Part 2 of the adventure

Machu Picchu in Pictures

Waiting to cross the bridge at 4.45am, before climbing the 1700 steps up to MP.

MP at dawn

Sun rising over the mountains

MP in the sunshine

Taking a break on MP.

They built nice buildings, those Incas.

The Trekkers - a sitcom idea

Plot: take 16 people, previously unknown to each other, and follow their progress across a roughly 80km, 5 day trek, to the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu.

Staring (in no particular order);

The Flying Dutchman - tall, has long legs, and walks very quickly.
The Beach Babes - the two Californian girls, prone to use the word "like" a lot, otherwise very good company.
The Basque Boys - from the Basque country, not Spain.
The Israeli Spy - just finished military service in the intelligence service. Won't tell you anything about it.
The one with inappropriate shoes - soccer shoes on a mountain crossing just won't cut it.
The oddball - because there's always one.
Debbie downer - urgh, they're giving us rice again? And we have to walk? And it's snowing. Urgh.
Actual Debbie - not to be confused with Debbie downer.
The Chilean - with an brother who is an Olympic gymnast.
Level-headed Lou - need I say any more? 
and
Wilfred - the 5ft guide with legs that move at a phenomenal cadence.

Plot summary:

Day 1: Long walk along dusty road. Arrive at camp site just as rain starts to arrive. Cold night.

Day 2: Uphill hike in the mountain. Snowstorm at the summit, followed by rain at lower altitudes. Mud. Lots and lots of mud.

Day 3: Shorter hike through the jungle. Starts to get warm. Insect bites. Trip to hot springs in the afternoon and camp fire in the evening.

Day 4: Hike in immense heat. Afternoon along the rail tracks next to the Machu Picchu train. Tourists in train wondering why anyone would hike along a train line with a pack in this heat.

Day 5: 4am rise to climb 1700 steps up to MP. Arrive at 6am, spend a few hours at the site before the 2-hr train then 2-hr bus back to Cusco.

The whole team

Snowy mountain. Think we may have crossed this one.

Boldly crossing the bridge.

Following the train line to Aguas Calientes, on the way to MP.

Scenic backdrop

Copacabana and Lake Titicaca

Yesterday I undertook a fairly adventurous (and ultimately totally redundant - more explanation later) day trip to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca (the world's highest navigable lake). The day started with an exceptionally slow bus ride out of La Paz, and the total trip to Copacabana lasted around 3.5 hours. The scenery was very beautiful, although I think I might be suffering from dramatic landscape overexposure, as doing my Spanish vocab on the bus seemed more exciting.

When I got to the lake I went for lunch, the obligatory trout fished from the lake, which is served at pretty much every restaurant. This was probably the highlight of the day, and was indeed very good and fresh.

After lunch I took a boat ride to Isla del Sol, which was a 90-minute stomach-turning experience. I try to have faith in Bolivian health and safety standards, but the 8 life jackets for the 30 people on board did little to settle my nerves that they had properly assessed the risks of crossing a very choppy lake Titicaca yesterday afternoon. For most of the journey I (and the French woman to my right) were convinced we were one wave away from capsizing. Having got the the island I only had about an hour to wander around, during which I marched very quickly up some Inca steps

before almost collapsing at the top in exhaustion. I suspect I had underestimated the altitude effect and in my high-speed sightseeing tour, overextended myself a bit.

The Incas love their steps

The island is meant to be a must-see, but i have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. I can put this down to having not nearly enough time (most people stay a night), but even the scenery didn't blow me away. It's certainly very beautiful, but living in Zurich means the "blue-lake-with-mountain-peaks-in-the-background" thing isn't so special.

Anyway, got the bus back to La Paz at 18.30, and the return journey was only 3 hours (if you look at the distance on the map, you'll see why even 3 hours seems a bit ridiculous), and checked into a new hostel for the evening, before getting up at 6.30 for a taxi to the airport for my flight to Cusco.

In comparison to yesterday's explorations, the flight was a definite success. Only left 30 minutes late (and this delay was explained) on a 60-seater plan that had around 15 passengers on it. The first 20 minutes of the journey were a lovely aerial view of La Paz, Northern Bolivia and... Lake Titicaca! Which, was much more impressive from the air, and this tour didn't involve 3 hours on a rubbish Bolivian bus (although, I suppose the fresh trout in Copacabana is the only thing that made the previous day's trip worthwhile). So, after a very nice plane journey, I'm in Cusco, staying at a fairly cool hostel (seems to have a sociable atmosphere without being crazy), and I've booked myself in for a fairly intense 5-day trek tomorrow which includes a trip to MP on the last day. I've been down to the market and stocked up on nuts and fruit, and am looking forward to the trip (apart from the 4.30am start!).

Flashpacking

In the last 7 nights, 2 have been spent in a tent, 2 on the freezing cold salt flats and one on the world's most bumpy bus between Uyuni and La Paz. So, after arriving back in la Paz after the trek I decided I deserved a night in a hotel and booked myself into the same place the Australian family were staying (who had assured me the breakfast buffet was worth the cost of the room). A comfortable bed, warm shower and room to myself was certainly appreciated. In addition, the breakfast room in on the 8th floor and has some wonderful views of La Paz.


