Near the end of last November, I left Mazatlan with my group and drove up to Los Mochis. We spent the night and took the train up to the Copper Canyon the next day. It was nearly a twelve hour train ride and we were all happy to get off the train by the time we got there.
The next day we hiked down the side of a canyon and sat in some hot springs. The day after that, some people went hiking, but I took a great bike ride with two others. I tried to ride through some mud, but the front tire just sank right in. I did a great flip over the handlebars. After another nice walk the next morning, we took the train back down to Los Mochis.
Next on our schedule was a very long drive. We drove up to Nogales, on the US border. It was very cold. We crossed over on the 7th of November and went to a hotel near Tucson, Arizona. We ordered some pizzas and watched the presidential voting results on TV. Eventually, we gave up on waiting for a winner and went to sleep. On the 8th, we went to San Diego and had a fun night out. The last day of the trip, I went to the San Diego Zoo and had a great time there. Then, it was up to Los Angeles to say goodbye.
On the 10th of November, I went into the Trek America office and did not do much. That night, I drove up to Visalia, California with Ivan and Matt. That drive was an adventure in itself in Ivan's very old pickup truck. We went to Mateo and Jaki's house and spent the night. Saturday morning, a few of us went hiking in Sequoia National Park. We even got snowed on at one point. It was pretty. That night there was a big party at the house and the next morning Mateo made us all a great breakfast.
I got back to LA on Sunday night and met my new group. On the morning of the 13th, I headed north with 13 new passengers (twelve women and one man). We did a quick tour of LA, stopped for a bit in Santa Barbara and spent the night near San Luis Obispo. Then we went up to San Francisco for a few days of sightseeing and eating. While there, I met up with Michiko, a Japanese passenger from two years ago in Mexico. I also hung out with my friend Sue for one evening at a Jazz jam session. Then we all headed east to Yosemite National Park. We did a great hike there over some snow covered trails. It was a bit slippery at times.
On the way out of the park we stopped to look at some big Sequia trees and then camped near Bakersfield, California. From there we drove to Death Valley. Along the way, we saw a fighter jet from the Air Force fly below us through a canyon. It was impressive. At our campsite in Death Valley we had some resident foxes and even a coyote. We went on a few short walks in the Valley and spent the afternoon playing on the sand dunes. I had a great time, as usual, rolling down the sand.
From there we went over to Las Vegas for our buffet and Limo ride. The next day, Thanksgiving Day, I took three passengers out to Red Rocks State Park for a hike in the desert. The hike was awesome. To leave the park, I decided to take the jeep road. Some parts of it were a bit too rough for the van, but with Daniel's help, I was able to get over the rough and narrow parts and come out the other end intact. We then raced back to Las Vegas and went to the Star Trek Experience. The ride was as much fun as ever and we had dinner in Quark's Restaurant.
We stopped at the Outlet mall on the busiest shopping day of the year for a quick bit of shopping, and then headed up to Zion National Park in Utah. We did a nice stroll up a canyon and a nice hike up to Angel's Landing viewpoint before heading over to the Paria River Guest Ranch for a bit of a party with my friend Easton. We also did a great horse ride there. Parts of the river were frozen, but the horse and I were heavy enough to break through.
Our next stop was the Grand Canyon. Most people hiked. I took Daniel to the clinic for his non-healing wound and did some paperwork the rest of the day. Then we went to Monument Valley and took a tour by jeep. That night they all slept in a Hogan, a traditional Navajo dwelling. Then we headed south to Betty and Rusty's cowboy camp. We had a relatively quite night there. They made there always excellent food for us and we dressed up in Cowboy clothes the next morning.
We moved on to Joshua Tree National Park and had another nice hike through the desert to an oasis. We stopped for lunch near some great rocks and I had a lot of fun climbing on them. Our final night stop on this three week trip was in San Diego. I took a group of them down to Tiajuana, Mexico. I really enjoyed being back in Mexico, even if it was only a border town for a few hours. After a short last night out and a visit to Disneyland, the trip was over.
On the 4th of December, I spent my birthday in the office avoiding work. I spent the next two days in the office, also avoiding work. On the 7th of December, I flew home to Florida. I spent the next two weeks sitting on the couch and occasionally visiting family. I flew up to Boston yesterday and will go back to work next week. I will head back down to lead tours in Mexico for the next three months.
Wednesday, December 20, 2000
Wednesday, November 1, 2000
The second half of a tour east of Mexico City and the first half of a tour west and north of Mexico City
Hello from Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico.
After my last update, we went to Rancho Esmeralda to visit the ruins of Tonina and ride horses. Then we went to Agua Azul waterfalls to look around. They were a little blue, but still pretty muddy from all of the rain. That night we went to Lacanja. Lacanja is near the border with Guatemala. There were lots of bugs around that night. The local Lancadonian people wear long white tunics and have long black hair. They are definately unique looking.
The next morning we toured the ruins of Bonampak and then hiked through the jungle to a waterfall. The water was pretty high and I was the only one in the group who went swimming. From there, we drove to Palenque and toured the ruins there. We also stopped at Misol Ha waterfall and it was huge also.
From Palenque we went to the ruins of Uxmal and then up to the city of Merida. After a brief stop at the ruins of Chichen Itza, we went to the beach for four days. My friend Sarah, from London, was there and hung out with us during our days on the beach. We went snorkeling in a cavern, hung out for the day at the Xel-Ha marine park, visited Cancun for a few hours, partied in Playa del Carmen and generally had lots of fun in the Caribbean.
From there, we went to Bacalar and took a sunset boat ride on the Lagoon of Seven Colors and stopped for a swim. The next day I said goodbye to Sarah and drove to Isla Aguada with my group. We spent a bit of time on the beach there then moved on. We stopped in Villahermosa to look at the zoo and then spent the night in Acayucan. The last night of the trip was spent in Cholula, a suburb of Puebla. We finished up in Mexico City on the 21st of October and said good bye to four of the eight. The other four have joined me on the next 19 days of this trip.
On the 22nd, I took my nine new passengers and my four passengers who were continuing with me to the ruins of Teotihuacan. We spent that night in San Miguel de Allende. The next morning I drove them into town and got my first flat tire ever, with Trek America. About ten feet from where I intended to park, the curb sliced into a tire and it went flat very quickly. I had lots of people to help me change the tire and I spent the rest of the morning buying a new one. In the afternoon we visited some hot springs and then drove to Guanajuato.
On the 24th, we toured the city and visited the mine and mummy museum. Then, after a shopping stop at Wal-Mart, we camped in Patzcuaro. The next day I got to take one passenger to the hospital. He was allergic to mosquito bites and needed a shot and some cream. He got his shot in the surgery room. I got to watch a doctor sew up what was left of someones fingers. It was not pretty. The doctor was so excited to practice English, that he dropped his instruments. He kept excellent eye contact with me as he tried to simultaneously speak English and perform surgery. That night we moved on to Paricutin, the volcano.
Bright and early the next day, nine of us set off on the 19 mile hike to the top and back. It was the normal hard hike, but I enjoyed it. Especially the part in the middle when we run full speed down the steep ash slope. One person fell and hurt is ankle, but for the most part we all survived the run intact.
From there we went to Guadalajara for a quiet night. The next day we toured a Tequila factory. But first, we had to bring someone to the hospital. Laura had what we suspected was bilharzia, a parasitic worm in her feet from Lake Malawi, in Africa. She had cool track marks on the top of her feet and they got longer every day.
Then it was on to the beach. We camped in Sayulita. On the 29th, I took Laura to the airport and she flew home. That night we went to party in Playa del Carmen, but first I had to take Patrick to the doctor. He cut his finger on a tree and it swelled up. He got his first ever tetanus shot and some pills.
On the 30th, some of us took a boat out to some islands and snorkeled around for a few hours. They have some really nice tropical fish there. Yesterday we drove to San Blas and toured the swamp in a boat. We stopped at a crocodile farm and watched them tie one up to weigh it and move it to another cage. Then we boated over to a swimming hole. There was a four foot crocodile laying in the water, right at the bottom of the entrance stairs. I got pretty close to him, but he would not move. Eventually, someone tapped his tail and he swam off. Once he was about 15 feet away, it seemed safe and I dove in. After a while the crocodile stayed more than 30 feet away and a few others joined me. They have a great trapeze bar there and I practiced my back flip off of the trapeze bar into the water.
After the swimming, we came up here to Mazatlan. Today is a beach day. We went on the banana boat earlier today and bounced around the waves a bit. We drove over to the El Cid Mega Resort and hung out by there pool and played on their water slides. Later we will go back to camp.
I have never been in Mexico during the rainy season before. It is great. Places that usually have thousands of tourists are pretty much empty. Prices are cheaper and it is warmer. But, I am looking forward to coming back down here early next year, when all of the waterfalls are not so muddy and I can swim in them.
Oh, and before you start thinking that three hospital visits in a week is a lot for my current tour, read back to April of 1998. The last time I did this trip, I also brought three people to the hospital for relatively minor things.
After my last update, we went to Rancho Esmeralda to visit the ruins of Tonina and ride horses. Then we went to Agua Azul waterfalls to look around. They were a little blue, but still pretty muddy from all of the rain. That night we went to Lacanja. Lacanja is near the border with Guatemala. There were lots of bugs around that night. The local Lancadonian people wear long white tunics and have long black hair. They are definately unique looking.
The next morning we toured the ruins of Bonampak and then hiked through the jungle to a waterfall. The water was pretty high and I was the only one in the group who went swimming. From there, we drove to Palenque and toured the ruins there. We also stopped at Misol Ha waterfall and it was huge also.
From Palenque we went to the ruins of Uxmal and then up to the city of Merida. After a brief stop at the ruins of Chichen Itza, we went to the beach for four days. My friend Sarah, from London, was there and hung out with us during our days on the beach. We went snorkeling in a cavern, hung out for the day at the Xel-Ha marine park, visited Cancun for a few hours, partied in Playa del Carmen and generally had lots of fun in the Caribbean.
From there, we went to Bacalar and took a sunset boat ride on the Lagoon of Seven Colors and stopped for a swim. The next day I said goodbye to Sarah and drove to Isla Aguada with my group. We spent a bit of time on the beach there then moved on. We stopped in Villahermosa to look at the zoo and then spent the night in Acayucan. The last night of the trip was spent in Cholula, a suburb of Puebla. We finished up in Mexico City on the 21st of October and said good bye to four of the eight. The other four have joined me on the next 19 days of this trip.
On the 22nd, I took my nine new passengers and my four passengers who were continuing with me to the ruins of Teotihuacan. We spent that night in San Miguel de Allende. The next morning I drove them into town and got my first flat tire ever, with Trek America. About ten feet from where I intended to park, the curb sliced into a tire and it went flat very quickly. I had lots of people to help me change the tire and I spent the rest of the morning buying a new one. In the afternoon we visited some hot springs and then drove to Guanajuato.
On the 24th, we toured the city and visited the mine and mummy museum. Then, after a shopping stop at Wal-Mart, we camped in Patzcuaro. The next day I got to take one passenger to the hospital. He was allergic to mosquito bites and needed a shot and some cream. He got his shot in the surgery room. I got to watch a doctor sew up what was left of someones fingers. It was not pretty. The doctor was so excited to practice English, that he dropped his instruments. He kept excellent eye contact with me as he tried to simultaneously speak English and perform surgery. That night we moved on to Paricutin, the volcano.
Bright and early the next day, nine of us set off on the 19 mile hike to the top and back. It was the normal hard hike, but I enjoyed it. Especially the part in the middle when we run full speed down the steep ash slope. One person fell and hurt is ankle, but for the most part we all survived the run intact.
From there we went to Guadalajara for a quiet night. The next day we toured a Tequila factory. But first, we had to bring someone to the hospital. Laura had what we suspected was bilharzia, a parasitic worm in her feet from Lake Malawi, in Africa. She had cool track marks on the top of her feet and they got longer every day.
Then it was on to the beach. We camped in Sayulita. On the 29th, I took Laura to the airport and she flew home. That night we went to party in Playa del Carmen, but first I had to take Patrick to the doctor. He cut his finger on a tree and it swelled up. He got his first ever tetanus shot and some pills.
On the 30th, some of us took a boat out to some islands and snorkeled around for a few hours. They have some really nice tropical fish there. Yesterday we drove to San Blas and toured the swamp in a boat. We stopped at a crocodile farm and watched them tie one up to weigh it and move it to another cage. Then we boated over to a swimming hole. There was a four foot crocodile laying in the water, right at the bottom of the entrance stairs. I got pretty close to him, but he would not move. Eventually, someone tapped his tail and he swam off. Once he was about 15 feet away, it seemed safe and I dove in. After a while the crocodile stayed more than 30 feet away and a few others joined me. They have a great trapeze bar there and I practiced my back flip off of the trapeze bar into the water.
After the swimming, we came up here to Mazatlan. Today is a beach day. We went on the banana boat earlier today and bounced around the waves a bit. We drove over to the El Cid Mega Resort and hung out by there pool and played on their water slides. Later we will go back to camp.
I have never been in Mexico during the rainy season before. It is great. Places that usually have thousands of tourists are pretty much empty. Prices are cheaper and it is warmer. But, I am looking forward to coming back down here early next year, when all of the waterfalls are not so muddy and I can swim in them.
Oh, and before you start thinking that three hospital visits in a week is a lot for my current tour, read back to April of 1998. The last time I did this trip, I also brought three people to the hospital for relatively minor things.
Thursday, October 5, 2000
A two week tour west of Mexico City, a mountain climb and the start of a tour east of Mexico City
Hello from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico,
On the 9th of September, I went into Mexico City and met my new group. This group was dominated by a bunch of British people who like to drink.
On the 10th, we went to the ruins of Teotihuacan in the morning and camped in San Miguel de Allende that night. On the 11th, we looked around town, went to some nice hot springs and drove to Guanajuato in the evening.
On the 12th, we took a tour of Guanajuato. We visited the mine, the church, the view point, the mummy museum, and drove through the extremely confusing tunnels beneath the city. In the afternoon we moved on to Patzcuaro. The next morning they took a boat trip to Isla Juanitzio and then we moved on to the Paricutin Volcano.
We got a very early start on the 14th and did a 19 mile hike. It was a very difficult hike, over sharp wobbly lava rocks and past some steaming fissures in the ground. After we reached the top of the crater, we ran down the ash slope. On the way back to town we visited the church that was covered by lava in 1943.
On the 16th, we went to Guadalajara. This is Mexico's second biggest city. We were there for Mexican Independence Day. We bought sombreros, noise makers, fake beards and mustaches, and got our faces painted with "Viva Mexico" We watched the fireworks and had a great night downtown. It was very crowded and a lot of fun.
On the 17th we went to the town of Tequila and toured a tequila factory. After the free tasting the group was a bit wobbly but a lot of fun. We spent that night in Sayulita, on the Pacific coast. We had a nice sunset and then it rained all night.
On the 18th, it was still raining a bit. We went into Puerta Vallarta and they found a bar. We danced the night away and then went back to camp.
On the 19th, we rented a sail boat and cruised out to the Marietas Islands for some snorkeling. On the way back everybody fell asleep and it was a nice sailing experience. It rained a lot that night at camp.
On the 20th, we drove all day, in the rain, south along the coast. We got to Playa Azul well after dark and found a cheap hotel. The next day we got a very early start and drove most of the day through the rain to Acapulco. We spent two very long days on driving very slowly on really bad flooded roads. That night we went to see the cliff divers. That was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. They stand around on the edge of the cliff until the water level is right in the canyon below them. Then, when they judge the waves to be just right, they dive off from up to 110 feet in the air. To get up to the diving spot, they have to first climb straight up the cliff. I looked for a sign up sheet after the show, but could not find one.
