We caught an early morning bus from Puno to Cusco that took about 8 hours. It wasn't too bad a journey: we watched the Kings Speech on the way to keep us entertained. We got to Cusco about 4pm and took a taxi straight to a hostel that had been recommended to us by a Danish girl in Lake Titicaca: Pariwana. We have now been in Cusco two days and have had a lovely time so far. Last night we went to the bar in the hostel at 5pm and met 2 guys from London - we ended up staying in the bar talking to them until midnight! Then we went to bed in our 20 bed dorm and the beds were the comfiest I have ever slept in. The only problem was that one boy decided to wake everyone up at 8am by turning on all of the lights and packing his rucksack. I'll get him back tomorrow when we get up at 6.
Today we wandered around the city looking for somewhere to book our Inca jungle trail (the trail to Machu Picchu). The Danish girl on Lake Titicaca had told us there was an excellent travel agents with a white bike outside where they did the best deals and the best tours. The two guys from London who we had met the night before said they were doing the tour the next day too and we should go with them, but when we checked out the prices, there turned out to be a £100 difference, so we booked with the company the Danish girl recommended. We both decided months ago against doing the real Inca trail. It is meant to be really hardcore, very expensive and just lots of boring walking. Our trail on the other hand, involves white water rafting, zip lining, hot springs, mountain biking, jungle hiking and waterfalls! We are both excited about it and will be setting off tomorrow for 4 days culminating in Macchu Pichu. We have just had a lovely tea of chips cheese and curry in the Wild rover and are going to get an early night as our tour starts at 7 tomorrow!
Getting a later bus than we had planned meant that we arrived in Peru later than we wanted to: in the pitch black and pouring rain. We stopped briefly at the border so everybody could jump off the coach and get their stamps and then we carried on for another 4 hours until we reached Puno in Peru. When we got off the coach it was raining and it was very dark. We were scared because we hadn't per-organised a hostel and Puno was a lot bigger than we had imagined. Also we had heard a lot of horror stories about travellers getting into taxis in Peru and then getting kidnapped and taken around cash points at knife point to withdraw all of their money. With this in mind, we entered the bus station trembling wondering how we would find a decent hostel for the night. It was at this point that a bespectacled woman in her 50s pushed a leaflet in our faces asking us to come with her to her hotel. Against all of our better judgement and instincts, we reluctantly followed her into a taxi: We didn't really have any other choice. All of the way in the taxi I kept saying to Jemma, she's going to kidnap us, lets get out now, she's taking us down a dark alley to rob us with the taxi driver. Luckily however, this wasn't the case, and we pulled up at a lovely little cheap hotel smack bang in the middle of the town, surrounded by restaurants and shops. I couldn't believe our luck. We had a lovely private room with a bathroom, hot water, internet and sky TV. I sighed a huge sigh of relief. The first thing that struck me about Peru was how friendly the people were. Not only was this woman extremely helpful, but so was the receptionist, the cleaner and everyone else we met. It was such a pleasant change from Bolivia where everybody was rude and treated us with suspicion.
We went to bed that night very happy: me with the internet, and Jemma watching Jamie Oliver and Nigella on the TV. The next day we had a really long lie in and then wandered out into the town for breakfast and did some laundry. In the afternoon we decided to go to the dock and take a local boat to the floating islands rather than take a tour (on the advice of the cleaner). We were so glad we did. It was much cheaper and we ended up on a boat with a group of Peruvians who were on a big community trip together and were fascinated by us. They asked us all about the UK and expressed a wish to swap with us. They also asked about our husbands and couldnot believe how liberal they were letting us travel alone.
The Islands themselves were a big disappointment and were exactly as other tourists had told us they would be: like Disney Land. We pulled up at the Island to find a woman dressed in typical dress waving at us and welcoming us to her home. Then we got off our boat and were invited into a man's 'home'. 'Come into my home my friends'. It blatantly wasn't his home; it was just all set up for tourists, but as Jemma said, it was like a living museum. He told us about how they thatched their houses out of straw and how they caught fish out of the river for their meals. It was raining heavily and it was freezing cold so most of the Peruvians got back into the boat rather than wonder around this man's Island and look at his 'Mercedes Benz' (his boat made of reeds). It was all very fake but it was interesting to see as it is one of the top destinations in Bolivia and is famous worldwide (the world's highest and largest fresh water lake). The Peruvian tourists all wanted their picture taken with us. I guess we were more of a novelty than the Islands to them.
That night we went to the bus station to buy our tickets to Cusco and then we went to a KFC type place next door to our hotel for tea. We tried Inca kola for the first time: It tasted like Iron bru. When we got back to the hotel, we told the man at the reception we would be leaving early the next morning and would need our laundry before we left. We were pleasantly surprised when he turned up at our door and hour later with it all folded and vacuum packed. We spent the rest of the evening watching food programmes on TV, including one where a man goes on a tour of America eating all of the fast food challenges that most people can't eat. We also watched one about a cake makers in the USA where they build custom cakes, a bit like chocywoccydooda - it reminded me of Ross.
The biggest disappointment in South America! Well, ok its not that bad, its just a big, touristy lake. We arrived at the Bolivian side of the lake (Copacobana) after a coach journey and boat ride from la Paz that took about 4 hours in total. We got off the coach at the lake and then had to get a little boat across whilst our rucksacks stayed on the coach which was ferried across by a little raft. When we got to Copacobana we headed straight to a hostel that we had looked up in Lonely Planet. It was a dump and smelt of cheesy feet, but hey, it was only 2.50 pounds for a night and we were only staying one night. The best thing about it was that it had a T.V so we watched two Hollywood movies. One was a really cheesy romcom where JLo has twins by artificial insemination. That night we ate in an American themed bar where the Cholitas swapped their bowler hats for cowboy hats. The portions were tiny but at least there were no hairs in the food. We bought tickets to go to the Isla del Sol the next day which is the birthplace of the Incas and one of the most spiritual places in South America. We also bought a bus ticket to Puno in Peru, meaning we would stay one night on the Isla del Sol and then would have to return by midday the next day to catch our bus to Puno. We were running down our Boliviano currency at this point and had just enough to spend one night on the Island and get back.
