I have been on the go!  Flew into Arequipa on Wednesday and checked by backpack at the bus station.  Bought an overnight bus ticket to Cuzco and got into Cuzco yesterday morning on the 6am.  Got to my hotel and tried to figure out the way to get to Machu Picchu.  You´d think it would be easy to get there since it is one of the 7 wonders of the world and all.  No! 

I decided to take a tour of the Sacred Valley today so that I could stay in the 2nd to last town the tour visits.  Ollantaytambo is a very cool Inca town.  I didn´t have time to go to the ceremonial site because I had a 4pm train to catch to go to Aguas Calientes which is the place where you catch a 20 minute bus to Machu Picchu.  It´s 4 hours away from Cuzco.  I wanted to be at Machu Picchu at 5:30 before the crowds come in.  After I figured it all out, I bought a plane ticket to Lima.  Time is running out fast!

I´m here in Aguas Calientes now.  Got my hotel, recommended by Lonely Planet - just 10 bucks.  I have to eat some dinner and get some snacks for tomorrow.  I´m very excited.  It feels like the climax of my trip. 

Cuzco is a beautiful city.  It would be great to be here an entire week.  So much history and sights to see.  I would show you some pictures, but this internet connection is ssssslow. 

Ate some Alpaca last night.  Llama in Bolivia.  Alpaca is in the Llama family, but ísn´t used to carry as much.  It was a little like red meat, but more in the white meat family.  Didn´t feel as heavy when I was done.  Guinea pig is popular here.  Will try to have some.  Not much meat though.  I´ll probably have to order two.

Yay for Obama!  Everyone here is pretty happy about the result.

See you soon!

xo

Ruth

Found out yesterday that the Peruvian border at Tacna, where I was going to go today, is closed.  It`s been closed and will be closed indefinitely.  No buses are going in that direction.  The locals are throwing rocks at cabs, buses and people who try to cross the border.

In fact, as of today Tacna has been declared a state of emergency.  Here´s a blurb I got from the news:

“A strike is underway in Tacna to protest a vote by congress to modify a law that would redistribute tax revenues from a giant mining company, Southern Peru, in favor of residents in the neighboring region of Moquegua.”

I was supposed to go there yesterday or at the very least this morning so I can cross over into Peru.  I have to see Macchu Pichu!  I also have a flight out of Lima on the 12th. 

What sucks is that I was at the bus station to Peru and cab drivers were more than willing to drive me to Tacna.  Meanwhile, they knew all along about the strike because it had been going on for days. 

I had no idea what to do and thankfully, I`m staying at the Sunny Days hostel and the owner Ross, who´s from New Zealand, was so helpful.  I was going to turn around and go back to San Pedro, but I didn´t want to give up on Machu Picchu.   So Ross gave me the phone number to Sky Airlines and I called them before booking a tour of Lauca National Park.  Luckily I did, ´cause Sky Airlines only flies to Arequipa, Peru on Wednesdays and Sundays.  If I didn´t fly the next day, I´d be screwed! 

Reserved the flight and got to see this sunset in Arica.

Sunset in Arica

Sitting here at an internet cafe in Arica that is 1/3 the price it cost in San Pedro.  Catching up on UCLA homework and getting creeped out by this slouched over, nerdy, postal worker looking man with greasy hair and glasses - sweet looking though -  who is searching and chatting with young girls on a site called Tagged. 

Took an overnight bus ride from San Pedro and got here at 6:30am.  Left my back at the bus station, walked into the center of town and parked myself at this internet cafe to catch up on homework and blogging. 

May be going to Peru today if I can catch a bus that will get me into Arequipa before 10pm.  Otherwise I´ll stay here and leave tomorrow morning.  Sad to leave San Pedro.  Had a great time and although I am sick of the desert, (I spent 4 days in the Bolivian desert and San Pedro is one of the driest deserts on the planet) i look at the pictures and realize how beautiful it was.  The night time sky was amazing.  It´s nice not to have chalky hands and a smoker´s cough though.

