6:35pm
Miraflores Internet Cafe
Miraflores
Lima, Perú
It´s all over. In a little over an hour I take a cab to the Lima airport and head home.
To put it all in perspective is a great challenge.
In just under 5 weeks I have managed to experience quite a bit. I have:
*Visited 5 countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru)
*Traveled about 7,000 miles while here in South America
*Stayed in 15 hostels and two two-star hotels (yes! living large!)
*Flew on 5 flights, and took 7 buses (5 overnight) and dozens of cabs
*Visited numerous museums and churches
*Learned to surf in Brazil
*Went sandboarding in the desert
*Went to the top of Corcovado in Rio
*Took a helicopter ride over Iguazu Falls
*Walked with 100,000 Penguins in Punta Tombo
*Saw countless animals in the their natural habitat - dolphins, flamingoes, iguanas, alligators, breaching whales (from the beach), condors, turkey vultures, monkeys, parrots, toucans, snakes, foxes, llamas, vicuñas, guenacos, and 100s of different species of birds
*Hiked on the Perito Moreno Glacier in Southern Patagonia
*Drank Malbec in Mendoza
*Got robbed at a bus station
*Mountain biked down the World´s Most Dangerous Road
*Had way too many cheap, fantastic steak dinners
*Got food poisoning
*Watched the World Cup Rugby Final between South Africa and England in Bolivia at an Irish bar with Australians
*Hung out at Ipanema and Copacabana beaches in Rio de Janeiro
*Saw Evita Peròn´s gravesite in Buenos Aires
*Got altitude sickness coming into Bolivia and didn´t eat for 24 hours as a result
*Hiked to the base of Mount Fitz Roy in El Chalten, Argentina
*Experienced the full range of temperatures and weather conditions: from extreme heat, to extreme cold, snowfall, rain, hail, and sleet
*Slept in a hostel made entirely of salt, and then at dinner seasoned my steak with salt taken from the floor next to the table, also made of salt
*Visited a favella in Brazil
*Visited the world´s largest salt flats and the world´s highest and driest desert
*Tasted traditional meals of Brazilians, Argentines, Chileans, Bolivians (llama) and Peruvians
*Visited Viña del Mar, the sister city of Sausalito
*Got the worst mosquito bites of my life
What to make of all of this, good and bad? Because the good and bad have to be considered - it´s all part of the experience of travel.
I have never really taken a vacation of more than a week since I´ve been working. And I took this trip because I didn´t want to regret not taking one. You learn a lot about yourself on your own for an extended period of time. I think it´s safe to say that working in a cubicle 8-10 hours a day for years is hazardous to your health. I understand that it´s necessary, and doing that is what offered me the opportunity to be here.
I think of being back in that Starbuck´s about 6 weeks ago, and not having a CLUE of what I was going to experience coming here, only that I had a flight in to Rio and a flight out of Lima, and one night booked. And I if I had to do it again, I wouldn´t change a thing. Because it was truly an adventure. I´ve learned a lot about myself and gained some valuable lessons on my life moving forward:
Be adventurous, even if it´s just for one day, one hour, one minute. Try something different, go outside your comfort zone.
Start a conversation with someone who you wouldn´t normally. You never know what it will lead to.
Don´t use plastic bags. Bring a cloth bag to the grocery store, or if you have to, ask for paper. I saw way too many plastic bags wrapped around trees, or stuck in gutters, or worse, with a dead animal caught in one. Plastics never decompose. Too much of this beautiful landscape down here and soon to be up there is completely ruined by plastic bags.
If you want to see animals, go see them in their natural habitat. Don´t go to a zoo. Zoos mistreat their animals greatly, and although many in the US claim to be humane, animals life expectancy and quality of life is greatly reduced being in captivity, especially here. I found out that Orcas at Sea World and other places are taught their tricks by being denied food for extended periods of time. And that an Orca´s life expectancy in the wild is over 40 years. And in captivity? Just seven.
Look around. I found that you could miss something incredible right in front of your face if you are too worried about looking down the road.
After seeing people living in complete poverty every place I went, we really have a lot to be grateful for back in the US. A LOT.
Wherever you go, be at home.
As I am leaving here to catch my cab to the airport, I wanted to thank a few people. Because of them, I have gotten the love and support to take this trip:
My Mom and Dad (Reg and Laur, thanks for letting me pick on you about taking me to see Kenny Loggins and the Righteous Brothers) I love you both very much and I will see you Sunday. Dad, you taught me it´s cool to wander. Mom, you taught me to always be safe while wandering.
My sister Jennie, my bro Ryan and my nephew Rocky the Pug. I miss you and can´t wait to see you guys.
My girlfriend Jen - thanks for being so supportive while I did this - I love you and I´ll see you in 24 hours
My grandmother Bam - Hi Bam! Let´s have lunch at Ann´s Coffee Shop next week!
My Uncle John - to the Lormon with the most search results when you type ¨Lormon¨ in Google, you are a great inspiration for me and definitely in my travels. Stay clear of the fire down there in SD. See you in a couple of weeks.
Jeff Shanley - I had a special feeling on my first day at Conor, when I shook your hand and you said to me ¨nice to meet you Dan. Well, what are you doing standing around, get to work.¨I know I managed to hang on at Conor, but you made this trip possible for me. Thank you.
Carlos Estrada - thanks for the Portuguese book and for being a great friend
My homey David Falato - see you in Chitown next weekend!
All the people at Conor - Let me know if they are hiring over there, I want back into the group!
My cousins Matt and Mike (and of course Kirsten and Charlie Brown!), and Uncle Rick and Mary Jo and Meredith
Joel den Dulk - you've got it figured out my friend
My Aunt Mary Ann, Uncle Larry and all my crazy dancing Crockett cousins! And OF COURSE, Cousin Caitlin!
My very good friend Norman Tarazona - a huge influence on my travels. Dude, you are right, you never steer me wrong!
My manager at Epic Records
Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.
My agent Jerry Maguire, I love you man!
Okay, I´m getting carried away.
A Jerrry Springer final thought, I hope that through this blog you were mildly entertained. I enjoyed writing it. It started as a way to make my Mom and my grandmother NOT nervous about me going on this trip. I remember sitting down with them and having a drink up at Tahoe over Labor Day weekend and telling them where I was headed, and seeing pure concern in both their faces. More like pure fright. And so, the blog was born.
And then in an intoxicated moment at a happy hour a week before I left, I told my bud Prasanna Muraldiharan (did I spell it right Prasanna?) the blog address, and the very next day, I think he forwarded it to everyone he knew at Conor! Prasanna, I didn´t think you were going to remember it! No worries.
But it´s been fun, and also a way to remember.
I hope that through this blog, there can be some inspiration to go travel. I know it´s not for everyone, and not everyone has the means. But even if just for a few days, a week, a day. Go somewhere you have never been. You´ll never forget it.
See you back in the States everyone.
