Kirstie
Über Member
domtyler said:I have a feeling that could change were you to ever go anywhere near one of Rich P's undergarments!
I'm more likely to go to the moon...
My son writes...
- Thread starter Aperitif
- Start date
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I'm more likely to go to the moon...
Dayvo
just passin' through
- Location
- 59° 50′ 5.55″ N, 10° 47′ 41.89″ E
rich p said:
I'd settle for her mum! Got any pics of her (her what, I hear you think!
).
OP
OP
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Here's another mail - I'll not bore the pants off everyone every time he writes but this seems to remind me how cushy life is and how much I take for granted...
Thank you for the emails! So, I eventually managed to check my email and am sitting next to Pete in the hostel. We are now residents at Loki Cusco - the apparent College of Law home away from home - I have just been speaking to 3 Clifford Chance girls and 8 other people no less have been here in the past week from College. What do I have to do to get away from Moorgate?
Let me tell you about the Lares trek...it was amazing, and very eye opening. I would love to say that I am now a reformed wristband wearing hippie but frankly i missed my creature comforts too much...
Seriously, it was shocking to see the deprivation in the highlands. You can drive for a matter of hours and the whole complexion of the country changes from otherwise very poor to total poverty (and the people look completely different). An average family with 8 kids to boot can expect 30USD a month max – this is the poorest region in Peru.
The Inca communities that we visted are so self contained that they have never even been to the nearest town. They do not speak Spanish but Quechua Language. It was amazing to learn some key phrases and speak to the kids in their native tongue, who, without fail, come running up the mountain side to extort coloured pencils, fruit and bread that we had bought from a Market on day 1! I bought 7 sets of coloured Pencils - and they were all very gratefully received, it is amazing to see the happiness etched all over these kids' faces on handing over the goods. On one occasion we were invited into a family home (one room to home 8 people). I have a video of this - but imagine Llamas in the front garden everywhere to help cultivate the land with Potato seeds. Under their bed is home to tens of Guinea Pigs. We were given Guinea Pig and Potato as a special offering - which is their most expensive meal. It tastes like chicken and is actually pretty good.
On a physical front...my calves are rock solid from climbing 4 mountains in as many days. It was pretty physically demanding the whole time but me and Pete were representing the UK comprising the leading pack all of the way...we kicked some Scandinavian bottom (the others on our trek). Our highest point along the way was 4,800 metres above sea level in the clouds. The landscape was like no other...snow topped rolling mountains on the 360. I have a billion photos of the surroundings and us at the top which I will Facebook forthwith when i finally unpack my life.
Yesterday was all about the 7th new wonder of the world, Machu Picchu. It is stunning and a sight to take in in person - the photos will not do it justice but I will send them your way. We arrived at this ancient "lost city" at 5AM to see the sunrise. The way sun picked out and coloured orangey yellow portions of the stonework was a thing of beauty for real - you would have loved it. We consolidated 3 days of trekking with an optional 45 minute hike up Wanapicchu - which was effectively rock climbing because it was so steep, one of the stipulations is that you "have a heart" on the safety notice outside!! - we smashed that in 25 minutes (20 mins quicker than the reccomended time) up and about 45 cautiously negotiating our way down. Again, I have a video of going through a rocky tunnel like thing at the peak and breaking out with a spectacular view of the ruins waiting for me by the time my lungs started working again.
The sheer beauty of it all offset the tent and portaloo arrangement we endured for 2 nights - just about - why would anyone go camping for fun? In fairness, it was relatively civilised - we had a chef who was knocking up gourmet cuisine on one gas stove in sub zero temperatures. Our guides and horsemen all worked very hard, they clock stupid hours and are super super fit (being able to walk the distance that took us 3 days in 8 hours). You realise how easy we got it when you see the horsemen in particular bombing it ahead of you to get to the campsite and set up all the tents and portable kitchen, of course they have to manage the horses and llamas on the steep terrain - all on a diet of just potato (nothing else will grow at that altitude).The guides were both very passionate about it and insightful. All of our 'family' of workers enjoyed a healthy tip from us at the end.
Now we have got the nod to cultural activity out the way, we can starting thinking about our onward journey across South America. The plan so far is Ariquipa tomorrow and Lake Titicaca which is also meant to be spectacular. Then we bounce to a town called Puno and Island hop across floating islands near the Bolivian border - the islands are such that when a family misbehaves they can cut part of the island off leaving them to float away(!?). Then comes the mayhem of La Paz in Bolivia… We'll then get the 35 hour or so bus to Rio - spend two weeks beaching before Buenos Aries Party Capital for another two weeks (the steak is the best in the world). We'll stop at a few notorious party towns on the way but we plan to clock up a good few thousand Kilometres on buses over the next few months.
