San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

**First sorry for the extremely long and detailed post, I will add pictures soon for those who cant read ;)**

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama after almost 24 hours of travelling. Unfortunately along the way, Katie had her iPod and camera stolen. But we will not linger on that because our time in Chile produced some great memories. San Pedro de Atacama is the driest desert in the world. This tiny town is mostly made up of tourists but it is absolutely stunning. This deserts' landscapes vary so greatly from one area to the next. (As I hopefully try to describe).

Day 1 Laguna Cejar

The first day, we spend the morning looking for a tour to do in the afternoon and ended up at the Laguna Cejar and Salt flats. This is a salty laguna with crystal blue water. It is also salty enough that you will float. Also they told us that the top layer of the water is chilly and then underneath it is warm. It took awhile for Katie and I to finally hop in (there are warm spots underneath the cool top but it really wasnt that warm). We did come out of the water with a clear white film all over our bodies..aka the salt. Afterwards, we watched the sunset in the desert which is absolutely stunning (this would be the first time of two). The pinks and orange reflect off the mountains and we were luckily enough to be in the area during the full moon and so the moon on top of the mountains with the pinks, purples and aquas were beautiful.

Day 2 Rest

We found out that the Space stargazing excursion was closed due to the full moon and that the bus that leaves for Salta (our next destination) only leaves S.P.A. on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. So in order to do the Space excursion, which gives you the opportunity to see the night sky in the desert through intense telescopes, would be to stay until Friday (after the full moon). Because the sky is almost always cloud free you can see every single star. It was recommended to me by a friend from Chile as well as travellers along the way. Kates and I were both looking forward to it so staying the full week was ok with us.

Day 3 Sandboarding and Valle de la Luna (Full Moon)

On our 24hr journey to S.P.A. we had made friends with a guy and girl from Brazil. Super chill. I went sandboarding with Alberto in the morning before they had to leave for Santiago. Sandboarding took place in Valle de la Muerte aka Valley of the Dead, how ironic! On a massive sanddune. Sandboarding is difficult and I definately ate A LOT of sand. But it was also so much fun. We were lucky enough to have the hill to ourselves plus one other tourist (our instructor was saying normally there are 10 people per group with about 2 or 3 groups). Also Alberto and I were a bit hungover and the heat was intense. So we took it easy. There is obviously no chair lift so you have to climb back up the hill hence taking it easy. If snowboarding/skiing required climbing back up the hill after each run I dont think as many people would enjoy it as much. Oh yeah, and the fact that I have a tiny bit of experience snowboarding doesn´t help sandboarding!

That afternoon/evening, Katie and I went on a tour to Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte. Our guide was amazing, he spoke French (no English) so I was able to translate. He took us to a beautiful look out over Valle de la Luna and then a quick tour around this massive valley. This area looks like what I imagine the surface of the moon looking like (hence the name). It is absolutely stunning. We hurried to the main sand dune where everyone goes to watch another spectacular sunset. This sand dune is huge and you are actually quite high up. (It probably took about 15 mins to climb). The colours and the reflection were absolutely gorgeous. We had a crystal clear view of Licancabur volcano and we managed to capture some great photos of the full moon right on top of the volcano. (At various times and colours of the sunset). We also tried to do the creative pictures of us holding the moon and such...we werent very good at it. Our French friends managed to get some really good ones.

Day 4 Rest - Lazy-ing around our hostel in hammocks, tanning, reading, playing cribbage, a little siesta. Yeah life is hard.

Our evenings usually consisted of making dinner than going out for drinks. There is one street in this town and it is restricted from cars. There is one bar and the rest are restaurants. The restaurants are mostly open air ones with fireplaces in the center to keep everyone warm at night. Its pretty sweet. There is a strict law that alcohol can not be served after midnight and so there are "private parties" for afterwards. Also by the fourth day because the town is so small, Kates and I were pretty well known around town. Most tourists only stay for 3 or 4 days max. We got to be in the know after awhile which was pretty fun.

