Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Jesper
15 April 2016 | Bolivia, La Paz
Currently I am on yet another night bus, this time with a group of horribly irritating Israelis (whom are known that if they leave the army they come with large groups to South America to terrorize the continent without seeking any interaction with other nationalities). Due to the unbearable Hebrew yelling in my ear I turned the music on my iPhone to the highest volume to write down my experiences of the past few weeks.
After hanging out for two days in and around Buenos Aires with my Antarctica buddies, it was time to continue my trip. Since the busride to Santiago normally takes 18 hours, I decide to include a brief stopover in Mendoza. Mendoza is the best known wine region of Argentina. After a very tiring night-bus I fortunately could leave my backpacks at the hostel to explore the city. After 2 hours of strolling around, I was already kinda done, there is not much to do in the center.
After completing all the obligations for the day, which pretty much meant that I had to book a bus and select my bed, I went to one of the wine tastings together with the South Korean Oek. During this free tour they explain the process of making the different wines and it ends with a number of glasses of the Argentinian variant of Champagne and some wine.
The next morning I caught an early bus to Santiago. The ride in general is not very long, the border crossing however makes this a challenge. After the bus passed the Argentinian border we ended up in a kilometer-long traffic jam, the driver obviously didn't really like this either according to the way he maneuvered the bus alongside a steep cliff and past thousands of cars. Apparently a lot of Argentines go for Easter to their Chilean relatives.
Basem (A Syrian - Italian friend of mine from Dubai) was already waiting for me in Santiago. I could crash the next days at his and his Cambodian -American girlfriend Linda's place to explore this metropolis from the center. My Lonely Planet printed a walking tour through the city center which could easily be completed within an hour, which also meant that I immediately could check-off all the city's highlights.
The following day I assisted Basem with selling his home-brewn MenGiMon. After trying many different marketing techniques we figured that it worked best when he was handing out samples and I acted as a tall, blond, Gringo advertisement sign (which drew a lot of attention). All in all it was kind of a miracle that we sold quite a bit, since we both walked around with an expensive phone and certainly no tramp clothes (as opposed to the other street vendors). When we were packing our stuff, we saw on the shocked faces of all the other vagrants that something was wrong, this combined with the volatility that they were picking their wares with, surprised us both. Turned out that the police was coming, and that the thing we were doing was apparently strictly prohibited.
Luckily enough we didn't get a fine, so with the earnings we were able to afford a full dinner and a good night out. During which we encountered an interesting quote; Fidel Castro, the old leader of Cuba, would have said in 1970; "The United States will come talk to us when it has a black president and the world has a Latin American pope". He probably meant to point out that this would never happen, but since both statements are correct, and Cuba and the United States are currently talking about better relations... quite funny.
After yet another morning of being served an awfully good breakfast it was time to say goodbye to my friends and continue the journey to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is known for the heaps of constructions built to great heights on the mountainsides high above the sea and is the cultural capital of Chile. The higher residential areas can be accessed by ascensores (elevators) or by very steep stairs. in this World Heritage Site I again did a walking tour printed in my travelers bible, which ensured I didn't have to find all the impressive viewing points by myself. Valpo, however, is also known by the relatively high amount of crime. therefore, I made sure that I was back at the bus station before sunset.
A 23 hour long journey brought me from here to Calama. At first I was planning to go directly to San Pedro de Atacama, unfortunately all the somewhat affordable accommodation was already fully booked. To make sure I didn't have to sleep a night at the bus station, the Spaniard Phillip and the English Ami and Julia invited me to stay at the hostel they booked, where I could sleep on an additional mattress. Over here I also figured out that most probably some-one went through my bag the previous night on the bus, luckily enough I still had all my valuables, there was only some money missing from my wallet, the thief left me with around 2000 Chilean pesos (around 3 US$) though, what a thoughtful world, to leave me enough money to take a taxi to the closest ATM!!