St Germain
The next day we got up early and boarded our boat to Isla del Sol. We happened to sit next to St Germain and his partner who spent the journey telling us about middle earth, big foot and sea monsters. He told us he had been reincarnated several times and was the leader of a spiritual group who met up on the Island to enter through a portal to go to middle earth and to go to the city under Lake Titicaca. Apparently most people are born with only a 2% memory of their former lives but he was blessed with having been born with a 90% memory and could remember everything about his former lives. He had met Joseph (father of Jesus), Columbus and was previously an Inca King who had helped to build the Inca temple on the Island. I could go on forever about what this guy was saying, but instead I´ll just post the website link he gave us. Apparently he is a world famous skateboarder and is in the Guniess Book of records for percussion drumming. His website: St. Germain
After a 3 hour boat ride across lake Titicaca, we finally arrived at the Isla del Sol which is basically a very basic, sparsely populated Island with about 4 shops and 5 hostels. We headed straight for the hostel out of Lonely Planet and it was quite a good choice - it had running water and again was very cheap. It was run by a nice family and we had a private room with electricity. We had left our big rucksacks with us and had packed a little overnight bag for the Island. I had decided to wear jeans as it was freezing on the mainland but on the Isla del Sol, as the name should have told me, it was very sunny. We bought a little ticket with a map on and decided to try and trek from one side of the Island to the other to see all of the relics. We got as far as the temple that St. Germain built in a former life and were exhausted from the altitude. Also, the fact that we had only had a mars bar and a packet of Crisps for breakfast probably didn't help. Despite being extremely out of breath and sun burnt, we decided to trek on using the little hand drawn map to find the other side of the Island. Lonely planet said that the walk would only take 4 hours but that it was strenuous. After about 2 hours of trekking up hill at very high altitude in the baking sun along what looked like the great wall of China, we realised we would never reach the other side of the Island and that we should try and find our way back to the hostel. Luckily we came across a farmer (the only person we had seen in 2 hours) and he pointed us in the direction of our hostel.
A few minutes late we were scaling the side of a mountain, walking down a sheer cliff face towards the small town at the bottom. When we got half way down I looked up and couldn´t believed what we had just come down. No foot path, just an extremely steep, almost vertical stone mountain face. Somehow we got to the bottom, and just before we were back on normal land, we somehow wandered into a pig stye without realising it and then saw a Cholita chasing a boar across the mountain. For some reason Jemma thought it would be a good idea to chase the boar and grab onto the string around its neck to help the Cholita out. The woman however, did not appreciate this and just said ´no´before throwing a stone at the pig. We left swiftly but were then confronted by a group of little girls (around 5 years old) also scaling the mountain side demanding that we take photos of them and pay them!
The fun was not over yet however, as we turned the corner on the approach to our hostel, we saw a cholita sitting in the middle of the path having a wee in the street underneath her skirt. Only in Bolivia!
That night Jemma was sick (we don´t know the cause, maybe it was the sight of the peeing Chola) and she felt really ill. Nevertheless we decided to go for dinner in the only restaurant in town and have the only meal on the menu - trout and chips. This didn't make Jemma feel any better and unfortunately I wasn´t so lucky with the hair count this time - there were two hairs in my meal. By this time it was only about 20.00 but it was pitch black and freezing cold and I was extra cold because I had decided to have a shower and wash my hair in the ice cold shower. (The family in the hostel actually had to fill up the tank by hand for me to do this - I felt a bit guilty but I stank as I hadn't been able to have a shower in Copacobana). We returned to our hostel to find that we had been locked out so had to stand and knock on the door for 20 minutes in the freezing cold. At one point I saw a light go on in one of the bedrooms so I shouted at the person in the room to let us in but a female voice replied in Spanish that she would not let us in as the hostel owners weren´t around. Finally a passing Chola in the street advised us that the family that owned the hostel lived next door so I knocked on their gate and they let us in. We then whiled away the night playing cards and 20 questions. It was a very long night.
We got up the next morning to catch our boat back to the mainland. The man on the boat the day before had assured us there would be a boat at 10.30 to allow us to be back in time for our bus to Puno, so had the woman in the ticket office. We got to the ticket offiice and a really rude woman told us that unless there were 10 people to fill the boat, the boat would not go and we would have to wait to 13.30 - too late to catch our bus. We waited in anticipation for 8 more people to turn up, and one by one people came - s Swedish girl, a Spanish girl and a Danish couple. But this was not enough to fill a boat. Could we pay extra between us for the last 4 places so that the boat could still sail we wondered? The woman said yes this would be possible. So instead of spending our last 25 Bolivianos on breakfast, we saved it to pay the extra fare. Then, a stroke of luck, the Danish girl informed us that there were another 6 travellers who also wanted to catch the boat to Copacobana. We rejoiced and spent our last bit of currency on 2 mars bars for breakfast. As 10.30 rolled around, to our dismay, the group of 6 traveller started to walk away from the shore. The Danish girl had been mistaken - they did not want to catch the boat at 10.30. What then ensued was a series of heated arguments with the boat staff who insisted that they would not accept extra payment for the spare places on the boat, and if we wanted to boat to go we would each have to pay 20 times the amount! The Spanish girl was pleading with this old sailor who had cheeks stuffed full of coca leaves to take us in the boat and I was getting quite angry, threatening to diss the Island on the Internet when I got home. However, none of this worked and in the end we were told that we would have to wait until 13.30 for the next one.