Looking forward to Peru.  Will skip Lake Titicaca.  Would love to share more, but not enough time or internet cafes.  Actually, there are enough of those, they just get pricey.  Next time I´m traveling with a tiny laptop one of my tour buddies had with him.  He´s from Holland and does some travel writing as well. 

God, this man is pulling up teenage girl´s high school pictures now on a site called Amigos Adventistas!!!!  I think those are 7th Day Adventists girls.  He´s been here for about an hour.  Gross.  I´m outta here. 

See you soon!

Me Apune!  Twice!  Altitude sickness sucks!

I did a tour of the Salar de Tara last week to visit beautiful lagoons and God knows what else ´cause I barely remember the day.  I was toast.  We drank some coca tea before heading up.  I thought I´d be fine because San Pedro was already 2400 meters and I felt absolutely fine.  After the first lagoon, I couldn´t focus, felt dizzy, week, sleepy and sometimes really out of breath.

I went on the tour with Gino, Bernardo and a Brazilian couple Tania and Renaldo.

Bernardo & Gino

Gino was a great guide and paramedic.  He gave me a few puffs of oxygen and applied some pressure to my diaphragm and even gave us some of this green stuff to help open up my lungs.  Nothin´!  Bernardo, who owns the cafe that is part of Takha Takha, made this delicious turkey, cheese and olive bread sandwich.  We stopped the truck to eat and I reclined the seat back to sleep and nibbled on a tiny piece of sandwich with my eyes closed.  Gino kept checking in on me throughout the day.

Along the way I had the energy to take a picture or two and then got back into the truck. 

Salar de Tara Tour

Bernardo went into one of these caverns over 100 yards away and we could hear each other talking.  The echo was really cool.  Then we stopped for lunch at this refuge.  There were some llamas in a lagoon a short distance from refuge where we were eating.

Llamas? I only look like I care.

Gino had prepared a basic lunch of tuna, tomatoes and avocado.  I ate some food in the hopes of regaining some energy.  I was so out of it, I couldn´t find my camera and it was hanging over my shoulder the whole time.  I got up to have a little juice and got really nauseous.  I walked to the back of the stone house and let out the equivalent of 3 giant belches.  It was a relief.  I actually felt a bit better.

Minutes B4 tossing my cookies

Later in the day Gino said he was going to suggest inducing me to vomit, but he thought I´d be too uncomfortable.  Uh, yeah.  But I told him I had up chucked after lunch and he said that was helpful.  Who knew?  He also said now that I had gotten altitude sickness, I´d be Ok from now on.  Wrong!

Three days later, I headed to Bolivia´s salt flat tour and got knocked out at 4900 meters again.  I don´t want to bore you with too many details, but thank God there was Alfredo, a pediatric doctor from Milan was in our group.  When we got to our first hotel that night, I was freezing, had a headache (I never get headaches) and glassy eyes.  He said I probably had a fever because I was cold and he wasn´t.   I told him I was fine.

I´m fine - really!

  Then another roommate came in and I asked her if she was cold, she said no.  I decided to listen to the doctor.  He gave me some aspirin and my blood pressure went down and I did feel better.  He gave me another aspirin before I went to sleep and slept like a baby.  Here´s a shot of one of the lagoons I saw on the way to Uyuni.  The altitude sickness was worth it.

Laguna Verde

Who am I?  I decided not to do a morning tour because I´m fighting off a slight cold and I wanted to sleep a while.  The tour I was considering to see some geysers started at 4am.  I woke up at 5am yesterday to catch the flight to Antofagasta, so I didn´t want to push myself.  So I woke up naturally at 7am, did a little writing to catch up with my blogging and made it to my buffet breakfast at 9am.  I didn´t walk away from the table until 1pm!  

