Almost back to Brazil!

Iguazu Falls, on the border of Argentina and Brazil. It was great to hear some Portuguese again. Oh, and it was Tony´s B-day.

A little nest under the catwalk.

That´s the kind of wheelchair they use in the Jungle.

Bird park on the Brazil side.

Don´t forget not to give the animals a hamburger.

This isn´t one of those websites...

Making the best of the crutches situation

A real Argentinian asado!

Making ourselves at home in the bus station in Federal after getting dropped off pre-dawn.

In the Truck

Tony and Julio at the Campo he built.

Tony with Lucho, our new good friend.

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving dinner on the bus!

Now we´re in Mendoza, almost back to the border with Chile. We´ve been spending a lot of time on busses lately, getting a lot of reading and uncomfortable sleeping in. On Wednesday, we fly to Auckland, New Zealand!

Desert Whirlwind

Whew. Okay, we´re back in civilization after lots more traveling. Sorry for taking so long for the update, but we´ve been as capricious as the South American wind.

We took a half-hour flight due south over the riots in Tacna from Arequipa, Peru to Arica, Chile (we lost two hours in the time change, oddly enough). Arica is beautiful and, apparently, the scene of some big wave surfing championships. We were quick to pass through, though, and caught the overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama, smack dab in the middle of the dryest desert in the world. It was great to back in the desert, continuing our Desert LoveAffair (as I like to call it). There, we met up with bunches of other travelers, including some Californians land roving over South America with their dog. We hopped in with them to ride over the border to do some climbing in Tugzle, Argentina, where a bashed ankle happened. We met another "overlander" couple, who are really doing it right! Checked into a great hospital experience in Salta (where all visits are free and the service was very fast!) and were relieved to see a crack-free x-ray. That was good. Anna´s still getting around on crutches, but getting better all the time. After reposing in Salta for a few days, we got a crazy hair and decided to take 24 hour (!!!) bus ride to Iguazu Falls, back on the border with Brazil and Paraguay, which is where we are now. It´s hot and there´s a pet monkey down the street named Mona who mostly ignores you, but when she looks at you, she raises her eyebrows in the most curious way. We head to the Falls proper tomorrow, and I´m sure there will be lots of photos to share about that!

Ok. Here´s a bit of what we got:

Wow. The Valley of the Moon. Sunset bike ride. Awesome.

Dunes

Near San Pedro is the Chuquicamata copper mine, the world´s largest copper mine (this place is full of superlatives). My grandfather (this is Tony writing), Robert Lydon, worked there as a chemist in the late 1920´s and early 1930´s. Here´s a photo of him from the same epoch, in front of the monument in Civic Center Park in Denver, where he grew up.


It was emotional for me to be there. I never met him. Things sure have changed since he was there. The Chuquicamata town and it´s buildings have all been closed off; most North Americans are gone, and the mine has expanded to epic proportions. Nonetheless, it felt good to make some connection to the past and to a place where he was as a young man.



So, about our friends from California: check their page. We had a lot in common! Turns out, they were on their way to do some rock climbing across the border from Argentina. "Well, how about that!", we said, and promptly tagged along!

The beautiful rig.

Steve and the GPS wait for the llamas to cross the road, somewhere out in the middle of the Altiplano, on the Tropic of Cancercorn (as we kept calling it; the altitude was going to our heads).

With Sierra, the dog, always on the lookout for stray vicuñas and llamas that have wandered from the herd.

Pretty good volcanic tuff bouldering to be had at Tugzle, with lots more to be cleaned up and climbed on. Although at 4000+ meters, even walking is tough.

A delicious frisbee of bread for lunch. Mmm! Gus, you´re missing out!

The beautiful view from SprainedAnkle´sVille. Look at the size of that thing!

Anna getting around with her make-shift crutches: a shovel and a camp chair, showing off the cruiser of a couple from Holland who have been traveling the world now for FIVE AND HALF YEARS!! Check out their site.

Unbelievable. I think all this exposure to these long-term overland travellers has planted some ideas in our heads...

Love that desert! Blazing hot and windy during the day, and freezing cold and still windy at night! It´s the only way to keep the dust out of your eyes.

Thanks for reading and we love you all! More pics in Picasa!

Southern Peru Stalemate

We´ve been in Arequipa for about the past week and as soon as we arrived, we heard from a cabbie that new strikes and roadblocks are flaring up further south. No!! That´s the only direction that we need to go! North is where we are coming from, to the west is the ocean, east is Bolivia (with its expensive visas for us estadounidenses, and an explicit official dislike for the same). The strikes are brought on by disputes over the distribution of the mineral wealth of the region. Two cities are at odds: Moquegua and Tacna. Under old rules, one was losing out. Under new proposed rules, the other stands to lose out. Hence, stalemate. So bad that the government here has declared a state of emergency! More here if you´re interested.

But, a message to moms, we are still very far from any violence. So don´t worry about us. The city of Arequipa is beautiful. People here are very proud of their city. The area here is surrounded by volcanoes, and many of the buildings are built out of large blocks of white volcanic rock and everything is kept very clean, the cleanest city we have seen in Peru. Part of our love for this place is that it reminds us so much of home. A high, dry, thriving desert city perched below tall mountains and blue skies. The outskirts are very green and lush; a great deal of irrigation has allowed life here. Ranching, livestock, and mining abound. We heard about corridas de toros in which two bulls fight in the ring. We are yet to see it, but it sounds really interesting. In many ways, it feels like we have stepped back in time quite a bit. The shops are full of dusty leather, saddles, guitars, and flutes. We saw a shop that had this old school printing press:

But at the same time, the city is flooded with young people, and here we are connecting to the universe on the web. Here, you can see, from a simplified perspective, two ways of life. The older generation with their traditional dress, and the younger people yearning for a modern lifestyle. The culture of the city seems to be blossoming. We went to see a free presentation of Bizet´s Carmen at the Claustros de la Compañia near the Plaza de Armas. It was an amazing show in a peaceful courtyard under the moon and Southern skies, with the guest director coming from Buenos Aires. The lights went out halfway through the final act, and the orchestra finished the climax in the dark! We also saw a choral concert that was very fun and playful and also deeply expressive and appreciative of the artform of composition as it grows in its own way in Latin America.

Nearby are some massive cañones and some incredible countryside. Colca cañon is, apparently, one of the deepest canyons in the world, so we decided to go check it out. Deep is right! Getting down to the bottom was work enough, but getting back up to the top, well that was another story. We hiked around for 3 days, and 2 nights, coming back early than we would have liked so that we could keep travelling south. Oh well. We are flying to Northern Chile tomorrow afternoon. Here´s some pics from the canyon and from our time here:

The local paper with pics of what´s going on in Tacna

We Cuyed! That right there is a cuy chactado (i.e., fried guinea pig)

The view from the Colca Canyon´s rim

With our buddy, Rob, at the mirador de Yanahuana, with El Misti in the background

We´re on our way to Arica, Chile, tomorrow. The roadblocks and strikes show no sign of stopping (already in their 9th day), so we´re going to fly over that mess in an aeroplane.

Hope everyone had a great halloween. People here are also relieved that Barack won. I think that the rest of the world is proud of us, America. I have a feeling that the States that we will return home to next year will be a different one...