Greetings from Valparaiso

So here we are in the old port town of Valparaiso, Chile. This, folks, is a wonderful city. It combines the gritty youth of Berlin with the old charm of Paris, is small enough that you can walk around the centre, has lots of hills with labyrinthian alleys, a ton of awesome graffiti, bins made from hand-decorated old oil drums, and, oh yes, it's by the sea.

Tomorrow evening we'll reluctantly head an hour and a half in land, back to Santiago, before continuing our journey south to Patagonia. There are, of course, volcanoes to climb.

(ps. we went paragliding. twas fun)

Un cambio de direccion, y el discubrimiento de la oceano (otra vez)

After sandboarding, and making the girl at the hostel really angry for getting sand everywhere in the bathroom, we left San Pedro, heading north for a change, arriving in the seaside town of Iquique at 5.00 this morning. Slept on the sofas of the hostel, drank some Pap, got abuse from a cafe owner and it is extremely likely that we will be hitting the beach shortly.

I hate sand.

Snowboarding on the moon

Kilometraje arido

Following our 3 day sojourn across Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, we hopped onto an extremely crowded little bus and crossed the border into northern Chile. The change was felt immediately: paved roads, complete with nice cars and signposts, well-kept buildings, and unfortunately, much higher prices. We were searched extensively at customs (I guess that's what happens when you go from somewhere that produces as much cocaine as Bolivia into somewhere more developed like Chile), and arrived at the little oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama. I can honestly say we have yet to find somewhere as pleasant as San Pedro on our travels. However, it's a little bit stranded in the middle of the Atacama, the world's most inhospitable and arid desert. The scorching temperatures and zero levels of humidity mean that absolutely nothing will grow out here. So of course, Steve and I hired some bikes to check out the nothing, and rode across the desert highway for a bit, happening on the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), an area of astounding moonscapes. We explored a little bit, finding a cave and crawling through it, climbing on rocks and getting lost, before getting far too hot and tired (this is a desert afterall) and scrambling back up the sand dunes and onto the highway for a downhill return to San Pedro.

This afternoon: sandboarding on a 300m high sand dune.

More foodstuffs

(Note: Click to view whole photos)


A portrait of two fools


We swam in this at 7 in the morning


Volcano land



Our ride


Riding across the Atacama desert, Chile

Photo update

Note: click to view whole photos


70 metres down, Potosi silver mines, Bolivia


Train graveyard, Uyuni, Bolivia


HOLDING LIT DYNAMITE, Potosi, Bolivia


One man and his Charango, Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia


Our ride across the Salar, Bolivia

Feliz cumple Francis!

big shout out to Guini.

There would be photos, but the internet here is SO SLOW, it barely even loaded our blog. I think uploading photos is being a bit too optimistic.

So, I shall have to paint you a picture with my words.

After the mines yesterday, we wandered around Potosi. It was an alright city, though I may not be the best authority on such a thing. Everyone weve met has said how horrible Lima and Quito and La Paz were, but I liked them. The other travellers weve met complain too much. It annoys me a bit. Its ALL exciting.

Ended up in a batshitinsane coffee shop called El Farol, the sign on the door said open, but it was locked. We rang a bell and a little old lady scuttled out and let us in. Nothing could have prepared us for the decor; cardboard knights on the wall, crowns for lampshades, the biggest spoons in existence adorning the various surfaces, it was all weird beyond belief, as if we were stuck in some time capsule. We had some coffee, I asked if she had any desserts, she said she had orange juice. No thanks. About 20 minutes later the old lady declares she has a "chocolate liquor". Sure. She disappears downstairs and returns some time later with some kind of alcoholic chocolate pudding. Weird as this place is, the pudding was delicious. So we finish up and get the bill, sign her guestbook (20 years worth of visitors comments), and then she and a new arrival proceed to tell us that the decoration is very typical of colonial Potosi.

Now, either my spanish isnt as good as it should be and I misunderstood, or they were having us on, because there is no way that anyone anywhere at any point in history has decorated anything like this.

Except of course this off-her-gourd-but-totally-lovely old lady.

(reminded me of Beryl a little bit!)

