Peru: Puno - Floating Island and much more

Floating island - one of the highlights of the trip, is located in Lake Titikaka. A lake at 3800m above sea level.

Today I started taking the pill for attitude sickness brought from Hong Kong. Still feel very easy to get tired, though, most of the places (except capital Lima) that I am going to visit is about 2000+ meters above sea-level. Attitude sickness will be the cost I have to pay. Though when look around, not many people need to pay this cost...

OK, back to the subject. Floating island, built by a tribes Uros. It was said they started living in the lake for escaping from enemies. With small boat first, and eventually becomes island. Under sun light, it feels like bed, a big one.

Though, it is every touristy now. They have model to explain how they build the island, role-play to show how they bargain, everyone in costume to sing goodbye song in 3 languages to fare well...

Using electric boat for themselves and keeping the traditional one as below for tourists

And of course, shopping square.

Interesting to find that they lit fire there, still living there, continue their way of living now with support of tourism. Maybe being touristy is not that bad...

Peru: Puno - springboard to floating island

Another long bus. This time we made the right choice on the bus. Cruz del Sur costs double of other bus company but it worths it. English movie, not feeling my life is at risk when riding the bus. Anyway, can tell you guys later.


Back to Puno.

It´s 3800 meters above sea level.

And, it´s lake in this photo. Highest navigable lake in the world... What make it interesting is the floating island.

Need to rest for a day there anyway before moving on. ´cos most tour (or guide book) recommends you to stay overnight in one of the islands.

This is the cheapest meal I have got. HK$4.5. With an ultra-small drum stick and lots of fried rice.

Just a light house at the pier...

Peru: Arequipa, city in a city

Or, it is called citadel.

Inside this famous convent, walls are painted in basic color like blue, brick-red, yellow. The convent is so huge that it actually got its own street, plaza, small churches... just feel like travelled into another city.

Peru: Arequipa - city with snow moutain as backdrop

Crossing from Chile to Peru is just like passing the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Heard that the border city is closed to a national park. Though, been seeing a lot till now. So, we moved directly to Arequipa. One of the most beautiful cities in Peru.

With snow moutain as backdrop for its European style building in the main square, the city is really charming.
It looks different but more impressive at night.
Most of the churches and squares are lit up. There are dozens of tourist-oriented restaurants on the two sides of the plaza. You can choose to have a drink there and enjoy the view. But the food was...

Chile: San Pedro - desert and the star

Cycling in desert is not as easy as I thought.

Bumpy road, strong sunlight. Plus we are 2000+ meters above sea level. Anyway, did manage to reach an old city near San Pedro. It was built before the Incas and Spaniards. Feel like castle along hillside. It stands many wars until Columbus came to south America.
An unexpected sort of this trip is this one. Guess what?
Saturn. Joined an astronomy tour. Desert is one of the perfect locations for watching stars, given its low humidity and clear sky most of the time. On the site, it was first completely dark when light was turned off. Then, stars glowed! It was the first time of my life to see milky way with my bared eyes. Explanation on locating stars, constellation and history on astronomy was interesting too. We also watched various stars of different colors, formation of stars with telescope...

San Pedro - Laguna, Salt Lake, and Flamingo

Because it is highland, and it was once at the bottom of the sea, concentration of salt in the soil is very high. Indeed, 2/3 of the world´s Lithium (that is your battery in most gadgets) is produced here.

Anyway, the natural beauty is superb. Many of the salt lake here is habitat for flamingos.
In one occasion we can see a flamingo flying just above our heads... They feed on the small shrimps and creatures in the lake and got the reddish orange color.
And, this is another laguna at over 3800 meters above sea level... Another challenge to high attitude. Another day of ´slow-motion´.
It is so peaceful there, with snow moutain tips as backdrop on the other side. Moutains and laguna looks like untouched. (even though there are loads of tourists like me come here every day)

Chile: San Pedro - Laguna and Attitude Sickness

Experienced attitude sickness earlier than expected.

San Pedro is about 2000+ meters above sea level. We know it right before we arrived... Then, joined a tour to see Geysers. It locates at 4200+ meters above sea level. We got medicine but somehow thought it should be OK... but not.

The tour departed at 4am and arrived 6am. When stepping out of the car and started walking, feel extremely tired and a quite dizzy. Gotta move like slow motion to keep going on. My friend was horribly affected by attitude sickness and rested on the car most of the time. Though, the scenery is... feel like on the other planet.
Mysterious. As if some other creatures may dash in. (or maybe it is my hallucination at high attitude)

Water froze at night and that´s why you can see something as follows.
And, it´s like onsen in Japan, if you dare to strip off your clothes outdoor at below 10 degree Celcius... I was worried that I may get worse by exercising... so, just to be a passive observer.

