Our Quest for South America

our time here is coming to an end...

2008-11-19T11:43:00.001-05:00

After the Inca Trail we spent a few days in Cusco re-couping. This consisted of nothing more then sleeping and walking around the town. Cusco is a beautiful town, yet quite touristy. Everyone in the town is white and there to see Machu Picchu...definately not my idea of a town that i would like to spend much time in. So, after resting and seeing my friend Lindsey that I went to college with who just so happened to be in Cusco at the sime time, Lima was calling. Miraflores is definately a much nicer part of Lima and the beach was beautiful yesterday. Today is a preperation day for the 5:55am departure time Thursday (tomorrow) morning. We will see you all tomorrow! jlm

Aguas Calientes

2008-11-14T13:10:00.003-05:00

Aguas Calientes which it is mistakenly called, it is actually Machu Picchu Town, is the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu mountain literally meaning hot water. There are thermal hot springs in the town and not much more. It is a huge tourist town with lots of vendors and restaurants and not much to see.

After seeing Machu Picchu we headed to this small town for the evening. We had our ¨last lunch¨with our trekking group and guide and said goodbye. We found a hostel, all we wanted was a bathroom of our own (with a toilet seat-since we hadn´t seen one in 4 days) and a place to spread out out wet smelly stuff. We found this at Machu Picchu Hostel, we got the matrimonial room with a view of the river! It was a great room, all we could hear was the rushing water. We fell asleep early in our nice comfy bed!

Today we have had breakfast, seen the town twice over, and are waiting for our train to leave at 6pm. jlm

The long awaited site of Machu Picchu

2008-11-14T12:21:00.002-05:00

Wednesday morning we were awoken at 4am...still dark and raining. Yes, it rained...torrential downpour...so much that we were being sprinkled in our sleep. Our tent leaked and we woke up soggy. Unforunately I was waking up every few minutes checking to see if any puddles had formed anywhere, I never found any until 4am when I began to get dressed and realized my entire bag of clothes was sitting in a collection of rainwater. At this hour, in the cold morning air putting on wet clothes is not my idea of a good start to the day, regardless it was the beginning of a great day.

After quickly having breakfast, as it rained, the porters cleared away our campsite and headed down the mountain. While it was still raining we began our trek towards Machu Picchu; our first stop was a checkpoint 5 minutes after the start. At this point we found a line, everyone waiting to pass the final few kilometers to see this amazing site. After passing we walked a little more then an hour, in the rain on slippery, uneven granite until we reached the Sun Gate. Ironically this place is called the Sun Gate since very rarely does it ever see the sun. Apparently it is called this because there is a possibility that you may see Machu Picchu from this point. This possibility is 10%, therefore the remainder of the year you only see clouds. Kaelin figured that thats only 36 days of the year that you can even get a glimpse of it from the distance. Of course when we reached this point the clouds were thick, so we continued towards it in hopes that we could see it. Amazingly, not 10 minutes later the clouds cleared just around the site and there was Machu Picchu in full view just for us to see!

As we approached the entrance into Machu Picchu the rain stopped and the clouds moved away. Don´t get me wrong, it wasnt clear by any means, but we could see the whole of Machu Picchu. We deposited our bags, so that we would not have to carry them around anymore, and began our tour with Washington (our guide for the entire 4 day trek) around Machu Picchu. He took us to all of the major sites within the ¨city¨ and explained the architecture and what they expect that these ancient Inca´s were like. Most of Machu Picchu has been rebuilt due to earthquakes and poor architecture. The Inca´s built in two ways; one way was simply placing rocks on top of rocks with nothing holding them together and the other was a way where they cut the rocks (with tools such as wetting wood and waiting for it to dry and expand) and fit them together. The first way is how much of Machu Picchu is built, therefore why 90% of buildings built in that way have been restored. The second way is much more durable and only 10% of that type has had to be restored.

Throughout this ¨city¨you will find the Inca Cross (Chakana) which is made up of three levels: the underworld (the snake), this world (the puma), and the higher world (the condor). The snake represents the devil, the puma represents us (the people of the world), and the condor represents the sun which to them was the highest of gods.

The Inca´s had a respect for what was already on the land so they left large rocks in their places, these rocks are said to have energy. This energy can be transferred by placing your hand close to the rock (their are guards watching to make sure that no one actually touches). Much of the ¨city¨also revolved around the sun, the winter and summer soltices. The windows were strategically placed so that the sun rays would shine directly onto the altar at certain times of the year.

The temple to the condor was an area made of rock that looks like a condor taking flight, they made sacrifices here and left their dead to be taken into the clouds by the condor (or so this is what someone thinks). The interesting part about Machu Picchu is that no one knows who actually lived here or why this city was built or what certain parts of it were actually built for.

Hiram Bingham (a professor at Yale) founded Machu Picchu (in 1911) as he was looking for ¨The lost city of the Inca´s¨which he found out that this is not. He found two families living within Machu Picchu when he arrived, these two families did not know the history of the people who once lived there. A 12 year old boy guided him to the site and he paid him one Sol (33 cents) therefore many people say that Machu Picchu was founded with one Sol.

As we walked around, the clouds began to move back in and surround this ¨city¨. By the time that we finished the tour Machu Picchu was again completely blanketed in clouds. We arrived on a great day...a day that we could actually see and enjoy this great mystery of a place. jlm

The road to Machu Picchu

2008-11-13T15:16:00.003-05:00

We left Copacabana, 5 minutes in a mini-bus and we reached the Peru border. We hopped out, got our passports stamped and walked through ¨no-man´s land¨and into Peru for another stamp. A bus was waiting for us, we forgot how nice buses can be after being in Bolivia, we boarded and found ourselves in Puno, Peru shortly after. After a short layover in Puno, we hopped on one more bus to take us to Cusco.

We arrived in Cusco around 4am, took a cab to a hostel and got some sleep. After awakening, we met Diego who said that he would take us on a ¨tour of Cusco¨. Little did we know that he has a terrible sense of direction and had no idea where we were most of the time, but needless to say we saw Cusco. We will return to Cusco tomorrow to see what we missed. It is a beautiful town, touristy but pretty and clean.

The night before we left for Machu Picchu we met with the tour operator and got the low-down on the trip. Afterwards we had our favorite dinner, butternut squash soup and salami, cheese, and olives. So yummy!

5am came fast...6am we were picked up and were on our way to the Inca Trail. After an hour bus ride we stopped for breakfast in a little town between the mountains. Back on the bus for another hour on a tiny windy road, playing chicken with the oncoming buses, we arrived at the beginning of the Inca Trail. Shortly after arrving we were informed that our so-called guide was in a taxi accident on that tiny windy road and was too startled and scraped up to guide us to Machu Picchu. Since this small mishap the ¨tour operator man¨ decided that we would have lunch there, while we were waiting for the stand-in guide. We waited, and we waited, and we ate spaghetti, and then we waited some more. At about one we began to walk...down the railroad tracks and to the first checkpoint. At this checkpoint everyone must show their passports and their entrance tickets. Only 300 tourists are allowed inside of the park every day. After the checkpoint we crossed a suspension bridge that was being tossed by the strong wind.

Day 1 was a nice path with slight inclines and nice views of the surrounding mountains. We saw quite a few children walking home from school and women carrying who knows what on their backs and donkeys carrying everything needed in the villages far above sea level. There were a few towns and opportunities to buy water and chocolate. It was a beautiful sunny day and we stopped along the path a few times to see some archeological sites (Inca ruins) and to enjoy the scenery. We arrived at our campsite for the night, the porters were setting up our tents and getting ready for our evening tea.

I failed to mention the dynamics of our group: 7 tourists, 1 guide, and 7 porters. The 7 tourists consisted of 3 people from Denmark (Nikolai-33, Rikke-33, and Frederick-29), a couple from Canada (Anne and Vern-in their 60´s), and us. Our guide, Washington, was from Cusco and 35. Our group also consisted of 7 porters. Porters: the men who carry an entire house on their backs. These men are absolutely amazing...they carry somewhere around 50 pounds (some of them much more) on their backs and walk (or run in most of their cases) twice as fast as we do with alot less in towe. On top of carrying all of that stuff most of them are also wearing sandals! We were told that they wear sandals until they have enough money to buy boots or other shoes, their poor feet. One of the porters was 46 and carrying a propane tank, a full-size propane tank so that they could cook us food on two stoves that they also carried with us. Among other things, they carried stools and a table and tents and all the food that we ate for 4 days. Kaelin and I have come to the conclusion that they are super-human. We attempted to follow one of them down, saying that it cant be that impossible for two gringas (white girls) to walk as fast as them. Quickly we realized that it is impossible, and we are just not as acclimated as they are to the rocky, slippery,steep terrain (or so that is our excuse).