We spent the next day on the beach. I did an illegal U-turn, in a country with no apparent road rules, and got pulled over by the Transit Police. A policeman waved for me to stop after I did the U-turn. He was just standing there, so naturally I drove on. Then he hopped into a police car and followed me, so naturally I stopped. He spoke perfect English and told me that, behind the tree, was a no U-turn sign. He wanted me to come to the police station and pay a $30 fine. I was looking for the Fed Ex office and was late to pick up my passengers. I explained all of this and then asked if I could pay the fine there. He emphasized that he did not want any trouble and I assured him that neither did I. I gave him a copy of my drivers license. Folded into the copy was about $15. He went to his car and then returned to my van with the copy of my license, minus the money. When he returned, he was very happy. He said that I now have a friend in Acapulco and if I ever need anything to call him. Then he gave me a police escort to the Fed Ex office.
After my exciting afternoon, I rejoined my group on the beach for a bungee jump. This was my sixth jump, so they let me use a chest harness, instead of the normal ankle harness. I took a running leap and did a few flips before the bungee arrested my fall, just above the swimming pool, and I flew back upwards. After a few more bounces, it was all over and I collected my video and t-shirt.
On the 22nd of September, we drove to the hillside town of Taxco. On the way, we stopped to do a jet boat tour. The boat went really fast and did some fun spins. The driver also took us very close to the rocks and scared us. We had a fun last night dinner and spent the next morning looking around the silver jewelry producing town of Taxco.
On the 23rd, we returned to Mexico City. Six of the British passengers joined me and we went to a soccer game that night. Nexcaca beat Atalante 4-1, but it was still fun. I like Latin America soccer because the fans bring fire works and build little fires.
The next day I went to the town of Amecameca, usually just called Ameca. On the 25th, I drove up to Paso de Cortez, between the Volcanoes of Popo and Ixta. I wanted to climb Popo, but it is smoking too much. I parked the van at about 13,000 feet (4000 meters) and spend a night in the La Joya parking lot. The next morning, I put on all of my long underwear and jackets. It took me about four hours to climb up to a minor peak at about 15,500 feet (4700 meters). Most of the climb was in fierce wind in a cloud. I rarely got any good views, but the side of me that faced the wind did get covered in ice. The last hour was spent climbing up a snow covered ridge to the peak. I did not get to the highest point of the mountain, but from the peak I climbed, I could not see any higher peaks because of the fog. The weather cleared on the way down and I stopped to read a book. That night I went back to Amecameca.
On the 27th I drove back into Mexico City to meet my new group. I took the highway into town and got pulled over by the police. They tried to give me a ticket because cargo vehicles are not allowed on the highway. I showed them that the van contained seats and told them that I was going to pick up passengers at the hotel. They agreed that the van was a passenger vehicle and not a cargo truck. So, they tried to give me a ticket because I only gave them a copy of my license and not the original. I eventually gave them the original. Next they tried to give me a ticket because the license plate is all letters and no numbers. It is TREKAMA. They told me that every license plate has numbers, and despite the registration showing that I was correct, they insisted that I was breaking the law. I have a letter, in Spanish, from the Mexican Minister of Tourism. It says that I am driving a cargo and passenger vehicle and to give me any assistance that is possible. They read the letter, got back in their car and drove off. I proceeded to the hotel and met my new group.
On the 28th, I loaded up my eight new passengers and we drove to Oaxaca. We spent three days there and visited the ruins of Monte Alban and Mitla, toured a Mezcal factory, visited a rug weaving town and a town that makes little wooden animals with unique paint jobs, went salsa dancing and saw the giant Tule tree.
On the 1st of October, we went to Playa Muzunte, on the Pacific coast. It is a beautiful secluded beach area. There are big waves to play in and I had a lot of fun in the water. The next day some of us went to Zipolite and went swimming. Three of us were quickly sucked out in the riptide. One of my passengers was unable to swim back. Luckily, some local surfers saw that she was in trouble and came out to rescue her. In the end they had to get one of those red floats on a rope, like in Baywatch, and pull her in. After that bit of excitement, we went back to our relatively safe beach and took a walk to an empty beach on the other side of the point. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the waves.
On the 3rd, we drove to Tuxtla Guitierrez. On the way into the city they spotted the McDonald's and got very excited. Guess where we had dinner that night. Yesterday, we took the boat tour up the Sumidero Canyon and saw some crocodiles. There has been a lot of rain lately and the waterfalls on the sides of the canyon were bigger than I have ever seen them before. After the boat ride, we came up here to San Cristobal. Today everyone went on a tour of the Indian Villages with Mercedes and I am using the day to get caught up on all sorts of odds and ends.
Obviously, I am still having lots of fun and am looking forward to the next two weeks in the jungle and on the Carribbean beaches.
On the 9th of September, I went into Mexico City and met my new group. This group was dominated by a bunch of British people who like to drink.
On the 10th, we went to the ruins of Teotihuacan in the morning and camped in San Miguel de Allende that night. On the 11th, we looked around town, went to some nice hot springs and drove to Guanajuato in the evening.
On the 12th, we took a tour of Guanajuato. We visited the mine, the church, the view point, the mummy museum, and drove through the extremely confusing tunnels beneath the city. In the afternoon we moved on to Patzcuaro. The next morning they took a boat trip to Isla Juanitzio and then we moved on to the Paricutin Volcano.
We got a very early start on the 14th and did a 19 mile hike. It was a very difficult hike, over sharp wobbly lava rocks and past some steaming fissures in the ground. After we reached the top of the crater, we ran down the ash slope. On the way back to town we visited the church that was covered by lava in 1943.
On the 16th, we went to Guadalajara. This is Mexico's second biggest city. We were there for Mexican Independence Day. We bought sombreros, noise makers, fake beards and mustaches, and got our faces painted with "Viva Mexico" We watched the fireworks and had a great night downtown. It was very crowded and a lot of fun.
On the 17th we went to the town of Tequila and toured a tequila factory. After the free tasting the group was a bit wobbly but a lot of fun. We spent that night in Sayulita, on the Pacific coast. We had a nice sunset and then it rained all night.
On the 18th, it was still raining a bit. We went into Puerta Vallarta and they found a bar. We danced the night away and then went back to camp.
On the 19th, we rented a sail boat and cruised out to the Marietas Islands for some snorkeling. On the way back everybody fell asleep and it was a nice sailing experience. It rained a lot that night at camp.
On the 20th, we drove all day, in the rain, south along the coast. We got to Playa Azul well after dark and found a cheap hotel. The next day we got a very early start and drove most of the day through the rain to Acapulco. We spent two very long days on driving very slowly on really bad flooded roads. That night we went to see the cliff divers. That was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. They stand around on the edge of the cliff until the water level is right in the canyon below them. Then, when they judge the waves to be just right, they dive off from up to 110 feet in the air. To get up to the diving spot, they have to first climb straight up the cliff. I looked for a sign up sheet after the show, but could not find one.
We spent the next day on the beach. I did an illegal U-turn, in a country with no apparent road rules, and got pulled over by the Transit Police. A policeman waved for me to stop after I did the U-turn. He was just standing there, so naturally I drove on. Then he hopped into a police car and followed me, so naturally I stopped. He spoke perfect English and told me that, behind the tree, was a no U-turn sign. He wanted me to come to the police station and pay a $30 fine. I was looking for the Fed Ex office and was late to pick up my passengers. I explained all of this and then asked if I could pay the fine there. He emphasized that he did not want any trouble and I assured him that neither did I. I gave him a copy of my drivers license. Folded into the copy was about $15. He went to his car and then returned to my van with the copy of my license, minus the money. When he returned, he was very happy. He said that I now have a friend in Acapulco and if I ever need anything to call him. Then he gave me a police escort to the Fed Ex office.
After my exciting afternoon, I rejoined my group on the beach for a bungee jump. This was my sixth jump, so they let me use a chest harness, instead of the normal ankle harness. I took a running leap and did a few flips before the bungee arrested my fall, just above the swimming pool, and I flew back upwards. After a few more bounces, it was all over and I collected my video and t-shirt.
On the 22nd of September, we drove to the hillside town of Taxco. On the way, we stopped to do a jet boat tour. The boat went really fast and did some fun spins. The driver also took us very close to the rocks and scared us. We had a fun last night dinner and spent the next morning looking around the silver jewelry producing town of Taxco.
On the 23rd, we returned to Mexico City. Six of the British passengers joined me and we went to a soccer game that night. Nexcaca beat Atalante 4-1, but it was still fun. I like Latin America soccer because the fans bring fire works and build little fires.
The next day I went to the town of Amecameca, usually just called Ameca. On the 25th, I drove up to Paso de Cortez, between the Volcanoes of Popo and Ixta. I wanted to climb Popo, but it is smoking too much. I parked the van at about 13,000 feet (4000 meters) and spend a night in the La Joya parking lot. The next morning, I put on all of my long underwear and jackets. It took me about four hours to climb up to a minor peak at about 15,500 feet (4700 meters). Most of the climb was in fierce wind in a cloud. I rarely got any good views, but the side of me that faced the wind did get covered in ice. The last hour was spent climbing up a snow covered ridge to the peak. I did not get to the highest point of the mountain, but from the peak I climbed, I could not see any higher peaks because of the fog. The weather cleared on the way down and I stopped to read a book. That night I went back to Amecameca.
On the 27th I drove back into Mexico City to meet my new group. I took the highway into town and got pulled over by the police. They tried to give me a ticket because cargo vehicles are not allowed on the highway. I showed them that the van contained seats and told them that I was going to pick up passengers at the hotel. They agreed that the van was a passenger vehicle and not a cargo truck. So, they tried to give me a ticket because I only gave them a copy of my license and not the original. I eventually gave them the original. Next they tried to give me a ticket because the license plate is all letters and no numbers. It is TREKAMA. They told me that every license plate has numbers, and despite the registration showing that I was correct, they insisted that I was breaking the law. I have a letter, in Spanish, from the Mexican Minister of Tourism. It says that I am driving a cargo and passenger vehicle and to give me any assistance that is possible. They read the letter, got back in their car and drove off. I proceeded to the hotel and met my new group.
On the 28th, I loaded up my eight new passengers and we drove to Oaxaca. We spent three days there and visited the ruins of Monte Alban and Mitla, toured a Mezcal factory, visited a rug weaving town and a town that makes little wooden animals with unique paint jobs, went salsa dancing and saw the giant Tule tree.
On the 1st of October, we went to Playa Muzunte, on the Pacific coast. It is a beautiful secluded beach area. There are big waves to play in and I had a lot of fun in the water. The next day some of us went to Zipolite and went swimming. Three of us were quickly sucked out in the riptide. One of my passengers was unable to swim back. Luckily, some local surfers saw that she was in trouble and came out to rescue her. In the end they had to get one of those red floats on a rope, like in Baywatch, and pull her in. After that bit of excitement, we went back to our relatively safe beach and took a walk to an empty beach on the other side of the point. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the waves.
On the 3rd, we drove to Tuxtla Guitierrez. On the way into the city they spotted the McDonald's and got very excited. Guess where we had dinner that night. Yesterday, we took the boat tour up the Sumidero Canyon and saw some crocodiles. There has been a lot of rain lately and the waterfalls on the sides of the canyon were bigger than I have ever seen them before. After the boat ride, we came up here to San Cristobal. Today everyone went on a tour of the Indian Villages with Mercedes and I am using the day to get caught up on all sorts of odds and ends.
Obviously, I am still having lots of fun and am looking forward to the next two weeks in the jungle and on the Carribbean beaches.
Friday, September 8, 2000
The drive to Cancun and a two week tour of the Yucatan and Chiapas
Hello from Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico.
After my last update, on the 13th of August, I went back to the hotel and ran into Wendy. She wanted to give a tour of Hollywood to her passengers, but was too tired. Greg and I decided to do it for her. Wendy and her passengers got into a van and Greg drove us around.
The tour went well until we got to Beverly Hills. Greg pulled over and let the passengers out. As soon as we pulled away from the curb, two cops on motorcycles were following us. We went around a few blocks but could not lose them. We stopped for gas and Greg asked them why they were following us. They thought we were dropping off a bunch of college students to join the protests against Nike in celebration of the Democratic National Convention. After they understood that we were just carting tourists around, they gave us a police escort back to the pick up point. Then they let all the passengers pose on their motorcycles for photos. None of the passengers even realized that they had been followed by the police during their entire visit to Beverly Hills.
After the best tour of LA ever, we went back to the hotel. On Monday, I put in a full day at the office and then started driving. On Tuesday, I got a bunch of books on tape, and drove, On Wednesday, I drove all day and listened to some books on tape. That night I got to the bottom of Texas and spent the night. On the morning of the 17th, I crossed into Mexico, took care of some paperwork and headed south. I drove all day on the 18th and on the 19th I spent the night in Catemaco.
I had some free time, so I took the slow road over the mountains. The road was very muddy and bad in places. It was fun to slide the van around some turns and get it dirty. I got lost a lot, so I picked up a few passengers. One sat up front to give me directions and the rest sat on the roof. I was taking some money away from the local buses, but at least I did not get lost.
After some more driving, I made it to Cancun on the 21st of August and met my new group. They were a youth group from Luxembourg. I have learned alot about their country in the past two weeks. They speak Luxembourgish at home, learn French and German in elementary school and learn English in High School. By the time they are 18, they are fluent in four languages. Impressive.
On the 22nd, we went to the ruins of Chichen Itza, swam in the underground cenote (well) in Holca and spent the night in Merida. On the 23rd we bought some hammocks and hung out in town. On the 24th, we went to the ruins of Uxmal. That afternoon, we followed some directions to a hidden cenote. We drove off into the jungle on a very bad dirt road and ended up at a big hole in the ground. We took the stairs down into the water and swam around. I figured out that you could jump from the roof of the cave down into the water. It took a little aim, but it was a lot of fun. For some reason, none of my group wanted to try it.
The next morning my group did something that most groups find impossible. They woke up before sunrise, had breakfast, loaded the van and were ready to go by 7:30 am. We travelled for nearly twelve hours and went to Rancho Esmeralda, near Ocosingo, in the state of Chiapas. They made and excellent dinner for us, as always.
The next day we visited the ruins of Tonina. I like them because there are many places to crawl around if you bring a flashlight. In the afternoon we went to San Cristobal de las Casas. We spent a few days there, visiting the Indian villages, taking a boat trip up the Sumidero Canyon and going to the bar.
From San Cristobal, we went to the waterfalls of Agua Azul. It is rainy season, so it was Agua Caca and nobody wanted to swim. This group was used to hiking, I took them on a hike they will remember for a long time. We followed the river downstream. First we passed a sign that told us to be careful of robbers along the way. Then we had to skirt some mud. Then we had to hop across a stream and got our boots a bit wet. Then we came to a place where the trail was flooded. I led them through the water. The water was not much above our knees and we all got our boots good and wet there. After a bit more than an hour of walking, we came to the first of four big waterfalls. It started to rain. By the time we got to the fourth waterfall, it was pouring. Now we were all good and wet. Of course, I loved it.
We hiked back to the van in the rain and mud. I told them they could pile their boots near the door and put their clothes in a big plastic bag. Then, in their underwear, they got into the van and we drove to camp.
The next day we visited the ruins of Palenque in the morning and went to the waterfall of Misol Ha in the afternoon. I have never seen it it the rainy season before and it was way to big to play in. We went around back to the cave, but the river in the cave was also too strong so I told everybody to go back. Only one of them was stupid enough to follow me up the river and into the cave. We went a good ways in and saw the waterfall in the cave, before somehow, exiting the cave safely. That was fun also.
After leaving Palenque, we went to Bacalar and spent the night near the lagoon. It was nice to be back near the beach and we had a midnight swim. From there we went to our campground on the Carribbean and spent a few nights. During the days we went to the Xel-Ha snorkel park, the town of Playa del Carmen for dinner, the ruins of Tulum, and hung out on the beach.
Then we finished up in Cancun. They were a great group. They were always ready on time and we were able to do lots of extra fun stuff.
Now I am on my way to Mexico City for my next trip. On the 4th of September, I drove to Tizimin. Then I continued around the Yucatan Peninsula and stayed as close to the coast as I could. The roads were pretty bad and it was very slow going. I wanted to continue along the coast in the state of Veracruz, but the road was washed out. So, I headed inland and am now in Orizaba. I had a lot of fun seeing new areas on my own and taking all of the small roads. Tomorrow I will go into Mexico City and meet my new group.
