The rest of Peru and Bogotá

It´s been anothing loing while since i´ve uploaded any pictures, so here they are from the rest of Nuk´s trip in Peru, up through Ecuador (five pictures total because be blew right through it) and to Bogotá.


Boating around the Amazon Jungle near Puerto Maldonado, Perú.



Hiking in Colca Canyon, the world´s second largest canyon.



At 4,750 meters trekking in in Huaraz


Bogotá at night from the top of Cerro Monserate


Margarita´s family Barabara, Eduardo, and Ximena in Zipaquirá.

Machu Picchu

It´s been a while, but since last i wrote, Isanuk joined up with us in Cusco. He´ll be with us until early July, when we´ll be around Bogotá. So we went up and saw Machu Picchu. The ruins themselves were impressive and interesting, but the surrounding scenery makes them all the more breathtaking. There are dramatically steep mountains covered with lush jungle and uncovered Incan and pre-Incan ruins all around.

Trekking Jujuy

Kevin and I found out that in the Jujuy Province of Argentina there´s some beautiful hiking to be had, so we went up to Humahuaca to see if we could get out into those mountains. Going without a guide turned out to be dubious, so we hired a local guide named Gordo and headed out. We hiked with him for three days, topping out on a 4,600 meter-high pass (over 15,000ft), passing beautiful landscapes. Previously i had though of altitude sickness as something only those headed to Nepal must concern themselves with, but at the hights we were at, i had to make a conscious effort to take huge breaths if I wanted to walk even for a few feet, without a pack on, without passing out.

I ended up taking around 200 pictures a day because it was so beautiful. The second and third nights of the trek we stayed in very remote Indigenous communities, and for part of the trek walked over pre-Incan trails paved with huge red stones. We parted with Gordo in Santa Ana, and pressed on alone for the forth day out of the high desert into the cloud forest of Valle Colorado and Valle Grande on the other side of the mountain range. This was, plainly stated, one of the coolest things i have ever done in my life. In conjunction with the bus ride from Valle Grande to San Francisco (pictures to follow), we saw such amazing natural beauty and not a single other trekker. We had valleys, passes, mountains, rivers, deserts, forests, and ancient trails all to ourselves.

Salta, Jujuy, and Humahuaca

Northern Argetina has a more Latin feel than the rest of Argentina and Chile, which feel more European. Salta was surprisingly interesting with several beautifully painted churches, and Jujuy, while not having too in the way of attractions, is a great place to get cheap street food and set as a home base to head into the mountains for backpacking, which is what we did- those pictures to come. Humahuaca is a small pueblo in a valley/canyon with amazing rock features all around it. The rocks are particularly interesting as their lighting changes as the sun shifts its position.

Mendoza, Argentina

Mendoza is in the wine country of Argentina, so we rented bikes and went on a wine tastingtour. Nothing out of this world, but it was interesting to see a few different vineyards. We alsovisited an olive oil factory with a tasting. Good stuff.

Road to Mendoza

On the road from Santiago de Chile to Mendoza, Argentina, we passed some beautiful scenerythat climaxed at the border that was 2,800 meters high.

Santiago de Chile

Our second capital city, Santiago de Chile was a pretty large town, with cool mountains surrounding it that were all but obscured from view by the constant smog.

Valparaiso y Viña del Mar

Kevin and I are in Valparaiso, Chile; a really cool city which is joined with the city Viña del Mar. Valpo is the cultural capital of Chile as well as a port city, producing lots of street art as well as dirty neighborhoods build on the surrounding hills. Viña is the beach resort for Santiago, with corresponding high-rise condos and crashing surf. Pictures.


Valparaiso.


Valparaiso.


Viña del Mar.

Southern Chile

Kevin and i have been traveling north through Chile for the past week or so. We took a bus from southern Chile, through Argentina (because there are no roads connecting Chilean Patagonia and the rest of Chile), and back to Puerto Varas. Puerto Varas was a fun town with a heavy German influence over the architecture and food. We went hiking and and saw some waterfalls nearby, but because Chile is almost always cloudy, we couldn´t see any views of the nearby volcanoes. Next we ended up in Osorno. We hadn´t planned on going there but it turned out to have enough to do for one night and day.
We made it through Santiago and are now in Valparaiso.

More pictures here.

Waterfalls near Puerto Varas.

Hiking in the lakes region of Chile, near Osorno.

Osorno.

Torres del Paine

Kevin and I have made it out of Patagonia. Patagonia deserves its reputations as the inhospitable end of the world. The sun barely raised there and never shines. We hiked Torres del Paine, and during five days of hiking, we were dry for maybe a half-hour. For that reason i didn´t take too many pictures, because the views were constantly obscured by the clouds. That stated, it was still beautiful. I consider Patagonia, at least hiking there, to be miserably awesome. It has some amazing highs with the views and solitude, but some deep lows, almost all including rain.

Chaltén Hiking

Here are some of the pictures from a day hike Kevin and i did from Chaltén, Argentina. It´s been quite a while since i was so blown away by the scenery as i was when we first approached a vista on the trail. The fall colors down here really made the trip because of the vibrant yellows, reds, and oranges. The trees are almost all the same species and apparently grow incredibly slowly, but are rugged enough to survive the brutal winters. The hike was to a glacial-fed lake that once we reached a storm had picked up and was blowing with gale-force winds, pelting us with rain. Once we got away from the canon where the lake was, we left the rain and storm behind and enjoyed the scenery again.

The day after tomorrow we will be heading out to hike Torres del Paine in Chile, the quintessential Patagonian panorama.

We averaged seeing over one rainbow per day of hiking in Patagonia.

Perito Moreno Glacier

Kevin and i made it down to Southern Patagonia after a 38-hour bus ride. Finally feeling cold after two years in El Salvador, we´re starting to trek around and see the amazing mountains down here.
These pictures are from a town called Calafate, and the glacier Perito Moreno, which grows at a rate of 2.4 meters per day, and large building-sized chunks fall off into Lago Argentina and there are plenty of pictures of that. The natural beauty down here is astounding and the scale of the scenery we´ve seen cannot be conveyed by my camera. more pictures to come, but slow ond/or expensive internet connections limit us.

Buenos Aires Pictures

Pictures from traveling around Buenos Aires.
BA was a really cool city, huge in comparison to the Latin American cities i´ve seen so far. Very walkable and one of my favorite cities i´ve ever been to. It was refreshing to see grass, parks, public art, garbage cans, and people out at night, not cowering in their barred houses afraid of everyone. But that´s only after having spent two years in the murder capital of the world.
BA got me excited to see other cities such as Santiago and especially Bogotá to get a feel for world-class cities on this trip.

Last day as a PCV

I just officially finished being a Peace Corps volunteer today. That job was one of the most amazing experiences i could imagine going through. The fact that the US government has a program such as the Peace Corps is further evidence of how great our country is. i know i will severely miss the lifestyle that came with living in an isolated mountain village in El Salvador (thus the name of this blog) and will have to work hard to live without the people there who have become a close as family to me.