Ciao y nos vemos,
Dan
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Last but definitely not least...Lima, Peru
11:38pm
Miraflores Internet Cafe
Miraflores
Lima, Perù
Hola gente, estoy in Lima, Perù.
I made it, it´s the final stop on my trip. Who cares, right?!
But seriously, it´s a great feeling to reach your final destination, with no harm and lots of adventures.
It´s as if I have made it across the finish line...getting back to the good ol´City by the Bay on Thursday late morning will be the official finish line, but it feels like I made it right now.
Lima is an exciting city. A cabbie told me yesterday that the census was just done on Sunday and it´s official: they counted 8 million people here. Good thing I didn´t get here until yesterday, I would have screwed up the count, huh? Huh? Anyone? Ya see, because I would have made 8,000,001...oh forget it.
Here are the past four days in beautiful technicolor and white. Notice the red and white blog colors, the official colors of Peru.
I arrived into La Paz, Bolivia on Saturday morning after a 12 hour bus ride from Uyuni. Spent. Holy crap. Ready for a nursing home. ¨Can we watch the World Series please Nurse Ratched?¨
But after a quick nap and a shower, I felt rejuvinated.
La Paz, which has a lower (Bajo) and upper (Alto) area...here´s a view from the Upper, heading to the lower...notice the snow-capped mountains behind it. They say that just under one and a half million live here, but it seemed like much more. Again, it´s so freaking high. As I sat on my airplane on the tarmac at the La Paz airport, the altimeter showed 13,000+ feet.
It´s a very crowded city, but like Brazil, gets completely quiet between like 5am-8am.
But the busyness of the day is kinda cool. The one thing that they have here in La Paz, are these minivans...that drive up and down the streets, where people get on and get let off as the minivan is MOVING. It´s an affordable cheaper-than-a-bus system. For a half a boliviano (which is like 15 cents) you can ride it as long as you want. And there´s usually a kid standing in the window yelling out where it´s going, like a paperboy. I wish they had these where I live in SF. I could use a ride to Cole Valley Video on cold nights.
I was ready for theft and trouble in Brazil, I had been duly warned. But since I left Brazil, I was not as worried. Then I heard stories about Bolivia. I met these people from Australia who live in in La Paz and they told me there are four common types of scams to rob people in Bolivia to watch out for:
1) ¨Can I help you clean up your bag/clothing?¨ This was attempted on me in Rio...it´s when someone puts something offensive on you (mayonnaise, mustard, Drakkoir Noir cologne - remember the 80s?). And then they come up to you - ¨amigo, you have something on your bag, can I help clean it off?¨Then you drop your bag to let him help, and buh-bye bag. It´s gone.
2) Disoriented travelers. There is a man and a woman, who work in different parts of town, who actually look like American tourists. They aren´t even Bolivians! There´s a woman, who claims she´s Canadian and the tour she was on just left her on the corner and just needs a few bucks to get back to her hostel. Yeah right, Canadian. And one guy, who has a shaved head, walks around saying he ran out of gas and was hoping you could help him out. I think I know this dude - he´s in downtown Palo Alto! I was approached by a homeless person for money one night in Palo Alto a couple of years ago, right on University Ave, outside the Walgreen´s. He looked hungry and asked for money for food. I happened to have a half eaten burrito from Andalè. So I gave it to him, thinking he´d be so happy. He just looked at it, handed it back to me and said, ¨can I just have money instead?¨
3) It´s raining money! Apparently in this scam, the decoy will walk in front of you, and ¨unknowingly¨drop a gigantic wad of cash or a couple of credit cards in hopes that you will pick it up and go to hand it back to him, at which point the guy positioned behind you lifts your wallet, bag, and MP3 player filled with crappy American Idol music, OR, when you pick up the money/cards, they will accuse you of stealing and have you arrested. Nice!
4) Fake undercover police. These guys are the toughest to defeat. A guy will come up to you and ask for directions, then another guy comes up and says they are an undercover cop and he needs to see both your passports and ¨check your money, to see that it isn´t conterfeit.¨ The decoy pulls out his wallet and says ¨we better do what he says.¨Then you do it, and later real money!
Here I caught an undercover cop trying to work a number ¨4¨scam on an unsuspecting woman waiting for a cab. ¨Maam, I´m a cop. Yes, I´m dressed like a shark and I´m wearing Keds, but I´m on a very important case. Someone is trying to export black market Beanie Babies into Bolivia, and I´m going undercover as a shark Beanie Baby to catch the perpetrator. Now can I please see your ID and can you PLEASE empty your purse through the back my costume? It´s a zipper, you have to kind of jiggle it...there you go...Hang on, wait, can you help me move this shark headpiece a little this way, I can´t see your valuables through the mouth of this thing. Is that a Rolex or a Casio? Damn shark suit!¨
I actually scored a nice hostel in La Paz. Called Casa de La Abuela. Grandmama´s House. In a cool little courtyard, with a great pizza place below on the right.
So after a nice dinner consisting of more meat I went to bed (this was it for meat for me for a long time, at least until this weekend, when I go to Tommy´s Mexican in the Richmond with Jen for my favorite carne asada fajitas), and I was a little freaked out for what I had signed up for the next day.
I woke up on Sunday, with the usual first thought: ¨Where the hell am I right now?¨
This morning, I looked around, and after a few seconds, ¨oh yeah, I´m in Bolivia. Holy crap, today is the day.¨
This was the last of the thrill-seeking activities on my trip. The main event.
Mom, allow to to let you know that I signed up to mountain bike down what has been called ¨The World´s Most Dangerous Road.¨
The road from La Paz to Coroico, which is a one lane, dirt road, that winds down close to 9,000 feet from the high snow-capped mountains outside La Paz (12,000 feet) to the Amazonian jungle terrain of Coroico. There are no guardrails. There are many MANY straight drops around corners, where until last year, about 300 people died each year traveling up and down in cars. But they have since built a paved two lane road, so there aren´t many cars, which is better for the bikers. Although there are tons of crosses and monuments at different spots, marking where cars, trucks, buses and jeeps flew off the side.
So this one company, called Gravity Bolivia (check it out: http://www.gravitybolivia.com/) rents bikes and takes small groups down the mountain. It was a blast, but a little nuts!
Here we are in the FREEZING cold around 8:30am at the top putting our gear on. They are huge on safety. They have GREAT bikes and excellent gear. 34,000 riders and not one death.
Here´s my Aussie bud Chris and I bundled up like Ralphy from ¨A Christmas Story.¨ I want a Red Rider B-B-Gun for Christmas.
By the time you get to the bottom about 4 hours later, you are in shorts and a t-shirt.
Check out the bus on the left side of the photo.
We were lucky and didn´t get rain until about halfway down. Here is a pic of the pouring rain approaching.
There were three times where I was extremely close to the edge and my heart skipped like 5 beats. Like less than a foot from the edge and looking straight down. But they teach you techniques to avoid falling off the cliffs. Yeah, I think one of those techniques is called NOT GOING. Serious fun though. One of those things where you are on this incredible high afterwards. Kind of like beating your sister at Yahtzee with a Yahtzee on your final roll.
