Potosi

We're now in Potosi, the highest city of its size in the world. It's sole purpose since colonial times was the mines of Potosi, which underwrote the spanish economy for centuries with tons of silver extracted under brutal, dangerous and midieval conditions.  Nowadays the mines are run by a cooperative between miners who pay a small tax but get to mine with whomever and wherever they like and keep all their findings.  Yesterday we took a tour of the mines, and wow, we both couldn't believe that people worked in these mines!  Crawling on all fours, so hot, dusty, and the altitude (at almost 14,000 feet) made it quite difficult for our 2 hour tour of the mine.  Then we found out that some miners work there 12 hours or more a day without eating anything besides chewing coca leaves!  As part of the tour we brought them gifts that we were able to buy in town.  That was the last time I think I'll be able to buy a stick of dynamite and fuse for less than 3 bucks.  Besides dynamite, we bought them a gift they seemed to love more than anything else, and that was a bottle of 98% (196 proof) alcohol.  I also got to taste a thimble ful of this and I was glad to learn that they at least mix it with juice or Coke before drinking it.  We talked to the miners for awhile deep in the mines for like 20 minutes.   They particularly liked two sisters who were in our group and made a lot of jokes about them in typical miner humor.  It was overall a very crazy experience.  I have a new respect for miners and what conditions they work in.  Eric S, you are a brave man.  I hope you didn't work in coditions like that though!

We took Suzanne's little camera (didn't want to destroy my nice one with all the dust), but haven't uploaded pictures yet. Hopefully we'll find a place with wifi soon. 

Next plans are to go to Uyuni Bolivia, and take a tour of the vast salt flats there as well as see some multi-colored lagoons, flamingos etc as long as the rumored farmer strikes don't block our road!     

Bolivia!

It seems like we've been very lazy lately. We don't seem to have the motivation to do much blogging or filtering of our pictures. I'm not sure why. Perhaps now that we've passed the 3 month mark it's not as exciting. It may be the closest thing that we do that resembles work and that's why we avoid it! How funny is that? Or perhaps its because it really is hard to go through all the hundreds of pictures that we take and only select the ones that are good enough to post and tell you all about. We really should try to do better but oh well. Here's the latest on the Macaulay's adventure!

Arequipa

From Colca Canyon

We wrapped up our time in Arequipa with Easter Sunday and a trip to Colca Canyon. Easter was very nice, we got a couple of chocolate eggs from the tourist street vendors and some wonderfully-smelling Easter Lillies for our room to make it a little festive in our hotel and went to mass in the Cathedral. It was a great wrap-up to Holy week. The next day we hopped on a tour of the Colca Canyon which is almost the deepest in the world (There's one nearby that's slightly deeper). We took a three day tour, which involved hiking all the way down the canyon and staying in a village on the opposite side. The trail we took is the only way to reach these villages, who live on agriculture fed by the waters of the mountains above. The canyon itself was very deep (over 13,600 feet in its deepest part) and we descended all the way down (we weren't in the deepest part though) to the river and halfway up the next side that first day. The place we stayed on the opposite side had a wonderful family who fed us a delicious meal and breakfast the next day. Our group was only four people, us two, the guide (Hornorio) and Peruvian tourist Pablo. We had a great time together and spent the entire three days speaking spanish! We felt more confident than ever in our language skills after that. The next day we hiked back down to an “Oasis” which was full of palm trees and swimming pools fed by a spring gushing out of the canyon wall. After a relaxing swim and nap in the hammocks, we started up the canyon to reach our hotel back on the top. This was a very demanding 3 hour hike straight up the canyon with absolutely no flat parts. Suzanne was sorely tempted by a passing donkey train by the driver's calls for “Taxi?” but she resisted the urge to use her “Suzanne dollars”. Then we hopped on a bus back to Arequipa, with a quick stop at some hot springs to soak our sore legs and another stop at the highest point in the area (4910m or 16,200 feet!). It's crazy thinking that in Colorado the highest peaks are only 14,000 feet and here we were at 16,200! Little did we know that that was only the beginning!
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Puno and entering Bolivia
After returning from Colca Canyon, we hopped on a bus to Puno to get over to Bolivia. We spent a couple of days in Puno, which is the main city on Lake Titicaca, taking a tour of the islands on the Peruvian side of the lake.

