Stuck in Chile - its chilly here...

As was suggested to us (in many guide books and lametayel and many people) we finished our 3 days tour in Chile, in San Pedro de Atacama. oh well - that was a mistake...
on the first day we got here, we´ve been punched with too many problems and expectations been shuttered to pieces.
This tourist town, I swear, has a mafia to steal the tourists money as fast as possible and in any way possible. and it does! Hotel prices start at $40 a night, and its basically a shack without even heating or breakfast not included! and meals? NY prices! and this town doesnt even have paved roads, its all dusty everywhere you go... amazing.
so you can imagine how upset I was, when after 3 days of no shower at all, they shot down the whole water system in this little town, and i had no shower for another day! raging!
And then, no bus to leave here when we wanted.. and then Michael got sick... not a very good day to be honest...

The next day we moved to a different hotel (with smart people and a water tank of their own) and the sun started shining.
Since Michael was sick, I joined James (our friend from the Salars tour) to do some half-day trips around SP de Atacama. We saw giant salt mountains, and the Valley of the Moon (pics attached of the sunset and with the moon) and more big geysers, and weird animals (like this rabbit with horse tail and dog ears), and medicin plants and beautiful views.

Will leave here on Tuesday to go to Argentina (finally) - to Salta!

Salars de Uyuni

To see all the pictures of the first day click here http://www.flickr.com/gp/9689397@N07/Nu9qq7

So...
we left around 11 am, joined our group and headed to the Salars. We´ve been planning for this trip for so long and it really was great.
Lucky us, we had a great group. A sweet and calm and quiet couple from Holand, Arian and Desiree, a great funny guy from England, James (who would go with us to Chile), and a young punky awsome girl from Catalunia named Julia. And us. Oh, and Ricardo the slow and quiet driver, with very good spirits.

The first day is all about the Salar. We go on that amazingly huge salt flats, and you think it will never end. There are some mountaing far away, but you have the illusion its a different world out there... The salt formations are amazing and beautiful, and in the middle of it all grows an island with HUGE TALL cactus plants which are there for thousands of years.

The second day we saw many beautiful blue and white lagunes, and pink flamingos and even a little baby fox. Has lots of sun and bompy roads and cold outside and warm in the jeep... Oh and saw also the ¨Arbol de Piedra¨ - a trea made of stone... beautiful. At night we got to our basic camp, which at 4800 meters was very cold, right next to Laguna Colorada, that in the evening changes its color from red to blue. honestly! in Michael eyes he saw it... ;-)

The last day we woke up at 5 in the morning, to try and see the sunrise over the 5000 meters high gaysers, but our jeep had another puncture in one wheel, and freezing our bones, we stood there outside the jeep and danced the Macarena... seruiously, anything to get warm! We then moved very fast through all the rest of the arranged stops of the day. Gaysers, quick breakfast, quick feet dipping in the thermal baths, quick ride to the Green Laguna, and then off to Chile!

All in all, we saw amazing views, and even my Michael (who got sick from too much cold) would say it was worth it!

Bye bye La Paz - Hello Uyuni!

Yes with little sadness we left La Paz, after 2.5 days of shopping and good eating and resting and internet and pictures... (and still had so much to do there)...

A few words about traveling by night buses - its not so much fun. Yes it saves lots of time and even money (no need to pay for a hotel...) but... you dont reallty get to sleep and if you do, it is full of waking up moments. Oh well - we safely arrived to Uyuni today.

Tomorrow morning we are heading towards 3 days in the Salars de Uyuni, a very cold and beautiful desert, and by Friday we will reach Chile - San Pedro de Atacama.

We wil write more than, promised!

Pampas... fantastic time

So...

We just came back from 3 wonderful days in the Pampas of Bolivia (which followed 3 wonderful days in the jungle...)

On the way overthere we saw a sloth! the poor thing was a little wet from the muchas rain we had...We saw many aligators and caymans,

and Capibaras (in hebrew - Hagai?) and beautiful amazing birds on the river like hawks and kites and vultures, and monkeys. Oh, and yes there are pink dolphins in that rivers! they are mostly grey but sometimes you can see the pinkish tint for the older ones...

We also fished piranas fish and immediately later ate them (yes thats what Michael is eating...).

It was really amazing times that we had with Robin from http://www.balatours.com/ - who also stopped the boat many times to pick up a plastic bottle - yes an environmentalist!

The Jungle of Madidi National Park

not mush time to write, cause we´re on our next adventure today already, but just a little note... (especially for you Chris Hahn!)

