Tierra sagrada

Hello hello from Andahuaylas, Peru!

There is so much to tell you all from the last time I wrote, SO much! I will begin with where I left off :) But first, and I know this is a little late, I hope you all had a wonderful, delicious, family and love filled thanksgiving!

Here I go...

Rurrenabaque, Bolivia:
So when we left Coroico, the plan was to take a small bus to a teeny town and from there catch a ride to Rurrenabaque, which we did. We hopped on the bus after arguing our way into a cheaper price bc there were no seats and were off to experience the worst bus ride of our lives. The road that would carry us throughout this 15 hour journey I later learned is called the death road. Every week at least 2 busses or cars go off the side. It was literally the worst bus ride of my LIFE. 15 hours through beautiful, humid, banana and papaya filled mountains but on a road filled with falling rocks, unstable grounding, 800 meter drops to rivers or canyons below, trucks trying to pass busses trying to pass taxis on the one lane road. Several times Javier and I would jump from our seats and get to the closest window while the rest of the bus was sound asleep. But! We made it out alive and got to the amazon in one piece at 5 am, found the hostal, switched on the fan and passed out for a little while. For those of you not familiar with weather in the amazon, it was about 115 degrees and 100% humidity, and there are about 100 Mosquitos for every person.  That first day we just hung around town, I looked into flights back to la Paz, we ate some local fish and I introduced Javier to cuñapes which are bread in the shape of a bracelet made with yucca flour and cheese! Yum! He became a quick addict! The next day we set out on a tour of the pampas. We were weary about doing a tour, spending the money, feeling extremely touristy and running the risk of being disappointed but we went for it anyway. How many times would we be in the Bolivian amazon? After that road, probably never again. So on our 3 day tour we saw and heard howler monkeys, pink river dolphins, alligators, caymans, blue and red parrots, this weird animal that is apparently the largest rodent, snakes, beautiful birds and sunsets galore! In the end we felt a little bit like we payed too much but enjoyed it very much! Also on the tour we had to cross a swamp with big rain boots on and mine kept getting stuck in gunk, became filled with biting bus and water and the guide had to come out to the middle of the swamp and rescue me bc one of my boots fell off. Oy vey. Oh! And I also helped rescue some fishes that were stuck in mud and couldnt get back to the swamps bc the huge rains hadn't come yet to carry them back. Anyway, we got back to rurrenabaque, went back to the hostal and this HUGE rainstorm hit. It was like someone was pouring buckets of rain on the town for hours and hours. They sky was lit up and in the morning the entire town had about 6-7 inches of water in the streets. Something I haven't mentioned yet, the poverty in rurrenabaque was on a whole other level than what I had previously witnessed in Bolivia. There were groups of children who would roam the streets together asking for money, covered in dirt, shoeless, bathing with water in the streets. That is something that hit me more as a tourist in Bolivia than a study abroad student there. The varying and amazingly grousome types of poverty Bolivians live. The weekend was spent laying around the hostal eating water crackers and bananas bc we bit got sick and avoiding the increible heat and humidity. Rurrenabaque is also tiny so by the 4th day we had seen everything more than twice. On Monday I prepared for my flight which after 6 hours of waiting got delayed for Tuesday and Javier set off on his own journey up further into the amazon for a panamazonic forum. It took him 3 days to get there and he had to push the bus with water up to his knees. Les just say I'm glad I opted out of the original plan. I got back to La Paz finally, stayed with my host family again and got counted in the Bolivian census! There was a 24 hour curfew and nobody could leave their house bc of the census. We stocked up on food and watched movies all day! It was really bizarre how everyone followed the govt order and for the most part didn't leave their houses. Military state? The next day I said goodbye to Bolivia for a little while and headed off to country #4 of my journey...Peru!

