Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Day 8 of the Unforgettable Journey: La Paz to Copacabana, Bolivia
FRIDAY JULY 12, 2013
We started off today on a morning walking tour. We tried to check out first, but the witch at the front desk took extra money for me (she charged me 100bob, when I only owed 79) but by the time I pulled it up on my phone to check it, she closed the account and refused to reimburse me. I had to fight with her for 20 minutes to get my money back and she gave me 20, not 21, bolivianos, in FIFTY CENT PIECES. 40 coins. What a nasty human being. After all that obnoxiousness, we had to run to visit the church then before our tour, but it was so breathtaking. I used all the jerk-lady's refunded coins to buy 5 candles to light in the capilla, and bought a rosary that smelled like actual roses.
We caught the next walking tour from 10 to 130pm, which ended at the Witches' Market where Amy met us. We bought tons of little trinkets. You could even buy a dried llama fetus to bless a new home, family, or baby. Lastly, we visited the crypt and then ran to get bags and the bus to Copacabana. We settled into the hotel in a nice big private room with a private bathroom. We had dinner at La Orilla, which was delicious, and then booked our tour for tomorrow. Next up, a shower, and bed! Hasta mañana :)
We started off today on a morning walking tour. We tried to check out first, but the witch at the front desk took extra money for me (she charged me 100bob, when I only owed 79) but by the time I pulled it up on my phone to check it, she closed the account and refused to reimburse me. I had to fight with her for 20 minutes to get my money back and she gave me 20, not 21, bolivianos, in FIFTY CENT PIECES. 40 coins. What a nasty human being. After all that obnoxiousness, we had to run to visit the church then before our tour, but it was so breathtaking. I used all the jerk-lady's refunded coins to buy 5 candles to light in the capilla, and bought a rosary that smelled like actual roses.
We caught the next walking tour from 10 to 130pm, which ended at the Witches' Market where Amy met us. We bought tons of little trinkets. You could even buy a dried llama fetus to bless a new home, family, or baby. Lastly, we visited the crypt and then ran to get bags and the bus to Copacabana. We settled into the hotel in a nice big private room with a private bathroom. We had dinner at La Orilla, which was delicious, and then booked our tour for tomorrow. Next up, a shower, and bed! Hasta mañana :)
Day 7 of the Unforgettable Journey: La Paz, Bolivia
THURSDAY JULY 11, 2013
Today we woke up early to go on the Tiwanaku tour, during which a cute old Italian man in a safari vest with a giant camera sat next to me. Unfortunately, I was still frazzled by the night before so I was wary of trying to be friendly (or not being friendly enough to please him!) so I just kept to myself.
On the tour,
We returned from the tour around 530ish, so we managed to fit in a tour of the Museum of the San Franciscan Church, but rushed because it was closing. Sadly, the crypt was closed, the church was closed, and we had to return for those parts the next day. We went back to the hostel and got dinner with Amy. Afterward, it was karaoke night, but instead of participating I went to bed to try and rest some more (still wasn't feeling on top of my game). The drunken, tone-deaf singers were not the best way to fall asleep haha.
Today we woke up early to go on the Tiwanaku tour, during which a cute old Italian man in a safari vest with a giant camera sat next to me. Unfortunately, I was still frazzled by the night before so I was wary of trying to be friendly (or not being friendly enough to please him!) so I just kept to myself.
On the tour,
We returned from the tour around 530ish, so we managed to fit in a tour of the Museum of the San Franciscan Church, but rushed because it was closing. Sadly, the crypt was closed, the church was closed, and we had to return for those parts the next day. We went back to the hostel and got dinner with Amy. Afterward, it was karaoke night, but instead of participating I went to bed to try and rest some more (still wasn't feeling on top of my game). The drunken, tone-deaf singers were not the best way to fall asleep haha.
