38 of the last 72 hours...

...were spent on a bus! On Sunday dad and I took a bus out of Buenos Aires at 1:30 PM headed to Puerto Iguazu to see the falls. In the first 19 hours of our trip, we had quite the experience. The first three hours went really well, other than the fact that the seats were not as comfortable as we had imagined. That we could deal with. Then some lady come down the aisles of the rocking bus with two cups of coffee. Of which, 85% splashed all over me and the guy sitting across the aisle and also made a HUGE mess on the floor and the aisle. All the lady could say was "Cafe caliente!" which means "Hot coffee!" Oh and believe me it was hot! Therefore, I had coffee on my pants and I could no longer keep my backpack on the floor, so that joined us in our seat for the rest of our journey because it was too big to put above the seat. Then that baby that was sitting behind us that we thought was being so cooperative, started fusing. Needless to say it was a really long bus ride! Dad even wrote a very funny song to describe our experience, but now I do not remember most of it :(

We arrived at the bus terminal in Puerto Iguazu at 8:30 AM on Monday and then bought our bus tickets to the National Park! IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL! The weather was so much hotter than the time I was there before! It was about 86 F and so warm! I loved it, although I'm not exactly sure I'm ready to come home to such hot weather :/ We had a great and peaceful day walking around the waterfalls. It was awesome father/daughter time! When we got La Garganta del Diablo, we got soaked with the backspray from the water hitting the bottom...IT WAS AWESOME! When we got out of the big spray and into the mist, it was perfect and felt really good in that hot sun. After spending our day there, we caught the bus to our hotel and hung out by the pool. It was just such a relaxing time (after our very stressful bus ride).

First view of the falls on Upper Trail :)

Under the fall! So AWESOME!

La Garganta del Diablo (soaking wet)

On Tuesday we woke up and walked to Hito Tres Fronteras. This is the point where you can see the three borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We relaxed there for a couple hours before we had to go grab lunch and then head to the bus!

The Three Border countries

Our 19 hour bus ride back was actually a lot better, other than the fact that the chairs did not recline as much as the first bus. This was totally okay with me though because there was hardly anyone else on the bus so I had a whole row to sprawl out and relax. I actually slept really good! Expect for a few kinks...First, within the first part of my nap (the part where you just start sleeping really good), some official came onto our bus, woke me up and asked me to show my passport. I was not in a very good mood and then I went to ask dad what was going on. That is when I figured out that I was the only one person that he checked for a passport with. Then I was wide awake and dad and I sat in the front of the bus taking in the scenery. We saw a ton of country!

We got to Buenos Aires this morning around 10:00 AM and then headed straight to our hotel. We arrived just in time for breakfast. That was just what I needed to start my day! After that we packed up our bags, so dad could take my stuff back with him. Then this afternoon, dad took a taxi to the airport to try and get on a plane tonight, because tonight looks like his best shot. I guess if he doesn't make it, he will be back to the hotel later tonight. Only time will tell.

I was going to go get some of that 'BEST ice cream EVER', but the Subte workers have been on strike for five days now and getting there would have been a pain. There are taxis, but now due to the strike prices are ridiculous and not to mention traffic is nuts! So after I said goodbye to dad, I walked to the bank. There was a guy in there that was literally yelling and hitting the ATM. It was quite the scene. I was a little freaked out, so I got my money and got out of there ASAP! Then I came back to the hotel and ordered pizza. It was actually the best pizza I've had since I've been here! Since then I have been organizing my stuff and getting ready to return home. It is all very bittersweet. I am excited to go home, but not excited to leave South America.

Tomorrow afternoon I am going to see Pupi one last time before I take the taxi to the airport. It will be so good to see her. I really have missed her!

I hope you all have enjoyed reading my blog about my summer. It has been some of the most wonderful three months of my life! See you all north of the Equator!

P.S. There will be more posts to come!

 

More Traveling...

Yesterday we spent the day touring more of Cuzco. It really is a beautiful city and the people are just as nice. We took a cab to Cristo Blanco and then back down to Plaza de San Blas. It had a really nice waterfall and some really cool art work! From here we went and toured the coca museum. It was very interesting and we learned so much! Peru is one of the largest coca producers in South America. They use coca leaves for all types of medicinal purposes and they really swear by it. A ton of Peruvians walk around chewing on coca leaves...they kind of tastes like alfalfa to me. 

