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2004 Journey Erik's Travels Peru

The Colca Canyon and More…

Wednesday morning (June 2nd) Thomas and I crammed ourselves into a van and headed out on our two day Colca Canyon tour. We left Arequipa about 9am and started driving north towards the village of Chivay. We finally arrived around 2pm after making a few stops at random barren locations where women had set up souvenir stands. Once in Chivay we had our lunch then got carted off to our hotel. A bit later that afternoon I went with the rest of the group to a hot springs near town for an hour long soak. It was very relaxing and had some super hot water in the pool. At night we went with the group for our dinner and were treated to a traditional folk show, which included some guys playing traditional instruments (guitar, flute thingies and drums) and a couple dancing all over the place.

Thursday morning we got up nice and early at 5:30am to drive two hours to see the canyon and watch condors (really big birds). We got picked up last so I had to sit in the jump seat that folded down in the isle way. A couple minutes after getting in the van I leaned back to reach into my back pocket for a tissue and (SNAP) the seat broke. I put too much pressure on the seat back and it broke the little bolt holding it up. We were going to spend all day in the van as we were headed back to Arequipa that night and the seat was bad enough in working condition and without the seat back it just totally sucked. So at the first stop I talked to my buddy the driver and he monkied around for a bit and ended up taking a bolt out of a different seat to fix it. Whew!

We got to the Colca Canyon around 8am and hung out for about an hour watching the condors fly around. It was absolutely amazing scenery and a very big canyon. I think it was 3,300 meters (10,800 feet) from the top of the mountains to the river flowing through the bottom of the canyon. After our hour was up we went on a little walk to another viewpoint a bit away and were treated to some more great views. Afterwards we loaded back into the van and started back towards Chivay. Along the way we stopped at a lookout where the canyon turned into a big valley full of farms and terraces. Amazing stuff! Once back in Chivay we were treated to another substandard lunch and eventually made it back to Arequipa around 5pm.

Thursday night Thomas and I had our final supper at La Italia and Friday morning Thomas left to make his way towards Santiago, Chile for his flight home on Monday night.

Friday I also departed Arequipa and made my way towards Puno. I got on the noon bus and was cruising along until we reached a town about an hour north of Puno. There all but eleven passengers got off the bus so the bus company sent us the rest of the way in a colectivo van. Most of the ladies on the bus with me got really mad about this but I just went with the flow. We got in the van and started going with no problems. About half way there though there was a pick up spot on the highway and we pulled over and a few more people got in. We ended up with nineteen people in a regular sized van. It was a little crowded and the ladies from the bus with me got all riled up. But we only had like 20 mins to go so it was no big deal. Once in Puno I hoped out at a point I figured was somewhat close to the center of town and the hostel I was planning on going to. The ladies in the van with me were overflowing me with information on how to get to the center of town and where it was so I ended up not really sure where I was. But a friendly bike taxi guy made the fatal mistake of approaching me and asking me if I wanted a ride. So I told him the hostel I wanted to go to he said “Cicno Soles.” (About US$1.40). So I hopped on board and we headed towards the center of town with the poor guy pushing me most of the way. He really earned his dinero on that trip so I gave him a bit of a tip which he seamed very happy about.

Today I am going to visit some Inca ruins near here and then in the morning head off for La Paz, Bolivia.

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2004 Journey Erik's Travels Peru

¡Arequipa, Arequipa!

Thomas and I arrived in Arequipa, Peru on Saturday (May 29th) night. We left Arica in the early afternoon to head to the bus station only to find out that to get across the Chile – Peru border ment transport in a Colectivo. So we wandered over to the colectivo area and hired one of the many people with huge old shitty cars to drive us across the border for C$2,000 (US$3.30) each. We ended up having to wait almost an hour for our driver to secure three other passengers and we finally set out for the hour drive to Arica´s sister city of Tacna. Once we got to Tacna we found bus tickets for Arequipa with no problem but had a couple hours to kill. So we sat down at a little lunch counter in the bus station and I tried to order a Inca Kola but got a chicken sandwich instead. Which wasn´t bad as soon as I got my Inca Kola to wash it down with. On the bus to Arequipa we watched one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. It was an American gang/robber movie that was so poorly made and acted that Thomas and I just could not figure out how it possibly made it´s way to a bus in Peru. But at least it was in English.

