The NaviMag Experience

We weren’t quite ready to leave the beauty of Patagonia, but we knew staying any longer would throw the budget off.  So, we started looking for the best and cheapest way to head north. Originally, we planned to take a plane from Punto Arenas (PA) to Santiago, Chile. But, I suggested that we look into other options.  Obviously, we didn’t want to take a bunch of buses north; that would be exhausting & a waste of money.  I really wanted to take a boat at some point on the trip & why not look into our options during this portion?

Eventually, I was able to convince Corey to head to the tour office in PA.  As it turned out, there was a ferry, but it left from Puerto Natales (PN) & it didn’t leave for another 6 days. That meant we’d have to divide our time between two Podunk (two-horse) towns in the coldest part of South America! Yes, it was a long time to wait, but it was worth it in the end!

The NaviMag Ferry (not luxurious enough to call it a cruise) is a 4 day boat journey through the fjords of Patagonia from PN to Puerto Montt (PM). For the most part, it’s navigated through channels, but there are 2 portions where the ferry goes through the Pacific Ocean for a chance to see some cool aquatic creatures.

Our Cabin

Before leaving PN, we’d made sure to stock up on supplies: mostly snacks & drinks, since these items can be a bit more pricey on the ferry. It was also suggested that we get seasick pills, because the 3^rd day on the boat is known to be very rough, since it navigates through open seas. But after stopping at 3 different pharmacies & coming up empty, we decided to risk it & go without them.

Our first night on the NaviMag – hanging out in the PN Harbor

On February 25^th, we departed Puerto Natales at 4:00 am after already boarding the night before around 9:00 pm. I realize how cheesy this sounds, but you could feel the excitement in the air the night before. Everyone was taking pictures of the sunset our last night in PN & travelers old & young were anxiously waiting for what would come on our first full day of the journey.

We had a 6:00 am wake up call that Monday to watch the captain navigate a difficult maneuver. I would like to say, that if you ever take this journey, unless you’re big into photography, just sleep in & go to the late breakfast! We got some nice photos of the sunrise, but since I know nothing about navigating a boat, it didn’t look super impressive to me or Corey or any of the other travelers who got up at the butt-crack of dawn to watch our navigation through this “narrow” passage.

For the next 3 mornings, there would be an early wake-up call over the loud speakers & every time fewer & fewer people woke up to see what was going on. As each day passed we made more friends & as a result we stayed up later & later every night. I got up early the last day because I wanted to see one more unobstructed view of the sunrise, but it was just me & one other girl that day.

My photo buddy on the last morning

Every morning after breakfast, the crew would show us the path of the ferry in English & Spanish. In the afternoon they would offer lectures and activities related to this region of the world. My favorite was knot-tying class on the 3^rd day. The evenings consisted of dinner, a movie for all ages in Spanish (with subtitles) in the cafeteria and adult activities on the top deck in the bar.

Ricardo, one of our favorite crew members!

Karaoke Night (I sang too & we do have video, but not sure if I’m ready for that kind of exposure!)

As it turns out, we got very lucky in that the Pacific Ocean was extremely calm on the 3^rd day. Normally, the boat is rocking back & forth uncontrollably and most people are seasick for 12 hours (more or less). We spoke with a couple who’d taken the ferry south to PN & the husband said it was, by far, the worst 12 hours of his life. I was so happy that the most we had was a gentle swaying back & forth and the few times I felt queasy, I just sat on the deck & watched the horizon wearing my motion-sickness armbands.

That day would also bring the chance to see dolphins & whales. We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but as it turned out, we didn’t need to. We actually got to see 2 whales & one of our friends got a great shot as it was they dove below the surface! This was the first time either of us have seen whales in their natural environment & words can’t describe just how amazing it was!

Photo by our friend Ainara

Photo by our friend Ainara

Claudia & Corey playing cards

BINGO night & I actually won!!!