After our evening tea we set up our sleeping bags and waited for dinner. Dinner consisted of breaded chicken cutlets, french fries, rice, and some noodle soup. Yummy. After having our evening tea (yes, we had before-dinner tea and after-dinner tea) we headed to bed. Early, very early for us but 5am comes very quickly. After a good nights rest in our nice sleeping bags at our campsite right on the little stream, we awoke to knocking on our tent zipper. When we opened the tent, there was our cook with hot tea, our ¨wake-up tea¨.

Breakfast: oatmeal, pancake, bread, butter, jelly, coffee, and tea to start us off on our ¨hard day¨. This day consisted of climbing up and up and up some more, I think that we climbed somewhere around 1,000 meters (I dont know what that is any measurement that you from the U.S. would understand) on Day 2. This consisted of walking up lots and lots of steps and sweating so much that we didn´t even have the urge to use the restroom all day! By the time that we reached the top (near 5,000 meters) our legs were shaking and we were stopping every 2 minutes to catch our breath and give our heart rates a chance to slow down. Reaching the time was an amazing feat just to turn around and see that we had to go down about 800 meters to arrive at our campsite for the second evening. Down, down, down...stairs made of granite, jagged-uneven-super steep steps. Poor Vern, he fell onto Anne but luckily no one was hurt. (Little history on Vern, he has wanted to trek Machu Picchu for many years but has had a bad knee so in January he had a knee replacement)

We arrived at camp early, 2pm and had lunch. A huge lunch to make up for all of the energy used while hiking...hiking...hiking. After eating we had some time to hang out and stare at the sky, or the ceiling of our tent since we had nothing else to do and then we had our evening tea. Evening tea also included popcorn and either fried wontons or cookies. Shortly after dinner was served: beef, onions, and peppers with rice. Another yummy meal made totally from scratch from things carried all the way from Cusco. Shortly after we headed to our tents. Tonight the ground was much harder and the weather much colder. We were instructed to wear our warmest clothes (which we didnt have too many of considering we had to carry everything that we needed for 5 days) and keep our tent closed to keep the bugs out. Cold, but not too cold we made it through the night and had our ¨wake-up tea¨at an early 5am. This campsite was on the edge of the mountain. Out of the door of our tent we could see the full moon over the mountains, since we were above the clouds it was perfectly clear, and behind us we could see the waterfalls coming from the mountain. Definately a beautiful place, with a stream flowing very close to our tent with ice-cold water that was perfect for washing nasty hiking feet and faces. After a quick ¨shower¨, since there werent any in either of the camp-sites we felt refreshed (as refreshed as you can be after 2 days of sweaty hiking and no shower).

Back to our bags; since we only have our huge backpacks we decided to invest in some very sturdy, expensive day-packs to take along with us. By sturdy and expensive i mean 45 soles, (about 15 dollars) 45 soles that held up all but the bottom strap to hold my sleeping bag and mattress pad. Easily rigged and held up for the rest of the trek, so I would have to say the backpacks served their purpose. These bags weighed somewhere around 10 pounds each, which I do believe is too much for one person to carry on this trek but obviously doable.

Day 3 began with an upward hike for about an hour, up steep steps. Once we reached the top (through the first pass), sweaty at 7am we started down and then up through the second pass, and then down and then back up to walk through the final pass only to head back down again. This day was full of stairs and ups and downs and steep rocky paths, with the chance of twisting an ankle or breaking a leg at any given moment. Some of these stairs were higher then my knees and skinnier then one foot sideways! At one point there are said to be 3,000 stairs in just one area of the Inca Trail. We thought that we would never make it to the end this day...down, so far down and never being able to reach the bottom. Our legs were shaking and we were attempting every short-cut possible. At one point there was a trodden path straight down rather then the zig-zag pattern that we were encourage to follow so we decided to see if it led us to the next zag down. Sure enough it did but not without event...Kaelin made it with little effort but me on the other hand-I slipped and Kaelin had the camera ready and got me mid-slip. Dirty butt and hands we cut off one zig and landed in the zag. Not too long after we arrived at the camp. Finally!

In the middle of this day we stopped and had lunch. Lunch was huge: chicken and veggies sauteed, rice, noodle soup. Yummy but hot outside. We took a siesta (rest in the middle of the day for latino´s) and then continued our trek.

On arrival, we quickly gathered our shower parafanalia (which consisted of very little and luckily we had a towel since the place ran out of rentable towels) and ran for the shower line. Everyone is desperate when they haven´t showerd in 3 sweaty days. After what seemed like forever we got in the shower and to our dismay it was cold...not ice cold but by no means hot. Definately a disappointment since we paid 5 soles ($ 2.50) for a ¨hot shower¨. Oh well, we were cleaner then when we started. After everyone had showered, it was time for our evening tea and popcorn. This held us over for the next hour until we had a ¨special dinner¨. This consisted of cream of asparagus soup, stuffed hot peppers, chinese rice, pasta, fried yuca, meat and veggie rolls, and jello for desert. Afterwards we thanked our porters for their amazing cooking and carrying job and headed to bed for a good nights rest before being awestruck by the site of Machu Picchu. From this campsite we could see Machu Picchu (big mountain) mountain and Wayna Picchu (little mountain) mountain but we could not see the Inca ruins yet. jlm

Filling you in on Sucre, Tarabuco and Cochabamba....

2008-11-09T17:25:00.008-05:00

After exploring the salt flats iun Unuyi, touring the mines in Potosi and hitting up the beautiful city of Sucre, we took a trip to Tarabuco.

Kristen, Jana and I decided to check out the city of Tarabuco because we heard the shopping was exceptional. Unfortunately, is was pretty much the same items as most of the other places but different vendors so we had a better idea.... celebrate the day of the dead. It is believed by many here in south america that it is easier for the deceased to visit the living on this special day. Many family´s celebrate in the cemetaries or homes with alters filled with treats and beverages to encourage visits from the departed. We gathered up enough courage to knock on one of the doors with a black ribbon hanging on the front, mind you, this is a very small town with dirt roads, little running water and sheep and donkeys roaming around. A woman and her three children, ages 7 ,5 and 2 welcomed us in. The main room consisted of a dirt floor, dirt walls and a piece of wood held up by two rocks for a bench, yet in the center of the room stood a big table decorated with purple, black and pink paper, cookies, cakes and her mothers name written on a piece of paper. After 5 vocal prayers from the three of us and a few smirks she gave us some bread, cakes and chicha, an alcohol made from corn. The chicha had a layer of skin on top, some dirt specks in it and was poured from an old gasoline container but I really enjoyed it. The kids were incredibly intrigued by us, our white skin and our cameras. While we were there a group of boys came in and sung a few prayers in exchange for some treats.....looked like christmas carolers on halloween. The woman said she made sure to count the prayers because the kids sometimes try to cut the prayers short. It was a unique experience and I hope to make it to a cemetary celebration next year!

After some time on the road with Kristen and Rick we finally made it back to their home base. Cochabamba was an experience in itself for me partly because I was with family and also because I was able to see what life is like for them in Bolivia. Kristen and Rick were gracious enough to give us tours of the shelters they each work at. All of these kids at the shelters struggle their whole lives with little or no hope for the future...their stories were unbelievable. We were also able to spend some time in the largest orphanage in cochabamba...170 children under the age of 5 and only about 40 employees total (remember these are the potty-training years)! The hardships that most of them go through definitely made me realize how fortunate I am and how far a single persons help can go. The amount of street children here is devastating. Many end up resorting to drugs (mainly glue sniffing) to depress the physical or emotional pain and hunger, some even end up in prostitution at ages as young as 11 years old.
This part of the trip made the most imact on me.

Luckily, Julia and Joanna, our cool new buddies we met in Unuyi, met up with us in Cochabamba. Chef Rick cooked gourmet meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner while Kristen gave us an enjoyable tour of the city, as well as, a town right outside called saint john of miners. When we arrived there, everyone including women with babies on their backs were digging a trench in the side of the road under the hot sun. The town plans to have running water in a few years. Each family is obligated to help each saturday or else a fine is due. The homes are mostly one room shacks with hardly a roof and no electricity. We hitched a ride to the community center that Kristen is helping establish. There we were.....hanging on the sides of a red pick-up filled with 2x4s, about 10 quechuan women and men and a baby on Jana´s lap driving down the steepest dirt road you can imagine....good times.

