nuestro norte es el sur

Fotos de la casa

2009-12-04T08:09:00.018-05:00

Hola a todos! Aca pusimos algunas fotos de nuestra casita en Punta del Diablo, para que vean que linda esta quedando. Todavia faltan mas arreglos y mejoras, pero por ahora es asi. Hello again everyone! We have added some photos of our house in Punta del Diablo, just so you can all see how nicely it's coming along. We still have a lot more home improvements planned, but this is what it looks like for now.

Home. (Punta. con punto al fin)

2009-08-20T07:44:00.007-04:00

Bueno, resulta este blog ha sido el mas dificil de escribir, en parte porque tal vez de alguna manera no queremos terminar con este “viaje” todavia, y en parte porque demoraron mucho en ponernos la conexion de internet! Pero ya tenemos internet, y telefono, y estamos aca instalandonos en el destino final. Y a pesar de unos pequenios inconvenientes, ya nos estamos aclimatizando los cuatro a nuestras vidas nuevas. Este blog lo venimos escribiendo hace rato, asi que algunas cosas pueden parecer un poco atrasados, pero por lo menos les sirve para saber en que andamos.
Fue un dia soleado y frio cuando salimos de Montevideo, un poco mas tarde de lo pensado porque nos llevo un monton de tiempo organizarnos para salir. Salimos rumbo el este por la rambla, pasando toda la parte costera de Montevideo. Ibamos bastante lento debido al peso de todas las cosas (cajas de libros y cosas que habiamos mandado desde Canada hace meses) pero de a poco pasamos las ciudades de la costa, Piripolis, Punta del Este…Llegamos a la frontera departamental con Rocha cuando estaba empezando a oscurecer. Casi enseguida nos empezamos a sentir que la camioneta perdia fuerza cuando estabamos en subida (subiditas uruguayas que, despues de estar en las montanias, no son nada). Fue muy extranio. Pensabamos que le pasaba algo al canio de escape, porque despues de un rato la camioneta recuperaba fuerzas de nuevo. Inclusive en un par de lugares tuvimos que bajar a empujar! Paramos para poner nafta en Rocha, a una hora mas o menos de nuestro destino. Al arrancar la camioneta hizo el amague de nuevo, como que no quieria andar y no tenia fuerzas, pero alli salto y anduvo. Al rato pasamos la entrada para Castillos y despues la de La Esmeralda, y sabiamos que no faltaba mucho para llegar – estabamos muy ansiosos y emocionados! Al final, alli en la distancia vimos las luces de la entrada a Punta del Diablo. Con mucha emocion, doblamos para entrar al pubelo y…..nada. La camioneta no quieria ir ni para atrás ni para adentante. Alli estabamos estancados conmpletamente. Nos llevo un par de minutos para reacionar. Como? Si la camioneta nos llevo fielmente mas de 20 000 km como podia parar ahora, a solo 5 km de casa? Muy loco. No lo podiamos creerlo. No nos quedaba otro que reirnos! Despues de reaccionar un poco, llamamos a Isaac y Monica, que sabian que veniamos ese dia, y nos venieron a rescatar. En ese momento justo pasaba el taxi del pueblo, y nos tiro con una cuerdita los ultimos kilometros hasta casa. Cuando llegamos Miguel e Irene nos habian hecho el fueguito y entramos a nuestra casita quierida, por fin. Ahhh. Me pueden decir que no creen en el destino o lo que sea, pero es muy fuerte – como vamos a venir a quedarnos en la entrada del pueblo despues de recorrer toda Latinoamerica sin problemas mayores? Hablandolo despues con todo el mundo lo vimos muy simbolico ya que habiamos llegado al destino final y que nuestra querida camioneta ya lo sabia. Punto. El otro dia nos levantamos con el sonido de los pajaritos en los arboles, y el sol saliendo sobre el mar (vista que tenemos todos los dias de nuestro cuarto – un lujo total!). Al segundo dia Mateo empezo las clases, y ahora esta esperando la llegada de su propio laptop verde por el Plan CEIBAL! Ya esta bastante integrado, y el viernes 15 estamos de cumpleanios con los amigos aca en casa. Ariel tambien ya empezo en el liceo en La Coronilla (un pueblo a 30 minutos por omnibus al norte de aca) y esta bastante nervioso. Va a tener que estudiar bastante para poder pasar los examanes y pasar de anio despues de perder tantas clases. Pero esta entusiasmado y el sabe que lo puede lograr. Hasta tiene clases los sabados – esta salado el liceo aca! Esta contento porque tiene ganas de meterse a trabajar con un refugio de tortugas marinas ubicado en La Coronilla que se llama Karumbe (http://www.karumbe.org/web/index.htm).
El otro dia fuimos todos a Chuy, la ciudad pequenia que esta en la frontera con Brasil (a unos 50 minutos de casa, pasando la Coronilla) donde todo el mundo que vive aca va hacer las compras – literalmente, de un lado de la calle estas en Uruguay, y del otro estas en Brasil. Aunque nunca cruzas la frontera oficialmente, hay unos controles que te paran volviendo a Punta del Diablo y te controlan las compras (mas sobre esto despues....) Mas que nada es porque hay unas tiendas de Duty Free que oficialmente no podes comprar si no sos extranjero – es raro. Antes el Chuy era conocido como un lugar donde los uruguayos iban a comprar comidas y cosas de la casa muy barato, pero ahora que Brazil es mas caro que Uruguay, es donde van los brasileros a comprar electrodomesticos, etc. Por supuesto, nosotros seguimos yendo para comprar vinos tintos ricos y baratos! Uno de los aspectos mas interesantes del Chuy es la influencia palestina; pasando por sus tiendas uno los ve fumando sus pipas de agua y mirando el canal Al Jazeera por el TV cable. Y, por supuesto, Gustavo y los nenes comierons un bauru con ovo – un sandwiche caliente brasilero con un huevo en el medio.
El pueblo de Punta del Diablo ha cambiado un monton en algunos aspectos, con muchisimas casas nuevas (en la cuadra de nosotros eramos la primera casa, y ahora esta lleno!) pero en otros aspectos esta, por suerte, igual. Las playas son iguales, preciosas, y por el momento, vacias de turistas – todo para nosotros. El otro dia vimos focas en la playa, y una joven se quedo media atrapada entre las rocas, llorando hasta que vino una ola a sacarla de alli. Hace dos semanas habia un pinguinito cansado que se quedo por un tiempito en el pueblo, cuidado por la gente, hasta que recupero las fuerzas y se fue de nuevo al mar. Agosto y Setiembre son los mejores meses para ver ballenas en el agua, aca a la orillita nomas. La mayoria de los dias hay un sol rajante, y aunque haga frio hay una calidad inexplicable en el aire –es la luz, o el olor a mar, no se exacatamente que es–que te hacen despertar los sentidos y sentir completamente vivo. Desgraciadamente para la camioneta, vivir tan cerca de la playa quiere decir que hay mucho salitre en el aire, cosa que nos tiene un poco preocupados (vamos a tener que darle un banito de vez en cuando!).
Ahora, despues de otro viaje a Montevideo para buscar los resultados de la tomografia computada de Gustavo (que salieron muy bien) estamos de nuevo en Punta del Diablo. Mateo tuvo su cumpleanios el otro dia, e invito algunos de sus amigos para celebrar sus 10 anitos con una piniata de diablito, una torta hecha por Mimi y unos juegos divertidisimos animados por Ana. Manejando desde Montevideo con la camioneta llena de cosas – otra vez un domingo de tarde – nos vimos el atardacer mas hermoso que hemos visto en mucho tiempo, fue espectacular, un rojo vivo con el paisaje de las palmeras de Rocha y las vacas en el campo. Fue impresionante, y fue la bienvenida que nos faltaba. Este momento nos sirvio para subrayar porque hemos decidido hacer nuestra casa en este lugar del mundo. Es realmente un lugar magico…
Noticias: Magico o tal vez es un lugar mufa. Todavia esta por decidirse cual! El otro dia despues de dejar al Ari en su liceo, a Gustavo lo pararon en la “aduana” que esta en Coronilla (expliquenme porque hay una aduana 30 km de la frontera?) Les parecio “sospechoso” que Gustavo estuviera con la camioneta con papeles de turista al mismo tiempo que esta llevando a su hijo al liceo aca. Para hacerlo corto, a pesar de que todos los paperles estan en orden, se quedaron con la camioneta y mandaron a Gustavo y Mateo en el omnibus a casa! Mateo lloraba alli en frente de los aduaneros, y nada. Paso la noche con pesadillas – imaginense: hace 7 meses que esa camioneta es nuestra casa; ya es parte de la familia! Ahora tenemos que contratar un abogado para demandar que nos lo la devulevan, y aunque no hicimos absolutamente nada mal, eso va a demorar hasta por lo menos la semana que viene. Les hacemos saber como sale todo esto – por lo menos nos sirve de excusa para seguir con el blog un rato mas!
Ahora que llegamoshasta aca queriamos agradecerles a todos que nos han estado siguiendo – haciendo comentarios o anonimamente - en este aventura - le verdad que nos hizo sentir siempre acompaniados saber que tanta gente nos estaba alentando durante todo el camino. Gracias a todos!

Well, this entry has proven somehow to be the most difficult to write– maybe in part because it is kind of sad to know that it is the “last” one of our trip and we are somehow a bit reluctant to end it, and also in part because we have been waiting forever for our internet connection. But, now we finally have a home phone and internet service. Despite a few small glitches (to be detailed below) we have arrived at our final destination and are all four of us just now beginning to settle into our new lives.
It was a bright and sunny but crisp day when we left Montevideo just after the last blog entry. We ended up leaving later than we expected because it took us a while to get ourselves organized, but we finally piled ourselves as much of our stuff (we had shipped some boxes of books for my thesis, the kids books, rugs, etc.) as we could cram into the westy and took off. We drove along the rambla (which is a long and rambling boardwalk all along the Rio de la Plata, which basically extends from the old city to the outskirts of town, the entire length of the city) enjoying a typical winter-yet-sunny day. As I said, we were quite loaded down so we drove pretty slowly, passing the small towns on the coast just outside of Montevideo whose populations have exploded in recent years with people who are tired of living in the city; we passed Piriapolis and Punta del Este and by the time we started to reach the departmental limit with Rocha, it was starting to get dark. We also started to notice that the westy was losing force whenever we came to a small incline. We knew we were loaded down, yes, but this just made no sense – after all of the mountains that we drove on throughout the trip, how could it be that the westy was losing force on these dinky Uruguayan hills?! It was very strange. And it kept getting worse – at one point Ari and I had to get out and push! After about a half an hour of wondering whether we should flag someone down and call a tow truck, the vehicle suddenly accelerated – vroom – and started to drive normally again. We were perplexed, but thought that maybe the filter was clogged, or that something – maybe a banana!?- was stuck in the exhaust pipe and got spit out. Anyway, we kept driving until we got to the town of Rocha where there is a gas station right on the highway. After filling up, the westy did not want to go into gear and drive, but after a minute or two it did the same thing and jumped forward, driving fairly normally on the highway. Weird. It was now completely dark at this point and so we couldn’t really see very well, but we were starting to get all antsy, feeling very excited to be so close to home! Finally, off in the distance we saw the turnoff to Punta del Diablo and we all started to congratulate ourselves for having made it at last. At the highway exit we slowed down to turn right onto the main road and…nothing. The westy had completely frozen. No matter how many times we tried, it would not get it to go into gear. We could not move neither forward nor backward. Desperate, we tried to push-start it a few times in second gear (which worked once, very briefly, and we had to jump in after it was moving – remember Little Miss Sunshine?). But it just did not want to budge. It was an amazingly starry cold night, and we just sat there and scratched out heads; for the first few minutes we just could not believe it. Once we recovered our wits, we decided to call Monica and Isaac who were expecting us to arrive that day, and ask them to rescue us. A few minutes after the call, the town taxi happened to drive by, and he ended up towing Gustavo and the westy by rope the last km from Highway 9 to our house, while the kids and I rode in Isaac and Monica’s car. You can tell me you don’t believe in fate, or destiny, or karma, or whatever…..but come on! The westy faithfully carried us from Hamilton all the way to Uruguay, with only a few small problems here and there (which seemed to happen in exactly the places where they needed to happen) and now it gives up and completely dies on us? We drove more than 20,000 km and the last five km we had to be towed with a flimsy rope by the Punta del Diablo taxi driver? It is just too much. Talking about it later with others, we figured out that it must mean that we are finally home: the westy took us to where it needed to take us, and decided that it that was it. At least for now.
That night we walked in to our very own little house, which was waiting for us – it was like it was frozen in time or something – Miguel and Irene had already made a nice cosy fire for us, and had taken good care of the place for us while we were gone. We woke up the next morning to the sound of birds in the trees and the sun rising over the ocean (a view we have been enjoying fully every morning out our bedroom window -we truly are privileged!). We saw a whole band of bright green parrots outside welcoming us home, along with a big red-headed woodpecker and many other little birdies, who sometimes come right into the house regularly by mistake if we leave the windows open. The next few days were spent cleaning the house, visiting with people, and getting the westy fixed. This task was made relatively easy, thanks to El Vampiro, the guy who provides firewood and also happens to be a mechanic. So we got a load of firewood too (he also cut down a pine tree that was leaning dangerously over the house -and blocking our view - you’ve got to love Punta del Diablo!). On the second day, Mateo started school and is already settling in well in his class. He is waiting for his own little green “One Laptop per Child” laptop, which should be arriving for him soon! He had his 10th birthday party the other day and invited some old and new friends to celebrate with a devil piñata, a cake made by Mimi and some really fun games animated by Ana. Ariel started high school, and although it looks like it is going to be tough getting caught up, he is motivated and excited about it. We both have some serious studying to do in the next few months, because in order to pass the year he has to write some difficult exams at the end of term. Poor Ari: high school is really challenging in Uruguay, and he even has classes on Saturdays! He also has to take a bus on the highway every day to La Coronilla, a town which is about a 30 minute ride north of here. But it is a nice smallish school, and the people seem really friendly and open. He is especially excited about getting involved with a sea turtle sanctuary in Coronilla called Karumbe – check it out online (http://www.karumbe.org/web/index.htm). We have been going regularly to Chuy to do some errands, do banking and pay bills, etc.. Ah, Chuy…it is a strange and wonderful border town in the northeast of the country (about 50 minutes from here, past La Coronilla), where you are literally in Uruguay on one side of the street and on the other side of the street you are in Brazil. While you never actually physically cross a border, coming back to Punta del Diablo from there you come upon these weird customs check points where they control what you have bought (and legendarily ask for bribes – more on this later). Chuy is a typical border town, a bit shady with lots of duty free shops, a casino, and commercial stores galore. Another interesting aspect of Chuy is the Middle Eastern (especially Palestinian) influence; walking by their shops you can see the merchants smoking water pipes and watching Al Jazeera on cable TV. Chuy has been known for years as being a place to buy cheap goods and foods. For Uruguayans it was back when Brazil was cheaper than Uruguay, but now Brazilians flock to Chuy to buy electro-domestic products. Of course, we still go to the Duty Free shops for cheap bottles of good wine! And we love going to the supermarket on the Brazilian side for coconut yogurt, chocolate bars and tahini. The kids and Gustavo had bauru con ovo, a Brazilian grilled sandwich with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in it (peppers, olives, mushrooms, cheese, corn) and a raw egg cracked in it before grilling to crispy perfection. Speaking of food, we have been slowly going through all the foods that we had stashed in the cupboards of the westy for the whole trip (Maseca, arepa flour, quinoa) and the other night we decided to make a Pad Thai kit that we had bought way back at Trader Joe’s in Cincinnati, Ohio - It was delicious!
The town of Punta del Diablo itself has changed a lot in some ways, with lots of new houses and construction happening all the time (in our block, for example, we were the very first house and now it is full!), but in many other ways, it is exactly the same. The beaches have not changed much, for example. The other day we saw a seal on the rocks, crying and alone until she figured out how to get past the waves and back out to sea. Two weeks ago a penguin was stranded on the beach and hung out for a while with the people in the town, before recovering strength and taking off out to sea again. It is whale-spotting season, and with our eyes glued on the horizon we are looking forward to seeing them any day now. Most days are sunny, and even though it is cold as this time of year there is an inexplicable quality to the air here –the light, the salt in the air, I am not sure exactly what it is - that awakens the senses and makes you feel completely alive (of course, the part about the salt in the air is an unfortunately detail for the poor westy, who will have to have regular washes to keep from rusting all to hell while we are here).
Now, after another trip to Montevideo to get Gustavo’s CT scan and blood test results (which are all fine, by the way) we are back in Punta del Diablo once again. This time we are finally starting to relax and settle in. If you want to see more photos of and information about Punta del Diablo check out www.portaldeldiablo.com.
Driving here from Montevideo – again, on a Sunday afternoon -- we witnessed one of the most spectacular sunsets that we have ever seen. It was translucent fire in the sky behind the fields of cows and the famous tall, thin palms trees of Rocha. It was breathtaking - an incredible welcome home, and only served to reinforce for us why we have chosen to make this place our home. It is truly a magical place…
Update: it is either magical or jinxed, we are still trying to figure out which (at least for the poor Westy!). The other day as Gustavo was driving back from dropping Ari of at La Coronilla, the customs guys stopped him (can anyone explain to me why there is a customs office 30 km from the border?) and thought that it was “suspicious” for him to be driving on a tourist permit while taking his son to school. To make a long story short, even though our paperwork is entirely in order and there is absolutely nothing legally wrong, because it is “unusual” the guy decided to confiscate the vehicle, and Gustavo and Mateo (who was crying inconsolably) had to wait on the side of the highway to take a bus home. They took the keys and the vehicle. Some people we talk to think that they are either looking for a bribe or hoping that there is actually something wrong with our paperwork, in which case they might eventually keep the vehicle themselves. Others think they are just doing their jobs. I don’t know, but we were all pretty crushed, and Mateo was plagued by nightmares all night. It is difficult to explain, but after a 7 month trip like the one we just had, the westy feels like a part of our family and we felt somehow violated. We had to get a lawyer to write an official letter of complaint and are now waiting for a judge to tell them to give us our keys back! There is no doubt that they will, but bureaucratic processes like this take a long time here, and meanwhile we are braving rainstorms and cold weather without a vehicle! We will keep you all posted as to how this turns out: at the very least, the incident serves as an excuse to keep the blog going a while longer! Speaking of the blog, for a while now we have been wanting to thank all of you who have been following us (whether publicly with your amazing comments, or anonymously – and you know who you are!) on our journey. This adventure has been made all the more exciting and ratifying for us knowing that we have not been alone, and that so many people have been cheering us on during our adventure in the last few months. Thank you again to all!
Ariel wants to let you all know that you should be prepared for our next big journey which will be our trip in ….Africa maybe? Or Asia?....

Llegamos a Montevideo!! (via Argentina)

2009-07-24T18:33:00.016-04:00

Fue bastante facil cruzar la frontera a Argentina, aunque tambien un poco raro por el tema de la gripe AH1N1– aparentemente en Argentina esta bastante feo ahora, y estan tomando muchas precauctiones. Tambien es una frontera pesada en el sentido de control de narcotrafico, asi que nos hicieron sacar todo de adentro de la camioneta- fue la unica vez en todo el viaje que nos hicieron hacer eso. Una vez que se dieron cuenta de que lo unico que traiamos nosotros eran nuestras cosas personales llenos de polvo (por las malas carreteras de tierra en Bolivia) - aparte de unas hojitas de coca olvidados en los bolsillos y nos dejaron pasar sin problemas. Lo primero que notamos al cruzar la fronera era que las calles eran pavimentadas, y que todo el mundo tenia acento de Argentina – ya no nos preguntaban de donde eramos! Tambien hay unos homenajes al Gauchito Gil por todos lados, con trapos rojos y agua – una persona que se murio de sed en la ruta, y ahora le dejan agua por todo Argentina. En vez de manejar de noche y perder la parte mas linda del paisaje del norte de Argentina, dormimos en una estacion de policia en la Quiaca. Hacia mucho frio y estabamos medios tristes, pero por lo menos teniamos un techito para no tener mucho frio de noche. Hicimos una sopita de verduras y nos fuimos a dormir. Nos levanto uno de los policias a las 6:30 de la maniana (para nosotros eran las 5:30- otra vez habiamos cambiado la hora) y hacia mucho frio, pero arreglamos todo y salimos de nuevo. Seguia haciendo un frio terrible hasta que bajamos un poco mas de altura, y en Tilcara paramos a tomar un cafecito y comer unas medialunas, en un lugar muy turistico pero lindo igual. La quebrada de humahuaca era precioso, unos cerros de muchos colores que no podes creer! Tambien fue lindisimo manejar en carrteras en buen estado (nos olividamos de contar que tambien eperdimos la placa de adelante en las rutas de Bolivia – se cayo en algun momento!). Despues paramos en San Salvador de Jujuy para comer algo, pero nos sorpredimos que estaba todo cerrado por lo del gripe: el gobierno declaro vacaciones como por un mes para evitar propagar la gripe, y cancelaron todas los funciones en lugares cerrados. Hasta los chicos tienen un par de semanas extra de vacaciones. Sin embargo, las calles de Argentina parecian a las de un pueblo fantasma. Rarisimo, y hasta medio apocaliptico. En Jujuy entramos a comprar un poco de comida en un supermercado grande y nos sorprendio lo vacio que estaba – y a cada rato pasaban anuncios de que hay que dejar un metro entre persona y persona en la fila, y que no hay que saludar dando besos, ni compartir mate; mas raro todavia. Salimos rapido de alli, haciendo unos sandwiches en el camino. La ruta entre Jujuy y Salta es preciosa, entre montanias verdes, aunque fue un poco angosta y parecia mas como un camino de bicicletas que una ruta nacional. Llegamos a Salto de tarde y encontramos un camping municipal que esta buenisimo, con parrilleros y una piscina gigante (que no tenia agua, pero igual estaba bueno para ver!). Hicimos unos morrones con queso a la parrilla, hablamos con los “vecinos” y jugamos con los perros y gatos gorditos en la vuelta. Era rarisimo estar en Argentina – tan cerca pero todavia tan lejos! Empezamos a darnos cuenta de lo lejos que hemos venido y no podiamos creer hasta donde llegamos. Despues de dormir hasta tarde, fue lindisimo levantarse con el ruidito de los pajaros cantando de nuevo (en la altura nos olvidamos de ciertos “ruidos”). Pasamos un buen rato sacando el polvo de las cosas y limpiando la camioneta. De tarde salimos para el sur, hacia Rio Hondo, un lugar al norte de Santiago del Estero donde hay aguas termales. Llegamos a un camping con piscinas termales y a pesar de que hizo mucho frio nos metimos en el agua. Era un lugar lleno de gente que estaba de vacaciones, haciendo fuego y pasando bien. Habia como una rambla al lado del rio donde podiamos ver unos pajaros impresionantes: por suerte Jeulsch nos habia regalado un libro de identificacion de aves de Argentina y Uruguay. A pesar de una desastrosa visita a un restaurant que solo servia chivo y chancho, lo pasamos bien en ese lugar. Salimos al mediodia, manejando muchas horas y solo parando para dormir en un YPF (las estaciones de servicio que tienen duchas calientes y Wi-Fi!). En Argentina hasta en los estaciones de servicio sirven buena comida y vino, y a la maniana tienen rico café con leche (por supuesto lo sirven con medialunas y aguita mineral). (no te agrandes Charlie! Tambien vimos el primer Wal-Mart desde Mexico)
Tan cerca pero todavia tan lejos, terminamos manejando por 15 horas ese ultimo dia en Argentina, solo parando para comer un almuerzo tarde en Parana, al lado del rio con el mismo nombre. A las 9 de la noche llegamos a Concordia, en el rio Uruguay, la cuidad que esta frente a Salto, Uruguay. Estabamos chochos seguiendo el GPS, pensando como unos tontos que habia un puente entre las dos ciudades – en un momento dado termino la calle y casi nos metimos en el rio! Resulto que todavia teniamos que ir 20 km mas al norte para cruzar por la hidroelectrica. Por fin llegamos a la frontera y – riendonos como nenes chicos – nos pusieron los sellos de salida del lado Argentino y caminamos dos pasos para el escritorio de migracion uruguayo (estan en el mismo edificio). Fue facilisimo cruzar esa frontera, y lo que demoro mas fue que todos los que trabajan alli querian saber todo sobre el viaje. Nos decian que no podian creer lo que hicimos, y con ese auto?? “Y sin aire acondicionado??” Hasta insistian que teniamos que llamar al Canal 4 para hacer una entrevista o algo asi. Lo primero que hicimos al cruzar la frontera – despues de sacarnos una foto con el cartel de “Bienvenidos a La Republica Oriental del Uruguay” por supuesto – fue ir a comer unos fainas. Lo unico que podiamos hacer en toda la noche era mirarnos y decir “no puedo creer que llegamos hasta aca”! Fue medio surrealista porque habiamos venido a este lugar unos anios antes con Mau durante las vacaciones de invierno y ya conociamos (la primera vez desde Mexico). Nos quedamos medios mal porque planeabamos ir directo a Las Termas de San Nicanor, un lugar con piscinas termales en el medio del campo, pero estaba cerrado por reformas. Dormimos en la estacion de policia en Salto, bien en frente de las Termas de Dayman. De maniana fuimos de cabeza a las aguas (ya que habiamos pasado mucho frio durante la noche). Todavia comentandonos que no podiamos creer que estamos aca, nos subimos a la camioneta otra vez para ir un poquito mas hacia el sur. Paramos un ratito en Paysandu para comprar una pascualina, unos sandwiches y un postre chaja, y para ir a visitar a Yolanda, la madre de Quique. No nos podiamos acordar donde vivia, y al final seguimos. El camino hasta Montevideo nos parecio eterno, los ultimos 300 kilometros mas largos del viaje! A las 9 de la noche vimos las luces de Montevideo aparecer en la distancia, y seguimos con el “no puedo creer que llegamos hasta aca!” Entrar a la ciudad fue raro, ya que cambiaron las careteras y todo nos parecia diferente. Lo primero que hicimos (por supuesto) fue irnos a nuestra pizzeria favorita, El Tasende, a comprar unas pizzas al tacho. Muy emocionados y sintiendonos medios anonimos estacionamos bien en frente del apartamento de Mimi. Un amigo de Pablo nos dijo que estaba alli en frente, y lo fuimos a buscar y con el Dado, subimos en el ascensor para sorpreder a Mimi. Casi la matamos. Estaba en camison en su cuarto, cuando Mateo asomo la cabecita atrás de la puerta y dijo, “Hola Mimi.” Despues de una llamada por telefono, teniamos a todos aca saludando. Desde alli estamos pasando tiempo hablando con la familia, con amigos, con Dado el perro dalmata y Tango el gato con tres patas, y jugando con lego que mandamos en las cajas que despachamos desde Canada antes de venir – para Mateo fue como abrir regalos en Navidad! Hasta vimos a nuestro amigo ingles, James, que vivia aca cuando estabamos en Montevideo y esta de visita unas semanas. El sol no ha salido mucho desde que llegamos, pero igual es lindo pasar unos dias bien de inverno en Montevideo. Despues de hacer unas cosas que tenemos pendientes aca (incluyendo la tomagrafia de Gustavo en el Hospital Britanico ) estamos locos por llegar a nuestro destino final en unos dias – Punta del Diablo!
No podemos creer que ya estamos hasta aca!