Day 6 of the Unforgettable Journey: La Paz, Bolivia
WEDNESDAY JULY 10, 2013
We got to Arica at 6am, grabbed a taxi for 10 luca to the airport (fyi, there aren't any taximetros, or meters, to let you know how much it costs. None in Arica or Iquique). Then we sat at the airport and waited for Sky people, or really anyone, to show up so we could get our tickets! The flight was at 12pm; they opened their desk at 11am (and just so you know, we arrived at 645am). I got a lot of reading done though. They made us check our carryons (thankfully it didn't cost extra; it was just annoying) and then we waited again until 1150am when the security gates finally opened! Luck was on our side because we had no problems with the Chilean stamps or missing Bolivian one. The flight was late, a real shocker I know haha; it left at nearly 1pm. When we got here to Bolivia, we filled out a form in the airport, paid the full $135 again and got our Bolivian visa no problem. We took a taxi to the hostel for 60 bob (bolivianos, Bolivian currency). We raced to the computers to let our families know we were ok and for me to contact a friend at the SPA hostel to get my iPod for me :)
Next, Jess and I got lunch in the hostel for 45 bob each, and met up with Amy!!! She showed us around the city a bit, to the Plaza Central and Plaza Murillo. We went back to the hostel for drinks and had a rather unfortunate, unpleasant experience. There was a creepy old man drinking by himself who came near my table when Jess and Amy were in the bathroom, so I ignored him on my phone until he left the table and walked away. Then Jess came back, but Amy went for food and the guy took Amy's place at our table. We both ignored him, but he tried to talk to Jess and she answered him with brief, 1 word sentences. He was very nasty and got angry when she stopped answering him. He started cursing at her and I told him to leave her alone, that we didn't want to talk to him. He responded by slamming his beer bottle down on the table right in front of Jess's face and mere inches from her hand. He cursed at her, saying, "F***ing talk to me!" We all jumped! Jess tried to get a manager or anyone to help us and get him away from us, but the 1st guy sent her to the manager and all he said was, "Did you ask him to leave? Try talking about girly things to make him go away." She was like, Um you're not going to do anything?? So the guy sighed and said I'll talk to him. Then he came over to the man and I heard the conversation: he told the old man that we wanted to talk amongst ourselves and not with him. Oh by the way, while Jess talked to the manager, the old man told me to shut my f***ing mouth because I looked like a f***ing cow. Nice guy right? Who wouldn't want to talk to him all evening? That was the extent of the manager's and the hostel's help. No kicking him out, removing him from the bar or even our table, nothing. We were scared and the creep wouldn't leave us alone. Finally, we had to move because he kept muttering curses under his breath at us. The second we left our table, he got up and left too! What an asshole! We went back to our table, but I went to complain at the front desk, once again with zero results. We told them he knew our room numbers and Jess's name and that he was harassing us, but the idiot at the desk just said, "No pasa nada" and if it happened again, then he'd tell his manager. Ridiculous. The guy kept coming in and out of the dining/bar area and every time, we'd have to look over our shoulders to see if he was coming back to bother us. We tried to relax and play cards, but it was too much. We talked a bit and finally just went to bed, except oh wait, people were in our assigned beds. The witch at the front desk came up, turned on the lights and told us to take the 2 free beds and left again. Sorry to whoever's beds we took; they were good, we slept well, and we're going to wake up at 745am for a day tour to nearby Tiwanaku.
