August 06, 2005
Funniest thing I´ve ever read
Big Up to my Aunt Marilyn who forwarded literally the funniest thing I have ever read. I just read it a third time and still could´t keep myself from attracting glares from the surrounding Peruvians. Hilarity follows. Click to read more.
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Posted by Josh at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2005
Islas Ballestas
I booked my tour to the Islas Ballestas within an hour of getting into town. As such, I didn´t know if I got screwed on the deal or not, but I talked the guy down. He acted as if he really gave me a good deal and then asked for a tip for doing so. I said, ¨What, for selling me a tour, you want a tip?¨ I continue to be amazed at certain cultural differences.
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Posted by Josh at 11:27 PM | Comments (2)
August 03, 2005
Sand Dunes and What Not
Apart from the famous lines, Nazca has relatively little to offer the tourist, so I shoved on to the coastal city of Ica that same morning. After I arrived, I lingered a bit in the central plaza before grabbing a cab 4 kilometers to the neighboring resort town of Huacachina. The town is gorgeously surrounded by towering sand dunes and ever since some creative soul invented the sport of sand-boarding, tour operators have sold dune buggy and boarding trips here. I arranged one for that afternoon and turned in for a nap.
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Posted by Josh at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)
Nazca Lines
The Nazca Lines are various drawings and designs made up to 1,500 years ago in the dry earth by the Nazca tribe near the present-day city of Nazca. One is famously similar to a man wearing a glass dome space-helmet. This representation, thought more likely to be a man with an owl head, along with the fact that the designs are visible only from far far overhead, have led some to believe that the lines are proof of extraterrestrial visitation long ago, or even perhaps that this people descends from beings from outer space. Anyway you slice the history around here, it´s pretty interesting.
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Posted by Josh at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2005
Cañon Del Colca
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Posted by Josh at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2005
San Pedro de Atacama
After the Salar tour, I got a quick lift across the Chilean border. I was a little worried because there was some talk about a $100 fee for Americans. I only planned on passing through the country briefly before getting back into Peru, so a possible run for the border was looming...
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Posted by Josh at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
The Salar de Uyuni
The Uyuni Salt Flat is the largest in the world. It also happens to sit at an incredibly high altitude surrounded by thermally active land. These figures add up to a staggeringly strange and beautiful landscape. My three-day tour of the area was one I won´t forget.
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Posted by Josh at 03:28 PM | Comments (3)
July 26, 2005
Vale Un Potosi
¨Holy...That is a huge erection.¨ And I quote one of the girls on my tour of the silver mines here in Potosí. Yeah, I guess its kind of big. I never did learn the reason for the big boner, but I learned loads of other stuff in the silver mines of Potosí.
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Posted by Josh at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
The Pampas
The wetlands in the tropical lowlands of eastern Bolivia, or Pampas as they are called, lie at the end of a 20-hour bus journey from La Paz, including a few hours down the ¨World´s Most Dangerous Road¨. I opted for the 40-minute flight in a little 16-seater. The turbulence coming off the mountains that surround La Paz was incredible. On touchdown, at such a low elevation, I suddenly remembered what it was like to easily suck in warm air. This was going to be good.
Posted by Josh at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2005
Huayna Potosí? I´ll tell ya Huayna Potosí.
The towering Huayna Potosí at 6,088 meters, or about 20 feet shy of 20,000 dominates the landscape about two hours outside of La Paz. On Tuesday the 19th, I signed on as part of a group to climb this respect-commanding mountain. I prayed that the cemetery at the foot of the mountain seen in the previous photo was indeed filled with the bodies of miners, as our guide had claimed, and not with those of failed summiters. The views even before we reached the mountain were incredible, a great sign of things to come. At base camp at the head of the trail that leads up the mountain, we suited up and got ready to get going.
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Posted by Josh at 08:01 PM | Comments (4)