Lukasz and Anja in Patagonia, Oct 30 - Dec 19, 2007
e-mail us: anjadepolonja[at]yahoo.com

DEC 31, 2007 (31 GRUDZIEN, 2007)
Home sweet home
We are back home and now I have some time to paste links to more photos and videos. Enjoy!

Restaurant in Pampa, near Rurrenabaque in Bolivia. Pig friendly!Click HERE!
Salares de Uyuni by Jeep!Click HERE!
Happy in salares de Uyuni!Click HERE!
Geysers in salares de Uyuni!Click HERE!
Dancing on Amantani Island, Titicaca!Click HERE!

DEC 19, 2007 (19 GRUDZIEN, 2007)
Halo, Jesus?
I am sitting in an Internet Cafe in Miraflores, the fancy (and boring) part of Lima, our flight to New York is in excatly 12 hours so this is my last blog entry. There is a woman calling Jesus in a booth next to me, thus the title for this piece.. I thought calling Jesus (Spanish version is more like HEZUS) right before Christmas is a good idea and has a double meaning to us at the moment. First, a reminder that we will be home for the Holidays. Secondly, a nice summary of 2 months spent in South America, in special culture where men are named Jesus and peoples' first reaction to "we are from Poland" is PAPA. Papa meaning Pope, not potatoe. It all depends on where you place the accent. Of course we always use the Spanish name for our country - Polonia, coz when we say "Poland" they hear "Holand" anyway. I think at least 30% of all foreign tourists in Peru are Dutch, such a small nation but curious I guess... Other nationalities we met VERY frequently are; Irish, again Irish, British (only met 2 very depressing people from Scotland though), Aussie, Israelis, French, Swedish and Swiss. Few Americans and some (usually French with cute accent when they spoke English) Canadians, one crazy Hungarian who looked like Rasputin and tried to kill Lukasz and 2 funny Czech guys who told us how they loved polish candies and grociery shopping in Cieszyn. To my suprise we didnt meet a single Russian, very few of our own countrymen and in general I cant believe how Eastern Europe was underrepresented. Maybe my blog will encourage someone and I already heard from Izabella deLagoff that it did in her case ;) South America is a perfect place to be if you like native cultures, jungle, mountains and spanish tortilla. I know we will be back one day and I alreday have another route in my head; north of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia.... and India in the meantime ;) The next blog will be on India. See you.

DEC 16, 2007 (16 GRUDZIEN, 2007)
Colca Canyon, Peru again!
We are in Peru again! The big loop we started in Lima will end in Lima in 2 days but before we get there there is one more stop on our tour, the amazing Colca Canyon and the nicest Peruvian town we´seen so far; Arequipa. I have to say we are both getting tired and although we loved this trip and all the places we saw, people we met, we are happy about going back home soon. Christmas, Christmas in Poland!
BUT, let me tell you about Colca Canyon first! This was the closest I have ever been to paradise in my life... We left Arequipa 2 days ago, very early in the morning and managed to get to Cabanaconda, the base for best Canyon hiking, about 2 PM. It takes 6 hours to get there and the bus is a typical chicken aircraft which in combination with the lack of any paved road creates a very interesting experience. The ladies in this region wear the most beautiful embroided dresses and hats you can only imagine. I think it is worth coming all the way to Cabanaconda only to see them.. BUT we decided to see more and hiked from there to the very bottom on the Colca Canyon, the 2nd deepest canyon on earth. The place is less dramatic maybe than the Grand Canyon or South of Utah, but I found it more interesting for one reason, the people and lack of tourists, lack of the whole "here is your map" industry. You see some hikers, we even met a couple from San Fran on the bottom, but no gift shops, no rangers, only locals working on their ancient pre Inka terrasses and a small path going down to the OASIS.
Yes, there is such a thing as oasis in the Canyon. It is 100% natural, it has fruit trees and small huts that local family rents out for.. 7 soles per night (2 dollars). It has little, happy, dirty babies playing in the mud, animals and pets, a natural swimming pool in a rock and it is called "Paraiso". Truly, this is a paradise and no words can describe it. If you ever get a chance, go! Of course, hiking up is little bit more challenging but the views are amazing. We were so happy after this night we spent in the oasis that going back to Arequipa was hard, even though this is a great town with a nice historical district and two guardian volcanos. Maybe going back would have been easier if the bus hadnt broken down, but these are things you need to expect in Peru. We finally got back to our hostel about 8 PM last night and today we are taking it easy to recover little bit. Oh, my legs...

