Lost in South America

The long way home...

2008-09-11T12:29:00.003+02:00

Every vacation must come to an end, and we have now reached the end of this little adventure...
It is 11th of September, 7:30 in the morning.
We are all packed up and at 8:00 we're taking a cab to the El Calafate airport.

The long way home looks approximately like this:
11th:
Taxi to El Calafate airport
Plane to Buenos Aires (approx. 3 hrs)
Taxi to switch BA airports
Plane to Madrid (approx. 12 hrs, starting in the evening, arriving in Madrid on the afternoon of the following day)

12th:
Plane to London (approx. 2 hrs, arriving in the later evening)
Bus/train to switch from Heathrow to Luton (not sure yet what works overnight, but we hope something is, because taking a taxi for this is way expensive)
Try to stay awake at Luton until 6 AM on the following day...

13th:
Plane to Zagreb (approx. 2+ hrs, arriving around 9+AM)

This is not the last post!
We still owe you the ride between the icebergs (now that was fun!), possibly at Saturday when we're back home, if able.
Also, in the next few days, Marko will write that description of the Inca trail, and I will add a summary of all the hostels and companies I can remember us using to provide a little guideline for those about to make a similar trip. Also, I may add a little post or two on interesting things that I just never caught the time to write about.

Anyway, this is it for now. Adios South America! Hola Europe!
See you all! :)

The Land of Ice

2008-09-10T02:31:00.013+02:00

Hey everyone! :)
This will be one of the last posts done "on the road", and hopefully one that will cool the hot summer days of all of you back home ;)

We arrived to the last stop of our journey - a small town called El Calafate.
Even though this trip was done between Chile´s Puerto Natales and Argentina´s El Calafate - both very popular and well travelled tourist destinations not too far from each other - the road connecting them just had to be... "special":

With sheep:

Yes, we're definitely back in Argentina :)

Anyway, to El Calafate. The stories we heard beforehand told of it as a very expensive place, but it is just another average Argentinian town (cost-wise). Maybe a little more on the expensive side, being that it is a big tourist destination, but nothing too extraordinary.
We arrived yesterday afternoon and got to love the place right away.
Our hostel is very decent, with (finally) real 24/7 warm water/showers, floor heating, provided soap/shampoo and organized excursions to nearby places of interest. No breakfast is included, but there's a real good kitchen here, and for all above we're paying 35 Arg$ per night (that's around 12US$).
They even threw a third night for free if we go with them to Perito Moreno glacier (which we did today :))
Anyway, I'll post some hostel/agencies reviews and recommendations once we return home, so there'll be more on that later...

Lately glacier-oriented tourism made this town's population bloom. It has more than tripled in the last seven years (is somewhat above 20k now), and all this growth surprisingly made for a really nice place.
There are shops, restaurants and cafes all around, but unlike the other tourist-oriented places we've visited on this trip, people here are very polite. No one is stopping you on the street to try and sell you something. When you leave a shop and say "Gracias" (Thank you) you even get a "De nada" (You're welcome) in return. This is actually the first town I hear this in since this trip started.
There is a much better driver culture here as well. Personally, this is the nicest place to be in of all those we visited on this little tour.

All the shops and restaurants accept US Dollars and Euros in addition to Argentinian Pesos, which is very helpful when you've just arrived in town. Also, unlike the places so far - the exchange rate is pretty much set at 1:3 (the real exchange rate of US$ and Arg$), and people are not trying to cheat you out of your dollar value.

So, on the afternoon of day one we just scouted the town, the shops, and the excursions. We came here with two goals in mind, and two days to fulfill them.
First of them is to visit the Perito Moreno glacier, and that is what we did today.

Perito Moreno is one of the (if not the one) most famous glacier of the world. Unlike many others which are shrinking, this one is constantly growing. It is sliding down from the Andes at a rate of approximately 1 meter per day, and pushing through the Lago Argentino ("Argentine Lake", the biggest lake of Argentina, and third biggest in South America) towards the opposite shore.
Once it reaches the opposite shore, it creates a natural dam which splits the lake into two. One part of the lake then rises and creates pressure, which drills the "ice dam". In a process taking an unpredictable number of years, the dam is drilled, a hole is created (and therefore a natural ice "bridge" as well that connects the land and the glacier), and it collapses. Last such collapse occured in this July (2008), and before it in years 2006 and 2004, but before that the times between collapses were quite some years longer. When the next collapse will occur, no one knows.

However, let's arrive at the glacier first.
On the way there, we stumble upon some eagles sitting by the road observing the dawn:

The road west of El Calafate towards the glacier:

...and finally, first sighting of the Perito Moreno glacier:

A closer look as a chunk of ice breaks off:

...and a closer look at this a 16 km long, 5 km wide beast of a glacier:

There was also a boat ride included, from which we could see the glacier from up-close, with the mountain range that generates it in the background:

One last look at the glacier before setting off back to town:

Allright, I'll have to stop writing now as other people at the hostel are in need of the computer (and I'm already embarassed as to how long I'm occupying it to write this and select the pictures lol), so this will have to do for now...
Cyas! :)

Gone to Patagonia...

2008-09-07T02:46:00.017+02:00

As the blog address suggested, this was the ultimate goal of the trip - Patagonia. The very south of Chile and Argentina, where the winter is just ending now.

As I mentioned in the last post, from Sunday evening we were doing the Cusco - Arequipa - Tacna - Arica round, and there sat on the plane to Santiago de Chile.
First funny thing that happened at the airport there is that the elder man standing in the queue right in front of us understood that we were talking Croatian and introduced himself to us. His name was Tonci, barba Tonci (you guys home know what that means :)), and he came to Chile from Brac, Croatia some 40 years ago!
We said our goodbyes at the Santiago airport and proceeded to wait for our next flight to Punto Arenas which was going next morning.
Oh yes, and the steward on this flight was also interested in Croatia as he was of Croatian origin!

In Punto Arenas - another surprise.
The taxi driver says that 14% of town's population is of Croatian origin! Finally a place where we could have more luck with a "Do you speak Croatian?" than with a "Do you speak English?" LOL!
We saw a few street and store names hinting of this, and in the end the driver has shown us where the "Croacia" street is:

Now I know where we could move if we wanted to live in Patagonia! :P

We had only a few hours in Punto Arenas before catching the bus to Puerto Natales, the smaller fishing town which server as a starting point of sorts for the "Torres del Paine" national park expeditions.
We found a hostel here and took some time to prepare for what was supposed to be a 4-day stay within the park (it is a huge area btw. and even a week would not be enough to explore it in the most basic form)

Puerto Natales - same story again. Shops hinting of Croatian surnames, we enter them and meet more Croatians who moved here a long time ago (e.g. "Casa Pivcevic" whose owner moved here more than 60 years ago!)
On the bus to Torres del Paine, the driver doesn't speak English (of course), but a girl is on the bus who has Croatian grandparents and has lived in Croatia for a year to learn the language - thus, this is the first time here that I can talk in Croatian and someone translates it into Spanish. Most interesting, being that this is the furthest place from home we've ever been to :)

But anyway, I promised some photos last time so enough writing - it's time to show you a glimpse of Patagonia!