The crossing was relatively easy, although also a bit ominous since there is a lot of worry about the AHN1 flu, which is apparently raging through Argentina right now. On the Argentine side, because this is a pretty important border, we had to take everything out of the westy (everything was just covered in dust that had come in on the bad roads, so when we opened the back door a cloud came out) and have the most thorough search we have had on the trip so far. Once they realized that all we had were our dusty belongings (and a few forgotten coca leaves in our pockets) they let us go. The first thing we noticed upon crossing the border was that the roads were suddenly perfectly paved. Then we noticed that everyone had Argentine accents, and so we no longer stood out! There are also these weird red shrines of all shapes and sizes all over the place put up for “Gauchito Gil,” a guy who apparently died from thirst on the road once upon a time, and now people leave offerings of water for him all over the country! We ended up sleeping in a police station in La Quiaca, just over the border, instead of driving any more in the dark because we had been told that this northernmost part of the country is beautiful and we didn’t want to miss it. It was very cold and we were feeling depressed, but at least we had a little roof over us and were able to make a quick warm soup and get to bed. One of the officers woke us up at 6:30 in the morning (which was 5:30 for us, as we had to set the clocks an hour ahead again). It was very cold, but we managed to pile everything back into the car and drive south until we went down another few hundred metres and it warmed up again. We stopped for a coffee in the town of Tilcara, which was very touristy but a very beautiful setting. The hills in the Quebrada de Humahuaca area are impossibly multi-coloured and beautiful, and as I said before it made a huge difference that the roads were in good shape (we forgot to mention in the last installment that, in the bumping up and down, our front license plate fell off and got lost somewhere in Bolivia…). We stopped in San Salvador de Jujuy with the intention of eating lunch, and were surprised that everything seemed to be closed – apparently the government decaled it a holiday that day as a way to deal with the flu epidemic. Later we found out that they have a whole month off, and all events in enclosed public spaces like theatres, cinema, museums, etc are suspended. Children are even out of school on an extra-long holiday. In Jujuy we went to a supermarket to buy some provisions, and were taken aback not only by the emptiness of the pristine place, but by the announcements on the loudspeakers throughout the store announcing that people should stand at least a metre apart when in line, should not hug or kiss one another, share mate or congregate in enclosed spaces. It was all a bit strange so we got out of there quickly, making and eating our sandwiches as we drove. The drive from Jujuy to Salta was amazingly beautiful, lush and almost tropical even, through this very narrow paved road along the green mountain (which was more like a bike trail than a highway). We got to Salta by late-afternoon and found a great municipal campground with lots of parrilleros and a gigantic swimming pool (which didn’t have any water in it, but was still quite impressive). We made a fire, chatted to our neighbors, and shared our dinner with the many dogs and cats in residence at the campground. It was very strange to actually be in Argentina – so close and yet so far! It already felt like we were there but we still had a long way to go. After a good night’s sleep, it was nice to wake up to the sound of the birds chirping once again (there don’t seem to be many birds chirping above a certain altitude, for some reason). We spent a long time taking everything out of the westy and beating out the dust that had accumulated on the Bolivian roads, then we took off toward Rio Hondo, a place with thermal waters just north of Santiago del Estero. When we got there we found a campground with its own thermal pools, and even though it was freezing cold, we got in and warmed up eventually. The place was crazy, full of families taking advantage of the flu holiday to camp out, make and cook over the fire and enjoy themselves. There was a nice riverside boardwalk from which we could observe the many birds in the area: luckily Juelsch had given us a great identification book of birds of Argentina and Uruguay. We had a good time there, in spite of a disastrous and expensive lunch at a local riverside place that was recommended to us, but that, as it turned out, only served goat and pig meat (!). That afternoon we drove for many hours and only stopped to sleep at a YPF gas station (the ones that all have hot showers and Wi-Fi!). Argentina is something else: even at a truck stop they serve good food and wine, and in the morning we had a nice café con leche, which is automatically served accompanied by a couple of pastries, a glass of mineral water, and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. We also saw our first Wal-Mart since Mexico – as I said, you’ve got to love Argentina….
So close and yet still so far, we ended up driving for 15 hours on that last day in Argentina, and only stopping to eat a late lunch in Parana, right on the river of the same name. By around 9 pm we made it to Concordia, which is right on the Uruguay River that borders Uruguay. We were happily following the GPS, thinking that there was a bridge right in town facing Salto: at one point, the road ended and we almost drove right into the river! As it turns out, there is no bridge connecting the two cities (which face each other) directly, and you have to drive 20 km north to a hydroelectric dam in order to cross into Uruguay. We finally got to the border and - feeling slightly giddy - we got our exit stamps on the Argentine side before moving over three feet to the Uruguayan immigration desk (they are both conveniently housed in the same building). Crossing the border was easy as pie, but the thing that took the most time was that all of the guys in suits working at the border wanted to hear all about our trip, and couldn’t believe that we had actually driven all this way (“and without even air conditioning?!”). It was hilarious. They even insisted that we should call Channel 4 news for an interview! The first thing we did once we got over the border – after taking a photo of the welcome to Uruguay sign (and almost getting shot by the guard) of course- was to head for a pizza place in downtown Salto to have faina (a chickpea flour flatbread that you eat with pizza – in Liguria, Italy they call it farinata). All we could do all evening was turn to each other and marvel that we had made it. It was a bit surreal because we had been to this very town four years before with our nephew Mauricio. We laughed as we remembered that trip, and marveled at how this is the first time since Mexico that we were on familiar ground. We were a bit disappointed because we had planned to head straight for a place in the middle of the countryside with these hot thermal baths open all night, where you can soak away and look at the stars, but it had been closed for renovations. We slept at a police station close to the Termas de Dayman, and headed straight for the hot water pools in the morning as soon as we woke up (it had been a cold night, so the hot water was heaven). After soaking for a long time and repeatedly commenting to each other that “I can’t believe we are actually here,” we got back in the westy and started driving south toward Montevideo. We stopped for a bit in Paysandu, bought some pascualina (spinach and egg pie) and olimpico sandwiches (ah – how we missed them!) and a chaja dessert (hard to explain for those unfortunate souls who have never tried it – think crunchy meringue, smooth cream, and pieces of fresh fruit), and spent a long time trying to remember where Yolanda, Quique’s mom, lives. We had been there a couple of times before, but just could not remember how to get there so we gave up after a while. The drive to Montevideo after that seemed eternal – I think they were the longest few hundred kilometers of the whole trip, but by around 8:30 pm we finally saw the lights of Montevideo appear in the distance! Again, we still couldn’t stop saying, “I can’t believe we drove all the way here” to each other. The entrance to Montevideo from this direction was quite different than we remembered it, as the government has constructed a new highway and bridge and it is much quicker now. The first thing we did was (of course) head for our favourite pizza place, El Tasende, on the edge of the old city, right around the corner from where the kids used to go to school (which has been there forever, more or less) to buy some pizza al tacho (a very cheesy pizza) and faina made in a woodburning oven by a very skilled pizza maestro. Feeling excited and strangely anonymous, we parked the westy right in front of Mimi’s apartment building. A friend of Pablo’s spotted us and told us that he was just down the street, and after picking him and Dado up, we snuck up in the elevator to surprise Mimi. I think we almost gave her a heart attack! She was in her room in her nightgown, and Mateo stuck his little head in the door and said “Hola, Mimi.” Phone calls were made and we suddenly had a veritable party going on. Since then, we have mostly just been getting caught up with friends and family. We even got to see James, our English friend who happens to be here for three weeks for a visit! The kids have been playing with Dado the Dalmatian and Tango, the 3-legged Siamese cat, and have also been reacquainted with their Lego, which we shipped here many months ago. Yesterday we went to watch a murga perform, and then went to the house of one of the guy in the group, who is a freind of Pablo's, to celebrate his birthday. Murga is a typical musical style in Uruguay, associated with Carnaval, which is a neat mixture of theatre and music with social and political commentary/critique. The sun has not really come out much since we got here, but it is somehow nice to have a typical Montevideo winter and mostly cozy up in the house. After sorting out a few things here in Montevideo, including Gustavo’s CT scan at the British Hospital (an incredibly elitist and expensive place, but we needed it done fast!), we are looking forward to heading to our final destination, Punta del Diablo! Mateo already has his school tunica and everything!

I still can’t believe we actually made it all the way here...

Bad Roads and Bad News in Bolivia

2009-07-21T09:12:00.030-04:00

De La Paz salimos para Oruro, una ciudad en el altiplano donde hacen un carnaval impresionante con mascaras de diablos, pero cuando llegamos nosotros no habia mucho ambiente de fiesta, porque hacia frio y estaba ventoso. Pasamos demasiado tiempo buscando un lugar para dormir, porque con -17 de temperatura no podiamos ni pensar en dormir en la camioneta. Todos los hoteles y hostales o eran muy sucios o muy caros, y se nos hizo muy dificil. Por fin encontramos un hotel viejo y grande, de otra epoca, con fotos de Charlie Chaplin en las paredes, y por suerte nos dieron como mil frasadas de lana para que no nos congelaramos. Se nota que en su momento era el hotel, pero en estos dias esta un poco mas que decaido. De maniana, despues de comer desayuno en un salon gigante y vacio (que nos hizo acordar a esa pelicula con Jack Nicholson, El Resplandor). Nos llevo mas de 20 minutos empezar la camioneta, que se ve que no le gusta para nada la altura. Desde ese dia, tuvimos que empezar la camioneta desconectando la bomba de nafta y usando una tapita poniamos gasolina directo al motor! Por lo menos funciono. Por suerte despues de bajar de la altura empezo a arrancar bien. Ese dia fuimos de Oruro a Potosi, la ciudad mas alta del mundo (4060 metros) y es patrimonio de la humanidad. Fundada en 1545 despues de descubrir muchas cantidades de plata en el Cerro Rica, es un lugar muy interesante y triste al mismo tiempo. Los horrores de las minas siguen hasta hoy en dia, y es imposible olvidar los millions de escalvos africanos e indigenas que murieron para mantener a la economia global por siglos. Estacionamos en un hotel recomendado por los amigos europeos que conocimos en Cusco, y pudimos dormir debajo de un techito (que nos ayudo mucho para protejernos del frio). Salimos a caminar por la ciudad, buscando un lugar para comer (se ve que los domingos cierra todo). Hay muchas agencias aca que ofrecen tours en 4x4 hasta el Salar de Uyuni y tambien para ver las minas en persona! Son cooperativas, donde los mineros trabajan todavia en condiciones horribles y viven pocos anios– algunos son ninios – para poder vender lo que sacan por medio de la cooperativa. Alli abajo, tienen altares para poner ofrendas a “El Tio” (tambien conocido como el Diablo) que es el que manda en el fondo de las minas. Los nenes querian hacer un tour (donde se pueden comprar regalos: cigarros, hojas de coca, y dinamita para ofrecer a los mineros) pero no teniamos tiempo. Al otro dia, cagados de frio, nos tomamos una sopita caliente en el mercado y salimos para el sur hacia el Salar de Uyuni. Nos dijeron que la ruta estaba muy bien (esta en el proceso de quedar pavimentada) pero la verdad es que aunque fue lindo el paisaje (altiplano y desierto) fue bastante dificil y muy estresante- Nos llevo cinco horas y media de caminos bien tortuosos para hacer 200 km. Llegamos a Uyuni antes de que oscureciera, y despues de buscar por un tiempo (parece que el turismo hizo que se inflaran los precios aca tambien – y cobran por persona normalmente, cosa que se nos hace muy caro para los 4) encontramos un lugar donde la duenia nos dio un buen precio para un cuarto con abundante agua caliente, y sabanas polares (y hasta TV con cable!). Esa noche salimos a comer a una pizzeria que es recomendada por todos los que pasan por Uyuni, el Minuteman, y la verdad es que son muy ricas pizzas y un ambiente muy comodo, con estufa a lenia y todo. Los duenios son una pareja joven, el de E.U. y de Bolivia, y a pesar de su exito ellos mismos pasan trabajando en el restaurant todos los dias. Despues de unas duchas calentitas y una buena noche de dormir, manejamos los 25 km que nos quedaban para entrar en el salar. Las fotos tendrian que alcanzar para explicar lo raro y espectacular que es ese lugar! Muy original – parece hielo y nieve, pero es pura sal – el salar mas grande del mundo, cubriendo 12,000 km2, es parte de un lago salado prehistorico que antes cubria casi todo el suroeste de Bolivia. Pasamos todo el dia manejando como locos (fue muy divertido porque es chato, como manejar en asfalto – las mejores calles de Bolivia!) y parando a cada rato para sacar fotos locas. Entramos como 80 km para llegar hasta la isla de los Pescadores, una isla en el medio del lago de sal cubierto de rocas y cactus gigantes (algunos tienen miles de anios). Despues de un partido de futbol con unos koreanos ciclistas, nos dimos la vuelta para volver a Uyuni. La idea era aprovechar la luna llena y quedarnos a dormir arriba de esa superficie de sal blanquita, pero la noche anterior hubieron -20 y no iba ser buena idea. Nos volvimos al mismo lugar para dormir, y al mismo restaurant para comer pizza y tomar limonada caliente. Esta vez nos enteramos que murio la Tia Tita. Ese mismo dia tuvo un ataque cardiaco en el hospital . Estabamos en shock. No podiamos creerlo, y pasamos esa noche y el otro dia con lagrimas. No podemos creer que no la vamos a escuchar mas. Asi que decidimos tratar de llegar a Uruguay lo antes posible, entonces al otro dia salimos para Tupiza en vez de volver a Potosi primero, porque pensamos que iba ser mas rapido. De ultima era un poco mas rapido, pero ese tramo de 200 km no era ni parecido a una ruta – en partes desaparecia la calle totalmente y tuvimos que manjear por un rio seco, con arena. En la mayoria del camino los lugares eran puro “serrucho” y no podiamos ir a mas de 20 o 30 km por hora. Despues de manejar 40 km, el amortiguador del lado izquierdo de adelante exploto! No quisimos volver para atras, asi que decidimos seguir. Paramos en el proximo pueblo, un pueblito de mineros en la mitad del camino a Tupiza, llamado Atocha. Un mecanico lo miro y dijo que no tenia el repuesto, pero manejando despacito podiamos llegar a Tupiza. Unas cuantas horas despues, y en un camino espantoso (que al final era lindo por lo menos, con caniones y cactus gigantes) llegamos a Tupiza: nos llevo 8 horas y media hacer 200 km! Aunque habiamos bajado un poco (a 2900 metros) igual era muy frio dormir en la camioneta, y encontramos un hostal barato para dormir. Gustavo llevo la camioneta para arreglar (tampoco tenian el amortiguador correcto, pero pusieron uno medio improvisado) y salimos a caminar un poco por el pueblo (famoso por los caniones con impresionantes formaciones de rocas, y por ser el lugar donde se muriorion Butch Cassidy y el Sundance Kid). Compramos unos empanadas “saltenias” y seguimos camino hacia Villazon, la frontera con Argentina. Otras 3 horas y media de malas carreteras de tierra (con muchisimos desvios por la arena y por campos enormes llenos de cactus) y por fin llegamos a la frontera con Argentina – la penultima frontera del viaje!

When we left La Paz we ended up driving for about 4 hours to reach the city of Oruro. This place is set in the middle of the altiplano and is well known for its carvaval, where people wear handcrafted “diablada” masks, dance and go crazy in the streets. When we got there it was definitely not the right season for a party atmosphere, but cold and windy. We spent a long time looking for a reasonable place to spend the night, as it was definitely too cold to sleep in the westy (it was supposed to go down to -17 that night). Everywhere seemed to be either too skuzzy or way too overpriced, but we finally settled on a large, old hotel with photos of Charlie Chaplin all over the walls that seemed to be stuck in time. In its glory days (circa 1950s) it must have been quite the place, and nowadays it is a bit run down and drafty, but at least they gave us about a thousand wool blankets so that we didn’t freeze to death. In the morning, after our complimentary continental breakfast in the fancy and empty dining room (which reminded us a bit of the hotel dining room in that Jack Nicholson movie The Shining) we spent about 20 minutes trying to get the westy started (it was either the cold or the altitude again, we were not sure which). In the end, for that day and for pretty much the rest of our time in Bolivia, we had to start the westy by bypassing the gas pump entirely, and adding gas manually with a little bottlecap into an air intake tube, before reconnecting the gas pump once it was going! Whatever works….Anyway, that day we drove from Oruro to Potosi, the highest city in the world (4060 metres!) and a Unesco Heritage Site. This is a very interesting city, founded in 1545 after the discovery of rich veins of silver in the Cerro Rico, with lots of colonial architecture and a real mining culture. The past and present horror associated with mining here is palpable, and it is impossible not to think about the millions of indigenous and African slaves who worked themselves to death to underwrite the Spanish economy (and by extension, the global one) for centuries. We parked the westy at a hotel that was recommended by some of our friends from Cusco, and that let us sleep in their parking lot under a little roof (so it was a bit less cold, at least) and went for a walk around town, looking for a place to eat. It took us quite a while because apparently everything closes on Sundays. There are many tour agencies in town who offer trips by 4X4 to the Uyuni salt flats and also, interestingly, into the (in)famous mines of Potosi! Apparently these are cooperative mines, where the miners work (still in shocking conditions) and sell what they manage to find to a smelter though the cooperative. The miners have frighteningly short lifespans, and some of them are even children. Down below, the miners worship and set up shrines to “El Tio” (aka the devil) to protect them – apparently god doesn’t have much jurisdiction down in the mines of Potosi. The kids were keen on a tour, part of which involves offering gifts of cigarettes, coca leaves, and sticks of dynamite to the miners, but we just didn’t have the time. The next day we had a nice hot soup for breakfast at the market and took off for Uyuni. We were told that the road was in pretty good condition, in the process of being paved (because of the crazy amount of tourists headed to Uyuni) but the 200 km stretch of highway was pretty terrible, and it took us 5 and ½ hours of bumpy, twisty, tortuous driving. The scenery was interesting, altiplano turning into desert, but it was not a very fun ride. We got to Uyuni before dark, and after searching for quite a long while (tourism has inflated the prices here too) found a place run by a lovely woman, who gave us a really good deal on a room with cable TV, hot water and flannel sheets! She was the only one who didn’t try to charge us a fortune by charging per person for a room. That night we went out to the highly (and often) recommended Minuteman restaurant for the best pizzas we have had in a long time, by any standards. Delicious! The place is very cosy too, with a wood stove and a very friendly, casual atmosphere. The owners are a young American/Bolivian couple who, despite the incredible success of the place, work in the restaurant themselves every day. They also have photos all over the walls that people have taken of themselves on the salt flats, taking advantage of the crazy lack of perspective that scenery offers. We got some good ideas for photos to take the next day when we went out onto the salt, and the owner Chris even lent Mateo a toy dinosaur to use as a prop. After a cosy, warm sleep and hot showers, we drove the 25 km out to the salt flats. The photos should be enough to explain how strange and wonderful it is there – it looks like ice and snow, but it is the world’s largest salt flat, blanketing 12,000 sq km! (part of a prehistoric salt lake that dried up but used to cover most of southwest Bolivia). Very neat. We spent the day driving (fast – it was like driving on asphalt! Best road in Bolivia!) and stopping to take funny photos. We made it about 80 km to Isla de los Pescadores, a rock covered “island” in the middle of the salt lake that is full of these huge catci (some of them are thousands of years old). After a rousing game of futbol with some very friendly Korean cyclists, we turned around and headed back to the edge of the salt. Since that night was the full moon, our original idea was to spend a night camping out on the huge, white salty surface, but as soon as we realized that it got down to -20 at night, we changed our minds and went back to the same hotel We also went back to the same restaurant for pizzas and hot lemonade. This is where we got the bad news. That same day Tia Tita had passed away of a heart attack while in the hospital. We were shocked. We spent the rest of that evening and the next day in tears, unable to believe that Tia Tita – an incredible character, an institution really – was gone. It is truly devastating for the entire family. Needless to say, the trip was no longer a priority and we started to make a beeline for Uruguay right away. The next day we braved the road to Tupiza, instead of going back to Potosi, because we thought it would be faster. In the end I think it was a bit quicker this way, but the 200 km stretch was barely even a road – it was pure washboard, which meant that you could not go faster than 20 or 30 km per hour, and in some places the road just seemed to disappear and you had to drive through a dried up, sandy river, almost getting stuck in a few places. About 40 km along, the shock absorber on the front left side exploded with a bang. Not wanting to go back, we decided to keep inching forward. We stopped in the next town (a small mining town called Atocha, about half way to Tupiza) and a mechanic looked at it and told us he had no replacement, but that as long as we drove slowly we would be okay to at least get to Tupiza. After a long, slow, torturous drive (which in the end turned into beautiful canyon and cactus scenery, at least) we finally got to Tupiza: in the end it had taken us 8 hours to drive 200 km! Even though we had gone down quite a bit (to 2,900 metres) it was still too cold to sleep in the car, so after a quick bit to eat we found a cheap hostel and crashed into bed. The next morning Gustavo managed to replace the shock absorber, although it is a temporary measure as it is apparently not the right size. We walked around the town a bit, buying some “saltenias” (empanadas with potato and chicken “soup” in them- it is a mystery how they do this) for breakfast. This place is famous for its beautiful canyons and as the place where the legendary Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had their final stand off. By noon we were ready to take off again, and we headed straight for Villazon on the border with Argentina. Another 31/2 hours of bad, dirt roads (also in the process of being paved) with many dusty detours through cactus country, we got to the border – our second last border-crossing of the trip!