I came back to Mexico because I like working down here, but I forgot how much fun it really is. There are so many cenotes in the jungle to discover and the relaxing beach days are great. So, I am having more fun than usual and hope to come back down here in January for a few more months of fun/work.
After my last update, on the 13th of August, I went back to the hotel and ran into Wendy. She wanted to give a tour of Hollywood to her passengers, but was too tired. Greg and I decided to do it for her. Wendy and her passengers got into a van and Greg drove us around.
The tour went well until we got to Beverly Hills. Greg pulled over and let the passengers out. As soon as we pulled away from the curb, two cops on motorcycles were following us. We went around a few blocks but could not lose them. We stopped for gas and Greg asked them why they were following us. They thought we were dropping off a bunch of college students to join the protests against Nike in celebration of the Democratic National Convention. After they understood that we were just carting tourists around, they gave us a police escort back to the pick up point. Then they let all the passengers pose on their motorcycles for photos. None of the passengers even realized that they had been followed by the police during their entire visit to Beverly Hills.
After the best tour of LA ever, we went back to the hotel. On Monday, I put in a full day at the office and then started driving. On Tuesday, I got a bunch of books on tape, and drove, On Wednesday, I drove all day and listened to some books on tape. That night I got to the bottom of Texas and spent the night. On the morning of the 17th, I crossed into Mexico, took care of some paperwork and headed south. I drove all day on the 18th and on the 19th I spent the night in Catemaco.
I had some free time, so I took the slow road over the mountains. The road was very muddy and bad in places. It was fun to slide the van around some turns and get it dirty. I got lost a lot, so I picked up a few passengers. One sat up front to give me directions and the rest sat on the roof. I was taking some money away from the local buses, but at least I did not get lost.
After some more driving, I made it to Cancun on the 21st of August and met my new group. They were a youth group from Luxembourg. I have learned alot about their country in the past two weeks. They speak Luxembourgish at home, learn French and German in elementary school and learn English in High School. By the time they are 18, they are fluent in four languages. Impressive.
On the 22nd, we went to the ruins of Chichen Itza, swam in the underground cenote (well) in Holca and spent the night in Merida. On the 23rd we bought some hammocks and hung out in town. On the 24th, we went to the ruins of Uxmal. That afternoon, we followed some directions to a hidden cenote. We drove off into the jungle on a very bad dirt road and ended up at a big hole in the ground. We took the stairs down into the water and swam around. I figured out that you could jump from the roof of the cave down into the water. It took a little aim, but it was a lot of fun. For some reason, none of my group wanted to try it.
The next morning my group did something that most groups find impossible. They woke up before sunrise, had breakfast, loaded the van and were ready to go by 7:30 am. We travelled for nearly twelve hours and went to Rancho Esmeralda, near Ocosingo, in the state of Chiapas. They made and excellent dinner for us, as always.
The next day we visited the ruins of Tonina. I like them because there are many places to crawl around if you bring a flashlight. In the afternoon we went to San Cristobal de las Casas. We spent a few days there, visiting the Indian villages, taking a boat trip up the Sumidero Canyon and going to the bar.
From San Cristobal, we went to the waterfalls of Agua Azul. It is rainy season, so it was Agua Caca and nobody wanted to swim. This group was used to hiking, I took them on a hike they will remember for a long time. We followed the river downstream. First we passed a sign that told us to be careful of robbers along the way. Then we had to skirt some mud. Then we had to hop across a stream and got our boots a bit wet. Then we came to a place where the trail was flooded. I led them through the water. The water was not much above our knees and we all got our boots good and wet there. After a bit more than an hour of walking, we came to the first of four big waterfalls. It started to rain. By the time we got to the fourth waterfall, it was pouring. Now we were all good and wet. Of course, I loved it.
We hiked back to the van in the rain and mud. I told them they could pile their boots near the door and put their clothes in a big plastic bag. Then, in their underwear, they got into the van and we drove to camp.
The next day we visited the ruins of Palenque in the morning and went to the waterfall of Misol Ha in the afternoon. I have never seen it it the rainy season before and it was way to big to play in. We went around back to the cave, but the river in the cave was also too strong so I told everybody to go back. Only one of them was stupid enough to follow me up the river and into the cave. We went a good ways in and saw the waterfall in the cave, before somehow, exiting the cave safely. That was fun also.
After leaving Palenque, we went to Bacalar and spent the night near the lagoon. It was nice to be back near the beach and we had a midnight swim. From there we went to our campground on the Carribbean and spent a few nights. During the days we went to the Xel-Ha snorkel park, the town of Playa del Carmen for dinner, the ruins of Tulum, and hung out on the beach.
Then we finished up in Cancun. They were a great group. They were always ready on time and we were able to do lots of extra fun stuff.
Now I am on my way to Mexico City for my next trip. On the 4th of September, I drove to Tizimin. Then I continued around the Yucatan Peninsula and stayed as close to the coast as I could. The roads were pretty bad and it was very slow going. I wanted to continue along the coast in the state of Veracruz, but the road was washed out. So, I headed inland and am now in Orizaba. I had a lot of fun seeing new areas on my own and taking all of the small roads. Tomorrow I will go into Mexico City and meet my new group.
I came back to Mexico because I like working down here, but I forgot how much fun it really is. There are so many cenotes in the jungle to discover and the relaxing beach days are great. So, I am having more fun than usual and hope to come back down here in January for a few more months of fun/work.
Sunday, August 13, 2000
New York to L.A. and San Francisco to L.A., USA - Two fun tours
have an exciting month since my last update. Here, let me tell you about it.
On the 7th of July, I went to the airport to fly up to New Jersey. The flight was full and I was voluntarily bumped. Delta gave me a $300 gift certificate and a First Class seat on the next flight, an hour later. After a stop over in Atlanta, I continued up to Newark in First Class. The seats were big and the orange juice was never ending.
On the morning of the 8th, I went into work. I was eagerly anticipating my three days in the office. I was going to plan my trip, make sure my equipment was in perfect condition and hang out with my friends. At 8:00 a.m. a tour leader called in from New York and said that, due to a family emergency, he had to go home. As the most available and experienced person in the office, I was chosen to drive into the City and take over his trip. So much for my easy three day transition back into the working world.
I picked my group up at 2:00 pm and we headed to Philadelphia for our first night of camping. I had a group of French people between the ages of 16 and 21 and their chaperone. Their English was not too bad. We were doing a 24 day trip from New York to Los Angeles along the south.
On the 9th of July, we went to Washington D.C. and spend a few days sight seeing. Then we drove through Virginia and camped in Tennessee on the way to North Carolina. We rented some inflatable kayaks called duckies and paddled down the Nantahala River. The rapids were not that big, but the trip was amazing. It was a hot day and the river was cold. The river was covered in fog and you could often not see for more than 75 feet. It was fun going down the river in the fog.
That night I tried to take my group out to a cafe and some live music. The exit to the campground was muddy and steep. I slid the van all over the lawn, tore up a lot of grass and eventually, with everyone pushing, made it up to the road. It was fun driving the van while it slid sideways. The cafe had some good music and hot chocolate and everyone had fun.
After a long drive through Alabama we made it to New Orleans. I explained how women sometimes bare their breasts in exchange for bead necklaces. Two of the 17 year old boys were so inspired they went around mooning people. They came home with quite a few necklaces.
Next, we headed over to Galveston Island in Texas. We went swimming and hung out on the beach. Our next stop was San Antonio. The Alamo did not hold their interest for the whole day, so we went out to New Braunfels, rented inner tubes and floated down the river.
Our biggest drive of the trip came the next day, but with an early start we made it to El Paso in record time. After dinner I took them down to Mexico for some drinking, smoking and dancing. They may not be able to remember it, but they had fun.
After a brief stop at White Sands National Monument, in New Mexico, we camped in Albuquerque on our way to Monument Valley, Utah. We galloped through the Valley on horseback and watched the sun set.
Our next stop was Lake Powell. While twelve of them swam and jumped off the cliffs, the chaperone and I took one of the passengers to the doctor. He had bronchitis and his coughing was bothering everyone. He got some pills and treatment and then we all went to camp at the Pariah Canyon Camp Ground. Easton, the owner let me go along on their horse ride. It was a truly amazing ride. We passed through tall, narrow red rock canyons and eventually came to a box canyon/cliff. It was a truly amazing sun set ride.
Our next stop was the Grand Canyon for a day of hiking, or in my case, laundry. From there, we went to Seligman Arizona for some ice cream at Delgado's Snow Cap on Route 66. That place is always a huge hit. You must suffer through a 15 minute comedy routine for a soda.
In Las Vegas we pigged out at the buffet and then took a limo ride down the strip. We were dropped off at a wedding chapel and two of the passengers had a mock wedding.
After Vegas, we drove to Los Angeles and camped in Malibu for a few days. We went to Universal Studios, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Melrose Avenue.
They were a lot of fun, but had almost no initiative. They were difficult to motivate when it came to washing dishes or cooking. But once they got started, they did not complain too much. It was fun hanging out with a bunch of kids for three weeks. I even taught some of them not to throw their cigarette butts on the ground.
I then spent the first week of August in the L.A. office. I worked on my equipment, planned my next trip and studied up for my upcoming three months in Mexico. A few of us took a day trip to Tiajuana to do some paperwork and eat tacos.
On Friday, the 4th, I drove up to San Francisco and visited my friend Sue, and her boyfriend Peter. Peter is a boat captain and on Saturday Sue and I joined him for a cruise of San Francisco Bay.
That night I met my new group and on Sunday we headed east. I now had a mixed international group. We went to Yosemite National Park on the 6th of August and hiked down to the big sequoia trees.
On the 7th, most of us did an 8 mile hike. Then we ate pizza and headed over to looked at Yosemite Falls in the moon light. That night at camp we watched bears dig through the garbage.
On the 8th, we swam in Mono lake and then went to Las Vegas. The next day I bought a new pair of sandals. That night we took our limo ride. I used a new company, Fox Limo Tours. They had a stretch Ford Explorer that holds 14 people. We cruised the strip and sipped our champagne.
From there we went to the Grand Canyon and a few of us flew over it in a helicopter. Then, after a quick dinner we went to watch the sunset. The next morning, at 4:30 we left to watch the sunrise. After a relaxing morning, we drove to Lake Havasu, Arizona for a night near the hottest inhabited town in the U.S. We camped near the Colorado River and had to run in there every few minutes to cool off.
Yesterday, after a hot and sticky night, we drove into L.A. and did a quick Hollywood and Rodeo Drive tour.
Today is Sunday, so the office is closed and I am forced to take a day off. I will plan my Mexico trip, do some laundry, and write some e-mail.
Tomorrow I will start my seven day drive to Cancun and pick up my new group on the 22nd of August.
On the 7th of July, I went to the airport to fly up to New Jersey. The flight was full and I was voluntarily bumped. Delta gave me a $300 gift certificate and a First Class seat on the next flight, an hour later. After a stop over in Atlanta, I continued up to Newark in First Class. The seats were big and the orange juice was never ending.
On the morning of the 8th, I went into work. I was eagerly anticipating my three days in the office. I was going to plan my trip, make sure my equipment was in perfect condition and hang out with my friends. At 8:00 a.m. a tour leader called in from New York and said that, due to a family emergency, he had to go home. As the most available and experienced person in the office, I was chosen to drive into the City and take over his trip. So much for my easy three day transition back into the working world.
I picked my group up at 2:00 pm and we headed to Philadelphia for our first night of camping. I had a group of French people between the ages of 16 and 21 and their chaperone. Their English was not too bad. We were doing a 24 day trip from New York to Los Angeles along the south.
On the 9th of July, we went to Washington D.C. and spend a few days sight seeing. Then we drove through Virginia and camped in Tennessee on the way to North Carolina. We rented some inflatable kayaks called duckies and paddled down the Nantahala River. The rapids were not that big, but the trip was amazing. It was a hot day and the river was cold. The river was covered in fog and you could often not see for more than 75 feet. It was fun going down the river in the fog.
That night I tried to take my group out to a cafe and some live music. The exit to the campground was muddy and steep. I slid the van all over the lawn, tore up a lot of grass and eventually, with everyone pushing, made it up to the road. It was fun driving the van while it slid sideways. The cafe had some good music and hot chocolate and everyone had fun.
After a long drive through Alabama we made it to New Orleans. I explained how women sometimes bare their breasts in exchange for bead necklaces. Two of the 17 year old boys were so inspired they went around mooning people. They came home with quite a few necklaces.
Next, we headed over to Galveston Island in Texas. We went swimming and hung out on the beach. Our next stop was San Antonio. The Alamo did not hold their interest for the whole day, so we went out to New Braunfels, rented inner tubes and floated down the river.
Our biggest drive of the trip came the next day, but with an early start we made it to El Paso in record time. After dinner I took them down to Mexico for some drinking, smoking and dancing. They may not be able to remember it, but they had fun.
After a brief stop at White Sands National Monument, in New Mexico, we camped in Albuquerque on our way to Monument Valley, Utah. We galloped through the Valley on horseback and watched the sun set.
Our next stop was Lake Powell. While twelve of them swam and jumped off the cliffs, the chaperone and I took one of the passengers to the doctor. He had bronchitis and his coughing was bothering everyone. He got some pills and treatment and then we all went to camp at the Pariah Canyon Camp Ground. Easton, the owner let me go along on their horse ride. It was a truly amazing ride. We passed through tall, narrow red rock canyons and eventually came to a box canyon/cliff. It was a truly amazing sun set ride.
Our next stop was the Grand Canyon for a day of hiking, or in my case, laundry. From there, we went to Seligman Arizona for some ice cream at Delgado's Snow Cap on Route 66. That place is always a huge hit. You must suffer through a 15 minute comedy routine for a soda.
In Las Vegas we pigged out at the buffet and then took a limo ride down the strip. We were dropped off at a wedding chapel and two of the passengers had a mock wedding.
After Vegas, we drove to Los Angeles and camped in Malibu for a few days. We went to Universal Studios, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Melrose Avenue.
They were a lot of fun, but had almost no initiative. They were difficult to motivate when it came to washing dishes or cooking. But once they got started, they did not complain too much. It was fun hanging out with a bunch of kids for three weeks. I even taught some of them not to throw their cigarette butts on the ground.
I then spent the first week of August in the L.A. office. I worked on my equipment, planned my next trip and studied up for my upcoming three months in Mexico. A few of us took a day trip to Tiajuana to do some paperwork and eat tacos.
On Friday, the 4th, I drove up to San Francisco and visited my friend Sue, and her boyfriend Peter. Peter is a boat captain and on Saturday Sue and I joined him for a cruise of San Francisco Bay.
That night I met my new group and on Sunday we headed east. I now had a mixed international group. We went to Yosemite National Park on the 6th of August and hiked down to the big sequoia trees.
On the 7th, most of us did an 8 mile hike. Then we ate pizza and headed over to looked at Yosemite Falls in the moon light. That night at camp we watched bears dig through the garbage.
On the 8th, we swam in Mono lake and then went to Las Vegas. The next day I bought a new pair of sandals. That night we took our limo ride. I used a new company, Fox Limo Tours. They had a stretch Ford Explorer that holds 14 people. We cruised the strip and sipped our champagne.
From there we went to the Grand Canyon and a few of us flew over it in a helicopter. Then, after a quick dinner we went to watch the sunset. The next morning, at 4:30 we left to watch the sunrise. After a relaxing morning, we drove to Lake Havasu, Arizona for a night near the hottest inhabited town in the U.S. We camped near the Colorado River and had to run in there every few minutes to cool off.
Yesterday, after a hot and sticky night, we drove into L.A. and did a quick Hollywood and Rodeo Drive tour.
Today is Sunday, so the office is closed and I am forced to take a day off. I will plan my Mexico trip, do some laundry, and write some e-mail.
Tomorrow I will start my seven day drive to Cancun and pick up my new group on the 22nd of August.