DEC 11, 2007 (11 GRUDZIEN, 2007)
San Pedro de Atacama in Chile
It is nice doing nothing for the first time during this trip! After Bolivian adventure we landed in Chile, one hour from the border, and we have been doing nothing for the last 3 days. The town is in the middle of dessert but its a nice oasis with lots of bonfires and hammocks, its perfect to recharge batteries and enjoy really nice people. If Chile wasnt so expensive (10 times more expensive than Bolivia and 3 times more than Peru) we would stay here longer. Oh well, at least we know it is perfect for us to come back when we retire and become nerds with money...

DEC 9, 2007 (9 GRUDZIEN, 2007)
Salares de Uyuni
If there was a competition for the worst bus we ever took in South America I would definitely vote for the overnight bus from La Paz to Uyuni, from where all tourists start their Salares jeep trip. We hardly survived the bumpy road and the mega mean driver (he liked switching on the light every now and then to wake everyone up, Bolivian folk music at midnight was just another suprise). So, if you ever choose between the bus and train to Uyuni (train goes from Oruro, not La Paz), do yourself a favour and take the train.
We left La Paz last minute though as the riots have already started the moment we were going to the bus terminal. Imagine old indigenous ladies marching with huge Che Guevara posters... In case you are not aware Bolivia is going thru lots of changes now and for the first time in their history they have elected an indigenous president, Evo Morales, who, lets say, likes the Cuban and Venezuelan way more than the US. White minority, por ejemplo University of Sucre professors and students, dont like the changes and there were huge riots in Sucre few weeks ago. The native people on the other hand support Evo, a former coca grower, and you can see they start being aware of their power. In small villages in the mountains, in the jungle, everywhere, you see graffitti "Somos mas", riots in La Paz are also a part of it. So we fled... Bolivians are not the nicest people we met in South America, it is very hard to communicate with them (and its not about Spanish), so we really didnt want to be in the middle of their Che Guevara manifesto.
Uyuni was much more calm, its a nice way of putting it. We arranged the jeep for a 3 day tour to Salares immediately and left the same morning. Again, I cant upload any photos right now coz the Net here is really slow, but trust me, the place resembles moon or Mars more then our planet!!! Dry salt lakes, red, white and green lakes with pink flamingos in them, geysers, hot springs, all together.... WOW. Even the Swiss weirdo from our group who accused us of being rasist football hooligans could not spoil the pleasure of being there. It is really hard to describe all the places we have seen, I will just upload few photos when we get to Arequipa (we are in the Chilean dessert now where they dropped us off after the tour). But one thing I want to mention is a small village we slept in after the first day on the salt lake. It looked pretty normal at night, adobe ugly buildings, dirt streets full of rubbish, all houses looking identical (Bolivians are not very big on painting or adorning their homes). But next morning we found out that our driver had come back from a party at 3 AM totally drunk and so we couldnt wake him up...
Although the itinerary of our trip clearly stated that we leave at 7 to see all the lagunas, we had no choice and had to wait for the driver to wake up, and I decided to take a small walk. After few minutes I saw very well preserved Inka looking ruins behing a church (the village was called San Pedro de.. something) and I tried to obtain any info on them... no luck. There was no info, no museum, nothing, although ruins looked really good for Bolivia which is famous for not having any Inka sites preserved, in a stark contrast to Peru... Never mind. Very close to the ruins though I saw their pride, an expensive tourists´ eye candy: HOSTAL DE PIEDRA, it was on fire. In the next few minutes half of the village was there, old women cried, young boys stood doing nothing, some men tried to extinguish the fire with water from plastic buckets. Chaos, total chaos. It was really hard breaking to see them cry but at the same time they were so disorganized it was hard to believe. Lukasz started helping them with the buckets and I came back to the shitty hostel we slept in for more help. The driver was already awake but neither him nor the rest of our group was interested in helping the villagers. They are not in Lonely Planet, so dont count. We had to leave and I am still thinking about the people there, with mixed emotions of pity and anger.