The Atacama Desert -where San Pedro is located in- is the driest place on earth and from this place close to the Bolivian border there are many excursions. Just like any other place in the south of South America, these prices are way too Western and one pays mostly for transport (unfortunately due to the sparsely populated areas they never heard of a well-functioning public transport system). Fortunately enough there were two Canadian cousins staying in my hostel who had rented a car for their journey through Chile, and we could join them on excursions for a small fee for gasoline.
Besides other hotspots we explored the Valley of the Moon. This incredible plain with nothing but a rugged landscape, craters and vistas that look like no earthly place is probably indeed the closest I will ever come to a moonscape.
In the evenings we hit the road several times to explore the incredible starry sky. Without the presence of light pollution from cities or the moon (we were lucky, the moon rise was hours after sunset) this is one of the best places on earth to spot planets and stars. After coming back from one of our stargazing adventures we already saw the blue and red flashlights of a police car from afar. The American Augie and I tried to hide ourselves in the back of the Jeep, but the agents did apparently already see us. At first we thought they might make a problem because we were with the seven of us in a 5 people vehicle, but this did not really explain the fact that they pretty much putting their guns to our faces. After a few split seconds of staring at us they told us we could go. Such a weird experience
In San pedro we also had our salt-flat tours booked. We already filled up the Jeeps that can accommodate up to six people with people from the hostel that we stayed in the previous night. The coming days I was stuck with the English Bella, Swedish Petter and the aforementioned Ami, Julia and Augie. In the national park Uyuni there are many lagoons with obvious names. Laguna Bianca was indeed white, however, Laguna Verde was more brown than green and Laguna Negra was also more brown than black. Perhaps the most impressive of all was Laguna Colorada with many different colors, accompanied with a great number of flamingos who were difficult to spot in the red waters and grazing herds of llamas on the shores.
The last night of the tour was in one of the many salt-hotels, which meant that as far as it was possible everything was made of salt. These hotels are located on the edge of the largest salt flats in the world, the Uyuni salt flats, of which we already had a glimpse in the evening.
The following day the alarm again rang way too early to admire the sunrise in the center of the flattest piece of earth, a very commercial activity which was characterized by the clicking of cameras from many people that probably will experience this sunrise from behind their computers at home. We were lucky that we stayed longer at this spot until the only hill in the middle of this area was completely empty. Really awesome, everywhere you look around nothing but a plain white surface with in the distance some silhouettes of the mountains.
With some photo stops in between we continued our two hour trip across the plains to the village of Uyuni. I do not know if our driver Eddy was fooling around, but at some point someone came up with the remark that he had his eyes closed for quite a while while we were driving through the national park with 80 km/ h, after a tap on his shoulder and something that looked like a small shock he assured us that there was nothing to worry about.
Some days before our arrival at the Uyuni salt flats I heard that if we were lucky, there would be a small layer of water on the surface of parts of the flats, which changes the whole place into a large mirror. This unfortunately was not the case anymore, still, a good reason to ever return to this unique piece of earth.
To reduce the effects of altitude sickness, the disease associated with the sudden visit of great heights, the drivers handed out Coca Leaves. The effects of these leaves that you have to chew on have never been studied well, but this base of Cocaine at least ensured that -except some withdrawal symptoms- we had a good time without any related diseases.
From Uyuni Augi and I took a bus directly to La Paz. The Bolivian capital is at 4.5 km above sea-level the highest capital in the world. The arrival through the mountains should be amazing, I unfortunately was sleeping till we arrived at the bus station. However, I made up for this the subsequent days. The newly developed Teleferico lines are the most comfortable and fastest public transport-system in the city. The cable cars lead from the lower commercial center up the surrounding steep mountains that are crammed up to the last place by the less fortunate residents of the city.
Besides this there are also some beautiful colonial buildings, but this is not the reason why hordes of backpackers go to the -from my point of view very safe and beautiful- city.
