UNDER CONSTRUCTION – COME BACK LATER FOR MORE
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THE IDEA
August 2012
“Got to get out of town. But to where…? I check my Jet Blue credit card account in which I have many points. Where can I go for points and a few bucks? The only other countries that Jet blue goes to are Costa Rica and Columbia. I had been to Costa Rica the year before. So Bogota, Columbia was it.
I kept on checking the website every couple days to see that the fares weren’t going up, and then one day I noticed that Jet Blue was now offering a direct flight from New York to Cartagena, Columbia and I could get round trip flights with points for certain dates for as low as $119 for the tax plus $100 for an upgrade to a seat with more room: $219 round trip to South America – round trip!
Based on desired dates of travel and the availability of the fare, a started planning a 23 day trip that that had me leaving before Thanksgiving and returning before Christmas. Perfectly overlapping holiday seasons so it wouldn’t be likely I’d miss much work, and happily including my birthday, which I wanted to spend “elsewhere.”
I started making a wish list. First on it and always a dream was Machu Picchu. Friends had been there and talked about it, and it had all the mythical qualities I wanted to experience first hand that I wanted this trip to be all about. I started looking into Inca Trail tours and flights to Lima, and ultimately Cuzco, Peru where you catch the train to Machu Picchu.
The wish list grew to include Easter Island, the most remote, inhabited Island in the world, 2300 miles off the coast if Chile. Full of wonder and photo ops, and “magical” in some way; I wanted the experience.
My brother suggested Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina – One of the seven natural wonders of the world. Researching it, and seeing pictures – it was clear it was a must see.
My brother also talked of Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. I was starting to see a pattern of superlatives that I wanted to follow. Ushuaia it was – I had no idea what one did there, but had to go.
THE PLAN
September 2012
I plotted travel from Cartagena on the northern tip of the continent to the southern most point of South America, the launch point to Antarctica, 750 miles away. I would be travelling a distance of over 10,000 miles in the air alone.
I had drinks with my friend Jan, who had been down there. He looked at my plan and pointed out the obvious. ‘I won’t have enough time.’ The trip needs to be longer in order to fit it all in. So, I went back to the airlines website and discovered that if I left earlier in November and returned later in December, just two days before Christmas, it would cost me even fewer points so I bought that ticket as well. I could cancel either set, or both and get all the points back for a $100 fee. An escape chute from this crazy thing I was getting myself into.
Now I had a 23-day plan and a 41-day plan – both developing simultaneously. I wanted to spend Thanksgiving somewhere special and my birthday as well. So I planned on being in Machu Picchu on Thanksgiving and Easter Island on My Birthday. The more I thought about it the more I knew I had to take the 41 day trip, and I was going to hit as many stops as I could along the way, never backtracking, just looping around the continent from one extraordinary place to another.
I discovered that there is one airline that goes everywhere in South America, LAN so I got myself a LAN Airlines Visa and started charging away on it to build miles for travel in the future and to simplify my travels as the card afforded me bonus miles for the LAN airline’s flights charged on the card. I used it to book my first set of flights with some built in flexibility for changes.
The plan was to fly to Cartagena, Columbia, spend the day there checking out the city, stay the night, and fly out the next day for Lima, Peru (Via Bogota). I planned to spend a few days in Lima and then head to Cuzco, Peru, stay there to get used to the altitude. After a few days, take a train to Machu Picchu, stay a day or two, then back to Cuzco then Lima, and from there, fly to Easter Island, stay there for a few days and then fly to Santiago de Chile the only other place with flights to Easter Island. That first leg would take me through Thanksgiving and my birthday, and the month of November, leaving the later part of the trip in December to be thought over more.
FREEFALL
October 14th, 2012
At that time a man named Felix Baumgartner set the record for the highest free-fall jump. He rose to the jumping point in a balloon, miles up in the stratosphere. I watched it live. His free fall was four minutes and twenty seconds long! It made me think of my approaching trip. The preparation for his jump, the slow ascent to the jump point. Getting to the point where the world seems so big and you so small, and jumping off into it, tumbling through space at its will. He fell at the speed of sound and beyond, first tumbling out of control and then reaching a point of control. I felt like my trip was going to be my jump into the wild unknown full of both wonder and fear and that I would come out of it okay with the experience of a lifetime. I was ready to go.