This is our super cool guide Lynn from South Africa, and a monkey at the post-ride lunch. She told us after we got to the bottom that she has been doing this for about 5 weeks. We all thought it was a bit strange that she was hugging people really tight after we got to the bottom. Now we know - it´s because she´s new! So to put this into perspective, the monkey is only about a month from being as experienced as Lynn in riding the world´s most dangerous road.
It was a bummer I had to say goodbye to my new friends Chris and Lisa. They were going to stay in Coroico for the night and then go on to Lake Titicaca. Good times.
The craziest part of the day was going back. It was getting dark, and we were told that the ride takes 3 hours. The whole time I assumed we were going to take the new PAVED road, with guard rails, and no slippery roads.
So Lynn our guide says, ¨who is up for taking the old road back to La Paz?¨The old road? Is that the road where it´s been documented that 300 a year perished while on board motorized vehicles? About 8 of the 10 people on the bus shouted YEAH! And before I could ¨12 Angry Men¨all of them into going the other way, we were racing up the hill.
3 gripping hours later, I ran off the bus as fast as I could and back to my hostel. Although, you just look down and for some reason I wasn´t as scared as I thought I would be. More of ¨íf it´s my time, it´s my time.¨ Never had those thoughts before really. At least, not since my parents took me and my sister to see the Righteous Brothers in concert.
A little trivia for those who don´t know about Laur and Reg...the Righteous Brothers´¨You´ve Lost that Lovin´Feeling¨is their ¨Song.¨ You´ve LOST that Lovin Feeling. 40 years of losing the loving feeling next year Mom and Dad. Par-tay!
Back to La Paz, I crashed hard and woke up at 5:30am, ready to fly to Perú and the final three days of my trip.
Here´s the LAN airlines onboard map of my flight. We flew right over Lake Titicaca and a hundred miles or so from Macchu Picchu (next time!).
Here´s the highest navigable lake in the world. Titicaca. I kept hearing Beavis´voice (from Beavis and Butthead) as we heard the captain tell us where we were. ¨Titicaca! Hmm-huh-hmm. Ti-ti-ca-ca!¨
And here is my cool hostel in Lima. It´s Primavera here in Peru. That´s spanish for spring, and also Spanish for ¨Dan likes to sneeze a bunch because of all the blooming flowers.¨
I took a 10 minute walk down to the beach area in Miraflores (to Elizabeth Zapatas, my Conor golf tournament partner, and Limeño - Lima is awesome!).
I noticed that they have tons of banks, where you can change your dollars and euros for Peruvian Soles. But OUTSIDE the banks, right in front, there are these guys with green vests, doing the same thing, changing money right on the street, but not affiliated with the banks. They have HUGE wads of cash and give pretty good rates. $3 dollars per Sole is good, no? Whoops. It´s the other way around. Where did that guy go!?
Here is what´s called the LarcoMar in Miraflores. It´s a good sized, upscale mall, built into the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. It´s a really beautiful setting. But, it´s a MALL. They have a booth there where you can vote as many times as you want for the LarcoMar Mall to win as one of the top ¨Wonders of Peru.¨
¨So we´re down to the final two. Macchu Picchu, please step forward. LarcoMar, please step forward. Peru has voted. The top Wonder of Peru is...¨
But what´s funny is that yes there are locals here, but there are also TONS of Americans. How can I tell, you ask? English, yes. Very white, yes. But they all wear high shorts, long tube socks, Nascar hats, and they all eat at the Tony Roma´s or the Hooter´s here. Yes, they have both of those here.
They also have this. I haven´t seen this in almost a month and a half. What is this. Even the woman in the photo is embarrassed.
It was really bad. I couldn´t believe these American tourists were coming all the way to Peru, and eating at Hooter´s. I felt sick. I don´t think it was from seeing these people go into these restaurants, as much as it was from eating my Pizza Hut Meat Lover´s pizza too fast.
You know, you learn things about yourself in certain situations. Like when you go into an arcade and spot a Crazy Hoop basketball game, and notice that the high score is 152, and you forget where you are or what you were doing 3 minutes before you walked in and quickly dump 10 Peruvian soles on the counter to get tokens to beat that score.
First game I got 105.
Here´s my second game score. I´m almost there...141.
Finally, I figured out the technique - use both hands and just chuck it up as fast as possible against the backboard. By the third game, when I got the high score of 164, I was making so much noise bouncing the balls off the backboard, a crowd had gathered. The game ended and I put my very sore arms up in triumph and shouted out: ¨YES!!!¨And THEN turned around to see a bunch of parents and their kids wondering why the dumb American was pumping his fists when all he got was three tickets for the winning score. So I turned back around, took a few seconds to gather myself, very slowly and deliberately tore the three ¨Coney Park¨tickets from below the console and calmly walked over to the prize center where I picked out my rubber alien pencil topper. Whereyouat kids?
I actually passed by a few times later on to make sure my score wasn´t beaten. And I went back today and noticed they unplugged the machines and the new high score was 152, so I played until I beat it. I clearly have a problem here.
Today, my last full day in Lima, I went to the Museum de Arte de Lima. Lots of pre-Columbian artifacts and post-Columbian. Amazing how quickly everything changed just when the very advanced Incas were becoming a HUGE force on the continent.
Outside the museum, I caught a big march on the governor´s building. It was mothers and their children marching to unseat a current administrator who after elected didn´t focus on important education policies like he had promised.
This place is right by my hostel. Called Viranda I think. It´s the Peruvian Whole Foods. It looks like Whole Foods on the inside and the food is very very good. Fresh meats and breads, great cheese, great fruit selection. Definitely as good as Whole Paycheck. But 1/2 the price. Medio Paycheck.
Although their wine section was a little sketchy. It was set up by country: Chile, Argentina, Peru, France. And then there was this little area called ¨Resto del Mundo¨where US and Aussie and New Zealand wines were. There were three American wines on the shelves. One of them was the top-notch export of Boone´s. Not kidding. Boone´s.
With these last three days designed to relax and chill from all the moving around the past 34 days, I have had a good amount of free time. So I got a three-day pass at this gym that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Here´s a shot. Beats staring at a wall when you are on the treadmill at the 24-hour gym back home.
And, around 7pm tonight, I caught the last sunset I´ll probably see on my trip.
I took a moment to reflect a bit on this whole experience (which I´ll share tomorrow). And then I celebrated witnessing this incredible sunset on my last night by doing something very special. I went back to the Coney Park arcade to check that my high score on Crazy Hoop was still up there...all is good. But they better not unplug it and reset the score.
It´s pretty amazing that this trip has for the most part, come to an end. For all the silliness that I put in this blog, I have done things that are life-altering. The biggest of all is going away for 35 days, not knowing a soul, with only one night at a hotel and a return flight booked. It lends itself to living, truly living, and putting yourself out there. Getting out of your comfort zone.