Our first photo day in Puerto Natales:

On the following day we finally go to Torres del Paine, and to the first of the three open "refugios" (shelters where you can stay overnight and get some food). No surprise, the owner is also from Croatia!

The refugios here - considering what they offer - are quite expensive. To stay in and just get a no-sheets bed in a no-lock dorm in which you'll have to sleep in your own sleeping bag, you'll have to cash out 45 US$.
All the food is about twice the price of that in Puerto Natales.
There is also a hotel in the park, but a night there goes for some 250 US$!

First day we arrived quite late in the park, because the supposed 2-hour ride turned into a 4-hour one. Apparently someone told our driver that he should never cross that 2000 rpm mark :P (and it was not a diesel).
After this 4-hour slugrace, we finally arrived at the park and walked to the aforementioned refugio.
The weather on the first day was not really the best (cloudy), so there were no nice photo-opportunities, but the second day made up for that.

The second day started with a great dawn promising a nice day:

Here I have to mention that we were preparing to stay in the park for 4 days. This meant we had around 20 kilos each in our backbacks (food, water, clothes, photo gear). Since there are three open refugios in the park, the original plan was to start every day by dragging the full backpacks to the next refugio (a few hours walk), and then go for explorations and photo shoots until the dark, returning to the refugio for the night.
So, on this second day, we pick our stuff (around 18 kgs by now, as some food and water is gone ;)) and head out for the second refugio. According to the maps and stories, this is supposed to be a 4-hr hike.
We set off quite slowly taking photos while the light is still good, and then - in lack of a marked path matching the one on the map - head towards a nearby lagoon at whose shore the next refugio is supposed to be:

Now things are starting to take a different turn. Many of them, in fact.
It is impossible to walk by the lagoon, so we have to go up. And back down. And back up. And so on and on :)
This now turns into a hike starting with grassy hills, and moving on through rocks, canyons, thorny bushes, impassable forrests, streams, swamps, and ultimately knee-deep snow. All with around 18-kilos on our backs and always up or downhill.
Seeing that after 6 hours we were about halfway between the refugios, and that the terrain was getting worse and worse, and that there was no "well-marked path" in sight (more like no path at all), and that if things continued the same way it was likely that we'd get caught by dark before ever reaching the second refugio, and that it was semi-starting to rain - the decision was to head back to the starting refugio and find alternative transport to the other side of the park.
Some 3 hours later, we returned more-or-less the way we came, but through another deeper swamp, so by now Marko's shoes were soaking with water.
Talk about extreme trekking...
A view back down before I finally packed the camera as it was not possible to walk with it in hand anymore:

After return, we sort of agreed about a transport tomorrow, and had a good nights sleep.
On the third day, we joined a group coming in from Puerto Natales that was in for a day-tour. The weather was nice most of the day, and being with a transport allowed us to see more in a shorter time. Luckily, this driver and the group was more photo-oriented, and didn't mind stopping for good photos:

(you can see the three peaks of Torres del Paine in the background)
A bit later we ran across a fleet of condors (again a shot with Torres in the background):

and a couple of foxes, one of which actually tried to enter our van :)

After that, we arrive at the Glacier Grey:

The Glacier Grey shore:

...and it's time to slowly get back home...

Today we just chill and rest, wash clothes and pack, back in Puerto Natales.
Tomorrow morning we go to El Calafate (back in Argentina), where we will spend two days walking on and boat-riding between the glaciers, and after that it's time to return home (Calafate - Buenos Aires (2 airports) - Madrid - London (2 airports) - Zagreb... all in all around 48 hours)

But I hope to write more from El Calafate yet before returning home...
Adios!

Just a short hi...

2008-09-05T04:20:00.002+02:00

...because we are sleeping for 4 days in a national park now and have *very* limited (and not so fast) internet time.

To recap on the last few days:
- took a 12-or-so hour bus from Cusco to Arequipa (Peru) on Sunday evening to Monday morning
- took another 6-hr bus from Arequipa to Tacna (Peru) till Monday afternoon
- took a taxi across the border to Arica (Chile) - that's the way it works here :P
- got sick of buses, got dropped at Arica airport, took a plane to Santiago de Chile (Monday evening)
- stayed up a night at Santiago de Chile airport (cool airport actually :))
- took another flight to Punto Arenas at Tuesday morning
- took a 3-hr bus to Puerto Natales
AND YES - WE'RE IN PATAGONIA NOW w00t!!! Winter time! ;)

I feel 700 US$ lighter, but also happy to have saved more than 80 hours of additional bus time (which would be a killer, and also seriously reduce any quality time down here in Patagonia)
Anyway, Punto Arenas is a cool town. Puerto Natales is a cool town.
We stayed there and chilled for a day (photos incoming as soon as I find some more decent online time), and got a 3-hr bus to Torres del Paine national park, in which we are now.

Point is, you can stay inside this park for days, and transport to-from it is what's expensive, so we decided to take food/water/clothes for 4 days (20 kg backpacks lol, but they will only get lighter as we drink/eat what's in them :P) and stay inside until Sunday.
Hopefully there will be some good photo opportunities :)

Sorry for the lack of photos now, but I have to hurry. There will be more details and photos around Monday I hope, as we'll have some time in El Calafate (Argentina).
We are now entering the last week of our journey, but Patagonia is the nicest place I've seen so far. Simply beautiful nature. But photos will have to describe that later.

See you all! :)

Machu Picchu - other side

2008-08-31T03:44:00.019+02:00

Hola! :)
Marko did the actual planned Inka trail hike, so he will describe how it was to survive that ;)
Since I got up the easy way *grrr*, this'll be a smaller take of mine on Machu Picchu for those not so fortunate to do the hike.

Anyway, it was arranged at the agency that I will join the bus/train combo to Agua Calientes the day before the hiking group reaches Machu Picchu, and then join them on the morning they do reach it.
Luckily, the pills I got from my Dutch friend (thanks B!!! :)) fixed my stomach, and I got there without any further toiletesque interventions.

Agua Calientes (lit. hot water) is a place where Machu Picchu visitors stay before going up. It's located some 6km away from Machu Picchu, and is a last stop of sorts, for those sleeping the night to go up in the morning.
It is a small place whose only orientation seems to be the presence of tourists here. It has one main street, which consists almost solely of stores, restaurants and net cafes. There is a river going through it (Urubamba) with several cool bridges which will bend under your feet, but the other side of that river is rather undeveloped. In fact, the whole town looks like a slum - except for the main street that connects the hot springs at the top and the town square and train/bus stations at the bottom.
On the other hand, the town is located between some quite huge steep green mountains and with the constant mists around it has some sort of a magical aura around it.

