Travel Diary:
06 / 03 / 2008
I thought that babies would be a good souvenier too, but not all involved agreed, so...We decided to go whitewater rafting instead!
Rafting in South America in the rainy season is an adventure not to be missed. They'll tell you that it's a class 3/4 river, oh yeah. But then you realize, after one of the two rafts in your party gets stuck on a boulder and all but two (Can being one of the two)are tossed out of your own raft and into the rapids, and that's all before you reach the class 4 part of the river, that they mean in the DRY season it's a class 3/4 river. Duh!
Of course, that wasn't enough for us, no sir! The next day we got up bright and early for a trek into the (2nd) deepest canyon in the world! A 6-hr bumpy bus ride and 4-hr, 1300m downward trek later, we were stretching our calves and enjoying the narrow canyon and its sub-tropical vegetation. The sunset was gorgeous and the stars were absolutely amazing that night. We had a more leisurely day hiking to an oasis followed by a 230am start back up. Remembering the heat from the previous day, we were happy to be hiking at night, and stopped occasionally to enjoy the stars. It was tough going, though, 3 hours in the dark, climbing from about 2,300m to nearly 3000. The sun creeping over the mountaintops in the distance, and the view into the canyon from the top made it all worthwhile though.
We are enjoying a lazy shopping day in Arequipa before another lazy beach day and a half in Arica. This may be our last missive before returning to Istanbul, or we may be unable to help oursevles, who knows! However, no need to worry. We don't have any more daring adventures, besides the tango, awaiting us in Argentina.
Cant wait to see y'all!
Love, J n C
28 / 02 / 2008
My goodness it's been awhile! This past week and a half feels like much more, we've done so much! For those of you who can't read the Turkish comments, most everyone is telling us to just stay home and make babies, and while I'm not entirely agreeing, it sure sounds good to sit on my couch for a couple of days!
So we left Puno for Cusco, and had a lovely luxury tour bus along the way. We have now experienced the entire range of transportation opportunities available in Peru! The altiplano, or the open spaces between the mountains of the Andes are beautiful and harsh, in a similar but more fertile way than Patagonia. We saw typical llama-herders, glacial peaks, and green high altitude valleys. We arrived in Cusco in the evening, and this remains my favorite time to view the city. It is respelendent with colonial Spanish architecture, which is made more romantic by starlight and period street lamps. We lucked out and found not only a cheap and clean hostel but also an incredible deal for meals, allowing us to make up for some extravagant spending in Chile!
We spent the following week trekking around amazing Inca ruins all day long. We wound our way into the Sacred Valley with our tour culminating in the illustrious Machu Picchu. We started out at about 3am under the light of the full moon, making the walk to the ancient citadel, if possible, even more mysterious. For the morning, the city was cloaked in a dense fog which slowly dispersed over the morning, gradually revealing more and more of the incredible ruins. While we didnt get to see the sun rise through the sun gate, I think this was a better way of discovering the city.
We have concluded, however, that the Incas were just plain NUTS and when you see the photos, we are sure that you will agree!
We were a little bit nuts too, though, spending 15 hours of non-stop hiking under the violent Peruvian sun. I guess you just dont believe it till you feel it, and feel it Julia did. Can got to spend a weary evening cooling her brow with a cold rag to keep her poor little brain from cooking. Luckily, we caught the heat exhaustion just in time, and she was ready and raring to go the next morning. However, due to rioting in Cusco and around regarding some very poor decision-making on the part of political officials (what else is new, eh!) the train was neither ready nor raring for our 9 am trip back to Cusco. As train was the only way in or out of the Valley, and as the tracks had been effectively blocked by large stones, we were stayin there till the military cleared the tracks and felt that it was safe to go through. While there were rumors that this would not be for a day or two, we lucked out and got into Cusco late that night.
After all that excitement, we rested a day and reconsidered the wisdom of heading into an area known for terrorist activity, namely Ayacucho. We decided that we were getting too old for this nonsense (and knowing Julia, some trouble or other would ensue), so we opted instead for an early pass to the seaside town of Pisco, also located in the center of Peru's famous pisco bodegas (vineyard and winery/distillery).
