Machu Pichu (means Old Mountain)- One of the reasons for my South America trip

When I planned my South America trip, this was my #1 highlight, in fact I thought that I must see that if not anything else. Anyway, I finally visited Machu Pichu and it was beyond my imagination. It was a very touristic place and that is not surprising to me at all, but I still loved it all. The pictures that I saw before were not anything different from the actual place. It was probably the only big Inca ruin that was mostly untouched and not discovered for a long time and not destroyed by the first Spaniards who came to Peru but did not know about this site.The vegetation at this place with the combination of the colors of the mountains around it makes it so pretty and picture-perfect that it is simply amazing! Rest of my team did the 4 day Inca- trail and reached Machu Pichu on the morning of the 4th day. I, on the other hand, had a very relaxed time in Cusco for 2 full days and stayed one night in Sacred Valley and took the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes on a very early morning. It was my first train ride on South America and was quite nice to see the mountains, river and fountains through out the one and half hour journey. From Aguas Calientes, we took a bus ride of twenty five minutes to Machu Pichu for meeting the group. Whe we met them at the entrance of Machu Pichu, they were all smiling, three days agao, all seemed quite tensed and nervous and I took a picture of all of them just before they were leaving for the trail. I was glad to see all of them smiling and being able to finish the trail with no major issues. I heard later that few were not feeling good at all, one fainted, all had a struggling second day as it was the toughtest day of the hike when they crossed the dead woman´s pass, it was the highest and the steepest part of the trek as well.

I have to say that it was an easy one for me while rest of the team did all the hard work in that Inca-trail. I wish I could do that but I really am not that fit physically and could not possibly handle the camping for 3 nights in that cold weather! Anyway, I am not big into trekking mountains, it was never really my thing either. I love nature, interesting archeological sites with ancient history and so, Machu Pichu was great and I pretty much spent most of the day there. The architechture was quite interesting, lots of geometrical shapes in the buildings, did not see any arch though! The stairs were placed in many different locations in a very strategic way, you could possibly walk up and down all over Machu Pichu Ruins using those stairs and end of the day my body was aching pretty bad. Still it was worth and just two of the pain killers took off all my pain and only thing I remember now is the great memory of the site.

BTW, the train ride for coming back was quite interesting and there was a live fashion show in our car, it was the most random thing I have ever seen in a train but even the funny show by this guy with mask on was quite interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment.

We got back to Cusco quite late that evening.

Ollantaytambo and SacredValley

I was the last one to wake up as we got back to the hotel at 4 am after dancing. I had to catch up with my sleep from the night before and the last night. Everyone was waiting for me, it seemed, we all took a busride to Ollantaytambo. This is the town where everyone transits for Sacred Valley or to go to Inca trail or any other trail near Cusco. So, this town is full of restaurants but nothing much to do. We took great pictures on the way to this town, we cross another town called Urubamba, which is quite a nice town and much bigger. We only passed this town did not really stop there. After visiting the Sacred Valley, I used internet for some time as there was nothing much to do. We went for dinner to this nice restaurant, the burrito/ fagita was great and the portions were big, the price was very reasonable. I did not plan to have dessert, but someone made a mistake and ordered two icecreams, so I decided to have one of those, I was a winner. The dessert tasted as good as the food. I was happy. Next morning, rest of the team was going for the Inca- trail, everyone seemed little nervous but they would all make it, I knew. Manuel(our team leader) and I left around 9 am and took a taxi back to Cusco, it seems, taxi does not cost much in Cusco and it is very convenient as well.

Manuel and I would come back to this small town in few days to bring the team back to Cusco after they are done with the Inca trail.

Cusco - City that was born from the Inca Ruins

Cusco , a city I have heard so much about. Some said it is very touristic and over-rated but others gave great feedback. I can see that it is a beautiful city and I am truly enjoying my stay here. We got here after a long long bus ride from Puno. The original bus-ride was supposed to be 7 hours long, but then it was 11 then 15 and then 20 hours long. There was a strike going on and due to that we could not take the regular route and besides, the public buses would not even run. So, we took a private bus to use different route to get to Cusco. We had several obstacles, some were human chains, some were with tree logs, some were actual mud walls and several of them were big rocks laid down on the roads by the locals. We had to get down from the bus, join the locals and walk with them to their main square. We had to even paint on our bus window that the strike should live long and that we supported the strike. Our bus had to be empty several times, we had the locals finally helping us digging the mud walls but it took us good 4-5 hours and then again another barricade. It was not a fun experience at all, people are fighting for their rights, that is understood but what did we, the travellers do?????? Anyway, we finally had to cross a wooden bridge with our luggage on foot and the bridge was almost half broken, it was 3 am in the morning and next day we saw the picture of that bridge on the newspaper. It was scary, cold and not pleasant at all. I could barely carry my luggage myself, my back was killing me. So, Loui helped me carrying mine, he was one of the team members, nice guy from England but his parents are originated from Egypt, he is a physiotherapist by profession, was traveling with his friend Anna. I owe him big time for that favor he did, probably I will buy him a drink later.