Base tan is done, so looking forward to working on it big time in springtime Rio - a mild 35 degrees apparently?
I have so many stories to report - Pete is on his usual comedic form so all is good in that respect
Thank you for the emails! So, I eventually managed to check my email and am sitting next to Pete in the hostel. We are now residents at Loki Cusco - the apparent College of Law home away from home - I have just been speaking to 3 Clifford Chance girls and 8 other people no less have been here in the past week from College. What do I have to do to get away from Moorgate?
Let me tell you about the Lares trek...it was amazing, and very eye opening. I would love to say that I am now a reformed wristband wearing hippie but frankly i missed my creature comforts too much...
Seriously, it was shocking to see the deprivation in the highlands. You can drive for a matter of hours and the whole complexion of the country changes from otherwise very poor to total poverty (and the people look completely different). An average family with 8 kids to boot can expect 30USD a month max – this is the poorest region in Peru.
The Inca communities that we visted are so self contained that they have never even been to the nearest town. They do not speak Spanish but Quechua Language. It was amazing to learn some key phrases and speak to the kids in their native tongue, who, without fail, come running up the mountain side to extort coloured pencils, fruit and bread that we had bought from a Market on day 1! I bought 7 sets of coloured Pencils - and they were all very gratefully received, it is amazing to see the happiness etched all over these kids' faces on handing over the goods. On one occasion we were invited into a family home (one room to home 8 people). I have a video of this - but imagine Llamas in the front garden everywhere to help cultivate the land with Potato seeds. Under their bed is home to tens of Guinea Pigs. We were given Guinea Pig and Potato as a special offering - which is their most expensive meal. It tastes like chicken and is actually pretty good.
On a physical front...my calves are rock solid from climbing 4 mountains in as many days. It was pretty physically demanding the whole time but me and Pete were representing the UK comprising the leading pack all of the way...we kicked some Scandinavian bottom (the others on our trek). Our highest point along the way was 4,800 metres above sea level in the clouds. The landscape was like no other...snow topped rolling mountains on the 360. I have a billion photos of the surroundings and us at the top which I will Facebook forthwith when i finally unpack my life.
Yesterday was all about the 7th new wonder of the world, Machu Picchu. It is stunning and a sight to take in in person - the photos will not do it justice but I will send them your way. We arrived at this ancient "lost city" at 5AM to see the sunrise. The way sun picked out and coloured orangey yellow portions of the stonework was a thing of beauty for real - you would have loved it. We consolidated 3 days of trekking with an optional 45 minute hike up Wanapicchu - which was effectively rock climbing because it was so steep, one of the stipulations is that you "have a heart" on the safety notice outside!! - we smashed that in 25 minutes (20 mins quicker than the reccomended time) up and about 45 cautiously negotiating our way down. Again, I have a video of going through a rocky tunnel like thing at the peak and breaking out with a spectacular view of the ruins waiting for me by the time my lungs started working again.
The sheer beauty of it all offset the tent and portaloo arrangement we endured for 2 nights - just about - why would anyone go camping for fun? In fairness, it was relatively civilised - we had a chef who was knocking up gourmet cuisine on one gas stove in sub zero temperatures. Our guides and horsemen all worked very hard, they clock stupid hours and are super super fit (being able to walk the distance that took us 3 days in 8 hours). You realise how easy we got it when you see the horsemen in particular bombing it ahead of you to get to the campsite and set up all the tents and portable kitchen, of course they have to manage the horses and llamas on the steep terrain - all on a diet of just potato (nothing else will grow at that altitude).The guides were both very passionate about it and insightful. All of our 'family' of workers enjoyed a healthy tip from us at the end.
Now we have got the nod to cultural activity out the way, we can starting thinking about our onward journey across South America. The plan so far is Ariquipa tomorrow and Lake Titicaca which is also meant to be spectacular. Then we bounce to a town called Puno and Island hop across floating islands near the Bolivian border - the islands are such that when a family misbehaves they can cut part of the island off leaving them to float away(!?). Then comes the mayhem of La Paz in Bolivia… We'll then get the 35 hour or so bus to Rio - spend two weeks beaching before Buenos Aries Party Capital for another two weeks (the steak is the best in the world). We'll stop at a few notorious party towns on the way but we plan to clock up a good few thousand Kilometres on buses over the next few months.
