The end of the road on a hike we took up into the Andes. It was pretty altough some of the higher peaks were surrounded by clouds and I coundn´t see them. Time is winding down so this will probably be my last post. I would like to thank my faithful readers, hopefully it gave you some good insights into South America.

Thought I should bring everyone up to date. For the last week I have been in Santiago, Chile. For the most part taking it pretty easy and kind of winding down this whole trip. I really like Santiago. It is a pretty nice city to live in but not a whole lot of things to see. I have been hanging out with my friend, Daniel, going to his university classes with him a couple of times. Yesterday we were going to go to an amusement park but when we got there it had already reached it´s maximum capacity so we couldn´t go in. Bummer. Today we went up into the Andes to do some hiking. It was very beautiful, especially this high mountain lake that was at the end of the trail. I´ve got pictures and am contemplating uploading one or two. Daniel is infatuated with McDonalds so I haven´t gotten as good of a taste of the typical cuisine as I would like but I think I have gained all the weight back that I had lost. The one typical Chilean dish that I have been able to get are called Completos. It is a Hot Dog with sliced tomatoe, avocado, and mayonaise on top. Pretty good, I think it would be better with sour cream though.

Arica, Chile. In the north of Chile on the Peruvian border. I was glad to be back in Chile. I was tired of the Peruvians trying to rip me off. Especially in Nasca.

The Nascan Lines. I think these lines are smaller than the rest, because they were quite a bit smaller than I expected. This is a tree, kind of hard to make out how they get a tree out of this but at the top you can see the roots then the branches are at the bottom of the picture. I could see these from a metal watch tower that they have erected at the side of the pan american highway. From the tower there are two lines visible, the rest you have to get an airplane to see.

One more from Machu Picchu. This is the last one.

The Incan Bridge. You can see a couple of logs that go across the middle which was a type of drawbridge. You can also see the continuation of the trail as it goes across the cliff on the other side of the valley. I think this was the Incan escape route from Machu Picchu.

My buddy going swimming in the highest lake in the world.

This video is pretty close to the entrance way to Machu Picchu. It is bigger than it looks from pictures and postcards. One could easily spend all day here and not get bored. Which is what I did.

Awwww, Machu Picchu. Everything that could go wrong it getting here did go wrong, going back a week and in a different country. Trying to get from Santa Cruz to La Paz, Bolivia was a nightmare and ended up taking us two days longer than expected because all the bus tickets were sold out. Finally, we got to Desaguadero, Peru right on the Bolivian border. From there we should have had an 1.5 hour and 7 soles bus ride to Puno. However, disgruntled Peruvians protesting high food prices decided to block the roads throughout Peru, including the route to Puno. The protest was supposed to end at 8 that night. The protests supposedly ended but the bus drivers still refused to go because they said that the campesinos had put rock baricades on the roads. I was thinking, "well we just get off the bus and move the rocks, ya esta." Finally we found a caravan of taxi drivers that were going on some back country roads around the baricades. I came to understand that when Peruvians put up rock baricades, they really put up rock baricades. So we were driving down some dirt road in the middle of nowhere in a caravan (strength in numbers). Apparently the farmers in the middle of nowhere got the notice late that Peru was on strike because they were just starting. Our drivers had to negotiate and work our way through a couple of baricades. Finally we got back to the main highway. For the last 50 miles or so there were rocks strewn all over the road. Literally miles of rocks that we had to weave around. I understood why the bus drivers didnt want to go. So we got to Puno, from Puno another interesting bus ride to Cusco. We had a great day in Cusco. We were supposed to get free round trip train rides through the organization that Jesse works for, but we found out that we have to apply and then wait 2 weeks. We didnt have two weeks so we had to pay100 bucks for round trip tickets. Then they didnt like my student i.d. because it didnt have an expiration date so I had to pay full price to get into Machu Picchu, about 40 bucks. Then on the train ride there was a German running all over the train trying to take pictures of any rock he figured an Incan could have touched. Then, on the final leg of my journey, on a bus up the switch backs to Machu Picchu I had a Frenchman get mad at me (in French). Still not sure but I think he wanted the window seat (I came to that conclusion because he was leaning over me the whole time to video tape the ascent). But the view of Machu Picchu, as you can see from this photo and the ones below, priceless.

Cusco

Yesterday we were in Puno on Lake Titicaca. We went to the Artificial Islands that were/are being built by the Aymara Indians. From Puno we took a bus that was very unconfortable to Cusco. Today we headed around Cusco. Cusco is amazing, and the pictures will probably describe it better than I can. It is half Incan half Spanish. The spanish started building where the Incan had left off or where they got tired of tearing down. There are remnants of Incan engineering everywhere (I have a bunch of photos down below). Tomorrow we are up early to head off to Machu Picchu.

