Cuzco, Peru

Last June I convinced my bff to cash in some more miles and head back to South America for the 2nd time to join me in Peru. If you knew M, you'd know that it doesn't take much convincing or arm twisting to participate in any kind of travel adventure. I think it was our first trip together in the summer of '08 to San Francisco that proved that we were compatible travel buddies, and her husband was even lucky enough to follow us around while we each tried to "out-itinerize" the other with tours of Alcatraz, wine tasting, baseball, biking the bridge, and reading street maps to try to get back and forth from our hotel using streets that weren't steep enough to require an oxygen tank.

Sorority pose at Alcatraz

Lots of wine tasting of course

Brewers vs. Giants on a chilly summer night

Biking the bridge on a 45 degree cloudy morning

Prepping for a whirlwind adventure in Peru was a little different, especially when your point of arrival is at approximately 11,000 ft. above sea level and you need to drink tea made from cocaine leaves to combat the altitude sickness. (oxygen tank mentioned above would've come in handy there too)

They say it's important to plan a couple of days in Cuzco to acclimate before heading to Machu Picchu just in case anyone in your group gets altitude sickness since obviously it's not ideal to end up puking and in bed the day that you have your entrance permits to see it. Cuzco is charming and we both put on our nerdy Spanish teacher hats and decided to explore the local sights like Pisac Market, NOT drink alcohol (which is hard for the 2 of us to do when we're together), rest up and NOT eat cuy picante (a guinea pig type of delicacy that they eat there). For two adults who exercise and are in pretty good physical health, it's really not an exaggeration that you get winded walking up and down stairs. Altitude sickness really is just dehydration, so it's also important to chug water like nobody's business, and that means lots of trips to the market to buy bottles and bottles of water. After having spent a year in Chile with clean water, it was definitely an adjustment to remember not to put my toothbrush under the sink.

Plenty of tiny markets selling souvenir crap like this stuff that I first fell in love with in China "adidas/alpacas", really???

We spent lots of time around the Plaza eating, drinking Coca light and people watching

A shot from one of the second floor balconies where we could sit and observe

Pisac Market

I miss getting my produce like this 

So many varieties of potatoes

and corn...

Burying and cooking Pachamanca, a dish that's cooked underground using hot stones, potatoes, meat, etc.

I was obsessed with taking pictures like while I lived in South America, I must have known deep down that I'd end up in AZ...

Pichilemu

Last weekend I took advantage of my Friday and Saturday off for Easter weekend, or Semana Santa, and headed with my friend Abby to Pichilemu, a coastal surf town about 3 hours away from Santiago by bus. We had a few minor snags before we left, including an overbooked hostel and a rainy forecast, but I knew when the bus pulled in and we saw the clouds clearing off and the gigantic waves that we had made the right decision.

I'm not usually a last minute person, but we waited a little too long to try to make reservations, so by the time I actually started actively looking for a place to stay,  many of the places were already booked. I should have seen the red flags when one of the places that I had contacted indicated that they were booked already but the next day was showing availability on the Hostelworld website. To make a long story short, emails were sent, apologies were issued, and luckily we were able to book a really nice place to stay out near Punta de Lobos. The tricky part was trying to get my 10% deposit back from Hostelworld, and although the owner took responsibility for not having updated the site properly, her final word to me via email was, "I guess if you really want the 5,000 pesos you can track me down when you get to Pichilemu." Really??? I won't name any names, but I will say that the place we did end up staying, the Natural Surf Lodge, is a really nice place with great views, complete with sounds of the nearby crashing waves. I was also lucky that after a few emails back and forth I was able to get my credit card refunded without having to go track down crazytown herself at her overbooked hostel.

Cactus at the ocean? Who knew?

I want to see someone surfing this wave

In my opinion, too cold for this

Poor guy, I wonder if he's gotten used to the sand between his toes

Yes, we took a carriage ride

Jam packed and waited forever, but totally worth it

Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay

From Buenos Aires, one of the easiest and most popular excursions is to cross the Rio de la Plata by ferry over to Uruguay to access Montevideo or another adorable little touristy town, Colonia de Sacramento. When one imagines crossing a river, you probably don't imagine a river that is up to about 200 km wide. If you want to get technical, it's an estuary formed by the Uruguay Parana rivers that creates the border between Argentina and Uruguay and connects all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Because of sediments entering from the other rivers, the water is a nice murky brown color.
There is the option for the super fast 1 hour ferry to Colonia or the more affordable 3 hour trip which has you there in time to walk around, grab some lunch, snap photos of the historical area of the city, and with the 1 hour time change be back in Buenos Aires by 10pm.

Leaving Buenos Aires behind

Big river, right?

Brown water noted

Approaching Colonia

This is what the ferry looks like

Don't worry, this guy is going to catch a boat that big and tie us up

Here's to visiting another country in one day

Colonia de Sacramento was founded originally by Portugal in 1680 and over the years had also been under Spanish and Brazilian control. It's now a part of Uruguay and it's best known for its historic district, a World Heritage Site, that was built by the Portuguese.

It also had a tropical island feel

I loved all of the different colored hibiscus everywhere

You know it's a small world when you run into two of your good friends from Santiago in Uruguay. We forgot to snap a picture as proof of our coincidental meeting, but they were really there, I swear.

Back to Buenos Aires!

Buenos Aires

I'm almost to the end of the travel posts, I promise. It was a fun 6 weeks and I feel very fortunate to have done and seen everything that I did. My travel around Chile has definitely changed the way I plan to travel in the future and the things I still want to see. Gone are the days of all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, hello Cartagena de Indias, Colombia!
If you're one of those outdoorsy types who likes Alaska or the Western USA, you HAVE to add Patagonia to your list of place to visit. I hope to return someday to see the other side and make my way up the places that I missed like Ushuaia, El Calafate, and Bariloche.
Now...on to my photos of Buenos Aires. Although it's a beautiful cosmopolitan city, I knew right away that I made the right choice in coming to Santiago. For me it's more manageable and the only way I can describe it would be like moving from Chicago to New York City. At any rate, since I'm a Chicago girl, it was nice to get out of this desert for a few days and into a little heat and humidity and see the beautiful people, architecture, and fashion.

Retiro and Plaza San Martin:

La Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo:

Puerto Madero:

Recoleta area and the cemetary:

Everyone comes to see Evita

I didn't get it in the photo, but there was even a butterfly flying around right here next to this quote that says to focus on the life that is beginning and not ending. Pretty cool.