From Puno

Mostly Puno was our staging point to enter Bolivia. No longer can Americans just enter Bolivia. Since the election of Evo Morales, the countries first indigenous and highly popular socialist president, relations between the US and Bolivia have been a bit strained. Bolivia instituted a a system of “reciprocity” with the US. What this means is that since the US started charging $130 US Dollars for anyone who wanted to apply for a visa, Bolivia now charges the same amount to all US Citizens who would like to enter their country. Bolivia is not the only country to do this (Argentina did it to us when we flew in to Buenos Aires) but they are the worst about it. I believe their aim is to demonstrate how humiliating it is to have to spend such a large amount of money just to apply for a visa, and I believe it works. The immigration officials were extremely picky about all our details and wouldn't accept US bills with slightly worn edges or color markings. They also required ridiculous amounts of photocopies of our passports and visa pictures as well as our yellow fever vaccination certificates. Meanwhile while we're running back and forth to get our photocopies every other tourist from every other country flew by without a hassle. It was very frustrating. While I'm sure it makes the political point very effectively (at least to those who travel here) I think its very bad for their tourism industry. How many Americans would love to hop over to super cheap Bolivia (delicious dinners with alcohol only 10 bucks) after visiting super expensive Macchu Pichu but don't want to deal with the hassle we did? Who knows if I'm right but I can be certain it isn't helping. And from what we've seen of Bolivia, tourism should be something that they're promoting.
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Copacabana
I was excited about visiting Copacabana, the nicest city on Lake Titicaca from Bolivia's side mostly because of the song by Sinatra (or one of those guys) about how fun it was. Then Suzanne ruined my day by telling me that beach was in Brazil. Thanks Suzanne. But it turned out to be a nice place to stay once we got out of a terrible hotel experience. The town is beautifully situated on the lake and has a nice beach and port. It's also the jumping off point for visiting the Isla del Sol or Island of the Sun, the legendary birthplace of the Incan civilization. We did the tour of Isla del Sol, which was nice but not the best tour we've done, mostly because since the Spanish stripped all the gold off the rock of the Puma (the most sacred spot for the Incas). The Rock of the Puma is actually where the name Titicaca comes from. “Titi” means “Puma” and “Carca” means “Rock” but the Spanish messed up the name and called it “Caca”. So anyway, all the island was left to the imagination, since the island itself is kind of unremarkable, but in the end we were glad we did it.
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La Paz
We like La Paz! The semi-capital city (well, the legislative and executive branches) is amazingly built all over the inside of a canyon. There's a main avenue that goes down the center and on both sides the roads go up the sides of the canyon. It's the highest capital city in the world at 11,942 feet and you're constantly trying to catch your breath. We're staying in a nice hotel with great views of the city and mountain rising in the distance. Here we took another week to relax and get used to this new country. At first we were quite scared. Our guide books told us about many scams, corrupt police, pickpockets and the like. We've consequently upped up our precautions but luckily we haven't run into any problems yet. I think as long as you are careful, and don't make yourselves a target, you'll be fine. On Sunday we went to a soccer game in the highest stadium and had a lot of fun. One of the players reminded us of Dave Rosembaum. He was one of the smaller players on the team but one of the best, scoring 2 of the 3 goals of the winning team. Then on Monday we went on a tour of the biggest archeological sites in Bolivia (Tiahuanaco) which was a pre-Incan civilization that lasted for 1500 years before dying out. (My favorite theory is that they liked to deform the heads of their children by placing molds over their heads to mold their soft skulls into shapes they considered more beautiful. Consequently the upper class got more and more mentally ill that they couldn't handle the task of ruling their empire.) Tomorrow we're going to head to the Valley of the Moon and climb a 17er (take that Coloradans!).
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Other updates:
We've decided that we're going to take a vacation from our vacation and head back to the states for the month of July! Our main reasons are to go to the weddings of two very good friends of ours and therefore all the friends of ours who will go to their weddings. The other reason is the chance to be in the summer music video of the coolest cats in Bellingham, WA.