The getting there part was a huge experience for all of us, but then we are finally in Cusco and safe!

On our first day in Cusco, we had a great brunch at Jack´s near the main square as we all missed breakfast that morning. The food was great, thanks to Manuel our new team leader. He suggested us the place in the main square. To get there was a mission as there was some festival going on and it was very crowded everywhere. We also went for a nice dinner and went out dancing in a club which had very random music but good catchy ones to dance though. I had a blast in dancing and it was a great night out, we stayed until 4 am! Next day, we were leaving for Sacred Valley.

I did lot of walking around after coming back to Cusco from Sacred Valley. I did some major damages as I bought some nice and fine silver jewellery for my family and for myself. I spent a lot of money that I totally did not plan for, but then I felt good to do some shopping after all I cannot deny the fact that I love shopping! I almost forgot to have food for lunch. Manuel suggested a good place for dinner, so I went to that place, called Trotamundos (means Globe Trotter, cool, isn´t it!), it was very good food, I had a beef skewer, it was a bit pricy but great though. I took a taxi to the main square and got back the same way. I have been enjoying people watching in Cusco, having all time for myself really was a good idea. You know, the team thing after some time gets you pretty bad and you want to get some space for yourself. So I was really enjoying my own time and space in Cusco. It is an easy city to spend time with yourself.

The following day I took a horse back riding tour which included some snack and a tour to four different archeological sites and it also included some hiking, walking and scrolling through few interesting caves. I met a bunch of American tourists and a guy from London. It was a nice group, we had lots of good conversation and the horses were amazing. My horse was a smart one, his name was Wizmer and he would not follow others, he would like to go first. Well, he was a great horse to ride on and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him. Sometimes I think, if I had a pet, I could get a horse, may be. I have enjoyed my first horse riding in this trip in Bariloche, Argentina and I loved my horse then, his name was Ishpita (not sure if I mention it in my post for Bariloche!!!).

I went for dinner to the main square but it was so crowded that I could not get through with my taxi, so walked down for some distance but I could barely pass the crowd. So, I was almost determined to be back to the hotel. Then I saw this really nice looking restaurant and the crowd inside looked quite upscale. I was a bit hesitant first, but then I went in and took a table. The food and the service was simply amazing, probably the best meal and the best service I have got so far in the entire South America during my 2.5 month trip. It was a bit pricy but definitely very classy, the name of the place is Tupananchis. I would suggest it to friends for fine dining in Cusco. I had no money left with me after the pricy dinner, so I walked back to the hotel, it was almost 11 pm but the streets were not empty and I felt quite safe walking back on my own.

June 24th was a big day for the Inca people as it was their festival of the Sun called Inti Rymi. I was not sure when the ceremony was supposed to start in the main square, but I happened to walk there at the very time when it was being started. I captured some great shots of the ceremony and I was so happy to see it all without any kind of planning. The colorful custumes, the dances, the offerings and the entire crowd - oh, it was quite a grand experience! I managed to get a great spot for viewing the ceremony and to take all the pictures that I captured. There was this security guard of one store, he put a stool for me at the door of the store and allowed me to stand on that so that I could see everything, over the people and take pictures as much as I wanted. The place must have had a million people, at least that is how it seemed to me!

Today is my 4th day in Cusco and I was thinking of doing some pampering again after Sucre, Bolivia. I was thinking of a massage or a body treatment, but somehow it did not happen. Almost everything was closed for the Cusco day. I would still like to do a massage and straighten my hair on the last day in Cusco. Manuel and I had to go back to Ollantaytambo and stay overnight to catch the train to Aguas Caliantes for going to Machu Pichu for visiting and to meet the rest of the team after their Inca-trail.

Puno, Peru

We reached Puno on an afternoon after a long busride, however, I was feeling very sick, I felt this way throughout the journey. We stopped in Copacabana and it was nice ther but I never felt good in this ride. I felt like throwing up and could not eat anything much at all, I could feel that I was going to be very sick soon. Yes, I was right, I survived the bus-ride to Puno somehow. But as soon as I got here, I completely collapsed. My stomach was not treating me well at all, I felt like throwing up several times but could not, so it was a really ugly feeling. I did not feel good at all that day in Puno. It was a massive food poisoning. Most likely, it was due to the last meal that I had in La Paz, unfortunately it was an Indian meal. I did not feel good while having that meal but rest of the people were so enthusiastic about it that I kept myself shut. That was the killer, oh, can you imagine, after almost 2 months I had an Indian meal in this South America trip for the first time and it did not suit me at all!

