America, but South

 America...but South!

 

After a total of 45 hours in busses, 5 flights, 2 train rides, countless taxis, gondolas, and incredible hikes...our group has finished our tour of 3 countries down here in South America. All of us feel incredibly blessed to have had these experiences and return safely to Familia Feliz. In our travels we had several unique experiences and encountered quite a few language barriers (especially in Brazil). The experiences we gained as a group are unforgettable and I am more then grateful that we had the opportunities to travel and have fun during our time in South America.

 

As I have mentioned before, I caught a serious travel bug from my dad. He always encouraged my brother and I to be planned...and that we should be ready for anything...we should do our best to have everything accounted for. For three months, my days off were dedicated to writing this blog as well as planning our trip through Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil. This trip gave me a LOT to look forward to. Back home, my brother and I would spend our free time either playing video games, watching movies, and often…scrolling around google earth. In the summer before arriving in Bolivia, I scrolled around South America trying to find things that I would be interested in doing. I knew I had to visit Machu Picchu and Christ the Redeemer while I was here. Thus began the process of planning my first international vacation without my parents.

 

Instead of a typical blog format, I am just going picture by picture to show what we did throughout the course of our trip. A more normal blog will be posted soon!

Our group just before boarding for our 13 hour bus ride over the Andes Mountains to get to La Paz, Bolivia.

The bus made two stops along the way and the seats were very comfortable. They were easily the size of any American first class airline seat. However, it is a bus, so sleep was rather difficult for someone like me who is a light sleeper.

This road was easily one of the most beautiful and terrifying routs I have taken. For nearly the entire bus ride, the machine was screaming as loud as it could to make the over the 15,000ft climb. It truly sounds insane… but yes. At one point my elevation sat at 15,221ft. before arriving at our destination of La Paz which sits at 11,940ft. 

Our first stop was the Carrot Tree Café where we were served food that we had no involvement in making. It was a great feeling.

Here is our Group! We were happy to have Lizianne (far right) join us for the first portion of the trip. She was making her way back to Berrien Springs Michigan. (Victoria, Collin, Memo, Aron, Sean, Liz)

I never stop being amazed by how unique a city La Paz is. It is such an incredible place.

Were in the land of the llamas! I had to get a picture next to one of the paintings. 

The next day we went down to the Sur district in order to visit the Valle de la Luna. That is another very unique area of the city.

Food quickly became an important part of the trip. While traveling in South America, we realized just how much food we could eat at an incredible price. The Japanese sushi and ramen bar was “Very” expensive. My meal of 10 sushi rolls and these fancy dumplings cost just $5.

La Paz has no way of making subways or metros due to its intense elevation changes. Therefore the Telefetico (gondola) system is a local's main form of transport! They are very fun to ride around in.

Views from the Telefeticos.

The next morning we started our most unknown part of the trip…the part that worried me the most. Traveling in a bus from La Paz Bolivia to Cusco, Peru. The bus ride was supposed to be 11 hours.

Quick breakfast before hopping on our bus.

Again, I was amazed at how incredible the views from our bus were. We left at 7:00am and had to cross the entirety of Lake Titicaca during which we crossed the Peruvian boarder to enter the country.

Just after this photo was one of the most terrifying moments of the trip. We arrived at the boarder of Bolivia and Peru and were asked for our Passports. We provided all the necessary documentation and expected to be let through. However, since we were current residents of Bolivia we needed to provide 163bs (bolivianos) per person, which none of us had. We were going to have to beg all the other passengers on the bus for money…which scared me for sure.

However, our bus driver noticed our panic and offered to provide the remaining amount of money so we could cross the border. We accepted his generous offer and gave him all of his money back in Peruvian Sols with a tip once we crossed the boarder.

Since we resided in Bolivia, we had to pay like any Bolivian citizen even though we had US passports. 

I don’t have many pictures after this, but the scenery of the mountains was incredible. Our bus climbed over 14,000ft. again and after 15 hours on this bus…we arrived in Cusco.

Cool moments in the streets and markets of Cusco.

The first of MANY Acai cups from a company called Oakberry.

We chose to do a free walking tour of Cusco. Our guide pointed out that all the stone walls are Incan civilization walls. It was an awesome tour.

The city of Cusco.

In order to get to Machu Picchu, you must travel by bus and train across the Andes Mountains. This was the start of that journey!

We made an incredible stop at a beautiful overlook along the way.

