La Serena, Chile

La Serena is a coastal town in Chile, and while not the most beautiful place in the world, it was amusing.

This is the view of a long walkway out to the beach. On the beach sits one of the tourist attractions of this town, a non-functional lighthouse.

This sign says: "The beach is not suitable for a bathroom." It was appropriately placed, as the beach smelled like people had been using it as a bathroom.

These guys followed us most of the way from the beach back to town. The yellow one reminds me of the dog in the movie The Jerk, and he followed us but wasn't obtrusive. The other little guy was very skittish and scared of us, but followed his buddy just the same. I think he was in training. These are just a couple of the many dogs that have followed us around. Michael says it's because I give them sad eyes and they know they can get food out of me.

Um, just in case you need some plates while making your phone call???

Alto del Carmen

Alto del Carmen is a town in the Huasco Valley of the Atacama Desert of Chile, and home of the Huascoaltino Diaguita indigenous people. The community is fighting a Canadian gold mining company, Barrick, which is building a mine at the head of the valley, where several glaciers sit whose runoff feeds the agriculture there. Originally Barrick wanted to MOVE the glaciers, but resistance to this idea resulted in a change to their proposal, which is to mine right up next to the glaciers instead. The mine is unique in that it will span the border of two countries, Chile and Argentina. The community is concerned that their water source will be contaminated by mine runoff. Barrick assures them they have put all the needed protections in place to assure that doesn't happen. Adding a layer of complexity to the situation is the fact that the valley has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, and many people welcome the jobs the mine will bring. Construction on the mine began at the end of September, 2009. Below are photos of evidence of resistance to the mine in Alto del Carmen. I think that there is probably quite a dilemma for Chile over the issue of mining and the environment, as mining is huge in the Atacama, and employs many people, yet there are serious envirnomental concerns over mining with long term consequences.

I'm not sure why this miner's hat says "Larrick'" as the company is Barrick. The rest of it hardly needs explanation.

The mine is called Pascua Lama, and this piece translates as, "Pascual Lama: Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow."

This one, painted on the side of the Catholic church in the town square, shows machinery chewing up the hills, trucks full of gold driving away, a river of skeletons floating back down the river. The church has strongly supported resistance to the mine.

Graffiti

Dani has become a fan of stencil graffiti. Here are some of the gems we've seen along the way:

This mural in Santiago was quite long, and obviously had numerous artists, as there were many styles represented. The old grandmother stenciled in here must have come later. I love her!

The above is from La Serena, a coastal town in Chile.

The kitty chasing rats, line of ants, and scary face in the corner all hail from La Serena as well.

This one from Mendoza, Argentina, says: The grape in the mouth of the town on the table is rotten.

Cachora, Peru

Again, more amazing views, these from the taxi on the way to the town of Cachora, from where we launched our hike to Choquequirau.

Bus ride to Andhuaylas, Peru

These were taken from the bus, which was cruising down a dirt road, hence they aren't very good. They certainly don't do justice to what we saw. The second photo in this bunch was an attempt to show how high up people are farming - right up the side of the mountain. Amazing.

Ayacucho, Peru

Here are views from the hostel, a parade passing us by, and a woman dishing up delicious helados (ice cream) on the street. We stopped over here for only one night, and so didn't see much except what you see here.

Los Animales de la casa Abuela

The big dog Kiko is friendly, except to dogs that pass by, which are greeted with 8 jumps on the door and many barks.

The parrot has clipped wings, looks creepy when it walks, says hola and laughs exactly like a jolly but maniacal woman.

There are two cats, but they don't like the laser light that helps the camera focus. (Dani says: the cats are friendly and want to be petted oh so bad!)

We took a hike up to a spot called Torre Torre, above the city of Huancayo, Peru. They say it's easy to find, and we even had a map, but it is not easy at all. We were mostly lost, but it was obvious where Torre Torre was and where the city was, so it wasn't a bad sort of lost. It's a protected area, but they don't keep people out of them here, at least not on a local level. So we saw sheep and cows being herded, and fields being cultivated. We passed farms where people were hoeing their fields by hand. We passed pigs and donkeys and chickens and roosters and many people. We said hello to everyone we passed, and were answered by some with steely glares, by others with a warm hello. Twice little kids yelled out to us, "ola, gringos!" We laughed and replied, "Ola!" On our way back into town, we got lost again, and a young man of about 10 years old helped us find our way, he walked us to our street. We also passed the local zoo, which was undergoing renovations and had what looked to be mostly rodents and birds (they had a sign out front with photos of all their residents). We didn't go in.

Some shots of the first place we stayed, Miraflores, which is a suburb of Lima. It's upscale and you can tell from the buildings. You can see a hang glider in the firt pic, there were a ton of them. I found the fact that trees grow from the side of the street and no one hits them fascinating, along with the bumper sticker from Ketchum, Idaho. Not so cool was how much junk we brought with us. The first week we've been judging our packs against the other backpackers we've come across, and so far, we packed the lightest. That may sound good, but it actually means we smell the worst!

Here are a couple of cool shots of the interior of Mexico City airport, complements of Michael.

Bus Station - Lima

We've spent almost 7 hours in this bus station, only 4 more to go. We just want to get out of Lima. On to Huancayo.

One view of the the gates enclosing our bus lair. Why?

Our good friend who led us to the Zona VIP where we luxuriated with free water and internet, and of course frosted glass that keeps you from seeing the world around you. We like the cafeteria better, let attention.

Why must he take my picture from this angle?

(This is her reaction to his advances).