Anyway, evereyone else went for a walk in the town and they were planning for a group dinner in Puno but I just stayed in the hotel. I was making my way from bathroom to bedroom several times. O,I felt numb, weak and terrible! I just felt like taking the next flight back home. You feel bad when you are sick espesially, in an unknown country where nothing seems to be yours! You feel like a stranger, don´t you! I felt like calling my mom but controlled myself somehow. Instead, I called my GAP leader and explained him my sickness, the idea was that, if I did not get any better by next morning, I will not leave with the group next day for the home stay in Taquila island and would rather stay back in the hotel and get some rest. He agreed and next morning, I did not feel any better, in fact it was lot worse, so I had a doctor coming and seeing me in my hotel room, he gave me two injections, gave a whole bunch of medicines for the infection in my stomach, pain etc. I paid US$30 for the doctor´s visit , borrowed that money from Kate before they left for the day. Now I am left with only 30 soles. Guess what, I had to go to the pharmacy to get the medicine, before that I had to get money from the ATM. How was I going to do all that, I could barely stand at that point, I felt so helpless! On top of that, my room was on the fifth floor from where I could see lake Titicaca but that also means I had to take the stairs down 5 floors and then walk 10-15 minutes to the ATM and then go to the pharmacy and another 10-15 minutes walk back to the hotel and take the stairs to the fifth floor to my room again! My head was almost spinning just with the thought of this little but tough journey and was not sure how I would manage to do all this just by myself. I do not speak Spanish either, otherwise, I could possibly get help from the hotel guys! They could be helpful! Anyway, I did exactly what I just mentioned here. I was walking like a sick pale person who could fall down any moment but I did it all and got back to the hotel safe! I got money, medicine, then I needed some food. that doctor adviced me not to take any solid for a day, so I ordered a soup and the front desk people were nice. They got me a nice chicken soup and it was tasty. Although I felt better after the little food, medicine and the injection, food was not staying much inside me and I was still very weak.

Manuel, our team leader insisted on me doing some local trips while they were away but I was not quite up for it. That evening, a female travel agent, Guadalupa came to see me if I was doing okay and by that time I was actually feeling quite good. She suggested that I could be picked up next morning by her people at 9 am and could visit few of the floating islands with some other people and she could then arrange for me to meet my team leader as my team would be visiting the islands around the same time. I was hesitant initially but then I thought, I did want to do this and really did not feel like being on the bed feeling sick. So I went to the floating islands and those were amazing. It was so surprising how people live in these islands. They gave us a demonstration of how they make these islands and what they do to stabilize them and also how they live their lives here. I was thoroughly impressed and I was feeling lot better to be able to do this trip. I met my team in one of the floating islands. We helped the Uros people pushing a new boat to the lake and then we took a ride on that boat, it was fun, they even sang and danced for us, I bought some nice tapestry from them, it was expensive but beautiful and I can use it for the home decoration later. The money I spent would help the community directly so I felt quite good. I took pictures with the girl from whom I bought the tapestry, she was so happy, I felt really good to see her big smile. We had a picnic in the boat although I was afraid to eat and so I did not, still stayed on liquid only for another day.

We came back to Puno in the afternoon and there was a massive parade going on and all the kids were nicely dressed up and they were dancing throughout the parade. It was a charming experience to see them all dancing and happy, we got stuck in the middle but managed to get some place to stand and watch the parade. I think we are in a festival season.

I forgot to mention in the post for La Paz, we saw another parade in La Paz the day we got there and it was initially a small one but then, it turned out to be a huge parade. The colors of the custumes, the dancing, the makeups and the band groups along with them with diferent musical instruments were amazing and it was a big show, I took pictures from the hotel glass windows, it was superb.

We left Puno next day and came to Cusco, the archeological capital of South America. I am so glad to be staying extra days in Cusco while the team is doing the Inca-trail or 4 days! Coming up in my next post, all about Cusco.....

Old team - new team Leader

Ale is saying goodbye to us from La Paz and we are under a new team leader named Manuel, he is originally from Lima, Peru. We will miss Ale, she was so sweet, nice and responsible. I am sad to say good bye to her. I tipped her a lot as I thought she deserved it! We had a good buye dinner with the big team although par of the team could not make it for their budget crunch, however, it went alright. We are going to take a bus fom La Paz and go to Puno, Peru from where we would go to see lake Titicaca and islands around and on the lake. We have a one night home stay plan in one of the islands and we were each going to stay with a family and spend the evening and night with them and try to understand their life pattern and exchange our greeting to them by buying them gifts etc. I am looking forward to all that, plus, there are some floating islands where the UROS live and it would be fascinating to see how people live there. Leaving Steph and Margaret behind in La Paz and also saying good bye to Helen, she is going back to England - I am now back with the rest of the team and the other team actually join this one, so we combindly have a team of fifteen now. My new roomy is Kate in La Paz, but it may change over the time. She is a yound English girl, quite nice and lively, talks a lot, reminds me of my niece in Sydney, Australia. I think we will get along well, I am never difficult as a roomy as you should all know!