I think the Inca Cola is wearing off. Must go to bed.
Goodnight everyone.
Miraflores Internet Cafe
Miraflores
Lima, Perù
Hola gente, estoy in Lima, Perù.
I made it, it´s the final stop on my trip. Who cares, right?!
But seriously, it´s a great feeling to reach your final destination, with no harm and lots of adventures.
It´s as if I have made it across the finish line...getting back to the good ol´City by the Bay on Thursday late morning will be the official finish line, but it feels like I made it right now.
Lima is an exciting city. A cabbie told me yesterday that the census was just done on Sunday and it´s official: they counted 8 million people here. Good thing I didn´t get here until yesterday, I would have screwed up the count, huh? Huh? Anyone? Ya see, because I would have made 8,000,001...oh forget it.
Here are the past four days in beautiful technicolor and white. Notice the red and white blog colors, the official colors of Peru.
I arrived into La Paz, Bolivia on Saturday morning after a 12 hour bus ride from Uyuni. Spent. Holy crap. Ready for a nursing home. ¨Can we watch the World Series please Nurse Ratched?¨
But after a quick nap and a shower, I felt rejuvinated.
La Paz, which has a lower (Bajo) and upper (Alto) area...here´s a view from the Upper, heading to the lower...notice the snow-capped mountains behind it. They say that just under one and a half million live here, but it seemed like much more. Again, it´s so freaking high. As I sat on my airplane on the tarmac at the La Paz airport, the altimeter showed 13,000+ feet.
It´s a very crowded city, but like Brazil, gets completely quiet between like 5am-8am.
But the busyness of the day is kinda cool. The one thing that they have here in La Paz, are these minivans...that drive up and down the streets, where people get on and get let off as the minivan is MOVING. It´s an affordable cheaper-than-a-bus system. For a half a boliviano (which is like 15 cents) you can ride it as long as you want. And there´s usually a kid standing in the window yelling out where it´s going, like a paperboy. I wish they had these where I live in SF. I could use a ride to Cole Valley Video on cold nights.
I was ready for theft and trouble in Brazil, I had been duly warned. But since I left Brazil, I was not as worried. Then I heard stories about Bolivia. I met these people from Australia who live in in La Paz and they told me there are four common types of scams to rob people in Bolivia to watch out for:
1) ¨Can I help you clean up your bag/clothing?¨ This was attempted on me in Rio...it´s when someone puts something offensive on you (mayonnaise, mustard, Drakkoir Noir cologne - remember the 80s?). And then they come up to you - ¨amigo, you have something on your bag, can I help clean it off?¨Then you drop your bag to let him help, and buh-bye bag. It´s gone.
2) Disoriented travelers. There is a man and a woman, who work in different parts of town, who actually look like American tourists. They aren´t even Bolivians! There´s a woman, who claims she´s Canadian and the tour she was on just left her on the corner and just needs a few bucks to get back to her hostel. Yeah right, Canadian. And one guy, who has a shaved head, walks around saying he ran out of gas and was hoping you could help him out. I think I know this dude - he´s in downtown Palo Alto! I was approached by a homeless person for money one night in Palo Alto a couple of years ago, right on University Ave, outside the Walgreen´s. He looked hungry and asked for money for food. I happened to have a half eaten burrito from Andalè. So I gave it to him, thinking he´d be so happy. He just looked at it, handed it back to me and said, ¨can I just have money instead?¨
3) It´s raining money! Apparently in this scam, the decoy will walk in front of you, and ¨unknowingly¨drop a gigantic wad of cash or a couple of credit cards in hopes that you will pick it up and go to hand it back to him, at which point the guy positioned behind you lifts your wallet, bag, and MP3 player filled with crappy American Idol music, OR, when you pick up the money/cards, they will accuse you of stealing and have you arrested. Nice!
4) Fake undercover police. These guys are the toughest to defeat. A guy will come up to you and ask for directions, then another guy comes up and says they are an undercover cop and he needs to see both your passports and ¨check your money, to see that it isn´t conterfeit.¨ The decoy pulls out his wallet and says ¨we better do what he says.¨Then you do it, and later real money!
Here I caught an undercover cop trying to work a number ¨4¨scam on an unsuspecting woman waiting for a cab. ¨Maam, I´m a cop. Yes, I´m dressed like a shark and I´m wearing Keds, but I´m on a very important case. Someone is trying to export black market Beanie Babies into Bolivia, and I´m going undercover as a shark Beanie Baby to catch the perpetrator. Now can I please see your ID and can you PLEASE empty your purse through the back my costume? It´s a zipper, you have to kind of jiggle it...there you go...Hang on, wait, can you help me move this shark headpiece a little this way, I can´t see your valuables through the mouth of this thing. Is that a Rolex or a Casio? Damn shark suit!¨
I actually scored a nice hostel in La Paz. Called Casa de La Abuela. Grandmama´s House. In a cool little courtyard, with a great pizza place below on the right.
So after a nice dinner consisting of more meat I went to bed (this was it for meat for me for a long time, at least until this weekend, when I go to Tommy´s Mexican in the Richmond with Jen for my favorite carne asada fajitas), and I was a little freaked out for what I had signed up for the next day.
I woke up on Sunday, with the usual first thought: ¨Where the hell am I right now?¨
This morning, I looked around, and after a few seconds, ¨oh yeah, I´m in Bolivia. Holy crap, today is the day.¨
This was the last of the thrill-seeking activities on my trip. The main event.
Mom, allow to to let you know that I signed up to mountain bike down what has been called ¨The World´s Most Dangerous Road.¨
The road from La Paz to Coroico, which is a one lane, dirt road, that winds down close to 9,000 feet from the high snow-capped mountains outside La Paz (12,000 feet) to the Amazonian jungle terrain of Coroico. There are no guardrails. There are many MANY straight drops around corners, where until last year, about 300 people died each year traveling up and down in cars. But they have since built a paved two lane road, so there aren´t many cars, which is better for the bikers. Although there are tons of crosses and monuments at different spots, marking where cars, trucks, buses and jeeps flew off the side.
So this one company, called Gravity Bolivia (check it out: http://www.gravitybolivia.com/) rents bikes and takes small groups down the mountain. It was a blast, but a little nuts!
Here we are in the FREEZING cold around 8:30am at the top putting our gear on. They are huge on safety. They have GREAT bikes and excellent gear. 34,000 riders and not one death.
Here´s my Aussie bud Chris and I bundled up like Ralphy from ¨A Christmas Story.¨ I want a Red Rider B-B-Gun for Christmas.
By the time you get to the bottom about 4 hours later, you are in shorts and a t-shirt.
Check out the bus on the left side of the photo.
We were lucky and didn´t get rain until about halfway down. Here is a pic of the pouring rain approaching.