Last night on the boat with Dirk & Naoya

We knew from the start that the ferry would be 1 of 2 things: 1) a horrible experience & waste of money or 2) one of the best experiences of our trip so far & something we’d always look back on with fond memories. It was definitely the later & I can’t believe we contemplated for a moment taking a plane north! There was lots of laughter, dancing, singing, card games & memories! Since arriving in PM on Friday, March 1^st we’ve bumped into other NaviMag travelers more than a dozen times, including last night at a restaurant in Sucre, Bolivia, 50 days later! We’re so happy that we took the ferry north & know that we’ll be talking about it for years to come!

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So, what’d we think of Argentina?

A map of the world, in my opinion, doesn’t do justice to just how big a country Argentina is. This sounds kind of silly considering it is the 8^th largest country in the world.  If you turn it on it’s side, it’s just as wide as the United States. We ended up spending a little under three months in Argentina, crossing the Bolivian border to enter at the beginning of December and finally exiting Argentina on the 19^th of February. We spent in the neighborhood of 100 hours on buses working our way south from the Bolivian border all the way to El Calafate in the southern portion of Patagonia and eventually crossing the border into Chile at Puerto Natales, Chile.

All in all we had a great time in Argentina. We made a number of friends staying in hostels throughout the country that we still keep in contact with and then there is the close friendship we made with Susan, Dave, & Tiv in San Rafael. Along with the incredible sites that we’ve seen, it’s the people that we’ve had an opportunity to meet that have been the highlight our trip and will, most likely, continue to be.

Our buddy, Joe, from England

Another friend, Tina, from Germany!

When we tell people that we’ve meet on the road our plans to find a home in South America the first question they always seem to ask is, “Have you found any candidates yet?” Our immediate response is Salta, Argentina. We spent 2 weeks in Salta and really loved it. The people there were extremely friendly, despite being a big city it has a small town feel, & it has the prettiest square that we’ve seen in South America, by far.

Architecture in Salta

Outside of Salta, we really enjoyed our time in Patagonia. Words and pictures really can’t encompass just how incredible nearly every view is in Patagonia.  Although we really liked Patagonia, it’s just too cold most of the year for us to even contemplate making it our home someday.

Kevin in Bariloche

Bus ride to Perito Moreno Glacier outside El Calafate

El Calafate

Our six weeks in San Rafael was another highlight of our time in Argentina. Outside of all the previously mentioned reasons why our time there was so great for us, one of the best aspects of being there was the opportunity to meet many of Susan & Dave’s ex-pat friends. Talking with them and getting the chance the listen to them talk amongst themselves, we got a real world insider look of what’s really going on in Argentina. One that we wouldn’t have gotten just hanging out and talking to fellow travelers. As a whole, we really didn’t like what we heard. Comparatively speaking, Argentina is light years ahead of Bolivia, but it still has a lot of work to do. It doesn’t help that the current government has been very interventionist in the economy in a number of negative aspects. In some ways completely erasing the work that Nestor Kirchner’s administration did to push Argentina forward. It’s ironic and kind of sad that the current president, Nestor’s wife Christina, has been such a disaster.

San Rafael

 Despite all the positive aspects of Argentina, it’s the negative ones (the inflation/struggling economy, bland food, & lack of an adequate build up of local industry) that really gives us pause with regard to making it our home.

Overall, the food was bland & not very inspiring, however, we loved Argentine asados!

It is, however, an amazing place to visit. It has something for everyone and even though we spent almost three months there, we would love to go back someday to see all the places that we missed.

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Patagonia – Part I

Patagonia is the region that encompasses roughly the bottom third of the countries of Argentina & Chile. It is an area of the world that has attracted travelers & bandits alike for centuries. Butch Cassidy, the Sun Dance Kid and Etta Place spent time here trying to escape the law and make an honest life for themselves, as is documented in Bruce Chatwin’s (a fellow traveler) timeless classic “In Patagonia”. Unfortunately for them, that didn’t last too long. What attracted us, along with countless others, to Patagonia is the regions beautiful scenery. From snow-capped mountain peaks & glistening lakes to the towering plateaus & vast expanses of wind-blown desolateness, Patagonia is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and unpopulated places on the Earth.

