip and I can survive with my daypack and a couple of plastic bags until I find another bag to buy!

Cuenca is a nice colonial town mercifully high enough not be plagued with mosquitoes. Its carnaval this weekend - but no cool Rio style dancing and processions, unfortunately. Carnaval has meant annoying people throwing water balloons and buckets of water at all and sundry for 4 days (seriously - all day for 4 days - the novelty doesn't seem to have worn off yet) as well as foam and flour bombs too. And the only other changes I have noticed have been that everthing is closed, and there are irritating firecrackers and bells going off at 6am every morning.

As you may be able to tell, I am not really loving it, I think mainly because I just don't get it! I have to say that I won't miss all this crazy Catholicism when I get home - although rumour has it that the cathedral here houses an excellent statue / waxwork of Pope Jean Paul II, so I'm definitely going to try to see that before I leave.

I am going to move on either tomorrow or the next day, and head north to a couple of small towns and then Quito, before heading back to Lima for my flight. Can't beleive it is going so fast............

Hope everyone is well, talk to you soon

Sarah xxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1140114720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1140114720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1140114720/tpod.html Sun, 19 Feb 2006 18:16:23 -0500 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Machu Picchu, Peru

Today has been a bit of a disaster. So I have several hours sitting around before a night bus at 9.30 to Trujillo. I won't bore you with the details but it involves a non-existent tour of an archaeological site, the fact the electricity keeps cutting out here in Huaraz, everything being closed as it is Sunday, and lecherous men insisting on talking to my chest. Whew, rant over, promise.

In the meantime I will write some blurb here to go with the pictures I have put up of the day I had in Machu Picchu (have put lots of others up too - did you notice?!).

So, I had a couple of days in Cuzco before I could get the train towards Machu Picchu. After I got over the long bus journey, I had a look round the town and booked my train tickets (there's no road all the way to MP). The hostel I was staying in was nice, but did seem to be peopled by 18 year old wannabe hippies wearing extremely large sunglasses and saying things like "I had a breakthrough in my energy class last night". (I've found that there is a direct correlation between the idiot-factor of backpackers and the size of their sunglasses - its quite a reliable measure!) Still, a decent place to stay.

The next day I decided to do a tour of the archaeological sites close to Cuzco, as well as a couple of places in the town. I visited the cathedral, an Inca temple called Koricancha, and 4 places outside of town, including the entertainingly named Sacsayhuaman (sounds like sexy woman!) Its was good and got me warmed up for the main event, Machu Picchu!

There's no getting away from the fact that the Peruvian government has got the tourist dollar well and truly wrapped up in the Sacred Valley. Its pretty expensive, the most expensive thing I have visited in South America! The train alone cost 70 dollars, and its a lot when you think that a night in the hostel cost 7!!

Despite that, it was well and truly worth going. I went to the little town about 8km from MP the night before in order to beat the crowds coming directly from Cuzco (the train leaves at 6 ish and takes 4 hours, so you're assured of a little peace at the beginning). I found a hotel really easily and went straight to bed so I could get some sleep before getting up at 5 to make it up to MP early.

It was dark when I arrived so I hadn't really appreciated the location of the town - but getting up early the next morning I saw it was really beautiful - literally plonked down in a tiny space between almost sheer mountains, surrounding it on all sides, gushing rivers and lush jungle vegetation.

One of the great things about South America is the fact that you barely have to look for food and drinks at all sorts of odd times and odd locations. So on stumbling out of the hotel, there was a lady selling coffee and pointing me in the right direction to buy a ticket and get the bus, which perked me up considering it was still before 6!

The bus left soon after I got on (another rip off - 12 dollars for 8km!!!), wound its way practically vertically up a mountain, and deposited me at the entrance. At this point I realised it was really quite misty!

The guidebook suggested gong up some stairs to the top of the site to get an overall view of MP, so I trudged up the zig zag stairs to the top, got there and realised that it was really very misty indeed and I couldn't actually see anything! I was very glad of the plastic bag I brought to sit on, and settled down to wait for the sun to burn the mist off. At times, a breeze moved the whiteness slightly and I could see there was definitely something down below me, but not much more!

About an hour an a half later, which passed surprisingly quickly, the fog suddenly lifted all at once and I got my first view of the city. First impressions were that it was really small, but later I realised that that wasn't really true - think it was just that the mist was still hiding the mountains and valleys surrounding the area.

I think what makes MP so amazing to look at is the location more than anything. If you took the ruins and plonked them down on Bournemouth beach, they wouldn't be nearly so impressive. The fact that the site was undiscovered until 1911 means that some of the ruins are really well preserved, but its the sheer cliff sides and river in the valley below that make the place so amazing to look at.

No one really knows for sure what MP was for, but there seem to be two sides to it - the ceremonial side with temples and baths, and the living side with prison cells and houses. I spent about 3 hours clambering around, being stalked by llamas, taking waaay too many photos and generally realising that steps were going to be a big feature of the day! It was really stunning and quite amazing to see the whole place after seeing so many pictures of it.

I think I had got the second bus up of the day, arriving just before 6, so by the time the tour groups started arriving on the train I thought I deserved break so headed off to get a sandwich and a coffee. Which was incidentally one of the nicest sandwiches I have had in a while!

