Bolivia, Alive and Well!

Hola from La Paz!
We are here, at the roof of the world in La Paz! We have been on the move through Argentina and crossed into Bolivia maybe 5 days ago? The last Argentinian city we left from was Salta, a beautiful city in the North that we unfortunatly only had one night to spend in. They have a wondeful square comparable to Krakow (Poland) but of course, nothing really compares to Krakow. Then we caught a morning bus to the border town La Quiaca. There we walked across the border (an interesting experience) and a few hours later were on Bolivian soil. At this point our plan was still to voulenteer in a wildlife refuge east of the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, so we hopped on the bus immediately on route. This was without a doubt, a bus from the depths of hell itself. A locals bus, it left at 4pm and arrived 10am in Cochabamba. Somewhere between the crying babies, terribly loud spanished dubbed Jackie Chan movies, horribly cramped, uncomfortable seats  and a route that was was unpaved and ridden with dust and mega potholes, no sleep was had. We arrived in Cochabamba and were sure we were the only tourists in a city with half a million people. Now in the heart of Bolivia, we werent feeling our most comfortable. With only 2 sketchy hostals in town, we booked into Cesars Palace, a hotel trapped in the 1970´s. But we were safe and had a bed, so no complaints. Unfortunatley we discovered the refuge was overrun with voulenteers for the next while and thus we would probably be turned away upon arrival. So we switched gears and started to move west. We are now in La Paz, the roof of the world and are having a great time. We have gotten a great glimpse of Boliva over the past week and plan to stay here a few more days. The indigineous culture is everywhere and today we went to the largest market in the world. It was heartbreaking to walk through seemingly endless roads of farmers selling every fruit and vegtable you can imagine and not purchase anything for fear of getting sick. Well thats not fully true, I have been binging on mangos, as they are dirt cheap and for the first time in my life I dont have to feel guilty about how many miles they had to be shipped to my mouth. We found some local resturants that wash all veg with boiled water and have actualy had some of the best meals of our trip. Its also a nice change from cooking, which we have been doing nearly ever meal for the past two months. Bolivia is obviously the cheapest country of our travels and therefore we combatt saftey issues by taking cheap cabs at night and unfortunately taking almost no photos. It is also hard to personally digest the fact that we are simply touring through poverty, as our camera is worth more then most of these people make in a year. So if we return with only photos of La Paz from out our hostel window so be it. Our spanglish remains the same, but with less then a month to go, so be it. Next we head west to spend some time around Lake Titticaca, checking out Copacabana and the Inca ruins on Isla Del Sol. Then to Cusco for the sacred valley, the Inca Trail and Machu Pichu. Then to Lima, then home! Thats all for now, lots of love,
Tai and Kash

Part 3-Torres Del Paine (5 Day Trek), Patagonia, Chile

Final day of the trek. 530 am wake up, an hour hike in the dark, find a cushy spot amongst the boulders, crawl back into your sleeping bag and enjoy the show. This is the "money shot" of the trek, but pictures cant possibly do it justice. There is only one angle because it was early, our sleeping bags were warm and we had just trekked for 5 days. A must see in your life.

Part 2-Torres Del Paine (5 Day Trek), Patagonia, Chile

 Day´s 3 and 4. Most photos are of the French Valley, a solo trip I did as Kasia´s feet needed some love. A side note, unlike trekking in Canada, beaver fever is not a threat. Therefore any moving body of water is drinkable. It is without a doubt, the purest, best tasting water we have ever had in our lives. Not hard to imagine how pristine it is when you see the glacier it is coming from 50ft in front of you.

Torres Del Paine (5 Day Trek), Patagonia, Chile

 These are photos of day 1 and day 2. The plains leading into the park, the park with a teal lago (lake), Glacier grey on day 2, a strange fossil we found, our camping sight and kasia´s stinky bandaged feet.

Argentina Continued....

