So, when we finally left Arica we let out a great sigh of relief. We were sunburned, bored and a little poorer than anticipated, but we were on our way to Peru, so we had more pressing issues to concern ourselves with. We decided to take taxi into Peru instead of a bus, train or collectivo, and I would recommend others to do the same if given the option. Although it wasn't cheap (about $25), we were in and out of Peruvian customs in about 10 minutes. The cab driver took care of virtually everything. We simply had to walk through a room where they were supposed to X-ray our luggage, but of course the machine was broken (and didn't look like it had worked in years) so they waved us through without even stopping. The longest part was our driver having to wait in line to get some receipt for crossing the border, which gave us some time to look at the bleak surroundings. Much like Arica, the landscape was incredibly barren. Virtually no plants anywhere, just large, brown mesas and the occasional stone fence.
The taxi took us as far as Tacna, the first real town on the Peruvian side of the border. We had read that pickpocketing was a serious problem here so we were a bit on edge. The place was pretty mad - far to crowded with people trying to sell you go knows what. We were asked to check our luggage bu then observed how random people were accidentally wandering in and out of the holding area because they thought it was an exit, so we decided to hold onto the bags until the bus left, which was soon enough. We thought it would be a good idea to wait where the bus would be exiting from, but were stopped on the way outside and asked for our exit tax receipt. Now of course we smelled scam and argued for about a minute that we already had our tickets, we were just waiting for the bus, etc. etc., but it turns out they weren't trying to pull one over on us. In fact if you are traveling in Peru by bus or plane, you always have to pay an exit tax, which means finding the booth, which can be difficult, presenting you ticket an paying some random sum of money. You cannot leave until you do so and no one ever tells you this until you are trying to board.
So we finally got underway to Arequipa, known as the white city for the white volcanic rock that many of the colonial buildings are made from. It was our last major bus ride of the trip (minus tours) so we're pretty anxious to get it over with, which of course means that it takes two hours longer than it was supposed to, mainly because the Peruvian police stopped the bus twice and made us wait for a good 45 minutes for no apparent reason. We kept expecting to see some better landscape, but we just simply went further and further into the mountain with no real variety the entire way. Nothing but brown for miles. And lots of really strange plots of land - near any sort of settlement for a couple of miles entering and leaving, you would see stone walls clearly marking a plot of land and there would be a small structure in the middle. Most of these plots were about 50 feet by 50 feet and there were no signs of anyone even having lived there are all, not that the structures were large enough to live in. In fact most of the structures were in some state of collapse. We had no idea why these plots were here, cause there was no water or electricity for miles. Just lots and lots of dirt. And rocks.
We were definitely a bit apprehensive about getting to Arequipa as so far our time in Peru hadn't been a whole lot of fun, and on the busride I think we had both thought a little too much about the horror stories of tourist getting mugged, kidnapped, etc. Once we got to the bus station we had to take a cab, which filled us with dread. Seemingly everywhere you go in Peru there are signs warning you to not take solicited cab rides, but when we got to the bus station, the conductor on the bus assured us that the cabs would be OK and even walked us out to the pick up spot and we had little problem. Just cause you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. So we made it to the hotel without incident.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Friday, January 5, 2007
We're back!
We are back in SF. I'll have the wrap-up of Peru posted this weekend and should have photos and video to boot. Stay tuned.
Monday, December 18, 2006
It's Chile in here
So today is our last full day in Chile so I thought I`d recount our adventures and try to get everyone all caught up. We crossed into Chile through a mountain pass via bus from San Martin de los Andes, Argentina and have spent time in Villarrica, Santiago, Viña del Mar and finally Arica. We also visited a number of other towns such as Pùcon, Isla Negra, Iquique and Valparaiso over the past two weeks. We have seen much that reminds us of California while traveling in Chile and have had a great time so far.
The route over the mountain pass into Chile was very interesting. We passed directly underneath Mount Lanìn, a dormant volcano, through the Paso Mamuil Malal. The scenery was stunning as we came into Chile, but the road conditions were pretty atrocious - roughly 5 hours of rough dirt roads. Plus the bus left San Martin as 6AM so we were up before 5AM and were unable to sleep during the ride. Once in Chile we passed through a pine forest along some beautiful mountian lakes and alongside a number of mountain rivers. It was fun but exhausting.
Once in Villarrica we made our way to the Hostelria de la Colina, situated on a hillside above the city and with stunning views of Lake Villaricca and the active Volcan Villarrica, which belched out a steady stream of smoke the entire time we were there. There were also two other active volcanoes that could be seen in the distance, which was a humbling site. We were assured none of them had errupted in 30 years, which told me they are probably due. The hotel is run by a couple of expats from the states and was definitely the highlight of Villarrica. If you are ever in the area we would highly recommend staying here. They really looked out for us and made us comfortable. The restaurant was excellent and they made a mean Pisco Sour, which is now Sarah's favorite drink. We also met a few fellow travellers while staying here and had a great time hangning out with Paulina the bartender at the hotel who told us quite a bit about Chile and its history.
The town of Villarrica was nice but not particularly attractive and was filled with stray dogs (even worse than Mexico). While there we went trout fishing in a row boat down a river coming off the lake and found once again that Sarah is a much better fisher than I am. She caught two large trout that we in turn ate for dinner that night - the trout was much more like salmon in both taste and appearance that we were accustomed to and was incredibly good. We also went to nearby Pùcon to catch a bus to nearby hot springs. Pùcon is the adventure sports center of the Lake District in Chile, but it didn't really strike me in the 15 minutes we were there. Instead we headed on to some natural hot springs up on the mountain side. No that might sound like a lot of fun and we did enjoy ourselves, but seeing as how we were dependent on public transportation and the last bus was at 7PM, we were there in the middle of the day, and it was a very hot day. Sitting in 90 degree water when it's 85 degress outside isn't all that enjoyable.
