Maxichamp – Page 6

Lauca National Park in Chile

I take another break from my 4,000+ mile bus journey through South America to do some proper sightseeing. Today, I ride in a medium-sized tour bus from the coastal city of Arica, Chile, and visit the Andes mountains, right on the border with Bolivia. Lauca National Park is my destination. Its most iconic site is Lake Chungara, which is surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes.

All of the other passengers on the bus are Chilean and Brazilian tourists. Like Noah’s Ark, they all came in pairs. I am the exception, as I am doing this trip on my own. I will rendezvous with my wife at the bottom of the world, in Ushuaia, at the end of the bus trip. More on that later. Continue reading →

An Afternoon In Arica, Chile

Preface: In December 2010, I traveled over 4,000 miles by bus from Lima, Peru, all the way to the tip of South America in Ushuaia, Argentina. After my Peruvian leg, I took a break and hung out in Arica, near the Peruvian and Bolivian borders with Chile. It is a port town in the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth.

After a light-hearted moment at the border, in which I had to pantomime to customs officials what the beef jerky in my backpack was, I reached the extraordinarily clean city of Arica. After my stint in Peru, I grew accustomed to a moderate level of general filth. Arica’s prosperity became quickly apparent as I saw two metrosexual dudes zip past me in a BMW Z3 with the top down. Continue reading →

Discovering Lanai’s Shipwrecks and Petroglyphs with Pablo

Preface: Lanai is a small island just a stone’s throw from Maui. It used to be the world’s largest pineapple plantation. The plantation was replaced by two ultra-swanky resorts when Dole realized that it was much cheaper to grow pineapples in Third World countries. Recently, Oracle’s Larry Ellison bought 98% of the island for half a billion dollars.

While on Maui about eight years ago, I decided to take the ferry to Lanai for a one-day jaunt. Tackling the Munro Trail in a 4×4 was my goal. Lonely Planet suggested an outfit that rented sturdy Land Rovers. A phone call quickly revealed that the company went kaput. Continue reading →

A Hike Down to Molokai’s Leper Colony

Preface: In the 1860s, a leper colony was set up on a spit of land on the north side of the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Though the settlement has officially closed, about a dozen former patients still live there.

I wake up an hour before sunrise. This is quite an unusual wake-up time for someone on vacation. But I booked a mule ride down to the Molokai leper colony. And the mules leave early.

I grab a double espresso in Kaunakakai, the largest town on this island of 7,400 residents. I head out to the stables; and it’s still dark outside. Of course, the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) behind the counter tells me he does not see my name on the reservation roster. All the mules have been spoken for. I’m SOL. Continue reading →

A Beginner’s Guide to Central Asian Embassies

The former Soviet Republics in Central Asia– Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan– are fascinating, oft-ignored, and mysterious. Getting visas to visit all of them, especially for a Yank, would be a monumental task. That’s why on a recent trip to Washington, DC, I opted for a far easier task– visiting every one of these countries’ embassies and asking for travel brochures. Continue reading →

How to Get to Guatemala In Five Days Without Flying

Preface: This is an adventure from three years ago. Although I majored in Latin American Studies and wrote my honors thesis about Guatemala, I had never been there. To right that wrong, 13 years later, I visited the Central American country. I coupled it with an overland trip as a part of my quest to cover the entire Western Hemisphere by public land transportation.

I land in San Diego. I neglected to do any research about the nascent drug war in Mexico. When I ask the nice old lady at the airport information desk about buses to the Mexican border, she informs me that 40 to 50 people are shot everyday in Tijuana, the town on the other side of the border from San Diego. I later learn that while I was in Tijuana, the undertakers had run out of coffins. Continue reading →

I Tried to Set the World Record* for Visiting All 44 BART Stations

I missed out on the Age of Exploration by a century or three. There is nothing left on this planet to explore. So in order to do something new and different, I choose to travel in an unorthodox manner. For example, I recently visited every inhabited island in the State of Hawaii, including the Forbidden Isle of Niihau. I am also trying to travel from the top of North America (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska) to the tip of South America (Ushuaia, Argentina) by only using public transportation. Recently, I attempted to visit all 44 BART stations as quickly as possible.

Continue reading →