Archive for October, 2009
Buenos Aires tastes good
Posted by Witka in Argentina, South America on October 26th, 2009
Trip to Buenos – dreams came true
Posted by Witka in Argentina, Chile, South America on October 23rd, 2009
In San Pedro we had too much time on our hands. Maybe that´s why we came up with totally useless dreams. Witka dreamt about a cow. Traditional, Polish, black & white cow. We don´t have to mention that such a cow is a rarity in Peru, Bolivia, even in Atacama Desert. In addition to that she dreamt (as usual) about horses. On the other hand Risky was thinking about penguins. He really wanted to see one. Our dreams came true during our over 30 hrs journey to Buenos Aires.
In our coach it turned out we are travelling with 5, huge penguins. Nuns, that is. Risky went crazy. Nuns were travelling to a town of Jujuy. the pronounciation of Jujuy is exactly the same as ´d.ck´ in Polish, so we were a bit disgusted hearing the nuns talking freely about their destination.
When we entered Argentinian plains Witka´s dream came true. She saw a cow. A real, black-white cow. With each kilometre there were more of them. In addition to that horses started to appear. They were everywhere. In meadows, in bushes, in woods, between cows. In streets, on sidewalks, on billboards. In Rosario they were even standing between fast lanes of roads in the centre of the city. They were not bothered by the loud cars, eating their grass in total peace.
Argentina turned out to be a horse & cow paradise. We don´t have to mention Witka loves it a lot.
In Salta we changed buses and after a quick rode (21hrs) we got off in Buenos Aires…
San Pedro de Atacama
Posted by Witka in Chile, South America on October 19th, 2009
After a freezeing night in a Bolivian ´hotel´ at the elevation of 4300 metres we made our way to the border with Chile. It was at least an hour before sunrise and we were passing frozen puddles. It was freezing cold. At the border we noticed asphalt! And not much more. Asphalt looked a bit strange after these days in Bolivia.
We boarded a nice mini-bus to San Pedro de Atacama, located over 2 km lower, in the middle of the driest desert in the world – the Atacama Desert. The journey lasted 45 minutes and every minute we were taking off one piece of clothing. We started with hats and finished with socks (all 3 pairs of them). When we got off in San Pedro it was awfully hot.
It turned out that the next coach to Salta (the city in Argentina we want to get to) departs in 4 days… Therefore we got stuck in this oasis in the middle of a desert.
San Pedro is a town full of sun and dogs. We think it should be named San Perro (Saint Dog) instead of San Pedro (Saint Peter). During our stay here we didn´t meet twice the same dog. We think they work in shifts. All the dogs are very friendly. If they notice something in your hand that makes a way to your mouth they are your best friends. You can count on it. The town is dog-friendly as well. All rubish bins have a wide, comfy opening on their sides and they are hung on two pivot points. Dogs put their heads inside, turn the bin down and organize themselves a buffet.
Witka was very tempted by the advertisements of horse riding in the desert. Risky wasn´t as excited about that idea. We made our 346th compromise and rented two, dusty two-wheel horses. Mountain bikes. We decided to venture into this wild, unfriendly environment the Atacama Desert is. We went to… The Death Valley… Where we encounter very hostile… sand 
Risky identified few more enemies which were: clay and other stone we don´t know an English name for. Apart from that there were no signs of life. Not even an insect, not even a plant. Well, there were few people sandoarding from high dunes, but we don´t think you can count them as natural inhabitants of this place. Fortunately our dusty horses were coping well with all the enemies and after a day of rough ride and interesting hikes we came back to San Pedro.
Days in San Pedro were quite lazy and very sunny. If it wasn´t for the surrounding red desert and hostile-looking volcanoes we wouldn´t notice we were in the driest place in the world.
Bolivia – a country in conflict with asphalt
Posted by Witka in Bolivia, South America on October 17th, 2009
Our adventure in Bolivia began on the shores of Lake Titicaca. From Peruvian Puno we took a bus to Bolivian town of Copacabana. We crossed the border, got the stamps in INmigration Office, went to ´GO IN TOILET´ and greeted few bolivian dogs.
Copacabana turned out to be a pleasant, grey and a bit ran down town with nice people and a lot of dust. In Copacabana we boarded a bus to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. We had to cross lake Titicaca, our bus went on a small, open ´ferry´and we boarded a small boat driven by a 10 year old boy. We have noticed that a lot of very young boys work on ferries, boats and all water infrastructure. Even in Peru. At the age of 10-12 they are experts and handle the boats like pros.