La Paz - Another capital of Bolivia

Our flight to La Paz was short and sweet, not much waiting at all, the flight was only 45 minutes and the landing was one of the shortest one I ever had, there was no taxiing at all after landing, our luggage was out before we could even imagine and so the first flight experience in South America was quite pleasant and beyond my expectation.

La Paz as a city was not that attractive to me but it had its characters, there was a richer and a poorer part of the city and we discovered the nicer part after 2 days stay , so I did not have much time to explore a whole lot. Few good things were - we had our empanadas and they were cheap, tasty and nice, I had a very tasty slice of pizza for one day in lunch, the cafe in the nicer part of the town was great, I would highly recommend that to all. We had some Lebanes food and that was great, the other meals were fine as well. The best thing was , I took a tour of the large Cathedral church and actually visited it entirely from the roof to the bottom. I loved it and the guide was a young man who was very passionate to give the explanations and he made the tour lot more interesting that it could be. I am very happy about his tour and I felt quite knowledgable afterwards:)

The other thing to mention with a bit of disappointment is that there was a big jazz club that Steph and I found, but it was closed again, we never had good luck with jazz! We finally discovered a place with Cuban band but it was so full and we were quite tired that night so we did not stay long. Sagarnaga was a thin mnarrow street that I found amazing. I walked through that a lot of time during my stay in La Paz, very classy to me. Steph and I were being separate from La Paz as she would go on her own way and I would start another GAP tour. It was very sad to say good bye to her. We exchanged gifts and we gave our last hugs. I will keep in touch with her I know that, not sure if destiny will let us meet again soon! Sorry, being a bit philosophical here, I really miss Steph, she was a great travel companion.

Sucre - One of my favorite cities visited within South America

I skipped a town called Cochabamba, which was a bus ride of 11 hours from Sucre and then we had to take another bus ride from Sucre to La Paz which was supposed to be 7 hours long. So, what myself , Steph and Margaret did, we skipped those long busrides. We staye longer in Sucre and flew to La Paz and caught up with the rest of the team in La Paz. This was a great decision, for mainly two reasons, one, we all loved Sucre and so we could spend more time here and chilled out and relaxed a lot in between the trips. Other thing was, the stories we heard abot the busride was not that pleasant, it was a public bus ride and there could be locals getting into the bus with their stuff to sell us, there were not supposed to be many bathroom breaks and also we heard that some people have no other way but go in the bus where the nature calls were not in their control. All those stories encouraned me to simply skip Cochabamba as the city has not too much to offer anyway and besides, our planned time there was negligible even to explore the city. So, we did the best by skipping it.

I loved Sucre, it was another world in Bolivia after Uyuni, Potosi and the kind of living we saw in the passing villages. It was a cosmopolitan city and well developed, I loved the way it was arranged, all the roads and lanes were easy to walk through and it really was great weather when we were there. All this made it simply a great experience.

I got a nice massage done, it was very relaxing and I thoroughly enjoyed the pampering. We had some great food through the time in Surce. We walked into the market area a lot, we went up to the hilly areas and it was very nice. One of the afternoons, we went to the Morador cafe and food and the view both were great. I chilled out a lot in this city. I did not participate in any of the activities although others did mountain biking, hiking, etc. etc I went to for lunch once was so nice and different yet yummy, without any cheese in it! I sent another package back home with all my fancy clothes as we did not need those for this trip anymore.

I had several icecreams during my stay in Sucre, as you know, it is one of my favorite things to do! I missed icecream since I left Brazil, I used to have few scoops evereyday and in Argentina and Chile, due to the weather, my icecream intake was lot less, may be once in two days! So, I filled in my quota for icecream in Sucre again.

WE stayed in sucre five nights and flew to La Paz on Saturday morning. I will miss Sucre and if I come back to Bolivia again, I will definitely visit Sucre one more time.