Tango was a bust! We went down to the square but it must have been canceled. So, back to the update. We left El Calafate on a 20+ hour bus ride to El Boson. We sprung for full Cama, which is actually very comfortable and we had half decent sleeps. The on-board movies are pretty funny, as they are simply the pirated multi-movie DVD's sold all over. Therefore we are treated to hours of  "strait to video" movies that do not start from the beginning, are loud, played throughout the bus speakers and rarely make it to the end without skipping and dying. We arrived in El Boson in the late afternoon and had contacted our "hostel" owner via email before arrival to check availability. He offered to pick us up, but of course the bus arrived an hour and a half late so we figured he wouldn't be waiting for us. We walked a few blocks before backtracking to find a map, when Augustine spotted us and introduced himself. Augustine is probably close to 70, and is almost like an Argentinian Buddist monk. We hopped in his 30+ year old Fiat (I think) as he gave us a "spanglish" tour of El Boson. He saw the Churango, which at this point was case-less and took us to a music shop so I could pick up a cheap case. Then he bought us fresh welcome Churros filled with Dolce De Leche. His place is a 15-20 minute walk out of the city in the rural/poorer part of town (though El Boson doesn't really have a rich side of town).  La Casa Del Viajero is now our home away from home (http://www.lacasadelviajero.com.ar/). Organic gardens, fruit trees, a rainbow trout pond, 2 dogs, 2 cats, mountains all round and this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the three days we were there (we would have stayed a month if we had time) we experienced such a kindness, honesty and family experience, it is hard to put into words. Augustine and his family makes everything from his own organic flour to leather works which the family sells at El Bosons awesome market. The travelers homes are a combination of COBB housing and log beams. I made really good friends with the carpenter Paco (who spoke not a word of English) and whom I shared Yebra with at Mate-o-clock (usually at the end of siesta around 5 or 6pm) everyday. Anyways, I digress and could speak on the little things that filled our hearts for hours. Besides a 5 hour hike to an incredible forest/carving gallery at the top of a mountain with our Italian friends, we simply soaked in the town and Augustine's place. The town is sort of like an Argentinian Salt Spring Island. This short description cannot do the place justice, so if anyone wants to know why we are so bananas about this place they can ask at another time. We left yesterday, hopped on a 19 hour bus ride and are currently in Mendoza, wine country. Tomorrow we are hopping on some bikes and doing a vineyard tour. Then we head out on another 19 hour bus ride to Salta (in northern Argentina, close to Bolivia). Thats it for now. Lots of love to everyone,
Ciao,
Tai and Kash

Argentina!!!

Hola from Mendoza, Argentina!
We apologize that we haven't been keener's with the updates. We have been moving fairly fast (with one exception) since we crossed into Argentina a few weeks ago. So, let´s begin a few weeks back. We crossed the border by bus from Puerto Natales (Chile) to El Calafate (Argentina). Our first border crossing was a stark contrast from the stringent Chilean customs procedures. The border guards actually had smiles, cracked jokes and quizzed our American friends about their knowledge of previous American presidents. The guards only knew Obama. Chilean border crossings are often a 2-3 hour wait, followed by a thorough search of all your belongings, followed by a possibly intense question period. El Calafate proved to be equally as beautiful as it southern Chilean Patagonian counterparts. We chose not to go to the Perito Moreno Glacier (the main draw to Calafate) because it was very pricey (over 100ARS each just to get to the viewing platforms) and we were sort of glaciered-out. Instead we feasted on local chocolate and beer. We then went on a two day trek in nearby El Chalten to the Fitz Roy massive. WOW. Pictures are coming. Camping was a bone chilling minus 3-5 (maybe) but thats what you get when there are glaciers and snow 500m above you. We returned to El Calafate for one evening as our bus to paradise was not until the following day. I picked up the ultimate goodie of this trip, a Charango. It is a native Andean instrument, almost a cross between a mandolin and a uke. 10 strings, incredible tones and a carving on the back. Then began the major journey north to Bolivia with three stops to break up an otherwise daunting distance. First stop was paradise, more commonly referred to as El Boson. My computer time is up, I will try to hop back on later tonight before or after we go to our free Tango lesson in the plaza (public square). More to come, plus pictures,
Ciao for now,
Tai and Kasia

Navimag Round 2