Day 5 Geyser el Tatio and Hot Springs

Because of the extra day we had we decided to do one last trip. This trip was to the El Tatio geyser Field at over 4,200m in altitude and is a field with over 80 geysers. This turned out to be one of our favourite trips. We had the same tour guide as the Valle de la Luna and he was so great again. This tour required us to be ready at 4am and we were told it gets down to -20 degrees in the morning.

When we got to the field, we were cautioned not to get too close to the geysers which is boiling hot water spewing out of the ground because the ground around the geysers can break and you can actually fall in. This has happened to previous tourists which resulted in death and burns. Some of these geysers are massive and others are tiny bubbles in the ground just waiting to grow bigger. We saw the biggest one of them all and it erupts for 10/15mins then stops and will start again in another 10/15 mins. It was one of the coolest things we got to see. Afterwards, the tour continues onto the hot springs. Our guide asked us if we wanted to go to a real hot spring and not the standard over run one and we all agreed yes. He took us to an area where we climbed down, wondering if there was even water at the bottom. There was a thin river between two mountains (kind of like in a canyon) and the river was of hot water (about 35-40 degrees), from the geysers. At first we were hesitant to go in but when we did it was absolutely amazing and a lot better then the overrun pool. About 6 of us went in from our tour and we had the whole place to ourselves. This was exactly how I imagined hot springs to be like, secluded and naturally hot. There are spots where bubbles come up and you can almost burn yourself they are so hot. Afterwards we climbed back up and I was in my flip flops, and there was a stream of water flowing down to the river and I stepped in it and I think the water was very close to boiling, maybe 75degrees. (definately the water from the geysers).

Day 6

I had made some Chilean friends who offered to take me on a day trip to see some ruins and the valleys and since we had nothing planned until the stargazing that evening, I decided to join them. We had a picnic in valle de la luna, had some amazingly fresh ceviche, which was absolutely delicious with white wine. And just wandered around.
I got back in time for our Space Observatory Night Sky. Bad news bears. We got to the office only to find out the one trip we had been waiting for all week was cancelled due to the clouds in the sky. For the entire week, it had been crystal clear blue skies and nights. We could not believe our luck! They offered us the trip for Friday night except that we had planned to leave for Salta the very next morning. And so unfortunately we were not able to go stargazing and we will just have to come back for this opportunity (and plan not to go during the full moon!) That evening, as a consolation prize, my new found friends took me into the Valle de la Luna at night time. It was one of the coolest experiences ever. Its dead quiet and the moon was still very bright that you could see the shadows of the clouds on the valley. It is quite eerie in there but a really amazing experience.

Day 7
We finally leave for Salta, Argentina. Im sad to leave since it has been our home for so long but we have to keep going. We say goodbye to our friends and race to catch the bus. Which we had missed but it was luckily sitting at the border of town because it is also the Chilean border. (about 15 mins walk/run with our packs on). A random Chilean helped "direct" us to the bus and even took my day pack and ran with us for a little bit before handing it back to me and saying that he had to go. So nice. Because everyone has to go through customs, the bus was still there, otherwise we would never have caught it.

Next post. From Argentina.

Pics

The mountains that line the canyon Sangalle Oasis

Somewhere on the way down to the oasis

On the way down Colca canyon

Our raft for lake rafting and calmness of the lake

Canopy zipping - I loved it!

Canopy zipping pre-photo

Another brightly coloured butterfly

Sun rise - Taking the motorboat to see the parakeets, parrots, macaws.

White water rafting on Rio Madre de Dios

Children of the bakery in the jungle - very happy when I gave them stickers. Started to stick them all over the youngest boy.

