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So we have lots to update you on as last time I left you when we were heading to La Paz, where we spent a wonderful 5 days with some great new friends. We spent our first day exploring the weird and wonderful Witches' Market. The weird were the shrivelled llama foetuses, which locals bury under the porches of their new homes for luck and good fortune! We were more inclined to buy the wonderful, which was an array of hand- made alpaca goods - jumpers, hats, scarfs, gloves, bags etc and some cheap local silver, mined from Potosi.
We stayed in a bit of a party hostel so on the first night we headed to the bar where there was a pub quiz on. We made a team of 6 with some of the people we travelled through the salt flats with and drew for first place. Unfortunately the tie breaker was a karaoke sing-off and our team were given Spice Girls 'Wannabe'. Luckily, I of course still knew all the words, being an avid fan as a youngster so we easily won! That evening we also went to watch some Bolivian wrestling, which I was a bit apprehensive about but thought it would be good to see something traditional. How wrong I was - it was more of a WWF (staged wrestling) and was pretty awful to be honest. The only difference was that there were Bolivian women who also fought, sometimes woman on woman and sometimes man on woman, which to be honest I really didn't find funny or in any way entertaining so was rather glad when the 3 hours were up! On another night a group of us went to see a DJ called David Guetta perform, however Sam had caught a bug and couldn't join us. The gig was at a football stadium some 40 minutes outside of La Paz and despite being a nightmare to get there and away, we had a great night.
The other main thing we did whilst in La Paz was a 68km bike ride along the World's Most Dangerous Road, which is a gravel road (just over 3.2m wide), along cliffs with up to 600m drops and few safety barriers! As you can imagine I was pretty nervous before we set off but it was actually brilliant! In March 2007 a new replacement road was opened so there was little traffic on the road, which helped us to keep our cool. The views along the route were second to none and we often stopped for photos - the tour guides even made us sit on the edge of the cliff which was pretty heart racing but resulted in great photos!
After La Paz we headed to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca, the world's largest high-altitude lake at an elevation of 3808m and covering 8400sqkm. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit Isla del Sol, the main point of interest here so the next day we crossed the border to Peruvian side of the lake and stayed in Puno. From here we took a boat trip to the floating islands on the lake, which were incredible. The entire islands are made of reeds, which are stacked tightly to make a solid ground. Even the houses, boats, chairs, tables etc are made of reeds! The Quechua people originally created the islands to get off the main land, where the Spanish had invaded as they didn't want to be influenced by them; this is how they still have their own language and way of life. Unfortunately in Puno I caught the dreaded tummy bug that Sam had in La Paz and subsequently we missed our bus to Cusco the next day, which was very frustrating as we'd paid a lot of money to do a tourist Inca trail. After a day in bed, it was attempt two at getting the bus to Cusco! We re-booked for the tour bus but to be honest wish we hadn't bothered as it was rather boring and our tour guide wasn't very good.
Cusco was a very old, pretty town and we had a lovely time here. It was once the heart of the Inca Empire and considered the capital of the Inca people for the whole of South America. Cusco was also the base for our 2 day, 1 night tour of the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, which was fantastic! We visited Pisac and Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, both of which were amazing and it was rather mind boggling to think how the Inca people moved the huge stones up the mountains - some of which weighed up to 70 tonnes! We then got a train to Agua Callientes, the town of Machu Picchu. The next morning we got up at 5am to get up to Machu Picchu before the crowds. We were semi-successful as everyone obviously had the same idea as us but once we cleared the first area, it emptied out and we managed to get some great photos. We had a 2 hour tour of the ruins, which was really interesting but rather hard work due to the heat, altitude and steepness of some of the walkways. Afterwards we climbed the Mountain of Machu Picchu, which was extremely difficult; after 5 minutes I was ready to give up! Sam was there to spur me and I'm so glad we did it as once we reached the top, the views were fantastic - Machu Picchu seemed so tiny!!
After a final night in Cusco, we took a 22 hour bus to Lima, which was actually great as we got the VIP seats, which were very comfortable and we even got an aeroplane style meal, which is unheard of in Peru! We just spent the 1 night in Lima but it was very nice (we'd heard bad things about it but were pleasantly surprised). We did a bit of shopping and went to the beach - it was rather nice being back at sea level again after so long at high altitude! From here we flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, via Sao Paulo. It took around 7 hours to get there, showing the vastness of the continent!
Originally we were supposed to spend 3 nights in Rio but ended up staying for 5 as we loved it so much! When we arrived in was raining heavily, which I couldn't believe as I expected it to always be sunny but even that couldn't deter me as I've wanted to visit for many years! We stayed in a 9 person dorm (triple bunk beds!) in a cool hostel in Ipanema, where the song 'The Girl from Ipanema was written' if anyone's ever heard of it (I haven't?!). On our first day we delved straight in and visited a favela! It was a bit nerve-racking especially when we saw the military police riding through holding huge guns as they'd done a big drug and arms raid the week before; an attempt to try and make the city safer before they host the World Cup. We each got on the back of a motorbike to reach the top of the favela, which was a little scary as they wove in and out of the traffic but also quite fun! The favela was in a slightly better condition than I was expecting as I thought they were all made out of wood and corrugated iron (thinking back to Geography lessons) but actually they were all concrete. They even had running water and electricity although admittedly it is all stolen! Despite this, they are still living in extremely poor conditions; so many houses are built on top of each other as people sell their roof spaces for 6,000 reals. Most people work in the city as employers have to pay for their employees transport to and from work (how great is that?!) so it's cheaper for them to hire someone from the favela. Despite this, they still get paid poorly and their wages are barely enough to cover their rent. The hygiene is terrible, there is rubbish everywhere and it is very smelly. Apparently in this one favela, it has the highest rate of tuberculosis in the world! Whilst on the tour we visited an artist's studio, a bakery and a nursery. My perception of the favelas changed as most people are trying to make an honest living for themselves and everyone was very friendly - but then again we did visit one of the safest and best in the city! Some final stats for you: the favela we visited had 300,000 people living in it. It is one of 1,200 favelas in Rio alone and over 4 million people in total live in favelas in Rio - staggering. That afternoon the weather brightened up so we went to Ipanema beach, which is gorgeous and took a long stroll down to Copacabana beach.
That evening we went out for a lovely dinner and onto a samba club. However we had to call it a night rather early as we ran out of money - Rio is expensive! The next day we went to the Christ of the Redeemer, the big statue that overlooks the city. It was a long and windy road up to the top, which didn't bode well after the red wine the night before but once we made it to the top the views were incredible! Afterwards we drove through the Bohemian area of Santa Theresa before stopping in Lapa. About 20 years ago a crazy Chilean artist created the Lapa Steps, which is a series of steps covered in colourful tiles from all over the world. He did this to attract people to Lapa and to visit his art studio. We actually met the artist, who lived up to his reputation and was very strange, much like his art, which all features pregnant women or himself depicted as being pregnant!
For the rest of our time we didn't really do anything else too touristy, just explored the wonderful city and its surroundings! We ate lots of lovely food, including the local speciality of Feijoda- a beef stew with rice, black beans, fried yucka (like potato) and manioc flour - it was delicious! From Rio, we've travelled 2 hours down the coast to Ilha Grande, which is where we are now. It's a beautiful secluded island, with access to many fantastic white beaches. However the weather is a bit rubbish so we haven't had a chance to see any of this yet so here's to hoping for sun tomorrow!!
Lots of love,
Kirsty & Sam
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