Potosi - The town where the Devil´s Miner was filmed

This city used to be a very rich and popular city before Bolivia became a Spanish colony. In fact, from the visit of the Coin museum, I came to know a lots of very inteesting facts about this place. Unfortunately, this city is not a rich city any more. But the history is very impressive. We went to a silver mine and I happened to meet the two brothers who were in the Delvil´s miner when they were much younger. I had pictures with them. The documentory is very good and quite painful but worth watching. I saw the film in the next city we went after Potosi. How the Spanish made the locals believe that there is a devil in the mine and they have to always worship the devil not to be in trouble while doing the mining. The life of the miners are at high risk and the young childern also work in the mines for supporting the family. Silicosis is a death threat for all miners at the age of only 40-45, and it is a great shame that knowingly people still need to do the work for supporting their families. I think children should be kept out of this completely, but it seems in some families, it is a tradition to go for mining jobs as their previous generation did the same. In some families, they have no much choice but taking up such jobs. We took pictures with the statue of the devil inside the mine and of how they make offerings to the devil for keeping him happy. They even sacrifice llama and the blood of llama is given to the devil with coca leaves and other offerings. We were given a demonstration how a dynamite is blasted in the mine, although we did it outside the mine. This was to show us the miners do it inside the mine for finding valuable metals like silver to dig and reach deeper inside the mine. These days, most of them do not get silver anymore, mostly it is Zinc. The miners make good living compared to the rest of the habitants of Potosi, but risk of life is very high.

The food in Potosi was quite good and I had llama steak one of the nights in Potosi and the other meals were quite nice as well. I only did the basic trip to the mine, some did the advanced one, I could not breath very well inside so decided to do te basic one, it was still a great experience and this was my 2nd mine visit in my entire life. I had to visit a coal mine once in 1993 from IITD, it was more risky but I was healthier then and it was part of the Geology trip that we all had to do as a compulsury part of our program.

We left Potosi after 2 days and went to one of the capitals of Bolivia, the white city, Sucre.

Uyuni - This is just another small town in Bolivia

This town has not much to offer but it is a small little town between civilization and the huge Atacama desert, people have to go somewhere once they cross this big desert and the salt flats, this town basically bridges between the desert and civilization. There were a few strange looking bronze sculpture in this town in the main square and on the edge of the main streets. I thought they were kinda cool. The place we went to eat dinner was very nice and cosy and food was great! I had a pizza and shared nachos with Steph, it was so much food and I was not ready to leave the table near that cosy fireplace, I could possibly sleep there. The hotel was new but the rooms were not that warm for some reason. We had warm shower, but shared bathrooms. Still the shoer after 3 days felt heavenly, probably the best shower so far! In the last 2 days, the temperature was below zero few times and at night it was between -10C and 5C.

Did I tell you that the only ATM in the town was out of money when we got there but eventually it was filled in and we got our money out of the ATM! We stayed in this town just one night and left for the next destination, Potosi in the morning of next day.

Salt flats - wow they were so cool and amazing!

On the third day of our desert crossing, it was no more dust and sand and rocks around, it was all salt flats and they are so white and pretty, I can´t explain those in words! We got out on the salt flats and took all kinds of crazy pictures, through a beer bottle, licking a huge lolly pop and lying down on the flat, dancing and jumping on the salt flats, group inside a beer bottle, over a bottle - the pictures came really well. John and David had to lie down on the cold salt flats for several minutes for taking the pictures of others but they did their job quite well. John is from Liverpool, England and David is from the south, I think. Both are really nice Brits in this trip. BTW, did I ever mention that there was only one Anerican( Aka me), 2 Canadians and rest all are Brits. I worked with so many Brits all my last 8.5 years and now traveling with them as well. No, I am not complaining, just mentioning, there is something between me and the Brits !!!!!!! I do not leave them or they do not leave me , not sure which one is true:) Again, sorry for the delay in posting the pictures here, but will get there once I get back home after July 17th!

The other amazing thing we saw was a cactus garden, There is a name for that place, can´t remember now, but will fill that in later, I have it documented in my pictures:) The largest size cactus there was more than 12m long and they were so old! It was a beautiful and unusual place to be, I had bad altitude problems while going through that hike of about an hour but did it finally and finished it!

The small town where we arrived after 3 days and 2 nights of desert crossing is called Uyuni. The third day was not that long of driving, we got to Uyuni by afternoon and I had to go the immigration office right after. Guess what, I even had to pay for signing the waiver (that I will be getting nothing from Bolivian Govt. if I get yellow fever), how strange is that, the 50 Boliviano was not going to the Govt., it was probably for the police men, how unethical and unavoidable circumstance was that! I can compare that with Bangladesh, right? Although I am not sure if bribary exists when foreigners travel to Bangladesh.!

BTW, I got a five year visa for Bolivia whereas I only needed to be there 15-17 days in total! May be, I will come back just to use that precious visa?

