We are a bit further north in Bolivia now, in Potosi. I'm trying my best to acclimatize at this altitude, I'm still feeling a little breathless.
It feels like our travels have been picking up in pace since we last wrote, we have been busy doing lot's of things. Here are some snippets from my diary over the past couple of weeks.
18-3-09
Mendoza - Climbing with Argentina's Best
"We went climbing today at El Satlo out of Mendoza and now I hope I can finish this entry as my hands are cramping up. The climbing was really nice the sort I really enjoy short, technical sport climbs. Some overhangs, some slabs and one up an arete that Nick lead...We ended up doing much harder stuff than I expected, but I liked it...I was impressed I could drag my extra 10 wobbly kilo's up the climbs..." Hehe.
19-3-09
Santiago - Back in Santiago
"...all the time we have spent in Chile and Argentina I have really enjoyed all the activities we have done, the walks, climbing and kayaking etc, the scenery has certainly been amasing, but I miss travelling with culture shock. You know that feeling you get in a place that is totally foreign to you, where you notice all the differences to home, the sort of experience we had all through Africa. Here has just felt too familar...so I'm looking forward to the next section of travel through Bolivia and Peru..."
We visited a lot of museums while we were back in Santiago. We saw the National History Museum, the Pre-Columbian Museum and the Museum of Natural History all very interesting. The National History Museum covered Chile's history from the tribes in pre-columbian times, to the Spanish invasion and right up to 1973 when Pinochet carried out the military coup. It was a shame they didn't cover the Pinochet dictatorship through to now with Chile's democratically elected female President, as that period really interests me. The Pre-Columbian Museum had an extensive collection of ancient tribal and ancient empire artifacts from the Inca's, Mayan and Aztec's, plus many more I never knew existed. The Natural History Museum had also had lots of interesting stuff on the environment, animals and plants of Chile.
20-3-09
Santiago - Museum Feet
"...Here is something interesting, one of the tribes of the early America's were mummifying their dead 1000's of years before the ancient Egyptians were...we also visited some of the neighbourhood's of Santiago...all very different. Lasterria was like Balmain, Brasil was a bit like Newtown, but with lots of car part and handyman shops along with the cafes. Republica was full of uni's, uni students and seedy, dark bars pumping out loud music in the afternoon. The downtown was full of beautiful old colonial buildings and shops...one thing I have noticed about Santiago is the number of uni's here, there is at least 6, plus many more I'm sure..."
21-3-09
Santiago - Slumdog Millionare
"...I forgot to mention my haircut...I must have been getting a bit cocky about cutting Nick's hair or something, anyway I was feeling brave or stupid and wanted a change...I grabbed a section of my hair and cut it straight across thinking I was giving myself a long fringe, in case anything went wrong, but I neglected to realise how springy hair can be when not weighed down by length. So after I cut it, it sprang up much shorter than I expected...it looked a little silly, I thought it was funny though and just laughed."
We flew up to Calama and made our way to San Pedro de Atacama after our time in Santiago. This place is the driest place on earth, so dry there is no recordable precipitation. The few plants in this desert survive here on the mist in the air. We did a star gazing tour in San Pedro. I must admit looking at constellations in the night sky isn't my thing. Whenever we go camping and Nick and friends start discussing the constellations I usually start yawning and run for the tent...hehe. This star tour was really interesting, run by a couple of astronomer's. A french guy and his Chilean wife. They told us all about the history of astonomy and I was glued. The best bit was seeing Saturn through the telescope with it's rings and moon's. We also did some hiking in a place called Death Valley and near the Valley of the Moon. Named this for obvious reasons.
24-3-09
San Pedro de Atacama - Death Valley and the Valley of the Moon
"...After the walk we made a mad dash for the Valley of the Moon to watch the sun go down onto the Andes. It was a race against time and the minivan driver floored it , we jumped out of the car and raced up to a high point with about 1 minute to go before the sun dropped. The run up the hill was knackering at this altitude and I was puffing heavily, but not as badly as the chain smoking Germans on our day tour. The scene was beautiful, red earth all around us with amazing rock formations, the salt all over the ground made it look as though the snow had fallen. The light being cast onto the Andes mountain range to our east was worth the run up the hill..."