PS. If you are looking for a good agency in Uyuni to arrange your trip to Salares you may have hard time finding a good one, they are have identical tours (65 to 80 dollars for 3 days, agencies in La Paz always charge you around 90 since they add their comission) and most people we spoke with had some complaints. Our tour was OK (agency Juliett), the driver almost killed us once and he got drunk the firts night but the car was better then others we saw and the cook was really good, the food was great.

DEC 6, 2007 (6 GRUDZIEN, 2007)
Bolivia: from the Jungle to Sorata
wow, again, Its been a while! Last 10 days were pretty crazy and there is no internet in the jungle/pampa in Bolivia, so I really had no opportunity to write. But lets start from La Paz, place we came to after Titicaca. La Paz is basically a huuuuge whole in the ground and the sirroundings are more than pretty with all the snow covered peaks looming above the city... but other than that it is polluted and grey and noizy (imagine a closed garage with car´s engine on) so after only one day we decided to move on to Rurrenabaque, a gateway to the jungle and the pampa in the northern Bolivia. We bought tickets for a 20 hour bus ride on something that they called a road and next day we woke up in a paradise. So different from La Paz... First thing I saw was a boy with a green parrot on his shoulder, then it was only better. We went to the jungle with people from local indigenous community, our guide was raised in the forest so going with him was amazing. We didnt see a puma but 20 wild pigs were cool, too. And the monkey who came to play with the 3 year old son of the guide, I took some nice photos of them but I cant upload them right now... we are waiting in La Paz for another bus, this time headed south, to Uyuni where we are going on the salt lake tour. But going back to the jungle, if you ever get there, stay longer. I wish we had more than few days for that. Sleeping in the rain forest with all the night sounds of wild life is unforgettable. We had some night life fun too, as drinks in Rurre are cheap and we met some interesting Swedish people (man, they can drink).
After the jungle (came back on the bus, again 20 hours on a road that makes you pray for your life) we came back to highlands and went to a cute little village called Sorata. It is one of the best places to be for hiking and trekking in the Yungas mountains, you can choose from at least 20 different trekks, walk thru villages where people seem not to care about tourists at all, watch how they play and work. The privacy doesnt seem to exist as we understand it: women breast-feed in public, children check their heads for lice, little boys pee naked on the main square. We hiked for only two days as the trip is starting to take up our energy, but, still, it was amazing. We hiked with 2 crazy French travellers and now we have an invite to the French Island near Mauritius :) Thats something for the next trip!!!

NOV 25, 2007 (25 LISTOPAD, 2007)
After Titicaca...
Titicaca to najprawdopodobniej najbardziej przereklamowane jezioro na swiecie. Od kiedy tylko pamietam czytalam relacje z podrozy nad Titicace, ogladalam zdjecia lokalnych plemion itede. Tym czasem, po 5 dniach spedzonych na roznych wyspach po stronie Peru i Bolivii, musze stwierdzic ze Jezioro Lagowskie jest jakies 300 razy ladniejsze. Oczywiscie, ciezko jest konkurowac z jeziorami w Lagowie, wiec jezioru Titicaca nie jest latwo w tej konkurencji. Zarty na bok: jezioro jest ogromne i jest sliczne, ale bez przesady. Nie wiem o co tyle krzyku, tym bardziej ze "indianie" po obu stronach granicy i na slynnych wyspach z trzciny, zyja juz tylko pod turystow i dla ich pieniedzy, bardzo smutny widok. Zebrajace dzieci wysylane przez rodzicow "do pracy" to tylko jeden przyklad. Inny to to ze tylko niewiele osob probowalo nam sprzedac wlasne wyroby, reszta sprzedaje taki sam szajs jak widac w Cuzco i wszedzie indziej.

