Where are Julie and Dave: 2011

Hola, como van, que tal!

We needed a break from buses and hostels, packing and unpacking, so we are spending our last four weeks (four weeks!) in Buenos Aires. We rented an apartment in a cool little neighborhood, and we are doing as the porteños do for a while.

Mural in San Telmo - Buenos Aires, Argentina

We will share plenty of pics and stories from our time in Buenos Aires on the next (and last) post before we head home. For now, here's a brief recap of what we've been up to the past few months.

Plaza de Armas, Cuzco, Peru - November 1, 2011

After acclimating to Cuzco (11,200 feet), we set off for El Camino Salkantay: a trek along the chilly Andean landscape, down through the warm, humid cloud forest and up to the amazing lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu!

cold nights in the Andes

below Mount Salkantay (20, 574 feet)

Terique, our French hiking pal, takes a break and practices his new charango...

Later that night, the cooks and porters steal Terique's charango and show him how it's done. Frenchies can't rock the charango!

Jules can't open her eyes until after that first sip of coca tea

first look at Machu Picchu, November 8, 2011 6 a.m. (Inca Time)

climbing the steep path to Wayna Picchu, behind the main ruins

Heading Southeast, we explored Lake Titikaka (hee, hee, hee, that's right!). Heretofore referred to as "The Lake", Peru and Bolivia share its borders and it is actually the highest navagable lake in the world. The indigenous tribe known as the Uros (and now Aymara) built floating islands out of totara plant reeds to escape (and ultimately outlast!) the Incas. There are still about fifty of these floating islands on the Lake where people live, fish and make crafts for gringos. And yes, the gringos buy 'em. Just ask Julie.

The Bolivian side of The Lake is much more scenic and a lot less toursity. After crossing into Bolivia we spent the night on Isla del Sol, which is the legendary birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. Stunning clear blue water surrounded by high Andean peaks. Can't blame the Incas for associating this place with their mystical stories.

Isla del Sol, November 14th, 2011

After a chilled-out day on the Island of the Sun, arriving in La Paz, Bolivia was pretty intense: from mother earth to mothers wrestling, from the tranquilo Camino Salkantay to the World's Most Dangerous Road, we crashed into Bolivia head on.

Witches market in La Paz. They sell everything from baby llama fetuses to love potion #9. No witches were on staff to answer our questions. (Nor were any members of The Coasters).

Mmm, Saltena!: will it burn my mouth?

Oh, it will destroy your mouth.

mejor cliente del dia

"Do not return this Gringa to Bolivia" La Paz has the friendliest, most helpful and outgoing postal workers we've ever met anywhere. We wanted to pack them in our machillas and take them home.

Wandering around the city, burning our mouths on street food, practicing our Spanish with the postal workers and hexing-out at the witches market took a lot out of us. We were ready to go back to our hostel and cook some dinner. Then we saw the flyer: Cholitas Luchadores! That's right. It's a huge Sunday night event for both tourists and locals. Similar to the World Wrestling Federation back home, in La Paz they have heroes, villains, corrupt refs, and managers who change sides on a whim. The wrestlers strut their stuff and egg on the crowd, and the crowd boos and hisses when rivals come out. The twist is that women (in traditional folk dresses and bowler hats) wrestle, too. No rules: they grapple with eachother and with huge male wrestlers and there's no mercy for anyone. Mira!

Cholita Morado chased her opponent out of the ring and broke a chair over him. He was dressed in a leopard costume. You would have smashed him with a chair, too.

Bike trails are boring if they don't have acronyms. That's why we chose the W.M.D.R. Also known as El Camino de la Muerte or "Death Road", it is mostly gravel and stretches 40 miles from La Cumbre (15,500 feet) down to Coroico (3,700 feet). On average, 26 vehicles slide over its ledge each year. Yes, cars and trucks still use it.

Glancing down at the Bolivian Jungle from the World's Most Dangerous Road

"When we were in the jungle, we wanted to be in La Paz, when we were there, all we could think of was getting back into the jungle. And so we went: weeks away and hundreds of miles up a river that snaked through Bolivia like a main circuit cable plugged straight into..."

Alright alright, so for our jungle experience we only had to travel a few hours in a motorized wooden canoe, and we didn't have to terminate anyone with extreme prejudice. We did fish for pirhanna (and cooked and ate 'em with extreme prejudice) and we saw some funky creatures including but not limited to: alligators, black caimans, pink dolphins, turantulas, spider monkeys, howler monkeys and capybararats --giant semi-aquatic rodents!

Apocalypse Not

We were safe swimming in the murky Beni river as long as we were near the pink dolphins. Gators and caimans are afraid of pink dolphins, and they hung out nearby watching us from the banks!

"Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist."

Yellow Squirrel Monkey checking us out. Thanksgiving Day, 2011

"Never get out of the boat..."

After the jungle, we decided to 4x4 our way out of Bolivia and into Chile. We piled into a Land Cruiser with two guys (Moroccan), two girls, (French and English) and our fearless Bolivian driver, Teo. Starting in the surreal Salar de Uyuni, passing along geysers, volcanoes and colorful lagoons, and ending a few days later in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, the driest place on earth.