Thursday, July 6, 2000
Florida, Massachussets, New Mexico and Colorado, USA - Family visits and hiking
Near the end of April, my Aunt Ellen got married. Lots of family, including Uncle Jim, were there and the dessert was excellent. In early May, I was in Boston and had a good visit with Dad, Elizabeth, and Emily.
In May, I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico to watch Karla and Daniel get married. Karla's family adopted me; which means they let me sleep on the floor, fed me and let me do the dishes. I rented my first car that weekend and had lots of fun driving.
Then I went up to visit John and Cathy near Dolores, Colorado. I met their son Reilly. John is a pilot and we took an enjoyable flight up to Grand Junction for the day. We also did some hiking and a bike ride.
John and Cathy have a great life. They live on a few acres in rural Colorado. They have chickens, goats, a horse, and some ducks. Reilly has his own petting zoo. Now, if I had to choose a place to live, I would say southwest Colorado. They are near the mountains and near the desert and canyons. They are no where near a big city.
After a good visit on the Gillis Farm, I went up to visit my cousins in Telluride. I did a bunch of day hikes and then set off on a week long backpacking trip.
My cousin Liana dropped me off at Woods Lake. Five minutes later I took the wrong path and walked 13 miles west, instead of south. I spent the next two days on dirt roads, hiking trails, game trails, and bush whacking. Near the end of the third day I was stuck in a valley with no place to camp and lots of private property. I got a ride down to John's place and met his new baby, Malaika.
I had a good weekend visit and then went up to Lizard Head Pass. I hiked up into the mountains and over a snow covered pass. I spent that night near Navajo Lake at 11,200 feet above sea level. The next day I lost the trail and eventually ended up where I meant to and finished my backpacking trip.
After another few days in Telluride, I came over to Colorado Springs. I visited Karla and Daniel and we went hiking and biking.
During the final weekend in June, we went camping at my favorite place in North America - The Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado. We camped near the entrance to the park on Friday night and on Saturday we started hiking. The trail was pretty sandy and slow going. Around mid-afternoon we found a nice spot in the middle of the sand and put the tent up. Two seconds later it started to rain heavily.
After the rain, and a brief nap, I headed out onto the sand for a long barefoot walk. When I returned from my walk, I joined Karla and Daniel on a walk in the sand. Then they went back for dinner and I continued out into the sand. It was a bit cloudy and the sand was damp from the rain, so I was able to walk barefoot in the sand for about four or five hours. I had a great time rolling down the dunes. That night I slept out under the stars.
On the 26th of June, Karla and I drove to Santa Fe and I bought a new pair of boots. I am looking forward to breaking them in over the next few months.
On the 27th I flew back to Florida and spent the next weekend visiting with cousins and other family members. Tomorrow I will fly to New Jersey and start work for the summer. My nine month vacation is over and I am eager to start work again.
In May, I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico to watch Karla and Daniel get married. Karla's family adopted me; which means they let me sleep on the floor, fed me and let me do the dishes. I rented my first car that weekend and had lots of fun driving.
Then I went up to visit John and Cathy near Dolores, Colorado. I met their son Reilly. John is a pilot and we took an enjoyable flight up to Grand Junction for the day. We also did some hiking and a bike ride.
John and Cathy have a great life. They live on a few acres in rural Colorado. They have chickens, goats, a horse, and some ducks. Reilly has his own petting zoo. Now, if I had to choose a place to live, I would say southwest Colorado. They are near the mountains and near the desert and canyons. They are no where near a big city.
After a good visit on the Gillis Farm, I went up to visit my cousins in Telluride. I did a bunch of day hikes and then set off on a week long backpacking trip.
My cousin Liana dropped me off at Woods Lake. Five minutes later I took the wrong path and walked 13 miles west, instead of south. I spent the next two days on dirt roads, hiking trails, game trails, and bush whacking. Near the end of the third day I was stuck in a valley with no place to camp and lots of private property. I got a ride down to John's place and met his new baby, Malaika.
I had a good weekend visit and then went up to Lizard Head Pass. I hiked up into the mountains and over a snow covered pass. I spent that night near Navajo Lake at 11,200 feet above sea level. The next day I lost the trail and eventually ended up where I meant to and finished my backpacking trip.
After another few days in Telluride, I came over to Colorado Springs. I visited Karla and Daniel and we went hiking and biking.
During the final weekend in June, we went camping at my favorite place in North America - The Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado. We camped near the entrance to the park on Friday night and on Saturday we started hiking. The trail was pretty sandy and slow going. Around mid-afternoon we found a nice spot in the middle of the sand and put the tent up. Two seconds later it started to rain heavily.
After the rain, and a brief nap, I headed out onto the sand for a long barefoot walk. When I returned from my walk, I joined Karla and Daniel on a walk in the sand. Then they went back for dinner and I continued out into the sand. It was a bit cloudy and the sand was damp from the rain, so I was able to walk barefoot in the sand for about four or five hours. I had a great time rolling down the dunes. That night I slept out under the stars.
On the 26th of June, Karla and I drove to Santa Fe and I bought a new pair of boots. I am looking forward to breaking them in over the next few months.
On the 27th I flew back to Florida and spent the next weekend visiting with cousins and other family members. Tomorrow I will fly to New Jersey and start work for the summer. My nine month vacation is over and I am eager to start work again.
Wednesday, April 19, 2000
Peru - A walk in the desert and return to Florida
On the 27th of March, I spent the whole day heading north by bus. I made it to Ica in the evening and took a taxi out to Huacachina. On the 28th, I went shopping for a little bit of food and a whole lot of water.
Fiona and I spent one night at Huacachina in November, and I have been looking forward to getting back there ever since. This is the place with the huge sand dunes. In the afternoon, once the sun was no longer directly overhead, I started my desert walk.
I found out that the ocean was only 33 kilometers from Huacachina, so that seemed to me like a good goal. There was a dirt track through the bone dry and shadeless desert and I followed it west. I met the owner of a calcium mine and he told me I was crazy. Then he let me hold his son and he took a picture of me. I guess no one would believe that he saw a wandering gringo in the desert without a photo. A few more trucks passed me heading to town from the mine. They all warned me about the dangers of the desert, although none were very specific. The only specific things I was warned against were theft and salamanders. The man who told me this agreed with me when I pointed out that it was unlikely that bandits were hiding out in the sand dunes, waiting for me. That left only salamanders to fear, and I didn't.
I quickly passed the mine and continued off into the night. I found a nice spot between some sand dunes and spent the night. I had only my sleeping bag, some food and a lot of water with me, so setting up camp was easy.
I woke up the next morning and was walking by 5:40 am. By now the road looked like it had not been used in a long time. At 10:00 am I sat down to rest. By 3:00 pm the sun had moved enough for me to continue. I walked until about 7:00 pm, but did not see the ocean. By now I had used up more than half of my 11 liters of water and had not yet glimpsed my goal. I had not seen a vehicle, or anyone, the whole day and decided to turn back. There was no point in walking all the way to the ocean, only to run out of water half way back to town.
I found a nice patch of sand to sleep in and went to bed. On the 30th, I got another 5:40 start. It was not very long at all before a truck carrying calcium and about six men came by. I hopped on the back and took the fast route back to civilization. The truck went a different way than I had come. I ended up on the Panamerican Highway. I took a bus to Paracas and had a ceviche lunch at a restaurant near the ocean. Then I took a bus back to Huacachina.
I met four nice Peruvians from Lima and the next day they gave me a lift back to Luis's place. I spent the weekend visiting with Luis and Karem. Even after six months, they are still the nicest people I know and it was nice to see them again. On Sunday, Julia and Miguel flew in and I visited with them for a day or two. Julia, whom I met in Utah and spent a month with in Nepal, became my 7th three continental friend.
On the 4th of April, I returned to my mother's place in Florida. I have spent the month visiting family and eating.
Fiona and I spent one night at Huacachina in November, and I have been looking forward to getting back there ever since. This is the place with the huge sand dunes. In the afternoon, once the sun was no longer directly overhead, I started my desert walk.
I found out that the ocean was only 33 kilometers from Huacachina, so that seemed to me like a good goal. There was a dirt track through the bone dry and shadeless desert and I followed it west. I met the owner of a calcium mine and he told me I was crazy. Then he let me hold his son and he took a picture of me. I guess no one would believe that he saw a wandering gringo in the desert without a photo. A few more trucks passed me heading to town from the mine. They all warned me about the dangers of the desert, although none were very specific. The only specific things I was warned against were theft and salamanders. The man who told me this agreed with me when I pointed out that it was unlikely that bandits were hiding out in the sand dunes, waiting for me. That left only salamanders to fear, and I didn't.
I quickly passed the mine and continued off into the night. I found a nice spot between some sand dunes and spent the night. I had only my sleeping bag, some food and a lot of water with me, so setting up camp was easy.
I woke up the next morning and was walking by 5:40 am. By now the road looked like it had not been used in a long time. At 10:00 am I sat down to rest. By 3:00 pm the sun had moved enough for me to continue. I walked until about 7:00 pm, but did not see the ocean. By now I had used up more than half of my 11 liters of water and had not yet glimpsed my goal. I had not seen a vehicle, or anyone, the whole day and decided to turn back. There was no point in walking all the way to the ocean, only to run out of water half way back to town.
I found a nice patch of sand to sleep in and went to bed. On the 30th, I got another 5:40 start. It was not very long at all before a truck carrying calcium and about six men came by. I hopped on the back and took the fast route back to civilization. The truck went a different way than I had come. I ended up on the Panamerican Highway. I took a bus to Paracas and had a ceviche lunch at a restaurant near the ocean. Then I took a bus back to Huacachina.
I met four nice Peruvians from Lima and the next day they gave me a lift back to Luis's place. I spent the weekend visiting with Luis and Karem. Even after six months, they are still the nicest people I know and it was nice to see them again. On Sunday, Julia and Miguel flew in and I visited with them for a day or two. Julia, whom I met in Utah and spent a month with in Nepal, became my 7th three continental friend.
On the 4th of April, I returned to my mother's place in Florida. I have spent the month visiting family and eating.
Sunday, March 26, 2000
Chile - Torres del Paine circuit, boat and train and bus north to Peru
On the 25th of February, I took the ferry to Porvenir. Porvenir is the largest town in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, and the furthest south I have ever been. It was very windy and cold. I had lunch in the Croatian Club. Southern Chile was mostly settled by Germans and Yugoslavians, and they still have a lot of social clubs. It is a small town, so after lunch I took the ferry back to Punta Arenas.
The next day I did a big food shopping and took the bus to Puerto Natales. On the 27th, I took a bus up to Torres del Paine National Park and began a great walk. Most people walk the circuit of the Paine Massif in about ten days. I had 18 until my boat left, and I was determined to use them all. So, I set out on the world큦 slowest circuit of the park.
Day 1 - Two weeks worth of food is very heavy. I figured out that I had about 28 (13 kilos) pounds of food and that my pack weighed between 60 and 70 pounds (30 kilos). I walked from Hosteria Los Torres, up the valley to Campamento Los Torres.
Day 2 - After a bit of a late start, I left for a day hike further up the valley. I went up to the Japonese camp, followed the bend in the valley and hiked up next to a glacier to the head of the Silent Valley. From there I was able to scramble up to the base of the huge pinnacles of rock that tower over the area. Looking between two of them I could see all the way down to the viewpoint that was my next days destination. My day hike lasted 11 hours and I got back to camp at 10 pm.
Day 3 - I took a morning stroll from the campground up to the viewpoint of the towers. They were also impressive from this view. I spent the afternoon hiking back down to Hosteria Los Torres to spend the night.
Day 4 - I set off to start the circuit in a clockwise direction. Most people walk in a counter-clockwise direction, and I later began telling people that I was doing the anti-circuit. With my heavy pack, this was a long, hard day. I passed a few lakes, went over a minor pass and camped at Los Cuernos.
Day 5 - The Bader valley has no trails and is barely mentioned on the maps, but it was calling to me. I hiked up the valley and from the top, I had a third view of the Torres and looked down on the viewpoint from a second vantage point. This was another long day hike. When I returned to the campground, the people in the mountain refuge were just starting to get worried and come looking for me. It was after dark, and more importantly, after dinner. They sell dinner for about ten dollars at 8:30 pm. When I got there, dinner was over and they gave me the leftovers for free.
Day 6 - I took my final hot shower for a long time and then moved up to the French camp. I found a nice spot and listened to ice chunks fall off of the French glacier on the Paine Mountain.
Day 7 - The day started out with clear blue skies and I headed up the French valley, passed the British camp, and then started scrambling up the side of the valley. I was headed up to a point, from which I would be able to look back down the Bader valley from another view point and be able to see the Torres again. Unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate. As I got higher, the wind got faster and the snow started coming down horizontally. Eventually, the wobbly stones became slippery with a layer of ice. I crested two false summits and was probably about 45 minutes from the top and the viewpoint that I wanted to reach. For some reason I decided that it was getting a bit dangerous and I knew that going down, into the wind, was going to be much harder. It was a very difficult decision, but I turned around and began my descent. As soon as I turned around, I was blinded by the snow being blown into my face. My black fleece pants were soon caked in a layer of ice, which protected my legs from the wind and kept me warm. After an hour of going down, the sun came out and the sky cleared. I felt like a fool, if I had continued up I would have arrived at the top with the good weather. But, if I had continued up and the weather had not cleared, it would have been a very, very long and difficult day. Soon it started raining again and the last few hours back to camp were in the rain.
Day 8 - I declared a rest day and read a book.
Day 9 - I finished off my second book of the trip and moved camp to Pehoe. I made a little sign to trade a book and had no luck exchanging them.
Day 10 - I strapped my sign to my chest and fought the wind for the day. Since I was doing the anit-circuit, everybody was going the other way and could read my sign. Everybody told me that they had left their books in town or had burned them on the pass because they weighed too much. I made it to the foot of the Grey Glacier in the early afternoon, set up camp and watched the glacier for the rest of the day.
Day 11 - Up until this point, the portion of the circuit I was on is also called the 큌?and most people, especially the organized groups of older people, only do this portion. I was now on the true circuit and the trail got much more difficult. The rivers did not always have bridges, the trails were on more exposed cliff sides and the slopes got steeper. It took me all day to get to Campamento Paso.
Day 12 - It was time for another day hike. I followed the edge of the glacier up the valley to the Forgotten valley. I wanted to go to the head of this valley, but the foliage was too thick.
Day 13 - Now, after eating much of my food, my pack was starting to feel pretty manageable. I headed up the steepest part of the circuit and made it to the pass in time for lunch. Usually it is windy and cold up there, but today was sunny and warm. I spent about two hours having lunch and enjoying the views of the Southern Ice Field. It is about 180 miles long and the largest non-polar ice field in the world. Then it was an easy descent to Campamento Los Perros. A fox came to visit me around sunset.
Day 14 - I had planned a day hike up another side valley. After about an hour of bush bashing, and another hour of walking up a flat rubble filled valley, I reached a glacier. After only two hours, I had reached as far as I could go without ice tools. So, I went back to camp and tried to trade my books.
Day 15 - I shifted camp down the valley to Refugio Dickson. Some people saw me with my book exchange sign and my beard and thought I was the Forrest Gump of the circuit, walking forever and trading books along the way.
Day 16 - I had planned another full day hike, but it was raining pretty hard in the morning. After lunch I skirted the lake and tried to get into the Secret Valley. This portion of the park is covered with sharp thorn bushes and progress was incredibly slow and painful. I eventually found it easier to walk in the lake, even though it was cold. I got to the bottom of the valley, looked up it, wished I had more time, and then went back to camp.
Day 17 - By now I had almost no food left and I barely noticed the pack on my back. I flipped my pack in the air, flung my arms through the straps and headed off to the final campground. I saw another fox along the way and then had my first hot shower in a long time. Somewhere along the way, daylight savings time ended, but no body told me. So, while I was sleeping in until 8:30, everyone else was getting up at the early hour of 7:30. At night, I was staying up until 10 or 11 and every one else was going to sleep by 9 or 10. I liked the old time better than the new time. I realized that the time on my watch is pretty arbitrary out there. All I really need to know is how many hours of walking are left until I reach my destination and how many hours until sunset. The actual time is irrelevant. I think on my next hike I will set my watch so that I can wake up for sunrise around noon, watch sunset around midnight and maybe stay up until two in the morning before turning in.