We had some pleasant tours of sea life and a nice camp on the beach, and today we toured the bodegas and are all mellowed out. Tomorrow, it's on to Arequipa and hopefully some white water rafting on the Colca Canyon. We'll write our last post from there or Arica (you remember, the lazy beach town in the north of Chile) before finishing up Argentina and coming back into the loving arms of our friends and family!
Missing you all lots and lots!
Love, Julia and Can
11 / 02 / 2008
We are the Carnival Kings! After our two days on the islands in Lake Titicaca, we decided to try our (my) chances and see about going to Bolivia, at least for a couple of days. As it turns out, its much easier to get a visa at the border than by doing it from the States, so aside from the expense, it was easy going across the border.
We began to love Bolivia immediately, with the dancing and drinking commencing as soon as we crossed the border! We had only a short few hours to tour Copacabana and the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, but both were beautiful and we hope that we can see more of them some day. There was an herb school on the island which was both inspiring and conducive to homesickness!
Our first day of touring La Paz (the world's highest capital city at 3400meters) left us wanting more, so we decided to change our plans and extend our stay two more days. We are so glad we did--from wild street festivals to the Witch's Market, to the quaint 50's style diners and mini buses, we only felt ready to leave the last evening. It also gave us perfect timing for catching the finale of the Puno festival. All sorts of different costumes (plenty of devil mask photos!), wild foam fights, lots and lots of beer and meeting some really sweet locals provided a wonderful last day in this region for us.
Tomorrow, we head for Cusco and the infamous Machu Pichu. We're planning to spend about 10 days or so around there. We'll let you know how our encounter with the ancient Inca's goes...
03 / 02 / 2008
Well, after two days of rest and relaxtion in Arica, our adventures picked up again. We had an uneventful cross from Chile into Peru followed by an excting trip from Tacna (at the Peruvian border) to Arequipa (a small but lovely town with excellent Spanish architecture). We opted for the "locals" bus after being so spoiled with luxury buses in Chile. Let me say, we definitely got a taste of local life, as the bus was stopped nearly every hour of the 7-hr journey for the police to board and search the bus for bags of what appeared to be used clothing. Our hostel in Arequipa was the best we¨ve stayed in yet, with high ceilings and an interesting layout. After talking with the tour agency, however, it seemed we had our dates for the Puno festival wrong, so we had one short day in Arequipa (during which we primarily toured the amazing convent) before taking a night bus to Puno. Julia adjusted much better to the altitude this time, and as her cold has for the most part passed, is doing well. Can, however, decided to get some extra attention by developing a sore throat of his own. Luckily, his Turkish blood is more resilient and he is well now too! We enjoyed the first two days of the carnival with the amazing dancing and colorful costumes, and are really looking forward to the climax next weekend. Tomorrow, we are off to visit several islands in Lake Titicaca for two days, then back to Puno for some touring around until the weekend festival. We´ll let you know all about the Puno festivl then! Take care everyone!
28 / 01 / 2008
Hee hee, penguins on board for everyone! You can´t imagine how heavy they are though! Well, after managing just fine in Patagonia, Julia managed to catch a cold in mild Valparaiso. Not so bad, though, and we still got to enjoy the wild colors, erratic streets, and funky funiculars which overlook the city and the bay. From there, we had a 24-hr bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama, which made us very happy that there were no bus tickets available for the 48-hr trip we had planned to take from Punta Arenas to Santiago! The first day, it actually managed to rain over this isolated desert village, and we really began to believe that the Gods were playing some evil joke on us. The clouds quickly passed, however, and the rest of our stay was presided over by fair skies and nice, predictable desert weather (cold mornings and nights, hot days, and little wind). San Pedro really made us feel as though we were in South America. It´s a tiny, dusty town with adobe buildings and a very laid-back atmosphere. Despite the fact that half the population at any one time is tourists, it doesn´t feel so at all. The small square with it´s Spanish-style adobe church is towered over by a perfectly conical snow-capped volcano. We managed to fit in a tour of Valle de Muerto (Death Valley), Valle de Luna (Moon Valley) on the first day, which were both quite spectacular, but we were disappointed by the speed of the tour. Still, the sunset was gorgeous over the desert, with the snow-topped volcanoes turning pink in the distance. The next morning (meaning 4am) we took the tour up to the El Tatio Geyser, which at 4300 meters is the highest altitude geyser field in the world. After the two hour bumpy ride to the top, we crawled out of our tour van to see a steaming field of geysers surrounded by snowy volcanoes. As the sun crept over the tops of the volcanoes, the the light glowing through the steam from the geysers gave the field an other-worldly glow. There were also an array of interestingly colored pools (though nothing compared to Yellowstone), strange plants, beautiful ice formations on the desert grasses, flamingos, and vicunas (wild llamas)On the way back down, Julia learned that she does not like high altitudes, especially when recovering from a cold, and so our trip to Bolivia has been unfortunately cancelled, due to the journey there providing no time for acclimitization, as well as the new information that Bolivia has created quite a few hoops for American citizens, which before departure did not exist. However, this will allow us much more time in Peru, and we are looking forward to a slightly slower pace! We wil go from here to Arica, the northernmost city in Chile, and supposedly a very nice beach town. From there we´ll cross into Peru. And hopefully we´ll still make it to La Paz...
