Welcome to Hal and Allison’s Blog! January 31, 2009

Welcome! We’ve carved four months out of our busy lives to take a  journey to the southern end of of the Americas. The magical internet makes it possible to keep in touch and share adventures with our friends and family (and also lets us take our office along to keep up with work).

The Adventure Begins - Torres del Paine, Chile

About us: we’re a well-aged couple celebrating our 10^th year together by taking a journey of both outer and inner discovery. We know we are fortunate to have the health and the opportunity to travel for an extended period of time. Our intention is to be open to life and to  learn from both the hard and the magical lessons  that happen while on the road in new lands. We trust this will help us grow personally and expand the ways we can be of service.

We look forward to sharing some highlights with you. Our plans are pretty open. We know we’ll be in Patagonia (Chile and Argentina) for the first month and are heading north, but after that there’s a lot of room to “wing-it” and see what happens. We’d love to hear back from you while we wander!

(One Blog tip – our entries get posted in reverse chronological order, so if you haven’t been here for a while you might want to scroll down and work your way UP. Its kindof like us, going from south to north…)

La Paz… and the Journey Home June 3, 2009

When we tell people from the US that we were were traveling for 4 months, we’re often met with astonishment. They equate travel with vacation, and just can’t fathom how we could take a 4 month vacation. But the truth is that we seldom felt like we were lolly-gagging around. The constant stream of decisions about what places to go, where to eat and sleep, and trying to stay healthy through it all takes lots of energy. Adventure travel is demanding, and by the end we found ourselves looking forward to going home.

On the other hand, we met many seasoned travelers who were on the road for far longer than we were. Europeans, Israelis and Australians seem more accustomed to longer journeys than Americans. The travel bug did wear off on us, so part of us felt like we should just keep going. Peru and Ecuador beckoned, so it took a bit of willpower to pack our bags. Our return flight was from Lima, so we flew from La Paz and spent a day wandering Peru’s capital and enjoying it’s gourmet seafood.

Now that we’re home, we find ourselves smiling a lot as we wander around our sweet town of Paonia. It took 3 hours to buy groceries and 2 hours to go to the post office… lots of hugs and stories to share. Its been a rainy spring here so it is very green and the rivers are high. We’re really glad we got to have such an amazing journey, and, we’re really glad that we live in such a beautiful and friendly community to come home to.

For this final blog post, we wanted to thank everyone who took time to read some of our posts and encouraged us. It took a lot of time to write and upload blog posts while we traveled, but this blog is now our photo album/journal and is something we’ll have forever to help us remember. Also a big shout out to our house sitters David and Stella, our pal Thea who sorted mail and messages and made sure nothing fell into a crack, and our business partners who picked up the slack and kept in touch with us while we journeyed. Muchas Gracias!!!

It seems fitting to end with a few photos from the amazing city of La Paz, Bolivia. At over 13,000′ and set in a valley with steep hillsides and surrounded by huge mountains, the place really does take your breath away. We ended up spending quite a few days there since it was the hub for our Yungas trek and our flight to the jungle. At first it seemed like total chaos, but the raw spectacle of humanity that is right out on the streets became ever more fascinating.

La Paz has everything. Upscale offices and boutiques with and also mud hut neighborhoods clinging to the hillsides.

Traditional woman wearing the classic “bowler” hat and pleated skirt.

Most commerce takes place out in the streets. Here is a rainbow assortment of potatoes.

With inadequate public services, neighborhoods tend to be self organizing. This one strung up an effigy to warn thieves about their fate if they messed with anyone on this street.

La Paz has lots of great museums that highlight Bolivian culture. They really get into masks here as part of elaborate festivals involving devils and other demons.

The small Museum of Musical Instruments” was lots of fun. Check out the giant panpipes! Where would you get the lung power to blow these things at this altitude?

Tiwanaku, located near Lake Titicaca. This ancient civilization pre-dated the Inca's by centuries.

Many of the buses are old (and stinky), but the paint jobs show lots of pride.

At a small park this woman was lip syncing to a boom box and swooshing in her folkloric skirts while her husband filmed a home video.

The roving knife sharpener. He walks the streets and blows a whistle to let people know he is ready to sharpen with his bicycle-wheel-powered grinder.

Life on the streets: this old woman sits here everyday selling a few veggies. You don't see destitute people sleeping or intoxicated as in US cities - everyone seems busy doing something to get by.