Day 18 - I was out of food and time. I finished the circuit and caught the bus back to Puerto Natales.
My favorite kind of hike is a day hike, up a valley to the top and then looking down into the next valley. I got in a couple of these on this walk, but had to pass up about eight more valleys I would like to explore. All in all, it was a great walk, even if it was too short.
On the 16th of March, I went to the dock to get onto the Puerto Eden, a boat. They let us board around midnight. I went down to the bottom of the boat, in what I think was a former hold near the engine room. My room had 23 beds, mostly in three level bunks. I found a good top bunk and went to sleep.
On the 17th of March, I had breakfast, read a book, had lunch, watched a movie and then, finally, they were done loading the cargo of cows, horses, sheep, and trucks onto the ship. So, after 14 hours on the boat, we started our journey north. The next three days were spent watching movies, reading, meeting other people, looking for dolphins and seals, admiring the fjords and glaciers and sleeping. This trip took us north through the channels and passages of Patagonia. It is supposed to be comparable to the Inside Passage from Alaska to Washington. But, we saw fewer animals, and even though it rained most of the time, we had better weather.
On the 20th, we docked in Puerto Montt. I took a bus to Temuco and then the night train to Santiago. The next day I caught up with my friend Jason and met some of his Chilean friends. On the 22nd, we took a night bus to Calama. After a 22 hour journey we arrived. The next morning, we toured the largest open pit copper mine in the world. Jason left after lunch, and I took the night bus to Arica. Yesterday, I took a taxi across the border to Tacna, Peru and then the afternoon bus up to Arrequipa.
Today I am not doing much of anything, except eating. I forgot how inexpensive Peru is and how good the food is. I am trying to have at least one ceviche every day.
I had two memorable dreams recently. In one I spoke in Spanish. This was the first time I ever dreamed in another language, even if it was only two words. In the other dream, I read a book. I have been reading a lot of books this past week, and in my dream I did not see pictures. Instead, I read all about what I was dreaming about.
In Chile there are lots of men with long hair and beards. Here in Peru this is not so common. Today, for the first time in many months, someone stopped me take my picture because they thought I look like Jesus. I was crossing the plaza, in front of the big church, and I guess someone wanted a souvenir photo with me.
Tomorrow I will go back up to Ica to play in the sand dunes until the weekend. I will spend next weekend in Lima with Luis and Karem and then fly home on Tuesday.
The next day I did a big food shopping and took the bus to Puerto Natales. On the 27th, I took a bus up to Torres del Paine National Park and began a great walk. Most people walk the circuit of the Paine Massif in about ten days. I had 18 until my boat left, and I was determined to use them all. So, I set out on the world큦 slowest circuit of the park.
Day 1 - Two weeks worth of food is very heavy. I figured out that I had about 28 (13 kilos) pounds of food and that my pack weighed between 60 and 70 pounds (30 kilos). I walked from Hosteria Los Torres, up the valley to Campamento Los Torres.
Day 2 - After a bit of a late start, I left for a day hike further up the valley. I went up to the Japonese camp, followed the bend in the valley and hiked up next to a glacier to the head of the Silent Valley. From there I was able to scramble up to the base of the huge pinnacles of rock that tower over the area. Looking between two of them I could see all the way down to the viewpoint that was my next days destination. My day hike lasted 11 hours and I got back to camp at 10 pm.
Day 3 - I took a morning stroll from the campground up to the viewpoint of the towers. They were also impressive from this view. I spent the afternoon hiking back down to Hosteria Los Torres to spend the night.
Day 4 - I set off to start the circuit in a clockwise direction. Most people walk in a counter-clockwise direction, and I later began telling people that I was doing the anti-circuit. With my heavy pack, this was a long, hard day. I passed a few lakes, went over a minor pass and camped at Los Cuernos.
Day 5 - The Bader valley has no trails and is barely mentioned on the maps, but it was calling to me. I hiked up the valley and from the top, I had a third view of the Torres and looked down on the viewpoint from a second vantage point. This was another long day hike. When I returned to the campground, the people in the mountain refuge were just starting to get worried and come looking for me. It was after dark, and more importantly, after dinner. They sell dinner for about ten dollars at 8:30 pm. When I got there, dinner was over and they gave me the leftovers for free.
Day 6 - I took my final hot shower for a long time and then moved up to the French camp. I found a nice spot and listened to ice chunks fall off of the French glacier on the Paine Mountain.
Day 7 - The day started out with clear blue skies and I headed up the French valley, passed the British camp, and then started scrambling up the side of the valley. I was headed up to a point, from which I would be able to look back down the Bader valley from another view point and be able to see the Torres again. Unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate. As I got higher, the wind got faster and the snow started coming down horizontally. Eventually, the wobbly stones became slippery with a layer of ice. I crested two false summits and was probably about 45 minutes from the top and the viewpoint that I wanted to reach. For some reason I decided that it was getting a bit dangerous and I knew that going down, into the wind, was going to be much harder. It was a very difficult decision, but I turned around and began my descent. As soon as I turned around, I was blinded by the snow being blown into my face. My black fleece pants were soon caked in a layer of ice, which protected my legs from the wind and kept me warm. After an hour of going down, the sun came out and the sky cleared. I felt like a fool, if I had continued up I would have arrived at the top with the good weather. But, if I had continued up and the weather had not cleared, it would have been a very, very long and difficult day. Soon it started raining again and the last few hours back to camp were in the rain.
Day 8 - I declared a rest day and read a book.
Day 9 - I finished off my second book of the trip and moved camp to Pehoe. I made a little sign to trade a book and had no luck exchanging them.
Day 10 - I strapped my sign to my chest and fought the wind for the day. Since I was doing the anit-circuit, everybody was going the other way and could read my sign. Everybody told me that they had left their books in town or had burned them on the pass because they weighed too much. I made it to the foot of the Grey Glacier in the early afternoon, set up camp and watched the glacier for the rest of the day.
Day 11 - Up until this point, the portion of the circuit I was on is also called the 큌?and most people, especially the organized groups of older people, only do this portion. I was now on the true circuit and the trail got much more difficult. The rivers did not always have bridges, the trails were on more exposed cliff sides and the slopes got steeper. It took me all day to get to Campamento Paso.
Day 12 - It was time for another day hike. I followed the edge of the glacier up the valley to the Forgotten valley. I wanted to go to the head of this valley, but the foliage was too thick.
Day 13 - Now, after eating much of my food, my pack was starting to feel pretty manageable. I headed up the steepest part of the circuit and made it to the pass in time for lunch. Usually it is windy and cold up there, but today was sunny and warm. I spent about two hours having lunch and enjoying the views of the Southern Ice Field. It is about 180 miles long and the largest non-polar ice field in the world. Then it was an easy descent to Campamento Los Perros. A fox came to visit me around sunset.
Day 14 - I had planned a day hike up another side valley. After about an hour of bush bashing, and another hour of walking up a flat rubble filled valley, I reached a glacier. After only two hours, I had reached as far as I could go without ice tools. So, I went back to camp and tried to trade my books.
Day 15 - I shifted camp down the valley to Refugio Dickson. Some people saw me with my book exchange sign and my beard and thought I was the Forrest Gump of the circuit, walking forever and trading books along the way.
Day 16 - I had planned another full day hike, but it was raining pretty hard in the morning. After lunch I skirted the lake and tried to get into the Secret Valley. This portion of the park is covered with sharp thorn bushes and progress was incredibly slow and painful. I eventually found it easier to walk in the lake, even though it was cold. I got to the bottom of the valley, looked up it, wished I had more time, and then went back to camp.
Day 17 - By now I had almost no food left and I barely noticed the pack on my back. I flipped my pack in the air, flung my arms through the straps and headed off to the final campground. I saw another fox along the way and then had my first hot shower in a long time. Somewhere along the way, daylight savings time ended, but no body told me. So, while I was sleeping in until 8:30, everyone else was getting up at the early hour of 7:30. At night, I was staying up until 10 or 11 and every one else was going to sleep by 9 or 10. I liked the old time better than the new time. I realized that the time on my watch is pretty arbitrary out there. All I really need to know is how many hours of walking are left until I reach my destination and how many hours until sunset. The actual time is irrelevant. I think on my next hike I will set my watch so that I can wake up for sunrise around noon, watch sunset around midnight and maybe stay up until two in the morning before turning in.
Day 18 - I was out of food and time. I finished the circuit and caught the bus back to Puerto Natales.
My favorite kind of hike is a day hike, up a valley to the top and then looking down into the next valley. I got in a couple of these on this walk, but had to pass up about eight more valleys I would like to explore. All in all, it was a great walk, even if it was too short.
On the 16th of March, I went to the dock to get onto the Puerto Eden, a boat. They let us board around midnight. I went down to the bottom of the boat, in what I think was a former hold near the engine room. My room had 23 beds, mostly in three level bunks. I found a good top bunk and went to sleep.
On the 17th of March, I had breakfast, read a book, had lunch, watched a movie and then, finally, they were done loading the cargo of cows, horses, sheep, and trucks onto the ship. So, after 14 hours on the boat, we started our journey north. The next three days were spent watching movies, reading, meeting other people, looking for dolphins and seals, admiring the fjords and glaciers and sleeping. This trip took us north through the channels and passages of Patagonia. It is supposed to be comparable to the Inside Passage from Alaska to Washington. But, we saw fewer animals, and even though it rained most of the time, we had better weather.
On the 20th, we docked in Puerto Montt. I took a bus to Temuco and then the night train to Santiago. The next day I caught up with my friend Jason and met some of his Chilean friends. On the 22nd, we took a night bus to Calama. After a 22 hour journey we arrived. The next morning, we toured the largest open pit copper mine in the world. Jason left after lunch, and I took the night bus to Arica. Yesterday, I took a taxi across the border to Tacna, Peru and then the afternoon bus up to Arrequipa.
Today I am not doing much of anything, except eating. I forgot how inexpensive Peru is and how good the food is. I am trying to have at least one ceviche every day.
I had two memorable dreams recently. In one I spoke in Spanish. This was the first time I ever dreamed in another language, even if it was only two words. In the other dream, I read a book. I have been reading a lot of books this past week, and in my dream I did not see pictures. Instead, I read all about what I was dreaming about.
In Chile there are lots of men with long hair and beards. Here in Peru this is not so common. Today, for the first time in many months, someone stopped me take my picture because they thought I look like Jesus. I was crossing the plaza, in front of the big church, and I guess someone wanted a souvenir photo with me.
Tomorrow I will go back up to Ica to play in the sand dunes until the weekend. I will spend next weekend in Lima with Luis and Karem and then fly home on Tuesday.
Thursday, February 24, 2000
Argentina - A rained out hike in N. H. and a sunny hike near Mt. Fitz Roy
On the 5th of February, I took a bus to a different part of Nahuel Huapi National Park. I met two guys from near Buenos Aires, Matias and Santiago. We hung out by the river and had some yerba mate. Later in the day, we got a ride part way up the road and camped by a lake, after making some yerba mate. On the 6th, we took a bus the rest of the way to the trail head and met two more friends of my friends, another Matias and Gabriel.
We camped in Pampa Linda and the next day was a perfectly clear day. We took a hike up to a mountain hut high on the side of Mt. Tronador and looked at the glaciers. Mt. Tronador is an amazing mountain to look at. It is shaped like a starfish. The arms are gently sloping, forested heights and the sections between them are deep valleys. The glaciers slide down the mountain and then fall off 1000 foot cliffs as either waterfalls or ice chunks to start down the valleys.
On the 8th, I woke up to a lot of rain. I spent most of the day in my tent or hanging out with my Argentinian friends, but in the afternoon we hiked to a nearby waterfall and made some yerba mate. The 9th of February brought some rain. It was not too heavy, so I took a hike. We were camped five miles down the valley from the mountain and had been listening to piecies of ice fall off for three days. I hiked up to the bottom of the cliffs and looked at the dozens of waterfalls and a few glaciers. I had a good 11 mile walk in the drizzle and then joined my friends for some yerba mate.
On the morning of the 10th I was determined to walk, rain or shine. It was rain. I checked out the trail and it was mostly mud, but in places it was completely underwater. The high parts were under about eight inches of snow and the Park Rangers closed the trail. So, after a good six days of hanging out in the rain, we took a bus back to Bariloche.
This week was the best week of Spanish lessons in my life. Matias, Santiago, Matias and Gabriel did not speak English. They were very patient with me and gave me the time to express myself. Also, after a few days they spoke using the words I understood and were also familiar enough with the way I spoke to understand me. The only problem was the accent. Argentinians have a very distinct accent, and now so do I. I have to make an effort to get rid of it. People have a hard enough time understanding my Spanish without Argentinian pronunciation and slang. I had a great time with them, but it was time to move on.
The next day, I decided that I had had enough hanging out and working my way south slowly. I bought a bus ticket to El Calafate and left in the early afternoon. The bus took all night to get to Comodoro Rivadavia. I let the woman and child sitting next to me use my seat and stood at the front of the bus. The spare bus driver pulled out a little stove and made some yerba mate for us. We arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia at 5 am. I was tired, having not slept all night. I fell asleep on the floor of the bus station and did not awaken until the guard told me to move at 7 am.
I spent the day wandering around town. In the afternoon, I went to the park to take a nap. I found a nice secluded area, but it was occupied. The man who was living there invited me over for some yerba mate on his campfire. I had a good chat with him and then went to the movie theater, to sleep through a movie.
At 12:30 am, on the 13th, my next bus left. I was able to get two seats to myself and slept the night away. We got to Rio Gallegos the next morning. This far south there is only one paved road, and it is on the Atlantic coast of Argentina. So, after going east all night from Bariloche, and south all night from Comodoro Rivadavia, I now had to go west again to the mountains. After one more bus ride, I was in El Calafate, on the edge of the Argentinian Glacier National Park.
On the 14th, I took a tour to the Perito Moreno Glacier. We had five hours there, and it was not enough. I found a good view point and spent the day there. The foot of the glacier is almost four miles wide and it ends in a lake. Every few minutes some pieces of ice would fall off and about every 15 minutes a huge piece of ice would break off and crash into the water. The front of the glacier is 150 feet tall and some truly impressive pieces broke off.
At one point I saw something truly amazing. The glacier, besides towering over the lake, also goes down into the lake for about 500 feet. Somewhere, down in the depths, a piece of ice broke off and shot to the surface. At first I saw a big dark blue chunk of ice pop up in the water. Then another piece, about the size of a small stadium, rose up and scraped along the front of the glacier to about the 100 foot mark. This big piece spent the next ten minutes falling apart and then floated around for the rest of the day. The surface ice of the glacier is a pale blue or white, but these pieces from the deep were very dark blue, almost black.
That evening, I did the last of my food shopping, and was ready to leave early on the 15th for my next hike. I took the bus up to the capital of the Fitz Roy section of the park, Chaltan. I met Otmar, a Swiss guy, and Mauricio, from Argentina. We spent the afternoon hiking up to Laguna Torre. After about an hour, Mauricio stopped to rest and said he would catch up to us later. He looked pretty tired and we never saw him again. I thought he went back to Chaltan, Otmar thought he camped where we left him on the trail.
The 16th was another clear day, so we took a little day hike up around the lake and up the valley for some views of the rock needles that tower over some glaciers. Otmar then left and I spent the day hiking up the valley, next to a glacier.
After these two nights at D'ugostino camp, I moved over to Poincenot camp. This only took the morning, and I followed a river bed up to a lake in the afternoon. There were more 3000 foot cliffs with water falls to look at. On the 18th, I hiked up to a lake and then a few more thousand feet up to a mountain top. This last bit involved some mildly challenging rock climbing and was quite fun. I caught up to Chad and Jeff on this hike/climb. They are both experienced mountaineers and we had a good day. Chad teaches the ice climbing courses in McCarthy, Alaska that I went on last year, but I did not know him.