 

 

Our first stop after leaving Susan, Dave, & Tiv in San Rafael was Bariloche, Argentina. Located on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi and home to countless chocolate shops, Bariloche definitely had the feel of a town in the Swiss Alps. We had only planned to stay two nights in Bariloche, so we figured what better way to spend our one full day there than taking a nice hike. A woman working at the hostel that we were staying at recommended an “easier” three hour hike that would take us up and over one of the surrounding mountains to a smaller lake that would be warm enough to swim in.

Notice how happy we are at the beginning of the hike!

What she neglected to tell us was that the map the hostel gave us was horrible and that the “trail” had zero signs that could give us even the slightest idea where to go. After several hours of hiking we reached what we assumed was the end of the trail. We could see the lake, but had no idea how to get down to it outside of summer-salting down the mountain.

After 6 hours of hiking and attempts at 4 different side trails proved fruitless, we finally decided to abandon our mission and get off the mountain.

This is Kevin – who turned out to be a girl, but we’d already named her – she followed us for 4 hours!

This is probably around the 5 hour, 45 minute mark, when we finally had to throw in the towel!

Unfortunately, for me there were two ways off: hike 8 km back down the way we came or take the suspended cable car. Despite my debilitating fear of heights, Lisa finally talked me into taking the cable car down and we lived to talk about it!

Bariloche was great and we wish we could have spent a little more time there, but we already made plans to head south to a small mountain town called Esquel, Argentina with plans to camp at the Parque Nacional de los Alerces.  As we all know, sometimes the best of plans can get dashed out. In our case rain was the main culprit.  After 3 days of straight rain we decided that it just wasn’t in the cards for us to camp in Esquel.  At this point we had two options, head south again or end our time in Argentina.  In the end we decided that El Calafate, Argentina, in the Southern third of Patagonia, was going to be our next destination.

 

Like pretty much everywhere else in Patagonia, El Calafate proved to be a really beautiful city. With a population of around 100,000, it plays host to many thousands more during the high tourist season of January & February. During this time prices are very high for food and lodging. Despite our best shopping around, every restaurant ranged from kind of expensive to really expensive. Nevertheless, we had a great time in El Calafate after we changed hostels to one that was a little farther our of town, but had a great atmosphere, where we met a handful of fun travels along with a great staff!

 

After a few days of hanging out around town, we were finally able to get on a tour to El Calafate’s main attraction, the Perito Moreno Glacier. One of the world’s fastest moving glaciers, creeping along at a little more than 2 meters a day & dumping 4 story building size pieces of ice into Lake Argentina all day long, Perito Moreno stretches some 35 plus kilometers back through the mountains and across the Chilean border.

Our tour took the back roads to the National Park allowing us to see falcons & eagles at close range as well as stopping at a large estancia (ranch) that was home to horses, cows, goats, and a milk hungry cat.

According to Lisa, my photo skills are improving – I took this shot!

Lisa even had a good time, despite the fact that she was freezing!

We admittedly had some reservations about spending money to see a giant block of ice, but it was one of the most impressive things that we’ve seen so far on the trip. All in all, El Calafate was one of our favorite places so far on this trip, despite it’s Wisconsin like cool/cold weather.

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Photo of the Week

Week 16 – Lago Argentino – El Calafate, Argentina

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Work Away, Take Two

As most of you already know, our first Workaway experience didn’t go as we had hoped. So when we heard back from Susan, a writer, & Dave, a former alternative radio host, documentarian, and lifelong musician in San Rafael, we were excited, but also a bit apprehensive. They were going to be fine with us staying as long or as short a time as we wanted, so we entered San Rafael knowing that if things didn’t quite work out we be able to get out. Fortunately, things with Susan, Dave, & their 13-year-old daughter Tivoli could not have worked out any better.

