Ooops. I forgot to do a last blog post. Sorry.
We arrived in Vancouver at 1:30 on Wednesday where my Dad and Brothers were happily waiting to pick us up. The plane ride sucked, South American buses are WAY comfier. Luckily we flew Santiago, Chile to Dallas, Texas to Vancouver. One fewer layovers than going down. Plus it was only 18 hours of traveling, not the 23 hours down.
Dad took us out to White Spot right away - Joel and I were both craving a good BC Burger.
Thursday night we came over to Victoria and have been chillin with friends, catching up on all the Victoria chaos of 4 months. Slowly trying to get life figured out... running errands, doing taxes, I'm looking for new glasses (which are soo much cheaper in SA. I wish I had gotten them there).
On Wednesday I'm flying to Castlegar and chillin in the Kootenays for a week. My friend Sam is getting married (WooHoo!) so we're throwing her a stagette in Nelson...which coincidentally is on my birthday. Then my M.in.L, Val & S.in.L, Hanna are driving me back to Vic with my Kitty!
Fun times back in Canada.
I'm happy to be back in a world where people know what I say instead of giving me a "whugh?"
expression.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Rain Rain Go Away
Joel and I arrived in Mendoza on Wednesday, after a 13 hour night bus ride. I didn´t sleep much since it was semi-cama (semi-bed), still better than a Greyhound bus but no pillows or blankets and my seat didn´t recline too much. (My gosh, I sound like a spoiled brat with these cushy buses of SA). We got in around 9:30, decided to walk to the hostel since it didn´t look tooo far on their map. Started walking, realized the map´s north arrow wasn´t pointing north at all - turned around and started going the right direction. I was pretty grumpy from no sleep and no caffine and ranted along the walk about the not-north-north-arrow. Seriously, if you´re going to put it on a map, make sure it´s pointing the right way. Basic first lesson of cartography. Or just plain common sense. Sheesh. I was also grumpy because we had to pay for an extra night at our hostel in BA. The receptionist claimed we didn´t cancel our reservation once we booked bus tickets, but I clearly remember talking to her about it. I think she just forgot to take us out and made us pay for her mistake. So that really sucked for the budget.
Then we got to our hostel in Mendoza, where Susan and Leana were waiting for us. We went to pay for our hostel, only to find out its 3x the price as quoted in the Lonely Planet guide. This has been a fairly common occurance, and it sucks to be on the recieving end. But the place has a pool so we decided to stay and relax here. The first day we spent sun tanning and lounging in the pool. Joel´s gotten pretty dark, I got burnt (no surprise) but it´s faded to a nice light brown. The next day we did a bike wine tour, since Mendoza is the wine growing area of Argentina. Mmmm, it was sooo much fun. I´ve discovered that I really like Melbec wine, and price really does make a difference! I wish we were allowed more than 2 bottles of wine back to Canada since we´ve found some really nice ones and their sooo cheap. There was also a chocolate factory along the way, mmm, the coffee flavoured one was my favourite.
Susan and Leana left the night of the bike wine tour, so Joel and I were on our own yesterday. Our plan was to lounge by the pool, but we woke up to cloudy cold weather. Then I was hoping it would clear up today, but I woke up to rain. Ugh. This hostel is not worth it´s price if I can´t be in the pool. Oh well.
We leave tomorrow morning to Santiago (7 hour bus ride). I hope crossing the border goes well, since we don´t have enterance stamps into the country. We´re spending one night in Santiago and leave at 9pm Tuesday night. We´ll be in Vancouver around 12:30 on Wednesday. Since we´ve been in SA I´ve thought our flight was on the 14th, but I checked our tickets a couple of days ago to discover we actually leave on the 15th. Good thing I checked!
Joel´s not to stoked on getting home, since the Canucks are out of the playoffs. He´s been following closely down here and it pretty put out that they didn´t make it. I´m stoked that Alex Burrows (my favourite player) scored 12 goals and sooo sad I missed it all. Oh well, next year.
If anyone has been following the news about American Airlines - who we´re flying with - will know they grounded over 1,000 flights last week due to safety concerns. Read BBC´s news report here. Joel´s a nervous flyer (*shhh* don´t tell him I told you) so this just makes it worse. Not going to lie - it freaks me out too. I really hope we´re not stuck any longer in Santago than we´re suppose to be. American Airlines says their flights have returned to normal.
Then we got to our hostel in Mendoza, where Susan and Leana were waiting for us. We went to pay for our hostel, only to find out its 3x the price as quoted in the Lonely Planet guide. This has been a fairly common occurance, and it sucks to be on the recieving end. But the place has a pool so we decided to stay and relax here. The first day we spent sun tanning and lounging in the pool. Joel´s gotten pretty dark, I got burnt (no surprise) but it´s faded to a nice light brown. The next day we did a bike wine tour, since Mendoza is the wine growing area of Argentina. Mmmm, it was sooo much fun. I´ve discovered that I really like Melbec wine, and price really does make a difference! I wish we were allowed more than 2 bottles of wine back to Canada since we´ve found some really nice ones and their sooo cheap. There was also a chocolate factory along the way, mmm, the coffee flavoured one was my favourite.
Susan and Leana left the night of the bike wine tour, so Joel and I were on our own yesterday. Our plan was to lounge by the pool, but we woke up to cloudy cold weather. Then I was hoping it would clear up today, but I woke up to rain. Ugh. This hostel is not worth it´s price if I can´t be in the pool. Oh well.
We leave tomorrow morning to Santiago (7 hour bus ride). I hope crossing the border goes well, since we don´t have enterance stamps into the country. We´re spending one night in Santiago and leave at 9pm Tuesday night. We´ll be in Vancouver around 12:30 on Wednesday. Since we´ve been in SA I´ve thought our flight was on the 14th, but I checked our tickets a couple of days ago to discover we actually leave on the 15th. Good thing I checked!
Joel´s not to stoked on getting home, since the Canucks are out of the playoffs. He´s been following closely down here and it pretty put out that they didn´t make it. I´m stoked that Alex Burrows (my favourite player) scored 12 goals and sooo sad I missed it all. Oh well, next year.
If anyone has been following the news about American Airlines - who we´re flying with - will know they grounded over 1,000 flights last week due to safety concerns. Read BBC´s news report here. Joel´s a nervous flyer (*shhh* don´t tell him I told you) so this just makes it worse. Not going to lie - it freaks me out too. I really hope we´re not stuck any longer in Santago than we´re suppose to be. American Airlines says their flights have returned to normal.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
So long. So short.
Whew. 9 days left. I can´t even believe it´s coming to an end. It feels so short and so long at the same time. Peru and Bolivia feel ages ago, yet these past 3 months sped by faster than any other 3 months of my life. I´ve loved it all. Well, almost all. Can´t say I´m stoked on losing all our pictures. But it just means we have to come back and do it all over!
Buenos Aires has been a completely different experience than any other place. We spent only 3 days in Lima and 2 in Santiago, so we didn´t experience much of the Latin American giant-metropolis life. But it´s a huge part of what makes Latin America, well, Latin America. BA has 13 million people crammed into a city, looking for a prosperous life. A life different from the rural areas. The city throbs contantly with cars, people, music, dogs - it doesn´t really stop. They eat dinner at 11 or 12 pm, start going to clubs at 2am and to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Almost every shop has a siesta around 2-4pm. People drink mate all day, everyday. The city is hot, humid and polluted. There´s no where to escape. Oh, can you tell that I´m not a city person? I´m glad we ended up here because I needed to see it. But there was a reason why cities weren´t on our orginal agenda.
Joel and I have had some good times. We went to the zoo, saw our first Pudú (miniature deer) so that was cool. The zoo was quite depressing though, the cages were soooo tiny and un-natural looking. The only other zoo I remember going to is the one in Calgary and the animals there have huge (comparatively speaking) cages with natual-ish surroundings. There was a polar bear here, his water smelt like chlorine. They also had a grizzly bear- I didn´t know they came so small! No joke, he was the size of a large dog. They also had these Rodents Of Unusual Size which were freely ripping around the zoo. Hanna, they did have Red Panda´s, but we couldn´t spot them.
Today we got our bus tickets to Mendoza for Tuesday where we´re meeting up with Susan and Leana again. Yippie! From the bus station we walked to the Ecological Researve, thinking it should be pretty. It´s 5kms long, stretching along the water. The only cool thing about it was the butterflies and a couple of interesting shrubs. The path was a huge gravel road with no shade, tons of people and the sitting areas were covered with trash. We left the E.R. and walked back to our hostel. It was a looonngg day of walking in humid pollution.
I hope I´m not being too negative. I´m sure there´s great things about this city. I´m just not into shopping (soo much cool stuff to buy, but no money), clubbing, eatting out, or sitting in parks drinking mate. I´d rather be outside exploring a lakeshore or hiking. Or just doing nothing, and not having to listen to traffic and dogs.
