Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Photos from Nepal are up!
Photos from Nepal are up at: http://community.webshots.com/user/rachelkgross
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Rip-off festival and waking up to gross bodily function noises
I've been in Kathmandu for a couple days, which has been fun because I've been hanging out with some people I met on the trek, but also not fun because I am sick again. Same flu-type thing I had last month in Paraguay. Weird. At least I didn't have it while I was trekking. People here spit with great elan and hawk luggies very very loudly, and even though I am sick it still grosses me out. Almost every day this is the sound I wake up to. This morning the guy in the bathroom next to mine was spitting for at least 5 minutes. Loudly. Ugh.
Yesterday I went to the Indra Jatrah festival, the living goddess festival, which I was pretty excited about but it turned out that we sat (at least we were able to sit down) for 2 hours with people pushing, constantly, to see Kumari come out for 5 seconds. I actually saw the president for longer, he stood around quite awhile waving to people. I was kind of surprised that in a place with a history of unrest he wasn't behind a bullet proof shield-thingy, but then half of the military and a bunch of police were there, so it probably wouldn't be a great place for an assassination attempt if you wanted to live. Then all night people were loud and drunk and it was hard to sleep. Not a great festival. But I did think it was interesting that all the high-up officials drove economy cars, like a Toyota Corolla. You know your country is poor when members of congress can't even afford a Camry. The president was driving a Mercedes, but I have a feeling that was not his car.
Going back home today. Getting excited about going to a place where people don't spit loudly and Tylenol is legal (yes, Tylenol is illegal here. What do they use to break fevers around here?)
Yesterday I went to the Indra Jatrah festival, the living goddess festival, which I was pretty excited about but it turned out that we sat (at least we were able to sit down) for 2 hours with people pushing, constantly, to see Kumari come out for 5 seconds. I actually saw the president for longer, he stood around quite awhile waving to people. I was kind of surprised that in a place with a history of unrest he wasn't behind a bullet proof shield-thingy, but then half of the military and a bunch of police were there, so it probably wouldn't be a great place for an assassination attempt if you wanted to live. Then all night people were loud and drunk and it was hard to sleep. Not a great festival. But I did think it was interesting that all the high-up officials drove economy cars, like a Toyota Corolla. You know your country is poor when members of congress can't even afford a Camry. The president was driving a Mercedes, but I have a feeling that was not his car.
Going back home today. Getting excited about going to a place where people don't spit loudly and Tylenol is legal (yes, Tylenol is illegal here. What do they use to break fevers around here?)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Chitwan National Park
Went to Chitwan National Park the other day. I met a couple Finnish girls and a British couple on the bus on the way down, which was good because I ended up on an elephant with the Brit couple and in front of the Finnish girls later. The road to Kathmandu was blocked by a landslide that day, so the only people getting in were coming from Pokhara, like me, which was not very many of us. I met 3 Americans at my lodge who were stuck there for the day, not a bad place to be stuck, but I ended up with the place for myself for about a day between the Americans leaving in the morning and everybody else coming in from Kathmandu in the evening.
All the hotels are pretty similar. There is a mass of people at the bus standing there trying to get you to stay at their place, so I just picked the guy from the hotel that was the least aggressive. The taxi ride is free if you stay there, but I think I lucked out- I got a second story room overlooking the river like I wanted, even without the aid of a guidebook, since mine was in Kathmandu.
In the morning me and 2 other guides went on a canoe trip and then a jungle walk. We walked over to a watering hole and climbed into a tree and saw 3 rhinos. Even though we were fairly safe in the tree, I was pretty scared. Rhinos have been known to charge people, but my guide said that he had only been charged once in 18 years. It's also really hard to climb wet trees in hiking boots.
**note to women traveling alone** this kind of situation was where I was a little leery of being by myself, so I whipped out the old wedding ring and when the guide started asking me if I wanted to grab a coke by the river and hang out later, I said I didn't like coke (true) and when he asked if I was single, I pointed to my ring and said I was married (also technically still true). He left me pretty much alone after that, although I did hear stories from the Americans about this guide hitting on other single women. Fortunately I was prepared and I made sure I was never alone with the guy. This was also why I was leery of getting a guide for the whole Annapurna circuit, out of concern that something like that would happen and I'd be stuck with someone like that for 12+ days.
Other than that, it was a pretty good trip. I went down to see the elephants being bathed by their mahouts (drivers?) by the river, and went on an elephant ride. The elephant ride was kind of strange- we were all on a webbing platform with a railing on it and four people would sit on it, so I was actually sitting backwards the whole time. It's surprisingly hard to take pictures from the back of a moving elephant- a little bumpy. We had gone for almost an hour and a half and hadn't seen anything but a few deer, and started coming out to the edge of the forest, about 100 meters from a soccer game, where we saw 2 rhinos, an adult and a juvenile. Then we walked back into the forest and saw a mommy rhino and a cute little baby! Plus some wild boars. Not quite as cute. You can get pretty close to the rhinos on elephant-back since all the rhinos smell is elephant, not human. It's good for the rhinos that they are so defensive against humans, because of all the poaching, but not so good for tourists.
Got back to Kathmandu yesterday after a long bus ride and ran into a couple people from the trek, so I've been hanging out with them all day. Tomorrow is the big day of the Living Goddess festival, so that should be interesting.
All the hotels are pretty similar. There is a mass of people at the bus standing there trying to get you to stay at their place, so I just picked the guy from the hotel that was the least aggressive. The taxi ride is free if you stay there, but I think I lucked out- I got a second story room overlooking the river like I wanted, even without the aid of a guidebook, since mine was in Kathmandu.
In the morning me and 2 other guides went on a canoe trip and then a jungle walk. We walked over to a watering hole and climbed into a tree and saw 3 rhinos. Even though we were fairly safe in the tree, I was pretty scared. Rhinos have been known to charge people, but my guide said that he had only been charged once in 18 years. It's also really hard to climb wet trees in hiking boots.
**note to women traveling alone** this kind of situation was where I was a little leery of being by myself, so I whipped out the old wedding ring and when the guide started asking me if I wanted to grab a coke by the river and hang out later, I said I didn't like coke (true) and when he asked if I was single, I pointed to my ring and said I was married (also technically still true). He left me pretty much alone after that, although I did hear stories from the Americans about this guide hitting on other single women. Fortunately I was prepared and I made sure I was never alone with the guy. This was also why I was leery of getting a guide for the whole Annapurna circuit, out of concern that something like that would happen and I'd be stuck with someone like that for 12+ days.
Other than that, it was a pretty good trip. I went down to see the elephants being bathed by their mahouts (drivers?) by the river, and went on an elephant ride. The elephant ride was kind of strange- we were all on a webbing platform with a railing on it and four people would sit on it, so I was actually sitting backwards the whole time. It's surprisingly hard to take pictures from the back of a moving elephant- a little bumpy. We had gone for almost an hour and a half and hadn't seen anything but a few deer, and started coming out to the edge of the forest, about 100 meters from a soccer game, where we saw 2 rhinos, an adult and a juvenile. Then we walked back into the forest and saw a mommy rhino and a cute little baby! Plus some wild boars. Not quite as cute. You can get pretty close to the rhinos on elephant-back since all the rhinos smell is elephant, not human. It's good for the rhinos that they are so defensive against humans, because of all the poaching, but not so good for tourists.
