Quito - where the earth dividing line, EQUATOR is!

I was fascinated by the beauty of this beautiful country once again throughout my bus journey from Banos to Quito, the mountains seemed to be travelling with us all this time. I experienced a beautiful sunset from inception to the end and it was an amazing experience. I took loads of pictures, not very good one as I wanted to see and feel it more through my naked eye than through the lenses of the camera. But I am not very good with words and expressions, so I do not even know how to describe the beauty I saw, the feeling I felt and the pleasure I got! When I got down from the bus, I had to look for a taxi and found one immediately although the ride from there to the hotel seemed very long, may be I was kind of tired after the bus ride. I did not close my eyes for a moment other than my regular blinking throughout the journey; it was too beautiful to miss even a bit of it! The hotel address was a bit confusing and it took me few minutes to figure out the right hotel. Anyway, the reception representative told me that the room I would be given is just for that night and next morning I have to be moved to a different room. I was okay with that. The hotel had nice breakfast and nice internet service with a beautiful garden at the back. I was hungry and was not sure if I should walk several blocks to get some food or just stay close and eat locally. There was a place next door and it seemed like another hotel but had a nice big restaurant in it. They were open and I was hungry, so it clicked well. I had a nice chicken soup and then a dessert, flan. The soup was pretty good and the amount was a lot almost two people could eat. The soup was yummy and it was made out of the stock of an entire chicken, the large piece of chicken was also part of the meal and I had to take it out of the soup as it was so much for me! I tried this type of soup in Santiago, Chile. It reminded me of a chicken soup I had there in the other side of the river where the restaurants were not at all crowded but the food was great.


Something very interesting happened in the hotel I went to eat. I asked at the desk if they had any tour guides or brochure for Quito city tour. They showed me some and I took them and was going through those while eating my meal. Then I asked a few questions about the tour, the manager or the front desk guy came and asked me if I would be interested for a tour all day tomorrow by his own car, it would be less expensive than the regular tour. I thought for a moment and realized that was not a bad idea!

So, next morning he picked me up from my hotel and in the car was also his wife. That was very sweet of him to bring his wife along as I was feeling a bit awkward just going for touring with a stranger! He introduced me to his wife and she seemed nice, she did not speak much as she could only speak Spanish and I could only speak English! But we had a nice communication three ways and he interpreted her words to me and mine to her. It worked quite well. We drove all the way from the hotel to the Mitad del Mundo (Spanish: Middle of the World). It is a tract of land owned by the prefecture of the province of Pichincha, Ecuador. It is located in the San Antonio parish of the canton of Quito, north of the center of Quito.

The grounds contain the Museo Etnográfico Mitad del Mundo, a museum about the indigenous ethnography of Ecuador. The 30-meter-tall monument, built between 1979 and 1982, was constructed to mark the point where the equator passes through the country in the geodetic datum in use in Ecuador at that time. A line down the center of the east-facing staircase, and across the plaza, was meant to mark the equator, and countless tourists over the years have had their pictures taken straddling this line. In the modern datum of the World Geodetic System (WGS84), which is used in GPS systems and computer mapping products like Google Earth, the equator is placed about 240 meters north of the marked line. This discrepancy is partially due to increased accuracy but primarily due to a different choice of mapping datum. Similarly, the line marking the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in England is roughly 100 meters from the exact zero of longitude as indicated by GPS receivers.

The pyramidal monument, with each side facing a cardinal direction, is topped by a 4.5 meter diameter, 5-ton globe. Inside the monument is a small museum that displays elements of indigenous Ecuadorian culture, such as clothing, descriptions of the various ethnic groups, and examples of their activities. Mitad del Mundo contains other attractions such as a Planetarium, an amazing miniature model of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and restaurants. On weekends, Mitad del Mundo's Central Plaza is host to varied musical and cultural presentations for tourists.

A small town surrounding the monument at the Museo Etnográfico functions as the tourist center, replicating a colonial Spanish town and called "Ciudad Mitad del Mundo" (Middle of the World City).

This was one of the reasons for me to come to Quito, I took lots of picture and me standing on the equator line, it was fun.