Cock of the Rock - Perus National Bird

One of many brightly coloured butterflies

Lizard

Arequipa and Colca Canyon

We arrived in Arequipa. Arequipa is nestled between Misti Volcano and Colca Canyon. We saw Juanita the Inka girl who was sacrificed over 500 years ago to the gods on top of one the close by mountains. She was discovered in 1995 and was still frozen and scientists were able to learn a lot about her sacrifice. She was of noble family and was killed by a blow to the head. The Inkas would have human sacrifices on top of the mountains to ask the gods not to be angry because they believed that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are the gods anger. It was quite incredible to see. The Inkas also believed in duality - good and evil, black and white, sun and moon etc. A lot of which was reflected in the sacrifical rite with ornaments, offerings etc. They also believed in triliogy. The animal they admired was the duck because it was able to fly (exist in the heavens), on land, the present, and swim, the underworld.

We also stopped to see the Santa Catlina Monastery. This is called a city within a city. It is massive and beautiful. It took us almost 3 hours to walk through it.

Yesterday, we decided to take the local bus to Cabanaconde rather than joining a tour and climb down Colca Canyon to the Sangalle oasis on our own. It worked out really well. Kates and I climbed down, even saw a condor and lizards. Stayed over night in a bungalow in the oasis and woke up early at 430 am to climb back up. It was easy to make friends as there were 2 or 3 tour groups climbing back up and we all worked through it together. Apparently this hike is harder than Salkantay. I didnt find it too bad especially since the altitude only reached 3200m. (Salkantay we were climbing at over 4000m). It was easier in my mind because I could actually breathe but I think it was steeper. Katie and I are also getting better at this because it took us about 2 hours to climb down and 2.5 hours to climb back up! We will come back to Canada with massive leg muscles (or as big as my legs can possibly get ! haha)

The mountains and the canyon are beautiful. We were also surrounded by snow - capped mountains. And they just seem to go on forever. Some of the mountain faces look like they were just paintings in the background. They are so majestic but they seem scary and uninviting at the same time. When we have to leave the Andes I will be quite sad because they are a beautiful landscape.

Our time in Peru is nearing an end. We head next to Chile which will be an extremely long bus ride (hopefully it will not be too bad). But so far the journey looks like a bus to a border town in Peru, (5 hours) a train or taxi over the border to the Chilean border town (1 hour), then a bus down to San Pedro de Atacama desert. (15-22 hours). Wish us luck!

Travelling in Peru

I thought that I could write a post about our travelling lives in Peru.

Weather - Because we´re so high in the mountains the weather varies greatly within a day. The sun rises at about 5am (we know this because we're usually up for tours at this hour). Because of the high altitudes, the sun is incredibly hot and the temp can get to 25-30 degrees. Once the sun sets (around 6pm), the temp can drop to 0-10 degrees! However, heating does not exist in Peru or at least no one has it, just super thick alpaca blankets. And hot showers are pure luxury. (see cleaniness below).

Altitude and cities - Cities are not very far apart but because they are in the mountains the roads curl around and around making bus trips quite long for even a 200km distance. During these bus trips the bus can go up and down 1000m and curl back and forth...car sickness big time. (dont worry mostly just nausea).

Cleaniness - Since trekking and jungle trips, our ability to take showers have been limited. Also we dont want to get sick so we refuse the cold showers. Luckily we have been told to make sure that the hostel you choose offers hot showers and we can squeeze one in every 3 or 4 days! ;)

Squemish-nish - I know in the jungle trip it sounded like we were freaked out but we´ve gotten over a lot of things. Most large bugs and small spiders dont affect us. The other day on the bus, a mouse had gotten into our bread (dont ask) and we just flung it to the side and to continued with our way. We also dont care about stepping in donkey poo. Yeah we are slowing getting gross.

Language - Knowing French, I am able to understand a lot of the Spanish (similar words) and reading is generally not a problem. Speaking it is a whole other story. Everytime I get frustrated or I want to speak faster, my automatic reaction is to say the word in French. It rarely helps. There are also a lot of French tourists so whenever I hear some French, Merci comes out of my mouth rather than Gracias. But I´m working on it.

Anyways, these are the daily going-ons of our travelling life. And I thought I would share a bit about how it is.