We then headed by bus to Santiago, which took a good seven hours. We were very excited to get to Santiago as we had heard that Augusto Pinochet, the long lived former military dictator of Chile had finally passed away. The bus ride was long and despite the enormous mountains in the background, somewhat borning. The one bit of excitement came when Sarah was doing some knitting to pass the time. A little girl with a bit of a cold who was no more than 4 years old began watching Sarah over the back of her seat. The girl kept leaning further and further over the seat to see what Sarah was doing, and just when you thought she would fall over she sneezed all over Sarah, who in turn yelped loudly. The girls mother pulled her down, but did nothing in the way of apologize and Sarah, having suffered from a series of colds before we left on the honeymoon already, proceeded to bathe her arms and face in Purel in the hopes of avoiding getting sick herself. Needless to say Sarah was a bit on edge for the rest of the busride, especially since the girl kept standing in her chair looking to see if Sarah was knitting again.
Santiago is an impressive city, much different from Buenos Aires. The city is surrounded by mountains on most everyside, some of which tower close to 20,000 feet. Sadly you can't really see them because the smog is so bad in the city. We've heard that on a clear day is dramatic, but that they only have a handful of clear days each year. As it was the mountains looked more like a movie set backdrop where you could faintly see the outlines with little deatil. The city itself was attractive, with fewer of the awful high rise apartment buildings that ruin the Buenos Aires skyline. Our hotel was funky, with weird art deco furniture from the 70s, but was across the street from a nice park. We spent a lot of timw roaming around checking out the colonial architechture and sitting in cafes. We had the pleasure of watching a communist protest one afternoon. About 250 mostly teenagers came streaming by reveling in Pinochet's death. Shortly there after a set of trucks with water canons came by followed by motorcycle police and the paddywagon, and the protest was quickly broken up.
We decided to avoid Pinochet's funeral at the military school thinking better of getting too mixed up in it, but we definitely talked to most everyone about his death and what they thought, often with very interesting responses. It`s a testament to how much things have changed since he lost power that most people seem to go about their business and tell us that we shouldn't waste our time thinking about it. We did trak out to the school later in the afternoon once the funeral was over just to see what was going on and a handfull of supporters and detractors were still there, but the scene was very calm. We also headed out to the municipal cemetary to see the monument made for the tens of thousands torured and killed by Pinochet's regime in the 70's and 80's. It was a bit overwhelming and really drove home the enormity of what had happened by listing the names of all those tortured or disappeared. It left us speechless.
Next we headed on to Viña del Mar, which is the beach town most preferred by Santiagoans. It was a surprisingly large city and we did`'t spend much time there. Garish high rises dominated the beach area and the beaches themselves were filled with cigarette buts. We did however spend a day visiting the nearby towns which was much more exciting. We took a bus down to Isla Negra, the location of Pablo Neruda's beach house and location of his burial. He had designed roughly the entire house himself and it was full of his personal collections. He was an enormous collector of things - sea shells, bottles, african masks, folk art, bow spirits from old ships, model ships in bottles, nautical instruments and wagon wheels. It was a really cool house that overlooked the ocean. Afterwords we went to Valparaiso, which is incredibly reminiscent of San Francisco. The city is separated into two sections, the lower port area bordering the ocean which is fairly industrial and unattractive, and the upper section in the surrounding hills. The upper area is largely reached by ascensores, cabled pulled elevators that are a site within themselves. The neighborhoods atop the hills are filled with beautiful and colorful old homes - it's one of the most photogenic places we've even seen.
Finally we headed off to Arica for some much needed rest and relaxation on the beach before entering Peru. Only, Arica wasn't what we were anticipating. First of all, Arica is situated in the northern reaches of Chile along the border with Peru. It is also in the middle of the driest desert in the world. Many towns in the region have never recorded rainfall. So the landscape is increadibly barren. Once we arrived we went to the hotel where we had a reservation only to find that it was a dump (at least from the outside). Our cab driver even mentioned that he hated the place because they misrepresent themselves on the Internet and that most people tend to stay one night tops and then move to a new hotel. Well, we didn't even get that far, and we had the driver takes us to another nearby hotel on the beach which turned out to be even worse. Next we tried one of the hotels listed in Lonely Planet, which was also quite disgusting, before finally setlling on the nicest hotel in town, the Hotel Arica. Although not 4 stars as they claim, it has been comfortable, if not a bit overpriced for what you get. Needless to say this was not a great introduction to Arica, and we have been profoundly unimpressed with most other aspects of Arica. I would not recommend coming here unless you are taking the overland route to Peru. There is a cool church from the turn of the century that was constructed as a kit by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The entire church is cast iron and the individual pieces were pressed cast iron that was put together as a kit in Paris and then shipped and constructed in Arica by the Peruvian government (Arica was Peruvian before the Chileans took it over in the War of the Pacific). Other than that we saw some mediocre beaches, got sunburned and drank Pisco sours. Oh, and we have been constantly serenaded by tens of thousands of marine birds that have nested on the rocks outside our hotel room. After awhile it begins to sound like each one is trying to talk over the others, creating a cacophany of sound that is deafening.
Fortunately we leave for Peru tomorrow.
The route over the mountain pass into Chile was very interesting. We passed directly underneath Mount Lanìn, a dormant volcano, through the Paso Mamuil Malal. The scenery was stunning as we came into Chile, but the road conditions were pretty atrocious - roughly 5 hours of rough dirt roads. Plus the bus left San Martin as 6AM so we were up before 5AM and were unable to sleep during the ride. Once in Chile we passed through a pine forest along some beautiful mountian lakes and alongside a number of mountain rivers. It was fun but exhausting.
Once in Villarrica we made our way to the Hostelria de la Colina, situated on a hillside above the city and with stunning views of Lake Villaricca and the active Volcan Villarrica, which belched out a steady stream of smoke the entire time we were there. There were also two other active volcanoes that could be seen in the distance, which was a humbling site. We were assured none of them had errupted in 30 years, which told me they are probably due. The hotel is run by a couple of expats from the states and was definitely the highlight of Villarrica. If you are ever in the area we would highly recommend staying here. They really looked out for us and made us comfortable. The restaurant was excellent and they made a mean Pisco Sour, which is now Sarah's favorite drink. We also met a few fellow travellers while staying here and had a great time hangning out with Paulina the bartender at the hotel who told us quite a bit about Chile and its history.