Cusco, Peru: I got to cusco at around 4 am, not realllly the safest time to get to a bus terminal but luckily I made friends with a Colombian couple and an Italian woman on the bus and we waited together in the terminal for the sun to rise, took a taxi to the main plaza ( plaza de armas) and all found a hostal together! I shared a room with the 60 year old Italian woman for two night, teehee. Cusco is beautiful but overwhelmingly touristy. As you walk down the streets people constantly offer you massages, tours, places to eat, places to stay, chachkies, children offer you finger puppets, argentines and Chileans trying t make some money traveling offer you sweet treats. It's overwhelming! But cusco is still a cool place. My first two days there I just explored around, finding cheap eats, getting my feel of the place and figuring out how to avoid tourist prices and places which was quite difficult but possible. Then I took a tour of the sacred valley: pisaq, chinchero, ollantaytambo and moray. These sites are stunning! Just stunning! They are set in the sacred valley (here is what wiki says:The Sacred Valley of the Incas or Urubamba Valley is a valley in the Andes of Peru, close to the Inca capital of Cusco and below the ancient sacred city of Machu Picchu. according to recent researches it encompasses the heartland of the Inca Empire.^[1]The valley is generally understood to include everything between Calca and Lamay, Písac, and Ollantaytambo, it has been formed by the Urubamba River, also known as Vilcanota River or Wilcamayu. The latter, in Quechua (the still spoken lingua franca of the Inca Empire), means the Sacred river. It is fed by numerous rivers which descend through adjoining valleys and gorges, and contains numerous archaeological remains and villages. The valley was appreciated by the Incas due to its special geographical and climatic qualities. It was one of the empire's main points for the extraction of natural wealth, and one of the most important areas for maize production in Peru northwards from Pisac.) on my tour I tried some freshly boiled hominy with a cilantro salsa and slice of cheese, an empanada with banana cinnamon cheese and raisin! After my stay and tour in cusco it was time t set out on my adventure to Macchu Pichu...I took an awful 5 hour mini van ride to a town called Santa Maria through very windy roads, and being a beitcher with a sensitive stomach made the driver stop several times so I could attempt to throw up. It was very unpleasant but i am alive to tell the tale. Phew! Upon arriving in Santa Maria I took a small car to the next town of Santa Teresa where I found my lodging for the night, ate some delicious soup and vegetable tortilla and set off to soak in the natural thermal baths that are the secret of Santa Teresa. They were delicious! I went at night, when everyone goes dont worry, and soaked for about 2 hours, never wanting to leave. After I turned into a raisin and a half I decided it was time to head back to town and prepare for my trek the next day. In the morning I woke up, gathered my things and headed to the plaza to find a taxi that would take me to the hydroelectric damn, from there I would walk two hours along the train tracks until finally reaching the town of Aguas calientes where Macchu Pichu sits. I met a couple from Spain and we walked the walk together. Before coming to Peru I had no idea that Macchu Pichu has a very tropical climate! Well, it does! Prepare your bug repellant, rain jacket, lots of water, sunscreen. The walk along the train tracks was spectacular and so serene and beautiful and calm. Once you get to Aguas calientes tourism to the max hits you. I found a cheap hotel, measles my way into an even cheaper price(5.65) a night for a private room, private bathroom And kitchen to cook in. The view from the hotel was Amazing! I had a view of the huge rushing river that separates the town from the mountain and the mountain itself. For the rest of the afternoon I just sat listening to the river, ate some dinner, took a long shower and hit the sack early in preparation for my 3 am wake up. Javier instructed me to be at the gate to enter the park of Macchu Pichu by 415 am because there would be a huge line to get in. So there I was, one of 5 people awake in the entire town walking towards the gate at 410 in the morning, turns out I was the first person there! Javier came during high season when Chileans and argentines apparently sleep on the floor outside the gate in order to be first t get in. I was not there in high season. The guard tld me that I am insane! Anyway, I was the first t enter the park, but last to get up to the very top to enter the ruins. The climb up Macchu Pichu is reeeeeeediculously hard. You literally walk up steep steps for 1.5 hours to get t the top. It's beautiful once you get there though. The hype is a little overwhelming and I felt like the magic and sacredidity of the place gets lost with all the tourism that surrounds it but I guess that comes with the territory. I hiked down the mountain 6 hours later, ran into some argentine friends, and was headed back to Cuzco on the train. The next 2 days I spent lounging around Cuzco trying to catch up on sleep and preparing for the next leg of my journey through the Peruvian central highlands. That's where I am now! 

I will write you in a few days from Lima but for now, the scenery is unreal and today I had fresh trout alongside a lagoon surrounded by lush, green, powerful, spiritual mountains. Tomorrow I leave on a 10 hour bus at 630 am....

