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Well, I've been back in the US for 2 weeks now. Even after 2 weeks, it still seems really weird to wake up in my own bed, in my own room, in a place where I don't have to speak Spanish. I also still can't believe that my trip is over. My life has been pure travel for the last 6 months, it is definitely a bit of a shock to have it be over. My time in South America was probably the best 6 months of my life and I have absolutely no regrets about my trip. I saw so many incredible things and met so many amazing people from all over the world. There are definitely things that I didn't get to do that I wanted to, but there is always next time. I was so captivated by so many different places that I am very positive that I will be back soon. It is definitely true that the social aspect of my trip really made it special.

Besides the unanswerable question "What was your favorite part of your trip?" the most frequent questions that I have gotten are "Wasn't it boring traveling by yourself?" and "Weren't you afraid to travel by yourself?" No and no. Traveling by myself was an absolutely incredible experience. Although I was technically traveling solo for most of my trip (except for the last 2 months or so), I never really felt like I was traveling alone and I certainly was never lonely. By staying in hostels in most places, I always had a group of very interesting people to hang out with, many of whom I ended up traveling with for several days to a few weeks. In fact, I never really met any other travelers that I didn't like. I can only think of maybe two people that I met during six months of travel that I couldn't stand and that I went out of my way to avoid. The vast majority of travelers are truly great people with interesting stories and I am definitely going to miss having the opportunity to constantly meet so many people from so many different places all over the world.

My summer is going to consist of spending the month of May at my parents house in Michigan. A road trip across the US for most of June. A couple trips to visit family in July and then moving to the west coast to start law school. So although I am back to life in the US, I still have some bumming around to do before the heavy stuff starts this fall at law school.

Anyways, this is my last blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading it. All of my photos have been uploaded to Picasa. Check it: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Until next time...

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires. I have been really looking forward to getting to Buenos Aires for a long time and it certainly hasn´t dissapointed. BA has a distinctly European feel about it and has provided me with lots to do both day and night.

Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace) and the balcony on which Eva Peron gave her famous speech (and from which Madonna sang ¨Don´t Cry For Me Argentina¨).

By chance, lots of people I had met throughout my trip happened to be in Buenos Aires the same time as me so I had to meet lots of people for meals and nights out and it was definitely nice to have people I already knew here to hang out with. The people in my hostel here were fine, I was just not really up for dealing with the usual new traveler friend thing at this point in my trip. You´d be surprised how old it gets having to answer the same questions multiple times a day (Where are you from? How long have you been traveling for? How much longer do you have left? Where have you been traveling? Where are you headed next? What do you do back home?). Although these questions are great ways to break the ice with people, after 6 months of answering them (and I´ll admit it, asking them) they make me want to vomit.

Buenos Aires has lots of really interesting street art.

Anyways, Buenos Aires is home to one of the coolest bookstores I´ve been to. El Ateneo has several branches throughout the city, but one of them was built inside an old theater. The seats have been removed and replaced with bookshelves, which also line the balconies. A couple of the balconies have couches for reading and there is a cafe on the stage. Really great place.

I feel like I always say this, but I really enjoyed walking around Buenos Aires. It has really great architecture and is a very pleasant city to see on foot. On one of my many wandering escapades, I came across the famous Recoleta Cemetery, the final resting place for some of BA´s wealthiest families. The most famous person here would definitely have to be Eva Peron, famous first lady of Argentina in the late 40´s.

One day after visiting the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) I stumbled upon a Dia de la Tierra (Earth Day) music festival and ended up spending most of my evening there listening to Argentine rock music, watching the sun set over Recoleta and sitting underneath a giant steel flower. One of the great things of wandering with no real itinerary is that I usually always stumble upon something really great that I otherwise would not have sought out.

My hostel in BA was in the neighborhood known as San Telmo. This area is a very artsy area and is home to lots of old tango bars and antique shops. It is famous for its Sunday antiques market in the main San Telmo plaza. Although it was certainly a sight to see, there was just a whole lot of crap for sale that really looked like it needed to just be thrown away. Not my cup of tea I suppose.

Another thing that really wasn´t my cup of tea was La Boca, a working class neighborhood that is very famous for its soccer team (Boca Juniors) and its brightly colored buildings. The main tourist drag near the river certainly has very brightly colored buildings, but it was so touristy I left after only a few minutes. It reminded me of being back in Ecuador or Peru where I was constantly harassed to come into restaurants or pay money to take a picture with someone or buy some piece of junk that I really don´t want. All of that was on top of the buses loaded with lots of old people that kept showing up. The brightly colored buildings are supposed to be remnants of the days when the homes were all constructed of sheet metal and painted with whatever paint could be found near the boats on the river. Most of La Boca however is not like this however and the little two street tourist drag definitely does not give a true picture of what life in La Boca is like, it was more like the Disneyland version of things.

One of the most emotional things that I had seen all trip came as quite a surprise to me. The Madres de los Desaparecidos (Mothers of the Disappeared) march in front of the presidential palace every Thursday, and have been doing so every Thursday for 31 years. These women are mothers of people who disappeared during Argentina´s ¨Dirty War¨ in the 1970´s and early 80´s. Political dissidents and other people deemed to be potentially dangerous to the military regime were kidnapped and disappeared. Many were tortured and it is estimated that over 30,000 people were secretly executed during this time. The Mothers originally marched in hopes that the Argentine government would fully account for what happened to those who disappeared during this time and fully prosecute all of those who had a hand in the kidnappings and executions. It is only within the last couple of years that the Argentine government has begun to be very open about this part of its history and has begun to be very proactive in finding and prosecuting individuals responsible for kidnappings and executions. Today the group is happy with what the government has been doing and while they still march for their sons and daughters who disappeared, they also now march for other social issues. Thinking about every one of these old women who had had a son or daughter kidnapped and executed, never knowing what exactly happened to them, was a very emotional experience.

Buenos Aires treated me very well. It is truly a great city and I am already very anxious to return. Now I am off to the airport and my flight back to the US. Can you really believe that it has been 6 months already?

Nearly every main square and main street in Argentina is named San Martin. He basically kicked the Spanish out of big parts of South America and I finally got to see his tomb in BA. Certainly a big hero here.

Aconcagua

On the way from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina I had the chance to see the highest mountain in the world outside of Asia. Aconcagua sits at 6962 meters or 22841 feet above sea level on the Argentina/Chile border (although technically in Argentina). Just a shame that I was sitting on a bus and only got to see it for a couple minutes. I guess next time I´ll have to spend some time hiking around there.

Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile represented many things for me. It marked the end of my 6 weeks traveling with friends Becky and Olivia and also marked the beginning of the end of my entire 6 month trip in South America. From Santiago I would head due east to Buenos Aires, Argentina and my eventual flight back to the United States. Despite all of this looming over my head, we were able to enjoy most our long weekend in Chile´s capital city.


Napping dogs in front of the Presidential Palace.

One of my favorite things to do in capital cities (or any city really) is to just wander around without any real itinerary. The first day of exploring Santiago led me around the main business district as well as the area housing many government buildings, including the Presidential Palace. Having heard many negative things about Santiago I was a little surprised, it definitely wasn´t as bad as it was made out to be. In fact, parts of the city really reminded me of a mix between Chicago on a summer day and Bogota, Colombia.

Presidential Palace.

My day of wandering also led me to the Plaza de Armas and an enormous cathedral on the plaza.


Another highlight of Santiago was meeting up with a couple friends of mine. First was Catie from Minnesota. I had gone to elementary school with Catie and had not seen or really spoken to her in around 12 years (since I moved from Minnesota to Michigan after 6th grade). Although a little weird at first to hang out with someone who I hadn´t seen since I was 12 years old, I am really glad we got together. It was great talking about things we had done together in the 3rd grade and catching up on what had happened to us both in our lives since 1996. The second person I met up with was Raul, the Chilean who I went with into the Peruvian jungle back in December. Raul invited me over to his house where we caught up, talked about all the crazy things that happened to us in the jungle and I also got to meet his new wife (they had gotten married the previous weekend and just returned from their honeymoon). It is always really nice to have contacts in new cities. It makes things much more personable and really gives you a chance to immerse yourself in local life, something that you otherwise don´t usually get to experience as a traveler.

Catie and I in Santiago.

We decided to take a day trip to Valparaiso, Chile, a city about 2 hours bus ride from Santiago on the Pacific coast. Valparaiso is famous for lots of colorful homes, some very old elevators that take people up the hills surrounding the city and the site of one of Pablo Neruda´s homes. Although the weather was not the best (cold and cloudy) it was nice to check it out and get away from smoggy Santiago for a bit.

A splash of color in Valparaiso.

View of Valparaiso and the Pacific Ocean from Pablo Neruda´s house.

With the end of my time in Santiago also came the end of my time with Becky and Olivia. By saying goodbye to them though, I also knew that I was beginning the final week of my trip. A brief stop in Tupungato, Argentina to pick up a bag that I had left a couple months ago and then on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Travel is starting to wear on me and it will be very nice to get home, but at the same time I really don´t want to face the realities of life in the US, mainly the need to find summer employment and to start regularly using an alarm clock. Oh well, I just need to take advantage of what time I do have left in South America and be grateful that I have had this amazing opportunity to spend so much time traveling in a truly spectacular part of the world.

Ushuaia, Argentina

After our less than satisfactory experience in Torres Del Paine National Park, we went further south to Tierra del Fuego, and island at the very bottom of South America. Ushuaia is a city on the southern tip of this island and calls itself ¨The End of the World¨although there technically is a small village just across the Beagle Sound (and therefore further south).

To get to Tierra del Fuego, one must cross the Straights of Magellan. This passage is very famous for being incredibly rough and the cause of many shipwrecks. Our bus loaded onto a passenger ferry and we began our crossing. We got off the bus and went to one of the platforms so we could see as we made the crossing.

As we were standing there admiring the enormous waves (from about 20 feet above the water), one slammed into the side of the boat and completely soaked my friend Becky. As we sat there pointing and laughing at her misfortune, another wave crashed into the boat and soaked all of us. Then as we were running to get to the indoor observation area yet another wave crashed into the boat and ensured that we had no dry clothing on. As fun as it was to get hit unexpectedly with freezing cold water while exposed to fierce wind, it was definitely not fun to sit on a bus for the next 8 hours while soaking wet. We definitely got Magellaned.

It was pretty exciting arriving in Ushuaia. It was the first time in over a month that we had been in a modern city with lots of options for places to buy things and to go out for dinner or drinks. It is also set in a very beautiful location. Behind the city are really tall snow capped mountains and at the base of the city is the Beagle Channel. Our week in Ushuaia involved a lot of reading, relaxing and wandering around. We did, however, check out the prison museum (Ushuaia was originally founded as a penal colony).

Another day, Becky and I took a hike to the Martial Glacier. This glacier basically overlooks the city and sits at the top of a ski hill. We hiked up the only ski run and at parts at the top were up to our knees in snow, but it gave us some really great views of the city. One of the more memorable parts of this hike, besides the views, was seeing a couple little old ladies at the bottom of the hill start the hike up in their Sunday best. One of them almost got a face full of snow after slipping on an ice patch, but at least they were out there and trying to enjoy a day in the outdoors.

