The Food Saga: The Fish Era

Food in Bolivia is quite basic, and there aren’t many super­mar­kets (if at all). San­i­ta­tion isn’t the country’s strong point either, and even though there were many food stalls in La Paz, I skipped on those. How­ever, Copaca­bana, on the shore of Lake Tit­i­caca, had some of the best fish I have ever had.

The Best & The Worst

We both loved our trip in Cen­tral and South Amer­ica. And now that we are home again in Canada, we thought about it: what were the best places, the best cities that we saw… and what were the worst experiences?

Hello Frozen Hell...

Hello frozen hell… we are fly­ing back to Canada.

Torres Del Pain(e)

The boul­ders were not sta­ble. We stepped on rocks that would move down­hill, avalanche like. Other rocks appeared huge but offered lit­tle help, because they were unsteady. I was quite scared to be hon­est. We were high in the moun­tain with no help what­so­ever, no trail, we were tired and worse of all — we would have to make our way down, which I was afraid we might not be able to.

The Road To The End Of The World

Patag­o­nia? Neh. Not Far enough. We decided to reach Ushuaia, the South­ern­most city in the world, located in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina.

Going to the fin del mundo is an adven­ture in itself.

We left from Punta Are­nas at 6:30 am. Another short night… Lit­er­ally, con­sid­er­ing it was only really dark at mid­night and that it was already very bright when we got up.

Patagonia - Punta Arenas

For us, Patag­o­nia started from above, in the plane. It was almost empty and we had secured a win­dow seat. Huge moun­tains, rivers of ice, snow, clear blue lakes… The wind was very strong and the ride was rough. We flew above the Pacific Ocean as the pilot was try­ing to land and we dropped dan­ger­ously low. I kept my eyes open, half amazed and half scared. We made it.

Relaxing In Santiago

We took the bus from the air­port, still half sleepy. I felt like I was in Europe: cob­ble­stone alleys, streets names like “Paris” and “Lon­don”, news­pa­pers and cig­a­rettes kiosks, parks, foun­tains, kids play­ing around… An over­all relaxed atmos­phere, which made the city very welcoming.

Arica, First Stop In Chile

After La Paz and the Boli­vian high­lands, Arica, our first stop in Chile, was quite a shock. Imag­ine a city, actu­ally more like an oasis, bor­dered by the Pacific Ocean and the desert. Imag­ine, 30C all year round. Imag­ine quiet streets, cars that actu­ally stop at red lights and a super­mar­ket. We were in shock, after Bolivia.

Crossing The Andes To Chile

We got up at 4:45 am, cold and tired, hav­ing slept barely a few hours. We packed in the dark. I brushed my teeth quickly and decided to skip wash­ing my face with some expen­sive French prod­uct, for once. The water was freez­ing and of course, no hot water.

We got to the bus sta­tion sleepy and cranky. Once the “use of bus ter­mi­nal” fee paid, we had just enough boli­vianos for a bot­tle of water. We boarded the bus, still dark out­side, leav­ing La Paz behind us. Cross­ing the Andes, again, to Chile.