Xmas in the Jungle, New Years by the sea
Happy Year 2001!
Apparently the real beginning of the new millenium!
We have travelled some distance in the last two weeks. From La Paz, we headed north to Rurrenabaque, which is on the edge of the rainforest in Bolivia. It was a horrid bus ride, overlooking the edge of drastic cliffs along the side of a narrow, unpaved road. Twenty three hours and three flat tires later, we had dropped 3400 m into sticky heat. We noticed that people carry around towels to wipe the dripping sweat. We still had our sweaters from La Paz wrapped around us.
This place was fabulous. We spent two days in the Pampas, a sort of swampy, junglelike "prairie". We werenīt able to hunt down an anaconda, though we did slop though a swamp and hang out for 4 hours, but we did see lots of monkeys, and feed the really small ones hopping through the trees along the river. Pink dolphins too! And the usual little crocodiles, birds, turtles, miniature pirranas and killer mosquitos. In the jungle it was harder to spot anything, and we needed the three days we spent there to make some sightings of bambis, more monkeys, parrots, and a band of wild boars (these
were the coolest). Some other stuff too, the place is crawling with copious and varied insects, thankfully mostly not mosquitos! We actually had fantastic luck with the weather, it being the rainy season and it didnīt rain once.
In fact it was swelteringly hot, and Christmas back in Rurre was a humid event, even at midnight, the hour of dining and celebrating of Christmas in Bolivia. There were a lot of firecrackers going off around town, and we were served up big plates of chicken by the family who ran the hostel where we were staying (we gave in and ate some, they were so nice to feed us for Christmas). We spent actual Christmas day on the bus on the way back to La Paz (only 17 hours this time). We got a shock in temperature. It was snowing heading into La Paz- Snow for Christmas after all!
Then we had to get the hell out of Bolivia because our visa was up, so we caught a bus to Arica in northern Chile. A much better bus experience, though the 5 hour border crossing at 4650 m elevation was making us both ill (some American on the bus stayed 6 months too long in Bolivia and the driver surprisingly didn`t leave him behind...). In Arica, we finally hit upon a warm, sunny place with a great beach, and the Pacific ocean warm enough, and clean enough, to swim in. It felt like we were on vacation... We only stayed two days in Arica, then left for farther south in Chile, thinking it`s coastal towns would be even more paradise-like. However...
We arrived in Vina del Mar, on the coast near Santiago, and apparently an exciting resort town. We can`t figure out for who, though, because it is cold here! And the only swimmers are those unfortunate children on the beach who get splashed by a big wave while trying to build their sand castles. It is a pretty posh place though, (expensive) and many people have arrived for New Years. There were some fireworks across the bay in Valparaiso for the New Year, though we couldn`t see them. Not much, including restaraunts, seem to be open for business for New Years Eve or Day, but we have enjoyed wandering around the town and waterfront, and did have a nice New Years night here.
We plan to arrive in Santiago tomorrow, and stay for a few days. We have booked flights to Punto Arenas (see where it is, it is down there!) for the fourth. After that, were may disappear from e-mail for a while, depending on availability and absurdity of cost! But hopefully not. We will try to check out what is going on in the world between hikes.
Feliz Nuevo Ano!
C&O
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