Lindo Chile Norte Grande

Well, surf up it was in Iquique and Arica!

Nice beaches, nice wheather, big waves and beach rescue teams! We felt so Baywatch :)

With an average of 1 mm rain per year in Iquique, you could really say we were on the borders of the driest desert in the world, as in San Pedro de Atacama. After one day of enjoying the beach, we went on an amazing tour of the surroundings of Iquique (which comes by the wayfrom the local Aymara language,Ique Ique, which means ¨dream dream¨).

Iquique was in the early 20th centurya boom-town of the nitrate mining industry. We visited old ghost towns and old nitrate factories, really impressiveto experience that all this was done in such harsh circumstances, being in the desert.

On the same tour we saw geoglyphs of llamas, human figures, birds etc, probably made by the Tiwanaku people, a civilization long before the Incas. Realizing these figures had been there for more than 1000 years was already impressive, but especially the circumstances we saw them in made a deep impression on us. About 40 degrees celsius, in a salt flat, totally unprotected from the elemens or humans,these geoglyphs were there, almost randomly,appearing tobe forgotten bytoday´s civilization. In Europe, this would be a highly advertised site, highly protected, with a museum and entrance fee, etc. Very special to experience this!

And well, of course not only the mind got plenty of food for thought,but the inner human being got some attention too, when we next visitedthe town of Pica, an oasis town in the desert. If anyone has ever had a pisco sour orsomething similar, you know you will needthe limy fruit Limon de Pica. It grows here, together with other marvelous types of fruits,such as mango and guayabe. Lekker!!

Up next was the town of Arica. We rentedsome bikes and cycled around the town and its surroundings and got the best insidertip we could havegotten about Arica: the harbourwith its sealons and pelicans! Jaw-dropping experience! These animals are really beautiful, and it was an absolute privilige tosee themsoclose by!

To top off thisexperience, wehired a4WD car for the next day, to drive up into the mountains east of Arica and some very old Aymara andInca valleys with fortresses, terraces, etc. We loved the surreal landscapes we drove through, varying from totally dry moon-like plains, to lush green hills with flowers and goats, to sanddunes and multicoloured rock formations. We loved the immense varietyof cacti, the nandus and vicuñas and the Aymara villages we drove through. We definately got to know a completelydifferent side of Chileagain.

On the morning, we left for Peru, we had another true Chilean experience: an earthquake. Although it was really small, and nothing happened, it still was kind of frightening.Everything starts to shake around you. Really weird!

Well,next time a story about Arequipa and the Colca Canyon!

Adios!

Santiago versus Buenos Aires!

Right now we are sort of stuck in de desert of San Pedro de Atacama at an altitude of 2400 meters.
But now first how we got here:

In Mendoza we really had a great time in de hotsprings (got terribly sunburned though). Really a great day of complete relaxation!
The wine tour was great as well

We also tasted rose Malbec. We never tasted this before.
Que rico! The bus trip to Santiago was great as well, crossing the Andes. Really impressive.

But the most impressive was Santiago! All travelguides and a lot of people rave about Buenos Aires. How great it is. And Santiago mostly get`s mild reviews. But we do not agree! Au contraire!
Santiago is great, better than Buenos Aires. More beautiful, much better food, nicer people, more relaxed, better metro system, everything can be done by foot.
So we spent three full days in Santiago, crossing the city on foot, eating, drinking real coffee, seeing musea, relaxing in the parks. We visited La Chascona, the house of Pablo Neruda. What an impressive life story this writer had. Wealso walked one afternoon with a guide through the city, and discussed many subjects likeChilean food,movies, and cities but also ´heavier´ subjects like politics. It is amazing how openand wise young people we met talk about the Pinochet era. And his influencecan sadly be noticed until today!

We also had lunch in the famous fish market of Santiago were we tried the famous paila marina (vis pannetje). A soup with all kinds of seafood, which we could point out afterwards in the market. I don`t know what we ate actually, some sort of seacucumber and a few other things which I really could not give a name or place. But an experience it was!
In between we visited Valparaiso, a real harbour town 2 hours from Santiago.
Valparaiso is build onmany hills. There are 15 funiculars that can bring you up and down the hills. Up on the hills you have great views of the city and the bay.
The old harbour district is really run down. But some other barrios really have a great vibe, with nice coffeeshops, artisan workshops (go linkse hobbies go!)restaurants, shops and galleries, nice colored houses. Also the markets are really a treat to walk around on.
We had a really great time in Santiagoand were really sad that we had to leave. We really recommend Santiago to everyone (over Buenos Aires).