My brother and dad will be visiting us in June for the trip to Macchu Pichu! My mom will be coming to join us for a trip of northern Peru archeological sites at the end of July!   If anyone else would like to join us for these fun shorter trips, please let us know!

~Mike

La Serena and the bus trip up to Arequipa

Since we were in a hurry to get to Arequipa we only spent one night in La Serena but we made the most of it. On top of our list was the observatory that is located in the hills east of the city. It's built especially for tourists but in a way I was glad for it. The tour was excellent and the guides had these awesome green laser pointers that they would use to point out constellations to us. It was hard to tell myself to look at the constellation being pointed at and not longingly at the laser pointer. But in the end it was great to find out how to find south in the southern hemisphere (no northern star here). First you find the southern cross, then take the long end and count 4.5 lengths towards the bottom of the cross and that's south. They also showed us this real cool computer program Stellarium that gives you a nice map of the night sky wherever (and if you want, whenever) you may be.

Next we hopped on a bus for Arica, Chile which is right across the border with Peru. We didn't stay longer than to catch a taxi over the border to Tacna where we bought a bus ticket to Arequipa. The first bus ride took about 20 hours and was overnight and the second about 5.5 hours during the day. Pretty much the whole time in the bus we were going through the Atacama desert, the driest in the world.

From Arequipa

We thought patagonia was dry but there's nothing but dirt in this place. The only exception was when a river happened to be going by. In this case a settlement sprouts up and irrigation brings a refreshing bloom of green to the otherwise brown landscape. We thought that when we got to Peru this would stop but it didn't. Arequipa is (we hope) on the edge of it, but it is very dry as well and the whole trip up it remained very much the same. Irrigation again saves the day, making this a beautiful city with a beautiful temperate climate.

We are staying in a most wonderful little bed and breakfast. It is run by a European (Dutch I think) guy named Hans who bought the house and restored it 5 years ago. While restoring the place he found a pre-columbian archeological site filled with pottery and little stone structures. All the pottery is on display as well as the site so you can walk in and step back in time. In addition to the pool right outside, our room is amazing. We have a beautiful balcony where we sit in the mornings after breakfast and read or relax with the Volcano Mount Misti in the background.

Palm Sunday


Our Palm Sunday started with a delicious breakfast after which we headed downtown to the Plaza de Armas.  When we got there, we heard and saw a band marching around the plaza and headed to the cathedral.  Mass had already started so we hurried inside where there was standing room only.  Before we went in we bought from some street vendors our beautiful palms.  The bishop was saying mass.  During the  “Hosanna Hosanna” chorus, everyone shook their palms in the air.  Later that night, at dusk the procession started. We watched as a band moved into position followed by official looking men and women.  Then the giant doors of the cathedral opened and out came a float with Jesus carrying the cross.  Jesus was carried by about a dozen men in front and another dozen in back.  The crowd clapped and the church bells rang as they got the float down the stairs and then they moved down the plaza a little bit.  Then the same thing happened again, this time with a float with Mary on it.  Then the procession began officially.  Between the floats there was a car with speakers on it which broadcast a woman who was leading the rosary.  Suzanne and I, after taking some pictures and video, joined in the procession and followed it for its whole course.  It was a very prayerful and spiritual experience for us as we contemplated a similar procession that occurred over 2000 years ago as Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem.  Overall the procession went 3 blocks south, 3 blocks east, 3 blocks north and then 3 blocks west to arrive back at the cathedral a little over 2 hours later.

Santa Catalina Convent

On Monday we took a tour of the Santa Catalina Convent.  It's a whole block of the city that was used by an order of Dominican nuns who had cloistered themselves behind these high walls.  Their job was basically to pray all day.  However it was not exactly the ascetic lifestyle that we think of when we think of convents.  This convent was founded by a woman from Spain who recruited her nuns from among the richest families in Spain.  Somehow the nuns were allowed to live in a manner befitting their birth so they were able to have private apartments as well as servants and private things.  According to our tour guide, the 1st daughter of a family was to be married, and the second to go into a convent.  All nuns that entered the convent had to pay a dowry until 1871 when complaints of the extravagance reached the Pope and general reforms began to have their effects.  The Pope sent a strict nun to clean up the convent and she forced all the nuns to live communally and no longer have servants or as many private possessions.  In 1970 the city forced the convent to open up by requiring the convent to have electricity and plumbing.  Now poor, the convent had no option but to open itself up to tourism and that is where we come in. It was like stepping back in time and it's a photographer's paradise.  As you will see, we took a lot of pictures. :)  

Where in the world... are Michael and Suzanne?

