Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So much has been happening since I last posted.
I am now in Bolivia and enjoying the craziness of the place but first I will update you on the last few days.
My last day in cusco (14th Jan) was an interesting day. We were shown the local markets by our tourleader and boy was that an interesting experience. They sell all types of food items there like cows wombs, cow heads, herbs for curing all sorts of diseases etc. After the market I went to a few churches and admired the architecture and saw the worlds second largest pearl (in the shape of a mermaid). Went to Jacks for lunch and then back to hotel because it had started to rain. We all met again at 3pm and went to see how silver jewelery is made, super cool. Bought a´n anklet, a charm and a pendant for NZ 40. We then went to the baby alpaca place and I bought a silk and baby alpaca scarf. I then ventured out in the rain all the way to the post office to send some things home (thats right mum and dad there should be a package arriving soon). Due to language difficulties I ended up sending the package first class and it should be arriving in about a week.
Our last night in Cusco we went to a fusion restuarant and then home to bed.
15th Jan: Up early for a bus ride to Puno, Peru (this is on the shore of Lake titicaka which is the highest navigable lake in the world, around 4000m above sea level.) The bus ride to Puno was beautiful, amazing scenery the whole way. Once we arrived in Puno we had some food and rested until we went out for dinner. Early night.
16th Jan: Got up this morning and headed by local limo (aka bike taxi) to the port. That night we were going to spend with a local family on the peninsula so we bought food gifts for them. Once we had bought our food we got onto our private boat and sunbathed until we reached Taquile Island where we had lunch. The island is so beautiful and mediteranean. I bought some gloves from the local coop (made by boys!) and then we got back on our boat to go to the community where our local families live.
What an experience staying with the local family was! We arrived on the island to music and dancing by the locals and then some of our group and the locals had a few competitive games of soccer. The locals just won, but there were some good skills on show from both sides. I think the altitude affected the people from "The International All Stars" (our team name) a bit. After the game we were dressed up in local outfits and were breifly shown the local dance before having to reproduce it ourselves. The altitude affected us again and we were all puffing afterwards. It was a fun night. Just as we were finishing up with the dancing a massive lightning and thunder storm came in over the lake and forced us all to head to our local families houses. We were in pairs and had a shared room at our families house way up at the top of the hill. Our family had two children that we met and a super cute house. We had dinner in a wee kitchen with a fire as the oven and after dinner (soup and rice and veges) I gave them all the NZ gifts I had bought. They were so happy. The fridge magnet could have been a disaster, since the didnt have a fridge but we found some metal to put it on and they were amazed. The family had a little girl and a boy, super cute and I might just add none of them spoke any english, so was a real challenge!
Woke the next day (17th Jan) to a yummy breakfast and had to say goodbye to our family which was very sad. They had been so good to us. We got onto our boat again and headed for the Uros islands (floating islands). These are made from reeds and float on the lake, they anchor them down and if they want can remove the anchors and float away somewhere else (good if you have bad neighbours). We got aboard a reed boat that looked somewhat viking like and were rowed around a few islands, cool fun. After our little adventure we had a picnic lunch on our boat on the way back to Puno. We had the rest of the day to explore Puno and there wasnt much to see so some of us headed out to an ancient inca sight about 30 minutes in a taxi away. The site is supposed to help people who are having trouble having a baby. That night we went to a restaurant for dinner with dancers and music.
18th Jan: Up early again for an 8 hour bus ride/border crossing experience. Numerous people in our group had gotten ill from the Pisco Sour we had drank the previous night (and me aswell as I was to find out later in the day). This made a bus trip all the more eventful. The toilet on the bus was for peeing only and had no light.
We arrived at the Bolivian border around 10 am, which suddenly became 11am with the time zone change. I have never crossed a border like this before. First we had to get out of our bus and take our Peru immigration form to one place to be stamped (you are given these when you enter the country and have to keep them until you leave again), then had to take this stamped form and passport to another place where they take the form and stamp your passport. Then we had to walk about 300m across the border (in the rain) and stand in another line to have your passport stamped by the Bolivians and give them another form. We were then allowed back on the bus to wait for the others. The whole process took around an hour and a half.