We then walked back down to Plaza de Armas and had lunch at Inka Grill, which is a very yummy place to eat! Then we soaked up the sun on a bench in the plaza. It was very peaceful and relaxing. At night we packed our bags and got ready for our flight this morning.

Today all we did was travel. We got to the airport in Cuzco at about 7:30 AM to find out our flight at 10 AM was cancelled and they had put us on an earlier flight. Talk about good customer service. We flew from Cuzco to Lima, had about a two hour layover, where we caught some lunch and got stamped out of the country. From Lima we flew to Buenos Aires and arrived at about 8:00 PM. We took it really easy and checked into our hotel and then went and got some dinner. 

Tomorrow we are taking the bus to Iguazu and will be back in Buenos Aires on the 8th! Until next time!

Another Catch Up!

After M.P. we stayed one more night in Aguas Calientes. In the morning we went to the hot springs and it was really nice! After this we caught some lunch in the plaza and headed to the train station, where we caught our train back to Ollantaytombo. We all had a nice nap on the train ride.

When we got to Ollantaytombo, we caught a cab to Urubamba where we toured the city plaza and got some coffee to go. Urubamba is very cool and a very nice place. We checked out the ceramic shop next to the cafe and they had some really awesome stuff! Georgia got some really cool handmade espresso mugs with plates to go under them. They were very original and so sweet!

We didn't have much time here and we then took the cab back to Cuzco. Our driver was nuts and was driving like a racecar up the mountain. My stomach was in knots by the time we got to Cuzco and I was not excited for dinner. We got back at about 6:30 AM and then went to meet Greg and Kay in the Plaza de Armas for supper. After we said goodbye to them, I got sick again and we came back to the hotel and I threw up. However, afterward I felt way better and slept so good last night!

When I woke up this morning, I thought we had slept in, but it was still 8 AM. We got up and had eggs for breakfast, it was very delicious. Afterwards we chilled in the room until about 11:30 AM and then we ventured to the chocolate museum. We learned all about cacao and the history of it. It was so interesting and they even had cooking classes where you could go through the entire process from tree to chocolate. We didn't do that, but it we did try some that they had made there.

After we explored some more of Cuzco, got some very yummy lunch and then went shopping for the rest of the afternoon!!! We bought lots of Peruvian things and it was awesome! Tonight in our hotel we met up with our Venezuelan friend, Pablo, that we met at the top of Mount Machu Picchu. We have been reminiscing with him for a long time now and it has been fun. But we better go get something to eat and then head to bed! Tomorrow we plan on exploring Cuzco a little more, but I will for sure be sleeping in!

10,000 Steps Before Noon

On Tuesday we went to Machu Picchu!!! It was magnificent times a trillion! M.P only lets about 2500 people into the park everyday and only so many to hike the mountains around it. Huaynupicchu is about a 30 minute hike up and the 30 minutes hike down. This is the one I had planned on us doing, because everyone said it was awesome. Well when I went to reserve our tickets, that hike was sold out. So I reserved us tickets to hike Mount Machu Picchu instead. This is an hour and half up and an hour and half down (so they say).

We left Aguas Calientes at about 6:30 AM. We took a bus that went up the mountain on winding switchbacks. It was very intense. We arrived at the park at 7 AM. From the entrance we began our hike. It was about 2900 stairs (not really sure what they counted as stairs), 30-45 degree inclines, 3000 foot increase in elevation, kind of like climbing a rock wall in some parts, and a very long way to look down off the edge. It was a walk in the park...NOT!! After two hours we finally made it to the top and M.P. was pocket-sized, but still beautiful.

Georgia looking down at dad and I from above the hiking path

The hiking path and Georgia

WE MADE IT!!! Looking down at M.P.

We had a very nice break at the top of the mountain (about an hour) where we had a nice snack, because we were in dire need of something to eat. There was a tour guide at the top that was there to ask any questions that we may have had and he was very helpful...until he fell in love with Georgia. Then all of his efforts were focused on following her around the top of the mountain. It was very funny and very entertaining though. 

