For a day trip we jumped on a bus and headed west from San Miguel to the port suburbs of Callao and La Punta. Both of which are located on a boot shaped peninsula of Lima.

There isn't really much to say about Callao. It looked to be a once thriving port city that has now become a less than desirable part of Lima.  We visited some markets in the area as it didn't seem so bad during the day light hours, but it's not an area to be after night fall.  According to our guide book, it's an area known for prostitutes and gang activity.


While in Callao, we made it over to the Fortaleza de Real Felipe (Fortress of Real Felipe) and took a guided tour of the fortress which was built by the Spanish in 1764.  At the time it was built, it was used by the Spanish as a fortress to keep Lima safe from pirates.

After our first 3 nights in Miraflores at a hostel, we've spent the last week staying at a family home in San Miguel while we searched for an apartment and Spanish school. The family we are staying with is the parents of our Oklahoma City Spanish tutor. It's been really interesting living in a Peruvian family home and we've really enjoyed the experience. They live on the 3rd floor of a building which previously used to be the single story home of the mom's parents. As the some of the daughters have married, they built a new level above for their new family. As an Oklahoman, it is interesting that their home doesn't have either an air conditioner or heater.  Back home that would be horrible, but because of the consistent ambient temperature in Lima (usually between 54°F and 84°F year round) there isn't much of a need for either. Instead, they always have have a lot of air flow with their windows opened at both ends of the house.

This was the first time I let a beard grow on purpose and I was impressed with it's wiriness and zest for life. At 22 days, it was at least 15 days longer then any beard has ever survived on my face.  Try as I might, I fell short of my goal of keeping it going until our return in September.  Day 22 was just to much, it was itching something fierce and I decided it had to go.  Beard, it was fun while it lasted.  Maybe if I ever become homeless or an old man living by the sea I'll give you another shot.

We've made it to Lima from Cuzco after a 21 hour bus ride with a Presidential Cama (bed). Not our best night sleep but it worked for $36/each. Best feature, it included breakfast at a restaurant about 4 hours outside of Lima, which let you get off the bus and stretch a bit.


Between now and our final flight home (Sept 1st), we hope to travel around on the weekends while we complete a 4 week Spanish course.

We've made it! 18 days later we arrived in Lima having accumulated 94 bus hours. According to Google Maps, that is over 3,580 miles which is the roughly the equivalent of a road trip from Oklahoma City to Anchorage, Alaska

BA -> Mendoza (13.5 hrs)
Mendoza -> Santiago (7 hrs
Santiago -> Valparaiso (1.5 hrs)
Valparaiso -> Santiago (1.5 hrs)
Santiago -> Calama (21 hrs)
Calama -> San Pedro (1.5 hrs)
San Pedro -> Arica (9 hrs)
Arica -> Tacna (2 hrs)
Tacna -> Arequipa (6 hrs)
Arequipa -> Cusco (10 hrs)
Cuzco -> Lima (21 hrs)

Sixteen days after we left Buenos Aires and 73 hours between 10 different buses, we finally made it to Machu Picchu.  This day was what kept us positive about our decision to take the bus instead of a direct flight to Lima.

After a quick 30 minute accent from the bus stop, we met with our group for our 2 hour guided tour.  The view from up top was incredible, but it took about an hour before the fog cleared enough to actually get a full view of the ruins and surrounding mountains.

Getting to Machu Picchu from Cuzco is really a half day affair, which pretty much requires spending the night in the small town of Agua Calientes (Hot Springs) located at the bottom of the mountain.  From Cuzco it's a 2 hour car ride to the train station of Ollantaytambo and then an hour and a half train ride. So like most visitors, we tied in a trip to some of the Sacred Valley sites on our way to the train station.  The Sacred Valley is an area located north of Cuzco that has a large concentration of archaeological sites considered to be important to the Incas.

Our trip through the Sacred Valley tour included two sites; Pisaq and Ollantaytambo.

Pisaq is a site located on the side of a mountain that contains a huge number of terraces used for agricultural purposes (mainly corn and potatoes).  Although it seems like you are already so high up, there is still a huge series of mountains behind it which provides the endless supply of water required to irrigate the terraces.  In addition to the terraces there was a small city thought to be used for defense purposes located on top.

This is what 23 and a half hours on a bus looks like.......

We took Tur-Bus from Santiago to San Pedro de Atacama

Boarding the bus

Hour 1

Valparaios and Viña del Mar are two twin cities located on the Pacific Ocean.  Valparaiso is a very old shipping port (with occasional cruise ships) and contains a Chilean Navy Base, where as Vina del Mar is the trendier beach town located about 10 miles up the coast.

Two of the items on our South American wish list was to ski in the Andes Mountain and visit Bariloche in Argentina, which is located along the Chilean border in the Patagonian region of Argentina.  Bariloche is a picturesque mountain town which looks like it could be located in the Swiss Alps. 

Bariloche, Argentina Pre -Ash

  But a volcano in Chile ruined our plans.  While waiting for the winter snow to arrive in Argentina, the volcano started erupting ash that coated Bariloche with a deep layer ash. We waited patiently for some sort of good news from Bariloche but even 4 weeks after the intial eruption, the ash was still raining down. 

Bariloche, Argentina Post-Ash

  When it came time for us to start making our way to Peru, the volcano hadn't stopped spewing ash.  The ash cloud had circled the globe causing flight cancellations throughout South America, New Zealand and Australia. We reluctantly decided to skip Bariloche and proceed directly to Santiago with a stop through in Mendoza. As luck would have it, our backup ski resort in Santiago received 12 inches of fresh snow. 

Even though it was only 25 miles outside of Santiago, it took our shuttle 2 hours each way to get us up our resort, Valle Nevado.

Seven hours later and almost without incident, we made it though the Andes Mountains and arrived in Santiago, Chile this afternoon.


I say almost because a Chilean drug dog hit on Elizabeth's purse.  Oh she actually was smuggling, but not drugs.  She forgot she had picked up two apples from our hostels as we fled out the door this morning at 7:30 am.  The Customs officer scolded her for checking the box that said she wasn't bringing in any organic items.  He asked her if should could read (yes it was in English also) and if so, why did she check "no". While the rest of the bus watched on, she had to fill our a new deceleration form with the "yes" box checked as they confiscated her precious apples.

The Providence of Mendoza is our final destination in Argentina. The decision to upgrade ourselves to the full cama (bed) bus for the this 14 hour bus ride was a great idea. It end up being the Lufthansa of buses.  The bus had a stewardess and included a free mini bottle of wine, a large dinner and a mini breakfast.

Mendoza is located at the foothills of the Andes Mountain range along the Argentinean and Chilean border.  It is a popular tourist spot in the both the summer and winter.  In the summer for their are hiking, horseback riding, rafting, and many other adventure sports excursions.  In the winter many people arrive for the ski resorts located in the Andes Mountains. In addition to tourism, Mendoza has two additional major industries; wine and olive oil production.  Mendoza is the largest wine producing area in Latin America and is considered one of the top ten wine capitals of the world.


Because of this we took a wine tour which of coarse included some wine tasting!!!