Para la Tia Tita

2009-07-15T16:03:00.010-04:00

Estas son las fotos que sacamos en el Salar de Uyuni el martes, antes de enterarnos de que ese mismo dia fallecio la Tia Tita. Estas fotos las dedicamos a su espiritu divertido, porque hasta mientras las sacabamos y nos moriamos de risa, estabamos pensando en cuanto las ibamos a disfrutar juntos. Era una genia, una persona muy especial- unica- y nunca nos olvidaremos de su voz, su risa, sus gestos, sus expresiones y de sus observaciones siempre tan astutas. Tia, te vamos a extraniar siempre.
These are the photos that we took on the Uyuni salt flats last Tuesday, just before we found out that the same day Gustavo’s beloved Aunt Tita passed away. We want to dedicate these photos to her fun-loving spirit, because even while we were taking them and laughing our heads off, we were thinking about how much we were going to enjoy showing them to her once we got to Uruguay. She was a very special person – formidable and unique – and we will never forget her voice, her laugh, her gestures, expressions and her observations which were always unnervingly astute. She will always be missed.

La Paz, Bolivia (finally!)

2009-07-03T18:22:00.052-04:00

Well, despite our desire to go to the floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca (that you only get to via Puno), we finally got tired of waiting and decided to take the long way around to get to Bolivia, as we didn’t want to risk having rocks thrown at us by trying to get by any roadblocks! (the floating islands in Lake Titicaca are very cool– some very neat islands made from totora reeds, where they get around in boats made of the same reeds. If you want to see photos check out our Swiss friend’s bloghttp://www.vuelta-al-mundo-09.blogspot.com/ We also decided against taking a boat ride to the Isla del Sol from Copacabana, an ancient Incan site that they consider to be the birthplace of the sun, as well as Arequipa and the condors in the Colca Canyon, but you can see photos and videos of these places on their blog too!). Anyways, a trip that should have taken us 8 or 9 hours ended up taking us 4 (long, tedious 12 hour) days of driving, but we finally made it to Bolivia! On our last night in Cusco we went out for dinner and an evening of conversation with our Swiss friends, Katja and Resu, and the boys all tried Alpaca meat, which they liked. The next day we took off early on the long and winding journey back toward the coast (again). Because of the roadblock between Cusco and Puno, we had a very hard time finding gas anywhere near Cusco, but after a while on the road we were finally able to find a station that actually had gas! Whew! The drive was just as impressive as the first time we did it, winding up and down mountains with snowy peaks in front of the bright blue sky, and it was made even easier by a geography trivia game that Katja and Resu had given the kids. It was night time by the time we made it to the gas station in Puquio that we had stopped at on our way to Cusco, oh so long ago. In the middle of the night we were joined by Juelsch, the German surgeon who helped to fix the westy, who is driving his homemade camper van to Cartagena (in less than 4 weeks!) all by himself because his wife and children had to go back to Germany. The next day’s driving (through altiplano, herds of vicunas, and finally back into the moon-like desert landscape) was made a little easier with the fun of driving together and taking films and photos of each other! We made it to Nasca by mid-afternoon and went out for a quick bite to eat together before heading our separate ways, Juelsch north and us south. That night we drove until close to midnight, stopping to sleep in a gas station on the coast. We thought that – if we had to do this whole detour thing – at least it would be a nice change to drive in a straight, flat line on the coast: but no, it just so happens that this stretch of the Panamerican highway was built on the edge of a cliff, squished between some very high sand dunes and the crashing waves and jagged rocks below! It didn’t help that it gets dark by 5:30 here, and that the vast majority of bus and truck drivers in this country don’t know the meaning of “low beams.” Grrrr. The next day we went into the next town along the coast, Camana, and since it just so happened to be the “National Day of Cebiche,” we decided to indulge ourselves one last time in that coastal delight! Maybe it is just the copious amounts of ajinomoto that everyone puts into the food here, but almost everything in Peru tastes so darn good! (for those of you that don’t know, ajinomoto is this white, crystallized powder that they sell in huge bags in every supermarket – also known as pure, unadulterated MSG!). That day we drove and drove, moving inland from the coast and into the northern part of what in Chile is known as the Atacama Desert, one of the driest in the world. By early evening we made it to the small city of Moquegua (deciding against stopping in Arequipa, which is supposed to be a beautiful city, but it was a bit out of the way and to be honest at this point we just wanted to get out of Peru!). This is a very nice, prosperous town with fertile green valleys (and lots of grapes – they make pisco here) in the middle of the desert. We decided to get a hotel room that night, and went out to a restaurant called “Mesa Enjoy” and were surprised to have the best Chinese food we have ever had (probably that darn ajinomoto again…) The next morning we checked the news and found out that they had opened the road to Puno the day after we left (d’oh!), but that the next day there was going to be a massive National strike of transportation workers (trucks, buses) and roadblocks all over the place: we needed to get out of there, today! We were a bit anxious because we knew that the border crossing at Lake Titicaca closes at 6 pm and we wanted to make it before then. So we hopped into the westy and drove like mad, back up and into the mountains, and spent most of the day on the altiplano (4,600 metres). Because we had been on the coast, we had to spend a bit of time acclimatizing again, so we chewed on some more coca leaves. There were lots of llamas, alpacas, flamingos, rheas, as well as small communities and lots and lots of dogs – but again, no gas stations! We ended up having to buy gas out of a barrel at the side of someone’s house. We passed Desaguadero (the border crossing where all of the trucks and buses headed for La Paz cross) and, instead of crossing there, decided to head north toward Puno so that we could cross at another point on Lake Titicaca, 8 km from Copacabana, Bolivia. After passing many places where the rocks from the roadblocks line the roads (ready for the next time, I guess!) we made it just in time to the border (we forgot that Bolivia is an hour ahead of Peru). We crossed with relative ease, and drove into Copacabana before sunset. We headed straight for a hotel that was recommended to us where we could park called “La Cupola.” It is a pretty fancy place, but we were lucky because there were some cancellations and they let us have a great room (with a loft for the kids) cheap. It was a lucky thing too, because it is really cold here at night! We had cosy beds, a warm heater, and nice hot showers. The hotel even prepares hot water bottles for you on request (now that is what I call service!). After walking around Copacabana and marveling at the street action, friendly vibe (and cold temperature) at night, we fell into bed and slept like the dead. The next day we woke up and explored the town some more, went to the market, the plaza and cathedral (where they bless cars!) and ate trucha criolla (delicious rainbow trout from Lake Titicaca) on the shore of the lake. We thought that we were going to have to sleep in the westy because the hotel was booked that night, so after making a delicious soup with quinoa and four different kinds of potatoes, we started to sort out the hot water bottles. The guy at reception told us that the strike in Peru meant that some people didn’t make it that day, so we could have a (huge) nice warm room for the same price as last night. We had company too - a cute little black kitten had adopted us that day (who reminded us of Eddie!), and he insisted on spending the night with us (he would cry at the door every time we tried to kick him out!). The next day we left before noon, heading for La Paz. Of course, we needed gas again and the only gas station in Copacabana (surprise!) did not have any gas. So, once again we took off with our fingers crossed. Luckily, the fumes in the tank were enough to get us to a place where a ten year old girl sold us gas out of a bucket in front of her house. On the way to La Paz, you have to cross Lake Titicaca on these precarious-looking barges – very fun! The drive into La Paz was amazing – altiplano, yellow grass and mud-coloured houses everywhere, and as you get closer to the city it gets more and more heavily populated. In “el Alto” – which is where the less well-off live – it is crazy, busy, with traffic jams everywhere and people were crowding around the car asking us questions. And then, just as we turned a corner heading for the centre of town, our breath was taken away as we caught a glimpse of the huge city sprawling in a bowl down below. All of the buildings seem to be clinging to the sides of the bowl, while the huge snow-covered Mount Illimani towers overhead. It is impressive! We were trying to get to the Oberlander, a Swiss-owned hotel that allows camping in the parking lot that was recommended to us by Katja and Resu. The place is located in Mallasa, also know as the “Valley of the Moon” (a look at the photos will tell you why) a well-to-do suburb to the southeast of La Paz, and we had to traverse the whole city to get there. For the past three days we have been camped out in the gravel parking lot of the hotel, beside the hotel’s garbage, but at least we have Wi-Fi and use of the swimming pool. The second day we took a taxi into La Paz and wandered around for the whole day, marveling at the sights, sounds and smells of the highest capital city in the world. What an interesting place! It is amazing how different the vibe here is compared to in Peru, and we cant help but think it has something to do with the government….people just seem more hopeful or something. It is neat, because instead of guys in uniforms directing traffic, they have people dressed up in zebra costumes – besides paying more attention, everyone loves it! It is also much more indigenous here, more traditional, and you can tell that the Bolivian women run the show! We stopped in at a nice, funky café run by a really nice Bolivian guy and the kids had a “submarino” which is a tall glass of piping hot milk and a chocolate bar to submerge in it – yum! We did a bit of shopping for some warm clothes (mostly alpaca ponchos and hats) because the rest of Bolivia is apparently going to be VERY cold. We wandered for a long time in the “Witches Market” which is a string of stalls with women selling everything from herbs to amulets to dried toads to toucan beaks to llama fetuses to shrunken llamas! At one of the many music stores, Mateo got himself a pan flute (actually, a zamphir) and Ariel got a Charango, a small traditional Bolivian string instrument a bit like a ukelele, so they are busy making music once again! Before heading back to the Moon Valley, we stopped for dinner at Star of India, the best Indian restaurant this side of our beloved Modern India Buffet in Hamilton (it was really good!). After hanging out by the pool and doing some work on the computer (including this update) all day, we decided to try the Swiss cuisine in the hotel’s restaurant – and we did not regret it! We had this amazing dinner called raclette, with different cheeses that you melt at the table on this little burner, cornichons, tomatoes, onions, and delicious Bolivian boiled potatoes! You eat slowly, taking your time melting the cheeses, accompanied with a nice bottle of Bolivian red wine – very delicious. Thanks to Katja and Resu for recommending it! Today we are taking off for Oruro, where it is supposed to be -11 degrees at night…brrrr! Then we are off to Potosi, where the famous and terrible Cerro Rico silver mines are. Then on to the giant salt flats of Uyuni, before heading for Argentina….Bueno, aunque teniamos muchas ganas de visitar las famosas islas flotantes de lago Titicaca (que solo se llega de Puno), nos cansamos de esperar para que levanten los bloqueos y nos mandamos por la costa de nuevo para poder llegar a Bolivia. (Si tienen ganas de ver fotos de las islas de totora y otros lugares que no pudimos ir, como Arequipa y el Canyon de Colca y la isla del Sol, pueden verlos en el blog de nuestros amigos suizos!http://www.vuelta-al-mundo-09.blogspot.com/). Un viaje que nos tenia que llevar 8 horas nos llevo 4 dias, bien laaaargos. La ultima noche en Cusco salimos a comer con nuestros amigos suizos, Katja y Resu, y los chicos carnivoros probaron carne de alpaca (y les gusto!!!). Al otro dia nos levantamos bien temprano y salimos. Despues de un panico porque so habia gasolina por ningun lado (por los bloqueos), por fin encontramos una estacion que tenia y respiramos un poco mas tranquilos. La manejada fue igual de impresionante que la primera vez que la hicimos, por las montanias con nevados en el cielo azul, pero esta vez se hizo mas corto porque jugamos un juego de geografia que los suizos les regalaron a los nenes.. Llegamos de noche a la misma estacion de servicio en Puquio, mas o menos en la mitad del camino a Nasca. En la madrugada llego Juelsch (el aleman cirugano que nos ayudo a arregalr la camioneta en Cusco!) para acompaniarnos hasta la costa. Su mujer e hijos se fueron a Alemania, y ahora el tiene que manejar solo hasta Cartagena en 4 semanas! Por lo menos el viaje hasta la costa se hizo un poco mas divertido, porque nos ibamos sacando fotos y filmando en ese paisaje tan extranio – de altiplano (con vicunias!) al desierto que parece la luna. Llegamos a Nasca de tarde, y paramos a comer algo en la plaza principal todos juntos, antes de que Juelsch se fuera para el norte y nosotros, como siempre, seguimos para el sur. Ese noche no paramos hasta cerca de medionoche, parando a dormir en una estacion de servicio en la Panamericana. Estabamos consolados pensando que por lo menos si tenemos que manejar en la costa que es chato, y recto, y eso fue un descanzo de las montanias, pero no: esta parte de la Panamericana es una carretera angotosta y alta, entre dunas gigantes y precipicios con las olas y rocas debajo. Fue bastante feo, especialmente de noche con los camiones y omnibuses que parece que no saben lo que es el cambio de luces. Al otro dia pasamos por Camana en la costa, donde de casualidad era el “Dia Nacional de Cebiche” – asi que aprovechamos para deleitarnos un vez mas! Fue el cebiche mas rico que comimos; aunque estabamos empezando a sospechar que la razon porque casi toda la comida en Peru sabe tan rica es por las cantidades enormes de ajinomoto que usan. (Ajinomoto es un polvo cristalino que venden en bolsas gigantes en todos los supermercados – tambien conocido como monosodio glutamate, es una sal que hace resaltar los sabores). Ese dia manejamos bastante, pasando Arequipa de largo (aunque dicen que es la ciudad mas linda de Peru – pero queriamos seguir camino) y terminarmos de tarde en Moquegua, una ciudad muy linda, rodeada de valles verdes y plantaciones de uvas y paltas, increiblemente ubicada en el medio de la parte mas al norte de lo que en Chile llaman el desierto de Atacama. Alli nos quedamos en un hotelito y salimos a comer en un restarante que se llamado “Mesa Enjoy” …la comida china mas rica que hemos probado (debe ser ese maldito ajinomoto….). De maniana fuimos a un cyber para ver los emails y ver las noticias, y descubrimos que habian levantado el bloqueo en Puno el dia despues que nos fuimos. D’oh! Pero al otro dia estaban preparando para una huelga nacional de transportistas, camiones y buses, con hartos bloqueos (aca en el sur ya hablan como chilenos!). Teniamos un dia para llegar a la frontera e irnos bien rapido de este pais! Manejamos como locos, subiendo de la costa al altiplano. La mayoria del tiempo de ese dia lo pasamos a mas de 4,500 metros de altura, y como habiamos bajado a la costa nos tuvimos que acostumbrar nuevamente, masticando hojas de coca. Pasamos muchas llamas, vicunias, flamingos, niandues, campesinos y muchos, muchos perros, pero – por supuesto - ninguna estacion de servicio. Justo cuando nos estabamos empezando a poner nerviosos, encontramos un lugar donde compramos gasolina de un barril en frente de la casa de alguien. Llegamos en buen tiempo a Desaguadero, la frontera donde cruzan la mayoria de los camiones, asi que decidimos no cruzar alli (alli vas directo a La Paz) para poder ver un poco del Lago Titicaca. Nos mandamos hacia Puno, viendo un monton de rocas en los costados de la carretera, listas para el bloque del proximo dia! Llegamos justo antes de las 6 a la frontera (nos olvidamos que en Bolivia es una hora despues) y cruzamos sin problemas. De alli en la frontera es solo 8 km a Copacabana. Fuimos directo a un hotel que nos habian recomendado para estacionar, y justo tenian un cuarto lindisimo disponible que nos dejaron re-barato. Menos mal, porque en esta epoca hace un frio de morirse! Teniamos camas calentitas, una estufita, y duchas calientes. En el hotel hasta te preparan bolsas de agua caliente para dormir- que servicio! Esa noche despues de salir a caminar por el pueblo, y sorpredernos de lo tranquilo que esta aca comparado con Peru, nos caimos en la cama. Al otro dia salimos a recorrer un poco mas, el mercado, la plaza, la catedral (donde bendicen los autos con flores y champan!) y comimos una riquisima trucha criolla en frente del lago. Pensamos que ibamos a tener que dormir en la camioneta, asi que despues de preparar una rica sopita de quinoa con 4 variedades de papas que habiamos comprado en la calle, fuimos a pedir las bolsas de agua. Justo habian cancelado un monton de gete por lo de los bloqueos en Peru, asi que nos dejaron tener un cuarto mas grade que el primero por el mismo precio! Asi que otra noche calentitos (y acompaniados – se nos pego como un chicle- un gatitto negro, igual al Eddie, que insistio dormir en el cuarto con nostoros! Antes del mediodia salimos para La Paz. Por supuesto, estabamos sin nafta otra vez – y la unica estacion de servicio en Copacabana no tenia! Otra vez salimos a la ruta con los dedos cruzados. Por suerte, los vapores que quedaban en el tanque de nafta alcanzaron para que llegaramos a una casa en la ruta donde una nena como de 10 anios nos vendio gasolina de un tacho de plastico. En el camino a La Paz tenes que cruzar el Lago Titicaca en unas lanchas bien precarias – muy divertido! El camino a La Paz fue impresionante. Alejandose del lago esta todo el altiplano con pasto amarrillo y casas hechas de barro, llamas y comunidades chicas. Acercadnose a la ciudad, se pone mas poblado, y el trafico en “El Alto” es de locos! Se nos acercaban todos, preguntandonos donde ibamos. Cuando dimos vuelta una esquina para ir para el centro, de repente nos choqueo la vista de la ciudad – todos los edificios en un “bowl gigante,” con la montania Illimani nevada atrás! Tuvimos que manejar por toda la ciudad para llegar a la parte sur este, donde esta la comunidad de Mallasa, donde vive la gente con mas plata (politicos y ex ministros). Nos dirijimos a esta zona porque los suizos nos recomendaron un hotel donde se puede acampar. Hace tres dias estamos aca, estacionados en el parking al lado de la basura del hotel, pero por lo menos tenemos Wi-FI y los nenes pueden usar la piscina. El segundo dia nos tomamos un taxi hasta el centro de La Paz, y pasamos el dia disfrutantdo de los ruidos, sonidos y espectaculos de la capital mas alta del mundo. Es muy notable la diferencia (palpable) entre Peru y Bolivia, y nos parece que debe tener algo que ver con el gobierno. La gente aquí en general parece tener un poco mas de esperanza, por lo menos. Lo que esta bueno en el centro es que, en vez de unos policias en uniforme, tienen a unas personas vestidas de cebras dirigiendo el trafico – y no saben como hace caso la gente! En general la sociedad aca es mas indigena, mas tradicional, y nos parece que las mujeres aca tienen mucha fuerza! De tarde paramos en un café con buena onda donde los nenes tomaron un submarino, su preferido, y despues seguimos caminando por alli. Nos compramos un poco de abrigo (gorras y ponchos de alpaca) porque va a hacer muchisimo frio en el resto de Bolivia! Nos quedamos mirando todo por un buen rato en el mercado de hechicerias, donde mujeres indigenas venden de todo – incluyendo picos de tucan, fetos de llamas secas, llamas encogidas, sapos secos, yuyos, y otras locuras. En uno de las muchas tiendas de instrumentos musicales, Mateo se compro un zamphir (como una flauta pan) y Ariel un Charango, y ahora estan tocando musica con eso. Antes de volver al Valle de la Luna de nuevo, paramos a comer en un restarante Hindu – riquisimo! Al otro dia, despues de pasar todo el dia en la piscina y trabajando en la compu, decidimos probar la comida suiza del restaurant del hotel – y no nos arrepentimos para nada! Que rico que es el raclette, una variedad de quesos que derretis en un quemador arriba de la mesa, acompaniado con pepinillos, cebollitas, tomates y papas bolivianas riquisimas. Comimos despacito, tomandonos el tiempo en derretir el queso con una rica bottellita de vino tinto boliviano– muy rico! Gracias Katja y Resu por recomendarlo! Hoy ya vamos a salir para Oruro (donde aparentemente hace –11 grados de noche! brrr!)
Despues para Potosi, donde estan las famosas y terribles minas de Cerro Rico, y finalmente al Salar de Uyuni. Despues de eso, ya salimos hacia Argentina…

Inti Raymi (y todavia en Cusco....)

2009-06-25T13:59:00.033-04:00

La buena noticia es que esta funcionando la camioneta. Nos parece que mas que nada sufre de la altura, como su duenio (lastima que no hacen gasolina con hojas de coca…). La mala noticia es que las carreteras siguen bloqueadas por tiempo indefinido. Mas de cinco mil campesinos estaban reunidos en Sicuani, y le tiraron rocas al primer ministro cuando fue hablar ayer. No van a aflojar hasta que el gobierno cancele los planes para construir un hidroelectrica y como tambien privatizar el agua. Muy bien por ellos, pero ahora tendremos que dar toda la vuelta…Lo mejor de estar en Cusco por tanto tiempo ha sido la gente que hemos encontrado y pasamos muy bien en su compania; comiendo y charlando. Tambien fuimos a ver las celebraciones de Inti Raymi, el festival del sol. Al principio pensamos que iba a ser una onda de “indios” vistiendose con colores y baliando para los turistas, y aunque fue un poco asi, la mayorica de la gente que viene son cusquenios y otros peruanos, y lo toman este dia muy en serio. Es una mescla fascinante entre teatro de la calle como tambien un ritual tradicional. Despues de abrir en el Templo del Sol en Cusco, la procesion siguio a la Plaza de Armas, donde estabamos tomando un café con un monton de otros turistas y peruanos en el balcon de un restaurant. Por suerte, habia una mujer que hablaba Quechua sentada al lado nuestro, y ella nos tradujo toda la ceremonia. Aparentemente, esta parte en la plaza se trata de predicciones de asuntos politicos y sociales para todo el anio. A parte de regalar una quipo, unas "escrituras" con nudos con el reporte economica del anio pasado, al alcade de Cusco (y pedirle que proteja a la ciudad y su gente) el gran Inca dio a conocer muchas predicciones para el anio entrante, y (no hay que ser muy adivino que digamos) no fueron para nada positivas. Despues, se fueron todos en procesion hacia Saqsaywaman, caminando arriba del cerro, para hacer la parte de predicciones agricolas. Esta parte incluye el sacrificio de una llama para leer de sus entranias. Mateo estaba muy ansioso para ver esta parte, pero por suerte estabamos medios lejos y no lo pudimos ver con lujo de detalle. Ahora estamos preparandonos para salir de nuevo, de la misma forma que llegamos aquí, via Nazca y al sur – esperamos poder ir por Moquegua a la frontera con Bolivia, en vez de tener que bajar hasta Chile. Vamos a ver que pasa. Ojala que la proxima vez que podamos realizar el blog sea en Bolivia, o si no en el norte de Argentina (nos han dicho que alli hay Wi-fi en todas las estaciones de servicio! Que nivel!).
Okay, okay, so…The good news is that the westy is running fine (like its owner, it suffers from altitude sickness: too bad they don’t make coca gasoline!). The bad news is that the roads are still closed indefinitely from here to Puno. The Prime Minister was in Sicuani, where the heaviest blocks are, to talk with delegates yesterday, and about five thousand campesinos drove him out with stones – he had to be evacuated by helicopter! They were very adamant about the government canceling plans to build a hydroelectric plant there and privatizing the water, and will not stop until they succeed. Good on them! We, however, will have to drive around somehow. The best part about being stranded in Cusco has been the good friends we have met in the meantime (plus I also managed to get a bit of work done, and the kids have gotten into making movies again!) We have shared many communal meals and conversation with our fellow travelers, and watched the Inti Raymi celebrations together. At first we were a bit skeptical, thinking that it was just a matter of the “natives” dressing up in colourful costumes to entertain the tourists with their quaint and archaic rituals. While there is a certain element of truth in this, the vast majority of people at the celebration were Cusquenos and other Peruvians (although probably mostly the more well-off ones), and they take this day very seriously. It is a strange and compelling mixture of street theatre and traditional ritual. After the opening ceremony at the Inca Temple of the Sun, the first part of the celebrations took place in the Plaza de Armas, where we were sitting on the balcony of a restaurant having breakfast with other gawking tourists. We were lucky enough to have a Quechua speaking woman sitting close to us, so she translated the whole thing into Spanish at it was occurring. Apparently this part in the Plaza is the part that deals with social and political events in the coming year, and the Inca seer/wiseman gave all kinds of predictions. They were pretty grim, unfortunately. Interestingly, the mayor of Cusco was involved in the ritual, charged with protecting the city and given a quipo, last year's economic report in strings and knots. After the colourful dancing and music, the procession moved up to the ruins of Saqsaywaman, and everyone followed along en mass. Luckily, our camping spot is right there, so all we had to do was climb a small fence and a hill, and we had a great view from above. This is the part where they deal with the agricultural predictions for the year, which includes sacrificing a llama and reading the entrails. Mateo was pretty excited about this part, although we were too far away to actually see much (luckily). Now we are getting geared up for our long detour, back to Nazca and down past Arequipa to Moqeugua, where hopefully we can get up to the border with Bolivia without having to go to Chile first. Hopefully, the next post will be from Bolivia (or maybe even Argentina – we hear there is free WIf-fi in all of the service stations there!)