So we went back to the hostel and watched Peep Show and The Lost World and Friends (hooray for cable tv!). To accompany this visual feast I went out and bought the biggest cheese rolls known to man. Today we got a bus (bags on the bus) 6 hours across the desert (with people standing, or should I say leaning on me, the whole way) to the small town of Uyuni.

Tomorrow morning we embark on a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni (the worlds largest salt flats), before hopping over the border to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Tonight we will feast at Minuteman Pizza. I am so excited about this, you have no idea. Its gonna be up there with the Amazon and Machu Picchu, fo sho. Serioso, Minuteman pizza today, and San Pedro in a few days. If only Mike Watt was here.





look at all the pretty pictures i can make trying to find the "apostrophe" key:
,☺♂☺☻♥☻A♦§←ÐÙ┼

Pavement reform!

It has just come to my attention that the band Pavement are reforming for some shows in 2010. This is, like, amazing. Seriously. Pavement. ;D

In other news, Steve and I are currently in the town of Potosi. Once home to the biggest supply of silver anywhere in the world ever, this has now dried up, yet mines in the Cerro Rico continue. We took a trip down the mines this morning to have a look at what´s going down. Here´s what we observed.

Miners drink before going down...this drink is 96% alcohol. It would have been rude of us to refuse to try some...

Dynamite is very cheap to buy. Just under 2 english pounds for a stick and a fuse. It would have been foolish of us not to buy some...

It´s quite hard to breathe in the mines. It´s quite hard to move in the mines. It´s quite hard to do anything there. 70 metres down on the lowest level, we met and spoke with a miner, then had a go at doing his job. Would not like to do that for 9 hours a day for 6 bolivianos (roughly 60p) per kilo extracted. No sirree bob.

Climbing out of the mine (on ones stomach) is even worse than going down.

This hellishness was compensated by blowing up the aforementioned dynamite.

Twas fun.

Photos when I find a place that will let me upload them.

also...PAVEMENT REFORM.

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

SM, Spiral Stairs, Bob Nastanovich, Mark Ibold and Steve West.

Pick out some brazillian nuts for your engagement, check that expiration date man! It´s later than you think.

Heaven is a truck, it got stuck on the breeze.

DON´T WORRY! WE´RE IN NO HURRY! SCHOOL´S OUT. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

I wanna range life, if i could settle down, if i could settle down, then i would settle down.

WE ARE UNDERUUUUUSED

What about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy (I know him, and he does), then you´re my fact checkin´cuz...

I don´t remember lying, I don´t remember lying, I don´t remember a word but I DONT CARE; DONT CARE did you see the drummers hair?

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Touche Huayna Potosi, touche...

(Note: click to see whole pictures)

Day 1: Arrive at base camp, then climbing across the glacier at the foot of the mountain
Day 2: Leave at 9.00am, climb up to the high camp at 5100 metres with our big backpacks, filled with our new snow boots, crampons and icepicks. Arrive at the camp around midday, play uno.
Day 3: Wake up at 1.00am, leave at 2.00am, and climb up to the summit of Huayna Potosi (6088 metres), mostly in the dark. Come back down again. It will surely be the highest we reach on this trip (and unless we go climbing Everest or something (8800 metres if you were wondering) maybe ever).

The Most Dangerous Road in the World

The Amazon´s Most Deadly Creature

Unboliviable!

A 3 course meal in Bolivia: 2 pounds fifty
A night in a Bolivian hostel: 2 pounds fifty
A good time in Bolivia: Priceless (well...five pounds)

------------------------------------------

So Peru came and went, we crossed the border with no problems and arrived in Copacabana (not that one) on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Visited the birthplace of the Incas, the Isla del Sol, before getting a bus (and an unexpected boat) to La Paz.

So La Paz seems to be a rather crazy place. The drive through the outskirts was fairly terrifying (plenty of "dont break down here" moments), unpaved roads, fires in the street, rubbish piled metres high in the middle of the street, general destruction, that sort of thing. Then of course theres the city itself, witches markets, llama foetuses for sale, masked shoeshines (masks because they are ashamed of their job), the hairdressers district where I get harrassed to shave my beard every 2 steps (never! - "why?" I reply with a smile "its not ok?", to which I get a stern response), Chorita Wrestling (a woman got set on fire!!!), buses held together with safety pins racing past spitting fumes in our face, meeting with our german pals randomly in the street having last seen them in Cusco weeks ago, and of course, a llama tikka massala at the worlds highest curry hut (allegedly).