This was an extremely depressing thought, not only because it meant we would miss our bus to Peru, but also because we would have to kill another 3 hours on the most boring Island in the world. We went and sulked on the beach for a bit and watched a Cholita abusing a donkey, when suddenly, an Argentinian girl came running up to us. This was the same Argentinian who had refused to let me into the hostel the night before and I muttered under my breath to Jemma that I hoped she wanted my help for something so that I could take pleasure in refusing to help her. It just so happened that she did want our help, however it was the type of help I couldn´t refuse. She and her boyfriend had been negotiating with the sailor and were trying to round up 15 travellers to fill a boat back to the mainland. We gladly went with them to try and help them in their mission. We went back to the boat where there was a group of 6 travellers sat in a cafe discussing how to get back. The Spanish girl was there and reckoned if we all paid an extra 25 bolivianos, the sailor would take us. Unfortunately for us, we had just squandered our last few Bolivianos on breakfast. Luckily however, I had some leftover Argentinan pesos, and between the travellers, we managed to work out an exchange rate and buy some more Bolivianos - enough to get us on the boat. In the end though, the Argentinian guy´s negotiations were so good tat he managed to round up 15 people, and the boat sailed at 13.00 with us all on board. (Ok we would only have had to wait another 30 minutes to get on the scheduled boat but it was such a relief to get off the Island, even if the water was extremely choppy and I felt sea sick on the way back).
When we got back to Copacobana, we were stepping off the boat which was anchored extremely far away from the dock, and Jemma dropped her prescription sunglasses into lake Titicaca. They were never to be seen again (except maybe in the city under the lake).
We went straight to the office where we had bought our bus ticket to Puno and explained the situation. She charged us a pound to change our tickets to a later bus that would leave at 18.30. We went back to our original hotel to check our rucksacks were still there and then whiled away the next 4 hours in a cafe that had wireless. We eventually caught our bus to Peru at 18.30 and were not sorry to see the back of Bolivia. A change of country was something we both desperately longed for!
When we got back from
our pampas tour we went to book a flight back to la Paz and realised
that everything was booked out until Tuesday so we were going to have
to hang about in in Rurrenabaque for a while – what a shame! Rurre
is a gorgeous, laid back little jungle village on the river and the
hotel we were staying in was only £3.50 a night for a private room.
Chill out area in our hotel garden
It was a really idyllic place to relax for a while. We spent the next
couple of days chilling out and meeting up with people at night for
dinner in one of the lovely little restaurants where we never paid
more than £4 per head. It was like being on holiday. In the morning
we would have a lie in, take a shower then head for breakfast at the
little cafe round the corner that did massive breakfasts (scrambled
egg, muffins, fresh orange juice, hot chocolate and chocolate
pancakes for just £2!). The we would wander around the little
stalls, have another shower to cool off and go to the local pool in
one of the hotels. One night we met up with the Swiss and German
couple off our tour and went for 2 for 1 cocktails in the bars
(everywhere had happy hours every night). It was great to speak
German again. Another night we bumped into the Irish girls off our
salt flats tour and went for drinks with them. One night we were
having an amazing dinner of fish (I don’t usually like fish but
this was fantastic) and we bumped into a Belgian girl who we had met
in el Calafate right at the southern tip of Argentina – we are all
on the same gringo trail. On our last day in Rurre, we got a
motorbike taxi to the top of the big hill where there was a big
swimming pool with a chill out area and amazing views over the town.
I absolutely loved Rurre, it was so relaxing and hot (apart from the
day we left when there was a big downpour).
Jemma with a coconut I plucked from a tree
I would definitely say it
was one of my best parts of this trip so far. However, we are now
both absolutely covered in mozzie bites, despite having coated
ourselves in 100% deet every night and using mosquito nets!
Now we are back in
miserable la Paz and hope to catch a bus out of here tomorrow to go
to lake Titicaca where we will spend a few days before crossing over
into Peru :)
The whole Amazon
experience has definitely been one of my favourite parts of South
America.
The fun began when we
asked our receptionist in the hostel in la Paz to book us a taxi but
as expected she forgot which set us behind schedule. Then when we
finally got a taxi, the driver had to pull over half way up a hill as
there was smoke coming out of the bonnet and the car had conked out.
In typical Bolivian style, he told us not to worry and that another
taxi would be along in 8 minutes. 20 minutes later another taxi
pulled up. Luckily we got to the airport on time and as there were
only 18 people on our flight that needed to check in it didnt take
too long. I had heard the plane was small but was gobsmacked when I
saw it – small is an understatement – it was the most minature
plane I have ever seen - it was literally the size of a minibus
chopped in half length ways.
Jemma boarding our smarties tube plane
There was just enough
room for two seats next to each other, nowhere to put hand luggage,
no aisle, and we were sat directly behind the tiny cockpit which was
completely open. It was literally like a tiny smarties tube, I cannot
express how small it was (mum, you would have hated it). Once in the
air you could feel every tiny movement and although the journey was
only 30 minutes, I sweated the whole way. It was boiling hot and I
felt very sick with travel sickness which I do not normally get
(except for once on a helicopter over the grand canyon). At one point
we flew in between two mountains – not over them – in between.
Jemma was staring out the window the whole way admiring the views but
I just sat in silence trying not to be sick. When we finally landed
on the dirt track runway in Rurrenabaque I felt extremely sick but
had to explain to the little girl in front of me how to undo her
sealtbelt. The heat hit us when we got off and I just had to sit in
the tiny departure 'lounge' (a little wooden hut) whilst Jemma got
all of the bags. We then piled onto a little minibus and put our
rucksacks on the roof to drive into the town where we would be
staying the night before our tour (Rurrenabaque).
We quickly found the
hostel that Jemma had seen in Lonely planet and were quite pleased
with our choice – it was quiet and had a courtyard with a tropical
garden, hammocks and a fan in the room and it only cost us £3.50
each for a private room. The first thing I did was have a cold shower
in the shared outdoor bathroom. I remember being extremely scared
about the insects at this point and the heat was so intense I
wondered how I was going to cope.