We are now in Rurrenabaque, came back yesterday from 3 days in the rainforest, in the Chalalan ecolodge (community owned!) and it was raining heavily (who said its supposed to be the dry season now...) but amazing still. we loved it there and we will go back there one day.
You can check about it here as well http://www.chalalan.com/

Saw some monkeys, caymans, tarantula, spiders, lots of crazy ants (Madidi means ¨ant¨ in Ketchua), amazing and wonderful treas with lots of medicin options, beautiful huge butterflies, even a tapir and lots of beautiful birds.

Did you know that sometimes, in the jungle, on the cacao trea, grows the vanilla vine!!!!!!!!! yeah its funny so im posing next to them.

plus - have you seen such huge trees before....

La Paz (a big city!) is actually smiling to us :-)

We kinda like it here. We found a nice hostal, called ¨La Posada de la Abuelta¨, and we are trying to explore the city yesterday and today.
Tomorrow - we are flying to Rurrenabeque (in the jungle) to stay in the Chalalan Eco-lodge in the middle of the Madidi National Park, and then we will also do the Pampas over there.

We´ll try to keep in touch from there.

Isla del Ice, Hail and Wind

Yes exactly what you read - for the first time in many of years (thousands they tell us) , the Island of the Sun - Isla del Sol - was visited by 2 very important personas, who with them brought the wind... the ice... the hail... and the no-electricity!

It all started on a sunny day in Copacabana... Bolivia, at 4000+ meters on the shores of lake Titicaca. Michael and Mor, our 2 heroes, set sail on a good ferry to the Island of the Sun. The lake was calm, the sun was warm, and the captains were sober. All seemed good as our brave adventures set foot at the ¨Escaleras del Inca¨ (the Inca steps - all 1000 of them - thank goodness for the raising of the lake that covered 700 of them!).

.............. to make a looooooooong story short - that night the island was hailing, crazy wind and amazingly cold. Then one of them had a cold the next day... but on day three they conquered the island! Yes, after a three hour hike to the north they found the Sacred Rock of the Incas from whence the first Inca sprung, and they sailed back to Copacabana. But the sea gods were not done with our interepid heroes...

After an hour of smooth sailing the skies began to darken... the lake began to swell... and a torrent of rain and wind assaulted the vessel of our dynamic duo. The engines of the boat sputtered as the captains turned the twin outboard motors of the ship into the nearest port. The brave passengers disembarked on a small stone outcropping and began to hike. Ten minutes in the rain and the mud, ladden with their muchillas (backpacks) they trod. Soon they came upon a road where a van was awaiting them. The whole boat piled in. The windows fogged, and the vehicle groaned under the heavy burden of so many passengers. Slowly they scraped their way back toward Copacabana.

An hour and a half boat ride had now turned into a three hour adventure. A stranded group of Bolivianos began singing the theme to La Isla Del Giligan. But finally the van arrived in town, just a block away from the famed cathedral that had blessed it on some Sunday. (Yes they get their cars blessed by the priest on Saundays!).

Our heroes departed in search of warm showers... cold, wet, muddy, but in good spirits eager to tell the tail of their wondrous adventure.

Strike over - crossed the border! And hello Isla del Sol!

Yes on Friday we left the paradise in the sacred valley, arrived in Cusco and bought a ticket to Copacabana in Bolivia.
On Saturday morning we woke up in the bus, picked our bags, and traveled (by combis etc) to the border of Peru-Bolivia.
We arrived to Copacabana around 10-11 am, and decided to find a nice place with REAL hot showers! We found a great hostal and slept really good.

Sunday - and we´re off to Isla del Sol! It´s so beautiful here - thank you Hedy and Xoli for this recommendation.

beautiful picture of Michael on the shores of Copacabana

The sacred valley (or where we found the REAL people)

this is a paradise here. we are in Chichubamba which is next to Urubamba and there is a strike on the way from here to Bolivia so we HAVE to stay here...

oh its so fantastic here so we really dont mind!

Thank you Juan, Rocio, Nena, Eduardo and of course Mariella! amazing times here with you at "El Huerto Paraiso".

Machu Picchu and the moon affect

So we did it and got to the Machu Picchu (which you should say with the "c" on the Picchu pronouced otherwise you dont want to know what you're saying :-)).

We also arrived for the salida del sol (sunrise) and found the moon! amazing pictures there...

to Michael's happiness - he was also able to drag me (a little bit kicking and screaming) to the top of the Waynapicchu which is the high mountain you can see in the picture behind us. Also known as the Temple of the Moon. It was beautiful from there.

Hagai - we found the face! see if you can...