From La Paz the Death Road tour is organized. Till years ago the Yungas Road was the only access road to La Paz and had an average of between 200 and 300 fatalities per year. This gave the path -that runs through several waterfalls, goes along scary cliffs and is way too close to hundreds of meters' of high ridges- in 1995 the name of the most dangerous road in the world. This seemed a great adventure at first, but the ridiculously high price they charged made the whole tour less attractive, therefor we decided to take a budget option.
When they picked me up at my hotel the following morning everything seemed to be all right, they knew me name, and it was the first time in my South America experience that the bus was on time. A British couple, however, had been given a different time from the budget organization and had to be called out of bed, which led to us arriving one hour late at Augie's hostel. A lot of traffic on the way, the barrels of bikes and the non matching outfits they gave us and the rain pouring from the sky did not really help to make this a positively unforgettable experience either, and we were afraid that this would be a fiasco.
Till the point that we were at around 4600 meters altitude and we were thrown out of the vehicle and friendly requested to enter our "bicycle". The amazing views and the adrenalin pumping through our veins already made up for a lot of the bullshit earlier on. However, this was only the beginning of the road, where there was nothing to worry about. After a few kilometers we had to enter a mud track where we were told in broken English that we had only cycle on the left side of the road and had to make sure we did not plunge of the cliffs (too much paperwork). The last time this did happen was last December, an Israeli girl had to avoid an oncoming car and did not survive the fall.
After only a few meters on the road any doubt that this is the most dangerous road in the world was completely gone, so sick. You cycle literally next to cliffs on a one-lane road without guardrails, no warnings for upcoming turns and through the mud caused by small rivers that flow over/ along the road. The descent lasted about 3 hours and bridged a height of more than 3.5 km. Fortunately enough I did not have any near death experiences, but what a seriously awesome experience!!
As mentioned before, I am currently on the way to Peru, here I will, besides visiting the world famous Machu Picchu (the number 6 of the 7 world wonders that I have to check off) also meet up with some of my Antarctica buddies, and quite possibly also an old acquaintance of the Terschelling (a Dutch Party island) vacations of years ago.
Ciao!
After hanging out for two days in and around Buenos Aires with my Antarctica buddies, it was time to continue my trip. Since the busride to Santiago normally takes 18 hours, I decide to include a brief stopover in Mendoza. Mendoza is the best known wine region of Argentina. After a very tiring night-bus I fortunately could leave my backpacks at the hostel to explore the city. After 2 hours of strolling around, I was already kinda done, there is not much to do in the center.
After completing all the obligations for the day, which pretty much meant that I had to book a bus and select my bed, I went to one of the wine tastings together with the South Korean Oek. During this free tour they explain the process of making the different wines and it ends with a number of glasses of the Argentinian variant of Champagne and some wine.
The next morning I caught an early bus to Santiago. The ride in general is not very long, the border crossing however makes this a challenge. After the bus passed the Argentinian border we ended up in a kilometer-long traffic jam, the driver obviously didn't really like this either according to the way he maneuvered the bus alongside a steep cliff and past thousands of cars. Apparently a lot of Argentines go for Easter to their Chilean relatives.
Basem (A Syrian - Italian friend of mine from Dubai) was already waiting for me in Santiago. I could crash the next days at his and his Cambodian -American girlfriend Linda's place to explore this metropolis from the center. My Lonely Planet printed a walking tour through the city center which could easily be completed within an hour, which also meant that I immediately could check-off all the city's highlights.
The following day I assisted Basem with selling his home-brewn MenGiMon. After trying many different marketing techniques we figured that it worked best when he was handing out samples and I acted as a tall, blond, Gringo advertisement sign (which drew a lot of attention). All in all it was kind of a miracle that we sold quite a bit, since we both walked around with an expensive phone and certainly no tramp clothes (as opposed to the other street vendors). When we were packing our stuff, we saw on the shocked faces of all the other vagrants that something was wrong, this combined with the volatility that they were picking their wares with, surprised us both. Turned out that the police was coming, and that the thing we were doing was apparently strictly prohibited.
