Christian March 28th, 2008
We were in La Paz stuck with a dilemma. It was Wednesday and we were told that it was going to be impossible to find accommodation in Copacabana during the holy week. Apparently thousands of Bolivians flock to Lake Titicaca to ask for repentance each year during holy week. Do we fly to Rurrenabaque and explore the Amazon for a three day tour and come back after holy week to Copacabana, or do we book an expensive tour to Copacabana that would drop us off on the Peruvian side of the lake? After talking to the tour agent about the rainforest, we realized we had one option, to take the tour of Copacabana during holy week since the planes to the rainforest were sold out. We booked our tour to Copacabana with Zig Zag tours in La Paz. It was very nice, our guide Jose met us at our hostel early in the morning before boarding a tourist bus to Copacabana.
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Christian March 22nd, 2008
We decided to take the plunge and mountain bike down the World´s Most Dangerous Road (also known as the Road of Death). This trip would start at 15,400 feet above sea level and continue down to 3600 feet over 40 miles. This is called the world´s most dangerous road due to the number of deaths that have occurred on the road. It is a winding dirt/gravel road that is narrow, has waterfalls pouring onto it, and one side of the road is a cliff that drops off more that 1000 ft. This is definetly a risky ride that we were to emark on. Continue Reading »
Christian March 17th, 2008
Well we are now in Bolivia. We spent a couple of days in the capital city of La Paz to get used to the altitude and to book our bus to Uyuni to view to famous salt flats. Bolivia is very different from Argentina. The streets are filled with women in traditional outfits (bowling hats, colorful dresses) often with a baby slung over there back wrapped in a blanket. The streets in La Paz are filled with people, either on thier way somewhere or selling something. Another thing that is different is the Lustrabotes or shoeshiners. These are older kids that wear ski masks and are everywhere vying to shine shoes. They only charge a boliviano or two, unless you are foriegn, which I later found out. We were excited to book our bus out of the city to the smaller town of Uyuni.
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Christian March 10th, 2008
The Begining
We were in Buenos Aires when we finally decided that we want our first package on the road. This package would consist of a couple of camera cards, a full size laptop (to edit photos), a dress for Casey, a pair of her jeans and a few other odds and ends. US Postal Service gave us the cheapest rate, however we decided to go with DHL for 6 times the price because they promised to get it to Mendoza the quickest and seemed to be the most reliable while also having a strong presence down here. On the website it says that they have customs brokers in over 140 counties and can expedite the customs processing to a matter of minutes or hours. I called the internacional shipping call center to make sure everything would be fine. The rep assured me that what I was shipping would not be a problem at all since they are used items. The package was sent late on Wednesday the 27th of February from outside of Philadelphia. By the next day, it was already in Miami. On Friday the 29th it was in Buenos Aires. What Speed! Then on Monday the 3rd the package showed customs delay. We figured this was due to the weekend that just had ended. Then we checked again on Tuesday for the status of the package online. Then we got the news.
Something is wrong
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Christian March 9th, 2008
We arrived in Mendoza on a picture perfect day. We spent our first day exploring the city and going to the tourist office. We recieved almost too much information. We had to sift through all of the information to figure out what we really wanted to do. We decided on going a few things to do and just booked them at our hostel. The first excursion that we chose was called “High Mountain”. The second tour was a winery tour. Since we got there so early, we still had most of this beautiful day to explore the parks in Mendoza.
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Christian March 7th, 2008
Well we ended up back in Buenos Aires again. We can thank Argentina´s LADE Airlines for the cheapest flight North, beating out all other destinations by at least $300. This price however did come at a cost. Continue Reading »