Love to everyone!!

Adge 

Miel

Bugs bugs bugs! Hello from Coroico, Bolivia! 

There is a bug that looks like a hairball with 20 legs and antenna staring at me from across the room that I am staying in. The room costs 10 bolivianos a night which is approx $1.43. That would explain why the beds don't have sheets and the window has no glass. But I am in such a beautiful place, there is a great kitchen, and it's all part of the adventure! I'll tell you more about Coroico later, but for now here are other updates...

Cochabamba, Bolivia: when I lived in Bolivia a few years ago I spent a month living and doing research in Cochabamba. It's the city of eternal sunshine ( I think) and is just wonderful! It's hot, dry, full of fruit and veggies, tons of delicious food, a HUGE market where you can literally find anything you are looking for. I arrived at 6 am and decided to stay in the bus terminal for a little bit, waiting for the city to wake up, and then set off to find my hostal. I knew where I was going to stay before I got here, a cute little hostal next door to/ part of a delicious vegetarian hare Krishna restaurant. What could be better? I didn't even have to walk more than 10 feet to eat lunch. My first day I spent sleeping and wandering around the city and in the afternoon I went to visit the community where I did my research. The community is called 1 of may and the women who I worked with there are incredible; the everyday struggles that they have to deal with amaze me and the fact that they are always full of smiles amazes me even more. I got to Dona Modestas house and called her name, she came to the door and immediately we both teared up. She couldn't believe that after 2 years I had come back to visit her and honestly I couldn't believe it either. We chatted and she told me that the community still only received water once a week and that all of the organizations and groups she was part of before she had to drop out of because her two youngest children were now in school and she was too busy with them to fully participate in the community. I played with the kids and made a date to come back and learn to cook a traditional plate with her! The next day I found a woman on couch surfing from los Angeles and decided to go and stay with her; it turned out that she was living in an amazing house with a broccoli farm, onions, tons of herbs, lemons trees, lettuce and fennel but the house was in the middle of nowhere and the woman turned out to be a little crazy and told me that if there was me country in the world she wished she couldn't eliminate it would be Bolivia. I stayed there 2 nights and left. On Monday Javier and I went to Dona Modestas house to cook hominy, potatoes, fava beans and a special salad that is particular to Cochabamba called Kayu (tomato, special cheese from Cochabamba called quesillo, and herb called quilquiña and onion). I was so full I couldn't move for about 30 minutes! We spent the afternoon talking with her, playing with the neighborhood kids and I visited with the women I had worked with 2 years before. When I left both Dona Modesta and I cried and she told me that when I come back to live in Bolivia she will come and work in my house. She's truly such an inspiring woman and I carry her spirit with me throughout my journey in South America. Hopefully I will be back soon to see her!

 

La Paz, Bolivia: La Paz! La Paz! La Paz! This city is so hectic and disorganized it's incredible! Driving down from El Alto, the city above La Paz you can see everything; the city of la Paz sits in a valley, a bowl, with houses climbing up every mountainside possible. The houses here aren't painted in bright colors as the typical vision of Latin America suggests, the houses are the color of adobe mostly, made with bricks. When you see La Paz from above it's, understandably, so Andean! Which is strange because it's in the middle of the Andes mountains! Anyway, I spent my first few days in la Paz visiting all my old spots, eating lots of yummy food, seeing the city through new eyes because I was with Javier and he had never been to La Paz, visiting with my host sister, mom and dad and enjoying the incredible rain storms. The rain this year is about 2 months early; usually there are tremendous thunder storms in January and February but this year they started in November. Climate change anyone? One night after coming back from copacabana, which I will talk about later, I was at my host families apartment and it started downpouring. And when I say down pouring I mean raining and lightening and thundering like I have never witnessed in my life. The apartment building of 17 floors was trembling, the lightening bolts lit up the entire sky and the separation between the sidewalk and the street was no longer visible. From the window of their apartment we could see the storm moving in on the city from el alto, at one point el alto was no longer visible, covered in clouds and rain. After about an hour of rain, el alto and la Paz were crisp and clear! It was spectacular! I spent my time in my beloved city of La Paz wandering the streets, visiting with my host family and their family, eating all my favorite foods and catching up on my sleep. The city is really alive and politically active, people here fight for decolonization daily; you can feel the energy.