We've updated our Google Map with our trip through Chile. Now when you click on the locations, if we have a photo album for that area, you'll see a link to it, just click on the picture! Check it out below! (If the subject line made a certain song pop into your head you're not alone).


View South America in a larger map

~Suzanne

Update on our trip

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since we posted and we apologize for that. We really haven't felt like being in the mood for it (perhaps we're getting a bit homesick?) and we have been traveling rather quickly as of late. A quick overview of our trip since our last posting. (Hopefully not too long).

Valdivia: We've posted on Valdivia but you haven't seen the pictures. You have to watch a video we took of the sea lions!


Volcano: I tried to climb the volcano and got very close to the summit but the wind was blowing the wrong way and all the sulfur fumes were blowing down our side of the volcano and since we didn't want to die, we had to turn back. It was rather disappointing but it was a pretty fun hike, using crampons and pretty much going straight up the cone on a glacier. :)

Pucon: Overall impression of Pucon was that it was very nice. We kind of lucked out being there at that time since everyone was scared of the volcano erupting from the earthquake (which it did in 1960) we kind of had the town to ourselves. This included almost the whole hostel, and the best site for hot springs which we did as a night trip. As we sat under the stars in nice steamy water (that didn't smell like sulfur) we were glad we took the risk and went there. Pictures from Pucon and Puerto Varas:


Santiago:
After checking with some fellow travelers who where going to Santiago ahead of us, we determined that the way to Santiago was quite safe after all so we bought a bus ticket and headed north to the capital. We stayed at a refurbished palace called Casa Rosa (pink house) which was quite nice architecturally but a bit noisy since it seemed to be a party hostel. While in Santiago we did some touristy things but a lot was still closed from the earthquake. The highlight of Satiago was definitely meeting up with the parents of Suzanne's close friend Beatriz. Suzanne and I get along very well with older people and her parents were no exception. Their lives are amazing. Rodolfo, the dad, had as a commanding officer Pinochet (of dictatorial fame) and told us amazing stories about how he was involved in some pretty big events in Chile's history. Magda, the mom is an amazing woman who started ballet class at 50 and now teaches ballet herself. It was pretty humbling to watch her teach and be so obviously more flexible than someone half her age! The other highlight of Santiago was going to the pre-columbian art museum which houses a large collection of fully intact artifacts from all of central and southern America.


Vina del mar and Valparaiso:
Since Suzanne was still a little bit concerned about aftershocks and tsunamis and I was a bit concerned about our schedule, we decided to take a tour of the two cities rather than go there for a couple of days. We took a day-long tour of both cities and enjoyed them very much. I got to play on the beach and we ate some great sea-food at a cool restaurant. Over lunch we ate with a lady from a girl from Switzerland who I loved talking to because Texas was at the top of her list of places to go next. It was awesome. We also met this other couple from Canada who seem to have been traveling their whole life. We found out the secret to being able to continuously do long vacations for the rest of your life is to not have kids and live in a country (like Canada or Europe) that gives you more vacation days. So I guess that makes this trip extra special for us. :)


Mendoza:
We then crossed the border again to Mendoza, Argentina. It is very close to Santiago and is known for its wine. The local specialty is the Malbec. Next time you're in a wine store, get a Malbec from Mendoza and think of us! The highlight of this area was the wine and bike tour we took of the wine country. It was a beautiful day and we rented some bikes and rode around a circuit where we got to visit many wineries (bodegas they call them) as well as a winery/museum. At the museum we actually got to see some freshly picked grapes get trucked in and begin the process of becoming wine. It was very cool. Also on the tour we met a fellow American named Mike who joined us for the tour and we had a very nice time with him. He must have enjoyed our company as well because he bought us lunch! :)



