Just to let you know that we are still liking La Paz. We are starting work this week in the Loki, have been socialable recently (aka drunk), and I have just uploaded new photos of Bolivia to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/milliemoo73 (or click the black and white photo).
Enjoy!
Lots of love,
Alice xxx
Sunday, 28 December 2008
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Merry Christmas!
Hello all!
Just a quickie to say Merry Christmas! Have spent a quiet few days sampling the local alcohol and having siestas... Loki should come with a health warning! Done an art gallery and the witches market, although the dried llama foetuses were not very appealing...
Starting work here sometime on the weekend in the Loki La Paz, then will be here for 2 weeks. Having a very strange Christmas but a great day - gotta go for our Christmas lunch soon - they expect it to last 4 hours... going to be a heavy one.
Hope that you have a wonderful day - will write again properly soon when there isn't a queue for the computers, also will put up our photos.
Lots of love from us all, and Merry Christmas
Alice xxx
Just a quickie to say Merry Christmas! Have spent a quiet few days sampling the local alcohol and having siestas... Loki should come with a health warning! Done an art gallery and the witches market, although the dried llama foetuses were not very appealing...
Starting work here sometime on the weekend in the Loki La Paz, then will be here for 2 weeks. Having a very strange Christmas but a great day - gotta go for our Christmas lunch soon - they expect it to last 4 hours... going to be a heavy one.
Hope that you have a wonderful day - will write again properly soon when there isn't a queue for the computers, also will put up our photos.
Lots of love from us all, and Merry Christmas
Alice xxx
Monday, 22 December 2008
La Paz, Bolivia... again
Hello all,
Hope that you´re enjoying the run up to Christmas! It is very difficult to remember about it here, however we haven´t forgotten - yet.
We managed to have a good night out in Rurrenabaque, despite it being hot and muggy. Met a couple of English guys who were good company (although their idea of compliments is very different to mine!) Also met 2 Australian guys who told us about being in a truck accident in Bolivia, which was horrid to hear. Don´t think anyone died luckily, although they were held hostage for a while by the military down there, sounded really bad!
We luckily managed to get the bus back to La Paz without any problems. The roads were open and dry - thankfully! As we did part of the World´s Most Dangerous Road at night time... quite scary when the bus was reversing round a corner on a road 3m wide with a 800m drop down the side without guard rails... should´ve done the journey drunk or taken sleeping tablets!
Checked back into Loki, saw the National Museum of Art, and ended up chilling out yesterday afternoon which was good as the bus journey had been 20 hours long. Met some fantastic Australians last night and had the weirdest time! Ended up having a seance to disperse bad spirits - basically a lot of rum and the altitude made for a giggling combination... eventually made it to bed though so all was good.
Hoping to work for Loki - starting sometime this week - for 2 weeks. Free accommodation, free breakfast and supper, and 40% off the final bill... far better than what we are paying at the moment! Also bought Christmas presents for a couple of our friends who are travelling alone and who won´t get anything on the day... saw some hideous dried out baby llamas (dead) in the witches market... horrible! We resisted buying them for anyone... Got each other a few bits and pieces too for a total of 3-4 quid, which isn´t bad. And signed up for the hostal Christmas dinner which I am very excited about.
Will write again soon,
Love from us all,
Alice xxx
Hope that you´re enjoying the run up to Christmas! It is very difficult to remember about it here, however we haven´t forgotten - yet.
We managed to have a good night out in Rurrenabaque, despite it being hot and muggy. Met a couple of English guys who were good company (although their idea of compliments is very different to mine!) Also met 2 Australian guys who told us about being in a truck accident in Bolivia, which was horrid to hear. Don´t think anyone died luckily, although they were held hostage for a while by the military down there, sounded really bad!
We luckily managed to get the bus back to La Paz without any problems. The roads were open and dry - thankfully! As we did part of the World´s Most Dangerous Road at night time... quite scary when the bus was reversing round a corner on a road 3m wide with a 800m drop down the side without guard rails... should´ve done the journey drunk or taken sleeping tablets!
Checked back into Loki, saw the National Museum of Art, and ended up chilling out yesterday afternoon which was good as the bus journey had been 20 hours long. Met some fantastic Australians last night and had the weirdest time! Ended up having a seance to disperse bad spirits - basically a lot of rum and the altitude made for a giggling combination... eventually made it to bed though so all was good.
Hoping to work for Loki - starting sometime this week - for 2 weeks. Free accommodation, free breakfast and supper, and 40% off the final bill... far better than what we are paying at the moment! Also bought Christmas presents for a couple of our friends who are travelling alone and who won´t get anything on the day... saw some hideous dried out baby llamas (dead) in the witches market... horrible! We resisted buying them for anyone... Got each other a few bits and pieces too for a total of 3-4 quid, which isn´t bad. And signed up for the hostal Christmas dinner which I am very excited about.
Will write again soon,
Love from us all,
Alice xxx
Friday, 19 December 2008
Rurrenbaque, BOLIVIAN AMAZON...
Hello all,
Thought would just write a quickie while waiting for the others on the internet.
Copacabana was lovely, although were a bit annoyed that the Isla de Sol turned out to be more expensive than we were told... oh well it´s apparently the Bolivian way! The walk from the north of the island to the south was very pretty.
Got to La Paz on Monday and decided to spend the night there, as needed to do a few errands (like shout at Barclays and close an account...) Anyways, had a lovely evening with new friends but it all went downhill after a few drinks... Think they must be very strong or the altitude affects the body, as cannot really remember getting home at 3am from the club...!