We got to Arica at 6am, grabbed a taxi for 10 luca to the airport (fyi, there aren't any taximetros, or meters, to let you know how much it costs. None in Arica or Iquique). Then we sat at the airport and waited for Sky people, or really anyone, to show up so we could get our tickets! The flight was at 12pm; they opened their desk at 11am (and just so you know, we arrived at 645am). I got a lot of reading done though. They made us check our carryons (thankfully it didn't cost extra; it was just annoying) and then we waited again until 1150am when the security gates finally opened! Luck was on our side because we had no problems with the Chilean stamps or missing Bolivian one. The flight was late, a real shocker I know haha; it left at nearly 1pm. When we got here to Bolivia, we filled out a form in the airport, paid the full $135 again and got our Bolivian visa no problem. We took a taxi to the hostel for 60 bob (bolivianos, Bolivian currency). We raced to the computers to let our families know we were ok and for me to contact a friend at the SPA hostel to get my iPod for me :)
Next, Jess and I got lunch in the hostel for 45 bob each, and met up with Amy!!! She showed us around the city a bit, to the Plaza Central and Plaza Murillo. We went back to the hostel for drinks and had a rather unfortunate, unpleasant experience. There was a creepy old man drinking by himself who came near my table when Jess and Amy were in the bathroom, so I ignored him on my phone until he left the table and walked away. Then Jess came back, but Amy went for food and the guy took Amy's place at our table. We both ignored him, but he tried to talk to Jess and she answered him with brief, 1 word sentences. He was very nasty and got angry when she stopped answering him. He started cursing at her and I told him to leave her alone, that we didn't want to talk to him. He responded by slamming his beer bottle down on the table right in front of Jess's face and mere inches from her hand. He cursed at her, saying, "F***ing talk to me!" We all jumped! Jess tried to get a manager or anyone to help us and get him away from us, but the 1st guy sent her to the manager and all he said was, "Did you ask him to leave? Try talking about girly things to make him go away." She was like, Um you're not going to do anything?? So the guy sighed and said I'll talk to him. Then he came over to the man and I heard the conversation: he told the old man that we wanted to talk amongst ourselves and not with him. Oh by the way, while Jess talked to the manager, the old man told me to shut my f***ing mouth because I looked like a f***ing cow. Nice guy right? Who wouldn't want to talk to him all evening? That was the extent of the manager's and the hostel's help. No kicking him out, removing him from the bar or even our table, nothing. We were scared and the creep wouldn't leave us alone. Finally, we had to move because he kept muttering curses under his breath at us. The second we left our table, he got up and left too! What an asshole! We went back to our table, but I went to complain at the front desk, once again with zero results. We told them he knew our room numbers and Jess's name and that he was harassing us, but the idiot at the desk just said, "No pasa nada" and if it happened again, then he'd tell his manager. Ridiculous. The guy kept coming in and out of the dining/bar area and every time, we'd have to look over our shoulders to see if he was coming back to bother us. We tried to relax and play cards, but it was too much. We talked a bit and finally just went to bed, except oh wait, people were in our assigned beds. The witch at the front desk came up, turned on the lights and told us to take the 2 free beds and left again. Sorry to whoever's beds we took; they were good, we slept well, and we're going to wake up at 745am for a day tour to nearby Tiwanaku.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Day 4 (and 5 oops!) of the Unforgettable Journey: Uyuni, Bolivia
MONDAY JULY 8, 2013
Super early in the morning, Jelly came back around 6, tried to convince me to stay one more time, and then he drove Jess and I to a random spot on the road where we would meet up with a Jeep returning to SPA from a 4 day tour. After 45 or so minutes, a Jeep took us back to the Bolivian border where we had some trouble (as I knew we would) because we never got our visa from Uyuni. There was nothing in our passports to say that we arrived at Bolivia but there were stamps saying we left Chile, follow me? After a good hour of waiting and being jerked around (our new driver kept trying to take our passports, then our money for the visa, but luckily Jess didn't let him out of her sight. She tried to help with her Spanish, but it proved to be too complicated and the driver made her wait in the Jeep), I dragged myself outside and over to the border control office to explain what happened. The official finally got it, but still made each of us pay $80usd instead of the normal US visa reciprocity fee of $135usd. We left at last, on a bus back to the SPA border, where the sketchy new bus driver got us to skip the line and have our bags scanned. We went back to our same hostel, but because there wasn't enough space, Jess had to go to a hostel nearby for a night. I spent the afternoon resting and we`re spending the afternoon trying to find a new way to get to La Paz from here instead.
