From the category archives:
In the north of Chile, merely hours from the Peruvian border, there lies a oasis – a city nestled snugly between the steep sandy hills of the desert and the turquoise blue waters of the Pacific. A quaint town with buildings wearing weathered colors from years of steamy sun and salty ocean breezes. Stroll down [...]
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10/1/09 – 9:00 am. Tacna, Peru. Border Crossing. The plan is to cross into Chile via bus. Unfortunately there is a hiccup in the system. Travelers cannot enter Chile via land from Peru with a single bus. They must get dropped off in Tacna, Peru and then take a taxi through border patrol and on [...]
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9/27/09 – 10:00 pm. Cusco. Keating and I head to the bus terminal to catch our first overnight bus to Arequipa, Peru. Seeing that there is a good hour before the bus leaves, Keating steps outside to look for a quick bite to eat. He returns with anticucho (cow heart) on a stick that he [...]
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It took three and a half months but Mike and I finally made it to Santiago, Chile. In a previous post I wrote about how the original plan was to go straight to Santiago after hiking Machu Picchu, but that plan obviously went out the window. A lot has happened in such a short time [...]
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9/25/09 – 2:00am. Aguas Calientes. The alarm rings and rings but my body doesn´t respond. I would rather continue listening to the incessant shrill beeps than lift a finger. The hostel beds are terribly uncomfortable. The only thing worse than the the thin, lumpy mattress is the 30 thread count sandpaper trying pass as sheets.
The [...]
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9/24/09 – 7:30am. Campsite 3. Our tent is sweltering.
I kick off my sleeping bag and ¨What the $”!%?!¨ My legs and feet are covered in painful red bites. I wake up Mike and his legs are possibly worse than mine. After letting out every curse word in the book we hop out of the tent and [...]
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9/23/09 – 5:00 am. Campsite 2. Wake up slowly, eat breakfast, fill water bottles with mountain water and pray the purification drops actually work. Surprisingly, they do. Just a few steps down the trail and it´s apparent the trek is taking a toll on our bodies; our feet are blistering, legs are sore and hips [...]
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9/22/09 – 4:30am. Mt. Salkantay Base Camp. We wake up to Washington ripping open the door of our tent. Bissente, the chef, pours us two steaming hot cups of tea. The scalding mug is a nice defense against the frigid mountain air rushing into our tent. It is common to drink coca tea while trekking [...]
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9/21/09 – 4:30am. Cusco, Peru. Mike and I finally wake up after hitting the snooze button three times.
In an effort to save a few bucks, we had downgraded to another hostel a bit further from the main plaza. Little did we know how much quality we sacrificed for a few dollars.
The owner of our new [...]
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