Southwest Circuit, Bolivia

We just finished a four day trip around the Southwest of Bolivia. It was spectacular. This blog post will not do justice to how amazing the sites were, nor will most photos. You´ll have to see it for yourself one day. The first day was pretty, but paled in comparision to the next three. The highlight was ´El Sillar´ a giant canyon full of what looks like gigantic rows of stalagmites, though there is no cave ceiling to have helped form them.




The second day we saw four lagoons, known as the yellow, blue, white, and green lagoons. The yellow one wasn´t very yellow, but all are made colourful by various mineral deposits in the water (below is the green lagoon).

Along the way to the lagoons, we passed mountain ranges that look like watercolour paintings, as the mineral deposits within them are green, red, yellow, etc, and all mixed together. We also passed les Rocas de Dali which, along with the hills served as inspiration for Salvadore Dali´s paintings.




And at lunch that day, we bathed in a hot spring which was not only the perfect temperature, but was situated to allow the best view I have ever seen while bathing. The third day we saw the most striking coloured lagoon, the Laguna Coloroda, which is a vibrant red. This lagoon, along with the other five we saw that day, are all swarming with flamingos, and the occasions llamas and vicunas (a wild cousin of the llamma) pass by.

Today, we spent the morning at the Salar de Uyuni, the largest accessible salt flat in the world. It is massive. All you see is salt in every direction. We drove over it for two hundred kilometers. It looks kind of like a snow field, but with small polygonal crests throughout. It also is a great location to take trick photos. I wish you all could see it, and hopefully I can post photos of it when I get back (I will add one or two next time we get a computer with DVD access).

Cordoba, Salta, and the Border to Bolivia

Cordoba didn´t get much better, though it had its moments. Our second day in Cordoba we did an excellent guided mountain climb. It took about 7 hours round trip, and the view from the top was spectacular.

However, the following day (when we were actually back in Cordoba) was not very good. We went in the morning to mail a package of souvenirs to Toronto. It took almost four hours to do, and not because we didn´t speak Spanish. We talked to Julio, a very pleasant gentleman in line before us, and he said the wait was standard. HE also correctly guessed our age within two years. He said he knew because we looked ´young, but with experience´. Because we took so long at the post office, all the museums were closed once again once we were ready to visit them, so we spent most of the day hanging out at the mall until our overnight bus came.

Salta was much nicer. The city was filled with beautiful buildings including a stunning church painted in maroon and gold. The highlight of the city was seeing an Incan era mummy at the museum. The mommy was of a child sacrifice entombed alive at the top of a Andean mountain. Because of the cold temperatures, the mummy´s skin and clothes were also perfectly preserved, only darkened. Unlike an egyptian mummy, the body looked pretty much like it would have when the child died. We also did a one day tour which took us to see coloured hills, the well-preserved remains of a pre-incan city, and the Argentinian salt flats.

At the end of the tour, instead of returning to Salta, we asked to be dropped off in the pretty (but touristy) little town of Pumamarqua, halfway to the Bolivian border. The main glitch we experienced in Salta was when we were getting ready for bed on the fist night. Evelyn closed the bathroom door while getting ready and the lock broke, trapping her inside. 45 minutes and a visit from the locksmith later, we finally were able to rescue her :-)

From Pumamarqua, we caught a bus to the Bolivian border. The crossing was super easy. Once we said we were Canadian, the customs officer sighned and stamped all the necessary forms before even asking to see our passport. We crossed the border into the small Bolivian town of Villazon and had to kill the afternoon while waiting for a bus. Happily, there was some sort of children´s festical that weekend so we watched rows of cute little children line-dance past, some while wearing fake miner´s hats or more traditional garb.

We caught a bus to Tupiza, a common stop on ´the Gringo trail´, and a starting point for the famous ´Southwest Curcuit tour´, which I will discuss in the next post. We relaxed our first day there, and met a couple of really cool American girls named Ally and Leila. They convinced us to join them the next day on a ´triatholon´tour which involved driving, horseback riding, and biking past the magnificant rock formations which surround tupiza. I found the horseback riding scary, but the girls all found the 16 km winding bicycle descent down narrow gravel roads terrifying.

The following day, we left for the four day southwest circuit tour.