Our next destination was supposed to a volcano but I realized that Anthony, right? If I remember the name of the guy correctly, and his wife stayed outside the attraction area waiting for me and I was there for about 3-4 hours. I also watched the show inside the planetarium. I felt bad for them even if they did not seem to be upset. The good thing was that Anthony brought his wife, I think she was Sandra, if I recall correctly. They had some nice time together and also he felt good that he is with his wife on his day off and also making a bit of side income. May be, I do not need to feel that bad! Anyway, now we decided that the Volcano idea can be dropped as it would take long to drive there and besides, I am more interested to see the old town and all the beautiful establishments, squares, monuments and churches than the Volcano. I did not want to miss seeing the main part of the city which is a big attraction for outsiders. I have seen Volcanoes in North Island in New Zealand and also near Puerto Varaas, Chile. It was another 40 minutes drive as this place is out of Quito and a secluded area by itself.

The very first thing we went to visit was a beautiful architecture Gothic church and we went inside it was gorgeous, I took lots of pictures, it is so huge and so nice and peaceful inside! Then we drove through the city and reached to a place where all the main squares are and several official buildings and monuments and another very pretty church. We also went inside a convent that was very well kept and I had a quick tour inside that. Again the couple waited outside during the time I was inside. Anthony warned me that I should be careful about the camera as there can be pickpocketers and thieves around and they always target the tourists as they have dollars (even if US$ is the official currency for Ecuador, Da!), traveler’s checks, foreign passports, expensive camera and other gadgets. I took his advice well and started carrying my little backpack bag in the front like a baby! We stopped at quite a few stops on the way to the parking garage where he kept his car. So, I was talking to Sandra in my mui mui pokito Spanish and she was doing the same with her little sweet English. It was a 20 minutes walk and we enjoyed each other's company quite a bit. I took quite a few picture of this couple and promised them that I would email those. I am so bad, I should have done that although I am pretty sure that I still have their contact and therefore, I can do that, now, it is better than never!

After coming back to the hotel I gave Anthony the amount he asked for and I added lots of tips in that as I thought that it was the best way for me to visit Quito as I was on my own. I felt very good! I still had few hours to look around the close-by areas near my hotel and I found some good food place around. I found some amazing stores that had unique gift items and some very unique pieces made locally. In fact most of them were made out of some breakable material and I was only carrying my backpack. Therefore, I decided to not buy much except for my magnets and small souvenirs. I have to either come back here or have my friend, Mayra who is from Quito and now lives in NJ, bring some items from these stores when she visits here. In fact, it is time to leave Quito and I am flying back very early morning for my flight, already arranged a taxi and off to the airport. This is the last day of my almost 3-month long travel to South America. My mind and eyes are full of memories and images from all over South America. I started in Brazil, and then traveled through Uruguay, Paraguay (just a little bit), Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. I only saw a portion of the beauty these beautiful countries have and hope to come back some other time when I CAN but the experience I have gained will last until the last day of my life. I was lucky to be with a group and not travelling by myself, but I was also lucky that my language barrier was not a obstacle for my travelling as the tour managers in the four back to back trips I did were all great people, nice personality and extremely helpful and great resource for any and all type of information. I would suggest my travel lover friends to use GAP adventures if they feel like traveling but do not want to go through the hassel of putting the plan in detail but have an overall idea. Also, the mix in the group is very interesting, there were 65 years old in the team and also 18 years old, but it blended fine as one common goal of everyone who comes here is to see, to know, to experience new places, new culture and people from all different backgrounds. The world in your mind opens up so much while traveling that it amazes you every time you experience something new. I loved it all even if at times I felt a little discomfort, felt a bit homesick and missed family and friends but most times I just kept myself awake NOT to miss a bit of it!

My next trip is in planning stage, I am thinking Eastern Europe and Central Europe, countries or rather cities in mind are Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Bled, Krakow, Warsaw..............

