When we last left off we were in Pucon, Chile, an adventure town south of Santiago. Unfortunately the weather was overcast on our first full day in Pucon and the volcano climb was postponed until the following day. No problem - white water rafting down the Trancura River was awaiting! The Trancura River is a class 3 to class 4 river, which due to recent rains was primarily at class 4. We were joined by 2 other people from the states and our adventure began (one of the Americans was from Oregon and was known as Dr. Fun because of his life long persuit of fun activities). Bill and Mel, having grown up in Colorado, had a fair amount of previous rafting experience. Chris and Rob had no previous experience. Half-way through our trip down the river, the lack of experience showed. Chris was paddling behind Rob when the boat hit a big rapid. The next thing he new, Rob's 6'6" 230 lb. body was on top of him and they were both thrown from the boat. Luckily they were both pulled into the boat before hitting any large rocks. After the trip we realized that we may need a little more practice before we hit the rapids in Nepal.
On our second day in Pucon the weather finally cleared up and allowed us to climb Mount Villarica, Pucon's active volcano which last erupted in 1983. The day was total chaos from an organization standpoint, but we had a blast just the same. We started the day at the tour agency with about 40 other individuals, most of whom had little previous climbing experience. After about a half an hour of sitting around with no instructions whatsoever, people starting getting up and grabbing gear that the company provided to climb the mountain - jackets, snowpants, boots, cramp-ons, backpacks, gas masks and ice axes. Everyone basically looked at the adventure model dressed up in the shop window, and grabbed the appropriate gear to look like the model. You can imagine what it was like with 40 clueless people walking around swinging ice axes. After about an hour or two we were ushered into vans and taken to the mountain - where we once again had little to no instructions of what do. The first part of the climb was spent on dirt and light snow, but soon turned into steep snow and ice. We finally heard the guide speak about half-way up the mountain. He quickly showed us how dig our ice pick into the snow if we started sliding down the mountain. He also instructed us to stay in a single file line unless we had to "wee". An hour or so later, we all stopped and were told to put on our cramp-ons (metal spikes that are strapped to the shoe for traction on snow and ice). After about an hour of more chaos while everyone tried to figure out how their crampons worked (Bill had his on upside down at first), we continued our trek and finally reached the crater of the volcano at over 3000 meters. There were some amazing views from the top of the mountain, including smoke coming from the middle of the crater. After about 5 minutes of breathing in some healthy sulfer fumes, we decided to decend. Of course there were no guides at the top to tell us what to do. And then the fun began...
Chris decided to start sliding from the top of the volcano. He planted his ice axe into the snow and started sliding down on his stomach, quickly picked up speed. About 10 seconds later, he realized that his ice axe wasn't slowing him enough......he was out of control. Luckily, one of our group partners, Mike (Notre Dame 1987 grad)., was below Chris. He locked his ice axe around Chris's axe as he slid by and stopped his decent. There always seems to be a fellow ND grad around when you need him. As the slope became less steep further down the volcano, everyone sat down in the snow and slid down....sometimes picking up some pretty good speed. By the time we had reached the bottom we were soaking wet and covered in dirt. A fun, but tiring day indeed. With the lack of instructions we were lucky we made it down alive.
Worn out from a long day of climbing, we decided to spend an extra day relaxing instead of heading directly to Santiago. We had dinner with Mike (Notre Dame 1987), his wife Lesley, and Dr. Fun at our Ecoli Hostel that night. The next day, we took a late morning bus to the town of Temuco, where we walked around the outdoor markets and had some McDonald's for the first time in weeks. We also caught a late afternoon showing of ¨Los Angeles de Charles¨ (Charlie's Angels), and then hopped on an overnight train to Santiago. The train was one of our most uncomfortable travel experiences to date and we slept very little. We arrived in Santiago early in the morning and slept a few hours to recover from the roller coaster train ride. Mel, Chris and Rob woke up around 4pm and headed out into the city (Bill still wasn't feeling well). We took some quick pictures at Cerra Santa Lucia, an old fortress in the center of Santiago, on our way to Bario Bellavista for dinner. On the way, we ran into some travel friends that we met in Puerto Varas on Christmas. They directed us to their favorite sushi restaurant in town......it was the best meal Chris and Rob had in months.
The next day was New Years Eve. We spent most of the day walking around the city. That night, we all watched an impressive fireworks display in the city center and counted down to the new year in Spanish (which took some real concentration). Chris, Rob, and Mel spent the rest of the night dancing at some discotecas before returning back to the hostel at 5am to catch a cab to the airport for our 8am flight to La Paz, Bolivia. In the taxi to the airport Bill inadvertantly donated his back pack cover and luggage lock to the driver. Together they were worth about $50, but it hard to find replacements. It prompted everyone except Bill to sing our traditional song, "Donation..Donation...Donation" (Sung to the cranberries, Salvation song).