Once part of a giant pre-historic lake, Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat: 12,000 feet above sea level, covering over 4,000 blinding square miles. On the surface, it has about an inch of damp salty crust that sticks to your clothes like butter cake or rock candy.

quick stop at the Train Cemetery - Uyuni, Bolivia - November 30, 2011

Bolivian seasoning powder

Despite his fingerless leather driving gloves and "broken" spedometer in the Land Rover, we felt safe and sound barreling across the Salt Flats with Teo.

our salty motel

James Flamingos - thought to have been extinct until they were re-discovered in 1956

Escape 2 Mars... Laguna Colorada, Southwest Bolivia, close to the Chilean border

Although it's the driest place on Earth, San Pedro was a breath of fresh air after a few days bouncing around in a truck and nights sleeping in salt structures. Because it's the driest place on earth, San Pedro is perfect for stargazing. Supposedly it hasn't rained there in over 12,000 years. Parts of the desert have absolutley no moisture (and therefore no life, not even bacteria). The lack of airborne water and minimal population allows it to have the clearest skies in the world. We took a midnight stargazing tour with two astronomers who explained everything clearly and answered everyone's questions in great detail. We all took turns looking though massive telescopes - saw Jupiter, the moon, and some funky constellations we've never heard of. Spectacular!

the dusty streets of San Pedro de Atamaca, Chile, with Volcan Licancabur looming in the background

our guide points out some stars and constellations

Just about a moonlight mile on down the road...

Crossing the border and heading South, we explored the two Argentinian wine regions. Cafayate is a very cool little town in a valley known for it's fruity white wines from Torrontes grapes, and for it's goat dairy farm. Both the farm and the bodegas were walking distance from town. Mendoza is a little bigger (producing 70% of the country's wine), and is known for it's tasty Malbec and thick juicy steaks.

white wines...

and goat cheese

An ice cream shop in Cafayate sells the wine-flavored variety. Not very tasty at all, but the stick-your-head-in-the-missing-face thingy outside was a blast.

Julie and our English amiga Jenny -- Mendoza, Argentina December 8, 2011

riding the winery circuit outside Mendoza

Cheers! There's always a reason...

etapa visual

etapa olfativa

etapa gustativa

Back on the bus heading South, we explored San Carlos de Bariloche, part of the Lake District of Argentina. On the way into town, ash from Volcan Puyehue-Cordón Caulle in Chile, covered the area like snow. But lucky for us, when we awoke the next morning winds had shifted and we had clear blue skies.

Lake Nahuel Huapi, Bariloche, Argentina

killing time at the bus station

"Patagonia is the farthest place to which man walked from his place of origins. It is therefore, a symbol of his restlessness. From it's discovery, it had the effect on the imagination something like the Moon, but more powerful..." from the book In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

We had hoped to drive down part of Route 40, the longest road in Argentina, often called the Route 66 of South America. It would take two days, from Bariloche to El Calafate, the main transportation hub of Patagonia. Renting a car was too expensive so we jumped on yet another bus, but this allowed us to sit back and take in the vast nothingness of the landscape. Patagonia is a truly spiritual place: boundless fields, huge billowing clouds, late night firey sunsets, Welsh tea houses, gauchos (cowboys) on horseback sipping mate and herding their sheep.

get your kicks... Approaching El Chalten on Ruta Cuarenta

It was summertime in Patagonia but we still managed to have a white Christmas by bouncing around Parque Nacional Los Glaciares outside of El Calafate, Argentina. We trekked along Glaciar Perito Mereno and watched (and listened!) as giant chunks of ice slid off the rock face and crashed and splashed and KA-BLAMMED into Lago Argentina!

Under the mistletoe at Glaciar Perito Mereno, Christmas Day, 2011

The plan was to celebrate New Year's Eve among the wildflowers and spires of Torres del Paine National Park outside of Puerto Natales, Chile. We rented our tent and stove, stocked up on four days' supply of food, and we were ready bright and early to hit the trail when we heard the terrible news. Trekkers were being evacuated from the Park due to a fire that was spreading quickly. Trying to stay positive, we waited a couple of days but the fire only got worse, and they actually closed the park. We hightailed outta town, crossed the Strait of Magellan and wound up celebrating the end of the year at the end of the world: Ushuaia, Argentina.

Ushuaia is the jumping-off point for cruises to Antartica, but it's also close to Penguin Rookeries and some great hiking in Tierra del Fuego

the rooftops of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel at 9 p.m. on New Year's Eve, 2011

Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego

"In this Upside-down-land, snow fell upwards, trees grew downwards, the sun shone black, and sixteen-fingered Antipodeans danced themselves into ecstasy..."

"You promised you'd visit the penguin the day you got out."

Shooting up the Atlantic Coast, we explored some more of Patagonia, including the beach at Puerto Madryn and then Iguazu Falls -- 275 different waterfalls spanning an area over a mile wide. After that, we signed a month-long lease for an apartment in Buenos Aires and headed to the beaches of Uruguay before our move-in date.