Banos - A small town surrounded with greens and mountains on one side

People come here to get spa, massage, manicure, pedicure and all types of pampering, you name it, it is there. I was dying to have a nice relaxing massage and when I came here I felt that thee weather the atmosphare and the look all of them are in favor of my massage desire. We went for a nice dinner whre the food was local and tasty, goo choice by Manuel again. Next day morning I have few hours as i am leaving 2 days earlier for Quito then the rest of the team. In fact, Banos would be my last day with everyone in the travel group. So, next day morning, without wasting much time, Nicole and I went for a massage and we both loved it. Mine was a massage lady and she was quite good but Nicole's was a man, she asked for a female but they did not have any other female available for the service. She initially did not like the idea but loved the massage, may be, you can ask her about the experience:) I was relaxed and fresh. Now it is time for me to explore little bit of Banos and then time to say goodbye to evereyone. I found Banos to be a very small town with a nice park type set up in the middle of the square and lots of trees, long and high ones. The mountains are at the back of our hotel and it really looks very pretty. Anyway, time to leave all. I decidec to skip the last part of the trip of 4 nights of camping in the Amazon forests in a lodge. This could be a different experience but I was restricted to get yellow fever vaccination due to my medication and that puts a binding in me going there inside the Amazon. I would hopefully do that some other time in my life if I can. I did not take a chance on medical ground as you never know what can cause what!!!!!!!!!!
My team was quite small in this trip so, it was Nicole, Rachel, John and the Canadian guy, oh, i can't recaall his name at this very moment, but I know it, oh!!! and ofcourse our very nice and very efficient and cute tour manager, Manuel. They all came to drop me off at the bus station where I was taking a 5 hours bus ride to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Adios Amigas to my travel group........

Cuenca - The most beautiful city in Ecuador

After two bus rides and a taxi ride, we reached Cuenca around 8 pm in the evening. The city looked quieter than we expected even if it was a Saturday night. We went to a near by mall where we ate at Burger King, this is probably the first time in my entire trip I had fast food and that also from an American chain. It tasted good after a long time. I had some ice cream afterwards but it was not that great. Going back to the hotel, Rachel and I planned to go out for dancing with few other guys. We had a little adventure in getting a parking, one of the hotel caretakers was driving us that night and the large lines for the clubs were interesting to see. The music was mostly Ragae and it was very crowded. My dance partner was a pretty good dancer and we danced for sevelar hours and got home late, almost at 4 in the morning. We were exhausted and just went to sleep immediately. Next day morning we saw Cuenca in daylight and it is truly a beaautiful city, it is supposed to the most beautiful cities in Ecuador. The buildings were colorful. Nicole, my on and off roommate for this part of the tour was with me and we walked through lots of attractions like statues, nice churches, old buildings, colorful monuments, stores and houses. There was a bazaar area which was a bargain place for anything and everything. I found a very nice tender coconut to drink and even the inside stuff was so good! Nicole was surprised at my obsession with tender coconut water. I was carrying it and walking with it until I properly finished my drinks. Then I told the seller to break it so that I can eat the soft layers inside, oh, I gotta tell you, it was so delicious and I felt like taaking some with me while coming back to the USA. The place we went for dinner today was alright, nothing outstanding, but it did fine for the appetite. We watched a movie that night, I cannot remember the name now, but you all know that movie, it is an animaation movie and was the 2nd part of something similar before. It was not a good mivie at all but was something fun to remember about as we saw it in Cuenca. We did a lot of walking throughout the old and the new portion of the city. During the weekend the city is kinda dead other than the Saturday nights and Friday nights in some areas. We did not see much traffic sometimes no traffic, during Sunday while we were walking through the streets of Cuenca. I found some cool copies of Gayasamin's paintings in mud.

We are going to Banos tomorrow. Until then.......goodbye 

Crossing border of Peru and going to Ecuador

This was a memorable experience for me as I almost got stuck in Peru for not having an entry stamp in my passport. Not sure how that was possible. I was standing on a long line in Puno, the first entry point of Peru and after all the waiting, they took my form and passport but returned the passport without a stamp. My mistake was not to check if they put the stamp or not, I almost took it for granted that they would, that is what they took my passport for. But the reality was, they never stamped the passport. That means I have been in Peru for the last 24 days and visiting all the places but my status is ILLEGAL!!!! US citizens do not need any VISA for entering Peru but need a stamp in the passport. Many many thanks to the team leader, Manuel for getting me out of the immigration office after 3 hours of continuous persuasion with the officer in charge. Finally, they gave me an entry as well as an exit stamp for the same day which makes my Machu Pichu Stamp invalid as it is dated before my entry date of Peru according to my passport. But nothing else could be done, technically they could put me in the jail for getting into the country illegally!!!!!!!!!

