המסע המופלא

What a splendid day! Today I visited the Argentinean side of the falls. Indeed, I really feel this is the Grand Finale of my trip.

I first started by walking some of the different trails around the waterfalls. One of them is on an island in the middle of the river, where at some point the water from the San Martin waterfall comes spurting on you. The waterfalls are, as promised, very impressing, and there is a lot of water falling in them. After the walking I went on a boat trip that went into the San Martin waterfall. Although I was warned I will be wet, I somehow didn't realize I will be totally and absolutely soaked from bottom to top. So after this I had to continue my excursion quite wet, but it didn't really matter - as it started raining... To defy the weather I ate an icecream, ate lunch, and took the train that goes to "La garganta del diablo", the most impressive waterfalls in the park (luckily it stopped raining). The park authorities have constructed a catwalk that goes very near to the falls themselves over the Iguazú river (after the last catwalk was washed away in 1992). No words (that I know in English) could describe this waterfall. You just have to be there and see the sheer amount of water thundering down, and then raising a haze of ten meters at least while hitting the lower part of the river (which is barely seen, due to the haze). Adding to the drama are the birds which for some reason are flying above the water back and forth.
After seeing this dramatic scenery I just had time to go and visit the Macuco Trail - a short hike they have in the park. The trail was really nice and in the end it comes to a natural pool created by another waterfall. The hour was already quite late, so I assumed that I am the last visitor there and started to get off my clothes (well, just the pants, as I didn't have anything else on me, as all the clothes but the fleece were wet, and the fleece was too warm), to swim nude in the swimming pool. However, I was wrong, but I realized that just in time. Instead, I changed to my red underwear, and used them as a swimming suit, which was fine enough, because they were already totally wet due to the boat trip.
On the way back, I was really the last one, and the trail began to disappear in darkness while small red points (a type of light emitting insects) appeared in the air. That was really a beautiful ending to a beautiful day, and I just got in time to the last bus back to Puerto Iguazú.

And, while reflecting on my last posts, I thought about a funny pun: Sin-a-gauge.

// posted by Ariel @ 03:37 |

I got to Puerto Iguazú this afternoon, after too much hours in a bus. Today I ate pizza. Tomorrow I will go and see the Argentinian side of the waterfalls.

// posted by Ariel @ 02:23 |

As I found a synagogue in Salta I spent Yom Kipur with the Jewish community there (it turns out there are two synagogues, as they are something as 500 Jews there, but I discovered that only later). The people there were very nice. I got to carry the Sefer Tora, and I was even invited to dinner (after Yom Kipur, naturally).
So, I postponed my bus trip to Sunday evening. On Sunday I walked up the hill they have near the city - and went down with the cable car (that was quite fun!). On the afternoon I took the bus to Resistencia, and here I am, waiting to the continuation bus to Puerto Iguazú.

// posted by Ariel @ 13:05 |

Yesterday morning I got to Villazon, where I crossed to the Argentinean side. Then I took a several hours bus trip to Salta. Argentina appears to be very different from Peru and Bolivia. As promised, it has a much more Western feel than Peru or Bolivia. The bus was better, the food have a different touch (though I haven't tried any specialties yet), and in general the atmosphere is quite different. Que pena I will be here only for some days...
Salta is a nice looking city, though I haven't done any excursion here for the time being, but mostly recovered from all the travelling. I met in the border two French-speaking guys from Belgium and Switzerland, which I joined for the time being (though I hardly manage to speak with them French - it just comes out in Spanish...) I suppose that on Saturday evening I will continue with a bus to the Iguazú falls.

// posted by Ariel @ 04:37 |

In a swift change of plans, I took yesterday the bus from La Paz to Oruru. The way was a bit delayed, because of a road blocking, but anyhow I arrived yesterday evening to Oruru, where I ate in an excellent restaurant. This morning I went to the anthropological museum, where I was lucky enough to join a guided tour of some school children (did you know, for instance, that the Sun worship came from the Quechua culture, while the earth, Pachamama, worship came from the Aymara culture, and it all mixed up in the Inca time?).
In an hour and a half I will be on the train to Villazon, where I will cross the Argentinian border. From Salta I will go to Iguacu falls and then to Sao Paulo.

