Isla Del Sol - Bolivia. Puno, and Arequipa - Peru

We have been busy since the last time i wrote...changed countries, diets and currencies, hiked canyons and visited floating islands. Here´s an update...

From the coastal town of Copacabana, we took a boat for an hour and half to the tranquil island of Isla Del Sol which sits in the middle of Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side. It was a beautiful blue sky day and we walked around this big island which has remained fairly unchanged by tourism. Villagers seve coffee in their front yards alongside their llamas, and trails are rocky leading through hills of sheeps and donkeys and plantations of quinoa which is kind of like couscous or rice and is added to soups and mashed like potato. Famous for trout, i enjoyed a change of diet from the regular Bolivian dishs of rice and chicken, and ate trout for 4 days straight. The island was really realxing so we stopped and just sat for a couple of hours on a cliff side in the sun. Being Easter Sunday, or possibly for a wedding celebration or something, there were fireworks over the lake at night before the skies turned and a tremedous storm took place overnight. We left the next day for a 3 hour bus trip across the border to Peru which was a simple process, and this is where we are now.

Arriving in Puno we could see the change in lifestyle quickly. Peru is more accustomed to tourism and people are a little more forward and friendly with travellers. Roads are more likely to be paved, toilets come equip with toilet paper (although not always), and things are just a little more organised. The food so far has been fantastic (alpaca meals have been suberb, and just new menu and market choices...woohoo), and we are throughly enjoying pisco sours which is a alcholic beverage made of pisco (white grape brandy), egg white, sugar syrup and...? Delicious.

We stayed in Puno and visted the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, which is the floating islands of Uros. Super touristy, but something to be seen regardless. People live and make a living on approx 80 reed islands on the lake. Its quite fascinating to get off the boat and be on a island made entirely of reeds which is soft underfoot. People fish for trout and make crafts and build reed boats as part of a very old culture and lifestyle which has been monopolised by tourism, but is still really special and intersting.

Off to Arequipa next which is where we are now. Arequipa is really quite stunning. It is the nicest city we have been in so far, however more Spanish than indigenous Sth American. Surrounded by huge snow capped volcanoes and mountain ranges, the city centre is remininscent of somwhere in Europe. The plaza is super clean with palm trees and gorgeous churches, the people and restuarants are trendy and the climate is warm.

About 6 hours from Arequipa, lies the worlds second deepest canyon called Canon Del Colca. We have just completed a 2 day/1 nights trek into this canyon (15km all up). It begins at an elevation of 3280m and plummets to the river at 2160m. So the first day is a steep drop of over 1000m, crossing the canyon and walking through local villages which are really quite remote. There are no roads here, so everything is transported by foot or mules or produced locally. We stayed overnight at the bottom in a lodging with a pool but with no electricity, and then of course...what goes down, must come up (the reverse of this saying still works here!) The trek up is said to take about 3 hours and we completed it in about 2 hours, 15 mins which is damn good going if i must say myslef, however my calves are definitely feeling it today! At the end, we visted the hot springs which, at a toasty 39 degrees, was good for the muscles. Another very cool part of this trip was a stop off at the Cruz Del Condor where condors glide through the valley and make spectacular viewing. Their wing span grows to up to 3 metres long and they come really close to the viewing point. We saw several cruise by, very impressive.

Tommorrow night, we are taking a bus to Cusco where we will spend 3 nights before beginning the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

Tiahuanaco, Sorata, and Lake Titicaca - Bolivia

Feliz Semana Santa...or Happy Easter! For this holiday period, we find ourselves in Lake Titicaca - along with the majority of La Paz residents who escape to the seaside (well, lake) for a 4 day break. The timing was not something we had planned, but its been entertaining in many ways. Arriving here on Good Friday was an adventure in itself as we scrambled along the roads with thousands of other vehicles crammed with as many people as there is physical space. With only milimetres spare, drivers would barge on through, and the dual lane road became just one direction with every leaving the city. Intially coming the other way, we were literally run off the road in our bus (which is really a van with seats in it which somehow can fit up to 18 or so people), and got directed on a detour through peoples fields and paddocks kicking up a storm of dust and rocks along the way. The second bus trip enroute to Lake Titicaca was better and we overtook everyone before arriving at the lake where we had to get off the bus so it could get carried over on a barge with the hundreds of other holiday-goers cars. We got on the people barge and then only just found our bus on the other side. A close call.

Lake Titicaca is a place where Catholic pilgrams flock to so on Good Friday evening, there was a candle parade through the town. Cars here get blessed here everyday, not just Easter, so there are cars everywhere sprouting colourful flower decorations. People camp out anywhere and bring their pets along for the holiday season too, including monkeys and llamas. The lake is filled with paddle boats, row boats and kayaks, and so we thought we would holiday with the Bolivians and hopped in a lovely swan paddle boat for some fun this afternoon. Tommorrow we are heading across to the Isla del Sol for the day and night.

Before arriving here, we spent 3 nights in Sorata which is a zen like town surrounded by lush green mountains of plantations and farming families. Great hiking, and we did a full day hike to a place called Gruta San Pedro. It was a huge cave with a biug underground lake and small bats that live inside.