Their apartment is on the second floor of an old convent with a huge atrium in the middle. The second floor is shared with about 10 burn victim kids who add a playful vibe to the place. They even joined us and a few others to the gathering of the presidential election broadcast in the tv room downstairs, they were just happy to be hanging out.

Before our bus took off to La Paz, Kristen and Rick invited us to participate in their weekly field hockey tournament (the only field hockey existing in Bolivia). Joanna and I put on our game faces and joined in It was me and the Canadians against a bunch of volunteers and priests, the priest were rather fiesty so we let them win. It was a great ending to a wonderful week....then there was La Paz. KMG

Copacabana and Isla del Sol

2008-11-08T15:09:00.002-05:00

After our day in La Paz we got up early Friday morning and headed to Lake Titicaca. During this bus ride we were made to get off of the bus and buy tickets to ride a boat across a small part of the lake to the other side...apparently it wasnt safe to stay on the bus. I say this because they put the bus on some floating 2x4´s with a little motor and took it across...so I think the boat that we took was a little more safe. After crossing this small section of the lake we re-boarded the bus and headed another hour to Copacabana. Copacabana is a small town full of hippies selling all our their hand-made stuff. We browsed quickly and then headed to the waters edge to catch our boat to Isla del Sol. The population of this island is only 5,000, and its a wonder that their are that many people since you must walk uphill to get everywhere. As soon as we arrived on the island, after 2 hours on the water, we were met with over 100 steps to climb. The steps are called the Inca Stairway which lead to the top of the mountain. Unforunately we were carrying our 20 kilo plus backpacks and the elevation was not helping us out at all. We finally made it to our hostel which sat atop the mountain overlooking the lake, I must say a beautiful view. After dropping our bags and catching our breath we headed a bit higher to the absolute top of the island. From here we could see water on both sides, beautiful! After walking and eating some pizza (nothing like the pizza that we are used to) we headed back to our room...we were asleep before it was dark! It was cold so we snuggled up in our blankets and got cozy and fell asleep, i awoke at sunrise. I was facing the window and it was absolutely breathtaking to see the sun coming up behind the snow-capped Andes. I cant wait to post the pictures, maybe tomorrow. I fell back to sleep and then we both got up a little later packed our bags and headed down those dreadful steps. Finally reaching the bottom we re-boarded that little boat and headed back to the mainland. We arrived back in Copacabana, had some food and will be on our way to Cusco very shortly. We will spend all night on a bus and then have a restful day in Cusco tomorrow and then leave first thing Monday morning to begin our trek of the Inca Trail. Everyone better be thinking about us as we are walking for 3 whole days!! It will be well worth it I am sure, but from this end we are hoping that we are in better shape then we feel! Since we havent written in a few days, I neglected to wish my dad a happy birthday on here on November 6! Happy Birthday dad and I love you!! Until Cusco...jlm

La Paz

2008-11-06T19:18:00.002-05:00

So, i know that there are a few things missing between Pitosi and La Paz but we will get to those. I just wanted to write while todays experince is still fresh in my head. We arrived in La Paz at 630am from Cochabamba. We found a hostel and settled in and rested for a few hours. During that resting period i ate 10 pancakes!! I know, I know I am a fat-so but they were so incredibily good! No syrup but a tiny taste of home!

After the gigantic breakfast we set out to explore the city. We first hit the markets, there are so many. One in particular called the ¨witches market¨ has ladies selling everything to please the pacha mama (mother earth) and for good luck. Some of these things include dead llama fetus´that are dried out, hollowed out toads, and all kinds of vials and statues for good luck. After that we walked near the jail.

In the plaza near the jail there is a man named Kenny. Kenny served 3 years in the prison for attempting to transport cocaine from Bolivia into South Africa where he is from. He has been released but must stay in Bolivia until the end of the year before returning to South Africa. So, in the meantime he stands in the plaza and escorts people into the jail...he escorted us in. This jail is like nothing that any of you could ever imagine. We first were taken through two huge wooden doors where we could see the prisoners behind a gate, there were police all around outside. We went into a room, paid Kenny and wrote our names down (to make sure that we came out). The police officer stamped our arms and opened the gates, no checking of bags or patting us down. As we entered everyone was yelling and a man came up to us and starting talking to us in English, introducing himself as our guide. Then we met a big man named Jose, who was our body guard. He is serving 30 years for murder, has been there for 15 already. As you enter the jail it is like a courtyard, everyone is sitting on benches and talking. There are 7 sections of the jail; one for foreigners and people who have money, one for the poor, one for the drug addicts, one for the young trouble makers, one for the ones who were caught trafficing drugs, and one for the real criminals. I know that thats only 6 but i cant remember the other right now. All of these encarcerated people live in a room and most of their families live there with them. There are children running all over the place and wives cooking. This place is like a city. There are restaurants and food stalls everywhere. These prisoners are required to pay for everything, the jail gives them nothing but what our ¨tour guide prisoner¨ told us was not to be consumed by humans. And apparently whatever it is is always cooked in large silver pots and slopped into a bowl. There are no cups in the place, so everyone sticks their heads under the faucet and drinks from the tap.

We got to see the room of the guy that was our body guard. His wife and two sons live there with him. His wife makes breads and cookies and keychains to sell. He is the body guard because he is respected in the jail and no one will mess with him. There are no police or security inside of the prison, the security are these big respected men. These men maintain the order and the police officers only enter when they are called in because of a death. Only about 15 people die in the jail a year and that is including suicides.

The entire time that we were inside, about 2 hours, we never felt threatened or scared. Everyone was very respectful and willing to tell us their story. They asked about the US, because they know that prison in the states is a violent place. They cannot understand why we dont let the families live inside with the prisoners, they are convinced that if that was allowed then it would be less violent and people would be better off when they were released. As our ¨tour guide prisoner¨said, ¨this place is something that no one from either the north or the south could ever imagine-it is absolutely ridiculous the way that these people live¨.

We also came across some men making trucks and toys out of scrap tin, they make them to sell for money. Since they have to buy all of their necessities some of them work, we were told only about 20 of the 1500 do anything for income. They make everything by hand, no tools besides a hot flame to melt the tin. Absolutely unimaginable.

While we were there the police came in to do role call and hand out Gideons Bibles. Apparently they take them and use the pages to make cigerettes and to smoke marijuana and to snort cocaine. They make the purest cocaine that you can get inside of the jail. The guy who makes and sells the cocaine lives in a large room on top, the same room that the guy who wrote the book Marching Powder lived in many years ago.

Definately an experience of a lifetime. A place that not many people see inside of but so many people live their every day lives inside of. Children go to school and come home to a place filled with criminals and drugs and filth, and this is the life that they live day in and day out.
This place is truly an amazing place...jlm

Salt flats-Solar de Uynui

2008-11-04T23:19:00.002-05:00

It's all about perspective
Kristen, Richard, Jana, Kaelin

Kaelin, Richard, and Kristen standing on a can of peaches

Kaelin sitting on an apple

Solar de Uynui

2008-11-04T23:04:00.002-05:00

Salt anyone? The hotel made totally of salt that we slept in the first night of our journey.
Kaelin, Richard, and Kristen on the island in the middle of the salt desert.

More salt

The train cemetary...where they left all of the old coal burning trains to rust.

Ihla Grande, Brasil

2008-11-04T22:53:00.002-05:00

The jungle that we trekked through for 3 hours

To arrive at "one of the most beautiful beaches in the world" which was of course cloudy by the time that we got there but none the less a pretty place for a nap

The view of the town from atop the mountain that we hiked

The fishing boats anchored and the rain is coming

How beautiful it was on the mainland before our two our boat ride to the island

Rio de Janeiro pictures

2008-11-04T22:02:00.002-05:00

Sunset at Ipanema

Sunset from the top of Pao de Azucar (Sugar loaf in English) with The Christ in the distance

Waiting for the sun to go down, on top of Pao de Azucar looking over Copacabana

The view of Rio de Janeiro from Pao de Azucar

On top of the world!

2008-11-04T21:16:00.005-05:00

We arrived in Pitosi in the middle of the night and headed for our hostel. We had a nice 4 bed room with a bathroom all to ourselves (Kaelin, Richard, Kristen, and I). We awoke in the morning to a breakfast of eggs, bread, coffee, tea, and fruit! With a good start to our day we headed out into the city to find a tour company that would take us into the mines. After wheeling and dealing we paid 70 bolivianos (10 dollars) for a 4 hour tour. We walked around the town and then waited to be picked up to see the mine.

