La Serena -22/24 de enero 2011

After a very long bus ride (more or less 18 hours) I arrived in La Serena, a city on the cost, at 6 in the morning.
I found a hotel, had a very nice nap and went to town. La Serena is very nice, with its churches, theaters and markets. I watched for a bit a music band playing on ¨la plaza¨, there were dancers with them, wearing traditional clothes. It was great, i liked it so much I bought the CD. After that I found a chinese buffet restaurant and since i hadn´t eat for 24 hours I can tell you I ate like crazy! That was good! And I went to the Japonese garden,un lugar muy bueno, and then walked to the beach, front and back which is located at 3kms from the center, but since I wanted to see an Iranian movie at some film festival (for free) I didn t stayed, just to refresh my feet fand saw the movie. I ve already seen it but it felt so good to finally see other thing that americans ¨mierdas¨.
There was some free concert and people dancing la cueca chilena. Here´s a link for a video.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWC69PT-KrQ&feature=related


I stayed to a place very close to the main square ¨La Plaza de Armas¨ and the party of folkloric music lasted until 1 or 2 am!
The next day, completly out of nowhere, I met randomly my friend Inbar from the Ecotruly that we´ve met in the lac Titicaca as well. We had a great day, went to the museum, we had the best crab chupe (sort of crab meat in cheese and bread stuff) we went to the beach (it s really nice out there) then had a salad and coffee and went to see a movie in the mall which is right next to the bus station and she had her bus at midnight. We saw the last Disney, it was so cute, and there´s absolutely no problem to understand it in spanish, which is really nice.


The next day I took a day bus to Santiago de Chile. With a great memory of La Serena (except that the sun burned my wings so bad I couldn t walk for two days).

San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama is a village-oasis in the desert, still in the Norte Grande region, surrounded with volcanos (like the Licancabur, 5916 mts high, that dominates the village).

I arrived at night but a very nice boy drove me to his hostel, which was cheap and very nice, I shared a small dorm room with a chilean: Gabriel. The next day I visited the town and mu

seum, and on the afternoon I met my friend Sergio, a friend of a friend that I´ve met in Poland, he´s a guide in the mountains. He showed me around, we had a beer and I came back before night. I bought some fruits and veggies at the market, made myself a salad and went to sleep. The next day I rented a bicycle and went to the ruins of Pukara de Quitor, from the XII century, one of the last bastion of resistance against the spanish invasion. From up there, you have a great view on all the oasis.

I went to the mirador where the view is even more spectacular, and took my bike and continue to Catarpe.

There´s a small church at 9 kms from there and apparently some Inca ruins that I didn´t find or recognize.

After all the biking, I went to the vallee of death to try some Sandboarding, it was great but really tiresome, as we had to go up the hill everytime and it s the most arid desert of the world, and it was something like 45 degrees.

After this, we went to watch de sunset and most of all, the moon rising, cause it was the full moon that day , all that on the Moon Vallee . It was spectacular! Really amazing. The moon came out of the volcano, all shiny and glaring. We shared a pisco sour with the group and came back to the city.

I was exhausted from all the biking and boarding, slept like a baby. The next day I rented a bike again and tried to find the Aldea the Tulor, but I kind of lost myself plus I didn´t enjoy the big paved road so I came back to San Pedro and went to Pozo 3: the swimming pool in the desert at 3 kms from the village.

I enjoyed a nice fresh swim and met friends of Sergio, they invited me for a barbecue, with wine, great meet, and the best mango salad ever! With a guitar and singing, in this really nice place I spent all afternoon with them. It was great. Then I took my bike and came back to the village (it was really tiring) and we all met at Sergio´s place. Had some more food and wine, played some more music, and then I came back to the hostel around 11 pm and enjoyed a good night sleep.

Great memory of San Pedro. Very nice people, nice riding, some good exercise: everything for the soul and body ;)

Chile : Arica, Iquique

I arrived in Arica from Bolivia, there was a rally all weekend and therefore it was really hard to find a cheap hostel, I end up going to a dorm, in a very nice place though, with a kitchen and everything but so expensive.

