Exploring a city – Finding new places in Santiago!

One of the things that annoyed me the last time I was visiting Santiago, was the lack of good cafe’s (like Starbucks) to work from in the center. The only place I found out there was a Starbucks was in Providencia, which is a bit a way from the the center.

This time I started to look at Foursquare, which has this neat function called “Explore”; which gives me a easy way to see nearby places. Furthermore it groups places like “Coffee Shops”, “Nightlife” or “Pubs” if you are looking for a place to enjoy a pint. This is the function that let me to find the Starbucks close to my hotel, that I would otherwise never have found – which is currently my second office, in lack of better places with WiFi connection and coffee.

So even though you are located in South America, where the usage of these Apps probably are small in relations to the US or Europe, it is actually very useful. With the location features (instantly find a route with your phone) and the comments on different places, you easily find and discover new places in the city, that you would otherwise never have seen. I have tried out a few just based on the recommendations on Foursquare.

It also shows that even in South America, local businesses should integrate to these new social media apps. There seems to exist a few specials here (both in Lima and in Santiago), but there is still a long way to go. Lets hope for a more connected future in South America, as smartphones and 3G gets more and more spread out in these countries.

Opportunities in Chile
Monday the 14th of March I will jump on a plane to Santiago de Chile. Hopefully I will find an apartment within maximum a few weeks, and I will be living in Santiago for at least 6 months. Santiago is a buzzing city if you hear the rumors, and though also a lot more expensive than Lima, it is a developed city with South America’s most extensive and modern metro system.

Besides the infrastructure which is much more orderly in Santiago, it also seems like a promising city based on the local tech startup scene and investment offers. Start-Up Chile sounds very interesting, but it also sounds as a promising city for a startup culture, and the aspect of getting in touch and networking with other startups, developers and investors. Not to forget that thanks to the working holiday visa it seems like it is pretty easy getting a 12-month residency visa, when coming from Denmark.

2 years in Lima, Peru…

It is hard to believe that it is almost 2 years ago since I came to Peru for the first time. The time has been flying by, and though the things did not go exactly the way I wanted, the last couple of years have been a great experience. I have learned a lot about the culture and working with people here in Peru (as well as the rest of South America), and it has been a great time living in Lima. It is really a city that you will both love and hate.

I have experienced so many things here in Lima the last 2 years, and somehow the city will always be in my heart. While I am selling the last of my stuff and preparing for the 14th of March, I will try to enjoy a bit of the summer and the company of the many great friends I have made here. It is not easy to digg up the roots and start all over in a new country, but it will be an exciting challenge. A big thanks go out to all great people I have met, who have supported and helped me during my time in Lima.

In this post I will pretty much limit it to show you some of my photos from Lima (Miraflores Peru). I havent been taking alot of pictures yet, so I will hopefully upload a lot more photos from Lima later. The building I live in right now has 21 floors, where the top floor is a roof top terrace. From the roof you get an amazing view over all of Lima, as this building is one of the highest buildings in Lima. On the pictures you can also see the neighbooring districts like Barranco, San Isidro and Surquillo. I go up there from time to time, as I love the view, and it feels like a “small sanctuary” when living in the big city. So one evening I went up there right before the sunset, and this is where these photos are from. Enjoy!

The best option to see the Nazca lines is to fly over them with a plane. This is pretty expensive though, and takes between 20 and 35 minutes, depending on which plane you choose. The price varies from $50-$90 dollars, and an airport tax of s/20 soles. You can arrange a trip the same day as you arrive, so most people either leave the same day or just spend one night in Nazca. I expected it to be harder to arrange, so I got a hostel before arranging my trips over the lines, and had to spend a night there – which I regret. I would recommend just going there in one day, do the lines and maybe go see the mummies near Nazca [link], and then leave the same day. Nazca is not really worth staying in, and the town has nothing special to offer.