Our hostel has been great though. It´s a cute little place full of people doing the same thing as us. The majority of backpackers have been couples, so we all sit around a lot chatting. There´s a couple from Atlanta/California who have travelled through Central America and have inspired me to go to Panama and Costa Rica (not that I needed much convincing). There´s another couple from Isreal (there are TONS of Isrealis in SA) that have been married 10 months and spent all of it travelling so far. Talk about a honeymoon!
Okay, now that I´ve got all that city talk out of my system I have good news. I found a job for this summer, working for a small sustainable urban design consultant firm. By small, I mean it´s basically one woman. I´ll be helping organize a conference on the health of Saanich Inlet, volunteer at the Gaining Grounds Summit , research the importance of urban forests, prepare a funding proposal for a waste-to-resource facility, gather data for state of the environment indicators for the Captial Regional District...and much more. I´m so stoked on this job, it pairs so well with my studies, specifically my Urban Argiculture research (I posted a link in one of my first blog enteries here because it was on Rossario, Argentina). Well, I wasn´t even planning on applying for jobs this summer since I wanted to be in school, but Joel saw it and told me about it. It will be a very different experience from working for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Between the two coop experiences I´ll be prepped for life post graduation and pay back these student loans!
Other good news is that our passports should be ready Monday, hence why we´re leaving BA on Tuesday. The Canadian Consulate figured we´d have them mid next week, so they are early. :)
Jen.
Buenos Aires has been a completely different experience than any other place. We spent only 3 days in Lima and 2 in Santiago, so we didn´t experience much of the Latin American giant-metropolis life. But it´s a huge part of what makes Latin America, well, Latin America. BA has 13 million people crammed into a city, looking for a prosperous life. A life different from the rural areas. The city throbs contantly with cars, people, music, dogs - it doesn´t really stop. They eat dinner at 11 or 12 pm, start going to clubs at 2am and to bed in the wee hours of the morning. Almost every shop has a siesta around 2-4pm. People drink mate all day, everyday. The city is hot, humid and polluted. There´s no where to escape. Oh, can you tell that I´m not a city person? I´m glad we ended up here because I needed to see it. But there was a reason why cities weren´t on our orginal agenda.
Joel and I have had some good times. We went to the zoo, saw our first Pudú (miniature deer) so that was cool. The zoo was quite depressing though, the cages were soooo tiny and un-natural looking. The only other zoo I remember going to is the one in Calgary and the animals there have huge (comparatively speaking) cages with natual-ish surroundings. There was a polar bear here, his water smelt like chlorine. They also had a grizzly bear- I didn´t know they came so small! No joke, he was the size of a large dog. They also had these Rodents Of Unusual Size which were freely ripping around the zoo. Hanna, they did have Red Panda´s, but we couldn´t spot them.
Today we got our bus tickets to Mendoza for Tuesday where we´re meeting up with Susan and Leana again. Yippie! From the bus station we walked to the Ecological Researve, thinking it should be pretty. It´s 5kms long, stretching along the water. The only cool thing about it was the butterflies and a couple of interesting shrubs. The path was a huge gravel road with no shade, tons of people and the sitting areas were covered with trash. We left the E.R. and walked back to our hostel. It was a looonngg day of walking in humid pollution.
I hope I´m not being too negative. I´m sure there´s great things about this city. I´m just not into shopping (soo much cool stuff to buy, but no money), clubbing, eatting out, or sitting in parks drinking mate. I´d rather be outside exploring a lakeshore or hiking. Or just doing nothing, and not having to listen to traffic and dogs.
Our hostel has been great though. It´s a cute little place full of people doing the same thing as us. The majority of backpackers have been couples, so we all sit around a lot chatting. There´s a couple from Atlanta/California who have travelled through Central America and have inspired me to go to Panama and Costa Rica (not that I needed much convincing). There´s another couple from Isreal (there are TONS of Isrealis in SA) that have been married 10 months and spent all of it travelling so far. Talk about a honeymoon!
Okay, now that I´ve got all that city talk out of my system I have good news. I found a job for this summer, working for a small sustainable urban design consultant firm. By small, I mean it´s basically one woman. I´ll be helping organize a conference on the health of Saanich Inlet, volunteer at the Gaining Grounds Summit , research the importance of urban forests, prepare a funding proposal for a waste-to-resource facility, gather data for state of the environment indicators for the Captial Regional District...and much more. I´m so stoked on this job, it pairs so well with my studies, specifically my Urban Argiculture research (I posted a link in one of my first blog enteries here because it was on Rossario, Argentina). Well, I wasn´t even planning on applying for jobs this summer since I wanted to be in school, but Joel saw it and told me about it. It will be a very different experience from working for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Between the two coop experiences I´ll be prepped for life post graduation and pay back these student loans!
Other good news is that our passports should be ready Monday, hence why we´re leaving BA on Tuesday. The Canadian Consulate figured we´d have them mid next week, so they are early. :)
Jen.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Buenos Aires
So we are in Buenos Aires. The last few days have been full of getting the forms and filling them out. And taking the subway across the city to the Canadian Embassy. They even opened the embassy on friday for us even though its acctually closed, so we could get our applications submitted on time. Now proving our applications are decent well be alright to get home in a couple weeks. It sucks but we`re over it. Now were just trying to enjoy being in a massive city. It has some really cool buildings and statues. Dog crap all over the sidewalks. At least its not flooded, cuz that makes the crap float. Their are protests going on here because the government has increased taxes on agricultural products by 10%, to encourage the farmers to sell food locally rather than overseas where they can make more money. This is a real problem, because now there are roadblocks and food is not getting through to Buenos Aires. Yesterday we could find absolutely no meat anywhere we looked. This morning there is some chicken, I think the stores might be rationing it. No beef though, and little milk. Milk is rationed. So cooking might get more creative in the next couple weeks. Anyways we are in nice hostel called gardenhouse, in a decent area of town, with cool people around. Joel.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Mine and Joel's passports, camera, 8 gigs of memory cards (and photos from the last 2 months), wallet, VISA, bank cards (except one, hurray!), and one of my two tshirts was stolen. Ugh. We were sitting at a restaurant and my purse was beside me and Joel, we ordered drinks and when they arrived I went to grab my purse, only to discover that it was gone.
We've cancelled our VISA, obviously. The meanies who stole it tried to use it, but the purchase was declined. However, I am sure they will enjoy our camera and the photo journey that goes along with it. We reported it to the police right away, have a police report filed and have to get to Buenos Aires to the Canadian Consulate. The first bus from Bariloche (where we are) isn't until Wednesday and the ride is 22 hours. So that's the plan. I'm still hoping that our passports will show up, but it's a small hope.
I really miss my pretty purse from Bolivia. And my shirt. But the camera is the worst part of it.
Sorry, no one's getting any photos. We had big plans for them. So sad.
The situation could be a lot worse, we are safe, and our parents all have access to the account for the one bank card we have left. Hopefully we don't lose it. Joel's in charge of it.
So the internet is closing.. I have to go.
We've cancelled our VISA, obviously. The meanies who stole it tried to use it, but the purchase was declined. However, I am sure they will enjoy our camera and the photo journey that goes along with it. We reported it to the police right away, have a police report filed and have to get to Buenos Aires to the Canadian Consulate. The first bus from Bariloche (where we are) isn't until Wednesday and the ride is 22 hours. So that's the plan. I'm still hoping that our passports will show up, but it's a small hope.
I really miss my pretty purse from Bolivia. And my shirt. But the camera is the worst part of it.
Sorry, no one's getting any photos. We had big plans for them. So sad.
The situation could be a lot worse, we are safe, and our parents all have access to the account for the one bank card we have left. Hopefully we don't lose it. Joel's in charge of it.
So the internet is closing.. I have to go.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Camping Cuisine!
This is the best meal I have cooked yet, mostly because it´s the first ground beef we´ve had in 2 months. The best part is the whole meal was less than $15 pesos, about $5 Canadian - including the beer. The ground beef was $4.55 pesos, less than $1.50. Why is everything so expensive in Canada?
The ingrediants: Ground beef, carrots, green pepper, onion, garlic and a powdered mushroom sauce. All of the sauces here have MSG, I doubt a day goes by where Joel and I don´t eat any MSG. For about 6 months before leaving Canada we went on a *mostly* MSG free kick so it´s been quite the shock to our system here.
Our campstove set up. It´s amazing what one can cook with only one burner!
In Canada we use campstove white gas... they don´t have that here. The can of Fleming is a paint cleaner here, but it works so we can´t complain too much.
Sautè up the onions and garlic.
Add the ground beef, along with some spices like Merquèn (grown by the Mapuche people in Chile).
Yea! Thumbs up from Joel!
Cooking up the mushroom sauce. It calls for half milk and water, but we use powered milk. Powdered milk seems to be a norm down here. (It isn´t as bad as I thought it would be.j.. We even drink glasses of powered milk with chocolate mix, and use it for cereal in the morning.)
The final product! I forgot to take a picture of boiling the potatos. I added the ground beef and potatos and carrots together, poured mushroom sauce over and sprinkled some parmasean cheese over.
Soooo Yummy!!