During our search, the first flights we found were super-expensive and or took more than 12 hours (to go a 2 hour distance)! After some serious Googling and searching through travel blogs and TripAdvisor forums, I found we could take an overnight bus to Arica, then fly from Arica to La Paz. Of course, we have to buy the bus tickets in person because Turbus won't accept foreign credit cards. On top of that, we went to buy our flight and discovered that SkyAirlines wouldn't work either! We tried most of the night to no avail. Finally, we gave up and said we'd start again in the morning. Jess, master rice-cooker, made us some plain white rice for dinner, which was the only thing I could stomach. Now we're heading off to bed for some much needed rest.
TUESDAY JULY 9, 2013 (Sorry, I messed up not creating a Day 5 post!)
Today dawned bright and early with hammering on my hostel wall at 8am. Somehow I went back to sleep til 10, then tried with Jess to buy plane tickets again. Still nothing. Alise, a girl who worked at the hostel, lent us her laptop again so we could Skype call the airline. Of course, we couldn't buy tickets over the phone; we had to go to an office in person. See, there's a very reasonable rule that Sky refuses to accept international credit cards less than 72 hours before a flight. So screw you, foreign tourists who have emergencies or last minute changes of plan. Now, we still had to change money for enough USD to reenter Bolivia, and also take a 2 hour bus to and from the nearby city of Calama to buy the stupid plane tickets. And yes, of course, there's an extra fee to buy them in the office even though it malfunctioned online. We bought the bus tickets for tonight, then changed money, and then hopped on the bus to Calama. Jess and I walked to the Sky office and for the love of God my debit card wouldn't work!!! Finally, it ran through. We ran back to the bus station hoping for a bus before 4pm. I got a ticket for 345pm, perfect, and then the lady informed me it was the last seat. Jess snuck on and waited for a free seat to buy. She kept switching from empty seat to empty seat until they were almost gone, and miraculously, sat in the last one as the bus left the lot. She ended up never having to pay for a seat and we raced back to the hostel to pack and catch our next bus. In our hurry, I forgot my iPod in my room! The overnight bus will be pretty miserable then :( without my Harry Potter audiobooks, I'm lost.
Super early in the morning, Jelly came back around 6, tried to convince me to stay one more time, and then he drove Jess and I to a random spot on the road where we would meet up with a Jeep returning to SPA from a 4 day tour. After 45 or so minutes, a Jeep took us back to the Bolivian border where we had some trouble (as I knew we would) because we never got our visa from Uyuni. There was nothing in our passports to say that we arrived at Bolivia but there were stamps saying we left Chile, follow me? After a good hour of waiting and being jerked around (our new driver kept trying to take our passports, then our money for the visa, but luckily Jess didn't let him out of her sight. She tried to help with her Spanish, but it proved to be too complicated and the driver made her wait in the Jeep), I dragged myself outside and over to the border control office to explain what happened. The official finally got it, but still made each of us pay $80usd instead of the normal US visa reciprocity fee of $135usd. We left at last, on a bus back to the SPA border, where the sketchy new bus driver got us to skip the line and have our bags scanned. We went back to our same hostel, but because there wasn't enough space, Jess had to go to a hostel nearby for a night. I spent the afternoon resting and we`re spending the afternoon trying to find a new way to get to La Paz from here instead.
During our search, the first flights we found were super-expensive and or took more than 12 hours (to go a 2 hour distance)! After some serious Googling and searching through travel blogs and TripAdvisor forums, I found we could take an overnight bus to Arica, then fly from Arica to La Paz. Of course, we have to buy the bus tickets in person because Turbus won't accept foreign credit cards. On top of that, we went to buy our flight and discovered that SkyAirlines wouldn't work either! We tried most of the night to no avail. Finally, we gave up and said we'd start again in the morning. Jess, master rice-cooker, made us some plain white rice for dinner, which was the only thing I could stomach. Now we're heading off to bed for some much needed rest.