Iguazu falls and Mendoza

Hi all,

We´ve had quite a time since my last post. The Iguazu falls are spectacular. I don´t know what the specific differences in size, height, etc are between Iguazu and Niagara falls, but Iguazu is, by far, the more impressive sight. The Iguazu falls go on for kilometers. You can easily spend a whole day going from viewing station to viewing station and not see them all. Moreover, the viewing stations bring you right up to the tops and bottoms of different parts. When standing on the platform for the Devil´s Canyon you are right at the edge of the falls looking down. For other falls, you can be right at the bottom. Moreover, the falls are surrounded by lush vegetation and wildlife. You constantly see Condors circling in the air, Couti´s walking around the park, and the occasional monkey swinging in the trees. We even saw some toucans fly past! So far, Iguazu falls have been the highlight of the trip.

The lowlight of the trip, however, has been the hostel we stayed in at Porto Iguazu. If you ever visit the falls, DO NOT stay at Hostel Sweet Hostel. There were many problems, including the fact we had to switch rooms from the first to the second night. But even worse was that, on the third morning, they told us we could not stay a third night because they had rented the room out from under us, even though we had reserved for three nights. Can you believe that? I have never been kicked out of a hotel room before because I better deal came along for the owners.

On our final morning in Puerto Iguazu, we walked to the waterfront monument representing partnership between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, situated at a river intersection which separates the three countries. From here, you can see all three countries at once. The highlight of the walk however, was a little dog that followed us the whole way there and back, which took over an hour. The bizarre thing was he never really acknowledged us. He didn´t make eye contact or wag his tail. He just stayed really close to us, would run off for a bit, and then run back. When he left, we didn´t even realize it until later. I wonder what was going through his head.

After Puerto Iguazu, we spent a day flying and bussing all the way across the country to Mendoza. We loved Mendoza. We found the best Hostel ever, called Hostel Confluencia. We originally planned to stay a couple of days, but ended up spending five days there, and could have easily spent more. Mendoza is in the heart of wine country, so we spent a day biking around to the different wineries, olive orchards, and chocolate factories doing tastings.

The following day, we drove to the Andes to do some trekking and ziplining. The hike was unremarkable, but we rappelled down a cliff at the end, which was a good first rappelling experience. Moreover, the views of the Andes were great. It is bizarre to be in a desert hiking in shorts and a t-shirt and see snow on the next range of mountains.

Much better than the trekking was the zip-lining. I had never been before, and loved it. It was surprisingly scary for all six rides, especially the last one, which was about 400 meters long over a river.We also visited Mendoza´s many plazas and huge public park. However, Evelyn was not happy with me after we tried to take the bus and ended up somewhat lost on the far side of the park. We found our way back though, but missed out on visiting the park´s zoo. Last night, we took an overnight bus to Cordoba, where we are now. We had a frustrating morning, as we walked around for about two hours trying to find a place to stay. The Hostels here are poorly signed, spread out, and busy for the weekend. We have a place to stay now though, and are going to bed after spending the day visiting old colonial churches and civic buildings, as well as the excellent weekend crafts market.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hi Everyone,

I am writing fro Puerto Iguazu, on the doorstep of the world famous Iguazu falls, which I am told rival (and even surpass) Niagara falls. We´ll find out tommorrow. We arrived here today from Buenos Aires on an 18 hour bus, which was, by far, the nices bus I have ever been on. They gave you as much space as first class on an airplane, and we were sitting pretty in your gigantic lazy boys, while the server came by with snacks, meals, and wine.

This afternoon, we went to a wildlife refuge and saw, among other animals, almost 20 rescued hawks and Eagles, which are being rehabilitated to be realeased back into the wild. They were magnificent.

Buenos Aires was great. We went to a couple weekend markets, which were pretty and creative. Unlike most of the stuff we saw for sale in South East Asia, booths here usually are run by artists who produce unique crafts. You don´t see the same thing everywehere else if you don´t buy it the first time.

The highlight for me was the Ricolleta Graveyard, where Buenos Aires´ rich and famous are entombed in the fanciest Masoleums you´ve ever seen.

