Last Stop

I made it back to Lima, Peru where we started this trip. I am staying with my friend Francisco who is from here and goes to UNC. This is the city that I know best in South America and its nice to know my way around and especially nice to stay at someone's house and not have to worry about finding a hostel, etc. I leave late tomorrow night, and I both am sad and relieved to be leaving. I am ready to go home, but I really enjoy being here and have adapted to travelling, so I know that I will miss it. Buenos Aires and Rio were my two favorite cities, ones that I can imagine living in. Its hard to know what I have taken away from this trip. I probably wont realize some of them until later, but for now: it was fun and it was an adventure. I know that I have changed and that I will never forget this summer.

Cidade Maravilhosa

Rio was great. For starters, I didnt get robbed or have any other problems. We stayed in Copacabana four blocks from the beach. We saw the Cristo Redentor statue, one of the new 7 wonders of the world and the Sambadrome where the Carnaval celebration takes place every year. The Copa Libertadores final was in Rio, but we couldnt get tickets because it had been sold out for 2 weeks. The maracana stadium holds almost 100,000 people and it was sold out! We took the metro to the stadium 2 hours before the game started to try to find scalped tickets and just to see what was going on. I have never been in a metro that crowded. I was painfully being smashed into a railing the entire time. Our car was totally full, but at every stop more people tried to cram in. The stadium was crazy. There were 40 or 50 thousand people outside the stadium pregaming, yelling, fighting, and singing. It was like being at the game, but outside, flares, drums, flags, everything. We were in the middle of a huge crowd when we were suddenly shoved backwards by the rows of people in front of us. Eight white men were beating one black man, we dont know why. It was terrible, then in the next 5 minutes we saw two more occurences of the same thing. We made it back to our hostel in one peice and watched the game there, the Rio team lost in penalty kicks. The local mixed drink, the caipirinha, was delicious. Lime juice, sugar, and cachaça, a liquor made from sugar cane made quite a tasty drink sitting on the beach. Chad and I went to a churrascaria where we ate to our stretched out stomachs' content. It was all you can eat meat: delicious steak, pork, and chicken along with a full salad bar. And another food surprise; at first I thought I had just eaten a testicle, but was happy to be informed that it was only a chicken heart. I sadly said goodbye to Chad yesterday afternoon when he went to the airport. Ill be on my own for another 5 days. I watched a game of beach soccer/volleyball. Its volleyball without your hands, looks incredible difficult. Then last night some people from the hostel joined some brazilians and played beach soccer. It was awesome, but I am really sore now. I said goodbye to Rio today and took a bus back to Sao Paulo from where I will fly to Lima, Peru tomorrow.

São Paulo

We arrived to São Paulo a couple days ago and are staying with my friend Orlando, who I met in Peru last summer. We have been sleeping all the time, mostly being lazy, resting from travelling. Its really nice. We went out to a techno dance club unitl 5 am on Saturday night, so crazy. I can read most Portuguese because it is similar to written Spanish, but understanding people speaking is very difficult. It is nice being with Orlando because he can talk for us and keep us from getting robbed or something. Last night we drove all over Sao Paulo and stopped at a June Party. This is a thing that the Catholic church does during the month of June. Local food, drink, and tasty desserts. We met some people, I tried to talk in Portuguese with only some success and filled myself with delicious food. We had steak on a stick, sweet rice milk, some tapioca thing with coconut inside. You pay for plastic chips beforehand and then give those to the vendors to get the food. It was really interesting. We will go to Rio in the morning. I hope we stay safe.

Iguazú Falls

Today we went to the famed Iguazú falls and it was unbelievable. I have been to Niagara and this killed Niagara. We walked all over the place and then took a boat ride right up to part of the falls and got totally drenched by the spray. Tomorrow we will cross to Brazil and see the falls from that side and then continue on. Right now the camera card isnt working so I will add a picture later.

