Jungle photos!

So I'm a little behind in the photos. And it was over a month ago I was in the jungle...but some pictures, finally!

Santiago

Made it to Santiago! After a visit to Valparaiso, the cultural capital of Chile. It´s a picturesque town, with colourful houses perched atop rolling hills. And the ocean. Strolled along the cerros (hills) to one of Pablo Neruda´s many houses and to the open air museum, which I couldn´t seem to find. Only part-way did I realize it was all about the murals along the buildings. There are so many impressive murals on the walls in Valparaiso, I hadn´t realized the ones I´d walked past were part of the museum.

It rained in Santiago yesterday, but today it´s beautiful. Saved my trip up Cerro Cristobal for today, and it was glorious. Amazing views of the city with the snow-capped mountains beyond. Santiago is much more picturesque than I´d expected. It´s lovely.

Bs As Markets

I decided I liked Buenos Aires on my first day. I arrived in the barrio of San Telmo on a Sunday and discovered the market. It's lovely. Filled with stalls selling antiques, overflowing onto the streets selling all sorts of crafts. Performers singing and dancing for the crowds. It reminded me of my old neighbourhood. I even took a picture of a store called Portobello Road. I had to. And in the evening, the bands came out, with drums, and the street filled with dancing..

Steaks Argentina Steaks

I´ve been in Argentina about a week now, and have probably consumed my average annual intake of beef already. It´s amazing. The wine too! Adam, you should probably include Argentina in your South American travel itinerary. And Rowan. No need for vegetables here...unless you want!

Lago Titicaca! Pictures!

More pictures! Peru!

Pictures of our Machu Picchu trip! Yay!

The amazing flight from Lima to Cusco. Taking us to what was the centre of the Incan empire.Our Machu Picchu trek...we really weren´t roughing it.

Salt flats

From Potosi, I hopped on a local bus to Uyuni. Seven hours later we arrived. Later, we heard about an accident with the bus from La Paz to Uyuni. Apparently, the driver was drunk and flipped the bus on the way, in the middle of the night. I don't think anyone died, but it was pretty terrible nonetheless.

Shopping around a little bit for the salt flat tours, we decided upon a tour that pretty much sounded like every other tour. Three days through the salt flats, past lagoons and onto Chile. I'd been prepping for the cold weather all the way; accumulating a multitude of sweaters and other warm clothing that I probably couldn't even wear all at once. But at least I had them. For I was told that it'd be -25 degrees at night, and not much in the way of heating or insulation. I don't do the cold very well as most people probably know...

Off we went in our 4x4 jeep at 10:30 sharp (which roughly translates to 11:30...). Six of us and our driver. I'd heard some horror stories about other tours, with terrible guides and bad experiences. But I think the scenery is such that despite all that you still love it. And it really was incredible. The salt flats were amazing; a vast expanse of what once was a lake but now the largest salt flat in the world (I think). We visited a town where everyone was either involved in harvesting salt or used the salt to create artisanal products. Imagine just piles of salt, and houses built with salt bricks. Then imagine a random island in the middle of this white expanse with cacti that are hundreds of years old. Weird, yet beautiful.

And with this vast landscape we took ridiculous photos, 'cause there was no perspective. So why not? I'd bought my little polar bear in Uyuni. Time for some silly photos. But alas, not enough time for the plethora of stupid pictures I'd had in my mind...

Everything seemed...well...fairly non-suspect with our guide. He was fairly quiet; spoke only Spanish. No problem. But little did we know it was his birthday, and hence his excuse to get completely inebriated. To the point of uselessness the next day. We were lucky; we were able to flag down another tour to help us out, including providing another driver. A driver who liked racing through the desert - but at least he was sober! Our driver was pretty much drunk the entire second day. Despite this, we saw some amazing scenery. Beautiful lagoons filled with flamingos; strange rock formations; volcanoes; lots and lots of desert landscapes. It was cold, for certain, but not as cold as I had feared. I hadn't needed the plethora of layers I had acquired. Oh well.

The final day was filled with geysers and more desert landscapes. And a visit to hot springs, which were wonderful. 30+ degree water in amongst just wastelands and the cold. So worth it.

And yes, I made it over the border. No problems. It was amazing the difference as soon as we entered the Chilean side. Paved roads! And it was warm! Finally!

Cerro Rico

I visited the silver mines in the Cerro Rico today. An eye-opening experience. I'm in Potosi right now, the highest city in the world at over 4000m. It was built on the rich mineral deposits of the surrounding "cerros". Mining's a bit less important than at its height, but there are still about 4-5000 miners working the mines.

So I've done quite a few things on this trip, and some of them not quite as relaxing as a luxury cruise ship in the Galapagos (though the sea-sickness wasn't all that comfortable...), like hiking up to 4700m, then 5300m, biking down the "death road" outside of Coroico, taking epic bus journeys... But nothing compared to this. Guess I had a clue when I signed the disclaimer saying sh*t happens, including "cave-ins", which apparently kill quite a few miners. Almost wished they'd just left it at sh*t happens...

We went into the Cerro Rico, donning our coveralls, hard hats with headlamps and bandanas to keep from inhaling the dust, silicon and asbestos. Lots of miners die after working in the mines from respiratory diseases. Not difficult to see why as I had a hard time breathing down there. Definitely not for the claustrophobic. We scrambled and climbed through the mine, at times on our hands and knees, down a couple of levels, knowing the way out was back the way we came in. The mine we were in went about 70m down and about half a kilometre deep into the mountain. There, the miners work for hours on end without eating; just chewing coca leaves. We met a couple of miners, one of whom had been working the mines for 37 years, starting when he was just 11 years old. (It's technically illegal to work in the mines until you're 18, but it's hard to enforce.) Another miner was hammering a chisel into the rock so he could stick a piece of dynamite in it to blow it up. We were down there for only a couple of hours, and I barely made it. It was tough. Respect.