Two Bolivian men arrived in a white van...picked us up and we headed to the mountain. We first stopped at a tienda (little store) to buy coca leaves (a leaf that is supposed to cure everything simply by chewing it) and soda. Supposedly they prefer cigerettes and alcohol, 96% alcohol at that, but our tour guide who used to be a miner suggested that we not encourage the behavior. After buying our gifts (the miners ask for gifts so that we can take their pictures) we arrived at a house where we donned our mining get-up. This attire consisted of black warm-up pants, a large blue jacket with velcro enclosures in the front, a leather tool belt, a blue helmet, and a head lamp with a huge battery pack that clipped onto that stylish belt. And to top it all off goolashes...big black boots to protect us from who knows what that we will step in in that black abyss. After we were all ready (8 of us...the 4 of us, 2 English guys, and the Canadian and New Yorker that we met in the salt flats) we arrived at the mountain. One small, pitch-black opening signified the entrance into the mine. We entered the dark, moist, and dusty tunnel. Suddenly we hear the tour guide (if you could call him that) yell, "get to the side". We all jump from the center of the tunnel where there are tracks for the full carts of silver to pass just in time for 3 young men pushing a large barrel full of silver. I failed to mention that the space inside of this tunnel was inadequate for us and the large moving vats of silver, therefore it was a close call every time. After nearly being run over our pseudo tour guide points down into a black hole and starts down. A piece of rubber served as our only support as we plummeted down into a 20 foot hole. One small platform allowed us to gain some leverage and then down a ladder with the first two rungs missing we went. If you looked to your left there was a hole, a hole leading to no one knows where and to our right was a landing. Luckily we all made it onto the landing, it was a close call for the Canadian but we all made it safely. By the time we all made it down into this hole our so called tour guide was nowhere to be seen. We continued down a long narrow way crouched because of the height of the mine (Bolivians are short they don't need to make it any bigger). We finally reached the farthest part of the mine, 20 meters down where we found 5 miners drinking some alcohol and chewing some coca leaves. After spending some time with them we headed back towards the sunlight (which we could not see from that far underground and I could not see anything since my head lamp died). We all made it out safe and sound but this surely was an experience that you will not find in the United States. jlm

So much to write about...

2008-11-03T21:45:00.003-05:00

Where did we leave you? It has been so long that I cannot even remember. I believe the last time that we wrote we were in Santa Cruz. We spent the day hanging out with our new German friends, had a great dinner and got ready for our bus ride to Cochabamba. During this bus ride we made a few stops, Kaelin was hungry so bought some meat and yuca from the lady on the street. Very salty meat, but tasty seeing that it came from a plastic bag. Later we found out that it was cow heart...apparently something commenly eaten here in Bolivia.

After a day-long bus ride we arrived in Cochabamba where we met Kristen and Richard (Kaelin's aunt and uncle). We arrived at their house and had an amazing dinner, cooked by Richard who is a great cook. We got to go out with some of their friends here and see a little of Cochabamba. After a night out, a few of us decided to have some food from the corner vender. Richard warned me but I assured him that I was immune to all diseases and the sausage, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, kethup, and who knows what else sandwhich could not touch me.

Sunday we left Cochabamba and headed south east to Oruro by bus to catch the train to Uynui. We wined and dined on the train (much nicer then the other train that we took) which had a restaurant car and they gave us tea and hamburgers! Crazy for Bolivia...but apparently we were in the first class car which cost us 86 Bolivianos (thats just over 10 dollars) and took us 8 hours. As we arrived in Uynui a lady approached us asking if we needed a place to stay. We were tired and followed her to a hostel across the street. She then offered us a 3 day tour to see the salt flats, lagoons, and surrounding areas.

We began our morning with a nice big breakfast of eggs and rolls while waiting for our jeep to pick us up. A man arrived in a red range rover with room for 6 of us (2 other girls: a Canadian and an upstate New Yorker) and him with a rack on top with fuel and a tarp to cover the few belongings that we were allowed to take along. We borded our new home for the next 3 days and were on our bumpy way. (There are very few paved roads here in Bolivia). After some time we reached the Solar de Uynui, which is much like a desert yet made only of salt. The greatest part about this giant salt slab is that pictures can be taken with different perspectives. It is very hard to imagine, but we will post pictures so that you don't have to imagine anymore. I will give you some examples though; Kaelin and I are sitting on a pair of sunglasses, Richard is sitting on an apple, Kaelin is standing on her knife, and many many more. Definately something that you have to see. In the middle of this vast desert of salt there was an island, island pescado, which was covered in cacti and looked much like Arizona.

This tour that we took, food and lodging were included. The first night we slept in salt hotel, yes totally made of salt...the beds, the table, the chairs, walls, everything. Definately a cold nights sleep, or what we thought was a cold nights sleep.

The next morning we woke up before the crack of dawn (that being 5am) for breakfast and to head out supposedly before everyone else. We headed to 4 lagoonas, all laden with flamingos. We also saw crazy rock formations and lots of desert. We arrived around 3pm to lagoona colorado (color-red) which is red in the afternoon from the reflection of the algae. There were flamingos here too. We climbed a hill overlooking this watering hole and took lots of pictures of our beautiful surroundings. There were mountains, and water, and flamingos, and lots of wind. Walking back was much like a sand storm....wind whipping and fingers and ears freezing.

Our "hotel" for the evening or the barracks as we prefer to refer to it as was the most basic place any of us could imagine. 8 beds in one room with only a toilet, no toilet seat. The missing toilet seat was definately to my disadvantage seeing that this was the day that that amazing sausage and extra veggie and sauce sandwich decided to resurface. I spent much of that evening in that tiny cubicle or inside of my sleeping bag trying to get warm. The temperature inside of that tiny 8 bedded room could not have been much above zero. It truly was freezing....and my body was unable to weather the cold. I was inside of my sleeping bag, under multiple blankets, wearing all of the clothes that I had with me, and rubbing my feet together trying to conjure up as much heat as possible. Luckily I made it through the night, until we were rudely awaken at 430am.

At sunrise we arrived at the geysers; bubbling, sizzling, hissing, hot, minerals ready to explode at any given time. There are no barriers or anything keeping you from falling into this molten boiling lava. We headed to the hot springs, which felt very nice after being so cold for so long. The air temperature was cold but the natural pools of warm water were refreshing. We opted to stay at the hot springs longer and then head back to Uynui rather then head more south to see one other lagoona. The ride was something close to 10 hours of bumpy riding. Along the way we saw more rock formations and llamas and streams and little towns and not to mention the many stops that were made for me and my ailing belly.

Dusty (dirt roads with no AC), dirty (no one had showered in 3 days), and tired (waking up in the wee hours of the morning) we arrived back in Uynui. To our surprise we found a pizza place run by a man from Boston, were we happy! We ate and we ate and we ate and then boarded a night bus to Pitosi. Pitosi...the highest city in the world.jlm

We are alive!

2008-10-30T21:06:00.002-04:00

We are in Bolivia and doing great! We dont have time to tell you all about everything that we have done in the last week...but will soon. We are traveling around Bolivia with Kristen and Richard (Kaelin´s aunt and uncle) and will tell you all about it when we get back to their house in a few days. Just a quick update so that no one is worried! Talk to you soon....

After the ¨death train¨

2008-10-24T16:44:00.003-04:00

Lonely Planet describes the train as the ¨death train¨, yet we didnt truly take the worst one. The train took 17 hours and was super jolting, hot and muggy and then cold for 5 minutes (that sequence repeated itself throughout the hours)...but other then that it was a good ride. We met two Germans in Campo Grande and we played cards and conversed with them on our journey...they definately helped the time pass. We also ate way more empañadas then we needed...but they were so good!

We arrived in Santa Cruz at 8am and found a hostel...and a shower (which we desperately needed after many hours of sweating). There arent many sites to see in Santa Cruz, so after a nights rest we will travel to Cochabamba.

Im also happy to report that the weather is beautiful here...80 and sunny! And yes, we are happy! jlm

Aye Corumba...its hot!

2008-10-22T20:41:00.003-04:00

8 hours on a bus and now its hotter then Africa! We stepped off of the bus in Corumba, Brasil and we quickly mistook it for Africa! It´s almost 11pm and it has to be 100 degrees...we are sitting here sweating! Tomorrow we will hang out at the pool...most likely in the pool for fear of dying in the heat...and then cross into Bolivia. We will take the train to Santa Cruz and then onto Cochabamba to meet Aunt Kris. We are excited to see her!