There were three times where I was extremely close to the edge and my heart skipped like 5 beats. Like less than a foot from the edge and looking straight down. But they teach you techniques to avoid falling off the cliffs. Yeah, I think one of those techniques is called NOT GOING. Serious fun though. One of those things where you are on this incredible high afterwards. Kind of like beating your sister at Yahtzee with a Yahtzee on your final roll.
This is our super cool guide Lynn from South Africa, and a monkey at the post-ride lunch. She told us after we got to the bottom that she has been doing this for about 5 weeks. We all thought it was a bit strange that she was hugging people really tight after we got to the bottom. Now we know - it´s because she´s new! So to put this into perspective, the monkey is only about a month from being as experienced as Lynn in riding the world´s most dangerous road.
It was a bummer I had to say goodbye to my new friends Chris and Lisa. They were going to stay in Coroico for the night and then go on to Lake Titicaca. Good times.
The craziest part of the day was going back. It was getting dark, and we were told that the ride takes 3 hours. The whole time I assumed we were going to take the new PAVED road, with guard rails, and no slippery roads.
So Lynn our guide says, ¨who is up for taking the old road back to La Paz?¨The old road? Is that the road where it´s been documented that 300 a year perished while on board motorized vehicles? About 8 of the 10 people on the bus shouted YEAH! And before I could ¨12 Angry Men¨all of them into going the other way, we were racing up the hill.
3 gripping hours later, I ran off the bus as fast as I could and back to my hostel. Although, you just look down and for some reason I wasn´t as scared as I thought I would be. More of ¨íf it´s my time, it´s my time.¨ Never had those thoughts before really. At least, not since my parents took me and my sister to see the Righteous Brothers in concert.
A little trivia for those who don´t know about Laur and Reg...the Righteous Brothers´¨You´ve Lost that Lovin´Feeling¨is their ¨Song.¨ You´ve LOST that Lovin Feeling. 40 years of losing the loving feeling next year Mom and Dad. Par-tay!
Back to La Paz, I crashed hard and woke up at 5:30am, ready to fly to Perú and the final three days of my trip.
Here´s the LAN airlines onboard map of my flight. We flew right over Lake Titicaca and a hundred miles or so from Macchu Picchu (next time!).
Here´s the highest navigable lake in the world. Titicaca. I kept hearing Beavis´voice (from Beavis and Butthead) as we heard the captain tell us where we were. ¨Titicaca! Hmm-huh-hmm. Ti-ti-ca-ca!¨
And here is my cool hostel in Lima. It´s Primavera here in Peru. That´s spanish for spring, and also Spanish for ¨Dan likes to sneeze a bunch because of all the blooming flowers.¨
I took a 10 minute walk down to the beach area in Miraflores (to Elizabeth Zapatas, my Conor golf tournament partner, and Limeño - Lima is awesome!).
I noticed that they have tons of banks, where you can change your dollars and euros for Peruvian Soles. But OUTSIDE the banks, right in front, there are these guys with green vests, doing the same thing, changing money right on the street, but not affiliated with the banks. They have HUGE wads of cash and give pretty good rates. $3 dollars per Sole is good, no? Whoops. It´s the other way around. Where did that guy go!?
Here is what´s called the LarcoMar in Miraflores. It´s a good sized, upscale mall, built into the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. It´s a really beautiful setting. But, it´s a MALL. They have a booth there where you can vote as many times as you want for the LarcoMar Mall to win as one of the top ¨Wonders of Peru.¨
¨So we´re down to the final two. Macchu Picchu, please step forward. LarcoMar, please step forward. Peru has voted. The top Wonder of Peru is...¨
But what´s funny is that yes there are locals here, but there are also TONS of Americans. How can I tell, you ask? English, yes. Very white, yes. But they all wear high shorts, long tube socks, Nascar hats, and they all eat at the Tony Roma´s or the Hooter´s here. Yes, they have both of those here.
They also have this. I haven´t seen this in almost a month and a half. What is this. Even the woman in the photo is embarrassed.
It was really bad. I couldn´t believe these American tourists were coming all the way to Peru, and eating at Hooter´s. I felt sick. I don´t think it was from seeing these people go into these restaurants, as much as it was from eating my Pizza Hut Meat Lover´s pizza too fast.
You know, you learn things about yourself in certain situations. Like when you go into an arcade and spot a Crazy Hoop basketball game, and notice that the high score is 152, and you forget where you are or what you were doing 3 minutes before you walked in and quickly dump 10 Peruvian soles on the counter to get tokens to beat that score.
First game I got 105.
Here´s my second game score. I´m almost there...141.
Finally, I figured out the technique - use both hands and just chuck it up as fast as possible against the backboard. By the third game, when I got the high score of 164, I was making so much noise bouncing the balls off the backboard, a crowd had gathered. The game ended and I put my very sore arms up in triumph and shouted out: ¨YES!!!¨And THEN turned around to see a bunch of parents and their kids wondering why the dumb American was pumping his fists when all he got was three tickets for the winning score. So I turned back around, took a few seconds to gather myself, very slowly and deliberately tore the three ¨Coney Park¨tickets from below the console and calmly walked over to the prize center where I picked out my rubber alien pencil topper. Whereyouat kids?
I actually passed by a few times later on to make sure my score wasn´t beaten. And I went back today and noticed they unplugged the machines and the new high score was 152, so I played until I beat it. I clearly have a problem here.
Today, my last full day in Lima, I went to the Museum de Arte de Lima. Lots of pre-Columbian artifacts and post-Columbian. Amazing how quickly everything changed just when the very advanced Incas were becoming a HUGE force on the continent.
Outside the museum, I caught a big march on the governor´s building. It was mothers and their children marching to unseat a current administrator who after elected didn´t focus on important education policies like he had promised.
This place is right by my hostel. Called Viranda I think. It´s the Peruvian Whole Foods. It looks like Whole Foods on the inside and the food is very very good. Fresh meats and breads, great cheese, great fruit selection. Definitely as good as Whole Paycheck. But 1/2 the price. Medio Paycheck.
Although their wine section was a little sketchy. It was set up by country: Chile, Argentina, Peru, France. And then there was this little area called ¨Resto del Mundo¨where US and Aussie and New Zealand wines were. There were three American wines on the shelves. One of them was the top-notch export of Boone´s. Not kidding. Boone´s.
With these last three days designed to relax and chill from all the moving around the past 34 days, I have had a good amount of free time. So I got a three-day pass at this gym that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Here´s a shot. Beats staring at a wall when you are on the treadmill at the 24-hour gym back home.
And, around 7pm tonight, I caught the last sunset I´ll probably see on my trip.
I took a moment to reflect a bit on this whole experience (which I´ll share tomorrow). And then I celebrated witnessing this incredible sunset on my last night by doing something very special. I went back to the Coney Park arcade to check that my high score on Crazy Hoop was still up there...all is good. But they better not unplug it and reset the score.