It was time to move camp again, so I packed up. I had lunch in another glacier/lake/river/moraine area. I got to my final camp of this trip and then took a few hour hike up the valley to look at a lake and some glaciers. I joined a couple from Norway for this walk and our 1 hour walk turned into three, because we always wanted to know what was around the next bend. We finally got some great views of Mt. Fitz Roy.
On the 20th, I had the cold that was going around. I felt okay, but had a stuffy nostril. I spent the day resting. I was running out of food on the 21st, but had a good weather day hike planned. It was cloudy, so I hiked out. I caught the afternoon bus to El Calafate. One of the people who shared my room that night sniffled all night, except when he snored. Tom, Winkie and I did not sleep at all. We gave up lying there around 5:30 and went to the bus station. We were there early enough for the first bus out of town.
After a very smooth border crossing, we were in Puerto Natales, Chile. Two months ago, when I arrived from Bolivia, Chile was ridiculously expensive. Now, arriving from Argentina, Chile seems very affordable and I do not have to watch my budget so much.
I took an afternoon bus to Punta Arenas and will spend a few days here to relax. I am now in the southernmost city in the world, at the very tip of South America, just above Tierra del Fuego.
Yesterday, I went out to the penguin breeding area and looked at the three month old penguins. They were fun to watch for a while and posed really well for cameras. I am staying with a local family and I taught the kid how to play chess today.
As of this moment, I plan to spend a few more days here and then head up to Torres del Paine National Park. I will walk for two or three weeks there and then start to head north, for my flight out of Lima on the 4th of April.
And now, for some observations. In Argentina, they really, really like yerba mate. A yerba mate is sort of like tea. They fill a cup with something that looks like grass clippings, and maybe add a little sugar. Then they stick in a metal straw with a strainer at the bottom. Pour in some hot water and it is ready. They suck up the water, pour in some more water and pass the cup on to the next person. I think it is slightly bitter and fairly weak, but they love it. Chad tells me that tea bags of yerba mate are all the rage in Boulder, Colorado. But, to me, it is just like tea - dirty water.
I was doing okay with Spanish in Peru and Bolivia, then I got to Chile. Here they speak very quickly, mumble a bit, and drop the final "s" from every word. Spanish has a lot of final "s" and I have had some difficulty. In Argentina, they have a very unique accent, which I was able to pick up. Now, unless a Chileno knows that I am speaking Argentinian, he does not understand me.
In Bolivia, everyone calls each other "Joven" which means youngster. I understood this when spoken by older people, but it was strange to hear ten year old shoe shine boys call me youngster. In Chile, they like to finish sentences with "no mas" which means no more. Of course, when they say it it sounds like "no ma" So, something might cost 500 pesos, no more (or "No mo". Or I might have to walk three blocks, no more. The Argentinian word for man is "che" and it is widely employed.
When a Bolivian enters a restaurant, he says "Bon Provecho" to everyone, which seems pretty friendly to me.
We camped in Pampa Linda and the next day was a perfectly clear day. We took a hike up to a mountain hut high on the side of Mt. Tronador and looked at the glaciers. Mt. Tronador is an amazing mountain to look at. It is shaped like a starfish. The arms are gently sloping, forested heights and the sections between them are deep valleys. The glaciers slide down the mountain and then fall off 1000 foot cliffs as either waterfalls or ice chunks to start down the valleys.
On the 8th, I woke up to a lot of rain. I spent most of the day in my tent or hanging out with my Argentinian friends, but in the afternoon we hiked to a nearby waterfall and made some yerba mate. The 9th of February brought some rain. It was not too heavy, so I took a hike. We were camped five miles down the valley from the mountain and had been listening to piecies of ice fall off for three days. I hiked up to the bottom of the cliffs and looked at the dozens of waterfalls and a few glaciers. I had a good 11 mile walk in the drizzle and then joined my friends for some yerba mate.
On the morning of the 10th I was determined to walk, rain or shine. It was rain. I checked out the trail and it was mostly mud, but in places it was completely underwater. The high parts were under about eight inches of snow and the Park Rangers closed the trail. So, after a good six days of hanging out in the rain, we took a bus back to Bariloche.
This week was the best week of Spanish lessons in my life. Matias, Santiago, Matias and Gabriel did not speak English. They were very patient with me and gave me the time to express myself. Also, after a few days they spoke using the words I understood and were also familiar enough with the way I spoke to understand me. The only problem was the accent. Argentinians have a very distinct accent, and now so do I. I have to make an effort to get rid of it. People have a hard enough time understanding my Spanish without Argentinian pronunciation and slang. I had a great time with them, but it was time to move on.
The next day, I decided that I had had enough hanging out and working my way south slowly. I bought a bus ticket to El Calafate and left in the early afternoon. The bus took all night to get to Comodoro Rivadavia. I let the woman and child sitting next to me use my seat and stood at the front of the bus. The spare bus driver pulled out a little stove and made some yerba mate for us. We arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia at 5 am. I was tired, having not slept all night. I fell asleep on the floor of the bus station and did not awaken until the guard told me to move at 7 am.
I spent the day wandering around town. In the afternoon, I went to the park to take a nap. I found a nice secluded area, but it was occupied. The man who was living there invited me over for some yerba mate on his campfire. I had a good chat with him and then went to the movie theater, to sleep through a movie.
At 12:30 am, on the 13th, my next bus left. I was able to get two seats to myself and slept the night away. We got to Rio Gallegos the next morning. This far south there is only one paved road, and it is on the Atlantic coast of Argentina. So, after going east all night from Bariloche, and south all night from Comodoro Rivadavia, I now had to go west again to the mountains. After one more bus ride, I was in El Calafate, on the edge of the Argentinian Glacier National Park.
On the 14th, I took a tour to the Perito Moreno Glacier. We had five hours there, and it was not enough. I found a good view point and spent the day there. The foot of the glacier is almost four miles wide and it ends in a lake. Every few minutes some pieces of ice would fall off and about every 15 minutes a huge piece of ice would break off and crash into the water. The front of the glacier is 150 feet tall and some truly impressive pieces broke off.
At one point I saw something truly amazing. The glacier, besides towering over the lake, also goes down into the lake for about 500 feet. Somewhere, down in the depths, a piece of ice broke off and shot to the surface. At first I saw a big dark blue chunk of ice pop up in the water. Then another piece, about the size of a small stadium, rose up and scraped along the front of the glacier to about the 100 foot mark. This big piece spent the next ten minutes falling apart and then floated around for the rest of the day. The surface ice of the glacier is a pale blue or white, but these pieces from the deep were very dark blue, almost black.
That evening, I did the last of my food shopping, and was ready to leave early on the 15th for my next hike. I took the bus up to the capital of the Fitz Roy section of the park, Chaltan. I met Otmar, a Swiss guy, and Mauricio, from Argentina. We spent the afternoon hiking up to Laguna Torre. After about an hour, Mauricio stopped to rest and said he would catch up to us later. He looked pretty tired and we never saw him again. I thought he went back to Chaltan, Otmar thought he camped where we left him on the trail.
The 16th was another clear day, so we took a little day hike up around the lake and up the valley for some views of the rock needles that tower over some glaciers. Otmar then left and I spent the day hiking up the valley, next to a glacier.
After these two nights at D'ugostino camp, I moved over to Poincenot camp. This only took the morning, and I followed a river bed up to a lake in the afternoon. There were more 3000 foot cliffs with water falls to look at. On the 18th, I hiked up to a lake and then a few more thousand feet up to a mountain top. This last bit involved some mildly challenging rock climbing and was quite fun. I caught up to Chad and Jeff on this hike/climb. They are both experienced mountaineers and we had a good day. Chad teaches the ice climbing courses in McCarthy, Alaska that I went on last year, but I did not know him.
It was time to move camp again, so I packed up. I had lunch in another glacier/lake/river/moraine area. I got to my final camp of this trip and then took a few hour hike up the valley to look at a lake and some glaciers. I joined a couple from Norway for this walk and our 1 hour walk turned into three, because we always wanted to know what was around the next bend. We finally got some great views of Mt. Fitz Roy.
On the 20th, I had the cold that was going around. I felt okay, but had a stuffy nostril. I spent the day resting. I was running out of food on the 21st, but had a good weather day hike planned. It was cloudy, so I hiked out. I caught the afternoon bus to El Calafate. One of the people who shared my room that night sniffled all night, except when he snored. Tom, Winkie and I did not sleep at all. We gave up lying there around 5:30 and went to the bus station. We were there early enough for the first bus out of town.
After a very smooth border crossing, we were in Puerto Natales, Chile. Two months ago, when I arrived from Bolivia, Chile was ridiculously expensive. Now, arriving from Argentina, Chile seems very affordable and I do not have to watch my budget so much.
I took an afternoon bus to Punta Arenas and will spend a few days here to relax. I am now in the southernmost city in the world, at the very tip of South America, just above Tierra del Fuego.
Yesterday, I went out to the penguin breeding area and looked at the three month old penguins. They were fun to watch for a while and posed really well for cameras. I am staying with a local family and I taught the kid how to play chess today.
As of this moment, I plan to spend a few more days here and then head up to Torres del Paine National Park. I will walk for two or three weeks there and then start to head north, for my flight out of Lima on the 4th of April.
And now, for some observations. In Argentina, they really, really like yerba mate. A yerba mate is sort of like tea. They fill a cup with something that looks like grass clippings, and maybe add a little sugar. Then they stick in a metal straw with a strainer at the bottom. Pour in some hot water and it is ready. They suck up the water, pour in some more water and pass the cup on to the next person. I think it is slightly bitter and fairly weak, but they love it. Chad tells me that tea bags of yerba mate are all the rage in Boulder, Colorado. But, to me, it is just like tea - dirty water.
I was doing okay with Spanish in Peru and Bolivia, then I got to Chile. Here they speak very quickly, mumble a bit, and drop the final "s" from every word. Spanish has a lot of final "s" and I have had some difficulty. In Argentina, they have a very unique accent, which I was able to pick up. Now, unless a Chileno knows that I am speaking Argentinian, he does not understand me.
In Bolivia, everyone calls each other "Joven" which means youngster. I understood this when spoken by older people, but it was strange to hear ten year old shoe shine boys call me youngster. In Chile, they like to finish sentences with "no mas" which means no more. Of course, when they say it it sounds like "no ma" So, something might cost 500 pesos, no more (or "No mo". Or I might have to walk three blocks, no more. The Argentinian word for man is "che" and it is widely employed.
When a Bolivian enters a restaurant, he says "Bon Provecho" to everyone, which seems pretty friendly to me.
Friday, February 4, 2000
Chile - Kayak and Hike Puyehue. Argentina - Hike Nahuel Haupi
After my last update, I ended up spending about six days in Pucon. Pucon turned out to be a very popular place to kayak. I spent two days adjusting my schedule so that I could hang out with other people all night and get into the kayak scene. Once there, I met the right people and went kayaking.
On whatever Monday it was after the 14th of January, I joined a few others for a paddle down the Lincura River. It was not too difficult and I only had to swim once. Amazingly, I was still able to roll the kayak and was able to rescue myself the other half a dozen times I ended up-side down.
On Tuesday, a bunch of us headed out to the San Pedro River. This was a little more challenging and a very long day. Again, I only came out of my kayak once. Though, on a few occasions it did take me four attempts to roll the kayak back over.
On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon on the Lower Trincura River. This was not too bad at all and I think I only flipped twice and saved myself both times. I still think kayaking is a lot of fun and could be one of my next sports, but I still like trekking better and it was time to head out again.
After a rest day, I went to Osorno. On the Saturday, I made my way out to the start of my next hike. I stayed in a very nice National Park campground and had a look at a couple of waterfalls.
On Sunday I began my traverse of the Puyehue Volcano. The trail starts by crossing a private farm, and they charge ten dollars for this privilege. It was a bit of a rip-off, but as they say in Nepal "Ke Gar Nay" or "What to do". The first day's walk was uphill and in places very slippery. It passed through a nice forest and ended up near the tree line. That night I met three French Canadians who work as tour guides in the summer and travel each winter. It sounded like a good life to me.
The next day I climbed up to the top of the Puyehue Volcano and then continued on to the next campsite. That night, and the next, were spent camped next to some natural hot springs. Very hot water bubbles up from the ground and an icy cold river flows near by. Right where the hot and cold waters meet, a small bath has been dug and I spent two hours trying not to burn or freeze. Overall, I was successful and had a great soak as the stars came out.
On the Tuesday morning, I got an early start and walked for two hours to the nearby geysers and boiling mud. I am a big fan of boiling mud and spent two hours there taking in the scenery, eating lunch, reading my book and, once they joined me, talking to Jason and Sarah from London.
This area was all above the tree line and very dry. The terrain looked like sand dunes, but was really a very light (colored and weight) volcanic rock called pumice. The rocks float in water and get ground to dust in your boots, which saves stopping and emptying them. I was in heaven, it looked like sand dunes, but was much easier to walk on. My plan for the day was to head way off the trails and explore this high deserty plain.
About every hour I came across another amazing feature of this volcanic area and thought "Now I have seen it all, it can't get better than this." Then, an hour later, I would come across something even more amazing. I saw big volcanic rocks sticking up and deep snow filled chasms between them. I strolled along the rim of a crater and saw where the rim was cracked as pieces of it slid down the slope. I found a little crater made of rough lava that was steaming. The lava was all cold and solid, but steam was coming out of the rim. Then I found another big area of geysers and smelly sulfur.
I had high expectations for this day walk and was not disappointed. My normal days are great, my normal trekking days are excellent, but these are the days I live for. I usually only get two or three days this good each year. No hill was too high, no valley was too deep, no lava field was too rough, no crossing was too hot or too cold. With nothing to carry except some food and water I was able to walk all afternoon without getting tired.
In the end I probably did not even walk 15 miles, but it was great. I was able to look north and see the volcanoes I walked around two weeks earlier. To the south I could see the volcano I would walk around next. This day was definitely one of the highlights of my trip south.
I could have spent another three days in that area - exploring. But, I did not have that much food, so it was time to come down. Sarah, Jason, and I spent a very long day walking north and eventually came to a farm on the other side of the park. They did not charge us an exit fee, instead they sold us some bread and cheese.
The next morning we went back up to the farm to get a bit more bread. The dogs did not remember us and attacked. Four of them ran up to us. One of them bit me on the leg, but did not break the skin. Then he bit me again and ripped my sock and put a little hole in my boot. This brings me back to my point last month - why buy expensive gear that can break when skin grows back all by itself. At least the bread was good.
The farm is at the end of a dirt road and after a few miles, we got a ride in a logging truck. He took us a few miles and then stopped to unload the logs. This was pretty impressive and Jason and I stopped to watch. Our next ride was in the back of an open pick-up truck. The road was very dusty. The three of us sat next to each other, but somehow Jason only got a little dirty, Sarah got pretty dirty and I was just a mess.
We caught a bus to Lago Ranco after the pick-up truck. The bus driver laughed at me because I was so dirty. We spent the afternoon at Lago Ranco and after a good swim nobody stared at me anymore. Our next bus brought us back to Osorno for the night.
The next day was spent on a bus and waiting at borders. In the evening, we got to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. This is a very very touristy town, in the Swiss style. Every other store is a chocolate shop and the buildings are all Swiss mountainy looking.
After one night in the city, we hit the trail again. This time we went to the nearby Nahuel Huapi National Park. Jason and Sarah are on South American time and we did not start walking until 3:30 p.m. We got to the first campground a little late, after a nice walk up through a forest.
The next morning was rainy. We hung out in the tents until after lunch and then started walking. First we climbed up the wall behind the lake and then we came down the other side. This took a lot out of us, so we stopped at the bottom of the valley. Day three of the walk started with good weather. We climbed up the other side of the valley and down again after the pass to the next camping area. Both of those downhills were among the toughest I have ever done. Looking back on them, they both appeared to be sheer walls of scree and impossible to negotiate. But, somehow, we made it down them.
