Sunday 23 July 2017

From sea to desert to mountains to other side of continent

A few days in Guanaqueros easily turned into a week. But we managed to do other stuff besides resting and chilling as well.

For example we went kayaking on one day. I was quite grumpy about it at first because the idea of going on water and probably getting wet on a 13 degree cloudy day did not seem like a good idea at all. But we did get a whole new perspective on the area and saw some sea creatures. We also wanted to buy some seafood from some fishermen who were working on their boat nearby but ended up getting a big bag of oysters for free. We also bought some fresh clams from them and had a big seafood orgy back at home. And the next day we got fresh fish brought to our door by a motorbike so taking full advantage of the proximity of sea.

We also went climbing and hiking in the nearby mountains and visited a guy called San Pedro there. It was just a friendly and relaxed first hello but I have the feeling that we will encounter either him or his relatives again on our trip.

It was also quite cool to take part in a local birthday party of a friend of our host. That was pretty similar to Estonian parties with bonfire and getting home at 7am (never saw that in  Australia)

Our original plan (or more like 'idea' because we still do not make plans) was to cross the Andes at La Serena and then head towards Uruguay through Argentina. But it turns out that most of the border crossings are closed for the winter (snow and ice etc) so we had a choice to turn back and cross near Santiago or head more north.

So we hitchhiked our first car (to be honest our host Juan found our ride for us when he was dropping us off to the edge of town) and got ourselves a new friend for almost two days. Our truck driver did not speak a word of English but that did not stop him from communicating to us for the whole 1200 km that we drove with him (75kmph because we had a load of AdBlue and batteries and other chemicals on our trailer). He also bought us all our meals and drinks on the way and had us pitch our tent on his trailer.

So after hitching another car in Calamá, we made it to the driest place on earth -the Atacama desert and into the most famous town called San Pedro de Atacama. Since the air is so dry, then the temperatures 'work' differently there than in other places (it is over 2km from sea level as well). In the daytime it is 12-15 degrees but in the sun it feels like it is at least 25. At night the temperatures drop to zero (or below, since it is winter).

The town itself is 'made out of desert' so most houses are made out of sand. It is quite touristic but at the same time there is quite a big community of hippies who sell stuff on streets during the day and make music together on the main square in the evenings.

The views around the town are amazing. There are snowy mountaintops all around (a big part of them are volcanoes) the valley where the town is situated. There is snow also besides the roads in some places but in a lot of the places there is salt instead of snow. So we rented bikes one day and went exploring with a Chilean guy that we met hitchhiking. After riding 12+ kilometres to the very famous 'valley of the moon' it turned out that we can not get in because we didn't have helmets or reflective vest. Apparently some tourists had fallen and hurt themselves because they suck at riding a bike and now everyone had to suffer.

Since we had come all this way, we turned off the road and just went exploring some nearby hills. We found amazing canjons and a cave with the whole floor covered in a thick layer of salt cristals. The boys disappeared into the cave and appeared 40min later at the top of the hills/cliffs. I was wondering how long I should wait before going back and callinh for help.

I went back to the town as I was not feeling very well (a bit of a cold from sleeping in the tent in these conditions) but the guys went exploring some more. While we were in San Pedro we stayed with some local hippies  (one of them was Juan's friend who we had met in Guanaqueros) at the edge if town (with a view to the biggest volcano).

The next day we were even more tired (and a bit ill) so we wanted to take a bus over the Andes to Argentina. As it turned out, there were no buses on that day so we decided to still try hitchhiking.  Things looked pretty hopeless since in the 20min that we spent by the road, only two cars passed us. Luckily one of the cars decided to turn back and pick us up. So we started our long drive over the most amazing mountain range that I have seen in my life with a lovely Argentinian-Equadorian couple.

The Andes even look big on the map but the real thing is huge. It took us about nine hours to go over them and they were not quite finished even then. In these nine hours we saw very many very different landscapes and views. You could see the different processes that had formed these giant mountains from the shapes and colours (many different and amazing colours) that they had. In many places you could see that whole hills had been lifted up and turned on their sides by some otherwordly processes (the colourful layers of sediment did not run parallel to the ground). In other places there were enormous platoos covered in plants or salt fields. There were glaciets and snow and lakes and big cacti and llamas (or alpacas) and some local people living in their stone huts. So nine hours of being amazed and suprised and having ears lick up tens (closer to hundred) of times. The Chile-Argentina border was 4,2km from the sea level but that probably was not the highest place of the road.

We had a big plan of finding a cheap hotel in the first big town that we arrive in and rest there for a few days since we were tired and had not paid for our accommodation since Moree (cotton picking). Our plan failed miserably because al the cheap hotels were full and the ones that had room were more expensive than a good hotel in Australia.