Atacama Desert Crossing for 2 days and 2 nights

This has been so far the most challenging and interesting part of my entire South America trip. To start with, when we crossed the border of Bolovia, everyone got through fine but I couldn´t get away not getting a $135 Bolivian visa, not just that, I am the only one (I was the only US citizen in the team) who had to show yellow fever vaccine related papers ( I had a waiver from my doctor and also got it translated into Spanish from back home!). The way it felt, as if only the American citizens can get or bring yellow fever to Bolivia. The decision by the immigration was such that, our driver would hold on to my passport sealed in an envelop for two days while we cross the desert and when we get to the town, Uyuni after the desert, I have to go to the police department and immigration office to get stamped for the Bolivian visa, pay for the visa and the entrance fee and possibly sign a waiver to agree that I won´t get any public care treatment if I get yellow fever in Bolivia and the Govt of Bolivia would be no way responsible for me and my yellow fever situation even if I am dying in yellow fever! How rude and discriminative to the US citizens, as if no other nation can get it! But then........ Well, we (the US immigration) probably make it quite difficult for the Bolivians to get to the US, so it is kind of a reciprocity revenge as I can see it as!

Apart from the entrance issue to Bolivia, the experience has been stunning for me in Bolivia. I heard many rough and crude things about this poorest country in South America. But, quite honestly, the country in many ways have impressed me during my journey. Let´s get little detail here.

The day one in the desert was 6-8 hours of driving with breaks for restrooms and photo sessions and to see the amazing lagunas and flemingos. The shadow of the mountains on the laguna and the iced water with clouds reflecting on the ice, it is astonishing to me, I have never seen anything like that before. Obviously I took a million pics of these unbelievable beauty of nature. (all pictures will be sorted and posted after my trip is over and when I am back to NYC. Until then patience please!)

We went through lots of dry mountaineous roads, they were so rocky that we had to get down from the four-wheelers a few times to get through those portions of the roads. I have no idea how these drivers of the four wheelers drive through these roads, simply impressive and award-winning skills are those! We picked up our cooks on the way who are few ladies and most of them were somehow related to the drivers, in fact one of the drivers was the leader and he owns this company who does all the arrangement for traveling, four-wheelers, living arrangements in the deserts for two nights, cooking, catering, tea breaks and what not! They even got good music and lolly pops for the entire journey in the fourwheelers. We were four in our four wheelers at the back, the driver and his sister was the cook sitting in the front next to him. His name was Mirang and his sister was Sandra, he was a great driver and very careful, no issues at all through out the 2.5 days driving not even a flat tire or anything similar! They all take care of the four-wheelers so well, everything gets so dusty but the moment they get a break they clean the glasses even if they get dusty again in no time.

The very first meal that we had for lunch was so good. We had rice, fresh cooked vegetables, salads, corns boiled nicely, those were different types of corns than what we get in the US. Ther4e was some fried meat with bone and no one knew what was that and i kept asking if anyone knew. unfortunately, none knew but all finished their food and I tasted the new type of the meat and guess what, it tasted very good, I only like to eat vegetarian animals, that is my kinda rule, not sure, how I got to that idea but it works for me fine. Later on, we found out that it was Llama meat and yes, they are most likely vegetarian, te meat was nice and tender, somewhat like veal meat but no fat at all, at least that is what it tasted like!

The accomodation was supposed to be very basic and I really though it would be like a shade and a sleeping bag underneath, but no, I was totally wrong and the arrangement was quite nice, basic but had all that we needed to get some good sleep. We reached 5000M above sealevel so altitude was a big issue, throats were drying up, we were all feeling the altitude in different ways. I had many cups of tea with mate, the coca leaves, it is the unprocessed leave from which after lots of alteration coccaine is made but it is not coccaine by any means. Please note my point here! I felt thirsty every moment and could not sleep the first night much, felt very cold, so I covered my face with blankets and it was my first time using a sleeping back along with the blankets and I kept rolling myself inside and still could not get any sleep it was too clostophobic for some reason and I had to breath with my mouth, therefore my throat got dry, it was too complicated, finally, got may be 1-1.5 hours of sleep. At night we had one of the team members throwing up and his widfe screamed so loud that I through there was some kind of stabbing or attack! Oh! that drove me crazy more than the altitude. Luckily, they both slept for the rest of the night after waking up te rest and leave them wandering how to get some sleep!

The second day was tougher driving for the drivers but we had good times anyway. We played few different word games among myself, Steph and Margaret. This one game of not letting others complete the word was quite fun for me and I really loved it. We played another game , not sure what you call it but one of us would think of a famous person and others will guess who that is by asking questions, not more than 20 questions though! Helen came up with some fictitous famous character who is a singer and it really tricked all of us so much that I completely gave up and she had to finally tell us who that was. Anyway, we four got to know each other even better in this trip and we really had a good bonding. Steph and I discovered that we share the same birthday, how strange! But I was happy that it was her and no one else from the team! The back two seats had less legroom and the front two seats were little more roomy for the legs, so we switched both days to get everyone a chance to relax better.