In Puerto Natales we deceided to book a flight from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama. In stead of a busride of 24 hours. Actually we flew to Calama and than took the bus for 2 hours to San Pedro de Atacama.
San Pedro is really a different world. A real desert town. The center of town is actually quite nice with lots of restaurants, cobbled streets, handycraft stores and white adobehouses. (The pictures in the picturegallery of the streets of San Pedro are actually of the backstreets.)
We spent three days doing all kinds of trips. To the Moon valley, salt lakes and the Tatio geysers at 4200 meters. Getting up at 3:30 hours in the morning! Stargazing at 1:00 hours at night. Seeing Saturn and it´s rings through a telescope. It was really fantastic, until we got back from the geysers.
Suzan got a light form of altitudesickness. So to be safe we deceided not to proceed into Bolivia at this time. A great part of Bolivia is around 4000 meters above sealevel.
We will spend 2 more days in San Pedro for Suzan to get well again and then head down to the coast again.
All plans thus change drastically, but that´s the challenge! New destinations, new things to see and discover

And we will try to conquer the hights of Bolivia later. Better prepared, with quicker options to get back down to lower altitudes.

Let´s find out what Iquique and Arica (beach-boy-beach-babe towns) have to offer. Surf´s up!

La Pampa!

La pampa de Argentina, qué bonito!

The last few days, we had an amazing timeat the estancia (ranch) of the uncle and aunt of Joost. Think lots & lotsof space, 2500 cows, almost 40 horses, beautiful sunsets, heavy thunderstorms, gorgeous colours, and lots of other animals: enormous grasshoppers, armadillos, deer, tarantulas, etc.

We walked together with the dogs of the family through the enormous lands, and also: we went horseback-riding! For the true gaucho-feel. Absolutely lovely :)

So many thanks to our hosts, for many nice conversations and their hospitality! We really hope we can return this favour one day !

At the moment, we are inMendoza, Argentina, which isthe wine capital of Argentina. Not bad,right? Yesterday, we tasted our first locally produced Malbec.We can only say, just forget all the Malbecs that you´vetasted in Europe, and do come to Argentina and taste the real stuff. Very rich inflavour and smell,québonito!

Tomorrow we will soak in the hotspings nearby, that contain water that comes directly from the Andes :) And the day after, we will cycle through the region and visit some wine houses.

On Thursday, we will continue to Santiago. Looking forward to all Chile has to offer!

Take care everyone and hasta la pasta!

J & S

Quatros Elementos!

What started as a stroll in the park, became a rough encounter with Mother Nature and her 4 Elements.......

How come? It all started with a busride from Puerto Natales to the National Park Torres del Paine. We were dropped in the pooring rain at the departure of the boat that would take us to the start of our 5 days hike.

Earth: mountains, mountains, rocks, hills, mountains and even more mountains.

Water: glaciers, glaciers, glaciers, small lakes, big lakes, emerald/blue/green/grey lakes, rain, and pisco sour.....

Fire: warmed ourselves at the fires in the refugios where we slept, Joost´s fire-like fever, Suzan´s bad-as-a-fire-headache after pisco sour happy hour....

Wind: from a mild breeze, to a 70 km/h wind, to a blow-you-off-your-socks storm at the Grey Glacier

And last but not least, Quatros Elementos is the name of the hostel where we stayed. Such friendly and helpful hosts, really incredible, who told us a lot about their country and who became friends. A very lovely place in a beautiful, cosy village. We were really sad to be leaving there.

We never hiked 5 days in a row before but really liked it! The adventure started out on a rough patch: really bad wheather, Joost had the flue, I had a bad cold. But it all started to turn for the better after a day: clouds started to disappear, we were getting used to walking many, many hours, and of course there was the one refugio with the pisco sour ( pretty stiff drink, brandy from grapes mixed with sugar and a very small kind of lime). Which tasted incredibly good after hiking, but the next morning.......

Ah well, hiking apparently kills flue bacteria and hangover headaches because from that morning onwards, we felt like superman and walked a 24 km-9 hours-and-1200 hight difference- hike. Really long day but beautiful, with a sqeeking, rupturing glacier, lots of sun, deer, and stunning views.

The next day we understood why the Chilean say, national park Torres del Paine has 4 seasons in 1 day: we started out in a kind of automny wheather, grey, cloudy, windy, followed by hot, sunny summer wheather, then rain and pretty strong winds that almost blew us from the mountains combined with an enormous drop of temperature, so that was winter. And ended the day with some sunrays, warmer again and singing birds, like in spring. It was really impressive to experence Mother Nature at full strength. It makes you feel so humble as a human being.

Also, being away from telephone, internet, email, cars, etc. for 5 days was a nice experience. Pretty rare these days.