Got back to Kathmandu yesterday after a long bus ride and ran into a couple people from the trek, so I've been hanging out with them all day. Tomorrow is the big day of the Living Goddess festival, so that should be interesting.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Half hour flight vs. 24 hour bus ride
I just spent about the last 24 hours traveling from Jomsom to Pokhara, the 2nd biggest city in Nepal. I met a woman, Keri, from Bellingham, who had a guide (named Pasang from First Environmental Trekking, who she highly recommends), on the trek, and we were supposed to fly out yesterday morning from Jomsom to Pokhara, a half-hour flight! Instead, all the flights were canceled due to cloudiness and rain the 2nd day in a row. It is a little annoying that this is flyable weather in the US, but I am glad they aren't flying in conditions that they don't have the technology to fly in.
Yesterday we took 2 buses and 2 jeeps from Jomsom to Beni, a small river town that reminds me a lot of the area in the Amazon part of Ecuador, and then another jeep today from Beni to Pokhara. So it took us awhile to get here, but I think the drivers here are better than those in South America, even if the roads are worse. Our last jeep was also really nice- and had seat belts! Our 2nd bus broke down at one point, but they were able to fix it on the spot (a terminal on the battery was broken, but they had an extra lead wire, whatever that is). We also met a couple Australians on the trip, and the guy was a mechanic, so that was useful. They showed us a hotel in Pokhara they really liked, so we are staying there. Tomorrow I'm going to Chitwan National Park; hopefully the day after tomorrow I will be riding elephants!
Yesterday we took 2 buses and 2 jeeps from Jomsom to Beni, a small river town that reminds me a lot of the area in the Amazon part of Ecuador, and then another jeep today from Beni to Pokhara. So it took us awhile to get here, but I think the drivers here are better than those in South America, even if the roads are worse. Our last jeep was also really nice- and had seat belts! Our 2nd bus broke down at one point, but they were able to fix it on the spot (a terminal on the battery was broken, but they had an extra lead wire, whatever that is). We also met a couple Australians on the trip, and the guy was a mechanic, so that was useful. They showed us a hotel in Pokhara they really liked, so we are staying there. Tomorrow I'm going to Chitwan National Park; hopefully the day after tomorrow I will be riding elephants!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Annapurna Circuit
Finished the Annapurna Circuit today. By "finish" I mean that I got to Jomsom, the first place you can fly out of, and decided that while this has been quite an enjoyable trek, there are other things I would like to see in Nepal too. Like elephants and living goddess festivals. So my plan now is to fly to Pokhara tomorrow, go to Chitwan National Park to go on an elephant safari, and then make it back to Kathmandu in time for the living goddess festival, Indra Jahtra.
In total, I hiked about 84 miles (including side trips), with a total elevation gain of about 15,000 feet, and the highest point was Thorung-La pass at 17,769. I took a bus from Kathmandu to Dumre, then another to Besi Sahar, then another to Bulbule. I only hiked for an hour the first day, accompanied by a group of guided Israelis (I met about 25 Israelis on this trip- the one group of 16 really upped their majority). I stopped in the outskirts of Ngadi, before I learned that you should stop in the last hotel in the village, not the first, so you have less to walk the first day. In this case, I was about 30 minutes outside actual Ngadi. Oh well. The next day I hiked to Jagat and met a lot of people on the trek, including a group of Euros, a few more Israelis, and a couple of Norwegians. This trip was pretty cool just because of all the people I met, and also because I didn't have to carry a tent.
For the first few days everybody seemed shocked that I was hiking "alone," which seemed ironic because I was not alone; I was with all of the people who were shocked. I usually hiked by myself, but I kept passing and being passed by the same people, and usually ate lunch with some people. The trail also links a lot of villages, so there were tons of locals coming through. The 2 times I got lost (both on the first day and followed by a group of guided Israelis- not sure how good their guide was) some guy with a donkey came by and told me I was going the wrong way within 5 minutes.
The scariest part of the trek was, for me, water crossings. As most people who have gone hiking with me know, I tend to get kind of scared of having to cross streams. Irrationally scared. But this trip has, if anything, cured me of that. At every sketchy crossing I was with friends, including the one where you basically had to walk through a waterfall. There are some Israelis with pictures of me doing this.
I also found out, in the waterfall, that my jacket is no longer waterproof. It's about 10 years old, this is logical, but I tested it in the sink before I left, but apparently I did not leave it in there long enough. This was kind of a problem since it's September in Nepal and it rains quite a bit. Eventually I used the trash bag I was using to keep my down dry to keep my core dry. At least my gore-tex pants are still waterproof.
I also found out that I brought way too much warm stuff. It's actually pretty warm here in September. I did not need my down jacket nor my mountaineering gloves and I probably could have gotten away with just using blankets and not bringing my sleeping bag. I crossed Thorung-La pass, the one at 17,769 feet, in my jacket with a short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirt on top, liner gloves, and gore-tex pants over zip-off pants. I never would have imagined I'd be this warm at that high of an elevation!
To acclimatize, I hiked up to Ice Lake with my new Swiss friend Oliver, and then spent a day hiking around the hills around Manang with various Europeans. I visited the Praken Gompa where the "100 Ruppee Lama" gave me a blessing for my crossing over the pass for, you guessed it, 100 ruppees!
I then hiked up to Letdar, where a bunch of us bonded over Yahtze and hot chocolate. All of the other American women I met on this trip were from Oregon or Washington, which was pretty cool. It started raining in the evening, and pretty much rained constantly for the next couple of days. I stayed at Thorung Phedi the night before the pass with the Norwegian couple, the Spanish couple, and the sick Israeli and sick American. Myself and the Norwegians and the lone Israeli started off at about 6:10am, everyone else having started from High Camp about 1000 feet higher, but I didn't want to sleep that high. By the way, the Thorung Phedi Base Camp Lodge is pretty cool. It stopped raining hard about 10 minutes after we started, but sort of rained intermittenly the rest of the time. This was annoying, because it was pretty warm, and I couldn't figure out whether to wear my long-sleeve t-shirt or my jacket. But since my jacket isn't really waterproof anyway, I just wore my long-sleeve t-shirt most of the time.
The only altitude sickness problem I really had was shortness of breath, so I just had to hike slow. I was also a little nauseous, but this may have been from waking up at 4am. Our Isreali and one of the Norwegians, Tora, had pretty bad headaches that didn't get better until they got almost all the way down.
The day after the pass crossing I visited Jhong, a small village across the river from Muktinah, and then walked to Kagbeni. Pretty much everyone else had gone directly to Jomsom after crossing the pass, but Kagbeni was supposed to be a cool little old village, and it was. It is very old, the gompa (Buddhist temple) being over 500 years old. The little streets were barely streets, more like corridors. The old capital of Mustang used to be located there, and the fort is still there, actually attached to where my hotel was. There were cows, goats, and donkeys roaming around, and animist protector figures at the entrance to town. It was probably the most unique village on the circuit, I was surprised that so many people skipped it. However, I ran into the Norwegians there, and they recommended I go to Tiri, which is a little village about a half hour north of Kagbeni and is the furthest north you can go into the Kingdom of Mustang without a $500 permit. That was also a pretty cool village, with a very very old gompa where the paintings seemed more Hindu than Buddhist, and a random guy picking peaches gave me a couple. The Norwegians also recommended the apples, but I didn't find a guy picking apples.