We wanted to take what is nicknamed the "death train" but we were discouraged by the train booking man...he said it is hotter then it is here and there is no food or water and our chance of getting malaria is way up there. So, we will take another train...slightly nicer he says. We´ll fill you in when we get a chance. 17 hours on a train ahead of us...jlm

Iguazu falls pictures

2008-10-22T00:52:00.000-04:00

Goodbye Ihla Grande

2008-10-21T19:52:00.003-04:00

Athough it rained for 4 of the 5 days on ihla grande, we had a pleasant week. There´s something tranquilizing about being on a island in the pouring rain....a feeling of detachment from the rest of the world. There were no cars, paved roads or commercialized places. Every time we left the hostel we had to throw on our rain coats and flip flops and trudge 1/2 mile along the beach (aka main street) which included crossing a knee deep stream of water that flowed into the ocean which I could proudly jump (fortunately I spent my last day in philly challenging my little brothers and sister (yes... even the 3 year old) to `who can run from the kitchen to the living room and leap over the most pillows`contest).

Our hostel offered a boat ride to the mainland and transportation back to rio on monday so we took it for a fixed price. 10 of us were packed and ready in the am, waiting in the dreary weather for the promised boat that showed up over 2 hours later. We said our goodbyes to ihla grande and promised to return one day. Since the hostel didnt organize trasportation very well, 4 of us, our 4 backpacks the size of 8 year olds and the driver crammed into a neon yellow 2 door car and managed to make it to rio.

After a loooong bus ride we ended up here in campo grande for a quick layover. We plan to take the bus to corumba in the morning. KMG

On the island...

2008-10-18T14:47:00.002-04:00

So we are sitting in an internet place on a "beautiful island" while it is raining outside. I do believe that it is beautiful here...when its sunny!! We are hoping for sun tomorrow!

So the game...not scary and not very interesting either! It was a tie game so no crazy behavior. Definately a great experience and it let us stay in Rio longer. We really loved Rio and got to do so much while we were there. After the game we began to pack...yes again we had to make everything fit into those bags! You would think that it would get easier...yet it only seems that things multiply and the bags dont get any larger. We left our little apartment in Copocabana and headed for the bus terminal.

A few hours later we arrived in Angra where we boarded a boat to cross the ocean to Ilha Grande. It was beautiful and sunny in the beginning then it began to get windier and the waves were crashing over the edge of the boat and we found ourselves cold and wet. By the time that we reached the island it was cloudy but still warm. We walked along the beach and found a cute hostel right on the edge of the water. We got the last two beds!! We dropped our bags and headed for food! (we hadnt eaten except for a banana and peanuts). We stopped at the first place on the beach closest to our hostel and had fish, rice and beans, and salad. Boy was it yummy! Sitting on the beach on a tropical island with our toes in the sand and having a fantastic dinner. Man, we live hard lives!

We decided on an early night so that we were rested for our hike. We were told that the best beaches on the island are on the other side (of course they are) and there are two ways to get there, by boat or hike. Being the adventurers that we are we decided to hike! We were told it would take 2 hours to hike up and over the mountains in the jungle, so we set off about 10 am. It was hot and humid and by the time that we reached the top we were drenched from sweating. Luckily we were wearing our bathing suits (which were of no use at the beach). After starting our decent...and almost breaking our ankles (the path was rocky and uneven)...we reached the beach. The cloudy cold beach. The hiking would have been much more worth it if we had reached a beautiful sunny tropical place. We took naps and headed back.

Shortly after it began to rain. Then we heard a growling/yelling/screaching noise in the distance. As we walked we got closer and closer to this noise. We picked up rocks and started walking faster...ready to fight whatever was going to come from the bushes and eat us for dinner. Just as we got to the spot where this fierce animal was we heard another noise...a snoring of some type. This noise was coming from the other side of the path...we walked faster! Unfortunately we could not see this creature...it had to be something large! We were told later that it could have been a type of monkey...but who knows because Im sure there are lots of animals out there!

The jungle was beautiful...so green and full of wildlife. We saw monkeys, lizards, butterflies, waterfalls, and lots of bamboo. Nothing too exciting, i know...but it was a good expenditure of energy.

We finally returned to the hostel, wet and tired. We decided to go for a swim just because we had spent the majority of the day wet anyway. We headed for dinner then back to the hostel for a night of fun with our hostel-mates and the owner of the hostel.

To our dismay when we awoke this morning it was raining...and it has just now stopped. Still not sunny but better then rain. We are hoping for an amazing day tomorrow.
We will head to the mainland tomorrow...hopefully! Then to Sao Paolo, then farther west to meet Kaelins Aunt Kris by next saturday.

Goodbye Rio

2008-10-15T17:38:00.003-04:00

Our days here are coming to an end...in only 9 short days we will meet Kaelin´s aunt in Bolivia. We have alot of ground to cover between now and then and so many places to see. We have found a city that everyone should visit. Rio is an amazing place with so many things to offer. The climate is much like Miami but the city and the beach are all together. We had all good intentions of leaving yesterday but...we decided to stay 2 more days since tonight is the Brasil/Colombia game. After 3 long hours of waiting in line we got our tickets! The game is at 10pm tonight and is supposed to be crazy, we have been warned to watch out for the bags of pee and the dead chickens that fly. Should be interesting to say the least. It is in Marcaná Stadium, it holds 103,000 people and as we have been told a million times ´world famous´. We will see and let you know as soon as we can!

It will not be too soon though because tomorrow morning we will leave for Ihla Grande. Yes, we must pack those darn bags again...but at least we have clean clothes! We took everything down the street to the laundry, such a great feeling to have clean clothes. Clean, yet still the same dag on clothes that we have been wearing for the past 5 weeks and must continue to wear for the next 5! Oh the life of a traveler!

We will take a 3 hour bus ride down to Angra dos Reis and then a 2 hour boat ride to this island. There are no cars or banks on the island but it has the best beaches in Brasil. Also, in the center of the island is the rainforest where we can hike and see all kinds of wildlife. Until we are more sun-kissed...jlm

Rio

2008-10-14T17:41:00.006-04:00

We have fallen in love with Rio and decided to stay till thursday because the Brazil-Colombia soccer game is on wed and its calling our names.

The samba school we went to the other night was a blast. It was filled with loud drums, crazy samba dancing, brazillian flags, beer and the happiest people. Apparently they start practicing in august for carnival week starting febuary 20th.... which we plan to come back for. The samba school ended at midnight... then we headed to a funk party in the favellas with some columbian friends and locals...we danced till the wee hours of the morn (look up the favelas).

Were were planning on relaxing yesterday after such a long night so we had our favorite meal ...butternut squash soup, salad and a bottle of wine but ended up going out for some drinks in Lapa. We sipped on caipirinha´s, specially made by the cart lady and hung out on the cobbblestone street corner listening to Jazz. Afterwards we headed to a well known backpacker bar in Ipenema and met some people from jersey that are joining us tonight.

The beach was beautiful again today, lot of speedos and thongs... i felt like an oddball without one. It´s definitely number 1 for people watching.

Rumor has it there´s a full moon party tonight so we might have to find it. KMG

Happy Childrens Day!

2008-10-12T16:10:00.004-04:00

I remember asking my mom and dad when I was younger why there´s a Mothers day and a Fathers day but no kids day. They always responded, ´ kids already have too many special days to receive presents.´ Well guess what? Today is Childrens day here in Brazil, although, it seems to be well overtaken by the gay carnival here in Copacabana.

Jana and I were quietly relaxing on the unbelievably beautiful beach when all of the sudden over dozen buses covered with rainbow flags and balloons pulled up next to eachother. They each blasted their own club music, people dancing on and around the buses, beach and street...it´s the biggest celebration I´ve ever seen. I can´t describe much more because theres little eyes reading this blog....enough said.

By the way, last night i tried to fix the water leakage that i caused but i made it worse. We had to shut off the water untill it could be fixed today...whoops. They also turned on the gas today too which wasn´t working. Dont get me wrong though, the place is nice and all to ourselves. Were heading home now to cook some dinner and then out to samba club. KMG

At the Copa...Copacabanaaaa

2008-10-11T18:29:00.006-04:00

Imagine being surrounded by butterflies of every color, rainbows, tropical birds and the worlds largest waterfalls....thats Iguazu for ya. It was incredible....ill post pics tomorrow. We were told if we hike down a certain trail we might see a few monkeys so of course we were in and ended up recruiting 2 friends along the hike, toni from taiwan and geordie from australia. No monkey sightings but we all got a chance to swing like tarzan on a branch and almost break our legs which made us feel pretty cool. Time was constricting so we returned on friday to see the most grandiose of the falls. Then of course it was time to aboard another bus.

24 hours later with no food consumed and more appreciation for salami sandwiches, we arrived in Rio de Janeiro. Our flat is in Copacabana, one block from the beach. The hot water wasnt working so i tried to fix the electric water heater (sometimes i think i inherited my dads ability to fix anything gene) but the water squirted full blast in my eyes, mouth, my clothes and then all over the bathroom. i havent given up yet though...im thinking of a plan.

