chile

Chile from the 9th of December to the 23rd 2007.

from San Pedro Atacama to Antofogasta to La Sirena to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar to Santiago.

typing, typing, typing.

crossed the border a few times on foot and once on the bus.

playing w/ a little local kid in San Pedro de Atacama. he came got my attention to play w/ him.

just the point and point to see-saw.

a play at night in the town plaza.

around San Pedro, just the dry, dry Atacama desert. the driest place on earth.

w/ Chelsey and Jesus in Antofogasta. (stickers of Jesus everywhere was Chelsey and Michelle's thing. though Michelle had gone on on her own at this stage). lot's of Australian music played here. just first night i heard Johnny 'the voice' farnham, kylie minogue and men at work.

Chelsey and I in La Serena where a gypsy woman told us to expect news of a baby in two weeks. so glad she was wrong.

at a cafe in La Serena. watched football w/ some, drunk, locals there after Chelsey had gone to rest for a bit.

Valparaiso and some it's houses on the hills.

some graffiti i liked in Valparaiso.

great mural in Cafe Puro in Valparaiso.

some more graffiti.

valparaiso.

in Santiago w/ Chelsey. government building... or something like that.

i like this one. 'weapon of mass distraction'

and some more graffiti. stenciling this time.

salar de uyuni, bolivia

so i met Chelsey and Michelle properly in La Paz and was asked if i wanted to join on trip through Salar de Uyuni. so i did. 7 to 9 of December 2007 this is. 

and here we are. backseat of the 4wd for the three day car trip.

looked more amazing in person. salt everywhere.

some flags.

table salt... tables made of salt in front to salt hotel.

map of area.

Chelsey and Michelle at Isla de Pescado.

view of salt flats from the island. some of cacti are over thousands of years old apparently.

and the posing begins.

i AM huge!

Chelsey and Michelle again.

in San Juan, town in middle of nowhere. alpacas in back roaming all around. Chelsey on see-saw.

fish-eye at the museum.

a mummy at the museum. air is so dry that it doesn't decompose further.

Volcan Ollague. smokestack is in Chile while front part here is still Bolivia.

Chelsey and I. 

flamingoes take off in borax lakes.

same, same. the stench around these was horrible due to the borax.

though they were all sorts of different coloured lakes. some vicunas running around.

at Arbol de Piedra (Stone tree) in Rocas de Dali. landscape was inspiration for Dali. cool, weird place.

surfing some of Dali's rocks.

the red lake. Laguna Colorada at 4 250m altitude still.

the geysers on the last morning before crossing border into Chile. here is where my camera was broken a few seconds later. it was cooold.

Chelsey on teeter-totter.

southern Peru and north Bolivia

after Machu Picchu i headed to Arequipa w/ my friend Marsha. while in Arequipa i also saw the ice princess at a local museum. a frozen mummy of an Incan sacrifice. unfortunately no photos allowed.

blue bees... get it?

love this joke on little kids dressed up as superheroes. they will always, always correct you as though they think you are really stupid. funny stuff.

hostel in Arequipa.

in the central plaza w/ Dom, Marsha, Lucy and Niamh.

on the coldest ever bus to lake Titicaca. Lucy, Mayread, Niamh and I froze on this. so cold we could only laugh and shiver.

in one of the floating islands on lake Titicaca.

Niamh and I playing w/ local girl, Melanie. that is Chelsey in the background on left. more on her later. hadn't met her yet.

floating islands.

reed boat we all went on between two of the islands.

some more floating.

Puno plaza. we were on a tv camera here.

Copacabana, Bolivia.

street parade and dancing at night in Copacabana. we had the worst dinner service ever there. as two of us get our meal and then wait... and wait... and wait. finally asking waitress about other two meals and she tells us that the cooks had gone home. what the fark?

didn't even tell us that at first. made us waste nearly an hour waiting for meals that never came.

day parade in Copacabana.

Isla de Sol kids.

Isal de Sol. went there w/ Lucy, Mayread and Niamh.

little super-cute girl who came up to talk to us.

rainbow off land viewed from Isla del Sol.

in a square in La Paz.

llama foetus' at the witch's market in La Paz.

Chelsey and Michelle after having met them properly in hostel in La Paz. went for a tour of city and lunch. this is near Witche's Market.

Chelsey at a zebra crossing. seriously.

Chelsey and I at Loki hostel. both to afraid to make a move so far. more to come on that.

Loki hostel, La Paz. great looking bar in the hostel. and a fun, fun, fun hostel.

Machu Picchu, Cusco

and i finally made it to Machu Picchu, one of the most incredible sights i have been to. just... WOW!

November 2007

Cusco.

kids in Santa Teresa (?), where we stayed overnight on our way to Machu Picchu.

walking the walk. Emma, Marsha and Anna... barracuda style.

Machu Picchu in the morning, w/ Waynu Picchu in the back. great getting there early (6am or so) and having none of the crowds.

another barracuda from Marsha, Emma and Anna.

misty morning.

up Waynu Picchu we go.

Templo de la Luna (temple of the moon).

Lammas in Machu Picchu.

and another.

postcard perfect.

actually this is postcard perfect ;)

Anna, me, Emma and Marsha in our volunteer tshirts (we met in Pisco at Hands On)

Aguas Calientes where we stayed before and after Machu Picchu.

back in Cusco and our traditional (well for a few days) breakfast club.

Cusco and the rain.

the 12 sided stone. all such a perfect fit.

