South America Trip - Fun Facts and Link to Peru Pictures

Hola, amigos!

We're finally ready to start posting pictures from our trip to South America! Sorry for the delay, but YOU try weeding through almost ten thousand pictures. That's right. We took approximately 9,670 pictures over eighty-five days. Yeah. The final count blew our minds as well. We're still not done yet, but we're ready to show you pictures from the first country we visited--Peru.

By the way, on average, that's a little over 113 pictures per day. (Whatever...don't try to pretend you didn't just calculate that yourself.)

Our trip in a nutshell: We left Los Angeles on October 4, 2006 and returned on December 28th. We spent two and a half weeks in Peru, five days on Easter Island, about three weeks in Chile, and the last six weeks in Argentina.

Since we've been back, everyone's been asking us more or less the same question: What was your favorite out of all the places you visited? The truth is that it's hard to say, because we saw so many amazing, wonderful things. If I had to narrow it down, I'd have to go with the breathtaking Machu Picchu ruins in Peru, the awe-inspiring giant stone statues on Easter Island, and the majestic forested mountains of Torres Del Paine National Park in southern Chile. My favorite country as a whole, though, was probably Argentina, with eye-popping scenery, diverse and interesting wildlife, friendly people, great wine, and the most unbelievably flavorful and juicy steaks I've ever tasted.

The link to our Peru pictures is at the bottom of this post. But first, here are some fun facts about our trip:

Peru

Machu Picchu altitude: 2,430 m (7,970 ft)
- similar to base elevation of Mammoth Mountain in northern California

Lake Titicaca altitude: 3,812 m (12,507 ft)
- highest navigable lake in the world

Highest altitude on Inca Trail: Dead Woman’s Pass, 4,198 m (13,769 ft)
- similar to summit elevation of Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Distance we hiked on the four-day Inca Trail: 49 km (30 mi)

Date of "discovery" of Machu Picchu: July 24, 1911 (Hiram Bingham)

Best pollo a la brasa (Peruvian rotisserie chicken) we ate: El Pio Pio in Arequipa

Number of cities/towns/areas visited: 6 (Arequipa, Puno, Uros [the “Floating Islands”], Isla Taquile, Cuzco, Aguas Calientes [Machu Picchu Pueblo])

Most delayed bus departure: 4 hours
- bus was scheduled to leave Puno at 12:30 a.m. but didn’t leave until 4:30 a.m.
- and then broke down halfway to Cuzco causing delay of one more hour

Number of daypacks stolen: 1

Easter Island

Distance from Easter Island to Santiago, Chile: 3,600 km (2,200 mi)
- similar to distance from Los Angeles to Hawaii

Number of moai (stone statues) discovered by researchers, to date: 887

Size (area): 163.6 km² (63 sq. mi)
- slightly smaller than Catalina Island off California coast

Population: 3,791 (2002 census)

Only town on the island: Hanga Roa (with 3,304 inhabitants)

Number of ATMs on the island: 1 (and it didn't take our card)

Chile

National cocktail: Pisco sour (pisco brandy, lemon juice, and sugar)

Number of cities/towns visited: 14 (Santiago, Valparaiso, Pucon, Villarrica, Lican Ray, Conaripe, Valdivia, Osorno, Castro, Dalcahue, Achao, Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Puerto Natales)

Exchange rate: 1 USD = 545 Chilean pesos

Distance hiked on the “W” Circuit in Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine: 76 km (47 mi), over four days

Total hours on buses: 30 (approx.)

Argentina

Number of cities/towns visited: 26 (El Calafate, El Chalten, Rio Gallegos, Puerto Deseado, Trelew, Camarones, Puerto Madryn, Gaiman, El Bolson, Bariloche, San Martin de los Andes, Villa Meliquina, Mendoza, San Juan, Cordoba, La Cumbre, Jesus Maria, Alta Gracia, La Cumbrecita, Puerto Iguazu, Corrientes, Resistencia, Rosario, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Tigre)

Number of penguin habitat areas visited: 4 (Isla Pinguino, Cabo Dos Bahias, Punta Tombo, Peninsula Valdes)

Area: 2,776,890 km² (1,072,157 sq. mi.)
- 8th largest country in the world

Distance traveled by bus: 8,216 km (5,094 mi)

Total hours on buses: 135 (approx.)

Distance traveled by rental car: 2,307 km (1,430 mi)

Total distance traveled: 10,523 km (6,524 mi) - similar to driving from Los Angeles to Fairbanks, Alaska, and back again

Longest bus ride: 24 hrs (Cordoba to Puerto Iguazu)

Best Argentine steak dinner: Cerro Lindo in El Bolson

Best Patagonian lamb: Tarquino in Bariloche

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More fun facts to come! And here's the link to some of our Peru pictures, posted on Shutterfly:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AasmblmzYs2HC

Please comment! We LOVE comments!

D