    

Copacabana/ Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia:  We left for Copacabana and Isla del Sol ( lake Titicaca) on all saints day which in retrospect was a very bad idea. We were told to get to the cemetery early, that where the busses leave from, in order to assure that our driver hadnt been drinking in celebration and then decided to drive us to lake Titicaca.  First we went to the bus terminal bc we were told a bus leaves at 830 am, we got there at 840 and it had already left. I think this is the only time a bus has been on time in Bolivia, the only time. So from there we headed to the cemetery where there was total chaos taking place bc of all saints day. The first bus we found was charging 27 Bs which comes out to about $3.85 but we held out in hopes of finding something cheaper bc Javier and I are both extremely cheap people, I have an excuse, I'm Jewish, I'm not sure what his is. After about 4 hours of waiting we got on a bus and were off to the highest lake in the world! To get to copacabana you have to get off your bus, take a short boat right across a tiny sector of the lake and then get back on on the other side. The lake is tremendous, glistening, so sacred, energetic and ancient. It's filled with tiny little islands, most of which are un inhabited and a few which have populations like Isla del Sol or Sun Island where I went. More on that in a bit! We found a lovely little hostal for 2 dollars a night and decided to call it our home for the night before heading out in search of our fresh trout dinner! So delicious! We were hoping to find pizza with trout on top but were unlucky and decided we would come back and open up a pizzeria. The next day we headed out for Isla del Sol on a 2 hour boat ride through the lake. We got off the boat and headed off up mountainsides to find a place to camp for the night; the trekking was really strenuous, especially with a 17 kilo backpack at the altitude we were at. After walking for about 2 hours we came upon a cemetery where celebrations for all saints day were taking place. There was special bread called t'anta wawa, fruit everywhere, a group of men was playing traditional music and couples were dancing traditional dances. I felt like I was in a trance or dream for a little bit with the sun beginning to set, the music going, the couples dancing, being in the middle of nowhere on an island in lake Titicaca. It was magical! After about an hour we decided to head out and find out place to sleep for the night which wound up being next to a church. I was in no mood to camp and wound up being in a bad mood and sick for the next two days. What can I say? Typical Adrienne! The rest of the trip was beautiful and only physically being there can describe the incredible energy and beauty of lake Titicaca. We headed  back to copacabana, ate some more trout, and we're off again to la paz! 

Coroico, Bolivia: I spent a few days in la Paz with my host family while Javier went to a town called sorata and then we met up again in coroico, a town located in the yungas of Bolivia. The yungas are jungles before the amazon begins. Coroico sits nestled between gigantic green tropical mountains, it's pretty breathtaking. The town itself is nothing special physically but is filled with bananas, local honey which is SO good, local coffee which is all exported and hard to come by there, raw chocolate and Mosquitos! We stayed at a hostal about 30 minutes walking outside of town with some argentine, Colombian, and Canadian artisans and had a wonderful time cooking lentil stews, home made whole wheat- flaxseed- oatmeal- amaranth bread, pizza, beet salads, plantains with cheese and tomatoes, lots of Yerba mate, and OF COURSE oatmeal banana fritters! In coroico we went on a long walk in the blistering sun to find some waterfalls which turned about t be kind of a joke and not worth the 2.5 hours walking, but the scenery on the way, wow! That was worth every minute. Huge green mountains filled with banana trees, mango trees, orange trees, papaya trees, unknown fruit, tiny pueblos along the way, butterflies, bigs doin' their thing, it was great. I was in 7 th heaven! The next day we took a shared taxi down to a river called vaganes and floated around for a little while trying to avoid the swarms of mosquitos. It was the perfect way to spend the day, followed by the homemade bread and pizza! The next day we were off to Rurrenabaque, THE AMAZON! 

That's where I am right now, I will write you from cusco in a few days! I love you all and hope that you are having/ had/ are going to have a delicious wonderful healthy thanksgiving! 

Besos y abrazos, 

Adge

Food, hitchhiking, food!