The last couple hours of the trek were also pretty difficult. I got a couple more water crossings, including a big river, and then walked about an hour and a half in a huge wind AND rain with a Spanish couple. No easy finish to this trek.
In total, I hiked about 84 miles (including side trips), with a total elevation gain of about 15,000 feet, and the highest point was Thorung-La pass at 17,769. I took a bus from Kathmandu to Dumre, then another to Besi Sahar, then another to Bulbule. I only hiked for an hour the first day, accompanied by a group of guided Israelis (I met about 25 Israelis on this trip- the one group of 16 really upped their majority). I stopped in the outskirts of Ngadi, before I learned that you should stop in the last hotel in the village, not the first, so you have less to walk the first day. In this case, I was about 30 minutes outside actual Ngadi. Oh well. The next day I hiked to Jagat and met a lot of people on the trek, including a group of Euros, a few more Israelis, and a couple of Norwegians. This trip was pretty cool just because of all the people I met, and also because I didn't have to carry a tent.
For the first few days everybody seemed shocked that I was hiking "alone," which seemed ironic because I was not alone; I was with all of the people who were shocked. I usually hiked by myself, but I kept passing and being passed by the same people, and usually ate lunch with some people. The trail also links a lot of villages, so there were tons of locals coming through. The 2 times I got lost (both on the first day and followed by a group of guided Israelis- not sure how good their guide was) some guy with a donkey came by and told me I was going the wrong way within 5 minutes.
The scariest part of the trek was, for me, water crossings. As most people who have gone hiking with me know, I tend to get kind of scared of having to cross streams. Irrationally scared. But this trip has, if anything, cured me of that. At every sketchy crossing I was with friends, including the one where you basically had to walk through a waterfall. There are some Israelis with pictures of me doing this.
I also found out, in the waterfall, that my jacket is no longer waterproof. It's about 10 years old, this is logical, but I tested it in the sink before I left, but apparently I did not leave it in there long enough. This was kind of a problem since it's September in Nepal and it rains quite a bit. Eventually I used the trash bag I was using to keep my down dry to keep my core dry. At least my gore-tex pants are still waterproof.
I also found out that I brought way too much warm stuff. It's actually pretty warm here in September. I did not need my down jacket nor my mountaineering gloves and I probably could have gotten away with just using blankets and not bringing my sleeping bag. I crossed Thorung-La pass, the one at 17,769 feet, in my jacket with a short sleeve and long sleeve t-shirt on top, liner gloves, and gore-tex pants over zip-off pants. I never would have imagined I'd be this warm at that high of an elevation!
To acclimatize, I hiked up to Ice Lake with my new Swiss friend Oliver, and then spent a day hiking around the hills around Manang with various Europeans. I visited the Praken Gompa where the "100 Ruppee Lama" gave me a blessing for my crossing over the pass for, you guessed it, 100 ruppees!
I then hiked up to Letdar, where a bunch of us bonded over Yahtze and hot chocolate. All of the other American women I met on this trip were from Oregon or Washington, which was pretty cool. It started raining in the evening, and pretty much rained constantly for the next couple of days. I stayed at Thorung Phedi the night before the pass with the Norwegian couple, the Spanish couple, and the sick Israeli and sick American. Myself and the Norwegians and the lone Israeli started off at about 6:10am, everyone else having started from High Camp about 1000 feet higher, but I didn't want to sleep that high. By the way, the Thorung Phedi Base Camp Lodge is pretty cool. It stopped raining hard about 10 minutes after we started, but sort of rained intermittenly the rest of the time. This was annoying, because it was pretty warm, and I couldn't figure out whether to wear my long-sleeve t-shirt or my jacket. But since my jacket isn't really waterproof anyway, I just wore my long-sleeve t-shirt most of the time.
The only altitude sickness problem I really had was shortness of breath, so I just had to hike slow. I was also a little nauseous, but this may have been from waking up at 4am. Our Isreali and one of the Norwegians, Tora, had pretty bad headaches that didn't get better until they got almost all the way down.
The day after the pass crossing I visited Jhong, a small village across the river from Muktinah, and then walked to Kagbeni. Pretty much everyone else had gone directly to Jomsom after crossing the pass, but Kagbeni was supposed to be a cool little old village, and it was. It is very old, the gompa (Buddhist temple) being over 500 years old. The little streets were barely streets, more like corridors. The old capital of Mustang used to be located there, and the fort is still there, actually attached to where my hotel was. There were cows, goats, and donkeys roaming around, and animist protector figures at the entrance to town. It was probably the most unique village on the circuit, I was surprised that so many people skipped it. However, I ran into the Norwegians there, and they recommended I go to Tiri, which is a little village about a half hour north of Kagbeni and is the furthest north you can go into the Kingdom of Mustang without a $500 permit. That was also a pretty cool village, with a very very old gompa where the paintings seemed more Hindu than Buddhist, and a random guy picking peaches gave me a couple. The Norwegians also recommended the apples, but I didn't find a guy picking apples.
The last couple hours of the trek were also pretty difficult. I got a couple more water crossings, including a big river, and then walked about an hour and a half in a huge wind AND rain with a Spanish couple. No easy finish to this trek.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Kathmandu
I landed in Kathmandu yesterday morning and promptly got lost as soon as I left my hotel because I apparently can't read maps on little sleep (maybe 6 hours over 48, total?) and went the exact opposite direction. I have some pretty good maps, but unfortunately I've only seen 2 street signs in English and cannot read Nepali. But it's OK, I got to see another non-touristy part of the city and people were really helpful in helping me find my way back. Once I get to a tourist area, I can use the hotels and stuff as landmarks because they are in my guidebook. And I haven't gotten lost since.
Once I got back to my supposed starting point, I used Lonely Planet's walking tour from Thamel (the tourist neighborhood) down to Durbar Square, which was the ancient capital and a UNESCO world heritage site.The walking tour can basically summarized as "look, here's a temple!" and look, another temple! I was almost templed-out by the time I got to Durbar Square. But I got a pretty good guide who explained a lot of stuff about the temples to me, which is helpful, since I know very little about Buddhism or Hinduism and some temples are both Buddhist and Nepalese temples, and there are figures in both religions that are important in both. What looks like the Star of David is also some sort of Buddhist symbol too, although I haven't learned its meaning yet.
I had a very strange bargaining experience yesterday. I was trying to sell back a book at a used bookstore, and the guy asked me to make an offer first, even after I explained that I had no idea what the prices were. I looked around the store a bit and offered 300 ruppees. He then offered 150 and refused to budge. I didn't understand why he didn't just offer 150 in the first place, if he wasn't going to bargain at all. I got kind of upset, and he just kept saying Namaste (hello/goodbye) & bowing and trying to get me out of there. So I went somewhere else, where they offered me 150 too, which was fine, I didn't care about the price, but at least we didn't do some song and dance about it. Maybe he was just hoping I would offer less than 150.
