Welcome to the Jungle!

After our trek, we had one day of relaxation before we were supposed to fly out for a pampas tour, and then a jungle tour. Well, in typical Bolivia fashion, they call us 8 hours before our flight and say it is cancelled, until the next day. This causes us to cancel our pampas tour. Oh well, the next day we flew out on a very sketchy twin prop plane to the town of Rurrenbaque. When we get to Rurrenbaque, the company tells us we won´t be leaving the next day as planned but the day after....we are used to this by now. We were OK with that, b-c the town looked pretty relaxed and fun. We go to check into our hostal, and ask for an AC room since it is about 99 degrees in the middle of the jungle. We were quickly laughed at and told, that we could have an AC room, but it wouldn´t do much good because the miner´s strike the we told you about in the earlier blog, has caused a gas shortage, and there is no electricity. We had a good time anyway, and paid a couple of bucks to have access to this pool on the top of a mountain overlooking the city, and hung out in the shade the next day!

After all this, the next day we took a 4 hour boat ride(twice as long as normal due to gas shortage) to the jungle camp. It was absolutely amazing. We have been to jungles in India, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos...but nothing like this. This was thick and lush jungle. About 30 meters after getting off the boat, on the walk to the campsite, Ben spotted a 6 ft. yellow snake right by the path. The next 2 days were spent on hikes through the jungle, seeing some amazing plant and wildlife. We both fell in love with this jungle. There were tons of monkeys, insects, spiders, snakes, caiman and we even found a fresh 9 ft. Anaconda skin. The guide said the skin could only have been hours old, because the ants would have eaten it if it was any older. The next day we went pirahna fishing, and spotted caimans at night. We had a good group and a great time!

La Paz and the El Choro Trek

We made it to La Paz without any problems - a truly direct bus which was nice. Our bus was freezing cold but they gave us blankets. We arrived in La Paz at 5 am (all Bolivian buses drop you off at either 2 or 5 am, not sure why) and shared a taxi with Johnny to a hotel. We crashed for a bit then toured around town. La Paz is huge and situated in a valley with all the streets either going up hill to the outskirts or down hill to the city center. It is a much cooler town than Santa Cruz!! After getting our bearings bit, we went to eat lunch at a Western restuarant - we were craving some good food after our Salt Flat tour- and caught a movie, Clash of the Titans. Just walking around the town has so much character with street vendors selling food, little stands with clothes, or just fruits and vegtables. The next day we had a huge shopping spree. Things are so cool and cheap here we splurged on a lot. Luckily we are meeting Becky and Tom at Manchu Pichu and might pawn some stuff off on them - thanks Mom and Dad!
Our plan was to take a bus the next morning to Rurrenbaque where most jungle and pampas tours leave from. So we checked out of our hotel and caught a cab to the bus station only to find out that there is a strike south of Rurrenbaque which has blocked the road...no car can get there from La Paz until the strike is over. Back to the hotel to re-visit our plan. It was apparent we can not do much in this country on our own so we decided to sign up for a tour that included a flight to Rurrenbaque and eneded up spending more money on it than anything else we have this entire trip. Oh well, atleast we know that we have something planned for 6 days. Since our tour didn´t start until Wedneday we decided to go do the El Choro trek which you can do on your own.