Ushuaia provided us with some much needed relaxation and modernity after our disaster in Torres del Paine. Although not a huge city, it certainly has a lot of charm and was well worth the visit. Along with the novelty of being in the southernmost city in the world, it gave us the chance to recharge ourselves, get some time outdoors and just enjoy the last few days that we would be traveling together.

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

I wish I could tell you that as expected, Torres del Paine National Park was one of the best parts of my entire trip. I wish I could tell you that I spent 10 glorious days backpacking around one of Patagonia´s, if not the world´s most beautiful mountain ranges. But alas, I cannot.

My trip to Torres del Paine turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. The park ate us up, chewed us up and spat us out. We originally were going to do a 10 day backpacking trip called ¨The Circuit¨but we had to abort when we received word that an avalanche had covered up a huge part of the trail over the tallest pass. We were then going to do a 5 day trip called ¨The W¨plus an extra day of hiking.

We started with an 18 km hike into the first campsite. We were a bit weary setting off in rain with near freezing temperatures but assumed it would pass. Unfortunately the rain continued for most of the day and we were pretty soaked upon our arrival to camp. That night, the rain and wind only intensified. At one point the tent started to leak on my head and we also found part of the tent to be sitting in a giant puddle. We decided that the best course of action would be to stay at camp for another day, hoping that the weather would break and give the gear a chance to dry out a little. Unfortunately, the weather only got worse. It got colder, it started hailing, the wind gusts were around 85 km/hr and there was even snow.

After several group discussions, we decided to pull the plug on the backpacking trip. Rangers had told us that the weather would last for at least 3 more days and that they could not make any kind of accurate predictions after that time period. Although we were very disappointed to make this decision, we all knew that since we were soaking wet and didn´t have the proper gear, it probably would not be the best idea to continue. On top of that, we could not see the peaks of the mountains (or much of anything else either), which was really the main point for visiting the park. Even if we had continued the trip in the park, we all would have wanted to return again in the future to see the park in clear weather (and actually see the mountains that make it famous - the Torres and the Cuernos). We decided that given various time pressures, everyone would prefer to abort the trip and hopefully check out another place in Patagonia with better weather. On the third day, we hiked out via the same 18 km trail that we hiked in on starting at 6:45 am in the dark and in a blizzard, eventually making our way back to Puerto Natales. In a typical sick twisted move by the park, the clouds parted for a brief 15 minute period as we were on the bus on our way out of the park giving us a look at some of the mountains. So beautiful, yet I really didn´t want to look.

Although I am still pretty bitter about this trip, it was still fun to be in a place that I have looked forward to seeing for the last few years and makes me really want to return in the very near future.

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

After hiking around the northern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, we headed a few hours south to check out El Calafate and the southern sector of the park. The crown jewel of the entire park is the Perito Moreno Glacier, a massive glacier that is 5 km wide, 60 meters tall (at the edge where it meets the water) and 30km long that is accessible by bus. Although it requires no sweat to get there (and is therefore overrun with tourists), it is still one of the most amazing things I have seen on the trip.

A visit to the glacier basically involves walking around to different lookout points getting different angles on the ice. The glacier truly is alive as it is constantly making various noises as the ice settles, cracks and slowly moves into the lake. We were also treated to several chunks of ice calving off the glacier and into the water below. Twice we saw enormous 60 meter tall columns plunge into the lake and several times we saw smaller chunks fall into the lake.

Before actually seeing the chunk of ice fall, we would hear what sounded like a shotgun blast followed by an enormous crash as it splashed into the water, sending huge waves out in all directions. Really amazing to watch, but something that really needs to be seen in person to truly appreciate.

El Chaltén, Argentina

After our time at the estancia was up, we crossed the border into Argentina and headed south through the mostly uninhabited Argentine Patagonia. Many buses in Argentina are equipped with an alarm that sounds whenever the driver exceeds the speed limit. On this overnight trip, we had a driver with a lead foot and were treated to an almost constant loud buzzing alarm all through the night as he tried to drive as fast as possible. Eventually, we arrived in a town called El Chaltén, one of Argentina´s newest towns (less than 20 years old), to hike in the northern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.

Despite being a very popular tourist destination, the town does not have an ATM. This proved to be very problematic for us as we did not have much Argentina money with us. We had just come from Chile and after getting into Argentina immediately hopped on the bus to El Chaltén. We even had to move out of a hostel in favor of another one that took credit cards to try to make our money last. Luckily we scraped by and were able to make it to an ATM a few hours down the road.

As I said, we came to El Chaltén to get some hiking in. We chose to do a day hike to Laguna Torre (around 18 km round trip), a glacial lake at the base of Cerro Torre. Although it did cloud up a little after we started hiking, it was still a great hike with amazing views (and tasty ice).

Valle Chacabuco, Chile (March 7-March 30, 2008)

Sunset from the front porch of our cabin at the estancia.

The first week of March I met up with a friend from my two summers working in Glacier National Park, Becky. Knowing that I was going to be traveling for a while in South America, she invited me to join her for 3 weeks of volunteer work at an estancia (ranch) in Patagonian Chile. After a few days hanging out in Coyhaique, Chile, I met up with Becky and her friend from home, Olivia, and we took a 6 hour bus ride to a crossroads in the middle of nowhere. After nearly an hour of confusion and not quite knowing what to do, someone from the estancia finally arrived to take us the 20km or so to where we would initially be staying.

Me, Olivia and Becky.

The estancia where we were working was called the Estancia Valle Chacabuco and comprises about 185000 acres of land. It was purchased a few years ago by an American named Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face and Esprit) and his wife Kris (former CEO of Patagonia Clothing Company). Doug has purchased large chunks of land around Chile and Argentina with a goal of preserving the land as natural areas. In fact, he has already opened one of his land holdings to the public (Pumalin Park). He has received some resistance from locals, as many don´t really believe that an American would want to come in and buy such huge chunks of land for purely conservation purposes. The fact that he has tried to hand over these lands to the Chilean government so that they can indeed be opened to the public has allayed some of these fears.

Crossing a river on the way to work.

Our job for the three weeks was to help, along with a group of other volunteers, remove fences from the estancia. The old fences from when the estancia was an actual working sheep and cattle ranch impede the migration patterns of the local animals (mainly guanacos and a type of deer called the huemul) and also detract a lot from the aesthetics of the landscape. Removing the miles and miles of fences truly did transform the landscape and hopefully will help restore some of the original wildlife migration patterns.

¨La Juanina¨

The first part of our stay at the estancia took us another 50 km into the ranch where we stayed at an old cabin with sweeping views across an amazing valley. The cabin, called ¨La Juanina,¨ did not have electricity nor did it have running water in the bathroom (we did have a spring which fed into a sink in the kitchen). It did have a wood stove in the kitchen which allowed us to make hot meals and further provided us with much needed heat. Baths were taken in a nearby stream which was some of the coldest water I have ever experienced. I have gone swimming in some very cold bodies of water including alpine lakes in Glacier National Park and the north shore of Lake Superior, however nothing compared to the truly icy feel of this stream. Baths were short and to the point and always full of dread, however very refreshing once they were over with and we were back near the wood stove.

Hard at work.

Our days at Juanina consisted of getting up around 8 am for breakfast and hiking up a nearby mountain to a fence line about an hour away. Once at the fence line, we would divide up the labor, some people clipping wires, other people rolling up the sections of fence and others removing the sturdy fence poles from the ground. The work, although not terribly exciting in itself was enjoyable because of the incredible mountain surroundings we were in as well as the amazing work crew we had. There was a also a great sense of accomplishment and I think we all felt pretty good about the work we were doing and how it would help turn the estancia into a giant public park. We would usually end the day between 4 and 5 pm and hike back to the cabin where we would prepare dinner and spend the evening sipping boxed wine and reading. I should also mention that one of our staple food items was sheep. When the estancia was purchased, it came with thousands of sheep. One way to get rid of the sheep is to feed the employees and volunteers lots of sheep. Every so often, someone would come visit us and drop off a huge chunk of fresh sheep meat. Absolutely delicious, especially after a hard day of manual labor.

Cooking sheep on a bicycle wheel grill at our hobo camp.

After finishing up our time at La Juanina, we were moved to a place where we had to camp for several nights. This place was a newer chunk of property that had just been acquired a few weeks prior to our arrival. As such, there was a lot of general cleanup work that needed to be done in addition to the usual task of fence removal. This part of our time was fun because we set up a nice little hobo camp. We constructed chairs, tables, grills and water collection devices out of random materials found on the property. Because we made everything ourselves, we had a great sense of pride in our new temporary home and thoroughly enjoyed our time here.

We also had a few other random days of work that involved driving a large dump truck around the estancia picking up rolls of fence and fence posts to take them to their disposal site. Another day we were working to remove a fence that went through a swamp. Despite having rubber boots, there were times when I was up to my belly button in swamp scum. Part of the fun I guess.

On our second to last night at the estancia, we were treated to an incredibly rare animal sighting. We were driving along a road when all of a sudden about 25 yards off the road we saw a puma (mountain lion) walking away from a fresh guanaco kill. Many of the rangers at the estancia, despite having been there for many many years have never seen a puma as they are incredibly elusive creatures, very rarely putting themselves in a position to be seen by humans. It was really amazing to actually get to see such a beautiful animal in the wild with my own eyes. The picture above really doesn´t do it justice as this is taken in poor light, through glass and with a really basic camera. Please trust me, it was awesome.

My three weeks at the estancia really flew by and I am really anxious to come back to visit to see the progress that will be made over the coming months and years to prepare the park to be opened to the public. I also met some really incredible people who were also volunteers and am really glad to have been able to spend so much time with them in such a beautiful setting.

View hiking back to ¨La Juanina¨ after a day pulling fences.

I am not dead...

Sorry I haven´t updated anything in a looooooooooooooooong time, and sorry that I can´t provide much of an update now. The last month of my life has consisted of lots of nights sleeping in tents, lots of hiking, a puma, lots of guanacos, famous people, some boxed wine, a few blizzards, ripping 100 year old wire fences out of the ground and lots of staring at mountains.

From the ranch where I was working pulling out fences, four of us crossed into Argentina and went to a city called El Chalten for some hiking. From there we went to El Calafate to look at a 50 meter tall, 5 kilometer wide Glacier and then crossed back into Chile to hike around in Torres del Paine National Park. That was an adventure that ended early...more later.

Anyways, I am currently in Puerto Natales, Chile trying to figure out where we are headed next, most likely further south. I will try to post some stories and pictures soon.

John the Laborer

Cerro Castillo in Chile.

After Tupungato, I went to a town near the Chilean border called San Martín de los Andes. Basically a really touristy town full of vacationing Argentines right outside of a national park. I was able to escape the vacationers and get some good hiking and camping in. My thoughts however were on getting further south.

Parque Nacional Lanín near San Martin de los Andes, Argentina.