As one photographer we met said, “this whole place is a picture”. We found Bolivia to be a most interesting mix of ancient culture and newly forming systems. The indigenous dress is everywhere. It is kind of a fashionable retro-style now: it was mildly shocking to see the evening news anchor woman in a bowler hat! The people are fiercely independent, insisting on running their own small market stall right next to other stalls that sell the exact same wares. But they are always helping each other out or making change for their neighbor, as needed. A kind of cooperative competition. Really, that is what is going on all over the world, but sometimes you just have to leave home to see it.

The Last Trek: Along the Inca Trail May 27, 2009

A few years ago we went to Peru and had the chance to trek in the high Andes. It was like going back in time, with indigenous llama herders and potato farmers living in stone huts. We wanted to do something similar in Bolivia, and after much research selected a trek in the remote Apolobamba range. But when the departure date arrived, we learned that we couldn’t travel to that area because local farmers were blockading the road (for good reason – their water was being polluted by upstream gold miners and they were frustrated by the non-action of the government).

Once again, the Lonely Planet guidebook helped us find an outfitter who matched our values La Paz On Foot (www.Lapazonfoot.com) is the brainchild of an American ecologist, Stephan Taranto. His trips offer outstanding scenery with a cultural twist. We went on an urban trek in La Paz with them and enjoyed the way they wove historic information together with current issues. He is also a passionate supporter of local foods, so we were treated to exotic fruits and meals that showcased a dozen different ways to use quinoa, the ancient grain that is now a gourmet food in the U.S.

Anyways, not deterred by our second major roadblock of the trip (floods in Patagonia caused the first), we asked Stephen to come up with a Plan B. The 5-day trek he suggested is called the Yunga Cruz. It follows an ancient section of trail built by the Inca’s that they used to bring coca from the steamy lowlands, up through the beautiful cloud forest, and into the high mountains. We cleverly chose to start in the mountains and follow it downhill.

Leaving La Paz toward massive Mt. Illimani (~21,000')

The road turned out to be one of those you may have heard about – Bolivia is infamous for having “the world’s most dangerous road”.  It was not much more than one lane wide and hugged the mountain. Our driver used the horn often while slowing down to go around blind curves. We stopped for lunch on a switch-back above small farms and villages in the valley bottoms

We passed a village that is beneath a mining operation. We wondered if the farmers downstream would also soon be mobilizing demonstrations and road closures in order to call attention to this crop killing water.

The village where the trek started had only recently been electrified. Their only communication was a small radio station that did not play music, but sent and received news and information from La Paz.

We wandered around the tiny village of Chunyavi. Only 20 families live there. Wandering its ancient paths in the thick fog felt mysterious and otherworldly. The village was very picturesque with an old church bell tower crumbling in the mist, elderly neighbors leaning close so they could hear each other, and stone and adobe huts slowly returning to the earth.

In the morning it was clear and while the mules were loaded, Hal took more beautiful pictures of the village.

Chunavi is perched in an awesome setting

Old crumbling church with thatched roof

Wrapped-up chica

“Town square” - no streets within the village

Stephen had to negotiate hard with the mule packers wife to convince her to let her husband and son accept our employment offer. Although he pays quite well, they weren’t motivated by money until they remembered that there would be a fiesta the following week and they could use some extra Bolivianos to throw a party.

Packing the mules, using only ropes and potato sacks, took lots of time.

Eventually our expedition headed off on the trek. The Inca trail was amazingly intact after 500 years.

Heading out of the village, hugging the mountain.

Allison ascends 500 year old Inca stairs

Near the village we ran into “traffic” on the trail. This gentleman said he was 68 years old and had been a vegetarian all of his life. Wow, what an advertisement for the meatless life. When we gave him an Obama button he gave us a big hug, saying that Obama “es mi sangre” (is my blood/kin).

A woman passed us on the way to work in her field. It was potato harvest time. After that we saw no one else for the entire trek.

Soon we were climbing (slowly) through the steep, green mountains, getting glimpses of ponds, peaks and villages through the ever shifting clouds. In the Yungus the weather comes from below, as the Amazon basin generates a constant flow of moisture that condenses as it hits the Andes.

Our first camp was in an old ruin. You can see that we are “going native” in the ponchos that we bought way back at the market in Tarabuco. The ponchos did a good job at keeping us warm while letting the air flow so we did not get too hot while making our way up to the pass.