The other big highlight was attending a BOCA soccer match. BOCA is the most popular club in Argentina, and the fans were crazy. Plus, the star of BOCA scored a header from 40 Meters away, setting some sort of record. I´m not sure what record though, because I don´t understand enough Spanish :-). We also went to the zoo, walked around for hours looking at all the fancy buildings, saw some Tango, and ate like kings. We had a gigantic steak dinner, including salad, dessert, and a bottle of wine, for under $50. Yowsa! The main problem with Buenos Aires is that we were breaking the bank, and pretty much doubling our daily budget. Luckily, Buenos Aires should be the most expensive place we travel.

On our way to South America--Eitan and Evelyn

October 2, 2009

Hi there! Well, we have left and just to make sure we actually got to the airport, my mommy and daddy drove us there safely. Boy, are they great parents. See the picture of Evelyn and I and my parents.

Hiking in Cornwall--Val and Arieh

July 8 to July 11, 2009.

Our trip to England (Cornwall) was quite lovely. The car rental worked out well, we arrived relatively on time, only got lost a little bit trying to get away from Heathrow airport and eventually made it to Polperro in Cornwall (past Plymouth) around 7PM. Polperro (if you know where you are going) is about 4.5 hours drive (on the M highways) from Heathrow. We stayed in a B & B there for the 4 nights and drove (or walked) around the area. Very narrow roads, very windy (not windy--lelow ruach) and difficult at times (while driving in a car) see any views from the road. Most of these little roads have hedges along them instead of fences. And it is very difficult to see through a hedge unlike a fence!

Many of the towns are former fishing villages. While they still have small ports and boats the major income producers are tourism, retirees and working somewhere else. Most of these towns do not allow parking in the village but rather up the hill or slightly elsewhere in a car park. It makes for nice walking in the town and quite quiet also. The food in England was better than it used to be, although quite expensive. Of course, being fishing towns, there was a lot of fish on the menus as well as seafood (crabs, shrimp, etc.) and they do that well. We also indulged in English tea--scones, clotted cream and jam. Yummy.

Speaking of food, the B & B provided us with a "hearty English breakfast". I am "happy" to say that the breakfast has not changed (nor improved) since I was there in 1982. What does "hearty" mean? Eggs (scrambled or poached). BTW, I asked for fried one day and was told they don't have a frying pan. Sausage. I asked for "no meat" and was offered a "Diana sausage" as a vegetarian substitute. Very disgusting. Toast. They did offer some sort of brown bread. Presented in the same funny holder as in 1982. COOKED tomatoe. (They agreed on the second day to give me the tomato uncooked). Baked beans (from a can and sweetened). Hash browns (fried potatoes) from a package. (Remember "no frying pan". How do you cook hash browns, then?). Canned mushrooms. Good coffee or tea. Juice. The good part was yoghurt and some canned grapefruit (I think, unsweetened). While the B & B was quite pleasant, the breakfast was something to remember in my old age.

We did not go to Land's End. However we did drive to St. Ives (As I was walking to St. Ives, I met a man with 7 wives.........) and walked along the harbour from one end to the other (about 2 KM). Two other noteworthy events were going to the Eden Project and our 8 KM walk along the seashore. The Eden Project is an old clay quarry (open-pit mine) that was closed and transformed into a botantical garden. Beautiful local flora along the walls of the pit as well as at the bottom. They also had 2 big domes--one housing an eco-system from the Mediterranean (and California) and the other a tropical eco-system. Very beautiful and worth the visit.

Our 8 KM walk was quite nice. There is a 800 KM walking trail along the south west coast in Cornwall and around Land's End and then North. We did 1%. Up and down, a bit of flat, a coffee stop and beautiful views of the seaside. Sometimes we were on the edge of the cliffs and sometimes on the top. We passed peopl running along the trail, other walking for the day and one family with teenagers doing about 1/2 the trail for the vacation (Everything on their backs). Didn't rain for us until 30 minutes after we arrived at our destination (another town called "Looe"). Had a very nice seaside lunch (unfortunately in side) and then took a bus back to our town.

Here are two links to pictures of the route we took:

http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/walking/talland.php

http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/walking/hannafor.php

The trip back to Heathrow was uneventful. The best part was utilizing Bobby's Air Canada lounge passes a Heathrow. Quite civiilized, I must say.