After a brutal 3 day journey (going from San Martin de los Andes to Bariloche to Comodoro Rivadavia to Los Antiguos - all in Argentina by bus - to Chile Chico to Puerto Ibañez - in Chile by boat) I now find myself in Coihaique, a city in Chilean Patagonia surrounded by the Andes mountains. I am meeting a friend here from the US and we are headed to work at a place called Estancia Chacabuco. It is owned by Douglas Tompkins, the founder of The North Face Company, who hopes to eventually turn it over to the Chilean government so that it can be opened to the public. Before that can happen, a lot of manual labor needs to be done in order to turn it from a working ranch into a park that can be enjoyed by everyone. That is where I come in. I have volunteered to be a manual laborer at this place for three weeks. I will be living in a tent and probably very cold, but I am really looking forward to getting up there.

Wish me luck...

Tupungato, Argentina

A planned two day visit to Tupungato, Argentina turned into a weeklong stay. One of my friends from my days working in Glacier National Park has some extended family that left the US to move to Argentina. They settled in a town about an hour away from Mendoza, Argentina in the heart of wine country. The Smiths were nice enough to invite me into their home and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.

They have a very nice home situated a little outside of town with amazing views of 20,000 foot tall (plus) mountains all across the western horizon. Their neighbors are all wineries, all of which are very beautiful (there is something about rows and rows of grape vines beneath the majestic Andes mountains that I can´t quite express with words). I was there just a couple weeks before grape harvest was to begin so the vines all had large bunches of grapes on them, something I had never seen before.


Anyways, I did surprisingly little in my week in Tupungato. I went hiking twice in the Andes. The first time we were just exploring, following a dirt road that went up into the mountains. We followed it until reaching a small Argentine border post (located about 60 km from the Chilean border). At that point we started to head back down towards Tupungato but decided to follow a trail that we had found earlier that looked as if it would lead to a waterfall we could see in the distance. We started walking until we came to a part where the trial basically disappeared. To the left was a stream and to the right was a very steep and rocky slope. We opted for the steep slope (and the next day would find out we should have gone to the left along the creek) but shortly turned back due to lack of proper footwear (wearing sandals). The next day, we returned determined to get to the waterfall, however when we arrived decided that we knew a shortcut. Bad mistake as this left us climbing along a ridge with a very steep dropoff on one side. Luckily we all made it down to the original trail and eventually made it to the beautiful waterfall. Fun day.


Another afternoon I skipped my daily siesta to visit one of the local wineries, Andeluna Cellars. A very beautiful winery looking out towards the Andes mountains and very good wine. Unfortunately an arrogant American wine maker from Napa who was also on the tour slightly detracted from my experience, however we were able to deal with it and enjoyed sampling the various wines and learning about the wine making process. On the other side of the equation, our tour guide was friends with the family I was staying with and gave us some special attention once the other Americans had left and in the end made the tour very enjoyable.


Unfortunately, my week long stay had to end as I needed to continue my travel south. I really miss Tupungato, it is a great town with great people and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Hopefully I´ll be able to stop there again on my way to Buenos Aires a little later in my trip.

And to the Smith family (or Los Esmits as they are called in Tupungato), thank you very much for everything, I really appreciated the lodging, the amazing meals and the wine.

Me with Patrick and Patricia (two of the four members of my host family in Tupungato) at Andeluna.

Northern Argentina

After a brief stay in Arica, Chile, I took what would turn out to be one of my worst bus rides to Salta, Argentina. On top of being 24 hours long, I had the pleasure of sitting across the aisle from a guy who vomitted into a plastic bag for the last third of the bus ride. Not only did it sound great, it smelled great.

Anyways, it certainly was a relief to get to Salta. As per my usual, a lot of my time in Salta was spent wandering around. What really struck me about Salta was the amount of green space it has, lots of public parks (or rather one incredibly large one) and also its very beautiful main square. Lots of nice restaurants with streetside seating, perfect for watching the world go by. Salta also has a teleferico which takes people up to the top of a mountain for views over the city. To be perfectly honest, Salta is not a very beautiful city from above (compared to other South American cities I have seen from mountain tops), but still a nice relaxing early morning activity.


Salta was also my first experience with Argentine steak. On the bus ride from hell mentioned above, I was seated next to an Australian girl who invited me to a late night (by American standards-perfectly normal by Argentine standards) Argentine steak and wine feast. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so don´t have any pictures, but let me assure you, I have never seen a bigger piece of meat in my life, at least not one served to a person on a plate. The plate, which had nothing on it but the meat, was well over 12 inches long and six inches wide and the meat was spilling over the sides and dripping juice onto the table. Not only was it huge, but it tasted absolutely delicious. My Aussie counterpart couldn´t stop giggling over my amazement with the piece of meat that was in front of me. Anyways, we topped our steak off with a nice bottle of Malbec, a type of red wine that is very popular in Argentina. Absolutely delicious and a very good complement to the steak. Despite stuffing myself to the point of feeling sick, I can´t wait for more Argentine steak and wine nights.


After a couple days hanging out in Salta, I went a few hours south to Tucumán, Argentina. Normally, I probably would have skipped Tucumán in favor of spending more time in other locations. I decided to include Tucumán in my itinerary because I spent a good part of a week hanging out with an Argentine from Tucumán (Martín) while in Lima and he insisted that I stop and visit when I eventually made my way through Argentina. Although not too strong on tourist sites, it I am definitely glad I stopped here. In fact it was kind of nice to not have any need to go see the requisite sites. Tucumán is full of lots of neat cafes, restaurants and bars, as well as all kinds of high end stores.


The two highlights of my time with Martín in Tucumán were eating at his parents house (home cooked meals made by others are so amazing after a long time on the road) and a visit to the local soccer match. I got to see San Martín de Tucumán play K.A.I. Both teams are in the second tier level of soccer, but still put on a great show. As expected, the crowd was really into the game, especially because a victory would put them in first place in the league. After a rather boring first half, San Martín put on a show in the second half and won 4-0. With that win, it means that the home team has won every single soccer game I have ever been to. Who wants me to come to their game next?


After a couple days in Tucumán it was time to head further south to Córdoba to visit a family friend. A few years back, my mother won a Fulbright grant from the U.S. government to participate in a educator exchange program. My mother went to Argentina and stayed with an elementary school principal in Córdoba and then that same woman came to stay with my mother in Michigan for a few weeks. Anyways, upon hearing that I was coming to Argentina, Miriam invited me to her home to visit for a few days. Once again, the home cooked meals and hospitality were one of the primary highlights, but I was also able to get out and explore Córdoba a bit. Much larger than any other Argentine city I had visited up to that point, Córdoba had a ton going on. There are lots of universities there and the population seems to be rather young (probably because I was hanging out in the center near several large universities).


One day I decided to take a day trip out of Córdoba to visit a couple of small towns. The first town visited was Villa General Belgrano, a German settlement famous for its annual Oktoberfest situation. While I missed the Oktoberfest, it was still an interesting city, although much too touristy for me. Probably the highlight of the city was eating goulash at a German restaurant and having a proper dark beer that was made on-site (oh how I miss microbrews). Besides that, Villa General Belgrano didn´t quite do it for me so it was on to Alta Gracia, the city where Ernesto ¨Che¨Guevara lived for much of his youth. Basically it is just his old home with lots of photos of him throughout his life and a few things that he owned. There was also a room dedicated to the 2006 visit of the museum by Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Some former colleagues of mine used to joke that I was coming to South America to work for Hugo Chavez, but this was probably the closest I ever got to that. Although I am left leaning, I don´t quite lean that far left.

A nice museum, but a little small and lacking in true museum pieces, but certainly glad I went and glad I could escape the big city for a day.


Next stop Tupungato, Argentina.

Arica, Chile

Due to funky bus schedules I had to spend a day in Arica, Chile, right on the border with Peru. After the hustle and bustle of Peru, it was nice to have a day just relaxing in a resort town. Next stop Argentina...

Lake Titicaca, Peru

After Cuzco, me and another Michigander traveled to Puno, a city right on the banks of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world (3812 meters above sea level). We spent one night in Puno and they too were celebrating Carnaval. Although the water and foam fights are a big part of the festivities in Puno, there are also lots of parades with dancing and marching bands. In fact, when I went to bed I could hear the marching bands parading through the streets (along with fireworks being set off). I woke up around 3 am and could still hear the music (and fireworks). I then woke up to start my day at 6 am and they were still at it. By 7 am, the parade was passing right in front of the hostel (and still playing the same song that could be heard at 10pm the night before). Good thing I was already awake.


After the band passed, I went to the docks to board a boat to take me onto the lake. The first stop was the Uros Floating Islands. Although very touristy and designed to suck the money right out of your wallet, it was a pretty interesting experience. The Uros people make floating islands out of reeds cut from the lake and then live on them. A little unsettling how squishy the islands are, but luckily they held up very well.


After departing the Uros Islands, we had a 2.5 hour ride to Taquile Island (an actual natural island). Here it was nice because we were allowed to actually explore the island a bit and get away from the other groups of people. Great views out to the lake, the surrounding mountains and to Bolivia. The one disappointing part of the day was the caravan of boats that take groups of tourists out to the islands on the lake, but I´m starting to get used to it. As much as I hate the large groups of people, I´m starting to have to accept it as a part of visiting all these amazing places.


More photos of Puno and Lake Titicaca in the Peru folder at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Ollantaytambo, Peru

On the way back from Machu Picchu I passed through the Sacred Valley. I saw more Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo. The ruins were a giant fortress that gave them a great view over the valley and allowed them to protect themselves rather effectively against the Spanish. In fact, this was one of the only sites where the Spanish were defeated by the Incas (although it was short lived-the Spanish just returned a little later with three times as many soldiers as their first assault and easily took the fortress).

Resident fortress dog.

It was no Machu Picchu, but still a great way to spend a sunny morning.

Cuzco, Peru

Cuzco just might be the most touristy city I visited in Peru. I guess that shouldn´t be too surprising considering everyone who goes to Machu Picchu passes through the city. As a result there are tons of people roaming the streets trying to sell crap and it is hard to go anywhere without being constantly asked to buy something or to give money.


I´ve been staying at a really nice hostel in Cuzco set up on a hill with great views of the entire city. It is in a 450 year old building and has a couple big courtyards in the middle, great for relaxing in the afternoon sun.


One really interesting part of my time in Cuzco was that I was there at the same time as Carnaval. Basically this means that the city erupts in a giant water fight. Mostly it is young people running around throwing water balloons at each other. Slowly as time went on, everyone became a target. I really wouldn´t have minded being in a water fight, but what bugged me was that the kids would launch stealth attacks. I would be walking down the street and would get hit from behind. By the time I would turn around the kids would be hidden in some doorway. Very frustrating. I felt really bad for one girl at the hostel who had all of her luggage with her and was about to get into a taxi to go to the airport for a flight to Lima. As she was getting in she got attacked by several kids with water balloons. As she stood there, they then sprayed her with some sort of foam in the face. Quite stunned, she just kinda stood there and another kid rubbed the foam all over her hair and then she got a big bucket of water thrown at her. Glad it wasn´t me.


One of the main tourist sites in Cuzco is the Inca ruins of Saqsayhuaman. They are set on a hill overlooking the city. One of the most impressive parts of this site is the stonework. Somehow the Inca´s turned giant boulders into walls and were able to fit all of the boulders together perfectly without any kind of cement. Unfortunately as I was checking out the site, I could see a giant storm coming up the valley so I opted to cut my visit a wee bit short. Oh well, still nice to see the ruins, almost a preview of what was to come later at Machu Picchu.