A few photos will demonstrate this better...
This is the main street of Agua Calientes:

The Urubamba river flowing through it:

And the backside of my hostel:

I wonder if it was meant to be this way or if there was a time-space anomaly in this place that made half of it disappear :/

Since I had half a day to spend here, I went to check out where the bus station is (a bunch of small buses take people up to Machu Picchu every morning), to buy some last minute supplies and find a net cafe to rest a bit (two vegetable soups and two rices in two days is no way to keep your strength lol).
The resume:
- buses start at 5:30 each morning - you should be there at 4:45 if you want to be among the first in line - by 5:30 the line will be so long that you won't see the end of it, and arriving at this time will probably mean you miss that batch and have to wait till 7:00 to go with the next one
- prices are generally twice as high as those of Cusco, and Cusco prices are already twice as high as the rest of Peru (that's my feeling at least, from the week here)
- even though the towns name literally translates into "hot waters", and my hostel specifically mentions it has "hot water", don't count on it! (unless you can shower in the first minute before it turns to cold)

Anyway, after a 4AM alarm clock (these can be annoying, eh? ;)) and some standing in line, I am finally on a bus up. The dawn is just coming and the mist is all around. Some 20-30 minutes of bus drive later we are dropped off at the entrance to the famous Machu Picchu.
What awaits inside?
Mist! :D

I am supposed to meet with my group (the now tormented hikers :)) somewhere "around the entrance", so I decide to hang around here for a while and await for them to enter. I still have some minutes until their scheduled arrival, but should not move far. And voila - in a minute the mist clears, the sky opens and a majestic image appears:

You can see Agua Calientes way below, and the winding road connecting it to this top.
As fast as it has appeared, it was gone, and everything was covered in mist again. Machu Picchu surely is a nice challenge for photographers. Many mornings could be spent here in search of perfect combination of light and mist.

Anyway, other groups keep entering and going both left (uphill) and right (downhill), but when my group fails to appear some minutes after the supposed 7:00, I decide to roam around on my own hoping to spot them within the walls of Machu Picchu once they do arrive...
My first look at the town:

And a look downhill before the clouds cleared:

Roaming around I found the group (they just entered through the top entrance from the Inka Trail ;)), and the tour began...
Some drama in the sky above the main square of Machu Picchu:

Our tour guide William looking at one of the shrines:

At the top levels there are helpful 'devices', like the stone pointing south:

a representation of surrounding mountains carved in stone:

and a stone for telling the time and the seasons:

One look at the "back" side of Machu Picchu:

And for the end - the famous "postcard" view:

One hint for all going up - beware the killer mosquitos! :P

Marko's report on the climb is coming up slowly but surely - like the climb itself :)

Today we go back to Arica by bus, where we will try to find flights all the way south to Punto Arenas in Chilean Patagonia. See you in two or three days...

Cusco - or - shit happens :P

2008-08-26T23:19:00.016+02:00

Ok, Cusco and shit happening are not really related, but just happened to happen at the same time :)
As Marko said, I got sick and had to miss the 3-day hike to Machu Picchu. Probably something I ate or drank, because my stomach is spinning all around and today I'm keeping myself close to the hostel (toilet ;))
I'm now on recovery program of eating light things and resting, and in two days I will take a train to Machu Picchu and meet with Marko there on the 4th day to watch the sunrise at the Sun Gate and explore Machu Picchu.

This however gives me a chance to write more about Cusco (and hopefully tomorrow look around town more, as it is an interesting town with plenty to see).

So, more about Cusco!
It is a town that is a combination of the old and the new. You can find Inka walls embedded in new houses and vice versa. It used to be the capitol of the Inkas.
The town is situated at 3300m and full of steps, so you can get pretty tired pretty quickly if you try to do things hastily.
The architecture of the town is impressive, both the Inka remains and the new Spanish churches (and there are quite a lot of these here!)

One thing you notice instantly is that it is a tourist-oriented town. The town center is full of police (e.g. a policeman at every corner of the main plaza), there are almost more tourists than locals in the streets, and the prices are not like the ones we saw at Tacna. Things are still cheaper here than in Chile or Argentina, but not all that much.
There are also many European-style shops with similar goods but also similar prices.

A typical street in Cusco, with the town in the background:

Going down the street I noticed a girl with an alpaca hiding behind the corner. As we reached the corner I took a photo of her, only to be greeted with an extended hand and the words "one Sol". So, one Sol to take a photo of someone in the street? I'm new to South America, but apparently that's normal in all the countries here. Oh well, if they pose for the photo, I can see the sense in that. Anyway, this is her:

Going further down towards the town centre, we finally reach the main plaza:

This one is full of tourists and tourist offers, from travel agencies, excursion agencies, people wanting to get photographed and shoe cleaners to people trying to sell you some pot (like one guy named "Johnny Walker" LOL).
Being that this was Sunday (or maybe some other special day?), there was a parade going on:

A sidetrack - would you buy something here and eat it? :)

Oh and this was a cute photo opportunity:

so I asked "one Sol?" and the old lady confirmed and they both posed for the shot.
The light wasn't the best, and at one shot they looked away, so I snapped 3 shots and gave her one Sol.
Then the comedy began, she was basically pulling my sleeve and pointing at the kid... oh so it's one sol for each? Now you tell me? Ok, so be it. I give the kid another Sol. But nooo, then the "3 photos" story begins and she wants 5 Sols. Strange maths happen here, but we're getting used to it :)
More math fun occurs at the smaller shopping side-streets like this one:

You can buy dozens of little hand-made things or clothes in these shops, and you're a sucker if you don't drop the price for at least 20% ;)
Anything you wish to buy - drop the price!
If you buy several things, ask a discout for that too!
If you found another seller selling below that price, put that in as well.
We dropped prices up to 50%, but I guess they could be dropped even further if you're good and speak Spanish ;)
We even negotiated the Dollar-Sol exchange rate at an exchange office, but didn't exchange anything in the end as all the exchange offices here will rip you off. The newest Footprint guide says rate should be 1 US$ = 3.25 Sols. You won't get above 2.90 in the offices in Cusco. Just use the ATM.

In the evening we climbed up to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman (pronounced by many tourists as "sexy woman" :)) from which you can have a nice look at the city:

(note the airfield in the middle of the city, quite interesting to land here consiering the town is surrounded by hills)

On the upper side of the hill, many people come for some relaxation time. This looks like the park of the city:

and here is proof that Japanese Anime has found it's way to Cusco as well :)

By the time we climbed up, it got too dark to take good pictures of the Inca walls of Sacsayhuaman, so this'll have to do for now:

More to come in the next days, some of Cusco and nearby ruins, and some of Machu Picchu (in hopes I'll be ok by then lol)
Cya!

Inka Trail starts in 5 minutes

2008-08-26T13:08:00.001+02:00

I'm just waiting for the agency to pick me up from my hostel. It's arround 6 AM. Daniel got sick yesterday, so he's not going. :(
I have a pretty heavy backpack all packed up, I hope I can make it. Well, a lot of that is water, so it should get easyer as the hike continues. I'm expecting to be back in Cusco 4 days later, on Friday.

By.

"The direct line to Cusco" a.k.a. The Neverending Story

2008-08-24T21:10:00.013+02:00

Huh!
A lot to write this time and I don't know where to begin. From the beginning, I guess :)

Our last report was from a net cafe in Arica, where we were in between a 10-hour bus and what was supposed to be a 15-hour bus. Right.
Anyway, we needed a bus line from Arica (Chile) to Cusco (Peru), and we knew it used to include a taxi ride across the border as no buses went directly (at least that was the situation a few years back).
We were happy to hear that there is now a direct line from Arica to Cusco, and that it should start at 3PM and arrive in Cusco at 6AM next morning. Yay for overnight rides, lowest loss of time. For 50 US$ this sounded good.