We just finished demolishing the ´all you can eat´tasty brazilian buffet and steak....it was heavenly. Tomorrow we hit the beaches of Rio and we´ll let ya know how many speedos we see because about 10 were spotted on the streets today....eewww. KMG

ps: That just sounds cool....Copacabana and Rio de Janeiro

Puerto Iguazu

2008-10-09T22:53:00.002-04:00

Everyone should make a trip to Argentina to see Iguazu falls! It is a truly amazing place...100 times better then Niagra. I hope that the pictures do it justice, but Im pretty sure that that is impossible. The amount of water, the number of falls, the surface area that the falls cover, everything about them is amazing. I would definately recommend this area of Argentina to anyone and everyone. And, the best part about it is that it is a tourist area so....there are nice hotels and restaurants and no need to ´rough it´ unless of course you would like to follow the same route as us! I definately wouldnt say that we have been roughing it too much, but the point is that you all should see these falls in your lifetime. We will try to post pictures soon.

After getting our Brasilian visa, which took all of one hour! Easy easy...so glad that we met an Australian who filled us in that Buenas Aires takes forever and to definately get it up here. We got it and its good for 5 years...so we are welcome in Brasil for a long time. We paid our dues (since apparently they have an issue that we charge them to come to the US so now we have to pay them too) and can now go. So, after getting that taken care of we sat by the pool and were determined to go to bed early. Haha! We were about to go to bed and the owner of the hostel and his friends invited us to go out. How could we refuse? 5am came so fast...and 9 came even faster. We got up and made our way to Iguazu falls.

Today after walking all day we bought a few things for dinner and sat by the pool. In the morning we will go back to the falls because we missed a huge part of them since the park closes at 7 and we wanted to see everything. Then we will hurry back to the hostel and bored yet another bus to Rio de Janeiro, leaving at 1pm and arriving in Rio Saturday midday. Fill you in from Brasil...jlm

More Photos

2008-10-07T21:27:00.001-04:00

Nina, Ida, Jana, Ann, and Kaelin
Pool Sharks
Creepy Cemetary
Eva Peron´s (Evita) Grave
The Sunrise in Rosario

more pictures

2008-10-07T21:16:00.004-04:00

Kevin, Pleun, Jana , Dan, Kirsten and Ariel the owner of the hostel in Mendoza La Boca Art Fair
Casa Rosada, the presidents house in Argentina
Our new best friend!
Candy, all colors and they taste so yummy

We have finally found our paradise!

2008-10-07T20:10:00.002-04:00

We are sorry that we have not written in a few days...we are alive and doing fantastic! So let me see where we left off...on Friday morning I believe...

Our first day in Buenas Aires (which i believe was Thursday), we walked to La Boca which is one of the poorest areas of the city but has great culture and sites. It is situated on the edge of the river with many Tango restaurants and Artisans, selling all kinds of hand-made products.

Friday morning we got up and were determined to see the rest of the city so we took the metro to the the opposite side of the city, Palermo, and made our way back to our hostel. It was a good 30 minute metro ride there, so you make a guess as to how many miles we walked! Palermo is the ritzy area of Buenas Aires, so there are nice stores and it is clean and it doesn´t seem much like south america at all. The doggie doo doo still seems to be a problem though! Across the city we passed areas that looked much like Washington DC (there is a monument that looks much like the Washington Monument) and like NYC (the lights and the traffic). We got back to the hostel and met our new German and Spanish friends and went to dinner. We ate steak and sweet potato french fries...yummy!

Saturday we went to the cemetary where Eva Peron (Evita) is burried. The cemetary is much like a city and not like a traditional cemetary at all. Eva´s grave is covered in flowers and definately the most visited area there. After seeing the cemetary Kaelin had a terrible pain in her foot (which we believe came from walking the entire city of Buenas Aires in flip flops) which she can barely walk on now. Dont worry...we are doctoring it and she will be better in no time! We hurried back to the hostel to say goodbye to our German friends, who had been traveling for a few months and were on their way back home. We quickly ate some empanadas and cookies (of course) that we had picked up at the local bakery and then hailed a taxi to the bus station. The busy station in Buenas Aires is crazy! Its much more like what most of you can imagine an airport being like...100 platforms and so many people! The only good thing (or possibly bad) about the bus stations is that there is no security (except for men with big guns) and your friends and family can get on the bus with you until the second it leaves! The bus left at 8pm...

We arrived in Rosario at 12am...the hostel that we had chosen was not on any map that we could find and no one that we asked knew where it was. So, we got in a cab and hoped for the best! Some guy helped us get our bags in the car, which we didn´t ask for, and he demanded that we give him money. We told him no and told to the driver to go! Then when we found the hostel and got out the driver tried to charge us an extra 5 pesos ($1.50) for our bags...haha! Of course we didnt pay that either...what do they think we are stupid Americans? We found the hostel...there were no people there but they were expecting a reservation of 20 so we couldn´t stay. So, we called our friend Dan (the guy we met in Mendoza who´s dad lives in Rosario) and he said, "no worries, we´ll come and get you and you can stay at my dad´s". So, we dropped our stuff at Dan´s and hit the streets of Rosario. We got in bed at 6 am...

Sunday morning we woke up at 11 and headed to the river. We went on a river cruise...it was an absolutely beautiful day! After seeing the river (and plenty of Argentines thinking that they were funny by mooning us) we walked the city and saw the sites of Che Guevara (the city where he was born) and had some amazing ice cream! Dad you would love the ice cream here, i had coconut and rum raisin. They both taste so real and have real fruit and no nasty preservatives like in the US. By the way we have both lost a few pounds even though we are eating lots of cookies and ice cream! Just in case you all were worried that we were packing on the pounds! Dan´s dad, who is great by the way, cooked us dinner after we watched the dancing water (much like that in Las Vegas) in the park. Dinner was amazing...pollo milenesa (thin breaded chicken) and mashed potatoes and salad. See Aunt Sherrie we are finding some better food! After we went out with one of Dan´s friends...

We got home at 9 am! We watched the sunrise and then had breakfast and then headed to bed. It was a great day of relaxation. I got up early for some reason, but K slept most of the day. We headed to the bus station to buy our tickets to Iguazu falls. To our dismay there were no night buses...they had all left by 5pm and it was nearly 7. We were disappointed but decided to go ahead and buy tickets for the morning...when i asked, the guy said, "wait, there is a bus leaving at 8pm and i have seats". We quickly called our new best friend Dan (and his dad of course) and they offered to come and get us and rush us to the hostel to get our stuff and then back to the bus station. We would have never made it if it wasn´t for them!

The bus left at 8pm and we arrived here in Puerto Iguazu at 1pm today! Only a few catastrophes along the way...Kaelin had a little battle between her stomach and the parasites (if you were wondering the parasites won) and a baby vomited all over her shoulder. At least it was a baby...she didnt mind as much! A very long night to say the least but well worth it for us. We sat by the pool all afternoon with perfectly clear blue skies and a temperature very close to perfect! Yes, our hostel has a pool! Tomorrow we will attempt to get our Brazilian visas and then see Iguazu falls on Thursday. JLM

Don´t cry for me Argentina....

2008-10-03T18:18:00.002-04:00

...cause you gave me bed mites! No it´s fine because the bites are mostly on my face....haha. Luckily Jana played hairdresser the other night with the 2 inch scissors that are part of the swiss army knife my dad, fortunately, lent me. She gave me a trim and some bangs which cover up the bites.

We went out for some drinks and food last night the plaza with our new friend Ida from Spain. A few Argentinean boys joined us, one of which claimed to be a magician. They levitated me! It consisted of me sitting in a chair, jana, ida, gaby and george circled me 6 times, said a few things and i was lifted off the ground....yep. I guess you had to be there.

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. The architecture is incredible and the building are well maintained. I cant count how many bakeries, wine and cheese shops we passed. The neighborhood Palermo was a big hit for us today, we shopped a little too much but are very happy with our purchases.