Our accomodation on the second night was better than the first night and we had an option of 5 minute hot shower but I and most others did not really care for that shower as we would still be wearing the same dirty clothes anyway, so what is the pint of the shower! It was so cold that we did not feel so dirty and everyone was dirty, that was the good part! No one could any better than the others!

The food for lunch and dinner were good both the days and we had nice tea breaks as well. The 2nd night, it was a huge room with 6 beds but Steph, Margaret and I shared that room and each of us had two beds for ourselves, one to unpack our bags and the other to sleep on! The place was quite pretty looking, they created the building out of salt slabs and it was very impressive to look at. (I look pics and will post them later after my trip is over!)

We all had decent sleep and it was lower altitude than the previous night and also was not that cold either. Looking forward to the White Salt flats in next day´s driving!!!

San Pedro - Starting of Atacama Desert

We started from La Serena at noon and got to San Pedro same afternoon. This is already a part of Atacama desert and this town was built up based on an oasis. It is a really small and cute little town, quite touristy in the look and the uniformity of all the buildings and the houses and the stores is quite noticable. We had a few options to explore this place and the surroundings, one of the most interesting things we did was the early morning Gycers and hotsprings at 5000+m above sea level. We had to leave at 4 am in the morning and it was freezing cold up there. The sunrise was nice and so was the experience of the live gycers, it was quite similar ro the old faithful gycer in the yellow stone national park but there were many of them and it was quite astonishing to see them so closely. I almost fainted once due to the sudden altitude difference and also the strong smell of the sulpher and other chemicals from those gycers.

The other wonderful experience was the Moon valley and the death valley and the sunset at the moon valley and the dunes. It was such a beauty, I cannot describe it here but will add pictures later. Hoenest, it was my first time seeing an actual dune and also sunset in the dune and the Moon valley. Simply gorgeous!

Nevertheless, the food was quite good in this littele town and I spent a lot in shopping and laundry without any prior budget! I bought a chess game with board for a good friend of mine from this place, just do not know how to send it to him as he is in Bangladesh now!

La Serena - A small town in Chile

After being introduced to the new members of the travel group, we started our next portion of the trip from Santiago to La Paz. Ale is our tour leader again and that is great news. She has been such a lovely leader and so helpful, I just love her. We had her since my SA trip started in Rio. Rio to Buenos Aires and then from Buenos Aires to Santiago, her leadership has been amazing and I am very happy to have her until La Paz. I have made pretty good friends with Stephanie my new roomy whom I met at Santiago. She is on a year long sabbatical and worked for a worldwide charity organization in Dublin. Guess what, we came to know in 3-4th day of knowing each other that we both share the same birthday. That is so strange but we do have a lot of similarities and truly, she has been the easiest person to travel with so far, no doubt that I am easy to travel with as well:) Margaret and Helen are the other two new ones that I have been good friends with. Helen is from England and Margaret from South Africa, although Margaret is originally from Ireland. Both of them are quite unique as personality and it makes our team very interesting. We often had food together as a small team rather than joining the big team always and that way we really became good friends throughout this journey. There is nothing too special about La Serena as a place. The town is small, has few churches and the roads are under construction, not all of them though! The main square is kind of cute and easy to walk around. The small cafes are quite nice although we were there in a weekend and it seems most things are closed then. The food on first night was not that great but was expensive. We managed to get some good Chinese food in the next evening although it was pricy as well but tasted really good. I bought a pair of sketchers shoes as I realized that I have no other pair than my sneakers for evenings. Steph and I planned for going to a Jazz club but unfortunately, it was never open in several days, so it was a pure bluff. The night before after the team dinner, Steph and I went to a local pub and had drinks, I had pisco sour (so strong, I only had few sips!, Steph had to help me out). It was good fun and the crowd was so weird but we had a good laugh and we talked about life in general and our own life a lot, basically, two women opening up themselves to each other and sharing good and bad times of life! It was a good way of building trust of friendship in each other.

There was a small beach in this town and so we went down to the beach one of the mornings. It was not a very clean beach but the sun was nice and we took a nice walk up there. We found a shwarma place close to the beach and it was probably one of the best priced lunch in this trip and was really yummy. We had quite a bit of time to chill out and relax in La Serena as there was no such activity that we participated in as a team or individually. Margaret went for mountain biking as she is so much into those outdoor activities, it is simply amazing! I have never met anyone like her before! Of course, Steph went for her afternoon snooze as usual ( she loves it!it seems she always mange to get that somehow, not sure how she was working and still getting that pleasure of afternoon snooze!). The very last lunch or meal that we had in la Serena was one of the best valued and tasteful meals that I had in Chile. Whatever was that sauce on the grilled fish, it was just awesome, I simply loved it. We left La Serena after 2 days on an afternoon and our next destination is San Pedro.....

