Don´t Cry for Us Argentina....

The truth is we´ll never leave you, not through our days in Bolivia, or through Peru, we´ll keep our promise, and come back to you.

(We truly hope that most, if not all of you, just sang that in your heads... anyone seen Evita? the movie/musical with Madonna? If not, you should....)

Anyways... as I write this, our pobrecito Tony is sleeping off an icky sickness he got somewhere down here. Yes, folks, the interminably enthusiastic and exuberant Tito, is out of commission... rare but true and I am quite bored! So I am taking charge of the blog.

Well our goal was to go from Chile to Northern Argentina, and right up to Bolivia... as it turns out there has been some problems in Bolivia, so we have been in Salta researching the situation to determine whether or not we should go into that country. So we are actually at the same campground we started our bike trip in, it sure is nice to get to a place we were both familiar with. Still friendly, still lots of dogs, but quite a bit hotter than when we were here in July. Actually, yesterday was the last day of winter, and today..... SPRING!

While in Salta, we have had the most fantastic dinner at a place called Viejo Jack´s with a couple we met on the bus from San Pedro de Atacama. Michelle and Liam are from England and are a lot of fun... they have traveled all over the world and it was fun to share travel stories. AND THE FOOD! We ordered Bife de Chorizo and the waiter assured us that we would receive 600 - 700 grams of beef! Definitely enough for two... so each couple ordered one order and some sides... it may have been the best steak of my life and it cost 30 pesos... the conversion to US dollars is roughly $10! Can you believe it! We also had a fantastic Mercado meal where we met some other American´s going to school in Mendoza... 1/2 chicken, rice, empanadas, and beer and each of us only spent $7.00 US - oh and that included fresh strawberries for dessert!

After spending some down time in Salta, we decided to head to Cachi on Saturday. It is a small town nestled in the mountains near Cafayate. We caught a rickety old bus... ran into the same three students from Mendoza and joyfully boarded the bus for a 4 hour ride to Cachi. We were traveling right along and came to where the road turns into one lane and starts twisting and turning up the mountain and I am talking casually with Tito, and all of a sudden I see flames coming from the front of the bus! (there is a picture of the bus from our seat and if you look at it closely, you will see a round light in the right hand corner of the windshield)... it was on fire! Some of the passengers started to point it out to the bus attendant, it was right above his head and he didn´t see it! The bus driver then stopped abruptly because the fire had traveled through the wire to the light on his side of the bus and there was smoke and flames! He started ripping the wires out and hitting the flames with his hat! The flames went out luckily, we all opened our windows for fresh air. He never said anything to us, but after he collected himself, he started the bus up again and kept on going! In the process of ripping the wires out, he hit the rear view mirror, and with every bump shards of mirror were falling from it... we all kind of looked at each other and said... hmmmm interesting... we eventually arrived to Cachi safe and sound! The two pictures above are during the bus ride and the other two are from in town. It was quite a relaxing town, we hung out in the plaza, and enjoyed the company of our new friends. At night I went to wash our dishes in the campground kitchen after dinner... I walked in and was about to start washing when I looked over and was startled to see a dead cow´s head on the counter. The lips and nose and eyes were all still there, but it was quite skinned, smelly, and very creepy! hmmmm interesting... We caught the bus back yesterday which apparently they will fill even if all the seats are full, about 15 extra people got on the bus and stood for a good 2 hours to get back to Salta, and headed back to our familiar campground and that is when Tony began to feel ill.

So back to what we are doing now, we have applied for our Bolivian Visa´s and will need to wait till tomorrow to pick them up. Currently in Bolivia, it is quiet and the Government is talking with the departments of the country that are not happy with the president, Evo Morales. According to visitors, locals, tourist agencies, and the Bolivian Consulate, the ¨Gringo Trail¨up the Western side of Bolivia is safe. The U.S. Embassy is up and running as of Sept 19th after taking a short hiatus due to the U.S. Ambassador being asked to leave the country. We will continue to monitor the situation. We aren´t going anywhere until Tito get´s better anyway. We will keep you posted and promise we will be safe.

We miss you all and send our love especially out to BJ, Angie, and the kids in Tennessee. We hope the surgery goes well.

love C & T

Oasis in the Desert

We have just spent three hot sweaty balz days in San Pedro De Atacama Desert and 4 cold shrinkage nights. It has been fun but we are leaving tomorrow to head back to our love of Argentina. CHEAPER TIMES TO BE HAD BY ALL!

But what we did here in the Desert first.......

Hiking about 9 miles to some incan ruins in the hot sun soaking ourselves in every possible dirty water source we came by DAMN DID IT FEEL GOOD. The ruins are little ones compared to what Cassie will be seeing in PERU!!