Eva Peron´s grave was closed when we arrived, we shall return tomorrow. Tonight, we are having dinner with Ann and Nina from Germany, our roomates, then maybe a little fiesta. KMG

Buenas Aires

2008-10-02T18:14:00.003-04:00

After spending 24 hours in Mar del Plata freezing and drowning in the rain we borded yet another bus towards Buenas Aires. We arrived a short 5 hours later...thankfully!
I forgot to mention that the last night in Mar del Plata we actually slept in the bed inside of our sleeping bags...that´s how cold it was! Needless to say we were ready to get out of there! But, I am sure that it is a beautiful spot in the summer!
As we entered Buenas Aires, which was much closer to the hostel then the bus station, we asked the bus driver to drop us off. He did, in the middle of a quite busy street with our packs and drove off. After consulting the map and being thankful that it was still daylight we made our way through the poop laden streets. (there is more dog you-know-what on the street then there is street to walk on. we have both stepped in our fare-share and have taken to walking looking down at all times.)
Today we have walked...and walked some more. We saw the western portion of BA and will hopefully see the remainder tomorrow. Thus far we are enjoying it here...we prayed for warmth and no more rain and today was probably 80 and cloudless! It´s amazing what prayer can do! We miss you all and are looking forward to seeing you all in 49 days...at least that´s Camie´s count so we will go with it!

Mar del Plata

2008-09-30T15:37:00.002-04:00

22 hours and 45 cookies later we made it to Mar del Plata, its raining and an amazing 49 degrees here! We spent our last night in Mendoza hanging out at the hostel. I practiced saying new words and phrases learned from our new friend Dan such as ´ya bloody bloak´ and ´mumsy.´ We now call a bathing suit a swimming costume. Apparently my accent sounds more like the queen than the rest of england but ill take it.
We found a cute hostel here in mar del plata. The old woman looks and sound like a spanish version of the old woman on the movie ´wedding singer´ who sings ´rappers delight´. Shes very sweet and even gave us soap to wash our hands, which weve never encountered. I think soap is similiar to diamonds here in SA....very rare, precious and often stolen. I wouldnt dare wear it around my neck.
Weve decided to head north rather than to uraguay due to the weather conditions. Buenos Aires awaits us tomorrow....KMG

moving on...

2008-09-28T22:48:00.003-04:00

Still in Mendoza, we have had a great time just hanging out and doing laundry and staying in a nice clean hostel. But...we must move on and see what else South America has to offer. So, at 12 tomorrow we will board a bus to Mar del Plata on the east coast of Argentina which will take us a mere 20 hours to reach.
While I am writing I will tell you about our day...we went to the hot springs in Cachueta. It was nice and warm in the springs but freezing outside! It was a nice relaxing day for the time inside the water but outside was terrible. Nothing more to reveal at this time...think of us as we ride 20 hours!

Pictures V

2008-09-27T01:20:00.002-04:00

Our gaucho and his brother.

Simply the scariest so called ¨dog¨ we have ever seen.

Kaelin, the gaucho´s knife, the fire, and our lunch (ribs).

Ribs anyone?

The gaucho who had terrible teeth and we drank matte after him...ewww!

Pictures IV

2008-09-27T01:15:00.003-04:00

The view from the National Park of Santiago in Santiago, Chile.

The view of the city under the sunset from the highest point in the city.

Sunset behind the mountains in Santiago, Chile.

A goat just gave birth right in front of us!

Our new found friends from Holland and our horses.

Pictures III

2008-09-27T01:10:00.002-04:00

Leaving Tacna...on the bus to Iquique on the Pan American Highway.

Grapes to make pisco and wine in the Valle de Elqui, Chile.

La Serena, Chile hostel...our room which was absolutely freezing at night!

Pictures II

2008-09-27T01:02:00.002-04:00

Super cute!
Freshly killed pigs...still moving on their way from
the farm to the butcher.
Hostel 21 in Tacna, Peru.
Don Carlos Hostel in Arica, Chile.
The biggest waves either of us have ever seen...
Arica, Chile. This picture definately does not do
them justice!

Pictures...in the beginning

2008-09-27T00:57:00.004-04:00

Our first night in South America...Lima.

Our flight over the Nazca Lines, in Nazca Peru.

Our pilot who flew in super tight circles but we sure could see the ground!

Anybody want some chicken?

Fruits and veggies for sale in Nazca, Peru

Argentina

2008-09-26T23:16:00.000-04:00

We ended up staying another night in Santiago....unfortunately it was in the same hostel but in an even worse room. We debated on staying up in shifts to make sure we killed any critters that tried to crawl into bed with us from the holes in the ceiling... or the caved in walls... or maybe even the holes in the sheets. Its also a little disturbing when you cant flush the tp down the toilet (as mostly everywhere in south america) but you cant put in in a trash can cause there isnt one...go figure. Early in the morn we headed into Argentina. The border crossing was quite easy yet there were a few Brazilians on our bus that kept wanting to talk, so i happily said ¨no habla espanol¨ and pretended to sleep for 7 hours.

Mendoza in the heart o wine country in argentina. The hostel we are at has email, fooseball, ping pong, pool, laundry and all you can drink red wine.... its everything we ever dreamed of! The old man Ariel who owns it lives here with his 2 sons and ¨2 ex wives¨ whom take shifts cooking breakfast, doing laundry and cleaning. He actually chauffered Brad Pitt around while filming ´7 years in Tibet´ and has a picture to prove it.

Today Ariel drove us, and 2 other girls from holland staying here as well, to the cowboy ranch. As soon as we got there we witnessed a goat giving birth to two cute kids. Then we hopped on some horses and rode like the wind for six hours. For lunch we had a REAL barbeque consisting of ribs, fruit and bread (the salad was dropped somewhere along the way). It was an awesome day especially after ariel treated us to coconut ice cream on the way home.

Tonight we walked around in the city of Mendoza. There are lots of restaurants, shops and singing men in the street. While eating pasta and drinking tea in the main plaza, we were encountered by several children from about 5 to 10 years old. They would lay a note, stickers, candy etc.. on the tables and ask for money in return...very sad especially considering it was close to midnight.

Tomorrow we plan to rent bikes and go wine tasting in the Mendoza vineyards. KMG

Santiago

2008-09-24T16:23:00.002-04:00

We arrived in Santiago at 630am on Tuesday morning...after a short nights rest on the bus. We grabbed a taxi and chose a hostel...definately the worst one yet. It was dark with peeling paint and wallpaper...and im pretty sure that the ceiling was falling on me as i slept. After a few more hours of sleeping we were ready for Santiago. We walked and we walked and we walked and saw the majority of the city. Lots of people and modern things...much like any american city and not of much interest to either of us.

Last night we met our French friend that we met in La Serena who lives in Santiago. He cooked us dinner...butternut squash soup and pasta! Not toothpaste! The spanish word for toothpaste is pasta...haha!! Definately the best meal we have had yet.

Today we have walked the city and now we are going to walk some more probably have some dinner and sleep. Then, in the morning we will pack up and move on to Mendoza. Until Mendoza...jlm

and the story of La Serena continues...

2008-09-22T15:30:00.002-04:00

After concluding the last blog entry Kaelin stepped outside as i was finishing checking my email...when i walked out i found a guy attempting to talk to her. This guy did not speak one word of english so it was definately a challenge for both of us! After a conversation that should have taken 10 minutes, lasted an hour we were invited to go out with him and some of his friends. We spent the day walking around La Serena...going to a Japanese garden here and exploring the town. Later, we met our new found ¨spanish-speaking only friend¨ and had another one of both of our favorite foods...hot dogs! haha! Not only hot dogs but hot dogs with a load of mayonnaise...boy were they yummy! Supposedly this place that we went to hot dogs are their specialty. We ended up staying out with these people til 6 am...dancing and speaking spanish! By the time we got back to the hostel our brains were fried and ready for sleep. Unfortunately...we had booked a tour to Valle de Elqui which is about an hour east of La Serena which left at 830am. So, after 2 hours of sleep the doorbell rang and the tour guide was waiting for us...and we were still in bed!

The tour was quite interesting...we got to see a pisco distillery (is that how that is spelled?), the grave of a poet who won a nobel peace prize, lots of fruits and vegetables that they grow here in chile, and a neat little bug that they make red dye out of. Apparently Chile is the number 2 exporter of this coloring, red coloring that they dye everything with. It is a larvae that lives in cactus then they dry it in the sun and crush it...when crushed it is red. Interesting!

Well, our time here has been well spent. We met a french and australian guy at our hostel which we barbequed last night with and attempted to make pancakes this morning with. It was nice meeting some people that we could communicate with...communicate with easily that is. About the pancakes...the hostel we are staying at has a kitchen that we can use so we thought breakfast sounded like a good idea. We found a box that said pancakes but the hostel only has pots...so pancakes made in a pot! A great experience to say the least.

