San Pedro - Uyuni Bolivia

Posted on August 31st, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

 

San Pedro although touristic is a lovely little town with a very spanish feel i won´t do it justice by describing it so you´ll just have to check out the pics. The town is on the edge of the Atacama desert - the worlds driest dessert seemingly, so we rented some bikes and spent a couple of hours cycling out of town, amazing landscape and the sun was unbelievably strong (although at night the temp plummets). We were hoping to reach a building on top of a large hill but a quater of the way up i got blown of my bike - theres no cover so the wind just comes out of nowhere and is quite strong i swear!! So after that we visited the sand dunes instead.
That night we went on an astronomy tour - San Pedro and the surrounding areas have 310 clear skies a year and with so little out in the desert you have perfect visability it was great. The astronomer who was giving the tour was really witty and was willing to make fun of astronomy so it made it all the more interesting - for instance he reckons whoever came up with the birth constellations eg sagitarius, aquarius etc. was high on something cause they look nothing like what they´re meant to. He also explained the southern cross theres no north star in the southern hemisphere night sky - cause we´re on the other side of the world like who wouldn´t have known that??????
The next day it was on to Bolivia and as its one of the poorest countries in south america and the roads are notoriously bad we decided to take a 4wd trip which took 3 days to reach a town on the other side of the border called Uyuni. Along the way we would get to see some sights including the famous Salar de Uyuni. 
The first day it was up early and onto a bus which took us to a customs building just outside san pedro were we got an exit stamp for Chile. Then it was on from here to the Bolivian border control - two hours away!!! We followed a nice tarmaced road heading towards both the bolivian and argentinian borders for about an hour and a half  until it came to a ”fork” in the road - to the right the nice tarred road which lead to Argentina and to the left desert!! Seriously there was no obvious road the bus just pulled off the road and headed left until we found some tracks which we followed. 15mins later it was welcome to the bolivian border control a small building in the middle of nowhere. Here we got our entry stamp into the country and were divided up into groups of six per 4wd.
With me and Garrett there was Rob (from Wexford), Vinny (a kiwi) and two french lads Matthew and Vinne. Our guide was Hector!!! who was really nice (he even put up with my desperate spanish!!) and was a really good driver we heard lots of horror stories about bad tour guides so we were really lucky. We stopped of at some lakes - a green lake and a pink lake as well as at some geysers but mainly we just drove until we came to the affore mentioned pink lake were there was a small village were we stayed the first night. We were at 4,500meters so were actually finding it a little harder to breath and after going for a walk to see the flamingoes on the lake i had a thumping headache. But after a few hours sleep - wasn´t a really good nights sleep - cardboard mattresses and it was absolutely freezing out - well we were in a room with a window no double glazing only a few blankets (we´d missed out on the sleeping blankets) and add below freezing temperatures (and noooo there was no central heating actually there was no heating of any kind!!!) you get a slightly restless night.
It was up early - headache was gone, thankfully had no further problems with altitude, and off again. A few more lakes, a lot more flamingoes, some really tough terrain, and another long drive over desert and we´d run out of petrol. Our guide had great fun pretending he had no extra on board…. but it was off again to another village on the outskirts of the Salar de Uyuni. This time we were 3,500 meters (roughly) above sea level and we were told it didn´t get as cold, add that to a modern style building, hot showers for (one hour only for over 30people), actual mattresses and good food and it felt like we were in heaven. 
After a great nights sleep it was off to the Salar de Uyuni the highlight of the trip well apart from the flamingoes…
The Salar de Uyuni is the biggest salt flats in the world - basically the desert is replaced by salt which stretches for miles and miles as far as the eye can see pure white in every direction. It was an amazing feeling standing out on the salt flats feeling like you were the only ones there. Like the previous days the sun was unrelenting even though it was cold enough for gloves and a hat (cause of the biting wind) we got slightly burnt as the sun was reflected of the salt. We visited a rock in the middle of the salt planes called fish island and got a few pics of us with cacti - they´re huge they make me look even more of a midget…
We also stopped of at the salt hotel - all the blocks are made from salt, and at the underwater river running under the salt flats. Really enjoyed that part of the trip very unique for us. We finished of the tour around 12 when we pulled into Uyuni, were there was a festival in progress. We got our first glimpse of the bolivian people some of whom still dress in traditional clothes - the women in huge skirts wearing stockings and cardigans topped off with a bowler hat… just like the brochure pictures - they even had their hair in pigtail plaits which reached down to their lower backs. The men i´m afraid weren´t as interesting they were just dressed in suit trousers and jumpers.
The festival reminded me of the St. Patricks day parade in kingscourt with all the kids from the different schools marching behind the bands.
It was definately a worthwhile tour - it gave us a chance to get used to the altitude as well.
S&G
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South america - Chile to San Pedro