The next day we searched the town over for deals for tours with Bikes and to the so called wonderful, amazing, dead sexy geysurs. We finished with renting a bike for 9 hours for 6 bucks and we biked about 30 to 40 miles in the sun checking out lil adobe villages in the surrounding and then biked to the VALLE de Luna. You will see in the pics why they say this. We hiked a lil through salt canyon. Then went and watched the sun set from these huge fantastic dunes with about 400 people. Crowded but amazing!!! You can see the mountains changing colors and the moon rising as the sun went down. One the most picturesque moments ever seen by human eyes! Then we biked home with only the moon as our guide.

We ordered a 1.5 liter of Pap which is POP/soda that quenched our sun drenched bodies. Ate food then slept

We awoke at 3:30 am to have our tour pick us up at our campsite and we drove 2 hours to about 13,500 ft to the highest geysur field in the world and watched the steam and water and everything else rise including the sun. Then ate a breakfast of hard boiled eggs that were cooked in the geysur with a cheese sandwich and snacks with hot drinking products because it was the cold shrinkage morning. Then we all got naked and jumped into the thermal pool that was cooling than the ones that were boiling... when in Chile, do as the chileans, right?... just kidding, we did peel off our 4 layers of clothes in the frosty air and jump in, in our bathing suits like everyone else. As you can see by the picture, these two gentleman got a little carried away. It sure felt good to be in that water, but getting out was another story! Then we moved on to look at wild animals LLAMAs and Vicunas and rabbits and birds.

We arrived at a town where we ate llama kabobs and frybread from the native people of the area. Arriving back at 12:30.

Then this place is a small place the generators went out for the town so the town had no power for about 2 hours or so. Funny to be in a remote location where that happens. Now we are typing and telling you we are off like a prom dress to Salta Argentina tomorrow. Chat with you on the flippity floppity side.

Love you all
T & C

OOHH EXPENSIVE THIS COUNTRY BE OOOH!

SO Cassie usually types well now it is my turn. She is taking the night off, but I like to write add a little humor here HEAR and there. Do yOU all HEAR ME! Now onto other things. You soon will see I don´t right well and you all will have to enjoy my 8th grade or lower grammer. I konw that was spelled wrong but I want to set the tone for the rest!

Ok so we left Santiago and Headed to the fantastic little villa of Isla Negra. Pablo Nerudo ever heard of him? Me neither! But people love him for some reason and they have this town of 400 people devoted to him. We camped there and the Rocky Coastline was gorgeous. We met a guy from the states that moved down there and was living on the chilean coast. He had a bad run with with many things but he was fun to talk too. ( I was just told we have 10 minutes so Abbreviated verson)

Then went to Valporaiso, many houses on a hill great city. Elevators are nice

Check onto a long bus ride to Copiapo to where we went to a beach town and stayed camping on the beach.

Explored tide pools and taught cassie about marine life. Fun in Bahia Inglesia

We then hitched a ride for 2 minutes back to Caldera for our bus out after we had a fantastic ocean front seafood dining experience with fresh scallops and fish and crab and squid and shrimp in curries and red sauces and spicey sauces. Really good.

Onward north to Pan De Azucar National Park. Penquins, Sea Lions, Lot o Birds, Sea otters, and many fisherman. Again a national park to ourselves. People are anti parks here. Now we are onward to San Pedro De Atacama then OUT OF EXPENSIVE CHILE WHOOOO GOTTA RUN ENJOY!

Mendoza....Uspallata....CHILE!

Mendoza, what a fun town! It reminded us a lot of Denver, lots of outdoor activities and good people. When we arrived to Mendoza, it was super hot outside but the next few days the weather turned much colder.... We enjoyed the sites of the city and decided to spend a whole day on bikes, touring the area called Maipu which is wine country. We visited bodegas and tasted some wonderful wines, Malbec was our favorite... We rented bikes from this nice old man named Mr. Hugo... he gave us the bikes for cheap, a free bottle of water, suggestions on which bodegas to attend, told us if we had problems with the bikes, the local police could radio him and he would come out and fix them. He rented bikes from his home, just a folding table and some fliers! He was great... not only did he provide the best experience for us, he sat with us after our tour was over and talked politics etc. We got to practice our spanish and he offered us some organic wine... Another couple from Holland returned their bikes and they joined us...a few hours and a few bottles of wine later... he flagged our bus for us and we headed home with some great memories and new friends! Other than his friendly dog who stole our bread, and his pet parrot that was mocking me, it was one of the most fun nights we have had on our travels! We highly recommend Mr. Hugo... we might become his personal spokespeople - really - I already took fliers to the tourist stations in Mendoza!