The bus journey was horrible the next day! We left 2 hours late, as the men had to load the roof with bags. There was a problem however, that the bus was too tall to drive under the wires that run between streets in the city, so the man had to climb back onto the roof and lift up the wires for the bus to pass underneath... photos to follow! The bus leaked so we got wet, we had 3 police checkpoints to go through (for cocaine?) so had our bags searched. Didn´t realise until afterwards that we had gone down the Most Dangerous Road in the World. While it was raining. The road is 3m wide (for both lanes), has no tarmac so is gravel and mud, and there are sheer cliff faces with drops of hundreds of metres. On average, 26 vehicles go over the edge a year... And we have to drive back along this again to La Paz, on Saturday night when it is dark... nice. Love the roads here!
Because of the extreme dropoffs of at least 600 meters (1,969 ft), single-lane width — most of the road no wider than 3.2 meters (10.5 ft) — and lack of guard rails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain and fog can make visibility precarious, the road surface muddy, and loosen rocks from the hillsides above´(Wikipedia - Yungas Road).
Luckily got to Rurrenbaque in time to catch the trip out to the jungle (pampas) the same day (Tuesday). We travelled in a bumpy jeep for 3 hours, then had a 3 hour boat ride to the ecolodge (lots of travelling for us!) The boat ride was amazing... saw alligators (2 nearly jumped into our boat), caimans, capabaris (or as we call them, water pigs), turtles, pink dolphins and so on. Stunning, and with thanks to our crazy guide, quite exciting...
Spent our time there walking in the pampas looking for anacondas and cobras. Survived encounters with both - luckily the anaconda was only 2.5m long - the 12 m ones live further in the jungle. Our guide, Tony, had his clothes bitten when he was wrestling by the cobra - the poison kills a man within 2 hours. He then told us how he was bitten by an alligator a few years ago. He´s quite interesting! Tried fishing for piranhas but they were hiding, so only managed to catch a white and a yellow one, plus lots of catfish. Some others went swimming in the river this morning (apparently with the dolphins, but they had buggered off). So we had a brilliant time in on the edge of the jungle in the Pampas. The lodge was lovely (luckily quite luxurious with running water, showers and loos), and we also had ´siesta time´ scheduled into our routine. Amazing! Especially after getting so sweaty walking through the pampas.
So we made it safely back (with all our limbs attached), to Rurrenabaque tonight. We are booked on the 11am bus to La Paz tomorrow morning, (we are praying it is running through the rain!) so hopefully we´ll get back to Loki La Paz on Sunday morning early. Fingers crossed.
Hope that everyone is ok in the UK and not too stressed with the run up to Christmas - surprisingly I am really enjoying ignoring it all!
Love Alice xxx
Thought would just write a quickie while waiting for the others on the internet.
Copacabana was lovely, although were a bit annoyed that the Isla de Sol turned out to be more expensive than we were told... oh well it´s apparently the Bolivian way! The walk from the north of the island to the south was very pretty.
Got to La Paz on Monday and decided to spend the night there, as needed to do a few errands (like shout at Barclays and close an account...) Anyways, had a lovely evening with new friends but it all went downhill after a few drinks... Think they must be very strong or the altitude affects the body, as cannot really remember getting home at 3am from the club...!
The bus journey was horrible the next day! We left 2 hours late, as the men had to load the roof with bags. There was a problem however, that the bus was too tall to drive under the wires that run between streets in the city, so the man had to climb back onto the roof and lift up the wires for the bus to pass underneath... photos to follow! The bus leaked so we got wet, we had 3 police checkpoints to go through (for cocaine?) so had our bags searched. Didn´t realise until afterwards that we had gone down the Most Dangerous Road in the World. While it was raining. The road is 3m wide (for both lanes), has no tarmac so is gravel and mud, and there are sheer cliff faces with drops of hundreds of metres. On average, 26 vehicles go over the edge a year... And we have to drive back along this again to La Paz, on Saturday night when it is dark... nice. Love the roads here!
Because of the extreme dropoffs of at least 600 meters (1,969 ft), single-lane width — most of the road no wider than 3.2 meters (10.5 ft) — and lack of guard rails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain and fog can make visibility precarious, the road surface muddy, and loosen rocks from the hillsides above´(Wikipedia - Yungas Road).
Luckily got to Rurrenbaque in time to catch the trip out to the jungle (pampas) the same day (Tuesday). We travelled in a bumpy jeep for 3 hours, then had a 3 hour boat ride to the ecolodge (lots of travelling for us!) The boat ride was amazing... saw alligators (2 nearly jumped into our boat), caimans, capabaris (or as we call them, water pigs), turtles, pink dolphins and so on. Stunning, and with thanks to our crazy guide, quite exciting...
Spent our time there walking in the pampas looking for anacondas and cobras. Survived encounters with both - luckily the anaconda was only 2.5m long - the 12 m ones live further in the jungle. Our guide, Tony, had his clothes bitten when he was wrestling by the cobra - the poison kills a man within 2 hours. He then told us how he was bitten by an alligator a few years ago. He´s quite interesting! Tried fishing for piranhas but they were hiding, so only managed to catch a white and a yellow one, plus lots of catfish. Some others went swimming in the river this morning (apparently with the dolphins, but they had buggered off). So we had a brilliant time in on the edge of the jungle in the Pampas. The lodge was lovely (luckily quite luxurious with running water, showers and loos), and we also had ´siesta time´ scheduled into our routine. Amazing! Especially after getting so sweaty walking through the pampas.
So we made it safely back (with all our limbs attached), to Rurrenabaque tonight. We are booked on the 11am bus to La Paz tomorrow morning, (we are praying it is running through the rain!) so hopefully we´ll get back to Loki La Paz on Sunday morning early. Fingers crossed.
Hope that everyone is ok in the UK and not too stressed with the run up to Christmas - surprisingly I am really enjoying ignoring it all!