Where did I leave off? Oh right! So we got to La Higuera, met Guadalupe, a campesina in charge of the museum there. She told us we could pitch our tent in the basketball/soccer court of the school and sleep for free on th condition that we come to her house in he afternoon to have fresh bread and tea! Of course we said yes! So we pitched our tent, visited the museum which was one tiny room with maps of Che's journey, quotes, historical facts and memorabilia leftover from people all of the world. In the afternoon we cooked lunch on Javier's camping stove, relaxed and he played soccer with guys from the community and the Cuban doctor. Later we went to Guadalupe's house where her husband Ismael was taking bread and cheese empanadas out of their adobe oven! The smell was incredible and we sat there talking about how to make the oven, what kind of things you can cook in it and Ismael started to tell us about his experience as young boy living in la Higuera when everything happened with Che! Oral histories! We passed the night drinking hot chocolate, eating bread and listening to the life stories of Ismael and Guadalupe. They have 5 children, 2 who live in brazil now, 2 who live in a city in Bolivia called Santa Cruz, and one who lives in Valle grande. They are all studying but it's difficult for Guadalupe to have all of her children far away from her with no money to go and visit them. They told us about all the vegetables and fruit they have growing and that the wheat used for the bread they grew themselves! It was a night I will remember for the rest of my life. 

The next day we hiked down and back up a mountain in search of the spot where che as captured. It was hidden between two fig trees and so surreal and peaceful and eerie feeling. I climbed a fig tree, we relaxed on the rock for a bit and then headed back up the mountain in 110 degree weather. Oh, down by the fig trees this campesino came over and told us he had a really important artifact to show us but we had to pay a few pesos. Javier have him a few and th guy pulled out a small gun, claiming that it was Che Guevaras gun and that he found it in the trash. Hm. Anyway, we headed back up the mountain to realize we had taken way longer than expected, missed lunch at Guadalupe's and missed an chance of leaving la Higuera that day. So we cooked lunch with some argentines who had just arrived to camp as well, relaxed and spent the night at Guadalupe's sleeping in our tent next to her chicken hen! 

In the morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to start walking until someone gave us a ride. As we stopped to drink Yerba mate, a truck filled wit garbanzo beans passed us. I stuck my thumb out and off we went! Little did we know our journey in this truck would last 20 hours, through mountainous terrain, valleys filled with huge rivers and donkeys, tropical fields filled with papaya and mango trees and dessert. We bought mangos from a woman who was walking alongside the road with her son and ate them throughout the journey. They were incredible! Incredible! Throughout our journey with Juan, the truck driver, we popped 4 tires, ran out of gas, cooled down in a small stream, bought cheese empanadas, picked up a baby, mom, dad and another little boy for the journey and almost got caught in a rain storm. In total I slept 2 hours and was a zombie when we finally arrived in Sucre the next morning. But it was all worth it!! 

We thought we had a place to stay in sucre bc this woman who have us a ride told us to call her upon our return and we could stay with her! Well, we passed the whole day with this idea in our head. In the afternoon we called her bc she was just getting back from a trip, she picked us up, was completely flustered showed us her house, told us it seemed to hectic for us to stay there, fed us ice cream, handed us 10 dollars and dropped us off back where she picked us up. I was almost in tears at that point. We collected our backpacks from the tourist office, found a hostal and passed out for 12 hours! Ooooooo ooo! I forgot to tell you about the juice we drank in the market. You can make your own and my concoction was banana, passion fruit, oatmeal and a

Brazil nut all blended together with water for under a dollar! OMG! 

Now I am in Cochabamba, a city 12 hours from Sucre. It's in a valley and I love it. I will write again soon!

Again, sorry my emails have gotten so long. Please let me know if I'm writing too much :) 

Xoxo, 

Adge

Bolivia!

Hello hello from Cochabamba, Bolivia! Gastronomy capital of Bolivia. Last time I wrote ( quite a while ago ) I was departing for Iruya and San Isidro, Argentina. The journey was totally fine and I didn't throw up. The magic of coca leaves! Here are some updates on the places I have been since then :) 

