Quick Decisions and Lots of Wine

Day 79

We pulled up to Cal Orck'o, the world´s largest collection of dinosaur tracks, and noticed what looked like an entire mountain side cut in half. It wasn´t until later when our tour guide redirected our attention to the hillside that we were informed that this unimpressive hillside was the site of the tracks. Both of us were astonished at how vertical the tracks appeared, but were reminded of the plate tectonic movement and quickly recalled that the land was once flat. Though the wall has been eroding, scientists are continuing to discover more tracks under the older layers of sediment and starting preservation of the new tracks now. We were also in the presence of several life size dinosaurs that once roamed the area. The rest of the day was spent roaming the streets of Sucre and learning, once again, not to eat Chinese food in South America. Later though, we bought a $4 bottle of whiskey, made up some fun new drinking games, and decided we really didn´t like the people in our hostel.

Day 80
Apparently, $4 whiskey doesn´t made you feel great the next day, so we acted like one of our favorite new animals, the sloth, all day.

Day 81
We traveled to Tarabuco, which on Sundays hosts the largest indigenious market in Bolivia. Bolivia has over 30 different indigenous tribes, many of them having their own style of hat that the women wear. The best and most interesting of these are the ones worn by the women found in Tarabuco. We ate lunch at a restaruant that was managed by a 7 year old boy and picked up a few handmade crafts. We bused back to Sucre that afternoon and caught a night bus to our next location, Tarija.

Day 82
Arrived early that morning and got off the bus only to discover that Kristin´s backpack was not underneath the bus. We were then informed that the bus company had decided back in Sucre to put her pack on a dfferent bus that would be arriving later on. After the longest hour of the trip, full of panic and terror, her bag finally arrived safely. Exhausted from an already stressful day, we checked into our hostel to nap before exploring the region´s vineyards. After hours of wine tasting, we had a moment of clarity when we realized we wouldn´t be able to spend Christmas in Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest salt flats, like we had planned. We decided to pass up this area of Bolivia as well as Northern Chile and cross into Argentina the next day.

Day 83

Our room at Hotel LA

Our original revised plan was to cross the border into Argentina via Villazon, the most commonly used border, and we wanted to leave that night for the border town so that we would arrive there in the morning, with plenty of daylight hours to cross. However, upon arrival to the bus station we were informed that this was not going to be possible. So unsure of what to do, we made an impulsive decision to cross the border in Bermejo instead, a closer, but less commonly used border. Our 3 hour bus left that afternoon, but due to many technical difficultues it took us 6 hours to reach Bermejo, a less than impressive town. All the delays also caused us to arrive after dark, which generally isn´t the safest time to border cross. During our chicken dinner next to the bus station we realized that we really had no idea what we were doing and decided to pass on crossing the border at night and checked into the Los Angeles Hotel, but could not have felt further from LA.

Day 84
After getting thoroughly ripped off by our taxi driver, we arrived at Bolivian Immigration, crossed the bridge, and arrived in Argentina. We got to the bus station with no particular destination in mind and decided on Jujuy, since the bus was leaving shortly. However, once there, we only stopped to eat lunch before getting on another bus that would arrive in Cordoba the following morning.

Day 85
In Cordoba we checked into a hostal entirely populated by Israelites, perfect for celebrating Christmas. We explored the city and explained the story of Christmas to our new Jewish friends.

Day 86
We treated ourselves this Christmas Eve to a sky diving adventure, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. After, we changed hostals hoping to find one with more of a Christmas celebration, which we found. We celebreated Christmas the Argentinean way; with lots of meat, fireworks, and partying until 5am.

Day 87
Merry Christmas! The only thing we wanted to do that day was skype with our families. However, to our surprise, everything was closed. Luckily we decided to go to the bus station to buy our ticket for Mendoza and found a telefonica. We were able to talk with our families, which was better than nothing. The rest of the day, we walked around the city pretending not to be lost, but like always, ended up back at our hostal. Then we ate McDonalds for Christmas dinner.

Day 88

We bused to Mendoza and arrived that afternoon and walked in the 100 degree heat to our hostal, only to discover it was now a pile of dirt. We picked the next closest one where we overpaid for a room that was as big as a closet and hotter than Hades. That night we walked around a craft market, bought friendship rings, and drank in the plaza that was surprisingly lively for being midnight on a Sunday.

Day 89
We woke up early to thoroughly take advantage of the breakfast buffett in order to get our moneys worth, and checked out of the hostel so that we could switch to a full ammenities campground on the outskirts of the city. We spent the remainder of the day being really hot, roaming the city, and refreshing ourselves with cold beer.

Day 90

We woke up early to go wine tasting around Mendoza´s many vineyards on bicylces. We toured five wineries and 2 liquore, olive oil, and chocolate places. We finished the tour around 6 and returned to our campsite around 9 after eating dinner in town.

Day 91
We woke up early to catch our bus into Santiago, Chile. We experienced our most intimidating border crossing yet and almost had a television explode on us, but in the end we made it safely. We took a taxi to our hostel only to find, yet again, that it no longer existed. Luckily, a nice man knew of one close by and walked us around the corner to the hostel. We spent the remainder of the day walking around a plaza and then took our first shower in 5 days.

Day 92
Took the 2 hour bus from Santiago to Valparaiso, our destination for New Year´s Eve. We heard this was the most popular destination for New Years in Chile and that became more and more obvious as we watched the city grow from 200,000 to 2 million people throughout the day. We cooked dinner for ourselves and laid low for the remainder of the night in anticipation for the celebration the following evening.

Day 93
Had a long and lazy day in preperation for our evening. We cooked dinner again and gave ourselves an hour to digest before getting ready to go out. We began the night sipping beers with our new friends in the hostal and then walked up to a high point to get a good view of the fireworks, for which Valparaiso is known for. Here we celebrated midnight with thousands of people that were popping champagne and throwing confetti into the air. It felt like a scene from a movie. Then we traveled down to the plaza below where live music was playing and the crowds were equally rambunctious. Then we danced the night away and had the most memorable New Years celebration yet.

Day 94
Not feeling the best we decided to go lay on the beach in the neighboring town, Viña del Mar. It wasn´t the most relaxing beach due to every person having the same idea of spending the New Year in the sand, that may have acutally been more confetti and streamers than sand, but still, it was nice to feel the sun and reminisce about 2010.

Day 95
Due to the crowds trying to get back to Santiago, we are stuck in Valparaiso one more night. The day is looking rather uneventful.