Montevideo, Uruguay

We spent only two days in Montevideo, Uruguay. The city was a lot smaller than Santiago but it was nicer in a lot of ways. The city itself seemed very laid back and we noticed that even though they didn't have marked lanes on their roads they still drove better than the people in Chile. It also seemed like more people spoke English; especially people at the bus stations and at retail stores. A lot of the people there looked white/European and were very tall; it was the opposite of the people in Chile. They also pronounce "ll" like "sh" like they do in Argentina. So, pollo ("chicken") is pronounced "po-sho" here, but it is "po-yo" in Chile. We weren't aware they did this so we had a hard time understanding them at first.
The first day in Montevideo we didn't do much. We only went to the bus terminal to buy ferry tickets to Buenos Aires. While we were out we noticed that everyone in Uruguay drinks Mate while walking around! We later asked the hostel workers about that and they said it's a Uruguay thing. They all carry around a thermos of hot water and their mate and drink it on the go.
The second day we spent out exploring the city. We went to the center of the city, the artesanal market, and the Ciudad Viejo. One thing I noticed about Montevideo is that they have a lot of statues and fountains. We visited the main on in Plaza Indepencia. There's a statue of General Artegas (pictured above), and underneath that statue is a tomb with his remains. It had information of his achievements on the walls and was guarded by two soldiers. It had a creepy vibe.
One of the main goals we had while in Montevideo was to eat a lot of meat. We accomplished this by going to the Mercado del Puerto in Ciudad Viejo. The whole market is a bunch of restaurants that have huge grills with every kind of meat imaginable on it. It was an amazing site as I've never seen so much meat being barbequed before.

Jeff and I got a parrillada for 2, which ended up being this:
That's a lot of meat! It had 4 small pieces of steak, 2 big pieces of mouthwatering chicken, 2 huge blood sausages, 2 pieces of chorizo, 2 pieces of delicious sausage, 2 cow kidneys, 2 small pieces of intestine, and 2 neck glands. We tried a bite of everything and most of it was absolutely amazing! We weren't big fans of the kidneys, intestines, and blood sausages though. I thought the kidneys and intestines tasted the same and the blood sausages were too sweet for my taste. We were completely stuffed afterwards and we only ate about two thirds of it. Here's a picture of Jeff after he couldn't eat any more.After the huge meal we went to check out the waterfront. There were lots of people fishing on there. We thought that we were on the Atlantic Ocean but after talking with the hostel workers we found out we were actually on a river. Here's a pretty view of the city from the breakwater we walked onto.Later that night we found out from our hostel that there was a football game going on. The worker told us it was their national team for the South American league and it was a quarter final match so it was going to be crazy. We decided to go experience a proper football game. The stadium the match was in was actually where the very first World Cup was played.
The match was against Brasil and luckily we won, even though the final score was 0-0. After seeing how crazy the fans were for their team we weren't looking forward to seeing how they were if their team lost. The fans went nuts during the game. People had flares going, were shooting off fireworks, had smoke bombs, and were throwing streamers. There were also several chants during the game. It was pretty cool to see because nobody gets that into our sports at home. Here are some pics of the fans having fun:Currently we are in Buenos Aires for the month. We rented an apartment right in the middle of the city which is nice. The city is humongous! We are enjoying exploring the different neighborhoods. We'll post pics up soon!

Bolivia!!!

Yes, we made it to Bolivia! It was a very long and extraordinary day. It started with us being in a dubious immigration position. Americans need a visa to get into Bolivia, but the tour company we used has a "special" arrangement with the Bolivian border patrol where Americans can get in for the low, low price of $20! We're pretty sure that the $20 is a bribe. It made us feel particularly uncomfortable.

But, we made it into Bolivia! It's really only a short distance from San Pedro de Atacama. We made it from town to the Bolivian border in less than an hour. After making it through, we stopped at the edge of Laguna Blanca for breakfast. It was freezing cold! Most of our day was spent at 4,300 meters above sea level (13,780 ft.). We snapped this picture at the breakfast stop.


The Bolivian border is in the middle of the Andes Mountain Range. From there, we drove for about 100 km through desert terrain. We had a Bolivian driver in a 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser. There was also a Chilean woman and a Brazilian woman on the tour with us. This was our sweet desert ride:


The main part of the trip was a visit to Laguna Colorada. It's also at about 4,3oo meters above sea level and in the middle of the Andes! It's so bizarre: a colorful water oasis in the middle of colorless desert. Best of all there were lots of animals! We first saw a herd of nine vicuñas! This is a nice picture of one from pretty close.