Craziness and cultura

One of the reasons for travelling this summer is to speed date Latin America. I think that I want to spend a year or two living somewhere and working in LA after I graduate, so I am spending a couple weeks in each of 5 countries and seeing who I like. As of now, Buenos Aires seems like the place I would enjoy the most. The week was filled with much wine and maté and exploring of the city. We went to the cemetery, a town of tombs creepily filled with hundreds of cats and saw the graves of past presidents and Evita. The highlight was going to a Boca Juniors game and sitting in the crazy hooligan section. I have never been to anything that even comes close to this experience. Flags, smoke, flares...chaos surrounded us. I hadnt seen a goal in all of the three previous soccer games I had been to and Boca won 6-2. It was awesome. Chad got felt up by someone trying to pickpocket him, someone slapped me in the side of head, and Catherine and Brittany P(who joined us for a few days from Uruguay) got lots of comments and attempted pickups. The singing and cheering never stopped, shoving broke out in the second half, and we could barely see the game for all the flags being waved and smoke in the air. It was great. Other things we did besides seeing most of the famous sights were watch a tango performance on the street (which Catherine took part in mostly against her will), went to an antiques street market, and along with a few thousand others, went to a professional drum circle in a warehouse one night. Chad and I parted ways with Catherine at the airport last night and then took a 17hr bus ride to Iguazu, where we will see the waterfalls tomorrow and then off to Brazil we go.

Buenos Aires

If our journey bears any resemblance to Che´s motorcycle diaries, it would have to be called the long-ass bus ride diaries. We just set a new record of 22 hours on a bus. We decided to skip Mendoza for lack of funds and time and come straight to BA. I already have to say that BA is my favorite of the cities I have visited in Latin America. We found a great place to stay, Pangea Hostel. Juanito, you probably never read this blog, but you would love it. We have been drinking mate and walking around the city in the rain. We are hoping to go to a Boca Juniors game on Sunday and see a Tango show sometime soon.

Argentina

We took the most beautiful bus ride over the Andes to cross into Argentina. Apparently my charango was suspicious because the customs guy checked it out really closely. There was snow on the ground, forests, and lakes. We arrived to Bariloche which is on Lago Nahual Huapi, the most gorgeous lake with snow capped peaks all around. We found a great hostel with a view and really nice owners. In the evening, we watched the Argentina game on tv which Argentina almost lost. Then I stayed up playing pool in the garage with three argentine guys and played charango with one of them until 3am. Yesterday we hiked for 5 hours through woods on the border of the lake with great views. Last night there were protests all over the country and the people here drove around honking their horns with their blinkers on. People were banging pots and pans and marching. Apparently Buenos Aires was crazy. We are probably going to Mendoza next, the wine capital...hiccup...

Last days of Chile

I kind of forgot to blog for the last week or so, I will try to remember the highlights. Skiing was incredible. I had never skied anywhere but around Boone, so the Andes were a bit different. We skied all day surrounded by snowcapped peaks and overlooking the city of Santiago far down below. By the end of the day, my legs were dead tired and we left our Bolivian (previously USA) ski pants on a bench after getting much more use out of them than the $3 we paid. Catherine arrived the next day and looked shocked to see us at the airport like we werent actually going to show up. We walked around Santiago then went to Valpo and the beach for a while. We were wanting to try some fish from the Pacific so we asked what we food we should try. We were horribly led astray. What I thought was catfish came out looking nothing like any sort of fish. I then decided that it must be squid and ate it, even though it tasted pretty awful. The next day I found out that it was in fact....wait for it....cow intestines. To follow up that great experience, we spent 17 hours on a bus the next day and made it all the way down south to Osorno in the lakes district of Patagonia. We got a cabaña with our own stove (a first) and cooked our own food which was exciting. We were overlooking a lake, but it was cold and rainy all day. We hiked in the rain the next day and then spent over an hour boiling ourselves in a hot spring. The lady at the hostel was incredibly nice and made us homemade (including the butter and cheese) breakfast every day with fresh pie.

Santiago and surroundings

We arrived in Santiago a few days ago after spending the whole night on a bus. I like the city. It is nice to walk around in, relatively safe, with lots of parks, etc. The city is backdropped by beautiful snow-capped mountains. We have probably eaten 10 completos each- hot dogs with diced tomatoes and guacamole on top. They are cheap and tasty. Yesterday we went to Valparaiso to watch the international friendly futbol game between Chile and Panama. It was a 0-0 tie, but an awesome experience. We learned the futbol chants and I had my chile shirt on and Chad bought a scarf. When the Panama players´names were being announced, the Chilean crowd yelled ¨concha de tu madre¨after each one. It was a fun night. We returned to Santiago this morning and have been walking around the center of the city. We walked through the presidential palace that was the site of the 1973 coup that resulted in the death of leftist President Salvador Allende and in which the US graciously lent a helping hand. Tomorrow we ski and then Catherine arrives the next day.