So, 2:30PM we're back at the agency and are introduced to our driver. Taxi driver, who will take us across the border (Arica is something like 20km from the border).
He will then take us to Tacna bus terminal (the nearest city in Peru), where we will hop on the bus to Cusco.
Ok, so the situation is the same as it used to be, it still all sounds good.

The Dragonball Z fan cab driver (the whole car was full of Dragonball Z stickers and figurines, and the driver wore a D-Z T-Shirt :)) did get us to Tacna in about an hour or a bit more, got us to the terminal, showed us the bus agency there and where the bus will be. All's well :)
We switch the clocks one hour back to Peruvian time and await the bus, which leaves for Cusco in 3 hours.

So now a bit about Peru.
The moment you cross the border the difference is obvious.
Argentina can in many ways be mistaken for any European country. Chile is very similar too, at least the town parts we saw (deserts are another thing, but that's not really due to cultural differences).
In Peru however, people are very different and instantly recognizable. Colorful explosions of clothes consisting of layers and layers of what can only be seen as blankets. Most women wear a ton of these blankets, plus a big bag which often has even more blankets, plus the little Peruvian hat (you'll see it on the photos :))

Now, the part of town neighbouring the bus terminal in Tacna (which is quite a big city, 300k people or so) looked like a slum, and since we were packing all our equipment and clothes we decided to grab something to eat at the terminal.
Prices instantly jump off from what we saw thus far. We ate a decent and tasty lunch (fried chicken, potatoes and rice) for 4 Sols (1 US$ = 3.25 Sols). For people back home, 1 Sol = 1.5 Kunas. Add to that a 2 Sol Sprite/Coke. Nice! Finally going to save some money (after spending some 250 US$ for 2 days in San Pedro!)

Anyway, we sat there and ate for 2+ hours, and saw no foreigners apart from ourselves. This was strange considering that this town is the main point towards Cusco (Machu Picchu) if you're coming northward from San Pedro (and I'd guess many tourists do, as both towns are big tourist destinations).
30 minutes before the bus departure time, we decide to go to the terminal, only to realize we need to buy a 1 Sol ticket to exit the building and enter the area with the buses. It's small money, but it's an annoyance when you carry all your stuff with you. After a day more in Peru, I can safely say most things you do here will be charged.
0.40 Sols to use a toilet, without soap or toilet paper.
0.50 Sols if you want like 4 pieces of toilet paper with that. Don-t hope for soap though.
1 Sol to take a photo of someone, and if you're seen with the camera and giving this one sol to one person suddenly everyone wants to have their photo taken. Gets quite annoying quite fast actually, but oh well :)
1.5 Sol an hour of internet (now that's good! :))

On with the trip (notice that so far only 3 hours have passed from what soon turned into a 25 hour nightmare).
Upon embarking the bus, we meet two quite cool Irish guys who speak a bit of Spanish (Yay! We're not the only two gringos on the bus!)

Now, I have to make a bit of a digression to explain the different types of buses here.
Since the distances are so long, the buses come in many types.
Kama (or Kama Premium) = you get a leather chair (usually only 3 people per row) which can be lowered to fully horizontal bed-position, you get food included in the price (e.g. we got breakfast and real lunch in our first argentinian bus) and they play some relatively new movies in English (with Spanish subs) during daytime. You can sleep well during nighttime in these buses.
Semi-kama = seats go down a lot, but not fully horizontal. There are 4 seats per row. Food usually included on distances longer than 8 hours (in Argentina and Chile). Decent, but can happen that seats don't really go down all that much.
There is also Kama-Ejecutivo but the differences between these types are blurry. All in all, they are all decent. So, when we got a semi-kama which goes "directly to Cusco", we were happy. There was no kama, but we could live with 15 hours of semi-kama.

Thus, the bus arrives.
Our seats are on the top floor (it's a double-decker, and the better seats are below), and all the windows are open. This is fishy (what smell was the driver trying to filter out?), but no choice now.
Oh, the company's name is San Martin, just in case anyone of you wants to know which company NOT to use. But let's get on with the why.
So, us and the Irish guys and like 8 or so Peruvians sit up there (plenty of empty seats left, doesn't look that bad... might get some sleep on the bus after all), and start the trip...
The moment we left Arica the story takes on a different turn. Well, the bus does anyway. It takes us off-road and into the desert. It's pitch black outside and as you might imagine the Peruvian desert is not the nicest of places to be at such times. Puzzled looks cross our faces and those of the Irish guys, but the Peruvians are just as surprised.
First thought - if this was a robbery or something, they would've picked a bus with more tourists...
Luckily, there's a Peruvian guy on the bus sitting right behind us who speaks English, and he goes down to the driver to ask what the hell is going on...
Explanation?
The bus has no license, so the driver is taking an alternate route to avoid a police checkpoint just outside of town(!?)
We all already agreed Peru is a dodgy country, but we didn't think it was this dodgy.
By the way, we were told the bus will be in Cusco by 6AM. The Irish guys were told it'll be there by 8:30AM. The Peruvian guy just laughed when he heard that and said: "Nooo, around 3PM". Great. And we have a bottle of water and some chocolates.

Anyway, more on that "alternate route"...
Imagine a sand dusty 'road', with stones lying all over it, that our driver was avoiding by driving like 10 km/h for the first part of the hour. Then he started going uphill on that road, with cliffs on the side fo the road. Doubledecker. Peruvian mountain. Stones on the road. A no-license bus. I see much sleep coming in this night.
Two or so hours later we stop at some village and pick up a horde of new Peruvians. There's now more people than there are seats on the bus, and our "semi-kama" turns into a choke-full bus of people standing, sitting all around, or lying on the floor.
Oh and about those bus windows - we the passengers closed as many as we could, but most wouldn't really hold well.
Need I mention it gets really cold in the night when you're in the desert at high altitudes? There was actually ice forming on the insides of our windows. Oh and no heating in the bus, but that's to be expected by now. Forgive the lack of pictures, but this was not an atmosphere I'd like to take my camera out. This was more of a "try to stay awake and see what kind of crap this driver will pull next" kind of thing.
One Peruvian old woman who was sitting next to me was kind of holding on to my leg for most of the trip. But nothing mattered anymore but to stay warm.
In a few more hours we arrived at some sort of a checkpoint (on an actual road wohoo!!), where they checked our bus from above and below, and the Peruvian guy told me not to worry as this was not the Police(!?)
Looked like a border crossing to me, but beat me if I know what one would be doing in the middle of the country.
After some security guys checked our bus (but not the luggage, so I can only guess they were looking for people), the most expectable thing happened - they took our spare tire and wheel, and let the bus go on (yeah, this trip is becoming full of "WTH?" moments). At least now we know this is not a hijack nor a robbery, and all the people are in the same sauce we are. Just need to keep the warmth through the night (now I understand why Peruvian ladies have all those blankets!)
Next I don't know how much any of us slept. We all just woke up (or haven't slept at all) - lucky to still have our passports, money, and cameras - to see one of the most beautiful sunrises ever at Lake Titicaca (near Puno, Peru), even more so because the sun was such a welcome sight for the stiff frozen joints.