Some dramatic mountains to go with your papaza juice?



They had quoted me around 45 USD for the room when I checked in, but ended up only charging me 35 when I checked out. Probably compensates for all the times i've payed a "foreigner" suplement in Bolivia so far!

Following the Incas - Day 1

The start of the trek didn’t start off fantastically. The girl who I had booked to go on the trek with had dropped out leaving just me and the guide. There were a few minutes during which I was debating whether I really wanted to go, but given that I had already paid up for the 3 day trip, figured I should and that I was probably just worrying too much anyway.

We left La Paz at around 8.45am, although the trip to the start was a slow one – public minibus to the bus terminal then a wait of around an hour before the bus left for the start which is only around 30km out of La Paz. Buses don’t run to timetable here, they just depart when full, which can make exact preparation a bit more difficult. The bus was typically Bolivia; seemingly on the verge of breaking down, full of people transporting all manner of things and a man preaching for the first 15 minutes of the journey about how he was saved by God from drowning in a mine.

The first 1km of the hike is pretty tough going uphill. This part is not actually the official Chorro Trek, but as we had taken public transport we had to get ourselves up to the highest point where the trek officially starts – El Cumbre. After this, however, the first day is a steady downhill for 5 or 6 hours along stones laid by the Incas.

My concerns about it being just me and the guide for 3 days were laid to rest when I bumped into an Australian family at the first stop we had in the afternoon. We had started a bit after them but my guide’s high-speed marching pace meant we caught up with them early afternoon, and for a few hours after lunch I put the hand break on the double time march and chatted with the Australians.

We arrived at the camp site at around 5pm, in time for some afternoon tea, camp set up and cook dinner. My guide was carrying all the food and tent (I just had my own personal belonging with me and the mattress).  Dinner wasn’t bad – vegetable soup followed by some spaghetti Bolognese.

The camp site was pretty full the first night as there was a group of boys from a Grammar school in Kent doing a month long expedition through Bolivia and Peru staying there. It was nice to have some more company and I chatted with them and their teachers for a while. Bed was early at 9pm as there wasn’t much electricity and the camp site owner seemed keen to turn off the only light there was.

El Cumbre

Snow on the peaks - a contrast to the jungle on the next day

The start of the trek

Bolivians walking the path



Camp site on the first day



Gustu Review

A few weeks ago whilst browsing through the Guardian I saw an article about one of the co-founders of "the world's best restaurant", Nomu in Denmark, and his new business venture in Bolivia - Guardian Link. As someone who enjoys a good meal out, I decided to try this place out, and managed to sell the idea to a few friends who were travelling with me. It wasn't that difficult to do, his other restaurant in Copenhagen has a waiting list of a few months for a table and is considerably more expensive than the 30 GBP 5-course tasting menu the restaurant offers here. Eating at a restaurant horrifically expensive compared to the average bolivia wage also seemed more justifiable when we considered that the restaurant only sources from inside Bolivia (no coke or imported drinks) and has trained up young Bolivians to work in the restaurant.

We had a good evening, and the food was certainly very good. Unfortunately, the restaurant management side of things still needed some work - our 5 course tasting menu became 4 when they forgot to bring out the first of our 2 deserts. When we raised this issue with out waiter we were offered only a 10% discount on the basis that we missed out on a cheaper course. Needless to say, we weren't overly impressed and it was a rather disappointing ending to what had been a great evening and a really interesting meal.

One side of the table

The other side of the table

Fancy food - chicken hearts with something else.

La Paz

I'm really enjoying the days in La Paz, and have been surprised how much I like the city. It's rather chaotic, but is very cheap and always seems to be a lot of action. I'm hopefully off on a 3 day trek tomorrow, so escaping the city for a bit.

Street in La Paz

Buses, taxis and minibuses

Parliamentary building

Street market

Want some eggs?

Or maybe some fish...?

Taking it with a grain of salt

My blogging marathon yesterday brought me up to date for the first three days of the tour, but I left off the highlight final day, the main reason most people go on the tour, the salt flats near Uyuni.

The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat (around 4000 square miles) and is almost 4000m above sea-level. The whole area is unbelievably flat, with a total height difference of only one meter on an area that looks like it's covered in snow.

The night before the salt flats we stayed in one of the salt hotels. This is a hotel made entirely out of salt. This was the nicest place we stayed on the whole trip, and given that it was around 800m lower than anywhere else we stayed, we were grateful for the slight increase in temperature (although it was still a long way off being warm!)

The dining room area in the salt hotel.

The next day we got up, rather reluctantly, at 5.30 to drive onto the salt flats and see the sun rise. This was nice to see, but i'm not entirely convinced this expedition was worth its salt (ho ho ho) given that we were standing on a freezing cold salt flat for 20 minutes for. Anyway, made for another photo op...

sunrise and shadows

Salt flats later in the morning. Lots of hexagons!

Sunrise from the island in the middle of the salt flat. We had breakfast here - some nice cake our chef had been up early baking for us!

Trying to work our how to take photos playing with perspective on the salt flats

A little bit of a success.