We skip the description of La Paz, a city we wanted to run away from as soon as possible. We were lucky to get tickets on same day 12 hour night bus ride to Uyuni, a town in the south of Bolivia. After three, very impatient hours in La Paz we boarded the bus… Well, our Israeli friends said that it is more like a truck than a bus… But to cover it up there was a beautifull Boeing drawn on both sides of the bus. None of us expected that this 12 hour ride will turn out to be a crosscountry ride. At least it felt like it. We thought the driver get extra points for going through all the wholes and stones on our way. Sometimes we thought the driver is just doing some shortcut through the Bolivian Altiplano withouth bothering about where the road goes… Yes, ´road´ is not an appropriate word here… ´Trail´ or ´track´is more suitable. In the morning, when we got the chance to see anything outside, we noticed that the road, sorry, the trail is just a simple, samdy-rocky path, 1.5-3m wide. We don´t have to mention that the sign posts are a luxury which noone needs in Bolivia. This is one of the main roads in Bolivia. At that time we weren´t aware that we wouldn´t see an inch of asphalt for next 5 days of travelling through Bolivia.
In Uyuni we made a day of rest after this interesting night ride which seemed like a 12hour earthquake to us. In Uyuni, of course, there was no asphalt either. Beside that the town make a good impression on us with its lovely people, sun all day and dusty streets. After a day of rest we decided to take a 3 day ride in a 4×4 through Bolivian salt planes, deserts, lagoons and other wonders of the nature. Together with a Colombian couple, an American girl and a Mexican we boarded a 12 year old Toyota Landcruiser. Witka had a feeling that Risky was more interested in the car than in the wonders of the nature… He chatted with our driver about the performance and properties of the car. It needs to be mentioned that Risky doesn´t speak Spanish and our driver didn´t speak English. But they understood each other perfectly. A miracle.
Our 3-day adventure started at the train cementery and then we went to Salar de Uyuni – the biggest salt plain in the world. A total abstract, we went mad there. We played with salt and perspective, we felt like on a different planet. We spent our first night at a hotel built entirely of salt, in the middle of nowhere. Literally. There were salt bricks, mortar from salt, floors, beds, chairs and tables from salt as well. The food was not salty. Obviously. Inm addition to that we had electricity from solar panels for 3 hours a day. Next days we spend on traversing the deserts, admiring colourful lagoons, volcanos and flemings. Risky most of the time was analising the stones, Witka were shooting pictures. We don´t have to mention that there were no roads there. Many times our driver was just driving through the salt plains, mountains or deserts in a direction known only to him. The last night of this amazing adventure we spent on 4300 metres above sea level, in a very very basic ´hotel´. At night temperature fell well below zero Celsius. This didn´t stop us to go out and see the stars. An amazing show. The stars are organized in an abstract way to us, from the north hemisphere. We found the Southern Cross, waved couple of ´falling stars´and with our fingers and toes frozen we went to sleep. The next day we got to Chile…
Titicaca
Posted by Witka in Bolivia, Peru, South America on October 13th, 2009
Late evening we boarded a night bus from Cusco to Puno, a town on the Titicaca Lake . We were woken by an amazing sunrise and the sun coming out of the lake. No wonder the Inkas believed the sun is born every day in Titicaca Lake.
Titicaca Lake is located at the elevation of 3800 m above sea level and has the area of 8300 square kilometres (230km long and 100km wide). It is divided between Peru and Bolivia. Local people still speak Quechua and many of the Inkas culture and traditions survived here till today. Titicaca is the sacred lake of Inkas. They believed they had been born in the lake.
First thing we noticed in Puno was the way the traffic works here. The town is a simple place organized on the plan of quadras (square blocks of buildings). Not even one of the road junctions has a sign, not to mention traffic lights. Therefore, all the drivers announce their presence by hitting the horns. When you are approaching a junction you cannot see anything until the last second. Therefore you hit the horn and pray other drivers don´t listen to their radios. You can imagine how quiet the streets are A traffic paradise. We had couple of rides with the taxi drivers and we almost hit a bike, almost ran over a tourist and bumped into 3 dogs. And it wasn´t anyone´s fault. It is just the way the town works. Adding to that the sidewalks are often less than 50 cm wide.
We have visited Uros islands on Lake Titicaca. These artificial islands are made of weed. People living there speak their own language and are experts in knitting and crafts. They are leaving in houses made of weed. The commute in boats made of weed. And they eat weed. And fish. We met a family who lives there, we went to their house, seen how they spend their days. Pretty amazing.
We also went to Taquile Island where people do (surprise surprise) knitting and weaving (not sure about the spelling). Their craft was appreciated by Unesco in 2005 and was put on their world heritage list. We learned about the way the local boys show their feelings to the local girls. There are 2 ways of doing it. First – a boy throws a stone at the girl. If the girl puts it up – it means she is interested. If the girl doesn´t move it means the boy is in trouble. The second way is to weave a hat. A boy brings a hat he had done to a girl. The girl puts water in the hat. If the hat doesn´t leak it means that the stitch is very tight which means the boy is a good weaver. That means he has good chance to be her husband. Of course the stone method is more popular. Our guide told us that recently the hats and stones are being replaced by stereos. A boy is walking the streets with his stereo and showing it off. The bigger and more expensive the better. Well, Taquile doesn´t have cars so I imagine their stereo is working here like a good car. Not sure if the girls prefer the stereos or the hats.
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