Sucre, Bolivia

Arrived in Sucre, Bolivia yesterday. This is my second visit to Bolivia. But the first time was just on the border.

Sucre is the named capital of Bolivia although the government is in La Paz. Sucre is near Potosi-a very old silver mining town. Back in the day, the rich mine owners lived in Sucre and worked in Potosi. It was the Paris of South America for a while. That has changed, but it is still a beautiful city-the city of white. Most of the buildings are white, which is precious against the mountains that surround it.

Today was a museum day. I visited some of the best museums in Sucre. All have one highlighting feature that makes them unique and worthwhile to visit. First I went to the Museum of Textile Art. It is truly one of a kind. It contains hand woven art from various local cultures and you can watch women weave gorgeous patterns with wool. It was fascinating. The talent to make this type of art is unbelievable and boggles my mind. Later I visited the Museo Charcas-University Museum Colonial and Anthropological which is inside a 17th century mansion. It holds a huge collection of Bolivian and European art and also has a comtemporary art section. The most impressive piece of art is by the half-indigenous Melchor Perez Holguin in his work San Juan de Dios where he painted an almost perfect depiction of human hands. Lastly I headed to the Museo de la Catedral which is filled with more colonial art. But the best part is the Chapel of the Virgin Guadalupe. There lies a painting of Virgen de Guadalupde from the 1600´s who is adorned with thousands of pounds of jewelry that the faithful have offered her over the years. I was not allowed to take a photo so here is one I found on google!

Tomorrow...dinosaurs!!!! I´ll explain later.

Iguazuuuuu

Just got back to Buenos Aires after a couple nights in Iguazu. Iguazu is in Northern Argentina and borders Brazil and Paraguay. I did not cross any borders there however. I would have liked to have gone to Brazil, but U.S. citizens need a visa to enter. Oh well.

Anyways, the whole point in visiting Iguazu was to see the magestic Iguazu Falls. And oh yes they are incredible. I cannot really begin to describe them so I will post a picture. The falls are nestled in the jungle. And boy is it humid. I was dripping wet from the humidity and the falls. Part of the seeing the falls experience is getting wet by them and I loved it! I spent around 5-6 hours walking around the falls. Butterflies fill the park and are constantly landing on you! Anteaters also come around begging for your food. There are two trails to view the falls-the lower trail and the upper trail. I took both of them. Absolutely amazing.

Tomorrow I am off to Sucre, Bolivia. The traveling continues!!!

La Capital-Buenos Aires

Now I am in Argentina! What a flight to get here. It was supposed to take 2 hours from Santiago. However, there was a huge storm in Buenos Aires so my flight was re-routed to Montevideo. We were there for 3ish hours then finally we headed to Buenos Aires. I landed and then found out that it was a 2 hour wait for a taxi due to the weather. So I took a bus instead, which was still a long wait.

Buenos Aires is very humid; muggy. Today I took a city tour in the rain. I saw most of the cities neighborhoods. One of the best was "La Boca"-an old immigrant neighborhood near the port. The houses were constructed from makeshift items and painted with left over paint colors found by the port. The result today is a very artsy neighborhood (also very touristy) and a place for people to dance tango in the streets. This neighborhood inspired the first tango song-Caminito-The Little Street. According to my tour guide, tango was first a type of music then became a type of dance that evolved over time.

We also visited Recoleto Cemetary, which was fascinating. The people are buried in little tomb houses above the ground. You have to pay a huge amount of money to be buried there. So most of the people buried there are rich or famous. The most famous person buried there is Argentinas beloved Evita. It literally is a small city for the dead. You can look right into some of the tombs and a coffin or coffins sit there. Also, a fee needs to be paid every year to keep the tomb. If the fee is not paid within five years then the tomb goes back on the market for another dead person/family. Fascinating place!

The Coast and The Chascona

Back in Santiago, I spent the last couple days on the coast. It is known as the Italian Rivera of Chile. Or something like that. My Dad was great and got me a free night at the Shereton. A whole bunch of Latin Stars were staying at my hotel for an annual summer festival. It was really cool. I could look outside and see a television show being filmed and turn on the TV and see the same thing. Unfortunately, it was foggy the whole time I was there so I did not get to sunbathe. Better for my skin I guess.

Today I hiked El Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago. It is a hill that contains one of the cities largest recretional parks. At the top of the hill is a statue of the Virgen Mary along with a fantastic view of Santiago. The city is a juxtaposition of tall modern skyscrapers amoung the historial foundations of Santiago´s Spanish and French arquitecture.