The ingrediants: Ground beef, carrots, green pepper, onion, garlic and a powdered mushroom sauce. All of the sauces here have MSG, I doubt a day goes by where Joel and I don´t eat any MSG. For about 6 months before leaving Canada we went on a *mostly* MSG free kick so it´s been quite the shock to our system here.
Our campstove set up. It´s amazing what one can cook with only one burner!
In Canada we use campstove white gas... they don´t have that here. The can of Fleming is a paint cleaner here, but it works so we can´t complain too much.
Sautè up the onions and garlic.
Add the ground beef, along with some spices like Merquèn (grown by the Mapuche people in Chile).
Yea! Thumbs up from Joel!
Cooking up the mushroom sauce. It calls for half milk and water, but we use powered milk. Powdered milk seems to be a norm down here. (It isn´t as bad as I thought it would be.j.. We even drink glasses of powered milk with chocolate mix, and use it for cereal in the morning.)
The final product! I forgot to take a picture of boiling the potatos. I added the ground beef and potatos and carrots together, poured mushroom sauce over and sprinkled some parmasean cheese over.
Soooo Yummy!!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Photo Journey
I have figured out how to post our photo albums from facebook. Enjoy!
Miraflores - Peru
Paracas & Islas Ballestas - Peru
Huacachina, Arequipa, Floating Islands - Peru
Copacabana & Isla del Sol - Bolivia
My favourite photo album, Salar de Uyuni & Laguna Tour - Bolivia
Bolivia - Incallajta & Cochabamba
Parque National Huerquehue, Chile to El Bolson - Argentina
Parque National Lago Puelo - Argentina
Parque National Los Alerces - Argentina
Top Secret Mission for Eco-Ninja
Miraflores - Peru
Paracas & Islas Ballestas - Peru
Huacachina, Arequipa, Floating Islands - Peru
Copacabana & Isla del Sol - Bolivia
My favourite photo album, Salar de Uyuni & Laguna Tour - Bolivia
Bolivia - Incallajta & Cochabamba
Parque National Huerquehue, Chile to El Bolson - Argentina
Parque National Lago Puelo - Argentina
Parque National Los Alerces - Argentina
Top Secret Mission for Eco-Ninja
Time Shift
We are back in El Bolson. For a third time. Not going to lie, I want to move here. Just for a year so I can learn Spanish. On the 21st we are going up to Bariloche (2 hours north of El Bolson) to meet Susan. Yippiee! Someone else to speak English to!
We just spent 4 nights at Parque National los Alerces, 160 km south of El Bolson. The ride took over 4 hours along dirt roads. Not too much fun with a screaming blatter. Every pothole was painful. But we spotted a couple of condors along the way! That made the ride all worth it. The first day we wandered along the beach, found some funny looking birds that Joel just had to chase for a flying picture. The second day we hiked up to a mirador (lookout) and along the way saw some pre Columbian artwork estimated to be over 2000 years old. Then we hiked along another trail, found a sweet spot to skinnydip and had lunch along the lake while being swarmed by wasps (clothing on). The next day it rained (only the 5th day of rain in our entire trip!) so we hung around our campsite drinking mate and playing cards. Joel drank an earwig accidentally! hahaa. It was hiding in the bombilla (mate spoon-straw) and he sucked it right up. I felt bad for him but couldn´t contain the laughter. Our last day was rainy too and Joel was feeling ill (earwig, perhaps?). So it turned into another lounging day playing cards (no mate).
On Monday we had to leave back up to El Bolson - we ran out of fuel, oops - on the 9:30am bus. We got ourselves out of bed early enough to use the last of our fuel to cook up some eggs and boil water for coffee, packed up our gear and walked up to the bus stop. After 15 minutes of waiting a German family joined us. They were friendly and curious about Canada, we discussed social, political and environmental problems in Canada, why geographers and maps are needed and about the baby booomers retiring. (They don´t have the baby boom generation in Germany...) So 10:30 rolls around and the bus still isn´t there and we´re starting to wonder what´s up... 10:45 and the bus finally shows up. We hop on, hear the German guy asking why the bus is late, only to hear that the bus isn´t very late at all. It´s actually 9:45am. Apparently they have time changes in Argentina too. I´m not really sure how this all works... since they´re changing their clocks for Fall, but in Canada it´s for Spring... what´s the time difference between here and Pacific Time?
I also have exciting news! Joel has an interview for a field work coop job this summer. It´s a phone interview... I hope the employer knows they have to call Argentina. And we really have to figure out what time it is in Victoria. The job description didn´t say how much it pays and that is a determining factor for a job this summer. So I hope it pays well and he gets it and then much stress for the summer is gone. Yea Joel!
We just spent 4 nights at Parque National los Alerces, 160 km south of El Bolson. The ride took over 4 hours along dirt roads. Not too much fun with a screaming blatter. Every pothole was painful. But we spotted a couple of condors along the way! That made the ride all worth it. The first day we wandered along the beach, found some funny looking birds that Joel just had to chase for a flying picture. The second day we hiked up to a mirador (lookout) and along the way saw some pre Columbian artwork estimated to be over 2000 years old. Then we hiked along another trail, found a sweet spot to skinnydip and had lunch along the lake while being swarmed by wasps (clothing on). The next day it rained (only the 5th day of rain in our entire trip!) so we hung around our campsite drinking mate and playing cards. Joel drank an earwig accidentally! hahaa. It was hiding in the bombilla (mate spoon-straw) and he sucked it right up. I felt bad for him but couldn´t contain the laughter. Our last day was rainy too and Joel was feeling ill (earwig, perhaps?). So it turned into another lounging day playing cards (no mate).
On Monday we had to leave back up to El Bolson - we ran out of fuel, oops - on the 9:30am bus. We got ourselves out of bed early enough to use the last of our fuel to cook up some eggs and boil water for coffee, packed up our gear and walked up to the bus stop. After 15 minutes of waiting a German family joined us. They were friendly and curious about Canada, we discussed social, political and environmental problems in Canada, why geographers and maps are needed and about the baby booomers retiring. (They don´t have the baby boom generation in Germany...) So 10:30 rolls around and the bus still isn´t there and we´re starting to wonder what´s up... 10:45 and the bus finally shows up. We hop on, hear the German guy asking why the bus is late, only to hear that the bus isn´t very late at all. It´s actually 9:45am. Apparently they have time changes in Argentina too. I´m not really sure how this all works... since they´re changing their clocks for Fall, but in Canada it´s for Spring... what´s the time difference between here and Pacific Time?
I also have exciting news! Joel has an interview for a field work coop job this summer. It´s a phone interview... I hope the employer knows they have to call Argentina. And we really have to figure out what time it is in Victoria. The job description didn´t say how much it pays and that is a determining factor for a job this summer. So I hope it pays well and he gets it and then much stress for the summer is gone. Yea Joel!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Spend 2160 straight hours with someone. I dare you.
I love Joel. There is no one else I could do this trip with. It´s been about 2 straight months with our only alone time being in the baño (bathroom). We spend a lot of time talking, well, I spend most of the time talking, sometime Joel pitches in. Anyways, even after being together for 10 years there is still more to learn about each other (yes! It was 10 years ago that we first started dating...glorious time wasn´t it Moms and Dads? Hahaha.)
We play a lot of ¨What would you be if...¨ I ask Joel ¨what would you be if you were a sea creature?¨ His reply, ¨a Hammerhead shark.¨ mmm, good answer. I´d be Sea Anenomie. What would you be if you were an animal? Joel: platypus. Jen: Viscacha (No surprise there). A Tree? Joel: Cedar. Jen: Arbutus, or the Arbutus like tree here. Dinosaur? Joel: Terridactle (I have no idea how to spell it...) Jen: Stagosaurus. Yesterday while we were hiking Joel asked me what body of water I´d be. I saw hmmming and haawwwing, and replied ¨I´m not sure...something shallow and pretty...¨ Oh if only I thought before speaking. Joel would be the Goat River.
What would you be?
I have also spotted 4 grey hairs on Joels head. Amazing. I pulled out the first one to show him and accidentally pulled a few extra. I´m not allowed to pluck any more.
Our time at Lago Puelo is over. We hiked to the edge of the Argentinian border yesterday to another branch of the pretty turquoise lake. I wish I could upload pictures to show you. We had to cross a delta from Rio Azul (Blue River) at the start of the hike. Joel doesn´t have sandles and it hurt his feet to walk across the rocky river without them, so he was borrowing mine and throwing them back to me to cross. Well, obviously it was a disaster waiting to happen. One didn´t make it. He had to run down the rocks along the river, jump into the river and rescue it. My hero with now bruised feet. After that he had enough of using my sandles and decided to take a running jump at one of the branches that was only 8 feet or so across. Also a distaster waiting to happen. His foot and attatched hiking boot got soaked and he spent the night drying it off over the fire. Silly boy needs sandles.
In just a few hours we´re heading south to PN los Alerces and will hopefully meet up with our new friends!