Day four started with a real downpour, which continued the entire day. I had planned to do the most difficult section of the trail next, but the rain kept me in my tent all day. To survive such a situation I had to keep myself on a strict regimen of eat, read, sleep. After my first cycle of this, Sarah and Jason packed up and left. They had less time than me and were not planning to go the same way as me. They headed down the valley, in the rain, and finished their hike. I then repeated my regimen two more times.
Day five was perfectly clear and I did the hardest day of hiking in my life. The first section was a lot more like rock climbing than hiking. At one point I was supposed to follow a rocky chute up the cliff, but thanks to the rain it was a rocky series of waterfalls. On one section, I had to put my foot through the water to find a place to stand. So as I went up, my leg was in the icy stream and my handhold was too, which allowed the water to also run down sleeve. On the sides of the water was slippery ice and the rocky chute was so narrow, my pack scraped both sides.
I eventually made it to the top, spent the next few hours moving along the ridge and then had a huge down hill section. This part eventually went below the tree line and I spent a lot of time bush bashing. The last hour of the day was finally on a real trail and not just a nearly imaginary one. I was happy to finally be able to walk, instead of climbing, sliding, pushing and figuring out my next step. I seized the opportunity to finally walk and went up the 1000 feet of steep switchbacks in well under an hour.
After camping by yet another lake, I hiked up another mountain, along a ridge, down a long ways to another valley for lunch. After a bit of uphill, I had to do an extremely challenging uphill. From below I had dismissed this section of the trail as impossible and looked for the trail elsewhere. Eventually, I convinced myself that the trail really did go 1000 feet straight up a very steep scree slope. This took me a long time because nearly every rock I stepped on slid down a little ways.
From the top, I was 3500 feet above the bus stop and no where to go but down. The first bit involved a bit more climbing then the trail opened up below the tree line and I made pretty good time.
I spent today relaxing and eating in Bariloche. Tomorrow I will start my next five or six day hike.
Thanks to a few more passes through my trekking guide book, I now have eight more hikes planned and had better get moving if I hope to finish before the middle of spring and before my return to the States on the 4th of April.
Also, Argentina is so expensive that I will go broke if I stay in hotels and eat all day. I can only afford this country if I camp for free and am not tempted by ice cream and chocolate every five minutes.
On whatever Monday it was after the 14th of January, I joined a few others for a paddle down the Lincura River. It was not too difficult and I only had to swim once. Amazingly, I was still able to roll the kayak and was able to rescue myself the other half a dozen times I ended up-side down.
On Tuesday, a bunch of us headed out to the San Pedro River. This was a little more challenging and a very long day. Again, I only came out of my kayak once. Though, on a few occasions it did take me four attempts to roll the kayak back over.
On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon on the Lower Trincura River. This was not too bad at all and I think I only flipped twice and saved myself both times. I still think kayaking is a lot of fun and could be one of my next sports, but I still like trekking better and it was time to head out again.
After a rest day, I went to Osorno. On the Saturday, I made my way out to the start of my next hike. I stayed in a very nice National Park campground and had a look at a couple of waterfalls.
On Sunday I began my traverse of the Puyehue Volcano. The trail starts by crossing a private farm, and they charge ten dollars for this privilege. It was a bit of a rip-off, but as they say in Nepal "Ke Gar Nay" or "What to do". The first day's walk was uphill and in places very slippery. It passed through a nice forest and ended up near the tree line. That night I met three French Canadians who work as tour guides in the summer and travel each winter. It sounded like a good life to me.
The next day I climbed up to the top of the Puyehue Volcano and then continued on to the next campsite. That night, and the next, were spent camped next to some natural hot springs. Very hot water bubbles up from the ground and an icy cold river flows near by. Right where the hot and cold waters meet, a small bath has been dug and I spent two hours trying not to burn or freeze. Overall, I was successful and had a great soak as the stars came out.
On the Tuesday morning, I got an early start and walked for two hours to the nearby geysers and boiling mud. I am a big fan of boiling mud and spent two hours there taking in the scenery, eating lunch, reading my book and, once they joined me, talking to Jason and Sarah from London.
This area was all above the tree line and very dry. The terrain looked like sand dunes, but was really a very light (colored and weight) volcanic rock called pumice. The rocks float in water and get ground to dust in your boots, which saves stopping and emptying them. I was in heaven, it looked like sand dunes, but was much easier to walk on. My plan for the day was to head way off the trails and explore this high deserty plain.
About every hour I came across another amazing feature of this volcanic area and thought "Now I have seen it all, it can't get better than this." Then, an hour later, I would come across something even more amazing. I saw big volcanic rocks sticking up and deep snow filled chasms between them. I strolled along the rim of a crater and saw where the rim was cracked as pieces of it slid down the slope. I found a little crater made of rough lava that was steaming. The lava was all cold and solid, but steam was coming out of the rim. Then I found another big area of geysers and smelly sulfur.
I had high expectations for this day walk and was not disappointed. My normal days are great, my normal trekking days are excellent, but these are the days I live for. I usually only get two or three days this good each year. No hill was too high, no valley was too deep, no lava field was too rough, no crossing was too hot or too cold. With nothing to carry except some food and water I was able to walk all afternoon without getting tired.
In the end I probably did not even walk 15 miles, but it was great. I was able to look north and see the volcanoes I walked around two weeks earlier. To the south I could see the volcano I would walk around next. This day was definitely one of the highlights of my trip south.
I could have spent another three days in that area - exploring. But, I did not have that much food, so it was time to come down. Sarah, Jason, and I spent a very long day walking north and eventually came to a farm on the other side of the park. They did not charge us an exit fee, instead they sold us some bread and cheese.
The next morning we went back up to the farm to get a bit more bread. The dogs did not remember us and attacked. Four of them ran up to us. One of them bit me on the leg, but did not break the skin. Then he bit me again and ripped my sock and put a little hole in my boot. This brings me back to my point last month - why buy expensive gear that can break when skin grows back all by itself. At least the bread was good.
The farm is at the end of a dirt road and after a few miles, we got a ride in a logging truck. He took us a few miles and then stopped to unload the logs. This was pretty impressive and Jason and I stopped to watch. Our next ride was in the back of an open pick-up truck. The road was very dusty. The three of us sat next to each other, but somehow Jason only got a little dirty, Sarah got pretty dirty and I was just a mess.
We caught a bus to Lago Ranco after the pick-up truck. The bus driver laughed at me because I was so dirty. We spent the afternoon at Lago Ranco and after a good swim nobody stared at me anymore. Our next bus brought us back to Osorno for the night.
The next day was spent on a bus and waiting at borders. In the evening, we got to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. This is a very very touristy town, in the Swiss style. Every other store is a chocolate shop and the buildings are all Swiss mountainy looking.
After one night in the city, we hit the trail again. This time we went to the nearby Nahuel Huapi National Park. Jason and Sarah are on South American time and we did not start walking until 3:30 p.m. We got to the first campground a little late, after a nice walk up through a forest.
The next morning was rainy. We hung out in the tents until after lunch and then started walking. First we climbed up the wall behind the lake and then we came down the other side. This took a lot out of us, so we stopped at the bottom of the valley. Day three of the walk started with good weather. We climbed up the other side of the valley and down again after the pass to the next camping area. Both of those downhills were among the toughest I have ever done. Looking back on them, they both appeared to be sheer walls of scree and impossible to negotiate. But, somehow, we made it down them.
Day four started with a real downpour, which continued the entire day. I had planned to do the most difficult section of the trail next, but the rain kept me in my tent all day. To survive such a situation I had to keep myself on a strict regimen of eat, read, sleep. After my first cycle of this, Sarah and Jason packed up and left. They had less time than me and were not planning to go the same way as me. They headed down the valley, in the rain, and finished their hike. I then repeated my regimen two more times.
Day five was perfectly clear and I did the hardest day of hiking in my life. The first section was a lot more like rock climbing than hiking. At one point I was supposed to follow a rocky chute up the cliff, but thanks to the rain it was a rocky series of waterfalls. On one section, I had to put my foot through the water to find a place to stand. So as I went up, my leg was in the icy stream and my handhold was too, which allowed the water to also run down sleeve. On the sides of the water was slippery ice and the rocky chute was so narrow, my pack scraped both sides.
I eventually made it to the top, spent the next few hours moving along the ridge and then had a huge down hill section. This part eventually went below the tree line and I spent a lot of time bush bashing. The last hour of the day was finally on a real trail and not just a nearly imaginary one. I was happy to finally be able to walk, instead of climbing, sliding, pushing and figuring out my next step. I seized the opportunity to finally walk and went up the 1000 feet of steep switchbacks in well under an hour.
After camping by yet another lake, I hiked up another mountain, along a ridge, down a long ways to another valley for lunch. After a bit of uphill, I had to do an extremely challenging uphill. From below I had dismissed this section of the trail as impossible and looked for the trail elsewhere. Eventually, I convinced myself that the trail really did go 1000 feet straight up a very steep scree slope. This took me a long time because nearly every rock I stepped on slid down a little ways.
From the top, I was 3500 feet above the bus stop and no where to go but down. The first bit involved a bit more climbing then the trail opened up below the tree line and I made pretty good time.
I spent today relaxing and eating in Bariloche. Tomorrow I will start my next five or six day hike.
Thanks to a few more passes through my trekking guide book, I now have eight more hikes planned and had better get moving if I hope to finish before the middle of spring and before my return to the States on the 4th of April.
Also, Argentina is so expensive that I will go broke if I stay in hotels and eat all day. I can only afford this country if I camp for free and am not tempted by ice cream and chocolate every five minutes.
Friday, January 14, 2000
Bolivia - Bike, Hike, Mountain Climb, Silver Mine, Salt Flat. Chile - Hike
Well, I survived the New Year and am now enjoying myself in Chile.
On the 14th of December, I went on my bike ride. We left La Paz and drove up to a 4700 meter (about 15,000 feet) high pass. Then we headed down what the World Development Bank, in 1995, called "The World's Most Dangerous Road." It is an unpaved, very narrow, windy mountain road. Now, the road is one way, up in the evening, and down during the day. This has reduced the number of vehicles which fall off each month. I believe that the last time a bus full of people fell off was around the 3rd or so.
The first few minutes were paved and we raced by a few slow trucks. Eventually, the pavement ended and the fun began. It rained off and and on all day and there were plenty of puddles for me to splash in. It was cloudy, so we did not get to see the sheer cliffs or views. But, the road does pass under a number of waterfalls and I got good and wet. At one point, I had a bit too much speed and the inevitable happened - I fell. I slid down the road and ripped my pants and my jacket. I am bummed about the little hole in my expensive Gore-Tex jacket. I have decided to bike naked from now on. Gore-Tex is expensive, but skin grows back. I had a little scratch on my leg and my best scratch in years on my elbow, but by the time the ride ended and I had a look at my boo-boos, they had both stopped bleeding. Now I am healed, my pants are sown and my jacket has an appointment with some duct tape.
At the end of the tour, the group returned to La Paz by driving up the same road. I was too scared to drive on the road so I spent the night in Corioco. Corioco is only 1600 meters high and is down in the jungle. I think the man who worked in the hotel wanted to spend the night with me, but he eventually realized that I was not interested and left my room.
In the morning, I started my trek back to La Paz. There is an ancient Inca road that goes back over the mountains. Most people walk down the trail, but since I was already at the bottom and I prefer walking uphill, I walked up. First I had to go down to 900 meters (about 3000 feet). Then I walked up a river valley. The first day was very long and I did not get to the Japanese House until around 7 pm. Forty years ago, a Japanese man decided he liked the mountains of Bolivia. He still lives there and his lawn is the nicest camp ground I ever found in Bolivia. I think he might be a couple of ants short of a picnic, but he is nice.
The next day I continued up the valley. The trail was very overgrown and a machete would have been useful. I scraped through the jungle with the neon blue butterflies for another day. I even passed two other trekkers going down. By nine o'clock on the third day I finally reached the end of my valley, and it was time to turn west and start the serious uphill. I was now at 2200 meters (under 7,000 feet) and the top was at 4850 meters (around 15,000 feet). I quickly rose above the jungle and found the old Inca road. It was very wide, well paved and the llamas kept the grass on it very short. At times it was like walking up a huge lawn in the suburbs. I found the going up much more to my liking than the bush bashing. I made it about two thirds of the way to the top. I had only planned to go one third of the way, but I like going uphill so much, I could not stop.
When it was time to camp, I found a nice field and asked the little girl watching me if I could camp there. She said `yes` and I gave her some cookies. On the last day of my walk, I got an early start and was soon joined by a local woman and her two children. The daughter spoke some Spanish, but had a really bad cough and a hoarse voice, so I did not understand her. The little boy only spoke Amayra, so we did not converse. The mother spoke Spanish and asked for some medicine for her daughter.
They eventually stopped to do some farming and I kept going up. I actually finished the hike by lunch time, a day ahead of my very slow schedule. So, as a bit of a reward to myself, I put down my pack and went hiking for a few hours in the high mountains. Then I went to the road and quickly got a ride back to La Paz (3600 meters - around 11,000 feet).
I had planned to rest for two days and then head back to the mountains to climb the 6088 meter (almost 20,000 feet) Huayana Potosi (a mountain). My plans did not work out. The tour agency kept me waiting all week and then canceled due to lack of other people. I found another agency with enough people to do a shorter trip than I had planned.
On the morning of the 24th of December, we drove up to 4800 meters and hiked up to 5200 meters (nearly 16,000 feet). We went to bed at around 7 pm. As I expected, during my first night at a high altitude I got no sleep at all. Neither did the other three on the tour. At 12:30 on Christmas morning, we got up. It was a bit cloudy, but we could see the summit and it looked as if we might make it up there by sunrise.
We strapped on our crampons, grabbed our ice axes and started up the glacier. There was even enough moon light, that we did not need our flashlights. After an hour or two a little bit of snow started falling. After another few hours, a lot of snow started falling. Eventually we were at about 5800 meters (near 19,000 feet) and it was seriously snowing. By now the snow was about thigh deep and the going was very, very slow. We decided to turn around.
At this point, the wind was blowing little icy pieces of snow into our eyes. I could barely see the guy I was tied to, a few feet in front of me. I was fifth on the rope and definitely could not see the guide up front. I followed the frozen piece of rope coming at me from out of the blizzard. By now the snow had completely covered our tracks and I have no idea how our guide navigated. He finally did admit that we were lost. We sat down to rest and wait for a break in the fog. After the fog cleared for a minute, we got our bearings, corrected our course and returned to camp.
If we had failed to summit because of lack of fitness or trying I would have been upset. But, since we failed because we got stopped by several feet of new snow and got lost high on a glacier in the middle of the night, I felt I got my monies worth. With the proper clothing and equipment even this type of experience is survivable and can be enjoyable.
We were back in La Paz for dinner and I went to my favorite local Chinese place for dinner on the 25th.
I came to South America to trek in Patagonia. The good season does not start until January. Now it was time to start really moving and I felt a great urge to start hurrying and get down here.
On the 26th, I wanted to take a bus to Potosi the highest city in the world (just like Lhasa, Tibet). Buses only do the 10 hour journey at night, so I had to use my special strategy. I am often told that the next bus does not go where I want, when I want. But there is always a bus going half way there soon and once I am half way there, there is usually a bus leaving soon to go the rest of the way.
So, left Sunday morning for Oruru. Then I had lunch and took an afternoon bus to Potosi I am glad I went during the day. The scenery was beautiful, even if it was indistinguishable from Arizona. You know, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid even lived around there. They also died in the dry southwestern corner of Bolivia.
In Potosi I took a tour of the silver mines. The Spanish empire, and much of the European economy for several hundred years was supported by the silver that was mined there. When an area of the mountain is no longer profitable to mine, it is turned over to a cooperative. Then members are allowed to mine the silver for themselves. They are very poor and they use the same methods that the Indian slaves used in the 1500s. They bang holes in the rock with an iron bar and a hammer. Then they drop in some dynamite and run. Later they carry out the rubble and sell it to some one with a crushing machine.