CIRCUMSTANCES
Fortunately, work was flowing in at a steady rate, and I was paying off credit and saving for the trip. I had booked work right up to the end, leaving a week off to finalize plans just before I was to leave. Still, I had the extra plane ticket, which left a week later and returned one week earlier.
After the first leg of the trip’s flights had been arranged, I began focusing on the first big stop, Machu Picchu. A month out from the trip, I wasn’t able to get a permit to hike the Inca Trail. The “suggested” way of discovering the city, as the Incas had. There are a dozen groups that run tours, and none had any spots. They Issue something like 500 permits/a day , and they were sold out. It was disappointing, and I just couldn’t make it happen without a ripple effect on the rest of the trip.
I booked a hotel in Cuzco and one in Agua Calientes the small town in the valley below Machu Picchu. I left my ground transportation arrangements (a Train) from Cuzco, to and from Machu Picchu for when I got down to Peru. I would buy my train, and admission tickets there as well, as the trip was still in flux.
The next order of business was setting the dates for travel to Easter Island as the flights are few. I booked a flight and started looking for a place to stay there. I gave myself four days there to get as many photos as I could. It would be my first and last time there, as far away as it was I didn’t think I’d ever go back. The dates of booked flights were cementing the trip in a time frame. I would be in Lima on Thanksgiving and Easter Island on my birthday. One out of two, not bad.
Santiago de Chile is right in the middle of the narrow country with the long coastline, so I would hit the coast on a short excursion and, eventually, head south. I bought a ticket for a flight from Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile. There is a bus from Punta Arenas, on the Strait of Magellan through the frontier to Ushuaia, Argentina. From tip to tip of South America I had a plan, but the rest of the trip was still up in the air.
I had added Iguazu Falls which is on the border of Brazil and Argentina (and Paraguay) I discovered one needs a Visa for Brazil, coming from the United States. Its three hundred dollars, a photograph a certain size (not digital) and a bunch of other hassles, not least, having to leave your passport at the Brazilian embassy for a week before you can get it back with the travel visa attached.
I needed to wrap up the job I was working on and take care of my Visa and book hotels. Then, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast.
RECOVERY
October 29, 2012
The storm took lives, destroyed people’s homes, devastated infrastructure and shut down much of the east coast including Manhattan. History books can fill in the blanks, but the destruction and hardship was widespread and I was lucky just to have my heat and power out for a week. The job I was wrapping was postponed and I spent a week in the dark and cold, isolated with a lot of quiet time to think about everything and rest. Living primitively by candlelight wrapped in blankets and sweaters thinking and resting, I think I got a well-needed reset. It made me think that all the planning of this trip cannot account for what Mother Nature could bring. I emerged from the blackout, sobered by circumstance and filled with useful thoughts about my trip, and thankful.
After 10 days with winds reaching 115 miles an hour, and storm surges flooding beach communities, Sandy dissipated leaving behind the need to rebuild and rethink things.
I was back at work the following Monday. Had to pick up where I left off, and with concision, as there was no time for screw-ups. This was the week I should have been off, so I had to scramble around trying to fit in a couple doctor’s appointments for shots and meds for the trip. I had to make it to the Brazilian Embassy to drop off my passport and pick it up a week later – after 4PM! Nerve wracking when you are leaving on a 41-day trip, the next morning.
I wrapped the job on a Friday. On Saturday I went to visit my family in New Jersey. On Sunday I returned to Manhattan. On Monday, late in the afternoon, I got my passport back from the Brazilian Embassy, and twelve hours later I was getting into a car in front of my apartment headed for JFK Airport. I had, a small laptop, cameras, video and audio equipment, a first aid kit, two blank journals, various meds, and enough clothes for the first two weeks of the six-week trip.
CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
November 13-15, 2012
I arrived in Cartagena in the mid day with no plan. A driver, named Wilson pegged me outside of the airport. He asked if I needed a ride in English and I took it. After negotiating a price that seemed fair. But the hotel was close, even so, by the time we got there, he had convinced me to hire him to show me around for the day. I dropped all my stuff. Put all my money in the safe and brought a small camera and a few bucks with me. Made my first mistake of the trip and didn’t negotiate a price beforehand. First we went to eat at a Fonda. We ate a traditional plate called a Bandeja Paisa and had a few beers.
After lunch, he drove me to a bunch of sites: San Felipe de Barajas Fort and into the old walled city. There he took me to exchange my dollars for pesos at a friend’s store. Then he asked if I wanted to meet some girls. I’m thinking his friends, who want to meet Americans. I’m all for it, hang with a few pretty girls at some beach-side bar drinking daiquiris or whatever it is they drink here. Let’s go.
The ride takes us away from the beach to increasingly poor neighborhoods. I’m getting nervous, this is where I get knifed and become food for pit bulls. He pulls up in front of a house, just a house with a front porch. Now I know what is happening and its confirmed when I walk in. Girls lined up in chairs on one side of the room and creepy looking dudes on the other drinking beer. ‘Okay. Now what do you do?’ I try to chill, none of the girls were …“lookers” lets say — probably a good thing in hindsight. Either way, I was hoping for a different scene.
In the news in the States a few months before the trip a Secret Service Agent got into a bit of trouble with a Columbian hooker. Now, I’m in a room full of Columbian hookers not in a nice hotel, but in a brothel. My “Guide” asks me who do I “like?” To be nice, I pick one with the sweetest face, a little older than the rest. He calls her over and then leaves me there with her. I suddenly forgot all my Spanish and stumble through a brief conversation sweating from both heat and nerves. Paying a lot for beers and going through them. I excuse myself to go to the bathroom sweating, there is nothing to wipe my brow and a trough like sink below waste level to pee in. I am running out of cash.
When I came out of the bathroom, she is still there waiting. She was a sweet person and could recognize the anxiety. I had to get up and excuse myself and headed for the door. He was waiting outside. He gave me some bullshit reason why we couldn’t leave yet. I’m thinking, “this could be it, first day here, and already a stab wound.“ He came back inside with me. We sat and talked with her. I bought more beers. He interpreted, until it became clear that I was not interested in a prostitute and had run out of money. We left finally, and he drove me back to the hotel, it was dark out, and I didn’t know we were headed there till we got there. I offered him fifty for the “tour” he wanted a hundred. Went in and got it. Didn’t want any trouble. You live you learn, but I was glad to get rid of him. Long, first day.
The rest of the time in Cartagena I spent wandering around the wall and into the old city within on my own. I walked on the beach which was strewn with trash and bits of glass and – yes feces – possibly human possibly animal. Took a dip in the ocean it was murky like swimming in soup.
I covered a lot of ground on foot, walked the wall from end to end. It’s was a nice place and the food was good, but I was ready to move on after two days.
Next stop, the Airport, to catch a flight to Bogota and a transfer to Lima , Peru. At the airport I discovered that the terminal for Domestic flights was different than for international. Almost missed my first flight in South America. A friendly attendant recognized right away what was happening and she ran with me leading the way to the other terminal which seemed a mile away. Got through customs quickly and just made the flight by minutes. Dripping with sweat and out of breath I collapsed into the seat.
LIMA, PERU
I slept the whole way. Good thing cause I arrived at the airport in Lima at 10:30P and the flight to Cuzco wasn’t until 5:20A. I took the Acetazolamide pill for altitude sickness to prepare myself for arrival in Cuzco which is at 11,000 feet.
On the flight from Lima to Cuzco I looked out the window and there were The Andes Mountains as far as I can se in any direction, the longest continental mountain range on the planet. Awestruck.
CUSCO, PERU
A full day of flights later I arrived in Cuzco at 6:40A and check in wasn’t until 11:40A. I was exhausted. The bellman at the hotel gave me a cup of tea made with coca leaves and I settled in the lobby waiting to check in. I don’t know how many hours later another bellman woke me up and took me to my room.