It´s pretty amazing that this trip has for the most part, come to an end. For all the silliness that I put in this blog, I have done things that are life-altering. The biggest of all is going away for 35 days, not knowing a soul, with only one night at a hotel and a return flight booked. It lends itself to living, truly living, and putting yourself out there. Getting out of your comfort zone.
I think the Inca Cola is wearing off. Must go to bed.
Goodnight everyone.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Bolivia, you makin me dizzy
5:42pm
Posada de La Abuela (Grandmother´s Inn) Breakfast Room and Internet Cafe
La Paz, Bolivia
Que tal, everyone. I´m in Bolivia...In La Paz, the highest captial in the world. I´m 11,913 feet above sea level. I´m looking down at all of you. Especially you David Falato with your 200 Euro dinners.
I just was at a very smoky British Pub here in La Paz with my two new Aussie friends, watching the World Cup Rugby Finals between England and South Africa. After watching 80 minutes of non-stop action, I can honestly say...I still don´t get rugby. But Corona´s are $1, so goooo green guys.
I can´t believe I only have 5 days left in South America. La Paz for 2 nights, then Lima for 2 nights, then home. Tomorrow is going to be nuts. More on that later. Mom, please don´t worry, no one has died or been seriously hurt from doing what I´m going to do. Those of you who know about La Paz might be able to venture a guess.
A quick pictorial review of the last 7 days:
Saturday afternoon, went to Viña del Mar in Chile, and saw a couple of cool things. They actually have one of those stone Moais that they brought 2,200 miles here from Easter Island. It´s one of the smaller ones, but it´s still impressive. There are hundreds of them on Easter Island, erected to overlook and protect the people of Rapa Nui. This Moai in the middle of Viña del Mar overlooks and protects the locksmith and frozen yogurt shop across the street. All of the other Moai statues back on Easter Island are obviously jealous.
Saturday late afternoon: I took a bus to Santiago, and then boarded this sweet ride to San Pedro de Atacama, in the northern Chilean desert. For the 24-hour ride, I got a spot in the best section, first class, for $48 bucks.
The problem is, that my seat is directly below the speaker for the movies they show, dubbed in Spanish. This time we watched Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie and some movie called Shooter with Marky Mark. Twice. Each. The worst is when the guy forgets to take the DVD out at the end, so for an hour you hear the 20-second title screen music...over and over and over.
I have been careful with buses since the camera incident a couple of weeks ago...so as other passengers entered the bus leaving Santiago, I was just casually checking them out, making sure this was going to be a safe ride. With departure time passed by 2 minutes, and the bus engine starting to rev, I looked around and decided the passengers on my level were completely harmless. Awesome. Time to relax.
But as the bus started to pull away, I saw this one character who looked completely suspicious, tall dude, hat down low, strange scowl on his face, and a big dark brown leather jacket, slung over his right shoulder, and approaching MY bus. Oh no, driver please don´t stop for him.
The driver stopped and he boarded. There was one empty seat to the left and behind me one row. Please, don´t let that be his seat.
He walked in. Yep, that was his seat. He looked around suspiciously at everyone, stopping for a few seconds on me while keeping that damn jacket over his shoulder.
The first 2 hours of the ride, he sat there, jacket over his shoulder. He went to the bathroom six times. Six. Everytime with that jacket over his shoulder. I was freaking out.
I had no evidence, other than my absolute certainty that this guy was going to hijack the Tur Bus at sundown and deposit us all into the desert to walk 50 miles to the nearest town.
He kept looking at me. He knew I was on to him. But what´s he got under the jacket. A 12-gauge shotgun? A rusty machete, which would surely mean a slow painful death as he cut us all to pieces? Maybe a bomb rigged with an egg timer?
Nightfall came. Our opportunity to band together in the Cama section (that´s the reclining bed section) came to an end as all the other middle-aged Chilean men seated around me fell asleep from eating too much ¨chicken¨for dinner. Great. Now the safety of everyone on the bus and possibly the entire nation of Chile was on my shoulders. I was like Keanu Reeves in Speed. Except I was never an academy-award nominated actor. Or maybe that was Jack Nicholson. I get them confused.
I didn´t sleep. 2am. 3am. 4am. I tried but couldn´t sleep. The guy kept getting up and going to the bathroom with his jacket. Probably to arm his bomb. My mind was racing.
Finally, I fell asleep...and woke up around 8am. Holy crap, who was on watch while I snoozed? Has he made his demands yet - a briefcase full of Chilean Pesos - small unmarked bills, a twin engine Cessna jet filled with gas in the next town, ready to escape the country, or someone would DIE every 5 minutes?
I gathered myself, took a deep breath, and turned around...and in a flash, saw what he had been hiding in his jacket...I turned around and saw this:
He obviously was planning his attack by creating a diversion with a cute furry puppy. Diabolical. I felt like such a dummy.
So anyway...this is what the terrain looks like in Northern Chile. Very dry, no vegetation really, only around the small rivers...
Here´s San Pedro. A old town, but with charm. These are the store fronts.
Here´s my ride to go sandboarding. Does this look like Star Wars to anyone else?
R2? Three-PO? Where are those damn droids?
Here´s the sand dunes. I saw two mountains. A very tall mountain. And a smaller mountain. I´m no snowboarder, so I chose the correct mountain.
...which happened to be used by three 12-year old girls and their aunt Yanet.
Yes, I shred everyone. And I am to blame for teaching them the horrible ¨shredder¨hand jestures.
Tuesday I took a full day tour to the San Pedro salt flats and the Altiplanic Lagoons, up by a group of volcanos. It was dizzying being up there, around 4,200 meters. I got nauseous. Lots of people did. But it all got better when we came back down to 3,200 meters and we all got to pet a llama. Or maybe that was just me.
Wednesday morning, I woke up early, checked out of my hostel, and was picked up by a small van, taking me to the Chilean-Bolivian border and the start of a 3-day, 2-night 4WD trip to the Salar de Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flats.
On the van I met an Australian couple, Chris and Lisa.
And when we got to the border, we met up with our ride, our driver Richard, and two German girls, Kati and Regina. It was a cool group and we were excited to start our adventure. Although the border is at 4,200 meters and we were all feeling dizzy and a little sick.
We stopped a few times along the way to our first night. Here´s me and Chris at the mineral springs in the mountains. The water was niiiice and warm.
Here´s another stop, at Laguna Verde (green lagoon). The water was this color because of some mineral deposits coming down from the inactive volcano behind it.
So here is where we stayed the first night. It was FREEEEZING. And we slept in what felt like a cave, all in one room, Me on a noisy bunk bed (everyone thought it was raining outside during the night - it was me tossing and turning on my bed, which was lined with aluminum foil below it). The rest literally slept on stone slabs. With the altitude sickness, and the wind and the cold, nobody slept more than an hour. The two Germans called it the worst night of their lives. I would rate it top ten. Also in my top ten was the night my parents took me to see Kenny Loggins at the Mountain Winery. ¨Footloose¨ as an encore?