So we found an unused piece of land near the center of the town  (it was too big to walk out of it) and tried to find a patch of land that did not have much garbage on it. While we were putting up our tent, a man appeared out of a makeshift shelter on the same plot(a few matresses, some plastic and cardboard) that we had not even noticed. Our neighbour approved of our camping spot and assured us that we had found a nice and quiet place to stay for the night (despite the traffic going past us). By the morning we already had two neighbors.

Dissapointed at the still expensive prices (and getting more and more tired and fed up), we decided to take buses to Paraguay, which according to our knowledge should be the first country that is actually cheap. In our first bus across the country, we met a guy who invited us to Iguazú insted, where he has a friend who would get us a cheap place to stay near the famous Iguazú falls. Since noone and nothing was really waiting for us in Paraguay, we decided to accept his offer.

Some very subjective discoveries about Chile and Argentina (can't tell yet which ones are true about all Latin America and which ones are not).
*Cheese is eaten a lot as it is one of the main ingredients of Empanadas which are sort of pies/pirukad that are supposedly popular around here and have different fillings. The minced meat one is about is (traditional Chilean) about ten times better than the Australian meat pie. So we have been eating them every day. Other milk products are not very common though - milk is mostly bought in powder form or Longlife milk. Didn't even see fresh one in Santiago.
*Traffic rules are recommendations only. Nobody expects anyone to drive in straight lines or use blinkers etc (surely it will get worse in other countries)
*Most of the dogs that are on the streets (and there are a lot) have owners and are loved. They are just quite relaxed about them around here and let them run around freely
*Throwing trash out of car windows is common. So is throwing it straight into rivers. Valuing their amazing nature is something that still needs some attention
*The shops are open pretty late. Can't remember the last time we could buy beer in a shop after ten (even small stores)
*Chileans and Argentinians really like their sweets. There is a big variety of different pastries availiable but since neither of us is a big fan of sweets then we haven't tried any.
*Chilean language is quite different from the 'real' Spanish because they make all the words shorter. They just lose half of most of the word. In extreme cases  only one letter of the word remains. So the rhythm of the language is very different and sounds like a whole new language.
*Argentinian is a bit easier, as they use full words but it is a bit difficult still at first as they pronounce every 'LL' as 'Ž'
*There is one bus station but in every station there are 10-20 different companies with their own office who only sell tickets to their own buses
*Argentinian long-distance buses have 'catering' which means a variety of sweets and biscuits. We even got one sandwich once (not sweet. yay)
*All the women are rather 'round'. Even the thin ones are not very close to my weight (and right now I am down to the weight that I last had when I was about 16 or17 years old because we often forget to eat and move around a lot

Tuesday 11 July 2017

Landing in a new continent

Our leaving Sydney did not go as smoothly as we expected. After spending a night at the 'waiting area'  - a small end of one of the halls, which was the only place were the people were allowed to be in the entire airport, we found our place in the waiting line for the check-in. But as it turned out, there were some 'technical' problems and our Sydney-Auckland flight was canceled. That meant that we (and about 30 other people) were not going to make our Auckland-Santiago flight. So we were taken by bus to one of the airport hotels, which was in a small 'airport neighborhood'. It was definitely the fanciest hotel that I have ever been to as we usually go for the cheapest one. But we got three free meals and the drinks were included which lead to meeting some local guys just out in a bar. And that lead to going back to the center of Sydney for another last night gathering with some new friends we had just made. Made it back in the hotel to sleep for a few hours.

The rest of the way was pretty smooth. Except maybe the way from the airport to the city. Some hustlers managed to lie to us about the bus prices and take advantage of the fact that we had just stepped out of the plane and had not slept for over 24 hours. Before we even knew it, we were sitting in a taxi that we had paid about ten times more than we would have to pay for the bus. In addition, it was 5 degrees at noon on the first day so the mood of the first day was not the best.

After that everything got better. We were staying (through couchsurfing) with a really nice couple in the center of Santiago. Danielo and William answered about one hundred of our questions about Chile and South America each day and helped us find everything we needed (a little gas cooker and other survival things for example). We even went out in Santiago a couple of times, which we have not done for months (working all the time and living in a small town). William could not speak much English, wich helped us start practicing our Spanish.

I was quite confident that Spanish will come easily to me as I speak a bit of Italian. It does help a lot with understanding, especially with written texts. But so far every time I have opened my mouth, a horrible mixture of Spanish, English and Italian has come out. After a few (half-nonsense) sentences I get totally stuck because all I can remember are words in Italian and Russian  (why Russian?). So Erik has done most of the speaking so far.