Cusco, the Capital of the Incan Empire. Possible the only place on our planet that proudly boasts being the navel of the world. When the Spanish arrived they started constructing on top of the Incan buildings. For that reason it is very common to see classic Incan architecture (fitted stones) on the bottom of a building with Spanish Adobe on top. Days could be spent in Cusco without ever scratching the surface of what there is to see or understanding all of its history.

Lake Titicaca. From this lake the first Incan King and Queen emerged and formed the Incan Empire, according to legend anyway. It is the highest lake in the world. In the middle of the lake the Aymara Indians have built artificial islands. By doing so they were able to avoid conquest by the Incas. The Uros, speak Aymara, some still dont speak Spanish. One lady, who was trying to sell me some handicraft scratched the price on to her hand because she didnt know how to tell me how much it cost in Spanish. Very interesting place.

Maldita Santa Cruz

So, still in Santa Cruz. The idea was to leave for La Paz on Sunday night. From La Paz we would visit Tihuanaco which has some Incan ruins before heading for Puno then on to Cusco. I was able to convince my friend to come with me. Which means we have a place to stay in Cusco and also we will be getting the $80 round trip train ride from Cusco to Machu Picchu for free. I love travel connections. However, there was something that we did not plan for. Apparently, Bolivia just started their winter vacations which means abnormal amounts of people are traveling. Furthermore, La Paz is the main attraction because of some independence day, or flag day, or some kind of party that they are having there. Hence, all of Santa Cruz is going to La Paz. All of the bus companies, in a frenzy to diversify, have coordinated to leave at five in the afternoon. So all the buses leave at the same time. On sunday we went to the bus terminal with all of our stuff thinking we would be able to get a ticket and get on the bus. Everything was sold out, all 15 or so companies were full up to go to La Paz. So, we figured we would be smarter and this morning I went to the bus terminal in the morning to get the tickets for this afternoon. I got there at 9 30 and everything was sold out. I stood in line for about an hour at the last company that had anything going to the Alti Plano and they sold out just before I got to the front of the line. So I asked, what does someone have to do to get a ticket out of this city? They told me that the bus tickets go on sale at 8 in the morning. I asked what time the bus station opened? It opens at 6. I asked if people got there that early for tickets? I was told that if I wanted a ticket for sure I should be there at 6. So tomorrow I will be up early to get the bus station, if not I will be here in Santa Cruz doing humanitarian work for the rest of my life.

The bridge in the background was constructed by Ascend Alliance, a humanitarian aid organization who Jesse (red shirt) is interning for this summer in Bolivia. Jesse was a buddy of mine from school. They built the bridge over this busy street because there is a school on the right hand side and a few kids had been killed trying to cross the street. So, the people from the area started to protest and Ascend helped the local mayor get a bridge constructed. They also put up this fence that you can see so that people would have to cross the bridge. Then other local people started protesting (cutting off transit on the road) because they didn´t want to walk down to the bridge. So here we are (ordered by the mayor) to take out a section of the fence so people can cross the street. Now the busnessman down by the bridge are mad because more people are going to cross the street there and they say they are going to go out of business. Like my pops always said, "some people will complain if you don´t hang them with a new rope."

Protest in Rosario

This was a protest done by "El Campo" protesting the tarriffs proposed by the government on Soy been oil exportation. It has caused quite a stir in Argentinga, especially in the heavily agriculturally based province of Santa Fe.

Bolivia

I got to Bolivia, one day behind schedule due to a missed bus on monday. So as to not miss the bus on Tuesday, I left Jujuy for a little town called Guemes at 3 in the morning. The bus ride to Santa Cruz was about 16 hours. It took forever getting through the border because I had to fill out a ton of paperwork. Luckily, everyone else on the bus was pacient with me. The fee to get into Bolivia was $100. I had been keeping a hundred dollar bill in my belt for the occaison, but apparently it had a little stain on it so apparently the bank would not take it. The border agent made me go to a money changer where I had to pay ten bucks to get a "new" hundred dollar bill. The trip from Jujuy to Santa Cruz was absolutely beautiful with mountains covered with trees. I am staying with a buddy from BYU who is doing an internship here in Santa Cruz for a humanitarian aid organization. Today I went out with him to help people learn how to plan garderns. The idea is to go with him to Cusco and we are making sure he has the money to do it. Hopefully he can do it because he has some sweet connections throught the organization in Cusco.