The second day we visited a couple of lakes on a side hike. This bridge was the highlight of that day. It was big and perfect. Not a stone out of place after 500 plus years!

Each night was cloudy and sometimes the fog was so dense that it was a bit scary to go off to take a pee. But the mornings were always clear with heavy frost on everything.

Looking back at camp.

Soon, the clouds would start rising.

On the day 4 we dropped down to the start of the trees…

…and into the cloud forest where we saw many out of control house plants along with orchids and tree ferns. This area is called the Yungas. It is a unique ecology. New studies show that these steep, dripping mountain sides may be the most biodiverse places on earth. You couldn’t think of stepping off the trail without a machete.

Unfortunately, plastic trash can be an unsightly problem in a few spots near the end of the trail. Here, Stephen fixes a late lunch on one of the few flat and open spots along this section.

All of us gathered for a picture on the last morning. The father-and-son mule packers shyly allowed themselves to be included. Their knowledge and hard work were essential to the trip’s success. We learned that the dad had taken mule loads of coca over that same trail many years ago when the US was trying to wipe out coca farms They coaxed the mules across sections of trail that were very narrow, steep or simply non-existent (That is not good when we are talking about a side of a mountain.) More than once we thought that they might not be able to make it.

But of course we did all make it out from under the trees to more sunshine and flowers.

The trek ended near Chulumani, a coca growing region. The coca plants love well drained, poor soils. You can see the raised blocks of packed earth the farmer has prepared for new beds. The plants can live for 40 years if well cared for. We know from experience that coca is wonderful for dealing with the altitude. It is like strapping on an oxygen mask. Study after study show that chewing the leaves is not addictive, and it is quite nutritious. It is a real shame that this plant which has been an essential (and perhaps necessary) part of the Andean culture for some 5000 years has been turned into a highly addictive and destructive product that is abused in the US and other parts of the world.

Bolivia continues to try to change the image of coca. The sign says thanks for visiting this traditional coca growing region – and please come back soon!

The drive back to La Paz was even more hairy than the Inca trail had been!

A Gem in the Jungle May 15, 2009

From the high altitude of La Paz we took a flight on a 16-passenger Amazonia Airlines prop plane down some 14,000 feet to a grass runway in the jungle town of Rurrenabaque. Bolivia is nearly 2/3 temperate lowlands in the Amazon basin so we wanted to sample this part of the country. And since Evo Morales required us to get Yellow Fever vaccinations in  order to enter the country, we had what we needed to travel to the jungle.

We booked a stay at the Chalalan ecolodge, located in Maadidi National Park. We have to give kudos to the folks at Lonely Planet for helping us find this place. Their travel guides emphasize ecotourism, encouraging travelers to seek out companies that are owned by local communities. Chalalan (www.chalalan.com) was conceived of by elders in the remote Amazonian village of San Jose de Uchupiamonas.

Early on a misty, cool morning we boarded a 40′ long canoe for the 6-hour trip upriver to the lodge. We motored up the Beni River, then onto the smaller Tuichi River to the lodge. The guides sometimes had to use poles to lift us over the shallow spots.

We were treated to incredible guided hikes through primary forest where we spotted dozens of beautiful birds (our guide said that there are 967 species of birds in Maadidi park). The lodge is located on a pristine lake in the jungle, and our guide, Rigaberto, paddled us around in a dugout canoe to find 3 kinds of monkeys and Spotted Caimen.

Rigaberto and Allison in the dugout canoe

Prehistoric bird called the Huatson. Pronounced Whats-on.

We saw at least 50 birds on our early morning walk. Our guide would stop and listen, then move like a hunter to locate where the song was coming from. We were able to see what makes to classic sound of the jungle: the Musician Wren. We saw it. But no pictures.

There were many slower living things in the jungle that we could get pictures of, including the Walking Palm marching towards a bit more light in the shady jungle.

The brown "leg" is a new root that will actually move this palm tree in that direction!

This irridescent Scarab Beetle wouldn't hold still for the macro lens

Jungle Still Life

At night the staff played traditional music as we danced and partook in a coca leaf ceremony. It’s no wonder that National Geographic has featured Chalalan as one of its top picks for being immersed in the Amazon while making a valuable contribution to a traditional community.

The staff at Chalan bidding us "buen viaje". They are proud of their community-owned enterprise.

Tuckered out on the canoe ride back to town

We headed back down the river then out to the Pampas to see the vast, wet grasslands that cover so much of the Amazon basin. We passed small villages as we drove out a dusty road to another short boat ride leaving from a ferry crossing.