I  met Bernardo, the owner of the kitchen.  We were talking for a while about the US, Chile, SAG - the agricultural control I so love, and living in San Pedro de Atacama.  Bernardo thought I was French because they don´t get a lot of tourists from North America.  Then an older, suave Italian man named Gino joined us for espresso and one of Bernardo´s freshly made caracoles - forgive the spelling, but I´ve gotta give up my perfectionism if I´m gonna keep up with this blog -  which are like a chocolate pin wheel with a flaky croissant like consistency.  Turns out Gino is from Florence and has lived in Chile for 13 years.  He was a chef in Santiago for 10 years, then moved to San Pedro and decided to become a tour guide.  He hooked me up with what he considers a good tour company to go to Uyuni, Bolivia with.  There are so many tour companies that have reputations for not living up to their promises.  At least it´s a reliable recommendation.  Then I met Bernardo´s mother, who lived in NYC for a year in the 70´s when she was just there for a 20 day tour.  

During all of this time, I kept thinking “Shouldn´t I be biking around or something?” But the vibe here is so relaxed, it felt wrong to have an agenda, so I stayed.  The good news is that Gino leads a tour through the salt flats and Bernardo and I are joining him tomorrow.  Apparently there is a section of it so beautiful, that Gino took a couple of professional photographers who threw their cameras to the ground because the cameras wouldn´t be able to capture the beauty.  Then they told Gino to be quiet and let them just take it all in and cry.  It´s a bit of a build up, but I´m looking forward to it.

My bedroom is a shoebox, but the good news is that my body heat makes it nice and toasty.  The bed was nice and firm and I slept on the best pillow so far.  Kind of flat so I can fold it, but still soft.  The hotel is adorable.  Took a cold shower yesterday afternoon.  I desperately wanted to wash my hair.  Did a little laundry too.  Everything dried within minutes.

Hostal Takha Takha

Took a 2 hour plane ride to Antofagasta, and then luckily made it to the bus for San Pedro with 14 minutes to spare - even after spending time in the airport bathroom rinsing my daypack because a small bottle of apple juice spilled all over my books.  I rinsed them all in the bathroom.  Thank God there was a air hand dryer.  Took a shuttle van to town and then five hours and a hot desert bus ride later, I ended up in this  desert town.  I thought we were just stopping for a break. Being an actress, I can only say I feel like I stepped onto a western movie set.  The only difference is that there are no horses and they have trendy shops and restaurants.  Oh, and lots of stray dogs. But it´s all adobe architecture, the air is so dry my curls are gone and you can´t help but walk slowly.

I´m much prettier here.  As I was walking to find my hotel, I met Manuel.  He´s from Santiago and moved here 5 months ago to save money.  He asked if I´d like to meet again.  Sure!  He´s a yoga teacher, massage therapist and musician.  I´m in trouble.  Men are friendly and ask me for a drink after just saying hello.

I had a creamed vegetable soup last night that was delicious.  This young woman owns this restaurant with her husband.  I stayed there and chatted with her for about 2 hours last night.  I´m going over there again now, to try the choclo (corn) and basil soup.  She makes everything on the spot and couldn´t make it yesterday because the shipment of basil will arrive today.  Apparently, like Easter Island, there are only about 5,000 people living here.  One guy from a restaurant I met last night called me by name when he said hello.

Creamed vegetable soup!

I´m off to have my soup and then take my tour of Valle de la Luna at sunset.  Oh, and the stars!! Last night as I walked to the bathroom again I looked up and the stars crowded the sky.  I mean, it was so clear I swear I saw those nebulae in the sky.  I´m not exaggerating.  It looked like a sky from a Stephen Spielberg movie.

Ughhhhhhh! Lost my wallet on the bus.  Just what I needed on my day trip from Santiago to Valparaiso.  

I never buy anything near a bus station because I always think it’s overpriced, and I also don’t want to broadcast the location of my wallet in a place where pick pocketing types hang around.  Thank God this time I decided to buy some fruit a few stores from the bus station before making my way into town.  I went to pay for my banana when I realized my jacket pocket was open and EMPTY.  I told the vendor “no puedo -”  and just started running back to the bus station with a dog yapping at my calves.  I got to bus platform and some people in yellow jackets asked me if  I needed help and I couldn’t even communicate.  “Alguien me robo la, la, mi…”  I couldn’t get the word out for wallet and I wasn’t sure whether it was stolen or I just lost it.  I had it out on the bus while I added up my receipts to keep track of my spending.   The woman next to me had fallen asleep, it couldn’t be her.   I left it on the bus.   I shouldn’t have closed my eyes.  I hate this country.   I spoke to a manager of the bus company.  I was in seat #9.  The wallet is bluish/gray. Luckily it had only a days worth of money in it and my return ticket (shit!!!) so it wasn´t a tragedy.  It just feels crappy.