Base tan is done, so looking forward to working on it big time in springtime Rio - a mild 35 degrees apparently?
I have so many stories to report - Pete is on his usual comedic form so all is good in that respect
OP
OP
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
OH well - it's a quiet night in the CC café so here's this evening's missive from Jr - still lacking photos but...the report bears out something Kirstie mentioned in her advice 
Trek done, we remained in Cusco for a couple of days for two nights out. We met some interesting people along the way, two Canadian guys in particular were good fun and on our wavelength. It is fairly easy to sift out the good people, those not donning dreadlocks, ponchos and a sacrificed lamb under one arm are the ones we generally approach. The hostels we have been to mostly play home to New Agey "finding themselves" types (as usual you have to look behind their pretence of being "deep" and "profound" before you realise they are just looking for some kind of outlet). Good to see, but i´m taking this from a whole different angle with a separate suitcase for skincare products...
...travelling takes all sorts though and barring the altitude we are coping well. As i said in my email, we are now in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, another country I had absolutely no conception of before this trip, you build up a library of knowledge very quickly when you´re travelling and your route from A to B with sights along the way is hashed out mostly by other people´s experiences. This is the highest city featuring in the 5 month trip so we can look forward to going downhill from now on, an enlarged pool of red blood cells giving us the edge when we arrive on the coastal cities, Rio and BA etc. The project of the last four days has been getting here from Cusco.
The first stop was Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru and considered to be the most beautiful. The main square in particular, the Plaza de Armas, was sun drenched and packed with people when we were there, I keep promising photos but we have had to cope with pre historic Internet services for a while. I will try my best for today if not tomorrow!! The major reason to visit Arequipa is it provides easy access to the world´s largest Canyon. We contemplated this but also found a Playstation 2 with Pro Evolution Soccer for 1 sol an hour (20p). The choice was easy...especially as Colca Canyon involved a 3AM bus...allow.
Because Arequipa is quite a large business district there were some cool after work bars that Pete and I hit. You have to stomach local Peruvian girls screaming at you "are you English? I love you!" (they are naturally thick set and butch due to the altitude - nice) - the vibe was generally very relaxed and welcoming. Anyway, this allegedly cool bar, ´Deja Vu` underwent a metamorphosis come midnight. A Peruvian band set up and the lead mullet gave us a listen again of the most forgettable tracks of the 80s and 90s...the locals were loving it though, whooping and screaming and all sorts. We promptly called time on the evening and arrived back at our hostel still reeling from the 11 hour boneshaker bus. 5-10 minutes after getting into bed we were awoken by a 60 yr old retired German, "I EXPECT YOU WANT TO SLEEP JA?"...and since we were in bed with our eyes closed and the lights off, "err...probably yes". Anyway he was to become the one that stuck to us for the days that followed, not by our design, because we positively tried to make better friends but he turned out to be ok...meeting people like him makes us eclectic, right.
It was the day we left Arequipa and if we needed a wake up call we certainly got one. Apparently it was the anniversary of the street we were staying on...so they threw what the hotelier described as "bombs" at 6AM down the street to celebrate. Maybe he meant fireworks but these were some big time fireworks if so - and at sunrise??!
The bus from Arequipa to Puno was over in a mere 7 hours. Puno is a port city and the main means of getting to Lake Titicaca (the highest lake in the world). Outside of that, if the world had an enema, they would probably put it in Puno. Things at this point started getting ridiculously cheap so we bagged a day island hopping for S.30. 6 pounds. This was fun, it involved jumping around islands constructed from layers of straw (again photos to come). We received a live demonstration of how the island was built which was the highlight of the trip. Then, we had a 5 hour round trip on a boat to visit the highly unremarkable island of Tequila (or something like that I didn´t pay enough attention to take down the name) but all it had to offer was a museum with photos mounted on coloured paper apparently taken by a snap happy 3 yr old. Anyway, we embraced it as much as we could.