Posted on August 24th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead
well it was like being back in China - the startled deer look was back in force. Just off the plane in Santiago Chile, through customs when people where coming up to us asking us if we wanted a taxi in Spanish (only know thats what they were on about cause taxi is taxi in spanish - very convienient). So needless to say we were glad we eventually got to our hostel - after a lot of hand signals thank god we wrote  the address down before we arrived in Chile. Hostal da Sammy was really nice the people were really friendly but we couldn´t understand why the hostel had no sign outside - if we hadn´t of had the address we never would of found it!!! well it seems the right hand doesn´t care what the left hand is doing over here cause the police knew it was a hostel (they were in playing pool every day) but seemingly the council didn´t know (so the owner didn´t have to pay a fee) and the police didn´t bother to inform them!!!
Anyway we decided we might (just might) need spanish lessons so we booked a lesson for a couple of hours in a different hostel and moved there - well after we took a day to get used to the time difference we left at 6pm on a wed and arrived at 4pm on a wed really really confusing we passed over what someone decided to call the “international date line”!!! Our spanish lessons went fairly well so decided to go another few hours the following day - we were beginning to realise you really need to have some spanish - if just for booking bus tickets or a hostel room.
At the new hostel we met a couple of really nice people who we had a few drinks with until early mornin - just easing ourselves into south america, but don´t worry we were alert enough for our second batch of  spanish lesson. Actually we even managed to book tickets for a bus to San pedro for the following day and we climbed a hill behind Santiago were there was a large statue of Our Lady as well as a really really nice little church (it was tiny) tucked into the side of the hill. The church had really cool stone carvings (which protruded from the wall) of the stations of the church.
After learning from our previous night having a few beers we decided it wise to stay up a little later and have a few more beers to say goodbye to our new friends - especially as we were leaving around 1 the next day for a 22hr bus journey……
Actually we could only get a bus to Calmara (which was another two hour bus trip to san pedro) and we were a little disappointed by how expensive it was as we were hoping South america would be cheaper. What we hadn´t realised when buying the ticket that we ´d booked a first class sleeper bus. Here we were with bread and stuff to keep us going until we got to were we were going when the guy came around with sandwiches and biscuits and tea…. yes a cup of tea on a bus not once but three times,lunch,dinner & brekkie. And not only did we get fed and watered as dad would say but the seats were leather and huge with loads of room to lean back it almost felt like you were in a bed - pillow and blanket provided. Never had a bus trip like it, but don´t worry its been downhill since then…
Got to San pedro after using our perfect spanish!! to get a connecting bus, but will leave that again.
S&G
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New Zealand finale

Posted on August 14th, 2007 in Travel by Sinead

Well after the zorbing (still in Rotorua - which is a really volcanic area so theres steam coming up out of the ground everywhere and theres a permenant smell of sulphur but that means hot pools which i love so all was

forgiven) we went to a maori culture show - very touristy but a great night.

The performed their haka (each tribe has a different form of the haka) they played traditional instruments it was really interesting and a good laugh as well (they had us doing a mini haka !!). To finish off the evening we had a traditional dinner - which was chicken and lamb, potatoes and veg all cooked traditionally in the ground in a pit with hot rocks it was delicious.

We decided to go visit something volcanic (as you do) so we went to a place called craters of the moon - which basically is a large open area with huge craters all over the place. They’re formed when steam and boiling water (heated by lava!) eat away at the surrounding rocks so there was steam billowing out of them everywhere. Some of the craters had huge mud pools that were bubbling away aswell - decided not to try these out!! So after our geography lesson we headed on to the next port of call which was hamillton (cool name!!!) where we did a lord of the rings tour and visited a little place known as hobbiton (for those who don’t know this is where the hobbits

lived!!!!) it was cool being able to actually walk into one of the hobbit houses (although they weren’t really houses just a facade - all the filming inside the house was done in a studio). It was a great day even the rain didn’t bother us and trust me it rained we were completely drenched so rather than fight it i decided to join it - a few water fights here and there!!!