So after that fun filled night we headed out to Uspallata, a mountain town on the way to Santiago Chile. We arrived and it was very cold, but the sun was out. We hiked up a hill to Tres Cruces and saw a beatiful backdrop of the Andes Mountains around us.... we layed in the sun and watched the hawks fly around. It was incredible... we camped that night at a campground where we were the only humans, but we had a horse and two cats who kept us company! In the morning we woke to snow on our tent... we got up early and went to get our tickets for the bus to Santiago and were told that the mountain pass was closed due to weather and that it could be closed for up to a week! So we caught a bus back to Mendoza....

When we arrived there, the bus companies assured us the pass was reopened, so we got back in the bus and headed off to one of the most beautiful bus rides we have ever been on! Through the Andes...the weather was gorgeous, sun shining, clear with excellent views. They said the pass condition can change very quickly and there was no sign of any danger as we traveled along. We hit the Chilean border and are now in Chile...

We spent a day doing logistics, stayed at a great hostel, looked into booking our Machu Picchu trip, washed clothes,etc. The first night we were there, the hostel owner´s daughter was celebrating her 10th birthday, so we helped decorate with balloons and sang her happy birthday. Then the cafe upstairs was having an art showing and we went there for fun and ended up joining the festivities which included free drinks all evening... Chileans sure are nice!

The next day we went out to see the city. We had been told it was an ugly, smoggy city. We really liked it and found it a lot of fun to visit, we hiked up a hill in the middle of the city to see the Andes mountains poking up out of the smog... yes there is smog, but there was still a decent view... we walked around, enjoyed Chilean Empanada´s and Chilean hot dogs... complete with cabbage, mayo, salsa, guacamole, and the most delicious bun... tomorrow we are heading to the coast to check out some beach towns. Hope you are enjoying our blog! Cassie & Tito

check out our pictures!

Just wanted to let you know that we added pictures to the last three blog entries and also a video to the one on Iguazu Falls.... check them out!

WOOOO HOOOO we are on our way!

So after we left Cordoba, we were on the uphill or so we thought! We caught a bus from WALMART - yes I said WALMART! yuck we are infecting 3rd world countries with this walmart crap! Anyway we headed to La Falda, a small town about an hour away. We got there and felt instantly more at home and comfortable, the people were nice, and the town was actually open. We hiked to a campground and stashed our bags so that we could explore the area a bit. We had tickets out of Cordoba to San Luis the next day, so we had limited time. We traversed around and loved the little town, we went to a place called 7 Cascades to see more waterfalls, then walked to town and explored the area. We decided to hike up in the Sierras the next day.

We got back to our campground to find that Tito´s backpack had been rummaged through! We saw the tent strewn about and freaked out! We thought we were missing a lot, but luckily they only took my little bag of toiletries. I stashed it in Tito´s backpack because I didn´t want to leave it in my daypack as extra weight. Luckily most of the stuff was replaceable. We are pretty sure the kids from the family adjacent to the campground took it. We scoured the area and found some remnants of the bag and because all that was taken was that, we can only assume that the thiefs really didn´t know what they were taking. They could have taken a lot better stuff worth more from Tito´s pack and didn´t. Well, all said and done, we will be sure to stash our packs in safer locations and are relieved that they did not take anything significant.

So we still enjoyed La Falda and hiked up to the top of a mountain to see the city from above. Trails in South America aren´t as refined as ones in the states, there were parts of the trail that we were going STRAIGHT UP HILL! but it was fun! We got a bus back to Cordoba in plenty of time to catch our overnight bus to San Luis, Tito caught a major cold, so he was not so comfortable, and now his cold has traveled to me, so we are both getting over it. In San Luis, we took a bus to Las Sierras de las Quijadas which is a Parque Nacional. It is like Argentina´s version of Canyonlands. It was beautiful! We arrived and hiked 6 KM in to a free campground, about 10 minutes after we arrived, a guy on a scooter drove in to open the snack bar, which it seemed was open just for us! We were the only campers. We enjoyed the park especially the amazing sunset. By sundown, we had the entire park to ourselves except for the rangers at the front gate! Who else can say they had an entire national park to themselves! How lucky...

We hiked out yesterday morning to catch a bus (on the side of the road) to get back to San Luis so that we could get to Mendoza, Arg. It was kind of crazy flagging down a bus on the side of the highway, but it was there right at 10 AM, so now we are in Mendoza. Tito is working on his Fantasy Football draft, and I am attempting to upload pictures from the last few weeks of travel. Mendoza is a beautiful city, very green, and very friendly. We are renting bikes tomorrow and traveling around Maipu winery´s by bike. Should be fun and beautiful, the weather here is great. Mild probably in the 70´s today and hopefully it will be the same tomorrow. Then we head to Upsallata to see the Andes Mtns better, and then to Santiago Chile by Thursday. We are having a blast and miss you all greatly! love cassie and tito