We play a lot of ¨What would you be if...¨ I ask Joel ¨what would you be if you were a sea creature?¨ His reply, ¨a Hammerhead shark.¨ mmm, good answer. I´d be Sea Anenomie. What would you be if you were an animal? Joel: platypus. Jen: Viscacha (No surprise there). A Tree? Joel: Cedar. Jen: Arbutus, or the Arbutus like tree here. Dinosaur? Joel: Terridactle (I have no idea how to spell it...) Jen: Stagosaurus. Yesterday while we were hiking Joel asked me what body of water I´d be. I saw hmmming and haawwwing, and replied ¨I´m not sure...something shallow and pretty...¨ Oh if only I thought before speaking. Joel would be the Goat River.
What would you be?
I have also spotted 4 grey hairs on Joels head. Amazing. I pulled out the first one to show him and accidentally pulled a few extra. I´m not allowed to pluck any more.
Our time at Lago Puelo is over. We hiked to the edge of the Argentinian border yesterday to another branch of the pretty turquoise lake. I wish I could upload pictures to show you. We had to cross a delta from Rio Azul (Blue River) at the start of the hike. Joel doesn´t have sandles and it hurt his feet to walk across the rocky river without them, so he was borrowing mine and throwing them back to me to cross. Well, obviously it was a disaster waiting to happen. One didn´t make it. He had to run down the rocks along the river, jump into the river and rescue it. My hero with now bruised feet. After that he had enough of using my sandles and decided to take a running jump at one of the branches that was only 8 feet or so across. Also a distaster waiting to happen. His foot and attatched hiking boot got soaked and he spent the night drying it off over the fire. Silly boy needs sandles.
In just a few hours we´re heading south to PN los Alerces and will hopefully meet up with our new friends!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Mate. The Argentinian way.
Hola. Joel and I are at Lago Puelo, and beautiful national park with a turquoise blue lake. Love it.
We met an Argentinian couple, Nacho and Laura, who we camped with. Every night we made dinner together, played cards (we know some new games, yippie!) and drank Mate. Mmmm, Yerba Mate, the drink of Argentina. It´s a tea, drank out of a special cup (usually made from a goard...the kind of vegatable. I can´t spell), and drank with a bomilla (a special spoon straw). I had it in Canada a few times and thought it tasted like hay. But here, they flavour it with other herbs and mints, and add sugar. Special. Laura and Nacho bought us a present, the mate cup, bomilla and mate tea. It was so thoughtful of them. They left today for PN los Alerces, and Joel and I hope to meet up with them in 3 days when we go down there. Meeting people while travelling makes everything so wonderful and fun. We got to practice a lot of Spanish, and they practiced a lot of English. With our 5 year old vocabulary we were able to talk about polictics, climate change, life, teach card games.
This has to be cut short because we have a bus to catch back to the lake.
Adios!
We met an Argentinian couple, Nacho and Laura, who we camped with. Every night we made dinner together, played cards (we know some new games, yippie!) and drank Mate. Mmmm, Yerba Mate, the drink of Argentina. It´s a tea, drank out of a special cup (usually made from a goard...the kind of vegatable. I can´t spell), and drank with a bomilla (a special spoon straw). I had it in Canada a few times and thought it tasted like hay. But here, they flavour it with other herbs and mints, and add sugar. Special. Laura and Nacho bought us a present, the mate cup, bomilla and mate tea. It was so thoughtful of them. They left today for PN los Alerces, and Joel and I hope to meet up with them in 3 days when we go down there. Meeting people while travelling makes everything so wonderful and fun. We got to practice a lot of Spanish, and they practiced a lot of English. With our 5 year old vocabulary we were able to talk about polictics, climate change, life, teach card games.
This has to be cut short because we have a bus to catch back to the lake.
Adios!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Belly Full of Steak. Yum!
We went out for Joel´s Bday on the 29th... and it was disapointing. We ordered carne (direct translation ¨meat¨, but means ¨beef¨), it was almost the most expensive thing on the menu ($27, almost $9) and it kinda sucked. Joel was still hungry afterwards... adn it was just lacking flavour. And I kinda thought the meat was so tender because it was slowcooked. But we ordered our favourite local Roja Cervasa (Red Ale) and that kinda made up for it.
So tonight we gave dinner out a second chance and it was PERFECTO! This cute little place had a salad bar with locally made raspberry dressing (Jen was so happy!), giant juicy steaks cooked right out on the patio where we sat, and a couple of baskets with homemade bread, with a garlic vinegrette dip. The food couldn´t have gotten any better. This time Joel was full, I even offered him the last few bites of my steak and he refused!
Besides the amazing food the place had great ambiance about it. The restaurant was adobe with wood detailing, cute curved doors, the outdoor grill hut was made of clay, and an amazing hostess who spoke English. So it may have pushed the budget a little, but splurges like that are good for the soul. Right?
We have enjoyed our time in El Bolson. Mostly we´ve just lounged around, went to the market (3 times a week). I´ve been having constant inspiration of things to make at home (mostly tie dying and silk screaning shirts). We´ve ate alot of homemade bread and jam, and drank some local beer. Joel beat me a almost every game we played... I don´t know what it is but I can´t win against him. He says he has ¨luck¨. Mmmhmmm...
Tomorrow we leave for Lago Puelo, just 19km south of El Bolson. We have enough food for 6ish days. Then we want to check out Parque National los Alerces, which is also a little further south. Then on the 20th or 21st my friends, Susan and Leana are meeting us in Bariloche (2 hours north of El Bolson) for a week or so.
It has been confirmed that we won´t be volunteering on the organic farm we wanted too. I was looking forward to learning some gardening skills and meeting some new people. Oh well. More time for exploring Patagonia.
The link for the lastest album is here. It´s from Parque National Heurquehue (Chile) and on route to El Bolson, Argentina.
So I think that is all! We will be without internet for the next 5 to 7 days... so sad.
So tonight we gave dinner out a second chance and it was PERFECTO! This cute little place had a salad bar with locally made raspberry dressing (Jen was so happy!), giant juicy steaks cooked right out on the patio where we sat, and a couple of baskets with homemade bread, with a garlic vinegrette dip. The food couldn´t have gotten any better. This time Joel was full, I even offered him the last few bites of my steak and he refused!
Besides the amazing food the place had great ambiance about it. The restaurant was adobe with wood detailing, cute curved doors, the outdoor grill hut was made of clay, and an amazing hostess who spoke English. So it may have pushed the budget a little, but splurges like that are good for the soul. Right?
We have enjoyed our time in El Bolson. Mostly we´ve just lounged around, went to the market (3 times a week). I´ve been having constant inspiration of things to make at home (mostly tie dying and silk screaning shirts). We´ve ate alot of homemade bread and jam, and drank some local beer. Joel beat me a almost every game we played... I don´t know what it is but I can´t win against him. He says he has ¨luck¨. Mmmhmmm...
Tomorrow we leave for Lago Puelo, just 19km south of El Bolson. We have enough food for 6ish days. Then we want to check out Parque National los Alerces, which is also a little further south. Then on the 20th or 21st my friends, Susan and Leana are meeting us in Bariloche (2 hours north of El Bolson) for a week or so.
It has been confirmed that we won´t be volunteering on the organic farm we wanted too. I was looking forward to learning some gardening skills and meeting some new people. Oh well. More time for exploring Patagonia.
The link for the lastest album is here. It´s from Parque National Heurquehue (Chile) and on route to El Bolson, Argentina.
So I think that is all! We will be without internet for the next 5 to 7 days... so sad.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Happy 6th Birthday to Joel!
Yippie! Today is Joel´s birthday...it´s not panning out excatly how I wanted it to, but it´s still swell. It is raining in El Bolson. First rain we´ve seen since leaving Cochabamba, Bolivia about a month ago. And it has to be today! Why?
But a little rain isn´t going to stop me from giving Joel a fantabulous day. I went out venturing in the rain to the grocery store, found the closest thing to bacon (appently Canadian Bacon is a Canadian thing), some eggs, cheese, and freshly baked buns. Then I made us some yummy egg-bacon bunwiches. I think it´s the best breakfast I´ve had since leaving Canada. Aaaannnddd, to top it all off, I did all the dishes. Special Joel.
I also bought him some handmade fudge, because baking a cake is just too hard with a Wisper Lite stove! And a bracelet made by some rad hippie who told me El Bolson is a magical place. It sure is.
So all in all, a fantastic day for us, despite the rain. I think we´ll be going out for a steak dinner tonight, which is a big treat because we haven´t had steak since Millie and Jim took us out in Cochabamba.
But a little rain isn´t going to stop me from giving Joel a fantabulous day. I went out venturing in the rain to the grocery store, found the closest thing to bacon (appently Canadian Bacon is a Canadian thing), some eggs, cheese, and freshly baked buns. Then I made us some yummy egg-bacon bunwiches. I think it´s the best breakfast I´ve had since leaving Canada. Aaaannnddd, to top it all off, I did all the dishes. Special Joel.
I also bought him some handmade fudge, because baking a cake is just too hard with a Wisper Lite stove! And a bracelet made by some rad hippie who told me El Bolson is a magical place. It sure is.
So all in all, a fantastic day for us, despite the rain. I think we´ll be going out for a steak dinner tonight, which is a big treat because we haven´t had steak since Millie and Jim took us out in Cochabamba.
