Blogs from Arica & Parinacota, Chile, South America - page 11

WIKI INFO: "Arica is known as one of the driest inhabited places on Earth, at least as measured by rainfall: average annual precipitation is 0.76 mm (0.03 inches), as measured at the airport meteorological station." "Lake Chungará , situated in northern Chile, in Tarapacá Region is one of the highest lakes in the world. It is near the Volcanos Parinacota (20,827 feet or 6,348 meters) and Pomerape (20,413 feet or 6,222 meters). It was formed 8000 years ago, when a major collapse of the edifice of Parinacota produced an avalanche of 6km³ of debris which blocked drainage pattern, thus creating the lake." Surface elevation : 4517 m 10 hours overnite bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama, arriving just past 6am in Arica, as I was waiting for my luggage out of the bus,Orlando from Parinacota ... read more

Howayas, Hope all is well. Great to talk to those we spoke to on Marks Birthday. It was great seeing you all too. For those we didn´t get to talk to we will try to call you soon. Anywhoo, since we have been talking we have left the lovely Iquique after a lot of chillaxing and doing pretty much nothing for two weeks. It was hard to go. We met some really great people there and had a good laugh. Cheers for all the Birthday wishes too. I had a great one altogether. Col cooked me a lovely breakfast that morning, home made hash browns and all! And just as I swallowed the last tasty bite and was contemplating a little snooze in the sun, he breaks the news about my Birthday present. Paragliding! Oh and ... read more

Sur les notes familières et réconfortantes de notre I-Pod, nous franchissons une dernière fois l'altiplano péruvien. Aujourd'hui, nous achevons notre découverte de la Bolivie. On tente de tout capturer et d'imprimer dans notre mémoire: cabanes rustiques de terre, chiens errants qui montent la garde en bordure de route, pics enneigés, canyons gigantesques, garde-fous tordus, croix significatives de pertes de vies, vicunas* adorables et bien-sûr les lamas. Même si leur chair est delicieuse apprêtée, par exemple, avec une sauce au poivre crémeuse, nous préférons de loin les voir libres dans la nature qu'en filet dans notre assiette. Nous fillons à toute allure sur la route sinueuse et panaromique qui nous conduira jusqu'à la plage d'Arica au Chilie. C'est le moment de faire le point sur notre parcours en Bolivie: très satisfaisant quoique que quelques jours de plus ... read more

So its blog time again to update you all on our travels (despite you all being naughty and not leaving any comments). After leaving you last time in Aguas Calientes we enjoyed various trips around Cusco and the surrounding mountains including taking in such sites as the ruins at Ollantaytambo (where we were lucky enough to see the rare sight of a pair of condors soaring on the mountain thermals above the terraces). Other places such as the cathedral in Plaza de Armas were equally stunning boasting around 400 original pieces of colonial Spanish artwork and the gold and silver leaf altars. Though we also visited great historic sites as Pisac, Coricancha and Saqsaywaman (yes its usually pronounced as sexy woman by us ignorant gringos), we have to admit we were becoming slightly worn out with ... read more

So we made it to chile..... we took the bus from arequipa to tacna, peru about a 4 hour ride. Once in tacna, we then hired a taxi, if you wanna call it that, to frive us across the border into chile, and to arica. total distance is about 55km. it cost us about u.s. 5 dollars each for the ride. the driver also helped us with our forms, and the border crossing, which was actually pretty easy. the bus ride wasnt bad, some windy roads, but not as bad as the last one. plus due to the much more leniant peru pharmacy system, i obtained some, lets call them, bus ride helper pills. i now have something to take the edge off those long, white knuckle bus rides we still have to come. So after ... read more