Back to Peru - Cheating Machu Pichu

Flew back to La Paz the next morning and caught a mini bus to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. The weather much nicer than 7 weeks before. The altitude hit us and we were in bed by 9pm, absolutely exhausted! The whole weekend in Copacabana
there was a festival on, so loads of parades, dancing, singing, brass bands and loads of drinking. On our second morning we got bailed up outside the door of our hostel by 4 old guys drinking still drinking from the night before. They wanted to share their local beer with us, saying it was as good as Heiniken. So glass of beer for breakfast!


Instead of taking the two hour boat trip there and back to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun), we decided to hike to Yampupata, a 4 hour hike following the lakes edge. Once there we were met by this cute old man who offered to row us to the island for US$4. 45 minutes later we arrived and hiked another 30 minutes to the village of Yamuni where we ate lunch. Lovely grilled trout straight from the lake. We had a wonderful view over the lake, and we could even see the snow capped mountains of the Cordillera Real about 80km away.


Back in Copacabana we had to find a new room as we had checked out of us in the morning with the intention of staying overnight on the island but at the last minute we decided against it. After asking in about 12 places a guy came up to us and asked if we wanted a room. He has convinced his friend who owned a hotel to rent us out his top room which was not yet finished. Well all that was left was the carpet to be laid down. Worked out well as we were on the top floor of the hotel so the room got the sun all day. We had our own little balcony that gave great views over the lake, all for US$4pn.


Next stop was Puno in Peru, still on the Lake. Now that the weather is much nicer we head off for a day trip to the Uros floating islands.... Yes I said FLOATING. How's that then? I hear you ask. Well they're made out of reeds aren't they. There are 14 islands with a community on each one. Almost everthing is made from reeds... houses, schools, beds, chairs ect. The island itself is about 1.5 meters thick, so that you dont fall through, but you have to be careful at the edges. The ground is spongey soft which is weird and ofcourse you don't need shoes. Realy cool!!


That night we joined some gringos we met in Copacobana for dinner. I had Llama in a peach sauce which was devine!!! Then we all went to a bar which had given us free drink tickets. The Music was pretty good and every time we tried to leave we were given more tickets. We were let out at closing, around 3 or 4 in the morning (I'm not to sure) having not spent a penny. ill is a mild way to describe how we felt the next morning!!!


Our next stop Cuzco has several bars where happy hour starts at 3pm and finishes at 9pm. ..very dangerous! During our final week in Peru we drank alot... Needless to say we had many sore heads! However we did manage to fit in some culture and exercise in the surrounding area.


Cusco is the best base for the Sacred Valley home to Machu Pichu and several other smaller Inca sites. We decided not to hike the Inca Trail instead we went on a three day learn to kayak trip. So to see Machu Pichu we did a nice little circuit taking in a few of the smaller ruins and villages in the valley.


From Cusco we took a local bus an hour to Pisac where we checked out the ruins, hiked back to the village and shopped in the village market. That night we stayed there and the following morning we headed to Ollanytambo to visit the ruins there, then caught the late afternoon train up to Agua Calientes, the closest village to Machu Pichu.


Up early the next morning to catch the first bus at 6.30am, we walked through the gates of Machu Pichu at 7am. It was a beautiful day and the site was truly stunning. The surrounding lush mountains truly make it more spectacular. It was amazing to stand and over look the site and to see each side was sheer cliffs..why the Incas went throught the hardship to build the city then leave even before the Spainards had discovered it, is beyond me! Spent 3 hours wandering around the site and bumped into a few travellers that we had met in Bolivia. Afterwards hiked the 8 kms back to Agua Calientes and went in search of the coldest and cheapest beers in the village. Was successful at the local mini mart which also had seats outside in the sun. Great way to spend the remained of the afternoon. Soon we were joined by a Slovinian couple who had exactly the same idea!


Next morning our train left at 5.45am to Ollayantambo then from there we caught a local bus back to Cusco. Nothing is open in Cusco on a Sunday we soon discovered. Managed to while away the day til 5pm when happy hour at Mama Africas started. Met up with more friends and staggered home at 3am. The following day was a total write off but we did manage to get up long enough to book our three day kayaking trip.


It was an experience. Three days kayaking and camping. It was just me and Kim with our guide Alex. First day we set up camp about an hour from Cusco next to a lake where we were shown the correct way to paddle, then shown how to escape and finally the eskimo roll (when you roll your kayak, you remain in the kayak and flip yourself back to the upright position.) It's rather daunting making yourself flip your kayak. I did a couple of eskimo rolls on the lake but couldn't manage it in the river. While kim settled with learning to escape!

Next day we hit the river. It was level II rapids we were going on and I was very nervous. About 20 seconds after we got on the river we hit the first lot of rapids, way too quickly for both our liking. Neither of us had adjusted to the river after the lake, which was running pretty fast. The first rapids were some of the hardest of the day and Kim freaked out with the waves rolling over her kayak. She didn't have alot of confidence to begin with and so that destroyed what little she had. After about 10 minutes she was really scared and had had enough, she had lost confidence in the guide as it was too much to soon. We should have started in a flatter part of the river. So she got out.

I made it though the first section a bit rattled but pumped full of adrenilen. I got a fair bit of confidance from the fact that I hadn't rolled in the first lot of rapids amnd really enjoyed the rest of the day learning how to ride waves against the current, spot and avoid submerged rocks. I was dissapointed that Kim didn't go back in the river that day though. So when we got back to camp I took her out on the lake to help her get her confidence back. It ckind of worked 'cause she gave the river another go the next day.

Since I had done the easier section of the river the day before, I started out further up the river on some class 3 and 4 rapids ... what a hoot!! When we got down to the easier section Kim joined us. But again she didn't feel in control, and me flipping out of my kayak twice while trying to eskimo roll didn't help. Finally she conceeded she is not an adrenaline seeking girl.


After our kayak experience we had one more day in Cusco before heading to Lima on the overnight bus. Met up with friends for a more civilazed evening than we had managed previously and did a final spot of shopping.


22 hours after leaving Cusco we arrived in Lima. Two days in the capital to pick up our stuff in storage and maybe see a little of the capital. Turned out our room had cable and there just seemed to be too many good movies on to go sightseeing. Probably a good thing as Lima has a very bad reputation for robberies at knife and gun point, even in broad day light. When we did go out all we took was US10, left our sunnies in our room as some travellers had had them stolen off their face.


Finally it was time to head to the airport. We caught a cab from our hostel and I am sure the driver did not want to get us to the airport in one piece as he constantly jumped lanes which is pretty standard in Peru BUT he also ran three red lights! Obviously we made it as here we are now in sunny Scotland.


We are doing the rounds visiting my rellies. The weather has been great so we have managed a bbq and a few dinners outside. Today we went shopping in Dundee and bought a new toy, a Canon SLR camera. We got it fully insured against theft before we left the store, just incase!


Also had a quick trip to Dublin to catch up with some friends, then back to Scotland to tie up loose ends and ship our goods home, then we are off on our homeward journey via South East Asia.


The SARS virus has made us can our Trans Mongolian trip. Now the plan is fly to Thailand and travel overland to Cambodia, Vietnam, Loas, back to Thailand and fly in and out of Myanmar, then back to Thailand, see if we have more steam to continue and if so head to Malaysia and Indonesia and flying home from Bali. If we are running low on steam it will be time to hop on a flight from Bagkok.

Hunting Anacondas in the Amazon

We Flew to Runnenbaque after a long 5 hour delay, nothing in this country runs on time so a delay like this is normal. We flew with the Bolivian Military Airline TAM. Comfy enough and we even were provided with refreshments, and only $45 each way!!! The one hour flight sure beats the 30hr bus trip. That is if your lucky, we met people who were on a similar bus trip, but because of rain the road turned into a swamp, they finally arrived 5 days later ... No thank you!!!


Arrived into the heat of Runnenbaque in time for a beautiful sunset. The town itself set on the Rio Beni consists of dusty roads, many hotels and restaurants to cater for the gringos before and after their tours. This will be our base in the Amazon Jungle for a week where we will do a 2 day trip into the Jungle and a 3 day trip in to the wetlands of the Pampas. It sounds weird but Pampas is where your more likely to see animals, this is because it is mostly plains and swamp. While in the jungle you get the learn about the exotic plants, their medicinal purposes, foods and some survival skills.


Checked into our hotel, booked both our tours, then ate dinner outside - the first time in a long while and hit the sack early, looking forward to the jungle tour the next morning.


8am we met our jungle group, Jerome and Madeline a couple from Holland and Corolla from Chile. Walked about two blocks to the Beni where we met our giude Chino and cook. Four hours crusing the river and a twenty mintue walk later we arrived at our camp. The camp consisted of two huts with mosquito nets for walls and plastic tarps for roofs. One was our sleeping quarters which contained 12 beds and mossie nets. The other was was the dining hut. The kitchen was outside with a straw roof. Plus we had 2 long drop toilets about 10 metres either side of the camp. Both of which were surrounded closely by trees and scrub so I unfortunatly had to escort Kim on each and every toilet run for fear of snakes, spiders and every other creepy crawley.