TUESDAY JULY 9, 2013 (Sorry, I messed up not creating a Day 5 post!)
Today dawned bright and early with hammering on my hostel wall at 8am. Somehow I went back to sleep til 10, then tried with Jess to buy plane tickets again. Still nothing. Alise, a girl who worked at the hostel, lent us her laptop again so we could Skype call the airline. Of course, we couldn't buy tickets over the phone; we had to go to an office in person. See, there's a very reasonable rule that Sky refuses to accept international credit cards less than 72 hours before a flight. So screw you, foreign tourists who have emergencies or last minute changes of plan. Now, we still had to change money for enough USD to reenter Bolivia, and also take a 2 hour bus to and from the nearby city of Calama to buy the stupid plane tickets. And yes, of course, there's an extra fee to buy them in the office even though it malfunctioned online. We bought the bus tickets for tonight, then changed money, and then hopped on the bus to Calama. Jess and I walked to the Sky office and for the love of God my debit card wouldn't work!!! Finally, it ran through. We ran back to the bus station hoping for a bus before 4pm. I got a ticket for 345pm, perfect, and then the lady informed me it was the last seat. Jess snuck on and waited for a free seat to buy. She kept switching from empty seat to empty seat until they were almost gone, and miraculously, sat in the last one as the bus left the lot. She ended up never having to pay for a seat and we raced back to the hostel to pack and catch our next bus. In our hurry, I forgot my iPod in my room! The overnight bus will be pretty miserable then :( without my Harry Potter audiobooks, I'm lost.
Day 3 of the Unforgettable Journey: San Pedro de Atacama Desert to Uyuni, Bolivia
SUNDAY JULY 7, 2013
Today was the first day our our trek across the desert and the altiplanos, the elevated plateaus. We left for our tour at 7:40am in a small bus to the Chilean border. First up was Chilean immigration, then a 1 hr bus drive to Bolivian immigration. We had to fill out a paper, but Americans couldn't buy their visa papers or stamps until we got to Uyuni, so we had to wait, a little in limbo, until we could check into the real Bolivian border in 2 days. We switched our water jugs and bags to a 6 person Jeep with a driver named Jelly. Yep, en serio.
On our drive we stopped first at Laguna blanca, which was a solid ice lake... I think? I know it's weird but the climate was so strange there! We took our usual jumping pictures, but a little less enthusiastically, sine we didn't want to fall. Next up was Laguna verde, which was pretty beautiful, but not as green as I expected. The others sharing our Jeep were Gaspar and Corinne, from France, and Sara and Chantal from Switzerland. In the car on the way to the geysers, I started to feel motion sick again. I managed to get out and snap a few shots of the creepy looking pools. They were so full of minerals, that they looked like molten metal bubbling away in the ground! The smell was awful though, like sulfur, and did nothing to improve my nausea. By the time we made it to the place where we would be spending the night, I was at my breaking point. I'll spare you the details, but just know that I was suddenly very, very ill. Our "beds" were literally giant slabs of concrete that came about 2 feet up off the ground. I threw my rented sleeping bag on with some heavy quilts and tried to sleep. I spent the entire evening sick to my stomach, unable to eat or drink anything. Jess took my camera with her to la Laguna colorada. I napped intermittently from 3 to 9, listening to Harry Potter on my iPod to try and relax. I was suffering from altitude sickness, but I didn't know any way to cure it. Jelly tried to give me some maté, a special kind of tea brewed from South American herbs. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep it down so it couldn't help me. Jess and Jelly kept checking in, and he kept trying to convince me to continue because in another day and a half, we would be near a hospital. I didn't think I could make it another day and a half since I couldn't control how frequently I kept getting sick. Finally, Jelly said if I wanted to go back to San Pedro, he could get a Jeep to leave at 5am. I woke up again at three throwing up, so I was glad to try and return rather than get further up into the plateaus and further from medicine and bathrooms.
