South America

Bogotá holiday, July 4th!?!?!?

There are so many holidays in Colombia, about 2 a month, that even the locals don´t all know exactly what holiday they are getting off of work for. BLEEE DAT!

Today is one of a number of religious holidays in Colombia, St. Peters day, or something along those lines. Of course, this means all business is closed, and we can´t get all the exciting travel tickets and extensions and whatever done that we need to.

On another note, I am informed it is JULY 4TH! If there where BBQ´d turkey legs, no doubt that I would represent Chicago hard out here. I may even discover a Budweiser (gross) at the bar this afternoon, and drink it for kitsch purposes.

Tomorrow, starting at 7am:
-Extend Colombia travel Visa (only got 30 days, and that will run out wednesday)
-Buy tickets to Quito (for saturday)
-Buy tickets from Quito to NYC (next wednesday, or so)

So close to over I can smell it.

Happy 4th eeeerybody.

Off to Playa Blanca, and the rest of my travel plans

OK, my plans are starting to look pretty clear. We are headed off to Playa Blanca for 3-4 days starting tuesday morning, then back to Bogota by way of AeroRupublica and their nice fares. In Bogota we chill with our new friends Carlos and Claudia, then take off for the Coffee Region to do whatever it is one might do in a region of coffee. I plan to be up all night.

After the coffee region, it is back to Bogota to say our farewell to Colombia, and fly to Quito, Ecuador. 3 days or so in Ecuador, and it will be July 13th, if I'm right -

The day I come back.

This day frightens me more than I can explain. Due to some idiocy on my part (late law applications mean I plan to school in Chicago for now, and I missed my return flight from BsAs already), I will not be returning to Buenos Aires or flying directly to Chicago. I will be returning to New York City.

Let the friends with cars who want to pick me up at the airport war begin. We shall all go to Taco Bell and watch in awe as I order things in Spanish. Oh yes, it will of course, be my treat.

Nachos Bell Grande al gusto porfa, y apudate!

Machu Picchu for UNDER US$100, it can be done, here is how

The holy grail of South American Travel: Machu Picchu.

If you haven´t already been there, you are going to go there at some point in your life, it is nearly inevitable. When you go, Machu Picchu will attempt to take as much money from your wallet as possible, in a very short period of time. Íf you try and fight it, it will suck you in like a ruinous Incan money vaccuum made of stone.

It does not have to be this way.

If you wish to go to Machu Picchu in 2 days, for under US$35 a day, or US$70 per person for the trip, do read on. Otherwise, wait patiently until the time when you do plan to go to Machu Picchu, then read awa
y.

POR FIN - La Costa

Friends, relatives, blog readers, bored information technology workers,

I have now spent over 4 months in a row in the mountains with mountain people. Lima, which I had hoped would be a party-filled salvation place, was instead a real life rendition of mad max, complete with terrible weather and marauders.

Even Bogotá, Colombia, which I love, is high up in the mountains, and has had sporadic rain during my stay.

However, this is all going to change. I´m writing from the Bogotá intl. airport, where I am about to catch an AeroRepublica flight out to Cartagena, city on the fantastic Carribean coast. I seriously can´t wait.

In about 2 hours, I will be in shorts, once again, and finally.

I hear it is summer back home, and I fully intend to have myself a summer down here as well. I shall write, and send up some more pics, from Cartagena and the northern coast of Colombia.

To Colombia

If all goes well, I will be on a flight to Bogota, Colombia this morning, by way of Caracas, Venezuela.

If all doesn´t go well, expect an angry post from big, smoggy Lima.

Life in Peril Volume 2: La Paz to Copacabana

It sounded like we had been hit by a grenade.

One quick pop, an explosion, and suddenly our bus was careening out of control. In the 2nd seat, I saw the bus driver pull a frantic manuever as the people on all sides of me screamed for god to help them. The indigenous lady next to me, whom I had a lovely conversation with earlier in the ride, grabbed onto my arm for some semblance of safety.

Our bus had just experience a severe tire blowout, one of the more common ways to get seriously injured while travelling in Bolivia.

Though thoroughly spooked, no one on the bus was hurt this time. Liz, who had a rear seat, was bear hugged by the lady sitting next to her, who obviously feared the worst.

Lucky that no serious damage was done, the bus crew fixed up the tire and took us down to the straights, where our bus boarded a boat. I can´t make this stuff up, so I took a picture.

My first mistake - Salar de Uyuni

"No Busses till 6:30," muttered the world´s most uninterested office clerk, as I attempted to huff what little air was available into my lungs. There I was, just as I had feared, stuck once again in Potosí (my least favorite town in the universe); except this time I had all my personal belongings on me and it was a dreaded Sunday.

The adventure actually began for me at 7am that same day in Sucre, as I arrived lugging my bags at the bus station. I had prepaid my bus ticket to Potosí at the hostal, planning to catch the said noon bus immediately out of Potosí and on to Uyuni, my destination town. One foot out of the cab, a bus company lady grabbed my bags shouting "Potosí, Potosí" and started walking up to her office. I calmly explained that we had already bought tickets, and she calmly convinced me that I had a ticket for her company.

Of course, she was lying. She started to write out new tickets, and even though I was still half-asleep I could tell something wasn´t right. Regardless, she tossed the huge bags on top of a ramshackle bus, literally, and my travel companion Liz and I were about to board.

Rurre, the jungle in Bolivia

Sometime (I really hope) in the next few days, I will be heading off tourist style for the jungle. Needless to say, I love travelling but sort of despise touristing, and booking this attraction isn´t as time efficient as I had hoped, so I´m first headed for the Peru border and lake titicaca to renew my Bolivian visa. That is the plan for today, at least, to visit the seat of Incan civilization while waiting for the medieval times equivalent of an airline (amaszonas) to figure out if they are flying to their most popular destination this week. As I write this post right now, the entire airline is on lunch. I can´t make this stuff up. I´m writing from the cyber cafe next door.

I´ve had enough troubles so far just trying to get a flight out of La Paz to Rurre, and fellow traveller William from England wrote me a hilarious email about his experience there a few months back. Do read on...

Off to Uyuni

As you read this, I´m off on a tough bus trek (up to 12 hours, no bathrooms) towards the Salar De Uyuni, the world´s largest salt flats.

On the advice of other travellers, who dared to be honest about their experiences, we are going to try and take a one-day salt flat tour, and hurry up towards the Amazon jungle. Yes, I´ve already started my anti-malaria medicine.

Sucre is done, time to travel!

The Great Escape from Sucre

I know I haven´t posted anything new in a while, and I have good reason. It is really hard to actually get your stuff together and leave cities in which you are treated like family.

I love my highly dysfunctional Sucre family. I´ll follow with some more specific posts, but Sucre has been a great experience, and an all around fantastic time. Despite early reservations about living and vounteering in Bolivia thanks to some bad experiences in Cochabamba, the last month or so has been what I can only describe as a life-changing experience.

On your right is Asunción, one of my new best friends. She´s 2. She has no parents, and calls me "mommy." The experience at Psichopedagogico has really made my trip "vale la pena" (worthwhile) so far, and sorry about the gratuitous Spanish insertion. Also, Liz and I have been lucky enough to have great friends in Sucre like Joel, Beth, Gustav, Lydia, and so on that have made this city, at times, almost as much of a black hole as Buenos Aires. More on them to follow as well.

Tomorrow, we take off early for Uyuni Via Potosí, to hopefully catch a one day salt flats tour. Then we go back to La Paz, and on to the Amazon Basin. Things should get good, and I plan on getting a new digicam, so stay tuned...