23 / 01 / 2008
From the chill of Patagonia to the oppressive heat of Santiago, to the gently foggy oceanside town of Valparaiso, I don`t think even I can keep up with us anymore! We last left you in Puerto Natales, from where we moved on to Punta Arenas and had a very exciting penguin encounter. On a small (1km) island of the coast of Punta Arenas, there is a little island where the Magellanic penguins come to nest. The boat ride took about two hours, and was interesting primarily because it was not a tour boat, but a ferry boat with very limited seating (and no place to drive on the other side!) The island from afar looked like it was covered with tall grass, but coming closer we realized it was awash with penguins! It was not the typical penguin scene, with ice and snow and whatnot, but rather a very dry and sandy little island covered sporadically with scrubby vegetation and topped with a little lighthouse. The penguin nests were little burrows dug into the ground, and the chicks, now properly teenagers, watched curiously as tourists passed by on roped-off trails, which kept the people in line, but not the penguins. They dashed across the trail, came out to greet people, some tourists even almost touched the penguins, though it seemed they did not tolerate quite that much closeness. Occasionally a group would gather together and burst into song (sounding like a group of donkeys braying). We had a limited one hour on the island before we were herded off by park officals. On the way back, we had the honor of seeing penguins swimming in the water and leaping in the air together with a school of dolphins (Lisa and Jasmin, thinking of you!) Aside from the excursion to the island, there is nothing exciting to report about Punta Arenas. We had a day of rest and mad planning, then headed north for Santiago where we only stayed one night before arriving in Valparaiso. Valpo (as it is affectionately called by its residents) is a small city on the ocean, like a tiny San Francisco with all its steep hills and crazy winding streets. There are funicular elevators (or "Hillevators" as my parents would say) to take residents and tourists up the steep hillsides to the old victorian-style houses and mansions which are painted in a riotous array of color. The lower part of the city and the upper part differ from eachother dramatically, as you can imagine with all the wealthy folks living up above. We had a lovely Mexican dinner last night (craving it after the flop in Buenos Aires) and are staying in a very funky old mansion in the lower part of town. We`re heading up north to the Atacama Desert and the town of San Pedro (not on our map as it`s a last-minute decision), and we`ll hopefully give another update from there before heading for Carnival in Bolivia! Love to all!