Though, this is just the start of my experience with attitude sickness...

Chile: San Pedro - food, HK style

Been away from home for a long time.

And, to save money, normally just have something simple for lunch, and cook by ourselves for dinner. Though, the hostel we stayed in San Pedro does not have kitchen. So, gotta dine out...
Surprised to find that it it is quite Hong Kong style. And the taste too... Of course there are other options that is more Chile. But I do miss rice...

p.s. gotta ride on night bus again tonight...

Chile: San Pedro, swim in desert

Water is scarce resource in desert. Though, there are underground water in San Pedro. And, because this continent was once undersea, there is a high concentration of salt in those laguna. Like swimming in dead sea, that you can float on it!
For this, it´s as tranquil as a mirror
crytalized salt looks like ice. Looks spectacular during sunset

Chile: Santiago - Seafood soup

Central market, same as the wet market we have in Hong Kong, is famous for its seafood. Even though Santiago is 100km away from coastline.

For it is famous, tried.
With lots of small shrimps, fish... at first it tasted really good. Though, the taste got stronger and stronger when it got cold... finally i cannot finish it...

Chile: coffee shop

Ran into a coffee shop in a rainy day. And, surprised to find that their coffee shop is somewhat different. Not like the chain store in Hong Kong.

Most of the customers are men. They stand by the bench, with pretty waitress serving the drink.

Chile: Easter Island

Dont know why but failed to book a flight to Easter Island at economy class, so... Flied business.

The first time paid it with my own money. And now understand why people likes it. Served with champagne right after we sat down. Flat bed, big screen, noise-cancelling headphone, relatively good food...
Anyway, flight is not the main dish.

Lucky that we ran into the other group and rented a car together. It means, more flexibility.

Stone statues, called Moai, is located beside the sea in different locations. It was used for rituals. For many reasons, they were used as building block of houses, collapsed, taken to other countries.
Was a bit surprised to know that some of them was restored just 14 years ago... Thought they have been there for ages.
And, there is a factory of Moai. Seeing how it was created from rock in a mountain. Though, how it was moved still remains a myst

Chile: Santiago

Leaving from Mendoza by bus. It climbs up the Mt. Andes. Scenery on the road is nice. Cliffs, lake, interesting landscape that result from thousands years of movement.

Chile is really a long narrow country. I can feel it right after passing border on the hill. The road on Argentina side gets up the slope slowly. While the road on Chile side goes like this.Santiago, capital of Chile, seems more tourist-friendly. Easy and clean public transport. Many stations are decorated with paintings.
Other than that, it´s not as charming as Buenos Aires. A modern city scattered with high-rise.

Argentina: mendoza

Mendoza is located on right side of Mt. Andes. Famous for its wineyard in Argentina.

Arrived there Saturday. Lucky enough to have watched a flamingo show in a park, relaxingly as other people does
Think maybe we are too busy to do this in Hong Kong.

Having no idea on which wineyard is good, joined a tour. There are English guide explaining how wine is produced, seeing the factory, laboratory-alike room for smelling 40+ kind of component odour that exists in different kind of wine, including those got staled. Finally, of course, tasting.

Argentina: Ushuaia - Hiking

The national park is recommended by guide book. We can see the Andes mountain on both Chile side and Argentina side as the backdrop of the hiking trail...

Yes, it is nice when talked about it.

It was a cold and wet morning. Sun did not rise until 9am and was behinds cloud. Took a van there and it was raining... Hiking on a rainy day...

The van driver did not speak English and we do not speak Spanish. We got off with some other tourists. Then started heading to the trail... on a road of about 1.5km, coverd with ice.

Was really slippery that many of us almost fell. (which i did later on during the hike) Luckily, the scenery worth it, especially when the sun came out of the cloud from noon.
The trail was said to be of moderate difficulty. But there are steep slope that one may need using both hands and legs. And, as the guidebook said, road sign is kind of vague sometimes. It turns out to be part of the fun. Path is not paved. Occasionally there are small yellow sticks stuck on the ground indicating it is part of the trail. So, we have to watch out every now and then to make sure we are on the right track. (We did go wrong for twice...) Though, you will be very happy when you see the yellow stick while you feel you may have got lost.

The highlight of the trail we walked is the first half, which is along the coastline. Sometimes with greenish stones and sometimes with sands as the foreground. Color of the snow mountain changes with sunlights.

There are also some wildlife you may see, like seabird, rabbits...

We were lucky that when we finished around 4pm, it rained heavily!
There are other part of the trail that takes another day...