My stay in Cuzco was involuntarilly extended when I got stuck in a giant strike. Most everything in Cuzco shut down for a day, including taxis, buses, trains, stores and banks in protest of a measure being pushed by the Peruvian president to allow more foreign investment in the areas around some of Peru´s national treasures (including Machu Picchu). Local people fear that this is a step towards allowing the sale or lease of these of these sites to foreign companies. The strike was quite large and the city was eerily quiet, except for in the Plaza de Armas where a giant march was being held. The square was packed with people and at one point people started burning things. I was also told that people who were driving cars on this day had rocks thrown at their windows.

Cuzco is a really beautiful city, but I had a hard time getting over how touristy it was. It had some really charming areas but it was definitely not a truly authentic Peruvian experience.

Machu Picchu, Peru

I was thinking about what to write about Machu Picchu and I really don´t know what to say. It´s Machu Picchu, one of the 7 Wonders of the World, probably best to not really say much. That being said...

As I was leaving Aguas Calientes to head up to the site, I ran into Alex, a German from the hostel in Arequipa. He was with 3 Chileans and I decided to tag along with their group. After getting some advice from good friends who had visited Machu Picchu a few years ago, I had planned on taking the bus up, but after joining up with this group decided to make the trek up the mountain. Basically a series of stairs and switchbacks for an hour and a half that completely wiped all of us out. But after getting to the top and seeing Machu Picchu spread out in front of us, we all forgot about our aching legs. I thought it might be a bit of a let down since I have seen many pictures of the site in the past, but it was still amazing. I could not believe that I was actually there.


About midway through the visit, the clouds rolled in and a deluge of rain soaked us all (Sierra Designs rain jackets do not hold up very well after being subjected to a downpour for over two hours, in case you were in the market for a rain jacket). Although irritating, it definitely gave us a different perspective on the site and added to its mysticism.


More Machu Picchu pictures in the Peru folder at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

U2 in Arequipa

Colca Canyon, Peru

In the middle of my time in Arequipa, I took off for 3 days (2 nights) to check out the nearby Colca Canyon. This canyon was for a long time believed to be the worlds deepest canyon, however recently it was determined that the nearby Cotahuasi Canyon is actually just barely deeper. Anyways, the canyon is 100 km long and varies from 1000 meters to 3000 meters in depth (deepest point is 3191 meters).


I took a bus to Cabanaconde, a very small agricultural town still living a traditional Andean lifestyle that sits right on the edge of the canyon. I arrived after dark and was very excited for my trek into the canyon the next day. After getting up early I was crushed to discover that the canyon was filled with fog. Standing at a lookout point that is supposed to give views of the entire canyon, I could only see grey. I could be in my front yard in Michigan and get the same view.


Anyways, after reading for a bit in the main square, I decided to just start walking. I figured that either I would get underneath the clouds or they would dissipate sometime during the day. Luckily, both happened. Although different from what I think of as a canyon (specifically the image in my head of the Grand Canyon) it was still an amazing sight. Truly one of the best and most rewarding hikes that I´ve done in my life.


As I climbed back out of the canyon, I was treated to a 20 minute show by two Andean Condors. Just as I got to the top of the canyon where the trail becomes relatively flat until you reach Cabanaconde, the two condors glided above my head and then circled up gaining height until I couldn´t see them anymore. Andean Condors are the largest flying birds in the western hemisphere and have wingspans that grow to 9-10 ft. These guys weren´t that big, but were still amazing to watch as they soared over the canyon.


More pictures from the Colca Canyon can be found in the Peru folder at my Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Arequipa, Peru

I spent several days in Arequipa, despite not being thoroughly impressed with the city. Many other travelers that I met kept telling me about the wonders of Arequipa and how one could spend months there if they weren´t careful. Don´t get me wrong, Arequipa has some great architecture and certainly has its charming parts, but I just never got into it. Maybe it was frustration with the fact that it had a 5800 meter volcano looming over the city that could only be seen for a couple hours a day due to clouds and smog.


Having said that, I did enjoy my time in Arequipa, it just wasn´t all that I expected. One of my first days was spent exploring the area around the main plaza. There are many restaurants with balconies overlooking the plaza, a great place to relax and have a drink. Right near the main plaza is a museum that features ¨Juanita the Ice Princess.¨ About 500 years ago several young people were sacrificed in the area surrounding what is today Arequipa. About 15 years ago a frozen body was found on a volcano called Ampato. After further examination, it was discovered to be the body of one of those sacrificed and she became known as Juanita. Because she had been frozen, she is very well preserved preserved and still has lots of skin and hair. Her mummified body is usually on display, however she gets to take January through April off so I was a bit disappointed. Despite not being able to see Juanita, another frozen mummy is on display. Sarnita is not quite as well preserved as Juanita, however it was still pretty creepy (interesting) to see her.


The next day, me and some friends from the hostel decided to visit the Santa Catalina Monastery. The monastery was founded in the 1500´s and is absolutely massive, it is like a city within a city. Despite all the tourists that flock through every day, there is a group of nuns who still live in the monastery, although in an area that is not open to the public. Despite the beautiful contrasting colors in the monastery, it did get to be a bit boring after a while, although I think that was due mostly to its gargantuan size. Wandering around you see lots of bedrooms, lots of kitchens, lots of prayer rooms, lots of religious pictures and lots of paintings of nuns (all of them look unhappy in the paintings, not a single smiling nun in the entire 20,000 square foot monastery).


All in all, Arequipa was an enjoyable city and I met lots of great people, although I still don´t get the love affair that most travelers have with it. Maybe I missed something.

Nazca, Peru

After my sandboarding adventure, I took a quick bus to Nazca to check out the Nazca lines. Machu Picchu and the Nazca lines were the two things I wanted to make sure I saw while in Peru an with my arrival in Nazca I was about to check one of those off of my list.

I know it looks like nothing is in this picture, but there is a monkey in the lower left corner (I swear).

Little is known about these lines in the middle of the desert, other than they were constructed (or drawn) by the Nazca people sometime between 200 BC and 700 AD. Not very specific. Also, the lines cannot be seen from ground level, you have to be in the air before you realize what they are so their purpose is also a bit of a mystery. Were they meant to be seen by a deity from above? Were they part of an astronomical calendar? Were they just creative buggers with too much free time? Despite not knowing much about them, they were still interesting to see.

Hummingbird

I got up early in the morning to take a half hour flight over the desert outside of Nazca to see the lines. One of the things that surprised me was how hard to was to see some of the images. The lines really blended in with the surrounding sand, but they were still amazing to see nonetheless. The pictures aren´t great, you can definitely find better ones online, but they give you a sense of what was seen from the air.

After my flight, I was whisked away in a van to the Chauchilla Cemetary, a Nazca burial ground a little over 1000 years old. Because of the incredibly dry climate in the area (less than 1 mm of rain per year), bodies were preserved very well and this area is home to many mummies. Before it was discovered by archeologists, the many tombs were raided by local people and the bodies were left strewn about the desert, but archaeologists have moved the mummies back to restorations of tombs underground (although still uncovered so that tourists can gawk). Despite the restoration, there are still lots bone fragments that stick out of the sand in the area.

More pictures of the Nazca lines and Chuachilla Cemetary are at my Picassa site in the Peru folder: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Sandboarding in Huacachina

After checking out Pisco and the Islas Ballestas, I took a two hour bus ride south to Ica. Ica is known for its wine and pisco producers, but my purpose was to visit the desert oasis of Huacachina.


Huacachina is a really relaxed village surrounding a lagoon, literally a desert oasis. Besides getting some time in at the pool, the best part about my time in Huacachina was taking a sand buggy tour through the dunes including several runs sandboarding.


First of all, keep in mind that this is Peru and safety is a bit of an after thought, but that also made the ride very enjoyable. Our crazy driver would go at top speed going up and down monstrous sand dunes. I thought we had big dunes in Michigan, but the dunes in Huacachina made Michigan´s seem like babies. Anyways, it is a bit hard to describe what the ride was like, but we basically just drove around the dunes at excessive speeds. We would go up a dune as fast as possible and then without slowing down to see what would be on the downslope we´d jump over the top and head back down. A blast.


The second part of the tour involved trying out sandboarding. Basically the same thing as snowboarding but you do it on sand. All of us in the group tried to do it standing up, but none of us could really get the hang of it so we switched to going down on our stomachs. Essentially just sledding headfirst down a giant sand dune. Again hard to describe, but a blast. Too give you some perspective as to how massive the dunes were that we went down, you can see some tiny people in the bottom left of the picture below who are at the bottom of the dune that we had just gone down on our boards.


Lastly, the dune tour ended with a sunset over the desert...amazing.

Guano and the Ballestas Islands

After Lima I headed south to a beach side town called Pisco. I actually stayed just outside of Pisco in an ocean front hotel in a town called San Andres. It was great to be 20 meters from the ocean and to be able to fall asleep to waves crashing.


Pisco was actually nearly destroyed last summer when it was struck by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in August. The effects of that can still be seen. Lots of rubble piles in the streets, people living in tents, buildings missing walls and roofs. Really crazy. Even the main church on the main square was destroyed. There are lots of volunteers and international aid groups in Pisco and they are making slow but steady progress rebuilding the city. Very sobering to walk around and see how much damage is left, even after almost 6 months.


My main purpose in visiting the Pisco area was to check out the Islas Ballestas, also called the ¨Poor Man´s Galapagos.¨ Basically they are several small islands in the Pacific Ocean that has an abundance of birds, penguins and sea lions. To get to the islands you have to take about a 45 minute boat ride, and mine was full of Russian tourists who didn´t speak a word of English. Despite this, they wanted to have conversations with me, and I don´t think we ever understood what we were talking about, but it was fun nonetheless. Along the way to the islands we stopped to check out a giant geoglyph on the side of a sand dune. It is called the Candelabra Geoglyph, but nobody really knows what it is, how old it is or who made it. At 150 meters tall and 50 meters wide, it is quite the site, very cool to see.


After looking at the candelabra for a while we headed to the islands, stopping to watch some dolphins play before making it to the islands themselves. They look like giant white boulders jutting out of the ocean by about 5-30 meters, but once we got closer I realized that the rocks were actually a reddish brown, but stained white due to all the bird poop. I´ve never seen so much bird poop in my life. The guide told us that the black cormorants on the island produce the world´s best guano and that they harvest it every 10 years. Lots of birds, penguins and sea lions and lots of noise, but a very interesting sight. I wonder why all these animals chose this random group of small islands to call home?


On the boat ride back to the mainland, we got engulfed by fog and we could barely see the water in front of us. The guide and boat driver both looked concerned and were both pointing in random directions, I think trying to decide where to go. Eventually we found the mainland but were about 1 km away from the pier. Oops. Anyways, really creepy getting to the pier and slowly seeing the fishing boats appear, almost like something out of a horror movie.


More pictures from the Ballestas Islands and Pisco can be found in the Peru folder at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Lima, Peru

After a couple relaxing weeks in Roscommon, MI (and Chicago, IL and Sacramento, CA) I am back in South America. It feels great to be back on the road, although I do miss drinking out of the tap and flushing my toilet paper.