Yesterday, we came back to civilization in Puerto Natales. Today, we are back in Argentina. We will visit the Perito Moreno Glacier tomorrow and will continue our travels to Neuquèn and Santa Rosa (also Argentina) to visit Joost´s aunt and uncle there. We are very much looking forward to that!

Hasta luego!

Un beso!

Pingüinos!!!!

Hola chicos,

We have our bags again! The day after we arrived the airline told us to go to the airport to try to get our bags. So that´s what we did, and we found them. Everything went the Argetinian way, claro que sí!. We had to wait for ages of course in the arrivals hall, and then we had to wait again, and wait some more, whilst seeing our bags on a cart outside of the terminal, but finally we got our bags!

Then a beautiful day in Ushuaia followed, with a trip to a pinguin colony in the Beagle channel. Incredible, so many pinguins and also 2 different types of pinguins! They were really cool, as pinguins are of course, and really, really funny

They made a sort of yelling-noise, never heard it before. And were playing in the ocean, like small children, and pulled stunts endlessly. Of course, we took loads of pictures, and will try to upload some of them.

Afterwards, we went to the National Parque Tierra del Fuego, and did a hike of 3 hours. At the start of the trail was the southernmost postoffice in the world, at which a charming old guy was working, who listened to classical music and stamped our passports and postcards. Really nice! The hike was absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful views of lakes, mountains, birds, animals like a fox, a grouse-like bird and woodpeckers ( we heard them giggle, and now understand why Woody Woodpecker makes the sound he makes, real woodpeckers make exactly this noise).

The next day, 26 Febr, we took a 13 hours busdrive to Puerto Natales in Chile. It takes a while but then you really get something

We had to go through the passport controls, which took about 2 hours ( never thought we would at one time appreciate Schengen that much). During our trip we crossed the Magellan Strait by ferry, and some Comorran dolphins were swimming beside the boat, beautiful! Back on land again, the next surprise was waiting for us, in the vast grasslands beside the roads, suddenly emus were grazing. We really had to look twice. Some hours before we also had to make a double-take: between the many sheep, suddenly there were sheep with very, very long necks, a.k.a. lamas!

We arrived in Puerto Natales at 9 pm, and walked to our hostel: a hostel that religiously recycles everything they use, bakes its own bread, is build with green and recycled materials. And has very nice hosts! Upon arrival in Puerto Natales, we immediately noticed some big differences between Argentina and Chile. The atmosphere is more relaxed in Chile, and then of course the food: que rico! After 2 weeks of only meat, suddenly lots of fish and seafood on the menu. We had a lovely meal with fish, potatoes, veggies and rice.

This morning we talked to our hosts at breakfast and they are really harcore recycle junkies and told us about their passion. Also, they told us a bit about how they feel about people from Argentina. This in a way confirmed what we already read and experienced so far. Small country vs. big country basicly.

Today is a relaxing day, a true Sunday. Tomorrow, we will go for a 5 day hike to the National Parc Torres del Paine. We will be offline for about a week, but will be back

Take care and hasta luego!

Buenos Aires Part 3

Hola Chicos !!!

First we want to say: some of you already sent us e-mails about your lives. We just want to say that we really appreciate all the stories you send us. It is really nice to read about life continuing at home, please keep us informed as well !!

We made it to Ushuaia, but don´t ask how !! What a trip! Our plane was supposed to leave from the domestic airport of Buenos Aires at 9:00 hours. So we thought 2 hours before on a domestic flight would be enough. We arrived at 7:00 hours. One big heap of people, literally. There was no way of telling who was in which queue. And all queues were at least 100 meters long. We waited for 2 hours to be able to check in! And for the atentive reader: yes, we checked in on the moment the plane was supposed to leave. I, Joost, really are not made for this kind of stress (poor Suzan), mainly because our spanish is not good enough to find out if the plane would wait or not. But we made it in time, so the plane was 1 hour delayed.

After a 3 hour flight we found out there was no luggage for anyone on the plane ! Luckily the temperature in Ushuaia is around 15°C, but all our warm clothing is in our backpacks as well as toothbrushes, clean underware, etc.

The luggage can arrive tonight at 20:30 or 21:30 hours. But it can also not.... They are going to call us when the luggage arrives and drop it off at our appartment. Fingers crossed! More about Ushuaia and our luggage in the next story. Now back to Buenos Aires.

