The last couple of days in Salta were great - just relaxing and eating genius Argentinian ice cream (passion fruit, dulce de leche, banana split, chocolate flavour... Mmmmmhh!), and thanks to my generous mom we were able to go horseback riding on a so-called gaucho ranch 50 km south of Salta, which was really amazing. We were riding the real western-way with loose rains and the opposite way of what I am used to, riding dressage. The surroundings were absolutely breathtaking, mountains in the background and big fields with yellow flowers and eagles flying above us. Alex even got to gallop a bit, a quite amusing sight.
It was freezing cold when we got back in the evening, and we had a cup of tea at the ranch before returning to our hostel to leave again for dinner - we were going to a nice restaurant cause Alex needed his Argentinian steak.
Next day we headed towards Iguazu, yet another busride of 24 hours. However, this time we went in a very luxurious (and expensive, but the only one) Argentinian bus with great service and seats that you would think would be for very overweight people. The best bus ride so far!
Arriving in Puerto Iguazu, we checked into a nice, but a bit boring hostel and arranged our tour to the falls for the next day. Got up early and took a bus. Almost not worth it describing how incredible walking around the worlds biggest water fall was, check out the pictures instead - and not even those do it justice. You walk around in a constant drizzle because of the falls surrounding you. Spent the entire morning and some of the afternoon there, going crazy with my camera and getting wet before leaving.
Made the horrible decision of trying to get a cheaper bus ticket to Rio by crossing the border to Brazil and buy a ticket there in stead of on the Argentinian side. Took a bus to the border and had to get the stamp in our passport - and was the bus waiting? No no, gringos can wait an hour for the next bus.......
And so we did! Going to Foz do Iguazu to check out the prices of the bus tickets, only to find out that the stupid Brazilian buses are waaaayyyy more expensive than the luxurious Argentinian ones. Furthermore we just got sent back to the feeling of not being able to communicate in a country - finally just agreed to upgrade our Spanish competences from "un poco" to "mas o menos", and then we have to start all over in Portuguese.
So we had to go back - another half an hour waiting at the border and looking a loooooong time for an ATM in Puerto Iguazu before going back to the bus station to find out that all the Argentinian bus tickets were sold out, so we had to buy the Brazilian ones anyway.. Yay!
So now we have a couple of hours to kill on our hostel before going through the border once again, something we should be prepared to spend about 3 hours doing, before getting on our LAST bus to Rio.
Impossible to describe how much we are looking forward to a week in Rio doing absolutely nothing, except from maybe a football game or a tour to see the statue. We can hear the beaches calling out for us....
May 21, 2010
May 16, 2010
Towards civilization
We went from La Paz on a 10 hours busride to Uyuni thursday night - and seeing as most of Bolivias roads are dirt roads and that the country probably has the worst buses in Southamerica, we did not get a lot of sleep.
The only time it would have been nice to have arrived a bit later after a night on a bus, we arrived exactly on time - 5.30 in the morning, dark and freezing cold! We were lucky that the tour agencies opened early and we could get in their offices and warm up a bit while checking out tours to the salt flats. Agreed on a one day tour the same day, and went out to get some breakfast before heading off. Once again again again, I had problems with my stomach - it seems I am just not supposed to feel good for more than a couple of days a time, and it's driving me crazy. I must have taken a trillion pills since I was sick the first time in Southamerica.
Anyways, we drove out in a group of 8 including 4 retired columbians that were very fond of chitchatting with foreigners in spanish - so I got to practice a bit more, which was actually quite nice seeing as we don't really need to speek a lot of spanish when we're just on the road.
The salt flats were absolutely amazing. Ass soon as we stepped out of the car, we were almost blinded by the whiteness of the salt sorrounding us. We saw a hotel made of salt and had a lousy lunch before driving to "Isla de Pescado", an island in the middle of the salt with cactus all over. Took some cool pictures and went back to catch the next night bus, this time to the border.