After our movie trivia tour we were up for an adventure of some sort so we decided to go caving - ended up getting wet again!! We abseiled down 30-40meters then walked up to the glow worm caves (through a river - which very annoyingly was flowing the other way - bit of a struggle against the current but don’t worry only nearly got swept away once!!). The glow worms were pretty cool just sitting in a pitch black cave with little fluorescent things all over the roof. Then came the hard part floating back down the river through the cave (we’d hauled rubber tubes up with us) so we sat in our tubes and floated down the river making a detour along the way into mud tunnels which were great fun. Started a bit of a mud fights so we were looking lovely by the end of the trip. Anyways we made our way back to the start were we climbed out of the caves - difficult enough, but altogether it was a good day out.

We headed up to Auckland from there over two days - stayed in a campsite which also had thermal springs - you dont know what yous are missing till you try out hot springs. Then it was on to Auckland were we spent our first day in sky city - were Sinead lee and Garrett did a sky jump - which is pretty much the same principal as a bungee except your tied to two cables which slow you down so it felt more like a parachute jump. Well thats how it was described to me have to admit i decided against doing it - i did my one bungee jump thats me for life i think.The other three really enjoyed it especially as they were given a second go for free.

Well after the hectic day in Auckland, hehehe, we decided to head up just north of the city to Waiwera. There was hot pools here but with the added bonus of slides - it was great fun. I even managed to sit in the 48degree pool Garrett didnt even leave his big toe in….. It was drawing near the end of our New Zealand trip so it was back to Auckland for one last night out together. We kicked off the evening in the Casino where both Garrett and Lee made a profit enough to pay for dinner anyhow - so we treated ourselves to a restaurant down by the quays followed by a drink in the minus 5 bar. Its an ice bar with ice sculptures etc etc, you have to put on gloves and jackets supplied by the bar to keep you warm. Its all sponsored by smirnoff so only thats sold in the bar so had a cocktail each in our glasses made of ice - cool (what a pun).

It was then time to say goodbye to Lee and Sinead who were heading home via a week in Singapore while we decided to treat ourselves to another day at the hot pools before jetting off ourselves to Chile - south america….

thats all for now

S+G

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New Zealand - Kaokora,Zorbing and Thermal Springs

Posted on August 1st, 2007 in Travel by garrettgunn

South to North

okay so forgot to mention the current death toll due to Garretts driving - animals 0 Garrett 5 the most recent victims have been three kamacazy birds (it must be the air in New Zealand). All three went splat into the windscreen - everyone say aw!!!
So now that i’ve updated you all on Garretts driving skills i’ll get on with telling you what we’ve been up to.

Unfortunately i still wasn’t well enough to go on a trip up to one of the glaciers so Garrett kept me company while Sinead and Lee headed up in a helicopter and looked over the glacier. Then we went through Arthurs pass (which is a roadway through a load of mountains) to Hammer springs where sampled our first thermal springs. There were about ten pools all outdoor ranging from 29 to 40 degrees - luxury, we even treated ourselves to a steam room for a half hour, we got two steam rooms all to ourselves (we’d booked them so no one else could use them).

So after pampering ourselves it was on to Kaikora were we went to visit the local seal colonies - they’re lazy buggers just lying there letting everyone take photos you could get up real close. Garrett of course wanted to get closer but he wasn’t long running when a big bull seal jumped up and started growling at him - very funny watching him running like a girl haha!!!

After our brush with death with the seals we took a ferry from Picton (south island) to Wellington (north island). We didn’t spend too long in Wellington and just headed up north towards lake Taupo which is a volcanic crater. We had hoped to do a bit of trekking round there as thats were Mordor in Lord of the Rings was filmed but all the walkways were closed. To make up for this (I was really disappointed I wasn’t able to do the seven hour walk Garrett wanted to drag me on) we went to Rotorua were we tried out Zorbing. In zorbing we got into massive round cushions (this was our protection) and to make it interesting a bucket of water was thrown in with us. We then rolled our ball over the edge down a hill - great fun trying to stand up Garrett and me were in the same one so i’ve a few bruises were the big lump fell on me!!!!

what a way to relax on holiday :)
thats all for now
S&G

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