The above text is in Polish since I am complaining in it about how commercialized the Lake Titicaca has become. And as you know, no other language is better for complaining than Polish. I spent the last 5 days on floating Uros islands, Amantani and Taquile Island on Peruvian side, and the Isla Del Sol on the Bolivian side. It was great, especially the Amantani Island where people still seem to live for themselves, not for tourists, but overall I think Titicaca is less interesting then other places in Peru... yep, for sure. The Peruvian side we saw with a group of elderly French, one of them speaking English so we could communicate. They were actually more fun than the Indigenous people we met. I think I will start (again) learning French to be able to talk to French people. We also met two folks from France, this time younger than 60, who spend few weeks in Bolivia teaching people how to build ovens powered by sun. Bolivia is really poor, even poorer than Peru, so people who learn how to build such oven, save a lot on energy, if they have any. I thought those French people were really great, doing much more than just giving tips to begging kids, so I wanted to write about them.
If you ever get to Puno, go and see the Amantani Island only, it was a true experience. No electricity, food from clay oven... We asked the family who hosted us what they needed and they wanted.. painkillers for toothache as they have no pharmacy and no doctor on the island. They are so poor and so humble, yet nice people you can only imagine. all other islands were crap for tourists, including the famous Isla del Sol, where hiking is listed in Lonely Planet as one of the best in Central Andes. BS. The island is OK, but hiking was boring. Locals instead of making money selling something, like in Peru, divided the Island in two. Three guys sit on their asses whole day charging a fee if you want to cross from South to North. The fee includes entrance to ruins which are just bunch of boulders. Waste of time. We are in La Paz now (it is late at night) and I am really happy we will get to see mountains and jungle now.

NOV 21, 2007 (21 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Puno
Hey, IMQ people, thanks for your emails! I miss you, too. Maybe one day you could all move to Europe? ;) I am in Puno now, after another night on a bus, this time with broken windows which resulted in the entire floor, boots, socks and backpacks wet (the rainy season has already started but so far days are beautiful and it rains nights only). Puno is very far from being pretty but there is a huge indigenous population here. And the Lake Titicaca, of course, which we will be visiting for the next 3 days. I cant wait coz we will also sleep with a local family on one of the islands and they dont have electricity there. So finally will get some sleep. Today we went to see another Inka ruins (I think thats enough) and on our way we} stopped to see how local Quechua speaking people live in their stone houses. IT was AMAZING! I will try to post some pix from this stone house soon. Everything is built with stones and they only sleep inside a small chamber. The rest is outside, including little stone houses for their guinea pigs which are not pets but.. to be eaten. Well, at least they have short but good lives. I will post th picks and Titicaca adventure blurb in about 3 or 4 days. See ya!