// posted by Ariel @ 22:07 |

Yesterday I did some rafting in the Urabamba river (yeah, the same river I once entered with all my money and documents on me). It was quite fun, though not as much as I thought, and very tiring also. I was with a group of Englishmen who worked for in the television industry. One of them will even come soon to Israel to make the Hebrew version of his reality show...
Today in the morning I went to see Warachikuy in Sacsaywaman. This is remaking of an Inca time ceremony, in which the soldiers and the youth from the four different Suyos showed their valor. It was quite interesting, but after 3 and a half hours of dances and various competitions and tests (done by the participants, of course) - the best was seeing them jumping through fire rings, Haydn (whom I remet in Cusco) and I became quite tired, so we didn't see it all.
In 3 hours I will take the night bus to La Paz, from where I will continue to Santa Cruz on the way back to Brasil, where my flight is in two weeks.

// posted by Ariel @ 02:56 |

As a self made present for the New Year, I did today one of the many tourist attractions Cusco offers: a bungee jump!
The jump is done from an elevator in an adventure park they have outside Cusco, with the background of the magnificent mountains surrounding Cusco. Although I thought it would be quite scary, in the end I just jumped (from the alleged height of 122 meters) without thinking to much. The sensation was fabulous! In the first moments of the free fall, I was not really realizing completely I was falling, as the mountains seemed to stay quite firm in their place. Then comes the moment when the cord snaps, the body gets upside down as does the view. Then there are several minutes of going up and down, while still admiring the view and hoping the fixings around the legs won't slide... And then I got down, a bit disoriented, but very satisfied. This is indeed a cool way of closing the year.
Here are some pictures. When I will get home you can see the movie...

In case you wonder, I will spend Rosh Hashana eve in a massive festive meal with nearly all Israelis here in Cusco, together with some Khabad guys coming from Lima.

Shana Tova Umetuka!

Shant Osher Vebriut!

Shnat Shalom Veahava!

// posted by Ariel @ 23:37 |

Thanks to this excellent photo recovery tool I managed to get back a whole deal of the photos of the trip. The only problem is that they are a bit disordered. So you just will have to guess what is what based on what I wrote in my last post :) In case of questions, just comment...
Here is the link to the photo album.

By the way, for your conveniance I added in the side bar a list of all the photo albums available.

// posted by Ariel @ 04:47 |

After nearly 2 weeks on boats in the Peruvian jungle and 5 days of trekking I am back to Cusco (or Qosqo, in the Quechua spelling). The trip was really magnificent, although the Peruvian guy who was with us turned out to be a real pain. After my last post, we weren't able to find any boat going from Sepahua, so we had to take a private boat (actually, the most expensive boat trip I ever did) up to a community called Nuevo Mundo. There we spent the night, and the next day we joined a commercial boat going up river. It took it two days, and in between we spent a night in Timpía, where we were a bit concerned because when we got there we met some very sick people going to the health station there. Anyway, it turned out to be OK, so we continued healthy (more or less) upriver where we passed the might Pongo de Manique, a relatively steep canyon where the water passed very rapidly between a lot of rocks, and therefore is considered to be a bit dangerous, but beautiful nonetheless. After some more hours in direct sunlight (these boats have normally no roofs) we got to the small village of Ivochote, where we rested for one day and then continued by bus to Kiteni. There we could see a nice map of the region, and I discovered there is a place along the river called Monte Carmelo, but unfortunately I didn't get to visit it. In Kiteni we had problems finding a car going to Chuanquiri, where we planned to start the hike, but in the end we found a driver with a very old car willing to take us. Unfortunately, on the way it turned out his brakes didn't really work, and as the motor suddenly went off, we found ourselves sliding backward on a dirt road. Luckily, the driver was very skilled so quickly he maneuvered the card into the uphill on the side of the road, thus saving us from falling from the mountain side... As you can understand, although we did manage to get the car back to the road, we didn't get all the way to Chuanquiri, but rather to another village (called Yunama, if I remember correctly), where we spent the night. The next day we took an early bus to Chuanquiri (no one told us about this bus before), and started walking to Espiritu Pampa, a.k.a. Vilcabamba la vieja. The walk with our heavy bags was quite difficult, and it started raining in the middle of the day (while still being quite hot - it is a tropical region), so in the middle of the day we stopped in a house on the way, and waited for the next day to continue with two horses (or maybe mules) carrying our bags... I forgot to mention that on the bus to Choanquiri we met a guy that turned out to be the archeologist excavating Espiritu Pampa. When he heard I am from Haifa he became very excited ("You are from the city where the holy shrine of the Bab resides!") so when we got to Espiritu Pampa, he was more than delighted to make us a tour of the site. It turns out that this side is considered today as the place where Manco Inca took refuge after he lost the battle of Ollantaytambu (and not Choquequirao as I wrote before). The site is still under excavation and restoration, so it was quite interesting to see the works going on, and the difference between how the ruins are found and how they the look after being restored. The archeologist thought that this site is much bigger than Machu Pichu, and thus potentially will be a major tourist attraction in some years. After playing some chess with one of the workers, I was even invited to sleep in the house they had their, which was very comfortable, as our tent was for 3 persons, and we were 4.
From there we continued (with another horse and a mule) the uphill ascent of 3 days to Vilcabamba la nueva. It was an amazing route. We started in Choanquiri still in the jungle area, but while walking up (more than 2500 meters, I think) the landscape changed from jungle to misty cloud forests and then to a cold Puna with much less trees and more grass. On the last night, while sleeping in a place called Otutu, it was already quite cold.
So, after 5 days of trekking (and eating like pigs rise with milk and quakers), we got to Vilcabamba, where we went with a car down to Huancacalle (again, the landscape changed). The next day I went to see the nearby ruins of Vitcos and Ñusta Hispana, two other sites from the time of Manco Inca (and also there I got an explanation from the archeologist). As I and Vera were already stressed with time (and quite tired after the uphill walking) we decides to skip the 10 days more to Choquequirao, and instead head back to Cusco (I) or to Machu Pichu (Vera). However, as Marco turned out to be such an irritating person Haydn didn't want to continue to trek with him, so he went instead with Vera to Machu Pichu. I was very lucky to find a car going directly all the way from Huancacalle to Cusco - it was a special car that came from Cusco to Huancacalle with a television team filming a documentary about the region, and now it had to return to Cusco. The road (downhill and then uphill on a dirt road) was fabulous, although after a while it became very foggy. It was night, it wasn't possible to see more than a meter a head, and on the side of the road was an immense fall to the Urabamba river. The driver, however, continued very cautiously, and after some hours of driving (with a Swiss couple, who has been for some reason several times in Haifa :) the road suddenly came out above the fog into a bright starry night. In the distance we could see the snowy Mt. Veronica and below us the fog in the valley looked like a sea. We got up until Abra Malaga (the Malaga pass) at the altitude of 4500 meters, and again I couldn't stop thinking about the difference in geography between the mountains and the jungle, in which I have been only some days before. Two hours late I arrived in Cusco, and here I am trying to figure out the best getting to Sao Paulo...

