marlene checks in from Chile
Hola from Chile,
Well, I made it through an amazing five weeks in Peru and just arrived in Chile yesterday. I am in San Pedro
de Atacama, a tiny village that serves as the gateway to the Atacama desert. I have signed up for the full
range of tours here--three different Chilean desert tours, including sunset and moon rise at the Valley of
the Moon tonight, with a full moon, and a four-day trip into the Bolivian side of the Atacama including an area called Dali´s rocks, with crazy formations. Quite high altitude so I´ll be back in all my cold weather gear, including staying one night in a salt hotel. The tours are real cheap up here but everything else in Chile is much more expensive than Peru. I´ve also noticed in my one day more cell phones and way more cigarettes. I can count on one hand the number of locals smoking in Peru. But both countries have a lot of no smoking laws in restaurants, etc. Peru even passed a mandatory seat belt law for the whole while I was there, even the backseat. My last 10 days in Peru were spent heading up to the north, where tourists rarely venture. The Australian I met in Nazca, Rachel, and I traveled the whole way together, which was great, including several overnight buses. Most of the buses are really quite comfortable in Peru and I caught up on my B-movies, as well. My one bus ride so far in Chile was a bit of culture shock. Peru was more organized in purchasing tickets the day before departure. In Chile you just walk up, but the signs were not as clear where I was boarding from and at one bathroom stop I emerged to an empty bus slot, having a quick heart attack before one man tried to explain in Spanish that it would be returning. I couldn´t tell if he said, Don´t worry the bus is coming back,¨or ¨Sorry tourist, you´re screwed,¨ but it did return and all was well. The rest of my Peru trip was really wonderful. The only disappointment was the Isla Ballestas, ¨Poor man´s Galapagos¨ which would have been beautiful in better weather (this season it´s just misty and gray
on the coast, much like San Francisco on the worst day of August), and more enjoyable if the tour company
didn´t race around the island so fast. Penguins, Peruvian boobies (um... the bird that is), pelicans, sea lions, all inhabit the small rocks, pooping on tour boats from overhead, and making lots of noise. I didn´t have enough time to see everything I wanted in the north but squeezed in quite a bit. The whole area is filled with ruins and sites dating well before the Incas. Also, the tour guides in the north rarely speak English, so I had to make do with my Spanish. I could understand a few guides quite well, others were a bit of a mystery. We started in Chiclayo-Lambayeque, famed for its Lord of Sipan tomb and Sipan museum. It´s the King Tut of Peru, a tomb that was filled with gold crowns, gold breast plates, massive earrings and other adornments for the Lord of Sipan, an important figure who died at the age of 40. His whole family was buried with him as was custom, including a few sacrifices, like his son. They threw in a dog, tomb guardians, a llama, concubines, the works. It, like most tombs up here, was raided long ago by tomb robbers, but much was recovered and is displayed exquisitely in the museum. We also visited the witches market in Chiclayo, an area known for its shamen. One young guy in the market gave us each a little bottle of potion mixed from herbs according to our birth signs. He did a little shake of the bottle and said it would bring luck, money, and safe travels--for the rest of my life to boot. Gotta love that. All for about $5. Another overnight bus got us to the highlands area of Chachopoyas, a relaxed tiny town amid mountains, waterfalls, and more ruins. The biggie is Kuelap, supposedly the Machu Picchu of the north. It´s a three hour car ride on bad roads, but Peru is trying to promote this area and plans to build a cable car from one of the towns straight to the top of the mountain where it´s situated. I wanted to see it before it changes. There is a lot of reconstruction going on at the site, but it´s not nearly as reworked as Machu Picchu. It´s a nice jungly walk around, though, with some cute llamas grazing amid the ruins. I didn´t quite understand our guide that day and not much is known about Kuelap yet, except it was a fortress city built by the Chachopoyans. It will be a while before the tourist hordes start coming. We saw mostly Peruvian school kids. From Chachopoyas we also visited some sarcophogi sites, with the mummy jars embedded in the mountain, as well as a walk along another old Inca trail for a few hours from a small town Levanto back to