Iruya and San Isidro, Argentina : Iruya is a small pueblo in northern Argentina. The population is about 1500 and the town sits nestled in the mountains. I traveled there with a French woman ( cathleen) and the same German woman from before ( ute). We stayed at a hospedaje, which basically means that a family turns one or two of their bedrooms into a room where tourists stay when they come. It was nice! For 4 days though all I ate was tomatoes, yogurt, bread, eggs and cheese. Oh! And the occasional apple. Not much produce comes to Iruya bc it's so isolated. The mountains surrounding the town though are just breathtaking and huge and ancient! We walked for 2 hours to the next town of San Isidro which must have around 400 people. On the way there we met a little girl named Laura who told us that she has a hospedaje at her house so we decided to stay with her. During our walk Laura asked me questions like " in your city do people have pets like horses and donkeys? " " do you want to be a model? " and whether my city was the same size as Salta...I told her it was about 15 times the size and that no people did not have those pets and no I did not want to be a model. That night for dinner we had amazing homemade cheese empanadas, played with her cat Mitch and curled int bed early bc of the cold. The clouds rolled in and covered the mountains and the night was spectacular! We headed back to Iruya the next day and waited for the next leg of our journey to the Bolivian border. 

Border crossing/ Villazon, Argentina/ Bolivia: cathleen and I left Iruya at 6 am and met a woman from Denmark who we decided to travel with while crossing the border. We arrived at the order, you literally walk 8 blocks from the bus terminal in la quiaca, Argentina and you are at the Bolivian border. We waited in line for about an hour and a half to cross, meeting some Brazilian guys who now live in chile and enjoying the absurdity of this border. People were lined up with wheelbarrows full of anything from diapers to deodorant to rice to oil waiting to cross the border. The border control tried to charge me 135 dollars for a visa that I already have and tried to charge the woman from Denmark 300 dollars for a visa she didn't need to get into the country! But we made it out alive and spent the night at a hotel together drinking mate and eating apples. In the morning Cathleen and I headed out for Tarija, Bolivia and the woman from Denmark headed back to argentina.

                               

Tarija, Bolivia: this is supposedly bolivias wine country. I liked the city, it has a really pleasant climate, nice people, great food and relaxed vibe. Cathleen and I just wandered the streets of the small city, spending lots of the time in the plaza observing. For lunch I ate a typical plate in the central market: 2 fried eggs, peas cooked with potatoes and some kind of seasoning and rice. Delicious! There's not much to report from Tarija besides that is nice, pleasant, relaxed and definitely a booming city with lots of growth.

 

Sucre, Bolivia: let the adventures begin! Cathleen and I got to sucre at about 6 am after a horrid horrid night of sleep on an awfully uncomfortable bus. For those of you who don't know, Adrienne with very little sleep is a monster you don't want to come near. We didn't book a hostal before getting to sucre so we walked around for about 35 minutes looking for a place to stay and finally found a really nice hostal for only 5.50 a night with breakfast, wifi, a kitchen and terrace. What a deal! Sucre is beautiful! Is a unesco heritage site and here it what wikipedia has to say about it  The first "Grito Libertario" (Shout for Freedom) in any Western Hemisphere Spanish colony is said to have taken place in Sucre in 1809. Ironically, Bolivia was the last territory to gain its independence in 1825. In 1991, Sucre became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The city attracts thousands of tourists every year due to its well-preserved downtown with buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. The city is beautiful! I took way too many picture of white buildings. When I was traveling in chile I met a chilean guy who told me he would be traveling through Bolivia around the same time that I would be there and s we kept in touch through facebook and met up in sucre! The next morning we would depart on one of the most amazing journeys of my life thus far.

Mataral, Valle Grande, La Higuera, Bolivia: Javier ( Chilean friend ) and I set out in the morning to  buy me a wool blanket, fruit, cheese and bread for our big camping adventure! We decided to follow the route of Che Guevara for a few days and visit the town where he was captured and killed. Our first buy journey was supposed to be 5 hours according to the bus company but in reality took 11 hours. At one point we stopped in a tiny tiny pueblo on the side of the road while campesinos loaded goats into the bottom of the bus. An 80 year old woman peed in front of the bus and then got on! Oy vey! We arrived at the part of the road where there is a fork to go to different cities at 3 am and the bus driver told us the city we wanted to get to was 45 km " that way". Thank god I was with Javier and he has a Tent! We walked for about 3 km and set up our tent in a safe spot on the side of the road. In the morning we were woken up by pigs snorting and cows being herded down the road by a man on his motorcycle. Our next move was to get to Valle grande, the town where Che's tomb is. We walked until someone gave us a ride, the sun beating down and the wind whipping my hair we drove through the beautiful mountains until we arrived in Valle grande. Because we didn't want to walk around all day with our backpacks we asked a woman at a tiny shop if she could watch them for us and she said of course! So we visited Che's tomb, wandered around, saw tons of HUGE birds, HUGE, and made our way back to the small store. The woman and her husband it turns out had lived in chile for a little while and were obsessed with Javier because he's chilean. So of cooouurrse they invited us to spend the afternoon drinking beer with them until it became too late for us to try and travel to the next town. They offered us dinner and a bed to sleep in for the night!!! Of course we said yes to both! The next day we woke up early, had breakfast with the family ( bread made with corn flour and topped with cheese, Yerba mate and oranges) and headed off to the next leg of our journey. We got a ride to la Higuera with two different people, driving through incredible scenery and traveling the path of Che!