After another hour wandering around the site I decided it was pretty much time to go back to wait for the train. The funniest thing about the bus on the way down was the little kid who decided he was going to shout "goodbye" to the bus on every single switchback turn, all the way down the mountain. As the bus was heaving itself round the switchbacks, he would pelt down the steps in the middle of each turn, and position himself to yell at the bus as it was going past - for the whole journey! As a way of asking for money it was certainly more entertaining than the usual whining you get here so he made quite a lot out of our bus at the bottom of the hill!

After a quick night in Cuzco, I wimped out and bought a plane ticket back to Lima - just couldn't face the prospect of another 25 hour bus, and I figure peace of mind (and back) is more important than 40 quid. So I covered the journey in an hour instead of 25!

Then a bus here to Huaraz, which I am not liking at all! I should have known it was bound to be rubbish when two men at the bus station started having a fistfight for who was going to be a "guide" for me - not that I needed one. Anyway, am heading to Trujillo, on the coast tonight, and hopefully it will be better than here!! A good lesson learned that not everthing can be fabulous and wonderful all the time I suppose!

Anyway am off to collect the beast and get the bus, so hope you are all well and talk to you soon!

Sarah xxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1139782440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1139782440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sarah_s_america/south_america/1139782440/tpod.html Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:29:09 -0500 Escape to South America

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Cuzco, Peru

Nasca, Ica, Huacachina and Lima

Another entry to catch up on what happened next after hanging about in Arequipa.....

Our bus to Nasca was comfy and clearly driven by a Michael Schumacher wannabe! He went so fast that a journey that was supposed to take 10-12 hours only took 8 and a half, and we were dumped unceremoniously in Nasca just before 5 in the morning!

The touts in Nasca were the most aggressive I have so far experienced. Normally on getting of a long distance bus you can expect a couple of people coming up to you offering taxis and hostels, but at 5 in the morning I wasn't really prepared for it! Still, there were several people at the gate of the bus station yelling at us for hostels, taxis flights over the Nasca lines and probably trying to sell their children too.

We retreated to the waiting room until it was light so we could choose our own hostel in relative peace, and ended up at a lush place with a pool! Quite possibly the first pool I have seen on the whole trip, and Emma and I got thoroughly overexcited and checked in and hang the expense!!

After a bit of a snooze and a look around the not very exciting town of Nasca, we booked our flight for the next morning over the Nasca lines. Then it started raining. Nasca is in the desert so this was met with not a little excitement! Then the electricity went out in the whole town (and let me get this clear, this was not torrential rain accompanied by storms, more of what we in the UK would call prolonged drizzle) and it stopped being quite so fun.

It hadn't rained in 3 or 6 years, depending who you asked, so our flight the next morning was delayed a bit whilst the mist cleared. Eventually we got up in a little 5 seater Cessna and swooped around over the desert looking at the lines created by the Nasca civilization (long before the Incas were ever around) somewhere around 200 BC - 600 AD. The lines were amazing, really quite strange. There are lots of trapezoid and linear shapes and also figures such as a hummingbird, a man and a monkey which are quite clear from the air. No one knows why they are there for sure, but it could be to do with star gazing, water locations or as some American nutter insists, alien spaceship landing strips. All in all very impressive and quite spooky. I think my pictures from the plane are going to be rubbish but I will see what they look like on a bigger screen before I inflict them on you!

Next stop was a night in Huacachina, a tiny oasis village outside Ica, where there are huge dunes for sandboarding and not a lot else! Tom and Emma went sandboarding but I thought my ankle wouldn't quite manage that - and I was quite glad I opted out when I saw the amount of sand still coming out of Tom's ears 2 days later!

Then we moved on to Ica, an important grape growing district where they produce a lot of Pisco - something I have got more used to over the last couple of weeks thanks to Tom and Emma! We went round a winery and saw the grapes being squished to make wine and pisco and fermentation barrels you could probably have lived in they were that big! We also visited the regional museum in Ica which was full of more mummies and displays on skull deformation practised by the pre-Inca peoples here, as well as loads and loads of really well preserved pottery.

Another bus then took us to Lima, where we stayed in the posh suburb of Miraflores. The centre of Lima is apparently fairly yuck and what little we saw of it did seem to confirm that!

Tom and Emma are now winging their way home to the UK, and I am in Cuzco. The bus journey on the way here was pretty horrible. It was supposed to take 21 hours but took 25, and about 20 of those were spent going uphill up switchback turns being thrown from side to side in my seat, with corresponding amounts of throwing up by the toddlers in the seat in front of me! Lovely. At about 4 am the bus stopped and switched of the engine, and peering out of the window confirmed we were half way up a mountain, on a switchback turn. There was a landslide on the road ahead and a big queue of buses and trucks built up until about 6.30 when a tractor made it through to clear the blockage. On the plus side, when dawn came I could see it was a very beautiful place to be stranded! Finally we got underway again and left on our merry way to Cuzco.

Anyway, have now had a good nights' sleep and have recovered my sense of humour but am seriously considering flying back to Lima!

So, this afternoon I am going to organize my way to Machu Picchu and have a look around Cuzco, as well as dodging the ever present touts and hawkers......

Also pictures of the last few weeks (months!?) should be up in the next few days!

Hope everyone is well

lots of love Sarah xxxx
]]>