So today I will write to you for as long as my battery
permits, because at our campsite next to the river there is no power outlet!
Its almost 11am the morning after our first night of camping in the Latin
American adventure…and man, this changes everything!
We are now 100% self
reliant (besides food, since I didn’t want to spend the money on a fishing
pole…yet). Last night was a test run to see if we remember to get everything we
needed and if everything we got worked the way it is supposed to. I (Brett)
will say it was a huge success, my better half may tell a slightly different
story, but that is probably just due to her lack of camping experience. You
see, being a little bit cold when you go to bed and being a little bit hot when
you wake up in a tent is a very normal thing J
I’m really excited about all the new experiences this equipment will enable us
to have, so excited that I skipped telling you about the last part of Peru and
northern Chile (where we are now) so I better back track a bit.
Sophia left off after Machu Picchu and wow, what an amazing
experience…we hiked up so many stairs that day it took my calve muscles 4 days
to recover. I had no idea how many other
ruin sites there are around Machu Picchu and Cusco, they are endless, although
being possibly the most impressive ruins the Incan people only lived in Machu
Picchu for 80 years. There is another
site 6 times the size of Machu that just opened to the public 4 years ago and
it currently involves a challenging 4 night 5 day trek to reach (using pack
animals to carry water, food, etc.) this place may be the Machu Picchu of the
future (in popularity), so if you’re headed to the area and looking for a
challenge, check it out. Unfortunately the name of the place is buried in my
bag somewhere, but it started with a “ch”, I’m sure you can find it if you
search, or send me an e-mail and I’ll dig it out once were back in
civilization.
Ok, after we left Ollantaytambo (outside of Machu Picchu) we
headed to a town called Puno on Lake Titicaca, a huge lake known not for its
size but for its elevation at somewhere over 3000meters, all that water at that
height is truly beautiful, the air is crisp and clean and the colors of the sky
and water reflecting back at each other is awesome. The lake is shared between
Peru & Bolivia, and in ancient times was so big that portions reached in
Chile and Argentina as well. Now, Peru has a larger portion of lake so they say
Titi from Peru, Caca from Bolivia…lol. So, the beauty of the lake is pretty
much where the cool parts stop, I was not real impressed the Puno, the streets
are narrow and crowded and there is really not much going on. Although not
advised by our guide book, due to our lack of time in the area we signed up for
a island tour for the day after we arrived…and this was weird. The first island
they took us too was a floating island that the locals make themselves but
cutting 1sq. meter chunks of soil from the ground and tying them together, then
they put about 1 meter thick of dried plants on top of that. Next anchor the
island to the ground and wa-la , you have a floating island. The only reasons I
can tell that these people live out there are one, they do not have to pay
taxes like the people that live on the shore and two, they get a guaranteed
flow of tourist traffic from these island tour boats. But really, I feel the
people out there are exploiting themselves for this tourist money, it was
ridiculous, they were trying to sing to us for tips, offering to hold their
baby for tips, practically begging us to buy anything they had made.
They even
charge $1 to use their bathroom (although every public place in Latin American
charges to use the bathroom, but usually only .50). So we left the floating islands and headed to
an actual island about 20miles away, after the excruciatingly slow 3 hour boat
ride, we arrived. The views of lake were incredible and trout fish lunch was
great (trout is very popular there). We met some nice people on the tour as
well, a couple girls from Japan and a brother and sister from Panama, it was
fun chatting with them about our experiences while there. The book has Lake
Titicaca as a highlight of Peru, but we were definitely ready to get moving
onto Chile…which means of course another marathon bus session, this one was,
about 10hrs, then find a collectivo to drive us 30minutes to the actual border,
do the paperwork, then continue the drive another 40minutes the bus stop in
Chile were we can catch an 11hr bus to our destination. We made it to the bus
station in Chile and we needed some breakfast because our first bus was an overnighter.
I hit the ATM and asked a local money exchange guy what the current money
conversion was from Dollars to Chilean pesos and he told me there were 287 pesos
to 1 dollar. So we get a typical breakfast, a couple eggs, coffee and a piece
of bread and the total came to about 2500 pesos, and we were like holy shit,
$10 for breakfast, this is 3 to 4 times the normal amount, but it’s a new
country and we don’t know. So then, we go to the station for bus tickets, each
ticket is 29,000 pesos….$100 a ticket!! Holy shit, were thinking we just
stepped into the twilight zone. On top of that, the only bus going to where we
want to go (San Pedro de Atacama) don’t leave until 8:30p. It was 10am and we
had no where to go. So, it occurs to me that maybe I should confirm that
currency conversion number I got…and what do you know, it’s actually 487 to
1…only double what that jerk told me. I guess he thought I was going to change
money with him and he was trying to rip me off. My own fault, I usually check
the conversion before entering a new country but had forgotten this time.