Quick jungle tour recap

After our intense Salkantay trek we headed to Manu National Park for a jungle trek. Our first day included a nature walk where we saw a gazillion butterflies (and the theme of the rest of the trip) But these are beautiful with stunning colours. And we saw a bunch of different ones. We also saw a roadside hawk, oro pendulas and the main bird of the day was Peru's National Bird also known as the Cock of the Rock...yup. thats right. Its beautiful though, a bright red colour.
We stayed in an eco-lodge and we were with an Irish couple. We were the only 4 besides our guide in the lodge (low-season). That night we went to bed beneath our mosquito nets, quite nervous about the night sounds. Our guide, Ronald, reassured us there was nothing out there to get us. At about 1am Katie woke me up thinking there was something in our room. We turned on our flashlights (electricity is only turned on between 6-9pm) and didnt see anything, so we went back to bed. Then we heard the Irish couple say something about a mouse. About an hour later Kates and I both sat up because this time there was most definately something on our night table, which we had placed a snack pack on. We shined our lights on it and didnt see anything but knew that we had to get rid of the snacks, which Katie threw outside in the garbage. The next morning, we found out that the night visitor was a possom, who had visited the Irish couple ate through the plastic bag to half a banana and some of their chocolate bar, gnawed through our toothpaste tube and started on our plastic bag but had also gnawed a hole into our guide's backpack! We learned our lesson not to leave snacks out.

Day 2 - We took another nature walk in the morning, saw more birds and butterflies. We also hoped back on the bus to visit a bakery in the middle of the jungle. The kids were adorable and the freshest most delicious bread ever. We also stopped at a self-sustaining farm that grew everything from cocoa leaves to sell, pineapples, limes, a bunch of local fruits that we tried, bananas etc. Afterwards, we went white water rafting and swam in the Rio Madre de Dios. It was so refreshing. And we were at a point where two rivers meet and one was incredibly dirty and the other super clear (the side you can swim on) and there is a distinct line where they meet. It was pretty cool. During our rafting we saw a wolf spider. They are large and apparently can jump. Our second lodge is only accessible by boat so we took a long motorboat over. and that afternoon slash evening we went for a walk. Half way through the walk the sun set and it was pitch black in the middle of the jungle. All the sounds came out again, plus smells. Our guide showed us different smells for when a SNAKE is near, a wild pig and others. We freaked out everytime the air changed because we definately felt snakes were near. We managed to see the eyes of white cayman alligators before heading back to the lodge.

Day 3 - Woke up super early to go to a cliff wall to see parakeets, parrots, macaws etc. They come early to eat the clay in the cliffs that gives them nutrients. The parakeets would hide in the trees before going to eat and when there was a predator around they would all come flying out, squawking. Also the best part of the morning was seeing a gorgeous white toucan. Its beak was huge and we could see it so perfectly. On the way back to the lodge, we also saw some howler monkeys just hanging out in the trees. very cool. (and the only large mammal we got to see unfortunately). Afterwards we went canopy zipping which is very fun, and saw some more spiders and toads along the way. Oh right, the Irish girl opened her pack of equipment and out came a baby tarantula! Yeah we were all a bit freaked out but then started taking photos like crazy.
In the afternoon, we went lake rafting. We went to a lake where we got on a raft (old skool styles). About 5 logs across and our guide using a pole to push us along the lake. It was amazing because it was pretty marshy on the sides and we got to see some really cool birds. I have a picture of one that is bright blue. We were supposed to see river otters but no such luck.

Day 4 - Heading home on our drive, we saw some lizards and a snake just calmly slithering across the road. Bright bright green.

So unfortuantely no big mammals but a very fun if not nerve racking trip (at least in the evenings).

Very quick update

I am now in Arequipa, it is a gorgeous city. (Kinda like Montreal to Toronto) It is the second biggest city in Peru and definately a lot more character than Lima.
We finished a Jungle trip and stopped in Puno to see the floating islands (not worth it) and am headed into the deepest canyon in the world tomorrow. So I will update upon my return.

Pics

Up on Waynapicchu

Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu

Cloud Forest Aguas Caliente Town

Group photo in front of Salkantay