The hostel we picked was in a great neighbourhood, Recoleta. Lots of shops, restaurants, everyting was a bit fancier. Except our hostel. After the beautiful appartement, this was a huge set back. The room was cramped, no aircon, and a fan that was not faster than a turtle on it´s fastest speed, noizy, but most of all the communal kitchen was horrible! I can´t describe all that was wrong. After applying a new mindset, that is what travelling is all about, hey , we overcame our fears for even more stomac problems and cooked the first and only meal in this kitchen. The kitchen in our appartment in Ushuaia doesn´t have the necessary tools as well. Two pans (no frying pan), no can opener, etc.

Anyway, after checking in in our hostel in Recoleta, we went to see the neighbourhood, Belgrano. This was a bit like Recoleta, but less hip. We also discovered a china town here, were all Argentinian tourists probably came for the weekend. Crazy! And two blocks back was the calm and chique Belgrano.

After a warm night in the hostel we went to the neighbourhood La Boca. Lonely Planet advises not to wander off too far into the neighbourhood, because it is unsafe, even during the day. La Boca is an old harbour neigbourhood were all immigrants hoped to find work in de harbour. There is no business any more in this harbour, but the immigrants are still there. It´s rough, we did wander off into the neigbourhood and found out more about the real La Boca than most tourists do. The most tourists just go to one really crazy touriststreet, which is horrible!

We also saw La Bombonera, the home stadium of Maradonna, where he grew up. The man is still a kind of God, he is visible everywhere.

We thought about eating meat from the street BBQ´s, but because our stomachs were not yet OK, we skipped this. Behind the old colonial house facades, you´ll find little cardboard houses.

It´s sad to see that this neigbourhood is really struggling to find a new future.

After La Boca we went to the new waterfront neighbourhood, Puerto Madero. Which looks a bit like Java-eiland in Amsterdam. But also there is a great ecological park, where we gladly spent the rest of the afternoon away from the city´s noise and polluted air. We even thought we saw a big snake here, but then I said to an already really scared Suzan 'It´s no snake. He has shoulders'. There are supposed to be a lot of river turtles here, so that´s what it was, but we only saw its head at first.

On our way back into the city we discovered there was a nice tango show that night. So we bought tickets. We did not have time to change, so I, Joost, went in casual shorts and a t-shirt I spilled saladdressing on earlier during diner. I really looked like a tourist and I really felt uncomfortable!. But the show was very nice, with all different costumes, singing and a real tango orchestra. It was a great way to end 9 days in BA. A long time, so it was time to go. We deceided not to go to Montevideo, Urugay, the last two days, because of the big hustle. By skipping Montevideo, we missed carnaval! Boohoo, but it was a wise and good choice.

Buenos Aires, we will come back to find out even more about the multi faces of the great city. We really enjoyed! Now it´s time for nature, fresh air and hiking !

Hasta luego, amigos!!

P.S. I tryed to link a few video´s in the blog, but somehow the embedded youtube code is not working. So here are the direct links. Two videos I had to rotate, but I did not succeed on these stupid computers here, so please rotate your head :-)

Los Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68kgsa9fzs8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-5DWBFdBuQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOEzEE34hpk

Milonga:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcrAfRsKNro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laS6iXxFSmg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNRqnLoDVLY

Tango show in the milonga club:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt_7KHlN6Zg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qy5UbtvRIg

To steak & to tango !!

Buenos Aires Part 1

Caliente , caliente !!! 32 degrees Celsius today

After 3 days of gorgeous and very warm wheather we like to tell you a bit about BA.
Very busy, very warm, very bustling, very many people, so many things to do and see. Wow, what a city!
The city feels very European, and more specifically very Italian. Lots of heladerias, caffe, pizzas, fresh pasta. And also in language: almost no one says ´hasta luego´ when they leave, everyone says ´ciao´. Also: we bought a ticket for the metro today, after paying and thanking the lady in the booth, she replied with ´prego´. Funny, right?

Today, we were at the Plaza de Mayo, and saw a protest by the Madres del Plaza de Mayo (Dwaze Moeders). It was easy to imagine what it must have been like some 25 to 30 years ago, during and shortly after the junta was abolished. Pretty impressive!

Afterwards, we walked through the city´s business district, with business suites and powerskirts. We felt very out of place

The neighbourhood where our appartment is (by the way: very lovely appartment, feels really like we are actually living in BA) is as you imagine BA. Many-floor buidings, in beautiful style, small shops, many bars and restaurants, open air lunches and dinners everywhere, lots of trees, many parks.

Yesterday, we were in the museum of modern art of BA, the MALBA. Nice and odd in some cases, but always interesting. And, did you know that BA has a park which is cat-capitol? Everywhere we looked, cats!

We´re really feeling a bit like we are in BA already for many weeks, and start to get the hang of it. The Netherlands are pretty much fading away...... you could say.