NB: The memory card of the camera misbehaves, so currently I cannot see all the photos from the trip :( I wrote to Olympus, so hopefully I will be able to fix the problem.

// posted by Ariel @ 21:22 |

Three days ago we got to Sephua, with a cargo canoe from Atalaya together with sewing machines, a tri-cycle, a television and DVD, and some more stuff and passengers, one of them, a 7 year old child, I read to from my Spanish book.
Although it remote location, or maybe because of it, Sephua is quite charming, and have no cars (as there is no road, everything gets here by boat or flight). It does have an internet satellite connection, as you can see :)
The next day we found a fisherman who could take us to Mishagua, where there is a colony of makaws (or maybe some similar bird). Unfortunately, the motor burst halfway up the river, so we had to row for half an hour or so, until we got pulled by another canoe, some of the way, from which we continued rowing some more. At some place the river was so shallow but strong so we had to get of to boat, and push it against the current. Unfortunately for me, I forgot that all my money and documents were on me... However, it seems all did recover since then... After all this fuss, we ended up camping with the fisherman and his assistant, which turned out to be delightful for all of us. We chatted, ate fried yucca and bananas, and a lot of fishes they caught. On the morning we woke up early to see lories, but as it was very misty, and we were on the wrong side of the river, we could only see them from far away and hear their voices. There were quite a lot of them, and when they flied they almost filled the sky.
Downstream we went with the current, while fishing (I jumped into the water once to take out a trunk that was stuck in the net). It took quite a while, but we got back to Sephua, where, funnily enough, we met two North-Americans, who got funds of 10000$, to come here (by flight) to film the makaws for some documentary (this is a link to their last film), as some specialist from National Geographic recommended this place as one of the best in the world. However, they had really bad luck, so they didn´t see any...
As we got in the meanwhile really good friends with the fisherman, we invited him to dinner yesterday, and he invited us to breakfast today, and now actually Vera has opened to him an email account so we can send him some photos later.
We are currently waiting to a boat which will take us down the Pongo de Manique, after where we can start the walk.

// posted by Ariel @ 17:05 |