After Puerto Velero we traveled up and into Valle de Elqui which is known as a super hippy, alternative lifestyle valley. Lots of UFO sightings and mystical experts all over the place. We didn't see any aliens, but our first night in Vicuña we went over to the Mamalluca Observatory at 230AM to check out the southern skies. the valley has the clearest skies in the world and is also populated with a lot of scientific observatories. We saw Saturn through a high power telescope; it was so tiny and yellow and adorable. The milky way was bright, and we could even see our two closest neighbor galaxies, with the naked eye! Our guide talked to us about the constellations and some of the indigenous "negative constellations" that are composed not of stars but the black space in between stars. We also headed deeper in the sunny valley to check out the influence Gabriela Mistral had in her home region. She was really a female pioneer, not just for chile, but made serious impacts in both writing and politics. Very cool!
We paused in San Pedro de Atacama for a few days to hike through Valle de la Muerte, Quebrada de Cari and Valle de la Luna, which are three very different desert landscapes in a very small area. But the jewel of this part of our trip was definitely making a three day jeep trek through southern Bolivia. On day one not only did we get up to 16,400 feet, we saw three altiplano lakes, the White Lake, the Green Lake and the Red Lake. They were spectacular! I never imagined i would see flamingos high up in the Andes. Our first night we stayed in a "rustic" refugio...a mattress on cement blocks. Our tour guides Mario and Eva were really nice though and Eva is an amazing cook, we ate really well the whole time, even when we told her we were vegetarians! The next day was all about highland deserts and lakes. We also stopped in a small town called San Juan de Rosario where there is a pre-Inca cemetery with skeletons just laying around in the open, in their little funeral huts! it was creepy. We also stopped in a quinoa field, Bolivia is the home of the quinoa grain!i tried to steal quinoa but Mario didn't think that was a good idea. even Cassidy who'd had some raging altitude sickness lifted her head in excitement when she heard where we were. Our final night was spent on the edge of the famous Uyuni salt flat in a hotel constructed of salt. salt bricks, a loose salt floor, salt stools and table, even salt beds. it was...salty. Our final day included a few random stops but the most impressive sight was the Uyuni Salar, which in parts is hard, dry plates of salt but in others is covered with a thin layer of water that reflects the immense bright blue sky like a mirror. I'll let my photos do the talking for that part.
Since the trip we have been really moving. From Uyuni to Oruro where we found lots of chocolate with quinoa in it, and a really cool little vegetarian restaurant called El Huerto where we got a four course meal for $1.50. and a nice hotel room for $15. So pretty much we love Bolivia. La Paz was HUGE. its center is 11,800 ft above sea level, though at the bottom of a mountain enclosed valley! We came in across a ridge 13,000 ft high and the view was just amazing. the city is so large it creeps up the mountainsides in a thick blanket of buildings. It was very different from Buenos Aires or Santiago for sure. Much more is crammed into less space, there are open markets overflowing from plazas into the middle of streets where buses, trucks and cars honk at intersections to indicate that they are going to proceed (how do you think that would work for us in the US?). The rule for pedestrians is "don't get hit by cars" so i did a lot of running and screaming. While there we did a tour of Tiwanaku ruins near lake Titikaka. The Tiwanaku were a sophisticated technologically advanced culture that disappeared a few hundred years before the Inca moved into the area. I saw some amazing monoliths and a lot of interesting sculpture work and medical novelties they developed in their 2,700 years of existence. Just think, we've only completed 2,007 years as a westernized society.
Now I am in Peru! Yes, ten days after entering Bolivia, Cassidy and I crossed the border to Puno, the Peruvian side of Lake Titikaka. We arrived in a town finishing its Carnaval; as we dragged our bags through the streets to our hostel we were swarmed by children in traditional costumes of electric green, yellow and pink! There was a huge dance on the Plaza de Armas and all the while my camera was packed deep in my bags. The next day there was another smaller procession on the waterfront, from where we took off to visit floating reed islands. The islands are literally floating...the native Uros pile layer after layer of lake reeds on top of a floating piece of dirt, and then construct homes on top! it was a rather squishy affair, and the rain didn't help. But we learned about the Uros people and how they survive, we rode in a reed boat, and bought some reed mobiles, not that i have anywhere left to pack this thing. Cassidy and I went on a textile buying binge in La Paz and have very sore backs, not to mention crying wallets. We contracted some sort of weakness to artisan crafts and just can't stop buying really pretty things.
We went on to Arequipa after Puno, and from there to Cusco, where I am now. The bus rides are just out of this world. In Bolivia the mountains are mostly bare rock with some clusters of forests; they seem archaic, like the sharp spine of some immense animal that hasnt woken up from its sleep. In contrast, Peru's mountains are huge, but seem draped with a velvet green blanket and are very smooth and rolling. After a long cramped bus ride from Arequipa, we snaked through these same mountains into Cusco, which has fully enchanted me in just one evening. Yes, the Spanish were very naughty for having destroyed a civilization and torn down all but the Inca building foundations (which are indestructible), but they sure knew how to create a beautiful colonial town. Driving in felt like arriving in Madrid and a little bit of Granada. Of course what I hear about the Inca city is amazing too: all the buildings were coated in gold plates, which the Spanish pried off, melted down and sent home.
All right, enough for now, next month I'll have more insights on Cusco, and some great photos from Machu Picchu!
1 - me and cassidy at the Laguna Verde
2 - the Laguna Colorada filled with hungry flamingos
3 - a baby guanaco (cousin to the llama) who is taken care of
by bolivian park rangers after being abandoned.
4 - one of the delicious bolivian textiles that drove cassidy and i into a buying frenzy
5 - the tradition for this mask was that whomever put it on for festival celebrations
had to keep dancing until he died, or else the gods would be angry.