That brings us up to yesterday and crossing the Bolivian border. We caught 3 busses, 2 boats and 1 taxi to get to La Paz. We had a pretty huge lunch a long the way which ran to 49 Bolivianos (around 3 pounds for both of us, then). There is a point on the bus journey that you have to go cross water...seeing the coach splutter onto a shoddy raft type thing to cross the water was a nervous experience, especially when you see it getting dragged town tide. Our luggage dry and intact we arrived in La Paz (which is striken with political activity nearly every day). On the approach into the city, dummies hang from nearly every lamp post to push the labour protesters´cause. Today has been a day of rest but we now have 5 nights here to fill up the next rambling email...
...until then.
Trek done, we remained in Cusco for a couple of days for two nights out. We met some interesting people along the way, two Canadian guys in particular were good fun and on our wavelength. It is fairly easy to sift out the good people, those not donning dreadlocks, ponchos and a sacrificed lamb under one arm are the ones we generally approach. The hostels we have been to mostly play home to New Agey "finding themselves" types (as usual you have to look behind their pretence of being "deep" and "profound" before you realise they are just looking for some kind of outlet). Good to see, but i´m taking this from a whole different angle with a separate suitcase for skincare products...
...travelling takes all sorts though and barring the altitude we are coping well. As i said in my email, we are now in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, another country I had absolutely no conception of before this trip, you build up a library of knowledge very quickly when you´re travelling and your route from A to B with sights along the way is hashed out mostly by other people´s experiences. This is the highest city featuring in the 5 month trip so we can look forward to going downhill from now on, an enlarged pool of red blood cells giving us the edge when we arrive on the coastal cities, Rio and BA etc. The project of the last four days has been getting here from Cusco.
The first stop was Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru and considered to be the most beautiful. The main square in particular, the Plaza de Armas, was sun drenched and packed with people when we were there, I keep promising photos but we have had to cope with pre historic Internet services for a while. I will try my best for today if not tomorrow!! The major reason to visit Arequipa is it provides easy access to the world´s largest Canyon. We contemplated this but also found a Playstation 2 with Pro Evolution Soccer for 1 sol an hour (20p). The choice was easy...especially as Colca Canyon involved a 3AM bus...allow.
Because Arequipa is quite a large business district there were some cool after work bars that Pete and I hit. You have to stomach local Peruvian girls screaming at you "are you English? I love you!" (they are naturally thick set and butch due to the altitude - nice) - the vibe was generally very relaxed and welcoming. Anyway, this allegedly cool bar, ´Deja Vu` underwent a metamorphosis come midnight. A Peruvian band set up and the lead mullet gave us a listen again of the most forgettable tracks of the 80s and 90s...the locals were loving it though, whooping and screaming and all sorts. We promptly called time on the evening and arrived back at our hostel still reeling from the 11 hour boneshaker bus. 5-10 minutes after getting into bed we were awoken by a 60 yr old retired German, "I EXPECT YOU WANT TO SLEEP JA?"...and since we were in bed with our eyes closed and the lights off, "err...probably yes". Anyway he was to become the one that stuck to us for the days that followed, not by our design, because we positively tried to make better friends but he turned out to be ok...meeting people like him makes us eclectic, right.
It was the day we left Arequipa and if we needed a wake up call we certainly got one. Apparently it was the anniversary of the street we were staying on...so they threw what the hotelier described as "bombs" at 6AM down the street to celebrate. Maybe he meant fireworks but these were some big time fireworks if so - and at sunrise??!
The bus from Arequipa to Puno was over in a mere 7 hours. Puno is a port city and the main means of getting to Lake Titicaca (the highest lake in the world). Outside of that, if the world had an enema, they would probably put it in Puno. Things at this point started getting ridiculously cheap so we bagged a day island hopping for S.30. 6 pounds. This was fun, it involved jumping around islands constructed from layers of straw (again photos to come). We received a live demonstration of how the island was built which was the highlight of the trip. Then, we had a 5 hour round trip on a boat to visit the highly unremarkable island of Tequila (or something like that I didn´t pay enough attention to take down the name) but all it had to offer was a museum with photos mounted on coloured paper apparently taken by a snap happy 3 yr old. Anyway, we embraced it as much as we could.
That brings us up to yesterday and crossing the Bolivian border. We caught 3 busses, 2 boats and 1 taxi to get to La Paz. We had a pretty huge lunch a long the way which ran to 49 Bolivianos (around 3 pounds for both of us, then). There is a point on the bus journey that you have to go cross water...seeing the coach splutter onto a shoddy raft type thing to cross the water was a nervous experience, especially when you see it getting dragged town tide. Our luggage dry and intact we arrived in La Paz (which is striken with political activity nearly every day). On the approach into the city, dummies hang from nearly every lamp post to push the labour protesters´cause. Today has been a day of rest but we now have 5 nights here to fill up the next rambling email...