Chachopoyas. I did that with another solo San Franciscan traveler we met in Chachopoyas who is an electrician for the city and has spent a month here mostly camping by himself. The locals in Levanto were friendly (and mildly sauced on some local beer). They offered us the brew but I declined thinking of the 12-hour bus ride I would be taking that night. I took a few photos of the women and they made a big deal of me sending them the photos. The only issue was the address, which they finally agreed should be ´¨Bodega with the phone box,¨ Levanto. I ate quite well in Peru. Nearly every town, including Chachopoyas, had a vegetarian restaurant. In Chachopoyas the restaurant Eden had a live infomercial-type demo going on when we were there. A woman had a styrofoam cup, a vitamin pill, and some liquid in the cup--oil or petroleum, or something. She dropped it in and the top of the cup melted. I´m not sure what the point was--either pro vitamin, anti styrofoam, or to stop drinking petroleum. The audience, aside from us, was a small group of locals who looked like they had been dragged to a Time Share meeting. I also stopped on the way back to Lima at Trujillo, known for its large ancient city Chan Chan and old Temple of the Moon with some beautiful friezes. I took an organized day trip since I only had one day and it was well worth it. Good guide, great sites. Back to Lima, which I actually like. I spent two days total there and saw several great museums, including the museum of gold and a ceramics museum with an erotic ceramics gallery. The monastery of San Francisco was another highlight with the oldest Library in Latin America I believe and some freaky catacombs with very organized bones. Security is very visible all over Lima, especially near the main plaza where I felt I could have walked around with money hanging out of my pockets and cameras around my neck without issue. I have to say I am a bit ruined-out, but the many mummies never got old. I also managed to find a counterculture shop with anti McDonald´s wristbands (McMuerte, or McDeath in translation) and punk rock buttons from the U.S. My tour leaves in an hour, so have to get my camera gear ready. After the desert it´s Easter Island and then my convention in Santiago. I have a couple of weeks after that for Patagonia. I´ll update soon.
Well, I made it through an amazing five weeks in Peru and just arrived in Chile yesterday. I am in San Pedro
de Atacama, a tiny village that serves as the gateway to the Atacama desert. I have signed up for the full
range of tours here--three different Chilean desert tours, including sunset and moon rise at the Valley of
the Moon tonight, with a full moon, and a four-day trip into the Bolivian side of the Atacama including an area called Dali´s rocks, with crazy formations. Quite high altitude so I´ll be back in all my cold weather gear, including staying one night in a salt hotel. The tours are real cheap up here but everything else in Chile is much more expensive than Peru. I´ve also noticed in my one day more cell phones and way more cigarettes. I can count on one hand the number of locals smoking in Peru. But both countries have a lot of no smoking laws in restaurants, etc. Peru even passed a mandatory seat belt law for the whole while I was there, even the backseat. My last 10 days in Peru were spent heading up to the north, where tourists rarely venture. The Australian I met in Nazca, Rachel, and I traveled the whole way together, which was great, including several overnight buses. Most of the buses are really quite comfortable in Peru and I caught up on my B-movies, as well. My one bus ride so far in Chile was a bit of culture shock. Peru was more organized in purchasing tickets the day before departure. In Chile you just walk up, but the signs were not as clear where I was boarding from and at one bathroom stop I emerged to an empty bus slot, having a quick heart attack before one man tried to explain in Spanish that it would be returning. I couldn´t tell if he said, Don´t worry the bus is coming back,¨or ¨Sorry tourist, you´re screwed,¨ but it did return and all was well. The rest of my Peru trip was really wonderful. The only disappointment was the Isla Ballestas, ¨Poor man´s Galapagos¨ which would have been beautiful in better weather (this season it´s just misty and gray
on the coast, much like San Francisco on the worst day of August), and more enjoyable if the tour company