Machu Picchu (via Santa Teresa); or still stranded in Cusco (part 3 of 3)

2009-06-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

Mateo queria que este blog se llame “dias de caminata” porque hicimos bastantes horas a pie en este viaje a Machu Pichu! En Ollantaytambo nos habian dicho que eran mas o menos 5 horas para llegar a Santa Teresa, y que la carretera era asfaltada casi todo el camino a Santa Maria. En el principio la carretera estaba muy bien, pero en muy poco tiempo despues de salir de Ollantatytambo empezamos a subir la montania. Muy lentamente, terminamos en el Abra Malaga, a 4,300 metros de altura, donde todo el tiempo esta nublado y frio. Veiamos los nevados alrededor nuestro, y nos preguntabamos como hacia la gente para vivir aca con sus animales. Bajando por el otro lado, el clima cambio de nuevo, y empezamos a ver selva, verde, y hasta llovio – de repente estabamos de vuelta an las tierras de bananeros y café!. Aunque la carreterra estaba muy bien (a parte de algunos derrumbes chicos) igual asustaba bastante, porque esto es una zona muy acidentada, de curvas y precipicios. Contentos de tener calorcito de nuevo, al mismo tiempo empezamos a ponernos medios nerviosos porque estabamos quedando sin gasolina y no habia estaciones de servicio en ningun lado! Para hacer las cosas peores, la pista de azfalto termino por completo (bastante antes de llegar a Santa Teresa), y se convirtio en un camino de tierra/piedras, con rios pequenios de agua de montania cruzando el camino. Parecia que no terminaba mas, pero en un par de horas llegamos a una estacion de servicio (bueno, era un loco que te vendia gasolina en botellas). Cuando llegamos a Santa Maria Gustavo paro para ayudar a un par de motociclistas de Quillabamba que necisitaban un par de herramientas para arreglar su moto.Es impresionanate que este camino descuidado es la ruta principal a Quillabamba, un productor importante de café, te, y frutas. Aca nos dirijimos hasta Santa Teresa, y solo nos faltaba la ultima hora de viaje. Aqui empezo la diversion! Fue la hora mas aterrorizante del viaje! El camino es mas que peligroso, con curvas y angosto, y bien alto por el costado de la montania, siguiendo el rio (que se veia chiquitito, alli abajo!). En muchos lugares era angostito, habia lugar solo para un auto, y las piedras estaban medias flojas. Si salis del camino un poco, literalmente te caes al precipicio. Esta carretera le gana a la “carretera de la muerte” en Bolivia, sin duda. En muchos lugares casi ni entrabamos: que hubiera pasado si nos cruzabamos con un camion o bus que venia doblando la esquina a toda velocidad? Habia puentes medios precarios y rios corriendo por la calle. Despues de pasar la hora mas larga de nuestras vidas, por fin llegamos a Santa Teresa. Encontramos el lugar de camping de Genaro Moscoso, donde pudimos estacionar para luego, poder ir caminando a Machi Pichu. Nos tomamos una cerveza bien fria para calmar los nervios mientras los nenes jugaban con “Pacho,” el monito titi que vive en el campamento, y le hicimos saber a Genaro que nos pensabamos quedar a vivir alli en Santa Teresa desde ahora, ya que ni mamados ibamos a pasar por esa ruta de nuevo! Por suerte, nos hicieron saber que hay otra ruta, por abajo, que es mucho mas segura. Ya mas aliviados, agarramos algunas cosas y nos tomamos un taxi que nos arrimo unos 40 minutos mas hasta la hidroelectrica, donde empieza la caminata hacia Aguas Calientes. Despues de registrar los pasaportes en un libro gigante (junto con un monton de otros turistas que de repente aparecieron de algun lado) empezamos a caminar por la via del tren. La caminata en si fue bastante facil, aunque las piedras grandes hacia que fuera mas facil saltar de durmiente en durmiente, asi que se nos hizo bastante meditativo. Cruzamos un puente de tren, y seguimos el valle entre las montanias, rodeado de bananeros y café. En un momento dado empezamos a ver la parte de atrás de las ruinas de Machu Pichu arriba nuestro. Dimos toda la vuelta (literalmente entramos por la puerta de atrás de Machu Pichu), encontrandonos con un tren en un momento, y llegamos a Aguas Calientes, justo cuando estaba oscuriciendo. La epoca de turismo no es tan fuerte como deberia ser en esta epoca, asi que facilmente encontramos un lugar para quedarnos y salimos a conocer este extranio lugar. Al lado del rio en la base de Machu Pichu, Aguas Calientes es un pueblito hecho solo para el turismo, y por lo tanto parece algo de una revista. Hay hoteles de $300 la noche, y todo tipo de restaurante. Lo primero que hicimos fue sacar los boletos para las ruinas para el otro dia (por suerte tres de nosotros somos estudiantes y el precio disminuyo a la mitad). Despues salimos en busqueda de un lugar bueno, bonito, y barato para comer. Al final, tuvimos que cruzar para el otro lado del rio, donde vive y come la gente que trabaja aca. Despues de una buena ducha caliente, nos fuimos a la cucha porque al otro dia teniamos que salir muy temprano para tener la oportunidad de subir a Wayna Pichu; que es la montania grande que se ve en todas las fotos de Machu Picchu, y solo dejan subir a 400 personas por dia. A las 4:30 de la maniana estabamos caminando por las calles de Aguas Calientes (junto con un monton de otros turistas que tuvieron la misma idea nuestra). Despues de 20 mintutos llegamos a la base, donde empiezan las escaleras zig-zag 6 km para arriba. Rapidamente nos dimos cuenta que no iba ser facil (especialmente cuando los mochileros y los omnibuses empezaron a pasarnos a toda velocidad) pero empezamos a mascar hojas de coca y eso nos dio mas energias. Salio el sol cuando estabamos por la mitad del camino, y en una hora y media estabamos en la fila para entrar a Machu Picchu. El ambiente alli estaba medio tenso, mas que nada porque estaban muy estrictos con no dejar entrar mochilas ni agua en bottella, y por supuesto, todos querian ir corriendo para hacer la cola para entrar a Wayna. Nos dio la impresión que la mayoria de la gente ni podia apreciar donde estaban! Decidimos probar ver si podiamos subir a Wayna Pichhu, y al final eramos el numero 321-4 de 400. Lo que pasa es que estabamos tan cansados ya de subir las eternas escaleras de piedra que en parte estabamos deseando no poder entrar! Pero bueno, somos masoquistas y subimos por otra hora mas! Por lo menos esta vez no fueron tantos escalones, pero estaban mucho mas inclinados y el camino era muy angosto. A veces hasta tuvimos que gatear! Ni que decir que cuando llegamos arriba las vistas eran espectaculares. Las fotos tendrian que explicar todo, pero la verdad es que no son suficientes. Era magico estar tan alto y ver todo Machu Picchu, y el camino que habiamos seguido para llegar alli, y los nevados atrás. Nos quedamos alli arriba lo mas que pudimos, hasta teniamos ganas de quedarnos a dormir para ver las estrellas! Pero eventualmente tuvimos que bajar. Esto lleva mas tiempo que subir, sobre todo para Gustavo que estaba sufriendo vertigo terriblemente! Una vez en las ruinas principales, recorrimos y paramos para jugar con las llamas que viven alli, pero nos cansamos de tantos turistas por todos lados! Esto debe ser uno de los lugares mas turisticos en el mundo; un promedio de 1000 personas por dia pasan por aca (mucho mas en temporada alta). Decidimos tomar el omnibus para bajar y la caminata que nos llevo cerca de 2 horas y media, duro apenas 20 minutos (por el camino zig-zag que se ve en las fotos)! En Aguas Calientes fuimos al mercado para comer algo rapido y seguimos camino, de nuevo por la via de tren hacia Santa Teresa. La caminata nos dio una buena oportunidad para hablar sobre nuestras experiencias y despedirnos de a poco de Machu Pichu que la veiamos desaparecer en la distancia. Cuando llegamos al campametno, fuimos directo a unas aguas termales que hay en Sanata Teresa. Esa noche justo estaba la fiesta de inauguracion (estan espernado un turismo impresionante en los proximos anios, ya que ahora esta es una alternativa popular para llegar a Machu Pichu). Estas aguas termales son unas de las mas lindas que hemos visto! Muy lindo, al lado del rio con las montanias atrás, la verdad es que las dejaron muy naturales. Y aunque el agua pudo haber sido un poquitito mas caliente, era justo lo que necesitabamos para sacarnos los dolores musculares. Al otro dia nos levantamos como nuevos (y con la piel suavecita). Despues de jugar con Pacho y hablar con unos guias y gente que estaban haciendo una caminanta por las montanias, salimos – pero no antes de visitar las aguas termales una vez mas! La mejor parte, es que tienen duchas con las aguas calientes para poder enjuagarse despues. Juntamos fuerzas para encarar el camino a Santa Maria, despues de preguntar como a 20 personas exactamente como hacer para evadir el maldito camino de arriba. Al final, el camino de abajo era bastante parecido al de arriba, pero igual nos parecio un poco mas corto. De nuevo sobre la carretera de tierra (esta vez lleno de ciclistas) y subimos y bajamos la montania, llegando a Ollantaytambo cuando estaba oscuriciendo, comimos en el mismo lugar de la vez anterior y dormimos en la misma plaza. La intencion fue levantarse temprano para llegar a Cusco, cambiar la bomba de gasolina, y salir de Cusco para Puno (y el Lago Titicaca), pero nuestra suerte quizo que la camioneta siga mal y tambien hay bloqueos indefinidos en la ruta de Puno. Esta vez son la gente Aymara que (con mucha razon) estan protestando que el gobierno les privatize el agua. Por suerte el hecho de que nos hemos quedado aca estancados por lo menos nos haa dejado conocer una gente muy buena onda - de Suiza, Alemania, Francia, Belgica, Australia – algunos estan mas o menos en la misma que nosotros. Tambien algunos de ellos saben algo de mecanica, asi que entre Claudio, Celex, y algunos mas vamos diagnosticando de a poco lo que le pasa a nuestra querida y tan necesitada camioneta. Ojala un dia de estos abran las carreteras y podamos ir hacia el sur: ya tenemos muchas ganas de seguir camino!

Mateo wanted to name this entry “Days of Walking,” which is a pretty apt name for what seemed like a 3 day odyssey to Machu Picchu and back! We had been told that it was about 5 hours to Santa Teresa from Ollantaytambo, and that the road was paved until about Santa Maria, where you have to turn off onto a smaller, gravel road to reach Santa Teresa. The road out of Ollantaytambo was a bit rough, but soon enough it turned into a smooth (if twisty) paved road. Almost immediately, the road began to snake its way up the mountain, higher and higher until about an hour into the drive the climate changed into cold, barren pampas and we passed through the Malaga pass (4,300 metres) with snowy mountain peaks on either side of us. It was misty and cold, and we marveled at how people can live up here with their herds of animals. The road quickly began to descend again toward Alfamayo, where it became jungly green and even rainy! We were suddenly back into coffee and banana growing land! We were happy to be warmer, but a bit nervous at this point, as we had assumed that there would be some sort of gas station by now, but really there are not many populated areas here and we were running out of gas! The road also had fallen rocks on them at regular intervals, and so we had to be very careful when going around the corners as it was a sheer drop down the side of the mountain, and apparently this is a high accident zone. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, the paved road stopped (long before reaching Santa Maria) and a bumpy, twisty and narrow dirt road began. The small rivers of mountain water run off go right over the road at regular intervals. Seemingly endless, this stretch continued for another couple of hours until we reached a gas “station” (actually, just a guy selling it out of his shop). Soon after this, we reached Santa Maria, where we stopped for more gas at a more legitimate station (with a real pump!) where Gustavo lent some tools to some guys from Quillabamba who were fixing their motorcycle. It is amazing to think that this road, in terrible shape, is the main highway to reach that city (a major fruit, coffee and tea producing area in the jungle). As I said before, there is a real problem with infrastructure in this country. Anyways, we turned off toward Santa Teresa, which was supposed to be another hour away, and then the fun began: This was the scariest, nail-biting ride of our lives! The road snakes high up and around the mountain, following the itsy bitsy river way down below, and in most places it is loose gravel and only wide enough for one vehicle. Literally, if you go even a tiny bit off the road you fall off the cliff and into the gorge and you die. Simple as that. I’m serious, this road beats Bolivia’s “death road” hands down. I mean, at some points it was barely even wide enough for us, let alone that truck or bus that was coming around the corner at full speed, and there were rickety bridges and rivers running through the middle of the road to boot. After the longest hour of our lives, we finally made it to the small town of Santa Teresa. Whew. We found the campsite owned by Genaro Moscoso that we had been told about, where we could park while we go to Machupicchu. We had a cold beer to calm our nerves, the kids played with Genaro’s pet squirrel monkey Pacho, as we let Genaro know that we would now be living permanently in Santa Teresa, because there was no f*%#!-ing way that we were taking that road ever again. Much to our relief, he let us know that we had come in on the “high” road, and that there was a lower road right beside the river that we should have taken. Oops. Anyways, a bit lighter of heart, we gathered together some stuff and took a 40 minute taxi ride to the hydroelectric dam, which is the place where the 2 and 1/2 hour walk to Aguas Calientes starts. After registering in a big book along with a bunch of other tourists that suddenly appeared out of nowhere (this is seemingly the new “cheap” way to get to Machupicchu) we started on our walk. It was a very pleasant and fairly easy walk along the railway ties, although the rather large stones made it a bit difficult so we mostly hopped from railway tie to railway tie, which became quite meditative after a while. We crossed over a train bridge, and went through the mountains following the rushing river with coffee and banana growing on wither side of us. At one point we could even see the back of Machupicchu way up above! After going around the site (we literally came through the back door of Machupicchu) and meeting up with a train at one point, we arrived to Aguas Calientes just as it was getting dark. We quickly found an inexpensive room in a hostel with hot water, and went out to explore this strange place. At the base of Macchupicchu and right beside the river, Aguas Calientes looks like something out of a magazine. There is a lot of money here, and there are even hotels that charge $300 a night! The first thing we did was go to the tourist office to buy our tickets to Machupicchu, and luckily the kids and I are all students so we paid half price (regular price is $40 each!). Then we went in search of an inexpensive and non-tourist oriented place to east and ended up having to cross to the other side of the river, where the people who work in Aguas Calientes live and eat. That night after a hot shower we went to bed early because we wanted to walk up the 6 km to the ruins and yet we still wanted to get there early enough to climb up Wayna Picchu (the taller mountain that you see in the background, where they only allow 400 people a day access). We woke up shortly after 4 am and were on the road by 4:30. We were surprised to see that we were not the only ones with the idea of getting an early start: there were quite a few other backpackers walking right alongside us. After about 20 minutes or so we reached the base of the mountain, where the zig-zagging stone steps to Machupicchu begin. We quickly realized that it would not be easy to walk all the way up and our lungs began to explode as the young backpackers all ran past us one by one. We were a bit disheartened after 5:30 when we heard all the buses start to whiz past us. Luckily we had lots of coca leaves to chew and this seemed to give us more energy! It was still pitch black when we began the ascent, but the sun rose when we were about half way up. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the top, and we had a bit of a break standing in line to get in. The atmosphere among the people was a bit tense, unfortunately, as the people at the gate had seemingly subjective rules about what size backpack is allowed in, and everyone was eager to rush to the line for Wayna Picchu. We couldn’t believe that some people didn’t even seem to appreciate where they were! Anyways, we decided to head over to the line to try our luck with Wayna Picchu, and ended up being numbers 321-4 out of 400. Yay. We were so exhausted that we were half hoping not to get in I think! Feeling like complete masochists (not to say idiots), we climbed up more stairs, although this time (although there were thankfully less of them) they were narrow and very steep, half the time having to use all fours to get up. About an hour later, we were at the top and were rewarded with spectacular views! Amazing. The photos should speak for themselves, but truly they don’t do it justice. For us it was almost magical to be so high up and see not only Macchu Picchu itself but the whole 360 degrees around it, with the snowcapped mountains in the distance and the river/railway track/ bridge, etc that we took to get there! We stayed up there for as long as we could, but eventually we had to come down (we were thinking about how beautiful the sky must look at night from up here). This was the hardest (and longest) part, especially for Gustavo who was suffering from a serious case of vertigo! We explored the main ruins for a while, stopping to play with the resident llamas, and were eventually driven away by hordes of tourists from all over the globe. This must be one of the most visited sites in the world, and an average of 1,000 people a day come here (more in high season). We decided to take the bus down, and laughed that what had taken us almost 2 hours to climb up only took about 20 minutes to ride down on the zig-zagging road that you can see in the photos. In Aguas Calientes we had a cheap set lunch in the market and were quickly on our way again, following the train tracks back to Santa Teresa. The walk back was a great opportunity to slowly go over the events of the day, and say goodbye bit by bit to the ruins on the mountaintop. As soon as we got back tot eh westy, we headed over to some spa-like hot springs in Santa Teresa to soak away our aches and pains. That night happened to be the inaugural party for the recently revamped place (they are banking on some major tourism here – anyone thinking of investing should come to Santa Teresa!). We were amazed at the gorgeous setting: these are some of the nicest springs we have ever seen! Even though for us the water could have been a bit hotter (you can’t argue with Mother Nature, I guess) it was the perfect cure for our aching legs and feet. We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and renewed, and our skin was so soft! After playing with Pacho and talking with some guides and trekkers from a group that were also staying at the campground, we headed out – but not before visiting the hot springs one more time! The best part about the hot springs is that they have natural hot showers that you can rinse yourself off in afterward. We finally got up the nerve to leave the town and head toward Santa Maria again, but not until we had asked about 20 people for precise instructions on how to avoid the high road…and the low road ended up looking conspicuously like the one we had come in on, but at least it seemed a bit shorter this time. Back through the rutted dirt road and up and over the mountain pass, we got to Ollantaytambo just as it was getting dark (again). We went to the same place for dinner and went to sleep in the same plaza. Our intention was to spend one night in Cusco, pick up and install the gas pump, and be on our way to Puno (and Lake Titicaca) early the next day. Unfortunately, this was not to be. A combination of continuing and inexplicable (at least to now) mechanical problems and roadblocks between here and Puno have stranded us in Cusco again. This time it is the Aymara indigenous people who are protesting (rightly so) the privatization of their water. Actually, this is a really interesting (not to say bad) time to be here because there are roadblocks and protests going on all over the country! At the camping place we are staying at, there are a variety of travelers – from Germany, Switzerland, Australia – some of whom are more or less as stranded as we are. At least being stuck here for a while has allowed us to get to know them. Some of them even know about mechanical stuff, so between us we finally seem to be figuring out what is wrong with the westy. Hopefully the roads will open up soon (although they are calling for major protests tomorrow, including at the airport in Cusco) and we can be on our way: we are anxious to keep moving south!

El Valle Sagrado, Pisaq/Ollantaytambo (part 2 of 3)

2009-06-19T13:00:00.000-04:00

A dos horas de Cusco, Pisaq es el nombre de un pueblito pintoresco que se encuentra en el valle, al lado del rio Urubamba, y tambien de las ruinas incas que se encuentran en la cima de la montania. Llegamos en la camioneta a las ruinas y pasamos dos horas largas explorandolas y muy impresionados (y con mucho vertigo) con la altura y con las vistas del valle y el rio debajo nuestro. Nos sorprendimos mucho con lo preciso que se “enganchan” las piedras de las paredes. Como si hubieran tenido alguna herramienta laser para hacerlo: se juntan exactamente, sin nigun tipo de espacio entremedio. Como lo hicieron? Es mas – como (y porque) subieron todas esas rocas gigantes por la montania? Supongo que es porque tenian una vista de 360 grados que lo hacia muy difical para cualquier enemigo! Tambien quedamos mas que impresionados con el sistema de agua, con canales de agua fresca corriendo por tuneles dentro de la montainia (estos todavia corren constantemente hasta el dia de hoy). Como pueden ver en las fotos, tambien tenian un sistema de terrazas para plantar (que tambien servian como paredes de contener). Mientras caminabanos por los tuneles oscuros y sederos angostos, escuchabamos el sonido de una flauta dulce en la distancia. Seguimos la musica y llegamos a la parte mas importante de las ruinas, donde esta el Templo del Sol, redondo y con un reloj de sol arriba. Alli charlamos un rato con una psicoanalista de Lima, que viaja al Valle Sagrado seguido para desenchufarse un tiempo, y vimos un grupo de loros volar en la distancia. Tambien encontramos de donde venia la musica, y los nenes compraron una quena del hombre que tocaba y vendia sus instrumentos. Ariel rapidamente aprendio como tocar esos mismos sonidos dulces. A la salida de Pisaq, vimos a una camioneta parecida a la nuestra con placas argetninas estacionada atras de una casa, y de curiosidad Gustavo fue parar para ver. Alli hablamos un rato con unos jovenes artesanos de Ushuaia que estan viajando por America del Sur en su combi. Salimos un poco tarde para Ollantaytambo, otro sitio importante en el Valle Sagrado, y llegamos de noche. Aun asi, ese pueblo nos sorprendio: es una ruina viviente! Las mismas paredes, muros, y calles, que hicieron los Incas estan alli, y la gente siguie viviendolos. Tambien esta el mismo sistema de agua, con canaletas corriendo por las calles angostas y empedradas. Otra vez nos preguntamos como hicieron para trabajar tan precisamente con esas piedras? Ollantaytambo es bastante turistico, porque es la ultima parada del tren para Aguas Calientes que va desde Cusco. Igual, es preciosa y muy tranquila, y pasamos un tiempo recorriendo las calles y admirando los trabajos antiguos. Encontramos un lindo restaurante accessible y comimos una cena riquisima antes de irnos a dormir en la camioneta en la plaza principal. De maniana nos levanto el ruido de gente esperando a sus omnibuses para ir a trabajar, y los nenes yendo a la escuela. Compramos unas hojas de coca frescas y nos sentamos para decidir que hacer ahora. Todavia no estabamos seguros de como ibamos a llegar a Machu Pichu, ya que el tren desde Cusco sale $97 cada uno, y de Ollantaytambo salia $62. El tren es caro, y aparte los duenios son una compania extranjera que se lo lleva todo. Escuchamos que podiamos llegar a Santa Teresa y caminar. Por lo de las problemas de la camioneta, consideramos tomar un omnibus hasta Santa Maria, y despues un micro a Santa Teresa, y caminar 8 km. en la via del tren hasta Aguas Calientes, pero no sabiamos donde dejar la camioneta. Al final decidimos manejar hasta Santa Teresa nosotros mismos….