Next up: climbing 6000 metres to Huayana Potosi, and biking down the worlds most dangerous road. If we survive either, that is.

Big Fat South American Blog

If there´s anyone at all that bothers to read this, then I apologise for not updating it or making it more entertaining or whatever, and most of all, for the complete lack of photos (excepting one, of course). Assuming that there are people reading this, here´s what´s been going down.

The last time I wrote something that wasn´t a Ricky Gervais Show fan fiction, we´d just arrived in Cusco. We spent a couple of days there before setting off on a 4 day trek to Machu Picchu. The trek itself was lots of fun, walking through the Lares valley in the Andes. We had to climb 3 mountain passes, the highest we got was 4600 metres, I indulged in some high altitude dancing (not a good idea), and camped at 4300 metres. It got very cold at night, and I went to the toilet (read: hole in the ground), couldn´t find it, slipped over on the ice, and thought I´d never find my way back to the tent.

Upon finishing the bulk of the trek in a town called Ollytaytambo, the rest of the group collapsed in a cafe or bar. This kind of laziness doesn´t appeal to Steve and I, so we went and climbed the hundreds of steps at the Inca temple that overlooks the town. Then we climbed the mountain that overlooks the Inca temple. Following this we chowed on guinea pig (disappointing) and drank coca tea by the gallon. Caught the train to Agua Caliente (remember trains?) and slept.

4am next morning we caught the bus up to Machu Picchu. I´ll let the picture below do the talking for now, but after strolling round it, Steve and I found it nessecary to climb another mountain that overlooks the complex. Not the smartest move at midday in subtropical conditions, but even though it was about 10 times harder than the 4 day trek, it was worth it when we got to the top.

Back to Cusco on train, went to see a football match (Cusco v Liverpool from Uruguay). Spent a week or so in Cusco, did some white water rafting, made some friends, more Incan temples, explored markets, and Steve did the highest bungee jump in the Americas (4th highest in the world). I got up there and chickened out like the spineless gimp I am.

From Cusco we got an overnight bus to Nazca, arriving at 7.30am. By 9.00am we were on a 5 seater plane flying over the desert, admiring the mysterious Nazca lines below. We then crashed out at a hostel, ate suspect hamburgers, generally killing time before our second nightbus in a row.

Arrived in Arequipa early the next morning and found a cool little hostel. We were in a small dorm with a middle aged american an (we affectionately called him "Baldy") who liked to get naked in front of us (4 times in one day, seriously wtf). Walked down, camped in, swam in, then up Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. Lots of fun. Got seriously screwed over with bus tickets by a tourist operator named David. I´m gonna suckerpunch him if I ever see him again. Made me feel like a complete tourist (which, of course I am, but I don´t like to be reminded of it).

HORRIBLE bus ride from Arequipa to Puno - the hottest, slowest bus in the world (which upon starting off had no problem playing a game of chicken with oncoming taxis and oil tankers, but once on the highway slowed to a painful 4km an hour). Had possibly the best pizza I´ve ever had in Puno, and the next morning (another early start...) got a boat to the Uros Islands on Lake Titicaca. These islands are manmade from reeds, have been there for about 1200 years or so. Steve and I chatted with the islands´leader, and had a look round his house. Then a 3 hour boat trip to Amantani Island, where we stayed the night with a family. Not native Spanish speakers, they spoke the Incan language of Qechua, although Ismael the father and one of the sons spoke some Spanish. We played a game of football with some of the locals (at about 4000m this was particularly knackering) and, er, went to a fiesta at night (the less said about our traditional costumes the better). The best part? Watching the youngest sons reaction as I moved my ears up and down, and teaching him how to play thumb wars.

So despite all this cool stuff, at the moment I´m holed up in the back room of a ladies sportswear shop which is also doubling as an internet cafe, feeling completely under the weather, and not looking forward to the early morning start tomorrow.

One good thing will come of it however: by 10.00am we´ll have crossed into Bolivia...

ps. social faux pas of the trip so far...
Gareth to 6 year old Uros Island girl (in spanish): Where is your bed?