Blogs from South America - page 5240

Journal No. 46 4/26/06 We stayed at the Hotel Majestic in Santiago, Chile. Santiago is a huge city of 6 million. Almost all of the buildings where old, dirty, stone buildings. Everyday we would walk to the Plaza de Armas. It was crowded. There was one area were people were playing chess. There was graffiti on all of the buildings. We flew from Santiago to the border town, Arica. We ate at MacDonalds (very expensive) and watched a religious gypsy festival with lots of costumes, music and dancing. The next day we took a taxi to the Peruvian border, crossed into Peru, took a taxi to Tacna, and caught a flight to Arequipa. 2 hours later we caught another flight to Cuzco which is about 11,000 feet above sea level. So far in Cuzco we have ... read more

On April 29th I made an attempt to reach the top of the El Misti 5825m. We were driven up to where the day before we had started biking at 3200m. From there it was a hike up to the base camp at 4800m along varied terrain, mostly difficult loose gravel/sand but some rock and a bit of hand holding required. The group consisted of a guide, two fellows from France and myself. I felt good all the way and at base camp had a bowl of soup. However within a couple hours at that altitude I had a bad headache and a bit of nausia enough that I couldnt eat supper which lead to my demise. During the mostly sleepless night I told myself there was no way I would continue but when we rose ... read more

We did not get to spend much time in Lima, just a day's layover. So we took a taxi right from airport and went to see a museum, and then just hunted for food before returning to Airport. Finding vegetarian food, while easy in Cusco, was definately a concern in Lima. We were there for just a day, and it was really hard to find vegetarian food. Not even plain rice, apparantly they all make their rice con pollo, chicken. We roamed a lot in the main square, half of the places were closed too. Then spotted a hare-rama hare-krishna group chanting away in middle of the road. I had a very overwhelming urge to go and ask them where can we get vegetarian food! But I did not, I was sure I am going to ... read more

Ok I wrote this ages ago but have finally bothered to upload photos!!! Here goes all the cities to now. Left Bariloche for the cross border journey to Osorno and arrived there around lunch time. Unfortunately the information was incorrect and there were no buses to Púcon until the next day! No map in the guide book so guessed my way around town looking for the rumoured place with cable TV. Found it! Own room with cable TV, excellent as I needed some relaxation time after the dorm in Bariloche that sounded like a zoo due to the excessive snoring. Osorno is a nice town, no tourists at all. And first place with real sized supermarkets. Chilled out evening for the 10am bus journey the next day. Arrived in Púcon mid afternoon and immediatelly hassled by ... read more

Hola chicas y chicos, kurzer Bericht aus Temuco, wo wir gerade die Zeit bis zur Abfahrt unseres Nachtbusses nach Santiogo totschlagen. Also vorgestern sind wir dann doch nicht auf den Vulkan Villarica hochgegangen. War Joe irgendwie zu touristisch. Und wir wollen ja noch auf hoehere Berge. :-) Dafuer haben wir uns einen Wasserfall, einen Park mit schoenem Bambus-Trail und die Thermas del Palguin angeschaut. Aber nur angeschaut! Als wir mit dem Auto ankamen, war dort wieder mal der Hund begraben. Ein alter Mann kam auf unser Auto zugeschlendert udn wollte wissen, woher wir sind. Er war deutscher Abstammun - aber noch nie in D - und erklaerte uns natuerluch hilfsbereit die Vorzuege der vier Wasserarten, die da aus den Quellen kommen. Und wir sollten uns das doch mal anschauen, wenn wir schon da sind. Naja... Ueber ... read more