This blog got full of pictures so there´s no room for new ones. I´m writing a new blog from now on and you can find it here:
http://minttukootravels.blogspot.com/
besitos to everyone
12/16/2009
11/24/2009
Journey around South & Central America begins
Here's the plan for our next journey:
I travel first from Chile to Argentina with the group of 4 other persons: Pia, Laura, Petra (the sister of Laura) and Cristian.
I travel first from Chile to Argentina with the group of 4 other persons: Pia, Laura, Petra (the sister of Laura) and Cristian.
We leave from Chile on 25th of November to Mendoza, Argentina
From Mendoza we are supposed to continue to Cordoba
From Cordoba to Buenos Aires on 30th
From Cordoba to Buenos Aires on 30th
30th of November my friend Mikko arrives to Buenos Aires, where we are supposed to spend one week
After Buenos Aires we want to go to Iguazu Falls, but we don't yet know if we are going there via Argentina or Uruguay
12th of December my friend Petteri arrives to Foz do Iguazu and we are supposed to meet with him somewhere there
After Iguazu we travel with girls and boys to the direction of Rio De Janeiro (not sure yet if we're going to stop by at some places) and perhaps stopping in Sao Paolo to meet some more friends
Christmas we are supposed to spend on some island (e.g. Ilha Grande, which is quite close to Rio)
New Years we are going to spend in Rio de Janeiro and by then we are a group of 9-11 persons
After New Years me, Pia, Petteri, Nitta and her friend are taking a flight to Manaus, The Amazon where we are supposed to stay until the 12th of January
After Brazil we head to Columbia with Pia
From Columbia to Central America
And finally in Mexico in March
Mexico --> Finland
After Brazil we head to Columbia with Pia
From Columbia to Central America
And finally in Mexico in March
Mexico --> Finland
9/12/2009
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Thursday 10.9.
We traveled almost 24 hours by bus (TurBus) from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama before we finally arrived there. San Pedro is a village with only 1938 inhabitants but loads of tourists. I bet you can find more authentic towns in Chile but the fact is that the surroundings of San Pedro are just worth seeing.
The first day in San Pedro we went to see Valle de la Muerte (The Valley of Death) and Valle de (I'm not going to but any pictures now here, cause they all are in my Flickr) and Valle de la Luna, where we saw the most beautiful sunset. The rest of the day we just relaxed in front of the fireplace at the patio of our hostel. It was just perfect to end our first day of the trip under the clear blue sky of stars. After the hustle of Santiago it felt so good to be in a quiet place in the middle of the desert.
Our Hostel in San Pedro
Valle de La Luna
Valle de La Luna
Valle de La Luna
Sunset in Valle de La Luna
Friday 11.9.
The second day we woke up pretty early to make a tour to lagoons. We left at 8 AM from our hostel. The first stop was at a little oasis where we walked a bit, saw some old human bones and tasted some dried dates which were laying on the ground. From the oasis we continued to a little village where I bought some handicrafts (a cap and mittens for the cold weather in the desert of Bolivia).
After the village we visited Laguna de Chaxa, where we saw some flamingos (Afterwards we regreted a bit this tour cause we saw heaps of flamingos and lagoons also later on in Bolivia).
From the lagoon Chaxa the tour continued to the altitude of 4000 meters, where we stopped by lagoons Miscanti and Miñiques, which were amazingly beautiful lagoons with colours that one cannot imagine.
Before going back to the hostel there was a lunch included to the tour, which was something very typical from Chile (Cazuela).
Saturday 12.9.
Our last day in San Pedro de Atcama was full of action. We woke up at 4 AM in order to go to "El Tatio Geyser" and see the geysirs during the sunrise. It took 2 hours by minibus to reach El Tatio, which was at altitude of 4000 meters. The climate up there in the early morning was freezing cold, even though we had all our warm clothes on. Despite the coldness the place was worth seeing (and hearing). I found particularly the noise, that the geysirs made, fascinating. We were also very lucky, because earlier the same week a new geysir was born and obviously it was a historically significant incident.
When the sun started to rise up over the mountains surrounding the Tatio the geysirs looked absolutely beautiful. Also the temperature started to be more tolerable. We had a breakfast on the other side of the Tatio: sandwich, coffee and coca tee, which is highly consumed in the northern Altiplanos of Chile and Bolivia and which is especially good for reducing the symptoms of altitude sickness. I can tell that the coffee hadn't tasted as good for long long time as it tasted during that moment when served outdoors.
Morning coffee at El Tatio
After the breakfast I went with Pia to take a little bath in the hot spring. First the thought of taking off the clothes in the cold cold temperature wasn't that inviting, but once we got in to the hot spring the feeling was great!
On our way down we saw lots of Vicuñas, which are related to llamas but are living at much higher altitudes. We also stopped by a cute little village. When we were driving down the narrow moutain roads we got into a little trouble cause there was a wide truck coming towards us in a downhill. It was impossible for our minibus to reverse with all the people inside, making it more heavy. Hence, we had to all get out of the vehicle and follow the situation outside. Finally the vehicles managed to pass (barely) each others.
Excitement on ou way back down
When we got back to the hostel we had a little time for quick rest before sandboarding. In the noon we left to conquer the highest dune in San Pedro with the sandboards. It was absolutely the best experience in San Pedro!! The afternoon sun was hot, the view was incredible and the sandboarding itself was so much fun! A tiring part was to climb up the dune in order to enjoy the sandboarding down. Once I fell down on my butt and that was not as smooth as falling down with snowboard - with sand it hurt quite a lot. Nevertheless, Pia won the falling competition with her double somersaul after which her face was covered with sand. When the sun started to set we headed back to the village.