Our first day in La Paz was spent lazily shopping around town and resting at our hostel. The transition from sea level to 13000 feet is hard enough without an all nighter on the town the day before. Since Mel's vacation ended on January 4th, Bill and Mel left Chris and Rob in La Paz for Cuzco and Manchu Picchu the following day. Chris and Rob booked a mountain bike ride for the next day down the Cordillera Real, one of the most dangerous roads in the world. Once again, this tour started with little to no instruction. But this time, we had to sign an official waver releasing all liability to the tour company in the event of an accident or death. With all of the crazy stuff that we've done on this trip (bungee jump, Kilimanjaro climb, white-water rafting, etc.), this was the first time that we had ever signed a waver. This made us a little nervous. The trip started at 4600 meters and ended 80 km later at 1500 meters in a small town called Corioco. The single lane road was unpaved the entire way. The little instruction that we received was not well recieved. Because the trucks and buses wanted to avoid sliding off the road, they tended to hug the inside of the road. Our tour guide instructed us to ride "towards the edge" so that we could avoid head on collisions with traffic coming up the road. Five hours later, we reached the bottom of the road. Honestly, we don't know how the road stays together. On the way down, we saw the remains of several land slides. Several waterfalls just run straight across road and erode loose soil. After a 2 hour bus ride back up, we were both happy to reach the top safely.
Bill and Mel hopped on an overnight bus via Lake Titicaca to Cuzco, Peru. Mel did not have time to do the entire Inca trail which takes 4 days of hiking, so they opted for the quicker route which includes a train, a bus and a short hike to get to the amazing Inca ruin called Macchu Picchu. Mel and Bill both agreed that it was one of the most amazing things that they had seen. It was a shame (for Mel not for Bill) that there was not time to do the entire trail.
Mel had to fly from Cusco (at the base of Macchu Picchu) to Lima to New York to San Diego the next day. Normally, that would not be a problem, but there was an unexpected curve ball thrown their way. Mel had booked her Cucso/Lima flight a couple of weeks before on an airline called "Lan Peru". Some time between the date she purchased the ticket, and the ticket date, the company went out of business. To compound the problem , they did not take down their signs or counter at the airport, so Mel and Bill waited for an hour before they started to think that something was fishy. Since Mel needed to make her first flight to be able to make any of her connections, it added a certain level of excitement. After going from counter to counter she found out that every flight between Cusco and Lima was booked for the rest of the week. Then Bill had a great idea...how about a bribe. They went up to one of the counters, to the same guy that they had just asked 10 minutes earlier, and told him in very basic spanish that they were prepared to pay what ever was necessary to get on that plane. Amazingly, he had a price that he was willing to accept that was above the normal fare. It turned out to be an extra two dollars (one dollar per person). Mel and Bill looked at eachother and made the difficult dicision. "Ok", they said, "we will pay the $2". With that they were off to Lima!
Bill and Mel got to Lima feeling quite smug. They had just pulled off their first successful bribe. They were so excited, that they wanted to share their success. It was off to the internet cafe to send a victory email. Bill opened his email to find one from Chris that said " I noticed from your last email that you were thinking about buying an airline ticket to Lima Cusco. You are aware of the fact that we have a Cusco/Lima ticket in our book of tickets? Right?". Bill´s heart stopped as he pulled his stack of tickets out of his money belt ("one wallet"). Sure enough, there was an unused ticket from Cusco to Lima(issued by a functioning airline). Donation...Donation...Donation... All a part of traveling Bill quickly told Mel as he bit his lip nearly hard enough to bleed.
Bill saw Mel off and promptly headed south along the coast of Peru. The coast is completely desert for miles and miles. Bill´s first destination was Nazca which is famous for "The Nazca Lines". The lines are huge geometric designs drawn in the desert and visible only from the air. It remains a mystery as to how and why these lines were created, but they date back more than a thousand years. Bill took a flight over the lines and was amazed. It was almost as much of a thrill to ride in such a small plane (6 seater). It reminded him of his brief career as a pilot. In Nazca, Bill struck up a conversation with a British guy(Eddy) who happend to be heading back up north and had rented a car. Bill bummed a ride for a couple of days and enjoyed hearing about Eddy´s interesting life. He was currently teaching physics in Columbia (which is interesting in and of itself). Bill and Eddy checked out the town of Ica on the coast that has an amazing oasis with a lake, palm tress, huge dunes and everything you would expect of an oasis right in the middleof the desert. It was something out of a movie. Bill rented a sandboard (much like a snowboard) and proceeded to hike up the near by dunes and ride down. It was good fun.
Bill hopes to spend the next 4 days on the Amazon river seeing, 6ft water lillies, fruit eating fish, and insects that lay eggs inside your skin (Bottfly). It promises to be a great time.
Chris and Rob are currently on the Inca Trail and the crew will be reunited at the end of the week in Lima where they will depart for Carracas, Venezuala. In Venezuala we will be seeing Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall (yes, another waterfall). Since we have two full weeks in Venezuala we are also looking into heading to the Carribean for a week since there are many cheap flights out of Carracas. And then we will be back home for a short break before starting the second half of the trip in Australia.
We're looking forward to seeing friends and family in a few weeks! We've also added many new pictures to our websight, so check them out when you get a chance!
Bill, Rob and Chris (Guillermo, Roberto and Christobal)
Disclaimer...The Spanish version of Microsoft Word thinks that all of the words above are spelled incorrectly, so we can not be held responsible for any misspelled words. :)