The story does not end here. I was the only US citizen in the travel team so I always had to fill out extra forms and stuff in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia where everyone else(mostly from UK and Australia and Canada) were done with their immigration in a minute. It is unfortunate but may be, it is because the way US Immigration treats the people from most of these South American countries! My earlier team leader, Ale said that she studied in California for a year with an exchange program and still was denied for a visitor visa for the US in the later years and she would love to visit NYC if she could come to the US. She seemed very upset for being rejected by the US immigration for her visa even if she paid $140 non-refundable. Same story with few others from Bolivia and Peru, Manuel said the same. He stood for hours to get an interview with US Consulate in Lima, his $140 was taken but after the 2 hour long interview, they rejected him for the visa and suggested to rather visit Europe!!! So, Manuel, Ale and many other young stars who have love for places like NYC without even being there are not able to come and visit due to the strict immigration process to visit the US, sometimes not making any sense, why?????

BTW, when my things were sorted out fine in the border of Peru, I was all set for entering Ecuador but Nicole, an Australian girl who was traveling with us realized that they did not put a stamp on her passport in the Peru border while exiting! So, while entering to Ecuador, the immigration officer would not put the entry stamp on her passport without the exit stamp of Peru. We basically took lot of things for granted just the way the US, UK, Australia and most other West European countries work, but this was South America! We should have kept our expectation low and made our efforts better to avoid such situations. This was one of the best learnings during this trip. If I was traveling on my own , I would have been more careful to make sure I watch, observe and notice everything but I guess I depended on our team leader more than I should have. It really was not his responsibility by anyone's standard. Good learning!

Mancora - A beach town in the north of Peru

We got to Mancora early morning, around 6 am. It was still dark and the hotel was not ready but the resort we stayed was amazingly beautiful. It was probably one of the most beautiful hotels/ lodges in my entire journey. The sea was right in front of it. I saw the lights of dawn coming up and the sunrise, it was pretty although nothing could beat the sunrise I saw in Paraty, Brazil! It was very quite as everyone was sleeping. Nicole and I got our room but I did not feel sleepy at all. I went for a walk on the beach and it was very pleasant. I saw the scorpios running around and coming out of their home and then going back in. I tried to follow them but they are too fast or I am too slow! I saw some birds flying around the seashore. Few men were doing their morning exercise. I came back to the hotel and rested for some time. We met at noon for lunch and get some info about the town. The beach started getting crowded and by the afternoon it was very crowded, almost like Bondi beach in Sydney or Point Pleasant in NJ! But this looked even more crowded as it is a small beach compared to those. Lots of surfers were surfing there. The weather was very hot and quite humid as well. Nicole and I went to the town center and had some lunch, it was not good, probably wrong chice, anyway it was okay for once. We then had icecream and also checked out all the shops there. I bought a yellow dress with halter neck, it was Nicole's choice, I was reluctant with the color but liked the style. But then at first Steve and Tanya (a married couple from England who were having their 15 months long honeymoon around the world) and later Tavern and Elle (they were my travel mates and happened to like each other) passed me while I was trying the dresson and they all voted for the yellow dress and i kind of liked it as well. So, I bought that. We stopped by at a jewellry store and there was a lady who could do braids. I asked how much for my hair if I wanted to do them allover my head. She said it would be only 40 Soles (equivalent to 12 USD) and I was very excited to get my hair braided for the first time like that. We went back to the hotel and then came back around 3ish and it took her almost 3 hours to do all the braids and she did it very nicely. I was so happy and so excited to see those braids. Everyone said it suited me well. I got a lot of tan, so I looked very South American , I suppose! I put on my new yellow dress and Nicole was wearing a new dress in green that she bought on the same day. So, we both got very dressed up to go for dinner with all the others in the team. I probably did not mention about Nicole, she is from Queensland, Australia but lives in London now. She got her hair braided from London before coming to this trip, her hair is blonde and short but she got extentions with highlights, those looked so good on her! I loved her braids. I wanted to do mine anyway but her braids definitely inspired me even more. She has been a good company since Lima. Next day, I went back to the stores again and bought two more dresses, one is red and one is purple, they are both beautiful, I was missing my cloth shopping so I had to do this:) I ran out of money twice so I had to withdraw money from the ATM and them get changed into smaller notes from the bank. I also discovered a place where they were selling strawberry juice, so I had one inside the restaurant and took away another one. They were so yummy. I am not a big strawberry fan but I had strawberry juice several times in different places in South America and they were excellent, I became a big fan by now. Rachel, an English girl who is also my team member since I started my trip from Brazil loves strawberry juice, so I was planning to bring her back to this place. Yes, later in the day I came back to the shops with Rachel and also had my third strawberry juice for the day! We

