Vivir es Viajar

For those of you who have not heard - James and I are safely back in California and have been for several weeks. It's been so long since my last post I had decided not to end this blog, but Dad has been nagging me, so, in honor of him, here it is: El Fin.

I believe when I last left off we had just arrived in Brazil and were about to visit the waterfalls before heading East. The Brazilian side of the waterfalls was just as impressive as the Argentinian side and was home to our favorite miss-translated sign: "Do not overtake the banisters" (meaning don't climb over the safety railings).

Of course it does make slightly more sense than the store in China which, in preparation for English speaking tourists during the Olympics, displayed the sign "Translate Server Error".

It also faced fierce competition from the Buenos Aires signs warning (we think) about pick pockets.

We left Foz do Iguacu the evening after visiting the falls on an overnight bus to Sao Paulo. There we got a second bus and, after almost 28 hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Paraty. Paraty was actually a cute little seaside town with cobble stoned streets and colonial houses, but we only had time for the one day there. The following day we got a bus along the coast to Angra dos Reis where we caught a ferry to Ilha Grande.

The island was one of my favorite places on our trip - it had beautiful deserted beaches and tropical forests. It's said to be how Hawaii was, before the English arrived. Fortunately, there are restrictions on Ilha Grande about the size of any new accommodations so, for now, it shouldn't become what Hawaii has. We stayed at a nice, clean hostel run by a very friendly and chatty woman. We spent several days here, going on hikes across the island and then relaxing at the beaches.

We left the island earlier than we would have liked in order to make it to Rio in time for a local soccer game. Still, the game was lots of fun and definitely worth the lost time on the island. It was an exciting game, with the local Rio team managing to finally score a goal in the last ten minutes of the game, making the subway ride home much more joyous than it could have been. Rio itself is a nice city with beautiful beaches and architecture. Unfortunately, Brazil is much more expensive than the other countries we had visited and, being the end of our trip, we didn't exactly have money to spare (I believe James owes about two grand to Dad). So we didn't get to experience the many restaurants, nightclubs, and sights as much as we would have liked; but we still had five great last days in South America.

On the 13th of August, we caught a bus from the main strip in Copacabana to the airport, where we spent our last few reals and then boarded our plane. After a stopover in Sao Paulo and a layover in Houston, we made it back to San Francisco where Maxim (thanks Maxim!) was there to pick us up. I promptly went home and crashed, while James went straight out the the beach with all of his friends.

Anyways, that's the end of the trip! It was great fun and I definitely wish I was still there. James was a great travel buddy and for the most part everything went perfectly. I'm now just hanging out in Scotts Valley waiting for it to get slightly colder and then I'll be off to Colorado, where I hope to find some form of employment to occupy myself when I'm not out on the slopes. Maybe I'll start this blog up again once I'm off there, but for now: hasta luego!

Buenos Aires - Puerto Iguazu - Foz do Iguaçu

We had our longest bus ride yet a couple of days ago - 20 hours from BUenos Aires up to Puerto Iguazu. Luckily, it was the best bus we~ve ever had. The seats were huge, there was plenty of leg room, the movies were played over headphones so you didn~t have to listen to the latest Steven Segal action movie if you didn~t want to. It was so fancy, they even served us wine with our dinner and then champagne afterwards. So, despite being the longest bus ride, it certainly seemed shorter than some of our past experiences.

In Puerto Iguazu, there isn~t much to do except go see the Iguazu falls. If you~ve seen the new Indiana Jones movie, these are the falls that they go over in the boat or you may have seen them in the Planet Earth fresh water episode. They were pretty impressive - there~s catwalks so you can walk right up to the edge of the largest falls and you can~t see the bottom from all the mist. Then there are walks lower down so you can see them from the bottom. It~s also cool because the river marks the border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay so at one point you can look across and see three countries at once.

After a day on the Argentina side, we moved across the border to Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil. It was the most complicated border crossing we~ve had, but mostly because of our cab driver. The first cab we got in, we asked to be taken to the Argentina customs, then the Brazilian one, and then finally the town. He took us to some random street in Puerto Iguazu and said it was customs, but it was all closed. He left us there and said he~d go ask around and come back, but after waiting for an hour there we decided to take matters into our own hands. We got a different taxi at the bus station and he took us to the real customs - we~re still not sure what that first building was.

We~ve only been in Brazil for one day, but we~ve already had problems with the Portuguese. We needed to break a 20 to get change for the bus, so we went to McDonalds to buy a fanta. All James said to the clerk was "fanta", but she had to call over someone else to translate for her. Hopefully it gets easier, but we~ll see.

Today we~re going to the Brazilian side of the falls and then this evening we~re taking a night bus to Sao Paolo. As soon as we arrive there, we~re getting on another bus for 6 more hours of driving to Paraty. Then the following day we~re getting another bus and then a ferry to Ilha Grande. But after that, we~ll only have one more bus and we~ll be in Rio. And then home!

Buenos Aires - Colonia

After five days of dirty clothes and no shampoo, we finally got our luggage back yesterday. A special thanks to Mom, Dad, Katy and Eva who all helped by calling AeroSur and tracked our bags down to the Buenos AIres airport. James and I spent two hours at the AeroSur office yesterday until we were told to go wait at the hostel and they would deliver the bags there, which they did three hours after that.