Tiv, Susan & Dave

From the moment that we arrived till the moment that we left, we were treated like a new part of the family. We spent the days working and the nights getting to know one another, either at dinner or just hanging out on the patio talking about anything & everything. Susan & Dave could not have been more accommodating hosts and our living situation couldn’t have been more ideal (especially after our previous Workaway situation). We had our own house separate from theirs. It had two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a gigantic kitchen, and a sitting area where we could hang out, read or watch movies. (We apologize for the grainy images of our accommodation – our cheap point & shoot camera was acting up on our last day & the nice camera was charging.)

Our house

Our kitchen

Our bedroom

Kind of like our last Workaway, Lisa & I had different responsibilities and expectations. I was needed to help Dave with the long list of outdoor projects that he was simply unable to keep up with given their vast amount of land. Lisa, on the other hand, was given the tough balancing act of being a teacher/friend to Tiv. During the mornings they did several fun projects from photography & blogging to bracelet making & painting. Tuesday & Thursday nights, Lisa & Tiv took to the kitchen to cook dinner for the 5 of us. At times it proved to be a bit of challenge for Lisa to keep Tiv focused, but all in all it was a good experience for the two of them.

Collaborative painting by Tiv, Susan & Lisa

Their pets, who we love almost as much as we love Norma Jean & Silverstein!

 I spent most of my time outside doing a number of different tasks. Dave and I started off doing most of our morning work together, cutting up logs for splitting & cutting/clearing out quick-growing saplings. As time went on, Dave kind of just let me do my own thing. Some days he had a specific task that he wanted me to get done, other days I was left to my own devices. I did everything from weed-whacking, cutting down trees, splitting wood, & hanging chicken wire (they had a bat problem in their cabana). I also cleared out all the weeds & silt build up in the small canal that ran across their property.

We usually worked until around 12:30 or 1:00. In summer it just gets too hot to be working outside & plus you would be disturbing your neighbors during siesta. In Argentina & South America as a whole, businesses and people pretty much shut down around 1:00PM to take a break from the day and relax. They don’t start up again until around 5:00PM. It is a bit of shock at first to go into a big city or small town for that matter and see no businesses open, but you eventually get used to it and come to expect it, especially when the afternoon temperatures are pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

 Susan & Dave were also gracious enough to take us to almost all the social gatherings of their friends. On Friday evenings they had a few Expat friends over for a friendly, low stakes game of poker. It was a pot luck so everyone brought food. There wasn’t a bad cook among them so we ate some great food. Sunday afternoons, we did pretty much the same thing at a friend of theirs house. Expect the game on Sunday wasn’t poker, but Ba-Chi-Ball. Even though we didn’t have our AARP cards, they let us play. They also took us to a few others parties, including a New Year’s Eve party where was had a great Asado (Argentine BBQ) which included a goat roasting over an open fire and some great people.

Us, Malcolm & Sue (British Expats) At Poker Night

The Circus – Yeah, that’s right!

New Year’s Eve 2013

White water rafting in Valle Grande

Our time with Susan, Dave, & Tiv was outstanding. They couldn’t be nicer people & they defiantly couldn’t have treated us any better. Our time in San Rafael flew by, but we couldn’t stay there forever. We’ve left San Rafael, but we have more now than when we first arrived. We’ve added 3 new family members that we can’t wait to see again.

For now, it’s goodbye to San Rafael & hello to Bariloche, the gateway to Patagonia!

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Nice to meet you Salta!

We knew that we’d be spending a while in Salta from the minute we drove in to town.  Which is pretty odd on our part considering that is was dark, rainy & chilly when we arrived.  But, there was just something about Salta that made us want to stay for a bit.

Overall, the weather was nice & humid, which we LOVE!

The views are absolutely breathtaking!

The food is awesome!

The street art is diverse, eye-catching & unique!

We haven’t gotten sick!