I hung my mosquito net up in our hotel room
As soon as I had had the shower I
was drenched in sweat again within 10 minutes. We were both hungry
and so headed out to get something to eat before it got too late. We
had free vouchers with our flight tickets for cocktails in the
'mosquito bar' near our hostel so we went there first to claim them
and got talking to a French girl called Sylvie. I was so hot at this
point I could barely sit up, never mind talk. It was about 20.00 but
it was still sweltering hot. After the free cocktails we left and
went back to the hostel for another shower and went to buy some
water. Then we went back to the mosquito bar for food. I had 'river
fish and vegetables'. I wanted burger and chips but could hear Lid
and my dad's voices in my head saying ' you're in the Amazon and
you're eating bl00dy burger and chips?!' So yes Lid, I had river fish
for you, and it was actually not too bad...
That night we went to
bed with the lights on because I was petrified of the bugs. Before I
got into bed (which I had covered with my mosquito net), I went to
the toilet and went to shut the door only to find a massive frog
staring back at me. It was at this point I knew I was in the Amazon
basin.
In the morning we got
up and rushed to a near by french bakery to get some breakfast before
our tour started. We were only aloud to take a small bag with us on
the tour so we packed our little day sacks and stored the big
rucksacks in the office of the tour company.
We were on the tour
with two Germans (Sandra & Jan), one Swiss (Stephan), and one
French girl (Sylvie who we had met the night before in the mosquito
bar). The bags were all loaded onto the top of our 4x4 along with the
food and water for the next 3 days and off we went, along the dirt
track roads, through the jungle villages to the river where we would
catch our boat to the pampas.
The jeep ride took 3
hours and on the way we stopped for lunch at a cafe. We also stopped
to inspect a sloth that was lying by the side of the road. The tour
guide tried to move it a few times with his foot (not sure how
ethical this was) but it did not stir. It wasn't dead, just sleeping,
as sloths do. When we got to the national park area, we got out of
the jeep and changed into our swimming gear and plastered ourselves
in sun cream because we knew we would be sitting in the sun for three
hours on the canoe. The first thing we noticed when we looked at the
river where our canoes were was that it was teeming with caimen
(crocodiles).
Our boat
The six of us got into
the canoe, along with our bags, the food for the next three days and
our guide, and then off we set down the river. (The canoe was
motorised and the guide did all the steering). There was also another
group in another canoe that stayed with us from the same company.
The ride along the
river was without a doubt my favourite part of our rtw trip so far.
It was like something out of pocohontis. We rode along a tropical
river under tropical trees and on the way we saw so many different
animals and birds, it was fascinating. We saw hundreds of capabayas
in family packs and every time we saw a group of them our guide would
pull our boat up right beside them so we would get a very close look
(inches away). We also saw herons catching fish, toucan
ns, lots and lots of
terrapins....
Family of capybaras
Terrapins in a line
One of the scariest
sights at first were the hundreds and hundreds of caimens
(crocodiles). Our tour guide was very young and immature and every
time we saw some crocs he would beach the boat on the shore right
next to where the crocs were, and the worst thing was that me and
Jemma were right at the front of the boat, literally centimetres away
from these crocs. It was actually like a Disney ride, like jaws or
something. I felt like I was on a ride in Orlando, except it was
real, and we were inches away from these crocs. It felt very much
like we were dicing with death and I was petrified. So much so that I
was screaming at the guide to pull away from the shore but he found
it funny and didn't listen. One of the crocs we saw looked so fake,
we thought that maybe the company had planted it there as a prop to
scare us, in proper Disney fashion. It just wasn’t moving and it
looked plastic. Jemma said to me, thats not real, thats a fake one
and I thought it was too. The whole boat was convinced it was fake
because it was just sitting there smiling with its mouth open and all
its teeth showing, just sitting perfectly still with a grin on its
face. So we asked the guide if it was a hoax, and then all of a
sudden it just took off really fast and ran into the water and swam
under the boat!.At one point we were beached alongside a massive
black caimen and we tried to pull back off but the boat was stuck.
The driver was revving the engine and we finally came away from the
shore but then the driver was teasing the croc and all of a sudden it
leapt round and swept its tale across, drenching us all with the
river water. It was really angry and the tour guide off the other
boat actually stopped to ask us if we were ok. Our guide looked
genuinely scared and must have had a shock because after that he
stopped ploughing us into the caimen.
The croc we thought was a fake
About half way along
the river we stopped and the guide told us we could all jump in to
swim in the river with the pink river dolphins. So, most of us did
(despite the fact that the waters were still teeming with caimen, the
guides assured us that the caimen were scared of the dolphins so
would not come near). I didn't stay in long because one boy got
bitten by a pirhana and I didn't fancy the same thing happening to
me. After three hours travelling down the river, we arrived at our
eco lodge which was nestled amongst the forest. We were in a big dorm
with the other people on our boat and everybody had a bed with a
mosquito net. We put our bags down, doused ourselves in some more
insect repellent, got our head torches and then headed straight back
out in our boat to go and watch the sun set at the sun set bar
further along the river. It was basically just a hut that sold cold
drinks and had hammocks but it was an amazing place to chill out and
watch the sun set over the pampas, with the fireflies flying over the
trees and a random group of chickens running about. Jemma found a bag
of corn behind the hut and was sending the chickens wild by throwing
corn about.
Lying in a hammock with a cold drink for sunset
When the sun went down
and it was completely dark we did the most fantastic thing ever, we
got back in the boat and went searching for caimens along the river
in the dark. It was so much fun, again like a disney ride but real.
It reminded me of the pirates of the caribean ride crossed with jaws,
crossed with the tikki room. Everywhere we shone our torches, we
could see the crocs glowing eyes. Sometimes you would shine the torch
next to the boat and see a florescent pair of eyes right in front of
you. It was exhilarating.
After our caimen
searching, we returned back to the ecolodge for dinner – spaghetti
bolognase. Nobody wanted to stay up late as we were all tired so we
headed straight off to bed in our dorm. The rooms in the lodge were
separated only by green insect netting so it was really just like one
huge dorm of about 100 beds. I quite liked it as it made me feel safe
from all of the animals. I picked a bed away from the walls and
tucked in my mosquito net before going outside to the sink to brush
my teeth and have a shower. It was sweltering hot still at this point
so I just washed my hair and went to bed with wet hair. It was very
refreshing to have a cold shower at 21.00. It was a new experience
trying to manoevre everywhere in the dark and have a shower in the
dark with frogs, flies and spiders around but I actually really
enjoyed it.