NOV 20, 2007 (20 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cuzco
So, the last week we spent on the Sacred Valley with ruins of Pisaq and Ollentayambo as highlights, then Machu Picchu and now the crazy, pretty but terribly touristy town of Cuzco (Cozco in the Quechua language). Tomorrow we will already be at the Titicaca Lake and I wanted to write a short summary of the last week, but to be honest I dont know how and what to start with... Of course Machu Picchu is amazing (we got there at 6 AM so managed to beat the crowds!) and of course this whole Inca empire is awesome. But at the same time so many things have been said and written on it (not to mention photos) that I decided I will just paste few picks here and .. that should be enough. This is also at the request of Koyot from Poznan who asked for more visual effects.
The two photos of indigena women were obtained only upon paying them one sol each. People here really wear their original outfits, it is not for tourists only. But at the same time they dont like being stared at and I almost never take photos of them without permission and permission requires cash. This has an ungly side however since they learn how to make money on tourists and even send children with little sheep and baby lamas to work like that while they should be at school. Dilemma is; have or have not nice photos? In Ollantayambo I met a man from Quechua speeking community in Andes who told me that in his village only men speak Spanish. Women dont which means that also children dont. There is a British woman on Ollantayambo that works with those women to teach their children Spanish BEFORE they go to school. Tipically when they do go to school at the age of 7, they speak Quechua only and they immediately stay behind other kids and never catch up. Education in Peru is in Spanish only. The UK granny who works with Indian women can be found here; maybe you will want to look up her website and see what she does. Pretty amazing.


NOV 20, 2007 (20 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Peru; Nazca and road to Cuzco
After the initial transitional period, we really started to like Peru and Peruvians are great people. From LIma we went to Nazca (thru earthquake affected area of Pisco where people still live in tents... ) and stayed in a hostel run by a Dutch Peruvian couple. If you ever look for lodging in Nazca the Hostel Brabant is a good place, they arranaged all bus tickets we needed for later (to Cuzco) and the flight over the lines in no time. The flight in low season, which thank God is right now, is 45 dollars, in high season it is around 60 dollars, but I think it is worth it. Many people had told me in the past not to take it, but I disagree, it is a great experience. Even though puking is a part of it. Nazca itself is a good place for some rest (it is small and pleasant), to see bunch of mummies in pre-Inka cemetary and for sandboarding, they have the highest dune in the world! The town hasnt been affected by the last earthquake and right now there is so few tourists there that you can forget you are one... Nice.
Going from Nazca to Cuzco means you need to take another bus, thru Andes, 12 to 16 hours. It was almost like the small plane above the lines, people throw up sometimes coz the curves never end, plus you go from 600 meters above sea level to almost 3000 meters. Taking bus is much better than flying (from LIma) though, as you have time to get used to the altitude. In Cuzco we met some people who flew in and they felt pretty crappy. So going to Nazca and then on to Cuzco by bus was a good idea except for this; we woke up around 5 Am in the middle of the Andean passage and saw a huge rockslide just ahead of us. The bus, obviously, could not pass. It was only possible to walk on the rocks and hike on to Cuzco but Cuzco was still.. 6 hours by bus ahead of us!! Then guess what happened... All the Peruvian men from various buses, cars and semi legal camionetas got off their cars and started taking off rock by rock, stone by stone until, 3 hours later, a small flat area was cleared and small cars, being pushed and pulled, managed to go thru. It was amazing see those tiny people organize so fast and not even wait for police or cranes. One more hour and the flat area was big enough for trucks and finally... for our bus. We were 5 hours late in Cuzco, but 5 is stil better than 15.