Ferry, loaded with horses, operated by guy pulling rope

In the trees, along the waterways we saw many birds and animals. The golden Squirrel Monkeys boldly boarded the boat and tried to take a grapefruit from one of the tourists. The guide quickly pulled the boat away from shore, the monkey screeched, jumped into the water and swam back to the overhanging trees.

We also saw a Capuchin monkey close enough to take a picture of. We did not get pictures of the producers of a classic jungle sound, that is the growl of the Howler. They can be heard early in the morning, then seen later lounging in the trees living up to their reputations as lazy monkeys.

This Capybara, the world’s largest rodent, dozed while we took it’s picture. And we almost got photos of the beautiful freshwater Pink River Dolphins.

We went swimming with the dolphins and waited for them to come check us out. It seems that they wanted to play. They grabbed our ankles like a dog nipping your arm when wanting to play. It was a little scary because you can’t see them in the muddy water and their teeth felt big! The guides threw out a rubber ball and waited. The dolphins pushed the ball around then took it in the snout and swam away with it. A moment later it popped up with a splash and a slap of a tail. They really are pink.

This beautiful sunset picture does not show how hot and steamy it is.

We head back up to altitude shooting through a gap in the Andes mountains and found ourselves looking up at Huani Postosi (19,974′). We learned that this mountain, although it is still snow covered, has now lost its ancient glacier due to global warming, which in turn has reduced the water supply for La Paz.

Solar Ovens and the Red Brick People May 6, 2009

One arrangement we made before our trip was to visit the regional office of E+CO (www.eandco.net), a nonprofit that specializes in clean and renewable energy in the developing world. Several clients of Natural Investments LLC have invested in their People + Planet Notes, so we were eager to see how this money has been allocated in Bolivia. They put us in touch with their South America Representative, Gonzalo Rico Calderon, and via email we sketched out a tour of three major projects.

From Gonzalo’s office we could actually see the first project. He resides in Cochabamba, a city well-known to anti-globalization activists for resisting efforts to privatize its water system. He pointed to a pipeline descending from the nearby mountains towards the city. This is part of the municipal water supply, but previously the water came down a gully, causing erosion and wasting lots of water. Gonzalo, an engineer by trade formerly ran the National Electric Company, saw that there was an opportunity to install a hydro electric plant using this water. Now there is a modern turbine that feeds power into the grid while the pipeline prevents erosion and loss of water.

The second project only involved a small amount of funding from E+CO but is directly changing the lives of many women. Sobre de Roca is a small company making solar ovens.

We had a great connection with Sobre de Roca’s founder Ruth Saavedra, a true solar enthusiast (and friend of Tara Miller, a good friend of ours in Paonia who has brought solar ovens to an island on Lake Titicaca).

Ruth took us to a neighborhood where she trained a coordinator to bring solar ovens to various homes and provide the support needed to assure that they get used. We made unannounced visits to over a dozen homes to see if they were being used. In all of them the women proudly showed us what they were cooking in the sun that day, chicken and rice, soup, andean potatoes and one was baking a cake! The ovens enable the families to save money by reducing their need for propane, and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Come to think of it, maybe we in the USA can learn something from Bolivia!

We only had a little time for fun in Cochabamba. Patricia (Gonzalo’s assistant) took us to a mansion that was built by a tin baron. It was another example of how the natural wealth of Bolivia has enriched mostly foreigners. To our surprise, we were required to wear face masks when we got to the house due to the Swine Flu.

For the third project we traveled to La Paz. Above the high altitude capital are clay cliffs that are being hacked away with hand tools. This is the home of the red brick people, a collection of about 30 individual micro-producers, all making hollowed out red bricks that are a choice material for construction.

The fuel to fire the bricks has traditionally been whatever they could find, including sawdust, used motor oil and various wood scraps. Black soot comes belching out, and the working conditions of the fire tenders require long hours and are dangerous. A few producers are still using this method.

E+CO helped all of the interested producers form an association that was able to bring in a natural gas line and build modern kilns. The result is a much cleaner and healthier means of production.

These three projects were very different from each other. Yet each one helped deploy cleaner technologies in a way that improves the environment and people’s daily lives. Gonzalo was an excellent host and we learned much about the challenges facing Bolivia and how hard it is to do business here. E+CO is fortunate to have someone on the ground with his many year’s of experience in both technical aspects and legal affairs. This kind of support is essential if well-intentioned investments are to translate into positive social, environmental and financial returns.