Then the manager came back and told me they had found it.  It’s coming on the next return bus.  What?!  Yes!  There is a God!!! How could I hate this country?  Twenty minutes later the bus arrives.  No wallet.  It figures.  About 1/2 hour later a bus heading back to Santiago brought my wallet back with ALL of the contents in it.  My Chilean pesos, US dollars, the return ticket and all my receipts.  What a miracle!  This is a great country.

Pablo Neruda´s House

Saw Pablo Neruda´s house in Isla Negra.  I had no idea he had changed his name.  He was born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto.  He loved the ocean but was afraid of it at the same time.  Land locked, he built his homes with a nautical theme.  Extremely narrow stairways, closets he had to bend down to walk into, even a couple of portholes as windows.  He wanted his house to feel like a ship.  His bedroom had an amazing view of the ocean.  Two glass walls that overlooked the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean.

That man also collected a lot of shi-stuff, nautical stuff of course, including a bunch of those clear bottles with miniature ships inside, sea shells, porcelain sinks, and merry-go-round horses.  He did write a poem about having and enjoying material things, touching them and having them join him in life´s journey.  That redeemed his rat pack ways a little bit.  I can´t show you any pictures because The Neruda Foundation doesn´t allow any photography.  I didn´t know his name wasn´t Pablo Neruda.  Another cool thing I learned about him was that he washed his hands before and after he wrote. 

 His gravesite is at Isla Negra where he is buried next to his 3^rd wife. 

Pablo Neruda´s grave

On my way here I met a young Palestinian student.  Very interesting conversation.  He wanted to clarify that Palestinians don´t hate Americans, they hate the American government.  He said that Palestinians joke that Bin Laden is hiding in the White House, Condoleeza is a bitch and Israel is the 51st state.  I thought that was interesting…

The weather in Isla Negra was chillier than I expected.  Took a walk down to the shore.  Can´t call it a beach because the waves were so big, it was impossible to swim.  I just sat there for at least a half hour watching the waves crash on these gigantic rocks.  Then I walked over and had another churrasco for lunch.  It´s like a steakburger with avocado, tomatoes, may and sometimes greenbeans.

Churrasco in Santiago

The one you see here is from a German restaurant that is really old.  Kind of like Katz´s Delin in NYC.  All they make are Churrasco´s.  Kind of pricey but big and delicious.

Okay.  Fine.  Even going through customs was worth it to get to Easter Island.  I´ve done so much in the past week that I haven´t had the time to stop and write my blog.

Last night I went to see the cultural dance troupe Kari Kari.  It was an hour of traditional Rapa Nui dance and music.  The movement were similar to Hawaiin dance and included some serious rapid hip shaking moves.  They chose people from the audience to join them to dance and it was fun to watch people do a bad job at imitating the moves.  I got to take this photo with a couple of hot Rapa Nui fellas.  They were sweating a lot too.

On Tuesday, Pina took me fishing with her daughter Vaireva, her cousin Tasha and Kay, a guest from Japan who lived in Guatemala for 5 months and talks pretty good Spanish.  He´s especially good at talking about sex, pot and drinking.  We drove close to Ranu Raraku, which is the quarry where the Moai were built.  Pina bought raw chicken, bread and some hooks.  They use the chicken or wet bread as the bait.  They don´t like worms.  The fishing rod that I used was basically a 12 inch piece of PVC pipe, kind of like the size of a large coffee can, with fishing line wrapped around it and a wooden stick inside that is the handle.  And away we were.  I didn´t catch a damned thing.  I didn´t feel so bad because Pina and Vaireva weren´t much more successful.  At least they could cast the line out farther than I could.  I had a hard time feeling if the fish were nibbling at the hook.  One time I brought the line back up and all the chicken was gone.  Que sin verguenzas son los pescados!