Here is the town of Ollantaytambo which also stems from an ancient Incan civilization.

Finally time for the train toward Machu Picchu!

Incredible scenery

Finally we arrived in the little town of Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Village)! 

Good food as usual! However, the exchange rate was different in Peru, so we had to pay closer attention to the prices.

The morning finally came! Something I have not mentioned yet is that our group made the decision to hike up BOTH Machu Picchu and Christ the Redeemer. Yes, we could have taken busses or other transportation…but what is the fun in that! Keep in mind, none of us had trained at all or have significant experience with hiking. This made for a fun hike.

Our entrance ticket was for 8:00am which meant we had to be there before that. The hike said a minimum of an hour and a half while going straight up hill…so we woke up at 5:00am to get to the hike at 5:45am. After several stops…we made it to the top at 7:00am just in time to have breakfast and rest before walking into Machu Picchu.

A dream come true :)

We had an Incredible tour guide who took photos and gave us a 4 hour detailed tour of the ancient ruins. He came up to us in Aguas Calientes at 5:30am and we agreed to have the tour. He then waited till 8:00am for us to enter. If you visit Machu Picchu, just wait to get a tour guide till the morning of. We paid him $10 each and it saved us $15 from booking online.

Very happy Collin.

This is immediately after the hike down. As you can see, we were a little bit tired. However, if you look at Memo on the right side of the photo, you see quite a bit of energy. We had a running joke that he was a gazelle and could run forever.

That night we played soccer with the locals and everyone relaxed in the room. I stepped outside to call my parents and decided to sit on a bench. Immediately this little guy hopped on my lap and didn’t leave my side the whole night. All the animals in this town were incredible. They seemed to love people!

The train back! We all slept quite a bit on this journey.

After arriving in Cusco, we did laundry and ate dinner at an incredible restaurant before heading to the airport for our flight to Lima, Peru. We were looking forward to seeing the Pacific!

I won’t lie, upon arrival we were rather concerned. When I researched hotels in Lima everything was extremely expensive, until I found the 1900 Guest Hostel. We had stayed in a Hostel in Cusco, but it was luxury compared to our hostel in Lima. First of all, every taxi driver and person we talked to told us to, “Be careful.” These were not tourist blog sites…these were locals. The taxi drivers made all of us roll up our windows and have all of our belongings in an area where they would be kept safe. After driving through a rather…interesting…area of town, we arrived to our hostel.

It was next to the art museum which I thought was very nice. However, upon arrival the hostel had no water, some interesting people out front and an extra person in our room. I was rather disappointed in myself…probably should’ve spent the extra $30 to stay somewhere a tad bit nicer.

However, the next morning everything seemed to be much better. The water worked…still saw a guy pass out and be brought into some room…but whatever. And most of all, the extra person in our room was really cool. His name was Ethan and was from Virginia. After talking and learning some Spanish, we felt confident enough to leave our belongings in the room with this stranger.

Our first stop was the town square.

After being let down by our introduction to Lima, we grabbed a bus pass and took the 30 minute ride to the Miraflores district. I was SHOCKED. It was absolutely gorgeous. It had a mall that was carved into the walls of the cliffs above the Pacific that very much reminded me of most Florida malls. Most of all, the salty smell of the ocean transported me directly back to Daytona Beach. We stayed there the rest of the day and watched the sunset.

Some incredible sandwiches we had in Barranco.

The next morning we immediately headed back to the cooler district of Lima. We ate Incredible food in Barranco and swam in the very crowded beaches of the Pacific Ocean. 

More Acai!

That same night we had to get on our first flight to Santiago, Chile for a 6 hour layover before hopping on a connecting flight to Rio de Janeiro!

Santiago from the sky.

During the trip one of the movies I watched was Society in the Snow…a movie about people being trapped in the Andes Mountains after a plane crash to the east of Santiago…exactly were we were going to be flying. Not sure why I chose to watch that movie THEN, but it made me keep my eyes open the whole time. I saw some beautiful mountains and a LOT of jungle along the way.

Landing in Rio de Janeiro! The rain reminded me of some good old Florida weather.

Saw Christ the Redeemer for the first time! It was right about then that we realized that we truly had no idea how to communicate. Being in South America, you would think Brazil would have a healthy amount of Spanish speakers. Especially in the tourist heavy districts. Nope. Most of the people we attempted to communicate with knew very little Spanish and could only understand the words that were the same or similar in Portuguese.