So, rather than waiting all day for our bus, we bought a
ticket to Antofagasta, it was about 4hours out of our way, but at least we
didn’t have to wait in a bus station all day. So, were cruising along in the
bus about 5 hours in and out of nowhere appears a beautiful resort like city
nestled between huge sweeping sand dunes and the blue sparkles of the pacific
ocean we quickly checked our map and read about Iquique. When the bus stopped
at the station for more passengers, we jumped out, sure we wasted a bit of cash
on the ticket, but now, we had a awesome place to stay for the night and didn’t
go out the way at all. We spent that
evening walking along the coast at sunset, watching the surfers and body
boarders, then enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner. Chile also has an excellent
selection of imported beers, so the occasional splurge on a Stella Artois or a
Heineken is pretty nice.
Next day we were back on the bus for the remaining 6 hours
or so to San Pedro de Atacama, in the Atacama desert. Claim to fame, “the
driest desert in the world”. And man, it’s true, your skin and lips just shrivel
up, we were drinking water like it’s going out of style and loading on
chapstick non-stop. The desert does provide one very cool and unique activity,
sandboarding! Done with just a regular snowboard and some hiking boots, you
hike your butt to the top of the biggest sand dune you can find and fly down,
feels like riding in deep powder, keep your weight on your back foot and don’t
expect to have too much control. Lots of fun. We went with a tour that included
sand boarding, then a trip the salt caves, a part of their desert where everything
is salt and then the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley for you Gringos), named this
because it resembles a crater on the moon.
Truly a beautiful area, a huge
crater with surrounded with volcanoes on all sides and rock formations formed
from millions of years of erosion. Then just as the sun is going behind the
mountains, the light causes the entire mountain range to change colors and
gives it a beautiful red tint.
Next day we were back on the bus for a 23hr ride directly to
Santiago. You see, a lot of Chile is just desert and nothingness, except for
mining. Which btw, our guide told us that hundreds of people die every year
mining in Chile…and all that tv coverage of those trapped miners had something
to do with it being the first month in office for their new President. Anyway,
Santiago is about half way south in Chile, so in that one ride we covered a
distance larger than Ecuador and larger than a few Central American countries
combined. The beauty of being so much further south and it being summer time is
that we are getting long days of sunshine. The entire time we were in and near
the equator, it was about 12hrs sun, 12hrs dark. Now, were getting almost 16hrs
of sun, it’s really not dark until a little after 9pm. So by the time we get to
Tierra del Fuego (at the tip of South America) it should be some really long
days. Which is perfect for camping and hiking. So, continuing on, we arrived to
Santiago and were both really impressed with the development of the city, they
have a really easy to use subway and bus system with electronic cards that you
just load money onto and off you go. So that’s what we did, loaded a metro card
and headed off to the Parque Arauco mall and Sodimac Homecenter to shop for
camping gear. I had found a blog on-line about how the Chilean people love to
camp and that you could buy equipment for good prices. The Parque Arauco mall
is pretty incredible, movie theatre, ice skating rink, bowling alley, live
music and of course hundreds and hundreds of stores, we showed up on a holiday
and the place was a mad house of Christmas shoppers…even Santa was there…which
btw, kinda weird hearing Santa speak Spanish to the kids. So we found a north
face store, but that stuff is even more expensive here, I guess because of
import costs, but then we found a store called Doite, pronounced “Doit-a”, a
great Chilean company that only sells their gear in a South America and couple
European countries. They make a full line of literally everything you could
possible need for camping, backpacking, exploration, etc. You must realize how
awesome this is for us, were now in a position where spending hundreds of
dollars buying all the backpacking equipment we want will actually SAVE us money
in a just a few weeks. Neat little flip of the coin huh? In addition to this
Doite store, next door at the Sodimac they carry the full line of Doite gear
plus a couple other brands. Which btw, I haven’t researched it yet, but this
Sodimac has to be the same company as Homedepot, the stores are almost
identical, even down to the hand written name tags on the employees vests.
Between these 2 stores we were able to compare prices and stock up. We got a
nice, lightweight, 2 person/ 3 season tent, 2- 32degree sleeping bags that can
zip together to make one big bag, one of those nice tiny camp stoves that screw
onto the gas bottle, a cookware and dish set for 2 people that fits a tiny bag,
2 foam sleeping pads, a led flashlight/lantern combo and another small flashlight…I
think that’s it. We got all that stuff for about $400! I am one happy
camper…lol
And now…here we are at the campsite and the battery is about
toast…so, Adios por ahora.
Brett