Monday, February 25, 2008
More Bliss
Last night when we got back to our dirty, noisy campsite in San Martin, I realized what I forgot to write about yesterday.
We saw a Tarantula! It was the second time we hiked up to Los Lagos, and there he was, just chillin on the side of the path. He just sat there. Joel went to get the camera out...and the batteries died. Of course, eh? But we saw him (or her), it was sooo huge and furry. Eeww. I´m getting shivers just thinking about it.
And, we spent the night of the 23rd in Pucon and stayed at a campground on Lago Villarrica, it was a cloudy day making for the coolest sunset ever. Pucon has Volcan Villarrica in the background, and the snow and steam off the top from the Volcan turned pink! Amazing. We have pictures I´d love to share, but unfortunately this computer doesn´t recognize our memory card.
Tomorrow we take a bus to El Bolson (6 hours) and will probably be there for a bit.
It doesn´t look like we´ll be going too much futher South. Bus tickets get too expensive. For us to get to and from Torres del Paine it would be over $700. Ouch. I guess it waits for another trip (Hanna & Craig - you in?). Joel is sooo dissapointed. But staying in one place for a few weeks will help the budget and my back from carrying my backpack around.
It has been another language twist for us here. Just as I was starting to understand some Chilian Spanish we come to another country that has their own ways of saying things. The ´ll´ isn´t a ´y´ sound anymore, it´s a ´jy´ or something like that. And the number 8 isn´t pronounced ´ocho´ it´s like ´hoacho´ or something. We dropped of lanundry (yea! no more funky smell!) and the woman said something with ´hoacho´ but we had no idea what she said. We replied ¨no entiendo [I don´t understand] ´hoacho´¨ and she looked at us really funny. She wrote down 8:00 on a paper, and we exclaimed ¨oh, ocho!¨ and she said ¨sì¨. Oh boy. I miss Bolivia and Peru with their phonetically correct speaking.
¡Ciao!
We saw a Tarantula! It was the second time we hiked up to Los Lagos, and there he was, just chillin on the side of the path. He just sat there. Joel went to get the camera out...and the batteries died. Of course, eh? But we saw him (or her), it was sooo huge and furry. Eeww. I´m getting shivers just thinking about it.
And, we spent the night of the 23rd in Pucon and stayed at a campground on Lago Villarrica, it was a cloudy day making for the coolest sunset ever. Pucon has Volcan Villarrica in the background, and the snow and steam off the top from the Volcan turned pink! Amazing. We have pictures I´d love to share, but unfortunately this computer doesn´t recognize our memory card.
Tomorrow we take a bus to El Bolson (6 hours) and will probably be there for a bit.
It doesn´t look like we´ll be going too much futher South. Bus tickets get too expensive. For us to get to and from Torres del Paine it would be over $700. Ouch. I guess it waits for another trip (Hanna & Craig - you in?). Joel is sooo dissapointed. But staying in one place for a few weeks will help the budget and my back from carrying my backpack around.
It has been another language twist for us here. Just as I was starting to understand some Chilian Spanish we come to another country that has their own ways of saying things. The ´ll´ isn´t a ´y´ sound anymore, it´s a ´jy´ or something like that. And the number 8 isn´t pronounced ´ocho´ it´s like ´hoacho´ or something. We dropped of lanundry (yea! no more funky smell!) and the woman said something with ´hoacho´ but we had no idea what she said. We replied ¨no entiendo [I don´t understand] ´hoacho´¨ and she looked at us really funny. She wrote down 8:00 on a paper, and we exclaimed ¨oh, ocho!¨ and she said ¨sì¨. Oh boy. I miss Bolivia and Peru with their phonetically correct speaking.
¡Ciao!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Bliss.
After Pichilemu (last post) we continued our jouney south. Straight to Temuco to the Sandvigs. A comfortable bed and yummy food. A good time with *sorta* family (sister-in-law´s husband´s family). The Sandvig´s were amazing to us, they picked us up from the bus station at midnight (thanks Eric and Tim!) and brought us back to their place, fed us, and we slept in their guest cabin. The perks of having missionary family is that they all seem to have guest cabins on their property. They took us on a tour of Temuco, let me shop to my hearts content (and wallets pain) in the plaza, and found us white gas for our camp stove. Then they took us to Parque National Huerquehue, where we did a 7km hike upto tres lagos (three lakes). On route we saw a male and female red headed woodpecker, two parrots (Chile has parrots!), and tons of lizards. It was a great hike, sort of like hiking in BC, but all the flora and fauna is different. At the top we could see the infamous Monkey Puzzle trees. I´ve seen some planted in gardens in Victoria, but it takes upwards of 400 years for them to mature, so they look nowhere´s near as cool!
The Sandvig´s left after the hike, leaving Joel and I and our 7 days of food to chill out (we bought groceries in Temuco). We had this rad little private campsite, down from the trail where no one could see us. We spent 8 days there (grabbed some avacados and some home made bread from a provision store by the park for the extra day). We did lots of swimming - I have missed swimming in a fresh water lake soooo much, Victoria is definately lacking for fresh water. We suntanned, I actually have some colour to myself...but I´m still pretty white. Sometime mid stay we hiked up to the lakes again, swam and suntanned up there. Everynight we played Backgammon and Cribbage. Joel beat me almost every game. *tear* We also had to wash our laundry up there. It was the first time having to do all our clothes by hand. I suck at handwashing. My clothes still have a bit of a funk to them. Oh well.
We caught a bus from Pucon, Chile to San Martin de los Andes, Argentina today. The border crossing went smoothly (finally, hurray!) We´re just stopping through here for a couple of nights before continuing south to El Bolson. I think we´ll be spending a few weeks around El Bolson, it looks like a lovely little town of homemade bread and homebrewed beer. I would like to settle down somewhere for a bit. The bus has gotten tiring and expensive.
Oh - wait. I haven´t talked about how I LOVE that it´s fruit season here. Mmmm. I´ve been eating avacados, peaches, nectarines, and blueberries everyday. Bliss. Hopefully by the time peaches come into season at home I´ll be ready to can some....
The Sandvig´s left after the hike, leaving Joel and I and our 7 days of food to chill out (we bought groceries in Temuco). We had this rad little private campsite, down from the trail where no one could see us. We spent 8 days there (grabbed some avacados and some home made bread from a provision store by the park for the extra day). We did lots of swimming - I have missed swimming in a fresh water lake soooo much, Victoria is definately lacking for fresh water. We suntanned, I actually have some colour to myself...but I´m still pretty white. Sometime mid stay we hiked up to the lakes again, swam and suntanned up there. Everynight we played Backgammon and Cribbage. Joel beat me almost every game. *tear* We also had to wash our laundry up there. It was the first time having to do all our clothes by hand. I suck at handwashing. My clothes still have a bit of a funk to them. Oh well.
We caught a bus from Pucon, Chile to San Martin de los Andes, Argentina today. The border crossing went smoothly (finally, hurray!) We´re just stopping through here for a couple of nights before continuing south to El Bolson. I think we´ll be spending a few weeks around El Bolson, it looks like a lovely little town of homemade bread and homebrewed beer. I would like to settle down somewhere for a bit. The bus has gotten tiring and expensive.
Oh - wait. I haven´t talked about how I LOVE that it´s fruit season here. Mmmm. I´ve been eating avacados, peaches, nectarines, and blueberries everyday. Bliss. Hopefully by the time peaches come into season at home I´ll be ready to can some....
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Catch up.
So much to write. So many adventures. Too little time.
I´ll work forward.
Bolivia: Oruro to Uyuni
We should have listened to the guide book. It said not to take the bus from Oruro to Uyuni, but we didn´t think to check the train schedule before leaving Cochabamba. Bad idea. The only seats left on the train were third class of the second class train. We decided to take the bus, it had to be better, right? Probably not, I´m sure the train wouldn´t have had a flat tire, forded 4 large rivers, backed up a half dozen times, drove through a few farmers fields, tried to help another bus that was suck (that took an hour, and it didn´t get unstuck), all equalling a 7 hour ride turned into 12. Oh, and Joel and I booked seats at the very back, where instead of the usual four seats (two each side of the aisle), there were five. The bus had an extra seat placed in the middle, which wasn´t the size of a regular seat (much smaller). Of course it had to be the smelliest (manure - gross), largest old man ever. I tried to protect my bubble by holding my elbows out so he got a jab in the kidneys every bump (note that Bolivian roads are actually a series of potholes). He then tried to get even by pretending to fall asleep - half on me. Soooo uncomfortable. I´m trying to purge my mind of this bus ride, but I´m still haunted. Anyways, lets never speak of this again.
Salar de Uyuni and Lagunas Tour
I looooveeeddd the 4x4 tour! See pictures on Facebook. And this is a small number of them, I think Joel took 500 or so photos. The tour cost $70 each, for 48 hours (3 days, two nights) of travel, food (some questionable) and accomidations (also questionable). We were told that our tour guide would speak English (he didn´t) and it would be a newish silver Landcruiser (definately wasn´t). But Pedro, our guide, ended up being a rad Bolivian guy with a great sense of humor, who spoke slow enough Spanish that Joel and I could understand. When we didn´t catch what he said one of the 4 other people in our vehicle (all multi-lingual) would translate. We ended up with a great group, two other couples, one Swiss pair, and an Argentinian-Swiss couple. Everyone was up for exploring, chasing llamas, climbing rocks, and playing cards at night. We couldn´t have asked for a better group.