The town of Villarrica was nice but not particularly attractive and was filled with stray dogs (even worse than Mexico). While there we went trout fishing in a row boat down a river coming off the lake and found once again that Sarah is a much better fisher than I am. She caught two large trout that we in turn ate for dinner that night - the trout was much more like salmon in both taste and appearance that we were accustomed to and was incredibly good. We also went to nearby Pùcon to catch a bus to nearby hot springs. Pùcon is the adventure sports center of the Lake District in Chile, but it didn't really strike me in the 15 minutes we were there. Instead we headed on to some natural hot springs up on the mountain side. No that might sound like a lot of fun and we did enjoy ourselves, but seeing as how we were dependent on public transportation and the last bus was at 7PM, we were there in the middle of the day, and it was a very hot day. Sitting in 90 degree water when it's 85 degress outside isn't all that enjoyable.
We then headed by bus to Santiago, which took a good seven hours. We were very excited to get to Santiago as we had heard that Augusto Pinochet, the long lived former military dictator of Chile had finally passed away. The bus ride was long and despite the enormous mountains in the background, somewhat borning. The one bit of excitement came when Sarah was doing some knitting to pass the time. A little girl with a bit of a cold who was no more than 4 years old began watching Sarah over the back of her seat. The girl kept leaning further and further over the seat to see what Sarah was doing, and just when you thought she would fall over she sneezed all over Sarah, who in turn yelped loudly. The girls mother pulled her down, but did nothing in the way of apologize and Sarah, having suffered from a series of colds before we left on the honeymoon already, proceeded to bathe her arms and face in Purel in the hopes of avoiding getting sick herself. Needless to say Sarah was a bit on edge for the rest of the busride, especially since the girl kept standing in her chair looking to see if Sarah was knitting again.
Santiago is an impressive city, much different from Buenos Aires. The city is surrounded by mountains on most everyside, some of which tower close to 20,000 feet. Sadly you can't really see them because the smog is so bad in the city. We've heard that on a clear day is dramatic, but that they only have a handful of clear days each year. As it was the mountains looked more like a movie set backdrop where you could faintly see the outlines with little deatil. The city itself was attractive, with fewer of the awful high rise apartment buildings that ruin the Buenos Aires skyline. Our hotel was funky, with weird art deco furniture from the 70s, but was across the street from a nice park. We spent a lot of timw roaming around checking out the colonial architechture and sitting in cafes. We had the pleasure of watching a communist protest one afternoon. About 250 mostly teenagers came streaming by reveling in Pinochet's death. Shortly there after a set of trucks with water canons came by followed by motorcycle police and the paddywagon, and the protest was quickly broken up.
We decided to avoid Pinochet's funeral at the military school thinking better of getting too mixed up in it, but we definitely talked to most everyone about his death and what they thought, often with very interesting responses. It`s a testament to how much things have changed since he lost power that most people seem to go about their business and tell us that we shouldn't waste our time thinking about it. We did trak out to the school later in the afternoon once the funeral was over just to see what was going on and a handfull of supporters and detractors were still there, but the scene was very calm. We also headed out to the municipal cemetary to see the monument made for the tens of thousands torured and killed by Pinochet's regime in the 70's and 80's. It was a bit overwhelming and really drove home the enormity of what had happened by listing the names of all those tortured or disappeared. It left us speechless.
Next we headed on to Viña del Mar, which is the beach town most preferred by Santiagoans. It was a surprisingly large city and we did`'t spend much time there. Garish high rises dominated the beach area and the beaches themselves were filled with cigarette buts. We did however spend a day visiting the nearby towns which was much more exciting. We took a bus down to Isla Negra, the location of Pablo Neruda's beach house and location of his burial. He had designed roughly the entire house himself and it was full of his personal collections. He was an enormous collector of things - sea shells, bottles, african masks, folk art, bow spirits from old ships, model ships in bottles, nautical instruments and wagon wheels. It was a really cool house that overlooked the ocean. Afterwords we went to Valparaiso, which is incredibly reminiscent of San Francisco. The city is separated into two sections, the lower port area bordering the ocean which is fairly industrial and unattractive, and the upper section in the surrounding hills. The upper area is largely reached by ascensores, cabled pulled elevators that are a site within themselves. The neighborhoods atop the hills are filled with beautiful and colorful old homes - it's one of the most photogenic places we've even seen.
Finally we headed off to Arica for some much needed rest and relaxation on the beach before entering Peru. Only, Arica wasn't what we were anticipating. First of all, Arica is situated in the northern reaches of Chile along the border with Peru. It is also in the middle of the driest desert in the world. Many towns in the region have never recorded rainfall. So the landscape is increadibly barren. Once we arrived we went to the hotel where we had a reservation only to find that it was a dump (at least from the outside). Our cab driver even mentioned that he hated the place because they misrepresent themselves on the Internet and that most people tend to stay one night tops and then move to a new hotel. Well, we didn't even get that far, and we had the driver takes us to another nearby hotel on the beach which turned out to be even worse. Next we tried one of the hotels listed in Lonely Planet, which was also quite disgusting, before finally setlling on the nicest hotel in town, the Hotel Arica. Although not 4 stars as they claim, it has been comfortable, if not a bit overpriced for what you get. Needless to say this was not a great introduction to Arica, and we have been profoundly unimpressed with most other aspects of Arica. I would not recommend coming here unless you are taking the overland route to Peru. There is a cool church from the turn of the century that was constructed as a kit by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The entire church is cast iron and the individual pieces were pressed cast iron that was put together as a kit in Paris and then shipped and constructed in Arica by the Peruvian government (Arica was Peruvian before the Chileans took it over in the War of the Pacific). Other than that we saw some mediocre beaches, got sunburned and drank Pisco sours. Oh, and we have been constantly serenaded by tens of thousands of marine birds that have nested on the rocks outside our hotel room. After awhile it begins to sound like each one is trying to talk over the others, creating a cacophany of sound that is deafening.