We left to do the trek at about 9 am, after a long day of celebrating with our buddy Johnny, whose soccer team is suppose to be the Gamecocks of the English premier league(read:they never quite make it)...not the best idea before starting a trek at 4900 m or 16,000 ft. It was sleeting when we began the hike and neither of us felt very good after the night before. We walked for about 4 or 5 hours before we decided to camp at the first site and see if tomorrow the weather, and our stomachs, would be better. When we woke up the sun was out which was a good sign. So we packed up and headed out enjoying the mountain scenery with cows, sheep, and tons of llama grazing around the trail. After about two hours of walking my feet began to kill me and I noticed that the inner sole of my boot was pretty much gone. Thank you Keens!! As we continued to hike the weather just gets hotter and hotter as we move lower in altitude and the scereny becomes more tropical. Both of us were fairly sore by the time we stopped at 5, a good 7 hour day of hiking. We realized we screwed ourselves over by stopping early the first day since when we looked at the map that night we had about 8 hours to do the next day. At our site there was a little girl that was really cute. She kept talking to us - no clue what she was saying - and we gave her some Oreos we brought with us. Might have been a mistake because after the third she was so hyper and chasing her cats around. Eventually her mom called her in but I think the mom was secretly cursing us. That night we slept with horses grazing, pooping, and peeing all around our tent - a great way to fall asleep!! In the morning we both could hardly move we were so sore. We gave the woman a bottle of wine, more oreos and some chips we brought with us to lessen the weight even a little. Then we pushed on. The landscape is gorgeous but it was hard to appreciate all the green mountains, colorful butterflies, plumeting waterfalls, and wild flowers all around us...we were in pain. After 5 hours we stoppped for lunch at a place that is 2 and half hours from the bottom of the trek. The guy that ran the site kinda laughed at us because we just looked wiped out and struggles. After lunch we gave him the rest of our gas and rice just to purge more. He was really happy about the gas so I think we made his day. 3 more hours, 2 popped blisters, lots of music and we were finally at the bottom. There was a minibus driver there that we gladly paid 400 Bolivians, about $50, to take us back to La Paz without stopping. It was a nice drive and even nicer to be off our feet.
They say you can do the El Choro in 2 days, but that is if you are not carrying anything and hauling ass. If you do it in 3 days, don´t skimp on the first day! It is a beautiful trek that is 70 kms long and would be enjoyable by doing 6 - 7 hour days. Even more if you have 4 days!

The Salt Flats

Getting to Uyuni from Santa Cruz was a rude awakening to the Bolivian bus style. We purchased our tickets from one vendor and were told that it was a direct bus to Uyuni that left at 4 pm. Needless to say, 4 different buses later we arrived in Uyuni. Oh well, such is life.
Luckily we met some Brits on the bus to Uyuni from Potosi that hadn´t signed up for a tour yet either so when we arrived we went to the same hostel to get a few hours of sleep before trying to sign up for a tour. We hit two agencies at about 8 am and were determined to find one that left that day - Uyuni is not a town you want to spend time in! We signed up with an agency that left a 10 am which gave us about 30 minutes to pack up our stuff and buy enough water for the trip. We had a good group- 3 Brits and an American from NYC. Our first day was spent at the actual salt flats which are really amazing. It is just like a huge desert of nothing but salt, compeltely flat and white as far as you can see. Because the landscape is so flat, and just the two colors, white salt, and blue sky, you can take some really cool looking pics becausee there is no depth perception. We attempted a few, but were not that successful. We then went to fish island which is in the middle of the salt flats and someone had the idea of stranding a poor imu out there was not much to do but pick at leftover lunches from tourists. We stayed that night at a hotel made entirely of salt and you could see where some of the rain was eroding the salt bricks but overall a sturdy little house. For dinner we had soup and a native dish that is basically like french fries nachos - the best I can do at an explaination!
The next day we spent travelling to various lagoons that had flamingoes, a volcano, and the famous tree rock in the middle of the desert. The lagoons were cool and we got to see different types of flamingoes walking around in the water. At one I saw a small cyclo form across the lake, travel over the water, and then form again on the other side. It was crazy! We viewed the volcano from far away and while we were there one of our Brits, Johnny, set his camera bag down to take some pics. While he was snapping photos another car pulled up, let its passengers out, and then continued to drive on. Ben jumped in front of the car as the front tire was hitting the corner of his bag (he had about 6 cameras in it). The tire busted the screen of his most expensive camera which put a damper on the morning, but atleast he didn´t run over the entire bag - Ben to the rescue! The tree rock was not that great, it is just a rock in the middle of the desert that sort of resembles a tree. They had the whole thing roped off probably from someone climbing it or writing their names on it previously. That night we stayed in a ¨hotel¨ where all of us had beds in the same room. There were a few snorers in our group! . We all expected the last day to be exteremly awful since we were told you basically are in the car all day. But it wasn´t that bad. We rode to 2 more lagoons and then had breakfast at a hot springs which were really nice against the cold air. Then we loaded up and headed to some more rock formations in the middle of the desert where Ben and I chased a Viscacha which is like a rabbit that lives in the Andes but hops like a kangaroo with a long tail. They were cool and definately scared of us. We ended our trip in Uyuni at about 6 and had some dinner before catching our 8 pm bus to La Paz. For this bus trip we made sure we booked a direct non-stop bus straight there!!