Huelga de los Camioneros

In San Pedro de Atacama, we went on a 40km bike ride through desert formations with the French and Australian couples. Along the way, we passed sand dunes, salt crystals, and even a mine field. The next morning, we parted ways with our foreign friends and began the most intense part of the trip yet. Our goal: hitch-hiking. For both the economic appeal and the experience. We took a bus to Antofogasta, which is on the Panamerican highway which runs north-south (the only way) in Chile. Then we started asking around where we could find trucks to take. Right when we were boarding the local bus to the crossroads where we hoped to find a ride, I glanced down at a newspaper and saw the headline which was to foreshadow the next day and a half of our trip. Truck drivers in Chile are striking. We ended up at a random crossroads outside of the city. A Brazilian woman named Claudia who is around 30 got dropped off there also and we joined forces. We found a ride in a small pickup to the big highway 20km away. We all three crammed in the front, I was practically sitting on the gear shifter. When we arrived at the highway, the driver was forced to give a crowd of rowdy striking drivers a toll to pass through. We walked along the road for about an hour with our thumbs out with no luck. We were walking past industrial plants breathing bad fumes, etc. Finally luck came and one of the very few truckers still driving stopped and we climbed in. We rode with him for 3 or so hours and at one point after dark, all three of us had to hide in the drivers bed area when we went through a police checkpoint. I was unaware of the fact that it is illegal for drivers to take passengers. The driver eventually stopped at a truck stop type place that was more of a family´s house with a small restaurant attached. He couldnt go any further because the road was blocked by strikers. Chad, Claudia and I walked into the restaurant into the surprised stares of about 25 truckers. We ordered food and watched the soccer game on tv. The question of where we were sleeping was becoming more and more important. After a long time of confusion and different ideas, we finally were offered a room (for a small payment) from the family who owned the restaurant. There were two small beds but three of us. We pushed the beds together, Chad and I flipped a coin for who would have to sleep next to the sick Brazilian woman, and I won (meaning I didnt have to). haha So someone wouldnt have to sleep in the crack, we slept across the two beds horizontally, all three in a tight row. She was shivering with a fever most of the night and I woke up once to her calling out Chad´s name to turn on the light for her. The whole experience was crazy. We starched hitching this morning and had little luck to begin with. I got out my charango and just sat on the road playing to entertain myself. Finally a pickup came by and took us to a city over an hour away. From there we couldnt get a ride so we took a bus to the city where we are now. I am exhausted. We are about to take a night bus to La Serena which is maybe 5 hours north of Santiago. Sorry this was so long, but it was nuts. The picture is of striking truckers with a road block set up to stop other truckers from working.

Salar and stuff...

We left Uyuni to take a 2.5 day tour of the salar and other otherworldly places. The salar is hundreds of square miles of salt, one of the most bizarre landscapes I,ve seen. The first night we stayed in a small hotel made completely of salt blocks, with the entire floor being loose salt grains. It was cold, but not too bad. We drank and played cards with the two couples we were travelling with, Australian and French. We learned a french card game that is similar to hearts. The second day, I started to feel sick and it only got worse. It must have bacteria or something. I started vomiting early in the evening and tried to go to bed early, but guess what? It got down to 20 below freezing! I slept a total of maybe 2.5 hours and had to get up to vomit in the night. We were at 4300 meters (over 14,000 ft) and I was extra dehydrated because of the vomiting. Needless to say, it was a rough night. We saw a volcano, geysers, wild foxes, vicuñas (llama family), flamingos, etc. It was incredible. We crossed into Chile yesterday and now are in a small town in the driest desert in the world (Atacama). I feel completely well now and it also feels good to be at lower elevation and in a warmer climate. Chile is very different from Bolivia. I am not used to seeing white people that are not tourists. The sound of the Spanish is more difficult to understand and everything is more expensive. Bolivia is the poorest South American country and the most indigenous, very different from Chile who has received many European immigrants over the past two centuries.

Brrrrr

You know you are cheap when you shop at used clothing stores....in Bolivia. Yesterday I was cold and it is only going to get colder this week (the salar will get 10 below freezing at least). I found a store that sells used clothes from the US and bought a huge XL ugly coat and ski pants for $12. Now I will look even more ridiculous than I already do, but I´ll be warmer. We arrived in Uyuni last night at midnight and bad news: my camera partially melted on the train sitting on a heater. It still works, thankfully, but its really hard to press the button to take pictures and to use the zoom. We walked a couple miles to a train graveyard today and it was bizarre. There were hundreds of rusted broken traincars just sitting around. The ground all around was covered in trash. We passed by cow skulls, horns, and even a dead puppy. Pretty gruesome. The old trains are a symbol of imperialism of the past; of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Coca Cola is a symbol of imperialism in Latin America today. No matter how rural the place we are, there is always Coca Cola, it is inescapable.