The flight over the Nazca lines is an amazing thing, and really makes you wonder why they made those figures. I went with a plane for about 35 minutes with 3 other people. If you suffer from motion sickness, you should try to take some motion sickness medicine before, as the plane goes around and tip a lot to the sides to give a good view of the lines. Most people don’t seem to have problems with it though, but there are always plastic bags in the plane if you get sick.

If you don’t like to fly, it is possible to catch a bus going north (buses to Ica go this way) and stop at the watch-tower, where you can see 3 of the figures; the Tree, the Hands and the Lizard, which is cut in half by the road. I did not went there though, and will definitely recommend flying over the lines instead, as it is an experience in itself flying in one of the small planes.

Tips for visiting Nazca

• Go to the airport to buy the tickets for the lines; if you can, gather 3-4 people as this will reduce the waiting time. (if you go there alone, you have to wait until there are at least 2-3 other people going on the tour)
• Don’t spend more than a day in Nazca – you it is possible to see everything Nazca has to offer in just a half day.
• Go visit the mummies in Nazca [link] while you’re there, but don’t pay more than 20 soles for a ride and a guide out there.

I did not do the Inca trail myself, because I felt it was a bit too much for my budget paying $250-350 for trekking, so instead I just went to Machu Picchu in one day. There is a train with Perurail going there from Cusco, and you can get to Machu Picchu and back to Cusco with the train in just one day. The train is kind of pricy though, and a one-way ticket to Machu Picchu (not including the bus ticket from the town of Machu Picchu to the actual ruins) costs about $41 US dollars. I would recommend going to the town of Ollantaytambo the day before visiting the ruins (maximum 10 soles, about $3 US dollars with a shared cab or collectivo), and then taking the train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu and go back that way. It’s a good money-saver, and you can get to Machu Picchu earlier in the morning if you spend a night in Ollantaytambo.

Even though Machu Picchu is very touristic, it is absolutely worth doing. While you are there, make sure you make the walk up to Wayna Picchu, where there is some more ruins and the most amazing view over Machu Picchu and the mountains around. When you finally get to the top (after about a million steps on the stairs leading there) you literally feel like sitting in the clouds on top of the mountain – and the view of Machu Picchu could not get better. You have to go up there before one o’clock in the afternoon and preferable a bit earlier, since they only let 100 people go up there every day.

Tips for going to Machu Picchu

• Go spend a night in Ollantaytambo and spend a night there before going to Machu Picchu, and make sure you go back via Ollantaytambo too – the buses from there are faster than the train and way cheaper.
• Try to get there as early in the morning as you can, as there are less tourists and easier to get to Wayna Picchu.
• Make sure you go all the way to the top of Wayna Picchu, the view is absolute worth the struggle getting up the steep stairs.
• If you go on the Inca trail, make sure you stay a few days in Cusco before to arrange your trip and talk to different companies. This can both get you a cheaper and better trip, though it might be hard during the high season.

The second week pretty much just went with going to school and relaxing a bit in Cusco. We went to a place called Protectoyu Peru, with an awesome teacher called Yuliana. It doesn’t have a lot of student or big facilities, but it is a very nice small place with cheap prices and great teachers. I can recommend this place if you are a couple of people looking for a place to study, but if you are travelling alone, I’d recommend you to find a bigger school, where you meet some more students. We really learned a lot this week, and I feel it was great for my Spanish with another week of school.

I don’t like Cusco that much as a place to live and study though. It has a big nightlife scene, but most of it is Gringos coming to Cusco for the Machu Picchu and other tourist sites. It is kind of a mix between a big city like La Paz and a small city like Sucre. If studying for longer period of time, I’d rather recommend one of these cities. If your more into the big city life go to La Paz, but if you don’t mind the quit state of mind in Sucre, where the decent clubs only open Thursday to Saturday, go study there instead. Bolivia is both cheaper, and does not have as many gringos as Cusco.

Another thing you should do while in Cusco, is walk up to the Cristo Blanco, the big Jesus-statue on the top of the east-side hill. You can take the stairs up there from the end of Av Tullumayo. Alternatively you can also take a taxi or one of the special “buses”, but it is quite expensive, and takes over an hour. The stairs will get you up there in about 20 minutes, in a much less touristic path. It is absolutely a visit worth, as the view of Cusco from up there is absolutely amazing.