During our two days in the jungle we learned alot about the medicinal purposes of many of the plants in the jungle. Our guide was into giving us new tastes and experiences "Smell this ... Eat this ... Feel that" but not telling us why until after we'd done it. We found an ajo (garlic tree) which when the bark is cut from the tree the inner side is rubbed on the skin to repel mossies and other insects. We all smelt a treat after this but it did help. Then got to chew leaves which numbed our mouth, the leaf was used as an anastetic. Another yucky experience was swallowing shavings of bark from a chloroquine tree, which not surprisingly tastes like our anti malerial drugs, Because this tree is what theire made... trust me the stuff tastes horrible!!! At another tree I was told to kneel down while Chino chopped a log about 1m long and 10 cm round and lifted it above my head - I thought he was going to hit me in the head with it, but he tiled the log so it was vertical and water ran out and into my mouth. We all had some and it was rather refreshing and tasted the same as water from a nature spring.... I don't mean a few drops of water either, about 2 litres came out of it!!!


The next tree was for us boys. Chino slashed the bark with his machete and white liquid dripped out. "Go ahead drink it" he says. And after me and Jerome try some we are told that it was known for its viagra like properties. "Look out tonight Girls" Chino laughs.


The last two trees we did not taste as one was a tree which you could extract rubber from and the other was poisonous to humans but if thrown into a river would stun fish so they would come to the surface and be easier to catch. Apparently the poison won't affect you after you cook the fishes... Nifty huh! We also went on a special walk to find a tarantula! Kim stood well away while we got a CLOSE UP look, it was bigger than my hand, black and hairy and it was highly poisonous. Scary! Chino tranqualised the spider by blowing cigarette smoke onto it, then held it on his machete and 5cm infront of everyone (but Kim's) face so they could take pictures. We didn't spot much wildlife except a few Parrots and Monkeys on the boat and we heard a few woodpeckers on our walks, Chino had pointed out a Cupaburrah (like a wombat) throught the trees, but I couldn't see jack. We also went fishing at night but after 2 hours no one had caught any fish, except for Chino who just hit them over the head with a machete ... no fishing line needed.


On returning to Runnenbaque a shower was very much in order as we had been in long pants and shirts, with our trousers tucked into our socks so as not to be bitten by mossies. We had also sprayed our clothes with deet and our bodies. Nevertheless Kim still got bitten, mainly around the ankles and few on the back of the legs when going to the toilet.


Bumped into Michelle and Simon who we had met in Tupiza a few weeks earlier and head a few beers with them in the Moskitto bar over a few games of pool. Tried out to many of their cocktails during happy hour and now vow "never again" as in the morning I was feeling more than a little queasy.


Next day we set off to the Pampas! Our group the same minus Corolla. During the 3 hour drive to the river we gave a lady and her young daughter a lift part of the way. They had a pet parrot who entertained us for awhile by hopping onto our fingers and then onto our shirts and onto our collars. It was all fun and games until it decided to poo on Kim...HE HE!


Arrived at the river and met our guide Rosario and cook Gladis. It was 4 hours to our camp but during that time we spotted pink river dolphins, parrots and loads of monkeys - the howler monkey, cappaccino monkey and yellow monkey. The yellow ones we fed bananas. We stopped the boat below their tree and they jumped down onto our boat and opened the bananas and eat the from our hands. They were cute little things standing about 40cm tall, with such human like facial features and expressions. So so adorable! After all the bananas had been eaten, I took one of the remaining skins and closed it to look like it was full. One of the monkeys climbed over and took the banana back to the tree. He opened the peel to find no banana and looked over back to give me a look of total disgust. It was hilarious, we wished we had our video camera. Afterwards we swam with the pink dolphins. It was a pretty daunting experience getting into the water knowing it was infested with piranahs, but apparently the dolphin keep them away. Arrived at camp by dusk but we were really, all repellanted and covered up. The mossies in the pampas were reportedly worse than the jungle :( Had dinner and was constantly attacked by mossies so we ended up retreating to our mossie nets and so were tucked in bed by 8pm! That is until Antonio arrived, he is the local 3m long Alligator who occaisionally turns up for leftovers. Our guide tied some chicken to a stick to get him to jump and snap at the waters edge ... Awesome!!!


Next morning we were off to the actual pampas area, the pampas infact a nicer name for it than what it was, which was swamp lands with long grass. So there we were trappsing through knee high leach infested waters with a billion mossies flying around, looking for snakes...How mad were we I ask you, Insane!!! After 2 hours of hell and swearing at mossies we all wanted to go to the boat. Off we went to cool off in the boat and peel off our wet socks and trousers, while Rosario our guide stayed an extra hour hunting. He returned with a 2m 10 year old cobra anaconda. Everyone bar Kim held the snake around their necks for photos. Very soft and smooth, ideal for a pair of nice shoes Kim reckons.


That afternoon we went crusing on the river again and found more dolphins so we were able to go swimming again, the water was a welcome relief from all the sweating we had done.


Watched the sun set over the pampas which was beautiful, then headed back to camp for dinner before going out again to spot alligator eyes with our torches. After spoting a few then my bum was truly numb so I layed in the boat and looked up at the sky which was twinkling with a million bright stars.


Awoke on our final morning, packed and made the 3 hour boat journey back. Stopped for a final swim with the dolphins. I couldnt go in as he had stubbed his toes at the camp and so he had an open wound and the blood would have attracted the piranahs. Apparently they can sense blood from up to 2 km away! Another piece of useless trivia for you!


On the drive back we stopped for an hour at a lake on the side of the road to fish for piranahs. We all managed to give tham a good feed and only caught a tiny catfish and sardine! Back in the car half an hour later we spotted a sloth trying to cross the road. A truly beautiful creature and we were so lucky to get so close as they are usually high up in trees. I found some infomrmation on sloths on the net for those of you who may be intersted....


The sloth is a slow-moving mammal that lives in trees. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside-down from tree branches; they eat, sleep, mate, and give birth upside-down in the trees. They hold onto tree branches with strong, curved claws that are on each of their four feet. The sloth is the slowest mammal on Earth. They "walk" upside-down along tree branches. They only rarely venture to the ground and pretty much have to drag them selves along when they do. Surprisingly they can swim well.


Flew back to La Paz the next morning and caught a mini bus to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca... Where our next adventure begins.

The Most Dangerous Road in the World at it's worst

We have been pretty energetic lately, as we went hiking in Sorata, Coroico and we treked the Takesi Inca Trail.



Sorata was a lovely little town set in the side of a valley, with fantastic views of the lower valley and snow capped peaks above. Here we met up with Joanne and Shane (Irish couple who we met in Sucre), but this time did not have time for a big session!



After two lovely days in Sorata we headed to Coroico for Easter. The road to this quaint village is considered the most dangerous in the world as the road consisting of rocks and mud descends from 4600m to 1700m in just 64km, rather nerveracking. Often on the way there is a 1000m shear drop on the very edge of the narrow single lane track... quite a pickle when you meet a truck coming the other way, you have to reverse to the last overtaking point. Every year dozens of vehicles go over the edge, their are rarely any survivors. These vehicles however are mainly the big trucks, so we chose to take a mini bus! The views from the
road also have a reputation of being very pretty, but since we left at 3pm the fog had rolled in and the rain had started, not a good start. We were luckily enough (NOT) to get the front seat with the driver so we go a birds eye view of everything, including when the driver blessed the road with alcohol to ask the gods for a safe journey, then he decided to have a swing or two from the bottle
(which by the way was alcohol of 94%) and then he contiually crossed himself in prayers. This reitterated for us of our dangerous and trecherous journey ahead. The sun was setting as we began our descent... We must be mad going down this road in the rain and fog at NIGHT!!! 3 hours later with huge amounts of adrenilin having coursed through my body, we reached our destination in one piece. A few times I could not see any road below us so I was sure we were about to go careering over the edge. The only reason Kim and I didn't burst a vain with stress was we distracted ourselves with childish games of nameing citys of every leter of the alphabet, then repeating the exercise with fruit or Veges ect.



Not having splurged on any accomodation we thought we would over Easter especially when we were shown this room which was pratically the penthouse room with fantastic views of the valley from all three windows. Plus the place had an awesome 20m pool! Went for a hike to the local waterfalls, gorgeous all the way and the water was crystal clear and refreshing after our hike. We shared the falls and pools with a local family who must have been there for washig day as everyone was having a scrub and washing their hair.



From Coroico we made the journey back up the most dangerous road, but this time during the day in the sun. This email is testiment that made it with no dramas. Got back to La Paz to organise our hike on the Takesi Inca Trail. The trail was 40km taking two days and following a Pre-Hispanic paved road. Well not alot is left now but enough to follow without a guide. We hired a tent, roll mats and brought our sleaping bags (Guess who was carrying that lot), Kim had our food. Then we had to find where the bus left from as the trail started 20km east of La Paz in a little village (blink and you would miss it) Ventilla which took 3 hours to get to (bad roads and loads of stops) as in our guide book it said only one bus a day at 5.30am and we wanted to make sure that was right and get our ticket. Asked loads of locals but no luck so went into a travel agent who marked it on our map and said
that several buses went between 7 and 9am but to go early to get a seat.


So, up at 5.45am , 6.30am at bus stop (after wandering for 15 munties as we could see no bus or bus stop.) Finally we find it ... the bus is leaving at 8.30am...bugger. Next option was to hire a taxi, so after talking to several taxi drivers we got one to take us there for 100Bs ($15 US). Made the journey in 1.5 hours and was at the start of the trail by 8.30am.