Entering Bolivia

Well, from the falls we travelled across the country to Salta where we stayed for a few days getting our Bolivia Visas and eating at our last parrillas. Ben wasn´t feeling that great when we got to town so we took it easy and he took a Z pack we brought with us. The Bolivian Visa was a bit more involved than we thought! We had to pay $135 each, give a copy of our Argentina Visa, a copy of our hotel reservation (which we didn´t have), and a copy of a credit card! Needless to say it took us a couple days going around town and getting things sorted out for the visa as well as trying to ship some more stuff home. But we got it sorted and took a 24 hour bus to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

For those of you that are on Facebook, you can probably tell that we were not impressed with Santa Cruz that much - Ben was on the computer pretty much the whole time we were there. We arrived on a Thursday and really wanted to make it to the Noel Kempff National Park which only sees 200 tourists a year. There is a reason!! We went to the Natural History Museum on Thursday to try and get information on the park, but the office was closed until Monday. So we went to another registered park advisor on Friday morning only to be told that they are closed until Monday as well. So we were basically stuck in Santa Cruz over the weekend. We went out one night with some people from our hostel after going to a BBQ, a Biocentre park that boasts the largest butterfly enclosure in the world - not sure if that is true or not but it was fairly big I guess - but other than that we really hung around the hostel and watched movies. It was pretty boring. By the time we got back to the offices, we were told that the park was closed and we couldn´t go there. An overall waste of 5 days! So we checked out of our hostel and went to Samipata which is a 3 hour ride away and has some large Inca ruins called El Fuerte. We stayed the night there and went to visit the ruins the next day. They were impressive, but I would have liked to understand a bit more about what they were - apparently there is still some debate over what they were actually used for by the Incas. We stayed that night at a great organic farm that has some really refreshing tea and food, a nice change from staying right next to the night school with no mosquito net!

From Samipata we traveled back thru Santa Cruz where we had to spend the night before loading onto another bus headed for Salar de Uyuni (the largest salt flat in the world)!

The BIG Falls!

After our bus trip across the country we arrived at Iguazu Falls, on the border of Argentina and Brazil. We were only here for one day, and then were heading back across the country to cross into Bolivia. So for one day, we bussed about 55 hours. The good part is it was well worth it. The falls were amazing, and the viewing areas are really well set up. They have paths going all over the park, but unfortunately the island was closed while we were there because the water level was too high. You can see them from above, below, and right underneath (boat). Along the paths we saw a bunch of butterflies (huge!), a toucan, and a bunch of furry little Coatis that have striped tails and sloth like claws. Apparently they have learned about people feeding them - there was a woman that was actually petting one even though there were signs all over the park saying don't touch them because they can bite and scratch you.

They were by far the biggest falls we have ever seen. We even took the boat that goes under them, and gets you completely soaked, but was really fun.

Good Wine and Fast Food!

After San Martin, we took a quick bus (20 hours) to Mendoza. This is the wine region of Argentina. We arrived on the Saturday of Easter weekend, which in a mainly Catholic country, you can imagine was pretty big. Everything was shut down for the weekend, and we really didn't do anything for the first two days. We ate some fast food, and had some big meals for our Easter dinner. Our lunch consisted of a burger like creation called the super Lomo...very traditional Easter fare that we made even healthier by adding bacon and a fried egg!