18 / 01 / 2008
It seems like forever since we last wrote and even longer since we left Istanbul! Because of this, we may have over-written, but you can slowly read over a couple of days if you wish! Our trip to Torres del Paine was much more challenging than expected, and combined together with our previous excursion to Fitz Roy, it has left us with a deep respect for hiking in Patagonia. I guess that in order not to scare tourists away, the guide books shy away from describing just how challenging the trails are, but both Can and I can say that this has been the most challenging trek we have ever done (and those of you who know what kind of trekking we've done know that's saying a lot!). Despite having our asses kicked, however, we have to say that Patagonia is breathtaking. We spent our one night in Puerto Natales in a sweet hostel with the most helpful owner in the world. We were forewarned of the difficulty of the trek we were about to take on, but when all of the books neglect to mention it, it's hard to believe. After a satisfying breakfast, we got on the bus for an easy 2-hr ride into the park. We were met immediately with one of the biggest differences between Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia: touristic commercialism. The price to enter the park was a whopping $30 per person! We chose to camp at the infrequent free sites along the way, but had we stayed in the paid sites, we would have paid an extra $7 per person per night. The route we took is called the "W", named for the shape it makes on the map. We started with what we thought would be a relatively mellow trek to a lookout of the granite towers for which the park is named. As we began a non-stop nearly vertical ascent on what looks like an easy climb on the map, we started to get an idea of what we were in for. The trail roughly followed the path of the river several hundren meters below, and made for an exciting pass in some portions as we came face-to-face with the infamous Patagonian winds. The highlight was the five-meter descent down a rock face with a rope tied to a tree. With a backpack laden with 6 days of food and supplies (though luckily we had been able to leave all unnecessary things at the hostel), it was a bit much for me, and I ended up throwing my pack down ahead of me. The camp itself was pleasant, and though I was too whipped to make it, Can went up the last 30 minute climb on a rocky trail to get a sunset view of the peaks after we pitched our tent. He returned just before dark in the midst of a rainstorm, not sure of having got any worthwhile photos, but willing to try again the next morning. I again stayed in bed as everyone else got up at 5am, and was glad I did as the weather wasn't so much better. My favorite hike was a nice, mostly flat one, through the woods and around the river. The next day we packed up and hiked for about 12 hours to the next camp. The hike itself was much more relaxed, with gorgeous views of the lakes and mountains in the distance, but was still very physically demanding and we arrived exhausted and voracious. I can't remember being more hungry than I was on this trip! The campsite, however, was the best we had stayed at by far, right along the river and in the middle of a small beech forest. The next day, we trekked up towards another lookout, but after the previous day's hike, did not make the last climb up. We did really enjoy the valley, which was an interesting mix of rock and wildflowers with the occasional beech tree here and there and the tumultuous river running down from the glaciers above. The next day, we took a mellower hike to a nearby camp and really enjoyed walking on nearly flat ground through a lovely valley, despite the 80km/hr winds trying to knock us over. We really got to enjoy our valley as the wind settled down in the evening. There were huge granite towers on two sides, with another farther off in the distance. One face of one tower was covered in a perpetual cap of ice, as were the surrounding mountains in the distance. The half moon was rising in the V between two of the peaks and the setting sun, while not spectacular, brought out the various colors of the rock faces and the beech trees. The river was an icy light blue, as was the lake in the distance. We had passed several other lakes on our hike that day, and it was really amazing how they could all be such different colours, from deep blue to bright turquoise. Our last morning we packed up and took the short 2hr hike to the catamaran launch which we took across Lake Pehoe, with water of a tropical turquoise. While waiting for our bus, we took a short walk to a nearby waterfall, which bridged two different lakes. It was from here that we really got a good view of the valley we had been camping in and the surrounding mountains and scrub. I think the best taste of Patagonia we got, both in Paines and in Fitz Roy, was in the valleys, with their amazing yellow, green and red tones shifting to beech forests and into breathtaking granite faces and glaciers. It was an excellent goodbye to Patagonia back-country. Now we are back in Puerto Natales and eating and resting up for our trip to Isla Magdalena, home of the largest penguin colony in Chile. Then we'll leave southern Ppatagonia for the north! We'll write again as soon as possible! Lots of love to all!
