Back in La Paz

La Paz was confusing. Everyone had a different story about the Puno border and neither could we find anything on the net that gave us any confidence. We had an option of trying to go through Arica in Chile but being Indian we needed a visa and ours wasn't valid anymore. Well, actually it might have been because we coudln't really understand if we had a 90 day visa or a 30 day visa or a visa that was only valid for 30 days from our first entry. We took a collectivo downtown to the Chilean embassy and realised that Arica was no longer an option. At least we got to see downtown La paz. It was businesslike, quite modern and very very different from the La Paz we had experienced until then.

We got back, and decided we would try and get to Lake Titicaca and Copacabana and get into Peru through Puno once way or the other. Natalia a Polish trvaeller joined us on this adventure. The bus we took was local and lots of fun. A few hours into the bus ride, we began to see the enormous lake. All in all, it covers an area of 8000 sq kms so it is pretty omnipresent. In a bit, we had to cross the lake which meant we take a small boat that seats about 20 and the bus gets on a large barge that takes it across. This is when we realised how big the waves on the lake were. It was ascary 10 min crossing but once again we were on our way.

The lake is stunning and has an energy that is difficult to explain. Apparently it is a lake that was pushed up from the ocean and so has both salty and sweet water. It is a place of riligious significnce to the Inca and much before that to the tiwanaku people. Apparently the trout in the water is now killing all the indigenous fish which is bummer but the trout is tasty!

We reached copacabana and figured out the border to Peru through Puno was open and so took a quick call to get through while we could. It was good a decision since the border ended up shut a few days later. This meant we don't do isla del Sol but we had a choice to make and the options were extremely crazy if the border closed once again so we jumped into a bus the next morning. The next day I realised I had left our Kindle in Copacabana...

The crossing itself was peaceful, uneventful and beautiful. The lake contunued to keep me stunned. It is a beautiful lake but more importantly , it is powerful and captivating in a strange spiritual way.

We reached Puno and our first Peruvian experience was a disaster. We were denied the bus we had booked and put onto a local bus. A fight ensued but not really knowing enough meant we were very easily made to believe the new bus co was  good one.

Anyway, we decided to see how it goes. In the meantime we were going to visit the Uros or floating islands of the lake. Lots to look forward to. we had a few hours to explore Puno and so we did. Its a tourstic town with some good local food if youcan find it. As usual we headed up to the local market and found a great almuerzo or set lunch for $1.5 each.

We were now ready for the Urus.

The Amazon - Day 3

we were to swim with the pink dolphins and so we decided to go out in swim trunks without any musquito repellant or sun block (for those who did use it). We parked in a little laguna and waited. Soon a couple of really unreal pink Dolphns lazily swam into the pool. One by one the brave and better swimmers including Yannick jumped into the water. We watched in horror as many other tourists on another boat were lathering themselves with sun block before diving in and polluting the water. Luckily, the repercussion of this, is that the Dolphins won't go near anyone with block or Deet!

Yannick was swimming round like a fish and I think the Dolphins found having a kid around interesting and wanted to check him out. They swam around him, scaring him the first time. I was sitting on the edge of the boat contemplating diving in when out of the blue this meter long pink snout pushed itself out of the water and took a nibble at my feet. I was shocked and then ecstatic. The next time it happened, it was still a shock, but since I was a little for ready for it, it was fun. Finally I jumped in but given my swimming skills I decided not to venture out too far from the boat.

The Dolphins were really beautiful and playful. To be swimming with the Dolphins in a beautiful amazonian laguna in the Yacuma knowing caymen, alligators and Piranha could well be around made me delirious and very worried when it came to Yannick, especially because he was good 3 or 400 meters away from our boat!  The pleasure of watching the Dolphin try and play with Yannick is unquantifiable!

It was time to leave and as we left we realised we weren't leaving without a strong reminder of where we were. Most of us were musquito bite pock marked but it was well worth it.

What followed was a long dusty ride back to Rurrenbaque, a fun evening playing snooker in the hostel, a decent meal and some sleep. We were all set ot get bak to La Paz on the smallest flight any of us had ever been on. It was time to figure out our plans into Peru since we had been hearing rumours about the border being closed once again!

amazon - day 2

Waking up in the morning to see the huge Caymen loll its way up towards our bank was a thrill. The few of us who were awake went shutter crazy. A stupid bird with yellow feet played around the huge animal dangerously. a brown furry monkey that marks its territory by barking so loud that it can be heard within an 8 k radius added to the caos. This was the perfect way to wake up in the Amazon.