That bus was the worst bus experience so far. We spend an hour waiting for them to carry the entire contents of a house on top of the bus - beds, chairs, tables... When we finally got in the bus, the seats could not go further than 10cm back, and all around us were local people smoking or getting drunk. After driving an hour or so, more local people got on the bus, and for the next 6 hours there was no room whatsoever for doing anything else than closing your eyes and hoping that we would get to the right place eventually. I woke up in the middle of the night and asked an english guy that was on the bus if he knew what time it was, and his answer was something like "No, but there's a baby sleeping next to you". And yes, there was a baby sleeping on the floor with its mother sitting next to it on the floor as well.
Arrived in the morning to cross the border to Argentina, which equals civilization - at least in Southamerican terms. We were to get a stamp in our passports at the migration office, but the woman there just decided to go out for breakfast, leaving like twenty people waiting for her to come back. After swearing in danish about the crappy bolivian system, and after Alex telling me off for breaking the mood, we got the stamp and crossed the border to get a bus to Salta, another 6 hours.
Crossing the border did lift my mood quite a bit - I was absolutely amazed by the fact that you could actually see nice houses and highways!!!! Woooooow, that was crazy.
Arriving in Salta, we checked in to a hostel and went for a walk to shop for cooking dinner. Walking in the first argentinian city made me so happy - real supermarkets, stores and just a nicer place in general.
Ended up going out with some people from the hostel, since Salta should be a really nice city when it comes to nightlife. We had a great night, and I think that right now Alex is sleeping to get better than he looked this morning. Not that I feel amazing - but it was nice to go out somewhere else than Tequila Bar in Urubamba!
We'll have a couple of more days in Salta before heading off to Iguazu Falls, our next stop and last stop before Rio. Time seems to be running out!
The only time it would have been nice to have arrived a bit later after a night on a bus, we arrived exactly on time - 5.30 in the morning, dark and freezing cold! We were lucky that the tour agencies opened early and we could get in their offices and warm up a bit while checking out tours to the salt flats. Agreed on a one day tour the same day, and went out to get some breakfast before heading off. Once again again again, I had problems with my stomach - it seems I am just not supposed to feel good for more than a couple of days a time, and it's driving me crazy. I must have taken a trillion pills since I was sick the first time in Southamerica.
Anyways, we drove out in a group of 8 including 4 retired columbians that were very fond of chitchatting with foreigners in spanish - so I got to practice a bit more, which was actually quite nice seeing as we don't really need to speek a lot of spanish when we're just on the road.
The salt flats were absolutely amazing. Ass soon as we stepped out of the car, we were almost blinded by the whiteness of the salt sorrounding us. We saw a hotel made of salt and had a lousy lunch before driving to "Isla de Pescado", an island in the middle of the salt with cactus all over. Took some cool pictures and went back to catch the next night bus, this time to the border.
That bus was the worst bus experience so far. We spend an hour waiting for them to carry the entire contents of a house on top of the bus - beds, chairs, tables... When we finally got in the bus, the seats could not go further than 10cm back, and all around us were local people smoking or getting drunk. After driving an hour or so, more local people got on the bus, and for the next 6 hours there was no room whatsoever for doing anything else than closing your eyes and hoping that we would get to the right place eventually. I woke up in the middle of the night and asked an english guy that was on the bus if he knew what time it was, and his answer was something like "No, but there's a baby sleeping next to you". And yes, there was a baby sleeping on the floor with its mother sitting next to it on the floor as well.
Arrived in the morning to cross the border to Argentina, which equals civilization - at least in Southamerican terms. We were to get a stamp in our passports at the migration office, but the woman there just decided to go out for breakfast, leaving like twenty people waiting for her to come back. After swearing in danish about the crappy bolivian system, and after Alex telling me off for breaking the mood, we got the stamp and crossed the border to get a bus to Salta, another 6 hours.
Crossing the border did lift my mood quite a bit - I was absolutely amazed by the fact that you could actually see nice houses and highways!!!! Woooooow, that was crazy.
Arriving in Salta, we checked in to a hostel and went for a walk to shop for cooking dinner. Walking in the first argentinian city made me so happy - real supermarkets, stores and just a nicer place in general.