After an hour or so trying to work out how to take cool pictures on the salt flats (to be honest, we weren't very successful or creative - we seemed to be lacking anyone in the group who had any spacial awareness), we headed to Uyuni, where the tour ended. After one more vegetarian and gluten-free lunch prepared by the chef, we were free for the afternoon. I headed straight over to the bus "terminal" to buy my ticket for the trip to La Paz that evening whilst the others decided to stay in Uyuni for the evening to have a shower and relax.

The bus to La Paz left at 8pm and only cost about 10 dollars for an 11 hour trip. We left on time, and the journey was much as I had been warned about. Most roads in Bolivia aren't paved, so the bus is very bumpy and loud. In addition, even though our bus was heated (which is unusual, and a sign that it was a "superior" bus company), the bus was freezing cold. They gave us blankets, but it wasn't a very comfortable journey, partly because at the intermediate stops the driver comes onto the bus shouting the name of the town, presumably to wake anyone up who needs to get off at that stop. Fortunately it was only an 11 hour trip and we arrived promptly in La Paz and took a taxi to our hostel. We're all a bit tired at the moment, but have been for a cooked breakfast (4 dollars!) and I'll go for a walk around town soon, hoping that the sun will warm the air up a bit.

Why does a flamingo stand on one leg? Because if he lifted that leg off the ground he would fall over!

Or, because Bolivia is so freezing cold and that leg is frozen into the lagoon.

Lagoons and Germans

I didn't exactly sleep fantastically on the first night, but was looking forward to the second day, which was meant to have more highlights than the first day, and involve considerably less driving.

We were the first jeep to leave the hotel, which meant we were the first to break the ice on a number of the crossings. Whilst I had a lot of faith in our driver, there were some moments where a Jeep evacuation plan did cross my mind.

The row of jeeps crossing behind us (only at the start of the day were we really in such a big group, the cars got spaced out quite quickly)

Just after this crossing we came across a rather frantic man waving our jeep down seeking help. With our driver speaking no English i was recruited into German to Spanish translation role, and managed to communicate that this German chap had no battery left in his van, but had jump leads, and wanted us to help start his car. After about 10 minutes, his ancient van jumped to life (brought from Germany) and it was high-fives all round.

I should point out that we really were in the middle of nowhere here - it had been at least 8 hours since we were last on a road and 2 hours since we were in the small settlement where we had spent the night.

First frozen lagoon of the day

Driving through the desert

The food on the trip was generally pretty impressive considering that it was all brought with us from Tupiza. Breakfast was just bread and coffee but we had a warm lunch (which our cook would have got up at 5am to cook for us) which was generally rice and meat or veg. There was afternoon tea everyday when we arrived at the hotel and another warm meal for dinner. The cook was even more impressive considering that we had a vegetarian and a no-gluten member in the group!

Geysers. I stepped near one and got volcanic stuff all over my new shoes.

Volcano and lagoon. This is the spot where we stopped to have our lunch.

Red lagoon

The accommodation on the second night was a fraction better than the first. Still basic, but there was a wood-heater in the dining room that was on for a couple of hours. The temperature in the night was still around minus 10 though. The evening was generally quite relaxed, playing card games with intermittent breaks to go put more layers on.

Tour of south Bolivia... the first day!

I'm going back in time to blog the last 5 days or so, as ive had no Internet connection since arriving in Bolivia, mainly because Ive spent the last 4 days in the middle of nowhere.

The boarder crossing to Bolivia went smoothly enough, even if it was a bit chaotic, and involves walking around 1km with the backpack from where the Argentine bus drops you off, to where the Bolivia bus leaves.

We spent 2 nights in Tupiza, mainly chosen because it is the nearest town to the Argentine border and you can take the 4 days tours of the salt flats from Tupiza. After relaxing on Thursday, we departed on Friday morning for our trip in a jeep for 4 days. 4 of us, our driver and our chef, both of whom were only Spanish speaking.

The roads in Bolivia aren't really roads, more just dirt tracks, and we very quickly got out of the town and onto a rather rough and bumpy mountain road. We were already at around 3000m in Tupiza and the schedule for the day was taking us to well over 4000m.

First photo stop after an nervous hour up the mountain.

The majority of the day was spent in the jeep and there were certainly a lot of driving. We stopped off at a couple of very remote villages for a lunch break and some more photos and around 6pm arrived at our accommodation. Our driver referred to it as a hotel, but id say this was something of an exaggeration.

Id describe the night in the hotel as similar to camping inside of four walls in a freezing cold desert. We were sleeping in a building, but one with no windows, heating or electricity after 9pm. We had been given fairly good sleeping bags as part of the tour, and we came dressed for cold temperatures, but that was still not sufficient to prepare us for the minus 10 degrees night in the desert. I was wearing roughly 3 jumpers, 2 pairs of leggings, 2 pairs of pyjamas and 4 pairs of socks, and was still freezing cold.

On the positive side, I didn't seem to suffer from the altitude much. There were signs of some light-headiness but generally seemed to be fine spending the night at 4200m.

Windy photo point

The highest point reached on the first day