Our room is the third window from the left. Notice the rocks holding the roof down.
Here´s what our view was though. Of the Laguna Colorado (red lagoon). Really beautiful.
Here´s the four others at dinner the first night. It was about 35 degrees inside of our dining room. And dinner was some soup, moldy bread, cucumbers and tomatoes, and cold hot dogs. We had all heard not to eat vegetables in Bolivia, so we moved them around with a fork to appear like we ate them. How bad are we? Left to right: Regina, Kati, Lisa and Chris.
The place was run by our driver´s aunt and uncle, an older traditional Bolivian couple, who were very quiet and seemingly very traditional. The aunt ran a small store next to our room, where you could buy water, beer, and cigarettes. I bought a liter of water and then on my way out, saw this:
Check out the Derby promotional cigarette poster. If you can´t see what´s going on, it´s a woman in a sarong/bathing suit combo thing...and it seems to be falling off of her. So you should buy Derby cigarettes before the whole thing comes off. I love how I was paying this elderly Bolivian woman for my water, and behind her, in her OWN STORE, was a nudey poster.
Here the group is all having a good brush after dinner.
We were so glad to see the sun the next morning and headed out to see the incredible desert landscape and this, the Arbol de Piedra (Rock Tree). Please don´t fall over.
More lagoons and flamingoes (Didn´t get too close to the flamingoes, they kept walking away from us).
With concerns over dehydration, we all drank a TON of water. But, with no bathrooms along the way, we used nature. Richard told us it´s called ¨Baño Libre¨(free bathroom). We did a lot of baños libre along the way. But, at one of our stops, apparently the locals in the area were down on this idea. I wanted to take this sign home with me. Is that fire in the lower left? No putting out fires with urine people.
We stayed at a hotel made of salt the second night. Literally, the whole thing was made of salt. And was actually quite comfortable. Very good insulation, and with the salt flats about a mile away, plenty of resources.
The next day, we headed to the main event, the Salar de Uyuni. 12,000 square kms of salt flats. It was otherworld-like:
Here´s me and Richard. He was very quiet the first day, but after Lisa offered him some Pringles and when ¨Rock with You¨by Michael Jackson came onto the stereo through my iPod and I asked him if he heard of Michael Jackson and how he likes to have ¨relations¨ with llamas, he warmed up to us. It was probably just the Pringles.
One of the things you have to do when you are at the salt flats, is make goofy depth-perception pics, because there is no horizon. We did a few cool ones, that Chris and Lisa got on their camera. I´ll post if they send to me before I come back next week. Here´s one of everyone trying to set up the perfect shot with beer cans and rum bottles...Notice Richard sitting to the right, bored out of his mind:
This is me crushing Kati underfoot.
Sadly, the trip came to an end as we came onto the town of Uyuni around 2pm yesterday. I felt ill from the altitude, the food, and just wanted to sleep in a bed in a warm room...so by luck I found a bus that was leaving to La Paz last night...but it was supposedly 12 hours and I heard a tough ride. It was pretty bad. No heat, the bus was bouncing around like crazy for 6 of the 12 hours on dirt back roads, and we only stopped twice for bathroom breaks. The second one was about 4 hours after the first one and people went TEARING out of the bus to use the bathroom at the late night restaurant at our stop. I went wandering into the darkness to look at some stars and as I turned back towards the bus, in the moonlight I saw the silhouette of an elderly Bolivian woman, squatting next to me about 10 feet away. Before figuring out what she was doing, I decided to turn back around and look at the stars for about 30 minutes longer.
But it all got good when we made it to La Paz this morning.
I´ll have more pics next time on La Paz, a big big city...time for steak and beer for $4. goodnight everyone!
Posada de La Abuela (Grandmother´s Inn) Breakfast Room and Internet Cafe
La Paz, Bolivia
Que tal, everyone. I´m in Bolivia...In La Paz, the highest captial in the world. I´m 11,913 feet above sea level. I´m looking down at all of you. Especially you David Falato with your 200 Euro dinners.
I just was at a very smoky British Pub here in La Paz with my two new Aussie friends, watching the World Cup Rugby Finals between England and South Africa. After watching 80 minutes of non-stop action, I can honestly say...I still don´t get rugby. But Corona´s are $1, so goooo green guys.
I can´t believe I only have 5 days left in South America. La Paz for 2 nights, then Lima for 2 nights, then home. Tomorrow is going to be nuts. More on that later. Mom, please don´t worry, no one has died or been seriously hurt from doing what I´m going to do. Those of you who know about La Paz might be able to venture a guess.
A quick pictorial review of the last 7 days:
Saturday afternoon, went to Viña del Mar in Chile, and saw a couple of cool things. They actually have one of those stone Moais that they brought 2,200 miles here from Easter Island. It´s one of the smaller ones, but it´s still impressive. There are hundreds of them on Easter Island, erected to overlook and protect the people of Rapa Nui. This Moai in the middle of Viña del Mar overlooks and protects the locksmith and frozen yogurt shop across the street. All of the other Moai statues back on Easter Island are obviously jealous.
Saturday late afternoon: I took a bus to Santiago, and then boarded this sweet ride to San Pedro de Atacama, in the northern Chilean desert. For the 24-hour ride, I got a spot in the best section, first class, for $48 bucks.
The problem is, that my seat is directly below the speaker for the movies they show, dubbed in Spanish. This time we watched Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie and some movie called Shooter with Marky Mark. Twice. Each. The worst is when the guy forgets to take the DVD out at the end, so for an hour you hear the 20-second title screen music...over and over and over.
I have been careful with buses since the camera incident a couple of weeks ago...so as other passengers entered the bus leaving Santiago, I was just casually checking them out, making sure this was going to be a safe ride. With departure time passed by 2 minutes, and the bus engine starting to rev, I looked around and decided the passengers on my level were completely harmless. Awesome. Time to relax.
But as the bus started to pull away, I saw this one character who looked completely suspicious, tall dude, hat down low, strange scowl on his face, and a big dark brown leather jacket, slung over his right shoulder, and approaching MY bus. Oh no, driver please don´t stop for him.
The driver stopped and he boarded. There was one empty seat to the left and behind me one row. Please, don´t let that be his seat.
He walked in. Yep, that was his seat. He looked around suspiciously at everyone, stopping for a few seconds on me while keeping that damn jacket over his shoulder.
The first 2 hours of the ride, he sat there, jacket over his shoulder. He went to the bathroom six times. Six. Everytime with that jacket over his shoulder. I was freaking out.
I had no evidence, other than my absolute certainty that this guy was going to hijack the Tur Bus at sundown and deposit us all into the desert to walk 50 miles to the nearest town.
He kept looking at me. He knew I was on to him. But what´s he got under the jacket. A 12-gauge shotgun? A rusty machete, which would surely mean a slow painful death as he cut us all to pieces? Maybe a bomb rigged with an egg timer?