My fingers hurt from typing and it is late here so I will write more either tomorrow or the next day! There is so much more to tell! I'm sorry my emails keep getting longer and longer. I hope you all are doing well and smiling every day!

Xoxo, 

Adge 

Post número dos

Hola todos y todas! 

I am writing to you now from southern Bolivia! In the past few weeks this is what I have been up to and a brief summary of the places that the wind has taken me to...

Antofagasta, Chile: I spent 2 weeks in Antofagasta with some friends and it was great! The city itself doesn't have much to do but the beach is great! Most days I woke up, did some yoga, ate breakfast, read, met my friend at the beach to watch him and his buddies surf, had some mate and walked back home to relax some more before lunch. Somedays there was diving for octopus, sea urchin and abalone instead of surfing. Or me tanning on the beach. The rest of the day was spent watching soap operas, the sunset, visiting a surfboard workshop and walking around the city. I ate fried shrimp and cheese empanadas, abalone and delicious fruit! Sadly my stay there came to an end and I left with my eyes filled with tears. Maybe I'll be back some day, who knows? But for now off to the next adventure! 

 

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile: This is a small town that literally exists only for tourism which you can imagine is frustrating, expensive and annoying. Everything, I mean everything, is more expensive here from eggs to water to bus trips! But the surrounding area is breathtakingly beautiful, filled with salt flats, geysers, 8 volcanoes, desert, amazing wildlife and incredible weather! I decided to splurge and go on a tour of the geysers. They picked me up at 430 in the morning in order to get to the geysers for sunrise. I was not warned the night before however that the geysers are at 4300meters above sea level and at pasta with lentils at around 845 pm. Basically the tour consisted of everyone else feeling perfectly fine while I threw up lentils, slept, and watched from the bus. I am TOO sensitive to altitude! Oy vey! I pulled it together for about 30 minutes however and went into one of the geysers. It was pretttyyy cool! On the drive back we saw vicuñas which are a cousin of llama, viscotcha ( imagine a bunny mixed with a squirrel) and wild donkeys! The rest of the day I chilled out at the hostal, wandered through the plaza and bought my bus ticket to Argentina.

 

 

Salta, Argentina: Upon arriving at the Chilean- Argentine border I remember that I had a huge bag of dried figs in my backpack...you can't cross the border with those Adrienne! So there I was eating my banana, handing out dried figs to everyone on my bus bc I had to get rid of them somehow and I didn't want to throw them out! Off we went! I arrived in Salta at night but it was ok bc I met a girl on the bus from Texas and we found our hostal together. We got some traditional empanadas for dinner and wandered around finding the cheapest bottle of water we could. The next day we parted ways bc she was headed to Buenos Aires. I spent the day climbing 1000 steps to the top of a mountain with a lookout on the whole valley that Salta City lies in. It was worth every step! And the sunburn! The rest of the day I popped into old cathedrals that are just magical, went to the central market, hung out in the main plaza, bought some shampoo, went to a museum and splurged on some ice cream. Salta is a really pretty city, streets lined with orange trees, super friendly people, delicious climate and is relatively inexpensive. Would I go back? Probably not. But it was nice to see for a day. 