went for dinner at a place quite nice but we went for dessert to the same place that we had dinner the night before and it was the lemon pie, OMG, it was still so yummy, one of the best I ever had. Rachel and Nicole had another one to share after their first one.

I would definitely miss this place as it was the perfect beach town and summer weather although it got a bit too hot during the second day but the nights were pleasant.

We will be going to cross the border of Peru and go to Ecuador tomorrow.

Trujilla, Huanchaco and Chan Chan - West of Peru

We took a bus and went to Huanchaco which is a fishing village in the west of Peru by the coast line. It is also very popular for surfing. Our hotel was right by the shoreline and sitting at the balcony you could see the waves coming and hitting the shore. Our team leader, Manuel took us to a nice restaurant for lunch and the food was really good. I walked around the place after lunch, then surfed in the net for some time. I was looking for an ATM to draw some money. It charged me 10 bucks for drawing money but did not even prompt me about it, just took my money! I bought some magnets as I collect them from all over the world wherever I go. But when I gave a note of 50 Soles to the shopkeeper in the store to pay for my magnet, she did not have any change, so she went to look for change from other stores and finally it took her almost 25 minutes to get some change. I realized that the sale was quite poor in most of the souvenir stores, probably it was not the peak season for tourists, I suppose.

We went to the neighboring towns in a guided tour next day and stopped at the city center of Huanchaco. There was a nice square in the middle as most of the south American cities. The buildings were nice and colorful and the designs and architecture was quite interesting. We then went to see some pre-colombian archeological sites.

The amazing archaeological city of Chan Chan is located just a few miles outside of the city of Trujillo. The valley in which it is found is known as the Moche Valley, and in terms of importance, Chan Chan figures among the most prominent historical sites in all of Peru. The Chan Chan ruins are spread over a fairly wide area. Chan Chan was very interesting among the other archeological sites in Peru. It was all made of mud, so they had to protect those from damage by rain and erosion by covering them properly. Part of it was remaining of the original built but most of it was restored afterwards copying the form of original built. Both Huanchaco and Chan Chan are within Trujilla. The meaning of Chan Chan is probably Soul Soul, as the locals think, but the word comes from Pre-Inca time, so it cannot be confirmed.

We had some nice dinner at one of the beach restaurants and went to the bus station for our night bus to the next destination, Mancora.

Lima - The capial of Peru

We came to Lima from Nazca and it was not that far , only three hours of bus ride. A lot of our team members were finishing their trip in Lima , so we had a big get together there. Leah, Katie, David and quite a few others went back to their home from Lima. Nicole , a new girl joined us from Lima so, now we are only six and the team leader. Tavern, a Canadian guy who has been traveling with us since Brazil left Lima to meet his girl that he met in the trip in Huanchaco a day earlier than we would go there as Elle, the girl in question was teaching there in a school! We had a bit of drama in the last evening in Lima between two girls and we all witnessed it, I won't mention any names but it went a bit dirty than you would think!

Lima is quite a big city. I was quite surprised to see the city center and it was huge! We went to a museum with Catacomb in it. Catacombs are ancient, human-made underground passageways or subterranean cemeteries composed thereof. Many are under cities and have served during historic times as a refuge for safety during wars or as a meeting place for cults. The first burial galleries to be referred to as catacombs lie beneath San Sebastiano fuori le mura, in Rome. The derivation of the word itself is disputed and it remains unclear if it ultimately derives from the cemetery itself or from the locality in which it is found. There is no doubt however that the San Sebastiano catacombs are the first to be referred to as such.