We made it into Arequipa about 9pm and hired a taxi to take us to our hostel. The taxi driver told us that the hostel we wanted to go to was closed but he knew of a much better one. So I told him to take us there anyways and of course it was open and welcoming. Poor Thomas contracted my illness of last week on Saturday and came down with it way worse then I had it. So the last few days Thomas has been recuperating himself and today is doing much better. Luckally the hostel had a wide range of movies for us to watch (including Star Wars!) but when I asked if we could watch them the hostel worker said “The VCR is in my flat.” And that was that. No movies.

So we have been hanging out in the “White City” of Arequipa the last few days just resting up and playing lots of Yatzee and War. We have dined at the Italian restaurant of legend (from our previous visit to Arequipa two years ago) a couple times and last night listened to the blind accordian player who played for us two years ago! It is very interesting making a second visit here. It seems like there are way more gringos here then before though. Which is kind of a shock after being in Chile and Argentina where there was a significantly less amount of gringos.

Tomorrow we are going to head to the Colca Canyon for a couple days and then Friday Thomas starts his journey back to Santiago, Chile to head home on Tuesday and I am going to go to Puno and then to La Paz, Bolivia.

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2004 Journey Chile Erik's Travels

Onward and Upwards…


Our time in Salta was pleasantly spent. On Sunday (May 23rd) we took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. The road takes a pass over the Andes mountains which was 5,200 meters (17,100 feet). Being at such high altitude caused my stomach to rumble and tumble and I felt like I had a bayonet twirling around in there. Add to that a headache and difficulty breathing and it all adds up to a very miserable twelve hour bus ride. Thomas and his iron constitution did not have any trouble and pleasantly read his book during the bus ride.

After arriving at San Pedro we had to walk a bit into town from the customs station on the edge of town and got settled in to the Hostel International. San Pedro is a very cool little town with adobe buildings and dusty streets. The town and desert landscape is straight from the planet Tattoine (Star Wars). On Monday we did a tour to the Valley of the Moon, Tuesday a early morning (4AM) tour to the Geysers and Wednesday we did an all day tour to the Salama salt flats, some lakes & mountains and a caynon. After getting back to San Pedro at 6pm we hopped onto a bus and headed for Calama which is about an hour and a half away.

In Calama we checked out our bus options and found that there was a bus leaving at 9:30pm heading overnight to Arica, which is where we wanted to wind up. So we bought tickets from a little too friendly ticket agent and headed down the street to the local pub to kill the time before the bus. The bus ride went well and we got to Arica at 6am. After a quick taxi to the hotel we slept off the travel weariness and had a look around town. The plan from here is to head to Arequipa, Peru.

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2004 Journey Argentina Erik's Travels

The Salta Update

Our foray into Paraguay on Tuesday was interesting. We took the bus from Puerto Iquazu for about an hour (only that long due to the traffic) through Brazil and over the Friendship bridge into Paraguay. The part of Cuiduad de el Este that we visited was basically a big market and really not that nice. However, Paraguay is blessed with a wide variety of Fanta flavors and the only thing I bought during my short stay in Paraguay was a strawberry flavored Fanta. Delicious! So we trotted around and got harassed by people for a few hours and then caught the bus back to Puerto Iquazu. And that was that.

Our long bus ride went pretty well and flew by except for the last couple hours when we knew we would be arriving soon and started getting antsy. Today we have been touring the town of Salta and took a cable car to the top of a hill overlooking the town. The plan from here is to leave Sunday morning for the Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama.

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2004 Journey Argentina Erik's Travels

Oh Iquazu Falls

From Rosario we took an overnight bus north to Posada. Upon arriving in Posada we waited around a couple hours at the bus terminal and got on the next bus to Puerto Iquazu, which is a town very close to Iquazu Falls. The bus was of the local variety and we spent the next six hours picking up and dropping off a variety of people about every 10 minutes and visiting each little town and side road along the route to Puerto Iquazu. But we made it finally and got settled in fine.