Sadly this is where man and tourism comes in. The Caymen came to the island every day because they fed it. It was domesticated for the entertainment of the tourists. Wildlife tourism with no responsibility is taking its toll. People want photograohs with the Ananconda they spot when known or unknown to them the DDT on their bodies used to repel the enormous quantities of musquitoes will kill the snake once its skin contacts the deet. But then the tourist is not around to witness the horrible death and the snake is benevolent enough to die is some invisible part of the grassland, so who cares. Sun screen and DDT are poisonous so swimming in the water with all this protection is a ecological disaster but once agian who cares, as long as you have a picture to take back home.

The morning started off with the hunt for the Anaconda. It was a tough crazy walk through head high grass in knee deep slush. Luckily we were fitted with over sized gum boots but most of them had holes so it was a very wet walk. At one point my t shirt was so covered by musquitoes that I could barely see it. But we trudged on. When we all set to give up the adventure, our guide Rosaudo finally spotted a 5 to 6 feet baby Anaconda. It was well worth the painful 3 hours. Honestly, I enjoyed the trek but most of the group hated it. Rosaudo was ethical about not letting anyone touch the snake, maybe because we had made it clear that we were here to see the animals in their natural habitat and not for the photo opportunities but it felt good when we saw the snake slither away into the swamp. Nu thought she spotted one more snake when Yannick lifted his boot out of a puddle but it was too quick for the rest of us to see.

We were back in the camp and ready for the evenng session of Piranha fishing. The piranha actually have jaws and dentures. They are small but their teeth are scarily human like. The bait we used was meat. We were lucky, I caught one, Yannick managed another and Anu was excited as she fed the Piranha the bait instead of catching them. All in all, our boat did well, we had caught 5 or 6 fish while Rosaudo had another 5. We ate the Piranha at dinner. They tasted all right but seeing their jaws you can well imagine what they must do to a carcass in their own territory. 

The Amazon

La Paz was a fantastic few days largely because the food was great, the city inexpensive, and we reunited with friends from the Uyuni tour. We just heard that getting into Peru might be a problem as one of our Uyuni friends was turned back fronn the border which was a bother.

Since we were all together again we decided to do the Amazon here. Bolivia is probably the cheapest option to do the Amazon basin. We found a package deal that was pretty good and included airfare to and from Rurenabaque which is the base for the travel into the Pampas or the forest. We wanted to see wildlife so we picked the grasslands (pampas) over the rain forest. Rurrenbaque is a one horse town with a fantastic french bakery!! Yup, it is strange!

Anyway, we started from Rurre about 9am in a rattly 4X4 that did nothing to soften the bumps on the crazy dirt road. About two hours into this uncomfortable dusty ride, when we were driving along a stream/river, I suddenly spotted an alligator sunning itself. It was surreal! The alligator just sat on the bank of the stream sunning itself, not more than 50 feet from us. Birds of all sizes, colours and shapes can be spotted all along this route. Soon we reached the spot from where we were going to take a long boat along the Yacuma river into the Pampas.

Our guide Rosauro was a podgy smiley guy who had a great vibe. The boat is a very basic one but with a decent motor attached. Simple chairs are attached to the boat 2 by two, with Rosaudo handling the motor behind all of us. Each boat sat 8 of us with our backpacks etc. The next two and half hours was unbellievable. we saw a pink dolphin, alligators and caymen we could no longer count, some of who were 5 feet from our boat, the cutest little yellow monkeys, heron, birds of paradise or Serere, beautiful black long necked birds, and a ton of others I can't name, and the cutest and biggest rodents called Kapiberas.

We reached our really basic campsite / refugio in stunned silence. A great lunch and we were off to see the sunset. Not the most exciting one we have seen but you could buy a beer at this spot!

That night we took the boat out to see croc eyes in the river. I'm not sure how ethical it is to shine torches into Caymen eyes to see them shine a bright red but we did it. On hindsight I think we shouldn't have but ... At one point out boat got stuck in a sand bank and we could see 4 sets of eyes staring at us. I thought we were going to pay for shining torches at unsuspecting alligators and become caymen food but luckily we all managed to scramble to the back of the boat and pull us out of that tight spot. No lack of excitement in the Amazon!