The next day we got up
early for breakfast around 6.00 before heading out to look for
anacondas. We got in our boat and sailed up the river to a spot where
the guide said they didn’t take people very often because they
usually didn’t have enough fuel to get there. It was a cloudy day
but we were all covered up in hats and long sleeved shirts, trousers
and also wellies. The guide told us it would be an hours walk to the
place where the snakes would be and that we would all need to take a
2 litre bottle of water with us to keep us hydrated. I expected the
walk to be difficult but I had no idea of the kind of terrain we
would be walking through. We walked through untouched jungle with
long grasses and reeds that came above our heads which we just had to
struggle through. We walked at such a fast pace through the long
plants that sometimes I stumbled and caught my foot in the branches.
It was really really difficult to walk through and we really marched
fast. Add to this the fact that it was boiling hot, humid and I was
sweating out all of the water I drank. I was also worried about which
animals I might encounter – this was after all the habitat of
anacondas. When we finally arrived at the marshland after an hour of
solid speed walking my shirt was stuck to me with sweat and I had
drank over half my supply of water. We went straight into the marsh
which was like quicksand and the wed mud just engulfed you. I had
forgotten to tuck my trousers back into my wellies so my trousers
were caked in mud right up to the knee. After about 15 minutes of
everyone trudging around in the mud looking for snakes, one boy
signalled to the group that he had found one and we all hurried over
to have a look. It wasn't an anaconda but a fast moving cobra that
was slithering amongst the mud and reeds.
Look closely and you will see a cobra...
We took some pictures and
then spent about another hour looking for more snakes. We never
actually saw an anaconda (apparently it is is really rare for a group
even to see one snake) but we did see a second cobra which again, the
guide showed his immaturity by poking it with a stick and provoking
it. He stopped after it made a dive at him. The hour long walk back
to the boat was awful because I had sweated off all of my suncreme,
was drenched in sweat, had very little water left and was really
hungry. Also, by this point, it was midday and the sun was extremely
hot. The walk back was 10 times harder than the walk there and it was
a real test of stamina and physical strength; I wouldn't like to have
to do it again- it was definitely one of the most physically
demanding things I have ever done in my life (second to hiking the
grandcanyon and running out of water).
We got back in our boat
and sailed back under the baking sun to the ecolodge. When we arrived
I didn't even stop to take my shoes or shirt off, I just ran straight
in the shower fully clothed and then hung all of my clothes out in
the sun to dry. An hour later they were completely dry.
We had lunch and then
after lunch we chilled for a bit in the hammocks before heading out
along the stream to go pirhana fishing. We had a pot of raw meat to
use as bait and everyone had a little bit of fishing line with a
hook. Some people caught a load of pirhanas, including Jemma who
caught a little one. I didnt catch any as they all wriggled off the
hook and after a while I just felt tired and faint from the heat so I
just sat and watched the others fish. When we got back to the camp we
had the pirhanas for dinner with pasta and vegetables.
Piranha and pasta
We watched the
sun set one last time over the pampas before heading back to our
mosquito netted beds. I was woken up at about midnight by the sound
of a torrential tropical thunderstorm which continued all through the
night and was still going when we woke up. It was a monsoon that
completely submerged our boat and meant that we couldnt go out the
next morning to look at the wildlife. I quite liked it as it was
quite cosy being stranded in the little lodge watching the rain
pelting down into the river. There was a little boy staying at the
lodge who was the son of one of the cooks. He was called Raphael, he
was four, and he was SO CUTE. He kept me entertained the whole
morning, teaching me about all of the animals and birds in the
rainforest. He really was the cutest little boy ever. I want a
Bolivian baby.
Raphael
The rain finally
stopped just after lunch and we sailed back up the river to where we
had started, watching all of the caimen and terrapins as we went. We
then had a 3 hour jeep ride back to Rurrenabaque along some very
muddy roads (because of the rain). At one point we passed a lorry
that had come off the road and was trapped in the mud. We also saw
pigs who were really enjoying themselves in the mud.
When we got back to
Rurrenabaque (our little jungle town), we said goodbye to our guide
and then we all decided to meet up for dinner. We had a quick shower
and then went to the local bar for dinner and 2 for 1 cocktails.
(Mosquito bar). It was a really nice evening with great international
company (French, German, Swiss...). Sylvia, our friend from Grenoble,
decided to take the bus back to la Paz (rather than flying, because
there were no flights for another 3 days). I hope that she will be ok
because the buses are notoriously deadly and drive along the famous
death road to get to la Paz. When we first arrived in Rurrenbaqe, one
Dutch boy told us about how the bus he had been on had gone over on
its side into a river and all the windows had smashed and the bus
started filling with water. To be continued!
This poor Cholita may no longer have a soul thanks to me
It is now our fourth day in la Paz and I have a slightly better impression of it than when we first arrived. (First photo on the left is stolen from google as I didn't get any good ones of the markets but this is pretty much what la Paz looks like).We are staying in the worst part of the city, but when you walk down the hill for about 30 mins, you reach a much nicer part (well, nice for Bolivia). On the first 2 days I wasn't feeling too great and every time we tried to walk anywhere we got really out of breath because of the high altitude and the pollution. They don't have proper buses here, they have thousands of minibuses that drive about beeping their horns with people hanging out of the doors shouting the destinations. The minibuses then pull up to the side walk nearly knocking you over and people off the street jump in. It's very chaotic and very noisy.