Today I got the 2nd permit that I needed for my hike (I need a general Nepal registration card & an Annapurna area permit), and then walked over to the Monkey Temple. I bought 2 empanada-type things along the way, and ate one. It was pretty good, actually. But then a monkey stole the 2nd one, just as I was thinking, I should put this in my bag. Of course, that's the first thing I should have done when I saw the monkey, instead of take pictures of it. A buddhist monk laughed as I cursed at the monkey eating the rest of my lunch.
This temple was more buddhist than Hindu, but had some Hindu elements too. It was visually pretty impressive.
Headed off to start the Annapurna circuit tomorrow. At the earliest, the next post will be within 12 days, but I am planning on doing the whole 17 day trek, so it might not be for 17.
Once I got back to my supposed starting point, I used Lonely Planet's walking tour from Thamel (the tourist neighborhood) down to Durbar Square, which was the ancient capital and a UNESCO world heritage site.The walking tour can basically summarized as "look, here's a temple!" and look, another temple! I was almost templed-out by the time I got to Durbar Square. But I got a pretty good guide who explained a lot of stuff about the temples to me, which is helpful, since I know very little about Buddhism or Hinduism and some temples are both Buddhist and Nepalese temples, and there are figures in both religions that are important in both. What looks like the Star of David is also some sort of Buddhist symbol too, although I haven't learned its meaning yet.
I had a very strange bargaining experience yesterday. I was trying to sell back a book at a used bookstore, and the guy asked me to make an offer first, even after I explained that I had no idea what the prices were. I looked around the store a bit and offered 300 ruppees. He then offered 150 and refused to budge. I didn't understand why he didn't just offer 150 in the first place, if he wasn't going to bargain at all. I got kind of upset, and he just kept saying Namaste (hello/goodbye) & bowing and trying to get me out of there. So I went somewhere else, where they offered me 150 too, which was fine, I didn't care about the price, but at least we didn't do some song and dance about it. Maybe he was just hoping I would offer less than 150.
Today I got the 2nd permit that I needed for my hike (I need a general Nepal registration card & an Annapurna area permit), and then walked over to the Monkey Temple. I bought 2 empanada-type things along the way, and ate one. It was pretty good, actually. But then a monkey stole the 2nd one, just as I was thinking, I should put this in my bag. Of course, that's the first thing I should have done when I saw the monkey, instead of take pictures of it. A buddhist monk laughed as I cursed at the monkey eating the rest of my lunch.
This temple was more buddhist than Hindu, but had some Hindu elements too. It was visually pretty impressive.
Headed off to start the Annapurna circuit tomorrow. At the earliest, the next post will be within 12 days, but I am planning on doing the whole 17 day trek, so it might not be for 17.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
India is so humid that my glasses fogged up
I landed in India during their evening, when it was about 8am Eastern time. I didn't sleep much on the plane, so I'm hoping that will help me adjust to the jetlag better. I try to look like I know something about what I'm doing when I get to a new place, but even my taxi driver in Delhi told me I looked bewildered. Part of it was my glasses fogging up made it hard to see, but I was also a little shocked about how hot it was. I thought I was used to the heat, but Delhi makes DC seem cool. I can honestly say that my shower in India was the only one that I have ever enjoyed cold. I can get through a cold shower, but I think this was the one time that a cold shower was a relief. Even in DC when the AC was out in the summer I would turn on a little warm water.
Even though I had to fly out the next morning, I decided to stay in the city so I could see a little bit of India. I'm really glad I did. Apparently Krishna's birthday was the day I flew in, so I got to see a big parade. What I saw of India was actually pretty similar to what I expected. Maybe I've just seen too many movies filmed here. There is still a lot I would like to see and learn about there, but for now, it's off to Nepal!
Even though I had to fly out the next morning, I decided to stay in the city so I could see a little bit of India. I'm really glad I did. Apparently Krishna's birthday was the day I flew in, so I got to see a big parade. What I saw of India was actually pretty similar to what I expected. Maybe I've just seen too many movies filmed here. There is still a lot I would like to see and learn about there, but for now, it's off to Nepal!
Always double check your airport!
My trip to Nepal started on Tuesday. I knew I had to fly in one airport and out the other for this leg of the trip, but I was so convinced that I was flying out of Dulles Airport and into National that I forgot to check. So I took the bus to Dulles, fortunately arriving there 2 hours before my flight time, only to find out that actually, I didn't read my itinerary, and I was flying out of National. Thereby ruining the entire convenience of National.
I wasn't too concerned because I had a 7 hour layover in New York and there are flights there all the time, but I didn't want to have to pay the $50 fee to change my flight. Plus I was looking forward to my trip to the Botanical Gardens. Fortunately my bus trip back into the city counted as a transfer so I didn't have to pay the $6 to go back. (Why the 5A is $3.10 going to Dulles and $6 going back is beyond me). I did get a taxi from Rosslyn, and ended up making it there just after the deadline for 30 minute check-in had passed, but fortunately they were able to get me checked in at the Delta Shuttle desk and I wasn't even the last person on the plane! Once again, Delta showed itself to be a competent airline and National once again proved that it is the best airport in DC. Even if you were able to get through security that quickly at Dulles, you wouldn't make it to your plane on time because of their stupid set-up! (Did I mention I hate Dulles?) Also, my checked bag made it on the plane! I figured it had enough time to meet me in New York, but I saw it come off the plane in New York, so that was exciting.
In New York I took the subway to the Botanical Gardens in Brooklyn. It took me a little bit of time to realize that the A train, which is the one you catch at JFK, is an express train, but I figured it out in time to transfer to the C train and avoided anymore stupidity for the day (I've realized I need to budget for making stupid mistakes while traveling).
The Botanical Gardens are very pretty. It was warm, but it was nice just to walk outside for a couple hours before sitting on a plane for 14. I was really impressed with what I saw in the middle of New York. I think the rose garden was my favorite, but I also liked the "natural" (e.g., woods) part, as well as just walking barefoot through the grass. I was tempted to go to the Brooklyn Museum instead, since it does have some cool Egyptian stuff, but I was glad I made the choice to be outside.
I wasn't too concerned because I had a 7 hour layover in New York and there are flights there all the time, but I didn't want to have to pay the $50 fee to change my flight. Plus I was looking forward to my trip to the Botanical Gardens. Fortunately my bus trip back into the city counted as a transfer so I didn't have to pay the $6 to go back. (Why the 5A is $3.10 going to Dulles and $6 going back is beyond me). I did get a taxi from Rosslyn, and ended up making it there just after the deadline for 30 minute check-in had passed, but fortunately they were able to get me checked in at the Delta Shuttle desk and I wasn't even the last person on the plane! Once again, Delta showed itself to be a competent airline and National once again proved that it is the best airport in DC. Even if you were able to get through security that quickly at Dulles, you wouldn't make it to your plane on time because of their stupid set-up! (Did I mention I hate Dulles?) Also, my checked bag made it on the plane! I figured it had enough time to meet me in New York, but I saw it come off the plane in New York, so that was exciting.
In New York I took the subway to the Botanical Gardens in Brooklyn. It took me a little bit of time to realize that the A train, which is the one you catch at JFK, is an express train, but I figured it out in time to transfer to the C train and avoided anymore stupidity for the day (I've realized I need to budget for making stupid mistakes while traveling).