I arrived in Lima, Peru just before midnight on Monday but didn´t end up leaving the airport until nearly 2 am. This was because I had to wait for every single bag to be unloaded before hearing an announcement that 21 bags had been left in Houston, including mine. They would not be able to make it to Lima until the flight the next day that was also supposed to arrive just before midnight and then they would drop it off at my hotel the next morning. Lucky John (and his lucky dorm mates) got to wear the same clothes for 3 days straight before my bag caught up to me. I frequently wear the same clothes over again, but the forced wearing of the same clothes was a bit of a pain, especially since I was wearing some heavy pants (it was below freezing and a blizzard when I took off from Traverse City, MI) and it was in the 90s in Lima.

Continuing the having a bad day theme, besides having my luggage left in Houston, within the course of 36 hours I also locked my keys inside my security locker (with my camera, passport and money inside as well) and was denied entrance to the Bolivian embassy. At first it was because I didn´t have my passport. I did have my Michigan driver´s license though, and was hoping that would work. After about 5 minutes, the guard finally got permission for me to enter without my passport, but was then told that because I was wearing shorts, I would be unable to come in. I would have to go change into long pants and return. And all I wanted to know was what I needed to do to get a visa for Bolivia. Que será, será.

Besides that little hiccup, my time in Lima was amazing. I was only going to spend two nights or so in Lima but ended up staying an entire week. Before coming I only heard negative things from travelers about Lima. I was told it was dirty, unsafe and that there wasn´t much to do. While one can find dirty and unsafe areas in just about any major city, I found Lima to be great. Although I stayed in Miraflores, the ritzy, super modern, fancy area, I also was able to explore several other less prosperous districts and found them to be quite enjoyable. One bad thing about Lima is that it is hot and there seems to be a constant foggy haze along the coast. Oh well, compared to winter in Michigan, I´ll take it.


On my first night in Lima, I met up with Marcos, a friend of my first grade teacher Sra. Johanson. Marcos came to my hostel and picked me up and gave me a brief tour of Lima in his truck before treating me to dinner. After dinner, Marcos, who is in the Peruvian Air Force, brought me to the Air Force Officer´s Club to treat me to my first pisco sour. Pisco is a type of liquor made from grapes and is produced in Peru. Anyways, it was rather tasty. Gracias Marcos.


The next day Marcos sent his friend Tony to take me into the center of Lima to check out some of the historical sites. Among the sites visited was the Plaza de Armas (the main square), the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas and the Palacio de Gobierno (the Presidential Palace). I also took a tour of the San Francisco Church and Monastery. This church and monastery was built in the late 1600´s and has lots of original art and woodwork however the best part of the tour was exploring the catacombs. Below the monastery are several tunnels that they believe house the remains of around 70,000 bodies. They have excavated several of the bodies and have the bones on display. What was interesting about it was that it wasn´t whole bodies, but each type of bone was grouped together. All the femurs in one pile, all the tibias in another and the skulls in yet another. Kinda creepy but very interesting.

After touring the monastery, I visited the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition and Congress. An interesting combination to say the least. Anyways, this was a pretty boring museum, but I rather enjoyed the torture room where they had lifesize wax dummies being subjected to different types of torture. I loved the expression on the face of the guy getting choked by a rope (notice how much slack is in the rope).

I also found the masked man subjecting a woman to water boarding rather amusing. I wanted to believe that it was Dick Cheney beneath the black mask. Also funny that the torture the US uses seems to be exactly what the Spaniards used 500 years ago.

A great day being led around by Tony. I am very grateful that Sra. Johanson put me in touch with Marcos so that I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with people from Lima.

Another day I visited the pre-Inca site of Pachacamac, a few kilometers south of Lima. From a distance the site looks like several sand dunes, but once you get close you can see that they are pyramids and buildings that are mixed in with the sand. There were also great views of the ocean from the main Temple of the Sun, the tallest pyramid at the site. Although not the most impressive ruins I have seen, they were still interesting nonetheless and glad I made the effort to get out of Lima for the day to see them.


Besides the typical touristy stuff in Lima, I spent a lot of time just wandering around various parts of the city with people from the hostel looking for interesting places to hang out (and usually eat). This isn´t the first time that a city has sucked me in and kept me for longer than anticipated and probably won´t be the last.

I have decided to save northern Peru for another trip and I will begin making my way south very soon.

As always, there are more pictures of Lima in the Peru album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

I´m Back....

For those of you who don´t know, I returned to the US for Christmas and New Years, basically just taking a break to see family and friends and to relax (travel is hard work!). Spent most of the time in Roscommon, MI but also spent time in Toledo, OH and Chicago, IL visiting friends for New Years. I also flew to Sacramento, CA to visit a law school (and friends who live there).


Me and my New Years Eve hosts in Chicago.

Anyways, I am back in Peru now and just spent an amazing week in Lima. I am now traveling south and will be posting details on what I´ve been up to in the near future. Cheers.

A theft and I'm stuck in Iquitos

Well, the first unfortunate event (I suppose I should say involuntary) has occurred. My IPOD was stolen. It was a few years old and I was planning on replacing it upon my return to the US, but it still really ticks me off. It isn't even the financial loss. Those that know me know how important music is to me and the loss of the ability to listen to music is a very serious matter. Made even more serious by the fact that when it was stolen, I was on my way to a boat which I was to be on for 4 days as I traveled to Yurimaguas, Peru. The delay caused by my dealing with the stolen IPOD caused me to miss the boat to Yurimaguas and I am now unsure what I am going to do. The next boat isn't for a few days and I am ready to leave Iquitos. What a bummer. Anyways, one of the joys of traveling without an itinerary is that little events like this really don't throw off any grand plan. I can work around this, I just don't yet know how.


One thing I haven't mentioned yet is all the mototaxis in Iquitos. They are basically rickshaws attached to a motorcycle. They are very noisy and seem to be rather dangerous, but are the only way to get around town. It is also amusing to see them when it rains. I took the photo below as I was riding in one during a downpour. The driver left a couple inches just below the roof and just above the top of his tarp to see. Luckily he didn't hit anything.

Jungle Tour

After being unsure of whether I would actually do a jungle tour or not, I finally decided to take the plunge and paid for a 4 night 5 day jungle tour. There would be two of us plus a guide. Raul, a Chilean, was to be my travel companion for the next several days as we traveled 250 km into the jungle. Our base camp was called Delfín Camp and consisted of a thatch roofed structure that included a common eating room, several screened in rooms and hammocks.


We stayed at the camp for two nights and camped in the jungle for two nights. I am not quite sure how to describe my experience. We would spend our mornings either going out in the canoe looking for wildlife or hiking through the jungle looking for wildlife. We would return to camp for the hot part of the afternoon and then head out again at night either in a canoe or on foot. As far as wildlife is concerned, we saw many monkeys, many birds, many freshwater dolphins, iguanas, a cayman, a turtle and an electric eel. The most abundant creature we saw was also the most unwelcome. Millions of mosquitoes managed to find us over the course of the five days. These also weren't like the mosquitoes I am used to back home. These were mosquitoes on steroids. Despite wearing plenty of insect repellent and two shirts (one long sleeve, one short sleeve) I still had bites all over. And when I say all over, I literally mean all over. Even when I was able to forget about the bites, there was still a constant buzzing in the ears as the flew around my head. It was the buzzing that nearly drove me over the edge to insanity. I had to keep reminding myself that I made the choice to pay money to experience the mosquitoes. Ooof.


Halcón, our guide, was very good at locating things in the trees and was also very good at making bird/animals calls. He always amazed me in that he knew the names of every animal, bird, insect, plant and tree that we would see and also knew the medicinal uses of the things we would find.


Our first day was spent mostly in canoe. We paddled to a small village called Libertad, arriving just before sunset, and wandered around for a bit. The village kids were all playing soccer and volleyball and it was fun to just sit and people watch for a while. As darkness fell, Raul and I entered a makeshift store (I think it was really just someones house) to get a cold drink. Since this village didn't have electricity, the cold part became problematic. The kind store owner offered to turn on his personal generator for a few minutes so that the fridge would cool down so our drink would be cold. After about a minute we were served our still warm drink. As you can imagine turning on a refrigerator for a minute isn't going to cool down anything, but I still really appreciated the effort though. After it was completely dark, we went out to look for caymans (a type of alligator). We were told to keep our headlamps off while our guide scanned the water for the reflection of eyes. After not finding anything for a very long time, Halcón suddenly drove his hand into the water and pulled out a cayman. It was about a year old and didn't really do much. I guess it was playing dead hoping we would leave it alone, which we eventually did.


After finally finding our cayman, we started paddling back to the camp. The paddling started to get very difficult as we were going through a very shallow area with lots of vegetation. Eventually Halcón just jumped out of the front of the canoe and started walking. Not a good sign. The river had evidently dropped several feet since he had come through last and we would not be able to paddle any further. We started dragging the canoe (keep in mind this is a 12-foot dugout canoe made of a single piece of wood and very very heavy) through mud that was up to the knees. I am not sure how far we dragged the canoe or how long it took us, but it seemed like hours (I think it was really less than 30 minutes) but tempers started to flare and some not nice language was used in the heat of the moment. Once again, I paid money to be able to do this. I should be happy. We made it back to camp around 10pm, ate dinner and immediately went to sleep. Long day.


I won't bore you with the details of every minute of the jungle tour (we saw a tree and then another tree and then a pretty bird...), it was something that is best experienced and not explained. The canoe trips were relaxing, the jungle hikes involved lots of mosquitoes and the camping in the jungle was an experience. While camping we slept in hammocks inside mosquito nets with a tarp on top to protect against the rain. One night as we were trying to fall asleep something that sounded like rocks started to hit the ground around us and the tarps with very loud thuds. Turned out to be a monkey eating a pine cone like fruit and as he was discarding the remains they would fall and make a loud noise as they hit the tarp and the ground. While I was glad the monkey found some food, I started to get very irritated at the constant barrage of fruit that kept me awake. As if there wasn't enough other noise and irritants to keep me awake in the jungle.

All in all my 5 days in the jungle were very good. I am very glad that I went on the trip and that I had the opportunity to delve deep into the jungle. While there were certain aspects of the trip that i wish had gone differently, I am still rather pleased.



More photos from my trip into the jungle at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Amazon Golf Club

The owner of the hostel I stayed at in Iquitos was also an investor in the only golf course in the Peruvian Amazon jungle. In fact, I was told that it is one of only 16 golf courses in Peru and that it is the only course between Lima, Peru and Manaus, Brazil. Because of a legal dispute and a lack of appropriate permits from the provincial government, they are not allowed to charge money to play golf at the course. Bad news for the investors, good news for me. We were invited to head to the 9-hole course and play a round for free. We were even allowed to borrow some golf clubs and golf balls. The caretaker of the course, Maria came along as our caddy and her 3 children served as ball spotters for us. Three of us were golfing, Craig from England, Randy from Minnesota and myself.


We were warned before playing that one of the storage buildings is infested with snakes and to not search for any balls that go near it. We were also warned of a 3 meter cayman that likes to lounge in the water hazards on the course. I love golf in the jungle.