The first part of the day was broken up into three 90 mintue blocks to get to the highest point at 4600m. A bloody hard hike. First we had sun, then we had rain, then sleet, then at the top snow. Luckily none of it lasted too long, but it was cold! The path itself was fairly well defined but very rocky, slippery and muddy so we had to watch our step. At the top the cloud came over from the other side but we could just make out the lake and gorge on the other side.



We walked through a beautiful valley, even so in the rain. A river ran through the middle and down the sides of the valley waterfalls cascaded down, which were all sourced by underground springs. The water was all crystal clear and delicious to drink. Chatted to a few llamas along the way, who we tried to convince to pose for us but with little success. Contiued til 4.30pm when it
was time to start setting up camp. The rain had stopped and the air had become warmer as we had descened at least 1200m. Tent up, salad for dinner, tired so time for bed at 7pm!



No rain overnight so we were not washed away. Off at 8am, hoping to get to our final destination at 3.30pm. After 1 hour the path divided and we took the wrong path for half an hour, so backtracked for another half an hour to the correct path, all up hill arrgghh! Thankfully the sun had made an appearance making it a bit more bearable. Since we were desending further the weather had
gotten warmer and the vegetation began to change and became more lush. Hundreds of butterflies accompanied us on the hike, including a few bright blue one which were so pretty.



For lunch we stopped on the side of the river where we went for a skinny dip to wash and revie ourselves. It certainly worked as the water was FREEZING!!! There was not another soul to be seen - lucky! Our food rations were low so lunch was avocado, tuna, with a dash of mayo and tomato sauce (courtesy of Burger King!) then raisins and peanuts for energy. Surprisingly it tasted rather good...or maybe it was just cause we were hungry!



1.5 hours later just before we completed the trail we nearly walked off a newly created cliff due to a recent mud slide, so alittle back tracking required to go around it. Having now finished the trail we gave ourselves a pat on the back and then walked another 1.5 hours to the closet village with food and accomodation. Due to our slight 1 hours detour we didnt arrive in Yanacachi till 5.30pm, but found ice cold beer immediately on arrival!



The hike was absolutely stunning and so rewarding. Our knees ache like they have never ached before as the second day was mainly all down hill.



Met five, 18 year old guys from La Paz who had been ahead of us on the trail. Chatted with them in the local square over a few beers until dinner. They went to a French school, so they spoke fluent French and English. They gave us their cell phone number so we can call them to find out where to go out back in La Paz.



For dinner we ate a banquet, well it seemed that way after two days of minimal salads! Veggie soup, accompanied by corn, then seconds was rice with fried potato, satuated onions and tomato and a piece of fried spam which Kim immediately donated to Me! Next morning the bus left at 6am, the Bolivians just love their early morning buses :) In La Paz it was time to do some shopping,
yippee!!!



Kim and I had our one year anniversary in La Paz. and celebrated with a nice bottle of Argetinian Red before dinner, then on to a Cuban Restaunt that funk, good food and do mean margaritias :)



Next Stop we fly to the Jungle for 5 days. Really looking forward to it but not the mossies which have eaten everyone whos already been alive. We have 4 bottles of repellant so fingers crossed!!!

Walking with Dinosaurs

From Potosi we took the short three hour hop to Sucre, which after independence from the Spanish was made the capital of Bolivia, but now all real power has been passed over to La Paz. Sucre is considered the most beautiful city in Bolivia with its white washed colonial buildings, lovely flower gardens, grand churches and plazas.



We took the trip to the local indigenous market at Tarabuco. The market itself was rather small and disappointing especially compared to the markets we had been to in Ecuador, plus none of the stall holders were willing to bargain. However the highlight was seeing the Tarabucenos in their traditional attire. The men wore leather hats called monetros which were shaped like the steel helmetsthe Spanish warriors wore, along with woven woolen ponchos (very itchy) with bright stripes of yellow, orange, green and blue. The women wore shawls called aqsus but in reality looked more like blankets held together under the chin by safety pins, along with this hideous square black hat with long flaps that covered their ears and with diamenties along the rim, then to top it off a hot pink pompom on top! Extremely unflattering look.



On the bus on the way back we met an Irish couple Joanne and Shane from Cork. Back in Sucre by 3pm after a hard mornings shopping (NOT) it was Beer O'Clock.



The next morning we went to the market for breakfast. While we were eating I was doing a spot of people watching and this mother had a mobile ice cream stand. Since she was in the sun and serving people she had laid her baby under the cart on the concrete to keep it out of the sun, a very strange site to see.



Took a tour to the Cal Orko dinosaur footprints, the worlds largest known collection, that were discovered by quarry workers. About 5000 prints from 150 dinosaurs have been identified. To get to the site we had to take the dino truck which was a large pick up truck with dinosaurs painted all over it, it looked like something that belonged in a kindergarten, very embarrassing! Then on the tour we had to wear bright orange safety helmets, Kim had obviously dressed for the occasion with matching orange tshirt!



From Sucre it was time to head further south, to Tarija, 12 hours to go 370km, on an unsealed, dusty and bumpy road. Tarija at 2000m is famous for its vineyards, which are the highest in the world. The city being just 8 hours from the Argentine border has a strong aggregating influence which can be found in the many restaurants that serve tender grilled meats and good wine.



After about 1.5 hours sleep on the bus we checked into our dungeon room at 5am for some shut eye then got up and went to the local river for a swim. Next day we upgraded to a three star hotel with cable tv and our own bathroom, what luxury for US$10pn. The weather was overcast for the next two days so we chilled out watching tv and went on an eat-a-thon! A really good
restaurant on the main plaza served up wicked omelets, smoothies, real coffee and iced coffees, steak burgers, salads and platters of meat, cheese, pickles and olives and fondue. In between our eat-a-thon and tv we managed a hike to the Coimata pools and waterfalls and took a tour of the wineries.



Next stop Villazon, the border town of Bolivia and Argentina which we crossed so Darren could get another 30 day visa for free, as in La Paz is was 165Bs. Our record short stop in Argentina lasted less than 10 minutes. The Argentine border guards had no problem stamping us in and out but trying to re-enter Bolivia was a little harder. We were told to come back in 24 hours as you could not re enter the same day. Acting like dumb tourists and telling the guards why we wanted another 30 days, to see more of
their beautiful country after 20 minutes we were stamped back in.



A short ride to Tupiza where we had a night to kill before our overnight train to Oruro. This is where Bill Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had their final shoot out. Later that arfternoon we met some fellow travellers from England, found a local beer garden and enjoying the sun while downing ice cold beer. Ended up later on in a karaoke discoteque where I entertained all by singing the Beatles Hey Jude!! The things we do after umteen largers...



Next day we had a lovely two hour wait in line for our train tickets as there was one counter with one guy handwriting all tickets, nightmare! This time we prepared for our train journey and took along two bottles of red and some pringles. Arriving in Oruro we hightailed it to La Paz where we checked out the coca museum. Very interesting to learn about the history of the cocoa leave and cocaine. Anyone know who was the first social user of cocaine...Freud!


With that very useless piece of trivia I will bid you farewell for now.

Playing with Dynamite

Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4100m. So, it is not a wonder that the altitude has a severe effect. Constant shortness of breath, headaches, loss of appetite and a general feeling of being unwell sums it up pretty good! Yes we have been higher up, in fact at over 5000m on the 4x4 tour from Uyuni, but that was mostly from the inside of a car. When you actually have to do some type of exercise, well it makes a simple walk up the street seem like a marathon ... exhausted in 2-3 minutes and seriously puffing!!!

The city is remote and situated in inhospitable lands but was established to mine Cerro Rico - Rich Mountain, the worlds richest source of silver ever discovered. In its heyday the city was so famous for its riches there was a saying "eso vale un Potosi" -
that is worth a Potosi, used to descibe anything priceless!

It has been said you could build a bridge from Potosi to Spain with the amount of silver that has be mined from the mountain, it has also been said that you could build two such bridges with the bones of the miners who have died mining it. It is estimated that over 6 million indiginous indians died in the mine during the 400years it was commercially mined by the spanish!!


I went on a tour of the mine, Kim on the other hand was not keen because of the small clostrophobic tunnels she would have to crawl through.

Although it is no longer commercially viable, many indian miners still eek out a marginal existance finding other trace minerals. Lucky to make 100BS ($15) a week for about 75hr work. So, knowing this the first stop on the tour was the Miners Market, so we could we buy presents for them invaluable to their mining cause. What were these items? A big bag of Coca Leaves, necessary to ward off hunger (they don't eat in the mine) and give extra energy to survive those 15hr days. 200 or more leaves are chewed at a time with a bit of ash to release the base cocaine from them. Home Made Cigarrettes with no filters and made a mixture of herbs and tabacco (I thought we were helping these guys not giving them cancer). Pure Alchohol well 96% anyway, for their ritual appesment of the god of the underworld "El Tio" - The Uncle to afraid or bad luck to call him the Devil. Oh yeah the booze is for the friday afternoon piss up in the mine too (Glad I'm not doing my tour then, the thought of being underground with Pissed, Coked up Miners with Dynamite is not so comforting).

