And Now, A Moment Of Zen...

Priceless.

Remember that mountain we climbed??

So It kinda just came to my attention that we barely wrote anything about our journey to Machu Picchu last month so I thought I'd post some pics and stuff about it while I've got the internet.

The entire trek lasted 4 days with the best guide we've ever had who showed us all of the ruins that led up to MP and explained their significance to the Incas during that time. He also taught us a special ceremony where people gave respect to Pachamam (mother earth) by stacking rocks and spilling alcohol on the ground before taking a pull, somewhat similar to what Americans do while listening to Pac or Biggie. I'll put a pic of Freddy, our amazing/traditionally named guide, preparing the rocks along with others after I'm done writing.

Anyways, we got to meet a lot of fun people on the trek, one of them being the actress from the hit TV series GREEK. Much to my surprise though, she had no idea who DiNovi was so that relationship was shortly lived. I was shocked to see how many people we were hiking with though. We had to leave for the last leg of the trip to MP somewhere around 4 in the morning just so we could get a chance to experience it without a ton of people. It was well worth it in the end though because there's way more to see there than I ever thought. We didn't get to hike Wayna Picchu (the huge mountain you see in all the postcard pics) due to the weather and tickets being sold out but I guess we'll save that for next time.

The journey ended in a small back-packer town called Aguas Calientes where we met up with our group and Freddy to have some celebration beers. Here are some pictures of the trip, Freddy, us and some sick views. Salud.

-Chaz

Shockhound Chronicles

It as been a long time since the last Chronicle and for that I appologize. Like Damian wrote, we split up and went our separate ways. After the salt flats, Jordan, Emily, and I entered Chile through San Perdo de Atacama. We were only there for a short time but some activities we involved ourselves in were sandboarding, watched the sunset drinking pisco sours on top of a mountain in Valley de la Luna, ending the day with myself getting a mild case of food poisoning. We were in San Pedro for about 24 hours but everyone enjoyed the events of the day.

The following day, we caught an 18 hour bus ride out of San Pedro to La Serena. Due to my approaching departure date to Torre del Paine, I stayed in La Serena for less then a day and went on my own to Santiago later that night. The bus was an easy 8 hour trekk.
Once arriving to Santiago, I stayed with a friend that I met in Tahoe, Greg, for a day or 2. We caught a 15 hour bus ride from Santiago to Puerto Montt, then jumped on a plane to Punta Arenas. We stayed the night in Punta Arenas. The following morning we jumped on a short bus ride to Puerto Natales, roughly about 3 hours. On arrival to Puerto Natales, we started preparing for our 10 day 9 night hike through Torres del Paine. Since we had to carry our own supplies, the food of choice had to be light and easy to make..which just so happen to be ramen noodles and instant oatmeal. So for 10 days, Greg and I experienced the most beautiful scenery while hiking roughly 12-20 KM a day and enjoying Gods gift to earth, ramen and instant oatmeal. The last day was the best of the trip because i woke up knowning I was going to eat something other than ramen for dinner. Other than my excitement to not eat ramen, we saved the best part for last. We woke up at 4 in the morning to hike in the darkness for an hour to watch the sunrise at one of the highest points of Torres del Paine. This is one of the main attractions in Torres due to the amazing colors the sunrise brings on one side then the colors the sun makes as it reflects off the mountain on the other side of you. We lucked out because the morning we woke up to watch the sunrise, there was not a cloud in the sky, unlike majority of the previous mornings. Many pics to come.

Now Greg and I are in Puerto Natales chilling until our flight back to Puerto Montt, which is the 14th of Feb. So if anyone has ever been to Puerto Natales or Punta Arenas, we would love some possible ideas of something to do until our flight. Until then, we will be here...just kinda chillin around.

SH

It`s a little salty...

So we had a few photos posted by some friends that we made on the Salt Flats outside of Uyuni. I thought I would write a quick synopsis of the tour since we haven`t really talked about it at all. First of all Uyuni is a town with nothing there except for tour agencies and hostels.

And don`t touch the switch for the electric water heaters while you were showering, some people found that out the hard way.

