The route: Viña del Mar> San Pedro de Atacama> Arica> Tacna> Puno(Lake Titicaca) >Cusco > Machu Pichhu> Cusco> Arequipa> Arica >Santiago
The Story
"él me robó"
Not twenty minutes into our trip Vinnie and I got on the metro(subway) to head to the bus station and I get pick pocketed. This whole story lasted about 20 seconds We get on the metro and all of a sudden there are five people crowding around us. Here we are two big Americas, speaking English with huge backpacks. When the metro starts to move people are kind of innocently losing and finding their balance, and that is when
I start to feel something in my right pocket. I reach down only to feel a hand in my pocket. I grab for it, but can only get it from outside my pants and his hand is gone. I immediately grab my other pocket that some other guy is heading for, and I tell him to back off. I still have my wallet and cell phone, and after a quick inventory realize my change bag was stolen from my pocket. Meanwhile I yell to Vinnie, "THAT guy robbed me! Right there. Him" But it was so loud, and Vinnie was confused, that he didn't understand until about 5-6 guys left the metro and it was practically empty. Luckily I only lost about 1500 pesos(~$3) because I had just counted it. But, I figured I'd get robbed once down here. I mean a year in a huge South American city, it was bound to happen. So I got that out of the way. The rest of the day was pretty average. We arrived in Viña and hung out with some friends before taking off the next day.
"no creo esto"
We got on the bus at 12:30 pm July 12th, and at 7 arrived in Ovalle for a bus transfer, then were on the bus from 9pm until 11ish am the following day in Calama. Then after a lunch we took at bus from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama and finally got in at 4pm. It was a lot of time spent on a bus, but at the same time fun to talk to people, practice Spanish and read, a lot. We met a guy who invited us to his house in Calama(more on this later). Once settled in Sand Pedro it took us some time to realize where were were, and what happened to the last 28 hours.
(About 20 minutes into the trip)
(Can you find my two trip mates?)
"Que bonita"
San Pedro has some amazing sights.
(San Pedro, just a little town with four times as many beds as residents. This is for the toursits to sleep in)
We did some tours and went to geysers, high alpine lakes, salt flats, and Valle de Luna (Moon valley), and Death Valley
(Salt flats)
(Altiplano)
(High alpine lakes with Vicuñas in the foreground)
The next morning we woke up at 3:30 to get up to the geysers for sunrise. It was very cold, but I fell asleep on the bus ride up there, and woke up to a crazy scene of steaming geysers and mountain mist.
(Me in front of the geyser with six layers on my upper body, and still being cold.)
(And a little later in the morning)
(Why not warm up in the natural thermal pool? I'm giving the thumbs up)
After the geysers we wound out way back down to San Pedro stopping to check out various wildlife and stopping at a few outlooks spots. We saw some foxes, flamingos more llamas, vitcuñas and some kind of squirrel/rabbit called a viscacha that would jump about 3 feet at a time. These guys were probably my favorite.
That night we went to the Valle de Luna for some more incredible geological formations and watched the sun go down.
(Overlooking the valley)
"Tienen que comer todo"
As we headed over to Arica we stopped at our new friend's house in Calama. Our friend, Mauricio picked us up and as this day happened to been a holiday his family was home, so we had a big bbq. First we went to the supermarket and bought a bunch of alcohol(purely a cultural thing). Mauricio's dad then took us on a tour of his work, which happens to be the biggest copper mine in the world. It was so intersting to get a personal tour and hear some personal stories. For more information about this place check out this link. There use to be a town right at the site, but they made everyone leave so that they could put their earth that they removed from the mine there. Mauricio's mom's house is now about 300 feet below rocks. Mauricio's elementry school is abandoned now, and the town, that was of about 30,000 people is now empty, with building still upright.
(You can kind of see here that half of the buildings are under rubble)
(Empty town)
After the tour his dad stopped by the supermarket and picked up an extraordinary amount of meat. So much in fact that I figured some other people were coming over. When we got back to the house, it was just a great time. Steve, Vinnie and I realized that we had to talk in Spanish all day since Mauricio's parents didn't speak English which was fine especially after a few German brews and vino.
(Mauricio at the grill. Note the amount of meat, which was for seven people. Right about this time Mauricio's dad told us kind of half joking, half seriously that if we don't eat all the meat he'll be offended. We decided to take it seriously:)
(Fun around the grill)
(The Wednesday afternoon crew)
We had an amazing lunch, with plenty of beer, wine, and pisco, and then we had even more food around 9pm and then they drove us back to the bus station and we said good bye with plenty of hugs and kisses. Mauricio worked in Jackson Hole, WY for a winter and he had some people take care of him and invite him into their house, so now he and his family always return the favor with other travelers. I must say when I get back I will be one of those people who bend over backwards for foreigners. I've had too many great experiences like this to not.