Speaking of Dynamite the next stop is the explosives shop. To my discomfort, it is run by a 12yo girl!!! Our guide tells us that Semtex and Dynamite are harmless without a detonator and demonstrates this by throwing a stick of each at our feet!!! Don't worry about drunk miners the immediate threat our suicidal guide. She then stick a detonator in the stick of Dynamite with a 5 minuite fuse ... "Now it's dangerous" She says. Ok we get the picture... do you mind removing the detonator. To my relief she does just that and then produces a bag of nitrate grainuals, explaining that you use this with the dynamite or semtex to get a really big powerful blast. So, now it's time do by the miners another present. This is one of the few places in the world where you need no explosives licience to purchase this stuff. I buy a stick of dynamite, semtex, a bag of nitrate a couple of detonators and a long fuse. I pay the 12yo the princely sum of US$4 and toter off with my new toys... lucky I'm not a would be terrorist!!

All stocked up, we head for Cerro Rico. While we are putting on our overalls, helmets and acetelyne head lamps. Our tour bus driver decides to show us how to prepare an explosive. He takes half a bag of nitrate, packs half a stick of dynamite into it, pushes a detonator into the dynamite with a foot of fuse. You can see he's handelling the bomb with great care now so I decide to look on from the back of the group. They all have the same idea and take a step back, I find myself in the front line again - doh!!. Thankfully he takes it about 40 meters away, places it on the ground, fiddles about and walks casually back. "2 minutes",
he tells us. About 4 seconds later there is a huge explosion and dust flys into the air. I hope the miners are better at estimating how much is 2 minutes!!!
Now down into the mine. After about half an hour of crawling and scurrying along we are told not to touch the walls, they contain asbestos - Oh that's just great! We get down into shaft and find a 59yo whos been mining here for about 45 years. He's using a big metal chisil and banging it with an 8 pound hammer. He show us how to turn the chisil in the hole between blows and then gives us ago. After about two minuites I decide that not only is this hard work but it's bloody boring too. The miner asks me if I want to be his apprentise. Thanks but no thanks! We give hime a bag of each of the goodies, Coca and explosives, and wish him the best of luck. Next we meet a miner with his 5 yo son helping him out. Yes, the kid is working, collecting the bits of rock his old man is chipping off. Both of them have a mouth full Coca, the kid even has a bag of the stuff attached to his belt. Good enough for a 5yo, I think, good enough for me. I shove a handful of leaves in my mouth with some ash and start chewing. Within minutes my mouth is numb, and I'm not sure but I could be dribbling!! Next we see a statue of El Tio and put a lighted cigarrette in his mouth as an offering to get us out of the mine safely. Lastly, we meet a miner and his two apprentises, 16 and 18 years old. They are lugging bags of rock from the work face, I lift one up ... it must be atleast 50kg. We give them the bags of goodies at the start preparing an explosive for us and pack it down in a hole 6ft deep and a diameter of about 3-4cm. Time to go the guide tells us, and we have to negotiate going down a rickety ladder. When half of us are down the miner yells out to the guide "Are we ready", "Not yet" is the reply, "To late" he says "I've lit it". So very quickly now we go down the ladder and scurry up a tunnel. It crosses my mind that this is not a clever spot to be, as I guessimate we are directly under the blast. "Your right, but it's not a problem" the guide tells me. We hear the explosion a few seconds later and thankfully shes right and we leave the mine in one piece!!

Hungover at 4000m

Almost pennyless we arrive in Uyuni after 10pm. We checked into the closest hotel, I
think along with every other gringo from the train. Only single rooms
left, no bother so for 25Bs equi US$3.50pn we got a cosy room and really
comfy single bed, well as comfy as a single bed for two is!!!



The next morning after a cheap and cheerful breakfast,(still watching our
pennies) we walked to the main plaza to check out the tour agencies to
see who accpeted VISA. As soon as we walked into the plaza two Aussies
Andy and Carissa from Sydney asked if we wanted to go on tour with them
leaving that day and buying out the other two seats so we had more
room. Sounded great to us, so we settled with Juilet Tours, we paid by VISA
and Andy paying us cash, sweet. We were no longer penniless!



Our tour was brilliant, our driver Speedy (Rudy) and his wife Martiza
the cook, kept us safely on track with no breakdowns and
with full tummies everyday. Plus Andy and Carissa were great travel
companions and the conversations never ran dry!



The scenery on the tour was stunning and each day was very diverse. The Salar de
Uyuni (salt flats) are the biggest in the world and beacause of the wet
season they had about 10cm of water on them so they looked like one
giant mirror and made the horizon impossible to distinguish.
It made the surrounding mountains look like floating islands in the sky, atotally surreal experience!



In the middle of the salt flats was the Isla de Pescardo (Island of the Fish), which was a small rocky
island that supported loads of cactus life up to 10m high, over 100 years
old and with prickles so hard you could break them off and us them as
tooth picks!...very bizarre! We also stopped at the Salt Hotel which of
course it made completely of salt, including the picnic tables out the
front.



Next stop was the village of Chiguana where they extracted, dried, refined and packed the salt pretty much in their own homes. Pretty exciting stuff, is salt!!!



More driving through ancient lava fields, over eroded red rock and past unusual shaped rocks we
made it to our hotel in the middle of nowhere for our first night. Being the only guests we made ourselves completely at home and enjoyed a lovely dinner washed down with a few cold beers.



Next day we drove through landscape dotted with blue and white lakes, that supported
colonies of flamingoes. Beautiful brids especially when they take off and
their wing span reveils another brighter shade of pink! That night we
stayed at 4600m above sea level at a very dodgy hotel along with every
other tour group..in total about 60 people. We (Me, Kim, Andy and
Carissa) had our own room but two toilets were shared between everyone.
With no running water and only a bucket and a drum of water to flush
the toilet and wash hands in it wasnt long before everyone was going in
nature! This was made worse by alot of people getting the runs from altitude sickness.
Not a good night for them. However I was not affected and managed to devour 1.5 litres of red wine and a few beers.
It was all grand until 4.30am when some of what I drank wanted a second viewing!

Also was a wakeup call for us as we had to leave at 5am to get to the
geysers and boiling mud.

At the geysers we were even higher at 5000m and it was
well below freezing. The sun was just coming up so Carissa and Kim only managed to hop
out of the 4WD for a minute to take photos next to the geyser and
then back in the car and under our sleeping bags, leaving us boys to
brave the cold and take photos!


Ate breakfast at the nearby thermal pools, which looked inviting until there was about 30 people in
there with one Japanese guy going commando so he secured quiet a bit of
person space very quickly! We on the other hand dipped our toes! After
breakfast we entered the Reserva Ecuardo Avaroa (National park) which
is home to two lakes; Laguna Colorado which is red but changes intensity during the day due to the natural pigments of the algae that live in the water, bizarre huh! Add to this the sight of loads of
beautiful flamingoes who live on the lake feeding off the algae and then on
the lakes shores there are large white deposits of ice and borax (mineral
used in paints and glass production), its stunning site to see. The
second lake Laguna Verde (Verde in spanish means green) is (surprisingly) a green lake
that contains a large portion of arsenic and other minerals so the
lakes changes to many differnt shades of green, from emerald to turqiouse.
Its backdrop is Volcan Licarcabur 5868m which is an amazing assortment
of colours, orange, brown, red and green. Really pretty. The lake is
practically on the Chilean border, so it was time to say goodbye to
Andy and Carrisa as they were continuing to San Pedro de Atacama, a well
known backpackers party heaven and jumping off point for tours of the
Atacama Desert. A sad goodbye, but promised to catch up when we
get back to Oz.


Now we each had a whole seat to oursleves it
was time to chill out as we retraced part of our journey then changed
route for our final night in a quaint village (dont know it name) that
was designed by an American artist. At the entrance of the village we
drove through the Pueta del Luna (Gate of the Moon) and when we left we drove
through the Pueta del Sol (Gate of the Sun) which are the two gods the locals pray
to for rain and good crops. All the houses in the village were mud
brick, some painted, some in their naural state, with straw thatched roofs
and with every backyard containing a large wood oven for cooking their own bread.
They looked like little igloos! The two plazas were beautifully laid
out with slate paths and made trees of steel and seat of local rocks,
very effective! The children again were gorgeous and several little
girls around 2 kept on saying "ciao, ciao" and opening and closing both their
hands as that is how they are taught to wave..so cute!!!!

Hello Bolivia

Often called the Tibet of the Andes, this landlocked country has the most diverse landscape and is home to the soe of the highest cities in the world.

From Puno in Peru we crossed the border in to Bolivia the easy way ... on a tourist bus, so we were told by the conductor where to get our exit stamp, where to get our entrance stamp and where to met the bus, easy peasy!