We ended up meeting two guys in the hostel from the US, and they told us about a wine tour they were doing the next day, on bikes that they had heard good things about. One of the guys actually was a caddy at Kiawah in Charleston, and knew some of our friends. (Small world). We decided to join them on Monday, and went around to Mr. Hugo's bike rental, and did an all day tour of about 5 vinyards, some olive oil 'vinyards', and a few other places. Most of the wine was great, and it was mainly Malbec wine that they grow in this region. Although, we have fallen in love with a white wine grown in the northern part of Argentina, around Salta, that is called Torrontes. It took us all day to get through only about half the vinyards on the tour. Our friends were leaving the next day to go to Chile and do some surfing, and we gave them our spinning fishing rod that has been with us since Thailand about 5 months ago.

The next day we took it easy in town again, and sent home some stuff through the post office, which was an experience in itself. I was sending home my fly fishing gear, and the shape of the rod case would be hard for anyone to fit in a box. What made it extra hard, was that the two Argentinians who are in charge of packaging were both blind, literally. We have yet to figure out why on earth they were given that job of all the jobs available. It would have been comical watching one of them put a box over the stuff, and then while they were turned around the other one would take it off and throw it aside. Like I said it would have been comical, if it didn't take 2 hours to pack two items in a box. Still not sure who thought of that arrangement, but it doesn't seem very efficient.

The next day we had another short night bus across the country(33 hours), so we had some time to kill before we left. We decided to go back to the vinyards and finish the second half of the vinyards off that we had missed before. It was fun, and very interesting to learn about all the wines....and drink them too!

Last Fishing Trip

From El Bolson we traveled north to Bariloche for a few days. It is a quaint town with some of the best chocolate in Argentina. It is typically known for adventure excursions you can do, but Ben and I did absolutely nothing for the five days we were there - it was great! We just sat around, ate really good steaks, went to a few bars, the local casino, and relaxed. It was our mini vacation while traveling. So after relaxing for a few days we traveled to San Martin. It is a very small town that is supposed to have some of the best fly fishing in the Patagonia. Our first day there was really rainy and crappy but we walked around town and got some options for tackling the river. Originally the plan was to rent a car, but neither one of us are very good at driving a stick shift and wrecking a rental in the mountains was not something we were willing to try. They don't really have any good public transportation to the parks and rivers so we would have to rent a taxi there, and just tell him a time or day to come back and pick us up. In the end we went with a guided fishing trip; it wasn't very cheap.

Our guide picked us up from our hotel at 8 in the morning and it took about an hour to get out to the river we were boating down, after a slight detour of turning around to get our fishing licenses that we forgot to bring. We met our guides father at the river, they run a family business of a fly shop and fishing trips during the summer and ski rental/ instructors during the winter - sounds pretty sweet! After we launched our inflatable boat and started down river, I caught a fish in the first half hour. It was a little surprising because I didn't notice I had one on my line since Ben's fly was caught in my hat which we were trying to get out - but a fish none the less! Normally you are able to see the trout jumping all up and down the river but today we didn't see that many. The first 3 fish we caught were Perch which were not very exciting to catch, they wouldn't fight very hard at all but we were catching fish. Our guide surprised us with a cooler full of beer and even brought himself some whiskey. He was super friendly and spoke English well - he did happen to moon us every time he leaned over for something but that seems to be a common theme here in Argentina which we got a kick out of. The lunch he and his Dad brought was really good: salad, chicken, cheese, chirizo, and wine. After lunch we stopped at a small shoreline where Ben and I cast out a few and caught some trout - yea! I tried casting the fly rod a few times but never caught anything - I don't think my technique is very good but they said I was getting better with each cast (probably more to humor me than anything else). We ended up fishing on the river until 7:30 that night. A full day on the river and about 12 fish between the two of us. Even though it was expensive, it was well worth it.

From here we are leaving fishing land and going to Mendoza to drink wine!