Ended up going out with some people from the hostel, since Salta should be a really nice city when it comes to nightlife. We had a great night, and I think that right now Alex is sleeping to get better than he looked this morning. Not that I feel amazing - but it was nice to go out somewhere else than Tequila Bar in Urubamba!
We'll have a couple of more days in Salta before heading off to Iguazu Falls, our next stop and last stop before Rio. Time seems to be running out!
May 13, 2010
Bolivia
Spent our last day in Galapagos relaxing and going out for a last meal - including a huge ice cream, since it was our last night in the Galapagos...
We had a day in Guayaquil which we spent walking downtown on the Malecón, a nice road located by the river. Very non-touristy, which was nice after the european and american crowds of people we'd just left.
Arriving to Lima the day after, we found a busticket to Puno, as far west as we could possibly get. Went to McDonalds for lunch - I asked what they had without meat and ended up getting a Happy Meal - why not? So now I've got a Batman car in my bag, definitely going with me on long busrides... :p
Arriving to Puno after a rough 24 hours, we decided to wait for the next bus till sunday morning. Checked in at the Point and met two people who were travelling to La Paz the next day as well, so we went on the same bus. Arrived monday afternoon and went out for a look around the city before returning to the hostel to get a couple of beers. Alex went to bed quite early, being tired after yet another busride, but I ended up going out with some danes, a norwegian and a french guy. Went to an almost completely deserted club called "Mongo's", but since we were 5 scandinavians we managed to get things going a bit. Had quite a nice night, and luckily we didn't have any plans the day after, so I could get a long nights sleep.
Tuesday we went walking around town again, going to the witches market and relaxing a bit. At night we went out for dinner at "The Star of India", where Alex spent almost 3 hours and 4 liters of water and three times puking eating the hottest vindaloo in the world - he received a t-shirt for completing the dish that he now wears with pride!
Wednesday we went mountainbiking on Death Road, the worlds most dangerous road. Definitely an amazing experience, biking on the edge of a road, knowing that if you fall down you'll have about a thousand meters till you hit ground... The scariest part was driving back on the same road though - the fact that you're not in control of the car is way more uncomfortable than just biking downhill, when you can stay to the mountainside.
Today we went to try and get in to San Pedro prison, a place where the prisoners live with their families inside, controlling everything themselves. It was 400kr to get a tour though, so we decided not to go. In stead we ended up going to the coca museum, a really interesting place where you could find lots of information about the coca leaves and the use of them - so now we're experts on cocaleaves... Ended the visit by eating a coca chocolate cake - Alex made the weird choice of a gross coca cheese cake, have absolutely no idea why.
Tonight we have another 12 hour busride in front of us, going to Uyuni to see some apparently amazing salt flats. Hoping to get a cheap tour to fit our budget after having spent quite a lot of money doing Galapagos.
We had a day in Guayaquil which we spent walking downtown on the Malecón, a nice road located by the river. Very non-touristy, which was nice after the european and american crowds of people we'd just left.
Arriving to Lima the day after, we found a busticket to Puno, as far west as we could possibly get. Went to McDonalds for lunch - I asked what they had without meat and ended up getting a Happy Meal - why not? So now I've got a Batman car in my bag, definitely going with me on long busrides... :p
Arriving to Puno after a rough 24 hours, we decided to wait for the next bus till sunday morning. Checked in at the Point and met two people who were travelling to La Paz the next day as well, so we went on the same bus. Arrived monday afternoon and went out for a look around the city before returning to the hostel to get a couple of beers. Alex went to bed quite early, being tired after yet another busride, but I ended up going out with some danes, a norwegian and a french guy. Went to an almost completely deserted club called "Mongo's", but since we were 5 scandinavians we managed to get things going a bit. Had quite a nice night, and luckily we didn't have any plans the day after, so I could get a long nights sleep.
Tuesday we went walking around town again, going to the witches market and relaxing a bit. At night we went out for dinner at "The Star of India", where Alex spent almost 3 hours and 4 liters of water and three times puking eating the hottest vindaloo in the world - he received a t-shirt for completing the dish that he now wears with pride!