Because the course isn't officially open, the grass is a bit overgrown. Even perfect shots down the middle of the fairway are difficult to find (not that I was hitting many fairways). Although I didn't play my best it was still a great day. Maria's children would race each other to our balls after we hit them and try to be the first to find them. Like I said, it was a blast.

Supposedly the course will be opening up officially in January or February of 2008. There is even a clubhouse under construction that will have a proshop, bar and restaurant. Should be very interesting to see how golf is received in the jungle.

Iquitos, Peru

After a couple days relaxing in Leticia, Colombia I decided to head into Peru via a long 12 hour boat ride up the Amazon River to Iquitos. Most maps say that the Amazon River starts someplace in Peru east of Iquitos where the Marañón River and the Ucayali River meet. Water from several rivers in Ecuador and further into Peru (as far as Cuzco) eventually dump their water into the Atlantic so who can really say where the Amazon River starts. Anyways, before my boat ride I had the pleasure of visiting 3 countries in less than 15 minutes. I woke up in Leticia, Colombia, took a taxi to Tabatinga, Brazil and then took a boat across the Amazon to Santa Rosa, Peru. Fun fun.


Anyways, Iquitos is a very interesting city. It is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road, you can only get there by boat or by air. It grew to become so large due to a rubber boom in the late 1800's. In fact, on the Plaza de Armas in Iquitos there is a building (pictured above) that was built by Eiffel (the same guy who built the Eiffel Tower) in France. It was deconstructed in France and brought piece by piece to Iquitos where it was rebuilt. Why not?

Shortly after people discovered that they could make money off the rubber trees near Iquitos they also realized that they could make even more money if they just planted the rubber trees closer to the coast in Brazil so that they didn't have the transportation cost of getting the product from Iquitos to the Atlantic. Iquitos never quite recovered the prosperity that it saw back then, but it has become one of the main hubs for jungle exploration in Peru. Everyone you meet on the street wants to be your best friend and take you on a jungle trip.

I was unsure as to whether I would actually take a jungle trip or not. I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to go deep into the jungle, but I also didn't want to get ripped off and I didn't want to go with a shady tour guide. Luckily I met a guy from Duluth, Minnesota who had just returned from a jungle trip and he filled me in on his experience. In the end I decided to go with the same guide he used, however I will write a separate post on my trip into the jungle.


One of my only touristy activities in Iquitos was a visit to the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm. Although it was very interesting to see the Butterfly Farm (and animal orphanage) I actually enjoyed the walk through the village leading up to the farm much more. It was a very laid back relaxing village called Padre Cocha where when people passed you they actually smiled and said "Buenos Dias" and most importantly didn't try to sell me anything. At the Butterfly Farm itself I was taken on a tour of the enclosure which had several different species of butterflies flying around. We were then taken a separate enclosure where they had eggs, pupae, larvae and caterpillars. I forget all the stages of the life of a butterfly and what order they are in, but it was still interesting to see. Lastly we were taken to see the various animals that they have at the farm. These included a tapir, a jaguar and an anteater. They also claim to have a cayman and a manatee however neither were visible. There were also several monkeys that were running around and jumping on us throughout the tour. They seemed friendly enough until one of them started to take stuff out of the pockets of a Spanish woman. Luckily I wasn't robbed by the monkeys. All in all it was a good visit, however for those of you from Michigan, the annual butterfly exhibit the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids is much more impressive. I guess the butterflies I saw here were actually in their natural habitat though.

On the walk back to the boat through the village I stopped and played soccer with some little kids. They were so much better than me and spent a fair amount of time laughing about my lack of soccer skills, however it was still a blast. It was nice to associate with some kids who weren't trying to sell me gum or convince me to buy them a hamburger.


On the boat ride back to Iquitos we found ourselves in a downpour. During the rainstorm the boat driver (I won't refer to him as a captain) kept running into objects in the river, culminating with hitting the only other boat within 100 yards of us. At this point everyone on board put on a life jacket (they kindly didn't leave one for me or the 80 year old sitting next to me though) however we eventually made it safely to Iquitos.



More photos from Iquitos in the Peru album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Welcome to the jungle...

On the flight from Bogotá to Leticia I was listening to my IPOD and had it set to play random songs. Right before landing in Leticia and right before they made the announcement to turn off all electronic devices, my IPOD randomly played Guns N Roses ¨Welcome to the Jungle.¨ How fitting (and a nice segue from the Grateful Dead song I had been listening to before). The flight over the jungle was really amazing. From 35000 feet, the ground is just dark green as far as you can see, occasionally split up by a river snaking its way through the jungle. I have never seen so much forest in my life. No roads, no cities, no signs of humans, just trees as far as you can see. Amazing.

Leticia, Colombia sits at the southernmost tip of Colombia and is in the middle of jungle. It sits right on the Amazon River and shares a three-way border with Peru and Brazil. Not much to do in Leticia so I´ve just been wandering around and taking advantage of the pool at my hotel. Tomorrow morning at 4am I am catching a boat that will take me up the Amazon to Iquitos, Peru.

As I walked to the airport today to get an exit stamp in my passport, I passed a training center for the jungle unit of the Colombian Army. These are the guys that basically go through the jungle hundreds of miles from anyone trying to root out the guerillas. Pretty tough job. Anyways, they were parading around in some kind of official ceremony and it reminded me of the never ending parades and drilling that they had to go through in Catch-22 (read it and you will know exactly what I mean). Kinda funny that these elite forces who specialize in jungle work would spend so much time learning how to march in unison. Can´t imagine there is much marching in unison as you are trying to struggle through nearly impenetrable jungle. Maybe it has something to do with unit cohesion and discipline. Then again, I am not a military person so don´t know too much about it.


Sunset over the Amazon.

Back in Bogotá

One last night in Bogotá before I fly down to the Colombian jungle. Very uneventful as I was dead tired from my massive bus ride from Cartagena, but did briefly walk down to Plaza Bolívar to check out the Christmas decorations. Massive lighted balls (1.5 meters wide) all over the square, giant Christmas tree and lots of lights on the buildings. Still weird to be in the Christmas mood without snow.

Cartagena, Colombia

After an overnight bus ride featuring not one but two Jean Claude VanDame movies, I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is a beautiful old city right on the Caribbean. It is divided between the new, trendy and expensive area called Boca Grande, the old colonial walled city and then the rest of Cartagena where the majority of the people live.

My first impression upon arriving at the bus terminal in Cartagena that I would not be able to survive the heat. While in Medellin, an Irish guy I met had warned me that showering is almost useless in Cartagena because as soon as you step out of the shower and dry off you need another shower because you are drenched in sweat again.

In December I am used to below freezing temperatures and snow, not 90+ degree heat with humidity. Luckily I was able to overcome this challenge and survived a tremendously relaxing and very enjoyable week in Cartagena, made even more enjoyable by the fact that several people who stayed with me at the same hostel in Medellin also made the trek up to Cartagena.


One of my favorite days was spent on a trip to the Volcán de Lodo (mud volcano) about an hour and half outside of Cartagena. The volcán is a natural formation about 10-12 meters high that you climb up and enter its mud filled cone. Not sure how it is formed or why it formed here, but it was one of the most bizarre experiences I´ve ever had. You climb down into the mud and are basically just suspended. You can´t feel the bottom, you just float in the muck. It is very hard to move, but movement really isn´t necessary because there are guys in the mud that give dirt cheap massages (1-2 US dollars depending on the length). After floating in the mud for a bit, we were all led down to a nearby lagoon where local women gave us all baths to clean all the mud. This was followed by a moment of temporary awkwardness as we were all told to remove our bathing suits so that they could get the mud out. Sure, why not?

Besides several lengthy strolls through the old walled city, I also spent some time on the beach in Cartagena. We had all been told several times that there were no beaches in Cartagena and that trying to find a place to get some sun and go swimming would be a waste of time. Those of us that went to the beach found that while it was not the prettiest beach in the Caribbean, it certainly did the trick. Very pleasant water and the same sun that you get anywhere else. Not a bad way to spend a day.

Next up is a 23 hour bus ride to Bogota and then a flight to Leticia, Colombia in the middle of the jungle.


More pictures of Cartagena can be found on my Picassa photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Running Off A Mountain

Second highlight of my time in Medellin was paragliding over the city. Paragliding is where you are strapped to a parachute and fly around for a while. When I thought of paragliding, I always thought that since you were in a parachute you would take off from someplace with a really high elevation and then float down and land at a lower elevation, but the wind conditions in Medellin allow you to take off and land at the same spot.The wind conditions in Medellin make it one of the best places to go paragliding in South America and people come from all over to try it out here.

Me and and a couple Swedish girls from the hostel had to take a 2 hour bus ride up to the top of one of the mountains overlooking Medellin to get to the take off point. I´ll admit, I was a little nervous before setting off (running off a mountain isn´t something I do every day) but everything turned out great. The ride was very smooth and I was in the air for the tandem flight over Medellin for about 45 minutes. The only downside to the paragliding is that while we were waiting to get everything set up, we got tons of sand flea bites on our feet and ankles and they have been itching like crazy ever since. Oh well.

Great day in the mountains with some great people.


More pictures of paragliding in Medellin can be found on my Picassa photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Atlético Nacional vs. Caldas

One of the highlights of my time in Medellin was going to my first proper men´s professional soccer match. It was an absolute blast. Atlético Nacional, the team in Medellin, just happened to be playing a match while I was there and several people from the hostel were going to the game, how could I refuse?

The atmosphere outside the stadium was great. Everyone was wearing green and black (the colors of the home team) and there was live music. After buying our souvenir hats and going through two security checkpoints, we finally made it into the stadium. Very few fans of any American sports team can compare to your average South American soccer fan. Everyone seems to be a die hard fan and people are truly emotionally tied to their team. As soon as the teams came out and the match began, the true noise began. Several drums in unison, several different chants, firecrackers, cursing out the referees. It was quite the experience. At several points riot police had to use their shields to protect the side referee after he made calls against Atlético Nacional, but once they were too slow and he got pegged in the back of the head with a bag of water. Another time a player for Caldas actually got hit by a bag of water also, resulting in a slight delay in the action. In the end Atlético Nacional won the match 1-0.

There are more pictures of the soccer match on my Picassa photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Medellin, Colombia

Medellin, Colombia was made famous in the 80´s and early 90´s as the home of Pablo Escobar. Despite its reputation, Medellin has proven itself to be an amazing place. It is incredibly modern and very organized with very little crime. It obviously has its fair share of problems, as any large city does, but I felt very safe and am very glad that I included Medellin as a stop on my tour of Colombia.


Having just read a book on the life of Pablo Escobar (¨Killing Pablo¨) I went to visit his grave in Medellin with Aussie Dan. We were both expecting a large extravagant gravesite but were surprised to see a modest headstone for Pablo next to his mother and some other family members. His grave has a caretaker and we talked to him for a bit about Pablo and his effect on Medellin and Colombia. According to him, people are very conflicted in their views on Pablo because although he was responsible for some horrible crimes in his life, he also invested a tremendous amount of money into Medellin in areas such as infrastructure, education and recreation. While nobody would condone the many murders, assaults and kidnappings that Pablo and his associates were responsible for, people are also very appreciative of his generosity towards their community. One thing that was always in the back of my mind as I was going through Medellin was that despite it being such a nice modern city, how much of
this is a result of drug money from the Medellin cartel.