Just recalled another funny detail. When one of our Irish friends asked the driver if we had food on this ride, the answer was "No, but you have a toilet" :P
Turned out the toilet was a hole in the floor of the bus, and we couldn't really use it anyway as it would include stepping on several sleeping people to get there.
That's San Martins bus lines for you... if you want an unforgettable experience, feel free to use them ;)

At Puno, there was like an hour and a half to kill before proceeding to Cusco. Turns out someone figured out our bus was "illegal" and we had to swap buses. We even got to sit below in the real semi-kama for the rest of the trip (last 6-7 hours) as a "reward" or something like that. I don't know and didn't really care at the time. Sun was up, we had our stuff, and we were in a legal bus. It was still smelly, cracking, and my window couldn't be opened, but it was looking like a promising future.
Then the driver decided to play us a DVD movie. In spanish. And without the picture (TVs didn't really work :P)
So for the next two hours we were driving through beautiful Peruvian landscapes listening to people shooting, crying and yelling in Spanish... real loud. I think it was a western of some sort, but it was kind of hard to tell lol

Another 6 hours later (3-4PM of the next day), we finally arrive at Cusco and are instantly being swarmed with hostel offers.
Good for us there were so many, as it made the price-dropping go without us having to lift a finger :)
The winner is some lady who speaks English and has hot water 24/7 (unlike most other hostels she says) and her hostel is recommended by Footprint and Lonely Planet guidebooks. She said "please check" like a dozen of times. No need, who would fake stuff like that on their nicely printed hostel flier. As noted by our Irish friend: "the people here are cheeky, but they're not *that* cheeky". Turns out they are. The hostel was not recommended in any of the guidebooks, but we were already there and it looked ok. And for 20 Sols (6 US$) per person per night (breakfast included) it seemed like a really good deal.
But they didn't have hot water!!! Until the guy working here brought new gas and warmed it and we could finally take a shower.
However, the showering is an art in its own. If you open warm water only, it's steaming hot. The moment you open the cold one, it gets colder to the point of icy cold. So you just have to balance the cold one every few seconds and you'll be fine :P
Oh and on my first shower attempt, the water ran out completely *sigh*
Anyway, things are a bit more normalized now and we got a chance to see a bit more of Cusco.
I will write more about Cusco tomorrow in a separate post, as this one is becoming too long as is. For the end here, I'll try to put up some images of the day time of "the direct line to Cusco". This is all taken with a compact camera so the quality might not be best, but it's what could be done at the time. We also have some videos of Arica, Tacna and Peruvian landscapes as well, but those are too huge to put them up here. Will have to do something about that once we're back home.

The hill above Arica:

School's out in Arica:

Entering the taxi to Tacna:

Tacna, where no construction is complete(?):

I must say the town center is supposedly beautiful, but unfortunately we didn't get to see it.
Bus station in Puno (yeah, we saw many buses and bus stations in the last 2-3 days lol):

Sunrise at Lake Titicaca (a bit late to capture the beauty, but still we loved it):

And, for the end, two typical Peruvian landscapes (taken from the bus):

Hopefully there will be many more of these (and not taken through the bus window) when we finish with the Inka Trail 4-day hike to Machu Picchu, which starts on Tuesday. Until then, we chill in Cusco and see the sights here.
Possibly I'll write about Cusco tomorrow, and then no comp until the weekend.

Adios!

In between the buses...

2008-08-22T17:50:00.022+02:00

Hola!

This report is brought to you from Arica, Chile!
It's noon here, 22nd of August, and it's a Friday.
We got here after a 10-hour bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama, and are waiting for the next bus (a 15-hour one) to Cusco, Peru.
A good chance to keep this blog up-to-date, eh? ;)

In the last post from San Pedro de Atacama I forgot to mention one small detail. When they turn the power off overnight, there is also no water, at all (yay for brushing teeth and washing hands with bought bottled water!). We heard several stories on why all that happens, from the one of the dead generator to the one of many locals not paying for electricity so the electric company shuts things down as a way of punishment. Anyway, yesterday the town (San Pedro) was full of black flags as a sign of protest against "the darkening".
And it had no water at all. The ENTIRE day. Real nice when you just come from the desert and need to go to a 2-day trip (I won't even talk about the toilets lol).

Lesson learned: when in the desert, cherish the moments with power and water, and use them even if you don't need to just yet! (oh and bottle some water for times of crisis ;))

However, since we were out-of-town for most of the day, we have something to show for it.
The waking up at 4 AM to go to the Tatio geysers and freeze there at the mentioned -15 degrees for a while was well worth it. For me, it was the most beautiful experience yet on this trip.
You wake up at 4 AM, in the darkest of towns (oh yes, I didn't mention that I've never seen so many stars in the sky in my life!), and a bus takes you for 3 hours up a bumpy "road" up to 4300m where it gets colder and colder.
Upon arrival, we got some breakfast and the "Coca tea" (tea of coca leaves). Supposedly it helps prevent the simptoms of altitude sickness :)

And then the sun rises:

Note the people in the picture (you can click it for a bigger view) to get the feeling of just how big these things are ;)
Coupled with the sunrise, it surely was a good way to keep oneself warm, however a braver few wanted more:

The water itself was supposedly quite warm, but the part of getting into (and especially *out* of it) must've been quite shocking (I skipped this experience thank you very much :))
One more look at the geyser grounds:

and we're slowly moving off...

We ride on through the desert to the Cactus Valley. Oddly enough, even though there is a straight road, many seem to take alternate routes beside it (through the rocky parts), our driver included:

Oh yeah, on the way we stopped for a short snack of Llama meat. Yummy! :D

And then on to the Cactus Valley:

Ok, that was the morning. Around 1 PM we returned to San Pedro and grabbed some lunch, and then right off to the next trip - Valle de la Muerte and Valle de la Luna.
First, Valle de la Muerte (Valley of Death), which is actually not all that big when looked from above (it is quite big though).

Then another short bus trip, leading to the hills above Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley):

From this view, we sandslided down into the valley (some even rolled down the sand lol), and took a walk to the other side and through the canyons to exit on the other end of this mountain "complex".
As the sunset was approaching, we climbed up a "secret" sand dune :)
All the other agencies go to the neighbouring dune (more easily accessible, but therefore much more crowded), and our little group climbed a steep sandy path and finally reached this spot:

From here we could sit and watch the sunset, which was much quicker than expected, but gave some nice colors on the mountains on the other side (seek the people in some of the pictures ;))

And with that, we rushed on to the bus to Arica, slept through the night on that bus, and are now sitting in a net cafe in Arica awaiting that next one to Cusco...
Until next time...

A post from the middle of nowhere...

