We spent 5 days in arequipa, we found a really nice hostel that was more like a rich person’s house; it had the coolest staircases we’ve ever seen! The highlight of Arequipa would be eating Alpaca steaks in the town center.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Arica
We Spent two days in Arica, home to two guiness world records; the highest lake in the world and the oldest known mummy at 10,000 years old (2,000 years older than the oldest Egyptian one)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Salta
We spent 7 days in Salta, a northeastern city in Argentina. We absolutely loved the beef, especially the lomito sandwiches (steak sandwiches) that go for about 3$ for a foot long. The city was by far the most fast paced we have been so far, no stop signs, very few lights and no lines on the roads, simply a free for all. The first hostel we stayed in we met some really nice locals that took us out downtown twice; once a 7 am finish the other 4:30 (you don’t even go out until 2:30). Lots of fun and pretty much the same as a club in Vancouver other than no cover. The actual city was nice with a park in the centre, the pedestrian only streets were really cool; defiantly reminded us of Granville street. The second hostel we stayed at was a little more boring but still really nice, an old home built in 1900. Now were off to Arica (19th of may) in the morning (a 24 hour bus ride)!
Friday, May 14, 2010
San Pedro
Arrived in San Pedro on Thursday the 6th after a 20 hour bus ride from Pisco. San Pedro is in the middle of the Atacama desert which is the driest desert in the world. It’s very small and is completely a tourist city, which makes it very expensive. We decided to come San Pedro because of how many cool tours are around here, the coolest one being sand boarding in death valley which is basically going down a sand dune on a snowboard.
Moon Valley
We climbed up one of the dunes to watch the sunset, a pretty gorgeous sight.
A Video of Puritama Hot Spring, there were only the 5 of us in the spring and we could choose from 3 different pools all with waterfalls, we tried all 3, there was even fish in some!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
More San Pedro
We have now left San Pedro and are on a bus headed for Salta, Argentina. We are sitting in the front row on the top of a double decker bus driving through the Andes desert mountains, with salt flats and lagoons all around. We spent a total of six days in San Pedro de Atacama, and went on 6 tours in total: sand boarding twice in death valley, moon valley, cactus forest, a hot spring and a day long tour visiting salt flats, lagoons, historic Inca remains, and gorgeous sights within the Andes desert mountains.
Sand boarding again
Cactus Forest and Hot Spring
Our tour guide (the owner of our hostel) took us hiking through a spot in the mountains to a gorgeous spot considered to be a “cactus forest” . Some of the cacti there were over 20ft tall. The hike itself was amazing, we followed a stream which lead to waterfalls and some really peaceful and desolate spots. 
These completely natural hot springs were about the temperature of a warm bath, needless to say they were absolutely amazing.
Sala de Atacama tour
At 6am Monday morning Trevor, myself and two other girls left our hostel with Philipe, the owner of the hostel and our personal tour guide for the day, to go off roading through the Andes desert mountains in his 4x4 truck. It was an incredible 8 hour journey which included Incan empire remains, salt flats, lagoons, gorgeous views from impossible heights, flamingo reserves, many more desert animals (lots of lamas!), and much much more. The craziest part of the day was discovering that we were, at some points, over 16,000 feet above sea level, an altitude much higher than that of Machu Picchu (for which we were prescribed medication for altitude sickness at home) and which nears the height of Mount Kilimanjaro. Needless to say, Trevor and I experiences some symptoms of altitude sickness that night (I was bed ridden with the worst headache of my life). We could not believe it when we realized, but I guess now we’re acclimatized for our Machu Picchu hike!
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