The first stop on our mine tour was the shop. They encouraged us to bring some gifts to the miners. I bought some coca leaves for them to chew, some carbonate to light their lights, a detonator cap and some dynamite. All this set be back about two dollars. I have never purchased dynamite before. I wanted to take it out to the desert and blow it up. But, I figured I would probably hurt myself with it, so in the end, I gave it away in the mine.
On the 28th I went to Uyuni and walked out to the train graveyard. They had a bunch of old trains to dispose of, so they just drove them into the desert and left them. The next day I decided to go for a walk in the desert. This area is perfectly flat and completely dry. I saw a mountain off in the distance and decided to walk to it. I walked for about six miles and I think, in the end, it did actually look a little bit closer. I learned alot about mirages and distance judging in the desert that day. I turned around and went back to town.
On the 30th, it was time to start my tour of the Salar de Uyuni, which I had tried to walk across the previous day. Our first stop was the Salt Hotel. The Salar is a huge salt flat and we saw some people collecting salt and then saw a few buildings build completely out of salt. For lunch we stopped at a small hill in the middle of flatness. We spent the night in a small town. On the 31st, we drove though some beautiful high altitude areas and stopped at some cool rock formations.
For the final night of the year, we went to a red lake. I took a nice afternoon walk and then returned to the hotel for the big night. There were about twenty tourists and maybe as many locals in the town that night. Some of the tourists were like me and wanted to be someplace with no electricity or computers. If the world ended, we wanted to be the last to know it. There was a good little party in our room and a really, really cold party outside.
The next morning, we woke up at 5 and drove off to see some boiling mud and geysers. By 7 we were at the hot springs and I splashed around until breakfast. Around eleven, we made it to the border with Chile. The Bolivian border guard tried to charge us all two dollars to get an exit stamp. A really cheap Australian gave him a very hard time and was ably backed up by the Israelis. Eventually, the price of this bit of corruption came down to one dollar. In the end some people paid and the rest of us left the country without an exit stamp.
Chile is very different from Peru and Bolivia. In Peru and Bolivia, most of the population is descended from Indians. In Chile and Argentina, I think that most of the Indians were killed or put on reservations and then large numbers of European immigrants arrived. Chile is definitely not a poor country and in many ways feels just like travelling in Australia or New Zealand.
My first stop in Chile was San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is a very touristy town the northern desert. Prices were very high compared to one of the cheapest countries in South America, Bolivia. A set lunch costs at least three dollars. No more fifty cent meals for me. I quickly learned that if someone is young, carrying a big backpack and looks vaguely European, they are probably Chillean. Chilleans and Argentinians travel a lot and are the most common tourists around here.
On the 2nd I went to Antofogasta, on the coast. On the 3rd, I continued south to La Serena. I decided to try what seems to be the national fast food. The only cheap food I see for sale in the streets is the Completo. The Completo turned out to be a hot dog with avocado and ketchup. The only really bad thing, besides the price of buss es, that I have found so far in Chile, is the fast food. They are big on hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries.
On the 4th, I made it to the capital. I spent two nights in Santiago. It is a very clean and modern city and the subway is great. I saw an ice cream shop with line out the door, so I decided to try some. I turns out they make chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate ice cream. I wish more places in the U.S. did that.
On the 6th, I rode a bus all day to Temuco. The next morning I did some food shopping and then went to Pucon. Pucon turned out to be a very touristy town and since I had just spent nearly two weeks racing south to start trekking, I decided not to wait any longer. I made it out to the Villarica Volcano National Park around 5 pm and walked for about thirty minutes. I found a nice place to camp and spent the night.
The next day I started my walk around the volcano for real. I went over a bunch of lava and through some trees, camped by a nice river, crossed a bunch more lava, and camped by a river. Then I walked through some more lava and then went by some more nice trees. After three days, I was on the other side of the volcano and then walked over to the next one. I spent the fifth night of my walk next to a lake. The next day it poured. I sat in the tent and read my trekking guide book. Now I want to do every trek in the book, not just the eight I had planned. In the evening it stopped raining and I went for a little 3 hour walk. Around ten pm, I joined a couple of Israelis on the other side of the lake for some pineapple.
The seventh day of the walk turned out to be perfectly clear. I had very little food left, and my pack finally felt manageable. I had lunch near a white lake and then made my way down to one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. It was surrounded by forest and on three sides there were steep mountains and then some snow. I camped on the edge of the lake and watched the ducks until I fell asleep. In the morning it took me three hours to leave because I kept sitting down and looking around.
I finally started walking at around 11 am. I made it almost to the end by 2:30, but then found an old abandoned cherry farm. I stayed for an hour and chowed down on the cherries, while a couple of parrots in the tree yelled at me. The trail ended near the Argentinian border and the Chilean guards helped me find a ride back to Pucon. Now I can better appreciate a touristy town with lots of food and a beach.
I want to hurry up and leave and start my next hike, but I am going to try to do some kayaking first. I just finished a great eight day hike, saw almost no other people, and can not wait to do it again and again and again.
On the 14th of December, I went on my bike ride. We left La Paz and drove up to a 4700 meter (about 15,000 feet) high pass. Then we headed down what the World Development Bank, in 1995, called "The World's Most Dangerous Road." It is an unpaved, very narrow, windy mountain road. Now, the road is one way, up in the evening, and down during the day. This has reduced the number of vehicles which fall off each month. I believe that the last time a bus full of people fell off was around the 3rd or so.
The first few minutes were paved and we raced by a few slow trucks. Eventually, the pavement ended and the fun began. It rained off and and on all day and there were plenty of puddles for me to splash in. It was cloudy, so we did not get to see the sheer cliffs or views. But, the road does pass under a number of waterfalls and I got good and wet. At one point, I had a bit too much speed and the inevitable happened - I fell. I slid down the road and ripped my pants and my jacket. I am bummed about the little hole in my expensive Gore-Tex jacket. I have decided to bike naked from now on. Gore-Tex is expensive, but skin grows back. I had a little scratch on my leg and my best scratch in years on my elbow, but by the time the ride ended and I had a look at my boo-boos, they had both stopped bleeding. Now I am healed, my pants are sown and my jacket has an appointment with some duct tape.
At the end of the tour, the group returned to La Paz by driving up the same road. I was too scared to drive on the road so I spent the night in Corioco. Corioco is only 1600 meters high and is down in the jungle. I think the man who worked in the hotel wanted to spend the night with me, but he eventually realized that I was not interested and left my room.
In the morning, I started my trek back to La Paz. There is an ancient Inca road that goes back over the mountains. Most people walk down the trail, but since I was already at the bottom and I prefer walking uphill, I walked up. First I had to go down to 900 meters (about 3000 feet). Then I walked up a river valley. The first day was very long and I did not get to the Japanese House until around 7 pm. Forty years ago, a Japanese man decided he liked the mountains of Bolivia. He still lives there and his lawn is the nicest camp ground I ever found in Bolivia. I think he might be a couple of ants short of a picnic, but he is nice.
The next day I continued up the valley. The trail was very overgrown and a machete would have been useful. I scraped through the jungle with the neon blue butterflies for another day. I even passed two other trekkers going down. By nine o'clock on the third day I finally reached the end of my valley, and it was time to turn west and start the serious uphill. I was now at 2200 meters (under 7,000 feet) and the top was at 4850 meters (around 15,000 feet). I quickly rose above the jungle and found the old Inca road. It was very wide, well paved and the llamas kept the grass on it very short. At times it was like walking up a huge lawn in the suburbs. I found the going up much more to my liking than the bush bashing. I made it about two thirds of the way to the top. I had only planned to go one third of the way, but I like going uphill so much, I could not stop.
When it was time to camp, I found a nice field and asked the little girl watching me if I could camp there. She said `yes` and I gave her some cookies. On the last day of my walk, I got an early start and was soon joined by a local woman and her two children. The daughter spoke some Spanish, but had a really bad cough and a hoarse voice, so I did not understand her. The little boy only spoke Amayra, so we did not converse. The mother spoke Spanish and asked for some medicine for her daughter.
They eventually stopped to do some farming and I kept going up. I actually finished the hike by lunch time, a day ahead of my very slow schedule. So, as a bit of a reward to myself, I put down my pack and went hiking for a few hours in the high mountains. Then I went to the road and quickly got a ride back to La Paz (3600 meters - around 11,000 feet).
I had planned to rest for two days and then head back to the mountains to climb the 6088 meter (almost 20,000 feet) Huayana Potosi (a mountain). My plans did not work out. The tour agency kept me waiting all week and then canceled due to lack of other people. I found another agency with enough people to do a shorter trip than I had planned.
On the morning of the 24th of December, we drove up to 4800 meters and hiked up to 5200 meters (nearly 16,000 feet). We went to bed at around 7 pm. As I expected, during my first night at a high altitude I got no sleep at all. Neither did the other three on the tour. At 12:30 on Christmas morning, we got up. It was a bit cloudy, but we could see the summit and it looked as if we might make it up there by sunrise.
We strapped on our crampons, grabbed our ice axes and started up the glacier. There was even enough moon light, that we did not need our flashlights. After an hour or two a little bit of snow started falling. After another few hours, a lot of snow started falling. Eventually we were at about 5800 meters (near 19,000 feet) and it was seriously snowing. By now the snow was about thigh deep and the going was very, very slow. We decided to turn around.
At this point, the wind was blowing little icy pieces of snow into our eyes. I could barely see the guy I was tied to, a few feet in front of me. I was fifth on the rope and definitely could not see the guide up front. I followed the frozen piece of rope coming at me from out of the blizzard. By now the snow had completely covered our tracks and I have no idea how our guide navigated. He finally did admit that we were lost. We sat down to rest and wait for a break in the fog. After the fog cleared for a minute, we got our bearings, corrected our course and returned to camp.
If we had failed to summit because of lack of fitness or trying I would have been upset. But, since we failed because we got stopped by several feet of new snow and got lost high on a glacier in the middle of the night, I felt I got my monies worth. With the proper clothing and equipment even this type of experience is survivable and can be enjoyable.
We were back in La Paz for dinner and I went to my favorite local Chinese place for dinner on the 25th.
I came to South America to trek in Patagonia. The good season does not start until January. Now it was time to start really moving and I felt a great urge to start hurrying and get down here.
On the 26th, I wanted to take a bus to Potosi the highest city in the world (just like Lhasa, Tibet). Buses only do the 10 hour journey at night, so I had to use my special strategy. I am often told that the next bus does not go where I want, when I want. But there is always a bus going half way there soon and once I am half way there, there is usually a bus leaving soon to go the rest of the way.
So, left Sunday morning for Oruru. Then I had lunch and took an afternoon bus to Potosi I am glad I went during the day. The scenery was beautiful, even if it was indistinguishable from Arizona. You know, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid even lived around there. They also died in the dry southwestern corner of Bolivia.
In Potosi I took a tour of the silver mines. The Spanish empire, and much of the European economy for several hundred years was supported by the silver that was mined there. When an area of the mountain is no longer profitable to mine, it is turned over to a cooperative. Then members are allowed to mine the silver for themselves. They are very poor and they use the same methods that the Indian slaves used in the 1500s. They bang holes in the rock with an iron bar and a hammer. Then they drop in some dynamite and run. Later they carry out the rubble and sell it to some one with a crushing machine.
The first stop on our mine tour was the shop. They encouraged us to bring some gifts to the miners. I bought some coca leaves for them to chew, some carbonate to light their lights, a detonator cap and some dynamite. All this set be back about two dollars. I have never purchased dynamite before. I wanted to take it out to the desert and blow it up. But, I figured I would probably hurt myself with it, so in the end, I gave it away in the mine.
On the 28th I went to Uyuni and walked out to the train graveyard. They had a bunch of old trains to dispose of, so they just drove them into the desert and left them. The next day I decided to go for a walk in the desert. This area is perfectly flat and completely dry. I saw a mountain off in the distance and decided to walk to it. I walked for about six miles and I think, in the end, it did actually look a little bit closer. I learned alot about mirages and distance judging in the desert that day. I turned around and went back to town.
On the 30th, it was time to start my tour of the Salar de Uyuni, which I had tried to walk across the previous day. Our first stop was the Salt Hotel. The Salar is a huge salt flat and we saw some people collecting salt and then saw a few buildings build completely out of salt. For lunch we stopped at a small hill in the middle of flatness. We spent the night in a small town. On the 31st, we drove though some beautiful high altitude areas and stopped at some cool rock formations.
For the final night of the year, we went to a red lake. I took a nice afternoon walk and then returned to the hotel for the big night. There were about twenty tourists and maybe as many locals in the town that night. Some of the tourists were like me and wanted to be someplace with no electricity or computers. If the world ended, we wanted to be the last to know it. There was a good little party in our room and a really, really cold party outside.
The next morning, we woke up at 5 and drove off to see some boiling mud and geysers. By 7 we were at the hot springs and I splashed around until breakfast. Around eleven, we made it to the border with Chile. The Bolivian border guard tried to charge us all two dollars to get an exit stamp. A really cheap Australian gave him a very hard time and was ably backed up by the Israelis. Eventually, the price of this bit of corruption came down to one dollar. In the end some people paid and the rest of us left the country without an exit stamp.
Chile is very different from Peru and Bolivia. In Peru and Bolivia, most of the population is descended from Indians. In Chile and Argentina, I think that most of the Indians were killed or put on reservations and then large numbers of European immigrants arrived. Chile is definitely not a poor country and in many ways feels just like travelling in Australia or New Zealand.
My first stop in Chile was San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is a very touristy town the northern desert. Prices were very high compared to one of the cheapest countries in South America, Bolivia. A set lunch costs at least three dollars. No more fifty cent meals for me. I quickly learned that if someone is young, carrying a big backpack and looks vaguely European, they are probably Chillean. Chilleans and Argentinians travel a lot and are the most common tourists around here.
On the 2nd I went to Antofogasta, on the coast. On the 3rd, I continued south to La Serena. I decided to try what seems to be the national fast food. The only cheap food I see for sale in the streets is the Completo. The Completo turned out to be a hot dog with avocado and ketchup. The only really bad thing, besides the price of buss es, that I have found so far in Chile, is the fast food. They are big on hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries.
On the 4th, I made it to the capital. I spent two nights in Santiago. It is a very clean and modern city and the subway is great. I saw an ice cream shop with line out the door, so I decided to try some. I turns out they make chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate ice cream. I wish more places in the U.S. did that.
On the 6th, I rode a bus all day to Temuco. The next morning I did some food shopping and then went to Pucon. Pucon turned out to be a very touristy town and since I had just spent nearly two weeks racing south to start trekking, I decided not to wait any longer. I made it out to the Villarica Volcano National Park around 5 pm and walked for about thirty minutes. I found a nice place to camp and spent the night.
The next day I started my walk around the volcano for real. I went over a bunch of lava and through some trees, camped by a nice river, crossed a bunch more lava, and camped by a river. Then I walked through some more lava and then went by some more nice trees. After three days, I was on the other side of the volcano and then walked over to the next one. I spent the fifth night of my walk next to a lake. The next day it poured. I sat in the tent and read my trekking guide book. Now I want to do every trek in the book, not just the eight I had planned. In the evening it stopped raining and I went for a little 3 hour walk. Around ten pm, I joined a couple of Israelis on the other side of the lake for some pineapple.
The seventh day of the walk turned out to be perfectly clear. I had very little food left, and my pack finally felt manageable. I had lunch near a white lake and then made my way down to one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. It was surrounded by forest and on three sides there were steep mountains and then some snow. I camped on the edge of the lake and watched the ducks until I fell asleep. In the morning it took me three hours to leave because I kept sitting down and looking around.
I finally started walking at around 11 am. I made it almost to the end by 2:30, but then found an old abandoned cherry farm. I stayed for an hour and chowed down on the cherries, while a couple of parrots in the tree yelled at me. The trail ended near the Argentinian border and the Chilean guards helped me find a ride back to Pucon. Now I can better appreciate a touristy town with lots of food and a beach.
I want to hurry up and leave and start my next hike, but I am going to try to do some kayaking first. I just finished a great eight day hike, saw almost no other people, and can not wait to do it again and again and again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