The Botanical Gardens are very pretty. It was warm, but it was nice just to walk outside for a couple hours before sitting on a plane for 14. I was really impressed with what I saw in the middle of New York. I think the rose garden was my favorite, but I also liked the "natural" (e.g., woods) part, as well as just walking barefoot through the grass. I was tempted to go to the Brooklyn Museum instead, since it does have some cool Egyptian stuff, but I was glad I made the choice to be outside.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Paraguay smells nice
It´s springtime in Paraguay, so it smells very nice because of all the flowers. In the past few days we went to the Jesuit mission ruins in Trinidad, which had some really amazing carvings in the walls of angels playing various musical instruments, and we also visited Santa Maria and San Ignacio, where many of the original buildings of the missions are still in use, despite being built in 16something.
I recommend the movie ¨the Mission¨ for a flavor of the history of the area. In sum, it is that the Jesuits protected the native Guarani groups from the Spanish and Portuguese slave traders, until the Jesuits amassed so much wealth that the Spanish and Portuguese kicked the Jesuits out. The museums here seem to portray the missions as some sort of idyllic utopia, but I can´t help thinking that the Guarani did not build those missions of their own volition. But that it was better than being sold into slavery seems to be the refrain here.
We also stayed at the San Ignacio Country Club, a little camp-type hotel/resort recommended by Lori´s friend Natalia. Gustavo, the host, overfed us and his wife Annamarie taught us to milk a cow. We also met Chiquito, the lamb who comes when called, and we got to bottle feed him. Apparently he was one of twins, and his mom only feeds one.
Today we went to the Jardin Botanico in Asuncion, which was very disapointing, since the only garden there seemed to consist of a small jenky rose garden. But it was a nice park. Then we went to Museo del Barro, which was free and had a really awesome collection of modern, folk, and historic art.
Tonight we are going to a folk concert before going to the airport early tomorrow morning and back to DC.
I recommend the movie ¨the Mission¨ for a flavor of the history of the area. In sum, it is that the Jesuits protected the native Guarani groups from the Spanish and Portuguese slave traders, until the Jesuits amassed so much wealth that the Spanish and Portuguese kicked the Jesuits out. The museums here seem to portray the missions as some sort of idyllic utopia, but I can´t help thinking that the Guarani did not build those missions of their own volition. But that it was better than being sold into slavery seems to be the refrain here.
We also stayed at the San Ignacio Country Club, a little camp-type hotel/resort recommended by Lori´s friend Natalia. Gustavo, the host, overfed us and his wife Annamarie taught us to milk a cow. We also met Chiquito, the lamb who comes when called, and we got to bottle feed him. Apparently he was one of twins, and his mom only feeds one.
Today we went to the Jardin Botanico in Asuncion, which was very disapointing, since the only garden there seemed to consist of a small jenky rose garden. But it was a nice park. Then we went to Museo del Barro, which was free and had a really awesome collection of modern, folk, and historic art.
Tonight we are going to a folk concert before going to the airport early tomorrow morning and back to DC.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Iguazu is the reason you buy a plane ticket and a camera
Iguazu was absolutely awesome. I think it´s the only thing in South America that has exceeded my expectations. Maybe that and Pablo Neruda´s house at Isla Negra. There are things that have met my expectations, and I heard this would be pretty awesome and it is that and more, if more is possible.
First of all, the name of my hostel was Timbas Hostel y Posada, not Tombas as I incorrectly noted below. I told the guy who runs it, Diego, I would give it a good report on my blog, and I definitely recommend it if you happen to go that way. It´s down the hill from the bus station in Puerto Iguazu. A pretty great hostel, ranks right up there with the really awesome one I stayed at in Santiago once. 35 pesos (about $8) for a dorm bed (45 pesos with breakfast), but the dorm room was only about half full, and it´s the best sleep I´ve ever gotten in a dorm hostel room, but I did use a night mask and ear plugs. They had a kitchen where I cooked a bunch of pasta for myself. There were some Argentines from Ushaia in there who were cooking up a regular 3 course meal, and shared their appetizer. The other guests were really nice and friendly, and Diego was super helpful, like when I needed saran wrap to store my leftover pasta and letting me back into the hostel after I checked out to eat my leftover pasta and holding my stuff for me in a locker.
OK, advertisement over.
I inadvertently got up late because I didn´t realize that there was a time change between Paraguay and Argentina, but I caught a bus to the falls just as it was leaving so I only got there a half hour after opening. I walked along a nature trail to the second train station (there is a small Disneyland style train that runs throughout the park), and found out that the next train wasn´t coming for 30 minutes and it was only 2K to Garganta del Diablo, the biggest, or at least most powerful waterfall, so I walked, which worked out great because I only had to share Garganta with about 10 people, not a trainload. I met the trainload coming back. The falls are really, really impressive. I´ve never been to Niagara, but I did remember Eleanor Roosevelt´s ´poor Niagara´ comment. There were a bunch of vultures circuling above all the big falls, I don´t know if they dive in and grab ´food¨ that accidently falls in.
Iguazu is really a series of waterfalls instead of just one, and is located in a really cool subtropical environment. I felt like I was in a Frederic Edwin Church painting the whole time (if you don´t know who he is, check him out, he´s awesome). I took a raft with some Italians down a lazy side river and got to see caimans, cormorants, toucans, turtles, and `patos reales` (literally `royal ducks` that are much larger). I´m not sure it was worth the 50 pesos extra for the Paseo Ecologico boat ride, but it fulfilled my dreams of boating through a jungle with vines overhead.
I would definitely recommend skipping the higher Cataracts trail (Sendero Superior) if you are short on time, since that trail leads you to the top of the waterfalls. Go to at least one for the awesome drop off, but you get to actually see the falls from the Sendero Inferior, or the lower trail. Then take the free boat to Isla Martin to get close up views of the falls and take a dip in the river below the falls. The water was too cold for me, but if you are like most people and like swimming in cold water when it´s hot, you would really like it.
Words can´t really describe it. I´ll hopefully post pictures later this week.
First of all, the name of my hostel was Timbas Hostel y Posada, not Tombas as I incorrectly noted below. I told the guy who runs it, Diego, I would give it a good report on my blog, and I definitely recommend it if you happen to go that way. It´s down the hill from the bus station in Puerto Iguazu. A pretty great hostel, ranks right up there with the really awesome one I stayed at in Santiago once. 35 pesos (about $8) for a dorm bed (45 pesos with breakfast), but the dorm room was only about half full, and it´s the best sleep I´ve ever gotten in a dorm hostel room, but I did use a night mask and ear plugs. They had a kitchen where I cooked a bunch of pasta for myself. There were some Argentines from Ushaia in there who were cooking up a regular 3 course meal, and shared their appetizer. The other guests were really nice and friendly, and Diego was super helpful, like when I needed saran wrap to store my leftover pasta and letting me back into the hostel after I checked out to eat my leftover pasta and holding my stuff for me in a locker.
OK, advertisement over.
I inadvertently got up late because I didn´t realize that there was a time change between Paraguay and Argentina, but I caught a bus to the falls just as it was leaving so I only got there a half hour after opening. I walked along a nature trail to the second train station (there is a small Disneyland style train that runs throughout the park), and found out that the next train wasn´t coming for 30 minutes and it was only 2K to Garganta del Diablo, the biggest, or at least most powerful waterfall, so I walked, which worked out great because I only had to share Garganta with about 10 people, not a trainload. I met the trainload coming back. The falls are really, really impressive. I´ve never been to Niagara, but I did remember Eleanor Roosevelt´s ´poor Niagara´ comment. There were a bunch of vultures circuling above all the big falls, I don´t know if they dive in and grab ´food¨ that accidently falls in.