We finally began our hike back down, which was not as bad as we had anticipated. At the beginning of our hike down, we ran into our friends Greg and Kay. They are from Colorado as well, I don't know if I mentioned that before. They are a blast!!! Hiking down was just as easy as going up...NOT! We finally made it to the bottom of the mountain about two hours later and we were ready to kiss the ground. We looked to the top of the mountain and were so proud that we had just climbed that.

Meeting our friends! Georgia, Kay, Me, Greg and dad

WE MADE IT! The mountain in the background is where we were two hours earlier

After this we went and toured the actual ruins of M.P. They were so breathtaking! 

B-E-A-UTIFUL!

In the Princess Chambers

What a view!

Looking back on the ruins

More ruins

Dad and I

Funny Story: We are looking down the mountain from M.P. and across the river there were lots of people in camping in tents. Since I have been immersed in the Spanish language for about 3 months now, my English has really gotten worse. When I look over the edge, I see these tents and I say, "Hey look guys, they're tenting!"

We had a great day at the ruins and it was a beautiful! Definitely worth going! We were all very sore and quite sunburned by the end of the day. We caught the bus back down to Aguas Calientes and the ride back down was quite treacherous. However, we only came to a slamming stop once on the way down to back up and avoid hitting another bus going up the mountain. I have very much faith in the drivers here, even though you would probably classify them as "crazy drivers." 

We all went out to eat around the plaza and then Georgia and I got massages! It was well worth it because the next morning we were really sore. I will post another update about the last two days here really soon. I promise. It has been a struggle just to get the three posted that I have in the last two weeks.


Hope all is well!

The Trip to Aguas Calientes

On Monday we all woke up and checked out of our hotel and caught a taxi to a town called Ollantaytambo. It was about an hour and a half car ride and we stopped to check out some Inca ruins along the way. This is where the train station is to catch the train to Machu Picchu.

Little girl at the market at the ruins we stopped to look at

Before we reached Ollantaytambo, Georgia woke up from a nap and realized that she had left her passport with our bags at our hotel in Cuzco (we didn't want to lug around big bags to Machu Picchu). We contemplated going back and getting it, but decided that maybe we could just use her drivers license. When we checked in to the train we asked the guy at the ticket counter and he said her drivers license would work just fine, so we relaxed and went and got some lunch close to the Inca ruins.

There is a huge Inca archeological site of ruins here and it was so beautiful! We wanted to explore so we convinced the guy at the restaurant to keep our bags while we hiked the ruins. We hiked up and down the site and all over the place. We even got yelled at for walking on the grass...oops. There was so much history and it was crazy to see how perfect the rocks were carved to fit together with each other. We met some people along the way that we toured with and they were really funny. Dad hiked down a set of stairs where he thought he could hike all the way down, but it just ended at a cliff. Those people saw him and the lady said "Oh no, if he wants to live he better turn around." She was quite worried about him actually. We spent about 3 hours at the site and it was so much fun!

Looking up

Georgia and I climbing up

Looking down

After this we walked around the city and watched a little kid spin his top in the small alleyway. It is such a wonderful city and the Inca lifestyle is very well preserved. From here we had to go back to the restaurant where we tipped the guy 4 Soles for watching our bags and then we caught a really awesome ride to the train station. The train ride was awesome and we got to see a ton of Inca ruins along the way along with small farming villages. There is no other way to get to Aguas Calientes unless you go by train.

We got here to Aguas Calientes and went to the address that we had for our hostel and guess what? There was no hostel by that name in that area. We asked a couple of people if they knew where to go (good practice for the Spanish) and the pointed us in the right direction. We found a hostel by the same name, but they did not have a reservation for us. Well apparently there are two hostels with the same name. One is a backpacker hostel and the other is a bed & breakfast. The guy from the backpacker hostel was very nice and led us to the bed and breakfast one where we ultimately had a reservation. Talk about an adventure!

We got checked into our hostel and our room is very nice. When we checked in they had to photocopy our passports. Well and Georgia's drivers license :) When we went to get our passports to go get our Machu Picchu tickets, they couldn't find Georgia's drivers license...things got quite stressful for about 5 minutes. The lady left and miraculously came back with her license in her hand. We were quite relieved. We got to the place to get our tickets and the guy was such a jerk about Georgia not having her passport. He told her multiple times that he would not issue her a ticket until she showed her passport. After a while of arguing with him and insisting that she did have a form of identification, he finally handed us 3 tickets!