We headed out by noon on Friday and reached Pisaq within two hours. Pisaq is the name of both a picturesque village in a valley beside the Urubamba River, and some impressive ruins perched on the mountaintop above. We drove up (and up) the mountain side and then walked around the ruins for a couple of hours, admiring our first real experience of Inca architecture. We were enchanted (and slightly vertigo-struck) by the view of the entire valley below, with the river meandering through it. We could not get over the stone ruins themselves, as the walls look like they were fit together using some laser tool to cut the stones precisely- they fit together exactly, without the slightest gap! How did they do this? What is more, how (and why) did they get all those huge stones up there? We were also very impressed with the irrigation system and the canals of fresh water, coming from deep within the mountain, which still continuously flow to this day. As you can see from the photos, they also had these complex terraces for planting crops (which doubled as retaining walls). As we hiked over the ruins along narrow paths and through cave passageways, we could hear the sweet sound of someone playing a flute in the distance. We followed the sound and arrived at the main area of the ruins, the Temple of the Sun, which is round in shape and has a sundial on the top (astronomy was very important for the Inka). There we chatted for a while with a psychoanalyst from lima who comes to the Sacred Valley regularly to unwind, and we also found the source of the flute music. The kids bought a Quena from the man who was selling them, and Ariel quickly picked it up and started playing those sweet sounds himself. As we were leaving the ruins and heading to Ollantaytambo, another important site about an hour or so away, we noticed another VW camper van parked behind a house with Argentine license plates. Gustavo insisted that we stop out of curiosity, and we spent about an hour chatting to some young artesanos from Ushuaia who are driving around South America in their van. We continued on our way a bit later than expected, and so we arrived to Ollantaytambo in the dark. Not being able to see it did not dampen our amazement at this city: the oldest continuously lived in city, it is a ruin itself! The stones and walls are still there, and the main street is made of stones, with that amazing irrigation/water system flowing through the narrow streets. Ollantaytambo is fairly touristy, being the last train stop on the super expensive train before reaching Aguas Calientes (Machupicchu), but it was still very low-key and we enjoyed walking around the town, admiring the stonework. We found a great little restaurant and had a very nice meal before popping the top to sleep in the main square. In the morning we were woken up by all of the hustle and bustle of the plaza, with men and women waiting for their buses in order to get to work and children rushing off to school. We bought some fresh coca leaves from a woman in the square and sat down to figure out our next move. We were still at that point a bit undecided about how to get to Machupicchu. There are a few options, which include taking the train from Cusco (which runs around $97 per person, and that’s for the cheap seats!), taking the train from Ollantaytambo ($62 per person), or either driving or taking a microbus to Santa Maria, and then to Santa Teresa, parking there and walking 8 km along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes. We asked around to find out how far it was to Santa Teresa, and (even though Eva and Mary generously offered to help with the costs of the train) we finally made the decision to go for it and just drive there ourselves….

Stranded in Qosqo (part 1 of 3)

2009-06-18T15:07:00.001-04:00

This entry should be called “Peru, tierra de contradicciones, part 2”! I’m sure most of you are aware of the situation with the Amazon people by now, and how the roadblock at Bagua that put a damper on our plans to visit Chachapoyas escalated a few days ago into a tragedy that left 20 police officers dead and an untold number of Indigenous people dead and/or disappeared. At least the international attention this incident has garnered has meant that the nefarious government of Alan Garcia doesn’t have much choice but to put their plans to sell off the amazon resources to multinational interests on the back burner (at least for now). unfortunately, I just read in the news that Canada ratified the FTA with Peru without even mentioning the massacre in Bagua...As for our adventures, we will try to get caught up from where we left off, but it will have to come in three installments. First of all, we had a hard time leaving Huacachina partly because Mateo didn’t want to leave his little green bodyguard behind, and partly because we made friends with the people who run the hostal, who we sat around the campfire with after the disastrous game between Uruguay and Brazil, drinking delicious shots of pisco (which is nicer tan grappa, also made from grape skins – I think because the grapes here are super sweet, athough unfortunately so is the wine) and commiserating about futbol and politics. We managed to tear ourselves away the next day around noon. Stopping at the supermarket to get some supplies, we drove through the desert once again toward Nazca, where we paused briefly to get a rough idea of the lines at a lookout tower off the highway, which cuts right through one of the figures! The lines are totally amazing to us, still shrouded in complete mystery, although we weren’t willing or able to take a bumpy, dangerous and expensive flight over them. We kept driving on through the afternoon and evening, heading out of the desert and into the mountains. As the sun began to set, we were nowhere near a populated area, and had to drive through a couple of serious mountain passes (4,300 metres!) on some twisty and unkempt roads until we decided to stop for the night at a gas station in a nice little mountain town called Puquio. We had a fitful sleep, mostly because of the altitude and cold, but at least we got a really early start and were on the road again before 7 am. That day we drove for 12 hours, through more mountain passes and high altitude pampa nature reserve, were we saw wild vicunas and flamingos on these high altitude lakes, and many, many little traditional villages with people herding their alpacas and llamas. We also saw some amazing big rabbit-type creatures, grey with long ears and long, curved tails (someone told us they were related to chinchillas?) One thing that always makes us laugh since we've been in Peru is that, as we drive along, people are constantly sticking out their arms and trying to flag us down, because we look remarkably like the microbuses that people use to get around here. For hours we followed this beautiful blue river at the bottom of a canyon, passing town after town, until by mid-afternoon we started to go up again, and reached a town called Abancay at the foot of the mountains. Suddenly, the Westy went on strike and stopped moving completely. Uh-oh. Luckily we were right in front of a gas station, so we backed/pushed the Westy in and parked. Gustavo and Mateo flagged down a taxi driver (actually, he was right beside us washing his car) and asked him to take them to the nearest mechanic, which he did. In less than a half an hour, they were back in the taxi with the mechanic and he confirmed what we suspected the problem to be: the gas filter needed to be replaced. After all of this driving, and we had never even had it cleaned and it was completely filthy! Anyway, the mechanic fixed the problem (thank you Scott Lyons for suggesting that we take a spare one along!) and we were on our way again. After watching Abancay get smaller and smaller as we drove by it again and again on the spiraling road up the mountains, the snow peaked mountains started to appear: spectacular! Up and down, around and around, we reached Cusco by around 7 pm and looked for the camping place that had been recommended to us by the Dutch/German couple in the green westy. As we drove into Cusco (or Qos'qo, which means "navel of the earth") we marveled at the beauty of this city (an ancient Inka creation and taken over by the Spanish in 1533) at night. There is so much history here! This part of Peru is like one big archeological site and it is, accordingly, much cleaner and more touristy than the coast. The camping place is run by a Dutch couple and is located up on a hill, overlooking the city, right beside the Inka ruins of Saqsaywaman. After the Spanish took over the city of Cusco, which was planned to take the shape of a grand puma, they stole the huge rocks of the Inka stronghold of Saqsaywaman (which was the head of the puma) to build their own churches and homes (you can still see the rocks and other Inkan buildings in Cusco to this day). The name Saqsaywaman itself means “satisfied falcon” because after a huge battle, many bodies lay dead on the fields, attracting many condors. Battling a bit of altitude sickness, we spent our first day in Cusco exploring the Plaza de Armas and walking through the picturesque cobblestone streets. After two days of warm sunny days and near-freezing temperatures at night (and continued altitude issues) we decided to take off to the Sacred Valley and try to find our way to Machu Picchu. After getting everything all packed up and ready to go, Gustavo turned the keys in the ignition and…..it wouldn’t start! We thought it might have something to do with the gas filter, so once again Gustavo asked a taxi driver to take him to a mechanic who deals with VWs (there are a lot of them around here- both VWs and mechanics) who came and diagnosed that something was wrong with our gas pump. We had brought a spare one of those along as well, so Claudio called an electrician called Celex over to install it. Unfortunately, it turns out that the spare gas pump we brought from Canada was no good, so we had to order a new one from Lima. While we waited around, we walked into town regularly to take in the sights, including the Corpus Christi celebration, where Catholics from all over the area come to Cusco to pay tribute to their saints in a very colourful but strange and somber celebration in the Plaza de Armas. Even this traditional Catholic ritual is clearly inflected with pre-conquest symbolism however, as the scepter that the priest held up had a big golden sun on the end of it, and some of the floats dedicated to the saints had potatoes and corn sharing the places of honour! Many restaurants had displays in their front entrances of a typical dish during this time called Chiriuchu, which includes roasted chicken, cuy (which we still have not tried), dried alpaca meat, homemade cheese, a mint omelet and a hot red pepper on the top! The Corpus Christi celebrations felt a bit strange given the continuing history of colonization, but we are more excited about the Inti Raymi celebrations (Indigenous festival of the sun) on June 24, but hopefully we will be in Bolivia by then (where apparently instead of sacrificing a llama to the pachamama, they punch each other until they bleed into the earth!). In the end, Celex managed to fix our old fuel pump so that we could drive for a few days while we wait for the new one, so we decided to head off on our tour of the sacred valley and Machupicchu.
Este blog tendria que llamarse “Peru, tierra de contradiccones 2,” porque este lugar no deja de sorprendernos, en todo sentido. Como seguramente ya saben, el bloqueo que la gente del Amazonas hizo (y por lo cual no pudimos ir a Chachapoyas) escalo, y termino con 20 policias muertos y muchisimos indigenas muertos y/o desaparecidos (la gente dice que vieron helicopteros tirando cuerpos en los rios). Por lo menos la atencion internacional ha logrado que el gobierno ponga el freno en sus planes para explotar los recursos amazonicos; por lo menos por ahora...Ahora los indigenas de esta zona (al sur de Cusco) estan haciendo bloqueos en las carreteras tambien (con buena razon - el gobierno quiere privatizar el agua) y no sabemos como vamos a salir de aca para seguir a Bolivia. Pero vamos a preocuparnos de eso despues; por ahora, vamos a ver que hemos hecho en los ultimos dias. Creo que en el ultimo capitulo todavia estabamos en la Huacachina, y fue bastante dificil irse de ese oasis, ya que hicimos amigos con la gente del hostal Rocha despues de mirar el partido desastroso de Uruguay y Brazil y tomar unos piscos al lado del fuego. Tambien Mateo no queria dejar a su pequeño guardaespaldas verde, Chubby, pero logramos arrancar al final. El primer dia de viaje pasamos por mas disierto y las famosas lineas de Nazca, donde subimos a un mirador que habia al lado de la Panamericana. No se veian las formas tan bien como cuando subis en una avioneta (peligrosa y cara), pero fue suficiente para tener una idea de lo que son estas maravillosas y misteriosas lineas. Seguimos manejando toda la tarde y toda la noche, y el desierto se convirtio en montainas. Esa noche despues de pasar por una pampa de altura de 4,200 metros, dormimos en un pueblito que se llama Puquio. Al otro dia nos levantamos bien tempranito para empezar a manejar por montanias y unos valles preciosos, siguiendo un rio. Ese dia fue de 12 horas (ni siquiera paramos para comer, arreglandonos con lo que teniamos en la camioneta) en la pista hasta llegar a Cusco. En el viaje vimos vicunias, llamas, flamencos de altura, y mucha gente y pueblos tradicionales en las pampas de altura (a mas de 4,000 metros). Tambien vimos unos conejos medios raros con colas largas (dicen que son parientes de las chinchillas). Lo mas gracioso de manejar en Peru es que la gente siempre nos confunde con los micros que usan para viajar, y siempre nos tratan de parar, haciendo senias con la mano en el medio de la carretera! Llegando a Abancay de tarde y subiendo una cuesta, la camioneta de repente quedo parada. Dejo de funcionar sin previo aviso. La empujamos hasta una estacion de gasolina que (por suerte) estaba cerca. Sospechamos que era el filtro de gasolina, y Gustavo y Mateo fueron en un taxi hasta un mecanico y lo trajeron para cambiarlo (habiamos traido uno de repuesto de Canada). Depues de que lo cambiaron seguimos camino, subiendo la montania y viendo al pueblo cada vez mas chiquito hasta empezar a ver los nevados impresionantes de los Andes. Llegamos de noche a Cusco, y vimos las luces de la ciudad brillar en la noche. Lo primero que hicimos fue buscar a un camping de unos holandeses que queda arriba de un cerro con vista a la cuidad, al lado de las ruinas incas de Saqsaywaman. Despues de que los espanioles coparon la ciudad de Cusco (que los Incas hicieron en la forma de un puma) se robaron las rocas de este lugar (que era la cabeza del puma) para hacer sus iglesias y casas. El nombre Saqsaywaman quiere decir “halcon satisfecho,” recordado despues de una batalla famosa, cuando los condores comian a los muertos en el campo. Peleando contra el mal de altura (mas que nada Mateo y Gustavo), pasamos el primer dia en Cusco visitando la Plaza de Armas y caminando por las calles empedradas. Despues de dos dias soleados (pero congelantes en la noche), decidimos dar una vuelta por el Valle Sagrado y buscarle la vuelta para visitar Machu Pichu. Con todo listo y nosotros subiditos al carro, Gustavo puso las llaves en el arranque y….nada. no arrancaba. Pensamos que tenia que ver con lo del filtro de gasolina, asi que Gustavo se subio otra vez a un taxi para buscar un mecanico. Al final, Claudio decidio que pasaba algo con la bomba de gasolina, y llamo a un electricista, Celex, que vino a instalar la bomba que trajimos de Canada. Lamentablemente, esa bomba no funciono, y entonces tuvimos que mandar buscar una nueva de Lima. Atrapados en Cusco, y todavia sufriendo de la altura, salimos a dar vueltas por la ciudad. Justo en esos dias estaba la celebracion de Corpus Christi; cuando los Catolicos de esta zona vienen a Cusco a celebrar. Lo interesante es que hasta este ritual tan traditioncal tiene elementos pre-hispanicos: el baston que usa el cura tiene un sol dorado, simbolo importante para los Incas, y en los carros decorados y dedicados a los santos las papas y el maiz compartien el lugar de honor. Ese dia muchos restaurantes hacian un plato tipico llamado Chiriuchu que teiene cuy asado, pollo, carne de alpaca seca, queso, tortilla de hierba buena y un aji picante arriba de todo! Estas celebraciones catolicas fueron un poco raras, mas que nada por el ambiente de broca social que se vive ahora. En unos dias se va a celebrar Inti Raymi, que es el festival indigena del sol, pero quisieramos estar en Bolivia ya por ese entonces (donde en vez de sacrificar una llama se "revientan" entre ellos para darle la sangre a la Pachamama). Vamos a ver que pasa…. Lo bueno fue que, aunque la bomba que trajimos de repuesto no funciono, Celex pudo arreglar la que teniamos, asi que decidimos ir al Valle Sagrado y Machu Pichu por un par de dias mientras esperabamos la nueva desde Lima.

Peru, tierra de contradicciones...