Tupiza

We arrived in Tupiza a few days ago and then got sick. If anyone has seen the movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman ¨Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,¨ Tupiza is near to where the movie ends. If you haven´t seen it, I highly recommend it. The outlaws met their end after robbing a nearby bank and then were killed in the surrounding area. I went on a hike to a canyon the second day here and it was gorgeous. Yesterday we went on a 5hr horse ride through the desert, but my horse had a name, Sanchez. Today I am really sore because I am not used to riding horses and am not the most adept cowboy anyway. It was incredibly beautiful, cacti everywhere, red colored formations of stone, and passageways eroded through the rock. We are leaving on a train later this afternoon to Uyuni, our last stop in Bolivia, where we plan to see the salt flats and lagoons. Then its off to Chile. I have been reading Che Guevara´s diary while he was in Boliva and where he was eventually killed; it is an interesting read. The biggest news of the day is that I took a shower this morning, yes, and only 15 days into the trip. I feel much better.

Bolivia

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world and I must have walked through the entire thing. We thought we were going to be staying in the hostel that we had reserved online, but it was really two beds in a guy´s living room area. A strange, but overall, good experience. The guy we stayed with had an argentine friend that dressed more or less like a sea captain and I got to talk to him about Argentine history. Chad bought a quena (andean flute) and I bought a charango, a small ten stringed guitarish instrument. Yesterday we got a music lessons and then decided to go watch the new Indiana Jones movie which was ironically set in South America. Bolivia is so cheap. I got two entire dinners for $2, and our living room stay was $2.50 a night. Last night we took a bus to Potosi where we are now. It is supposedly the highest city in the world and and it sure is cold. During the Spanish colonial period, Potosi was the largest city in Latin America. People came here because of cerro rico, a large mountain overlooking the city that was practically filled with silver. Millions of indigenous and African people died in the mines. Today, there isnt much silver left, but people still mine for zinc, etc. Today, we took a tour of an active mine. The government owns the mountain, but groups of cooperative miners pay to work a section of it. We descended a few hundred feet crouched over, wearing headlamps and everything. The miners worship devils called tios for protection and they offer them alcohol, coca leaves, and cigarettes. Today was a sacred festival for miners and we just happened to be here to witness maybe the craziest thing I´ve seen. When we finally came back to the surface of the mine, the entrance had blood splatterings on it. We came out into the light minutes before a group of miners and their families sacrificed the second and final llama for their celebration. I was 10 ft away when they cut through its throat, collected the blood in bowls and splashed it eerily above doorways and entrances to the mine. They do this for good luck and even wipe some of it on their faces. A lady came up to me with her hands dripping blood and tried repeatedly to wipe it on my face, but I wouldnt let her. We were invited to join the festival and were offered handfuls of coca leaves, shots of liquor and beer; mind you this was before 1pm. But oh well, why am I here if not to experience culture? Before drinking the alcohol they splash a little on the ground in honor of Pachamama, the mother earth goddess of the andean people. Yep, it was a crazy day. Tomorrow we are going to Tupiza to ride horsies and bikes.

Saying goodbye to Peru

Two days ago we arrived in Puno, a port city on the coast of Lake Titicaca. We took a tour of the floating islands which are inhabited by a group of indigenous people who build islands out of reeds and have lived on the lake since before Inca times. Yesterday morning we took a bus to Desaguadero, the border town between Peru and Bolivia. The local bus we took cost $2 and we were the only tourists, we were crammed in there with my big pack across our laps, sweating and hoping the ride would end soon. It was a beautiful ride though, we went around the lake and there were snow capped peaks in the distance. Once the ride was finally over, we had all the necessary documents including passport, yellow fever vaccine, hotel reservations, picture, proof of economic solvency, and all we needed was an atm to get the $100 entry fee. Oh, but no, there was no atm in the town and we had to bus all the way back to Puno and stay there for the night. So this morning we took the same bus to desaguadero (after visiting an atm in Puno) and got searched, frisked, and asked all sorts of questions by the peruvian police when crossing and then got asked even more questions on the Bolivian side. We finally got our visas and got a bus to La Paz, the capital, for $1.50.

Hygiene update after 8 days
changed socks: once
changed shirts: once
brushed teeth: twice
put on deoderant: twice
changed boxers: zero
showered: zero

And yes I know that that is disgusting.