...until then.
OP
OP
Aperitif
Meme bar
- Location
- ...I don't have much idea - really.
Ok - haven't contributed much for a while so here's a few photos to accompany Jr's writings and the latest episode. I am trying hard to think why I have not been 'travel minded' in my life; when I see photos like this, other tour photos and read stuff from a lot of people on here I always think I am missing something.
Part 1
We boarded our flight to Santa Cruz at about 7pm after some delay, some hiccup with the plane or something. Landed about 50 mins later and went to the luggage collection. Our luggage didn´t appear so we were escorted to a baggage reclaim bit to fill out a lengthy form...it was only when i asked whether we were in the right city that we realised we had boarded completely the wrong plane. We were in Cochabamba - half way between here and La Paz! We still can´t work out what happened because there was only one plane at La Paz airport to get on. Our luggage beat us to the airport so we went separately from that too...hmm...not knowing spanish it will definitely remain a mystery. Luckily we were allowed to walk on to a connecting flight to Santa Cruz. It is all very pleasant here...but bring on Rio!
Cusco, Lares Trek, Macchu Picchu and Wayna Picchu
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149105&l=7759a&id=286100399
Arequipa, Puno and Lake Titicaca Island Hopping
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151399&l=2e7cd&id=286100399
Salt Flats, Colourful Lagoons and Broken Buses
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151259&l=fe7ab&id=286100399
Part 2
Yesterday, we returned from South-Western Bolivia, in particular Uyuni, the gateway to the salt flats (they are the size of Austria) Lagoons and the Chilean border. The return Uyuni-La Paz bus journey was an epic (below). Before all that, though, we spent four nights in Loki Hostel La Paz.
On arrival @ Loki (with biiiiig beds and good food), six other familiar faces from the College of Law were waiting for us - again by accident. Two days in, we recognised a few other friends. In Puno, (floating islands bit) we met three Swedish girls (from Malmo in the south of Sweden near the Danish border and Copenhagen) who are on a similar tour of S America plus one guy (Jeremy) I recognised but couldn´t place at first. Eventually, in La Paz, I placed him with our flea ridden sofa at 49 Earls Road, Portswood when he said he recognised me. As it turns out, he was one of Masher´s good mates at Uni and I had even met him a few times - cue the standard "small world do you know so and so...?" chat that we seem to have every day travelling. Really good bloke and very funny. From then on we rolled as a six. It was definitely a positive thing to have a tight unit to do the Salt Flats with because for three nights primitive accommodation and minus five kinda temperatures at night would be a long haul on your own or as a two!
La Paz is mental. The driving is a joke. The bus company dropped us in the middle of some random street right in the centre which was so, so manic. Plus it is difficult to move with plus 35 kilos luggage about your person! Pete managed to hail a 1980 Nissan Shed to take us to the relative sanctuary of Loki. La Paz for the first four days was all about staying in the Loki bubble as much as possible. However, we did take time to visit the Witches Market (nothing remarkable, dead baby Llamas strung up everywhere but that was about it) and a few other attractions around the city. We also went to see the world cup qualifier Bolivia v Peru (3-0). The taxi driver that took us to the stadium to buy the tickets said he had been working all night and day to be able to afford tickets to the game for him and his wife. We thought it would be charitable to gift him two tickets (5GBP each). He started crying when we handed them over. It was such a good moment.
Saturday evening was time to make our way to Uyuni on the "luxury bus". The journey surpassed our expectations, 2 hours ahead of time. Unfortunately, there was 3 hours of unpaved road to deal with, it was soooo shaky we could help but laugh when at 4AM it felt like a mini earthquake had hit. So it´s a good thing i seem to have developed an ability to sleep absolutely anywhere no matter how noisy. We arrived in Uyuni which looked and felt more like Siberia at 7AM on the Monday morning and found somewhere to kick back before meeting our driver and his Toyota Landcruiser.
Now we were 7. We managed to acquire a Dutch bloke called Bart - he was a bit of a dork and we had hoped it would just be the 6 of us plus the driver in the Jeep.
Headed south from Uyuni, we were only an hour away from the Salt Flats. These were easily more impressive than Macchu Pichhu and the best thing we have seen so far. They must be the most perfect and uniform thing of nature in the world. There is no cloud cover (no water) so the skies are invariably a graduated blue against the brilliant white plains. Check photos of this... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151259&l=fe7ab&id=286100399.