Fortunately we leave for Peru tomorrow.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
We're still here
Sorry about the lack of updates. We've been so busy running around South America that we never seem to have the time for communicating with the outside world. The past couple of weeks have been quite an adventure. We've seen some of the largest waterfalls in the world, kayaked on a pristine mountain lake, caught and ate trout, watched a protest get broken up by the national gaurd in Chile, eaten a lot of empenadas, walked a few hundred miles and spent an extraordinary amount off time in buses.
I´ll start with the waterfalls. We went to the Iguazu Falls at the beginning of the month. You might not have heard f them but you've probably seen pictures without knowing it. The falls are truly one of the great wonders of the world. I''ve never seen Niagra, but I can't imagine them comparing to what we saw - probably around 100 individual waterfalls, from a trickle down a cliff, to a torrent of millions of liters know as the Devil´s Throat. The sheer volume was dwarfing and mesmerizing to watch. It was impossible to look away. We even took a boat ride into the botton of one of the falls and have a video of the experience which we'll add to the blog later. The falls are situated around the broder between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina near the confluence of two major rivers. The area is a subtropical rainforest home to a huge variety of flora and fauna. We saw Coatis (a mix between raccoon and cat), large and small lizards, but missed much of the most exotic animals such as toucans, pachybaras, giant parrots and tapirs. We'll just have to come back some day. While in Iguazu we met up with Mark and Les from Dallas who kept us entertained for most of our stay. Mark's story of driving to Mexico was priceless and should be made into a movie.
Next we were off to San Martin de los Andes situated in the Lake District of Argentina in the northern reaches of Patagonia. To get there we flew back to Buenos Aires, then took a 15 hour overnight bus ride to Neuquen. This ride took us through the Pampas, which is probably the most boring scenery I can imagine, so it was a good thing it was at night. We were able to sleep most of the way. There was one stop for dinner in the middle of nowhere Argentina, where they forced eveyone on the buss to sit together and served a vile piece of steak that tasted like it had been cooking for days. No one said a word to each other for pretty much the whole meal. The next morning we arrived in Neuquen expecting to stay the night to break up the trip. The city was not particularly attractive and the bus station was miles from any hotel, so we decided to finish up the trip to San Martin which was another 6 hours. Along the way we passed the location of the largest dinosaur ever found. The had a life size model by the road that I got a picture of and it was quite a site. Once we got into the mountins and away from the Pampas the ride was quite beautiful. We saw Gauchos (Argentine cowboys), llamas, lots of sheep and cattle, a series of beautiful mountain rivers and a 10,000 foot mountain, which at the time seemed quite large.
San Martin de los Andes is an incredible mountain town, that would not be out of place in Northern California. The architecture was mostly Swiss chalet in appearance. The city is situated in a small valley surrounded by low mountains and sits alongside a large mountain lake. There are hiking trails throughout the area and access to white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, camping and most any other outdoor activity you can think of. It was a mountain paradise. We kayaked around the lake for one morning and then took a ferry to a small village on the lake where we hhad lunch and walked around. The next day we took an all day tour of the area alog a route called the 7 Lakes route (Ruta de Siete Lagos) where we saw considerably more than 7 lakes, and countless rivers. It was beautiful but exhausting. San Martin was an idyllic town and if anyone comes down to this part of Argentina I would highly recommend it over Bariloche, which we found large, not that attractive and incredibly windy.
San Martin was our last stop in Argentina. We took a bus through a gravel road mountain pass into Chile. Strangely enough we had beautiful weather the entire trip until that day when it rained as though Argentina was sad to see us leave. We had to catch a 6AM bus to go to Chile so we were a bit sad and groggy, ourselves. But I'll save Chile for another time. The highlights so far have been Sarah out shining me as a fisherman, arriving in Santiago the day after Pinochet died, seeing Neruda's collection of shells and wandering around the streets of Valparaiso. Until then, take care.
I´ll start with the waterfalls. We went to the Iguazu Falls at the beginning of the month. You might not have heard f them but you've probably seen pictures without knowing it. The falls are truly one of the great wonders of the world. I''ve never seen Niagra, but I can't imagine them comparing to what we saw - probably around 100 individual waterfalls, from a trickle down a cliff, to a torrent of millions of liters know as the Devil´s Throat. The sheer volume was dwarfing and mesmerizing to watch. It was impossible to look away. We even took a boat ride into the botton of one of the falls and have a video of the experience which we'll add to the blog later. The falls are situated around the broder between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina near the confluence of two major rivers. The area is a subtropical rainforest home to a huge variety of flora and fauna. We saw Coatis (a mix between raccoon and cat), large and small lizards, but missed much of the most exotic animals such as toucans, pachybaras, giant parrots and tapirs. We'll just have to come back some day. While in Iguazu we met up with Mark and Les from Dallas who kept us entertained for most of our stay. Mark's story of driving to Mexico was priceless and should be made into a movie.
Next we were off to San Martin de los Andes situated in the Lake District of Argentina in the northern reaches of Patagonia. To get there we flew back to Buenos Aires, then took a 15 hour overnight bus ride to Neuquen. This ride took us through the Pampas, which is probably the most boring scenery I can imagine, so it was a good thing it was at night. We were able to sleep most of the way. There was one stop for dinner in the middle of nowhere Argentina, where they forced eveyone on the buss to sit together and served a vile piece of steak that tasted like it had been cooking for days. No one said a word to each other for pretty much the whole meal. The next morning we arrived in Neuquen expecting to stay the night to break up the trip. The city was not particularly attractive and the bus station was miles from any hotel, so we decided to finish up the trip to San Martin which was another 6 hours. Along the way we passed the location of the largest dinosaur ever found. The had a life size model by the road that I got a picture of and it was quite a site. Once we got into the mountins and away from the Pampas the ride was quite beautiful. We saw Gauchos (Argentine cowboys), llamas, lots of sheep and cattle, a series of beautiful mountain rivers and a 10,000 foot mountain, which at the time seemed quite large.
