Good food & a lost city

Hi All,

So... it has been a while since we have posted and some of you might have been wondering what happened. (Dawn ;-) ) Well this last part of journey has been jam packed with little down time. The few moments we had the time, the internet connection was slow, or it was used to upload pictures and video to free up space on the camera's memory. Now finally we are done uploading everything and we are overdo on a few posts: Chile, and Peru. Ryan will hit on Argentina while in the airports today.

Santiago, Chile



We only had two days and nights to explore this city, but it was enough to decide we would like to come back. Arriving at 7 am and feeling completely wrecked from our convoluted flight plans (Sydney to Los Angeles to Santiago with a 6 hr layover at LAX), we took a little nap and explored the neighborhood near our hostel. Bellavista, is a great little area a little like the CWE in St. Louis. An old urban area with quaint 3 to 4 story row houses, surrounded by cafes, restaurants and bars. Admittedly there is not much to do in this area except eat, drink and absorb the local life, but we were not up to much that day anyway. Our schedules being off we had a late dinner starting at 9:30 pm. However similar to Spain, this is just when the locals are starting to get ready to out for dinner, by 11 pm when we had finished there were like three groups of people stalking our outside table. The next day we did our own walking tour of Santiago. We went to the fine art museum, and the Museum Pre Columbo. We walked down a few pedestrian streets lined with local crafts to various plazas, then ventured in a few beautiful churches, and finally climbed two of Santiago's famous "hills," both topped with churches and one with a shrine to the virgin Mary. The Pre Columbo museum was one of our favorite museums. It is filled with artifacts of the various native civilizations that existed before Columbus's "discovery" of the new world. We ended the day with another great meal at an out door restaurant in our neighborhood. We would have liked to visit the sea side community of Valperaiso and a few wine estates, all just a few hours from Santiago, but we ran out of time. So next time we visit these sights are sure to be on our itinerary.

Cusco & Machu Picchu, Peru



So I know there is a lot to see in Peru, i.e. the Nazca Lines, Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu etc... We would have liked seen it all, but let's face it if you can only fit one place in it would have to be Machu Picchu. We flew into Cusco, after paying a small fortune in airport taxes. (It did not matter that we were just transferring on route to another destination we were herded outside just so we would have to re-enter and pay more airport taxes.) We spent a day in Cusco both before and after leaving for Machu Picchu. Cusco, has the closest airport to Machu Picchu and it used to be the center of the Inca Empire. Most of the Inca city was destroyed by the Spanish but some "new" buildings were built using the remains of the old Inca buildings leaving intact original Inca walls (you can see these walls walking down the street). Other buildings were made out of the Inca ruins, so the same stones that were in Inca temples are in the building that average people use every day. The cathedral in Cusco was built on the sight of an Inca temple and is huge. It is comprised of three churches each with colorful frescos and ornately clothed statues. (Mary, Joseph, and other saint statues are dressed in real miniature clothes... weird) In the main church is the most amazing and beautiful carved wooden choir room. Cusco is Peru's 9th largest city but it seems so undeveloped by western standards. We took the train to Agues Callentes a town that is 10 minutes from the Machu Pichu ruins, we spent 2 days here, so we could explore Machu Picchu at our leisure. Machu Picchu is amazing, the 5 square miles ruins remain hidden in the side of a mountain till the very last moment. The ruins are so complete compared to Athens, Rome or other ancient cities. I could easily imagine daily life by mentally drawing in thatched roofs and crops in the surrounding agricultural terraces. The skill in which the city was created was inspiring. Gigantic boulders were put in place and then single stairwells were carved out of that same stone. All of the buildings were built with out any type of joining compound; just stacks of precision cut stones dry fitted together. Modern buildings today do not have the same craftsmanship. (Our modern buildings need cement to stay put.) On our 2nd day of exploring we were able to get the first bus to the ruins and it was inspiring to zig zag up the mountain road with the morning mist breaking over Machu Picchu. We were also able to secure 2 of the 400 tickets granted to climb Huayna Picchu. Huayna Picchu are small Inca ruins on a neighboring mountain peak that provide an excellent panoramic view of Machu Picchu bellow. The climb took us 2 hours up and about 1.5 hours down. It was steep and wet, since it had started to rain as soon as we were 20 minutes into our climb, but well worth the journey. We were even lucky enough for the rain to stop and the cloud to clear for a few minutes once we were on top so we could enjoy the view and take a few photos. All in all it was an amazing experience. In my opinion Machu Picchu is on the same level and the pyramids and the great wall. It is truly an amazing place.

So that is all for now. We will see you all soon.
Danielle