Love Alice xxx
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Copacabana, BOLIVIA!!!
Hello everyone,
We spent a few more days waiting in Lima for Haz´s passport. Tried to be cultural - boarded a bus for the national art gallery but found out that it was closed... and opening next year. Ran out of money to enjoy the place properly, so decided that Copacabana was calling...
Luckily on Thursday Haz´s passport was finally ready (apparently the British embassy only work half weeks...) so we boarded a bus for Puno, on the border with Bolivia and Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately our bus broke down after the first 15 hours, and in our haste to change buses with another that had pulled up (there were limited seats), I left my sleeping bag on the broken bus. Oops. Anyway, another 5 hours later we made it to Puno. Found out that the original bus was probably going back to Lima rather than going to Puno, and if it did arrive it might take days... so headed to Copacabana. Really pleased to be able to make it in only 2 days of travelling, as Puno didn´t look as nice.
So we made it! Haz managed a little bit of bribery to get herself out of Peru, (she had no entry stamp or immigration card as the passport was new), and we successfully entered Bolivia, (hiding our dollars in our bras as they confiscate them for being ´fake´when they obviously aren´t!)
Copacabana is on the edge of Lake Titicaca. If we look through the construction, we can see the lake from our room. We decided to splash out and pay for an en suite room - well it was only 2.50 quid each night! Absolutely lovely, can watch the sunrise... We have spent today mooching around. Went to the local cathedral which was really pretty - quite plain until you saw a wall of gold at the end behind the alter with many many icons. Also went into the Chapel of the Candles - so pretty. Was like a vault painted black, with rows and rows of candles...
Enjoying lovely food here too - a 3 course meal with gorgeous food only costs just under 3 dollars. Think might put on a bit of weight...! Much more economical to go for the set meals... which is unfortunate as I have 3 courses for lunch and supper... delicious! Lots of wonderful quirky cafes here too - having to visit them all and taste the hot chocolates...
Tomorrow we are taking a boat to the Island of the Sun, which is where the Inca mythology of worshipping the sun originated. 8.30am until 6pm - only 3.5 dollars - our laundry is costing 6.5 dollars! To be fair it is pretty skanky...
Phone calls are extortionate here, so no telephoning until maybe La Paz.
Monday am - travel 3 hour to La Paz. In the evening we will take the 16 hour overnight bus to Rurrenbaque in the Amazon, for a 3 day pampas tour (looking at the animals...) We should be back in La Paz by the 22nd or 23rd December, and then are spending lots of time there until the 3rd January, staying in the Loki hostel there. So from Monday 15th Dec until about 22nd December we may be out of contact for a while. So please don´t panic if you don´t hear from us! If anything happens in the UK, tell Interpol to look near Rurrenbaque or in the jungle...
Hope that everything´s going well in the UK - I´ve managed to pretty much forget it´s Christmas soon here! Seen weird Santa things though... think they are Santa willy warmers. Don´t think the others agree...
Lots of love from us all,
Al xxxxxxxx
ps in case you hadn´t realised, I LOVE BOLIVIA!!!
We spent a few more days waiting in Lima for Haz´s passport. Tried to be cultural - boarded a bus for the national art gallery but found out that it was closed... and opening next year. Ran out of money to enjoy the place properly, so decided that Copacabana was calling...
Luckily on Thursday Haz´s passport was finally ready (apparently the British embassy only work half weeks...) so we boarded a bus for Puno, on the border with Bolivia and Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately our bus broke down after the first 15 hours, and in our haste to change buses with another that had pulled up (there were limited seats), I left my sleeping bag on the broken bus. Oops. Anyway, another 5 hours later we made it to Puno. Found out that the original bus was probably going back to Lima rather than going to Puno, and if it did arrive it might take days... so headed to Copacabana. Really pleased to be able to make it in only 2 days of travelling, as Puno didn´t look as nice.
So we made it! Haz managed a little bit of bribery to get herself out of Peru, (she had no entry stamp or immigration card as the passport was new), and we successfully entered Bolivia, (hiding our dollars in our bras as they confiscate them for being ´fake´when they obviously aren´t!)
Copacabana is on the edge of Lake Titicaca. If we look through the construction, we can see the lake from our room. We decided to splash out and pay for an en suite room - well it was only 2.50 quid each night! Absolutely lovely, can watch the sunrise... We have spent today mooching around. Went to the local cathedral which was really pretty - quite plain until you saw a wall of gold at the end behind the alter with many many icons. Also went into the Chapel of the Candles - so pretty. Was like a vault painted black, with rows and rows of candles...
Enjoying lovely food here too - a 3 course meal with gorgeous food only costs just under 3 dollars. Think might put on a bit of weight...! Much more economical to go for the set meals... which is unfortunate as I have 3 courses for lunch and supper... delicious! Lots of wonderful quirky cafes here too - having to visit them all and taste the hot chocolates...
Tomorrow we are taking a boat to the Island of the Sun, which is where the Inca mythology of worshipping the sun originated. 8.30am until 6pm - only 3.5 dollars - our laundry is costing 6.5 dollars! To be fair it is pretty skanky...
Phone calls are extortionate here, so no telephoning until maybe La Paz.
Monday am - travel 3 hour to La Paz. In the evening we will take the 16 hour overnight bus to Rurrenbaque in the Amazon, for a 3 day pampas tour (looking at the animals...) We should be back in La Paz by the 22nd or 23rd December, and then are spending lots of time there until the 3rd January, staying in the Loki hostel there. So from Monday 15th Dec until about 22nd December we may be out of contact for a while. So please don´t panic if you don´t hear from us! If anything happens in the UK, tell Interpol to look near Rurrenbaque or in the jungle...