Today was the first day our our trek across the desert and the altiplanos, the elevated plateaus. We left for our tour at 7:40am in a small bus to the Chilean border. First up was Chilean immigration, then a 1 hr bus drive to Bolivian immigration. We had to fill out a paper, but Americans couldn't buy their visa papers or stamps until we got to Uyuni, so we had to wait, a little in limbo, until we could check into the real Bolivian border in 2 days. We switched our water jugs and bags to a 6 person Jeep with a driver named Jelly. Yep, en serio.
On our drive we stopped first at Laguna blanca, which was a solid ice lake... I think? I know it's weird but the climate was so strange there! We took our usual jumping pictures, but a little less enthusiastically, sine we didn't want to fall. Next up was Laguna verde, which was pretty beautiful, but not as green as I expected. The others sharing our Jeep were Gaspar and Corinne, from France, and Sara and Chantal from Switzerland. In the car on the way to the geysers, I started to feel motion sick again. I managed to get out and snap a few shots of the creepy looking pools. They were so full of minerals, that they looked like molten metal bubbling away in the ground! The smell was awful though, like sulfur, and did nothing to improve my nausea. By the time we made it to the place where we would be spending the night, I was at my breaking point. I'll spare you the details, but just know that I was suddenly very, very ill. Our "beds" were literally giant slabs of concrete that came about 2 feet up off the ground. I threw my rented sleeping bag on with some heavy quilts and tried to sleep. I spent the entire evening sick to my stomach, unable to eat or drink anything. Jess took my camera with her to la Laguna colorada. I napped intermittently from 3 to 9, listening to Harry Potter on my iPod to try and relax. I was suffering from altitude sickness, but I didn't know any way to cure it. Jelly tried to give me some maté, a special kind of tea brewed from South American herbs. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep it down so it couldn't help me. Jess and Jelly kept checking in, and he kept trying to convince me to continue because in another day and a half, we would be near a hospital. I didn't think I could make it another day and a half since I couldn't control how frequently I kept getting sick. Finally, Jelly said if I wanted to go back to San Pedro, he could get a Jeep to leave at 5am. I woke up again at three throwing up, so I was glad to try and return rather than get further up into the plateaus and further from medicine and bathrooms.
Day 2 of the Unforgettable Journey: San Pedro de Atacama Desert
SATURDAY JULY 6, 2013
Made it safely to the Atacama desert, warm in the sun, very cool in the shade. Searching for a tour to Uyuni to book today. Let it be known: a 24 hour bus is a LONG time to be sitting/reclining. Not too excited for the 30 hr one in a few weeks...
I'll put up the Uyuni posts in advance because I doubt well have wifi out on the salt flats.
We got into San Pedro de Atacama around 9am, and had to walk to the hostel because there were no taxis in the town. Interestingly, there were no street names either. We used the 2in by 2in map on our hostel reservations and it took about 15-20 minutes to find. Once we made it, we walked around a bit to explore. Then Jess and I went to exchange money and buy some souvenirs. There was a lovely handicraft market in the middle of town. The streets, houses, dogs, and dirt were all the same color; I guess that's what living in a desert does to you. Good for the atacameños (people who live in the Atacama) being so brave, but I'd never live in a place that hot! We went to Café Antoine for lunch. It was terrible! They literally ignored us for 30 minutes until we left and they came out to our table to wipe it down again. Don't waste your time!! Instead, go to Adobe, where we went after this disaster. Jess and I stopped back at the hostel to check in our bags and into our rooms, then we went back out again, ravenous and searching for food!
We went to a restaurant called Adobe, where we both had salmon, our favorite! Jess got hers with mushroom tomato risotto, and I got mine with lettuce and baked potato. Later we got ice cream (limón gingibre) that was the strangest ice cream I've tasted! It was very viscous, thick and sticky, nothing like ice cream at home. Next we walked around a bit more, stopped in the plaza central for a bit of wifi, and found an archeological museum. Always up for new things, we bought our tickets and went in. It was pretty straightforward and boring, just a bunch of pottery. They removed any mummies to protect them from sun damage.