We had another 15minutes before lunch and a bus change. The next bus ride was around 2 hours long before we had to disembark to cross some of lake titicaka by very small boat. Our bus went by barge/ferry thingy, with the bus door open, luckily nothing fell out of the bus. The way they drove these barges looked more like luck than skill and I was actually surprised I didnt see a bus fall in the water that day. We had another few hours by bus before arriving in La Paz. The veiw of the city from the road on the way in was outstanding! The city is built in the bottom of a canyon (which I am told makes it very interesting when it rains). We arrived at our hotel around 6pm and I was feeling not too good. I`m not sure if it really was the Pisco Sour last night or the bus ride on Bolivian roads. The roads are so bad here, potholes everywhere and huge sections of main roads without any seal whatsoever (nor is there any plans to seal them). Overall, it is very apparent that Bolivia is the poorest South American nation. I battled through a dinner that night as it was the last night with our current tour leader before we got a new leader for the remainder of our trip. We also said goodbye to a few people who were leaving the tour the next day. Home and to bed early, a big day the next day.
19th Jan: Thankfully I woke up feeling ok this morning. Went looking for the Witches market rather unsuccessfully (was sent in a giant circle by several members of the public). Then got back to hotel to get ready for the DEATH ROAD! Most of our group had decided to mountain bike the Death Road. For those of you reading this who have never heard of this road before, it is the deadliest road in the world. An avarage of 26 vehicles per year fell off this road before they built a new road and now the actual death road has only a few cars per day on it. Despite this the last person to die on this road was 3months ago, an experienced mountain bike guide fell off the side while taking photographs of his group. The last moutain biker to die on this road was in May 2009. Despite this 12 of the 16 people in our group decided to mountain bike it. I was one of them. The death road also covers around 60km and drops from 5000m to 1000m above sea level. We were picked up by our guide at 8:30 am. His name was David and hes a French downhill mountain biking champ.
On the way to the start of the moutain biking we experienced the strangest thing, lots of people peeing on the roadside. There are no bushes anywhere and even the ladies were doing it, all in plain sight of hundreds of cars. They could have gone a few meters more off the roadside and not been seen, but they are too lazy, or they could use the public bathrooms, but they are too poor to pay the NZ 10cents to use them. Then they would go back to work in food stalls. This is why Gringoes (foreigners) should not eat food from raodside stalls! This also made me sceptical of wearing jandals anywhere too.
We arrived at the start of the road we were to mountain bike. It wasnt Death Road yet but a main highway with lots of trucks and the like. We got kitted up in our outfits and warm clothes (there was snow on the ground here!). We headed off down the first part of the sealed section stopping for photos. We were going about as fast as the big trucks were so they werent a problem.
We stopped for our vans (which follow the last person all day) to be checked at a Narcotics checkpoint. Bolivia is one of the major producers of Cocaine and the like so all vechicles get several checks throughout the day.
Next we go on to the Death Road. It was more spectacular than I had expected. 3 meter wide road gives way to huge cliffs more than a couple hundred meters high. Then we started mountain biking. The road was unsealed and really bumpy, it was also so step downhill that we had to do hardly any pedalling and the first part of the day was spent with a hand on the brakes. After about an hour Pryia had a fall and nearly fell off the roadside, but she was ok and had a little break in the van. Soon after the rain got too bad and I had a sit in the van for half an hour. Once it had stopped I got out and cycled once again. All day it was getting warmer as we got lower and we all started stripping off. By the time we got to the bottom we were all hot and sweaty wearing shorts and a tshirt. Some of us had gotten a bit wet biking through rivers on the way but we all made it to the bottm alive and well. Death Road Surivors.
We had a buffet dinner and got back to the hotel at 9pm, over 12hour day! Bed was great.
20th Jan: Woke up today and went for a meeting with the new tour leader, dicussed then next part of our trip and met two new people who joined our group. Today is a free day here in La Paz and we leave tonight at 7pm for a 12-14hour overnight bus trip to Uyuni (near the salt flats). I dont mind bus trips, and even overnight ones arent that bad, except I am not a fan of bus trips in Bolivia. Apparently we need to wear warm clothes tonight incase the bus gets stuck in the mud and we have to get out and push. Jokes. We may have to get out and walk through the mud so the bus can come through with not as much weight on board. Yay for the rainy season.
Not sure what I am up to for the rest of the day, I have around 5 hours before we have to meet for this exciting bus ride. Some others have gone to the valley of the moon and a few more have gone to try see inside San Pedro Prison. I might go try find the witches markets again and look at some buildings. Free things, Brazil in just over a week and it will be expensive!
Hope all is well back home and you are all finally having some summer weather. Love Amanda xoxo
- comments