Day 38- Peru, Bolivia and the Loophole

So apparently tourists (Bret and Niki) cannot buy a car in Chile and drive it into Peru. We got to the border and they turned us away. So we decided to drive over to the Bolivian border, since they didn’t have the same restrictions. We got in! Triumph #1, don’t tell our mothers, but we had to drive at night AND sleep in the car that night and it was freezing! 

 This was the view we saw when we awoke!

So we went into La Paz, Bolivia, stayed the night filled the car up, got cash, found the church and some food. 

Its a big city, and this is only a small view...

Before I forget, we had not planned on going into Bolivia, so we didn’t plan for the $270 visa fee, (maybe we should have stayed longer in Bolivia?) We were about $30 USD short. So we walked around trying to sell some uneeded clothes, namely shoes, yes Bret and Niki sold shoes in order to gain entrance to Bolivia. Long story short we asked about 50 people until we were led to the right group where they were very interested. Even though they haggled us down $5 for my Asics we made it. The only problem we had after that was to pay the toll to get to La Paz (the roads are in terrible shape, I kept wondering why we were paying to drive on such terrible roads, I would hate to see the roads otherwise!). The gateman let us by and we went to get cash, there was however no ATM’s. So we had to sell some juice to a thirsty looking couple, and returned to the toll guy. Then we prayed that we would have enough gas to reach La Paz. None of the gas stations accept credit cards, its not even an option, not until we got into the very downtown part of La Paz. The Lord was definitely watching out for us!

We went to church and were impressed that they had a piano player (male no less). We enjoyed the meetings, surprised that they building had Wifi (so we took advantage of that!), and then planned out our trip to Peru. We were both nervous that they weren’t going to let us into Peru, but honestly it was simple and easy, way easier than at the Chile/Bolivia border. We were both extremely pleased to get into Peru. The roads here have speed bumps, (speed reducers) at nearly every 5 km, so that added at least an hour to the travel time. 

We have had the awesome chance to see some Nephite ruins, see the timeline, that totally corresponds with Book of Mormon dates!

The top says that "the capital of the Tihuanaku empire, in its clasical period constituted a densely populated centalized state. Consisting of a select group of superior artisians and agriculturists who created a diverse products resulting from diferent ecological levels."

So the chronology says that this particular civilization started in 1580 B.C. hmmm interesting- lasted until 1200 A.D.

Here is a view from the ground up to the restored parts of the pyramid, they aren't even 1/4 done, but it still looks cool. There was a pool in the very top where they would watch constellations from the reflection, pretty ingenious! This part represented to them the life before earth.

This is a view of the main temple, it may have been very similar to King Solomon's temple, as the Elders told us at church before we left... I will let you decide... it has an outer courtyard, a main entrance gate and as one guide told us, represented man's time on earth. 

A third underground temple, represented the afterlife, I didn't get a photo of that...sorry!

Here is another view of the Earth temple, with modernish steps, you can at least tell the size of the walls here.

We have driven around the whole southern coast of Lake Titicaca (120 ish Km) to get to Puna, Peru…although not highly recommended, provides us with a nice stopping place before going into Cuzco manana! We are in Peru, Triumph #2!

Our view westward going towards Puna, Peru from Bolvia.

Day 36- Desert and Coast

We drove through mostly dessert all day, so the few pictures you see will be indicative of what we saw over the course of the 800 kilometers. except for the coastal pictures that we woke up to. We are getting to drive on dirt everyday thanks to the Chilean government and all the road construction, honestly every city has construction going on...

That is a hand in the desert.

This road went down for at least 2 hours!

I don't know what this is...

Day 35- Driving out of STGO

We finally have made all the repairs, and received all the paperwork needed to leave Santiago! It was a little embarrassing to leave empty handed from the Notary yesterday, hopefully more so for him as the Notary promised us the paperwork yesterday morning. But he went personally to the Registro Civil this morning to take care of the paperwork, so in that regards he gets a thumbs up. We drove approximately 877 Kilometers... or 545 miles (not too impressive) we stayed in a small town called Caldera. The crazy traffic, dark unfamiliar roads and the having to turn back at one point because there wasn't a gas station we were going to reach, and the closest one was 40 kilometers back, I hate it when I miscalculate! The good news is the vehicle is running great, the bad news is that gas is very expensive, I haven't done the calculations yet, I am just hoping that the gas tank on this beast is oversized... We don't have any pictures, because every time I suggested Niki take a picture, she just looked at me... Ha Ha! Will try harder tomorrow!

Day 33- Valparaiso and Visits

We are still in Santiago, which isn't entirely a bad thing... but we didn't want to be in the city for so long. Yesterday-Sunday after church José and Solange took us for a nice drive to see Valparaiso. Its definitely a pretty town with a great view, it was actually really nice to ride with them as they took charge of where to go, how to get there etc. José did an awesome job of getting us to this lookout before the sun completely set on us!

This was a family band in the plaza, they have twin girls on either side singing and playing.

Monday, we tried again to get the paperwork finished... We didn't so we took the chance to visit with the Pedreros again! Niki helped make sopapillas and calzones rotos (broken underwear)! They are pretty good. Before we ate, I made a short visit with German Soza. He was the only one home, his wife Cecilia works until late at a hospital, and his two kids Juvenal and Lorena, believe it or not, grew up and moved out! Talking to German was definitely good for us both, I kept feeling the spirit telling me that I needed to go see them... Its a good thing to listen!

Day 31- Cajon del Maipo

We decided we had had enough of the city, so we loaded up the Land Rover and went for a drive. We headed towards a nice mountain area called Cajón del Maipo (Box of Maipo). Its an awesome retreat from the city that gave us magnificent Mountain views, rain and snow, a huge waterfall, some off roading, and hot thermal pools.

It’s a short easy drive and well worth it for the scenery, we originally intended to hike around a volcano, but it started to snow. We did however pick up two hitchhikers, who were going camping… no one else slowed down so we gave them a ride, they had to squish in back on top of the bed with their gear, so they were the first to test the beds wight load. We also got to do some off-roading, up a couple paths trying to get close to the waterfall that we could see from the road. 

Niki on the left

Niki on the right

Niki was mostly excited about finding her mittens during the nike towards the waterfall, as her face clearly communicates!

We then thought we might try some of the hot thermal springs since we were up there, but the snow was getting really bad so we headed back.

One of the funniest things was all the little snowmen on cars. Snow is not common in Santiago so they would drive up, honestly we saw more than 200 cars going up there while it was getting dark, the roads aren't very good, and we saw very few suv's. But the locals would drive up make a small snowman and put him on their hood and drive home with it!