The following pics are of Tasha setting up the gear.  Then you can see our little fishing pier.  It was terrifying at first to stand up and fish because the waves would really swell sometimes and we had to run away about 3 times because they crashed on our spot.  Thank God Tasha knew when to tell us to run.  I have some video footage of a big wave almost crashing over us.  Tasha caught some fish at that spot and then suggested we try another.  At the second spot, Pina suggested Vaireiva and I take a swim.  But I didn´t bring a bathing suit!  So what, go in with your underwear.  Being the quasi adventurous woman that I am, I wore my panties and T-shirt.  The lava rocks hurt my feet so I wore Pina´s Crocks and the water was much colder than I expected.  At the end of the day, it was all a ploy to keep me out of Tasha´s way.  She just caught fish after fish, once we were out of the picture.

Then we got out of the water and Tasha was cleaning fish.  By the way she would stomp on their heads after she caught them.  Then she gutted them and ate the raw liver and invited me to do the same.  Yumm.  Of course I did it.  It wasn´t as bad as I expected and my powers of denial came in handy as I chewed away.  If that wasn´t bad enough, she cleaned out a couple of inches of intenstine for me eat.  She squeezed some lemon on it and called it Ceviche.  Oh, in that case, I´ll have two!!  That was much chewier and a little more difficult to enjoy, but I think I gained her respect. 

Then we went home and I took a shower and then Pina showed me how she prepares a fried fish meal.  Pina sprinkled salt to the fish and chopped garlic.  The rice had grated carrots and a little garlic.  After my ver first real fishing trip, it was divine.

To Ranu Raraku

Half the time, I felt like I had the island all to myself most of the time riding along the coast seeing and hearing the crashing waves.  I can´t get enought of that stuff.  Then I had to stop to let some beautiful brown and black horses and their calves cross the road.   Stopped off a little later to eat some almonds and raisins (that I bought in Santiago of course!)  Then used my table tripod to take this pic.  There was a wonderful breeze and couldn´t feel the heat of the sun.  (My bottom lip got toasted and hurt for 5 days.)

Taking a break on the way...

Most of the road was paved.  The weather has been beautiful everyday.  I think it rained for about 2 minutes last night. 

Finally made it to Ranu Raraku and couldn´t wait to take more pictures.  Here are some Moai facts I wanted to share that I learned at the museum.

-  Moai phase is considered to be when Rapa Nui culture reached it´s peak
-  They started building the Moais from around 800AD to 1680
-  Moai represent the ancestors of each clan (I believe there were around 6)
-  The Moai were built to protect and have a presence in the daily lives of the people.

Ranu Raraku aka the quarry

-  There are 887 registerd Moai.  347 still at the quarry. 
-  No more than 10 Moai have female features ie breasts & vulva
-  Less than 1/2 of the Moai carved ever made it to their Ahu (platform)

Moai Madness

The story goes that the Long Eared tribe were the rich ones who had the Short Eared people building these statues.  They range from about 2 meters to 21 meters.  They got bigger as time went on.  The Short Eared people kept having babies and the Long Eared people refused to give them a raise. 

Around the time they were carving a super sized Moai, there was a revolt by the Short Eared tribe.  The Long Ears didn´t want to pay, so the Short Eared guys refused to keep carving and started knocking down the Moai.  There was also a Tsunami in the 60´s that knocked some of them down as well.  It´s always about money & power isn´t it?

Then it was 4:30 and I had to get the bike back.  Gorgeous ride back until I made the right away from the coast.  Had to get off of the bike and just walk.  I was hoping someone would invite me to hitch a ride, but it never happened.  A few times, I wondered if I would make it back.  I had some energy, but my legs were tired.  I had no choice but to take it slow because I no longer had the ocean breeze to cool me down.