Iguazu is really a series of waterfalls instead of just one, and is located in a really cool subtropical environment. I felt like I was in a Frederic Edwin Church painting the whole time (if you don´t know who he is, check him out, he´s awesome). I took a raft with some Italians down a lazy side river and got to see caimans, cormorants, toucans, turtles, and `patos reales` (literally `royal ducks` that are much larger). I´m not sure it was worth the 50 pesos extra for the Paseo Ecologico boat ride, but it fulfilled my dreams of boating through a jungle with vines overhead.
I would definitely recommend skipping the higher Cataracts trail (Sendero Superior) if you are short on time, since that trail leads you to the top of the waterfalls. Go to at least one for the awesome drop off, but you get to actually see the falls from the Sendero Inferior, or the lower trail. Then take the free boat to Isla Martin to get close up views of the falls and take a dip in the river below the falls. The water was too cold for me, but if you are like most people and like swimming in cold water when it´s hot, you would really like it.
Words can´t really describe it. I´ll hopefully post pictures later this week.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Passing through 3 countries today
Paraguay is pretty sweet. Lori has the best friends in Paraguay to visit, since Natalia is writing a guidebook for Paraguay and Alex just had finals from grad school, so he is currently available to show us around. Plus, Natalia{s parents have a nice apartment we are staying at and a weekend house in this adorable small town. On the way to this town yesterday there was a strawberry festival. Strawberries with cream is pretty sweet. We also went to a place that had breakfast feast for the equivalent of $3 each. It{s semi-tropical and warm with lots of really pretty flowers and is pretty laid back.
Got to Puerto Iguazu today. I took the bus from Asuncion to Ciudad del Este, and I was going to take the bus from Ciudad del Este to Puerto Iguazu but then it doesn{t seem to run very often, or at all on Sundays, so I had to take a really expensive taxi ride and talk my way out of Brazil, since I didn{t want to get a visa just to drive through the country for 10 minutes. Here, you have to go from Paraguay to Brazil to Argentina. I{ve heard there{s a boat that goes direct, but there was no information about it here. And I doubt it runs on Sundays.
I{m staying at this really nice hostel, Tombas Posada y Hostel, or something like that, with hammocks and a small pool and a kitchen and really nice people, but I should probably stop hogging the free internet.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Success! The Salar!
We actually made it to the Salar (and out of the Salar as well). We took an overnight bus to Tupiza (apparently in the dry season all the buses run at night), during which I did not sleep (80s hits at full volume on a bouncy dirt road are not conducive to sleep), and Slyvia from Grano de Oro tours met us at the bus station at 4am and let us sleep in an extra room at the travel agency and let Lori use her shower. We met the three French girls who would also be in our tour, Yolan, Ginola, and Marie. Ginola and Marie have been friends since birth and mainly spoke French, but Yolan made an effort to speak English and also include us in conversation. We offered to speak mainly Spanish, but they said their English was better than their Spanish.
The tour was 4 days. Uyuni, the normal end of the tour, was still blocked by a roadblock, but Sylvia assured us that we could get back to Tupiza, we would just have to pay the driver extra for gas. However, almost immediately Sebastian, our driver, told us we might not get to see the Salar because it was (1) blocked and (2) we did not have enough gas to get back to Tupiza. Awesome. However, we still followed the normal tour route of seeing multi-colored lakes populated by flamingos, hotsprings, and geyers. It was a really pretty landscape, but our concern about seeing the Salar stuck a black cloud over our trip. (Will post photos later).
I also developed some traveler stomach problems, probably caused by eating chicken from a street vendor in Tarija. However, I packed enough immodium and pepto to keep it under control, and it went away after a couple days. Eating breakfast was generally a bad idea, I learned.
Sebastian was generally rude and not very sympathetic to his client´s concerns and also did not really make an effort to answer our questions (e.g., Ginola: is it very dry here? Sebastian: there is a very small percentage of salt). On the evening of the second day he informed us that there was no gas in Uyuni due to the blockade so we could not get back to Tupiza, nor did we have enough to get back if we turned around immediately, and he was going to drop us off 5K outside the blockade and we could walk into Uyuni, and he didn´t care what happened to us and his job was just to get us to Uyuni and he was single so he could survive on coca in his jeep for a month. Being stuck in a blockaded city was not really what either Lori nor I wanted to do, and I was also really concerned about Lori walking 5K across the cold desert. So we hatched a plan to go with another tour company that had its stuff together to take us to Ororo or La Paz, which are outside the department of Potosi and not subject to the blockades. The blockades were part of the department of Potosi´s plan to get the central government to give a cement factory on disputed land to the department of Potosi instead of Ororo. I´m glad that in the US we solve these sort of inter-state disputes with the Supreme Court instead of massive unrest.
Anyway, we also found out about jeeps that could take us to Ororo from Uyuni or to Chile from Uyuni, the second being a very expensive option since we would have to pay a $100 reciprocity tax at the border and then figure out how to get to Paraguay from there and forfeit plane tickets we had already bought in Bolivia. So it didn´t seem like we would be stuck in Uyuni, but we were pretty made at the tour company for lying to us about whether we could get back to Tupiza.
Our plan to go along with another tour company failed when none of the other companies stayed at our hostel the 3rd night. However, we found out that they had reached an agreement with the central government just in time, and there were no more blockades! Nobody really believed the news at first, not even Sebastian, but we heard it from 3 separate people, and as Sebastian pointed out, not all of them would probably lie the same. So the last day of the trip we went out to the Salar to watch the sun rise, went to an island in the Salar with giant Saguaro cacti, visited the first salt hotel (ours was also made out of salt, but not on the Salar), and watched the French girls take a zillion pictures of themselves. Sebastian was very nice because it was tip day, but that didn´t help him as far as tips went. We did tip our cook a lot, since she was a very nice lady who made very good food in the middle of nowhere. The Salar was pretty awesome, kind of how I always imagined Antartica. Mountains rising out of a flat salt plane.
Uyuni was like a ghost town when we entered, but became more and more active as the day went on. We saw people dancing in the streets and there were parades and everyone seemed really relieved that the blockade was over. We were some of the first tourists in about 4 days, so a lot of people were happy to see us.
We got a bus out of Uyuni after a last dinner with our French friends, and then got to Tupiza at 3:30am. We slept in a hostel for about 5 hours, then walked around Tupiza and went horseback riding with our 13 year old guide, Henry. Both Lori and I were glad we had taken horseback riding lessons as kids, since Henry gave us absolutely no instruction and our horses were liable to start running (they kept trying to get in front of each other). The landscape was a lot like the American southwest, and I was surprised how many of the plants were the same as in Arizona. Mesquite trees, Saguaro cactus, creosote bushes, organ pipe cacti, cholla cacti. They plants were pretty much the same, despite being so far apart.
Last night we took a bus back to Tarija, where we will hang out until our flight to Santa Cruz in the evening. Then tomorrow we will fly to Paraguay. We are both pretty excited to stay with Lori´s friends in a real house. Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures there.
