As I did two semesters of Kulturstudier in Buenos Aires I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel neighboring countries for two months over the Christmas break. I set out for my first backpack-trip ever, all by my self with my priceless book “South-America on a budget”, and it undoubtedly turned out to be the most magnificent and broadening trip of my life.
I definitely travelled intensely, looking back now I have no clue how I managed to visit so many fascinating places in such a short amount of time. Every destination deserve months to get to know, but giving my intense curiosity to move forwards, I stayed only a few days in each place and moved over the continent with night-buses as often as I could. I saw so much insanely wild, breathtaking nature, tried vigorously to understand the people and their culture through the truly outrageous history of their cities and of Latin America. I got surprised, passionated, I discovered the joy of free walking tours and sleeping in big dorms in hostels, I tried to eat every local specialty I found, I met so many other travelers, made friends, practiced my at the time very basic Spanish.
Did you know that behind the Catholic cathedral in La Paz, there is a Witches’ Market selling llama fetuses and dried frogs? That the big city prison holds 3000 inmates but does not have any guards inside? That it is absolutely worth it to visit every of the Nobel Price winner Pablo Neruda’s three self-designed houses in Val Paraíso and Santiago? That the Chileans claim that the pisco (destillate made from grapes) originated from their Elqui Valley (also famous for the UFO sighting and poet Gabriela Mistral), and not from Peru? That if you go on dolphin and whale wacthing in La Serena, Chile, you can be lucky and see three whales at the same day passing on their way to the south? That from the costal city of Trujillo in Peru you can go and see the spectacular Chan Chan, the largest adobe city in the ancient world and capital of the historical empire of the Chimor from 900 to 1470 (before they were defeated by the Inca Empire), and the temples of the Sun and the Moon, build earlier of the Moche civilization from 100 CE to 800 CE? Not to mention how you can get lost in on of the driest deserts on earth, San Pedro de Atacama, for a week wanting to go on every excursion they offer in town? The 4-day Salar de Uyuni trip is absolutely gorgeous, like Machu Picchu will blow your mind and the dinosaur footprints in Sucre will surprise you. I absolutely recommend to hire a bike in Argentinas white wine capital Cafayate, and do a 50 kms bike ride through the stunning red, purple and green mountain landscape trying out the acoustics in El Anfiteatro, a rock formation. Or to check out the more than 3800 types of potatoes in Peru (or maybe just the amazing ceviche made out of inland fish in Cusco).
Well, I went from Buenos Aires to: Rosario – Cordoba – Mendoza – Santiago – Val Paraíso – La Serena and Pisco Elquí – Copiapó – San Pedro de Atacama – Salta – Cafayate – Tupiza – Potosí – Sucre – La Paz – Cusco – Machu Picchu – Máncora – Trujillo, with the ruins of Chan-chan and the beach of Huancarute – Lima
If you have any questions planning your travels between semesters, you can ask me on [email protected] 🙂
Abrazo,
Hilda