Hola people! :)

Been a while since our last blog entry, sorry about that. We've been quite busy since we left Cordoba, and we have a lot to tell you guys :)

ROADTRIP!

Ok, we left Cordoba, and went to Salta. Stayed at a nice hostel there, and explored the city for a few days. Went to one of the restaurants in town, which is known for it's steaks, and ran into Tom and Alex, two guys we met on Ilha Grande and in Cordoba (they stayed at the same hostel). We sat down and ate with them and four others, and had fun with them that evening. As Bolivia was a bit unstable at that moment, we all looked for other options for our next destination. The guys suggested to rent a car, and drive to Chile, which would be about an 8 hours drive from Salta. We liked the idea, and decided to come with them. Drove over the Andes, went to the salt flats to take some cool pics (promise to put them out soon), saw lamas and stuff, and froze to death as the guys turned the heat off in order to save gas. Yeah, yeah, we know (now) that it has nothing to do with the gas.. Soo.. 4 people in the car, minus 8 degrees outside, and we were in the middle of nowhere. What happens? The gas lamp comes on. NO gas stations what so ever the next 200 kms, and we started to get a little (ok, a lot) worried. We made it all the way it because of the last kms with downhills, and we laugh at the whole thing now. But I promise you all that our minds went a little crazy in the thought of spending the night in the mountain desert.. :p

Anyways! Came to San Pedro, Chile, and found a hostel. A bit expencive, but we had to find a place to sleep. Nice little town, freezing cold at night, very hot during the day. Went out for a drive to find some of the sights in the area the next day (we still had the car we rented), and saw some pretty amazing stuff. San Pedro is located in the middle of the driest desert in the world, and is about 3500 masl. Spent a couple of days in San Pedro, before we rented another car, and drove with the guys and James from US to the west coast of Chile, to a city called Iquiqui. Cool place, we enjoyed the beach (too cold to go swimming tho), the casino and the restaurants.

Headed to Peru after 2 nights in Iquiqui, and got the coolest driver (and car) to take us from the bus terminal in Chile to Tacna in Peru. We were 5 people (Alex, Tom, Marte, Ida and a girl from Ireland), had 5 huge backpacks + some other stuff, and had the coolest car around, with red/purple interior and flowers in the roof. Nice. :p Anyways, he was nice, fixed passport stuff and everything else, and we only payed 2000 peso (20 krones, 4 US dollars) each. Found the next bus that would take us to Puno, about 10 hours north. The bus was horrible, it was f****** freezing and we didn't have any blankets. Worst bus ever. But we made it through, tough as we are, and found our hostel in Puno, after shipping the irish girl on her next bus to Cuzco. Stayed at Inca Rest in Puno. Nice hostel, nice staff, and we got an apartment to ourselves! Bathroom, livingroom with tv and dvd-player, two bedrooms, diningtable.. Awesome :) We did some touristy stuff, saw some old Inka ruins and went out on lake Titicaca to see the floating island and the way people live out there. Pretty fascinating, I have to say. Thor Heyerdahl (norwegian explorer) actually went to lake Titicaca to gather native materials for his boat Kon-Tiki, which got it's name from old Inka myths. Cool, huh? :)

Said good bye to the aussies yesterday (Marte did at least, Ida slept and would not wake up.. :p - in my defence: it was EARLY and we went to bed late, after a few beers), but we'll probably see them in Cuzco when we go there for our 8 days trip with GAP adventures. They're in Cuzco right now, and we're in Lima. Meeting the group in 2 days, and will get a night at a real HOTEL here in Lima before we fly to Cuzco. Nice :) I hope we get a bath tub in our bathroom :)

Well, that's it for now. Pics from our roadtrip will come as soon as possible, but not all computers allow uploading of pics.. We're trying, tho :)

Take care everyone, and we'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Marte & Ida