I made all my arrangements to get to Aqua Calientes by train, and bought my tickets to the Machu Picchu.
I was taking anti malarial and altitude medicine , and Advils to combat all the aches in my head and body. I searched around for food and got myself a big bowl of Sopa De Verduras (vegetable soup), and a cup of Mate de Coca (Coca Tea) hoping it would make me feel better. I think the tea worked. My body was reacting to the altitude and the pills weren’t working. Altitude sickness is like a migraine, body ache, and labored breathing all rolled together – tough to press through.
In Exploring the city I found a local market. A woman with a huge bag of coca leaves beside her was selling them to the locals. I bought a huge sandwich bag full of them for like thirty cents. I put a pinch in my cheek and not long after, the headache and altitude sickness was gone.
At the very top of the mountain above the city of Cuzco are the ruins called Sacsayhuaman, an Inca fortress built in the 15th century with walls of stone that look like they were cut with lasers. Just remarkable. Aliens?
As I was walking up the to the top, huffing from the thin air, I met a man who had horses at a ranch at the top. I rented a horse for the day and a guide came with it.
Amazing structures, beautiful views of the city and valley below. Christ statue on the peak like in Rio but smaller.
One crazy thing I noticed while in Cusco was that they dress their dogs.
STILL WORKING ON IT – TO BE CONTINUED
AGUA CALIENTES, PERU
November 19, 2012
The trip from Cusco to Agua Calientes is more than a mere transit from point A to point B. The journey along the Urubamba River valley is very scenic, passing through The Sacred Valley of the Incas. The train ride is about three hours and there was entertainment, and fashion show up and down the aisles. Glad I didn’t sleep through it all.
MACHU PICCHU, PERU
November 20, 2012
My second day in Agua Calientes I got a ticket for the first bus up the mountain on the switchback road that gets you to Machu Picchu. The bus left a little after 5A. It was still dark and cool out. When I got to the top, I made haste into the park to pop off some photos in the park without any people in the shot. I was lucky I was able to get to a high spot and shoot down upon it before anyone made it in to the main area. Then suddenly, I realized I was above the clouds. The air was so cool and I was so high up (about 8,000 feet) that the clouds were resting in the valley and beginning to rise as the morning sun warmed them. Huge cottony clouds rolling up from below over the top of Huayana Picchu – one of two peaks . The main ruins are like a saddle between it and Cerro Machu Picchu at around 10,000 feet on the other side of the park — and the other peaks in the surrounding mountain range. It was magical – spiritual – awe-inspiring – magnificent – though none of those words do it. I cannot think of another experience in my life that can be compared to it. Soul-shuddering.
They only sell a few tickets a day to the top of Huayana Picchu, which is a difficult hike, and not for the acrophobic. I was not able to get tickets. The views are supposedly spectacular – beauty and wonder about in this place.
The tour guide – what was his name – the audio files of him talking about the history of the place.
So high up that rising before the sun while the clouds still slept in in the valley below, and then to be there when the rise and make their way up past YOU to the sky – wow.
(Machu Picchu sunrise. The clouds rolling up the hill in the morning.)
TO BE CONTINUED
LIMA, PERU
November 22, 2012 – Thanksgiving
Restaurant Sonia was recommended by Anthony Bourdain for ceviche. When I got to Lima I was determined to go. I asked the concierge at the hotel how I could get there and she wrote it on a piece of paper for me to give to the taxi driver. It was worth the trip out to Chorillos (Spanish for “trickle of water”) where the fisherman process their catch.
After the meal, which was great, I wandered over to the fish market which was close by.
In the fish market in Chorillos the pelicans roam freely – a crazy symbiosis of man and bird. The fishmongers are pretty chill about it.
Graffiti
EASTER ISLAND CHILE
November 25, 2012
The Mataveri International Airport in Rapa Nui (Easter Island, aka Isla de Pascua) has one of longest runways in the Southern Hemisphere. It spans the width of the island (over 10,000 feet). It was extended by the U.S. government as an “abort” sight for an emergency landing of the Space Shuttle in the Southern Hemisphere.