The night without electricty was interesting. Musquitoes abound but we had great nets and so we were safe, Not the best toilets, especially given the musquitoes waiting inside for warm human blood! Everytime you took a crap, you came back with an arse that was red and swollen with musquito bites!

Somehow the night was not all that bad and it passed quite quickly. Of course we were all dead tired. Woke up next morning to see a huge caymen on our shore!!

A few more Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/?saved=1

NEW PHOTOS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/page1/

Ciudad de blanco

Entering Bolivia was exciting. When we entered the salt flats our passport details were taken down and we were asked to get our visas in Uyuni town. When we go to the immigration office, the very nice officer told us they only had 2 visa stickers left! Yannick was to travel illegally till we reached La Paz which was more than a few days away!!

Sucre or the White city, is the official capital of Bolivia but since La Paz is the seat of Govt, it works out very well for Sucre. The city is Spanish in its architecture so it is full of arches and colonial style buildings. The food is fantastic. We ate the mondongo a pork steak with a spicy Portuguese style red sauce, the saltaenas which are basically baked empanadas are great and the fruit juices fantastic.

We hung around Sucre for a couple of days before taking the bus to La Paz.

La Paz is a stunning city. It is set on the walls on the valley so in the night the walls of the valley lights up and looks like a beautiful piece of jewelry. The setting is stunning!! The local people will tell you that the best way to get to the centre is to throw a ball from anywhere and just follow it all the way down. La paz is a surprisingly crowded city for a population of 1.5 million people.

We were staying with friends so we decided to chill out a little. Bolivia is cheap and the food great. Tukumanas, the Bolivian equivalent of the fried empanada was fantastic, as were the almuerzo, or plato completo. This is a set meal that includes a soup, a main course and sometimes a desert, and a refresco which is water flavoured with pieces of fresh fruit, all for 1 to 3 $’s. Friends from the Uyuni trip were in La Paz with us so we decided to do the Amazon together.

Musings about the Salar...

the salar de Uyuni  is one of most spectacular lanscapes I have ever encountered. The lack of a horizon is what makes it so unique. The white salt flats merge with the sky in the most  ethereal way. The island of fish or Isla de pescadore, is an island formed in the middle of the salt flats with huge cactus covering the entire hill. It is only when you are atop this fascinating island that you realise that below the salt there is water.  Crunching the salt crystals as you alight from the 4X4 is as fascinating as walking on ice for the first time, or seeing the magnitude of a glacier upclose. We were lucky to have had some rain a few days before we arrived and therefore a layer of water covered the entire salar making it the world largest mirror. When the sun rose, the reflection of the sky made it a double sun rise, one in the sky and one in the mirror...spectacular!

From the Uyuni we ended up in Potosi, the site of the enactment of the severest cruelty by the spanish conquerors on the poor unsuspecting welcoming  indegenous people, to fulfil theor greed for silver. Unexpectedly, Potosi was a beautiful little city. Flanked by the Cerra Rico or rich mountian where the silver is located, we expected a sad miserable people would live here but the locals were vibrant, the food fantastic, and the hostel, an old monastery very enchanting.

We did the silver mine tour and it was everything we expected it to be. The tunnels were no larger than 5.5 feet at its very max height, and most of the tunnels were under 4 feet high. In places we were crawling on or bellies for many a minute. It was claustrophobic and pitch dark. Small little hole like tunnels led from one level to another and we crawled through 3  such levels. Oxygen levels are so low that taking a breath is difficult. Add to this the dust that mining in such tunnels creates and you feel a darkness deep within you. It was one the most exhausting experiences I've even been through and I attribute it mainly to mental fatigue. At one point I lay on my belly, closed my eyes and thought I would never be able to get out. And it was inside here that the spanish forced the local people to work for upto 6 months at a time,

It is said that the Spanish took out enough gold and silver to build a bridge of from Potosi to Spain and killed enough indegenous people to be able to build another such bridge with their bones!

The entire experience teaches you to really love the life we are lucky enough to live. Miners are still working in these mines in horrible conditions. The average life span of a miner is 35 years and even the young look 20 years older than they are. I felt profoundly sad but really glad to move on from the mines.

