The Voice Of A Traveler

One of the best things about working on a cruise ship are all the excursions that you can go on for practically free. As I already mentioned I went on an excursion kayaking that would have normally cost $109 for passengers, and I did it for free. Then the next day I took a train ride that would normally be $180 for passengers, and it cost me $5. It was a train ride through the mountains in Scagway and I got some beautiful photographs that are now posted in my photo gallery. Today I will be going on the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari in Haines, which would be $199 for passengers, and I get it for free. I’ll be going on many excursions while I can.

Well the crew officers decided that I wasn’t going to be able to keep that room to myself so I have now moved in with one of the other photographers. It worked out pretty well because his fiancé just left as her contract is over, which means she won’t always be in the room. The room is much smaller than the one I just left, but it is in a much better location of the ship. I am very near the elevators and the OB (Officers Bar, it’s the place everyone hangs out after work) and I also don’t have to walk down this long corridor that stinks really bad. Ah yes…and since George’s fiancé has left, he is very sad and now instead of her in the room all the time, it will be me.

ms RYNDAM – Ian Kee – 77538 – Image Creator
CRUISE LINE AGENCIES – KETCHIKAN
1249 TONGASS AVE STE B
KETCHIKAN, AK 99901-6135
United States

I have just uploaded photos from this trip. Please see the photo gallery link on the right side of the blog. You’ll be able to find 175 photos of Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Enjoy!

Well that was a most refreshing trip. I really can’t think of a better way to have spent a month of the worst weather in Indiana. I’m thoroughly tired as I haven’t really slept in the last 40 hours. I’ll be working on photos tomorrow and the next few days – expect them to be loaded on here later this week. This trip was rich with experiences of all kinds. I tasted new foods, saw new places, met new people and had an all around good time. And now I’m going to have a good time by sleeping. Goodnight.

Well Potosi started out as a very drab city in which I didn´t want to be in. This is mainly due to the fact that the day before when we left La Paz it rained and so I was wearing my only dry pair of shorts since my jeans were wet, and the weather was very cold there. My boots were wet too. Poor Ian. But I bought myself a new pair of shoes for cheap and we got some our of clothes dry cleaned. So that cleared up all my woes and Josh and I decided to take a tour of the mines. The lonely planet described it as a place that was scary but it turned out to be pretty cool. It´s still an active mine and they mine zinc and silver. The workers who work there only make 50 Bolivianos a day, equivalent of $7. So we brought them a few gifts to give them while on our tour of the place.

Then yesterday morning Jeff, Josh and I all went up to the hot springs that are about a 30 minute bus drive away from Potosi. The hot springs was definitely a fun place to be and it was nice to swim, and in really warm steaming water! On the way down however, some crazy man stumbled off the mountain onto the path on which we were walking. We thought he was just being a little crazy so we tried to pass, and as we did, he wacked Jeff pretty hard on the shoulder. We chose to ignore that and kept walking, but as we turned around he was bending down to pick up rocks to throw at us. So we started running and he starting chasing us, throwing rocks. Apparently it´s pretty easy to outrun a crazy man though. After a couple turns in the road down the mountain we escaped him, or so we thought. A couple more turns however and we could hear him screaming at us from some cliff up above that looked down over the road. He proceeded to throw football sized rocks down at us, so again we ran as carefully as possible out of his reach. So crazy. As we took a taxi later that day to the bus station, the driver said he knew about that guy and he´s always there harrassing white tourists.

This wasn´t the first time we´ve been assualted though! The very first day I landed in Buenos Aires some guy who was high on crack or something came running at us demanding money. I thought that´s all he was doing but I didn´t understand the Spanish. Apparently he was yelling at Josh telling him he´d cut his throat if we didn´t give him money. At that point Josh pushed the guy away and we ran off. Luckily this guy didn´t follow us. He had his hand concealed behind his back as if he was holding a knife, but who knows if he really had one.

Well anyways that´s the excitement recently and also from a while ago. We´re now back in Jujuy at Josh´s house and I only have two more days of this trip remaining. We´ll be going down to Salta tomorrow from where I will catch a flight back to Buenos Aires the day after tomorrow, and then back to the States.

Cuz I’ve been detained by two of them! On our way to Machu Picchu there was a giant landslide that had us waiting for a little more than an hour while a CAT cleared it up. That wasn’t so bad. But then on the way back, there was an even gianter landslide. This time it was a gushing rushing fussing river that took away half the mountain. So there were two giant machines trying to clear the road of debris. Of course they couldn’t stop the river from flowing, so they just had to get rid of most of the rocks and dirt and then the cars and trucks just drove through the river. It was kinda exciting. That was a 4 hour delay. We left Machu Picchu around noon and were supposed to get to Cusco around 10, but we didn’t make it till a little after 1 am. It’s all good. Tonight we’re gonna take a bus back to La Paz.

Machu Picchu was awesome though!  Josh, Dan and I stayed up till about midnight hanging out with a couple people we met on the bus up, and then we had to get up at 3 to hike up the mountain. Jeff was smart and went to bed. I gotta say though, Pisco Sour is pretty darn good. Anyways, after 3 hours of sleep and no breakfast, we started hiking an hour and a half up a mountain. It was just steep steps all the way up. It was a killer. I really can’t believe how hard it was. Just think for a minute about hiking up stairs at 3 in the morning for an hour and a half, oh yeah, and it’s raining. It’s dark too and between the 4 of us we only had one flashlight. Luckily there were a billion other people climbing that had lights so that wasn’t too bad. I really can’t begin to describe to you how hard this was though. Anyways we got to the top around 5:30 in the morning and had to wait till 6 when Machu Picchu opened. Then we got to climb just a little bit further and boy, the view was amazing. It was extremely foggy though so we had to wait to get a clear view. We had a tour guide give an explanation for everything in English, so that was nice. I didn’t hear half of what he said though cuz I was too busy taking photos. We got to walk down into the old Inca ruins, it was really spectacular.

We stayed two nights there cuz we didn’t wanna worry about climbing around Machu Picchu and then having to immediately catch a bus back to Cusco. So instead we just hung around and got caught in the landslide last night. Well I guess that was the pinnacle of our trip. Now it’s back to La Paz for a day or two, in which we are supposedly going to watch the Bolivian version of WWF. It’s ethnic women wrestling apparently. Very odd and it seems very culturally unacceptable to me, but hey, I’ll go watch! Then to another city in Bolivia on the way back to Argentina and then I’ll be going home in about a week.