One of my most bizarre experiences in Medellin was visiting a night club called ¨Mangos.¨ Several of us from the hostel took a cab to this American Wild West themed place a little outside of the main downtown area of Medellin. We were told that this was THE club to go to in Medellin so we were all very excited to check it out. I knew it would be a bizarre night when I arrived and was greeted by a group of midgets; some dressed as Fidel Castro, others in cowboy costumes and others in salsa dancing clothes. The main part of the club had several stages around with salsa dancers in very extravagant clothing. Shortly after our arrival though, group after group of scantily clad women came down from a fire pole and started dancing to more popular club music. There were about 5 different groups of people who came down the fire pole before they were replaced again by the salsa dancers. Do I want to return to Mangos? No. Am I glad I went? Yes. An odd night, but good company made it enjoyable.

Medellin has a great metro system that runs to most areas of interest for the average traveler. Part of the metro system is a cable car that runs from one of the metro stations up the mountain into some of the poorer neighborhoods. The system has been great for the working class people in Medellin, but it also gives travelers the chance to take in some good views of the city. Several of us from the hostel ventured up and walked around the neighborhood at the top. There is a very large and very interesting black brick building at the top which is a new library. For us though, it had a nice terrace area giving us a chance to take in the amazing views over the city. There were lots of little kids running around in this area and they were all very intrigued by us, especially since we could speak Spanish with them. Lots of giggling. Perfect.


More pictures of Medellin on my Picassa photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Zipaquirá, Colombia

Took a day trip to Zipaquirá, Colombia, a small city about two hours outside of Bogotá. This city makes money on mining salt from the nearby mountains and is also home to the Salt Cathedral. I´ve been a bit tired of visiting churches, but this one was one of the most interesting that I have seen. It is actually inside of a mountain in the salt mines, .75 km from the mine entrance. It is very eerie on the inside as everything is dark except for dark blue purple lights illuminating crosses as you walk into the main chapel. The main chapel is enormous and I was told can hold almost 8000 people. Very amazing that all of this is basically under and inside a mountain.

No hay agua...

Water is something I have always taken for granted, until today. Went the last 36 hours without any running water at the hostel. They told us that the city shut it off for maintenance. This meant no toilets, no showers, no clean dishes. What a pain. Had to walk about 10 blocks just to use a restroom and the hostel is really starting to smell quite bad since nobody has showered. Oh well, I lived.

More from Bogotá

Cerro Monserate is a mountain that towers over La Candelaria in Bogotá. They have both a cable car and a train that runs to the top, although the train only runs on weekends. At the top is a church and restaurant and great views of Bogotá. Spent a good deal of time hanging out looking at the city.

I also toured the Police Museum in Bogotá. It was actually pretty boring for the most part, and we were not allowed to take pictures during the cool parts (the room full of guns and the Pablo Escobar room). The Pablo Escobar room featured some things owned by Pablo when he was killed such as some guns and a jacket. They also had a tile from the roof where Pablo was killed that has a blood stain on it. Reminded me a bit of the pillow in Washington DC with a blood stain from Lincoln.

Other than that, I have been enjoying just walking around Bogotá. Great city with lots of character. They have done a great job moving forward and embracing the new without abandoning the old.

Donación Botero

Spent the morning going through a great art museum in Bogota. The main focus is the art of Fernando Botero, one of the most famous Colombian painters. He is known for painting people, animals and things in a very rotund and large fashion. The museum also has a bunch of art from people like Miró, Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Calder, Dalí and Matisse. Fun to just hang out and look at good art for a while.

Bogotá, Colombia

I was supposed to arrive in Bogotá in the afternoon but due to two separate multi-hour delays (one due to a car driving off the road and over a cliff and the other due to semi-truck spilling its cargo all over the road) I arrived at about 10pm. The hostel I was supposed to stay at had lost my reservation so I got put up in a room with a queen size bed instead of the dorm room I had reserved. No complaints, especially since they charged me the price of the dorm room.

Anyways, spent the next day with a Colombian that I worked with at a resort just outside of Glacier National Park in St. Mary Montana. Diego is from Popoyán but recently moved to Bogotá following his graduation from college. We ate lunch at a mall near his house and then spent some time exploring La Candelaría, the older colonial part of Bogotá. We visited the Plaza Bolivar and also saw where the Colombian National Congress meets and the Casa de Nariño (which is where the Colombian president works). Across from the National Congress is the Palace of Justice where in the mid-1980´s the M19 guerillas held over 300 people hostage. Eventually all of the guerillas and almost half of the Supreme Court Justices were killed in a shootout with the police.

We then wandered over to the Colpatria tower, one of the tallest buildings in Bogota, where we took the elevator to the roof for some views of Bogota.

By this time it was dark so we decided to head to the newer, trendy part of Bogotá called La Zona Rosa. We spent some time at the Bogota Beer Company, the only microbrewery that I had seen on my trip. The place was packed as Colombia was playing Venezuela in a World Cup Qualifier match.

Bogotá has really surprised me. La Candelaria has a certain old colonial charm to it, while one could think they were in any major city in the US or Europe while in La Zona Rosa. I have found Bogotá to be very safe, there is a very large police presence, and the Colombian people have been incredibly helpful and friendly. I am really looking forward to checking out the rest of the city over the next couple of days.

To see more pictures from my trip, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Cali, Colombia

Only had a day in Cali and since it was the middle of the week, there wasn´t much going on. It was incredibly hot, the hottest weather I´ve had yet and much different from the cooler temps in the mountain cities I had been to earlier.

The English teacher that I met on the bus from Ipiales suggested that I check out the Universidad del Valle, one of the universities in Cali. The campus has many left leaning student activists and the campus is covered in grafiti. There was both written statements calling for students to rise up in protest against various government actions as well as murals. When I first entered the grounds to the university, the security guards stopped me and asked me lots of questions. They didn´t understand why a gringo would want to look around the university campus and assumed that I was up to no good. Eventually I convinced them to let me walk around but before I left they warned me to be very careful since there was a lot of anti-American sentiment on campus. While that may be true, I had a great time walking around the huge open campus and everyone I talked to there was very kind. It was really nice to get out of the bustle of Cali for a couple hours and just hang around with some students my age.

The quote in the upper part of the mural is from Che Guevara and roughly says: ¨The division of America into different nations is completely fictitious. We make up one mixed race from Mexcio to the Magellenic Straight.¨ The bottom part of the mural basically describes imperialism as death, misery and repression. It reminds me of the mural that is painted on the old American embassy in Tehran, Iran (http://secularcaniranik.blogs.com/scaniranic/images/us_embassy_wall_in_tehran_2.jpg).

Cali is a party town and on the weekends the salsotecas are packed solid with Caleños. Although it was mid-week, I still ventured out to a salsoteca and although I have no idea how to salsa dance, the Caleñas were very kind and tried to teach me. I don´t think I learned much, but it was a fun evening anyways.

The Road From Ipiales To Cali

Amazing scenery on the road from Ipiales through Popoyan and on to Cali. The huge green mountains and the river kept reminding me of the fertile ¨Great Valley¨ in The Land Before Time (haven´t seen that movie in about17 years though so I could be remembering things wrong). Spent almost all of the daylight hours of the bus ride glued to the window.

Bienvenidos a Colombia

After losing the 13 colonies in a friendly game of cribbage with a Brit, I forced myself out of Quito and headed for the border with Colombia. Surprisingly, the border was very open. One could wander back and forth quite easily without being stopped by any kind of police or military people. In fact, you really had to go out of your way to get an exit stamp from Ecuador immigration and then an entry stamp into Colombia. Very easy to do though, no questions, no searches, just a printed entry stamp in the passport.

Spent the night in Ipiales, Colombia. Nothing too special about Ipiales, but there did seem to be many more upscale stores than anything I saw in most of Ecuador. For a border town, though, it really wasn´t too bad. The next morning I went to Las Lajas, a small town a few kilometers outside of Ipiales. There is really only one reason to visit and that is the Santuario de las Lajas (Sanctuary of Las Lajas). It is a pretty impressive Gothic cathedral built into a cliff wall on a bridge spanning a deep gorge. It was a pretty impressive sight. The front interior wall of the cathedral is actually the rock face of the cliff.

Supposedly an image of the Virgin appeared in the cliff in the 1700´s and in the early 1900´s the current structure was built. Pilgrims from all over Colombia, and the rest of South America, visit the site and many miracles are attributed to it. On the path that leads to the site, there are many ¨Thanksgivings¨in the wall, which are basically little plaques thanking the Virgen de las Lajas for various things ranging from success in sports to curing various ailments.

After getting back to Ipiales, I took a horribly long and horribly noisy 12 hour bus ride to Cali. very painful, but I met a guy from England who was working as an English teacher in Cali. He gave me some tips on how to spend my time. We´ll see how it goes.

To see more pictures from my trip, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Extra Gringos

Back in Quito. I am really enjoying staying at this particular hostel in Quito. It is owned by an ex-backpacker from Australia and it is only a few months old. Pretty nice with a great terrace with excellent views of the city. Very comfortable beds, a nice TV lounge, a well stocked kitchen and a big common room with a bar, book exchange, computers, darts and foosball. Not bad.

Been spending lots of time in Quito with people from Australia and England. I wrote earlier about Americans who developed British accents, and while that hasn´t happened to me, I have started using some of their sayings. I call gasoline ¨petrol¨and use words like bollox and queue. I also pretty much only use the metric system now, even though I still have to convert everything in my head (I have no idea what 1500 meters means).

One night in Quito me and Irishman and an Englishman went out for dinner in the Mariscal area. We had a big 3 course steak dinner with a drink for $6 each. Not bad. Afterwards, we went to a bar for a drink and they just happened to be showing the Sunday Night Football game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers. The Irishman was an NFL fan and told me he enjoyed watching games (although he didn´t understand most of the rules). The Englishman, on the other hand, said that he detested American football and didn´t want to stay too long. We ended up watching the entire game, which luckily ended up being a very close game decided on a missed field goal in the final seconds, and I think the Englishman came around. I had to explain a lot of the plays and the strategies behind them and all of the penalties but both really got into the game. It was fun to watch both of them start to understand American football and in the case of the Englishman, actually enjoy himself while watching it. I promised the Englishman that the next day I would watch a British soccer match (I´m sorry, a proper football match) with him so that he could return the favor.

I also found out at the bar why there were so many more gringos than usual in Quito. An Iberia plane slid off the runway after it landed damaging its landing gear and one of the wings. Nobody was injured, but it did close the airports only runway for two days, which of course caused havoc and many flights were cancelled and diverted and it became very hard for people to get out of town. One guy I talked to had his vacation involuntarily extended by 5 days and wasn´t sure what he was going to do since he didn´t have any more vacation time at work. Interestingly, they don´t know what to do with the plane. It was a very large plane, an Airbus A340, and because the landing gear is damaged it cannot go to another airport and right now they don´t have the facilities to make the repairs in Quito.