San Martin de los Andes is an incredible mountain town, that would not be out of place in Northern California. The architecture was mostly Swiss chalet in appearance. The city is situated in a small valley surrounded by low mountains and sits alongside a large mountain lake. There are hiking trails throughout the area and access to white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, camping and most any other outdoor activity you can think of. It was a mountain paradise. We kayaked around the lake for one morning and then took a ferry to a small village on the lake where we hhad lunch and walked around. The next day we took an all day tour of the area alog a route called the 7 Lakes route (Ruta de Siete Lagos) where we saw considerably more than 7 lakes, and countless rivers. It was beautiful but exhausting. San Martin was an idyllic town and if anyone comes down to this part of Argentina I would highly recommend it over Bariloche, which we found large, not that attractive and incredibly windy.
San Martin was our last stop in Argentina. We took a bus through a gravel road mountain pass into Chile. Strangely enough we had beautiful weather the entire trip until that day when it rained as though Argentina was sad to see us leave. We had to catch a 6AM bus to go to Chile so we were a bit sad and groggy, ourselves. But I'll save Chile for another time. The highlights so far have been Sarah out shining me as a fisherman, arriving in Santiago the day after Pinochet died, seeing Neruda's collection of shells and wandering around the streets of Valparaiso. Until then, take care.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Buenos Aires and beyond
Sorry about being incommunicado for so long. We´ve been having terrible luck with the internet access since leaving Buenos Aires.
A quick wrap up of our days in Buenos Aires. We had and incredible time while we were there and can´t say enough about what a wonderful city it is. We highly recommend that every try to make it down here. The flights are expensive but with the given financial situation the prices are incredibly cheap for what you get in return. Although our arrival in the city was bumpy, we had no other incidents until the last full day in town (more on that later).
A few of the highlights from Buenos Aires:
Xul Solar Museum: Xul Solar was a genius/eccentric friend of Borges that has a museum devoted to paintings and other artwork. He was obsessed with metaphysics and mysticism, and much of his work incorporates the zodiac, numerology, and rosecrucian imagery. He was also into chess and developed his own languages. Much of the work had a proto cubist feel and the presentation of the work and the architecture of the builiding was quite striking.
Zorcal: Each morning we were woken by the sounds of the Zorcal, a small bird the reminds me of an oriole, that sings a song reminicent of the song Tequila. The songs started about 5:30Am each morning and we continued to hear the birds throughout the day while we were in Buenos Aires. The volume was quite striking, and we were amazed that such a small bird produced the sound.
Parilla: The Argentine equivalent of barbecue, but taken to a whole new level when compared to the U.S. These are the most common restaurants in Buenos Aires and essentially you have up to 30 some odd selections of meat that they will grill for you - anything from beef tenderloin to chittlins, and other less appetizing pieces of the cow, as well as chicken, pork and other meats, depending on where you go. You would get truly gargantuan portions for $5 to $10 US, and they served a delicious sauce called chimichurri alongside.
Ice Cream: Everywhere you went in Buenos Aires there weer increible ice cream joints, most of which will deliver. I´ve never tasted ice cream so good - and each place had at least a few different versions of Dulce de Leche, Chocolate and various fruit blends.
We also experienced a lot of very odd things in Buenos Aires. The first few days that we spent in Buenos Aires we constantly heard very odd cover songs, including a Bossa Nova version of the what sounded like the entire Bob Marley Legend album (we didn´t stick around tho here the whole album). We were constantly hearing wierd remixes, generally of very bad soft pop songs.
We encountered a number of interesting cab drivers along the way in Buenos Aires. Considering that most trip cost two to four dollars, we spent quite a bit of time in cabs. The first cab driver we had in Buenos Aires had lived in San Francisco as a student in the early 90´s and had been trying to go back ever since. In fact a number of the cab drivers that we rode with had a some point been to San Francisco. One night on the way to see a Tango show, we were picked up by a driver listening to Guns and Roses. As soon as he realized that we were familiar with it he turned it up and proceeded to blare the music while singing along and tapping the drum beat on the roof of the car. Next up came a mash-up of numerous mid to late 80´s heavy metal hits, starting with Shook Me All Night Long, and going through Def Leppard, Ratt, Van Halen, and numerous others. He finished with a bit of Madonna, his true love as he told us, as he dropped us off. That night after the show we were picked up by a driver who looked to be 80 and who was listening to Tango because he lived it, and who proceeded to tell us about police corruption and problems with the city.
The last full day we spent in Buenos Aires was quite an adventure. First off we decided to go to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. It has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site for it´s colonial architechture. We took a high speed ferry across the Rio Plata from B.A. which took about an hour. The Rio Plata is actually the confluence of a number of rivers that in turn pours into the Atlantic Ocean. The water was quite brwon, but the view of Buenos Aires was incredible. Upon ariving in Colonia we roamed around and found a nice open air parilla where we had lunch. We were so inspired that we´ve decided to emulate the place in our back yard once we own a home. The town was quite stirking - the original city gate and part of the wall from the 17th century were still standing a were a number of other buildings from when teh portugese were there.
The excitiement came when I started to have a alergy attack while there. At first it wasn´t so bad - a little snifling and sneezing - but on the ride back to Buenos Aires we sat near the duty free shop on the ferry which was filled with people trying on perfume and cologne. My sinuses promptly exploded and I spent the hour ride back running back and forth from the bathroom to the seats. I believe I went through a full roll of toilet paper. Then when we got back to Buenos Aires we realized we didn´t have enough cash to get back to out hotel and we didn´t have an ATM card but we did have a credit card. Plus it was about 25 blocks back to the hotel. So we sucked it up and hoofed it - all the while my allergies simply got worse. We managed to find a farmacia and get some alergy pills, water and a lot of tissue which I proceeded to use up as we walked back to the hotel. Although it was a beautiful walk, I´m not sure the people of Buenos Aires appreciated my sneezing all over their city. Once we arrived at the hotel I pumped myself full of anti-alergy pills including benadryl, actifed, and afrin. Not a good idea. I then felt so drugged up that I couldn´t concentrate for hours, and my heart was racing for the rest of the night.