Another day trip in the past week was a venture out of La Paz toTiahuanaco which is Bolivias most significant archaelogical site. A civilisation thought to have risen about 600BC and is older than the Incas. The site is still very much being excated, and it was great to see a work in progress with local people carefully sifting though the site which already has uncovered large and well preserved pyramids and ceremonial grounds.

We are heading to Peru in 2 days so will write next from there.

Sucre, Bolivia

One of the best parts of travelling is when you accidently find yourself in the middle of some national or provincial celebration. This has happened to us nearly every day for the past week and the challenge has been to work out exactly what is going on when everything is in Spanish.

Sucre is the judicial capital of Bolivia and nice city of white archways and colonial, well kept housing and churches. This week marks the bicennetary of independence, and we have found ourselves in the middles of parades of school bands, city marches and potlicial speeches from the balcony of the goverenment building in the plaza. Add to this, dynamite explosions (positive, we think) and chants and signs and general proudness of this citys liberal accomplishments. And then a similar parade about tubercululosis the next day? Alas, we know little about the detail but it´s fun to be part of it!

In Sucre we have chilled out and slowed the pace down a bit. We visisted the highly regarded Musuem of Indigenous Art yesterday which details the weaving and clothing of Bolivian and Andean people, and the stories of the designs and labour-intensive hand woven, methods of the unique clothing here. Really intersting place, and we have a increased respect for the weaving culture now and are off to buy a piece for our wall back home. Also checked out the Casa de la Libertad (House of Liberty) which is a beuatiful colonial house where the declaration of independence was signed and historical and political artifacts are on display. We aslo visited a Dinosaur park where hundreds of dinosaur tracks measuring up to 80cm in diameter were found in the quest for mining. Quite amazing to see (even if not up very close), and hopefully something they can presevere long term.

Have been eating lots of local food including saltenas - a folded pastry dish with chicken or meat, spice, potato, and date which is excellent. Have been adventourous with local food (within a fairly safe hygiene level still) and have not had any unwellness yet which is great. There are no real supermarkets in Bolivia and all foods are purchased from markets which are a fantastic array of colours, and smells and any goods you can want. The very exposed displays of meat and chicken and innards make me a little squeamish, but the fruit and veg area is fanastic.

Tonight we are going to watch a movie called The Devils Miner which is a Bolivian film about the mines in Potosi and the life of a 14 year child who worked in them. Tommorrow we are going to a indigeous village where there have great cultural markets, before taking a overnight bus to La Paz which is technically the capital of La Paz after taking the trophy from Sucre in the recent past. But dont tell Sucre that.

Potosi - Bolivia

Potosi was once the wealthiest Spanish city in the world due an enourmous resource of silver. The streets were literally paved in it. But the area was mined to the extreme and the silver is now vitually depleted. Potosi is no longer a wealthy city but a very intersting one as it remains a mining town. Another intersting thing about Potosi is that it is the highest city in the world at a height of 4090 metres, and yes, it is cold.

Today we went on a mining tour through the cooperative mines where these days, they mine for other minerals most commonly zinc these days. The conditions in the mines are terrible and often miners will die within 10 years of entering the mines. The safety and health provisions are virtually non-existent and we encountered alot of asbestos inside. The potenetial earnings though for miners is double the minimum Bolivian wage and so men continue to work here although the number has dropped in recent years from 15000 miners to only 4000, and thankfully only about 15 children work here now.

For the tour, they equip you with a hard hat, jacket, pants, gum boots, and a head torch, and you only stay inside for 2 hours. Before entering, you buy presents for the miners inclusing coca leaves, dynamite, alcohol(96%!!) and cigarrettes. And we bought ourselves a face mask to help with that little problem of asbestos. Heading towards the mine shaft, we stopped to blow up some dynamite we bought which for Jeb was the highlight of the day/week/month...?!

Inside the mines, we scrambled through dark, wet shafts, down rickety ladders, and through tiny fuse-blown tunnels. Crossed paths with workers along the way and gave them our gifts, plus we were introduced to the Devil Tio which their pray to below ground for good luck. Work in the mines is really hard and very dangerous as there are no maps and teams could potentially blow up areas where other miners are working. There are 5 levels of about 25 metres each, so an áccident´would easily be fatally if the respitory problems dont get to you first.

Very intersting experience, glad to have seen what this town is really about. But now, our lungs need some cleaning as there is alot of pollution from diesel buses and trucks here too, and so we are off tommorrow for Sucre about 2-3 hours north east of here.

Salar de Uyuni and the Southwest Circuit - Bolivia

We returned on Saturday from the Bolivian highlands where we did a 4 day jeep tour through widely diverse landscapes including the Salt Flats. This was true 4WD country from beginning to end and we crossed rivers and mountains on very narrow and often barely distinguishable rocky roads. Luckily we had an excellent local driver and a great Bolivian guide Archie who spoke English and also cooked us delicious huge meals throughout the trip. There was also an Irish couple with us, and 6 was a good amount of people for 4 days in a vehicle together.

