nearing the end!

well gang its true, the sparkle tog 2009 is coming to a close. i have about a month left in my trip before i head back to the good ol US of A. im in brazil at the moment and will be here till my flight back. again i left alot to write about but here goes of what i can recall. so after the salt flats i headed south then north to potosi. it is know for the huge silver mine that they discovered. the spanish found it or heard about it and took all the silver back to spain. now there is only zinc and some other minerals left so its just cooperative groups of bolivians left mining what they can. i ended up going on a tour of the mines and it was crazy. hot, dusty, not a great place to be working especially since there isnt much money in it. but there still going at it so here are a few pictures.

the mountain (cant recall the name)

climbing around in the mine. we ended up going about 900 meters into the mountain.

workers in the mine

next up was sucre. and i didnt take many pictures of the town because i wasnt in the mood i guess. i took some spanish classes and ate lots of good food. there were these fruit salads in the market, goat cheese, wine, chocolate. its really know for its chocolate and it was great. i was going to bring some home but i ended up eating it on the bus from sucre to santa cruz. i should have put it in my big bag not the little one with me but youll just have to go taste for yourself.

mask museum in sucre

i went to santa cruz next to sort out my brazilian visa then went back to samaipata to see some archaelogical ruins...El Fuerte. samaipata was a great relaxing small town. nice change from sucre and santa cruz which are both relatively big cities. el fuerte was kind of a crazy place. just this big rock on a ridge that people, pre inca, carved on. it looked like they carves a space ship out of the rock. doors and windows...strange and lots of work. impressive all the same.

el fuerte

el fuerte

samaipata

after i decided to go check out the jesuit mission circuit before heading to brazil. i wanted to get off the main track and sure did. stopped in four different towns and it was slow going. buses didnt leave everyday and at odd times so i wandered around small towns and waited alot. nice break but slow. and all the missions started looking alike so i was ready for brazil when i made it.

jesuit mission

jesuit mission

mission

picture at the mission

i took a train from san jose de chicitos (something like that) to the border then over to corumba in brazil. and wow i knew brazil was going to be expensive compared to everywhere ive been but it was shocking. getting me ready to be back in the states i guess. the first place i really stayed was bonito and it was beautiful. ended up taking a couple tours, one to a bunch of waterfalls, one snorkling and one rapeling into a cave. the rivers in the area are super clear and clean because they spring out of the ground. but the rapel onto the cave was great. it was 70 some meter rapel into the cave, 30 stories, and there was a lake at the bottom that was 80 meters deep at its deepest point. the cave was huge and really beautiful. then we had to climb the ropes back out, absailing, and that was a bit of a challenge. but great fun.

bonito

cave

ben and i in the cave

the hostel we were in in bonito had some really fun people and we ended up heading to iguazu falls next. first to the argentinian side then to the brazilian side. i was in argentina only for a couple of days but managed to fill up on steak while there. the falls were amazing! nothing like ive seen before and no wonder so many people go. immense.

iguazu falls

iguazu falls

iguazu falls

after seeing the brazilian side i caught a bus to belo horizonte then on to ouro preto to meet up with my aunt sharon. ouro preto is a beautiful and steep city. they discovered gold here some time ago and thats why the city was founded. lots of green hills, churches and jewelery stores.

ouro preto

ouro preto

look at the size of that brazilian snail!

sharon and jenny in ouro preto

waterfall we hiked to one day

and so here we are up to the present. i said goodbye to sharon and the gang, hello everyone, left ouro preto and decided to come to diamantina north of belo horizonte. another beautiful city with lots of churches and rolling green hills. just relaxing and wandering around the hills. next up im off to meet some friends who live near curitiba, felipe and tati for those who know them. and just wile away my time visiting until i make my was back home.

diamantina

they like togs here!

.......Kid, the next time I say, "Let's go someplace like Bolivia," let's GO someplace like Bolivia.

and here are some more pictures of the festival in the town near la paz. tiahuanaco parade

tiahuanaco festival ladies dancing

next up on jenny´s itinerary was cochabamba, because there is a national park just south of there where there are dinosaur footprints in the rock! i got to cochabamba on a sunday and there was yet another festival and parade going on. it was independence day for cochabamba or something and i actually say evo morales the president of bolivia. on monday i went by the tourist office to see when to catch a bus to toro toro (dinosaur footprint place) and turns out buses only go on wednesdays and sundays. so i decided to hang out till then and caught a bus wednesday night to toro toro. got there at about 1:30 in the morning and luckily there was a hotel right next to the bus station open and cheap too. next morning i went to the park office and got a guide to go and see some of the sights and here they are.

some canyon i dont remember the name


dinosaur footprints


dinosaur footprints (teradactyl)

thats right more dinosaur footprints

hills around toro toro

toro toro

took the next bus back to cochabamba because they are very infrequent and didn´t want to get stuck in toro toro. went via cochabamba to oruro then by train on to uyuni to see the salar de uyuni (largest salt flat in the world). i ended up getting a tour with 5 other people to see the salt flats and it is probably the most sureal place ive ever been before. the salt flats themselves were... well just a sea of white. used to be part of the ocean some time ago and now just white ground.