The first night, we stayed in a tiny village further south and watched the local kids play football (more to the point when we asked to play they told us to get our own ball!). For dinner we had some part of a cow but none of us could determine what part it was. Day 2 was all about the Lagoons. Also up there with the most stunning things we have seen so far, imagine red water with scattered pink dots (flamingos central!). Evening 2 was freezing, and the accommodation primitive. Day 3: a 4AM alarm and a 2 hour drive to see the sun rise at the natural Geysers even further south very close to the Chilean border...when you´re at 4,800m and -5c you´re grateful for their warmth.
Fast forward to the bus journey home. The first three hours meant the unpaved road. It shakes so hard that all the bags fall to the front of the bus. Amazingly, I have developed the ability to sleep through anything. Actually, I did wake up when the wheel fell off the bus 3 hours into the journey. Initially i thought we had hit a ditch but one of the Swedish girls saw the wheel rolling down the road ahead as we ground to a halt, now with one wheeless axle. So we were there for 2 hours while the driver and a few others (including a 12 yr old boy) tried to jack up the bus and refit the wheel. It worked against all odds, and we were off again. As I mentioned in my previous email the political tension here is always apparent. Of course, there was a massive march on the only road back into La Paz. All the traffic therefore chartered an alternative route, but this means going off road and a sort of race to beat the protesters back onto the road. This involved getting off the bus at one point and running after it, apparently giving it a better chance of winning the race. When it got stuck and started to wheel spin we were asked to push. All to no avail, we lost the race and the bus joined the back of the march. We spent about 2 hours at walking pace on the bus with 14 hours journey time elapsed. It took us a total of 16 hours to get to our destination. The slogan on the side of the bus was "just enjoy it". We were all smiling at the end though and took it all in our stride.
I have to wrap it up because we are getting a taxi to La Paz international airport in 20 minutes, Rio bound. We must get three planes and will arrive on Saturday ready for a street party in Lapa, Rio - they are the biggest and best in the world. Last night we headed out to a club and this morning said goodbye to the Swedish girls. A bit tired so we will be happy to get our heads down in Santa Cruz airport for 5 hours!
Until the next time..love love love. xx
Part 1
We boarded our flight to Santa Cruz at about 7pm after some delay, some hiccup with the plane or something. Landed about 50 mins later and went to the luggage collection. Our luggage didn´t appear so we were escorted to a baggage reclaim bit to fill out a lengthy form...it was only when i asked whether we were in the right city that we realised we had boarded completely the wrong plane. We were in Cochabamba - half way between here and La Paz! We still can´t work out what happened because there was only one plane at La Paz airport to get on. Our luggage beat us to the airport so we went separately from that too...hmm...not knowing spanish it will definitely remain a mystery. Luckily we were allowed to walk on to a connecting flight to Santa Cruz. It is all very pleasant here...but bring on Rio!
Cusco, Lares Trek, Macchu Picchu and Wayna Picchu
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149105&l=7759a&id=286100399
Arequipa, Puno and Lake Titicaca Island Hopping
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151399&l=2e7cd&id=286100399
Salt Flats, Colourful Lagoons and Broken Buses
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151259&l=fe7ab&id=286100399
Part 2
Yesterday, we returned from South-Western Bolivia, in particular Uyuni, the gateway to the salt flats (they are the size of Austria) Lagoons and the Chilean border. The return Uyuni-La Paz bus journey was an epic (below). Before all that, though, we spent four nights in Loki Hostel La Paz.
On arrival @ Loki (with biiiiig beds and good food), six other familiar faces from the College of Law were waiting for us - again by accident. Two days in, we recognised a few other friends. In Puno, (floating islands bit) we met three Swedish girls (from Malmo in the south of Sweden near the Danish border and Copenhagen) who are on a similar tour of S America plus one guy (Jeremy) I recognised but couldn´t place at first. Eventually, in La Paz, I placed him with our flea ridden sofa at 49 Earls Road, Portswood when he said he recognised me. As it turns out, he was one of Masher´s good mates at Uni and I had even met him a few times - cue the standard "small world do you know so and so...?" chat that we seem to have every day travelling. Really good bloke and very funny. From then on we rolled as a six. It was definitely a positive thing to have a tight unit to do the Salt Flats with because for three nights primitive accommodation and minus five kinda temperatures at night would be a long haul on your own or as a two!