We were able to rally to go out to dinner and since it was our last night we decided to hit one of the hipper restaurants in town named Gran Bar Danzon. The food and service were amazing. Sarah got dressed up in one of her new dresses only to discover that the entrance to the restaurant was a bit of a meat market - seven men intently starring down any woman that entered. We almost turned and ran, but managed to push our way through the crowd and enjoyed ourselves emensely. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that we finally got scammed by a cab driver. Just before catching a cab to the restaurant we stopped by the ATM - when we arrived at teh restaurant I handed the driver a twenty peso bill. He immediately responded saying that the charge was five peso and that I had handed him a two peso bill, which of course was impssible since I didn´t even have one. I was so defuddled from the alergy medicine that I honestly thought I had made a mistake, and even apologized before handing him more money. It was only after he drove off that I not only realized that I had been scammed but I remembered reading about this very scam when we were flying in from San Francisco. Score one for the locals.
And so ended our adventure in Buenos Aires. Next up Iguazu Falls
A quick wrap up of our days in Buenos Aires. We had and incredible time while we were there and can´t say enough about what a wonderful city it is. We highly recommend that every try to make it down here. The flights are expensive but with the given financial situation the prices are incredibly cheap for what you get in return. Although our arrival in the city was bumpy, we had no other incidents until the last full day in town (more on that later).
A few of the highlights from Buenos Aires:
Xul Solar Museum: Xul Solar was a genius/eccentric friend of Borges that has a museum devoted to paintings and other artwork. He was obsessed with metaphysics and mysticism, and much of his work incorporates the zodiac, numerology, and rosecrucian imagery. He was also into chess and developed his own languages. Much of the work had a proto cubist feel and the presentation of the work and the architecture of the builiding was quite striking.
Zorcal: Each morning we were woken by the sounds of the Zorcal, a small bird the reminds me of an oriole, that sings a song reminicent of the song Tequila. The songs started about 5:30Am each morning and we continued to hear the birds throughout the day while we were in Buenos Aires. The volume was quite striking, and we were amazed that such a small bird produced the sound.
Parilla: The Argentine equivalent of barbecue, but taken to a whole new level when compared to the U.S. These are the most common restaurants in Buenos Aires and essentially you have up to 30 some odd selections of meat that they will grill for you - anything from beef tenderloin to chittlins, and other less appetizing pieces of the cow, as well as chicken, pork and other meats, depending on where you go. You would get truly gargantuan portions for $5 to $10 US, and they served a delicious sauce called chimichurri alongside.
Ice Cream: Everywhere you went in Buenos Aires there weer increible ice cream joints, most of which will deliver. I´ve never tasted ice cream so good - and each place had at least a few different versions of Dulce de Leche, Chocolate and various fruit blends.
We also experienced a lot of very odd things in Buenos Aires. The first few days that we spent in Buenos Aires we constantly heard very odd cover songs, including a Bossa Nova version of the what sounded like the entire Bob Marley Legend album (we didn´t stick around tho here the whole album). We were constantly hearing wierd remixes, generally of very bad soft pop songs.
We encountered a number of interesting cab drivers along the way in Buenos Aires. Considering that most trip cost two to four dollars, we spent quite a bit of time in cabs. The first cab driver we had in Buenos Aires had lived in San Francisco as a student in the early 90´s and had been trying to go back ever since. In fact a number of the cab drivers that we rode with had a some point been to San Francisco. One night on the way to see a Tango show, we were picked up by a driver listening to Guns and Roses. As soon as he realized that we were familiar with it he turned it up and proceeded to blare the music while singing along and tapping the drum beat on the roof of the car. Next up came a mash-up of numerous mid to late 80´s heavy metal hits, starting with Shook Me All Night Long, and going through Def Leppard, Ratt, Van Halen, and numerous others. He finished with a bit of Madonna, his true love as he told us, as he dropped us off. That night after the show we were picked up by a driver who looked to be 80 and who was listening to Tango because he lived it, and who proceeded to tell us about police corruption and problems with the city.
The last full day we spent in Buenos Aires was quite an adventure. First off we decided to go to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. It has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site for it´s colonial architechture. We took a high speed ferry across the Rio Plata from B.A. which took about an hour. The Rio Plata is actually the confluence of a number of rivers that in turn pours into the Atlantic Ocean. The water was quite brwon, but the view of Buenos Aires was incredible. Upon ariving in Colonia we roamed around and found a nice open air parilla where we had lunch. We were so inspired that we´ve decided to emulate the place in our back yard once we own a home. The town was quite stirking - the original city gate and part of the wall from the 17th century were still standing a were a number of other buildings from when teh portugese were there.
The excitiement came when I started to have a alergy attack while there. At first it wasn´t so bad - a little snifling and sneezing - but on the ride back to Buenos Aires we sat near the duty free shop on the ferry which was filled with people trying on perfume and cologne. My sinuses promptly exploded and I spent the hour ride back running back and forth from the bathroom to the seats. I believe I went through a full roll of toilet paper. Then when we got back to Buenos Aires we realized we didn´t have enough cash to get back to out hotel and we didn´t have an ATM card but we did have a credit card. Plus it was about 25 blocks back to the hotel. So we sucked it up and hoofed it - all the while my allergies simply got worse. We managed to find a farmacia and get some alergy pills, water and a lot of tissue which I proceeded to use up as we walked back to the hotel. Although it was a beautiful walk, I´m not sure the people of Buenos Aires appreciated my sneezing all over their city. Once we arrived at the hotel I pumped myself full of anti-alergy pills including benadryl, actifed, and afrin. Not a good idea. I then felt so drugged up that I couldn´t concentrate for hours, and my heart was racing for the rest of the night.
We were able to rally to go out to dinner and since it was our last night we decided to hit one of the hipper restaurants in town named Gran Bar Danzon. The food and service were amazing. Sarah got dressed up in one of her new dresses only to discover that the entrance to the restaurant was a bit of a meat market - seven men intently starring down any woman that entered. We almost turned and ran, but managed to push our way through the crowd and enjoyed ourselves emensely. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that we finally got scammed by a cab driver. Just before catching a cab to the restaurant we stopped by the ATM - when we arrived at teh restaurant I handed the driver a twenty peso bill. He immediately responded saying that the charge was five peso and that I had handed him a two peso bill, which of course was impssible since I didn´t even have one. I was so defuddled from the alergy medicine that I honestly thought I had made a mistake, and even apologized before handing him more money. It was only after he drove off that I not only realized that I had been scammed but I remembered reading about this very scam when we were flying in from San Francisco. Score one for the locals.