I have a hard time putting into words what we saw. The first day was the Salt Flats, thousands of hectares of a dried up inland sea covered in salt. It´s the rainy season right now, so most of it´s submursed, but we were able to see parts of it. The water creates a perfect reflection for the snow capped mountains and dazzles the eyes with the suns rays. We had a fun time playing with optical illusion shots, with people being big and small since the land is perfectly flat and no vegetation. But it hurt to walk on! Like I said, the ground is covered salt, which are crystal forms. It was like walking on little shards of glass. And our legs were covered in dried salt after. *yum*
Next was the laguna tours, we visited 5 or 6. They´re all very different from each other due to different chemical or biotic make ups. On is borax, another is red coloured planton (that the flamingos eat, making them pink), and some other stuff that I can´t remember. There was one lagoon with hundreds of thousands of flamingos, which made me very very happy (and Joel´s photography happy).
Chile
The trip had the option of hopping over the border to Chile at San Pedro de Atacama. Us and another couple chose this route...what a culture shock, and budget shock! Everything was the same price as Canada, cars stopped at intersections, the baños were relatively clean. We caught the bus the next day for Santiago, 24 hours. That bus ride was mostly pleasent, as pleasent as 24 hours on a bus can be, really. The seats reclined almost the whole way, and were huge and cushy. They showed videos, in Spanish, with Spanish subtitles. Oh well. I still think I caught most of Shrek 3.
Then we spent 2 nights in Santiago in a rambling old mansion. We went on a mission to find Nalgene water bottles (we brought 3 down and lost all of them *grrr*) and English books. However, Chile has a 19% tax on books (lame) so 2 cost us over $50. We tried to find white gas for our stove, but mission unsuccessful. No one seems to know where to find it down here (Craig! Help!) I don´t know what we´ll do if we don´t find any.
So now we are in a little surf town called Pichilemu. But we haven´t surfed yet due to sunburns, but for once it´s not me! Joel crisped himself quite nicely yesterday on the beach. I remembered my sunscrean, Joel didn´t. We hope to get out on the water tomorrow, but a sunburn and rubbing wetsuit don´t match well. We are camping at a little campground, well, really a woman´s yard. She takes her role as a hostess very seriously and boils me water for tea (no stove, remember). It´s very cute.
Sorry for the novel. That´s all for now.
I´ll work forward.
Bolivia: Oruro to Uyuni
We should have listened to the guide book. It said not to take the bus from Oruro to Uyuni, but we didn´t think to check the train schedule before leaving Cochabamba. Bad idea. The only seats left on the train were third class of the second class train. We decided to take the bus, it had to be better, right? Probably not, I´m sure the train wouldn´t have had a flat tire, forded 4 large rivers, backed up a half dozen times, drove through a few farmers fields, tried to help another bus that was suck (that took an hour, and it didn´t get unstuck), all equalling a 7 hour ride turned into 12. Oh, and Joel and I booked seats at the very back, where instead of the usual four seats (two each side of the aisle), there were five. The bus had an extra seat placed in the middle, which wasn´t the size of a regular seat (much smaller). Of course it had to be the smelliest (manure - gross), largest old man ever. I tried to protect my bubble by holding my elbows out so he got a jab in the kidneys every bump (note that Bolivian roads are actually a series of potholes). He then tried to get even by pretending to fall asleep - half on me. Soooo uncomfortable. I´m trying to purge my mind of this bus ride, but I´m still haunted. Anyways, lets never speak of this again.
Salar de Uyuni and Lagunas Tour
I looooveeeddd the 4x4 tour! See pictures on Facebook. And this is a small number of them, I think Joel took 500 or so photos. The tour cost $70 each, for 48 hours (3 days, two nights) of travel, food (some questionable) and accomidations (also questionable). We were told that our tour guide would speak English (he didn´t) and it would be a newish silver Landcruiser (definately wasn´t). But Pedro, our guide, ended up being a rad Bolivian guy with a great sense of humor, who spoke slow enough Spanish that Joel and I could understand. When we didn´t catch what he said one of the 4 other people in our vehicle (all multi-lingual) would translate. We ended up with a great group, two other couples, one Swiss pair, and an Argentinian-Swiss couple. Everyone was up for exploring, chasing llamas, climbing rocks, and playing cards at night. We couldn´t have asked for a better group.
I have a hard time putting into words what we saw. The first day was the Salt Flats, thousands of hectares of a dried up inland sea covered in salt. It´s the rainy season right now, so most of it´s submursed, but we were able to see parts of it. The water creates a perfect reflection for the snow capped mountains and dazzles the eyes with the suns rays. We had a fun time playing with optical illusion shots, with people being big and small since the land is perfectly flat and no vegetation. But it hurt to walk on! Like I said, the ground is covered salt, which are crystal forms. It was like walking on little shards of glass. And our legs were covered in dried salt after. *yum*
Next was the laguna tours, we visited 5 or 6. They´re all very different from each other due to different chemical or biotic make ups. On is borax, another is red coloured planton (that the flamingos eat, making them pink), and some other stuff that I can´t remember. There was one lagoon with hundreds of thousands of flamingos, which made me very very happy (and Joel´s photography happy).
Chile
The trip had the option of hopping over the border to Chile at San Pedro de Atacama. Us and another couple chose this route...what a culture shock, and budget shock! Everything was the same price as Canada, cars stopped at intersections, the baños were relatively clean. We caught the bus the next day for Santiago, 24 hours. That bus ride was mostly pleasent, as pleasent as 24 hours on a bus can be, really. The seats reclined almost the whole way, and were huge and cushy. They showed videos, in Spanish, with Spanish subtitles. Oh well. I still think I caught most of Shrek 3.
Then we spent 2 nights in Santiago in a rambling old mansion. We went on a mission to find Nalgene water bottles (we brought 3 down and lost all of them *grrr*) and English books. However, Chile has a 19% tax on books (lame) so 2 cost us over $50. We tried to find white gas for our stove, but mission unsuccessful. No one seems to know where to find it down here (Craig! Help!) I don´t know what we´ll do if we don´t find any.
So now we are in a little surf town called Pichilemu. But we haven´t surfed yet due to sunburns, but for once it´s not me! Joel crisped himself quite nicely yesterday on the beach. I remembered my sunscrean, Joel didn´t. We hope to get out on the water tomorrow, but a sunburn and rubbing wetsuit don´t match well. We are camping at a little campground, well, really a woman´s yard. She takes her role as a hostess very seriously and boils me water for tea (no stove, remember). It´s very cute.
Sorry for the novel. That´s all for now.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Greetings from Chile
Hi everyone, internet is really expensive here so Im just keeping it short. We are in santiago after a wonderful tour of southwestern bolivia. This is better shown in the pictures on face book which are posted on jens profile or under my posted items on my profile, than with words. Not to say that words wont be coming soon. We are safe and we are healthy. We need to get out of chile as quickly as possible because it is well damaging to the budget. We here argentina is much cheaper. Being here is like being in Canada in terms of development and expense. Except that we cant understand a word these people say. Peru and Bolivians talk much slower and dont sound like hummingbirds. No offense to the chileans in the family, but this is ridiculous. other countries dont pronounce cocacola like cocoa. We use the same words that we use in other countries down here but they dont seem to work...oh well its kinda entertaining. much love for all. Joel.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thanks Millie & Jim!
Our time in Cochabamba is over :`( Joel and I are headed over to the Salt Flats of Bolivia today, which we are both very excited about!
Millie and Jim have been amazing hosts, taking in two sick backpackers and making us all better (well mostly all better...Joel´s still fighting something). They´ve hooked us up with all the good medicines and antibiotics. We had a wonderful guest room to stay in (comfortable bed, hot shower, no mold!) and I´m sad to leave it. They took us out for yummy yummy Bolivian food (best steak ever & a 30 inch hotdog), took us to the markets (much easier with someone who speaks Spanish), and to amazing rural Inca Ruins. Plus we´ve had fast internet and caught up on posting all our pictures! Our time in Cochabamba has definately been a major highlight!
I now have to pack my bags to hit the road again...
Adios!
Millie and Jim have been amazing hosts, taking in two sick backpackers and making us all better (well mostly all better...Joel´s still fighting something). They´ve hooked us up with all the good medicines and antibiotics. We had a wonderful guest room to stay in (comfortable bed, hot shower, no mold!) and I´m sad to leave it. They took us out for yummy yummy Bolivian food (best steak ever & a 30 inch hotdog), took us to the markets (much easier with someone who speaks Spanish), and to amazing rural Inca Ruins. Plus we´ve had fast internet and caught up on posting all our pictures! Our time in Cochabamba has definately been a major highlight!
I now have to pack my bags to hit the road again...