Every city has some quirks that come with the territory & we definitely had a hard time with a few of these things in Salta.

The daily pace: it sounds like this may be an Argentinian thing, but do to a late & LONG siesta, the people party super late into the early (late?) morning hours.  Siesta starts around 2:00 PM & lasts until 6:00/7:00(ish) PM.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that locals (& travelers alike) are getting ready to go out at 2:00 AM!  If you get in at 4:30 in the monring, you’re the party pooper!

Argentinian Spanish: this is another one of those random things that we didn’t think to research, because we assumed that all South American countries (not including Portuguese speaking Brazil) spoke the same type of Spanish!  For the most part, we were both doing pretty well in terms of basic communication in Bolivia. However, it’s a whole other ballgame in Argentina & I can’t even carry on a basic conversation without asking the locals to repeat themselves.  While the people are patient with my Spanish, it has been quite a challenge!

All in all, we spent 15 days in Salta and it is the first city that we’ve actually considered a potential place we could call home.  I’m sure there will be other destinations that give it a run for it’s money, but Salta was a great introduction to Argentina!

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The Budget – Bolivia

To get a better understanding of how much money we’re spending on the road, Lisa created a spreadsheet, breaking out our daily expenses.  We’re aiming for $100 (US) a day, ($50/person), which is very doable, especially in some countries like Bolivia & Peru.  However, there will be other countries, like Argentina & Chile, that will be more challenging if we’re not careful.  We know that at times we’ll be over budget & other times under, so things should even themselves out in the end.

Bolivia should’ve been one of our cheapest countries & we definitely would’ve been under budget, had it not been for medical expenses.  Between Corey’s visits to the clinics & hospitals, and my trip to the dentist, we spent a total of $1,607 on medical expenses alone (this includes money spent on medication).

Daily Accommodation Average: $26 per day

For the most part, we attempted to stay in hostels in an effort to save money & also meet other travelers.  However, we did end up in a hotel for 11 nights in Santa Cruz, which definitely increased the daily amount spent on accommodation.  The silver-lining, we spent nothing in this department while volunteering in Samaipata!

Santa Cruz

Daily Food Average: $18 per day

We found that La Paz was one of the best places for street food & it was definitely very easy to find local, cheap options close to our hostel.  There were also cheap options in Santa Cruz, but once we got closer to the city center, those became harder to hunt down.  Plus, we’d already found a few places that we really enjoyed eating & found ourselves returning often.

Lorca – Favorite Restaurant in Santa Cruz

Tasty Treats

Daily Transportation Average: $6 per day

Taxis in Bolivia are super cheap, especially considering that you get to negotiate your fare before you even get in the car.  This took a bit of practice, but once we had the layout of each city, it was easy to tell if a driver was trying to take advantage of us & then haggle our way down to a reasonable price.  One thing we never did in Bolivia was take a local bus, so I’m sure more money would’ve been saved, had we attempted to use that mode of transportation.

First Bus – La Paz to Santa Cruz

Daily Entertainment Average: $5 per day

The following are included in our entertainment expenses: tours, souvenirs, park/museum admissions and any items that may cause us joy, but aren’t necessities (ie: clothes, headphones, jewelery, etc.).  We only went on one tour, while in Bolivia, mainly because we know we’ll be back in the new year for the Salt Flats tour.  Also, we didn’t find anything in the cities we visited that appealed to us enough to spend a lot of money.  However, it must be said, that in comparison to tours in other parts of the world, entertainment in Bolivia was VERY cheap – the Tiwanaku tour was only $25 per person.

Tiwanaku Tour

Unique Church in Santa Cruz (only thing worth photographing in this city, besides the food!)

Do you think they’d notice if we took that dollar?

Plaza in La Paz

In the end, we spent 31 days in Bolivia, with a total of $3,502, which is an average of $113 per day.  Take out the medical expenses & we would’ve spent only $61 per day & that’s if you travel like we did.  You could definitely spend less than that, by always staying at hostels & eating local food everyday.