NOV 19, 2007 (19 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Peru, Lima
Finally! I know I havent been updating this blog for a while but you know how South America is: MAÑANA. To be totally honest I could not force myself to sit in front of a computer for couple of days, trying to forget about the outside world. Than we went to Sacred Valley where internet is very slow and very scarce, and this is how I ended up not writing for 10 days. Hey, Dan, no, we did not suffer from the earthquake in Chile, we were already in Peru when it happened. Thanks for asking though, someone is reading the news at work :)
So, after a very long and rough journey thru Ushuaia, Punta Arenas and Santiago (delays, 4 hour sleep in downtown Santiago) we finally arrived to Lima on November 12th and immediately... wanted to go back. The first 2 days in Peru was a culture and hygiene shock, oh how can one miss toilet paper and soap. The level of poverty in outskirts of Lima is pretty depressing and one has to get used to it. Even Chile and Argentina seem to be reach countries comparing to Peru and Lima itself is so dirty, overpopulated and huge that very few poeple actually like it. After few hours though we ¨discovered¨ the pretty downtown with Spanish style plazas, churches and nightlife (outside of churches) and we had a good time walking around and people watching. Also, our hotel was amazing. This photo was taken on the 3rd floor of it, 3 tortugas live their slow life happily in Hostal Espana.
Two days after the arrival to Peru we managed to get bus tickets to Nazca (35 pesos) and again, culture shock was huge. I used to travel on public buses in countries such as Mexico, Brasil and Poland (Oh, PKS) before but bus from Lima to Nazca was.. just too much. I wont go into details right now but I recommend buses FLORES if you like being stuck on a dirty, delayed bus with a movie including scenes of public sex in a mall full of Japanese tourists, a violent movie dubbed in Spanish with all the vocabulary I forgot since my Erasmus year and from which konio (spelling?) is the nicest. But, finally the FLORES bus took us to Nazca where my GREAT Peru experience started. This I have to describe tomorrow though, coz they are closing the cafe.. Oh God....

NOV 8, 2007 (8 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego
I have received some complaints from Dr. Law that this blog is written to much in Polish so here comes my final piece on Ushuaia entirely in English; tomorrow we are already going to Santiago and then Lima and we are pretty happy about getting out of here although we had really good time so far. Hiking possibilities are endless (mountains and Tierra Del Fuego National Park), not too mention wildlife viewing (beaver immigrants from Canada). At the same time city itself isnt very pretty and best entertainmet here is just to stay at your hostel and talk to other backpackers. We just met a couple from Holland that has travelled more in Poland that we have ever had so it was cool to receive so much useful information about our own country. There is also many Israelis here, often with Polish roots, so the toppics include "Polish mothers giving their children too much medications for travelling". Now, on to penguins. I inlude a photo from the penguin safari you can do from Ushuaia with only one company that has a permit to walk on the penguin owned beaches. You can get to the creatures pretty close, the groups are tiny so hopefully we didnt bother them too much. They sit on their eggs right now and the guide told us that Magellean penguins stay together with the same mate for life. The female chooses the mate ONLY based on how nice his little hole in the ground (nest) is. If the guy has a nest far away from the shore and neatly built he will get chosen by a penguin lady. Not that much different than humans, ha? See you in Peru.

NOV 6, 2007 (6 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Strait Of Magellan
After 13 hours on bus from Puerto Natales to Ushuaia we arrived at this ¨southernmost city on earth.. The trip itself was very interesting, we crossed the Magellan Strait and Chilean-Argentinian border (2 more stamps in passports), the views were marvellous. This is something you miss when you take a plane... There was a penguin swimming in the Magellan Strait waters and there was this silence and the feeling of being VERY far away. It is so easy to imagine Magellans ship crossing the strait in 1520 and his astonishment when he saw smoke coming from numerous fires on the island on his left; the land of Smoke... These were Indians, the Yamana tribe, warning other tribes agains the intruders, Magellan saw the smoke only but later on, the king of Spain was smart enough to notice that there was no smoke without the fire and so he names the "new" island The Land Of Fire. Tierra Del Fuego. The place hasnt changed that much since than, there is the ferry and the Indians are gone but the actual place still looks rough and somehow hostile.