Adios!
Clean. Fed. Happy!
We arrived in Cochabamba this morning at 6am. We found an overnight bus from La Paz, but had to wait in the open air bus terminal from 6 til 10:30. Chilly!
I, (Jen here) feel so refreshed to be somewhere with family, it`s only been 13 days and I was already missing the comforts of home! Mostly a comfortable bed, bathroom (without mold), and food I didn´t have to question the safety of. Millie (Joel`s Aunt) took us out to the market today where I got to shop for fun touristy things and practice a bit of Spanish. I looove how everything is so wonderfully affordable, and Millie assured me that *almost* everything was made in South America - no cheap imports! WooHoo!
On Wednesday Joel and I took the tour over to Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun) where we did a fantastic 8km hike from the North end to the Southern end of the Island. All the mountains on the island are terraced for agriculture and there were animals everywhere! We saw llamas, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, donkeys, cows.... the llamas were obviously the highlight! And along the way a Quechuan woman was oh-so-conviently on the side of the trail with her 4 children and llama. Perfect photo-op, and of course Joel and I did one (10 Bolivianos). The youngest boy was so cute, he was holding out his hand for the money, and his mother kept slapping it down. Haha.
I promise pictures are coming soon! Tonight probably!
I, (Jen here) feel so refreshed to be somewhere with family, it`s only been 13 days and I was already missing the comforts of home! Mostly a comfortable bed, bathroom (without mold), and food I didn´t have to question the safety of. Millie (Joel`s Aunt) took us out to the market today where I got to shop for fun touristy things and practice a bit of Spanish. I looove how everything is so wonderfully affordable, and Millie assured me that *almost* everything was made in South America - no cheap imports! WooHoo!
On Wednesday Joel and I took the tour over to Isla de Sol (Island of the Sun) where we did a fantastic 8km hike from the North end to the Southern end of the Island. All the mountains on the island are terraced for agriculture and there were animals everywhere! We saw llamas, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, donkeys, cows.... the llamas were obviously the highlight! And along the way a Quechuan woman was oh-so-conviently on the side of the trail with her 4 children and llama. Perfect photo-op, and of course Joel and I did one (10 Bolivianos). The youngest boy was so cute, he was holding out his hand for the money, and his mother kept slapping it down. Haha.
I promise pictures are coming soon! Tonight probably!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Catch up.
So we are finally in Bolivia. Copacabana is a wonderful little tourist trap of a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, very close to Peru. Today we took an hour long hike and learned that when 4000m above sea level the tortoise truely does win the race. We stopped every twenty feet or so to catch our breath. We have Bus Tickets booked to LaPaz on the 24th, where we will have to buy our tickets for Cochabamba, and hopefully leave the same night, to arrive in Cochabamba on the morning of the 25th. Tomorrow we are going to go check out some ruins on the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) its were the Inca creation story says life began.
We are both feeling alot better than we were, albeit slightly light headed, and heavy legged. We spent last night in Puno and took a crappy rushed tour of the Floating Islands, made out of reeds. Not fun, I wish we had had the time to hire someone to take us over so we could explore on our own time, but we only had one afternoon in the area. This morning we crossed the border to Bolivia. It was fairly chaotic, we didn´t catch that we needed to get our exit stamp from Peru so we had to run (which is not easy up here) back and forth from Bolivia to Peru, and nearly missed our bus out of the neutral zone.
Before Puna we spent a few days in Arequipa being sick, and visiting Monestario Santa Cantalina, pictures will be coming soon. Its a city within a city completely cut from the outside world for nearly 400 years, where rich nuns lived it up in style.
We are both feeling alot better than we were, albeit slightly light headed, and heavy legged. We spent last night in Puno and took a crappy rushed tour of the Floating Islands, made out of reeds. Not fun, I wish we had had the time to hire someone to take us over so we could explore on our own time, but we only had one afternoon in the area. This morning we crossed the border to Bolivia. It was fairly chaotic, we didn´t catch that we needed to get our exit stamp from Peru so we had to run (which is not easy up here) back and forth from Bolivia to Peru, and nearly missed our bus out of the neutral zone.
Before Puna we spent a few days in Arequipa being sick, and visiting Monestario Santa Cantalina, pictures will be coming soon. Its a city within a city completely cut from the outside world for nearly 400 years, where rich nuns lived it up in style.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Bus Chaos
Our time in Paracas was amazing, I would have liked to stay another day - but we had to continue onto Arequipa. We left on the 5pm bus to Ica (1 hour) then were to transfer in Ica onto another bus for Arequipa (12 hours). So we hop on our first bus, enjoy the comfortable seats, a snack and get dropped off at a fancy hotel in Ica. Our next bus is at 8:30. We get our new luggage tags from the front desk. Joel and I sit there... waiting... waiting... until 9:30. I finally go up to the desk to ask where the bus is (in Span-glish), and the girl makes a phone call, oh - the bus left from the main bus terminal in Ica. WHAT! No one told us we had to be somewhere else, and we were an hour late to catch it. They call a cab for us and we get into the main termial. I try to explain to the guy that we weren´t told that where we got dropped off wasn´t where we´d get picked up. But he spoke No English, and I´m too frustrated and exhuasted to try for any Spanish. So he calls someone, and I try to explain to them, but the guy on the line doesn´t speak much English, and keeps calling me ´Lady, Lady.´ They think we´re just an hour late. And want us to pay for the full bus fare again. So I try something that often works - I cry. Not big sobbing tears, just ones that stream down my face. The guy ends up making us pay for 2/3rds of our new tickets (did the crying work?). So we had to pay for new tickets and a hotel. Yea, that has definately hurt the bank account a lot! And the travel book reccomeneded to stay away from Ica, it´s dangerous, noicy and not friendly to white travellers. I´ve never felt so stared at in my life. On top of that, I´m not recovered fully from food poisoning. I think I should be, but it doens´t help that we haven´t had any fresh fruit (is it safe?) or whole grains (everything is white!)
That was so far the most stressful thing yet, but I´m sure it won´t be the last.
On a positive note, because we were stuck in Ica for 24 hours, there is this little oasis lagoon just 5 km outside where we spent the day. Joel tried sandboarding (much different from snowboarding, but the same board!). We hiked up a sand dune, the view was amazing! We met some locals who were really friendly and we able to practice our Spanish. I bought a pretty necklace with a chunk of petrified wood off a guy, Pedro, who found it in the desert. And we ate some yummy (but expensive) food. Apparently this place used to be a playground for the elite Peruvians a few decades ago, now it´s mostly just backpackers wanting to sandboard. So it was a good day.
Now we are Arequipa. It was a loonnnggg bus ride, but a whole lot more comfortable than a Greyhound! We spent all day yesterday just bumming around the hostel, Joel´s not feeling very well, so he´s slept for almost 20 hours (on and off, up for food occastionally), and I read the last half of my book. (Now I need to find somewhere with English books!) We´re not sure if we´ll be here another day, or leave today to Puno. It depends on how Joel feels. I´d love to stay a week and explore the area around Arequipa, but it just adds too much time that we don´t really have.
Well... that´s the recap of the past few days.... ugh. I´m still exhusted!
And I can´t believe it´s just been one week! 11 more to go!
Sorry, this place we´re at doesn´t allow access to the USB ports on the computer so I sill can´t upload pictures!
That was so far the most stressful thing yet, but I´m sure it won´t be the last.
On a positive note, because we were stuck in Ica for 24 hours, there is this little oasis lagoon just 5 km outside where we spent the day. Joel tried sandboarding (much different from snowboarding, but the same board!). We hiked up a sand dune, the view was amazing! We met some locals who were really friendly and we able to practice our Spanish. I bought a pretty necklace with a chunk of petrified wood off a guy, Pedro, who found it in the desert. And we ate some yummy (but expensive) food. Apparently this place used to be a playground for the elite Peruvians a few decades ago, now it´s mostly just backpackers wanting to sandboard. So it was a good day.
Now we are Arequipa. It was a loonnnggg bus ride, but a whole lot more comfortable than a Greyhound! We spent all day yesterday just bumming around the hostel, Joel´s not feeling very well, so he´s slept for almost 20 hours (on and off, up for food occastionally), and I read the last half of my book. (Now I need to find somewhere with English books!) We´re not sure if we´ll be here another day, or leave today to Puno. It depends on how Joel feels. I´d love to stay a week and explore the area around Arequipa, but it just adds too much time that we don´t really have.
Well... that´s the recap of the past few days.... ugh. I´m still exhusted!
And I can´t believe it´s just been one week! 11 more to go!
Sorry, this place we´re at doesn´t allow access to the USB ports on the computer so I sill can´t upload pictures!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Safe. Sick. Happy.
Hola! Esto es Jen. So much to write about from the last two days! I´ll start at the beginning.
We caught a taxi out to the bus station to get our tickets to Paracas. That was an adventure (caotic traffic). Then we had to buy the tickets, from a woman who spoke no english. Luckily my limited Spanish from grade 10 came in very handy! Then we caught a local bus on the way back to our hostel. Oh yes. Wild adventure. But we are alive. And it was soooo cheap! Una soles, about 35 cents, and it was a great tour of Miraflores!