Finally, we went home, showered, napped, and checked on the Uyuni-La Paz tour bus. We were still waiting to hear back that we could go. We got our bags ready for the salt flat tour (we needed to buy TP, water and bread) and had our 5 gallon water jugs nearby. We went to sleep early so we would be well-rested for our early morning foray into the desert.
Made it safely to the Atacama desert, warm in the sun, very cool in the shade. Searching for a tour to Uyuni to book today. Let it be known: a 24 hour bus is a LONG time to be sitting/reclining. Not too excited for the 30 hr one in a few weeks...
I'll put up the Uyuni posts in advance because I doubt well have wifi out on the salt flats.
We got into San Pedro de Atacama around 9am, and had to walk to the hostel because there were no taxis in the town. Interestingly, there were no street names either. We used the 2in by 2in map on our hostel reservations and it took about 15-20 minutes to find. Once we made it, we walked around a bit to explore. Then Jess and I went to exchange money and buy some souvenirs. There was a lovely handicraft market in the middle of town. The streets, houses, dogs, and dirt were all the same color; I guess that's what living in a desert does to you. Good for the atacameños (people who live in the Atacama) being so brave, but I'd never live in a place that hot! We went to Café Antoine for lunch. It was terrible! They literally ignored us for 30 minutes until we left and they came out to our table to wipe it down again. Don't waste your time!! Instead, go to Adobe, where we went after this disaster. Jess and I stopped back at the hostel to check in our bags and into our rooms, then we went back out again, ravenous and searching for food!
We went to a restaurant called Adobe, where we both had salmon, our favorite! Jess got hers with mushroom tomato risotto, and I got mine with lettuce and baked potato. Later we got ice cream (limón gingibre) that was the strangest ice cream I've tasted! It was very viscous, thick and sticky, nothing like ice cream at home. Next we walked around a bit more, stopped in the plaza central for a bit of wifi, and found an archeological museum. Always up for new things, we bought our tickets and went in. It was pretty straightforward and boring, just a bunch of pottery. They removed any mummies to protect them from sun damage.
Finally, we went home, showered, napped, and checked on the Uyuni-La Paz tour bus. We were still waiting to hear back that we could go. We got our bags ready for the salt flat tour (we needed to buy TP, water and bread) and had our 5 gallon water jugs nearby. We went to sleep early so we would be well-rested for our early morning foray into the desert.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Day 1 of the Unforgettable Journey: San Pedro de Atacama by bus
FRIDAY JULY 5, 2013
We're heading of on a 24 hour bus ride; tomorrow's post might be a bit late...
but at least it'll be from San Pedro de Atacama desert!
The bus ride was not so great today. They showed a bunch of cool movies, but by 2pm, my motion sickness set in and I felt like crap until the following morning. At first it was nice to recline, but by midnight my tailbone was starting to ache and the chairs were too narrow to sleep completely sideways. The ticket included 2 "snacks" and breakfast, aka 2 cheese sandwiches during the day and two cookie-manjar sandwiches, known as "alfajores", for breakfast. Overall, not the worst trip ever, but definitely not the best either.
We're heading of on a 24 hour bus ride; tomorrow's post might be a bit late...
but at least it'll be from San Pedro de Atacama desert!
The bus ride was not so great today. They showed a bunch of cool movies, but by 2pm, my motion sickness set in and I felt like crap until the following morning. At first it was nice to recline, but by midnight my tailbone was starting to ache and the chairs were too narrow to sleep completely sideways. The ticket included 2 "snacks" and breakfast, aka 2 cheese sandwiches during the day and two cookie-manjar sandwiches, known as "alfajores", for breakfast. Overall, not the worst trip ever, but definitely not the best either.
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