Moonscapes, Dinosaurs and Lollipop Girls May 4, 2009

Defying Gravity on the Salar!

We awoke very early to head out to the climax of out trip: sunrise on the great Salar de Uyuni. It is the world’s largest salt flat, covering more than 12,000 square kilometers. The idea was to drive out by starlight to get there before the dozens of other jeep loads arrived. It worked – we had the island to ourselves for a while.

The sunrise was dramatic and kept us busy snapping photos. Here’s a few:

The streak across the salt is the “road”

When the sun was up we walked down to the salt flat while our guides prepared coca tea and breakfast.

We stopped in the middle of the salar to check out the hexagonal patterns and take the requisite funny pictures (including the one that starts this post) that have become a local art form.

But its not all fun and games. Salt has been harvested for eons here and is still done by laborious hand tools. The Salar de Uyuni is also home to a large portion of the world’s lithium supply, which is now in demand because it is used in advanced batteries for electric cars and electronics. Resource battles will be taking place here to see who gains control of this vital material.

Next it was back on the bus for a 6-hour bathroomless ride. Of course the stark high landscapes was scenic, with many canyons and small villages. Bolivia recently had a hotly contested election to approve a new constitution. Campaign advertising here consists of painting messages on all sorts of surfaces. This entire house was made into a billboard.

We had a quick layover in Potosi, a city that was once as large as Paris due to its rich silver mine. Here’s a couple of passengers waiting for the bus.

Sucre is a beautiful city, a World Heritage city that has maintained its colonial architecture.

Sucre is a bit lower than the altiplano, so we spent a few days unwinding in its relatively balmy climate. On the 1^st of May everything shut down to celebrate Labor Day. This year is Bolivia’s bicentennial, so there were plenty of fiestas going on.

Giant prop rolled in for the fiesta on Sucre's plaza

There are some good museums here. These girl’s practiced their few words of English on us and showed us around one of them. They are wearing Obama buttons that we’ve been passing out as souvenirs. Everyone we’ve met and talked politics with has a positive view of Obama. It’s sure a lot nicer to be a traveling American now than it was during the Bush years.

Hot water is a luxury that many Bolivians can’t afford. Even some hotels don’t have hot water systems. But many offer what we’ve affectionately dubbed “Mr. Coffee showers”. This scary apparatus is an electrical shower head – turning on the cold water activates it and heats the water. Quite often the lights in the bathroom will dim when Mr. Coffee turns on. It’s a little scary but so far they seem to work fine, sending hot (or at least tepid) water down without any sparks.

For our next diversion we visited an active concrete plant where limestone is mined. Why? Because the most unusual dinosaur tracks were uncovered by the mine. Here’s a shot of a vertical cliff. Note the truck that is hauling material (the cliff with the tracks is protected and there is a visitor center now, so they are making good money on tourism). Also note the crack in the middle of the cliff and some dots to the left of them. This old mud flat was uplifted by tectonic action, then sat for millions of years waiting for the concrete company to find it.

Close up of the tracks

The makers of the tracks!

The highlight of Sucre actually wasn’t Sucre itself, it was a trip to the village of Tarabuco. Every Sunday there is a market that brings together indigenous people from the surrounding area.

This region has experienced an artisan revival and is gaining renown for its fine textiles. So at the market, tourists mingle with locals, some of whom ignore and carry on with their trading but others who peddle to us. Fortunately there are some certified, fair-trade stores where the quality is assured. These are associated with projects that have helped train new artisans.

The coca leaf vendor was busy!

As the day went on people gathered at the plaza and we saw some traditional music. There were “charango” players and women who sang with incredibly high voices. We called this group the lollipop girls:

We did not leave Tarabuco empty-handed; ponchos and weavings had to somehow fit into our stuffed bags.

Into Bolivia April 27, 2009

Bolivia isn’t the easiest country to get into for Americans these days. The US has made it difficult for foreign travellers, requiring fingerprints and charging hefty fees. So some countries are getting back at us. Chile charged us $125 to come in. But Bolivia, in addition to a similar fee, requires a list that includes proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination. We only planned to visit the highlands where there is no risk of getting that disease, but we got ourselves to a hospital in Santiago and rolled up our sleeves so we could qualify for our visa. Several other tasks kept us amused at the border, but finally we crossed the bridge into one of South America’s most colorful countries.