There are lots of Cholitas here (the typical Bolivian women with bowler hats and brightly coloured bags and dresses). They are literally everywhere and there are hardly any actual shops, just lots of little stalls with people sat at them selling random assortments of goods, from toilet rolls, to usb sticks. We have even walked past little stalls that are run by children. I think you are meant to barter them down and we have tried this a few times but the prices are so cheap sometimes its not worth bothering. I got a new battery for my watch fitted for about £2.50 which I thought was excellent. I have also been impressed by the honesty and friendliness of the locals (don't want to jinx it just yet) but when I dropped my camera case, a boy ran after me to give it me back. My first reaction was to scream and clutch my camera (I thought I was about to be scammed) but he just gave me the case that I had dropped. I am constantly on guard for scams here after everything I have read in the lonely planet. There are lots of them about, from people who spit on you to divert your attention, to fake police officers who kidnap you in a taxi. When we first arrived at the bus station, the woman at the tourist information office warned us about this.
There are also lots of shoe shine boys dotted around the streets with masks covering their faces, polishing people's shoes. At first we thought they might be wearing masks because of the pollution and then it crossed my mind that they may be on community service, but when we asked the receptionist in our hostel, he said that most of them are university students that don't want people to know their identity.
Again, from google (but this is still what la Paz looks like)
We have been trying really hard to not get food poisoning here by sticking to fast food places and English restaurants. There is a hostel that is an infamous party hostel called the Wild Rover. It's run by an Irish guy who won £40k on the lottery and then decided to open an Irish hostel. Now he has several of them dotted around South America. We didn't want to stay there after our bad experience of chain party hostels in Buenos Aires, but we went to check it out the other day because we needed to book our Amazon tour from a travel agents that is round the corner.
Before I describe the Wild Rover, I forgot to say that on our second night we went to an English curry house which is meant to serve typically English curry. Apart from the mango (which was actual real mango, nothing like sharwoods *euurgh!*), it was quite British, although they didn't do half rice half chips, which upset me. Randomly, whilst at this restaurant, we bumped into an Irish couple we had met in Brazil at Foz do Iguacu right at the start of our trip. It was lovely to meet them again and we arranged to meet up with them for drinks in their hostel (the Wild Rover) the next night.
The next day we went shopping for random bits like head torches, altitude tablets and shampoo, and in the evening we went to a Swiss Fondue restaurant that had been recommended to us by Rachael and Dan off our salt flats tour. It was excellent (we are making the most of being able to eat out whilst it is cheap - I think the fondue was about £8 each). We ended up ordering in French and talking to the owner in French as his accent was obvious and it seemed silly to continue in Spanish.
After the meal we met the Irish couple in the Wild Rover who had just spent the day doing the death road bike ride. This is a popular backpacker attraction in Bolivia but I really didn't want to do it a) because there is a high chance of falling off the edge of a cliff and dying and b) because it costs about £70 to do.
The wild rover bar certainly was wild, with the barman walking round pouring free shots into people's mouths and wasted Irish girls dancing on the bar. At one point our Irish friend nearly got violent with the barman after he would not take no for an answer when trying to force the shots on us. I would say about 80% of the people in the hostel were Irish and it was a really good atmosphere with good Irish music and food. However, I am glad we didn't decide to stay there as it is the kind of place you don't get any sleep (our friends told us that the bar man came into their rooms the night before and woke everyone up to make them drink shots).
When the music eventually became too loud for us to here each other, we left to go to another famous backpacker bar in la Paz - Oliver's travels. It is a nice little English bar with cheap cocktails and it was a good end to the night.
Yesterday I read on one of the Irish girl's facebook statuses that she had just had her first proper Sunday dinner in months. It made me really want a Sunday dinner. As we had to go back over to the travel agents next to the Wild Rover to pick up our Amazon tickets, we decided to drop in on the Wild Rover again and see if they did Sunday dinner. This is when we bumped into the Irish girls off our jeep tour who were all having Sunday dinner so we decided to join them. It was so nice that I think we will go back tonight for chips cheese and curry. The meals are so cheap and British I can't fault it. I know you are meant to soak in the local culture, but we had had enough of that (and so had our stomachs) after the 4 day jeep tour, so I feel I am entitled to a little Britishness.
Tonight I think we will have tea there and then relax in the sky bar of our hostel where there is a microbrewery and where they offer a free beer every night (we haven't yet taken them up on this offer).
We catch our plane to Rurrenabaque tomorrow to visit the Amazon Rainforest for a couple of days, but before we leave, I want to visit the witches market in the centre of la Paz where they are supposed to sell Lama foetuses and I am really intrigued as to what they look like.
It did not take long
for reality to hit us after stepping out of our little jeep cocoon
and leaving our adopted travelling family. Uyuni was not a nice town
and we didnt want to spend a night there so we bought a ticket for a
night bus to la Paz and hung around 8 hours waiting for it. We
checked into a hostel just to use the beds and showers even though we
would not be staying. It was only £3 each but it stank and so we did
not dare use the showers. We watched a film called Lorenzo's oil and
then went out for a pizza and bought a blanket to keep us warm before
boarding our bus. Well, I couldnt have invented a more uncomfortable
journey if I had wanted to. Firstly it was boiling hot, to the point
where I had to sit with my bag on my knee in case my laptop melted.
Secondly, the person in front put their chair back to its maximum
incline leaving my legs trapped and numb. I felt like I was getting
DVT. The roads themselves were just dirt and gravel and the bus was
so shabby that you could feel every bump. To top this off I had a
nosebleed because of the altitude (in the dark because all the lights
on the bus were switched off the moment we set off) and I also needed
the toilet because I had drunk a litre of coke with my pizza. The bus
was one of the rare few in Bolivia to have a toilet but when I went
to inspect it I decided I would have no option but to wait till La
Paz. All in all it was a hellish journey and I was uncomfortable for
the whole 11 hours. We are now in La Paz and I am shocked at how
different it is to the cities in Argentina. It is without a doubt the
poorest place I have ever been. We are very weary about what food we
can eat so I think it is going to just be a diet of fast food between
now and the Amazon rainforest tour.
p.s no McDonald's here
- the locals can't afford it.