Copacabamba is still on Lake Titicaca and couldnt have been more different from Puno. A small little village, with a clean blue waterfront, lined with restaurants and with kayaks and boats for hire. Its very popular with Bolivians as many have never been see the ocean and it´s the closest most will get in their lifetime. The village is an important Catholic pilgrimage site, with a large statue of Mary overlooking the lake. Unfortunately for us the rain was still on so we did not manage a trip out to the islands on the Bolivian side either. Inbetween the showers we discovered the local market with one street that had stalls selling only popcorn and puffed wheat and nothing else, rather bizarre! Sampled the local trout,nicely grilled and washed down with the local beer Huari, very tasty :)


No point lingering in the rain so we headed south to La Paz. A cool bustling city, full of markets and great for people watching. Set at 3500m above sea level, walking up and down the streets was not so taxing as we had already acclimatized at Lake Titicaca which is 3810m. On the first night we arrived it was St Paddys day but it seems La PAZ is the only city in the world that does not have an Irish pub. Second best option was the English bar, Mongos Rock Bottom Bar, but there was no Paddy day celebrations going on. Most were watching Bush make his speeech confirming we were going to war. Sometimes when we travel ignorance is bliss.


We were too busy soaking up the atmosphere of the city to go to any museums this time round but we did go to Tiwanaku which is quoted as the most monumental and intriguing archeoligical site in South America. Founded over 3000 year ago, Tiwanaku was the capital of a massive empire that lasted for almost 1000 years. It was home to over 50,000 people and the city is said to be in many ways the cradle of Andean civilaization and provided the inspiration for the Inca Empire. The key to the masive empire was their amazing agricultural system fo raised fields know as sukakullo. Using this method they raised parts of the land and put in canals inbetween, so as producing a micro climate and thus 6 times as many crops pre year than normal. Pretty awesome stuff for their time! Apparently now there is a new pilot scheme where they to use the Tiwanakua methods, the only draw back is it needs alot of manpower to creat the sukakullos.


Wanting to get off the beaten track a little we headed SW of La Paz to Sajama national park, 9km shy of the Chilean border. Our guide book said we could get a lift from the rangers station at the highway where the bus dropped us, not that day we couldnt. It was a 12km hike with ALL our stuff to the village of Sajama. Luckily for us it was a beautiful sunny morning so our walk, although, hard at times was rewarding. We were now in Bolivias Altiplano region with stark scenery, low level vegetation, but with a backdrop of snow capped volcanic peaks belonging to the Cordillera occidental Range and the centre piece being Volcan Sajame standing at 6542m. A useless piece of trivia... in 2001 the highest football match in the world was played in the crater at the top of Sajam between the local villagers and tour guides from La Paz. The game ended in a draw.


On arrival at the village we were starvin Marvins but first we had to register at the ranger station which seemed to be run by a 12 year old boy. Then we were assigned to our accomodation, so that all the tourist dosh is shared equally amongst the villagers and everyone reaps the rewards of tourism, a very good idea in th my opinion. Our lap of luxury for the evening cost us 10bs each equivilant of US$1.40 for a room that consisted of three single beds with matresses made of straw, a table with a candle for light as we had no electricity, bare concrete floors, part glass part plastic windows and a straw roof. No running water either and our toilet was an out house made of mud bricks with a long drop, just big enough for us to fit in. Really back to basics.


Bought some lunch at one of the local restaurants. A set lunch - almeurzo consist of a soup and a second course and a cup of tea. We got a pasta and vege soup and then a fried egg on rice with a piece of fried banana. Certainly not gourmay, but it filled the hole! Our plan after lunch was to hike to the geysers and hot springs 12km away but the heavens opened and the rain was coming down in sheets. Not alot else to do and we had been up since 5am, time for siesta! Awoke later and went for a stroll through the village which took a total of 5 minutes, but we chatted with some locals and took some photos of the local children, who are soooooooo cute and adorable!


Next morning awoke to find it had snowed overnight - bbrrr! The clouds were sill very low and there was a constant drizzle. Kim being a softie, she thinks its more practical, said we should have brekkie and then head further south as if our one pair of warm clothes got wet we had no place to dry them and we had no hot water to warm ourselves up. She got her way (this time) and we tracked down a lift to the highway to get a bus. Disappointed about leaving but I know if I am ever back in Bolivia I will have to return to Sajama as it was a truly beautiful.


At the highway the local children gleefully told us we had missed the morning bus and the next one was not for another 2.5 hours. Luckily 20 minutes alter we flagged down a 4wd with the driver from Chile and heading near where we were going - Oruro. It was great change cruising along in a 4WD, such luxury after all our bus travel and the lift was for free, even sweeter! As we drove on the rain came down harder and harder so the decision to leave Sajama was a good call.


When we got dropped off we had to wait 10 mintues for a bus to take us the final 37km to Oruro, where we got our train ticket for the Expreso del Sur to Uyuni, the jumping off point for a four day tour across the Sala de Uyuni (salt flats and to the Reserva de Fauna Adina Eduardo Avaroa. We got first class seats, with really comfy seat, loads of leg room, tv, fans and we even got a chicken salad sandwich and a drink for dinner, which was served to us by waiters in bow ties! The train was kept very clean by a guy who every half an hour kept coming through the carriage with a mop and bucket - the detergent he used smelt like cherry sherbert!!! The scenery during the trip was quite pretty, with lakes full of flamingoes and mountain ranges with loads of different colours, pinks, blues, greens, oranges, and browns.


During the last hour of the journey we were reading our guide book to find out where the ATM was to get more money out, but it seemed Uyuni had no ATM and we had limited Bolivianos left, no traveller cheques and no American dollars, oops! If we couldnt find a tour company that accepted VISA were we on the next bus to Potosi... 8 hours away - the closest city with an ATM.

Bugger!!!

Wonderful Peru

From the moment we got to Peru the people have been ever so friendly and very helpful. So much so we spent the first week trying to decide what they really wanted, which as it turned out was nothing, they were just nice!

The scenery was an instant shock coming from Ecuador which was lush and green to the barren, desert landscape of the Peruvian coast. It takes about 20 hours by bus to get from the border to Lima the capital so we decided to stop on route and see what was on offer.

Chiclayo was our first destination which is called by its residents the friendliest city in Peru. Just 30km oustide of Chiclayo is home to several ancient burial sites and two of the best museums in Peru that contain the artifacts found from the sites. The ancient city of Sipan was home to over 30 pyramids built upon tombs of the nobles. The tombs were discovered until 1987 when a huge number of beautiful artifacts that were taken from the tombs by the grave robbers started to appear on the black market. What we saw at the sites were replicas of what was discovered by the archeologists, not all tombs were discovered by the grave robbers. The mummies were very well preserved and the gifts they took with them to their afterlife were so detailed and in such good condition. Full head pieces, extravegant jewellery and weapons. From the site we went to the museums which now hold the originals along with loads of pottery from their time. The details on the pottery was awesome, different designs with swirls and lines but other of animals. The imagination and skill they possessed was unbelievable.

Having a full day of history and culture, I was on overload and so it was time for some outdoor fun. The plan was to head top Huaraz the home of hiking and climbing in Peru, but bus connetions were not in our favour so we ended up doing the 13 hours journey to Lima. Having heard many horror stories about being ripped off and robbed we were in and out in 12 hours after storing some of our stuff. You would think after all this travelling we could get our packing right by now, apparently not!

Now officially on the south coast of Peru we took a leisurely 2 hours bus ride to Lunahuana a tiny one horse town set on the Rio Canete River and renowned for its rafting, good seafood and wine and pisco making, obviously we had to try it all! Being the only guests at our hotel we bargined the owner down to the equ. of US$6pn, then organised a rafting trip for the next morning, class III rapids for 2 hours. The river was running very quickly or so it seemed from the banks. After 20 minutes of instructions on what to do when and what to do if someone goes in, I was feeling a little reassured. On the river it was a doodle. Loads of fun but next time bring on the level IV rapids! We met a lovely couple on the tour she was from the US and he was from Peru, so we ended up having our seafood lunch with them. Loads of shrimp and calamari, but way too much oil. That afternoon we set out to find the vineyards to see how the locals do it. On arrival we found everything is done by hand except the start when they use their feet to stomp on the grapes :) Our tour guide was the owners grand daughter a dainty little 5 year old who showed us arouund explaining everything in detail with an air of authority, while holding her pet kitten with each paw over her shoulder. She was such a cutie that we didnt have the heart to tell her we did not speak Spanish! At the end of the tour her older brother gave as the tastings, 2 reds, 1 white and a pisco. All the wines were very sweet, apparently they dont produce drys at their winery and the pisco straight at 40% tasted a cross between vodka and tequilla, yuk! That night we kicked back playing cards at the local general store which had tables inside and was run by a very old lady who kept on falling alseep on her stool. The beers were cold so what more could we ask for, and we got table service!

Next stop was Pisco home of Pisco sours and the jumping off point to the Islas Bellestas and Peninsula de Paracas. A great alternative to straight Pisco is Pisco sour cocktail which is a mix of pisco, egg white and lemonade, rather refreshing but very potent! Islas Bellestas was a beautiful island supporting a very large and very noisy sea lion colony. I did not know how much noise they could make! A few of them were quiet curious and come close-ish to the boat and practically poised for the cameras, so cute!!!
Later we had lunch in the National park which was mostly desert, but there was a nice little cove to swim in. The water was a bit cold but I swam out to a rock where there were some pelicans and seagulls getting some sun. I caused a bit of a comotion amoungst them until they realised I was no threat. Then from out of the crowd of birds waddles a penguin to see what was going on. It was only a meter away from me which was really cool !!! I was surprised how big it was, probabaly standing 60 - 70 cm high.