2009-06-06T20:39:00.057-04:00

Waving goodbye to Al at the bus terminal in Banos the other day made us realize that – despite the fact that in so many of the countries that we have visited on the trip we have been able to spend time with good friends and family – the next time that we will see a familiar face probably won´t be until we get to Uruguay. It made us realize that even though we still have many kilometers to go, we are getting closer all the time. Especially since we have crossed over into Peru we have felt that we are finally and officially in South America (although we still have to cross the entire Andes region to get there!). Even though there were many mountains involved, we drove from Banos to Cuenca in one day, winding our way down the “Devil’s Nose,” a really steep part of the mountains where people (gringos, to be precise) actually pay good money to ride down on the roof a train! We were quite high, and we were literally going through the clouds on many parts of this twisty turny drive where parts of the road were not in very good condition. It was night by the time we reached Cuenca, and we decided to head for the old city in the centre of town. Lucky thing that we did, because we found a very calm place to park ourselves, right in front of the police station, next to an Internet place and a great pizzeria! We got up early the next day (partly because we were in the police parking area!) and drove around the city, which is actually really nice because it is much more arts oriented than Quito. There is also a river crossing right through the city, and it is nice to see the old colonial houses beside the river and the people really using the boardwalk areas. We were at almost 3,000 metres above sea level which meant that is was a bit chilly so we decided to keep on driving to get to the coast that same day, which meant that we changed climates about four times in one day – from cold and overcast mountains, to fertile green cow pastures and valleys, to desert dry canyons, to rainy, jungle banana growing areas, to the sandy beach – all in one day. We stopped for lunch in Machala, known as the banana growing capital of Ecuador, and kept driving until the border town of Huasquillas. When we got there we followed the signs to the border. Much to our surprise, upon reaching the end of the road we discovered that the bridge to Peru was completely under construction and that there was no way to pass. After panicking for a few minutes, someone drove by and let us know that this is to be the future border crossing, and that the real border is actually in the middle of the town. Whew. The town seemed like something out of some weird movie, and the border was basically located in the middle of a chaotic market scene. We finally made it to the border and after dealing with some official beaurocracies (but still easier than border crossings in Central America!) we were finally and officially in Peru. We drove for a couple more hours – through mangroves and rice fields - and were in Mancora before it started to get dark. Al had recommended for us to stay in a place called “Sol y Mar” (located beside a party hostal called Loki who, by the way, rejected us because they do not even allow children on the premises!) so we parked in their lot beside the swimming pool and camped out for three nights. It was fairly warm in Mancora and is summer there all year round, so there were quite a few tourists there soaking in the rays and trying to catch some waves. We spent most of our time watching sunsets, watching the sea birds catch fish, and eating delicious cebiche for breakfast, lunch and dinner (I know, but in Peru it is supposed to be spelled with a b and not a v). The kids were having a great time drinking abundant amounts of the disgustingly golden-coloured Inka Cola until they realized that it is owned by the Coca Cola Company (what a disappointment!). On Thursday the sun went behind the clouds and we took it as a sign that it was time to head south once again. We made it to Chiclayo by nightfall, with the idea that we would find a place to park the westy and take a detour for a couple of days into the jungly mountains of Chachapoyas (the capital of the Amazon province). There are some really cool pre-Inca ruins nearby, a fortress of the Chachapoyas cloud warrior people called Kuelap, and the kids were very excited about going to visit them (they seemed to be really excited about a 12 hour overnight bus ride too, for some reason). Unfortunately when we got to the bus station we were informed that all buses to Chachapoyas had been cancelled that day because of indigenous protestors blocking the roads. We decided to stay overnight in Chiclayo and try again the next day, and so we found a reasonably priced hotel with hot water and internet and spent the night. We also found this great place to eat called Boom, which reminded us of a cross between the Café Coca Cola in Panama City and La Pasiva in Uruguay, that had the most delicious and gigantic mixed salads we have had on the trip so far! [short foodie aside: the best part about Peru is without a doubt the food. They have every fresh ingredient you can imagine, and they are not afraid to use lots of interesting flavours…a nice change since we have been getting kind of tired of plain chicken, rice and salad every day. We haven’t seen so many delicious and varied chilies since Mexico, and they have about 400 different kinds of potatoes and lots of kinds of corn as well]. The next day after breakfast we set off for the bus station to try our luck once more, but no go. It looks like the government has delayed passing some bill in favour of the indigenous people (surprise) and so the road blocks will continue for some time, so our trip to Kuelap has to be cancelled indefinitely (but anyone interested should look it up online). Instead, we decided to visit the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan close to Chiclayo, a museum that houses all of the artifacts from a nearby Moche (pre-Inca) tomb site that was discovered in the 1980s (when it was being robbed of all its gold). We were pretty much frisked to make sure we didn’t try to take any pictures of the artifacts, but you might be able to find out about it on the internet ( I know there was a famous National Geographic article about it in the late 80s). They were able to repatriate some of the gold artifacts with the help of the FBI and international border controls, but much of it disappeared or was melted down and they only got 6% of it back! The entire coast of Peru is basically one big desert, so there are an amazing number of archeological sites (many of them still “undiscovered” as of yet) here. We were actually shocked at how much it looks like Egipt or something! We didn’t realize that it was so dry here, and the desert scenery has surprised us (thousands of kilometers of desert coastline….). That particular discovery meant that archeologists were able to learn a lot about the Moche culture, just from studying the way the tombs were organized and the contents of the tombs themselves. From what we have gathered so far, human and animal sacrifice was huge. After visiting that museum and marveling at the beautiful craftsmanship, and the tragedy of its loss (this is pretty much the only place in Peru where they actually have any pre-Colombian gold, as most of it was long ago looted and melted into “Spanish gold,” and any that was found more recently was also stolen….) we kept driving south toward Trujillo (which was founded by Pizarro in 1534, but that is another sad story in itself…). We made it to a gas station a few kilometers north of there and spent a rather restless night (it is the first time we felt a bit nervous about popping the top of the westy, so we just all squeezed in down below), despite the fact that we had a guardian owl perched up above us, and woke up to numerous birds chirping in the trees. Close to Trujillo we visited some well-known ruins called Chan Chan (which means sun sun) which was a huge adobe city in the middle of the desert. There are 20 square kilometers of ruins, but only a small fraction of it is set up for people to visit. One of the most impressive aspects of the place is the fresh water reserves, filled with ducks and plants, a system that is still used by desert-dwelling people to this day. After visiting the ruins we stopped for a seafood lunch in Trujillo and kept driving until late afternoon, when we discovered this wonderful little fishing village called Tortugas, just north of Casma and west of the Cordillera Blanca mountain range (several peaks of more than 6000 metres each!) This little village on a perfect bay was just what we were looking for, peaceful and quiet – it was the Peruvian version of Punta del Diablo! There are 25 families that live there all year round, and the rest of the houses are owned by wealthy people from Lima who only visit during summers and on long weekends. We met a couple of people who work taking care of houses there, but for the most part we were completely alone. The boys scraped some fresh mussels off of the rocks and after a simple pasta dinner, watching the sunset and pelican activities we went to bed early. In this town, the lights literally go out at 11 pm! The next morning we woke up to the sounds of Inca turns, pelicans and other sea birds fishing for their breakfasts. We reluctantly left Tortugas in the early afternoon, and after a quick oil change and another exhaust pipe weld we visited the Sechin ruins just outside of Casma, a small site that is much older than many of the others – 1600 BC! They had the most amazing carvings on the walls of the central temple, violent depictions of decapitations and eviscerations, people with blood gushing out of their wounds, etc - quite graphic! And they also have a more than thousand year old mummy that is disconcertingly well preserved – another young female victim (or lucky chosen one, depending on your point of view) of ritual sacrifice. At the door of the museum they have a hairless Peruvian dog, a species that has been keeping people here company for thousands of years. Very strange looking, but they are said to have healing properties because of their elevated body temperature and people use them to help cure arthritis and other ailments! Her name is “Cori Tika” which means Golden Flower in Quechua, and we have to admit that she is so ugly that she is actually kinda cute! When the Spanish arrived with their own breeds these hairless dogs all but died out completely, and the only ones that survived were the ones who lived in the most isolated areas. After visiting the ruins, we kept driving south through the desert, admiring the dune formations. From the Panamerican highway you can catch a glimpse of virgin beaches, completely empty and without even a road leading to them. Sand, dunes, rocks and garbage – that is virtually all we saw for thousands of kilometers of Peruvian coastline. Before nightfall we reached a sketchy city called Barranca, a couple of hours north of Lima. We decided to look for a hotel with safe parking, and went out for a late dinner of grilled chicken, fries and salad (another really yummy one!). One every table sat the ubiquitous bottle of Inka Cola, and we were the entertainment of the restaurant (as well as the street) – obviously not a lot of foreign tourists come to this city! From Barranca we tried to drive to some really famous and relatively newly discovered ruins called the lost city of Caral (a civlizaton as old as the ancient Chinese or Egyptian ones!) but the road was in terrible shape (and under construction) so we didn’t make it all the way there. The BBC did a special about it that is worth taking a look at online. A bit disappointed once again, we kept on driving, passing the city of Lima in a desperate rush because we could barely breathe due to the smog. On top of that, the drivers in Lima are ten times worse than the drivers in Ecuador so we were lucky to escape with our lives! That night we didn’t quite make it all the way to Pisco because by the time we reached a place called Chincha (known for being the home of this great Afro-Peruvian music) it was dark and the police stopped us because one of our headlights was not working. After asking around and being rejected y several hotels, we spent the night at a gas station (once again without popping the top). The next morning we reached Pisco relatively early and were amazed at the damage that had been done by an earthquake that virtually destroyed the town in 2007. Thousands of houses were destroyed, and although people are trying to rebuild they are still living in the rubble. The oldest buildings disappeared, including the cathedral which collapsed with 180 people inside of it, killing them all. Everyone that we talked to told similar stories of delayed (and in some cases a complete lack of) help from the government. Apparently the government even downplayed the strength of the quake to avoid having to invest too much money in rebuilding efforts. The only buildings that have been successfully rebuilt are banks and other private investments. More than one person commented to us that the Peruvian government has forgotten about them… As we said before, without a doubt the best thing about Peru is the food, but the worst thing is the injustice. This is a country full of contradictions. There is tangible poverty everywhere, at the same time there are amazing cultural, material riches. Oil, a giant coastline of fishermen, everything grows here – but the riches are so poorly distributed. There is a complete lack of infrastructure in all but the most touristy areas (and they are really touristy). Right beside brand new, three-story neon-lit casinos there are hospitals housed precariously in cargo containers. We have been through many, many poor countries on this trip, but Peru is by far the one where social injustice and complete lack of hope is most tangible. In general, people seem to be resigned to this way of living, not smiling or expecting very much. For thousands of years they have gotten used to the fat that the rich rob it all and that is just the way it is. They need a change of government and attitude urgently! From Pisco we went to the Paracas National Reserve, an amazing desert at the edge of the ocean, a beautiful combination of desert and sea. We bought some scallops from some fishermen at a small port in the park and Gustavo asked a woman who runs a restaurant if we could prepare them there. We spent the night beside the Visitor’s Centre of the park, watching the pink Chilean flamingos and looking at the starry sky. The next morning we got up really early so that we could go on a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands, some really cool rock formations some kilometers off shore where an amazing variety of birds and sea mammals congregate including sea lions, Humbolt penguins, Inca turns, and even some bottlenose dolphins! These islands are known as the “poor man’s Galapagos,” and we are glad that we got a chance to go. On the boat ride we also got to see a neat formation on the side of the Paracas rocks known as the Candelabra, which is probably dated from around the time of the Nazca and Paracas people which is meant to represent the San Pedro cactus (a sacred and hallucinogenic tool). There is another interpretation involving San Martin and some Masonic symbol, but I like the other one better….). Mateo even made friends with the tour guide who gave him a necklace with a fossilized shark tooth on it! After the boat ride (and some really bad cebiche in a tourist-oriented restaurant beside the boat socks) we headed for the Oasis of Huacachina, close to the city of Ica, which is a fresh water lagoon surrounded by palm trees and high sand dunes in the middle of the desert – it truly looks like something out of a film! For years it was a place where the well-to-do of Lima came to get away from it all, but now it is a place where international tourists come to go sandboarding and race around like maniacs in dune buggies. Ariel and Mateo have been spending lots of time going up and down the dunes (most time is spent going up, unfortunately). We are parked in the dunes beside Hostal Rocha which is run by a wonderful family with a small pool and some really neat talking parrots and a scarlet macaw who lives in the tree by the pool. Mateo has made friends with one particular parrot called “Chubby” who only lets Mateo touch him! He rides around all day on Mateo’s shoulder, mumbling like a crazy person. The first night we spent chatting (and drinking Pisco sours) with a really nice couple from France who are riding their bikes around Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, and since they are coming “up” and we are going “down,” we exchanged some useful information about places to visit and stay. Since then we have been meeting an assortment of travelers (including a couple from Germany/Holland traveling in their ’78 westy!) and Peruvians, and just generally relaxing a bit before getting on the move again. It is hard to find a place with fast internet connection in Peru, and our wireless on the laptop seems to be on the fritz, but we have been trying to update this blog for days! From here (if we ever leave!) we are going to leave the coast for good and go into the Cuzco and the Sacred Valley. We are planning to find the poor person’s route to Macchu Picchu (involving walking for hours along a defunct train track instead of spending big bucks on a train from Cusco) because even though it is going to be insanely touristy and expensive, we feel like we still have to go to Macchu Picchu. Then, we head toward Lake Titicaca and Bolivia, which is going to be both less touristy and less expensive.
Al final, acompaniar a Al a subirse al omnibus el otro dia nos hizo dar cuenta de que,-- en todo este viaje hemos estado de visita con gente querida y en intervalos regulares -- la proxima vez que vamos a ver una cara familiar sera cuando lleguemos a Uruguay! No se, hay algo en el aire aca en Peru que ya nos hace acordar mucho a Uruguay y nos hace sentir mucho mas cerca, aunque todavia nos falta bastante para llegar (cruzar todos los Andes, por ejemplo!). La manejada de Banios a Cuenca la hicimos en un dia, llegando de noche a Cuenca. Fue loquisimo, con muchas montanias y curvas, bajando por la “Nariz del Diablo” (donde los gringos pagan por bajarlo sentados en el techo del tren), con mucha neblina (o mas precisamente, nubes!) y en muchos lugares la Panamericana no esta en buen estado. Fue muy lindo, pero muy dificil de manejar. Cuando por fin llegamos a Cuenca nos dirigimos hacia la ciudad vieja que, por supuesto, es muy linda y tranquila. Alli encontramos una pizzeria rica con internet al lado, entonces nos quedamos estacionados para dormir, porque en frente estaba la seccional de policia. Al otro dia nos levantamos temprano (bueno, la verdad es que la policia nos hecho!) y salimos a conocer un poco la ciudad, que tiene un malecon muy pintoresco al lado del rio, y hay muchas casas coloniales. Es una ciudad mucho mas chica (y mas linda!) que Quito, sin lugar a duda. Hacia un poco de frio (estabamos a casi 2,600 metros de altura) y decidimos seguir camino hasta la frontera. Ese dia fue el mas loco e increible que hemos tenido en el sentido de cambiar climas dramaticamente – de casi 3,500 metros a la playa en un solo dia! Bajamos de la montania, pasamos por cerros verdes, unos caniones deserticos, y despues por selva donde llovia. Con muchos muchos bananeros en el camino, hasta terminar en la playa – todo eso en un solo dia! Paramos a comer algo al mediodia en Machala, la capital de la produccion de bananas del Ecuador, que esta a una hora de la frontera y donde hacia mucho calor! Cuando llegamos a Huasquillas (la frontera con Peru) seguimos los carteles para la frontera – pero cuando llegamos el puente estaba completamente roto, y no habia paso. Al otro lado de la construccion veiamos los carteles que decian “Bienvenidos a Peru,” pero no podiamos llegar! Entramos en poco de panico por un momento, hasta que paso una camioneta y nos contaron que esto va a ser la frontera nueva, y que todavia hay que pasar por el centro del pueblo para cruzar a Peru. Para cruzar tenes que meterte en la calle principal, que funciona como un mercado central (o tal vez solo fue ese dia) y fue medio caotico, pero al fin pasamos y despues de un rato estabamos en Peru! Fueron un par de horas mas manejando– por plantaciones de arroz y zonas de manglares - hasta llegar a Mancora, un pueblo de pescadores/surfistas donde siempre es verano. Despues de ser rechazados en el hostal mas conocido, Loki (pueden creer que no dejan entrar ninios!?), fuimos al hotel de al lado, que Al nos habia recomendado. “Sol y Mar” es mucho mas tranquilo y tiene una piscinita y nos estacionamos alli al lado de la playa por tres noches. Alli aprovechamos un poco de calorcito antes de entrar en las montainas de nuevo (con toda seguridad la proxima playa que vayamos a ver sera Punta del Diablo!). Desayunamos, almorzabamos y cenamos con cebiche (todavia hay una controversia gigante, pero en Peru los que saben lo escriben con “b” no con “v”), los nenes tomaron abundante Inka Cola (hasta que se dieron cuenta que es de la misma compania de la Coca Cola – que decepcion!) y miramos pelicanos y otras aves de mar volar por el Pacifico buscando peces. El jueves nos levantamos con un dia nublado y decidimos arrancar para el sur, pasando por unos desiertos medios extremos y crudos (en todo el viaje hasta ahora creo que no habiamos pasado por desierto todavia) hasta llegar a Chiclayo. La idea que teniamos era tomar un omnibus hasta la ciuadad de Chachapoyas, por la montania de nuevo, esta es la capital de la provincia de Amazonas, y alli cerca se encuentra un sitio arqueologico pre-Inca muy imporatnte llamado Kuelap. Como no hemos tenido muchas aventuras todavia, decidimos ir a visitarlas. Una ciudad bastante grande, lo primero que hizimos fue buscar la compania de onmibus que va hasta Chachapoyas – 12 horas! Pero cuando llegamos nos avisaron que los indigenas del Amazonas estaban haciendo bloqueos en las carreterras en todo el pais, asi que no saldria el bus (ese dia hasta cancelaron el tren que va a Machu Picchu!). Decepcionados, entramos a buscar un hotel porque no habia un lugar tranquilo para dormir en la camioneta. Nos dimos el lujo de un hotel medio bueno (pero igual barato) con tele, agua caliente e internet (asi nos pudimos mantener al tanto de la situaction en la carretera). Despues que Gustavo y los chicos miraron el partido de Nacional, salimos a comer algo en un restaurante llamado Boom, que nos hizo acordar a una mezcla entre el Café Coca Cola en Panama y La Pasiva en Uruguay! Alli comimos las ensaladas mas ricas y abundantes que hemos enctonrado en el viaje hasta ahora (ya era buena hora!). tambien probamos una humita de choclo, que aca son bastantes parecidas a las de Mexico, pero lo mas rico fue la papa a la Huancaina. Lo mejor de Peru hasta ahora – a parte del cebiche, que sirven acompaniado de pedazos de maiz, yuca, y batata dulce -es que comen con muchos chiles picantes distintos (desde Mexico que no encontramos tanta variadad) – aji amarillo, rocoto, habaneros, huacatay – a cual mas rico! Aca hay mas de 400 diferentes variedades de papa, y tambien muchas variedades de maiz. Sin duda, la comida de Peru es impresionate y super variada. Finalmente, despues de ir a la terminal de bus para aseguarnos, los omnibuses no salian – los bloqueos seguian: el gobierno postergo la decision de una ley a favor de los indigenas, y parece ser que la cosa esta mas que jodida – asi que no podemos contarles de lo bueno que esta la fortaleza Chachapoya de Kuelap…lo van a tener que buscar por internet. Volviendo de la estacion nos encontramos con otro Uruguayo que tiene un restaurante y nos sacamos una foto con el! Lo que si decidimos visitar fueron ruinas y museos en la costa norte, donde estan muy bien preservados en el desierto. Lo bueno con lo de los desiertos es que sobrevivieron bastantes restos de ruinas, momias, piramides y artefactos de oro y otros metales – como en Egipto! Por supuesto, que culturas pre colombinas, e incluso pre incaicas. Asi que fuimos a el museo de las Tumbas Reales de Sipan, cerca de Chiclayo. El sitio en si queda a unos kilometros al sur, pero trajeron todo lo que no se robaron al museo. No nos dejaron entrar con la camara, pero pueden ver fotos por internet porque es un lugar muy famoso, porque fue descubierto a fines de los anios 80, despues de que se dieron cuenta que habia mucha gente robando cosas de las tumbas! Con la ayuda del FBI y otros agencias internacionales, pudieron rescatar y repatriar algunos de los artefactos (el 6%) pero la mayoria del oro de este pais fue robado. Sin embargo, es el lugar donde hay mas oro todavia (los espanioles se llevaron – y fundieron - todo hace siglos) y las piezas son realmente inmpresionantes (imposible de imaginarse las piezas increibles que se fundieron y conviertieron en el oro que deambulo por Europa, y el resto del mundo ...) A parte pudieron apreder sobre la cultura Moche solo estudiando las tumbas y las ofrendas….por lo que vimos se trataba de muchos sacrificios – animales y humanos - para los dioses….Despues de visitar el museo seguimos para el sur, parando unos cuantos kilometros despues para dormir en un estacion de servicio sobre la querida Panamericana. El lugar parecia bien al principio, y hasta teniamos un buho de la buena suerte, pero despues de un rato comenzamos a sentirnos un poco incomodos, y fue la primera vez en el viaje que decidimos no levantar el techo de la camioneta, para no llamar mucho la atencion, asi que Mateo durmio con nosotros y Ari durmio en el piso. Nos levantamos bien temprano (por estar incomodos y por los pajaros que cantaban mucho) y arrancamos tempranito. Paramos cerca de Trujillo, para visitar otras ruinas conocidas, las de Chan-Chan (Sol Sol) que era una ciudad de adobe gigante en el medio del desierto. Son 20 km cuadrados de ruinas, pero solo una fraccion esta habilitada para visitas. Hay 25 pozos de agua dulce, oasis en el desierto, y es un sistema que sigue funcinando hasta ahora. Otra vez, muchos sacrificos y se nota que para estas culturas los pajaros y los peces eran simbolos muy importantes... Paramos a comer en Trujillo, y seguimos camino. Eran las 4 de la tarde cuando llegamos a un pueblito de pescadores en una bahia perfecta que se llama Tortugas – era Punta del Diablo version Peruana, pero mucho mas tranquilo. Hay 25 familias que viven alli todo el anio, y en los veranos y fines de semana largos llega gente de Lima a sus casas de playa. Por fin, encontramos un lugar que pudimos descansar de verdad – no habia nadie! Conocimos algunos guardianes de alli, y un par de mujeres del pueblo, pero no habia nadie mas. Solo nosotros, los pajaros, y las olas. Vimos el atardacer espectacular entre las dunas de arena, y los chicos sacaron mejillones de las rocas para cenar. Despues de las 11 de la noche las luces del pueblo se apagan (literalmente). Al otro dia nos levantamos con aves marinas, y hablamos con un doctor de Lima que pasa todos los fines de semana alli (con razon!). Justo le estaba visitando su ajihada, Veronica, y nos hicimos amigos mientras nos explicaba sobre las comidas de mar (el Papa es pescador en Casma ). Despues de un cambio de aceiete y una soldada de canio de escape rapido, seguimas para las ruinas de Sechin, mucho mas viejas, 1,600 antes de Cristo! Con grabados y simbolos muy violentos, pedazos de cuerpo descuartizados, tripas y sangre corriendo, y una momia de hace mas de mil anios (otra vez, una joven victima de sacrificio…) todo muy bien preservado. Alli tenian un perro sin pelo, perro peruviano, que son autonctonos y hace miles de anios estan acompaniando a la gente de estos lugares. Dicen que porque la tempuratura de su cuerpo es muy elevada, la gente con artiritis y reuma los usan para aliviar los dolores (con abrazos de perro pelado). La perra se llama “Cori Tika” que quiere decir Flor de Oro en Quechua, y hay que admitir que es tan fea, que es linda! Cuando llegaron los europeos estos perros casi se extinguieron, y los que sobrevivieron son solo los que vivian en pueblos mas aisaldos.
Nos cansamos de manejar en el desierto, aunque es tan hermoso y desolado que hasta duelen los sentidos. Hay playas completamente vacias que se ven desde la Panamericana, y no hay camino para llegar a ellas. Arena, dunas, rocas, y basura - es lo unico que se ve por kilometros y kilometros. Manejamos hacia el sur hasta llegar a una ciudad que se llama Barranca, media feucha, nos quedamos otra vez en un hotel con cochera porque no nos sentimos muy seguros. Comimos pollo a las brazas, con papas fritas y ensalada (barato y bien servido) y en cada mesa no faltaba la botella de Inka Cola dorada. Eramos el show del restaurant, tanto en la calle como adentro porque obviamente no llegan muchos turistas alli! De Barranca hicimos el esfuerzo para ir a unas ruinas muy importantes que se llaman Caral (una civilazion muy antigua que fue “descubierta” hace relativamente poco que desarrollo al mismo tiempo que las civilizaciones chinos y egipcias!) pero el camino estaba muy mal y no pudimos entrar. Desepcionados otra vez mas, seguimos para el sur, pasando por Lima rapidito y sin parar (mucha contaminacion y un trafico de locos!). Esa noche queriamos llegar hasta Pisco, pero cuando llegamos a una ciudad llamada Chincha nos paro la policia porque no nos funcionaba una de las luces! Entonces nos tuvimos que quedar alli, en una gasolinera (despues de ser rechazados por varios hostales que nos dijieron que no podiamos dormir en la camioneta) hasta la maniana que seguimos lo poco que faltaba para llegar a Pisco. Todavia era medio temprano cuando llegamos, y habia un desvio para entrar porque estan arreglando la calle. En Pisco parecia que habia caido un bomba, muy post-apocaliptico, y cuando entramos a preguntar la gente nos comento sobre el terremoto que ocurrio en el 2007. Pisco fue uno de los lugares mas afectados, y recien empiezan a reconstruirla (por supuesto, los bancos y otras emprezas privadas ya lo hicieron, pero la catedral – antigua, que se derrumbo con 180 personas adentro, todos muertos – todavia no esta y hacen las misas en un container de metal). El gobierno prometio un monton de ayuda (y llego mucha ayuda de otros paises, pero nadie sabe donde esta) y nada. Tambien la casa donde vivio San Martin, en su estadia por estos lados cayo. Mas de una persona con la que hablamos nos comento que el gobierno se olvido de Pisco. Sin lugar a duda es un lugar lleno de contradicciones. Hay muchisima pobreza tangible, al mismo tiempo que es un lugar con tanta riqueza, cultural y material pero muy, muy, mal distribuida. La falta de infrastructura es impresionante, y los unicos lugares que estan mas o menos cuidados son los lugares turisticos (y son sumamente turisticos). Al lado de casinos impresionantes hay hospitales precarios y asentamientos bien pobres. Creo que es uno de los lugares en que mas hemos notado las injusticias sociales y la falta de esperanza. La gente en general parece estar resignada, nosonrien mucho y ya no esperan nada. Estan acostumbrados a que los ricos se roben todo hace siglos y listo. Necesitan un cambio de gobierno y de mentalidad urgente! De Pisco nos fuimos para la Reserva Natural de Paracas, una peninsula donde el desierto se junta con el mar. Un paisaje impresionante. Alli vimos muchos pelicanos y flamencos chilenos, y tambien muchos fosiles. Compramos unas conchas habanicos a los pescadores – riquisimas! Nos quedamos a dormir en el parque, y al otro dia nos levantamos temprano para dar un paseo en lancha hasta las islas Ballestas; unas formaciones de rocas impresionantes en el mar donde viven abundantes aves, lobos marinos, y pinguinos! Algunos dicen que son las “Galapagos de los pobres,” y la verdad que valio la pena. Tambien desde la lancha se puede ver El Candelabro, un dibjuo en las rocas del que no se conoce el origen. Puede ser de los Paracas y la cultura Nazca, representando el Cactus San Pedro (halucinogeno) o, si no del tiempo de San Martin (un simbolo de los Masones?). Despues del paseo nos dirigimos hasta el Oasis de Huacachina, cerca de Ica, donde hay una luguna rodeada de palmeras lleno de pajaritos en el medio de un desierto – es una cosa de pelicula! Hace muchos anios era un lugar donde venia la gente de alcurnia de Lima a descansar, pero ahora mas que nada vienen extranjeros a tirarse por las dunas con snowboard. Ariel y Mateo pasaron todo el tiempo tirandose – la parte mas cansadora es subir con la tabla despues, pero es un buen ejercicio. Ahorita estamos estacionados al lado de un hostal (se llama Hostal Rocha!) de una familia re buena onda donde tienen una piscina, una guacamaya y varios papagayos que hablan y una de ellas especialmente, “Chubby,” se hizo muy amiga de Mateo y estan caminando juntos todo el tiempo. Una noche nos quedamos conversando y tomando Pisco Sours con una pareja de Francia que estan andando por Argentina, Bolivia y Peru en bicicletas y como vienen “en subida” ellos, nos dieron unos consejos utiles sobre lo que nos falta del viaje. Despues hemos conocido mucha gente, turistas y Peruanos, y estamos descansando un poco antes de arrancar de nuevo. Hasta encontramos una biblioteca preciosa, con muchos libros de historia, filosofia y literatura aca en Huacachina! De aca vamos a decir adios a la costa y entrar hacia hacia Cusco y el Valle Sagrado. Buscaremos la vuelta para ir a Machu Pichu a lo pobre si podemos (porque nos parece que hay que ir, por mas turistico que sea), y despues hacia Bolivia. Por lo que nos han contado, alli esta mas tranquilo y tenemos ganas de ir.