Well, we are off to the bus station to buy tickets to santiago...jm

La Serena

2008-09-20T16:29:00.002-04:00

Ahhh! We made it through our 19 hour bus ride to La Serena! We woke up early friday morn (for us 1030am), strapped on our packs and took the next bus out of iquique. The Tur bus we rode in was more like a turd bus due to the lovely smell. We were fed salami sandwiches and soda for lunch and salami sandwiches and soda for dinner. Not our favorite foods especially when it tasted like hairspray and medicine yet it did fill our bellies and we were grateful.

I must say, la serena is a beautiful and clean city. The surrounding area is filled with green grass, wildflowers and cactus. It took a few trys but we found a cute hostel with hot water, laundry and other gringo guests. We booked a tour of the area and a pisco (a liquor made from grapes) distillery for tomorrow.

ps. remember the crazy guy we saw in peru and chile who was singing and dancing....just found his card and supposedly hes on utube, name is edward bodenheim.

peace......KMG

Iquique

2008-09-18T19:44:00.002-04:00

Are we in the "old west"? We have stumbled upon a place which looks alot like a place that you see in the movies with lots of old buildings with upstairs porches and wooden sidewalks everywhere. Its alot like what you would think a ghost town looks like...no people and every single place is closed and if its open there may be a handful of people patronizing it. Today so happens to be the Independence Day of Chile and also my little bro´s 18th birthday! Happy Birthday Jo! Seeing that it is independence day you would think that there would be people around, partying and in the streets but...we have decided that they are all hiding from us gringas (white girls). We are staying in a hostel that was raved about saying it is a "haven for surfers and backpackers", if the surfers are some old chileans and the backpackers are us then it was right. This afternoon 4 people from England showed up...so maybe we can hang out with them tonight. In the morning we will move south...to wherever the bus may take us. We will let you know where that place is when we arrive...jm

OH CHILE

2008-09-16T21:05:00.005-04:00

We have arrived in Chile! Yesterday we packed up our packs once again and got on the road. We bargained for a "collectivo" and paid a whole 15 soles for our ride across the border. Thats about 7 dollars for a ride that took about 2 hours but is only about 30km. The car was an old brown beater with a Peruvian driver and 3 other people squeezed in...that makes a total of 6 of us all trying to cross into Chile. Wait..I forgot to tell you about the guy that we met on the street in Tacna. He walked up to us saying "hi, hello, hi, hello" and then he told us all about his performances on utube and then continued to sing to us in english in the middle of the street. we quickly got rid of him and made it on our way. Now, back to my story about getting into Chile...it was quite uneventful. Once we got into Chile we found a hostel close to the downtown area where we can walk to everything. so, we dropped our packs and started exploring. After a few hours we sat down at a restaurant with an outdoor patio right on the main drag of this little town of Arica. While sitting, these men started playing some music on their wooden flute and guitar and suddenly we look up and see the english singing utube boy. We attempted to avoid him, but of course he came to our table and asked if he could have a seat. Instead of sitting he stood over our table and began to seranade us with all of the english songs that he knew. He definitely caused a scene but fortunately did not remember us from the day before in Peru. Hmm...odd!

After a long interrupted night of sleep. (The hostel that we are staying in is full of highschool girls who were up til all hours of the night doing karaoke with the man who owns the place, the dogs who live on the roof were barking and running back and forth, the doorbell was ringing from people trying to find a place to sleep, and the phone ringing as loud as it possibly could.) Needless to say, we slept until 12 because we didnt get to sleep til who knows when in the morning because everytime that we fell asleep there was some sort of noise. We spent the remainder of the day walking...we walked about 3km along the beach. We saw all kinds of animals...dead and alive...and the biggest waves either of us have ever seen in our lives. The pictures that we have taken just dont do them any justice. We also used our amazing muscles to help a couple push their car along the beach to no avail. The car was dead.

We do feel like true south american because we hung our laundry on the rooftop to dry. When we went to get it it was all there but...a few pieces found scattered around.

Tomorrow we will repack our packs and move again south. We are thinking we will make the 5 hour trek to Iqiuque which is supposed to be a "surfer and paragliders haven". Well let you know if that is true or not. By the way, the weather has been beautiful...warm during the day and cold at night but much better then we had expected. Everyone keeps telling us that Uruguay is absolutely beautiful and warm so we are looking forward to that. For now...we will move southwards and explore the land of Chile. jm

2008-09-14T20:16:00.002-04:00

Happy sunday! Its a chilly but a beautiful night in tacna peru. The city is way more developed and landscaped than nazca or lima. We just had some pizza and were even offered a motorcyle ride by some 60 year old argentineans. We arrived early this am after 12 hour bus ride. I learned on that ride that the fetal position is a great way to stay warm and fit on a bus seat at the same time.

I forgot to tell the story about a lesson we learned our first day in Lima. Our wonderful taxi driver guillermo told us he would stop at the atm on the way to the bus station. It was a busy street and lots going on around us (red lights and breaks dont have any meaning, just horns and hollers). We got out and he said he would go around the block...ok fine. We quickly used the atm and stood outside for 5...10...15 minutes. He has our backpacks. Our hearts beating faster, sweat starting to drip and we began pacing up and down the block wondering what the heck were gonna do! Janas on one end of the street and im on the other, both frantically searching. Finally i see him and I start running across the street, cars on honking at me and im screaming and waving ¨Jana come on!¨ I would have knocked over old ladies and rolled over the hoods of cars if i had to. Guillermo was patiently waiting, we just didnt see him. Lesson learned.

We are heading to Chile in the morning, about 20 miles south to Arica. Peace. KMG

Nazca

2008-09-13T17:44:00.004-04:00

so after a good nights rest we woke up early only to sit around and wait for someone to pick us up and take us to the airport. once we got to the airport there was more waiting. then we finally got in the 6 seater plane to go up and see the nazca lines. the lines were interesting but not like we had expected. the contrast between the sand and the lines made them very difficult to see and the pilot turned that little plane all the way on its side. and went in a very very tight circle so that we could see the ground better. it got VERY hot inside of that little plane with our peruvian pilot and 3 japanese people. we sat in the back and both felt a little queezy near the end. i think that we were both ready to get back on the ground and get some fresh air. anyway, now we are passing the day by walking around nazca...it is about 80 degrees and sunny and beautiful. we leave at 830pm to take a 12 hour bus ride to tacna. tacna is the very last city in peru before the chile border. jm

we made it to cuzco

2008-09-13T00:43:00.003-04:00

well...we have already made it pretty far considering we just got here less then 24 hours ago. sorry that our last blog was short but we were paying for internet and waiting for the bus in a very crowded room with only a few working computers. we met guillermo our taxi driver last night when we got to lima, he was exceptionally nice but was trying to make us pay the most for everything. we had planned on staying in a hostel that jana had stayed in last time she was here but when we got there it was full, so we tried one nearby. but, of course there were no beds for us. so, this taxi driver told us that he would take us to miraflores. he took us to a hotel that we paid 60 dollars for a room. the good only good thing about it was that it had warm water and we had our own bathroom. other then that definately not worth 60 dollars but we didnt have much choice at 2am. we got up this morning to have breakfast and meet the same taxi driver to take us to the bus terminal. as we said this morning, breakfast consisted of some orange flavored water and 2 rolls with some jelly. definately not what we were expecting for a breakfast included 60 dollar room. so then our trusty taxi driver decided that we needed to see the nazca lines for 110 dollars each and we were pretty sure that that wasnt going to happen. so, we told him no and he called his friend in nazca and set up a room in a hostel for us for when we got here. i stepped off of the bus and a young peruvian guy was yelling my name...haha. i totally did not expect that he would know exactly who i was. so we got our packs and got in the taxi and came to hostel estrella. we have a room with two beds and our own bathroom with warm water!! thats the best part and were definately not looking forward to the days with cold water and will probably not shower on those days! oh well. anyway, were about to go to bed so that we can be up and ready by 7am to take a flight over the nazca lines. we will try to write again before we leave this hostel since we arent sure when we will have internet again. and its free here! alright, we love you all and will update as often as possible. jm

2008-09-12T14:24:00.003-04:00

OK eveybody....we finally arrived! We had some trouble finding a hostel that had vacancy but ended up in ´nirvana´ hotel. We were ecspecially happy because it included breakfast which was 2 rolls each...mmm.
We are currently at the bus station ready to take off soon for Nazca...hopefully gas prices aren´t too high so we can fly over the famous nazca lines. KMG

September 11-Getting ready

2008-09-11T02:50:00.003-04:00

We are finishing up packing and getting everything ready to leave. We leave DC at 4:30pm and arrive in Lima around midnight. We will be staying in a hostel and then starting our journey south to Chile shortly after. We will update as often as possible, which wont be as often as we would probably like but South America doesn't always have the fastest internet. Have a great 3 months and we will see you all when we get back!