salt hotel

salt flats from fish island.

salt flats again

thats me on his head

after the salt flats we went and saw some volcanos and also some lakes and here they are.

volcan ollague (active)

this is lake coloraada. bright red and parts bright blue. the white is mostly borax deposits but some sodium, magnesium and gypsum.

laguna colorada

another lake

this is near the geysers (bubbling hot mud)

flamingos at laguna colorada

laguna verde and volcan licancaabur (5960m)

this is the borax lake

after the salt flats i made it to tupiza the next evening. i was actually supposed to catch a bus at 6:00 in the morning but slept in and missed it. but met another girl from france that also missed the same bus and we ended up catching a ride in the afternoon in an suv. there are tours that start in tupiza and end in uyuni and the suvs go back to tupiza in the afternoon so that was a nice break. felt a bit sick in tupiza (food poisoning i think). so i just hiked outside of town one day to some dry waterfall. right outside of tupiza in a small town is supposidly where butch cassidy and the sundance kid died and are buried. not for sure but thats the story. really hot dry place tupiza.

outside tupiza

outside tupiza

outside tupiza

as for now im in tarija known for wine. my stomach is still a bit quezy but gonna do some wine tasting despite it all. apparently the grapes grown here are some of the highest in the world. worth a try!

back by popular demand

ok really machu picchu is why the sparkle tog is back so soon. surprised? i certainly am. but i heard the clamor for more and i do take requests so here is the latest (ok just mark and debbie asked for machu picchu so hello and here it is). but first after ica and the dunes i made a quick stop by the nazca lines to see what they were all about. declined to take a flight but heard they were great...maybe next time. after my time in lima because of the pirates i was in a bit of a hurry to get to bolivia for... i don´t know why. it was just one of the countries i was really looking forward to my whole trip so i rushed through southern peru leaving some unfinished business for next time i make it here.

nazca lines from the mirador tower outside of nazca

ended taking a night bus from nazca to cuzco because that was the only choice i had. would have been nice to see the scenery during the day but not able.

cuzco

cuzco plaza

cuzco

i only ended up spending that first day in cuzco then took the bus route to aguas calientes at the base of machu picchu. had to catch a bus at 800 to santa teresa then caught a share taxi past santa maria to the hydro electra where there is a short train to aguas calientes. i met three other people on the bus so we shared a ride to the train then ended up just hiking 2 hrs or so along the tracks to the city. the last part of the hike was in the dark but it was along train tracks so easy. the next day myself and this austrailian fellow who i had met the day before got up and left our hotel at 400 in the morning to hike to the entrance of machu picchu. we both wanted to get a ticket or number to be able to hike up wayna picchu which is the big hill next to the picchu. they only allow 200 people up a day so you have to hike up early to get in line and beat the buses to make sure you are one of the first 200 people in line. so it took up an hour and a half or so to hike up to the entrance...not an easy feat mind you. but we made it and were in machu picchu early. it is really an amazing place. the picchu is on a ridge surrounded by steep mountains. myself and paul (the austrailian) wandered around until ten when we were able to climb wayna picchu and it was switchbacks up to the top of the hill but the view was spectactular from the top. worth the early morning frantic hurry hike up to the entrance.

mountains surrounding machu picchu
wierd rabbit looking animal in the ruins

machu picchu

machu picchu with wayna picchu in the background (its the tallest one)

a llama seemingly very proud of machu picchu

machu picchu from wayna picchu

by the way its really hard to pick pictures that ive taken cause there are so many and it takes a bit of time to put them up so if anyone wants to see more of any one thing let me know and i can do a greatest hits sometime.

i ended up splurging and taking the easy train route back to cuzco which was nice. there were so many things to see around cuzco and i really wanted to get a move on to bolivia that i left alot to come back to. so i left the next day for puno then on to copacabana in bolivia. ended up getting my visa for bolivia at the border for a whopping 135 us dollars. the same for when i get my visa for brazil. i guess since the us charges them then they charge us. just fair i guess but talking to people from europe who dont have to pay anything gets to you a bit.

ran into paul the austrailian again in copacabana and ended up going straight to the island of the sun to stay. it was really peaceful and quite. relaxed mostly and took a boat to the north of the island to see some ruins then back to copacabana.

island of the sun looking back at copacabana

in the north of the island of the sun

sunset from copacabana

la paz

stayed in la paz for a few days. actually stayed at this place called adventure brew (very famous with travelers) and it was a brewery. so dont everyone worry i drank plenty for everyone. and we were able to go on a brewery tour as well which was so much fun. other than that we went to tiahuanaco, some more mysterious ruins outside of la paz. there are plenty of mysteries here in peru and bolivia. the stones on the ruins are super square its amazing way back when they could get them so square. i also heard the rock came from lake titticaca which is where copacabana is and its really not close. big rocks too. anyway here are some pictures.

tiahuanaco

tiahuanaco

oh yeah there was a festival in town too which was fun. parades, fun costumes, good times

parade

well there you have it for now. until next time..................