Hope that everything´s going well in the UK - I´ve managed to pretty much forget it´s Christmas soon here! Seen weird Santa things though... think they are Santa willy warmers. Don´t think the others agree...
Lots of love from us all,
Al xxxxxxxx
ps in case you hadn´t realised, I LOVE BOLIVIA!!!
Monday, 8 December 2008
P.S...
Never try to smuggle a Starbucks coffee into the cinema in a friend´s handbag... hilarious for me, not so much for J! xxx
Lima, PERU (again, and it´s slightly nicer...)
Hello all,
Not sure how many of you are reading this but I know at least a couple of you are - and it´s a good record for me too of where we are! Sometimes I forget which country we´re in...
Well we are out of Paracas and back into civilisation. Ok, that´s a bit harsh, but it´s such a relief! We managed to get a bus by hailing it down on the Panamericana highway this morning and arrived in Lima at lunchtime. One uneventful journey, we were very happy!
Booked into the Loki in Lima (www.lokihostel.com) - as we are such good guests we received a free t-shirt. We also managed to buy some more underwear today, which was very exciting as it is hard to find decent knickers outside of the big cities! Also very pleased as it means we don´t have to do laundry for a few more days...
Lima is nicer on second inspection, especially as the hostel can recommend cheaper places to eat and so on. Had a lovely 2 course lunch today for $2, so can´t complain. Although apparently Bolivia is half the price of Peru, for which we are very grateful. The cloud is still hanging over Lima, but we were excited by the purchases of underwear, and, I hate to admit it, I really enjoyed a Starbucks coffee. I know, terrible! But not very easy here to find nice coffee (they tend to export it instead). Also treated ourselves to a $4 cinema ticket to watch Madagascar... surprisingly entertaining.
We found the most amazing Christmas trees here - gold and plastic. J took a special shining to them, but refused a photo with them. I kindly stepped in, - photos will follow at somepoint relatively soon. Very strange to see plastic holly, ivy, fir trees, nutcrackers... all when it´s about 20-30 degrees! I don´t think I´ll be photographed again next to a Christmas tree wearing shorts for a very long time... Interesting to see just how far commercialism and capitalism have spread...
Tried to get Hayley´s passport this afternoon, but it´s yet again another bank holiday here, so the slackers at the Embassy are off. We will go down first thing tomorrow morning to see if the passport is there, and hopefully if it is we can then get the 3pm bus to Puno. If not we´ll stay here for another day...
Have to sign off now as the internet cafe smells of wee.
Lots of love from us all,
Al xxx
Not sure how many of you are reading this but I know at least a couple of you are - and it´s a good record for me too of where we are! Sometimes I forget which country we´re in...
Well we are out of Paracas and back into civilisation. Ok, that´s a bit harsh, but it´s such a relief! We managed to get a bus by hailing it down on the Panamericana highway this morning and arrived in Lima at lunchtime. One uneventful journey, we were very happy!
Booked into the Loki in Lima (www.lokihostel.com) - as we are such good guests we received a free t-shirt. We also managed to buy some more underwear today, which was very exciting as it is hard to find decent knickers outside of the big cities! Also very pleased as it means we don´t have to do laundry for a few more days...
Lima is nicer on second inspection, especially as the hostel can recommend cheaper places to eat and so on. Had a lovely 2 course lunch today for $2, so can´t complain. Although apparently Bolivia is half the price of Peru, for which we are very grateful. The cloud is still hanging over Lima, but we were excited by the purchases of underwear, and, I hate to admit it, I really enjoyed a Starbucks coffee. I know, terrible! But not very easy here to find nice coffee (they tend to export it instead). Also treated ourselves to a $4 cinema ticket to watch Madagascar... surprisingly entertaining.
We found the most amazing Christmas trees here - gold and plastic. J took a special shining to them, but refused a photo with them. I kindly stepped in, - photos will follow at somepoint relatively soon. Very strange to see plastic holly, ivy, fir trees, nutcrackers... all when it´s about 20-30 degrees! I don´t think I´ll be photographed again next to a Christmas tree wearing shorts for a very long time... Interesting to see just how far commercialism and capitalism have spread...
Tried to get Hayley´s passport this afternoon, but it´s yet again another bank holiday here, so the slackers at the Embassy are off. We will go down first thing tomorrow morning to see if the passport is there, and hopefully if it is we can then get the 3pm bus to Puno. If not we´ll stay here for another day...
Have to sign off now as the internet cafe smells of wee.
Lots of love from us all,
Al xxx
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Paracas, PERU (after finding that Pisco was destroyed by an earthquake...)
Hello all,
Well after recuperating in Cusco, (found that drinking helps with the help of Canadian and Australian friends...) we decided to move along and visit Arequipa (about 11 hours south of Cusco). Arequipa is lovely and stunning - the main square has a cathedral made out of white volcanic rock: behind the cathedral is the Volcan Misti. Absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful room too (very big with our own bathroom), thanks to the recommendation of a friend. The 24 hour porn (free) was a bit too much to handle in the mornings though...
Saw a 500 year old frozen Incan woman, Juanita, who was sacrificed when she was a child. She is unusual as she still has all her internal organs. She was sacrificed on one of the local mountains to appease the gods who lived in the mountains, for good weather. Really interesting (her hands looked beautiful - very good nails), though it was a bit horrid thinking how she had walked to her death for days and days. They had fed her the local spirit, and then fed her cocoa leaves, so she was (pretty much) unconscious before they hit her on the head. Nice. See we do do cultural stuff too when we are away! A monastery that I wanted to look round was lovely from the outside but it was TEN DOLLARS to look round it, so didn´t do that one... Pity though.