The bolivians we met here were really generous, they shared tales, information , and even their food. I was lucky enoguh to try a fantastic potato from a locals plate. This oblong white potato is apparently freeze dried at night for many nights and then left in the sun for a while before being boiled. It has a crunchy hard exterior and a really melty soft interior. The texture is fantastic. So also the chirimoya, the sweetest fruit I've ever tasted, and thumba a yellow orange pomogrante like fruit that has a very dry aftertaste.
It was time to move on to Sucre...

Chaos - ysm

Our initial plan was to get into potosi ( in bolivia ) after finishing uyuni. But after seeing what happened to everybody at high altitude papa decided that we give it a miss. But mamma really wanted to go. Mamma thought about it and told papa we could go to Sucre ( we were planning to go after potosi ) as it was low altitude and take a day trip to potosi. So thats what we were going to do. Papa bought tickets to Sucre and almost the whole uyuni group except for three were also coming to Sucre. At about 12 midnight the bus stopped and 3/4 of the bus left leaving the uyuni group and two locals. We stayed in the same spot for about 45 mins or something and so papa went out and asked the driver something and i dont know wht he replied saying but papa came back. Another 20 mins passed by and the bus conducter came in and said that this bus was not going to sucre and there was another bus that would go to sucre and there were only 4 seats. A local got angry and shouted at the guy and went back to sleep. None of the uyuni group knew what to do. a min later the bus started to move and we took a round of the city, realised it was potosi, and then the bus came back to the same road except on the other side. The guy came back in and said there was another bus  going to sucre and all could get in. But by then the uyuni group decided that we should stay here because we wanted to come to potosi anyway. So all of us except one guy stayed. Potosi was great, we went to the silver mines  and papa will explain potosi in detail. So potosi was great and we left to Sucre. The seven of us from uyuni had started travelling together. Sucre was great to, we had great meals and we were there on the race day where there were some race cars going around the city...it was great fun. We did not do much in the place but we loved it.Sucre going to La paz was where the uyuni group broke up. Four of us (which is basically papa, mamma and me and Dahlia) left to la paz and three stayed. In la paz we wanted to meet these friends of ours ( also from the uyuni trip ), but we did  not meet them until late at night. but during the day we went searching for amazon tours. The next few days we searched for amazon tours with ion and susana...the friends from uyuni. We had a great time it was alot of fun. On the day we were going to book the tour our tour opereator girl told us that a friend had come four times in the day searching for us. we realised it was dallia ( the person who came with us from sucre to la paz. as we paid we met her and she joined the tour. Just before leaving for rurrenabaque we heard some bad news : the peruvian border had been shut down.  It was because of the elections and some thing about gold mining. We thought it would be open as the elections would be over when we came back.The amazon was totally amazing. Papa or me will explain the whole thing in detail in another blog. when we returned the border was still closed. We gave it a day before we started thinking of another route. In the mean while we wanted to go to copacabana and isla del sol. we checked some guides and theysaid the route to copacabana was shut., and they would know if it opens at 3 pm.  At 3 pm we heard that the route was open the next day. We got back to our house and then we bumped into Flavia's brother ( we were staying with flavia's boyfriend ) and flavia's guest.
 She told us that the peru vian border was shut and there was no way to go. We could not even go by flight becausse a volcano erupted,  there were no buses through brasil and the only way was to go through chile. Now that was a problem for us as our chilean visas had expired. Now we had to figure a way into peru before we got into copacabana because if we came back  and the border would still be closed, we would not have anywhere to go. The Only way other than chile was to cross the border illegaly......

San pedro de atacama - yannick

Many many many adventures here....and it all started when we got picked up by our hostel owner........