And so ended our adventure in Buenos Aires. Next up Iguazu Falls
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
All about Buenos Aires
All we can really say is Buenos Aires is an amazing city.
Although obviously unfortunate, the financial collapse of the country in 2002 has made B.A. an incredible bargain for Americans which we have been fully taking advantage of. The thing that is amzing is that the Argentine peso was pegged 1:1 to the dollar until then. The prices here haven´t changed much in terms of Argetine dollars, but now the exchange rate is 3:1 peso to dollar. A cab ride costs around $3 on average, and the Subte (subway) is about 25 cents. A good steak costs around $7 and is more than you should eat. A leather purse at one of the more popular designers runs about $40.
The city is comprised of many fabulous boulevards entertwinned with hundreds of criss-crossing one way streets. The buses and taxis have no regard for human life or each other. They appear to be playing a game with each other as they constantly cut each other off and jockey for position at the stop lights. Lanes are simply a guideline. The most interesting bit a driving trivia is that they give a yellow light after the red light as well as before. Our first cab driver explained this as "enter at your own risk" because so many cabs and busses feel there is a good 5 seconds after the red light when they can still drive through. In addition, there are intersections throughout the city with no form of traffic control at all - somehow the driers just intuit when someone else might be coming. The drivers don´t appear to slow down much at all. We think they are just hoping for the best. This means that pedestrians have to be very aggressive as well. Any percieved break is an opening for people to cross. And they stare at you odd if you choose to be a bit more prudent.
So far Sarah has been having the time of her life - cheap shopping, cool restaurants, hip designs everywhere we go. We got cool haircuts at Glam - strangely I look the same, but Sarah has the South American pseudo mullet that all the women have around here. With the help of Time Out we´ve been able to track down a number of local designer shops which have allowed Sarah to greatly expand her wardrobe. Needless to say a country so well know for its beef also has a thriving leather trade, which has become Sarah´s obsession of late. If you´re ever in town, Prune is a good place to go for purses and wallets.
Despite the fact that prices must still be very high for Argentines, there is shopping everywhere. It puts LA to shame, much to my dismay, as virtually everywhere you go in the higher end districts - Ricoletta, Palermo, Barrio Norte, Retiro - you are surrounded by shops that always seem to be crowded. Monday afternoon at around 2 PM we were on a pedestrian shopping area on Florida street and had to literally push our way through all of the people. Sunday appears to be the only day when the streets are not thronged with people.
The coolest thing we´ve seen so far is the Ricoletta cemetary. Originally the first public cemetary in the city, it is now the resting place of much of Argentina´s elite, containing the masoleums of many presdents, writers, Evita, and more. There are over 4000 masoleums, most with intricate sculptures, stained classed and iron work. It´s similar to New Orleans, but much more high end and in much better shape. It is one of the most popular attractions in Buenos Aires.
More on the oddities of Buenos Aires coming soon.
Although obviously unfortunate, the financial collapse of the country in 2002 has made B.A. an incredible bargain for Americans which we have been fully taking advantage of. The thing that is amzing is that the Argentine peso was pegged 1:1 to the dollar until then. The prices here haven´t changed much in terms of Argetine dollars, but now the exchange rate is 3:1 peso to dollar. A cab ride costs around $3 on average, and the Subte (subway) is about 25 cents. A good steak costs around $7 and is more than you should eat. A leather purse at one of the more popular designers runs about $40.
The city is comprised of many fabulous boulevards entertwinned with hundreds of criss-crossing one way streets. The buses and taxis have no regard for human life or each other. They appear to be playing a game with each other as they constantly cut each other off and jockey for position at the stop lights. Lanes are simply a guideline. The most interesting bit a driving trivia is that they give a yellow light after the red light as well as before. Our first cab driver explained this as "enter at your own risk" because so many cabs and busses feel there is a good 5 seconds after the red light when they can still drive through. In addition, there are intersections throughout the city with no form of traffic control at all - somehow the driers just intuit when someone else might be coming. The drivers don´t appear to slow down much at all. We think they are just hoping for the best. This means that pedestrians have to be very aggressive as well. Any percieved break is an opening for people to cross. And they stare at you odd if you choose to be a bit more prudent.
So far Sarah has been having the time of her life - cheap shopping, cool restaurants, hip designs everywhere we go. We got cool haircuts at Glam - strangely I look the same, but Sarah has the South American pseudo mullet that all the women have around here. With the help of Time Out we´ve been able to track down a number of local designer shops which have allowed Sarah to greatly expand her wardrobe. Needless to say a country so well know for its beef also has a thriving leather trade, which has become Sarah´s obsession of late. If you´re ever in town, Prune is a good place to go for purses and wallets.
Despite the fact that prices must still be very high for Argentines, there is shopping everywhere. It puts LA to shame, much to my dismay, as virtually everywhere you go in the higher end districts - Ricoletta, Palermo, Barrio Norte, Retiro - you are surrounded by shops that always seem to be crowded. Monday afternoon at around 2 PM we were on a pedestrian shopping area on Florida street and had to literally push our way through all of the people. Sunday appears to be the only day when the streets are not thronged with people.
The coolest thing we´ve seen so far is the Ricoletta cemetary. Originally the first public cemetary in the city, it is now the resting place of much of Argentina´s elite, containing the masoleums of many presdents, writers, Evita, and more. There are over 4000 masoleums, most with intricate sculptures, stained classed and iron work. It´s similar to New Orleans, but much more high end and in much better shape. It is one of the most popular attractions in Buenos Aires.
More on the oddities of Buenos Aires coming soon.
Latest from BA
So after searching high and low for a true "internet cafe" we realized that all they really have in BA are internet kiosks, most of which are stinky and hot, so we apologize for not posting earlier. I'll split this update into multiple posts so this one won´t be rediculously long.