Luckily enough we didn't get a fine, so with the earnings we were able to afford a full dinner and a good night out. During which we encountered an interesting quote; Fidel Castro, the old leader of Cuba, would have said in 1970; "The United States will come talk to us when it has a black president and the world has a Latin American pope". He probably meant to point out that this would never happen, but since both statements are correct, and Cuba and the United States are currently talking about better relations... quite funny.
After yet another morning of being served an awfully good breakfast it was time to say goodbye to my friends and continue the journey to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is known for the heaps of constructions built to great heights on the mountainsides high above the sea and is the cultural capital of Chile. The higher residential areas can be accessed by ascensores (elevators) or by very steep stairs. in this World Heritage Site I again did a walking tour printed in my travelers bible, which ensured I didn't have to find all the impressive viewing points by myself. Valpo, however, is also known by the relatively high amount of crime. therefore, I made sure that I was back at the bus station before sunset.
A 23 hour long journey brought me from here to Calama. At first I was planning to go directly to San Pedro de Atacama, unfortunately all the somewhat affordable accommodation was already fully booked. To make sure I didn't have to sleep a night at the bus station, the Spaniard Phillip and the English Ami and Julia invited me to stay at the hostel they booked, where I could sleep on an additional mattress. Over here I also figured out that most probably some-one went through my bag the previous night on the bus, luckily enough I still had all my valuables, there was only some money missing from my wallet, the thief left me with around 2000 Chilean pesos (around 3 US$) though, what a thoughtful world, to leave me enough money to take a taxi to the closest ATM!!
The Atacama Desert -where San Pedro is located in- is the driest place on earth and from this place close to the Bolivian border there are many excursions. Just like any other place in the south of South America, these prices are way too Western and one pays mostly for transport (unfortunately due to the sparsely populated areas they never heard of a well-functioning public transport system). Fortunately enough there were two Canadian cousins staying in my hostel who had rented a car for their journey through Chile, and we could join them on excursions for a small fee for gasoline.
Besides other hotspots we explored the Valley of the Moon. This incredible plain with nothing but a rugged landscape, craters and vistas that look like no earthly place is probably indeed the closest I will ever come to a moonscape.
In the evenings we hit the road several times to explore the incredible starry sky. Without the presence of light pollution from cities or the moon (we were lucky, the moon rise was hours after sunset) this is one of the best places on earth to spot planets and stars. After coming back from one of our stargazing adventures we already saw the blue and red flashlights of a police car from afar. The American Augie and I tried to hide ourselves in the back of the Jeep, but the agents did apparently already see us. At first we thought they might make a problem because we were with the seven of us in a 5 people vehicle, but this did not really explain the fact that they pretty much putting their guns to our faces. After a few split seconds of staring at us they told us we could go. Such a weird experience
In San pedro we also had our salt-flat tours booked. We already filled up the Jeeps that can accommodate up to six people with people from the hostel that we stayed in the previous night. The coming days I was stuck with the English Bella, Swedish Petter and the aforementioned Ami, Julia and Augie. In the national park Uyuni there are many lagoons with obvious names. Laguna Bianca was indeed white, however, Laguna Verde was more brown than green and Laguna Negra was also more brown than black. Perhaps the most impressive of all was Laguna Colorada with many different colors, accompanied with a great number of flamingos who were difficult to spot in the red waters and grazing herds of llamas on the shores.
The last night of the tour was in one of the many salt-hotels, which meant that as far as it was possible everything was made of salt. These hotels are located on the edge of the largest salt flats in the world, the Uyuni salt flats, of which we already had a glimpse in the evening.