The region changes constantly and we experienced sun, snow, wind, hail and mountains of lofty heights of between 4000 and 5000+ metres. For the most part, we were not affected by altitude sickness, but you can definitely feel the shortness in breath and sometimes a headache for me. At such heights, it is really cold, expecially when you are getting up at 4.30am when it was around 0 degrees.

This corner of the world is largely volcanic but nothing has erupted for the past 1000 years. The landscape changes from hard rock mountains to gentle slopes with spiky shrubbery and cactus, with animals such as the vicunas and llamas which are everywhere and a industry for the local villages (yes ive eaten llama meat, and its quite good, maybe like lamb?). Villages are populated with only a few hundred people who live in small thatched homes made of mud bricks, and we stayed in these villages along the way. On the first morning, we walked through a long abandoned village and ruins dating back to the 16th century which was very cool to see in the early morning mist.

Other things we experienced along the way were the green and red lagoons, as well as other lagoons in the National Park which are breeding grounds for 3 different types of rare flamingos. We went in the sulphurous hot springs at a toasty tempreature of 30 degrees, plus visited the geyer basin where you have to be careful not to fall in the boiling mud pots of various colours. The area of course, is very importanant geologically and throughout the trip, we were constantly learning about the minerals that we derived from this whole area of Bolivia, including borax, iron, sulphur, copper, zinc.

On the last day, we were on our way to the Salt Flats to watch the sunrise. The Salar de Uyuni is the worlds largest salt flat with an area of 12 000 square kms of salt and sits at 3653m above sea level. It is white as far as the eye can see, with mountains on the horizon at times, but often you feel like you are in the middle of a white desert of nothing. Its quite astounding and was a unique experience. People use salt to build houses in the area and the accommodations for the last night was in a salt made house, with bed bases, tables, stools, walls and floors completely made of salt. Slightly novel to us, kind of like a gingerbread house but salt. On the actual salt flats, there is no housing, excpet for one illegal structure which apparently features the portrait of the president and indicates a level of corruption here.

The whole trip was great and we learned alot about the geography of Bolivia, the industries, minerals, local food and cultures of the highlands. We stayed a night in Uyuni and then got the bus yesterday to the town of Potosi which was a tedious 6 hour bus ride. We have yet to drive on a paved road in Bolivia (except for within the immediate town centre now of Potosi), so the bus charged through some very rough roads and through creeks with the only bathroom being behind the back of the bus at irregular stops.

Will write more on Potosi later as we have a meeting with the mines...

Horseriding in Bolivia

I was hoping to upload some photos today of the past month to give some visuals to my ramblings. But internet is very slow here in Tupiza, and no CD drive on computers. Internet cafes are however very popular with school kids doing their homework and playing computer games, and this would be the kinda shop to own around here.

Jeb and i went horseriding for 3 hours today in the wild west of South America. Went all up through the canyons and rock red mountains of the area. Our horses galloped (yes galloped), and the thing i learned today is that you should not wear a backpack with a heavy camera in it, whilst riding through the wild west on a galloping horse without a helmet. But all good and lots of fun (except for a sore bum), and very cool to be horseback in this area.

Tommorrow we heading off for a 4 day trip through the Salar de Uyuni - the Salt Flats. Should be awesome.

Bolivia

We arrived safely in Bolivia yesterday, after taking a few hours bus ride to the border. The terminal on the Argentinian side was a bit sketchy and we were prepared for the Bolivian side to be worse, but all was ok. We took a taxi from the Argentinian bus terminal and then literally walked over the border into Bolivian customs (which is not much more than a shack). No bag search, xrays, nothing. Walking through the main strip of the border town Villazon, we could instantly sense that change into a pooer, third world. There were lots of stalls on the main street selling black market and all kinds of necessities. We changed some money to Bolivianos and then got to the bus terminal. Lots of people, bit confusing with our new money and the exchange rate, and keeping our wits about us at all times, we managed to get tix for the next bus to Tupiza (about 2-3 hours from border).

The bus took off about 40 minutes late which isnt too bad for Bolivia. We were very cautious about our bags and making sure that they definitely went on that bus as we have heard some horror stories of people having things snatched from under their eyes. Bolivian buses are not great and certainly not like Argentinian buses so we were grateful for the shorter trip as our bums were already a little sore after 2 hours!

Tupiza is a very dusty town (we have surely swallowed tonnes of dust already and my thoat is perpetually dry). Its nearly 3000m above sea level so you can feel the change in altitude here. Its advised to take things slow in Bolivia so we have done that today. My favourite thing here so far is the old ladies everwhere in their traditional clothing of knee length swivel skirts, top hats, stockings, cardigans, and their hair plaited in 2 long plaits. They sit in the markets selling food and fruits (which is good here). The country has a very old culture and you can see it most in the weathered faces of the older genreations. People live in mud brick housing in villages along the roads or at the base of mountains. As in Argentina and Uruguay, the streets are quiet from after lunch for siesta and the action picks up again after 5. Even school kids break the day in two for siesta, and go back in the afternoon.

Tupiza is the final resting place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids and you can follow their footsepts around the outskirts of town. We are going horseriding tommorrow which will probably be a typical way to check out the area.