The next day we went to Chivay, a town on the edge of the Colca Canyon (the 2nd deepest in the world - the deepest is next door to it). 3 hour bus journey there - very cheap, but we couldn´t buy our return tickets until we got to Chivay which was slightly concerning... We arrived there and were right to be concerned. There was a holiday there and out of 5 bus companies, and of all the buses, there was only 1 seat back to Arequipa that night. We had none of our bags with us, but more worrying, we had a ticket for the bus from Arequipa to Pisco that night at 8pm...
After stressing about being stranded in this remote town, we considered taxis (expensive but necessary), before we were grabbed by a local who had heard our predicament and had commandeered a tourist bus for us! We joined the tour group for the bus ride back and saved ourselves the equivalent of 3 nights accommodation... Made it to Arequipa and were very grateful.
The bus ride from Arequipa to Pisco was fine - we were dropped off along the Panamericana road at the Pisco turning, (taxi drivers materialise magically here). Unfortunately the Lonely Planet - lonely plonker - had neglected to mention in the new edition that Pisco suffered a 7.9 richter scale earthquake last year (1200 died - 200 in the church). Therefore, the town was destroyed and is very dangerous...
Went to the next town instead - Paracas, and have had a wonderful time. Apart from feeling slightly claustrophobic (it is very small), and a slight issue of change - they don´t have any so buying things is difficult - ie impossible sometimes, it is lovely. However we are more than ready to move on tomorrow.
We have been taken care of so well by the locals (men). We have been taken to the 2nd most beautiful beach in Peru, el Mina, in the Paracas national reserve. The reserve is a peninsular that is all desert. Yesterday we went with Pornstar Signore Peluca, Fred and Julie. Very good fun - Signore Peluca (the driver), buried our shoes in the sand. It wasn´t funny. The men then buried me in the sand. Apparently I make a fetching mermaid - photos to follow. However not very convinced about the size of my nipples - or the milk ducts! The boys had fun though... A very local thing is to drink beers on the beach, so needless to say we had fun! Although the water was freezing...
Today took a boat tour to see the Isla Ballestas (the poor man´s Galapagas Islands). Saw lots of penguins (I know, very weird), lots of different birds including boobie birds (hilarious), and some really cute sea lions. Really enjoyed it. Then managed to join a guy who works at our hotel and his friends for a trip to the beach again... was beautiful. The sun was so hot but we braved the water, and have got a teensy bit red... it´ll go down though on the bus tomorrow!
So just letting you know that we are all ok, and enjoying Peru. We are heading to Lima tomorrow morning (only 3 hours long), and will stay there tomorrow night, hopefully at the Lima Loki hostel. We will then head to Puno on lake Titikaka the following day, (it will take 19 hours by bus,), but then hopefully we will be able to take another bus to Copocabana on the Bolivian side of the lake the same day... if not we will stay in Puno, and then head to Copocabana the following day.
The last 2 days have been very lovely chilling out and sleeping. A nice break from our travelling, and a restorative period before our next bus ride! Hope that the weather in England isn´t too cold, and hope everyone is enjoying the lead up to christmas. Very strange to see plastic Snowmen here when it is 30 degrees... slightly weird product of commercialism!
Lots of love from us all xxxxxxx
Well after recuperating in Cusco, (found that drinking helps with the help of Canadian and Australian friends...) we decided to move along and visit Arequipa (about 11 hours south of Cusco). Arequipa is lovely and stunning - the main square has a cathedral made out of white volcanic rock: behind the cathedral is the Volcan Misti. Absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful room too (very big with our own bathroom), thanks to the recommendation of a friend. The 24 hour porn (free) was a bit too much to handle in the mornings though...
Saw a 500 year old frozen Incan woman, Juanita, who was sacrificed when she was a child. She is unusual as she still has all her internal organs. She was sacrificed on one of the local mountains to appease the gods who lived in the mountains, for good weather. Really interesting (her hands looked beautiful - very good nails), though it was a bit horrid thinking how she had walked to her death for days and days. They had fed her the local spirit, and then fed her cocoa leaves, so she was (pretty much) unconscious before they hit her on the head. Nice. See we do do cultural stuff too when we are away! A monastery that I wanted to look round was lovely from the outside but it was TEN DOLLARS to look round it, so didn´t do that one... Pity though.
The next day we went to Chivay, a town on the edge of the Colca Canyon (the 2nd deepest in the world - the deepest is next door to it). 3 hour bus journey there - very cheap, but we couldn´t buy our return tickets until we got to Chivay which was slightly concerning... We arrived there and were right to be concerned. There was a holiday there and out of 5 bus companies, and of all the buses, there was only 1 seat back to Arequipa that night. We had none of our bags with us, but more worrying, we had a ticket for the bus from Arequipa to Pisco that night at 8pm...
After stressing about being stranded in this remote town, we considered taxis (expensive but necessary), before we were grabbed by a local who had heard our predicament and had commandeered a tourist bus for us! We joined the tour group for the bus ride back and saved ourselves the equivalent of 3 nights accommodation... Made it to Arequipa and were very grateful.
The bus ride from Arequipa to Pisco was fine - we were dropped off along the Panamericana road at the Pisco turning, (taxi drivers materialise magically here). Unfortunately the Lonely Planet - lonely plonker - had neglected to mention in the new edition that Pisco suffered a 7.9 richter scale earthquake last year (1200 died - 200 in the church). Therefore, the town was destroyed and is very dangerous...
Went to the next town instead - Paracas, and have had a wonderful time. Apart from feeling slightly claustrophobic (it is very small), and a slight issue of change - they don´t have any so buying things is difficult - ie impossible sometimes, it is lovely. However we are more than ready to move on tomorrow.