10 / 01 / 2008
Thanks for all the birthday wishes! (Capricorns DO rock!) We´re sending all our love to you guys from the land of the glaciers. We had an interesting 4 days in the Fitz Roy region. Our journey started out with rain in El Calafate and didn´t stop until yesterday. This gave us lots of time for contemplation, plannint, and sleeping, but little else! We were beginning to feel quite depressed, coming all the way to Patagonia without being able to see a thing, with all of the peaks shrouded in cloud-cover, when low-and-behold at noon on our last day the sun came out and stayed out! We took this opportunity and ran with it, hiking for 11 hours nearly without stopping. Our legs and feet are nearly ready to fall off, but it was worth every second of it--even worth the 3 days of waiting! The landscape of Patagonia is exactly what feeds the imaginations of paleolithic enthusiasts. The terrain, like the weather, changes constantly, from barren steppes to lush beech forests; from towering, snow-capped granite cliffs to valleys scattered with green and red shrubs with the occasional patch of gorgeous wildflowers. It was a landscape we literally could not take our eyes off of, even as we knew we had to get back before dark (which here means midnight!). The icing on the cake was the torturous treck up to a lake at the base of the Fitz Roy range. I was exhausted and sat at the top to eat something, while Can, desperate to get any photos he could on this one day of sunshine ran around shooting away. he came running back, calling me to follow and let me around a granite mound. On the other side, beneath the glacier, we came before such a breath-taking scene we couldn´t believe our eyes. Hundreds of feet below us was a lake of a color I cannot properly name but can only describe as the most vivid green blue. A pure glacial lake tucked in a bowl of tall granite walls covered with snow and rivulets of ice water. We can only hope that Can´s photos can do it justice! The trip back to camp was equally rewarding and we felt satisfied, if thoroughly exhausted, as we stumbled into camp with the last tiny glow of light. On to Torres del Paine, where the weather is even more unpredictable, if you can believe it! Lots of love, Julia and Can
05 / 01 / 2008
We have gone from winter in Istanbul to summer in South America, boiling in Buenos Aires to chilled in Patagonia, and are anxiously awaiting what comes next. We left BA yesterday for El Calafate, the gateway to Patagonia. We were initially rather disappointed upon arrival, with a dry windy environment similar to chapparal, but today we got to see the "real" Patagonia while touring Moreno Glacier. The trip there was about an hour by bus, and as we got closer, the landscape became greener, with various pines and shrubbery-much more like the Pagagonia we had anticipated. We kept getting little peaks of the glacier along the way, and were amazed to see the massive ice wall appear before us. It looks like a huge wave of white-blue snow rushing through the valley. Though it is not one of the bigger glaciers around, it is apparently one of the most impressive, as it is still advancing, and ends in the magnificent Lake Argentina. We caught several large chunks of the glacier falling off into the lake with a resounding echo, reveiling an unbelievable transluscent blue below. The wind was impressive, but I guess it is just a taste of what´s to come. Tomorrow we head off to the north for the Fitzroy Range for about 4 days of backpacking. We´ll be camping near another glacier there, see some spectacular granite faces similar to Yosemite, and maybe even swim in some glacial lakes! (talk about joining the polar bear club!) We will hopefully check back in afterwards, but if not, you can imagine us to the south in Torres del Paine! Take care everyone! Love, Julia and Can
04 / 01 / 2008
Ooooooh! It´s all so exciting! We love reading your notes, so keep feeding us!! It´s good to have reminders of who we miss at home (both homes!) Buenos Aires was your typical big city, but very relaxed. The food was good (Can especially enjoyed the meat!), and the cemetary where Eva Peron was buried was just amazing (you´ll have to wait for photos). The spontaneous street tango in La Boca, a colorful working-class/tourist trap neighborhood was gorgeous, and we´re looking forward to more at the end of the trip. Can got his Peru visa, so you can all expect tales of Machu Pichu in the months ahead. We celebrated my birthday in a Mexican restaurant, and I never expected Argentinian-Mexican food to be so different from real Mexican food! Well, I guess they are far away, even though they´re on the same continent! We followed dinner up with a few hours in a salsa club were the dancers were just amazing-spinning and girating all over the place! Take care everyone! Love, Julia and Can
01 / 01 / 2008
Happy New Year, everyone! We have decided to start a tradition of flying on New Year´s every year! You wouldn´t beleive how empty and easy the airports were! The flight itself was also fun, complete with lots of alcohol, live music, and strangers making out with eachother in the seat next to us! We landed in BA an hour late to to some exciting weather, and were welcomed by lush greenness similar to northern California. We immediately crashed in our hostel, and are now getting set to take our first peak at this exciting city! Our love to everyone! Julia and Can