2008-08-21T00:43:00.017+02:00

San Pedro de Atacama - is the name of the place we're in now.
The date is 20th of August and it's a Wednesday, I think. It's evening now (7 PM) and we wake up at 3:30 for a morning trip to the nearby geysers. So I'll try not to be too long ;)

I'm a bit lost in space and time at the moment, so ignore the weirdness in the post if there will be any. It's a weird place we are in :)

Anyway, San Pedro de Atacama. It's a village near the meeting point of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, on the Chilean side. It is literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by deserts, and full of fun facts like the following:
- it's 25-30 degrees celsius during the day, and you scorch in the sun... it's below zero in the night, with a constant chilling desert wind
- sand is EVERYWHERE... village has no roads of course, just sand paths, so everything that passes raises even more sand
- power generator (the only one of course) died last week, so we have no electricity between midnight and 8AM
- there is warm water sometimes, if you're lucky
- no heaters in the hostel, just lots of layers and you hope not to move to the cold part of the bed
- two ATMs in "town", one of which never has any cash, the other had some yesterday
- dozens of internet cafes (this seems like the business of the moment in these parts), along with as many tourist agencies for doing mini-trips to nearby places of interest...
...and there ARE places of interest, and that is why we are here!

But first, the view from our hostel:

and the main street of S.P. de Atacama:

We arrived late yesterday and booked some tours for the two days that we're here.
Tomorrow we will go to the geysers till lunch, and to the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley) and Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley) in the afternoon, and sit on a bus to Arica right after that (another 12 hour ride I think, but at least overnight... sleeping on buses is becoming a common thing here)

But anyway, back to today. After waking up at 5:30 we went to the nearby salt flats. Seeing the mirage in the desert as the sun was rising was an amazing sight indeed. Walls of heated air were formed around us and gave hope to a warmer outside after leaving the bus at the destination. Still, my fingers were freezing as I was trying to take photos. I see gloves coming up tomorrow, and even more layers! (they say it's -15 celsius at the geysers, at 4300m altitude)
In the salt flats there were the pink flamingos:

and later on we moved to a few lagoons (whose names I can't remember now but I will later :p) high up in the mountains:

This was accompanied by a walk down a canyon:

On the way back, we stopped at the spot marking the ancient Inka trail, which is a straight path connecting Cusco, Peru and Santiago, Chile:

and the new road beside it:

There were a few more cool events but we have no time to write about everything (and gotta leave some stories to tell for when we get back home now don't we :))

Almost 10PM here now, so sleep time. Wake up at 3:30AM and off to the coldness.
We're on a quite tight schedule in the next 2-3 days, in an attempt to reach Cusco as fast as possible, so expect more when we get there...

Adios!

A taste of Argentina

2008-08-18T19:37:00.018+02:00

Allrighty, back in the hostel after our first "excursion" - to Cafayate. But we'll get back to Cafayate, let's go back to the start of South America first...

After a sleepless "night" in London on the 16th, we had to leave at 3 AM to Heathrow Airport to catch the flight to Buenos Aires. Everything went on time, first one of smaller Iberia's planes to Madrid (they gave us no food grrrr, even though the ticket said they would! unforgivable!!!), then after a 2 hour wait a bigger one to Buenos Aires.
We got the aisle seats so as to be able to stretch our legs (flying for 12 hours sitting 99% of the time is NO fun, especially if you're on the taller side of the population) and after what seemed an endless no-real-sleep watching some already seen movies and episodes of Friends(?!) the arrival to Buenos Aires was finally announced.
Outside of the plane there were some thunderstorms (and I believe I saw a lightning hit the plane on one of the screens showing the outside of the plane, but then again, maybe it was just some random lightning :p), and at one point the plane dropped through some turbulence and caused quite a few of the passengers to recheck their seatbelts and contemplate the meaning of life :)
I have to mention that these guys made it up for the last plane, with a basically all-you-can-eat/drink kind of food programe (although they did run out of sandwitches and coke pretty soon lol).

Anyway, being that the plane landed a bit later than it should have, and that Marko's luggage came down that line dead LAST, and that we had less than an hour to reach the Retiro main bus terminal, find the last bus to Salta and get on it (bus to Retiro drives for about an hour), we took a cab and got our own driver.
Supposedly there is quite a high crime rate in Buenos Aires (even my plane co-traveller warned me about it :)), so you don't just pick any cab. You get to a cab company booth and they provide you a cab and a driver.
Luckily, the driver was awesome and got to Retiro in only 30 minutes.

Aaaanyway, long story short, we got on that 18-hour bus to Salta, from which we could finally make our first photos of Argentina.
First sunrise from a gas station next morning:

A bit later the bus had to slow down and wait for the goats to clear from the road:

and this is also a typical scene from this 18-hour bus drive down the 2-lane (one each way) straight road through the desert:

Finally, we arrive in Salta. Already at the bus terminal several people want us to go into "their" hostel, and being that practically the only Spanish we know is "no entiendo" (I don't understand) we went with the one speaking best English :)
Since it was already evening, and Salta has a nice little hill above it, we decided to go have a walk up and see Salta from above:

Original plan was to go on to San Pedro de Atacama as soon as possible, but we just realized here that the bus goes three times a week, next one being Tuesday morning. We got a ticket for that one and had to think of something to do in the one day we had to spend in or near Salta.
Luckily, with help from another hostel guest who speaks both Spanish and English (such people are a godsend to us here :)) we also found a tourist agency and booked the mentioned excursion to Cafayate.
So, today early morning - the agency bus picked us up at the hostel and started slowly southwards...
Lesson learned: if you need Spanish to book a trip, it's likely that no one on that trip will know English...
Thus, we didn't understand almost a thing the guide was saying, but that didn't stop us from running around taking photos every chance we had. In fact, from first stop onwards, the guide was most heard calling our names to get back to the bus :)
(seems most tourists are happy with just getting off the bus and taking a minute to have their photo taken at a spot and want to go on as soon as possible... not us though :p)
Anyway, a bit of what we saw today...

There'll be more, but since it's past midnight here now and we have to wake up at 4:30 to catch the bus to San Pedro de Atacama (that's in Chile), and this computer is waaaaaay too slow to do anything more and stay sane - we're off to sleep...

Catch you all tomorrow, hopefully from San Pedro ;)

London impressions

2008-08-18T18:25:00.020+02:00

OK, I still owe a few words about my London experience. I'll keep it short since Daniel described everything in such detail.

The first thing you notice when you arrive to London is how multicultural and multiracial it is. It's like nothing I ever saw before. Just as I stepped out of our train at Victoria station just by turning my head around I could se both black and white people, Japanese, Chines, Arabs, Indians... The city is also just full of tourists from all over so you also hear all sorts of languages around you, not just English.

For the most part we were walking in the center where the streets are full of all sorts of shops, there were a lot of people everywhere, both tourists and locals. It's not hard to find a place to sit down and have something to drink or eat. People seemed pretty nice.

I really liked 'the tube'. It so great! Even if you have to change 3 trains it still takes you just a few minutes to get from one place to the other. The subway maps are posted everywhere so it's easy to find your way around. The only downside is that it's always very hot underground, neither the stations or the trains have any air condition.