25-3-09
San Pedro de Atacama - Nick's B'day and Geysers at 4am
"...we were up at the crack of dawn to see the highest geysers in the world, but it was worth it. We arrived in the dark and it was very foggy making it difficult to distinguish between the fog and steam from the geysers, but it all added to the atmosphere. It was very cold up there at an altitude of 4300m appox...it was strange to see ice next to the water boiling at 85 degrees C and spurting from the holes in the crust. we tended to hover around the steaming ones to keep ourselves warm..." While trying not to breath in too much of the fumes.
26-3-09
Solar de Uyuni, Bolivia - Rainbow Lakes
"...Driving though this landscape is a visual feast for the eyes, with beautiful mountains and lakes all around , the scenery never gets boring and watching the changes unfold with all the colours in the landcape would have to be some of the best I've seen..."
28-3-09
Solar de Uyuni, Bolivia - Salt Flats and Cacti
"...This day was spent on the salt flat. It was incredible. I had seen many photo's of this place, but it doesn't compare to being there for real. There's no way a photo can do the vastness of this place justice. All white and flat as far as the eye can see, except the odd mountain or volcano off in the distance. It was surreal..."
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Chilean Farms and Volcano´s
Since the last time I wrote we have been travelling north zig-zagging our way through Argentina and Chile, we are now in Mendoza in Argentina and by the end of this week we should be in the North of Chile about to head into Bolivia for Nick´s Birthday, the old man.
We have had a great time and the travelling through Chile and Argentina has been very relaxed...well sort of.
We attempted to do a hike called the Nahuel Huapi traverse, which was the best walk I have ever done. Most of the walking was across, or down and up some very high, steep mountain ridges that gave us some very good views of the surroundings and made my legs feel like jelly. We camped at a place called Frey on the first night, which had some great looking climbs all around us, the granite rock here is really nice to climb on, super grippy. Unfortunately we didn´t get to finish the 6 days as we intended to do, as my feet were giving me some trouble but the first three days were amasing.
We camped for a few days in a place called Colonia Suiza, near Bariloche, which is a place that was colonised by a small group of Swiss people back in the early 1900´s, so the place has a very Swiss feel about it, with typical Swiss log houses, farms and you can get fondue´s in all the restaurants there. I think you´d like it here Mark.
While back in Bariloche we did some climbing at a place called Cerro Otto, which was up above the city and overlooking the lake, it was a nice way to spend the morning before it rained on us. We also felt very old as we shared a dorm room with 3 other young noisy American girls that were used to the Argentinian lifestyle of eating at 10pm and partying until all hours of the night...2am is an early night here. In one hostel we stayed at some Argentinian girls were only getting ready to go out at 2am! I´m obviously getting old. Hehe.
To get away from the party scene of Bariloche we headed for the much quieter place of San Martin De Los Andes, we were very sleep deprived at that point and needed to recover. This town is swish skiing resort town. We spent our days doing some day walks, a boat ride and having picnics around Lake Lucar, which was on native Mapuche land.
Next was Pucon, back in Chile. A very touristy town situated below volcano Villarrica. Everyone here comes to climb the volcano, so we did the very touristy thing and climbed it too. We had great weather and it was fun, particularly the glissading back down the mountain. It was like a giant water slide but on snow. As you can imagine our bum´s were frozen as we stepped off the snow. The next day we decided to do something a bit more sedate, so we visited Cani Forest just out of town. Cani Forest has some very ancient trees that are native to the area and Nick was particularly interested to see them. I was expecting a nice pleasant walk through the forest, but we didn´t have a map with us and so we had no idea that there was a huge, steep, hot, sun drenched and dusty hill to climb before got to the forest bit...and since it was a very hot day the walking wasn´t very pleasant. On our way down we found out from a couple that were on their way up that there was a lake up on top. We must have turned around just before it, what a shame, I would have been in there to cool off for sure. We spent a few more days in Pucon and we met some really great people while we were there. The rest of our time was spent chatting and laughing with them all before we left for Chillan.