Wednesday we went mountainbiking on Death Road, the worlds most dangerous road. Definitely an amazing experience, biking on the edge of a road, knowing that if you fall down you'll have about a thousand meters till you hit ground... The scariest part was driving back on the same road though - the fact that you're not in control of the car is way more uncomfortable than just biking downhill, when you can stay to the mountainside.
Today we went to try and get in to San Pedro prison, a place where the prisoners live with their families inside, controlling everything themselves. It was 400kr to get a tour though, so we decided not to go. In stead we ended up going to the coca museum, a really interesting place where you could find lots of information about the coca leaves and the use of them - so now we're experts on cocaleaves... Ended the visit by eating a coca chocolate cake - Alex made the weird choice of a gross coca cheese cake, have absolutely no idea why.
Tonight we have another 12 hour busride in front of us, going to Uyuni to see some apparently amazing salt flats. Hoping to get a cheap tour to fit our budget after having spent quite a lot of money doing Galapagos.
May 6, 2010
Galapagos Islands
Just got back from our Galapagos Islands cruise. We were dinghied out to the yacht on the first day in the morning from Puerto Ayora, the only tourist town in the Galapagos, a yacht sufficiently big to have 16 guests living aboard along 10 in crew, more or less. I room was tiny, but neither we were expecting any wild luxuries so we found no reason to complain. Spent the first day in Puerto Ayora where we were sent back on land to the Charles Darwin Research Station, a non governmental volunteer organization working on preserving the animals on the islands. They have a specifically large array of giant tortoises on display, which was simply amazing. By far being one of my favourite animals out here, theyre truly huge. Weighing a good 250kg, they dont do much besides chew and grunt whenever life throws it a challenge. If I was ever to come back to life as an animal, this would be the one. Sit on my butt all day, sometimes in the pond, eat, chew, grunt, eat some more and look grumpy for the photo.
Back on board we had lunch and dinner, which despite being quite good, was a huge disappointment. We just came from the inka trail where the food, with no kitchen, was amazing every day and night. There really was nothing wrong with the service or food on board of the yacht, but after seeing your porters work their asses off for you like they did, it was hard to settle to just being taken care of on a yacht, as spoiled as we realise that makes us. Not meant as a criticism to the boat and its crew, but more as another compliment to the inka trail. Now we are back to sleeping on busses and cheap hostals, where our illusion of being so well taken care of everywhere we go will come crashing down.
Day two took us snorkling in the morning at Rabida island. The amazing range of islands out here is one of the most surprising elements. Within a kilometers distance, one island will have pure white beaches whereas the other will have blac
k volcanic rock/sand, and the next being completely barren and red, each offering a different kind of animal life. Rabida offered, as the only thing most places have in common, sea lions peacefully hunting and playing with you while you snorkel around. Of other things to see was the many differently coloured fish on the ocean floor, sea stars and sting rays. This being our first time in the water, we were fascinated by the variety of life. Im really just counting on AC to uload some of her many many pictures soon, including some underwater ones. The ones posted on here are just some that I found on google.
We continued on to Santiago island after that where we also spent the afternoon snorkeling and checking out the underwater life. The usual routine consisted of first snorkeling and the following it up by a small one hour hike on the island.
We visited Bartolome and Seymour islands the following day (yesterday). We again did a lot of snorkeling, and managed to see sea turtles, sea lions, marine iguanas, penguins, dolphins (though far out in the distance unfortunately) and sharks. Sharks would often come around the boat to circle around us, and despite supposedly being completely peaceful, jumping into the water and swimming around after seeing a 2 meter shark was a little frightening. Nevertheless, the only time we saw one of those huge sharks while snorkeling, it quietly circled around us, allowed us to get close and then quietly swam away. The funnest animal to swim around with was without a doubt the sea lions. The younger ones were often quite playful and swam around you, came all the way up to your hand and showed off their underwater abilities. For me, seeing the sea turtles was a huge experience. Theyre exceptionally beautiful animals and very rare in the rest of the world, although we easily saw 4-5 of them swimming around. Only saw a few penguins in the water, and because theyre so small and fast, its almost impossibly to take pictures of them or admire them properly. We usually managed to be in the water for about an hour at a time before it got too cold (the water was around 20 degrees, reaching its highest of 25-28 around february).