NOV 5, 2007 (5 LISTOPAD, 2007)
Park Torres Del Paine, Chile
Hello again, this time I will put some effort into writing in English since I wanted to say few words about Torres del Paine, I cant imagine there is a more beautiful place on the face of this planet... We decided to do the famous W trek and although Lonely Planet says everyone does it, in fact it was very empty as soon you went little bit further from the catamaran or the bus that brings tourists. It took us 5 days and I thought I would be the first person to do it in summer style snickers but.. no, there was more people like me. I will try to post the photos soon but to be totally honest photos dont show anything. The mountains are so beautiful, so amazing, so different than anything else Ive seen so far. We met people who came for the 8th time just to see the Torres again. The treck was not easy, the third day (going to Valle Frances) took us 12 hours non stop hiking and I felt dizzy by the end but every second of it was worth all the effort.
The full circuit was closed and it was still a pre season which is actually great coz there were not that many other hikers and the snow is still there, present even in the valleys and mountains look even more beautiful. We started from the Torres lookout and it was a good decision since the catamaran that day was cancelled due to wind, it happens often, even in the season so it is best to take the bus from P. Natales and get off at the firts stop, take mini bus to Las Torres hostel and start from there. By the end, when you end up at the Glacier Grey and the catamaran is still cancelled, you can hike to the bus to return. It is extra 5 hours of hike but it is flat and doable... The trek was about 70 kilometers and if you are tough enough you can sleep in tents since hostels (refugios) are VERY expensive (35 dollars per night per person in a dorm), prices of food are even more ridiculous, but again, the place is worth every penny. You will meet incredible people on your way, just like we did. Greetings to Jose Maria from Barcelona and Xavier ;) After the hike we came back to P. Natales, claimed our lost baggage (yes, it was waiting for us!!!) and took a bus to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, but about this later...

OCT 31, 2007 (31 PAZDZIERNIKA, 2007)
DONDE ESTA MI MALETA????!!!!!!
Praktyke hiszpanskiego zaczelismy natychmiast po wyladowaniu w Santiago de Chile, kiedy okazalo sie ze zaginely nasze plecaki. Zaczelo sie jeszcze w LA, kiedy ledwo zdazylismy na samolot do Chile, widocznie nasze walizki nie biegly tak szybko jak my... Jestesmy wiec bezpiecznie w Puerto Natales, niestety mamy ze soba jedna pare gaci i skarpetek na osobe, a jutro juz ruszamy do Torres del Paine i nie mozemy czekac na nasze plecaki, bo przepadna nam rezerwacje na refugios. Idziemy wiec zaraz na miasto kupic jakies ubrania na zmiane, pozyczyc plecak i spiwory, moze do czasu powrotu ze szlaku bagaze sie znajda... a moze nie. Maniana.
W kazdym razie Patagonia jest niesamowita i nawet po jednym dniu, nawet bez ubran i gaci, cieszymy sie ze tu jestesmy... Chmury mieszaja sie z osniezonymi szczytami gor, te z kolei pasuja swoja biela do futerek owiec, ktore spokojnie pasa sie na lakach. Miedzy owcami napotkac mozna strusie i flamingi (powaznie), a krajobraz jest tak surowy jak tylko jest to mozliwe, i tak piekny jak tylko jest to mozliwe. Gory, ocean, chmury, owce, gory, ocean.... Samo Puerto Natales jest niemal wylacznie baza dla wyruszajacych do Torres, ale robi dobre wrazenie, ludzie sa ciepli i mili. Dzisiaj jest dzien zaduszny, ale tutaj widac ze zwyciezyla kultura amerykanska, bo dzieciaki biegaja w maskach za cukierkami. Procedura zakupu skarpetek wygladala tak, pani numer 1 zeskanowala je, pani numer 2 (po odczekaniu w kolejce jakies 10 minut) wystawila nam rachunek i przyjela gotowke, nastepnie pani numer 3 zazadala wystawionego przed chwila rachunku i energicznie go podbila czerwona pieczatka, po czym wreczyla nam upragnione i wyczekane skarpety. Jest fajnie. Napewno inaczej niz w Ameryce, chociaz ten caly Halloween i reklamy Coca coli przypominaja niektore smutne jej aspekty.
Teraz pare faktow dla planujacych podroz do Torres i szukajacych praktycznych informacji;
-Z lotniska Puerto Arenas mozna dostac sie do Punto Natales bezposrednio, bez wycieczki do P. Arenas miasta (jak usiluje wmowic pan przy informacji) tylko trzeba zadzwonic na Bus Fernandez i powiedziec im zeby zatrzymali sie na lotnisku. Oczywsicie niemal nikt nie mowi po angielsku wiec nalezy uzbroic sie w slowniczek i duzo cierpliwosci. Bilet w jedna strone kosztuje teraz 5000 pesos, ale sa firmy oferujace to samo za 3000-4000. Autobus byl pelen i zajelismy 2 ostatnie miejsca.
-W P. Natales moge polecic hostel Nikos II Adventures, w ktorym wlasciciel moze zabukowac autobus do Torres, wypozyczyc plecak, powiedziec gdzie i co, widac ze sie znaja. Cena za dwojke bez lazienki 24 dolary ze sniadaniem, 2 kroki do "centrum", warunki przyzwoite.
-Autobus do Torres odjezdza codziennie o 7.20 rano. Jest inny kolo 14.00 ale to za pozno zeby cos zobaczyc tego samego dnia.
-Autobus do Ushuaia (Arg) tez codziennie o 7.30 ale trzeba bukowac 2-3 dni wczesniej, w sezonie (grudzien-luty) nawet tydzien. Cena 28.000 za osobe, duzo, ale autobus jedzie 13 godzin (z P. Natales).
-Ogolnie jest drogo, jedzenie, wszystko, na oko drozej niz w Kalifornii. Powaga.