There were also many flocks of flamingos and there were lots of llamas out there. Notice the llamas have cute hairdos? Well, they belong to people who live out here. They let them graze and eat at the lagoon. There was quite a few of them. We got pretty close, but they didn't seem to like us very much. Carly did get to almost touch the baby, but that didn't pan out.


It's hard to explain how big this valley was. It just went on forever and was surrounded in the distance by mountains bigger than Mt. Ranier! Standing in this valley really put in to perspective how small one person is:


Much of the water around the edge of the lagoon was frozen, but there were a few small hot springs scattered about. This one was probably about 75 degrees:


After we left the lagoon, we climbed to the maximum height of the day: just under 16,000 feet above sea level! I had a little trouble breathing during the day, and it was particularly noticeable when we reached the highest point. Carly said she didn't really notice until we made it to the highest point. Even though all we did was walk around, I got terribly winded!


At the highest altitude of the day is where we got to see some volcanic activity. There were a bunch of boiling pits of doom! Note the cool signs!


After our long day of exploring the Andes, we stopped for a late lunch and a dip in a hot spring. It was probably close to 90 degrees. It felt really nice to just relax in there for a while and enjoy the vast landscape.

After lunch, we made one last stop at Laguna Verde. It's very close to the Bolivian/Chile border. It has an intense green color ('verde' is green in Spanish). We didn't stay long because it was windy and terribly cold. The mountain behind us there is a little less than 20,000 feet tall! That's almost as big as Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska! It just doesn't look so high because we are at 14,000 feet in the picture!


We spent Saturday just relaxing and walking around San Pedro de Atacama. We had a very busy three days exploring the area, so it was nice to lounge in the hammocks. We met Cati, the hostel owner's daughter. She's five years old and oddly amusing. We practiced our Spanish with her. It was pretty fun!


We would've posted more while we were in San Pedro, but the internet was sketchy. Also, power was shut down to the entire town a few times while we were there. This morning we flew back to Santiago for a couple days. We fly to Montevideo, Uruguay on Tuesday morning.

Tomorrow, we're going to hang out with Nacho and our old New Zealand flat mate Ollie! She's from the Czech Republic. We're glad we get to see her one more time since we probably won't see her again before we go home for good.

Vicunas, llamas, flamingos, and foxes! What more could you ask for?

Yesterday Jeff and I went on the Valley of the Moon tour (pictured below). It was a four hour tour where we saw the Valley of the Moon; so named because it is similar to the surface of the moon. It was pretty amazing. We also trekked through the Valley of Death where there were huge sand dunes people can go sandboarding on. We finished the tour by walking up a small mountain to watch the sun set. It was a lot of fun and my shoes were filled with sand by the time the tour ended.Today we went on an all day tour to the Salar de Atacama and the Lagunas Altiplanicas. The main purpose of this tour, for me anyway, was to see llamas, alpacas, guanapos, and/or vicunas. It was a success! Right after we left San Pedro we ran into a llama herd on the road and stopped to take pictures. The next stop of our tour was the Laguna Chaxa.Laguna Chaxa is a Los Flamencos Reserva Nacional. There are three different species of flamingos that live there. They live off the brine shrimp in the lagunas. The lagunas are surrounded by salt rocks and it looked like a valley of coral. Here's a picture of all the salt formations with active volcanoes in the background.
Our next stop was to Lagunas Miscanti and Meniques. The lagunas were located 4200m above sea level (around 13,780 ft)! It was breathtakingly beautiful, literally. We walked about 40 minutes to the lagoons. The altitude didn't bother me, but Jeff was feeling light headed and winded.
On the way to the lagunas we saw a few vicunas in the fields below the road. I was pretty excited, but it was nothing compared to what happened while we were leaving. There was a vicuna hanging out on the road only 20ft in front of us! It ran down the hill when we got closer but I was able to get a shot of it running. And if that wasn't cool enough we saw a zorro culpeo (fox) walking on the rocks next to the road right afterwards.We stopped and had lunch in a small town called Socaire then stopped in another small town called Toconao where we walked through the Jerez Canyon before going back to San Pedro. The tour pretty much took care of my one goal in San Pedro: to see lots of animals. We met some cool people too. There were 5 other people on the tour and they were all very friendly. There was a couple from Thailand who had lived in Washington before and the man actually went to Jeff's community college in Mount Vernon. It's weird what a small world it is.