Nightfall came. Our opportunity to band together in the Cama section (that´s the reclining bed section) came to an end as all the other middle-aged Chilean men seated around me fell asleep from eating too much ¨chicken¨for dinner. Great. Now the safety of everyone on the bus and possibly the entire nation of Chile was on my shoulders. I was like Keanu Reeves in Speed. Except I was never an academy-award nominated actor. Or maybe that was Jack Nicholson. I get them confused.
I didn´t sleep. 2am. 3am. 4am. I tried but couldn´t sleep. The guy kept getting up and going to the bathroom with his jacket. Probably to arm his bomb. My mind was racing.
Finally, I fell asleep...and woke up around 8am. Holy crap, who was on watch while I snoozed? Has he made his demands yet - a briefcase full of Chilean Pesos - small unmarked bills, a twin engine Cessna jet filled with gas in the next town, ready to escape the country, or someone would DIE every 5 minutes?
I gathered myself, took a deep breath, and turned around...and in a flash, saw what he had been hiding in his jacket...I turned around and saw this:
He obviously was planning his attack by creating a diversion with a cute furry puppy. Diabolical. I felt like such a dummy.
So anyway...this is what the terrain looks like in Northern Chile. Very dry, no vegetation really, only around the small rivers...
Here´s San Pedro. A old town, but with charm. These are the store fronts.
Here´s my ride to go sandboarding. Does this look like Star Wars to anyone else?
R2? Three-PO? Where are those damn droids?
Here´s the sand dunes. I saw two mountains. A very tall mountain. And a smaller mountain. I´m no snowboarder, so I chose the correct mountain.
...which happened to be used by three 12-year old girls and their aunt Yanet.
Yes, I shred everyone. And I am to blame for teaching them the horrible ¨shredder¨hand jestures.
Tuesday I took a full day tour to the San Pedro salt flats and the Altiplanic Lagoons, up by a group of volcanos. It was dizzying being up there, around 4,200 meters. I got nauseous. Lots of people did. But it all got better when we came back down to 3,200 meters and we all got to pet a llama. Or maybe that was just me.
Wednesday morning, I woke up early, checked out of my hostel, and was picked up by a small van, taking me to the Chilean-Bolivian border and the start of a 3-day, 2-night 4WD trip to the Salar de Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flats.
On the van I met an Australian couple, Chris and Lisa.
And when we got to the border, we met up with our ride, our driver Richard, and two German girls, Kati and Regina. It was a cool group and we were excited to start our adventure. Although the border is at 4,200 meters and we were all feeling dizzy and a little sick.
We stopped a few times along the way to our first night. Here´s me and Chris at the mineral springs in the mountains. The water was niiiice and warm.
Here´s another stop, at Laguna Verde (green lagoon). The water was this color because of some mineral deposits coming down from the inactive volcano behind it.
So here is where we stayed the first night. It was FREEEEZING. And we slept in what felt like a cave, all in one room, Me on a noisy bunk bed (everyone thought it was raining outside during the night - it was me tossing and turning on my bed, which was lined with aluminum foil below it). The rest literally slept on stone slabs. With the altitude sickness, and the wind and the cold, nobody slept more than an hour. The two Germans called it the worst night of their lives. I would rate it top ten. Also in my top ten was the night my parents took me to see Kenny Loggins at the Mountain Winery. ¨Footloose¨ as an encore?
Our room is the third window from the left. Notice the rocks holding the roof down.
Here´s what our view was though. Of the Laguna Colorado (red lagoon). Really beautiful.
Here´s the four others at dinner the first night. It was about 35 degrees inside of our dining room. And dinner was some soup, moldy bread, cucumbers and tomatoes, and cold hot dogs. We had all heard not to eat vegetables in Bolivia, so we moved them around with a fork to appear like we ate them. How bad are we? Left to right: Regina, Kati, Lisa and Chris.
The place was run by our driver´s aunt and uncle, an older traditional Bolivian couple, who were very quiet and seemingly very traditional. The aunt ran a small store next to our room, where you could buy water, beer, and cigarettes. I bought a liter of water and then on my way out, saw this:
Check out the Derby promotional cigarette poster. If you can´t see what´s going on, it´s a woman in a sarong/bathing suit combo thing...and it seems to be falling off of her. So you should buy Derby cigarettes before the whole thing comes off. I love how I was paying this elderly Bolivian woman for my water, and behind her, in her OWN STORE, was a nudey poster.
Here the group is all having a good brush after dinner.
We were so glad to see the sun the next morning and headed out to see the incredible desert landscape and this, the Arbol de Piedra (Rock Tree). Please don´t fall over.
More lagoons and flamingoes (Didn´t get too close to the flamingoes, they kept walking away from us).
With concerns over dehydration, we all drank a TON of water. But, with no bathrooms along the way, we used nature. Richard told us it´s called ¨Baño Libre¨(free bathroom). We did a lot of baños libre along the way. But, at one of our stops, apparently the locals in the area were down on this idea. I wanted to take this sign home with me. Is that fire in the lower left? No putting out fires with urine people.
We stayed at a hotel made of salt the second night. Literally, the whole thing was made of salt. And was actually quite comfortable. Very good insulation, and with the salt flats about a mile away, plenty of resources.
The next day, we headed to the main event, the Salar de Uyuni. 12,000 square kms of salt flats. It was otherworld-like:
Here´s me and Richard. He was very quiet the first day, but after Lisa offered him some Pringles and when ¨Rock with You¨by Michael Jackson came onto the stereo through my iPod and I asked him if he heard of Michael Jackson and how he likes to have ¨relations¨ with llamas, he warmed up to us. It was probably just the Pringles.
One of the things you have to do when you are at the salt flats, is make goofy depth-perception pics, because there is no horizon. We did a few cool ones, that Chris and Lisa got on their camera. I´ll post if they send to me before I come back next week. Here´s one of everyone trying to set up the perfect shot with beer cans and rum bottles...Notice Richard sitting to the right, bored out of his mind:
This is me crushing Kati underfoot.
Sadly, the trip came to an end as we came onto the town of Uyuni around 2pm yesterday. I felt ill from the altitude, the food, and just wanted to sleep in a bed in a warm room...so by luck I found a bus that was leaving to La Paz last night...but it was supposedly 12 hours and I heard a tough ride. It was pretty bad. No heat, the bus was bouncing around like crazy for 6 of the 12 hours on dirt back roads, and we only stopped twice for bathroom breaks. The second one was about 4 hours after the first one and people went TEARING out of the bus to use the bathroom at the late night restaurant at our stop. I went wandering into the darkness to look at some stars and as I turned back towards the bus, in the moonlight I saw the silhouette of an elderly Bolivian woman, squatting next to me about 10 feet away. Before figuring out what she was doing, I decided to turn back around and look at the stars for about 30 minutes longer.
But it all got good when we made it to La Paz this morning.
I´ll have more pics next time on La Paz, a big big city...time for steak and beer for $4. goodnight everyone!
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