The tour was 4 days. Uyuni, the normal end of the tour, was still blocked by a roadblock, but Sylvia assured us that we could get back to Tupiza, we would just have to pay the driver extra for gas. However, almost immediately Sebastian, our driver, told us we might not get to see the Salar because it was (1) blocked and (2) we did not have enough gas to get back to Tupiza. Awesome. However, we still followed the normal tour route of seeing multi-colored lakes populated by flamingos, hotsprings, and geyers. It was a really pretty landscape, but our concern about seeing the Salar stuck a black cloud over our trip. (Will post photos later).
I also developed some traveler stomach problems, probably caused by eating chicken from a street vendor in Tarija. However, I packed enough immodium and pepto to keep it under control, and it went away after a couple days. Eating breakfast was generally a bad idea, I learned.
Sebastian was generally rude and not very sympathetic to his client´s concerns and also did not really make an effort to answer our questions (e.g., Ginola: is it very dry here? Sebastian: there is a very small percentage of salt). On the evening of the second day he informed us that there was no gas in Uyuni due to the blockade so we could not get back to Tupiza, nor did we have enough to get back if we turned around immediately, and he was going to drop us off 5K outside the blockade and we could walk into Uyuni, and he didn´t care what happened to us and his job was just to get us to Uyuni and he was single so he could survive on coca in his jeep for a month. Being stuck in a blockaded city was not really what either Lori nor I wanted to do, and I was also really concerned about Lori walking 5K across the cold desert. So we hatched a plan to go with another tour company that had its stuff together to take us to Ororo or La Paz, which are outside the department of Potosi and not subject to the blockades. The blockades were part of the department of Potosi´s plan to get the central government to give a cement factory on disputed land to the department of Potosi instead of Ororo. I´m glad that in the US we solve these sort of inter-state disputes with the Supreme Court instead of massive unrest.
Anyway, we also found out about jeeps that could take us to Ororo from Uyuni or to Chile from Uyuni, the second being a very expensive option since we would have to pay a $100 reciprocity tax at the border and then figure out how to get to Paraguay from there and forfeit plane tickets we had already bought in Bolivia. So it didn´t seem like we would be stuck in Uyuni, but we were pretty made at the tour company for lying to us about whether we could get back to Tupiza.
Our plan to go along with another tour company failed when none of the other companies stayed at our hostel the 3rd night. However, we found out that they had reached an agreement with the central government just in time, and there were no more blockades! Nobody really believed the news at first, not even Sebastian, but we heard it from 3 separate people, and as Sebastian pointed out, not all of them would probably lie the same. So the last day of the trip we went out to the Salar to watch the sun rise, went to an island in the Salar with giant Saguaro cacti, visited the first salt hotel (ours was also made out of salt, but not on the Salar), and watched the French girls take a zillion pictures of themselves. Sebastian was very nice because it was tip day, but that didn´t help him as far as tips went. We did tip our cook a lot, since she was a very nice lady who made very good food in the middle of nowhere. The Salar was pretty awesome, kind of how I always imagined Antartica. Mountains rising out of a flat salt plane.
Uyuni was like a ghost town when we entered, but became more and more active as the day went on. We saw people dancing in the streets and there were parades and everyone seemed really relieved that the blockade was over. We were some of the first tourists in about 4 days, so a lot of people were happy to see us.
We got a bus out of Uyuni after a last dinner with our French friends, and then got to Tupiza at 3:30am. We slept in a hostel for about 5 hours, then walked around Tupiza and went horseback riding with our 13 year old guide, Henry. Both Lori and I were glad we had taken horseback riding lessons as kids, since Henry gave us absolutely no instruction and our horses were liable to start running (they kept trying to get in front of each other). The landscape was a lot like the American southwest, and I was surprised how many of the plants were the same as in Arizona. Mesquite trees, Saguaro cactus, creosote bushes, organ pipe cacti, cholla cacti. They plants were pretty much the same, despite being so far apart.
Last night we took a bus back to Tarija, where we will hang out until our flight to Santa Cruz in the evening. Then tomorrow we will fly to Paraguay. We are both pretty excited to stay with Lori´s friends in a real house. Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures there.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tiwanaku/Isla del Sol
Just got back from Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. A couple of days ago we went to Tiwanaku to see some pre-Incan ruins. They weren´t that impressive on their own, but with a guide they were very good. We met a Flemish family traveling in South America/housesitting in Brazil for 11 months and shared a guide with them, as well as a micro bus back and forth. Their kids were pretty well behaved, even though the tour took 3 hours. The kids did throw each other around in the dirt a lot. We also saw them getting to the island as we were leaving it today. It´s funny how you keep running into the same people on a trip sometimes.
Apparently my debit card works at one ATM in La Paz, and it´s at the airport. Banco Ganador. Fortunately we will be flying a lot. I have Visa and Plus logos on my card, so it should work, but alas it does not. So I have been paying for things with the Lori bank, who I repay by buying plane tickets.
Yesterday we went to Isla del Sol. To get there from La Paz, we had to take a bus to Copacabana, which involved a ferry across a portion of the lake to get to another side. They offloaded the bus and had us go in a passenger boat while the bus took its own flat boat across. I was convinced that our boat was tilted to one side and was going to flip over, but Lori told me I was imagining things. The Bolivian woman also gripping a life jacket even said ¨Fuerza!¨ to me (strength!). No one else appeared to be concerned and most people seemed to be a little amused by the freaking out norteamericana. I have issues with water, but they usually aren´t a problem on a boat. And indeed for the rest of the boat rides I was fine, but the rest of the boats did not seem to be tilting. I´m not so scared of rocking if it´s not all to one side. This boat ride also took about all of 5 minutes.
When we got to Copacobana, we found that we had 15 minutes until the last boat departed to Isla del Sol (on Lake Titicaca), so we hurried to the boat and bought tickets, grabbing some stale bread along the way. Quote of the day- Lori ¨this bread is stale¨ me ¨oh well, it´s food¨
The island was gorgeous. It was really nice to go to a place without cars after La Paz. We stayed on the South end, which was definitely developed, and walked over to a small temple ruin before dinner. The sky was so full of stars that I didn´t think that it would be possible to make up constellations. The next day Lori and I hiked about 4 hours to the north end of the island to see some ruins of the original sun temple. The Incan foundation myth holds that the original forebearers of the Incan kings arose here, and the sun was worshiped there. The temple is still somewhat used, as evidenced by the burn marks from offerings. The temple wasn´t much, but the hike there was pretty great and not super busy, and I´m glad we went that way because a lot of people come up from the boat on the north side to just see the ruins and go back to the boat, so I was glad we went that way. We caught the 130 boat to go back to the south side, grabbed our bags at the hostel, and then went to Copacabana. We will go back to La Paz tomorrow, then fly to Tarija, take a bus to Tupiza, and visit the Salar from there. The price of this trip just went WAY up. Dang Potosians and their land dispute.
Apparently my debit card works at one ATM in La Paz, and it´s at the airport. Banco Ganador. Fortunately we will be flying a lot. I have Visa and Plus logos on my card, so it should work, but alas it does not. So I have been paying for things with the Lori bank, who I repay by buying plane tickets.