We have been taken care of so well by the locals (men). We have been taken to the 2nd most beautiful beach in Peru, el Mina, in the Paracas national reserve. The reserve is a peninsular that is all desert. Yesterday we went with Pornstar Signore Peluca, Fred and Julie. Very good fun - Signore Peluca (the driver), buried our shoes in the sand. It wasn´t funny. The men then buried me in the sand. Apparently I make a fetching mermaid - photos to follow. However not very convinced about the size of my nipples - or the milk ducts! The boys had fun though... A very local thing is to drink beers on the beach, so needless to say we had fun! Although the water was freezing...
Today took a boat tour to see the Isla Ballestas (the poor man´s Galapagas Islands). Saw lots of penguins (I know, very weird), lots of different birds including boobie birds (hilarious), and some really cute sea lions. Really enjoyed it. Then managed to join a guy who works at our hotel and his friends for a trip to the beach again... was beautiful. The sun was so hot but we braved the water, and have got a teensy bit red... it´ll go down though on the bus tomorrow!
So just letting you know that we are all ok, and enjoying Peru. We are heading to Lima tomorrow morning (only 3 hours long), and will stay there tomorrow night, hopefully at the Lima Loki hostel. We will then head to Puno on lake Titikaka the following day, (it will take 19 hours by bus,), but then hopefully we will be able to take another bus to Copocabana on the Bolivian side of the lake the same day... if not we will stay in Puno, and then head to Copocabana the following day.
The last 2 days have been very lovely chilling out and sleeping. A nice break from our travelling, and a restorative period before our next bus ride! Hope that the weather in England isn´t too cold, and hope everyone is enjoying the lead up to christmas. Very strange to see plastic Snowmen here when it is 30 degrees... slightly weird product of commercialism!
Lots of love from us all xxxxxxx
Monday, 1 December 2008
WE SURVIVED THE INCA TRAIL!!!
Hello all,
Just wanted to write and let you know that we all safely finished the Inca Trail! Would´ve written yesterday, but had a slight problem that I could not get out of bed...
This is just a quick summary, as you´ll probably look more at the photographs instead (they are uploading now).
Ok, so after a terrible nights sleep due to some idiots in our dorm being very noisy and they kept on turning on the night, we left at 5.20am to face the Andes. A 2 hour journey to the start of the trail. Haz managed to get through the control alright at the start, and we saw the porters having their bags weighed due to the new regulations.
The new regulations are brilliant, and well worth the hassle of now having to book 3 months in advance. Only 400 people are allowed on the trail daily now (including porters, and our group had 10 porters, 1 guide and 1 chef, and 1 personal porter for 6 people. So really, it´s only about 150 tourists climbing the trail). This is brilliant for the tourists as it is much quieter, and also it means that the trail is well maintained, very clean (the porters have to carry all the rubbish down the mountains again, and government workers clean the toilets and carry the loo roll back down to the town again).
Additionally, the porters (or chaskis as they´re called here), are only allowed to carry a maximun of 20 - 25 kg, rather than the 80 kg they were carrying previously. That is more than I weigh! They could´ve piggy backed me...
The trail was absolutely stunning. The first day was easy, only walking about 12 km, and climbing very little. The porters were amazing. They carried everything. Whenever we reached our next resting spot, they had already set up camp, had cooked us a 3 or 4 course meal (on the top of the Andes, with only cold running water a walk away, and 1 gas stove!) William our chef was absolutely amazing, and managed to cook us a cake on the last night saying ´welcome to Machu Picchu´. I wanted to marry him for his cooking abilities! The porters were so strong, and were running up inclines where we were puffing and panting. So friendly, and they clapped when we made it into camp - slightly embarrassing as they had done far more work than us!
Gentle walk the first day, past an Incan ruin, with Freddie our guide being very entertaining. He was funny and so encouraging - definitely got the most out of our group. We had 6 people in total - all of us were girls. Helen was from Australia, Marie Francis from Canada, and Betty from Ireland. Crashed out after another 3 course supper at about 8pm - nothing to do in the evenings and hadn´t even brought books or journals with us as they were too heavy. J, Haz and I were carrying all our own stuff, no personal porters for us! I was carrying 10kg, and joked that I was a ´media chaski´- half a porter. If only... The trail was absolutely stunning, though slightly scary when the path is only about a foot wide, the stones are uneven and wobbly, and there is a sheer cliff face on one side... but we made it.
Day 2 was difficult. 5.30am start, with Abel bringing us a lovely cup of tea in the morning to our tents - very civilised! So respectful, they really looked after us girlies. Gentle incline in the morning, and we were shown how to eat cocoa leaves for stimulation. They are also the first ingredient of cocaine, so we had to take a neutralising substance. Also highly addictive. Made our mouths go numb which was quite interesting! Felt like we had just been to the dentist, but far more fun. It can make the body go numb, but Freddie was very keen that we spit them out when our mouths went numb. He did look after us! We then began our ascent of 1200 metres. It was very difficult. Spent about 3 hours doing it, and were exhausted when we reached the top. Carried onwards and upwards, and got to the Dead Women´s Pass in one piece - altitude 4200 metres. Made a little ceremony to Pachumama (mother earth), for the good weather we had and also the good weather we hoped to have. Donated to her some rocks and had a local spirit to drink. We toasted Pachumama with it. Left Marco, the personal porter who was always finding us when we were lost, to finish up the spirit. He had wanted to join in the ceremony too, but think we left him a little more drunk than when we met him! He was 50 + years old, and far quicker than us all. Highly embarrassing! A 90 minute descent down steps to our camp for the night. Again, exhausted so passed out until supper, then passed out again after supper! Freddie was very mean and told us ghost stories about people who have died around Dead Women´s Pass. It didn´t help that a trekker actually did die about a week ago, of a suspected heart attack. The poor porters had to carry the dead body down to the local town, as no emergency services around here! Anyway, after the ghost stories, Freddie told us to close our eyes, he dimmed the light (gas lamp), and put on the scariest mask I have seen. A Peruvian version of a gimp mask, but in wool. We all screamed. I was absolutely terrified, and even after I slapped him, he kept the mask on! Had nightmares that night...