In Short in English; luggage lost but we are already having great time! Hard to believe we were in SF 24 hours ago...
OCT 18, 2007 (18 PAZDZIERNIKA, 2007)
Goodbye USA! PRZYGOTOWANIA
Ok, this is our last week in the US and I started this blog to keep everyone updated on our upcoming trip to South America... We will first travel to Southern Patagonia (Park Torres del Paine) and Tierra del Fuego, then on to Lima and from there... will see. We plan to stay 2 weeks in Nothern Peru, 3 weeks in Bolivia and a week or so in Northern Chile. We do have a route sorted out (yellow dots on your right) but decided to take it easy and see where we want to go and stay longer, so... read the blog (which I will try to updated every few days) to see where we are at the moment.
Do wyjazdu zostaly nam tylko 10 dni i jest troche nerwowo. Nie chodzi o podroz do Ameryki Poludniowej, ale wyprowadzke ze Stanow ogolnie. Mieszkalismy tu tylko 3 lata ale zgromadzilismy cala mase niepotrzebnych sprzetow i papierow, trzeba pozbyc sie mebli, samochodu, odlaczyc telefon, dac wypowiedzenie w pracy, pozegnac sie ze znajomymi, obiecac wszystkim ze jeszcze kiedys sie zobaczymy, zapewnic wszystkich ze musza nas koniecznie odwiedzic w Polsce, wyslac statkiem wazace kilkanascie kilo albumy ze zdjeciami oraz te rzeczy, ktorych jednak zal nam zostawic i tym podobne. Na planowanie wyprawy zostaje wiec malo czasu i energii i sprowadza sie to glownie do zameczania e-mailami z pytaniami kolegi z Wawy oraz przegladania opaslego przewodnika Lonely Planet (forum Lonely Planet jest duzo bardziej przydatne niz ksiazka, ale ksiazke mozna czytac w drodze do pracy oraz w toalecie). Szukanie informacji bezposrednio na stronach firm z Peru czy Boliwii jest dosyc skomplikowane: raczej po hiszpansku i raczej nie na temat. Jednoczesnie niektore z tych stronek sa tak zrobione ze milo popatrzec, piekne, nowoczesne, obrazki, kolory, wypasy, zyciorys wlasciciela i jego syna dostepny, peany na czesc klientow, historia firmy i... krotka notka o polaczeniach autobusowych, ale cen i czasu trwania podrozy juz brak. Trzeba bedzie przestawic sie z myslenia amerykanskiego na myslenie "jakos sie tam dostaniemy"... Nastepny wpis bedzie juz z Patagonii :)

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