Santiago - My first long break after almost a month long travel!

As I said, Pucon was not a good place to be in this season and it definitely did not suit me at all for all those rains and ugly weather. I decided to skip from there and so did another 5 others from our Gap team. We all took a bus from Pucon to Santiago and got here 2 days earlier than others and here I am now. I think the location of the hotel is just perfect in Santiago, that is one good thing about Gap, they might not get you the best hotel but they try the best location always so that you do not need to walk a lot or take taxi or public transportation. Everything is in the walking distance. It is easy to go around in this city as the map is super easy to read and the city is not that big either. I loved the Cerrado St. Lucia and Cerrado San Cristabol. The escalator ride to see the Virgin Mary and the city of Santiago by the cable car was just great, very well priced and a good one for everyone to do. I strongly recommend these two parks to all who are going to be in Santiago for tourism. The Pre-Columbian museum is one of the best museums that I have seen in South America so far, very well kept and it holds a lots of knowledge-base that I had no clue about. The Cathedral and the History museum near the main square were good as well, there were some very cool displays in the museum. The contemporary art museum at Pacedeo La Moneda was very interesting anda bit weird but was enjoyable. I really liked the Bella Vista area which is to the other side of the river(the river is something you can literally walk through, I mean I can walk through and I do not even swim!!!). I happened to be here on a Sunday so, we got the Sunday market on the street and then saw some Quaka dance, not sure if that is the spelling of that local dance. I also saw the bys doing some good tricks and dance with their drums. Although I felt like more Europe in Buenos Aires but here it feels more like North America. They literally have every junk food chain in this city of Santiago, McDonalds, Burgerking, Pizzahut, KFC, you name it. People seemed a bit more conservative than Argentina or Brazil, again, people from Argentina and Brazil seemed more friendly and outgoing and may be more like the European. Here it was a bit cold, not so much warmth, but then it seemed a bit more influence of North America. Not complaining, just my observation, it is only mine:)

I watched Angels and Damons, one of the evenings and it was one of our groupmates birthday the other night, so we went out for food. Oh, about food, I had bigger expectation from Argentina but honestly I was not very lucky to get the best food there. Whereas, in Chile, things were pricy but food was alright. I ended up buying some sweaters, shoes in Chile and definitely exceeded my budget. That is the problem in being somewhere a bit longer. More time is equal to more expenses, that is the bad point of having a long break in a nice city. I should say, I liked Santiago but probably did not love it as much as Buenos Aires, may be I am biased with a city that is more European, but what can I do??????? That is just my opinion!

I went to Valparaiso, I heard a lot about it, saw pictures and so and so. It was a colorful living town few hours from Santiago and was quite nice, I thought it was okay to visit but was not biased about it. The buidlings and the artworks on the wall were very attractive looking and impressive. I missed the sunset from there as I was not feeling that great and had to go back to Santiago before the rest of the team. I do recommend the place if you have more than 2 days in Santiago.

The central market or the fish market was a place to go even if it is pretty stinky, but if you love fish, you must not miss that. I had my first ceviche in this trip there and it was alright, am still looking forward to have the best one in Lima, Peru. We went ouas a group few nights for dinner and one the last day went out for dancing but the music was not that great, still enjoyed it though. Our group from Rio to Santiago had the last day in Santiago and a new team joined us. We lost some people, no one that significant for me, they were all okay and friendly. I had a new roomy from Santiago for the next segment of the trip, her name is Stephanie and she is from Ireland, we became very good friends by the end of our Santiago to La Paz segment trip and you will hear more of these places in between in the next posts.

I am so behind in my updates! I am in Cuzco physically and in my blog in Santiago!!!!!!!!!

Where to start I have no idea, I am extremely behind and delayed in my updates. So, the idea is to update and throw up some stuff that I need to post here before my memory actually collapses. I have been to Santiago for several days to skip Pucon and had a lovely time there. so, my next few posts will be about the following places:
Santiago
La Serena
San Pedro
Atacama Desert Crossing
Salt Flats of Uyuni
Uyuni
Potosi
Sucre
La Paz
Puno
Cuzco

Since I am not writing or even attempting a journal here, the dates can all get mishmashed in my short-term clouded memory. But on a second thought, I have all the dates noted somewhere and at some point I will get those right. But until then, it is just some imaginary dates and days of the month that I will be mentioning in the following several posts of mine.