Day 3 - 5.30 am start. Climbed up another mountain to get to the mountain pass. Another descent down, and a stop at Incan ruins. Then another half hour walk to lunch. Again the chaskis had sorted everything out, and had put up our meal tent (they also slept in the tent after our supper), facing the view as we were on top of the mountain. Absolutely stunning - a meal with a view! Gentle walk after lunch to get to the third mountain pass. We had to go through an Incan tunnel, and that was fine. We took photos, and as I was walking through, I saw someone resting by the side. Thought it was a porter waiting out of the sun and taking a rest in the cool. Suddenly Freddie with his wretched mask peered round the corner. Again, I screamed. Terrified again. Luckily though he was kind and took off the mask so I could walk past him... We made it to the third mountain pass, and then began the 2000+ steps down. Very tiring. Was horrible on the knees - absolute agony. I was with Marie, who was very speedy, and we went straight down to camp, rather than seeing other ruins, as she was unwell and we both needed a wee. Didn´t fancy the bushes! Managed to have our first shower of the trip, and settled down for the night. Some of the tents were less than a foot away from a cliff edge, so we had to be careful where we stepped... said thank you to the porters as they were dashing away quickly after breakfast the following day. They were absolutely brilliant.
Day 4 - early start at 4 am, to queue up to enter Machu Picchu. A quick walk (only 4 miles) to the Sun Gate, to watch the sun rise. Unfortunately it was cloudy then so not very spectacular, but luckily the sun came out for Machu Picchu. Got to Machu Picchu about 7.30am, and were able to dump our bags etc before Freddie gave us our tour.
No words really describe the place. The setting is glorious, and Freddie had seen our journey as a pilgrimmage, if not to religion, then to mother nature. For example, the Incans believed that gold was the sweat of the sun, and silver is the tears of the moon. It was hard to disagree about the journey being a pilgrimmage. It sounds awful, but Machu Picchu was almost an anticlimax, as our journey had been so special. The journey and M P were so complimentary, that it could not have been more perfect. Whoever travels up by train really only gets half the experience. The trail was difficult and painful, yet we did it. Some runners do the trail in just under 4 hours. It took us 4 days. There is a huge difference between tourists and the locals.
We had a tour round M P and were then left to our own devices. The place is stunning - you will see from the photographs. We were absolutely shattered after all our walking (and ached), plus the sun was coming out, we had little water (or none), and the ´lazy tourists´(as Freddie called them) were arriving. So we headed down to Aguas Calientes town after a mooch about M P and chilled out there. Betty and I went to some beautiful outside thermal springs that were set in the valley with mountains around us. So pretty. And the hot water was absolutely perfect for our aching bodies! I had completely wrecked my knees after the car accident last year, so they were grateful for me soaking them...
Made it back to Cusco after a train journey and a bus journey. The bus journey was very scary - I am not a nervous passenger but the driver was crazy. Nearly took out a motorised rickshaw. Made it back in one piece and very very tired. But so satisfied that we completed the trail, very proud of ourselves.
As I said, I would´ve been emailing etc yesterday, but unfortunately I realised that I could not actually get out of bed! Haz and J were fine, albeit tired, but I was very dizzy and sicky if I became vertical. So stayed in bed all day. What a luxury!
Feeling much better today, and am just uploading photos onto Picasa. Will label them in a minute.
Hope all´s well with everyone,
Much love,
Al xxx
Just wanted to write and let you know that we all safely finished the Inca Trail! Would´ve written yesterday, but had a slight problem that I could not get out of bed...
This is just a quick summary, as you´ll probably look more at the photographs instead (they are uploading now).
Ok, so after a terrible nights sleep due to some idiots in our dorm being very noisy and they kept on turning on the night, we left at 5.20am to face the Andes. A 2 hour journey to the start of the trail. Haz managed to get through the control alright at the start, and we saw the porters having their bags weighed due to the new regulations.
The new regulations are brilliant, and well worth the hassle of now having to book 3 months in advance. Only 400 people are allowed on the trail daily now (including porters, and our group had 10 porters, 1 guide and 1 chef, and 1 personal porter for 6 people. So really, it´s only about 150 tourists climbing the trail). This is brilliant for the tourists as it is much quieter, and also it means that the trail is well maintained, very clean (the porters have to carry all the rubbish down the mountains again, and government workers clean the toilets and carry the loo roll back down to the town again).
Additionally, the porters (or chaskis as they´re called here), are only allowed to carry a maximun of 20 - 25 kg, rather than the 80 kg they were carrying previously. That is more than I weigh! They could´ve piggy backed me...
The trail was absolutely stunning. The first day was easy, only walking about 12 km, and climbing very little. The porters were amazing. They carried everything. Whenever we reached our next resting spot, they had already set up camp, had cooked us a 3 or 4 course meal (on the top of the Andes, with only cold running water a walk away, and 1 gas stove!) William our chef was absolutely amazing, and managed to cook us a cake on the last night saying ´welcome to Machu Picchu´. I wanted to marry him for his cooking abilities! The porters were so strong, and were running up inclines where we were puffing and panting. So friendly, and they clapped when we made it into camp - slightly embarrassing as they had done far more work than us!
