Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Bolivia to Peru - PC

After La Paz, we spent a couple of days in Copacabana which was on the shore of Lake Titicaca which is supposed to be the highest navigable lake in the world

We did a day tour over to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). We hiked for 3 hours to go from the northern end to the southern end. This island apparently was the birth place of the Incas. We did see many ruins from Incan and pre-Incan days. It was a very beautiful trek with sapphire coloured waters all around. As most of the way was nearly 4,000m, we were very, very puffed pretty much the whole way. Angus was suffering from the altitude and the sun when we got back.

We are on our way to Cusco now. Home of the Incan empire.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

PC
 
Iguazu Falls were one of the best natural wonders I have ever ever seen. It was very easy to get to the park actually. We jumped on a local bus from the bus terminal which only cost 10 Pesos return.
We spent one whole day there in the park exploring different sections starting from the Park Information Centre to the inferior (lower) section trail, to the superior (higher) section trail, then train to the Garranta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) which was by far the highlight of the day.
Along the trails, we saw many different kinds of weird animals. We saw this animal that looked like a giant possum but with a pig-like nose and pointy ears. These animals were not scared of people at all. In fact, you could pat them while they tried to rob you off your lunch....or anything you have including your camera case or backpack (as Naomi experienced with her belongings while I patted them)! There were also millions of different butterflies all over the park.

It was such a hot day that we pretty much exhausted a quarter of our bottle of sunscreen and drank all the water we brought within first 2 hours. There were also a lot of tourists suffering. Naomi first saw some Asian tourists stripped to their undies and bikinis which she thought was pretty hilarious. She stopped laughing after she saw more other European tourists walking around with barely anything on. It was probably a great idea considering the humidity and the heat. I was also suffering a little when we walked around Garranta del Diablo. I felt like I was being roasted in an oven during Christmas. Although I probably still wouldn't walk around in my knickers....

The waterfall was nothing short of majestic. I never expected it to be so HUGE. I don't even know how to describe it. There were probably millions of litres of water going through the waterfall every minute. From the top, we could not even see the bottom because of the mist from the water. We had been really excited when the local travel agencies tried to sell us tickets to go to the Brazilian side of the falls, but ended up disappointed when we found out that we needed a visa to enter Brazil.

The town of Puerto Iguazu itself was quite small. One amazing thing about it was the Ice-Cream!!! They had the best and the cheapest ice-cream we ever had in Argentina. We tremendously enjoyed our quarter litre ice-cream of strawberry and choc-mint in the late afternoon heat.

Salta, Argentina

We arrived in Salta after around 20 hours on the bus. This is where we serendipitously met the German couple, Rene and Stephanie, whom we travelled with for the next 2 weeks.

Sometimes when you travelling or on long term holidays, you really forget which day of the week it is. I thought I was coming up on top during a little debate with the ticket seller in the bus terminal when I was trying to buy a ticket to go to San Pedro in Chile. I was only to find out that I was the goose that had somehow lost a day in my life! I was so embarrassed especially after the ticket seller checked the computer screen and also asked his colleague what day of the week was.

Salta the town was a little dull. It was serene and pretty just like any other South-American colonial town, but there wasn't really much to do in the city. We just relaxed there for a couple of days then hired a car with the Germans to visit a sevon coloured hill and some other sights in the desert. There were heaps of giant cactus trees out there! Some of them were like 2-3 metres high. I also found out that there was wood inside the cactus which the locals use to make furniture. The scenery was quite spectacular and we felt bit sad on leaving Argentina – land of great steak and wine.

San Pedro, Chile

Chile is like our second home. Every time we crossed back to Chile from Argentina, we just felt like we were coming home. It was the first South American country we ever visited and we also made a lot of friends there.

San Pedro de Atacama was in the middle of the desert. It used to belong to Bolivia before Chile took it over after the discovery of nitrate in the area. It was a very small town. In fact, it was a very small town big in touristy stuff.

We did a tour to the salt lakes one afternoon. Before I went, the travel agency told me that it was like the dead sea and people just float in the lakes. I have tried floating many times before, and the last time was in Ko Phi Phi in Thailand. Naomi spent countless minutes tried to teach me how to breath and use my body in order to float on top of the water. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it! So when the office woman told me that EVERYONE floats, I just thought it was just more sales talk.

We got there. I was one of the first to jump in. I jumped in, I swam, I stopped swimming and I started to sink. Because the "lake" (big hole on the ground rather) was quite deep and the water was cold, I thought I was going to drown. I started doing back-stroke except only using my legs. I knew this would definitely keep me float, as always. I moved my legs gently and looked the clouds in the sky whilst dwelling on my own thoughts. Some minutes passed, I woke up from my daydream and realised that my leg were no longer kicking. I WAS FLOATING!!!!! Oh my gosh, I was floating for the first time in the water!

Naomi also had a salt-mud bath. It was not really my thing to be covered fully in mud. It supposed to clean your skin and make them more clear. Except that she was covered in salt again after the swim in the lake. We both looked like as if we were being snowed on with dry salt hanging in our hair and arms.

We also visited a small salt pan. It was pretty cool to see so many dried salt lumps. I have never seen anything like it before. It looked like snow actually from afar. We stayed there for sunset and had some pisco sours.

The next day we and the Germans hired bikes form the hostel and rode to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) for sunset. It was around about a 17km ride through the desert into this mountain range that was full bare. There was no vegetation whatsoever on it. Again, the scenery along the way was awesome. Rene and Stephanie were a little disappointed that we didn't actually see the sunset as we left a little late. I still loved the scenery though. There were many snow-peaked mountains over 5000m and cacti just off the side of the bike path. On the way back, Naomi and I rode in the darkness, but luckily we had our head torches which turned out to be awesome. When we turned them off, we could see the galaxy with millions of stars shining above our heads.