Tilcara and Purmamarca, Argentina: Tilcara is a very small pueblo located about 5 hours north of Salta and 3.5 hours south of the Bolivian border. It's nestled in a mountain range here that reminds me a lot of the highlands in Bolivia. The mountains here also remind me a lot of Death Valley. I arrived here in the afternoon with a German woman that I met at my hostal in Salta and we headed to our separate hostals but met up later to hang out a bit. I climbed and walked around the ruins here which are amazing, the first ruins of my trip! They are surrounded my cactus bigger that your CAR! They're h-u-g-e! After that I went to the museum on town which was filled with old pots and knives and combs. At my hostal here I met a French woman Cathleen who  is awesome and we decided to travel together for a bit and cross into Bolivia together in a few days. The next day we ( German, French, me) went to another small pueblo 30 minutes from Tilcara called Purmamarca. Its known for its mountain of 7 colors. We went on a small hike and got sunburned and saw the mountain of 7 colors! It was cool! The town once again is one of those places that lives off of tourism; the plaza is fiiilllleeeddd with chachkies to buy and it's all the same stuff you see in every city you go to here. We returned in the afternoon after spending some time lounging in the plaza, missing 2 busses and just talking. The next town is 3.5 hours from here and 3000 meters above sea level. We are well prepared with our coca leaves to chew and plastic bags to throw up in!

Chile lindo

Hello everyone!

I'm writing from northern Chile and hope you are all doing well, enjoying the very last bites of summer and preparing your scarves for fall! A little birdie in Santa Monica told me that the colors are changing and beautiful.

Here's what I have been up to so far on my trip. It's hard to sum things up in an email but I will give it my best shot...

Places I have been to and brief summaries:
Santiago, Chile: i only spent 2 days there because I discovered that its a very boring, smoggy, unfriendly, dirty city with not much to do if you're a tourist passing through. I stayed at an awesome hostal though and met lots of cool people! On one of my days I rode around with 2 Brazilian brothers in their rental car to have some small adventures and it was so fun! 

 Mendoza, Argentina : the best part of going to Mendoza was the bus ride between Chile and Argentina, going through the snow capped Andes mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL, just beautiful. The mountains were huge and snowy and the sun was shining and I felt so small and insignificant because these mountains have existed for so long and are just breath taking. Mendoza its self was pretty lame and dirty and boring; I had heard a lot of good things about it before coming and was very disappointed. In my hostal though I met 4 British guys and we hung out and watched sopranos together, deciding to travel to Valparaiso, Chile together.

Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, Chile : Valparaiso is the sister city of San Francisco. Its very hilly and foggy and colorful and bohemian/ artsy. The walls of the buildings and streets are covered in amazing street murals and street art, there are mosaics all over, steps going up the hills are painted like piano keys or in vibrant colors, and there are no 2 houses that look the same! I met up with a friend from Scripps who is studying abroad there and we hung out for a few days, I also met up with a friend from Scripps host brother and it was so great! I had fried fish, shrimp empanadas, smoked kiwi jam, and raspberry mint ice cream. This is definitely a city I could see myself living in one day. 

Pisco Elqui, Valle de Elqui, Chile : I did some research on this place before coming because it wasn't originally on my list of places to go. A guy in Santiago told me that I should definitely check it out because it's a gem...and WOW was he right. Pisco Elqui is in a valley where the magnetic energy is the same as the Himalayas, you can literally feel the energy of this place I your body when you are there. It's like there is a bubble surrounding it and you can feel when you've entered the bubble and when you've left the bubble. My hostal was amazing and had hammocks and loquat trees and lavender bushes, tables hidden in secret gardens. I had met a woman on my bus ride who teaches English in Valparaiso but is originally from LA and we just so happened to be staying at the same hostal so we had adventures together from buying goat cheese, spinach, sun dried tomato bread to hiking through the mountains and finding hidden streams to dip into. It was nice to have someone " familiar " around for a few days but I was ready to part ways when we did. In Pisco Elqui I went to Chiles oldest observatory to see the night sky and saw Saturn, new stars, dying stars and constellations that are only visible in the southern hemisphere. Magical! 

Antofagasta, Chile : this is where I am now! This is my fourth time here and it's very relaxed and Chilean. Went to the beach yesterday, celebrated Chiles independence day last Tuesday, and have just been laying low and enjoying my time with the friends I have here and their family! 

I'm not sure what my next destination is or when I will go there but when the wind takes me I will leave. I hope everyone is well and I'm sending positive energy from northern Chile! 

Xoxo, 

Adrienne