The flights to South America were surprisingly comfortable. It took cloe to 24 hours from start to finish and until we got to Santiago was largely uneventful. We were able to precure an exit row seat so we had plenty of leg room. We would recommend LAN if you ever flying to South America. They were polite, had a decent selection of movies, TV and music with screens built into the headrests and served ham and cheese sandwhiches every 6 hours or so, including for breakfast. They even had decent wine on the flight which was a pleasant surprise. I ended up watching Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 2 - both highly regrettable movies that were painful to watch from start to finish.
Along the way we stopped in Lima for a coulpe about an hour which was an interesting experience. The terminal we were in was brand new and reminded me a bit of the Dallas airport. Virtually everythig was in english and they even offered a lottery of sorts for american tourist flying through. We didn´t try it out cause the kiosk was closed - it was around 1AM - but from the advertising it was directed entirely at Americans and you could win $10,000. We sat in a bar of 80´s cool - plush white leather loveseats, odd lighting and C&C music factory blaring. It was a bit surreal.
By the time we arrived in Santiago the sun was finally coming up and the city was completely shrouded in a thick layer of fog so we couldn´t se the city very well flying in. It is almost entirely surrounded by imposing mountains that put Denver to shame. Once in the terminal the first thing we see is a Starbucks with a Ruby Tuesday just around the corner. So far the trip had not been as exotic as we had hoped.
After waiting for about 2 hours and trying to get on the wrong plane, we found out that our flight had been delayed and it would be a least an hour before they could tell us a time when the plane would take off - some undisclosed problem with the plane that didn´t bode well. We quickly transferred to another flight that was leaving about 30 minutes after our initial flight was scheduled which left withoug a hitch. Flying over the Andes was unbelievable. We crossed about 500 miles of the most incredible, seemingly impassable mountains that you could ever imagine. It was a swirling mass of rock, sheer cliffs hundreds if not thousands of feet high, thick snow pack covering most of the summits. We saw no settlements at all even though the visibility was perfect. There might have been roads, but they looked more like streams. Somehow we are going to be crossing through that in a bus in around 2 weeks. Should be interesting. Once on the other side of the Andes, we hit the Pampas, which is as flat as the Mississippi Delta, has about 1/10 the number of trees and stretches for over 1000 miles. It´s the heartland of the beef industry in Argentina.
So finally we arrive in Buenos Aires, tired and a bit wary because of rumours we had heard about scam artists. Plus Jenna Bush just had her purse stolen under the nose of secret service. We were the last folks off the plane and we get through customs without problem but it takes forever. We get to baggage claim and everyone has already collected and left and our luggage is nowhere to be found. Things are not looking good. We talk to the lost and found folks who tell us to wait for the flight we were originally on to see if the bags are on that flight. So we wait, and wait, and wait and about an hour later the flight arrives. And so we wait, and wait some more, and watch most of the passengers collect their bags and leave. Then finally we see one of our bags come out. And about 10 mintes later we see the rest. The whole experience was exhausting, but finally we are on the road into Buenos Aires.
The flights to South America were surprisingly comfortable. It took cloe to 24 hours from start to finish and until we got to Santiago was largely uneventful. We were able to precure an exit row seat so we had plenty of leg room. We would recommend LAN if you ever flying to South America. They were polite, had a decent selection of movies, TV and music with screens built into the headrests and served ham and cheese sandwhiches every 6 hours or so, including for breakfast. They even had decent wine on the flight which was a pleasant surprise. I ended up watching Mission Impossible 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 2 - both highly regrettable movies that were painful to watch from start to finish.
Along the way we stopped in Lima for a coulpe about an hour which was an interesting experience. The terminal we were in was brand new and reminded me a bit of the Dallas airport. Virtually everythig was in english and they even offered a lottery of sorts for american tourist flying through. We didn´t try it out cause the kiosk was closed - it was around 1AM - but from the advertising it was directed entirely at Americans and you could win $10,000. We sat in a bar of 80´s cool - plush white leather loveseats, odd lighting and C&C music factory blaring. It was a bit surreal.
By the time we arrived in Santiago the sun was finally coming up and the city was completely shrouded in a thick layer of fog so we couldn´t se the city very well flying in. It is almost entirely surrounded by imposing mountains that put Denver to shame. Once in the terminal the first thing we see is a Starbucks with a Ruby Tuesday just around the corner. So far the trip had not been as exotic as we had hoped.
After waiting for about 2 hours and trying to get on the wrong plane, we found out that our flight had been delayed and it would be a least an hour before they could tell us a time when the plane would take off - some undisclosed problem with the plane that didn´t bode well. We quickly transferred to another flight that was leaving about 30 minutes after our initial flight was scheduled which left withoug a hitch. Flying over the Andes was unbelievable. We crossed about 500 miles of the most incredible, seemingly impassable mountains that you could ever imagine. It was a swirling mass of rock, sheer cliffs hundreds if not thousands of feet high, thick snow pack covering most of the summits. We saw no settlements at all even though the visibility was perfect. There might have been roads, but they looked more like streams. Somehow we are going to be crossing through that in a bus in around 2 weeks. Should be interesting. Once on the other side of the Andes, we hit the Pampas, which is as flat as the Mississippi Delta, has about 1/10 the number of trees and stretches for over 1000 miles. It´s the heartland of the beef industry in Argentina.
So finally we arrive in Buenos Aires, tired and a bit wary because of rumours we had heard about scam artists. Plus Jenna Bush just had her purse stolen under the nose of secret service. We were the last folks off the plane and we get through customs without problem but it takes forever. We get to baggage claim and everyone has already collected and left and our luggage is nowhere to be found. Things are not looking good. We talk to the lost and found folks who tell us to wait for the flight we were originally on to see if the bags are on that flight. So we wait, and wait, and wait and about an hour later the flight arrives. And so we wait, and wait some more, and watch most of the passengers collect their bags and leave. Then finally we see one of our bags come out. And about 10 mintes later we see the rest. The whole experience was exhausting, but finally we are on the road into Buenos Aires.
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