One thing that is a bit of a problem, at least for us from Croatia are the prices. London is expensive. For example, if you want to seat somewhere and eat something simple like a sandwich and have some bottled water with that you'll pay at least 5 GBP for that. In Zagreb it's at least half of that. Its pretty much the same with all the prices, it's something like x2 compared to Zagreb (if you're lucky).

All in all, I liked London a lot and would like to go there again sometime if I can. The only thing I didn't like was how expensive it was.

A few shots of the famous landmarks:

The Gherkin:

Saint Paul's Cathedral:

Tower Bridge:

Buckingham Palace:

Houses of Parliament:

London pt.2

2008-08-18T12:23:00.014+02:00

Second day of London was supposed to be an early wake-up day, but being that we're on vacation... we got there around noon :)

Still, the weather was fine so that was still plenty of time to see a good deal of things.
The eastern part of the centre around Thames was the goal for today, and we started off towards the Tower of London.
However, on the way we are distracted by an egg-shaped skyscraper so we decide to first go see it from up-close.
It's called "The Gherkin" and is a 180m tall skyscraper designed with energy-saving in mind (from aerodynamics to materials used).

After some twisting and turning we got back to the Tower of London, which looked as though no one works here on Friday. It was packed full of people enjoying the (finally) no-rain sunny weather.

We didn't have time to enter and explore the Tower, so we proceeded down the bank of Thames towards the Tower Bridge, which is another famous London site:

Unfortunately, no luck in having a taller ship pass through so we'd see it actually rise.
Moving on to the next site "no one visiting London should miss" - the St.Paul´s Cathedral! :)
However, in between the famous spots, there are other things I just can't miss posting. Wouldn't you just love to eat under a dog that looks like he's just about to pee on you:

Anyway, yeah, the St. Paul's Cathedral:

You might notice that I'm rushing through this post quite a bit. This is partially due to the fact that we rushed through London as well and didn't visit as many things, we just looked around from the outside. Other part is because I'm sitting in a Cayafate net cafe now listening to some local Argentinian music and hurrying to start writing about South America!! :D

And yeah, one reason we didn't enter as many of the sights in London, other than lack of time, is that London is EXTREMELY expensive. We went to this trip with a planned budget for South America. For a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral (which is btw packed full of tourists and you're not even allowed to take photos inside anymore - sorry, but giving 12 GBPs for that is a ripoff in my book!) I can go to a full-day trip to Argentinian glaciers, transport included.

Anyways, back to London ;)
Trafalgar Square deserves a mention here I think:

And these signs that are actually quite useful to any non-Brit here, as the cars seem to always come from where you least expect them :)

Anyway, this day finished at home with a nice barbeque and taking of some family photos (mum will be happy ;)), no sleep at all, and a travel to Heathrow Airport at 3AM to catch the 6:20 flight to Buenos Aires via Madrid.

And now we're here, in a place which looks like time has stood still here for quite a while, except that the type of shop that is most found here is an internet cafe! (we found three in the first five minutes here lol)

Anyway, from now on, all our posts are belong to South America (except the one Marko is writing now and will contain some more impressions from London in a less "reporting" manner ;))

Adios Amigos,
Daniel

Finally in South America!!!

2008-08-18T04:16:00.002+02:00

Hola!

Just an opening post for now. I'm using a hostel comp and doubt I'll be able to abuse it for much longer (will post like this, and update as much as I can stay on comp for today)
I still have the rest of London to update, and then the part from there to here (which was a fun thing in itself :))

In short, we're in Salta.
Took 14 hours of flight to get to Buenos Aires, and another 18 hours by bus to get here. First next bus we need to catch is to San Pedro de Atacama, which doesn't go before Tuesday morning, so until then we'll have a day to see what's there to see around Salta ;)

Gotta go now, will write more tomorrow evening.
Cya! :)

London

2008-08-16T01:45:00.008+02:00

Last two days were the days of running. We've tried to squeeze as much of London as we can in only two days and IT'S MADNESS!!!
Lesson learned (a quickly learned one this time): you need *at least* a week to see only the most known sights of London.

Anyway, back to the beginning of this story.
In the morning of April 14th, we took a train from Maidstone to London's Victoria station. It's some one hour ride and lets you see some of really nice picturesque British villages on the way. The very entrance to London is rather crappy-looking bacause the train brings you in through some warehouses and junkyards, but once you exit the train the picture changes completely.

First thing that I noticed on Victoria station is the multitude of races and nationalities, all gathered here in such a small spot. As a friend said - it's a good reminder to just how different we humans can be. And it's a great sight to see.

Once up on the surface, the pulsing life of such a big city hits you with all the expected imagery - the London architecture, the black cabs, the red double-deckers...

As we were slowly making our way to - what else but - the House of Parliament and The Big Ben, we passed the Westminster Cathedral and the Westminster Abbey.
Even though the weather looked very promising so far, the British weather gods have cast their dices once again and the one wishing for rain seems to have won this round.
Just as we approached Big Ben, it was time to pack the cameras in the bags and get the raincoats out.
After several such swaps (did I mention British weather can be really annoying at times?), it was pouring and we finally found a place to sit inside and have a meal while waiting for the rain to stop.
Luckily, the dices rolled in our favor once again, and the (photo)shooting continued full-scale.

We backed out around the Downing Street (where the Prime Minister resides), through the St.James's park and onwards to Buckingham Palace (have to see that now don't we ;))

It was too late to see the changing of the guards, but oh well...

After a decent walk westward, we reached a more modern spot every London visitor should visit - The Harrods! (every shopper's dream place! every shopper with loads of cash, that is...)
Now this is not just an expensive shop. This is a place where people from e.g. Dubai or Bahrain come to shop. And I don't mean they stop by when they're in London on business. Nooo, they fly here from e.g. Dubai for one day, with their whole entourage of servants, to show themselves and spend small fortunes most people could only dream about. Then they fly back.
The kind of people that bring their Bugatti Veyron's for a visit to London. And this is definitely not just any Veyron:

Lesson learned: don't go to Harrod's if hungry or thirsty; if you want to blow loads of cash, at least buy something there that you won't eat or drink in 5 minutes.

Anyway, the evening is approaching, and we decided to shoot the House of Parliament in the night, with it's lights reflecting in the River Thames, so it's down to "the Tube" (subway) and back eastwards.
Turns out they don't turn the lights on until it's very dark, so we spent about an hour at the river bank with dozens of other tourists awaiting the same thing. Such an original shot lol

Now comes the fun part.
Exhausted we hurry back to Victoria station to catch one of the last trains back to Maidstone. We arrive in time, only to not see it on the boards. After asking about at the info office, we are told that the last train to Maidstone already went off, and that the one we were looking for (and the subsequent one we counted on) are not stopping at Maidstone station at this time.
However, the info guy told us that we should go to Charing Cross station and catch another train (last one from nearby London that does stop at Maidstone), going in ~20 minutes.
Bummer. We just came from Charing Cross. And 20 minutes is barely enough.
Back down to the tubes. Back to Charing Cross, practically running. Look around, ask about. There is a train, but it DOESN'T stop at Maidstone.
After a helpful official made some calls and checked everything out, he told us that whoever told us the first story was talking bollocks, and that the original train we wanted DID stop at Maidstone, and that the last train to Maidstone does go from Victoria station, in some 30 minutes.
Back to tubes. Back to Victoria station. Wait for the train. Sit in the train. Feet up. Sleep. Return home. Sleep some more.