Ecuador...por la mitad del mundo

2009-05-23T18:08:00.052-04:00

Greetings from the middle of the world! We are now in Ecuador, but this is an update up to now:
From Armenia we headed south past the big city of Cali and made it to Popayan, a beautiful all-white colonial city in the hills. We headed to a hostel that was recommended to us and we decided to get a room there, seeing as how they had Wi-Fi, a kitchen, and a movie room with a bunch of DVDs – I think the kids watched about 4 movies in less than 24 hours! We found a parking lot to keep the westy safe at night, and then went out to wander about the city before buying some food in the supermarket and watching a football game at a bar (Defensor-Boca). The next day we woke up early and had some fruit and yogurt with granola for breakfast (the kids have discovered that their favorite fruit is called Pitahaya, a crocodile-skinned yellow fruit whose inside resembles something from Grandma and Grandpa’s pond during frog-breeding season!). We played for a little while with Ally, the dog in residence, and then decided to head toward the border with Ecuador to a town called Ipiales. Before reaching Pasto, the Andes began to appear in the distance, and before long we realized that we were not going to make it all the way there in one day. The drive was amazing, through canyons and up into the mountains, passing through tunnels and past waterfalls. Just before reaching Pasto, and just at the most treacherous point (involving nightfall and fog), a guy in a jeep who had passed us and waved earlier, flagged us down and offered us a place to spend the night. We spent a wonderful night and morning with Roberto at his Reserva Ecologia Morar, walking on the trails and checking out his two crystal clear streams and a nice little waterfall. He is an economist and his wife Maria is (almost to be retired) University Philosophy professor! They have been slowly buying up land there in order to allow it to return to its natural state after being used for logging and cattle farming for a long time. They have planted thousands of indigenous trees to combat the proliferation of introduced pine and eucalyptus. We got along really well, and we hope to see them in Uruguay some time soon - they even have a westy themselves that they bought for that very purpose! We got a bit of a late start, but made it to Ipiales in time to make a quick jaunt over to the Las Lajas sanctuary, an amazing gothic style cathedral built in the middle of this huge gorge - a stunning setting! It is amazing how much the culture changes as you get higher up into the Andes – not only the climate, but also the food and drink: they serve you warm beer and eat cuy asado – guinea pig roasted on a spit with their little teeth and feet sticking out! That night we slept in a cheap hotel in Ipiales but at least they had hot water (actually, the shower was either scalding hot or ice cold, take your pick). We got an early start the next day, and crossed the border quickly and with no trouble at all. The guy at the vehicle registration office recommended that we go to a Volcano crater lake called Cuicocha, a couple of hours south of the order between Ibarra and Otavalo, so that is where we headed. Unfortunately, shortly after we started to drive in Ecuador we hit a dog and killed him (our first road kill of the trip). We were all a bit upset, especially Mateo, who was feeling a bit sensitive and sick already, I think because of the altitude. The longer we drive in Ecuador we have come to realize, though, that neither pedestrians (canine or human) nor drivers in this country obey any kind of laws of the road – I swear that the leading cause of death here must be traffic accidents! The volcano crater lake was absolutely beautiful, and was actually fairly warm considering that the altitude is more than 3,000 metres above sea level, because the volcano is active and warms the water. We had a wonderful sleep in the westy beside the lake, and set out for Otavalo, a town close by that is well known for its indigenous handicrafts and clothing manufacturing. We had breakfast in the Plaza de Los Ponchos, and the kids (fittingly) got themselves a nice, wool poncho each to keep them warm in the mountains (it’s cold!). As you can tell from the photos, Mateo has exchanged his Colombian-poncho-hat look for a more Andean one upon crossing the border…at least for now. It did not take long to get from Otavalo to the “middle of the world” where they have a monument and sundial marking the exact place where the equator is. It seemed very accurate, as our GPS marked a latitude of “0” just as we stood on the line. They also gave us an explanation of interesting facts about the equator and mapping the stars, and we had a great time literally jumping from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere -- if only it were always so easy :) Overjoyed to be finally and officially in the south, we decided to head into Quito for the day, since we had heard that it has a nice old city. After driving around for a while in their horrendous traffic (no rules, I tell you!) and not finding a place to park, we decided to get ourselves out of there fast. Upon leaving the city, we noticed a black cloud of smog hanging over it – but then noticed an amazing snow-capped volcano in the distance (one of the highest in Ecuador, it is called Cotapaxi). The setting sun was shining right on it and it was truly awesome. We had received an email from Al saying that he had arrived in Banos that day, so we decided to break our own rule about not driving at night and push through until we got there at around 10 pm. After unsuccessfully looking for Al at his hostel, Plantas y Blanco (he was on the internet and then went to sleep in his room, and we had just missed him) we parked outside and went to sleep for the night. The next day we woke him up early and have been having a great time ever since. The people at the hostel have been kind enough to let us park out front and use the bathrooms and kitchen facilities, which are located on this amazing rooftop terrace with a 360 degree view of the city, which is surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and even a volcano (which erupted a few years ago, forcing the whole area to be evacuated). They also have these amazing and cheap breakfasts which we have been taking advantage of. This area is packed with thermal water baths, and we have been enjoying them immensely, especially since it has been a bit cold and rainy since we got here. In this area there are also amazing waterfalls, canyons, and we are only an hour away from the Amazon jungle. This place is also really interesting because it is where Andean culture meets Amazon culture, and there are plenty of both here. We have been spending our time going for walks, drinking freshly made juices in the market (my favourite is carrot and naranjilla – this fresh, green, tangy tasting cross between a tomato and an orange – delicious!), cooking on the rooftop patio, going for thermal baths at night under the stars, and getting caught up with Al. The other day we decided to head into the jungle a bit and follow the Pastaza River (which flows directly into the Amazon) down to Puyo which is the capital of the Pastaza province where there are seven distinct indigenous groups-- Shuar (yes, the ones with the shrunken heads!), Achuar, Kichwa, Waorani, Andoa, Shiwiar, and Zapara – who all more or less maintain their traditional ways in the jungle. There is a wonderful nature trail beside the Puyo River, and we spent a few hours enjoying the flora and fauna of the jungle (and the heat!). We even saw a whole flock of toucans flying across the river! Later on that same day we visited a really well-kept wildlife refuge called Yanacocha, where they had all kinds of animals from the area who had been rescued from an improper life of captivity and illegal trade. We even got to figure out who that mystery panther/otter animal was from the Arenal volcano in Costa Rica (see photo). In the evening, we discovered a – can you believe it? - Uruguayan parilla in the middle of Puyo, where we watched the match between Defensor and Boca and chatted with the owner, who himself happens to be a fairly well-known soccer player from Uruguay! Miguel Angel Russo and his Ecuadorian wife Monica even invited us to spend the night at their place. The next day we decided to visit another wildlife refuge, this time specializing in monkeys! I know, I know: how could we possibly do such a thing after the monkey episode in Minca? But I assure you that this was the most amazing experience of the entire trip so far! We spent hours and hours there, just hanging out with the monkeys, getting to know all their names and they were literally hanging off of us and playing with us and each other (and the poor dogs) the whole time! We also went on a jungle walk by the river, and a woman who works with the monkeys explained all about the plants and trees of the area. The owners of the rescue operation are a couple from Switzerland and they currently have 39 monkeys in their care (6 different types), all of them rescued from a life of captivity and illness. All of the monkeys that we hung out with were still fairly young, and the goal is to slowly rehabilitate them so that they can go out in small groups into the wild to live. It was hard to tear ourselves away from our monkey friends, Sandra, Muriel, Milton, Pancho, Lisa, and the rest (we haven’t laughed that hard in a long time – especially with Al’s buddy, good ol’ Milton the young wooly monkey) but we ended up driving back to Banos that evening, because our monkey business meant that we were completely filthy, after having them all over us (Gustavo got “lice” picked out of his beard and even got peed on at one point by a capuchin, I think it was Dario…) so we needed the hot water showers at the hostel. We made a nice dinner and drank some wine on the terrace, while we looked at the pictures of the monkeys and watched the videos. Ariel says that we wants to go back someday to volunteer there (they are always in need). Al is getting ready to head to Colombia tomorrow, and we will be once again heading south, this time to Peru.
Despues de despedirnos del Kike en Armenia (“el VW no es una marca, es una familia”), empezamos a manejar, pasando de largo la gran ciudad de Cali y llegando a Popayan en la tarde. Teniamos la tarjeta de un hostal que nos recomendaron en algun lugar y lo encontramos en el centro de la ciudad. Decidimos tomar un cuartito alli, ya que tenia Wi-Fi, cocina, y sobre todo una sala para mirar peliculas en DVD– creo que los nenes miraron por lo menos 4 peliculas durante el tiempo que estuvimos alli! De noche salimos a recorrer un poco, y a comprar comida en un supermercado llamado Éxito, parando para tomar algo en un bar donde estaban pasando el partido de futbol de Boca-Defensor. Despues de mirar una pelicula todos juntos, fuimos a dormir. Al otro dia desayunamos una fruta deliciosa que se llama pitajaya (Ariel y Mateo dicen que es la fruta mas deliciosa del mundo) en el hostal y arrancamos otra vez hacia el sur. La intencion fue llegar a la frontera con Ecuador, pero despues de un rato el camino a Pasto se puso culebrero….Los Andes empezaron a sentirse en serio, y pasamos por unos caniones impresionantes, con valles y rios y hasta tuneles en las rocas. Ya estaba oscuro (y frio) cuando estabamos llegando a Pasto. En un momento en una de las curvas, un hombre nos paso y nos saludo por la camioneta, algo que pasa bastante seguido asi que no lo pensamos dos veces, y no le dimos mucha importancia. Un rato despues, vimos que el mismo estaba esperandonos al lado de la carretera. Resulta que el tambien tenia una Westfalia, y entonces nos ofrecio si queriamos ir a su casa (tiene una reserva ecologica) a pasar la noche. Lo seguimos hasta alli y pasamos una linda noche, conociendo a Roberto y cocinando juntos en su cocina. Al otro dia nos invito a conocer los senderos de su lugar, llamada Reserva Ecologica Morar, que incluye dos quebradas de agua purisima y una cascada preciosa. El y su familia estan en proceso de construir una lindas cabanias , y tienen unas cabritas que a Mateo le gustaron mucho. Llevo 25 anios para que el bosque se regenerara, y plantaron muchos arboles nativos para combatir la invasion del pino y eucalipto. Tambien conocimos a su mujer, Maria, que es profesora de filosofia en la facultad. Son muy buena onda, y tambien tienen pensado un viaje por Latinoaermica (en su westy) – asi que algun dia los veremos en Punta del Diablo! No demoro mucho en llegar la cuidad de Ipiales en la frontera, y nos desviamos un poquito para visitar a el Santuario de Las Lajas, una catedral gigantesca y de estilo gotico construida sobre un canion – loquisimo. Otra cosa que notamos al empezar los Andes es que la gente se vestia (con los gorros Andinos) y comia diferente: comen un animalito llamado cuy, lo hacen asado (conejito de indias!) y enteritos a las brasas, con las patitas, dientes y todo! Esa noche dormimos en un hotelucho rarisimo, despues de comer en un lugar mas raro todavia, y nos levantamos temprano al otro dia para cruzar la frontera. Fue facilisimo cruzar, muy profesional de los dos lados (a parte de la altura – a Mateo le dolia la cabeza a casi 3000 metros) y no podiamos creer que estabamos en Ecuador! Despues de hablar con el hombre de la aduana, decidimos manejar por un par de horas hacia la laguna de Cuicocha, una laguna a la misma altura pero donde el agua esta tibia al estar en el crater de un volcan activo! En el camino, poco despues de cruzar la frontera, nos paso algo muy triste: un perrito blanco salto de atrás de un omnibus y abajo de la camioneta y cuando lo vimos ya era demasiado tarde – el pobre no tuvo ni tiempo para decir ni “guau”. Fue la primera vez que nos habia pasado, asi que fue bastante choqueante – sobre todo para Mateo (que ya estaba medio sensible). Hasta ahora las impresiones de Ecuador comparada con Colombia sobre todo – la comida esta baratisima, la gasolina esta a mitad de precio, los peajes (que nos comieron vivos en Colombia cada 60 km) tambien son baratisimos…y la gente no obedece ninguna regla de transito, no importa que sean conductores o peatones. No queremos ofender a nadie, pero no podemos creer que mal que manejan! Y ni los perros ni los personas miran para cruzar la calle, y cuando casi les pisan se empiezan a matar de risa. No se, son todos medios suicidas…Cuando llegamos a la laguna del volcan estaba lleno de gente – otra vez era un domingo – pero al ratito se fue todo el mundo y teniamos todo el lugar para nosotros. Al otro dia seguimos la Panamericana hasta Otavalo, un pueblo muy conocido por sus artesanias. Fuimos a la Plaza de los Ponchos donde los nenes consiguieron un lindo poncho cada uno (esta frio en las montanias!). siguiendo para la Panamaericana Sur, un poquito antes de llegar a Quito, por fin cruzamos la linea ecuatorial! La verdad es que estabamos bastante emocionados al ver que el GPS registro la latitud de 0 grado y que cambio de decir latitud Norte a latitud Sur! Alli habia un lugar con un reloj de sol y un pequenio parque educativo y nos hicieron una charla para explicar todo sobre la linea ecuatorial. Estuvo buenisimo! Ecuador es el unico lugar en la linea (ecuatorial) donde hay montanias para realmente ver el cielo e interpretar las estrellas. Emocionados por haber pasado finalmente para el hemisferio sur, seguimos camino. Despues de una entrada media rapida (y apurada) a Quito (que debe ser lindo si no estas manejando) seguimos para Banios, donde habiamos quedado en encontrarnos con Al , un lugar bastante turistico con aguas termales. Llegamos como a las 10 de la noche, y estacionamos bajo la lluvia bien en frente del hostal donde Al se estaba quedando. Al otros dia desayunamos juntos en el hostal, y pasamos unos dias muy lindos con el Albondiga, caminando, comiendo, cocinando en la terraza del hostal (que tiene una vista de 360 grados del pueblo entre las montanias), mirando la gente tirarse de los puentes en bungee y baniandonos casi todas las noches en las aguas termales! Llueve bastante, un poco todos los dias, pero igual es un lugar precioso. conocimos un lugar donde hacen tallado en tagua; una semilla bien dura de una palmera que crece aca y es llamada marfil vegetal, muy linda y sin tener que matar a nigun elefante! Tambien fuimos muchas veces al mercado a tomar jugos naturales y comprar frutas y verduras. Hace dos dias decidimos salir hacia la selva amazonica, a un lugar que se llama Puyo que es la capital del canton de Pastaza. Seguimos el Rio Pastaza (que desemboca en el Amazonas) por una hora y media, bajando y admirando el paisaje que cambio de montanias, cascadas y caniones a ser selva tropical y calorcito! En Puyo salimos a dar un recorrido por el rio, en unos senderos turisticos preciosos donde habia mucha gente baniandose en el rio Puyo. Es increible como en este lugar se juntan las culturas andinas con las amazonicas – en Banios se ven muchos indigenas con sus trajes andinos, pero en el canton de Pastaza hay siete diferentes nacionalidades indigenas, llamados Shuar (los que encogian las cabezas de los enemigos!), los Achuar, los Kichwa, los Waorani, los Andoa, los Shiwiar, y los Zapara, y la mayoria viven en la selva como lo han hecho por muchas generaciones. Despues de la caminata, fuimos a visitar a un refugio de animales silvestres muy linda; Anacocha, donde vimos muchos animales de la zona que fueron y son rescatados, mas que nada de gente que los compran para mascotas en el mercado negro. Hasta pudimos ver cual era el animal misterioso que se nos habia cruzado en el volcan Arenal, en Costa Rica! Alli se puede ver en la foto, es medio gato-comadreja (le dicen cabeza de mate). Lo mas gracioso fue que en Puyo, en el medio de la selva Amazonica, nos encontramos con una parillada uruguaya donde estaban pasando el partido Defensor – Boca, esta vez en Argentina. Nos quedamos alli charlando con el duenio, Miguel Angel Russo, que jugo por muchos anios para Peniarol, antes de venir a jugar a Ecuador. El y su esposa Monica, nos invitaron a dormir en su casa esa noche. – uruguayos, donde fueron a parar! Al otro dia despues de despedirnos de ellos, fuimos a visitar un centro de rescate de monos: fue una de las experiencias mas increibles que hemos tenido en el viaje! Desde el primer momento que llegamos alli, pasamos todo el tiempo rodeados (y abrazados) de monos! Los duenios de la “Fundacion Los Monos Selva y Vida”son suizos, y desde 2005 tienen este lugar de rescate con 39 monos de 6 clases, que son rescatados del mercado negro. Muchos llegan lastimados o enfermos, pero alli estan todos vacunados y sanos. La verdad es que fue fantastico! Nos quedamos horas con los monos, mirandolos jugar, mientras nos robaban las cosas de los bolsillos (hasta los lentes!) y despues salimos a recorrer la selva al lado de un rio cristalino y una mujer que trabaja alli nos explicaba todo sobre las plantas y arboles de la zona. Tambien rescatan otros animales como coaties y tortugas de tierra. Despues de haber pasado todo el dia con los monos subiendonos encima y “sacandonos piojos” (a Gustavo hasta le hicieron pichi!) y dandonos abrazos y besos de mono, terminamos fascinados, aunque un poco sucios, asi que decidimos volver para Banios donde aprovechamos el hostal con agua caliente! Otra vez cocinamos una rica cena en la terraza del hostal, y soniamos con los monos toda la noche y hasta los extraniamos! Ahora seguimos aqui en Banios, y Al se va maniana para Colombia y nosotros seguiremos como siempre, para el sur. Queremos llegar a Peru rapido, aunque antes nos toca un cambio de aceite y un chequeo de frenos.

con las cabezas en las nubes en Colombia

2009-05-13T14:43:00.040-04:00

Nos despedimos de los amigos internacionales del hostal Renacer, y paramos para comer una vez mas en la panaderia de Villa de Leyva antes de seguir el camino hacia Zipaquira. En la ruta vimos un puesto donde vendian unos chorizos y otros comidas tipicas de la region (papitas, yuca y platanos fritos, con morcillas y costillitas de cerdo – le dicen “piqueteadero”) y por supuesto los carnivoros de la familia tuvieron que parar para probar esta parrillada. Llegamos a Zipaquira justo con tiempo para hacer el recorrido por los tuneles de la catedral de sal, una catedral hecha a 175 metros debajo de la tierra. Muy raro, pero al mismo tiempo muy impresionante. Tambien, todavia funcionan los tuneles para sacar sal, y aunque el lugar tiene mas de 200 anios de uso, piensan que tienen por muchos anios mas para la extraccion de sal. Fue muy intersante aprender sobre la historia de la sal, desde los indigenas hasta ahora, y sobre todo un video que explico como se formo esa cupula de sal miles de anios atrás cuando las plaquetas de la tierra se juntaron para formar los andes. Incluso, nos explicaron que la palabra salario proviene de “sal” “diario” pues desde principios la forma de pago era con sal. Esa misma tarde seguimos manejando por unas horas mas, al fin parando en una estacion de servicio en una pequena ciudad al lado de Bogota, llamada Facatativa. Tempranito a la maniana fuimos para un parque que hay en ese lugar que se llama de las Piedras del Tunjo, un parque precioso donde la gente hacia ejercicios y donde hay unas piedras gigantes con pictografias indigenas. De Facatativa, seguimos camino hacia Honda, que queda mas o menos en mitad del camino hacia Manizales, donde empieza el famoso “eje cafetero.” En un momento dado, tomamos el camino equivocado, y en vez de salir en Honda salimos mas adelante en Mariquita. Nos metimos por un camino lleno de derrumbes, pero fue la ruta mas linda que hemos visto en el viaje. Subimos y bajamos montanias como cinco veces, y cada vez nos metiamos y sacabamos ropa! Los arboles cambiaban de pinos a eucalyptus a bananeros, y en lo mas alto parecia que estabamos en las nubes. Un tramito que no parece nada en el mapa, nos llevo como 8 horas! Cuando finalmente llegamos a Manizales estabamos muy cansados y hasta mareados por el camino de las nubes. Entramos a la cuidad para buscar un cajero, pero como vimos que era un lugar muy movido (y que no habia ningun lugar para estacionar) decidimos seguir un poco mas. Al final, llegamos a un pueblo llamado Santa Rosa de Cabal que es famoso por sus aguas termales. Cuando llegamos a las termas, nos parecio muy caro el precio para entrar (y sobre todo porque ya habiamos ido a otras termas en Paipa que no nos parecieron tan buenas) pero como habian unas cabanias al lado de un rio muy lindo alli cerca de la entrada de las termas y el encargado Jorge nos hizo un buen precio para estacionar y quedarnos al lado del rio por la noche. A la maniana nos despertamos con muchos pajaritos cantando y rodeados de caballos. Mateo vio dos cotorritas en pareja paradas en un poste! Despues de sacar muchas fotos salimos a caminar por un sendero que tienen alli donde vimos muchisimas plantas, onda Jurrassic Park – con hojas gigantescas - y unas mariposas hermosisimas. En un momento, empezamos a charlar con una pareja muy buena onda de Bogota que vinieron para pasar el fin de semana en las aguas termales y estaban quedandose en las cabanias. Mas o menos nos terminaron obligando a entrar, para por lo menos mirar el lugar de las termas, y menos mal que lo hicimos – es uno de los lugares mas increibles que vimos! Tambien nos alcanzo para hablar un poco mas con Zulia y Fredy, y ojala que los veamos en Uruguay en unos meses (junto con su perro Jacinto!). Nos baniamos por horas, con una cascada preciosa atrás, y cuatro piscinas de aguas calentitas metidos entre un rio y la selva verde, bien verde. Decidimos quedarnos otra noche mas para poder entrar de noche a las piscinas, que aunque fue un poco mas caro de lo que pensamos, valio la pena. Esa tarde llovio torrencialmente mientras almorzabamos adentro de la camioneta, y refresco bastante. Asi que el agua calentita nos cayo al pelo (un lujo que no hemos tenido mucho en el viaje). Como justo era el dia de la madre, a Allison hasta le hicieron un masaje facial con mascarilla de chocolate (con germen de trigo y miel) – que lujoso! Entramos a las termas a las 4:30 de la tarde y nos quedamos hasta las nueve de la noche (el lugar queda abierto hasta las 12 de la noche, con luces, musica y servicio de bar/restaurante) y nos fuimos a dormir un poco arrugados, pero tan relajados que ni se imaginan! Al otro dia nos levantamos (otra vez con los pajaros y caballos) y nos fuimos para Salento, un pueblo entre Pereira y Armenia, bien en la zona cafetera. Es un lugar bien pintoresco, con cafes y casas viejas pintaditas de colores. Subimos uns escaleras para ver un mirador donde se ve todo el valle, y despues fuimos a buscar un hostal que nos habian recomendado. Terminamos quedandonos dos noches alli, estacionados en frente de Plantation House: los duenos Tim y Cris son muy buena onda, y nos dejaron usar la cocina y el bano del hostal. En el hostal, que esta ubicado en la cima de un monte con muy linda vista, vimos diferentes tipos de pajaros. El primer dia en Salento comimos trucha de la zona en un comedor del pueblo, y tomamos un café hecho con una maquina de Italia que tiene mas de cien anios. (Es la zona cafetera, al final!). El segundo dia nos subimos a un Jeep con algunos otros huespedes internactionales para llegar al famoso Valle de Corcora, un lugar impresionante que queda en la entrada del Parque Nacional de los Nevados, y el unico lugar en el pais donde el piasaje esta dominado por palmas de cera bien altas, el arbol nacional de Colombia. Alli hicimos una caminata de 5 horas la montania por caminos rocosos, barrosos y cruzando el rio varias veces, y cuando llegamos a la cima estabamos literalmente en las nubes! Terminamos muy cansados, pero el viaje fue divertidisimo (especialmente el viaje en Jeep, que funcionan como taxis en el pueblo y a la vuelta subieron 16 personas, todas amontonadas!). Al otro dia, despues de desayunar, salimos para Armenia. Fuimos para la peatonal en el centro y decidimos llamar por telefono al contacto que nos dio Juan, del Presidente del Club de Volkswagen en Colombia. Cuando hablamos con Kike, enseguida nos invito a la casa y almorzamos y cenamos (y por supuesto, tomamos muchos tintos) con el y su esposa Monica, y Mateo paso muy divertido con los gemelos Joel y Nathan. Nos quedamos charlando hasta tarde, escuchando musica y aprendiendo un poquito mas sobre la historia especial (y muchas veces muy dura) de Colombia. Ellos dicen que nos quieren secuestrar (es Colombia, al final!) para que estemos aca para la conferencia de VW que se va realizar el 22 al 25 de este mes en Girardot, y aunque nos encantaria participar, estamos muy atrasados y ahora nos toca seguir para el sur, pasando por Cali, Popayan y Pasto antes de cruzar la frontera con Ecuador. Es dificial irse de Colombia, ya que sus paisajes variados y su tan calida gente nos tienen bien atrapados, en el buen sentido de la palabra!
It was hard to leave Villa de Leyva because we liked it so much there, but after saying goodbye to all our international traveler friends at the Renacer hostel (and stopping in for some more almond croissants -- seriously, to die for! we would move to Villa de Leyva just for that bakery!) we took off toward Zipaquira. Shortly after setting out, we came across some side-of-the road restaurants at a crossroads that had a billion sausages hanging outside (Ariel and Gustavo had seen the exact same place featured on some Anthony Bourdain show on Food TV on our first night of the trip, way back in Ohio!) so we had to stop. It turns out that it is a typical thing to eat: “piqueteadero” with sausage, blood sausage, pork ribs, little potatoes, yucca and fried plantain all grilled and cut up small (at least the meat-eaters were happy…). We reached Zipaquira just in time for a tour of the underground salt cathedral, a very strange and wonderful place. It was interesting to learn the history of salt extraction in this place, which has been going on for at least 200 years (and is still going on now), and about the formation of the salt reserves, which happened thousands of years ago along with the formation of the Andes! After our underground tour, we decided to keep driving and finally stopped for the night in a town close to Bogota called Facatativa, where we slept at a service station. Early the next morning, we went to visit a small park that they have in the town, called Las Piedras del Tunjo, with some huge stones that have these really neat indigenous pictographs. After hanging out a bit with the early morning joggers, we set off toward Manizales in the coffee growing district. At one point we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on this crazy mountain road full of landslides and rocks. It was a bit treacherous, but oh so beautiful! At the top it really seemed like we were inside the clouds. After eight hours of driving up and down winding mountain roads, and changing climates (and clothing!) about 4 times, we finally reached Manizales, a bustling coffee city in the hills. We stopped in to find a bank machine, but after we realized that it was just too busy (and that there were virtually no level roads to park on) we decided to keep on driving. We ended up heading for Sata Rosa de Cabal, a small town well-known for its thermal water pools. Once we got to the pools, the price was a bit too high for the four of us to go in, but we stayed in the parking area of these cute little cabins by the river, just down the road. The next morning we woke up surrounded by horses and the sound of birds. Mateo started his bird-watching activities early that day and got some great photos! A little later, we went for a walk on a nature trail on the other side of the river, where there were some serious Jurassic Park style plants, and some beautiful butterflies. At one point, we got chatting to a nice couple from Bogota, Zulia and Fredy, who had come by plane to spend the weekend in the thermal waters (30 minutes by plane vs. 8 hours driving over those mountains!), and they convinced us that we couldn’t possibly leave without at least taking a look at the setting of the pools. Thanks to them, we were permitted to check out the place – and we are so glad we did! It was an absolutely stunning setting, four different pools with thermal water flowing in and out constantly, with these amazing waterfalls and river in the background to cool off in, set in amidst the green, green jungle. Just looking at it made us decide that it would be worth paying and staying another night. That afternoon, after a torrential downpour (including hail!) while we ate our lunch in the westy, we went back in to the pools and spent hours lying in the nice warm water (a luxury that we have not had much of) until late at night, when they turn on all these nice lights and music. It was amazing how the colour of the water (the river and the pools) changed after the rainfall. Since it happened to be Mother’s Day, I was even treated to a facial/cranial massage with a bitter chocolate (with wheat germ and honey) face mask, to let dry before rinsing off in the waters: luxurious! We all went to bed that night a bit wrinkly and water-logged but oh-so-relaxed! In the morning we slept in a bit (the effects of the warm water, I guess) and then took off for Salento, a picturesque little coffee village in the mountains between Pereira and Armenia, to a hostel that was recommended to us. The owners, Tim and Cristina, were nice enough to let us park out front and use the bathrooms and kitchen. The Plantation House is situated at the top of a gorgeous valley, and they have done a great job planting fruit and other trees, and so we saw many different kinds of birds. The first day in Salento, we walked around the village and after climbing up a bunch of steps to a lookout over the town and valleys, we had a lunch of fresh local trout at a great little restaurant. Then we stopped in for a “tinto” (coffee) at this really old café on the corner with a 100+ year old machine from Italy. The second day we decided to hop on a Jeep with a bunch of other guests from the hostel and go to the Valley of Corcora, a place at the entrance to the Parque Nacional de Los Nevados (a huge national park with snowy peaked mountains/volcano) where the view is dominated by these huge wax palm trees, the national tree of Colombia. After 3 hours hiking up the mountain, through mud and crossing the river numerous times, we reached the top where we actually were literally in the clouds. After the hike back down, the best part of the adventure was the ride back in the Jeep, which function like taxis in the town and at one point there were 16 people piled on! The next morning, after Mateo played for a long time with the owner’s little daughter and their little cat Happy, we reluctantly said goodbye again and drove to nearby Armenia. From the downtown area, we called the contact that Juan had given us way back in Rodadero, the president of the VW club of Colombia. As soon as we called, Kike insisted that we come to stay at his place for the night, and we had a wonderful lunch and dinner (and of course, lots of "tinto") with him and his wife Monica, and Mateo enjoyed playing with their 8 year old twins, Joel and Nathan. Kike is also a great musician, so Ariel got inspired and spent the evening practicing some new chords on his guitar. We spent the evening listening to music, chatting, and learning a bit more about the fascinating (and often sad) history of Colombia, including an eruption of a snow-covered volcano that literally wiped a city of 25,000 people, Armero, right off the map in 1985 – google it if you get the chance). Kike and Monica are threatening to kidnap us (it is Colombia, after all) so we can be here for the VW convention in Girardot later this month, but we are already behind schedule and have to move on. Today we head south once again, past Cali to Popayan before heading to Pasto and then the border with Ecuador. It will truly be hard to leave Colombia, a country that has so surprised us with its breathtaking and varied landscape and the warmth of its people.