Bus Rides

I figured I should mention my various bus rides a bit. I´ve been spending lots of time in buses as they are the cheapest way of getting around (in Ecuador you pay about a dollar per hour of travel). Although cheap, they are definitely not the most comfortable way to travel. In addition to uncomfortable seats and always being seated behind a person who insists on reclining their seat so far back that their head is practically in my lap, there is always outrageously loud music or outrageously loud audio from a horrible American movie. Always so loud that even with my IPOD turned up all the way, I still can´t block it out.

I´ve seen more movies staring either Jean Claude Van Dam or The Rock in the last couple weeks than I have previously in my entire life. Despite being horrible movies, I do like to use the movies as a bit of a Spanish lesson as they are dubbed over with Spanish dialogue. At first I struggled to follow along with the rapid dialogue, but now it is almost just like watching the movie in English. Although, even with these horrible movies, much is lost in the translation to Spanish.

One requirement to be a bus driver must be to be clinically insane. Many of the roads in the Andes are very poor with lots of potholes and more than 1000 meter drops without guardrails. This doesn´t make the drivers go at a safe speed however and they frequently overtake other slower vehicles on blind turns at excessive speeds. I was told by one Ecuadorian that bus fatalities are the second leading cause of death in Ecuador behind cancer. Not sure if this is true or not, but the way these guys drive it certainly wouldn´t surprise me. Despite these tactics, theoretically to speed up the journey, I have yet to arrive at any destination on time.

Another part of bus travel has been the police check points. I never quite understand how they work because sometimes the bus is waved through and other times we have to pull over. Police board the bus and sometimes just scan the crowd, looking for suspicious people I suppose, or ask people to get off the bus. Here is where it gets interesting. Sometimes the gringos are singled out and searched thoroughly and other times the gringos are completely ignored and only locals are searched. Despite knowing that my papers are in order and that I don´t have anything illegal with me, I am always very nervous going through this process. I have this image of some corrupt police officer pulling some contraband out and saying he found it in my bag. Thankfully this scenario has not played out.

Despite these checkpoints, which are supposed to make road travel safer, they almost leave me feeling less secure. Most of these checkpoints are looking for weapons. Every time I have been asked to get off the bus, nobody actually checks the inside of the bus. So say I had a gun with me, all I would have to do was leave it at my seat and it wouldn´t be found. Also, a couple of times I have had my bag scanned with a metal detector and when it goes off I have only been asked what was inside. I tell them that I have a camera and some books in my bag and they simply say ¨Bueno¨and go on to the next person.

With all of these shortcomings in the process, I was once forced to remove my pants. It was the night bus from Guayaquil to Quito at about 230am and both of us gringos on the bus were asked for our passports. I explained to the first officer that my passport was in a hidden pocket on the inside of my pants and that I would need to remove my pants to show it to him. He just waved me along and told me to get back on the bus. As I was climbing back on, another officer came up behind me and asked to see my passport. I tried explaining the same thing to him, but unfortunately he made me get it out. So I removed my pants on the side of the road in front of about 20 onlookers (plus all the other people still on the bus), I am sure they all loved the experience, and removed my passport for the officer. He looked at it for a total of about 1.5 seconds, never checked my entry stamp, and handed it back to me.

Fun fun.

Montañita, Ecuador

Took a bus from Cuenca to Guayaquil and it was quite the drive. You start in the mountains and end at about sea level, passing through amazing mountain landscapes (the road goes through Parque Nacional Cajas) and thick, lush jungle and banana plantation. Quite a day.

The Guayaquil bus station is a bit bizarre in that you get dropped off a couple hundred meters from the main bus terminal. You then have to get on another bus which drives you about 50 meters past a gate and then you have to walk the rest of the way. Is a bus really necessary for a 50 meter journey?

Anyways, hopped on a really nice bus headed for Ecuador´s Pacific coast. This part of the country is called the ¨Ruta del Sol¨(the Sun Route) even though it is cloudy for most of the year. I made it to Montañita just after dark and quickly found a hostel on the beach run by a 20-something Ecuadorian who used it to fund his interest in surfing. He lives at the hostel and goes surfing every day, although he told me that he was about to move to Alberta to work in an oil field at the end of the year. Talk about a contrast.

Montañita is a really laid back surfer village. Lots of foreigners and lots of people with dreadlocks. Reggae is heard coming out of every bar, as opposed to the usual late 90´s pop music from the US which is heard in the rest of Ecuador. A nice change of pace and nice to fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the beach (I love being able to pay $5 for a private room with a double bed, private bathroom and an ocean view).

Woke up my first morning to some of the surfers in my hostel coming out onto their balconies all excited because the sun was actually shining. They told me that it was the first time in 3 weeks that they had actually seen the sun. Good timing on my part, but their definition of sunny was a bit generous. Spent most of the day just hanging out on the beach, watching the surfers ride the waves. Very relaxing.

At one point I saw a guy wearing a University of Michigan shirt and started talking to him for a bit. Turns out he didn´t go to UM, he was from Wisconsin, but was a big UM fan. Nice to talk college football with a fellow Wolverine. This guy had actually just moved to Montañita and opened up a hostel and restaurant. Makes me jealous. Why do I want to go law school again? Couldn´t I just take that money for law school and open my own hostel in South America?

Parque Nacional Cajas

Delayed in Cuenca due to a bus driver strike, I took a day trip to Parque Nacional Cajas, about 30 km outside of Cuenca. Cajas sits at about 4300 meters and is a vast national park encompassing mountains and alpine lakes. It reminded me a lot of Glacier National Park in the US, only without any trees. There are only very small bushes and grasses, almost desert like.

Went on a 3 hour hike around a lake and up to a couple look out points. Very enjoyable day but very cold.

To see more pictures from my trip, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Cuenca, Ecuador

After Baños I bussed it about 5 hours south to Cuenca. Had to change busses in Riobamba and got to witness a near riot as hundreds of people were literally fighting each other to get on the buses bound for Quito. There was blood, police and arrests. People were knocking old women and children to the ground to cut in front of them. It was a mess. Luckily I wasn´t headed to Quito.

Cuenca is in southern Ecuador and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It´s a pretty city, but I arrived the day after their big Independence Day party so the city was a little dead.

Checked out the Museo del Banco Central, which really has nothing to do with banking. There is an Inca excavation called Tomebamba behind the museum which was interesting, but the best part was the shrunken head exhibit. I always thought that shrunken heads were part of some myth, but evidentally the Shuar people of Ecuador used to make ¨Tsantsas¨or shrunken heads. Basically they did this to people who were killed, either in battle or to avenge a murder. Not sure how exactly they do it, but the purpose of making a shrunken head was to seal the soul of the individual inside so that they could not cause harm to people either in this life or the afterlife. After a battle, the tsantsa was a trophy.

Cuenca was alright and I´m sure it is more lively at other times of the year. I seemed to arrive when the city was recovering from the massive party the weekend before. Off to the Pacific coast soon.

Baños, Ecuador

After Quito I headed south to Baños, Ecuador. Baños is famous for its volcanically heated hot springs and its beautiful surroundings. It is surrounded by giant, lush green mountains that seem to spring out of the edges of the city. I arrived on a Friday night during a 3 day weekend for Ecuadorians so it was packed solid with vacationing Quiteños (people from Quito). Had a bit of a hard time finding a hotel room and when I did find one it was less than ideal ( tiny with a crappy mattress, shared bathroom and no hot water). Oh well.

Baños was a bit touristy for me, and the main leisure activity seemed to be driving around the block blasting music. As I would sit at outdoor cafes, the same cars would drive by several times, all blasting their favorite music. Fun, fun.

Hiked to the top of one of the mountains surrounding Baños to La Virgen de Baños. It seems like every city in Ecuador has a virgen perched on a site overlooking the city. On the way up, I spotted the Volcán Tungurahua which is still a very active volcano, last erupting in August of 2006. In fact, it still shoots ash out of the top, which was pretty cool to see (so long as there wasn´t a full scale eruption while I was there). Continuing on to the top, the view over Baños got better and better. Really glad I went up as it was also an opportunity to get away from the mobs of people in Baños.

Last thing of note for Baños is the pools/hot springs. I went to the Termas de la Virgen, which has 3 pools, one of which is scalding hot, one of which is pleasantly warm, and one of which is freezing cold. The pools all sit at the base of a huge waterfall pouring out of one of the mountains. Really great spot, but too many loud screaming children to really enjoy the experience.

Off to Cuenca.


To see more pictures from my trip, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Quito, Ecuador

Meant to only spend a couple days in Quito, but ended up staying for 5 nights. Having too much fun in Quito with people from my hostal. Quito is a really beautiful city. As in any developing nation, there are crappy, dirty areas, but I am really surprised at how nice things are. I have been warned many times about how dangerous capital cities are in South America, but I have not felt unsafe or been in any kind of uncomfortable situation the entire time I spent in Quito.

Quito sits at about 9000 ft about sea level in a long valley surrounded by 14000 ft tall mountains. Spent my first day wandering around the old, colonial part of Quito and while doing so stumbled upon a changing of the guard ceremony at the presidential palace (which was pretty hoaky as these types of ceremonies tend to be) but the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa was hanging out on his balcony watching. It was funny to watch the Quiteños (people from Quito) react to seeing him. Some absolutely detested him and were protesting him with large signs and chanting while others absolutely loved him and were getting onto their knees, in tears and shouting things like ¨Viva el presidente¨ (Long live the president). I can´t imagine many people in the US who love our current president so much that the sight of him would make them break into tears. But alas, I digress.

Another day I visited the Basilica del Voto Nacional and climbed up to the top of the tower, 80 meters above ground. One must climb several steep ladders (that would definitely be a liability issue in the US) to reach the top, however once braving the ladders, you are rewarded with sweeping views over the old part of Quito.

The same day I gave into the super touristy thing and took a bus to the ¨Mitad del Mundo¨or ¨Middle of the World.¨ It is essentially a monument at the equator and they have a line painted in the concrete so you can get a photo. Only problem is that they built the monument on the site where the French calculated the equator to be in 1700´s and with the advent of modern GPS, it has been determined that the French, and therefore the Ecuadorian monument, is off by 200 meters. Ooops. Anyways, the place was pretty gross and not worth the time to get there. All I got was a crappy, crooked picture.

Besides the old town, there is also a new part of town called the Mariscal Sucre, or ¨Gringolandia¨due to the large number of gringos. Most of the tourists stay in this area because of the massive amounts of tourist oriented lodging and dining options (I stayed in an area between the old town and the new town). Went out a few times with people from the hostel in Gringolandia and it was pretty fun. There were definitely lots of Quiteños out dancing along with the gringos and it was a pretty fun night. Met a bunch of people from the US, England and Australia who are living in Quito teaching English. It was interesting in that all the people from the US seem to have developed British accents, so much so that I was truly surprised to learn that these people were from places like Kansas City and San Francisco.

Anyways, Quito is a great place to visit. Lots to keep you occupied day and night. But I spent way more time here than I had planned.


To see more pictures from my trip, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jmellgren

Finally got a blog

So I finally started a blog a week and a half into my trip. I´ll try to update you all on the first part of my trip and then be more punctual as I move along.

Cheers.