Our hikes on the islands also provided us with plenty of animal life. Land iguanas in their beautiful warm colours, marine iguanas swimming under the water and resting above it, the smaller but hugely coloured lava lizards. Blue footed boobie birds were also amusing, doing their mating dance by jumping from one foot to the other, their feet so blue they could just have stepped out of some bubblegum. Frigatebirds with their huge red neck pouches were also amazing, we saw some of those this morning. All in all, the week out here has definetly left its mark on me. The beauty of the islands speak for itself, and no other place in the world do you see such variety in scenery, and such different animal life living peacefully in co-existence. You keep having to remind yourself that you are not in the zoo. Unfortunately, our guide was very preoccupied with the deterioration of the islands and how introdued animal life and over fishing is ruining the islands, true as it is. It is a rapidly growing tourist destination, leaving its marks.
Alex
Back on board we had lunch and dinner, which despite being quite good, was a huge disappointment. We just came from the inka trail where the food, with no kitchen, was amazing every day and night. There really was nothing wrong with the service or food on board of the yacht, but after seeing your porters work their asses off for you like they did, it was hard to settle to just being taken care of on a yacht, as spoiled as we realise that makes us. Not meant as a criticism to the boat and its crew, but more as another compliment to the inka trail. Now we are back to sleeping on busses and cheap hostals, where our illusion of being so well taken care of everywhere we go will come crashing down.
Day two took us snorkling in the morning at Rabida island. The amazing range of islands out here is one of the most surprising elements. Within a kilometers distance, one island will have pure white beaches whereas the other will have blac
k volcanic rock/sand, and the next being completely barren and red, each offering a different kind of animal life. Rabida offered, as the only thing most places have in common, sea lions peacefully hunting and playing with you while you snorkel around. Of other things to see was the many differently coloured fish on the ocean floor, sea stars and sting rays. This being our first time in the water, we were fascinated by the variety of life. Im really just counting on AC to uload some of her many many pictures soon, including some underwater ones. The ones posted on here are just some that I found on google.We continued on to Santiago island after that where we also spent the afternoon snorkeling and checking out the underwater life. The usual routine consisted of first snorkeling and the following it up by a small one hour hike on the island.
We visited Bartolome and Seymour islands the following day (yesterday). We again did a lot of snorkeling, and managed to see sea turtles, sea lions, marine iguanas, penguins, dolphins (though far out in the distance unfortunately) and sharks. Sharks would often come around the boat to circle around us, and despite supposedly being completely peaceful, jumping into the water and swimming around after seeing a 2 meter shark was a little frightening. Nevertheless, the only time we saw one of those huge sharks while snorkeling, it quietly circled around us, allowed us to get close and then quietly swam away. The funnest animal to swim around with was without a doubt the sea lions. The younger ones were often quite playful and swam around you, came all the way up to your hand and showed off their underwater abilities. For me, seeing the sea turtles was a huge experience. Theyre exceptionally beautiful animals and very rare in the rest of the world, although we easily saw 4-5 of them swimming around. Only saw a few penguins in the water, and because theyre so small and fast, its almost impossibly to take pictures of them or admire them properly. We usually managed to be in the water for about an hour at a time before it got too cold (the water was around 20 degrees, reaching its highest of 25-28 around february).Our hikes on the islands also provided us with plenty of animal life. Land iguanas in their beautiful warm colours, marine iguanas swimming under the water and resting above it, the smaller but hugely coloured lava lizards. Blue footed boobie birds were also amusing, doing their mating dance by jumping from one foot to the other, their feet so blue they could just have stepped out of some bubblegum. Frigatebirds with their huge red neck pouches were also amazing, we saw some of those this morning. All in all, the week out here has definetly left its mark on me. The beauty of the islands speak for itself, and no other place in the world do you see such variety in scenery, and such different animal life living peacefully in co-existence. You keep having to remind yourself that you are not in the zoo. Unfortunately, our guide was very preoccupied with the deterioration of the islands and how introdued animal life and over fishing is ruining the islands, true as it is. It is a rapidly growing tourist destination, leaving its marks.
Alex
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