Back in Pisco we met up with some fellow travellers Rod from Oz and Katrina from the US, a few beers turned into a few more, then a few more over dinner. Not really any bars in Pisco so we ended up drinking in the main plaza across from our hostel (classy!!) to the wee hours, great night but we all paid for it the next day. Rod and Katrina were doing the tour we did that day and I could only imagine how bad it was for them on the boat as we were green on land!!!

When I finally got out of bed, we made our way to Huacachina, a tiny little village set around a greenish lagoon know for its healing properties (the colour alone made us stay clear) and surrounded by huge sand dunes ideal for dune buggies and dune surfing. Not up for much we chillled in our backpackers haven which had a swimming pool, pool side bath, bbq, hammocks, restaurant and internet cafe, so no one had to walk out the fromt door! After two days of recharging our batteries it was time to push, as it could have been easy to stay, some had been there for two weeks chilling out.

Time for another history lesson we arrived in Nazca and took a flight in a three seat cessna over the Nazca lines. The Nazca people existed between 200AD and 800AD approx and during this time they drew huge geometrical pictures and straight lines that went on for 25km in the desert. These are only visible be air. Pictures of a 90m long monkey, an astronaut, a 180m long lizard and many more. There are loads of theories as to why the pictures and lines were made, two of which are that the lines were an offering to the gods to send them rain as the region went without rain for a period of 40 years and the other is that they are extra terrestrial landing sites, who knows?!

Ofcourse we did the touristy thing and jump into a 4 seat light aircraft with a lawnmower for an engine and took a 1/2 hour flight over the lines. Although the animal shapes were impressive, for me the dead straight lines that went for miles... as far as the eye could see were more amazing. That fact that I had not been in a plane that small before was a bit of a thrill too. Especially as I was in the co-pilots seat and or pilot was giveing it loads in the corners, banking it to what seemed further than 90 degrees for the perfect view. I was happy to get back on the ground though, the old tum tum was getting a bit upset!!

Nothing else to keep us in Nazca we caught the night bus to Arequipa, a bit apprehensive as night buses are notorious for theft, but we got a decent night sleep and awoke with all our belonging, super!

Arequipa greated us with lovely blue skies, a beautiful old colonial town (the Spanish did leave something behind) surrounded by three snow capped volcanoes - Misti 5822m, Chachani 6075 and Pichu Pichu 5571m, and no we made no attempt to climb them! We booked a tour to the Colca Canyon as it seemed the easiest way to go, the canon being quoted as the deepeest canyon in the world with parts 3000m - 4000m deep, but more recently it has been discovered the Cotahiasi Canyon a further 385km (12 hours by bus no thanks) is even deeper. The agency we bougth the tour from promised 6 pepople on a small mini bus with time each day for hikes, we got 20 people on a bus and no time for hikes. Our tour guide could not have organised a p#ss up in a brewery, we were always running late and on the second day we had to be at the Condo Cross lookout at 8.30am as the condors are about early, we arrived at 9.15am too late, so no condor spotting for us. Crappy tour, left us jaded and not going on anymore tours unless there is no other way!

Back in Arequipa we bumped into Scott whom we had met in Pisco, oh forgot to tell you about the meal we had there. Scott and his friends Emily, Toby and Alex took us to a cervicheria, which only serves cerviche. Cerviche is a national dish made from white sea bass marinated in lemon, chilli and onions served with boiled potato or yam. I had never thought raw fish could taste so good! Yum, yum, yum :) Anyway back to Arequipa so we met Scott and took him to a restaurant we had found the night before which had a set bargin menu and happy hour from 2pm til 10pm, a very happy hour indeed! The set menu for 5 soles equi. US$1.50 was home made tomato soup (Dad you would have loved it) with croutons and spag bog or grilled chicken and salad for main. The bar/restaurant was pretty cool, all decked out in wood and with loads of posters of artisits from the 60s, but unfortunately there was no craic so we headed off to find some. Found another bar with loads of young locals and a girl from the table next to us befriended Scott instantly and so they were off, where dont know, but we hope he made it home in one piece and with all his valuables!

Last stop in Peru (for now anyway, we fly from Lima so we will hike the Inca Trail on the way back when the rain has stopped) was Puno. Set on the shores of Lake Titicaca, it had the potential to be really pretty. It wasn`t!!!

This ugly little town had to have a redeeming feature and so I came upon the guidebooks suggestion for a "lovely walk on the lakes shores to the next village where they build reed boats". So thinking this would be a romantic treat and earn me a few browny points, I grabbed Kim and headed out. The weather was hot and still, this should have been a good thing except out beautiful shores were polluted with sewage outfalls and rubbish dumps. What a STINK!!! We perserverd and it got better as we got out of town. When we arrived in village Chumi which produced the boats made of the reeds that grow on the lakes edge, no boat making was happening, BUGGER!!! We did get some excellent photos of local old women and children collecting the reeds. Being the wet season, the day after our "nice walk " it rained and rained so we did not vist the islands on the lake, which are supposed to be a highlight (something has to be!!), but will do it on our way back.

For now on to Bolivia!!!

Return of the Devil

Riobamba

We are here to go on the Devils Nose Train to Asuzla where we get to ride on the roof - cool, but not so cool as its for 6 hours! Luckily we hired a pillow for US$1 which our bums thought was money well spent. Along the way we were splashed by local women and children as it was the lead up to carnival. What makes this train journey famous is it's 7 switch backs. For those of you totally in the dark when it comes to switch backs (like I was), I will explain ... When a train goes down a hill which is to steep to turn and come back the other way further down the hill, the only way is for the line to be switched and the train reverses down to the next switch, then forward down ... and so on in a zig-zag or falling leaf motion. So what? I hear you say... Well, there are only 3 active train lines in the world that use this method ... your right, I'm not impressed either. But, for those budding train enthusists out there I'm sure this is a big deal. What was impressive for me was the ever changing scenery, from rich terressed farm land, snow capped peaks, shanty towns to arid dust bowl valleys. The wind in your hair, sun on your face, on the roof of a train with a bunch of crazy gringos.

We arrived at Asuzla at about 2pm and were keen to get our connecting bus to Guayaquil. A little to keen I'd say, since we nearly left our Backpacks in the cabose on the train, then didn't check if our bus was direct to Guayaquil ... it wasn't! Instead we took the 3 hours longer scenic route through the cloud forest ... or atleast it would have been if it wasn't for the cloud (I shouldn't have been surprised), then we were held up for an extra hour while a mudslide was being bulldozzed off the road.

More Passport Dilemas

Back in Guayaquil we return to the hated Australian Honorary Consulate to pick up my new passport. To our surprise it was there waiting for us. We have just one question (which I had emailed to them but recieved no reply), I need an entry stamp before I can get out of the country, where can I get one. Surprisingly, they had an answer for us ... go to the Immigration office opposite the bus station. WOW!
But we got excited all to soon. When I saw the dude at Immigration he said because we arrived in Quito I needed to get my new stamp in Quito - 8 hrs bus ride away and the opposite direction to where we want to go. If the consulate had told us this I could have had the passport sent to Quito and picked it up when I was there 2 weeks ago (Much swearing!!!) So, I ring our embassy in Venuzuela... much appologies given, but you may have to go to Quito. Is there ANY other way? We could send you a fax explaining in spanish what happened, please let him out of the country, If there are any problems please call me, Austrailian Consulate to Venuzuala.

"Great!" I say, "Send us the fax".

"Just remember, it may not work, They still may demand the correct documentation, inwhich case you will have to go back to Quito"

So we collected the fax, jumped on the Bus to the border and tried our luck ... surely it was about to change after all the shit we've been through in the last few weeks.

After an aprehensive 3 hours we reached the border. For some reason ecuadorians don't need to have their passports looked at to cross the border to Peru, so being the only gringos on the bus, the hostess escorted us into the passport control office. Kim got her exit stamp straight away ... now for my turn. I show him my brandnew passport, the police report and the fax. He ignores the two documents and flips through the passport looking for my entry stamp.

"No lo Tango" I say (I don't have it).

"¿Por que?" he asks in reply (Why?)

I indicate that my last passport was stolen and direct his attention to the other documents. Suddenly the hostess goes nuts yelling at the passport guard, he yells back and calls over a collegue.

"Shit woman, shut it we don't need more problems" I think to myself.

Again she starts yelling at both officials, it seems she wants them to hurry up or her bus will be late. I think because of this the guard stamps my passport as he still had not read the documents.

Excellent!! But I have to fill out an exit document... The hostess looses it, grabs Kim and runs out of the office. I can't follow I've must fill out the form.

When it's all filled out I head buck out to the bus, which is ... GONE!!! Kim is standing by the road with out bags at her side. Apparently the hossty couldn't wait.

We should have been angry, but we were just thankful I had my exit stamp and with in 2 minutes another bus came along and picked us up.

We are in Peru!

