BAD CAMERA

So my camera has finally shorted out on me. The one that I started the site with finally lost all picture on the viewfinder so I am without a camera. I might pick one up later on today for the rest of my journey. This one has survived a season at the mountain and almost the entire first leg of the adventure. Will have updates soon.

Lima - Futbol and Abandoning the Guitar

Now back in Lima and 7 months after hitting a tree snowboarding and shattering my leg I finally played a little futbol in South America. It was a game done through the Loki hostel here in Miraflores that I have spent so much time in over the past few months. The play was a little poor on my part, but in the end I walked off without assistance so all is good, just don't tell my doctor.


Also today I gifted my guitar to the hostel. I threw the website address on the bottom and put my email on it incase anyone gets some good bar pics with it. If I get any I will be sure to post them here on the blog.

Border Crossing Chaos...

2 days ago I woke up early in the morning in Arica, Chile and began my journey into Tacna, Peru. It is one of the structured border crossings in and out of the country and I had done it in reverse already on my way out of Peru a couple of months ago. Needless to day the situation has change a little since then.

The crossing was easy enough

Then things got a little rocky... literally. Hundreds of people had relocated thousands of rocks into the street to keep cars from entering and also threw rocks at the cars that might have tried to go around.


My taxi drived turned through the median and drove back a little bit before dropping us off miles outside of town. I then had to walk through the town of protesters hoping that they didn't turn on me.


I walked for over 2 hours and found out that the bus station was closed indefinitely and that I would be stuck in Tacna if I couldn't find a flight out.

They also had large demonstrations in the main square.


(I apologize for the lack of quality pics, but I didn't want to get stoned for taking pictures. You never know what could set somebody off)

Luckily for me I had a friend. One of the people in my taxi extended his hospitality to me and accompanied me to the bus station. When it was found to be closed he then took me into his home and helped me find a way out and made sure I was well fed. Needless to say I hope to have found a friend for life.

This is my friend Christian and his family. Without them I am certain that Tacna could have become the worst part of my trip, but now I consider to be one of my best days.


His hospitality extended far and beyond any common courtesy. It is something that I have found abundantly during my time in Peru and that is why I consider Peru as one of my favorite places in the world.

I do think I started a guitar player on her way while I was there, and afterwards I managed to catch a cab that snuck me to the airport and I flew into Lima. No more buses for this guy.

Please excuse my horrible Spanish

Para Christian y la familia,

Gracias por la hospitalidad. Usted es verdad un gran amigo. Recordaré siempre su ayuda y esperanza de permanecer en tacto.

Su amigo,

jonny walker

Arica - South of the Border

I am now in the middle of the longest day of my travels thus far. Luckily it is in a beach town. I arrived in Arica, Chile this morning at 6am after 36 hours straight on buses and somehow I am still awake. I have floated the entire day in an odd state of subconsciousness caused by lack of sleep and massive changes of altitudes.

Here are some shots of the town.


I did find some water, but no beach at first

Later I allocated the beach



Here is a shot of the view without my massive head in the way

The town itself seems to be very nice although I am not sure I will entire grasp it all in my current state. I really want to go surfing, but still feel uncertain of the effect it will have on my leg so I might just save up for sandboarding on my way through Peru and then maybe some surfing in Lima.


Tomorrow I plan to make the border crossing, but have heard from a taxi driver that there are issues with it. I will know more tomorrow and find out if I need to fly north instead.

BUS RIDES ARE AWESOME!!!

Resistencia, Argentina to Arica, Chile is a blast by bus. I headed out Saturday at 6:00 PM and made it to Arica at 6:00am Monday morning. It started with a 11.5 hour bus from Resistencia to Salta, Argentina. I then purchased a ticket with a connection from Salta to Calamas, Chile with a 2 hour layover and then another bus from Calamas to Arica.

I apologize if none of that made sense but I have spent about 36 hours straight on 3 different buses. Needless to say, I am taking a night off before starting up again.

I have purchased a ticket back to the US from Lima Peru on the 12th of November and I am working my way there via bus.

Now I am in Arica Chile and hoping to take in a beach day

here are some pics from the road.



Salty Desert

Boarder Crossing

Iguazu Unkut - VID

At the end of my time at Iguazu Falls I had to say goodbye to yet another family member. Amy (AKA Yams) headed toward Brazil. With any luck she will be traveling until April of next year, and with a little more luck I will get here to send me some updates from her travel as my "traveling correspondent".


After Iguazu I took the second leg of my journey to Lima to a little place called Resistencia Argentina. Yaaay for 12 more hours on a bus


Amy and I got in late at night and didn't stay in the best place the first night. Come to find out the town is very charming and filled with statues.


Typical Skyline shot.


Today is another rough day because Amy is departing as well. She has traveled for a year now and has to return to Buenos Aires to fly out the 4th of November. With any luck I will be seeing her and Yams again in a few months when jonnywalkeradventures attempts to conquer Europe.


It has been Mucho Funno

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

To validate the long bus journey north we headed into the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls. At our hostel we managed to recruit one more to our group for the day. Fyonn from Australia was the unlucky guy that had to make the journey with us.


This is a quick shot of me standing in front of one of the smaller falls that is considered large by most standards.


Granted when one of the walls looks like this it is not exactly a big waterfall.


I am fairly certain I took nearly 200 pics and a bunch of vids. Keep checking back for vids from the falls.


To end the day we headed up to the massive fall that makes the place epic. Needless to say a torrential thunderstorm blew in. We hurried to get to the end despite the painful rain and our lack of rain gear. It was amazing once we reached the end. By the time that we got to the viewpoint the rain was so hard that you could barely keep your eyes open, but there was not another person on the platform. It was windy and the rain was stinging, but I wouldn't have changed a second of it. It was easily one of the best moments of my trip thus far.

Of course somehow I managed to get a pic in the rain of Fyonn despite the rain. Most of my pics turned out really rough.

Road Trippin to Puerto Iguazu

After Montevideo Uruguay I headed back to Buenos Aires Argentina for a night and then boarded a bus to Puerto Iguazu Argentina to see Iguazu Falls. They are epic waterfalls in the North of Argentina. The bus trip was 18 hours long so I scheduled it in style. This is the first leg in my journey home.

I started at Buenos Aires Argentina and will be flying out of Lima, Peru on the 12th of November en route to Fort Lauderdale Florida. I am uncertain on how I will get to Lima at the moment, but I am considering doing multiple days in buses and really seeing as much of the continent as possible. It should be quite the adventure.

Montevideo

Somewhere during the beginning of my trip I decided that I was going to go to Montevideo, Uruguay. Nobody told me about it, I think I just looked at the map and decided that it was the spot for me. Now about 3 months later I have actually reached my destination. It was worth the trip.

Here is a view of some of the city from the commercial port


Here is a shot of the center of the city. You have to love to see palm trees.


Another shot of the center

There are small commercial streets abound and some of the best restaurants I have encountered on my trip. It has also been nice to be slightly off of the normal tourist track to take a few days to cleanse my system all while enjoying clean water and a beach.