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Our thoughts on Bolivia

Today we had plans to hike up the biggest hill in Salta, Argentina with a couple from France.  However, seeing as how it is pouring rain outside, we figured today would be a good day to write a post summing up our time in Bolivia.

La Paz

Unfortunately, our time in Bolivia was marred by some lost days and hospital stays due to my weak stomach. Our first two days in La Paz were spent in bed sick with altitude sickness and involved a trip at 4 AM to the doctor’s office. Only a few days after feeling better, I tore a muscle in my shoulder & had some more stomach troubles which involved 3 trips to the doctor and finally a day + stay in the hospital. After a couple weeks of feeling great, we ended up with a trip to the hospital and a 2 day stay in there due to my troublesome stomach yet again! Although all the medical costs that we incurred were much, much less than they would have been in the States, they still have thrown our trip budget out of whack.

Hospital in La Paz

All in all we felt that Bolivia was a very nice place to visit, but we can both pretty easily say that we wouldn’t want to live there. Under the leadership of Evo Morales, Bolivia has made some strides of becoming more independent and developing it’s economy, but, nevertheless, it still remains a third world country. The people, for the most part, were very friendly and quite patient with our broken Spanish. Outside of fellow traveler’s, we only ran into 5 or 6 locals that actually spoke English, 2 of those being doctors.

Favorite restaurant in La Paz (Lisa & the owner, who spoke some English)

Although the medical care was very cheap, it wasn’t as good as it should have been. We knew that going into the trip and, unfortunately, we got a chance to experience the deficiencies first hand. The hospital we were at in Santa Cruz didn’t do a single test to see what was really wrong with me. The doctor pushed hard on my aching stomach and had me stick out my tounge to come to the diagnosis of a stomach infection. He was probably correct in this assumption, but without tests how could he really be sure?

One of the best views of La Paz was in Corey’s hospital room

In general, the food in Bolivia was pretty good. There are a lot of small restaurants/cafes/stands that serve local food and many bigger restaurants that had a more Americanized menu. Although the food was normally very tasty, we have yet to meet a traveler who didn’t get sick from the food or water in there.  We actually found mold in our sandwiches at a cafe in Santa Cruz!  Traveler’s Stomach is a pretty normal condition, but it seems to happen more frequently to travelers in Bolivia than in other South American countries.

Tasty pizza in La Paz

BEST meal in Bolivia! (Lorca in Santa Cruz)

As I mentioned previously, the economy and infrastructure, although improved, are still quite a bit behind compared to other Latin American countries. I don’t think we truly knew how far behind Bolivia was until we crossed the border. In Argentina, we immediately saw large-scale farming and metal, electrical and telephone poles.  In Bolivia, it was mostly sustenance farming and the electrical and telephone poles were just straight(ish) tree trunks. Bolivia also seems to still be pretty reliant on foreign imports.

Waterfall outside of Samaipata

Despite some short falls, Bolivia was still a very nice place to visit. We will never forget some of the things that we saw and the people that we meet. It was unfortunate that health problems kind of sullied a bit of our experience, but nonetheless, when healthy we had a great time meeting fellow travelers and trying to soak up as much of the La Paz & Santa Cruz as we could.

Our last night in Santa Cruz

And, after everything there, we really are looking forward to our return to Bolivia to see the salt flats in Uyuni!

 

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La Paz through our Eyes

Even though it isn’t the most beautiful city, La Paz has really grown on us . . . here are some photos from our many walk-abouts:

We still have a few posts to write for La Paz, but tomorrow we’ll be taking our first long bus ride to Santa Cruz de la Sierra . . . wish us luck!