On the third day we
visited lots of flamingo lakes and visited some strange shaped rocks
where Jemma attempted to climb one only to be told off by Sylvia
because that particular rock was a national treasure. For lunch we
had a buffet of salad and chicken and against my better judgement I
tucked in (as a rule, I never eat chicken off a buffet, not even in
the UK). Well sure enough, a couple of hours later, it was like the
scene from trainspotting where all he wants is to find any toilet –
any toilet will do. Unfortunately at this point we were driving
through flat salt planes (the mini salt flats) with no toilets or
shelter in sight. Luckily, I managed to hold on until we pulled up at
a little shop in the middle of the desert that just so happened to
have the best toilets I have seen in Bolivia.
That night we stayed at
the most fantastic hotel ever – the salt hotel, where everything,
including the floor, the walls, the tables and chairs are all made of
salt. We all had our own rooms and the hotel was quite warm which
made such a pleasant change to the previous 2 nights. Also, you could
pay £1 to have a shower and after 2 nights of not showering it was
absolute bliss. You bought a ticket from the reception and then got
in the queue for the shower. Luckily our group arrived before all the
other guests so the waiting time was only about 40 mins.
Our salt beds
We sat round on little
salt tables and played cards (we played poker using chips of salt)
and we enjoyed a nice bottle of red wine with our meal. It was a
really nice end to the trip and Sylvia and the tour guide Nico both
came to join us.
On the last day we got
up at 4.30am for the grand finale of our tour – the salt flats. The
salt flats are basically a big lake that is just made of solid salt
and stretches for miles and miles with nothing on the horizon but
blue skies. This means you can get some excellent photos because
there is nothing to give perspective. We drove out onto them and
watched the sun rise before spending about an hour taking photos.
It
wasn’t as easy as we had imagined but we got a few good ones
(mainly of Rachel and Dan though). The tour ended in Salar de Uyuni
where we left our jeep and said goodbye to our new friends before
wandering back into the reality of having to do everything for
ourselves. It was really sad to leave everybody because after 4 days
of intense bonding like that you really get to know people well,
including our cook and driver. I felt quite lonely and depressed when
we said goodbye.
On the second day we
got up at 5.30 and had a very meagre breakfast of stale bread and hot
chocolate. We then set off in our jeep for a full days tour of all
the natural landscapes. We travelled at altitudes of just under 5000m
(4855m) and for the first half of the day I was completely fine.
Before we had left Tupiza, our guide had bought us some coca leaves
and a stick of chalk which you are meant to chew on to prevent
altitude sickness. The first time I tried this I gagged and was
actually a bit sick in my mouth – it is absolutely disgusting –
especially the chalk. We drove past beautiful lakes, flamingos, and
an ancient ruins site which used to be a mining town but was
abandoned in the 17th century because everybody in the
village died and the people believe this was because of the devil.
Poor Jemma was suffering after the spicy food the night before and
had to go to the toilet in one of the abandoned houses. We just have
to hope that the devil wasn't watching.
In the afternoon we
stopped at a natural hot spring so people could bathe in them but by
this point I had a thumping headache from the altitude and was
advised by the guide that going in the springs would be dangerous. On the second day we
got up at 5.30 and had a very meagre breakfast of stale bread and hot
chocolate. We then set off in our jeep for a full days tour of all
the natural landscapes. We travelled at altitudes of just under 5000m
(4855m) and for the first half of the day I was completely fine.
Before we had left Tupiza, our guide had bought us some coca leaves
and a stick of chalk which you are meant to chew on to prevent
altitude sickness. The first time I tried this I gagged and was
actually a bit sick in my mouth – it is absolutely disgusting –
especially the chalk.
We drove past beautiful lakes, flamingos, and
an ancient ruins site which used to be a mining town but was
abandoned in the 17th century because everybody in the
village died and the people believe this was because of the devil.
Poor Jemma was suffering after the spicy food the night before and
had to go to the toilet in one of the abandoned houses. We just have
to hope that the devil wasn't watching.
In the afternoon we
stopped at a natural hot spring so people could bathe in them but by
this point I had a thumping headache from the altitude and was
advised by the guide that going in the springs would be dangerous.
Instead I took an altitude sickness tablet that the guide gave me and
took photos of the others in the springs. We then had our lunch made
for us again in a little building near by – pasta, beef and
vegetables. After lunch we visited some natural geysers which were
surrounded by bubbling mud pools. Luckily by this point my headache
had started to get better.
We drove past two more
lakes – one red and one green (which was full of arsenic), before
arriving at our second 'hostel' (again a very basic building like the
one the night before.)
We sat and had tea and
biscuits whilst waiting for our tea to be cooked. When the food came,
one girl who doesn’t eat pork (Rachael), tried to ask the cook
whether there was any pork in the food but none of us knew the word
for pork. She therefore snorted at the chef and tried to do an
impression of a pig, whilst jemma made a gesture with her hands to
make herself look like she had little ears. Well the chef (Sylvia)
took offence to this and stormed off. Something was lost in
translation. We all found it hilarious. Sylvia must have presumed
Rachael was calling her a pig.
Instead I took an altitude sickness tablet that the guide gave me and
took photos of the others in the springs. We then had our lunch made
for us again in a little building near by – pasta, beef and
vegetables. After lunch we visited some natural geysers which were
surrounded by bubbling mud pools.
With Rachael & Dan next to a geyser
Luckily by this point my headache
had started to get better.
We drove past two more
lakes – one red and one green (which was full of arsenic), before
arriving at our second 'hostel' (again a very basic building like the
one the night before.)
We sat and had tea and
biscuits whilst waiting for our tea to be cooked. When the food came,
one girl who doesn’t eat pork (Rachael), tried to ask the cook
whether there was any pork in the food but none of us knew the word
for pork. She therefore snorted at the chef and tried to do an
impression of a pig, whilst jemma made a gesture with her hands to
make herself look like she had little ears. Well the chef (Sylvia)
took offence to this and stormed off. Something was lost in
translation. We all found it hilarious. Sylvia must have presumed
Rachael was calling her a pig.