You can find more photos from Cusco here.

The next morning we went up early to go with the morning ferry to Isla del Sol. The boats are old and slow though, so it takes quite some hours to get to the northern part of the island, where we started our trek. We started by walking up to Cerro Tikani at the height of 3936 meters, where there is an amazing view over the island. On the way there, you go pass the Titicaca rock (Rock of the Puma) and the Chincana ruins. The Titicaca rock is not really impressive, and makes one wonder why they believe their first emperor rose from this stone… The Chincana ruins are a bit more impressive, and looked awesome from the view of Cerro Tikani. I can only recommend people going up there, since there is no tourists and an amazing view of the island.

Then we took the route down to the south end of the island, which takes about 3 hours to walk. On the way it features a lot of great views, and most of the time you can see both the Bolivian side with the small town of Copacabana, and the Peruvian side with the much bigger town of Puno. It is an amazing small trek, with a lot of really nice views of the lake and the island. It ends up in the small town of Yumani, where there are a lot of hostels and restaurants. Most of them feature terraces with fantastic views over the lake, the perfect spot to relax with a cold beer after the trek. Of course we were followed by the carnival again, so most of the restaurants where closed because the people were dancing and playing music around the island. At this point I was getting a bit tired of all the carnival music, dancing people and closed places because of this one-time-a-year event – it is really a big deal in Bolivia.

We took the ferry back to Copacabana early the next morning, so I was able to catch an overnight bus in the afternoon to Cusco. I spent the last afternoon walking around Copacabana, shopping a bit of souvenirs and drinking some beer until my bus left. Copacabana is absolutely just a stop on the way to Isla del Sol, and recommend staying as little time as possible in this boring little town. Next stop Cusco, and the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

You can see more pictures from Isla del Sol and Copacabana here.

Road going under waterfalls

The road going down from La Cumbre to Coroico near La Paz is rumored to be “The Death Road”, because of the dangerous conditions, narrow road and not less than 3345 meters of vertical descent. Though the road isn’t as dangerous anymore, because they build a new highway, and closed “The Death Road” for traffic, so now it is pretty much just bikers and the buses following the bikes going down the road.

That being said, the road is definitely worth mountain biking down. There are many companies in La Paz offering this trip, each with different prices, bikes and reason why you should choose these. I can only recommend the company DOWNHILL MADNESS, which seems to be in the middle of the price-range. They use Canadian Rocky Mountain bikes, and have English-speaking guides, just as all the other companies. Including in the price, you get the T-shirt (“Death Road Survivor”), and a CD with pictures and videos from your trip.

Ready to go down the Death Road

You start in the morning by getting the equipment you need in the right size (helmet, pants, gloves etc.) and then you drive up to La Cumbre (4640) where the trip starts. In the beginning the road is paved, and downhill on the asphalt you can go pretty fast. Then you go through a Coca checkpoint, where the police control for stuff that can be used to produce cocaine. Shortly after that, there is a short stretch where you have to go uphill – but because the weather was pretty bad this day, our guides decided just to put all the bikes on the bus, and drive to where the downhill started again. I wouldn’t mind going uphill, but being rainy and foggy, I didn’t really miss the challenge either.

From there on, The Death Road really started, going downhill on the unpaved and sometimes very narrow road. Makes one wonder how they actually where able to drives cars, trucks and busses on this road, in BOTH directions! No wonder their calling it the Death Road, when there was once traffic in both directions of the road. However, this is absolutely one of my best mountain biking experiences. Since it was rainy season, the weather was quite bad the first part, so unfortunately it was impossible to get a good view of how far down there was.

View from the hotel in Coroico, showing the new road back to La Paz

But on the lower part of the trip we got better weather, and luckily some nice views. In a distance of 3-4 kilometers, the weather changes from being ass-freezing to being hot-ass-hell. One moment everyone is wearing big jackets etc, and the next moment everyone is going in T-shirts and shorts.