Gentle walk the first day, past an Incan ruin, with Freddie our guide being very entertaining. He was funny and so encouraging - definitely got the most out of our group. We had 6 people in total - all of us were girls. Helen was from Australia, Marie Francis from Canada, and Betty from Ireland. Crashed out after another 3 course supper at about 8pm - nothing to do in the evenings and hadn´t even brought books or journals with us as they were too heavy. J, Haz and I were carrying all our own stuff, no personal porters for us! I was carrying 10kg, and joked that I was a ´media chaski´- half a porter. If only... The trail was absolutely stunning, though slightly scary when the path is only about a foot wide, the stones are uneven and wobbly, and there is a sheer cliff face on one side... but we made it.
Day 2 was difficult. 5.30am start, with Abel bringing us a lovely cup of tea in the morning to our tents - very civilised! So respectful, they really looked after us girlies. Gentle incline in the morning, and we were shown how to eat cocoa leaves for stimulation. They are also the first ingredient of cocaine, so we had to take a neutralising substance. Also highly addictive. Made our mouths go numb which was quite interesting! Felt like we had just been to the dentist, but far more fun. It can make the body go numb, but Freddie was very keen that we spit them out when our mouths went numb. He did look after us! We then began our ascent of 1200 metres. It was very difficult. Spent about 3 hours doing it, and were exhausted when we reached the top. Carried onwards and upwards, and got to the Dead Women´s Pass in one piece - altitude 4200 metres. Made a little ceremony to Pachumama (mother earth), for the good weather we had and also the good weather we hoped to have. Donated to her some rocks and had a local spirit to drink. We toasted Pachumama with it. Left Marco, the personal porter who was always finding us when we were lost, to finish up the spirit. He had wanted to join in the ceremony too, but think we left him a little more drunk than when we met him! He was 50 + years old, and far quicker than us all. Highly embarrassing! A 90 minute descent down steps to our camp for the night. Again, exhausted so passed out until supper, then passed out again after supper! Freddie was very mean and told us ghost stories about people who have died around Dead Women´s Pass. It didn´t help that a trekker actually did die about a week ago, of a suspected heart attack. The poor porters had to carry the dead body down to the local town, as no emergency services around here! Anyway, after the ghost stories, Freddie told us to close our eyes, he dimmed the light (gas lamp), and put on the scariest mask I have seen. A Peruvian version of a gimp mask, but in wool. We all screamed. I was absolutely terrified, and even after I slapped him, he kept the mask on! Had nightmares that night...
Day 3 - 5.30 am start. Climbed up another mountain to get to the mountain pass. Another descent down, and a stop at Incan ruins. Then another half hour walk to lunch. Again the chaskis had sorted everything out, and had put up our meal tent (they also slept in the tent after our supper), facing the view as we were on top of the mountain. Absolutely stunning - a meal with a view! Gentle walk after lunch to get to the third mountain pass. We had to go through an Incan tunnel, and that was fine. We took photos, and as I was walking through, I saw someone resting by the side. Thought it was a porter waiting out of the sun and taking a rest in the cool. Suddenly Freddie with his wretched mask peered round the corner. Again, I screamed. Terrified again. Luckily though he was kind and took off the mask so I could walk past him... We made it to the third mountain pass, and then began the 2000+ steps down. Very tiring. Was horrible on the knees - absolute agony. I was with Marie, who was very speedy, and we went straight down to camp, rather than seeing other ruins, as she was unwell and we both needed a wee. Didn´t fancy the bushes! Managed to have our first shower of the trip, and settled down for the night. Some of the tents were less than a foot away from a cliff edge, so we had to be careful where we stepped... said thank you to the porters as they were dashing away quickly after breakfast the following day. They were absolutely brilliant.
Day 4 - early start at 4 am, to queue up to enter Machu Picchu. A quick walk (only 4 miles) to the Sun Gate, to watch the sun rise. Unfortunately it was cloudy then so not very spectacular, but luckily the sun came out for Machu Picchu. Got to Machu Picchu about 7.30am, and were able to dump our bags etc before Freddie gave us our tour.
No words really describe the place. The setting is glorious, and Freddie had seen our journey as a pilgrimmage, if not to religion, then to mother nature. For example, the Incans believed that gold was the sweat of the sun, and silver is the tears of the moon. It was hard to disagree about the journey being a pilgrimmage. It sounds awful, but Machu Picchu was almost an anticlimax, as our journey had been so special. The journey and M P were so complimentary, that it could not have been more perfect. Whoever travels up by train really only gets half the experience. The trail was difficult and painful, yet we did it. Some runners do the trail in just under 4 hours. It took us 4 days. There is a huge difference between tourists and the locals.
We had a tour round M P and were then left to our own devices. The place is stunning - you will see from the photographs. We were absolutely shattered after all our walking (and ached), plus the sun was coming out, we had little water (or none), and the ´lazy tourists´(as Freddie called them) were arriving. So we headed down to Aguas Calientes town after a mooch about M P and chilled out there. Betty and I went to some beautiful outside thermal springs that were set in the valley with mountains around us. So pretty. And the hot water was absolutely perfect for our aching bodies! I had completely wrecked my knees after the car accident last year, so they were grateful for me soaking them...
Made it back to Cusco after a train journey and a bus journey. The bus journey was very scary - I am not a nervous passenger but the driver was crazy. Nearly took out a motorised rickshaw. Made it back in one piece and very very tired. But so satisfied that we completed the trail, very proud of ourselves.
As I said, I would´ve been emailing etc yesterday, but unfortunately I realised that I could not actually get out of bed! Haz and J were fine, albeit tired, but I was very dizzy and sicky if I became vertical. So stayed in bed all day. What a luxury!
Feeling much better today, and am just uploading photos onto Picasa. Will label them in a minute.
Hope all´s well with everyone,
Much love,
Al xxx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)