Waiting five days for our bags was almost made worthless this morning when James´small backpack, with his camera, ipod, passports, money, etc. was almost stolen. We were walking down the street with our large backpacks and duffel bags when we were sprayed with white paint. An older woman started to wipe it off James´pants and some other people who were walking by at the time kept saying "go to the corner to get water" and "look up - it must have come from up there". I was getting annoyed with one man who was right in my face saying "mira, arriba" when I couldn´t see anything above. Then I noticed another man nonchantly walking away with James´small backpack. I pushed past the annoying man and ran after the other one shouting at him. I chased him for about a block, but when he realized I wasn´t giving up, he just put the bag down and walked off. When I got back to James, the other people had all scattered too.

After that excitement, we were running late for our ferry, so we ran the rest of the way to the port - keeping a close eye on all of our stuff. Fortunately, we didn´t miss our ferry and headed across the Plata River to Colonia in Uruguay. It´s a cute little town with cobblestone streets and pretty views of the river - very different from the busy Buenos Aires. We´re only here for one night before heading back to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning and then a 20 hour bus ride up north to Puerto Iguazu.

Puno - Copacabana - La Paz - Santa Cruz - Buenos Aires

James and I have arrived in Buenos Aires, unfortunately our luggage has not. We flew from La Paz to another city in Bolivia, Santa Cruz. Upon arrival in Santa Cruz, we were supposed to collect our bags and then re-check in with another airline to continue on to Buenos Aires. After waiting at baggage claim with everyone else from our flight and watching the same five pieces of luggage go round and round, we were told that our flight had been too heavy and those five pieces were the only ones that had made it on board. Having been trained by US Airways and its wonderful baggage system in Ithaca, I immediately got into the line for lost baggage claims. Being second in line, we were able to quickly make our claim and catch our second flight. Whether or not our bags make it to Buenos Aires remains to be seen. We were told they would arrive today, but the original airline that lost them doesn´t fly here, so we´ll see. The greatest loss if they are never found would be the three cds containing all of our photos from the first half of our trip. Apart from that, it´s mostly dirty clothes and shampoo.

Apart from our losing our luggage, we had a very nice (and short) time in Bolivia. From Puno we went across the border to Copacabana, another small town on Lake Titicaca, for one night and then went on to the capital city, La Paz for another. Most of our time in Bolivia was spent on buses or planes, but what little time we did have, we enjoyed.

Lares Valley - Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu - Cuzco - Puno

So tonight is our last night in Peru - tomorrow morning we leave for the Bolivian border and head for La Paz. We{re very thankful for our dual citizenship right now, for they{ve just introduced a $100 entry tax for Bolivia for all American citizens, but we get to bypass that with our UK passport.

We{re currently staying in Puno on Lake Titicaca (hehe). Actually, I have to say that the person who giggled the most at that name when I mentioned it to them was Mom. For those more mature persons, you might be interested to know that Titicaca doesn{t refer to boobs and poop, but rather means Stone or Grey Puma in the local language. Today was our only real full day here and we did a full day tour of the lake - visiting the local islands. We got to visit the Uros and their floating islands - large platforms made from reeds upon which they live.

Before coming to Puno, we spent 4 days hiking through the Lares Valley, ending with a day at Machu Picchu. We started the trek with a 3 hour cab ride mostly along a very dusty dirt track going up and up into the mountains. We finally arrived at Lares where there are some hot springs. So instead of having an intense day of hiking, we soaked in the warm waters and then had a two course lunch made by our private cook. We had expected there to be several people on our trek, but it was actually just the two of us plus our guide, our cook and his assistant and a porter and horse.

After lunch, we did actually start treking. It was mostly up hill, which wouldn{t have been too bad, except it was ata very high altitude, so I found I was out of breath very quickly. Still, I was able to keep up (mostly) with James and the rest of our group. We made camp in a small Incan village - and when I say we made camp, I mean the cook and porter set up our tents and cooked us food while we wandered around and watched the kids stare at us.

The following day was sube, sube, sube (up, up, up). I was having trouble, so the cook kindly took my pack for me. After we reached the peak of our trek (4400 meters), it was all downhill for the rest of the day and the next. Our third day we ended in Ollayantambo - a large town in the Sacred Valley with Incan ruins. From there, we got a train up the valley to Aguas Calientes. Our guide had to go on a later train, so he gave us our hostel name and told us to ask around when we got there to find out where it was. He thought it would take about 10 minutes to find. An hour later, we still hadn´t found it and everyone we asked gave us different directions. It was called El Inca II, so we finally found El Inca and asked there where the Inca II was and they said it was the Inca II. Anyways, we had found it and were glad to fall asleep in a bed.

The fourth day we rose bright and early and got in a long line to wait for the buses up to Machu Picchu. I was kinda expecting it to not be as impressive as everyone said, but it was actually very cool. I was very glad we had a guide for he told us all about how each stone makes the shadow of a puma or llama on the solstice and horror stories of how the film crew of a beer commercial dropped a camera and broke the sacred sundial or how in the 80s the king of Spain visited and they removed the sacred stone in the center of the main square so his helicopter could land directly at Machu Picchu. Our guide only spoke a little Spanish, so I translated most things to James, although by the end of the four days, his Spanish had improved a lot. He probably learned more on those four days than he did in his two years of Spanish at SVHS (sorry Mrs. Christianson).

After our tour, our guide left us and we had several hours to kill before our train back to Cuzco, so we hiked up to the Sun Gate. It was steep and hot, but we easily passed everyone on the way up as Machu PIcchu is only at around 2200 meters, so we had plenty of oxygen. Then, back in aguas calientes, we hiked up to the hot springs (hence the name of the town) and relaxed there for a few hours.

Then it was a train and bus back to Cuzco, where we crashed at the awesome Pirwa Hostal before heading out bright and early for Puno.