We taxied to a small train station in Villazon, past chaotic border markets with kids selling pirated cd’s and women in bowler hats selling llama sweaters. The old but comfortable train rambled and swayed (but stayed on the tracks!) for 3 hours to our destination: Tupiza.

One of Tupiza’s claims to fame is being near where Butch Cassidy and Sundance met their demise. The scenery could fool you into thinking you were in the American southwest, red rock slot canyons, cactus and adobe construction.

Tupza is small and not too touristy. We spent a couple of days eating Italian food (pizza and pasta dominated the restaurant scene), buying supplies (no supermarket, everything sold at small stalls, including coca leaves) and even going on a horseback ride. Allison’s horse, Pancho, turned out to have been a prize-winning jumper and leaped over a small ditch.

Tupiza is also a popular starting point for a jeep tour known as the Southwest Circuit. This corner of Bolivia is high and wild. Known as the altiplano, there are only a few remote settlements and various dirt tracks that lead to some of the world’s most incredible scenary. We carefullly researched our tour options and selected one known for its reliable vehicles:

Actually this flat didn’t slow us down much, and when we stopped for lunch it was great to watch the guides patch the tube so there would be a spare once again. The road just kept climbing, and the German tourist sharing our jeep kept checking his altimeter. We spent much of the tour at an elevation of up to 4,800 meters (around 15,000′)

Our first night we stayed at a family compound that had been converted into a hostel of sorts. The kids went out to scrape up some firewood. The hills had various llama corals built of stone. It was bone-chilling cold.

The Toyota Landcruiser rules out here – every tour company uses them.

Mario, our guide and driver, liked exploring and getting even further off the beaten trail.

What a Treat! A great hot spring to warm us up.

We spent a lot of time in the jeep, but there were plenty of stops. Lago Verde gets its color from minerals such as arsenic.

Lago Verde with our jeep-mates Paul and Victoria

Bubbling mud pots and geysers – Yellowstone in the altiplano

Three kinds of flamingos are found here. Yes, they often stand on one leg. It gets so cold that sometimes the lake freezes them into place at night and they have to wait for the sun to melt the ice before they can move. So forget any thoughts you may have had about flamingos being only a tropical bird.

Vicunas are a wild relative of the llama. Being in the camelid family must help them eke out an existance in this harsh landscape.

Geology steals the show out here. Vast lanscapes of painted hills, steaming volcanoes, and weird wind-sculped rock forms like this made the jeep tour fascinating in spite of the long days bouncing on roads and tracks that would have been impossible to naviagate on our own.

Our last night we stayed in a “salt hotel”, where the walls and even the furnishings were made of, you guessed it… salt! We were perched at the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat.

Another Taste of Argentina April 21, 2009

Back on the bus! We bid farewell to Chile and head up out of the Atacama Desert into the vast altiplano. The road is now paved but still very remote, with only a few llama shephards and stone huts along the way. After crossing into Argentina we dropped down an amazing series of switchbacks.

The city of Salta felt almost tropical after the desert and high planes. It was once a colonial capital of the country and had a great plaza and really good music venues.

After a couple of days and catching up with business we rented a car and headed south to explore the northwest corner of Argentina. The first day took us through a tobacco-growing region with crumbling classic buildings in small farming towns.

Then we found ourselves in red rock country that shimmered green after a good wet summer. It reminded us of home and since it is April if felt kind of natural to be exploring the canyons as we usually do at home this time of year.

We spent only one night in Cafayate (Not Calafate for those who remember that town in southern Argentina). We thought about staying in a campground but it was so ugly we did a 180 and checked into a new hotel with a roman-style pool.

Our brush with luxury

The hotel owner was ecstatic to find out we were from Colorado. He is friends with a couple from Snowmass who recently opened the best restaurant in town. We went right over for dinner and discovered that Charlie and April know several of our Paonia friends. They had a great menu and are almost ready to open their own brewery.

From there we were back on dirt roads (actually it is Route 40, the same highway we traveled on in Patagonia that runs the length of the country.) It took us through more amazing rock formations and through small pueblos, farmsteads with red chile drying in the sun and green valley bottoms.

Cachi was another desert town that had 20,000′ peaks looming over it. The little plaza was a typically relaxing place to hang out (and park our rental car).