We took the 3 day tour, it ended on the border of Chile and Bolivia. Driving through the vast desert over the salt flats was a pretty surreal experience. Never in my life did I ever desire the keys to a super fast car or bike to rip through the salt flats with. It seemed like it was neverending. The first day took us to the Salt Hotel as well as an "island" in the middle of the flats that was littered with cacti. After that we took some goofy pictures on the flats using camera tricks as you will see below. We ended up staying at nother building that was also made of salt and slept on salt beds... pretty cool stuff.

The second day was pretty awesome, we visited some lagoons including the Laguna Colorada which is a multicolored lagoon. The colors are caused by a type of micro-organism that lives in the lagoon as well as the different chemicals. We are all facing the Laguna Colorada in the picture below.

The last day was pretty much driving through some geysers and a dip in the hot springs, very relaxing though it smelled of sulfur. We watched the sun rise over the mountains in the desert which was beautiful. At about mid day we dropped off the crew that was heading to Chile and embarked on our 6 hour drive back to Uyuni. We got to see a sweet little desert town called Villa Del Mar on the way back as well as a cool area of weird rock formations. We also got caught in a dust storm which was pretty neat. We`ll have more stories and pictures up as they come!

Buenos Dias Buenos Aires

Ok I know i said a million times before that there would be pictures and all that jazz, but as i`ve said for the millionth time the internet sucks down here so we gotta wait... possibly til the end of this month. Sorry. But i promise all the pictures will be worth the wait.

As you all may know we went our seperate ways after Bolivia, if you didn`t know then surprise! I´m in Buenos Aires right now getting a jumpstart with the job hunt. Unfortunately I`ve only been here for two nights and have lost my voice due to excessive partying, and apparently Monday nights are huge here (What?) so my chances of making a swift recovery between now and tomorrow are slim at best... oh well.

I happen to be in the country illegally (whoops) now I know a little bit of how it feels to be an illegal immigrant in America... its not that bad. Although i do look over my shoulder for la migre every once in a while. It is very difficult to find a barbarshop in this city. All I want to do is cut my beard off so I don`t resemble a serial killer but I can`t find a good ol fashion barbar who will take a razor blade to my neck.

I can`t speak for the dudes in chile but i`m sure they are having a blast out there, I will see you all the first week of March depending on whether or not I have a job out here... Also spring break plans anyone? who wants to meet me in Miami?

Bolivia... You can survive here for months on $1000.00

We've spent the last few nights in La Paz unwinding and taking in the nightlife. A vacation within a vacation if you will. The city is so unbelievably cheap, as Jordan said, if we manage to spend a hundred dollars in the week we are here that would be an accomplishment. We haven't done any sort of activities yet, but a bike ride down the world's most dangerous road, and a round of golf at the highest golf course in the world are in the plans.

After La Paz we are heading to Uyuni de Solar to see the colored lagoons and the salt flats, that'll be a 3 day trek which we are very much looking forward to. The trek will leave us in San Pedro de Atacama. As I said before the internet here is not the greatest so uploading pictures isn't really an option, but they will come soon enough.

Buenos Aires in less than two weeks... so excited.

GO BEARS!!

Getting Elevated

It has been a bit of time since our last post. Forgive us. The last week has been a very busy and hectic one. We finished up our 4 day 3 night hike of the Machu Picchu trail, it was nothing short of incredible. We will be posting pictures soon, the internet connection at our hostel is subpar. We will post pictures once we can get a better connection.

Cuzco has been my favorite city on the trip so far. It is about 8,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by beautiful mountains and gorgeous landscapes. It is called "the gringo capital of South America." It is quite touristy here, everyone pretty much speaks english and are from all over the world. I'd have to say that Australians are definitely the MVPs of this trip they make everything more enjoyable, so I say "cheers" to them.

Tonight is our last night in Cuzco, we are heading to Puno on an overnight bus to see the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. The islands literally float on the lake, they are made of some sort of wicker and dirt material that is built layer by layer which makes the islands float. Sounds pretty cool. We should be arriving in Puno at around 5 am, we are going to do the half day tour then jump right back onto a bus to Copacobana. At this point we will be across the Bolivian border and on our way to La Paz... The highest capital city in the world. I believe it sits somewhere around 12,000 to 13,000 ft above sea level.

After La Paz the plan is to head down to Uyuni de Solar and explore the Salt Flats and the colored lagoons. That will pretty much be the end of our time in Bolivia. We will keep you all posted and picture will be up soon, we promise.

Go Bears