I stayed there two days, just chilling, being so exhausted. I enjoyed the beach, read a lot, had walks, eat home made salads at the hostel. Arica is nothing like Bolivia, what a shock! Bikinis, shorts, everyone wearing sunglasses, the city of palm trees, organized, clean with clothes shops everywhere and supermarkets.

I went back to Arequipa for the weekend to meet Fabian. Arica is at 30 kms from the border, you have local buses that goes to Tacna every 15 minutes. There are also taxis that goes there (colectivos) I came back this way and it s a really funny way to cross the border.

Anyway, with more stamps on my passeport and more night hours bus in the legs, I came back to Chile, directly to Iquique (after a stop at Tacna at 5.30 am and one in Iquique at 9) I arrived around 2pm, went to eat something: the fish was delicious! Then I looked for a hostel and I end up going to the YMCA place, and although it was expensive (this country is, especially for accomodations) I had my own room with bathroom, hot water and most of all: free dancing class and a gymnasium I could use everytime I want. I loved this place! I really enjoyed myself in Iquique. I had really long walks on the beach all day, I´ve never seen that much jellyfish mutilated on the beach: it s everywhere, but not dangerous, kids play with it. The ocean is so violent, it destroys everything. This is why it s not really possible to swim, just getting wet.

Anyway, I stayed all weekend in Iquique ( I really needed a rest also, the first time in months I woke up a 12! Slept for 11 hours straight, I was exhausted). I really enjoyed the town, with the wooden side walks, there s a nice atmosphere, people are adorable (people in Chile are really really lovely but god they speak fast!). I loved Iquique.

Bye Bye Peru - Bolivia

Peru

My experience in Peru was very good, strangely I heard a lot of tourists complaining about the peruvians, and I do not agree with that. In general, they were nice. I think that Peru is a sublime country, therefore there are more and more tourists invading the place, and therefore the lifestyle is changing, and the mentalities also.
I love the peruvian´s mixture: a peruvian is a mix between a native indian (andean), a chinese, a black, and a spanish. I found them very beautiful physically and you have differents influences on the music, the Arts, the architecture indeed. The Nascas and the Incas civilisations were really advanced, which make them proud. They re also proud of their cuisine (which unfortunately I didn´t taste or found).
I was shocked by the way people despise the indians, in Bolivia it´s the same: usually they are really poor, living from their handcraft, wearing traditional clothes and speaking Quechua.
It was really heart breaking walking in their neighborhood, in Cusco for example, the non turistic zone is ideous of poverty. I can´t, and refuse, to get used to that, seeing children working on the street, woman beaten, people starving, all dirty and miserable. Hard time.
It reminded me of Asia, but the main difference is that in there, the ethnic group don´t live in the cities. Cities are really bad for that.
To sum up, my opinion of Peru is that it´s a wonderful country but I´m scared of the bad consequences and damages the tourism can cause to the country, the people and the culture.

Bolivia

Amazing country with amazing culture. I loved Bolivia, it´s such an authentic country. I enjoyed being a traveller there, as you are directly helping people and you know where your money goes: to the construction of schools, hospitals when you pay the entrance fee in the national parks, when you stay at people´s place, it allows them to built toilets and showers, with hot water, they use themselves. In the Isla del Sol, for example, even with the development of tourism, everything is so quite and preserve, there´s no pollution or degradation caused by the tourists and I hope it will stay this way.
I came during the wet season (sunny and warm almost all the time I might add) and I have no idea how it looks like during the dry season when everybody comes. So this is of course, pretty subjective.
About the people, i found them lovely. People in latin america are really innocent in general.
Bolivians (native indigenes) acted like they were scared of us a little bit. A little suspicious. But I found everybody we talked to extra nice. Everyone. Extremely polite and helpful. Touchingly simple. And when they drink, they get extremely open and invite you all over. Very funny. You see evreywhere the mamitas with their two braids, with bowler hats and pleated skirts. They´re all small and fat (but it´s better in the south).
We really enjoyed the food (I heard about very bad turista experience from some friends in Bolivia, but I guess we were lucky) excellent meat, excellent fruits and fruits salad with honey and "granola"... mmmm my favorite! Excellent advocados!