From here it was time to make a beeline for the Bolivian border. We drove back up through Salta and by a quirk of navigation found ourselves on a back highway that took us through a section of cloud forest. Then it was time to climb back up to the altiplano. We stopped in Purmamarca, a small adobe village surrounded by painted rocks.

The next town, Tilcara, had real gauchos…. and wanna be’s…

Tilcara has pre-Inka ruins that became an Inka stronghold for holding off the Spaniards. (The woman in the photo is actually a statue, but she fit right in to the restored scene!)

On our final jaunt to the border we couldn’t resist taking one more side trip that we hoped would take us to a salt lake known to be great bird habitat. We found the lake but couldn’t get to the shore.

It was great anyways as we gave a local woman a ride to her homestead. Many of the homes looked similar to the ruins we just toured, except some now have solar panels.

We checked into a simple hotel in the border town of La Quiaca where we turned in the car and chased down a list of items for our Bolivian visa. More soon!

From One Extreme to Another April 14, 2009

We read someplace that calling Chile the land of extremes is an understatement. From our beginnings in the glacial and green rainforest we now find ourselves in the world’s driest desert – the Atacama.

In the middle of the desert is the tourist mecca of San Pedro de Atacama. All along our travels we had been encouraged to come here. It’s a tiny, adobe-built oasis, with a small tourist area packed with tourist agencies and gift shops. But it had an easy and friendly vibe. If one tourist office couldn’t help you they would send you to another one. It has much more of an indigenous population than other parts of Chile due to its proximity to Bolivia.

Although tours aren’t our style, here it made sense to join some that went to the most popular places. For example, sunset at the Valle de la Luna is a must-see attraction. So here’s a photo of us, carefully taken to avoid seeing the other 300 friends with us at the top of the dune.

Another tour took us to the Salar de Atacama, a large salt flat that is home to 3 species of flamingos.

But the highlight of our stay was a daylong trek that required us to hire a driver and private guide. Our friends Daniel and Kristin from Puerto Varas told us we should go to a village called Machuca and hike through a valley to another village called Rio Grande. We found out that this is NOT one of the standard tours. But we found an outfitter who was happy – for a price – to fulfill our wishes.

So early in the morning we headed out of San Pedro towards the mountains. But we have to mention one more thing… it actually rained the previous evening! This only happens a few days per year in San Pedro (there are parts of the Atacama where no rain has been recorded for decades.) Anyways, this made the morning ride exciting because when we arrived in Machuco there was fresh snow!

We hiked for about 6 hours, first going up through a grassy valley where llamas grazed.

At the top of a rise we met a couple of local women who pointed out a shortcut that our guide had not taken. This brought us to a trail used by the Inca’s, as this was near the southern extent of their empire, and a small ruin with pot shards.

We were surprised to find ourselves in a cactus-studded desert. The cardon cactus looks very similar to Arizona’s saguaros.

Then we dropped into a canyon with redrock walls and a stream that was swollen from the snowmelt.

With our Uruguayan guide, Fabian, at the end of a great day!

This was our last day in Chile, and it was quite a finale!

The Urban Adventure: Valparaiso and Santiago April 8, 2009

After the all night bus ride to Santiago we felt surprisingly human, having caught some winks on the comfortable stretch seats. But after 2 months of travel in rural locales, we wanted to ease into the urban portion of Chile. So we hopped onto another bus to the seaport city of Valparaiso. The bus left us off in the bad part of town, but we found a bustling fish and veggie market for lunch.

We stashed our luggage at the bus station and started scoping out the city for a place to setup basecamp. We passed a street rally where college professors were marching in support of public education. Eventually we found the artsy-historic district and moved into a lady’s B&B with all the frills, including a little balcony overlooking the bay.

Painted Garage Door Mural of Valparaiso

This city is steeped in history with its role as a major port for the new country of Chile. It has had a chaotic history, including a huge earthquake 100 years ago. Now it has kind of a grungy feel to it, but the flipside is that this city is an art student’s heaven. Graffiti is more than tolerated – its officially sanctioned.

The colorful twisting streets climb the hills with buildings stacked as if there were no building codes (there weren’t).

We enjoyed our hill as it was full of funky boutiques and good restaurants. We took a walking tour that brought us to one of Pablo Neruda’s houses, full of his eccentric art collection. The city reminded us of San Francisco – instead of cable cars it has a bunch of creaking ‘funiculars’ that help people get up and down the steep hills.