The following day the alarm again rang way too early to admire the sunrise in the center of the flattest piece of earth, a very commercial activity which was characterized by the clicking of cameras from many people that probably will experience this sunrise from behind their computers at home. We were lucky that we stayed longer at this spot until the only hill in the middle of this area was completely empty. Really awesome, everywhere you look around nothing but a plain white surface with in the distance some silhouettes of the mountains.
With some photo stops in between we continued our two hour trip across the plains to the village of Uyuni. I do not know if our driver Eddy was fooling around, but at some point someone came up with the remark that he had his eyes closed for quite a while while we were driving through the national park with 80 km/ h, after a tap on his shoulder and something that looked like a small shock he assured us that there was nothing to worry about.
Some days before our arrival at the Uyuni salt flats I heard that if we were lucky, there would be a small layer of water on the surface of parts of the flats, which changes the whole place into a large mirror. This unfortunately was not the case anymore, still, a good reason to ever return to this unique piece of earth.
To reduce the effects of altitude sickness, the disease associated with the sudden visit of great heights, the drivers handed out Coca Leaves. The effects of these leaves that you have to chew on have never been studied well, but this base of Cocaine at least ensured that -except some withdrawal symptoms- we had a good time without any related diseases.
From Uyuni Augi and I took a bus directly to La Paz. The Bolivian capital is at 4.5 km above sea-level the highest capital in the world. The arrival through the mountains should be amazing, I unfortunately was sleeping till we arrived at the bus station. However, I made up for this the subsequent days. The newly developed Teleferico lines are the most comfortable and fastest public transport-system in the city. The cable cars lead from the lower commercial center up the surrounding steep mountains that are crammed up to the last place by the less fortunate residents of the city.
Besides this there are also some beautiful colonial buildings, but this is not the reason why hordes of backpackers go to the -from my point of view very safe and beautiful- city.
From La Paz the Death Road tour is organized. Till years ago the Yungas Road was the only access road to La Paz and had an average of between 200 and 300 fatalities per year. This gave the path -that runs through several waterfalls, goes along scary cliffs and is way too close to hundreds of meters' of high ridges- in 1995 the name of the most dangerous road in the world. This seemed a great adventure at first, but the ridiculously high price they charged made the whole tour less attractive, therefor we decided to take a budget option.
When they picked me up at my hotel the following morning everything seemed to be all right, they knew me name, and it was the first time in my South America experience that the bus was on time. A British couple, however, had been given a different time from the budget organization and had to be called out of bed, which led to us arriving one hour late at Augie's hostel. A lot of traffic on the way, the barrels of bikes and the non matching outfits they gave us and the rain pouring from the sky did not really help to make this a positively unforgettable experience either, and we were afraid that this would be a fiasco.
Till the point that we were at around 4600 meters altitude and we were thrown out of the vehicle and friendly requested to enter our "bicycle". The amazing views and the adrenalin pumping through our veins already made up for a lot of the bullshit earlier on. However, this was only the beginning of the road, where there was nothing to worry about. After a few kilometers we had to enter a mud track where we were told in broken English that we had only cycle on the left side of the road and had to make sure we did not plunge of the cliffs (too much paperwork). The last time this did happen was last December, an Israeli girl had to avoid an oncoming car and did not survive the fall.
After only a few meters on the road any doubt that this is the most dangerous road in the world was completely gone, so sick. You cycle literally next to cliffs on a one-lane road without guardrails, no warnings for upcoming turns and through the mud caused by small rivers that flow over/ along the road. The descent lasted about 3 hours and bridged a height of more than 3.5 km. Fortunately enough I did not have any near death experiences, but what a seriously awesome experience!!
As mentioned before, I am currently on the way to Peru, here I will, besides visiting the world famous Machu Picchu (the number 6 of the 7 world wonders that I have to check off) also meet up with some of my Antarctica buddies, and quite possibly also an old acquaintance of the Terschelling (a Dutch Party island) vacations of years ago.
Ciao!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