When you arrive there you get a lei (necklace of flowers, like in Hawaii). When you depart, they give you a necklace of small shells.
Easter Island – la Isla de Pascua
Sunrise at Ahu Tongariki – November 27, 2012 – My Birthday
Everything in Latin America has sugar. Even the sugar has added sugar. Fruit juices, just about all of them, have sugar added. Sugar-free cola is just for foreigners and priced accordingly. One morning in Rapa Nui, I was served fresh papaya drizzled with syrup.
The Cemetery
SANTIAGO DE CHILE
November 30, 2012
Santiago de Chile
The Central Market
The Pyocera – and the Torremoto.
(The picture of the Torremoto)
VALPARAISO, CHILE
December 2, 2012
Took a bus from Santiago de Chile to Valparaiso the second most populace city in Chile located in the middle of the country on the Pacific. It is a major Port City. There are colorfully painted homes and because of the steepness of the landscape one feature of the town is the Funiculars (angled elevators that help you get around the city without having to walk up steep slopes.
I got a hotel room at a little boutique hotel and just walked around taking pictures. Went down to the port and walked around to pop off some shots and have a nice seafood meal. Didn’t really have a plan for the visit, or a list of places to visit or things to see.
SANTIAGO DE CHILE
In Satiateo de Chile – the capital, there is a park on a hill in the middle of the city from which you can get an expansive view of the city below. I walkedd up the hill and shot pictures from the topmost spot – great vista.
The central market is a place that is know for thieves and pick pockets. When I asked the concierge at the hotel for directions there, she told me it was closed on Sundays. It was not, not sure why I was told that, One thought was that they were discouraging me from going someplace where I might run into trouble.
PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE
December 4, 2012
TORRES DEL PAINE, CHILE
THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
Travelling from Punta Arenas to Terra el Fuego by bus you need to cross the Strait of Magellan. It has a real end-of-the-earth feel to it. The ferry was a giant, interesting looking vessel.
USHUAIA, ARGENTINA
The rolling hills and dry grassy plains give way to snow capped mountains and pine forest as you approach Ushuaia moving through Tierra Del Fuego. Lakes, valley basins, rivers lined with wind swept, contorted trees. Dry grey wood blown over and laying in fields like boneyards – wind dried in cool air.
EL CALAFATE, ARGENTINA – December 8-10?, 2012
It had not been part of my original plan to travel to El Calafate both west of Buenos Aires.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
There are three things I often heard from other travelers before I got to Buenos Aires, about Buenos Aires. One: Eat steak. Two: Go somewhere to watch the Tango performed. And Three: Don’t get pickpocketed.
All around Buenos Aires there are Jacaranda trees – a Beautiful tree with purple flowers.
IGUAZU FALLS, ARGENTINA
A formation straight out of the movie Avatar. A magical place on so many levels.
Heard one tune frequently while I was in South America. I knew the melody, but couldn’t place the song. It was El Condor Pasa (The Condor Passes) – I recognized the melody from a Simon & Garfunkel song – a cover of the orchestral by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean music.
IGUAZU FALLS, BRAZIL
Cataratas do Iguacu on the Brazilian side of the falls.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
I took a panorama shot while a car was zooming around a circle. Would like to say I designed this shot. Sometimes it’s just happenstance.
I came back into Buenos Aires from Iguazu to prepare for the various return legs of my trip, leapfrogging from city to city to make my way back to United States. Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago De Chile, to Cartagena, Colombia back to New York, USA. A day in each spot to wait for my flight.
SANTIAGO DE CHILE
CARTAGENA , COLOMBIA
Back in Cartagena – full circle – who could be expected to describe the feeling after the trip. All I knew was that I had a lot to tell anyone who would listen, and that I would never be the same man I was when I left forty-one days earlier.
Aeropuerto Rafael Nunez, Cartagena
LAST DAY December 23, 2012
That’s it.