Bucaramanga/San Gil/Villa de Leyva, Colombia

2009-05-07T09:37:00.033-04:00

As it turns out, the health authorities let us go with the promise that we keep in close touch with them just in case (no word yet), so we left Santa Marta on the afternoon of May 1, after unsuccessfully trying to find a replacement adapter cable for the laptop (of course, a generic one wouldn’t fit - why is DELL so evil?). We said a final goodbye to the Caribbean (to be honest, we are kind of spoiled when it comes to beaches after the San Blas Islands experience, anyway) and drove south for a few hours, enjoying the change of scenery. There are a lot of palm oil farms and mango groves in this part of the country. We passed by a town called Aracataca, which is apparently where Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born: it made us think that, judging from some of the neat characters we have met so far in Colombia, he didn’t really need to use a lot of imagination to write his books! We spent that night in a truck stop parking area before waking up early to drive some more and that day we made it to Bucaramanga, a pretty little city in the hills, where after running around for a while we finally found a cable for the computer! This area of Colombia is well known for a delicacy called “hormigas culonas” (literally, fat-ass ants!) so we bought some to try. Deep-fried and salted, the kids say that they taste a bit like a mixture of wood and earth. Then we continued on to San Gil, a small town further up the hills that is becoming well-known for adventure tourism like white water rafting, paragliding and such, and where there is a nice riverside park where all the trees have these long, wispy beards hanging down. The drive from Bucaramanga to San Gil was one of the most breathtaking experiences so far on the trip – snaking our way up the mountain, we drove through the Canyon de Chicamocha, which was absolutely stunning and it seemed like we were flying instead of driving: the compass on the GPS was going nuts! We arrived in San Gil just after dark, and found a spot to park in the parking lot of the riverside park. After a dinner of tomato sandwiches with artichokes and olive oil, we sat on the park benches and people-watched for a while. The next morning we woke up to a lot of curious people who wanted to know about our trip and take a look inside the westy. People are generally incredibly friendly and open in Colombia, and it has taken us by surprise. Anyone who still thinks that Colombia is a dangerous place to visit doesn’t know what they are missing (but then again, maybe it is better this way – it keeps the hordes of tourists away!) Some people recommended that we check out this swimming hole/waterfalls area a little bit down the road, and we ended up staying there for the day and even staying overnight. It was Sunday of a long-weekend so the place was full of Colombian tourists enjoying themselves in the cool water. In the evening there was a torrential downpour, and the guys who take care of the place had to unplug the swimming area to avoid us getting flooded out! The next morning we headed to a beautiful town in the hills about a half an hour outside of San Gil called Barichara, which is thought to be the most beautiful little colonial town in all of Colombia. All of the buildings and streets are completely preserved as if it was hundreds of years in the past, and there is a stunning lookout behind the old cemetery where you can see the entire valley below. We decided to keep driving that day instead of staying in Barichara, and so we drove through beautiful mountains and saw lots of waterfalls cascading from cliffs covered in cloud forest. At one point our GPS told us that we were at 3117 metres, the highest we’ve been on the trip so far, and the vegetation, climate and even type of livestock changed. The people even started to look different, wearing wool ponchos and round wool hats. We stopped at a place called Barbosa to buy a selection of typical sweets from the side of the road (mostly made with various combinations of dulce de leche, fruit, coffee and coconut). We got to Tunja just as it was starting to get dark, and because it was suddenly so cold for us, we decided to head to a town called Paipa, about 20 km away, where we had been told there were thermal baths. The people at the thermal pools let us spend the night in the parking lot, and the next morning we took a nice soak in the hot and salty/mineraly water (it was the perfect thing too, as we all had achy backs and sniffly noses from the cold). After warming up our body temperatures a bit, we continued on our drive to Villa de Leyva, an amazing mountain town about 2 - 3 hours northeast of Bogota, where we have been for the last three days and have loved every minute of it (aside from a bit of altitude sickness for Gustavo and Mateo). This town is kind of like Barichara in that they do not allow any modern architecture and is situated in a picturesque valley, but it is a bit bigger and more prepared for tourism (lots of well to do people from Bogota come here on the weekends) so there are amazing bakeries and lots of restaurants and shops. The streets are lined with stone and the colonial architecture with red tiled roofs and flowering trees (with mountains and cows and donkeys in the background) is candy for the eyes. In a wierd way it kind of reminds us of Punta Del Diablo, except in the mountains. We can only imagine what it is going to be like once people clue in about Colombia and international tourism starts to kick in... We found a wonderful hostel to stay in called Renacer, a peaceful place in the mountains run by a really nice family, with Wi-Fi internet and a kitchen to use, including a wood burning oven (which we tried out the very first night with pizzas!) and a parilla: we feel right at home here. The owner’s son Oscar is a biologist and really into birds and fossils, so the kids are in heaven. There are apparently 25 different bird species that hang out here (and Mateo has been taking photos of them all!). Aside from walking into town and testing out the ice cream (the best one is salpicon, basically fruit salad on a stick) and pastries (the best almond croissant EVER!) we have been going on hikes around the area: yesterday we went on a scrambling uphill hike to a lookout over the town, passing through an amazing stone canyon and some cool waterfalls. The thunderstorm that caught us in the middle of the hike only added to the adventure. Today we went searching for fossils in the fields and found a few neat ones, and Oscar even gave a couple of fossils from his collection to Mateo. Tomorrow we are planning to head to Zipaquira, where there is supposed to be an impressive underground salt cathedral, and then over the mountains to the coffee-growing district around Armenia before heading south again toward Ecuador, where we will hopefully be able to meet up with Al, who is on his way back up to Panama from Peru.
A pesar de no tener ningun resultado sobre la salud del mono y despues de haber explicado nuestra situacion y la necesidad de seguir andando en la clinica de salud de Minca, salimos de Santa Marta, al ratito nomas de saber que nos dejaban “salir.” Salimos tarde, el primero de Mayo, despues de buscar una bateria para la compu sin mucha suerte. Manejamos hasta que se hizo tarde y como tantas otras veces, preguntamos en un par de lugares para pasar la noche. Nos quedamos en el estacionamiento de un hotelucho, y y comimos una rica pasta con alcauciles, y esa noche nos cagamos de calor. El pueblo se llama Curumani. Durante la noche, no tuvimos ni la mas minima brisa, pero por suerte llovio un poco y eso refresco el ambiente. Aterrizamos en Bucaramanga a eso del mediodia, y despues de buscar en un par de lugares encontramos la tan ansiada bateria, porque por un par de horas pensamos que no la ibamos a encontrar. Aquí tambien conseguimos unas muy ricas hormigas culonas, que Ari y Teo gustosamente comieron.
Esa noche terminamos durmiendo en San Gil, creo que hicimos unos sandwiches de tomate con queso y alcauciles (de nuevo), y un poco de aceite de oliva. Nos quedamos cerca del parque Gallineral, y al otro dia tuvimos un monton de visitantes, que curiosamente se acercaban y nos preguntaban sobre el viaje, la camioneta, y nuestras experiencias. Al mediodia salimos hacia unas cascadas llamadas el Pozo Azul. Alli pasamos casi todo el dia, y como nos gusto tanto decidimos pasar la noche junto al rio. Llovio desde las seis de la tarde en adelante, y recien paro de llover al otro dia, asi que esa maniana fuimos a un pueblito en las montanias llamado Barichara. Varios colombianos nos habian comentado sobre este lugar, y amigablemente nos amenazaban diciendo, que si no conociamos Barichara, no conociamos Colombia. La verdad que fue uno de los pueblitos mas lindos que vimos en el viaje: todo colonial con una plaza principal muy linda y en medio de las montanias tan verdes y el aire tan puro, era como volver en el tiempo. El unico problema era que habia una panaderia perfecta…. Probamos unos pancitos de yuca y casi vomitamos todo. Estaban hechos con aceite de palma asi que tenian un sabor a pescado podrido muy fuerte. Nada es perfecto.
Salimos de Barichara hacia Tunja, tratando de llegar a Villa de Leyva. En el camino vimos unas cascadas cayendo desde un acantilado 100 metros de alto, al lado de la carretera y pasamos por caniones (el canion de Chicamocha) cubiertos de selva nubosa. Al llegar a 3117 metros sobre el nivel del mar ( mas de 3 kilometros, y lo mas alto que estuvimos en todo el viaje!), la flora cambio de selva nubosa a bosque pigmeo. Empezamos a ver gente vestida con ponchos llevando sus ovejas por la calle. Hacia tanto frio que decidimos ir a Paipa, un pueblo que tiene aguas termales. Llegamos al parque acuatico que tiene piscinas de agua termal y un tobogan bastante grande. Cuando llegamos era de noche, y preguntamos si podiamos acampar en el estacionamiento. Nos dejaron quedar y usar el banio. En la maniana entramos al parque y a la piscina mas calentita (hay tres) que estaba muy linda. Estaba lleno de gente lugarenia que van todos los dias a ese lugar a relajarse en las aguas llenas de minerales y sales naturales.
Despues de un largo banio nos fuimos, esta vez a Villa de Leyva que es muy parecido a Barichara pero mas grande y mas poblado. Cuando llegamos comimos un pollo asado con papas saladas y ensalada. Este lugar nos hace acrodar un poco a Punta del Diablo, pero en las montanias! Encontramos un hostal en las afueras del pueblo llamado Renacer donde estamos acampando y tenemos acceso a internet, banio, cocina, tele, horno de barro y hamacas. Ayer hicimos una caminata en la montania y pasamos por un par de cascadas, y al llegar arriba pudimos ver todo a nuestro alrededor. Ya varias veces fuimos al pueblito, que es muy colonial, y nuevamente uno se siente como que vuelve en el tiempo. Cada vez que vamos a hacer mandados, aprovechamos y disfrutamos de unos buenos helados artesanales, los favoritos son los de salpicon, o sea lleno de todo tipo de frutas. Ya tenemos unas tres noches por estos lados, asi que maniana arrancamos…

Cartagena/Taganga/Santa Marta, Colombia

2009-04-29T23:42:00.043-04:00

Well folks, we are now in South America! Just before we left for the airport in Panama City we made one last stop at Café Coca Cola for an early dinner, and then we took a taxi to the airport. The flight did not leave until 9:30 and it was a very tranquil boarding of the plane, as we were six of the ten passengers aboard the dinky (and bumpy!) flight to Cartagena. Given that the flight was only an hour long we were surprised by the fact that we were treated to a small meal and drink while we watched the lights of Cartagena appear in the distance. We went straight to our hotel close to the walled old city. The place itself was not great with small stuffy rooms, but at least there was air conditioning (sadly necessary in the heat of Cartagena when sleeping in a windowless box) and the kids got to have a TV again. The next morning Gustavo and (big) Ariel got up early to start the paperwork to get the vehicles out of the port, and subsequently spent two days there trying to get them out – during that time Claudia and the kids and I just hung around the hotel, went for a walk in the old city and tried to keep cool (the kids have had their fill of cable TV for a while, I think). On the second day, the vehicles were finally freed (happy birthday, Gustavo!) and we all went for a long walk in the walled city, a very beautiful, old and touristy city that looked like something straight out of a fairy tale with flower-covered balconies and walls of coral. By late afternoon, we headed to a supermarket and found a nice place to park right on the beach of a residential district in Cartagena, where we had a fire and celebrated Gustavo’s birthday (and the liberation of our vehicles) with Ariel and Claudia. As we sat there making the fire and drinking some rum, a colourful bunch of balloons fell slowly to the water from a rooftop patio overhead where someone had obviously celebrated their birthday earlier that day. The tide quickly brought them right in to where we were sitting, and it seemed like a birthday gift just for Gustavo! The next morning we parted ways with Claudia and Ariel and set off toward Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, past Barranquilla, stopping for a couple of hours at an amazing mud volcano called Volcan de Lodo Totumo, where we soaked away in a 2000 metre deep crater filled with creamy smooth mud, rich in minerals and salts. It was the most amazing sensation of floating and being stuck in place at the same time and we stayed in there for a long time, watching some local old ladies with rheumatoid ills soak away their pains. After letting the mud dry for a bit on our skins, we wandered over to a fresh water lagoon where we washed it off, and we were left with smooth skin (and still a bit of mud in our ears). After trying some arepas con huevo (arepas are the Colombian/Venezuelan equivalent of pupusas, also made with corn flour) we set off again on the drive along the coast toward Taganga, a small fishing village close to Santa Marta that we had heard about. We parked the westy on the beach and started meeting all kinds of interesting characters – Colombia is full of them, and I am so glad that we decided to ignore common fears about this country and come here! Claudia and Ariel eventually met up with us and after three days parking on the beach, we moved up the hill in town (along with another couple from Buenos Aires who are traveling around South America in an antique vehicle) to the soccer pitch where it was a bit quieter. We also went for a walk along the cliffs to Playa Grande with some spectacular views. The reason that we ended up staying for so long in Taganga is because we had to replace the outer tie rod end on the westy, and we met a really nice guy called Cesar who owns a shop in Santa Marta. Through him, we met Juan and Luisa and their son Santiago, a Colombian family who are living here in Santa Marta and who have two 1960s Volkswagens, a beetle and a bus. We hit it off, and they invited us to their home in Rodadero one day for a wonderful lunch and a cool, refreshing swim in the pool. Through Juan, we now have contact with the president of the VW Club of Colombia, and have been invited to the 2009 convention later in May! I’m not sure whether we will stay in the country long enough to attend, but at the very least we know have VW contacts from here to Uruguay. We already got an email from a guy who wants to interview us about our trip for a VW magazine! After being sent the wrong part for the vehicle, we had to wait an extra day. Tired of the heat and humidity of the coast, and anxious to keep moving, yesterday we headed up into the hills with Claudia and Ariel to a picturesque little town called Minca, famous for coffee growing. We had a cool and refreshing swim in the river and enjoyed all the singing birds and green freshness of the air compared to the heat of the coast. As we arrived in town, we stopped to talk to a little girl who was playing with her adorable baby monkey. Unfortunately, the cute little monkey in the photo below at one point turned into a little demon and attacked me! (apparently it is because I was wearing red?!). It was just a small nip but it broke the skin, and we were a bit worried about the possibility of rabies, so this morning, after a refeshing swim in the river, we stopped by the health clinic in the town just as a precaution. As soon as we told them what had happened they jabbed me with a tetanus shot and started to go ballistic because we don't have yellow fever vaccinations (we checked before leaving Canada and Colombia was not on the list). To make a long story short, they didn't even mention the possibility of rabies, but because monkeys can be big carriers of yellow fever they want to keep me under observation for a couple of weeks just in case (which means that, despite our desire to keep moving south, we might not be going anywhere for a while!). I am sure that the monkey is fine (he is only 5 months old!) but between that and the whole swine flu thing (which everyone here is talking about, so I can only imagine what it is like back in Canada) we were a bit depressed, so we decided to rent ourselves a hotel room with internet access for a couple of days so that I can file our income taxes and try out skype technology on a conference call with my supervisory committee back in Hamitlon (of course, there is also cable TV so the kids have quickly and happily plugged themselves back in). It also means that we have email and skype galore, so we can communicate again! We'll let you know how this whole monkey drama plays out....if we can convince them to let me go we will start heading south toward Bogota on Friday afternoon (but I don't know about that, as it was hard to convince them just to let us leave Minca this morning!).
Despues de quedarnos varios dias en la parte vieja de Panama, sin la camioneta, parando en un pequenio apto, y pasando varias veces por el café Coca Cola, cruzamos a Colombia. Volamos en la tarde en un avion chiquito, solo para nosotros, y a pesar de que el vuelo no lleva mas de dos horas nos trajeron algo para comer. Ari y Teo estaban de fiesta, mas que contentos, ya que teniamos practicamente todo el avion para nosotros.
Llegamos a Cartagena a las once de la noche, y enseguida nos metimos en un hotelucho. Por lo menos tenia aire acondicionado, mas que necesario por la gran humedad y calor. Al otro dia, Ariel (grande) y yo comenzamos con los tan deseados y largos tramites en el puerto. Entre idas y vueltas, y pasando por la gran burocracia que abunda en casos como estos, pasamos dos dias para sacar a las respectivas camionetas del container y recien al segundo dia (de interminables tramites) del puerto. El miercoles de tarde, salimos a recorrer la parte amurallada de Cartagena, y mas tarde acampamos en la playa para festejar la salida de las camionetas y mi cumpleanios. Alli, nos quedamos en la rambla, y desde la azotea de un edificio se desprendieron varios globos de colores que magicamente llegaron hasta nosotros. Asi que nos baniamos de noche y despues de cenar y un rico ron, caimos muertos. Al otro dia, nos despedimos y partimos rumbo a Taganga, una playa muy linda cerca de Santa Marta. En camino, paramos cerca de un volcan de lodo, el volcan Totumo. Esta fue una de las experiencias mas ricas del viaje. Estar tirados “nadando” en el barro fue alucinante, tratando de nadar sin poder ir a ningun lado. La profundidad del volcan es de mas de 2000 metros! Pero para llegar a la cima solo hay que subir unos pocos escalones. Alli nos quedamos por un buen rato, pensando que estabamos en un banio de chocolate gigante. Despues a enjuagarse en el lago y a comer unas ricas arepas. Seguimos camino pasando por Barranquilla y despues de unas tres horas y varios peajes llegamos a Taganga. Este, es/era un pueblito de pescadores y en los ultimos tiempos el turismo lo abarca todo. Aquí, tambien acampamos en su pequenia rambla, frente al mar. Al otro dia llegaron, al atardecer, Claudia y Ariel que se quedaron en lo de una amiga en Cartagena. Esa noche conocimos a un par de mecanicos que tienen el taller en Santa Marta. Asi que, al otro dia pasamos por ahí para revisar los vehiculos. Cesar, el duenio del taller tiene un amigo que es fanatico de vw, asi que lo llamo para que viniera a conocer a nuestra querida camioneta. Resulto ser que uno de los terminales (el del lado del condutor) necesitaba ser cambiado. Al rato nomas, aparecieron Juan, Luisa y su hijo Santiago al taller mecanico. Enseguida, Juan llamo a Bogota y pidio la parte que estabamos necesitando. Ellos tambien tienen una camioneta, del anio 63, y un escarabajo, o fusca. No nos quedaba otra, que esperar … asi que sin pensarlo dos veces esta gente nos invito a su casa para pasar el dia. El domingo fuimos todos (incluyendo Ariel y Claudia). En su preciosa casa pasamos fenomeno. Almorzamos, nos baniamos en la piscina, y mas tarde tomamos un rico tinto (asi es como le dicen al café en Colombia) con tortas de ciruela y naranjas. De mas esta decir, que mas de una vez intercambiamos informacion, sobre diferentes rutas a tomar, y un rato antes de salir, Juan comenzo a llamar a sus “contactos vw" que dicho sea, no son pocos. La amabilidad y generosidad de esta gente es impagable, desde ya, muchisimas gracias!
Por dos o tres noches mas dormimos en Taganga, pero esta vez nos movimos hacia la cancha de futbol del pueblo. A veces y sobre todo en estos pueblitos turisticos, se hace dificil quedarse por mucho tiempo en un mismo lugar, el ruido de los bares en la noche, incluso, la gente local y hasta la policia se pone un poco nerviosa, y te piden amablemente no estar mas de un par de noches en el mismo sitio. Una de esas noches hicimos pizzas a la parrilla con nustros amigos y otra pareja de argentinos (Gustavo y Analia) que estan viajando por Sudamerica desde hace ya unos 7 meses. Un poco cansados del calor, ayer fuimos a Minca, un pueblito en la montania conocido por sus plantaciones de cafe, porque todavia estabamos esperando el repuesto y como en la costa hace demasiado calor, preferimos subir y baniarnos en el rio. El lugar es hermoso, y en el camino se ve Santa Marta desde lejos. Cuando llegamos habia una ninia con un monito bebe, y cuando paramos a verlo a Allison la mordio en el brazo! Para hacer la historia corta, en la clinica prefirieron que nos quedemos en la zona mientras hacen examenes para asegurarnos de que esta todo bien (mas que nada se preocupan por fiebre amarilla, que es transmitida por monos) antes de empezar el viaje hacia el sur. Mientras tanto, estamos quedandonos en un hotelito en Santa Marta por un par de dias, para poder tener acceso a internet y asi tambien programar los pasos a seguir maniana con la gente de la clinica en Minca. Lamentablemente, el dia lo pasamos entre clinicas y mecanicos aunque, por suerte y gracias a la ayuda de estos ultimos, la camioneta (por lo menos) ya esta lista para seguir el viaje.