The trips ends at Yolosa in a altitude of 1295 meters, where you can buy a cold beer and relax, knowing you “survived the Death Road”. After a little while you go to Coroico in the bus, to relax a few hours at a very nice Hotel, with big buffet and a very nice pool. The perfect ending to an amazing downhill experience. I can only recommend everyone doing the Death Road, if going through La Paz.

More photos from the Death Road, La Paz

Carnival show in Oruro

This weekend was the big carnival in Oruro, la Diablada, one of the biggest carnivals in the world. We left Sucre Thursday night, and got to the apartment we were staying in at Friday morning. Since it was impossible to book a hostel (we tried several times, but each time they cancelled our booking), we found a guy who rented a floor in a big house with no furniture. We had to sleep on the floor, but at carnival it doesn’t really matter, as you don’t expect to get much sleep anyway. It was only 50 boliviano per night, compared to hotels charging between 60 and 100 dollars per night, with minimum 3 nights.

The carnival was amazing though; the big parades started Saturday morning, and kept going most of the night. It was fantastic with all the dancers in costumes, big bands, music and happy people everywhere. No wonder people from the entire world travel to Oruro to see the carnival.

Chicas at the carnival in Oruro

During all the day, when the parades go on, there is constantly water- and foam-fights going on, so don’t bring a camera you worry too much about – it’s a good idea to bring a old camera, so you can still take pictures, without having to think about the risk of the camera getting wet.

After 8 o’clock in the evening, it is not allowed to throw water anymore, and the only “danger” is the foam that people still spray on each other. That’s a nice thing, because it gets pretty cold, and you won’t be able to dry from the water.

At Sunday the parade starts over, and you have a chance to watch it all again. We did not stay for all of Sunday though, since we spent all Saturday watching the parade.

Unfortunately this is also a great opportunity for thieves, as you a lot of times have to pass really big crowds, where it is easy for them to pick your pockets… I’ve never gotten anything stolen before, but this time someone got to my phone. I was in a crowd for like 10 minutes, and after my phone was just gone. I had to go to the police station at Sunday, before leaving Oruro, to get a paper from the police, for the insurance. I met a lot of other people there, who had lost cameras, passports etc. – so it’s very common during the carnival.

Also watch out for people working together doing scams; sometimes they spray foam in your head and eyes, and then try to pick your pockets. There are a lot of thieves and people trying to scam in Oruro during the carnival, so always beware and keep an eye out.

Tips for carnival in Oruro:

• If you want a cheaper hostel, book and pay at least a month in advance. (make sure you pay in advance too, otherwise they usually cancel your reservation later)
• Remember to book seats to watch the parade. Costs 100 boliviano for Saturday and Sunday – Calle 6 de Agosto is a good place to watch the parade.
• The show is beautiful all day, but the mood gets much better in the afternoon of Saturday, when people have been drinking some more beer and gets ready to party all night.
• Take much care of your stuff – the city is full of thieves and scammers. Bring only what you “can afford to lose”, but don’t be scared or paranoid.
• Most important: enjoy your time at one of the best carnivals in the world!

You can see photos from the carnival in Oruro here.

Mirador over Sucre

I found a nice gym right in the plaza, on the top of a center. It’s pretty cheap, 75 Bolivianos for a month, including entry fee. Compared to Denmark, it is really old equipment, mostly just weights and bad/broken old machines. But it got most of what I need, and it is nice to train with weights again. Otherwise I’m mostly just doing pushups and exercises for the stomach in the hostels when I’m travelling around. The gym has the most amazing view over the Plaza and the city, and walking up all the stairs is a nice warm-up exercise…

This weekend I went out eating at Los Balcones, a restaurant at the Plaza, with a lot of the other students, because it was the last day in Sucre for a guy at the school. Afterwards we went to Locots as usually, where they have happy hour from 22 to 23.
Rest of the weekend, I spent some time walking around town, and taking some pictures. The Mirador was really beautiful in the nice weather; it gives a really good view of Sucre. I also love spending time in the plazas and at the big market.