Tomorrow Jeff and I are going to Bolivia for the day. There's lagunas and hot springs that are located shortly after you cross the border. We weren't planning on going to Bolivia at all since you're supposed to have a visa if you're American. But on our first day in town we ran into this guy from Flagstaff, AZ who works for NASA. The NASA people are testing their equipment in the caves near San Pedro because the climate is similar to that of Mars, which I thought was cool. Anyway, he told us to go to the travel agency they use to go to Bolivia because they can hook you up if you don't have a visa. The travel agency told us it wouldn't be a problem but we might have to pay us$25 each to get across. We'll find out if we have to pay them tomorrow. I'm hoping there will be alpacas there because there aren't any in San Pedro.

San Pedro de Atacama: We have arrived!

Just a quick post and a few pictures!

We left Valparaiso for good this morning. We will be traveling for the next five weeks. Our first stop is San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert in the world! We arrived in San Pedro just a few hours ago. We took the bus from Valparaiso this morning to Santiago. A plane to Calama. Then a bus to here!


It was dark when we arrived, so it's hard to see what the town really looks like. It is a very small town with less than 2,000 residents. The roads are mostly dirt and street lighting is sparse. It's quite cold right now. It will get below freezing during the night and in the 70s during the day.

LAN Airlines was spectacular! The plane was beautiful. The snack was awesome. And Carly was overexcited to get a free beer on a domestic flight.



Here's a dog we saw in Calama. He was small and cute, but he just ran around barking at people who tried to pet him.

Domo Domingo in Valdivia

Pictures of Domo in Valdivia. Most of the pictures were taken at the Kuntsmann Cerveceria.

Valdivia, Chile: Good Beer, Cool Lobos

It's been about a week since we left Valdivia. We've been a bit lazy about the blog. Sorry.

We had previously mentioned that the bus ride was about seven hours, but it was actually about 12 hours! It wasn't that bad though. Most long-haul bus rides leave in the evening and arrive in the morning, so it's easy to sleep most of the ride. Our bus left to Valdivia at 7:30 pm and arrived just past 7:00 in the morning.

We spent four days and three nights in Valdivia, and it was a great trip! We had plenty of delicious beer at the Kunstmann Brewery, and we got to see lots of sea lions (henceforth referred to as "lobos"). It also rains nonstop in Valdivia. When we turned up at the bus terminal in the morning it was pouring down rain and super windy. It rained hard again the next day and the last day we were there. We did have one warm, sunny day.

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LOBOS!!!
There are so many lobos in Valdivia, which is a about 15km from the ocean but on several rivers. The lobos swim upriver and hang out on docks, boat launches, and wherever is comfortable. A lot of them hang out at the fish market, which is right on the water. They have a fence to keep them from coming into the market, but they know that if they hang out there, the fish sellers will throw the the scraps. It's pretty cool!



You can get ridiculously close to the lobos, but there are signs warning that they can be dangerous if they feel threatened. We got kind of close for pictures, but they kind of stink anyways, so we didn't want to get any closer.

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La Cerveceria!!!

Perhaps the biggest draw of Valdivia is the Kunstmann Brewery, which produces perhaps the most German-like beer in all of Chile. Delicious!!! We were there for four days, we went to La Cerveceria three of the days. Carly tried nearly all the beers and I fell in love with their new unfiltered lager. One day I ordered a "mass," which is bigger than a large but smaller than a pitcher. It was about a liter of beer...or a liter of deliciousness as I prefer to remember it.

The food was also amazing! We ordered burgers on our first visit, but we didn't know they were so massive! Seriously, the biggest, bestest burgers in all of Chile. We also had kuchen de nuez (almond dessert), beer-flavored ice cream, and crudos. Prepare yourself for disgustingness: crudos are bread with onions, mayo and...raw meat! See the picture. We didn't know the meat was raw. I'm getting sick thinking about it. Yes, we ate it. It didn't really taste like much, but the raw hamburger texture really was disturbing. Apparently, crudos are a Chilean-German specialty in Valdivia.

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Aside from the lobos and the beer, we did lots else. We visited several parks, including a massive botanical garden. We went on a four-hour boat tour. On the last day, we went to a small town called Niebla about 15km from Valdivia. We then took a 20-minute boat ride to the other side of the river mouth to a town called Corral. Niebla and Corral (plus several of the small islands in the area) have old forts with cannons that are more than 300 years old. The fort we visited in Corral was pretty awesome.


We stayed at a hostel. It was okay. We met a couple goofy Germans and several French people. Best of all, they had just rescued a little kitten. They named her Bowl. She was pretty whiny, but we liked her.



And to finish this post off, here is a slideshow of some random pictures!