.....when i saw the van he was taking us to the hostel in....i was wondering if we made the right choice booking that hostel. the hostel owner´s name was Mario, as soon as we got out of the bus we saw him with a sign with papa´s name and X3 next to it. The hostel was not at all bad, much more clean and all that than the van. It was an open air place...and it was huge. We got our room and we asked Mario where Uyuni tour companies were and which ones to take. We spent the day looking for the best deals, and which we were comfortable with. Eventually we chose the company Coirdillera, as i said in the blog before. We walked around and realized that we should book a tour to the geysers now because the tour started at like 4 am!!!!!! The first place we went to was the one we picked...because it was the cheapest. all the tours were like 15000 chilean pesos but the lady in the first office gavi it to us at 12000 because she did not like her boss :-). We woke up at 3 30 am and got ready by 3 55. We stood outside the gate and waited till 4 30 untill our van came ( apparently the others that were waiting had to wait till 5. ) and it was packed. We reached the geyser field at 6 so i got some sleep..but apparently the road was too rocky for the others to sleep. The first thing our guide told us was not to cross the stones that were around the geyser because if you do you could die. I was not to excited about the dying part of the news because the geysers were so amazing ,that i thought, while i would be gaping at them i would walk backwards into one and die a horrible death. The geysers were really amazing.... it was exactly how i thought it would be, although i thought i could sit on one just before it erupted and then go up into the air with it...that would be cool. The next thing was the thermal pool...it was supposed to be 30 to 35 degrees centigrade in the pool. I could not wait to get in as it was freezing outside....but once i got in....i double froze. buit later on i found a warm spot and it was good. We then went to a village which was not like a village..it was small but it was completely urban. I got to eat llama meat.

 The next day we went to the pre inca ruins. It was hard to get to as there were many roads to chose from but eventually we found it. The main trek up was not hard...probably 45 mins. But that was worth it. the view was amazing. we could see the highway going to bolivia, sasnd dunes and salt dune kinda things. It was great.

The day after that we went to valley of the moon and we were the luckiest people in the world. In san pedro there are 6 cloudy days in the year and we got one of them.:-(. The tour was a disaster as the co9mpany did not send a tour guide with us so we almost got thrown out of a plac3e for climbing a dune that we were not supposed to. we did it cos we did not know how to go, But the whole thing was beautiful.

Once we got back our friends Maree and Clint had prepared an amazing dish with all kinds of things in it. It was amazing. It was a good way to end our days in San pedro  

 

CHILE BOUND

From Bariloche we took a bus to Mendonsa, the wine capital of Argentina and home to the Malbec. We decided not to spend any time here even though it is supposed to be quite beautiful Patagonia had taken its toll and we desperately needed to get to cheaper haunts. 

We left our backpacks in the bus station and spent the half day we had free exploring the city centre in Mendonza. It seemed like a pretty city, a little laid back but with a certain nice energy.  Anyway, very quickly we had to catch our next bus and were soon headed into the Andes to cross over to Chile. 

The crossing is one of the most stunning routes I have been driven on. The actual border is at some 4900 m which means we drive up some 2000m in a few hours. The air is thin and breathing difficult. The chilean border security doesn't make it any easier with their checks for fruit , vegetable and to top the list of prohibited items hard bound books! We declared the masala we were carrying and luckily it wasn't on the list of banned items.

Finally we reached Santiago!

Anu had a bad migraine from a macdonalds sandwich we had eaten that morning, compounded by altitude sickness. Yannick and I were a little worried and so really happy that we were staying with friends, albeit friends we were yet to meet. The taxi to their place ran straight into a student protest rally against a planned Damn in chilean patagonia! 

Naaz and Mauricio lived in a pretty upscale residential area of Santiago. Their flat was really comfortable and they made a huge effort to make us feel at home. We ate a dinner they had cooked for us with a bottle of really good Chilean wine known as the Carmenere and we were already in love with the city. 

Santiago was a great refueling point for us. We hung out at home, ate great food, laughed a lot with Naaz, Mauricio and their friends and generally lazed without an agenda. Strange as it may sound, after a few hectic months on the road we hadn't realised how badly we needed a break! We really liked Santiago as a city. It was calm, beautifully constructed, very modern without being all glass and steel and the food was great. The city has been rebuilt so many times due of its penchant for earthquakes. 

We did take a small trip to Valparaiso, a very pretty town a few hours outside of Santiago.

Valparaiso has some of the best street art I've enountered. The day we were there was cold and gloomy but the streets were filled with school marching bands. This port city is precariously build on the hills surrounding the ocean. The houses are made of tin, including the walls, and are brightly coloured, giving the whole city a very festive look. There used to be ascencions or whinch driven trams in many places in the city to take the citizens up the hills but unfortunately most of them have been shut down now. We did ride up in one of the functional ones. 

Finally recharged, but a little reluctant, we decided that we had to continue soon or we woul grow roots. We were north bound to San Pedro de Atacama, one of the driest places in the world. 

Naaz and Mauricio had made Santiago a really special place for us.