Pisco, Huacachina and Ica.

as promised here are some more pictures as i try and catch up.

these are from October 24th to November 21st... or so.

as i volunteered in Pisco w/ Hands On Disaster Response.

most of city was destroyed by an earthquake in August and so we were working clearing rubble, building temporary houses, temporary classrooms, working w/ kids in ludotecas in the refugee camps and other assorted works.

had weekends away at Huacachina, a small oasis town in the nearby desert.

Huacachina and one of it's most famous residents, Marvin the monkey.

Marvin and I on our night out.

on a tuk-tuk on way to work...

the streets of Pisco. rubble, half collapsed and empty lots everywhere.

painting the Hands On mural on the HODR property.

mmm cheese.

also spent five days in Ica, another nearby town, building temporary classrooms. these are some of locals kids that hung around.

little Sivia. i like this shot.

working.

me and my two side-kicks. up, up and away.

inside one of completed class-rooms.

Silvia and Anna. Anna was one of coolest people i met while there.

on the sand dunes around Huacachina on second trip there. had a small party w/ other volunteers on top of dunes first time around, w/ music, drinks and fire twirling.

flippinf and running down the hot, hot, hot sand.

Anna and Marvin, who just jumped at her drink stealing straw straight away... then dipping his hands into drink and sipping. "ah cold! but i want some more. ah! cold. but i want some more... etc."

volunteers in Ica. overall we had 60 to 80 volunteers everyday between the different sites. most in Pisco.

Peru was playing Brazil and we watched it at the house of local family (cooks for project) and this was the grandfather after Peru scored.

Huayhuash, Peru

sorry haven't quite updated this since last October... my bad.
but i am now back home and will be updating the rest of trip over next week or so.
starting off w/ the Huayhuash trek in Peru w/ Paul, Kevin and Becca.
October 12 to 18 2007.

local kid that was hanging around one of the many paystations along the route.

town of Queropalca where we started out trek.

little girl from near our first campsite.

Kevin, Becca and Paul on the wall surrounding our first campsite.

one of the many amazing lakes we passed.

hot diggety dog!

condor... for reals.

great looking cloud that swept over us.

bones.

Anton, little friend that attached himself to my finger on one of our stops and hung on for a while while we trekked.

you can't fool the Hulk!

another amzing lake. we were tiny amidst all this incredible landscape.

Edwin and Juan, our guide and arriero while we went fishing.

me w/ Edwin and Juan. caught at least two dozen fish that day.

our last days campsite. stunning... and cold. all so very, very cold.


facing pages. done at Cafe Andino, Huaraz, where we spent a lot of our free time between treks, rock climbing and ice climbs.

rock climbing and laguna 69

while around Huaraz went rock climbing twice. and also a small overnight trek to laguna 69 w/ some friends. good times on all counts.

infinite jest is still one of my favourite books ever. Rigoberta Menchu's book was was incredible (though you could skip some of the first half).

shoes on

and off i go. check out those buns of steel.

and i'm up.


Paul on his way up.

Caroline, Paul, Joey, Alexis and Kevin on the trek campsite.

69... ¿get it? ha!

barracuda style w/ Kevin, Caroline and Alexis.

fungii in the middle of snow. impressive colours.

trekking

frosty and laguna 69.

a rhodesian ridgeback

composite of many shots.

big mountain... oh baby, i love your way!

Paul, Kevin, three other guys and i had a rock skimming competition while at laguna 69 and the winner was...

...me!

cordillera blanca, Peru

went trekking through the santa cruz trek, a four day walk through the cordillera blanca. about eight hours north of lima. amazing place.

that be the ticket for the national huascaran park on the left

getting to Pastoruri for some ice climbing

ready to walk and climb w/ Ed and Gavin. lovely suits ain't they?

oh yeah. it was hiiigh.

but...

pastoruri

me scaling the 20-25 m ice wall.

on top of a broiken off cactus. they get up to 12 m tall.

santa cruz starts

llanganuco lakes

paul, aka poo-man.

paul, me, darragh, ed and a donkey

our campsite down there.

w/ Daniel, our guide.

that is the paramount pictures mountain in the background. can't recall it's name.

some hard earned thirst.

yes, i know you can spot 'it'

another campsite

mah legs

vermont, nyc and peru (part 1)

before gettiong to Peru went by Burlington, Bennington (to meet up w/ Ivy) and NYC.

Viriatus, read of in Don Quixote.

so i was staying w/ Ivy, who just happened to be having a girls night at her place... so had to change it to girls night plus dennis.

at post office in brooklyn. crazy eighty old woman came in swearing at everyone. hilarity ensued.

lost and found bar in greenpoint. met up w/ Julia (from Gutemala) and had a few drinks there. nice.

at san salvador airport. finally got my el salvador stamp on passport. on my fourth time in the country.

w/ Andrew. probably the only Tongan i will ever meet while travelling south america.

and some more of Lima crew. me, Owen, Keith and Rachael (plus one other).

Will, Terri, Keith, ??, me, Rachael, ??, Owen, Alex.

view from Lokis window in Miraflores, Lima.

i sure do like my fanny (australian/brittish version that be)!

the streets of Huaraz.

the cross on a hill overlooking Huaraz.

trekking to laguna Churup.

and the track.

Paul, a dog that followed us and our tiny guide.

Churup

mountains around Huraz

a few burger places like this in Huaraz. i do not get it. (a sexburger is a burger w/chorizo and two eggs by the way... had to try one)

and also had to eat cuy (aka. guinea pig) w/ Sarah, Paul and Gavin. ate alpaca a few days earlier.

Churup on my book.