After this we got some dinner at a really nice restaurant where a local band played really good music, however once we bought their CD's they quit playing and left :( We have to get up early and be at Machu Picchu at 7:00 AM. Hope all is well.

P.S. There will be more pictures when I get back home and have a better internet connection. It took all night just to load these four. Yikes!

A Catch Up!

On Thursday we caught a cab downtown to Plaza San Martin.

Plaza San Martin-Lima, Peru

Plaza San Martin-Lima, Peru

After exploring the plaza and checking out the statue we walked down to Plaza de Armas, which is surrounded by The Cathedral of Lima, The Government Palace and some other historical buildings. We toured the Cathedral and it was beautiful inside. The also just discovered tombs under the church about 5 years ago. It was so interesting to learn about the history of Lima and we had our own little guided tour.

First look at The Cathedral of Lima

Closer view

The casket where Francisco Pizarro (the founder of Peru) is buried

The tombs underneath the church

The main alter

More tombs

Where the babies are buried

Plaza de Armas-Lima, Peru

The Government Palace

After our tour here, we walked to the San Francisco church that contains the catacombs underneath of it. They said it was the first public cemetery in Lima. We were not allowed to take pictures here, so that is why there are none :)

On Friday, we took a cab about 40 minutes from our hotel to Miraflores, which is on the coast of Lima. It was beautiful there and we enjoyed lunch alongside Parque Kennedy. From there we walked down to a couple of really beautiful parks and the weather was awesome! We watched people paraglide off of the top of a hill over the ocean and people surfing. It was very relaxing and a really nice part of Lima to explore. If I were to come back to Lima, I would look into staying down in Miraflores.

The climate from Argentina to Peru was quite a change. We were freezing in Mendoza and in Lima it was about 70 degrees and the sun was just beating down and it felt really good. Our hotel was supposedly in the dangerous part of Lima in a neighborhood called Callao, which was only 5 minutes from the airport. It was quite different than the rest of Lima and at night I’m sure was not safe, but our hotel was really nice and the staff was really friendly. However, after taking cabs down to different parts of Lima, it was really hard to find a cab that would take us back to Callao, because supposedly there is something with cameras and cab drivers getting tickets for going to Callao. It was an ordeal when we were looking for a cab to take us back.

Georgia arrived on Friday night and it has been great to meet up with her again for the rest of our travels. We got up early Saturday morning to catch a cab to the airport for our 8:45 AM flight to Cuzco. I had booked our hotel at about 10:30 PM last night, so we didn’t really know what to expect. When we arrived, I had a reservation for a triple room, but supposedly they gave our room away this morning to some other people and they wanted to put us in a double and a single. I was a little bit frustrated and the guy finally made some calls and we got a room with four beds in it :)

After we checked in we went to explore the city some more and grab something to eat for lunch. I really like it here in Cuzco and the people are really nice and friendly. We walked up the street from our hotel to Plaza de Armas. On the way we saw the Convento de Santo Domingo which was huge and very beautiful. There were also ladies dressed up in bright colors carrying little lambs around to get money for taking pictures of them. I snapped a quick picture without them knowing, though...oops. We continued walking to the Plaza where The Cathedral of Cuzco and the Compania de Jesus. The architecture here is wonderful!

Saturday was Independence Day so most of the sights were closed for us to go see, not to mention the cost quite a bit of money to see them all. After exploring, we walked back to our hotel to take a nap before we met Greg and Kay for dinner. I had a nice nap, but when I woke up I started feeling sick and I was freezing cold. Of course, I was not a happy camper! So on our way to dinner we asked the front desk to put bigger thicker blankets in our room. All the way to dinner I complained about how I did not want to stay in this hotel for two nights and I wanted to find some other place to stay. So when we walked by the market, Georgia and dad made me find an alpaca blanket to buy so I would be warmer while I was sleeping. I am also a very picky shopper, so I made sure they knew we were going to be late meeting Greg and Kay. They said that was fine as long as they didn’t have to hear me complain about being cold all night.