We were fortunate to have met a Chilean guy, Hernan, while we were in Puerto Natales and on the Torres Del Paine trek. He had offered for us to meet up with him as we were travelling through Chillan. We took him up on the offer and we were so glad we did. We had the kind of experience you want when you travel, those genuine exchanges between you and the locals and and a chance to experience the real culture of a place. Hernan is on a sabbatical for a year from his job as an architect and is spending it on his friends small dairy farm so he can relax and work on his paintings. We got to spend a couple of nights on the farm and Hernan showed us some of the local sights and the yummy Chilean food and wine. We visited an old disused coal mine in Lota, a very working class Chilean town, which was good to see to get away from the tourist towns. The mine is now closed, but they run tours through some sections of the mine that run under the sea. We also visited a port called Lenga, where we had some tasty seafood and had a walk around the city of Concepcion. The whole experience was fantastic and we both really enjoyed and appreciated Hernan´s company and conversation.
From the farm in Chillan we travelled to Santiago for a few days, then onto Mendoza where we are now.
We have had a great time and the travelling through Chile and Argentina has been very relaxed...well sort of.
We attempted to do a hike called the Nahuel Huapi traverse, which was the best walk I have ever done. Most of the walking was across, or down and up some very high, steep mountain ridges that gave us some very good views of the surroundings and made my legs feel like jelly. We camped at a place called Frey on the first night, which had some great looking climbs all around us, the granite rock here is really nice to climb on, super grippy. Unfortunately we didn´t get to finish the 6 days as we intended to do, as my feet were giving me some trouble but the first three days were amasing.
We camped for a few days in a place called Colonia Suiza, near Bariloche, which is a place that was colonised by a small group of Swiss people back in the early 1900´s, so the place has a very Swiss feel about it, with typical Swiss log houses, farms and you can get fondue´s in all the restaurants there. I think you´d like it here Mark.
While back in Bariloche we did some climbing at a place called Cerro Otto, which was up above the city and overlooking the lake, it was a nice way to spend the morning before it rained on us. We also felt very old as we shared a dorm room with 3 other young noisy American girls that were used to the Argentinian lifestyle of eating at 10pm and partying until all hours of the night...2am is an early night here. In one hostel we stayed at some Argentinian girls were only getting ready to go out at 2am! I´m obviously getting old. Hehe.
To get away from the party scene of Bariloche we headed for the much quieter place of San Martin De Los Andes, we were very sleep deprived at that point and needed to recover. This town is swish skiing resort town. We spent our days doing some day walks, a boat ride and having picnics around Lake Lucar, which was on native Mapuche land.
Next was Pucon, back in Chile. A very touristy town situated below volcano Villarrica. Everyone here comes to climb the volcano, so we did the very touristy thing and climbed it too. We had great weather and it was fun, particularly the glissading back down the mountain. It was like a giant water slide but on snow. As you can imagine our bum´s were frozen as we stepped off the snow. The next day we decided to do something a bit more sedate, so we visited Cani Forest just out of town. Cani Forest has some very ancient trees that are native to the area and Nick was particularly interested to see them. I was expecting a nice pleasant walk through the forest, but we didn´t have a map with us and so we had no idea that there was a huge, steep, hot, sun drenched and dusty hill to climb before got to the forest bit...and since it was a very hot day the walking wasn´t very pleasant. On our way down we found out from a couple that were on their way up that there was a lake up on top. We must have turned around just before it, what a shame, I would have been in there to cool off for sure. We spent a few more days in Pucon and we met some really great people while we were there. The rest of our time was spent chatting and laughing with them all before we left for Chillan.
We were fortunate to have met a Chilean guy, Hernan, while we were in Puerto Natales and on the Torres Del Paine trek. He had offered for us to meet up with him as we were travelling through Chillan. We took him up on the offer and we were so glad we did. We had the kind of experience you want when you travel, those genuine exchanges between you and the locals and and a chance to experience the real culture of a place. Hernan is on a sabbatical for a year from his job as an architect and is spending it on his friends small dairy farm so he can relax and work on his paintings. We got to spend a couple of nights on the farm and Hernan showed us some of the local sights and the yummy Chilean food and wine. We visited an old disused coal mine in Lota, a very working class Chilean town, which was good to see to get away from the tourist towns. The mine is now closed, but they run tours through some sections of the mine that run under the sea. We also visited a port called Lenga, where we had some tasty seafood and had a walk around the city of Concepcion. The whole experience was fantastic and we both really enjoyed and appreciated Hernan´s company and conversation.
From the farm in Chillan we travelled to Santiago for a few days, then onto Mendoza where we are now.
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