La Serena and beyond:
After a overnight bus trip back to Chile, we are in the beach town of La Serena which is also known for its astronomical observatories. We're kind of in a rush to get north to Peru so we're only staying here one night (2 days). Over the next two days we'll pretty much be on a bus or waiting for one constantly which won't be fun but our destination is supposed to be great. Arequipa Peru is known as the “White city” for its white stone buildings and its Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations are supposed to be one of the best in South America. Hence the reason for the rush up there by Sunday, which is Palm Sunday. We're planning on staying there the whole week to experience the festival and Easter.

Other thoughts:
Our Spanish is getting slightly better but its still pretty slow going. On the bus last night we watched a movie and I was able to better separate the words that were being said, so instead of a jumble of sounds I at least hear words, some of which I know! I think this is good progress and I hope it continues.

We're preparing ourselves for a second culture shock on entering Peru. Chile and Argentina are very safe and well-developed and they have given us a fantastic first two months of our adventure, but we're about to leave that and enter the third world for sure. Peru and Bolivia are much poorer and the warnings from our guide books about fake taxis who like to rob you and not to go out at night are giving us a little bit of anxiety. However we also know the rewards of these other countries will be great so we're taking the plunge gladly.

If someone puts your name on the State department list of missing persons from the earthquake, the State department will look for you! They didn't find us until about 2 weeks after the earthquake but it was heartening to know that they were looking! So after unknowingly being on the missing person's list from the earthquake I am glad to report that we are alive and well!

Ok, that's it for me. Another long one but its been awhile right? Suzanne continues to generate great posts in her head so expect another from her soon (once I can push her to write it down!).

~Mike

Still safe and sound (mind excluded)

Hey everyone,

As you may have heard there was news of another earthquake today in Chile, a rather large aftershock. We didn't actually feel it but a guide we were talking to said he noticed some swaying of some street signs as evidence. Needless to say, we're just fine.

Quick update on what we've been up to:
1) Turns out we did get sick from the Crudo. After several watery days, we went to the pharmacy and got some antibiotics to kill the evil bacteria inside.
2) Tomorrow I will be climbing the volcano that's right near here (in Pucon). Some (like Suzanne) may question the soundness of doing so seeing as the government just recently opened the path up today and that there was a large aftershock just hours ago, but I say Bah! I want to see some bubbling lava! Plus the fact you get to slide down on your buns on the way down. Giant slide = awesome.

~Mike

Crudo!

Yesterday Suzanne and I arrived in Valdivia Chile which is known for being a big university town as well as the center of Germania since they set up a colony here way back.  The town is very nice, everything you expect a university town to be, nice plazas, plenty of restaurants and bars, and lots of universities.  Since its also got a heavy German influence, we got to go to a brewery which is known to produce some of the best beer on the continent.  We duly decided to check out this fantastic claim and caught some transportation to the brewery which is right outside town.  Luckily for this town, which would have to suffer withering reviews otherwise, the claims seem to be correct (sorry El Bolson).  

From Crudo

We arrived at the cerveceria and immediately saw “la columna” a giant 2.5 liter column of delicious goodness.  My interest in such a thing is obvious but Suzanne told me that there was no way she could drink her share of that and that I would be left to do it all by myself.  I reluctantly agreed and compromised by taking a picture of some more hearty souls.  

From Crudo

After the obligatory sample platter and first drink we decided some appetizers would be in order.  

From Crudo

Since we were planning on eating dinner there (German food of course) we just went for the cheapest appetizer on the menu which had a name “crudo” that we didn't know the translation for.  So we order it and then we found out what it translates to, “raw”.  What we had ordered was a half-sandwich of raw beef!  Yum!

From Crudo

Extra large image of Crudo for your enjoyment!

From Crudo

Surprisingly, it was actually quite good! I figure its just like sushi, and if you get it before bacteria start growing, you're good to go. Our stomachs seemed a bit upset after we got back to our room that night but we made it through with no problems. Yay crudo!