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The Mysterious Ancient City of Tiwanaku

As some of you already know, we didn’t exactly spend our first few days in La Paz as we originally expected.  We arrived quite late into Bolivia, in the early morning hours of October 31st. We were on the last plane that landed that night and we also ended up being the last two in line to get our Visas and take care of all immigration related things.  We both pretty much went straight to bed upon arrival at our hostel despite our excitement.  The following morning is when things started to turn bad.  We both woke up with massive headaches.  I soon felt nauseated and felt the need to run to the bathroom.  My nausea was soon followed by Lisa’s and she too had to run to the bathroom.  Altitude Sickness was getting the best of us. Although she felt pretty much like crap the rest of the day due to a bad head ache, she ended up much better off than me.  I proceeded to have nausea related issues for the next 24 + hours.  It actually got so bad on our 2nd morning that we decided I should see a doctor ASAP.  Luckily, the person at the front desk called a cab and pointed us in the right direction. I ended up seeing a doctor at around 5AM.  Despite some break downs in communication, he was able to give me a shot of something and he prescribed 3 medications. Here is the craziest part of our the whole experience. The doctor visit plus the 3 prescriptions cost us a grand total of $20 and the best part is that it all worked and I’m feeling much better. We both are, so much so that we decided to take our first “sight seeing” trip yesterday to the most important archeological site in Bolivia, if not the whole of South America.

Bolivian Countryside

Tiwanaku was one of the sites that I most wanted to see on our trip. The ancient city of Tiwanaku was discovered in 1549 by a Spanish conquistador, Pedro Cieza de León and since then date has caused nothing but questions for archeologists and lay people alike. The conventional wisdom says that Tiwanaku and people that inhabited it were just simple, but mysterious Pre-Inca civilization that started up as early as 1500 BC. There are other, fringe researchers that believe the site to be much, much older, possibly dating back to around 15,000 – 10,000BC. These researchers feel that the people who lived here were also much farther advanced than most archeologists give them credit for.

Our first glance of Tiwanaku

There is another set of researchers and lay people who believe that the creation of this site, along with many others around the world, is the work of “Ancient Aliens.” One of their many understandable reasons for alien involvement is the shear size and weight of the stones and blocks used at a number of these sites including the Great Pyramids and Tiwanaku. Puma Punku, a site very close to Tiwanaku, is based around huge monoliths (carved stone blocks) weighing more than 100 tons. Despite sciences and modern technologies best efforts, neither have been able to explain or duplicate how to move these massive blocks, even with cranes. I guess we may never truly know how and why and by whom Tiwanaku and Puma Punku were built.

Tiwanaku Ruins

Our day started off with a 1 and a half hour mini-bus ride from La Paz, through the Alti-Plano (the very, very poor high plans above La Paz), to Tiwanaku. We booked the trip the evening before through the travel agency that works with our hostel. In our group were 5 friends from Chile, 2 friends from Belgium, and a middle aged pair of “friends” from America, who did their best to hold together the stereo-type of the obnoxious Americans. Once we arrived at Tiwanaku, our guide showed us around the two museums on site. Although we were not allowed to take any pictures in the museums and guards did a pretty good job preventing people from doing so, Lisa was able to get a shot of the coolest exhibit in the museums, one of the mummies found at the site.

After our museum tour, our guide took us out onto the site. We first climbed to the top of the remains of a 6 level pyramid. The climb, although short, left everyone pretty winded due to the altitude. Next, he showed us around the main site, the cemetery, main worshiping area, and another cemetery/ritual area. At the main site, the last place our guide took us was to see the Gateway of a Sun. Maybe the most important artifact at the site, the Gateway of the Sun in huge arch carved out of a single monolith with an as yet un-deciphered hieroglyphic language. I had seen many pictures of it in some of my reading material so it was very cool to be standing in front of it.

Our last stop on our tour was Puma Punku, the site I previously mentioned that contains the gigantic blocks and some interesting tool work of other blocks in the site. Our tour concluded with a local lunch, which was OK, and the 1 and half bus ride home.

Huge monolith rock at Tiwanaku

More ruins at the main site

All in all, we both really enjoyed our first true day out. After being sick and cooped up for the first couple days of our big trip it was great to be out and enjoying our time seeing South America!

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