I wanna go back to Bolivia, the landscapes are just unbelievable and there´s so much I haven´t seen.

Potosi - La Paz

Potosi is one of the main cities of Bolivia, it´s actually one of the highest cities having more than 100,000 inhabitants in the world. it is well known for its mines, hundreds and thousands of it. Silver mines where slavery lasted for decades.
It´s a very nice city, pleasant, with a lot of small streets, the kind of city you won´t expect to encounter in this country. Very nice. After the trek in the Salar, we really needed a rest, we arrived during the afternoon, found a hostel (La campaña de Jesus, an ancient monastery) had diner and went to sleep.
The next day, we had a nap on the afternoon after lunch (still very tired) and went up to have a view on the city, just near the mines, we saw the miners going back home after work. We didn´t want to visit a mine (the main attraction in the city) I, because of the claustrophobia, and Adrien because he didn´t want to be stuck in a tiny place. We visited a museum instead (the Santa Theresa museum) an ancient monastery. It was very interesting, kind of crazy also. Inside we met our friends from the tour, Gunther and Nathalie! So funny. After the best diner ever, we went to a tiny bar "Top bar" to have a drink, it was a small place with very nice music and gentle old barman.
We were both really sick at night and slept horribly.
The next day there was a party in the main square, with music and a lot of flowers, definetely I love bolivian´s street fiestas! We went to buy our bus tickets at the bus station using a collectivos , it´s funny how much you see using the public transportation. People were really nice with us. Really helpful.
We had lunch in a veggie place, and second time we encountered our friends Gunther and Nathalie! Had lunch all together and they left for Sucre. We tryed to have a rest in a hostel and somehow left after some eating and a lot of tea. (They have very good tea)

We spend the night in the bus to Lima, both slept like babies all the way. Arrived in the morning around 6 pm went to the same hostel, had a rest, went back to the indian restaurant for a good lunch menu and did some shopping.

After a short night sleep, Adrien went to the airport and I went to the bus station at 4.30am.

I took the bus to Arica, the way is known to be the most spectacular route that cross the Andes, and seriously it was! Amazing landscapes, mountains, snow, lamas of course, lagoons, clear blue lake, volcanos, and at some point, I woke up surrounded with dunes, sand all over, and the fresh humid air, I knew I was close to the ocean. Such a good air, comparing to the desert. I think I had enough with the dryed cold desert.

Now, it´s time to swim.

El Salar d´Uyuni - 1/4 january 2011

We woke up after a short night sleep, January 1st 2011, in our nice hotel in Tupiza to get on the Tour. We met our team, Bruno and Florence, a couple from belgium, Edgar our driver/guide tour and Maria, our cook. All together we went to different places, to the volcano, some lama´s fields ... in the jeep. It was a long day. We fall asleep in the jeep quite often and end up in a small village. We went for a quick walk, but it was cold, we were feeling the dry air of the desert. We enjoyed some tea and cookies before diner, and think that we went to bed around 8.30pm, cause we had to get up at 4.30am.
So, we saw the sunrise, on the road, I was freezing cold, feeling kind of sick and I can´t really talk about that day, cause i mostly stayed in the car. The "laguna verde", well-known natural monument, some others lagunas, mountains, etc. I think we had lunch next to the warm springs. I remember later that day the geysers, boiling mud under the ground, exploding lava, smelling sulphur, it was impressive!
We slept in a small village another night, this one was hard, so freezing cold, we went to bed so early, under our blankets, right after diner.
The next day we woke up at 6am, walk a bit waiting for the driver. We went to the "Laguna colorades" with a lot of pink flamingos, this spectacular glint, the mount reflection, an incredible light. We saw 4 different lagoons, a volcano in eruption, the Dali desert and "l´Arbre de Pierre".
The last night we slept in a salt hostel, with eerything made of salt ( reminded me of Wieliczka), took a hot shower well-diserved, it was really warm inside the building thanks to the salt, shared a bottle of wine with our tour fellows ("Gunther" the german and Nathalie, Chuj and Sookie, two incredible names!) and went to have a look at the stars, that were truly amazing!