Today (May 17th) Thomas and I visited the mighty Iquazu Falls. Simple put, it is an area where the river has 275 waterfalls all contained in a fairly small area. There were two main areas to see, one with lots of walking paths and the other with a grand view from above the falls. There is a little train that drops people off at each spot. Along the walking trails there were a variety of different views of the waterfalls and we could get very close at a few spots. We took a little boat across the channel at one spot to get a closer view of the smaller of the two main clusters of waterfalls. Then after getting back up to the train we visited the Garganta del Diablo (the Devil´s mouth). The view from there was amazing as we were basically right on top of a huge cluster of waterfalls with many more all around us. But that spot was easier to walk to so there were loads of people all over and was a bit crowded. After heading back towards the train we discovered a raft that offered to take us down the river back to the train station so we decided to go on that. It was very cool and we got to see some turtles, alligators and some different birds. At one point the boat paddler slash guide motioned for me to come close and then flicked something off my shoulder. It was giant ant that had landed on me I guess. I am just glad it was not a spider! After disembarking the boat we had a short walk back to the entrance and caught the next bus back to town.

Tomorrow we are going to attempt a foray into Paraguay and then come back to Puerto Iguazu to leave tomorrow night at 9:45pm to head to the town of Salta. It is going to be an endurance test as we will not arrive into Salta until 11pm on the following night. So about 25 hours on the bus which is unfortunately not the Cama (the best kind) class that has three seats across but just a Semi-Cama which has four seats.

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2004 Journey Argentina Erik's Travels

Heading away from B.A.

We stayed in Buenos Aires from Monday until today (Friday). Thomas and I had a great time exploring the huge city and checking out it´s many sights. We took a city tour one day, visited the Recoleta neighborhood, did a shit load of walking and ate at a bunch of different restaurants, saw the movie Troy, and of course had our obligatory dining experience at the Golden Arches.

Today we headed four hours north to Rosario on a very stuffy and hot bus and the plan is to head further north towards Iguazu falls tomorrow on the overnight bus.

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2004 Journey Argentina Erik's Travels

In B.A.

Well, when we were planning on going on the overnight bus we showed up at the station in Viedma only to find there were no buses going that night. So we chilled another night in Viedma and bought a ticket for the overnight bus on Sunday. In Viedma little kids seem to be very intrigued by me. At one restaurant we went to there was a kid who was staring at me the whole meal then when he went to leave he came up to me and asked me where I was from and I told him and then he looked like he was thinking “Ok, that makes sense,” and then said “bye”. The other day at the bus station a little kid was starting at me so hard he walked right into a chair!

The bus journey went well though. We left at 7pm and got in at 7am this morning. Stopping at a restaurant to eat a meal that was included in the bus fair. My only problem on the bus was they had the heater cranked on high and I was literally sweating all night. But better then being too cold.

We checked into the Hotel Marbella this morning and slept for a bit and then today walked around for a while and checked things out.

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2004 Journey Argentina Erik's Travels

On to the big smoke…

We left Trelew yesterday and caught a bus north to Viedma. We had a ninety year old taxi driver with no teeth take us into the center of town and checked into another posh hotel for about US$16. Ate some more pizza last night. There seems to be more pizza restaurants then any other kind here, but that is fine by me. Tonight we are heading on the overnight bus to Buenos Aires.

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2004 Journey Argentina Erik's Travels

Cinco De Mayo Update

Happy Birthday Pa!

Today we took the bus north to Trelew. It is a pretty nice town that was originally a Welsh colony. Today we visited the Museo Paleontologico Edidio Feruglio which has a whole bunch of dinosaur skeletons. It is really cheap here in Argentina. Here in Trelew we are staying at a pretty nice big old hotel and it is only A$45 (US$15) for a nice double room. We were paying about the same for much more rugged places in Chile. Other things like internet and food and really cheap as well.

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2004 Journey Chile Erik's Travels

Puerto Natales Report.

I survived the boat ride. It was pretty fun actually. The Chef on board moonlighted as an electric keyboard player at night in the pub. He was actually a way better musician then a chef, but that is not saying too much either way. It was smooth sailing most of the trip, however, on the second day we had to venture out into the open sea for a while and it was very bumpy on board. They had free sea sickness relief tablets though and after taking one of those I felt fine. There were only about thirty passengers on board (in the summer the ship is full and can hold like 300 passengers) so it was pretty cool because everyone got to know each other. Yesterday we had our only stop on the boat which was at Puerto Eden, a small village of about 200 people. We got off there and walked around for an hour or so and got back on the boat. And that was that. So now I am in Puerto Natales and tomorrow we are going to go on a tour of the Torres Del Paine National Park and then bugger outta here on the next day.