Being in Santiago was very refreshing. In Australia, all the streets and buildings were relatively new (and boring) but now we saw a colorful mixture of culture around us. There were old, classical style houses with ornaments and modern highrises and small weird houses, each one different and special and a lot of graffity everywhere . Fancy expensive shops next to people sitting on the streets, selling things. You could get a meal from a flash restaurant or things cooked on street corners in modified shopping trolleys. So a lot of people from very rich to extremely poor were filling the street. Walking became more difficult because there were so many people moving around during the day that you constantly had to change direction and dodge people.

We also visited Danielos mother. These kinds of visits, for me, are the most memorable moments of every trip. When you visit a home of a local person that you never would have visited otherwise. Of course we also visit the friends we make on the road or couchsurfers, but they are generally younger people and/or have a bit more modern way of life. But older and more traditional people/homes are usually more special because they are less influenced by the modern way of life. In this case, the low-ceiling wooden interior of the house together with a very nice (rico) freshly baked traditional cake made us feel very homely and cosy.

Before coming to chile we checked some websites that compare the prices of different products in different countries and we were quite shocked to see that it was not that much cheaper than Australia. And it is true... if you want to continue living like you did in Australia. But what we have started to realize is that if you want to save money, you need to adapt to the local way of life.

For example on these very smart web pages you can see that half a litre of beer is quite expensive. But you should realize instead that the wine is very cheap. Or if you want to drink beer, then the locals buy big bottles of beer (instead of half litre ones) and share it (considerably cheaper). Or buying your food from the market and butcher etc is a lot more reasonable than going into the stores. So it is very useful to pay attention and adjust... and possibly stop buying some things that you are used to buying (if poor people are not used to eating it, it will probably be very expensive).

Anyways, we took a bus from Santiago to a random small town (Pichidangui this time) to get our first hitch-hiking experience. Since we had woken up very late, we got there just by the time the sun was setting. After getting some food from a local minimarket - (eggs, butter and onion), we made our way to a grassed area next to the town to camp for the night.

The nature here has been amazing so far - the mountains are magnificent (you could see the snowy tops of the Andis in Santiago) and the colours are bright. At our first camping spot there was the sea on one side (although we didn't see it as we didn't want to be too open to the winds and tsunamis that apparently happen here quite regularly) and on the other side (over the highway and a few kilometers away) was a big hill. The clouds came from the other side of the hill, wrapped themselves around the hill and flowed down from our side of the hill like a big blanket of milk. And the clouds did that weird (and beautiful) thing for hours. Even when the full moon rose from behind the mountain, you could still see the fog rolling down.

After our first night out over here (we survived and didn't even get cold at night... it is now about 17 degrees during the day and 7 at night) we tried to hacer dedo (hitchhike) with not much luck. After almost three hours we decided to give up and just take a bus this time. We are not giving up entirely though, we are just a bit rusty (haven't done it for a long time) and a bit afraid to just walk up to the truck drivers and ask, as we have heard is the most popular way to hitchhike around here.

So we took a bus to Coquimbo, walked 30min up the hill to our next cs host, discovered that we are in the wrong town :D, walked back down to the highway, took two more buses and finally ended up in Guanaqueros, this time in the right town.

We are staying in a small house  with four other people (a french couchsurfing couple, our host and his friend). Will say here for a few days and then we'll see what happens next.

Ps. I have now officially been to every continent of the world (that is not frozen over).

Monday 3 July 2017

Leaving Straya

Sitting in Sydney airport 'waiting area'.

By now we have sold our car and have semi-successfully gotten rid of all of our stuff. It is not the easiest of tasks to suddenly reduce a car full of stuf to two bags that we would be able to carry but that would still contain everything we need for living. I have gone through my bag three times (after having already decided that I had gotten rid of enough things) to throw away even more things to make it lighter.

In one of the ceremonies that we had of burning our clothes (only a bit after I had posted a picture of it on facebook) Erik suddenly discovered that he could not find his phone. You can guess what happens if you don't check your pockets before burning your jacket. So a lot (most) of our cotton-picking pictures were destroyed.

We replaced the laptops with better camping stuff and since now we are ok to sleep outside down to zero degrees and don't need car access, decided to save money and camp semi-illegally near a Sydney suburb in a valley.

I am not exactly sure about will happen to my blog since now we don't have constant access to a computer but surely I will find a way to get something uploaded occasionally.

The year here has been a big learning experience, of different industries, skills and customs but mostly about ourselves. We have met some great people and had good times. So thans to all for making our second trip to Australia so much more than the first one could ever be.

New continent, new people, new adventures, new problems, embracing being planless and not being driven by a constant need to find a new job. The second year away from home begins.