Pia after "mukkelismakkelis"
We decided to celebrate the last night in San Pedro a bit and went out for a dinner to a nice and cozy restaurant which served really good veggie food. It was really a perfect choice because almost all the other restaurants were very expensive and filled with tourists. We were almost the only customers in the restaurant besides a group of chilenos. The dinner was very funny because the chilenos started to talk and joke with us and we ended up being in the restaurant until it closed. Once we got out of the place we crashed into a group of exchange student friends from our University. World is small. Before we returned back to hostel we went to have glasses of wine in a bar called Cielo. It was a nice little bar, where we met some guys who worked for the Sandboarding company. We also talked for a while with a waiter, who gave us some good tips for our visit to Bolivia. We really enjoyed being in the bar but we decided to go to sleep early cause next day we were supposed to start our journey across the desert of Uyuni by 4x4 Jeeps.
We traveled almost 24 hours by bus (TurBus) from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama before we finally arrived there. San Pedro is a village with only 1938 inhabitants but loads of tourists. I bet you can find more authentic towns in Chile but the fact is that the surroundings of San Pedro are just worth seeing.
The first day in San Pedro we went to see Valle de la Muerte (The Valley of Death) and Valle de (I'm not going to but any pictures now here, cause they all are in my Flickr) and Valle de la Luna, where we saw the most beautiful sunset. The rest of the day we just relaxed in front of the fireplace at the patio of our hostel. It was just perfect to end our first day of the trip under the clear blue sky of stars. After the hustle of Santiago it felt so good to be in a quiet place in the middle of the desert.
Our Hostel in San Pedro
Valle de La Luna
Valle de La Luna
Valle de La Luna
Sunset in Valle de La Luna
Friday 11.9.The second day we woke up pretty early to make a tour to lagoons. We left at 8 AM from our hostel. The first stop was at a little oasis where we walked a bit, saw some old human bones and tasted some dried dates which were laying on the ground. From the oasis we continued to a little village where I bought some handicrafts (a cap and mittens for the cold weather in the desert of Bolivia).
After the village we visited Laguna de Chaxa, where we saw some flamingos (Afterwards we regreted a bit this tour cause we saw heaps of flamingos and lagoons also later on in Bolivia).
From the lagoon Chaxa the tour continued to the altitude of 4000 meters, where we stopped by lagoons Miscanti and Miñiques, which were amazingly beautiful lagoons with colours that one cannot imagine.
Before going back to the hostel there was a lunch included to the tour, which was something very typical from Chile (Cazuela).
Saturday 12.9.
Our last day in San Pedro de Atcama was full of action. We woke up at 4 AM in order to go to "El Tatio Geyser" and see the geysirs during the sunrise. It took 2 hours by minibus to reach El Tatio, which was at altitude of 4000 meters. The climate up there in the early morning was freezing cold, even though we had all our warm clothes on. Despite the coldness the place was worth seeing (and hearing). I found particularly the noise, that the geysirs made, fascinating. We were also very lucky, because earlier the same week a new geysir was born and obviously it was a historically significant incident.
When the sun started to rise up over the mountains surrounding the Tatio the geysirs looked absolutely beautiful. Also the temperature started to be more tolerable. We had a breakfast on the other side of the Tatio: sandwich, coffee and coca tee, which is highly consumed in the northern Altiplanos of Chile and Bolivia and which is especially good for reducing the symptoms of altitude sickness. I can tell that the coffee hadn't tasted as good for long long time as it tasted during that moment when served outdoors.
Morning coffee at El TatioOn our way down we saw lots of Vicuñas, which are related to llamas but are living at much higher altitudes. We also stopped by a cute little village. When we were driving down the narrow moutain roads we got into a little trouble cause there was a wide truck coming towards us in a downhill. It was impossible for our minibus to reverse with all the people inside, making it more heavy. Hence, we had to all get out of the vehicle and follow the situation outside. Finally the vehicles managed to pass (barely) each others.
Excitement on ou way back down
Pia after "mukkelismakkelis"9/09/2009
Journey to the north begins!
Tomorrow in the morning we're going to leave Santiago for a while and travel to Northern Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Next week is a national celebration week for chileans, because of the Independence Day (Fiestas Padrias on 18th of September) and our school has decided to please the students with a one whole week of holidays. Since we have one week off from school we decided to make a trip for 3 weeks. We have already bought the bus ticket to San Pedro de Atacama but rest of the trip is still 'mas o menos' open. Our preliminary plan is do a round trip, which goes like this:
9.9. Start at 9:30 from Santiago to San Perdo de Atacama, Chile
10.9. The bus arrives to San Pedro in the morning
10.-13.9. Around San Pedro
13.-15.9. The desert of Uyuni, Bolivia
15.-16.9. Bus from Uyuni to La Paz
16.-19.9. La Paz, Bolivia
19.-20.9. La Paz - Copacabana - Lake Titicaca (Isla del Sol), Peru
21.9. Copacabana - Cuzco, Peru
22.-24.9. Machu Picchu, Peru
25.-27.9. Return busses from Cuzco to Santiago
Bolivia & Peru here we come!
9.9. Start at 9:30 from Santiago to San Perdo de Atacama, Chile
10.9. The bus arrives to San Pedro in the morning
10.-13.9. Around San Pedro
13.-15.9. The desert of Uyuni, Bolivia
15.-16.9. Bus from Uyuni to La Paz
16.-19.9. La Paz, Bolivia
19.-20.9. La Paz - Copacabana - Lake Titicaca (Isla del Sol), Peru
21.9. Copacabana - Cuzco, Peru
22.-24.9. Machu Picchu, Peru
25.-27.9. Return busses from Cuzco to Santiago
Bolivia & Peru here we come!
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