La Paz is mental. The driving is a joke. The bus company dropped us in the middle of some random street right in the centre which was so, so manic. Plus it is difficult to move with plus 35 kilos luggage about your person! Pete managed to hail a 1980 Nissan Shed to take us to the relative sanctuary of Loki. La Paz for the first four days was all about staying in the Loki bubble as much as possible. However, we did take time to visit the Witches Market (nothing remarkable, dead baby Llamas strung up everywhere but that was about it) and a few other attractions around the city. We also went to see the world cup qualifier Bolivia v Peru (3-0). The taxi driver that took us to the stadium to buy the tickets said he had been working all night and day to be able to afford tickets to the game for him and his wife. We thought it would be charitable to gift him two tickets (5GBP each). He started crying when we handed them over. It was such a good moment.
Saturday evening was time to make our way to Uyuni on the "luxury bus". The journey surpassed our expectations, 2 hours ahead of time. Unfortunately, there was 3 hours of unpaved road to deal with, it was soooo shaky we could help but laugh when at 4AM it felt like a mini earthquake had hit. So it´s a good thing i seem to have developed an ability to sleep absolutely anywhere no matter how noisy. We arrived in Uyuni which looked and felt more like Siberia at 7AM on the Monday morning and found somewhere to kick back before meeting our driver and his Toyota Landcruiser.
Now we were 7. We managed to acquire a Dutch bloke called Bart - he was a bit of a dork and we had hoped it would just be the 6 of us plus the driver in the Jeep.
Headed south from Uyuni, we were only an hour away from the Salt Flats. These were easily more impressive than Macchu Pichhu and the best thing we have seen so far. They must be the most perfect and uniform thing of nature in the world. There is no cloud cover (no water) so the skies are invariably a graduated blue against the brilliant white plains. Check photos of this... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=151259&l=fe7ab&id=286100399.
The first night, we stayed in a tiny village further south and watched the local kids play football (more to the point when we asked to play they told us to get our own ball!). For dinner we had some part of a cow but none of us could determine what part it was. Day 2 was all about the Lagoons. Also up there with the most stunning things we have seen so far, imagine red water with scattered pink dots (flamingos central!). Evening 2 was freezing, and the accommodation primitive. Day 3: a 4AM alarm and a 2 hour drive to see the sun rise at the natural Geysers even further south very close to the Chilean border...when you´re at 4,800m and -5c you´re grateful for their warmth.
Fast forward to the bus journey home. The first three hours meant the unpaved road. It shakes so hard that all the bags fall to the front of the bus. Amazingly, I have developed the ability to sleep through anything. Actually, I did wake up when the wheel fell off the bus 3 hours into the journey. Initially i thought we had hit a ditch but one of the Swedish girls saw the wheel rolling down the road ahead as we ground to a halt, now with one wheeless axle. So we were there for 2 hours while the driver and a few others (including a 12 yr old boy) tried to jack up the bus and refit the wheel. It worked against all odds, and we were off again. As I mentioned in my previous email the political tension here is always apparent. Of course, there was a massive march on the only road back into La Paz. All the traffic therefore chartered an alternative route, but this means going off road and a sort of race to beat the protesters back onto the road. This involved getting off the bus at one point and running after it, apparently giving it a better chance of winning the race. When it got stuck and started to wheel spin we were asked to push. All to no avail, we lost the race and the bus joined the back of the march. We spent about 2 hours at walking pace on the bus with 14 hours journey time elapsed. It took us a total of 16 hours to get to our destination. The slogan on the side of the bus was "just enjoy it". We were all smiling at the end though and took it all in our stride.
I have to wrap it up because we are getting a taxi to La Paz international airport in 20 minutes, Rio bound. We must get three planes and will arrive on Saturday ready for a street party in Lapa, Rio - they are the biggest and best in the world. Last night we headed out to a club and this morning said goodbye to the Swedish girls. A bit tired so we will be happy to get our heads down in Santa Cruz airport for 5 hours!
Until the next time..love love love. xx
Kirstie
Über Member
I did exactly that trip. Sounds and looks like nothing has changed! Brings back some great memories...including nearly getting on the wrong plane in buenos aires to go to la paz. I have my salt flats photos in frames up the length of my stairs...
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I am pleased that you endured it Kirstie - he is following in the footsteps of the famous!