We met Greg and Kay at Norton’s Pub and I had some orange juice and hot tea because I could feel I was coming down with something. Before we left the restaurant I had already thrown up and we went to another restaurant where we ate dinner. I had a salad that was delicious and very light on my stomach. The food there was so delicious! When we got back to the hotel, I felt 10 times worse and could hardly talk. When we walked into our room, there was a space heater and nice thick alpaca blankets. Of course, the words that came out of my mouth were “This is the best hotel ever!” Which dad and Georgia laughed hysterically at!

Today dad and Georgia went to Pisac which has a huge market and is quite a sight to see here. I had a rough night of coughing, throwing up, and blowing my nose, so I spent my day lying in bed. I am feeling quite a bit better now and am hoping I feel so much more better tomorrow because we taking the train to Aguas Calientes so we can go to Machu Picchu on Tuesday!

I have been meaning to blog, but it has been really busy and Wi-Fi only works in certain places so this one is just a really long one to catch you up on everything. I hope everything is well at home! I will post pictures of Cuzco when I get the chance. It took 4 hours for the pictures of Lima to load, so that is why there are no more :( The internet here only works in the lobby and I think it is time I get to bed! There will definitely be more to come. Maybe tomorrow, but we will see ;)

Relaxation...

Yesterday morning we both slept in until it was time to check-out of our hostel at 10:00 AM. We then enjoyed a small breakfast and went for a walk to Parque San Martin, which is the big park in Mendoza that I went to last time I was there. We had about 5 hours to kill and since the park is bigger than the actual city of Mendoza, we felt it was a great way to pass the time. 

We stopped at Havanna and got caramel lattes to go and walked the 15 blocks to the park. We roamed around the lake and as much as the park that we could. There were many people rowing on the lake, so it was fun to just sit in the warm sun and watch them go back and forth. It has been really nice to just sit back and relax. After a while we headed back to town to grab some lunch before we had to catch our taxi to the airport. 

Our flight left Mendoza at 5:15 PM and from there we flew to Santiago, Chile and had a 3 hour layover and then flew to Lima, Peru. By the time we landed in Lima it was 11:15 PM and I was so tired! We got a taxi to our hotel, which was about 5 minutes away and cost us $20 US which was a HUGE  rip off. Our hotel is very nice, but our taxi driver said that it is not a safe part of the city...I think he just wanted to take us further into town and then charge us more though. The staff at the hotel is very helpful and this morning for breakfast they made us scrambled eggs with ham in them! It was so delicious! Today I think we will take a cab downtown to the historic center and check it out!

Also, I didn't really explain this, but mate is something that is very comparable to tea leaves, but is not usually infused like tea is. Here is a link to explain it in more detail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29. I proofread it and it is very accurate for :) Drinking mate is a very large part of the culture in Argentina and is a very popular thing to do amongst friends and family. It's what you would call a social activity.

Hope all is well! I will be here in Lima until Saturday morning when we fly to Cuzco!

The High Andes

Today we woke up at 7:00 AM to go on a tour up into the Andes Mountains. It was a blast! We rode in a van for most of the day and periodically made stops along the way. Our first stop was in a little town called Uspallata where people rented snow gear and sleds for the day. We were just there to enjoy the scenery and learn about the country so we didn't rent anything :) Our last stop was Las Cuevas, which is where we ate lunch, and it was delicious!  Along the way we saw:

Puente del Inca (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_del_Inca)

 

 

 

Lago Potrerillos - man made lake where all the irrigation water comes from

THE ANDES!

Natural wall and the Mendoza River

First view of Aconcagua -the snowy one in the middle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua)

Ski area- there hasn't been enough snow to ski this year though :(

Looking the opposite way from the ski slope...very much a desert

Second view of Aconcagua. It's the cloud covered one in the middle this time.

Picheuta Colonial Bridge

Tired out and tired of the cold ;)

We got back home at 7:00 PM. It was quite a long day and we are both exhausted. We were very close to Chile today (about 5 km) and if you would like to see the route we took into the mountains go to Google Maps and "Get Directions" from Mendoza, Argentina to Las Cuevas, Mendoza, Argentina. When we started to head back to Mendoza I saw a sign that said it was 197 kilometers away-I had no idea we had gone that far. It took us about 3 hours to get back down the mountain and man do those truckers drive crazy! There were a ton of tunnels a long the way and the country was such a sight to see. However, I will definitely be sleeping in tomorrow :)