Moai Madness Confirmed

I had to remember that no one was worried about me taking this trip, so others had survived it.  I finally made it into town before 6pm.  I felt pretty good for someone who wanted to die!!  Dropped off the bike and then bought a candy bar.  Caught sight of myself in the mirror and thought I´d share.

The price of madness.

Koo koo roo koo roo koo roo!!!  That´s how I woke up this morning.

Went out on a tour with Pina, the owner of the bed & breakfast I´m staying in.  We were supposed to leave at 10am but I had locked my key in my room and since it´s the ONLY key they have, she had to get her brother in law to open the door.  He tried squeezing his son through my bathroom window, but he couldn´t fit.  Luckily, my Spanish neighbor suggested trying to shake the lock on my sliding doors and it worked.  So much for security.

Luckily, it´s a safe island.  There actually is a jail and there are about 10 people in it at a time.  They go in for things like shoplifting and non payment of child support.  The only drugs they use is marijuana and alcohol.  I walked home in the dark last night and didn´t have a problem.

Pina told us a lot about the island on my tour with Toshi, my Japanese neighbor who has been traveling the world for the past 2.5 months.  Next stop for him is Chile, Mexico and then Alaska before he heads home.  Here are some facts she shared with us:

• There are 5,000 inhabitants.  In the summer that numbe goes up to 15,000 with tourists.
• Easter Island is expensive.  Pina says 1 kilo of fruit in Santiago might be 400 pesos and 1 piece of the same fruit on Easter Island is 400 pesos. 
• The Island wants to gain independence from Chile because they don´t really do much to benefit them.  I haven´t noticed many paved roads.  The few I´ve seen were probably paved quite a few years ago. 
• LAN Airlines is the only airline that flies to Easter Island, so they have no competition and all of the profits go to Chile.
• If they want to buy a car, they have to purchase one in Chile for about 7 million pesos (about $12,000US) and have it shipped for 2 million (approx. $3,000US). 
• Pina even pays the $600 round trip fare to Santiago just to buy her daughters school supplies and clothes because the prices and quality are better than on the island.  She also brings back supplies for other parents.
• The U.S. donated 5 large generators and Chile still makes them pay for electricity. 
• There´s one hospital and about 10-12 doctors,  mostly from Santiago.  Cuba offers full scholarships to anyone who wants to go to medical school (in Cuba).
• The island got internet service in 2003 and cell phone service in 2005. 
• With everyone almost being related to everyone else, there aren´t many pure Rapa Nui people left.  Many choose to marry outside of the island so they can avoid risking birth defects.

So the tour lasted most of the day.  We saw a lot of Moai, of course. 

Rano Raraku

Rano Raraku is basically the quarry where the Moai were built and then taken to other parts of the island.  There are no trees in the area and Pina says that is how the workers transported the heavy statues around the island.  Being there was like stepping back in time.  It was beautiful and I couldn´t really take a bad picture.

Rano Raraku

Ahu Tongariki

Ahu Tongariki are 15 Moai, the largest site built, that were face down either because of a warfare or the tsunami in the 60´s.   A Japanese company took it upon themselves to restore it.  Toshino says that he knows about Easter Island because of this site.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the 9am mass.  The hymns and service are all in Rapa Nui.  Freaky coincidence, Pina recently became 7th Day Adventist in the past year.  She said she´d fill me in on the details later.  Her mother sounds a lot like my mother too.  At first I thought it was the Latin connection, but her mother is 100% Rapa Nui.  Go figure.  Her mother´s father gave her away to be married for the price of two cows.  So her mother ran off to Chile and came back two years later with a Chilean husband.  Pina´s grandfather always treated them like second class citizens.  Family dysfunction is alive and kicking around the world!

Pina also said that Rapa Nui men are hot, strong, muscular and all around manly men.  According to Pina, they are supposed to be great lovers.  I told her the same thing is said about Italians and Latins in general.  She looked at me and said she never heard of that.  Here we are in front of a fallen Moai hat.

Ruth and Pina