A mere 10 minute bus ride north of ‘Valpo’ is the ritzy town of Vina del Mar. The shoreline is crammed full of high rise condos. It’s quite a contrast!

Since this was likely to be our only stay on the ocean, we took a day to go further north to a sleepy fishing village called Horcon. We relished one last fresh seafood meal – Chile’s coastal cuisine has treated us well! Both fish and ‘mariscos’ (shellfish) are delicious, with many delicacies such as razor clams, king crab and a kind of abaolone to taste.

In the meantime, we made contact with Ricardo Paredes in Santiago. We met Ricardo and his Brazilian girlfriend Silvinha way back in early February. We shared a room with them at a ‘refugio’ in Torres del Paine park. Even though we only met briefly we felt a great connection. So great, in fact, that Ricardo invited us to stay in his apartment in Santiago. Of course we were thrilled to take him up on his offer – what better way to see a major city than to stay with a friend!

Ricardo and Allison: The self-timer surprised us!

Ricardo is an economics professor so he and Hal had plenty to chat about. We enjoyed a couple of evenings together enjoying fine Chilean wine. During the day we checked out the capital city, with its bustling but friendly vibe. The warm climate makes it easy for life to happen out on the streets, in the plazas, parks and taxi stands.

With our trip more than halfway over, we decided to keep moving and left Santiago the way we arrived, on a mega-bus. This one actually had full sleeper seats that allowed you to stretch out. We sure appreciated this on the 24 hour, 1300+ kilometer trip to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

Road Trip II: Lakes, Volcanos (and wild cards) April 1, 2009

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Back in Chili and into the lush, green forests. We wandered all the back roads approaching Osorno Volcano. It is picture-perfect, sometimes called the Mt. Fuji of Chile, dominating the landscape. We camped on the lake at the base of it and saw the best sunset of the trip.

We hiked with most slippery trail of the trip in the Alerce Park. The trail consisted of wooden planks and many stairs in a deep, wet forest. At times it was like walking on soap. The ancient Alerce tree are similar to the Giant Sequoia in looks, size and the type of wood resistant to rot and fire. There are a few that are 4,000 years old. This one is 2,500 years old. The old ones are extremely rare. Young ones are planted regularly as landscape trees now.

Horse carts are still regulary seen on the roads here. Oxen as well. It is pretty amazing what all shares the narrow roads. But we have felt very safe driving on the roads here. As pedestrians we (Allison) is still a little hesitant to step out in traffic to cross the street.

In Puerto Varas we stayed in the same group of cabins where our friends from Paonia, Kristen and Daniel, are now living. It was fantastic to hang out with them and be entertained by Forest, the 2 year old, and the big kids, Sophie and Antonio.

But then, the wild card came into play. Hal came down with a gnarly ear infection. Ouch! We had packed up from Puerto Varas to check out the island of Chiloe, but we came back the same day to be near friends and medical services. Daniel and Kristin got us an appointment with a specialist, and we had to just hang out a few days while the antibiotics went to work.

When the pain was gone (but Hal’s hearing was under water), Allison drove us up to our next stop, Pucon. This is an outdoor adventure town with the finest of the Lake Districts features – another beautiful lake and a smoking volcano, Villarica.

In Pucon, we stayed in an amazing house that belongs to a friend of a friend. It is called “Gracias a la Vida”, and indeed we were very grateful for the chance to be there while Hal recouperated. It was loving built by a couple from Washington who fell in love with this place. Here’s a link to the house: http://www.vrbo.com/140763 It also gave us a lot of ideas for the house we plan to build on our land in Paonia someday….

Villarica volacano from jacuzzi-on-roof-deck

Hal was very frustrated because there are 15+ hotsprings in the area, but he couldn’t get his ear wet! There’s lots of rafting, biking and horseback riding to do, but we missed most of it. Finally at the end of our stay, we got out to a nearby national park, Parque Huerquehue.

This one protects another of Chile’s amazing trees, the Araucaria, or monkey-puzzle tree. It is an ancient species that evolved with the dinosaurs – it grows tall with very sharp spiny things that would not look appetizing to a big lizard. It also produces huge pine nuts that were used (and still are) by the indigenous Mapuche.

Now, it is April Fools day. This is when we must return our very expensive but wonderful truck that we got from Hertz way back in Coyhaique. So we corraled all of our stuff back into our packs and drove to the city of Temuco, where we caught a luxury overnight bus to Santiago.