Lesson learned: if something sounds fishy, doublecheck with several persons. Even officials sometimes have no clue what they're talking about.

London day 2 - a more eastern part...
I'll have to stop writing now as it's almost 3AM here and we're about to go to Heathrow and catch that Buenos Aires flight.
This means ~14hr flight, followed by ~18hr bus to Salta, followed by several more buses in a similar duration range to San Pedro de Atacama. If all goes well :)
So, until Monday/Tuesday...

(I'll update this post with the second day of London and more pictures as soon as I catch some time)

Maidstone

2008-08-13T19:29:00.012+02:00

Ahoy! :)
Just a short report from our first stop - Maidstone, Kent, UK.
We'll be here until Saturday morning when we fly to Buenos Aires.

Our first flight went from Zagreb Airport, Velika Gorica, at the morning of 12th at 9:40 local time (I have to remind myself of the dates as often as possible or will lose track completely lol).
I was ringing all over the security check, before losing my belt, watch, compact camera and even it's carying case, and finally boots (guess they were "too metal" :p). What I was wondering about at the time though is why the guy in front of me was carrying an unpacked Canon EOS 1D Mark III with some expensive lens I was not able to detect but were surely also costing a small fortune (yes, we photographers are a bit looney hehe, but I know some of you reading this would drool over this camera... for the rest of you, let's say you could get a good used car for that price).
Anyway, I'm going off track now... he was not the only guy with a fancy camera, and he was a journalist. Turns out we were waiting for a plane next to our high jumping champion - Blanka Vlasic - who was just traveling to the Olympics in Beijing. Only she didn't use a low cost company like we did :p
Anyway, good luck Blanka, and get that Beijing Gold ;)

Now, back on track. 11:05 Luton Airport, London.
Kudos to Wizzair, plane flew on time and landed on time, and in what was probably the smoothest landing I've seen so far.
The good effect of this was spoiled a bit by having to wait in line for more than an hour at the "immigration counter", but the staff was in a good mood so it was ok in the end.
My cousin and my other cousin's husband (no, this will not turn into a mexican soap :p) met us at the airport and - since we were all starving by the time - took us to Burger King for a REAL burger (McDonalds should learn from them before calling something "big" mac).
Anyway, what followed is a 1-2 hour ride back "home" to Maidstone in which my instincts were trying to dodge cars coming in from the other direction driving on the "wrong" side of the street. Might have something to do with the fact I was sitting in what would've been the drivers position back home.

Maidstone is the capitol of Kent, the province southeast of London. It is actually quite a large town (300k+ pop), but it feels like a nice cosy British village, especially the part we're in.

First day we just had a little walk around town and had a chance to enjoy the famous "British weather". Everything you hear is true. The weather gods here are either bored or simply can't control their mood swings.
Lessons learned #1: Never leave home without an umbrella!
Lessons learned #2: Chocolate fudge cake is delicious!!! (I'll have to trust Marko on this one, at least until I try for myself (which will be first chance I get, considering his reaction). I did try fudge today, tastes good :)

First thing today we went to an old Maidstone cemetery, with first graves dating back before 1200's. Some of the tombstones are so old that the stone carvings have been worned out by time. In the moments between the drizzles, a few photos were caught:

After this, we paid a real quick visit to the Carriage museum:

This visit was interesting but quite short, as we had to run catch the bus to the Leeds Castle. That ride was likely the most impressive bus driving I've had a chance to witness. Streets here are narrow, and drivers a bit on the agressive side. Many close pass-bys, many bushes slapped beside the road, no visible scratches on the bus - that's got to be experience, not luck ;)
Arriving at the Leeds Castle:

The entrance ticket is quite expensive (15£), but is valid for an entire year, so if you're here more often it's actually quite a good deal. And a motivation for us to visit again ;)

On the Castle grounds, besides a horde of swans, ducks, peacocks and lambs, there is also an Aviary, a kiddie fort, a maze...

Lesson learned: don't leave home without a good windstopper jacket!

So much for today. Next two days are reserved for London, and then it's off to the distant lands...

Until next time...

Last minute change of plans

2008-08-11T19:26:00.001+02:00

After talking to some friends (who helped us unbelievably with detail planing of the whole trip), we decided to completely rearrange our plan.
We'll still be visiting the same places, but instead of going south after lending in Buenos, we'll head north (or north-west), first to Chile and then to Peru. We'll leave Patagonia and the glaciers for the end of the trip.

Everything is packed, we leave for London tomorrow. ;)

3 days, 22 hours, 36 min, 32 sec...

2008-08-08T10:51:00.006+02:00

This is a screenshot of the top right corner on my PC here at work. It's a little countdown timer showing the remaining time until my Zagreb - London flight on Tuesday. It's been here with me for some time now, so it's nice to see it showing only a few days left. :)

Anyway, it's Friday and it's time for my 5 week long holiday. Finlay!
w00t!

So, the plan goes something like this:
We leave for London on Tuesday the 12th of August. We spend 3 days there and then on Saturday we catch a flight to Buenos Aires. We probably spend a night in Buenos and hopefully we catch another flight (or perhaps a bus) to a small town on the far south of Argentina called El Calafate. This will then be our home base for exploring the Patagonia's glaciers.
Some ten days later we need to be in Cusco, Peru. We are not sure how we'll get there, but we'll most likely have to fly again. Then we leave our bags in Cusco and head out for a 4days/3nights Inka Trail. We'll be hiking along ancient Inka path that takes us across the Andes mountains ending at Machu Picchu. We'll have porters carrying the tents and most of the food. We go back to Cusco with a bus or a train.
After that we'll probably stay in Cusco for a few more days exploring the city and surrounding Inka related sites. Then we head towards Chile stopping in Arequipa (Peru) on the way.
In Chile the plan is to definitely see the Atacama desert. We'll probably stay in a small town called San Pedro de Atacama and if we find enough time we'll try crossing the border to Bolivia, which is supposedly very beautiful and well worth a visit.
At the end we'll try to go to Iguazu falls - it's something like South America's version of Niagara. The Iguazu falls are located on the Argentina-Peru-Brazil border so this is somewhat out of our way, but we'll try to get there if we can.
Then it's back to Buenos so we can catch a flight back on the September 11th. (Uh, I just realized at what date we are flying back.) We land in London on Friday night and catch our flight back to Zagreb on the following morning.

That's about it. I'm not sure how often this blog will be updated though, who knows when and where we'll be able to access the internet...

Finally, since one of the major reasons for doing this trip is photography, here's one of my favorite photography tutorial-like articles, take a look: link. It's called: 'The secret of too' and it's something I'll try reminding myself often during the next 5 weeks. ;)

Testing testing....1...2..3...

2008-07-27T23:08:00.008+02:00

Just to say hi and see how the posts look like :)

More to come after 12th of August! ;)