View from our Airbnb in Copacabana Beach! We really lucked out with this find.

After watching Footvolley for an hour or so...I understood how bad of shape I was in. Playing volleyball in the sand is hard enough. But playing with everything but your hands seemed nearly impossible. Memo and Aron got pretty good after buying a volleyball though!

The next morning we went to Colombo Cafe! This place is famous for its long lines and celebrity visits...sadly we didn't see any during our meal.

The cakes were incredible!

Our visit to the Royal Portuguese reading room.

A visit to the Selaron steps was very cool and was a foreshadowing of what our hike the next day would be like. There are tiles from all over the world in this one location. It was made as an art piece in dedication to the people of Brazil. There were also a ton of people here when we went.

The view of Copacabana Beach!

Our next hike started. It is important to note that while longer, Christ the Redeemer is at a much lower elevation which made this hike significantly easier.

Up we go

And up

Once we reached the top…I realized that I made a mistake when choosing my shorts for the day. ALL of my sweat was very visible. It made for a good joke. I poured water all over my shorts just after to make it look a bit better.

We made it to the top!

While the views were incredible, it was very difficult to deal with the insane amount of people at the top. It almost was shoulder to shoulder with people and a few open areas to take photos. Because of that…it was very tough to move!

Some fun on the hike down.

The next morning our Airbnb had a leak! This is one of the biggest blessings because if it had not happened, we would have had to sit in a Starbucks or some coffee shop for 12 hours before our Bus ride to Sao Paulo with all of our luggage. The owner of the property gave us the rest of the day to chill due to the inconvenience. I used this time to go see Ipanema Beach and some other cool areas close to our place.

This place felt like it was out of a movie.

That night we took the gondolas up to the top of Mount Sugarloaf! We carried ALL of our stuff and enjoyed the unique sunset.

Off to our bus ride to Sao Paulo

After an 11 hour bus ride, we arrived in Sao Paulo. Sadly I did not get any pictures of the ride, but there was not much to see. With the entire day ahead of us, we decided to go to Parque Ibirapuera after one of Memo's friends from Sao Paulo recommended the park.

We found a coffee shop and some Acai to take up our time. I walked the entire time we were in the park and felt so at home. I had not seen kids with Nike shoes, socks and lots of toys in quite a while. Everything felt just like back home in America. It almost felt like I decided to take a walk around Cranes Roost (one of my favorite spots back home). It reminded me of what home feels like.

Our travels home began. First a 3 hour flight to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, then a 1 hour flight back to La Paz.

The next morning we woke up and immediately had to find a bus station that could take us back to Rurrenabaque. We found a station and purchased our tickets.

After this, we went to Carrot Tree Café…where it all started. Got our drinks, walked around a bit longer and headed to our bus.

This photo is one of the most terrifying photos I’ve ever taken. For the next hour and a half we were driving on roads that if we fell off…we would definitely not survive. I found myself praying and playing Christian music the whole way down.

In the small town of Yucomo

Back home!

After all of this travel, I feel incredibly blessed. During our time in other countries, we had several conversations with locals, however one in particularly stood out to me. During our second night in La Paz, we ate at a cool restaurant. During that time, Victoria did something awesome. She struck up a conversation with one of the people walking around the restaurant. Most of the English-speaking locals were always eager to use the language they know in conversation.

After a while of casual conversation, Victoria asked our friend if he believed in God. After that, his whole demeaner changed. He went from this funny and welcoming person to very apprehensive about his beliefs. We just let him talk. In his voice, eyes, and body language, you could see a battle happening in his mind. We didn’t try to argue or make him feel pressured. But it seemed that night our conversation got him thinking.

During our trip, I wanted to do my best to remember that I am a missionary. I wanted people to see Jesus in the way we acted, prayed before meals, and treated each other.

In the little town of Rurrenabaque, we get many tourists. From sitting at Roots Coffee Shop in this town, I have learned a lot about a tourist from a locals point of view. You are heavily judged by those who live here, thought of to be “ignorant”, and if you are young, people often think you are disrespectful.

In our trip, I wanted to simply experience what was happening around me while learning about the places I was at. I feel like Jesus showed up at every step of our journey. From boarder issues to roof leaks, he helped us get through it.

 

I believe I have used this verse before…but there’s no problem with that.

 

Joshua 1:9

“Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged,

for the Lord your God

 is with you wherever you go.”