We went to another museum where they showed all the demonstration of different types of punishment and it was quite disturbing and strange to visit! We saw a number of churches from outside as well as from inside and they were all beautiful in their design, articraft and architecture and interiors. In all over South America the Catholic churches are a huge part of each of these countries and a lot of money had been spent for building these churches. Some of them even have large amount of gold-plated metal inside. There was this shopping mall right by the sea where we went for clubbing and then went there again next day. It was really beautiful but quite pricy. Leah bought some clothes from there and I helped her in choosing them.

After everyone left, next day Rachel, Jenny (an English girl who traveled with us some part of the journey and then left. She came to visit Rachel on the way to take a flight from Lima. She stayed with us in our room and three of us went out for dancing after coming back from dinner with the boys (David and John, David is a going to-be school teacher, John is an architect, both from UK). The food was great but the service was not. The first place where we went for dancing was a Karaoke place but was pretty dull, so we went to the MiraFlores area where we went the night before with rest of the group and then checked out few places. Most of the places were pretty dead because it was a Sunday but we got into one place which seemed alright. Rachel met a nice Israeli guy as his dance partner, a cute Peruvian guy was dancing with Jenny and i first danced with a Peruvian guy and then an Israeli guy (his hair was literally stinking!), so I showed an excuse of knee pain ad came back to the table we were sitting at. It was fun dancing although not as much fun as in Cusco or in Montevideo!

We left Lima the next day and took a bus to our next destination, Huanchaco, a fishing village in the north of Peru.

Nazca - where the famous Nazca lines are

We came to Nazca by a bus ride from Arequipa. The area where the hotel was located, looked pretty bad, almost outside the town after a large slum area. But the hotel seems alright. We were there only for a day and the whole idea is to fly through in a scenic flight to see the Nazca lines. It was a bit pricy but we all decided to do that as there was no other way of seeing the Nazca lines. The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, these are largely believed to have been created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE and 700 CE. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks or orcas, llamas, and lizards. I got a picture of the monkey while flying but the plane was way too bumpy for taking pictures. We all felt sick due to the bumpiness but we all survived fine without throwing up. I have taken helicopter and scenic flight rides before and they are never pleasant as they are so small and bumpy but I did it again, probably I won't do it again anywhere else. But then, I think I said that before also. My sister says why do you pay for a ride that makes you feel sick. Her point is valid but then you could not see some amazing stuff otherwise!

Arequipa - The White city of Peru

We took a flight to Arequipa from Cusco and it was quite pleasant, not that eventful. However, we were all little late for the boarding and all of our names were called as everyone else boarded already. Most of the people were nervous to fly within South America as we have been doing overland travel so far. this was my second flight in South America, so I felt alright as i was fine with the first one to La Paz. Arequipa is called white city as most of the main buildings in this city are made out of a particular type of lime stone and that is white.

We had our first meal in a burger place and the food was quite good for the price, the city was nice to walk and the main square has a Cathedral on one side of it. We did not spend much time there when we first got there. We had dinner in a Crepe place as Manuel suggested and yes, it was really good crepe , I had a fruit and creme crepe.

Our plan was to go to Coporaque where we would stay 2 nights as it was near Colca Canyon. We would come back to Arequipa for an additional day after we finish our trip to Colca Canyon and Colca Valley.

As planned after visiting Colca Canyon, we came back to Arequipa again. I took a walk around the city on my own and found a salon where they would charge only 30 soles (Equivalent to 10 USD!) for shampoo, conditioning, wash, blow dry and straightening of my hair. So, I got a chance to pamper myself that evening. Later on, we all went out for dinner together. My stomach was not that great so I only had a soup that night. Next morning, we had the entire day to us and our bus-ride was not until 9 pm at night. So, Leah(a Canadian girl from Van Couver, BC) and I went to visit the famous Santa Catarina Convent that Manuel (our tour guide) suggested me to visit. It was about 25 minutes walk to the convent from our hotel and the convent was quite interesting, it was painted in lots of different colors, the rooms of all the nuns were kept and preserved pretty well, even their belongings were displayed as part of the museum. It was the first convent that I visited in so much detail. Their way of their living, cooking, praying, dining -everything was well captured in the presentation or display. It was a mixed feeling to visit a place like that as they went through a lot of hardship in their life.