didn´t race around the island so fast. Penguins, Peruvian boobies (um... the bird that is), pelicans, sea lions, all inhabit the small rocks, pooping on tour boats from overhead, and making lots of noise. I didn´t have enough time to see everything I wanted in the north but squeezed in quite a bit. The whole area is filled with ruins and sites dating well before the Incas. Also, the tour guides in the north rarely speak English, so I had to make do with my Spanish. I could understand a few guides quite well, others were a bit of a mystery. We started in Chiclayo-Lambayeque, famed for its Lord of Sipan tomb and Sipan museum. It´s the King Tut of Peru, a tomb that was filled with gold crowns, gold breast plates, massive earrings and other adornments for the Lord of Sipan, an important figure who died at the age of 40. His whole family was buried with him as was custom, including a few sacrifices, like his son. They threw in a dog, tomb guardians, a llama, concubines, the works. It, like most tombs up here, was raided long ago by tomb robbers, but much was recovered and is displayed exquisitely in the museum. We also visited the witches market in Chiclayo, an area known for its shamen. One young guy in the market gave us each a little bottle of potion mixed from herbs according to our birth signs. He did a little shake of the bottle and said it would bring luck, money, and safe travels--for the rest of my life to boot. Gotta love that. All for about $5. Another overnight bus got us to the highlands area of Chachopoyas, a relaxed tiny town amid mountains, waterfalls, and more ruins. The biggie is Kuelap, supposedly the Machu Picchu of the north. It´s a three hour car ride on bad roads, but Peru is trying to promote this area and plans to build a cable car from one of the towns straight to the top of the mountain where it´s situated. I wanted to see it before it changes. There is a lot of reconstruction going on at the site, but it´s not nearly as reworked as Machu Picchu. It´s a nice jungly walk around, though, with some cute llamas grazing amid the ruins. I didn´t quite understand our guide that day and not much is known about Kuelap yet, except it was a fortress city built by the Chachopoyans. It will be a while before the tourist hordes start coming. We saw mostly Peruvian school kids. From Chachopoyas we also visited some sarcophogi sites, with the mummy jars embedded in the mountain, as well as a walk along another old Inca trail for a few hours from a small town Levanto back to Chachopoyas. I did that with another solo San Franciscan traveler we met in Chachopoyas who is an electrician for the city and has spent a month here mostly camping by himself. The locals in Levanto were friendly (and mildly sauced on some local beer). They offered us the brew but I declined thinking of the 12-hour bus ride I would be taking that night. I took a few photos of the women and they made a big deal of me sending them the photos. The only issue was the address, which they finally agreed should be ´¨Bodega with the phone box,¨ Levanto. I ate quite well in Peru. Nearly every town, including Chachopoyas, had a vegetarian restaurant. In Chachopoyas the restaurant Eden had a live infomercial-type demo going on when we were there. A woman had a styrofoam cup, a vitamin pill, and some liquid in the cup--oil or petroleum, or something. She dropped it in and the top of the cup melted. I´m not sure what the point was--either pro vitamin, anti styrofoam, or to stop drinking petroleum. The audience, aside from us, was a small group of locals who looked like they had been dragged to a Time Share meeting. I also stopped on the way back to Lima at Trujillo, known for its large ancient city Chan Chan and old Temple of the Moon with some beautiful friezes. I took an organized day trip since I only had one day and it was well worth it. Good guide, great sites. Back to Lima, which I actually like. I spent two days total there and saw several great museums, including the museum of gold and a ceramics museum with an erotic ceramics gallery. The monastery of San Francisco was another highlight with the oldest Library in Latin America I believe and some freaky catacombs with very organized bones. Security is very visible all over Lima, especially near the main plaza where I felt I could have walked around with money hanging out of my pockets and cameras around my neck without issue. I have to say I am a bit ruined-out, but the many mummies never got old. I also managed to find a counterculture shop with anti McDonald´s wristbands (McMuerte, or McDeath in translation) and punk rock buttons from the U.S. My tour leaves in an hour, so have to get my camera gear ready. After the desert it´s Easter Island and then my convention in Santiago. I have a couple of weeks after that for Patagonia. I´ll update soon.
posted by hellkittennyc at 12:19 PM
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