Then we walked up to some ruins, and there happened to be a tour bus going to Lima comming, so we hopped onto that, since we hadn´t been into Lima yet. The buildings are amazing and huge! There were so many people selling little knick-knacks. I couldn´t resist a pair of earrings (5 soles) and Joel bought a map (8 soles), and Eco-Ninja bought a pin from an adorable kid (see facebook pictures). We took the tour down into the Catacombes below a church. It smelt horrible, I was slightly clostrophobic and the bones creaped me out. Joel loved it. We weren´t allowed to take pictures, so we bought a postcard.
Then back to the hostel. We bought some dinner from the grocery store, and I bought an icecream. Bad idea. Everyone else at the hostel was eating icecream, so I didn´t think twice about it. But no - I´ve ended up with food poisoning. I spent yesterday from 4am to 8am puking, and I now have horrible cramps. I´ve never had food poisoning before, but (luckily?) Joel has, so he knows what I´m going through. It sucks. The 3 hour bus ride felt like 6 hours to me. And we have a 14 hour bus ride coming up tonight. Oh boy. I hope I can sleep through most of it.
Onto happier things. We took the Islas Ballestas tour today. AMAZING! Definatly the highlight of the trip so far, and it´ll take a lot to beat it. There were millions of birds. Seriosly. The islands are a cluster of rocky outcroppings about 10km off the coast of Paracas. We saw Humbolt Penguins, Commerants, Chilian Boobies, Turkey Vultures, Sea Lions, Seals (and baby ones too!), Pelicans and Bottle Nose Dolphins! It doesn´t get much better than that! Plus, the tour was 2 hours long and 35 Soles (about $10).
Paracas is beautiful. It´t not humid like Lima (which kills me), just hot and slightly breezy. It's a desert, with Massive Palm Trees, a beautiful coastline and friendly people. I´m starting to get a tan, but I´m keeping out of the sun as much as possible and putting on loads of sunscreen. Hopefully I´ll be nice and tanned for summer in Canada!
So tonight we head to Arequipa. Ugh. 14 hours on a bus. Good thing they´re way better than Greyhounds!
Oh yea, and I think we´ll be getting to Bolivia after all (sorry Millie if we´re messing with your life!). We´re probably skipping the Arequipa canyon hike to make it to Bolivia... because, we´ll be doing tons of hiking in Patagonia anyways.
We also have a ton of pictures to upload, but the internet in Paracas isn´t so great... so it will have to wait til Arequipa.
So that´s it for now!
Adios!
We caught a taxi out to the bus station to get our tickets to Paracas. That was an adventure (caotic traffic). Then we had to buy the tickets, from a woman who spoke no english. Luckily my limited Spanish from grade 10 came in very handy! Then we caught a local bus on the way back to our hostel. Oh yes. Wild adventure. But we are alive. And it was soooo cheap! Una soles, about 35 cents, and it was a great tour of Miraflores!
Then we walked up to some ruins, and there happened to be a tour bus going to Lima comming, so we hopped onto that, since we hadn´t been into Lima yet. The buildings are amazing and huge! There were so many people selling little knick-knacks. I couldn´t resist a pair of earrings (5 soles) and Joel bought a map (8 soles), and Eco-Ninja bought a pin from an adorable kid (see facebook pictures). We took the tour down into the Catacombes below a church. It smelt horrible, I was slightly clostrophobic and the bones creaped me out. Joel loved it. We weren´t allowed to take pictures, so we bought a postcard.
Then back to the hostel. We bought some dinner from the grocery store, and I bought an icecream. Bad idea. Everyone else at the hostel was eating icecream, so I didn´t think twice about it. But no - I´ve ended up with food poisoning. I spent yesterday from 4am to 8am puking, and I now have horrible cramps. I´ve never had food poisoning before, but (luckily?) Joel has, so he knows what I´m going through. It sucks. The 3 hour bus ride felt like 6 hours to me. And we have a 14 hour bus ride coming up tonight. Oh boy. I hope I can sleep through most of it.
Onto happier things. We took the Islas Ballestas tour today. AMAZING! Definatly the highlight of the trip so far, and it´ll take a lot to beat it. There were millions of birds. Seriosly. The islands are a cluster of rocky outcroppings about 10km off the coast of Paracas. We saw Humbolt Penguins, Commerants, Chilian Boobies, Turkey Vultures, Sea Lions, Seals (and baby ones too!), Pelicans and Bottle Nose Dolphins! It doesn´t get much better than that! Plus, the tour was 2 hours long and 35 Soles (about $10).
Paracas is beautiful. It´t not humid like Lima (which kills me), just hot and slightly breezy. It's a desert, with Massive Palm Trees, a beautiful coastline and friendly people. I´m starting to get a tan, but I´m keeping out of the sun as much as possible and putting on loads of sunscreen. Hopefully I´ll be nice and tanned for summer in Canada!
So tonight we head to Arequipa. Ugh. 14 hours on a bus. Good thing they´re way better than Greyhounds!
Oh yea, and I think we´ll be getting to Bolivia after all (sorry Millie if we´re messing with your life!). We´re probably skipping the Arequipa canyon hike to make it to Bolivia... because, we´ll be doing tons of hiking in Patagonia anyways.
We also have a ton of pictures to upload, but the internet in Paracas isn´t so great... so it will have to wait til Arequipa.
So that´s it for now!
Adios!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Day two
Joel here. The traffic here is insane. Many intersections are unmarked so drivers just honk and dont slow down. In fact I think they speed up when they see pedestrians. We have met a lot of cool people at our hostel, which is supposed to be the second best in South America, so I guess that means its all downhill from here. Weve met people from argentina, texas, kentucky, australia, england. And we have been able figure out how we will get out of Lima, to do so we have to take a bus out of the Miraflores bubble once tomorrow to get our tickets and again the next day to take the bus. So hopefully all goes well on that bit of our adventure. The bus costs about 30 cents US to go most places in Lima. Everything here is sooo cheap. 650ml bottles of cervesa cost 2.30 nuevo soles, which is about 80 cents US. Jen bought a really nice skirt for about 5 nuevo soles. We found out today that weve been drinking the local water without knowing it. At the hostel they have a big Jug of water like what my parents have down on the farm. Apperently its tap water. Good thing we took the anti-e-coli meds before we left. Its really hot and muggy, I have burned my face, Jen used sun screen. grrr. We went for a long walk today along the ocean cliffs of Miraflores, its a pretty western area, we found a starbucks and little piece of me died inside. It doesnt look like well go to bolivia from peru. Its the rainy season and from what we here from other travellers the only way to get there is by flying, as the roads are more sketchy than usual. So our next stop will probably be Paracas, where we will take a boat ride over to islas ballestas, aka "the poor mans galapagos" where we will see our first penguins! Jen is posting some photos to facebook of today, but tomorrow we are going to take one of those dorky open air double decker tourist buses to see more of the city so we will have more pics then.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Hola de Peru!
So we´re here. Safe and sound and very exhuasted after 22 hours of travel and *no* sleep.
The hostel is really nice, clean bright room with hot showers. That´s really all I could ask for right now.
Mmm, I could also use some food.
Sleep or food....
I think sleeping will win...
Adios!
The hostel is really nice, clean bright room with hot showers. That´s really all I could ask for right now.
Mmm, I could also use some food.
Sleep or food....
I think sleeping will win...
Adios!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Okay. This is it.
We leave tomorrow morning.
So what am I doing? A little Facebooking, of course. But I really do need to finish up a few things. Like packing. We have most of our gear all packed, it's just our clothes from the last few weeks that are strewn all over my dad's spare room (aka Brian's room).
I think everything on the list is done: photocopied all documents to leave with dad, called VISA & phone companies, given power of attorney for bank account to dad so he can easily send us new cards if ours get stolen, said goodbye to all....
Is it done? Really? Probably not...
AHHHHH. Seriously. We leave tomorrow. 22 hours of transit time.... just waiting til we get there.... but in less than 48 hours I will happily be drinking cervasa and surfing in warm weather. It's 4 degrees and raining here in Vancouver. It's 22 degrees and sunny in Lima. WooHoo!
So I have no idea what to expect....but the time has finally come!
YIPPEEE!!!
So what am I doing? A little Facebooking, of course. But I really do need to finish up a few things. Like packing. We have most of our gear all packed, it's just our clothes from the last few weeks that are strewn all over my dad's spare room (aka Brian's room).
I think everything on the list is done: photocopied all documents to leave with dad, called VISA & phone companies, given power of attorney for bank account to dad so he can easily send us new cards if ours get stolen, said goodbye to all....
Is it done? Really? Probably not...
AHHHHH. Seriously. We leave tomorrow. 22 hours of transit time.... just waiting til we get there.... but in less than 48 hours I will happily be drinking cervasa and surfing in warm weather. It's 4 degrees and raining here in Vancouver. It's 22 degrees and sunny in Lima. WooHoo!
So I have no idea what to expect....but the time has finally come!
YIPPEEE!!!
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