Travel as usual

Chugchilan and Laguna Quilatoa

This is a little bit out of order because we went here before Quito and the surgery drama...
From Baños we had a short bus ride to Latacunga and then a SLOW bumpy bus ride to Chugachilan, 4hrs to go 80km. This is supposed to be a spectacular trip, buit unfortunately the weather closed in so as we could bearly see the road. We stayed at the homely hostel of Mamma Hilda. Met a german girl who said she had not been robbed, we told her she was the first we've met who's not been robbed, paranoid she returned to her room to descover that her Camera had been stolen - Freaky!
The next day we trekked through the canyon and up the narrow path on the other side and continued up to Quilatoa Volcano. 4 hours after setting out we reach the rim of the crater and sat down to view the increadible emerald Laguna inside. So green due to the high alkalinity content of the waters, which cannot be drunk and supports no life. We spent the next hour walking around the rim to Quilatoa village and took the bus back to Mama's (another hour and a half).
Up at 3.30am the next morning to get the bus to Saquasili for the animal markets

Otavalo

So after narrowly escaping surgery we got the hell out of Quito (my least favorite place in the world) and headed north to Otavalo, known for it's huge Saturday Market, mostly selling tourist items. We arrived on a Friday so decided to go for a walk in the local national park.

The place smelt like Australia because it has been reforested with introduced Eucalyptus trees. The experts say itis an ecological disaster since none of the native wildlife and bugs can live off it ... maybe they should introduce koalas! Anyway, the main feature of this Park is the waterfall. So on our way to it 4 indian woman were sitting by a canal... To other Gringos passed us on bicycles, suddenly the Indian women were on their feet filling buckets of water and throwing them over the unsuspecting gringos. This is typical behaviour at the moment as it is canaval all throughout South America. Kim got a whole bucket of water over her head (she was not too impressed) while I got off lightly with water thrown over my leg ... maybe because my arm was in a sling. After enduring the soaking the Waterfall was a little disappointing, mainly due to the concrete modifications at the base to divert the water into a number of canals for agricultural purposes. However, it was great to watch the indian children playing in the clean fresh water.

The Market the next day took over the town in a kaleidoscope of colour and hussle bussle haggling for bargans. Some of the more attractive items (which we foolishly decided not to buy because we would have to carry them for another 3 months) were brightly coloured hand woven Hammocks for US$8; Hand carved chess sets with Spanish and Indian pieces; Alpaca woolen jumpers; Inca style woven rugs and cute childrens clothes to name but afew.

The Sunday we decided to go a bit off the beaten track to Cotacachi Laguna formed inside a volcano. We didn't quite know what to expect, so when we saw the crystal clear unpoluted lake we were stoked. It was absolutly stunning and practically unspoilt - a rare thing here! The only sign of civilisation being a solitary lake front restaurant and a tourist boat to take you around the lake viewing the birdlife, 3 volcanic islands and sulfur dioxide bubbling up from 200m below. After the boat ride we go a lift into town with a lovely Ecuadorian fellow (the only one in Ecuador I'd reckon) back into the town of Cotacachi which is known for it good quaility leatherwork.

Banos

Back in Banos for a few days to do a bit of hiking.

Banos turned out to be a tourist Mecca for 3 reasons.
(1)The Food, it has to be the best in Ecuador ... Why? because it isn't the usual deep fried crap the serve everywhere else. Dare I say it... it may even have been healthy! Probably because they didn't serve up Ecuadorian dishes (except guinea pig)... International dishes were the order of the day!! With a host of Funky Cafes and Bars to choose from.
(2)The Scenery, Set in a lush green valley below the countries nth largest Volcano (still active!!). Several magnificent waterfalls within walking distance, thermal baths and a bike ride down into the amazon... it's surprising this town wasn't purpose built for the backpacker
(3)The Price, As important to any budget as all other considerations. Accomodation, GOOD Food, Beer, and Tourist Activities were CHEAP!!

So what did we do?

We decided to walk up the mountain which towers above the town. On the way up we ran into the French couple we met at Mamma Hildas in Chugchilan. We got some fantastic views of the valley below, right before a torrential down pour saturated us to the bone ... a welcome change to the intense sun and heat!!

I didn't want to do the bike ride to Puno in the amazon (bit hard with my arm in a sling), so we caught a bus to the Rio Verde Waterfalls. As we decended into the jungle you could feel the humidity rise by the minute!!

And, ofcourse we couldn´t pass up ice cold beers with new found friends.

More on the Shoulder

While waiting for my passport (which was stolen with my bag) to get reissued (In Venuzualu since there is no Oz embassy in Ecuador) we traveled around the country(I´m in Ecuador passport in Ven.) ... on or first stop we went hiking up a volcano its over 6310m but we walked from 4800m to 5100m only 1km walk but it took us over an hour because of the altitude.

Then we rode bikes down...

after riding for about 30min we came to a village...

this stupid little 4yo kid ran out in front of me, so I put the brakes on hard so I didn´t hit him as a result I went over the handle bars and landed badly on my left shoulder.

I thought it was just bruised at first but noticed a massive lump there later when I too my shirt off.

Went to the docs and had a xray (after a 4 hr drive) and discovered I have a distended ligament in my shoulder causing my clavical to pop up about 1-2 cm. For those of you who understand medical jargon ... the clavical is seperated from the Scapular.

Was told to rest it for 3 weeks and it sould be fine, but I wanted to make sure that this hick doctor had made the right diagnosis.

When we got to the city I went to a good hospital and they gave me more xrays. After 1 1/2hrs they tell me I need Surgery Immidiatly or else I will have permanent disfunction in my arm .... SHIT !!!!!!!!!!

I start getting a bit woried I think that this is the end of the holiday, and I´ve really fuck up my arm AND I don´t want to be cut open in South America !!!!!!!!

Remember I can´t speak much spanish and They had little english which was worse because I didn´t know what was going on

Then another specialist came to examen me, he spoke english

He asks me to move my arm about, and then in disgust says "Who told you you need surgery? You don´t need an operation for this! let it rest and you will be fine

So I had 2 very different opinions to choose from, what wuold you do? .... I decided against surgery.

This happend about 3 weeks ago my shoulder is weak and a bit stiff at times, but I can use it just fine

I might need surgery in the future (in a year or so) but then I´ll be able to go to a western hospital .... much better than here

A bittersweet day
After leaving Guayaquil we headed to Riobamba, which is a the starting point of the famous Devils Nose Train Journey and dominated by Ecuadors largest dormaint volcano Chimbruzo. For trivia buffs the volcano is 6310m and is the furtherest distance from the centre of the earth, due to the earths equatorial bulge. We decided on a day trip which encompassed a short hike from the first refuge at 4800m to the second refuge at 5120m, a whole km apart, which took us over an hour as we were exhausted due to the lack of oxygen. For those of you who cant visualise how high this is, most sky divers never jump from this high, unless they are oxygen assisted!

Well seems like bad luck is following us. We were having a great day hiking to the second refuge then we mountain biked back down through the national park spotting LLama and Vicnor on the way. On the last leg I continued alone as Kim was getting wind burnt (she now look like a racoon! :) and so Kim followed in the 4wd with the guide. A kid ran out in front of me when I was riding through a village and so I swirved to miss the kid, flipped and landed with my full body weight onto my left shoulder. It seems after seeing a doctor and specialist that I has a disstended ligament and the clavical has seperated from the scapular, which in laymans terms is that my collarbone has been lifted about 8mm from where it should be. Sounds bad but all it means is that it has to be strapped up for two weeks so it can heal. In travel terms its a bummer really as now all our plans are out the window, more mountain biking, rafting and hiking was planned. Just getting on and off buses with my luggage should be interesting! Oh the joys of travelling! I think someone is trying to tell us not to be in Ecuador.

On a brighter side we had a lovely Valentines Day together. Wondering around Banos which is a little village nestled in between rolling green hills with views of a volcan, name I cant spell or remember but it starts with T (theres 10 volcanoes in Ecuador far too many for us to remember!!!). Then we had a nice dinner in a mexican resturant just across the road from our hotel. Yes not Ecuadorian food as its all crap, very very greasy and all deep fried, we have decided so its any other nationalities food we can get our hands on. So far we have done ok. Well we had better get back to our travels and try and get it right for our last three weeks in Ecuador.

On Monday we went to the Oz Consulate. It was bizarre from the beginning as it was inside of an insurance company office rather than a dedicted building. The Consulate dude was not in the office and we were told to return on Tuesday. We said we would wait. The reception rang again to the consulate secretary and she said that he was away in Washington till next Monday. We then asked the receptionist can we talk to the secretary, well she called her twice and went to see her personally but she was not coming down to see us. Instead she gave the receptionist the address of the Oz embassy in Venezuala where we had to send the application, as the consulate was only an honorary position and could only provide information. No good to us as we didnt know the cost of the new passport, two weeks was the the time frame they gave us which was too long, we are in Ecuador to travel not get stuck in a big city and wait for a new passport and also who is going to witness my application as it needed to be an Oz citizen whom I had know for more than two years so Kim was out of the question. Finally after waiting for 3 hours and more badgering the secretary said to the receptionist at noon they would call the Oz embassy in Venezuala so we could talk to them. At 1.30 the lady at the Venezualan embassy called and talked me through the process. I now have to contact someone in Australia to verify who I am, as the embassy will be calling them and also my mum has to take muy birth certificate to the passport office in Newcastle so they can ID me. Next stop our end was to the FedEx or DHL office so we could send the paperwork to Venezuela and then in three weeks on our way to Peru we could stop into Guayaquil and collect it. Got another cab (luckily they are cheap and with our little spanish we can now bargain them down) the Fed Ex office told us that they do not send anything to Venezuala now because of the political situation. We asked every so nicely if they would call DHL for us, which they did and DHL said they could send it but not to the embassy only to the DNL depot in Caracas and someone would ahve to collect it from there. Oh great now we had to call Venezuala and see if anyone could collect it from the depot. Went back to the consulate but they would not call again for us so back in town we have tried to call them but no answer. Several hours later we got in contact with the embassy in Venezuela and got it sorted. And I thought travelling was meant to be fun!!!

