Callie Hanson
23 year old female looking to find herself and whatever else may come in South America. Planning an epic journey beginning in Venezuela and spanning every South American country, save for 2 ... all in 5 months!!!Callie Anne
Travel Blog Posts
44km, 13 gringos, 17 incredibly fit porters, 4 days of rain, 3 summits and a whole lotta fun!!!
Published: March 10th 2007South America » Peru » Cusco » Inca Trail
March 10th 2007
Well, we survived it!! There were a few times that we thought we might not make it all the way up, but Lauren, Mike, and I and our 10 new friends (4 entertaining Aussies, 3 Irish blokes, 2 British girls who were in love with 2 of the said Irish and one poor American who was the brunt of many jokes) succeeded in climbing the 4 day Inca Trail. What fun, what lack of oxygen and what a great group of people (self-proclaimed BEST group EVER!!!!)... Day 1: Early wake-up, lots of driving and trying to get the massive sleeping bags and bedrolls into our backpacks. Highlights of this include: Mike carried my sleeping roll, Lauren´s backpack was so horrible that it was being held together with random straps and her bag looked bigger than the ... read more
Floating Islands and the Birthplace of the Incans
Published: March 4th 2007South America » Peru » Puno » Lake TiticacaMarch 3rd 2007
After our lovely experience with the mountain biking and the crazy monkey we decided to take it easy for a few days and hang out on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigatable lake in the world... luckily we managed to be in Copacabana (on the Bolivian side of the lake) for an extension of Carnaval - which I´m beginning to think that the celebrations never actually end! The entire town was involved in parades, dancing in the streets, singing, playing terribly off-key music in outdoor bands and getting incredibly intoxicated... but not too drunk to forget to offer some of their booze of choice to Pachamama (a little swig dumped on the ground is enough to keep her satiated!). Our second day at the lake we took a tour to the Isla del Sol ... read more
I survived the Death Highway and all I got was this lousy Monkey bite!! (and a t-shirt)
Published: March 2nd 2007South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » Yungas RoadFebruary 28th 2007
After our incredible mining tour I didn´t think that Bolivia could get any better. Ahh, once again I´ve managed to prove myself wrong! We did an overnight bus from Potosi to La Paz (conveninently saving having to pay for a night in a hostel) and arrived just in time to watch the sun rise over the city. La Paz is amazing - the highest capital city in the world located at over 3600m above sea level, it sure makes it hard to climb around the valley´s walls. The whole city is located in a bowl - with the central street running down the middle and the barrios extending all the way up and over all sides of the hills. The rising sun danced from one redbrick/mud house to the next until the whole city of over ... read more
The World´s Richest City - in the 16th Century!
Published: February 26th 2007South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Potosi
February 22nd 2007
The chance of a lifetime was presented to us with the opportunity to travel to Potosi and visit one of the oldest and most productive Silver Mines in the entire world. Silver was first discovered in 1544 and from then on in the town only expanded, and the mining shafts only got deeper. Until the start of its decline in the late 18th-early 19th century Potosi was actually the richest city in the whole world - moreso that London or even Paris!! Since the opening of the mine in the mountain Cerro Rico, there have been over 8 million deaths attributed to it- from collapses, lung diseases (which are still extremely frequent, causing miners to die around the age of 40 from over exposure to dust, chemicals and the lack of fresh air in the mines) ... read more
Salt Flats, Island of the Fish, 1200 year old Cacti and lots and lots of Llamas!!!
Published: February 24th 2007South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni
February 19th 2007
Wow! Bolivia is nothing short of incredible. We just spent the last 3 days in a jeep exploring the Salar de Uyuni and the National Park full of flamingos, lagunas, geysers and natural thermal hot springs. What an adventure! It all started off with a visit of the railway graveyard where dozens of old locamotives, engines, cabooses and everything in between have been left to rust in the middle of the desert. Of course, being the childish kids we are we climbed all over them, took hilarious pictures on top of the cars and generally just ran around enjoying the hot sunshine and the blisteringly cold winds that swept across the plains. The next stop was a small village... their entire existence depended solely on the production of 2000-3000kg of salt every day. We were shown ... read more
February 13th 2007
For a girl who hates big/capital cities, I sure enjoyed BA!!! We managed to cram so much into only a week and had a blast. From tango shows to horse racing, museums, cemetaries and ancient sailboats to clubs and even a professional futbol game, it seems like we did it all! I know I told you about the first Tango show we saw, absolutely INCREDIBLE. The next one wasn´t so great - it was more of a feature on a woman named Celia Something or other (that wasnt really her name, but I dont actually remember it...) who sang and danced and had a few tangoers (is that what you call people who dance the Tango?) flaunt around her in skimpy costumes. It was worth it for the shock value of trying to figure out if ... read more
Catching up on Pictures and Such
Published: February 5th 2007South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires
February 5th 2007
This is another blog to make up for the lack of pictures on the last few entries I put in. Thankfully we were able to find a fast internet place here in B.A. (short for Buenos Aires)... We have been enjoying ourselves (wait a minute, I think I write that EVERY time I put in a blog) here in the capital - our first day we spent wandering around an antiques market and an artensania fair. As we´ve decided to send a massive box home with some gifts and things we don´t need to carry around, we ended up spending a little more money that originally planned. I got some AMAZING crafts, all original and each with a unique story - I´m going to have troubles parting with them to give to family and friends... ooo, ... read more
Lucky Breaks and Beautiful Sunrises
Published: February 5th 2007South America » Uruguay » East » Punta del Diablo
February 3rd 2007
Once again, apologies for the lackage of entries on the blog! As much as we absolutely LOVED Uruguay, I can´t say that the internet was fast, reliable, or even available... and if it were any of the above, we were having way too much fun to want to sit down in a dark cafe and type away! The week that we spent wandering around the tiny tucked away country on the east coast of South America was nothing short of magnificent! The people were incredibly friendly; always stopping for a chat about anything and nothing, willing to give extensive directions and smiling from ear to ear when they learned that I spoke ¨Castellano¨ (aka, Spanish). I guess they´re used to doing the sign language and over-energetic gesturing to try and get their point across... sometimes easier ... read more
From Bodegas to Cataratas
Published: January 26th 2007South America » Argentina » Misiones » Puerto Iguazú
January 26th 2007
My last entry was from Mendoza, after our day of ´white´ water rafting and night of dancin´under the stars. Needless to say we had to take a break on sunday to recouperate and get ready for some more serious traveling. Monday Lauren and I took a Bodega tour (winery) through the infamous vinyards of Mendoza. We drank some fabulous wines and learned a whole lot about the process of picking, transporting, fermenting, aging, storing and bottling. The first winery we visited wasa smallish family holding where we were actually able to walk out around the vines, stealing samples of the REALLY tart grapes (doesnt take a professional to determine that they weren´t quite ready for harvest yet!), and then we went into the actually processing plant to check out their multiple thousand litre storage tanks! Eeeek, ... read more
January 21st 2007
Including, and not limited to the STEAK. It is so incredibly true what they say about Argentinian steak being amidst the best in the world! We have had more excellently delicious steak in the last 3 days that I think I have ever had in my life... and to top it off, it´s dirt cheap. We are paying less than 7$ for an appy, steak with side dish and beer or wine. How amazing is that?!?!? So as you probably figured out, we´ve made it safe and sound to Argentina. I love it here... right from the beginning, even though we had to drive around Mendoza for about an hour trying to find a hostel with rooms available, and it´s rediculously hot, it´s just amazing. We are staying in a hostel with people from all over ... read more
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