Leah and I both realized that the Crepe place called Crepisimo was right across the road from the convent where we had dinner the first night in Arequipa. Leah wanted to straighten her hair in the same salon I did the day before and in the mean time I went to use the internet during that time. We both wanted to come back to have a late lunch cum dinner at Crepisimo, so we did. When we were about to finish our food, the rest of the team just got in to the crepe place for food, we all loved the food there. Our next destination is Trujilla, it is a fishing village in the north of Peru.

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.

Pucon - I was there at a very wrong time of the year, it was raining crazy, so I left for Santiago

I have no comment to make about Pucon as I saw a flooded town and nothing else, reminded me of some parts of Dhaka in the rainy season during my childhood in Bangladesh, honestly, I hated to be there. Anyway, I came up with an exit strategy with few others in our travel group and left Pucon two days earlier than scheduled and now I am in Santiago, Chile, so far love this city!

Porto Varaas - a nice but windy and rainy town when I was there

I did not do much in this town other than walking in the street of this small town and having meals and breakfast and snacks when needed. It would not be fair to comment much about the town, but my walk by the lake was quite nice. We went up to see the volcano but it was too rainy and misty, could barely see anything. The rainforest we went to was quite nice and pretty even if it was raining, the leaves of the trees were bright and colorful. BTW, I drank tap water from the hotel as I forgot to buy bottled water and was still fine, may be the pollution was not that bad in this town, well that is definitely something quite positive. I had my hot chocolate again and it was quite nice probably better than the ones in Bariloche but not as good as Colonia though.

Bariloche - Another beautiful town, the look and feel and the landscape has lots of similarity with Queenstown in South Island, New Zealand

I loved Queenstown and I almost cried to leave that town, I could possibly move to Australia just to be close to Queenstown. This town reminds me of Queenstown. We took the cable car ride up to the hill top and then the view of Patagonia was just absolutely stunning, I became wordless seeing the beauty, could not stop taking pictures but believe it or not, there was no way to capture that beauty through a camera lens. We also had a very good lunch at the rotating cafetaria on the top of the hill. It was such an amazing experience! I just loved it all. I watched the sun setting but it was freezing cold outside, still I took a lots of picture. I went for horse back riding the second day in Bariloche for almost all day long with few hours break for a BBQ lunch. I got soaked like a wet cloth in both halves of the day but still loved the ride and the natural beauty around the area, on the mountain top, saw a rainbow and some deer. It was a good re-cap of my riding skills after quite a few years!

Buenos Aires - Paris of South America

It is an amazingly beautiful city with rich architechture and history. One of the main street had 10 plus 7 = 17 lanes for two ways, such wide roads, I can´t remember seeing so wide roads back home in the US. The city offers a lot of places to visit and lots of activities. I was happy to be there 3 days but I could be there more days than that. Since I did not see all that the city offers, I will definitely come back here some time in the near future. I loved the neighbourhood called La Boca, you can see such colorful display of the houses and the shops and restaurants. You can see street tango and lots of interesting little shops with great art and handicraft items. I could not resist myself in buying few custom jewelry for myself and some amazing magnets, those were done by a local artist. I felt like going back there but had no more time. There were quite a few museums but went to see only one , the national fine art gallery at Recoleta, it was very nice, some of the works were really great and very beautiful, something I did not see before. I think I missed out in the modern decorative center and also the modern art museum of Latin America, also there were some beautiful botanical garner and few other places that I wished to go but had no time. Next time when I get to Buenos Aires, I am definitely seeing all of those and another great Tango show. Oh, BTW, I did go back to see another Tango show at Tortini, which is the national Tango institute in the country. The show was quite good but not comparable to the one we saw the nioght before. Did I tell you that I got some Tango lessons as well, and the guy who was teaching me made me look like a great dancer, belive it or not I do not know ¨T¨of Tango but he lead very well and I felt like a real dancer, wow! Did I mention my recent obsession of submarino, I started having this in Colonia but continued in Buenos Aires. It is basically hot chocolate but they only give you hot milk with a dark chocolate bar and you let the dark chocolate melt in the hot milk and keep starring, oh, it is so yummy!