I´ve now finished my second week of spanish lessons, and feel confident enough that I can make myself understood in most situatons and more importantly understand when people reply (or most of it).

We left our little beach paradise yesterday and were heading to another one, we caught and "executive" bus which is a couple of dollars more, but you can´t get on without a ticket, you get patted down and bags checked when you get on, therefore no dodgy characters(wish we had gone executive last time). So on these buses you have aircon, movies and the seats recline to almost horizontal!! We were supposed to get off and change halfway to Guayquil at a town called JipiJapa(The J`s are pronoused as a H), But the silly driver bypassed the town and didn´t tell us. We were going to go to Guayquil anyway so we just arrived one day early(and I missed the best surf spot in the country).

So that´s where we are now - Guayquil, Ecuador´s second largest city. Our guide book describes it as hot, humid and dangerous, with little to offer the tourist. Why the hell are we here then? Because it´s the only place I can get a new passport. But in the defence of the city it is faily pleasent with a brand new waterfront development and although it is hot and sticky, there is usually a cool breeze. Infact the center of town is much nicer than in Quito.

Here for the next couple of days, out of neccessity. But there is a wildlife reserve closeby and well probably get some use out of the olympic size pool.

What a shocker of a week!! On the way to the bus station in Quito we got our daypacks slashed on the packed trolley bus, but luckily nothing was stolen. However the gods were not looking down on us that day. When we got onto our bus to Canoa, a fellow asked Kim to see our bus tickets, we assumed he was a conductor. He pointed to our seats and helped me off with my daypack and placed it in the overhead luggage compartment. I went to take it down a minute later to keep it in my lap but it was already gone. I told the conductor and we both ran off the bus to look for it. He immediately told a policeman and we all ran through the bus terminal looking for a bag but that they did not know what it looked like. I soon realised I weas going to find my bag and made my way back to the bus. During all this Kim had been trying to stop the bus from leaving as the real bus conductors were on the bus and ready to go. We managed to work out from the locals on the bus what had happened. Apparently when the "conductor" assisted me with my bag he pushed it down the luggage rack so his accomplace could grab the bag and pass it out the window to a thrid party. We have to give them credit for a well executed scam.

But that is not the half of it. After spending the next 9 hours on the bus stewing over the robbery we arrived at Canoa, befriended a fellow traveller who was fluent in Spanish and made our way to the local polcie station. We made a statement of what happened and what was stolen (all our expensive stuff plus passport and airline tickets - they scored well) and we were told to come back Monday to collect the typed up report. Great no dramas.

For the next week the police station was closed. When it was finally open again we spoke to another policeman with our broken Spanish and had to report the robbery again. When we collected the report it was inconsistant with our statement and with what was stolen. Furthermore the statement stated that we reported the robbery two days after it happened and therefore we may have travel insurance problems. Bugger.

On a lighter note our time spent at Canoa on the beach has been quiet pleasant. I have been surfing everyday and the Spanish lessons are coming along reasonably well, but we have discovered that is can be quiet confusing and difficult. Every word has several spellings and pronunciations depending on past, present or future tense as well as if it is for me, you, we or they, and the rules for those are regularly broken!

This weekend we are heading south to another beach then onto the sceond largest city in Ecuador so I can arrange a new passport and airline tickets. After that the travelling really starts and our itinerary that Kim has worked out it full to bursting for the next 3 months! That should take our minds off the problems of the last week.

After some deliberation we decided to spend two days in Bellavista Cloud Forest in the western lowlands about 1 1/2 hours from Quito. The Lodge was a bit beyond our means, a nights accommodation was US$16 and our daily budget is $20. We managed to fit a round peg in a square hole by not buying there food ($30 a day) and instead making Tuna sandwiches and crackers with vegemite for 3 days (the nearest village was 18km away so not an option to eat there).
When we arrived it was everything we hoped for and more (see there web site http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/bellavista/ ) Our dorm beds in the domed lodge were on the top floor where there was 360 degree window over the forest velly bellow. Down stairs on the balcony we had humming birds buzzing about our heads constantly as they hovered, drinking from the feeders while we sipped our coffee. The forest was serene and beautiful, while some the the hiking trails were quite demanding. This will be good practice for our Macchu Picchu hike, especially at this altitude (about 2500m). Not only was the senery spectacular, but was got to see some of the local wildlife. I saw 6 Tucanns one day and the nights produced a number colourful moths a little smaller than an adult hand.
The weather was great in the mornings and as is the nature of the cloud forest it closed in of the afternoon and rained lightly. It was refreshing and raised the spirit rather than dampen them (ha ha).
We came back to Quito today and got stuck in a traffic jam in a tunnel. All those fumes undid all the good work of the forest :( Oh well, we got to the beach tomorrow and I bought a surfboard this afternoon. So looking forward to the next month learning Spanish and Surfing :) Hoorah !!!

Becoming South American Explorers

Kim and I arrived in Quito,Ecuador yesterday (17th January 2003). It´s the second highest capital city in the world at 2850m. Sunshine greeted us as we left the airport, a balmy 25 degrees. Caught the local bus into the city which took about an hour and cost a tidy sum of 25 cents each! So after finding a hotel (only US$8 a double) we thought we´d check out the place, but in no time we were wacked out, lathargic and tired. We thought it was because of the lack of sleep on our 15hr o/night flight but later read that these are mild symptoms of altitude sickness. We perservered and found the people to be happy and helpful even with our very limited(non-existant) spanish, which is somewhat contradictory to the guide book which stresses the need for awareness of pickpockets.

So far our impression of Quito has been good, lots of nice green parks, relatively clean streets and the city is surrounded by lovely green hills, several of which lead to volcanoes. All the buildings are nice and brightly painted, lots of different types of architecture, colonial, baroque etc. Loads of restaurants everywhere, some look interesting but dodgy, others smell and taste great. The staple looks like chicken and rice with a salsa dressing and different soups with veg and meat. Breakfast is good rice (again), stewed meat, fried egg, fried banana, rolls with cheese or jam and coffee and juice. Lots of fruit stalls everywhere as well selling fruit drinks and slices up fruit pineapple, papya, orange, lemon, melon, cocnut, guava and mango. We have been having a hard time staying away from the juice stall as they look delicious but usually contain tap water, a big no no for our tummies!

Met an English guy Stu on the flight over who we meet up with last night for an early dinner. We were all exhausted from walking around so high above sea level, it leaves you quite breathless and lightheaded until you get used to the altitude ( we seem to be alot better today though!) So we all ended up in bed at 8pm.

Tonight we are meeting Stu again in the new town for a quiet beer or two. We both got sunburnt today, but its nice to get a little colour.

We have paid for our room until Monday when we think we will head either north or south, not entirely sure yet as we have to read up. We have to stay at the same altitude until Thursday as that is when our anti-malaria tablets kick in - mozzies dont live up this high. So on Friday we hit Canoa on the our little fishing village where we will start our spanish lessons next Monday

Catch up Blog of Last 4 Months

Well I finished my Eastern Europe Trip on the 3rd of January. I was really slack at writing after I left Berlin so here´s a quick rundown:

Poland
Overnight train from Berlin to Gdansk a Northern Port City which historicaly held great strategic importance. The weather was a bit on the wet side, but the old town was quite pretty. It 2 huge gate towers at either end on the colourful old town. Food was pretty nice too. We regularly ate at this super cheap joint Nuptune which had preprepared meals so you could just point to the one which took your fancy. We also had some horrid vegetarian... it looked like a big plate of shit. The beer was cheap so we took full advantage of that and got quite "munted" most nights.
Lebe
Malbork
Krakow 1000yo salt mines and Auswitz

Czech Republic

Slovakia

We are in Solvakia's second largest city "Kosice", at the moment but go to Hungary tomorrow to a little village "Eger" in the west of the country. We went Hiking a few days ago and the weather was beautiful, it was in a National Park call Slovak Raj or "Slovakian Paradise", with all the autumn leaves out and crystal clear mountain streams it lived up to is name.


Hungary

Romainia
Yes I'm in Romainia, but it wasn't easy. I'm currently sitting in a cafe in Cluj somewhere in the middle of the country near Transylvannia. No sightings of Dracula as yet but am keeping my eyes peeled.
So why wasn't it easy? I think we bit off a little more than we could chew in Slovakia, in that from the town of Pecs we thought we could make it across the border without too much hassle and onto a nice town somewhere. WRONG !!

Caught the 8 am Bus from Pecs to Szeged arriving at 1pm then on to the 2pm bus to Nadylak on the border arriving at 4:30ish. To cross the border by foot took us over an hour to the village of Nadlac by which time the sun had set and dodgy geezers seemed to be everywhere. No bus station could be found and the train left just as we showed up, so we were stuck in this horse and cart town for the night.



Bulgaria

Greece

Italy

Tunisia

Italy

Greece