We got up and took our
last showers before having to go 3 days without taking one. We got
into our jeep along with our 2 travelling companions Rachel and Dan
who are barristers that live in Manchester. Each jeep also has a cook
and a tour guide/ driver – ours were called Nico and Slyvia, a
little typical Bolvian women who tended to burst out in laughter
randomly. Neither Nico nor Sylvia spoke a word of English which was
perfect for me as it meant I had to translate everything. Also
travelling alongside us was a jeep full of four Irish girls who we
would stop and have meals with and who stayed in the same
accommodation as us.
Jemma eating the coca leaves
The first day of the
tour we drove around lots of tiny indigenous villages and we stopped
at one where we tried to take photos of the locals but they ran away
scared. According to our guide, a lot of Bolivians either a) Believe
if you take a photo you are taking their soul or b) They feel
inferior and shy of westerners. However, we suspected that they may
be more to it than this as every time we tried to take a photo of a
child (including at one point a tiny toddler) they would say 'pagar
pagar!' which means 'pay!'. We stopped for lunch in the middle of the
mountains and had a picnic out of the back of the jeep – it was
really nice – rice, beans, salad and potatoes. We arrived at our
accommodation at about 16.30. The accommodation was very basic in a
tiny native village of houses made our of mud and bricks. Our house
was freezing cold, with no running water and no flushing toilets or
electricity. But the beds were at least warm ad they had thick lama
wool blankets.
We sat around waiting
for the cooks to make our dinner and amused ourselves by playing
cards with the other people from the two jeeps. We were talking about
what food we would eat if we could choose anything in the world and I
said I could really fancy a shepherds pie. Strangely enough, what
food should appear on the table but mash potato and a kind of spicy
shepherds pie. Yum!
After tea we all went
straight to be because we knew we would have to get up at 5.00am the
next morning.
On our second day in
Tupiza we got up quite early to do the dreaded horse ride. It was not
the most enjoyable experience of my life but at least neither of us
died. We went together with a Dutch girl, led by a local 'guide' who
looked about 15. Needless to say we did not have helmets, or for that
matter, any instruction on how to ride the horses. Mine was a naughty
one who kept running off up hills and then jumping back down. I was
very lucky not to fall off. Also, the stirrups didnt fit very well so
I had very sore legs by the end. However, we did see some stunning
scenery, like the kind you see in cowboy films. After the ride we
went back to the hostel to do some washing and Jemma had some bad
news and had to ring her mum on a pay phone (the only pay phone in
the town). That night we met the people we were due to go on the salt
flats tour with and went for dinner with them and an Irish boy from
our hostel. We paid an average of about £1.70 each for our meals –
which for me was a plate of chips, meat, salad and 2 litres of coke!
Well, I said I wanted
to feel more like I was travelling and I certainly got what I asked
for.
We walked over the
border into Bolivia early this morning and I can honestly say it is
the most 'foreign' place I have ever visited in my life. When I say
foreign, I am trying to find a word to express just how different
Bolivia is to any country I have ever seen or any image I may have
had in my mind.
It is like something
you see in a book. I said to Jemma this morning, I feel like I am on
the set of a film or something. The first thing that strikes you is
the women. They are all traditionally dressed. If you have never seen
a photo of traditional Bolivian dress before, here is what it looks
like.
This is what the women
here really look like. The people look so different to the people in
Argentina because they are mostly of Indigenous heritage. When you
see pictures of Amazon tribes – that is kind of what the people
look like but with more clothes. Lots of brightly coloured woollen
clothes and funny little hats. And when you speak to them it is
almost as if they are scared of you because you are so different to
them.
Secondly, I was
expecting it to be poorer than Argentina, but not poor in the sense
of, 'towns' of half built little brick shacks, scattered sparsely
amongst the desert and mountains, with no supermarkets, no ATM and
often no running water.
We got to our hostel by
asking around for a bus, before eventually finding a man with a
minibus who loaded the bus to its full capacity with people (all
Bolivian) before driving for 3 hours across mountain dirt track
roads. All the way we were in awe at the scenery, and kept passing
small villages of about 10 'houses' scattered between the cacti. At
one point we drove through a rock tunnel that looked like someone had
just blown a hole in the side of the mountain with dynamite and would
collapse at any minute. And all the way I kept thinking to myself
'please let us turn this corner into a modern oasis and that will be
where our hostel is. Please let our hostel not be in one of these
mountain hamlets. Fortunately Tupiza did turn out to be slightly
bigger than most of these villages, however everything is still very
basic.
Luckily our hostel has
running water but the tour we have just booked to go on for the next
four days (the salt flat tour) will have no running water, no
toilets.... this is going to be the biggest test of my life. I have
never gone 4 days without a shower or a toilet!
On the positive side,
it is amazing to be amongst this intriguing indigenous culture – it
is absolutely fascinating and I really feel now like I am truly
travelling. Nobody speaks English and the landscapes are stunning.
The prices are fantastically low – tonight we ate like kings for
£4.50 each (the best pizza I have and for a private twin room in
our hostel we are paying £4 a night including breakfast!
There is very limited
access to internet (only internet cafés) so I am writing this
offline and don't know when I will post it.
We are staying here in
Tupiza two days to adjust to the altitude of 2950m before going on
our salt flats tour where we will be at altitudes of up to 5000m. We
are going on a horse ride tomorrow which I am very nervous about as
we heard about a boy who got bucked off the other day but it is
something Jemma really wants to do and seeing as though she did the
favella tour for me I am going to do this. It is only £10 after all.
I am stunned by just
how basic and undeveloped Bolivia is compared to its neighbouring
countries. I am not saying its a bad thing – I think it is amazing
that we are so far out in the sticks and experiencing such a
different way of life. It is nice to be away from the hustle and
bustle we experienced in Argentina and it is nice to experience the
'true' South American culture.
P.s. No matter how far
away you get from civilisation you can always find Justin Bieber
posters.