Túpac Amaru II

Wow, I just realized something when I was walking through the plaza here in Cusco. No one else will probably find this interesting but today is the day that in 1781 Túpac Amaru II was executed right here in the plaza of Cusco after watching his family killed. He was the leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish rule and abuses of indigenous people. It was unsuccessful, but he became the martyr and mythical figure in Peruvian struggle for independence and different indigenous rights movements. In 1984, a marxist-leninist group rose up in Peru and called themselves the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and captured and held the Japanese embassy hostage in 1996. Also the rapper Tupac Shakur is named after him. Today there have been parades all day for a religious holiday that is coming up, but there was only a small gathering this morning of maybe 15 people talking about Tupac Amaru. I couldnt figure out why they were talking about him, but later I found a plaque in the plaza. Sorry to bore everyone with history but I thought it was interesting.

Exploring more of Cusco

The past couple of days, I have been wandering around Cusco and the surrounding area. Chad and I went to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman), an old Inca fortress above the city. Yesterday was incredible. I had already been to Machu Picchu last year so Chad went alone and I stayed here. I took a local bus where I was the only tourist to a small village one hour away. On the bus I talked to a guy from Cusco about peruvian politics and the impending free trade agreement with Europe. Once in the village I meandered through the colorful market and then started hiking to some Inca ruins. I hiked up for a couple hours through Inca terraces until I reached the beginning of the ruins. I had the whole mountain to myself and just sat in a dilapidated overgrown Inca house and looked out at the most unbelievable views. I hiked longer, and then my solitude was ruined by a busload of tourists looking at one of the ruins, but I continued hiking for a couple more hours, sometimes on ledges a yard wide with a 150 ft drop. Later I took the bus back to Cusco and then got a ticket to the Cienciano game. Cienciano is the local professional soccer team who won the south america championships in 2004. I sat next to a little kid who told me who the players were and all about it. The game was nuts. There were three or four brawls between the teams and the field is surrounded by a barbed wire fence to control the rowdy fans. Throughout the game, dozens of riot police used their shields to guard the opposing players while they were kicking corners from the onslaught of trash being hurled down onto the field. At the end of the game, when the opposing team left the field the police made a tunnel with their shields because the Cienciano fans were throwing all kinds of stuff down on them. The fans had drums, trumpets, flags, toilet paper and some even lit flares and shot off fireworks. All in all, it was awesome. Today, as I await my travel companion´s return, I watched a parade here in Cusco. Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Puno, the port town on Lake Titicaca and then we go to Bolivia.

Cusco

We flew to Cusco yesterday. This is my second time coming to Cusco, it is my favorite city of all that I have been to. Inca stonework under spanish colonial buildings. Warm during the day, cold at night. Up high at 9,000 ft in the Andes. Another note on drugs, we were offered weed at least 15 times yesterday. We found a hostel for $4.50 a night and had delicious alpaca steaks for lunch. I bought a small bag of coca leaves from an indigenous woman and chad and I chewed wads of them mixed with gum to hold off some of the affects of the altitude. Coca chewing is an ancient tradition in the Andes, predating the Incas by thousands of years. I am hoping to find some chicha, beer made from chewed up corn that is sold in rural areas in the mountains. Our room in the hostel was oddly decorated, we had a picture of Jesus on one wall and on the other a painting of a naked woman with a mullet and sideburns smoking a cigarette. Last night I froze. I had on three shirts, sweatshirt, jeans, socks, was under three blankets, and even had on my tobaggan, but I was still freezing. I just checked the weather and it got down to 34F last night. Our room was probably not much warmer than that because we have open cracks to the outside haha. Such are the Andes.

First few days in Peru

We arrived in Lima at 4am after flying all night and tried to nap on the floor of the airport. After finally finding plane tickets to Cusco for the next day, we set out for the center of the city. A taxi from the airport costs $20 but we rode the local minvan packed out buses with our big backpacks and got there for only 60 cents and some weird looks. This trip is already different than past visits to Latin America. After taking lots of history and poli classes on Latin America, I am able to understand this place on a deeper level. I have already talked for hours with different peruvians about politics and peruvian history. Chad and I saw the president at the main square, and yesterday Peru hosted a conference with leaders from all over Latin America and Europe...noticeably absent, the US. I feel content in Latin America, and even though this is my fourth trip in one year, I was already missing it. That is some assurance that even though my major doesnt have too many jobs, its right for me. After touring the catacombs at a 16th century church, we met Pedro who wanted to talk to us to practice his english. We spent the rest of the day with him and he was kind of nuts. At dinner, he kept ordering more and more 650 ml beers for us to split and told us about his casual use of cocaine. He asked us repeatedly to do lines with him, but finally gave up after mentioning it 10 times.