Then in the afternoon I headed to the artsy, hip, bohemian neighborhood of Bellavista. It is filled with youthful bars, restaurants, clubs, shops, and boutiques all painted in various vibrant colors. Murals can be found at most corners. In this neighborhood is the home of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Pablo Neruda named the house after his lover Matilde. He called it ¨Chascona,¨ which means one with the wild hair in Quechua-language of the Incas. She had curly red hair! Like me! Anyways he was obsessed with the sea and built his house like a ship and a lighthouse. It was like a dollhouse. I saw the actual nobel prize he won for literature.

Adios Peru...Hello Chile!

Yesterday I crossed the Peru-Chile border. I took a combi from Tacna, Peru to Arica, Chile. Then boarded a plane some hours later and landed in Santiago, Chile! Today was my first day in Santiago. I visited the Plaza de Armas-Main Cathedral-caught part of the Sunday mass. Then I walked around the center to get a feeling for the city. I headed to the Central Market. They sell a ton of fish there. It was the most fishy place I have ever been in! The workers were trying to help me and I was like I don´t want to buy anything I just want to see it! Later I went to an old colonial building called the ¨Casa Colorada.¨ It contains the official Santiago Museum. In the afternoon, I visited the Pre-Colombian Art Museum-really awesome. They had artifacts from all of the ancient cultures that lived in the Americas-starting from Mexico all the way down to Chile-including a special exhibit for the Incas. I think I will spend another day or so exploring Santiago then I will head to the coast of Chile-Vina del Mar and Valparaiso.

Side note, I spent two nights in Tacna with the flu. I feel a lot better, but I am not 100 percent back to my normal self so I am trying to relax a little more; not be so ambitious.

Mollendo y Colca Canyon

Arequipa is awesome! On Sunday, I went to a beach town a couple hours from Arequipa called Mollendo. I relaxed on the beach for a while. It was hot; the sun is really strong here. I think I have used about a bottle of sunscreen in the past few days. The beach was covered in umbrellas. Tons of children. Many families brought little wadding pools to the beach for the babies. It was cute.

Then Monday morning I left with a tour group for a 2 day trip to Colca Canyon. It is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It looks completely different though. It is a beautiful green valley. The highest point I was at was over 7000 feet. I could really feel the effects of the altitude! But I survived. I saw many animals...llamas and alpacas. However, the highlight was to see the Andean Condor fly through the canon. It is the biggest bird in the world. Not everyone who goes to the canon gets to see the condor, but we were lucky and saw various. Besides visiting the canon, we visited some natural hot springs in the valley, very relaxing. It was a great trip overall. I met nice people from all over the world, and saw some traditional folk dancing.

Today was great too. I got up and took a taxi to the outskirts of Arequipa to go horseback riding. I rode a female horse named Yuma for a couple hours around hills with farms and Incan ruins. We crossed over streams and two dogs accompanied us the whole time. I think their job was to protect us from the other dogs we encountered along the route.

Tomorrow I am heading futher south in Peru to the city of Tacna. Then I will cross into Arica, Chile from there. I think I will spend a little time in Arica then fly down to Santiago, Chile to explore that country.

AREQUIPA

I arrived in Arequipa, Peru this morning. This is the beginning of my traveling journey around different parts of South America. Arequipa is located in Southern Peru and is an hour and a half from the coast. It is the second largest city in Peru with a population of over one million people. I plan on heading to the beach tomorrow, to enjoy the ocean and the sun. In the past month, Cusco has been inundated with rain. So severely that homes were completely destroyed, mudslides were rampant, bridges collapsed, and much more. There was an intense effort in Cusco to provide supplies and assistance to the flood victims. There were some days in Cusco with no water, because a main water line broke. Furthermore, thousands of tourists and Peruvians were trapped in Machu Picchu because the floods severly damaged the railway to get there. People had to take a pricey helicopter back to Cusco. Machu Picchu will be closed for the next two months. This is really bad news for Cusco since tourism is their main industry. Hotels and restaurants are being closed for the lack of tourists.

Well back to Arequipa. This morning I visited the Monastery of Santa Catalina. It is known to be ¨the city within the city¨ of Arequipa. It once was the home to hundreds of cloistered Dominican nuns. It is a large facility now that is a museum with a ton of paintings from the Cusquean School of Art. The nuns that lived in the Monastery were from rich families, so they did not live like typical nuns. They had their own rooms, kitchens, and servants. Also, their families could give them equisite presents for their rooms. However, that all changed during the reformation in the 1800s. Then they needed to convert the place into a typical convent where they shared a kitchen, rooms, and got rid of the servants. The convent is still active today. However, now there are only 20 cloistered nuns and they live in a modern part of the monastery.

I ate lunch in the Main Square then headed to a little suburb northwest of Arequipa called Yanahuara. It is very close to the city and has some amazing views. At the lookout, you find beautifully constructed stone arches, and can see the three large volcanos that surround the city-El Misti, Chachani, and Picchu. It was awesome!