Salar de Uyuni tour, Bolivia

As the salt flats in Bolivia were supposed to be one of the biggest attractions in Bolivia, of course we had to be there! We organised this 3D2N tour with the Germans with this cheap company that made a lot of promises. Of course, it turned out to be a lot of bull. Luckily, I wasn't the one being blamed this time as I actually wanted to go for a more expensive company.

I mean, to be fair, it wasn't exactly THAT bad if we had set our expectations low. We were told that the vehicle would take 5-6 people. They picked us up, 7 people in one car. Lie number 1.

We were told that the car was in top shape and it would have no problem. 2 hours into the tour, we heard this cluck-cluck-cluck noise. Engine problem. Lie number 2.

We lost count of the number of breakdowns we suffered.

The scenery was excellent in the first few hours with beautiful blue lakes and flamingoes and high mountains. After that, it was pretty much same old, same old. Same lakes, same flamingoes. Although we did see this lake called Laguna Colorada which was red from the minerals in the water. We spent around 1 hour there taking photos of the 3 different types of flamingoes and the llamas.

The second night we spent in a salt hostel near the edge of the salt flats. Everything in the hostel was made out of salt. The bed, the kitchen tables, the dining tables, the chairs etc. I really enjoyed that. Over dinner, when someone asked for salt, I just picked up salt cubes from the floor and handed them over to the person.

We also got up super early at around 5:30am to see the sunrise over the salt flat. It was freezing cold, but the experience was well worth the early morning start. The Salar de Uyuni was as big as Belgium, so the sunrise over the horizon was nothing short of spectacular.

Although we weren't confused between the salt flats and the sky as the Lonely Planet Guide said we would (by the way, we are using the Footprint Guide which was a lot better than the LP guide), driving on the salt flats was a great experience as it was white everywhere you looked.

The salt flats were definitely the highlight of the tour. The first two days were ok, but it was nothing compared to the majesty of the salar.

Naomi just reminded me that she lost her wallet on our last day of our salar trip at the restaurant where we had lunch. It was very unfortunate, but luckily she took most of her cards and money out before we entered Bolivia. The police report was a pain in the ass though as no one seemed to be present in the official police station and the Tourist Police office was always shut.

Sucre, Bolivia

We spent one night in Uyuni before we headed off to Sucre. I was so frustrated when our 7 hour bus ride turned out to take 11 hours. The bad roads together with the loud Bolivian folk music playing over a single speaker overhead nearly drove me insane. This Brazilian guy sitting across the isle must have also had enough after we saw him pull the speaker out of the roof, wrap it in a plastic bag and push the speaker back in. Heck, welcome to Bolivia!

Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia. Apparently La Paz is the political capital and Sucre is the judicial capital. The town itself was really pretty with many many white colonial buildings, churches, monasteries etc. The whole town centre was white at night.

I visited a few museums and 500 year old churches. Naomi also really liked her Textile Museum which I did no enter. Instead I went to visit a museum which was full of Pre-Columbian artefacts, colonial paintings, silver artefacts and some modern day stuff.

I also visited a few churches/cathedrals. I have never been in churches that were established in 1500s. It was just so beautiful looking at the decorations on the walls, the ceiling, the candle chandeliers, the stained glass windows etc. I was also lucky to visit these churches on a Sunday when they were full of worshippers. It was an experience to watch how faithful some South Americans were.

Stephanie and I also visited Cerro Churuquella which offered great view over the antique city.

We spent 2 days there in Sucre before going on a crappy old night bus to La Paz.

La Paz, Bolivia

We got to La Paz a day early to wait for Angus to arrive the next day. He is spending 5 weeks in South America.

We checked into an amazing hotel which only cost us around $8 and gave us an great view over the city from our balcony and windows. You could see a couple of 6000m plus mountains just outside the city centre.

La Paz was a little chaotic for me with many cars, pollution and people. The layout of the city was really interesting though. As it was around 3600m high and surrounded by many mountains, all the houses were built on the hills. They actually look like Lego buildings from afar. So many little red-roofed buildings everywhere on the hill. I actually quite enjoyed looking at these buildings from our balcony.

We did a whole day bike ride along the world infamous "Death Road". Yes, we survived....just. Our palms and our asses were fully bruised. I didn't think riding down hill would be such tough work until that day. As most of the road was dirt and covered with rocks, pebbles and mud, riding on it was not exactly a piece of cake.

The scenery was amazing too. There were so many jagged cliffs, waterfalls, and forests along the way. As we started riding at 4,800m above the sea level, we also saw the gradual change in vegetation as we descended to the finish line at 1,200m.

The road wasn't exactly narrow, but if you fell off the cliff, you can guarantee to kiss your life good bye. I stacked a couple of times, but luckily they weren't anything too major.

I thought the company that we chose to do the tour with was ok. But Angus and Naomi (especially Naomi) just couldn't stop whinging at me about it. Yes, maybe the bike wasn't exactly world-class, but at least we made it......the tough way! I did have a couple of little problems with my bike...the gears were dead and peddles weren't working properly.......and my back wheel fell off. But hey, at least the scenery was great while the guide tried to fix my bike.

I think Naomi had a heart attack after her tire exploded. I think that probably increased her whinging about the bike company and the bike. As Angus and I were in the front, all we heard and saw were this big BANG and a puff of dust in the air. Then a minute later, Naomi walked up to us without her bike. She was bit pissed off so she just left her bike there for the guide to fix.

Yes, maybe the equipment was not top-notch, and the support vehicle guy was reading porn magazines in the van, but at least the scenery was awesome and the lunch was filling. It was actually the same lunch as the people who paid 200 Bolianos more than us.