Yesterday we went to Isla del Sol. To get there from La Paz, we had to take a bus to Copacabana, which involved a ferry across a portion of the lake to get to another side. They offloaded the bus and had us go in a passenger boat while the bus took its own flat boat across. I was convinced that our boat was tilted to one side and was going to flip over, but Lori told me I was imagining things. The Bolivian woman also gripping a life jacket even said ¨Fuerza!¨ to me (strength!). No one else appeared to be concerned and most people seemed to be a little amused by the freaking out norteamericana. I have issues with water, but they usually aren´t a problem on a boat. And indeed for the rest of the boat rides I was fine, but the rest of the boats did not seem to be tilting. I´m not so scared of rocking if it´s not all to one side. This boat ride also took about all of 5 minutes.
When we got to Copacobana, we found that we had 15 minutes until the last boat departed to Isla del Sol (on Lake Titicaca), so we hurried to the boat and bought tickets, grabbing some stale bread along the way. Quote of the day- Lori ¨this bread is stale¨ me ¨oh well, it´s food¨
The island was gorgeous. It was really nice to go to a place without cars after La Paz. We stayed on the South end, which was definitely developed, and walked over to a small temple ruin before dinner. The sky was so full of stars that I didn´t think that it would be possible to make up constellations. The next day Lori and I hiked about 4 hours to the north end of the island to see some ruins of the original sun temple. The Incan foundation myth holds that the original forebearers of the Incan kings arose here, and the sun was worshiped there. The temple is still somewhat used, as evidenced by the burn marks from offerings. The temple wasn´t much, but the hike there was pretty great and not super busy, and I´m glad we went that way because a lot of people come up from the boat on the north side to just see the ruins and go back to the boat, so I was glad we went that way. We caught the 130 boat to go back to the south side, grabbed our bags at the hostel, and then went to Copacabana. We will go back to La Paz tomorrow, then fly to Tarija, take a bus to Tupiza, and visit the Salar from there. The price of this trip just went WAY up. Dang Potosians and their land dispute.
Monday, August 9, 2010
La Paz is not pedestrian friendly
First (and hopefully only) day in La Paz. It's alright. Standard Andean city, with some big cathedrals and brightly woven tourist stuff for sale. The streets are extremely steep, since it's basically built into the side of a mountain, and it is one of the highest capital cities in the world, if not the highest, at about 12,000 feet. It's also pretty difficult to cross the street, since the lights are super short, if they are there at all, and there is little yielding to pedestrians. It is also really polluted, with lots of deisel trucks.
Next day going to Incan ruins at Tiwanaku, which I am excited about, and then to the Islas del Sol. We are still hoping to make it to the Salt Flats at Uyuni, which is THE it destination in Bolivia but there are some road blocks on the way there. The residents of Potosi are in a land dispute with the neighboring province of Oroni, and they want the government to build them a cement factory. So they have taken over the airport and blocked the roads. Fun. We may end up flying into Chile and crossing over to Bolivia from there to see them.
I seem to have trouble getting on gmail, so facebook is probably the best way to reach me right now.
Next day going to Incan ruins at Tiwanaku, which I am excited about, and then to the Islas del Sol. We are still hoping to make it to the Salt Flats at Uyuni, which is THE it destination in Bolivia but there are some road blocks on the way there. The residents of Potosi are in a land dispute with the neighboring province of Oroni, and they want the government to build them a cement factory. So they have taken over the airport and blocked the roads. Fun. We may end up flying into Chile and crossing over to Bolivia from there to see them.
I seem to have trouble getting on gmail, so facebook is probably the best way to reach me right now.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
The East Coast List
I am hoping to move away from the East Coast eventually, hopefully after the next 3 years are up, and it's high time I made a list of stuff I would like to do there before I leave. Sometimes it's easiest to think about these things while one is not there. So, here is the list of stuff to do on the East Coast. Leave comments if you have suggestions (this is in no particular order):
1. See Niagara Falls
2. Go to Asheville, NC
3. Hike the Appalacian Trail 100-Mile Wilderness
4. Climb at Red River Gorge
5. Climb at Somersville Lake, WV
6. Visit Jamestown
7. Ski in Vermont
8. Go to Ocean City MD
Think that's about it. I've seen a lot in the DC area, since I live there, and probably all of New York I care to see, but I haven't gotten out of the mid-Atlantic much.
1. See Niagara Falls
2. Go to Asheville, NC
3. Hike the Appalacian Trail 100-Mile Wilderness
4. Climb at Red River Gorge
5. Climb at Somersville Lake, WV
6. Visit Jamestown
7. Ski in Vermont
8. Go to Ocean City MD
Think that's about it. I've seen a lot in the DC area, since I live there, and probably all of New York I care to see, but I haven't gotten out of the mid-Atlantic much.
Photo Link
Photos of SLC/Seattle are here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/578327731SZBNQm. Future photos will be on webshots as well.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Utahns make me look like a couch potato
Just took the Maryland Bar Exam last Tuesday and Wednesday (tips on how I studied for the bar, without paying a zillion dollars for a course, are at http://rachelianlogic.blogspot.com/). I landed in Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon and went hiking with one of my really good friends from college, Katie, all weekend.
Friday evening we did some short hike up to a waterfall, then Saturday we hiked up Mt. Timpanogos, which is about 11,749 feet and the meadows were covered with wildflowers. It was also full of people who had biked up to the trailhead and then ran up the peak. And large mormon families. So really, what I did was totally do-able by 9 year olds. And I felt winded. I thought I was pretty hardcore, but apparently that is only by DC standards. I definitely felt the altitude near the top. It felt like my head was being compressed. I had to stop occasionaly and rest so I wouldn't get dizzy and slip down the scree.
Today we hiked up to Lake Blanche above Big Cottonwood canyon, which was very pretty and was only 6 miles roundtrip. Steep, but much easier. Then we went to Antelope Island, which is a large island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, and saw bison from a distance and floated in the lake. It's so salty that you float. It also smells really really bad, but it was worth it.
Tomorrow morning I am off to Seattle to see the family before going down to Bolivia. This is going to be the best bar trip ever.
A note about the title: I stole the title for this blog from Jack Keroauc. It was the original working title for On The Road. An awesome book, and you should read it.
Friday evening we did some short hike up to a waterfall, then Saturday we hiked up Mt. Timpanogos, which is about 11,749 feet and the meadows were covered with wildflowers. It was also full of people who had biked up to the trailhead and then ran up the peak. And large mormon families. So really, what I did was totally do-able by 9 year olds. And I felt winded. I thought I was pretty hardcore, but apparently that is only by DC standards. I definitely felt the altitude near the top. It felt like my head was being compressed. I had to stop occasionaly and rest so I wouldn't get dizzy and slip down the scree.
Today we hiked up to Lake Blanche above Big Cottonwood canyon, which was very pretty and was only 6 miles roundtrip. Steep, but much easier. Then we went to Antelope Island, which is a large island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake, and saw bison from a distance and floated in the lake. It's so salty that you float. It also smells really really bad, but it was worth it.
Tomorrow morning I am off to Seattle to see the family before going down to Bolivia. This is going to be the best bar trip ever.
A note about the title: I stole the title for this blog from Jack Keroauc. It was the original working title for On The Road. An awesome book, and you should read it.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)