The next day, we left at 5.am, went directly to the Salar (salt marsh), a gigantic desert of salt, white and salty! We watched the sunrise, it was freezing cold, but so incredible. Spectacular.
After a while and some funny pictures we went to the island, with gigantic cactus. We made funny pictures too. Then we had breakfast, and went to the desert itself, had more funny pictures, and finally went to Uyuni. We bought our bus tickets, and went to see the Train Cemetary, had a final lunch with the crew and took the worst bus drive ever to Potosi.

La Paz - Tupiza

We arrived in La Paz in the afternoon, went to the hostel (full of french and japonese!)
went to eat something (very good vegetarian plate for 2) had a quick walk in the night market (crazy stuff) and went back to the hostel, where we met the frenchies, played guitar and sang. It was nice. The next day, it was the day Evo Morales annouced the raise of the price of gasolina of 80%, and therefore everything was doubled priced! We went to the view point up up up the hill, and had a spectacular view of la Paz, and Illimani mountain, then we went down and actually reached the mirador kili kili, full of tourist but still with a very nice view. I took very pretty pictures.
We had diner in the same place that the night before, there was a small concert of brazilian musicians it was so nice. Had a good night sleep. the next day Adrien went (really early in the morning) to do the "death road" tour, biking down the mountain (more or less from 4700 meters high down to a nice hotel with swimming pool in la Paz) He loved it. I went to the Museum of Contemporary arts, I really liked it, discovered great Bolivians painters. Then I went to the market, had lunch at a small table with bolivians for 8 bs (20 groszy, 80 euro cents). Then I met my friend Martina, from eco Truly, we went together in the coca museum. Very informative, did you know that Coca cola was actually a french drink, they invented a non-alkoholic version during the prohibition in the US?
With Adrien, back from his tour, we went to a very pleasant indian restaurant, and the next day we left for Uyuni.

We wanted to do the tour of the salar from Tupiza, a town near the Argentinian border, but went to Uyuni (some bad decision). Arrived there in the morning, there were no buses or train that left for tupiza until night. we end up spending all day in this awful town, well had a hot shower, a nice meal and met nice people as well. Took a bus in 8.30pm, arrived in Tupiza at 4 in the morning, took a cab to our hotel. When we arrived there was a note saying that our trek for the next day was cancelled but therefore we get a night for free.
It was a very nice, comfortable hotel, with hot shower, a pool, toilet paper and a great breakfast buffet. We were actually pretty lucky, cause we could finally get a nice sleep and rest a bit.

The next day we had a walk, by ourself, in Tupiza s mountains, it was amazing, a bit dangerous I might say, but we survived it! We went to the "puerta del diablo" and the " Inca canyon".
the landscapes were incredible, red and green mountains, an amazing view.

We went back to town after a 5 hours walk, in the swimming-pool and started new years eve enjoying ourselves, under the sun, drinking rhum, eating fresh huge mangos. Paradise.
At night we heard there was a party in the central place at midnight, and there was! a bit after midnight some dancers and music players, in carnaval clothes went out. The music was awesome. After a while, everybody joined the different groups, we did too. We danced and laughed with the inhabitants of the region, so nice, I loved the songs. It was really authentic. One of the best new Years eve ever.

We went back pretty early, around 2am, getting ready for our tour in the morning.
At 9am, we left for the South Lipez and the Salar. First of january 2011.