"somos tan cerca"
From Calama we got to Arica after a restless night on a bus and were greeted to warmer coastal weather. We walked around the city and played on the beach that afternoon. The next morning I went surfing and then hung out with the surf school for their end of the week bbq. I know, more food? It was great to be in the water again. It had been a long time. That night we made preparations to cross into Peru. We were very excited to get there. At the border Vinnie had a problem with his visa. He had the form that said he was legal, but was missing the other sheet with his picture and personal info. So unfortunate he had to return to Santiago about a week earlier than expected without seeing Machu Pichhu.
"te entendemos"
Crossing the border into Peru was like entering a different world. There was more obvious poverty, the prices were cheaper, people spoke much clearer, the food was spicy, and the beer tasted good(always a barometer of a culture, although that doesn't say much for the US with our Bud and Miller Lite).
(The first Peruvian lunch, complete with the local beer)
All of the principal cities in Peru have their own beer. Cusqueña is from Cusco, Cristal is from Lima, Arequipeña is from Arequipa and Pilsen is from Trujillo. Enough about that. We took an overnight bus to Puno which is situated on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca sits at an elevation of 12,500 feet making it the highest navigable lake in the world. We arrived at 5 in the morning and started a two day tour at 8:00 where we toured the islands and stayed with a family on one of the islands. The lake is amazing, and kind of reminded me of Lake Superior.
(Here's the view from our house for the night)
(Apparently the locals aren't over six feet)
(Steve and I with our mother for the night)
"la ciudad de puma"
After an incredibly entertaining bus ride from Puno to Cusco, we crashed at a hostel and started exploring the city. I say the bus ride was entertaining because we paid five dollars to travel a trip that is normally 6 hours, but for us it was 9 hours, and we were the only fair skinned people on the bus. It was filled with indigenous men and women with gigantic bags of clothes, blankets, rice buckets, babies and and snacks. The bus had was filled to capacity meaning there were probably 10-20 more people on the bus than seats. Some ladies gave Steve and I blankets after telling us, "It gets cold at night, you'll need these." And they were correct. It was very cold, and after getting off the bus I looked at the roof and saw we were the bus with about 3-4 feet of luggage strapped on to the top of the bus. While entertaining it was not relaxing.
Cusco was a treat
(Packing a mouthful of coca leaves. It's very common to see people chewing coca leaves to energize themselves and help cope with the altitude. We wanted to see what it was all about. Don't worry it's completely legal)
(The Plaza del Armas in Cusco with the night lights)
We spent a day walking around the city, a day checking out Museums and then a day walking out by the ruins near the city. There are four sites that are within walking distance from the city.
Then we took a tour of the Sacred Valley and then got to Aquas Calientes. This is the town at the base of Machu Picchu. From Cusco to Aquas Calientes we got to the fringe of the jungle. The temperatures were warmer and the vegetation changed.
The valley alone could be a top tourist destination, but there was Machu Picchu waiting for us at the end of the valley. And Machu Picchu is all it's cracked up to be. It's just amazing. It's so calculated. They calculated where the exact spot of the morning sunrise will shine and then constructed structures around that point. Just amazing.
(Sacsahuamán, ruin near Cusco. These stones are over 10 tons and are still intact after the Spanish tried to use the stones for construction in the city)
(In the Sacred Valley)
(At the summit of waynu picchu. Elevation 8,600 feet. After 40 minutes of stairs we spent about 2 hours taking in the views)
(May I present to you, Machu Picchu)
EXTREME (camera work)
(The "I am in Machu Picchu, wow I can't believe it" thinking picture)
After Machu Picchu Steve and I decided to just relax the last week of our trip.
(Hail yeah I liked Cusco. We got a nice hail storm for about 30 minutes one afternoon)
Eat, read, nap, drink some more local brews and pisco, and hang out. I've never traveled like this and it was a good change of pace. We met some great people in our hostel and some fun(ny) Peruvians at the bars. We did this in Arequipa which is a beautiful city with an amazing plaza. It is much like Cusco without the people begging you to buy a hat even when you're already wearing one, or asking if you want a massage "now, later or maybe tomorrow." I actually got one for an hour and a half for $7. It was great. So Arequipa was spent reading in the hammocks and eating delicious food. I can think of worse things to do.
(This is basically where I spent my time in Arequipa)
Then after that we spent two nights in Arica. I went surfing one more day and now I'm back in the big city. My parents come tomorrow morning for five days and I'm excited to show them around my city and have them meet my family and some of my friends.
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